Term 1 Week 4: Supporting our students & making ideas come alive

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 1: Start where your students are

Principle 2: Know where your students are going 

Principle 3: Expect your students to get there  

Principle 4: Support Your Students

(Chapter 4 – pp. 102-124)

• We need to be proactive about developing interventions for students before they fail. 
• Teaching is a matter of specifying what students must know, subtracting what it is they already know, and teaching them the rest. 
• The most successful intervention plans have four components:

1. The plan is developed before the students begin to fail. 
2. The plan has a red flag mechanism that triggers action. The red flag must be concrete and objective (e.g. a student is unable to plan an essay that shows understanding of the topic). 
3. Once the red flag has been triggered there is a concrete procedure for what happens next which is designed to get students back on track as quickly as possible. 
4. Shared accountability.

• Intervention plans do not necessarily mean that you need to meet one-on-one with the students. The intervention may be a computer programme, online tutorial, workbook, extra handout or even tutoring by another student. There is a tool on page 238 of the book to help you develop an intervention plan. 
• Anticipate where students might be confused about what we are teaching and make sure that we clarify points before the students make their mistakes – this makes for much more productive teaching. 
• Make the learning process as transparent as possible by explaining all the steps in the process clearly. 

1. Explain the purpose of the task. 
2. Show how the new task fits with what they have done in the past. 
3. Explain to the students how the skills that they are learning can be used in other contexts. 
4. Provide all the steps in written directions so that students know exactly how you want the task completed.

• Gradually remove supports as students improve otherwise we never help them learn things on their own.

Try these ideas:                                         

1. When students make mistakes in an assessment, ask the following error analysis questions to figure out exactly why they went wrong:

o   What is the key error?

o   What is the probable reason that the student made the error?

o   How can I help the student avoid this error in the future?

2.      Stop every so often in your lesson and ask the students to summarise what they have learnt so far. Listen to their summaries and identify where the students are still confused.

3.       Don’t just ask students for their answers; have them explain their thinking, show their working …

4.       Share with the students the learning processes that you use yourself. What steps do you follow to solve a problem, or study, or learn a new concept? What strategies and tools do you use?

Support the Learning of Students Who Have Already Mastered the Learning Goals

These students also need an intervention plan for when they have exceeded mastery.

Try this idea:                                              

1.       Give students opportunities to represent complex concepts or problems visually without using words. This will help them think about material in a different way.

Applying the Principle

The writer (Robyn Jackson) used this process on an assessment to support students before they failed.

http://www.csun.edu/~sb4310/Supporting_the_Whole_Child pp. 312-313

Professional Reading 

Make ideas come alive with visual tools

Term 3 Week 10: Differentiation, blunders, brains and alots

Professional Reading - Differentiation

Five Hallmarks of Good Homework by Cathy Vatterott
Homework shouldn't be about rote learning. The best kind deepens student understanding and builds essential skills.

6 wild ideas for ideal schools
Education columnist Jay Mathews shares six examples from his readers of schools that work. Among them is an example submitted by ASCD's Katie Test of a public high school that focuses on students' academic and emotional needs. Students at Quest Early College High School in Houston have wellness plans, speak regularly with educators, begin taking college-level courses in their first year and complete community-service projects. Mathews notes that the six schools highlighted by readers focus on close teacher-student contact, collaboration and projects.

Early Achievers Losing Ground
A US study shows that many top students are losing ground as they transition from elementary to middle school and middle to high school. Researchers with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute said the findings raise questions about whether federal education policies aimed at helping low-performing students are harming those who are high achievers. "We've been making good progress for kids at the bottom and for poor and minority kids -- that's important," said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president. "It just can't be the only thing that we do."


Other Reading

Twenty of My Biggest Teaching Blunders by Todd Finley
We teachers make 0.7 instructional decisions per minute, according to research summaries by Hilda Borko and Richard Shavelson. We make them in contexts that shift from hour to hour in overstuffed portables with finicky projectors, after grading, without enough time to collaborate, without enough information and with too much. We look confident when we’re not, look enthusiastic during second period when demoralized by first. We speed up for the majority when a few need us to slow down. We make decisions about what’s important on festive days and during dark ones, such as 9/11, when raw grief and disorientation filled America’s classrooms like hurricanes of ash...

