Expanding our "Teaching Menus"

“Some classes, it’s like peanut butter and jelly for lunch every single day. But in this class, it’s like my teacher really knows how to cook. It’s like she runs a really big restaurant with a big menu..."

The above is from an interview Carol Tomlinson (DI guru and my academic crush) conducted with a student. Besides her nice grasp of simile, this kid really gets the need for variety in a classroom.

I'll be the first to admit, there were plenty of days in my own classroom where PB & J was the only thing on the menu. To extend the metaphor . . . PB & J was what I was good at. I had mastered it. Plus, I liked PB & J. It was one of my own favorites.

But when I read the above quote, I am forced to ask myself: What about those students I had who didn't like PB & J (still with the metaphor here)? Maybe some who hated it? Maybe some who liked it sometimes, but were pretty sick of it when it was the only option most days? Was I providing them enough variety? Was I providing them enough "nutrients" -- what about all those other foods I could have been serving? Veggies, fruit, even the occasional ice cream?

You know what? I wasn't growing as a "chef," either. Sure, my PB & J was darn good, but what else was on the menu? I wasn't stretching myself to learn to prepare new things -- I was stuck in a comfort zone rut.

When we think about differentiation, we should embrace it as an opportunity to expand our teaching menus, to grow so that we are also running "really big restaurant[s] with . . . big menu[s]." It will benefit our students -- after all, we're trying to nourish everyone, but they don't all have to eat the same thing at the same time to get that nourishment. It will benefit us as teachers, too, enabling us to grow.

The focus of my upcoming summer workshop is how to plan this kind of "menu," including the use of different types of assessments, different options to offer our students, all while keeping their "tastes" and "dietary needs" in mind. It's still not too late to sign up -- if you're interested, and/or have questions, just let me know. Or, if you can't make the workshop, we can plan on working together in a coach/coachee capacity towards this end. 

Happy cooking!

Establishing a Classroom Culture for DI

Many teachers understandably fear what their students' reactions will be to a differentiated classroom. Will they notice that some students may be doing different work than they are? Will they feel "on display" if the teacher calls them to the side for some small group instruction? Will they feel differentiation is "unfair"?

These are, as I said, understandable concerns. We want our students to feel comfortable in our classrooms. But we can't let these concerns prevent us from delivering effective instruction to all students.

Carol Tomlinson, noted DI expert and a personal academic crush of mine, recommends bringing our students into a conversation about differentiation in order to establish a classroom culture conducive to and accepting of DI. Here are some questions she suggests (from her book, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, co-authored with M.B. Imbeau, 2010) teachers pose to begin this kind of dialogue with students:

O Who are you as learners? (Are you all alike or are there important differences?)

O Given the differences we see, how should I teach you?

O If our classroom is going to work for all of us, what will it be like? (How will it need to function? What roles will each of us play?)

O How can I learn more about your starting points, interests, & best ways of learning?

O If we have a differentiated classroom, can it be fair? (What will “fair” mean in this room?)

O What will success in this class mean? (How will I know if you’re succeeding? How will you know?)

 

Think about the students you had this past year. How would they respond to these questions? In my 

experience, students recognize and understand the need for DI much more than we think they might.

So, if you're planning on including DI in your classes next year, think about beginning the school 

year with this kind of conversation with your students -- be upfront with them, bring them on board.

It should lead to smoother sailing for all of you when the time comes for some differentiated lessons. 

 

Shameless plug alert: The above is just a slice of what my summer workshop will offer this year. You

can still sign up -- let me know if you're interested and/or have questions! 

Differentiating for Readiness

Sometimes when we differentiate for readiness, we do so based on data analysis of tickets-to-leave, or quiz or test results. We bring this data home with us, conduct error analyses, and allow the data to inform our instruction.

That's great, and works well. But, you can mix it up, too. Sometimes you can differentiate for readiness based on a more "on-the-spot" assessment, or check-for-understanding. This will allow your instruction to be informed right then and there -- you don't have to wait until the next day (or, let's be honest, sometimes it can be a few days to a week before you've had a chance to grade those quizzes and analyze the data).

One way to do this is to give your students a task at the very beginning of class, one that will allow you to quickly assess whether the student "gets it" or not. If you're interested in this, you have got to check out this video!!! (It's only about 3-4 minutes long . . . go ahead -- check it out!)


Here's what I love so much about what this teacher does:

• He quickly circulates as students complete the opening task, simply marking an E or an S on each student's paper. Simple, do-able.
• He uses some great language when getting ready to differentiate. If students have an E on their paper, then they are "ready for the extension." If students have an S, then they are "ready for support" or "ready for a session." Students are not told what they "need," which can sound sort of demeaning to those who "need help." Rather, they're informed about what they're "ready" for. Semantics can be so simple and powerful.
• There's some student self-assessment and choice built in. He marks some students' papers with an E/S, acknowledging that they are a bit "on the fence" with that task, and allows them to decide what they will do -- seek out the extension, or the support. Maybe they'll try out the extension and run with it. Or maybe they'll try it out and decide they'd like more support. 

Want to start trying out this kind of stuff in your classroom? Give me a holler -- I'd love to help!

Thinking about Vocabulary

When I was a classroom teacher, vocabulary instruction and assessment was always a challenge. What was the best way to teach content-area vocabulary? What was the best way to assess it? Were my students really learning new words to the point that they were owning them, or were they just learning them enough to pass a vocab quiz, never to think about them again?

