We are currently busy with a unit that focuses on sustainable development. As a school, the faculty have had significant professional development on the Sustainable Development Goals. Students have a reasonably in-depth knowledge of the importance of SDGs and have explored some of these in two other subjects. There are some changes or additions I will be trying next week with the same lesson in terms of delivery approach and formative assessments. I am hoping to make better use different scaffolding strategies, reciprocal teaching (flipped classroom), peer collaboration and apprenticeships (near-peer models) and make students thinking visible through the integration of technological tools.
Scaffolding -Edpuzzle
Previously I would play this video https://vimeo.com/137728737 in the class but have found that some of my students struggle to engage appropriately with the content. This would result in many pauses for the whole class, while I rephrase or explain some part of the video.
Because of this, I am planning to use Edpuzzle (www.edpuzzle.com) in the next lesson. Edpuzzle allows a teacher to create built-in questions and explanations into the video. Meaning, for example, one could choose to create questions that need to be answered at any stage in a video. Once a student has responded to the question or reads the explanation, the video will continue playing. This allows students to watch it on their own, for me to gather data on who is struggling and be available to facilitate or answer specific questions, without the risk of students feeling embarrassed or having the outliers get bored. This one tool allows excellent scaffolding in terms of instructing, questioning and feedback (Tharp, 1990)
(For a basic overview of Edpuzzle, click here)
Reciprocal Teaching – Flipgrid
I was an early adopter of www.flipgrid.com, and my students are very proficient using this tool. I plan to use FlipGrid as a means for students to teach each other what they have learnt, using a peer-assessment rubric created by the students themselves. Teachers create a topic via the educator account. Students can submit a video response to the topic. Student responses can either be hidden from all other students (great for shyer students), or students can view all responses and respond to each other either in writing or by adding a video reply. I plan to focus my prompts by assigning roles to individual students to take the lead in summarizing, generating questions, clarifying and predicting (Hattie, 2013) around the reading material in the lesson and let students have the choice of either responding via Flipgrid in a video or written format.
Peer collaboration – Microsoft Teams – FlipGridPals and Skype
Fortunately, my school has an extensive network of other schools we can collaborate with. For this SDG unit, I am hoping to have students work with other students at a Connecticut (Hotchkiss) and another school in Botswana (Maru-a-Pula), both of which my current students have had interactions with previously. I hope that having three schools from different parts of the world engage in conversations/debates via Skype and collaborative writing projects and discussions using Microsoft Teams that there will be an increased intersubjectivity, something that Vygotsky saw as crucial for collaboration to be successful (Tudge & Winterhoff, 1993). FlipGrid Pals also allows for educators to connect with other schools worldwide and could be used for asynchronous communication amongst schools
Apprenticeships – Near-Peers – Blogs
“Near peer role models (NPRMs) are people who might be “near” to us in several ways: age, ethnicity, gender, interests, past or present experiences, and also in proximity and in frequency of social contact” (Murphey & Arao, 2001). I have used Vygotsky’s (1987) idea of a More Knowledgeable Others in previous lessons and classes in a fairly deliberate manner by pairing or grouping students with another student that has a stronger skill set for a particular task. However, in the upcoming lessons, I am wanting to make use of class blogs from last year to hopefully function as a near-peer role-model for this year’s class. Having previous students engage (via comments and questions on the blogs) they will function as MKOs and NPMs. My grade 9 class from last year blogged (reflected) regularly about their learning journey, the difficulties they faced and the steps they took to overcome challenges. This year’s grade 9 class have not yet started blogging and this provides an opportunity for the current class to engage with students who succeeded in the course, despite the difficulties they faced. I am also hopeful that through this process my previous students will be motivated by new comments and questions to continue their blogging journey.Technology allows educators to improve scaffolding strategies whilst simultaneously freeing time for them to reach students that need assistance. It also provides a way for reciprocal teaching to be more innovative. With global connections, peer collaboration and apprenticeships are easily extended beyond the immediate school community.
References
Hattie, J., & Anderman, E. M. (2013). International guide to student achievement. New York: Routledge.
Murphey, T., & Arao, H. (December 01, 2001). Reported Belief Changes through Near Peer Role Modeling. Tesl-ej, 5, 3.)
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (April 01, 1984). Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1, 2, 117-175.
Tudge, J., & Winterhoff, P. (1993). Can young children benefit from collaborative problem solving? Tracing the effects of partner competence and feedback. Social Development, 2 (3), 242-259.
Vygotskij, L. S., Rieber, R. W., & Carton, A. S. (1987). The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky. New York: Plenum Press.