Kate McCallum

Final Problem of Practice Report

CEP 817
Spring 2017

SUMMARY
In this class, students were asked to identify a problem of practice that could be worked on using design
thinking skills. These were based on the Stanford d.school model (Fig.1).

All were guided to choose a problem that was large in scale and one that didn't have a concrete solution.

Herein lied my problem to work on: how can teachers grade writing skills in an efficient way that also
engages the student?

In all, I created an alternative assignment (a podcast), I included new versions of feedback, and I prototyped
and tested these in my 10th grade general English classes at my high school.

Fig. 1: In this class we practiced the Stanford d.schools process of thinking and designing.

EMPATHIZE

In order to understand things from a modern student perspective, I turned to my use of Google Classroom and
technology in my own classes (Fig. 2-4). I went back through some of my classwork thus far this year and
more specifically, I went to my major writing assignment turn ins that I facilitate through Google Classroom
and looked at how students turned them in (what times, how many students were late, and how many edits they
went through before submission). In all of this I found these trends:

1. Students will always use the time you give them up until the end.
2. More time doesn't always mean a better product.
3. Students aren't drafting much.
4. They spend a very brief time working though the piece, especially after grading.
5. Students are more responsive to a grade than they are to a "process" for their writing.
6. Thought provoking assignments ( related to current events, or their own opinions, etc.) tend to have
more turn ins, more drafts, and generally more progress.
In all I was better able to understand what students might want out of writing assignments:
Something that is "doable"- that can be achieved reasonably and turned in.
Something that will be thought provoking (that they see as valuable thinking/research, etc.)
Anything that seems tied to what they might do professionally, is more valuable to students ( they
want to advance skills for jobs/college/future). If the assignment is "professional" in nature than it's
better overall.
Feedback that is not "too long" , and that includes a grade. Also, students appreciate and crave an
opportunity to "fix" mistakes and improve a piece for a better grade. Traditional feedback is boring
and not very helpful.

Fig. 2. Snapshot of my G.
Classroom Space.

Fig. 3-5. I used teaching

tools built into the
classroom to help me
understand how my
students were working and
ways that I could redesign
the writing process for
them.
DEFINE
To begin, I identified a few key areas to explore:

1. What is it like to receive feedback from a teacher and what would/should a student want to get out of the
feedback?

2. What is it like to give feedback a s a teacher? What are the goals of giving writing feedback to students?

3. What modern technology can I use to help solve this problem?

4. What already exists? In other words, what have other teachers done to improve this problem?

Fig. 6: I worked to map out my thinking in order to get to the root of the problem.

After engaging in a few extra thinking assignments I got a little stuck as it had deeper main roots that I had
originally NOT anticipated. While I originally was wanting to explore new ways to give feedback on
essays,etc. I realized that traditional essays are more than likely part of the problem.

The industries that will exist for modern students do not require this long form "essay"writing technique
(outside of academia). Instead, they will revolve around a different more social skill set. They will mostly
focus more on innovation and skills in thinking than with writing.

Most English essay assignments or grading do NOT emulate this. The root problem is that we have a major
mismatch in the world in which educators create assignments and the world in which kids feel they need to
prepare for. This causes a lack in motivation and stifles creativity. Kids feel like their work is just to get a
grade, and a means to an end. It also is draining on most modern teachers as they toil through paper after
paper. With this in mind, I needed to define this as well in my problem in order to work on a realistic
solution:

So I began thinking and mapping a revised problem (Fig. 6) that was sort of like this:
What writing skills are needed for modern students, and how can teachers grade these skills in an efficient way
that also engages the student?

At this point I looked for new ideas on how to make assignments to fit these, rather than trying to come up
with ways to streamline essay grading. For example I began to exploring these ideas: Maybe NO essays at all!?
How could we do this? Does video count as writing? How can I use popular media to teach
communication/writing skills?

IDEATE

In the ideate session I re-learned the value of brainstorming and bouncing ideas off one-another. I got a
"refilled idea-bucket" when I brainstormed with my friend (Fig. 9&10) and it reminded me of the RSA
Animate piece from noted author Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From that mentioned how ideas
often needed to marry other people's ideas to become great. I had not seriously thought about this human
nature to connect things (although I do it all the time) and I don't think I formerly allowed my students this
time enough either by design.

Thus, the value of time also was reinforced during this module for me. I think that all of us can relate to time
constraints and I really like building a designed "time off" into the process. I really felt like it was productive
for me and I also hope to use this as a building block for future class units for my students as well.

To complete my problem solving, I wanted to figure a way to build and prototype a system that uses these
values and was able to engage students with writing in a creative, useful way. I was not sure if this was as
simple as a different type of grading/rubric, or perhaps a different technology to use, or maybe even a new idea
of what to write all together (no more essays!). (Fig. 7)

Fig. 7. I took
time to explore
the two
perspectives-
teacher and
student.
Designer v.
User. This
helped me
define my
problem and led
to a prototype.
Fig. 9 & 10. I also conferred with a friend (highly educated) to get an outside opinion on writing, real life
implications, and the inherent lessons that she remembers learning with writing. This helped me form new
ideas and trash assumptions about the writing process that I had.

