Group items tagged

Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning? Who would dispute the idea that feedback is a good thing? Both common sense and research make it clear: Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement. Yet even John Hattie (2008), whose decades of research revealed that feedback was among the most powerful influences on achievement, acknowledges that he has "struggled to understand the concept" (p. 173). And many writings on the subject don't even attempt to define the term. To improve formative assessment practices among both teachers and assessment designers, we need to look more closely at just what feedback is-and isn't.

"When a teacher's goal is to enhance students' capacity for self-directedness, the how and why of providing feedback is crucial. Here are five forms of feedback, presented in descending order of their effectiveness in growing self-directedness."

"I am updating my workshop on how technology can be used to promote Voluntary Free Reading - the only undebatably fool-proof means of both improving reading proficiency and developing a life-long love of reading in every student. "

"Reflective practice is an important sub-component of teacher research. It includes journaling and talking about one's instructional practice. However, doing reflective practice is not the same as doing teacher research. Teacher researchers hypothesize and systematically test their ideas. They look to triangulate their ideas with multiple forms of evidence multiple perspectives (inside and outside of their research group) the research literature on this topic Teacher researchers also write about their projects. Writing is an important part of the process because it requires organization of ideas within a framework."

"Established Goals (ISTE NETS Standards) 2. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students: a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. 4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students: b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project. 5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students: d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. 6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems and operations. Students: b. select and use applications effectively and productively. d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies. Enduring Understandings: Students will understand that: Responsible digital citizens demonstrated shared characteristics, habits and attitudes. We can work together to teach others what we have learned. We can use web 2.0 tools to collaborate and communicate with a global audience. Essential Questions: What are the characteristics, habits and attitudes of a responsible digital citizen? How can we work together to teach others about responsible digital citizenship? How can we collaborate and communicate with others online? Assessment Evidence GRASPS Task Goal: Your goal is to produce a multimedia handbook about basic technology tools and digital citizenship for ISB

"The goal is to move beyond superficial peer conferencing and commenting, to dig into feedback that helps the "author" grow and improve in whatever form they are using. Too often the feedback students provide is superficial, commenting on what they liked without explaining why, offering generic improvement ideas, or focusing on less important elements (i.e. spelling, punctuation, etc.). How do we help students provide each other meaningful, productive feedback? How do we help students internalize those conversations to become their own best critical friend? "

"In cooperative learning, students work together, think together and plan together using a variety of group structures designed along an instructional path. This dynamic learning model breaks with the dusty forms of frontal teaching that often create classrooms of "lonesome togetherness" -- students who may sit together but live worlds apart. Cooperative learning creates what Daniel Goleman calls "cognitive empathy," a mind-to-mind sense of how another person's thinking works. The better we understand others, the better we know them -- pointing toward (among other virtues) greater trust, appreciation and generosity. "

"LEARNing Landscapes | Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring 2013 23 Michael Fullan , University of Toronto ABSTRACT There is currently a powerful push-pull factor in schooling. The push factor is that school is increasingly boring for students and alienating for teachers. The pull fac - tor is that the exploding and alluring digital world is irresistible, but not necessarily productive in its raw form. The push-pull dynamic makes it inevitable that disruptive changes will occur. I have been part of a group that has been developing innova - tive responses to the current challenges. This response consists of integrating three components: deep learning goals, new pedagogies, and technology. The result will be more radical change in the next five years than has occurred in the past 50 years. T here is currently a volatile push-pull dynamic intensifying in public schools. The push factor is that students are increasingly bored in school"

"Mini challenges are a great alternative to open exploration or direct instruction. They can be a form of guided discovery. We recommend starting with easier (easier to find, more intuitive, etc.) challenges and building up. Ideally these challenges are completed in pairs or small groups so that there is additional support and an immediate opportunity to "teach." A favorite final challenge is for the student(s) to come up with a challenge for the other pairs/groups or to prepare a "discovery" to share with the whole class using an LCD projector."

Join me! http://dlmooc.deeper-learning.org/

"Daniel H. Pink, author of "To Sell is Human" and "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" talks about the microeconomic fallacy that more pay begets more work and argues that humans are truly motivated by Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose, and why most of us spend a large portion of our day engaging in "non-sales selling" as we persuade, convince, and influence others to give up something in exchange for what we have. http://www.danpink.com/ http://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc"

Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose! About as trans-formative as D. Pink's Abundance, Automation, and Asia!

Daniel Pink asks what drives us. Sir Ken Robinson asks us to inspire creativity in our students. The latest in education is asking us to teach our students to create their own questions, do their own research, and form their own conclusions with their learning. Why?

"We want a team to think about action research as a collaborative endeavor, where principals and teachers work together to improve something over time. It's not just about gathering data, it's about working hard to improve something. Maybe you see a need to improve writing in the building, and you're going to figure out whether there's a way to take a techno-constructivist approach to strengthening students' writing skills. Maybe you feel the culture of your school is very mired in antiquated approaches to teaching and learning, and you want to build a new culture of innovation and collaboration, so you're going to develop your project around that goal."

"where principals and teachers work together to improve something over time" HA! Techno-constructivist? Could this term be applicable to the age of chalkboard and chalk innovation? I just don't think research resultant data is going to lead the way to anything but more "initiatives". As learning facilitators, we are drowning in them and the learner targets are confused beyond measure. Maybe, the answer is as simple as priority setting AND the genuine wherewithal to put those priorities in place. If I were an instructional leader, rather than a innovative pariah or low tech Luddite, I might say that my campus community is going to tackle a learning fundamental, close reading. I form a committee, we plan activities, we go...in isolated boxes of 41 minutes x 7, while filing out reams of busy work paper & electronic documentation, while building character, fostering the whole child, honoring the best spitters of knowledge with assembly recognition and the rounds and rounds of testing - not a measure of learning, but a measure of the course and scope delivery of bloated curricula....all on a schedule determined and unchangeable by the number of buses owned and operated...that developed project is actually doomed to ineffectiveness not because of its inherent flaws, but because that leader is both structurally and functionally prevented from making it a reality. Study and Commission and White Paper away, the results are predetermined! The really sadness here is that we KNOW how to pull this off - High Tech High and New Tech Network Schools and others I can't think of that have freed themselves from structural inertia...but we wring our hands and continue to fashion work-around initiatives....that we know in advance simply will not work.

"Three Ring unlocks the power of your mobile phone or iPad. Now it's easy for teachers and students to document evidence from the classroom. Capture anything, regardless of format, in just seconds. Take a picture of any paper, drawing, or board work. Record presentations or discussions with audio or video. Students can upload their own work from any mobile device or computer."

"BLCFeatureTopicIn this episode of the November Learning Podcast Series, Alan November speaks to Ian VanderSchee, an upper level mathematics teacher at Coppell High School, in Texas. The two discuss Ian's implementation of Alan's "First 5 Days" ideas at the start of this school year and how these ideas have positively impacted his students ever since. To learn more about these and other possible "First 5 Days" implementations, we encourage you to read Alan's book, Who Owns the Learning, and we invite you to attend the Building Learning Communities conference being held this summer in Boston. You can learn about both of these on our Web site at http://www.novemberlearning.com. You might also share your thoughts and stories about the "First 5 Days" on Twitter, using the hashtag #1st5days."