Ad by El Taier/Tribu DD
Published on creativeblog.com

Enter the Journal
Ok, “enter the journal” is a bit dramatic, especially since journals entered instructional practice long ago. Sometimes they are tools for reflection and expression; other times they are used for research and recording. Students in English classes use them to practice writing or to generate ideas. But it is rare to see journals used in math classes.

In Mike Swinson and intern Ryne Cooper’s pre-calculus classes, students have been starting class with journal assignments since January. They are still doing math, but the problems tend to require application of learning, not just mimicry of a process they’ve already learned. The problems require multiple steps and always challenge students to make mathematical decisions.

Most of all, the students have to explain their answers using the academic vocabulary of the discipline. They must speak in math. Of course, they are still calculating and reasoning mathematically, but with the added expectation of processing the complex concepts through its native tongue.

In the example above, Mr. Cooper’s student must generate a rule based on a pattern she observes with functions. She writes, “These functions all have x-coefficient of 1 and y-intercepts at zero and exponents on the x value,” demonstrating to her teacher that she understands the mathematical concepts at hand and that she knows and can use the academic language of the course.

I, on the other hand, cannot.

Across the Curriculum
Certainly, this idea of using journals as a tool for engaging students in critical thinking and use of academic language is not restricted to mathematics, or just to arcane topics like calculus. They make sense in civics and world history, in art and cooking, in Latin and Spanish and English and chemistry. They provide students with a consistent place for processing thoughts, practicing with academic language and applying their learning, while giving teachers a consistent tool for formative assessment. See…

Art: Color the image below; then, justify your color scheme using at least three of the following terms: complementary, analogous, hue, tint, shade.

English: The following sentence is mechanically flawed. Explain the error and write a mechanically acceptable revision of the sentence.
Frequently, Poe’s sentence structure is not intended for clarity, he wants to lose readers in the complexity of his long, abundantly punctuated sentences.

Ultimately, we want our students to talk like scientists and artists and writers and linguists and chefs and mechanics and mathematicians and politicians. Ok, not politicians. But we do want them to talk the talk, and that means they need time to apply the academic vocabulary they learn to new situations. They should hear the terms and read the terms. More importantly, they should speak them and write them, and the journal is a great place to start.

Small as this homework check detail might seem, its value is substantial for two reasons. First, it promotes two of the eight mathematical practices:
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
6. Attend to precision.
While teaching them algebra, Mabe is also teaching cross curricular habits of mind (reasoning, precision) that will serve them well as life-long learners. She’s teaching them to think math, and teaching them to think.

Beyond training her students to think math, Mabe requires her students to talk math. To explain why an answer is incorrect, they must, to some extent, use the language of mathematics. Math talk in the mouth of the teacher is fine; it’s like listening to a native speaker. In the mouths of learners, however, talking math develops ownership and mathematical fluency, the same way speaking Spanish helps develop fluency in that language.

Sharks Aren’t Like Dolphins
Clinton Todd wants his students to develop biology fluency as they learn to classify animals. In a recent bell ringer, students decided which animal (turtle, wolf, or shark) the dolphin most resembles, biologically speaking. After a few minutes of independent processing, the first student to respond answered, “shark.” When Todd prodded the student to justify his response, the student offered a detailed comparison of the physical similarities between dolphins and sharks. Todd then opened discussion. What other answers did anyone choose? Why not the shark? Why did you choose the wolf? (The correct answer is the wolf, which, like the dolphin, is a mammal, the biggest hint being the dolphins blow hole and lungs, as opposed to gills. Only one student selected the turtle.)

Todd’s line of questioning, and his response to correct and incorrect responses made this bell ringer effective. The nature of his response remained even and inquisitive, whether the answer was correct or incorrect. What he valued, it appeared, were the reasoning and the thought process the student used to draw a conclusion.

Todd’s activity worked much the way Mabe’s did. His students engaged in science talk, using the language of biology themselves, instead of merely hearing it from the teacher, and they engaged in the thought processes of a biologist, observing, classifying species, and, just as Mabe’s students did, verbally justifying their responses with reasoned explanations.

Common to the Core
These strategies are not new, not by any stretch of the imagination, and they aren’t spectacular. The thing is, they don’t have to be. Nothing about Common Core has to be spectacular, flashy, or funky. What CC does have to do is place the challenge of critical thinking and of developing content-specific literacy on the student. It’s simple enough to see how all this fits into your own discipline, but here are a few questions that might guide you:

• Are your students solving a problem, instead of mimicking, copying or regurgitating?
• Have you asked/required/expected/taught your students to justify their solutions/answers?
• Do you value the students’ reasoning process?
• How many times during the course of a period does every student use the language of the course?

