Meaning Making: Promoting Deep Understanding of Content

Meaning making is one of the of the phases of the Flipped Classroom: The Full Classroom.

During this phase, learners work towards gaining a deep meaning of the content; an understanding that goes beyond the surface knowledge of facts and information that is way too common in these days of standardized tests and curriculum.  It is a phase of deep reflection of the content and concepts covered during the unit of study.  Learners are asked to develop and use skills for reflective practice through discussing, reviewing, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing key learnings.

It becomes a phase of learner accountability.  Simply stated, learners are asked to demonstrate what they learned in a way that works for them using resources and references to support their ideas. Educators often ask how they can insure that students watched the flipped classroom videos and/or viewed other online content-rich resources.  During this phase of learning, students draw upon the content resources as a necessity to be able to demonstrate their understanding of the content material.  In other words, they cannot nor will not be able to able to adequately complete their reflections without the use of the reference materials.

The key to meaning making is offering student choices to demonstrate their understanding of the content.  Understanding and comprehension is idiosyncratic.  As such, each learner should be given an option to demonstrate personalized learning in a way that is a best fit for him or her.

The talented Wes Fryer created Mapping Media for the Curriculum.  It provides some great ideas for meaning making:

http://maps.playingwithmedia.com/

The options as discussed above also help to insure that the learning environment becomes one based on Universal Design for Learning.  A digital environment supports student learning when it provides multiple, flexible methods for student action, expression, and apprenticeship (http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=147).  The second principle of UDL, provide multiple means for expression, is addressed:

http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle2

The following guidelines related to Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression are addressed when learners make personalized meaning of the content:

• Use social media and interactive web tools (e.g., discussion forums, chats, web design, annotation tools, storyboards, comic strips, animation presentations)
• Compose in multiple media such as text, speech, drawing, illustration, comics, storyboards, design, film, music, visual art, sculpture, or video
• Use web applications (e.g., wikis, animation, presentation)
• Use story webs, outlining tools, or concept mapping tools

UDL in The Flipped Classroom: The Full Classroom is discussed further in http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/udl-and-the-flipped-classroom-the-full-picture/.

Here is an example I shared before.  It was is video that 18 year-old TJ made using Minecraft to demonstrate the concepts he learned during my interpersonal skills course.  He has Autism so the use of this video game, which he loves, provided him with a perfect venue to express his key learnings.

The Most Honest 3 Minutes

(the “truth” about living in the US – contains some curse words . . . really becomes powerful at 2:10)

The first step to solving a problem is to recognizing there is one.

My “three minutes” on education in the United States . . .

The United States provides free education to every one of its citizens. This is an amazing right. Young people and parents in some third world countries fight for this right.  So when did education become more about the test scores than about the learners’ passions?  Teachers have become more focused on test preparation than on the preparation of creative, engaging learning activities.  Horace Mann, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori are identified as some of this country’s greatest educational philosophers.  Why are educators giving them more lip service than providing services and activities in the classroom based on their ideas and principles? Why has the classroom become a place of more frowns and moans than of smiles and laughing?  Why are kids running out of their classrooms at the end of the day rather than running into them at the beginning of each school day with excitement of a new day of learning?  Why are far too many teachers hurrying to turn off the classroom lights at the end of the school day rather than staying a little longer to figure out how to turn on the lights in children’s minds? When have classrooms become places of discouragement and disillusionment rather places of enlightenment?  When are teachers going to remember why they became teachers?  When are teachers going to revisit the idea that the legacy they leave will not be how many worksheets and tests they gave, but in how many sparks they helped ignite in their learners?

Learning on the Edge

One of the first exercises I ask the pre-service and in-service teachers in my Psychology of Learning course to do is define learning.  This is not a look-up-in-the-dictionary type of activity.  They are asked to do so using their own thoughts, images, body movements, and chants/music.  It is a difficult exercise.

Actually, I find it quite baffling that educators don’t more often explore the question, “What is learning?”  Isn’t learning the ultimate goal, vision, mission of education?  If so, why is the implementation of learning, often known as curriculum, done so without a clear, clean, shared knowledge about what learning is?

I believe, as Grant Wiggins does:

Though we often lose sight of this basic fact, the point of learning is not just to know things but to be a different person – more mature, more wise, more self-disciplined, more effective, and more productive in the broadest sense. Knowledge is an indicator of educational success, not the aim.

• If curriculum is a tour through what is known, how is knowledge ever advanced?
• If a primary goal of education is high-level performance in the world going forward, how can marching through old knowledge out of context optimally prepare us to perform?

Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really.

