This week's assignment, exploring and unpacking Common Core Standards left me both energized and unsettled at the prospect of managing such a broad amount of information. Our work is not only to interpret and translate each standard into thoughtful, engaging lessons but also to ensure that those lessons meet the needs of a broad spectrum of learners.
I appreciate the scaffolded approach we took this week, starting by broadly considering a few standards, objectives and assessments, diving deeper into thinking about one or two specific standards and lastly thinking about specific objectives and assessments. It is clear that any one particular standard can be broken into multiple lessons with layered objectives. While the unpacking exercise is helpful for understanding the different skills students need to acquire, my first impression during these lessons, is how do teachers have the time to figure this all out!?
In the small amount of research I did to get lesson ideas, it stood out to me that there are not a lot of lessons or curriculum immediately available to support Common Core Standards, particularly the California Common Core. I came across a few summary-type documents, like this one
as well as teacher sharing sites like this one. The freedom to interpret is certainly exciting, but the part of me that appreciates structure and guidance also wonders what and where is our rubric for success? What else do we need to know to be successful in helping our students meet these standards? Moreover, what sort of support and resources from our school and fellow teachers are needed to be successful? Any amount of thoughtful planning can be derailed in an environment that is unsupportive or chaotic.
I have really appreciated the time we have spent focusing on classroom and group management, but as we move into the content of our teaching, I am wading into less familiar territory! I look forward to spending more time exploring this content as well as learning more about how the standards are implemented district/school wide. Do teachers plan together or is every class learning the skills in a different way? Does the district regulate how lessons are planned or taught? I am sure every school is a bit different, so the next step is also figuring out what planning and learning environment best suits me!
This week we considered Norms and Procedures as a concept and for our own classroom. Many of the norms, agreements, routines and procedures that I plan to implement are explained here, in our group presentation. In my class, we will have routines/procedures like a clean-up song, bathroom buddies and a magic word/word-of-the-day. The more detail oriented processes will be dictated by the class set up, school-wide expectations and the students themselves. Without getting into all the little details, I'd like to touch on a few of the essential elements that I plan on incorporating in my own classroom:
Class Agreements
At Playworks, in one of our workshops, the facilitator brought up the questions of rules vs. agreements. We discussed the nature of a rule, that it is generally imposed upon people with little discussion. In contrast, an agreement is one that involves input, accountability and can be empowering for all involved. It is with this idea in mind that I plan to facilitate class agreements on behavior/consequences, communication and participation. This does not mean that everything the students suggest will be included, nor does it mean that all agreements will be flexible. What it does mean is that we will discuss the value of the agreements, including the student perspective and make sure that all students are informed and in agreement.
Circle Time/Community Circle
Community circle time is valuable for so many reasons. Students practice greeting each other, communicating their feelings through check-ins and otherwise making connections with each other. It is also establishes a forum to review concepts, agreements and address issues if needed.
I-Messages/Peace Path
Students come to the classroom with such a spectrum of experience communicating their thoughts and feelings, it is essential to establish an expectation for addressing conflicts. Introducing the concept of an I-message or other structured process for sharing feelings gives students a platform to express themselves. I-messages teach students that you can be assertive in communicating your feelings without having to be confrontational. See more about I-messages here.
In the course of our work this week, I have taken away one broader connection that I had not necessarily made before. At Playworks we are very careful to teach all the skills, steps and processes involved in the larger games that we play, so that all student feel included and able to participate. When introducing classroom routines and expectations, I realize that we need to take the same level of care in teaching the students. That means making sure that all expectations are clearly stated, demonstrated, modeled and reiterated. Students will need to practice to fully understand what is expected of them. As a teacher I will need to reflect on the norms and procedures to make sure they are relevant to my students and they are are inclusive for everyone. Here is an interesting piece that incorporates some of the ideas.
References Classroom Tips (2014). PVS.org. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/classroom-tips/ Vega, V., Terada, Y. (n.d.) Research: How SEL Classroom Management Techniques Build Academic Achievement. Retrieved on April 12, 2014 from: http://www.edutopia.org/stw-sel-classroom-management-research
This week's readings and videos highlighted the many ways that teachers can set high expectations for students, create an environment of engaged learners and address behavior challenges. Expectations for students can be managed and communicated in many ways and on many levels. Establishing routines, behavior norms and connecting with students' interests are all strategies to maintain a high quality learning environment. Even so, it is possible that a teacher can employ all these strategies and still be unsuccessful at communicating students full potential.
Student goal setting is another level of strategy to creating an engaged, high-level learning environment. Engaging students in setting their own goals implies a level of accountability that may or may not exist if the goals are simply imposed upon the student. As we learned in Module 3 that setting clear objectives for a lesson plan leads us to clearer teaching strategies, having students involved in setting their own goals can lead to greater learning connections. Students that have a goal in mind can approach lessons knowing that the learning will move them closer to their goal. The motivation behind the learning goes beyond the request or expectation of the teacher and moves towards the interest and self-motivation of the student. Displaying or sharing student work is another means by which educators communicate the value of student work. In The First Year Teachers Survival Guide (2007), Julia Thompson writes, " If your students know that their work will be placed on display, published, read aloud or shared over the school public address system they will take it more seriously than if you are the only person who will see it". While part of that seriousness may be a fear of embarrassment, there is also a greater sense of pride when a student knows that s/he will represent their class, peers or community. Seeing representations of themselves is a validation of the students and the importance of their work.
Lastly, as noted in Marzano's Art and Science of Teaching (2007), it is necessary for teachers to reflect on their own perceptions of student ability. Teachers should consciously devote equal eye contact, rapport building strategies and active listening for all students, in order to eliminate subliminal or overt cues regarding expectations. Thinking about incorporating these ideas into my own classroom, I know that I will need to be diligent, patient and consistent with both my students and myself. I expect the first week or two of school to be primarily focused on 1) community and rapport building and 2) creating routines in the classroom and expectations in regards to behavior, communication and transitions during the day. Once those routines and expectations have been established they will need to revisited regularly and consistently. That being said, once the work has been done, it is much easier to build on those routines and expectations and start diving into the deeper work of encouraging self-motivated learning! Having student involved in their own goal setting, allowing them to assess their own progress and sharing their work with their larger community are all strategies I plan to employ regularly. I also am happy to see the wealth of resources and ideas that exist, which makes this daunting task seem a bit more manageable! In regards to the group assignment this week, I have mixed feelings. I have a tight schedule which requires that I am diligent in planning ahead to complete my work. While one of my group members plans and works in a similar way, the other group member had a different timeline and a different communication style. This is not the first time I have had this experience on a group assignment (not with the same people) and it is definitely a challenge. The issue is more about communication than anything else. When people don't communicate their availability and don't respond to emails or other forms of contact, it makes it very difficult to manage my own time around the assignment. I have the impulse to complete the assignment on my own (or with the more involved group members) but I also value the input of others. I have a particular perspective and I do enjoy how my ideas or perceptions of the assignments change when working in a group. It is challenging when people have different schedule limitations and different communication styles. Citations Marzano, Robert J. (2007) The art and science of teaching : a
comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA;
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Thompson, Julia G (2007), The First Year Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready to Use Strategies, Tools and Activities for Meeting the Challenges of Each School Day. San Francisco, Ca. Jossey-Bass.
My mother started working as a school psychologist when I was a toddler and continued to do so for the next 30+ years. Growing up in my house, we did a lot of "processing" our feelings. While other kids played Monopoly or Sorry on game night, we played the "Ungame" where advancing in the game required answering questions like "Do you ever feel lonely?" or "Describe a happy family". Growing up, I was nurtured with a sense of self-reflection and an ability to talk about my thoughts and perceptions. As I reflect on my path in education and life, I now know that these are skills that have helped me to be a better student, friend and parent.
When I think about creating a positive classroom climate, I think about ways to nurture the development of the social and emotional skills of my students. In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote about human development in regards to a hierarchy of needs (Wikipedia, n.d.)
According to Maslow people need to feel nurtured physically, emotionally and socially, before they are capable of respecting themselves or others, and more over to push themselves to grow, learn and be creative. When applied to a classroom model we see how important it can be to create an environment where boundaries between teacher and student are clear, expectations of classroom behavior have been set and students are given the space, language and time to understand themselves and each other (Guditus, 2013).
Creating routines and systems that facilitate such opportunities takes planning, consistency and an investment of time. Systems, as noted in this Prezi, include class agreements, individual and whole class incentive systems, clear and consistent deadlines for assignments, etc. Routines include daily greetings, opportunities for physical activity/movement and regular calls or newsletters home to families. Strategies outlined by Robert Maslow in the Art and Science of Teaching (2007) range from keeping an objective tone when interacting with students to integrating students' interests into lessons.
For me, the community circle is one of the most dynamic ways to create connections and set a tone for the classroom climate. The circle time can be used to practice simple social skills, like introductions and greetings. The circle can be used to practice idea sharing and listening. Students can talk about their life, culture and families, cultivating respect and understanding. As students get older, circle time can be used as a safe space to process their own thoughts and feelings. Check out this amazing community circle in an Oakland, Ca high school:
Similar to the Smart Hearts and Be an Ally videos we watched for our Activity 2, we can see that giving students opportunities to reflect on their own experiences and empathize with the experiences of others results in a more peaceful and positive community. While it will take some time to make such connections and create a sense of emotional safety, I think it will be as important to the learning environment as well structured lesson plans and instruction.
