Episode 93: Whole-Class Novels with MCP


Voiceover: Welcome to the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. Each week we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self-paced, and mastery-based learning to better serve their students. We believe teachers learn best from each other, so this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. 


Hello, and welcome to episode 93 of the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. My name is Tony Rose Dnnon. She her pronouns a community engagement manager at Modern Classroom, and I am joined today by Brittany Karen, an AP language and Composition teacher whom I've had the pleasure to talk to about her structure of the whole class novels using Modern Classroom. So welcome, Brittany. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, my gosh, it's so exciting to be in this space with you. And thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. So before we get started, how are you feeling today? I feel great. Summer has officially started, so everything is packed up and locked away, and it's time for a nice, relaxing break, I hope. I hope so as well. I remember that feeling of just closing out the school year and just kind of taking a step back and just reflecting and seeing and celebrating all of the cool things that we did this year. And I know that this year is probably one of the hardest years as well for you, Brittany, but I really hope that you're able to rest and do things that bring you joy this summer and during your break. All right, so tell us more about who you are and how you started your MCP journey. Yeah. I am Brittany Karen. I'm from San Diego. I work in San Diego. I started the Modern Classroom in the height of the pandemic, as I think a lot of teachers did. I was doing the flipped classroom model where all I was simply doing was replacing my in class lectures with a video and making them do those at home and then working in the classroom. But I just felt like there was something missing that I wasn't really meeting their needs in this hybrid. Our school was doing hybrid teaching at the time, so half the kids were at home and half of them were in my class, but we were all supposed to be learning at the same time, so I just felt like I wasn't meeting their needs completely. And I heard Kareem on the Cult of Pedagogy podcast and instantly thought, this is it. This is what I need. And it sounds so cliche because I listen to the podcast all the time. I hear so many teachers say that exact same statement, but it's so true. It really embraced all of the aspects of postcoded life that we were looking into and this technology push and just the way that the world was changing with needing to be independent and creative and just try new things. So I dove right into the model with the free class, just jumped right into it in my classroom towards the end of 2020. And then I enrolled in the mentorship program just recently to help me master the parts that I wasn't quite grasping. I finished the mentorship in March, and then, yeah, I've just been doing it all full steam ahead all the way. That's such a cool journey. Thank you so much for sharing. And I know I'm really excited to have an AP teacher on as well, just because we've had a lot of questions about how modern classroom can fit into an AP curriculum and AP standards and all that. So I'm really excited to kind of have this conversation with you as well. And so you reached out to us asking about whole class novels using the model, and I was really, so excited to talk with you about it. And so we've also gotten so many questions and comments about how whole class novels can work with this model, and you've come up with some really cool ways and really opened up my perspective as well, because I did it one way or multiple ways, and you did it a completely different way as well. So let's talk about your planning process. Like, how did you choose your books? How did you choose your standards? How did you start backwards planning for this? Yeah, so some of the books that are chosen for me, as many English teachers know all too well, that we're just kind of throwing a set of books that we have to teach. But for the parts where I do get freedom into what I teach, I try to choose novels that have those universal themes that my students can connect to in their own life. I try to focus on books that highlight an experience that's outside of my student demographic. I teach in an upper middle class private school, I have to say. So really choosing texts that challenge their perspective of the world and books that cause them to question their own world view, because a lot of my students do live in quite a bubble, and so I really try to hone in on those things that will make them question and seek understanding. I do teach AP lang, like you said. And so while most schools are most teachers in that subject, focus on solely on nonfiction texts, we do have to include literature at my school. So I try to choose text that makes significant arguments about society so that we can hone in on how an author makes an argument while also doing all those things of challenging our world view. Next year, I'm moving back to world literature, which is where I started. So in choosing those texts, I try to choose parts of the world that often hold a particular stigma. So we're focusing on the Middle East. We're reading texts from Nigeria, India. We're focusing a lot on South America next year as well. In terms of standards for my AP class, I'm really focusing this year on those College Board standards that were kind of thrown at all of us during the pandemic. But I'm really going to spend my time this summer to dive into those and put those into my planning. And then for my other classes, I try to focus on we're not forced to be on Common Core, so we don't have to hone in on those. But I do have them guide my units and things like that. And I'm really appreciative of the fact that you acknowledged your demographics and really just making sure that your students perspective is being challenged and exposing them to so many different parts of the world. And I know that literature has this power, right. This impact of just being able to know other people's stories, because I do feel like stories are very powerful. And I also really appreciate the fact that you name the College Board standard or is that we're thrown at you? Yeah, because I know that I remember having a conversation with another AP teacher and they were like, Yeah, College Board standards. And I was like, Whoa, what is that? And I had to Google it and figure out what it was. Is it pretty useful having those College Board standards? Is it coming out of the blue? How did that come about? Yeah, so at first, I think a lot of us AP teachers were like, what is this? I don't understand. I've been able to sit with them for a little bit of time now, and I do think they're helpful. I think that the beauty of AP lang is that there's so much that can be taught, but that also kind of lends itself to a disservice to teachers, like, what exactly are we supposed to be doing? Because there's so much that can be taught in the world, or the umbrella of rubric or rhetoric, I should say. And so it is helping to guide and foster that idea of, like, this is the basics of what we're supposed to be teaching. Let's not get lost in our own passion of rhetoric and argumentative writing and let's really focus on what the students need. It's good now. I'm good with them now. I really love that. I think that what you said is really powerful as well. It's just saying that we have to be intentional with what we want to put in front of our students because like you said, there's so many things we can cover. And I think that's another thing that AP teachers say a lot that I've heard anyway, is that we just have so much to cover. How does Modern Classroom going to help out with this? Right? We just have a lot to cover. There's a huge test at the end. Like, we're just crunched for time. And so when you're thinking about the novels and the literature that you've included in your classroom, brittany, what was the time frame with that? How did you decide the time frame? Well, being that it is a college leveled class, I do tend to go through novels pretty quick, but about five weeks is our unit novel length. I've had to release my control a lot and not get so hyper focused on the little things in the text and really focus on the big picture of the argument and the rhetoric and doing little close readings here and there and just let go of this is not a Fitzgerald College class. We don't need to know every detail. We don't necessarily need to focus on if it was raining in 70 degrees outside, we'll mention those things. But I've had to step back and let go of control a lot and recognize the purpose of why the students are there and what they need. And I think a lot of that resonated with me as well. As an English teacher myself, right? I would read the chapters and like, oh my gosh, you have to cover this, this and this and this, and it's like, no girl, focus on theme. Theme is what you're focusing on. Focus on that. And so I really like that because I know as English teachers, we're so passionate about the things that we read and we just want to talk about all of the things that the authors are doing really well in that novel and that literature. And so I think, like you said, Brittany, it's really difficult to relinquish that control and also just naming that, right? It's naming the fact that we have to relinquish the control and also just being mindful of, okay, this is my big standards and this is the content and the skills that I'm teaching, I'm going to focus on that. And we can mentioned all the little things that are happening within the chapters, within the excerpts or whatever, but really the focal point is the skill or standard that we're focusing on, which I think is really great. So, five weeks, how do your students feel about that? They're used to it by the end of the year when they see other classes spending eight weeks on a text, they have mentioned to me, I'm so glad we're done with that. And like I said, it's quick at first are a little hesitant to how quick it is, but when we start getting into the flow of things, they're with it and they are talking about it. And in all honesty, this year with Modern Classroom, my discussions with students about books has been so much more in depth than I've ever had. Our Socratic seminars have been so powerful and I never once questioned using this model with novels because of just the things I was getting out of students. So I don't know what the magic is, but it's magic and it works. Brittany, it's your magic. It seems like, you did it, so it's your magic. This is so great to hear because I know from my experience, definitely the Socratic seminars at the end, we had one every unit. The students just had a lot more to say, and they were a lot more excited about speaking out, which was really great. And I completely agree with you. I used to be that English teacher, which we would take eight to nine weeks reading a book, saying, gosh, I don't even know what I was thinking. And I get it, because by week nine, my students already forgot what week one was about. Right? And that's not their fault. That's on me because I don't even remember what I did yesterday. So for me to expect my students to know what they did from week one, that was just a little bit ridiculous and kind of just like it's just really high expectations. And so I love the five week time frame that you have. I know when I implemented the Modern Classroom with a novel, we read a book for about three to four weeks because we knew that after that time period, our students were going to be so tired of just like, oh, my God, we're doing this again. Why can't we be done already? Okay, so let's talk about your magic that you said. I'm really excited to just kind of get into it because I know our listeners and a lot of our implementers who are just kind of having a really hard time coming up with creating a whole class novel like unit for their Modern Classroom. Let's talk about this. How do you use blended learning with the Whole class novel? So my mentor helped me a lot with this because this was my biggest motivation for enrolling in the program. And I think it was the blended part that was the biggest challenge for me because as an English teacher, I always held firm to this idea that those lectures that come after reading, where we have to cover everything that I know the students didn't pick up on, those were so important. But like I said previously, that's not what they were meeting in this classroom. Maybe a college class where they're focusing on that author, that's more of where that belongs. But when we're in the high school classroom and we have so much to cover, that's not a good use of our time. So I would assign the readings. I'd create a very quick video that would be set to be watched after the reading, and it would just highlight what connections they should be picking up on in their supplemental text that I would assign or the assignments, the activity that I would assign to them. I would include maybe something about an understanding that they should enhance in that activity whatever it is that I needed them to focus on. And then I also included optional videos that replaced those whole class kind of lectures, and I would go through the chapter, and this is where the students would say that I would geek out on the chapter. And I warned them, too. This is where, if you want to see your English teacher in her nerdy like literature world, watch the videos. And a lot of students mentioned that those videos became their favorite because they weren't required. They only had to watch them when they know they didn't understand the text. But they all started to watch them towards the end because they would laugh at me, cracking jokes, uncovering innuendos that the author would include in their novel. I would leave all of my mistakes in the recording. I know I remember somebody in the online program said, leave all of your mistakes. It's who you are. So I did. And they just became their favorite part of the novel because it was their chance to sit with me and talk about the text. The kids who had no interest in doing that didn't have to do it. They could just do the supplemental assignments instead. So our in class time was organized with a do now activity that spoke to the bigger argument about society or whatever the thematic discussion was. And it was never something that a kid who was behind in reading couldn't do. It was always something that they still could be a part of. And then we always have academic talk time after our due. Now, I cut that a little bit shorter during our novel study to allow for more in class work time. But that was kind of the basic of every day in terms of the blended learning. I know that. I remember when I first spoke to you, Brittany, I was like, Oh, my gosh, she made me want to go back into the English classroom and implement all of these things that you just said, because I didn't even think to do that. I love the fact that you have optional videos, and it's just a way, like you said, to geek out on literature, because I think that's our time to shine, right? It's kind of like when we can have those conversations about all the things that we want to talk about pertaining to that chapter. And so making that optional is really great. And so I see a couple of things here. You're making learning accessible. So, like you said, if a student did not understand what they read, they have that optional video to listen to, to watch. And just like, I'm sure that your passion towards your subject really kind of exudes, right? And so your students are picking that up, and it seems like they're really enjoying it, and so it's accessible. They can learn about this chapter that they didn't understand, and you're not making them feel bad if they didn't understand it. Because I know when I was in AP classes, there were lots of chapters that went over my head. If my teacher had an optional video that I could watch. And then also you also said that your personality is shown through in these videos. Right. And I think, again, this is what I tell the teachers that I work with and new implementers is that your videos don't have to be perfect. Actually, as imperfect as they are, the more imperfect they are, the children or the students really enjoy it because they get to see you as a human being. So I'm really glad that that worked out for you. And again, this is your magic that's happening. Also, I'm just curious, who was your mentor? Jessie Oster House. I'm probably going to coach butchered her name. I'm so sorry if she's listening, but she was fantastic as a mentor. So helpful. Yeah, I was actually able to come in and observe her. And she teaches so many different classes, and in one class, there's like three classes, three different classes in one class, if that makes sense. Like three different content. And she's a rock star. So I'm so glad that you had Jesse. Love you, Jessie, shouting out, Jesse here. But yes, again, I'm in awe. The entire time that you were talking, I just had the biggest smile on my face because I was like, wow, these are all great ideas. And even you talking about the connections with supplemental text. I think supplemental text is really important, especially if you have a novel that's already been mandated by your school, your district. Right. And so being able to pull out supplemental text