After much research and thinking about this, I must confess -- I'm not sure I have all the answers. (Sorry! It would be sooooo much easier if I did, I know!) But I have learned some tried and true lessons when it comes to vocabulary instruction and assessment.

Here are my "biggies," my vocabulary non-negotiables:

• Focus on vocabulary depth versus vocabulary breadth. A more meaningful approach to learning certain key words well can have much more impact than "covering" a list of 20-30 terms at once.
• Focus on building a conceptual vocabulary with your students. This means choosing to teach vocabulary that is content-specific and is essential in understanding major concepts (in a literature course, this might also mean teaching a conceptual vocabulary within a literature theme). 
• According to Janet Allen (amazing author of Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12), the best impact on learning (and owning) vocabulary is repeated exposure to 5-10 useful words per week. This exposure must, however, be meaningful -- words need to be used in a meaningful context 10-15 times in order for students to master them (this does not include writing definitions over and over again, something I remember doing throughout my own education).
• Give students a vocabulary pre-test for a unit (if the unit has a large number of vocabulary words, think about breaking up the unit in terms of vocabulary -- take a smaller chunk at a time, including for pre- and post-tests). Let this pre-test inform your instruction (this might cause you to differentiate vocabulary studies for students with varying vocabulary knowledge).
• Create and actively use a word wall in your classroom per unit. (I could write an entire post on how best to actively use word walls so that they don't get forgotten about!)
• Be sure to deliberately teach the vocabulary words throughout the unit. Also, be sure these words are used by both yourself and your students multiple times throughout the unit (there are lots of ways to do this I am happy to share with you!).
• Finally, give students the vocabulary post-test. Let's see how they did!

I get pretty excited about vocabulary instruction and assessment these days. If you'd like to try out some new methods with your students, just let me know -- I'm here to help!

There's More Than One Way to Participate in Class

As a student, I loved class discussions. I was in my comfort zone. Asking questions, offering up evidence-based opinions, thinking through something while talking, understanding and making meaning through dialogue -- these were all skills perfectly suited to my learning styles and preferences.

As a teacher, however, I began to notice that class discussions (both formal and informal) were primarily beneficial to the same kinds of student I was (and still am), students with the same types of learning styles I had. Other students struggled with participation in class discussions not because they didn't care or because they were lazy, but mostly because this was not how they learned best. Some of them couldn't keep up with the learning that happens in a fast-paced discussion because this was not the optimal way for them to process and think about information; making meaning through on-the-spot dialogue didn't work for their learning styles.

Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't all have to stretch at times and work outside of our comfort zones; being asked to learn in a way that doesn't match up with your own learning preferences is not only fine, it's a great way to improve and grow as a learner. However, with that said, it is also a good idea to not rely too heavily on types of activities that all fall under the same learning style.

One way to do this is to re-think what participation can look like in a class discussion. There are a myriad of ways to do so, but I'll offer one up to you this week: take it virtual!

There are lots of benefits to having your students participate in an online discussion. It can provide students with more time to process what their peers are sharing, more time to come up with a response that's really phrased effectively. The discussion is "recorded," so you can revisit it anytime. Students can share links to websites and videos and other online resources that help them illustrate their points. And often, the students who shine in an online discussion are those who may be more reluctant to speak up during class -- online discussions can be real confidence-builders for these students, leading to them opening up during class more often.

Edline has an online discussion forum that teachers can set up for their classes to have online discussions. And there are other (free!) sites that offer online discussion forums as well. Two popular, user-friendly sites are Edmodo and Collaborize Classroom -- check them out! 

A Cool Tech Tip

I'm usually not the go-to person for cool tech tips, but -- surprise! -- I've got one for you this week.

I just finished reading a teacher's blog that you can access here. In it, she shares a great idea for making rubrics more interactive. (Okay, okay, so it's not really my tech tip . . . I'm borrowing it from this blogger. But I still get some credit, right?)

The idea is to include QR codes on a rubric. QR codes, if you don't know, are those little things popping up everywhere that look like this:

You can scan a QR code with your smart phone and -- voila! -- it will bring you right to a particular website. It's technology magic!

It's pretty easy to do, too -- just visit any of the number of available sites that allow you to create a QR code for free, like this one.

Once you've got the knack for creating a QR code, you can paste it onto any document. For an interactive rubric (such as the one from the blog I referred you to above), simply paste the QR code alongside one of your rubric's items. This particular teacher knew her students were struggling with correctly integrating quotes into their essays. So, she placed a QR code on her rubric in the "Quotation Integration" column to help them out -- once this QR code was scanned, it would take students to a video this teacher found on YouTube all about properly integrating quotations. 

QR codes can be a helpful way to flip your classroom a bit. And we don't have to stop at rubrics. QR codes could be placed on a homework assignment sheet or even on something students might be working on during class (if you allow them to use devices like smart phones for learning purposes in your classroom). QR codes could be used to take your students to a tutorial video as described above, or to online quizzes, websites, articles, surveys you wish your students to complete, images . . . the possibilities are endless!

A Few Tips for Tiering

I've been thinking a LOT about tiered instruction lately since I'm working with a few teachers who are venturing bravely into that particular type of differentiation. I say "bravely" not because anyone should be terrified of tiering, but because starting anything new or changing up your practices and getting a bit outside your comfort zone is always scary.

