Games in the Classroom: Not ALL Fun & Games

Do your students play games in your classroom as part of the content and skills they are learning? Great! Games can be an excellent venue for formative assessment because they provide awesome opportunities for immediate feedback and support.

Check out this post from Edutopia for some specific examples. This is a wonderful time of year to think about introducing games to your classroom to keep up that student engagement and motivation as the days get sunnier and warmer.

Concerned about just how you can use games as formative assessment, using the informal data you gather by observing your students to inform future instruction? Give your district's instructional coach a holler -- she'd be glad to collaborate with you on this! 

It's Not Over 'Til It's Over

Yup. It's mid-May. State-testing is just about wrapped up. Educator evaluations are being finalized. June, and, with it, the end of the school year, is literally right around the corner.

It can be hard to stay motivated and engaged at this time of the year, for students and teachers both. But we must, mustn't we? After all, there are still weeks and weeks left of learning (don't shoot me; I'm just the messenger, y'all!).

If you're having difficulty holding onto a feeling of excitement for the classroom right about now, maybe it's time to throw caution to the wind and try something new. It might be just the thing to give you that burst of energy and enthusiasm to carry you forward until that last bell rings.

The great thing about trying something new now is that you know your students SO well at this point. It can be tricky to "experiment" earlier in the year, especially when you're just getting a handle on who's who in your classroom. But if you try something out now, with students you know well, you may feel comfortable enough with it in the fall to begin the year with it!

So, if you're interested, think about the following possibilities:

• Maybe you've never felt quite comfortable with -- or never even tried -- a workshop format with your students. Why not try it out now?
• Perhaps you know you should use formative assessments more often to inform your instruction, but the day-to-day life of a teacher has slowed you down and distracted you from this. Now could be a great time to play around with it a little more.
• Maybe you find yourself using the same ol' activators and summarizers you always use -- or maybe you find yourself having strayed away from these valuable tools. Now could be the time to learn about some new strategies to use at the beginning and/or the ending of a lesson.
• You've always thought about trying to tier a lesson, but you're just not sure how. Now's a great time to learn more about this, especially with your knowledge of your students!

The possibilities are endless! If you'd like some guidance and collaboration, you can always contact your district's friendly instructional coach. *wink, wink.*

April is National Formative Assessment Month!

Okay, I lied. April is not officially National Formative Assessment Month. But you can't blame a girl for dreaming.

How about we make it happen anyway? If you'd like to focus more on formative assessment, make it your April goal (could help pass the time until school vacation, at any rate).

Want to increase how often you check for student understanding? Want to think about and try out some ways to quickly analyze some student data? How often do you find yourself using student data to inform your teaching, either that same day or for the next lesson? Want to increase how often you're able to do this?


Trust me -- there are ways to do this without adding an enormous amount of work to your already busy plates. It's amazing the information you can get from flipping through a stack of tickets-to-leave. Assessing a longer piece of student work? Try out an error analysis. Or you can use student self-assessments in formative ways. You could even try out on-the-spot formative assessment -- talk about quick and easy!!

Once you've done your pain-free analysis, you may or may not see the need for differentiated instruction. If you do, your options are many: you could split the class in half, you could decide on small groups, a tiered lesson, partner work, etc., etc., etc.

If you're interested, let me know. Let's make this National Formative Assessment Month thing happen -- maybe we'll be responsible for the start of a movement!  :)

Happy Spring (again, a girl can dream)!

The Exit Ticket of the 21st Century

I love exit tickets. I think they are a simple, quick way to check for student understanding during or at the end of a lesson, and, through some simple, quick analysis, can inform further instruction. So, please know that in no way I am advocating we say good-bye to the exit ticket.

Instead, I'd like to offer up a new way of thinking about exit tickets, in case you want to tap into some technology and mix it up a bit. I often recommend teachers vary their ways of checking for understanding and their activators and summarizers, because I think variety can keep students engaged and invested. So, "modernizing" the exit ticket is just one more tool to add to the ol' toolkit. 

I can't take any credit for this idea -- I stumbled across it via the following blog from Edutopia. Check it out by clicking here. Heads-up: you may or may not agree with everything this blogger states (check out some of the post's comments for some interesting debate and extensions to the ideas). But, the ideas included about using some digital exit tickets are worth some thought. If you've got the digital means and access, why not try some out and see how it goes? I'd love to hear from anyone who's either interested in doing this OR who tries it out and can report back on how it went.

The Whip-Around

I just finished discussing ideas for checking for student understanding with a teacher I'm coaching and, of course, found myself bringing up one of my all-time favorites: the Whip-Around. I believe I blogged about this particular strategy last year, so it may sound familiar to those of you who are loyal readers. But, trust me -- it bears repeating. The Whip-Around is a great way to quickly and easily check for understanding (and you know how much I love CFU) and use that check to inform instruction.

[I must give credit where credit is due: I first learned about this strategy while reading Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey's awesome book, Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom -- I highly recommend it!]

Here's how it works:

1. Ask students to write down 3-5 things (the amount will probably depend on where you're at in the lesson) in response to a particular question. For example, if I'm teaching Lord of the Flies and we're on chapter 4, I might ask students to list 5 attributes of William Golding's writing style (especially if analyzing writing style is an objective of the unit).
2. Once students have completed their list, ask all students to stand. 
3. Now, call on a student randomly (or not randomly -- you may have certain students you want to make sure you touch base with directly). Ask the student to share one item from his/her list. 
4. Once this student has shared his/her one item, ask the rest of the class to check to see if they had the same item on their list. If they did, they should place a check mark beside it. If they did not, they should add it to their list.
5. Proceed in this fashion. Once all the items on a student's list have been shared (either by that student or by another), that student may sit down.
6. Continue to call on students until all students are seated.

A couple really important things have happened here. One -- students have had a chance to self-monitor their understanding a bit; they were able to add to their list items that they initially had not included. Two --you've had a great opportunity to check for understanding and to potentially adjust your instruction accordingly. As you were listening to students share their list items with the class, you may have realized that there were 2 or 3 things that no one brought up that you feel are really important for students to understand. Now, you can address those things with the whole class -- and maybe even check for understanding again, with a different method (I told you I loved CFU!!).

The Whip-Around works great as a summarizer to a lesson, but it can also be an effective activator when used to review as a class something learned the day before. You can even use it as a way to check for understanding during class -- perhaps 15 minutes into a content-heavy power point presentation.

Try it out and let me know how it goes!
(Watch out -- you might love it so much you get whiplash . . .)
(Sorry, that was a pretty bad joke.)

CFU -- My Favorite Educational Acronym

Alternate title #1: One Great Way to Use a Whiteboard
Alternate title #2: Can I Have an Academic Crush on an Object?

Hi there, readers!

I'm taking a break from my series on Kelly Gallagher's ah-may-zing reading instruction ideas to divulge to you a little secret: I have yet another academic crush, and this time it's on an object. I know what you're thinking . . . after all, this is the fifth or sixth (losing track doesn't make it worse, does it?) academic crush I've written about and now I'm confessing to crushing on, of all things, a mini-whiteboard (but did I mention it comes with its own marker and adorable mini-eraser?). Rest assured, readers, my marriage is healthy and intact despite these academic crushes. Even those on objects. But you can't judge me too harshly for this one -- mini-whiteboards are so fun and great. AND here's the kicker -- they are so useful to CFU.

(Gasp! You're not familiar with mini-whiteboards? Here's a link to the website for The Markerboard People, which is where I got mine: http://www.dryerase.com/.)

Because what the education world needs right now is another acronym, I thought I'd tell you about my personal favorite (yes, I have academic crushes and favorite acronyms, but who doesn't?). CFU stands for Check for Understanding. And since I'm obsessed with ways to informally and formally assess student understanding (especially those opportunities to assess mid-way through a lesson), I find myself talking about, thinking about, and writing about checking for understanding so often that I just had to abbreviate it to its lovely acronym.

Here's where my two loves, CFU and the lovely mini-whiteboard, intersect. Mini-whiteboards offer an amazingly simple and effective way to check for understanding during a lesson.
Here's an example:

I've been coaching a teacher lately on finding more ways to CFU during a lesson. This way he doesn't have to wait until the very end of a lesson to see if students have been following him and understanding what's being taught. This teacher is lucky enough to be blessed with a class set of mini-whiteboards (and markers and mini-erasers . . . have I mentioned how adorable the mini-erasers are?), so I was psyched to show him how he could use these to CFU.

Yesterday, we tried it out. After a certain portion of the lesson during which a new term had been explored, we wanted to know if students really understood the meaning of the term. So, we posed a multiple choice question to them with four options defining the term. We asked students to write their letter choice (A, B, C, or D) on their boards (they keep these boards under their seats -- markers and erasers are also kept under their seats in pencil cases) and to hold them up on the count of 3. At 3, all students held up their boards and we were able to see that all but 2 of the students chose the correct answer. This let us know that the majority of the class could move right along with the next task -- some practice with partners on the topic being taught -- while the teacher could work with the 2 struggling students until they fully understood the term's meaning, at which point they could rejoin their classmates in working on the next task.

