C140: Specialist and Supporting Teachers: Bringing about Agency

Welcome to the third episode in our specialist and supporting teachers series. If you haven’t listened to the series so far, consider going back to the beginning, because we are getting into the nitty gritty about your roles in each part of the PYP. 

Agency is a huge push in the PYP, but I rarely hear it being discussed in the role of the specialist and supporting teacher role.  It may have to do with your hectic schedule from 30-60 minutes per week to incorporate meaningful experiences. This can be quite a pressure.  On the other hand, if we don’t allow agency to happen in our practice, then our learners will struggle to make independent decisions. 

​Here’s an example from my real life.  I live in a region of the United States where it is extremely hot.  Right now, it is 94F/34C. My air conditioner has not been running properly and I called a technician to come out to fix the problem.  After their first visit, I noticed that the temperature fell dramatically and I was fixed to the sofa in front of a box fan.  

The following day, I called the technician’s office and the office manager asked me to go to the unit.  In two minutes, we discovered that the connector was left on top of the unit, so nothing had worked until the previous evening.  

My agency connection:  I should have inspected the A/C unit when the air started to decrease in my home to investigate the possible problem.  Instead, all of the cool air within the home was removed and it took all day to reinstate it with a faulty machine.  The temperature is not back to where it was, but at least I have my trusty box fan to get me through. 

Similar to a box fan, what are we giving our learners to cool down their frustration with learning?  What tools and structures are in place, so they can recalibrate and find some balance? 

​Our relationship with time

One of the first things I am going to challenge your thinking is your relationship with time.  I know you don’t have a lot of it.  This is undisputed.  But, it’s how you use the time you have with learners that will greatly enhance the outcome.  

I’ve been researching schedules for quite some time, no pun intended.  I recently explored the concept of time tables while re-reading and podcasting about the book, Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners by Zaretta Hammond.  

​Hammond states, “When the brain is learning something new it clusters neurons together to create a neural pathway, similar to a pathway in a forest.  Neural pathways are important because when we go back and forth along this pathway when thinking or problem solving, it helps drive new learning deeper into long-term memory until it becomes automatic or deeply understood.”   Basically, the neural pathways are important because it creates a track in our brain to tell us that this information is important and these are the ways to use it.  We need these neural pathways to be revisited or the information will be erased. 

Hammond continues,”When we don’t practice or use new dendrites (the neural pathways) shortly after a learning episode, our brain prunes them by starving them and then reabsorbing them.  It assumes you didn’t revisit the activity that grew the dendrites that information wasn’t important to keep.”

This reminds me of things I’ve learned in the past that children need exposure within 24-48 hours to an idea or it’s lost forever.  I’ve also heard that we need to revisit an idea 4-5 times before it permanently stays in our long-term memory.  This makes sense based on what Hammond has proposed based on neural activity. you didn’t revisit the activity that grew the dendrites that information wasn’t important to keep.

How does this apply to my role? 

​As specialist and supporting teachers, you have such limited time with your learners within a given week.  Creating the neural pathways in your learners is more essential in role, because of the massive time delay between sessions.  For learners to truly remember and build on prior understanding, we need to examine how we are teaching and how it supports long-term memory development. 

We know that short-term memory is short.  It can only process information for 30-45 seconds at a time.  Every time I try to remember my seat number on a plane and fail, I blame it on my short-term memory.  Your memory is also working and trying to process the information, so it can be sorted towards long-term memory where a physical change to the neurons occurs.  

This is not enough.  We need our learners to go through a process of transferring the information.  This requires a repetition of ideas and skill development on a regular basis, so it’s able to remain in long-term memory.  

Learning transfer happens when teachers are intentional with their time.  They know that there is a finite window for knowledge acquisition and skill development.  The problem is if we are delivering content in the traditional model.  This can’t happen in a PYP school, because our ultimate goal is to make transdisciplinary connections.  How can this happen if you as the specialist or supporting teacher guide your lessons through traditional models?  The two don’t meet. 

