Skip to main content

Home/ Chandler School/ Group items tagged students

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Jill Bergeron

The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues - 0 views

marshallmemo.com/issue.php

girls sex ed body image

shared by Jill Bergeron on 17 May 17 - No Cached
  • A principal remembers how she built trust 2. Giving and receiving feedback with grace and skill 3. A Georgia district works to improve classroom observations 4. Douglas Reeves takes on five myths about grading 5. Enlisting students to comment helpfully on each others’ work 6. Unintended consequences from New York City’s discipline policies 7. The minefield that girls and young women must traverse 8. Thomas Friedman on what the new era portends for young people 9. Short item: An online social-emotional survey
  • “When schools dig in on the underlying reasons why kids violate norms, rather than reflexively and automatically punishing and sending kids away, outcomes can change quickly and dramatically. It’s especially important for everyone in a school to dig deep to decrease head-to-head conflict and understand behaviors that are often quickly labeled insubordination or disrespect.”
  • “Trust happens through thousands of small, purposeful interactions over time,” says Sarah Fiarman in this article in Principal. “[L]eaders earn trust when they keep promises, respond when teachers ask for help, and have difficult conversations with adults to ensure high-quality teaching for everyone.” Integral to all this is listening well, speaking wisely, and acknowledging one’s own biases.
  • ...36 more annotations...
  • “This requires slowing down, checking to be sure we understand correctly, and sharing back what we hear.”
  • Meeting anger or frustration with genuine, compassionate interest builds trust.
  • Changing course based on input is a sign of integrity, not weakness.”
  • A key value she worked to communicated was about listening to dissent and changing course if necessary.
  • Fiarman found that making quick visits to classrooms every day communicated respect and made her far more knowledgeable about instruction.
  • it engenders trust when your boss can speak to the specifics of your work.”
  • for practice to be an effective tool for improvement, students need to be pushing the limits of current performance and getting continuous feedback – very difficult to orchestrate for 30 students working in their bedrooms. Second, as soon as teachers give grades for practice work, the incentive is for students to play it safe and not push into challenging or unknown territory.
  • Here are their ideas on making feedback less threatening and more productive:             • Separate coaching from evaluation.
  • “Coaching sessions should include no rubric scoring or other evaluations,”
  • Be thoughtful about receiving criticism. “The person getting the feedback has the power to decide whether it’s on target, fair, or helpful,” say the authors, “and to decide whether to use the feedback or dismiss it.”
  • When feedback rubs you the wrong way, it’s also important to dig deeper to understand what’s really going.
  • Be noisy about the importance of improving your school’s feedback culture – for students, for teachers, for parents, and for yourself.”
  • In this article in All Things PLC, consultant/author Douglas Reeves confronts these widely espoused misconceptions about grading:
  • if grades were effective motivators, homework completion, classroom engagement, and overall diligence would be sky-high. Not so!
  • “Asking such questions helps me counteract my unconscious bias,” says Fiarman. “Recognizing the pervasiveness of bias is an important first step. Acknowledging that I might make mistakes because of this bias – then actively working to counter it – builds trust.”
  • the only feedback that matters is that the work was finished on time and correctly.
  • it’s unfair and demotivating for students to have their final grade pulled down for practice work.
  • Myth #3: Grades drive future performance. True, there’s a correlation between good grades and college success, and between poor grades and dropping out of school, but Reeves questions whether grades cause success and failure.
  • While it is possible that intelligence and work ethic forge the path from kindergarten to Ivy League and Wall Street, it is also possible that zip code, tutors, and connections – all artifacts of family socioeconomic status – are the underlying causes.”
  • Teachers giving zeros for missed assignments and refusing to accept late work lets students off the hook – and starts a spiral of doom with their final grades.
  • Averaging grades through a semester punishes students for early failures versus rewarding them for using early problems to improve final performance.
  • “Rather than using the last two months of the semester to build momentum and finish strong,” says Reeves, “because of a punitive grading system, they are doomed to failure well before the semester is over. There is nothing left for them to do except cut class, be disruptive, or ultimately, quit school.”
  • “grading policies are matters of equity, with disparate impacts on students, particularly based on ethnicity and gender. Boys and minority males receive lower grades just as they are more likely to be more severely disciplined for an infraction. Girls receive higher grades for the same level of proficiency. If racial and gender disparities of this sort took place in any other area of public life, the consequences would be swift and sure.”
  • Instead, he suggests replacing each statement of fact – Punishment deters unwanted behavior – with a testable hypothesis – If I penalize students for late, incomplete, and absent homework, then student achievement will improve – and conducting real-time experiments within the school.
  • He’s found that non-evaluative comments are “easy to receive, easy to give, and easy to act on.”
  • Teaching sentence stems can be helpful: I’m not sure I understand the opening of this piece… I’m not sure why you did this; can you explain it more?
  • Be specific.
  • Prior to peer feedback, the teacher should introduce a rubric and lead the class in a group critique of an exemplar paper, focusing on suggestions that will make a difference.
  • The teacher might also display samples of feedback statements and have students break into groups and rank them from helpful to unhelpful, taking note of sentence starters and phrases they can use in their own feedback conversations.
  • Be timely. One of the greatest advantages of well-orchestrated peer feedback is that students can get comments on their work immediately, rather than waiting days, perhaps weeks, for the teacher to wade through piles of papers.
  • “Unfortunately,” Eden concludes, “by second-guessing teachers’ judgments about how to maintain order, policymakers and district administrators are likely harming the education of many millions of well-behaved students in an effort to help the misbehaving few.”
  • “[T]hey are encouraged more than ever to present themselves as ‘sexy’ – not about being attractive or beautiful, but a very narrow, commercialized idea of sexy. What’s particularly complicated is they’re sold that idea [of sexiness] as being a source of personal power. There is a complete disconnect between that image of sexiness and an understanding of their bodies, their own wants, needs, desires, and limits, what those might be, having those respected.”
  • young women “are almost conditioned, starting in middle school, to have their bodies publicly commented on by young men, [and] they don’t think they have any power to really stop it.” In schools, she says, the “everyday chipping away of girls’ self-worth by reducing them to their bodies is completely ignored.”
  • We tend to silo conversations about sex as if it is not about the same values of compassion, kindness, respect, mutuality, and caring that we want our children to embody in every other aspect of their lives.”
  • The Internet – “Unfortunately,” says Orenstein, “the first thing kids Google is porn. The average age that kids today are exposed to porn, either intentionally or not, is 11. We have to ask what it means that kids are learning about sex from that realm before they’ve even had their first kiss and how that’s shaping them, their attitudes toward sexuality, and their expectations of sex.” Parents and schools need to explicitly teach kids to apply a critical lens to what they’re seeing, and shape values that will help them safely and wisely navigate this very challenging era.
  • “If you want to be a lifelong employee anywhere today, you have to be a lifelong learner.” He quotes education-to-work expert Heather McGowan: “Stop asking a young person WHAT you want to be when you grow up. It freezes their identity into a job that may not be there. Ask them HOW you want to be when you grow up. Having an agile learning mind-set will be the new skill set of the 21st century.”
Jill Bergeron