Managing your class when groups of students are working on different tasks from one another can seem overwhelming. This post will outline a few very practical suggestions for managing the time and space structures of your classroom when tiering (hopefully making it all seem a bit less scary).

First of all, try to reduce the amount of time (and noise!) it can take for students to get into groups. Post a seating chart on your board all filled out with students' names and the locations they need to report to. This way, as students enter the room (before the bell has even rung!), they can make their way to their assigned spot for the day. No need to spend class time getting everyone to where they need to be!

Here's another thing you can take care of ahead of time: at each table or group of desks where groups will meet, place a folder with copies of that particular group's assignment and any other materials they may need. Once again, this saves you from spending class time getting each assignment to each group, and it also allows students to get started right away.

Speaking of students getting started right away, here comes my final tip for today: be explicit! A huge part of ensuring that tiered instruction will be successful is giving students the tools they need to be able to work independently. If the assignment and its accompanying directions and instructions is explicit, detailed, specific, in student-friendly language, and contains models of what students will be doing, then I promise you students will be able to get right down to business without you (I can make this promise because I have seen it happen, my friends!).

There's more to tiering your instruction than what this brief post has covered, but thinking of effective and easy ways to manage the time and space of your classroom is a wonderful starting place for being able to envision how this can all work . . . and work well!

Happy Tiering!

Instructional Coaching in Action

Since the role of instructional coach is still quite new in the district where I work, I'm hoping this post serves to paint a picture of what the collaboration between a teacher and an instructional coach can look like (it's also a decent look at what some formative assessment practices can consist of).

I’ve been coaching a teacher towards a goal of using formative assessment practices in his classroom. This week, we were both able to see just how simple, effective, and eye-opening formative assessment can often be.

I met with this teacher (let’s be mysterious and call him “Mr. X”) late last week to talk about an upcoming lesson that would be fairly content-heavy. We discussed what he felt the major take-aways for students should be, and quickly decided on using an exit ticket (or ticket-to-leave) as a way to check for understanding of these take-aways. The exit ticket we designed had two parts to it: the first asked for a definition of a major concept that would be covered during class that day and would be essential for student understanding throughout the unit; the second asked for three causes and three effects of the particular movement in history introduced in class that day.

Mr. X and I next met up after school on the day he had collected these exit tickets from students. Together, we quickly skimmed the students’ responses and discovered they fell into one of 3 categories: five students were in the Didn’t Get It category (responses were missing most or all of the information and/or contained misunderstandings); nine students were in the Yes! category (responses indicated a level of understanding that indicated the student was ready to continue with this unit of study); and six students were in the Halfway There category (students were able to list the causes and effects, but had difficulty with the definition on the first part of the exit ticket).

Skimming through these exit tickets and categorizing them took us probably about ten minutes. We didn’t grade the exit tickets or assign any points; we didn’t even lift a pen to write on them. We were solely interested in determining where all the students were with their understanding. And there was a major revelation (this is my favorite part of formative assessment!): Mr. X told me that, before looking at the exit tickets, he assumed students would all breeze through the definition portion, but have difficulties with the cause and effect. It wasn’t until we collected and analyzed the exit ticket data that he realized the opposite had happened with about half of his students. Does this mean the teacher failed? NO. Mr. X succeeded because he chose to check for understanding in this way, which enabled him to see at a glance that there was a need to go over this concept again.  Without such a check for understanding, he would only have had his assumptions to go by, and this would not have been enough.

It was time to make a plan for the next lesson – formative assessment is only truly formative if it informs our future instructional moves. Since 50% of the class struggled with the definition portion of the exit ticket, we decided it would be best to begin class all together. Mr. X would let the class know he was concerned that they didn’t all fully understand this particular concept yet. Then he would call on a few of the students that he knew (again, based on the exit tickets) had a good grasp on it, and ask them to share how they defined the concept. The teacher would reiterate each aspect that was brought up, reinforcing these ideas with the whole class.

Feeling confident now that the majority of students had grasped this concept, the teacher would then move on to a group activity. While getting students into groups of four and disseminating instructions on the work they were to do, Mr. X would pull aside the five students who fell into our Didn’t Get It category, letting them know he had looked at their exit tickets and was concerned about their understanding of yesterday’s lesson. He would tell them that he wanted them to be successful with the rest of the unit, but that depended on them having a good understanding of the major concepts addressed yesterday, and so he’d like to spend some time reviewing those with them now. Once Mr. X feels satisfied that these students have grasped the concepts, he’ll release them to join a group and jump into the group activity currently underway.

I observed this lesson plan in action the next day in Mr. X’s classroom. Later, we met up to discuss what we felt had gone well, and what we may do differently next time.

Using formative assessment can (and usually should) be quick, simple, and, sometimes, surprisingly effective! It doesn’t always have to look like the above scenario. Sometimes, based on checking for understanding, a teacher may realize the whole class (or a vast majority of it) needs to step back and review. Or he may realize that there is a wide range of understanding or skill level and that he needs to plan for tiered instruction in his next lesson.

