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Effective Feedback Slidedeck:  Magnify Your Impact

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Effective Feedback Slidedeck:  Magnify Your Impact

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How to Give Feedback to Students:  The Advanced Guide

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How to Give Feedback to Students:  The Advanced Guide

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Coaching Field Guide (THE BIG ONE from Iowa DE)

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Coaching Field Guide (THE BIG ONE from Iowa DE)

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"How do I know when to give up on a teacher,?" the coach asked. "I've given her so much coaching and she really isn't improving. She tries and tries, but she's not getting better."

"How long have you been working with her?" I asked.

"It's been about four months," the coach responded.

"Not yet, then," I said.

My response wasn't just because four months isn't very long. This wasn't a technical answer-it's impossible to assign constraints such as a set number of months around a learning journey. My response had to do with the coach in front of me who was visibly frustrated with her teacher and who was contemplating "giving up." My response came from my understanding of the dispositions that a coach needs in order to do transformational work.
Six Dispositions of a Transformational Coach
As a result of my work training coaches, as well as from my own experiences, I've identified six dispositions that a coach must demonstrate. In conversations where the coach is anchored in these dispositions and speaks and listens from these dispositions, the coach has the potential to cultivate powerful change. This is what often makes the difference-this place that the coach works from, rather than a carefully crafted sentence stem or a probing question. I'm always watching for evidence of these dispositions, considering what it looks and sounds like to act from them.

These are the six dispositions:

Compassion: Demonstrates unwavering compassion for all.

Curiosity: Is insatiably curious about others, what is possible, and one's self.

Trusts in the coaching process: Is able to manage their own ego and be open to possibility; recognizes that the journey of transformation is a long one and isn't caught by urgency.

Humility: Is aware of and appreciates the reciprocal nature of learning and the potential for their own improvement through the process

Appreciation: Is genuinely grateful for the opportunity to work with others.

Learner orientation: Consistently reflects on their own learning and development and actively seeks out ways to develop in skill, knowledge, and/or capacity; models transformational leadership and demonstrates awareness of how they are perceived by others; attends to own transformation; identifies professional areas of strength and growth; feels inspired and energized to continue developing.

Trusts in the Coaching Process
When the coach asked me about "giving up" on a teacher, what I thought of was the phrase, "recognizes that the journey of transformation is a long one..." She had described an underprepared new teacher who was a difficult situation. I listened to her report on the coaching strategies she'd used and I suggested some additional ones. I offered strategies to pay more attention to the teacher's Zone of Proximal Development and to gradually release her into the new instructional approaches she was adopting-I suspected that the coach had too quickly released this new teacher into too many new approaches. (This is a common challenge for coaches-we often don't scaffold the learning enough for the teachers or leaders that we work with).

I also said this:

I know that for many coaches it's hard to trust in a process that you've never experienced as impactful. I recognize that I can't just tell you to trust this process. I also know that you may not feel equipped with the skills and knowledge to make coaching effective. Most coaches get so little training or ongoing PD in coaching. It's incumbent upon us to get that training-to advocate for our need and right to be learners and to refine our craft. And then we can trust in the coaching process. It works.
Transformation is Ugly
If we are truly coaching for transformation, then we need to pause for a moment and consider that the journey of transformation isn't always smooth, easy, linear, or pretty. In fact, in the context of coaching in schools, if we're exploring beliefs (particularly beliefs about race and gender and equity and so on) then it most likely should get ugly-we're going to need to speak about some hard things. We'll need to hear those hard things. We'll need to explore our own hard things.

As a symbol for transformation, the butterfly has done us a disservice. The process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly has been romanticized and idealized-which has given us distorted notions of what transformation looks like. In her novel Regeneration, Pat Barker describes a doctor who "knew only too well how often the early stages of change or cure may mimic deterioration. Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly...No, the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay."
The process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay. The early stages of change may mimic deterioration.
I think that within our human world, within the domain of school transformation, we've wanted a transformation process that's clean, quick and beautiful, and it is none of those things. It is slow and tedious and messy and occasionally contains decay, and we have to be patient and trust in the coaching process.

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Don't Give Up on Coaching a Teacher (Opinion)

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As a coach, your job isn't to determine when to give up on a teacher. Your job is to believe in her potential, to coach and coach and coach her, to put your own anxiety to the side, and to recognize that the journey of transformation is a long one.

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I love the learning I gain from interactions with educators. Not surprisingly, educators focused on coaching and collaborating provide extra special opportunities. Kevin Schlomer recently provided me one of those learning opportunities and I was anxious to share it with you.

(Figure 1. Barkley's evaluation/coaching continuum)﻿

Kevin is a former instructional coach and coordinator of instructional coaching. He is currently an assessment consultant with Heartland Area Education Agency in Johnston, Iowa. Kevin also teaches action research courses for graduate students at Viterbo University. You can contact him directly at kevin.schlomer@gmail.com.

(Figure 2. The coaching balance scale)

I spent nine years in the world of teacher leadership-six years as an elementary instructional coach and three years as a coordinator of instructional coaching. In that time, I worked with teachers, administrators, and coaches to build a program that met teachers' needs and aligned with our vision of mutually respectful, collaborative, and growth-enhancing experiences between teachers and coaches.

Every spring, we conducted a survey of teachers about the impact of instructional coaching on their work. It was my job to read, synthesize, and share information from those surveys to improve our program. After years of sifting through hundreds of narrative comments about coaching, I realized that many of the themes I encountered could be mapped onto Steve Barkley's evaluation/coaching continuum (Barkley, 2010, p. 23). This continuum is shown in figure 1 below.

What's power got to do with it?

In Barkley's continuum, coaches' movement to the left brings teachers closer to imposition of external criteria on their work. Coaches' movement to the right brings teachers closer to self-initiated personal improvement through peer coaching. In the surveys I've examined over the years, many comments related to all areas of that continuum. For example, teachers expressed concern about movement of coaches into roles better served by administrators ( evaluation). They mentioned coaches' coordination of curriculum roll-outs or school improvement work ( supervision). Some teachers mentioned coaches' provision of professional development or support of new teachers ( mentoring). And, as hoped, many teachers explicitly or indirectly shared experiences about peer coaching. These statements were always the most positive and refreshing ones to read.

But there remained other comments that did not fit onto the continuum above. Some related to things like coaches answering basic questions for teachers or finding resources. Others were highly negative and said in essence: "I'm fine and I don't need a coach." I wondered, "What do these comments say about our program? Where do they fit on the continuum?"

Eventually I came to realize that many narrative survey responses-especially the negative ones-were about more than just coaches or coaching processes. They were about power-who had it and what they were doing with it. When I realized this, I added three categories to the right of peer coaching in Barkley's continuum. I labeled these categories consulting, information gathering, and indifference. With these additions, every comment from the surveys seemed to have a home. I called the resulting model The Coaching Balance Scale, which is shown in Figure 2 below.

Peer coaching rests at the center of the coaching balance scale and is aligned to Knight's (2007) partnership principles of equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis, and reciprocity. It is a mutually respectful and beneficial experience in which two professionals of equal status approach an instructional challenge together. A teacher identifies an area of focus and works collaboratively with a coach to learn about, implement, and reflect upon the success of options that address the teacher's focus. True peer coaching interactions between coaches and teachers demonstrate equal professional status, equal give-and-take, and equal respect.

A coach's presence in peer coaching represents the ideal balance of power between teachers and coaches. However, when the coach moves left into mentoring or supervision, the balance begins to tilt left and power becomes more concentrated in the hands of the coach. When the coach moves right into consultation or information gathering, the balance begins to tilt right and power becomes more concentrated in the hands of the teacher. The direction of the tilt, and thus the balance of power, depends on which level of the scale the coach works in at any given time.

Creating this model also caused me to think about instructional coaching programs as a whole, so I added a foundation for the balance to rest upon. These foundational components include administrator capacity, coach capacity, teacher collaboration, program vision and infrastructure, and school culture. Weakness in any one of these foundational components will cause instructional coaches to shift too far left and teachers to shift too far right. If this continues for an extended period of time, the coaching program will struggle to remain balanced and peer coaching opportunities will decrease.

Practical implications of the coaching balance scale

This model has several practical implications for instructional coaching programs.

Implication 1. Although coaches are pulled in many directions, they must spend the majority of their time in peer coaching.

Experts agree that more than half of a coach's time should be at the center of the coaching balance. Diane Sweeney (2015) suggests at least 50% (and preferably 60%) of a coach's time should be spent in coaching cycles. The Instructional Coaching Group's (n.d.) instructional coach certification process requires a minimum of 70%. Because coaches are associated with whatever they do most consistently (Sweeney, 2015), teachers who only see coaches in supervision, mentoring, consulting, or information gathering capacities will associate them exclusively with that work. It's important to remember that the supervision, mentoring, consultation, and information gathering components of the coaching balance scale are not bad in and of themselves. But if coaches consistently spend more than 30% to 40% of available time in any combination of those four roles, opportunities for peer coaching will begin to diminish.

Implication 2. Significant disparities in the balance of power can make teachers uncomfortable.

Power becomes more concentrated and unbalanced the closer one moves to the ends of the balanced coaching scale. By power, I am referring to control over decision-making. Moving to the left places the coach more in control of decisions than the teachers.

This decision-making authority can also be thought of as autonomy. There is a constant tension with autonomy in schools today. On the one hand, it's important to ensure that all students experience similar opportunities and consistently high expectations for their learning. On the other hand, good teaching is responsive in nature; every teacher, student, and classroom has unique needs that should be accounted for. No single action will be effective in every situation. Because teachers are professionals intended to diagnose and solve problems, it follows that they should be afforded enough freedom and flexibility to learn and teach in ways that will support their students.

However, autonomy does not mean that teachers have the right to make all decisions without regard for students or the system. In his book Thinking for a Living, Thomas Davenport perfectly captured this tension:

. . . Because knowledge workers prefer autonomy doesn't mean they should always be given the maximum amount of it. . . . Some efforts to improve knowledge worker performance may involve removing some discretion from the knowledge worker. Still, organizations must be careful when implementing any new process or technology that significantly reduces the autonomy of their knowledge workers. (Davenport, 2005, p. 17)

If teachers perceive that independent thought or self-direction is threatened, they will respond negatively. Whether intentional or not, impeding the capacity of teachers to think independently and guide their own work is "dehumanizing" (Knight, 2016, p. 32). The key, as in all things, is to get the balance right.

Implication 3. Coaches and teachers move in opposite directions when they feel threatened by perceived displays of power.

As mentioned before, moving to the left of peer coaching places more decision-making control in the hands of the coach, but moving to the right of peer coaching places more decision-making control in the hands of teachers. Simply put, the further left a coach moves from peer coaching, the more a teacher feels threatened; the further right a teacher moves from peer coaching, the more a coach feels threatened.

A result of this perceived threat from supervision or mentoring activities is that teachers might retreat further to the right to regain power they feel has been lost by exercising control over key decisions (such as what they will discuss; to what degree they will discuss it; and if the coach is even welcome in their classrooms or not).

Coaches can feel threatened by teachers who only participate in consultation and information-gathering activities. When coaches are pressured by supervisors to engage significant time in peer coaching without all foundational components functioning at high levels, they may respond in one of two ways to gain access to classrooms:

Some coaches move to the left of peer coaching and attempt to engage in supervision and mentoring activities to short-circuit their way into peer coaching. This, in turn, causes some teachers to move even further right and perhaps into indifference. Like magnets of similar polarity, the coach's action in this case repels the teacher.

Other coaches might follow the teacher's lead and devote their work to consultation and information-gathering activities. Killion (2008) described this phenomenon as "coaching light" (p. 1). They might spend much or all of their time there, performing work that keeps themselves busy and is even appreciated by the teacher (Killion, 2008). Though this work keeps the coach in contact with the teacher, it tilts the balance of power to the right and rarely brings the two together in peer coaching. Over time, the coach's singular engagement in consultation and information-gathering activities reinforces a culture where teachers remain to the right of peer coaching.

Neither of these solutions is particularly desirable for teachers or coaches. If the modus operandi of the school is a continual tilt of the balanced coaching scale, it means one or more of the foundational components needs to be examined (this is discussed next in Implication 4). However, during short-term tilts of the balanced coaching scale, awareness of the tendency for coaches to move left and teachers to move right during perceived threats to power can help a coach be more reflective and purposeful during interactions with teachers.

It is important to note that engagement in evaluation (coach) and indifference (teacher) must always be off-limits. Participation in these levels of the balanced coaching scale tips the program so far that it falls off the scale. Serious long-term consequences to the program can result.

Implication 4. The cause of a permanently tilted program is almost always a breakdown in one of the foundational components.

The coaching balance scale rests upon a foundation that addresses the needs of individuals and the system. Minor tilts occur often as coaches move back and forth among supervision, mentoring, peer coaching, consultation, and information-gathering with teachers. Long-lasting or significant tilts, however, indicate the school should examine each of the following foundational components and address issues as necessary.

Administrator capacity includes a principal's and central office administrator's understanding of coaching, ability to promote coaching, and ability to guide the remaining foundational components. Those administrators who have experienced coaching themselves are often better able to distinguish peer coaching from the other levels of the balanced coaching scale and understand the nuanced implications of coaches completing tasks that fall at levels all along the scale.

Coach capacity refers to the technical skills of coaching that are often not taught in teacher education programs; things like questioning, paraphrasing, listening, and observation skills (Barkley, 2010). In addition, coaches may need additional training in instructional models; content knowledge; and district processes and procedures (Schlomer, 2017).

Teacher collaboration involves the extent to which teachers collaborate teacher-to-teacher in the school environment. Do teachers view themselves as team players or independent contractors? Are efficient and productive teaming structures already in place?

Additionally, what is the nature of the collaboration in which teachers routinely engage? Roland Barth (2006) noted that schools with genuine collaboration are marked by teachers who:

talk with one another about their teaching practice,

openly share their knowledge with one another,

watch one another teach, and

support and celebrate the successes of one another.

In schools where teachers exhibit these characteristics, peer coaching is a welcomed opportunity instead of a threat.

Program vision and infrastructure. There are several pieces to this foundational component:

Has the school identified a philosophical model to follow? Can all staff members (especially teachers) speak accurately and clearly about this philosophical model? I advocate for Knight's (2007) partnership principles of equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis, and reciprocity.

Has the school identified a coaching process to follow? Can all staff members (especially teachers) speak accurately and clearly about this coaching process? Many models exist, but whichever one is selected should (a) engage the teacher and coach at an equal level, (b) focus on the outcome of the coach's and teacher's collaborative work on student learning, and (c) use evidence to make decisions.

Has the school identified common frameworks for instruction? That is, does common language and understanding exist with the best practices a school adheres to in areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, and social/emotional learning?

Is the program guided by a common measurable goal that guides the work of instructional coaches?

Does the school have a process in place for periodic review of the program? Do these processes invite, honor, and thoughtfully consider the voices of all stakeholders (teachers, coaches, administrators)?

Has the school established processes to guide and protect the work? This includes things like coaching job descriptions; administrator-coach agreements; dedicated time and processes for coaching; budget support for coach growth and development; and so on. (A great resource to investigate these issues is Coaching Matters by Killion, Harrison, Bryan, and Clifton [2012]).

School culture. Does the school have a belief that all students can learn? Do teachers approach their work from a growth mindset (Dweck, 2016)? Is the school welcoming and inviting, with relationships among all stakeholders that are warm, respectful, and nurturing (teachers, coaches, students, staff, administrators, and families)? (One helpful resource for this work is Part III of High Impact Instruction by Knight [2013].)

A breakdown in any of these foundational components can cause coaches to move left and teachers to move right on the balanced coaching scale, minimizing opportunities for peer coaching within the school. Regular examination of these foundational components is an important part of the overall health of a coaching program.
References:
Use the balanced coaching scale for formative assessment of a coaching program

The coaching balance scale can provide a useful way to make sense of teachers' narrative responses on surveys and formatively assess the coaching program. When reading each survey response, determine to which level of the coaching balance scale teachers are referring ( evaluation, supervision, mentoring, peer coaching, consultation, information gathering, or indifference).

Place a tally mark in each box on the scale as you notice each level mentioned in the survey responses. Each comment could address multiple levels from the scale, or just one. When you have finished reading all comments and marking the tallies, examine the scale. How balanced is your program? Does it tilt to the left (placing disproportionate power in hands of coaches) or to the right (placing disproportionate power in the hands of teachers)? A program that is fairly well balanced will have the greatest number of tallies present at the peer coaching level.

This is not the only data to examine for a quality coaching program, but the process described above provides a useful way to understand the perspectives of teachers while interpreting what is often an overwhelming and unruly amount of narrative survey data.

Final thoughts

What began for me as a way of attempting to find meaning in hundreds of narrative survey responses eventually became a model that I believe has wider applications. Version 1.0 is presented here; refinements are likely to happen over time. I'd welcome your thoughts about what I have presented here. If you happen to interact with this model in some way, please share your experiences and feedback. Happy coaching!

Barkley, S. G. (2010). Quality teaching in a culture of coaching (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield.

Barth, R. S. (2006). Improving relationships within the schoolhouse. Educational Leadership, 63(6), 8-13.

Davenport, T. H. (2005). Thinking for a living: How to get better performance and results from knowledge workers. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Ballantine.

Instructional Coaching Group. (n.d.). ICG certification: Current certification cycle. Retrieved from https://www.instructionalcoaching.com/certifications/

Killion, J. (2008). Are you coaching heavy or light? Teachers Teaching Teachers, 3(8), 1-4. Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/may08-issue.pdf

Killion, J., Harrison, C., Bryan, C., & Clifton, H. (2012). Coaching matters. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward.

Knight, J. (2016). Better conversations: Coaching ourselves and each other to be more credible, caring, and connected. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Knight, J. (2013). High-impact instruction: A framework for great teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Knight, J. (2007). Instructional coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Schlomer, K. J. (2017). Examining the impact of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching on elementary instructional coaches' work (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (Order No. 10273211)

Sweeney, D. (2015, September 22). Getting to 60% (1 of 3) [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://dianesweeney.com/getting-to-60-percent-1-of-3/

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The Coaching Balance with Special Guest Kevin Schlomer | Barkley

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I love the learning I gain from interactions with educators. Not surprisingly, educators focused on coaching and collaborating provide extra special opportunities. Kevin Schlomer recently provided me one of those learning opportunities and I was anxious to share it with you. Kevin is a former instructional coach and coordinator of instructional coaching.

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Dunlosky, (2013) “Strengthening the student toolbox_

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Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary School and Beyond

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Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary School and Beyond

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Why Doesn't Every Teacher Know the Research on Reading Instruction?

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Why Doesn't Every Teacher Know the Research on Reading Instruction?

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Almost two decades ago, the National Reading Panel reviewed more than 100,000 studies and arrived at recommendations for how students should receive daily, explicit, systematic phonics instruction in the early grades. Why is this literacy research not more widely known? Why is the fact that reading skills need to be taught, and that there is a well-documented way to do it, not something highlighted in many teacher-preparation programs (or parenting books, for that matter)?

Recently, a remarkable audio-documentary by Emily Hanford went viral, shining a spotlight on such crucial literacy research-none of which is new, but much of which is unknown to today's teachers. Like many in the literacy community, I worry about our failure to bring research into classroom practice. My concern is greatest for teachers who are being sent into classrooms without the tools they need to succeed. I'm hopeful this renewed interest will serve as a catalyst for overhauling reading instruction in our teacher-preparation programs. However, relying solely on better preparation for the next generation of teachers is a slow delivery system to children. The stakes are too high. We need more immediate solutions.

