Every time I travel to a different conference, I always meet people from whom I learn as much as I think I share my learning. This is no different than when I attended #TIES18 last weekend. I met Pam in my 3 hour (yes! 3 hours) workshop, Delving Deeper with Digital Leadership. When I shared resources, Pam and her buddy Charlie shared their excitement about the “grid” method and how it has transformed their grade 4 classroom.
Love spending the day with @JCasaTodd great ideas!! #socialLEADia #Ties18 #isd97 # pic.twitter.com/HliEfauGMR
— pam erickson (@perickson22) December 9, 2018
The post below is Pam’s reflections on the Grid method, in addition to some questions I had about how it works and her responses. This was totally new learning for me!
Personal learning, mastery learning, student paced, student engagement, reaching all level students at the same time-YES PLEASE!!!
All of these things seemed like something I only dreamed would happen in my class for my students. At Least until a year ago when I met @RaeHughart who is part of the amazing #TeachBetterTeam. What she showed me (The Grid Method and Teach Further) was again something I only dreamed would happen in my class for my students. I have tried so many new ideas that sounded great until they fell flat, but there is not much I wouldn’t try if it will help my students so I decided to dive in….best decision I have made in education.
Breaking down our 4th grade standards and creating learning experiences one DOK at a time enabled me to know my standards better than I ever have. Creating a grid in which students need to successfully complete each DOK level before moving onto the next and then putting it in a spot where kids could access videos and activities that ensure learning anytime as they move through the grid at their own pace allows for students with a wide range of abilities to advance as they master information. GENIUS!! Even taking it a step further and providing a choice to demonstrate learning is personalized learning at it’s best! We have found that The Grid Method has allowed us to spend more personalized teaching based on students need and students are engaged because they are not too far ahead of what I am presenting that they are bored or too far behind to understand that they check out.
I always liked the concept of a flipped classroom, but in our rural area not kids have access to internet and I still wanted to be present as they learned. What we use now is what I call a “flipped classroom IN the classroom” and I could not be more excited about it! I have even had students start help create videos for the grid to help others with strategies they learned at home, which has been a great way to boost confidence and share their voice.
Personal learning, mastery learning, student paced, student engagement, reaching all level students at the same time-Absolutely!!!
Me: How is this method different from a hyperdoc?
Pam: The Grid Method can be utilized online or not. It is the building of knowledge through DOK levels as the students work through the grid. Our team prefers to use a website to house our grid but not all that use it do. This method is about the mastery of learning at each level before moving to the next the website we use just works best for us, which the idea came from @raehughart!
Me: I always worry about putting kids in front of a computer to do work when they should be engaging in face to face and in person communicating and learning. How does the grid method facilitate face to face learning?
Pam: The truth is I have more face to face learning opportunities even though the material is housed on a website. I am constantly checking in with them and able to quickly see when a student is stuck. By catching them before moving on it ensures the foundation for standard we are teaching. The beauty of this is that I can give individual instruction to the student at whatever level they are at while allowing other students to move on at their own pace.
Me: Does this work for all students in your class? How do you know?
Pam: I feel like it does work for all students because they can slow down or speed up as it works for them. I had a student who fell behind a bit so asked to take her chromebook home so she could work on it that night. She was beyond proud of herself when she came back the next day because she had completed a lot of work at home. What she wanted to do was get to the enrichment activity, which she had not gotten to in past units.
Me: What has been the most rewarding thing about implementing the grid method in your classroom?
Pam: The most rewarding thing has been getting to know exactly where my students are at and having one on one conversation to meet them there and help them move forward.
Me: Where should we go to get started?
Pam: There are courses and the Teach Better team to check out!
www.teachbetter.com where you can find some free courses to get started!
Join the FB page Teach Better Team On Twitter: @teachbetterteam Follow @chadostrowski, @jeffgargas, @raehughart, @techieTeachOtt on Twitter
I for one plan to delve more deeply into this method over the coming months! Connect with Pam to learn more @perickson22.
🙂 Jen