This is your brain on YouTube
Neuroscientists found a way to peek inside people's brains with MRI scanners and create images of what they see. Researchers showed subjects a succession of YouTube clips, and were able to create watchable, recognizable versions of the clips based only on data gleaned from the scans. "We are opening a window into the movies in our minds," said study leader Jack Gallant

The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

This is a funny, interesting blog post by a true stickler for the English language. Fellow sticklers will enjoy

"Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring." --Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian

Term 3 Week 9: Thinking as well as Thunking

Professional Reading
Competent Learners @ 20
The Competent Children Competent Learners study has tracked around 500 children in the Wellington region from just before they started school, to age 20. It has looked at the impact of early childhood education and then later educational experiences and time use out of school on children’s development. It has monitored the development of skills such as reading and writing, and also attitudes such as perseverance and curiosity. When they returned to the participants at age 20, the researchers looked at how the young people had got on with NCEA. They looked at the impact of earlier school performance, engagement in school and their experiences of learning.
Some key findings included:

• More than half those with low performance at age 8 went on to gain NCEA Level 2 or Level 3. That means that children’s support from teachers and parents, the learning opportunities they had in and out of school and their interactions with teachers, parents and peers, enabled them to make real progress.
• Those who gained NCEA Level 2 did not necessarily have higher levels of mathematics, reading, writing or logical problem solving at age 14 than those whose highest qualification was NCEA Level 1, or who did not gain any qualification. But they did have higher levels of perseverance, communication, social skills, curiosity and self-management.
• The period from age 10 to age 14 appears to be a time when it is particularly important for teachers and parents to watch for signs that children are turning away from school and learning. This applies as much to high performers at school as low performers. It was clear how deeply memories of school at this time can colour later attitudes to learning.

Thinking Strategies
Provide Models, Examples and Nonexamples

Similar to expert craftsmen teaching their trades to apprentices, teachers can model thinking and problem-solving skills to their students.
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Modeling can take several forms in your classroom:

• Thinking aloud regarding your cognitive processing of text (e.g., sharing with students how you make connections between what you know and something that you've read in the text or how you figured out what the author was inferring)
• Demonstrating or showing your students explicitly how you would complete an assignment (e.g., writing a summary of an article, taking notes, constructing a graphic organizer, or giving a speech)
• Showing first-rate complete examples of a work product (e.g., a summary paragraph or graphic organizer) as well as substandard nonexamples that help students differentiate between a good one and an unacceptable one
• Acting out, role-playing or developing simulations. See the instructional aid: A Simulation for Mitosis (or Meiosis) on the adlit website.
• Explaining, telling, and giving directions are essential teaching moves, but unless they are accompanied by various types of modeling, the likelihood of struggling readers achieving success is small. Never assume that because students have spent year in school, they have been explicitly taught or have somehow figured out on their own how to do what you want them to do.

Ideas from adlit.org

General Strategies
Teach like a Champion Technique Eight: Post It - Be sure your students know your objective for the day by posting it on the board

What Does a Great Lesson Look Like on the Outside? - Here's What Your Students and Evaluators Should See in Your Classroom.

Term 3 Week 8: Thunks

Everyone is flat out with marking and other school activities so this week's PD bite is short and fun. It is about "thunks".

"A Thunk is a beguilingly simple-looking question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light." http://www.thunks.co.uk/

Want examples?

• Is there more future or past?
• Is black a colour?
• If I switch the lights off does the wall change colour?
• If you are caught in a thunderstorm will you get wetter if you run to shelter or if you walk?

They are a great way to get students thinking, which is one of the key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum, and could be used as "Do Nows" or plenaries. Once you've modelled a few thunks, the students will be able to write their own to share with the class.

 

The independent thinking website has lots of ideas about thunks, as well as other cool stuff. They even have their own Youtube channel.

 

It's all about supporting and motivating students to think independently.

Term 3 Week 3: Thinking

What's on:

Friday 19th August - World Humanitarian Day - This year’s campaign "People Helping People" is about inspiring the spirit of aid work in everyone.
The actionaid website explains what "World Humanitarian Day" celebrates

Professional Reading:

This opinion piece by a teacher in Los Angeles suggests that governments must be prepared to put enough funding into ensuring a positive future for young people for teachers to be able to do their job effectively.
Extraordinary isn't enough: Yes, we need to get rid of bad teachers. But we can't demand that teachers be excellent in conditions that preclude excellence.

Thinking and Problem Solving - Readings and Strategies
Understanding How the Brain Thinks - Former neurologist and teacher Judy Willis presents a 5-part series on how young brains develop neurologically; she also offers some research-based classroom strategies to teach critical thinking and other 21st century skills.
Understanding How the Brain Thinks (Part 1 of 5)
The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning (Part 2 of 5)

I will post the rest of the readings as they become available. She seems to be doing one a month.


