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A school’s culture makes a difference in the lives of its educators and especially its students. The culture of a school can also be a major factor that helps cultivate student achievement. A good school culture has high expectations for student behavior and achievement that focuses on building on students’ strengths but also zealously giving students (and teachers) the support they need to learn and grow. This issue seeks examples of school cultures that support and sustain student achievement. How does the school convey high academic expectations and support students in that regard? What efforts are made to support staff stability? How are positive behavior and strong relationships between students and staff, among staff, and between school and families cultivated and maintained? What influence has a good school culture had on student achievement and growth?
ASCD Express is looking for short, 600–1,000-word essays on the theme "Creating, Cultivating, and Sustaining a Culture of Achievement." Guidelines for submissions are here; please send us your submissions by June 22, 2012.
See what's been happening around ASCD this week:
Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.
In this month's column, Outstanding Young Educator Brad Kuntz says educators can demonstrate what it's like to be a contributing member of a whole child community.
By personally contributing in the neighborhoods surrounding our schools, by teaching our students to be active citizens, and by bringing community members into the school to be a part of the educational experience, teachers can foster the development of mutually enriching experiences and create a positive, supportive environment for all students.
How do you bring the community into your classroom and into your practice as a whole educator?
Last June, I wrote Seven Ways to Go From On-Task to Engaged, which turned out to be one of the most popular topics of the year.
In it I spoke about the possibility that students could technically be on-task but cognitively and emotionally unengaged in the actual learning.
For decades, much discussion and research in education circles focused on the role of time on-task and its relationship to attention and learning (Karweit, 1983; Prater, 1992). While time on task is important, as is focus and attention, true engagement in learning involves more than external behaviors as measured by time on-task. True engagement involves the mind, the body, and the soul.
As educators, we realize that not all on-task time is productive time. John Hattie, in his research synthesis Visible Learning points out that increasing time on task is pointless if the tasks themselves are not productive. Those who call for longer school days and longer school years might be wise to increase the focus on getting students engaged and productive. After all, asking students to spend more time being bored or disengaged isn't likely going to have a positive effect.
Because not all tasks or assignments are equal in their ability to effectively engage students, educators should have a variety of strategies and approaches available when they work with students. So, here are seven more ways to go from on-task to engaged:
How do you know if students are not only on-task but engaged? What strategies to you recommend?
Post submitted by Bryan Harris, director of professional development for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Arizona. He is the author of Battling Boredom, published by Eye On Education. More information can be found at http://www.bryan-harris.com.
While today's educator is inundated with tweets, blog posts, and social media conversations, there's something to be said for the long-form nature of books to help illuminate complicated topics and put things in perspective. To help you sort through the latest titles, Education Week has begun BookMarks, "a new, online generation of book coverage."
According to blog author Catherine Cardo, BookMarks will feature book news, author chats, and reviews from a variety of guest contributors. Titles discussed so far include "Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit: Lessons from a Half-Century of Federal Efforts to Improve America's Schools," edited by Rick Hess and Andrew P. Kelly, and Kelly Gallagher's "Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts." (She was also kind enough to point out ASCD's Talks With an Author series.)
With so many strong books being published on major education issues of the day, it's great to have a blog in such a prominent venue dedicated to finding gems and connecting readers with insights on key issues.
Read more at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/bookmarks.
A thorough understanding of child and adolescent development can help educators create appropriate levels of differentiation for their students’ learning. Is there new information about child development that teachers would benefit in knowing? How can that research be translated to best practices about how children learn through increased motivation, attention, memory, thinking, and action? How can understanding child development inform schoolwork, homework, and assessment? We welcome articles that can show how and explain why developmentally appropriate practices make a difference in student learning in a variety of subject areas.
ASCD Express is looking for short, 600–1,000-word essays on the theme "Child Development and Learning." Guidelines for submissions are here; please send us your submissions by May 28, 2012.
Though abstract and difficult to model, inference is an important skill to teach students -- it's the gateway to the kind of higher-order, critical thinking students need to succeed in school and work.
Students use different processes to draw conclusions via inference. How can teachers explicitly model these processes? In Inference: Teaching Students to Develop Hypotheses, Evaluate Evidence, and Draw Logical Conclusions, Harvey Silver, Thomas Dewing, and Matthew Perini examine four inference strategies:
Inference lessons using any of these approaches -- Inductive Learning, Mystery, Main Idea, or Investigation -- have five principles and corresponding phases of implementation:
The first letter of the first word of each instructional phase of an inference lesson spells out the acronym INFER (Identify, Note, Formulate, Explain, Reflect). These phases and guidance for classroom implementation of the instructional phases are spelled out in more detail in the free sample chapter of this new ASCD book.
