Culture – Page 2

March 25, 2016May 9, 2016

97: Building Empathy

Chapter 6 in Nadler, Reldan S. Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-on Strategies for Building Confident and Collaborative Star Performers. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.

Empathy:

Ability to understand people
Accurately hear unspoken feelings, thoughts and concerns of others
Seeing other people’s perspectives

Expressed and Unexpressed Feelings:

Challenges:
- Not all feelings are spoken
- People aren’t always aware of how they feel

Johari Window:

Quadrant 1 Tips (Top left, Feelings are known to self and expressed)
- Listen for blinking (feeling) words
- Respond compassionately and attentively to feeling words
Quadrant 2 Tips (Bottom left, Feelings are known to self but unexpressed)
- Observe body language
- Ask questions related to perceived feelings
- Put yourself in other’s shoes
Quadrant 3 Tips (Top right, Feeling are unknown to self, but expressed = Blind spot)
- Ask person if he would like feedback and use SSBIR method
- Be sensitive. Don’t pry. If needed, ask probing questions in private
- Observe body language
Quadrant 4 Tips (Bottom right, feelings are unknown to all)
- Ask questions
- Put yourself in other’s shoes

Carkuff model:

Listen deeply by paraphrasing what was just heard without asking questions or giving advice

4 Levels of Listening: For more listening tips, go here.

Paraphrase content
Paraphrase feelings
Paraphrase feelings and content
Paraphrase feelings, content and meaning

Star Listening:

Mostly at level 3 or above

In team interactions, not all important emotions are expressed. Teaching the Johari Window to students and related strategies can help students to practice empathy towards team members that are feeling emotions that are either unknown (but impactful) or difficult to express. Teaching students how to actively listen and demonstrate empathy will help them build rapport with their team mates and to improve their shared trust and collaboration.

Preparation Steps

Research more strategies relating to showing empathy for different states in the Johari window
Develop visuals, handouts and scaffolding activities to teach students how to actively listen during different Johari window states
Develop learning targets (long term and supporting) that relate to skillful listening

Early Implementation Steps

Implement scaffolding lessons prepped above – include modeling, guided role playing, small / large group discussions and reflections
Have students reflect on how they felt when they were demonstrating and receiving strategies related to building empathy
Have students communicate with their team mates on how they can better read each other’s feelings and what questions help them best communicate unexpressed emotions

Advanced Implementation Steps

Have students reflect over time on how practicing empathy building strategies affects their understanding of teammates and team morale
Ask students to use their reflections over time to uncover habits they would like to develop to continue to build empathy with others

Collaboration articles.

March 25, 2016May 9, 2016

96: Building Rapport & Listening Skills

Chapter 6 in Nadler, Reldan S. Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-on Strategies for Building Confident and Collaborative Star Performers. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.

Thinking Instead of Listening:

We can speak at 150 words / minute
We can think at 450 – 600 words / minute
Fast thoughts can create a distracting back chatter that makes listening challenging
Covey – We don’t listen to understanding; we listen to reply.

7 Barriers to Listening:

Rehearsing a response:
- mentally practicing to say your part
False reassurances:
- nod head like you’re listening, but you’re really looking for an opening to speak
Cliches:
- offer false cliches to appear like you’re paying attention
Misdirected quotes:
- ask questions that divert person from what they were saying before understanding it
Not focusing:
- paying attention to details outside the conversation
Daydreaming:
- paying attention to inside thoughts rather than conversation
Selective listening:
- catch a few words and pretend to listen

Good Listening Skills: For more tips for building listening skills, go here.

Don’t talk
Nod head occasionally
Softly look at person without staring
Move away or look away from distractions
Open body posture – don’t cross arms, don’t look at watch
Give brief verbal acknowledgements – “Really”, “Wow”, “Interesting”, …
Pace responses – if you give too may they’ll think you’re getting impatient or bored
Ask clarifying questions

Building Rapport:

Listening – see above
Make deposits into emotional bank account:
- deposit actions include: asking for ideas, listening, acknowledging their ideas, providing resources, etc
- withdrawals include: asking for favors, negative feedback, etc.
Find things shared in common besides work
Be aware of attending behavior (how you look and act while you listen)
- if your attending behavior includes off-putting stuff like frowning – make an effort to fix it
Match and mirror their communication style, learning style, or problem solving approaches

Our brain is wired in such a way that good listening is a challenge. Practicing good listening skills enhances communication and builds rapport. Learning how to practice skills that build rapport will help one be a more charismatic leader and team player. Teaching and practicing listening and rapport-building skills will help teachers and students to interact in ways that make deposits into persons’ emotional bank accounts.

