Classroom Discussions

Excellence in Education: Discussions

As a teacher and a student, I loved class discussions, but I probably didn’t make use of them enough.

First let’s look at why discussions make sense:

• Because students are speaking, learning/understanding become visible
• Students learn from their peers
• Conversational skills (listening, speaking, body language) are real-life
• Students enjoy it
• Students become aware of their own understanding of the subject
• Conversation provides practice and extends learning 

Below are some techniques that I’ve seen teachers use to energize their classes through class discussions

Peer Instruction: After a brief presentation, teacher poses a question to the students and allows students to think about their answer individually. Teacher poses a question and allows students to respond (you could use whiteboards, BYOD, etc.). Students find a peer with a different answer and convince them why they chose their response. Have students respond again. Share the correct response.

Paired Verbal Fluency: In pairs students discuss a topic. Student A starts while B listens. After set amount of time, B begins talking but can’t repeat anything A said.

Value Lines or Corners: Have students take a stance by standing on a spectrum line (Strongly Disagree------Strongly Agree) or alternatively mark the corners of the class (Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). Then have students pair with a neighbor (someone who shares the same beliefs). From there, you can have students share with the entire class or mix-and-match pairs with people from different opinions. It’s always interesting to see if student opinions change.

Administrative Notes

The faculty meetings scheduled for December 1^st and 2^nd have been moved to December 9^th  at (2:45 pm) and 10^th at (6:45 am).  These will be in the lecture hall and will not exceed 30 minutes. 

Testing Calendar

Monday, December 1:  Reading blocks 1 and 3

Tuesday, December 2:  Reading blocks 2 and 4 (flip day)

Wednesday, December 3:  History blocks 1 and 3

Thursday, December 4:  History blocks 2 and 4 (flip day)

Friday, December 5:  Science blocks 1 and 3

Monday, December 8:  Science blocks 2 and 4 (flip day)

Tuesday, December 9:  Math blocks 1 and 3

Wednesday, December 10:  Math blocks 2 and 4 (flip day)

Dec 9: Choral and Orchestra Concert (night)

Dec 11: Band Concert (night)

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What I’m Reading

Eight Ways Teachers Can Talk Less and Get Students Talking More

Eighteen Ways Teachers Can Use Google+ Hangouts

A Wake-up Call for School Leaders

  

Visual of the Week:

Working Together vs Cheating; Noise Meters

Cougar Communication

Student and Teacher Conversations: Working Together vs Cheating

In one class conversation, a student lamented that collaboration is made difficult because teachers tell us to work by ourselves; otherwise it’s cheating. He continued, but in some classes it’s OK to work together and it’s not cheating.

Obviously, when I receive a cheating/copying referral, I often hear the same thing, “I was just checking an answer.” “I wasn’t sure how to do number 4, so I was looking at hers.” Sometimes these are probably excuses and at other times they’re probably legitimate.

Earlier in the year I had a conversation with a couple of teachers regarding students during formative assessments looking at what other students are doing or asking a classmate and then correcting their choices. To us it seemed like a beneficial practice (since it was ungraded) because when the teacher provides the correct answer, it simply reinforces what they’ve already learned just moments before.

What are your thoughts?

Just something to think about….

Technology for Your Classrooms: Noise Meters

Richard Byrne, who writes Free Technology for Teachers, shares two class noise meters that can be used to monitor classroom noise when students are working in your class. By using and projecting them, it might be a good way for students to monitor their own conversation levels.

The two noise meters: http://www.ictgames.com/calmCounter.html and https://bouncyballs.org/

Administrative Notes

Tomorrow is a flex day.

Next Tuesday will be the in-school performance of the talent show. The schedule will be 1-2-3-4 (no homeroom and the talent show will be during 1^st period).

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What I’m Reading

How Study Breaks Boost Learning  

What it Really Means to Be a Public School Teacher

Quote of the Week:

Dylan Wiliam: “If students know where we’re headed, we’re more likely to reach the destination. As Yogi Berra says, ‘If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else.’ But it’s a mistake to begin every lesson with a learning intention. Sometimes you don’t know, we engage students in rich lessons, but students learn different things…Sometimes it spoils the journey…Sometimes it’s just uninspired. Students aren’t motivated by content standards….Students are motivated by ideas, discussions, arguments. Skilled teachers take dry content standards and make them into lively discussions, debates and more.”

Pre-Conferences and Thinglink

Excellence in Education: Pre-Conferencing

I’ve seen several teachers use “pre-conferencing” in a variety of ways. It’s simple and can be used to address behavioral or academic concerns. It’s a simple, yet effective, intervention.

