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Probing & Open-ended Questions in English

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Probing & Open-ended Questions in English

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Sheila Kosoff joins fellow teachers, Adam Grumbach, Avram Barlowe and Terry Weber to reflect upon class discussion around a given text and how questioning facilitates a rigorous discussion. Avram talks about the importance of asking open-ended questions that invite multiple interpretations.

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To Build Resilient Problem Solvers Avoid Rushing to the Algorithm 

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To Build Resilient Problem Solvers Avoid Rushing to the Algorithm 

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How Avoiding Rushing to The Algorithm Can Build Resilience Problem Solvers. Using a patterning example watch Kyle and Jon recap how to build curiosity so we can allow students to struggle productively --- which teaches them how to be resilient.

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Questions to Ask to Facilitate Inquiry-based Learning

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Questions to Ask to Facilitate Inquiry-based Learning

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Fives Moves for Building Community Online

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Fives Moves for Building Community Online

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Five Tips for Using Breakout Rooms for Group Work

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Probing Questions Powerpoint Lesson for Educators

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Probing Questions Powerpoint Lesson for Educators

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A 4-part System to Connect  with Students

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A 4-part System to Connect  with Students

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A 4-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students | Cult of Pedagogy

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Relationship building is key to good teaching. This system will help you quickly get to know students and benefit from those connections all year long.

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Using Group Learning Effectively in College

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Using Group Learning Effectively in College

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Cite this guide: Brame, C.J. & Biel, R. (2015). Setting up and facilitating group work:
Using cooperative learning groups effectively. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/setting-up-and-facilitating-group-work-using-cooperative-learning-groups-effectively/.

Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students' learning. Whether the goal is to increase student understanding of content, to build particular transferable skills, or some combination of the two, instructors often turn to small group work to capitalize on the benefits of peer-to-peer instruction. This type of group work is formally termed cooperative learning, and is defined as the instructional use of small groups to promote students working together to maximize their own and each other's learning (Johnson, et al., 2008).

Cooperative learning is characterized by positive interdependence, where students perceive that better performance by individuals produces better performance by the entire group (Johnson, et al., 2014). It can be formal or informal, but often involves specific instructor intervention to maximize student interaction and learning. It is infinitely adaptable, working in small and large classes and across disciplines, and can be one of the most effective teaching approaches available to college instructors.

What can it look like?

Informal cooperative learning groups
In informal cooperative learning, small, temporary, ad-hoc groups of two to four students work together for brief periods in a class, typically up to one class period, to answer questions or respond to prompts posed by the instructor.

Additional examples of ways to structure informal group work
Think-pair-share
The instructor asks a discussion question. Students are instructed to think or write about an answer to the question before turning to a peer to discuss their responses. Groups then share their responses with the class.
Peer Instruction
This modification of the think-pair-share involves personal responses devices (e.g. clickers). The question posted is typically a conceptually based multiple-choice question. Students think about their answer and vote on a response before turning to a neighbor to discuss. Students can change their answers after discussion, and "sharing" is accomplished by the instructor revealing the graph of student response and using this as a stimulus for large class discussion. This approach is particularly well-adapted for large classes.
Jigsaw
In this approach, groups of students work in a team of four to become experts on one segment of new material, while other "expert teams" in the class work on other segments of new material. The class then rearranges, forming new groups that have one member from each expert team. The members of the new team then take turns teaching each other the material on which they are experts.
Formal cooperative learning groups
In formal cooperative learning students work together for one or more class periods to complete a joint task or assignment (Johnson et al., 2014). There are several features that can help these groups work well:

The instructor defines the learning objectives for the activity and assigns students to groups.

The groups are typically heterogeneous, with particular attention to the skills that are needed for success in the task.

Within the groups, students may be assigned specific roles, with the instructor communicating the criteria for success and the types of social skills that will be needed.

Importantly, the instructor continues to play an active role during the groups' work, monitoring the work and evaluating group and individual performance.

Instructors also encourage groups to reflect on their interactions to identify potential improvements for future group work.