that students can look at and be exposed to is really important. And I love that you have that ability and you are able to just make those connections and have those supplemental text for your students. And then also just your due now, right. No matter where your student is in that pacing tracker, students are able to participate because it is a thematic unit. So they have open ended questions that are vague enough but also specific enough, if that makes sense. And gosh, Britney, I want to come to your class. Meantime, San Diego, I mean, I am in Washington State, so I may come down. Yeah, come on down. Okay, we'll switch. I think you kind of mentioned some parts about self pacing. So what about self pacing? How did you make that work for you? So I have a unit tracker, and then I also use that self updating public tracker. My kids love that. And so I have both of those. I include in the unit tracker a reading and the supplemental activity or text with a suggested deadline of every class period. So kind of giving them that if you work every class period diligently, you'll have very minimal homework or no homework and you'll be on track. The one thing I'll say is I did also struggle with the classifications of lessons, and Jesse suggested that I take those titles off of my unit tracker because high schoolers, they don't tend to do things if they think that they're optional. So I started hiding my mustache. Should you aspire to do titles, but noting them on my own document. And so if a student was behind, I would be able to excuse them from certain assignments. And they just thought I was this magical, wonderful human because I let them skip those three assignments. But really, I already knew that that was where I was giving them kind of a buffer. So in terms of the reading assignments, I fluctuated how many chapters based on if there was a weekend or a weekday using that calendar. Obviously, I think most of us do that, but each morning we would have a reading quiz. And then this is kind of where a little bit more of that magic happened. I would do a very simplistic one or two question reading quiz that was more of a big picture, which of these don't belong? Or what is this person trying to say in this? And it really was just connected to their understanding of rhetoric more than anything. But what was really helpful is I decided to add a question that said, are you behind or are you on pace? And if a student was behind, it would take them. I use Google Forms from my mastery checks, so it would take them to a page that says, okay, stop. Find a quiet space, open your book and get to reading. And I would meet with the students that were at that spot, and I'd say, Okay, when are we going to take this? When are you going to get caught up? Oftentimes it was at the end of class or at lunch, or they say, Look, I'll take two of them next class. I just had this big AP psych test. I really just put my book aside, and so we would work that out. And that was so helpful for students to just take that stress and burden off of having to read on someone else's schedule. And this is the first time in my teaching of Aplang that the students were telling me that, honestly, the first time I've finished every single book that we have. Now, they could be lying because they're high schoolers, but I could tell from the discussions that a lot more students were reading this year than ever before because I took that stressor away from them, I think. And then I would say that finally I always scheduled hard deadlines. I'd have about two or three hard deadlines per unit, depending on the text that were our Socratic seminars. And that would be like, you need to have this chunk of text read by this day because we're going to talk about it. And we always would use the Parlay app, and the students would love that app, by the way. And they would put in their class notes like, Ms. Karen, I'm still behind. I really miss this chapter. And so it's just a way to have transparency between both of us as well. I guess when you said your high school students said that they read all of the books. I agree. High schoolers can fib, but I feel like that's not something they would lie about, right? Yeah. I actually had a high school boy that was talking about a situation that happened on the football team, and he was just saying, you know, it's like we branded him with a scarlet letter, and he was just up there on the scaffold, and I couldn't I was like, I'm going to need a minute. Oh, my gosh, that's beautiful. And also Scarlett Letter, long time ago. I really hope our students aren't listening to this because you know how you said that they think that you let them skip? We don't want them to know our tricks. You said really great stuff, Brittany. And again, this makes me excited about returning to the classroom, if that ever happens, because you just have such really great ideas. I think you're absolutely right about the suggested deadline of every class period, because students love it when you say there's no homework. Like, you don't have homework if you do everything you need to do. And so having that time, that skill for ownership, right, and accountability and time management, it really enforces our students to practice those skills. And with our students, they have lives outside of school. And so if you think about it, they're taking eight classes. That's a lot of homework. If every class had homework. I definitely had this philosophy as well of like, hey, if you do everything you need to do in class, you don't actually have any homework. And that was motivation enough for them to stay on track. And so Jesse had the right idea of hiding titles. I know a lot of our implementers hide titles just for students not knowing what they can skip, because they will definitely skip around. I taught middle school, so I did not hide the titles because