The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues - 0 views

www.marshallmemo.com/issue.php

evaluation teaching reading technology leadership PE coaching discipline classroom management population growth immigration math

shared by Jill Bergeron on 24 May 16 - No Cached
  • In 2009, TNTP reported that teacher evaluation systems didn’t accurately distinguish among teachers with varying levels of proficiency, failed to identify most of the teachers with serious performance problems, and were unhelpful in guiding professional development.
  • The Widget Effect study concluded that “school districts must begin to distinguish great from good, good from fair, and fair from poor.”
  • On average, only 2.7 percent of teachers were rated below Proficient/Exemplary on a 4- or 5-point scale.
  • ...42 more annotations...
  • The percent of teachers given the top rating ranged from 73 percent in Tennessee to 8 percent in Massachusetts and 3 percent in Georgia.
  • Many districts are drawing important distinctions between good and excellent teaching, but there is less differentiation among good, fair, and poor performance.
  • Why do so few teachers receive below-proficient ratings, despite the fact that school administrators estimate that more than a quarter of their teachers aren’t up to par?
  • The daunting workload involved in giving low ratings
  • Being merciful – Some principals said they were hesitant to give low ratings to rookie teachers out of kindness and a desire not to discourage (or lose) a teacher who had potential for growth.
  • Personal discomfort
  • Principals knew that teachers could lose their jobs as a result of a low rating, and were upset when teachers cried.
  • Her policy: use e-mail for non-urgent questions and texts when time is an issue.
  • 2013 Gates-funded Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study, which asserted that it’s possible to accurately evaluate teachers by triangulating data from student surveys, value-added scores, and classroom observations.
  • Google, General Electric, and other corporations shifted from rating and ranking employees to providing real-time supervisor and peer feedback and coaching aimed at fostering professional growth to meet stretch goals. This rethinking was inspired by three findings from educational research: -   Performance ratings tend to foster a “fixed” versus a “growth” mindset. -   Numerical grades or ratings lead recipients to ignore detailed feedback. -   Extrinsic rewards can discourage the behaviors they aim to improve.
  • A 2012 initiative in Cincinnati suggests a different approach. Mid-career teachers who were observed four times by peers and given detailed feedback showed marked improvements in performance and student results. The key elements were frequency, credible observers, formative feedback, and a simple, low-stakes process with no direct ties to promotion and retention decisions.
  • Studies point to the following levers for continuous improvement:             • Peer collaboration – Veteran teachers continue to improve their skills if structures are in place that get them working with colleagues in focused, results-oriented instructional teams.             • Teacher evaluation – The key is detailed, valid feedback on classroom practices and support for improvement from knowledgeable and well-trained administrators or peers.             • Tailored on-the-job training – Most PD is ineffective, but intensive coaching focused on the specific needs of individual teachers and sustained over time can make a positive difference.             • Organizational supports – These include an orderly, disciplined school environment, services available to address students’ social and emotional needs, and positive parent engagement. • Leadership – “Hiring principals who have the talent to identify organizational weaknesses, establish schoolwide systems to support teachers and students, and galvanize collective buy-in from teachers is a central lever for improving the teaching and learning environment,” conclude Papay and Kraft.
  • Not having access to books in June, July, and August results in a two-month loss each summer for poor children compared to a one-month gain for more-advantaged children, and that accumulates over the years into a crushing achievement gap. Getting low-SES children reading over the summer is the most effective way to change that dynamic, but what works?
  • a home library is as important as parental education and twice as important as the father’s occupation in predicting educational outcomes;
  • Establish virtual office hours. Tucker tells students at the beginning of the year the dates and times when she’ll be available for a Google chat or Google Hangouts screen-sharing session. She has colleagues who tell students they can e-mail between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. and any e-mails received after that will be answered the next day.
  • Limit communication channels.
  • Other reasons – These included racial concerns (for example, if a disproportionate number of minority teachers might receive low ratings); burdensome dismissal procedures; principals making deals in which teachers agreed to leave the school in exchange for a higher rating; and concern about ineffective replacement teachers.
  • Make information available online.
  • Set up a space where students can connect online. Tucker has a private Google+ community where students can share information, ask questions, and support one another.
  • Protect unplugged time at home.
  • Not every disagreement is a call to arms.
  • How and when I use my voice matters. “As I see it,” says Gannon, “my job requires that I advocate for both faculty members and students, and for both teaching and learning. Sometimes that means speaking truth to power; other times it means speaking truth to colleagues.” This is especially important with issues of gender, race, and bullying.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help
  • “It’s all too easy to let the minutiae detract from the larger goal… I’m not useful to anyone I serve if I’m overcommitted.”
  • Support, affirmation, and collegiality are more important. For me, leadership has become a matter of knowing and respecting my colleagues all over the campus, appreciating the work they do, and letting them know it… There’s no daily quota on thank you’s.”
  • At their best, they promote academic achievement, stronger student connections to education, and improved initiative, teamwork, and social skills.
  • Has a well-thought-out coaching philosophy aligned with the school’s educational, athletic, and programmatic goals – Winning isn’t the main goal, says Gould. Rather, “coaches work hard to help student-athletes learn important life lessons from their sport experiences.”
  • Shares decision-making with students and provides rationales for coaching actions
  • effective coaches meet their athletes’ need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in an atmosphere where students feel they belong.
  • Builds strong coach-athlete relationships in a caring, supportive climate – Each athlete is known as an individual, made to feel welcome, and knows that bullying and belittling others isn’t tolerated on or off the field.
  • Is a knowledgeable and effective teacher – “Research reveals that coaches who give positive versus degrading and punitive feedback or no feedback at all have athletes who are more motivated, feel better about themselves, and achieve more positive developmental outcomes from sports participation,” says Gould.
  • Is intentional in fostering positive youth development – This includes attention to leadership, teamwork, and a work ethic.
  • What these parents didn’t understand, says Jones, is that “You are either consistent, or you are inconsistent. There is nothing in between.”
  • “The irony of consistency,” says Jones, “is that the closer you come to being consistent before you fail, the worse off you are. If the parent cracks easily, the child does not need to be a world-class yammerer in order to succeed. But, if the parent does not crack easily, the child must learn to play hardball.”
  • How does this apply to classrooms? Teachers must set clear, reasonable expectations, says Jones, and then be absolutely consistent in enforcing them.
  • Never make a rule that you are not willing to enforce every time.
  • If you are consistent, you can use smaller and smaller consequences to govern misbehavior. But if you are inconsistent, you must use larger and larger consequences to govern misbehavior.
  • “it’s extremely unlikely you can greatly improve your reading speed without missing out on a lot of meaning…
  • “If you want to improve your reading speed, your best bet – as old-fashioned as it sounds – is to read a wide variety of written material and expand your vocabulary.”
  • you can’t take in words you don’t see, and you have a set-point for processing language that can be changed only by long-term improvements in vocabulary and knowledge.
  • when it comes to reading for deep comprehension or enjoyment, there are no shortcuts.
  •   1. Why is it so difficult to improve the teacher-evaluation process?   2. Another look at the Measures of Effective Teaching study   3. Conditions for the continuous improvement of teaching   4. Counteracting summer reading loss   5. Using Reading Recovery techniques in guided reading groups   6. Keeping our technology use under control   7. Advice for leaders   8. The qualities of an effective high-school athletic coach   9. Consistency with classroom discipline 10. Are speed reading courses effective? 11. Short items: (a) World population growth animated; (b) Two centuries of U.S. immigration animated; (c) Common Core math sequence; (d) Survey on teacher evaluation
Jill Bergeron