This video shows an example of formal cooperative learning groups in David Matthes' class at the University of Minnesota:

There are many more specific types of group work that fall under the general descriptions given here, including team-based learning, problem-based learning, and process-oriented guided inquiry learning.

What's the theoretical underpinning?

The use of cooperative learning groups in instruction is based on the principle of constructivism, with particular attention to the contribution that social interaction can make. In essence, constructivism rests on the idea that individuals learn through building their own knowledge, connecting new ideas and experiences to existing knowledge and experiences to form new or enhanced understanding (Bransford, et al., 1999). The consideration of the role that groups can play in this process is based in social interdependence theory, which grew out of Kurt Koffka's and Kurt Lewin's identification of groups as dynamic entities that could exhibit varied interdependence among members, with group members motivated to achieve common goals. Morton Deutsch conceptualized varied types of interdependence, with positive correlation among group members' goal achievements promoting cooperation.

Lev Vygotsky extended this work by examining the relationship between cognitive processes and social activities, developing the sociocultural theory of development. The sociocultural theory of development suggests that learning takes place when students solve problems beyond their current developmental level with the support of their instructor or their peers. Thus both the idea of a zone of proximal development, supported by positive group interdependence, is the basis of cooperative learning (Davidson and Major, 2014; Johnson, et al., 2014).

Cooperative learning follows this idea as groups work together to learn or solve a problem, with each individual responsible for understanding all aspects. The small groups are essential to this process because students are able to both be heard and to hear their peers, while in a traditional classroom setting students may spend more time listening to what the instructor says.

Cooperative learning uses both goal interdependence and resource interdependence to ensure interaction and communication among group members. Changing the role of the instructor from lecturing to facilitating the groups helps foster this social environment for students to learn through interaction.

Is there evidence that it works?

David Johnson, Roger Johnson, and Karl Smith performed a meta-analysis of 168 studies comparing cooperative learning to competitive learning and individualistic learning in college students (Johnson et al., 2006). They found that cooperative learning produced greater academic achievement than both competitive learning and individualistic learning across the studies, exhibiting a mean weighted effect size of 0.54 when comparing cooperation and competition and 0.51 when comparing cooperation and individualistic learning. In essence, these results indicate that cooperative learning increases student academic performance by approximately one-half of a standard deviation when compared to non-cooperative learning models, an effect that is considered moderate. Importantly, the academic achievement measures were defined in each study, and ranged from lower-level cognitive tasks (e.g., knowledge acquisition and retention) to higher level cognitive activity (e.g., creative problem solving), and from verbal tasks to mathematical tasks to procedural tasks. The meta-analysis also showed substantial effects on other metrics, including self-esteem and positive attitudes about learning. George Kuh and colleagues also conclude that cooperative group learning promotes student engagement and academic performance (Kuh et al., 2007).

Springer, Stanne, and Donovan (1999) confirmed these results in their meta-analysis of 39 studies in university STEM classrooms. They found that students who participated in various types of small-group learning, ranging from extended formal interactions to brief informal interactions, had greater academic achievement, exhibited more favorable attitudes towards learning, and had increased persistence through STEM courses than students who did not participate in STEM small-group learning.

The box below summarizes three individual studies examining the effects of cooperative learning groups.

What are approaches that can help make group work effective?
Preparation Articulate your goals for the group work, including both the academic objectives you want the students to achieve and the social skills you want them to develop. Determine the group conformation that will help meet your goals.
In informal group learning, groups often form ad hoc from near neighbors in a class.

In formal group learning, it is helpful for the instructor to form groups that are heterogeneous with regard to particular skills or abilities relevant to group tasks. For example, groups may be heterogeneous with regard to academic skill in the discipline or with regard to other skills related to the group task (e.g., design capabilities, programming skills, writing skills, organizational skills) (Johnson et al, 2006).

Groups from 2-6 are generally recommended, with groups that consist of three members exhibiting the best performance in some problem-solving tasks (Johnson et al., 2006; Heller and Hollabaugh, 1992).

