CREATING A MINDS-ON CLASSROOM

Created and facilitated by: Melissa Aviles-RamosELA Instructional Specialist, Network 603

Tel: 917-704-7056E-mail: maviles10@schools.nyc.gov

Website: http://network603ela.weebly.com

Today’s Objective

Teachers will create a definition of and plan for a minds-on classroom that aligns instructional objectives, questioning, and assessment with Danielson components 1C, 3C, 3B, 1F, and 3D.

What makes a “minds-on” classroom?

5 minutes: Please respond to this prompt. Your response may be: Bullets A drawing with captions A paragraph A sentence

Share-out

A minds-on classroom is made up of…

Let’s align a minds-on classroom to Danielson

Minds-on

1C/3C

1E

3B

1F/3D

Setting Instructional Outcomes; Engaging Students in Learning

Designing Coherent Instruction Questioning &

Discussion

Designing Assessment/Using Assessment

Activity: Connect the Components

In your teams, discuss the following: How does 1C connect with 3C? How does 1F connect with 3D? How do each of these components work

together to create a minds-on classroom? Give an example of an activity that reflects

one of these components at its highly effective level. Please be as specific as possible.

Share-out

As your peers are sharing out, please use handout A to do the following: Take note of any instructional idea that you

could use in your own classroom. Any feedback you would provide your

colleague—without judgment or evaluation.

BREAK

Let’s take a 5-minute break before we move on to specific elements of instruction.

3 Elements for Today

Setting clear objectives Assessment Questioning

Objectives

To begin, let’s do a quick carousel activity: On the chart papers, write an objective that

you might give students from one of your lessons.

Please write at least one, but feel free to write up to three.

Objectives vs. Outcomes

Outcomes Objectives

Help teachers determine what is worth learning.

-Represents a description of a particular behavior or performance a learner is expected to possess forever following an instructional experience.

Example: Students will add double-digit numbers.

Expand upon performance outcomes by specifying the classroom conditions under which performances or behaviors will occur during practice and assessment, as well as any criteria learners must meet which indicate that specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes have been learned.

Example: Given two double-digit numbers written in equation form, the students will add them together.

How do you determine an instructional objective?

Step one: Determine performance. The performance is a description of the behavior that the learners

are expected to perform (measureable, observable). Step two: Identify and describe the conditions.

Conditions represent a description of the circumstances under which the performance will be learned and/or carried out (practice and assessment or evaluation).

Step three: Identify and describe the standard (criterion). A standard is a description of the criteria for acceptance of a

performance as sufficient, indicating mastery of the objective. A standard is stated in the objective only when necessary—when the stated performance requires qualification to it. For examples, the objective, “Given an object with clearly-defined linear sides, students will estimate the object’s length within 10 mm of its actual length.” The standard “…within 10 mm of its actual length” helps define the performance “estimate.”

Three-part Instructional Objective Examples:

The students will tell the time represented on an analog clock to the nearest minute. Tell the time: represents performance Analog Clock: represents the condition To the nearest minute: represents the

standard

Some Poor Examples

Students will demonstrate knowledge of the principles of magnetism.

The students will be able to recognize that the practical application of democratic ideals requires time, adjustment, and continuous effort.

The students will understand the use of commas.

Bad to Better

Bad Better

The student will demonstrate metric measurement of length.

Given a metric ruler, the students will measure the length of common linear objects to the nearest millimeter.

The students will learn about objectives.

The student will construct well-written instructional objectives.

The students will solve addition problems with 80% accuracy.

Given two numbers not written in equation form, the students will place the numbers in equation form and add them together.

Practice

Go back to the carousel activity from the beginning of the lesson; revise at least one of the objectives based on the three-step process. Feel free to revise as many as you like!

Assessment

General Specific Follow-up Strategies

“Do you all understand? Who doesn’t” understand?

“Raise your hand if you get it?”

“Are we okay?”

“Raise five fingers if you understand everything, three fingers if something is confusing you, a fist if you are lost. Hold them up, because I am taking note of your response.”

“Use your color-coded post-its to keep me informed as I walk around. Yellow means you’re in the clear, pink means you need my assistance. “

“If you claim to understand, then I would like you to be part of my expert group—and this means that after you convince me that you know something, you will have to walk around and help others who need help. Meet me at my desk if you think you qualify for the expert group.”

As you take note of the students’ fingers and fists, walk around the room and individually confer with them. If a student does not participate OR holds up five fingers, check them FIRST! The students who are reluctant to participate or who claim to know are usually the ones who need help.

On a log sheet that goes into the student’s portfolio, place any post-its that they used so that you can give extended feedback later on.

Questioning

Common, low-level question stems

Higher-level question stems

What is____________?

Who is ____________?

Why did ________________?

These questions are necessary—you always use them as a starting point. But they should move up the ladder of complexity.

How did____________? Why do you believe this? Explain your answer. Support your answer with textual evidence. How do these things relate to one another? What if…?

These questions ask students to extend their thinking; so after they have done the necessary task of finding information or confirming that they know certain facts and information, you ask them to use that information to explore new ideas and concepts.

Practice

In your teams: Create at least two specific forms of

assessment that you would use in a lesson. A pathway for questioning that you would use

for class discussion (should be a mix of low to high)

Share-out

Please use handout B to do the following: Take note of any instructional idea that you

could use in your own classroom. Any feedback you would provide your

colleague—without judgment or evaluation.

Analyzing the Components

Each team will be assigned a specific component on which to focus, as well as a scenario. For example, if you receive 2d, managing student

behavior, your scenario might be: A teacher is lecturing on the civil war from the front of the

room and two students are in the back looking at cell phones while one student in the middle row is sleeping. The teacher stops and acknowledges the sleeping student, but the student gets angry and walks out of class. What sort of support would you offer this teacher? How could

this teacher improve his behavior management? What specific strategies would the teacher use to be rated

highly effective? Why are these strategies aligned to highly effective?

Share-out

As your colleagues share their scenarios and work, please use handout C to do the following: Take note of any instructional idea that you

could use in your own classroom. Any feedback you would provide your

colleagues—without judgment or evaluation.

Exit slip

What is something you learned today? What is one thought or practice that you

refined as a result of today’s work? How will you extend your learning after

today’s workshop? How can you use today’s collaborative

learning experience to refine lessons, units, and or macro-level curriculum?