Preparation Steps

Design lessons and related resources that teach students how to improve their listening and rapport-building skills.

Early Implementation Steps

Early on in the year and in projects, facilitate workshops and activities that build students’ listening skills and the rapport they feel for each other.
While scaffolding these skills – offer modeling, practice opportunities, and encouraging feedback.
Have students reflect on how practicing these skills is affecting their team’s morale, relationships, and communication.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Periodically have students deliberately practice listening and practice building rapport.
Have students reflect on what makes these practices challenging and what they can improve in order to make their efforts feel and be perceived as more sincere

Collaboration articles

March 23, 2016May 9, 2016

86: Standards Based Grading

Chapter 8 in Berger, Ron, Leah Rugen, and Libby Woodfin. Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming School through Student-engaged Assessment. Print.

Purposes / Uses:

Tie grades to specific understandings and learning
Communicate progress to students & their families about progress towards concrete goals (transparency)
Measures mastery at closure of grading period – not on average over the period
Make connection between work habits and skills more clear

Guiding Principles

Grades describe student’s progress and current level of achievement. This involves:
- considering trends in student work – especially most recent ones because these reflect more time to develop mastery
- multiple opportunities for students to show mastery
Habits of scholarship are reported separately from content mastery grades. This involves:
- keeping separate grades for assessments of character learning targets (in New Tech schools – this may be covered by showing the learning outcome grades separate from the content grades)
- scaffolding and assess character learning targets, just as one does for academic learning targets
Grades communicate (not motivate or punish). This involves:
- knowing that low grades are not a motivation for better habits
- early communication of grading criteria
Student engagement is the key to success. This involves:
- teaching students how to effectively self assess their knowledge and use it to plan next steps
- knowing that effective self assessment leads to more feelings of self-efficacy
- believing that all students can succeed with the right supports
- comparing work to standards not to other students’ work
Communicating clearly about achievement. This involves:
- realistic accounting for early mistakes
- opportunities to learn and improve
Engaging students. This involves:
- students playing an active role in understanding and assessing learning targets
Holding students accountable. This involves:
- holding students accountable to academic AND character learning targets
- having frequent conversations about what that accountability means and using those conversations to guide learning

Getting started involves …

developing and using learning targets to guide curriculum, instruction and assessment
- building supporting learning targets that build towards long term learning targets
defining clear character learning targets based on school-wide behavior expectations
committing to student-engaged assessment practices

School-wide implementation involves …

formulating and communicating school-wide grading guidelines to ensure school-wide consistent grading. These include expectations for …
- building body of evidence for mastery
- using formative and summative assessments
- fine tuning instruction in response to assessments
vertically aligning curriculum that prioritizing essential standards and shows a clear progression from grade level to grade level
developing consistent criteria for meeting or exceeding proficiency on learning targets
professional development on good practices relating to writing, scaffolding and assessing learning targets

Casco Bay High High School’s Grading System

1 = Does not meet standards. Does not demonstrate substantive progress towards learning target over the course of several assessments.
2 = Approaches the standards. Substantive progress towards learning target, but more time needed for mastery
3 = Meets the standards. Demonstrates competency in learning target.
4 = Exceeds standards. Demonstrates deeper level of understanding / skill than learning target required.

Sample Guidelines for Determining Progress Towards Long Term Learning Targets

Break long-term learning targets into several supporting learning targets that scaffold up to long term targets
Create assessments built on supporting learning targets
Assess long term target over the course of several assessments tied to relating supporting learning targets
Require students to demonstrate long term target RELIABLY not PERFECTLY
Value and reward long term progression towards mastery of long term learning targets over early demonstrations of mastery that can not be reproduced reliably later
Base mastery of long term learning targets on multiple summative assessments

Different approaches to passing courses:

Base passing grade on average grade over all learning targets
Passing course can only occur if student passes ALL learning targets. Scores 3 or above (see above) on all learning targets. (Casco Bay HS approach)

Reporting on habits of scholarship. This involves:

