Action in 'The Learning Pit'

James Nottingham

Before I unpack this concept with the class, we need to pull it to pieces here.

This could be about learning a skill or grappling with a confrontational concept where learners are faced with a dilemma.

The Learning Pit and being faced with a dilemma... 
- Promotes deeper thinking
- Develops persistence

- Demands students to get past the 'panic' stage
- Requires the problem to be clearly identified
- Requires the use of different strategies

- Allows learners to help each other
- Lets learning be co-constructed

- Requires the process and learning to be reflected upon

This is what I have already unpacked in my earlier readings.

The Learning Pit:
http://www.jamesnottingham.co.uk/about/learning-pit 

http://www.supplyteachingsolutions.co.uk/#!Instilling-a-growth-mindset/c24tn/1

Make the process of 'The Learning Pit' clear and visible to learners so they know what happens and the skills to use at different points.

Make sure you throw in the challenging questions that causes learners to'struggle' to find the answer. I found it! There is no sense of elation without the struggle.

See 'The Learning Pit' as a collaborative experience where we build on each others ideas and skills.

The 'Learning Pit' sequence:
1.  At the start of the pit - ask a concept question - to push past surface knowledge.

2. At the bottom of the pit - add thinking strategies and collaborative opportunities. Focus on the Growth Mindset, never giving up but celebrating the struggle.

3. Outside the pit you have your deep answer or 'Eureka' experience.

4. Post pit - ask metacognitive questions - how did you feel, what strategies did you use, what will you use again?

8. Meaningful Reflection:
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/03/what-meaningful-reflection-on-student-work-can-do-for-learning/ 

Focus on self improvement rather than achieving grades.
Reflection gives next steps for learning - formative.
Reflection is documented to allow for tracking of progress and thought process.
Reflection is shared to provide collective support.

CLASS ACTION:

1. Introduce the pit in relation to our weaving endeavours as we all found these challenging. Focus on a physical skill. 

2. Begin to develop our own visual to represent this concept.

3. Introduce a conceptual dilemma to them and see ow we respond. See if they can relate it to the Learning Pit.

Improved Quality of Reflections

The initial student reflections on their learning were about being happy they had coloured something in neatly. After I introduced the iReflect sheet with starter sentences, this added more detail in their reflections and helped them focus on sharing evidence and next steps.

Links to reflections



One particular reflection that shows thinking along a Positive Mindset is with Ella teaching another student how to weave. She was quite hesitant in this task but used lots of strategies to manage the challenge, resulting in a big gain in confidence.

Next Steps:
We need to keep developing visual posters, unpack a Positive Mindset for our weekly targets and reflect on the evidence our daily learning. The positive phrases need to be what is heard every day so it sinks in and becomes second nature.

I need to give them some big challenges and let them see how they respond.

Action in Class!

We have been working on sharing the Positive Mindset through making posters, using the new skills from Carol. Students who have been to the workshops then become the AKO teachers and the whole class shares the learning.

See the link here.

Unpacking a Positive Mindset

We sorted lots of statements into a GROWTH or FIXED MINDSET. This formed our class display, which is referred to throughout every day. The kids use this language in commenting about people they want to recommend in our end of day class oral reflection.

e-asTTle Writing - Marking with Confidence

Issues and Questions:

Conversion Table:
Developed after the e-asTTle Tool was developed. Gives the ability for schools to apply to different 'non-standardised' samples. This is used for writing longer than 40 inutes, not the prompts, character description etc. This is an indication not an accurate score. 

Use a prompt, 40 minutes.... data goes into the machine.  The stuctures are weighted differently e.g. recount, persuasion.

For data entered in the machine - you must use the prompt and the timings. 

Who marks:
Mark your own class because the information gathered is invaluable for Next Steps in the class.

How often:
Suggested 1-2 times a year accross the school. This is a big task so use the information to inform the next few months of learning.

Spelling:
Issues with the spelling levels coming out too low.
R1 - 1B
R2 - 1B
R3 - R6 - need to get through all the curriculum levels to level 5.  These tend to look lower than the other elements as they didnt have 2@ 1B.