To avoid common problems in group work, such as dominance by a single student or conflict avoidance, it can be useful to assign roles to group members (e.g., manager, skeptic, educator, conciliator) and to rotate them on a regular basis (Heller and Hollabaugh, 1992). Assigning these roles is not necessary in well-functioning groups, but can be useful for students who are unfamiliar with or unskilled at group work.
Choose an assessment method that will promote positive group interdependence as well as individual accountability.
In team-based learning, two approaches promote positive interdependence and individual accountability. First, students take an individual readiness assessment test, and then immediately take the same test again as a group. Their grade is a composite of the two scores. Second, students complete a group project together, and receive a group score on the project. They also, however, distribute points among their group partners, allowing student assessment of members' contributions to contribute to the final score.

Heller and Hollabaugh (1992) describe an approach in which they incorporated group problem-solving into a class. Students regularly solved problems in small groups, turning in a single solution. In addition, tests were structured such that 25% of the points derived from a group problem, where only those individuals who attended the group problem-solving sessions could participate in the group test problem. This approach can help prevent the "free rider" problem that can plague group work.

The University of New South Wales describes a variety of ways to assess group work, ranging from shared group grades, to grades that are averages of individual grades, to strictly individual grades, to a combination of these. They also suggest ways to assess not only the product of the group work but also the process. Again, having a portion of a grade that derives from individual contribution helps combat the free rider problem.
Helping groups get started Explain the group's task, including your goals for their academic achievement and social interaction. Explain how the task involves both positive interdependence and individual accountability, and how you will be assessing each.
Assign group roles or give groups prompts to help them articulate effective ways for interaction. The University of New South Wales provides a valuable set of tools to help groups establish good practices when first meeting. The site also provides some exercises for building group dynamics; these may be particularly valuable for groups that will be working on larger projects.

Regularly observe group interactions and progress, either by circulating during group work, collecting in-process documents, or both. When you observe problems, intervene to help students move forward on the task and work together effectively. The University of New South Wales provides handouts that instructors can use to promote effective group interactions, such as a handout to help students listen reflectively or give constructive feedback, or to help groups identify particular problems that they may be encountering.

Assessing and reflecting

In addition to providing feedback on group and individual performance (link to preparation section above), it is also useful to provide a structure for groups to reflect on what worked well in their group and what could be improved. Graham Gibbs (1994) suggests using the checklists shown below.

The University of New South Wales provides other reflective activities that may help students identify effective group practices and avoid ineffective practices in future cooperative learning experiences.

References

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Bruffee, K. A. (1993). Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and the authority of knowledge. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Cabrera, A. F., Crissman, J. L., Bernal, E. M., Nora, A., Terenzini, P. T., & Pascarella, E. T. (2002). Collaborative learning: Its impact on college students' development and diversity. Journal of College Student Development, 43(1), 20-34.

Davidson, N., & Major, C. H. (2014). Boundary crossing: Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25 (3&4), 7-55.

Dees, R. L. (1991). The role of cooperative leaning in increasing problem-solving ability in a college remedial course. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 22(5), 409-21.

Gokhale, A. A. (1995). Collaborative Learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7(1).

Heller, P., and Hollabaugh, M. (1992) Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping. Part 2: Designing problems and structuring groups. American Journal of Physics 60, 637-644.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2006). Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom (3 rd edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Holubec, E.J. (2008). Cooperation in the classroom (8 th edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2014). Cooperative learning: Improving university instruction by basing practice on validated theory. Journl on Excellence in College Teaching 25, 85-118.

Jones, D. J., & Brickner, D. (1996). Implementation of cooperative learning in a large-enrollment basic mechanics course. American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference Proceedings.

Kuh, G.D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J., Bridges, B., and Hayek, J.C. (2007). Piecing together the student success puzzle: Research, propositions, and recommendations (ASHE Higher Education Report, No. 32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Love, A. G., Dietrich, A., Fitzgerald, J., & Gordon, D. (2014). Integrating collaborative learning inside and outside the classroom. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25(3&4), 177-196.

