ELA teachers had the opportunity to discuss "best practice" in the high school classroom using the Planning for Balanced Assessment & Instruction in ELA 10 –12 Desk Blotter resource as the focus of conversation. Informal "Talk" centred around the Classroom as a Workshop, Gradual Release of Responsibility, Approaches to Assessment, and Approaches to Instruction.
Planning for Balanced Assessment and Instruction in English Language Arts: It's Foundational!
This webinar addressed the “new” learning focuses of the Sr. High English Language Arts Teaching in Action 10-12 document. The webinar looked at the document front matter (pages 1 to 208) that teachers find most meaningful, and how teachers are implementing the resource.
Talk & Walk: An Overview of Teaching in Action 10-12
This video describes the benefits provided by the Options & Opportunities Program. Several participants are interviewed at three O2 schools across Nova Scotia. Parents, students, and school staff explain specific elements of their local programs while testifying to the value that is provided by the O2 approach. School and Board staff who are considering the adoption of the O2 program for their jurisdiction is the principal audience for this resource, but it may also be useful to students considering participation in an existing program.
Options & Opportunities: What We've Learned So Far
This video describes the benefits provided by the Co-operative Education Program in the words, and through pictures of, participants at three different schools across Nova Scotia. Parents, students, community hosts and school staff explain specific elements of their local programs, while testifying to the value these placements have for schools, students and families. The principal audience for this resource is school and board staff, as well as potential co-op community partners, but also may be useful to students considering participation in a Co-op program.
Project-based Learning in O2 & Co-op Education explores how teachers at Forest Heights Community School structure and facilitate project-based learning in Co-operative Education and Options and Opportunities classrooms. Like inquiry-based learning, PBL is rooted in authentic real-world problems requiring students to apply skills and their understanding of content to complete projects that are meaningful and significant. In this segment, we see students working at school and in the community on a wide range of projects arising from curriculum outcomes. Although O2 and Co-operative Education classes are highlighted, project-based learning has wide application across subject areas and grade levels.
Inquiry-based Learning showcases how teachers structure and facilitate inquiry-based learning, in which students confront real-world challenges that encourage them to acquire and apply new knowledge that transcends mere rote recall. Teachers in this segment guide students as they frame open questions; help them structure meaningful tasks, and coach both knowledge development and social skills. This segment also provides insight into how teachers carefully assess what students are learning and the outcomes they are achieving from their experiences.
Learning Journals/ Math Journals explains how students at Lockview High School use journals in mathematics to think critically, problem-solve, reason, communicate, and to reflect upon their learning. Teachers Susan Wilkie and Sherri Miles comment on the multiple uses of the math journal; ways to establish math journal routines; their purposes and functionality; as well as classroom instructional and assessment applications. While this segment focuses on the journal as a tool for learning mathematics, the strategy and the underlying pedagogy are applicable across subjects, disciplines and grade levels.
Gradual Release of Responsibility showcases a number of classrooms where teachers have incorporated the stages of the Gradual Release of Responsibility instructional model, which provides a continuum of support for students as they learn new concepts & skills. Footage from several different classrooms demonstrates the respective roles of direct and explicit instruction, shared and guided practice, and independent student work. Throughout these stages, teachers embed active and responsive assessment for learning.
Assessment demonstrates teacher-led, self, and peer assessment strategies which effective teachers use to determine what students know already and what they need next on the way to meeting learning outcomes. The segment showcases a range of classrooms, subject areas, and grade levels in which teachers have planned and implemented assessment for learning in a variety of responsive ways. It also shows how teachers use the evidence they collect to shape instruction and to determine next steps.
