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Please use the following to log your activities within the Padlet or when we meet.

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Ohio Literacy Academy- Online Literacy PD - FREE

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Ohio Literacy Academy- Online Literacy PD - FREE

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The Department's seventh annual Literacy Academy is returning live and in-person on June 10-11, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus. Resources from this year's event will be available on the Department's website.

Resources

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The Department's seventh annual Literacy Academy is returning live and in-person on June 10-11, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus. Resources from this year's event will be available on the Department's website.

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Read and make a list for yourself of who your Marigolds are.

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State Board of Education of Ohio sent this bulletin at 10/15/2025 09:30 AM EDT

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Educator Essentials October 2025 Newsletter

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Watch the video then share a reflection & note how your thinking has changed or not changed after watching this.

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Rick Wormeli: Redos, Retakes, and Do-Overs, Part One

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Watch the video then share a reflective paragraph. How does your formative and summative assessment practices match? What are your goals to improve your assessments based on this video.

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Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment

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Mastery is such a mystery for many of us. How can the ideas Rick Wormeli shares support your students and your instruction?

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Share how this article will support your assessment protocols and assessment design.

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How can you ensure your assessments provide accurate feedback?

What's the best way to assess students' learning? During the past several years, we have developed a process that help us ensure we are using valid, effective, and rigorous assessments with our students-a process that every middle level teacher can use.

Step 1. Deconstruct the standards.

First, identify the standards that will be addressed in a given unit of study. Then deconstruct each standard. Deconstructing a standard involves breaking the standard into numerous learning targets and then aligning each of the learning targets to varying levels of achievement.

In their book, An Introduction to Student-Involved Assessment for Learning, Rick Stiggins and Jan Chappuis cite four levels of achievement:

1. Knowledge-Focusing on knowing and understanding, such as vocabulary, syntactic structures, numbers, and numeration systems.

2. Reasoning-Using knowledge and understandings to solve problems and interpret information.

3. Performance skills-Processing; turning knowledge into action.

4. Products-Creating "tangible products" that represent the application of the content-for example, a science fair project or a creative writing piece.

Table 1 provides an example of how this deconstruction might appear for a sixth grade math unit based on the CCSS

Table 1
Deconstructing Standards Based on Common Core State Standards

CCSS Standard
Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution, which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape.

Levels of Achievement
Knowledge

Reasoning

Performance Skills

Proactive Strategies (Products)

Learning Targets
* Define statistical question and distribution.
* Identify center, spread, and shape of a distribution of data.

* Read/consider scenarios; determine the need for data to be collected.
* Develop an appropriate statistical question to collect data.

* Compare and contrast data collected to other pools of data.
* Collect, organize, and analyze data.

* Report/display data based on a statistical question.
* Report data to an interested or affected audience.

Step 2: Align items and levels of thinking.

When the specific learning targets have been derived from the standard, consider the assessment you will use to determine if students have learned the material. This assessment may be a traditional paper-pencil test with multiple-choice questions, matching, and short-answer items, or perhaps a performance-based assessment such as a project or lab. Regardless, the assessment must align with the learning targets derived from the standard(s).

Additionally, the items within the test (or the expectations within a project) must cover a variety of critical-thinking levels. A chart or table works well to track the alignment between learning targets and items and to examine the distribution of critical-thinking items. Table 2 illustrates the beginning of the process using Bloom's Taxonomy: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. (Webb's Depth of Knowledge could also be used.)

Table 2
Tracking the Alignment Between Learning Targets and Assessment Items

Step 3: Create valid and reliable assessments.

Before actually implementing assessments, ensure that the assessment items are valid and reliable.

Validity relates to the interpretation of results. Can a teacher make accurate assessments about a student's knowledge and skills based on the student's outcomes on any particular assessment? If the assessment tool is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring, it's much easier for the teacher to recognize the knowledge and skills of each student.

Reliability focuses on consistency in a student's results. If the assessment tool is reliable, the student should score the same regardless of the day the assessment is given, the time of day, or who is grading it.

If an assessment is valid, it will be reliable. However, just because an assessment is reliable does not mean it is valid. To promote both validity and reliability in an assessment, use specific guidelines for each traditional assessment item (e.g., multiple-choice, matching). Use the guidelines in Table 3.

Table 3
Guidelines to Promote Validity and Reliability in Traditional Assessment Items

Directions refer to specific headings and address "extra response."

Right column "answers" listed in alphabetical/ numerical order.

Specify point value for each response.

Right column contains one more item than left.

Only one accurate response to the question.

The elements in each column are homogeneous.

Items clearly indicate the desired response.

Each column has at least 7 elements, and neither has more than 10 elements.

Answers are placed on specified location (no lines).

Item strongly aligns with learning target(s).

Column headings are specific and descriptive.

No writing/grammar/spelling errors.

Point value is specified for each blank.

Missing information is limited to 1-2 words.

Item clearly indicates the desired response.

Item strongly aligns with learning target(s).

There is only one accurate response to the question.

No writing/grammar/spelling errors.

Multiple-Choice Questions

Point value is specified for each response.

Options do not include "all of the above" and "none of the above."

Stem is written in the form of a question.

All answer options are of similar length.

Question clearly indicates the desired response.

Item strongly aligns with learning target(s).

There is only one accurate response to the question.

No writing/grammar/spelling errors.

Four plausible options are provided.

Short-Answer Questions

Point value is specified for each response.

There are multiple correct responses.

Application and higher-order questions are included.

Item strongly aligns with learning target(s).

Question clearly indicates the desired response.

No writing/grammar/spelling errors.

Item asks for 3-5 distinct elements only.

Essay question is clear and includes multiple components.

No lists of factual pieces of information.

Rubric is used and point value is specified for each component.

Item strongly aligns with learning target(s).

Focuses on higher-order critical thinking.

No writing/grammar/spelling errors.

No "right" answer; multiple possible responses.

Step 4: Take items to the next level with rigor and relevance.

Teachers are asked to increase the rigor of their assessments but are not always given useful ways of doing so. A good place to start is with items you already have. Here are some fundamental components of rigor and relevance and ways to increase both in classroom assessments.

With rigorous assessments, the goal should be for the student to move up Bloom's Taxonomy ladder. That entails adding reflective components and encouraging critical and creative thought. With increased rigor, students:

Think accurately and with clarity.

Identify and consider multiple meanings.

Engage in disciplined inquiry and thought.

Work outside the norm.

Transfer knowledge to various situations.

Adjust approach when thrown a curve ball.

Tolerate uncertainty and persevere.

Ensuring relevance means students can make a connection to their lives. The assessments are interdisciplinary, contextual, and authentic. Examples include authentic problem-solving tasks, simulations, and service-learning projects.

You can see the difference between low rigor/relevance and more rigor/relevance in these examples:

Low rigor/relevance: What are the factors of production? What is consumption?

More rigor/relevance: Create a flow chart or diagram that shows the factors of production and your role as a consumer.

Step 5: Make assessment part of planning ... not an afterthought.

To assess effectively, it is important to think about assessments prior to creating lesson plans. For the summative, end-of-unit assessments, consider what you want your students to know and be able to do, then plan lessons with this knowledge and these skills in mind. By doing so, you can ensure you are engaging students in learning activities that lead them to success on the summative assessments. Deconstructing standards and drafting assessment items facilitates this outcome.

Fast, Fun, Functional

In addition to summative assessments, it's important to formatively assess students within instructional units so they don't get lost along the way. The formative assessments serve as a guide to ensure you are meeting students' needs and students are attaining the knowledge and skills being taught.

Quizzes are, of course, a great way to achieve this, but there are other effective ways to formatively assess student learning. Here are our top fast, fun, and functional formative (F4) assessments:

1. Bell ringer: Ask a question at the beginning of class; ask the same question at end of class to determine student learning.

2. Partner interviews: Students interview each other and record responses. The teacher provides one question and each student creates the others.

3. Exit slips: Mix it up. Students can post sticky notes on the door as they leave the room. Ensure higher-level items are included as appropriate.

4. Journal of learning: Once a week, students write their key understandings of the content. There's potential for critical and creative thinking.

5. Electronic response systems: Track individual student responses using programs like Google forms, clickers, and KahootIt.

6. Seven-word summary: Students summarize the lesson in seven words. This allows the teacher to gauge students' understanding of key concepts.

7. Students as teachers: Provide students with the work of a previous (anonymous) student and have them grade or evaluate the work for understanding of the concept.

Gaining Clarity

For assessments to be effective for both teachers and students, it is imperative to use a backwards-design approach by determining the assessment tools and items prior to developing lesson plans. Once you start to plan your lessons for a unit of study, it's appropriate to refer to the assessment plan and make changes as necessary in order to ensure proper alignment between the instruction and the assessment.

Using the item-writing checklists will help ensure the assessments you create are reliable and valid, which means you will have a more accurate picture of what your students know and are able to do with respect to the content taught.

While it is easy to think about assessments at the end of a unit of study, teachers really need to think about how to embed formative assessments along the way. Quality formative assessments allow teachers to better remediate and enrich when needed; this means the students will also do better on the end-of-unit summative assessments.

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Ensuring Valid, Effective, Rigorous Assessments - AMLE

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What's the best way to assess students' learning? These teachers developed a process that help ensure they are using valid, effective, and rigorous assessments with students - a process that every middle level teacher can use.

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Use this tool to design your instruction/assessment.

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Read the article and then share your thoughts on how to revise your self-assessment practices or celebrate practices that are spot on for self-assessment.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Sound Walls with Dr. Mary Dahlgren - Episode 7

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Please read this article then write a reflection and share how you plan to use this article with your parents/families.

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Home-to-school communications - what's in your toolbox? What are you missing? Who are you missing? What could you add to improve your home-to-school communications and, in turn, strengthen relations and increase support?

Each school community is unique, with unique resources and needs. Not only is each school unique, but often, so is each year. With needs and available resources constantly changing, so must we. It's important that we reevaluate our needs and goals each year.

There are many options out there. The best tool is face-to-face. This is not about replacing that time-tested communication model. Unfortunately, for many reasons, face-to-face is not always possible, so we need to supplement and offer alternatives. What can you offer to maintain open lines of communication with everyone, regardless of their ability to speak in person?

Defining the Conversation

Before filling your toolbox, assess your needs, resources, and goals. Here are some questions to get you started:

What tools does your community have access to?

Do not assume this answer. Ask the question. Put out a short poll at the start of the year, such as during your open house or at Back to School Night. Income no longer dictates families' ability to access the Internet. More and more, with smartphones, tablets, and inexpensive laptops, people have some sort of access. A survey that Joe Mazza created for our school simply asked:

My child is in __ grade.

My child has regular access to a computer at home with Internet access to support academics. Yes - No

I have access to email. Yes - No (If you answered no, please provide your name and your child's, and we will provide hard copies of communications.)

I mostly access the Internet for school communications on my:

Home computer

Work computer

Mobile device

Other (please specify) _______

What is the purpose of the tool?

Do you want to engage parents in conversations? Or simply share information out?

How often will the information change?

For frequent changes, you don't want a tool that is cumbersome for editing content.

How is the information being received?

On a computer, cell phone, tablet? Check for compatibility.

Now to choose your tools . . .

One-Way Tools

Remind (formerly Remind 101): A one-way group texting service that doesn't require sharing phone numbers.

Mobile App: This tool provides access to information at the touch of a button. Read more on building a school app here.

