Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #21 – July 25, 2009
We are continuing a discussion of the eleven points to help foster student engagement in the classroom. For a discussion of points 1-6, please go to: http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com
scroll down and read postings # 18-20.
You will see great results daily as you use these two vital elements:
7- Give students plenty of opportunities to practice and share what they know.
8- Frequently monitor progress, providing positive help, guidance and feedback.
7- Give students plenty of opportunities to practice and share what they know.
Mastering a skill or body of knowledge takes time, practice and hard work. Remember when you learned to ride a bike, or skate? It took practice, right? By allowing students authentic practice, we can greatly reduce test anxiety and replace it with confident students who know they will perform well on the assessment they are about to take. A few examples of practicing are:
1.-Students paired up, quizzing each other with flash cards on math facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
2.-Students practicing naming the major systems of the human body on a diagram.
3.-Students practicing filling in the names of the states and capitol cities on a blank map.
4. Students practicing cursive handwriting using dotted lines.
Once the students have had numerous opportunities to practice what they are expected to know, the actual exam will be a piece of cake. It’s like giving them several rehearsals before their final performance.
8- Frequently monitor progress, providing positive help, guidance and feedback.
Frequent monitoring gives students benchmarks and lets them know you are expecting great things. It is a scientifically based, but underutilized practice to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and instructional interventions.
Used with an individual student or an entire class, progress-monitoring results in more efficiently targeted instructional techniques and goals, which together move students to faster attainment of important state standards of achievement.
Why monitor progress?
We need to know where our students are, in order to truly help them succeed. But that is exactly what we don't know. Try asking a teacher where each of their students is on the reading comprehension indicator "drawing inferences." Which students are proficient? What evidence do they have that those students are proficient? Educators who don't know where their students are do not have enough information to know how best to use their instructional time or which students need specific instructional interventions.
Annual data from the state assessments only gives schools a snapshot of where students are at a single point in time. Daily instruction continues between when the tests are given and when the results are returned to schools. Teachers must know on a day-to-day basis where their students are in relation to the content standards to have the necessary information to inform instruction.
In a 1998 Phi Delta Kappan article entitled, "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment," authors Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam summarize their review of the research that would help answer the question, “Would improved formative classroom assessments yield higher student achievement as reflected in summative assessments?” They assert, "There is a body of firm evidence that formative assessment is an essential component of classroom work and that its development can raise standards of achievement. We know of no other way of raising standards for which such a strong prima facie case can be made."
What can we do as teachers?
1.-Inform students about specific learning goals, in terms that students understand, from the very beginning of the teaching and learning process.
2.-Use classroom assessments to build students' confidence in themselves as learners and help them take responsibility for their own learning, so as to lay a foundation for lifelong learning.
3.-Translate classroom assessment results into frequent descriptive feedback (versus judgmental feedback) for students, providing them with specific insights as to how to improve. Give lots of kudos and encouragement for progress made.
4.-Continuously adjust instruction based on the results of classroom assessments.
5.-Actively involve students in communicating with their teacher and their families about their achievement status and improvement.
Frequently monitoring progress affords teachers the opportunity to identify students in need of additional or different forms of instruction; they design stronger instructional programs, and their students achieve better. When the correct guidance and instruction are offered, students keep learning and remain confident that they can continue to learn at productive levels. Of equal importance, frequent progress monitoring reminds the students of your high expectations. High expectations without monitoring is saying, “I hope you can do this.” Add monitoring (and let the student in on the progress) and you are saying, “I’m watching you and expect to see you reach the very top.” So, instead of students giving up in frustration, they become engaged learners.
More about student engagement next weekend.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Breaking Down Elements of an Engaging Classroom
Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #20 – July 18, 2009.
In blog posting #17 of June 27, I listed the 11 most frequently used techniques to create an engaging classroom. I have discussed the first four in my postings these past two weeks. Today, we will look at numbers five and six.
Engagement is stimulated when teachers:
5.-Encourage and reward student achievement and learning efforts continuously.
6.-Use many and varied activities including groups and pairs where students are required to manipulate information physically and mentally.
5.-Encourage and reward student achievement and learning efforts continuously.
The key to stimulating motivation is to recognize student accomplishments daily. Students put forth more effort when they realize that teachers are showing great interest in their academic progress.
Teachers, mentors, and coaches can become very influential in building a student's self-respect. Even if there seems to be a lack of support at home, the connection with one significant adult at school can give that student hope. Teachers should enter the classroom as the one individual that's going to be the change element that will improve the self-respect of the entire class by demonstrating concern and love for their students. Teachers must build rapport with their students by becoming genuinely interested in them. Teachers should acknowledge hard work and progress made by students. Even the smallest improvement, when recognized, can lead to motivation. Rewards can vary from simply encouraging students as they progress through targets and goals, to weekly classroom recognition assemblies. When students perceive that teachers genuinely care about their success and are willing to give every effort to help them become successful, students make an internal commitment to give just as much and even more.
