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SU MIT SPR 15 cohort                                            May 25, 2016
25 May 2016: Zenaida Olivas

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An excellent resource for helping students with low verbal skills comes from the educator Jim Burke:
http://englishcompanion.com/books/

We want students to practice creativity in their writing, but it is often difficult for students with low verbal skills to work independently; Burke provides a framework for students who want to express complex ideas and participate in content acquisition even if their reading and writing skills are relatively low.

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"Complex instruction" is a strategy that can take advantage of a class's academic, cultural, and linguistic differences. The goal of complex instruction is to establish equity in learning opportunities for all students via intellectually challenging materials and small instructional groups. Complex instruction helps establish a classroom in which each individual's contributions are prized and honored, and where all learners receive a high level of instruction.

Complex instruction tasks:
* Require students to work together in small, heterogeneous groups;
* Are designed to draw on the intellectual strengths of each student in the group;
* Are open-ended;
* Are interesting to students;
* Allow for a variety of solutions and solution routes;
* Involve real objects;
* Provide materials and instructions in multiple languages, if students in the group represent different linguistic backgrounds;
* Integrate reading and writing in ways that make them an important means to accomplishing a desirable goal;
* Draw upon multiple abilities in a real-world way
* Use multimedia; and
* Require many different talents in order to completed adequately.

An effective complex-instruction task does not:
* Have a single right answer;
* Allow for completion more efficiently by one or two students than by the entire group;
* Reflect low-level thinking; or
* Involve simple memorization of routine learning.

A sample complex-instruction task card might look like:

We have been working with how writers' lives are often metaphors, which they create through actions and deeds - including writing. We have also been looking at how good authors hold up a mirror to readers, allowing readers to reflect upon their own lives and feelings. Robert Frost wrote a poem called "The Road Not Taken." Your task is to analyze the poem as a metaphor for Frost's life and a mirror for our own lives. Here are the steps:

1. Find the poem, read it, interpret it, and find consensus on what's going on in it and what it means.
2. Research Frost's life, making a "stepping stone" diagram like the one you created for your own life earlier this month.
3. Develop a soundscape that takes us along Frost's "journey in the woods." Use music; found sounds; sound effects; and appropriate mime, body sculpture, or narration to help your audience understand the feelings that a "journeyer in the woods" would experience as he or she came to straight places, landmarks, or decision points. Be sure you develop a script for your presentation.
4. Create an "overlay" of Frost's life and the poem, using words and images in such a way that they represent the metaphorical relationship between the two.
5. Transfer the key ideas in the poem to the life and experience of a noted person about whom we are all likely to know a little but could learn a little more. Your "transfer" must clearly draw a relationship between the person and the poem and clearly communicate to classmates how literature can help us understand ourselves.
6. Be certain that your final products demonstrate your understanding of metaphor and mirror, the relationship between varied art forms in communicating human meaning, and details of the people and poem with whom/which you are working.

As usual, you should appoint a group convener, materials monitor, recorder, and time monitor. Determine the best role for each person in your group. Remember, everyone has strengths to contribute to your group's success, and no one has all the strengths needed. Because your time is limited, you should develop a written work plan, including a timeline and group conference times. Be ready to share assessment criteria for your group's work (required elements as well as your group's sense of what makes a high-quality presentation). Your group may have up to 20 minutes to make its presentation to one other group plus a 10-minute exchange with students who serve as your audience and for whom you are an audience.
(Tomlinson, 2014, p. 113-116)

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Five guiding principles for differentiating instruction

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Five guiding principles for differentiating instruction

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1. Focus on the essential ideas and skills of what you're trying to teach. Get rid of ancillary tasks and activities.
2. Respond to individual student differences, such as learning style, prior knowledge, interests, and level of engagement.
3. Group students flexibly by shared interest, topic, or ability.
4. Integrate ongoing and meaningful assessments with instruction.
5. Continually assess; reflect; and adjust content, process, and product to meet student needs.
(Huebner, 2010, p. 80)

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(Zwiers, 2014)

Conversation Circles or Lines

After providing students with a prompt, they are to stand in two circles (or lines), facing one another.  They discuss the prompt in pairs, and then rotate so they have a new partner for the next prompt.

Interview Grids and Mixers

Students are provided with a graphic organizer that has a column for names, and other subject-specific questions or items.  The fun part comes next, where students engage in an interview "mixer" with one another and record the information that they hear in the specified columns.

Prediction Café

This activity allow students to make predictions about a text while moving about the room.  After the teacher distributes notecards to each student with different quotations on them, students can read them aloud to one another and engage in a discussion about what might be happening in the text or the sequence of events.