A virtual bulletin board for sharing articles, pictures, and links to videos or websites. Here's an example of a middle school modeling its use.

eNewsletters: They can be read any time, anywhere. Consider these approaches:

Smore creates electronic flyers that let you insert pictures, videos, maps, links, surveys, and more. Flyers are easily shared through email or social media at the click of a button. The analytics provide you with the number of views, source of traffic, location of readers, links clicked, etc. Here's how one elementary school uses Smore.

FlipSnack is an e-magazine format. As this school eNewsletter shows, it's as easy as uploading a PDF to a website.

Photo hosting sites: Sites like Picasa or Phanfare are not communication tools per se, but pictures can tell a story, show learning, and start a dialogue.

QR codes: Quick Response codes offer many possibilities for use in the classroom and with parents. Here's a great post on ways to use QR codes at back to school night.

Two-Way Tools

Blogs: Staff can write them, but so can students of all ages. What better way for parents to see the learning through the students' eyes and contribute to the conversation? Read these tips to start blogging with students.

Google Drive: This tool simplifies collaborating on a document. All individuals given access to the document can view, edit and/or comment -- live. This is how we create our school newsletter content with parents and staff. We also use it for our daily announcements. Our docs are created in, read from, and then shared with parents.

Social media: This popular format enables you to share out the learning and good "stuff" that students and staff are doing; engage those outside of the school walls in conversations that are happening inside them; and spark conversations at home about learning. Parents can reference a specific lesson, not simply ask, "What did you learn in school today?"

Facebook is used by many parents, so you're going to where they often already are. You have the option to use it for an open group (like this middle school) or a closed group.

Twitter is another site that lets you easily share the learning that happens throughout the day, on field trips and at events or assemblies. Our school Twitter account is linked to our Facebook page, and the feed is placed on our website homepage (everyone can see our tweets even if they don't have Twitter). Schools can extend the conversation and host their own Twitterchat, like #TMSHawkChat. With not as many parents using Twitter, you may need to offer a training session or how-to guide that will encourage use and maximize conversations.

Live streaming: Parents can watch and participate in presentations with a class, read to students, watch assemblies, and participate virtually in PTO meetings using sites like Google+, Skype, AnyMeeting, and GoToMeeting. We even had a grandparent Skype in for Grandparents' Day.

This push-to-talk messaging app allows for individual or group conversations, and sharing pictures and text messages -- without ever sharing phone numbers. This video demonstrates its use.

In the end, don't forget to spread the word and offer training on how to use the tools (for staff, parents, and students). Tools are useless if no one is using them.

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Home-to-school communications - what's in your toolbox? What are you missing? Who are you missing? What could you add to improve your home-to-school communications and, in turn, strengthen relations and increase support? Each school community is unique, with unique resources and needs. Not only is each school unique, but often, so is each year.

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Read and select 2 NEW formative assessment practices to implement. In a reflection paragraph share your thoughts on this document AND share what these 2 goals are.

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Use this to familiarize yourself with the similarities and differences. Great tool to keep in your lesson planning notebook. Also great tool for to use as you work on your teacher evaluation.

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Download and complete this activity. This can be used during one of our meetings as a topic to work on together then set goals for yourself to spice up your use of student feedback.

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Descriptive or Evaluative Feedback Activity

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West Virginia Phonics- Tools4Reading Site

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West Virginia Phonics- Tools4Reading Site

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West Virginia Phonics is a systematic & explicit phonics program that includes pre-planned phonics lessons and includes words lists & decodable passages. Dr. Dahlgren's site holds the links to all the lessons. Developed by the West Virginia Department of Education.

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Evaluate your personal feedback practices. Download, fill in and share with me via email or Google. Set 2 goals for yourself & write goal beside these and/or highlight them.

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Download, read and choose at least 2 as goals for your instruction. Note these goals and share with me via email or Google.

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What is Comprehension?   Featuring Joan Sedita

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What is Comprehension?   Featuring Joan Sedita

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This video shares Scarborough's Rope which is a foundational piece of The Science of Reading research.

Watch this video and share with me your reflective thoughts and how you will move your instruction toward this model.

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What Is Comprehension? The Five Components of Reading

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Watch this video and share a reflective paragraph regarding this research & how your thinking may have shifted. How can this research be used in your instruction to improve your students reading?

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David Kilpatrick "How We Remember Words, and Why Some Children Don't"

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Watch this video to discover how The Simple View of Reading is entwined within the Reading Rope and The Science of Reading research.

Share a reflective paragraph on how you are already working toward the use of Science of Reading practices AND share how you wish to move toward these research based practices.

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In a reflection share how you have used self-assessment then share how you might make changes based on the article.

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 EdWeek Blog: Student Self-Assessment Practices that Work

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Investigate the ODE Gifted Site. Take note of the regulations and Ohio's Gifted law.    Read and discover how students are identified, assessed and are to be serviced in accordance with Ohio's Gifted law.

Share a reflection.

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Rules, Regulations and Policies for Gifted Education | Ohio Department of Education

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On July 16, 2018, the Joint Committee for Agency Rule Review approved the revised gifted operating standards (Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-15). These rules, effective July 27, 2018, provide districts with increased flexibility while also ensuring quality education services for students who are g…

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What is Reading? The Simple View of Reading 

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What is Reading? The Simple View of Reading 

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Please watch and become familiar with the Simple View of Reading.
Share a paragraph reflection.

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Watch then share a reflection that includes your thoughts on incorporating articulation in your work with learning to read.

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Dr. Mary Dahlgren "Sound Walls and Phonemes"

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Top 10 Questions to Ask Myself as I Design Lessons

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Top 10 Questions to Ask Myself as I Design Lessons

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Download and fill in, share with me via Google or email.

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Dr. Dahlgren shares the brain science of a fluent reader.
Watch then share a reflection.

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Dr. Mary Dahlgren Explains the Fluent Reader's Brain

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Download and fill this out. Adding the word GOAL to at least 1 of these. Save in your Google folder.

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Mentoring Practices for Growth and Professional Learning

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Mentoring Practices for Growth and Professional Learning

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The Ohio Department of Education aims to increase student achievement through improving language and literacy outcomes for all students. A successful language and literacy framework is built on five interrelated components-teacher capacity, shared leadership, multi-tiered systems of support, parent partnerships and community collaboration.

The Riverside Elementary Case Study examines how one building in Ohio turned around their literacy instruction to ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn to read.

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The Ohio Department of Education aims to increase student achievement through improving language and literacy outcomes for all students. A successful language and literacy framework is built on five interrelated components-teacher capacity, shared leadership, multi-tiered systems of support, parent partnerships and community collaboration.

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Neuroscience of Giftedness: Greater Connectivity Across Brain Regions

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Neuroscience of Giftedness: Greater Connectivity Across Brain Regions

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Image credit: http://www.metropia.com/blog/three-things-traffic-congestion-does-your-brain

Neuroscience of Giftedness: Greater Connectivity Across Brain Regions

by Sharon Duncan, Corin Goodwin, Joanna Haase, Ph.D, MFT, and Sarah Wilson
A collaboration of GHF: Gifted Homeschoolers Forum and GRO: Gifted Research and Outreach

An important but not well understood aspect of the gifted brain is connectivity, or the way the brain regions communicate among themselves. They can be observed in fMRI when functional connectivity captures brain interactions via fluctuations in an activity. Connectivity across brain regions is akin to the roads on which you travel to get from place to place. In the brain, these roads are made up of tracts of white matter which serve as higher speed freeways. The gifted brain has more of these tracts, allowing for the possibility of more "traffic movement." While these studies may help to explain rapid processing and the ability to connect information that others cannot, just as in the real highway system, the brain sometimes experiences traffic jams, which slow down, or even halt, connections and thought processing. The integrity of white matter tracts play a role in information processing speed. While studies indicate a strong positive association between the global efficiency of brain networks and intellectual performance, it remains unknown how intellectual performance is related to the overall network architecture of our brain.

Why many gifted individuals are diagnosed with "slow processing speed" remains unclear. Slow processing speed could be the result of anything from how we measure processing speed, to how the white matter tracks become jammed like a freeway system at rush hour, or maybe even the integrity or efficiency of the white matter tracks themselves. Perhaps because children's brains are works-in-progress, these information pathways may be developing asynchronously which may, at times, leave gifted individuals struggling to coordinate and communicate, as they trip over their own thoughts or words in conversation. To return to the highway analogy, different on-ramps may be operating at different speeds, leading to traffic jams and hold ups, inhibiting the gifted brain's ability to process and move forward. The ability to connect information in different ways is both a hallmark of giftedness as well a one of the "signs" of attention deficit disorder. How do we know when the chaining of disparate ideas is leading to a unique idea (i.e., genius) or when it is actually difficulty staying on topic?

At other times gifted minds appear to end up chasing thoughts along different, tangential paths, diving through back alleyways and dashing over or under bridges. For example, a classroom instructor may ask the students a question about the number of watermelons in a station wagon. While the other students simply make mental or written calculations and then raise their hands to answer, the gifted child is-almost literally-somewhere else. They may have missed the question entirely because they were bored and daydreaming (providing the activation needed for good brain stewardship). They may find the question so absurdly simple that they are sure there is a trick that they have not yet figured out. They may consider an approach to the problem based on a different set of assumptions. Any of these possibilities could result in the gifted child beginning with the question and then moving on to try out those other connectivity tracts, following the watermelons to a story they read about cubed shaped watermelons in Japan, to a delicious melon-flavored infusion they tried last week, and somehow ending up pondering the price of tea in China. This thought process provides a great advantage for certain types of projects and creative thinking, but the classroom teacher responsible for a lesson to 35 students is unlikely to be especially interested.

Image credit: https://team.inria.fr/parietal/18-2/spatial_patterns/covariance-and-graphical-models-of-brain-connectivity

Gifted people are also sometimes thought to have an exceptionally keen sense of the comical, bizarre, or absurd. In the brain, humor engages:

". . . a core network of cortical and subcortical structures, including temporo-occipito-parietal areas involved in detecting and resolving incongruity (mismatch between expected and presented stimuli); and the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system and the amygdala, key structures for reward and salience processing."

In short, it involves an expected path of thoughts suddenly taking an unexpected turn. The gifted person with exceptionally greater connectivity across brain regions has more paths to follow, a potentially more rapid processing pace, and simply many more unexpected turns available. From the neuropsychological perspective, humor is an unexpected response or "punchline," but humor can only work if two brains are in sync about the path to that point. ₇ When a profoundly gifted child shares what they believe to be a hilarious joke with a group of neurotypical children who don't share their interests, the other kids may not be able to follow rapidly enough to see the connection and find the humor, thereby exacerbating the gifted child's sense of isolation and alienation.

Greater connectivity across the brain is another piece of the complicated puzzle of the neuroscience of the gifted brain. Anatomy, psychology, environmental factors, and other processes influence the behaviors manifested by gifted individuals. Next, we will investigate how and why the gifted brain acquires information at an accelerated rate.
Neuroscience of Giftedness: Physiology of the Brain
Increased Brain Areas Associated with Emotional Processing

1. "Covariance and Graphical Models of Brain Connectivity," Parietal, accessed June 24, 2018, https://team.inria.fr/parietal/18-2/spatial_patterns/covariance-and-graphical-models-of-brain-connectivity/.