I was all about transparency, and for the most part, students still did a lot of the tasks. And so, again, for a new implementer, that's okay too, right? Hide those titles. Students actually don't need to know your must do, should do, and aspire to do. And then with the reading quiz, I really like that you've implemented the Google form. So I don't know if our listeners are aware of this, but Google form, you can kind of have like, a scavenger hunt using Google form. And so you said when students are behind, again, there's no reprimand right? There's not like you scolding at them or them feeling bad, but it's more so like, okay, this is where I'm at right now, and that's okay. So here's time for me to catch up. And I love that because, again, life happens, and sometimes we are behind, and that's okay. We're creating that space with this model for our students to really show up as themselves authentically and knowing that I had an AP psych exam that I was studying for, I had homework that took me 3 hours to complete, and so I just didn't have the opportunity to read this chapter. And that's okay because you'll get there. And so I love all of that. I have a follow up question. Britney, when you said that you had a public pacing tracker where students are able to move themselves, how does that look? Because I know sometimes high school teachers are like, oh my gosh, I can't do that. My students would not like that at all. But how does that look in your class? I actually use the one that's auto updating where it's the one that's on the Facebook page. So when I put something on my tab, it auto updates what they're viewing. I don't trust them to move themselves either. That's a good clarifying question. I do love the automated sheets because that's for me to do. Okay, so that's a good clarifying question because when you were like, Oh, they can move themselves, I was like, Oh, how does that work? It's nice to be able to have one sheet open on my computer, and what they're viewing on the whiteboard is changing automatically and moving them from column to column. I was using one that I created myself, and it was just such a mess, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't keep up with it. So, yes, the auto updating on the Facebook page, and we'll link that on the show notes as well. I'm sure so many people have asked for this automated sheet, and they've made it their own, which is really great. Okay, well, thank you for sharing that. And also, Parlay ideas is a huge my students love parley ideas so much. I know a lot of English teachers use this as well, so if you've never checked it out, listeners definitely check out Parliament ideas because it's such a great way to have conversations and discussions. So it's a way for students to really preview and kind of think about what they're going to say in the real life, like Socratic seminars. And so it's a great tool. So definitely check that out. Okay, so let's move on to the third pillar. Brittany, what did mastery based learning look like in your classroom? This one is tricky because my school requires that an entire teaching team has a matching grade book. So I was not able to tailor my grade but to truly mastery based. But I just leaned heavily on rubric to help my students see where they were needing to focus their questions with me or their learning or the activities that they definitely didn't turn down. These also helped me a lot with meeting with students. So one of the things about the model that I love, especially as an Aplant teacher, is I was able to give so much authentic feedback this year because I had the time to do it. And so using those rubrics really helped me focus my feedback for each individual student. I kept an Excel spreadsheet log of just after every essay I'd flip through and just say, this kid really needs to focus on audience or appeals or whatever it is that they needed to focus on. So that when I met with them, I could really hone in on that. It also really helped me eliminate a lot of the tasks that I was throwing at them because it forced me to ask, what is the purpose of this? What is the purpose of this assignment? And I know that we as teachers are trained and asking ourselves that, but I think when we get into the rhythm of teaching, we kind of stop asking ourselves that. At least I know I did. And I had a lot of these things that I thought were so amazing and so great, but when I forced myself to put a rubric to it, I realized there was not a lot of really authentic purpose behind them. So rubrics, rubrics, rubrics. That was kind of the huge way that I was able to focus my mastery base without changing my grade book. And that was a struggle for me because I had in my mind the exact way I would create a gradebook and focus on argument, rhetorical analysis, synthesis skills, but I just wasn't able to do that. Yeah, and that's a really interesting point too, because I think sometimes our new implementers kind of think that the grade book is like the pacing tracker. In a sense, the pacing tracker tells us a lot more about our students than the grade book. And so you are able to just kind of make it work for you. And I also, as an avid user of Rubrics, I really wanted things to be clear and transparent for my students. And so every assignment that they had or every mastery check that they had, had a rubric so they knew what mastery looked like. And I also had examples for them so they could see it visually and they could see they could start internalizing a process and processing what the mastery check should look like. And so you pointed out some, again, great things here, Brittany. I'm just really enjoying our conversation. Honestly. I have to agree with Modern Classroom, there was a lot of authentic feedback and I think that was my favorite as far as because you get to create that relationship with the