Lovett playbook high res

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

PLAYBOOK

The Lovett School

Redesigning the environment, reimagining the experience

• help educators redesign student learning experiences through six different lenses

• amplify the work of the initial story studio workbook

• illustrate how Lovett’s six new learning spaces can be configured to support students and their learning

• promote a shift in thinking from “how we teach” to “how they learn”

THIS PLAYBOOKIS BUILT TO:

“Compassion is the glue that holds us together.”

- Lovett Educator

FRAMEWORKS1The conceptual foundations for action

THE LOVETT VISION FOR LEARNING

Lovett offers experiences that inspire our students to love learning. We encourage them to think critically, communicate effectively, engage creatively, and collaborate purposefully.

We provide the opportunities and resources that help our students develop independence and self-direction and extend their learning beyond the walls of the classroom as they grow intellectually, emotionally, physically, aesthetically, morally, and spiritually.

• is a person of character who lives the ideals articulated in our character pledge and is prepared to think and act with empathy as a responsible global citizen in an increasingly diverse landscape.

• is creative, constructing imaginative ideas and innovative alternatives and applying his knowledge to non-routine problems, particularly those without rule-based solutions.

• thinks critically and reflectively. As a researcher, he is able to navigate abundant information, analyze and synthesize what he finds, and draw evidence-based conclusions. As a

THE LOVETT STUDENT:

problem solver, she is more interested in asking good questions and developing ideas than in memorizing facts.

• is an effective communicator who listens attentively, speaks articulately, writes clearly, and conveys his ideas and understandings in a variety of formats using the language of his discipline.

• works collaboratively to create a new knowledge base, comprising multiple perspectives. She builds leadership skills by facilitating group discussions, forging consensus, and negotiating outcomes within a diverse group.

Content: what students know

Skills: what students do

Mindsets: how students think

DESIGN DRIVERSWhat are the elements that support the design of a student learning experience? How can these factors drive the ways in which we utilize our spaces?

Tools: what students use to learn

People: who students learn with

Environment: where students learn

CONTENT

The attainment of a body of knowledge represents a foundation for understanding the world.

For your consideration:

What is the content of your unit? What content objectives do you have?

Where are the compelling questions in your content? How can you frame learning around authenticity?

What new sources of content can you employ?

Given your role as a designer, how could you assemble and blend different media to promote the understanding of concepts across the arc of a lesson or unit?

Could you intentionally craft an experience where students choose from a selection of media to afford them choice in how they learn and what content they learn with? What would this look like?

Consider content as the context for learning and not the sole outcome.

CONTENT SKILLS

Being able to engage in a range of learning behaviors contributes to the capacity for independent learning.For your consideration:

Where in your current curriculum are you intentional about promoting student skill development? Are those skills defined explicitly for students?

As a designer, how will you use your new space to intentionally create the conditions for the development of a specific skill?

How will you measure a student’s progression through the arc of attainment of a particular skill? What constitutes success? If a student struggles, how could you intervene to course correct?

Consider digital environments for learning. Does the emergence of online learning suggest that there is a new context for skill development? Should skill development occur in both physical and digital domains?

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

- Pablo Picasso

MINDSETS

Habits of the mind are how students process in the context of learning.


How will you associate the skills that you identify as important with a particular habit of the mind in order to build a deep, rich learning experience?

What metrics could you develop to measure habits of the mind?

How will you, as an expert learner, intentionally and visibly model a range of mindsets for students?

To be able to evaluate the development of mindsets in students, how must your role change during class? What will you do differently?

Its not important whether children hit the target today, it’s whether they come back to try again tomorrow.

- Rick Stiggins

MINDSETS TOOLS

Strategic tool use amplifies learning, adds value, and can take learning to a new place.For your consideration:

What resources will be used across the arc of the student learning experience?

Which resources have you typically used in helping students learn? Which have you used successfully? Why has this use been successful?

What resources could you add? Would it be possible to allow students to self-select how they use resources to learn?

How can technology expand the types of resources students have available to them that they can strategically employ?

How do you know a specific resource adds value to the student learning experience? How will you measure the impact of the tool? What metrics would you identify to support this measurement?

We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.

-Marshall McLuhan

PEOPLE

Learning is a social endeavor. Learning how to learn with others is a critical skill of a lifelong learner.For your consideration:

How will you design learning experiences that create connections between learners?

How can people beyond the classroom become teachers? What happens when the walls of your learning environment become permeable?

How can your students become teachers? How could the design process be used to promote that?

Ultimately, can your redesign of the student learning experience promote the emergence of a universal role in class– that of a learner?

When one teaches, two learn.

- Robert Heinlein

PEOPLE ENVIRONMENT

Students learn from adults, peers and their environment. The environment is the third teacher.For your consideration:

How will you intentionally shape the learning environment each and every day, leveraging the components around you?

How will you design your spaces– both physically and digitally– to support independent, small group and large group learning?

How can you create a culture in your learning spaces where students have ownership of the spaces?

What will your digital learning space look like? What platforms will you use to build a digital space that supports and drives student learning?

How will physical and digital spaces interact together? How can you help students understand that the digital environment can be used for academic pursuits and not just social connectivity?

Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.

- Ken Keyes, Jr.

LEARNING DISPOSITIONSUltimately, the goal of a student learning experience is to promote the creation of learning dispositions.

Dispositions are patterns of behavior, which guide the student in how he or she acts when engaged in learning, and are based in knowing, doing, and thinking.

The teacher as designer intentionally supports the development and acquisition of dispositions by planning learning experiences that engage students over multiple opportunities in knowing, doing and thinking. The planning process also includes a thoughtful consideration of the design of the learning space and how the space supports this process throughout the course.

We should be interested in how students behave when they know, but also when they don’t.

- Arthur Costa


How do you currently help students build the capacity to act on their own behalf as a learner?

How will you be intentional about creating learning experiences that promote the assemblage of sets of disposition?

KNOW / DO / THINK / ACT

THE BIG IDEA

What I know / What I can do / How I think...

...contributes to the foundation of how individuals act as lifelong learners.

...supports the choices learners make regarding where learning occurs, who they learn with, and what tools they use to shape their learning.

Ultimately, dispositions guide the learner in successfully negotiating new learning opportunities independently and with others, and provide the compass for life-long learning.

CONFIGURATIONS2Spaces to engage and empower

FOCUSING ON THE ENVIRONMENT

In the 1940s, pioneering Italian teacher and psychologist Loris Malaguzzi founded the Reggio Emilia approach to learning on the premise that children develop through interactions, first with the adults in their lives– parents and teachers– then with their peers, and ultimately with the environment around them.

ENVIRONMENT, SAID MALAGUZZI, IS THE THIRD TEACHER.

WHAT WE HEARD FROM YOU

Designers and teachers share an important skill: the ability to listen deeply and with empathy. During our workshop together, we listened to what interested you most about your new learning spaces. Those interests focused on collaboration, how to use the furniture in unique ways, how to use writable surfaces, how technology is leveraged, and how the inherent flexibility and agility of the spaces support learning.

With that in mind, we crafted six learning experiences that reflect those interests. Each experience is designed with the six design drivers in mind and includes a diagram of how the space can be arranged to support the learning experience.

It is our belief that these scenarios can provide you with ideas on creating, as teacher designers, the full arc of the student learning experience for a particular unit.

1. Designing with Writable Surfaces

2. Designing for Inquiry

3. Designing with Micro Environments

4. Designing with Ubiquitous Technology

5. Designing with Flexibility and Agility

6. Designing for Learning Groups

The six scenarios:

DESIGNING WITH WRITABLE SURFACES

Student groups interact around writable walls as well as individual, rollable and tabletop whiteboards.

Sample Layout:Classroom 217

I want my students to write on the classroom.

-Lovett Educator

WRITABLE WALL

Sample Learning Experience:

There is high value in putting pen or pencil to paper. In your classrooms, you have the additional capacity to put marker to wall, table, and whiteboard space. How will students constructively and creatively draw on your learning space?

For this example, students engage in solving a series of mathematical problems on any writable surface in collaborative teams. The teacher provides feedback on their process by sticking a post-it note on the working surface. The lesson could be modified to have students add the first element of a solution and then go to the next problem and build on a solution in a “math problem meets speed dating” process. Encouraging students to sketch and diagram their solutions adds depth to the experience.

Students then capture their problems and solutions for future use with their smartphones and store the imagery in Google Drive or on Evernote. Also, students could use Flickr or ThingLink to annotate images with text, additional images, and video.

CONTENTMathematics | Problem-solving

PEOPLEStudents work in collaborative teams

SKILLSCritical Thinking, Collaboration

MINDSETPersistence, thinking flexibly, thinking interdependently

TOOLSWalls, desks, rollable whiteboards, individual whiteboards, markers and Evernote, Flickr, or Thinglink

ENVIRONMENTClassroom 217

DESIGNING FOR INQUIRY

The “fishbowl” enables a central activity to be observed and interpreted by students sitting at the surrounding regular and mid height desks.


We only think when confronted with a problem.

-John Dewey


Promoting discussion in learning spaces is a valued capacity. Ensuring that all contribute in meaningful and rich ways takes that discussion to another level.

In this example, students are processing a theme found in a piece of literature which all have read. Each group has been assigned an interpretive question associated with the theme. Each team spends five minutes in the center of the room in the “fishbowl” processing and discussing their question.

Students on the perimeter, and in their teams, process and evaluate the discussion happening in the fishbowl center. Their thoughts are recorded in a shared Google document. The teacher then debriefs the question with all students to enlarge the interpretation of the question. Important interpretations from this discussion are recorded in a master Google document and shared with the class.

CONTENTEnglish | Interpreting literature

PEOPLEStudents record interpretations using pen and paper, or could use a laptop to process the discussion


MINDSETThinking about thinking, thinking flexibly and interdependently, and taking responsible risks

TOOLSStudents could record using pen and paper, or could use a laptop to process the discussion


DESIGNING WITH MICRO ENVIRONMENTS

Configure the furniture to host a range of smaller interactions, both among peers and teacher to student.


Design informs the learner of the intent of the learning.


Having multiple environments in play at one time within a learning space is a unique way to build support for a variety of learning modalities. Utilizing the furniture in the room to create small spaces to serve a specific learning task can support learning needs.

In this example, students are engaged in writing an essay during class time. The teacher is meeting with individual students in a “conferencing nook” set up by using the additional furniture in the room. There is an intentional element of design that says this space is for a different type of interaction that supports an associated learning experience.

This furniture could also be used to create storytelling spaces, a private collaboration space for two or more students, to support a student to student peer coaching experience, or a “cave space” where individuals occupying those pieces of furniture are working independently from the rest of the engaged group.

CONTENTEnglish | Writing and providing feedback

PEOPLETeacher and student in a team

SKILLSCreativity, Critical Thinking

MINDSETPersisting, listening to others, thinking about thinking, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision

TOOLSLearning space furniture


DESIGNING WITH UBIQUITOUS TECHNOLOGY

This isn’t the time to use technology to refine the model we had before; this is a time to harness technology to let children go as far and as fast as they want.

- Stephen Heppel

The physical learning environment acts as a home to the learning context of the virtual cloud.


CLASSROOM 219

WRITABLE WALL

WRI

TABL

E W

ALL


How technology is leveraged can add a new layer or dimension to learning. Having robust connectivity to the information resources of the Web can completely change how content is used, and more importantly, mashed up and remixed.

In this example, students are involved in a lecture with the teacher on homeostasis and recording notes in a shared Google document in teams of four. Each team is not assembled together in the physical space; rather, they are organized collaboratively in a Google document. The teacher has created a set of questions for investigation that extend and challenge the students to apply and analyze the lecture content in new ways. The lecture is paused and students then address these questions at appropriate points in the lesson.

By doing this, the teacher emphasizes search skills, the ability to judge online content for accuracy and reliability, and the ability to extract content from a variety sources that can be used to build a solution to a question. The teacher also adds another layer of engagement to the lesson. Students create their answers in a Google document that is shared with the teacher. Students also add questions for the teacher that help them refine their understanding and continue the learning.

CONTENTScience | Lecture

PEOPLEStudents work in collaborative teams, and are arranged collaboratively in the Google Document

SKILLSCollaboration, Communication

MINDSETThinking interdependently, questioning and posing problems, and responding with wonderment (bringing their own passions)

TOOLSLaptops, Google Documents


DESIGNING WITH FLEXIBILITY AND AGILITY

The casters and tabletops attached to the students’ chairs are especially well-suited for a variety of interactions on a diversity of scales.


CLASSROOM 218

WRITABLE WALL

A. B.

C. D.

Every classroom should be spaces where children prove anything is possible on a regular basis.

- Will Richardson


Flexibility is the ability to change the shape of a learning space. Agility is the ability to do it quickly.

In a science classroom, students are introduced to the concept of cancer. To actualize the understanding of cancer, the teacher asks each student to write two statements about what they know about cancer, and five questions that they have. Each student then pairs up with another by merging the two individual desks into a small collaborative surface. The two students debrief and develop a shared list. The two students then merge with two others to form a grouping of four. Again, the students debrief and develop a list.

After this occurs, the teacher then assembles the students in front of the writable walls in their groups of four and asks the students to identify their top three questions and two statements and defend why they were selected. These are shared and recorded on the wall. This sets the stage for an inquiry process rooted in an authentic topic and driven by student generated questions.

CONTENTScience | Developing guiding questions

PEOPLEIndividual first, then a group of two, then a group of four, then a whole class grouping


MINDSETListening to others with understanding and empathy, questioning and posing problems, and thinking about thinking

TOOLSWritable wall, classroom furniture, brainstorming paper or post-it notes


DESIGNING FOR LEARNING GROUPS

The Verb furniture is perfectly suited for small working groups.


CLASSROOM 220

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

-Helen Keller


People learn by processing visual information. The eye and brain form a powerful collaboration that enable the collection and processing of visual information into meaning.

On the first day of class, students in collaborative teams are given iconic imagery of the major themes of the course. The goal of the experience is to have students sequence the images in the order they believe to best represent the course trajectory over the year of study.

The activity enables the students to discuss, sequence, reflect and re-arrange events to develop a visual framework for what they will study. These images then form the cornerstone and visual cue for each unit of study throughout the year. To complete the experience, each individual student completes a written description of how the team functioned and problem-solved together to begin developing the skills and lens for metacognition.

CONTENTWorld History | Sequencing and developing frameworks

PEOPLEStudents work in small collaborative teams


MINDSETPersisting, managing impulsivity, listening to others, thinking flexibly, thinking about thinking, and applying past knowledge

TOOLSIconic images selected by the teacher


LOOKING FORWARD3How to use this playbook

CREATING NEW EXPECTATIONS

When changes occur in schools, there is an immediate impact to the climate of that school. In the case of your new spaces, a new classroom climate has been established by creating open, flexible, writable and colorful environments. Those are immediate and noticeable changes.

Over time, changes to the climate of a school can become ingrained in a school’s culture, and become part of the language and nuances of that school, what the school is, and how the school educates its students.

Truly outstanding schools like Lovett are intentional about how they create culture, and how they can integrate the immediate impact of a change in the climate of the school into the fabric of its culture.

At its essence, a school’s culture guides and creates the school’s disposition.

Teachers have always established a cultural feel to their classrooms-it’s what you do and do well. With new spaces comes the need to reflect about how to create a new culture of learning so that all use the space appropriately and constructively in the service of learning.

• Transition your language from ‘classroom” to “learning space.” It sets a tone for what the space is for.

• Immerse students on the first day in the space, introduce them to the space like you would the curriculum. Allow them to explore, make the space their own, and understand what the space offers. Start developing ownership on the first day.

• Have students use three colors of post-it notes from your kit to place on elements of the space. The three colors could be used to gather feedback on positive, negative and interesting/intriguing things about the space. Show that you value their opinion.

• Organize a learning space walk with the other teachers to explore all the spaces together, so that students can understand the intent of new spaces on a larger scale and the space ecology of that floor.

• Conduct regular interviews with students about the space. Ask them at the end of a lesson about how space could have been used differently in the lesson and activity. Ask: “How could this space been used differently?” “And better?”

Here are some suggestions:• Enable students to organize the space according

to the learning task. Start the lesson in a traditional space arrangement and see how they repurpose it. Build student ownership in this way.

• When using technology in class, ask them to “Go 45” with their MacBook. This means that they have to shut it halfway which prevents use. Help them understand when and why technology use is appropriate for learning, and help them to learn to manage the distraction that technology can sometimes add.

• Invite other teachers not part of your group into those spaces. They’re interested. Include them, and allow them to offer their insights into the spaces. Learn from them, and help start them thinking about how they can build some of the capacities of the new spaces into their rooms.

• Get parents and community members into the spaces. These are great community workshops spaces. Celebrate that by showcasing them to your school community.

INDIVIDUALIZING YOUR EXPERIENCE

“What does this mean for me?” This playbook offers an introduction to your new spaces that suggests the diversity and flexibility available, but is in no way exhaustive.

• take these six examples and remix elements of them to

create your own student learning experiences

• explore the range and diversity of activities, digital

enhancements, and configurations available to you

• challenge yourself to explore the “for your

consideration” sections of the playbook as a way to be

reflective about your practice, students’ learning and

your new spaces

• mark up the plan with which settings work and what

which ones don’t and why

• then ask your colleagues what they’ve discovered

• document how your students are creating their own

spaces

• feel free to send imagery and insights:

email at [email protected] tweet at us @thethirdteacher

Moving forward:

Paper, gears, brain, tools, people and box icons were created under the Creative Commons License with icons designed by Tom Schott, Dima Yagnyuk, Linda Yuki Nakanishi, Lauren Gray, Alex Fuller and Polina Flegontovna from The Noun Project.

Education

Lovett playbook high res