How Student Centered Is Your Classroom? In the education world, the term student-centered classroom is one we hear a lot. And many educators would agree that when it comes to 21st-century learning, having a student-centered classroom is certainly a best practice. Whether you instruct first grade or university students, take some time to think about where you are with creating a learning space where your students have ample voice, engage frequently with each other, and are given opportunities to make choices. Guiding Questions Use these questions to reflect on the learning environment you design for students: In what ways do students feel respected, feel valued, and feel part of the whole group? Balancing Teacher Roles So let's talk about that last question, and specifically, direct instruction versus facilitation. Facilitation: open-ended questioning, problem posing, Socratic seminar, and guided inquiry Direct instruction: demonstration, modeling, and lecturing Coaching: providing feedback, conferencing, and guided practice
Tools for Teaching: How to Transform Direct Instruction Summer is the time to look over those unit plans. As you reflect and rethink lessons, here's something to consider: How can you turn direct instruction into experiences where students instead discover? We all know that designing learning activities takes time and brainpower -- both often limited during the mad rush of the school year. (And when we are short on time, we teachers too often turn to direct instruction.) For new teachers, I'd like to help you get started: Let's first take this direct instruction on the topic of imagery: The teacher begins by presenting students with a definition for imagery and gives an example of it. Now, let's transform that scenario into a lesson of student-centered discovery: First step: The teacher dramatically reads aloud a short story, asking students that whenever they can picture something -- see an image in their minds -- put a star by those words. Second step: Then, students partner up and draw a picture to go with each star they have in common.
Student Engagement: Resource Roundup Facebook Edutopia on Facebook Twitter Edutopia on Twitter Google+ Pinterest Edutopia on Pinterest WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation Tips and Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged Igniting Student Engagement: A Roadmap for Learning, by John McCarthy (2015) McCarthy discusses key strategies to ensure student engagement including being authentic, introducing units with meaningful launch events, and letting students know what outcomes to expect. Back to Top Engagement Through Projects Integrated Learning: One Project, Several Disciplines, by Edutopia Staff (2015) For any project within a vocational major, High Tech High encourages teachers and students to include relevant content from other subject areas to enhance real-world connections. Engagement Through Technology Engagement Through Social and Emotional Learning Getting (and Keeping) Students Engaged Create experiences so students invest in their learning.
The Qualitative Formative Assessment Toolkit: Document Learning with Mobile Technology What is qualitative formative assessment? Some call it anecdotal or informal assessment. However, such designations imply passivity -- as if certain things were captured accidentally. I believe the word "formative" should always be included with the word assessment because all feedback mechanisms should help shape and improve the person (or situation) being assessed. Wedging the word "qualitative" into my terminology differentiates it from the analytic or survey-based measures that some associate with the term formative assessment. For my purposes, qualitative formative assessment is the ongoing awareness, understanding, and support of learning that is difficult or impossible to quantify. Carly Schuler stated that the learner needs to be mobile, not the technology. These approaches form the Qualitative Formative Assessment Toolkit (QFAT). 1. Cameras are powerful tools for capturing moments and documenting learning. 2. Here is how to make one on various operating systems: 3. 4. A book.
Make It Count: Providing Feedback as Formative Assessment Providing students with feedback on written work can, at times, feel like a burden. Dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of papers clutter your desk, and commenting on each is nearly impossible. Still, we know, both from our experiences and from research, that feedback is essential. So how can we provide this kind of feedback -- the kind that students actually listen to, understand, and use -- in a timely manner? Feedback as Formative Assessment Anyone involved in standardized testing knows two things: the results take entirely too long to get back and are completely impersonal, making that kind of feedback essentially irrelevant. For instance, Margaret Heritage of UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, describes it this way (PDF, 396KB): [F]eedback that the teacher provides to students is also an essential resource so the students can take active steps to advance their own learning. Feedback in Action Feedforward
Why Your Students Can’t Stay Seated, Organized, or Focused (And What To Do About It) I have a treat for you today! One hot topic in the education world today is executive functioning. Anne-Marie Morey reached out to me to write a post about how to help students that are distracted and disorganized. I would say that 90% of my students fall into that category! I am so excited to introduce you to Anne-Marie. So, your students forget to turn their homework in too? Mine certainly do. Maybe you also have students who can’t sit still? It’s not like your students aren’t capable. Despite your best efforts, your students just don’t seem to be getting anywhere. You might be wondering, “What am I doing wrong?” If your disorganized, distracted students aren’t making sufficient progress, chances are good they struggle with executive function deficits. The normal tricks of the trade aren’t going to cut it. But first, let’s answer a crucial question with a frequently-misunderstood answer. What is executive function, anyway? Executive function is the ability to set a goal and achieve it. 1.
Get Your Students to Stay Seated, Organized, and Focused Today is part two of a fantastic set of posts from Anne-Marie Morey of the Bay Tree Blog. I absolutely love the monkey thought idea from part one, I’ve immediately put that one to use! If you missed part one, you can read it here. In part one, I covered how important it is to provide an environment that promotes attention, teachchildren to self-monitor, and helping students manage their time. 4. The skills required for strong executive functioning are like a battery — they run out! If your students start off strong, but their attention wanes, try to: Reduce the amount of work required for a given task (e.g. five math problems instead of ten).Break larger projects into smaller pieces.Build in frequent breaks. On my podcast for educators, Pamm Scribner, executive function specialist, reveals how she uses brain breaks. 5. Boy, kids with executive function weaknesses get blamed a lot. We’ve all heard it: “They’re lazy! When students feel safe and respected, they participate. 6. Warmly,