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DP Student Reflects on Examination Preparation

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DP Student Reflects on Examination Preparation

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by Aseel Al-Nasser
People often ask me how was I able to achieve a 42 IB diploma score, and having answered that question many times now, I can say it's sometimes difficult to convince people that I haven't done anything special or extra than what most students did through their IB journey. With May 2017 examinations being just around the corner, here are six tips for IB students putting their knowledge and skills to test in a few weeks.

1. Plan a schedule and be organized

Any IB student or graduate would tell you that the number 1 skill they've learnt throughout their journey is how to be organized, and how important it is. Being organized helps you see things clearly and puts everything into perspective, and enables you to meet deadlines effectively. Now that you have mastered this skill after submitting your internal assessments and essays, you should apply it to your exams schedule.

Plan a schedule that would give each subject its right amount of time, not every subject will require the same preparation, so know which subjects you need to focus on the most and which ones will require the most amount of time in your schedule. Some people like to start preparing for the exams they have first, others like to start preparing for the exams they have at the end and finish off with the ones they have at the beginning, so know which type you are and apply it to a schedule that you won't have to change frequently.

2. Apply the knowledge, practice practice and practice

Now is certainly not the time to study for every topic as if you're studying it the first time! Trust yourself and trust that you have learnt the topics several times enough, for you to do a quick review covering all topics of the subjects and focusing only on the topics which you find yourself weak in. If you finished your Mock exams already, take the feedback from your tests and see which areas you still need to improve and focus on them.

Dedicate more time to solve exam papers, utilize the Question bank and make sure to solve every paper as if you're solving it in your actual external exam, with time constraint and resources allowed to take in for that exam, like the subject guide or a calculator. Practicing solving exams makes you more familiar with the format of questions, especially that the IB exam style is usually the same, and makes you faster in solving which ensures that you have effective time management skills needed to finish a paper within a limited time.

3. Manage your time effectively, in and out of exams

Before exams, make sure to schedule small breaks in between your study blocks, as your mind cannot focus the whole time and you need to de-stress and clear your mind every couple of hours, to focus again and recall information. Set a time limit for your break, a ten-minute break every 90 minutes or 2 hours is effective and more than enough. Use it to do something that will re-energize you without leading you to procrastinate or waste your time, like exercising or a short walk, as you should go back to studying directly after your break without any excuses to putting studying off or thinking of how much is left.

During exams, it is also very important to try to relax the night before your exam, you might do a quick review or solve some questions, but make sure that you get enough sleep the night before, and that you have a good breakfast before you leave to your exam the next morning, as this will help you in concentrating efficiently.

4. Go offline while studying

I cannot stress enough how crucial it is to turn off your mobile phone, the TV, and any social networks that will distract you while studying. You might think that it won't harm replying quickly to a WhatsApp group chat or checking your Instagram/Facebook account, but this will only lead you to waste hours that you could spend on effective non-distracted learning.

This should not mean that you should go offline until you're done with your exams, just make sure that you log in once you're done studying for the day or in your breaks. And remember, your TV series, programs and movies can wait, with today's technology you can easily watch all programs as many times as you wish, once you're done with your exams.

5. Take it one exam at a time

Give every exam paper its own share of focus, and do not dwell too much on an exam which you think you haven't done well on. Although it's very normal to feel upset when you don't do well on one paper or one subject, this should not consume your time and effort, you will still have other exams that will need your full attention. Stay motivated and give it your best, after all the grade will not be fully allocated based on the external examinations only, you still have your internal assessments as well.

6. Enjoy the experience and learn something out of it

Exams time is definitely exhausting, both physically and mentally, but take this phase easily and enjoy it while you can, after all it is an experience and a phase of your life. Trust yourself and your capabilities, you've been doing exams for many years, and although these exams are decisive for the majority of students who are relying on their grades to get a University admission, they are not very different from any other exams that you've done previously. No matter what the result is, be proud of what you have achieved, for after all the goal of the IB program is to teach you for life, and not just for your external examinations.

Wishing all May 2017 candidates the best of luck in their upcoming IB examinations, and all the best for their future!

Aseel Al- Nasser completed her IB diploma at Mashrek International School in Amman, Jordan. She was awarded a bilingual diploma in the May 2009 session with a score of 42 points. She recently finished her Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering at Hochschule Furtwangen University (HFU) in Germany, and is currently on the lookout for a job in her field of study.
Aseel is passionate about education and was a member of the IB Alumni Advisory Council for the years 2014-2015. Aseel enjoys reading, traveling, and Zumba dancing.
Have a great story to tell? Write to alumni.relations@ibo.org and learn more about the IB Alumni Network at ibo.org/alumni.

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The last mile: how to prepare for your IB exams

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by Aseel Al-Nasser People often ask me how was I able to achieve a 42 IB diploma score, and having answered that question many times now, I can say it's sometimes difficult to convince people that I haven't done anything special or extra than what most students did through their IB journey.

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Click here for examples of PYP Assessment Strategies.

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A nicely presented understanding of MYP's Global Contexts

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Taking It Global - Global contexts in the IB MYP

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Taking It Global - Global contexts in the IB MYP January 19, 2015 1. Identities and Relationships 2. Orientation in Space and Time 3. Personal and Cultural Expression 4. Scientific and Technical Innovation 5. Globalization and Sustainability 6. Fairness and Development Orientation in Time and Space What is the meaning of "where" and "when"?

