Etymology, which is the study of the historical word orgins and their meanings, is a powerful tool for improving vocabulary.
This differentiation and scaffolds chart helps busy teachers create and adapt lessons tailored for students and their needs. These interventions, accommodations, modifications, and learning strategies will help teachers with special education, gifted, behavior students who needs lessons at their level within the classroom. For elementary and middle school classes with response to intervention RTI students. Children and teachers benefit from individualized, personalized, and customized lessons.
Ok, just because I've been gone from 'blogging land' doesn't mean we haven't been working hard in 4B. I've definitely been documenting a lot of what we've been doing! To start, it was clear to me that our old way of peer conferencing just wasn't working. Kids seemed to be goofing around, not really helping each other, and it was a waste of everyone's time. It frustrated me when most of my one-on-one conference time was spent managing unruly PEER conferences. I knew something had to change. I decided to revamp our workshop so that our peer conferences would hold both the author and the peer more accountable AND work on our 6-traits language. I introduced our 'new' method for peer conferencing using this anchor chart to document our process. After students finish drafting, they are to grab a 6-traits peer conferencing sheet and assess themselves by circling all the descriptors for each trait that they feel match their own writing. Mind you, we did a lot of whole-class practice with scoring writing based on the 6-traits criteria so students would feel comfortable doing this process on their own (and being HONEST!). Through our mini-lessons we've learned that it's possible to have high scores in some traits but lower scores in others. That's how we grow! Here you see Devin circling where he thinks his writing falls on our 6-traits rubric. (Note: The link to the 6-traits peer conferencing sheet above will bring you to an even more updated version than the one shown in this blog posting! Just FYI!) Here's another student assessing her own writing after she's drafted. This student has finished assessing her writing using our rubric. She decides on a final number score and circles it to the left of the descriptors. Then it's time to meet with a peer. (We have a peer conference sign-up sheet in our room which helps students know which other students in the room are also ready to peer conference.) Here you see this author reading his story to his peer. After he's done reading, he will explain to his peer the scores he gave himself and why. It's important for the peer to listen carefully to the author because it will soon be her turn to assign a score to this author for each trait . On the lines on the rubric, she will write to explain the scores she gives him. The peer needs to follow the following sentence stems in his/her scoring response: * I give this a writer a ___ because... * This writer needs to work on ... This process requires peers to truly work together, hold each other accountable, and it gets the kids using our 6-traits language a lot more. The second sentence stem helps the writer establish a goal for what to work on when revising! To see more of this peer conferencing process, watch a clip of us practicing this stage! Our focus lately has been on the trait of organization. We've been looking thoroughly at different beginnings and endings of both student and published writing. Here is our anchor chart documenting what we noticed! In other Writer's Workshop news, these are a few additional anchor charts we have in our room to help keep our writing organized. This anchor chart reminds us of powerful words to use to spice up 'said'! In reading we have been working hard on purposeful talk.This is so very important to the social construction of knowledge in any classroom! It's essential to teach students purposeful talk behaviors before even considering literature discussion groups (LDGs). The majority of kids talk like...well, KIDS! So, if we expect kids to talk like mature young people about different texts they read, we need to explicitly teach them how! Talking about Text by Maria Nichols is a great place to start if you're interesting in learning more about purposeful talk behaviors. I taught each of the behaviors individually through two separate mini-lessons - one day to explain 'hearing all voices' in a concrete way (without text), and a second day to practice 'hearing all voices' using text. Then I taught 'saying something meaningful' in a concrete way without using text, and the next day we practiced 'saying something meaningful' using text , and so on. Eventually all of the purposeful talk behaviors kind of blended together and kids started to discover that we often need to use all of these things at the same time in order to truly talk purposefully about anything! We did a lot of practicing, and I've been taping students in this process. Here is a clip of students practicing their behaviors while they talk about their families. (We had read a few books about different kinds of families to foster a safe environment to celebrate the fact that we all have different kinds of families!) We also had students practice their purposeful talk behaviors while discussing their best or worst memory in school (which helped warm up their brains for a timed writing activity we did during writer's workshop). Here is a clip! As a class, we watched these video clips to analyze our body language and other purposeful talk behaviors. I think taping and analyzing is a very effective way for students to learn how they should look and sound in an LDG. 