Cougar Communication: Think-Alouds

Excellence in Education: Using Think-Alouds

This past week, I was fortunate to see several teachers, most notably Ms. Cooper and Mr. Christian, use think-alouds in their classrooms.

When using think-alouds the teacher models the thinking process that good readers, mathematicians, historians, etc. use when processing. By sharing their thought process with all students as they read (Ms. Cooper) or solve a problem (Mr. Christian), they model how experts solve a problem, work through difficult concepts and builds such skills in their students.

                                                                                                                   

For example, in math class as Mr. Christian thought out loud, he was sharing with the students not just the correct thought process but also how he (and his students) could overcome potential roadblocks to correctly answering the question. Again this is much more than simply explaining how to achieve an answer; instead it means demonstrating different ways of approaching the task and internalizing the dialogue. By modeling the process for students, they become more comfortable with the process, more reflective and more ready to take on difficult tasks.

In collaborative classrooms, the process can easily be developed and embellished by the two teachers playing off of each other (but it will require a little pre-planning conversation).

In both classes, the teacher think-alouds served as the leaping point for gradually releasing more responsibility to the students.

Once students are familiar with the think-aloud strategy, you can use ask students to use the think-aloud process as they solve the problem or read a passage. Doing so, is a great means of formatively assessing students knowledge and skills and providing feedback.

Administrative Notes

If you haven’t yet completed the school safety survey, please do so.

Please remind and invite parents through email, blackboard,  remind101, etc. that Thursday is parent-teacher conferences.

And that’s a perfect segue to….tonight’s #vachat topic is Engaging All Parents. Please think about joining and learning with us. It starts at 8. Use tweetchat.com to follow along or an app like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck (which enable you to use columns to see only #vachat tweets).

Positive referral link

Thursday we’re having our leadership meeting, if you have anything that you would like addressed, please let your department chair know. 

**First term, I asked for each of you to invite me to observe a lesson that stood out for its creativity and student-centeredness. Thank you to those of you who invited me to observe some wonderful lessons. If you haven’t yet extended an invitation, please don’t forget to do so.** 

Tweet of the Week

Worth Reading

8 Elements of Project-Based Learning

Personalization vs Differentiation vs Individualization Chart

The Myth Behind Public School Failure  

Cougar Communication: Flexible Grouping, Reciprocal Teaching, Internet Stats

Ideas for the Classroom: Grouping

Again, I’m taking a question from the December faculty meeting and doing my best to answer. Add your suggestions/comments by visiting the blog.

How should students be grouped for cooperative learning assignments? 

Flexibility reigns supreme.

It depends.

As a teacher, my students sat in quads with a high performing student, 2 middle level performers and one low achieving student.

Seating Quad-Arrangement Continues Throughout Classroom

High	2nd Highest
2nd Lowest	Lowest

This seating arrangement gave me a great amount of flexibility. Depending on the assignment’s purpose I could use any of three groupings. Sometimes, like when reading, I might group students with like partners (horizontal pairings). If we were summarizing the day’s lesson, I might use vertical pairings because they may offer more peer tutoring support. Rarely did I make use of diagonal pairings.

The above seating arrangement, which was repeated throughout the class, also gave me whole class flexibility. For example, I could direct all of the red students to come together to complete a more complex task, while I’d ask the orange students to work on a different task. This was an easy way of differentiating instruction.

The possibilities with this seating arrangement are limitless, but by doing so I was able to meet the diverse needs of my students and the assignment.

Ideas for the Classroom: Reciprocal Teaching

I’ve seen several teachers use various forms of reciprocal teaching to improve comprehension of a reading assignment or to summarize a lecture or video. It lends itself very well to the above grouping strategy, so it’s a logical time to give props to the teachers who have used it and to let everyone else learn this research-proven strategy that puts students in charge of their learning.

Students are given one of four roles: summarizer, questioner, clarifier or predictor.

