CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS Nine Best Practices to Improve Student Achievement

Fahmida LukmanASU ILEP ALUMNI-

2014

Finding Similarities and Differences

The brain seeks patterns, connections, and relationships between and among prior and new learning

The ability to break a concept into its similar and dissimilar characteristics allows students to understand and often solve complex problems by analyzing them in a more simple way

Research Findings

Guidance in identifying similarities and differences enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

Independently identifying similarities and differences enhances students' understanding of and the ability to use knowledge.

Representing similarities and differences in graphic or symbolic form enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

Graphic Organizers for Similarities and Differences Work

www.graphic.org/goindex.html http://www.edhelper.com/

teachers/graphic_organizers.htm

Summarizing and Note Taking To effectively summarize, students must delete

some information, substitute some information, and keep some information.

To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information thoroughly.

Being aware of the explicit structure of information is an aid to summarizing information.

Summarizingand Note Taking

Teach students how to process information for their own note taking.

Use a variety of organizers to assist students who learn visually.

Tools for Summarizing and Note Taking

http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Tools/Index.htm - 50 tools to be used to help students engage in rigorous thinking, organize complex ideas, and scaffold their interactions with texts.

10-2 StrategyFor every ten minutes of new learning

provide students two minutes to process the new learning.

Research shows that you can either pay attention or make meaning. So time to process is essential to transfer learning to long term memory.

Take two minutes and reflect on how summarizing and note taking are integral to enhancing reading comprehension.

Keep track of effort and achievement

What ways can students participate in charting progress in effort and achievement in your classroom?

Use an effort rubric and achievement rubric and ask students to chart their progress.

Effort Rubric 4: The student works on tasks until completed and continues

working on the task even when difficulties arise or a solution is not immediately evident. The student views difficulties that arise as opportunities to strengthen understanding.

3: The student works on tasks until completed and continues working on the task even when difficulties arise or a solution is not immediately evident.

2: The student puts some effort into the task but stops working when difficulties arise.

1: The student puts very little effort into the task. 0: Not enough information to make a judgment.

Achievement Rubric 4: The student exceeded the objectives of the task

or lesson. 3: The student met the objectives of the task or

lesson. 2: The student met a few of the objectives of the

task or lesson but did not meet others. 1: The student did not meet the objectives of the

task or lesson. 0: The student did not do the task.

Effort and Achievement Chart

Student keeps chart Each week sets new goals Add reflection component

Think it, Ink it, Link itStrategy

Can student participation in charting progress in effort and achievement be effective in helping the student you are following?

Think it - Provide time to process new learning

Ink it - Reflect in writing Link it - Application to prior learning, new

situations

Provide Recognition

Rewards can be powerful motivators if they are contingent on a stated goal or standard.

Recommendations for Providing Recognition

Establish a rationale - explain to students you will recognize them when they have achieved an identified level of performance, but recognition is not automatic.

Students also need to understand that they have not failed if they do not receive recognition.

WHICH IS EFFECTIVE PRAISE? Numbered Heads Together - number students, ask

question, students collaboratively generate answer being sure each member of group can answer question, teacher then calls a number at random

Teacher responds, “Good Job, Jackson. Keep it up.”

2. Teacher circulates as student are working in small groups. He pauses at station 1 and comments, “Nice work on your summaries.” At Station 2 he says, “ Your details demonstrate how closely you read.”

What Are Characteristics OfEffective Praise? Example Three: “You really did a good job

reading through all of the steps before beginning the assignment. I know you’ve had difficulties with multistep calculations before and sometimes settled for getting any answer down on paper, even if it wasn’t correct. Your determination with this task really shows.”

What characteristics make this praise the most effective?

Effective Praise

Specifies the particulars of the accomplishment

Provides information to students about their competence or the value of their accomplishments

Is given in recognition of noteworthy effort or success at difficult tasks

Attributes success to effort and ability

Homework and Practice Establish a homework policy with advice - such as

keeping a consistent schedule, setting, and time limit.

Communicate the purpose of homework, if students know why they are doing an assignment it won’t seem like busy work - practice to increase their speed at reducing fractions, accessing prior knowledge for tomorrow’s introduction to the Liberation War, extending what they have learned about food webs

Slate Share

Recording ideas on a slate and then sharing with the class provides all students the opportunity to process information

Students may draw a diagram of how something works, answer questions with a partner and share with class, etc.