Consistent school-wides standards for assessing and reporting grades on character learning targets
- Interesting features of Casco Bay example:
  - Uses 1-4 grading scale on character learning targets (similar to academic learning targets)
  - HOW honor roll for students who earn 3 or above on all character learning targets
  - HOW scores of 3 or above on all character learning targets can NOT fail. Instead get an incomplete and extra support and time (2 wks) to meet academic learning target criteria
Structures for supporting students who don’t meet character learning targets. This can include:
- Team teacher meetings that brainstorm how to provide support to students who are struggling to meet targets
- Regular student opportunities for self assessment on character learning targets
- More formal individualized intervention programs for students who are still failing to meet standards by the end of the grading period

Examples of Student-Engaged Assessment Practices:

Regular formative assessments
Descriptive feedback that supports multiple revisions of work
Formal presentations of learning
Passage presentations – students present their progress to an audience
Assessments tied to meaningful work
Peer and self assessments made by comparing work to established criteria tied to learning targets

Checklist for Quality Assessment Plans:

Learning targets are high quality:
- aligned to standards
- includes ONLY ONE clear, aligned verb
- divided into long term and supporting standards
- student friendly language
- I can … format
- collection includes variety: reasoning, knowledge & skills targets
- knowledge and skills targets build up to reasoning targets
- collection includes prioritized collection of content, literacy, numeracy & character learning target
Summative Assessments:
- multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of long-term learning targets
- clear assessment tools used to measure mastery
- learning targets and assessment tools align
- collection is varied in format and type
- motivate students
- includes smaller formative assessments
- aligned to standards
Formative Assessments:
- formative assessments for each supportive learning target
- prepare students for summative assessments
- accommodates multiple learning styles
- motivate students
- clearly communicate learning target and means to achieve them
- involve self & peer assessment and reflections

Supporting Students who need Additional (outside class) Time & Support

Intensives
- 4-8 day remediation courses
- intense focused study on learning targets not met
- students who don’t need these have menu of electives to choose from
- earns back lost credit
- involves 1-on-1 conferences, small group instructions, lots of formative feedback
Block seven
- extra study hall period with teacher support
Mud season school
- opportunity to earn 3’s on character learning targets and 2+’s on academic learning target
Summer standards intensives
- See above. Takes place in summer instead of school year.
Out of class tutorials
- afterschool, before school, Saturday, etc

Woah! This looks hard. However some advantages I can see:

better communication of what students are actually learning
better means to target support
assessments that reward reliable knowledge built over time instead of averages over instances of learning that may or may not be reliable
clear separation between scaffolding, assessments and consequences (both good and bad) for academic and character learning targets
school-wide consistency on how grades are assigned
school-wide consistency on how students are supported in their efforts to achieve mastery
stronger professional culture in staff that emerges from school-wide agreements, training, & experimentation related to meaningful assessment practices

Preparation Steps

Identify a team of guinea big teachers who are willing to commit to building prototype systems that lay the foundation for this strategy. These systems:
- break up courses into long term and supporting learning targets
- establish agreements on high priority character learning targets and develop long term and supporting targets for these
- define consistent means for assessing long term and supporting learning targets
Conducting classroom trials to test and refine these systems

Early Implementation Steps

Guinea pig team of teachers implement and refine prototype systems described above
Consolidate tested strategies into a Faculty Standards Based Grading Guide

Advanced Implementation Steps

Wide implementation of Standards Based grading based on field guide and related professional development sessions
School-wide agreements are made and supported that relate to grading and support structures

See all related articles in the By the Book list by Leaders of their Own Learning
Assessment articles
Grading articles

March 20, 2016May 9, 2016

82: Social Action Papers

Chapter 8 in Daniels, Harvey, Steven Zemelman, and Nancy Steineke. Content-area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide. Portmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007. Print.

Social Action Papers

Any writing assignment that connects learning targets with real issues in the community
Uses:
- Develop research and persuasive writing skills
- Develop citizenship values and skills
- Student learn how to use textbooks as reference tools
Play by play
- Guide student to brainstorm topics that tie real issues to learning targets
- Provide writing support. Related articles
- Provide milestone deadlines and in class feedback
- Have students reflect upon the connections they’re discovering in their project, their challenges, their strategies, and next steps
Caveats:
- Students may choose a topic / project whose scope is too big or too small
  - can resolve with feedback on proposals
- Students can procrastinate
  - can resolve with milestone deadlines, in-class supported work time

Social action papers can tie content to real issues. The real relevance can make project more engaging to students. Incorporating a real audience into the project can also raise the stakes and interest level of the project.