Recently, I attended Unplug’d, a type of think tank to explore education reform.  Its unofficial subtitle was learning on the edge as it occurred at a retreat center called Northern Edge Algonquin.  My thoughts and discussions at this gathering sparked ideas about the characteristics of learning on the edge. I believe that some of these include:

• The Map is Not the Territory
• There is Recognition, Acknowledgment, and Embracing of Unknowns
• It Requires Jumping Into the Deep End
• It is a Messy Experience Shared by Everyone in the Learning Community

The Map is Not the Territory

Jorge Luis Borges is said to have remarked that the only accurate representation of reality would be reality itself; by extension, the only accurate map of the Earth would be the exact shape and size of the Earth itself. Since we cannot construct such a map, we accept a certain level of inaccuracy from our maps.  As Borges implied, we must expect some inaccuracies of this kind. But even beyond this simple separation of reality and representation, our society functions in relative naïveté about the accuracy of maps. (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020610/medieval_maps.shtml)

A similar illusion has evolved in education.  There is a belief that the curriculum maps, lesson plans, and teaching scripts are the territory, that all there needs to be known can be taught with these “maps”.

Learning on the edge recognizes that just like geographic maps, curriculum and lesson plans are inaccurate and incomplete maps of what can be learned and known.  Learning on the edge may be guided by curricular maps but there is an expectation of digressions, exploration of alternatives, and at times, throwing out the map altogether.  Learning on the edge comes with an awareness that the map may or may not be an accurate representation of reality.  It recognizes that each educator’s and student’s journey is unique, personalized, and self-determined.  Another illusion of institutionalized education is that a student’s learning can be determined.  Even with standardized curriculum, each students takes from it what s/he needs and desires.

What follows are the visual notes that Giulia Forsthye drew to depict the discussion our Unplug’d group had about the Map is Not the Territory.

Image by Giulia Forsthye.  Its inspiration came from http://gforsythe.ca/filtering-for-bags-of-gold/

There is Recognition, Acknowledgment, and Embracing of Unknowns

Terra incognita or terra ignota (Latin “unknown land,”) is a term used in cartography for regions that have not been mapped or documented. The term was reintroduced in the fifteenth century from the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s work during the Age of Discovery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_incognita

Terra incognitia also means a new or unexplored field of knowledge. Learning on the edge has a built-in assumption that there are unknowns beyond the edge, there are things yet to be discovered by all members of the learning community, students and teachers alike.  It becomes a journey of explorations, of new insights and discoveries, of seeing things never seen before.

It Requires Jumping Into the Deep End

Learning on the edge is not about dipping toes in the water or wading in slowly from the shallows.  It requires a full commitment to jump in and get fully immersed.  The shock, at first, may take breath away, (Jumping in cold waters always does). This is especially true for those educators and learners who are used to journeying along the roads most traveled, who function and live by the tried and tested curriculum, lesson plans, and instructional and learning strategies.  But educators and students, who seek to learn on the edge, understand that there is only so much you can learn in one place, that terminal objectives and class outcomes are just that terminal. (Terminal: Of, at, relating to, or forming a limit, boundary, extremity, or end. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/terminal).

There’s only so much you can learn in one place
The more that I wait, the more time that I waste
Are you ready to jump
Get ready to jump
Don’t ever look back
Yes, I’m ready to jump
Just take my hand
get ready to jump

(Yep, Madonna’s Jump)

The act of jumping is a kinesthetic experience.  Similarly, learning on the edge and often in the deep end becomes a full body experience. Learning experiences are heard, seen, felt.  Changes in thinking, doing, knowing, being occur due to these experiences.

It is a Messy Experience Shared by Everyone in the Learning Community

Learning on the edge is a messy affair.  Thoughts and ideas get muddied.  Frustrations occur as there are few correct answers.  More questions and puzzlements arise.  Old paradigms are shaken up.

It is a shared experience of all members of the learning community – all students and all educators.  All members struggle, all are changed due to the experience.

Good learning is not a matter of finding a happy medium where both parties are transformed as little as possible. Rather, both parties must be maximally transformed—in a sense deformed. There is violence in learning. We cannot learn something without eating it, yet we cannot really learn it either without being chewed up.”
— Peter Elbow, Embracing Contraries, Oxford University Press, 1986.

I want my students to learn, I want to be a facilitator of learning.  I do not have the goal of transmitting facts and knowledge so my students, at best, acquire a surface understanding. So maybe what I describe is not learning on the edge but learning as it should be. It is not easy to facilitate in traditional institutions but it is possible . . . and the rewards of seeing and hearing student testimonies of their significant learning are priceless.

An Education I Wished I Had As a Learner

Historically, teachers teach the way they were taught.  I want to change this.  I am on a mission to encourage and assist teachers in designing learning experiences they wished they had as students.  Seriously, how many would create lecture-based learning settings?  It is my belief that since that was the model used from early on, that most got used to it.  Some tolerated it, some endured, and some dropped-out (dropping out does not necessarily mean physically, it can mean physically attending school but mentally dropping out).  How many teachers, who use lectures as a primary instructional strategy, found them boring and ineffective when they were students?

I believe that a major role and responsibility of the educator is to become an ethnographer in the study of his or her students.  Educators should know the background, interests, passions, antagonizers of every student.

So I am going on a personal narrative.  I am going to become Jackie’s teacher and design learning experiences for her.

Dear Younger Jackie:

Jackie, I know that your school experiences left you with a life lasting legacy that you are defective. You were told to shut up, sit still, stay on topic, stay in line, raise your hand, don’t disrupt.

