Can we truly have an inclusive classroom that leads one step closer to an inclusive world?
I recently attended a workshop of a few high school students who spoke about what must be done to include profoundly deaf people in our world which is so sadly separated from theirs. Those 15-year-olds taught me the real meaning of inclusivity. Within one world, we have created separate worlds of people with different abilities. How many of us have ever cared to learn sign language to be able to include the deaf and dumb in our social circle? How many schools admit deaf and dumb in their mainstream classrooms? The question is not whether they can join us. The question here is ‘Are we ready to learn their language so we can truly bring about inclusivity?’
There are many case studies of deaf children and people who have been equally or more successful at communication and in careers such as music that depend on hearing.
We have been teaching our students about Sustainable Development Goals. SDGs are designed to bring people together to improve life for all around the world. Isn’t inclusivity at the heart of SDG 4: Quality Education which talks about ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
We are a long way from complete inclusivity. But we need to begin somewhere. Including Sign Language in the curriculum of mainstream education right from a pre-primary level is a step in that direction. Yes, I understand that adding another instructor may not be in the school budget or adding another period in the timetable may not be practical.
Here are some practical ways of implementing Sign Language in the classroom:
IMPLEMENTING SIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM
1. Teachers can take the initiative to learn sign language themselves and set an example and encourage the children to do the same.
2. The teachers can embrace basic signs for classroom management and quick feedback.
3. Put up a new poster of the basics to begin with, such as numbers, letters, greetings, commonly used statements.
4. Use five minutes in the morning meeting to learn something new in sign language. The children can take turns to teach to involve them in their own learning.
5. Use fun energizers and brain breaks that use sign language. For example, sing a song by replacing some words of the song or the chorus using sign language, dumb charades: the children fingerspell the word instead of acting it out, Around the Room Activity: the children read task cards with sign language and write their answers in the recording sheet. It can be fun and challenging.
6. The vocabulary of the unit can also be taught using sign language. The children learn best when taught in a context.7. Use free websites available that teach sign language to children. The school can register for a free program that teaches sign language and it can be used throughout the school. Five minutes of the morning meeting can be dedicated to learning from the website as a class.
Research has proved that the use of sign language has led to improvement in communication skills in children with cognitive disabilities, language disorders, and autism. Children learn from a very young age that speech has a visual representation. It teaches children the importance of using gestures. Some children learn better what they hear while some learn better when they see. Adding movements and gestures helps the children to retain better enhancing their receptive and expressive language. ASL not only supports and boosts our language development but also brain development.
ASL BENEFITS FOR ALL CHILDREN
Sign Language is a win-win for all. A bridge that closes the gap. We want children to take their learning into society. Learning sign language in school, including deaf and dumb children in mainstream education, will bring our separate worlds together and make, just how it is meant to be.
A CLASSROOM WITHOUT EXCEPTION
Are you ready to take on the challenge and do what is right?
Are you ready to take baby steps towards learning sign language?
Are you ready to prevent deaf people from being isolated?
Are you open to adding Sign Language in Mainstream education?
Hi friends, I am back with another educational blog. My previous blog was about my take back from my course, ‘Leaders of Learning’ from HarvardX on identifying your theory of learning. Our learning theory enables us to take a stance of learning and understand what kind of learners and colleagues we want to work with and the learning environment we want to work in. It is then that our leadership as an educator will be most effective.
You can click on the link for a quick recap on the different theories of learning
It is interesting to see the work of Prakash Nair, the President of Fielding Nair International which is not just an architectural company but also an educational company. He builds schools not based on what schools should look like but what education should look like. His school buildings make sure that a school is a happy place with flexible seating, comfortable furnishing and not plastic or wooden chairs, access to nature to serve the fact if kids look out at nature, their mental faculties become sharper, and tons of daylight. His company makes sure that a school is a place not to accommodate students but a place where learning is accessible.
One of the International schools I worked in was opening up another branch in the same city. The principal invited the teachers to be a part of the design team along with professionals who were going to build it. So the teachers were an integral part in designing this new building. They were there pretty much every step of the way of designing a dream school. It turned out to be a huge success where innovation was invited and applied.
Today’s blog will be about innovations and creativity in the learning sector, a continuation of my take back from the course. Can we remain in our current jobs in the learning sector and bring about innovations in our learning environment? What kind of innovation are we looking at, keeping in mind Clayton Christensen’s distinction between three different types of innovation: Sustaining innovation, Efficiency innovation, and Disruptive innovation.
World and Education are changing at a fast pace that we, as leaders of learning have to adapt and be open to different perspectives. Today, if you are in the learning sector you have no choice but to be innovative to sustain in a turbulent and changing environment where the students in your school are going to be more adept than the adults at capitalizing on the opportunities that are available for learning in the environment.
