Cathy Davidson: Now You See It: Thoughts on Chapter 4

It's funny that, as I was reading Davidson's chapter on assessment, and her diatribe against the multiple choice test, I was, at the same time developing one of the few multiple choice tests that I'll administer in any school year (it'll be part of my mini course for ed tech 2014). Davidson writes, "I'm not against testing. Not at all. In fact, research suggests there should be more challenges..."(pg 126). She calls this "adaptive or progressive" testing. This seems to be synonymous with what we've been discussing in class as formative assessment. Davidson isn't against all testing. She just wants to test skills "our age demands", to test them in a way that reflects an understanding of various learning styles, and to not use them as summative, high stakes instruments.

For me, the multiple choice test represents a very different approach from the one I normally take. I'm using it sort of like a road sign for my students. Like, "If you want to be able to improvise it would be very helpful if you had some knowledge. If this test is hard for you it means you may want to go back, watch the video again or ask some more questions." The test is used to help the student figure out where they are in a process. I will not make the mistake of assigning a course grade based on it. The goal of my mini course is not to have knowledge but to apply that knowledge. Someone can be successful in the course even if they learn their notes by wrote but play musically.

A teacher needs an arsenal of strategies and a clear sense of what success in their course is. They need to allow multiple ways for students to satisfy those requirements. A multiple choice test might be helpful to some students. If so, great. If not, then it's just one means to an end and another student can deliver value in a different way.

More soon...

Hi Everybody

At this moment in time I feel rather untethered. I read Davidson two times and I'm looking forward to posting about the reading. On the mini course, I have developed a google doc and a word doc. I want to link ed tech class to google classroom but I'm not sure it will work. I'll know soon. I'm going to make another screen cast soon. Just updating here at this blog. Thanks.

Agency, Divergence, Multimodality and Conceptualization

• This week in your blog, consider how digital media has affected Agency, Divergence, Multimodality and Conceptualization in your life, in the lives of your students, or in society in general. I have no requirement for length. -Jane

Agency is the biggest missing element in education today, IMO. I'm constantly seeing colleagues (and myself to be honest) blowing opportunities to help students be their own agents. Here are two ways I try to create agency in my students.

• In chorus and classroom situations my students pick pieces to sing using a consensus process. Students give me names of songs which I review before class (to make sure the material is appropriate in terms of language, subject matter and difficulty level). Then we review a video of the song using my projector and speakers. After we listen I have students rate the song with something called "Fist to Five Fingers". If they cannot abide the material they put a fist up and if they love it they put five fingers up. Usually a piece get's adopted by the group if it's mostly 5's with a few 4's or 3's. (I usually don't allow fists just because it can come off as inflexible or mean). People who rate a piece poorly must explain their vote using technical terms (range, subject matter, style, etc) and not just say, "I don't like it".
• In composition class I mostly let students experiment. I talk for ten minutes at the beginning of the class about a topic and model it with my own work. Then, they can follow that thread or not. The program they use scaffolds their production to the point where they can make pieces more or less intuitively. Experimentation is the most powerful tool. Over time they grow to appreciate my concepts better, I think, when they aren't forced into it. They see it's rightness when they aren't told that they are wrong. The nice thing about the CMS is that it keeps us organized and the idea doesn't go away once the class discussion does. 

Divergence is very related to agency. When people are given control over their lives they will tend to travel paths that are different from others. Often this is what teachers are most scared of and why they often use technology to homogenize rather than differentiate. Divergence indeed goes against the very nature of instructionalism. In my own learning divergence has played a very important role.