15 Good Tools for Quickly Gathering Feedback from Students - 0 views

www.freetech4teachers.com/...ols-for-quickly-gathering.html

feedback formativeassessment assessment formative assessment polls formative_assessment chat

shared by Jill Bergeron on 12 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • Polls, chat tools, and interactive quizzes provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments. For your more outspoken students who want to comment on everything, a feedback mechanism provides a good outlet for them too. Here's a run-down of some of the best tools for gathering feedback from students in real-time.
  • Jill Bergeron on 12 Jul 16
     
    "Polls, chat tools, and interactive quizzes provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments. For your more outspoken students who want to comment on everything, a feedback mechanism provides a good outlet for them too. Here's a run-down of some of the best tools for gathering feedback from students in real-time. "
Jill Bergeron

5 ways to make your classroom student-centered - 0 views

www.justintarte.com/...ke-your-classroom-student.html

student centered student-centered

shared by Jill Bergeron on 24 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • A student-centered classroom allows students to be an integral part of the assessment development process.
  • A student-centered classroom focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems.
  • A student-centered classroom is not about what the teacher is doing or what the teacher has done; it's about what the students are doing and what the students can do in the future.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • A student-centered classroom embraces the notion that there are multiple ways to accomplish an individual task.
  • A student-centered classroom firmly believes that there is a partnership and a strong level of trust between educators and students.
Jill Bergeron

The Backchannel: Giving Every Student a Voice in the Blended Mobile Classroom | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/...blended-classroom-beth-holland

differentiation backchannel edutopia blended learning

shared by Jill Bergeron on 27 May 14 - No Cached
  • A backchannel (3) -- a digital conversation that runs concurrently with a face-to-face activity -- provides students with an outlet to engage in conversation.
  • TodaysMeet (4) would have let teachers create private chat rooms so that students could ask questions or leave comments during class. A Padlet (5) wall might have fueled students to share their ideas as text, images, videos, and links posted to a digital bulletin board. The open response questions available in a student response system like Socrative (6) or InfuseLearning (7) could have become discussion prompts to give each student an opportunity to share his or her ideas before engaging in class discussion.
  • They create a blended environment where teachers and students engage in both physical and online conversations so that learning is no longer confined to a single means of communication or even an arbitrary class period. Backchannels don't replace class discussions -- they extend them.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • To inspire questioning and wondering, Meghan Zigmond (10) put her first grade students in groups and allowed them to use a Padlet wall (11) to capture their questions as they read Douglas Florian's Comets, Stars, The Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings
  • She used Socrative to capture her fifth graders' questions and answers throughout the presentation, giving them an immediate channel for their thoughts.
  • The backchannel gave every student an opportunity to express his or her views and to listen to voices that otherwise may not have been heard.
  • A backchannel creates ubiquitous opportunities (18). In a blended environment, students and teachers can communicate through multiple modalities, allow their thoughts to develop over time, and engage in authentic learning.
  • Jill Bergeron on 27 May 14
     
    This article provides three good tech tools for teachers who want to try a back channel chat and nearly a half dozen ideas for incorporating this type of technology into the curriculum. There are even suggestions for how to use it with students as young as 6 years old.
Jill Bergeron

6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning | Edutopia - 1 views

www.edutopia.org/...n-strategies-pbl-andrew-miller

differentiated instruction pbl project-based learning edutopia

shared by Jill Bergeron on 09 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven, and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction.
  • Not all students may need the mini-lesson, so you can offer or demand it for the students who will really benefit.
  • Are you differentiating for academic ability? Are you differentiating for collaboration skills? Are you differentiating for social-emotional purposes? Are you differentiating for passions?
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • 2. Reflection and Goal Setting
  • Throughout the project, students should be reflecting on their work and setting goals for further learning. This is a great opportunity for them to set personalized learning goals and for you to target instruction specific to the goals they set.
  • 3. Mini-Lessons, Centers, and Resources
  • Perhaps you offer mini-lessons or center work to support your students' learning, or maybe you show students a variety of resources from which to learn, including videos, games, and readings.
  • 1. Differentiate Through Teams
  • 4. Voice and Choice in Products
  • Another essential component of PBL is student voice and choice, both in terms of what students produce and how they use their time.
  • "How can I allow for voice and choice here?"
  • 5. Differentiate Through Formative Assessments
  • as you check for understanding along the way, you can formatively assess in different ways when appropriate.
  • 6. Balance Teamwork and Individual Work
  • We want to leverage collaboration as much as content. However, there are times when individual instruction and practice may be needed. You need to differentiate the learning environment because some students learn better on their own, and others learn better in a team. In fact, we all need time to process and think alone just as much as we need time to learn from our peers. Make sure to balance both so that you are supporting a collaborative environment while allowing time to meet students on an individual basis.
  • Scott Nancarrow on 09 Jan 16
     
    Honestly, not too much new information for me in this article, but a well-summarized version of that information for sure; comments were actually what made this stand out for me...
  • Jill Bergeron on 24 May 16
     
    Andrew Miller offers up concrete examples of how teachers can differentiate through PBL. He includes: differentiation through teams, reflection and goal setting, mini-lessons, centers and resources, voice and choice in products, differentiation through formative assessments, and balancing teamwork with individual work.
Jill Bergeron

Tinkering Spaces: How Equity Means More Than Access | MindShift | KQED News - 0 views

ww2.kqed.org/...-equity-means-more-than-access

diversity tinkering making makered

shared by Jill Bergeron on 09 May 16 - No Cached
  • Existing inequities play out when adults engage with kids around tinkering or making. And, while makerspaces are a unique kind of learning space, many of the techniques thoughtful educators are using to improve their interactions with students could be used in other venues.
  • Sewing has been one of the most successful projects in the program Escudé helps run at the Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood. Kids shared their family histories of sewing and even invited grandparents to participate and share. The activity was framed as intellectual thought and valued as equal to any other tinkering task. The success of this activity came from giving students the space to share themselves and build relationships with one another and the facilitators, not because they were using the most recent technology or because they were building robots.
  • it’s a cultural assumption that kids would think taking apart toys would be fun.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • often, maker educators assume that because they’ve offered students freedom and choice, the space is automatically equitable. She says being intentional about how adults interact with kids in these spaces is more important than self-direction.
  • It would be easy to assume that the student was off task or didn’t want to do the activity, but instead of assuming the worst about the student, the facilitator went over and started asking her questions that centered around agency and how she’d like to be involved. This gentle support helped the girl figure out how to start the activity.
  • They also focus on race and gender patterns around who is using which tools and the kinds of projects different kids are drawn towards. “There were some patterns around which students get intervened on more often and which students have projects taken out of their hands and fixed more often,” Vossoughi said. The video reviews help them notice these patterns and correct them.
  • A huge part of trying to bring equity to every moment of tinkering is to see students as full of strengths from their home community, their families, and their experiences. “Kids are brilliant and it’s our responsibility to notice their brilliance and deepen it,” Vossoughi said. This perspective has allowed kids who don’t fit into traditional ideas about what it means to be smart, or academic, thrive in the tinkering space.
  • Jill Bergeron on 09 May 16
     
    This article highlights the ways in which teachers can be mindful of inherent biases when they are engaging students in maker and tinkering activities.
Jill Bergeron

