DESCRIPTION:
http://lodgemccammon.com

It’s another great day at Lockhart Elementary School in Wake County North Carolina. Students in Mrs. Hunt’s 3rd grade classroom are excited and ready to continue their innovative work that is redefining rigor, assessment, & accountability.

In this class, after learning each math lesson, students are challenged to re-teach & record what they learned, adding their own spin on the information.

Once the students have completed a standards-based lesson, for example about multiplication, they are directed to go to the back of the room to gather one white board and a dry erase marker. They return to their desks and begin creating their lessons by adding handwritten information to the boards .

Since students will be re-teaching the information, they are thoughtful about how much to put on the board, what vocabulary to use and what examples they need to include to best illustrate the content.

While the students are working, the teacher sets up a tripod and whiteboard stand in the hallway, right outside the door….and simply uses her cell phone to record these “1-take lecture videos.”

When a student has completed his or her board, and is ready to teach their lesson, they step into the hallway, place the board on the stand and press record on the cell phone. They, sit down and teach the lesson, referencing the information they included on their board, and when they are done then they simply press stop. Their 1-take lecture video is complete...then the next student sets up and prepares to teach their version. This process continues until all the students have had a chance to record.

Then the teacher takes the cell phone and plugs it into the computer so the videos can be reviewed and uploaded to a playlist. Mrs. Hunt pulls up a few examples that are reviewed by the whole class...and then explains to the students how she wants them to use a rubric to independently evaluate their work and the work of their peers.

The students are assigned to watch a few videos, including their own. The rubric requires that they look closely at what is good about the lesson, but also how each could be improved….they look for content-related issues such as correct use of vocabulary and use of appropriate examples. In addition, they are required to evaluate how well the information is communicated...looking for quality of the speaking voice and overall confidence of the presentation. [interview]

Teaching is the most rigorous form of learning, and in Mrs. Hunt’s classroom at Lockhart Elementary, the students ARE also the teachers. This practice is helping to redefine assessment - not only is the teacher evaluating the students, the students are regularly evaluating themselves and each other. This practice is also redefining accountability. Do you want to know if Mrs. Hunt’s 3rd graders have learned about multiplication? If so, all you need to do is go their playlist and watch each student teach their version of that standard. This transparent classroom provides us a glimpse into the future of teaching and learning.