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Jennie Snyder

Will Richardson: My Kids are Illiterate. Most Likely, Yours Are Too - 10 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...re-illiterate-mo_b_750177.html

21stCenturySkills education richardson

shared by Jennie Snyder on 08 Feb 13 - No Cached
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 08 Feb 13
       
      I wonder if most parents (and even some teachers) even know what this means.  Sometimes I think we are too entrenched in old-school ways of thinking students need to know and love classics instead of understanding how literature is a reflection of the times and using the classics as mentor pieces for creating something which reflects here and now!
  • kids need to be in systems that care for them and are focused on literacy they will need to be successful in their lives instead of being focused primarily on standardizing their way to "high student achievement" based on a metric that is growing less and less relevant each day
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 08 Feb 13
       
      We need to really look at our definition of the word achievement!  Do we mean they have achieved a high score by regurgitating info/facts?  Do we mean they understand something and can apply that understanding in a new and meaningful way?
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • I'm mad that the "big" conversations around "reform" in education right now all revolve around basically doing what we've been doing for the past 100 years only "better," and that we'll get there by incentivizing teachers to teach for a test.
  • That is their reality; it wasn't ours. The NCTE knows it.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 08 Feb 13
       
      Just like we recognize that times are different from when my parents attended a 1-room school or when there less than 50-100 in a graduating class in a whole town, we need to recognize that times today are different.
  • Jennie Snyder on 19 Feb 13
     
    Literacies needed for future success by Will Richardson
Nigel Coutts

Making Time for Quiet Contemplation - The Learner's Way - 27 views

thelearnersway.net/...g-time-for-quiet-contemplation

education teaching learning contemplation time

shared by Nigel Coutts on 17 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • Nigel Coutts on 17 Sep 17
     
    In our busy and highly connected lives it can be difficult to find time to slow down, to deliberately and mindfully engage in reflective contemplation. Taking the time to do so can be significant for success, creativity, mental well-being and learning and yet we seem to struggle to commit time to this valuable practice. Schools, in particular seem to offer little time for students to slow down and think, and with the busy lives students lead such time is often entirely absent.
Nigel Coutts

What if? Reflections from the ACSA Conference - The Learner's Way - 2 views

thelearnersway.net/...tions-from-the-acsa-conference

education learning collaboration teaching curriculum

shared by Nigel Coutts on 08 Oct 17 - No Cached
Colin McKay liked it
  • Nigel Coutts on 08 Oct 17
     
    Last week I spent three days thinking about curriculum and all that it means to teaching and learning thanks to the Australian Curriculum Studies Association's biannual conference. It was three days of deeply thoughtful conversation and learning with just the right mix of academic research and ideas for grounded practice straight out of innovative classrooms and schools. With keynotes by Alan Reid, Dan Haesler, Bob Lingard, Robert Randall and Jan Owen combined with Masterclasses from some of Australia's leading educators there was much on offer. The biggest challenge was deciding which workshop you would attend when every session offered such outstanding opportunities.
Dan Bench

Process vs Product in Maker-centered Learning - The Learner's Way - 42 views

thelearnersway.net/...uct-in-maker-centered-learning

creativity lifelong learning expansion instruction

shared by Dan Bench on 06 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • by ‘Making Thinking Visible’ (MTV) can help here. MTV strategies offer two advantages to teachers and learners. Importantly they provide structure to thinking and encourage a deeper engagement with concepts and ideas. They also allow the thinking that is occurring to be made visible and thus a part of the assessment process
  • mastery of the process that students are utilising as they solve the problems they encounter in their making. How do they deal with obstacles? How did they plan their solution? How effectively do they collaborate? What did they do to understand the problem and how did they monitor their progress?  
  • Students move through phases of thinking that include empathy, needs analysis, ideation, planning, prototyping and evaluation in patterns both linear and non-linear as needs require.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Failing is a part of the process and failing disrupts output based assessments. At the core of the maker philosophy is a process of ideation, iteration and emergence.
  • their Personal Passion Projects. Many of the projects fit neatly into the description of maker-centered learning. These are the projects where the students have identified a need and the solution is a product which they design and then prototype.
  • Nigel Coutts on 06 Nov 16
     
    The maker movement and with it maker-centered learning brings new possibilities and challenges into the classroom. It has spawned makerspaces and students are busy designing and making products. The danger with all this frenzied making is that it is very easy to miss the point, to focus on the product and not the journey.  
Don Doehla

Assessing Student Progress Using Blog-Based Porfolios - 97 views

plpnetwork.com/...-porfolios-thinking-assessment

assessment edchat student resources blog portfolio

shared by Don Doehla on 04 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Don Doehla on 04 Jun 13
     
    Use of student blogs as portfolios of growth and reflection - very powerful!
Clint Heitz

Critical Issue: Providing Professional Development for Effective Technology Use - 127 views

www.ncrel.org/...te1000.htm

shared by Clint Heitz on 09 Feb 13 - Cached
Kelly Dau liked it
  • Practice logs can promote these helpful activities. Such logs can show how often teachers use a new practice, how it worked, what problems occurred, and what help they needed (Sparks, 1998).
    • Clint Heitz
      Clint Heitz on 09 Feb 13
       
      Perfect use for reflective blogging on the teacher's part.
  • Professional development for technology use should demonstrate projects in specific curriculum areas and help teachers integrate technology into the content.
  • Specific content can help teachers analyze, synthesize, and structure ideas into projects that they can use in their classrooms (Center for Applied Special Technology, 1996).
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • The best integration training for teachers does not simply show them how to add technology to their what they are doing. "It helps them learn how to select digital content based on the needs and learning styles of their students, and infuse it into the curriculum
  • A professional development curriculum that helps teachers use technology for discovery learning, developing students' higher-order thinking skills, and communicating ideas is new and demanding and thus cannot be implemented in isolation (Guhlin, 1996)
  • teachers need access to follow-up discussion and collegial activities
  • The only way to ensure that all students have the same opportunities is to require all teachers to become proficient in the use of technology in content areas to support student learning.
  • An effective professional development program provides "sufficient time and follow-up support for teachers to master new content and strategies and to integrate them into their practice,
  • teachers need time to plan, practice skills, try out new ideas, collaborate, and reflect on ideas
  • The technology used for professional development should be the same as the technology used in the classroom. Funds should be available to provide teachers with technology that they can use at home or in private to become comfortable with the capabilities it offers.
  • he Commission suggests partnering with universities and forming teacher networks to help provide professional development activities at lower cost.
    • Clint Heitz
      Clint Heitz on 09 Feb 13
       
      This was well before development of Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)! Twitter, Facebook, Ning, and such all provide opportunities to make this idea happen.
  • consists of three types: preformative evaluation, formative evaluation, and summative evaluation.
  • Preformative evaluation
  • formative evaluation,
  • summative evaluation,
  • Such a program gives teachers the skills they need to incorporate the strengths of technology into their lesson planning rather than merely to add technology to the way they have always done things.
  • School administrators may not provide adequate time and resources for high-quality technology implementation and the associated professional development. They may see professional development as a one-shot training session to impart skills in using specific equipment. Instead, professional development should be considered an ongoing process that helps teachers develop new methods of promoting engaged learning in the classroom using technology.
Elizabeth Resnick

How Tech Will Transform the Traditional Classroom| The Committed Sardine - 3 views

www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm

technology_integration

shared by Elizabeth Resnick on 17 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • While it may seem obvious, all the iPads in the world are useless without fast WiFi and plenty of power outlets. What’s more, many schools forget that teachers need their own iPads, and must become avid users, too. Speirs reminds educators, “You have to think through how it is to actually live with this device.” Finally, Speirs cautions teachers not to be intimidated by parent and faculty expectations, to gradually introduce the iPad rather than rushing in. Teachers and school administrators may wish to refer to Ruben Puentedura’s excellent argument for tech in education and to the NMC Horizon Report. And look for inspiration in existing iPad pilots.
  • While it may seem obvious, all the iPads in the world are useless without fast WiFi and plenty of power outlets.
  • For instance, one might suggest that more efficient classrooms through the use of technology could allow for a shortened or staggered school day to serve more, smaller classes. But, according to Brovey, “It is difficult for us to imagine a school structure where [class time] becomes more fluid.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Twitter is the undisputed channel for everything from breaking news to political and cultural debates. How long can schools block access to it before they become completely irrelevant? The important thing when deciding school online policies, says Brovey, is that “you have to show that you’re exercising due diligence.”
  • allow teachers to bypass those filters, and to have a simple, fast whitelisting process, ideally from the page that appears when a user visits a blocked site.
  • Elizabeth Resnick on 17 Apr 12
     
    good apps list but leaves out Reflection: show your iPad/phone on the Mac screen.
deb loftsgard

Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements | Blog | Project Based Learning | BIE - 76 views

bie.org/...ential_project_design_elements

shared by deb loftsgard on 17 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Sustained
    • deb loftsgard
      deb loftsgard on 17 Jun 15
       
      Level 3  research using I can statements as the funnel toward the driving question
  • students ask questions,
    • deb loftsgard
      deb loftsgard on 17 Jun 15
       
      Creation of Need to Know questions - level 2 knowledge
  • Authenticity
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • solve problems like those faced by people in the world outside of school (
  • eal-world processes, tasks and tools, and performance standards,
  • address a need in their school or community
  • own concerns, interests, cultures,
  • Student Voice & Choice
  • Students can have input and (some) control over many aspects of a project, from the questions they generate, to the resources they will use to find answers to their questions, to the tasks and roles they will take on as team members, to the products they will create
  • Reflection
  • We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.
  • Critique & Revision
  • ddition to peers and teachers, outside adults and experts can also contribute to the critique process, bringing an authentic, real-world point of view.
  • product” can be a tangible thing, or it can be a presentation of a solution to a problem or answer to a driving question.
  • resent or display their work to an audience beyond the classroom, the performance bar raises, since no one wants to look bad in public
  • aking student work public is an effective way to communicate with parents, community members, and the wider world about what PBL is and what it does for students.
  • people need to be able to think critically and solve problems,
John Evans

21st Century Pedagogy | 21st Century Connections - 1 views

www.21centuryconnections.com/...653

shared by John Evans on 16 Dec 08 - Cached
  • How we teach must reflect how our students learn. It must also reflect the world our students will move into. This is a world which is rapidly changing, connected, adapting and evolving. Our style and approach to teaching must emphasise the learning in the 21st century.
    • John McMillen
      John McMillen on 17 Dec 08
       
      One paragraph, very simple and staright forward but very powerful.
    • John Evans
      John Evans on 06 Mar 09
       
      Absolutely. I think most teachers are doing a good job with sentence one. It's the second statement that we need to attend to!
Ryan Folmer

The New York Times Kind of Misinterprets a Study About Tests and Learning - 64 views

www.good.is/...study-about-tests-and-learning

news

shared by Ryan Folmer on 23 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Ryan Folmer on 23 Jan 11
     
    But, before the multiple choice, standardized testing crowd starts thumping their chests, it's important to note the kind of test the researchers administered. After reading the passage, students "wrote what they remembered in a free-form essay for 10 minutes. Then they reread the passage and took another retrieval practice test." So, to decipher the wonkitude, the students read a passage, wrote a reflection essay, reread the passage a second time, and then wrote another reflection essay.That's a far cry from bubbling in the letter "C" on a scantron form.
  • Ryan Folmer on 23 Jan 11
     
    A new study claims testing helps kids get smarter-except, the tests that make a difference aren't the ones you think.
Aly Kenee

Days Like This… | alytapp - 132 views

alytapp.com/...days-like-this

jing assessment screencast edtech

shared by Aly Kenee on 04 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Instead of scribbling marks in the margins of printed papers, I opened each student’s paper in Google Docs, highlighted text and inserted comments to clarify my thoughts, and then turned on the screen recorder (Jing) to record my voice as I scrolled through the paper and pointed to items with my mouse. Right after recording, I uploaded the finished recording to Jing’s companion hosting site, and then I simply copied and pasted the link to the recording directly into the Google Doc.
    • brianhammel
      brianhammel on 04 Oct 11
       
      Adding value in context rather than providing repetitive written comments in the summation.
  • After about four minutes, they began the next task, copying and pasting my reflection questions into the bottom of their docs, and then responding to those prompts as they reflected on their work and my feedback.
  • As I watched them, I couldn’t help but remember the way that I used to provide feedback. Students would receive their graded papers, flip past the comments I had scribbled in the margin, glance at the final grade, and then forget all about it.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • I always knew there was more I wanted to convey to them about their writing, about how they had or had not created meaning for the reader.
  • It took me about 10 minutes per paper, times 68 papers, so the last week and a half have been intense. If you’re doing the math, that’s over 11 hours of paper grading. If I am going to put in that kind of time for grading, I must see my students growing as writers. Period.
    • brianhammel
      brianhammel on 04 Oct 11
       
      Technology tool is NOT a time saver. The main goal for using the tool is not increased productivity by the teacher, but instead increased understanding by the student.
    • Aly Kenee
      Aly Kenee on 05 Oct 11
       
      Yes! You state that so eloquently. We often think of tech as nothing more than a tool for expediency.
  •  I liked knowing that my essay got individual attention, individual feedback, and I feel like you cared about what I wrote.
  • A small number of students (actually, fewer than 5) said that they didn’t feel that the verbal comments were all that helpful.
  • hurtful to hear me say out loud what was wrong with their papers
  • Writing is personal, and feedback can feel like an attack.
    • brianhammel
      brianhammel on 04 Oct 11
       
      On the flipside, writing is personal, and receiving impersonal and confusing written feedback can also be hurtful. The student spends so much time writing the assignment, but only receives a small amount of scribbled comments in the margin.
  • tried out a new way of assessing student work — screencasting
D. S. Koelling

5 Myths About the 'Information Age' - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Ed... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...127105

education myths information age books

shared by D. S. Koelling on 20 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • 1. "The book is dead." Wrong: More books are produced in print each year than in the previous year. One million new titles will appear worldwide in 2011. In one day in Britain—"Super Thursday," last October 1—800 new works were published.
  • 2. "We have entered the information age." This announcement is usually intoned solemnly, as if information did not exist in other ages. But every age is an age of information, each in its own way and according to the media available at the time.
  • 3. "All information is now available online." The absurdity of this claim is obvious to anyone who has ever done research in archives. Only a tiny fraction of archival material has ever been read, much less digitized. Most judicial decisions and legislation, both state and federal, have never appeared on the Web. The vast output of regulations and reports by public bodies remains largely inaccessible to the citizens it affects. Google estimates that 129,864,880 different books exist in the world, and it claims to have digitized 15 million of them—or about 12 percent.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • 4. "Libraries are obsolete." Everywhere in the country librarians report that they have never had so many patrons. At Harvard, our reading rooms are full. The 85 branch libraries of the New York Public Library system are crammed with people.
  • 5. "The future is digital." True enough, but misleading. In 10, 20, or 50 years, the information environment will be overwhelmingly digital, but the prevalence of electronic communication does not mean that printed material will cease to be important. Research in the relatively new discipline of book history has demonstrated that new modes of communication do not displace old ones, at least not in the short run.
  • I mention these misconceptions because I think they stand in the way of understanding shifts in the information environment. They make the changes appear too dramatic. They present things ahistorically and in sharp contrasts—before and after, either/or, black and white. A more nuanced view would reject the common notion that old books and e-books occupy opposite and antagonistic extremes on a technological spectrum. Old books and e-books should be thought of as allies, not enemies.
  • Last year the sale of e-books (digitized texts designed for hand-held readers) doubled, accounting for 10 percent of sales in the trade-book market. This year they are expected to reach 15 or even 20 percent. But there are indications that the sale of printed books has increased at the same time.
  • Many of us worry about a decline in deep, reflective, cover-to-cover reading. We deplore the shift to blogs, snippets, and tweets. In the case of research, we might concede that word searches have advantages, but we refuse to believe that they can lead to the kind of understanding that comes with the continuous study of an entire book. Is it true, however, that deep reading has declined, or even that it always prevailed?
  • Writing looks as bad as reading to those who see nothing but decline in the advent of the Internet. As one lament puts it: Books used to be written for the general reader; now they are written by the general reader. The Internet certainly has stimulated self-publishing, but why should that be deplored? Many writers with important things to say had not been able to break into print, and anyone who finds little value in their work can ignore it.
  • One could cite other examples of how the new technology is reinforcing old modes of communication rather than undermining them. I don't mean to minimize the difficulties faced by authors, publishers, and readers, but I believe that some historically informed reflection could dispel the misconceptions that prevent us from making the most of "the information age"—if we must call it that.
Jeremy Brueck

Closing in on Close Reading - 73 views

www.ascd.org/...osing-in-on-Close-Reading.aspx

Common Education reading literacy ELA Common Core CommonCore Close reading close_reading closereading

shared by Jeremy Brueck on 26 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • close reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension.
  • Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately.
  • If reading closely is the most effective way to achieve deep comprehension, then that's how we should teach students to read.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • But the teaching of reading veered significantly off track when those personal connections (also well represented on some high-stakes state assessments) began to dominate the teaching and testing of comprehension, often leaving the text itself a distant memory.
  • the shift to teaching reading as a set of thinking strategies too often left readers with the notion that the text was simply a launching point for their musings, images that popped into their heads, and random questions that, in the end, did little to enhance their understanding of the text itself.
  • examining meaning thoroughly and analytically
  • directing attention to the text, central ideas, and supporting details
  • reflecting on meanings of individual words and sentences
  • developing ideas over the course of the text
  • The best thinkers do monitor and assess their thinking, but in the context of processing the thinking of others (Paul & Elder, 2008)
  • kari schack on 26 Jul 13
     
    Close Reading
Nigel Coutts

Reflection from International Conference on Thinking ICOT - 16 views

thelearnersway.net/...iicot2015reflections

news review

shared by Nigel Coutts on 12 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Nigel Coutts on 12 Jul 15
     
    If we teach our children to think then they will do better on the test and they will do better in life. This was one of the clear messages delivered by the presenters at the International Conference on Thinking (ICOT) in Bilbao, Spain.
MIchael Heneghan

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November on Vimeo - 68 views

vimeo.com/3930740

education technology AlanNovember web2.0 teaching

shared by MIchael Heneghan on 05 Aug 10 - Cached
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "People learn through conversations"
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Easy to teach teachers to use technology. Difficult to get the teachers to shift control away from themselves to the kids."
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Tech robbed kids of the opportunity to make a contribution to their communities." How can I find a way to help kids contribute, via English class?
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Interdisc. Bauhaus created an amazing flow of ideas." How can we make our classes more interdisc.?
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Need authentic conversations locally and around the world"
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      All of these skills mentioned above are exactly what are essential in the 21st century workplace.
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "this gives students more of a choice to do the kinds of assignments they want to do, as opposed to just the teacher deciding." You would certainly need to check that they were doing challenging, relevant work.
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Teach kids really good research skills. Have them look up assignments and related material from other teachers from all over the world." And then do what with them?
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Have an official Note Taker each class as well. Have the class as a whole review the notes to see if they are good/correct."
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Another solution: you need to be more reflective on the body of work that you are doing. What have I learned? Where have I been and where am I going?" How do you do this?
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      Concrete idea for how to answer the above, last question. He used a concrete example from a 3rd grade class: "Have the kids create a podcast every week of what they learned. Have a writer, producer, mixer, etc." Would you do that during class time or outside of classtime?
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "One solution: have an official classroom researcher everyday in your class." The job would be to gather the websites that will be used connected to whatever it is you're studying? Is that right? Need more thought on this.
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Final Myth: Tech will make kids smarter. Actually it's a distraction. Creates more plagiarism and people wanting to get things done. Losing critical thinking." How can we use the enormous resources of the internet and at the same time increase critical thinking?
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "Another myth: the internet will give people a range of ideas. The opposite is true. People search out their version of the truth, e.g. Fox News or Huffington Post." I find this to be incredibly true.
    • MIchael Heneghan
      MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
       
      "It's a myth that tech will be the great equilizer in society. At least not for now." Why?
  • MIchael Heneghan on 20 Aug 10
     
    This was shared previously, but I've added many annotations I think teachers will find interesting.
andrew torris

Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis? - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...090128092341.htm

shared by andrew torris on 31 Jan 09 - Cached
  • "As students spend more time with visual media and less time with print, evaluation methods that include visual media will give a better picture of what they actually know
  • reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary," Greenfield said. "Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades."
    • Dana Huff
      Dana Huff on 01 Feb 09
       
      When was this magical time in the past when the majority of children read for pleasure?
    • Dana Huff
      Dana Huff on 01 Feb 09
       
      Interesting point about fanfiction. The way we read is definitely changing. We are becoming more participatory
  • ...3 more annotations...
    • Dana Huff
      Dana Huff on 01 Feb 09
       
      This doesn't mean that technology is to blame. The students were encouraged to use the Internet for what? I'll bet they were given no guidance and used it for whatever they wanted. No wonder they were distracted.
  • Adapted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles.
    • andrew torris
      andrew torris on 01 Feb 09
       
      For the source article (which is not much better) is at this link. Go leave a comment or two.
  • "Wiring classrooms for Internet access does not enhance learning," Greenfield said.
    • andrew torris
      andrew torris on 01 Feb 09
       
      will agree here. Wiring does not improve learning. What improves learning is teaching educators how to engage students to use the "wiring" to create, collaborate, share and publish. The net and "wires" allows students to delve deep into learning and apply their research rather that sit and "git".
  • Maggie Tsai on 31 Jan 09
     
    Worth thinking!
D. S. Koelling

The Liberal Arts Are Work-Force Development - Do Your Job Better - The Chronicle of Hig... - 35 views

chronicle.com/...128149

student education liberal arts

shared by D. S. Koelling on 07 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • Now consider that, according to the American Association of Community Colleges, about half of all freshmen and sophomores are enrolled at the nation's 1,300 two-year colleges, and many of those students transfer to four-year institutions. For a large percentage of people who earn bachelor's degrees, then, the liberal-arts portion of their education was acquired at a two-year college. Next, factor in all of the community-college students who enter the work force after earning two-year degrees or certificates, and whose only exposure to the liberal arts occurred in whatever core courses their programs required. The conclusion becomes obvious: Two-year colleges are among the country's leading providers of liberal-arts education, although they seldom get credit for that role.
  • Employers rank communication and analytical skills among the most important attributes they seek in new hires, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Perhaps those of us who teach those very skills at community colleges should embrace the integral role we play in preparing the nation's workers rather than rejecting the idea of work-force development as somehow beneath us.
  • More important, this new perspective could have a positive effect on student success. If we come to see ourselves as preparing students not just for transfer but ultimately for the work force, students may be more likely to understand the relevance of the skills that we teach them and better able to use those skills for some purpose other than just getting a passing grade.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Clearly, one of the best things we can do for students is to require them to write—a lot.
  • Require lots of writing. As the management guru Peter Drucker argued, communication is the one skill required of all professionals, regardless of field. "As soon as you take one step up the career ladder," he said, "your effectiveness depends on your ability to communicate your thoughts in writing and in speaking."
  • Focus on critical thinking. A common complaint of employers, as reflected in the NACE survey, is that many workers have difficulty thinking for themselves. They may be thoroughly trained, having mastered all of the concepts in the textbooks, but, inevitably, situations arise that weren't covered in the books. When that happens, the ability to think critically, independently, and creatively becomes indispensable.
  • Bring the real world into the classroom. Another strategy we can adopt, if we want our courses to be more relevant, is to make our class discussions, case studies, experiments, and assignments as real-world-based as possible. For example, in my composition courses, I not only allow students to choose their own essay topics, but I also encourage them to write about issues related to their prospective majors. I also assign reading (in addition to the old textbook standbys) from newspapers, popular magazines, even the Internet.
  • Make the connection. Take advantage of every opportunity to connect what students are doing in class with what they will be doing some day as employees. My students hear the term "the real world" so much that, by the middle of the term, they're starting to roll their eyes. But it's important for them to understand that the work we're doing now in class isn't just a series of meaningless exercises, another set of hoops for them to jump through on their way to a degree. They're going to have to do these things for real one day—describe processes, do research to find solutions, draw comparisons—and my course may be the last time anyone ever actually teaches them how.
Jennifer Diaz