2. Francisco J. Navas‐Sánchez, Yasser Alemán‐Gómez, Javier Sánchez‐Gonzalez, Juan A. Guzmán‐De‐Villoria, Carolina Franco, Olalla Robles, Celso Arango, and Manuel Desco, "White Matter Microstructure Correlates of Mathematical Giftedness and Intelligence Quotient," Human Brain Mapping 35, issue 6 (2014) accessed June 24, 2018: 2619-31. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22355.

3. L. Penke, S.M. Maniega, M.E. Bastin, M.C.V. Hernández, C. Murray, N.A. Royle, J.M. Starr, J.M. Wardlaw, and I.J. Deary, "Brain-wide White Matter Tract Integrity is Associated with Information Processing Speed and General Intelligence," Molecular Psychiatry 17(10), October 2012, accessed June 24, 2018: 955. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22996402?report=abstract.

4. Martijn P. van den Heuvel, Cornelis J. Stam, René S. Kahn, and Hilleke E. Hulshoff Pol, "Efficiency of Functional Brain Networks and Intellectual Performance," Journal of Neuroscience 298 (23), June 10, 2009, accessed June 24, 2018: 7619-7624. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1443-09.2009.

5. Pascal Vrtička, Jessica M. Black, and Allan L. Reiss, "The Neural Basis of Humour Processing," Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14 (October 30, 2013), accessed June 24, 2018: 860-868. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258147630_The_neural_basis_of_humour_processing..

6. Brock Eide and Fernette Eide, "Brains on Fire: The Multinodality of Gifted Thinkers," New Horizons for Learning, December 2004, accessed June 24, 2018. http://archive.education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/Brains%20on%20Fire/index.html.

7. Rod A. Martin, The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach, (Cambridge, MA: Academic Press, 2010): 5.

8. Celi Trépanier, "It's a Funny Thing: A Gifted Child's Sense of Humor," Crushing Tall Poppies, December 10, 2015, accessed June 24, 2018. http://crushingtallpoppies.com/2015/09/10/its-a-funny-thing-a-gifted-childs-sense-of-humor/.

Gifted Research and Outreach (GRO) is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to promote a comprehensive and accurate understanding of giftedness through research and outreach. GRO is committed to researching the physiology of giftedness; educating medical, psychological, and teaching professionals about the physical and psychological impacts of giftedness; and cultivating a national outreach campaign to correct myths and inspire social change, so that the needs of gifted individuals may be openly discussed.

GHF envisions a world where all children are understood and supported in their strengths and challenges, and families are respected in their educational approaches. GHF supports, educates and advocates for gifted and twice-exceptional children, their families, and the professionals who serve them, as they pursue alternative, lifelong educational paths.
GRO and GHF have partnered on this project to spread the word about the neuroscience of giftedness to the gifted community, medical and educational professionals, and other service providers. Greater understanding will lead to a better quality of life for our children, their families, and society as a whole.

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Neuroscience of Giftedness: Greater Connectivity Across Brain Regions

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Image credit: http://www.metropia.com/blog/three-things-traffic-congestion-does-your-brain Neuroscience of Giftedness: Greater Connectivity Across Brain Regions by Sharon Duncan, Corin Goodwin, Joanna Haase, Ph.D, MFT, and Sarah Wilson A collaboration of GHF: Gifted Homeschoolers Forum and GRO: Gifted Research and Outreach An important but not well understood aspect of the gifted brain is connectivity, or the way the brain regions

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Adam Grant | Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

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Adam Grant | Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

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Adam Grant | Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things | Talks at Google

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Hidden Potential- Kindergarten Teacher Influence 

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Hidden Potential- Kindergarten Teacher Influence 

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Your Kindergarten Teacher Influenced Your Success - Character – Hidden Potential 12 04 23

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Increasing Student Curiosity & Thinking- Sherri

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Increasing Student Curiosity & Thinking- Sherri

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Created this quick PD to share with your team at your TBT.  These tricks & tips bring disciplinary literacy into your classroom while engaging students in a high level writing assignment that is easy to accomplish.  These embed analytical/critical thinking while engaging students curiosity about your content.
Happy to help you get this started!

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The Power of Feedback: A Guide to Giving Students Constructive Criticism - LearningMole

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The Power of Feedback: A Guide to Giving Students Constructive Criticism - LearningMole

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The Power of Feedback: Feedback serves as a powerful tool in the realm of education, providing students with the guidance they need to excel. Constructive criticism, when given correctly, can be a beacon of insight, illuminating the path toward academic and personal growth. It's not simply about pointing out areas for improvement but also about reinforcing strengths and promoting a deep understanding of the subject matter at hand. Engaging with feedback effectively equips students with the skills to reflect on their performance critically and motivates them to strive for excellence.

Creating a supportive learning environment where feedback is welcomed and valued transforms the educational experience. It fosters a culture of open communication and continuous improvement, where both teachers and students can discuss progress honestly and constructively. When you, as an educator, implement feedback strategies thoughtfully, you're not just imparting knowledge but also helping students develop the feedback literacy necessary to critique their own work and that of their peers objectively. This empowerment is crucial for their ongoing engagement in their educational journey and for equipping them with the resilience to handle negative feedback constructively.

Key Takeaways

Feedback is crucial for student development and learning enhancement.

A positive feedback culture encourages open communication and continuous growth.

Effective feedback strategies contribute to greater student engagement and resilience.

Understanding Feedback in Education

Receiving and utilising feedback effectively can significantly enhance your teaching strategies and your students' learning experience. Let's explore the importance of constructive criticism in educational settings and how it can shape both teaching and learning processes.

Defining Constructive Criticism

Constructive criticism is a tailored form of feedback aimed at improving student learning. It's more than just guidance; it's a directional tool designed to provide students with specific, actionable insights that help them progress. Unlike generic praise or unfocused comments, constructive criticism illuminates specific areas where a student can improve, while also acknowledging their strengths.

Roles of Feedback for Teachers and Students

For teachers, feedback is an invaluable asset. It enables you to gauge the effectiveness of your teaching methods and adjust them to better suit your students' needs. Quality feedback inform continuous enhancement of teaching approaches, lesson plans, and materials. It's a loop that starts with teacher feedback, leads to student learning, and concludes with student responses that further inform a teacher's approach.

For students, feedback acts as a mirror for their academic performance, reflecting both their current standing and the path to improvement. It has the dual purpose of motivating learners and providing a concrete basis for self-improvement. Feedback should thus be timely, specific, and directly related to the learning objectives. It's not merely about pointing out what's wrong; it's about guiding students on how to achieve excellence.

Components of Effective Feedback

Effective feedback is a crucial tool to facilitate learning and improvement. It balances being constructive with specificity and ensures both positive and negative aspects are addressed to help students improve and shine.

Specificity and Clarity

When you provide feedback, be specific and clear. This means focusing on particular aspects of work rather than general comments. For instance, instead of saying "Your essay was good," you might say, "Your introduction clearly outlined the essay's argument, which set a strong foundation for the subsequent points." By doing so, your feedback becomes a guide that can lead the student to understand what exactly they did well and what they could improve on.

Balancing Positive and Negative Remarks

It's important to strike a balance between positive feedback, which acknowledges what's been done well, and negative (or constructively critical) feedback, which identifies areas for improvement. A method like the "sandwich approach"-starting with something positive, followed by the constructive criticism, and concluding with another positive comment-can be encouraging while still highlighting necessary improvements. For example, praise a student for their creative approach to a problem before suggesting an alternative method that might be more effective, and then end by commending their overall effort. This balance can help maintain a student's motivation and encourage a growth mindset.

Implementing Feedback Strategies

Effective feedback implementation is crucial to bolster students' learning. It ensures that students not just receive information, but also understand how to use it to improve their performance.

Formative and Summative Approaches

Formative assessment is an ongoing process that allows you to provide immediate feedback to students during their learning. Your strategies could include concise written comments or verbal input that highlights what students are doing correctly and offers constructive advice for areas that need improvement. For example, you might use a simple table to track a student's progress:

In contrast, summative assessment occurs at the end of a learning period. It often takes the form of exams or final projects, where feedback is provided retrospectively. While this feedback does not influence the current project, it is essential for informing future learning. It's important to balance both formative and summative feedback in your teaching strategies to support a comprehensive learning journey.

Feedback Timing and Frequency

The timing and frequency of feedback can significantly affect how well students absorb and act upon the advice given. Aim for consistent, regular feedback. This could mean setting aside specific times each week to discuss progress with students or using online platforms to give quick, accessible feedback after assignments. Here's a possible schedule:

Weekly check-ins: Discuss individual progress and set goals.

After assignments: Provide timely written feedback on key aspects of the work.

End-of-term reviews: Reflect on overall performance and suggest focus areas for future improvement.

Remember, the objective is to provide feedback that is not only timely but also manageable for you to maintain and for students to respond to. It should enable them to reflect on their performance continuously and to develop autonomously.

Maximising Student Improvement

Empowering students to achieve their full potential hinges on targeted strategies that foster self-efficacy and encourage a growth mindset. These cornerstones of student development are crucial for genuine improvement and sustained motivation.

Fostering Self-Efficacy

To cultivate a strong sense of self-efficacy in your students, it's essential to provide feedback that underscores their ability to influence their own academic outcomes. When students recognise their own efforts as pivotal to success, they're more likely to take on challenging tasks and persevere. Implementing formative assessment is a tangible way to give frequent, detailed feedback that highlights students' progress and areas for growth.

Encouraging a growth mindset involves shifting students' attitudes towards learning, stimulating the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Emphasise the importance of the process over the final result, praising effort, strategy, and progress. This approach nurtures resilience, as students learn to view setbacks as opportunities for learning rather than failures.

In these endeavours, be guided by resources from platforms like LearningMole, where diverse educational tools are offered to support student growth effectively.

Handling Negative Feedback

When addressing negative feedback, it's essential to navigate the delicate balance between honesty and empathy. Your approach can turn a potentially discouraging experience into a powerful learning opportunity.

Delivering Criticism Empathetically

To deliver negative feedback effectively, it's vital to weave empathy into your words. Remember that your goal is to support and uplift, not to discourage. Begin by acknowledging the student's efforts before highlighting specific areas for improvement. For instance, you might say, "I can see you've put a lot of work into this essay. Let's look at how you can strengthen your argument here."
Tips for Empathetic Criticism:

Acknowledge effort: Recognise the hard work put into the task.

Be specific: Discuss particular points rather than generalising.

Provide solutions: Offer actionable advice for improvement.

Encouraging Constructive Rebuttals

Receiving negative feedback can naturally elicit emotional responses. As a recipient of such feedback, it's important to channel emotions into constructive rebuttal writing. This enables you to engage with the criticism positively and view it as a stepping stone to excellence. Constructive feedback, even if it feels negative at first, is designed to help you improve.
How to Formulate a Constructive Rebuttal:

1. Listen Fully: Understand the feedback without interrupting.

2. Ask Questions: If anything is unclear, seek clarification.

3. Plan Your Response: Reflect on the feedback and write a considered response, focusing on how you can use the advice to excel in your next attempt.

Enhancing Student Feedback Literacy

In order to help students reach their full potential, it's vital to enhance their ability to both give and use feedback effectively. This process, known as student feedback literacy, involves developing skills like self-regulation and teaching students to be receptive to feedback from peers.