It can be really helpful to have someone to discuss what the check for understanding should look like; to have another set of eyes to analyze this data together; to have someone help you brainstorm and plan for what your instruction should look like the next day based on this data; to have someone come on in during that next day’s lesson and model a teaching strategy you may not be comfortable with yet or co-teach a portion of the lesson together; or even just to observe and meet up with you later on to discuss how it went, and to make future plans. Guess what? I’m that someone! This is a good picture of what instructional coaching can be all about!

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You...

Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me…No, this blog post is not a musical theatre sing-along (but how fun would that be?? Bonus points if you knew this was a King and I reference!). What I want to talk about is getting to know your students, and I figured this was a pretty good topic to devote my first post of the 2013-2014 school year to. (By the way, welcome back, readers!)

The “Why”

Just why should we take time at the beginning of the school year to get to know our students anyway? Well, there are lots of reasons  -- many of which I’m sure you can name – but the one that stands out most to me relates to differentiation. If we’re going to devote ourselves to differentiating our instruction with our students’ interests, learning styles, and readiness in mind, then we need to invest some time learning about our students’ interests, learning styles, and readiness.

Carol Ann Tomlinson, guru of differentiated instruction, adds a few more items to the “why” list in her book, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom (2010):

·      “It sends a message to each student that the teacher sees him or her as an individual, and it also suggests that he or she is interesting enough for an adult to want to know better” (p. 78). We all want to feel like more than a number, right? It’s this kind of interest shown by a teacher that helps a student begin to trust that teacher and begin to see that teacher as a “support system in the classroom” (p.78). The student is not anonymous anymore – anonymity is not even an option in this type of classroom.

·      If a teacher shows an interest in getting to know her students, she is showing her students that she values them. And guess who students are inclined to work for? “People they value (i.e., people who value them)” (p. 79).

·      Getting to know our students helps us as teachers to invest in them; we invest most deeply in “those who are ‘three dimensional’ to us” (p. 79).

The “How”

What are some ways in which we can get to know our students? Every classroom teacher has his or her own methods of doing this, but it’s always nice to add to our repertoires. One important way to get to know our students is to use a pre-assessment at the start of a unit. We can determine a student’s existing background knowledge about the topic, as well as any misconceptions he or she may have; we can see if the student has any particular interests or questions relating to this topic. As such, we are already preparing ourselves to possibly differentiate our instruction within this unit based on readiness and/or interest. We can add learning style into the mix by asking students to complete a learning style survey or inventory at the beginning of the year (there are plenty of these available online, some of which also relate to Gardner’s multiple intelligences).

Tomlinson makes some suggestions for the “how” as well:

·      Greet your students at the door as they enter your classroom. A quick greeting (“How’d the homework go last night?,” “How’s soccer practice?,” “Are those new shoes?”) can go a long way in helping a teacher determine valuable information about a student’s daily life, mood, and attitude and can help make the student feel like a valued individual (p. 82).

·      Ask your students to bring in “All About Me” bags filled with five objects that help the teacher and the other students learn more about them (p. 82).

·      Use note-taking as a way to keep track of things you learn about students on the fly. As you circulate during a lesson, you can learn a lot about students – with whom they work well (and with whom they don’t), what their learning preferences are (do they like to work alone, with others, in silence, etc.).  Having a way to quickly jot down this type of information will help inform your instruction (p. 82).

·      Use surveys to “ask students to share their sense of themselves as learners in a particular subject, their interests, and their methods for learning effectively” (p. 82).

·      Create a number line and label it 1 to 10. Title it How do you feel about _____? The topic can change depending on the day. “For example, one day students might be asked how they feel about a book they read yesterday in class, and another day they might be asked how they feel about starting a new math unit” (p. 82). Students then place small sticky notes or stickers beneath the appropriate number that represents their feelings on that particular topic. This can be a great, quick way to take the pulse of a class.

Some Final Tips

These come from my own experiences, and the experiences of colleagues, in the classroom:

1.    Once you’ve collected this kind of “getting to know you” information from your students, use it. If the information remains in a folder that gets other paperwork piled on top of it, then it’s not going to assist you in planning for differentiation.

2.   When you do use this “getting to know you” information, go ahead and share this with students. Let them know, for example, when you have incorporated certain aspects into a lesson based on what you know about students’ preferred ways of learning. This will go a long way in building a culture of respect and trust in your classroom.

3.   Get to know your students yourself. Yes, we can often receive quite valuable information about a student from a colleague, but we have to avoid becoming “overly swayed by a student’s record from previous school years” (Tomlinson, 2010, p. 83). Recognize that students can change, and that we want to challenge them to grow, which is hard to do if we’ve got a fixed vision of who they are.

4.   “Remember that students are your best source of information” (p. 84). Use formative assessment tools such as tickets-to-leave or surveys to check in with students occasionally and ask them to “share their sense of how they’re doing” (p. 84). And use what you learn!

I hope everyone’s school year is off to a great start! My “blogging schedule” is now officially back in motion, so expect a post from me towards the end of each week.

Summer Reading....For Teachers!

     It's about that time, teachers! Looking for some great reads this summer to help energize you and give you ideas for what will surely be a quickly-approaching September? Then look no further; I've got a teacher's summer reading list right here. (Sorry, these are probably not what you'd consider "beach reads," but they are educational books that I really enjoy. Just mix one or two of them in with your novels and magazines!)

     I'm thinking you can find most of these on Amazon, but if it gets tricky, just contact me and I'll give you more detailed information to help refine your search...

