Year: 2020 — Province: Ontario
Certificate of Achievement Recipient
Dundas Valley Secondary School
English, grades 9 to 12
Dundas, Ontario
One of the key lessons that I have learned from Jen over the years, is how important it is to recognize that we are each always more than just an individual in a crowd. That we are all connected and that we change each situation, and each other, through what we say and do.
Students often come into Jen Warren's class thinking school is a zero-sum game, where the goal is to prove how smart they are by talking over other students' ideas. She reframes their "job" for them: everyone in the class—including her—is there to cultivate the mindset of learning from others. She challenges students to draw on multiple perspectives so they can develop exciting new ideas.
Teaching approach
Jen treats each class like a think tank, with students collaborating to solve real-world problems; she calls this "greasing the wheels of cognitive flexibility." She believes everyone is capable of thinking deeply and creatively.
In the classroom
- Employs digital tools to help students engage: students with reading challenges use augmented reality apps such as Aurasma to annotate texts with video instead of words; to write essays, students gather opinions from people around the world using Google Forms.
- Helps students understand the difficulty shifting their thinking once they'd committed to a position: asks them to research whether it is smarter to rent or own a home; after 15 minutes, asks them to switch to the other side; top students find it particularly useful to learn there may be no "right" answer.
- Uses multiple cognitive-development tools: these include the ladder of inference, mind maps, causal models, pro-pro charts, Q charts, foursquare diagrams and visual organizers; helps students move beyond their biases and think critically.
- Links English to cross-curricular topics: discusses social justice issues when teaching Shakespeare; challenges students to think about business issues that come up in fiction.
Outstanding achievements
- Creates an integrative-thinking classroom: uses tension between multiple ideas to stimulate creativity, spark discussion, challenge conclusions, deepen questioning skills, design solutions, and enhance understanding; teaches this approach to educators across Ontario.
- Coordinates year-long leadership camp: 48 students participate annually; they plan and implement "pay it forward" activities to gain leadership experience, such as transition events for Grade 9 students, and fundraisers for the United Way and Red Cross.
- Enlists students to expand reading list: final project in one course asks students to seek out voices and genres currently underrepresented in English class; their presentations inform future course content.
- Launched Team Lit: this cross-curricular team of 19 teachers mentors students with lagging literacy skills.
Get in touch!
Dundas Valley Secondary School
310 Governor's Road
Dundas ON L9H 5P8
905-628-2203
https://www.hwdsb.on.ca/dundasvalley/
http://www.rotmanithink.ca/jenniferwarren