Smith, M. E., Hinckley, C. C., & Volk, G. L. (1991). Cooperative learning in the undergraduate laboratory. Journal of Chemical Education 68(5), 413-415.

Springer, L., Stanne, M. E., & Donovan, S. S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 96(1), 21-51.

Uribe, D., Klein, J. D., & Sullivan, H. (2003). The effect of computer-mediated collaborative learning on solving ill-defined problems. Educational Technology Research and Development, 51(1), 5-19.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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Group work: Using cooperative learning groups effectively

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by Cynthia J. Brame and Rachel Biel Print Version Cite this guide: Brame, C.J. & Biel, R. (2015). Setting up and facilitating group work: Using cooperative learning groups effectively. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/setting-up-and-facilitating-group-work-using-cooperative-learning-groups-effectively/. Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students' learning.

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Mispronouncing student Names: A Slight that can cut deep.

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Mispronouncing student Names: A Slight that can cut deep.

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When people come across Michelle-Thuy Ngoc Duong's name, they often see a stumbling block bound to trip up their tongues.

The 17-year-old sees a bridge.

A bridge spanning her parents' journey from Vietnam to the United States.

A bridge connecting the U.S.-born teen to Vietnamese culture.

A bridge to understanding.

"My name is where I come from," Michelle-Thuy Ngoc said. "It's a reminder of hope."

A junior at Downtown College Prep Alum Rock High School, a San Jose, Calif.-based charter school, Michelle-Thuy Ngoc (Michelle knock twee) is among the students backing "My Name, My Identity," a national campaign that places a premium on pronouncing students' names correctly and valuing diversity.

The campaign-a partnership between the National Association for Bilingual Education, the Santa Clara, Calif., County Office of Education, and the California Association for Bilingual Education-focuses on the fact that a name is more than just a name: It's one of the first things children recognize, one of the first words they learn to say, it's how the world identifies them.

For students, especially the children of immigrants or those who are English-language learners, a teacher who knows their name and can pronounce it correctly signals respect and marks a critical step in helping them adjust to school.

But for many ELLs, a mispronounced name is often the first of many slights they experience in classrooms; they're already unlikely to see educators who are like them, teachers who speak their language, or a curriculum that reflects their culture.

"If they're encountering teachers who are not taking the time to learn their name or don't validate who they are, it starts to create this wall," said Rita (ree-the) Kohli, an assistant professor in the graduate school of education at the University of California, Riverside.

It can also hinder academic progress.

A divide already exists between many English-learners and immigrant students and their native-English speaking peers. Despite a national increase in the overall graduation rate, the dropout rate for foreign-born and immigrant students remains above 30 percent, three times that of U.S.-born white students.

Before transitioning into K-12 administration, Santa Clara County Superintendent Jon Gundry taught middle and high school English-as-a-second-language classes for 16 years. Many of his students were newcomer English-learners and he made it a priority to learn the proper pronunciation of each student's name on the first day of class.

"I was their first connection to a new culture, a new country," Gundry said. "As a teacher, I felt that if I didn't make an effort to pronounce their name correctly, it showed I didn't care about who they were."

Rendered Invisible

Effort is the biggest obstacle to learning how to correctly pronounce a person's name; teachers have to want to do it, said Jennifer Gonzalez, a former teacher and author of the education blog Cult of Pedagogy. To even suggest that a child's name is difficult to pronounce is problematic, she said.

"Even the word 'difficult' is a pretty loaded word," Gonzalez said. "It's only difficult because it's culturally different."

As a kindergarten student in 1950s Brooklyn, Carmen Fariña, a native-Spanish speaker, had a teacher who marked her absent every day for weeks because she didn't raise her hand during roll call. The teacher assumed Fariña was being defiant, but the future New York City schools chancellor never heard her name called; the teacher had repeatedly failed to pronounce it correctly, including rolling the r's.