Evaluating Project-Based Learning | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/...aluating-pbl-michael-hernandez

project based learning pbl evaluating assessment evaluation edutopia

shared by Jill Bergeron on 23 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • There are many dimensions of student achievement that we need to evaluate in PBL. The end product is certainly important, but if we focus only on that, the meaningful learning that happens throughout the process can be lost as students feel pressure to do whatever it takes to "make the grade."
  • In other words, we want to acknowledge not only what they learned, but how they came to learn it so that they can use these processes in the future.
  • Establish target goals early to provide purpose for the project, while also establishing expectations of the result: What is the problem to solve or the product to create? What kinds of subject area content need to be included or addressed in the project? What expectations do you have for the final product's presentation, publishing, or performance? What kinds of collaborative behaviors must be demonstrated by students throughout the process? Feedback and corrections should happen frequently to keep students on track, improve their work, and set them up for success in the final product. Waiting too long to give feedback may result in work that is too far gone to be fixed or improved.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • evaluations should have four dimensions: Self Peer Teacher Audience
  • oral and written feedback is more personal and specific.
  • Self-evaluation is an especially important piece of the summative evaluation because it taps into higher-level thinking and awareness of the material, process, and final product.
  • Peer evaluations are unique to collaborative projects, and I find that they facilitate a better collaborative process because the teacher considers the student experience. We can use this information to modify the workflow for the next project and hold students accountable for their work (effort, constructive contributions to the team, etc.).
  • allow for audience feedback to evaluate that project's levels of success. Public critiques (such as comments on blog posts) and class discussion help provide wider perspective and may even carry more meaning for the student than teacher feedback.
  • Find a combination of both public and private evaluations that you feel is right for your students or the project.
  • Critique Sandwich A negative comment about a problem or flaw is presented between positive comments about something done well. "I Like That. . ." Require feedback that includes answers to all of these statements: I like that. . . I wonder if. . . Best next steps might be. . .
  • Rose/Thorn/Bud This critique also addresses the good (rose) and the bad (thorn), but also the potential (bud) for what may be a good idea but needs work.
  • Jill Bergeron on 23 Jun 16
     
    There are a few good ideas in here about how to offer feedback to students during a PBL unit.
Scott Nancarrow

How to Design Better Tests, Based on the Research | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/...gn-better-tests-based-research

shared by Scott Nancarrow on 26 Oct 21 - No Cached
  • To help address test anxiety, researchers recommend setting aside a little time for simple writing or self-talk exercises before the test—they allow students to shore up their confidence, recall their test-taking strategies, and put the exam into perspective.
  • Students who study moderately should get roughly 70 to 80 percent of the questions correct. 
  • Don’t start a test with challenging questions; let students ease into a test. Asking difficult questions to probe for deep knowledge is important, but remember that confidence and mindset can dramatically affect outcomes—and therefore muddy the waters of your assessment. 
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Consider the mix of your testing formats: Combine traditional testing formats—multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions—with creative, open-ended assessments that can elicit different strengths and interests.
  • Tests aren’t just tools to evaluate learning; they can also alter a student’s understanding of a topic.
  • Instead of a single high-stakes test, consider breaking it into smaller low-stakes tests that you can spread throughout the school year.
  • When students take high-stakes tests, their cortisol levels—a biological marker for stress—rise dramatically, impeding their ability to concentrate and artificially lowering test scores
  • Time limits are unavoidable, but you can mitigate their pernicious effects on anxiety levels. “Evidence strongly suggests that timed tests cause the early onset of math anxiety for students across the achievement range,”
  • ask students to write their own test questions. 
  • Beyond test design, there’s the important question of what happens after a test. All too often, students receive a test, glance at the grade, and move on. But that deprives them, and the teacher, of a valuable opportunity to address misconceptions and gaps in knowledge. Don’t think of tests as an endpoint to learning. Follow up with feedback, and consider strategies like “exam wrappers”— short metacognitive writing activities that ask students to review their performance on the test and think about ways they could improve in future testing scenarios.
Jill Bergeron

Students Are Making a 'Surprising' Rebound From Pandemic Closures. But Some May Never C... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ic-learning-loss-recovery.html

learning lag equity wealth gap covi pandemic

shared by Jill Bergeron on 07 Feb 24 - No Cached
  • Elementary and middle-school students have made up significant ground since pandemic school closings in 2020 — but they are nowhere close to being fully caught up, according to the first detailed national study of how much U.S. students are recovering.
  • Overall in math, a subject where learning loss has been greatest, students have made up about a third of what they lost. In reading, they have made up a quarter, according to the new analysis of standardized test score data led by researchers at Stanford and Harvard.
  • Still, the gap between students from rich and poor communities — already huge before the pandemic — has widened.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • because poor districts had lost more ground, their progress was not nearly enough to outpace wealthier districts, widening the gulf between them.
  • “We seemed to have lost the urgency in this crisis,” said Karyn Lewis, who has studied pandemic learning declines for NWEA, a research and student assessment group. “It is problematic for the average kid.
  • “But it’s an unevenly felt recovery,” Professor Reardon said, “so the worry there is that means inequality is getting baked in.”
  • When looking at data available in 15 states, researchers found that in a given district — poor or rich — children across backgrounds lost similar ground, but students from richer families recovered faster.
  • Even when schools offered interventions to help students catch up, lower-income families might have been less able to rearrange schedules or transportation to ensure their children attended. (This is one reason experts advise scheduling tutoring during the school day, not after.)
  • Take Massachusetts, which has some of the nation’s best math and reading scores, but wide inequality. The recovery there was led by wealthier districts. Test scores for students in poor districts have shown little improvement, and in some cases, kept falling, leaving Massachusetts with one of the largest increases in the achievement gap.
  • In states like Kentucky and Tennessee that have traditionally had more middling test scores, but with less inequality, poor students have recovered remarkably well.
Jill Bergeron

