Written by It really is a test. Am I ready/willing to take a moonshot of my own?
Where do my beliefs truly lay? How far am I willing to go?
IT was even theatrical. I was at the absolute height of my enthusiasm, channelling a famous American, pleading for the essential role of “dreaming and imagination” at the heart of our lasting learning and growth.
“Let’s be absolutely clear about what we’re setting out to do!”
I pointed to two loosely drawn circles on the white board, a great distance apart, drawing a line from the big one to the little one.
“We’re going to the moon! You may not settle for anything less!”
Our Design Thinking Lab pushed us to the very corners of our imagination, generating ideas and excitement. This is critical I think. Before our journey even begins, we’re already amazed at our potential. In a large group mingle, they were encouraged to hear and be heard while remaining open to all offers.
“What is the potential when two or three or four ideas are combined into a larger vision?”
“Oh my gosh,” I heard from the escalating exchanges. “I think we’re shooting past the moon. Mr. Vogt, we’re headed to Mars!”
Two days later, a group of three proposed their vision of a board-game, with a slight tone of frustration. The excitement of the Design Thinking Lab had dimmed a little. It didn’t quite feel like a “moon-shot” anymore. As Santiago described the intricacies of the figures he planned to mould from clay, he was staring at the large, bare white wall of the hallway just outside the room.
I believe, as teachers, we live for these moments – when we are privileged to witness the exact moment of epiphany, the light in the eyes switching on and Santiago springing to life.
“We can paint our board-game on the wall!”
As a group, we’d talked about this. With a clear moon-shot, the path will not be clear. This is the learning. You know roughly where you’re going, but you don’t yet know how you’re getting there. When you confront obstacles, it’s so important that you don’t concede by diminishing the scope of your vision. Maintain your vision! Overcoming the obstacles is learning.
Two days later, Santiago and team arrived armed with a presentation, smartly organized on “slides”: sketches, the details of both the vision and process. They were making a formal pitch, seeking feedback and approval from a team of three: Art Teacher, Director of Technology and Innovation, Director of Admissions. When they left the “den”, their ideas were even further evolved: apart from the many elements of a wildly creative and intricate game, a 50 square foot “board” on a cinderblock wall, in an “Art-Deco” style to be left not only as an artifact but also a resource for future learners and learning. They also left with approval from the panel and the excitement quickly spread through the class.
“They’re going to paint a wall!”
Once again, Santiago and company were off to the moon. It was an amazing and proud moment for the students. Memorable and lasting no matter the outcome of the wall.
Now, this kind of approach to learning and expressing learning has been a growing part of the overall culture of my class and our larger Discovery Program for some time now (particularly since the great @lmcbeth spent a day work-shopping our faculty on the ways and magic of Design Thinking). Each experience is deeper immersion into the process itself and a wider cultural shift. Every time, it offers reminders and new insights worth capturing here:
- Conference. Conference again. And keep conferencing. The ongoing feedback cycle is critical to student engagement and maintenance of the overall vision. Amazing learning occurs at critical crossroads. Conferencing provides students with opportunities of focus, to work through and beyond those crossroads without compromising or diverting. Essential “soft skills” like Problem Solving, Creative Thinking, Cooperation and Independence are skills that must be taught, modelled and fostered.
- Time is of the essence. In The End of Average, Todd Rose makes a compelling case on behalf of time, strongly arguing that there is no correlation between time and intelligence. I love this idea, but embracing it also means letting go of the urgency that can characterize curriculum. If I really want my students to hit the moon, I must provide the appropriate time to do it. And this is MUCH more difficult than it sounds for two reasons: 1. Making a reasonable assessment of available time outside of the classroom is complicated – it involves a profound understanding of the extent of the students’ lives and clear communication among all teachers about workload. 2. Remaining true to the process means an even greater shift from commonly bread biases. In an English Class it means reducing breadth of content while embracing behaviours, expressions and even skills not “traditional” in the English sense. For instance, how much time can I comfortably allow to pass without any significant reading or writing? It really is a test. Am I ready/willing to take a moonshot of my own? Where do my beliefs truly lay? How far am I willing to go? If I truly believe in this approach to learning, I will respect it with time.