It all begins with greeting students as they enter the classroom. It’s important that this is part of your normal routine so that the student doesn’t feel singled-out. Sometimes a handshake or another way of bringing the student close is helpful.

A couple of ways pre-conferencing can be used:

Offer a quick reflection of yesterday’s class and a reminder about what your behavioral expectations are. Example: Tyler, I appreciated your eagerness to participate in yesterday’s conversation. It’s important that we respect everyone’s opinion. Today we’re going to have another discussion, so be sure to respect everyone’s opinions. How are you going to make that happen?

For a student who struggles academically and has trouble completing class work, it may go something like this: Rachel, today we’re going to be working individually in our workbooks. I’m going to ask you to come to the board and show how you do question 5. I’ll check-in with you to make sure that you are good to go.

In both cases, the teacher establishes clear student expectations in a non-threatening manner; one that also shows that the teacher supports and believes in the students.

Ideas for the Classroom: Thinglink

A couple of years ago, I talked about Thinglink as a tool with seemingly countless uses. What is it?

A simple way of embellishing static images with pop-up descriptions or links

Tags can be added to Wikipedia, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc and countless other sites

How can it be used?

• Create an interactive report
• Interactive maps
• Add text, audio, weblinks, video to Wordle
• Portfolios
• Flipping the classroom 

Some examples:

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs http://www.thinglink.com/scene/572818717990191104
• Thinglink example for teachers and librarians https://www.thinglink.com/scene/269449954164998146

One I created:

• Operation Overlord http://www.thinglink.com/scene/367109172933689346

Administrative Notes 

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What I’m Reading

Ramsey Musallam: 3 rules to spark learning

The Problem with Tests that Aren’t Standardized Honestly, I’m not sure what to make out of this Alfie Kohn piece in the Washington Post

A Teacher Loves His Job—and is so Frustrated He May Walk Away

The story of Lauren Hill, a dying basketball player and her first game Warning: you may not want to watch the video with anyone around (I cried).  

Metacognition

Excellence in Education: Metacognition

It’s vital that we give students opportunities to reflect on their own learning. This year I’ve seen tons of examples that encourage students to be reflective, evaluative and strategic about their work. Each of these activities help students identify their own strengths and weaknesses resulting in improved learning that impacts how students learn in that class AND how they learn once they leave your classroom.

Below are some of the examples of metacognitive strategies I’ve seen this year:

·         Students reviewing their work and determine what the strengths and weaknesses are in their work.

o   Self-editing and proof-reading their work

·         Requiring students to reflect on their own learning and determine how well they have learned something.

o   Students review their notes/class materials and judge themselves using fist of five

o   Quizzes or other formative assessment strategies that are evaluated but NOT graded allowing students to continue to grow

o   Having students review tests and quizzes and reflect on them by asking questions like What sections did I do well on? Where did I do poorly? Why is that the case? How can I better prepare next time?

o   Asking questions at the end of the unit like I feel most comfortable and knowledgeable about __________ because ________. I feel least comfortable about ___________ because ______________.

·        Having students select what strategies are useful for a given task.

o   Provide with the learning objective, students choose a way to show their understanding of the material.

o   Directing students that they will be completing a graphic organizer and allowing/requiring them to determine what type of graphic organizer would fit best

·        Continual Revision/Not Yet

o   Peer editing

o   Allowing redos and retakes (requiring a reflective assignment)

o   Not excepting less than satisfactory work and providing students with multiple opportunities to revise until the standards are met

·        Modeling metacognition and reflection in your own work

o   Having students complete surveys

o   Having students reflect on your teaching and lessons and having them provide feedback

·        Students write questions before, during or after class about things that they are unsure about (this works well with lectures that build on the previous night’s reading or when students downloaded the notes the night before or in having the students review the previous day’s notes). Students are given time to ask a classmate their questions or by holding a Q-n-A session at the beginning or end of class or have students write down their unanswered questions as an exit activity.

How awesome is it that I easily was able to list all of the above strategies! Keep up the great work and try some of the other strategies used by your peers.

Administrative Notes

Great job with the quick turnaround on grades! We greatly appreciate it. I know the shear volume of grades in a short period of time leads to multiple choice tests; for those of you who included short answer, essay questions and/or differentiated your exams, an extra tip of the cap to you!

Tuesday is a FLEX day.

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What I’m Reading

How Teachers Can Motivate Students of Any Age : Lots of information that matches up with several of the books from our book studies

Veteran Teacher Turns Into A Student, Sobering Lessons Learned : Several of you forwarded this to me, THANKS! Grant Wiggins’ blog is worth bookmarking; always good stuff.

What Happens To Our Brains When We Exercise and How It Makes Us Happier

Interrogating Text, EdPuzzle

Excellence in the Classroom: Interrogating the Text

Far too often when students are presented  with a textbook reading and are  assigned the questions at the end of the  section,  students will simply hen-and-peck to find the answer instead of actually reading the material.

  

I saw this technique used in an English class, but it could easily be used in any class.

• Students  were assigned a reading.
• Prior to reading the students were asked to formulate questions the text should be able to answer. In this case it was the next  section of a short story, but it works well for non-fiction too (students skim chapter, looking at graphs, headlines, prior knowledge, the key points and questions in the book, etc.)
• Then students were placed in pairs or triads where they shared their questions with each other.
• Students read the text individually (although you could easily adapt this to a paired reading activity) and jotted down answers.
• Finally, students discussed key points and their answers.

Why I loved this strategy:

1.  It taught students active reading skills, a skill that’s a must for college
2.  By actively involving the students it creates deeper learning and higher achievement
3.  Students formed their own meaning and came to understand it on their own
4. Students enjoyed the assignment
5. By walking around while students discussed, the teacher was provided with feedback and could provide feedback to the students
6.   It’s easy! It doesn’t require creating questions or “grading” student answer

Ideas for the Classroom: EdPuzzle

I learned about EdPuzzle from Stacey Roshan (@buddyxo) an expert on flipping class, but it also has many applications for traditional classes as well.

EdPuzzle allows you to add your voice and questions to educational videos (Khan Academy, YouTube, Learn  Zillion, TED, CrashCourse, etc.) Once you’ve found the video, EdPuzzle allows  you to insert your own voice comments and you can create a questions that the students answer (interactively at various points of the video) while the video plays.

EdPuzzle could easily be used for homework assignments, flipping your class, anytime you watch a video in class, when you’re going to be absent and want the students to watch a video, and for students creating their own EdPuzzles. By the way, you can search already created EdPuzzles too.

Here’s an example: https://edpuzzle.com/media/543a777d95c4cd1622d0fd61/edit

Here’s a quick demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTQpvkQdQOw 

One problem you need a microphone on your computer to record audio.

Administrative Notes

Please remember that when posting materials throughout the building, please keep postings to the tack strips and appropriate bulletin boards (we’ve ordered more tack strips).

Whacky schedule for the last half of the week.

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“Comment box”: http://goo.gl/forms/KAHNoGf5D2

I’m really excited about tonight’s #vachat. Wade Whitehead. Wade serves on the SOL Innovation Committee for the Department of Education. The committee is working to imagine the next generation of assessments and accountability. This is a great opportunity for you to have your voice heard. Join us at 8pm as we discuss improving standards, assessments and accountability.

What I’m Reading

What Happened to Creativity?

Eight Engaging Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom to Create Lessons that Aren’t Boring  

Color-Coded Feedback, What's Fair

Excellence in Education: Color-Coding Feedback

I’ve seen this technique used in both teacher feedback (a more efficient manner of providing specific—but not overly  so—feedback to students) and student-student feedback.

Using a highlighter, different color pens/pencils, or different color stick notes, the “assessor” can use red for areas that need major improvement, yellow where some improvement is needed, green where the criteria has been met or is interesting.  Oh yeah, this is also a great technique (very easy) for online editing through Word or BlackBoard.

Another way of using it:

·       Students highlight examples of a predefined feature whenever it occurs (examples: thesis statements, topic sentences, use of primary sources, etc.). Students can then choose their favorite/best example to share with their partner/group/class.

Why it works?

• Colors increase the focus of students
• Colors leave a vivid impression of what is good and what is bad
• It’s efficient
•  It’s not overly specific, meaning the student who is receiving the feedback, still must determine what to do to improve his/her writing.
• The editor isn’t re-writing; only providing feedback and commentary
•  For peer-to-peer editing, it makes the process easier and less threatening.

Tweet of the Week:

Administrative Notes

Please remember to have a conversation with the parents/guardians of any student who will be receiving a D or F for the marking period or the semester.

I know several teachers called parents of students who made great strides or demonstrated exceptional work on Thursday and Friday. I don’t need to tell you about the power of positive phone calls! Thanks!

Don’t forget about paying for the Holiday Social this week for 2 free raffle tickets!

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What I’m Reading

Poor Kids Who Do Everything Right Don’t Do Better Than Rich Kids Who Do Everything Wrong :  A depressing article from The Washington Post

17 Invaluable Lessons Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) Taught Us in Dead Poets Society