• I was able to graduate from Brown University largely because I took electronic music composition with Professor Shep Shapiro four straight semesters. I had been a poor music student largely because I was basically a self taught musician. I couldn't read notation well at the time so my ability to understand music theory was compromised when music was read and not heard. I couldn't follow scores when I listened to orchestral pieces very well either. I, also, like many people in their late teens, did not want to do anything but what I wanted to do. I wanted to express myself and, really would only work hard when I was allowed to (which was basically never). I was a great songwriter and in a great band, but as a student I was lost. Shep allowed me to write the music I wanted regardless of style and he allowed me to record it rather than notate it. Over time I ended up picking up aspects of his style and over the years since I've worked on my reading ability and pushed my limits comfortably. I didn't simply accommodate to my deficiencies. Now I'm pretty good with notation, but Shep let me work within my comfort zone at the time. My music flourished and I was able to be a successful student.

Multimodality is possibly the most exciting aspect of web technology. It enlivens learning for all and makes progress possible for those who struggle.

• My Audible subscription has been a godsend. In the three or so years, since I signed up, I have read more novels than I did in my life prior to that. I've read Tolstoy and Dickens. The longer the book the better. I struggle with reading text, less so with writing (the same is true for music notation) (I'm like a non native speaker of my own languages). But I have multiple means of representation. I can listen, see moving pictures, still pictures, read text, or do a combination of all. How far I've come as a learner because of this is astounding. I was talking about being a lawyer with some people and I thought to myself, "Yeah, I could do that if I wanted to" (of course there may have been some red wine involved, too). But previously, the sheer volume of reading would have made that impossible for me. If the textbooks had been in audio form I could have comprehended the possibility of more careers. 

Conceptualization is where the rubber meets the road in education. People will increasingly be expected to plan their own learning. This will include what and how they learn. With agency comes divergence. With both comes conceptualization. With conceptualization comes multimodality. Conceptualization is where the learner builds skills and knowledge with a larger purpose and with many different tools.

• As a musician, the one thing you want to be more than anything is different from everyone else. You want to be singular in your style. A one of a kind. So you write your own material. You arrange it for various instruments. You record it with technical tools. You apply for copyrights. You sell it. Many skills to be mastered are whole careers in and of themselves. You'll do it if you believe your core concept and if you have a roadmap. Teachers can help with the roadmap but often get bogged down in training discrete skills and lose the forest for the trees.  

new Levels

Last week I felt that I got a lot out of the work but that I fell just slightly short in terms of engagement with my colleagues. This week I made an effort to quote everyone else in the course and comment on their particular thoughts. This was done over a range of posts and on various mediums. I studied Bill's course blog and reflected. I made a specific post referencing Allison's take on the readings. I summed up all sentiments in Jane's summation forum.

Not on my list of to-do's last week was more quoting of text from the readings but I discovered that this helped me quite a bit and improved my scholarship. I got a lot closer to the text by essentially taking notes as I went.

Using other's quotes to help summarize was a time saver and enabled me to use my time to reflect on meanings rather than merely restating other ideas in my own, perhaps less effective, words.

In short, I think my process improved this week and I was able to get more clear on core issues as a result.

I feel

a little overwhelmed at the moment. Right now I feel like I can't really do everything with the integrity I would like to. I can get close, but something's gotta give. Just a little, and maybe not importantly. (like an A- would be so bad. Wow, look at me and my instructionalist folk pedagogy!) I wonder if school isn't about that though sometimes. We shake ourselves up in school. We force our attention into new places. Maybe having many different tasks to do less than perfectly well is what I need right now. Delving deeply has it's place. Education can be about the act of searching. That act makes you nimble and ready for specific challenges.

The next level I'd like to take it to, my goal in this course, is to see if I can improve on engaging my colleagues and pulling many voices into a thread. It would be nice to have fewer threads going. Maybe a one thread week. It seems that, by the time I read and post, and respond to one other post I'm pressed by time and need to get into another thread. I think a blog becomes truly exciting after credit is earned. I miss the deep discussion that might follow.

(What is) Learning, Knowing and Teaching?