Shower board can be purchased inexpensively and cut into desktop size slates to be used with dry erase markers and an old sock for cleaning the board.

Numbered Heads Together

1. Students number off in groups of 3 or 4 2. Teacher announces a questions and sets a

time limit 3. Students put their heads together 4. Teacher calls a number

Think Pair Square Pose problem Think time Pair discusses Pair squares with another pair to share This provides about 6 times more participation than

partners sharing with the whole class. Providing students multiple opportunities to respond enables them to process and better commit learning to long term memory.

Ball Toss

Think about posed question When ball is tossed the recipient shares

their ideas Ball is then tossed to someone else All who wish to share should have the

opportunity

Design Group Work Around The Core Components Of Cooperative Learning

Positive interdependence - Sense of sink or swim together Group processing - Reflecting on how well the team is

functioning and how to function better Interpersonal and small group skills - Communication,

trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution Face-to-face interactions - Helping each other learn,

applauding success and efforts Individual and group accountability - Each of us has to

contribute to the group achieving its goals

Examples of Non Linguistic Representation

A variety of activities to produce nonlinguistic representations should be used. Creating graphic representations Making physical models Generating mental pictures Drawing pictures and pictographs Engaging in kinesthetic activities

Setting Objectives Objective: Set objectives that are not too specific

(i.e., Understand how topography influences the way people live and the extent to which they must depend on others. • Written as a Question: How does where people live

influence how they live? Personalize objectives - Students should be

encouraged to personalize the teacher’s goals adapting them to their personal needs and desires.

Communicate objectives - How do you use objectives as a pre and post test?

Providing Feedback

Feedback should be corrective in nature.

The best feedback shows students what is accurate and what is not.

Asking students to keep working on a task until they succeed appears to enhance student achievement.

Providing Feedback

Feedback should be timely. The larger the delay in giving

feedback, the less improvement one will see.

Feedback should be specific to a criterion, telling students where they stand relative to a specific target of knowledge or skill.

Providing Feedback

Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback.

In fact, non-authoritative feedback produces the most gain.

Analyzing Systems Students study many systems across the disciplines,

weather, government, ecosystems, etc. One way to enhance and exercise student

understanding of these systems is to ask them to generate hypotheses that predict what might happen if a certain aspect of that system changes.

Example: How would our government differ if the legislative branch were no longer a part of the system?

What is an example you have tried?

Problem Solving Problem solving is about finding the best solution, not

just any solution. Problem solving of unstructured problems - those that

do not have clearly defined goals and usually have more than one solution- are the kinds of problems we find in everyday life.

Example: Ask students to build something using limited resources. This will generate questions and hypotheses about what may work or not work.

What problems have your students had to engage in solving?

Model for Problem Solving 1. Identify the goal you are trying to accomplish 2. Describe the barriers or constraints that are preventing

you from achieving your goal - that are creating the problem 3. Identify different solutions for overcoming the barriers

and hypothesize which solution is likely to be the most effective.

4. Try the solution - in reality or simulation 5. Explain whether your hypothesis was correct. Determine

if you need to test another hypothesis using a different solution.

Other ways to Generate and Test Hypotheses

Historical Investigation - What really happened? Why did this happen? Collecting evidence is the most important part.

Experimental Inquiry -describe observations, generate explanations, make predictions, and test them

Invention - Shouldn’t there be a better way to. . .

How can using cues, questions, and advance organizers enhance connections students make?

Pause briefly after asking a question. Doing so will increase the depth of your students’ answers

Vary the style of advance organizer used: Tell a story, skim a text, or create a visual image.

Prelearning Strategies

Discuss Predict Question Brainstorm Create a Graphic Organizer Set Purpose

Anticipation-Reaction Guide Focusing Important Information

Purpose is to establish a purpose for reading, access prior knowledge, and help students reframe their thinking as necessary

Prepare a series of statements important to the reading Before reading, have students indicate T or F Have students read selection or watch video or demo After reading have students answer same questions again Have students discuss where they found the information that

changed their thinking