• So What Do They Really Know? Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning -- Cris Tovani 

This is a great read for secondary teachers. Tovani is writing primarily about ELA classes, but I say anyone who is interested in how a workshop structure could work at the secondary level should read this book. (By the way, workshop structures effectively allow the teacher to differentiate, to conference, to assess students' individual strengths and weaknesses formatively...)

• The Daily 5 -- Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (aka "The Sisters") 

Disclaimer: I got kind of sort of OBSESSED with The Sisters this year. Elementary teachers -- if you are looking for a system that will help you establish routines, build student stamina, and set expectations for ELA workshops, this is the book for you. (Also, as a former secondary person, I must say that if you are interested in the workshop structure at the secondary level, I'd still recommend this book. Just read it with your "secondary eyes" and "translate" the material up a few grades!)

• The CAFE Book -- Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (aka "The Sisters")

See above. Same lovely ladies. I'd recommend reading The Daily 5 first, then delving into The Sisters' CAFE system. This book is FULL of so many great resources: specific and detailed ideas for setting up a conferencing notebook and record-keeping system, specific reading strategy lessons in the areas of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary....It is a great read!

• Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom -- Rick Wormeli

This book rocked my world! Rick Wormeli (who happens to be the silver fox of differentiation) is a straight shooter and really tells it like it is. While reading, I was forced to confront some of my own past assessment practices that I had to admit were not effective or purposeful. Wormeli truly changed my way of looking at assessment, for the better!

• Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom -- Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey

Yes! This book was such a useful read. Lots of practical suggestions of ways to consistently, regularly, and effectively check your students' understanding. I think it applies to all grade levels.

• Differentiation: From Planning to Practice, Grades 6-12 -- Rick Wormeli

Here he is again! This is definitely geared towards secondary teachers, mostly due to the content of the sample lessons and units Wormeli discusses (but I think elementary teachers could "translate" what it is he's doing to their own grade levels). Wormeli walks you through the stages of planning a differentiated lesson. Very useful information!

• Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design: Connecting Content and Kids -- Carol Ann Tomlinson & Jay McTighe

Disclaimer: This is only my second favorite text involving Carol Ann Tomlinson (for my first, see below...). The bridge between DI and UbD is specifically laid out in this text. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a strong understanding of one, but perhaps not of the other. 

• Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson -- Connie M. Moss & Susan M. Brookhart 

This book can honestly be a bit "dry," but the idea of learning targets is so important! Basically, Moss and Brookhart advocate for a more student-friendly lesson objective to share with students and recommend that this learning target be stated as what the student will be able to do by the end of the lesson, from the student's own perspective (i.e., "I will be able to identify three traits of the main character. I will use words from our character traits word wall to do so. I will be able to provide evidence from the text that supports each of these three traits."). Learning targets can help students self-assess and can give them a purpose for learning.

• Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom -- Carol Ann Tomlinson & Marcia B. Imbeau

LOVE this one! If you are interested in the philosophy behind DI, then this book is for you. Even more so, if you are interested in helping your students understand and be a part of a differentiated classroom community, then this book is definitely for you. Tomlinson and Imbeau provide specific lesson ideas for teaching students how (and why) to be members of a differentiated learning environment.

HAPPY READING!

Annotation Nation: Using Annotations as Pre-Assessments

     I've got news for you, readers. Annotating's not just for English class anymore. 

     For those of you not already as nerdily familiar with annotation as me, it's basically just a fancy term for marking up the text, scribbling down notes, thoughts, ideas, and questions in the margins. In some ways, it's like having a conversation, a little chit chat if you will, with the text and the information you're reading about.

     But, just when I thought I knew all there was to know about annotation and how it can be used to assess student comprehension of text across content areas, Cris Tovani, author of So What Do They Really Know? Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning, thrilled me with another way to assess via annotation -- using annotations as a pre-test or pre-assessment! (I know, I know, it blew my mind, too!!)

     Here's what Tovani suggests. Ask students to annotate their thinking at the beginning of a unit to assess "what they know and what skills and information they need" (2011, p. 88). Something really cool to think about is actually giving students the unit test the very day the class starts the unit. WHAT?!?!? Be totally upfront with students about exactly what they are supposed to learn by the end of the unit and about exactly what they'll be assessed on? Craziness! It might seem crazy at first, but, readers, think about it: This isn't cheating. This is being super clear and transparent; this is helping students set learning goals and targets. But I digress...

     So, give students the unit test on day one. Ask them to do their best, explaining that this is a pre-assessment and will not be used to penalize them. Students should answer or solve the questions or problems they can, and (here's my favorite part!!), on those they can't, students should record annotations including questions or confusions they have. What great insight this can provide for the teacher! As Tovani suggests, "these annotations help the teacher figure out what is causing difficulty for the student so he or she can better target what the student needs" (p. 89).

     Boom! Now, as the teacher, you know what concepts and/or skills the entire class needs, you know whether any pieces of the unit can be skipped because all your students already know it, and you know how you might need to differentiate your instruction based on any variety of readiness you come across on the pre-tests (who will need enrichment? who will need support?). 

     So exciting, right?

     If you're starting to think more and more about how to use assessment data to inform your instruction, or about how to differentiate based on this data, then (shameless plug alert!) check out my summer workshop on practical approaches to differentiation in the classroom. It's at the very end of June, and I believe you can still sign up. Contact me if you need more information!

