TRANSCRIPT - TSBVI Coffee Hour: Introduction to Active Learning Coaching Ð 9/26/22 >>Hillary: So, I was itinerant TVI for 15 years and have been Deafblind specialist for the last three years. While I was in the field as an itinerant Deafblind specialist -- itinerant teacher, I had quite a few students who benefited from Active Learning and I will say that at first my practice was very rudimentary and it was only after I received some coaching, primarily from Scott Baltisberger, that I feel like my practice in Active Learning deepened and became more meaningful and useful for students, and you'll see why that's important a little bit later on. A lot of the content you'll have today is very introductory, but hang in there with me because we're going to talk about other opportunities for learning toward the end. All right. So, our learning objectives today, if my screen will proceed. Gain an introductory understanding about the Active Learning approach. A lot of you might be advanced practitioners at this point. Please hang in. Learn how the Active Learning approach integrates with instruction. Really any instruction. Find out about training and instructional coaching from the Texas Sensory Support Network supported by the Texas Education Agency. They're on board with Active Learning, which makes me so excited, and the way we build capacity across the State of Texas. A lot of you are not from Texas but maybe this is something you can take some of our ideas and what we're doing in Texas and apply them in your own states. So, a little bit about Active Learning. A lot of the following information is what we share with our administrators because what we have found and heard is that often our administrators are not aware of Active Learning. They don't understand Active Learning and it's important to have buy-in from administration in order for us to be able to implement with fidelity Active Learning. For those of you who are not familiar with Active Learning, it's a powerful approach and we're going to really quickly show a quick video. So, this is going to be a little choppy because I have to get out of my PowerPoint and go to Jack's progression. It's about a four-minute video. [ Video ] >>Hillary: So, video is worth a million words, I would say. Pictures are worth 1,000 words. A video is worth even more and I think it's really powerful. And love that Patty is on here, thank you. All of these videos are on Active Learning space and sharing some of these with administrators can be really helpful in helping them understand that we need to take time to get from point A to point Z, in this case. Or that was like P. So, it's research based. Active Learning is based on Lilli Nielsen's work. She was the second of seven children, four of whom were born blind. And her experiences, professionally and personally, culminated in a lifetime of work that resulted in Active Learning for our students. We appreciate that research based is very important for our administrators as well and for us as teachers, we need to be using research-based supports. And the efficacy of Active Learning is shown in subsequent research, which is also available, links to many research studies are available on Active Learning Space. The primary demographic for Active Learning are students with visual impairments, including those who are Deafblind. Students who have additional disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual delays, and seizure disorders. Those students with physical issues accessing their environment. And students functioning birth to 48 months, developmentally birth to 48 months, regardless of their chronological age. If you think about students that have access issues -- when I think of Deafblind as a Deafblind specialist, that is a disability of access, period end of sentence. So, our students with a lot of physical issues have difficulty just even accessing the environment in any way, shape, or form getting information. So, we need to develop environments for those students to be able to access learning and progress. So, the primary goals then are to support progress in the general curriculum for students with sensory disabilities and multiple complex needs. And progress, because they have to access it so we have to provide access. Supports the formation of foundational concepts like object permanence, tool use, cause and effect, same, difference, compare and contrast and more. And emotional development. Social-emotional development such as attention. We start as infants attending to ourselves and our own bodies and then moving that attention from ourselves to outside ourselves. And then shared attention and interactions, turn-taking, sharing the work, consequences. All of these, emotional development, supports development of social skills, which speaks to communication. Instructional integration. So, a lot of school districts, at least in Texas, use curricula that they purchase and they require their teachers to use this particular curriculum. And Active Learning is an instructional approach that can really overlay and can use the foundations, you can use the approach itself and the pieces of the approach with any curriculum. And it makes some of these -- some of the curricula -- it might have a lot of pictures and drawings and things that are not necessarily accessible to our students. You can take those things and implement them in such a way that it is accessible using Active Learning. And in Texas we have also several ways, several places that we can go to get information to align what you're doing in Active Learning to the educational standards so that your lesson plans -- teachers are required typically to put the Texas assessments of knowledge and skills or the STAAR. So, we can take these -- well, let me just get to them. That's going to be a lot easier. Take Texas Early Learning Pathways, our infant, pre-K, toddler