'Keeping the lines of thinking alive' is a tough concept for many youngsters. Sometimes what happens is that students take turns talking, but they don't really build on what the person before them said. In other words, they don't really DISCUSS, they just share and listen. We applauded the first group in this clip because they had good body language and were respectful as listeners, but we discovered their conversation needed to be more 'alive' by asking questions and making connections to each other's ideas and thoughts. Mrs. Pierce and I taped ourselves doing a weak LDG and a strong LDG. As we watched each example, we used dots and lines to 'map out' our conversations (see chart below). In the weak LDG, we discovered Mrs. Pierce and I shared a lot of individual thoughts. The thought started, and then it stopped. There was really no discussion about anything we said; and Mrs. Pierce wasn't even looking at me during part of our time together! How rude! ;) In the strong LDG example, we mapped out a lot of dots and lines that were connected because we took each other's ideas and built on them. We truly discussed the text to dig deeper. We introduced several conversational moves for students to use to help get their voice heard in a conversation. Students also have these conversational moves on a bookmark that they keep in their LDG books. After we learned the respectful ways to speak and act when discussing with others, it was time to teach our kids how to flag their thinking. This is a crucial step to holding a successful literature discussion group because it allows the kids to track their important thoughts while reading so they have ideas for discussion the next day. Here are the 'codes' we use to track our thinking on post-its. We encourage students to use one of our codes to categorize the kind of thought they have and then write a few words to trigger their thought. This helps them when they get into a discussion group; they'll actually have pinpointed ideas to discuss! Students kept a chart in their Thoughtful Logs with all of our codes on it for easy reference. Here's a clip of our students as they practice flagging their thinking for the first time. The next day, students put all their new learning to the test. We put them in small groups to discuss the text "Slower Than the Rest" which is a short realistic fiction story out of Cynthia Rylant's book Every Living Thing. On another day, we used a high-interest two-page non-fiction text about leeches to continue practicing flagging our thoughts. Here's a clip of our kids flagging their thinking just after we modeled it during our mini-lesson. Below are some pictures of the kids' flagged thoughts. In addition to purposeful talk, we've also been studying the historical fiction genre. We've read several mentor texts, including Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner and Dandelions by Eve Bunting. Our first round of literature discussion books are all within the historical fiction genre. Here are a few of our historical fiction LDGs hard at work: Dear Levi: Letters from the Overland Trail Scraps of Time: Abby Takes a Stand The River and the Trace (I think I put my finger over the microphone at minute 2:00!) Oftentimes, historical fiction books will have a flashback in them. One group's book, called A Scrap of Time: Abby Takes a Stand by Patricia McKissick, has a flashback that occurs towards the beginning of the story. I photocopied some of the pages to try to explain this technique during a whole class mini-lesson. In the first section of the book, three grandkids are spending time with their grandma in her attic. They find an old menu and ask their grandma why she saved it. Chapters 1 through 12 flash back to 1960, where 'grandma' is just 10-years-old, living in Nashville, Tennessee at the time of a lot of civil rights protests. The menu is from a restaurant where a lot of sit-ins took place. Through the flashback a reader learns all about life during the 1960s. In the final section of the book, a reader finds him/herself back in the present - in grandma's attic, where the three grandkids ask their grandma some questions about her life during the sixties. There was also another flashback in the story Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner. We also read The Wreck of the Zephyr by Chris VanAllsburg as an example of a flashback in a fantasy book! In other reading news, here is a picture of the anchor chart that stored all the non-fiction text features we've learned. In social studies, we've been studying the economy of the five U.S. regions. Students have been reading small sections of non-fiction leveled readers to summarize a product or industry that is important to each region's economy. Students are typing up their summaries and we're calling those summaries 'articles' as they each create a magazine of our economy. Through this project, students have learned to: * Summarize main ideas * Center and left-justify their cursor * Use the tab key to indent * Change font size, color, and style * Bold, underline, and italicize * Safe image searches * Copy and paste * Cite their picture resources Here is the inside of one student's magazine. Next week we will be using this site to create magazine covers! Lastly, we had a chance to meet with our second-grade buddies earlier this month. We split the buddies up into two groups and one group stayed with Mrs. Adams to play holiday bingo. The other group was with me in the computer lab. Buddies used this site to play a variety of math and English games. One of the most popular games to play was called 'Story Plant' where students could click on different leaves to create the beginning to a unique story. Depending on what leaves were clicked, you would get a different combination of characters, settings, problems, etc. The computer generates a beginning to a story that the kids can print off and finish during writer's workshop! Have a wonderful weekend!
Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.
The simple formula that will turn your child into a lifelong learner.
I've been asked to share my assessments and those that I use. Assessments are snapshots of a child's current ability to perform a certai...
Gifted students in the classroom can sometimes be a challenge. But, here are some ways to excite, challenge and inspire them!
I've been reading the book, Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci, and just finished chapter 3. It was a real eye-opener. Through all of my years of teaching, I thought I was differentiating by planning and implementing reteaching and enrichment lessons and activities as my class worked through a unit. But in this chapter, I learned how important it is to start the differentiation before the unit even begins! This process begins with the preassessment. So much valuable information can be gathered before you begin teaching a unit. The purpose of the preassessment is to find how much students understand the content before you plan and teach the unit. Do they have a complete understanding of the content? Then they will need enrichment and/or accelerated activities. Do they have a partial understanding of the content? Then you need to make note of the gaps in their learning so you can plan accordingly. Checklists are a great way to keep track of the objectives and student mastery. From this checklist, you will also see students that need to be grouped for instruction. Keep in mind that this grouping will change as students master the objectives. Another insight I gained from this chapter is the different types of assessments used in a classroom. I put together this graphic to sum up the three types of assessment you should be using in your classroom. Click on the image to download the pdf version. You can also download this free packet with three quick and easy formative assessments you can use
Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions. With that in mind, if you are a new teacher or perhaps not so new but know that question-asking is an area where you'd like to grow, start tomorrow with these five ideas.
About a year ago, I presented a workshop to my fellow teacher candidates on supporting gifted learners. I brought a bit of a unique perspective - I was a gifted learner, moved to a congregated class at the beginning of grade three. The congregated program had a massive impact on me. I went from crying about having to go to school to embracing the new challenges presented to me as my needs were properly accommodated. Here's what I've learned about supporting gifted students.
Critical Thinking Toolkit (Critical Thinking Toolkit | Creative and Critical Thinking Activities… http://t.co/YDYfeJSKb9 http://t.co/huATBlCRq8)... Via Nadene Canning, David Hain, Lynnette Van Dyke
No teacher plans to be boring! Yet, there may be sneaky teacher habits you have that invite student boredom! This post shares the seven surprising habits of highly boring teachers. Not only will you find reasons why students may be bored in your class, but you can also grab a FREE GUIDE on how to
Last summer I attended a GT training and was introduced to choice boards! I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! I think that students are more engaged and even challenge themselves more when they are given choices. The great thing is....they aren't just for GT students. Choice boards work similar to tic-tac-toe; the student completes 3 activities in a row {up, down, diagonal} They can be adapted for ALL students and actually lend themselves well to differentiated instruction. On Tuesday, I will be attending another GT training specifically on choice boards and differentiated instruction {I'm super pumped about it!} I can't wait to learn more about these learning tools! {I promise to share what I learn!} Choice boards can be set up in many different ways. You can base them off of abilities, learning styles, intelligences, and even levels of questioning. I have found it easier, if I focus on just one of these types. When creating the board, you want to plan out what type of activity each square will focus on. {You don't want to have 2 of the same type of activities in a row} The goal of the CBs are to have equally acceptable activities that you want the students to complete that are similar end products, but have varying ways to accomplish the final product. {For example, you are studying the Alamo. Students could choose activities from writing a diary from the viewpoint of being in the battle, recreating a model of the Alamo, creating a movie, etc.}The wonderful thing about CBs though...students can choose an activity they are willing to complete {taking into consideration their own likes/learning style/intelligence}, but they will have 2 other activities they will need to complete that will focus on other skills that they possibly may need to strengthen {but at the very least they're practicing other skills}! It's a win-win situation! I recently put the choice boards I created for my homework reader's responses in my shop. My students are required to read 20 min nightly, however I found that many of them weren't really reading every night! These choice boards give student's different options to respond to their books, while focusing on varying skills. I've also included 4 blank {editable} choice boards so that you can create your own boards! .....And I used the adorable sneakers clipart to jazz them up from KPM Doodles {love her stuff!} Here is an example template of how to begin creating a choice board based on Multiple Intelligences: Source: Dare to Differentiate Here are some great resources: Dare to Differentiate (AWESOME site for resources!) PVUSD Choices based on intelligence
This interactive tool is worth the subscription.
Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.