I would like to make another point about the Common Core standards. They are common. They are the expectations of all students. All students, that is, must be expected to demonstrate these thinking skills in the various courses they take. The two classes described above were not AP or honors courses. Todd’s was a typical standard biology class. Mabe’s was a year-long (euphemistically read, not mathematically inclined) Math I class. Mabe and Todd expected these thinking skills from all students, and by this point in the school year, they can see the results.

The Challenge
Creating and administering common assessments is seldom easy work, and sometimes it is incredibly challenging. Take, for example, the challenge of assessing reading, writing, speaking and listening in world languages. Spanish teachers must assess student development in these four areas in intervals throughout the semester. Of course, their daily work, through workbooks, projects, quizzes, tests, and general instruction, provides them a picture of students achievement in particular skills, but that big, 4-strand picture is tough to assess.

Most difficult of all are the speaking and listening strand, as they require either one-on-one assessments (imagine having to test 30 individual students fairly as they explain why it will take two trains, one traveling east, the other west, four hours, thirteen minutes to meet in St. Louis). The Spanish I teachers figured it out.

Assessing Listening
To assess a students’ abilities to comprehend spoken Spanish, the Ms. Haynes, Ms. Dunham, and Ms. Watson created a video of six native Spanish speakers (plus one Japanese student, just for kicks) telling about themselves and their preferences. For the assessment, students watched the video and charted details about any four of the speakers. This assessment told the teachers which students were able to listen to Spanish and extract information from the speaker as they might need to in an actual conversation.

Assessing Speaking
My wife likes to tell the story of how her friend Crystal got entire class out of a speaking test in Spanish II. When it was Kerri’s turn to take the test–there was only one cassette machine for playing and recording–she pushed play, and all she heard was Crystal’s deep drawl, saying, “Hellllloooooo. I don’t hear anythang. Heeellllllooooooo.”

The Spanish teachers came up with a great solution to the challenge, and they were able to eliminate what I will call the Crystal effect. They created Google Voice accounts. Google voice provides you a phone number, and can direct calls to all of your phones, so you never miss a call. The key with this Spanish assessment, however, was to miss the call. Google voice redirects to voice mail and record messages as MP3s.

The teachers had their students call their Google Voice numbers all at once and answer two questions provided by the teacher in their best Spanish. To assess students’ performances on the task, the teachers opened their Google Voice accounts, clicked on the files, and listened to them. SInce the files are MP3, the teachers can easily move them into students’ digital linguafolios, so they can track student development throughout the year, or even as they progress through multiple levels of Spanish.

So What?
So what? Are you kidding me? That’s awesome, and not just because it’s a cool use of technology that averted the Crystal effect. What’s really awesome is this. The assessments tell teachers whether their classes as a whole are on track with reading, writing, speaking and listening, and it helps them identify which students are not progressing in each of the four strands. By delivering a common assessment with a common rubric and collaborating on the evaluation, they cannot help but see their own strengths and weaknesses. It is inevitable, for example, that a teacher whose students’ listening skills fall noticeably below the average will seek to improve that area with the assistance of colleagues. The process ferrets out shortcomings and begs us to respond.

Taking Risks
The Spanish teachers will tell you this process was not without flaw. The sort of risk they took in creating, delivering, and evaluating the assessment was huge and uncomfortable. It is that kind of risk that inspires growth, and growing is a darn good thing.

Leave your comments if you wish, or contact me directly at flinchm@pitt.k12.nc.us to collaborate with your PLC or to discuss assessment, instruction, or technology.

Having learned all the basics, Grow’s students were instructed to form groups of three to four students, choose a type of case (criminal or civil), create a skit demonstrating that case, and act it out. In ten minutes, scenarios were developed. In ten more minutes, skits were performed, individuals determined the case types, and discussion ensued—twenty minutes those tenth graders won’t forget.

• A baby sitter neglects a child who sticks her finger in an electrical socket. Civil.
• A driver accidentally strikes a pedestrian. Civil. The injured pedestrian shoots and kills the driver. Criminal.
• A drug dealer stabs a man who can’t repay him a debt for drugs. Criminal and criminal.

Skits and Memory
According to Eric Jensen, the brain directs learning down two major memory pathways, explicit and implicit. Explicit memories include semantic (language) learning and episodic (locations, circumstances); implicit memories include procedural (physical skills, hands-on learning) and reflexive (automated, nonconscious) learning. When both pathways are engaged, memories are stored in and retrieved (more efficiently) from more locations in the brain.

Grow’s students learned and thoroughly reprocessed the semantic content of civil and criminal cases, but the skits also allowed them to store their learning as episodes (remember that time Jesse put her hood on and acted like a gangster and shot Tony, and she used a baseball bat as a gun, and Leslie said, “Oh my oh my.”) In six weeks, they won’t struggle to recall this episode, and they won’t have trouble connecting the semantic learning with it.

Moving, Laughing and Learning
The episodic memories created by these skits are not the only reason Grow’s strategy was successful. Physical movement and laughter contributed, too. For the ten minutes students created and rehearsed their skits, most of them changed seats, moved around, acted out, and even fell down—simulated acts of violence were common. Physical activity increases oxygen flow to the brain and can result in the release of memory enhancing chemicals. The brains in students’ noggins were probably more efficient and more effective in storing information during this activity because the bodies were moving.

Also enhancing memory storage during this lesson was humor. Above all the energetic socializing, brainstorming and acting, I heard laughter. I laughed out loud when a girl named Maddie flopped on the floor, revealing the hastily drawn electrical socket into which her character had stuck her finger. And the entire class howled at the student who at first feigned concern for an injured man, then stole his Blackberry. Why does this matter? Emotions, like the joy associated with laughter, create stronger memories that are easier for the brain to retrieve.

When you look at the big picture, these skits make perfect sense. Students develop a deeper understanding of essential terms and concepts while significantly increasing the strength and retrievability of the memory through a creative, social, physical, and emotion-stimulating activity.

And it only took twenty minutes.

Jensen, Eric P. Brain Based Learning: The New Paradigm of Teaching. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin P, 1995. Print.

Tracey Moore

It is hard to get to know my students by teaching them math. I’ve always admired english teachers because they get to know their students through their writings.

The first day of class I give out a student information sheet. On the first page is all of the normal information…parent’s names, schedule, phone numbers, etc. On the back, however, I ask questions like:

What would you do if you were given a million dollars?
Who is someone you admire and why?
What do you think are the characteristics of a good teacher…a bad teacher?
Do you consider math to be something you are good at or a difficulty?

That night, my husband and I go through all of the sheets. We learn which of my students come from single parent homes (this year I have 5 students total that live with both mom and dad!). I learn who is self centered and who is giving (from their answer to the $1,000,000 question). I learn who is already defeated by math before they walk in the door…among many other things. I comment in red pen on the sheets and I always ask at least one question back to the student.

The next day in class I return the sheets and give students a time to reply. We have now started a dialogue that is non-threatening…because they don’t even have to speak to me to do it This is my favorite part of starting the year/semester off.

Sara Dunham

I do all of this on the very first day of a new semester to learn a little about my students and start developing a rapport with them, they also work as great icebreakers!

First: As soon as each student walks in my room they get to pick one tootsie pop and then find their seat. I have each individual go around the class and introduce themselves (name, age, where they are from) and then depending on the color lollipop they took they have to ask a specific personal question to their partner and then share their partner’s answer with the whole class.

Second: I have them fill out a student profile sheet with basic information and then progress to personal questions, such as what are their goals or interests and I also have a section that is titled something you want me to know about you.

Third: We also play a game called categories, which is where I say a topic and then depending on their favorite subject for that topic they group themselves around the room. (for example: favorite ice cream, favorite sport and then the questions get sillier as we go)

Anonymous

It is not hard to get to KNOW my students since they are amazing and are with me every day. However, since the EC requests to take fieldtrips have been repeatedly denied this year, I have taken some evenings every few weeks to take my students out to eat or to the store to learn how to “shop” as best they can. We then go to my house (obviously with the full permission of the group home and parents) to cook dinner. This assists now only with their community outing goals in their transition plans and IEP’s but it makes them happy and brings us closer together as a class (family- thats what we really are). I will also be taking two young ladies to the prom this year as they LOVE music and dancing and socializing. They do not have parents who are capable of taking them (or don’t wish to) on this kind of trip. These outings and experiences not only assist in my developing their goals and getting to know them better, but they increase my students’ abilities and levels of independence.

Luisa Haynes

When students walk in on the first day they are greeted at the door and told to find their seat. When they locate their seat they will find a boundary breaking activity which has questions such as do you have bothers or sisters? What is your favorite ice cream? Have you ever traveled outside of the US? Why are you taking Spanish? Thus they walk in with an established purpose and goal. This is wonderful because it gives me time to greet each student as they enter. After everyone has answered the questions I begin to group they by like answers. This activity helps them focus on how they are alike.

This lead to the second activity I ask the class what they think of when I say “a Spanish speaking person” the students then begin to brainstorm and I write the responses on the board. As the comments are shared I just write and believe me sometime it is hard…I have heard everything from they are framers to they are short fat and drive a pick up truck complete with fuzzy dice. After all of the comments have been made I step back from the board and begin at the top as if talking to myself…lets see Spanish people are short oh well I’m five seven and that is not really short…I like to garden but I don’t farm…oh my I’m not Catholic…about this time the students begin to catch on that in fact I am Spanish..I continue working through the list till I get to the end and then I simply say “You see I am not what you think of but I am 100% made in Cuba”.Some students really are at a loss by this time.. but I quickly say don’t worry if I had asked the question in a Spanish speaking school about Americans I would have gotten that all Americans are tall, thin, have blond hair and blue eyes…Let’s see do we have any Americans in this class…thus starts the education of the breaking down stereo types.

The third and final activity changes from year to year and semester to semester but generally I pick an object. This past semester I picked a puzzle piece and as I held my piece I explained how every piece of a puzzle is special and unique and how one piece is no more important than another I then related this to my life and the mountains and valleys that have brought me to this place. I encourage all of the students to share a little about what makes them unique. I always make sure that I have enough pieces for everyone to have one.

Thanks for reading.

The Kujawski Plan
Geometry teacher Zina Kujawski—in every way a mathematical thinker—has such an elaborate Study Island plan for her students that it deserves a name: The Kujawski Plan. Here’s what she does:

At the beginning of the semester, she assigns due dates for SCOS goal-based Study Island assignments.. They don’t even have to turn anything in. Kujawski just checks the report, determines who has completed the assignment, and writes a score in her grade book. If they earned a blue ribbon for the goal, they get 100%. If they earn all of their ribbons, she adds extra points to the six-week grade.

Kujawski admits her plan requires a lot of work, but the results speak for themselves. Her geometry students all made level IV this fall.

The Wallen Plan
English teacher Julie Wallen—as diligent a teacher as you will meet—has a plan of her own. Last semester she discovered the value of the class grade book report on Study Island’s School Stats page. The report makes it easy to determine which students are successful with which areas, and where each student is struggling.

Prior to exams, Wallen used SI reports to identify two or three areas of weakness for each student and gave each student an individualized task to complete on Study Island. Chandra needed to work on main ideas and organizational patterns, while Junior needed help with parallel structure and agreement. By allowing students to focus their attention on just a couple of basic skills at a time, she gave them the opportunity to eliminate weaknesses without burdening them with work to enhance skills they had already developed.

Wallen’s students were not required to complete the individualized assignments, but most chose to. Students reported that the plan helped. It certainly didn’t hurt; 100% of Wallen’s students were proficient.

Study Island v. Homework Drills
Study Island provides instant feedback, along with answer explanations. Homework from a textbook or worksheet does not offer feedback. Study Island scores students’ performance and provides an analytical report. Homework from a textbook or worksheet requires the teacher to evaluate and analyze student and class performance. Study Island has a “Game Mode.” Homework is work. Students can’t copy Study Island answers in the hallway three minutes before class.  They can and do copy homework.

Look Out
Study Island has limits, not least of which is the way it reduces intelligence to the 25% probability of ABCD multiple choice. It doesn’t show a teacher WHY little Madeline can’t calculate the measure of an interior angle or why Obadiah can’t make his verbs agree with their subjects.

What’s missing is student work—work to solve the problem, the essay containing grammatical errors. Neither Kujawski nor Wallen have entrusted this sort of work to Study Island. Both remain outstanding classroom teachers. For both, the program is merely a tool to help students master the essential skills of their courses and—let’s face it—pass their EOCs.

But changing students’ seats is beneficial, and there is a good time to do it. Instead of waiting for the end of a grading period, change your seating chart each time you begin a new chapter or unit. There’s actually a good reason for it, beyond placating students who complain that they want to sit somewhere else, which just happens to be where their best friend is sitting.

Episodic Memory
Much of our long-term memory is episodic. The brain stores time/place memories in the hippocampus, and when information—the content of your course—is attached to those episodic memories, it is easier for the brain to store and recall. When we think about important events in our lives, we almost always return to a physical setting. Third grade in the seat by the window—watched the balloon I got for my birthday sail into the sky because my mother, who was cleaning, accidentally let it slip out the door. Mid-afternoon sitting in the corner of the bench beside the front windows of my high school—discovered Holden Caulfield narrative voice in Catcher in the Rye. Recalling those places helps us recall the events or information we associate with them.

So the idea behind changing seats at the beginning of each unit is this: we create mental bullet points each time our students move. Slope, first seat by the door. Parabolas, near the windows next to the girl who ate erasers. Scatter plots, right in the middle of the room surrounded by people I don’t really know. Those dividing lines—those mental bullet points—can help students scan more efficiently and effectively through the mass of information they received in your class. It won’t make them smarter, but it might help them recall content just a little bit better.

Source: Mindful Instruction: Using Brain Research to Differentiate Classroom Instruction. North Carolina Teacher Academy. Morrisvile, NC, 2009-2010.