Sources
Friedman, C ( October, 2012) Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools: Tier One: Community Building Circle. From YouTube. Retrieved on March 26th, 2014 from: http://youtu.be/RdKhcQrLD1w
Guditus, S(Feb, 2013) Maslow Hierarchy of School Needs. Google image search. Retrieved on March 26th, 2014 from: http://sguditus.blogspot.com/2013/02/maslows-hierarchy-of-school-needs-steve.html
Marzano, Robert J. (2007) The art and science of teaching :
a comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA; Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Need. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved on March 26th, 2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
I have been creating learning content at Playworks for
almost a decade, without any formal training on content design. One of the benefits of being involved
in the organization in a period of rapid growth was the opportunity to be
creative and involved in the professional development of our program and staff. The flip side of that coin was learning
(sometimes the hard way!) that creating lessons or trainings with vague
objectives and/or poor assessment of understanding did not lead to long term
learning for the participants.
Often managers were dealing with reoccurring issues for which people had
already (sometimes recently!) been trained.
A few years after I took on a leadership position, we received a training on Bloom’s Taxonomy and
objective writing. It was at that
point that I learned the difference between a vague objective - Participants will be able to
understand the value of group management techniques – and clear objectives with
a demonstrable assessment – Participants will be able to name four group
management techniques; Participants will be able to demonstrate one group
management strategy to engage a distracted group.
Needless to say, a better understanding of the purpose and
strategy of objective writing made it much easier develop trainings. Identifying the learning needs informed the objectives and identifying the objectives informed the learning activities. The process is the same when thinking about incorporating technology into lesson plans. If I am asking learners to memorize a process, I might ask learners to use a mind- mapping tool like X-Mind to demonstrate a process flow. I would not ask learners to demonstrate a process flow using YouTube videos, as that tool does not best meet the needs of the learning objective.
When selecting digital tools in a lesson plan, it is essential to reflect on the needs of the learner and the objectives being sought by the lesson. Digital tools can be versatile as well as tremendously distracting so it is important to figure out if a tool not only addresses the learning objective, but is also a high quality method of meeting the learning objective. As an educator, keeping learning objectives in mind, I imagine there will also be times when I will need to actively investigate new digital learning tools to assess their useful application in lesson planning. There may be times when relying on traditional teaching methods to meet a learning objective is easier and more accessible. With the intention of cultivating students with robust 21st century skills it may be the case that I will need to actively seek a new digital tool to support a learning objective. I look forward to the challenge!
When asked to write a blog post on brain-based learning in the digital age the first thing that came to
mind is this company, Lumosity. Lumosity uses short, simple digital games to exercise mental flexibility, problem-solving, memory, attention, etc.The “exercises” are engaging, colorful and quickly become more or less challenging based on the users performance. While Lumosity is marketed as a sort of
“brain-gym” for adults, I was curious if their strategies might apply to a
classroom. I checked
out their website and, low and behold, I came across this study, which showed “promising
preliminary evidence that cognitive training may be an effective tool for
improving students’ cognitive abilities.”
While the study was based on student improvement on Lumosity’s own Brain
Performance Test, it did get me thinking about ways to connect
brain-based learning, technology and the classroom.
As we read in multiple different articles on brain based
learning, in order for students to retain information, we need to teach in such
a way that their brain can store and integrate information for long-term recall. In a discussion of
ratio of retention to teaching method Leslie Wilson writes, “practicing immediately
after exposure to materials…[is] the most effective at about 85-90% [retention]... teachers
are encouraged to plan varied experiences so that students can manipulate
information within a variety of modalities (Wilson, n.d.)". Using games, apps and other technological
tools opens the door to dynamic avenues for immediate practice and application
of skills. Whereas it may be time
consuming and sometimes logistically impossible for a single teacher to offer
practice that is leveled and meets all student needs at the same time, a
digital tool can also respond to each students performance, to further increase
integration of skills. Here is an example of how I might use digital tools to apply this brain based concept:
Let’s say I am teaching a lesson on multiplication and division.
After teaching the concept and relating the concept back to our overall
learning goals, students may use an app such as Sky Numbers to immediately
apply the skill.
