was also concerned about her students’ lack of engagement — so few were completing the assignments she emailed to parents
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Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - 5 views
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Playing with her family’s laundry marked the first time Maliah seemed happy — actually happy — since the start of the pandemic.
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Nobody should ever be penalized or put at a disadvantage for the supplies they don’t have,” Dillingham thought to herself. “But everyone’s got laundry!”
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Clark started an online fundraiser to pay for bikes. He raised more than $10,000, and neighbors donated dozens of bikes and helmets for the rides.
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She couldn’t be sure whether her kids were uninterested or whether they lacked the necessary pens, paper and crayons at home.
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He decided he would take his students on socially distanced bike rides across the city. “It was a leap of faith. I got extremely nervous. I was trying to find a way to connect with kids,” Clark said.
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her young students are musical detectives, in search of learning. She teaches most grade levels and the school chorus.
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t he’s found other ways to keep his students engaged and cycling the city. He invited students to a weekly entrepreneurship class for which they rode their bikes uptown from Dunbar to the gym where Clark works, Sweat DC. The students met with the owner of the gym and the owners of a nearby bar, Hook Hall, and the bagel shop Call Your Mother Deli to learn what it takes to run a business.
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She wanted them to create their own composition, their own snowy-day song.
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When Clark wanted to teach them about resilience, he took them through the hilly streets of Georgetown.
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In lessons for older students, some days there were makeshift drums involved or recorders that students had taken home.
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She lugged a bookshelf, desk and heater into the 5-by-7-foot space, and ran an Ethernet cable from the house so she’d have Internet.
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before climbing into what passes for her classroom in 2020: her daughters’ decade-old treehouse.
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So as one class studied architecture this fall, Daney, 54, encouraged them to walk in their neighborhood to take photos of houses of different styles: ranch, colonial, Victorian.
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nd he stuck with his usual method of helping students learn about the design process, asking them to prepare a meal. They started with ideas and research, made a plan, carried it out and evaluated it. The result: soups and pastas and pastries.
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In fifth grade, students are expected to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide with whole numbers, decimals and fractions. Through a computer application the students have, they can program the robot to move a certain distance, stop, maybe even turn.
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With learning all-virtual, he packs a big Ziploc bag — for each student, each quarter — with things like fishing line, foam board, pipecleaners, magnets, Popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Whatever they will need for their projects.
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And a lot of the math is a little sneaky. They think they are trying to get the robot to move, when they are actually measuring the angles to get it to move.”
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Others complete their math problems directly on the computer, which can lead to some troubles as they try to show their work.
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When Kristin Gavaza interviewed for the music teacher position at Dorothy I. Height Elementary in the summer, she told the principal she had some ideas for how to create a festive concert while students were scattered and learning from home.
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Man Defeats Charging Moose with Stick and Yelling is Today's BIG Thing - APR 28, 2011 - 52 views
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Engaged by, in and with learnng - The Learner's Way - 14 views
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As teachers we hope our lessons are engaging and that our students are engaged. We understand that positive learning experiences are more likely to occur when we are engaged cognitively and affectively by what we are doing and that when we are, new ideas and skills are more likely to stick. Engagement is an important consideration in learning and as such it is worth taking time to consider what it means to be engaged and perhaps how we bring the benefits of engagement to our teaching and our learning.
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Always Write: Cobett's "7 Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson" Resources - 10 views
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One of the goals I ask teachers to set after my training is to find new ways to push students to analyze and evaluate as they learn to write.
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As part of my teacher workshop on the writing process, we investigate multiple uses of student samples. One of my favorite techniques involves having student compare and contrast finished pieces of writing. During both pre-writing and and revision, this push for deeper student thinking both educates and inspires your students.
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The handout has student writers analyze two fifth graders' published writing with a compare and contrast Venn diagram.
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Revision is hard, and most teachers recognize it as an area of deficiency; the truth is, a lot of really great writing teachers I know still freely admit that revision is where they struggle the most.
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When students like what they've written in rough draft form, they're ready to move to revision. My other six elements aim at helping students increase their pre-writing time so they both like and see more potential in their rough drafts
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Professional development research clearly cites the study team model as the most effective way to have learners not only understand new ideas but also implement them enough times so they become regular tools in a teacher's classroom.
