Creating More of a Visible Thinking Rich Environment in PE

1/16/2013

Along my journey of researching ways to better deliver quality PE lessons, I have come across the work of John Hattie and his 'Visible Thinking' approach to education. One of his books, in particular, has been an excellent resource in helping me to push my own thinking to a deeper level about ways to better engage my students in their learning experiences in PE. The book is entitled Visible Thinking for Teachers -- Maximizing Impact on Learning and I highly recommend it for any professionals wanting to push their teaching to a new level.

Hattie stresses the importance of learning goals being as transparent as possible to the students at the start of class. The goals should not only be visible but discussed and used later in the lesson to ensure students are on track. This is very possible to do in PE and I have set the goal for myself to make all of my learning goals visible at the start of every class and remain up for the entirety of the unit. In Hattie's book, Schunk (1996) showed that when learning goals are made transparent at the start of the lesson, students have higher confidence that they can attain them.

I am going to post these goals at the start of every lesson and discuss them with my students. Although I feel that I have always made my learning goals for the students known past lessons, after reading Hattie's book, I question whether or not this was always the case. Along with posting these learning goals, I also aim to have the students reflect, at the end of each lesson, on whether or not they were able to complete their learning goal. And if they were not, they must answer why not. Answers will be posted on the paper to the right of the poster. This will be a good indicator to me how effective my teaching is. Perhaps, the students will figure out for themselves if their actions and behavior resulted in them not being able to meet the learning goal. Either way reflecting on whether learning goals are met is good practice for both teacher and students, a win-win situation, especially if future teaching is improved as a result of this process.

Please see close up pictures below of the goals for grade 4 for week one in the movement composition unit.

21 Comments

Todd

1/16/2013 08:05:26 am

Hi Andy,
I like this idea. I'm wondering did you have the kids answer by writing on the paper or did you just do a general class wide reflection?
Thanks!

andy vasily

1/16/2013 08:11:33 am

Hey Todd, at this point I am doing whole class reflection and discussion regarding whether or not learning goals are met, but as a formative assessment task, I will have the students do individual reflections 2 or 3 times during the unit. As well, they will be formatively assess on their progress.

Shawn

1/16/2013 12:06:46 pm

Hey Andy!

I was wondering if you had any ideas/suggestions for someone who wants to do a lot of formative assessment/sportfolios but not sure how it would fit into my demographic of students. We have 800 kids at our school. Most of the time between 50-60 students at a time. I would love to do some of your assessments/sportfolios but not sure how I would accomplish it with my class/school size.

tania

1/17/2013 07:20:11 pm

hi Shawn and Andy
We have classes of 60 kids - and I introduced Andy's 'sportfolios' to our staff. we have not taken on the whole sportfolio idea - but have now given ourselves permission to take time at the end / or beginning of PE lessons ( not each week - but on a regular basis) to allow students to reflect /set goals etc. It took us some time - but the biggest challenge was our staff giving themselves permission to stop PE lessons and allow time for paperwork. It has definitely added to the value of the PE curriculum, has involved the children more, allowed for goal setting and reflections - and given students the chance to drive the PE unit through their comments and goal setting. Another great idea Andy! Thanks for sharing (again!!)

1/17/2013 07:22:18 pm

1/17/2013 07:37:21 pm

1/17/2013 07:37:36 pm

Shelly Sharp

1/17/2013 07:21:12 pm

I've also seen folks use post-it notes for students shares. Quick way for many to contribute to the same space for sharing.

1/16/2013 12:30:58 pm

Hey Shawn, thanks for the message and the question you pose is a very good one. The first thing is that setting up Sportfolios across the board takes tremendous organization. Although I have much less students than you (roughly 250), I can assure you that once you get the system up and running efficiently, it handles itself.

Are you the only teacher for all of those kids? If not, how many are you personally responsible for? How long are your classes and how often do you see the kids?

Let me know these details and I am happy to converse further with you on the topic.

Cheers!

Andy

Tania

1/16/2013 08:06:06 pm

Hi Andy
I have been reading this text as well - and it is creating huge discussions in school. My question is if we are informing the students of todays learning goals........where is the inquiry?
With UBD - we know what we want children to understand and the conceptual understanding we are aiming for...and plan through the planner in a conceptual manner to guide them towards this bigger understanding (CI) through their own inquiry. Specific learning goals each lesson to me seem a little narrow - would they not constrain inquiry?

2/4/2013 06:55:11 pm

Hey Andy! I e-mailed you back I believe. If you didn't here is what i wrote:

I am basically personally responsible for all those kids. I have an assistant but that position is not certified. If the weather is nice it'd be extremely possible to split the kids up but our gym is not big enough to be able to split the classes up for most lessons.

Our classes are 45 minutes in length and each class is twice a week.

Thanks for your help!

1/17/2013 06:46:11 am

Tania, this is a great question and I am glad that you asked it. Inquiry should be discussed and teacher's views on the topic should be shared and bounced about. We all have so many different interpretations on what good inquiry is and sharing these thoughts, opinions, and ideas make us all better at what we do. As for posting learning goals at the beginning of the lessons, I believe that this does not preclude opportunities for the students to inquire and let me explain why.