Here's what I wrote as a response to these questions in class:

Learning is growing. Growing is what we do. At first growing is physical. Our bodies gain strength and balance. Our minds gain capacity and efficiency. Eventually these faculties plateau and then slowly ebb. Yet through our lives we continue to grow. Our knowledge grows with information such as, what mushrooms to keep out of reach of our children. We grow emotionally and become ever more sensitive to the way we speak to others. Indeed, we grow throughout our lives. This is learning. Sometimes people grow in unpleasant ways and sometimes they adapt to one or another pursuit extremely well. Everyone learns all the time though. It’s a natural process. It’s unavoidable.

Knowing is a fact, definition or idea that one puts their entire faith in. It might be that you’ll fall if you go over a visual cliff. It might be what not to say to a bully. Some things we know may not be true. Many things are.

Teaching is role modeling and attempts to implement processes of sustained discipline which are easy to follow for a deliberate learner.

The people in the course expanded upon these definitions. Mary Beth commented that learning has to do with expanding on previously gained knowledge. There was an interesting discussion of the social nature of learning.All in all I feel that the theories of learning that we have been reading about reinforce and give voice to what we talked about and what I have been feeling about teaching for a long time.

If the premise that, "We teach as we were taught" is true then I am a progressive educator. I went to The New Lincoln School, a progressive school in NYC, since folded unfortunately. It was not so well funded and it was still very traditional in major ways, but there was a respect for the young individual there. I called teachers by their first name, not always but often. Now, I'm known as Dan (the music man) where I teach. I also went to an arts Camp called Bucks Rock. This was a place run completely on Montessori principles. You had your choice of activities ranging from fully functioning shops for metal smithing (my nieces specialty now!), sculpture, glassblowing, ceramics and more. The place also featured folk and classical music programs, theater and dance. There was almost no scheduling. Kids just had to do something. If that was hang out on the hill and blow off everything, so be it. You just couldn't be at your bunk sleeping. It worked. Positive peer pressure set in and silly suburban kids became true badasses. I went there and then I TAUGHT there.

I've Been Thinking About Teaching

I can't do anything not my own way. Well, I can but it's not something that I'll do particularly well. This has been something that has informed my work and shaped my teaching from the start. I've always felt that work should be fun but I don't like the word fun. Fun is a box of macaroni and cheese. Work is deeper, richer and fuller than fun. True work is utopian. The true worker is the one who needs to keep himself sleeping until 5am for fear of running out of energy later in the morning. Very few of us get to do our true work as our job. Some get to do something valuable and I consider myself lucky to be in this group. Still, as a job it is not necessarily always reflective of my true work or my true self. How can I do a great job, still, given my overarching desire to always be working to my fullest realization of that term. I guess I find inspiration in helping my students see the difference between chores, jobs, and work. There is no work without chores and jobs.

Here's what I said to the six students in my advisory when school started this year. As I looked at my overwhelmed students looking down the barrel of about 176 school days I explained that these days were out of about 300 until next summer vacation. That leaves about 124 days with no school. After that there are about 65 strait days off. I explained that, in a typical school year, non school days out number school days by about 13 days (189 to 176). That leaves plenty of time for doing exactly what you like. But there's more. Every school day is only 7 and 1/2 hours. Assuming, 8 hours of sleep (quite an assumption) that leaves 8 and 1/2 hours of time every school day for doing exactly what you like (minus some homework time). But there's more. Out of those 7 and 1/2 hours of school there is lunch, recess, PE, art, music, other electives, and study hall. Time for leisure, fun and for them to make choices. That leaves a few hours a day for intense concentration on difficult core skills. Can you put this relatively small amount of time into a context where it improves the quality of your true work? I mean, Michael Jordan had to do his pushups right?

Anyone needs a sense of where they are headed and needs to feel good about it. They need to know, not that they're always going to have fun, but that their job or chore at any moment is contributing to the richness of their life. Mostly people need to feel that they are free. Free to do as they please, to follow their own path, and to express themselves through their life's work.