Preparation Steps

Find real audiences
- Recruit a local partner as a resource or client for the project – they could be clients and/or sources of expertise
- Identify connections to potential topics that can make students’ friends and families viable audiences
Research and gather resources that relate to genre of social action paper
Design resources / activities to help students select topics:
- Design essential questions that can trigger many products and questions
- Design activity that helps students brainstorm topics that relate to learning targets
Research and prepare resources for scaffolding writing. Related articles
Design a project calendar that includes:
- Time to brainstorm, select, vet, and refine topic / product choices
- Research time
- Time to scaffold writing and related content
- Milestone deadlines for writing stages
- (if possible) Time to interact with real audience
- Multiple reflection times
- Critique & feedback lessons
- Time to present to real audience

Early Implementation Steps

Implement resources prepped above.
Be flexible with students who are working with real clients / experts because their time lines may not match school time lines
Provide a lot of formative feedback and in class work time throughout the project
Schedule time to meet with and present to real clients

Advanced Implementation Steps

Build sustaining relationships with local organizations so that multiple cohorts of students can work for real local organizations
Use tools like Nepris or Ignite by DiscoverSTEAM to connect students with real clients / experts.
Scaffold students through a design process to create products that client really needs. See Design Process articles.

March 20, 2016May 9, 2016

72: Writing to Learn (2 of 2)

Chapter 4 in Daniels, Harvey, Steven Zemelman, and Nancy Steineke. Content-area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide. Portmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007. Print.

4 Writing to Learn (WTL) Strategies (for more WTL’s go here or here or here)

Nonstop write:
- students write nonstop in response to a prompt for set time (3-5 min)
- write in sentences and paragraphs
- focus on quantity, not on perfect grammar
- uses: varied, include by not limited to:
  - reflection
  - introduce material
  - recall material just covered or uncovered
  - build up student perseverance
  - practice for essay writing on timed tests
  - watch how thinking evolves over a project
- Play by play:
  - start with shorter period of time and build to gradually build up student stamina
  - explain purpose of writing activity and how writing will be used
  - explain norms – silence write for entire period of set time
  - to alleviate writers block – give students 1-2 min to brainstorm what to write with a partner
  - quick class brainstorm on class visuals
  - reasons students may shut down before time expires:
    - putting thoughts to paper is a skill that needs to be practiced
    - continuous sentence and paragraph writing takes effort
    - requires students to expand on details until exhausted
  - work the room and encourage students to continue writing who stop early – ask for more examples and details
  - leverage the work:
    - use as conversation starters:
      - read aloud in pairs and discuss and report out findings
      - share in groups of 3-4 and identify common threads and report out findings
    - guided rereading – reread piece and look for:
      - sentences that get to heart of your message
      - examples that illustrate message
      - off topic and vague sentences
      - 3 favorite words
    - self evaluate writing style
      - rank how quickly one gets off topic
      - rank how well you keep writing for set time
      - number of words in entry
      - what do you need to do differently to meet later expectations (ex: min 150 word count)
Reflective Write:
- writing piece meant to get students to reflect on learning
- uses:
  - pause and note what was learned and how learning occurred
  - situate learning in larger context
  - diagnostic tool – are students on track? what’s hard? how deep is their thinking?
  - process readings
  - gather thoughts for upcoming task
- play by play:
  - model what reflective writing could look like, include:
    - reflections on mistakes and confusion
    - reflections on learning processes
  - read and analyze features of sample reflections from previous years
  - practice reflective writing on a simple common process
  - work the room
    - encourage individual students who struggle
    - if most struggle, stop work time and model again
  - leverage the writing:
    - follow up with one-on-one conferences on student thinking and struggles
    - use as conversation starters in reflective conversations
KWL:
- brainstorming used to drive instruction:
  - K – what do I know
  - W – what do I want to know
  - L – what have I learned
- used throughout the project (note – another form of this is a Knows, Need-to-Knows and Next Steps chart)
- uses:
  - expose and build on prior knowledge
  - expose need-to-knows and want-to-knows
  - expose misconceptions
  - review what has been learned
  - engage students in co-planning upcoming learning activities
- play by play
  - prior to teaching a topic have students individually brainstorm everything they know about the topic
  - gather student ideas on flip chart in the K column – record all ideas, even misconceptions
  - can put question marks next to statements that contradict each other
  - students brainstorm list of questions about the topic in groups of 3-4
  - remind students they can ask questions that go with disputed ideas (ones with ?)
  - gather student ideas on flip chart in the W column
  - encourage students to nod heads if they have the same question being put on the flip chart
  - later in the project, have students brainstorm more questions – gather these in the W column
  - later in the project, have students brainstorm list of what they have learned – gather these in the L column
  - tips:
    - if students hesitate on the want to learn lists – ask them to predict what they are about the learn
    - do not use on topics that students have no prior knowledge of
    - prior to gathering whole class lists, ask students to share what they wrote in groups of 3-4 and come up with list of 5 common items and report these to the whole group share
    - could ask students to brainstorm next steps to learn what’s in the W column
Teacher student correspondence:
- teachers and students passing notes / letter over extended period of time
- uses:
  - model writing
  - individualized texts
  - get to know students
  - gather feedback to target instruction
  - improve morale
  - deeper learning
  - build relationships with students
  - hear from students who don’t talk much
  - cues for guiding individualized instruction
  - cluster student needs for responsive teaching
  - self-assessments
  - classroom management
- play by play
  - get students set time (~ 15 min ) to respond to prompts such as
    - how is the course going?
    - how can I help you be more successful?
    - anything you want to tell me about your life out of school?
    - what kind of things do you do outside of school?
    - what makes the course challenging?
    - what connections do you see between the course and your life?
  - alert students that you will alert the guidance counselor if they reveal things that need guidance counselor follow-up
  - write a short note back in response to each student’s writing
  - tips
    - do with one period a week to avoid getting overwhelmed
    - if individual letters take too much time – read all letters and write one long letter in response to all of them to the whole class, try to work all students input and questions into the letter

