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These videos, from the book Visible Learning for Literacy, show the different structures in practice in real classrooms.

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Chapter 1. Laying the Groundwork for Visible Learning for LiteracyVideo 1.1 Teacher-Student Relationships That Impact Learning

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Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey-

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Visible Learning for Literacy Practices That Best Accelerate Student Learning

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These graphic organizers and other reproducibles from the book, Visible Learning for Literacy, provide you with a multitude of ideas for classroom use.

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Figure 1.8 Self-Assessment of LearningFigure 1.9 Sample Project ChecklistFigure 1.9 Sample Project Checklist (Blank)

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Powerpoint Slides by Fisher and Frey

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Dr. Doug Fisher: Visible Literacy Learning

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Dr. Doug Fisher's presentation from the California Symposium

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Five Takeaways from Visible Learning for Literacy

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Five Takeaways from Visible Learning for Literacy

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Here at Actively Learn, we like to stay on top of the latest research on reading comprehension. We peruse countless blogs, studies, and books to inform our pedagogy and encourage teachers to adopt best instructional practices. To that end, we wanted to share our takeaways from one of our recent resources: Visible Learning for Literacy: Implementing the Practices that Work Best to Accelerate Student Learning (Fisher, Frey, and Hattie, 2016).

Background: The authors of Visible Learning for Literacy seek to cut through the myriad theories on instructional practice and figure out what actually accelerates student learning based on research. They review 150 different instructional strategies and rank them according to their demonstrated effect. This particular book advances the thinking first set out in John Hattie's Visible Learning Meta-Study (2009) and applies it to the specific context of literacy. The Actively Learn instructional team is a big fan of John Hattie: we've relied heavily on his metastudies to develop our approach to feedback.

Takeaways influenced by John Hattie's Visible Learning Meta-Study and Fisher, Frey, and Hattie's Visible Learning for Literacy

Our Main Takeaways:

TAKEAWAY #1: The impact of an intervention can and should be measured

Teachers are bombarded with literature on what works in education, from blog posts to white papers to PD sessions. But they can't possibly adopt every intervention in their classroom, and their choices should not be guided by anecdotes, fads, or blind instinct. Visible Learning for Literacy argues that teachers should be guided by research, and that interventions need to be measured in order to be considered significant and worthy of widespread adoption.

TAKEAWAY #2: "Progress" is not enough

Literacy research too often assumes that anything that leads to progress is good, but that isn't sufficient to suggest that it's a worthwhile intervention. Visible Learning for Literacy argues that practically every intervention extends student learning, because students generally make academic progress over the course of a year. In order for an intervention to be notable, its gains need to exceed the progress that students would normally make over the course of a school year.

TAKEAWAY #3: Teachers are paramount

Visible Learning for Literacy affirms our longstanding belief that teachers are a critical component to successful outcomes for students. If you're hoping that this book suggests an autopilot curriculum or software that sidelines the teacher but produces meaningful results, you will be disappointed. Some of the most powerful instructional effects result from teachers setting expectations for students, creating clarity around instruction, demonstrating credibility, and giving effective feedback. The teacher-student relationship is a key ingredient for learning.

"If we want to ensure students read, write, communicate, and think at high levels, we have to develop positive, trusting relationships with students, all students."

TAKEAWAY #4: Most learning stops at the surface level

Though the authors of Visible Learning for Literacy acknowledge that surface-level learning is a necessary prerequisite to deeper learning, they point out that educators spend far too little time emphasizing depth. And while teachers generally preach deeper learning, their instructional practices do not push students beyond surface-level skills.

"Up to 90% of the instruction we conduct can be completed by students using only the surface-level skills." (Hattie, 2012)

TAKEAWAY #5: The research on best practices continues to grow

Hattie has revised his list of best instructional practices several times with new editions of his books. This is because we're constantly learning about what works in the classroom, including recent practices that were perhaps not on the educational radar at the time of earlier editions. Hattie's willingness to update his list reflects his commitment to evidence rather than to any one particular pedagogical theory.

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5 Takeaways from Visible Learning for Literacy

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Here at Actively Learn, we like to stay on top of the latest research on reading comprehension. We peruse countless blogs, studies, and books to inform our pedagogy and encourage teachers to adopt best instructional practices.

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The Official Visible Learning Website

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Visible Learning: Panel Discussion with Dr. John Hattie

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Visible Learning: Panel Discussion with Dr. John Hattie

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2012 Video

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Visible Learning - Panel Discussion with Dr. John Hattie

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A Panel Discussion with Dr. John Hattie Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute April 19, 2012

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Literacy Practices That Best Accelerate Student Learning

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Literacy Practices That Best Accelerate Student Learning

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Visible Learning for Literacy Practices That Best Accelerate Student Learning

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VideoScribe on John Hattie's Visible Learning

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VideoScribe on John Hattie's Visible Learning

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John Hattie Learning Intentions & Success Criteria

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VideoScribe on John Hattie's Visible Learning

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Uploaded by Michael Wamsley on 2014-08-06.