Simulations

A fun way to immerse students in the learning experience.  Students can reenact historical events, scientific processes, acting out a play, etc.  This can be utilized as an anticipatory set, a main part of the unit, or an assessment.

Radio Talk Show

Students "call-in" to discuss issues, from different points of view.  The host can either be the teacher or another student.  Students should be provided with ample time to conduct research on the given topic.

Structured Academic Controversy

This is a great way to get students thinking about both sides of a controversial issue.  Students must choose a side and then the group must present their side of the argument to the class.  After both groups present, students must switch sides and then present an argument for that opposing viewpoint.  At the conclusion of the discussion, each side will create a joint statement, stemming from the presentations.

Discussion Cards

Place discussion starters on notecards or on a word wall and ask students to utilize them during an academic discussion.  Following this, students should reflect on when it was appropriate to use some terms versus others.

Academic Term Cards

Groups of students will be given an envelope containing slips of paper with different terms on them.  Students should organize these in a way that makes sense to them.

Expert Panel

Several students play various roles as members of an expert panel.  They are to research these roles in expectation of discussion questions posed by the rest of the class.  Audience members can submit reflection papers for assessment.

News Program

In groups, students can put on a news program, highlighting interviews, opinions, top stories, consumer tips, book reviews, etc.  This will allow them to analyze the language that media programs utilize in their reporting.

Lyric Summaries

After reading subject-based information, students write a summary of the text in the format of song lyrics.  Students can perform in front of the class or record a sound clip, if desired.

Anticipation Chats

This allows students to rate themselves on a continuum prior to a controversial reading (e.g. agree-disagree, moral-immoral, etc.)  Students should discuss in pairs why they agree or disagree with the issue.  After reading or viewing the material, students should rate themselves again based on the same questions, and engage in a second discussion.

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The Five Elements of Productive and Engaging Group Work

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The Five Elements of Productive and Engaging Group Work

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(Frey, Fisher, & Everlove, 2009)

1. Positive Interdependence

2. Face-to-Face Interaction

3. Individual and Group Accountability

4. Interpersonal and Small-Group Skills

5. Group Processing

*Although ability grouping may be tempting when differentiating, it can be avoided if using the above elements effectively.

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One simple but effective means of differentiating content is to have students choose what they learn about. Students are likely to be more motivated and engaged in learning content that interests them and in which they have selected and/or had input (Gent, 2009, p. 53).

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List of what types of instruction works best with a variety of learners.
Visual-Spatial
-Drawing
-Puzzles
-Maps
-Use:
-Models
-Graphs
-Graphics
-Charts
-Videos
-Picture
Body-Kinesthetic
-Utilize:
-Movement
-Creation of physical objects
-Acting
-Role playing
-Props
Musical
-Use:
-Musical instruments
-Music
-Have students create:
-Lyrics
-Songs
Interpersonal
-Group activities
-Seminars
-Conferencing
Intrapersonal
-Independent study
-Metacognition
-Reading
-Dialogue journals
Linguistic
-Reading
-Writing poetry/stories
-Word games
Logical/Mathematical
-Logic games
-Investigations
-Mysteries
Learn what type of learners your students are!
-Myers Briggs Test
-Multiple Intelligences Quiz
-VARK Questionnaire
-Ask them what they like to do/what their interests are!

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Using social media

Strategies for selecting the proper social media differentiation tools, based on students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

Other online tools

A living document of online resources, containing explanations of their usefulness for content, process, and product differentiation.

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-Utilize Banks' Transformation or Social Action curriculum
-Add a culturally significant issue to every lesson.
-Make sure to include information about women and people of color.
-Seek out local resources on local culture and history.
-Bring in culturally diverse guest speakers.
-Hang posters in the class that depict a range of cultures.
-Read a literary text with the lens of a person of color

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Class meeting:

Try and hold class meetings whenever possible. During these class meetings focus on the following four topics:

1. What are the issues affecting teaching/ learning in the                                     classroom?
2. The effects of the issue are explored.
3. Examples of when the issue is not a problem are sought                                 (alternative story).
4. Commitments participants are prepared to make to address the                   problem

Classroom meetings can lead to more work and better quality work being produced, more students doing homework, and more students participating in class.

Active listening

Teach active listening strategies such as making eye contact, shifting your body towards the person speaking, and rephrasing what the speaker has said back to them.

Engender competence

Make students feel like they are able to learn. Give students opportunities for self-assessment and metacognition.

Also, teach and practice growth mindset. Set up a portfolio system so students can see how their work has improved over the year. When giving students feedback, don't focus on what they did wrong but how they have improved. Give students the chance to reflect on how they've grown and what they need to do to continue to improve.

Establish inclusion

Greet students at the door to make them feel like a valued member of the class.

