Rethink Education: 21st Century Skills and EngageNY

How do I incorporate 21st Century Skills into EngageNY?

A Reflection by Richard Beatty

EngageNY provides modules and lessons that are already planned out. Each lesson is a segmented concept intended to build on one another to walk students through the process of becoming proficient in a standard or set of standards.

I started reading an EngageNY Mathematics module from lesson 1 through about lesson 3. I was going to read it linearly from beginning to end to try to understand it as a progression. Then, I decided to read it from the end to the beginning. I started with the end, the “End of Module Assessment Task”. This is the assessment given at the end of the module. I decided I was going to take a Backward Approach (not a Backward Design Approach mind you, since I wasn’t designing anything), to understanding the module and the skills the students were going to learn as we progressed through it.

I began by trying to complete as many of the problems, in the “End of Module Assessment”, as possible. I quickly realized that I did not know how to solve most of them. I was even unsure what the question was asking on some of them. I did my best. When I did all I could do, I looked at the answers. I tried to explain as many of the answers as possible. I explained by talking to myself and trying to come to an understanding of why they wrote the answers as they did. Then I continued backwards through the module.

I read the rubric for the assessment, there wasn’t much there to help me understand the problems (except for the the “Step 4” column maybe), but the rubric did help me understand expectations for student progress. I continued backward, reading the standards that were addressed in the assessment. Then I got to the Mid-Module Assessment and noticed that there were questions there that looked differently than those on the “End of Module Assessment”. I decided that the Mid-Module wasn’t going to assess the same thing as the End of Module. I continued my pattern.

As I was going through the module, I kept thinking to myself, “How am I going to to incorporate 21st Century Skills into this module?” What skills would apply and how would I modify the lessons? The answers materialized as I continued my journey backwards through the module.

Some of the skills are already embedded in EngageNY, especially many of the Learning Skills (critical thinking, communicating, creative thinking, collaborating). When I actually taught the lessons, I tweaked the learning skills to meet my expectations if EngageNy did not address what I was looking for. The literacy skills needed some creativeness and ingenuity on my part. And the Life Skills were dependent on the me as well.

I arrange student seating so that they are in groups of 5 or 6. I also make sure that each student has a partner to work with. Some students get called out of class (resource, speech, etc), so the partners and groups are flexible. Yet, there are rules to the flexibility. I don’t do ability grouping, which natural plays into the flexibility. For example, if a set of partners, can’t figure something out, they can turn to the group. During partner/group work, students are not allowed to ask other groups, or me if I am working with students. I monitor and work with partners or groups during this time. I modify protocols for EngageNy to provide many opportunities for students to practice Life Skills.

The Literacy Skills need more teacher ingenuity. When students have their Chromebooks, they use them to search up words and use Khan Academy to watch videos and get practice on the concepts we are learning. One area that I could have added more Literacy Skills is to have them keep notes in the Google Docs, create Presentations on their learning, and make videos of themselves explaining concepts, instructions on solving problems, etc.

EngageNy Mathematics does lend itself to 21st Century Learning. Teacher modifications are necessary to make it a rich 21st Century Learning environment. The process that I went through as a teacher also incorporated 21st Century skills. I used Critical Thinking to analyse the Module and I used flexibility in my teaching approach. I could have employed more social skills and leadership as I was working though the module. Even though we had a few collaboration days to work some things out together, I pretty much work the module out on my own.

My goal as a 21st Century teacher will be to incorporate the 21st Century skills that I want my students to build into my own professional development. As I proceed, I will figure out how to use them in my own life, so that I can better teach them to my students.

Sources: