Below is the vital equation that must exist in order for a student not to fail in our schools:
Family + Student + School + Policymakers/Voters = Student Achievement
Each variable is co-dependent on the other. Each link in the chain must do its part, pulling its weight for the goal to be achieved. To tackle this polynomial equation takes deconstructing its parts. Therefore, much like a Top Chef contestant deconstructs a grilled cheese sandwich to analyze its ingredients, I am going to break down our education equation into parts and analyze what each must contribute for a student to succeed.
The Teacher’s Responsibilities
What’s rough about defining a teachers’ necessary contribution to the equation is that it has become an evolving job description, with obligations added to our plates without appropriate increase in compensation or the necessary ongoing training. Nevertheless, there are still responsibilities which make up the foundation of our profession and ones that we must be willing to adopt as the world around us changes if we are to really hold our own in the equation of student success.
1. Be experts at our content. This means continuing to invest in updating our knowledge.
2. Be experts in communicating our content. A good math teacher not only knows math, but can transmit their knowledge to students in a way that the clientele understand. A good history teacher not only appreciates the past, but can pass on their passion in a way that makes students appreciate it too.
3. Be up to date on skills students will need to know for their future. I’ve written about this in the past. Teachers must find ways to teach forwards, to teach in a way that helps prepare students for their future, and that often means moving beyond the methods in which we ourselves were taught.
4. Collaborate and model collaboration, for the future world in which they will live will not be an isolated one. It will be a global community that requires adults to work together in ways we cannot begin to predict. Cut the losses that go hand-in-hand with our inability to see the future, and teach an openness to collaboration.
5. Be a role model. Yes, you signed up for that.
6. Communicate with the student and the family in multiple ways, in methods that work for them and for you. You have email but they don’t? Find a way. You have given a paper to the student and it never reached home? Call until you reach someone or wait at the curb for an inescapable meeting at drop-off.
7. Continue being a student yourself, and model being a lifelong learner.
8. Make lessons applicable. Don’t be a part of the disconnect between school life what real life. Take time to explain the relationship and why what kids are learning now is important later on.
9. Be willing to adapt. We are in the business of teaching the group that is before us at any given year, and as times change, so must our methods and lessons.
10. Enjoy your job and your clientele. The minute you find yourself not looking forward to spending your day with those kids, find another profession.
For some teachers, this may seem obvious. For others it may be more than you bargained for when you signed up for teaching. But it’s the basic fundamentals of what we need to do if we are to keep up our end of the equation. And I’ll be honest; I think we should be evaluated on how we accomplish these steps. We should be held accountable for how we uphold our end of the social bargain. Even though I believe teachers and schools can’t be held accountable for other variable’s failures, we cannot allow that discrepancy to dictate our own contributions and efforts.
The Final Variable in the Equation of Success
Of course, the last vital variable is what we all, the voters and the policymakers who work for us, must do for education to succeed.
This is the challenge: make education a priority in the voting booths and the campaigns. Retired baby boomers can’t dismiss educational issues as no longer their problem to solve. Younger families coming up through the system can’t cut-and run from our public schools in their indecision of how to educate their own children. The problems that plague some of our schools belong to us all.
Public schools are a miracle of this country. The mission, to educate all for free, is one that anyone on any side of the political fence should be fighting for as a top priority. But it’s up to voters to send the message that it is important, and its up to policymakers to do the right thing despite party politics and lobbyists.
Cutting education will only cut the future of this country, and that hurts us all. With every vote that does not pass and with every “nay” on the floor, our voters and policymakers condemn our system to further failure.
The equation of student success isn’t about who is to blame. Rather, it forces us to ask the question: how can each variable that involves us all, better do its part?
In regards to what teachers can do to contribute to the equation, what would you add to this Top 10 list to avoid student failure?
Written by heather in: Ed News, Educational Policy, Teacher Resources | Tags: education, edutopia, equation of student success, huffinton post, k-12, student achievement
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Using Effective Study Strategies
THE LEARNING NETWORK
TEACHING and LEARNING with THE NEW YORK TIMES_
_______________________________________
September 13, 2010, 3:05 pm
Learn Your Lesson: Using Effective Study Strategies
By SANDHYA NANKANI AND HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO
Overview | What makes a student a good learner? What study habits are truly effective? In this lesson, students examine research that debunks myths about effective study habits and participate in one or more experiments to test proven strategies. They then create “dos and don’ts” brochures with studying tips and/or implement personal study strategy plans.
Materials | Student journals, computers with Internet access (optional), course content and assessment tools for the experiments described in the Activity section below
Warm-up | Invite students to imagine they are advice columnists who have just received the following letter from a student:
I’m determined to be a better student and bring up my grades. Do you have tips for good study habits that will help me succeed?
Have students work in pairs or trios to brainstorm a list of advice to give the student, using these prompts to stimulate thinking:
• What study practices have been suggested – or required – over the years by your parents and teachers?
• Has any advice or strategies not worked for you? If so, what was it, and why didn’t it work? What did you do instead?
• What habits do you practice? What works for you? What doesn’t?
After a few minutes, have the groups share their ideas. Are there any common themes? Do any habits seem to work for everyone, or do individuals have specific strategies that work for them?
Invite students to post their responses as comments on our Student Opinion question “Is Everything You’ve Been Taught About Study Habits Wrong?”.
Related | In “Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits,” Benedict Carey reviews cognitive research about study habits and learning styles:
Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).
And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.
Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.
Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.
The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.
Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.
Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:
1. What are some common prescriptions for good study habits that have been debunked by recent research?
2. What, according to recent research, are some simple study habits that can improve how much a student recalls when studying?
3. What are the advantages of studying different kinds of material in one sitting versus studying one kind of subject?
4. What analogy does the author of this article use to describe the brain’s learning and recall processes? Why?
5. Why is testing considered a powerful tool of learning? Is this surprising?
Activity | Here are ideas for testing the four main learning strategies highlighted in the article. After each activity, work as a group to assess and reflect on the process.
1. Alternating Study Settings
Strategy: Studying material in different environments instead of a single location.
Experiment: Divide students into two groups, a test group and a control group. Provide each group with a list of information to learn, such as vocabulary words and definitions, key U.S. history facts or other material related to your curriculum.
Have the control group stay in the classroom and study the information for 20 minutes, with a five-minute break. Have the test group spend ten minutes in the classroom and ten minutes in a different environment, such as the library, the cafeteria or the outdoors. Afterwards, administer a quiz to all students and evaluate performance. Which group performed better?
2. Mixing Content
Strategy: “Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting” instead of focusing on just one skill or piece of content at a time.
Experiment: Below are some ways to test this strategy in different areas of study, working again with a test group and control group; after the activity, assess student retention, recall and comprehension of the material.
• Math: Teach a new concept. Have the control group work on a problem set for that specific concept, while the test group works on a problem set that includes other skills and concepts. For example, if you are teaching how to solve basic proportions, you might provide students with worksheet that also includes basic equations, word problems and FOIL method multiplication.
• World Languages: Provide a list of basic words in the target language that anyone traveling to a country where the language is spoken should know. Have the control group study the list silently, while the test group studies the same words by using them in spoken conversation, writing (in context), and reading.
• American History: Present a timeline of key dates surrounding a historical event. Have the test group study this list in the traditional method by reading and memorizing it. Have the control group read the list, then read a prose passage about that same historical event and write a short essay about it, as well as examining a related photograph or illustration.
• Language Arts: Introduce the control group of students to a poem or monologue by having them read it aloud a few times over an assigned block of time. Have the test group approach the same poem in the following ways: first, reading it silently, then reading it aloud and then writing it out in their journals.
• Fine Arts: As described in the article, give the control group three sets of 12 works, each set by a different painter. Give the control group a mixed collection of works by various artists, including two or three paintings by the three artists assigned to the control group. Allow students ample time to examine and study the works. Then administer a quiz on the painting style of the three artists whose works they all examined, or play a “memory” game to test recall and identification.
3. Spacing Out Studying
Strategy: Studying material over time – say, an hour at a time on different days – as opposed to “cramming.”
Experiment: Teach a new concept or skill. Then divide the class into two groups. Have one group study the same material over time — such as one hour that night, another hour over the weekend, and then a third hour a few days later. Have the other group cram (or study intensively on one night). Give a quiz on the material, and then a second quiz on the same material a week later. Then assess: Who performed better on each quiz? Who was better able to recall the information immediately after the study sessions? Who retained the material better after a few days’ time?
4. Rehearsing Recall
Strategy: Taking practice tests and quizzes.
Experiment: As in the other experiments above, give the entire class a set of information to learn or memorize, such as vocabulary words, functions or facts, and assign the class to study the material for homework.
Assign a short “pretest” to only the test group (or have students develop their own), to be taken as part of their study session, and merely tell the control group to study the material. The next day, test the entire class on the material.
Going further | Students create and illustrate a “Dos and Don’ts” brochure with tips for effective study habits, and make them available in the school library, learning center or study hall, or on the school Web site. (You might introduce students to Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits for Highly Effective Teens,” then have them write their brochures as “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Studiers.”)
Alternatively or additionally, students choose one or more strategies from the article to implement into their own study practice. They keep a journal over the course of a unit or semester, chronicling their use of the habit(s) and the results in the form of quiz, test and course grades.
In a future class, you may wish to have students investigate the concept of learning styles and review the recent research, mentioned in the article, suggesting that there is “almost zero support” for the notion that students have different learning styles that require different approaches.
Standards | This lesson is correlated to McREL’s national standards as follows (it can also be aligned to the new Common Core State Standards):
Behavioral Studies
3. Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior
Life Skills: Self-Regulation
1. Sets and manages goals
2. Performs self-appraisal
4. Demonstrates perseverance
Life Skills: Thinking and Reasoning
2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning
3. Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences
4. Understands and applies basic principles of hypothesis testing and scientific inquiry
5. Applies basic trouble-shooting and problem-solving techniques
6. Applies decision-making techniques
Language Arts
1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
6. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts
7. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts
8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
TEACHING and LEARNING with THE NEW YORK TIMES_
_______________________________________
September 13, 2010, 3:05 pm
Learn Your Lesson: Using Effective Study Strategies
By SANDHYA NANKANI AND HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO
Overview | What makes a student a good learner? What study habits are truly effective? In this lesson, students examine research that debunks myths about effective study habits and participate in one or more experiments to test proven strategies. They then create “dos and don’ts” brochures with studying tips and/or implement personal study strategy plans.
Materials | Student journals, computers with Internet access (optional), course content and assessment tools for the experiments described in the Activity section below
Warm-up | Invite students to imagine they are advice columnists who have just received the following letter from a student:
I’m determined to be a better student and bring up my grades. Do you have tips for good study habits that will help me succeed?
Have students work in pairs or trios to brainstorm a list of advice to give the student, using these prompts to stimulate thinking:
• What study practices have been suggested – or required – over the years by your parents and teachers?
• Has any advice or strategies not worked for you? If so, what was it, and why didn’t it work? What did you do instead?
• What habits do you practice? What works for you? What doesn’t?
After a few minutes, have the groups share their ideas. Are there any common themes? Do any habits seem to work for everyone, or do individuals have specific strategies that work for them?
Invite students to post their responses as comments on our Student Opinion question “Is Everything You’ve Been Taught About Study Habits Wrong?”.
Related | In “Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits,” Benedict Carey reviews cognitive research about study habits and learning styles:
Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).
And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.
Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.
Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.
The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.
Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.
Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:
1. What are some common prescriptions for good study habits that have been debunked by recent research?
2. What, according to recent research, are some simple study habits that can improve how much a student recalls when studying?
3. What are the advantages of studying different kinds of material in one sitting versus studying one kind of subject?
4. What analogy does the author of this article use to describe the brain’s learning and recall processes? Why?
5. Why is testing considered a powerful tool of learning? Is this surprising?
Activity | Here are ideas for testing the four main learning strategies highlighted in the article. After each activity, work as a group to assess and reflect on the process.
1. Alternating Study Settings
Strategy: Studying material in different environments instead of a single location.
Experiment: Divide students into two groups, a test group and a control group. Provide each group with a list of information to learn, such as vocabulary words and definitions, key U.S. history facts or other material related to your curriculum.
Have the control group stay in the classroom and study the information for 20 minutes, with a five-minute break. Have the test group spend ten minutes in the classroom and ten minutes in a different environment, such as the library, the cafeteria or the outdoors. Afterwards, administer a quiz to all students and evaluate performance. Which group performed better?
2. Mixing Content
Strategy: “Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting” instead of focusing on just one skill or piece of content at a time.
Experiment: Below are some ways to test this strategy in different areas of study, working again with a test group and control group; after the activity, assess student retention, recall and comprehension of the material.
• Math: Teach a new concept. Have the control group work on a problem set for that specific concept, while the test group works on a problem set that includes other skills and concepts. For example, if you are teaching how to solve basic proportions, you might provide students with worksheet that also includes basic equations, word problems and FOIL method multiplication.
• World Languages: Provide a list of basic words in the target language that anyone traveling to a country where the language is spoken should know. Have the control group study the list silently, while the test group studies the same words by using them in spoken conversation, writing (in context), and reading.
• American History: Present a timeline of key dates surrounding a historical event. Have the test group study this list in the traditional method by reading and memorizing it. Have the control group read the list, then read a prose passage about that same historical event and write a short essay about it, as well as examining a related photograph or illustration.
• Language Arts: Introduce the control group of students to a poem or monologue by having them read it aloud a few times over an assigned block of time. Have the test group approach the same poem in the following ways: first, reading it silently, then reading it aloud and then writing it out in their journals.
• Fine Arts: As described in the article, give the control group three sets of 12 works, each set by a different painter. Give the control group a mixed collection of works by various artists, including two or three paintings by the three artists assigned to the control group. Allow students ample time to examine and study the works. Then administer a quiz on the painting style of the three artists whose works they all examined, or play a “memory” game to test recall and identification.
3. Spacing Out Studying
Strategy: Studying material over time – say, an hour at a time on different days – as opposed to “cramming.”
Experiment: Teach a new concept or skill. Then divide the class into two groups. Have one group study the same material over time — such as one hour that night, another hour over the weekend, and then a third hour a few days later. Have the other group cram (or study intensively on one night). Give a quiz on the material, and then a second quiz on the same material a week later. Then assess: Who performed better on each quiz? Who was better able to recall the information immediately after the study sessions? Who retained the material better after a few days’ time?
4. Rehearsing Recall
Strategy: Taking practice tests and quizzes.
Experiment: As in the other experiments above, give the entire class a set of information to learn or memorize, such as vocabulary words, functions or facts, and assign the class to study the material for homework.
Assign a short “pretest” to only the test group (or have students develop their own), to be taken as part of their study session, and merely tell the control group to study the material. The next day, test the entire class on the material.
Going further | Students create and illustrate a “Dos and Don’ts” brochure with tips for effective study habits, and make them available in the school library, learning center or study hall, or on the school Web site. (You might introduce students to Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits for Highly Effective Teens,” then have them write their brochures as “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Studiers.”)
Alternatively or additionally, students choose one or more strategies from the article to implement into their own study practice. They keep a journal over the course of a unit or semester, chronicling their use of the habit(s) and the results in the form of quiz, test and course grades.
In a future class, you may wish to have students investigate the concept of learning styles and review the recent research, mentioned in the article, suggesting that there is “almost zero support” for the notion that students have different learning styles that require different approaches.
Standards | This lesson is correlated to McREL’s national standards as follows (it can also be aligned to the new Common Core State Standards):
Behavioral Studies
3. Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior
Life Skills: Self-Regulation
1. Sets and manages goals
2. Performs self-appraisal
4. Demonstrates perseverance
Life Skills: Thinking and Reasoning
2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning
3. Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences
4. Understands and applies basic principles of hypothesis testing and scientific inquiry
5. Applies basic trouble-shooting and problem-solving techniques
6. Applies decision-making techniques
Language Arts
1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
6. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts
7. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts
8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Absolute Classic of a Book....As A Man Thinketh (New Version)
I have read book and I HAVE READ BOOKS! and this book falls in the second category. This book actually it is a booklet is a must read for a searching soul!Check it out and get your free downloadable version!
AsAManThinkethNewVersion.com
AsAManThinkethNewVersion.com
Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Suggestions for the start of the new school's year
From a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) point of view, the most important consideration at the start of the new school year is to create positive feelings and optimism about school. This has many practical implications for both educators and parents.
Here are six suggestions to keep in mind:
Number One
Make a special effort to greet children in a positive and uplifting way at the start of school. Create a festive atmosphere, not a "get down to business" factory atmosphere. For example I am preparing posters with positive affirmations to decorate my classroom and I am having a session on Goals Setting.
Number Two
Highlight all the good and exciting things that will be happening at the beginning of the school year, as well as throughout the year. For example in this school year we at Bishop Anstey High will be celebrating our 80th Anniversary so I will tell them how privileged they are to be a part of this historical occasion.
Number Three
Give students a chance to share good memories about their holidays, what they are looking forward to for the new school year, and something about themselves that they would like classmates to know (even for returning students there maybe something new or special that they would like the class to know). Time spent helping the students in a class bond in positive ways will bring large dividend later in the year as students work together in pairs, teams, and groups.
Number Four
Allow students to have input into setting the rules for the classroom, in terms of both "do's" and "don'ts." Use the first couple of days to formulate these rules and ensure that it is posted for all to see.
Number Five
Give students an opportunity each day to reflect on what they are learning (this is my favorite!). Ask them to keep a journal (an electronic journal via the computer is a great idea) and write down, at the end of the day, three things they are taking with them from the school day. Have them keep daily journals in one or some or all subject areas where, at the end of a class period or unit or project, they write down three things they are taking away from that unit of work.(Teachers can create a 5 minutes time slot at the end of their class for students to write in their journals)
Number Six
You can create a website where you and your Form Class (or any other class) can communicate in privacy. These are only two (there are others) of such sites that offer free websites for teachers and classes http://twiducate.com/ and http://classjump.com/index.php
Here are six suggestions to keep in mind:
Number One
Make a special effort to greet children in a positive and uplifting way at the start of school. Create a festive atmosphere, not a "get down to business" factory atmosphere. For example I am preparing posters with positive affirmations to decorate my classroom and I am having a session on Goals Setting.
Number Two
Highlight all the good and exciting things that will be happening at the beginning of the school year, as well as throughout the year. For example in this school year we at Bishop Anstey High will be celebrating our 80th Anniversary so I will tell them how privileged they are to be a part of this historical occasion.
Number Three
Give students a chance to share good memories about their holidays, what they are looking forward to for the new school year, and something about themselves that they would like classmates to know (even for returning students there maybe something new or special that they would like the class to know). Time spent helping the students in a class bond in positive ways will bring large dividend later in the year as students work together in pairs, teams, and groups.
Number Four
Allow students to have input into setting the rules for the classroom, in terms of both "do's" and "don'ts." Use the first couple of days to formulate these rules and ensure that it is posted for all to see.
Number Five
Give students an opportunity each day to reflect on what they are learning (this is my favorite!). Ask them to keep a journal (an electronic journal via the computer is a great idea) and write down, at the end of the day, three things they are taking with them from the school day. Have them keep daily journals in one or some or all subject areas where, at the end of a class period or unit or project, they write down three things they are taking away from that unit of work.(Teachers can create a 5 minutes time slot at the end of their class for students to write in their journals)
Number Six
You can create a website where you and your Form Class (or any other class) can communicate in privacy. These are only two (there are others) of such sites that offer free websites for teachers and classes http://twiducate.com/ and http://classjump.com/index.php
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)