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This page provides numerous practical tools and strategies to create a culture of collaborative learning.

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Design and share beautiful flyers just like this one!

Spread the word with an online flyer. They're easy to make and impossible to mess up :)

Teacher facilitated peer collaboration allows students to be the primary focus of instruction while they learn through "doing". It allows learning to become a social construct instead of placing all of the burden on the teacher.
Questions for discussion:

With what types of collaboration are you already familiar (for example: think-pair-share, speed dating,etc.)?

What struggles have you encountered with trying to incorporate collaboration into your classroom?

http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/collaborative-learning.html

1. Start with thinking about your desired learning outcomes. Then, consider the methods you will require your students to use to get there and how you will evaluate them.

2. For shorter assignments, make sure that you give clear instructions, that students are aware of your expectations, and have a set plan for classroom management. For longer assignments, make sure that each step of the project is planned out and that you have frequent check-ins with your groups to ensure they are progressing appropriately. Often times, it is helpful to grade smaller pieces as you go for both student and teacher.

3. Sometimes, I let students pick their own groups but usually not. I like to give pre-assessments or have students rank themselves on abilities (like research skills, technology usage, etc.) in order to create the most functional groups.

4. Think about how you will make sure that students are productive. Will they get a daily participation grade? Will their group members grade them? Will they have a product due each day?

5. Consider what technology you can use to continue to push students to grow or to make their collaboration easier or more efficient. Making these projects seem real-world friendly is always a way to encourage and motivate students to see the value in the assignment.

What A Collaborative Classroom Looks Like

Jigsaw

What is it? Small groups of students work on different aspects of one problem, then present their findings in a logical sequence.

Good For? Allowing students to become "experts" in subtopics; giving students opportunities to learn from one another; letting students get up and moving about

How To? Break students into small groups. Each group is tasked with solving some aspect of one problem or prompt. After working on the assigned matter, each group takes turns explaining their piece of the puzzle. Note: if there is a large whiteboard, each group can have its own space to report their work.

Stump Your Partner

What is it? A way to quickly assess student understanding.

Good For? Use as an exit ticket at the end of your lesson & use responses to continue conversation the next day.

How To? Students take a minute to create a challenging question based on the lecture content up to that point. Students pose the question to the person sitting next to them.

To take this activity a step further, ask students to write down their questions and hand them in. These questions can be used to create tests or exams. They can also be reviewed to gauge student understanding.

Discussion Leaders

What is it? Prior to class, students prepare quotes, questions, and insights from the course readings in order to lead a discussion.

Good For? Allowing students to become "experts" in subtopics, motivating students to come to class prepared; receiving feedback on students' reading comprehension; teaching students how to ask good questions; giving students opportunities to learn from one another

How To? Give students an idea of about how long they can expect to facilitate a discussion in class. Each student should prepare to lead a discussion by 1) preparing at least two quotes from the reading they want to discuss in more detail 2) preparing two questions for class discussion and 3) offer two implications for the course. The quotes students select could represent central points from the piece, aspects of the article they found confusing and want to discuss more, or provocative statements they'd like to hear others' take on. Then during class, randomly select a student or two to lead discussion.

Collaboration Digital Tools

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Design and share beautiful flyers just like this one! Spread the word with an online flyer. They're easy to make and impossible to mess up :) Teacher facilitated peer collaboration allows students to be the primary focus of instruction while they learn through "doing".

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Take this short quiz and find out, as well as read the pros and cons of each style.

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Welcome to HotChalk's teaching styles quiz! This short, 14-question quiz allows you to explore how your unique teaching and leadership style guides students inside the classroom and out.

Keep in mind: Our teaching styles quiz is just a fun way to reflect on your teaching practices. Even more important is your ability to continue evolving your teaching methods to better reach each individual student.

A big thank you to our friends from Concordia Online Education and St. Thomas University! They shared valuable knowledge in furthering our understanding of teacher effectiveness in the classroom, and advised the creation of our teaching style quiz.

Without further ado, let's jump in!

Learn More: Click to view related resources.

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Teaching Style Quiz: What is Your Teaching Style?

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Welcome to HotChalk's teaching styles quiz! This short, 14-question quiz allows you to explore how your unique teaching and leadership style guides students inside the classroom and out. Keep in mind: Our teaching styles quiz is just a fun way to reflect on your teaching practices.

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What English Sounds like to Non-English Speakers

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What English Sounds like to Non-English Speakers

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A very interesting video with great insight into how we perceive language and communication, our own awareness of misunderstanding.

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by Terry Heick

When someone hears a language they're not familiar, it sounds-well, weird.

I'm not a neuroscientist, nor am I a linguist, so this is a layperson's explanation of 'what English sounds like to non-English speakers' insofar as I understand it.

(The 'insofar as I understand it' part should go without saying-how could I explain how I understand something that I don't understand unless I'm explaining how I don't understand it, which itself is ironic because being aware of your own misunderstanding is itself evidence of a level of understanding.)

First, a little background. There are neurological reasons for this, starting with how the brain processes sound, decodes phonetics and makes meaning. One of the neocortex's strengths is pattern recognition, so when someone is accustomed to hearing one set of phonetic patterns, when exposed to a completely different set of patterns, it first tries to break the code-identifying any pattern it recognizes, before (consciously) giving up completely and just 'listening to the sound.'