Also -- you can see a sample lesson using these strategies in action. Walk through each step of teacher Jason Mantzoukas' 9th grade U.S. history inductive learning lesson on what life was like in Colonial New England. Each phase is described and accompanying word lists, text passages, and graphic organizers are provided.
Author and DC teacher Dan Brown (@DanBrownTeacher) wrote last week's most popular ASCD SmartBrief story -- a list of the top five things not to say to students, no matter how exhausted you are, as the school year winds down. Brown's tips include
Read the full post for all five verboten phrases -- and a lot more reader-submitted examples in the comments section.
Is there something you regret saying to students, or a phrase that you knowingly avoid?
Related: ASCD Author Jenny Edwards has written on selecting words that invite students to learn. We've collected some strategies from her recent conference presentations here and here.
Read the latest news from ASCD:
Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.
"In far too many places throughout the nation, students and others see the school as a cold, aloof, negative, punitive, joyless, boring, irrelevant, bureaucratic, petrified institution ...." So begins "To Humanize Education," a call to action from the October 1972 issue of Educational Leadership. Humanistic education—defined by Wikipedia as the concept of educating "the whole person"—may have had its heyday in the 1970s, in terms of the use of the phrase, but it's clear that much of its message lives on today, and that aspects of it are reflected in the whole child approach to education.
The article, by Raymond H. Muessig and John J. Cogan, presents a series of bullet-pointed suggestions for schools looking to "humanize" their education. They encourage, for example, a curriculum less subject-centered and more focused on the problems, interests, and needs of students; opening the school after hours and on weekends for activities and adult education, similar to today's community schools; and a shift from letter grades to written evaluations.
The article has a great range of tips, from the practical ("family-style" lunches between students and teachers) to the lofty ("education for happiness"), but from a historical perspective, it serves as a reminder that efforts to improve education persist longer than the labels given to them.
In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by logging in.
If you use children's and young adult literature in your classroom, be sure to check out Nerdy Book Club, a new project from a trio of educators who are passionate about books for kids. Colby Sharp, Cindy Minnich, and Donalyn Miller (best known as author of The Book Whisperer blog) contribute articles and curate content that celebrates the culture of reading.
The association of books and nerds is a potentially fraught one, and guest poster Jen Vincent tackles the issue head-on in "Cool Kids Only! That Means YOU!!!" Vincent, who says that she has a strong distaste for the term "nerdy book club," runs through the standard (and mostly negative) dictionary definitions of "nerd" and finally redefines "book nerd" as someone with passion and pride—as well as smarts.
The blog combines a mix of book reviews, author guest posts, and essays. One recurring feature, top 10 book lists submitted by teachers, is a fun way to discover new titles. The site also hosts the "Nerdies Book Awards," which just announced its first list of winners in a variety of categories, from picture books to graphic novels
The wonderful and highly effective FISH! program that guides employees at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, Wash., emphasizes four primary attitudes when treating customers and coworkers:
Choose your attitude. Although events that happen are often beyond our control, how we react to the events is almost always within our control. This is evident in the way Pike Place employees stay positive in all customer interactions.
Play. Employees at Pike Place are encouraged, and in fact required, to have fun with each other and with their customers. It is not uncommon for employees to be cracking tasteful jokes and playfully tossing fish to customers and each other. They make time to play, bringing energy and fun along with commitment to the job.
Make their day. Employees are expected to take good care of their customers so that they will want to come back. Within reason, employees do whatever they can to please the customer.
These same attitudes are at the core of successful and satisfied teachers. The best teachers view their students as the most important customers they have. Even though Seattle's Pike Place Market looks and smells like a fish market, it feels like a fun place to be because the employees live these four attitudes.
What attitudes make your school a place where you—and your students—want to be?
Excerpted from Chapter 1 (full chapter available for free) of When Teaching Gets Tough: Smart Ways to Reclaim Your Game by Allen Mendler.
The Common Core State Standards support the whole-brain activity of creative problem solving by calling for student engagement in constructing irrefutable, evidence-based arguments and solutions.
We've written before about the Common Core's shift from narrative and persuasive literacy to informative and argumentative literacy, and in last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief article, former administrator Ben Johnson writes about how this shift can help students become better creative problem solvers.
For a better grasp on how the Common Core shifts instructional focus, check out our free series of Common Core webinars. Recent topics cover text complexity, major math and literacy shifts, and embedding the new standards in the Understanding by Design® framework.
Check out what's been going on at ASCD:
Sandra Alberti discusses Common Core State Standards in ASCD's Annual Report, but you can participate in her full presentation by signing up for her free webinar on the topic, Tuesday, April 17, at 3 p.m. ET.
"History is not carved out by horse-mounted heroes, but by the choices of everyday individuals living their everyday lives," writes ASCD Constituent Services Director Walter McKenzie in a recent ASCD EDge blog post.
In an ASCD Express series, New Leaders for New Schools, cofounder Ben Fenton presents practices, structures, and attitudes that really make a difference. Learn how to design effective leadership from his experiences.
ASCD recently redesigned its website. Take a look and explore all of our great content.
ASCD author Robyn Jackson is hosting a webinar on April 19 about helping struggling students become successful. Sign up today!
The most recent Capitol Connection explores why art instruction remains relevant for most, but not all.
Read several authors' views on what it means to be college- and career-ready in the newest ASCD Express.
Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.
Those looking to get some historical perspective on the issue of avoiding teacher burnout should investigate the March 1946 issue of Educational Leadership on the theme "Teachers as Individuals."
Read the full issue: Teachers as Individuals
In the introductory essay, "Are Teachers People?" (PDF), editor Gertrude Hankamp urges the education community to consider the title question in a fuller dimension. "Theoretically we believe that teachers are people, vocally and mentally we subscribe to it, but in the realm of action it is a neglected area," she writes.
Hankamp, who is not shy about using italics, goes on to flesh out portraits of teachers inundated with paperwork that keeps them chained to desks after class and who struggle to make ends meet and still afford simple luxuries, like a new dress or round of golf. "Pretty Sue" Brady, one teacher Hankamp describes, "does her share of dating [and] loves a good movie" but doesn't get involved in the school community beyond her teaching duties.
The essay leads to a number of interesting takes on the topic of meeting teachers' needs, including "Know Your Teacher" (PDF), which notes that "some leaders in education are not cognizant of any void in the life of the teachers with whom they work," and a fictionalized story of "One Teacher's Problem" (PDF).
Although the issues raised are still vital ones, the quaint, throwback nature of the prose and examples make this issue a fun read.
In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by logging in.
"Has this ever happened to you? What were your feelings when you read this?"
You won't find "text-to-self" questions like these recommended anywhere in the new Common Core English and Language Arts State Standards. Instead, the standards call for more rigorous, evidentiary analysis of text.
"The standards are supposed to be 80 percent of what you teach; it would be absurd to say you don't ever want to connect a text to kids' lives and experiences. But it should be after you have mined from the text every insight and understanding you can," says David Liben, a consultant with Student Achievement Partners and contributing writer to Appendix A of the Common Core. However, he adds, there are several good reasons why text-to-self questions don't appear in the standards:
Instructional time: Complex texts take time, and the more time you spend outside the text, the less time you spend inside the text. Many materials and discussions spend as much time on student feelings about the text, or how the text relates to their experiences, as they do with what's going on inside the text.
Equity: When you go outside the text to students' experiences, you privilege those students who happen to have those experiences or have practiced having these types of personal meaning-making discussions in their home settings. That's usually students from more affluent households. If you focus on just what's in the text everyone has read and studied, you have more of a level playing field.
Rigor: It's easier to go outside the text, and it's a shortcut to student engagement. But it sends the message that the texts are not engaging on their own and that working hard to wrestle with texts is not a worthwhile endeavor.
"Part of the learning transfer goal is helping students understand when they should be guided directly by what's in the text, and when it's appropriate to bring in personal meaning making and other connections," says Grant Wiggins, coauthor of Understanding By Design.
Will the role of text-to-self questions shift in your classroom as part of Common Core implementation?
Read more about instructional shifts related to the Common Core's focus on text complexity in "It's Complicated" in the April 2012 issue of Education Update newsletter.
The run up to the 2012 U.S. presidential and congressional elections, in an atmosphere of increasing polarization of partisan politics, provides classrooms any number of teachable moments for understanding civics and its importance in the life of a nation.
ASCD Express is looking for short, 600– to 1,000-word essays on the theme "Civics in Action."
What is your school doing to help students understand politics, society, and their key role as future or current voters? While avoiding partisan bias, how can teachers help students observe, question, and explore the political beliefs underlying the political platforms of various candidates? How can students learn to see the political parallels between U.S. politics and those of other countries and the interplay of political systems within the global economic network?
This issue of ASCD Express seeks articles that show how schools encourage students to explore in depth the current U.S. or international political scene and apply their learning in meaningful ways.
Guidelines for submissions are here; please send us your submissions by May 14, 2012.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the constitutionality of Quebec's new Ethics and Religious Culture Program, a mandatory K-12 curriculum intended to help students explore religious diversity and "grow and develop in a society in which different values and beliefs coexist."
In my April Educational Leadership article, "How to Talk About Religion," I argue that students in U.S. public schools need to develop a similar fluency, one that enables them to engage respectfully with a range of ethical and religious perspectives in the public square—a civic multilingualism, we might call it.
The Québécois curriculum asks students, "What value should guide people in their relationships to society?" In any pluralistic democracy, the answer to this question will range widely—many visions of the good life exist, and many of them are informed by religious sources. As we deliberate about the proper shape of our civic life together, we have the responsibility to understand what matters to our fellow citizens and why.
Interestingly, the Canadian program is also required in private schools and for homeschoolers. We're a long way from that in the United States, however; it's hard enough to imagine such a curriculum taking root even in our public schools.
But should it? Is civic multilingualism any less vital to our long-term success as a society than fluency in math, science, or English?
Robert Kunzman is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Here's what's been going on recently at ASCD:
Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.
Revisiting this article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review in which research shows that measurable and sustained student improvement requires schools to also invest in social capital—the patterns of interactions among teachers—I'm reminded of a theme that ran thick through the in-person and virtual exchanges during ASCD's Annual Conference in Philadelphia: relationships.
Educators talked about building relationships with students, drawing on their social graph to drive their own (or their school's) professional learning, what it means to be a connected educator, and if that right is equally enabled and leveraged across faculties and with student populations.
Here's a sampling of those conversations:
"I know we continue to say this, but being a connected educator enhances the work that we do with students on a daily basis. And, let's face it, that's intense work. So it's time to sift through the jargon, look past the big claims made by companies touting the 'latest and greatest,' and get back to relationships, sharing with one another, admitting we all have a lot to learn, and helping each other do just that." (via @l_hilt)
"One of the biggest requests I hear from teachers is, 'We need time together as a group to discuss/work on ___.' Why not simply give it to them?" (via @geraldaungst)
"[The] biggest take away for me from ASCD was that as many strides as I thought were being made in connecting educators through social media and other web 2.0 tools, the heart and soul of our profession still isn't connected." (via @baldy7)
"Beginning to realize that if you're not a connected educator, it's like trying to imagine a sunset in a room with no windows." (via @mbteach)
"[Whole Child Vision in Action Award winner Byrne Creek Secondary School] emphasized the importance of relationships as the foundational element that allows them to pursue lofty academic goals for all students." (via @dlaufenberg)
"When perceived through the social network as human interaction lens, filtering and blocking no longer makes sense. It becomes hypocritical. Taken to its logical extreme, if a school is filtering these types of sites, why not control other types of interactions—talking in the hallway or faculty room, having lunch with colleagues, and meeting with students after school to provide extra help." (via @mritzius)
Flipping PD through the power of localized learning, EdCamp style (via @JasonFlom)
How personal learning networks counter the problems of traditional PD with anytime, anywhere learning. (via @baldy7)
"In many schools, PLCs are at risk of becoming simple bureaucratic structures, especially in this era of tight budgets and reduced faculty and administration. Ms. Easton reminded us that the true intention of PLCs is to maintain the school as an organization of learning." (via @mriztius)
Relationships are the ultimate secret to education reform. (via @geraldaungst)
Do you have a working plan for leveraging the social capital in your school community?
While it's impossible to capture all of the ideas that circulated at last month's annual conference in Philly -- click on the infographic to the right to get an idea of the scale of activities -- we're lucky to have a pretty solid social network to draw from.
It's not pretty, but we've pulled together some of the best sources for thought-provoking commentary and practical applications for the smorgasboard of professional learning that was #ASCD12.
Each resource is attributed to the author's Twitter handle (follow them!). Share these resources in your staff newsletter/blog, tweet these items to your PLN, or use these ideas to lead school-based PD.
@Angela_Watson Free #ASCD12 resources galore http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/2012/03/big-take-awaysfree-resources-from-the-ascd-conference.html
@baldy7 notes from session on using cell phones in K-12 classrooms, including link to full session presentation https://www.evernote.com/shard/s11/sh/37da8f55-46f1-45b6-818d-092ee6de077d/cc2bcedf5899b5a9ef903f56b6f852bd
@l_hilt What Great Teachers Do Differently (with Todd Whitaker) http://lynhilt.com/a-strong-ascd12-finish-with-todd-whitaker/
@joycevalenza interviews Heidi Hayes Jacobs: Teachers need to grow beyond their habits. Doctors take an oath. They don't say, every September I am going to give you my favorite medicine whether you need it or not. http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch/2012/03/29/ascd-part-1-conversation-with-heidi-hayes-jacobs/
@NMHS_Principal resources that can assist educators and schools in developing a 21st Century curriculum, while integrating elements of the Common Core Standards http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2012/03/global-competencies-and-common-core.html
@mbteach "Differentiation is the logic of the classroom." –Tomlinson on differentiation & the brain http://mbteach.com/?p=467
@science_goddess We need high quality preschools. This is the biggest difference between the US and other industrialized countries. http://blog.whatitslikeontheinside.com/2012/03/ascd-2012-what-are-your-schools-like.html
@hadleyjf on organizing lesson flow to match brain research on learning retention http://hadleyjf.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/brain-research-for-the-classroom-ascd/
@centerteach Storified the Atul Gawande keynote and Tomolinson's session on learning styles http://edge.ascd.org/_Day-2-Sunday-at-ASCD/blog/5902169/127586.html
@KatrinaStevens1 We treat curriculum like real estate—I own Dickens. If we don't look at the big picture collectively, then curriculum conversations often default to territory negotiations. http://edge.ascd.org/_Highlights-from-Heidi-Hayes-Jacobs-ASCD12-Workshop/blog/5893913/127586.html
@stumpteacher Are we providing opportunities for students to create and interact across various networks and groups of people? http://stumpteacher.blogspot.com/2012/03/ascd-part-one-global-competency.html
@stumpteacher On the potential in bringing the EdCamp movement to the uninitiated: Back patting is always nice, but does it lead to positive change? http://stumpteacher.blogspot.com/2012/03/ascd-part-three-great-opportunity.html
@JasonFlom on making mobile meaningful; includes a resource list of tools http://ecologyofeducation.net/wsite/?p=3950
@web20classroom's presentation on creating social media policies for schools https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UPdNWEdaCZC41-LJejsCTCep_BrQcA3S1_e-nmObNgU/present?ueb=true#slide=id.p
@ASCD Conference Daily archive of stories; includes lots of session recaps http://www.ascd.org/conferences/conference-daily/ac12/story-archive.aspx
@ASCD_Inservice all of our #ASCD12 posts can be found here http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/annual_conference/
Some of our favorite tweets:
Continue reading "Ideas, Resources, and Retweets from #ASCD12 " »
"We have a nation of basic writers," Angela Peery and Lisa Cebelak concluded from seeing years of flat scores on the NAEP assessment for writing. Their ASCD Annual Conference presentation (The "Core" Gets Us Back to Our Roots: Academic Writing) gave attendees hope, however, that Common Core State Standards will catalyze instruction that reverses this trend.
For starters, the new standards provide clarity on the type of writing that students most need to learn, to be successful in college and career: argument. In fact, argumentative writing is the first writing standard, and that's a big shift away from the narrative and persuasive writing that has dominated students' assignments.
"Persuasion does not have to be based on logic; argument does. It's about backing claims with evidence," said Peery. "We're good at persuasion, but not very good at teaching argumentation." The Common Core prioritizes argumentative writing because it "is at the heart of critical thinking and academic discourse," added Cebelak.
The other high hope for writing is that the new standards insist that teaching reading, writing, listening, speaking, and language instruction be a shared responsibility within the school. Standard 10 gets to this agenda, calling for students to do a range of writing—not just more writing, but different types, and over different time periods.
A simple way for all teachers to provide more writing opportunities for students, said Peery and Cebelak, is to assign more "writing on demand" exercises. These are short responses to what students have read, viewed, or discussed as part of their coursework. To help students fine-tune these assignments, and clarify the writing skills to be demonstrated, teachers at Capitol Hill Junior High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, created this basic rubric, that teachers in any content area can use to assess "paragraph on demand" writing exercises.
Will "argument" and "range" be big shifts for writing instruction in your school?
In a world of growing narcissism in which most of us visit only those websites that reflect our own values back to us, we avoid complexity and anything that counters our fragile egos. It's easier to speak in sharp contrasts than to explore layered meaning. As a result, we are less inclined toward civil discourse, and, worse, we grow incapable of it.
Democracy is harder than we think. It doesn't just happen on its own; it requires daily attention and occasional compromise. When applied vigorously, democracy can shock our status quo; it confronts unexamined notions of right and wrong and provides alternative perspectives. This is healthy, of course, but if we fail to prepare the next generation of citizens for constructive participation, democracy entropies.
Here and now we must declare civics education among our highest priorities. The evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other measurements is clear: What we've done so far isn't working. We can do civics education without waiting for the next budget cycle, and we can do it innovatively while teaching other curricular areas.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her iCivics program provide the practical tools and inspirational boosts we need to achieve these goals. My article in this month's issue of Educational Leadership makes the case for civics education and describes what Sandra Day O'Connor and others are doing to help teachers and students build a fair and vibrant democracy.
Let's act, while there's still time.
Post submitted by Rick Wormeli, author of Metaphors and Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject (Stenhouse, 2009) and Summarization in Any Subject: 50 Techniques to Improve Student Learning (ASCD, 2004).
Teachers know—questions play a different role, depending on when they're used.
In her ASCD Annual Conference session, Sandra Page presented several questioning strategies that can be used at all stages of a lesson:
Student Sort Cards
On one side of an index card, students write their name large enough to be seen across the room. On the other side, students complete a brief inventory of their interested and learning preferences (group work, visual, etc.). Teachers can use this stack of cards to randomly call on students, and when appropriate, target questions to students' interests. With differentiation for readiness-level, for students who need practice with a question before answering it in front of the class, Page writes their question on a sticky note she affixes to their name card. She shares the question with the students in advance, so there are no surprises when she asks it. Page gradually removes this scaffold as students become more proficient with their responses.
Student sort cards are also useful for getting students to discuss a topic with one another. "A discussion is not teacher-student, teacher-student," Page said. Instead of calling out students' names to respond to a question, she asks a question and holds a name card up to her face, so that students can see who is expected to respond. While the student responds, she is careful not to look at the student giving the response. Page looks around the room, so that the speaker will also direct their response to his classmates, not just the teacher. A minute or so into a response, Page holds another students' name card to her face to signal the student who is expected to build on, clarify, or dissent to what the previous student said. This technique requires students to actively listen to their peers' responses, and practice making transitional statements—a skill they'll use not only conversationally, but also in academic essays and response papers.
If this strategy stresses students out—so much so that they are just focusing on whether they'll be called on next, and not listening to the speaker—try some test-runs on a topic all kids are familiar with. Pair this strategy with the sticky-note strategy, so students know the question in advance and have some time to formulate responses. Display transitional statement stems on the board or around the classroom. Even further, students can, as a class, brainstorm potential stances on a topic, and record these in a chart or matrix that is visible during the discussion.
Question Stem Cards
Laminate these sheets of question stems, and then cut the sheets into individual question prompts. Have students use these stems to write their own questions about what they just read or learned. Page has students write and display their questions in dry-erase marker on a sort of DIY white board—stiff card stock covered by a plastic page protector. She will focus on a specific category of question stem (i.e, analysis, evaluation, application) when she wants to reinforce a particular thinking skill. When students write their own questions, Page added, it invites the novelty of discovery, reveals misconceptions, and gets students thinking in questions
FY3
During discussion, Page often asks students to "FY3" their responses. FY3 is shorthand for diversify, verify, and amplify. She's asking students to enhance the discussion with a response that
These strategies provide scaffolds that encourage students to ask and answer questions. How do you encourage questions in your classroom? How do you get students discussing topics with one another?
Student learning plans help students formally identify career interests at an early age, connect course planning to those interests, and provide planning supports that not all students have. Learning plans provide "a support system that we traditionally counted on families to provide," says Chad d’Entremont, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy.
Last year, the Rennie Center put out two resources on the benefits of student learning plans:
Learning plans put the relevance of what students are studying in context with career goals, and may lead students to enroll in more rigorous courses. Taking more challenging courses and setting career goals is, in turn, tied to higher college completion rates. Educators also find students are more engaged when using web-based planning tools.
Although the technology investment for online maps is relatively inexpensive, student learning plans require an ongoing time commitment that is challenging in schools where class sizes and student needs outstrip available staff resources. Several experts cited in this article—last week's most-clicked—see a big pay-off in better investment in implementing and rolling out this "soft reform."
Do you think schools should invest more in student learning plans? What are the challenges and benefits?
Teachers differentiate to three major considerations: readiness, interest, and learning profile. Matching instruction to students' readiness correlates strongest with academic growth, according to research. Attending to student interests means finding what will motivate students to work hard. And addressing learning profiles can make learning more efficient by considering how students approach learning.
Learning profile is a fluid concept that includes how culture, gender, intelligence preference, and learning style might influence how a student approaches learning. Carol Tomlinson is quick to clarify that learning profile is not a synonym for learning style.
The "learning styles" approach to teaching has received a lot of criticism of late—particularly from three groups, Tomlinson told attendees at her ASCD Annual Conference session on the controversial topic.
Although there is research showing the benefits of considering your students' learning styles, it's not randomized, and therefore not up to the rigor accepted in the sciences. So should teachers completely disavow learning styles?
"Singing a song will never teach you how to multiply, but it can be the medium for practicing new skills," Tomlinson said. She advised teachers to
. . . . and concentrate on
Overall, Tomlinson thinks there needs to be better listening between teachers and neuroscientists—the lab cannot replicate the reality of the classroom, and teachers can learn from the criticism of learning styles. The big lesson seems to be: don't pigeon-hole kids. Tomlinson quoted from Dylan Wiliam:
"Instead of teaching to fit each child's style, teachers should be aware of different styles, help students become aware of different styles, and encourage students to use as wide a variety of styles as possible."
"We may yet learn that attention to learning style awareness works in a different way," Tomlinson concluded. Variety is a motivator, it can create connections between teacher and student, increase joy in learning, and empower student voice, she added.
"It may be that it's a motivator, and not necessarily about what part of the brain you do your learning in."
Slides from Tomlinson's presentation are available on her website.
Here are a few updates from ASCD:
Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.
Wade Boykin of Howard University and Pedro Noguera of New York University presented a research-packed and passionate session titled, "Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap" at ASCD's Annual Conference on Saturday morning.
They wasted no time laying out their main issue: Achievement gaps are not sufficiently addressed in our work with schools.
Their Goals:
Challenge expectations: We have never before expected all children to achieve.
Change beliefs: We have assumed that intelligence is an innate property. Schools must focus on cultivating talent in all children.
Strengthen skills and strategies: Many educators don't know how to serve all children.
While at first glance, this may sound like "schools are the problem" rhetoric that reduces education debates and dialogues to exercises in finger pointing, Boykin and Noguera made it clear that the responsibility for students is shared among many. "Unmet social needs will become unmet academic needs," they explained.
The one demographic they hold blameless: students.
With the shared responsibility for these children established, they focused on the capacity of schools to transform into places where students thrive. They both agreed that the core work of closing achievement gaps begins with beliefs. Educators must believe that all students can learn. If they don't, and aren't willing to work toward that goal, they are in the wrong profession.
And while beliefs are critical, Boykin and Noguera were quick to clarify that they are not enough. "Educators and administrators must have strategies and expertise," they said. Schools must take action to confront the two main gaps impoverished students face:
Preparation gap: Poor children often arrive at school less prepared than their more affluent peers. They possess limited literacy/vocabulary, a problem which is exacerbated as school progresses without intervening early and responding to student needs.
Opportunity gap: Poor children are likely to have limited access to rigorous courses and highly skilled teachers. Tracking, labeling, and low expectations further limit opportunities.
Noguera and Boykin zeroed in on what research says we should focus on to make a difference for our lowest-performing students in bridging these gaps. The short of it: a whole child education.
Noguera and Boykin emphasized building supportive relationships with students, protecting and advocating for their health, engaging them in meaningful and relevant activities, providing an emotionally and physically safe environment, and ensuring students have real opportunities to be academically challenged.
They asked the audience, "What's different in schools that work? The way students are treated. They are treated like guests."
Post submitted by Jason Flom (@JasonFlom), a 5th grade teacher at Cornerstone Learning Community (CLC) in Tallahassee, Florida, and founder of the multi-author blog Ecology of Education.
Parents are the first and primary educators of their children, but families rely—sometimes too heavily—on schools to provide academic and social guidance for their students. What’s the best way to cultivate the relationships between families and schools to ensure that parents or guardians have priority, but that kids are still properly cared for, especially in school? What role should student advisors, be they guidance counselors or more systematic student advisory programs, play to help ensure students are healthy, learn all they can, and grow socially and emotionally? We’re looking for articles about various forms of student advisories at primary and secondary levels that show a positive effect on students and school culture. What are the minimum requirements of an effective student advisory system? How do such programs personalize and enrich the school experience? What are the limits of advisories?
ASCD Express is looking for short, 600–1,000-word essays on the theme "Who's Afraid of Student Advisory?" Guidelines for submissions are here; please send us your submissions by April 27, 2012.
Despite spending enormous amounts of time giving feedback, Melissa Poole was not seeing any change in her students. During a peer-led feedback session, she realized her students did not know how to give good peer feedback and she wondered, "Maybe I'm not giving them good models of feedback?" In her session on "Feedback 2.0" at ASCD's Annual Conference, Poole detailed how feedback has evolved in her classroom.
Poole's feedback traditionally came at the end of an assignment, was delivered in writing (the typical inked-up assignment), and covered lots of traits. Students weren't really reading her feedback, or if they were, they hyper-focused on the negative and read it as criticism. Moreover, they weren't applying the feedback to future work. Similarly, Poole couldn't use this mostly summative feedback to adjust her instruction.
"Too often, feedback is just a way to justify a grade, rather than help students improve," Poole observed. She needed to make her feedback more timely and formative—delivered while she and students had time to make adjustments to their practice. She also needed to be more specific about what students should focus on, and show them how to incorporate feedback into their revisions. "I needed to not just tell them what to do; I needed to show them how to do it." Matching feedback best practices and technology helped her hit these marks.
2.0 Tools in Context
Initially, Poole used Microsoft Word's track changes feature—it's simple to use, allows students to see a progression of edits, and every computer in her school had it. Still, it lacked the ability to really demonstrate how students should incorporate feedback. She's since graduated to using screencasting, pencasting, Google Docs, video chat, screen sharing, and student-created video tutorials as mediums for formative feedback.
For example, she'll screencast (using a service like Jing, Camtasia, or Snapz) her markup of a student's paper using Word's track changes. In a video uploaded to an unlisted YouTube (or SchoolTube) class channel, students hear and see the teacher's assessment of particular aspects of the paper. Or Poole might set up "office hours" on Google Docs—telling students she'll be live on Google Docs during certain hours, and that students should log on at those times and share their work in progress to get live feedback.
For screen sharing, Poole uses Join.me (because it's free, with no account required*). Students can share their screen with a group, or just the teacher, and it's a good way to quickly assess student work, especially if they're doing research (are they on sites that will give them appropriate information?) or preparing a presentation.
If students are going to spend an entire class workshopping a piece of writing, Poole will set her classroom up so students rotate through feedback stations. There will be a station for
Building Student Buy-In
Getting student buy-in and understanding of the difference between feedback and criticism are lingering challenges to enacting these types of feedback processes. Poole had students do a simple exercise—she brought in a teddy bear dressed in a funny outfit and asked how they would give feedback on the outfit as the bear's friend or as its enemy. Students put their responses into a big T chart, listing their ideas on what constitutes feedback and what criticism is, and this was displayed in the classroom all year.
Overall, her new, targeted approach to feedback takes less time and is way more effective in terms of raising the quality of student work as compared to teacher-centered, written feedback. She also noted that giving kids more opportunities to hear their work outloud—through recording playback, via headphones—makes a huge difference in the student's ability to make better revisions.
*Poole creates QR code flip books of each students' various site log-ins (i.e., their Google site, the class YouTube, screencasting sites). Students simply scan the QR code associated with the site they're logging in to, instead of having to remember a bunch of different account names and passwords.
Want more? Follow Poole at @inclassnow or contact her at inclassnow@gmail.com for more tips and tools.
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