Developing Self-Assessment Skills

Your ability to assess your own work is a critical aspect of learning. By establishing clear criteria for success, you can compare your work against these benchmarks and identify areas where you need to self-correct. This form of self-regulation encourages you to take ownership of your learning journey. Start by reviewing your work with a critical eye, asking yourself if you've met all the necessary criteria and considering what you could improve for next time.

Teaching Receptiveness to Peer Feedback

Peer feedback is a powerful tool for enhancing your understanding of a subject. To benefit from it, you need to be open to receiving comments from your classmates. Remember, effective peer feedback is always specific, actionable, and focused on your work, not on you as an individual. When receiving feedback, listen actively, ask clarifying questions if necessary, and reflect on how you can integrate this feedback to elevate your work.

Critiquing Performance Objectively

Effective feedback is key to helping students improve and excel. It's essential to focus on providing objective and clear performance feedback that separates behaviour from personal identity and uses set standards.

Using Standards and Criteria

To critique your students' performance objectively, it's crucial to establish clear standards and criteria that align with your learning objectives. For instance, if you're assessing an essay, you might focus on criteria such as argument clarity, evidence use, and grammar. This offers a transparent framework for both you and your students to understand the grades given and the areas where there is room for improvement.

Clarity: The expectations for performance should be communicated clearly beforehand.

Consistency: Apply the same criteria to every student to maintain fairness.

Constructiveness: Use criteria to guide your feedback, ensuring it is actionable.

Separating Behaviour from Identity

When giving performance feedback, always distinguish between the behaviour and the personal identity of your students. Commend or critique the work or the action, not the person. This helps in creating a supportive environment where students feel valued and encouraged to grow.

Behaviour: "You've shown improvement in your essay structure since our last feedback session."

Identity: Avoid saying things like, "You're a disorganised person," as this does not reflect their performance and could negatively impact their self-esteem.

Remember, the goal is to cultivate a conducive atmosphere for learning, where students are not afraid to make mistakes and learn from them. Use LearningMole's educational content as a tool to bolster your feedback and enhance the learning experience with clear, focused, and supportive performance critiques.

To empower students, coupling constructive feedback with their intrinsic motivation can significantly enhance their engagement and drive towards achieving learning outcomes. The approach taken in providing feedback is critical in igniting a student's desire to learn and participate actively in their educational journey.

Your feedback should be actionable and targeted toward specific learning outcomes. Rather than providing general comments, focus on how the feedback can directly impact a student's progress. For instance, if an essay lacks a strong argument, suggest ways to develop a thesis that strongly ties to their research findings. This clear, directed advice encourages students to see the link between their efforts and the desired outcomes of their work, reinforcing the value of their engagement in the learning process.

Utilising Intrinsic Motivation

Harnessing a student's intrinsic motivation is about sparking their interest and passion for the subject. Encourage curiosity by relating topics to real-world scenarios that interest them or discussing recent discoveries, such as those you might find through interactive tutorials on LearningMole. Allowing students to have a say in their learning topics can also foster a sense of ownership, which increases their internal drive to explore and understand the content vigorously.

Facilitating a Supportive Learning Environment

When you set out to nurture growth and learning, providing a supportive environment is key. By tailoring the way you give feedback and helping students develop crucial soft skills, you lay the groundwork for a culture where students feel valued and ready to excel.

Creating a Culture of Feedback

To create a culture of feedback in your classroom, start with the feedback sandwich approach: begin with positive comments, followed by constructive criticism, and finish with more positive reinforcement. This method can help soften the impact of criticism and maintain a student's motivation. It's essential that students perceive feedback as a tool for improvement and not as a personal critique. Encouraging open communication and regular feedback sessions can foster a supportive environment where students feel safe and are more receptive to learning from their experiences.

Developing Soft Skills Through Feedback

Feedback isn't just about academic improvement; it's a vital part of developing soft skills such as communication, adaptability, and problem-solving. By focusing on feedback that highlights these areas, you'll help your students become more well-rounded individuals. For example, when discussing a group project, point out how well a student listened to their peers or adapted their role in the face of new challenges. Remember, your role isn't only to educate on the curriculum but also to prepare them for the diverse scenarios they'll encounter outside of the classroom.

By prioritising these aspects, you create a learning space where students are not just informed but are truly enlightened, much like the resources found on LearningMole. With a plethora of content available, LearningMole can aid you in realising this supportive and enriching environment, guiding you towards a path where education is not merely taught but experienced and cherished.

Leveraging 360-Degree and Peer Feedback

In the pursuit of academic excellence, your ability to leverage feedback from multiple sources can work wonders. Specifically, incorporating 360-degree feedback and peer feedback can significantly enhance students' learning experience.

Integrating Student Perspectives

By including 360-degree feedback in your evaluation process, you allow students to receive a comprehensive view of their performance. This method gathers insights from various sources, including teachers, peers, and sometimes even oneself. For instance, while an educator's feedback might provide officials with a structured assessment based on curriculum standards, peers can offer a different lens, highlighting interpersonal skills and group dynamics. Encourage students to reflect on this feedback; they can learn to synthesise it into practical, personalised goals for improvement.

Encouraging Collaboration and Reflection

Peer feedback plays a crucial role in fostering a collaborative learning environment. It's not just about students evaluating each other's work; it's about creating a culture of mutual support and shared growth. Through peer review exercises, you can encourage learners to engage in thoughtful reflection, which is bolstered by evidence from a meta-analysis indicating that peer feedback can positively impact academic performance. Apart from honing their evaluative skills, they're learning to express their thoughts constructively and to consider feedback from their peers as invaluable for their academic journey.

Additionally, incorporating external feedback can give students a broader perspective on their work, preparing them for real-world expectations and standards. By exploring a combination of these feedback forms, learners can gain a diversified understanding of their strengths and areas for development, setting the stage for continuous learning and achievement.

Advancing Feedback Techniques

Effective feedback is crucial for student performance improvement. This section outlines how to leverage technology and tailor feedback to individual needs to enhance learning outcomes.

Incorporating Technology in Feedback

The integration of technology in education has opened new avenues for assessment for learning. With platforms like LearningMole, you can utilise interactive tutorials and digital assessments to provide immediate and personalised teacher feedback. These technological tools not only make collecting student performance data more efficient but also enable you to give feedback that is timely and specific to each learner's progress.

Adapting to Individual Learning Needs

Adapting feedback to the individual learning needs of students ensures that each one receives the support necessary for improvement. Consider each student's unique abilities, and use effective feedback practices that cater to these differences. For instance, students with special educational needs (SEN) might benefit from more visual feedback and step-by-step guidance, which you can provide through customized activity sheets or video feedback. This tailored approach helps to ensure that feedback leads to genuine performance improvement.

Frequently Asked Questions

When considering the power of feedback in the educational process, it's essential to understand how it shapes student performance and teaching methodologies. This section answers frequently asked questions about providing constructive criticism that helps students thrive.

What are the qualities of effective feedback for enhancing student performance?

Effective feedback should be specific, timely, and actionable, allowing your students to understand what they did well and what can be improved. It should be a balance of positive reinforcement and constructive advice that targets specific aspects of their work.

In what ways does regular feedback influence a student's academic development?

Regular feedback provides students with a roadmap of their progress, highlighting their strengths and identifying areas for improvement. It encourages a growth mindset, enabling students to see learning as an ongoing process and fostering resilience.

How can teachers use feedback to improve their teaching strategies?

Teachers can use feedback to reflect on their teaching strategies and adapt their instructional approach to meet the diverse needs of their students. It can inform personalised teaching methods and help educators to gauge the effectiveness of their lessons.

What role does feedback play in the learning and teaching process?

Feedback acts as a two-way communication channel between students and teachers. In the teaching process, it fine-tunes pedagogy, whereas in learning, it helps students to internalise lessons and apply knowledge effectively.

How can constructive criticism be given to students in a way that encourages growth?

Constructive criticism should be delivered in a supportive manner, focusing on the student's potential to grow. It's vital to ensure that the critique is based on performance, not the person, and pairs suggestions for improvement with positive feedback.

Could you outline the Hattie and Timperley model and its significance in the feedback process?

The Hattie and Timperley model outlines that effective feedback must answer three key questions: Where am I going? (goals), How am I going? (progress), and Where to next? (next steps). This model is significant as it anchors feedback in the objectives of learning, providing clear direction for future learning endeavours.

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The Power of Feedback: A Guide to Giving Students Constructive Criticism - LearningMole

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The Power of Feedback: Feedback serves as a powerful tool in the realm of education, providing students with the guidance they need to excel. Constructive

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Multiple Perspectives- Right/Wrong Can it be both?

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Multiple Perspectives- Right/Wrong Can it be both?

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It's essential that our students think flexibly and consider multiple perspectives. Flexible thinking leads to innovation, creativity, and diplomacy. In school, however, students settle into a rigid, "one right answer" mindset.

The 👓 Multiple Perspectives prompt is one of my favorite tools of Depth and Complexity. By exploring content from multiple perspectives, our students will become comfortable with complex situations that have multiple right answers. This familiarity will help them to welcome others' viewpoints and opinions and, hopefully, increase empathy.

Let's dig into the topic of multiple perspectives with something familiar: common words in the English language.
This lesson assumes you're in the US and your students speak English.
Deductive Lesson

This multiple perspectives introduction is structured as a deductive lesson, meaning we'll begin with a "big idea" and then prove it with examples. Learn more about deductive lessons here.

Big ideas you might start with:

"New points of view stretch our minds"

"New perspectives challenge assumptions about right and wrong"

Tell students you'll be looking at examples that prove this generalization. Begin a brainstorming chart with your big idea in the center and update it throughout the lesson.

Internal Differences

Let's start by examining the various names for soft drinks across the United States. Begin by asking students what they call Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and so on. The answer is probably "soda" or "pop."

Explore their thinking. Ask them what they think about calling it the other name. It will probably seem strange and wrong to them.

Now show this map and discuss the patterns of responses across the country. The country seems divided into thirds between soda, pop, and Coke.

Explore the implications: one item has three different names and each name is correct (depending on your perspective). Yet, at the same time, many think each name is also wrong. Can something be right and wrong at the same time? These terms become fuzzy as we integrate multiple perspectives. Students' minds should be stretching.

If food is more your topic, you could continue with this guide to sandwich names in America. Are hoagies, heroes, grinders, po' boys, and submarines all the same sandwich?

Going International

Let's step outside of America and examine the conflicts that exist within English, depending on a British or American perspective.

For instance, What does "chips" mean?

We have two different foods that have the same name in the same language!

Discuss connections to the big idea. Again, both perspectives are correct. A chip is a crunchy slice of potato and it's a long, soft fried potato. It just depends on where you happen to be.

Let students share out examples they might have about this idea.

If you're interested, Wikipedia has many more examples of differences between British and American English.

Multilingual

Brainstorming Continues

Let's expand one more level and look at multiple perspectives using completely different languages.

We know that learning multiple languages is a great exercise for the brain, but we don't need to get kids fluent to take advantage of the workout. Simple structural differences across languages can stretch our minds.

For example, where does an adjective go when it describes a noun?

In English, adjectives come before nouns: red car

In Spanish, it's the opposite: carro rojo or "car red"

This stretches our minds since what's clearly wrong in one language is completely correct in another. Our thinking must be flexible in order to consider both points of view. Just as students might find "car red" funny, a young Spanish speaker would get a kick out of how silly rojo carro sounds.

Expanding further, how do we make a noun plural?

