Fair Does Not Always Mean Equal

Fairness. Retrieved from: http://hellpmrssykes.
blogspot.ca/2013/08/when-you-talk-to-your-
childs-teacher.html

Over the past couple months I have enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs and their unique reflections on what we have all been learning in school. One common topic that has come up repeatedly is the idea of differentiated instruction. I think it is extremely important to use this type of instruction in order to give students the opportunity to use their personal strengths to drive their learning. Drake, Reid and Kolohon (2014) explain in order to ensure fairness in the classroom, teachers must provide appropriate opportunities for students to learn and demonstrate their learning. This often has an influence on the type of assessments teachers provide for their students. Instead of always giving standardized assessments, teachers understand that students have different ways of showing their knowledge and are providing different types of assessments in order to help their students be successful (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014).

Fairness should not only be considered when teachers design their assessments but in everything they do with their students. I have worked with many teachers over the past couple years who value fairness over equality and I have witnessed the positive effect it has on students.  Although many teachers use fair teaching methods in their classroom, the students are not aware that the teacher is doing so. However, after a unique experience volunteering in a classroom, I think it is important to teach students the importance of fairness, and how it does not always mean equality.

Over this past reading week I spent some time in a grade 5/6 classroom. This was my first time volunteering with this particular school so I did not know what to expect when I arrived that morning. Before the morning bell rang I got a chance to speak to the teacher who briefly explained her daily routines and gave me an idea of what to expect from her students. She explained that in her class of 22, 12 of her students had an IEP and most of them were achieving at a grade 3 level in school. Even the students who didn't have an IEP were significantly behind. She explained that this is a very difficult group of students to teach because they all have such diverse needs that she needs to cater to. However, she has done her best to adapt her teaching methods to meet the needs of all students.

I was expecting a chaotic day full of misbehavior and conflicts between the students and teacher. However, the teacher had excellent control over the classroom and I was extremely impressed with how she dealt with different problems as they arose. Many of the students complained other students were getting more help than they were, or the discipline they received was different from the other students. When this occurred the teacher pointed to a poster at the front of the room that read, “Fair does not mean equal” (see above). I could not believe how well the students responded to this and often immediately stopped arguing. Although I have a strong understanding of the difference between fair and equal I was surprised that these students who had academic, social and behaviour difficulties were able to easily grasp this concept.

Fair vs. Equal. Retrieved from: https://s-media-ca
cheak0.pinimg.com/origionals/5c/44/4a/5c444addb
3554f3360ca2146700cd054.jpg

Later that day I asked the teacher about the “Fair does not mean equal” poster and she explained that the class made it together at the beginning of the school year. She knew that because of the class’s diverse needs she was going to have to give the students different treatment and wanted them to understand why. This inspired her to plan a lesson to teach her students how fair and equal are different from each other. During this lesson she told each student to pretend they had an injury, either big or small. Some students said they had a paper cut, while others said they had their arm 

chopped off. The teacher then proceeded to give them equal medical treatment so they all received one average sized Band-Aid. Although the Band-Aid was an effective treatment for the students with a paper cut, it was not helpful to the students who had lost an arm. This helped the teacher explain to her students that if she gave all students equal treatment they would not receive fair learning opportunities. She told them that each student has different strengths and weaknesses that she promised to be aware of these differences and use this knowledge to help each student be successful.

Now if a student complains that something is unfair the teacher reminds them that “it is not equal, but it is fair”. I think this is an important concept to teach students so they can learn to be empathetic of each other and understand that everyone has different needs. I was very impressed how this teacher went about teaching the students this lesson and it is something I will tuck away to use when I have my own classroom.

In the video above, young Riley demonstrates how young children are able to comprehend this concept at an early age and it helps them consider situations from different perspectives. After my experience in the grade 5/6 classroom, and viewing this video I believe that any school aged child can learn to understand the difference between fairness and equality and it is something teachers can make an effort to teach their students as early as kindergarten.

References

Carolan, J. & Guinn, A. (2007). Differentiation: Lessons from master teachers. Educational Leadership, 64(5), 44-47.
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21^st-ceturey learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

Sun, A (2014). Equality is not enough: What the classroom has taught me about justice. Everyday Feminism. Retrieved from http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/equality-is-not-enough/.

Wonder Wall!

    Students are asked questions in class everyday. These questions may range from “what is 2+2?” to “who is the main character in the story?”. Teachers ask these types of lower end questions as a method of assessment for learning (Drake et al., 2014). This is an easy technique for teachers to evaluate where the students are in their learning. While it is important for teachers to form these questions to make sure students are on track with the curriculum, I think it is also important to give students opportunity to ask their fellow classmates questions about different topics in order to create a student-directed learning environment.

Wonder Wall. Retrieved form http://mrsbrights
class.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-beginning-genius
-hour.html?m=1

    Last year I volunteered in a grade 3 classroom where the teacher encouraged her students to ask all different types of questions. She had a “Wonder Wall” (see right) at the front of the classroom where students posted different questions at anytime throughout the day. Sometimes the questions were related to what they were learning in school and other times they were based on their personal interests. Every morning the teacher gave the students 20 minutes to ask and answer each other’s questions. The students took turns taking their questions off of the wall and reading it to the class. If any of the students had information on the topic they would have the opportunity to answer. However, if no one could answer the question there was a designated “researcher” who would type the question into Google (which was connected to the smart board) and the class would find the answer together.  Once the question was answered, it would come down off the “Wonder Wall” and the class would move on to the next question.
    I really enjoyed watching the students’ interactions during this time. Their was a wide range of questions like, “what is a baby dolphin called?”, “who invented Minecraft?” and “how old was Sydney Crosby when he started playing hockey?”. I was surprised to see how much the students knew about the different topics before goggling the question when I didn’t even know the answers to their questions. I was also surprised to see that the teacher was completely removed from the discussion and it was 100% lead by the students. This represents a very strong form of student-directed management, meaning that the students have are self-directed, take responsibility for their behaviour and know how to make appropriate choices (Levin et al., 2016). I expected for the children to begin to talk over each other as they became excited with the conversation but they were extremely mature and politely took turns speaking.

Filled Wonder Wall. Retrieved from http://mrsbrightsclass.blogs
pot.ca/2014/01/the-beginning-genius-hour.html?m=1

    I volunteered in this class a couple of months into the school year so I am sure that the teacher took a lot of time training the students on how to effectively have student guided discussions but from what I saw she was extremely successful. I think this is a effective teaching technique on the teachers part. First of all, the students learn how to work collaboratively with each other which is an important skill they will use throughout their whole life. It also gives the students agency in their education. They get to choose topics they are interested in to learn about and help direct the conversation. By looking at the overflowing “Wonder Wall” (see above) it is clear that this is an effective way to increase intrinsic motivation. Lastly, it is an easy way for the teacher to learn about the students’ interests which she can incorporate into other lessons.

    This is definitely a technique I would like to use in my future classroom. However, I would like to guide my students to ask higher-level questions that will create more critical discussions. Drake et al. (2014), advises that teachers post some question stems in the classroom that will encourage higher-level thinking. These could include, “why is … important?” or “Do you agree with… and why?” (Drake et al., 2014). In the video below, a teacher explains how she uses this technique to guide her students to ask higher-level thinking questions.

    Although I think it is important to start with lower end questions to help students build on important collaborative discussion skills, over time I think it would be great to use question stems to help stimulate collaborative critical thinking in the classroom.

References 

Abdullah, M. H. (2007). Self-directed learning. Educational Resource Centre. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Self_Directed/.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21^st-ceturey learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

Levin, J., et al. (2016). Principles of classroom management (4^th ed.). Don Mills, ON: Pearson Canada Inc..

As an education student I have become very familiar with the four categories of knowledge .  These include factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge and metacognitive knowledge (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014). For those of you who are unfamiliar with the difference between the four categories of knowledge I will briefly break them down. Factual knowledge is having the knowledge of basic facts, such as all sides of a square are equal. Conceptual knowledge consists of understanding the underlying idea behind something. For example, if a student is given a mathematical word problem they use conceptual knowledge to recognize the type of problem it is (i.e. area or perimeter) so the student can then identify the relevant information in the word problem. Students then use their procedural knowledge to carry out the necessary steps to make the proper calculations. Lastly, a student uses metacognitive knowledge to reflect on their work and thinking process in order to help them learn form their strengths and weaknesses in order to become stronger learners.

When explaining the four categories of knowledge I used math examples because math is the subject where students are constantly asked to “show there work” and by doing so they display their factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge down on paper. Metacognitive knowledge is also very prominent in math because when students get stuck or make a mistake they must go back and review each step to find where they went wrong so they can fix their mistakes and properly carry out their work.  It is important that students “show” or “prove their work”.  so that if a student is experiencing difficulty in math, the teacher can follow their work to pinpoint what category of knowledge the student is experiencing trouble with. The teacher can then give the student effective instruction to help him/her overcome the obstacle.

"Fifty-Three times One Hundred Thirty-One" by Daniel Tammet
Retrieved from: http://www.danieltammet.net/artwork.php

However, teachers often expect their students to follow a very specific set of steps in order to complete a math problem. Sometimes students use a very different method to calculate an answer, and even if their final answer is correct, their work is often marked incorrectly if it is not what the teacher wanted to see. For example, look at the painting above. This is how someone answered the multiplication problem of “53 x 131”. I know if I was a teacher and a student handed this into me I would have thought that the student was doodling in class instead of completing their math work, when in fact, the student had a very unique way of thinking and showing his work that I just did not take the time to understand it. In the following video Daniel Tammet explains his different way of thinking and how he uses paintings to express numbers and different mathematical equations.

After watching this video it is very clear that Daniel Tammet has extremely strong factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive knowledge. However, the way he shows his work is so unfamiliar to us that in is not comprehendible without his explanation.

   As teachers, we should welcome different ways of thinking in our classrooms. I know if I ever have a student like Daniel Tammet, I want to know how to effectively assess my students thinking even though they show their work in a way I would never imagine. Stylianides (2007) explain a way that we as teachers can evaluate our students' work no matter what kind of method they use to demonstrate their different types of knowledge. If a student hands in something where he/she shows his/her work in a unique way there are four elements of proof they must be able to explain in order to help us as teachers to understand it. These four elements are foundation, formulation, representation social dimension (Stylianides, 2007).  Formulation is consists of the student explaining their factual knowledge and how it relates to their work. Formulation is how the student can explain how their formula or process was developed based on their factual knowledge. Representation is how the student expresses his/her work, whether it is in numbers, or pictures. Lastly, the social dimension, is how the student’s work fits in to the social context of the learning environment (Stylianides, 2007). When reading about the four elements of proof, it is somewhat difficult to understand. However, if you listen to Daniel Tammet explain how he sees each number in different colours and shapes, you can see how his mathematical artwork follows the four elements of proof.
As future teachers, we should always be open to the different strategies our students might use in their work. By teaching our students to explain their work by using the four elements of proof we will be able to understand their unique way of thinking and ensure that their four categories of knowledge continue to grow and develop. 

References

Anderson, Lorin & Krathwohl (2001). A taxonomy for learning; Teaching and assessing. New York: 

Longman.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21^st-ceturey learner. Tornonto, ON: Oxford University Press.

Stylianides, A. (2007). The notion of proof in the context of elementary school mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 65(1), 1-20.