Why Kids Need More Talk Time in the Classroom Sometimes, for the sake of classroom management, we spend so much time trying to manage noise level that we forget that talk time in the classroom is actually an important element of learning. In fact it’s really important. Here are four reasons why, followed by tips to make space for learning conversations in your classroom. 1. Talk time helps students process their learning. Thinking and talking about content helps students integrate information into personal knowledge. 2. Listening to how a peer thinks about a concept or uses language around a certain topic is beneficial for learners. 3. Having meaningful academic conversations takes lots of trial and error. 4. For most teachers, providing a safe learning environment for their students is one of their ultimate goals. How teachers can make space for learning conversations in the classroom: According to Maryellen Weimer, PhD,“Teachers have the power to add form and substance to discussions.”
How Kids Benefit From Learning To Explain Their Math Thinking Math teachers of older students sometimes struggle to get students to explain their thinking with evidence. It's hard to get kids in the habit of talking about how they are thinking about a problem when they've had many years of instruction that focused on getting the "right answer." That's why educators are now trying to get students in the habit of explaining their thinking at a young age. Pattern recognition is a fundamental part of mathematics and kindergarteners are not too young to notice, compare and describe simple patterns.
Professional Development Activities for Teachers: Jigsaw Technique and Alternatives Many principals use professional journal articles and books to help build their teachers’ shared knowledge about best practices and site-specific improvement initiatives. Perhaps the most common method for doing this is the jigsaw — dividing up the reading among the members of the staff, taking time for individual reading, then inviting each person to share out to the full group. A second common strategy is to assign specific chapters or sections to departments or grade levels, asking each group to read the selection on their own before the meeting and make a formal presentation on their section when their turn comes up. Both methods can work well if used sparingly and done well, but they also have drawbacks. Here are some ideas for getting the most out of a jigsaw. How to maximize a traditional jigsaw The extra step in a full jigsaw — one that makes the strategy much more powerful, but is often skipped in the interest of time — is to create an “expert group.”
Two Common Misconceptions About Learning It's another semester with a new group of students. This semester, I have a class of elementary education majors (using Physics and Everyday Thinking). In the course, students build basic physics ideas after collecting data from particular experiments. Overall, this is an awesome course. However, things don't always start off with rainbows and unicorns. Common Student Idea 1: Confusion is Bad. If I come into a class and I become confused, then something is wrong. I've written about this before, and it comes down to one line: Confusion is the sweat of learning. I hate to put the blame on others, but I don't think this incorrect idea is the students' fault. In short, I think that classes that foster confusion should be the norm, not the exception. Common Student Idea 2: The Instructor is the Source of Knowledge. If you traced back the source of understanding, it would be like a river flowing from the mouth of the professor. What happens when there is a constant net force on an object?
Limiting “Teacher Talk,” Increasing Student Work! “Wah waah wah waah wah wah…” We all know the famous muted trumpet of adults in Charlie Brown’s world, especially their teacher, Miss Othmar. After five years teaching elementary school, I’m confident that I’m not boring my kids to sleep but I do wonder if I strike the right balance between “teacher talk” and student work. Research has long supported the idea that students benefit from “doing.” Regular practice with reading and re-reading increases comprehension and fluency (National Reading Panel, 2000), as well as builds vocabulary and knowledge (Cunning & Stanovich, 1998). Students also need ample time to connect reading and writing to speaking and listening, integrating their literacy skills (see Appendix A). As we all do our best to help students meet the high bars we set in our literacy classrooms, could it be that we’re missing out on opportunities for kids to do the very work that will help get them there? What if we did less and let students do more? Let student voices shine! Save
50 Alternatives To Lecturing by TeachThought Staff As teachers, when we lecture, we have the best of intentions. We have a concept we want the class to understand, so we stand and explain it to them. So explaining things isn’t ‘bad,’ so how about beginning with some clarification. Everyone loves a story, and unless you’re awful, your students probably like you and want to hear from you. Or in a ‘flipped classroom’ setting where the ‘lecture’ is designed to be consumed at the student’s own pace (using viewing strategies, for example). Or when students have mastered a core set of understandings, and are ready–in unison–to hear something from an honest-to-goodness expert who only has an hour to unload what he/she knows. All students are similarly motivated All students have mastered certain ‘listening strategies’ All students have strong note-taking skills and can adapt those strategies for a variety of content, delivery speed, and so on All students have a similar background knowledge So then, the list. A few notes: 1. 2.
