Skip to toolbar

ChoralNet

The professional networking site for the global online choral community.

Columbia University

The Agile Centered Classroom

Leading Voices: Learning Outcomes and Our Ability to Pivot

by Leave a Comment

Learning Outcomes and Our Ability to Pivot

It seems like every month there is a new term or phrase that surfaces as we journey through the COVID-19 educational landscape – Hybrid Learning, the Digital Choral Classroom, Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction.  Now here in Central New York, we have another new phrase going around called “the pivot.” With most CNY schools teaching in-person or using a hybrid model, many of our colleagues are planning for the pivot as they anticipate their schools moving to all virtual learning.

The Pivot  – Verb  

Educational Definition: A teacher’s ability to effectively and efficiently transition their teaching at a moment’s notice from hybrid to virtual, or virtual to hybrid instruction.

Example: At 5:00 in the evening, teachers were notified that their high school would be pivoting the following day to virtual instruction for the next two weeks.

* Last Sunday night, October 4 at 8:42 PM, I received notification from my superintendent that due to a staff member testing positive for COVID, the high school would be closed on Monday, and we would move to virtual instruction for the day.  Note to self – Always be prepared for the pivot.  I have a video at school that I was planning on pushing out to my choir today (Monday), but I only saved the file to my desktop and did not upload it to my Google Drive.  My bad, lesson learned!

Teaching in the Pivot Model

So, I am now experiencing the pivot.  I am lucky because my teaching assignment this year has prepared me for this experience.  I call my teaching assignment this semester “teaching virtually in-person” because:

  1. The high school vocal music program is virtual, but
  2. I can teach on campus in my classroom.
  3. Most of my students attend cohort hybrid classes throughout the day and come down to my classroom during lunch or study halls.
  4. I will be teaching eleven of my student’s virtual vocal music all year, and
  5. On Wednesdays, the entire high school goes to virtual learning for the day.

A Pivot I Was Not Expecting

Besides learning how to pivot and teach in both the hybrid and virtual learning models simultaneously, a much more subtle and significant pivot is currently taking place in our classrooms.  Due to the cancellation of school performances and county and state music festivals, our course designs and student learning outcomes/expectations may have changed and could now be incomplete. 

If traditional concert performances and choral opportunities are not available to our students at this time, then what is taking its place?  

What is our new goal, or how do we adapt?

Learning Outcomes and Backward Design

https://teachingcommons.lakeheadu.ca/backward-design-introduction-templates

What is helping me organize my teaching and navigate the lack-of-concerts shift is the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.  In their book Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe present a three-step process called Backward Design.  This framework encourages educators to design their course of study “backwards.”  First, by Identifying the required student learning outcomes, then Determining the appropriate skills and assessment, and finally, Planning the essential course content and specific learning objectives.

Student Outcomes and Specs Grading

The Backward Design framework was also influential as I adapted Specification Grading or Specs Grading for my high school music students.  In chapter two of her book Specification Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time, Linda B. Nilson reframes the Backward Design Framework and presents the following (2014, p. 21).

  • Step 1, Ultimate Outcomes: Identify the skills and abilities students will achieve at the end of the semester or course.
  • Step 2, Mediating Outcomes: Order and sequence learning outcomes that will prepare students for forthcoming skills and abilities.
  • Step 3, Foundational Outcomes: Determine the necessary skills and abilities students will need in preparation for mediating outcomes

Semester Course Design

Using elements found in both the Backward Design Framework and Specs Grading, below is my course design that I am using this fall.  Because my school will be shifting this year between the virtual and hybrid teaching models, I am attempting to provide my students with the tools and skills necessary to continue studying, performing, and creating music independently.

Ultimate Learning Outcome – Maintain my students’ engagement, participation, and enjoyment of high school vocal music.

Intermediate Experiences – Create autonomous, student-centered assignments and activities focused on the Ultimate Learning Outcome.

Essential knowledge & Skills – Establish standards for students in developing their fundamental music abilities, course management skills, and individual responsibility to the ensemble. 

Weekly Course Assignments

Realizing that we will probably not have any in-person concerts this year, I have focused my weekly learning outcomes on encouraging my student’s growth in three areas: 1. developing their personal musicianship, 2. maintaining and strengthening their fundamental choral music skills, and 3. Facilitating their autonomy through teaching time and class management skills. 