How to use education technology with the Socratic method - http://t.co/pCzt7pl7j4 #edtech
July 1, 2014 Teaching kids and students how to be independent learners is essential for preparing them for the future. Independent learning is a learning that has no boundaries, one in which the learners adapt their time and effort to learn new insights using a wide range of techniques. Some of these techniques are captured in this awesome visual I learned about from Sean Junkins. Have a look and share with us what you think of them. Take the lead Question the questions. Is there another way to look at it. Do your research Take a risk Look for inspiration Make use of existing resources, books, magazines, displays etc Ask a friend Take your time to reflect Sketch it out Have a go Try again Ask for feedback Own your learning Embrace some mistakes Plan ahead Teach the teacher Help, support and advise your peers Online tutorial Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook , Google plus, Pinterest . This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).
Classroom discussions are an important part of learning. The Common Core State Standards, address discussions under the Speaking & Listening strands.
Student anxiety is at an all time high. With grade level standards becoming more rigorous, and state tests looming, teachers are feeling more pressure than ever to prepare students. That pressure is also felt by
The Socratic style of discourse lends itself quite well to establishing critical thinkers due to the fact that Socrates believed that enabling students to think for themselves was more important than filling their heads with knowledge. With so much talk about the Common Core standards and truly increasing our student's argumentative powers and critical thinking skills, I decided to launch a Socratic Seminar style of instruction in my sixth grade classroom this week. Our Seminar The Text My approach began by engaging in a guided reading of a novel titled I Can't Believe I Have To Do This by Jan Alford. Throughout the course of the week we read the novel and discussed story events and critical vocabulary associated with the readings. The Questions Students were given a Socratic Seminar "Prep Sheet" at the beginning of the week. The sheet asked the students to do the following: #1. Summarize the assigned reading #2. Identify 3 compelling quotes or statements from the reading #3. Develop one Knowledge based question #4. Develop one Application style question #5. Develop one Synthesis style question Download at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Socratic-Seminar-Packet The Set Up I then arranged my room in a double horseshoe configuration and assigned five students to be the inner circle. The inner circle students were slated to be the ones discussing and interacting. The outer circle of students were slated to observe and reflect and provide a 'backchannel'. The Discourse Relinquishing control was the MOST DIFFICULT thing!! Once the seminar began I truly had to force myself not to jump in and facilitate. Initially, it was truly awkward. Students nervously giggled and looked down at their papers. No one seemed willing to emerge as a leader. Once they realized that no one was coming to their rescue, the dialogue began and WOW. DID YOU KNOW?? A website called blockposters.com can take any .jpg or .gif image and turn it into a larger printable poster with overlapping edges for assembly?? Backchannel To occupy my outer circle, I distributed 5 ipads (1 for every 3 students) and allowed them to connect on todaysmeet.com. There they posted thoughts, questions, comments and even prompts to assist the inner circle. This back channel scrolled on the Smartboard throughout the seminar. (Admittedly, I didn't love the lack of grammar conventions demonstrated in the statements below.) Reflection/Assessment Without a doubt, we will do this again. Once the awkwardness ended, the dialog went FAR beyond what I've ever experienced with this novel. Students shared events that related DEEPLY to the characters, the character's choices and experiences. They also extrapolated character traits and applied them to new situations. As an assessment tool, each student completed an Exit Slip paragraph where they exercised their argumentative writing skills by completing a one paragraph reflection on the grade they deserved as a result of their participation in the seminar. Socratic discourse....making the kiddos use THEIR Smarticles!! All of my materials are available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Socratic-Seminar-Packet
Everything is better with a great book and teaching students about the brain is no different. Books on the brain for students can be few and far between, with most information found between the pag…
Learn how Project Pals make it easier for educators to find PBL projects that are just right for their classrooms. Upgrade project-based learning with this powerful platform.
We had another class Monday night with our new dual/ELL staff members, and this time we focused on differentiation and what that may look like across the subject areas. As we have done in the past, we had the teachers participate in a gallery walk and thus rotate around with their groups to add to a series of posters focused on this topic of differentiation. Yet again, our wonderful staff did not disappoint and came up with a wide assortment of ideas as to how instruction can be differentiated for our students! I typed up their ideas on a nice one page spread for them, and thought you all may find it useful as well! Click on it to grab a copy for yourself or a friend. Graphics/Fonts: Scrappin' Doodles, Rowdy Fonts, My Cute Graphics Also, (as if you haven't already heard ;)), I wanted to let you all in on the big secret. TpT will be hosting a "3 Million Teachers Strong" sale February 27-28th. In using promo code TPT3, you can get up to 28% off at my store along with so many more! How exciting is it to see this community of teachers growing and working together :)!