The app is
dynamic, there is background music and the students are not only able to apply the new skills we learned but also recall prior knowledge of addition and
subtraction. Tying new knowledge to familiar concepts is another important component of brain-based learning (Hardiman, 2012). While using this sort of app may not work in all situations, it is an example of a quick, engaging way for students to practice new skills, without requiring a great deal of prep on the part of the teacher (aside from making sure students have access to the technology!)
Other important elements of brain based learning, include the design of the learning environment (Hardiman, 2012), changing modes of practice (Wilson, n.d.), and making the learning meaningful in order to create spatial or locale memories (Sonoma County Dept. of Education). While all these concepts have application in the physical classroom, they can also be enhanced in a virtual format.
If a teacher wants to take the digital learning to another level there are options such as Sokikom. While Sokikom is not marketed as brain based learning, there are certainly some brain based concepts at play in the design of this "social-learning" math tool. Students are interacting with varied visual and auditory stimuli as they practice learned skills. The social aspects of the platform can make the tool meaningful in the moment, as well as contribute to a sense of community and safety in the classroom.
All that being said, there are also some significant aspects of brain based learning that live outside of the digital universe. Integrating physical movement, art and other sensory experiences cannot necessarily be replicated in a digital format. Taking students out into the world, interacting with living, breathing manifestations of the concepts they are learning is essential for the brain (Jensen, n.d.) Technology and digital tools can help to concretize the learning, offer the students more tools and methods to organize the mind and practice patterning, and facilitate ease of planning and organization for the teacher. As students get older, using technology to create and make meaning of their learning can also offer powerful learning opportunities. Ultimately, brain based learning takes the whole brain (and body) into account and therefore technology can and should be used as a part of such learning in partnership with the other strategies offered by brain based learning experts.
As a second grade teacher, I am likely to teach an Art unit
- something similar to this
one
– with lessons that include identifying use of shape, color, and texture; use
of warm/cool color to create mood; comparing different interpretations (CSBE).
Let’s imagine that in my class I have four English Language
Learners -Luis, Ana, Rafael and
Jackie - at various stages of language acquisition.
Luis, is moving from the pre- production to
early production stage of acquisition. He is becoming a more active participant
in the class, although he is most likely to participate if he is in a small
group, especially if he is working with his “buddy” Rafael. Luis began the
school year with no English and was silent for the first week of school.
Ana is squarely in the “emerging speaker”
stage.She has a social
personality and is verbal in class, even though she often makes grammatical mistakes.
Rafael is between intermediate and advanced
fluency.He was born in the US,
but primarily spoke Spanish at home until starting pre-school.
Jackie is moving from speech emergence to
intermediate fluency. She is shy in class and doesn’t always believe in her
own abilities.
Now let’s imagine that I am beginning our art unit. The objective of this lesson is for students to be able to identify primary/secondary colors as well as to classify colors as warm or cool. Observing the class you might
see:
Students on the rug, listening to the culturally relevant story “Spicy Hot Colors" by Sherry Sahan
While reading the story, I name each color then ask the students to tell me the
color together. Using choral response allows Luis to practice his vocabulary with the group, without being singled out.
After reading about colors and color combinations, as a class ,we review the difference between primary and secondary colors, as well as warm/cool colors, using a labeled poster like this one:
After the review, students partner up. I hold up a colored card with the name of the color written on the card and partners decide if the colors are primary or secondary, warm or cool. The repetition of vocabulary as well as the concept of warm and cool colors will particularly support Luis and Ana, along with the visual and auditory learners in the class.
Next, students stay in pairs (Luis and Rafael are paired). I tell the students that today we will practice classifying colors by having the students create their own color wheel, using crayons and a worksheet similar to this one:
Having already prepared them during recess, I call Ana and Jackie up to demonstrate the project for the class. While demonstrating, I ask Ana if blue is a primary color, showing her the color blue and giving her the opportunity to contribute with a yes or no answer. I, next, ask her if yellow or green is a primary color, again holding up the color cards. I ask Jackie if she can point out and name one warm and one cool color. I also ask if she can remind the group how the color orange is made. Before beginning the activity I make sure that all groups understand the task, by asking for questions, getting a show of thumbs (up, in the middle, down) if people feel ready, as well as make sure that all students know where the visual aides will be placed.
The students in the earlier stages of language acquisition will benefit from the repetition, choral response, partnering and hands-on activities. The students in the later stages of language acquisition will benefit from the opportunities to test new vocabulary as well as supporting the less proficient students (Haynes). Overall the lesson also reflects steps 1, 3 and 5 of Marzano's Six Step Process Teaching Academic Vocabulary (Marzano).
Sources
Grade Two:
Visual and Performing Arts, Visual Art Content Standards (Feb 2014). Retrieved
from the California State Board of Education website at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/vagrade2.asp
