Tuesday, February 6, 2018
The Innovator's Mindset
My takeaways
-"Change is an opportunity to do something amazing."
-"We forget that our responsibility isn't solely to teach memorization of the mechanics of a task but to spark a curiosity that empowers students to learn on their own. To wonder. To explore. To become leaders. We forget that if students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them."
Defining Innovation:
-Something new and better
-Innovation can come from either "invention" (something totally new) or "iteration" (A change of something that already exists)
-Way of thinking- a way of considering concepts, processes, and potential outcomes
-Technology can be crucial in the development of innovative organizations, but innovation is less about tools like computers, tables, social media, and the Internet, and more about how we use those things.
-Starts with a question: "What is best for this learner?"
-Think about how what we're teaching will impact his/ her future "In our world today, what is a student more likely going to need to be able to write: an essay or a blog post?"
-Questioning what we do and why we do it is essential for innovation.
-Critical Questions for the Innovative Educator: Would I want to be a learner in my own classroom? What is best for this student? What is this student's passion? What are some ways we can create a true learning community? How did this work for our students?
-"Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates. Learning happens when a learner integrates new knowledge and skill into his or her existing structure of self. Learning is literally a matter of creating new meanings, new neural networks, and new patterns of electro/ chemical interactions within one's total brain/ body system."
-"Engaging students means getting kids excited about our content, interests, and curricula." "Empowering students means giving kids the knowledge and skills to pursue their passions, interests, and future."
-"We need to teach kids to respectfully ask questions and empower them to challenge the ideas of others to help all move forward, not to challenge simply for the safe of it."
-"Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion."
-"Change is an opportunity to do something amazing."
-"We forget that our responsibility isn't solely to teach memorization of the mechanics of a task but to spark a curiosity that empowers students to learn on their own. To wonder. To explore. To become leaders. We forget that if students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them."
Defining Innovation:
-Something new and better
-Innovation can come from either "invention" (something totally new) or "iteration" (A change of something that already exists)
-Way of thinking- a way of considering concepts, processes, and potential outcomes
-Technology can be crucial in the development of innovative organizations, but innovation is less about tools like computers, tables, social media, and the Internet, and more about how we use those things.
-Starts with a question: "What is best for this learner?"
-Think about how what we're teaching will impact his/ her future "In our world today, what is a student more likely going to need to be able to write: an essay or a blog post?"
-Questioning what we do and why we do it is essential for innovation.
-Critical Questions for the Innovative Educator: Would I want to be a learner in my own classroom? What is best for this student? What is this student's passion? What are some ways we can create a true learning community? How did this work for our students?
-"Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates. Learning happens when a learner integrates new knowledge and skill into his or her existing structure of self. Learning is literally a matter of creating new meanings, new neural networks, and new patterns of electro/ chemical interactions within one's total brain/ body system."
-"Engaging students means getting kids excited about our content, interests, and curricula." "Empowering students means giving kids the knowledge and skills to pursue their passions, interests, and future."
-"We need to teach kids to respectfully ask questions and empower them to challenge the ideas of others to help all move forward, not to challenge simply for the safe of it."
-"Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion."
Learning Targets
My takeaways:
-*The most effective teaching and the most meaningful student learning happen when teachers design the right learning target for today's lesson and use it along with their students to aim for and assess understanding."
-"A learning target is not an instructional objective."
-"Learning targets, as their name implies, guide learning."
-"Learning targets are student- friendly descriptions-via words, picture actions, or some combination of the three- of what you intend students to learn or accomplish in a given lesson."
-"When students, aim for learning targets during today's lesson, they become engaged and empowered. They are better able to: Compare where they are with where they need to go, set specific goals for what they will accomplish, choose effective strategies to achieve those goals, and assess and adjust what they are doing to get there as they are doing it."
-"The learning target for today's lesson depends on logical and sequential planning based on long- term and short-term goals and on what students already know and can do. The crucial questions become:
-What did students learn in yesterday's lesson?
-How well did they learn it?
-Where are they confused?
-What can they use meaningully?
-Where is their learning heading in upcoming lessons?
A lesson should never ask students to do more of the same. Each lesson should have a specific purpose- a reason to live."
-"One of the most effective steps we can take to close the achievement gap is to teach all students how to self- assess and give them plenty of feedback as they are doing so."
-"Looking for what students are actually doing during today's lesson is like using a close-up lens. These data yield a detailed view of what happens during a particular lesson in a particular classroom to pinpoint what is working in the lesson- and what is not- for a particular student or group of students."
-"...an effective learning target helps students hop onto the learning trajectory."
-"We are learning to..." "I can..."
-"It is what students actively think about- what their minds are on, rather than what their hands are on- that determines active engagement."
-"...a lesson should never ask students to do more of the same. Lessons should continually challenge students to set, aim for, and reach short- term goals that progressively take them to long- term outcomes."
-"A learning target is not an instructional objective."
-"Learning targets, as their name implies, guide learning."
-"Learning targets are student- friendly descriptions-via words, picture actions, or some combination of the three- of what you intend students to learn or accomplish in a given lesson."
-"When students, aim for learning targets during today's lesson, they become engaged and empowered. They are better able to: Compare where they are with where they need to go, set specific goals for what they will accomplish, choose effective strategies to achieve those goals, and assess and adjust what they are doing to get there as they are doing it."
-"The learning target for today's lesson depends on logical and sequential planning based on long- term and short-term goals and on what students already know and can do. The crucial questions become:
-What did students learn in yesterday's lesson?
-How well did they learn it?
-Where are they confused?
-What can they use meaningully?
-Where is their learning heading in upcoming lessons?
A lesson should never ask students to do more of the same. Each lesson should have a specific purpose- a reason to live."
-"One of the most effective steps we can take to close the achievement gap is to teach all students how to self- assess and give them plenty of feedback as they are doing so."
-"Looking for what students are actually doing during today's lesson is like using a close-up lens. These data yield a detailed view of what happens during a particular lesson in a particular classroom to pinpoint what is working in the lesson- and what is not- for a particular student or group of students."
-"...an effective learning target helps students hop onto the learning trajectory."
-"We are learning to..." "I can..."
-"It is what students actively think about- what their minds are on, rather than what their hands are on- that determines active engagement."
-"...a lesson should never ask students to do more of the same. Lessons should continually challenge students to set, aim for, and reach short- term goals that progressively take them to long- term outcomes."
UnShakeable 20 Ways to to Enjoy Teaching Every Day...No Matter What
My takeaways:
*"Do you have a vision for your classroom?"
*"What really matters? What gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment? Think big! Why do you teach?"
*"Your vision is what will get you through the hard times and help you feel a sense of satisfaction when no one else is saying thank you or telling you that you've done a great job."
*Quote from Krissy Venosdale "Posting a lesson target before teaching a lesson is like announcing what a gift is before it's opened. Post a question. Bring curiosity and thinking back to the classroom!"
*Use essential questions to drive your instruction and help kids uncover a greater purpose for what they're learning."
*We need to make sure that students' learning results in changing outcomes. Students need to believe that the tasks they do make a difference beyond the four walls of the classroom."
*"Life and character skills are the things that really matter and that make teachers' work so, so important. Kids generally don't learn life and character skills from activities in the teachers' manual and multiple choice tests. These are skills that require a caring teacher to personalize the learning and make it matter on a deep level. You have the opportunity to do that every day in your classroom and I promise, it will be absolutely transformational in your sense of passion for your work as well as student's engagement."
Online Resources: https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/printables/
*"What really matters? What gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment? Think big! Why do you teach?"
*"Your vision is what will get you through the hard times and help you feel a sense of satisfaction when no one else is saying thank you or telling you that you've done a great job."
*Quote from Krissy Venosdale "Posting a lesson target before teaching a lesson is like announcing what a gift is before it's opened. Post a question. Bring curiosity and thinking back to the classroom!"
*Use essential questions to drive your instruction and help kids uncover a greater purpose for what they're learning."
*We need to make sure that students' learning results in changing outcomes. Students need to believe that the tasks they do make a difference beyond the four walls of the classroom."
*"Life and character skills are the things that really matter and that make teachers' work so, so important. Kids generally don't learn life and character skills from activities in the teachers' manual and multiple choice tests. These are skills that require a caring teacher to personalize the learning and make it matter on a deep level. You have the opportunity to do that every day in your classroom and I promise, it will be absolutely transformational in your sense of passion for your work as well as student's engagement."
Online Resources: https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/printables/
Tips in Next Steps Forward in Guided Reading
Tips in Next Steps Guided Reading:
Pre-A Stage:
*Students read the book with you, students manipulate their names, say letter names, match letters to alphabet chart, name a word that begins with that letter, find a letter that makes that sound, clapping syllables, hearing rhymes, sorting pictures, writing a dictated sentence, and letter formation
Emergent: (Levels A-C)
*Teach one- to-one matching and using pictures to reinforce meaning before you teach cross- checking. Dictate 3 familiar sight words for students to write on their whiteboard. Encourage independent reading (if they finish the book before you call time, have them reread the story). Do not have students read the book chorally or round- robin. This limits the amount of text they read and impedes independence.
Early: (Levels D-I)
*Strategy Focus- always consider self- monitoring first, have students independently read the text, ask open- ended questions that will facilitate discussion and help students draw inferences, word study activities could include: picture sorting, making words, sound boxes, and analogy charts. Guided writing is assisted writing, not assigned or independent writing.
Transitional: (Levels J-P)
*Always teach monitor for meaning as your first focus. If students are already using meaning, work on word solving strategies. When monitoring and decoding are strong, choose fluency and retelling. Once students are strong in all the areas at the text range, it is time to increase the text difficulty. Students read text independently, do not introduce every new word, prompt students to use strategies and text clues to solve most words.
Fluent Reader: (Levels N and higher)
*Always ask yourself, "What can I teach this group today that will help them be better reader tomorrow?"
*Students read text independently, students write brief response as reading, teacher confers with students individually and prompt for vocabulary clarification or comprehension clarification.
Pre-A Stage:
*Students read the book with you, students manipulate their names, say letter names, match letters to alphabet chart, name a word that begins with that letter, find a letter that makes that sound, clapping syllables, hearing rhymes, sorting pictures, writing a dictated sentence, and letter formation
Emergent: (Levels A-C)
*Teach one- to-one matching and using pictures to reinforce meaning before you teach cross- checking. Dictate 3 familiar sight words for students to write on their whiteboard. Encourage independent reading (if they finish the book before you call time, have them reread the story). Do not have students read the book chorally or round- robin. This limits the amount of text they read and impedes independence.
Early: (Levels D-I)
*Strategy Focus- always consider self- monitoring first, have students independently read the text, ask open- ended questions that will facilitate discussion and help students draw inferences, word study activities could include: picture sorting, making words, sound boxes, and analogy charts. Guided writing is assisted writing, not assigned or independent writing.
Transitional: (Levels J-P)
*Always teach monitor for meaning as your first focus. If students are already using meaning, work on word solving strategies. When monitoring and decoding are strong, choose fluency and retelling. Once students are strong in all the areas at the text range, it is time to increase the text difficulty. Students read text independently, do not introduce every new word, prompt students to use strategies and text clues to solve most words.
Fluent Reader: (Levels N and higher)
*Always ask yourself, "What can I teach this group today that will help them be better reader tomorrow?"
*Students read text independently, students write brief response as reading, teacher confers with students individually and prompt for vocabulary clarification or comprehension clarification.
Essentials of Evidence Based Academic Interventions- Takeaways
10 Effective Teaching Principles:
1. Active engagement
2. Build- in success
3. Opportunity to learn
4. Direct instruction
5. Scaffold instruction
6. Address forms of knowledge (declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge)
7. Organizing and activating knowledge
8. Teach stratgically
9. Explicit instruction
10. Teach sameness
"Three elements of instruction can be differentiated: the content (what is to be learned), the process (how it is to be learned), and the product (the way mastery is demonstrated).
"The goal of working toward reading fluency has only a little to do with fluency instruction itself. Just like decoding accuracy, fluency is a bridge toward comprehension and the desire to read more, which will ultimately enable deeper comprehension. Fluency, therefore, is a means- just like decoding- to a higher end than itself. For the end of all our efforts is a child who read accurately enough and fluently enough to understand what she reads and to reach for more."
"...effective fluency interventions include: (a) provision of an explicit model of fluent reading, (b) multiple readings of text with corrective feedback on missed words, and (c) established performance criteria for increasing the difficulty level of the text."
"Students should first become accurate readers before an emphasis is placed on speed of reading."
Recommendations for Increasing Fluency:
-Select interesting passages
-Ensure active engagement
-Have students engage in multiple readings
-Use instructional- level text
"Instruction should not focus on reading faster for the safe of reading faster without giving commensurate attention to comprehension- the ultimate goal of reading instruction."
National Reading Panel Findings Related to Vocabulary
"Vocabulary should be taught directly and indirectly. Words must be seen multiple times and in multiple contexts, language rich environments foster incidental learning of vocabulary, technology helps develop vocabulary, no one single method works best all of the time for teaching vocabulary."
"...writing may be the most complex task students are asked to perform in school because it requires the integration of so many different skills."
1. Active engagement
2. Build- in success
3. Opportunity to learn
4. Direct instruction
5. Scaffold instruction
6. Address forms of knowledge (declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge)
7. Organizing and activating knowledge
8. Teach stratgically
9. Explicit instruction
10. Teach sameness
"Three elements of instruction can be differentiated: the content (what is to be learned), the process (how it is to be learned), and the product (the way mastery is demonstrated).
"The goal of working toward reading fluency has only a little to do with fluency instruction itself. Just like decoding accuracy, fluency is a bridge toward comprehension and the desire to read more, which will ultimately enable deeper comprehension. Fluency, therefore, is a means- just like decoding- to a higher end than itself. For the end of all our efforts is a child who read accurately enough and fluently enough to understand what she reads and to reach for more."
"...effective fluency interventions include: (a) provision of an explicit model of fluent reading, (b) multiple readings of text with corrective feedback on missed words, and (c) established performance criteria for increasing the difficulty level of the text."
"Students should first become accurate readers before an emphasis is placed on speed of reading."
Recommendations for Increasing Fluency:
-Select interesting passages
-Ensure active engagement
-Have students engage in multiple readings
-Use instructional- level text
"Instruction should not focus on reading faster for the safe of reading faster without giving commensurate attention to comprehension- the ultimate goal of reading instruction."
National Reading Panel Findings Related to Vocabulary
"Vocabulary should be taught directly and indirectly. Words must be seen multiple times and in multiple contexts, language rich environments foster incidental learning of vocabulary, technology helps develop vocabulary, no one single method works best all of the time for teaching vocabulary."
"...writing may be the most complex task students are asked to perform in school because it requires the integration of so many different skills."
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