31 Reading Activities by Anchor Standard

Full Document Here

This is something I've been working on over the past couple of months; I haven't even got it to the point where I've shared it with my colleagues. I plan to introduce it, collect feedback, tweak it, and hopefully folks will be able to find use with it in class with their students. Feel free to use it or adjust it as you see fit.

Any feedback, suggestions for improvement, additions, etc is always welcomed!

#ccss #satchat #commoncore

4 Quotes & 20 Questions re: Walkthroughs

Reading Betty Garner's Getting to Got It! got me thinking about the classroom walkthroughs I do and where my attention ought to be during the 5-12 minutes I'm in each classroom. I picked out four quotes that especially stood out to me along with some thoughts and questions I ought to ask students related to the quote.

"Sometimes we are tempted to tell students what to recognize or notice, and then we assume that because we told them, they have learned it." -p. 32

I need a walkthrough form that records what the students are doing and saying rather than simply what the teacher is doing and saying. Instead of measuring learning by what the adult is doing I need to focus on what the students are doing. Just because the teacher is telling the students about it in an effective manner doesn't mean anybody is learning it. I've been writing a lot recently on focusing more on what the output is and that ought to transfer to what I'm observing when I'm visiting classrooms and supervising teachers. What they're doing is secondary to what the learners are doing (if my prime focus is learning.)

Questions to ask students during a walkthrough

1. what is the most important thing for me to know about what you're learning?
2. how is what you're learning connected to everything you're doing in class?
3. how would you explain or teach this to a little kid?
4. what questions do you have for the teacher or about the topic based on what you're learning?
5. what have / will you produce or make?

"Students confuse imitation with learning. In the classroom, they may correctly  complete assignments by simply imitating what the teacher models, without making the information their own." -p. 36

I'm a big proponent of modeling; I've written about it a lot in previous posts. For skills like organizing, classifying, communicating, etc. modeling is an awesome teaching tool. But for the learner to fully learn what you're teaching they have to make it theirs. It has to be a little original for it to stick. I need to engage more with the students when I'm walking through classes; I need to hear from them how they interpret what they're learning and how they've adopted what they're learning into practice.

Questions to ask students during a walkthrough

1. what do you make of what the teacher is telling or showing you?
2. how can / will you build on what the teacher is doing?
3. how can / will you adopt this into your own practices?
4. how could you teach this to a little kid?
5. what would this look like outside the classroom?

"Some even maintain good grades by memorizing information; however, they can't connect , apply, or transfer the information  to other situations." -p. 49

Maybe I ought to take a random student's schedule and walk through each of his/her classes in one day, and then meet with them to discuss how or if they take what they're doing in class A and use it in class D. We know the true measure of learning if how well we use it elsewhere; engaging students in those kinds of conversations after experiencing their entire schedule would be a powerful measure of how much they're learning in relation to what they're being taught.

Questions to ask students during a walkthrough

1. how can / will you apply this outside of this class?
2. how does this remind you of something else you've learned?
3. how do this connect with what you're doing in other classes?
4. why is what you're learning important or relevant?
5. what would this look like outside the classroom?

"The students follow directions with little or no personal investment or processing of information." -p. 64

Neat and tidy and orderly is great, but it's not reflective of the process of learning. I need to be more observant than that.

Questions to ask students during a walkthrough

1. what impact does this information have?
2. how will you use this outside the classroom?
3. how does this fit in with everything you already know?
4. what is the most important parts of the lesson you need to retain?
5. what is the significance of what you're learning? Why here? Why now?

5 Paths for Better Professional Development

I was inspired by week 22 of the #savmp blog about differentiated professional development for staff and some selections from a couple of books I've read recently.

I've been thinking about how to make the professional learning opportunities schools offer their teachers better; by better I mean more likely to lead to the learning of whatever is trying to be taught or developed.

What can be done to make it more likely that whatever is done as part of PD is transferred into classrooms with students in various situations?

1. Make it More Than "Have To"

If folks are doing anything only because they have to do it or be there, then they’re not in prime position or mind-set to learn anything; this is true for people of any age or credence.

If the avenues that schools are taking to create opportunities for collaboration and interpersonal professional learning become seen as just another obligation to be half-heartedly crammed into limited contractual hours, then the outcomes will never justify the efforts.