Include student and family input when creating classroom rules.

Give students the opportunity to share about themselves...perhaps through a culture box/bag/basket/bin/mason jar/tupperware etc.

Utilize positive interdependence in all group activities. Use a jigsaw strategy or assign roles to students so that the group's success requires participation by all students.

Try these strategies to establish inclusion!

Two Wishes and a Truth: Ask students to write down one statement that is true about themselves and two that they wish were true.

"Ask Me About..." Posters: Have students create a small poster with a picture or symbol that represents something about them or there culture. Students will then ask questions to determine what the picture/symbol means.

Bio-Poems: Have students write biographical poems about themselves and share with the class.

Enhance meaning of content

Culturally responsive teaching

When possible, use real world examples or connect learning to student's lived experiences.

Use simulations and role plays so students can physically immerse themselves in the content.

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10 Research-Based Instruction Strategies You Should Know

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10 Research-Based Instruction Strategies You Should Know

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(Rosenshine, 2012)

1. Daily review of previous learning

2. Present new information in small chunks

3. Ask large number of questions

4. Provide models and examples

5. Guided practice with teacher

6. Check for understanding

7. Students succeed during class

8. Scaffold difficult tasks

9. Require and monitor independent practice

10. Review weekly and monthly

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The elements of differentiated instruction

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The elements of differentiated instruction

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Differentiation has been defined as a proactive means of providing challenging instruction for all students by intentionally planning to use a variety of approaches to modify instructional content, strategies, and/or products (Gent, 2009, p. 49).

Gent (2009, p. 49) identified five elements of quality differentiated instruction:

1. Teachers must be committed to ensuring that all students should learn. Teachers should never accept students' failure to learn as inevitable or unavoidable.

2. Teachers must use a high-quality, standards, driven curriculum that can be personalized based on students' abilities and interests.

3. Teachers must start where there students are by collecting specific information about each students' skill levels, academic achievements, learning needs, readiness, strengths, interests, prefererences, and support needs.

4. Teachers must use proven methods of instruction.

5. Teachers must assess students' knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis to determine the effectiveness of the instruction.

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Begin lessons with a review of prior knowledge

Frontloading with images

An excellent way to start a new unit/topic, teachers can bring in images related to the topic of study to generate student interest.

KWL Charts

Dramatic Role Play

Students work in groups to act out a short skit that relates to the topic of study (a reading passage, a scientific process, an historical event)

Post-it Response Notes

This strategy is best suited for reading.  Students can use post-it notes to write down any connections/questions/reactions that they have to a text and stick the post-it note on the place where the connection/question/reaction occurs.  These comments can then be referred to later to facilitate student discussion/analysis of the text.  Post-it notes can also be moved into a notebook for future reference.

Annotating text

Similar to the Post-it strategy, but this version has students write directly on the text being read.  Students who become skilled at this can use codes instead of complete sentences to speed up the process.

Turn and Talk a.k.a. Think-Pair-Share

A very useful strategy to facilitate student understanding of new topics while simultaneously building interpersonal skills.  Students talk with a partner (variations could be table groups of 4) about a question/topic raised by the teacher.  The teacher then elicits a few responses for the whole class to hear.

Admit/Exit Slips

Students can jot down what they know/what they learned about a topic as a way to facilitate discussion or provide the teacher with a quick formative assessment to gauge student learning.

Where Do You Stand?

Variations of this include Four Corners, Human Continuum, and others.  Students are asked by the teacher to vote with their feet, answering a question, or expressing their opinion, depending on the activity.  The students then discuss their positions with those who have similar views.

Cubing

The teacher groups students, and prepares enough cubes to have one per group.  Next, place one label on each side of the cube.  The labels should represent different themes or topics related to the lesson.  Students roll the dice and then write/discuss the label that is rolled.  This could be adjusted to have students look at a topic from different viewpoints as well.

Possible Sentences

This is a fun way to activate students' prior knowledge and engage them in a new topic.  The teacher writes on the board a list of words that will are relevant to a new topic, and students, individually or in groups, come up with sentences with them.  Students can then see if they correctly guessed the meanings of any words they were unfamiliar with at the start.

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Supply students with alternative methods for (CAST, 2011):
- Options for physical action
Resources:
1. Camera Mouse (move mouse by moving your head)
2. Click-N-Type virtual keyboard
3. TechMatrix- database of nearly 400 products

- Options for expression and communication
Resources:
1. Animoto
2. Glogster
3. Math Calculators and Tools
4. SpellChecker
5. Book Builder

- Options for executive functions
Resources:
1. Blog about Setting Goals with Middle School Students
2.  Study Guides and Strategies
3. Rubistar

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Anderson, D., & Cook, T. (2014). Committed to Differentiation and
Engagement: A Case Study of Two American Secondary Social Studies
Teachers. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 5(1), 1-19

This case looks at two social studies classrooms over an eight week unit, looking at the realities and effects of implementing differentiated instruction methods and strategies.

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield,
MA: Author.

This website explains the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and provides examples for each element.

Daniels, H., & Zemelman, S. (2014). Subjects matter: Exceeding standards
through powerful content-area reading. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.

Within Chapter 5 of this book, the authors offer a chart of 26 reading strategies.  This table describes the purpose of each tool, as well as the timing (before, during, or after reading).  The chapter also contains a description of how to implement each tool.

De Jesus, O. N. (2012). Differentiated Instruction: Can Differentiated
Instruction Provide Success for All Learners?. National Teacher
Education Journal, 5(3), 5-11.

This article discusses the various types of learners and how differentiated instruction can meet those diverse needs.

Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Everlove, S. (2009). Productive group work: How to
engage students, build teamwork, and promote understanding.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

A look into engaging students in group work that is productive and the five elements that comprise that idea.

Gent, P.G. (2009). Great Ideas: Using Service Learning & Differentiated
Instruction to Help Your Students Succeed. Baltimore, MD: Paul H.
Brookes Publishing Co.

For the purpose of differentiating instruction in general, this book is helpful primarily for its background on the definition and elements of differentiated instruction.

Ginsberg, M. B. & Wlodkowski R. J. (2000). Creating Highly Motivating
Classrooms for All Students: A Schoolwide Approach to Powerful
Teaching with Diverse Learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This book references educational frameworks and outlines specific teaching strategies for creating a motivating educational environment for every student in the class.

Huebner, T.A. (2010). Differentiated instruction. Educational Leadership, 67
(5), 79-81.

This article provides a concise, reader friendly of the research surrounding differentiated instruction as well as guidelines for integrating differentiated instruction in the classroom.

Kampwirth, T. J. & Powers K. M., (2016). Collaborative Consultation in the
Schools: Effective Practices for Students with Learning and Behavior
Problems. Long Beach: Pearson.

This text discusses effective collaboration and consultation skills and how to work productively with others.

Kaveney, K., & Drewery, W. (2011). Classroom meetings as a restorative
practice: A study of teachers' responses to an extended professional
development innovation. International Journal On School Disaffection, 8
(1), 5-12.

This article discusses a research study examining restorative justice through classroom meditation and restorative conferencing and how it can lead to personal accountability and care for others.

Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of Instruction: Reserach-Based Strategies
That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator, 12-39.

This article reviews 10 research based principles of instruction based on cognitive research and master teachers.

Tomlinson, C.A. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the
Needs of All Students. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

This book provides a good overview of differentiation processes and methodology, as well as a number of helpful strategies for implementation in the classroom.

Zwiers, J. (2014). Building academic language: Meeting Common Core
standards across all disciplines. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Useful suggestions are highlighted in this book that delves into analyzing academic language in all subjects, with students in Grades 5-12.

(2008). Culturally Responsive Classroom Management. NYU: Steinhardt.

This article discusses ways to set up a classroom that is culturally responsive and acknowledges the diversity of the student's in the classroom.

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Present material in small chunks and allow students to practice these skills

Think Alouds

The teacher models how to do an activity for the students, voicing their thought process to help students understand the process.

Word Walls

Simple and effective for all subjects, this simply requires that any keywords for a given unit of study be written down on cards or strips and placed up on a wall in view of the students.  To engage students more, involve them in the process of creating and maintaining the wall.

Vocabulary Tree

Another way of presenting key vocabulary for a particular topic of study.  The 'trunk' of the tree is the core word or concept, and the 'branches/roots' show examples and connections.

Analogies

A useful way to demonstrate the relationship between terms, and offers students the opportunity to personalize their understanding by creating their own meaningful analogies to demonstrate knowledge.

Frame Paragraphs

This is a great strategy for ELL learners.  The teacher prepares a paragraph that is made up of fill-in-the-blank sentences, allowing the students to complete it with their own ideas.  This could be used at the beginning of a topic/unit to activate prior knowledge, or as an assessment tool.

Graphic Organizers

There are limitless possibilities when it comes to graphic organizers.  They can be a powerful addition to any topic in the classroom.

Education Place - A bank of graphic organizers in PDF format that you can download and use.

EdHelper - Free downloadable graphic organizers in PDF format organized by function.

Teacher Vision - Free downloadable graphic organizers organized by function, grade level, and subject. On this site you get to view 3 for free, and then you have to pay.  Cost: $39.95/year

ThinkPort - A small collection of graphic organizers with a brief description to accompany each one.  Free downloads.