5 Characteristics Of Project-Based Learning That Works - Schedule a TeachThought Professional Development PBL Workshop For Your School > 5 Characteristics Of Project-Based Learning That Works by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought Professional Development Interested in learning more about how to leverage great thinking and learning using authentic project-based learning? Check our PBL Workshop Services. As I’ve written before (What PBL Can Do For Your School…And What It Won’t) project-based learning can be an amazing tool for student, teacher, and school growth but only if you’re getting great thinking and learning as a result. Quality PBL takes advantage of built-in and designed levers of quality that helps the teacher as facilitator align the thinking and learning we’re after in our students. Aligned Thinking and Learning The project is intentionally designed to solicit thinking around desired standards, content, & skills students need to know. When planning for project design what thinking and learning do we want our teaching to align with?
Booktalks and Book Reports in a Digital Age | Tech Tidbits Teens at the Silver Creek High School in Longmont, CO, record a scene for The Hunger Games book trailer using a makeshift green screen at their library’s maker space. Last fall, my school deployed iPads to every student (thanks to Race to the Top funds). My district also unveiled digital books using Overdrive. My school chipped in fund-raiser money to purchase online digital magazines using Zinio for libraries. Supporting all of our readers (especially our struggling readers) is critical as we have seen a drop in our school-wide reading scores as of late. In the past, I have presented traditional booktalks by finding appropriate Lexile-leveled books, pulling these texts from my shelves and waving them wildly around while expounding on their virtues and ending my stories with cliff-hangers: “You’ll have to read it yourself to find the answer.” So far, this has been well received. A mini sound booth where students can record podcastlike book reports.
6 Ed Tech Tools to Try in 201 6 About a year ago, I published an e-book called the Teacher’s Guide to Tech. Over the last month, I have been updating it for 2016, adding over 30 new tools and refreshing the information I had about the original ones. I have to say, the 2015 version was excellent, but now it’s SO MUCH BETTER. (To take a peek at the guide, scroll to the bottom of this post.) In the process, I discovered some tools that I absolutely fell in love with, and I wanted to share them with you here. Let’s take a look. Listen to this post as a podcast: Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:24 — 47.6MB) Subscribe: iTunes | Android | One key to improving student writing is to have students write more often. Students browse through a growing collection of writing ideas, each one paired with a visually compelling image, and write about them.Finished posts can then be shared with just one class or made publicly viewable (see examples). Here’s a closer look at Write About: *Amazon Affiliate link.
The ABC’s of Competency-Based Learning Although classrooms offline have been delivering competency-based training for decades, the eLearning industry has only just woken up to the merits of this form of learning. However, competency-based training is yet to become a trend in online education simply because most designers and training managers are not sure what it means and how they can implement the concept in practice. So in this post we’ll be decoding the jargon. For starters, here’s an infographic that outlines the whys and the wherefores of competency-based learning. Read on, if you want to learn more. What is a Competence? To put it simply, competence means a skill. Competency is: Measurable. What is Competency-based Learning? Remember how you learned mathematics in school? Competency-based learning lets learners move through a course at their own pace. What are the Benefits of Competency-Based Learning? 1) Relevance to the Real World: Tip: Do not create instructional modules that just state the mere facts. 4) Self-Paced
4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning 4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning by Jennifer Rita Nichols The term “21st century” has become an integral part of educational thinking and planning for the future. Various studies have shown us that rote memorization is not an effective learning strategy, and that teacher-centered classrooms may not be the most efficiently structured ones for student engagement. However, despite learning about the skills that students will need to develop to become successful in the 21st century, as well as what beliefs about education may be worth hanging onto or throwing away, schools and teachers are left trying to figure out what their role needs to be in the education of their 21st century students. Once upon a time, the role of the educator was to prepare students for the specific tasks they would be required to complete (be it a trade, craft, or profession). Nowadays, we don’t live in the same world. So then, what is the role of education in the 21st century? Society has changed. 1. 2. 3.
Bloom's Taxonomy Resources Bloom’s Taxonomy can be a powerful tool to transform teaching and learning. By design, it focuses attention away from content and instruction, and instead emphasizes the “cognitive events” in the mind of a child. And this is no small change. For decades, education reform has been focused on curriculum, assessment, instruction, and more recently standards, and data, with these efforts only bleeding over into how students think briefly, and by chance. This means that the focus of finite teacher and school resources are not on promoting thinking and understanding, but rather what kinds of things students are going to be thinking about and how they’ll prove they understand them. This stands in contrast to the characteristics of the early 21st century, which include persistent connectivity, dynamic media forms, information-rich (digital and non-digital) environments, and an emphasis on visibility for pretty much everything.
Wildwood Inquiry-Based Learning: Developing Student-Driven Questions Defining Inquiry Inquiry-based learning, rather than presenting a set of facts, uses student inquiries, questions, interests, and curiosities to drive learning. This level of student involvement makes the learning more relevant, encouraging students to develop their own agency and critical thinking skills. The Inspiration Wildwood was already using inquiry-based learning to some extent, but things took off for them when, in Principal Mary Beth Cunat's second year, the school put on an Inquiry Fair. "All of the sudden, we see our students doing things that really matter to them, and they're excited and they're passionate, and they want to talk about what they're learning," says Cunat. Student-driven inquiry is now the norm at Wildwood, as teachers regularly use student questions and lines of inquiry to drive their lessons. It All Starts With Questions Moving to a more inquiry-based style of teaching starts with questions. "Students are learning a process," says Cunat.
Classroom standing desks may curb kids’ sedentary time The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom Bloom’s & SOLO ‘are not Just Colorful Posters we Hang on the Wall’ is my two-part series at Education Week Teacher. Bloom’s Taxonomy is talked about a lot in educational circles. However, if you believe a recent survey of visits to 23,000 U.S. classrooms, the higher-order thinking skills it’s ideally designed to promote doesn’t get much use. And I can understand why. It’s easy to get caught-up in the day-to-day work involved in teaching a class or multiple classes, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing the “usual stuff” and not “think out of the box.” I thought it might be useful to share in a “The Best…” list the resources that help me try to use Bloom’s Taxonomy in my classroom. There may very well be resources out there that do a far better job of explaining the Taxonomy and how to use it. I personally try to use Bloom’s Taxonomy in two ways. In addition, I try to use Bloom’s to help me formulate my own lessons. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Memory Understanding Applying and Analyzing
Is 2016 The Year That Progressive Education Returns? - Is 2016 The Year That Progressive Education Returns? by Robert Sun The 1920’s were a high point in the Progressive Education movement. Developed in response to the rigid pedagogy of 19th Century industrial society—methods that stressed uniform learning largely defined by social class—Progressive Education sought to break the mold with a more enlightened approach to public schooling. While Progressive Education had many elements, it essentially followed three teaching strategies. First was an emergent curriculum that responded to children’s enthusiasms, recognizing that students are most motivated to learn something they are already interested in. Despite its promise and a number of early successes, Progressive Education eventually lost momentum in the United States. As America comes to grips with the 21st Century world, however, the precepts of Progressive Education are once again finding favor. Finland has been a leader in the neo-progressive movement.
Periscope: Connecting Classrooms to the World Editor's note: This post is co-authored by Jennifer Williams, co-founder of and lead program developer for Calliope Global. In order to prepare students for effective learning in an increasingly global and digital society, educators are seeking innovative communication tools that inspire student curiosity through investigation and reflection. Periscope is a powerful new tool that is inspiring teachers and students to create content together and share their worlds in impactful ways. As a free smartphone app, Periscope allows users to broadcast a live video stream to public or private audiences. Periscope for Student Instruction As a digital collaboration tool, Periscope affords the opportunity for students to see the world through the perspectives of others. Virtual Field Trips In world language classes, students can take virtual field trips alongside teacher-guides from target language countries (e.g. in restaurants or at festivals). Expert Speakers or Demonstrations Student Collaborations
Tips for Writing Instructional Objectives - Bloom's Taxonomy Job Aids I am so delighted to see this post that includes Bloom's Taxonomy Wheels by ZaidLearn. I always find that it's far easier to design materials using these wheels than it is to see the verbs/products in lists. Many instructional designers can benefit from these job aids when trying to find the right action verbs for their objectives. Source: Source: Source: Bloom’s digital taxonomy. Have fun, designers! 4 Elements to Effective Adult Learning, According to Neuroscience Adult Learning or Andragogy highlights that adult learners are fundamentally different in their methods of learning in comparison with children. As an L&D professional, you need to understand these differences and figure out the best methods that can be employed to meet the adult learning needs. With adult learners, you will encounter different types of expectations, demands, and challenges. While there are multiple methodologies to make this happen, there is a model proposed by Lila Davachi, Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University that is known to be very effective. 1) Attention "Learning that happens while multitasking cannot be generalized— and does not result in understanding or the ability to recall when needed." The first and foremost step in any learning is to gain the attention of the learner. In fact, Edward Hallowell, MD, Director of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health has reiterated that true multitasking is only but a myth. 2) Generation