This is what a mono-lingual, native-English speaker would do listening to the staccato and intense German language, for example. (Of course, it's even more complex than that; how you perceive and frame the sounds isn't only a matter of sound, but also culture, as we associate distinct unique sounds and sound patterns with everything else we know or think we know about that culture. An example of this is the (obviously harmful and inaccurate) stereotype of 'hicks' and the southern drawl being an indicator of a lack of intelligence. (I am from 'The South' and encounter this phenomenon often.) [1]
What Does English Sound Like To Non-English Speakers?
In Steve Pinker's 'The Language Instinct,' he describes language less as a skill and more as an 'instinct.'

Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term "instinct."

And as an 'instinct' that is either deeply humanizing or deeply dehumanizing, depending on your perspective, it is ripe with subconscious 'aural expectations.'

So, the video-many English speakers know what Spanish or Russian might sound like, or even unique dialects and accents of English (e.g.,m Scottish, British, the aforementioned Southern US, etc.). What does English sound like to a non-native/non-English speaker?

There are many videos on YouTube that attempt to answer this question, but the one above is one of the better ones I've seen. It gets a little weird at the end, and at four minutes is a little long-doesn't take more than 30 seconds to get the idea. But it's kind of mesmerizing to listen to, isn't it?

Check out Steve Pinker's 'The Language Instinct' and Noam Chomsky's 'The Universal Grammar' for additional, somewhat-related reading.

[1] See 2002 Wendell Berry essay called "The Prejudice Against Country People, where he writes,

"The image of the farmer as the salt of the earth, independent son of the soil, and child of nature is a sort of lantern slide projected over the image of the farmer as simpleton, hick, or redneck. Both images serve to obliterate any concept of farming as an ancient, useful, honorable vocation, requiring admirable intelligence and skill, a complex local culture, great patience and endurance, and moral responsibilities of the gravest kind.

I am not trying to attribute any virtues or characteristics to farmers or rural people as a category. I am only saying what black people, Jews, and others have said many times before: These stereotypes don't fit. They don't work. Of course, some small town lawyers have minds that are "closed and cold," but some, too, have minds that are open and warm."
What English Sounds Like To Non-English Speakers; What Does English Sound Like To Non-English Speakers?

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What English Sounds Like To Non-English Speakers -

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﻿ What Does English Sound Like To Non-English Speakers? by Terry Heick When someone hears a language they're not familiar, it sounds-well, weird. I'm not a neuroscientist, nor am I a linguist, so this is a layperson's explanation of 'what English sounds like to non-English speakers' insofar as I understand it.

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The long Term 3 will lead to Spring Fever in our students! Hear are some resources to reenergize your students. https://www.middleweb.com/37202/try-these-fun-cures-for-student-spring-fever/

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Instilling IB's Learner Profile in Students leads to Emotional Intelligence.

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How Emotional Intelligence Helps Students Infographic

How Emotional Intelligence Helps Students Infographic

Success in the classroom depends on more than just your child's IQ.

The way your child identifies, understands and manages emotions can have an impact on everything from his or her relationships with classmates to performance in the classroom.

Because of this, emotional intelligence is an important stepping stone to success, both inside the classroom and beyond. But what exactly is emotional intelligence and how can it help students?

Emotional intelligence is your child's ability to identify, evaluate, control, and express his or her emotions. A high level of emotional intelligence helps your child use feelings to identify and solve challenges, communicate with others, and make decisions.

Emotional Literacy
Recognizing your own feelings and feelings of others.

Managing Emotions
Controlling your emotions effectively.

Empathy
Understanding and sharing the feelings of others.

Intrinsic Motivation
Willingness to push yourself to meet goals.

Learn more about emotional intelligence-view our infographic below!

Via: gradepowerlearning.com

Embed This Education Infographic on your Site or Blog! Copy and Paste the following code!

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How Emotional Intelligence Helps Students Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

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Success in the classroom depends on more than just your child's IQ. The way your child identifies, understands and manages emotions can have an impact on everything from his or her relationships with classmates to performance in the classroom. Because of this, emotional intelligence is an important stepping stone to success, both inside the classroom and beyond.

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The Term Ahead

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The Last Term of the 2017-18 Academic Year

The end of the year approaches! We have 1 more term left this academic year, with a handful of events, exams, trainings, and BIS firsts (prom, graduation, etc.) Please take a look below to see what is in store for the Week and Term Ahead.

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Design and share beautiful flyers just like this one! Spread the word with an online flyer. They're easy to make and impossible to mess up :) The end of the year approaches! We have 1 more term left this academic year, with a handful of events, exams, trainings, and BIS firsts (prom, graduation, etc.)

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Communicators: Understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.

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U.N.'s recognized day of Anti-Bullying is May 4th. As the U.N. notes, 70% of students experiences bullying while in school.

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With growing access to sources, these strategies can help limit the amount of plagiarism you experience in your classes.

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Listen to this post as a podcast (sponsored by Listenwise):
Plagiarism can be a real pain. Most teachers have had to deal with it in some form or another, and a whole lot of us still haven't figured out the best way to combat it. Many of us issue stern warnings and threaten serious, soul-crushing consequences. Others also use plagiarism checkers to catch students in the act.

While these methods can deter students from plagiarizing and catch them if they do, they operate on the assumption that all plagiarism is devious, that all students who plagiarize know exactly what they're doing, and our mission is to catch and punish. Now because I don't believe that assumption is true, I think we could be handling the problem with a lot more finesse.