Elemets of each section = scores 1-6 so the steps up are about a curriculum level for each element score.

A failure in one element won't skew the overall score majorly but will identify a specific strength or weakness e.g. ideas or spelling.

The only element that deals with genre is structure and language. This makes it the hardenst one to mark. You need the exemplar to help with the deeper features.

Choosing a prompt:
Some prompts are written specifically for junior students - Moment in Time & Recount. Check out the exemplars to see the lowest exemplars to see if it would be suitable for junior students.
Some of the lower genre e.g.  Recount give little opportunity for senior students to add the depth and complexity.
You could use different prompts within the sasme class to allow for best success.

Short cuts to marking:
Know the rubrics well, have time to dig into the exemplars and possibly use your students as benchmarks for a level. It takes time to get confident.

Out of the ordinary marking:
Students who write an explanation or proceedure rather than narrative.
Mark within the rubric. Look for next steps for teaching and learning.

More exemplars:
Unlikely - no ministry contract. Possibly look at using our own benchmarks from within the school.

We now have 20 prompts - they will probably remain the same.
Using the same prompt should give opportunity for progress and development. This would be an easy opportuity for tracking progress.
Prefer to use a different prompt within the same year.

Eletronic Marking:
A complete myth. It is used in some other subjects but the cost is impossible. How can a machine mark writing? Spelling and vocab is supported on a computer so this is not a clear indicator of student ability.
We are looking at making reading tests available in iPads.

Supporting Writers:
If your student is using a device for writing, you need to take this into account and class it as 'non-standard'. The option is to use something like 'notepad' where there are no spelling or synonym tools.

You have to check - is this tool actually testing what we want to find out?  A reading test is a listening test if it is read to the student.

Emergent Writers:
They need 1-2 simple ideas rather than writing their name five times. Should you be testing emergent writers on  e-asTTle. What are we learning from this test? You can scribe below the writing if they can readit to you.

Example of a Level 3 student:
There is no exemplar of a level 3 because there are 7 elements. They will get a score between a given range but might be a great or poor speller etc.

How much:
All sentences are written with capitals and full stops.....
What if there are only two sentences?  It has to be in a longer text.

Maybe:
The notes are listed in the exemplars are not required elements. They are an indicator of what you might see. They are not things to search for. You marks against the to descriptor not the notes. Be careful that the notes are not a distraction.

The course:
The exemplars are an important asspect of the marking tool.

Moderation - understanding the reference materials.
What does an R1, R2 look like! What does a Level 3 look like?

Watch for slippage as the marker - is your marking consistent over time?
Look at the Marking a Script  sheet:
You need to have these things with you - 

1. Specific exemplars (specific to the prompt)
2. Rubric
3. Structure & language notes
4. The student script
5. Generic exemplars
6. Glossary definitions

Action Research - Learning PIT - classroom steps.

Initial classroom action steps:

Develop, complete and analyse a student voice survey on their levels of positive mindset.

Get the class to unpack 'have a positive mindset' as a target, with possible success criteria.



Unpack and constantly refer to positive mindset posters and tools:

 1. Effort train

2. Change your words mindset display

3. Daily mindset chants

4. Use my iReflect planning sheet

Research Summary - What to focus on!

Obvious themes from the research to apply to our classroom:

Establish a class culture that values thinking and the 'struggle of learning'.
 - posters, chants and class ethos of 'hard work brings success'.
- unpack the process of 'The Learning Pit' with feelings and strategies at each step.
- add 'what did you struggle with' to our end of day reflection time.
- throw students into the pit  - give them challenges that will require struggle

Model the strategies of thinking and routines explicitly, using the language of learning daily.
 - focus on 'See, think, wonder', What makes you say that?, What are you puzzling over?'
- explicitly establish a series of thinking routines - Think, Pair, Share...
- unpack and use the language of thinking: resilient, evidence, hypothesis, making connections...

Set time aside to think.
 - teacher model and 'self talk' or verbalise thinking.
- self determined targets with self, peer and teacher feedback and next steps.
- iRefect time, find evidence of application, sharing reflections on blogs, tracking progress.