This is where we need to look at our own time management.  Are we maximizing our time so learner agency can thrive?  Are we a block from agency happening in our classrooms?  This is a bold question, but let’s explore how we might better use our time, so agency can grow. 
The thinkchat lesson cycle has been designed to reflect best practice around the balanced literacy approach, which has been mirrored in many reading, writing, and math workshop models.  If it can work for a homeroom teacher, why not us?  It’s about using the model to best meet our purpose. 

thinkchat lesson cycle

Pose a question (1-2 mins):  pose a question about the topic you are about to explore that provokes thinking and gets learners talking. 

Warm-up activity (3-5 mins): give an open-ended task that learners must solve that extends the thinking from the question you have posed. 

While learners are engaged in this thinking, you are monitoring their thinking and jotting down misconceptions, aha moments, and ideas that need to be clarified. For supporting teachers with smaller groups, you are guiding this process, but still allowing the learners to come up with the ideas while you jot down notes.  

New information (10-15 mins):  in the first two steps, you are gathering prior knowledge and building on it through the new information.  You want to discuss your findings openly with your learners from your notes and present possible alternatives for exploration in the new information mini-lesson. 

Play with ideas (20 mins):  present another open-ended task where learners are actively testing out the new information and applying it back to their prior knowledge.  This is where they create their own process and product to reflect their understanding up to that point. 

Reflect (5 mins):  learners reflect as a whole group, small group, partners, or individually through discussions, drawings, written ideas, and so forth.  It can be quite informal, but reflection is focused on:  new connections, prior misconceptions, growth, aha moments, and/or next steps. 

Unlike homeroom teachers, you may need 1-3 sessions to implement the thinkchat cycle with depth.  This is completely normal.  The purpose is to give up the control of the learning, so the learners can make sense of the ideas and apply them back to their practice.  Don’t worry how long it takes, we are more focused on the process you use. ​

What does this look like in daily lessons? 

It’s always nice to see something that is presented in an example that makes sense.  I’m not a specialist or supporting teacher, so I will do my best.  I will try to give you a practical example of what this might look like and you will need to apply it to your practice. 

EAL Application
For most EAL support teachers, they are providing intervention of basic language acquisition and application to the learner’s primary language.  This can come in many forms of push-in and pull-out models.  I’m going to focus on an inclusive model, where the EAL teacher supports a small group of similar ability learners, including those that are on their caseload. This group has been pre-determined by the EAL and homeroom teacher. 

The focus of the lesson is to write a paragraph about water conservation.  

Before the beginning of the lesson, have learners take a notecard (blank or lined side) and draw a line in the middle for note-taking. 

Pose a question:  What does it mean to conserve water?  Have some picture cards that show various ways to conserve water at home and in the community.  Ask learners to choose and share their connection in their primary or target language. After discussion, use pictures or words to capture their ideas on the left side of the notecard. 

Warm-up activity:  Provide additional picture cards of potential problems.  Have learners pair the conservation and problem cards together and discuss their connection in their primary or target language.  Afterwards, choose a pair that would solve a problem in their home or community.  Use pictures and words to describe how it might help in three ways on the right side of the notecard. 

New information:  Reflect on the unique ideas of how to conserve water and the potential problems that arise.  To communicate our ideas effectively, we must put them in order that makes most sense for our audience. The EAL teacher will show some sentences from a paragraph and model which one goes in the right order and why.  They will show how the order impacts the meaning of the paragraph. 

Play with ideas:  In small groups, learners will take a look at their notecards and decide how they will write a paragraph together.  They will choose one person’s idea and supplement them from other people’s work, as needed.  Together, they will write a paragraph that is logical and speaks to the importance of water conservation.  Learners will share ideas in their primary or target language, which can be translated for the group, so they feel part of the experience. Each group will share their paragraph with the class. 

Reflection:  Learners will talk in small groups to answer these questions and choose which ones they will share back to the whole group. 
​

• What part of the lesson was stressful for you? How did you overcome it? What are your current struggles? 
• How do you feel now as a writer?  How would you rate your paragraph writing skills?  What do you still need to learn? 
• What is something new you learned about water conservation?  What more do you want to learn? 

​Final Thoughts

​Now that we have seen it in practice, I wonder how we can apply the structure back to our role.  This takes some time and a lot of practice.  You will fumble and make mistakes.  

One thing I do know, I noticed my learners demonstrating more authentic thinking as I implemented this lesson cycle into my practice.  It has been my game changer and I hope it does the same for you. 

Next up, we will discuss the unique role of inquiry and how it supports agency.