  1. Individual Ensemble Musicianship (IEM) – Student-initiated independent music study
  2. Choir Fundamentals (CFun)– Music literacy, audio/video performances, and ADIF self-sprints  
  3. Course Management (CM) – Weekly meetings/surveys, group contributions, and communication

Each week, my students work on one assignment from each of these three focus areas.  So far, the most critical assignment this year was last week when the students and I brushed up their technology skills.  We created folders for their Gmail (one senior had 4,876 emails in her inbox), set-up their Remind and Sight Reading Factory accounts, reviewed the procedures and protocols for Google Meet, and confirmed the skill/subject for their independent study this semester.

Conclusion: Our Ability to Pivot

With the realization that we will need to remain fixable and pivot our instruction this year, and that our traditional school concerts will not resume for some time, we need to reevaluate our course design and our required learning outcomes.  

Many of our best practices from the past have been successful and will remain.  But there is a danger in maintaining the expected – the known – not realizing that education is changing right before our eyes.  Elements of Backwards Design and Specs Grading offers teachers a new perspective and a way to review, redefine, and reimagine our instruction. 

References:

Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008.

Nilson, Linda Burzotta, and Claudia J. Stanny. Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2015.

Ackles, Brian O., 2018.  Agile Development Instructional Framework (ADIF): A New Strategy for Student-Centered Music Education. Choral Journal, September 2018. Vol. 59, No. 2.

Leading Voices: Adapting Specs Grading for the Virtual and Hybrid Choral Classroom

by Leave a Comment

As I start the Fall semester, I find myself right where I left off at the end of last year – trying to keep my students engaged in a virtual high school choral program. This year, my high school moved to a two-semester scheduling system with students taking four classes per semester in 80 minutes blocks.  For the first semester, I will each all my choir students online.  For the second semester, most choir will return to in-person ensemble rehearsals, with some students choosing to remain virtual for the entire year. 

A New Syllabus for a New Time

With my new teaching schedule this year, and no concerts in sight, it was time to revise my teaching philosophy a bit and rewrite the choir syllabus.  The biggest challenge I am now facing in adapting my syllabus is trying to cultivate student interest and excitement while at the same time creating a new grading system that maintains high expectations while also acknowledges the present situation.

Small Teaching Online

I first discovered Specification Grading or Specs Grading last Spring while reading Small Teaching Online by Flower Darby with James M. Lang.  At the time, I was mainly focused on keeping my students engaged and participating in online high school vocal music.   In chapter 7, Creating Autonomy, Darby presents several strategies to help the students become more aware of their responsibility and take control of their learning.

Specs Grading

In her book Specifications Grading, Linda Nilson presents a grading system that develops a learning-centered environment that focuses on students learning outcomes and student autonomy.  Specs grading is a competency-based grading system that incorporates a pass/fail system of assessment.  I know that sounds a bit harsh, but it is not. 

With Specs Grading, students must now read all the specifications needed to achieve a specific grade, select the grade they would like to earn, and then fulfill all the requirements to show competency for a given course or assignment.  Here is an example of specs for a calculus class:

https://rtalbert.org/return-to-specs-grading-calculus/

Why Consider Specs Grading

In an excellent post titled What is Specification Grading and why should You consider Using it?, Macie Hall provides an overview of Specifications Grading and the fifteen ways Specs Grading will:

  1. Uphold high academic standards,
  2. Reflect student learning outcomes,
  3. Motivate students to learn,
  4. Motivate students to excel,
  5. Discourage cheating,
  6. Reduce student stress,
  7. Make students feel responsible for their grades,
  8. Minimize conflict between faculty and students,
  9. Save faculty time,
  10. Give students feedback they will use,
  11. Make expectations clear,
  12. Foster higher-order cognitive development and creativity,
  13. Assess authentically,
  14. Achieve high interrater agreement,
  15. Be simple.

Introduction Video for Specs Grading

Start with Simple Specs

This year, I am incorporating and modifying the fundamental elements of Spec Grading with my virtual and hybrid high school choir students. In chapter nine, Developing A Course with Specs Grading (p. 115), Nilson suggests teachers may want to “start small” and create a synthetic grading system that incorporates both specs and traditional grading.  I decided to start with “Simple Specs.”

With Simple Specs, student grades are earned by following and completing simple assignment directions and procedures.  Specifications for grades are always included in the assignment instructions, and within a Google Classroom assignment, you can create a rubric.

Google Classroom Assignment 2, “TikTok” Video Introduction Rubric

Move Towards Complex Specs

Later this semester, I will slowly increase the rigor of assignments, and the specs will become more challenging.  See the attached document.