How Well Do Students Understand Plagiarism?

In my own experience as a teacher and a parent, I have seen acts of plagiarism that I truly believe were rooted in ignorance.

Take my 5th-grade daughter, for instance. A few months ago, she and her best friend were collaborating on a Google Slides presentation about a Native American tribe. Reading over it as she worked, I found sentence after sentence written in language she never could have come up with. When I asked her where she got the information, she told me point blank that she copied and pasted it from a website. It took me forever to explain why that was wrong and what she needed to do instead. She seriously had no idea. She wasn't trying to cheat. Eventually, I convinced her that she really, really needed to revise, and even though she did, I could tell she was mostly humoring me.

Okay, that's 5th grade, you say. Surely it gets better as students get older?

Marginally. Let's take a look at college undergrads. In two separate studies, undergraduates were asked to identify incidences of plagiarism. In both, students' ability to correctly label plagiarism could best be described as limited (Dawson & Overfield, 2006; Marshall & Garry, 2005). In other words, a significant number of students have an incomplete understanding of what plagiarism actually is. And if they don't always know when they're doing it, it's going to be pretty hard to get them to stop.

To be clear, I'm not arguing that all students who plagiarize are innocent. I've had students whose attempts at passing off someone else's work as their own were so blatant, I took it as a personal insult. But I do believe we can cut way back on less deliberate instances of plagiarism by teaching students the skills to avoid it.

Direct Instruction Works

Unfortunately, students are expected to learn how to avoid plagiarism by some kind of osmosis. As they progress from grade to grade, they are expected to already know how to weave research into their writing in original, elegant, and ethical ways, but far too often, they don't have this skill set. Not at all. So rather than going straight to the plagiarism checkers, we need to explicitly teach these skills, and we need to do it more than once if we want good results.

How? First, we need to help them identify plagiarism. When students are shown different examples of plagiarism and taught-even through basic lecture-the many forms it can take, their understanding of what constitutes plagiarism gets much more sophisticated (Landau, Druen, & Arcuri, 2002; Moniz, Fine, & Bliss, 2008).

Then we need to give them practice in correctly citing their sources. When students get hands-on practice with paraphrasing and correctly citing sources, especially if that practice comes with instructor feedback, plagiarism is significantly reduced (Emerson, Rees, & MacKay, 2005).

Below I have outlined five exercises you can do with students in grades 7-12 to give them a much better understanding of what plagiarism is and how to correctly integrate research into their own writing.

5 Exercises for Reducing Student Plagiarism

These exercises come from my own classroom practice and are supported by the above research. (If you'd like these exercises in a classroom-ready format, take a look at my Avoiding Plagiarism Mini-Unit at the end of this post.)

Before we start, two important tips:

First, use simple texts for practice. If you want students to read and cite challenging academic texts, that's fine for later, but to teach them the skills of writing from research and giving proper credit, make the reading material easy so they don't waste energy struggling with that. Once they have the writing and citation skills down, they'll be better equipped to plug in more challenging sources.

Second, do these exercises together in class. These would not be good lessons for flipped or blended learning, where students just work through them on their own. The skills are complex and often require a judgment call to determine if they have been done correctly. For every exercise, students should be getting feedback from you, from their group members, or both. Setting aside class time to do these together will pay off in the long run.

Here are the exercises:

Exercise 1: Recognizing Plagiarism
Required Time: 15-20 minutes
As mentioned earlier, students have an incomplete understanding of what actually constitutes plagiarism. This exercise uses the concept attainment instructional strategy of showing students "yes" and "no" examples to help students refine their definition of a concept.

1. Have students read a short, simple text. This could be anywhere from 500-800 words, on a somewhat familiar topic. Something like this article about bees would do the trick.

2. Show several teacher-created examples of student writing based on that text. In some cases, the writing should demonstrate plagiarism, and in other cases, it should not. For each one, have students decide whether they think it represents plagiarism or not. Have them discuss this in groups if possible. After each example, tell them if they are correct or not, and explain why.

3. Eventually, they should get to the point where they can correctly identify most examples as "plagiarism" or "not plagiarism."

Exercise 2: Summarizing
Required Time: 20-30 minutes
Once students know what plagiarism looks like, have them practice putting the information they learn from texts into their own words. Here we're not talking about a full-length summary; the skill of summarization can be applied in smaller bursts, and it's absolutely necessary for writing about the things you research. Students need to be able to read something, digest it, then explain what they learned in their own language. In the context of plagiarism, that skill is referred to as summarization.

For this exercise and the ones that follow it, use a classic I do, we do, you do format to model the process described below: Start by modeling the process yourself (the "I" step), then repeat it as a whole class with you in the lead or by having students try it in pairs or groups (the "we" step), and finally have students make a fresh attempt on their own (the "you" step).

Here's the process to teach:

1. Choose a 1-2 paragraph section of a text. (If you haven't already gutted the one used for Exercise 1, that will work; otherwise, find a fresh one). Read it several times to make sure you understand it.

2. Turn your paper over (or minimize their screen, if you are reading it digitally), then think for a minute about what the section said.

3. Next, turn to a partner or group and explain what you learned from the paragraph in your own words.

4. Write a few sentences summarizing that information without looking back at the original source. Their summary should sound like YOU, not the source.