It has to be interest-based; it has to be driven by personal relevance. Anything short of that will be seen as “have to.”

If they’re learning what they know they need to learn, then they’re obviously more likely to learn it.

"By verbalizing options for improvement, students are able to see that they control their own choices and outcomes, which leads to better decision making." - Margaret Searle p. 148

2. Have Them Make Something

“Although some...remember more by hearing and others, by seeing, most remember by doing because action involves multiple sensory inputs.” - Betty Garner p.38

They have to do it to learn it; they have to produce something for it to be possible.

We spend a lot of time and devote a lot of energy to the perfect kind of input, but our time and energy would be better spent designing opportunities for output.

For every minute of input give them a minute of output; what good is the slideshow on how to essential questions if nobody gets to write essential questions?

If producible action doesn’t or can’t come from professional development I planned, then what I planned probably isn’t worthy of the name.

3. Make it More Than an Event

“Integrated information is more likely to be remembered and accessible than disconnected bits of data.” Garner p.37

It takes longer to learn something than it takes to teach it. Whereas “teaching it” can be done with slides and 30 minutes, learning it requires input, reflection, practice, feedback, etc.

Sometimes learning it takes year(s).

Focus on something tangible; identify relevance or need and then address it until moving on to a new focus is appropriate.

Better to learn one thing slowly than nothing efficiently.

4. Make it About Us

“A variety of of emotions can affect physical and cognitive functions. To enhance memory, students benefit from emotional engagement with information.” Garner p. 138

Being on a team feels good. Being a part of something bigger is both motivating and empowering. Researching and implementing formative assessments of higher order thinking skills is better in a group.

Purposefully and organically get teachers with similar interests and passions to connect with each other, and work and learn together. I was in a cohort in my Masters Degree program; why apply that same structure to professional learning for staff?

Build communities around professional needs and interests rather than superficial labels like department or tenure.

5. Mix it Up

"Lessons that follow a mixed pattern - listen, talk to your neighbor, listen, draw and example, listen, read and discuss with a partner - followed by summary are more likely to hold anyone's attention longer than the 'listen for what seems like forever and then do independent work' model." - Searle p. 105

People can only sit and get for so long before they stop listening. Adults are more compliant and less rude than kids a lot of the time, but they’re equally likely to tune you out if it’s boring.

Get them doing, talking, moving, creating more.

Most things get old quickly; break it down into segments; they’ll retain more.

Effective lesson plans include variety whether the lesson is being planned for 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, and / or 65 year olds.

Let it be Theirs

I just finished reading Betty K. Garner's Getting to Got it and picked up some great insights on working with struggling students and empowering them to use their strengths to become more equipped learners. A theme that I kept seeing throughout is the unintended negative effects of adults doing too much for children, especially for students who struggle. I include several quotes below along with my reactions.

"Unless students interact creatively with information to construct meaning, there is little or no change." -page xv

I think about a lot the history classes I've taught as a teacher and taken as a student; we didn't DO enough with the information presented. I think about classes I've taken with tons of great information and factoids that I never did anything with that I've since forgotten. The information was great; it was interesting and provocative stuff; I worked hard finding cool information as a teacher and worked hard to remember the information as a student. But we never did anything with it; we never used it to do or create anything. Most of it's been lost; it wasn't learned.

"Too often, teachers make connections and point out patterns for students without realizing we are teaching them to imitate what we do rather than to construct meaning for themselves." -page 6

"...he mediated meaning- by asking questions rather than telling him what to do or solving the problem for him." -page 10

"Too often, well-meaning parents and teachers short-circuit students' cognitive development by doing the mental work for them.... We unintentionally encourage them to become passive recipients, to depend on others than on their own capabilities or need to know." -page 15

I wrote about doing the work for them after reading Margaret Searle's Causes & Cures in the Classroom. We mean well when we do it; it's to model what it's supposed to look like; it's to give them a sense of accomplishment; it's to prompt them; it's to help them do well on the test; it's to help them out in an awkward or embarrassing moment. It may even be more for us and our own comfort or ego than theirs. Whatever the reason, when we do it for them we're robbing the long-term to satisfy the short. Instead of telling we ought to ask; instead of lecturing we ought to converse; instead of talking we ought to listen; instead of trying to affect the result we ought to facilitate the process. 