Teachers can use a variety of Write-to-Learns (WTLs) to get students to actively process information in a variety of ways. Teachers can use the non-stop writes to see how student thinking is evolving and to help students gather thoughts that can impact products. Teachers can adapt the KWL steps above to facilitate more detailed and helpful Know, Need-to-Know, Next Steps discussions. Teaches can use teacher student correspondence to model writing, convey caring, and build up moral and relationships.

Preparation Steps

Analyze standards and generate learning targets
Analyze behavior norms and student behavior and generate character learning targets
Use knowledge of content and students to Identify which WTL’s can be used to process information in ways that highlight useful connections
Develop prompts and tools related to selected WTL’s that target academic and character learning targets

Early Implementation Steps

Implement WTL’s. See ideas above and also here, here and here.
Facilitate follow-up discussions and activities that make use of the WTL’s.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Have students reflect on WTL’s and try to identify which strategies are the most helpful. Use their suggestions to build WTL routines that match their preferences.
For individual WTL’s – give students choice among several strategies that match their preferred modes of communication.

March 19, 2016May 10, 2016

64: Coach like a ROCKSTAR

“Coach Like a ROCKSTAR” Region 13 Instructional Coaching Network. Austin. 8 Feb. 2016. Workshop.

Types of Factors that impact motivation:

Work context factors – class size, etc. – usually can’t change these
Work content factors – autonomy, responsibility, etc – these can be changed – focus on these for greater impact

Anti-Motivation Factors:

Exhaustion
Depersonalization
Low personal accomplishments

Motivation:

Dynamic
Needs to be sustained

ROCKSTAR Strategies for Promoting Motivation:

Radiate positivity
- Took a Positivity Ratio test
- Greater than or equal to 3:1 positive to negative emotion ratio is optimal for health and well being
Open to learning
- We are all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets
- Be aware of fixed and growth mindset triggers
- Model openness to learning
Create collaboration
- Role play dysfunctional and productive conversations and extract strategies and caveats from these
- Teach students how to have hard conversations (see here and here for ideas)
Key in on strengths and successes
Show empathy
- Perspective taking, not judging
- Recognizing common emotions and values
- A vulnerable choice
- Ignore the cheap silver lining comfort – Do NOT say – Well at least …
- Listen, don’t immediately try to make things better
- Reassure
Take in the moment
Ask questions
Remember to show gratitude

Related Tools:

Mentimeter – combination of Poll Everywhere and Word Cloud tool -automatically converts text data into various data summary types
Teach, Breathe, Learn by Meena Srinivasan
Positivity Ratio test

High motivation learners are more likely to be successful than unmotivated learners. Motivation is not a given; it must be sustained. Knowing many strategies for keeping teachers and students motivated can help make learning more fun and successful.

