Thread by @mslongpre

A 🧵:
As we move toward Destreaming in Sept, I've been getting a flood of emails from teachers asking about HOW to make this work.

I'm no expert, but I've done the reading, and I've taught destreamed Eng for 3 years.

So, if you like, here are my answers to the most common qs:

1) What are the most important steps you/your school took in advance to improve/ensure success?

- My school has capped Academic Pathways classes at 24. This is super helpful, as more one-on-one and more descriptive feedback are necessary for success,

- Do staff learning on Universal Design for Learning: this is the bottom line of successful destreaming.

This is a great article to start with: cultofpedagogy.com/udl-equity/

2) What (if any) differences did you find when teaching? Did you adapt your lessons/approach?

- I mean this sincerely: classroom management got so much better. We know from research that students are often streamed into Applied based on behaviour, not ability.

As a result, Applied classes were sometimes self-perpetuating sites of classroom management issues, leading to even less learning, and learning gaps getting bigger. With mixed ability classrooms, I have found that issue to completely disappear.

- Destreaming for the past 3 years has made me a much better, more engaging teacher. With Academic classes, it is easy to mistake compliance for engagement.
I'm gonna say that again because I think it's the heart of the matter:

It is easy to mistake compliance for engagement.

With mixed ability classrooms, I have committed to having multiple entry points for all activities, and multiple choices for all assignments. Turns out, that's better for ALL kids! And for me!

- I have learned to center LEARNING, not EVALUATION. That has been a massive psychological shift, and has been a game changer. When you are committed to students learning the concepts, a world of creativity opens up.

On a personal note, it has done wonders for my mental health and brought so much more joy into my classroom.

3) What difficulties did you encounter and how did you solve them?

There have been two categories of difficulties:

- STAFF: I have been met with resistance by some staff members. Look out for coded language like "rigour" and "integrity of the credit".

These are codes for discomfort with change and not wanting to do the work of changing your practice. If you resent not using the same daily quizzes and tests you always used, then yes, this will be difficult.

But if you take it as an opportunity to grow and to collaborate with your colleagues, then this is a super exciting challenge.

I wish I had the answers to dealing with staff resistance. I am still learning in this area.

My most effective method is simply sharing resources: resistance is often a failure of imagination. Like, if not a unit test, then what? When folks see it all laid out, it looks manageable and realistic.

Does this mean a lot of work on MY end in developing these resources? Yep. But is it worth it? Absolutely.

- KIDS: To be clear, kids are NOT problems to be solved. What I mean is that my experience has shown me that kids who are streamed into Applied are exactly as intelligent as "academic kids", but sometimes have fewer Executive Functioning skills.

This means that they often lose papers, don't have a pencil, forget due dates, etc. As a result, they get lower grades and get streamed out of academic. Luckily, executive functioning skills are SUPER EASY to mitigate!

In my classroom, you will find:
-every desk-grouping has a container full of pencils, highlighters, erasers and sticky notes
-a bin where students keep their notebooks
-folders on the wall, labelled by day, for hand-outs
-a whiteboard dedicated to reminders abt tasks + due dates.

What you will not find is a frustrated teacher using up class time asking "Why didn't you bring that?" or frustrated kids asking to go to their lockers to get that one thing.

When we set up the structure of the classroom so that kids have everything they need to learn, we mitigate disruptions and distractions, and get right to learning!

This is only a change for US. They've been learning together since JK! In my 1sr destreamed class, I tried to be all deep and ask them how they felt about tearing down barriers, and they just... blinked blankly.
"Ms, what? We were all in the same class last year."

Kids get it.

This thread did not address the moral imperative of destreaming based on racial equity.
That is on purpose.
1, bc you don't need a white lady pretending she invented anti-racist teaching.
And 2, bc there are voices that I learn from who you should turn to for that knowledge:

Follow these folks for that level of genius:
@GholdyM @triciaebarvia @juliaerin80 @MisterMinor @arcticisleteach @debreese @UIEC_Tdsb @rjdurocher @Jason_To