Hagenberg_Self_Sprint_SpecsDownload

Tokens – Adding Flexibility for Your Students

Think of tokens as a safety net that gives students a way to bend the rules just a bit – a kind of assignment currency.  If, at some time during the semester, a student gets behind, would like to resubmit an assignment, or they need a “sanity break,” students can take advantage and redeem one of the following tokens.  Each student will begin the semester with 1 Oops Token and 1 Sanity Token. 

Oops Token – Students may exchange these tokens to 1. Revise or resubmit an unsatisfactory assignment, or 2. Extend an assignment due date.

Sanity Token – Students redeem this token to be excused from one assignment (sometimes, we all could use a break).

Earn-A-Oops Token – Throughout the year, choir members will also have the opportunity to earn extra Oops tokens by completing additional student or teacher-initiated assignments/activities. Some opportunities will be announced, and some will not.

A Few Words of Caution

To successfully implement Specs Grading, educators need to take great care in developing and writing class assignments and specification criteria.  It does take more time and planning to become secure and confident in addressing specific learning standards and student outcomes for a given assignment.  

When creating Specs Grading criteria, students must understand the assignment specifications, and students must know precisely what to do to make their work acceptable. (Nilson, 2014, p. 57)

Teacher modeling is a must!

Some students may also become anxious as they learn the new grading system.  With the pass/fail aspect of fulfilling all the requirements needed to earn a specific grade, there is no more bargaining for more points. Either the student satisfied all the requirements, or they did not – it is very black and white.  It may take a while for students to understand the nonnegotiable.

Specs Grading also requires teachers to remain aware of and actively monitor student engagement and progress.  We need to provide support and encouragement to students who may lack confidence and decide to shoot low and only try for a B or C.  Mindful awareness of scaffolding specifications will help students become more confident and successful.

Conclusion – Specs Grading and the Virtual and Hybrid Choral Program

Last Monday, I graded my first assignment using Specs Grading – most outstanding!  In about 30 minutes, I was able to review the Google Sheet, apply the specs, grade their work, and enter 72 grades into SchoolTool.  But better than that, 83% of my students completed the assignment on time and achieved the grade they were shooting for. 

It is my hope that implementing Specs Grading this year will help me create more meaningful assignments, offer students a sense of ownership of their school work, and support this year’s virtual and hybrid choral music program.

References

What is Specifications Grading and Why Should You Consider Using It?

Yes, Virginia, There’s a Better Way to Grade

Specifications grading: We may have a winner

Specifications grading with the EMRF rubric

Advocating a new way of grading

Brown, P. C., Roediger III. H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it Stick. Harvard University Press.

https://phil.ucalgary.ca/manageprofile/sites/phil.ucalgary.ca.manageprofile/files/unitis/courses/PHIL379/F2017/LEC1/PHIL379-F2017-LEC1-outline.pdf

Leading Voices: Agile Centered Instruction

by Leave a Comment

Agile

Marked by ready ability to move with quick, easy grace – an agile dancer.

Having a quick resourceful and adaptable character – an agile mind.

Agile Centered Instruction

Identified by flexible and varied instruction – an agile educator.

At the beginning of teaching online, I became acutely aware that my students were struggling due to their reliance upon, and interactions with, the structure of the school.  So was I.  It became clear that we felt a loss and missed the interactions that we experienced throughout the school day.  The connections we made in the classroom, talking in the hall, meetings before school, rehearsals after school, and gathering during lunch grounded and defined the total school learning experience.  

School Learning Experiences

I realized that the school learning experience resembles my teaching, in that what grounds and defines my music program is not one specific methodology or event.  But instead, it is the interaction within the classroom learning environment, the variety of learning experiences, and the relationship between the student and subject.

Our school learning structure at Marcellus High School is not solely subject-centered, or schedule-centered, or social-centered, or staff-centered, or student-centered, or building-centered.  It is the interplay of all the above.  It is student-community-centered. 

My classroom is not exclusively student-centered, or subject-centered, or teacher-centered, or performance-centered, or concept-centered, or product-centered.  It is the diverse interaction of all the above.  It is agile.

The Classroom Learning Environment

In previous blogs, Leading Voices challenges readers to reflect on their teaching through Self-Generation, Seeing with New Eyes, Teaching Out Loud, and Reimagining and Improving Instruction.  An agile educator attempts to become aware of teaching habits in the classroom, and are mindful of their curricular and pedagogical preferences.

One teaching habit I fall into is using the same warm-up/focus exercises to get the students’ attention as begin class.  (I wonder when I will be able to add lip trills back into warm-ups?  Actually, I wonder when I will have in-person rehearsals with warm-ups again?). 

Throughout the year, I catch myself defaulting to a few of my favorite warm-ups with my choirs – I can go on vocal warm-up autopilot. These standard exercises are successful and tried and true, but at times, they can be limiting.  For this reason, many years ago, I created a vocal warm-up and vocal strategy notebook.  This notebook contains warm-up ideas from attending choral festivals, reading journals and blogs, and exercises I learn and borrow from my colleagues. 

Agile Centered Instruction is like my warm-up notebook.  I need to periodically remind myself to vary instruction and change up my teaching strategies,  Sometimes student-centered, sometimes teacher-centered.  Sometimes rote teaching, other times having the students initiate a discipline (The Paradox of Learning).

The Relationship Between Student and Subject

Agile Centered Instruction is adaptable, resourceful, fluid, and purposeful.  It is based on the praxial philosophy and uses a praxis-based curriculum as defined by David J. Elliott in his book, Music Matters.

“praxis connotates action that is embedded in, responsive to, and reflective of a specific context of effort.” (emphasis added)

(Elliot 1995, p. 14)

The praxis-based curriculum focuses on doing and purposeful action in music education. As the student grows in skill and understanding through the technical and musical demands, so does their ability to comprehend and perform more realistic real-life musical experiences.  As a student interacts with the praxis-based curriculum, he/she moves towards a more independent level of learning regardless of their present skill, and a new strengthened model of understanding is acquired.

The implementation of a praxis-based curriculum is simply not a matter of actively building new skills, but rather it strengthens the connections between actions, purpose, and understanding.  As a result, the students’ learning effects and changes future music instruction and the classroom environment.  Throughout this interaction, the changes in student understanding necessitate new responses and adaptations from the teacher by adapting and modifying instruction.  (adapted for teaching from Silsbee, 2008, p 239)

The interaction and dialogue between the teacher, student, and learning process create a learning environment that requires the instruction to be fluid, varied, and agile.  Agile Centered Instruction, supported by the praxial philosophy, presents a holistic classroom environment that promotes a culture of learning and musical growth, creating The Agile Classroom.

A Variety of Learning Experiences – The Agile Classroom

  • Encourages student inquiry and active problem-solving.
  • Develops students’ ability to plan, create, and evaluate.
  • Supports collaboration, self-monitoring, and accountability.
  • Enhances the quality of student participation and performance.
  • Promotes collaboration through shared group understanding and recognition of collective action.

The Agile Development Instructional Framework (ADIF) establishes the foundation for the Agile Classroom.  Agile centered music instruction is based on a tradition of excellence that meets the student at their current skill level, empowers individual learning, and helps students actively connect with music at a deeper level.


The Agile Classroom: PMEA Research Poster Presentation, Abstract, and Applications

How do we actively engage students in lifelong music learning and participation?

1. By becoming aware of our teaching and instructional habits in the classroom.

2. By teaching, thinking, questioning, and searching out loud.

3. By reimagining music instruction

4. By incorporating Agile-Centered Instruction

Conclusion: Agile Centered Instruction

The structure of school and the connections within the school learning experience offer valuable insights on how we, as a profession, can successfully bridge the gap between pre and post COVID-19 music instruction.  The strength of any school, classroom, or music program is in the interplay and collaboration between all components – it is not based on one specific methodology or event. 

The interaction and interchange between all elements in music instruction: student-centered, subject-centered, teacher-centered, performance-centered, concept-centered, product-centered, is the foundation of good teaching and the Agile Centered Classroom.

“Tell me, and I forget,

teach me, and I may remember,

involve me, and I learn.”

Xun Kuang, Chinese Confucian philosopher

References:

Elliott, David J. Music Matters: a New Philosophy of Music Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Regelski, Thomas “Implications of aesthetic versus praxial philosophies of music for curriculum theory in music education.” Didacta Varia, Vol. 8/1 (2003); 63-92; Helsinki University, Finland, Faculty of Education.

Silsbee, Douglas K., and Richard Strozzi-Heckler. Presence-Based Coaching: Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders through Mind, Body, and Heart. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008

© 2020 American Choral Directors Association. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy