I borrowed one of my colleague’s books for summer reading, Visible Learning For Literacy, by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Hattie. Since I am reading other books as well, this one happened at the bottom of my pile. But, today I had the desire to learn more about what Visible Learning is. In chapter 1, there is a quote, “Every student deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design.” I couldn’t agree with that more! The authors clarify what they mean by each phrase of that statement which is beautiful! The phrase, “by design” triggered my curiosity and yes, their definition is most important for all of us educators to consider. They state, “The design … the one that has great potential for impacting students’ learning and allowing all of us to be great teachers…” They go on to say visible learning, “In part, it’s about developing an understanding of the impact that instructional efforts have on students’ learning. Students, teachers, parents, administrators – everyone can determine if the learning is visible. To do so, students have to know what they are learning, why they are learning it, what it means to be ‘good’ at this learning, and what it means to have learned it. The adults also need to know (the same things that students need to know).” This is so amazingly refreshing to read. I’ve always had this attitude, as a student, educator, parent and Counsellor. Thoughts?
