Academic Innovation Teaching and Learning at Northwood

BY NOËL CARMICHAEL DEAN OF FACULTY AND ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

To improve our teaching practices and respond to the evolving world around us, Northwood teachers regularly bring different methods and models into their classrooms. Over the years, changes to our curriculum and delivery have encouraged student autonomy and developed practical skills, such as planning out the workload, finding and evaluating resources, and learning how to engage in the iterative processes of writing and editing, collaboration, and communication. These changes also include more intangible skills such as perseverance, accepting feedback, and learning from mistakes.

Over the last three years, we have introduced more self-directed work into the curriculum, most of it with the rigor of honors or AP-level courses. Additions include our Advanced STEM and Humanities Research programs as well as our Honors Independent Study and Apprenticeship options. We have also introduced a series of interdisciplinary courses, such as Integrated Humanities for grades 9 and 10, and unique, placebased courses such as Adirondack Sciences, which combines elements of environmental science, geology, ecology, and sustainability and includes fieldwork in our beautiful 6-million-acre park. Lastly, we introduced elements surrounding our courses to support the kind of student we want to develop, such as Student-Led Conferences during Family Weekend and Northwood Seminar for the whole school each Monday. We also introduced Team Deans to replace gradelevel deans as academic liaisons and make changes to our weekly timetable to better serve our often-traveling student-athletes, including reshaping Fridays and offering flexible studio hours in certain courses.

We learned much from the pandemic about the importance of relationship building between both teacher and student and between students in a classroom. We were also reminded how important the social and emotional side of the learning experience is.

This past academic year, Head of School Mike Maher appointed a Redesign Task Force to develop a new model for academics at Northwood as part of the 2023 Strategic Plan and beyond. The impulse for redesign stems from the changing market for private schools as well as the demands on our students entering college and the workforce in the digital age, including the exponential changes wrought by readily available artificial intelligence. The task force developed many significant changes for the 2023-24 school year and beyond.

Elements of our Evolution: Instructional Practices

Our instructional practices are evolving to foster customization of where and when student learning takes place. We are moving to a model that allows students to move forward with the content of a course at their own pace, so that we ensure they have successfully mastered certain skills and demonstrated certain understandings before moving on to the next lesson, rather than moving on because it is time for the whole class to do so, as we have historically done. We are also leveraging online platforms and our own internal LMS (learning management system) to allow students to work on many aspects of their assignments from wherever they are in the world. Self-pacing and portability also facilitate the opportunity of a “Challenge for Honors” program, as all students in the class can choose to complete more complex work and earn honors credit for their additional efforts.

The Nature of Teaching at Northwood School: From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side

The new model includes a fundamental shift in the understanding of the teacher’s role in a course. The adult now serves as a facilitator, designer, or guide, rather than the subject expert. Rather than focusing on preparing content to deliver, teachers design units of study for students to explore. The result is a positioning of students as resourceful knowledge seekers rather than passive recipients.

The Bifurcated Model: From Guided Ascent to Peak Experience

We have shifted to thinking of the curriculum as a bifurcated system with more structure and supervision, what we refer to as “Guided Ascent,” in the 9th and 10th grades. In their 11th, 12th, and postgraduate years, we allow students to engage in more self-directed work, including work with external experts serving as mentors and work with local research institutions. These students will have more flexibility in their schedule allowing for these different experiences and better preparing them for college life and independent work. We refer to this part of their time at Northwood as their “Peak Experience.”

What does this look like in a classroom?

This school year, many of our teachers began exploring the Modern Classrooms Project (www.modernclassrooms.org) which allows students to work at the pace that works best for their learning style and comfort level. In this model, self-pacing is enabled by structures such as the use of teacher-created videos, published student guides, progress trackers, the ability to retake assessments, and to work beyond the level of others in the class if they need a further challenge. Though the work is self-paced, it is still heavily guided. Teachers are still planning the content of each lesson, designing it for student learning, delivering the lessons, and assessing student work both for feedback during the process and grades at the conclusion of each section. This approach, allowing different students in the same room to work at different paces, necessarily changes the feel of the classroom experience. Though classroom discussion and whole group activities will still be leveraged to support shared experiences, students will also have lots of opportunities to think critically and metacognitively about how they learn and work. In a traditional model, a whole-class instructional model, the teacher delivers information to students. In the new structure, freed from the need to use class time in this way, teachers engage in 1:1 and small group instruction to deliver feedback and re-teach concepts as necessary. These forms of interaction are incredibly valuable in developing relationships with students and helping them to achieve mastery of the skills and content. As educators, we have known for years the value of teaching in this way but have rarely found the time for it in a traditional teaching model.

For students, self-directed processes can feel different. They require students to be resourceful and advocate for their learning, rather than be passive participants, waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do at each turn. Students must formulate and ask questions, and it requires them to learn to rely on themselves as a resource. While we have seen some students struggle with the initial transition into this model due to the increased expectations the model naturally brings, most students adjust and find themselves quite capable of this new approach. Additionally, we have had many students who previously struggled in a classroom setting now thriving with the autonomy and ability to set their own challenge level and pace.

In my own classroom, this model has afforded me a much clearer picture of where each student stands on each specific skill we are tackling. Even more importantly, it provides me with clear insight into the process factors that contribute to a student’s achievement or struggle to achieve.

As we move forward on this journey of change, we will continue to explore new approaches to what and how we teach and seek student, parent, and faculty feedback throughout the process.