Most of us work in a hierarchical collective quadrant. We know that what might not change in these schools is the political and social structures that the school sits in. But what could change is the nature and culture of the schools, the nature of learning, and how schools redefine themselves sitting in the hierarchical model of leadership.
Let us look at some ways in which innovation can be carried out.
1.Optimal learning space created by the learners.
The learning environment plays a huge role as a learning tool. This is only being further confirmed by growing research on the relationship between physical infrastructure and learning based on neuroscience. While it may not be possible, to redesign the entire physical plant, as a teacher, coordinator, or the head of school, it is possible to make the classrooms, libraries, and other facilities more learning-friendly. To begin with, students with the guidance of teachers can be in charge of setting up their optimal learning space. A class discussion led by students and facilitated by the teacher would create a learning space with the necessary must-haves such as peace or calming corner, flexible seating, different types of seating, reading corner, a games section, collaboration space, a space to create displays, independent working area and the layout of the above. I am confident that learners will create a learning environment with more mobility.
2. Reflect on your theory of learning to design a learning environment
Leaders of learning will design a successful learning environment if the environment is built on powerful theories of learning. The leaders must reflect on powerful questions. A leader/teacher/coordinator must ask themselves the reason for choosing a particular grouping plan for children or the reason for different settings of individualized plan. When these answers are translated into a physical design, one will have much powerful results.
3. Transparency amongst adults
A learning environment should be a space where adults learn from each other’s practises. This should be evident to the student learners to teach them a lifelong lesson that learning occurs at every age. Your learning theory should be transparent to the other adults as well as the students because it is like a social contract between you and the learner so there should be nothing mysterious about it.
4. Freedom to access learning
I am currently working as a homeroom teacher in the elementary section of a reputed international school in Mumbai where innovation in learning is invited and appreciated. Being a PYP curriculum, we follow the inquiry cycle and usually have three lines of inquiry. Learners are agentic and we only need to provide opportunities. We do not give agency. While staying in the hierarchical collective set up, I attempted to cross the quadrant and follow my theory of learning of distributed individual mode of leadership. In one of our units, we asked the children to come up with their own line of inquiry and they led their learning. Our brains are programmed for attention to novelty, change, and curiosity. This takes away the stress from learning and helps learners to get intrinsic gratification to persevere. Needless to say, the attempt was a success.
5. Freedom to choose learning
While it may be difficult to have a personalized learning plan for each child, we could at least give enough choices to the children to choose what interests them. Usually, the curriculum is set by a team of leaders with not much choice given to learners. Access of choice is for their different learning styles. It is time that we give choices to learners about what they want to learn. It may not be possible to have 20 different units running at the same time. But we could surely give them an option of two units at a time to bring about efficiency innovation. For e.g. while doing the theme How The World Works, the learners can be given a choice between Weather and Sound, instead of expecting everyone to enjoy or be interested in one unit. This could be a beginning.\
6. A place for every personality
In Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, extroverts get their energy from social interaction and introverts gain energy from quiet spaces and a time to think and reflect alone. Peer interaction is the key to learning but can drain the introverts with a lack of motivation. So, a classroom with a choice of large groups, small groups, and independent work will make all kinds of learners thrive.
7. Flipped Classroom
As per the Flipped Learning Network, 71% of teachers who flipped their classes not just claimed an improvement in grades, but improved student attitudes.
8. A classroom library
Leaners should have easy access to reading. While the classroom library can set up as per the unit being taught, there should be a library in the icommons for every grade on every floor giving your students easy access to an array of interesting books appropriate to their grade level vs a common library for all the students that can be accessed on specific days only.
9. Becoming a learner yourself
It is important we attempt to keep learning something new that we are not comfortable. When we take the position of a struggling learner, it sensitizes us to our students. We need to focus on evaluating our own work instead of judging other teachers. While it is important to build our teacher model based on our mode of learning quadrant, it is important that we remember that at the center lies the learning and not the educational model. Remaining flexible is the key to making learning powerful and being innovative.
10. Every teacher is a leader
Maia Winstock says, “If you’re really passionate about a topic, you end up becoming a leader in it in some way.” It is important that we are involved and regular contributors to the planning process of learning. Entering the classroom and teaching what we are expected to teach is transferred to the students not as learning but as a mundane activity that everyone has to be a part of whether interested or not with no light or fire in their eyes. Leaders of learning need to have focus, compassion, and passion. so, teach something that you are passionate about, teach in a way that serves your purpose. This is the most important thing you will bring to your students.
In conclusion, let us foster the change that we seek. Leave your ideas of bringing innovation in your learning sector in the comment section and let us help each other in being successful innovators in our learning sectors.
I recently did a course from HarvardX and decided to share my learnings from it. The future of learners, as well as educators, is about choice. Learners will choose what, how, and where they want to learn. Similarly, we, as educators, will choose what, where and how we want to teach.
Have we wondered as educators what our mode of learning is?
Each one of us falls into a quadrant of learning with our point of view and theory of learning.
Before we move on to the Modes of Learning, let us reflect on what is learning? Does it have a purpose or does it just happen? Is it for a living or for growing? Should learning take place as an act of freedom or an act of compulsion? What kind of learning matters? Should it be assessed or should it give way for other things? The best way to get these answers is to ask the learner.
The different Modes of Learning are Hierarchical Individual, Distributed Individual, Hierarchical Collective, and Distributed Collective.
The Hierarchical Individual Quadrant can be best understood by a traditional school set up with a particular structure and sequence to knowledge. The student’s progress and learning are determined by tests. It is society along with the school that decides what the learner should learn.
2. The Hierarchical Collective Quadrant can be explained by our progressive schools today that do have a particular structure and levels of content, but the difference lies in the purpose of learning. The school is a micro-society within itself. The learners understand their role as citizens of the country and the world, engage in service activities, and develop a world perspective.
3. The Distributed Individual Quadrant states that Individuals are natural learners and decide for themselves what learning is meaningful to them. Learners will want to learn what adds value to them. Individuals are intrinsically motivated to learn some topics and pursue their interests. Mentor expertise, guidance, quality course content, and maximum student engagement are its key characteristics. The learner sets his own goals and determines his success.
4. The Distributed Collective Quadrant is a network of people with common interests and varying degrees of expertise who come together as a community. They choose to join or discontinue their engagement in the learning community as per their needs and flexibility. Learning here is a collective and social endeavor.
The above gist must have enabled you to identify your preferred theory of learning. Moving forward from Modes of learning to Modes of Leadership. As educators, we will have a multitude of opportunities to lead learning. Today, the opportunities for learning and leading learning are exploding. We need to make conscious choices of our career in the learning sector based on our theory of learning. Our learning theory will help us take a stance of learning and understand what kind of learners and colleagues we want to work with and the learning environment we want to work in. Different learning environments require different types of leadership. Your understanding of your theory of learning will help you decide where you fit in the distinction between schooling and learning.
Would you like to work in a stable established well-defined hierarchical organization in collaboration with the coaches, administrators, community members, and the principal?
Or
Would you like to create a structure for learners that enables them to exercise control over their learning?
Or
Would you like to form a social network of learners and inspire individuals with common interests to share the ownership of learning?
One way to answer this question would be to ask yourself the following questions
Why do you want to teach or lead learning?
How do you like to spend your time?’
How do you define success?
We must have a tight fit between our learning theory and the learning environment we chose to work in. It is then that our leadership as an educator will be most effective.
After identifying my theory of learning, this is a question that I asked myself. Is it possible to remain in a school set up of the Hierarchical Collective Quadrant and yet follow my theory of learning which is of The Distributed Individual Quadrant and bring about innovation in my learning environment?
My next blog will evaluate the different innovations we can bring about in our learning sector.
Leaving you with a thought…Have you identified your theory of learning?
Can writing be taught? Is it a talent that is gifted to the child or a skill that is acquired?
Every child can strive to be a writer and thrive as a writer. This is simply because every child has things to say.
To Write is to use your Voice. To Write is to Share yourself and your life.
Effective writing teachers at first see the child as a writer and then teach strategies that motivate the child to read, share, think, write, and talk about his writing of his own volition.
Each child has his unique opinion, thoughts, or ideas that move them, and these ideas need to be turned into writing to share with others. Isn’t that the purpose of writing? Isn’t this what gives pleasure to writing or ‘writing for pleasure’ as we call it? It is the satisfaction of producing a final written product that is purposeful and meaningful to the writer.
Strategies to lead striving writers towards confidence and success.
1. Safe and Non-judgmental Environment
Developing an environment where children are free from the fear of judgment and negative comments is the first step towards positive learning. Creativity and imagination are unique to every child. Every idea whether created or inspired by should be accepted. A Writing Workshop must be a place that will have no right or wrong answers. To open up his treasure of imagination, a child must feel confident, safe, and accepted. The weirdest ideas as well as ideas inspired by other writers should be appreciated. The Writers Workshop should appear as a community of writers thinking, brainstorming, and talking about their writing
2.Self-efficacy and Agency
Psychologist Albert Bandura (1977) defined self-efficacy as a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task.
Children can share their voices as writers only if the topic is meaningful to them. While the teacher decides the genre unit, the children should feel agentic to choose their topic. Whether it is choosing the small moment that is important to them while writing a personal narrative or an opinion that matters to them while writing a persuasive writing piece, the children should be given the agency to choose the relevant topic. Writing what matters or writing what you own builds self-efficacy in children. It makes them feel competent as writers.