We need more black and brown teachers but not for the reasons you think - The Hechinger... - 0 views

hechingerreport.org/own-teachers-not-reasons-think

diversity teachers

shared by Jill Bergeron on 09 May 16 - No Cached
  • Privilege is passed on like inheritance. Therefore, we must educate the children of people currently in power so they won’t replicate the systems of the past. Undoing the racism that muffles achievement requires teaching the scions of privilege who will likely end up running systems that fail students of color.
  • Cultural differences influence teaching efficacy, however. “Most results show that when black teachers teach black students, black students achieve more than when taught by white teachers,” writes Andy Porter in Rethinking the Achievement Gap.
  • Jill Bergeron on 09 May 16
     
    This piece argues that not only do black and brown teachers have a positive impact on the success of students of the same background, but they also have a lasting impact on white students. The author stipulates that in order for change to take place, we need white students of privilege to learn from black and brown teachers because they need to break the cycle of inherent bias and racism.
Jill Bergeron

The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues - 0 views

www.marshallmemo.com/issue.php

marshall mindset math middle school math middle school student-centered teen behavior instructional rounds observations movement student engagement collaboration teaching strategies staff retreat retreats

shared by Jill Bergeron on 30 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • 1. Growth mindset thinking makes its uncertain way into schools 2. A middle-school teacher tries to shift to student-centered math 3. Harnessing adolescent rebelliousness 4. “Firewalks” in a California high school 5. The potential of instructional rounds 6. Fidgeters of the world, unite! 7. Keys to a successful staff retreat 8. Teaching about the election
  • However, 85 percent of teachers said they wanted more professional development to use growth mindset insights most effectively. While the central ideas are intuitive to many educators, it takes time and collaboration for them to filter down to daily classroom practice.
  • Because training is so spotty, there are also some key growth-mindset practices that are not being emphasized enough in classrooms, including: -   Having students evaluate their own work; -   Using on-the-spot and interim assessments; -   Having students revise their work; -   Encouraging multiple strategies for learning; -   Peer-to-peer learning.
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Beaubien and her colleagues at the Stanford Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS – https://www.perts.net) are offering online growth mindset training modules for teachers and encouraging grassroots efforts to spread effective practices.
  • Limit initiatives to those that support the big goal. “As we try to change and grow our practice, whether self-driven or motivated by policy or district-level change,” she says, “we will encounter more ideas than we can possibly implement in a year or even our whole career. It pays to focus on a smaller set of objectives, and for a while, selectively choose initiatives that fit those goals.”
  • Collaboration is key.
  • Within her school, she co-taught, observed colleagues, discussed goals (big and small), monitored students’ progress, and (with some trepidation) invited other teachers to observe her teaching and give feedback.
  • she visited other Connected Math schools and watched lesson videos at http://www.connectedmath.msu.edu and http://www.teachingchannel.org.
  • “The brains of adolescents are notoriously more receptive to short-term rewards and peer approval,” says Amanda Ripley in this New York Times article, “which can lead to risky behavior.” But young people are also very attuned to autonomy and social justice. “There are two adolescent imperatives,” says Rob Riordan of High Tech High in California: “To resist authority and to contribute to community.” Might it be possible to take advantage of these characteristics to bend teenage rebelliousness toward wholesome ends?
  • “What’s really exciting about this study and other work like it is that if you can appeal to kids’ sense of wanting to not be duped, you empower them to take a stand,” says Ronald Dahl (University of California/Berkeley). “If they are motivated, you can change their behavior profoundly.”
  • A big unanswered question is whether the positive behavioral shifts in the experiments will last more than a few hours; after all, almost no obesity prevention programs for adolescents result in long-term weight loss and there is a powerful consumer culture pushing young people in the other direction.
  • What inspires you? Do you have any regrets from the first two years of high school? How have you shown leadership? What are your college plans? What career do you want to pursue? Where do you think you will be in five years? What’s your favorite class? At the end of the ritual, the audience says whether each student is ready to move on. Not every student gets the nod.
  • Rounds are brief observations of a sampling of classrooms within a school by groups of teachers, administrators, or both. Ideally, rounds should foster: -   A common language about and understanding of high-quality teaching; -   A collaborative learning culture versus a culture of compliance; -   A more coherent approach to improving instruction.
  • The purpose needs to be clear, observations need to be carried out in a climate of trust, and everyone involved needs to understand how the observations connect to other improvement efforts.”
  • In short, social networks are themselves a resource that administrators can use to support the development of social capital.
  • In this New York Times article, Gretchen Reynolds has advice for teachers who tell fidgeting students to just sit still: let them tap their toes and jiggle their legs. Why? Because fidgeting is good for their health.
  • he has some advice for those who organize retreats:             • A clear and legitimate rationale.
  • “Retreats go poorly,” says Kramer, “when the reason for the retreat does not match the organization’s true needs.”
  • A better approach would have been to work with key stakeholders to develop the agenda, get buy-in, and engage everyone in an open and task-oriented fashion.
  • No hidden agendas – If trust is an issue in an organization, it’s essential that the conveners are honest about how a retreat will be handled and everything is above board.
  • High-quality facilitation – An effective leader keeps the trains running on time and is efficient, practical, and easy to work with.
  • They work best when every participant has a vested interest in what is being discussed and understands how the outcomes of the session will affect them and their work.”
Jill Bergeron

Principal: What happened when my school ended useless homework - The Washington Post - 1 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...-school-ended-useless-homework

homework learning differentiation elementary lower school

shared by Jill Bergeron on 21 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • a famous meta-analysis of previous research on the subject, published in 2006 by researcher Harris Cooper and colleagues, which found that homework in elementary school does not contribute to academic achievement.
  • One parent pointed out that some of the content of the homework is beyond the child’s knowledge so parents are almost “required” to teach it at home.
  • I read a number of articles about how we have to get better at homework, the argument being  that homework is a problem for children and families because it is tedious and doesn’t ask children to think critically and creatively. 
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Newly learned skills: Kohn argues that it is rare that all students need the same practice at the end of a lesson.  For some, additional practice may  be confusing, while for others, it may  be unnecessary. What the research says: Kohn scoured the research to find that there is no evidence that homework in elementary school leads to an increase in student achievement.
  • Time management and organizational skills: Kohn points out that rather than teaching time management to students, homework actually requires parents to do more to organize children’s time.
  • As a former teacher, I had always felt that homework was a critical part of children learning organizational skills and responsibility and a way to practice newly developed skills.  Moreover, the idea of getting rid of homework seemed a bit too unconventional. But when I finally did pick up “The Homework Myth,” I couldn’t put it down. One by one, my reasons for considering homework an essential part of the elementary school experience were dismantled.
  • In kindergarten, students dictate stories to their families on a regular basis, but with no official due dates.  Parents were encouraged to read to their children, but there were no set expectations for how much or how often. Starting in first grade, students were expected to read nightly and this included families reading to children. Most grade-level teams opted out of reading logs or other accountability structures, noting that these often devolved into a meaningless checklists lacking accountability altogether. Third graders were asked to write nightly. Students determine the content and form of their writing, which is not graded.  Third graders are also expected to practice their math facts based on both grade level expectations and personal levels of mastery.
  • Teachers give parents information about other elements also taught in class so they can be supportive of the related homework.  When a teacher asks students to read for 30 minutes, some students may read 10 pages, and others may read 30.  Parents can help children find a regular time to do that homework because the time needed is consistent. 
  • Our school may be giving less homework but we have more students engaged in more meaningful learning activities at home than ever before.
  • Jill Bergeron on 21 Mar 16
     
    This principal details the approach her elementary school took to reducing homework and making it more meaningful.
Jill Bergeron

Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern For Others And The Common Good Through College Admi... - 0 views

mcc.gse.harvard.edu/collegeadmissions

admissions college empathy service learning equity

shared by Jill Bergeron on 25 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions marks the first time in history that a broad coalition of college admissions offices have joined forces to collectively encourage high school students to focus on meaningful ethical and intellectual engagement. The report includes concrete recommendations to reshape the college admissions process and promote greater ethical engagement among aspiring students, reduce excessive achievement pressure, and level the playing field for economically disadvantaged students. It is the first step in a two-year campaign that seeks to substantially reshape the existing college admissions process.
  • Jill Bergeron on 25 Apr 16
     
    "Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions marks the first time in history that a broad coalition of college admissions offices have joined forces to collectively encourage high school students to focus on meaningful ethical and intellectual engagement. The report includes concrete recommendations to reshape the college admissions process and promote greater ethical engagement among aspiring students, reduce excessive achievement pressure, and level the playing field for economically disadvantaged students. It is the first step in a two-year campaign that seeks to substantially reshape the existing college admissions process. "
Jill Bergeron

When Tech Teaches, What Do Teachers Do? | Tech Learning - 0 views

www.techlearning.com/...10012

teaching differentiation technology

shared by Jill Bergeron on 17 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • o when tech is doing the things teachers did, what do teachers do? Here are some ideas. Relationships: When technology provides the on demand lecture and feedback, teachers have more time to develop relationships with students.  Students want to be seen, heard, and known. Technology enables teachers to better know their students for who they are as a whole as well as their talents, interests, and areas where they want to grow. Guidance: Young people need and want guidance. Teachers can spend more time guiding and supporting students. Tutoring: When whole class instruction can be done using technology, teachers are freed up to do small group and one-on-one tutoring.  Digital Literacy: Teachers can play an important role in helping to support students in being responsible and respectful digital citizens. Learning Network Development: Connections are key and with technology we can help students safely make local and global connections.  What if we found a mentor for every student that could support them digitally and/or face-to-face. Cheerleader: Students love knowing you know their accomplishments.  More time to notice what students have accomplished. Discuss what that means and give them support.
Jill Bergeron

Don't Ban ChatGPT. Use It as a Teaching Tool (Opinion) - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...01

AI writing edtech

shared by Jill Bergeron on 17 Jan 23 - No Cached
  • I can envision all kinds of activities challenging students to use their own voice by replacing nondescript language, creating masterful imagery, and inserting figurative language.
  • If teachers can use ChatGPT to show students how to generate prompts to stimulate their writing, the experience could provide a leg up for students who struggle with idea generation.
  • Once students have made use of these prompts or outline to write something themselves, AI algorithms can also analyze a student’s writing style and provide feedback on grammar, spelling, and structure. One feature of this program can help students revise their writing using better word choice and advanced vocabulary.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Because the bot writes and rewrites so quickly, students can see a number of different ways their writing can improve. It’s up to teachers to take away the computer assistance at the right moment during this process and allow students the time needed to put pen to paper to apply what they’ve learned.
  • It’s important to note that AI is not a replacement for human creativity and critical thinking.
  • AI has the potential to greatly assist students in the essay-writing process. It can help generate ideas, provide feedback on writing style, and even provide templates or outlines. However, it is important to remember that while AI can certainly aid in the writing process, it is ultimately up to the student to come up with their own ideas and arguments for critical thinking—and it’s up to teachers to teach them how. AI can help with the mechanics of writing, but it cannot replace the unique perspective and insights that a human can bring to their work.
Jill Bergeron

Tips for Grading and Giving Students Feedback | Edutopia - 2 views

www.edutopia.org/...eedback-heather-wolpert-gawron

grading feedback assessment teaching

shared by Jill Bergeron on 08 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Rubrics aren't just about summative feedback, "Here's how you did," they are also a sort of preemptive feedback, "Here's what you need to do."
  • Develop a key of symbols that you can use in the margins instead of writing in sentences or bullets.
  • Rotate groups of students that get more percentage of your attention.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Teach the students to give the first wave of feedback to each other.
  • Carol Jago reminds us that it's the students job to correct their errors. In fact, it would be even more powerful for them to identify the errors in the first place using hints provided by you
  • allow a student to choose the section or numbers they feel best represent their comprehension
  • This will require students to translate as well, which embeds the lesson even further.
  • Sometimes, assignments will take a huge leap in quality when students think someone other than their own teacher is seeing them.
  • Keep the final grade of an assignment as a carrot dangling until the feedback is read, attempted, and proven. Make them solve some of the problems in the assignment based on your feedback, and trade their solutions for access to their score.
  • You conference; they write.
  • Stagger due dates for your classes.
  • Ask them what worked and what didn't. Model your own comfort at criticism and they will work harder at their own.
Jill Bergeron

Art Makes You Smart - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...art-makes-you-smart.html

art art appreciation research

shared by Jill Bergeron on 18 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • A few years ago, however, we had a rare opportunity to explore such relationships when the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in Bentonville, Ark. Through a large-scale, random-assignment study of school tours to the museum, we were able to determine that strong causal relationships do in fact exist between arts education and a range of desirable outcomes.
  • Students who, by lottery, were selected to visit the museum on a field trip demonstrated stronger critical thinking skills, displayed higher levels of social tolerance, exhibited greater historical empathy and developed a taste for art museums and cultural institutions.
  • Students in the treatment group were 18 percent more likely to attend the exhibit than students in the control group.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Moreover, most of the benefits we observed are significantly larger for minority students, low-income students and students from rural schools — typically two to three times larger than for white, middle-class, suburban students — owing perhaps to the fact that the tour was the first time they had visited an art museum.
  • Clearly, however, we can conclude that visiting an art museum exposes students to a diversity of ideas that challenge them with different perspectives on the human condition. Expanding access to art, whether through programs in schools or through visits to area museums and galleries, should be a central part of any school’s curriculum. <img src="http://meter-svc.nytimes.com/meter.gif"/> Brian Kisida is a senior research associate and Jay P. Greene is a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas. Daniel H. Bowen is a postdoctoral fellow at the Kinder Institute of Rice University.
  • Jill Bergeron on 18 Dec 13
     
    Summary of a study on causal relationship between visiting an art museum and having greater appreciation for the human condition.
Jill Bergeron

(Re)Defining Student Engagement | Reading By Example - 0 views

readingbyexample.com/...redefining-student-engagement

leadership learning engagement collaboration evaluation

shared by Jill Bergeron on 28 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • I call on all school leaders, myself included, to put aside our biases and misconceptions regarding student engagement, as we engage in our own learning experiences during our frequent visits to classrooms.
  •  Let our student actions and dispositions guide our professional assessments.
  • We in education talk so much about engagement in concert with terms like “collaboration”, “technology”, and “passion”. Is this where the best learning takes place? Sometimes, maybe even often, but certainly not always.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Engagement (student involvement in instruction) can be described in a variety of ways. I think too often engagement is exclusively predefined by educators as “hands on”, “students doing more talking than the teacher”, or “active”. These descriptors may all be key indicators of engagement. But the definition should not stop there.
  • Jill Bergeron on 28 Sep 15
     
    This blogger observes teachers and asks evaluators to try to put aside their biases as they think about teaching and student engagement.
Jill Bergeron

4 Free Web Tools for Student Portfolios | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/...student-portfolios-dave-guymon

portfolios digital portfolio

shared by Jill Bergeron on 27 May 14 - No Cached
    • Jill Bergeron
      Jill Bergeron on 27 May 14
       
      Weebly does the same things as Google Sites, but it looks way better.
    • Jill Bergeron
      Jill Bergeron on 27 May 14
       
      Weebly does the same thing as Google Sites and it looks tons better.
  • think of Evernote as the Swiss Army knife of organization
  • Evernote allows students to write, take photos, record audio, upload content and more with the ability to tag items, create notebooks for organization and share content socially.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Evernote doesn't give teachers any way to moderate its use by students.
  • Evernote isn't publicly viewable, either.
  • what Three Ring offers that Evernote doesn't is teacher-created class accounts. In other words, teachers initiate the use of Three Ring in the classroom by creating classrooms within the teacher account and adding students to each class
  • Three Ring
  • students can create and upload content from their own devices and tag, search and share their portfolios
  • Three Ring even allows parents to view their students' accounts once linked by the teacher
  • This is the effect of good portfolios. They craft a narrative of learning, growth and achievement over time.
  • If your school is fueled by Google Apps for Education, then using Google Sites (3) to create student portfolios, or "Googlios," makes perfect sense.
‹ Previous 21 - 40 of 418 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page