You can also do this kind of CFU with a Smartboard as long as you have those fancy clickers (that's the correct technical term, right?) handy. It doesn't matter which you use, really . . . the really important piece of this is that you've found a way to quickly and informally CFU. This doesn't have to only happen during a lesson as in the above example, either. Use the mini-whiteboard as a way to pre-assess before a lesson begins, or as a way to CFU at the end of a lesson during a summarizer.

My biggest practical tip involving this strategy? Only use the mini-whiteboards as a CFU tool if you can ask students something that requires a very short answer (such as a multiple choice question for which they only have to write their letter choice on the board). With very short answers, you can easily and quickly scan all the boards as they are raised and determine where students are at with their understanding. Longer answers are harder to quickly scan -- you may need to think of another CFU tool to use if this is the case. But don't worry -- there are so many great CFU tools -- I've got a million of 'em! (Hyperbole alert -- I don't really have a million CFU tools, but I do have a decent amount.)

Have you joined the mini-whiteboard fan club yet? I hope so. As president, we're always looking for new members.
Happy Checking for Understanding!

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.

Everything I Learned About Teaching I Learned in Kindergarten

     Have you ever seen that poster that claims that everything you need to know in life you learned in Kindergarten? It lists examples like "share everything," "play fair," and "warm cookies & cold milk are good for you." Words to live by.

     Well, this week's post title is inspired by this concept, and here's why: I spent twelve years as a high school ELA teacher before becoming a K-12 instructional coach last year. Over this past year as an IC, I have spent way more time in elementary classrooms than I ever have before (except when I was an actual elementary school student myself). And it's been exciting to realize how much someone with a secondary background can learn from what goes on in an elementary classroom. (The opposite, I'm sure, is true as well. There's lots elementary teachers could learn by spending time in secondary classrooms, too. But, since that wasn't my experience, being a former high school teacher myself, that's not what I'm going to focus on here.)

     I've honestly been thinking that everything I've learned from my experiences in elementary classrooms as a former "secondary person" could be the fodder for a great book! Heck, I'd read that! But, for today, I'm just going to highlight one thing that's really been sticking out to me lately: the workshop. Now I know, I know that the workshop structure is used in secondary classrooms, too -- we only need look as far as Cris Tovani's shining example as proof -- but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a lot of secondary teachers don't use the structure and aren't overly aware of it, whereas as many elementary teachers do and are. 

     Here's the structure (and some running commentary throughout since I can't help gushing about how wonderful workshops are!):

The Mini-lesson

     Workshop begins with a mini-lesson. The teacher gathers his or her students together -- in elementary school this is usually done on a carpet in a particular location of the classroom; secondary teachers might have to get a bit more creative with how to do this since most don't have sectioned-off areas of their classrooms. Or it can be done with students at their desks...the main point is that you do it! Mini-lessons should last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the age and attention span of the students and depending on the task for that particular day.

     The topic covered during the mini-lesson should stem from what the teacher has noticed his or her students need. For example, if it's a Reading Workshop, the teacher might decide to conduct a mini-lesson on retelling because he or she has observed that most of his or her students are struggling with this and it is impacting their comprehension. 

     A vital part of the mini-lesson is that it should contain a guided release of responsibility (also popularly referred to as "I Do, We Do, You Do"). This means that first the teacher models the skill or strategy. Next (and this part is the most often skipped and possibly the most important!!) comes the "We Do." Here, the teacher guides the class as a whole in using the strategy. This can involve asking the students to Think, Pair, Share; asking students questions; adding to a whole-class anchor chart together; etc. Last but not least, it's time for "You Do," some independent practice. Typically, in a workshop structure, this independent practice occurs during work time (covered next). But sometimes, in order to even further check for understanding, the teacher may do a quick "You Do" while still all together for the mini-lesson.

     Are you still with me or have I lost you?? Luckily, I found a GREAT clip that shows all of this in action. Just click here and scroll down to Classroom Program 14, then click on the little box off to the right that says VoD (the link may bring you straight to a video; if it does, close out of that page and the page I'm talking about should pop up!). (Heads-up: the first five minutes of this video show a morning meeting in a 5th grade classroom; the mini-lesson -- and, thus, the workshop itself -- begins after this.) Take a look at what this skilled teacher does during her mini-lesson (you can stop at around minute 22:15 if you don't want to get ahead of yourself and see the rest of the workshop just yet!). Pay attention to how she uses a gradual release of responsibility to ensure her students are all with her. Good stuff!

Work Time

     Next up in the workshop structure is work time. This typically consists of independent work (the "You Do" I referred to in the previous section). It also provides the teacher a chance to work with a small group of students (this could be a group that needs some extension, or a group that needs some support, or just a group of heterogeneously-mixed students that the teacher wishes to assess), and/or to confer with individual students as they work. What's great about this is that teachers can work with students in what I call "real time," right as they are performing the skills and strategies you've taught them. So, teachers can formatively assess in real time as well. **It is vital that the teacher has established routines and expectations for students regarding how to behave during all steps of the workshop structure. Routines need to be practiced and reinforced consistently so that students are able to work independently and in small groups and so that they know how to transition into and out of each stage of the workshop.** Boushey and Moser, authors of The Daily 5 and CAFE books, have some great ideas for how to establish and practice such routines, and their ideas can certainly be translated to the secondary experience.

     Check out minutes 22:15 to 25:30 in the clip I shared above for a quick glimpse at what work time can look like (but keep in mind that work time can function in many different ways).

Sharing/Debriefing

     Finally, the workshop ends with time to share and debrief. It's important not to neglect this last stage of the workshop, because it can be a great opportunity to assess, check for understanding, and inform the next day's instruction. Sharing of students' work accomplished during the work time occurs, and the teacher guides this sharing, pointing out instances of and asking questions about how students used particular strategies, any stumbling blocks they experienced, and successes they had along the way. 

     From minute 25:30 until the end of the video I shared with you above, you can see how this teacher wraps up the workshop (NOTE: she does a lot of sharing of independent work at the end of her mini-lesson, since she included a little "You Do" at that portion of the workshop; had she not, the sharing time in the clip would most likely be a bit longer.)

     

So, there you have it. Let's not limit workshop structures to the elementary level. There is so much potential for these types of lessons at the secondary level as well. What kind of potential? Differentiation, formative assessment, checks for understanding, flexible grouping, independent work, sharing, modeling, scaffolding.........

Want to use this in your classroom but struggling a bit with the concept? If you work in the same district as me, then give me a holler! I'd LOVE to collaborate with you on this!!

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!).

Double Dipping

     Normally I hate double dipping. You know, when you're at a cocktail party having a lovely, sophisticated time, and you sample the to-die-for hummus or salsa or buffalo chicken dip (whatever floats your boat, readers) and then someone comes along, dips their chip in, takes a bite, then goes in for more. The double dip. I believe there's a Seinfeld episode devoted to this travesty.
   
     Thankfully, I'm not about to commit that kind of double dip. No, no, no. I just want to share with you all a resource I typed up for a few teachers I'm working with as instructional coach. It's a bunch of tips for calling on students (especially those reluctant participators) that can help alleviate the anxiety many teachers have about calling on students who aren't raising their hands. After typing it up, I realized -- hey, I bet my blog readers might want to check this out, too. (Be warned, though...some of the items on the resource are also things I've already blogged about on here. Repeat alert!)

     So, I'm double dipping -- using a blog post to share something I had compiled for a different audience. (But, hey, at least I didn't totally cheat and post this as my only blog entry this week, right?)

     Enjoy!

    

Tips for Calling on Students

(especially those who aren’t raising their hands…)

Compiled by Elizabeth Bettencourt, Sharon Public Schools

·      Foster “accountable talk” in your classroom. Model for students what this looks like by using the following examples, and also expect your students to adhere to “accountable talk” when interacting with their peers in a class discussion:

o   Press for clarification & explanation: “Could you describe what you mean?”

o   Require justification of proposals & challenges: “Where did you find that information?”

o   Demand evidence for claims & arguments: “Can you give me an example?”

o   Interpret & use each other’s statements: “David suggested . . .” (Fisher & Frey, 2007, p. 23).

·      Use value lineups. Ask students to evaluate a statement (“I fully understood last night’s homework,” “I will use this tool in the ‘real world,’” “I think this battle was the most significant in WWI,” etc.) and to line up according to their degree of agreement or disagreement with the statement.

o   After forming a single line, you can ask students to “fold” the line in half so that the students who most strongly agreed and disagreed are now partners, ready to discuss the reasons for their positions with one another (Fisher & Frey, p.25).

o   You’ve given students a chance now to think through their ideas, thus building their confidence before “putting” them “on the spot.” Now’s the time to “cold call” on students to either share why they stood where they stood in the line, or to share what their partner’s ideas were.

·      Ask students to share a partner’s idea. The above example is only one of many opportunities where you can help out a reluctant participator by asking him to share someone else’s ideas (this alleviates the concern some students may have about the accuracy of their own ideas, but doesn’t let them off the hook of participating in class). Using Think, Pair, Share is another easy-to-facilitate way to build students’ confidence about their ideas enough to share them, or to give them the opportunity to share a peer’s ideas. Here, students think and/or write a response to a question you’ve provided, then pair with a peer to discuss their ideas, and then share with the whole class. The teacher can circulate during the “Pair” portion of the activity, listening in to students’ conversations. If you hear a student – especially if he or she is a reluctant participator – share an idea you’d like the whole class to hear, you can give that student a “heads up” that you’ll call on them in a little bit to share that idea with the whole class. You’ve boosted their confidence to share because now they know their ideas are valid, and you’ve given them some time to get ready.

·      Try out the Whip Around. At the end of a period of instruction, the teacher poses a question or a task, asking students to make a list of at least three items (“List three things you struggled with today,” “List three traits of this character,” etc.). When students are done with their list, ask all students to stand. Then, randomly call on a student to share one of his or her ideas. Students should check off any items on their list that are shared by other students (this eliminates repetition) and sit down when all of their ideas have been shared, either by themselves or by a peer. Continue to call on students until all are seated (Fisher & Frey, p.34).

·      Determine the response format of a question and who will provide it before asking the question. “Will it be a choral answer, where all students respond together? Is it a partner discussion question? If so, the teacher should preface the question itself with information about the response format so that students know what they will do with the question before it is asked. If it is to be answered by an individual student, teachers should announce the student’s name before asking the question. This alerts the learner to the expected response. . .” (Fisher & Frey, p. 39).

·      Provide “wait time,” or as others call it, “think time.” Three to five seconds is commonly accepted as the amount of time students need to digest the question and to think of their answer.

·      If a student is unable to answer a question, stick with him or her! Use the following types of question scaffolding to help the student get to a response (Fisher & Frey, pp. 39-40):

o   Reception scaffolding – direct a student to the information necessary to answer the question (“Look at the graph on page 252 of your textbook”).

o   Transformation scaffolding – provide a way of structuring the information to help the student develop an answer (“How does the largest bar on the graph on page 252 of your textbook help you to find your answer?”).

o   Production scaffolding – provide the student with a way of producing an answer (“Use the largest and the smallest bars from the graph on page 252 of your textbook to compare the amounts used”).

o   Use a combination of all three types of scaffolds in succession if needed! Stick with that student!

·      Hold students accountable for participating in class. If a student responds to a question incorrectly or incompletely, check back with the student later to make sure he or she now has the correct answer. If students are “going around the room,” each sharing something (their thesis statement from a first draft, their opinion on last night’s assigned chapter, their idea for a marketing product, etc.), and a student does not share (this could be due to a lack of confidence, an incomplete homework assignment, etc.), ask that student to continue listening as his or her peers share. Let that student know that you will be coming back to them later to share something they heard a peer say that they liked or agreed with and why. Set the expectation that everyone’s voice in this class will be heard.

·      Use response cards. These can be pre-printed or write-on.

o   Pre-printed response cards already have responses written on them. These responses could be as simple as “yes” and “no,” that students hold up in response to questions from the teacher. Or they could be more specific, such as “potential energy” and “kinetic energy,” that students hold up in response to examples of energy provided by the teacher. In this format, all students respond, and the teacher can ask follow-up questions to a student based on his or her response. Again, the student’s confidence has been built prior to being called on, and he or she has had time to think through his or her answer.

o   Write-on response cards are blank (mini white boards work well), and students write a quick response on them to a teacher’s question. For example, a teacher could ask his third grade students to write three-letter words using a particular set of letters. As with the pre-printed response card examples above, the teacher can ask follow-up questions to a student based on his or her response (Fisher & Frey, pp. 46-48).

·      Use audience response systems. These new technologies can be utilized in the same ways response cards are used as questioning techniques (see above).

·      NOTE: All of the above tips for calling on students are not only great ways to set the expectation that every student’s voice should be heard, but they are also excellent tools to check for understanding with every student!

Reference

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for your    

     classroom. ASCD: Alexandria, VA.