Thing 23: New AASL Standards

The six ‘Shared Foundations’ of the new AASL Standards and their accompanying ‘KEY Commitments’ are: 

·       Inquire -Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems.

·       Include -Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to inclusiveness and respect for diversity in the learning community.

·       Collaborate -Work effectively with others to broaden perspectives and work toward common goals.

·       Curate -Make meaning for oneself and others by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance.

·       Explore -Discover and innovate in a growth mindset developed through experience and reflection.

·       Engage -Demonstrate safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing of knowledge products independently while engaging in a community of practice and an interconnected world.

So just looking at these foundations, I’m trying to wrap my head around what I cover and what I don’t.  I think, in general, that the Inquire concept has always been a strength of my classes and library program.  We have a lot of resources.  I have every grade do research projects.  Except for this year when I didn’t have time due to being a teacher prep, I usually create individualized book lists for all of the intermediate students.  I still do this on a one-on-one basis if a student or parent has a question that I can’t answer off the top of my head on the spot.

I have always tried to talk to the students about the Include idea.  I have done most of the modifications for students who need them but I try to push them to work hard.  I have always tried to make our book collection diverse and inclusive despite being in a largely homogeneous, conservative community.

The previous Special Education Director used me as a resource for helping to find appropriate resources for our students.  For instance, one student who was VERY intelligent and curious struggled mightily with reading and writing.  She was really willing to put the time in to improve her reading ability; she would read a book of interest that was just out of her reading level over and over until she really understood it.  Her interests were wide-ranging and intense, so just using books at her level didn’t cut it.  I suggested that we get her hooked up with audio books and suggested the Speak option of Google Docs for writing.  She spoke her writing and then copied it by hand where appropriate to try to help with the spelling aspect.  It was hugely successful.

In addition, when we had our first blind student (who graduates this year) I learned Braille, pursued a Capital Region BOCES grant to jumpstart our Braille book collection, pushed for the purchase of other Braille materials and equipment, and joined a listserv to learn more.

I discuss thinking about others a lot.  This year, I started what was going to be a word of the week, but evolved into a word of the several weeks.  The Include concept is part of our discussion of Cooperative and Compassionate.  I try to particularly talk to the students about working to your strengths: you are my partner and you might not be great at reading, but you might be better at the technology than I am. 

From looking at Tech Tools & Resources AASL Standards for the Learner, I found the Penpal Schools site.  I wasn’t able to locate information on pricing, but the concept has always interested me.  I know that being from such a poor, homogeneous community means that my students could benefit from more exposure to the world and what other people think.  There are certainly a lot of other tools on this chart that would benefit from a second or third look, too.

Thinking about the Collaborate concept, it wasn’t a strength of my program years ago, but since Common Core, I have really tried to include more group projects.  Ironically, I have been thinking that I have gone too far in the group project direction so I am not sure that every child has been getting all of the skills.  But what with more and more of any project work having to happen during the school day as parents are unwilling or unable to help their child or give their child time to work on projects at home, the model I used to use for independent projects in grades 4 through 6 is unfeasible.  In addition, collaborating is certainly a necessary work skill and our students tend to be so bad at cooperating now since their lives are so isolated that it needs to be emphasized where it can.  I also try to incorporate the G Suite for Education products (that I know they will still be using in the high school) because they are so good at allowing collaboration AND at allowing me to see what has happened in the process through Version History.

The Curate concept is frankly not one that I have ever really touched except in the lessons I do with third grade on internet searching.  There the students use our model for judging websites to partner up and evaluate the first few links of a search about frogs.  Then, they are to search for two other hits, evaluate them, and share out their conclusions.  I know that the concept of curating has also come up during other projects in the sense that one group will help another by pointing out where they found necessary information, but it was informal.  I guess that this is a real weakness.  I wonder what the easiest method of allowing them to share information sources might be.

When looking at Tech Tools & Resources AASL Standards for the Learner, it seemed like most of the tools were more for the library media specialist (or whatever the professional calls themselves) to curate than for the students to curate.  I was focusing my answer to the inclusion of curation in my program to how I teach students to do it, but my website, my google classroom, and even my Destiny Quest book lists are examples of my shared curation.  When I used the old Common Sense Media Digital Passport program which included videos to watch as well as the games to play, my students earned their login information for Destiny Quest and they shared reviews and recommendations safely through that site.  Perhaps I should revive that somehow, but it will only address sharing book information, not websites or apps.  Even my Symbaloo demonstrates curation, but the students don’t personally experience it much unless they ask for me to add something that I feel comfortable adding immediately.  Along with many other teachers, I am Pinterest crazed as I can use it on my phone to find things to use in future lessons.  I can use it while waiting in the doctor’s office.  BUT, it isn’t something I would feel comfortable having students use because it is tracking crazed.

The Explore concept is an interesting one.  I think that I demonstrate the growth mindset to students a lot – though maybe not as often as I would like to.  I don’t hesitate to say to students, especially as they get older, that I don’t know, but I can find out or that it sounds like you know more than me, so maybe you should tell us more.  This definitely came up in our Digital Citizenship discussions when a student asked if a VPN couldn’t solve the problem we were discussing.  I had to admit that while I knew what a VPN was, I don’t personally know that much about them, so I couldn’t speak to them.  Again, I try to support their interests as much as possible and encourage students to pursue them by providing materials to help.

The reflection part of the Explore concept, however, is a weakness.   I am trying to include it more and more in my lessons, but it is hard to find the time AND I’m not sure that the students who really need the reflection the most really give it justice.  I seem to get really good responses and really bad ones.  It seems hard to use with younger students, too.  Maybe I am going about it the wrong way, but I usually have them complete a written response on paper or on a Google Form. The younger the students the more difficult simply writing is for them so the reflection suffers.  I have tried to have the older students reflect on their work AND on the work of others in order to have some of the growth ideas come from someone other than me.  Boy, some students have so much trouble giving ideas either for what was good or what needed improvement.  There are so many students who either only see the roses or only see the thorns.

Again, looking at Tech Tools & Resources AASL Standards for the Learner, I never considered how well coding fit into the Explore idea.  I did host our Hour of Code week in the elementary school this year.  I had students code in an afterschool group years ago and have had coding sites on my website, my Symbaloo, and bookmarks in the library for a long time.

Finally, there is the Engage concept.  I am definitely trying to emphasize the “safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing” aspect.  We talk seemingly endlessly about note-taking and paraphrasing versus plagiarism.  We talk about copyright and the importance of giving proper credit to our sources.   They use Creative Commons to search for images. I try to show the students how I use technology from email in kindergarten through posting to our Google Sites site in the intermediate grades.  I don’t currently, however, have a way of allowing my students to share information themselves aside from sharing the results of their G Suite work using the SHARE button.  I don’t know how to get around the issues. 

First, there are the new regs about student data and websites that are coming up.  I am already concerned that all of the products we use are not compliant.  Some projects will have to be reworked due to that.  Then, there is already an issue in our district and probably in others with parents who do not want their child’s name on the web.  And there is even the issue of parents who do not want their child ever to be photographed, though especially not on the web.  All of this combines to make it hard to allow the children to post themselves and to find the appropriate site where posting themselves might be feasible.  When I post, I make sure the student isn’t identified.  Of course, I tell them to only use initials, but so many students ignore that direction.

Again, looking at Tech Tools & Resources AASL Standards for the Learner, I do, as discussed in previous posts, utilize a modified and personalized version of the Be Internet Awesome curriculum.  Some of the teachers in our school use Prodigy and the students love it.  I looked into Nearpod last summer after the LIT conference, but money is always a stumbling block.

I quickly looked at New AASL Standards, So What?.  It will certainly bear revisiting, but the process looks a lot like me going through this post foundation by foundation to reflect on what I do and what I should do more of.  If only there was more time built in for us to do that.  It seems like schools try so hard to prove that PD days are worthwhile that they don’t really give us the time to delve deeply in to make improvements.  I’m too busy on PD days going from workshop to workshop where I have to follow the presenter’s priorities.  If we asked teachers to submit their own plans and their results, I think we might see more improvements faster.

I would love to hear how others are tackling these issues (with Engage and Curate, expecially) in order to allow elementary students more latitude and experience in sharing their creations.

BTW, I admit it, I wrote this post in Word and pasted into Blogger.  Sorry about the formatting in this one, too, but since the Blogger only post didn't seem a whole lot better...