I will be an ethnographer in the study of you. I want to be your personal teacher and create learning experiences that invite you to disrupt, to innovate, to create, to imagine, to be you.

I will never make you listen to lectures of more than 15 minutes, memorize information, or take multiple-choice tests.  You have told me that not only do you find these tasks boring, you find them painful.  I will, instead, ask you to write, create, speak, make, and perform.

I know you find sitting in desks, sitting properly, sitting still to be confining, constricting, and contrived.  Playing, moving, and tinkering are such integral parts of how you learn.  Our learning environment will look more like a family room than a classroom.  Our playground will be an extension of our learning environment not one separated by time and space.

Your need for wanting to know more about topics is inspiring.  The Internet is such a gift for you.  I will permit you to have your laptop open and search for information when the need arises.  I will not ask you to unplug as you know when it is important to do.  I will respect your ability to self-regulate.   I will also ask you to share with others what you learn.  I know you love to share what you find with others.

I will observe you to find what interests you and suggest resources and readings that interest you like that English teacher who saw the types of fiction books you carried around with you, and gave you a massive books of plays.  She then suggested that you perform a few of them to the rest of the class.  Your performances, with a few of your classmates, of Edward Albee’s The Sandbox and other plays were such joy to her.

I know you “wonder” a lot out loud and ask a lot of questions including, “Why do I need to know this?”  I will point you in directions where you can get answers to your questions.  I will do my best in engage you in rich discourse or point you in directions where you can get answers to your questions.  I promise not to sssh you as so many teachers have. I know that is cuts through you like a knife and shuts down your passion and energy.

Relationships are the essence of all positive learning experiences. I know your family life has been tough, and that you developed a hard exterior to protect that soft, sensitive interior.  I will never look at you with disdain. Rather, I will treat you only with kindness, compassion, and love.

I will recognize you are my student and it my job to guide. When you are incorrect, too loud, too abrupt, I will take you to the side, and with love give you some feedback.  I will end these little conversations with a smile and a little hug.

And when I do see the hurt in the eyes, your eyes really do tell a story that you words do not.  I will touch you gently on the arm, and quietly say, “It’s okay.”

We will, as bell hooks suggests, create a place of possibility, openness, and freedom, where our hearts and minds will transgress all self-imposed boundaries.

Learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labour for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. (hooks 1994: 207)

Morning Meetings, Check-Ins, and Social-Emotional Learning

I am an advocate of integrating socio-emotional learning into the classroom.

It’s not enough to simply fill students’ brains with facts. A successful education demands that their character be developed as well. That’s where social and emotional learning comes in. SEL is the process of helping students develop the skills to manage their emotions, resolve conflict nonviolently, and make responsible decisions.

Research shows that promoting social and emotional skills leads to reduced violence and aggression among children, higher academic achievement, and an improved ability to function in schools and in the workplace. Students who demonstrate respect for others and practice positive interactions, and whose respectful attitudes and productive communication skills are acknowledged and rewarded, are more likely to continue to demonstrate such behavior. Students who feel secure and respected can better apply themselves to learning. (Why Champion Social and Emotional Learning?)

Implementing morning meetings is a method to do so.

Today, many children in kindergartens, elementary and middle schools around the country launch their school days in Morning Meetings. All classroom members—grown-ups and students—gather in a circle, greet each other, listen and respond to each other’s news, practice academic and social skills, and look forward to the events in the day ahead. Morning Meeting is a particular and deliberate way to begin the day, a way that builds a community of caring and motivated learners. (Morning Meeting: A Powerful Way to Begin the Day)

http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/product/morning-meeting-book

See ideas for morning meetings at http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/category/category/morning-meeting.

I used morning meetings with the gifted elementary students I taught.  I taught each group of about 20 students, grades 3rd through 5th, for a full day/one day a week.  We began our days with morning meetings.  The meetings included a check-in where students reported how they doing and feeling, and if anything significant was happening in their lives.  To keep the students’ interest and to introduce unit concepts, I had them create artifacts for these morning meeting check-ins (see below).  The goals and outcomes of these check-ins included:

• Increased emotional awareness and intelligence
• Increased social intelligence as learners developed listening and empathy skills
• The ability to represent thoughts and feelings in metaphoric form
• Concrete, student-created examples of content area concepts

Here are some examples of what I have done in my class . . .

Morning meetings started with a beat of the drum:

Use of feelings cards:

Found at http://www.innovativeresources.org/default.asp?cmd=product&productid=40401

Use of student-created feeling masks

Use of feelings books:

Choose a book cover that represents how you are doing and feeling:

Create a hat of a literary character to represent how you are doing and feeling:

Create a tangram image that represents how you are doing and feeling.  I had about two dozen small tangram sets and decks of cards with tangram puzzles.

Construct a 3-D geometry symbol of how you are doing and feeling.  The school had a die cut for 3-D origami.  I cut out a variety of shapes. Students, then, selected those they want to create for their check-in.

Select a constellation that represents how you are doing and feeling:

Create your own constellation that represents how you are doing and feeling:

Select a bone of the human body that represents how you are doing and feeling: