Learning Process Blogs for Student Led Conferences

Edutopia article about Student Led Conferences

This document is my final project for MIEA 580 Innovative Practices course at Endicott.  The project outlines an innovation and the process for the implementation of it within my school.  I have included the entire text within the the body of this post.

Rooting of the innovation itself

            The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has a shifted approach toward learning than that of traditional models.  One of the tenants of this shift is the focus on students understanding the process of how they learn and reflecting upon this process.  Summative assessments in the Middle Years Program (MYP) fall under four different criteria categories: knowing and understanding, investigating, communicating, and thinking critically.  Each of these criterion are broken down into specific strands and the MYP requires that each strand is assessed at least twice each year.  The investigating criterion is required to be in each assessment and contains the strand; evaluate the process and results of the investigation (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2014). 

            Blogging, when used in education, has been found to create greater engagement amongst students.  This is primarily due to the aspect that the students thoughts and ideas are being published to a larger community and possibly even the world (Shana &  Abulibdehb, 2015).  When students know that their writing will be seen and reviewed by their peers, they tend to publish work of a higher quality, focusing on critical thinking (Konkel & Gammack, 2015). 

            Student led conferences, in contrast to parent teacher conferences, provide the student the opportunity to own their learning.  Students, in these conferences, are the focus of the meeting as opposed to the adults, parents and teacher, talking about the child.  Research shows that when students feel as though they own their learning they develop strategies to help themselves with their development.  Students gain more of a sense of responsibility for their learning (Goodman, 2008).

Process of Implementation

St. Francis is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school providing each of the Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years Program (MYP), and Diploma Program (DP) following the inquiry model of learning.  A need has arisen from informal conversations with teachers that then moved on to formal conversations with administration for students to demonstrate the process of their learning in a way that can be shared with parents (Brown & Berger, 2014).  The school’s mission is directly tied to the IB and they have come to recognize this need to be in accordance with the IB philosophy and requirements (Davidovich, 2010).

            Once the issue had been recognized the school decided to look at the options available that would fit the school and provide the students with the best format in which to display their ideas (Brown & Berger, 2014).  The two elements that were deemed most important in choosing this format were providing for authentic self-reflection and ability to display student progress for the purpose of student led conferences.

            The educational technology integration specialist researched common practices for E-portfolios comparing the use of blogs and student created websites.  The specialist decided, in consultation with the MYP 1 subject teachers that the use of blogs aligned with the interests of the school, the teachers, and the students alike primarily because of blogs’ process journal-like nature in order to demonstrate the students growth and learning.  Blogs also provide a medium for students to upload summative assessment pieces that they have produced throughout the year, whether that be in the form of a document, video, photograph, or sound recording.  The use of student created websites, in contrast, is excellent for displaying summative assessment pieces, but was lacking the reflective process component.

            The educational technology integration specialist then created their own personal learning blog to be used as an example of what the students would be producing.  This is an authentic learning blog as the educator is currently in the process of gaining their masters degree in education.  As the personal learning blog program is put into action, as an expansion, the hope is to develop a view of the stakeholders in the school as a learning community, encouraging other teachers and administrators to create their own learning blogs.  The example blog along with research material on blogging for learning and E-portfolios will then be distributed to known early adopters and heads of department to hopefully spark some conversations and interest amongst staff.

The school has decided to initially begin with the whole of MYP 1 using blogs as process journals and online portfolios.  It will be necessary to consult with all of the MYP 1 teachers and train them on how the students will be using the blogs.  It will be recommended for the teachers to create their own process blogs to act as models for students.  In understanding that implementing a new innovation will create disruption, it is important for the staff to feel prepared and well supported in any new widespread initiative (Davidovich, 2010).  The Design teacher will be the point person for the project, launching and assisting the students with the technical aspects of creating a blog and following through with keeping the information from the different classes organized in a way that will be presentable (Brown & Berger, 2014).

Throughout the year the students will be required to post at least once a week within a rotation of which subject area they will be writing about.  One week reflecting on their learning in Math, the next week on Individuals and Societies, and so on.  The teachers will need to be aware of when and how often they are requiring their students to be posting, as there is a concern of overburdening the students with too much writing.  For example, it would pose an issue for students to be required to write a post for each of their classes each week.

            In order to be transparent and open, there will be a coffee morning (informational meeting) held with the parents of the MYP 1 students.  This meeting will provide the reasoning as to why the school has chosen to begin this initiative, what the parents can expect as far as the frequency and quality their students will be required to post to their learning blogs, as well as introducing the idea of the student led parent conferences that will be held later in the year.

In the past, parent teacher conferences have been conducted with the summative assessments and grades as the focus of the meetings.  Teachers sit across from the parents and the students and discuss how the student has performed during the term.  The shift that will occur with the student led conferences will be that the student is the one who is running this session.  The focus of the student led conference will be on the progress that has been evidenced in the students learning blog.  The students will be able to show how they have approached their learning in their own words pointing to specific steps and understandings they have had in the process leading up to their summative assessment pieces.

Conclusion

            The objectives of these two innovations being brought into the school are as follows:

1.     Increase student engagement with their learning

2.     Deepen understanding of material and concepts presented in class

3.     Engender student critical reflection upon their learning

4.     Focus on the processes of learning

5.     Develop organizational skills by consolidating students learning processes into one format

6.     Document and display student learning processes

7.     Shift the focus from student achievement to student development

8.     Create a learning community within the school

9.     Provide a format for parents to become engaged in their student’s learning

10.  Strengthen student ownership of their learning

The two initiatives have the potential to have large effects on student learning.  They will change the way the school approaches learning and this will be in accordance with the IB philosophy and requirements.  This philosophy should be at the heart of any and all decisions or initiatives that school implements in the future.  The development of this plan has taken into account the many factors that lead to successful adoption of innovations as described by Davidovich (2010) and the case study of Brown and Berger (2014).  The considerations that were made were:

1.     Recognition of a problem within the school (Brown & Berger, 2014)

2.     Creating a clear vision of how the innovation will support the school guiding statements (Davidovich, 2010)

3.     The rethinking of constraints (asking why we do what we do in the way that we do it?) (Brown & Berger, 2014)

4.     Consider the many options (Brown & Berger, 2014)

5.     Consider the impact of the disruption to the community (Davidovich, 2010)

6.     Empower the stakeholders to be part of the process (Brown & Berger, 2014)

7.     Understand the process of innovation (Davidovich, 2010)

References

Brown, M.M., & Berger, A. (2014). How to innovate: The essential guide for fearless school leaders. New York: Teachers College Press.

Collins, J. (2005). Good to great and the social sectors [Monograph]. New York: Harper Collins

Davidovich, R. (2010). Beyond school improvement: The journey to innovative leadership. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin.

Goodman, A. (2008). Student-led, teacher-supported conferences: Improving communication across an urban district. Middle School Journal, 39(3), 48-54

International Baccalaureate Organization. (2014).

Konkel, M. T. & Gammack, D.D. (2015). City as text: To blog or not to blog. Honors in practice, 11 147-162.

Shana, Z.A., and Abulibdehb, E.S. (2015). Engaging students through blogs: Using blogs to boost a course experience.  International Journal of Emerging Technologies In Learning. 10(1). 30-38. doi:10.3991/ijet.v10i1.4240