In English, add an -s (mother becomes mothers)

In Italian, modified the final vowel (madre becomes madri)

In Japanese, there are no plurals! (one mother, two mother)

To an English speaker, plural nouns seem essential, yet Japanese functions perfectly well without them.

Kids might share out some cool language-related examples they know. Use these to build on their growing understanding of the big idea.

Integrate Technology

Discussing these topics is great, but what if you could get an actual Englishman to speak to your class about chips and crisps?

Skype makes this simpler than ever. Teachers can connect with other classrooms, learn from experts, and experience multiple perspectives over the internet. Skype even has an education page to help you make connections and here's a Google Doc of teachers who Skype. Fire Skype up and find some classrooms with different perspectives.

Not ready for multimedia? Try Twitter. Krissy Venosdale and her class tweeted with a teacher in Greece and discovered that a "jumper" is a sweater. They also asked for responses about the time and weather and got answers from around the world. Nothing like pondering time zones to promote flexible thinking, right?

Homework

Finally, we'll connect the big idea to students and their families. Point out that we even have different names for ourselves which depend on others' perspectives:

Students call me "Mr. Byrd"

Friends call me "Ian" or "Byrd"

My wife calls me "honey"

My sister calls me "bubba"

My mom turned that into "bubby boo"

I have several different names, but some are only "right" in certain contexts. There's only one person in the world who can get away with "bubby boo"!

Have students talk with their family members at home about the different names they all go by. How do these names depend on multiple points of view? What are the consequences of using the wrong name in the wrong context? Discuss in class tomorrow.

What's the point?

An opening lesson like this won't immediately address your curriculum. Instead, it equips your class to handle advanced analysis in your content later. You can refer to the big idea of this lesson throughout the year, capitalizing on the investment you've made.

And keep updating that chart as kids think of new examples!

Next Steps

Follow up by reading stories rich in multiple perspectives such as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and
The Blind Men and an Elephant.

And, of course, have students rewrite classic stories using new perspectives that stretch and challenge the original view of the story.

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Multiple Perspectives: Right And Wrong At The Same Time?

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It's essential to teach our students to think flexibly and consider multiple points of view. Flexible thinking leads to product innovation, diplomacy between nations, and advances in science. School, however, often encourages students to settle into a "one right answer" mindset.

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We asked John Hattie to tell us the story underlying the data of his huge meta study Visible Learning. There is an enhanced role for teachers, because students seek feedback. And feedback works best when you think first of feedback that is received not given. Together with my colleague and co-author Regine Berger we interviewed John Hattie about "Visible Learning". We were especially interested to know how to implement his findings in schools and also how to best train the teachers.
You can also read the Interview in German on www.visiblelearning.de.

Is Visible Learning equally good for all ages?

Which age specific differences should schools consider when implementing visible learning?
John Hattie: I was interested in 4-20 year olds and for every influence was very keen to evaluate any moderators - but found very few indeed. The story underlying the data seems applicable to this age range.

What differences between countries exist when it comes to Visible Learning? How can German schools use the results from your meta study?
A key issue in generalisability is the balance between within- and between-school variance. It seems to me that there is more generalising if there is more within- than between-school variance and thus not sure if Germany fits all in the model. When there is more between-school variance then more structural issues can have a more important role. I note, for example the impressive improvements in your neighbour (Poland) almost simply because they abolished selective nature of their high schools.

"The key to me is the story underlying the data."

What are the milestones to implement the big points of your study?
The key to me is the story underlying the data not the data. Have you see the newer book Visible Learning for Teachers where I spend much more time on this story trying to minimise the data but not ignoring it.

How can teachers learn to give (and receive) feedback in an appropriate and timely manner? How to best train the teachers?
There are two things I have learnt about feedback that are important - first think of feedback that is received not given. And while teachers see feedback as corrections, criticism, comments, and clarifications, for students unless it includes "where to next" information they tend to not use it. Students want feedback just for them, just in time, and just helping nudge forward. So worry more about how students are receiving your feedback much more than increasing how much you give. Also, a third major finding is when teachers receive feedback about their impact then the students are the biggest beneficiaries.

"There is an enhanced role for teachers"

How do you see the future role of teachers? How does it change with visible learning inside?
There is an enhanced role for teachers as students need feedback. They need direction at the surface and deep level. And learning is hard and needs explicit teaching. Learning requires deliberate practice, concentration, persistence and these are taught skills.

What are your experiences with technology (e.g. video) to enable „visible learning"?
I have spent a lot of time on this question. And I think a mistake is thinking about how we add technology to current teaching - but the current teaching barely changes. If we think of it as how we can add face to face teaching to technology the gains are greater - but this is a major change. When I see the latter it is stunning (but rare).

"Start by seeking feedback"

What is your advice to teachers who want to try „visible learning" in their classroom (tomorrow)?
Start by seeking feedback about their impact. Say: "I am an evaluator of my teaching. Who has learnt or not, about what, is it efficient, where to next ..." This is an excellent starting point. And I implore you to read Visible Learning for teachers which elaborate more on this.

Find the books on Amazon: Visible Learning and Visible Learning for Teachers.

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John Hattie: "Think of feedback that is received not given" - VISIBLE LEARNING

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We asked John Hattie to tell us the story underlying the data of his huge meta study Visible Learning. There is an enhanced role for teachers, because students seek feedback. And feedback works best when you think first of feedback that is...Read more ›

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Are Students Thinking or Merely Remembering?

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Are Students Thinking or Merely Remembering?

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Here's a really simple test for any task that we put before students:

Am I asking students to think or just remember?

It sounds silly, but the more I consider it, the more interesting this distinction gets. How often are kids presented with tasks that force them to think rather than just remember information?

On a spectrum of pure remembering to hard thinking, how would you rank those tasks? Why?

1. Is this an igneous or sedimentary rock?

2. Explain why George Washington was a great president.

3. Multiply 125 × 73.

4. What is the theme of Hamlet?

5. I have 40 students and 12 busses, how many students go on each bus?

6. Which character in this story is the bravest?

7. Compare and contrast Islam and Judaism.

8. Which of the Greek city-states was most powerful?

9. What is the difference between a need and a want?

10. What is the role of a consumer in an ecosystem?

Before you move on, seriously do this. Decide which ones require thinking and which ones rely only on memory.

Now, be careful. Thinking doesn't mean "hard." For example, 125 × 73 might be hard for a first-grader, but it's only because they haven't memorized the algorithm. Once you know the steps, is there actual thinking or just remembering?

What Does Thinking Look Like?

One of my favorite things in workshops is to ask a group of people (students or teachers) to show me what thinking looks like.

Go ahead. Try it. What does thinking look like?

Most people put their pencils down and put their hands to their mouths or scratch their heads or stroke their beards. People tend to lean back into their seats and look up at the ceiling. There's a lot of gentle hmmms. Thinking looks passive. It looks like you're not doing anything. To really think, you even might close your eyes.

Consider this: if a lesson doesn't get kids to put their pencils down and look up at the ceiling quietly, those students might not be thinking. If the same students are "early finishers" every day, they probably aren't thinking ( and here's why that term needs to go away!). If everyone is getting the same answer, there may be a lack of real thinking going on.

Thinking is slow. It's messy. And it leads to unexpected answers.

Here are a few additional thoughts about Thinking versus Remembering.

1. Remembering Is Important

There's a reason "remember" is at the bottom of Bloom's Taxonomy - it's the foundation for all levels. Yes, it's low-level, but it is also essential. We cannot do higher-level thinking without using our memory. So asking students to remember isn't wrong, but memorization must serve a higher purpose! We can start with "remember" but we darn well shouldn't end there.

2. Difficult ≠ Thinking

If a task appears difficult, that doesn't necessarily mean students are thinking. Reciting the US state capitols in alphabetical order is difficult, but it's not thinking. It's still just remembering. Multiplying two six-digit numbers is hard, but it's also just a lot of remembering steps and math facts. So don't assume that "challenging" means thinking (and here's why I think "challenging" isn't really the right goal).

3. Fancy Products ≠ Thinking

If a student writes and records a song listing the US capitols alphabetically in GarageBand, films a music video against a green screen, edits a beach into the background, then posts it on YouTube... this was still just a remember level of interacting with the content! Yes, thinking occurred - but it was all about the product, not the content. This isn't necessarily bad, but be aware that an impressive final product does not mean students necessarily thought about the content.

My pal Lisa and I like to say that differentiation is what students are doing with their brains, not their hands.

4. Explaining ≠ Thinking

Right above "remember" is "understand" on Bloom's Taxonomy. At this level, students might "explain their reasoning." But this level is often just remembering in paragraph form. Check out this question:

Which animal is better at swimming, a dog or a dolphin? Explain why.

This question goes beyond a one-word answer, but... come on. Does this really require thinking? Just because we ask for an explanation doesn't mean that students did any real thinking. "Explain why..." doesn't make something a high-level question.

5. Thinking Really Helps Remembering

The irony of this topic is that focusing purely on memorizing is a really weak way to get information into long-term memory. Thinking benefits memory more than memorization does! As Daniel Willingham says in the wonderful Why Don't Students Like School?,

Memory is the residue of thought.

The more kids really think about content, the better they'll remember it in the long run! I have forgotten everything I memorized using flashcards in school, but I can easily recall those topics that truly engaged my thinking. When we ask for "thinking," we'll get memory for free.

This Is Differentiation

Getting kids' brains sweating is, to me, the core of differentiation: am I pushing my students to a point where they really have to think? A differentiated lesson has been adjusted so that all students have to think. And they should be thinking hard enough to need a little help. Until they need that little bit of help, they're not in their Zone of Proximal Development.

I can tell you that I, personally, made it until the end of high school and into college before I was confronted with the kind of thinking that made my brain sweat (and I'm certainly not the only one!). That's way too late to have to learn to think.

Kids should be in their zone of proximal development starting in kindergarten.

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Are Students Thinking or Merely Remembering?

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Here's a really simple test for any task that we put before students: Am I asking students to think or just remember? It sounds silly, but the more I consider it, the more interesting this distinction gets. How often are kids presented with tasks that force them to think rather than just remember information?

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Are Students Thinking or Merely Remembering?

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Are Students Thinking or Merely Remembering?

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Here's a really simple test for any task that we put before students:

Am I asking students to think or just remember?

It sounds silly, but the more I consider it, the more interesting this distinction gets. How often are kids presented with tasks that force them to think rather than just remember information?

On a spectrum of pure remembering to hard thinking, how would you rank those tasks? Why?

1. Is this an igneous or sedimentary rock?

2. Explain why George Washington was a great president.

3. Multiply 125 × 73.

4. What is the theme of Hamlet?

5. I have 40 students and 12 busses, how many students go on each bus?

6. Which character in this story is the bravest?

7. Compare and contrast Islam and Judaism.

8. Which of the Greek city-states was most powerful?

9. What is the difference between a need and a want?

10. What is the role of a consumer in an ecosystem?

Before you move on, seriously do this. Decide which ones require thinking and which ones rely only on memory.

Now, be careful. Thinking doesn't mean "hard." For example, 125 × 73 might be hard for a first-grader, but it's only because they haven't memorized the algorithm. Once you know the steps, is there actual thinking or just remembering?

What Does Thinking Look Like?

One of my favorite things in workshops is to ask a group of people (students or teachers) to show me what thinking looks like.

Go ahead. Try it. What does thinking look like?

Most people put their pencils down and put their hands to their mouths or scratch their heads or stroke their beards. People tend to lean back into their seats and look up at the ceiling. There's a lot of gentle hmmms. Thinking looks passive. It looks like you're not doing anything. To really think, you even might close your eyes.

Consider this: if a lesson doesn't get kids to put their pencils down and look up at the ceiling quietly, those students might not be thinking. If the same students are "early finishers" every day, they probably aren't thinking ( and here's why that term needs to go away!). If everyone is getting the same answer, there may be a lack of real thinking going on.

Thinking is slow. It's messy. And it leads to unexpected answers.

Here are a few additional thoughts about Thinking versus Remembering.

1. Remembering Is Important

There's a reason "remember" is at the bottom of Bloom's Taxonomy - it's the foundation for all levels. Yes, it's low-level, but it is also essential. We cannot do higher-level thinking without using our memory. So asking students to remember isn't wrong, but memorization must serve a higher purpose! We can start with "remember" but we darn well shouldn't end there.

2. Difficult ≠ Thinking

If a task appears difficult, that doesn't necessarily mean students are thinking. Reciting the US state capitols in alphabetical order is difficult, but it's not thinking. It's still just remembering. Multiplying two six-digit numbers is hard, but it's also just a lot of remembering steps and math facts. So don't assume that "challenging" means thinking (and here's why I think "challenging" isn't really the right goal).

3. Fancy Products ≠ Thinking

If a student writes and records a song listing the US capitols alphabetically in GarageBand, films a music video against a green screen, edits a beach into the background, then posts it on YouTube... this was still just a remember level of interacting with the content! Yes, thinking occurred - but it was all about the product, not the content. This isn't necessarily bad, but be aware that an impressive final product does not mean students necessarily thought about the content.

My pal Lisa and I like to say that differentiation is what students are doing with their brains, not their hands.

4. Explaining ≠ Thinking

Right above "remember" is "understand" on Bloom's Taxonomy. At this level, students might "explain their reasoning." But this level is often just remembering in paragraph form. Check out this question:

Which animal is better at swimming, a dog or a dolphin? Explain why.

This question goes beyond a one-word answer, but... come on. Does this really require thinking? Just because we ask for an explanation doesn't mean that students did any real thinking. "Explain why..." doesn't make something a high-level question.

5. Thinking Really Helps Remembering

The irony of this topic is that focusing purely on memorizing is a really weak way to get information into long-term memory. Thinking benefits memory more than memorization does! As Daniel Willingham says in the wonderful Why Don't Students Like School?,

Memory is the residue of thought.

The more kids really think about content, the better they'll remember it in the long run! I have forgotten everything I memorized using flashcards in school, but I can easily recall those topics that truly engaged my thinking. When we ask for "thinking," we'll get memory for free.

This Is Differentiation

Getting kids' brains sweating is, to me, the core of differentiation: am I pushing my students to a point where they really have to think? A differentiated lesson has been adjusted so that all students have to think. And they should be thinking hard enough to need a little help. Until they need that little bit of help, they're not in their Zone of Proximal Development.

I can tell you that I, personally, made it until the end of high school and into college before I was confronted with the kind of thinking that made my brain sweat (and I'm certainly not the only one!). That's way too late to have to learn to think.

Kids should be in their zone of proximal development starting in kindergarten.

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Are Students Thinking or Merely Remembering?

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Here's a really simple test for any task that we put before students: Am I asking students to think or just remember? It sounds silly, but the more I consider it, the more interesting this distinction gets. How often are kids presented with tasks that force them to think rather than just remember information?

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Watch the video and share a reflection.

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Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment

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Making lessons accessible to resistant readers can enhance the learning experience for everyone-including those who read the whole book.

I first encountered a problem that every English teacher faces during my teacher preparation program: Many students were not reading. After months of reading book reviews that were frequently little more than poorly disguised plagiarized summaries, I taught in a way that penalized students who did not complete the book and rewarded students who did.

Unfortunately, by the end of the semester, I was left with a handful of students who were so lost and unprepared that they could only stare at our final assessment. Instead of motivating students to read, I had effectively blocked students from accessing the learning.

As a secondary English teacher, I was prompted by this experience to consider a central question in my teaching practice: How do I teach students to read great novels while providing lessons that are accessible to all students, including those who appear unwilling to read?

The Extreme User

Every student can read a novel, and teaching students to read novels in school helps them develop critical reading skills for texts and the world. Some students appear unwilling to read because of a variety of challenges both inside and outside the classroom.

These readers are what I refer to in the English classroom as " extreme users." According to Bill Moggridge, the extreme user theory, which originated in design work, proposes that a product or service can be better designed by understanding the full range of viewpoints and avoiding the pitfall of designing for yourself.

Before, I was planning for students who were guaranteed to finish the books; I was planning for myself. When I started planning based on which students had the greatest need, it made learning more accessible to all.

5 Ways to Enhance Everyone's Reading Experience

Although the goal is for each student to finish the novel, and those who do will undoubtedly benefit more from class, this method structures in-class learning to support the extreme users, allowing all students to access the learning regardless of the page number they reach.

1. Examine and read key chapters and quotes together. Do this as a class to supplement independent reading. Readicide and Deeper Reading, both by Kelly Gallagher, are pedagogical books that provide useful structures for analyzing texts. School Reform Initiative also provides free reading and discussion protocols that make learning accessible. I use the first chapter, a central scene of conflict, and quotes throughout the book that highlight major themes.

Reading the first chapter aloud with students is critical for getting them over the hump and providing the context needed for improved comprehension during independent reading. Depending on the English level you teach, the number of chapters or quotes you examine together will vary.

2. Make audio versions of the text available. Reading can be difficult for students because of dyslexia, emerging language development, or even personal preference. The content barrier is broken for these students by providing audio recordings of the text. Teachers can record their own readings, use the library's audiobook resources, or find another teacher's recording on YouTube.

3. Teach overarching themes or skills that will be useful in analyzing that novel. Students will forget many of the details of what they learn in school, but we can help them achieve larger transfer goals-knowledge and skills that they will use outside of the classroom-through our coursework. We can make learning more authentic and accessible by planning around transfer goals rather than just teaching the text. For example, the focus of a unit might shift from students reading and discussing 1984 to students recognizing social injustice in the world.

4. Provide smaller and diverse supplemental texts. These are works that pair with the book, such as poetry, nonfiction articles, videos, or songs. These will provide multiple entry points for your students to comprehend the book's themes and ideas.

5. Allow for choice in what books students read. Instead of teaching just one novel, offer a selection of three or more texts to increase student engagement and provide differentiated options based on reading level and interest. To choose books for an effective unit, organize them by theme or style. You can encourage students to read for pleasure by using digital tools.

Student Impact

When all students have access to the class, it empowers them as learners and prepares them to become independent readers in the future. I consider myself fortunate to work in a small school community because I can observe progress across grade levels. I taught the current seniors in their ninth and 10th grades at my school. Looking at the class and individual students shows that these strategies were beneficial.

One former student, who would open her novels freshman year to a random page and pretend to read, read to page 100 her sophomore year. She's a senior now, planning to major in English, and she stops by to tell me about the latest books she's read. She is one of many "extreme users" in the classroom that I built these strategies around.

Don't give up on teaching novels in the classroom when you're dealing with your own extreme users, those kids who just don't seem to want to read. Instead, join me in making books and schoolwork more accessible to everyone.

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5 Tips for Teaching Novels When Students Won't Read

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Making lessons accessible to resistant readers can enhance the learning experience for everyone-including those who read the whole book.

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What to do with underachieving students?           A quick teacher guide

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What to do with underachieving students?           A quick teacher guide

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Underachievement in education is a common problem. You've probably noticed yourself that it's not always easy to get students motivated to learn, and that some students are not living up to expectations.

So how can you, as a teacher, solve this rather common problem? This post is all about understanding underachievement, identifying underachieving students, and helping those students reach their full potential again. You'll find a lot of tips against underachievement, and insights that will help you out.

I'll talk about the following topics:

What is underachievement?

The definition of underachievement is: "Poorer than expected performance".

In other words: you expect a student to accomplish good work in your classroom, as the student has all the capabilities. In reality, that student can't live up to its own competences, and fails to deliver high quality work.

Other descriptions include:

"Underachievement is defined as a discrepancy between a child's school performance and some index of his or her actual ability, such as intelligence, achievement, or creativity score, or observational data" - Davis and Rimm 1985

"A discrepancy between potential (what a child ought to be able to do) and actual performance (what a child is really demonstrating)" - Richert 1991

Causes of underachievement

There are many causes at the basis of student underachievement. Important causes are the ones that relate to the family and the community in which a student lives (environment and school).

Here are some important causes of underachievement in school:

Fear of failure, fear of success

Fear of lack of acceptance by peer group

Undetected learning disabilities

Lack of basic skills and study habits

Inappropriate educational activities

Lack of opportunity in society

Too high or too low expectations of parents

Lack of parental support for education

Fear of overshadowing parent

Passive-aggression toward parent

Low frustration tolerance

Lack of impulse control

Low risk-taking abilities

Lack of competitiveness - Boredom

Guilt for being advanced intellectually

Interests in activities other than school

Cumulative deficits and belief in failure

When you find out what lies at the bottom of an underachieving student, you can start solving the problem. Be aware that you're not a genie: it takes time to set up a working strategy for underachieving students. On top of that, every student will need a different approach.

Identifying underachievers

Underachievement can be measured in many ways using a number of criteria. Here are some of the most known ways teachers usually use to identify underachieving students:

First, you could let your students complete an intelligence test to see whether a student how gifted a student is

Second: test your students in groups. When a pattern of continuous decline in group achievement test scores occurs, you can quickly identify an underachiever.

Last but not least: observe. As a teacher, you know your students best. You know how they normally behave and when their behavior changes.

The most important thing to remember here is that underachievement is a behavior. This means that it can be modified. So, the lesson here would be not to label the student as an underachiever, but to label the behavior itself. For example: the student is "underachieving in math and language arts" rather than an "underachieving student". (DeLisle)

Characteristics of underachievers

Specific behaviors can be identified and targeted by using the behavioral characteristics checklist below.

Click to open

Using this checklist ( originally created by Carolyn Coil), you can also identify positive or negative behaviors.

Tech tip: Use BookWidgets to create checklists and worksheets like this yourself.

The checklist can be a huge help already. When observing students, there are some standard characteristics of underachievers you can pay attention to. Some of them are in the checklist already, but can't be observed that easily. Best is to start a conversation with the student to find out what is bothering them.

Underachieving students:

See themselves as inadequate

Expect academic and social failure

Feel helpless to control outcomes of effort

Don't feel free to make choices

Set unrealistic goals

Are defensive toward authority

Feel rejected and isolated

Are not willing to risk failure

Show ineffective approaches to problems

It's really important to distinguish achieving students from underachieving students. Although both students can be equally talented students, underachieving students have different characteristics than achieving ones:

Lack of integration of goals & self-direction

Lack of self-confidence

Inability to persevere

Inferiority feelings

Social immaturity

Emotional problems

Antisocial behavior

Low self-concept

An unstable family environment

Underachiever profiles

According to Dr. Diane Heacox, there are 6 underachiever profiles a student can take. As a teacher, I'm sure they will sound rather familiar.

The rebel: "Why should I play the school game?"

The conformist: "Please, don't notice that I am smart."

The stressed learner: "It's not good enough."

The struggling students: "I just don't get it."

The victim: "It's not my fault".

The bored students "There's nothing new to learn."

Strategies for underachieving students

Here are some strategies to reverse the underachievement. The first three underachievement strategies are well-known strategies suggested by Delisle and Berger.

Supportive strategies

These are classroom techniques and classroom designs that allow students to feel included. They feel part of a family instead of a factory.

Involve your students in making rules, taking important decisions, set up punishments and rewards together, discuss student concerns, create activities based on your students' needs and interests, allow them to superiority (skip parts of an assignment) when they have previously shown competency, and so on.

Show them communicating with the teacher works in two ways.

Reward systems are often used in this strategy. Be aware of the disadvantages though!

Intrinsic strategies

Here, students have to be motivated intrinsically. You want your students to desire to achieve academically, without you telling them they should.

Once students want to follow their dreams or their own goals, students will work harder. If you lay your goals and your dream upon their shoulders, it won't work.

Creating a classroom that invites positive attitudes is likely to encourage achievement. In classrooms of this type, teachers encourage attempts, not just successes. A student that wants to learn is the best student you can imagine, even if learning doesn't always go smoothly.

Another strategy is to allow students to evaluate their own work before receiving a grade from the teacher. Self-assessments reflect a student's expectations of their work.

Here are some creative and fun self-assessment ideas.

Remedial strategies

Students are not perfect. Every student has their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as social, emotional and intellectual needs.

Use remedial teaching methods to give students a chance to excel in their strengths and interests. Provide opportunities in specific areas with learning difficulties (think about remediation exercises).

The remediation must be done in a safe environment in which mistakes are considered a part of learning. Teach your students the value of getting up after a knock-out. They will learn from it and do better the next time. Failure leads to success.

Choose for a BookWidgets Planner to set up learning activities based on a single student. This "widget" (or exercise) has many possibilities. You can let your student choose between remediation activities or give him a list of activities he has to complete.

The 5 C's

When you have a "bored student" in front of you, there's a simple strategy to keep him engaged: The 5 C's - Control, choice, challenge, complexity and caring.

Control: Give bored students control over what they learn. This means that they work best independently.

Choice: Give the students a choice of what they learn. Give them a range of exercises they can choose from. When doing a book review, let them choose the book, or let them come up with a list of books you can review and accept.

Challenge: Challenge them to do things they are not used to do. Be more creative, give them an extra challenge, and reward them when they found a solution to this "impossible" challenge. They still have the choice not to do this.

Complexity: Don't make things too easy. If a problem is interesting, a student will be more likely to solve it. Solving complex challenges triggers a students interest if he knows basic knowledge. Be aware though: if the problem is too hard, there's no pleasure in solving it.

Focus on strength

It's important for the teacher to focus on the strength of the students. This goes both ways: the student also has to acknowledge their strengths.

Create challenging activities, variety, and opportunity for students to utilize their strengths and interests so they can improve their performance and facilitate in-depth learning.

As you know, successful experiences (like being able to solve a problem) lead to success. Encourage your students to go from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

Extra resources on motivating students to learn

"The brain is not designed for thinking, it's designed to save you from thinking." Daniel T. Willingham.

So, how do you further motivate students to learn?

I summarized the book "Why don't students like school" from Daniel T. Willingham. The blog post series will help you figure out how a student thinks and what it means for your classroom. You should really read them all, but for this post about helping underachieving students, part 1 and part 5 will be more on topic.

As you know now, lack of basic skills and study habits is an important cause of underachievement. In order for your students to learn in an effective way, you could teach them the most effective learning strategies.

Wrap up

Talented underachievers are not your typical learner. As you can see now, they need a different approach. I hope this short guide with tips for underachieving students helps you to change your teaching, so everybody can thrive in your classroom.

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What to do with underachieving students? A quick teacher guide

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Underachievement in education is a common problem. You've probably noticed yourself that it's not always easy to get students motivated to learn, and that some students are not living up to expectations. So how can you, as a teacher, solve this rather common problem?

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How to Give Students the Confidence to Take on Rigorous Work- Article

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How to Give Students the Confidence to Take on Rigorous Work- Article

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Read the article and share a reflection.

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In the first months of the pandemic, school leaders and state officials made a unified call for grace, an acknowledgment that students and teachers both had more pressing concerns than academic expectations: They relaxed grading policies, canceled end-of-year assessments, or directed teachers not to fail students because of work not completed during shutdowns.

Over the past two years, though, school systems have brought back many of these requirements. State and school district leaders' pleas for lenience have thinned, and their expectations for teachers and students have risen. Teachers are tasked with "catching up" students, trying to prepare them for success in the next grade and beyond while accounting for the disruptions of the past two years.

"The expectation is 'back to business,' and that's why teachers are stressing," said Marina Martinez, a 7th grade math teacher and the department chair at Bancroft Middle School in San Leandro, Calif.

Teachers say the dynamic puts them in a bind: They want to hold their students to high expectations, giving them the kind of meaty work that has a better chance of re-engaging them in school and preparing them for the next grade and beyond. But they also say that schools aren't really "back to business" yet, and they don't want to add more stress to students' lives during an already difficult time.

"There's this fine line between 'we're still teaching in a pandemic,' but we want kids to understand that there are certain expectations of their behavior, their responsibilities," said Nancy Nasr, the science department chair at Granada Hills Charter High School in Los Angeles.

"That's part of our teaching, especially in the high school. It's not just the content, it's developing these responsible citizens who understand the importance of deadlines, doing what you're supposed to do, following through on that."

In an EdWeek Research Center survey from December 2021, one in three teachers said that the rigor of their instruction had decreased compared to before the pandemic. More than 80 percent reported that they had increased their focus on reteaching. And about half of all teachers said the amount of homework they assign and the strictness of their grading policies are still more lax than they were pre-pandemic.

Is rigor possible during disrupted learning?

Teachers say that so much time without traditional school routines has shaken students' confidence in their ability to wrestle with cognitively demanding assignments. About seven in 10 reported that the quantity and quality of work that students turn in has decreased.

In interviews with Education Week, some teachers worried that continuing to relax expectations would lower the quality of education that they were able to provide, and decrease the chances that students would be prepared for the next grade.

But others argued that these changes to their practice didn't necessarily translate to "easier" classes. Instead, the pandemic has changed the way they conceptualize rigor, they said.

Nasr, for example, has moved from a more traditional, multiple-choice summative test to more holistic end-of-term assessments that account for students having been in and out of the physical classroom at different times throughout the semester. "The hammer coming down, the multiple-choice, punitive grading culture has changed for me," Nasr said.

There has always been a "tension" between covering all of the content and skills that students are going to be evaluated on, and taking the time to help students' grow their capacity for deeper learning, said Camille Farrington, a managing director at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, who studies academic rigor.

"Given that the system is really at a breaking point, and there's wholesale evidence that students can't live through COVID and keep up at grade level, ... what are we going to do about it? I don't think there's incompatibility between COVID and rigor, but I think there is incompatibility between COVID and broad grade-level standards."

Gaps in basic skills hinder acceleration

One solution is the idea of "acceleration."

If a teacher is working with a 4th grade class that was in remote learning for most of 3rd grade math, for example, she would introduce them to 4th grade concepts while providing "just-in-time" support when they needed to rely on 3rd grade knowledge or skills.

Instead of going back to reteach entire units from the previous grade, teachers and students can keep moving forward, introducing kids to more challenging content. Several national education groups have endorsed this strategy during COVID, when the unpredictable nature of school building shutdowns-and students' lives-mean that kids may miss different chunks of instruction.

But some teachers say that students' increased struggles with basic skills make moving forward difficult.

"I think about 8th, 9th grade, and the main focus is equations. And the kids are struggling because they don't have their basic facts down," Martinez said.

In years' past, she wouldn't let students use calculators, asking them instead to draw on their stored knowledge of math facts. But she's changed that this year, after seeing that her students are having more trouble with that recall than they have in the past. "It gets to a certain point where we're so dependent on those basic facts that we're not pushing the math itself forward," she said.

Zachary Chan, a 3rd grade reading teacher at the Young Women's Leadership Academy in San Antonio, said he's reteaching handwriting and concepts of print-skills that students would normally master by the end of 1st grade.

"We're focusing more on growth," Chan said. "I feel pressure to have them grow more than a year in writing instruction in that year they're with me."

Some older students are having trouble with reading skills, too, said Lisa Vanderlinden, a chemistry and biology teacher at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn. "Before a lab, I'll need to tell them every single thing about the lab that we're doing, because they're not as good at reading directions," she said, of her 11th graders. They also need support with the algebra involved in her class, such as balancing equations.

But the bigger problem, Vanderlinden said, is that students are having trouble concentrating and thinking through problems. They're not as confident in their knowledge.

"I don't think that they got behind as much on content as they got behind on critical thinking skills and the ability to process challenging information," Vanderlinden said.

This dip in students' ability to take on cognitively demanding work is a much bigger hurdle than some gaps in their understanding of math formulas, she said.

The pandemic has heightened this kind of response from students, teachers say, but the phenomenon isn't entirely new.

Martinez said that she and her colleagues have always provided students with scaffolds that help them access grade-level work, breaking down a problem into its component skills and walking students through step by step. It's a strategy that would ideally let kids wrestle with concepts and ideas that are more challenging, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

If teachers are cutting up a concept or question into too many chunks, they can hinder students' ability to make connections themselves and see the "big picture," she said. Now, that problem has gotten worse.

How should schools measure rigor?

Schools have not historically developed students' capacities to take on rigorous work without over-scaffolding, said Zaretta Hammond, a teacher educator and the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students.

This has especially affected Black and brown children, who are more likely than white children to be given work that's watered down and not cognitively challenging, she said. And the pandemic revealed how deeply inequitable this problem is-how the education system has failed to cultivate historically marginalized students' capacity to carry the cognitive load and process new content, so that they can turn it into usable knowledge, Hammond said.

A lot of students disengaged from school during remote learning because they found virtual learning uninteresting and lacking in any intellectual curiosity or joy, she said. But others, she added, disengaged because they weren't prepared for learning without teachers' over-scaffolding.

Now, students might be reluctant to engage because they don't see a purpose in the general directive to push forward-or a way to do so, Hammond said. They want a clearer message about why they're learning what they're learning, and they need the time and support to build the strategies that will allow them to process complex tasks by themselves.

"If I can't swim, putting you at one end of the river and saying, 'The only way to get across to freedom is to swim,' you're stuck," she said.

This is why academic acceleration doesn't mean going faster, Hammond said. Students need time to learn how to swim: to build the cognitive structures and routines that enable them to take on rigorous work. She likened it to how even professional musicians continue to drill their scales, maintaining a solid foundation that allows them to play complex pieces.

This year, some teachers have tried new ways of helping students develop those routines. In her 7th grade math class, Martinez has started to ask her students to keep a notebook. There, students can write down or draw out their own reminders. She's helping her students solidify their own strategies to "review, reinforce, and remind," she said.

Other teachers are looking for new ways to spark students' intellectual curiosity, something that Farrington, from the University of Chicago, says is a key entry point to rigorous work.

"I'm moving more toward, 'How can we use science, or how can we do science, to better our society?'" Nasr said. She's developed lessons around the Flint, Mich., water crisis and air pollution issues in Los Angeles that offer applications for the core ideas of her chemistry class, but also pique students' curiosity. They're driven to answer the question: How could science solve these problems?

But individual educators' attempts to help students develop new ways of thinking and hook their interest can only go so far without time and guidance from administrators. Asking individual teachers to shoulder this transformation to more cognitively demanding work isn't sustainable, Hammond said. Making time for rigor requires shifts in school and districtwide priorities, she said.

Chan, the Texas 3rd grade teacher, wishes that state or federal leaders, too, could offer more guidance about how to approach student needs right now.

"The intensity of everything has gone up," he said, as education leaders call on teachers to raise the rigor and play catch-up. But he also feels-and keeps hearing the message-that he should still be showing empathy. It's not clear to him how to do both.

"It's been a balancing act for everybody," Chan said. "And I think a lot of the load has been placed on teachers."

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How to Give Students the Confidence to Take on Rigorous Work

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In the first months of the pandemic, school leaders and state officials made a unified call for grace, an acknowledgment that students and teachers both had more pressing concerns than academic expectations: They relaxed grading policies, canceled end-of-year assessments, or directed teachers not to fail students because of work not completed during shutdowns.

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When Smart Kids Underachieve in School: Practical Solutions for Teachers

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Why do some smart, advanced, and gifted students not reach their achievement potential? This webinar looks at reasons for underachievement and practical ways teachers can help. As a supplement to this webinar, you may download the slide deck Todd references in this presentation here: https://www.prufrock.com/Assets/ClientDocs/webinars/when-smart-kids-underachieve.pdf

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Ingenieriabiomedica | สล็อตเว็บตรง PG SLOT เว็บสล็อตเจ้าดัง ค่ายใหญ่ อันดับ 1

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ช่องทาง สล็อตเว็บตรง PG SLOT ค่ายใหญ่ ingenieriabiomedica.org เว็บสล็อตอัตราชนะสูงสุด เว็บตรง ผ่านระบบ wallet สล็อตอันดับ 1 สมัครเลยตอนนี้

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Lesson Design: Focus on The Thinking NOT on the Product Article & Video Link

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Lesson Design: Focus on The Thinking NOT on the Product Article & Video Link

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This one will get YOU thinking about your lesson designing. Read/Watch then share a reflection that includes how this post has changed your thinking & planning.

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One of the keys (perhaps the key!?) to crafting great lessons is to understand the "thinking" vs the "product".

Thinking: how we're asking students to manipulate information.

Product: how students show us how they've thought.

When I was a new teacher, you would have seen some pretty fancy products hanging in my room, but if you stopped to consider how my kids thought about the content... well, they mostly restated facts that I had already told them.

Restate the Information... IN 3D!!

It's surprisingly common to ask students to build fancy final products that merely restate the facts. Read this objective and consider how students thought about the content.

Create a model of the solar system showing the planets in order.

Imagine my most brilliant student. The one who makes connections no one else can think of. The one who makes creative leaps in thinking.

They have no opportunity here to show off their brain. All they can do is put the planets in the right order. This task will highlight my best artists (or most helpful parents!), but it doesn't have any room for impressive thinking.

I taught earth science and one of our first chapters was about the earth's structure. For Back to School Night, it was so tempting to ask kids to:

Make a model of the earth showing its layers.

Again, a potentially impressive display - but it's built on the absolute dredges of Bloom's Taxonomy. If you were to peruse the projects in my class, you'd be unable to tell which of my students is three years ahead of their peers, because I only asked them to put the earth's layers into the right order. Sure looked cool, though!

I've written before about a wax museum project that shares a similar problem:

Students will dress up as a person from history and recite a summary about that person's life.

Hopefully you see the problem. Kids are just restating known information while the focus is on how nice the product looks (whether it's a costume, a model, a diorama, etc).

No analysis. No evaluation. No synthesis. Just remember and restate.

Is There Room for Thinking?

So now I ask: will I be able to tell my highest-ability student from their peers by looking at this product? Does it have room for them to show off their interesting thinking? Or will the only difference be how fancy the product looks?

The key to fixing this problem is to start planning with the thinking and, only at the end of planning, decide on what the product will be.

Start with this: "This task is going to be about finding unexpected relationships."

Not: "This task is about making a cardboard model."

A final product will flow naturally from high-level thinking. Kids will often come up with their own ways to show off what they've come up with. But, if we start with a product that emphasizes low-level, restate-the-facts thinking, it's pretty tough to shoehorn high-level thinking in.

Want more on this topic? Check out that Wax Museum article.

I also created this related video as part of a larger event.

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One of the keys (perhaps the key!?) to crafting great lessons is to understand the "thinking" vs the "product". Thinking: how we're asking students to manipulate information. Product: how students show us how they've thought. When I was a new teacher, you would have seen some pretty fancy products hanging in my room, but if [...]

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Silent Debate (I have now uploaded this video in HD on my channel)

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Classroom debates are closely connected to communication standards in all grades, and the predictable structure helps students express themselves.

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Go to Resources & Todd Talks links.

Todd Stanley Shares Lessons for Social Studies that fit with the use of debate. Along with multiple other amazing instructional ideas.

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Welcome to the Gifted Guy website, my name is Todd Stanley. On this site you will find a collection of strategies, ideas, and lessons that I have created and accumulated over my twenty years in education designed to challenge gifted students. Among these you will find my blogs on EdCircuit and Creativity and Education, my YouTube channels that include Todd Talks for teachers and Enrichment with the Gifted Guy for students, professional development topics, and finally resources for educators to use in their own classrooms.

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5 Ways Debate Helps Gifted Students Rise to the Top

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5 Ways Debate Helps Gifted Students Rise to the Top

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5 Ways Debate Helps Gifted Students Rise to the Top

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Numerous studies have shown the benefits and advantages of high school debate programs for nearly every type of student from every cultural…

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Strategies that Work: Debates in the Classroom | Education World

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Strategies that Work: Debates in the Classroom | Education World

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Strategies that Work: Debates in the Classroom | Education World

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Strategies that Work: Debates in the Classroom

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Using Classroom Debates to Engage Students

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Using Classroom Debates to Engage Students

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Any teacher or parent of adolescents will tell you, kids love to argue! With some effort, you can harness this natural inclination in your classroom as a way to improve your students' content knowledge and literacy abilities.

Two of the targeted initiatives in the Common Core standards are a focus on developing students' speaking and listening skills and a focus on developing students' abilities to support claims with evidence. Debating is a way to address both of these concepts in a fun and engaging way.

Odds are that when you think about a debate, you picture something akin to the prime-time presidential debates on television; there are podiums, timers, moderators, and structured formats. Debating in your classroom does not necessarily need all of these trappings.

While you could certainly opt for more traditional debate formats like a Lincoln-Douglas debate, there is much more to be gained by choosing formats that get as many students involved as possible. Some of the most effective class-wide debate activities include:

Fishbowls are a great way to get an entire class to debate an issue. The classroom is arranged in inner and outer circles of students. Inner-circle students are the "talkers" and can engage with the other students in the inner circle about the topic at hand. Behind each student in the inner circle is a student who is responsible for listening to the arguments play out. At regular intervals, the inner circles and outer circles switch.

In some variations, the outer circle students are required to take notes for both themselves and their inner circle counterpart. Another variation allows the outer-circle student to pass notes to the inner-circle student to help with their arguments. You can even add a " hot seat " for an eager outer-circle student to jump into if they have a thought they want to contribute. Whatever ways you choose to modify the fishbowl framework, student engagement will be up.

In this activity, students express their positions on a multi-faceted issue by moving to the corner of the classroom that displays a statement that they most agree with. One at a time, each student takes a turn defending their chosen position and then calls upon another classmate to respond.

Throughout the activity, students are free to move to different corners to reflect shifts in their positions; this adds a visual and kinesthetic element to the process. What makes a four-corners debate particularly empowering is watching support for a position evolve following a compelling argument made by a student.

One of the hardest argumentative skills to learn is how to defend a position that is not your own. By assigning students particular roles or positions to play out in a debate, you help them consider opposing viewpoints. This can lay the groundwork for writing strong counterarguments in subsequent assignments on the topic.

In my literacy and social studies classrooms, I typically use debate activities like a these to help students prepare for argumentative writing. There is a noticeable bump in quality when students have been given a chance to play with their ideas in a debate activity prior to formally crafting and defending a written thesis.

Classroom debate activities give students with verbal, social, and auditory learning styles an opportunity to engage with content in a way that is more comfortable than working solely on paper. Some, like the four-corners debate, even play to your kinesthetic learners' needs.

By adding a note-taking or written reflection component to your debate activity, you can help not only support your visual learners but build in an extra layer of student accountability. This also gives students something tangible to take with them from the activity as a reference for future classwork; everybody wins.

Ideally, classroom debate activities improve engagement by tapping into a wide range of learning styles and driving up student interest. Give them a try with your own students!
Sheldon Soper is a New Jersey middle school teacher with over a decade of classroom experience teaching students to read, write, and problem-solve across multiple grade levels. He holds teaching certifications in English, Social Studies, and Elementary Education as well as Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the field of education. In addition to his teaching career, Sheldon is also a content writer for a variety of education, technology, and parenting focused websites. You can follow Sheldon on Twitter @SoperWritings.

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Using Classroom Debates to Engage Students

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With some effort, you can harness arguing children in your classroom as a way to improve your students' content knowledge and literacy abilities

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Tips to Reduce Perfectionism for Gifted and 2e Kids and Teens | Gifted Learning Lab

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Tips to Reduce Perfectionism for Gifted and 2e Kids and Teens | Gifted Learning Lab

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Tips to Reduce Perfectionism for Gifted and 2e Kids and Teens | Gifted Learning Lab

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How to build resilience when mistakes and challenges feel too hard

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Perfectionism in Gifted Kids: Practical Strategies

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A virtual open house with Dr. Jill L. Adelson and Dr. Hope E. Wilson, co-authors of Letting Go of Perfect: Perfectionism in Kids and Teens.

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Episode 32: Writing Strategies for Gifted Learners

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Episode 32: Writing Strategies for Gifted Learners

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Episode 32: Writing Strategies for Gifted Learners

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Podcast Episode · The Gifted Ed Podcast · 05/27/2025 · 47m

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Failing Fabulously: 3 Ways Re-Framing Mistakes Builds Critical Thinking- Video

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Failing Fabulously: 3 Ways Re-Framing Mistakes Builds Critical Thinking- Video

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Failing Fabulously: 3 Ways Re-Framing Mistakes Builds Critical Thinking

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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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13 Strategies for Making Thinking Visible in the Classroom (art, literacy, math)

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13 Strategies for Making Thinking Visible in the Classroom (art, literacy, math)

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The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

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13 Strategies for Making Thinking Visible in the Classroom

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One key tool for developing and assessing 21st century skills is by making thinking visible. Here are 13 visual thinking strategies you can use today.

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Depth and Complexity Question Stems for Kindergarten, First, and Second Graders – Gifted Guru

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If you teach littles and have wondered what Depth and Complexity looks like with Kindergarten, First, or Second Grades, I’ve got a list of question stems to get you started.

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Identifying the First Grade Underachiever

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Identifying the First Grade Underachiever

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Identifying the First Grade Underachiever

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Four methods of judging achievement relative to ability were investigated: (1.) Achievement and ability T scores within on standard deviation of each other, (2) Achievement T score subtracted from…

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Guided by research, educators at Cochrane Collegiate have homed in on ten top teaching methods, and teachers receive weekly PD to help them implement the practices.

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Todd Talks - Strategies for Reversing Underachievement