General Strategy:
Teach Like a Champion — Technique Number Four: Format Matters. High expectations also means only accepting students answers in complete sentence with good grammar.

Term 2 Week 11 - blogging, web tools and "Teach Like a Champion"

Professional Readings

• What students want - information gleaned from student focus groups about what they want from school and their teachers and what they need to do themselves in order to succeed.

e-Learning Readings and Strategies

• Fostering Student Creativity and Responsibility With Blogging - When sixth graders enter middle school, they are masters of some aspects of digital technology and lost when it comes to others. Despite their familiarity with some digital technology, they often lack specific skills needed for interacting with particular digital tools and interfaces. Many of them also lack the perseverance necessary for troubleshooting tech issues. This blog post also has links to other readings and resources about using blogs in education.
• Summer PD: Web Tools Collectives Part 3 -- Collecting, Organizing and Making Sense of Information - Access to the Internet brings an almost unlimited amount of content to our fingertips. Effectively collecting, organizing, and making sense of this information is critical to learning. Ubiquitous access to information provides many opportunities and challenges for "formal" education systems. After all, what good is memorizing the atomic number for Iridium when you can just text Cha Cha? This blog post has lots of great ideas about how to teach and support students as they conduct research online.
• Edutecher newsletter for July 2011 - This "Mega-Newsletter" shares some great new tools and resources, but you can also learn more about all of the new apps they have just released and see some of what went on at the ISTE conference last week.

General Strategies

Teach Like a Champion — Technique Number Two: Right is right. This technique accepts no half answers, but asks for complete and correct answers to questions.

Term 2 Week 9 - Maori Youth Council report and the art of questioning

Professional Reading

In Their Own Words! presents the findings of the Māori Youth Council, prepared in response to the call from the Minister of Māori Affairs “to hear directly from young people what they think about how the Government’s policies and programmes work for them”.

The report contains a review of current policy initiatives including:

·         Kura Kaupapa Māori;

·         He Kākano;

·         Ka Hikitia; and

·         Te Kotahitanga.

There are four common themes present in the recommendations. They are:

·         greater use of whānau- and community-based initiatives;

·         improved access to information;

·         more targeted resources; and

·         greater use of Te Reo Māori to engage youth.

The full report has been saved on the T Drive (T:\Reflective Practice Group\2011) and a copy will be bound and put into the Teacher Resource section of the school library.

Thinking Strategy

Asking Questions - Asking questions is fundamental to helping students acquire knowledge. Ulrike Thomas looks at four key issues to consider when thinking about questioning.

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 8 - thinking & creativity

Upcoming Events

• 22 March - World Day for Water


• 23 March - World Meteorogical Day (WMO)


• 24 March - World Tuberculosis Day (WHO)


• Seaweek - Children of Tangaroa - Marine Mammals of Aotearoa
  Exhibitions - Natural History Events
  Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland CBD
  On until Thursday 31 March 2011
  Children of Tangaroa - Marine Mammals of Aotearoa explores the stories of New Zealand's threatened marine mammals. Learn about the effects of whaling and Maori myths and legends surrounding each...

Professional Reading/ viewing:

• Scott McCloud on Comics - In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures that our eyes can hear and touch. Scott McCloud is a comic book artist.


• 'Seeking, using and creating' -education for a creative age .Tapping the intellectual curiosity of the learner - a blog post

Thinking/ Creative Strategy:
The Showing Evidence Tool helps students learn how to construct well-reasoned arguments and prove their case with credible evidence. The tool provides a visual framework to make claims, identify evidence, evaluate the quality of that evidence, explain how the evidence supports or weakens claims, and reach conclusions based on the evidence. This thinking tool supports activities where students debate differences, make and defend decisions, and analyze conflicting infor-mation. The tool and related resources are available free online. Students may work on their claims and evidence at home or at school, and can be paired with another team to review their ideas. Michal Denny, LENScience

General resources:

The Best Sites for Learning about the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Part I

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/03/11/the-best-sites-for-learning-about-the-japan-earthquake-tsunami/

The Best Sites for Learning about the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Part II

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/03/12/useful-updates-on-japan-earthquake/

Today's Japan Update

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/03/20/todays-japan-update-3/

A Compilation of the Best Lists about Natural Disasters

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/03/11/a-compilation-of-the-best-lists-about-natural-disasters/


Children Worldwide Fold Paper Cranes to Support Rebuilding Effort in Sendai - Dozens of Countries Responding Including Over a Thousand Haitian Children

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, 2011 -- In response to the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan on March 11th, Students Rebuild has partnered with DoSomething.org's "Paper Cranes for Japan" campaign to inspire young people worldwide to support their Japanese peers.

