June 30, 2014
I know a young lady who has “Trust the Process” tattooed
down the inside of her forearm. As tattoos go, it truly is lovely with small birds flying up her arm. I’ve wondered what an 18 year old knows about
“the process” and then I think…she knows enough to name it and that is more of
a start then many of us have.
I consider myself a “process” person. I will happily knit a sweater, wear it, not
love it, rip it all out, and knit it again.
I typically don’t get easily frustrated by not knowing, I enjoy figuring
things out and I simply love to tweak “stuff”. I’ve met with success and I have
certainly met with product failure, but I have always learned from the
process. So chapter 13 of Curriculum 21 just fed my soul.
Jacobs in Curriculum
21 suggest we need to identify the “skills and dispositions” that students
need regardless of the content. In the Framework for 21st Century
Learning, creativity & innovation, critical thinking & problem solving,
communication & collaboration were listed as skills and dispositions
needed. Tony Wagner was reference in Curriculum 21 with a list of his own, highlighting processes that are essential to learning in school, work and
life. It seems more than essential at
this stage of humanity to consider Habits of Mind in curriculum
development. I simply couldn’t hit the
AGREE button enough.
My district will be using EDUCATE as a recording system for
“grades” next year. There are targets
for complex reasoning and Habits of Mind.
Teachers are expected to report out on these standards. I’m thrilled.
The true task will be to provide explicit teaching and learning
opportunities for these skills and dispositions to have adequate practice and
coaching for development. Embedding them
into units of study and lessons will be needed. Then bringing them to that
metacognitive level that Costa regards as necessary for later application, will
be required to close the learning cycle.
We’ll need ways to notice and name these processes in operation as well
as ways to provide timely and effective feedback. Teachers will need to really believe that
they can affect changes in students’ Habits of Mind to keep this on the front
burner. I am very excited to be in the here and now with this.
Some people may be naming aspects of this as self-regulation,
agency, Habits of Mind, critical thinking, etc.
I’d like to call it empowerment for learning regardless of where, when
or what.
I agree that teachers will have to change their mindsets. If we believe that we can change our ways of teaching to have our students be more successful, then they will become more successful.
ReplyDeleteWe have to make so many changes! There is such a different way of thinking and processing then even just back in the 90's. This progression was ushered by technology so If we let technology gather dust, we will be unable to progress to where are students do their best learning!
ReplyDeleteIt's so awesome your school is going to pull those out and use them so parents and students can see! I used to have things like that worked into the grade I gave on a report card, but went to conference after conference were I learned Habits of Mind and values should just not be a part of students grade. I learned grades should just reflect the content knowledge. I was conflicted because I want to work those things in, but if I can't grade them it seems like the students don't respond to them. Having two separate areas for grades and habits is AWESOME!
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