           

After reading a few paragraphs or watching a video or listening to lecture, the students meet as a group. The summarizer does just that, he/she highlights the key ideas. The questioner asks questions to his/her group. He/she focuses on unclear or complex parts and tries to connect the material with previously learned material. The clarifier answers these questions or alternatively listens to the group’s responses to the questions and then answers. Finally, the predictor makes predictions about what will happen next.

Students can stay in the same role or they can rotate as the reading or lecture continues.

Why does this work?

• Every student is actively engaged in the learning process
• Students become more independent and responsible for their learning
• Every student is involved
• Reading comprehension improve
• The teacher serves as a guide and by listening to the students can formatively assess student understanding

Administrative Notes

You’ve experienced our great edcamps. Wouldn’t you like to share that experience with teachers from other schools? Why not go to an upcoming edcamp?

            March 29: EdCamp Arlington (Washington-Lee HS)

            April 5: EdCamp MetroDC (Stone Ridge School, Bethesda)

I’ve signed up for both. Let me know if you’re interested in going/carpooling. I’ll see if we can get PD/Opt-Out credit as well.

Oh yeah, the organizers of these events often drum up lots of great sponsors with free gifts and prizes!            

Evaluations

For those of you on the Comprehensive Cycle, please submit your finalized goals.

If you’re on the Annual cycle, your final goal statements are due today. 

**First term, I asked for each of you to invite me to observe a lesson that stood out for its creativity and student-centeredness. Thank you to those of you who invited me to observe some wonderful lessons. If you haven’t yet extended an invitation, please don’t forget to do so.**

Stat of the Week (click for source)

72% of all Internet users are now active on social media

89% of those between 18 and 29 years old are social media users

72% of individuals aged 30 to 49 are engaged in social media

60% of people between 50 to 60 years old are active on social media

43% of those 65 years old and above are engaged in social media

71% of users access social media from a mobile device

What I’m Reading

A Day in the Mastery Centered Classroom

Simple Student Motivation Techniques to Remember 

What’s Holding Back American Teenagers: Our High Schools Are Disasters

Students Say Schoolwork is “Too Easy”—But They Still Balk at Doing It. What Gives?

Cougar Communication: Students Finishing Work and Improved Remind101

Excellence in Education

I’m going to try something new and I hope you’re willing to participate by visiting the blog site and leaving your suggestions by commenting.

At our December faculty meeting each of you asked a question, I’m going to do my best to come up with an answer. Often my “answers” will be stolen from you—strategies that I’ve learned by observing the best teachers in the nation.

When students are assigned work, they often finish at different times. This is especially troublesome at the end of class because the finished students can become distracted.

Students are strategically grouped in groups of 4 with a high, 2 middle, and low student. Students are not permitted to turn their completed work until everyone in the group is done. Students will need to learn and practice how to help and teach instead of simply giving their partners the answers. If there’s still time left in class when everyone is finished, students should practice and quiz other members of their group. Some students will need more structure (make flashcards, for example) while others will do splendidly with little guidance.

Credit for this idea goes to Natasha Marple and Mr. Whitt, who I student taught with. 

Ideas for the Classroom: New Improved Remind101

By now you know I’m a huge fan of Remind101. Well, they’ve added a new feature called Send to a Few. Using this new feature you can send a text to a select subgroup of students (minimum of 3). It still provides all the protections of Remind101 (not sharing your number with students) but allows you to target your message to specific students.

Some examples of how this could be used:

1.     Remind students who are presenting tomorrow of their presentation. Don’t forget to have your presentation ready to go tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

2.     Alert select students to an upcoming deadline. Tomorrow’s the deadline to turn in your essay, please be sure to bring it tomorrow.

3.     As coaches, you can send a message to your captains or select position players. Pitchers, be prepared to stay after practice tomorrow.

4.     Remind students who haven’t turned in permission slips of an upcoming deadline. Don’t forget that all permission slips for our field trip to Richmond are due Wednesday

Here’s a video explaining the new feature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbCXvBaLDns

Administrative Notes

You’ve experienced our great edcamps. Wouldn’t you like to share that experience with teachers from other schools? Why not go to an upcoming edcamp?

