Preparing Students for Winter EXAMs

Preparing students for exams means helping them De-stress through goal setting, organizing the information, and Planning how often and how much to study.

Below is a plan to scaffold student test preparation. In addition, students will meet with me to discuss how to 'chunk' review guides, how to handle procrastination (goal setting), what does effortful studying look like, and finally how, when, and why do students SEEK help and from whom?

Self-Efficacy and Motivation: High School students

            Every September my junior class of high school students begins their first day by reflecting on the previous year's successes and difficulties: "Which subject/class did you feel most successful and why?" Which class did you feel less successful? Why?" These questions allow my students to reflect on how they approached learning. Additionally, this self-reflection helps me better understand my students' epistemic beliefs which informs how I approach helping them stay motivated throughout the year.

            To further help my students become aware of their own learning; I ask that they set a goal for the year. Included in the goal are 2-3 objectives that will help them reach this goal and 1 or 2 things that undermine their success. At first, the juniors I work with moan and groan about setting goals. However, by November they are beginning to see the utility in the goal, especially because our biweekly meetings revolve around the progress toward the goal and the ultimate result...academic success. 

            This approach for helping students become independent learners is grounded in the social-cognitive theory of self-regulation learning (SRL).  Self-regulated learners are active participants in their learning. They are motivated by the goals they set and sustain motivation through their choice of strategies and feedback received from self-assessments or from others, i.e., teachers, parents, peers. (Zimmerman 2002)  

            Self-regulated learners are more likely to be the successful students in school. These are the kids who have a plan for this week's homework and tests, they study effectively, and make good choices about strategies that improve their learning environment. Every year, my efforts begin in the forethought phase of SRL and cycle through all the phases throughout the year. My students and I move through phases, sometimes in a linear fashion, at other times we have to cycle back or forward until the goals are attained and new goals are created.  My goal?. . .Self-regulated seniors in June.

How do we teach kids to control inhibition? Brain Research says...

What My Teacher Should Know About My Learning Style: RISA Conference Presentation: Rome, Italy (2011)

A review by cognitive psychologists Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork (Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence 2008) of all major studies promoting learning style found that the literature fails to provide adequate support for applying learning-style assessments in school settings. Does this mean using learning style information is not valid for teachers? No, it does not.

Learning styles is a useful tool for metacognition. Learning styles, like its forebear the Myers-Briggs assessment (C. Jung 1964), is a useful tool for identifying preferences and understanding how an individual learns best. Knowing the 'best' modality for acquiring information (cognitive processes) allows students to make decisions about how to best study, listen to lectures, plan and complete long-term projects.

What teachers should know about learning style is that it has the utility for motivating students. Brunner, Majewski, and Quinn (1993) found that when students recognize that they can succeed academically, their self-esteem increases and their behavior improves. Thus, the learning style data can be adopted to helping students understand themselves as learners and helping them use that information to succeed.

While the study by Pashler et. al. does not provide sufficient evidence to design educational grouping by learning styles, it does provide information useful for understanding how learning profiles can be used to help students understand how to code information (metacognitive processes) according to their best modality (learning-to-learn). In addition, teachers can use learning style information to develop instruction with elements for all learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic). One such mode of instruction is the Universal Design Learning (UDL)model. The Universal Design Learning model is based on principles that promote lessons infused with the elements necessary for all learners (auditory, visual and kinesthetic) to transfer information from sensory memory to long-term memory.

Universal design learning (UDL) uses multiple, accessible instructional methods that are accessible to all learners. Example: Use multiple modes to deliver content; when possible allow students to choose from multiple options for learning; and motivate and engage students-consider lectures, collaborative learning options, hands-on activities, Internet-based communications, educational software, field work, and so forth. In addition, UDL provides specific feedback on a regular basis. Example: Allow students to turn in parts of large projects for feedback before the final project is due. UDL is about regularl assessments of student progress using multiple accessible methods and tools, and adjust instruction accordingly. Example: Assess group and cooperative performance, as well as individual achievement. Finally universal design learning is planning for accommodations for students whose needs are not met by the instructional design. Example: Know campus protocols for getting materials in alternate formats, rescheduling classroom locations, and arranging for other accommodations for students with disabilities.

Some strategies for ensuring lesson plans include all learners are: highly structured lessons, explicit instructions, use of "Essential Question," Maps of the Lesson Plan (LEARN); Frontloading ELL learners with the vocabulary; Temporal spacing, Interleaving, Graphic Organizers to go along with lectures, Cornell Note taking, turn textbook heading into questions, etc.