Preparation Steps

Reflect on what you already do to motivate yourself and your students. Use ROCKSTAR criteria to identify what things you do often and do hardly at all.
Take the Positivity Ratio test and reflect on your results.
Research and develop strategies that harness your strengths. See Agency articles for ideas.
Research and develop strategies that overcome your gaps. See Agency articles for ideas.

Early Implementation Steps

Implement lessons that promote student motivation. See Agency articles for ideas.
Have students take the Positivity Ratio test in your classroom and answer reflection questions that explain what factors could be responsible for their scores. Use a think pair share discussion to extract strategies that keep teachers and students motivated.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Let students use the ROCKSTAR criteria to evaluate themselves, their peers, yourself, and the classroom environment. Have them use that reflection to brainstorm strategies that can improve how well students, teachers, and classroom factors support high motivation.

Agency articles

March 19, 2016May 10, 2016

63: Summoning The Muses

Pressfield, Steven. The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. New York: Black Irish Entertainment, 2012. Print.

How To Summon the Muses:

Go Pro
Continually make decisions to beat The Resistance
Commit to and finish projects – especially when it requires exerting will power
Believe that sustained good efforts will yield good fruit
Believe that hard work can unveil hidden talents and hone visible ones
Believe in and celebrate Your Own Saga
Believe that committing to growth yields growth
Self revisions and self corrections naturally arise from sustained and reflective effort
Listen to one’s dreams and hunches
Live like you’re dying
Believe that our connections to our True Selves are Sacred
Do not fear success
Know that time limits our ability to do everything. But there is Time enough to claim Our Destiny.
Favor territorial over hierarchical orientations:
- Hierarchical orientations:
  - Value based on rank
  - Leads to competitive behavior
  - Believe in zero-sum game
- Territorial orientations:
  - Can provide sustenance
  - One’s territory is claimed by hard work
  - Involves committing to and valuing the work one would do at the world’s end
Contempt for failure, can’t fail when one’s successes are determined by our commitment to the work and its demands
Do work for its own sake, not for its rewards
Be a vehicle of The Gifts, not a Hoarder
Be a Warrior

Actively summoning the muses is claiming one’s Self and one’s Destiny. It is appreciating the good and mysterious good things that can happen when one commits to Going Pro.

Preparation Steps

Reflect on on the times when one experienced positive unexpected consequences as a result of Going Pro. Store up those stories as exemplars for sharing with students.
Research scaffolds that teach oneself and students how to build up the 4 resiliences (weapons against the Resistance). See Agency articles for ideas.
Build up reflection prompts that get students to reflect upon ways they have succeeded in summoning their Muses.

Early Implementation Steps

Acknowledge when a student has succeeded in summoning his or her Muses and praise and celebrate the efforts that resulted in that state.
Teach students to acknowledge when they are being lifted by Their Muses and to be aware of the strategies and rituals they use to achieve that state
Ask students to reflect upon and share experiences of times when they successfully summoned their uses. Use these stories to extract general principles and strategies that can be practiced by teachers and students.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Let students listen to or read helpful excerpts from The War of Art for inspiration and generative reflections.
Have students reflection on classroom conditions & strategies that can be improved to help them summon their Muses. Trial, test, and refine these strategies.

Agency articles

March 18, 2016May 10, 2016

60: Super Better

“Jane McGonigal: The Game That Can Give You 10 Extra Years of Life.” YouTube. YouTube. 13 Mar. 2016.

To learn more about Jane McGonigal, check out her interview here.

To play Jane McGonical’s Super Better game, try downloading the Super Better app.

Top 5 Deathbed Regrets:

I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
I wish I’d stayed in better touch with my friends and family.
I wish I’d let myself be happier.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self.
I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams.

How Games Counter Deathbed Regrets:

Games can help people stay connected and develop relationships
East Carolina study showed that 30 minutes of playing online games per day did better than depression medications to improve mood
Standford study showed that expressing selves through game avatars led to better attitudes – more optimism and courage

Jane’s Story:

Suffered severe concussion
Treatment reduced physical and intellectual stimuli to the point that she started having suicidal thoughts
Invented a game to survive because games lead people to approach problems with more positivity and creativity

Jane’s Super Better Game:

Adopt a secret identify. Example: Jane the Concussion Slayer
Recruit allies – friends and family that helped her track and play the game
Battle bad guys – actively reduce bad stimuli
Collect power-ups – actively seek out positive stimuli

Effects of the Super Better Game

Her depression disappeared
She stopped suffering even though concussion symptoms persisted for 1 year

Why did this work? Post-Traumatic Growth. People who experience this say …

My priorities are more aligned to my true happiness
I am closer to my friends and family
I understand myself better
I have a new sense of purpose and meaning
I am better able to focus on my goals and dreams

4 Ways to Experience Post-Traumatic Growth While Skipping the Trauma:

Build physical resilience by staying active (not sitting still).
Build mental resilience (will power) by tackling tiny challenges without giving up.
Build emotional resilience (ability to feel positive emotions when needed). People who experience 3:1 positive to negative emotions ratio tend to improve their health and problem solving skills.
Build social resilience (drawing strength from relationships) by expressing gratitude and through touch, shaking hands for 6 seconds increases oxytocin levels which is a brain chemical that helps one feel positive and trustful.

Learning how to use games to build ones’ physical, mental, emotional and social resilience can help one life more courageous and meaningful lives. Converting challenges into games can help one unleash hidden talents and skills. Teaching students skills for overcoming challenges can help them become more resilient learners. Playing the Super Better game to achieve one’s goals can help one become better at modeling skills that relate to agency.

Preparation Steps

Identify a goal that is worth being Super Better at.
Play the Super Better game to achieve that goal.
Document Super Better game play. Use experiences to develop modeling skills and design agency lessons for students.
Research and develop strategies and activities that relate to 4 resiliences listed above.

Early Implementation Steps

Teach students lessons and run activities that build up 4 resiliences above.
Use student reflections to see if activities are helping them build up skills related to agency.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Teach students about the 4 types of resilience and have them research and develop classroom practices that build up these.
Trial student strategies and use reflections to fine-tune these.

Agency articles

March 18, 2016May 10, 2016

59: Scaffolding Agency

“Megan’s Agency Session @ NST 2013.” Ustream. Web. 18 Mar. 2016

Yay! Non-New Tech educators should be able to access this online video. The presenter, Megan Pacheco, can be reached at @mpacheco11.

Why teach agency?

Lack of awareness of the skills that are applied to succeed can make learners vulnerable to feeling like failures (incurable) when they do not succeed
Knowing that success it a product of effort, not traits, is important for all learners, not just learners who struggle

Dilemma #1: How can we convince struggling students that they CAN succeed?

Teach students to be aware of the effect that practice has on outcomes
Practice using effort & risk taking and reflecting on the outcomes of these
Provide high quality formative feedback from multiple sources (teachers, self, peers, community members) and teach students how to use that feedback to improve
Give specific feedback that clearly describes areas of strength and areas of growth
Don’t grade for content on newly learned skills
Unpack models to teach qualities and strategies related to high quality work
Use variety of assessment types so that more students get opportunities to use their preferred learning mode to demonstrate mastery

Dilemma #2: How to promote growth mindset (not fixed mindset)?

Explicitly emphasize how mastery takes time and sustained effort
Normalize mistakes
Ask students to work through problems before asking for help
Explicitly teach students how to learn from mistakes
Give agency grade on 3 revisions and content grade on 3rd revision

Dilemma #3: How to develop students’ sense of responsibility and ownership?

Allow students to test solutions in low stakes, safe environments
Promote norms that treat mistakes and risks as valued practices
Celebrate best mistake of the lesson or the week
Emphasize process over product
Encourage students to pursue their own learning using variety of resources
Provide high quality formative feedback from multiple sources (teachers, self, peers, community members) and teach students how to use that feedback to improve
Teach students how to set, track, and achieve individual and team goals
Allow students to make and document choices about their use of time

Recommended Reads:

Agency is a critical skill that students need to be successful lifelong learners. Breaking up agency into skills and developing scaffolds for these can help ALL students to develop the attitudes and skills they need to be successful advocates of their own learning. Knowing how agency skills relate to good instructional & learning strategies can help teachers and students be more deliberate in their practice of strategies that promote successful learning.