Are you familiar with Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences? It is an amazing way of looking at how your students learn best. You can visit his website here: http://howardgardner.com/. There are several online assessments that your students can take to determine what type of learner they are. In this unit you will find 16 choice boards (8 mini choice boards and 8 full-size choice boards). Each board focuses on activities for your students to complete based on each Multiple Intelligence. Why use choice menus? Choice menus provide differentiation student choice student engagement student-paced learning activities for distance/remote learning meaningful activities for early finishers learning through multiple intelligences minimal or no prep work for teachers!!! Choice menus are not only perfect for early finishers, they are excellent tools for homework, differentiation, enrichment, assessments, extension activities, and more. Choice menus also add instant engagement, motivation, and easily address various learning styles. Looking for no prep activities for your early finishers? Print these out and put them in a folder or pocket for your students to grab and go without disruption or post them in your room for easy access. Looking to provide a variety of skills? These activities focus on critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and more. Varied activities are included throughout the product. Looking for quick, reusable center activities? Print and laminate or put in a dry erase pocket and add to your centers. Great for themed unit extras, too! These boards are included in full color and black and white. These choice boards are perfect for homework, early finishers, independent work time. For classroom use, simply laminate them for durability.
The workshop model is a great way to differentiate your instruction for all learners in your classroom. This post focuses on workshop for gifted students.
Most of you know that I loved working with ELL (English Language Learners) students. Although different school districts use different l...
Hi friends! I have been working hard all day on this blog post and I hope it helps you in your support of GT kiddos in your classroom! As the GT teacher for my grade level, I'm expected to take 18 hours of training on supporting GT kiddos, and I just finished last weekend. It was, truly, an amazing training. It was LONG but I learned SO much. I even posted a few things on Instagram as I heard them! The trainings were led by Dr. Joyce Juntune and she is a stinking genius.Many of the things were things I knew, but needed affirmation. Some of them were things I was hearing for the first time. But it was all powerful! As I've spent the last few weeks processing what I learned, I have tried to put lots of new things into practice. Some of them can be very difficult, as each district has their own (or none at all) program for students identified as Gifted-Talented. But I hope I can give you some ideas that can work in any classroom, in any district! We all hear this often...and I think we believe it's true. It's just so easy to forget. When they're constantly saying "I'm done" it's so easy to hand them more of the same type of work. I have tried to be extra aware of this in the past few weeks, especially when I think about how fragile some of our kiddos are. We never want them to feel like they are being punished for being smart. Because the truth (I believe) is that when they start to see this, they will just start to play not as smart! They will easily make the connection...when I finish my work quickly and do great on things, I will get more work. So...in my experience, they will start making mistakes...start trying to act like they DON'T know. Just to avoid more work. This is important to remember, and I don't believe it's true of every GT student. But for some it's incredibly true. As teachers, this means that they won't do things to please us. Their major motivation is learning...that's why they come to school. Not to please teachers, or make friends, or even get good grades. Their goal is to learn new things about things that matter to them. We must remember this when they seem hard to motivate. It's possible their lack of engagement is because we haven't found that thing they want to learn more about! :) Kind of along the same lines, some GT kiddos really really struggle with the expectations of school. Of course this is true of LOTS of children...special ed, gen ed, etc. We have to TEACH them how to be kind, how to be respectful, because sometimes they truly don't know. Of course this is true of all children. :) In my experience, GT kiddos need the most help dealing with people or ideas that they think are "dumb." I am constantly reminding them "we can't say that's a stupid idea, It's hurtful." They aren't trying to be hurtful...they just see it as a stupid idea, haha!! So we must teach them how to control their words and their faces! Fortunately, we have reason on our side! Because these little ones have such high IQs and abilities, you can absolutely reason with them when you need something. You can sit them down and ask "what consequences will this have?" And they will listen! If you can reason with them, and help them see why something MATTERS, you will have a lot better luck! :) NOW this next statement...is for EVERY student. EVERY day. in EVERY situation. I believe relationships are one of (if not THE MOST) important factors to student success. If you can get these kiddos on your side, life will be a LOT easier. But you can not win a power struggle with them...you have to show them you care...and THEN you can help them. They must know you care about them, understand them, and appreciate them for all their unique talents and abilities! As you can see, our GT kiddos actually develop differently than other students. It's why we so often hear "they are SO emotional" or even "They have tantrums!" They can't help it...we have to teach them how to MANGE that. I believe all students should have choice as much as possible. But for some, choice can be overwhelming...or even take away from the learning target. But for our GT kiddos, they thrive on choice. I give it as much, and as often as possible. If you're ever unsure of how to support them, ask yourself how to involve inquiry in their learning. They will immediately be engaged because they develop their own questions! It's easy to think about the highest achievers in our class. Their work is the neatest, they probably write the most words, and they get 100 on everything. Of course they need to be served! But our GT kiddos might also look a little different. And they BOTH need our support. This is an example of 2 sweet girls in my GT group. Their work looks COMPLETELY different, but they both show amazing thinking. The top one...I should have prompted her to write more. But the vocabulary usage and thinking is top notch! We do a LOT of reading response with my GT group. Here are some things they have done after reading a book independently (that they chose) but you could also do these with a Guided Reading text and let them choose the product they would make. The top 2 are sequels and the bottom is a power-point presentation about the book. Conferring is another part of my day that allows for easy differentiation. For most my students, I meet with their Guided Reading group 4-5 times a week. But for my GT students, I meet with their groups 1-2 times and confer individually with them. Here's an example of notes I take and a task I gave this little one to work on for the week. Another fun activity that I gave to all of the Enrichment kiddos in 1st grade...they are our "high-flyers" that haven't been identified GT yet. But my GT kiddos participate too! You can click the image to grab your own copy. They chose a word (their name is usually easiest) and added up the sum. It's especially motivating when they can choose their own word. It would be overwhelming for most of my kiddos, but super fun for advanced students! And finally, here are some ideas for changing a "normal" task into something perfect for your GT students. You can also grab that by clicking the image! How do you support GT students in your classroom? Does your district identify them? I want to hear! :)
Download these FREE Depth and Complexity posters for your classroom. They are perfect for eliciting critical thinking and problem-solving.
Last week, I blogged about Bloom's Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). (See April 2, 2012.) My friend, Andrea, over at One Teacher's Take...is Another's Treasure commented that she also uses Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels and Marzano's Dimensions of Thinking, both of which are new to me. So, I immediately googled them. Here's what I found. . . Webb's DOK Levels look like this: What I like about Webb's model is the 4 levels versus Bloom's 6. It's always nice to condense things, isn't it? At least in my realm of preparing dozens of lesson plans each day, less is more! The 4 level descriptors (the inner circle) boast newer and somewhat clearer concepts. Then my eye wanders over the outer circle. Ouch! Another sea of verbs to swim through. The 4th level, presumably the quarter in which we strive to spend most of our time, is curiously short on verbs compared to the other 75%. Are those 8 verbs/phrases just more succinct? Or, do they reflect the limitations foisted upon teachers by the Common Core of Teaching Standards, standardized testing, and uniform time lines? Surely that triad has bearing on it. Perhaps there is more to be considered, however. Is the 4th level truly where teachers strive to be? I hope, in my heart of hearts, that the answer is YES. However, it is possible that some, if not many, teachers find little motivation to work on level 4. Their efforts are not evaluated by standardized tests, depriving them of extrinsic approval. Paychecks remain static whether teachers push their students toward extended learning or not. Indeed, rewards are esoteric. Certainly the dedicated, professional teacher experiences intrinsic satisfaction. S/he may even be fortunate enough to receive accolades from students, parents, colleagues, and/or administrators. Is that enough? In a future blog, I'll discuss Marzano's Depth of Knowledge Levels. Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts about teaching HOTS.
Differentiation means adapting content, process, or product according to a student's readiness, interest, and learning profile.
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During the fall of my first year teaching my mentor and I were discussing my upcoming parent-teacher conferences. He shared some questions...
There are more ways to demonstrate understanding than just taking a test. Read this list of 72 ways for students to show what they know and get ideas!
Are you intimidated by teaching at your local homeschool co-op? Here's how to make teaching art at your co-op a breeze, from selecting your project all the way to the class itself.
Want to learn how discussion can enrich learning? Get an easy-to-follow breakdown of the Socratic seminar definition and components here...
A four-step approach to using a powerful model that increases student agency in learning.
Teaching with depth and complexity requires your students to think critically and problem solve. Students must explain and justify their thinking.