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Below, find three examples created by study teams during past workshops. I use them as models/exemplars when I set the study teams off to work.
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I also use variations of these Post-its during my Critical Thinking Using the Writing Traits Workshop.
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By far, the best success I've ever had while teaching revision was the one I experienced with the revision Post-its I created for my students
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During my teacher workshop on the writing process, we practice with tools like the Revision Sprint (at right), which I designed to push students to use analysis and evaluation skills as they looked at their own drafts
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I used to throw my kids into writing response groups way too fast. They weren't ready to provide critical thought for one another
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The most important trick learned was this: be a writer too. During my first five years of teaching, I had assigned a lot of writing but never once had I written something I intended to show my students.
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I have the following interactive plot element generator (which can be replicated with three coffee cans and index cards) to help my students feel in control of their options:
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If you want to hear my take on graphic organizers in detail, you're going to have to hire me to come to present to you. If you can't do that, then I'll throw you a challenge that was thrown once at me, and completing the challenge helped me become a smarter designer of graphic organizers. The challenge came in two parts: 1) learn how to use tables and text boxes in Microsoft Word; 2) for practice, design a graphic organizer that would help students be successfully with the following trait-based skills:
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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, etc," which is an interesting structure that students can borrow from to write about other topics, be they fiction or non-fiction.
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Asking students to create daily journals from the perspective of other animals or even inanimate objects is a great way to borrow this book's idea.
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it challenges students to analyze the author's word choice & voice skills: specifically his use of verbs, subtle alliteration, and dialogue.
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Mentor Text Resource Page here at my website, because this topic has become such a big piece of learning to me. It deserved its own webpage.
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Here are seven skills I can easily list for the organization trait. Organization is: 1) using a strong lead or hook, 2) using a variety of transition words correctly, 3) paragraphing correctly, 4) pacing the writing, 5) sequencing events/ideas logically, 6) concluding the writing in a satisfying way, 7) titling the writing interestingly and so that the title stands for the whole idea. Over the years, I have developed or found and adapted mini-lessons that have students practice these skills during my "Organization Month."
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The problem with focusing students on a product--instead of the writing process--is that the majority of the instructional time is spent teaching students to adhere to a formula.
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the goal of writing instruction absolutely should be the helping students practice the three Bloom's levels above apply: analyze, evaluate, and create.
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Improving one's ability to teach writing to all students is a long-term professional development goal; sticking with it requires diligence, and it requires having a more specific goal than "I want to improve writing
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Robert Marzano's research convinced me years ago of the importance of having learners set personal goals as they learn to take responsibility for their own learning.
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Physical activity in lessons improves students' attainment - 8 views
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"Students who take part in physical exercises like star jumps or running on the spot during school lessons do better in tests than peers who stick to sedentary learning, according to a UCL-led study. The meta-analysis of 42 studies around the world, published in British Journal of Sports Medicine, aimed to assess the benefits of incorporating physical activity in academic lessons. This approach has been adopted by schools seeking to increase activity levels among students without reducing academic teaching time."
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Enhancing the power of our reflective practice - The Learner's Way - 18 views
thelearnersway.net/...wer-of-our-reflective-practice
power learner learning teaching reflection mentoring coaching
shared by Nigel Coutts on 21 Oct 18
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"We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience." ― John Dewey These words by John Dewey point to a truth about learning that is often forgotten. Experience alone is not sufficient for true learning to occur; reflection is an essential part of the process and our failure to include time for this is why our learning often does not stick.
Why K-12 schools are failing by not teaching SEARCH | The Thinking Stick - 198 views
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» The Power of Conversation Upside Down Education - 49 views
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Sometimes as teachers we forget this. We get caught up in curriculum, information, delivering it, that we don’t stop and allow kids to just talk about it. We don’t give them time to state opinion. I’m really bad about pushing for class discussion instead of small group discussions. I know I wouldn’t have spoken out as much to the group as a whole as I did in smaller groups.
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Doesn't this follow the concept of the college professor who is teaching college students in a new way? Rethinking the Way College Students Are Taught: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/lectures/rethinking-teaching.html
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The Risks of Rewards - 54 views
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Control, whether by threats or bribes, amounts to doing things to children rather than working with them. This ultimately frays relationships
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The alternative to bribes and threats is to work toward creating a caring community whose members solve problems collaboratively and decide together how they want their classroom to be
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grades in particular have been found to have a detrimental effect on creative thinking, long-term retention, interest in learning, and preference for challenging tasks
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good values have to be grown from the inside out. Attempts to short-circuit this process by dangling rewards in front of children are at best ineffective, and at worst counterproductive
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Children are likely to become enthusiastic, lifelong learners as a result of being provided with an engaging curriculum; a safe, caring community in which to discover and create; and a significant degree of choice about what (and how and why) they are learning
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Unfortunately, carrots turn out to be no more effective than sticks at helping children to become caring, responsible people or lifelong, self-directed learners
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"Many educators are acutely aware that punishment and threats are counterproductive. Making children suffer in order to alter their future behavior can often elicit temporary compliance, but this strategy is unlikely to help children become ethical, compassionate decision makers. Punishment, even if referred to euphemistically as "consequences," tends to generate anger, defiance, and a desire for revenge. Moreover, it models the use of power rather than reason and ruptures the important relationship between adult and child."
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ADD / ADHD and School: Helping Children with ADHD Succeed at School - 2 views
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Kids with attention deficit disorder respond best to specific goals and daily positive reinforcement—as well as worthwhile rewards. Yes, you may have to hang a carrot on a stick to get your child to behave better in class. Create a plan that incorporates small rewards for small victories and larger rewards for bigger accomplishments.
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Alternate seated activities with those that allow the child to move his or her body around the room. Whenever possible, incorporate physical movement into lessons.
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Write important information down where the child can easily read and reference it. Remind the student where the information can be found. Divide big assignments into smaller ones, and allow children frequent breaks.
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Develop a “secret language” with the child with ADD/ADHD. You can use discreet gestures or words you have previously agreed upon to let the child know they are interrupting. Praise the child for interruption-free conversations.
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consequences immediately following misbehavior. Be specific in your explanation, making sure the child knows how they misbehaved.
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Recognize good behavior out loud. Be specific in your praise, making sure the child knows what they did right.
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Allow the child breaks as often as every ten to twenty minutes. Teach a better understanding of the passage of time: use an analog clock and timers to monitor homework efficiency.
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Provide a stress ball, small toy, or other object for the child to squeeze or play with discreetly at his or her seat.
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Read to children. Read with children. Make reading cozy, quality time with you. Make predictions or “bets.” Constantly ask the child what they think might happen next. Model prediction: “The girl in the story seems pretty brave—I bet she’s going to try to save her family.” Act out the story. Let the child choose his or her character and assign you one, too. Use funny voices and costumes to bring it to life.
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If you understand how your child with ADD/ADHD learns best, you can create enjoyable lessons that pack an informational punch.
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Establish a homework folder for finished homework. Check and help the child organize his or her belongings on a daily basis, including his or her backpack, folders, and even pockets. If possible, keep an extra set of textbooks and other materials at home. Help the child learn to make and use checklists, crossing items off as they are accomplished. Help organize loose papers by color coding folders and showing the child how to hole-punch and file appropriately.
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Neurological deficits, not unwillingness, keep kids with attention deficit disorder from learning in traditional ways.
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If you can work with and support your child’s teacher, you can directly affect the experience of your child with ADD/ADHD in the classroom.
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Shift to the Future: Why BYOT? - 6 views
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Right now, too many teachers are using technology in this more simplified, lower level way. Instead, we need to be pushing students more to make predictions and take their thinking a step further. I wonder if we, teachers, are pushing ourselves when it comes to thinking or are we simply teaching the same old, same old in the ways we learned eons ago...
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I was meeting with a teacher this week who had a wonderful lesson using a few websites to ID European countries and find information about each country. There was a wee bit of critical thinking added into the mix of the assignment but I was still 'hungry for more' and feeling the need to nudge him and his students to the next level. The green highlighted information is sort of what I was looking for to nudge him onward with in his lesson.
