PED 3141 : Learning Notebook

Erin Burnside, 2023

University of Ottawa: Bachelor of Education Program
Table of Contents
Week 1: Welcome to the Course
Lecture Notes
Week 1 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Suggested Task(s), Exit Card

Week 2: Curriculum Planning Part 1 (Teaching for Understanding)

Reading Prep
Lecture Notes
Week 2 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Reading Response, Exit Card

Week 3: Curriculum Planning Part 2 (Teaching for Global Competences and “Playing the
Whole Game”)
Reading Prep
Lecture Notes
Week 3 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Reading Response, Exit Card
Week 4: Growing Success
Reading Prep
Lecture Notes
Week 4 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Reading Response, Exit Card
Week 5: The Ontario Curriculum
Reading Prep
Week 5 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Reading Response, Suggested
Task(s), Exit Card

Week 6: The Ontario Curriculum, Field Trip to Ashbury

Week 6 Chart: Success Criteria, Suggested Task(s), Exit Card

Week 7: Implementing the Ontario Curriculum through “Real World Learning”

Week 7 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Reading Response, Suggested
Task(s), Exit Card

Week 8: First Nations Perspectives on Curriculum Planning, Implementation and

Assessment
Week 8 Chart: Throughline, Reading Response, Suggested Task(s)

Week 9: Cohort Focus

Reading Prep
Week 9 Chart: Throughline, Success Criteria, Reading Response, Exit Card

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Week 1: Welcome to the Course

LECTURE NOTES

Thinking routines → make thinking visible; thinking without using words

Inclusive education → embracing diversity, adaptability, accessibility and equity
• Creating an environment that engages students individually and in groups
• *revisit UNESCO definition
• Support for all students
Emotional co-regulation → through language (i.e. “I’m sure you’re feeling this way…”, etc.)
• We need to model behaviour for students acting out
• Sharing + modelling the language
• “flip their lid” emotional regulation
Most important thing for students to be successful is by establishing a routine they can stick to.
Key takeaway → we are teaching for an unknown future; the key is to focus on understanding.
“kids don’t remember what you teach them, but instead how you make them feel”

What does being a teacher mean to you:

o Colour: yellow/gold – sunshine, happiness, light, positivity
o Symbol: *holding hands*, sun
o Image: teacher and student holding hands in front of a long winding path and a stick figure
holding a shield
Who are you connected to (mind map)
o Students
o Family
o Friends
o Mentors
o Coworkers
o Classmates

WEEK 1 CHART
Throughline

What are some key theories, issues and strategies for designing instruction and
assessing learning and how can I implement them in order to create a dynamic,
creative, equitable learning environment for students?
Students will understand some key theories, issues and strategies for designing
instruction and assessing learning and develop ways to implement them in order to
create a dynamic, creative, equitable learning environment for students?

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 Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Articulate their teaching identity.
2. Explain some of the key concepts underlying the course.
3. Describe the course, including its structure, readings and assignments.

Suggested Task(s) Gather together in your learning notebook the work you
accomplished during the first class. Reflect upon your starting
position in the course. What are your experiences of the PJ
classroom? How did the work we did in class today alter or support
your starting position? Why do you think the professor decided to
include these activities? What do you aim to learn in this course?
Thus far, I have volunteered as an EA in a grade four classroom and worked
as an aftercare associate for six months. The work we did today confirmed
my ambitions in my teaching philosophies. I would like to continue to be
patient, compassionate, understanding and to encourage students’
exploration and creativity. I hope to learn how to build curriculum and
class activities that can suit each student. There’s been much discussion
surrounding planning to accommodate the students with the most needs
and sharing those accommodations with the entire class, so I hope to learn
how to put that into practice and what to do if those accommodations
don’t suit everyone.

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you
have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make
use of these new understandings? If not, why? What can you do to
achieve the success criteria? What questions do you have? What will
you think about further?
I feel that I have met this week’s success criteria as I feel I have a decent
understanding of what to expect in this course (in terms of workload,
content and expectations). I feel that there will be many opportunities for
collaboration and discussion with my peers and Professor Richardson. I
hope to use what I understood of today’s content in future assignments and
placement. I particularly enjoyed learning that starting the school year with
some form of establishing what students have in common has a direct link
to improved performance! I plan to put this into practice when I have a class
of my own.

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Week 2: Curriculum planning part 1 (teaching for
understanding)

READING PREP

Introduction

o Five imperatives that should guide our work: [when it was present and absent, what did I
notice/feel?]
1) Curriculum must be meaningful, coherent and relevant
• Present: Lorie teaching the kids about transparency
• Felt: engaged, inspired, impressed
• Absent: most of my undergrad courses
• Felt: apathetic, bored
2) Instruction must be responsive to students’ needs
• Present: long division unit – repeated as many times as it took for all the kids to feel
comfortable moving on
• Absent: chemistry / organic chemistry (high school and university)
3) Assessment must be informative
• In terms of “pre-assessment” I can’t personally think of a time I’ve felt that a teacher
did so – but could just be ignorance and they have but I didn’t realize it
4) Grading must blend consistence with professional judgement
• “Grading doesn’t improve learning—it simply summarizes it.”
• Present: in every year of school I’ve ever been in
• Absent: kind of in some university classes that focused only on assignments (but this is
only if “grading” is in terms of testing knowledge in the form of quizzes/tests/exams)
5) Communication about learning must be truthful and transparent
• Present: teacher comments in report cards (this transparency sort of dies off at the end
of high school – university profs don’t give you that unless you seek it [in my
experience])
Chapter one

o Three areas of variation (from the ASCD):

1) Interest
2) Learning profile
3) Readiness
o [Cooper includes a tool from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development (ASCD) that includes three areas of variation that teachers can draw upon
in order to provide differentiated teaching (what Cooper also calls “responsive teaching”
(p. 89), which I think is clearer). Drawing on this table (p. 8-9), where does a teacher you
have observed fall on the “differentiated instruction continuum” (p. 12)? Or, if you have
enough classroom experience to answer the question, where do you fall?]

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 • In my experiences in the classroom thus far I would put myself somewhere between the
PRE-IMPLEMENTATION and IMPLEMENTATION stages merely because my time as volunteer
EA was definitely spent mostly assisting students, while also modelling behaviour I, and my
Assistant teacher, wanted them to understand and exhibit.
• I created lesson materials, but never invented anything of my own really.
Chapter two

o [Cooper writes “Fairness must be redefined in terms of equity of opportunity. Students are
individuals, and excellence in education must be defined in terms of all students realizing
their potential—not all students learning the same things, in the same way, in the same
amount of time” (p. 30). The old model of fairness suggests that students get one chance
at receiving a mark and that “fairness” means that no-one else gets another go at showing
what they know unless everyone does at the same time. How do you view fairness? And
how does your view of fairness fit within the prevailing views you have experienced?]
• Tour de France analogy → there is only one spot for a winner when everyone does the same
thing at the same time in the same way
o “covering the curriculum once, in the same way, for all students, periodically
stopping to test”

LECTURE NOTES

Teaching for Understanding framework → basis of a lot of today’s curriculum

o List, write draw (activity): what does understanding mean to you and how could you achieve it
with your students
o “on the same page”
o Expectations are delivered and received in a clear way
o Open to clarification questions
o Achieved by explaining/articulating ideas and instructions
o *callback to reading* communication about learning must be truthful and transparent
o All about comprehension
o Isn’t just how to do something but why

I am an expert at…(activity)
o What do you know vs. understand
o i.e. knowing how to drive vs. understanding (you may know the theory and concept of driving,
your road signs, etc. but it is a matter of understanding how to drive that allows you to consider
yourself an “expert”)
understanding is the application and practice of your knowledge & being able to apply that
knowledge in various contexts
knowing is the ability to call forth upon demand, repeat knowledge or demonstrate a skill

David Perkins
• what’s worth learning?
• Need to think in terms of how to teach for the unknown
• Coding the unexpected

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 • Focus should be on the understandings of wide scope
• Curriculum is one of the most resistive fronts of education
• From his Words of Wisdom Email:
o “making learning whole”
o Thinking routines/frameworks
o Kids are smarter than we think
• Incrementalism: teaching hockey not from the bench, but by letting students play right away
[most people would say they can’t handle it]
o D.P’s suggestion: let everyone start at a JUNIOR level
John Dewey
• The teacher should give pupils something to do, not something to learn – not just listening
• Considered ahead of his time in 1916
• A lot of his thinking is the core for teaching for understanding
Topic → fixed – not memorable/meaningful (i.e. parts of the tree)
Generative topic → leads to new learning – meaningful because it connects to other topics and relevant
when students leave the classroom (i.e. how trees are connected to other living things)

Learning about TfU in four steps

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 WEEK 2 CHART
Throughline

How can I apply best practices to design lessons and units based upon the Ontario
curriculum?
Students will understand how to apply best practices to the design of lessons and units
based upon the Ontario curriculum.

Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Explain Teaching for Understanding (TfU) and how it can be employed in the
classroom.
2. Use the Teaching for Understanding (TfU) planner

Reading Response Write a summary response to this week’s discussion questions

(below), plus any other thoughts you might have about the reading.
For best results, include a couple of direct quotations in your writing.
Main theme → EQUITY
• Second chances are a way of achieving equity; not all students
learn the same amount at the same rate, so
testing/assessments may not reflect their truest capabilities
(some students need more than one chance and one round of
learning something to show their understanding)
• Second chances = “to each as they need”
• An example that puts this into perspective: someone who fails
their drivers test (page 25) isn’t shunned or denied the ability
to take it again when they feel more prepared and practiced;
at the end of the day, it benefits everyone to have safe drivers
on the road and taking that test again ensures that
• The opportunity to retake a test or resubmit an assignment:
takes the pressure off students
o Instead, we are all working to achieve understanding
instead of grades
It is the older teaching philosophies that support the notion that every
student has one chance to prove what they know about a topic → we are
now working more towards preparing students for an unknown future and
accepting that everyone learns at a different pace
• It is only fair that everyone has an equal chance to do well and
show their understanding

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 • Students are working to learn that another individual having a
chance to resubmit work doesn’t take away from their own
achievements
• Looking to leave the competitiveness seen in classrooms behind!
Other examples: learning and testing is like the Tour de France vs. guided
bike tour (page 6)

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you
have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make
use of these new understandings? If not, why? What can you do to
achieve the success criteria? What questions do you have? What will
you think about further?
Because we had so much to cover in today’s lecture, I feel that there is more
to be learned with respect to Teacher for Understanding. Next week we
should be using the planner – I feel that this will help consolidate the
knowledge I currently have. Otherwise, I feel like the exercises we did as a
class to conceptualize the five steps of TfU were extremely beneficial in
understanding how this framework is put to use when creating class
content/lesson plans from the curriculum. I feel that this offered an
opportunity to learn how to take curriculum expectations and make
engaging, hands-on activities for students, rather than seeing this curriculum
as something to “get done”. I plan to use the generative topic, student
questions, understanding goals and performance of understanding
framework when I teach in the future!! Everyone had some really wonderful
ideas and this activity showed me how lucky I will be to be in contact with
my peers for future resources and collaboration.

Week 3: Curriculum planning part 2 (teaching for global

competences and “playing the whole game”)

READING PREP

Chapter 3 questions
o Key frameworks that teach “big ideas and essential skills” or a “number of broad, essential
learning targets for all students” rather than attempting to cover everything
o Understanding by design
o Teaching for understanding
o Prompt: reflect on your own experiences as a student or teacher and identify the “enduring
understandings” (p. 31) that you remember

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 o Debates/role play activities – uses curriculum to develop our skills and build on-going
understanding of what we should be able to do coming out of the course
o In english – form and content, what is being said and how is it being said
o Prompt: where else in your courses can you see the moments when a teacher could have drawn
out more lasting and impactful understandings
o Memorizing instead of focusing on understanding or purpose – instead, song/games
(matching provinces and capitals), plan a route across the country (have to have 10
stops, describe what the route would be)

Chapter 4
o Key idea: “You have to do DA before you can do DI”
o DA → diagnostic assessment, [aka preassessment or initial assessment] to determine
students’ current levels of skills and knowledge … and then design …
o DI → differentiated instruction
o Concept akin to how a doctor runs tests and observations before they decide how to
best treat a patient
▪ Goal: ensure each student works within their sone of proximal development,
leading to a productive state of “flow” (p.44)
o Prompt: discuss a time where you found yourself working in your zone of proximal
development; what led to his “happy positioning of learner and subject matter”
• Drawing/painting/artistic expression → any time assignments or learning have involved
this
• In university this was more so felt/seen when making infographics, presentations and
PowerPoint
o Prompt: discuss a time where you disappeared in a state of flow; what caused that to happen
and how did it feel
• Painting/drawing, baking/cooking, while working/driving, reading, organizing
• Very invested in what you’re doing
• When you’re being challenged but not too much
• Feel more comfortable to take risks in this state
• Being able to go off on a tangent in an assignment and still being able to link it back to
the assignment’s prompt
• Having a deep understanding that puts you in autopilot
o Prompt: how would you design the learning environment so your students can experience that
too
• Different areas for different kinds of learning (carpet, desk, u-table, with/without
electronics)
• Provide different mediums and materials (books, colouring pages, math worksheets,
sensory bins, etc.)
• be open-minded to students’ individual needs (some might need to wear headphones
while doing work to avoid becoming over stimulated, some might need to be moving
around, etc.)
• open the floor to different perspectives from individuals that belong to various
communities
Chapter 5

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 o Six characteristics of understanding (Wiggins and McTighe, p. 60)
1. the capacity to explain,
2. interpret,
3. apply,
4. shift perspective,
5. empathize, and
6. self-assess
Examples of teachers employing effective assessment practices in elementary schools
o Courtney’s learning skills attainment “looks like ... sounds like ...” T-chart (p.
66)
o “Bump it up wall” from Kristeen and Janice’s grade 5 and 6 classes (p. 69)
Prompt: one or two other examples of similarly effective assessment practices you have seen or employed
• Learning goals / success criteria as “must haves” and “amazing”

LECTURE NOTES

Key takeaways
• “You are the rock, and the kids are the waves crashing against you” – you need to know and be
steadfast in your values when educating them
• PERKINS – “good teaching begins with the design of the topic”
Understanding – its 4 sides
1. Purpose
2. Methods
3. Forms
4. Knowledge

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 WEEK 3 CHART

Throughline

What are some key theories, issues and strategies for designing instruction and
assessing learning and how can I implement them in order to create a dynamic,
creative, equitable learning environment for students?
Students will understand some key theories, issues and strategies for designing

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instruction and assessing learning and develop ways to implement them in order to
create a dynamic, creative, equitable learning environment for students?

Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Explain what “teaching for global competence” means and how to apply the
framework to their work with students.
2. Explain what it means to “play the whole game but at a junior level”

Reading Response Write a summary response to this week’s discussion questions (below), plus any
other thoughts you might have about the reading. For best results, include a
couple of direct quotations in your writing.

Image:
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com/[Link]

Reflecting on my elementary, middle and high school education, I feel that

many of my teachers could have drawn out more impactful understanding.
There was too much emphasis placed on memorization and never enough focus
on genuinely understanding or conveying the purpose of whatever we were
learning. For example, memorizing the provinces and territories felt impossible
at a young age. Had we tried learning it through song or planning a cross-
country road trip with a number of stops, that could have made a difference! My
zone of proximal development has always been sparked by the ability to express
myself creatively. Drawing, painting, colouring, creating are all perfect
examples of times I felt most inclined to learn, absorb and complete
assignments. These opportunities often brought me to my state of flow, as I felt
I could almost drift off to somewhat of an autopilot state where I got the most

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 amount of meaningful work done. I hope to create an environment for my
prospective students to reach their zone of proximal development and drift into
their individual state of flow. I plan to do so by having various areas for various
learning styles (carpet, desk, U-table, electronic free, music-friendly, etc.),
providing various mediums and materials (books, colouring pages, math
worksheets, sensory bins, etc.), being open-minded to students’ individual
needs and accommodating them, and opening my classroom to the voices and
perspectives of individuals from various communities.

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you have
fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make use of these new
understandings? If not, why? What can you do to achieve the success criteria?
What questions do you have? What will you think about further?

Define teaching for global competence and playing the whole game at the junior
level
• Schools are incredibly porous → the outside world will be absorbed
• Our most important goal as educators is to teach for global competence:
teach students to think about global issues, recognize and respect different
perspectives, communicate with different people and to make positive
change by acting
• “Playing the whole game at the junior level” example
o Young children will lack the capacity to understand climate change,
but could handle the local weather network, tracking rain fall,
mapping their own communities and taking note of the weather
o Playing the game at the junior levels refers to the modification of
(potentially) complex concepts so students can still learn and engage
with them in a more appropriate way until they can better fully
understand
• Sometimes, links to global competences are spelled out in our curriculum, and
at times it is not → up to us to filter it into out lessons

Questions for the future

• How do you accomplish teaching for global competence of your
school/administration isn’t supportive or has strict guidelines/expectations
for curriculum delivery?

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Week 4: Growing Success

READING PREP

Chapter six
• Claudette’s informative self and peer assessment in grade 3 writing (p. 78-79) as an example of
best practice, how could you see yourself assessing learning while enhancing (not destroying!)
the “thrill and discovery of learning as an end in itself” (p. 75)?
o Group discussion (making notes throughout, discretely)
o Self and peer-assessments (enhances peer community so they can lean on each other
when they need extra help)
o Must-haves and amazing’s in success criteria

•
• Assessment for learning and assessment of learning
o Is assessment to improve learning and assessment to measure it
o Practice [work receives comments/feedback] vs game [measures student’s best work
and receives a score]

Chapter seven
• There continues to be an unwelcome tension between the idea of a single, coherent “class” and
a standardized, one-size-fits-all curriculum, on one hand, and the superior impetus to teach
individual people based upon their individual needs and learning styles and personalities, on the
other. Thinking of a class as a group of individuals as opposed to a fixed entity, how will you
ensure that your classroom is characterized by relevant work (p. 102)?
o make meaning central to student work
o identify student interests/strengths to guide my curriculum planning
o keep up to date on current events (classroom is a sponge – what’s happening in the
world WILL be brought up in class, cannot avoid it so we need to embrace it)
• Describe a time when you have seen or employed effective approaches to differentiation based
on the three criteria (p. 103)
o Writing lessons for grade 3 → modifications/accommodations in line design (some
dotted, others blank, others full lines)

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 o Modified assessment checklists for students who might not be able to write, assessment
done by talking with them to gauge what they know about the subject or project
o For younger grades, kids that struggle with fine motor skills → precut materials
o Scaffolding

Differentiated lesson planning

• Criteria:
o 1. Common essential learning targets for all students
o 2. Flexible approaches to instruction and skillful selection of resources to address
differing needs
o 3. High-quality assessments that are matched to the common essential learning
targets but adapted to suit the variability in students’ skills an understanding
• With these elements in place, responsive teachers also understand the role that scaffolding
plays in supporting learning. They anticipate the need to constantly monitor and adjust the
amount of scaffolding provided to an individual or group during the learning process. And
they understand that because the overarching goal of their teaching is to have all students
working at or above grade level while independently demonstrating proficient achievement,
they must progressively reduce the amount of scaffolding. From an assessment perspective,
this often means considerable scaffolding during formative assessment, with the aim of little
or no scaffolding when summative assessment occurs.

LECTURE NOTES

Understanding performance: Role of teachers

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The seven fundamental principles
To ensure that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are valid and reliable, and that they lead to the
improvement of learning for all students, teachers use practices and procedures that ...
1. …are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students.
2. …support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are
learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis,
or Inuit.
3. …are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much
as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all
students
4. …are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or
course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course
5. …are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple
opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning
6. …provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful and timely to support
improved learning and achievement
7. …develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set
specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning

WEEK 4 CHART

Throughline

What are the ideas and recommended approaches in the key Ontario curriculum
documents and how can I best apply them to my teaching?

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Students will understand the ideas and recommended approaches in the key Ontario
curriculum documents and how best to apply them to their teaching.

Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Summarize several key ideas and approaches to teaching and assessment from
Growing Success.
2. Be able to explain how they intend to apply these key ideas to their teaching
and assessment.

Reading Response Write a summary response to this week’s discussion questions

(below), plus any other thoughts you might have about the reading.
For best results, include a couple of direct quotations in your writing.

As an educator, it is crucial we assess learning in ways that do not

hinder a student’s interest and initiative. This can be done by
following assessment FOR and Assessment OF learning methods, as
well as combining them with the ‘zone of proximal development’. I
feel that the most meaningful adjustment is in conducting pre-
assessment to gauge where students are at before throwing them into
something new and testing too quickly. Another way to protect the
“thrill and discovery of learning” (page 75), is through productive
feedback and the scaffolding of instruction/assessment. The amount
of scaffolding can be adjusted to suit the needs of the students to
improve their learning.

Most importantly, we must ensure student work is meaningful and

relevant so that, long-term, they can demonstrate their understanding,
derived from genuine effort and engagement.

Describe a time when you have seen or employed effective

approaches to differentiation based on the three criteria (p. 103)
o Language Arts: Writing lessons for grade 2 →
modifications/accommodations to line design for student preference
and abilities (some dotted, others blank, others full lines); students
have freedom to choose any of them based on their comfort level
o Modified assessment checklists for students who might not be able
to write, where assessment is done by talking with them to gauge
what they know about the subject or project and taking note of their
answers
o For younger grades, kids that struggle with fine motor skills →
precut materials for them to glue and add when drawing or cutting
may be too difficult
o Scaffolded instruction and assessment
o Must Have’s vs. Amazing’s in assignment instructions this semester

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 Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you
have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make
use of these new understandings? If not, why? What can you do to
achieve the success criteria? What questions do you have? What will
you think about further?

I have met this week’s success criteria. I understand the relationship

and definitions of assessment for learning vs. of learning, scaffolding,
and the negative impact of ‘scores’ and ‘grades’. I plan to design my
content delivery, instruction and guide my planning/assessment using
this understanding.
I also plan to begin with identifying their strengths and weaknesses
and, empower students by sharing the work’s relevance and
encouraging their thinking/problem solving – they need to know the
why to be able to explain their processes/reasoning/thinking! This
week’s readings also suggested strategic groupings dependent on
student performance to assist in the assessment process, but also to
support students in their endeavours. Ultimately, my goal is to
connect with students so I can provide each with an opportunity for
responsive learning.

Week 5: The Ontario Curriculum

READING PREP

Chapter 8
• How should assessment be matched to students’ needs? p. 105 to 122.
Cooper describes examples of “differentiated assessments” (p. 105 and p. 106) that
“entirely undermine the integrity of a given learning target”.
• PROMPT: Share your own example of differentiated instruction gone wrong, perhaps one that
offered students lots of novel choices without a central learning goal.
o Some of my professors in my undergrad would give full “creative freedom” for
assignments and fail to fully articulate their expectations – this ended up upsetting
many students because without fail, at least one person was unhappy with their grades
after-the-fact
o Reminds me of the times in high school where a “creative” option was available, and
people would end up making a song or dance about the topic and others would write
papers → how could these ever be graded equally

• Having read Helen’s grade 5 science class example of a tiered assignment (p. 109), create
your own, curriculum-specific example. Note that “tiering involves designing an

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 assessment task and then adapting it for different groups of students in order to present
them with a version of the task that is matched to their current levels of skill and
knowledge” (p. 108).
o Examples of Tiered Lesson Plans and Assignments (Duplin Schools)
▪ Basic Tiered Activity Example: Completing a Character Map
▪ Tier 1. (Low) Describe: How the character looks-What the character says-How
the character thinks or acts-The most important thing to know about the
character
▪ Tier 2. (Middle) Describe: What the character says or does-What the character
really means to say or do-What goals does the character have-What the
character would mostly like us to know about him or her-What changes the
character went through
▪ Tier 3. (High) Describe: Clues the author gives us about the character-Why the
author gives these clues-The author’s bottom line about this character
Chapter 9
• How do I grade learning in the mixed-ability class? p. 123 to 140.
o This is something I still don’t know the answer to and feel that practicum may help
solve.
• The act of grading “involves summarizing the learning that has occurred during a
reporting period by assigning a rather crude symbol—a one-word descriptor, a score, a
letter grade, or a level—to a sample of work a student has produced” (p. 140). Cooper
acknowledges that “grading student learning is at best a flawed process” (p. 140)
• PROMPT: Discuss the ten principles for sound and supportive grading (p. 134 to 138). Are any of
those principles unreasonable? Have you seen evidence of their being applied—or not—in
classrooms you have experienced?
1. Purpose of grades to demonstrate to students and parents the learning over a period (either
growth, progress, or achievement)
2. Grades determined using consistent procedures that educators agree on
3. Represent the best possible summary of a student’s learning over time (grades shouldn’t be
surprising students)
4. Grades weighed more heavily based on students most recent work, not things from the
beginning of the term (earlier work is likely less indicative of what they know)
5. Combine numerical calculation, student knowledge and professional judgement to assign
fair and sensitive grades for every student
6. Grades are summaries of student learning
7. Measurement of error is a naturally occurring, ever-present element of the grading process
Need to make room for parent and student questions about grades
8. Grading symbols, percentages, and letters always accompanied by a set of appropriate
indicators that are consistent for every student
9. Gather data about student knowledge and skills separate from data about their behaviour
and attitudes
10. Poor grades may discourage learning, but grades should never eb distorted in a way that
deceives students or parents about the learning quality

WEEK 5 CHART

Throughline

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What are the ideas and recommended approaches in the key Ontario curriculum
documents and how can I best apply them to my teaching?
Students will understand the ideas and recommended approaches in the key Ontario
curriculum documents and how best to apply them to their teaching

Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Explain how the Ontario curriculum guides are structured.
2. Demonstrate how to teach the overall and specific learning expectations
contained within the Ontario curriculum guides

Reading Response Write a summary response to this week’s discussion questions

(below), plus any other thoughts you might have about the reading.
For best results, include a couple of direct quotations in your writing.

Differentiated lessons that begin with a common plan require three

things: (1) identifying essential learning goals to be demonstrated by
ALL students, (2) review student strengths, needs, interests and
learning profiles, and (3) identify an appropriate menu or assessment
processes and products dependent on those student profiles to ensure
each can provide evidence of the essential learning. To my
understanding, tiering is a practical way to do this, as it allows an
educator to design instructions and assessments that are adopted to
the skills and knowledge of various groups. Typically, there would be
anywhere from three to five different versions of the same task that
vary in their degree of challenge. However, it is incredibly important
that all students are provided with clear learning goals that underlie
all 3-5 of those versions.

I fully agree with the principles for sound and supportive grading. An
example of these rules not being applied that I saw most often in my
high school experience was grading being weighed evenly throughout
the entire year. This was a concept I have always found to be
confusing, as I often felt my abilities and knowledge grew so much
by the end of the year that the work I submitted and the tests I
completed in September didn’t feel indicative of my abilities by June.

Share your own example of differentiated instruction gone wrong,

perhaps one that offered students lots of novel choices without a
central learning goal.
• Some of my professors in my undergrad would give full “creative
freedom” for assignments and fail to fully articulate their
expectations – this ended up upsetting many students because

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 without fail, at least one person was unhappy with their grades
after-the-fact
• Reminds me of the times in high school where a “creative” option
was available, and people would end up making a song or dance
about the topic and others would write papers → how could these
ever be graded equally

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you
have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make
use of these new understandings? If not, why? What can you do to
achieve the success criteria? What questions do you have? What will
you think about further?

I have met this week’s success criteria. Through practice in this class
and my other’s this semester, I have spent a decent chunk of time
exploring the Ontario curriculum website. To my understanding, each
subject is broken down into strands which are then broken own into
sub-strands based on specific expectations. The Ontario curriculum
also provides numerous teacher and parent supports, as well as
informational videos and general overviews for both teachers,
students, and parents to understand why the students are learning
what they do. I feel that the work we practiced when learning about
the TfU in four steps has prepared me for decomposing the Ontario
curriculum and attempting to find creative ways to deliver it. Because
of this, I feel I have a better understanding of locating what I need in
the curriculum guide and identifying the specific expectations for
each grade and strand.

Week 6: The Ontario Curriculum in Action, Field Trip to

Ashbury

WEEK 6 CHART

Success Criteria

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At the end of this class, students should be able to:
1. Describe what an independent school is and how teachers plan, implement and
assess the Ontario curriculum there.

Suggested Task(s) What were your impressions of Ashbury College? Was there
anything unexpected or surprising about your visit to the school?
What evidence did you see there of practices as they pertain to the
Ontario curriculum?

Our trip to Ashbury was inspiring and pleasantly surprising. It’s not that I
had bad or low expectations beforehand, however private schools
(sometimes) hold a negative connotation. Growing up, I remember kids
saying that students at private schools were “snobs” or spoiled. That being
said, I was pleased to see how much the teachers and administration
encouraged and practiced gratitude with their students. This was most
evident in their assembly in how they celebrated each other’s achievements
and continuously acknowledged their privilege and opportunities. It was
extremely evident that the school operates in a very family-like dynamic
between faculty, students, even parents. Educators’ passion and care for
their students was impossible to miss. It was very clear how deeply they
cared about student success and providing them with innovative and
enriching education. The school very openly and proudly embraced their
diversity and culture on a grand scale and in classrooms. It was also clear
that they value the hands-on learning that often stops after kindergarten in
public schools. In promoting that learning (through labs/lab reports,
gardening, exams, discipline, etc.), it seems to provide ample opportunity to
prepare students for high school and the real world

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you
have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make
use of these new understandings? If not, why? What can you do to
achieve the success criteria? What questions do you have? What will
you think about further?

I have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. To my understanding,

independent schools are non-unionized and operate under the control of
elected board members, NOT the public school system. They are held to a
higher standard of excellence and esteem because their programs and
delivery of curriculum content can be designed with more freedom and
tailored to student needs because of their greater access to resources. Often,
PD is paid for by the board, suggesting they are more
accommodating/supportive of professional advancement and have genuine
care and concern for their staff. This encouragement stems from the desire
to provide a variety of and more enhanced education. Also, the school
community is specifically tailored to their own mission statement. Selecting
students that align with their mission creates a population of like-minded
individuals in their pursuit of education and future aspirations.

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 Through further research, here is some information that supports my
understanding: ([Link]
independent-education)

o Affiliated with other esteemed institutions, positive for post-

secondary education
o Higher academic quality
o More personalized approaches
o Specialized expertise
o Top quality teachers
o Diverse experience
o Access to latest technology
o Increased parental involvement
o Happy students

Week 7: Implementing the Ontario Curriculum through

“real world learning”

Please come to class today having read UCDSB Executive Superintendent Eric Hardie’s book The
Relevant Classroom, with questions for the author.

WEEK 7 CHART

Throughline

How can I apply best practices to design lessons and units based upon the Ontario
curriculum?
Students will understand how to apply best practices to the design of lessons and units
based upon the Ontario curriculum

Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Offer a definition and explanation of real-world learning.
2. Use real world learning in their curriculum planning.

Reading Write a summary response to Eric Hardie’s book, The Relevant Classroom. For
Response best results, include a couple of direct quotations in your writing.

Real world learning involves educating students to become knowledgeable,

caring citizens who contribute to society through the community partnerships

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 valued in the practice of RWL. It is founded in student engagement because
meaningful learning is fostered by their motivation. This means it is imperative
that educators provide students with the purpose and the “why” of their content.
Eric shared in his lecture that there are people who happen to the world and
people whom the world happens to. It is through RWL that we can help
students become the former. Creating this engaging learning experience differs
from traditional learning in the sense that we learn most when there is no
“manual”. In the real world, we learn by doing, which means teachers should
be adopting a “guide from the side” position so students can acclimate to not
having or being dependent on an adult at the front of every room. Ultimately,
the goal of The Relevant Classroom is to bring the school world and the real
world together because when we neglect to, we lose that meaningful
engagement. Eric proposed six steps to fostering this RWL: (1) make meaning
central to student work, (2) contextualize the curriculum, (3) create space to
learn, (4) connect student work to the community, (5) follow the student
leaders, and (6) re-envision feedback and evaluation. Ultimately, not all
students are the same, nor will they learn, flourish, or test the same in one
environment. As educators, we must do our best to create an environment that
promotes their success and global competence. Eric says that school has
become about grades, and not learning. We have to get in touch with what
drives student learning, like their autonomy, mastery, and purpose, in order to
teach the knowledge and skills we want for them to maintain even after they
leave our classroom. Our current school system prepares students for life after
school, but not for life or what it would look like in the future. Teaching
students for global competence is about tapping into their capacities for
creativity, collaboration, and innovation. The Relevant Classroom is a practical
guide to creating genuine experiences that are truly meaningful for students.