guidelines. And you can see what the child is supposed to be doing developmentally and that aligns to the functional scheme assessment, which we won't have time to get into today, but that is the evaluation that of course all instruction should be driven by evaluation, right. So that's the assessment that drives Active Learning. And you can see what the child is supposed to be doing. That's one alignment. Then we have vertical alignment documents. So, for example, love aligning Active Learning with science. To organisms in the environment. Excuse me. So, you can see that students should know that all organisms are classified in domains and kingdoms. Organisms within a group share similar characteristic. There's compare and contrast. You can take organisms -- think about a sponge. A sponge at one point was a living organism. You can take different living items. Sponge, you could take a loofah, several things that are manmade and compare and contrast how are they different, how do they feel different? The student can explore and use Active Learning you can make these available to a student in such a way that they can access. Remember Jack and at first he didn't have access to objects around him because of the positioning. Even though it was an Active Learning device, he didn't have access. Our job as teachers is to figure out how to give the student access in a meaningful way, a way that's meaningful for that student. And if they are an active learner, that means we're going to use real objects and multiples of objects for comparing and contrasting and for exploring and -- for that student to get some meaning. We also have our STAAR, our Texas State Assessment. And we can pull up the grade level. Now, this just goes to third grade and look at the category, numerical representations and relationships. So, the third grade is expected to -- probably you can't see that. Expected to apply mathematical process standards and represent whole numbers and understand relationships related to place value. And so, the essence statement of that would be uses whole number relationships to demonstrate understanding of place value. Well, we might be able to take objects and count them. If that student is at an interaction phase in the process of interactions, we could count them. Or they could just have, be experiencing multiple items and eventually work on counting or putting one thing into another, take something in and out of an exploration box. You can have any number of things. But you could put these alignments into your lesson plans. Let's see, that's probably about as clear as mud. But with a little creativity, it can be done. And on Active Learning Space there are examples that will help guide you through these. And I know I'm kind of flying through this. Active Learning supports individualized learning, so IEP goals and objectives. You can align it to the general curriculum but it supports IEP goals and it uses diagnostic teaching methods based on assessment. Again, the functional scheme assessment is the assessment that drives Active Learning. And one of the beauties of the functional scheme assessment is that it drills down to very small increments of development across all of the domains and you can make your IEP goals and objectives based on the assessment. You have very linear progression in your IEP. It's designed in such a way that as you go through you should be updating the functional scheme on a regular basis at least annually. More often, if possible, to see where your progression is and to show your administrators, your parents where that student has made progress. Data taking is very important in Active Learning. So, a lot of times when an administrator walks into your classroom, it looks like a student is playing and that they're not learning. But the data that you take is going to support what you're doing. So, play is also a very important part of learning for our students. It's defined in several ways on the Active Learning website. It's a complex set of behaviors characterized by fun and spontaneity. It can be muscular, cognitive, or any combination of these things. It involves repetition of experience, exploration, experimentation, and imitation of one's surroundings. So, think about a very young child who is typically developing. Perhaps you have your children and when they're 2 or 3 years old, under 48 months old, they like to see things again and again. I'm going to date myself. My children loved Barney and we had to watch Barney videos again and again and again and again until they were done with that learning. With whatever it was with that video that they were done. Same thing with books. Same thing with specific toys. Thomas the Tank Engine and trains were repeated, repeated, repeated. Our children repeat and our students may need to repeat even more because they have such difficulty accessing. They may have more motor challenges and sensory challenges. Create a situation where they have difficulty accessing and they may have fatigue more quickly. There might be other issues that cause them to need to repeat over a longer period of time. So, it may take longer and it may look like play. But if you have data, you take your data and you take it with fidelity, then you're going to be able to show that, yes, it looks like play but here is what we're working on and this is why it's important that we continue along this path of Active Learning. Active Learning encourages developmentally appropriate early numeracy and literacy and it is an entry point for pre-Braille tactile skills because a lot of our students -- well, think again about a typically-developing birth to 48-month old child and they want hands on -- it's really hands-on everything. You're not going to hand them a bunch of worksheets so our students need to have hands-on learning. Okay. Foundations. So Active Learning is tied to Piaget's developmental