A Code for Learning

Even our youngest students can become independent learners

Personalized, competency-based learning is predicated on moving away from whole-group learning where a teacher delivers knowledge from the front of the room while students sit passively at their desks. You might have heard this method referred to as “sage on a stage.”

Sometimes whole-group instruction is necessary — for introducing new material or a new project, for example. But practically speaking, giving children the opportunity to work at their own pace along a learning continuum in a classroom setting means finding ways for them to work independently and in small groups.

Whether a school is actively using a competency system or not, however, a key part of shifting to any student-centered approach requires teachers to shift ownership of learning to their students. 

If we are asking students to take ownership of their learning, there are three distinct areas of focus for them: Becoming independent learners, collaborative learners and quality producers.  I have found that these three learner traits, when utilized by a student, help them to authentically engage in the process of learning and truly understand where they are, where they are going, and what they need to do to move to the next level.

In this post, I will focus on one of these traits: How to help students become independent learners who can navigate learning centers and other resources in the classroom with only minimal direction from the teacher. You may not believe this, but children in kindergarten or even preschool can accomplish this. To do this, however, they need a tool for self-reflection and self-direction. 

In my work, we call this tool a code. A code is a scale typically with four levels ranging from “Not Learning” to “Leading Learning.” It allows a shift from a teacher-directed class to one where students are given the opportunity and tools to lead and navigate their learning. When students use the code as a tool for reflection and direction, they are in charge of themselves. When they get off track, they can use it to “check and adjust”  and get back to learning.  A teacher can also use the code to prompt students to volunteer strategies for how to be an independent learner.

It’s important to note that teachers build these codes with their students — ideally in the first few days of each school year — so that the class has a common understanding of how an independent learner behaves. They can be used from elementary through middle school.

Basically the teachers do an affinity process. They pose these questions to their students: What does an independent learner look like and sound like? And what does it feel like when you're learning? The kids just brainstorm these ideas and the teacher uses them to come up with three or four indicators. These are learning targets and we turn them into “I can” statements, which become “the code” for independent learning.

Here’s is what one affinity process looks like:

And here are some indicators that came out of this process:

Once the teacher has built a code, the mantra of “check and adjust” can be a huge time saver. It’s the difference between having to give (sometimes repeated) explicit directions to individual students that eat away at time for learning, and building capacity in all students for directing themselves.

So instead of a teacher having to say,  “Johnny, please put that down and get to your seat,” followed by, “Johnny, take your book out and get your materials ready for the next activity” — or “I’m counting to five. FIVE. FOUR. Ariel, are you where you need to be right now? You boys at the back table, you need to get a move on. THREE. Ariel that book is not going to put itself away etc., etc., ” — the teacher can engage in an entirely different kind of conversation.

Instead, the conversation could go something like this: “Okay, Robert, you are a 2. What do you need to do?” (Or later, simply: “Robert, you need to check and adjust.”)

Asking students to articulate a strategy is key. The process of engaging in change requires both a goal and a strategy.  I often say, a goal without a strategy is ultimately a teacher’s wish and a student’s dream.

Maybe Robert happens to be sitting next to his best friend and he is distracting him and making a lot of noise and distracting others as well. The odds are good, though, that if asked for a strategy, Robert will volunteer that he needs to move away from his friend. Or his classmate, Sally, a champion independent learner, will offer that suggestion.

When you ask students to come up with a strategy for change, they often know the answer. We just haven’t asked. Which brings us back to another mantra of mine: Students are our best resource.

A teacher can also use the code with the whole group in preparation for moving to small groups by announcing:  “Everybody! Eyes on me! Are we at 1, 2, 3 or 4? Show me on your fingers.”  

You can't have self-regulation if you don't have self-awareness, and that’s what a code provides.

Sometimes it’s a tough sell to convince teachers they need a code. They want to get right to teaching math, for instance, and they believe the only way a child can learn is if they teach them directly. But if we know that out of 20 kids in a whole-group lesson, five kids get it, but 7-10 show signs that they definitely do not, and yet we continue to do whole-group lessons every day, why do we wonder why kids aren't learning? 

It’s because we're not meeting them where they are.