Only roughly one-third of our nation's 4th and 8th graders can demonstrate proficiency on national tests, with students from low-income families and students of color faring the worst. When students can't read, they have trouble learning; the great majority of students who fail to master reading by 3rd grade either drop out or finish high school with dismal lifetime earning potentials.

I'd like to build on the momentum Hanford's piece has sparked to call attention to additional research-based practices that go hand-in-hand with the importance of phonics. As educators experience 'aha' moments about the need for stronger phonics instruction, let's talk about some other literacy practices that need fixing in elementary classrooms. Here's my short list of practices and resources to add to the conversation:

1. Let all kids read the good stuff. The pervasive practice of putting kids into reading groups according to their "just right" reading level has meant that large numbers of students receive a steady diet of below-grade-level instruction. The texts they're reading don't require them to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary, confront challenging concepts, or parse new and complicated language. Noted literacy researcher Timothy Shanahan has written extensively about why this is the wrong approach, documenting that " after 70 years there still isn't any research supporting the idea of matching kids to just-right texts" after 1st grade-yet still the practice persists. This, despite research showing that the ability to handle complex text is the distinguishing characteristic between students who go on to do well in college and work and those who don't.

Why would we deprive our youngsters of the opportunity to build this muscle in elementary school, when all that's standing in the way of their doing so is the opportunity and the support that close reading can provide?

The Council of Chief State School Officers offers a host of resources to help teachers guide students with complex texts.

2. Build students' general content knowledge. Some of the most profoundly important, yet under-recognized, reading research shows that students' reading comprehension depends heavily on their background knowledge about the world-knowledge that comes largely from learning about science and social studies topics. When students know something about a topic, they are better able to read a text in which that topic is discussed, even when the sentence structure is complex or the words are unfamiliar. Cognitive science expert Daniel Willingham explains this principle clearly, and the Knowledge Matters Campaign expands on it further.

The implications for literacy instruction are enormous because young children are receiving less time with science and social studies content in their school day. According to a 2007 study, instructional time spent on these subjects dropped by an hour and a half per week since the 1990s. The diminished attention to these knowledge-building topics creates less fertile ground for reading comprehension to flourish and is a significant culprit in our stagnant national reading outcomes. Given that time is a scarce commodity in most schools, the takeaway for school leaders is to incorporate rich content, organized around conceptually-related topics, into the reading curriculum so that students learn new information about the world while they develop as readers. Student Achievement Partners has ready-made resources that teachers can pull into their classrooms.

3. Let quality English/language arts curriculum do some of the heavy-lifting. Poor-quality curriculum is at the root of reading problems in many schools. It is not an overstatement to say that a school that doesn't have a phonics program is doing its students a huge disservice. Increasingly, the same can be said about the lack of intentionality for building students' knowledge of the world and access to complex text. The current lack of educator know-how can be remedied by curriculum that points the way.

Fortunately, bolstered by emerging research about the "curriculum effect," we're in the midst of a curriculum renaissance. In recent years, a number of respected organizations have developed curricula that are tailor-built to both state standards and the latest research. Educator reviews conducted by organizations such as the nonprofit EdReports or Louisiana Believes can help schools easily identify the best curriculum for their context. No longer should classroom teachers need to scour the internet for materials. Instead, educators can spend their time focusing on how to become the best possible deliverers of thoughtfully arranged, comprehensive, sequential curriculum that embeds standards, the science of reading, and the instructional shifts described above.

I have great empathy for teachers who have labored under the weight of misdirected teacher preparation, insufficient curriculum, ever-shifting educational fads, and ever-increasing professional demands-and welcome the attention of journalists who are shining a light on the opportunity represented by the convergence of science and a new class of high-quality curriculum materials. Based on my own experiences with educators taking this improvement journey, significant reading gains are possible with the right support. Our students' reading future can be bright-if we seize the moment.

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Why Doesn't Every Teacher Know the Research on Reading Instruction? (Opinion)

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Almost two decades ago, the National Reading Panel reviewed more than 100,000 studies and arrived at recommendations for how students should receive daily, explicit, systematic phonics instruction in the early grades. Why is this literacy research not more widely known?

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Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

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Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform

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Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform

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Important consequences play out in the day-to-day social exchanges within a school community. Recent research shows that social trust among teachers, parents, and school leaders improves much of the routine work of schools and is a key resource for reform.

For example, Comer's School Development Project demonstrates that strengthening the connections between urban school professionals and parents of low socioeconomic status can improve their children's academic achievement (Comer, Haynes, Joyner, &amp; Ben-Avie, 1996). Meier (1995) argues persuasively that building trust among teachers, school leaders, students, and parents was a key component of the success of the middle school that she created in Harlem. The efforts of Alvarado and his colleagues to build learning communities in Community School District 2 in Manhattan also support the importance of the social dimension of school change (Malloy, 1998). And a longitudinal analysis of successfully restructuring schools concluded thathuman resources-such as openness to improvement, trust and respect, teachers having knowledge and skills, supportive leadership, and socialization-are more critical to the development of professional community than structural conditions. . . . The need to improve the culture, climate, and interpersonal relationships in schools has received too little attention. (Kruse, Louis, &amp; Bryk, 1994, p. 8; see also Louis &amp; Kruse, 1995; Newmann &amp; Associates, 1996)

In short, a growing body of case studies and clinical narratives directs our attention to the engaging but elusive idea of social trust as essential for meaningful school improvement. But what is social trust? What factors help to shape it? And what benefits does it produce?

To answer these and related questions, we conducted almost a decade of intensive case study research and longitudinal statistical analyses from more than 400 Chicago elementary schools. We spent approximately four years in 12 different school communities observing school meetings and events; conducting interviews and focus groups with principals, teachers, parents, and community leaders; observing classroom instruction; and talking to teachers about the progress and problems in their reform efforts. Differences between two of these cases, Holiday and Ridgeway Elementary Schools,help illustrate how the dynamics of relational trust across a school community influence its reform efforts.

Combined with this field study, we analyzed periodic surveys of teachers, principals, and students collected by the Consortium on Chicago School Research to examine the changing quality of relational dynamics in all Chicago elementary schools over a six-year period. We also analyzed trends in individual student reading and mathematics achievement during this same time period to assess the value that each school was adding to student learning and the extent to which this "value-added" measure was improving over time. This improvement in a school's contribution to student learning is a direct measure of its changing academic productivity. By linking evidence on the schools' changing academic productivity with survey results on school trust over a long period of time, we were able to document the powerful influence that such trust plays as a resource for reform.

Distinct role relationships characterize the social exchanges of schooling: teachers with students, teachers with other teachers, teachers with parents, and all groups with the school principal. Each party in a relationship maintains an understanding of his or her role's obligations and holds some expectations about the obligations of the other parties. For a school community to work well, it must achieve agreement in each role relationship in terms of the understandings held about these personal obligations and expectations of others.

An interrelated set of mutual dependencies are embedded within the social exchanges in any school community. Regardless of how much formal power any given role has in a school community, all participants remain dependent on others to achieve desired outcomes and feel empowered by their efforts.

The principal, for example, needs faculty support to maintain a cohesive professional community that productively engages parents and students. Teachers' work, in turn, depends on decisions that the principal makes about the allocation of resources to their classrooms. Parents depend on both teachers and the principal to create an environment that keeps their children safe and helps them learn. Such dependencies create a sense of mutual vulnerability for all individuals involved. Consequently, deliberate action taken by any party to reduce this sense of vulnerability in others-to make them feel safe and secure-builds trust across the community.

As individuals interact with one another around the work of schooling, they are constantly discerning the intentions embedded in the actions of others. They consider how others' efforts advance their own interests or impinge on their own self-esteem. They ask whether others' behavior reflects appropriately on their moral obligations to educate children well. These discernments take into account the history of previous interactions. In the absence of prior contact, participants may rely on the general reputation of the other and also on commonalities of race, gender, age, religion, or upbringing. These discernments tend to organize around four specific considerations: respect, personal regard, competence in core role responsibilities, and personal integrity.

Relational trust is grounded in the social respect that comes from the kinds of social discourse that take place across the school community. Respectful exchanges are marked by genuinely listening to what each person has to say and by taking these views into account in subsequent actions. Even when people disagree, individuals can still feel valued if others respect their opinions.

Without interpersonal respect, social exchanges may cease. People typically avoid demeaning situations if they can. When they don't have this option, sustained conflict may erupt. Such a situation existed at Ridgeway Elementary School, where interactions among parent leaders and professional staff got in the way of needed reforms. For example, parent and community leaders pressed school staff to implement a "respect program toward students," which included written standards for how adults should talk to students, guidelines to encourage increased sensitivity on the part of school professionals to the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of students, and procedures for handling student misconduct that refrained from punitive and demeaning adult behavior. But little of this same respect was evident in the social interactions among the adults. Parent and community leaders offered rude personal criticism of school staff with little recognition that their behavior was the exact opposite of the behavior that they desired to foster in the students.

Personal regard represents another important criterion in determining how individuals discern trust. Such regard springs from the willingness of participants to extend themselves beyond the formal requirements of a job definition or a union contract. The actions of the principal at another of our case study sites, Holiday Elementary School, offer strong testimony. Almost every parent and teacher we spoke with at this school commented effusively about the principal's personal style, his openness to others, and his willingness to reach out to parents, teachers, and students. His efforts helped cultivate a climate in which such regard became the norm across the school community. This climate, in turn, was a major factor in the high level of relational trust found in this most unexpected place-a 100 percent low-income, African American population in a school serving a public housing project, with a white, male principal.

School community members also want their interactions with others to produce desired outcomes. This attainment depends, in large measure, on others' role competence. For example, parents depend on the professional ethics and skills of school staff for their children's welfare and learning. Teachers want supportive work conditions for their practice, which depends on the capacity of the school principal to fairly, effectively, and efficiently manage basic school operations. School administrators value good community relations, but achieving this objective requires concerted effort from all school staff. Instances of negligence or incompetence, if allowed to persist, undermine trust. This was a major factor in the negative parent-school relations at Ridgeway, where some clearly incompetent and uncaring teachers were nonetheless allowed to continue to practice.

Perceptions about personal integrity also shape individuals' discernment that trust exists. The first question that we ask is whether we can trust others to keep their word. Integrity also demands that a moral-ethical perspective guides one's work. Although conflicts frequently arise among competing individual interests within a school community, a commitment to the education and welfare of children must remain the primary concern.

The principal's actions at Ridgeway offer a compelling example of how a perceived lack of commitment to students' welfare can undermine trust. Although members of the school community viewed this principal as a caring person, no one was sure where he stood on a number of internal school conflicts. When concerns surfaced about problematic teachers, he chose an approach sensitive to the particular adults involved. He visited their classrooms and demonstrated lessons, hoping that the teachers would adopt new techniques. When the teachers did not improve, however, he dropped the initiative and did not change the situation. In the end, no one interpreted his action as directed toward the best interests of the students, and these events further exacerbated the distrust across the school community.

The myriad social exchanges that make up daily life in a school community fuse into distinct social patterns that can generate organization-wide resources. Collective decision making with broad teacher buy-in, a crucial ingredient for reform, occurs more readily in schools with strong relational trust. In contrast, the absence of trust, as witnessed at Ridgeway School, provoked sustained controversy around resolving even such relatively simple problems as the arrangements for a kindergarten graduation ceremony.

Strong relational trust also makes it more likely that reform initiatives will diffuse broadly across the school because trust reduces the sense of risk associated with change. When school professionals trust one another and sense support from parents, they feel safe to experiment with new practices. Similarly, relational trust fosters the necessary social exchanges among school professionals as they learn from one another. Talking honestly with colleagues about what's working and what's not means exposing your own ignorance and making yourself vulnerable. Without trust, genuine conversations of this sort remain unlikely.

Further, relational trust supports a moral imperative to take on the difficult work of school improvement. Most teachers work hard at their teaching. When implementing "reform," they must assume risks, deal with organizational conflict, attempt new practices, and take on extra work, such as engaging with colleagues in planning, implementing, and evaluating improvement initiatives. Teachers quite reasonably ask, "Why should we do this?" A context characterized by high relational trust provides an answer: In the end, reform is the right thing to do.

Our analysis of Holiday School provides strong testimony here, too. Both professionals and parents at Holiday shared a commitment "to go the extra mile for the children." Almost every person we interviewed spoke about the school community in these terms. Our longitudinal survey analyses provide strong evidence on this point as well. In schools in which relational trust was improving over time, teachers increasingly characterized their colleagues as committed and loyal to the school and more eager to engage in new practices that might help students learn better.

Not surprisingly, then, we found that elementary schools with high relational trust were much more likely to demonstrate marked improvements in student learning. Our overall measure of school trust, on the basis of approximately two dozen survey items addressing teachers' attitudes toward their colleagues, principals, and parents, proved a powerful discriminator between improving and nonimproving schools. A school with a low score on relational trust at the end of our study had only a one-in-seven chance of demonstrating improved academic productivity. In contrast, half of the schools that scored high on relational trust were in the improved group. On average, these improving schools recorded increases in student learning of 8 percent in reading and 20 percent in mathematics in a five-year period. The schools in the nonimproving group lost ground in reading and stayed about the same in mathematics. Most significant was the finding that schools with chronically weak trust reports throughout the period of the study had virtually no chance of improving in either reading or mathematics.

Relational trust entails much more than just making school staff feel good about their work environment and colleagues. A school cannot achieve relational trust simply through some workshop, retreat, or form of sensitivity training, although all of these activities can help. Rather, schools build relational trust in day-to-day social exchanges.

Through their words and actions, school participants show their sense of their obligations toward others, and others discern these intentions. Trust grows through exchanges in which actions validate these expectations. Even simple interactions, if successful, can enhance collective capacities for more complex subsequent actions. In this respect, increasing trust and deepening organizational change support each other.

Principals' actions play a key role in developing and sustaining relational trust. Principals establish both respect and personal regard when they acknowledge the vulnerabilities of others, actively listen to their concerns, and eschew arbitrary actions. Effective principals couple these behaviors with a compelling school vision and behavior that clearly seeks to advance the vision. This consistency between words and actions affirms their personal integrity. Then, if the principal competently manages basic day-to-day school affairs, an overall ethos conducive to the formation of trust will emerge.

In a troubled school community, attaining relational trust may require the principal to jump-start change. Typically, the principal may need to reshape the composition of the school staff by hiring strong people into staff vacancies and, where necessary, counseling out those whose practice remains inconsistent with the school's mission and values.

The principal at Holiday, for example, skillfully used his expanded authority under Chicago's school reform to hire new teachers of his own choosing without regard to seniority or bumping rights. This reshaping of his faculty was a key element in building relational trust. In contrast, the inability of Ridgeway's principal to remove a few problematic teachers undermined trust. Although other teachers were reluctant to directly confront their offending colleagues, the faculty generally did not participate in collaborative activities. Similarly, parents and community leaders became more distrustful because they could not understand how the professional staff could tolerate such behavior. The end result was a school community that was unlikely to garner the adult effort required to initiate and sustain reform.

Parents in most urban school communities remain highly dependent on the good intentions of teachers. To promote relational trust, teachers need to recognize these parents' vulnerabilities and reach out actively to moderate them. Unfortunately, many schools do not acknowledge this responsibility as a crucial aspect of teachers' roles.

Elementary school teachers spend most of their time engaged with students. Little in their professional training prepares them for working with parents and other adults in the community. Moreover, because of the class and race differences between school professionals and parents in most urban areas, conditions can be ripe for misunderstanding and distrust. Effective urban schools need teachers who not only know their students well but also have an empathetic understanding of their parents' situations and the interpersonal skills needed to engage adults effectively.

A number of structural conditions facilitate the creation of relational trust in a school community. Although their existence does not ensure relational trust, the presence of these conditions makes it easier for school leaders to build and sustain trust.

Small school size. We found that relational trust is more likely to flourish in small elementary schools with 350 or fewer students. Larger schools tend to have more limited face-to-face interactions and more bureaucratic relations across the organization. Individuals often define their affiliations in terms of some subgroup and have weaker ties to the larger organization. In contrast, the work structures of a small school are less complex and its social networks are typically fewer in number. As a result, relational trust is likely to be sustained more easily.

A stable school community. The stability of the student body directly affects teacher-parent trust. Building and maintaining trust depends on repeated social exchanges. Teachers find it hard to develop and sustain direct positive engagement with all parents when the student population changes frequently. Moreover, in transient neighborhoods, parents find it difficult to share reassuring information with one another about their good experiences with teachers; lacking such personal communication, parents who are new to a school community may fall back on predispositions to distrust, especially if many of their social encounters outside of the school tend to reinforce this worldview.

Voluntary association. Relational trust is also more likely to arise in schools where at least a modicum of choice exists for both staff and students. Because participants have deliberately chosen to affiliate with the school, relations among all parties are pre-conditioned toward trust. If subsequent actions reinforce the wisdom of this choice, relational trust will deepen. In contrast, the forced assignment of individuals to schools fosters uncertainty and suspicion about the motivations and commitments of others and may create a formidable barrier to promoting trust.

Good schools depend heavily on cooperative endeavors. Relational trust is the connective tissue that binds individuals together to advance the education and welfare of students. Improving schools requires us to think harder about how best to organize the work of adults and students so that this connective tissue remains healthy and strong.

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Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform

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A longitudinal study of 400 Chicago elementary schools shows the central role of relational trust in building effective education communities.

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Vol. 70

No. 1

Abstract

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

Feedback Essentials

Progress Toward a Goal

"But There's No Time!"

Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning?

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Abstract

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

Feedback Essentials

Progress Toward a Goal

"But There's No Time!"

Who would dispute the idea that feedback is a good thing? Both common sense and research make it clear: Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement.

Yet even John Hattie (2008), whose decades of research revealed that feedback was among the most powerful influences on achievement, acknowledges that he has "struggled to understand the concept" (p. 173). And many writings on the subject don't even attempt to define the term. To improve formative assessment practices among both teachers and assessment designers, we need to look more closely at just what feedback is-and isn't.

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

The term feedback is often used to describe all kinds of comments made after the fact, including advice, praise, and evaluation. But none of these are feedback, strictly speaking.

Basically, feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal. I hit a tennis ball with the goal of keeping it in the court, and I see where it lands-in or out. I tell a joke with the goal of making people laugh, and I observe the audience's reaction-they laugh loudly or barely snicker. I teach a lesson with the goal of engaging students, and I see that some students have their eyes riveted on me while others are nodding off.

Here are some other examples of feedback:

A friend tells me, "You know, when you put it that way and speak in that softer tone of voice, it makes me feel better."

A reader comments on my short story, "The first few paragraphs kept my full attention. The scene painted was vivid and interesting. But then the dialogue became hard to follow; as a reader, I was confused about who was talking, and the sequence of actions was puzzling, so I became less engaged."

A baseball coach tells me, "Each time you swung and missed, you raised your head as you swung so you didn't really have your eye on the ball. On the one you hit hard, you kept your head down and saw the ball."

Note the difference between these three examples and the first three I cited-the tennis stroke, the joke, and the student responses to teaching. In the first group, I only had to take note of the tangible effect of my actions, keeping my goals in mind. No one volunteered feedback, but there was still plenty of feedback to get and use. The second group of examples all involved the deliberate, explicit giving of feedback by other people.