stages of learners. All activities, especially in the early stages of development wire our brains and establish critical foundational concepts and skills necessary for future learning. Again, think about young children. Our individuals with multiple disabilities are at risk of developing reliance on other individuals in order to interact with the world around them. They become easily prompt-dependent and may have difficulty making sense of what's going on around them. They tend to be passive. Everything is done to and for them as opposed to them having the self-determination to interact with items and make their own choice. One of the things that we know about adult learning is that learner choice is very important. The option and the choice of what to do first or what order or what they want to learn creates an opportunity for self-motivation. Well, our students need to be self-motivated too. We need to give them opportunities to be active participants and to make their own choices about what they're going to work with on a particular day or a particular time. At the same time, we need to know our students well enough that we can see when they are getting overstimulated or they're understimulated and what we need to do as teachers to make sure they continue to learn, rather than them waiting around for adults to just provide them. So, the philosophy of approach of Active Learning is that everyone can learn. Hopefully everybody on this webinar has already adopted that long before you heard about Active Learning. It's active learners versus passive learners. Responsive environments support independence. Self-directed repetition is based on the student's preferences and choice. Developmentally appropriate play-based learning, and it's based on assessment and observation and continued data taking. And it's a mix of variety and consistency. So, we know a lot of these learners respond well to routine-based instruction. But within the routines, we can provide variety and also a kiddo's going to get bored if you continue to give them the same item again and again and again. Also, limited adult input. And we will touch on that but also appropriate adult input. And failure is a pathway to learning. Fail forward. And we have another video. One moment. Whoops. I beg your pardon. So, here's Rylan. This is a quick 51-second video showing Rylan before and after Active Learning. >>Hillary: So -- sorry. Multitasking. Oops. So, and I saw in the comments Kate said something about asynchronous learning. I guess I missed something. >>Kaycee: This is Kaycee. There was a question earlier that came in and said would you comment on DBMD students with asynchronous development. Students who may be above and below 48 months in different areas. And so that's what Kate was referring to. >>Hillary: Okay. All right. And so hopefully that question was answered and, if not, maybe we can get to it later. With Rylan, if you noticed having a developmentally-appropriate environment and having a variety of things to choose from completely, completely changed his affect, changed his movement, gave him choices of what to do and he became an active learner and that learning process benefited from the environment that was created for him. And harnessing a student's interests is the most effective way to capture and keep the students engaged. Limited adult input can also be appropriate, depending on the specific needs of the student. And if it's a student that you're still learning about, providing all that variety of materials helps you know what they like and dislike. Just because you have a list of they love all these things, doesn't mean you shouldn't be additional items in there in order to see, well, maybe they actually like all these other things too and we can expand that list. And, again, flying through this because the part of the point of this is just to give you a taste, if you don't know that much about Active Learning, because there is additional learning available. So, the key points of Active Learning are active participation, repetition of opportunities, developmentally appropriate, reinforcing to the individual, and limited distractions. And so, with active participation, the student is initiating some of the actions or all of the actions without prompting from an adult. Repetition -- practice is a critical part of learning for anyone and for our students, we already kind of talked about how they may need even more opportunities to practice and over a longer period of time. Developmentally appropriate, so skills develop in a predictable order and it's important for you to have good assessments so that you know where your student is, meet them where they are in order to move them forward. So, you can't throw a ball before you can pick the ball up. Think about the progression of an activity and where you have to start. If you start too high, it becomes frustrating and if you start too low, the student might become bored. Good assessment is critical. It has to be enforcing to the individual. None of us wants to do things unless there's a benefit to us and so sensorimotor learners are the same. They want to get something out of it. They are much more motivated if something is interesting to them. And limited distractions. Anyone trying to learn something new is going to have difficulty if there are a lot of distractions. As teachers, we talk a lot and sometimes we're talking to other people and it is a distraction. Even if you are technically sitting with the student, if your attention is away from that student, then it distracts the student. And it's really interesting to see this happen and be very intently connected with a student and in an interaction and then have a text message come in or hear something across the room. Your attention is distracted and the whole dynamic with the student shifts. And it's hard to explain but it is very important that we stay present in our interactions with the student and that we comment rather than praise, and do not interrupt learning. And then the dynamic learning circle. So, the dynamic learning circle is -- Sara and I were talking about this the week before last and I really like her summation is that this is a method for observing the child within a framework. So, this is our framework of figuring out what the student is doing. Where are they within this dynamic learning circle within this framework. And that will take us to the five phases. But the dynamic learning circle is stage one, they are aware and interested. A student has to know something is there before they are going to interact with it in some way, shape, or form. Whether they physically come in contact with it or they have enough vision to see it or they can hear it and vocalize. And they have to be able to -- they have to be interested in their own sensory and motor activities before they can be interested in objects outside themselves. Then they become curious and active. Once -- they might repeat something by accident. Might do something by accident and that creates a response and they might repeat it and then realize, oh, wait a minute. If I do X then Y happens. So, repeating their own activity to get a reaction or response and kind of experiment. They're like little scientists experimenting. Stage three is completion of learning where they have repeated the activity to a level that it becomes part of their patterns, their everyday actions, something that they do on a regular basis. And it no longer provides a challenge. So, then they're ready for new learning and new challenges, whether that is a new experience altogether or adding complexity to what they are working on. Patty has a great video on Active Learning Space where she has the whisk with a ball, with a golf ball -- it's heavier, something different. APH has the ping-pong balls with the beads inside so then you have a whole auditory piece that you add to that. Add complexity to these things, to what the student is doing and provide new challenges for them so that you progress the learning. And, again, you're taking data so you can see what it is, where you started, and then where you go from there. These two things -- well, dynamic learning circle and then the five phases. Offering, imitation, interaction, and sharing the work. In dynamic learning circle we are observing what the student is doing and making sense of it within an instructional context. And the five phases is a framework for figuring out what I as a teacher need to do for a student. So, is that student just ready for offering? Perhaps they are at a lower level and an earlier developmental stage and they are more ready for just some parallel play. And they are in their own little world and don't really want anybody with them. So, you might sit near them and play. And if they become interested in what you're doing, what you're playing with and they come over to check it out, give it. Give to them whatever you're doing. If they need supported seating, then there's a fabulous video of -- again, on Active Learning Space of offering, having a bunch of items available to choose from and offering holding those items so the student can become aware of them and play. Imitation. That is -- imitation is so important and it's exciting when a student begins to imitate. But one of our folks in Deafblind says the interested person becomes the person of interest. So, in us showing our interest in the child, the child eventually should show interest in what we're doing. So that takes time. That's a developmental stage. Interaction is when you socially, emotionally are able to have reciprocity and shared attention and turn taking and reciprocity, and it's a higher level of interaction. Then sharing the work and consequences typically start at about like 36 months. That is an older skill so you're sharing -- that child is able to perform a routine and be -- partial participation is what we have called it when we're talking about routines and calendars. They can complete some of those tasks by themselves with minimal support from an adult. But there may be some things that the adult, within that routine, does need to assist with. So, they're sharing the work. And consequences of actions. So, a child that is a bit older, developmental older, can -- and if they spill water, they clean it up. That's a natural consequence. If you drop something, you have to pick it up. It's just a simple consequence. And they assist as much as possible, as physically possible in the consequences. Again, when you're thinking about lesson planning and talking to an administrator, the dynamic learning circle is what we observe the students doing. And the five phases is us figuring out where we are and it may be, though, that you go through the five phases or many of the five phases in one lesson. It's not necessarily that you can say, okay, today I'm doing offering and today I'm doing imitation. You have to be flexible and understand the five phases of educational treatment enough that you can, within your session with your student, when you are working with your student that you can provide them what they need. And if that's just offering and items are available to them and they're totally working on things themselves, that's where they are. A lot of people think about Active Learning and the assistive technology. And Active Learning is so much more than assistive technology. It is -- and we love little rooms, we love the resonance board is a critical piece of equipment but think about the fact that Active Learning is an approach to learning and we can gather a lot of materials ourselves without necessarily having to have all of the perceptualizing aids, we get them a little bit at a time as we get the funds. But they are research based and they are designed to be safe and responsive to the environment, to provide maximized support of the environment. On Active Learning Space you'll find a quick guide to Active Learning equipment and there's also Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, for those folks in Texas they have a tech loan program. I don't remember if I pulled that up. So, we're going to go see. I did not. But Sara can talk a little bit more about that. The tech loan program. Go ahead. >>Sara: We have a number of things available and, gosh, we used to have a list somewhere. I need to find that list again. Our website just got totally revamped so who knows where anything is. I do think you can find the tech loan program page on Outreach and go and make a tech loan request for Active Learning equipment. And what will probably happen is that Scott or I will call you and, you know, talk to you about what it is you need. And one of the things that they request is an AT assessment, and that can be the functional scheme. Even if you are just able to do the fine and gross motor sections or you may be able to substitute, if there's a lot of detail contained in like your OTs and PTs to do their assessments. That can work also to help with determining whether this would be the appropriate equipment to help your student learn. And so, go to that page. Contact, you know -- or you can just directly contact Scott or me and we can help you find it. I think our e-mail addresses are somewhere on this handout or PowerPoint. I hope. >>Hillary: If not, we'll make sure they get into the chat. One thing about the tech loan program is it gives you an opportunity to try a piece of equipment with a student and gather data on the efficacy and support -- be able to -- go to your administrator and support the purchase of such things, if that's something that the student is going to need over the long term. >>Sara: Yeah, it gives you the opportunity to decide if you want it. It's a three-month loan. And I put our e-mail addresses in the chat. >>Hillary: Great. Because I'm not sure I got that slide in. And this is a picture of a little room. And I think this is actually TSBVI's -- one of TSBVI's. So, what are we doing in Texas? TEA has approved Active Learning as a training and coaching activity in Texas. So, all of our special education, technical assistance networks have coaching projects. And Active Learning was the first one that we undertook as the Texas Sensory Support Network to try to spread the word about Active Learning. Of course, TVIs are -- we're going to be very connected with them but we are also partnering with the Texas complex access network to get this information to classroom teachers, because ultimately they're the ones who are going to implement Active Learning on a daily basis. And this was obviously very, very, very much an overview. A lot of you probably know about Active Learning but those who do not and are interested, there are free online asynchronous learning modules available from the Texas School for the Blind. You can Google TSBVI eLearning courses. You can also get there through the Active Learning space. It's more learning and easy to find. There's a couple of steps to signing up. So, I highly recommend once you get to the eLearning courses, read the instructions and watch little video. It's very informative. And in Texas, also your regional service center, your TxSSN network member can provide training. All but a few have completed our training of trainers and they are using TEA-approved materials that TSBVI developed a while back and they can provide training. They can provide introductory training. Sometimes they also supplement these trainings with remote or face-to-face. There's Active Learning conferences sometimes. And other options as they figure out what their regional needs are and address them. And then once training occurs, coaching is provided. So, we use a TEA-proven coaching cycle. Pre-observation, observation and modeling, and performance feedback. And the goals are to positively impact outcomes for students with visual impairment and complex access needs. Build capacity in Active Learning statewide and support effective implementation of Active Learning. Some of the things that have come out of this is we have a school district that wants to start -- they want to have their own trainers get deep knowledge of Active Learning and then go back and train all of their complex access needs classrooms. So like life skills classrooms train everybody in the entire school district in Active Learning. We're super excited because ultimately that's what we want to see is more and more people implementing Active Learning with fidelity. I have a super quick video. >>Yes, the implementation of Active Learning has definitely changed the program as far as what I see as implementation of my role in physical therapy support in the classroom. I think going in before, I would always look at a student and look at it from a physical therapy perspective of what should they be doing, how should they be moving their body the way I thought they should. They should be standing up straight in their stander. They should be positioned appropriately in prone. But now I look at it what's best for them? How are they going to learn the best? I feel like I'm aware that I need to give them time and space and the ability to move their bodies and just the really unique ways they do move. It's been a positive change. >>Hillary: Just a little testimonial that Active Learning -- sorry. >>The implementation of Active Learning has definitely changed the program as far as what -- >>Hillary: So real important to hear from a PT, someone who is not necessarily a TVI explaining that they have found that Active Learning is a really positive experience for students. And so, everybody on the child's team can benefit from training and coaching in Active Learning. Including paraprofessionals. Often they're the boots on the grounds. OTs and PTs, when we do an assessment, we need everybody on the team to contribute because like I am not an occupational therapist. I do not know, I can't answer the questions that go with those. So, everybody on the whole team can benefit and we hope that you will contact your regional service center and find out more about Active Learning training and coaching. If you are interested, we have a TEA-approved, Texas Education Agency-approved Smore for administrators. A lot of this information is on there and quick links where you can get more information about Active Learning. Also, on the Active Learning space now are support materials for administrators, especially for those who are observing in a classroom and working directly with teachers. So, some great supports there. And importantly also we have -- TSBVI has more learning. And so, Sara, please. Or Scott. >>Sara: Hi. I was just in the middle of typing a -- I couldn't make my sentence right and answer in the chat. But I will answer that in seeing Active Learning support should be available any place in Texas. We have a number of we said of support and we have a big umbrella of the Texas Sensory Support Network and we have the Educational Service Centers as well. And then the Texas School for the Blind support district. But I -- we also can do training directly in Active Learning for teams, for districts. We're doing one in a couple of weeks for Alvin ISD. We can do it for district, we can do it for a whole region. It just depends on what the needs are. We can also do training that's specific to a student, and that's called a school consultation where we just observe that student and we specifically focus on the student. We have Active Learning case study webinars, which depend on participation from folks out in the world. They don't have to be from Texas but what that is is that you share videos of your student and you fill out the Active Learning planning form. And if you fill it out before you update, just to make sure it's current. Then we kind of go through and look at all your setup for the student and how they're responding to it. How they learn based on, you know, the Active Learning planning sheet, which is available on Active Learning Space. And we would guide you to all of those things if you would contact Scott or me. And then we facilitate the study group but basically we talk about your student. And then people from many different areas, like varied levels of experience with Active Learning, all join in a conversation and are available for input. And it's just a wonderful time for a group, kind of an Active Learning cohort to get together as parents and professionals and paraprofessionals and just, you know, talk and say, hey, there's this kid and this may be what they need. What do you think about that or what do you think about how they're moving and what does this mean? And how do we provide the best next steps for the student. It's a great time for us to get together, learn about Active Learning, learn about a specific student. So, our first one is -- and you can register -- I think the link is in your handout on escWorks, if you click on that link, you can find a way to register. And the specific links to each of the webinars -- yes, you have to register for each one separately, whether you're participating as presenting your student or you're just observing and commenting. Our first one is coming up in November so we would really love to hear from anybody who would like to share their student with this small group of people who are interested in Active Learning and to, you know, let your student help other people learn and help you learn as well. So, if you are interested, we also have another opportunity in January and in March. And so please let us know, let Scott or I know. Type your e-mail into the chat if you want to, or you can just -- if you're feeling protective of your contact information, then you can type it to the facilitators, the hosts and panelists and let us know if you want to do that and we'll get in touch with you and get started on that. But it's a fabulous conversation every time and we learn new things every time. I learn new things. It's great. Oftentimes we have Patty joining us. She's our expert in Active Learning, you know, she was knighted by Lilli Nielsen and so we get to have access to Patty to give feedback on the students we're looking at, which is wonderful. So, yeah, please contact us and we can all go forward with our plans to do that. Either today or later on. >>Hillary: Sorry. The -- I always try to attend these so I hope that these can go forward and we can do some case studies. I always, always, always learn, even though I've been doing this a while and I know Active Learning, I'm not sure I'm ever going to consider myself advanced because there's so much to learn. >>Sara: Oh, look, the Penrickton Center also provides consultation online. >>Hillary: I know we need to wrap this up. Is Active Learning appropriate for your students? In what ways can you envision applying the philosophy of Active Learning. I review the modules all the time. So what Active Learning assistive technology items might be most useful to your students. Contact Sara and Scott to see what you can borrow, once you know what you need. How might training and coaching in Active Learning meet your needs? Contact your regional service center, your VI consultant or your Tex Cam. Probably start with VI and contact that member and find out what they've got going on. Or contact me, I'm Hillary Keys. Hkeys@esc11.net. Assuming that is a need in your region. That is the only thing -- Texas is so big that there might be multiple needs or more pressing needs in a particular region but school districts can also request this training. And, again, can contact Scott and Sara too or do consultations and Penrickton.