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Janet Hale

Is differentiated instruction a hollow promise? - 0 views

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    "It looks to me as if one of the most acclaimed reforms of today's education profession-not just in the U.S. but also all over the planet-is one of the least examined in terms of actual implementation and effectiveness. How often and how well do instructors, whose administrators and gurus revere the concept of differentiated instruction, actually carry it out? How well does it work and for which kids under what circumstances? So far as I can tell, nobody really knows. I've been roaming the globe in search of effective strategies for educating high-ability youngsters, particularly kids from disadvantaged circumstances who rarely have parents with the knowledge and means to steer them through the education maze and obtain the kind of schooling (and/or supplementation or acceleration) that will make the most of their above-average capacity to learn. As expected, I've found a wide array of programs and policies intended for "gifted education," "talent development," and so forth, each with pluses and minuses."
Janet Hale

A Four-Phase Process For Implementing Essential Questions - 0 views

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    "We had a delightful visit to The School of the Future in New York City the other day. Lots of engaged kids, a great blend of instruction and constructivist work, and an obvious intellectual culture. And as the picture illustrates, everywhere we went we also saw helpful visual reminders of the big ideas and essential questions framing the work we were watching: School of the Future staff have long been users of UbD tools and ideas. But far too often over the years I have seen plenty of good stuff posted like this - but no deep embedding of the Essential Question (EQ) into the unit design and lessons that make it up. Merely posting the EQs and occasionally reminding kids of it is pointless: the aim is to use the question to frame specific activities, to provide perspective and focus, to prioritize the course, and to signal to students that, eventually, THEY must - on their own - pose this and other key questions. (Note: I am not criticizing what we saw and heard at SoF, rather using this teachable moment to raise an issue that needs addressing by almost all faculty using our work.)"
Janet Hale

On transfer as the goal in literacy (7th in a series) | Granted, and... - 0 views

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    "n the previous literacy post I identified a few take-away questions and related issues from my recent research on comprehension, and looked at some tips related to the 1st question: Do students understand the real point of academic reading? Do students understand that the aim of instruction is transfer of learning? Am I using the right texts for making clear the value of strategies? Do students understand the difference between self-monitoring understanding and knowing what they might do when understanding does not occur? Am I attending to the fewest, most powerful comprehension strategies for academic literacy? Am I helping them build a flexible repertoire instead of teaching strategies in isolation? Do students have sufficient general understanding of the strategies (which is key to transfer)? Am I doing enough ongoing formal assessment of student comprehension, strategy use, and tolerance of ambiguity?"
Janet Hale

Will ESSA Offer New Leadership Opportunities for Educators? - Teacher-Leader Voices - E... - 0 views

  • 3) Teacher leadership is actually supported in ESSA. For the first time, there are numerous references made to teacher leadership in ESEA, offering an opportunity for school systems to channel federal funds into teacher leadership and to think about staffing schools differently: P. 319, lines 17-21: "providing training and support for teacher leaders and principals or other school leaders who are recruited as part of instructional leadership teams." P. 333, lines 11-17: "A description of the local educational agency's systems of professional growth and improvement, such as induction for teachers, principals, or other school leaders and opportunities for building the capacity of teachers and opportunities to develop meaningful teacher leadership." P. 350, lines 15-18: "successful fulfillment of additional responsibilities or job functions, such as teacher leadership roles" P. 356-357, lines 21-25 and 1-3: "authority to make staffing decisions that meet the needs of the school, such as building an instructional leadership team that includes teacher leaders or offering opportunities for teams or pairs of effective teachers or candidates to teach or to start teaching in high-need schools together."
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    "So how will the Every Student Succeeds Act be different? "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme!" is a caution for us; we need to learn where we went wrong with NCLB and waivers. One key error was the development of well-intentioned policies without the benefit of practicing educators at the decision making table. National polling shows that only 2% of teachers feel their voices are heard at the national level. My colleague Justin Minkel calls it the "implementation gap" - the gulf between a policy's intended impact and its actual impact once it rolls out with real kids in real classrooms. When you don't have practicing educators assisting with the decision making, that gap is inevitable. ESSA provides new access points to teachers in three ways..."
Janet Hale

Stretching One Great Teacher Across Many Classrooms : NPR Ed : NPR - 0 views

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    "A stack of research suggests that all the classroom technology in the world can't compare to the power of a great teacher. And, since we haven't yet figured out how to clone our best teachers, a few schools around the country are trying something like it: Stretching them across multiple classrooms. "We'll probably never fill up every single classroom with one of those teachers," says Bryan Hassel, founder of Charlotte-based education consulting firm Public Impact. But, he says, it's important to ask: "How can we change the way schools work so that the great teachers we do have can reach more of the students, maybe even all of them?""
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