"Sometimes teachers get caught up in doing lots of activities that keep students busy and may even produce wonderful products or displays. However, the time would be more effectively spent designing and implementing activities to help students develop the cognitive structures that will equip them for independent learning." -page 24

Impact won't be known until later. Whether they can do what they were taught how to do down the road is how we'll measure the extent to which it was learned now. They're only students for a small, minuscule amount of time when compared to how much life there is post-student; they need to be able to learn for a lifetime if they're going to thrive. Individual tidbits of information come and go; independence is forever. 

"The true level of understanding is evident in the kinds of questions students ask." -page 26

I used to love when there were no questions; I used to always think that if there weren't any questions then I must've taught it really well. Perhaps I was off base. Perhaps I wasn't focusing on the right stuff. Perhaps they weren't doing enough with the information I was providing. Perhaps I was doing too much providing. I think I was doing too much providing...

11 Ways To Get Them Talking About It

"...recap is especially helpful for students...who have memory barriers because they tend to forget the purpose of the lessons as they try to apply new skills. Verbalization not only reconnects the dots for them but also strengthens mental pathways for later retrieval." - Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom, p. 58

One of the surest and simplest ways to promote the learning of the lessons we try to teach our students or staff is to get them talking about the content or skills of focus.

Talking it out reorganizes the material or steps inside our own heads so that it makes sense to us.

Talking it out forces us process, apply, and create output as a result of the daily input; what good is input if it's not translated to output?

We need to be mindful of this when we plan and when we design learning opportunities for our students or staff.

We spend so much time planning, preparing, and practicing dynamic and interesting ways to give our people input, but it's how intentional and planned the output is that will determine to what degree what we've taught is actually learned.

Talking our way through new lessons is tried and true; it's a way to make it permanent in our heads without having to stretch our creative capacity; there's no writer's block or foreign skill set required to talk about what I'm learning.

Here are some ways to get them talking about what we're teaching:

1. Stop class or meeting every 10 minutes and have neighbors turn and talk about what was just taught, done, discussed, etc. for 2 minutes
2. When asking questions to the class have each student write their answer on a little white board and hold up their answers. Before revealing the right answer have neighbors discuss why they answered how they did.
3. Have students send you an audio note using the voice recorder app on their phone, or a website like vocaroo.com summarizing what happened in class today, what was taught, and how it will be used tomorrow and beyond
4. Have students prepare audio notes on the topic of the day taking a certain viewpoint. Use edmodo, a common Google doc, itslearning, etc. for students to have a single spot to post all of their audio notes to and use the prepared statements to springboard further more spontaneous candid discussion the next day in class.
5. Have students screencast as they solve a math problem or construct a thesis paragraph using webistes like screencast-o-matic or apps like educreations.
6. When making slides utilize the narration option; oral presentations don't always have to be live. With that being said...
7. ...Get people up and talking about their work in front of a group. Earlier in the school year I presented to 12 different groups of ~100 students over the course of two weeks; by the 11th time I really really knew my stuff.
8. In a history or literature class have the students Face Off. During a Colonial America unit I may partner students off and have one act as a Loyalist and the other as a Patriot; in an economics class I may have one act as Keynes and one as Friedman; in a lesson on the Korean War one would be Truman and the other MacArthur.
9. Establish a classroom routine where at the beginning of every class someone is the "leader," and they recap yesterday's class and ask members of the class content questions to review and generate discussion. Laura Evans establishes routines that get the students talking better than anyone I've ever seen.
10. If you have a website use it to provide an authentic audience for student spoken work.
11. Make an activity pyramid of options for students to respond to input and processes as they read or listen. The linked pyramid calls for written responses, but could easily be tailored.

Getting them talking about it betters the odds it moves from taught to learned.

How else can we get them talking about it?

8 Ways to Improve Praise

In reading Emily Houck's 100+ Way to Recognize & Reward Your School Staff I picked up a bunch of nuggets that I can immediately start using to make folks I'm trying to lead feel more valued, respected, and motivated to grow.

She writes, "...we should highlight and recognize their contributions to the present and the future, both because it is the right thing to do and because it will motivate them to continued excellence."

When people feel acknowledged they feel empowered to keep going.