5. After you have written your summary, check the original source to make sure your summary is correct and that key terms are spelled correctly.

6. Finally, make sure you give credit to your source for this information. (Show students a few different sentence stems so they have options for building their sentence, e.g., "According to..." "In her article, _____ says...")

This process, if done carefully, will show students how important is is to disconnect from the original text when composing. After the "you do" part of the exercise, let students study the paragraphs of their peers and evaluate each other for plagiarism. Looking at how other people summarized the same idea will help them see the range of possibilities.

Exercise 3: Paraphrasing
Required Time: 20-30 minutes
There's a fine line between summarizing and paraphrasing, which is . Each one needs to be treated a little differently. When you summarize, you are pulling together lots of information and making it your own. When you paraphrase, you are taking a more specific, unique idea from one author and using similar- explained here by the OWL at Purdue but not exactly the same -language.

For this lesson, use the same I do, we do, you do format to practice this process:

1. Read a section of a text (like the bee article mentioned above).

2. Point to a specific idea and show them how to paraphrase it and give credit to the author. Show students a few different sentence stems so they have options for building their sentence ("According to..." "In her article, _____ says...")

3. Have students practice the same skill with a different passage, checking their response with each other, then reviewing it with the class.

Exercise 4: Using Direct Quotes
Required Time: 20-30 minutes
The next level up from paraphrasing is using some of the exact words from the source. This will help students understand that the only time it's okay to copy someone else's exact words into your work is when you put those words in quotes and give them credit for them.

For this exercise, use the same I do, we do, you do pattern as in exercises 2 and 3 to show students how to quote a sentence or phrase from the original text, using some of the same sentence stems from exercise 3.

Exercise 5: Using a Formal Citation Style

Required time: 30-40 minutes

At the university level, students are expected to use a formal citation style (such as MLA or APA) when writing papers, and the Common Core requires students to start applying a formal citation style as early as grade 7. So choose the style your district uses most frequently and teach students the basics.

Give students 2 to 3 sample items to use as practice sources. I recommend sticking with simple, predictable items that resemble the kinds of things students will access in their own research. For middle and secondary students, this most likely means online articles and (maybe) books.

Start with the references list at the end of the paper (or Works Cited, if you're doing MLA). I recommend beginning this way because many students will already be somewhat familiar with the concept of a bibliography, so this is a logical jump. Also, when you do in-text citations later, those citations will actually refer to something, since the references will already be listed at the end.

After you've built the references list, show students how to modify the author mentions they already made in exercises 3 and 4 so they match the in-text citation format of your chosen style.

Do all of this slowwwwly, with plenty of time for students to check their work with you and with each other.

When you think they have the basics down, throw two new resources at them-a book and an online article-and see if they can repeat the process: First have them build a reference list, then then paraphrase something from each one and do an in-text citation for each.

If it fits with your curriculum, the next step after this exercise would be to have students actually do a bit of research and write their own essay or extended response with a reference list and in-text citation

By the way, citation generators like EasyBib and BibMe or the citation feature in Google Docs can be wonderful time savers, but because they are not fail-safe, students will get the most use out of them after they learn to do their own citations manually.

Get these exercises in a classroom-ready mini-unit

If you like the exercises described in this post and want them ready to teach tomorrow, get a copy of Avoiding Plagiarism, my classroom-ready mini unit for grades 7-12. It contains all five exercises in PowerPoint slideshows, plus printable handouts for student use.
References
Dawson, M. M. & Overfield, J. A. (2006). Plagiarism: Do students know what it is? Bioscience education, 8(1), 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.3108/beej.8.1

Emerson, L., Rees, M. T., & MacKay, B. (2005). Scaffolding academic integrity: Creating a learning context for teaching referencing skills. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2(3), 3. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1059488.pdf

Landau, J. D., Druen, P. B., & Arcuri, J. A. (2002). Methods for helping students avoid plagiarism. Teaching of Psychology, 29(2), 112-115. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15328023TOP2902_06

Marshall, S. & Garry, M. (2005). How well do students really understand plagiarism? Proceedings from ASCILITE 2005: Balance, Fidelity, Mobility: Maintaining the Momentum? Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/52_Marshall.pdf

Moniz, R., Fine, J., & Bliss, L. (2008). The effectiveness of direct-instruction and student-centered teaching methods on students' functional understanding of plagiarism. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 15(3), 255-279. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10691310802258174

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Listen to this post as a podcast (sponsored by Listenwise): Plagiarism can be a real pain. Most teachers have had to deal with it in some form or another, and a whole lot of us still haven't figured out the best way to combat it.

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Empowering students, reinforcing the school-home relationship, promoting student ownership of learning. Watch this link to see Student-Led Conferences in practice.

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When PROFESSIONALS are LEARNING together and collaborating with each other on a regular basis, with common goals and purposes, they develop into a COMMUNITY.

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Professional learning community (PLC)

An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Professional learning communities operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.

Read what advocates say about the impact of PLCs.
What Are Professional Learning Communities?

It has been interesting to observe the growing popularity of the term professional learning community. In fact, the term has become so commonplace and has been used so ambiguously to describe virtually any loose coupling of individuals who share a common interest in education that it is in danger of losing all meaning. This lack of precision is an obstacle to implementing PLC processes because, as Mike Schmoker observes, "clarity precedes competence" (2004a, p. 85). Thus, we begin with an attempt to clarify our meaning of the term. To those familiar with our past work, this step may seem redundant, but we are convinced that redundancy can be a powerful tool in effective communication, and we prefer redundancy to ambiguity.

We have seen many instances in which educators assume that a PLC is a program. For example, one faculty told us that each year they implemented a new program in their school. In the previous year it had been PLC, the year prior to that it had been "understanding by design," and the current year it was "differentiated instruction." They had converted the names of the various programs into verbs, and the joke on the faculty was that they had been "UBDed, PLCed, and DIed." The PLC process is not a program. It cannot be purchased, nor can it be implemented by anyone other than the staff itself. Most importantly, it is ongoing-a continuous, never-ending process of conducting schooling that has a profound impact on the structure and culture of the school and the assumptions and practices of the professionals within it.

We have seen other instances in which educators assume that a PLC is a meeting-an occasional event when they meet with colleagues to complete a task. It is not uncommon for us to hear, "My PLC meets Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m." This perception of a PLC is wrong on two counts. First, the PLC is the larger organization and not the individual teams that comprise it. While collaborative teams are an essential part of the PLC process, the sum is greater than the individual parts. Much of the work of a PLC cannot be done by a team but instead requires a schoolwide or districtwide effort. So we believe it is helpful to think of the school or district as the PLC and the various collaborative teams as the building blocks of the PLC. Second, once again, the PLC process has a pervasive and ongoing impact on the structure and culture of the school. If educators meet with peers on a regular basis only to return to business as usual, they are not functioning as a PLC. So the PLC process is much more than a meeting.

So, what is a PLC? We argue that it is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLCs operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators. The following section examines the elements of the PLC process more closely.

A Focus on Learning

The very essence of a learning community is a focus on and a commitment to the learning of each student. When a school or district functions as a PLC, educators within the organization embrace high levels of learning for all students as both the reason the organization exists and the fundamental responsibility of those who work within it. In order to achieve this purpose, the members of a PLC create and are guided by a clear and compelling vision of what the organization must become in order to help all students learn. They make collective commitments clarifying what each member will do to create such an organization, and they use results-oriented goals to mark their progress. Members work together to clarify exactly what each student must learn, monitor each student's learning on a timely basis, provide systematic interventions that ensure students receive additional time and support for learning when they struggle, and extend and enrich learning when students have already mastered the intended outcomes.

A corollary assumption is that if the organization is to become more effective in helping all students learn, the adults in the organization must also be continually learning. Therefore, structures are created to ensure staff members engage in job-embedded learning as part of their routine work practices.

There is no ambiguity or hedging regarding this commitment to learning. Whereas many schools operate as if their primary purpose is to ensure that children are taught, PLCs are dedicated to the idea that their organization exists to ensure that all students learn essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions. All the other characteristics of a PLC flow directly from this epic shift in assumptions about the purpose of the school.

A Collaborative Culture With a Focus on Learning for All

Collaboration is a means to an end, not the end itself. In many schools, staff members are willing to collaborate on a variety of topics as long as the focus of the conversation stops at their classroom door. In a PLC, collaboration represents a systematic process in which teachers work together interdependently in order to impact their classroom practice in ways that will lead to better results for their students, for their team, and for their school.

Collective Inquiry Into Best Practice and Current Reality

The teams in a PLC engage in collective inquiry into both best practices in teaching and best practices in learning. They also inquire about their current reality including their present practices and the levels of achievement of their students. They attempt to arrive at consensus on vital questions by building shared knowledge rather than pooling opinions. They have an acute sense of curiosity and openness to new possibilities.

Collective inquiry enables team members to develop new skills and capabilities that in turn lead to new experiences and awareness. Gradually, this heightened awareness transforms into fundamental shifts in attitudes, beliefs, and habits which, over time, transform the culture of the school.

Working together to build shared knowledge on the best way to achieve goals and meet the needs of clients is exactly what professionals in any field are expected to do, whether it is curing the patient, winning the lawsuit, or helping all students learn. Members of a professional learning community are expected to work and learn together.

Action Orientation: Learning by Doing

Members of PLCs are action oriented: they move quickly to turn aspirations into action and visions into reality. They understand that the most powerful learning always occurs in a context of taking action, and they value engagement and experience as the most effective teachers. Henry Mintzberg's (2005) observation about training leaders applies here: deep learning requires experience, which requires taking action. It "is as much about doing in order to think as thinking in order to do" (p. 10). In fact, the very reason that teachers work together in teams and engage in collective inquiry is to serve as catalysts for action.

A Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Inherent to a PLC are a persistent disquiet with the status quo and a constant search for a better way to achieve goals and accomplish the purpose of the organization. Systematic processes engage each member of the organization in an ongoing cycle of:

Gathering evidence of current levels of student learning

Developing strategies and ideas to build on strengths and address weaknesses in that learning

Implementing those strategies and ideas

Analyzing the impact of the changes to discover what was effective and what was not

Applying new knowledge in the next cycle of continuous improvement

The goal is not simply to learn a new strategy, but instead to create conditions for a perpetual learning environment in which innovation and experimentation are viewed not as tasks to be accomplished or projects to be completed but as ways of conducting day-to-day business- forever. Furthermore, participation in this process is not reserved for those designated as leaders; rather, it is a responsibility of every member of the organization.

Results Orientation

Finally, members of a PLC realize that all of their efforts in these areas (a focus on learning, collaborative teams, collective inquiry, action orientation, and continuous improvement) must be assessed on the basis of results rather than intentions. Unless initiatives are subjected to ongoing assessment on the basis of tangible results, they represent random groping in the dark rather than purposeful improvement. As Peter Senge and colleagues conclude, "The rationale for any strategy for building a learning organization revolves around the premise that such organizations will produce dramatically improved results."

This focus on results leads each team to develop and pursue measurable improvement goals that are aligned to school and district goals for learning. It also drives teams to create a series of common formative assessments that are administered to students multiple times throughout the year to gather ongoing evidence of student learning. Team members review the results from these assessments in an effort to identify and address program concerns (areas of learning where many students are experiencing difficulty). They also examine the results to discover strengths and weaknesses in their individual teaching in order to learn from one another. Most importantly, the assessments are used to identify students who need additional time and support for learning. Frequent common formative assessments represent one of the most powerful tools in the PLC arsenal.
Please also see What Is a "Professional Learning Community"?DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work™, pp. 2-4.

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An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Professional learning communities operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.

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KidRex provides lower primary students with a Search Engine that is both safe and relevant for Inquiry based learning projects.

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Sometimes its much easier than we think!

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Please check with the author via email to be sure he or she still offers free Skype chats before you purchase books or make plans. (Some authors offer only a limited number of free Skype visits, and some who start out offering free visits begin to charge later on. Please e-mail me if an author on my list no longer offer free Skype visits. Happy Skyping!!

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Please check with the author via email to be sure he or she still offers free Skype chats before you purchase books or make plans. (Some authors offer only a limited number of free Skype visits, and some who start out offering free visits begin to charge later on.

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Build trust in your students, then everything else can happen.

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Andria Zafirakou has been functioning on three hours' sleep a night for weeks, but looks radiant. "It's adrenaline, it's excitement, it's everything." Nominated by current and former colleagues for the Varkey Foundation's annual Global Teacher prize, dubbed the Nobel for teaching, last month Zafirakou learned she had been shortlisted from a field of more than 30,000 entries. She flew out to Dubai last week to join nine other finalists from all over the world for a star-studded awards ceremony hosted by Trevor Noah, and arrived home on Wednesday the winner of the $1m prize. The nominees were judged on, among other things, the progress made by pupils, achievements outside the classroom and in helping children become "global citizens".

Politicians and dignitaries, the media and 100 of her schoolchildren were waiting to welcome her at Heathrow, from where she was whisked straight to parliament to meet Theresa May. The prime minister and education secretary's praise for the arts and textiles teacher could not have been more lavish; she is, declared Damian Hinds, "truly inspiring".

Zafirakou still hasn't made it home to Brent, north-west London, when we meet later that day. The 39-year-old has the dazed air of a woman who barely recognises herself as she stares at her photo on the front of London's Evening Standard. "My whole life has been transformed," she laughs breathlessly. Amid all the wonderment of her fairytale week, however, there is one obvious irony. Had Zafirakou prioritised the targets the government sets for her profession, and focused all her energies on its official performance measures, she would never have been considered for the award. She won, instead, by being the kind of teacher our education system actively discourages.

Zafirakou has spent her 12-year career at Alperton Community secondary school in Brent, teaching some of the most disadvantaged, ethnically diverse children in the country. She suspects most of us couldn't "have a clue" about the depth of deprivation she sees in her classroom every day. "This is what deprivation looks like. Deprivation is when you have got six or seven separate families living in one house, sleeping one family to a room, sharing one bathroom and rotating the use of the kitchen. I had a girl who was truanting in my class, so I investigated and found it was because she had to go home during the middle of my lesson and cook for her family because that was their slot on the rota." Children routinely arrive at school hungry and dirty - "I've put clothes in the washing machine for the kids, and we provide a free breakfast to every child" - while gang violence haunts the school gates.

These are the very conditions that put so many people off teaching, but when I ask if she wouldn't rather teach orderly, motivated pupils, she looks amused. "Bor-ing! No, I love trying to figure out: how can I get in to that child? How can I get them to trust me and how can I help them? Trying to figure out, right, OK, that didn't work, what do I need to try now? I love that."

To that end, Zafirakou taught herself phrases in many of the 35 languages spoken by her pupils. She set up a female cricket club for girls from conservative faith backgrounds, and rescheduled after-school clubs, so that children burdened with domestic duties all week could attend at weekends. She uses art to unlock pupils' creativity and confidence, visits their homes to understand their family lives, and personally escorts them off the school premises on to buses at the end of the day, to protect them from violence. Her school teaches mindfulness, offers yoga classes, runs a boxing club, and is ranked in the top 1 to 5% of all schools in the UK for improving children's achievement.

This approach is the opposite of the prevailing educational wisdom, famously pioneered by Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, east London, that what kids like those in Zafirakou's class need is not silly ideas about freedom and creativity, but old-fashioned structure, discipline and academic rigour. Once ministers saw Mossbourne's tough regime get children from council estates into Oxbridge, politicians in all parties deduced that the real problem wasn't poverty, but "poverty of expectations". This consenus allowed Michael Gove to rewrite the national curriculum in his own childhood's elite private school image, ditching subjects such as drama for Latin and grammar, all in the name of egalitarianism. If the Mossbourne model works, why does Zafirakou take such a radically different approach?

"How will those children deal with the mental health issues that they're going to get from that system? It's like a conveyor belt of stress," she challenges. "How are those children going to be able to nourish themselves, and find ways of letting their anxieties out, or just being happy, being creative - socialising and building skills of resilience or perseverance?" Brent does have schools modelled on Mossbourne, she says, "and parents are withdrawing their children and putting them into our school".

To prioritise extracurricular clubs and pastoral care would strike some educationalists as a well-meant but misguided disservice to children perfectly capable of academic excellence, if only they were pushed instead of patronised.

"I have no problem with expecting the same from these kids as we do of kids from Eton. No problem. But did these kids have a breakfast in the morning? Did these kids watch their mum and dad beating each other up? So for me, a success for some of our children is: 'He came into school, oh my God, he came into school.' It's great to say every child should have the same potential, but you need to know the personal background and the lives of your children, and how different and complex they are."

Zafirakou takes great exception to the popular view that multiculturalism is at best a big problem, at worst, a dangerously failed experiment, and that immigrant children will never integrate if schools accommodate their different cultural identities. "When they come into this huge, intimidating building, if you say to them '' or '', you see their faces light up. It means that you get them, that you're interested in them, that you are welcoming them, and that you appreciate their identity, their background - and they glow. Then what happens there, you've got complete and utter engagement from the parents. They will come in whenever you want them. We have a 95% minimum turnout for parents' evenings."

She applies the same principle to her lessons, introducing immigrant pupils to the great art of their birth country, rather than to the white European classics Gove wanted every child to study. "Kids won't engage with that," she says simply. "So first of all, connect them with their identity, their own history, their own culture. Show them what it's about and how you can celebrate it. Then you have a sense of pride. Once you have that pride, then you can say: 'This is what happened in the Renaissance'; 'This is impressionism'."

As the government wants schools to perform best in Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), and has excluded some arts subjects from the league tables, a lot of schools have given up teaching the arts altogether. When budgets are being cut, to spend money teaching GCSE drama, say, could be considered an unnecessary extravagance. Zarifakou's weary smile suggests this is not the first time this has been put to her.

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A sign outside Zafirakou's Alperton community school celebrating her nomination. Photograph: Ray Tang/REX/Shutterstock

"Isn't it funny that if you go to a private school, the parents will not tolerate their children not doing an art, not taking up a musical instrument, because they understand how important it is to be a child that has got many skills and these subjects build life skills? They help children communicate. They help them establish their own characters. They help to really challenge them and take them out of their comfort zones, because they've got to solve problems with these subjects. So the social skills you build up with them, being able to talk about your work confidently, being able to evaluate a piece of work, being able to talk about a role-play and completely break down a role-play - they are life skills. They are absolutely life skills that every child needs."

Zarifakou always knew she would be an art teacher. "It wasn't even a choice. Even from when I was at primary school my parents used to get complaints from my teachers saying: 'She's just so bossy, she tells us what to do.' It was a vocation. I just knew." Born in north-west London to Greek-Cypriot parents, and state-educated in Brent and Camden, she was promoted to deputy head of art within a year at Alperton, and is now associate deputy school head. Married to a fitness instructor, with two daughters aged 7 and 9, she is at work every morning by 7.30am, leaves at 5.30pm if lucky, often much later, and starts work again at home once the kids are in bed. "I don't watch TV. I don't ever even go into my living room. Even in my lunch, I'm working. The only time I break is when I'm in my bed."

I tell her that while she was away in Dubai, a report on teachers' pay was published. The average teacher earns £17.70 an hour. "See, that's disgusting," she says with feeling. When I ask what she would change if she were education secretary for a day, though, she doesn't mention money, but proposes the introduction of a reward system of praise and appreciation for teachers, to acknowledge the extraordinary work they do.

A condition of the Global Teacher prize's $1m pot is that the winner continues to teach for five years, but this clause strikes me as laughably unnecessary. Zafirakou plans to spend the money on projects to promote the arts, both in the school and the wider community of Brent, but I'm not sure the money has even fully sunk in. She seems to be still trying to absorb her new status as the best teacher in the world - but when not dazed and reeling she is already thinking about how to use her new platform to influence education.

If she could go back in time to her first day as a teacher, and tell herself one thing she has learned about the job since then, what would it be?

She thinks carefully. "That it's all about building relationships. Instead of worrying about teaching the curriculum or making sure that you've got a strict classroom environment, build your relationships first. Get your kids on board, connect with them, find out what it is that they're interested in. Build the relationship, build that trust. And then everything else can happen."

It occurs to me that this is exactly what business people always say about their jobs. So do bankers, estate agents, marketing executives, hedge fund managers. Why our education system is premised on an assumption that the same does not apply to teaching is a mystery, but Zafirakou thinks she can explain.

"We are too frightened. Some teachers feel that they need to know everything, and always be the person with the knowledge. But I think sometimes the most beautiful thing about being a teacher is when you ask the child to teach you."
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Best teacher in the world Andria Zafirakou: 'Build trust with your kids - then everything else can happen'

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Andria Zafirakou has been functioning on three hours' sleep a night for weeks, but looks radiant. "It's adrenaline, it's excitement, it's everything." Nominated by current and former colleagues for the Varkey Foundation's annual Global Teacher prize, dubbed the Nobel for teaching, last month Zafirakou learned she had been shortlisted from a field of more than 30,000 entries.