Whether the feedback was in the observable effects or from other people, in every case the information received was not advice, nor was the performance evaluated. No one told me as a performer what to do differently or how "good" or "bad" my results were. (You might think that the reader of my writing was judging my work, but look at the words used again: She simply played back the effect my writing had on her as a reader.) Nor did any of the three people tell me what to do (which is what many people erroneously think feedback is-advice). Guidance would be premature; I first need to receive feedback on what I did or didn't do that would warrant such advice.

In all six cases, information was conveyed about the effects of my actions as related to a goal. The information did not include value judgments or recommendations on how to improve. (For examples of information that is often falsely viewed as feedback, see "Feedback vs. Advice" above and "Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades" on p. 15.)

Decades of education research support the idea that by teaching less and providing more feedback, we can produce greater learning (see Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Hattie, 2008; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Compare the typical lecture-driven course, which often produces less-than-optimal learning, with the peer instruction model developed by Eric Mazur (2009) at Harvard. He hardly lectures at all to his 200 introductory physics students; instead, he gives them problems to think about individually and then discuss in small groups. This system, he writes, "provides frequent and continuous feedback (to both the students and the instructor) about the level of understanding of the subject being discussed" (p. 51), producing gains in both conceptual understanding of the subject and problem-solving skills. Less "teaching," more feedback equals better results.

Feedback Essentials

Whether feedback is just there to be grasped or is provided by another person, helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent.

1. Goal-Referenced

Effective feedback requires that a person has a goal, takes action to achieve the goal, and receives goal-related information about his or her actions. I told a joke-why? To make people laugh. I wrote a story to engage the reader with vivid language and believable dialogue that captures the characters' feelings. I went up to bat to get a hit. If I am not clear on my goals or if I fail to pay attention to them, I cannot get helpful feedback (nor am I likely to achieve my goals).

Information becomes feedback if, and only if, I am trying to cause something and the information tells me whether I am on track or need to change course. If some joke or aspect of my writing isn't working -a revealing, nonjudgmental phrase-I need to know.

Note that in everyday situations, goals are often implicit, although fairly obvious to everyone. I don't need to announce when telling the joke that my aim is to make you laugh. But in school, learners are often unclear about the specific goal of a task or lesson, so it is crucial to remind them about the goal and the criteria by which they should self-assess. For example, a teacher might say,

The point of this writing task is for you to make readers laugh. So, when rereading your draft or getting feedback from peers, ask, How funny is this? Where might it be funnier?

As you prepare a table poster to display the findings of your science project, remember that the aim is to interest people in your work as well as to describe the facts you discovered through your experiment. Self-assess your work against those two criteria using these rubrics. The science fair judges will do likewise.

2. Tangible and Transparent

Any useful feedback system involves not only a clear goal, but also tangible results related to the goal. People laugh, chuckle, or don't laugh at each joke; students are highly attentive, somewhat attentive, or inattentive to my teaching.

Even as little children, we learn from such tangible feedback. That's how we learn to walk; to hold a spoon; and to understand that certain words magically yield food, drink, or a change of clothes from big people. The best feedback is so tangible that anyone who has a goal can learn from it.

Alas, far too much instructional feedback is opaque, as revealed in a true story a teacher told me years ago. A student came up to her at year's end and said, "Miss Jones, you kept writing this same word on my English papers all year, and I still don't know what it means." "What's the word? " she asked. "Vag-oo," he said. (The word was vague!)

Sometimes, even when the information is tangible and transparent, the performers don't obtain it-either because they don't look for it or because they are too busy performing to focus on the effects. In sports, novice tennis players or batters often don't realize that they're taking their eyes off the ball; they often protest, in fact, when that feedback is given. (Constantly yelling "Keep your eye on the ball!" rarely works.) And we have all seen how new teachers are sometimes so busy concentrating on "teaching" that they fail to notice that few students are listening or learning.

That's why, in addition to feedback from coaches or other able observers, video or audio recordings can help us perceive things that we may not perceive as we perform; and by extension, such recordings help us learn to look for difficult-to-perceive but vital information. I recommend that all teachers videotape their own classes at least once a month. It was a transformative experience for me when I did it as a beginning teacher. Concepts that had been crystal clear to me when I was teaching seemed opaque and downright confusing on tape-captured also in the many quizzical looks of my students, which I had missed in the moment.

3. Actionable

Effective feedback is concrete, specific, and useful; it provides actionable information. Thus, "Good job!" and "You did that wrong" and B+ are not feedback at all. We can easily imagine the learners asking themselves in response to these comments, What specifically should I do more or less of next time, based on this information? No idea. They don't know what was "good" or "wrong" about what they did.

Actionable feedback must also be accepted by the performer. Many so-called feedback situations lead to arguments because the givers are not sufficiently descriptive; they jump to an inference from the data instead of simply presenting the data. For example, a supervisor may make the unfortunate but common mistake of stating that "many students were bored in class." That's a judgment, not an observation. It would have been far more useful and less debatable had the supervisor said something like, "I counted ongoing inattentive behaviors in 12 of the 25 students once the lecture was underway. The behaviors included texting under desks, passing notes, and making eye contact with other students. However, after the small-group exercise began, I saw such behavior in only one student."

Such care in offering neutral, goal-related facts is the whole point of the clinical supervision of teaching and of good coaching more generally. Effective supervisors and coaches work hard to carefully observe and comment on what they observed, based on a clear statement of goals. That's why I always ask when visiting a class, "What would you like me to look for and perhaps count?" In my experience as a teacher of teachers, I have always found such pure feedback to be accepted and welcomed. Effective coaches also know that in complex performance situations, actionable feedback about what went right is as important as feedback about what didn't work.

4. User-Friendly

Even if feedback is specific and accurate in the eyes of experts or bystanders, it is not of much value if the user cannot understand it or is overwhelmed by it. Highly technical feedback will seem odd and confusing to a novice. Describing a baseball swing to a 6-year-old in terms of torque and other physics concepts will not likely yield a better hitter. Too much feedback is also counterproductive; better to help the performer concentrate on only one or two key elements of performance than to create a buzz of information coming in from all sides.

Expert coaches uniformly avoid overloading performers with too much or too technical information. They tell the performers one important thing they noticed that, if changed, will likely yield immediate and noticeable improvement ("I was confused about who was talking in the dialogue you wrote in this paragraph"). They don't offer advice until they make sure the performer understands the importance of what they saw.

5. Timely

In most cases, the sooner I get feedback, the better. I don't want to wait for hours or days to find out whether my students were attentive and whether they learned, or which part of my written story works and which part doesn't. I say "in most cases" to allow for situations like playing a piano piece in a recital. I don't want my teacher or the audience barking out feedback as I perform. That's why it is more precise to say that good feedback is "timely" rather than "immediate."

A great problem in education, however, is untimely feedback. Vital feedback on key performances often comes days, weeks, or even months after the performance-think of writing and handing in papers or getting back results on standardized tests. As educators, we should work overtime to figure out ways to ensure that students get more timely feedback and opportunities to use it while the attempt and effects are still fresh in their minds.

Before you say that this is impossible, remember that feedback does not need to come only from the teacher, or even from people at all. Technology is one powerful tool-part of the power of computer-assisted learning is unlimited, timely feedback and opportunities to use it. Peer review is another strategy for managing the load to ensure lots of timely feedback; it's essential, however, to train students to do small-group peer review to high standards, without immature criticisms or unhelpful praise.

6. Ongoing

Adjusting our performance depends on not only receiving feedback but also having opportunities to use it. What makes any assessment in education formative is not merely that it precedes summative assessments, but that the performer has opportunities, if results are less than optimal, to reshape the performance to better achieve the goal. In summative assessment, the feedback comes too late; the performance is over.

Thus, the more feedback I can receive in real time, the better my ultimate performance will be. This is how all highly successful computer games work. If you play Angry Birds, Halo, Guitar Hero, or Tetris, you know that the key to substantial improvement is that the feedback is both timely and ongoing. When you fail, you can immediately start over-sometimes even right where you left off-to get another opportunity to receive and learn from the feedback. (This powerful feedback loop is also user-friendly. Games are built to reflect and adapt to our changing need, pace, and ability to process information.)

It is telling, too, that performers are often judged on their ability to adjust in light of feedback. The ability to quickly adapt one's performance is a mark of all great achievers and problem solvers in a wide array of fields. Or, as many little league coaches say, "The problem is not making errors; you will all miss many balls in the field, and that's part of learning. The problem is when you don't learn from the errors."

7. Consistent

To be useful, feedback must be consistent. Clearly, performers can only adjust their performance successfully if the information fed back to them is stable, accurate, and trustworthy. In education, that means teachers have to be on the same page about what high-quality work is. Teachers need to look at student work together, becoming more consistent over time and formalizing their judgments in highly descriptive rubrics supported by anchor products and performances. By extension, if we want student-to-student feedback to be more helpful, students have to be trained to be consistent the same way we train teachers, using the same exemplars and rubrics.

Progress Toward a Goal

In light of these key characteristics of helpful feedback, how can schools most effectively use feedback as part of a system of formative assessment? The key is to gear feedback to long-term goals.

Let's look at how this works in sports. My daughter runs the mile in track. At the end of each lap in races and practice races, the coaches yell out split times (the times for each lap) and bits of feedback ("You're not swinging your arms!" "You're on pace for 5:15"), followed by advice ("Pick it up-you need to take two seconds off this next lap to get in under 5:10!").

My daughter and her teammates are getting feedback (and advice) about how they are performing now compared with their final desired time. My daughter's goal is to run a 5:00 mile. She has already run 5:09. Her coach is telling her that at the pace she just ran in the first lap, she is unlikely even to meet her best time so far this season, never mind her long-term goal. Then, he tells her something descriptive about her current performance (she's not swinging her arms) and gives her a brief piece of concrete advice (take two seconds off the next lap) to make achievement of the goal more likely.

The ability to improve one's result depends on the ability to adjust one's pace in light of ongoing feedback that measures performance against a concrete, long-term goal. But this isn't what most school district "pacing guides" and grades on "formative" tests tell you. They yield a grade against recent objectives taught, not useful feedback against the final performance standards. Instead of informing teachers and students at an interim date whether they are on track to achieve a desired level of student performance by the end of the school year, the guide and the test grade just provide a schedule for the teacher to follow in delivering content and a grade on that content. It's as if at the end of the first lap of the mile race, My daughter's coach simply yelled out, " B+ on that lap!"

The advice for how to change this sad situation should be clear: Score student work in the fall and winter against spring standards, use more pre-and post-assessments to measure progress toward these standards, and do the item analysis to note what each student needs to work on for better future performance.

"But There's No Time!"

Although the universal teacher lament that there's no time for such feedback is understandable, remember that "no time to give and use feedback" actually means "no time to cause learning." As we have seen, research shows that less teaching plus more feedback is the key to achieving greater learning. And there are numerous ways-through technology, peers, and other teachers-that students can get the feedback they need.

So try it out. Less teaching, more feedback. Less feedback that comes only from you, and more tangible feedback designed into the performance itself. And, of course, send me some feedback on this article at gwiggins@authenticeducation.org.

Feedback vs. Advice

› You need more examples in your report.

› You might want to use a lighter baseball bat.

› You should have included some Essential Questions in your unit plan.

These three statements are not feedback; they're advice. Such advice out of the blue seems at best tangential and at worst unhelpful and annoying. Unless it is preceded by descriptive feedback, the natural response of the performer is to wonder, "Why are you suggesting this?"

As coaches, teachers, and parents, we too often jump right to advice without first ensuring that the learner has sought, grasped, and tentatively accepted the feedback on which the advice is based. By doing so, we often unwittingly end up unnerving learners. Students become increasingly insecure about their own judgment and dependent on the advice of experts-and therefore in a panic about what to do when varied advice comes from different people or no advice is available at all.

If your ratio of advice to feedback is too high, try asking the learner, "Given the feedback, do you have some ideas about how to improve?" This approach will build greater autonomy and confidence over the long haul. Once they are no longer rank novices, performers can often self-advise if asked to.

Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades

› This is a weak paper.

› You got a C on your presentation.

› I'm so pleased by your poster!

These comments make a value judgment. They rate, evaluate, praise, or criticize what was done. There is little or no feedback here-no actionable information about what occurred. As performers, we only know that someone else placed a high or low value on what we did.

How might we recast these comments to be useful feedback? Tip: Always add a mental colon after each statement of value. For example,

"Good work: Your use of words was more precise in this paper than in the last one, and I saw the scenes clearly in my mind's eye."

"This is a weak paper: Almost from the first sentence, I was confused as to your initial thesis and the evidence you provide for it. In the second paragraph you propose a different thesis, and in the third paragraph you don't offer evidence, just beliefs."

You'll soon find that you can drop the evaluative language; it serves no useful function.

The most ubiquitous form of evaluation, grading, is so much a part of the school landscape that we easily overlook its utter uselessness as actionable feedback. Grades are here to stay, no doubt-but that doesn't mean we should rely on them as a major source of feedback.

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.

Mazur, E. (2009, January 2). Farewell, lecture? Science, 323, 50-51.

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Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning?

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A Handbook for High Reliability Schools Reproducibles

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The First Week of School--Secondary Template

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The First Week of School--Secondary Template

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn4BX9Pes3c

Why won't they discuss?

There might be a whole lot of reasons for that:

I don't know enough words.

I'm worried about my grammar.

I'm worried about my pronunciation.

I'm not interested in the topics.

I don't have enough time to think.

It's too quiet in here.

*My teacher scares me - she puts too much pressure on us.

I don't have any ideas.

Source: Sandy Millin, Why won't they speak
Or they may be just plain tired. And yes, it's a good enough reason. Or they might be under the weather. Or it's the imprint of their previous learning - 'that's how we learn, discuss, etc.'.

While we might choose to tackle individual issues, one solution that might work a treat would be to put them in an environment of structure and have them refocus from meditating on 'to talk or not to talk' to something more productive like 'who to talk to'. That's when language begins.

My today's post is a collection of eight class discussion techniques to structure classroom discussion and ensure all students' equal participation.
What are your favourite techniques?
* * *
Useful links and resources:
The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies from Jennifer Gonzales - a must read!

A few discussion activities for English language students from the British Council

Cooperative Learning and the Language Classroom from On the Same Page ELT

Topic Talk: Discussions in the Classroom from Tekhnologic

5 Ways to Make Class Discussions More Exciting from Edutopia

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CLASS DISCUSSION TECHNIQUES: NO HIDING, NO OVERPOWERING | ELT-CATION

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'Split into small teams and discuss ...' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn4BX9Pes3c Why won't they discuss? There might be a whole lot of reasons for that: I don't know enough words. I'm worried about my grammar. I'm worried about my pronunciation. I'm not interested in the topics. I don't have enough time to think.

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Helping Academic English Learners Develop Productive Word Knowledge

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Helping Academic English Learners Develop Productive Word Knowledge

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Dr. Kate Kinsella offers evidence-based instructional practices to advance students' verbal and written command of critical words Vocabulary Knowledge and Overall Academic Achievement
Vocabulary plays a crucial role in all aspects of academic competence in K-12 schooling. Certainly, one of the most consistent findings in reading research is the extent to which students' vocabulary knowledge directly supports their reading comprehension (Baumann and Kaméenui, 2004; Graves, 2006). In the primary grades, native speakers of English who have a vast number of words in their oral vocabularies can more efficiently sound out and recognize familiar words as well as comprehend and appreciate text passages. As students progress to the upper grades and tackle more varied and challenging narrative and informational selections, vocabulary range and complexity strongly influence text readability (Chall and Dale, 1995).

Native speakers of English with anemic school-based vocabulary and weak verbal abilities struggle with reading and related writing tasks, contributing to disappointing overall academic achievement beyond the primary grades (Biemiller,1999;

Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998). If words are not in children's verbal repertoire, those children understandably have trouble mapping sounds to words in print and accessing relevant background knowledge as they move from relatively accessible narrative selections to a range of complex texts across subject areas (National Reading Panel, 2000).
Economics and Word Prowess
Research focused on school-age English learners similarly correlates vocabulary knowledge with second-language reading comprehension and other measures of school success, including high-stakes test scores and writing proficiency (August and Shanahan, 2006; Carlo et al., 2005). In fact, depth of word knowledge proves to be the most reliable predictor of English learner academic achievement across grade levels and curriculum (Marzano, 2004; Saville-Troike, 1984).

Economics has an undeniable impact on a preschool youth's early vocabulary enrichment and school readiness. A preschooler entering kindergarten from a college-

educated, professional household is likely to recognize and readily use twice as many words as a classmate from a non-college-educated, working-class family. Of greater concern, the child with parents who have completed an advanced degree typically crosses the kindergarten threshold with quadruple the vocabulary base of a child from a welfare family (Flynn, 2006).
Receptive and Productive Knowledge
Since growing up in under-resourced households can seriously restrict children's daily vocabulary exposure and usage, bolstering their command of words for social and academic contexts is an instructional imperative (Hart and Risley, 2003; Snow, 1991).
What "Owning" a Word Implies
Knowledge of word meanings can be classified as productive or receptive. Productive vocabulary is the working set of words we use comfortably and regularly when speaking and writing. Receptive vocabulary is a broader spectrum of words we recognize in specific contexts or at least partially understand when listening or reading. A person's command of individual words falls on a virtual continuum of understanding. Dale (1965) proposes four levels to characterize the extent of an individual's word knowledge: (1) have never seen or heard the word before; (2) recognize the word, but don't know what it means; (3) have partial understanding of the word and readily associate it with a topic or concept; (4) know the word well and can explain it and skillfully use it. We develop incremental knowledge of a word as we encounter it again with new contexts and word partners-other words that commonly accompany the target word.

To actually "own" a word means, in fact, to know a great deal about it. To perform adeptly on contemporary assessments requiring complex text analysis and evidence-based constructed responses, students must recognize a critical mass of vocabulary and be able to competently deploy a toolkit of high-utility academic words they clearly own. Nation (1990) analyzed the layers of complexity involved consciously or unconsciously in truly knowing-not just recognizing-a word, including its spoken and written forms.
Table 1: In-Depth Word Knowledge: Analysis
To illustrate, review Table 1 and consider what is implied in having an agile verbal and written command of the high-utility academic word analysis. For a middle school team to apply the word analysis in a formal science report in a sentence like the following, the young scholars require a wealth of conscious lexical knowledge: After a thorough analysis of the nutrition label, we determined that the fruit snack was unhealthy because it contained artificial coloring, sodium, and high-fructose corn syrup.

Pronunciation: a * nal * y * sis

Spelling: a-n-a-l-y-s-i-s

Part of Speech: noun

Meaning: a careful study of something to better understand it or find out what it contains

Synonym: study; examination

Antonym: none

Register: It is primarily used in formal academic and professional communication.

Frequency: It is not commonly used in casual conversation or correspondence, but it is frequently used in formal academic and professional contexts.

Collocations (Word Partners): It is commonly used in tandem with the verbs conduct and offer and the adjectives careful, close, in-depth, and thorough.
The Vocabulary Equity Challenge
Derivations (Word Family Members): (Verb) analyze; (adjective) analytical.

Educators serving English learners and economically disadvantaged youths with

vocabulary voids need to simultaneously shore up their receptive vocabulary and build their productive vocabulary toolkit. It is not essential or realistic for students to develop a proficient command of every word that appears within a unit of study. Many topic-focused and technical terms must be understood adequately to grapple with focal-lesson concepts and processes. However, in the grand scheme of linguistic priorities, the fact that a ten-year-old struggling to acquire academic English cannot effectively pronounce or write biome and habitat is less worrisome than the student's inability to discuss similarities and differences between two species or their environments. Being able to compare and utilize correct sentence structure and vocabulary for this critical academic competency will be required across subject areas and grade levels, not just within this particular unit of study.

