Okay! The results of my blog reader need assessment revealed that updates from the you-know-what battlefield are the most popular topic. Your wish is my command.
Once again, opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not in any way represent those of my employer.
Thanks Kelly. That was very helpful and brave... I mean no BS'ing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, HK. --K
ReplyDeleteI know that it is hard for some people to post using their name but if you can post using Anonymous and a nickname:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Instructor Middlesex County
Or something like that.
Let's see how many anonymous instructors there are.
I can't see a way through The Experiment without spending hours of time away from my family. I refuse to do it anymore. How about you?
Thank you Kelly for being our voice.
Anonymous Instructor Middlesex County
That is a great idea. I have asked folks to use a nickname when commenting as "Anonymous," but that idea never caught on. --K
DeleteKelly, as always I am grateful for your honesty, openness, and your radar for injustice. I agree that there was no buy-in before implementation, and no materials with which to implement PBLA. In the Emerging Practice Guidelines, both the rationale and the theoretical foundations are - shall we say - a little thin. In addition to creating untenable workloads and stress levels for classroom teachers, PBLA has not brought the promised standardization to LINC classes.
ReplyDeleteBonnie,
DeleteYour words of support mean a lot to me. --K
THE BALONEY METER.
ReplyDeleteKelly,
How utterly devastating to hear the sadness, frustration, puzzlement and anger in your voice. You, an acknowledged spark of excellence in teaching, should be giving all your energy to what you do best - teaching with joy, of joy, for joy.
Your mood matches mine (well, my anger meter exploded more than a year
ago when it became evident that in spite of all feedback & evidence from the field, in spite of government being told publicly (reps of Federal & Ontario Government) that NOT all was rosy in the PBLA garden, not only did the CCLB managed PBLA go “full steam ahead” but “the funders” and their lackeys increased the speed (and the amount of disinformation and bafflegab on the CCLB site and damned us and the voiceless learners to this lunatic curse (course).
Yes, injustice. How many instructors were unjustly persecuted? How injust is it to deny newcomers real language learning (giving instead “artefact collection”)
But it is also - BAD SCIENCE.
Carl Sagan’s Baloney Meter..
https://vimeo.com/112065434
From what I’ve seen the folks at IRCC have a stranglehold on truth and justice. can’t figure out WHO is spearheading this. And WHY? (Don’t give us that “pan Canadian standardization of assessment” bull please. Don’t insult teachers’ intelligence.No standardisation here folks.)
“PBLA is here to stay”?????
No, my friends. We’ve been around long enough to see government
mistakes like this disappear. In time Truth and Justice will out.
PBLA is NOT here to stay.
PBLA will just fade away.
Brava to you Kelly - and to all who question and protest. Your baloney meters are working.
Thank you for this, Claudie! Although educational models can never be measured or tested the way scientific things can due to the multiple layers of components, which Dr. Friesen mentions in his talk, I still think that a few of these caveats from Sagan's 'Baloney Detection Kit' apply to our situation. I especially like, "If there is a chain of logic, make sure every link works." I am so tired of hearing arguments such as, "But isn't it better than grammar-translation?" (False choice.) "Isn't the new binder better than what they had before / no heavier?" (Actually, no.) "Because we are pouring money into it, therefore it doesn't matter if clients / teachers like it. They have to like it. Tell them to suck it up and like it." I'd call statements like those very weak links indeed. --K
DeleteCarl Sagan’s Baloney Meter..
ReplyDeletehttps://vimeo.com/112065434
Best moment of the day.
Toni,
DeleteIt's nice to have a reason to smile, eh? --K
I'm posting anonymously only because I don't seem to be able to post otherwise, but my name is Kat Brosowsky and I am currently teaching in a multi-level CLB literacy/stage 1 class in Manitoba, where we have been using PBLA for many years, albeit without some of the more restraining structures imposed by the formal implementation, but we are certainly well beyond the stage of viewing it as an "experiment". A bit about my background: I have an education degree and prior to teaching adult ESL I was a secondary Language Arts and Social Studies teacher (during that time, I used portfolio style assessment often). I have taught all CLB levels and I have taught ESL at universities in international programs as well as overseas. I have to say, I disagree with some of the negativity around PBLA. I find the philosophical ideals behind PBLA are supported by the way general education practice and research have lead us. Portfolio based assessment is not a new concept nor is it limited to the Canadian ESL sphere. I would say a cumulative, task-based approach to assessment in language learning is essential. Exit assessment and standardized testing, as alternatives, have been proven, even in core content courses such as math, to be inconclusive at best and unfair at worst. If you are creating your own materials, why would you not want to create your own assessments? We should always be starting with the end real-world tasks in mind before we start planning lessons anyway, so assessment follows fairly naturally from that, no? I'm not sure who you would think would be more qualified to make assessments than the teachers who are in classes. Teaching to the test that someone else made is not my idea of a good time. Additionally, I find it no more or less difficult to meet the PBLA requirements now in my literacy/stage 1 multi-level class than I did when I taught pre-academic CLB 7/8. The fundamentals of PBLA, in my opinion, are sound. The issues seem to come from implementation in terms of programs' individual requirements for number of assessments versus hours in class, rubrics and documentation of assessment, reporting methods, etc. At the recent Western Canada LTLE event in Edmonton, most complaints about PBLA seemed to focus on these factors. Perhaps instead of focusing on everything that is wrong with PBLA, we can work towards resolving some of these more practical issues to make it more manageable for teachers, such as building in more paid prep and creating opportunities for more collaborative sharing. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere for now (at least until the next new idea comes along!), and we can complain about it until we're blue in the face, or we can try to make it work. While I have seen many teachers pulling their hair and saying it’s possible, I also see many who have fully implemented it to great effect without the same drama or effort. Let’s working toward getting everyone to that point.
ReplyDeleteKat,
DeleteI appreciate your taking the time to share your point of view. Time will tell. Good luck to us all. Best, --K
Hi Kat,
DeleteWhen Kelly says “experiment” she is not talking about the USE of portfolios. Of course - useful tool.
She is referring to the government mandated multiyear Canada wide “Training at Scale” experiment. This is an attempt to develop a panCanadian standardised mode of language delivery/assessment to Newcomers to Canada.
Interesting goal - but maybe not achievable for many reasons.
There are huge differences in the way the “requirements” are unterpreted. You glossed over the tissues with teacher created
assessments and you don't seem to realise that a “Standardised Binder” with serial Summative Tests has replaced Standardised Tests!
Maybe there isn’t chaos and confusion in Manitoba. But there IS chaos and confusion in many parts of Canada, in many locations. There are questions about the validity and efficacy of this approach; the ROI of $$$, effort, time and stress and the payback for the LEARNERS.
So, dear Kat - As an educator you know if you have a challenging child it is a good idea to use empathy to discover what are the causes of the “negativity”. Try to talk individually to instructors who DO have “the restraining structures” imposed on them. Try to understand your fellow ESLers. I’m sure you will discover that, like you, they love teaching and do their best,
I am sure you will be as puzzled as I am why the powers that be are not trying to be more collaborative in solving the issues - why they are blaming the victims, not the process, for its shortcomings. Rather than berate us - please appeal to IRCC,to the government, for collaboration with us who have been hurt by “PBLA” and who only want what is best for the learners, for ourselves, for Canada.
We are thinking peoole, we are teachers, we have experience, smarts, heart. We care.
Yours in TESL, Claudie
Claudie,
DeleteThanks for helping us redirect attention again and again to the points we are trying to make. It seems that no matter how many times we explain which parts we are not taking issue with and what the real problems are, those who come on here to support the edict issuers or to label us as negative repeatedly engage in a shell game of deflection to other points that we are not challenging. I even added a section of my website (scroll down to NB), yet the (intentional?) conflating and deflecting continues. https://www.kellymorrissey.com/canadian-experiment.html
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteKat Brosowsky
First, is your PBLA the same as my PBLA which is a micro management nightmare. Has your PBLA been "evolving"? Ours evolves every week with more and more requirements being added. Some things that are added arent in the Emerging Practice Guidelines (Do you know what that is?)
Then:
Did your SPO negotiate changed circumstances with the funder for your benefit?
How many student contact hours do you work?
How many students do you have?
Do you do PBLA in a Mom and Tots class? (Katelynd is currently working as an English as a Second Language day instructor at Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology’s Erin campus. She teaches the Mom & Baby Class, in which newcomer mothers have their young babies in class with them while they learn-From your TEAM bio)
How do you do assessments with babies in the room?
How many hours a day do you work?
How many hours a day are you paid?
What is your hourly wage?
Do you have job security?
Do you have benefits?
What resources/supports have been provided by your SPO?
Where do you see drama?
Who says it isn't working? IT is working but it is harming people who don't work for "soft" implementers.
Do you seriously think that no one is trying to get more paid prep, the promised resources and supports for collaborative sharing? How do you suggest we do that?
DO you believe that this is a labour law violation? "Make the time, take the time" was delivered as an acceptable motto in September 2017 without the SPO getting more paid time and hourly increase. Just make it and take it. Doesn't this sound unfair to you? Shouldn't people question this?
So what I hear is that the experiment which requires exponential hours beyond paid time, no resources and threats of firing should be tolerated (see
PART C
Getting Ready for PBLA in Our Program:The Change Cycle) This was the first piece that was presented in the training at my SPO. A coordinator even told staff at the last meeting of the year that they better get out if they aren't ready for the changes...never mind decades of successfully integrating newcomers into Canadian culture.
I respectfully read your post. I have responded. Hope to hear back. Really. Your PBLA world may have a very different spin from mine. Does your SPO fail learners binders? Does your SPO provide training or just the slim orientation to the prescripts of PBLA? Would you say that your thoughts and ideas have impact on your SPO or do you need to call in the "cavalry" to get your SPO to see clearly how the dictates of PBLA are overtaxing the employee?
Let me know of this perfect PBLA utopia you speak of. Maybe your SPO can train my SPO.
March 16, 2018 at 7:07 PM
Anonymous answering Kat:
DeleteI really appreciate that you took the time to answer Kat in such detail. Your questions deserve answers. All of us deserve answers instead of being brushed off or told to clean up another's mess using our personal time. --K
Hello,
DeleteThis is Kat again. I find it interesting that the above post, also posted as Anonymous, does not include their name but feels it is appropriate to share additional personal information about me, my job and where I work despite not putting their own name. Yes, I am a TEAM board member and my current job is as described, but (like Kelly) I do not speak for my employer (nor am I speaking for the TEAM board) and I would certainly not share personal or sensitive information about my employment contract online, nor would I ask others to divulge such personal information. At this time, I feel very uncomfortable with the level of scrutiny being leveled at me personally, but I will answer some of your questions.
Do you do PBLA in a Mom and Tots class? - I’m not sure what you mean by Mom & Tots class or what this means to you, but I do PBLA in my class, yes.
How do you do assessments with babies in the room? - The same way I do them in any other class.
How many student contact hours do you work?/How many hours a day do you work?/How many hours a day are you paid?/What is your hourly wage?/Do you have job security?/Do you have benefits? – These are all extraordinarily personal questions that you would most likely not ask your neighbour, so I’m not sure why you think it is appropriate to ask a stranger on the internet.
What resources/supports have been provided by your SPO? – The mandated hours of Professional Development training and a lead to ask questions of, plus access to the online resources that anyone else would have.
Where do you see drama? - I saw some emotional, borderline aggressive comments levied at those presenting on PBLA at the LTLE conference recently that seemed to be focused on the practical aspects of implementations (hours to assessment requirement ratios imposed by programs, mostly).
Who says it isn't working? IT is working but it is harming people who don't work for "soft" implementers. – I’m not sure what you mean by this. I’m sorry if your program’s implementation has been “hard”, but I see this as an implementation problem rather than a PBLA problem.
I can’t speak to the circumstances of individual programs. Most your questions would seem to indicate that you are not happy with your employer and the circumstances that you work under, so I can’t speak to that. I will reiterate my feeling that if those challenges are not directly tied to the PBLA mandate but rather the program’s implementation, then those things can and should change, but I see a lot of validity in the tenets of PBLA itself. In Manitoba we are perhaps further along and were better set to up withstand the challenges of implementation to begin with. I’m also aware that, generally, conditions of employment in Manitoba for teachers tend to be better than in Ontario. I can sympathize with many of the frustrations expressed here, certainly, but I personally, despite having experienced some growing pains, think PBLA has merit and I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater due to some of the practical issues.
I suspect this might be a conversation that could continue on forever. My initial post was mostly intended to address the merit of the assessment method and the question of teachers as assessors, but as the comments here seem primarily on other matters, I’m not going to continue to contribute to the discussion. Thanks for your ongoing contributions to the field, Kelly!
Hi Kat,
DeleteJust a note . I always google interesting people (and pdople google me) so your I discovered you did volunteer work and where employ is - open record. I don’t know “anonymous” but I have seen Mom’s and Tots ESL classes (or “”Family ESL “ as it was called at a wonderful location I worked at (Overland LC) Amazing things happened there and I was full of admiration for the instructor! If you think Portfolio Based Learning Assessment is appropriate and works for you, makes you a better teacher, gives the learners a more meaningful experience than what you did before - well, you go girl! Good for you.But I’m surmising the point Anonymous was making is “one size does not fit all”. So at the end of the day we should all be allowed to chose our mdthodologies, our approach/es as we know what works for our students - and for ourselves. Of ciurse we shoukd adhere to tge highest professional standards. For me - an eclectic approach works - using ALL the tools in the tool box. Including portfolios.
Assessment for me is 40% observation - from that first “hullo”; 30% ongoing checking and tracking AND yes, 30% some kind of “summative test”/evaluation close to theend of the session because any “assessments” done two months earlier often have little relationship to where the student is today (sometimes ahead; sometimes regressed! )
Yours in TESL.
Claudie
Hi Kat,
DeleteI always google interesting people (and people google me) so through googling even I discovered you volunteered for TEAM. It is all online, open record. That’s part of being a connected educator.
If you think Portfolio Based Learning Assessment alone is appropriate and works for you, makes you a better teacher, gives the learners a more meaningful experience than what you did before - well, you go girl!
But I’m guessing the point Anonymous was making is “one size does not fit all”.
So we should all be allowed to chose our methodologies, our approach/es, the way we assess. We know what works and is appropriate for our classes. (e.g. Yours is a Moms and Tots Lit/1: mine a LINC 6/7 - vast difference) but nobody us suggesting yiu “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Keep what you like; Leave the rest behind is a good approach.
With regard to assessment - We use the CLBs and check with our colleagues in classes above or below ours if our expectations of level appropriate achievement are more or less consistent. We pretty much agree what a student who is coning into my class should be able to do - but we also take into acciunt motivation and prior learning experience.
We have been looking at the “assessments” in the binders of incoming students - and frankly they are all over the place. Students seem less prepared for our classes than before
For me - an eclectic approach to teaching and assessing - using ALL the tools in the tool box including portfolios is best.
I don’t think the “PBLA process” alone is reliable, consistent, valid enough.I don’t think it right to promote on the baseis of the binder alone.
Assessment for me is one third MY observation; one third ongoing checking and tracking (including portfolio use); AND
yes, one third some kind of Standardised, “created by expert test creators” summative test/evaluation.
This seems a more fair, balanced and nuanced approach. I usually do the “standardised type” evakuation close to the end of our sessions because any “assessments” done two months earlier do not necessarily reflect where the student is today (most times they are miles ahead of earlier/easier assessments)
None of our language learning “assessments” - PBLA especially
- are litmus tests!
I found the 5-10 Exit tests to be remarkably congruent with my
subjective ongoing observations/assessments of the learners. I
wish we had more of them, and/or an updated “On Target”
Yours in TESL
Claudie
Hi Kelly,
ReplyDeleteAs I have been recently sharing on Twitter, my experience with PBLA has been very positive. My school offers a lot of support, training, and collaboration.
I can see that my students enjoy my classes and my assessments because I help them learn what they want to learn.
Cintia,
DeleteThat is really great to hear. Truly. I wish I could say that every settlement English teacher across Canada is having that sort of experience with the new mandate. For those who are being bullied, silenced, scoffed at, their concerns dismissed and belittled, I will continue to advocate. At the same time I'm so happy for you that you are not one of the ones whose classrooms and lives are being turned upside down--regardless of which factor or combination of factors is to blame. --K
Hi Cintia,
DeleteCan you explain how the PBLA lead teacher helps in your organization? Do the PBLA lead teachers teach fulltime hours with 5 hours of PBLA time? or are they on full release? What do they add to your positive experience?
Are there any PBLA lead teachers out there today who could add to this conversation? How many hours do you teach? Do you archive your classroom work to share with others? How do you mentor? What do you do? Do you like the people that you mentor (are you proud of them and their efforts seeking to aid them)? Are there happy moments in your day? Do you blockade yourself in an office with "do not disturb" signs on your door like at a workplace I know of? Do you negatively critique your peers and then create "resources" (hahaha) only the RWT assessment without the supporting skill building and skill using and pass it off as complete work examples? Do you do what the PBLA guide says or have you "recreated" it to meet your needs/wants instead of truly supporting the classroom instructor? While talking to a friend over the break I realised that their PBLA was not my PBLA and that serious abuses are happening in Ontario?
So Cintia, I love that you love your PBLA but if your situation is good then you should be advocating for those burdened by bad PBLA practice. Please contact the creators of PBLA and tell them that your colleagues are suffering and you wish that it would stop. When I say colleague I mean other ESL professionals who don't live in your perfect PBLA world. What do you think? Would you venture out and help the hurting?
https://www.norquest.ca/NorquestCollege/media/pdf/media-centre/events/2018/WCLTL/Day-1/Lisa-Herrera.pdf
ReplyDeleteA very good read that says that PBLA is different everywhere which is not what PBLA promised. The TRANSCANADA ASSESSMENT strategy has turned into "PBLA in Your Classroom May Not Look Like PBLA in Mine".
So many of the suggestions in the document are dismissed by my employer.
That the author uses the term "Yikes" suggests that they don't understand how harmful PBLA. There is no need to make light of the fact that organizatons are playing with teachers livelihoods. That people are being used as guinea pigs in this experiment. It is time for CIC and IRCC to investigate the working conditions of instructors. Please do not dismiss that fact that some instructors are suffering. IF you are not, then you should be the ones that are aggressively pursuing protection for the people who are suffering.
MeToo
How about starting a campaign.
Dear MeToo,
DeleteThank you for sending that link. I am going to paste the Q and A here:
"Challenge:
Teachers are confused about the progress report and the conference summary. Some of my Teachers and put
comments on the summary, such as, “You don’t have enough artefacts for me to give you a new CLB level, but you
are definitely working at a higher level.”
• Yikes!
• If Ts cannot show evidence for their evaluation, they cannot say a student is working at a higher level."
No, Joanne and the subsequent author are wrong. That conference report comment is honesty. Before artifacts came along, we had other ways of knowing a student's proficiency level and we still do possess those faculties. If a student comes to me and misses many classes because of his night job but (on the days he is in class) he quickly aces all assignments, then I know he belongs in the next class. Depending on how my employer is currently interpreting IRCC's rules, my hands may or may not be tied. Fortunately, at my agency we are allowed to place students in the class in which they belong. We are allowed to use our judgment on that. What we cannot do until the artifacts are collected is change the benchmark(s) in the HARTS system or whatever the latest name is for that database (they keep changing it). So that student might collect four artifacts with me and then four more (per skill) with the next instructor. But yes, exclaiming "yikes" is just a telltale sign of how lightly our situations and dilemmas are being treated. --K
Are you not able to move students to other classes with out changing the benchmarks?
DeleteHi, 8:12 AM,
DeleteAt my centre, thank goodness, we are able to place students where we feel they can benefit. But we can't change the numbers until all the artifacts are collected and in the binder. Does that answer your question? I don't know if this is true at all SPOs (service provider organizations). --K
PBLA is an outrageous insult to my intelligence. I don't want to teach ESL anymore. Used to love love love my job. Kat - you speak for no one that I know or work with and I work with dozens of PBLA hating teachers. Where is this mythical school in Manitoba you speak of...
ReplyDeletehttp://wiki.settlementatwork.org/uploads/Instructor_Handbook.pdf
ReplyDeleteMoving Professional Learning to Classroom Practice
An Instructor Handbook
Developed for instructors teaching English to
adult newcomers in Ontario
Can any of the following people who created this document explain why the guiding principle referenced on page ii "Instructors are viewed as the local experts in their own classrooms, able to reflect on and explore the findings of SLA and TESL research in light of their local context and experience." isn't being honoured? The creators of PBLA and these documents should get together and fix the suffering. Take a look below and see if you know anyone on the list. IF you do, please ask them how they are helping make the workplace better for instructors.
Project manager Manager, budget and operations
Anne-Marie Kaskens Sharon Rajabi
Principal writers
Anne-Marie Kaskens, Justine Light, Colette Peters
Contributing writers Contributing writers, chapter 3 only
Thomas Farrell, Sara Gnida Tara Holmes, Leila Ranta
Expert reviewer
Antonella Valeo
Graphic design Copy editing
Laurie Wonfor Nolan Patti Ryan, Southside Communications
A special thank you to Hanna Cabaj for her continued leadership and support
in the development of this publication, and to the following individuals for
their professional guidance and time:
Advisory committee
Hanna Cabaj
Sheila Carson
Wanda Komorowski
Bobbi MacDougall
Jennifer McKay
Sheila McMullin
Kathryn Rumble
Sondra Sieminski
Christopher Sloan
PBLA isn't an outrageous insult but blatant workplace rights violation. Too much expected of hourly employees. There is no good PBLA workplace only those workplace where people are either disregarding all the onerous requirements, or where they have a supervisor who likes their employees. Worker associations, unions and individuals need to work together to change this. Call your worker rep, union, MP and MPP. We need to fix this. NOW. An election is coming. IF your MPP refuses to help you, maybe you better remind them that an election is coming and instructors are not happy with PBLA.
Dear Election-Is-Coming,
DeleteOur exchanges with Kat the other day stayed with me all night and the next night. I've been trying to figure out why the "two sides," which unfortunately there are, are not communicating well. Why do those at the top of the power structure and their defenders never understand where we are coming from? Well, I think I figured it out. I'm planning to make another video. I really hope this next one can have some constructive results for us all. --K
Rural ESL is waiting for your video. Can't wait to see what you figured out. I have been trying to figure out PBLA for 5 years now and I am not getting anywhere. Just going in circles.
ReplyDeleteHi, Rural ESL,
DeleteIt's not PBLA I've figured out. It's something else, something important. Stay tuned. --K