            March 29: EdCamp Arlington (Washington-Lee HS)

            April 5: EdCamp MetroDC (Stone Ridge School, Bethesda)

I’ve signed up for both. Let me know if you’re interested in going/carpooling. I’ll see if we can get PD/Opt-Out credit as well.

Oh yeah, the organizers of these events often drum up lots of great sponsors with free gifts and prizes!    

Tonight’s #vachat topic is Teacher Leadership. Join us at 8. Use www.tweetchat.com to easily follow and participate.

Stat of the Week

According to famed educational researcher John Hattie, friendships are perhaps the most critical element in a student’s attachment to the school community.

Not surprising, but something we should never lose sight of.

What I’m Reading

Oldie but goodie. Kid President: 20 Things We Should Say More Often

Learning to Think Outside the Box: Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline

A Chart on Summative vs Formative Assessment

Cougar Communication: Reading, Writing and the Three Step Rubric

Excellence in Education: Reading and Writing Every Day

We’re all reading and writing teachers. No skill is as important to success in college or the workforce as literacy. As educators we should strive to include reading and writing skills in our classroom every day.

Both reading and writing can take many forms. Some examples of the various reading I saw in classrooms this past week:

• Directions and rules in PE’s recreation unit
• Comparing three flood stories in World History I
• Reading from Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in World History I
• Relating the importance of the Magna Carta to today’s government
• Gulliver’s Travels and editing paragraphs in English classes

                                                          

Reading and writing are, of course, real-life skills (for more on their value http://goo.gl/nAVGDp), but they are also effective ways of providing instruction and assessing understanding. Additionally, reading and writing naturally lend themselves to scaffolded instruction and differentiation. Let’s strive to make reading and writing part of every lesson plan.

Ideas for the Classroom: 3 Step Rubric

The 3 Step Rubric is a great time-saver and an even greater means of providing meaningful feedback. In brief the three steps are:

1a. A rubric is shared with the students. Work samples are provided and students can evaluate these based on the rubric.

1b: As a class create a rubric.

2: Students self-assess (score and comment) their assessment using the rubric.

3. The teacher provides feedback using the rubric. Instead of making comments on all parts of the assessment and rubric, you only comment where the differences between the student grade your grade exist. This process enables you to more intently focus your time on areas where disagreement exist and where feedback is most important.

Administrative Notes

It’s a busy week for me in regards to meetings, especially eligibilities. I was hoping to touch base with those of you whom I observed last week, but it’ll be tough for me to do so.

Apparently, there was an issue with either my ipad, the web connectivity. or my program so some of you may not have received electronic feedback from my quick visit. I’ll be trying to send these out. Sorry for the confusion.

It was great to see so many teachers using the small group flex time to remediate their students. The individualized attention/academic assistance you provided to your students was invaluable. Hopefully, this will be time well spent.

I know the snow days have thrown everyone for a loop, especially you as teachers. You’re flexibility in overcoming such challenges demonstrates your professionalism and commitment to your craft and your students.

Tweet of the Week

Upcoming Schedule

Tuesday, Feb 4                     Boys Basketball Home vs Eastern View (Girls Away)

                                             Scholastic Bowl Regionals @ Poquoson

       FLEX—Social Studies Expedited Retakes

Wednesday, Feb 5               Signing Day Ceremony

                                            Winter Track @ FHS

                                            Girls Basketball vs J. Monroe (Boys Away)                                              

       Math Expedited Retakes (these take a while)                        

                                                                                                                                                        Thursday, Feb 6                    Conference Wrestling at Culpeper

                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                   

Friday, Feb 7                         Girls Basketball (Senior Night) vs FHS (Boys Away)                                                                 

Some Interesting Reads

A Letter to Teachers http://goo.gl/C6V5S8

Five Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students http://goo.gl/dr3qkD

Criticizing (common criticisms) of Praise http://goo.gl/qWlZmR

High Schools: Grow Up! http://goo.gl/iHQs7e

38 Test Questions That Are Wrong, But Oh So Right http://www.negpoz.com/38-test-answers-100-wrong-oh-right-time/ (This one is fun and purely for enjoyment)