To propel youths with Swiss-cheese English proficiency to higher levels of vocabulary knowledge, teachers must establish priorities for more robust instruction and meaningful, supported application. Over the past two decades, mounting research has highlighted the benefits of planned, intentional vocabulary instruction to support literacy and content learning for all students, native English speakers and English learners alike.
Explicit Vocabulary Instruction to Build Productive Word Knowledge
According to the National Reading Panel (2000), effective instruction includes opportunities for incidental word learning through wide reading of texts, complemented by intentional instruction of high-priority words aligned with academic success. Increasing reading volume, with a balance of narrative and informational texts, enhances receptive word knowledge (Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998). However, exposure to words through independent reading does not equip students with the productive word knowledge or confidence to hazard applying new terms and phrases on their own. Marzano (2004) asserts that for students with less-developed English language skills, planned, explicit vocabulary instruction has a more pedagogically defensible track record of improving lesson comprehension and communicative competence than indirect or impromptu approaches.

Explicit, interactive vocabulary instruction has a clear goal of guiding students in gaining ownership of critical new words. The process of building productive word knowledge begins with actively involving students in reading, pronouncing, chorally repeating, and accurately copying a target word (Beck et al., 2002). To grasp a new academic word, students require an efficiently explained meaning framed in accessible language such as a familiar synonym, rather than a rambling and exhaustive formal definition (Stahl, 1999). Students whose first language shares cognates with English benefit from having parallel words called out, such as the Spanish and English cognates comparison/comparacíon from the common Latin root (Calderón, 2007).

Teacher-generated pictures and simple drawings help students formulate a mental model of the word meaning (Marzano, 2004), but abstract terms such as perspective or bias are difficult to convey in a single, simple illustration. Evocative example sentences can help students create their own vivid and memorable mental images while also helping them understand how the new word functions syntactically and grammatically in an academic statement. When illustrative example sentences strategically include common collocations or word partners, students are more likely to grasp how the word is actually used in academic contexts. Note how the written examples within the notetaking guide in Table 2 include common academic adjectives ( major, key) that regularly partner with the high-use noun factor.
Moving from Basic Understanding to Capable Verbal Application of a Word Table 2: High-Utility Academic Vocabulary Notetaking Guide Table 3: Sentence Frames for Scaffolded Verbal Tasks
The vocabulary notetaking guide in Table 2 includes key elements that should be addressed when developing precise understanding of a high-utility academic word. Without an opportunity to see and pronounce the target word, explore relevant examples, and take some form of notes for review purposes, few learners will recall the meaning. The blanks provide opportunities for students to focus on engaging in repetition and listening comprehension while taking a few critical notes, including correctly copying the word and its cognate (if offered) and completing example sentences provided by the teacher to deepen understanding. The term factor is used widely in discussions of causes and effects in science and social studies lessons as well as news reports. It is a high-value, portable word for text analysis and constructed responses such as informative and argumentative writing. It therefore warrants more time and attention in terms of its formal introduction.
* Sentence Frame (including the word but requiring appropriate content)
The sample vocabulary notetaking guide is a practical tool to present and reliably facilitate recording of essential information about a word. This reference tool effectively guides notetaking and discussion, but it does not ensure productive word knowledge. Neophyte academic-English speakers deserve carefully crafted opportunities to successfully flex their language muscles using a new word. Simply asking provocative questions will not elicit competent use of the word in a complete sentence. Imagine the following common classroom scenario. After introducing the meaning of the lesson term factor, the teacher strives to deepen understanding by asking "What factors do you consider when you pick out a new book to read at the school library?" After a lengthy pause, one fledgling volunteer offers "the pictures," prompting a classmate to add "the author." While conceptually on task, neither response demonstrates capable use of the word-that is, productive word knowledge. When encouraged to try to reframe a brief contribution in a complete sentence, the puzzled volunteer replies "It's the pictures," failing to comprehend the request for a more thoughtful response in academic register.

Form-focused and carefully scaffolded verbal exchanges equip English learners and reticent readers with the linguistic competence to successfully apply newly taught words (Coleman and Goldenberg, 2012; Dutro and Kinsella, 2010). Interacting with their teacher and peers in structured verbal and writing tasks using response frames enables less-proficient readers and English learners to take careful notice of how the new word operates grammatically. Carefully orchestrated initial practice using a sentence scaffold increases the odds that students develop accurate fluency, the ability to effortlessly produce error-free, contextually appropriate language (Dutro and Kinsella, 2010).

Response frames such as those included in Table 3 also equip the teacher with a concrete mechanism for verbal and written modeling. Simply offering a model verbal response to a lesson question places the burden for auditory processing and analysis on academic English learners. Rarely are they able to hold the modeled response in their short-term memories, deconstruct how it is being utilized, and effectively reconstruct a capable individual contribution. At best, they can recollect some of the content in the response, but not the linguistic elements such as sentence structure and grammatical nuances. If we intend to help them effectively utilize the word on subsequent academic response tasks, we owe it to them to offer more than verbal examples and encouragement.
* Sentence Frame (requiring the correct word form and appropriate content)
Target High-Utility Academic Word: factor

* Not wearing ____________ is often a major factor in

skateboarding injuries.

* The main factor in my decision not to go to the _______________________ was that I had __________________.

* One of the most important __________________when I pur-
Developing Academic Writing Proficiency with High-Utility Words
chase a gift for a close friend is the _______________________.

* One major ____________ that can contribute to a

( positive, negative; high, low) ___________ grade on a test is

____________________.

For many teachers, the phrase teaching vocabulary conjures up an eclectic array of word sorts, matching exercises, crossword puzzles, concept organizers, and picture drawing. These random activities are typically silent, independent, and unmonitored tasks that might reasonably follow, but not replace, intentional instruction in word meanings and carefully orchestrated applications. Our most vulnerable language learners deserve more support in applying new words than a homework exercise requiring an independently drawn picture and related sentence.

As a long-time educator of striving readers and English learners, I have witnessed first hand the outcomes of their neophyte, ill-supported efforts. My own adopted son, John Carlos, joined our family from Guatemala at nearly four years old. With the Spanish and English proficiency of a toddler entering kindergarten, he struggled in two languages throughout primary and upper-elementary grades. I recall vividly and painfully his weekly earnest attempts to utilize a seemingly random array of words from a literary unit in original
Table 4: Scaffolded Writing Tasks
sentences or a paragraph. Every week I resurrected every bit of patience and linguistic acumen I could to help him grasp disconnected words he barely recalled from English language arts lessons.

After helping him develop some basic understanding of a word, our next challenge was applying it in a sentence. When left to his own devices, his default was to write a brief phrase or sentence about our French bulldog, Polo. Polo is immortalized in countless three- to five-word sentences using vocabulary from numerous thematic units, ranging from loyalty and friendship to identity. Invariably, the brief, simple, and often grammatically inaccurate sentences contained no context whatsoever, nor did his recursive default picture of Polo. Table 5 (overpage) includes a couple of classic early writing and artistic efforts from his third-grade experience. My mounting frustration with the dearth of focused, supported academic-language instruction across elementary grade levels prompted me to write curriculum to help fellow educators engage in this crucial endeavor (Kinsella, English 3D, 2016; Kinsella and Hancock, Academic Vocabulary Toolkit, 2016).

I have every confidence that parents like myself of English learners and less-confident readers would welcome homework assignments that provided their children with more clearly scaffolded opportunities to practice new words in speaking and writing. The weekly crossword puzzle and list of words to include in original sentences do little to engender confident parental engagement or academic writing proficiency. Brief sentence-level frames such as those in Table 3 are ideal for initial verbal and written practice.

Writing frames and focused prompts such as those in Table 4 enable the teacher to orchestrate a brief, constructed multiple-sentence response. This scaffolded response can serve as a "we do it" task before students engage in an independent "you do it" comparable task, leveraging the text structure and rhetorical forms included in the preceding guided task. Opportunities for academic English learners to successfully complete brief, supported academic responses build the competencies for longer, independent tasks in ways that unleashed journaling and sentence generation do not.

Target High-Utility Academic Word: factor

* Read the prompt. Construct a thoughtful response that includes relevant examples.
Table 5: A Third-Grade English Learner's Independent Word Study Concluding Remarks
PROMPT 1: What are key factors a parent must consider before leaving a child at home alone?
References
Parents must consider several _______ before leaving a child at home alone. One key _______ is the child's _____________. Another equally important ________________ is how _______ the child is.

* Read the prompt. Construct a three- to four-sentence response with transitions and examples.

PROMPT 2: What are key factors you consider when selecting a book from the school library to read for pleasure?

Since word knowledge is such a potent and undisputed predictor of academic achievement, educators across grade levels and content areas cannot afford to leave vocabulary instruction to chance. Our most vulnerable scholars look to us to build their lexical foundations for the collaboration, text analysis, and skillful academic-response demands posed by our nation's college- and career-readiness focus. With a unified school front to effectively teach critical words and structure competent applications, English learners and their under-resourced classmates can make the linguistic strides that will help them defy the odds and actualize their greatest educational ambitions.

August, D., and Shanahan, T. (Eds.). (2006). Developing Literacy in Second Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Center for Applied Linguistics.

Baumann, J., and Kaméenui, E. (2004). Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice. Guilford Press.

Beck, I., McKeown, M., and Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Biemiller, A. (1999). Language and Reading Success. Brookline Books.

Calderón, M. (2007). Teaching Reading to English Language Learners, Grades 6-12. Corwin Press.

Carlo, M., August, D., and Snow, C. (2005). "Sustained Vocabulary-Learning Strategies for English Language Learners." In E. H. Hiebert and M. Kamil (eds.), Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: Bringing Research to Practice. 137-153. New York: Wiley.

Chall, J., and Dale, E. (1995). Readability Revisited: The New Dale-Chall Readability Formula. Brookline Books.

Coleman, R., and Goldenberg, C. (Feb. 2012). "The Common Core Challenges for English Language Learners." Principal Leadership. National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Cunningham, A., and Stanovich, K. (1998, Spring/Summer). "What Reading Does for the Mind." American Educator, 22(1/2): 8-15.

Dale, E. (1965). "Vocabulary Measurement: Techniques and major findings." Elementary English 42, 82-88.

Dutro, S., and Kinsella, K. (2010). "English Language Development: Issues and implementation in grades 6-12." In Improving

Education for English Learners: Research-Based Approaches. California Department of Education.

Flynn, J. R. (2006). Where Have All the Liberals Gone?: Race, Class, and Ideals in America. Cambridge University Press.

Graves, M. F. (2006). The Vocabulary Book: Learning and Instruction. IRA.

Kinsella, K. (2016). English 3D: Course A, B, & C. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kinsella, K., and Hancock, T. (2016). Academic Vocabulary Toolkit, Grades 3-8. National Geographic Learning - Cengage.

Marzano, R. (2004). Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools. ASCD.

Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Newbury House.

National Reading Panel Report. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction.

Saville-Troike, M. (1984). "What Really Matters in Second Language Learning for Academic Achievement?" TESOL Quarterly 18: 199-219.

Stahl, S. A. (1999). Vocabulary Development. Cambridge: Brookline.

Kate Kinsella, EdD ([email protected]) is an adjunct faculty member in San Francisco State University's Center for Teacher Efficacy. She provides consultancy to state departments of education throughout the U.S., school districts, and publishers on evidence-based instructional principles and practices to accelerate academic English acquisition for language-minority youths. Her numerous publications and programs focus on career and college readiness for academic English learners and under-resourced youths, with an emphasis on high-utility vocabulary development, informational text reading, and writing across subject areas.

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Helping Academic English Learners Develop Productive Word Knowledge - Language Magazine

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Dr. Kate Kinsella offers evidence-based instructional practices to advance students' verbal and written command of critical words Vocabulary Knowledge and Overall Academic Achievement Vocabulary plays a crucial role in all aspects of academic competence in K-12 schooling. Certainly, one of the most consistent findings in reading research is the extent to which students' vocabulary knowledge directly ...

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Strategies to Help Readers Make Meaning through Inferences

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Literary Text Complexity Rubric and Worksheet

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So, in my classes, we brainstormed what each phase of the continuum looks like specifically in English class. pic.twitter.com/SnocKEzf2t
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@DRAmyBerry So, in my classes, we brainstormed what each phase of the continuum looks like specifically in English class. https://t.co/SnocKEzf2t

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I saw a tweet a few weeks ago about @DRAmyBerry 's continuum of engagement and thought, "A ha! This is what I need to combat lethargy and disruption in my classes!" 🧵

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@DRAmyBerry So, in my classes, we brainstormed what each phase of the continuum looks like specifically in English class. https://t.co/SnocKEzf2t

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@DRAmyBerry So, in my classes, we brainstormed what each phase of the continuum looks like specifically in English class.

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I saw a tweet a few weeks ago about @DRAmyBerry 's continuum of engagement and thought, "A ha! This is what I need to combat lethargy and disruption in my classes!" 🧵

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Sciences of Learning Basics for Planning

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Up-Down-Both-Why: A Feeling-Based Approach to Literature

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Up-Down-Both-Why: A Feeling-Based Approach to Literature

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Sponsored by Kialo Edu and National Geographic Education

Literature makes readers feel things. In your everyday reading life, you might hate a certain character, feel disgusted by violent imagery, cry at the end of a book, or be outraged or frustrated by an author's racism or sexism. Unfortunately, our current teaching climate often doesn't make a lot of room for feeling in literary reading. Standardized exams, for example, generally ask students about symbols and central ideas, but do not ask students to consider their own emotional responses. As a result, students often perceive literary reading as an exercise in summarizing or focusing on surface-level meaning.

But in their everyday, out-of-school lives, students can be passionate interpreters of all sorts of literary texts, from stories and poems to movies and songs.

The strategy described here- Up-Down-Both-Why - puts everyday feeling front and center in the process of literary interpretation. It is designed to help bring the heart back to literary reading and move students from conventional summary and literal sense-making to rich, thoughtful interpretation. Readers draw on their initial feelings-in particular, negative and positive responses to texts-and use them as a jumping-off point for interpretive reading. When students use this approach, they are more likely to build connotations and symbolic meaning, evaluate characters, and reflect on big ideas about how the world is or how it should be (Eva-Wood, 2004; Levine & Horton, 2013; Levine, 2014) .

What is Up-Down-Both-Why?

The strategy works like this: First, read with an eye toward text that seems especially positive, negative, or both. Then, ask yourself why it seems that way.

When teachers introduce this approach, they often ask students to imagine a continuum with positive on one side, negative on the other, and combinations in the middle:

Formally, this strategy is called affective evaluation, but teachers and students have come to call it "up-down-both-why" because in practice, people often draw up and down arrows or make "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" gestures to communicate their evaluations. They also sometimes use the words "up" and "down" as shorthand for "positive" and "negative." Hence, "up-down-both-why," or UDBW.

Whose UDBW? Mine? The Author's? Both?

When using UDBW, you might make a "personal reading," focusing on your own positive and negative responses to a text, drawn from your understanding of your world. You might also make what is called an "authorial reading" (Rabinowitz & Smith, 2005), focusing on your sense of the positive and negative responses an author might expect you to feel as you engage with the world the author has created. Most of the time, your reading comes from both places.

For example, let's say you see this limo on the street.

In this case, you're the reader of this "text," and the authors of this text are the people who rented this car for the day and are showing it to you.

As a reader, your personal response to this text might be more positive. Why? Maybe you associate such a limo with fun, wealth, high status, or luxury. Or your personal response might be more negative. Why? Maybe you're thinking about self-indulgence, or elitism.

However, you probably understand that the author expects you to see this "text" as more positive. Regardless of your personal associations, you can infer that the author of this text is probably using the limo to create a positive sense of status, luxury, and value.

The closer you are to the author's world and its norms and expectations, the closer your personal and authorial UDBW are likely to be.

Either way, you consistently want to ask your kids to consider both kinds of readings. You can teach them to ask themselves, "How do I personally feel? and How do I think the author might expect me to feel?"

What does UDBW look like in action?

Readers' interpretations work on many literary dimensions, from a single word in a poem to a critical reading of a music video (Lee, Goldman, Levine, & Magliano, 2016). Some of the most common dimensions include:

Connotations of words, images, names, objects

Judgments about characters

Overall thematic inferences

Aesthetic evaluations (reflections on the beauty or effectiveness of authorial craft or literary devices)

Critical lenses (examinations of the way race, gender, power, and other aspects of identity and society are portrayed)

Readers can make use of UDBW at each of these dimensions too. They can use a simple positive-negative scale, or adapt the language in their scales to better fit different literary dimensions:

Click image for a larger view.

Below are examples of high school sophomores and juniors using UDBW at each of these dimensions. These examples all come from classrooms where students were reading "Linoleum Roses," one of the vignettes from Cisneros' The House on Mango Street (below).

Dimension 1: Focus on Details

Here's an example of one student doing a close reading of this vignette. The student was using UDBW as she read, meaning she was reading with an eye toward text that she found to be especially positive, negative, or both. She paused first at the detail, marshmallow salesman, and then described her positive and negative associations with that phrase.
To me, marshmallows are positive because they are sweet, but also negative because I don't know, it's like there's nothing to them, and like to be a marshmallow salesman? First of all, no one sells marshmallows, like door-to-door or whatever. So it's like this guy is selling nothing, so that seems negative, like he's just shallow.
Because the phrase marshmallow salesman is a bit unusual, it is likely to communicate or elicit a stronger response than some other words in the sentence. Using UDBW helped this student to "bump" against this phrase, and then move on to describe her positive and negative associations. By asking herself why she felt both positive and negative responses, she was able to move from the concrete ( marshmallow salesman) to the abstract connotation or symbolic meaning ("this guy is selling nothing, so that seems negative...shallow").

Often, kids can identify interesting language but don't know what to do with it. They might say, "This is a good image," or "Marshmallow salesman is weird." UDBW -connecting text to negative and positive associations-seems to help kids move from literal to interpretive sense-making.

Dimension 2: Focus on Character Interpretation

Students are probably most comfortable thinking in positive and negative terms when talking about character, since they do the same when thinking about the people in their own lives. One useful scale to support students' interpretations of character is anchored by "sympathetic" at one end and "unsympathetic" at the other.

Here's an example from a discussion of "Linoleum Roses," in which the teacher asked students whether, overall, they found Sally to be more sympathetic, more unsympathetic, or both. Most students put their thumbs both up and down, and explained their evaluations as follows:
Student 1: She don't know what love is. She don't know what she's getting into! Student 2: Innocent. Student 3: Unaware. Student 4: She doesn't have much education. Teacher: And does that make her seem more or less sympathetic to you? Student 4: More, because she might be taken advantage of. Student 5: But she should know enough to not stay with him. She's old enough to not act stupid. Student 2: No, she's vulnerable.
Students can also use simple sentence stems to talk or write about characterizations:

The text characterizes Sally as both sympathetic and unsympathetic by showing her to have not a lot of education, but at the same time being ignorant to how the husband is abusing her.

Dimension 3: Focus on Thematic Interpretation

UDBW can be especially helpful when students are building thematic interpretations. Even though we want our students to see subtlety and nuance in texts, they often end up thinking about themes in terms of simple morals or lessons. A way to address this problem is to ask students to think about themes in terms of worldviews: the author's (or the text's) attitudes and perspectives about life and human interactions.

In these terms, texts are worlds filled with people and things: marshmallow salesmen, broken screen doors, smooth ceilings, women sitting alone. And worldviews are an author's (or text's, if you don't want to talk about authors) attitudes and perspectives about those worlds.

Using UDBW, students can think about themes/worldviews on a continuum anchored by optimism at one end and pessimism at the other at the other. This continuum can work in general or specific terms. For example, to what degree do you think The House on Mango Street (or author Cisneros, if you prefer) is optimistic or pessimistic about humanity in general? Or more specifically, does the novel seem more optimistic, more pessimistic, or both, when it comes to the role of women in society, race, immigration, or belonging? And why do you say so?

Note that when asking your kids to talk about themes or worldviews, it's helpful to have them focus on last lines, final chapters, or overall effects. Readers can really only fully reflect on textual or personal worldviews after they have finished a text, and have seen the entire world that a text has to offer. Then, as readers consider the text's worldviews, they can also reflect on the degree to which those worldviews align with their own.

Below is an example of another activity involving "Linoleum Roses." Kids talked in small groups about whether the text overall seemed more "up," "down," or both (that is, optimistic, pessimistic, or both) about love and relationships, and explained why. Then each student wrote about their specific interpretations, and decided where each interpretation belonged on an optimistic/pessimistic continuum.

Click image for a larger view.

Notice that some students used sentence stems to jumpstart their interpretations as well, including "In the author's world..." or "I see this text as [more positive, more negative, or both]... ." You can offer sentence stems using more or less academic language, have students create sentence stems themselves, show a range of examples as possible models-whatever works best for you.

Dimension 4: Focus on Literary Techniques

In the classroom, students are often good at identifying literary techniques, as in "that's a motif," or "there is alliteration in line 5." However, they often get confused about what to make of those techniques after identifying them. They might say, "that image really helps you imagine what's going on," or "that's a good metaphor." In a classroom context, talking about effects of particular techniques is intimidating. Students may be afraid they will give the "wrong" answer, and stay silent. Or they may feel the whole enterprise is for show. As one student put it, "English is about reading poems and telling about rhythm... It's about NOTHING!" (Smith & Wilhelm, 2002, p. 25).

Reflecting on emotional responses gives students a framework on which to build interpretations of authorial techniques in several ways.

Moving from Techniques to UDBW

First, you can use UDBW to help students move beyond identification of authorial techniques. Let's say you are asking students to identify patterns in the paragraph below. Students are good pattern seekers, so they might notice that the words "except" and "and he doesn't" repeat several times.

The trick now is...so what? What work might these repetitions do? Students can now use UDBW to ask themselves: "Do these patterns create more positive effects? More negative effects? Why?" Most will likely conclude that the patterns create negative effects. Why is that? What associations do you make here? In previous class discussions that I have heard, students have named concepts like limits, control, meanness, power, abuse, and lack of self-knowledge.

Moving from UDBW to Techniques

A second way of using UDBW to consider authorial techniques is to begin with emotional responses and use them as a guide to noticing such techniques. Here's an example of one student's annotations of a paragraph from "Linoleum Roses." The arrows represent places where the student identified more positive and negative effects (the "ups" and "downs" of UDBW) concerning mostly imagery and character. The text boxes alongside the passage are where the student explained those evaluations (the "whys" of UDBW).

The student then moved to thinking about patterns. Instead of looking for patterns in the author's language, the student looked at patterns in her own arrows and annotations (their ups, downs, and whys). The student saw that most of her "down" arrows connected to ideas about power and control. In discussing patterns, the student said, "It actually starts out okay-maybe she's happy. She thinks she is happy. But then it gets more and more negative. I ended up annotating the whole thing as 'down.' The pattern I see is control."

UDBW for Aesthetic Impact

You can also think about literary devices or other authorial moves in terms of their aesthetic impact or efficacy. In the real world, critics talk about whether authorial moves "worked" or were "effective." Kids make these kinds of critiques as well, but generally do so only when they are familiar with the genre they are discussing; for example, a kid can easily critique a TV love scene as cheesy or appreciate a song lyric as original.

It's more difficult for students to make these kinds of critiques with novels, short stories, or the kind of poetry they often read in school, because they may not have enough experience with those genres to know if a writer is doing something original or exciting. But you can use UDBW as a way into those discussions by asking them to consider an author's craft on a continuum anchored by "effective" on one end and "ineffective" on the other, or "more powerful" on one end and "less powerful" on the other. Or students can define their own scale.

For example, with "Linoleum Roses," you might ask students to discuss which of the three paragraphs they think is most effective in painting a picture of the main character, or whether there's a line they think the author could get rid of without diminishing the impact of the story. Using Cisneros' entire novella as a larger example, you might ask students to decide which vignettes they think are most powerful, or best written, or what metaphors they found to be most positive or negative, and why. While making such comparisons can feel artificial or reductive, doing so helps students develop criteria for effective artistry on their terms, but while being responsive to the text.

Dimension 5: Critical Lenses

By the time they reach middle school, and often much earlier, students are already skilled at looking at the world through a set of critical lenses-considering who gets to speak and who is silenced, what might be racist or anti-racist, how society has different expectations for different genders, and so on.

UDBW lends itself well to the application of critical lenses, and is probably one of the easiest and most satisfying ways to use UDBW. You decide the scale and the dimension based on your and your students' interests and unanswered questions. For example, in "Linoleum Roses," you could focus on the character level: Sally's husband is definitely not a feminist. What about Sally? To what degree would you say Sally is a feminist? Or you could bump up to the authorial level: To what degree is Cisneros portraying Sally as a stereotype? To what degree does House on Mango Street use or defy stereotypes?

Fine-Tuning and Troubleshooting

What if students aren't sure how to communicate their interpretations?

Many teachers use sentence stems to support their students as they work to communicate their ideas, especially in academic contexts. For example, when talking about details, students might use stems such as:
This image creates a sense of...The language creates the feeling that...
Here are two sentences that students wrote using such stems:
The image of the marshmallow salesman creates a sense of emptiness and nothingness. The language creates the feeling that the marshmallow salesman is not actually selling anything, because marshmallows are sweet, but there is nothing to them.
What if students focus only on personal readings and do not consider authorial readings?

Sometimes a student will focus only on their personal emotional reading without considering potential authorial readings. Or maybe they make an authorial reading that you feel is not supported by the text. This happens for all sorts of reasons-sometimes a student doesn't understand what is going on literally; sometimes they are missing an author's ironic tone; sometimes they don't understand the terms of the fictional world; sometimes they are taking the perspective of just one character; sometimes they're not paying attention to context. Sometimes they just don't agree.

For example, maybe a student finishes reading "Linoleum Roses" and says, "I see this as completely 'up.' Sally is happy, so that's good, and her house reminds her of wedding cake, which is positive. And I think the author's attitude is optimistic." This is often a tricky area for teachers. We don't want to devalue the student's response, but we think the student is missing some major negative effects of the text.

There are some things you can do to help students understand possible distinctions between personal and authorial readings without devaluing their initial personal responses. First, you don't have to argue with students about their initial personal reactions. A benefit of UDBW is that students are the experts in their own emotional responses. But you can consistently ask them to consider their personal emotional responses alongside the emotions they think the author might have expected audiences to feel.

To do this, you can return to simpler texts, like the picture of the limo at the top of this post, and remind students that there can be differences in authorial and personal readings. You can work through examples that illuminate potential differences. For example, in my personal reading of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, I find Atticus to be kind of "down," or unsympathetic; he embodies the white savior trope, and won't let Scout use the "n word"- not because it's evil, but because it's "common." However, in the world Harper Lee has created, my sense is that Atticus is meant to be very "up," or sympathetic; Scout loves him, he can shoot straight, and he looks like a hero in the courtroom. So in this case I see that my personal emotional response to the character is likely different than the response the author might have expected me to have.

Another way to help students consider different readings is simply to ask other students to chime in-did they make the same "up" reading? Why or why not? Often, other students do the job of helping their classmates see things they missed. You can ask students to share their UDBW responses to a detail, character, or whole text by putting their thumbs in the air. Then you can all just look around the room and see the range of different responses.

Also-and sometimes teachers struggle with this-you can disagree with the student yourself. You are a member of the classroom community, and you are allowed to share your personal or authorial interpretations. You might say, "Oh, wow. I went the other way. I felt so sad after reading this. And I feel like the author is pushing for a much more pessimistic effect about marriage or love." You can point to details that led you to your readings: "All those details about the husband made me feel really sympathetic for Sally. How do you deal with those details in your reading?" Your student may push back ("Sally doesn't care; it says so right here, So why should we?") or they may not.

Or you can let it go and see what happens. Most important is that students know that they can use their own positive and negative responses as a jumping off point to build interpretations; that their own personal attitudes may not be the same as authorial attitudes; and that they learn ways to consider both.

What if students focus only on the binary and ignore nuance?

If students focus only on extremes-positive or negative-then using UDBW can be reductive. The key here is to offer a continuum-more positive, more negative, or both. My research shows that students consistently offer nuanced interpretations of texts, even though they are beginning from a simple place. You can also help students experience nuance by having them create a continuum of descriptors for positive and negative, sympathetic and unsympathetic, optimistic and pessimistic, and mark where their response lies on that continuum.

Sometimes a student focuses only on one line that is particularly positive or negative, and forgets about the rest of the text. In that case, you can ask the student to take a look at all the up/down/both arrows they used to annotate a text when they read it. Those annotations can be a helpful visual tool to guide students' interpretations and to remind them of the nuance in a text.

Feeling is fundamental to literary reading. Hopefully, an approach like UDBW will help your students connect with literary texts and build interpretations that lead to richer reading experiences. Beyond that, reading with feeling is a way into empathy, which lies at the heart of our hopes for our kids.

Special thanks to the English Language Arts teachers at Curie High School in Chicago for helping develop this idea.

References

Eva-Wood, A. (2004). How think-and-feel aloud instruction influences poetry readers. Discourse Processes, 38, 173-192. doi:10.1207/s15326950dp3802_2

Lee, C. D., Goldman, S. R., Levine, S., & Magliano, J. (2016). Epistemic cognition in literary reasoning. Handbook of epistemic cognition, 165-183.

Levine, S. (2014). Making interpretation visible with an affect-based strategy. Reading Research Quarterly, 49, 283-303. doi:10.1002/rrq.2014.49.issue-3

Levine, S., & Horton, W. S. (2015). Helping high school students read like experts: Affective evaluation, salience, and literary interpretation. Cognition and Instruction, 33(2), 125-153. doi:10.1080/07370008.2015.1029609

Rabinowitz, P.J., & Smith, M.W. (1998). Authorizing readers: Resistance and respect in the teaching of literature. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Smith, M., & Wilhelm, J.D. (2002). Reading don't fix no Chevys: Literacy in the lives of young men. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

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Up-Down-Both-Why: A Feeling-Based Approach to Literature

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Sponsored by Kialo Edu and National Geographic Education Literature makes readers feel things. In your everyday reading life, you might hate a certain character, feel disgusted by violent imagery, cry at the end of a book, or be outraged or frustrated by an author's racism or sexism.

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Coaching to Extend Professional Learning

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Coaching to Extend Professional Learning

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Coaching to Extend Professional Learning | Steve Barkley

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In an earlier blog, I shared results from the Research Partnership for Professional Learning, Building Better Professional Learning: How to Strengthen Teacher Learning. It described the importance of effective professional learning communities as an accountability element for change and improvement.

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Cold Calling vs Think, Pair, Share vs Whiteboards / Show-Me Boards

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Cold Calling vs Think, Pair, Share vs Whiteboards / Show-Me Boards

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Cold Calling vs Think, Pair, Share vs mini whiteboards

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These three strategies all have great potential to help maximise Retrieval Practice and enhance student engagement. But how, and when, should you use them?

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Systems For Survival 2022 - Sprint 1 - Teacher

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Individualized Professional Development Plan Ippy-Dippy 2023

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Individualized Professional Development Plan Ippy-Dippy 2023

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Individualized Professional Development Plan Ippy-Dippy 2023

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During this past year, what has been the most valuable professional learning experience you've had?

During this same period, what has been the least valuable professional learning experience you've had?

As you wrap up your reflection, think about what these two events have in common and what separates them. In some cases, it will be obvious how your best professional learning experiences differ from your worst. In other cases, it won't be as clear. For instance, even a well-facilitated professional learning session may not have led to a significant change in your practice or to more successful student learning outcomes. While we know that well-delivered professional learning is more likely to be engaging and useful than poorly facilitated professional learning, there is more at play than simply how well a learning session is led.

Several years ago, I wrote a short book for ASCD titled Professional Development That Sticks (2016). In the book, I used the work of education researchers, as well as the experiences I had amassed as a teacher, regional coordinator of science, and assistant director of curriculum and instruction to make the case for a multidimensional view of professional learning. The way I saw it (and still do), professional learning will only truly "stick" if we allow ourselves to think beyond the event itself. Much like a hamburger with all the fixings, or a sandwich cookie, professional learning is a full-flavored experience. In both cases, the full flavor only arrives if the burger or cookie is eaten as a unit. The lettuce by itself is just lettuce, much as the cookie filling only provides one flavor and texture.

In the same way, professional learning will only be effective if work is put into what comes both before and after the facilitation of the learning itself. This points to the importance of planning for professional learning and following up on a professional learning event.

Four Ingredients for Making It Stick

Before exploring how these phases come together, we first need to consider what "stickiness" is all about. Why do some ideas stay with us? Why do others fall off our radar? In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000) identified this "staying ability" as a "stickiness factor," or how entwined ideas become in our whole way of being. He writes, "Is the message [conveyed] memorable? Is it so memorable, in fact, that it can create change, that it can spur someone to action?" (p. 92) When ideas, experiences, and learned practices become such a part of who we are that they force us to change, then the message (whatever it might be) has truly become "sticky." And to create learning that sticks (let's call it PDL: Professional Development for Learning), work by Guskey (1999; 2009), Basye (2018), and others has shown that four ingredients need to be in place:

1. PDL needs to be meaningful.The learning must be connected to the experiences and passions of not only the facilitator, but of the audience in attendance and of the learners who will be the ultimate benefactors.

2. PDL needs to activate us. The learning needs to be highly engaging (a loaded word, I know) and aligned to school and district guideposts, as well as successful outcomes for students.

3. PDL needs to include the voice and choice of participants. The audience of the experience must have a say in design prior to the event and an opportunity to reflect after it concludes. Also, participation itself must be optional, rather than mandated from the top.

4. PDL needs to be time conscious.Time must be treated as a valuable commodity. Facilitators need enough time to properly lead the learning, the audience needs time to build a personal connection with the facilitator (and the learning itself) and to adopt a sense of urgency, and the learners all the way down the line-often the students-need time to see how the work can impact their learning experience.

These four ingredients make the recipe sound simple. But of course, we know this isn't the case. As we've all experienced, it is often easier to build in some of these ingredients than others. Still, if we are committed to professional development for learning, then it is imperative that these ingredients, in their totality, become standard.

The TAR Method: Think, Act, Review

Because of the complexity of this process, I recognized that I could only apply these ingredients to my work if I broke down the professional learning process into three phases: planning, providing, and following up. And with those three phases broken down in my mind, I realized that I would need to create steps to hold myself accountable to using the phases as effectively as possible. That's where the TAR Method comes in. The process, like the name, is sticky. "T" stands for "Think," "A" stands for "Act," and "R" represents "Review." As the chart in Figure 1 shows, by holding ourselves to thinking, acting, and reviewing each of the three phases, we can be better designers, providers, and evaluators of professional development for learning.

In general, educators tend to do the best job in the providing phase. All of us in the field are teachers at heart; structuring, leading, and showing a passion for learning is what we are all about. Where we often fail, however, and not in the "fail forward" type of way, is in the two phases that bookend the providing phase. To truly make learning stick, we have to give planning and following up more attention.

Setting a Plan

Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as saying, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." And Franklin (or whoever originally stated this) couldn't be more right. One of the biggest mistakes that professional learning designers make is that we design events on a tight timeline. Often, professional learning takes a back seat to all the other elements of our work. And before we know it, there is a professional learning day looming on the horizon. Tight timelines like this challenge learning designers for a few reasons: First, we are forced to be reactive rather than proactive, which can be a challenge when designing sustained, relational, and responsive experiences. Second, if our hope is to pull from outside expertise, we limit our options by waiting until the last minute. Third, we make it more difficult to give participants the voice to help design and take ownership of the learning.

These three reasons, among others, show why professional learning planning is best seen as a long game. If we don't allow for significant time to plan, then even the best facilitated sessions will have little impact over time. This might lead you to some questions. For instance, what about unconference-style learning opportunities? Fair enough, but notice that in those situations, the event itself has often been rigorously planned with everything from a starting keynote to a monitored session board to a carefully coordinated reflection session or share out at the end. In fact, in those types of learning opportunities, the only part typically not planned is the facilitation of the unconference topics (i.e., the providing phase).

So, along with setting aside ample time to design these experiences, how else can we make planning a part of our professional development for learning procedures? Here are three ways, with connection to the TAR framework from Figure 1:

1. Think about the purpose. Simon Sinek's famous TED Talk about "the why" couldn't be more relevant to professional learning design (2009). Every opportunity needs to be scrutinized for the appropriate rationale. Why is this professional learning emphasis a focal point for our school or district? Why are our speech pathologists the ones who need this learning? Why are we talking about designing it in this format? I'm a big supporter of the "5 Whys" protocol (from the School Reform Initiative), which simply requires that we ask ourselves "why?" five times to get to the root cause of a problem or to help us refine a given rationale.

2. Act with enough voice. No professional learning event should be designed with only one input. To recognize collective design, we should incorporate different perspectives and needs assessments. Remember, that voice is meant to inform and provide context; decision making is meant to move something forward. Voice is needed for effective decision making but ultimately someone must make a call and design the professional learning with the feedback in mind. The fact is, as long as enough voice is incorporated, the decisions made will be closer aligned to needs and wants. Professional learning can rarely be designed to meet 100 percent of what 100 percent of learners need. But, with enough early feedback, it can come close.

3. Review what you've got. Reflection should never be reserved solely for the end of an event. We need to review our work and options continually throughout the process. Before implementing any professional learning experience, it is important to take a moment and "go to the balcony," as Heifetz and Linsky (2002) recommend, to observe the scene below. Ask yourself questions like: Was I able to marry form and function to give this learning design what I believe will be a lasting impact? Are there any minor adjustments that need to be made to bolster meaning or engagement? Am I involving the right players and how do I know? Answers to questions like these can help you determine whether you are ready to move on to the next phase.

Circling Back

When we finish something or reach a benchmark, we should take pride in our accomplishments and reflect on what we've learned. A well-facilitated professional learning session is never truly "done." We owe it to the educators who participated to determine whether the professional learning had any positive impact.

You might be thinking, Wait a second. If the professional learning was well-facilitated, then shouldn't it have had a positive impact no matter what? We might think so, and yet as research has shown, the answer to that is a resounding "meh." In 2015, the teacher-recruitment group TNTP released a report that was challenging for educators to read for many reasons. One of the findings of the report was that despite close to $20,000 spent per educator per year on professional learning, less than a third of educators sampled saw measurable improvement in practice. How can this be? In my opinion, it is likely because our follow-up on professional learning can stand to be improved.

What are some ways to make sure that we don't forget the third phase necessary to make professional learning stick? Here are three considerations, also connected back to the TAR framework:

1. Think about giving data its due. Whether we are collecting post-session feedback from all participants or impact inventories from a select number of educators months after a professional learning session, if we are going to ask participants to provide feedback, then we have to be willing to unpack that feedback. It will help us better understand where we hit a homerun, as well as where we missed the mark. Post-session surveys should ask participants what elements of the professional learning event stuck out to them (good and bad), as well as opinions about session logistics (e.g., Was the temperature of the space comfortable?). On the other hand, impact surveys require targeted outreach to participants to determine the learning's impact on their practice and on the students they support. Taking the time to truly analyze the data from a professional learning session empowers us to make better decisions the next time around.

2. Act on the feedback you receive. Again, whether you were the facilitator of professional learning or you worked with someone else to deliver the session(s), it is important to act on the feedback received. This means keeping lines of communication open, not only with team members or outside consultants who you work with, but also with yourself. Using feedback to modify future facilitation strategies or to rethink the design of the professional learning shows that you are open to change, hear the information being shared, and are focused on continuous improvement. There is also significant benefit for the educators who attend your sessions: the more their feedback is applied, the more likely they are to see future opportunities as meaningful and engaging.

3. Review where you are to determine what's next. One of the main reasons why we need to spend time in the follow-up phase of professional learning design is because we need to allow for reflection on the entire three-phase process. We aren't acting or changing anything here. Instead, we are giving ourselves ample time to consider how all the puzzle pieces came together, so we can draw from what we learned and use it as a springboard for what's ahead. Professional learning must always be an iterative process; it should never be one-and-done, as learning cannot exist at simply one moment in time. The information you collect and reflect on through the follow-up phase must always help inform the first step of your next professional learning design cycle.

To Stick or Not to Stick?

When it comes to leading professional learning, we have a choice. We can either create meaningful learning experiences with and for those we serve, or we can relegate professional learning to the ever-present education backburner. By forcing ourselves to carefully think, act, and review in each of the three phases of professional learning, we can come closer to making professional learning truly stick.

Reflect & Discuss

➛ How could you incorporate participant voice and choice into the planning phase of a professional learning experience?

➛ What evidence could you collect to determine whether a professional learning experience had an impact on teachers' practice?

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During this past year, what has been the most valuable professional learning experience you've had? During this same period, what has been the least valuable professional learning experience you've had? As you wrap up your reflection, think about what these two events have in common and what separates them.

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A Research-Backed Toolkit of What Works-and Doesn't Work-in Education

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A Research-Backed Toolkit of What Works-and Doesn't Work-in Education

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Education fads come and go, but how do they stack up against the more modest, everyday pedagogies that make up the bulk of a teacher's repertoire?

Recently, the Education Endowment Foundation, a U.K.-based nonprofit, published the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, a high-quality compendium of 30 common educational strategies or structural changes, ranging from metacognition to one-on-one tutoring to extending the school day. For each strategy, experts sifted through the research-in most cases evaluating hundreds of studies-to calculate the academic impact (the number of additional months of academic progress made), the evidence (how robust the empirical evidence is), and the cost of each strategy.

Recently highlighted in the seminal research journal , the toolkit of pedagogies is used by more than 70 percent of secondary school leaders in the U.K. to make informed decisions about the best, most cost-effective programs and strategies to adopt.

There are no silver bullets in education-what works for one group of students may not work for another. But here are four powerful strategies every teacher should know about, plus a few that either deserve closer scrutiny or should be jettisoned.

WHAT WORKS
Topping the list were interventions that could easily be implemented in classrooms without having to purchase costly programs, make significant staffing changes, or alter the structure of the school day. These interventions required only a modest investment in teacher training-much of which could be accomplished informally through a school's PLC.

Metacognition and self-regulation. The strategy that received the highest score for academic impact, metacognition and self-regulation involves teaching students how to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning-helping them build awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses while gaining a deeper understanding of which learning strategies are best suited to a given task.

To maximize the benefits of metacognitive strategies, teachers should model their own thought processes, the toolkit suggests-for example, they can explain their thinking when reading a text or solving a problem. Teachers can also encourage students to ask themselves questions like, "What did I find difficult about this lesson?" and "What can I do if I get stuck on a problem?" to help surface gaps in their understanding and make good use of educational resources.

Reading comprehension strategies. While the conversation around reading instruction has recently focused on phonics and decoding, it's also critical that students across all age groups learn active reading strategies such as inferring meaning from context, summarizing key points, using graphic organizers, and actively interrogating texts by asking and answering questions as they read.

The researchers conclude that these strategies have "very high impact for very low cost based on extensive evidence": reading comprehension activities advance student learning by an average of six months, making it "a crucial component of early reading instruction," according to the toolkit.

Before jumping into a difficult text, for example, teachers in Edutopia's community sometimes develop a "comprehension canopy" with students, identifying the main purpose, asking an overarching question, and previewing the background knowledge they'll need to keep pace with the material. To deepen reading comprehension further, students can use thinking strategies such as connecting ideas or making predictions, or they can create their own visual annotations to pose questions and synthesize information.

Oral language interventions. One of the most effective methods to reinforce learning is to explicitly use structured questioning techniques and discussions to encourage students to articulate what they know. Activities include reading books aloud, having conversations about a topic, going over vocabulary lists and concepts, and asking questions that help students delve more deeply into a topic.

At School 21 in London, where oracy is valued as much as reading and writing, teachers use a range of strategies-from Talk Detectives, where students use a checklist to spot key elements in classroom discussions, to a practice called Ignites, which allows students to practice their public speaking skills in front of an audience. After analyzing 154 studies, the researchers concluded that oral language interventions are a low-cost, evidence-backed strategy that boosts learning by an average of six months.

Collaborative learning. Asking students to work together in small groups has "a positive impact, on average, and may be a cost-effective approach for raising attainment," according to the researchers. Avoid unstructured group work, however-teachers are encouraged to step in and carefully design activities that are challenging and robust enough to exceed the capabilities of a single student. "The most promising collaborative learning approaches tend to have group sizes between 3 and 5 pupils and have a shared outcome or goal," according to the toolkit.

One highly effective collaborative learning approach is the Jigsaw method, but it needs to be carefully constructed: students are assigned a topic, and then form small groups to first specialize, then consolidate and share knowledge with their peers.

WHAT'S QUESTIONABLE
For school leaders, it's never just a question of what works. After all, working within the constraints of a limited budget-and limited staffing resources-requires a judicious approach. In a 2016 study, Harvard researchers explained that when it comes to meeting the needs of students, "budget decisions serve as a compass." Questions about cost, required teacher training, and the impact of new programs on the health and well-being of teachers represent key dimensions that are often overlooked when evaluating the research on effective education practices.

Extending school time. Increasing the time that students spend on academics during school does improve outcomes-a modest increase of three months' worth of additional learning over the course of a school year-but it can spread teachers thin, dramatically increasing workloads and potentially harming their well-being.

There's also a significant opportunity cost: Increasing academic seat time can crowd out time spent on professional development, lesson planning, and other crucial tasks, lowering the overall quality of teaching. Instead of extending school time, resources are better spent on well-structured, high-quality afterschool programs, the report concludes.

One-on-one tutoring. Pairing a student with a tutor adds roughly five months' worth of learning, on average, making it seem like a highly effective strategy-albeit with notable caveats. The approach is expensive, especially when delivered by teachers, and the research is riddled with studies that lacked independent, third-party oversight, calling into question the effectiveness of the strategy.

Instead, two similar strategies should be used: small-group tutoring and peer tutoring, both of which yield nearly similar academic results at a fraction of the cost. In the classroom, peer tutoring may even be preferable since "learners take on responsibility for aspects of teaching and for evaluating their success"-giving them the metacognitive boost that deepens learning.

Peer tutoring is highly effective when "used to review or consolidate learning, rather than introducing new material," the toolkit suggests. Use rubrics to guide peer feedback and ensure that it remains productice. Finally, one of the best ways to learn about a topic is for a student to take responsibility and teach it to someone else.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK
The toolkit doesn't shy away from challenging assumptions we have about what works-through a systematic analysis of the research, it identifies strategies that at minimum deserve more scrutiny, if not a wholesale rejection by schools.

Repeating a year. Two million children are retained in the U.S. each year at an estimated cost of $20 billion-yet it's a "significant risk" that few ever recover from, the report found, resulting in a host of problems, from low self-esteem, apathy towards school, and lower graduation rates. On average, these students lose three months of academic progress compared to their peers who move on, even after completing an additional year of schooling.

Learning styles. Despite a decades-long campaign to axe learning styles from schools, 89 percent of teachers still believe that matching instruction to a perceived learning style-visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic-improves learning.

Every student learns in different ways, but sensory systems work together-not independently-when information is being processed, and the research shows that labels like "visual thinker" can discourage students from exploring other ways of thinking about an idea. Instead, use a multimodal approach: ask students to use a variety of methods, from drawing to acting concepts out to writing songs, to learn about a topic-the research shows that it'll lead to more durable, robust learning.

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A Research-Backed Toolkit of What Works-and Doesn't Work-in Education

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Education fads come and go, but how do they stack up against the more modest, everyday pedagogies that make up the bulk of a teacher's repertoire? Recently, the Education Endowment Foundation, a U.K.-based nonprofit, published the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, a high-quality compendium of 30 common educational strategies or structural changes, ranging from metacognition to one-on-one tutoring to extending the school day.

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Developmental Stages for Leaders and PLCs

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Developmental Stages for Leaders and PLCs

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In a paper that focuses on developing leaders, Nick Petrie, illustrates that our thinking is influenced by our developmental stages similar to Piaget's identification of children's developmental stages. He identifies a challenge.

" Whereas children move rapidly through the stages, an adult's pace of development slows dramatically, almost to the point of plateauing. In addition, while a child's development appears to happen automatically, adults cannot simply sit back and wait; now they need to work to keep growing. "

"To be effective, the leader's thinking must be equal or superior to the complexity of the environment." (Nick Petrie)

Petrie shares a model that combines the thinking of Harvard's Kegan and Lahey with the Center for Creative Leadership's McGuire and Rhodes. (Petrie, Vertical Leadership Development-Part 1 Developing Leaders for a Complex World, page 5)
The first stage is labeled as a developmental confirmer.

Team player

Faithful follower

Reliant on authority

Seeks directions

Aligns with others

As I read those descriptors, I could envision teachers with these attributes being tapped by administrators for middle-level leader roles as team leaders or heads of departments. These leaders have the skills to carry out plans and programs. They are dependable.

I see the same characteristics being descriptive of many PLCs. These PLCs look to the administrator or the instructional coach to set the agendas and tasks for their work. When an idea emerges for some change in practice, the question "Can we do that?" emerges rather quickly.

The second stage is labeled as independent-achiever.

Independent thinker

Self-directed

Drives an agenda

Takes a stand for what they believe

Guided by internal compass

The characteristics of the independent-achiever appear to me as the developmental outcomes a school leader would look to have middle-level leaders develop. As I think back to my early experiences in leadership at school, I imagine that my school leader offered me the opportunity to lead a grade level team as he observed that I possessed the developmental confirmer characteristics. Petrie states, ".... in a simple and orderly world, the dependent conformed mind-set might be more than adequate."

As my principal brought the team leaders together to create a schoolwide leadership team, I think a need for the independent-achiever criteria emerged. As the team leader for the K-2 teachers, I was responsible to represent their thinking and concerns to the schoolwide team. I was also being asked to think more broadly about the needs of all students, staff, and community.

Petrie describes the demands on leaders in a VUCA world-volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous "....everything is interconnected and no one can predict what big changes are coming next. Leaders who are equal to the task are those who can deal with constant ambiguity, notice the key patterns amongst the noise, and look at the world through multiple stakeholder perspectives. "

The third developmental level is labeled interdependent collaborator.

Independent thinker

Sees systems, patterns, and connections

Longer term thinker

Holds multi-frame perspectives

Holds contradictions

In this video, Ray McNulty, speaking about AASA's 2025 Network, describes the need to move from school leaders being forward focused (How do we get a little better than last year?) to futured focused ( Where do we need to go and how can we get there?) I believe that future focus requires advancing leadership development across the school organization.

Are we planning for and supporting the continuous development of leaders?

Consider movement in these areas. Where is your personal progress? How are you encouraging all staff to be developing as leaders?

As I explored Petrie's developmental stages I found it set a framework that I could use in my coaching of teachers, middle level leaders, and principals. Listening to the person I am coaching I can identify indications of the thinking framework they are working from and consider opportunities that can allow experimentation with behaviors that encourage extending development.

I am also considering that the developmental progression aligns with the development of PLCs. In the early stages, teachers are seeking directions working from an agenda often established by others. Hopefully, they begin collaborating to accomplish assigned tasks. As the PLC develops, teachers are driving the agenda, setting goals, and holding themselves accountable for outcomes. (Independent achiever) Protocols may assist a PLC at the developmental confirmer stage and then not be necessary as the PLC becomes more independent. When PLCs function at the independent collaborator stage they are promoting improvement and change across the school.

Let me know your thoughts about a leadership development continuum.

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Developmental Stages for Leaders and PLCs - Steve Barkley

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In a paper that focuses on developing leaders, Nick Petrie, illustrates that our thinking is influenced by our developmental stages similar to Piaget's identification of children's developmental stages. He identifies a challenge. " Whereas children move rapidly through the stages, an adult's pace of development slows dramatically, almost to the point of plateauing.

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PLCs to Strengthen Teachers’ Professional Learning

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PLCs to Strengthen Teachers’ Professional Learning

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A recent white paper, published by Research Partnership for Professional Learning, " Building Better Professional Learning: How to Strengthen Teacher Learning " reinforced the importance of effective professional learning communities. In the overview of their findings, they begin with these two statements:

effective professional learning supports teachers' day-to-day practice

effective professional learning involves accountability for change and improvement.

In other words, professional learning should impact what teachers do in classrooms and contain follow-up from other educators, a kind of social accountability.

The paper recommends professional learning be targeted, subject-specific instructional practices versus content knowledge alone and that it be supported with instructional materials.
What Is Curriculum-Based Professional Learning? "Curriculum-based professional learning invites teachers to participate in the same sort of rich, inquiry-based learning that new academic standards require. Such learning places the focus squarely on curriculum. It is rooted in ongoing, active experiences that prompt teachers to change their instructional practices, expand their content knowledge, and challenge their beliefs. This stands in contrast to traditional teacher training, which typically relays a static mass of information that teachers selectively apply to existing practice." (The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning)
One study that was cited compared two groups of elementary teachers. One received training in science content focused on increasing teachers' understanding of scientific ideas with the goal that that understanding would impact their instruction and student learning. The second group, through a study of videotaped science lessons, analyzed the instructional strategies that were being used. Although the teachers spent the same amount of time in both learning experiences, students of the teachers in the lesson analysis group outperformed students of the teachers in the content deepening group by 20 percentile points on a researcher's developed assessment.

What's being drawn from this research is that while the teacher's understanding of content is important and critical, it needs to be combined with teacher's understanding of how learning occurs on the student's part. This explores how students learn and how teachers design, connected to subject matter content. Subject-specific instructional practices assisted teachers in understanding how to engage students in thinking, reasoning about data and applying their understanding.

The paper highlights that there is growing evidence that well-structured collaboration, formal or informal, can support ongoing development of teachers' instructional skills.

"There is widespread and rigorous evidence that teachers can and do learn from each other, that teachers improve their practice more in schools that are more collaborative workplaces and that interventions designed to promote teacher collaboration around instructional practices can improve teacher practice and, real critical here, student outcomes. However, evidence also suggests that collaboration as a simple structural reform does not necessarily have payoff. Building teacher team time into the school day is only valuable if that time is well used. In other words, how collaborative approaches are designed and implemented matters a great deal."

This reinforces for me the value of PLCs engaging in goal setting. Setting goals for increased student learning outcomes that drive teachers in the PLCs to be asking the critical question, "What do our students need us to learn?"

What do we as teachers need to learn in order to generate the learning production behaviors that students need to progress from where they are to the desired goals that the PLC has set? I'm a strong believer that it is essential for student work to frequently be on the table at PLC meetings. Teachers need to be studying student work. It's also why PLC peers should be observing student learning in each other's classrooms. They need to be studying students engaged in the learning process to figure out how we as professionals generate the needed learning production behaviors.

In addition, collaborative structures provide a form of social accountability that encourages teachers to try new practices and persist through a learning dip. If the PLC is planning to compare findings regarding an instructional strategy the following week, there is an added incentive for the teacher to test out the practice.

Collaboration for continuous improvement is a promising approach to support the ongoing learning and development of teachers.
When collective participation is prioritized, teachers from the same grade or department plan, practice, and reflect on lessons together. In these professional learning communities, they examine data, including examples of student work; set goals; and compare their experience using the new instructional materials in the classroom. Over time, they build a body of knowledge that enables them to drive improvement across a school or district. Research supports this approach, with many studies suggesting that teacher collaboration is essential to professional learning that influences classroom practice and improves student outcomes. (The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning)

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PLCs to Strengthen Teachers' Professional Learning | Barkley

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A recent white paper, published by Research Partnership for Professional Learning, " Building Better Professional Learning: How to Strengthen Teacher Learning " reinforced the importance of effective professional learning communities. In the overview of their findings, they begin with these two statements: effective professional learning supports teachers' day-to-day practice effective professional learning involves accountability for change and improvement.

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We provide free reports that help you evaluate instructional materials because high-quality content matters to teachers, to kids, and to our collective future.

Select a subject to browse reports

Student Learning

Rigorous college and career-ready standards can improve and deepen student learning. What is taught matters.

High Expectations for All

Not all students have the same access to high-quality instructional materials and this perpetuates the opportunity gap.

Equity

When teachers are provided with high-quality materials and aligned professional learning, this increases the opportunity for all students to learn and grow.

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We provide free reports that help you evaluate instructional materials because high-quality content matters to teachers, to kids, and to our collective future. Select a subject to browse reports Student Learning Rigorous college and career-ready standards can improve and deepen student learning. What is taught matters.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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100 Questions that Promote Mathematical Discourse

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100 Questions that Promote Mathematical Discourse

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Essential Elements of Concept-Based Curriculum Design

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Essential Elements of Concept-Based Curriculum Design

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The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking

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The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking

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Self Directed Learning Rubric (Formatted)

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The Education Endowment Foundation, in their guidance for schools on metacognition and self-regulation, highlight these strategies as great ways to boost learning at a low cost. Naturally, schools are eager to foster these effective skills in their students.

However, to do this successfully, we must first understand the nature of both metacognition and self-regulation ...

What are the accurate definitions of the two concepts?

Metacognition and self-regulation seem to have become interchangeable synonyms. This is a problem as there is a difference between the two terms. It is therefore crucial to define these concepts carefully.

Self-regulation
Self-regulation is defined as the process by which students activate and sustain their cognitions, emotions, and behaviours to help them attain goals.

It refers to how aware students are of their strengths and weaknesses, whether they can motivate themselves to engage in learning, and if they can develop strategies and tactics to enhance their learning.

Metacognition
In comparison, metacognition refers to the ways students can monitor and purposely direct their learning, such as their ability to select an appropriate learning strategy, monitor it in action and then change it if necessary.

This means that metacognition is a part of self-regulation - but that it also has a cognitive and motivational component.

What are the benefits of metacognition?

There are many benefits that come with developing metacognitive skills. These include...

Higher achievements for students
Metacognitive strategies have been positively associated with academic performance, helping students improve their learning, leading to better marks in reading comprehension, Science and Mathematics.

This is supported by a new study which found that students who had undergone metacognitive training scored 4% higher on their final exams than those who did not.

Increases ability to learn independently
Being able to monitor their own progress helps students develop independence because they take ownership of tasks, instead waiting for someone else to tell them what to do next.

Improves decision-making
Enhancing metacognitive skills makes students more aware of when they are making suboptimal choices. This identification then encourages students to change their mind to make choices that encourage a higher level of learning and performance.

Improves interactions with others
Strong metacognitive skills facilitate better communication between students. Students who develop metacognitive thinking are in control of their cognitive processes, making them better at communicating their thoughts. This means they are more likely to share their ideas in class, enhancing classroom discussion and debates surrounding the topics being taught.
Application to different settings
Developing metacognitive skills gives students tools that are not only useful inside the classroom, but that can also be transferred to life outside and beyond it.

Every decision made in everyday life often requires careful thought. Metacognition allows students to quality-control their thinking, preventing them from falling into biases when making decisions.
Aids disadvantaged students
The 7 recommendations for implementing metacognition in the classroom

As we've seen, metacognition is an important skill for students to possess. But how can teachers implement it in the classroom? The good news is that the Education Endowment Foundation has identified seven recommendations to help teachers foster metacognition (and subsequently self-regulation) in the classroom.

Let's take a look at these together...

Many define metacognition as "thinking about thinking", which is too vague. It is important for you to emphasise to your students that monitoring and evaluating form the basis of metacognition. This will encourage them to develop a greater understanding of their own abilities and attitudes (knowledge of themselves as a learner) along with which strategies are effective and available (knowledge of strategies).

Teaching your students to approach a learning task by planning, monitoring, and evaluating will help them develop metacognition - this is often referred to as the Plan, Do, Review process. Here is what students should be considering at each stage:

Planningencourages students to think about the goal of their learning and how they will approach the task. This includes ensuring that they understand the task, activate relevant knowledge, and choose suitable strategies.

Monitoringencourages students to assess their progress - this can be through self-testing or self-questioning.

Evaluating gets students to judge the effectiveness of their plan and its implementation and learn from it for the next task they encounter.

Set challenging tasks to allow students to develop useful strategies and reflect on their learning. However, ensure you don't make tasks too difficult as this can overload your students' cognitive process, making it hard for them to apply new strategies.

Ask students to discuss with their peers what they found hard and what might go wrong before approaching a task. You can guide and support the conversation by asking further questions to ensure students are engaged and responsive.

Final thoughts

Encouraging metacognition in the classroom is a way to ensure that your students can engage in self-regulation. By using tips above, we hope that you can bring the benefits of metacognition to your classroom, giving your students the best chance of success.

For even more information on metacognitive strategies, take a look at our complete guide to metacognition.

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How metacognition and self-regulation can boost students' learning

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The Education Endowment Foundation, in their guidance for schools on metacognition and self-regulation, highlight these strategies as great ways to boost learning at a low cost. Naturally, schools are eager to foster these effective skills in their students. However, to do this successfully, we must first understand the nature of both metacognition and self-regulation ...

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The Practical Ed Tech Handbook 2022-23 School Year

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Lincoln's Tier 1 Intervention by Behavior

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Lincoln's Tier 1 Intervention by Behavior

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Create a new spreadsheet and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Sheets to edit Excel files. Free from Google.

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A Systemic Approach to Elevating Teacher Leaders

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A Systemic Approach to Elevating Teacher Leaders

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Whether we're teaching little people, or adults, I think we're all trying to figure out the same thing: How do we get other people to do something, stop doing something, or do something different? How do we get kids to write their names at the top of their paper or clean up after themselves or explain their mathematical reasoning? How do we get teachers to try new instructional strategies or stop talking so much or notice their students' strengths?

We who work in human development seek to expand someone's ability to do something.

The question then is how. How do we expand someone's ability? How do we get people to do something? The answer to this "how" lies in our analysis of the problem, in how we think about why they aren't doing what we think they should do. I'm going to re-share a tool for analysis that can transform your thinking about how to help another person change, learn, or grow (I originally shared this concept here some years ago-it's worth reading in addition to this blog). Your thinking directs your action, so with different thoughts, you'll do different things, and see different results.
When a Teacher Seems Resistant
Let's consider an example. Say you're coaching a teacher around increasing student engagement and you've described a number of strategies that she could use to get students excited about a topic, get into the lesson, make meaning of the material and connect it to past and future learning. You're offered her copies from your favorite texts that describe how to do a think-pair share, organize a fishbowl discussion or a Socratic seminar, and so on. And she's not doing any of them. She says, "I tried that fishbowl thing and it didn't work," and now she seems unwilling to try anything else.

If you're like many of us, you'll start thinking she's resistant. After all, she's not doing anything different, right? But you might also be confused because she said she wanted to work on this-she asked for your coaching in this area. So what's going on?

Here's where this thinking tool comes in. This tool, that I've named, Mind the Gap, (download the graphic here and an extended description of it here) directs us to pay attention to the gap between current reality and desired ability. If the teacher truly does want to work on the area that you're working on, then this tool helps us think about why she's not making that growth. This framework proposes that we can parse into six groups the things interfering with our ability to do something. This helps us get clear on what needs to be learned and offers insight into entry points to start that learning.

So the teacher who isn't taking up your suggestions might have a skill gap-her classroom management skills might be too rudimentary for her to facilitate a fishbowl discussion and so when she tried it the kids didn't get enough scaffolding and clear direction about behavior and it got chaotic. She may have a knowledge gap that's playing a role in her inability to facilitate a Socratic seminar-those are hard to do if you've only read about them and never seen one. She may have a capacity gap-perhaps she's a first-year teacher who is working on so many areas of her practice that she is just stretched too thin to take on this learning right now. Perhaps she has an emotional intelligence gap-the sound of 30 students talking animatedly to each other makes her feel anxious or she's just afraid of what would happen if she tried a Socratic seminar and it didn't go well. Maybe she has a cultural competence gap and she's afraid that "this group" of students (who are not from her cultural background) would get out of control if she invited them to do a chalk talk activity out of their seats.

Yes, there is such a thing as a will gap but I truly believe they are very rare. It's far more common for us to have skill gaps that show up as will gaps. Sometimes, we are embarrassed about saying we don't know how to do something, so we demonstrate a lack of willingness. (You can read more on my thoughts on will gaps here.)
How to Use This Tool
There is a lot to say and explain about how to use this tool. In fact, I'm developing an entire online course about how to understand and use it. But what's perhaps most useful to know about this tool is that it offers you a way to think that allows you to find many more options for action-that allows you to explore which gaps someone might have, and how you might be able to help them close it. If you suspect that a teacher is not trying a fishbowl because she doesn't have the foundational management skills, then start there and work your way up to the fishbowl. If you suspect that she's not trying pair-shares because she feels anxious about losing control of the class, address that anxiety.

Mind the Gap reminds us that when we see that someone is unable to do something that they want to do (or perhaps that we think they need to do) if we look at them as a learner, as someone who requires a set of things (skill, knowledge, capacity, will, emotional intelligence and cultural competence) in order to have an ability, then we can see opportunities for helping them grow. We remember that they are learners. We take the stance of guiding learning rather than fighting resistance.

Related Tip: It's really helpful to surface your suspicions with your client or coachee about their gaps and get them to think about themselves as learners. Don't jump to conclusions about their gaps and whenever possible, get them to be active learners who participate in charting their own courses for growth.
A Short Origin Story for This Tool
Many years ago, I heard about this concept of "the gaps." I was introduced to the idea of will, skill, knowledge, capacity, and emotional intelligence gaps. I have never been able to trace where this idea came from; otherwise, I would give credit where credit is due. I took this idea, made a basic graphic, and started sharing the concept with all who were interested. I helped coaches and leaders understand how we could use this idea, how to engage with it, and how to use it with others.

After many years of using it and many conversations about it, I reformatted the graphic (now as a pyramid) and added one gap: the cultural competence gap. I'd often wrapped cultural competence into a skill and knowledge domain (it is a skill and knowledge set) but I also felt that by wrapping it in, its importance was diluted. And many of the gaps I see in teacher and leader practice are related to cultural competence. So in my 2017 revision of this tool, I decided to make it its own foundational gap.

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The Key to Working With Adult Learners: Mind the Gap - Bright Morning

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How do we expand someone's ability? Elena Aguilar shares a tool for analysis that can transform your thinking about how to help another person change, learn, or grow. [...]Read More... from The Key to Working With Adult Learners: Mind the Gap

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SLI 2019 | Dif Coaching | Mind the Gap Article

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The Art of Coaching Teams Resources (Aguilar)

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The Art of Coaching Teams Resources (Aguilar)

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The Best Tools That Show "Parallel Text" - Same Sentences Translated Into Different Languages Side-By-Side

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When teaching English to older students, they sometimes - and understandably - get tired of reading books designed for much younger children. One way I deal with this challenge is by find more age-appropriate books in English that also have editions in their home languages, so they can read the books side-by-side (see USING "THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK" WITH ELL NEWCOMERS!).

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Ed Tech

We teachers are the BEST at stealing things.

And I don't mean that in a criminal, nefarious way.

I think Austin Kleon explains it best in his book, Steal Like an Artist ...

Every artist gets asked the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" The honest artist answers, "I steal them."

How does an artist look at the world? First, you figure out what's worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing. That's about all there is to it.

I mean, it only makes sense. We teachers are notoriously short on time. (When you plan your bathroom breaks in advance, it's a good sign that you're time-strapped.)

Here's another thing about us teachers. We're also super generous. We share ideas with fellow educators, students ... really anyone who can benefit.

That means there's a lot of good stuff out there, but it isn't perfect for exactly what we need to do.

So, what do we do?

We steal.* Then we remix, reuse and repurpose. We assign it to our students.

Then we move on to the next thing.

Want to get better at this essential skill -- something that helps you get more done AND serve your students?

In this post you'll learn ...

How to find good material you can use in class

How to steal it (copy, remix, adjust, and assign)

How to cut WAY down on flashcard sets and review games you create

How to find pre-written lessons in popular apps

How to find "copy, adjust, and assign" lessons to use right away

Know of more resources? Please share them in the comments below. Because, you know ... we're generous ... and we like to enable other teachers' stealing habits!
*Note: Please always give credit to the original creator. We absolutely do not mean for anyone to steal other educator's ideas and pass them off as their own. Take, borrow, steal and remix as you like, and is allowed by CC and/or the creator, but give a shout out to the original creator when you share or present.

About the resource: Quizizz (quizizz.com) can be used as a simple multiple choice review game. It's student-paced, meaning that students answer questions on their own screen and only advance after they've answered a question personally. But it's much more than that! Quizizz has leveled up the game experience with fun power-ups and lots of response types (draw, match, poll, video, audio).

How to steal like a teacher: You can copy and edit any of the millions of publicly-available Quizizz games. Search for one in the Explore section. Open it and use the "Copy and Edit" button to add questions, change existing questions, or delete questions.

When you create a Quizizz game, you can "teleport" questions from other quizzes and lessons. Search with a keyword and use filters to narrow down your results. Click a quiz/lesson to see its questions. Then find questions you like and click "Add question" to put them into your quiz/lesson. The video below demonstrates teleportation. (Of Quizizz questions ... not real teleportation ... yet ...)

About the resource: HyperDocs are purposefully designed digital lessons and can transform your class. They truly are so much more than a doc with links. The creators of HyperDocs - Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis - describe them as a transformative, interactive Google Doc replacing the worksheet method of delivering instruction, the ultimate change agent in the blended learning classroom.

How to steal like a teacher: You can browse HyperDocs Samples to find one that fits your needs. Go to File > Make a copy to get an editable version saved to your Google Drive.

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

Ready to take your teaching skills -- and student learning -- to another level?

Check out our summer bundle. 9 GREAT COURSES ONE LOW PRICE!

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©2022 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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Steal Like a Teacher: Where to find quick teaching ideas

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That means there's a lot of good stuff out there, but it isn't perfect for exactly what we need to do. So, what do we do? We steal. Then we remix, reuse and repurpose. We assign it to our students.

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4 Tips for Presenting New Material (and Reducing Cognitive Load)

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4 Tips for Presenting New Material (and Reducing Cognitive Load)

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How you choose to present new information can either inhibit or maximise your students' learning, due to how they process the content in their working memory. This is where cognitive load theory can play a crucial role. Essentially, this simple theory can result in a number of different strategies that can help maximise your students learning.

But what is cognitive load? And how can we maximise it? We've read the latest and best research to see which practical strategies you may want to consider using...

What is Cognitive Load?

Cognitive Load Theory proposes that the brain can only hold a limited amount of information in working memory - so, your students need as much space as possible for processing what you want them to learn.

New information is naturally complex, meaning that it carries "intrinsic load". This type of cognitive load is necessary for students to learn. However, when they have to process irrelevant material as well as what is necessary, they can experience cognitive overload.

This hinders the learning process, because when the working memory is overloaded, important details are more easily forgotten. As a result, instead of essential information transferring into your students' long-term memory, irrelevant material may take its place - there may not even be any transfer at all.

How to reduce Cognitive Load when presenting new material

As you can see, it is crucial that your teaching resources are designed to facilitate your students' learning. So, here are four approaches to avoid cognitively overloading your students when presenting new information...

Only use one type of format unless necessary

When it comes to learning, less is more!

One helpful approach is incorporating diagrams in your teaching, because they can represent a lot of information in a simple way. Once you've initially explained what a diagram means, it becomes self-explanatory.

Another thing to consider is whether you need to be reading text from new teaching material out loud when students are reading along in their head. Although this may seem like an effective way to engage them, research has shown that students' comprehension of the text decreases when they hear as well as read it.

This is particularly important for language lessons. Reading in another language already carries a lot of cognitive load for students - having to process both audio and written versions of the language can easily lead to cognitive overload.

Slides should complement your points, not duplicate them

John Sweller, the researcher most associated with Cognitive Load Theory, once said that " the use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched ". Although many may feel that they may not want to completely get rid of powerpoint presentation, his statement does raise some interesting questions. Often, powerpoint slides can take a lot of time to produce with the excessive animations competing for student attention.

Research has shown that when you present students with a diagram and written text, you can actually inhibit their learning by repeating the text out loud. Essentially, PowerPoints should be the supporting act, not the main character. So, cut down the text on your slides and elaborate it in verbal explanations. This can help your students focus on what you actually want them to learn and avoid cognitive overload.

Now, the risk of cognitive overload does not mean that you can only use one type of format to teach your lessons. The key is to avoid using multiple formats at the same time.

Research has demonstrated that when learners were given an audio version of information first then a visual version, they outperformed learners that were only given one format. Here, instead of triggering cognitive overload, the second medium helped students process information in a different way and consolidate what they had learned.

So, when using multiple formats to teach your students is appropriate, stagger each one's introduction to avoid overwhelming your student and improve their learning.

Break up long pieces of information

You may use textbooks in your lessons to support learning, but lengthy passages of text can carry too much cognitive load.

So, to avoid the cognitive overload this can create, break up long passages into manageable parts so that students can process each section better. Then, you can regularly review this information with your students to check their understanding and slowly consolidate their knowledge of the whole topic.

Final thoughts

It is difficult to design new teaching material according to the limitations in your students' working memory, but it is crucial to their learning. Fortunately, there are practical ways to combat this so that students feel confident keeping up with you when you teach.

Want more tips to use Cognitive Load Theory to design your teaching material? Check out this handy flowchart - or book our Cognitive Load Theory teacher CPD workshop.

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4 tips for presenting new material (and reducing Cognitive Load)

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How you choose to present new information can either inhibit or maximise your students' learning, due to how they process the content in their working memory. This is where cognitive load theory can play a crucial role. Essentially, this simple theory can result in a number of different strategies that can help maximise your students learning.

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Introducing long-term memory and working memory: o Key features and limitations o How do they interact during learning to build (and then use) the knowledge base. o Guidelines to aligning teaching and learning strategies with the learning stages.

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Strategies to Promote Academic Conversation

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Strategies to Promote Academic Conversation

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"Give One Get One" and "Chat Stations" are two strategies that promote academic conversations in any classroom. When using these strategies with English Learners, teachers need to consider scaffolds. The next two slides contain examples of possible scaffolds for these strategies.

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ELL2.0 - Strategies to Promote Academic Conversation

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"Give One Get One" and "Chat Stations" are two strategies that promote academic conversations in any classroom. When using these strategies with English Learners, teachers need to consider scaffolds. The next two slides contain examples of possible scaffolds for these strategies.

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Google Slides and PowerPoint can be used to create lots of different games. Try editing this one to create your own Jeopardy game.

Upcoming Speaking

There are no upcoming events.

©2022 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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Google Slides and PowerPoint can be used to create lots of different games. Try editing this one to create your own Jeopardy game. Upcoming Speaking There are no upcoming events. ©2022 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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As a new academic season has just begun, now is the perfect time to cultivate good learning habits in your students. A good place to start is to look at techniques that are consistently supported by research. One such approach that has been backed up by science for over 40 years is "generative learning".

So what is generative learning, and why is it so effective? Let's take a closer look...

What is generative learning?

Generative learning is the process of making meaningful connections between new information and pre-existing knowledge. In short, your students can use what they already know to help them learn new content. The idea here is that by integrating new knowledge with learned information, it can then be transferred into their long-term memory more efficiently and effectively.

Another important part of Generative Learning Theory is that the learning process is active. So, passively receiving information isn't what leads to your students understanding it; it is actively making associations, recalling information, then organising and elaborating on it that helps them to have improved comprehension. In practice, your students can actively learn by making connections between new information and learned information, then transforming this into a memorable format.

How to use generative learning in your lessons

Generative learning strategies are simple tools that can keep your students engaged when you teach - you may even be using some of them already. Here are some practical techniques that can elevate your lessons:

Summarising requires students to reflect on what they have just learned and then re-phrase the most relevant information in their own words. A classic study showed that students who summarised a piece of text with a sentence above each paragraph had a better comprehension of the text than students who did not summarise.

This strategy is generative as your students can relate new information to what they have already learned to make it more memorable. For this strategy to work best, they would need guidance on how to summarise, as simply copying words from the text is ineffective.

Mapping is defined as turning words into a spatial representation. Common examples are mind maps, tables, and graphs. Making links between content from different lessons, comparing arguments, and expressing equations are some ways that your students can make the most out of mapping.

Research has shown that it is beneficial for improving performance in comprehension tests. However, it is easy for students to get caught up in how their maps look or what to include, which can distract them from the task. To avoid this, you can provide pre-made mapping tools and give guidance as to which information is most appropriate to include in a map.

Drawing is another way to boost generative learning so that your students have a deeper understanding of what you teach. Drawing requires students to focus on which information they should represent, what they should omit, and how to best represent the information in an image. This strengthens memory traces to make new information easier to retrieve in the future.

A 2010 study showed that when students were given a passage of text to learn, the group that made drawings related to the passage outperformed students who only read the text. Similar to mapping, it is important that students don't get caught up in the details of drawing, as this increases cognitive load, which can hinder learning. To reduce this, you can give prompts to students, such as including pre-drawn elements on a sheet and giving feedback.

Forming a mental representation of new information is surprisingly beneficial for learning. An example is tasking your students to imagine the process of digestion by creating mental pictures of each step. Research has demonstrated that imagining step-by-step processes is more effective for learning than only reading about them when learners are given specific mental imaging prompts.

This technique is most helpful for students who are more confident with the knowledge, as imagining can be overwhelming when a student is unsure about the content.

Self-testing is one of the most highly effective ways to learn, so it is worth setting aside time in your lessons for students to study with this technique. It is a form of retrieval practice, which results in the long-term retention of knowledge. Some examples include using flashcards, past papers, and quick-fire quizzes. This approach is generative because actively recalling information from memory helps to strengthen connections between new information and learned material.

A study that nicely illustrates this gave a short passage of reading to a group of students where they were split into a "re-reading" or "self-testing" group. The re-reading group initially outperformed the self-testing group on a test - however, after a 2-day delay, the self-testing group performed better than the re-reading group. This trend was also present after a 3-week delay, showing the positive impact of retrieval practice on long-term memory. Self-testing works best when it is repeated, there is immediate corrective feedback and the format mimics the final test.

Like self-testing, self-explaining requires students to recall new information, but this time by explaining it themselves in their own words. This ensures that your students understand what they learn rather than repeat back what they have read or heard. Through self-explaining they can appeal to material that they already know to justify a method or argument, focus on the most relevant information, and reflect on their learning.

Research has shown that self-explaining increases test results that measure deep understanding, and this is seen across different age groups. This method may be most impactful for maths and science which can have more complex explanations. However, it can also be useful for humanities subjects in which students can re-explain concepts that they have read in a way that makes sense to them.

Known as the Protégé Effect, teaching new concepts to others is a great tool for your students' own learning, and can be a fun class activity.

Teaching each other does not necessarily mean that students stand up in front of a class and deliver a lesson; group discussions and collaborating with peers are other teaching methods. When your students generate meaningful answers by to questions when teaching each other they can thoroughly understand content, leading to long-term retention.

You may ask: "what is a meaningful answer?" It is a relevant response that involves choosing the most relevant information, expressing it in a coherent way, and elaborating on it when needed.

Enacting is a highly useful for younger children because it incorporates learning with real-world interactions. So, this may be most appropriate for an early years classroom. The most highly researched examples are gestures and object movement:

Using body movement to represent information in children has been shown to reduce cognitive load when learning, because making a gesture means that they don't need to think as much when remembering new things.

Object movement refers to placing objects in particular positions to symbolise new knowledge; for example, moving figurines in a sequence that represents a story. Research has shown that children are better able to remember passages of text when they are connected to object movement.

Enacting is only effective when learners understand what they have learned, because it's difficult to translate what they do not understand into meaningful gestures or object movements. So, repeatedly practising object sequences and body movements with children is key for making enactment an effective learning tool. Also, both types of movement need clear guidance so that they focus on learning rather than getting distracted by the process.

Final thoughts

All the above strategies achieve the benefits of generative learning in varied ways, so now it's up to you to choose which of these you think are most appropriate for your classes. What makes them all effective is that students choose the most relevant points to include, structure these coherently, and relate them to existing knowledge. When implemented in the correct way, generative learning can really boost your students' overall performance.

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As a new academic season has just begun, now is the perfect time to cultivate good learning habits in your students. A good place to start is to look at techniques that are consistently supported by research. One such approach that has been backed up by science for over 40 years is "generative learning".

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Circles Design Thinking from Literal to Abstract

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Circles Design Thinking from Literal to Abstract

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'Circles' #designthinking tool adapted for #visiblethinking & #reflection: You can see the shift from literal to abstract, product to process & local to global, with topics such as water scarcity, technology, climate & food security now forefront.  
@AsiaEducation @globalteachag

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'Circles' #designthinking tool adapted for #visiblethinking & #reflection: You can see the shift from literal to abstract, product to process & local to global, with topics such as water scarcity, technology, climate & food security now forefront.  
@AsiaEducation @globalteachag https://t.co/thP86yqbqC

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'Circles' #designthinking tool adapted for #visiblethinking & #reflection: You can see the shift from literal to abstract, product to process & local to global, with topics such as water scarcity, technology, climate & food security now forefront. @AsiaEducation @globalteachag pic.twitter.com/thP86yqbqC
— Brendan Hitchens (@brendanedu) October 3, 2022

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'Circles' #designthinking tool adapted for #visiblethinking & #reflection: You can see the shift from literal to abstract, product to process & local to global, with topics such as water scarcity, technology, climate & food security now forefront.  
@AsiaEducation @globalteachag https://t.co/thP86yqbqC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
'Circles' #designthinking tool adapted for #visiblethinking & #reflection: You can see the shift from literal to abstract, product to process & local to global, with topics such as water scarcity, technology, climate & food security now forefront.  
@AsiaEducation @globalteachag https://t.co/thP86yqbqC

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'Circles' #designthinking tool adapted for #visiblethinking & #reflection: You can see the shift from literal to abstract, product to process & local to global, with topics such as water scarcity, technology, climate & food security now forefront.  
@AsiaEducation @globalteachag

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In 2021, a collective of researchers and teacher educators analysed 104 of the highest quality studies on Professional Development (PD).

What they found ushered in a new paradigm for thinking about PD.

Here's the lowdown.

↓

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In 2021, a collective of researchers and teacher educators analysed 104 of the highest quality studies on Professional Development (PD).

What they found ushered in a new paradigm for thinking about PD.

Here's the lowdown.

↓ https://t.co/KN0Z1aKjCb

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In 2021, a collective of researchers and teacher educators analysed 104 of the highest quality studies on Professional Development (PD).

What they found ushered in a new paradigm for thinking about PD.

Here's the lowdown.

↓ pic.twitter.com/KN0Z1aKjCb
— Peps 🎓 (@PepsMccrea) October 2, 2022

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
In 2021, a collective of researchers and teacher educators analysed 104 of the highest quality studies on Professional Development (PD).

What they found ushered in a new paradigm for thinking about PD.

Here's the lowdown.

↓ https://t.co/KN0Z1aKjCb

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
In 2021, a collective of researchers and teacher educators analysed 104 of the highest quality studies on Professional Development (PD).

What they found ushered in a new paradigm for thinking about PD.

Here's the lowdown.

↓ https://t.co/KN0Z1aKjCb

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
In 2021, a collective of researchers and teacher educators analysed 104 of the highest quality studies on Professional Development (PD).

What they found ushered in a new paradigm for thinking about PD.

Here's the lowdown.

↓

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Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

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Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

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Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/
— Zach Groshell (he/him) (@MrZachG) September 30, 2022

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Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.original_text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/
— Zach Groshell (he/him) (@MrZachG) September 30, 2022

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Teaching is so weird because nobody seems to want to talk about how to explain things... which seems like it'd be something we'd talk a whole lot about. There are a few things I've learned from research into clarity of explanations that I wish I'd been taught earlier 1/

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Teach your students how to use all the features in #GoogleSlides with this awesome Scavenger Hunt.

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Teach your students how to use all the features in #GoogleSlides with this awesome Scavenger Hunt.

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School leaders and instructional coaches can support teacher reflection that promotes teacher learning. Listening and questioning are key facilitation skills that generate reflection that promotes insights and learning.

As I am listening and questioning, I am exploring teachers' thinking:

Questions for Learning provides a format for my question formation. You can download a copy here.

One of the guiding tenets that I work from is that I want to understand the teachers' thinking before I share my thinking. Here are some questions I might use in a post-observation conference where the teacher had requested a focus on engagement and perseverance.

As you planned this learning activity, how did you picture students responding initially to the task? Perception

How similar was that to their response? Same/Different

Which students persevered less than the majority of the class? Analysis

What generalization would you make about student perseverance? Induction

Here is a question that administrators and coaches frequently use at the start of a post-conference. It's one that I usually avoid.
How do you think that went?
This question requires an appraisal or likely an evaluation when the teacher has probably had insufficient time to process the event. In addition, should the teacher give me a response? I do not know what observations and generalizations led the teacher to her conclusion.

As an example, suppose a teacher asked me as a coach to observe her use of pause time and probing in a learning activity she was facilitating. I might approach the post-conference with these questions.

Were there times during the activity when you were especially aware of your pause times? What did you notice during that time about yourself and your students?

Were there times that you were particularly conscious of the probing questions you used? What did you notice then?

Here are some questions you use following a student's response. These were to the responding student_______________. These were to the whole class___________________. What do you notice, think, wonder?

I am looking to use my observations to reinforce a teacher's observation and at times add observations of which the teacher was unaware. Important; At this point, I'm sharing my observations of things I saw and heard, not conclusions I reached. Example: When you probed Ryan's answer with the question, "How would water temperature impact the reaction?" He remained silent. Many students raised a hand. (I then wait for the teacher's response.)

As the post-conference continues, with a sense of what the teacher thought when planning and is thinking about what occurred, I'm looking to facilitate a future focus. I approach coaching observations and conferences to be more focused on where we go from here, as compared to evaluations which are focused on 'what did happen'.

A question like this may open that discussion.
Was there a place in the lesson that you wish was recorded because you'd like to look at it deeper or explore a different approach or strategy?
Or I might share an observation.
I noted that as the lesson continued your pauses following questions were shorter. (Pause) Was that conscious? (Pause) Do you think it may have been in response to something you were observing?
These questions may lead to a teacher shaping a next step. It might be repeating a similar observation with a different class or type of learning activity. Perhaps the teacher wants to repeat the coaching observation with a focus on a few students who might need a different probing/scaffolding teacher action. Perhaps an observation around the teacher using a different approach.

When facilitating a PLC, my approach is the same in listening and questioning to uncover:

An extra element when facilitating a PLC is getting the members to listen to each other. That listening leads to the start of professional learning.

A PLC might start with these questions

What patterns emerge as you look at the formative assessments? Induction

Identify students who need more practice and those who need reteaching. Analysis

Are there similarities among the students needing reteaching? Same/Different

What common misconception emerges? Insight

To gather more information, PLC members might decide that one of them will gather the small group from each classroom for a reteaching activity. That would be a great time to invite the coach to co-teach or observe the students during the reteaching lesson. The observations of the teacher who worked with the students along with the coach's observations provide information for insights and next step planning.

As a school leader or instructional coach, consider requesting coaching on your listening and questioning practices. Perhaps recording a short segment of a coaching conference or PLC facilitation and observing it with a colleague. How might you increase the reflection process that can increase insights and learning?

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Listening and Questioning for Facilitating Reflection | Steve Barkley

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School leaders and instructional coaches can support teacher reflection that promotes teacher learning. Listening and questioning are key facilitation skills that generate reflection that promotes insights and learning. As I am listening and questioning, I am exploring teachers' thinking: Questions for Learning provides a format for my question formation.

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I was recently at an instructional coaches' conference where a presenter put the following on a power point and asked the participants, collaborating with a standing partner, to put the items into the sequence in which they occur:

Change in student outcomes

Change in teacher attitude/beliefs

Change in teacher practice

My partner shared her thinking that changes in teacher attitude, led to changes in teachers' practice, causing increased student learning. She was intrigued when I suggested that teacher changes in practice and increased student success led to changes in teacher attitude/beliefs. When the speaker pulled the audience back together, she asked for raised hands to indicate people's thinking about the first step. A substantial number of participants shared their initial thinking that teacher beliefs/attitudes changed first.

The presenter pointed to an article by Tom Guskey, titled Flip the Script on Change.

"'Experience shapes teachers' attitudes and beliefs (not the other way around)."

Tom Guskey

Guskey describes that "many professional learning efforts are based on the assumption that change in teachers' attitudes and beliefs will lead to changes in their classroom practices, which, in turn, will result in improved student learning. However, modern investigations of teacher change show that this assumption is generally inaccurate, especially for experienced educators. Instead, significant changes in teachers' attitudes and beliefs take place only after positive change in student learning is evident. These improvements in student learning result from specific changes teachers make in their classroom practices - e.g. new materials or curriculum, new classroom policies and practices."

As I look at coaching for change, I see my coaching role as encouraging and supporting experimentation with a different instructional strategy, program, or approach rather than a focus on seeking "teacher buy-in." I suggest to administrators that in the early stages of implementation of a new curriculum, positive feedback for the experimentation should be provided prior to the practice being effective. Communicating empathy and understanding during the early stages is a key leadership action.

Guskey shares these implications for designing and leading professional learning. These are valuable considerations for instructional coaches, teacher leaders, principals, and curriculum supervisors.
1. Efforts to change attitudes and beliefs directly rarely succeed.
My thoughts: The key is changing experiences. Sometimes this can be approached with professional learning activities that engage teachers in the new strategy as a learner. Observing a model with students in another teacher's classroom can be helpful. The goal is to promote experimentation. "I think I'll try this."

2. Change is a gradual and difficult process, especially for teachers.

My thoughts: Conscious practice with a new move is a source of discomfort. Often the new strategy is initially less effective than past practice, leading one to return to previous practice. Coaching at this time can be cheerleading; encouraging investment in an effort that is not immediately producing a pay-off in student-improved learning. This diagram is a good reminder.
3. Feedback on results is essential.
My thoughts: Feedback generates encouragement for continued effort. The feedback can focus on the change order. Initially, the feedback is on teacher behavior... the change in teacher practice. Then, the feedback can focus on how the change in teacher actions is producing a change in student learning production behaviors. (Increased: student engagement, student perseverance, student questions). Lastly, celebrating with the teacher as indicators of increased student success emerge.
4. Change requires continued follow-up, support, and pressure.
Guskey suggests that support should be coupled with pressure. "Support allows those engaged in the difficult process of implementation to tolerate the anxiety of occasional setbacks. Pressure is often necessary to initiate change among those whose self-impetus for change is not great and ensure persistence in the challenging tasks intrinsic to all improvement efforts."

My thoughts: My phrase for "pressure" is expectation. I often suggest that when school-wide professional learning is provided for a building or system change, teachers are asked that within four weeks, they invite the principal to observe early implementation. It's important to communicate that the observation is certainly non-evaluative and at least partially for the administration to assess what additional support is needed. The expectation is that the change will be implemented. Whatever support and time are needed will be provided.

"So, a big part of a coach's job is to keep people progressing in the right direction - experimenting with new behaviors, testing different tactics, and then practicing and perfecting those that prove most effective."

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Coaches: Remember the change sequence | Steve Barkley

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I was recently at an instructional coaches' conference where a presenter put the following on a power point and asked the participants, collaborating with a standing partner, to put the items into the sequence in which they occur: Change in student outcomes Change in teacher attitude/beliefs Change in teacher practice My partner shared her thinking that changes in teacher attitude, led to changes in teachers' practice, causing increased student learning.

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Can a focus on best practice be a problem? Adam Grant, the author of Think Again, while speaking to business entrepreneurs suggested, " It's time to rethink best practices." He states that the term, used to describe a preferred method of performing a given task or procedure, can be limiting. " The moment an organization calls a practice best, they're creating an illusion that they've reached an endpoint where there's nothing left to top. "

Over the years, I've shared my thinking frequently with educators that best practice is good to know as a starting point, but it's unlikely that a researched best practice in teaching is best for all students. As educators, we need to be focused on finding what might work better.

In an article titled, " The Problem With Best Practices " Shane Snow, writing for Fast Company states that best practices don't make you the best, they make you average to everyone else who follows them. He shares two examples from business. When Debbie Fields applied for a loan to start a business that would make soft chewy cookies, she was denied and told that America likes crispy cookies. She eventually gained a loan, and the rest is history as Mrs. Fields, world cookie stores succeeded. In another example, an independent British newspaper switched to a smaller tabloid format after the large newspaper size had existed for nearly 400 years. They saved money on paper and sold more papers. Interestingly, the original big size thought to be what customers wanted, (best practice) was initially implemented in 1712 when the government placed a tax on the number of newspaper pages. The tax was lifted in the 1800s but the previous "best practice" continued. Snow states, "in business, best practice is often arbitrary and based on habits that resulted from conditions that frequently no longer apply."

Snow adds, " History is clear that best practices can be the enemy of growth. They allow us to take the lazy way instead of pushing ourselves to be creative. " I do believe that best practice provides a great place to begin our conversation for how to maximize our success with students. Then, our observation of the results we are achieving and consideration of what we'd like to achieve that could be higher and better should drive us to consider improvement or change. The question is, when do we believe that we can improve current practice? And when do we need to change practice in order to reach the desired progress?

It would be rare that a research-based practice would be successful for all students. Working with coaches and colleagues, we should be examining where we might improve the practice or decide to experiment with a different approach in our desire to best serve all of our students.

My example of the need for going beyond best practice is to consider the medical community. Where would we be if the only thing that the medical community did was to identify and implement current best practice? Certainly, we want doctors to know what best practice is and respond to it. But when they see insufficient results, we want them to think of alternatives to gain a better wellness for a patient.
"It is the adventure and challenge for all educators to take that tried-and-true strategy and evolve it - making it best to next. As our students' needs and strengths shift, we must remain innovative, and our best should always be transforming and moving toward the next best approach, tool, or strategy." (Rebecca Alber)
Moving Beyond Current Best Practice

I've frequently described that as a school year begins, each teacher should have a plan for achieving something with students that they've not previously achieved. How to make that happen should generate a hypothesis for the teacher to explore. Checking best practice research is a significant initial step. As the most effective teachers explore this question their hypotheses may well lead them to an innovative approach that creates new insights about learning. (Beyond best practice) This type of professional growth planning should produce continuous teacher growth driven by a desire for increased student success.

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What's the Impact of Best Practice | Steve Barkley

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Can a focus on best practice be a problem? Adam Grant, the author of Think Again, while speaking to business entrepreneurs suggested, " It's time to rethink best practices." He states that the term, used to describe a preferred method of performing a given task or procedure, can be limiting.

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PBIS World | A Complete Tier 1 Through Tier 3 Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports System

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PBIS World is in no way affiliated, associated, or connected with any other website, entity, organization, or federal, state, local, or other government agency, department, program, policy, organization, or initiative.

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Need to decrease task difficulty to accommodate a student? Try these ideas!

🧠🚀  |  Brain Blast via @finleyt
#edutwitter #educoach #teaching

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Need to decrease task difficulty to accommodate a student? Try these ideas!

🧠🚀  |  Brain Blast via @finleyt
#edutwitter #educoach #teaching https://t.co/UKJz7CaQl0

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Need to decrease task difficulty to accommodate a student? Try these ideas!

🧠🚀 | Brain Blast via @finleyt#edutwitter #educoach #teaching pic.twitter.com/UKJz7CaQl0
— 𝗧𝗖𝗘𝗔 (@TCEA) September 11, 2022

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Need to decrease task difficulty to accommodate a student? Try these ideas!

🧠🚀  |  Brain Blast via @finleyt
#edutwitter #educoach #teaching https://t.co/UKJz7CaQl0

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Need to decrease task difficulty to accommodate a student? Try these ideas!

🧠🚀  |  Brain Blast via @finleyt
#edutwitter #educoach #teaching https://t.co/UKJz7CaQl0

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Need to decrease task difficulty to accommodate a student? Try these ideas!

🧠🚀  |  Brain Blast via @finleyt
#edutwitter #educoach #teaching

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PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero

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The Toolbox organizes the Thinking Routines into categories that describe the types of thinking the routines help to facilitate. Some routines appear in more than one category, and some routines have different versions that offer modifications for specific age groups or more specific conceptual challenges.

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Informational Texts Qualitative Analysis Tool

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Informational Texts Qualitative Analysis Tool

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Literary Texts Qualitative Analysis Tool

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Literary Texts Qualitative Analysis Tool