‘How can I message progress to families without grading everything?’ ‘How can I focus my feedback to be most useful to students?’ ‘How can a mastery-based system help English Language Learners?’ Questions like these are coming up for teachers across the city. We talked about these questions and more at a recent professional learning session about mastery-based principles in remote learning.
Mastery-based strategies can be especially useful in navigating remote teaching and learning. Below we share Mastery Collaborative’s citywide resource for mastery-based teaching moves during remote learning. These ideas can be used and applied by seasoned mastery teachers and new practitioners alike. For a shareable version, click here: bit.ly/MasteryMovesRemote.
Chew it over, see what you think, and stay tuned for Part 2: Mastery Grading Strategies for Remote Learning.
What is it? Mastery-based teaching and grading focus on students’ progress and mastery of key learning goals in each course (the what of learning). Students are graded on evidence of mastery—and not graded on behavior factors (the how of learning) such as attendance and meeting deadlines. Many schools in NYC and across the country use schoolwide mastery systems—but mastery-based practices and concepts can be useful in any teacher’s work with young people, especially during remote learning.
Why do this? The pandemic is affecting everyone, but not equally. Teachers, students, and families face trauma and stress, and have divergent situations and needs. A mastery-based approach allows us to focus on what matters most: important skills and knowledge learners need in each course. Students build mastery over time. Teachers can support learning this spring by focusing deeply on a few key learning goals, with time for instruction, practice, reflection, revision, and “retakes” that offer students multiple chances to improve. Rubrics offer a roadmap for learning that students can use as they move toward grade-level mastery and beyond. Attendance, timeliness, and behavior cannot be the basis for grades during remote learning—and focusing on the what of learning is more powerful now and always.
Teaching moves you can try during remote learning
Pare down to essentials. This high school course has 7 essential skills for the year.
The yellow arrows point to 2 skills that are the focus of a unit.
Use rubrics as learning tools. Students are evaluated and self-evaluate on a rubric of the most important skills for this geometry unit.
Pare down to essentials. While apart from your students, don’t try to “cover everything.” Instead, step back and use professional expertise to identify key skills and knowledge learners need to be successful—in your course and the next course. What are 3-5 important learning goals that students will find worthwhile? What can you take off the table, in response to the stress and hardship many are facing?
Create standards-aligned “I can . . .” statements to communicate key learning goals. Use them as the basis for your lessons, feedback, assessments, grading. Unpack with students, and revise for clarity as needed.
Don’t speed! It’s tempting to rush when you feel your class has lost time, but slowing down can help students to make faster progress. Investing deeply in a small number of achievable goals/tasks will help students get real traction. Focus here, rather than trying to speed through a large amount of material.
Build students’ abilities with active practice. Put the cognitive load on students with frequent chances to practice/build skills: collaborative tasks, small-group talks, peer feedback, and other active learning modes.
Create a coherent plan for formative/summative assessment—and share it with students. Use backwards planning. What do students need to know? What’s the plan for learning, practicing, and demonstrating mastery? How does the pandemic affect the pace of the class? Where can you adjust and streamline content and expectations? It’s wise to make a flexible plan for when students will be ready for assessments.
Use rubrics as learning tools, rather than primarily as grading tools. You can teach into using rubrics this way. “You’ve made meaningful progress so far, even with all that’s happened this spring. If you’re able to keep at this, there’s every reason to think you will get to mastery. Let’s work on it together over time.”
How to get started
Consider yourself as a coach of learning. Like a sports coach would give in-the-moment feedback, offer students frequent glows, grows, and next steps they can take. Help them get clear on where they are strong already, and where they can focus. Offering glows and grows without grading helps students take in feedback. You can wear your coaching hat (not literally, though please feel welcome!) with groups or individuals, via email, comments in a Google doc, or whatever methods you already use to communicate.
Name, teach, and coach behaviors that are the how of learning. Separating the what from the how allows you to offer responsive and useful feedback. A student whose work habits are weak needs feedback like: “Practicing could help you improve. Are you able to put in a few minutes?” “Great job on using time well.”
Challenge assumptions about how students should engage in remote learning. Families across NYC face many different challenges related to the pandemic. Might you or colleagues be making assumptions about how students and families should interact with the schools that serve them? Create clear and welcoming ways for families to communicate with you. Empathy and a supportive stance are needed at this time.
Be flexible and encourage students. Express appreciation when students show up and when they do work. Let them know through words and actions that their well-being is important to you. How much can students realistically do in the next month? What can you let go of to do justice to something else?
Increase support and reduce stress. Create a learning environment with low pressure, frequent chances (but not expectations) to connect with you and other students, and flexibility about deadlines. Students who are facing difficult circumstances will appreciate you. As we are apart because of a state of emergency and global pandemic, our students will remember how you showed up for them as a fellow human.
Want to learn more?
Read this.
Watch this. (short videos with teacher/student voice)
To share this in one-pager form, see our mastery-based citywide guidance here.
Want to try more?
Co-create “I can” statements with students to express relevant learning goals in clear, learner-friendly language.
Take time to create shared understanding. Encourage questions about goals, tasks, and expectations. Some students may be reluctant to ask for clarity. Instead of: “Any questions?” try: “Let’s hear some good questions!”
Infuse mastery moves into your culturally responsive-sustaining (CRSE) practices.
Engage vital social dimensions of learning. Learning with others can reduce isolation and support a sense of belonging. Collaboration, presentations, ongoing feedback, and check-ins with teachers, peers, and families are still possible in remote learning. Let’s discuss how.