How is Differentiating One's Instruction Like Being an Athletic Coach?

     Many of you have either been athletic coaches, been coached in athletics yourselves, or have children or nieces and nephews who are being coached athletically. Think about what the athletic coaching experience is all about...and check out this metaphor: Differentiating your instruction in the classroom is a lot like being an athletic coach out on the field.

     Picture this: 

     It's the end of the summer (I know, most of us do NOT want to picture that, but stay with me -- this is just a scenario!). A football coach is preparing for the first practice of the season. He knows that some of his team members worked out during the summer, staying in good shape, while others most likely did not. So, he plans a quick five minute drill that will allow him to know who's been working out and who hasn't. He also plans two or three different workouts to assign right then and there to his athletes, depending on who is in what kind of shape.

     Throughout the practice, this coach models for his players the skills and strategies they need to master. He gives feedback in real time so his athletes can improve. He pulls some kids aside based on what he observes, realizing he may need to model a technique for them again, or show them a new way of thinking about it. He knows he doesn't need to "grade" everything that occurs during practices, and that this real time feedback is what's really going to be helpful in preparing for the game (or the "test").

     This coach is a master of differentiation. He gave a pre-assessment at the start of practice, and then used the data he received from this pre-assessment to assign tiered tasks to his athletes based on their level of readiness, having proactively planned for this. He models for his players, gives real time feedback, and uses formative assessment to help inform his coaching and to help his players improve before the big game.

     I borrowed parts of this metaphor from Cris Tovani's (2011) So What Do They Really Know?: Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning, in which she claims, "If you can do it for football players, you can do it for students" (p. 39). 

     What would our classes look like if we taught in this way? How might we use our classroom time? What would our assessments look like, and how would we use the data from them to inform our instruction? How and when would we model for students? How and when would we give feedback?

     (Shameless plug alert: If you want to explore questions like those above in relation to your own classroom -- and you teach in the same district as me -- check out my summer workshop, A Practical Approach to Differentiation in the Classroom. Let's come up with answers together!!)

I'm Flipping Out: Presentation Elation!

     Do you ever find yourself running out of time in your classes? Ever wonder how on earth you'll be able to disseminate useful and helpful information to your students, model strategies and approaches for them, AND find time during that 50 minute block to differentiate your instruction so that you can meet with small groups and individual students, conduct conferences, and engage in formative assessment?

     If you answered "yes" to these questions (and if you didn't, you are an anomaly/my personal hero), then this blog post is for you. Because I am about to share something pretty exciting with you that is starting to really gain momentum in education as we all work to find ways to differentiate. It's delightfully called The Flipped Classroom (hence why I am "flipping out").

     The concept of a flipped classroom is that the teacher flips what is normally done for homework (practice, reinforcement, extensions of learning) into what is done during class time, and flips what may be traditionally done during class (direct instruction, lectures, modeling) into homework time.

     Let me give you an example of what this might look like. Let's say I am noticing some issues with sentence structure in my students' writing, and I'd like to teach them about sentence combining. Instead of using class time to provide direct instruction on this plus some modeling, I create a presentation online (more on this a little later) that my students can watch for homework. (Here's the one major drawback to flipped classrooms; you need to be sure your students all have access to the Internet outside of school.) What's great about this is that students can now watch my instruction and my modeling at their own pace, they can pause to take notes or to try out a problem, they can rewind if they missed something. The next day, in class, I begin by giving my students a quick pre-assessment on sentence combining (this could also have been part of the homework the night before). I use this information to determine which of my students really "get it" and which don't yet. The students who "get it" will be assigned some work, either individually or in pairs or small groups, that extends their use of sentence combining, while the students who still need more support will work with me for more direct instruction, modeling, and gradual release of responsibility. 

     Voila! I've saved my class time for what I really need it for: I need to have the time to informally assess where each of my students is in terms of meeting the standard. And I need to have the time to see students working in real time, to be able to give them immediate feedback, and to be able to work with them, side-by-side via small groups or individual conferencing.

     Want a really cool idea for how to prepare a lecture or presentation for the homework of a flipped classroom? Why, I thought you'd never ask! Here's why, in addition to "flipping out" over flipped classrooms, I am in "presentation elation." If you go to https://present.me/, you can create -- for free! -- a powerpoint presentation that you can enhance by including a side-by-side video of yourself delivering the presentation, or an audio of you delivering the presentation. Of course, you can always go the more traditional powerpoint route and just have students click through the slides, etc. But this way is pretty nifty in that your students get a more rounded experience of the material; they're not just reading bullet points off of a slide, but they are listening to you (and maybe even watching you) deliver the full presentation.

     

     Interested in trying this out? Want some help? If you teach in the same district as me, then give me a holler! I'd love to play around with this with you! Also (shameless plug alert), I'll be trying out some of these strategies at my workshop this summer, A Practical Approach to Differentiation in the Classroom, so register if you want to see it in action!

Yet Another Academic Crush of Mine

     Please don't tell Lucy Calkins, but there's someone else I'm crushing on lately, academically speaking, of course. Mr. Rick Wormeli. The silver fox of differentiated instruction.

     And so, readers, my gift to you this week is the following link to a video that features none other than Rick (if I may be so bold to call him by his first name) discussing the virtues of formative assessment.

