107: Activating Prior Knowledge

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Research on using Cues/Questions to Activate Prior Knowledge:

  1. Cues / questions should focus on what’s important, not what’s interesting.
    • Building bridges between key information and prior knowledge will increase engagement
  2. Higher level questions products deeper learning than lower level questions.
    • Analysis questions are more impactful than recall questions.
    • Higher order questions ask students to restructure or apply new information.
  3. Wait time increases depth of student responses.
    • Giving students time prior to answering questions to process their responses before sharing them.
  4. Questions are effective to use BEFORE learning experience.
    • Asking questions before learning experience can help students approach a learning experience with a helpful mind set.
Classroom tips for using cues and questions to activity prior knowledge:
  • Use explicit cues
    • Have students recall related experiences from prior knowledge and connect them to upcoming learning.
  • Use questions that elicit inferences
    • Ask questions that ask students to predict functions, sensations, and related information associated with objects of study
  • Use analytic questions – types of questions include questions that ask for:
    • Analysis of errors and misconceptions
    • Limitations of argument
    • Evidence that supports argument
    • Alternative perspectives and related reasoning
    • Value judgements and related reasoning
Researching on using advance organizers to activate prior knowledge:
  1. Advance organizers should focus on what’s important, not what’s unusual.
  2. Higher level organizers lead to deeper learning than lower level organizers
  3. Advance organizers are most helpful with handling info that is typically unorganized
    • better for preparing students for projects than for reading textbooks that are already organizer
  4. Different types of organizers lead to different results
    • expository type had greatest positive effect – see below
Classroom tips for using advance organizers:
  • Expository Advance Organizers
    • provide brief organized overview of topics about to be discussed
  • Narrative Advance Organizers
    • present upcoming information in the format of a story
  • Skimming as a form of advance organizer
    • skimming key subtitles and figures prior to reading can help students process info
  • Graphic Advanced Organizers
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Activating prior knowledge can help build student confidence and help build more lasting connections between old and new knowledge.  Activating prior knowledge can prepare students’ minds to recognize new connections and features in upcoming content.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Research and brainstorm related knowledge & skills that students may have that relates to upcoming materials.
  • Design prompts and advance organizers for eliciting students’ prior knowledge.
Early Implementation Steps
  • Use knows and need-to-knows chart throughout the project as a means to elicit prior knowledge and link it to new material.
  • Use other tools (cues, questions and advance organizers) to help students connect prior knowledge to new content.
  • Have students reflect on the connections between new material and old knowledge.
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Use advance organizers that highlight most powerful connections between old and new knowledge – start to complete these prior to scaffolding lessons and refer to them during scaffolding lessons.
  • Teach students about how prior knowledge shapes the learning of new knowledge and have them deliberately use that knowledge to invent strategies that can hep them connect old and new knowledge.
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106: Setting & Testing Hypotheses

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Research on Generating & Testing Hypotheses:
  1. Hypothesis creating & testing can be approach inductively and deductively.
    • deductive thinking – using a general rule to make predictions
      • to facilitate this type of thinking, first front load general principles and then ask students to make predictions based on these
    • inductive thinking – drawing new conclusions from current evidence
      • to facilitate this type of thinking, first get students to generalize evidence and then use those generalizations to make predictions
      • this is tricker to pull off than leading deductive thinking because it requires selecting the right experiences and using the right prompts to guide students to effective and accurate generalizations
    • real thinking is often a combination of deductive and inductive thinking
  2. Students need to clearly explain hypotheses and conclusions
    • explain inductive line of reasoning (connecting observations to predictions and conclusions) in written form
Classroom Tips for Generating & Testing Hypotheses:
 
6 Types of Making / Testing Hypotheses:
  1. Systems analysis – guide students to think through how a system would change if one aspect of it changed
    • students explain parts and purpose of system
    • students describe how parts affect each other
    • students identify part of systems and describe how changing that part might affect the rest of the system
    • students test the hypothesis through experiments or simulations
  2. Problem solving – selecting solutions that meet specific constraints
    • students define the problem or goal
    • students describe the problem constraints and challenges
    • students identify solutions
    • students test solutions – test prototypes or use simulations
    • students explain whether hypothesis was correct and whether or not to test new solutions
  3. Historical investigation – constructing plausible scenarios of past events
    • students analyze and describe historical event to be investigated
    • students identify what is known about event and what is not known or up to controversy
    • students propose a historical scenario
    • students research information to test accuracy of historical scenario
  4. Invention – using knowledge to create new products and solutions
    • students identify a need to situation to improve
    • students identify standards related to need or improvement
    • student brainstorm possible solutions
    • student models solutions
    • student test models of solutions
    • students modify solutions to better meet standards
  5. Experimental inquiry – using experiments to test hypotheses can be used in science and other subjects
    • students make observations
    • student apply related theories to explain what was observed
    • students used related theories to develop hypotheses that explain observations
    • students engage in activity or experiment to test hypothesis
    • students explain results of activity or experiment – compare to hypothesis and decide whether to conduct more experiments
  6. Decision making – hypothesis testing can help with decisions that select things with the most or lest of somethings
    • students select a choice and identify its alternatives
    • students identify criteria that will be used to make decision
    • students use criteria to rate alternatives
    • students calculate a weighted sum of each score generated from ratings in previous step
    • students use scores to compare alternatives
    • students analyze selected alternative and decide whether or not to adjust criteria or weighting factors
Making sure students can explain hypotheses:
  • provide templates that guide students to provide acceptable evidence for hypotheses
  • use sentence stems
  • audio record student explanations of hypotheses
  • co-develop and implement rubrics that assess quality of hypotheses and related explanations
  • provide public presentation opportunities

 

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Generating and testing hypotheses is a powerful way of developing understanding that is not limited to science classes.  The six hypothesis types above demonstrate how hypotheses can be used in disciplines inside and outside of science.  Using various processes to make and test different types of hypothesis can teach students how to take intellectual risks and learn from them.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Investigate the types of problem solving involved in applying upcoming content
  • Decide which hypothesis model (see above) fits with the problem solving models in upcoming content
  • Research, gather, and design strategies and tools that can facilitate student thinking through a specific type of hypothesis making & testing
Early Implementation Steps
  • Guide students through making and testing specific types of hypotheses
  • Have students reflect on how making and testing hypotheses is affecting their products and understandings
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Have students reflect on how hypothesis testing relates to their own personal lives – especially as it related to goal setting and problem solving
  • Guide students through different types of hypothesis testing over various projects – have students compare/contrast their learning experiences while making and testing different types of hypotheses

 

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105: Setting Goals & Giving Feedback

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Research on Goal Setting
  • Goal settting – setting a direction for learning
  • 3 Research Generalizations
    1. Instructional goals narrow what to focus on
      • need to be careful about what goals students focus on because this focusing effect can lead them to ignore important info
    2. Instructional goals should not be too specific
      • Effective objectives have 3 characteristics
        1. performance – what learning should be able to do when goal is met
        2. conditions – context for performance
        3. criterion – specific descriptions of meeting performance standards
      • Caveat – objectives that meet 3 criteria may be too specific to accommodate individual learning
    3. Students should be encouraged to personalize teacher’s goals
      • Setting goals in contractual setting – students set goals and contract grade they will get for meeting those goals
Classroom Tips related to Goal Setting:
  • Provide general learning goals and have students develop related personal goals from these
  • Classroom contracts – base grades on students’ ability to set and meet personal academic goals / timelines
Research on Providing Feedback
  1. Feedback should be corrective in nature – i.e. provide specific feedback on what’s correct (and not)
    • providing students with correct answers doesn’t seem to improve performance
    • need to provide related explanations to correct answers to improve performance
    • keeping students working on task until they get it right seems to improve achievement
  2. Feedback should be timely
    • the greater the delay in feedback, the less positive impact on performance
    • giving tests one day after learning experience seems to be optimal
    • feedback immediately after test-like activity appears to enhance performance
  3. Feedback should be specific to criterion
    • Norm-based feedback compares student performance to other students’ performance.  This is not effective
    • Criterion-based feedback compares student performance to academic criteria.  This is more effective than norm-based feedback.
  4. Students can effectively provide some feedback
    • Students can track own learning and get good results.
Classroom Tips related to Feedback:
  • Criterion referenced feedback
    • Use rubrics that show different levels of knowledge and skills
  • Feedback on specific types of knowledge and skill
    • when possible try to focus feedback on specific learning targets
    • cumulative letter grades do not provide enough information to improve performance
  • Student-led feedback
    • Student led feedback can improve achievement.  See this article for ideas on how to scaffold good descriptive feedback.

 

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Project baed learning (PBL) can offer many opportunities for students to set personal goals.  One way to achieve this is to launch projects with broad provocative essential questions (driving questions) that students can personalize for their own projects.  Another way to do this is to gives students voice and choice over the format of their products.  One extreme example of this is multigenre projects.

 

Throughout the project, timely corrective feedback is key to supporting students’ success.  Providing timely feedback on work days can help students improve their understanding and their products.  Providing timely feedback during scaffolding activities and immediately after assessments can help students improve their knowledge and skills.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Decide what strategies and tools you will use to support student goal setting.
  • Decide what strategies and tools you will use to provide timely feedback.
  • Design rubrics with descriptive, leveled criteria that can help provide efficient, timely descriptive feedback.
  • Use technology such as Nearpod, Socrative, etc. that can be used to give students timely feedback on assessments.
Early Implementation Steps
  • Set aside class time for students to set and track their goals and reflect on the strategies they are using (or not using) to achieve their goals
  • Set aside time for team meetings during work days to give students specific feedback based on the rubric on their products.  Have students clarify and summarize feedback and plan next steps at the meetings.
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Engage students in tracking their progress towards long term skills / academic goals.
  • Use advanced techniques such as standards based grading to give students specific feedback over time.

 

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104: Cooperative Learning

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Research on Cooperative Learning:
  • Homogeneous ability grouping can lead to widening of ability gaps in students
  • 5 Elements of Cooperative Learning:
    1. Positive interdependence
      • all members’ efforts needed to succeed
    2. Face-to-face promotive interaction
      • encouraging feedback
    3. Individual and group accountability
    4. Interpersonal and small group skills
      • communication, trust, leadership, decision making and conflict resolution skills
      • For ideas on how to scaffold these skills, see Collaboration articles
    5. Group processing
      • reflection on how group collaborates in order to improve collaboration
  • Cooperative learning has outperformed competitive learning and individual learning in several research studies
  • 3 Generalizations from research:
    1. Organizing groups based on ability should be done sparingly
      • homogeneous ability grouping does not help low performing students
    2. Cooperative learning groups should be kept small in size
      • suggest 3 to 4 members per team
    3. Cooperative learning should be applied consistently and systematically, but not overused.
      • signs of overuse
        • task is not designed to required team work
        • not enough time built in for independent practice
      • cooperative learning improves when applied at least once per week
 
Classroom Practices:
  • Use a variety of grouping methods
    • random – by color they’re wearing, picking out of hat, by birthday
    • by common interests – can build on common experiences
  • Use informal, formal and base groups
    • informal:
      • examples: pair-share, turn to your neighbor that last few minutes per class periods
      • uses: clarify expectations, co-process information, co-reflect/closure on activities
    • formal:
      • examples: project teams
      • tips:  design tasks that include 5 elements of cooperative learning
    • base groups
      • support groups that are long term (could be semester long)
      • sample use:  meet 5 minutes each day to discuss upcoming deadlines and homework
  • Managing group size
    • task should match size of team
    • larger teams require more collaborative social skills
  • Combining Cooperative Learning with other classroom structures:
    • allow time for individual processing and independent practice

 

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Cooperative learning is a regular feature of project-based learning (PBL).  The five elements of cooperative learning can be used to design and refine tasks that help students learn and work better in teams.  Using different types of groups (informal, base, and formal) can help students get peer support from multiple class mates.  Being mindful of possible overuses of cooperative learning can help PBL facilitator create opportunities for individual learning to balance out cooperative learning experiences.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Design lessons that leverage informal grouping to extend academic talk
  • Research strategies that relate to 5 elements of cooperative learning and incorporate these into design for content and collaboration scaffolding
  • Design group activities that incorporate 5 elements of cooperative learning. See above
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement group activities that incorporate 5 elements of cooperative learning.
  • Use informal grouping to  extend academic talk during scaffolding activities
  • Have teams reflect on which of the 5 elements of cooperative learning are at play in activities, how they are working and how to improve them
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Create notebook resources that provide strategies that connect to 5 cooperative learning strategies
  • Have students use collaborative strategies resource to help design and implement group contracts and to help facilitate team meetings
  • Explicitly teach students social skills needed to collaborate effectively.  See Collaboration articles for ideas.
  • Use base value groups to provide steady support for students – can use to provide encouraging feedback, reminders of deadlines, practice individual goal setting skills, etc

 

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103: Nonlinguistic Representations

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Research on Nonlinguistic Representations:
  • Using both linguistic and nonlinguistic (mental pictures, physical sensations, etc) modes of representation helps with better recall of knowledge
  • A variety of activities produce nonlinguistic representations:
    • creating graphic representations
    • making physical models
    • generating mental pictures
    • drawing pictures
    • engaging in kinesthetic activity
  • Nonlinguistic reps should elaborate on knowledge
    • power of elaboration can be enhanced by asking for explanations and justification
 
Classroom Practices:

 

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One way to create high challenge / high support (challenge zone) classrooms is to scaffold high expectations (not lower expectations) using message abundancy, i.e. amplifying content by using multiple representations for the same content.   Using both linguistic and nonlinguistic representations of content is a way to amplify content so that students have multiple opportunities to learn it.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Analyze how upcoming content is organized
  • Select the nonlinguistic representations that best connect to how content is organizer
  • Gather resources / write prompts that help students organize content in graphic organizers (or other nonlinguistic representations) that explicitly illustrate how content is organized
Early Implementation Steps
  • Use nonlinguistic organizers selected above as one of a variety of scaffolding methods for key content in projects
  • Have students discuss / write about the key connections that are illustrated inside nonlinguistic representations of content
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Include an appendix in the back of students notebooks that contains commonly used graphic organizers and simple instructions that students can use to create their own graphic organizers
  • Using the graphic organizer notebook resources, have students supplement notes by selecting the graphic organizers that best illustrate the connections among information.

 

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102: Assumption Ladder

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Assumption Ladder – from bottom rung to the top
  • Available data and experiences
    • Ask questions or report the facts and findings
  • I select data to observe
    • Ask questions or share
      • focus of observations
      • highlights of observations
  • I make assumptions based on what I’ve selected.
    • Ask questions or share
      • Assumptions
      • Possible causes
      • Possible next steps
  • I draw conclusions
    • Ask questions or share
      • Summaries
      • Conclusions
      • Learnings
  • I make actions based on my conclusions
    • Ask questions or share
      • Plan of action
      • Next steps
Uses of ladder:
  • Metaphor for communicating full problem solving train of thought
  • Easier to have a dialogue about the things at the bottom of the ladder
  • Disagreements at the top of the ladder (without knowledge of bottom rungs) are hard to resolve
  • Ladder slows down thinking process and makes it more visible to the individual and team
  • Once a decision is made it becomes a self fulfilling force – hard to change direction
 
How to use the ladder:
  • Create an Assumption ladder visual and refer to it during discussions
  • Facilitator asks questions and uses cues that indicate to the group what rung of the ladder they are on
  • Use the ladder to settle disagreements – try to diagnose at what rung of the ladder did the disagreement start
  • Do’s:
    • Get people to hold up ladder as you go
    • Open up for multiple viewpoints
    • Invite others to challenge you
    • Practice walking up and down the ladder
    • Listen and inquire versus just advocating
  • Do nots:
    • Use the ladder as a weapon
    • Try to knock others off their ladder
    • Get defensive
    • Expect this to be easy
    • Advocate without inquiry

 

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Students and teachers are constantly making judgements about content and about character.  These lead to next steps related to improving academic  and character skills.  The assumption ladder is a tool that can be used to convey the full train of thought supporting next steps relating to upcoming goals.  This visual can be especially helpful when there are disagreements about next steps and new directions.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Look at project calendar and list of project actions and identify areas where teams will need to problem solve together to arrive at a consensus about their team or their products
  • Create Assumption Ladder visuals for classrooms and for student folders or notebooks
Early Implementation Steps
  • Model being different roles around a conversation that uses Assumption ladder
  • Scaffold lessons about Assumption ladder – in lesson offer modeling, role playing, discussion and reflection opportunities
  • Brainstorm uses for Assumption ladder with students
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Teach students how to facilitate team discussions using the Assumption ladder
  • Have students identify when its effective to use Assumption Ladder conversations and independently start these as needed
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101: Homework & Practice

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  • What research has to say about homework:
    • Amount of homework should differ in elementary, middle and high school.  Homework has a more positive impact on student achievement at higher grade levels.
    • Parent involvement in homework should be kept to a minimum
      • Encourage students to complete homework in a set time and location
    • The purpose of homework should be communicated.
      • Purposes:
        • Practice – build fluency and accuracy in familiar content
        • Preparation – prepare mind for upcoming activities
        • Elaboration – elaborate on familiar content
  • Classroom practices related to homework:
    • Establish and communicate a homework policy – communicate purposes of homework and helpful ways parent can support students at home in homework policy
    • State outcome and purpose of homework assignments
    • Vary approaches for providing feedback on homework
      • homework has more affect on achievement when paired with feedback
      • teacher / self / peer feedback
  • What research has to say about practice:
    • Mastering a skill requires a fair amount of practice spread over time
    • When practicing students should adapt and shape what they learned
      • While shaping skills – students develop conceptual understanding of them
      • During shaping phase – use less problems and more reflection
  • Classroom practices related to practice:
    • Chart speed and accuracy to see if mastery is growing
    • Target specific elements of complex skill or process – ex – one phase of scientific method
    • Include time for students to increase conceptual understanding of skills or processes
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Homework and practice provide students with the reps needed to build proficiency in skills.  Knowing how to communicate the purpose of practice & homework and how to implement these effectively can help teachers assign and support homework in ways that are helpful.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Decide main purposes for assigning homework in a specific course
  • Brainstorm / research helpful ways parents can support student learning at home – e.g. helping them set aside a common location and time for homework, helping them track their completion times
  • Develop a homework policy that communicates the purposes of homework and ways that parents can help students with their homework
Early Implementation Steps
  • As homework sets are assigned explain the purposes for homework and the impacts homework and practice will have on future work
  • Have students track how their understanding and fluency is growing as a result of practice and homework
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Develop homework support systems that give students in-class and out-of-class support on homework
  • Figure out smart ways to incorporate homework into grading systems.  See this article for ideas.

 

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100: Reinforcing Effort & Providing Recognition

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What research has to say about reinforcing effort:

  • Not all students realize the impact of effort.
  • Students can change their beliefs on the importance of effort.

Classroom Practices

  • Explicit practices
    • Teachers share stories of how effort carried the day when success did not seem imminent
    • Share examples (videos) from famous people who triumphed through effort
    • Share examples of effort from famous stories
    • Students recall times when they prevailed through effort
  • Use rubrics to track effort and achievement:
rubrics
  • Ask students to see correlation between effort and achievement variables
    • Ask students to reflect on what they learned about effort
    • Graph effort and achievement data
      • Achievement vs Effort
      • Achievement vs Time
      • Effort vs Time
    • Have students use graphs to notice patterns in their effort and achievement

 

What Research has to say about Providing Recognition:

  • Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation
    • Worst effect – giving praise for easy tasks can undermine achievement
  • Reward is most effective when it is contingent on reaching known performance standards
  • Abstract symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible rewards
    • Tangible awards = physical prizes, candy
    • Verbal praise is effective
    • Abstract rewards = recognition for reaching a performance standards
    • Tangible awards are still effective when tied to performance standards

Classroom practices related to Recognition:

  • Personal Best Honor Roll – students who met individual target goals made this honor roll regardless of whether or not they qualified for absolute grade-based honor roll
  • Pause, prompt and praise
    • Pause students in work
    • Prompt – have supportive conversation on how to improve work
    • Praise – After some time and evidence of improvement, congratulate student on their new found success
  • Symbolic signs of recognition
    • Stickers, stamps, ..
    • Make sure these tokens are given for meeting performance standards to create positive or no impact on intrinsic motivation

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Teaching about the importance of effort relates to building growth versus fixed mindsets in students.  Showing students how their efforts tie to results by tracking rubric stores and through recognition could reinforce beliefs that tie effort to success.

 

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Preparation Steps

  • Gather stories (articles, videos) about people who triumphed through effort
  • Gather goal setting and tracking tools such as the Effort & Achievement Rubric (see above)
  • Design lessons on the importance of effort and its connection to external results (achievements) and internal results (brain development)

Early Implementation Steps

  • Implement lessons about importance of effort – incorporate model stories, discussions, and opportunities for students to tie lessons to their own lives
  • Use Effort & Achievement Rubric and a Task chart to record effort and achievement scores daily over a period of time
  • Create summary graphs of effort and achievement shorts:  achievement vs effort, achievement vs time, effort vs time
  • Have students identify and reflect upon patterns in summary charts

Advanced Implementation Steps

  • Ask students what strategies and practices do they want to incorporate into their daily habits and routines as a result of achievement / effort tracking
  • Experiment with different ways for recognizing student effort
  • Use student feedback to identify most effective ways for recognizing student work – incorporate these into classroom routines
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99: Development FIRST

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Development FIRST Steps

(David Peterson and Mary Dee Hicks)

  1. Focus on priorities:
    • What are the most important skills in your development plan?
    • Select 1-2 areas.
    • Work with focus areas for 1-2 months before moving on.
    • Figure out:
      • where are you know and where do you want to go?
      • what are you actually going to do differently?
      • what are the impacts of these changes?
  2. Implement something every day.
    • At least  5 min per day on development (micro initiative that might grow to macro impacts)
    • Seek out situations with:
      • High stakes and visibility
      • Novelty to stretch your comfort zone
      • Challenges that require you to do more than you’ve done in the past
      • Interactions that require you to work with non-subordinates
    • In these situations ask:
      • Can I take a risk each day?
      • How can I use my strengths?
      • What resources do I need?
      • What do I need to face?
  3. Reflect on your experience.
    • What have you learned from successes and mistake?
    • Write each day:
      • proudest moment
      • high light of the day
    • Look for patterns in reflections
  4. Seek feedback and support:
    • the more people you involve, the more chance of success
    • Supporters can give you
      • feedback
      • direction
      • new strategies
      • support
      • motivation
      • accountability
    • Guiding questions
      • Who are the best people to support you?
      • Who are the best people to get feedback from?
      • Can you tell them what you need and how they can help?
      • What kind of feedback is unhelpful?
      • How can you foster mentoring relationships with them?
  5. Transfer learnings into next steps:
    • Codify successes into patterns, resources, and supports needed to move forward
    • When success occurs:
      • write down success steps
      • ask others what they saw you do that was helpful
      • teach someone else how you did it
      • teach your learning to your team
      • ask others to hold you accountable to better patterns and make you aware of when you’re slipping back into old habits

 

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There are so many skills teachers can acquire to become better educators.  With so many options out there, it’s sometimes hard to choose and stick to a development plan that will lead to substantial change and success in any one area.  Following the steps above can help teachers and students achieve goals that relate to tricky change efforts.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • For teacher development plans:
    • Do an inventory of the teaching strategies and skills you would like to master to become a better teacher
    • Prioritize your inventory – seek out 1-2 focus areas
    • Brainstorm how you can take small risks each day to learn something new about your focus areas
    • Recruit people who can offer support, advice and feedback
  • For student development plans
    • Help students use learning targets to identify 1-2 focus areas
    • Research and develop scaffolding strategies, tools and activities that students can implement every day to become more skilled focus areas
    • Have students assume appropriate roles in development plans – thought partners, observers, feedback partners – train students how to perform roles well
Early Implementation Steps
  • For teacher development plans:
    • Keep record of risk tried each day and related learnings
    • Supplement notes with advice, feedback and observations from support team
  • For student development plans:
    • Have students record what they tried and what they learned from it.
    • Have student supplement their reflections with advice and observations from their support teams.
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • For teacher and student development plans:
    • Look for patterns in successes in journal entries
    • Identify the most effective strategies
    • Solidify the HOW in the effective strategies by teaching them to another team member
    • Identify new patterns you’d like to convert into routines
    • Recruit an accountability team that will let you know when you are sticking to new routines and when you’re slipping back into old habits

 

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98: Coaching Conversations

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  1. Hear the problem or issue fully.
    • Ask questions to determine what happened, when it happened, why it happened.
    • Reflect back content and emotions without giving advice.
  2. Get more details.
    • Ask more questions to find out:
      • duration of problem?
      • what’s been tried already?
      • who’s been affected?
      • what does everyone think the problem is?
      • anything work at all (even part time)?
    • Reflect back content and emotions without giving advice.
  3. Honor their ideas for a solution.
    • Ask questions to help him, her or them describe their possible next steps
      • What should be done next?
      • Who might benefit?
      • How long will next step(s) take?
      • What resources do you need?
      • How will you know if it’s working?
      • What are the merits of various solutions?
  4. Ask if they want your advice.
    • If not, confirm what they will next.
    • If they really need but don’t want it, offer it.
  5. Give your advice and make a plan.
    • Don’t just give the answer – create a mentoring moment
    • Think aloud (making thinking visible).
    • Explain considerations for choice
    • Explain why you selected choice
    • Explain what was considered and ruled out and why
    • If one exists, explain impact of a similar experience you’ve had and what you would’ve done better now that you know more
    • Explain what things they did not consider in their choice – unintended consequences, impact on stakeholders, resources needed, time needed, skills needed, etc.
  6. Plan
    • Decide on a next step
    • Decide when they will check back with you
    • Decide how they will know if next step is working

 

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Coaching conversations are a critical tool in managing teams during PBL projects.  Teams will sometimes reach an impasse and will need the assistance of a facilitator to think through a problem.  Observing the steps above will help teachers guide students through the process of analyzing, brainstorming, evaluating, and planning possible solutions to their team problems.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Prior to needing to facilitate these conversations, offer up the Coaching Conversation as one of a selection of extra support tools that teams can use when they are feeling stuck or overwhelmed.
  • Teach students what are the purpose and format of Coaching conversations.
  • Observe teams to identify if any teams might need a coaching conversation.
Early Implementation Steps
  • If a team requests (or is perceived to be in need of) a coaching conversations, facilitate one using the steps listed in the WHAT section.
  • After the conversations have students reflect and provide feedback on how the session went.
  • Set up a plan to implement and evaluate next steps.
  • Check in on teams to see if their next steps worked.
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Teach students how to have coaching conversations with their team mates.  While scaffolding this skill provide: a checklist of steps, modeling of steps, and practice role play opportunities.
  • After observing the steps being modeled or role played, ask students to brainstorm situations that may require coaching conversations.
  • To help students be more effective listeners during coaching conversations, look at ideas in here and here.
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