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Curate Knowledge, Don't Lecture: Mastery-Based Learning with Jerry Snow
Description
Jerry Snow, district administrator and former principal in Piedmont, Alabama, explains how his middle school moved to competency based learning, where students work at their own pace and teachers curate knowledge instead of lecturing. He shares what that shift asked of teachers and how he got them on board.
Snow showed his staff Todd Rose's TEDx talk on the myth of average: if you teach to the average student, you are teaching to nobody. Piedmont also feeds NWEA MAP results into digital programs to build individual learning plans, and test scores stayed strong after the first year.
What you'll learn
- Show teachers Todd Rose's talk on the myth of average before you ask them to change how they teach.
- Ask teachers how to run station rotations, such as how many stations and how long, so they own the model.
- Turn benchmark results into individual learning plans that fill skill gaps instead of working around them.
- Keep instruction at a high enough DOK level, so working at your own pace does not mean easier work.
- When a teacher slides back into lecturing, ask whether it helps students or just helps the teacher feel safe.
Chapters
- 1:10 How Piedmont's one-to-one initiative began
- 4:39 Moving to mastery-based learning with a planning grant
- 6:39 Individual learning plans that fill skill gaps
- 8:39 Moving teachers from giver to curator of knowledge
- 11:42 Having honest, hard conversations with teachers
- 13:40 How teachers manage students at different standards
- 16:09 Why it is harder and still worth it
- 18:26 Build your own model and tweak it yearly
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Questions this episode answers
How do you get teachers to move from lecturing to curating knowledge?
Snow showed his staff Todd Rose's TEDx talk The Myth of Average, then asked whether they would want their own children bored or struggling. He says to be honest, listen to teachers' concerns and skip the iron fist, and that most teachers did not push back.
What does mastery-based learning ask of teachers?
Snow says it is harder and more tiring. Teachers track data, pull small groups working on the same standard, tell whether a student is stalled or just lazy, and keep the content at a high enough DOK level. He says teachers feel real pride when students move beyond where they would have been.
How does a school personalize learning for students at different levels?
Snow says Piedmont students get grade-level standards and work at their own pace with minimum deadlines, and they can start the next grade level when they finish one. The school also feeds NWEA MAP results into digital programs to build individual learning paths that fill gaps.
About Jerry Snow
District administrator at Piedmont City Schools in Alabama and former high school and middle school principal.
Links and resources