6.-Use many and varied activities including groups and pairs where students are required to manipulate information physically and mentally.
When a homemaker plans a week of dinner menus, she is not likely to decide to prepare identical meals on seven consecutive nights. Even when her budget is so limited that she has to prepare pasta every night, she soon learns that there are many ways to serve pasta. It is the same with teaching. Using the same lesson plan and teaching technique day after day, will get old real soon. Doing the same drills eventually cause students to focus on the drill and lose interest in the real purpose for the learning. Variety, keeps the mind fresh and, when you present the same information, in a different way, the brain connects and processes it in new ways.
Please see my Blog Posting at http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com/. Scroll down to # 16-June 20, 2009 Creatively “Tweaking” Your Teaching to Engage Students. This will give you some simple ways to vary classroom activities you can use right away.
Other techniques to add variety to your teaching repertoire include:
1.-Practicals (group projects)
2.-Student as teacher
3.-Role Playing
4.-Cooperative Learning
5.-Partner, Pair-Share
6.-Learning through games
7.-Reader’s Theatre
8.-Learning through song, rhyme or rap
9.-Classroom Simulations
10. Project-based learning
Professional teaching practice is not constrained by a belief that there is one best way. Teachers should be invited to extend their range of instructional approaches in a secure, risk-taking environment.
Every teaching strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, so each teacher must decide which strategy is most appropriate for their teaching practice; for a component within a course, or an individual lesson. Effective instruction results from a blend of the art and the science of teaching. The science of instruction, which has predominated in the past, needs to achieve a balance with the artistry and creativity involved in the successful act of teaching.
Look for more engaging news next weekend.
In blog posting #17 of June 27, I listed the 11 most frequently used techniques to create an engaging classroom. I have discussed the first four in my postings these past two weeks. Today, we will look at numbers five and six.
Engagement is stimulated when teachers:
5.-Encourage and reward student achievement and learning efforts continuously.
6.-Use many and varied activities including groups and pairs where students are required to manipulate information physically and mentally.
5.-Encourage and reward student achievement and learning efforts continuously.
The key to stimulating motivation is to recognize student accomplishments daily. Students put forth more effort when they realize that teachers are showing great interest in their academic progress.
Teachers, mentors, and coaches can become very influential in building a student's self-respect. Even if there seems to be a lack of support at home, the connection with one significant adult at school can give that student hope. Teachers should enter the classroom as the one individual that's going to be the change element that will improve the self-respect of the entire class by demonstrating concern and love for their students. Teachers must build rapport with their students by becoming genuinely interested in them. Teachers should acknowledge hard work and progress made by students. Even the smallest improvement, when recognized, can lead to motivation. Rewards can vary from simply encouraging students as they progress through targets and goals, to weekly classroom recognition assemblies. When students perceive that teachers genuinely care about their success and are willing to give every effort to help them become successful, students make an internal commitment to give just as much and even more.
6.-Use many and varied activities including groups and pairs where students are required to manipulate information physically and mentally.
When a homemaker plans a week of dinner menus, she is not likely to decide to prepare identical meals on seven consecutive nights. Even when her budget is so limited that she has to prepare pasta every night, she soon learns that there are many ways to serve pasta. It is the same with teaching. Using the same lesson plan and teaching technique day after day, will get old real soon. Doing the same drills eventually cause students to focus on the drill and lose interest in the real purpose for the learning. Variety, keeps the mind fresh and, when you present the same information, in a different way, the brain connects and processes it in new ways.
Please see my Blog Posting at http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com/. Scroll down to # 16-June 20, 2009 Creatively “Tweaking” Your Teaching to Engage Students. This will give you some simple ways to vary classroom activities you can use right away.
Other techniques to add variety to your teaching repertoire include:
1.-Practicals (group projects)
2.-Student as teacher
3.-Role Playing
4.-Cooperative Learning
5.-Partner, Pair-Share
6.-Learning through games
7.-Reader’s Theatre
8.-Learning through song, rhyme or rap
9.-Classroom Simulations
10. Project-based learning
Professional teaching practice is not constrained by a belief that there is one best way. Teachers should be invited to extend their range of instructional approaches in a secure, risk-taking environment.
Every teaching strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, so each teacher must decide which strategy is most appropriate for their teaching practice; for a component within a course, or an individual lesson. Effective instruction results from a blend of the art and the science of teaching. The science of instruction, which has predominated in the past, needs to achieve a balance with the artistry and creativity involved in the successful act of teaching.
Look for more engaging news next weekend.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Ingredients for an Engaging Classroom, Looking at the Elements
Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #19 – July 11, 2009
In my June 27 posting, eleven main elements were given that contribute to an engaging classroom. Last week, I discussed items one and two. This week, we will look at items three and four in more detail.
3.- Get students excited about the goal(s) they plan to achieve, individually and as a group.