I think that learning goals can add to a student's sense of ownership in the learning process and are a useful communication tool along the journey of inquiry. A learning goal when attained should not close a door but open a door to a new journey where inquiry should play a pivotal role in taking the student deeper into his or her understanding of the unit.

The learning goals that I had posted earlier this week in my grade 4 PE class, were for the first lesson of my movement composition unit. In this pre-assessment task, the students watched (a rhythmic gymnastics You Tube video clip) talked with elbow buddies about what a routine is, what movement composition is, and as a class, shared their thoughts and ideas. Their learning goals were met through this process of talking and sharing. The visuals that we created as a result of this process were entirely student-generated. Inquiry was at the heart of all we did and posting the learning goals, in my opinion, did not constrain inquiry in the least.

Please follow this unit and see how it unfolds. I will document a lot of what we do on this blog and hopefully the inquiry that takes place will be visible. I don't want to give away too much at this point, but the students will inquire into many different forms of expressing themselves, select areas of interest to further explore, and then create and practice for a final performance that will be a part of a bigger class performance.

Posting learning goals surely does not mean that questioning, communicating/collaborating, exploring, problem-solving, gathering/analyzing information, generating solutions individually/in groups, interpreting/evaluating and applying/synthesizing cannot take place. If teachers post learning goals and then give students only one option for attaining these goals any chances for inquiry would be crushed.

Please let me know any further thoughts that you have on the topic Tania. Great discussion. Thanks for posting!!

Derek Pinchbeck

1/17/2013 09:57:05 am

Interesting thread Andy. Couple of points:
1) Hattie's book is Visible Learning and is based on over 800 meta-analysis educational research. This book was followed in 2012 by Visible Learning for Teachers which is the book you site here.
2) Ron Ritchhart wrote Making Thinking Visible along with Mark Church and Karin Morrison. Many of the strategies outlined in this book are available on the excellent Visible Thinking Website. http://www.pz.harvard.edu/vt/index.html
I would highly recommend both Hattie and Ritchhart's work but the similarities in name has lead to some confusion as whilst they agree on many points they are coming from slightly different perspectives.
Tania raises and interesting point about whether specific learning goals narrow inquiry. This certainly did occur in England in the 90's when a learning goal was expected to be posted for each lesson and met during this lesson leading to limited goals. This type of learning intention which Dylan Wiliam refers to in his latest book Embedded Formative Assessment (2011) as a 'tokenistic approach to the sharing of learning intentions' (p56) and should be avoided.
The absolute key here is that both teachers and students need to be clear about the purpose of doing a task and how it fits into the bigger picture of what they are learning. If this does not occur students, from their perspective, simply go through school performing a series of unconnected task or activities which may or may not be fun at the time but which do not contribute to a systematic deepening of understanding.
The framing of effective learning intentions takes time and thought but is vital if effective learning is to occur.
When posting learning intentions another useful idea to consider is that of Guy Claxton (in his work on Building Learning Power) of using split screen intentions for a lesson where students are made clear both what they are learning and how it will be learned.
From the PYP perspective the learning intentions provide the structure for the structured inquiry. They should not limit the inquiry but make it more focused and most importantly ensure that all students are constantly challenged to go beyond the known and deepen their understanding of the world.
The key litmus test is that no student should be ending a lesson or unit of work with out a clear idea of what they have learnt rather than a remembrance of what they have done. Hattie's work shows us that one of the most effective ways to make this happen is by clearly sharing our learning intentions with students. It is our challenge as educators to do this in a way that scaffolds inquiry but does not constrain it.

1/17/2013 07:14:58 pm

Thanks Andy for the follow up and the email. I find now through our own self-study in preparation for Evaluation and having joined twitter and PYPthreads - there is so much good conversation happening. In someways though I find myself questioning everything....I feel like one of those 8years olds in a classroom asking "why?", "why?" and "so what?" constantly. It has definitely also spurred me to also defend what I do believe in and to ensure I have evidence to back up my beliefs...talk about being challenged ( and then manage a day job! :) )

I completely agree that if both students and teachers are aware of the learning goals - and 'where we are going' then we are empowering our classrooms. What I never felt comfortable with when I worked in the National Curriculum was the expectation that all learners needed to complete the "WALT" task each lesson - we all know sometimes learning is more than 45 minute session, and we all learn different ways and speeds, and in different contexts.
I agree that we need to ensure our students are 'clear about the purpose of doing a task' and I know we explicitly discuss that we are finding out, sorting out etc....but sometimes the making connections does not happen then and there. It is a process,,,not a product. So many children focus on what they 'did' instead of what they 'learnt' - which is not always the same thing and we know that those richer, more open-ended tasks involve so much more than doing - all of those wonderful T/D skills and attitudes!
I think I personally would be more comfortable in the PYP environment to have the learning goals re phrased to be a little more open.....but this may be my own personal hang-over from my National curriculum days ( maybe I am a little too anti!!)
Suggestions would be: Learning / Lesson goals:
" the different ways we can describe what a routine is" (form)
" how we can identify the aspects of a good routine"
" what is involved/ needed to create a routine and share with others"

Looking forward to seeing your unit progress! (although there may have been a can of worms opened!)
My own staff have just finished their "moving in response to the environment" - with some success, and lots of reflection. But we learn everyday - and as the adults in the equation are learning that it is just as (if not more) important to continue to question ourselves, each other, and our beliefs....and then we will be more able to either defend them....or adapt them. Good Luck and kudos to you for sharing!

Christopher Frost

1/18/2013 12:00:42 am

I'm all for posting learning intentions - it focusses both the teacher and the learner on learning. It works - I'm sure. I have this opinion partly through anecdotal experience but moreover, I'm pretty sure Marzano and/or Pollock summarize actual research which proves this is what we should all be doing.

Derek's point about learning intentions narrowing the inquiry is valid though. I've toyed with this myself a lot. For example Lynn Erickson advocates that displaying central ideas (generalizations) robs a learner of constructing meaning through deductive reasoning. I agree with that - ideologically we shouldn't be displaying central ideas as central ideas are the 'answer'. So what to do?

The act of displaying a learning intention isn't to be contested - it's right. What we must consider instead is how we phrase the learning intention so as not to narrow inquiry. This in turn depends on what type of learning is intended. Is the learning knowledge, a skill or understanding?

Teaching for Understanding (Project Zero) still push the notion of sharing 'understanding goals' with students. They allow scope for a question as the learning (understanding) intention shared with students. Understanding by design (Wiggins & McTighe) advocate the same. So with respect to understanding a learning intention it seems should be displayed as a question and (if phrased in an open ended or provocative way) doesn't narrow inquiry.

When the learning intention is a discrete skill or a particular body of knowledge then an outcome like your example here seems right to me Andy. I think in such cases you needn't worry about narrowing the inquiry. Even in the case of understanding we can display a rich assessment task alongside the question which focusses the learner on what to achieve without robbing them the chance to inquire into the question.

With all this said Andy I'm often wrong and it's Friday night and that means red wine! I've never read any hattie but heard the name so thanks for putting me onto this :)

Frosty

1/19/2013 09:17:53 pm

Following up on the discussion of desplaying Central Ideas - and Lynn Erikson's comments. As with any resource in our classrooms it is 'how' it is used and approached. We have had teachers put up the 5 elements at the beginning of the unit and it has just been wallpaper. We are now revisiting the way and when we display any of the 5 elements and how we can use them in the learning process authentically and explictly. We had one of our Grade 1 teachers have her 'aha' moment last week as she took the whole week to work with her students to unlock the Central idea and to discuss the language and vocabulary. Her reflection was that so much more conversation happened in the classroom then she expected and both her and her co-teacher got so much pre-assess information through the process. I was dancing a happy dance as finally we are seeing the results of all our hard work. Taking the time to unlock the CI led to discussions, questions and the grade 1 students using appropriate language and really understanding the essence of the UOI. It also gave our teachers a clearer idea of which next steps to take in their teaching and learning.

1/18/2013 10:16:37 am

I agree Tania learning doesn't end after 45 minutes but I think you usually can have a goal by the end of a lesson. Maybe WALT isn't the right sentence starter for all cases. Perhaps some of the learning intentions could be about learning to learn rather than curriculum outcomes.

By the end of this session you

Should have activated your prior knowledge about.....
Have come up with some new wonderings (or be aware of friends new wonderings)
Learned (or revised) a new thinking routine which you can use in the future

Derek you mention they did this in the 1990's have they since stopped this approach in the UK? Maybe I'm still in the 90's. Certainly my music taste stayed there (insert Stone Roses melody here)

Chris

1/18/2013 10:32:11 am

1/18/2013 01:26:46 pm

1/18/2013 04:24:27 pm

Indeed Frosty are learning intentions Fools Gold!
The point I was trying to make is that we have to guard against making learning intentions that are either too limited or too prescriptive. Setting an intention that will be met by all students in 45 minutes does not result in deep learning but in surface task completion or knowledge based outcomes. Equally having 45 minutes during which neither the teacher nor the student has any idea why an activity is being done other than to fill the time is unacceptable.
Another way of delivering learning intentions is to discuss them at the end of the lesson rather than post them at the beginning. Not only does this allow students to reflect on their learning and not feel constrained by the learning intentions or have used the learning intentions to work out the answer (very common in Maths eg Today we will learn how to multiply by 9. What do you think we have to do to solve this problem...) but it also gives the teacher valuable feedback.
As with so many things in teaching no one technique fits all circumstances and that what makes teaching so interesting.

Claire Arcenas link

3/18/2014 11:50:44 am

Great work Andy! Checkout the visible thinking that is taking place at Graded School

Beijos,
Claire

http://pegraded.blogspot.com.br/

LEADERSHIP, LEARNING, & PErsonal Growth

Creating More of a Visible Thinking Rich Environment in PE

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