Building A Culturally Responsive Classroom Have you ever watched a movie with the sound off? If you were lucky, you could perhaps grasp the plot, but a lot of the details were lost so you probably didn’t enjoy or relate to the film as much as you could have if you had been able to hear it. Being in a classroom that does not take into consideration the various identities of its students means some students aren’t able to fully engage with the content even with the best teaching practices. This inability to fully engage hurts these students. When this happens, every student in the class loses out. Culturally responsive classrooms help all students because the practices of such a classroom expand all students’ views of the world and broaden their cultural understandings. I have taught AVID, a college readiness class, for eight years at a large suburban middle school in Hawaiʻi. Probably the most important step, is to step back and carefully examine your own biases and stereotypes. I thought about why I was doing this.
How to Have an Equitable Class Discussion These patterns can be self-perpetuating, and they can discourage learning. Students who are called on over and over may come to view their perspectives as the right perspectives. At the same time, students who are not called on often may begin to perceive their teachers as unfair — and become even less likely to contribute. Establishing inclusive, equitable norms of participation from the start is key. "It's absolutely essential to figure out a way of managing who's speaking when, who's taking turns, in any kind of seminar discussion," says Harvard lecturer Timothy Patrick McCarthy, who teaches a course called Stories of Slavery and Freedom and who strives to make his class discussions equitable from day one. Valuing Diverse Voices Students who are most willing to contribute to the discussion from the start are not only more confident and extroverted; they also tend to come from more privileged backgrounds — white, male, straight, or wealthy.
Öğretmenlerin değişimine yol açan mesleki gelişim eğitimleri : Beşi Bir Yerde Yaz dönemi öncesi, sırası ve sonrasında, öğretmenlere yönelik seminerler, hizmet içi eğitimler ya da mesleki gelişim programları hazırlanır. Öğretmen olarak bazısına katılmanız zorunludur. Bazısına para ödeyerek katılırsınız. Kuramsal modeller, mesleki gelişim programlarının etkili olduğunu, öğretmene kattığıyla ölçer. Bu çıktılardan birinde ya da birkaçında değişime yol açan mesleki gelişim eğitimleri, etkili mesleki gelişim eğitimleridir. Seminer dönemleri, mesleki gelişim için fırsatlardır. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Son 20 senedir bu özellikler üzerine araştırmalar yapılıp, hangisinin en önemli olduğu incelenmiştir. Evet, eğitimlerin alan bilgisine odaklanması en etkili özelliktir. Tabii ki mesleki gelişim eğitimlerinde “beşi bir yerde” bulmak zor! Mesleki gelişimin bu beş özelliği öğretmenlere ne anlatıyor? Çalıştığınız kurum, bir takım eğitimler planlıyor ya da hizmet satın alıyor. Eğitimde alanınızla ilgili konuların birkaçına değiniliyor mu? Kaynakça 1.
11 Strategies in Teaching Mathematics What are the essential strategies for good, effective math teaching? Everyone wants kids to succeed in math, but how best to do that? In most districts, standardized tests are a high-stakes way to measure students’ understanding, yet few want to teach to the test. Over-reliance on test prep materials and “drill and kill” worksheets can make math repetitive, boring, and devoid of true understanding for kids. The reality is that motivating, effective instruction and good test scores aren’t mutually exclusive. 1. Noted math educator Marilyn Burns wrote a classic book entitled Math: Facing an American Phobia (Math Solutions, 1998). On the other hand, we have a generally held belief that everyone can and should learn to read. As teachers of young children, we need to help our students understand and believe that we are all mathematicians, just like we are all readers. How to teach it: Try this with your students. Use targeted feedback to support this. 2. 3. 4. 5. How to do this? 6. 7. 8. 9.