- It really is about the journey and not the destination. No matter how great the end product, it will not accurately reflect the work and the learning of the larger process. And this idea can really cut deep, particularly when it comes to assessment. I mean, we can co-construct a rubric and I can provide a grade of the end product, but what am I actually grading? Does it provide an accurate snapshot of the larger process? And if not, then what’s the point? And I don’t believe I can, in good judgement, grade the process. After positioning myself so intentionally as advocate and coach, how can I suddenly shift to the position of judge? To an ever-increasing extent, I am seeing that any attempt to act in both of those roles is a compromise to each of them. This process will time and again challenge the confounding “need” to attach a number. Not to fear, it’s a healthy debate, if even with only myself… and more (MUCH MORE!) on this later.
Moonshot Image from BBVA: https://www.bbva.com/en/moonshots-ideas-will-change-world/
“Amazing learning occurs at critical crossroads” You said it brother @gvogt! This is a beautiful anecdote about how small epiphanies in the classroom can become true shifts in learning.
I wonder, however, why you don’t feel you can “grade the process”? I have opened up room in most of my English assignments for both process (20%) and reflection (20%) marks, and although I agree with you that a numerical or alphanumerical grade doesn’t tell us the whole story, I have found that by preferencing those two elements in the summative average, students do take them a whole lot more seriously.
I can’t wait to see what holistic hubris your Action Plan exposes this year!
Thanks for the thoughtful comment @edaigle and I apologise for the delayed reply. I always lover your wisdom. To be clear, “process” in the end is graded, I just don’t feel comfortable with it. I mean we have to honour the work and effort and as long as that’s part of how we “honour”, then we’re sort of compelled to, aren’t we? In general, I have a problem with the concept of grades as motivation. It is, in fact, that exact mentality that I so often work to overcome and, even, dismantle. I believe passionately that in the broader scope the “does it count for grades?” approach is detrimental to learning. Yes, our students should be inspired to reflect upon learning with greater intention and to take it more seriously. But why not work to help them truly realize the value? Grades get in the way of that process.
@gvogt What an exciting post and you are so correct in using the word “privileged” for an epiphany moment. I also like that you asked your students to shoot for the moon. Sometimes a checklist, while helpful to guide, stifles creativity and does not force people to think outside the box. How did the other students do with “shooting for the moon?”
Thanks for this @pcobban and sorry for the delayed response. We had some wonderful examples of true moonshots – students so excited and surprised by the extent of their creation. We also had students who didn’t quite make the moon, and students who never really tried for it. In some cases I pushed back, and so we still have students challenging themselves to reach the moon. In all cases however we had amazing opportunity for important and lasting discussions in the debriefs and reflection. All students were able to clearly describe their process and assess for future learning. Reaching the moon is in fact exhilarating. ALL students were at least witness to this truth. Those students have a clear snapshot of their amazing abilities. This is a wonderful outcome to carry forward. I’m looking forward to further reflection weeks, months down the road about how this “event” impacted further learning.
I am so glad that @pcobban and @edaigle weighed in on this. Your comment about grades being detrimental to education is a long standing call to arms from Mark Twain to our own Paul Cobban’s most recent post.
I am most interested in your own ‘moon shot’. I wonder what would happen if you share your work on this moonshot with your students directly. I wonder about moonshots being a part of one’s PD… Our Principal recently prompted our faculty with this (and I paraphrase…) “We will be the best school in the universe!” She then explained that this was not the destination, it was the journey that mattered. The destination will change over time as we learn more about what a great education can and should be, but it is the striving that matters. And in that striving it is the mindset to adjust the sails and explore the brink of the known to the very edges!
So, let’s think differently about assessment and where and when it happens. @nsmart is also exploring this, and @edaigle recently wrote a great post based on the work of @ehitchcock too!
Happy launching!