     Here it is: Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment

     Go ahead and watch. I'll wait....

     Ok? Done watching? Sigh. Isn't he the best? (Plus, don't you just love that groovy beat that plays at the beginning of the video? I am jamming out right now...)

     If you're looking for ways to increase your use of formative assessment in your classroom (and if you teach in the same district as me), then let me know! If you're looking for ways to actually use the data you get from formative assessments to inform your instruction, then -- again -- you know where to find me! Looking for a range of informal and formal formative assessments you can use, without adding more heavy piles of grading to your workload? Hey, I'm your girl!

     I'll leave you with one last shameless plug -- if this stuff fascinates you (and it should!), sign up for my summer workshop, A Practical Approach to Differentiated Instruction in the Classroom. Come one, come all! I may even show you some more Rick Wormeli videos. And if that's not motivation, I don't know what is.

     Teacher readers, have a lovely and well-deserved April break! See you all in a couple of weeks!

"Let's see, I'll start with the garden salad, and then I'll have the salmon..."

     Forgive me, readers, but I'm kind of hungry today. That's probably why I latched right on to Rick Wormeli's idea (shared in his awesome 2006 text, Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom) about learning menus.

     Here's how it breaks down. Whenever you are giving your students "choices of tasks to complete in a unit or for an assessment from a pre-determined list of options" (Wormeli, p. 62), you could arrange these choices or options as menu items. Sounds delicious, no? (This might also be a fun way to set up student options for anchor activities or for Learning Contracts). 

     Basically, you're listing choices in the style of a restaurant menu, "complete with appetizers, entrees, side dishes, and desserts" (Wormeli, p. 62). The "entree" tasks are required, but students can choose just one of the "appetizers" and two of the "side dishes." "Dessert" items could be for enrichment. (Or, really mix it up any way you'd like. This is just another fun way to provide some choice to students. See my previous blog on Tic Tac Toe boards for more fun!)

     In addition to providing choice to students, you could further differentiate your menu by providing more than one. You might decide to present different menus to differently tiered groups. Or, you might use one menu, but "alter the choices differently tiered groups are allowed to make" (Wormeli, p. 64). Of course, as always, if a student wants to try something on someone else's menu, then I say -- go for it. As long as it's assessing the same objective, what is the harm?

     This blog post sure does give new meaning to the phrase "food for thought," now, doesn't it?

***Like learning about and thinking about ways to differentiate in your classroom? Then (shameless plug alert), consider joining me for the summer workshop I'm offering on practical approaches to differentiation in the classroom. If you teach in the same district as me, that is.***

Take 2

     Should we allow students do-overs? Re-dos? Re-takes? Second chances?

     Here's one lady's answer: pretty much, yes.

     Here's one lady's reasons:

     First, you'll have to agree with me (and a bunch of educational researchers and writers) on what a grade truly signifies. A grade should denote a student's level of mastery of a standard (or standards). This is what a grade means in standards-based education. Are things like participation, attendance, effort, attitude, and responsibility important? Yes, definitely. Without a doubt. BUT, when we factor these into how we assign a grade to a student, we are muddying the waters. Now, the grade doesn't really tell us the level to which the student mastered the standard. It's trying to tell us a whole bunch of things and, most likely, failing to paint a very specific picture.

     Now, there are ways to still foster effort, responsibility, and attitude without including these factors in a grade. But, for today, let's just focus on how the above definition of a grade informs the idea of student re-dos and re-takes. If we are teaching in a differentiated classroom, we are honoring the idea that not every student is going to master a standard at the exact same time, right? So, if we give a test on day X, and some students get a D or an F on this test on day X, does that mean it's over for them? They'll never learn the concept or master the standard? If we are teaching in a differentiated classroom, we know the answer to these questions is no. Of course not. These students might master the standard with some extra support a few days or weeks from now. So, they should be given a chance at that point to demonstrate this mastery to us through a re-do. The re-do may or may not be the same exact test, but it is testing the students on the same performance standard. If they can't do it on day X, but can do it on day Y (or Z, or A...), then shouldn't their grade reflect when they can do it, instead of when they couldn't?

     Also, should the opportunity to prove mastery of a standard only be extended to students who get a D or an F? What about the student who got a B? Can't they have the opportunity, if they want it, to continue their work towards this standard and, when they've mastered it, demonstrate this to us? Should we ever turn down a student's wish to continue to work toward mastery? 

     I know there are lots of issues that arise when we start to think about changing our grading practices. And I know this one blog entry does not come even remotely close to discussing those issues. But thinking about why we give grades -- and how that "why" impacts our grading practices -- is a good starting point.

     Interested in thinking more about this? Contact me if you want to investigate your grading practices and what it would mean for your students to do re-takes. Take a look at Rick Wormeli's (2006) book, Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom.

     OR, (shameless plug alert!) you could sign up for my summer workshop (provided you teach in the same district as me) on practical approaches to differentiation in the classroom. I promise we'll get into the idea of grading and assessing in differentiated classrooms (and much, much more!).

Learning Contracts

     Some of the top questions raised when we think about differentiating in our classrooms are: “How do we meet with a small group of students while the rest of the class does…what…exactly?” “What do we do when some students inevitably finish a task before others?” There are lots of ways to answer these questions (shameless plug: you can hear about them all in my upcoming summer workshop on differentiated instruction!). This post is about one particular strategy I just discovered, thanks to Carol Ann Tomlinson and Caroline Cunningham Eidson, authors of Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating Curriculum (2013).

