Group items tagged

Adaptation Strategies

When schools communicate, and share strategies they are using to develop mindsets, dispositions and competencies with parents and when parents adopt these strategies and elements of a metalanguage for learning and thinking, our students are better able to integrate the desirable attributes. 

"A lot of schools have jumped on buzz words such as metacognition, mindfulness, mindset etc. There is obviously great merit in all these strategies, however as Carol Dweck has emphasised, in a lot of cases these methods are not always understood by school leaders leading to them not being integrated effectively and sustained. These theories are not fads but in many schools, they don't give these methods the planning, time and evaluation that is required for success of any strategies that will benefit learning. Schools are looking for a quick fix and so latch on to 'new, exciting and popular theories'."

"Making Every Maths Lesson Count is underpinned by six pedagogical principles - challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback and questioning - and presents 52 high-impact strategies designed to streamline teacher workload and ramp up the level of challenge in the maths classroom. Throughout this book, Emma McCrea (through extensive research and practice) explores how to manage mathematical misconceptions with practical ideas on many areas of the required curriculum. The six pedagogical principles mentioned above form the heart of the book, with metacognitive questioning given space in developing cognitive strategies with pupils. "

"A strategy to support pupils improve their spelling strategies, by circling words which they think require attention. The Standards & Testing Agency have in some ways made the marking of spellings more problematic than it's ever been. They state quite clearly, that individual spellings should no longer be pointed out to children if you wish to mark it as an independent piece. This, coupled with Ofsted's move away from heavy amounts of marking needing to be seen in books, could make the marking of spelling seem tricky."

Good article on game technologies that facilitate embodied learning strategies, which connect movement to concepts. 

Blogs

Article on  using pictures to spark students' minds at the beginning of lessons on search strategies.

25 great ideas for getting loud classes to quiet down.

A nice site that a colleague shared with me, it has ready-made graphic organizers that can be tailor made for Social Studies or any class.

Colonization is a strategy game where players take on the role of settles and build towns in a new land. A useful game for history lessons. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/History

Power of positive feedback as an instructional strategy. 

This is probably a good article, but it can't be accessed without paying a $25 fee.

I write extensively about narrative feedback in my forthcoming book, ROLE Reversal (ASCD 2013). I quote Hattie and Timperly several times on the subject. Dylan Wiliam is another expert who has researched feedback for decades.

A fun strategy game where players must cut ropes to feed the little creature. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Educational+Games

Strategies for Reading Comprehension

This site provides a multitude of examples of problem solving strategies using step by step processes to solve the provided problems. It showcases the problem solving approach to Maths education in Singapore, one of th higher ranked nations in Maths. A word of warning to mobile device users, most of the useful content is in swf format, not compatible with iOS and possibles other platforms. Use our computer.