She writes, "An educational leader needs to know which factors will promote and nurture professional growth in each individual."

No one person is motivated the same way; the more we know about the folks we're trying to lead the better position we're in to praise effectively.

She writes, "you have to tell the person why they are being recognized in a very specific way."

Don't cheapen your praise by just throwing it around for no particular reason.

She writes, "Immediate praise...signals true respect for the action and the actor because it requires us to rearrange our priorities to make the praise happen now rather than waiting until it's convenient for us."

Recognition that's planned around my schedule isn't real recognition; if it's worthy of being praised, then it's worthy of being praised right now.

She writes, "Recognition is a mind-set -- a way of doing business and relating to people every day."

8 ways to more effective praise:

Instead of..	Try This
Praising the group	Praise specific people
Giving vague praise	Be specific
Thanking someone in passing	Take the time to seek them out
Acknowledging talent	Acknowledge effort
Recognizing achievement	Recognize growth and improvement
Typing notes	Hand-write notes
Waiting until it’s convenient	Do it now
Combining praise with criticism	Criticize later

Moving From Taught to Learned

I've Been thinking about the concept of something taught vs learned since participating in #fhspantherchat on Twitter with educators from my wife's school, how we can differentiate between the two, and how we can help people get to the learned from the taught.

When it's learned I know why I'm doing it, and why it's to my benefit.

I've taught a lot of people a lot of things, but how many have learned from me?

Are they still able to do it, recall it, discuss it, etc?

What can I do get more of my people beyond taught and into learned?

How can I bridge what is taught in school and what they need to learn?

20 ways off the top of my head:

1. give them an authentic audience
2. give immediate feedback
3. start with more assistance but gradually remove
4. start slow but build speed one step at a time
5. don't demand memorization; aim higher
6. provide visual and auditory instructions and demonstrations
7. give them time to visualize and reflect at the beginning and end
8. arrange for multiple inputs at multiple times
9. get them writing or speaking about it early and often
10. record them doing it and discuss it
11. record and reflect in whatever way works for them so they can focus on the skill or concept
12. be mindful of the rigor
13. make sure it's relevant
14. create relationships conducive for learning
15. let them do as much of it from the start as possible
16. give as little help as necessary for completion
17. model what you'd do, but be open to variations
18. make them talk to you or anybody about it as they're doing it
19. any activity is better than idleness
20. provide multiple opportunities for demonstration / output

How else? What can we as teachers / leaders / coaches help move skills, concepts, thoughts, etc from taught to learned?

Why Do We Do the Work For Them?

Why do we do the work for them?

 I started thinking after reading the Week 20 post about delegation in the #savmp blog, and this quote from a book I just finished

"Adults need to model, ask clarifying questions, and help students reflect on and about their own routines, not do the work for them." - Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom p. 77 

Why do we do the work for our staff and/or students? Because we're afraid of what others will think if people under our tutelage produce work in need of improvement or worse. Because we think short-term.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking something to the effect of, "if my evaluee doesn't write a proficient goal or provide satisfactory evidence, then my colleagues are going to think I'm an unsatisfactory supervisor; what good am I if my people (or students) aren't proficient?"

So I do more than I ought to; I try to control the outcome rather than support and assist during the process. The goal that I'm concerned about becomes 90% my words and 10% theirs. They're "proficient," I pat myself on the back for "helping," and we repeat again in a few months. Nobody learns; we're not growing.

Ask questions instead of giving answers

If they don't do it themselves, then it comes at the expense of the long-term; the goal is always for them to be able to do it well without assistance. Start with them doing it themselves and let the doing it well happen organically. Guide by the side, ask questions, generate partnerships.

I shouldn't compromise the long-term goal to satisfy short-term insecurity.

Replace speaking with listening as often as possible

I should try to be the resource that makes them their own resource. In practice:

Student Discipline: Go through the handbook with them as you're determining consequences; when they match the offense with the proper consequence and then serve it, it becomes a lesson rather than a simple consequence.

Organization / Note Taking: Expose students to different examples of note taking and organization for the same topic. Show them an outline, word web, word cloud, venn diagram, etc. Have them decide which makes the most sense for them instead of mandating one style because it's what's always worked for you. 

They need to own it for it to be learned; if they don't own it, then it was merely taught; they won't remember