Paper Cranes for Japan combines the power of DoSomething.org's deep experience engaging youth audiences and the Bezos Family Foundation's commitment to help young people connect, learn, and take action around critical global issues.

In less than a week, 7 schools in Haiti are making cranes, representing more than 1000 kids collectively folding for Japan; over 7,000 young people posted origami cranes and wishes of support on the "Paper Cranes for Japan" Facebook page and Students Rebuild has had over 200 requests for mailing labels to send in cranes from over 15 different countries including Romania and New Zealand. Building on that momentum, the Bezos Family Foundation announced today a pledge to donate $2 for every crane mailed in to fund Architecture for Humanity's plan to support Japanese architects' rebuilding efforts.

According to legend, anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes, which are sacred creatures in Japanese culture, will be granted a wish by a crane. With a goal to collect 100,000 origami cranes from young people to represent wishes of support and healing, the challenge hopes to raise $200,000 for the reconstruction of a youth facility by the Japanese team from Architecture for Humanity. The thousands of cranes will go on to become a permanent art installation in a school or youth facility being rebuilt by Architecture for Humanity in Japan. This huge display of cranes will be a symbolic gift from students around the globe.

Architecture for Humanity and the Bezos Family Foundation partnered previously through Students Rebuild in response to the devastating Haiti earthquake in January, 2010. Paper Cranes for Japan represents a second Students Rebuild challenge, in collaboration with DoSomething.org, mobilizing young people to connect and address critical global issues including young people in Haiti who know firsthand the devastating impact of a massive earthquake.

"This initiative empowers children around the world to created a simple gesture that will become more than just symbolic," says Architecture for Humanity co-founder Cameron Sinclair. "Through Students Rebuild, we look forward to updating the crane makers on how their efforts allowed our Japanese architects to respond to the rebuilding efforts in Japan."

"DoSomething.org started 'Paper Cranes for Japan' as a way for all young people who want to help to do so without a car, an adult, or money. With this partnership, their wishes of support will now translate into funding to rebuild schools and communities," says DoSomething.org Editor in Chief Betsy Fast.


Architecture for Humanity and its teams of local pro bono building professionals in Kyoto, Osaka, Sendai, and Tokyo are actively partnering and lending their services to organizations and community groups to mobilizing around long-term reconstruction efforts.


"We believe young people are uniquely poised to affect the world's most pressing problems," says Bezos Family Foundation president Jackie Bezos. "They're often overlooked as a source of talent and solutions."


For more information on Paper Cranes for Japan log on to Students Rebuild http://studentsrebuild.org/japan/


Get your friends involved. Fold, Show & Mail You Tube: How to Fold Cranes Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1ECrNDZl4
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/papercranesforjapan

(We are going to be making paper cranes at Peace Group over the next few weeks)

Term 1 Week 4 2011 - thinking & creativity

Professional Reading/ Viewing
How can we ignite the creative spark in our students?
This talk (Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering) given at a TED conference by Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges and even a rollercoaster!

Gever Tulley founded the Tinkering School to offer an exploratory curriculum designed to help kids – ages 8 to 17 – learn how to build things. He says "by providing a collaborative environment in which to explore basic and advanced building techniques and principles, we strive to create a school where we all learn by fooling around. All activities are hands-on, supervised, and at least partly improvisational. Grand schemes, wild ideas, crazy notions, and intuitive leaps of imagination are, of course, encouraged and fertilized."
If you want to know more about Tinkering School check out their website: http://www.tinkeringschool.com/

Thinking/ Creativity
This short video (Exploring Thinking Processes) shows how a secondary school teacher uses the wrong answers as a tool for teaching.
Summary: A secondary teacher shows how she reveals the thinking processes behind students' answers in a Year 7 maths class, using a technique which can be used across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 as part of Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP).

General Resource
Term 1's Good Teacher Magazine has articles and readings on the following topics and is worth a look:
Creative emergence or planning studies - Bruce Hammonds
A Student’s Voice for the 21st Century - Anna-Rose Davies
UK approach to degrees supports productivity
Taking Strategic Steps Towards a Focus on Learning

School’s in for finances - Anneli Knight

Tools 4 Talent Development - Elaine Le Sueur
Talent Spotting & Creativity - Elaine Le Sueur
Big bang or slow burn - Laurie Loper
The History of St Valentine
Responding to a Child in Crisis - Gary Weber
Using Irrational Behaviour to Your Advantage - Michelle LaBrosse
Changing Lives - Bernie Hiha
Books and Things