13 Strategies to Improve Student Classroom Discussions - 149 views

www.weareteachers.com/...-student-classroom-discussions

6th grade Response to Literature Evidence student classroom strategies discussions

shared by Jennifer Diaz on 15 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • These 13-teacher and expert-tested strategies will strengthen your students' ability to find and use evidence from any text
  • Texts that inspire questions encourage students to return to the text and find support for their answers
  • starting with one overarching focus question
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Require students to have evidence ready at the start of the discussion
  • "prove it"
  • evidence will actually open up a text to different interpretations
  • The challenge is getting students to expand and explain. To get students to explain why they choose a piece of evidence, provide them with a structure that moves from evidence to interpretation. Williams' students use a graphic organizer with three columns: They write their answer in the first column, note textual evidence in the second, and explain their evidence in the third.
    • Jennifer Diaz
      Jennifer Diaz on 15 Nov 14
       
      I want to do this!
  • Use sentence starters strategically
  • In the text ... the author mentions ...
  • the author uses this evidence to ... this lets us know that ...
  • Give students enough time to flip through and find just the right piece of evidence. If other students are getting antsy, choose one of your always-ready students to share, then loop back to the student who needed time with the text
    • Jennifer Diaz
      Jennifer Diaz on 15 Nov 14
       
      Good idea to keep the pace moving, while providing enough time to find better evidence.
    • deniseahlquist
      deniseahlquist on 17 Nov 14
       
      And if you encourage a collaborative atmosphere, having students ALL look for evidence related to each person's idea will mean they are all engaged in searching whenever anyone makes a claim. Either choose someone who has found it, or have them mark the page and keep searching for more evidence. Then have students ALL GO to the passage cited, so they can closely follow and respond with additional or conflicting evidence.
  • "Just because there's more than one right answer," says Riley, "doesn't mean there's no wrong answer."
    • deniseahlquist
      deniseahlquist on 17 Nov 14
       
      Part of what students do when they all look for evidence for each idea is to learn to weigh evidence for competing ideas and sift out "weaker" or unsupported answers from "stronger" claims. Brainstorming an idea that later doesn't pan out should not e seen as bad or wrong, but more accurately as the way idea-generating and sifting actually happens in many situations.
  • According to page
  • create an anchor chart
    • Jennifer Diaz
      Jennifer Diaz on 15 Nov 14
       
      Create and authentic anchor chart of student/teacher generated starters and prompts.
  • Listen for how students personalize the discussion, and encourage them to develop their own voice.
  • go back to the text
  • They answer the focus question a second time, explain whether or not they changed their answers, and reflect on how the evidence brought up during discussion impacted their thinking.
  • Jennifer Diaz on 15 Nov 14
     
    Great ideas for 6th grade response to literature discussion and writing.
  • Tanya Kolkema on 18 Nov 14
     
    I haven't taught sixth grade for 3 1/2 years now, but if I ever go back to ms, I'd incorporate this into my weekly plans. One way I get my second graders to grow their thinking is by having them respond to one another using the following prompts:  I agree with the part about…  Going back to what you said about…  One thing I noticed…  One thing I pictured…  It reminded me of…  I am not sure what you are saying. Could you say it in another way?  I agree with what you are saying because…  What you just said matches what is in my mind because…  I hear what you are saying, but I see it differently because…  If what you said is true, is it not also true that…  That is true, but… Or - That is true, and…  Could you say more?  Could you give me an example?  I would like to add on to what _________ said.  I have an example of what you just said.  I wonder why…  I was surprised to see…  Another thing that goes with that is…  So are you saying…
Roland Gesthuizen

Inquire Within | It's not about getting the right answers but rather, asking really goo... - 7 views

inquiryblog.wordpress.com

inquiry blog inquirylearning teaching reflection learning inquire PBL

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 21 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • If we live in a collaborative world, why do we often wait until the work environment before we learn from others?  Why do teachers fight the system, or more likely just ignore it?
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 21 Nov 11
     
    How can we create the desire to inquire? That is a hard issue to grapple with (and worthy of much inquiry by educators), but I'm sure that: 1) it's not grades, and 2) there's no silver bullet to get students motivated to dig deeper and extend their own learning.  However, I think one great way to create deep motivation for some learners is encouraging them to leave a legacy.
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