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Wheatland Crossing: A Story of Powerful Learning
K-12
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Powerful Learning targets the importance of nurturing a growth mindset in order to maximize student learning. Teacher Alex, intentionally focused on improving student understanding of “outcomes/competencies”, while building positive self-talk and resiliency. She used the book "I Can Believe in Myself" to explain to students that they can change their beliefs and attitudes, in order to overcome challenging tasks or situations.
Connecting & Contributing:
Self-Awareness & Self-Management
Students build their self-awareness by developing habits of mind to become life long learners. Teacher Alex built "shreddy", who eats students "I can'ts", to symbolize to students how they can overcome challenges.
Students are encouraged to share their "I can'ts" with their classmates, and then shred them to show that they are working to change their attitudes/behaviors in order to achieve their goals.
This process is allowing students to not only look at their own actions and thoughts, but it has also created an environment where students feel that they are connected and belong. Alex and her students show empathy, resiliency and compassion towards one another throughout this process.
Connecting & Contributing:
Self-Awareness & Self-Management
Students build their self-awareness by developing habits of mind to become life long learners. Teacher Alex built "shreddy", who eats students "I can'ts", to symbolize to students how they can overcome challenges.
Students are encouraged to share their "I can'ts" with their classmates, and then shred them to show that they are working to change their attitudes/behaviors in order to achieve their goals.
This process is allowing students to not only look at their own actions and thoughts, but it has also created an environment where students feel that they are connected and belong. Alex and her students show empathy, resiliency and compassion towards one another throughout this process.
Grade 1: "I can't... yet"
Grade 2: Social Studies & Where Food Comes From?
Authentic Engagement:
Creating Curiosity & Connections: Students in grade 2 Social Studies understood the connection between physical geography and their lives through an investigation of life around them on the Prairies (ex: Saskatchewan- specific crops grown on the prairies).
Their initial investigation led to them to question where their food comes from, so teacher Elyse helped students through this using videos that demonstrated the wheat to flour process, tomato to grocery store, milk/cream to cheese process, and animals to grocery store.
Students then discussed how important the farming industry is for Prairie communities (A KEY part of students identities!)
Throughout the investigation into Prairie communities and their own identities, students had the opportunity to experience interactive learning in a supportive environment. Students were engaged through relevant questions, and hands-on challenges that tied back to the curriculum and their communities.
Connecting & Contributing:
Peer Connections: Students were then able to visualize the connection between where food comes from with their surroundings, by creating Pizzas. The Students discussed what the key ingredients for pizza were and realized that many of these ingredients could be grown on rural farms in the area.
Students then worked together to build pizzas, which they had to share, so they had to work together to put the toppings on. Students were directly taught how to interact in respectful ways. They shared this responsibility with their peers and they started to understand how to help one another in their learning.
Teacher Elyse helped students understand that the goal was to create a pizza together, using discussed about toppings and assisted them through the process with specific feedback.
Creating Curiosity & Connections: Students in grade 2 Social Studies understood the connection between physical geography and their lives through an investigation of life around them on the Prairies (ex: Saskatchewan- specific crops grown on the prairies).
Their initial investigation led to them to question where their food comes from, so teacher Elyse helped students through this using videos that demonstrated the wheat to flour process, tomato to grocery store, milk/cream to cheese process, and animals to grocery store.
Students then discussed how important the farming industry is for Prairie communities (A KEY part of students identities!)
Throughout the investigation into Prairie communities and their own identities, students had the opportunity to experience interactive learning in a supportive environment. Students were engaged through relevant questions, and hands-on challenges that tied back to the curriculum and their communities.
Connecting & Contributing:
Peer Connections: Students were then able to visualize the connection between where food comes from with their surroundings, by creating Pizzas. The Students discussed what the key ingredients for pizza were and realized that many of these ingredients could be grown on rural farms in the area.
Students then worked together to build pizzas, which they had to share, so they had to work together to put the toppings on. Students were directly taught how to interact in respectful ways. They shared this responsibility with their peers and they started to understand how to help one another in their learning.
Teacher Elyse helped students understand that the goal was to create a pizza together, using discussed about toppings and assisted them through the process with specific feedback.
Powerful Learning utilizes high impact strategies in the classroom. Students in Grade 2 use non-linguistic representation to increase their literacy skills.
Overview of Activity: Students work with coloured blocks to represent consonant and vowel sounds, and through this process students began to physically build the words and strengthen their understanding of sound units.
Strategic Instruction:
Non-Linguistic Representation: Students were learning how to sound out and spell words through decoding. The different coloured blocks were used to represent consonant and vowel sounds. Students physically built the words, while sounding it out. Students then spelled the words at the end.
Effective Questioning: Patti continued to ask the students questions that encouraged them to reflect upon their own ideas, as well as their peers and to build their words from those interactions. She encouraged the boys to talk with one another and look at one another's progress throughout the lesson.
Authentic Engagement:
Physical Environment: The small group work on decoding meant that they were able to problem-solve collaboratively while using reason to explore new ideas with others.
Kinesthetic Learning: They were using the blocks as a "hands-on" tool to spell the words, which increased their focus, attention and engagement.
Connecting and Contributing:
Student-Teacher Relationships: It is clear through the video that Patti was inviting her students to learn in a collaborative way with their peers in a safe and supportive environment. She invited all three boys to participate and supported them to “take risks” and share their spelling with each other.
Overview of Activity: Students work with coloured blocks to represent consonant and vowel sounds, and through this process students began to physically build the words and strengthen their understanding of sound units.
Strategic Instruction:
Non-Linguistic Representation: Students were learning how to sound out and spell words through decoding. The different coloured blocks were used to represent consonant and vowel sounds. Students physically built the words, while sounding it out. Students then spelled the words at the end.
Effective Questioning: Patti continued to ask the students questions that encouraged them to reflect upon their own ideas, as well as their peers and to build their words from those interactions. She encouraged the boys to talk with one another and look at one another's progress throughout the lesson.
Authentic Engagement:
Physical Environment: The small group work on decoding meant that they were able to problem-solve collaboratively while using reason to explore new ideas with others.
Kinesthetic Learning: They were using the blocks as a "hands-on" tool to spell the words, which increased their focus, attention and engagement.
Connecting and Contributing:
Student-Teacher Relationships: It is clear through the video that Patti was inviting her students to learn in a collaborative way with their peers in a safe and supportive environment. She invited all three boys to participate and supported them to “take risks” and share their spelling with each other.
Grade 2: Decoding Words
Grade 3: Differentiation in Mathematics
Powerful Learning encourages teachers to use differentiation in their classes to ensure that the learning needs of all students are being met. One way this is being done in Teacher Joy's Grade 3 Math class is with the use of the Reflex Game (Math Fact Fluency: https://www.reflexmath.com/).
Joy's approach to strengthening student's math fact fluency was 2-prong: she wanted to increase engagement, while also ensuring student's varying skills levels in math would be respected. She applied for a grant to use Reflex with her grade 3's to improve their math-fact fluency.
Overview of Reflex Game:
- Students complete an initial assessment game to gauge their math fact skills.
- Students are then given certain "games" to complete based on this initial assessment.
-There are 10 games they can open but it is a progression- where only a few open at one time, depending on the student's fact-fluency, but it doesn't "appear" like a hierarchy of skills- its interface looks like a Fair with at least 2 games to play that assess that same math-fact.
Authentic Engagement
This game can be connected to the Authentic Engagement driver of Powerful Learning, as student's curiosity is peaked through the use of game, and it provides opportunities to test student's understanding of math facts through friendly competition.
To receive the grant, Joy's students practice their math-fact fluency 3x a week for 30min increments. Once students have played 30 consecutive min a week and shown fluency in a particular math fact, new games becomes available for students to complete, with this game building on the previous fluency.
Strategic Instruction:
Differentiation:
Joy believes this program is unique and very beneficial as it is personalized/unique for every student.
Every wrong answer a student gets is recorded so the teacher can view their fluency progression.
The game allows students to keep practicing certain skills in different games until they've mastered it, which increases their engagement, as students are focused on playing the "game".
Joy has also sent her students login and passwords to their parents so they can also encourage their child to practice at home.
Jr. High Math: Academic Vocabulary Flash-cards
Powerful Learning acknowledges the need for fluency and flexibility in knowing basic surface level facts. Rather than learning through "rote" memorization, students in Jr. High Math learn about the connections behind the facts. Through the use of these "Math Flash-cards", students number sense and algebra skills are built.
Strategic Instruction:
The flashcards are used in a similar fashion to the tools of Academic Vocabulary, but they require students to move forward from the definition to the “workings” of the formulas.
One possible use in the classroom: compare a current topic in class with the flashcards and determine which one is the most important in dealing with the problem. If there is more than one flashcard identified, what priority do they have to be done in?
Strategic Instruction:
The flashcards are used in a similar fashion to the tools of Academic Vocabulary, but they require students to move forward from the definition to the “workings” of the formulas.
One possible use in the classroom: compare a current topic in class with the flashcards and determine which one is the most important in dealing with the problem. If there is more than one flashcard identified, what priority do they have to be done in?
