Term 2 Week 3: A little bit on understanding, thinking & creativity

Upcoming Events:
22 May - International Day for Biological Diversity - Theme for 2011: Forest Biodiversity

Professional Reading:
Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students?
The learning environment needs to be one in which students feel respected and safe to take risks; kids need to feel that their learning has a purpose and that the curriculum is relevant to their lives; and students need feedback on their progress -- they need to know what they're trying to accomplish, where they are in relation to the goal, and what they need to do in order to get there.
This blog post is also interesting - What is understanding?

Good teachers may not fit the mold
Research suggests that good teachers possess a few simple, quantifiable attributes.

Thinking/ Creative Strategy:

Using nonlinguistic representation
Is a picture really worth a thousand words? According to brain researcher John Medina (Brain Rules, 2008), when we receive information orally, we only remember about 10 percent of the content three days later. However, when that information is paired with a picture, we're likely to remember 65 percent of the content.

In Classroom Instruction that Works, McREL applied this research and found that when used correctly, nonlinguistic representations (e.g., graphic organizers, mindmaps, mental pictures, and manipulatives) can have a powerful, positive effect on student learning. So the next time you introduce a new concept in your classroom, remember to pair it with a "picture" to improve retention. This is where tools such as Hyerle Thinking Maps, picture dictations etc. come in to play.

Thinking on the Spot (from the Auckland SCT wiki)- use this powerpoint to encourage students to think quickly. Adapt it to suit your curriculum area and it could be used as a quick, fun plenary, especially for afternoon classes.

Term 1 Week 5 - differentiation

Upcoming Events
3 March World Book Day - http://www.worldbookday.com/
6 March National Children's Day - www.childrensday.org.nz

Professional Reading

PISA 2009: Our 21st century learners at age 15
This report published in December 2010 provides a picture of New Zealand’s 15-year-old performance in reading literacy (main focus), mathematical literacy and scientific literacy. It compares New Zealand’s results with other top- and high-performing countries. In July and August 2009 4,643 New Zealand 15 year-old students from 163 New Zealand schools took part in PISA 2009.

Positives:

• New Zealand 15-year-old students’ overall reading performance was substantially higher than the average for the 345 OECD countries.


• There were Asian, Māori, Pākehā/European and Pasifika students who performed at the highest level of reading literacy.


• New Zealand students’ overall mathematical literacy performance was significantly higher than the average for the OECD countries.


• New Zealand students’ overall scientific literacy performance was substantially higher than the average for the OECD countries.

What we need to work on in NZ:

• While Pākehā/European and Asian students were more likely to be at the higher end, Māori and Pasifika students were over-represented at the lower end.

More complex than skills: Rethinking the relationship between key competencies and curriculum content - Dr. Rosemary Hipkins, New Zealand Council for Educational Research
I have been thinking about how I can encourage my junior students to goal set and reflect on their use of the Key Competencies during learning in English. This conference paper gave me some ideas to get me started.
Abstract: Drawing on the New Zealand experience, this paper outlines two possible implementation pathways. The “skills” pathway could lead to modest improvements in teaching and learning. It is, however, unlikely to achieve longer-term goals such as strengthening citizenship, enhancing creativity and fostering lifelong learning. Such goals have future-focused and dispositional components. The “participatory” pathway could support these longer-term goals. Students are challenged to use knowledge, not just get it. However following this pathway requires a rethinking of how curriculum content is used, with implications for what is seen as evidence of learning. The presentation will draw on several common science topics and two of the key competencies as they were developed for the New Zealand Curriculum (Thinking; Using Language, Symbols and Texts). These will be used to illustrate possible changes in teaching and learning approaches. Implications for curriculum support processes will be raised.

Differentiation Strategies

This article ("Defining Differentiated Instruction") expands on Edutopia's definition of differentation. It covers:

• Starting with the student


• A classroom example


• A matter of fairness (using sentence starters, graphic organisers with some students)

Pre-assessment: A Differentation Power Tool

Pre-assessment is often the first step to differentiating in our classrooms. This document goes over some of the ways that you can pre-test students - academically and in terms of their interests.

General Resource

"Becoming a master asker" - this article explores the question what makes a good question? Very helpful tips for us teachers.