For more brain based teaching ideas go to

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev156b.shtml

To view or copy the RISA presentation slide:
http://prezi.com/vmlei5jlvo9y/what-my-teacher-should-know-about-my-learning-style/

ESL or Learning Deficit

"Math is lagging by a year." "Reading and Writing are lagging by 3 years."  Is this a learning deficit. Maybe not..."That student in the room with the worst grades may be behind because of language learning . Acquiring fluency in a language for academic purposes can take many years past the oral acquisition stage.
It takes anywhere from 2 to 7 years to acquire a language. Yet, we often assume that if a student has been in a language program for 3-4 years and speaks (almost ) fluently then academics should be in par with their oral skills. However, this is not always true. Academic lags may exist for many years past the acquistion of oral skills due to weak knowledge of the vocabulary, idioms, and/or semantics.
What is the solution? Offering more English support. Breakdown the English curriculum into English Composition, English Literature and English survey (reading mastery).  Offer all of these to ELL students until they can meet the curriculum standards. Teach to Mastery.

Coding to Memory

As the first term comes to an end and parent teacher conferences begin...teachers want answers to why some students are not performing. One answer may be because students have not coded the information to memory and thus cannot retrieve it for tests. 

Working memory has everything to do with this aspect of learning but so does the dual coding theory of memory. The dual coding theory states that information must be organized for storage and retrieval using both visual and auditory senses (Pavio 1979).  I go further to state, that for our kinesthetic students, dual coding is helped when they summarize/use note-taking techniques to read or make mind-maps. Information presented in different modes enhaces the coding of that information to memory.

The Question I post to you, the blog readers, is: Do you have a strategy to share for coding and what subject is it best suited for?

Frequently Asked Questions after the MAIS 2010 RtI workshop?

First, let me say that I think Response to Intervention is not new...it's a new way of organizing and formalizing what schools already do. So, why term it? Categorize it? Rule base it? Because data is needed to tease out the 'specific problem' hampering a student's progress through the curriculum. This data helps educators tailor the intervention approach to the identified student difficulty. And, it is essential to demonstrate when a student is ready to fly solo...or not.

Now, the question asked most of me, after the workshop, was 'what does RtI look like?' I took this to mean: how is it organized (timing and frequency)? What curriculum is used to address the skill deficits? And, how do you report? *I could have used two more sessions to address these* But, alas! The time was short!

Let me address the importance of timing and frequency before anything else… A student who is struggling cannot afford to miss class instruction time. This student SHOULD NOT be pulled out to be taught the curriculum during instructional time. This is not RtI; this type of intervention is used with students with Individualized Educational Plans (IEP): accommodations/adaptations/modifications. RtI is coaching! Tier II intervention is done in addition to class instruction. Difficult for some schools, I know, but it is essential the Tier II intervention be in addition to classroom instruction.

 The Tier II intervention, “Coaching,” should take place three-times per week for 20-30 minutes. The instruction should be relevant to the lesson the student has been presented by the classroom teacher. The materials used should be curriculum based, i.e. the chapter review questions, probes created from the text, or homework questions assigned/not assigned by the teacher.

 The RtI model of remediation is ‘chock-full’ of repetitions and restatements of directions and concepts, and has lots and lots of practice time built-in. For example, my math group begins their 30 minute Tier II intervention with 2 or 3 problems of the day (PODs). These problems are exactly like the problems they missed in the summative assessments used to identify them. The problems can address a multitude of identified skill deficits (place value errors, spatial errors, or math word knowledge).

Next, the Tier II group works independently (after a guided, direct instruction mini-lesson) on specific math pages of the text book (repetition). Using the textbook is important as it is relevant learning in the eyes of the student. While in the independent phase of Tier II, the RtI coach gives one-on-one assistance as needed and is able to bring the group together for a collective lesson or restatement of a concept when there is a common skill the group is collectively demonstrating a difficulty with.

Finally, the success of RtI depends on constant assessment of skills. Notice, I did not say testing of skills. The probes administered to students weekly or biweekly are used to analyze and track the errors, not for grading but to drive instruction. A successful RtI program uses data collection to graphically demonstrate each student’s decrease in errors and increase in efficiency. The steady incline of correct answers to probe and/or CBM questions means student is responding to intervention.

One last thing, RtI is not a 'one-size fits all' program. It is very important to have an open discussion about what resources are available and what you want the program to achieve.