"Mispronouncing a student's name essentially renders that student invisible," Fariña said during a keynote address at the National Association for Bilingual Education annual conference in March.

Kohli produced a study with Daniel Solórzano, a professor of education and Chicano studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, on microaggressions, the subtle slights that are painfully obvious and hurtful to the person receiving them, but unintended and unnoticed by the person saying them. The work, "Teachers Please Learn Our Names! Racial Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom," is littered with stories of students who endured shame, anxiety, or embarrassment, and sometimes a mix of all three, when their names were called in class.

There's the tale of a Portland, Ore.-area student with a traditional Chinese name who had her name garbled by a vice principal during an honors ceremony. Set to present the student with an award, the principal laughed at his mistake, drawing chuckles from the audience.

To avoid embarrassment, the student slumped in her seat, refusing to rise to receive the prestigious award. She later skipped her graduation.

The mispronunciation wasn't an isolated event. Having endured years of slights, she felt the need to become invisible long before the principal's laughter marked the tipping point.

The woman, who went on to become an educator, changed her first name to 'Anita.'

"If someone mispronounces your name once as a high school student, you might correct them," said Kohli, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India. "But if this has been your entire existence in education, what do you do?"

Kohli's own brother had a teacher mispronounce his traditional South Asian name, Sharad (shu-rudth) as Sharub during a 9th grade class. The teacher and the students decided it was easier to call him Shrub, and it stuck for the rest of high school. The nickname forced him to check part of his identity at the door.

Michelle-Thuy Ngoc didn't always embrace her full name, figuring that it would make other people uncomfortable. For years, she ignored the Vietnamese half of her first name, simply going by Michelle. The order in which Vietnamese names are spoken differs from English.

"I came to accept [my full name] over time," she said.

Building Bridges

If students have teachers who share their cultural backgrounds, they're more likely to hear their names pronounced correctly. But while the diversity of the nation's public school student body has exploded in the last few decades, the number of African-American, Latino, and Asian teachers hasn't kept pace.

Gonzalez, a former teacher in school districts in Kentucky and Maryland, said she often observed a 'these people' attitude from her mostly white female colleagues.

"They approached it like 'It's your fault for having a weird name,'" Gonzalez said.

To some degree, Gonzalez understands the struggle students face. She grew up with a Russian surname, Yurkosky, that befuddled teachers and classmates. She said it rhymes with "her-pots-ski," minus the "t" sound in pots.

"But I did not experience all the other stuff and other ways that a person can feel discriminated against," said Gonzalez, who is white.

Kohli, a former Oakland Unified School District teacher, recommends that K-12 educators identify and expand their cultural limits and recognize the influence they wield over a student's sense of self. While frustration or confusion may seem like a natural response when a teacher faces an unfamiliar name, it can leave a "lasting impact on the way that child sees themselves and their culture," the study's authors argue.

Butchered names are not just a problem for English-learners and immigrants; students from a number of cultural backgrounds have their names garbled or ridiculed. Hawaiian and African-American students, with names that link to their ancestry, also shared stories of how constant mispronunciations made them feel uncomfortable with their names.

Mocking Names?

In an extreme case, a teacher in Wayne Township, N.J. lost her tenure status and job in 2015 for mocking a student's name on Facebook. Several letters in the student's name spelled out a profane word, legal documents show.

More often, the mocking is more direct and reflexive: laughing off pronunciation, asking the student to take on a nickname, or making a spectacle of their name, Kohli said.

"It matters what you do when you're in front of a child and struggling with their name," Kohli said. "Is it framed as my inability to say someone's name or is it framed as the student doing something to make your life more difficult?"

Michelle-Thuy Ngoc attends Downtown College Prep, a 210-student high school that primarily serves first generation, low-income Latino students.

"We're taking the time to understand each person's story," said assistant principal Moises Buhain. "It's as simple as starting with a name."

As part of a social media campaign, the "My Name, My Identity" initiative is seeking name stories with the #mynamemyid hashtag. The push is personal for Yee Wan, the national association's president and the director of multilingual education services for the Santa Clara County, Calif., office of education.

Wan came to the United States as an adolescent English-learner, and almost immediately faced pressure from instructors to adopt an "American name" to replace her given name, which means "warm friendship" in Cantonese.

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Gundry and Wan developed "My Name My Identity" after hearing a principal share a story about his effort to build connections with English-language learners in school, then feeling the push fall flat when he mispronounced the students' names at graduation.

"As educators, we have the power to bring awareness to valuing diversity ... so that all of our students will feel included," Wan said.

Published in Print: May 11, 2016, as Bungling Student Names: A Slight That Stings

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Mispronouncing Students' Names: A Slight That Can Cut Deep

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When people come across Michelle-Thuy Ngoc Duong's name, they often see a stumbling block bound to trip up their tongues. The 17-year-old sees a bridge. A bridge spanning her parents' journey from Vietnam to the United States. A bridge connecting the U.S.-born teen to Vietnamese culture. A bridge to understanding.

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Building Community With Attendance Questions

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Building Community With Attendance Questions

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Taking attendance is usually a five-minute task at the start of a class period, but in my classroom, it can sometimes take much longer. On rare occasions, taking attendance can take up an entire class period.

This happened recently when, for 75 minutes, students listened respectfully to each other. No one snuck a peek at phone messages. No one left the room for a washroom break. Not a single student looked bored. There was no technology involved.

All I did was take attendance.

Stretching Our Minds

It's been decades since I stumbled upon the power of what I call the attendance question. I asked each student in my high school English class to tell me what he or she thought the color of silence was while I took attendance. The question was meant to get them thinking metaphorically just before a poetry lesson, but I was surprised to notice the students' interest in each other's responses. Curious about this, I began to use similar open-ended questions in other classes. In social studies, I asked what was wrong with the world. In psychology, I asked about students' favorite childhood toys. In math, I'd ask, "What is the color of 2?"

The most important characteristic of my attendance questions is that there are no "right" answers. In a setting where being right is critical for success, the attendance question is abnormal enough to get students' attention.

When we trace back the meaning of attend through Old French ( atendre) to its Latin root ( attendere), we can see that when we attend, we are "stretching our mind toward" something. The attendance question gets students to pay attention through inviting them to stretch their minds toward a question which has no right answer.

When we take attendance, we are essentially asking each student, "Are you here?" But are students actually present when their minds are elsewhere? By asking the attendance question, I am indirectly asking my students, "Who are you? How are you? What matters to you?" Through their consideration of a response, I hope they stretch their minds toward presence in the classroom.

Creating a Sense of "We"

The kind of attendance question that I ask will change over the course of the semester. At the beginning, the questions are safe and easy to answer, but toward the end of the semester, they might keep students talking long after the bell.

Questions at the beginning of the semester may be:

What's your favorite food/movie/book/celebrity/season?

What was the best part of the summer?

What was the most beautiful/interesting thing that you saw this morning on your way to school?

What's the taste of happiness/the shape of sadness/the smell of joy?

Questions like these help students to see similarities and differences among their classmates. They can begin to see a "we" in the classroom: we like pizza, we like summer, we're Vancouver Canucks fans. I love watching students who have never spoken to each other discover that they love the same things or that they see sadness in the same way.

Because learning is fundamentally a social and emotional experience, achieving this sense of we is critical before students fully engage in classroom activities. A sense of we creates safety and makes it more likely that a student will risk moving out of his or her comfort zone to try something new -- and ultimately to learn.

However, it's one thing for a teacher to know this and quite another to actually create a space where students feel safe and comfortable. Even with a plethora of how-to advice on creating community in a classroom, it can be difficult to know what will work best for any particular group of students. But whether the classroom is in Africa or Canada, taking attendance is what all teachers do everywhere, and it's through this simple act that any teacher anywhere can begin building community in his or her classroom.

The type of question that I ask is linked to how cohesive the classroom community is at the time. After those first "getting to know you" questions, I introduce this question: "How is the weather in your world?" If students are feeling stressed or tired, they may answer "stormy" or "cloudy." If they're in a good mood, it's "sunny" weather. Answers to this attendance question give me a sense of the general mood in the room, and I can then adjust my lesson in response. (Giving a test makes no sense when the general weather report includes storms with lightning and thunder!)

The attendance question that took up the entire 75 minutes recently was: "Have you ever had the experience of wishing you were the opposite gender in a particular situation?" Students will only answer this type of question authentically if they feel safe. That my students felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable in their answers was a result of months spent learning about each other through responses to attendance questions.

Recognizing What Matters

After decades of finding different ways of asking students, "Are you here?", I'm still learning about the impacts of the attendance question in my classroom. If I forget to ask one, students remind me. And if I post one on our work schedule and then don't ask it, I get lots of complaints.

If you'd like to try this in your classroom, here's an important caveat: Never directly link the attendance question to any curricular content. If you do, the question becomes a test of knowledge and not an invitation to stretch the mind. It wouldn't be an invitation to attend or be in attendance.

More often than not, I've finished taking attendance in the first five minutes of class. But on those days when that process becomes much longer, it's always worth the extra time getting to know who my students are and what matters to them.

How do you build community in your classroom?

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Building Community With Attendance Questions

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Taking attendance is usually a five-minute task at the start of a class period, but in my classroom, it can sometimes take much longer. On rare occasions, taking attendance can take up an entire class period. This happened recently when, for 75 minutes, students listened respectfully to each other.

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Teachin' It! Excerpt: Difference Between Behaviorism and Social Constructivism 

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Teachin' It! Excerpt: Difference Between Behaviorism and Social Constructivism 

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The Powerful Effects of Drawing on Learning

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The science is clear: Drawing beats out reading and writing to help students remember concepts.

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Students Deserve More than a Lecture and a Nap

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Students Deserve More than a Lecture and a Nap

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axon The long, tail-like extension of a neuron that conducts electrical signals away from the cell.

cell body The compact section of a neuron (nerve cell) where its nucleus is located.

cortex The outermost layer of neural tissue of the brain.

fMRI (short for functional magnetic resonance imaging) A special type of machine used to study brain activity. It uses a strong magnetic field to monitor blood flow in the brain. Tracking the movement of blood can tell researchers which brain regions are active.

glia Non-nerve cells, these make up 85 percent of the cells in the brain. Some glial cells wrap around axons. This speeds the rate of neural signaling and helps to prevent confusing "cross-talk" between neighboring nerve cells.

hippocampus A seahorse-shaped region of the brain. It is thought to be the center of emotion, memory and the involuntary nervous system.

myelin (as in myelin sheath) A layer of fatty cells, called glia, that wraps around nerve-cell axons. The myelin sheath insulates axons, speeding the rate at which signals speed down them. The addition of this sheath is a process known as myelination or myelinating.

neuron (or nerve cell) Any of the impulse-conducting cells that make up the brain, spinal column and nervous system. These specialized cells transmit information to other neurons in the form of electrical signals.

neuroscience Science that deals with the structure or function of the brain and other parts of the nervous system. Researchers in this field are known as neuroscientists.

PET (short for positron emission tomography) A technology that uses radiation to create three-dimensional images of the inside of the body. The individual receives a radioactive "tracer" chemical in the blood that shows up during the scan. As the tracer moves through the body, it will accumulate in certain organs. This allows researchers and doctors to see create X-ray-like details of those organs.

prefrontal cortex A region containing some of the brain's gray matter. Located behind the forehead, it plays a role in making decisions and other complex mental activities, in emotions and in behaviors

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Brain cells actually change shape as we learn. It's one way we cement new knowledge. And much of the action happens as we sleep.

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Fishbowl to Model Productive Conversations

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Fishbowl to Model Productive Conversations

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0 Fishbowl to model productive Conversations

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Strategies to Support Group Learning and Productive Conversations

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Strategies to Support Group Learning and Productive Conversations

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0 Strategies to Support Language and Conversations

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Strategies to Promote Engagement in Large Classes

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Strategies to Promote Engagement in Large Classes

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Print Version By Adam Wilsman, CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow Teaching a large class poses many challenges, both in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, large enrollments can promote student disengagement and feelings of alienation, which can erode students' sense of responsibility and lead to behaviors that both reflect and promote lack of engagement....

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Frayer Model for Reading and Vocabulary 

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Frayer Model for Reading and Vocabulary 

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This strategy stresses understanding words within the larger context of a reading selection by requiring students, first, to analyze the items (definition and characteristics) and, second, to synthesize/apply this information by thinking of examples and non-examples.

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Volumes of Solids of Revolution Group Activity

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Volumes of Solids of Revolution Group Activity

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Classroom Tools - Learning and the Brain

Why do we sometimes struggle when we are learning something new? Scientists have discovered that learning is about creating and strengthening neural pathways in the brain that allow information to transfer between brain cells. The first time a signal crosses from one brain cell to another requires the greatest effort. The first trip is the most difficult, but transfer becomes easier over time. As we continue to apply effort to new challenges, we establish more stable and reliable pathways, until the connection is so strong that information transfer is effortless.

This brief clip from the BBC documentary, The Human Body, demonstrates how establishing new neural pathways between brain cells is like building a bridge to cross a ravine.

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This website explores the Ideas, the People, and the Practices related to student learning and achievement.

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Dr. Sandrine Explains How We Can Grow New Brain Cells.

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Dr. Sandrine Explains How We Can Grow New Brain Cells.

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Dr. Sandrine Thuret Explains How We Can Grow New Brain Cells

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Can we, as adults, grow new neurons? Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret says that we can, and she offers research and practical advice on how we can help our brains better perform neurogenesis

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Teachin' It! Interview on Community College Math Teaching with Dan Munton

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Teachin' It! Interview on Community College Math Teaching with Dan Munton

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Teachin' It! Interview on Community College Biology Teaching with Abigail Zoger

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Teachin' It! Interview on Community College Biology Teaching with Abigail Zoger

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Disability Specialist

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Disability Specialist

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Work Experience Instructor Lauralyn Larsen

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Work Experience Instructor Lauralyn Larsen

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Math Instructor Carlos Valencia

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Math Instructor Carlos Valencia

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Teachin' It Interview with History Instructor Michael Washington

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Teachin' It Interview with History Instructor Michael Washington

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Math/College Skills Instructor Amy Flores

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Math/College Skills Instructor Amy Flores

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Math/College Skills Instructor Regina Guerra

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Teachin' It! Interview with Community College Math/College Skills Instructor Regina Guerra

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The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

Hundreds of thousands of students fail higher education mathematics courses every year. Hundreds of thousands more pass courses that do not prepare them for their futures.

A growing body of evidence identifies traditional postsecondary mathematics as a primary obstacle to degree completion and equitable outcomes for millions of students.

Mathematics should not be a barrier to student success. Knowledge of mathematics empowers individuals to engage productively in a society and economy that increasingly rely on data and quantitative reasoning.

Through the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP), we address this problem through a systemic strategy and work with stakeholders from national associations to the classroom level.

Mathematics pathways are a rapidly growing national movement in colleges and universities that better support student learning and success. We seek to ensure that ALL students have access to high-quality mathematics pathways that:

Are aligned to students' goals;

Accelerate student progress toward completion;

Integrate student learning supports;

Use evidence-based curriculum and pedagogy.

The DCMP has worked in more than 30 states with numerous higher education systems and hundreds of colleges and universities to develop and implement mathematics pathways.
Learn more about the evidence behind math pathways. Download an overview of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways.

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Dana Center Mathematics Pathways | UT Dana Center

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Hundreds of thousands of students fail higher education mathematics courses every year. Hundreds of thousands more pass courses that do not prepare them for their futures. A growing body of evidence identifies traditional postsecondary mathematics as a primary obstacle to degree completion and equitable outcomes for millions of students.