students, right, but also giving them feedback and critique and then being able to take it and implement it. So great. Yeah. I should also add that my Ed puzzles I set at Auto grade, which love them for creating that feature. My assignments, my Must dos are just for credit. No credit if they did it. And then everything else, I put a rubber too. So I know that if it were me, I'd be panicking, like, oh, I have to make a rubric for everything. But no, I make a rubric for mastery checks or anything that is more very writing heavy things like that. Yeah. And thank you for pointing that out. There is absolutely no reason for you to create a rubric for every single thing that you do that would be awful. And I did the same thing with Ed Puzzle. I've said before in the podcast, I always told my students, you have to score 70% or higher on the edge of videos before you can move forward. So they knew that if they got a 67%, misty is going to make me rewatch this. And you're right. And that was never in my grade book. I never put that in my grade book. I never told my students. I never put it in the gradebook, but I didn't say that I wasn't either. So it was just kind of like an understanding that that was the expectation that like, hey, it's a 70% or higher before you move forward. And it was just a mastery check that I really focused on. And then I provided feedback throughout the tasks. So the guided practice or the task before the mastery check, or I would sift through them and give them feedback so they knew that I was looking at almost everything. They thought I was looking at everything I was not, but they never knew what I was going to check. And so that was just kind of like something for them to just continue practicing the skills that we were practicing in class. I love this. And I think again, right, like, this model really forced me, and it seemed like it forced you as well, Brittany, to take a step back and see the purpose of the things that we do in the classroom. And you're absolutely right with teaching, right. We just kind of get distracted or distraught or overwhelmed or whatever. And so we kind of lose this time to reflect on exactly what meaningful tasks there are for students to do, as opposed to us just giving them lots of work because that's what we've been doing and that's what the district requires of us or whatever it may be, right? So, again, dropping gems. Love your magic. So, listeners, we're going to take a quick break. And so when we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about full class novels and using modern classrooms. Hey there, listeners. It's Zach here. I just wanted to drop in to share with you some fantastic feedback that we received via email on a question that we actually posed to you on a Q and A episode a few weeks ago. A listener had written in to us asking for ideas on how to display all of her students names on her pacing tracker because she had a really big class and the name didn't all fit on the screen. So Tony Rose and I kind of gave it a shot on the episode, but we didn't really feel like we had the best answers. So we put the question to you all, and we got some really amazing responses. And there are two that I want to share with you all. First, we heard from Erin, who had the absolute ingenious idea of displaying the lessons along the left side and arranging the names horizontally along the top. And honestly, Tony Rose and I laughed when we read this email together because it's such an incredibly obvious and simple answer that didn't occur to us. Like, our screens are nearly twice as wide as they are tall, and Erin even sent a template with an explainer, and I'll link those in the show notes for you, but she puts the names at a diagonal along the top so you can fit even more names across the top. And that's a really fantastic idea that I wish had occurred to me, but that's why we put the question to you all. The second response I'd like to share with you we got from Craig, who has done some truly incredible things with formulas in his spreadsheet to automatically move kids names from lesson to lesson. I don't think I can do this justice trying to explain it on the podcast here, but I did link it in the show notes, so please go check it out. It basically takes the form of a very basic slide with boxes on it for each lesson, and the students names move between the boxes, but the movement happens automatically based on data in a more traditional row and column spreadsheet type of tracker. So definitely, definitely go and check out these resources. I'm linking them in the show notes for you, and I'm super appreciative of all of you who reached out. And I'm glad that we kind of crowdsourced this. And I hope that the listener who originally asked us that question is able to use these resources or use one of these solutions, and it solves their issue of not being able to display enough names on the screen. Of course, please continue to reach out to us. Clearly, Tony Rose and I benefit from your wisdom, so reach out to us at podcast@modernclassrooms.org. And now let's get back into this discussion of whole class novels with Tony Rose and Brittany. All right, and we're back with Brittany. So let's kind of talk about you being an AP teacher. So as an AP teacher, what were one or two challenges that you came across in implementing this model? I think, as I mentioned earlier, novels, that was a huge challenge for me. I listened to every single podcast. I dove into the exemplary units, and I just really struggled with putting the pieces together. One thing that Jesse, my mentor, had told me was we don't have to have every single element of the model fitting a certain box and checking certain boxes. We just have to make the self pacing and the blending work for that unit. So that releasing myself from this idea that I had to have this and then this, and