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from Ellin Keene

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The Hattie Effect:  What's Essential for Effective PBL

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The Hattie Effect:  What's Essential for Effective PBL

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Interesting article from Edutopia

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In the daily bustle of the classroom, teachers can't hit pause to evaluate the effectiveness of every decision they make. And those judgment calls pile up. From how to plan lessons to whether students should collaborate to how much homework to assign, daily decisions about instruction number in the hundreds.

John Hattie, an education professor and researcher in Australia, has done the wonky work of evaluating mountains of data to determine which decisions make the biggest difference when it comes to learning. His two books, Visible Learning and Visible Learning for Teachers, have triggered global conversations about effective teaching, based on his meta-analysis of more than 800 studies.

Hattie's work promises to demystify what works in education. Indeed, a BBC interviewer recently compared his research to the holy grail of education and asked him for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down about common classroom practices. To paraphrase Hattie's responses: Homework? Hardly worth the time. Small class size? Minimal effect. Teacher talk? OK for introducing new information but a poor route to deeper learning. Ability tracking? Don't do it. School uniforms? Meh.

Aiming for Effectiveness

Hattie's findings are based on a comparison of effect size. That comparison is critical, he argues, because virtually everything teachers do affects student learning. But all effects are not equal. Good teachers make a habit of applying those strategies that produce the greatest effect size. Teaching quality could improve dramatically, it follows, if teachers would favor interventions that produce at least average gains.

He has identified a "hinge point" of 0.40 to identify actions "that could be considered 'working' in terms of making a visible difference in student learning," as he explains in Visible Learning for Teachers. The hinge point "is close to the average effect that we can expect from a year's schooling." Or, as he puts it, a year's growth for a year's effort.

So far so good.

A Need to Know More About PBL

But when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL), Hattie has me scratching my head. Part of the challenge is that he doesn't focus specifically on PBL, and certainly not on PBL that is designed with an emphasis on high-quality teaching and learning. Problem-based learning winds up near the bottom of teaching effects (0.15). Inquiry-based teaching ranks a little higher (0.31), but still below the hinge point. Meanwhile, Piagetian programs, emphasizing challenges that cause learners to apply higher-order thinking and learn collaboratively (sounding similar, at least in spirit, to PBL) rank near the top (1.28).

What's more, many of the essential components of PBL turn out to be highly effective. Formative assessment, critical for project success, comes in at 0.90. Feedback, another key to PBL, has an effect size of 0.73. Challenge and practice at the right level: 0.60. Valuing error and creating trust: 0.72. It's hard to imagine a PBL classroom where those factors are not present.

When Hattie himself synthesizes what matters most for learning, he describes an effective classroom in language that is completely consistent with a PBL environment:

Visible teaching and learning occurs when there is deliberate practice aimed at attaining mastery of the goal, when there is feedback given and sought, and when there are active, passionate, and engaging people (teacher, students, peers) participating in the act of learning.

Expanding the Conversation

So, what can PBL advocates make of Hattie's findings?

For starters, it's worth remembering that PBL is not just one thing. Designing, managing, and assessing projects involves a wide range of teacher behaviors and decisions. During projects, teachers can deliberately emphasize those strategies that research shows to be highly effective -- such as formative assessment, feedback, learning from errors, setting goals, and self-monitoring. They can avoid inquiry that is too unstructured, which may not deliver strong results, and design projects with specific learning goals in mind.

Next, we need more clarity about what makes for effective PBL. Just as all teaching doesn't get equal results, so it goes with projects. As John Dewey reminded us a century ago, "The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative."

(To understand what researchers have to say specifically about PBL, take a look at this comprehensive research summary.)

My colleagues at the Buck Institute for Education (@biepbl) are currently developing a "gold standard" for project-based learning that will define what's essential for high-quality PBL. BIE Executive Director John Mergendoller kicked off this conversation during the PBL World conference in June. Among his suggestions: the gold standard needs to focus more directly on "the teacher in the classroom." ( Here's a recording of my follow-up conversation with him.)

Teachers, school leaders, researchers, and others who are interested in PBL are invited to weigh in on what the gold standard should include. Join the conversation by using the Twitter hashtag #goldstandardPBL or take part in a series of online events that BIE is hosting. Mergendoller, eager for this conversation to be inclusive, invites comments from around the globe. Add your thoughts to his recent blog post on gold standard PBL.

Share your thoughts in the comments here, too. How do you apply research about teacher effectiveness in your classroom decisions? How has Hattie's research shaped your thinking about what works in PBL?

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The Hattie Effect: What's Essential for Effective PBL?

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In the daily bustle of the classroom, teachers can't hit pause to evaluate the effectiveness of every decision they make. And those judgment calls pile up. From how to plan lessons to whether students should collaborate to how much homework to assign, daily decisions about instruction number in the hundreds.

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 1: The Visible Learner

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 1: The Visible Learner

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 2: Know Thy Impact

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 2: Know Thy Impact

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 3: Inspired and Passionate Teachers

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 3: Inspired and Passionate Teachers

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 4: Effective Feedback

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Visible Learning Tool for Gathering Evidence- Part 4: Effective Feedback

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An excellent resource for coaches and administrators