3. Motivation and Engagement
Motivation and engagement are the key factors to ensure improvement in the writing outcomes. Children feel motivated to write once they feel engaged and involved in the process of writing. By providing a safe environment, providing them with the agency, and building their self-efficacy, teachers set them up for success. It leads to developing writing motivation that generates interest and enjoyment in writing. Positive motivation comes from acceptance, appreciation, support, scaffolding, clear writing goals, level-appropriate instructions, and steps for improvement.
4. Modeling
Modeling enables to make the teacher’s thinking and the writing process visible to the students. The students see the text as it is constructed. Modeling in writing can be done in two ways. The teacher can do it in a small group or as a whole class. The class brainstorms and constructs the text or completes a step in the writer’s process as a group and thereby gets clarity on the expectations and the instructions. Modeling must be followed by exemplars of other students’ and teacher’s work.
5. Writing Conferences
Students need positive and meaningful feedback to improvise their writing pieces. Conferring with the student individually allows giving individually targeted instruction and feedback. Some students find it more comfortable asking questions in a writing conference with the teacher rather than in front of the whole class. This time improves the relationship between the teacher and the students. Verbal feedback is less threatening and more clear. The Writing Conference must begin with what the child has done well, and then move on to the teaching point and end with the next step to be taken. Writing conferences can be a good time to think and discuss the students writing and use their metacognition skills to reflect.
6. Connecting Reading and Writing
We know that being a good reader has a facilitative effect on being a good writer and vice-versa. Does being a voracious reader always translate into being a good writer? No, writing needs to be taught, instructed, and practiced. Reading and writing are not discreet skills and they need to be taught together to bridge the gap between oral and written language. Using mentor texts helps to illustrate what writers do. Students start to notice the skills and strategies in the books they are reading independently which are taught during mini-lessons These mentor texts should also be referred to when teachers confer with students. Writing becomes more meaningful when it is connected to reading.
7. The Writer’s Process
The Writer’s Process consists of generating ideas, planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, or performing. Children should be explicitly taught each step of the process. They should be given strategies to generate ideas, graphic organizers to plan their writing, and time to draft freely. Peer feedback plays an important role during revising and editing. Peer conferencing at this stage supplements teacher conferences. Children realize that most writers struggle to get their thoughts perfectly on paper and writing the perfect piece is a process. Children have similar experiences and the powerful dynamics of their relationship make this strategy very productive and collaborative. Editing is the last step before the draft is final and ready for publishing. It is the first thing that the readers read. Due importance should be given to this step. It is surprising to see how efficiently children start noticing and correcting errors in their work. It helps them to aware of their writing.
“Let us leave this blog with a PAUSE and a THOUGHT, ‘ Every child can be a writer because every child has things to say.“
Have you ever wondered if there is a relationship between brain development and questioning??
We do know that a child’s brain develops more than any other time in his life. The brain is the command center of the human body. A baby has all of the brain cells (neurons) they’ll have for the rest of their life, but it’s the connections between these cells that really make the brain work.
Children are curious by nature. They are born with the art of questioning. They want to question things more than answer. Is it because they know less? Well, I would say, it is because they want to know more. This is one way that helps them make connections.
Little children have a natural desire to learn, which seem to reduce and drop as they grow older. It is because they are expected to stop questioning and start learning. Learning without having a curious mind filled with questions is incomplete learning. Learning without having the opportunities to pour out their questions and inquire is inappropriate learning. Asking questions plays an important role in cognitive development. Having a mind full of questions puts the child on a trajectory to inquiry and learning.
As parents and as teachers, we want our students to learn. We need to make sure to provide an environment and make conscious efforts to provide them with opportunities to make inquiries. It is undeniable that children’s questions can get overwhelming for any parent or child. You may end up being asked more than 300 questions per day.
As a mother, I have many times told my 10 year old daughter to ask Google instead of me because either I may not have had the answer or the time. Today , I do realise that at that moment, I killed her instinct to know more and took away her opportunity to make connections. I put a stop to her imaginations. Well, I may not have all the answers, but it is my responsibility to keep her fire of inquiry going. Is it possible for me to attend to her almost always immediately? Of course not. My daughter and I came up with a solution to maintain a book called, MY BOOK OF PERSONAL INQUIRIES. She now writes down her questions in her book and we look for answers at our convenient time every day.
I have now started taking interest in finding answers to her questions, along with her. I now show enthusiasm to her questions. I invite her questions with admiration for her thoughts and astonishment for her imagination. In a nutshell, I appreciate her for asking questions and convey how her questions help me learn to. We brainstorm even more questions and exchange wonderings.
This change in my approach towards her questions has not only encouraged her to be more imaginative, and a curious learner but has transformed our relationship.