     Tomlinson and Eidson suggest the use of learning contracts (don’t you just love that phrasing?). I’ll go ahead and give you their exact definition:

“A learning contract is an agreement between a student and a teacher      regarding a task or project that a student will work on independently and with some freedom. Learning contracts often provide some degree of choice regarding specific tasks to be completed and the order in which they will be completed. This element of choice can help teachers address differences in students’ interests and learning profiles. Effective contracts focus on key understandings and skills that a student is to work with and provide information about the criteria for quality work. Learning contracts require teachers to match learning objectives with contract options so that students must practice and apply important skills” (p. 187)

What’s great about learning contracts is that, when introduced (as is recommended) at the start of a unit, they provide students with meaningful tasks to accomplish throughout the unit. These tasks are assignments students can work on when they finish other tasks early one day, or when you need to meet with a small group or one half of the class. The teacher and the student agree on the number of tasks the student will complete from the learning contract options (this works best when there’s lots to choose from, and lots of variety) and when the student will be done with each task. Students should fill out and sign a contract that includes items such as: the tasks they agree to work on, the dates due for each, and agreements to work on these selected tasks at various times during class without distracting peers. What I love about Tomlinson and Eidson’s definition is that it separates learning contract tasks from “busy work” by insisting that these tasks include “criteria for quality work” and that they “match [the] learning objectives” of the unit. And don’t even get me started on the element of student choice and student ownership implicit in learning contracts – how great is that? 

     Below, I’ve listed some ideas for learning contract tasks. Learning contracts are great for including assignments based on multiple intelligences and learning styles, so you’ll notice this reflected in this list. ***Please note: learning contracts should list specific criteria for each option presented. I have not included criteria in the list below as I simply want to share what types of tasks may be found on a learning contract. ***A second note: I’ve included examples from several content areas and from several grade levels, K-12. ***Ok, just one more note: Some teachers prefer to further differentiate learning contracts by typing up two different lists of tasks – one geared towards the advanced learners and one geared towards those who are novice learners of the particular subject.

     So, without further adieu, here are some ideas (many of which can be found in the 2003 Tomlinson & Eidson text):

·      Make an ABC list (or book) of plants. Use books in the classroom to find the names of plants that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

·      Draw and label the plants we cannot eat. Why can’t we eat these?

·      Measure the plants in the classroom, and make a graph showing their heights. Which is the tallest plant? Which is the shortest one? Do you think that will change? Why?

·      Write a song about plants, what you like about them, and why they are important.

·      Using information from resources provided in the classroom, as well as various travel brochures provided, create a travel brochure about our community. Your brochure should make people outside of our community want to come visit it…

·      RAFT writing tasks -- the possibilities for these are almost endless! (See my previous post about RAFTS: An Alternative to White Water RAFTing.) Seriously, I can't recommend these writing opportunities enough!

·      Invent a game to help teach children about lines, angles, polygons, circles, polyhedrons, congruence, and symmetry. Write a manual for parents and teachers that explains the rules and procedures for playing the game and discusses the benefits of playing the game…

·      Research geodesic dome buildings. Draw a picture or build a model of a dome building and write three or four paragraphs discussing dome buildings, answering the following questions…

·      Using pictures from magazines and newspapers, find and label objects that represent the different types of lines, angles, and shapes that we’ve studied…

·      Create a Private Investigator Poster about Macbeth. Draw his profile, police line-up style, and label him with “Checks Out” traits (his good points) and “Warning Signs” traits (his weaknesses).

·      Create a metaphor for Macbeth: Macbeth is a __________ in these three ways…Give three text citations to back up your argument.

·      Discuss what you see as the most compelling or significant scene in Act I. Cite specific textual examples that support your claim (using diction, figurative language, motifs, scansion).

·      Translate a Shakespearean scene or soliloquy into contemporary English.

·      Draw a concept map showing the major hurdles le petit prince had to overcome in the novel and the major hurdles you (or adolescents in general) have to overcome during this time of your life.

·      Listen to excerpts from Gustave Holst’s The Planets. Create and record brief soundscapes of what at least three of the planets that le petit prince visited might sound like. Write a CD liner-note explanation of your soundscapes to make the link between the music and the stereotype represented by the planet’s inhabitant(s).

·      Design a map that illustrates le petit prince’s journey (physical, emotional, or spiritual) throughout the book. Annotate the map so we can see the importance of the “places” you chose to include.

·      Find and illustrate a set of quotes by le petit prince. Annotate the quotations, explaining their significance to the themes of the novel.

·      Design a cartoon that illustrates your journey as a water droplet. Include an appropriate caption(s).

·      Create a fictional story about the journey of a water droplet.

·      Draw an accurate version of the water cycle that includes all steps. Be sure to show the processes that get a water droplet from one step to another.

·      Create a local version of the water cycle. Be sure to include the names of local rivers, bays, oceans, mountains, and so on.

    

     Cool, right? I’ll wrap up with just one last shameless plug: if you like the above ideas, and want more, more, more (and if you teach in the same district as me!), then please sign up for the summer workshop I’m offering: A Practical Approach to Differentiation in the Classroom. Tell your friends!