Please finish Teaching With The Brain In Mind... by tomorrow! Just kidding! Tomorrow's meeting will be about the brain in mind. The last set of postings... and the last meeting (August 5th) will be conclusions. Narrowing our ahas, and identifying 4-8 strategies that you are committing to using in your classroom throughout the year.
Post away, see you Thursday (seriously... I'll be there).
I'll also have CSAP results! Last year I made the chart where we looked at 3 scores:
Advanced & Proficient
Advanced
Unsatisfactory
Last year Altona had 7 #1 scores and 9 #2 scores between the Advanced & Proficient and Advanced. This year we had 13 #1 scores and 2 #2 scores between the 20 assessmsnts and the 12 middle school's in the district! On top of that, our Unsatisfactory scores were virtually halved! Pretty impressive!
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8 comments:
Chapter 10 was my favorite from this last section of reading. What it said in essence is that students MUST engage content. It made me think of the many strategies we learned with Montano. Jensen advocates for this as well in the practical applications he offers on pages 133 and 141: compare/contrast, summary, nonlinguistic representations, analysis, grouping/regrouping, pictures to help with vocabulary...Montano's tools and tangibles do exactly these things.
I also liked Jensen’s suggestion on p 142: “Create opportunities for students to discuss their learning, to debrief it…” This helps students become metacognitively aware of their own learning and that is key to retention. AND- I have found that they really enjoy it because of the sense of accomplishment they gain.
One thing that challenged me from this section was a statement from chapter 12: “Make differentiation and customization the norm in your classroom, not the exception” (155). I find this to be the most challenging aspect of teaching. It is a bit overwhelming to think that every kid in each class is a unique learner. However, applying these strategies and giving students opportunities to engage content in multiple ways will hopefully help each one understand subject matter in a way that is meaningful for him/her.
I agree with Jenay that differentiating in the classroom is difficult, but we have to in order to teach all students. The strategies that we will use will help every student, but will really benefit those kids that have difficulties. Giving students multiple ways to show their knowledge of the content is important.
I found it surprising from Chapter 10, pg 133, that 5-12 year olds can only handle one or two bits of data at a time. I know that in class I have given instructions with at least 3-5 commands. It is no wonder that the students were getting frustrated because they could not do all of them which of course frustrated me as well. For some students they have an accommodation in their IEP about limiting/chunking info. or giving directions in one or two steps. It sounds like this is typical for all students and not just those with learning problems. Chapter 11 discussed pre-exposure, physical environment, during class steps, and the after class steps. This is one of the most important pieces of info. for me to remember and put into action once school starts. The pre-exposure will be the most important part since it sets the foundation for the class. It will take time which as we know is limited this coming year, but my teaching will be more effective if I can incorporate these strategies.
Like Laurie, that students can only handle one to two bits of information or instructions at a time was a real eye opener for me. It seems so inefficient to give directions one at a time, but then the time saved when not having to repeat things. I am very guilty of giving 5 - 7 directions at a time to students.
One other take home message for me was that on priming students, so they are prepared days, weeks, or even months in advance for upcoming topics.
Like Jenay I constantly struggle with differentiation and doing this in an effective way and also an efficient way. While I agree with Laurie that it must happen, as our classes get bigger and bigger we all will need more help and more implicit thought on our own part to make it happen. I like Jensen's suggestion of making sure when doing lesson plans to think through what students are going to struggle with the lesson and where they are going to struggle. I am usually so busy trying to make sure that the lesson is engaging, hands on, has movement, and is content rich I sometimes forget the students who might struggle with the lesson.
The “Practical Suggestions” in chapter 10 offered many simple yet extremely beneficial ways to improve students’ memory recall.
Figure 10.9, Rules for Strengthening Learner Memory, is a good guide to use when planning. How will we implement these tips to be most beneficial to all students, individually and collectively?
Chapter 11 was another good source or review for planning. In addition to the suggested time percentages in Figure 11.1 the before, during, and after class sections provide and excellent daily planning review.
While I’d heard it before, it wasn’t something I necessarily have done on a regular basis… P. 142 reminds us that “presenting the most important material in a lesson first thing and last thing can improve recall.” Like Jenay, the ideas on p. 133 jumped out at me. I especially want to try and group and regroup material into different categories, thus providing more pathways to recall. While I think I’ve been good with “wait time”, like others who have posted, I have overloaded the directions. I want to incorporate more movement thus increasing neurons and creating a more stable memory this year. I want to try to “prime” more in advance while still keeping the most important thing at the beginning and the end. Lots to keep in mind…
Jensen, like our other authors, offers a huge revelation into how students learn and what we can do as educators to maximize that process. What I started to think about when I was reading, however, is how the educational system produced well-educated people when all there was for strategy was the very static, traditional sit and git process – none of the individualized, personalized, movement-rich, brain oriented approaches were in the works for decades and longer, and yet schools were able to produce students who learned. Note, I am not advocating a return to the sit and git, or saying it is/was a quality approach, just wondering why it seemed to work as well as it appears it did when there weren’t any other options and limited knowledge of how students actually learn.
As for what popped out of the reading, I, like others have mentioned already, was surprised with the idea of students only being able to absorb such a limited amount of information or directions at a time. I know that is something I am going to have to work on in class. I also agree with Janay’s comment about differentiation and individualization, and how difficult but necessary it is to actually implement in the classroom.
Of the many suggestions given in Chapter 10 for memory and recall I especially liked the ideas on pgs. 138-142. Priming using cues, hints, and wait time during various stages of learning is an effective part of teaching content as well as triggering memory of past knowledge. I know that my brain needs a lot of priming daily so it can’t hurt to find and use effective ways to help our students trigger bits of memory that they can use to solve problems in class and become better learners. The list of rules on page 142, to help strengthen learner memory, can be applied to any classroom. Many of these rules can be used in our 55 minute classes (repetition, movement, error correction and feedback, details, etc.).
Chapter 10 was riveting for me, with regard to helping both students and myself. I took notice when on p. 125, he said, "Children today probably learn a great deal more than they demonstrate, and the ways we ask for recall are part of the problem of "forgetful students." In other words, it's on me. I was very interested by the Practical Suggestions. For instance, stopping after every page to process and take notes; this is built into the Interactive Readers we use in 7th grade, which I'm really excited about. When Jensen says, "If you are lecturing, after just a few minutes let students pair up and reteach," I think back with dismay at some of the lectures I have launched into in the past. I'll be keeping a close eye on this; as the author says, I can go faster and squeeze in more info, but they are not going to retain it. I plan to try to help the kids process learning with implicit memory, by making emotional connections, using movement and hands-on activities, and periodically changing the physical set-up of the room. Also, though I'm tempted to say that I "can't afford" to take the time to review material at the end of every class, the truth is that I can't afford not to.
In Chapter 11, I would love to discuss the idea of using the first few minutes of class to "positively influence your students' states" and "create a positive social climate." My plan was to have the students sit down right away and get to work on the posted grammar warm-up, and wondering if these two goals are mutually exclusive.
In Chapter 12, Jensen says "It would be easy to develop instruments to measure students' love of learning," but does not go on to offer any suggestions. Anyone?
And the big final lesson on page 157: "If I can learn in a way that satisfies me, I will learn anything you want me to." I'd say that's worth the extra effort.
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