In my last blog I wrote about the difference between learners and workers, and this an idea I continue to wrestle with now.  But I am seeing it a bit differently today.

I have long known that just because I have taught something doesn't mean that my students have learned it.  In light of Rethinking Homework by Cathy Vatterott, I feel as though I can put more pieces of the puzzle together.  I know that a meaninglesss homework is just that: meaningless.  Students do not make meaning from an activity to which they feel no connection.  Likewise, they do not make connections or learn anything from assessment that comes at the end of the learning--not as a part of the learning.  I have known about the issues and have made some changes to the way I interact with my students; but the changes are slow and, at times, seemingly ineffective.  But, like I said, a solution to the puzzle is forming...

Homework doesn't ensure learning.  Ever.  It only ensures obedience in the students that we likely already know will be obedient.  In the others?  Homework ensures frustration at best; failure at worst.  In order for homework to be effective for me in an upper secondary level college preparatory English class, it must be more about their meaning and less about my agenda.  So what do I do?

First, I need to make sure that the feedback is during learning not after it.  Feedback must be about helping each student learn at that moment.  Not next week or sometime during the next lesson.  I have tried to address this by spending a significant amount of time with student writing before the final draft is due.  I know that a grade on the final draft is really the only thing students are after--not the comments and suggestions I used to spend so much time on writing.  So now I respond with those comments and suggestions during the writing process not after.  Already I have noticed kids taking those responses to heart and applying my suggestions.  That's meaningful time spent outside of the classroom for both of us.

Second, I am learning to make the learning more about them and less about me.  If I am doing most of the talking, I am teaching; but if they are doing most of the talking, they are learning.  Problem based learning or project based learning is nothing new, but I have little experience with it.  I am beginning to analyze how I can take the new standards and apply this methodology of formulating a great question and beginning with the end in mind.  What can the students do to show me that they have learned?  What are the great questions that each of them can wrestle with in their own ways?

Finally, the grade is important to my students, but I think I can help them start to see that the learning is more important.  An "A" means nothing if no knowledge has been gained.

I have never wanted to be a teacher who simply opens the file from the previous ten years on the first day and starts going.  I try so hard to be a discoverer with my students, but knowing whether or not I am effective in that isn't always easy.  I do know that I can continue to improve.  In the meantime, I'll just keep trying to put that puzzle together.