Suggested Create an infographic or hand-drawn bubble chart that brainstorms the ways
Task(s) that real world learning could be applied to the grade level and subject of your
choice. Write a reflection on the strengths and possible weaknesses of this
approach.

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 Reflection: students will likely be more engaged in this exciting/novel work
and approach. However, it can be hard to think of community partners, good
ideas for performances of understanding, and maybe even to know that your
choices are relevant/good/engaging. Some other potential negatives are a lack
in interest from community partners, what do you do if no one wants to get
involves? Also, how do you know if the Pus you have designed are too
advanced or too easy for your students.

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you have
fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make use of these new

26
 understandings? If not, why? What can you do to achieve the success criteria?
What questions do you have? What will you think about further?

I have met this week’s success criteria. I feel that my reading response illustrates my
understanding of the definition and applications of real-world learning. I have
implemented the concepts explored in Eric’s book in almost all of my courses this
semester. As for PED 3141, my group and I have tried to include as much engaged,
real-world context in our Culminating Mini Unit by connecting their learning to the
uses and exposures they have with rocks and minerals in their everyday lives. We also
want to properly illustrate the tools uses and meaning over-time to help student
understand how we have gotten to where we are today. Additionally, in our Enhancing
Math and Science Thinking course we made sure to tap into RWL during our school
visit in a grade 5/6 classroom. We had to run three different math workshops for the
students, and we chose to have a game-style barista theme where students could learn
about fractions by making their own drinks and financial literacy by playing a
budgeting game we created! I felt it was one of the more engaging lessons we have
thought of yet, that’s focus was still on components of the Ontario curriculum.

Week 8: First Nations perspectives on curriculum

planning, implementation, and assessment

Today’s class will be led by Anita Tenasco, Director of Education at Kitigan Zibi
Anishinabeg community.

WEEK 8 CHART

Throughline

What are some key theories, issues and strategies for designing instruction and
assessing learning and how can I implement them in order to create a dynamic,
creative, equitable learning environment for students?
Students will understand some key theories, issues and strategies for designing
instruction and assessing learning and develop ways to implement them in order to
create a dynamic, creative, equitable learning environment for students?

Reading Response Write a reflection on this week’s article. How does it speak to your own
experiences? How might it shape your approaches to teaching?

Looking back on my primary and secondary education, I feel that I was taught
a very biased and diluted version of Canadian history (in terms of its negative
effects). I wouldn’t necessarily blame my teachers, but more so the old content
and curriculum in History and Social Studies. I feel my peers and I were

27
 painted an inaccurately positive depiction of the effects of settlement and focus
was placed on the benefits developments like the fur trade and land acquisition
had on British/Canadian economy. There was so much focus on Canada and its
ties to England, yet never enough time or space made to discuss the impacts on
Indigenous life and culture. Only in the last few years have I felt that
Indigenous education holds the importance and space it deserves in our
curriculum and conversation, especially in the Bachelor of Education program
here at the University of Ottawa. In my early education, there was no attempt
to include that content into mainstream curriculum. Now the focus is on cross-
curricular integration.

I plan to teach a well-rounded, more accurate version of history to my

prospective students by following in your footsteps and inviting members of
the community to speak on their experiences and legacies. Most importantly, I
believe that this starts with educating myself and identifying my own biases
and ignorance. I feel that I cannot teach anyone anything before educating
myself. My goal is to make room for Indigenous education across subjects,
year-round. Ultimately, I plan to hold myself, my coworkers, and students
accountable and to push for the space to teach and acknowledge this when it is
not readily available.

Suggested Task(s) Please reflect upon today’s presentation with Anita and comment on the
ways in which you plan on making First Nations, Inuit and Métis
students feel welcome and valued in your classes.

Regrettably, I was unable to attend today’s lecture. However, my peers were

kind enough to share their impressions and appreciation for this experience.
They mentioned that Anita’s connection and expertise in both education and
Indigenous culture offered a fresh and valuable perspective that we’ve been
looking to learn more about. Although I missed an opportunity to learn from
Anita in-person, I felt that her wisdom remained evident and useful in your
article. I plan to take her perspective and suggestions to any school I teach in,
whether through practicum or employment following this degree. More
specifically, I hope to put my culminating mini unit to use. It was designed for
grade 4 science, with a focus on rocks and minerals. The following section
from our statement of intent describes the rationale behind my future plans
perfectly: ‘Teaching students about rocks, minerals, fossils and their
Indigenous uses is crucial for fostering well-rounded and globally competent
education. Understanding the Earth’s geological history empowers students to
appreciate the planet’s natural wonders and the processes that have shaped it
over millions of years. Moreover, introducing Indigenous knowledge and
practices involving these resources promotes respect for the wisdom and
traditions of Indigenous communities and encourages an inclusive perspective
that acknowledges the vital role these resources have played in the
development of tools, art, spirituality and medicine.” I plan to build a safe and
inclusive learning environment so my First Nations, Inuit and Métis students
feel comfortable and excited to share.