PROTOTYPE

In approaching a prototype I had considered several things but my main focus was to work on something both
practical (one that I already had the materials to create) and and helpful (could solve the problem).

The main prototype I piloted was an audio podcast assignment, and through such I aimed to have my feedback
be more alternative and more engaging (trying audio). Some technologies to explore were the Kaizena Add
On and voice recording apps. the main prototype here is to have an audio podcast essay, and for my feedback
to be alternative and more engaging (through audio). Also I wondered if I could use any calendar
technologies/apps to help stagger my feedback allowing for more timely responses.
Fig. 11. This is what the Kaizena add -on brings you to. It is no longer embedded in the Google Docs like I
had hoped. It took a lot of work to get a recording sent to a student and what was meant to be quick and
audible, was lost. I wouldnt use this again for this assignment. I did still like the idea of audio feedback, if it
is feasible to record in a short amount of time.

TEST

I tested my unit with 10th grade students in my general English class. This is one with diverse learners and a
range from kids with IEPs to those who could have been in the honors section. My class size ranged from
25-30 students per hour, and I taught this particular class for 4 hours each day.

This allowed me a unique opportunity to test units and amend/analyze results from hour to hour. I had
another teacher come spend an hour with me to observe, and her feedback was also positive. She liked how the
students really did take some life-interest in the project.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Some positives were that kids truly seemed engaged in the project. They felt like they had gotten to choose the
topic and many were finding it refreshing to talk about cars or science in a way that interested them and also
involved some personal goals ( I have a student who has a parent with MS for example, and he is convinced
his generation can cure this disease. He researched and talked much with his parents throughout the project.) I
liked that I could have real -life conversations with the kids in this regard. If nothing else, I learned new things
about many students. I noticed that for far too long, I had been doing all the work so to speak at least in the
revision process for writing. Kids literally asked you mean I have to check over my own work?, and I also
had kids admit with their first portion, I just turned it in for a grade. I need to redo it. These questions
showed me that my POP was a valid problem, and that my work was meaningful.

Some negatives were that this whole design process took A LOT of time. We were interrupted by Spring
Break, statewide testing and school functions. I had to adjust many things because we just needed more time.
Another is that this overall assessment placed a great deal of responsibility on the student in his/her learning
process (which I like). Yet, this did not help the existing gap with lower achieving students: half got motivated,
and half procrastinated and did not turn in their work. I feel like I have reached and gotten to know some
students that I never would have with an essay. But, I couldnt provide feedback if I didnt have any work in
the first place from these students.

As for feedback, the first portion was where I had students organize their arguments, and I gave feedback and a
formative grade. One element was that I offered kids more points back if they fixed their mistakes. I would say
that about of the kids that did not get 100%, fixed their mistakes and had at least one interaction with me
about how to improve. This in and of itself was a step in the right direction and was very valuable in terms of
measurable results. The second portion was meant to be audio feedback using Kaizena add on. Well, this did
not go as planned. Kaizena has changed their app so no longer can you edit within a Google Doc directly.
Now, you must go to a third party site, upload assignments, talk, then send the feedback back to the student.
Those extra steps made it WAY too time consuming. It took over an hour on my first two tries so I stopped. I
did have kids wanting that feedback for that step in their work so I feel I missed an opportunity, but I didnt
have a solution in time. I plan to work this out more next time and I learned that as a designer, I am a novice in
working with timing. I need more practice with this type of process and the overall time to spend on each with
students. Perhaps changing deadlines around could also help aide my feedback process. This time , however, it
was trial and error.

All in all, I would do the project again. I would look at the middle formative step and find a better solution. I
would streamline the design process steps as I now understand which ones take the most time. As for the final
product, I was happy. Kids did a way better job with language and with the overall logic portions. They had
some fun with it. I was able to bring in things like Read and Write for Google extension, where the kids were
able to listen to their typed drafts to look for revision/errors. This showed me overall that a designed approach,
although lengthy, can lead to new innovative lessons and student engagement that regular lesson planning
does not.
Fig. 11& 12 . Students
began by brainstorming.
This was also like our
ideate for our design
processes. I allowed time
for this which was valuable
for students.

Fig. 13& 14. Students

organized and drafted a
transcript of their podcast.
Fig. 15 - 19. Students worked to
create an audio recording that
presented their arguments and
evidence for them. Most
students used a cell phone and
an app to record. I created
tutorial slides to aide in the
technological aspect of getting
their audio files.
Fig. 20-22. Students submitted
their podcast audio files. I was
able to listen to them and ,
finally, used the designed
rubric to assess them.