Students get excited about learning when they experience success. But how will they feel success, if there is no apparent goal or purpose? Therefore, it
is imperative to have specific goals for the class as a whole and for each individual student. A good way to help students visualize goals is through charts and graphs. Students thrive on success. Most enjoy visually seeing the progress they are making as they approach a goal they have set. Teachers are great at creating charts and other phenomenal graphic representations of student progress. These visuals provide students a tangible progress report. For more details on the importance of goals, please read my posting at: http://teaching4achnage.blogspot.com. Scroll down to April 5, 2009. A Real Personalized Assessment.
4.-Make the content relevant and useful.
When a lesson is interesting and relevant to students’ lives, they become engaged. Learning that is interesting and relevant is viewed by students as valuable. How can we make this happen in the classroom? Here is one example. If you are teaching your students how to write a business letter, just having them copy from a template in the grammar book might not arouse much interest. I recommend:
1.- Find out how many of your students would like to get a job. This can be used for grades 5-12. (Yes, elementary school children do yard work, babysitting, dog walking, car washing, etc.)
2.-Explain how a Letter of Introduction can be a useful marketing tool to give them that all-important “edge” in securing a job. It could be passed around their neighborhood or brought to a job interview.
3.-Show them some sample letters and let them go at it.
You will definitely see much more enthusiasm when it’s relevant and useful.
In my June 27 posting, eleven main elements were given that contribute to an engaging classroom. Last week, I discussed items one and two. This week, we will look at items three and four in more detail.
3.- Get students excited about the goal(s) they plan to achieve, individually and as a group.
Students get excited about learning when they experience success. But how will they feel success, if there is no apparent goal or purpose? Therefore, it
is imperative to have specific goals for the class as a whole and for each individual student. A good way to help students visualize goals is through charts and graphs. Students thrive on success. Most enjoy visually seeing the progress they are making as they approach a goal they have set. Teachers are great at creating charts and other phenomenal graphic representations of student progress. These visuals provide students a tangible progress report. For more details on the importance of goals, please read my posting at: http://teaching4achnage.blogspot.com. Scroll down to April 5, 2009. A Real Personalized Assessment.
4.-Make the content relevant and useful.
When a lesson is interesting and relevant to students’ lives, they become engaged. Learning that is interesting and relevant is viewed by students as valuable. How can we make this happen in the classroom? Here is one example. If you are teaching your students how to write a business letter, just having them copy from a template in the grammar book might not arouse much interest. I recommend:
1.- Find out how many of your students would like to get a job. This can be used for grades 5-12. (Yes, elementary school children do yard work, babysitting, dog walking, car washing, etc.)
2.-Explain how a Letter of Introduction can be a useful marketing tool to give them that all-important “edge” in securing a job. It could be passed around their neighborhood or brought to a job interview.
3.-Show them some sample letters and let them go at it.
You will definitely see much more enthusiasm when it’s relevant and useful.
Look for a breakdown of more elements to engage students in my post next weekend.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Ingredients for Student Engagement, A Closer Look
Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #18 – July 4, 2009
Last week I presented eleven Ingredients for an Engaging Classroom.
As promised, we’re going to review each element, so you’ll be totally prepared to use them all as part of your teaching repertoire during the next school year.
1.-Provide a safe, nurturing environment.
This is the key ingredient. It is the groundwork necessary in order for all learning to take place. Please read my previous postings, which go into this element in great detail: http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com
Scroll down and read the postings of March 14 and March 21.
2.-Share the expected outcome with students.
Last week I presented eleven Ingredients for an Engaging Classroom.
As promised, we’re going to review each element, so you’ll be totally prepared to use them all as part of your teaching repertoire during the next school year.
1.-Provide a safe, nurturing environment.
This is the key ingredient. It is the groundwork necessary in order for all learning to take place. Please read my previous postings, which go into this element in great detail: http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com
Scroll down and read the postings of March 14 and March 21.
2.-Share the expected outcome with students.
What are Goals?
- Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned. Think of them as a target to be reached.
- Goals, or learning outcomes, describe what you want students to be able to do as a result of the course, or lesson.
What are Instructional Objectives?
- Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable student behaviors.
- Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments that you can prove you have met your overall course or lesson goals. Think of objectives as tools you use to make sure you reach your goals.
GOALS
For example, in an English class, the goal for the day might be:
By the end of the class, you will be able to:
1.-Identify compositions written in “first-person” format.
2.-Correctly compose a paragraph written in “first-person” format.
OBJECTIVES
1.-Students will be able to define “first-person” writing in their own words.
2.-Students will be able to correctly identify “first-person” writing samples from a variety of formats, with at least 85% accuracy.
3.-Students will complete several practice sentences written in “first-person” format.
As absurd as this may sound, many teachers never let their students know what they are expected to know and be able to do at lesson’s end. This simple step can yield a bountiful harvest of engaged learners in your classroom!
Look for more examples of “Ingredients for Student Engagement” next weekend.
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