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Looking for a quick differentiation technique any teacher can use?

I made this one up, and it's worked really well for me for years. I call it "Scholar Extension Opportunity."

Scholar Extension Opportunities (SEOs) are optional opportunities for students to extend their learning experience.

They may include creativity, product complexity, or audience expansion (including publishing).

SEOs allow students to show and showcase their true abilities in a way the standard assignment may not.

Essentially, they're something that is the same objective, but taken to an entirely different level from that which would be expected.

Interested? Let's get into it!

What a Scholar Extension Opportunity Looks Like

They're built right into the rubric, and they look like this:

EXAMPLE 1

Do you see how everyone's working on outlines, but the scholar extension allows the student to share something about outlines that's beyond just producing one?

EXAMPLE 2

In this one, the Presentation SEO is pretty vague, but the Accuracy one is really specific.

(Note: This one is from a really cool project-based geography lesson plan I wrote called "Connecting Africa." You can get it for free.)

EXAMPLE 3

For this example and the one below, I'm taking an existing rubric I didn't create (because I know you have to work with them sometimes), and I'm creating an SEO for it.

Possible SEO: The student took the information on the research fact sheet and created a brochure or foldable to share the information in a different way.

EXAMPLE 4

This is an elementary math center scoring rubric.

Possbile SEO: The student allowed another student to choose the mixture of activities to complete OR the student chose activities that he/she had done poorly on in the past OR the student created an additional choice other students could try.

(Note: This is from a freebie by Jennifer Findley on TeacherspayTeachers.)

How to Use Them

I use them for a fairly permanent differentiation technique. By "permanent" I mean that its always available.

They're a simple and straightforward. Once you start using them, you'll never go back.

It literally takes seconds to do when you're creating a rubric, and if the rubric was one you were given, adding them to it is simple as well.

Here are some guidelines:

Students must show mastery in requirements. You can't do a terrible job on your outline (or not do it at all) and then spend all of your energy on the SEO. I tell students not to even try the SEO unless they truly believe they are in the highest range of scoring on the rubric for that requirement.

They are never for a grade. The SEOs are not part of the grade. They're extensions. Sometimes I grant extra credit, sometimes I may give a late pass or some other token, and sometimes I give really full feedback alone. Shockingly, most kids like really good feedback most of all. Our gifted kids often get an "A" and nothing else.

Not every line of the rubric has to offer an SEO. I would suggest perhaps 25% of the rubric's criteria is a good guideline to use.

They may be student-suggested. If I am having trouble coming up with ideas, I will often ask students. This is sometimes done after the assignment. I may ask, "So, what SEO ideas could I include next time I teach this?"

SEOs are always optional. This isn't moreferentiation (you know how I feel about that). It's an opportunity, not a requirement (see "They are never for a grade" above).

Students can choose to do one or more of the SEOs. There is no connection between them, so they do not need to do more than one.

Why Would Students Do It?

You may be wondering why a student would choose to do something voluntarily for no guaranteed return.

You'd be shocked at how many students love them. They're not for everyone, so I don't feel badly if only a couple of students try one.

Here's what usually happens:
It catches on.
One student does one, and I showcase it like crazy. I write home to the parent. I display it in the class. I go crazy over it like I won some secret teacher lottery. And pretty soon, the teacher pleasers in the class are doing it. And then others want to try, too.

As with anything, you just need one kid to do it and have a good result to open the door. It's contagious. In a good way. Not like, you know, measles.

How Do I Come Up with Them?

Like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it gets. When I first started, I had to sit and really think. Now, they just appear in my head with Harry Potter-like magic.

I consider things like:

What would a really cool one look like? Could a student do this somehow much more creatively or involved than I'm asking for?

How could a student show deeper thinking?

How could a student show initiative?

How could I broaden the audience for this?

How could the student create something that could help others? (I try to use this quite frequently because gifted kids often care more about others earlier than their typical-learner peers, so it's a good opportunity for them to leverage that.)

Let me show you another rubric from my Connecting Africa project to show you what I mean.

In the Completeness section, having it all done is one thing. That earns full points. You want to really impress me? Figure out something that I missed. That's next level.

In the Quality of Analysis section, analyzing the sources you were given or directed to earns full points. Going and finding additional quality resources is something entirely different.

You can use the same one on different activities, so you really just need a toolbox of them that you can use over and over.

Here are some other examples of mine:

Student created a high-quality, half-sheet poster board to display results in hallway.

The student created another problem of slightly higher difficulty and had two people attempt to solve it.

Created a quiz on the material (including key) and had a parent take the quiz.

The presentation displayed some advanced PowerPoint technique that was used effectively.

Donated the project to a lower grade. (This one assumes the project would be useful to the lower grade. I've used this with alphabet books, etc.)

Gave presentation to multiple/different/unexpected audience. (Multiple classes, a group of adults, at a PTA meeting, in front of the administrators, during a walk-through, etc.)

Lab report created in form of peer-reviewed journal article, complete with at least two graphs or charts.

Essay was recorded in audio and shared.

Remember that you can also have students offer suggestions. They're a great resource for ideas!

Explaining Scholar Extension Opportunities (SEOs) to students

Here's exactly what I say, word for word:
On the internet, the most important thing for a website is being found by search engines like Google. Website developers spend a lot of time and money on what is called Search Engine Optimization to make it most likely their sites will appear at or near the top in web search. They are very careful about what words they use where, they use key words related to their topic, and they put descriptors on everything, including pictures, to make sure that they are not only on the internet but also visible there. On the internet, it doesn't matter how good your website is or how wonderful the information it contains if people cannot find it. The same is true to an extent in school. If you have a strong ability in an area, but you don't demonstrate it by optimizing your work, that ability may not show. In this class, we have SEO just like the internet. You will be offered optional Scholar Extension Opportunities. You are the website, and the evaluator is Google. Your completion of SEOs in this class enables the evaluator, usually the teacher, to see your true ability and value in that area. SEOs are always voluntary and optional. They are given no specific point value, as that is totally at the discretion of the evaluator. They may be extra credit on that assignment, or they may earn a bonus to be used later. They may not earn extra credit at all, but rather serve as an opportunity for you to show that you are a scholar. You may "get" nothing but a cool experience and strong feedback on your work. You know that's what we're about here, anyway.
Note: The last paragraph should be modified to teacher preference for how SEOs will be evaluated.

Another note: I have a poster about our attitude towards learning that is what I'm referencing in the last sentence. You can download a free copy for yourself. This is the attitude we're cultivating, and SEOs fit right in.

How to Get Started

1. Take an existing rubric.

2. Look at each criteria and think, "Could this be done any cooler?" (Look at the "How Do I Come Up with Them" section above.)

3. Add a column next to the highest level of the rubric and call it "Scholar Extension Opportunity."

4. Explain to students.

5. Prepare to either a) wait or b) be blown away. Both are possible.

Wrapping Up

I hope you like this idea and give it a shot. If you need help, please feel free to email me an example rubric and I'll create a couple for you.

One thing I love about these is that it brings the "my child is bored in your class" mantra to an abrupt halt. Kids who do them aren't bored, and kids who don't do them have no cause to complain.

When you integrate differentiation into your planning in this way, the amount of time it takes is negligible, but the results are astonishing.

You May Also Like:

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Quick Differentiation Technique: Scholar Extension Opportunities - Gifted Guru

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Looking for a quick differentiation technique any teacher can use? I made this one up, and it's worked really well for me for years. I call it "Scholar Extension Opportunity." Scholar Extension Opportunities (SEOs) are optional opportunities for students to extend their learning experience. They may include creativity, product complexity, or audience expansion (including publishing).

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I discovered a quote by Jennifer Gonzalez where she interviewed Cognitive Scientist Pooja Agarwal " Retrieval practice: The most powerful learning strategy you're not using" (you can listen to the podcast interview here) and this resonated with me because it wasn't a strategy I was using for many years during my teaching career. Teachers often have so much content to get through that little time can be spent revisiting prior learning and subject content previously covered - I was guilty of this. Each lesson or week I would work my way through delivering new content on the specification or scheme of work and return to recall knowledge and understanding at a much later date. On reflection, it seems obvious that revisiting a topic 12 months later (or longer!) in the classroom just before the exam won't be as effective as regular recall and retrieval.

The Retrieval Practice Challenge Grid I created has been used at the start of the lesson with a range questions that require students to retrieve and recall information from last lesson, last week and even further. This works well with exam classes as a useful revision strategy to recap and revisit subject content.

To find out more about retrieval practice you can visit retreivalpractie.org and a wide range of free and downloadable materials as well as blogs, podcasts and videos are available on the fantastic website LearningScientitsts.org. Books I have read and would recommend are Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger III and Mark McDaniel and Why Don't Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How The Mind Works and What It Means For The Classroom By Daniel T Willingham. To read how other teachers are using retrieval practice in their classroom I recommend reading: Harnessing the power of the testing effect by Robin Macpherson and Promoting Metacognition with Retrieval Practice in Five Steps by Blake Harvard. Both educators fully embrace and promote researched informed evidence to support their teaching practice.

My book Love To Teach: Research and Resources for every classroom has a chapter dedicated to using retrieval practice to start the lesson (plus other strategies) and it is available to buy now from Amazon here.

The Retrieval Practice Challenge grid was based on a resource I have used with my students for many years - a challenge grid which contains a range of questions covering the topic studied and the questions varied in the level of difficulty. This activity involved recalling subject knowledge but was often based on a week or two weeks worth of subject content not further back. There were questions on the challenge grid that all students should be able to access and other questions would be more challenging and require a more sophisticated or in-depth answer, this was great with my mixed ability classes.

Students also created their own challenge grids to swap with their peers to complete. In my previous school, I was a teacher of History, Politics, RE, Welsh and PSHE so this was a very flexible and adaptable resource across subjects. Although I do use regular multiple choice quizzing the students don't have a multiple choice for this task as "students will benefit most from tests that require recall from memory and not from tests that merely ask them to recognise the correct answer" - a quote from Strengthening the Student toolbox - Study Strategies to boost learning by Professor John Dunlosky another recommended read for both teachers and students!

As I have become more informed about retrieval practice and other effective strategies to support learning and long-term memory I have adapted resources and ideas. The tweets below illustrate how many other teachers are using retrieval practice and have adapted my challenge grid format for their students. Examples include a wide range of subjects such as History, Geography, Business Studies, Science, Maths and PE! The tweets also shows the power of Twitter for educators sharing and adapting resources and ideas.

Thanks for the idea! pic.twitter.com/QdrqM2Bdll

- BarlbyHistory (@BarlbyHistory) January 7, 2018

Upping the challenge with conceptual understanding. Revised Retrieval Practice Challenge Grid. See *** items. cc: @87History @LybryaKebreab @Moore1997B @GOBarnwell @ShardsL @wendy21brown @stedcamptandl #mtbos #msmathchat #iTeachMath pic.twitter.com/d7BGUjKEQQ

- PersonWomanManVOTENovember (@mary_dooms) January 7, 2018

Well here is it. My year 9 starter thanks to @87History
Hope it goes down well! pic.twitter.com/cOb7C5clgF

- Lauren Sharkey (@Sharkey_History) January 9, 2018

Just made my own retrieval practice challenge grid for Yr 9. Thanks @87History and @ASTsupportAAli for sharing the idea! @AceThatTest #retrievalpractice #ASEChat #EdChat #scichat #whatItaughttoday pic.twitter.com/FWkRYAvDO1

- Miss J M Booth 🔬👩🏻‍🔬🌿🧬 (@missjmbooth) January 10, 2018

If you would like a free template to download you can do find it here - Thanks for taking the time to read my post. If you have any feedback or wish to share your resources, ideas or recommended reading then please do get in touch!

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Retrieval Practice Challenge Grids for the classroom

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I discovered a quote by Jennifer Gonzalez where she interviewed Cognitive Scientist Pooja Agarwal " Retrieval practice: The most powerful learning strategy you're not using" (you can listen to the podcast interview here) and this resonated with me because it wasn't a strategy I was using for many years during my teaching career.

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Metacognitive Strategies & Activities for the Classroom

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Metacognitive Strategies & Activities for the Classroom

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Scroll to the bottom of the page.

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Research by the Education Endowment Foundation has found that metacognition is key to effective pupil learning: it can add up to seven months of additional learning, and improve the outcomes of disadvantaged learners. Not only that, but it is a way for teachers to gauge how well their students understand their own learning processes and regulate their learning, so that they can support them accordingly. This is a key challenge in the field, particularly when remote learning is taking place.

In this article, we will outline what metacognition refers to, why it is important in education, and which strategies you could use to teach it in your classroom.

The term metacognition refers to an individual's ability to plan, monitor, evaluate, and make changes to their own learning behaviours in order to confront challenges more effectively. You might have heard it defined as 'thinking about thinking', but the elements of active monitoring and modifying of thought processes make it much more than this. It is also a form of self-regulation, involving self-awareness, critical analysis skills, and the ability to problem-solve.

For students, having metacognitive skills means that they are able to recognise their own cognitive abilities, direct their own learning, evaluate their performance, understand what caused their successes or failures, and learn new strategies. It can also help them learn how to revise. This is because it optimises their basic cognitive processes, including memory, attention, activation of prior knowledge, and being able to solve or complete a task. It makes them learn more efficiently and more effectively, and so they are able to make more progress.