Preparation Steps

Survey oneself and one’s students to identify attitudes that relate to growth and fix mindsets.
Research and develop lessons that relate to agency. See Agency articles and Larry Ferlazzo’s blog for ideas.
Research and develop grading policies that promote agency. See Grading articles for ideas.

Early Implementation Steps

Regularly teach lessons that build up skills related to agency and that promote a positive learning culture.
Use formative feedback to fine-tune activities, routines, and policies that promote agency.
Have students regularly reflect on how their learning experiences are impacting their attitudes and skills.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Have students research and develop strategies that promote agency. Build up a reliable database of articles and books to support this research.
Trial student researched strategies in the classroom. Use teacher observations and student feedback to refine these.

March 18, 2016May 10, 2016

58: Factors that Improve Intrinsic Motivation

Chapter 1 in Ferlazzao, Larry. Building a Community of Self-motivated Learners: Strategies to Help Students Thrive in School and beyond. Print.

Extrinsic Motivation

Good for short term algorithmic tasks; bad for creative tasks
Can diminish intrinsic motivation
May be helpful when situation is stressful & requires immediate attention
Need for baseline extrinsic motivation. Examples: clean classroom, engaging lessons, caring teacher

Factors That Promote Intrinsic Motivation:

Autonomy
- Give students voice & choice. Types of choice:
  - procedural – choice of task
  - organizational – choice of logistics (e.g. seating, agendas)
  - cognitive – choice of learning
    - Students create own solutions to relevant problems
    - Students publicly share problem solving approaches
    - Use thinking routines to scaffold & express thinking
Competence
- Praise process, not just product.
- Plussing protocol: I like … and … and .. what if you tried ….
- Use responsive teaching strategies. See Differentiation articles for ideas.
- Anticipate misconceptions and subtle concepts/skills and proactively prepare extra scaffolds for these.
- Use formative assessments to adjust instruction.
- Use variety of formative assessments.
- Use multiple grouping styles.
- Use scaffolds to guide conversations & thinking. See Literacy articles for ideas.
- Pre-teach up to 6 vocabulary words with visual support
- Use message abundancy (amplification) i.e. use several strategies to scaffold same content
Relationships
- Take genuine interest in students
- Be courteous and friendly
- Be flexible – It’s more important to DO RIGHT, than to BE RIGHT. Reminder the end goal is learning.
- Don’t give up on students.
- Have authoritative, not authoritarian classroom management style. Being authoritarian is like a dictator approach to classroom management. Being authoritative means demonstrating control relationally, through listening and explaining.
- Develop empathy and attunement for students. Empathy is understanding students’ feelings; attunement is understanding students’ thoughts.
- Teach students how to collaborate well. See Classroom Management articles for more ideas.
Relevance
- Have students write and talk about how current learning experiences relate to their own lives.
- Use student interests to design scaffolds and projects.
- Teach students how to set, track and achieve goals
- Use strategies that frame content in authentic contexts such as problem-based learning and project-based learning

Lack of intrinsic motivation can lead students to withhold effort and withhold their presences (absenteeism) in the classroom. Learning how to create the conditions that promote intrinsic motivation can help students to be more engaged in their own learning. Treating related attitudes as skills, rather than as traits, can help teachers develop scaffolds that build students’ intrinsic motivation.

Preparation Steps

Reflect on current classroom management & instructional practices using the 4 factors above. Which factors are strongly present in the classroom? Which are less present in the classroom?
Brainstorm and research how to enhance intrinsic motivation factors that are already strengths in one’s repertoire. Larry Ferlazzo’s blog has many resources.
Brainstorm and research strategies that relate to gaps in one’s repertoire. Larry Ferlazzo’s blog has many resources.
Research and design lessons that build up students’ skills and attitudes that relate to intrinsic motivation. See Agency articles and Larry Ferlazzo’s blog for ideas.

Early Implementation Steps

Regularly implement lessons that build positive learning culture and build up students skills that relate to intrinsic motivation and learning goals.
Develop and implement systems that relate to responsive teaching. See Differentiation articles for ideas.
Ask students for feedback on scaffolds, routines, and practices and use this feedback to fine-tune them.

Advanced Implementation Steps

Ask students to brainstorm practices & routines that can enhance 4 factors related on intrinsic motivation.
Teach students about intrinsic motivation and about strategies to enhance it. See Agency articles and Larry Ferlazzo’s blog for ideas.