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The Thinking Stick | Stages of PLN adoption - 3 views
www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=652
pln stages network teaching education adoption personal professional learning elearning web2.0 media tools connectivism constructivism
shared by Bill Graziadei, Ph.D. (aka Dr. G) on 10 Dec 08
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The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement - 83 views
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First, students tend to lose interest in whatever they’re learning. As motivation to get good grades goes up, motivation to explore ideas tends to go down. Second, students try to avoid challenging tasks whenever possible. More difficult assignments, after all, would be seen as an impediment to getting a top grade. Finally, the quality of students’ thinking is less impressive. One study after another shows that creativity and even long-term recall of facts are adversely affected by the use of traditional grades.
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Unhappily, assessment is sometimes driven by entirely different objectives--for example, to motivate students (with grades used as carrots and sticks to coerce them into working harder) or to sort students (the point being not to help everyone learn but to figure out who is better than whom)
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Standardized tests often have the additional disadvantages of being (a) produced and scored far away from the classroom, (b) multiple choice in design (so students can’t generate answers or explain their thinking), (c) timed (so speed matters more than thoughtfulness) and (d) administered on a one-shot, high-anxiety basis.
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the evidence suggests that five disturbing consequences are likely to accompany an obsession with standards and achievement:
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intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation tend to be inversely related: The more people are rewarded for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.
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they’re just being rational. They have adapted to an environment where results, not intellectual exploration, are what count. When school systems use traditional grading systems--or, worse, when they add honor rolls and other incentives to enhance the significance of grades--they are unwittingly discouraging students from stretching themselves to see what they’re capable of doing.
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They seem to be fine as long as they are succeeding, but as soon as they hit a bump they may regard themselves as failures and act as though they’re helpless to do anything about it.
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When the point isn’t to figure things out but to prove how good you are, it’s often hard to cope with being less than good.
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It may be the systemic demand for high achievement that led him to become debilitated when he failed, even if the failure is only relative.
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But even when better forms of assessment are used, perceptive observers realize that a student’s score is less important than why she thinks she got that score.
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the punch line: When students are led to focus on how well they are performing in school, they tend to explain their performance not by how hard they tried but by how smart they are.
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In their study of academically advanced students, for example, the more that teachers emphasized getting good grades, avoiding mistakes and keeping up with everyone else, the more the students tended to attribute poor performance to factors they thought were outside their control, such as a lack of ability.
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When students are made to think constantly about how well they are doing, they are apt to explain the outcome in terms of who they are rather than how hard they tried.
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And if children are encouraged to think of themselves as "smart" when they succeed, doing poorly on a subsequent task will bring down their achievement even though it doesn’t have that effect on other kids.
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The upshot of all this is that beliefs about intelligence and about the causes of one’s own success and failure matter a lot. They often make more of a difference than how confident students are or what they’re truly capable of doing or how they did on last week’s exam. If, like the cheerleaders for tougher standards, we look only at the bottom line, only at the test scores and grades, we’ll end up overlooking the ways that students make sense of those results.
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if too big a deal is made about how students did, thus leading them (and their teachers) to think less about learning and more about test outcomes.
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As Martin Maehr and Carol Midgley at the University of Michigan have concluded, "An overemphasis on assessment can actually undermine the pursuit of excellence."
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Only now and then does it make sense for the teacher to help them attend to how successful they’ve been and how they can improve. On those occasions, the assessment can and should be done without the use of traditional grades and standardized tests. But most of the time, students should be immersed in learning.
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the findings of the Colorado experiment make perfect sense: The more teachers are thinking about test results and "raising the bar," the less well the students actually perform--to say nothing of how their enthusiasm for learning is apt to wane.
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The underlying problem concerns a fundamental distinction that has been at the center of some work in educational psychology for a couple of decades now. It is the difference between focusing on how well you’re doing something and focusing on what you’re doing.
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The two orientations aren’t mutually exclusive, of course, but in practice they feel different and lead to different behaviors.
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But when we get carried away with results, we wind up, paradoxically, with results that are less than ideal.
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Unfortunately, common sense is in short supply today because assessment has come to dominate the whole educational process. Worse, the purposes and design of the most common forms of assessment--both within classrooms and across schools--often lead to disastrous consequences.
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grades, which by their very nature undermine learning. The proper occasion for outrage is not that too many students are getting A’s, but that too many students have been led to believe that getting A’s is the point of going to school.
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research indicates that the use of traditional letter or number grades is reliably associated with three consequences.
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Iowa and Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills,