Tag: independent learning

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Distance Learning: Independent Learning

As we switch to distance learning, there’s a lot of (good, important, helpful) thinking and talking about platforms and access to the internet and designing for digital learning; there is talk about equity for those with less robust hardware or bandwidth or technical skills; and for folks with disabilities or limited English. There is talk about priorities and expectations and taking care of ourselves.

These are real. 

I’m glad we’re having these conversations. (We need to have more of them. )

And, as I am thinking about helping my students learn remotely, I am wishing we were talking more about the ability to learn (largely) independently.  

Online learning takes screens and wifi, and it takes being able to focus (especially when all of the kids are home and everyone is stuck inside) and it takes being able to make choices and plan your time (when all the schedules have been altered) and pace yourself; and to motivate yourself (when you’re also worried about the news and your job and your kids). It takes being able to persevere when it gets hard and there’s no one around to ask for help. 

Text: Distance Learning. Building Skills for Independent Learning. A white background with colored pencils.

I’ll be honest: I’m dealing with moments of worry, and frustration, and discouragement, and worry (again) for my students and our attempts at distance learning. 

But, I’m also taking it as a lesson: this matters. 

I’ve always thought independent learning would matter for homework, or for college, but we are learning that it also matters for our resilience and flexibility in the face of the completely unexpected. 

I don’t have all the answers, but I spent some time adapting the tools I do have to online learning. I hope they help you and your students navigate this transition, and learn, and grow, and maybe emerge a little stronger on the other side. 

Distance Learning Resources

Brain based Learning: Teaching our students the research on how to learn/study effectively

Stuck Strategies: Helping our students identify strategies to respond productively to moments of struggle

Dear Me/Teacher/Classmates, Please Remember… Helping out students share and reflect on what’s important for their learning

Independent Learning Log: Helping our students track and share their progress

Traffic Light Check In: Helping our students evaluate and describe their learning progress

Psst! All of my distance learning (plus some of my favorite independent learning) resources are free or discounted April 6-9th.

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Leveling Up Homework

My homework system challenges students to be independent learners

I like this. But many of my students don’t know how to study particularly effectively. Most students, period, don’t know how to study particularly effectively, but it’s particularly challenging to do it as an adult with competing responsibilities.

This year, I challenged them to try some different study goals and formats. I gave out a list, added it to their homework folder, and asked them to initial/date when they achieved each.

(In the future, I might find a way to integrate my  homework log and this list, but I’m not there yet)

Here’s the current version of our ‘Level Up’ Homework Challenge

(The title was inspired by the power of ‘leveling up’ in Chip and Dan Heath’s The Power of Moments) 

The goal was to encourage them to work more at home, in general. But in particular, to help them become better independent learners by experimenting with different formats (to see which worked for them and/or do something new)

My impression as we went along was that students’ mostly forgot about the list, and certainly weren’t challenged or inspired by it.

Yet.

(that powerful word)

There are some advantages to our frequent first days. Lots of fresh starts and chances to improve.

As we change terms, I’m asking students to review their progress and set some goals for the next trimester.

And I’ve already made a note on my term plan: in a few weeks, we’ll be checking in on our progress, and I’ll be returning a copy of their goals to them as a reminder.

Here’s the check in we used (PDF)

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Homework | Reflection Folders

My homework routine is thoroughly a product of my student body: adults with wildly diverging math preparation/skills, who are motivate by a test/goal with real implications for their lives, but who also lead full adult lives that leave little time for math homework.

I have decided that, in this context, assigning problems x through y, and expecting them all to be done next Thursday is a fool’s errand. (Some adult ed teachers incorporate more traditional homework assignments into their class. But for me/my classes, it just didn’t seem to work.)

We’ve evolved a more choose your own adventure version: I give practice work at the end of each lesson, and we have a lively and well-packed set of milk crates that house materials covering our full curriculum. Students do what they can of what they think they need.

I doubt the choose your own homework system is transferable to many classes (although that’s a shame) What’s more transferable, and where I want to spend more time, is the folder it goes in.

How it works:

Each of my students gets a homework folder. There’s nothing special except a bright color, chosen to cut down on the chance it gets lost in the piles of papers. Inside is a log.

Each week, I collect this folder, and and I ask students to complete their log. Whether they’ve done pages and pages of math, or worked double shifts and done no math beyond tallying their hours, I ask for a note: What did you do? How’d it go? Anything else do you want me to know?

I look at their log, note whether or not math happened, and respond to their comments before returning their folders.

Here’s a version of the no-frills homework log I’ve been using. And the more elaborate log I’m planning to switch to next year.

What I love:

  • It allows a private dialogue for the shy ones, or the ones who are struggling, or out of sync with the class.

(I occasionally get profound comments here that I can’t imagine hearing out loud in class, especially the quiet confessions of ‘I think I’m starting get/like/learn math…’)

  • Answering what ‘did I do?’ is a nice level of accountability. I am not scolding them about homework, but they are looking in black and white and their own handwriting at the results of the week. Every week.
  • But really, I think the crucial element is facing that “how’d it go?” question every time. Even if they give me a one word answer, they’ve had to think back over that work and decide between “good”, “ok” and “hard”. I want to foster this habit of reflection in and out of class, and this is the best means I’ve found so far (it’s also the third leg of the metacognition stool we’re building each week)

The results:

  • The good: I usually have a student or two at a time who winds up with a bit of a correspondence course on some math skills they need, but that is separate (and often ahead of) the regular class. They try X, learn most of it, identify a need to learn Y, I give it to them and we repeat.
  • The bad: The student who decided to take algebra from the crates way before she was ready and came to class the next time on the edge of tears because she had convinced herself she was hopeless.
  • The usual: Some weeks homework happens, some weeks life happens instead. When homework does happen, it’s usually a mix of class topics and review.  The comments are short, mostly prosaic, but they’re there. They get consistent encouragement to work at home, and to reflect on their learning.

Adapting

  • Perhaps you take the folder and log procedure, and use it to reflect on more traditional assignments. (What did you do to complete the problem set? How did that go?…)
  • For my class, there’s no distinction between ‘homework’ and ‘preparing for the test’. I can imagine adapting this to focus on “studying” to encourage good habits; and/or blending the two. (Which might be a great conversation to have with students – ie, that ‘homework’ and ‘studying’ have the same purpose, to promote learning)
  • If your homework routine involves more collecting than mine, perhaps it’s not a folder, but something like a wrapper that gets attached to the assignment