Are you a judge or a coach?
Chapter 7: Coaching Student's Work With Digital Arguments
Chapter seven really makes an insightful comparison. It challenges us to reflect on whether we are being a coach to our students or are we just judging them? The very first paragraph has a profound statement. According to Turner and Hicks (2017) "Students learn to write during moments of coaching and practice, not by viewing evaluative comments or rubric scores''(p.123). After reading that I began reflecting over the whole educational system. As educators are we taught to be a judge or are we taught to be a coach? In college, as you take your educational foundation classes, you begin to learn ways to assess students. We are instructed to give feedback, issue rubrics, and document everything. But is this truly helping our students? Are we trained to be judges before learning to be coaches? These questions helped me as I began diving into the meat of this chapter.
Turner and Hicks (2017) focus in this chapter is not on the grading process but on the development of argumentative thinking students. The authors emphasize how important it is to coach through formative assessment and how we can use that to help our students push forward (p. 124). There are many ways students can begin developing such skills. With the various media technologies, we currently have access too, our students have an abundance of tech tools to choose from. This link is an example of five creative digital tools that bring visuals and writing together.
Turner and Hicks (2017) describe the importance of not only coaching them to identify or produce a piece of writing but to help themselves reflect (p. 131). There is research that supports the necessity of student self-reflection "it is logical to assert that the more reflective the teacher, the more teachers will imbue reflective thinking within the curriculum for their students" (Cavilla, 2017 p.16)
Ever since our school began focusing on stem lessons, I have used self reflection vigorously. However, beforehand it was a struggle. I was stuck in the old school way of thinking, the teacher does the reflection and assessing. How wrong was I? Our students need to reflect and be able to assess their knowledge after and during a lesson. The tool of choice used by our staff for reflection is a Google form. I have found that students are capable of reflecting and being quite honest about their feelings regarding the assignment. Students' self-reflections can sometimes be harsh and judgemental. They have a tendency to sometimes grade themselves harder and more stricter than the teacher would have.
Turner and Hicks (2017) utilized a teachers viewpoint on the use of peer annotation. It was stated that a teacher was able to understand and evaluate her student’s writings based on each other's social annotations (p. 133). I have personally found that most students want to give their opinions and feedback. Sometimes, they want to give it more often than most teachers would like. According to Education World (2017) annotation can help a student construct personal meanings, notice patterns and help with retaining information.
This chapter also included tech tools that I enjoy using with every math concept introduction. That tool is Screencastify. Turner and Hicks (2017) noted that " Both screen capture and screencasting tools allow us to interact with our students and their writing asynchronously and with great specificity" (p.136). I have included, at the bottom of the page, a video demonstrating how to use this tech tool in your classroom.
As an educator, this chapter has introduced me to some interesting examples of writing and argumentative tools, that can easily be added to my daily classroom activities. Additionally, this chapter has a list of engaging strategies that can be effectively implemented in interdisciplinary school classrooms. I have decided that I am going to be a coach to my students and not a judge.
As an educator, this chapter has introduced me to some interesting examples of writing and argumentative tools, that can easily be added to my daily classroom activities. Additionally, this chapter has a list of engaging strategies that can be effectively implemented in interdisciplinary school classrooms. I have decided that I am going to be a coach to my students and not a judge.
This is Jennifer Spradlin.
ReplyDeleteFormative assessment is crucial in having students improve any type of writing. I use peer reviews with my students when working on writing, and I always notice that once they read another student paper, they go back to check their own and compare. I know I have been doing the same while reading blogs for this course. I think that skill is crucial in learning how to participate in discourse online. Not only will students receive feedback from others, but they will also be encourages to self-assess. At the conclusion of this chapter, Hicks and Turner (2017) conclude that "students must be able to critically analyze digital arguments created by others" (p.137). If all we do is take up the work and return a grade, they do not get this kind of practice in an authentic way.
I was very pleased as well that the book includes several resources that can help with digital writing. I already have my students complete annotations on a regular basis, but the idea of shared annotations completely changes the skill for them. In the same way that digital writing is more public than traditional academic writing, shared annotations move student thinking from their own page to a much wider audience. I agree that most students like to share their opinions, but I would add that there are also a lot of quiet students who have a lot to say but don't. This really tends to show up in traditional annotation activities where I am the only person reading them. I wonder what effect this would have on the introverts in the room, and I hope it would create a space that is more comfortable for them to use their voices.
I am excited to look into more of these tech tools in order to create a space for student reflection and maybe even some digital conferencing, especially if we are still implementing any e-learning in the fall. Our county will not allow us to do any live conferencing with students, but these tools offer a prerecorded option that I haven't considered yet.
Have you used screen casting for recording lessons in math? That sounds like something that our math department would be interested in.
I also choose to be a coach in my classroom. I think grades are essentially labels placed on students and teachers alike that are not a true reflection of their learning.
ReplyDeleteI have tutored students in the past where I was merely given the subject matter to teach. After a few sessions of having the student explain their thinking and hands-on activities, it appeared to me the student had grasped the concept to mastery. Yet, when tested in the classroom, the student was given the grade of 78/100. Grades are supposed to reflect the students knowledge and understanding, but in this case it did not. I agree with Turner and Hicks (2017), that the reflective practice of formative assessment should be at the heart of our teaching(p.124).
Turner, K.H. & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the Real World. Heinemann Publishing.