then this, and then I'd have a mastery track, and then I'd move on to the next video. I don't know why I was following such a model that allowed my students so much freedom with so much rigidity. Like, I was giving myself so much rigidity to it. So releasing myself from that was very helpful. And then I think the second thing is that the students struggled a lot at first when I implemented it full steam. And I spoke with my admin about this a lot because a lot of complaints came through, I'll be very honest. And we really came to the understanding that they are so used to a certain form of teaching and learning that required them to sit down, be told what to do, do that thing, and then leave. And then come back and sit down, be talked at, told what to do, and leave. They were struggling with the freedom and the kind of ownership that this model gave them. So I decided to just be very transparent with them, tell them why I believed in this model so much. I allowed them to give me feedback. It was very messy at first on my end because I just dove right into the model. So I took all of their feedback into consideration and blended everything as we went. And at the end of this year, students told me over and over again how much they loved it and that they were so uneasy at first and they realized why they were uneasy. So those are the two challenges. Nozzles? And then the student push back a little bit just because they're not used to tailoring their time and they're not used to making choices for themselves, which is kind of a shame, but we'll get there. Yes. Like you said, it definitely is a shame. And I think that's why this model is so great for students and teachers, right? It not only holds students accountable, it also holds teachers accountable because we have to give them feedback for them to keep. And I would say with the feedback, part of that, too, is if a teacher listening to this is like, yeah, my students hate it. Like, I have to abandon it. I would say have a conversation with them. I opened a whole class period up to, like, pausing what we are learning and just saying, look, I've heard the complaints. I've heard you all. I've seen you in the class being mad at me. Let's talk about where that's coming from. And I will say that that day that we spent together was the most transformational because I heard them, but they also had a chance to hear from me and recognize that I had the future for them in mind, whereas they had, like, tomorrow in mind. That conversation transformed everything, and they bought in after that. They recognized that I was willing to hear where they believed I needed to make some adjustments. They recognized that I was willing to be flexible. And so with that, I would say, open your door to that conversation before you just abandon everything. It's a huge change for students. It's a huge shift from what they've been forced to do for so many years. Yeah. And it's a huge shift for teachers, too. Something I've always said is that we teach the way we were taught. And so to just completely turn it upside down and say, actually, we're going to do it this way, and then to actually backwards plan and not just talk about it and differentiate and relinquish control, that's a lot. It is. Yeah, it is a lot. And I think that that's really key to make this thing successful. To make this model successful is really opening up and inviting students to take a part of this whole learning journey. Because this is not for us as teachers, right? We already know this stuff. This is their learning experience. When we open that up and say, like, okay, you know what? Let's talk about it, and giving them that space, that voice, and that choice as well is really impactful. And that was something that I really appreciated with this model because my students were really open. Like, Ms. D, that thing sucked. Yeah. And I don't agree, and I will never do that again. And I think sometimes I always say working with middle school children, my skin is really thick because they're super brutal and honest. But I also love that because they keep me grounded, right. They make sure that I'm improving and not settling. And so my students and I have really honest conversations about like, you know what? You're right. You really do hate this process. Tell me more. And like what you said, our students are so used to being passive learners, right? And I saw a lot of this during covet and hybrid learning and virtual and all of that is just like, students are used to being talked at. And so when given a chance to shine, they freak out and they're like, what do you mean you're not going to talk at me for 45 minutes? What do you mean? I'm actually going to do work for 45 minutes? That's not how that happens. And so, again, Brittany, I appreciate you naming that, right? Like, you're going to have pushback, and that's okay. Actually, we want that pushback because that means our students are paying attention. They know some things are changing. And so pushback, let's have this conversation. Let's talk to our caregivers or families or admin about this, and let's really talk about what the root of the problem is and then find some ways together to form this learning experience for students. That are going to be so helpful for them in the future. And right now, honestly, again, Brittany, I feel like we can talk all day. And I knew the first time that we started talking, like, that time we talked, I was like, Oh, I have to get you on the podcast, because everybody needs to hear what you're saying. All right. And you kind of already touched this already in your previous responses, but how did you shift your learning and teaching practices to make it more Modern Classroom? Are you implementing it for every unit? Are you just implementing it for some units? How are you doing that? How are you navigating that? So anyone that knows me at my school knows that I will slide in Modern Classroom any time I can. I will never go back to traditional teaching. All of my classes and all of my units are Modern Classroom, but I will say they don't all look the same. I use the self pacing, I use the blended learning. I use the mastery based rubrics that I have and every single unit, but it always looks different, whether it's a novel or a short story or whatever it is. And I think every teacher's units all look different. But I've really released myself from having to meet all of the check boxes. So I think another thing that I shifted was the control aspect, which we talked about, is just letting myself step back and ask, like, is this what they need? And that has been the biggest change for me as a teacher and a collaborator with my teams. Is is this something they really need to get to where we want them to go? We all know backwards planning, like you said, but really actually doing it and living it has been a huge change for me. Yeah. And again, when you talk about checking off those check boxes, right, I think sometimes we as human beings, not just as teachers, need to hear that permission to stray away, right? Like, it's okay. You really actually don't have to do every single thing on that list. Stray away and be as creative, as innovative as you can. And it's really up to you to make this model your own. So thank you for sharing that. And so what is a tip or advice that you have for other AP teachers? I would say my number one piece of advice is to just jump in. Just do it. Welcome the feedback from your students. It's going to be messy at first. All learning is messy. We say that as teachers, but I think we're so hesitant to embrace it for ourselves. But the results are absolutely incredible. And we haven't really talked a lot about this yet, but the relationships that I've built with my students are unlike any other year. I always end the year with really strong relationships with students. But this year in particular, since I have done this model from start to finish. It's it's incredible the relationships that I have with them. So I say just jump in. The community at Modern Classrooms is unmatched. I think that there are so many great teacher communities out there, especially in the English teacher world, but this particular community is so wonderful in just answering questions and being supportive and recognizing that things are messy and helping each other figure it out and fix it. So just do it. Just jump in. I'm going to hire you, brittany, you're just going to do all of our marketing speech. Oh, no, I completely agree with you. Right. Our MCP community has just been so lovely and amazing and helpful. They share all their resources, and they're also really open to feedback as well. Like, hey, I created this thing. Will someone look at it? And so we're creating this brave space of teachers sharing what they're coming up with in their classrooms and then taking that feedback and running with it, which I think sometimes as teachers, we're very isolated, or we feel like it's isolating until to have this community of teachers, of, like, oh, we're all in this together. Yes. We'll learn from each other. We'll learn alongside each other, and it's just such a beautiful thing. And so, Brittany, you're in San Diego. San Diego is very much Filipino land, so I'm going to come chill with you at some point. Yeah. So what do you hope to see in the future? What goals do you have for next school year, even? Just for the summer? Really? So for the summer, I am restructuring everything now that I've made it through such a messy, wonderful year. I am also now implementing Modern Classroom in my yearbook and journalism classes, so getting all of that ready. I also have to confess to obsessively waiting for the DMcE applications to open, because that's a goal I have. I love talking about this model with other teachers, people on my team. They're probably so sick of it because I don't stop until they join me. And yeah, just relaxing with family as well. Taking a break. Yeah. So it's exciting that you're going to start implementing this in your book and journalism, and I'd love to just keep in contact and keep in touch and see what's going. This is so cool. So how can our listeners connect with you? So I am an Instagram girl. I love Instagram. My kids tell me that I'm old because it's going out of date, but I don't care. So I'm teaching with Britt C, and Britt has two T's, and that's my teacher account. So, yeah, I plan on sharing my planning on Instagram as we go through the summer. So if you're interested, just find me there. I love that. And Brittany, tag us as well so we can repost it in our story and just kind of put you and highlight you and all of that good stuff. All right, well, thank you so much, Brittany, for being here and just for saying yes and just sharing your expertise and your experience. And so, listeners, remember, you can always email us at podcast@modernclassrooms.org and you can find the show Notes for this episode at podcast modernclassrooms.org 93. We'll have this episode's recap and transcript uploaded to the Modern Classrooms blog on Friday, so be sure to check there or check back in the show Notes for this episode if you'd like to access those. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we'll be back next Sunday.


Voiceover: Thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our show notes for this episode. And remember, you can learn more about our work at www.modernclassrooms.org, and you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at Learn.Modernclassrooms.org. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modernclassproj, that's P-R-O-J. We are so appreciative of all you do for students and schools. Have a great week and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast.