from Wings & a Wand

COVA Reflection and Application

“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.”John Dewey

Honestly, how many master’s theses give a student the opportunity to express full choice, ownership, and voice?  How often are they read by someone other than the student and the professor?  I soon realized that my ePortfolio in the ADL program had the potential to be a powerful piece of work versus the typical master’s thesis (Harapnuik et al., 2018). 

As an amateur photographer, I knew how to put together a portfolio but had never worked on an ePortfolio to house my work in education. My personal choice, ownership and voice had been expressed in my photographic portfolio that started in high school and continued into college through my graphic design and media courses while earning my BBA in Marketing (Harapnuik et al., 2018). However, I did not expect this type of project when I began my learning journey in the Applied Digital Learning (ADL) program. Like others, I expected the usual textbooks, exams, and formal essays that ended with a master’s thesis to achieve a degree. Finding out this pivotal difference, I was pleasantly surprised and intimidated at the same time.  Just like photography and graphic design had gone digital and left my film processing and drawing skills in the dust, I was concerned about my technical ability to create what was going to be required.

The assignment was so different that I was initially overwhelmed with the amount of choice in website platforms and what it would require to be proficient in using one.  Ultimately, I chose WordPress because I liked the layout. I leaned into a Growth Mindset mentality even before the upcoming ADL course as I dug into the website platform (Dweck, 2006). I made multiple mistakes which required a bit of grit to push through the frustration for my desired result (Duckworth, 2013). It was only later as I was into my ADL coursework that I realized I was on a pathway of a Learner’s Mindset (Harapnuik, 2023).  My ePortfolio discusses this change in my learning philosophy to embrace CSLE and COVA (Harapnuik, 2023).

While creating my ePortfolio, I also built out my Innovation Plan inside it and have continued to place my work from the ADL program in it.  Over time, my Innovation Plan has become an authentic piece of work that I believe can change my organization if given the full opportunity. My present position as an Emergent Bilingual (EB) Instructional Coach has allowed me the ability to start implementing my Innovation Plan with fidelity. Due to the complications of moving into a remodeled building along with a new Learning Management System (LMS), I have had to adjust my Implementation Outline which is a true part of ownership in an authentic learning environment (Harapnuik et al., 2018).  However, my Innovation Plan is still on track.

The ADL program is its own significant learning environment that allows the students to have choice, ownership and voice in every assignment for an authentic learning experience because the students tailor their work to where they either are in their career or where they want to go. Ultimately, the students get out of the program what they put into it.  Bottomline, the program works if one trusts the process, is willing to put in the effort, and responds to the feedforward given by fellow classmates and professors. 

By experiencing the COVA approach in my own learning, my learning philosophy has undergone a change to include a constructivist mindset that has influenced my initial behaviorist mindset which I brought into my work in the ADL program (Kurt, 2021). My Literature Review expresses this insight in more detail.  After experiencing what a significant learning environment is like in the ADL program, I now feel more confident in creating my own as I implement my Innovation Plan with the COVA approach for my colleagues along with their students (Harapnuik et al., 2018).

Thankfully, my district has embraced the initiative of a Blended approach to Personalized Learning (Horn et al., 2014; Ed Elements,2018).  The administration wants the district’s students to experience the COVA approach to learning by CSLE just like their teachers in the professional learning with this initiative (Harapnuik et al., 2018). As an EB Instructional Coach through my Innovation Plan, I want to take this work a step further to have a particular focus on a significant learning environment that has activities to specifically support EBs learning needs along with being beneficial for all learners by leveraging technology.

During this past year, I have worked with teachers on my campus to create a significant learning environment for their students in their classrooms. One of the first steps we have taken is goal setting and reflection to give students ownership (Ed Elements, 2018).  Students have personal goal binders to track their learning and reflect on their learning growth along with needs. Additionally, teachers conference with their students bi-monthly regarding their growth and learning needs.

To create engagement through choice and voice, teachers in the various content areas have created a variety of activities with intentionality (Harapnuik et al., 2018). In Language Arts, students are given a learning menu of choices on how to learn and demonstrate their learning of the content.  In Math, students rotate through chosen stations that contain various activities to practice their math concepts and demonstrate their learning based on their learning needs in their goal binders.  After taking a brief concept assessment in Science, students are given the opportunity to peer tutor each other in the concept gap areas by creating videos for peer learning or using an interactive station with a peer tutor in a small group. It is important to note that struggling learners can be a peer tutor on a concept that they understand well which has significantly increased motivation and engagement in their learning.

Upon this foundation in my district, I have built my Innovation Plan to empower ESL-certified teachers to meet the learning needs of EB students.  Recently, I received my own district-wide course in our LMS of Canvas that will allow me to build out my Alternative PL Model.  Just like the ADL program provided CSLE and COVA for me, I plan to create my own significant learning environment in this coursework that engages ESL-certified teachers in their learning. Like the pieces of my Eportfolio, I will use linked resources, collaborative discussion, Canva to create graphic presentations, and flipped learning recordings/videos to support their learning.

With this CSLE and COVA framework, I want to support these educators in creating significant learning environments for their EB students. This learning environment will require them to also create learning activities that will promote choice, ownership, and voice for these EB students to be successful in learning English, as well as, grow academically like their peers (Horn et al., 2014; Harapnuik et al., 2018). Educators will have personal COVA in the types of activities they create in response to the curriculum and learning needs of their students.

Some colleagues may struggle with the amount of choice initially just like myself at the start of the ADL program and like my campus has seen with students in similar situations.  With my background in cognitive coaching and training in crucial conversations as an instructional coach for the past 9 years, I hope to address these inevitable pitfalls along with setbacks that come with CSLE implementation. I want to encourage my participants and colleagues as they go through personal productive struggle in this work by utilizing the structures that I will have put into place which are outlined in my Influencer Strategy. Keeping all of this in mind, I truly believe that we will make a difference for EB learners in my district (Patterson and Grenny, 2013).

References:

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House

Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: the power of passion and perseverance. Retrieve from

Elements, E. (2018). The ultimate personalized learning guide. Education Elements. https://www.edelements.com/personalized-learning

Harapnuik, D. (2023). CSLE+COVA. It’s About the Learning. Retrieved October 29, 2023, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6988

Harapnuik, D. (2023). Learner’s mindset. It’s About the Learning. Retrieved October 29, 2023, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8773

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). COVA: Choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning (0.9) [Ebook]. Creative Commons License.

Horn, M. B., Staker, H., & Christensen, C. M. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. Wiley.

Kurt, S. (2021, February 21). Constructivist learning theory. Educational Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/constructivist-learning-theory/

Patterson, K., & Grenny, J. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.Search