Never Work Harder Than
Your Students & Other Principles
of Great Teaching
Jackson, Robyn R. (2009). Never Work Harder Than Your Students &
Other Principles of Great Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Principle 6: Focus on Quality Not Quantity
(Chapter 6 – pp. 152-169)
·
Rather than trying to cover as much as
possible, we need to be strategic about what we teach and how we teach it.
·
Homework should be for practice, not for
acquiring new information.
·
We need to make sure that we are not in
coverage mode when we are teaching. In coverage mode, we focus students’
attention on completion rather than understanding. We check off the material
that we have covered often without checking to see if students have learned it.
·
In order to focus on quality, look at the end
goals of the unit and choose learning experiences that will most quickly help
students achieve the goals of the course. We don’t have to do every activity
suggested in a unit of work.
·
Focus on
Distributed Practice Versus Full-length Performance Every Time. Divide
learning activities into smaller parts so that students can learn one part at a
time. E.g. if you are teaching students how to write an effective thesis
statement, get them to write an introduction and then outline the rest of the
essay, rather than having them write the full essay.
Literacy and Thinking Readings/ Strategies:
What’s Your Best Guess? Predicting Answers Leads to Deeper Learning - Predictions pique our interest. Once we wager that our favorite sports
team will win, we want to know the final score. Once we guess the
identity of the murderer in a mystery novel, we keep reading to find out
if we were right. This reading especially focuses on predicting in Mathematics.
How Knowledge Helps By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006) - The author, a professor of cognitive psychology,
notes, "it's true that knowledge gives students something to think
about, but… knowledge does much more than just help students hone their
thinking skills, it actually makes learning easier." Factual knowledge
enhances cognitive processes like problem solving and reasoning, and
once you have some knowledge, the brain finds it easier to get more and
more knowledge. This article covers aspects such as, how knowledge brings more knowledge and how
knowledge improves thinking.
Use Easy Nonfiction to Build Background Knowledge By: Elaine K. McEwan (2007) - A Texas
librarian shares his strategy of using nonfiction picture books to introduce
new concepts to struggling adolescent readers and to build their background
knowledge. Once students have been exposed to academic content in easy reading
material, they are more confident in making the transition to textbooks.
Accessing Students' Background Knowledge in the ELL Classroom By: Kristina Robertson (2008).As you teach content areas to ELLs (English Language Learners) of diverse backgrounds, you may find that they struggle to grasp the content, and that they approach the content from very different perspectives. Drawing on your students' background knowledge and experiences can be an effective way to bridge those gaps and make content more accessible. This article offers a number of suggestions to classroom teachers as they find ways to tap into the background knowledge that students bring with them.
Twenty Movies Every Educator Should See - These are the top 20 movies every educator should watch - according to edutopia.