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Week 9: Cohort focus

READING PREP

Chapter 10: should Ontario follow the BC example and do away with grades all together? Why
or why not?
• proficiency scale report cards use terms such as emerging, developing, proficient and
extending to describe student learning, assessments that are supplemented with teacher
comments
• proficiency scale can help assess the depth of a student's understanding of what they
learn, including subjects such as math.
• Johnston says most teachers who underwent the pilot approved the grading changes, but
he says there is still a need for more training and support.
• "It's been piloted, but it's going to require some time and investment from the ministry to
support this change and to make sure it's a smooth transition," said Johnston.
• Johnston says training needs to be provided during work hours. "That means you need a
day during the school year to learn [the changes]," he said.
• Cooper: effective report cards distinguish clearly between data relating to student
achievement and information about attitudes and behaviours
o Report cards that separate information about achievement in knowledge and skills
from information about attitudes and behaviors provide parents with clear, useful
data that they can use to support their children’s improvement.
o If the reporting format used at your school uses descriptors that contain the words
progress and progressing, then it must be clear to parents which targets students are
progressing toward, because progress is a measure of how close the student is to a
desired end point. The sample illustrated in figure 10.6 does not meet this criterion
because there is no set of indicators to interpret the three degrees of progress.
o the ambiguity of terms such as progressing with difficulty, progressing well, and
progressing very well was causing significant communication problems between the
teachers in her school and parents when they met following a midterm reporting
period. Clear, effective communication with parents demands that growth, progress,
and achievement terms be referenced to scales that appear on report cards. Without
such scales, teachers will continue to complain that reporting is subjective, and
parents will continue to be denied the detailed and specific information they need to
understand their child’s current levels of skill and understanding and what they need
to do to improve.
o Appropriate reporting formats for kindergarten and the early primary grades employ
descriptors that refer to growth, rather than progress or achievement. Hence, they
use terms such as beginning, developing, and secure

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Chapter 11: Reflecting on the book as a whole, what is your notion of “excellence”? How do you
intend to achieve it?
• Teaching for global competence
• Differentiating instruction and assessment
• Creating an environment for effective and engaged learning

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 WEEK 9 CHART

Throughline

What are some key theories, issues and strategies for designing instruction and
assessing learning and how can I implement them in order to create a dynamic,
creative, equitable learning environment for students?
Students will understand some key theories, issues and strategies for designing
instruction and assessing learning and develop ways to implement them in order to
create a dynamic, creative, equitable learning environment for students?

Success Criteria

At the end of this class, students should be able to:

1. Provide three or more examples of how to plan their curriculum with their
cohort focus in mind.

Reading Response Write a summary response to this week’s discussion questions

(below), plus any other thoughts you might have about the reading.
For best results, include a couple of direct quotations in your writing.

Although I understand the controversy surrounding report cards and

the damaging effects grades can have on student engagement and
learning, I still think it’s important to have some form of conveying a
student’s abilities in a way that’s familiar to a student and their
families. I think the most important thing that needs to be done is
reconsidering how we express those scores, when we take those
scores, and how they are calculated. Applying Eric Hardie’s
suggestions for triangulated assessment, and Cooper’s suggestions in
earlier chapters about calculating grades and never failing a student,
but instead requiring they must complete the task, we could design a
more sensitive approach to grading. Most importantly, expectations
and learning goals must be clearly explained throughout every task,
so those grades are never a surprise to a student or their family. I
completely agree with Cooper that the ambiguity of the terms
suggested could easily confuse the recipient, especially in younger
grades, or for students who are ELL, this might be too vague and
non-descript. We have to be mindful that we are conveying the
message throughout the school year that school isn’t about points, but
instead is about learning! Additionally, it’s mentioned you would
need time, during work hours, to train teachers how to implement the
changes suggested by the Proficiency Scale Report cards, and this
necessity could be difficult to accomplish in certain schools.

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 Ultimately, at this point, I am not entirely sold, but I do understand
the lure.

As for achieving excellence in my career, there are innumerous

amounts of practical suggestions I have learned from this book and
other readings this semester, that I plan to put to use in practicum and
beyond. My main goals will be

o Teaching for global competence

o Differentiating instruction and assessment
o Creating an environment for effective and engaged learning
o Reiterating that school is about learning not grades --> to
students and their parents
o Remaining clear and consistent in my expectations and
delivery, while always being open to questions and
constructive criticism
o Make discovering/understanding/including student interests a
priority in the classroom and content delivery
o Finding what peaks their zone of proximal development /
productive struggle

Exit Card Write a short statement in your learning notebook about whether you
have fulfilled this week’s success criteria. If so, how will you make
use of these new understandings? If not, why? What can you do to
achieve the success criteria? What questions do you have? What will
you think about further?

Our focus this class was on sharing our Culminating Mini Units with
the group. We also had time to rate our course and fill in a survey for
a research project. Because of these tasks, I don’t feel that I met this
week’s success criteria because we didn’t end up touching on how to
plan curriculum with our cohort focus in mind. Thankfully, I do think
this general notion has been something majorly discussed over the
school year in almost all of my classes, so I still feel somewhat
prepared to do so in the real world. I think my only questions going
forward would be if you had any advice to do so! I really appreciated
the methods your practiced in this course and would consider this
class my most informative and engaging so far. (I will be sure to
discuss this with you during my presentation to see what you have to
say!)

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