June 2022

From this, the question that underpinned our online project was ‘how can I create connections to the real world and make learning purposeful in my classroom?’ This concept was explored and implemented within our Year 8 HPE unit—‘Health in the Australian Community’. We tried various ways to document student learning, including asking students to write their thoughts on the board, and visually displaying quotes that we heard students say in group work, and set tasks that provided an artefact to represent the students learning. Together, these actions contributed to empowering students by helping them feel heard, as well as achieving purposeful learning by noticing and naming their learning throughout the unit. During the course, we were prompted to share and discuss our artefacts with our MLV group (HPE colleagues), and many insights and even more questions resulted from this. We found the Ladder of Feedback protocol to be powerful in sharing our artefacts, and that we all found great benefit from the Offer suggestions for the presenter to consider section of the protocol. We wondered if providing time and space at faculty meetings to discuss MLV by sharing our documentation, could become part of our new ‘normal’.

To conclude, using the Thinking Routine ‘I used to think …, now I think …’ , we have noted our reflections of the course: I used to think that MLV involved teachers simply showcasing student learning and work. Now I think that MLV is a process involving observation, recording, interpretation, and sharing. Students and teachers can be involved in each stage, as well as other classes and colleagues. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on learning with other School staff, to redirect and improve our practice, as well as to share with different social actors such as family. Additionally, it is now evident that documentation should also inform future learning and should be referred to often. We can make it part of our ‘normal’ classroom practice.

Source M Krechevsky., B Mardell, M Rivard, & D Wilson. (2013). Visible Learners - Creating Reggio Inspired Approaches in All Schools . Jossey-Bass.

The Ladder of Feedback

PZ PROJECT ZERO pz.harvard.edu

School Wide Pedagogy Newsletter June Edition 2022

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