Showing posts with label adaptive learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adaptive learning. Show all posts

Thursday 12 February 2015

Teaching and Learning in Greenwood's LearnLab Space

Room 207 is a flexible space where students and teachers learn in tandem with one another. A flexible space demands a flexible approach. This post focuses on the value of having a flexible physical space in terms of the diversity it creates for instruction.

In Grade 9 English we have found a good balance between consistent classroom routines to start and end the class, and a variety of cooperative learning strategies throughout the lesson. The large room provides opportunities to co-teach and the teachers act as facilitators of learning, moving smoothly throughout the space

In the classroom, abstract learning goals become concrete physical arrangements. In advance of the class, we determine groupings and seating arrangements so that students may choose, or be placed, in a grouping based on their strengths, their interests, or the level of support they need to learn and interact with the material for the day. We also have the benefit of being able to easily rearrange students as the lesson progresses. When students work ahead, or need to meet with a teacher one-on-one, their needs can be met right away. The teacher-student conferences have been especially supportive and informative. We are able to meet with students one-on-one for anything from conversation assessments of learning, to relaxed check-ins. Getting to know the students in this way informs us about how to make our groupings and how to adapt our teaching to meet the needs of each student.

This space allows the more abstract elements of differentiated instruction to be made tangible. Students make choices and have to partner their choices with a physical action. Something as simple as moving to the corner of the room that reflects their favourite style of instruction, their need for support in the moment, or their choice of text to read, allows students to become partners in designing their course. While reading Into the Wild in our survival unit, students were able to choose to actively read the book alone in one corner of the room, read the book with a partner in another corner, read the book in a 'popcorn' style in a larger group, or have the book read to them by one of us teachers aloud. Even as the activity was taking place, students were able to move to the corner that they realized suited them best for the day. The fact that Grade 9 students are aware of their learning style to this degree is excellent. Similar activities have been done with instruction and support. It has been interesting to observe their level of engagement and self-awareness as the year has progressed.

In our current unit about family and friends, students will be in literature circle groups based on one of four novels that they chose based on interest and stretch. We're looking forward to applying what we have learned about the space and the students to these discussions.

Catherine Menard
Teacher, English

Caley Blyth
Subject Team Leader, English

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Adaptive Learning

Anytime, anywhere learning is a big component of personalized learning and essential to our program at Greenwood. In order to create this flexible learning environment teachers use a variety of tools including a Learning Management System – Moodle (or as we call it ‘Groodle’) and Google Drive.

Another aspect of personalization at Greenwood sees teachers taking “time to understand each student’s unique personality, strengths and learning style, and design a customized, fully personalized learning experience to maximize that individual’s highest potential for engagement and success" (see article). To thoroughly understand the needs of students requires teachers to assess continuously and in a variety of ways. In a traditional classroom, assessment is often limited to one or two points during a unit and is unable to provide timely feedback or enable intervention. While continuous assessment is essential, it requires a significant time investment by teachers.

In order to help teachers get a quicker and easier understanding of their students’ needs, Greenwood is continuously looking for new technologies. Computers are exceptionally good at collecting and presenting data and have a lot of potential to offer additional support. While Groodle and Google Drive are excellent at fostering a flexible learning environment they are not currently able to help students make decisions based on their needs.

In order to help teachers get a quicker and easier understanding of their students’ needs, Greenwood is continuously looking for new technologies.

An emerging technology that holds promise for both teachers and students are adaptive learning systems. Adaptive learning uses technology to identify student strengths and weaknesses and then presents exercises tailored to those areas in need of improvement. One company receiving a lot of attention for their adaptive learning platform is Knewton. According to their website, Knewton has developed a system that is continuously adaptive providing the right instruction at the right time about the right thing. In addition to guiding students down an appropriate pathway, adaptive learning systems supply extensive data to teachers about each student allowing teachers to provide enrichment or additional support even quicker.

Although adaptive learning systems offer a lot of potential for educators, they are an extremely new technology and most are not yet available to individual schools. Additionally, many of the adaptive learning systems prohibit schools from utilizing their own resources which limits their usefulness.

While teachers will always have the greatest understanding of the needs of their students, technology will hopefully provide greater support in the near future. We will continue to monitor developments of adaptive learning systems and other technologies and implement those that help to further our goal of creating personalized programs.

Kyle Acres
Learning Technology Adviser