For example, a student with metacognitive skills might:

Recognise that they have trouble applying formulas in maths.

Think about the maths problems they have solved before, and the strategies they used.

Apply these strategies, assessing whether they are working or not.

Try a different strategy if the one they are using is not effective.

Reflect on how they performed in this task, and use this to inform their future work.

Metacognitive skills are useful across all subjects, because they enhance the way you learn, as opposed to what you learn. They are also teachable; as a result, teachers of all subjects should help their students to develop them. In the sections below, we will give you some ideas as to how you can do this.

The potential benefits of metacognition in learning are as follows:

Higher achievement levels for the students. Metacognitive practices can also compensate for any cognitive limitations that a student might have, according to research such as this.

Increased ability to learn independently. Being able to monitor their own progress lets them take control of their own learning, inside and outside the classroom.

Improved resilience. Identifying their successes and failures, and which strategies work best for them - or which have failed - increases students' perseverance in getting better at their work.

It aids disadvantaged students. According to this report, and research by the EEF, teaching in a way that supports metacognition is beneficial for students who are at a disadvantage to their peers.

Cost-effectiveness. This method of teaching does not require specialist equipment, nor any other large purchases - it only requires teachers to be trained in the method effectively.

Transferable knowledge. Metacognition helps students to transmit their knowledge and understanding across tasks and contexts, including reading comprehension, writing, mathematics, memorising, reasoning, and problem-solving.

Effective for all ages of students. Research has looked at both primary and secondary students - and even those who have not yet started school - and found benefits in all cases.

Emotional and social growth. Gaining awareness of their own mental states allows students to think about how to be happy, respected, and confident in themselves. They are also better able to understand other people's perspectives.

Although metacognition is about students taking control of their own learning, a teacher is still required to help them develop skills and strategies in order to do so. The EEF recommends that you teach metacognition alongside subject content, rather than having specific 'learning to learn' or 'thinking skills' sessions. These sessions are ineffective, because students find it hard to relate generic tips to subject-specific learning.

There are several other things to consider before taking metacognitive strategies and activities into the classroom. These are:

Your whole lesson needs to be structured in a way that allows students to practise metacognitive strategies. Broadly, you need to split lessons into four stages: You, Plan, Do, and Review.

The 'You' stage involves giving students a lesson starter where they need to consider their prior knowledge on a topic, and any strategies they have previously used to learn about this topic.

The 'Plan' stage consists of setting pupils a task (a learning goal). The learning goal needs to be clear and explicit. Students will have to plan their approach to it, the strategies they will use, how long it will take them - so they can allocate the right amount of effort - and what could potentially go wrong. Predicting how well they will perform a task can also aid metacognition.

In the 'Do' stage, the pupils will carry out the task, monitoring their progress as they go. To help them do so, you could stop halfway through, giving them sentence scaffolds to reflect on (such as 'I am doing the task successfully because...', 'this strategy is working because...', 'I am confused by...', 'I might have to change my strategy because...', and 'my next steps are...'). It is particularly important to highlight anything they are confused by, because this shows students that confusion is an integral part of learning. Recognising what we don't understand also leads to better metacognition.

Finally, in the 'Review' stage (usually at the end of the lesson), you should allow your students time to review what they have learnt - how successful was their strategy in helping them achieve their learning goal? What did and didn't go well? What could they do differently next time, and what other types of problem could they use this strategy for?

Provide Appropriately Challenging Tasks

In order for students to develop new metacognitive strategies, learn from their mistakes, and reflect deeply on what they have learnt, the tasks they are given need to be difficult (but within reach). If pupils are given something challenging to do, they are more likely to remember information from this task in the future than if they are given something too easy. However, the work should not be too challenging for their capabilities: this leads to cognitive overload, where their thinking fails because they are trying to hold too much information in working memory. You need to assess the metacognitive abilities of your students, and provide work accordingly.

A popular framework for defining the levels of metacognitive learners comes from David Perkins (1992). There are four levels of learner:

1. Tacit learners, who are unaware of their metacognitive knowledge. They do not think about any particular strategies for learning, and merely accept if they know something or not.

2. Aware learners, who know about some of the kinds of thinking that they do, such as generating ideas, finding evidence, etc. However, thinking is not necessarily deliberate or planned.

3. Strategic learners, who organise their thinking by using problem-solving, grouping and classifying, evidence-seeking, decision-making, etc. They know and apply the strategies that help them learn.

4. Reflective learners, who are not only strategic about their thinking, but also reflect upon their learning while it is happening. They consider the success or failure of any strategies they are using, and revise them as appropriate.

Once you know what level students are on, you can plan your support accordingly. For example, with tacit learners, you will need to focus on all aspects of metacognition, guiding them through the process of learning. With higher-level learners, you can withdraw some support.

Give Them Learning Strategies to Use

Before students can use and assess different learning strategies, they need to know some of these strategies. You will need to explicitly teach them how to learn, as well as giving them opportunities to monitor and review their knowledge. One way to do this is by modelling your own metacognitive approaches: show the students how you would approach a task, illustrating your thought process as you do so.

For example, if you are asking students to write a paragraph of an essay, you should write your own example on the board, explaining the decisions you are making (such as how you choose the right subject terminology), and how you correct and improve your work to create a second draft. For instance, 'I'm not sure if I've got this term right, but I remember seeing it in the textbook, so I'll check there', 'now that I've written a bit more, I've realised that this sentence could be cut, because it's repetitive', or 'I have done a similar piece of work before, so I'm going to look at my feedback on that and use it to write this one'.

You should also model resilient behaviours as you do so, such as 'this is really hard, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I know it will be useful practice for my exam, so I'm going to keep going'. Illustrate where students can look for help, such as the marking criteria.

This is extremely useful for students, because it shows them how to succeed behind the scenes - the struggles that everyone goes through in order to become good at a type of work. It makes it clear that we aren't just born with the ability to do things; our brains grow and develop as we practise (a growth mindset).

We have compiled a list of 12 tips, strategies and activities involving metacognition that you could use alongside modelling and 'You, Plan, Do, Review'. These are:

1. Learning/Thinking Journals

Journals help students to develop their self-awareness, improve their ability to plan and monitor progress, and promote skills in self-reflection. Try asking your students to keep personal learning journals, and assign them weekly questions for them to reflect on, such as:

What was easiest for me to learn this week, and why?

What was most challenging for me to learn, and why?

Which study strategies worked well?

Which study strategies didn't work well, and what could I do differently next time?

Did my study habits work well for me? What effect did they have on my learning?

Which study habit could I improve upon next week?

What are my targets for next week?

They could also record ideas they have during a lesson and questions they want to ask, as well as reflecting upon how the ideas they have learnt connect to other topics.

The journal doesn't necessarily need to be a notebook - your students could use any format that works well for them, including a mind map, blog, list, mobile phone app, or something else.

2. KWL Charts

A KWL chart is a way of tracking the 'You, Plan, Do, Review' process. The idea is to create a chart for your students to use, with space for them to answer the following questions:

What do I know?

What do I want to know?

What did I learn?

These questions ( know, want, and learn) make up the letters in KWL. At the beginning of the lesson, students can answer the first question - what they already know that might help them in this lesson. This will activate their prior knowledge, and highlight any misunderstandings.

The second question provides you with ideas for future learning activities. Students could structure their answers in the form of 'how...?', 'when...?', or 'why...?' questions.

The monitoring stage is not included in the KWL chart, but you could ask your pupils to ask themselves their own questions, such as 'how am I doing?' and 'is this strategy working?'.

At the end of the lesson, students can answer 'what did I learn?', as well as filling in anything else they want to know that remains unanswered. It is good to reflect on their own cognitive growth, such as 'before this lesson, I thought that ___. Now I know that ___.'

3. Essays

Research such as this has shown that essays require higher-level metacognitive skills - multiple-choice questions, in contrast, use lower-level skills. As a result, asking your students to write essays, especially when preparing for exams, could help them to prepare and learn as much as possible.

4. Rules About Asking for Help

Instead of getting students to put their hands up as soon as they need help, set some rules that make them more involved in the thinking process. For example, you could ask them to go to a fellow student - or group of students - to discuss it first, and only to ask you if they can't find the answer together. You could also try getting students to think about exactly what they need to know, or which part of their work they need to improve, before coming to you. This helps them to practise self-directed learning.

5. Mnemonics

Teach your pupils techniques such as mnemonics to help them remember difficult information. This ensures that they are less likely to experience cognitive overload, allowing them to move on to higher-level thinking.

You could use expression or word mnemonics, such as ROY G BIV to remember the colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). The same thing could be remembered in a mnemonic sentence, such as 'Richard of York gave battle in vain'.

6. Exam Wrappers

These are worksheets containing reflective questions that help students to think about their performance in a test or exam. You could give them to your pupils both before and after they receive their results and feedback.

The worksheets given out before they receive feedback should ask them to think about how they prepared for the exam - for example, which study strategies they used. Those given out after the feedback should make the student reflect on the mistakes they made, and how they could prepare differently to ensure greater success in the future, making them strategic learners.

Metacognitive talk involves talking through what you are thinking while you carry out a task. This can help students to focus and better understand their thought processes. You could try implementing this by first modelling how to do it - work through a task in front of the class, talking out loud as you do so - and then letting the class have a go.

The questions your students should ask and answer out loud are:

What do I know about this topic?

Have I done a task like this before?

What strategies worked last time?

What do I need to do first?

How am I doing?

What should I do next?

Should I try a different strategy?

Who can I ask for help?

How well did I do at this task?

What could I do differently next time?

8. Reciprocal Teaching

This strategy allows students to take on the role of teacher and attempt to teach learning strategies to other students. For example, if they were teaching reading comprehension, they might show their fellow students how to question what they've read, clarify things they don't understand, summarise the text, and make informed predictions about what they have read. This can help metacognition by deepening their knowledge and understanding of each learning strategy.

9. Traffic Lights

Traffic lights can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom; in this instance, students could use them to signify what they found confusing or challenging in a lesson (red), what made them think differently about something (amber), and what they understood well (green). They could fill in a traffic light worksheet answering these questions at the end of each lesson. This method makes them reflect upon their learning, developing their metacognitive abilities. Smiling, frowning, or neutral faces could be used in the same way - this might be a good strategy for encouraging metacognition in the primary classroom.

10. Feedback

Being given feedback makes students think about what they have done and how they could improve it - as a result, it is a key way to develop metacognition. However, you should ensure that the feedback you are giving is effective; our article 'Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers' discusses how to do this.

11. Reflexive Thinking

Talking about and becoming aware of biases - for example, societal biases - is a metacognitive process called reflexivity. Having classroom discussions about these topics encourages students to consider what they're unconsciously thinking. Try talking about moral dilemmas, racism, wealth, poverty, and justice.

12. Goals

Encourage your students to set their own goals. This is one of the best ways for them to monitor their learning progress, and review whether they need to make any changes. Make sure that their goals are challenging but realistic, and that they are focused on developing learning and building skills.
Encouraging metacognition in the classroom is a way to ensure that your students are learning effectively. This will help them throughout their lives by developing their resilience, memory, self-awareness, reasoning skills, and problem-solving abilities.
Further Resources:

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Metacognition in the Classroom: Benefits & Strategies

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Encouraging metacognition in the classroom is a way to ensure that your students are learning effectively. Find strategies you could use to teach it here.

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Exploring ("Pre-Search") Initiate the inquiry by choosing an appropriate and personally engaging topic, and developing deep questions around the topic chosen. Define the task (Is the product and essay, presentation, website, infographic... etc.) Recall and make connections between prior knowledge of topic and current task. Explore topic by reading general sources such as encyclopedias, etc..

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Background

The CRTC started the Student Performance upon Understanding Review (SPUR) process during the 2008/09 school year. It's an original system developed and revised by our staff. SPUR - its tactics and its philosophies - function as the foundation of the CRTC's assessment and, to some degree, is our operating model. Assessment drives what we do and binds us together to get there.

Our design is quite simple: Being successful in the CRTC must correlate to being successful in the working world. Since our function is to prepare you for all aspects of your chosen career pathway, our reporting system is different from what you may be accustomed to because our expectations are different.

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SPUR Assessment - Concord Regional Technical Center

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The CRTC started the Student Performance upon Understanding Review (SPUR) process during the 2008/09 school year. It's an original system developed and revised by our staff. SPUR - its tactics and its philosophies - function as the foundation of the CRTC's assessment and, to some degree, is our operating model.

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Announcing ELP's Virtual Portfolio Defense Toolkit - Envision Learning Partners

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Still hot from the forge, ELP's Virtual Portfolio Defense Toolkit is hereby released to the world. Click the button below to download the toolkit. Use it and

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The following is an excerpt from Kelly Williams' chapter "Making Student Learning Public," from the book Hands And Minds: A Guide To Project-Based Learning For Teachers By Teachers. This excerpt has been lightly edited and updated to reflect the new prevalence of videoconferencing. Order the book from Amazon.

It's mid-semester. A student, her teacher, and a family member sit around a table. The student's laptop is open to her digital portfolio as she discusses her progress thus far in the semester. She celebrates a personal narrative she wrote for English class by pointing out her use of voice and reflects on how and why she is struggling with a particular project. She sets goals for the rest of the semester and establishes a plan for how to achieve these. The student is the leader in this discussion: this is his student-led conference (SLC).

Traditional parent-teacher conferences often only passively include the student, if at all. Student-led conferences are just the opposite. In SLCs, students lead family members and teachers in a reflective conversation about their progress grounded in artifacts and evidence from class. The discussion goes beyond merely showing assignments. Instead, it is a deeper conversation about areas of strength and growth as identified by the student, and draws on specific pieces of work selected by the student as evidence of his or her experiences in school. Traditionally, parent-teacher conferences are reserved for younger students or for those who are struggling in school. SLCs are for all students, as every student needs the opportunity to open windows into his or her learning experiences and lead a thoughtful conversation with important adults who will provide support for progress and growth.

SLCs are a vital way to empower students to take an active role in their learning and to communicate their experience and plans for the future to their family members and teachers. SLCs provide an opportunity for students to build personal agency and develop confidence in their academics and communication skills. In conducting SLCs, students also develop skills that will be vital as they progress through school and beyond. Like exhibition and POLs, students learn how to organize and present information, make a claim and support it with evidence, ask and answer questions, adapt their speech to the appropriate setting, make appropriate eye contact, and reflect and assess their strengths, challenges, and goals. SLCs function as a student-engaged assessment piece where students are able to make connections between their attitude, effort, practice, and increased achievement. They offer a way for students to develop a growth mindset and are an ideal way for students to demonstrate their learning to others.

SLCs invite families into an important conversation about learning. They bridge gaps between school and home by helping families understand the school's values and whattheir student's learning process looks like. Learning becomes transparent as parents are invited into the conversation with their son or daughter and the teacher contributes supportive dialogue.

Questions to Address for Successful Student-led Conferences include:

Who is Involved in the SLC and What is Their Role?

It is important for teachers, students, and audience members to clearly understand their roles at a student-led conference. SLCs work best when teachers and parents take a step back and students take charge.

The Role of the Teacher

In addition to communicating the importance of SLCs and developing the schedule, teachers must work with students regarding their commitment to academic success. A teacher must establish clear expectations and guidelines for students, arrange time for student reflection, provide SLC guiding questions, and supply a space for SLC practice. Throughout all of these activities, teachers facilitate student leadership over the SLC with a few key practices.

How will I prepare my students for SLCs?

Provide clear expectations and guidelines.

Help students understand and practice their role.

Provide time for students to prepare for SLCs.

Help students select work, prepare reflections, and practice presentation skills.

Provide SLC sentence starters/scripts for students.

Help students learn how to look at and reflect on work through simulations and critique sessions.

Watch or simulate an SLC with students and discuss/critique (especially helpful for younger students).

What will students share during the SLC?

Process and products in student portfolios

Reflections and feedback in student portfolios

Growth using evidence

Strengths and areas of weakness using evidence

Specific and attainable (yet challenging) goals

The Role of the Student

Students are the leaders, presenters, and facilitators in a meaningful student-led conference. They have arrived at the conference with a collection of artifacts that illustrate their experiences in school, and they understand the need to speak to various questions about their education and guide a conversation with at least two important stakeholders in their lives: their teacher and a parent or guardian.

With teacher assistance, students select work they are proud of and articulate how the sample provides evidence of their progress toward specific learning goals or skills. Prior to the SLC, students practice with a peer so they are ready to lead the conversation. At the SLC, students answer open-ended questions about specific experiences in school or follow a protocol to ensure a conversation with appropriate depth and breadth. The questions, collection of work, and rehearsals provide students with the framework to lead an important conversation about their learning.

The student is in charge. The structure of the SLC helps empower students and builds a sense of responsibility and accountability for their own learning. It shows students that they can talk to their parents about their learning, and gives them a framework for doing so. The student is expected to present his/her learning in detail and depth. They should not merely describe assignments completed in class, but rather reflect on personal growth and explain what was deeply learned through that work. The student can use the SLC to help teachers and parents understand what helps him or her learn, as well as what makes learning challenging. Finally, the SLC should be viewed as a communication tool. It is an opportunity for students to voice their needs, for teachers and families to help set up supports, and for everyone to celebrate accomplishments and growth.

SLCs help students:

Make key decisions about what work to share and why, using the work as evidence.

See themselves as learners.

Learn to advocate for themselves.

Practice having reflective conversations about themselves as learners.

Build presentations skills.

The Role of the Audience

SLC audience members are typically family members and/or guardians. The audience member's role is to be present, listen carefully to the student's presentation, ask thoughtful questions, and support the student's learning goals and academic progress. SLCs place family members in an authentic, helpful role. The teacher should provide an opportunity for audience members to offer reflections and questions as a means of extending dialogue. SLCs can go awry should family members become fixated on low grades or uncompleted work, especially if the SLC lacks a safe space and structure to discuss supports and strategies for moving forward. Teachers can intentionally plan for this potential pitfall by providing family members with tools such as clear protocols for dilemmas (this may even be the opportunity to have a private conversation later), and supportive yet probing questions to ask of the student. These tools can be emailed home or provided directly to families at the SLC in the form of a pamphlet or handout.

Teachers may provide family members with the following questions to ask:

Can you tell me why this piece of work is important to you?

Why did you chose this piece of work for your SLC? What does it say about you?

What did you learn from that assignment? Is there anything you might have changed?

How can we support you in your learning?

What will help you address your academic goals?

What are you most proud of?

What has been your biggest challenge and what steps have you taken to overcome it?

SLCs can be done in person, via video conference software, or in a hybrid format.

When doing SLCs in person, students and family members should learn where SLCs are taking place: in a classroom, conference room, offices, the school library, common areas in a grade level, etc. Teachers should consider comfort level, noise level, and the arrangement of the room itself. Most SLCs will take place in the classroom, but other spaces like a teacher's office or a conference room may be used as well.

When planning fully online SLCs held on a video conference platform, the same concerns apply, plus one more: in addition to thinking about comfort-level, noise, and similar issues, conversations over video can be much smoother if there is a clear speaking order. In SLCs, that typically means that the student takes the lead in each section of the conversation, and the parents and teachers respond.

A third option is a hybrid: two of the key stakeholders meet together in person, and the third joins the conversation via video conference. That could mean that the student and teacher meet together in person, in school (maybe during class), and the parent or guardian joins via video conference. Alternatively, a student and family member could be together at home conferencing with their teachers via video. Regardless, the important part is to leverage technology and the potential for some in-person scheduling to connect students, teachers, and families.

It is essential that the SLC schedule is set up well in advance, similar to scheduling POLs, and that families understand the significance of SLCs and what to expect. It is also important that SLCs be scheduled for times and places that allow for the greatest turnout. Teachers should make appointments that accommodate parents' schedules, have translators available if necessary, and make backup plans should parents be unavailable.

Questions to consider when scheduling SLCs include:

When will SLCs take place?

Will SLCs be conducted as a teaching team? As a single teacher event?

What other school-wide and/or community events are happening that might affect SLCs?

Will SLCs take place during the day? At night?

Where will SLCs take place?

Ways to schedule SLCs:

Send a letter/mail home that includes pre-filled SLC time slots and the option to change as necessary.

Directly call home to speak with a family member about scheduling (older students can call or email parents during class or otherwise be expected to assist in the process).

Send a letter/email home that includes a way for families to sign up for a time slot, i.e. SignUp Genius, Google Calendar, or other online sign-up platforms.

Students call parent/guardian in class to schedule the SLC.

If parents are unable to attend the SLC:

Video or record the conference with a teacher to share with parents.

Invite another family member, school administrator, counselor, or advisor to step in.

Document the student's SLC goals and discussion to share with parents.

How to Structure SLCs

There are many ways to do SLCs and it is dependent upon teacher preference, grade level, school calendar, family needs, and available time. It is important that SLCs occur midway through the grading period or sooner to provide feedback the student can work with; students should have enough time to make adjustments and improvements before report cards are issued. Timing will help establish the agenda of the SLC and its implementation structure.

Potential structures for SLCs include:

Individual SLC with all teachers.

Strengths: all teachers are present and informed, family member connects with all teachers.

Challenges: time consuming.

Individual SLC with one teacher that represents a teaching team or grade level.

Strengths: allows for a longer, more in-depth conference because SLCs are divided among a teaching team.

Challenges: teacher is responsible for disseminating information to other teachers; families do not meet with every teacher.

Individual SLC with advisor or homeroom teacher.

Strengths: advisor is consistent in student's school life and can speak to their growth.

Challenges: teachers are not directly involved and informed; families do not meet with every teacher.

Multiple SLCs take place in one area and all teachers rotate in and out of each.

Strengths: efficient use of time, student takes ownership over conference, as it is primarily between students and their families, with teachers cycling in or out as needed.

Challenges: teachers could potentially miss meeting with all students and families.

Take-aways:

Students take ownership over the SLC and provide their own progress report, or self assessment, to family members and teachers.

Clear guidelines and expectations for both students and family members beget the most successful SLCs.

SLCs are deeper conversations that use student work as evidence versus simply showing work and reporting grades.

Overall, SLCs focus on student ownership and progress helps build a better academic community. SLCs can dramatically change the attitude and behavior of all students, especially struggling ones, because they become part of the decision making. Family members, teachers, and students come together around a student-led vision for growth, which creates a better, more self-aware citizenry.

Sample Letter to Families About SLCs in English:

Greetings Parents & Guardians,

Welcome to Student Led Conference season for the Spring 2017 semester. Student Led Conferences, or SLCs, are a great opportunity to come to school to see your student's work and talk about progress and goals for the semester and beyond.

The SLC schedule is attached to this email and available on our digital portfolio. The schedule can be altered to suit your needs.

We have set aside Wednesday and Thursday afternoon for families who prefer to come to school in the later afternoon or early evening. Earlier times on Thursday are reserved for those who need an early afternoon SLC time.

If your time does not work for you and your family, please contact ____________with one or two other time slots as suggestions. Please note that we cannot accommodate more than four families per fifteen-minute time slot.

You can reach us at ____________________

We look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks!

Saludos Padres y Tutores,

Bienvenidos a la temporada de conferencias dirigidas por los estudiantes (SLCs) para el semestre de primavera del 2017. Las conferencias dirigidas por los estudiantes son una gran oportunidad para venir a la escuela a ver el trabajo de su estudiante y hablar sobre su progreso y sus metas para el semestre y más allá.

El calendario de SLC se adjunta a este correo electrónico y está disponible en nuestro portafolip digital (DP). El horario puede ser modificado para satisfacer sus necesidades.

Hemos reservado el miércoles y el jueves por la tarde para las familias que prefieren venir a la escuela un poco más tarde. Las horas más tempranas del jueves están reservadas para aquellos que necesitan una hora de SLC más temprana.

Si la hora asignada no funciona para usted y su familia, por favor comuníquese con ____________ con una o dos horas sugeridas en las cuales estan disponibles. Tenga en cuenta que no podemos acomodar a más de cuatro familias por intervalo de tiempo de quince minutos.

Puede comunicarse con nosotros en ____________________

Esperamos verlos en un par de semanas!

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The following is an excerpt from Kelly Williams' chapter "Making Student Learning Public," from the book Hands And Minds: A Guide To Project-Based Learning For Teachers By Teachers. This excerpt has been lightly edited and updated to reflect the new prevalence of videoconferencing. Order the book from Amazon. It's mid-semester.

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Starting Your Podcast: A Guide for Students

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Starting Your Podcast: A Guide for Students

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We don't expect you to be experts. In fact, we expect that most of you are putting a podcast together for the first time.

And even though this is a contest, it's also about learning new skills in a fun way. We want to make that learning easier - so we've put together a guide to help you along the way.
Getting Started Your Toolbox Podcast Examples Planning Your Podcast Getting Your Ideas Together Brainstorming Sounds Podcast Structure Podcast Production What Makes A Good Interview? Preparing For Field Recording Scripting Your Podcast Voicing The Podcast Production Tips Before we get started, we know you might have a few questions. Let's talk about a few basics. What's a podcast?
Podcasts come in all shapes and sizes. That's good news for you, because it means that you have lots of room to be creative and make something you're excited about. Some podcasts, like This American Life, are long - sometimes an hour or more. Others, like Kind World, a podcast from WBUR, are less than 10 minutes. Some podcasts, like NPR's Up First, are about news. Up First comes out every morning, and the hosts talk about the news and feature stories from guests reporting on the news. Other podcasts tell stories. Lots are funny. Some feature people having conversations. Many are educational: They teach listeners about a specific topic. NPR's Hidden Brain is about science and human behavior. And there's Planet Money, a podcast all about money and life.

Think about sound. We're challenging you to work with sounds - interviews, narration and recorded sounds from the world around you.
Don't I need fancy equipment to make a podcast?
Nope! There are ways to make a podcast without buying expensive microphones and recorders. We're writing this guide with the idea that you can make a podcast with two tools: a smartphone and a computer.
How many people do we need, and what roles are involved?
There isn't a set number of people needed to create a podcast, but it helps to have a team of people who work in different roles.

The role of producers frequently varies between podcasts and radio shows. Often, producers are in charge of the sound: They record the sound and edit it to put the podcast together. You'll also need writers to write out questions for interviews or the script. (Sometimes, producers or hosts pitch in to help write for podcasts.) Hosts also "voice" the podcast by acting as the narrator and conducting interviews with subjects. Depending on the size of your class or group, some team members may work as researchers or spend time organizing interviews. After you record the conversations or interviews, your team will want to make sure you talk about what you want to cut out and keep in - that's all part of the editing process. You might choose to have editors on your team or assign editing duties to teammates who have pitched in in other ways.

You can divide up these duties in a way that makes sense for the size of your team. You might decide to have multiple people host and multiple people work as producers.
What does it mean to mix audio?
Mixing is the process of editing and arranging audio clips in a way that sounds seamless and natural to a listener. After you and your team record sounds from interviews, events or other sources, you'll need to arrange them in a sound-editing software, like Audacity, which you can download online free of charge.
I've been reading lots of training guides that use tons of words I don't know. Help!
This glossary from NPR's training site has lots of words that you might come across if you're reading up on podcasting.

Your Toolbox

Before you think too much about your podcast, you're going to want to think about how, exactly, you'll record the sounds you need.

Here at NPR, we use lots of equipment when we leave the office to record interviews or sounds for our stories and podcasts. But we don't expect you to have all that equipment - and you can make a podcast with a few basic tools that you already have.
1. A phone
If you carry a cellphone with you, chances are, you've got a recording device in your pocket. And if you use it the right way, you can record high-quality sounds that work just fine for your podcast.

You can record sounds, conversations or interviews with sound recording apps on your smartphone.

You can also use your phone's built-in recording app. If you've got an iPhone, go to your "utilities" folder and click on "voice memos" to begin recording.

You'll want to make sure you have enough storage on your phone to do this and that you can either email the sound file to yourself or plug your phone into the computer to upload the recording.

If you're recording a person speaking, hold the phone a few inches from his or her mouth. Not too close, but not more than a few inches away, either.
2. A computer with sound editing software
Once you've recorded your interviews or the sounds you want to use, you'll need to put them all together into your podcast. To do this, you need to use audio editing software to "mix" the sound files together. The good news is that there are lots of software options out there.

If your school already provides editing software on the computers, feel free to use that. If not, we recommend Audacity, which is a free software download available online. You can download it here. As you learn to use it, lots of tutorials are available from Audacity.

If your school or podcasting team has other tools available to use, it's important that you use them correctly to create the best product that you can.

Listening

Have you ever listened to a podcast or radio show before?

If you've listened to podcasts before - take a minute to think about them. What keeps you listening? What bores you?

Let's take a few minutes to hear a few examples. As you listen, think about the different ways that these segments are structured. Is there a host? Is it an interview style - or is a narrator telling a story, with clips of interviews in between?
Morning Edition: Hidden Brain: Hidden Brain: How Labels Can Affect People's Personalities and Potential The Haunting Effects of Going Days Without Sleep Reporting Live From Miami: A Bunch Of Fourth-Graders Tell Their Teacher's Story
How I Built This: Instagram: Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger

Getting Your Ideas Together

Now that you've listened to a few examples, start to gather ideas. We've given you a few prompts to get you thinking. They aren't required, but you may choose to use them.

Here they are again:
Before you settle on one idea for your podcast, ask yourself:

1. Tell us a story about your school or community: about something that happened there - recently or in the past - that your audience should know about.

2. What is a moment in history that all students should learn about?

3. Show us both sides of a debate about an issue that's important to you.

4. What do you want to change about the world? What's a big change that students today will make in the future?

5. Explain something to us that kids understand and grown-ups don't.

Before you settle on one idea, take a few minutes to brainstorm. Try to come up with an idea that might work for each of these prompts. Be sure to think about how you might structure your podcast.

Would it be an interview with someone? Would one host narrate the podcast, using clips of interviews to tell a story? What sound would you use to give listeners a full idea of the story you're telling?

Is this podcast idea realistic?

If the idea involves traveling somewhere far away or interviewing someone famous, it might be difficult. Make sure you can do it before you settle on one idea.

Our friends at YR Media have a handy list of sounds that all podcasters should consider recording while planning their podcast. Scroll down to "what sounds to gather" on this page to find that list.

Does the timeline work? Can you complete your interviews or record other sounds well before the podcasts are due - so that you have time to edit the audio and submit it?

Sounds Like You're Making a Podcast

OK, so you've settled on a topic or idea for your podcast.

Now it's time to start thinking about the sounds that you'll use. Regardless of how your project is structured, it helps to feature a variety of sounds.
Here are a couple of examples of radio pieces that use sounds to add to the story.
Try to record sounds relevant to your story. If I'm telling a story about the mayor of my town, I'll try to go record him leading a town hall meeting, talking to his constituents, and even doing day-to-day activities, that I can play during my podcast.

Let's say you're heading to a protest in front of my local town hall. You're heading into a "scene" that you might want to describe - and include sound from - in your podcast. What sounds should you include?

Compile a list of sounds you'd like to record - and bring that list with you when you go into the field.

Listen to this "Radio Field Trip" from New Hampshire Public Radio. What sounds do you hear? There's narration from the show's host, Rick Ganley - but there's a lot more than that.

And here's this one, from Radio Rookies, a series from WNYC. Listen to the sounds that Radio Rookie Edward uses and weaves between his narration.

Let's Talk Structure

Now that you know what your podcast is going to be about, and you've got an idea of the sounds you want to use, it's time to think about structure.

Before we start planning the podcast - before we get to scheduling interviews or scripting pieces - let's ask a few basic questions. Head to this link, from NPR's training site, and think about your answers.
Before you get there ...
Of course, the structure of your podcast will depend on the idea you've chosen. Will hosts from your class narrate the podcast? Then you'll start differently from the way you would have a conversation on tape.

What Makes A Good Interview?

There's a good chance that you're interviewing someone for your podcast. Maybe you're even talking to lots of different people. It's important to make the most out of the time you take to record them.

Do your research.

Make sure you understand why you're interviewing this person. Read up on who the person is, what he or she does, and the subject you're making a podcast about.

Prepare questions.
When you arrive ...

Come up with a list of open-ended questions you'd like to ask during your interview. It's OK to veer off course and good to ask follow-up questions that you haven't planned. But a list will help get things started.

Clarify the terms of the interview.
When you start recording ...

Make sure your interviewee knows you're talking to him or her for the NPR Student Podcast Challenge. The person should understand that you're recording audio.

Meet somewhere quiet (unless you want to record the noise!).

Don't choose to meet for an interview in a busy mall or a windy park. If you're indoors, head to a quiet room and close the door. If you're interviewing someone at an event, it's OK if there's some noise in the background - as long as it's the sound you want to have in the background. But try to avoid recording when there's music in the background - it's hard to edit around that sound.

Ask the interviewee to introduce himself or herself on tape.

The person should give his or her name and job title (what he or she does). A student should give his or her age and grade.

Record your own questions.

You'll want to hear these questions when you listen back to the tape later on.

Be curious.

You'll have some questions prepared - but that doesn't mean you're following a script. If the person says something you're interested in, ask questions. That's why you're there.

Remember: It's normal to be nervous. The person you're interviewing is probably nervous, too. It helps to be prepared. The better you know your questions and the better you know your equipment, the better you'll feel.

Before You Record Sound ...

Make sure you set aside time to:

Whether this is your first podcast or you're an audio pro, some basic tips can make your project a lot easier.

Test your equipment before you start.

Don't get stuck in an interview with a phone that doesn't have any storage or a microphone with no batteries.

Bring a teammate along to help when you're going to an interview or to record sounds.

Ask this person to time the interview and make a note of the interesting or compelling moments. Make a note of the time at these moments. This will help when you're cutting the audio and looking for these moments later.

Listen to the audio soon after you record it.

Save it somewhere you'll remember, and label it so you know exactly what your recording includes.

Checklist For Field Recording

Before you head out for an interview or sounds for your podcast, make sure you've got everything you need.

Download a checklist for field recording here to take with you when you're getting ready to head out to record.
Starting the story
Scripting Your Podcast

At NPR, some podcasts are scripted. That means that we plan the order that everything will be in before the host gets into the recording studio and records the narration. That can happen only after getting "tape" - sound from lots of interviews and audio from other recordings.

Let's take a look at the script of an audio segment. Here's one from the NPR Training team featuring a story from NPR's Ailsa Chang. There's not one correct way to write a script for a podcast - but it helps to indicate where your narrators will speak, and where you'll be using sounds or interview clips recorded beforehand, and how long these clips last.

First things first. So, you've figured out how you want your podcast to be structured and you've gathered the sound you need. Whether you're scripting the entire podcast or not, you probably need to write out at least one part: the very beginning.

Here's a post from NPR Training with some ideas about how to start, no matter how you're structuring your podcast.

Voicing The Podcast

After you've scripted the podcast, it's time to record the narration from the host or hosts from your group or class.

If you're hosting or narrating the podcast, you might be a little nervous about recording your voice. But here's something important to remember: Your voice is what makes you - and your podcast - sound unique. You want to sound natural, alert and energetic. You want to sound like you - the real you. Everyone stumbles over their words. And when that happens here at NPR, we often go back to the script and write shorter sentences that are easier to read and won't leave you feeling out of breathe. The key is to try to sound how you would if you were talking to a friend.
Some tips:
Here's another tip: Keep the frogs out of your throat by keeping a glass of water next to you while you're recording.

Production

Mixing is the process of editing and arranging audio clips in a way that sounds seamless and natural to a listener. After you and your podcasting team record sounds from interviews, events or other sources, you'll need to arrange them in sound-editing software, like Audacity, which is available online as a free download.

Don't leave audio mixing until the last minute. Mixing is time-consuming, especially if you're using new software or listening to long recordings. It can take many hours just to edit a few minutes of a podcast. Give yourself sufficient time to mix audio before you need to submit the podcast. Remember, the deadline for this contest is March 24.

Take the mixing process step by step. Prioritize things you need to do to make your podcast sound the best it can. Before you can do anything else, you need to cut your sound down to the clips you need, get them in order and adjust their volume levels so they're not too loud or too soft in a listener's ears. These are all things you can do in any audio editing software.

If you're already an audio mixing pro and you want some more guidance, check out this guide put together by Rob Byers of Minnesota Public Radio and NPR's training team.

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Starting Your Podcast: A Guide For Students

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The Gifted Guy's Learning Projects and Strategies

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The Gifted Guy's Learning Projects and Strategies

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The Unopened Gift is an allegory about underachieving gifted students and how if they do not use their gifts, they might lose them. It is a slide show that you can click through. You can use it to spark discussions with teachers, parents, or students.

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The Unopened Gift is an allegory about underachieving gifted students and how if they do not use their gifts, they might lose them. It is a slide show that you can click through. You can use it to spark discussions with teachers, parents, or students.

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The Need for Project-Based Learning

If we say we want students to become critical thinking life-long learners, we need to provide projects that encourage them to engage in creative collaboration. This is the power of designing collaborative projects.

We often hear about the need for students to hit the 4 C's in 21st-century learning:

Creativity
Critical Thinking
Collaboration
Communication

We are nearly a fifth of the way into the 21st century and yet we are still in a system where students passively consume content. However, I would argue that those four C's aren't "21st-century" skills. They're timeless skills. They were relevant a century ago and they'll be relevant 200 years from now. These are the ideas Dewey wrote about a century ago and the ideas Quintilian wrote about two thousand years ago.

I love this idea that students should be engaged in collaborative projects, where they are thinking critically, engaged in creativity, and learning how to communicate.

I recently asked teachers to list the benefits they see in collaborative projects. Here are some of the things they learn:

Perseverance: how to keep going even when a task is difficult

Project management: how to plan, monitor, and assess projects

Communication: they learn how to communicate, resolve conflict, and show empathy toward others

Maker mindset: they define themselves as problem-solvers, designers, creators, and builders

Systems thinking: how to navigate external systems

Ownership: they increase in their sense of agency and they develop their own voice

Critical thinking: they have an authentic context to engage in analysis, evaluation, and the generation of new ideas

Adaptability: they become flexible thinkers

Inquiry: they learn how to ask great questions

This doesn't mean you have to use PBL 100% of the time. Sometimes you still need to use direct instruction, workshops, discussions, etc. But PBL can be a valuable way to empower your students with voice and choice!

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If we say we want students to become critical thinking life-long learners, we need to provide projects that encourage them to engage in creative collaboration. This is the power of designing collaborative projects.

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Featured Projects

How can we support younger students through the transition to middle school?

Are GMOs the way to go?

How can we keep our communities safe and prepared for natural hazards?

Featured Resources

The Buck Institute has created this short video to help explain the Project Based Teaching Practices in our model for Gold Standard PBL.. Learn more

How to create and use norms in your classroom to build, positive, productive culture. Learn more

Sample: Explaining PBL and giving project details. Learn more

Announcements

Online Course - PBL Jumpstart: Teach

Register for our 8-week course PBL Jumpstart: Teach. You will learn how to incorporate effective teaching practices you already use into the framework of PBL, and you'll learn how to assume a new and rewarding role in the classroom.

Course Dates:

Winter: Mondays, January 8 - February 26, 2024
Summer: Mondays, July 1 - August 19, 2024
Fall: Mondays, September 9 - October 28, 2024
Learn more about the course

Online Course - PBL Jumpstart: Design

Register for our 8-week course PBL Jumpstart: Design. You will learn how to incorporate effective teaching practices you already use into the framework of PBL and you'll learn how to assume a new and rewarding role in the classroom.

Course Dates:

Winter: Mondays, January 8 - February 26, 2024
Summer: Mondays, July 8 - August 19, 2024
Fall: Mondays, September 9 - October 28, 2024
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Your gateway to the very best in Project Based Learning, no matter where you are in your PBL journey. Here, you will find a growing set of resources to help you design and implement powerful learning in your classroom.

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STARS Planning Tool for Performance Based Assessments

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STARS Planning Tool for Performance Based Assessments

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Typically we use the Double-Diamond approach to running open-ended Design Sprints in the classroom. What this allows is any grade level and any subject area to start solving problems, and creating solutions to those problems in a very short and directed sprint. In the simplest terms here is how it works:

1. Learners in the room have sticky notes in front of them. They are asked to write down as many problems about ______ _(whatever you are working) on the sticky notes (one per note). 5-7 minutes.

2. They all place their sticky notes up on the wall or board. Then learners walk around with 3-5 little dot stickers and place the stickers on the problems that they believe are the most important for what they are working on right now. 5 minutes.

3. The facilitator organizes the sticky notes and puts the top 1-3 notes with the most stickers on the board written out for all to see. 3 minutes.

4. At this time you've selected your most important problems as a group. Now you work to rephrase the problems as "How might we..." statements. For example, if a problem is "No one recycles in our school", you could rephrase that as "How might we get more people recycling on a regular basis". You can create the "How might we" statements individually first or just as a group. 5-7 minutes.

5. Once again learners have sticky notes in front of them. This time they write down as many solutions as they can to the problems and how might we statements. They place these on the board or wall once they are done. 5-7 minutes.

6. Now learners walk around with 3-5 little dot stickers and place the stickers on the solutions that they believe are the most doable and appropriate for the problems selected. 5 minutes.

7. The facilitator organizes the sticky notes and puts the top 1-3 notes with the most stickers on the board written out for all to see. 3 minutes.

8. You've now selected your solutions to work on and create a prototype. You can do this as a group, can split up into teams, or work on them individually first!

The entire process took less than a class period and everyone had a voice and choice. You now have gone from lots of problems and all kinds of potential solutions to 1-2 problems and 1-2 solutions to work on!

#2: Project-Based Learning

When teachers ask me about my PBL experiences, they'll quickly ask three questions over and over again:

1. How did you find the time?

2. What about the curriculum?

3. How did you assess it and make sure students were understanding content/concepts etc?

In reality, this is just one question, that I can phrase in a quick sentence:
How did you do PBL given the current constraints as a teacher in our educational system?
The issue is that we all have constraints. Are we supposed to as teachers and leaders NOT do Project Based Learning because we don't have enough time...or can we start within the time we are given?

I think teacher and author, Joy Kirr, put it perfectly in this comment:
I cannot redesign my entire school like I know you dream of. I am one teacher. I can, however, with the blessings of my administration, give 60 minutes of my week over to the students. It is TOO LITTLE time, I know. And I can't make sure each project will change the world. But it is a start. And the lessons we all learn during this time seep into the other four hours I have with these students throughout the week, thank goodness. I don't have numbers to show student progress. But I'm trying to create life-long learners. How do you measure that?
Project-based learning experiences give students opportunities that they would never have in school otherwise. To ME that is enough. It is enough to try this type of learning with your students. It is enough to take a risk and go beyond the curriculum.

I'd ask anyone who is criticizing PBL in the classroom to talk to the teachers and students who have had this opportunity. I'd ask them to look at what students are creating, making, and building during this time. I'd ask them to talk to the parents about their students' attitude towards learning.

1. Try it for a day and see what happens. Start small and build from there.

2. Teach through the project, instead of using the project as an "end-of-unit" assessment that takes more time than a multiple choice test. When kids learn during the project, the time constraint goes away.

I've heard from so many colleagues and teachers around the country (and world) who have said this time has changed their teaching and the way they view learning.

I give two answers to the question above:

Want to see what it looks like in your grade level or subject area? Check out these three articles:
Studies comparing learning outcomes for students taught via project-based learning versus traditional instruction show that when implemented well, PBL increases long-term retention of content, helps students perform as well as or better than traditional learners in high-stakes tests, improves problem-solving and collaboration skills, and improves students' attitudes towards learning (Strobel & van Barneveld, 2009; Walker & Leary, 2009). PBL can also provide an effective model for whole-school reform (National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, 2004; Newmann & Wehlage, 1995).
When I jumped into Project Based Learning I started to see articles, journal reviews, and videos of teachers around the world who had seen their students achieve at high levels when moving from a traditional teaching approach to a PBL approach.
1. You will join a great community of learners
When Edutopia came out with this overview of the research around PBL I nodded my head at the results:
2. You will allow students to go into depth with a topic that inspires them
A 2016 MDRC/Lucas Education Research literature review found that the design principles most commonly used in PBL align well with the goals of preparing students for deeper learning, higher-level thinking skills, and intra/interpersonal skills (Condliffe et al., 2016).
3. There is so much positive peer pressure
No longer could the argument be about how well (or poorly) students would do on standardized assessments. The research was clear. When PBL was implemented well, students thrived in traditional tests and in a wide variety of soft-skills that are crucial to development and success beyond school.
4. It relieves students of the "game of school"
The Buck Institute for Education also put out a research summary on PBL and 21st Century competencies that states, " Project Based Learning has been shown to yield a number of benefits for students, ranging from deeper learning of academic content to stronger motivation to learn. Looking specifically at how PBL supports 21st century learning goals, we can find several promising areas, including:
5. It's fun!
I urge you to dive into this research more here on the BIE website if you have any doubts.
6. Your class will be covering all types of common core standards
If you asked any teacher, administrator, parent, school board member, student, or community member to list their top goals for an academic program, you would see achievement, 21st century competencies, equity, and motivation all at the top.
7. It's differentiation at its best
Project-based learning is shown to work in all kinds of schools, in all different grade levels, with students of varying backgrounds and abilities.
8. You learn by what you do, not by what you hear
#3: Genius Hour
9. It is a perfect way to model life-long learning
If you haven't heard of Genius Hour or 20% time in the classroom , the premise is simple: Give your students 20% of their class time (or an hour each week) to learn what they want. These projects allow students to choose the content and still acquire/master skills and hit academic starts.
10. Your students will never forget what it felt like to create
I've written extensively about Genius Hour and 20% Time, but wanted to share a list of the 10 reasons you should consider Genius Hour in your classroom (for those of you on the fence) and why you will not regret making that choice!
This is the most important time to be in education. It is the most important time to care about education. It is the most important time to impact a different type of education.
When I first did the Genius Hour project with my students I didn't have a community of teachers or learners. Within months that changed as a number of great teachers before and after me started to share their stories online . The largest active group is the Genius Hour teachers (inspired by Daniel Pink) who have #geniushour chats, a big resource at GeniusHour.com, and a great Joy Kirr Livebinder. Get involved and see what others have done!

One of the major issues we face in schools today is covering a wide breadth of information, instead of allowing students to get a real depth of knowledge. Students using Genius Hour and 20% time are able to delve into subject matter that means something to them, often times taking their free time at home to learn more. Isn't this something we should be promoting at all levels?

When students in my school have their Shark Tank pitch day, they get to share with the entire class what they are working on. Publicly announcing what they are trying to accomplish makes the goal real. Students get to see what their peers are working on and want to make sure their project stands up to the rest of the class. Regardless of a grade being attached to the project, this makes for students going the extra mile.

Too often our students complete assignments for the grade. They go through the motions to receive an external pat on the back (or bump on their transcript). Genius Hour and 20% time take away the "game of school" and brings back the love of learning for learning's sake.

Randy Pausch famously said, "If you think you can't learn and have fun at the same time. Then I don't think you have a good understanding of either." Without a doubt it is the best time of the week. Student feedback is not only positive, but also transparent. This work often carries back to their homes where parents/guardians share their passion for learning beyond the school walls.

It doesn't matter if you teach elementary, middle, or high school. The Genius hour and 20% time projects cover multiple common cores standards. We've had teachers propose this type of learning to their administration backed by awesome . Remember, the community will help if you are fighting a battle to get Genius Hour or 20% time started at your school.

Students are working at their level, and as teachers we should be helping to challenge each one of our learners at their best pace and ability. Because each project differs, students are not bogged down by following the same steps as their classmates. The entire class is learning, but it is truly differentiated.

Experiential and challenge based learning puts the mastery back into the student's hands. We provide guidance and pushes along the way, but they are the ones "doing" and "making". Confucius put it perfectly: "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Let your students make and they will understand and thank you for the opportunity.

I did Genius Hour with my students and took it upon myself to learn how to code and make an app from scratch. I failed to make that app. But my experience learning how to program left me with a whole new perspective, and was a teachable moment about what we call failure. There is no real way to fail a project in which "learning" is the end-goal.

Have you seen Caine's arcade ? It started out as a little idea and now Caine has inspired hundreds of other kids his age to create something unique. When you create a product, it becomes part of who you are, and there is a "care" involved that we just never see with multiple-choice tests. What would you want for your child?

Now, more than any other time in the past 100 years, education seems on the verge of a paradigm shift. You see, for the past century, most of the educational change has been doing old things in new ways. Today, we are beginning to see educators, educational institutions and educational companies do new things in new ways.

My challenge to you as a teacher is to allow your students the choice to learn what they want. That's what Genius Hour and 20% time is all about, and that is why it is so successful.

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How to Use Design Sprints, PBL, and Genius Hour to Get Kids Making - A.J. Juliani

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When John Spencer and I wrote Launch , we specifically set out to write a book that could support all kinds of creative learning in classrooms. We realized that this work is not easy, it is often difficult to do in our current environments, but it was worth it.

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Choice Board Templates for Google Slides/Powerpoint

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Choice Board Templates for Google Slides/Powerpoint

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Free Choice Boards templates for Google Slides or PowerPoint - SlidesMania

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Editable Digital Choice Boards for Google Drive or PowerPoint. Choice boards are a great way to allow student choice during classroom activities and you can use them for any subject.

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Video Showcase Episode 1: Rethinking Self-Direction Work-Study Practices [ Slide Dec k | Transcrip t] Episode 2: Exploring Self-Direction Evidence Collection Tools [ Slide Deck | Transcript] Presentation: Practical Tool to Encourage Self-Direction Among Students for In-Person and Remote Learning [ Slide Deck | Transcript]

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Big Bank of Cooperative Learning Strategies

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Big Bank of Cooperative Learning Strategies

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Designing Socratic Seminars to Ensure That All Students Can Participate

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Designing Socratic Seminars to Ensure That All Students Can Participate

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Designing Socratic Seminars to Ensure That All Students Can Participate

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Socratic seminars are a democratic, student-centered, approach to class discussions. They can be used at any grade level with any subject area. In a Socratic Seminar, members meet in a circle (or more likely an

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Color-Coding: The Differentiation Strategy You Never Knew You Needed

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Color-Coding: The Differentiation Strategy You Never Knew You Needed

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Does anyone else get overly excited when they get a new set of Mr. Sketch markers? Colorful markers and highlighters help engage students, but there is so much more to it. There are real, tested benefits of color-coding in the classroom.

Think about all the things we associate with certain colors, like green for go or pink for breast cancer awareness. For years, marketing departments have been associating brands with certain colors so that their messages will stick in consumers' minds (e.g., Twitter , McDonald's , Target , ).

In the classroom, when strategically and systematically implemented, color-coding can have the same effect. It may take a bit more planning and preparation, but it's worth it!

In fact, Pruisner (1993) found that when comparing outcomes of black-and-white versus color-cued presentations and assessments, systematic color-coding improved recall and retention. Dzulkifli and Mustafar (2012) also studied whether adding color could improve memory. They concluded that "color has the potential to increase chances of environmental stimuli to be encoded, stored, and retrieved successfully" because it vividly displays relationships between ideas.

The psychology of color is fascinating. Shift eLearning says that "using the right color, and the correct selection and placement can seriously affect feelings, attention, and behavior when learning." Color can help students differentiate, retain, and transfer knowledge and, according to Ozelike (2009) , pay attention to critical information for meaningful learning. It's time that we leveraged that to our advantage. Plus, color just makes everything more exciting and appealing, right? The question is how can we, as teachers, take this and apply it to our instruction? Here are just a few ideas:

1. Distinguishing between new ideas and concepts

Color-coding can assist students in distinguishing between concepts and ideas. Below is an example of how color-coding can be used for main idea and details, but it can also be used for compare and contrast, author's purpose, fact versus opinion, you name it! In this example, main idea is always while key details are . green

Here is another example of using color to distinguish between concepts in math. Color-coding can support mathematical thinking in that it can help students organize their thinking, make their thinking visible to others, and make connections. It can also strengthen visual representation to aid students in internalizing their learning.

2. Selective highlighting

Another color-coding strategy is selective highlighting. This strategy requires explicit teaching, extensive modeling and support, as well as clear student directions. However, when implemented correctly, it can help students organize their learning and deepen their comprehension.

In the example above, the instructions for students were:

3. Color-coded graphic organizers

Ewoldt and Morgan (2017) noted that "color-coding visual organizers provides another layer of support for writing development," and "using color-coding in combination with strategy instruction has the potential to improve overall understanding." Sentence and paragraph frames are great writing supports, but not if students don't know how and when to use them. Color-coding these frames as well as graphic organizers (or having the students do it themselves) is a simple step that can make all the difference.

4. Supporting student discourse

We all know how important it is to get our students talking, and providing a dialogue frame can be a great way to scaffold speaking activities. Color-coding these frames can make them more user-friendly because it makes it easier for students to identify their part(s). Don't forget to have students switch roles at some point so they get to practice all roles!

Warning: Don't overdo it!

Although color-coding can be extremely effective, too much can overcomplicate things. Try to stick to three colors (or fewer) per lesson and keep it consistent! Any color can be used for any topic but, once introduced, the color should remain consistent in order to avoid confusion. For example, i f students used blue when comparing at the beginning of the year, make sure you use that same color for every comparing lesson.

There are a multitude of ways to use color in the classroom. How do you use color-coding as a teaching strategy? Share your ideas in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Plus, check out 25 ways to use sticky notes in the classroom.

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Color-Coding: The Differentiation Strategy You Never Knew You Needed

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Does anyone else get overly excited when they get a new set of Mr. Sketch markers? Colorful markers and highlighters help engage students, but there is so much more to it. There are real, tested benefits of color-coding in the classroom.

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In a new monthly column for PAGES, a Techniques blog, Sandra Adams delivers teaching strategy CTE teachers can use. Take students for a spin on the carousel

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Think of an ideal gym - but for the brain.

The best times for our brains and learning are when we are struggling. If your children are working at the edge of their understanding, find something difficult, and keep going, their brains get the best possible workout. Uffff.

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A different way to learn, think and grow.

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Struggly unlocks your child's limitless potential with math education based in neuroscience.

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At youcubed, we inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on mathematics learning into accessible and practical forms.

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Graphic organizers may be one of the most accessible, adaptable, and underrated tools for promoting critical thinking.

Think about it. They can be used for just about any purpose in the classroom, from note-taking, brainstorming, and making connections, to delegating responsibilities and reflecting upon one's own thinking.

Evidence-Based Support for Using Graphic Organizers as Instructional Tools

The power of graphic organizers stems from dual coding theory, developed by psychology professor Allan Paivio in 1971. Essentially, Paivio suggests that our minds operate with two classes of 'codes' - mental images and verbal representations - and that our memory has two 'storage facilities' for these codes. While they are housed independently, they do interact with one another. Paivio's central claim is that we are more likely to retain new information in our memory (and consistently retrieve it later), if it is stored in both the verbal and visual locations of the brain.

While there are certainly limitations to dual coding theory, countless studies have provided evidence to back Paivio's claim, and dual coding is taught in teacher education programs across the globe.

So what does dual coding have to do with graphic organizers? Simply put, graphic organizers allow students to visualize, order, and categorize concepts using text (verbal representations) and drawings (images). Graphic organizers are also beneficial for breaking down complex or abstract concepts into more 'bite-size,' digestible ideas. Graphic organizers provide students with both structure and autonomy - they are given (or can create) a basic template, but they have the flexibility to be creative within that template. This balance of structure and autonomy is ideal for promoting self-directed, differentiated learning.

How are Graphic Organizers Useful?

Research shows that graphic organizers are a useful strategy for GT and SPED populations, but really, all students can benefit from the multimodal learning that graphic organizers support. Graphic organizers are highly versatile. Students can draw them, digitize them, or adapt a teacher-designed template. They are useful at any grade level and within any subject area for tasks like:

Comparing and contrasting

Narrating a sequence of events

Exploring solutions to a problem

Identifying relationships (like cause-and-effect)

Brainstorming ideas

Connecting previous knowledge to new information

We've searched the web for the most common types of graphic organizers and used our own categorizing system for how to present the best templates to you in the way that is most useful for your everyday instruction. Below, we've listed the 6 most common types of graphic organizers. With each type, we've shared an overall purpose and specific examples that you can adapt for your own lessons. We conclude by offering several important tips for using graphic organizers in the classroom, and providing links to some of the best online tools for creating and sharing graphic organizers online.

The 6 Most Common Types of Graphic Organizers

Venn diagrams are probably one of the first graphic organizers that students are introduced to. Easy to create and easy to navigate, Venn diagrams are best used for comparing and contrasting. Typically, Venn diagrams appear in the form of two to three overlapping circles, where the overlapping segments provide space for students to take note of similarities, and the non-overlapping segments are dedicated for unique differences.

Venn diagrams might be used to compare historical events, monarch 'ruling' styles, nutritional value of foods, or important facts about planets in the solar system. Students can use words, phrases, bulleted items, complete sentences, and quotes as verbal representations, along with drawings, symbols, signs, photographs, GIFs, and videos as images.

Concept Maps
Put simply, concept maps allow a creator to fully flesh out an idea. They typically start out with a center 'bubble,' then use lines or arrows to show relationships to surrounding bubbles. More complex concept maps may have more than one central bubble, and make more than one connection from any one bubble to another.

Concept maps are ideal for brainstorming or showing relationships between concepts. For example, a student might perform a 'topic blast' to generate ideas for a personal narrative, in which they are assigned the task of retelling a childhood story through their adolescent point-of-view. In the center bubble, they might write "adventures," and then branch out to surrounding bubbles, where they might write (or draw) the names of specific adventures they've been on, like hiking in a national park, ice fishing on a frozen lake, or going on a safari with their family. They can continue branching out to even more specific bubbles. For example, they could extend additional arrows out from the safari bubble to brainstorm the parts of that adventure that were especially thrilling, such as getting up close to a hippopotamus, having to survive several days without electricity, or watching a cheetah devour its prey.

We've also seen a cool iteration of a concept map called a lotus grid. In this type of graphic organizer, there is a 3 x 3 grid with a main topic in the center-most square (the eight surrounding squares are sub-topics). Then, there are eight similar 3 x 3 grids surrounding the center 3 x 3 grid, with each one designated for exploring subtopics via facts, information, ideas, visuals, examples, etc.

Flow Charts
Flow charts, timelines, storyboards...these are all different names for graphic organizers that perform a similar task: depicting a sequence of events or ideas. Flow charts can move from left to right, down to up, in an S-shape, or in a wheel - there are few limitations here.

In teaching writing, we've seen flow charts used to help students organize paragraphs or entire essays. Freytag's pyramid - a form of a flow chart - helps students diagram dramatic structure, starting with the exposition of a story, building suspense with rising action, reaching a turning point with the conflict at the climax, moving towards resolution with falling action, and ending with a conclusion. Using bubbles or extending lines, students can cite textual evidence that represents each plot point, draw images to represent a storyboard, or create symbols to depict historical events in a timeline.

Flower Grids
A flower grid is similar to a concept map graphic organizer, except it isn't meant for showing relationships. In a flower grid, there is a center bubble, or 'pistil,' which is embedded among a group of outer bubbles, or 'petals' - like a flower! Instead of making connections to other concepts, a flower grid is best used to perform a 'deep dive' into a singular concept.

The most common use for flower grids is to explore a vocabulary word. The user might write a term in the pistil, and in the four surrounding petals, provide a definition, example of the word in a complete sentence, synonyms, and a visual representation.

We've also seen flower grids used as STEAL charts for characterization. STEAL is an acronym for what a character says, what a character thinks, the effects a character has on other characters, how the character acts, and how the character l ooks. In a STEAL chart, the character's name and/or picture is drawn in the pistil - it is surrounded by an oval divided into five segments, which is then surrounded by an additional oval divided into five segments. In the innermost oval, each segment is dedicated to a letter - S, T, E, A, and L. In each segment, the student can write textual evidence of each element of characterization. Next, in the outermost oval, the student writes their own interpretations for what the textual evidence means.

Columned Charts
Ah, old reliable. The 2-column chart (also known as the T-chart) and its second cousins, the 3-column chart, 4-column chart, and so on. What purpose do columned charts not fulfill? They can be used for examining pros vs. cons, similarities vs. differences, causes and effects, claims vs. evidence (vs. significance), and what a character says vs. what they actually mean. They're ideal for crafting analogies, taking notes, giving peer feedback, and making connections to prior learning.

The KWL chart is one particularly useful 3-column chart that students can return to before, during, and after instruction. When being introduced to a new topic, students write down what they already know about the topic under the K column. In the W column, they jot down what they may want to know about a topic. Finally, in the L column, they reflect upon what they actually l earned during instruction.

Taxonomies
Best suited for categorization and identifying relationships, taxonomies can be used to illustrate hierarchies and designate responsibilities. Typically, the most important (or central) role is at the top, and subsequent bubbles stem downward, indicating a possible chain of command or biological taxonomy (i.e., domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) or political taxonomy (i.e., making connections between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, then listing each of their responsibilities). Taxonomies are excellent tools for group collaboration, where students can record responsibilities under each student's name.

Teachers might use taxonomies to promote critical thinking. For example, they might give a small group of students a pack of 30 index cards with different terms or descriptors written on each one, then give the groups a certain amount of time to create a taxonomy or hierarchy.

Make The Most of Graphic Organizers With These Important Tips

While some students may be able to take any form of graphic organizer and run with it, teachers should model how to use a graphic organizer for any given assignment, or at least suggest different graphic organizers that might be conducive for an assigned task. The teacher can use a document camera to model his/her own thinking, or call upon a student to model the graphic organizer while the teacher adds commentary.

The great thing about graphic organizers is that they are flexible vs. rigid. Best used in the beginning stages of guided or independent practice, they can serve as effective formative assessments or checks for understanding; however, there are rare cases where they should be graded as summative assessments.

If you do decide to grade a graphic organizer, strongly consider relaxing expectations on structure and conventions. It usually does not make sense for a student to fill bubbles with complete sentences. For one, there just isn't that much room. Second, graphic organizers are meant to be a little 'messy.' They're essentially a visual representation of a student's thinking, which is not always linear or obvious to an observer's view. Now is not the time to worry about spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. The ideas are the important piece.

Finally, graphic organizers can be differentiated for various student populations. One group might receive a blank graphic organizer, while another group might get a graphic organizer with one example, and yet another group may receive a graphic organizer that is mostly done and acts as 'guided notes.' Consider having students share their thinking from graphic organizers with one another, and encourage them to synthesize insights from others into their own graphic organizers.

The Best Tools for Creating, Sharing, and Adapting Graphic Organizers Online

There are a variety of digital tools geared toward designing graphic organizers. We've included several of the most popular ones below:

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What Are The Best Graphic Organizers For Promoting Critical Thinking?

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Graphic organizers allow students to visualize, order, and categorize concepts using verbal representations & visuals.

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Concept Capsules™ : The Interactive, Research-based Strategy for Teaching Academic Vocabulary Supercharge your vocabulary instruction. Engage learners. See incredible results right away. Here's how. Get...

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Need something great for tomorrow? You’re in the right place. These popular free resources are ready and waiting for you to put them into action. Choose your favorites and I’ll deliver them right to your inbox.

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10 Best Free Word Cloud Generators for Teachers

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Get students’ attention with eye-catching word clouds.

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One of the first things I added to my teacher tool kit during my first few years of teaching was video. As a science middle school teacher, I saw using documentaries as an effective strategy. After all, the interviewees and talking heads presented in videos are experts in their field, often working with cutting-edge tools that I could only dream of using. They also often had animations and visualizations that helped clarify ideas. Not only that, but by showing those documentaries, my students and I could journey to places we'd never be able to go. In those early days, my planning time was often spent finding that "perfect" video that I could simply plug in, play and be done with the lesson.

I soon realized, however, that there was a problem with this approach. First, my students would often see this time as simply a form of entertainment. They would enter what I started calling "TV mode," and instead of focusing on the content that I was so excited to show them, they would focus on the expert's accent or on the cuteness of the animals showcased. Second, the plug and play approach limited my sources of video to documentaries and educational shows. Although these are rich source of information, I also saw opportunities in YouTube videos and commercial films. I remember watching Spiderman and thinking how great it would be to show the movie and discuss the different chase scenes in terms of Newton's Laws of Motion. Although the idea sounded great, I also knew that I would not be able to explain to my administration and parents the use of this commercial movie as an educational experience. Never mind that it would, for sure, be seen as mere entertainment by my students. I needed ways to be able to circumvent these problems and use videos effectively.

As I continued on my journey, I finally understood that the key to using video effectively in the classroom is preparation. I could maximize the learning opportunities videos offer by encouraging students to become active viewers using a few simple tools and strategies.

Preparing the video:

Preview the video. It goes without saying, but you do have to watch the full clip that you're interested in showing and make sure that, as you watch it, you are thinking about your specific students. Whether your selection comes from YouTube or PBS, you do not want to be surprised by inappropriate content or material that is way above the students' maturity level. I learned this one the hard way while showing National Geographic's "The Human Footprint." As I was previewing I had my "teacher hat" on and failed to recognize that the section on Cleansing and Beauty Products would get my students tittering about the girl in the shower. Nothing is actually shown or inappropriate, but just the idea was enough to derail my middle schoolers!

Edit the video. Cut the video into smaller sections, showing only what you need. Vibby allows you to break up a video into highlighted sections. Once you click play, the "vib" will play the highlights and skip over whatever was not highlighted. You can also add comments, which makes it easy to provide students with specific focus points. (I have used Vibby to show clips of commercial action films to explain motion and forces concepts to my 8th graders, engaging them immediately because they recognize the scenes, often leading to discussions of how these films misrepresent the laws of physics.)

Insert pointed questions, comments and commentaries. I often insert the questions I want to pose to the class, using either Edpuzzle and PlayPosIt. Both tools work similarly, allowing you to add different question types (multiple choice, short answer, etc.) as well as comments and audio commentaries. The video automatically stops at question points, allowing for a more seamless discussion. Here is an example I use when discussing biogeochemical cycles in my 7th grade class.

Prepare guided notes. As you are previewing the video, think about the key points and concepts you want your students to learn. Create your guided notes, leaving blanks for the information you want the students to write down.

One thing I've discovered is that it is also relatively easy to create your own videos using tools like screencast-o-matic or screencastify. In fact, a couple of years ago, as I was working with Better Lesson (a lesson plan and curriculum resource site), I did just that. I started by creating a screencast of myself teaching the concept. Then I Edpuzzled it and prepared my guided notes. I invite you to see the lesson in action at Better Lesson - Cladistics.

Before viewing:

Activate prior knowledge. To do this, I usually use a simple quick write, a chain note or a turn and talk. I want my students to start thinking about what they already know about the subject, which helps them make connections between the video and the content already explored.

Give a purpose for watching. State it clearly: "As you watch, pay attention to...." "You are looking for ..." or "After watching you will ...." In my experience, this is the most important part of using videos effectively. Giving a purpose for watching almost guarantees that the students will not enter the "TV mode" I mentioned earlier, and, instead, will focus their attention on what you want them to learn from the video.

During viewing:

Pause often. Even when I decide not to embed questions or comments during the preparation phase, I find that it is important to pause the video to allow processing of the information,to address questions and facilitate discussions prompted by the video. I came upon this practice quite by accident one day after presenting a two-hour documentary on DNA (Cracking the Code). Some of the content was a little too much for my 7th graders, so I found myself pausing often to explain the finer details. Eventually, the students themselves started asking me to stop because they did not understand something. As I reflected on the day, I and chastising myself for "all the time wasted" that kept me from moving to my next plan, I realized that we had, in fact, covered what I wanted, and more! Not only that, but the kids had not even entered "TV mode." The simple act of pausing had made the use of this video a more engaging and effective tool.

Watch-think-write. In tandem with the pausing, I find that I have to keep in mind that the students are completing the guided notes while watching the video. Most of my students instinctively try to write down the answers to the guided notes word for word as they are watching, afraid that they will not remember or have time later to complete them. In the writing flurry, key points are missed. Once I started pausing, it was easy to see the need for a specific protocol to follow while watching a video. I dubbed it the "watch-think-write" strategy. By using this protocol, my students are able to focus on the video, knowing they will have time to process and discuss what they watched.

Watch: Students watch the segment. No writing allowed.

Think: The whole class or table group discuss the segment. No writing allowed. (The time given for this is adjusted depending of the class and content.)

Write: Students are able to include the new information in their guided notes, and even summarize or pose new questions to address.

After viewing:

Once I had all the previous elements more or less in place, I found there were still times that "TV mode" reared its ugly head. That's when I understood that even with all the video preparation, I still needed to provide a way for my students to go beyond the guided notes they took. Here are some of the things that have worked for me:

Turn and talk. Students can discuss key points in partnerships, using their guided notes as a way to explain the content to each other.

Learning event. Using a "Did you know...?" format, students can create short sound bites to share with the class or with other classes.

Concept maps. Students can create concept maps based on prior knowledge and new ideas gleaned from the video segments.

Problem solvers. Students use information from the video to answer a question or solve a problem.

Video curators. Students find a video clip that explains a specific key point not clearly discussed in the original video presented, and share it with the class.

Video creators. Using the segment presented as a model, students develop their own educational videos or documentaries.

I still believe that using videos is a great way to engage students, and I continue to find myself looking for "perfect" videos. However, now that I have understood that there is a big difference between playing a movie and using videos as a teaching tool, I am a lot more strategic when including them. It does take some work, but your students and classroom will reap the benefits. Do you have other tools or tips to share? I would love to know about them.

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'Watch-Think-Write' and Other Proven Strategies for Using Video in the Classroom | KQED

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One of the first things I added to my teacher tool kit during my first few years of teaching was video. As a science middle school teacher, I saw using documentaries as an effective strategy.

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What Is The "Painted Essay™"? Download a PDF that explains and gives a sample of a Painted Essay™ When we write, we are both constructing and communicating meaning about some body of knowledge or set of ideas. To be effective,

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Sketchnotes, visual note taking, allows students to creatively demonstrate their thinking and learning. Through this visual note-taking style, students can add text, icons, and drawings in a creative manner.

To sketchnote, students can live sketch or post sketch.

Live Sketching: Students create a sketchnote as they listen to a video or lecture.
Post Sketch: Students create a sketchnote after reading or listening.

Students can sketchnote with a pencil and paper or using a variety of apps on a mobile device like an iPad. My favorite is the Notability app ($$). Other free apps are available that provide similar features including Inkflow, Adobe Draw, or Paper 53.

Ideas to Incorporate Sketch Notes

Students locate and read an article. After reading, students create a sketchnote representing the main ideas. Share the sketchnotes with the class to view additional ideas and thoughts.

Use sketchnotes as a research log. Each day students create quick notes of where they are in the process.

In lieu of a traditional short paper, students create sketchnotes synthesizing the information.

Locate a TED Talk that relates to the curriculum. Live sketch the talk as a whole class, small group, or individual activity.

Students sketchnote the theme or events from a novel.

Students research a historical event and develop a sketchnote that addresses the significance and connection to today.

Getting Started

View the resources available. Sylvia Duckworth has several tutorials, links, and examples. Many educators are blogging about how they use sketch noting with a variety of grade levels. Check out the Twitter hashtag #sketchnotes to view other ideas.

Practice with a TED talk or article. Click here to view TED talks for education.

Locate many examples available and post on the library walls or library website for students to view. Encourage students to develop their own style.

Create opportunities for students to practice. A quick way to get started involves students visually sketching a favorite quote with text, icons, and more. Help students develop a style-provide a list of example icons, fonts, and more.

Resources

Syliva Duckworth's Sketchnoting for Beginners

Kathy Shrock's Sketchnoting Links

Have you incorporated sketchnoting into your instructional toolkit? Let's us know how you got started.

Categories: Blog Topics, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models, Technology

Tags: Instruction, technology

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Sketchnoting in the Library - Knowledge Quest

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Sketchnotes, visual note taking, allows students to creatively demonstrate their thinking and learning. Through this visual note-taking style, students can add text, icons, and drawings in a creative manner. To sketchnote, students can live sketch or post sketch. Live Sketching: Students create a sketchnote as they listen to a video or lecture.

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Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique.

The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential - yet often overlooked - lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life.

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What is the QFT? - Right Question Institute

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The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple but rigorous step-by-step process designed to help […]

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By Brandon Cline, Divinity School and Teaching Consultant at the Chicago Center for Teaching

The Power of Questions

While asking questions may seem a simple task, it is perhaps the most powerful tool we possess as teachers. If we ask the right question of the right student at the right moment we may inspire her to new heights of vision and insight. A good question can excite, disturb, or comfort, and eventually yield an unexpected bounty of understanding and critical awareness. But even apart from such serendipitous moments, question-asking serves many functions that make it the stock in trade of the skillful teacher.

Good questions can:

Motivate student learning and fuel curiosity

Foster intellectual development and stimulate critical thinking

Guide discussion and shape a positive learning environment

While mastering the art of asking good questions is a lifelong pursuit, the following are four steps you can take to begin improving your question-asking practices.

Step One: Perform a Question-Asking Audit

Multiple observational studies have found that as many as ninety percent of teachers' questions focus on low-level cognitive skills such as memorization and recall. Moreover, we may be unaware of our overreliance on this level of questioning. Therefore, the first step to asking better questions is to perform a question-asking audit to assess the kinds of questions you tend to ask in class. For instance, ask a colleague to observe your class and document your questions. Or record a class session and write down the questions you asked. Afterwards, categorize the questions according to Bloom's taxonomy, using the results to evaluate the diversity and balance of your questioning practices. By periodically performing such audits, you can measure the development of your technique.

Step Two: Build a Question-Asking Tool Kit

By considering the different kinds of questions you might have asked in your audit, in addition to those you did, you begin to build a question-asking tool kit. A question-asking tool kit is a list of the kinds of questions you might ask your students in any situation, categorized in a useful form. Taxonomies of question-types abound, but developing your own inventory will furnish you with a useful repertoire from which to draw. Below is a sample inventory based on Bloom's taxonomy; you can find others among the resources at the end of this guide.

Sample Question Tool Kit Based on Bloom's Taxonomy

Lowest to Highest

Cognitive Skills

Example Questions

Requires students to recognize or recall information.

How far is Rome from the Mediterranean Sea?

What are the species of ancient rhetoric?

Comprehension

Requires students to restate without verbatim repetition or to cite examples, thereby demonstrating deeper understanding.

Explain the process of mitosis in your own words.

Can you give some examples of deliberative rhetoric?

Application

Requires students to solve a problem by applying their learning to a new situation.

Look at the following paragraph. As described in your reading from Quintillian, what rhetorical features of prooemia (introductions) can you identify?

Select a series of chords and play them in a chromatic sequence.

Analysis

Requires students to break down a concept or diagnose a situation into constituent parts, and to explain their interrelationships. Questions of comparison or analogy ("How is X like Z?") may also be classified here.

What factors led to the persecution of early Christians?

Break down the arguments that the author uses to support his hypothesis.

How does the artist use shapes and color to emphasize melancholy in this painting?

Compare Philippians 2:6-11 with Mark 10:42-45. How do these authors use the figure of Jesus as a model of humility?

Synthesis

Requires students to use original thought to creatively solve a new problem. Requires students to put together material for themselves into a new whole or in a new form.

How would you design an experiment to show the effect of education on income?

How would you arrange Bloom's taxonomy in light of new research in cognitive science?

How would you compare Augustine's and Luther's understandings of the relationship between church and state (analysis)? Based on the strengths and weaknesses of their ideas, what understanding of that relationship would you propose (synthesis)?

Evaluation

Requires students to make judgments, according to appropriate criteria, about the value of a given work, idea, method, proposal, etc.

How well did the composition exhibit the principle of harmony?

How internally consistent is Augustine in making his case?

What is the value of Wikipedia as a knowledge resource?

If drugs were legalized, what would be the implications for public health?

You will find that other tool-kits use different terminology or add categories that either supplement Bloom's-such as hypothetical questions (What if Constantine had been defeated at the Milvian bridge?), challenge questions (Why do you think that? What counter-evidence might you cite?), and affective questions (Was there anything that made you uncomfortable? Why?)-or relate to class process (How does that comment connect to what was previously said? What themes have emerged from today's discussion?). When you study such typologies, make them your own by coming up with categories that make sense to you and listing example questions from your own discipline.

Tips for Using Your Tool Kit:

1. Always keep your tool kit handy. If you make your typology simple and easy to remember, it can remain in the back of your mind as class progresses, allowing you to mentally match possible questions to the needs of the moment.

2. Use a lot of different tools. Aim to vary the types and levels of the questions you ask. This will deepen discussion and improve critical thinking. As Mark Twain put it, "If your only tool is a hammer, pretty soon all the world appears to be a nail."

3. Use the right tool for the right job. Choose the right kind of question at the right moment for your learning goals. Just as one naturally considers the order in which each class segment falls within one's teaching plan, so one should consider how each segment might be best explored.

Step Three: Cultivate Your Question-Asking Style

Masterful question-asking attends not only to what questions one is asking, but also to how one is asking them. Question-asking style encompasses such elements as the phrasing and word choice of questions, non-verbal communication, and reaction time to student responses. These can have an enormous impact on engagement and student learning, and the skillful teacher will use them mindfully to regulate classroom dynamics.

Phrasing and word choice

Want to create a break or mark a transition? Ask a factual or summative question to mark where discussion has gone.

Want to invite more participation? Use your word choice to increase student involvement. For instance, "Charles, give us your conclusion, please," offers little leeway to decline an invitation to speak, thus putting students on the defensive; on the other hand, "Charles, would you be willing to offer your conclusion?" is much less agonistic. Inserting "wriggle room" clauses ("That's a tough one, Fred-at least for me-but can you get us started?") can also reduce anxiety and encourage participation.

Want to encourage interactivity? Design questions that relate a comment to previous contributions or build on what others have said. ("Mark, would you agree with Lucy on this point?" "How does that comment relate to what Jack said?") Phrased this way, your questions encourage students to listen to each others' responses and to begin making their own connections.

Want to heighten student engagement? Use more challenge questions ("Why do you think that? What evidence supports your hypothesis?") or deploy a series of short, quickly answered informational questions to speed up the tempo or prepare for more involved questions.

Want to regulate the mood? Make the discussion cool down or heat up by changing the level of abstraction and personalization in your questions. "Do you believe in abortion in cases of rape or incest?" is far more emotive than "What political, economic, and ethical factors affect the national debate on abortion?" In some cases you may wish to heighten the personal involvement of participants; in other cases you may wish to encourage detachment.

Want to give closure to a segment or session? Ask students a generalizing or summative question. ("If you had to pick out three themes that surfaced most often in our discussion today, what would they be?")

Emotional tone and non-verbals

Factors such as voice level, facial expressions, bodily posture, and eye contact can profoundly affect the interpretation of one's questions. A simple question like "What do you think?" can communicate hostility or geniality depending on the questioner's emphasis and demeanor. A loud question delivered with sweeping gestures can stir the pot, while one deliberately and softly spoken can calm the room and invite self-reflection. While the needs of the moment may dictate which you choose, your question-asking will be most successful if you strive to use your tone, facial expressions, and gestures to communicate a sense of spirited inquiry rather than of student interrogation.

Think Time (aka Wait Time)

Think time is the amount of time a teacher waits for a response to a question. While the interval may feel like an eternity to the teacher, studies have documented that the average teacher's wait-time is-remarkably-less than one second. Instead, get in the habit of pausing at least five seconds (and sometimes more) after both a question and the student response. According to research conducted by Columbia University, when teachers waited at least five seconds after asking a question, students lengthened their responses, backed up their claims with evidence, and became less teacher-directed and more peer-directed.

Step Four: Further Refine Your Technique

Refine your technique with these quick tips:

Prepare questions in advance. Remember, it takes time to design effective questions. As you prepare for class, brainstorm questions and questioning strategies. As you come up with a list, think through the range of possible outcomes and responses to your questions. This will help you feel more prepared to let discussion flow while maintaining a sense of overall control. A good list will also ensure that you ask many different kinds of questions over the course of the class.

Think about the sequence of your questions. No matter which sequence you choose (simple to complex, general to specific), it is helpful to have a game plan in mind. For instance, you may want to ask informational questions at the beginning of a unit to "prime the discussion pump" and to uncover material from which later synthetic questions will draw.

Come up with alternatives to "Are there any questions?" Students may feel discouraged from responding to "Are there any questions" for a host of reasons: peer pressure, not wanting to appear inadequate, fearing to seemingly criticize the teacher, etc. To overcome such resistance, consider rephrasing: "Now, I'm sure you have some questions", or "That was complicated. What did I leave out?" Moreover, such moments are prime opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding as a check of their learning. Instead of "Are there any questions?", try a more proactive "Why did I substitute this value in this equation?" or "How would you summarize the argument I just advanced?"

Debrief yourself after each class. Make notes on the more or less successful questioning tactics of the day's session. Which questions generated the liveliest engagement? Which interactions did not go well, and why?

Ask questions you don't know the answers to. Students often enter college with the notion that asking questions somehow reveals a failure of understanding. Asking questions you don't know the answers to is one way of communicating to your students that you value risk-taking and good questions just as much as "right" answers. Modeling the process of inquiry for your students sometimes involves venturing into uncharted territory and thinking through solutions with your students that may lead to dead ends!

Keep billy club questioning to a minimum. As C. Roland Christensen notes, questions can be shepherd's staffs or a billy-clubs. While question-asking may be used to check who has completed the reading or to compel student attention, overreliance on questions as an enforcement mechanism can sour classroom ecology and communicate the wrong message about the value and purpose of questions.

Selected Resources

1. C. Roland Christensen, "The Discussion Leader in Action: Questioning, Listening, and Response", Education for Judgment: The Artistry of Discussion Leadership (Boston: Harvard Business School, 1991), 99-122. A sensitive and quite helpful approach to the "triptych" of discussion leading: questioning, listening, and responding.

2. Thomas Kasulis, "Questioning", The Art and Craft of Teaching (Edited by Margaret Morganroth Gullette; Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984), 38-48. Especially good on the procedural and personal dimensions of question-asking.

3. Barbara Gross Davis, "Asking Questions", Tools for Teaching (2nd ed; Jossey-Bass, 2009), 82-90. Helpful quick summation of research with further references.

4. "Questions and Questioning Techniques", Teaching Pedagogy to Graduate Student Instructors (Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, University of Texas at Austin), 109-26. A thorough presentation loaded with tips; especially strong on Bloom's taxonomy.

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Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning

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By Brandon Cline, Divinity School and Teaching Consultant at the Chicago Center for Teaching While asking questions may seem a simple task, it is perhaps the most powerful tool we possess as teachers. If we ask the right question of the right student at the right moment we may inspire her to new heights of vision and insight.

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Would You Rather Math – ASKING STUDENTS TO CHOOSE A PATH AND JUSTIFY IT WITH MATH

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Teachers, sign up for my mini-workshop to learn about how to implement Would You Rather Math into your classroom routines. We will explore some sentence frames, what happens when things don’t go as planned, how to use the prompts in a remote learning setting, and much more. See you there!

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Instructions
First, decorate your poster, and discuss the idea.

How can curiosity make the world a better place?

Why is it good to ask questions and track down the answers?

Why is it important to ask some of the suggested questions on this poster, questions like "What is it like to be them?"

Next, decorate your wall.

Glue or tape your "I Wonder..." poster to the top of your poster paper.

Sponge paint a brick pattern across your wall, as shown.

Allow it to dry.

Hang with masking tape.

Place pens and sticky notes nearby, to record questions as they come up.

Reflection Questions

Let's read the suggested questions at the top of the poster. Which questions are your favorite? Why?

What are you wondering right now? Let's add those to the poster!

Have you ever had a big question but felt like no one was listening? Let's talk about some things you can do next time that happens. (Suggestions can include adding your idea to the wonder wall or letting someone know by saying "I have a question that is important to me. Do you have time to talk?")

When should we plan to search for answers to our "I wonder" questions? Set a specific time, like just after family dinner or over pancakes on a weekend morning.

Resources

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Create an "I Wonder" Wall - Doing Good Together™

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First, decorate your poster, and discuss the idea. How can curiosity make the world a better place? Why is it good to ask questions and track down the answers? Why is it important to ask some of the suggested questions on this poster, questions like "What is it like to be them?"

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5 Ways to Use Word Clouds in the Classroom

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5 Ways to Use Word Clouds in the Classroom

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Try these strategies for creating and using word clouds to help students better understand a topic and see it from a different angle.

Michael Morgenstern / The iSpot

Can a word cloud promote student engagement? If you're looking to boost student participation and increase motivation, a word cloud might be a great fit for your classroom. But first...

What Is a Word Cloud?

A word cloud is a visual representation of information or data. It shows the popularity of words or phrases by making the most frequently used words appear larger or bolder compared with the other words around them. A word cloud contains a set of data such as a list of words, text from a blog post, or a collection of written items like a series of articles.

Even if the term is new to you, you may have come across a word cloud in a few places. For example, sometimes a news article will include a word cloud to show a high level of interest in a topic.

Why Are Word Clouds Useful?

The word cloud graphic is a visual representation that supplements a section of text to help readers better understand an idea or approach a subject from a different angle.

A word cloud shows off trends. For example, if you run the text of five articles about sharks through a word cloud generator, some of the biggest, boldest words in the word cloud might be ocean (where sharks live), large (their size), or boat (where research is taking place). You can also use word clouds with student-submitted words or phrases.

How to Create a Word Cloud With Students

A word cloud generator is a tool that lets you copy and paste a selection of text, and then it automatically pulls out the words that appear most frequently and makes them larger or sets them in bold. Although there are a few different tools you can use to create a word cloud (if you look up "word cloud generator" you'll see what I mean), I like one tool in particular, Mentimeter, because you can use it for doing things beyond word clouds, including setting up brain breaks where you might want students to answer quick questions. While you have to create an account, it's free to use-I only use the free plan.

If you set up a free account, you'll see a button at the top of the screen where you can share the word cloud maker with students, and you'll decide what type of activity to try out.

5 Word Cloud Activities

Choose two words to describe how you're feeling today.

How would you describe the character we read about yesterday?

Skim this article and add two words that jump out at you.

1. Start off with a do now: Do a pulse check, a quick read of the room so that students can share ideas at the beginning of a lesson. Use a prompt like one of these:

For this activity, give students a word bank to choose from by posting suggestions in a shared space. Ask them to brainstorm some words as a group or turn and talk to a partner before adding to the word cloud. A do-now activity can feel low stakes for students but gives you useful information or examples you can point back to during a lesson. There are a few more word cloud prompts in my new book, EdTech Essentials: The Top 10 Technology Strategies for All Learning Environments, along with more strategies for using digital tools with students.

Which words did you struggle to pronounce, spell, or wrap your head around?

If another student is studying this topic, which words do they need to know and use?

Which words have you been using more in your own writing or conversations?

2. Spotlight a challenging vocabulary word: Just like a do-now activity, this is ready for you to customize for grade level or subject area. After discussing a new topic, reviewing a concept, or reflecting on a previous activity, ask students to choose one or two words that were particularly challenging. Try a prompt like the following:

Depending on the results in the word cloud, you can start a conversation with students about how to tackle challenging words, or you might decide to revisit these words in upcoming units of study.

Meet (I will meet with my group today)

Research (I will research where pandas live)

Ask (I will ask my partner for feedback on my writing)

3. Share an action word: This can be a word connected to what students plan to do next or a goal they have. Share examples such as:

Similar to the first activity on the list, you can give students a word bank to refer to or a handful of examples to get their wheels going. Like all of the activities on this list, a "think aloud," where you model your thinking for students, can be particularly useful for introducing the new word cloud routine.

After teaching about an event in history: "Who would you like to learn more about?"

When the class has accomplished a big goal: "What does it feel like now that we've reached this milestone?"

After a field trip: "What word would you use to describe today's experience?"

4. Reflect on an experience: With this activity, you might use a prompt like the following:

Students can elaborate on an experience in a more formal response, but sharing one word in this collaborative activity is a good start. For example, if your students had a great time with a guest speaker or visiting a special place, you can include this word cloud in a thank-you card or follow-up note.

Which season is your favorite?

What ice cream flavor is top of your list?

Which sport could you watch all day, every day?

5. Share a favorite: Whether it's connected to course content or related to a favorite food, students really like talking about things they love. Consider asking a question like:

Using a quick activity like "share a favorite" to open a lesson or close out a week is a great option for bringing students together to talk a little bit about themselves and building community. I hope these five ideas feel flexible enough for you to tailor word clouds to every subject.

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5 Ways to Use Word Clouds in the Classroom

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Try these strategies for creating and using word clouds to help students better understand a topic and see it from a different angle.

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I believe that peer feedback is critical for students. Part of this is the nature of peer interactions. Peers are often able to share their thoughts in a more relatable way than teachers. Another part is simply the time limits that teachers have. Even with student conferencing, teachers can only offer so much immediate feedback. However, with quality peer feedback, students can get an extra pair of eyes to figure out what they need to do next.

When I mention this to fellow teachers, the first concern is usually time. We don't want to burn an entire class period on peer feedback. The second concern is structural. We've all had times when students simply shrug their shoulders and say, "Looks good to me." So, how do we pull it off?

Over the last few years, I have worked on a twenty-minute system. None of this is new. This process (pitching, clarifying, offering feedback, paraphrasing, and coming up with next steps) has existed in many forms for years. So, I don't claim to be original at all here. I'm just tossing out what's worked for me. You can find it in the video below:

<a class="fasc-button fasc-size-medium fasc-type-flat fasc-ico-before dashicons-format-video" style="background-color: #00bceb; color: #000000;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="bit.ly/spencervideos">Subscribe to YouTube Channel</a>

The System

The way this works is simple. Members from different groups pair up and engage in a five-step process. Each step takes two minutes. You, as a teacher, can keep a timer going and say, "next" when it is time to move to the next phase. In the first phase, the first partner gives an "elevator pitch" sharing the product. Next, the second partner asks clarifying questions while the first partner answers the questions. The rule is that there cannot be any feedback given. It has to be question and answer. Afterward, they move into the feedback stage, where the second partner gives specific feedback. This is followed by paraphrasing. Finally, they land on next steps. When this is done, the partners switch roles.

Part Two:

Final Thoughts

Note that sometimes it works best to front-load the first step by having students read one another's work ahead of time. When this happens, it gives the second partner the chance to have a solid context for what the first partner is going to say. Also note that the first time you use this structure with students they will most likely ask for more time. However, the more you use this structure the more comfortable they will be with how it works. You might even need to model it with students first.

Get Your FREE Authentic Assessment Toolkit

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I believe that peer feedback is critical for students. Part of this is the nature of peer interactions. Peers are often able to share their thoughts in a more relatable way than teachers. Another part

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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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Scaffolding Discussion Skills with a Socratic Circle

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Scaffolding Discussion Skills with a Socratic Circle

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Scaffolding Discussion Skills With a Socratic Circle | Edutopia

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Students deepen their understanding and build a sense of community by engaging with their peers' reasoned arguments.

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Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn | KQED

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By understanding the level of learning and intentionality in our mistakes, we can identify what helps us grow as learners.