using inspirational quotes and a prompt for class discussion

it may be beneficial takes the opportunity of late students to slightly pivot discussion and learn from the moment, rather than proceed with the lesson as planned

rather than just discussing quotes teachers should try to create intentional opportunities for students to examine affective skills

affective competencies (Habits of Mind) should be treated similarly to skills, practice, feedback, assessment

non-cognitive skills better predictor than grades of success

most school don't measure these

• Ontario has reporting on six life skills which is a start

  • they argue little reliability or evidence associated with these

  • my experience as a parent says that the comments in these sections are more accurate, reliable and useful than the grades

they picked 8 that they think are analogous to 'keystone habits'

• Persisting

• Managing impulsivity

• Listening with understanding and empathy

• Thinking flexibly

• Striving for accuracy

• Questioning and problem-posing

• Creating, imagining, and innovating

• Thinking interdependently

the students are explicitly told what 3 affective skills are being observed and assessed

their group work will be marked as a whole, AND they will be graded by their peers based on their role as a team member

• enforces the need to be an active, productive team member

Dual Objective in action

• affective skills AND curriculum content being assessing together

Teacher explains the affective skills upon which students are being evaluate

Teacher emphasizes that affective skills will be evaluated

Affective skill evaluation is systematized, built into the assignment, not random

Individual portion of assignment comes from a variety of sources, including their reflection on teammates' contributions to the group work and the oral presentation

evaluating students group work skills like this can help build and predict group work skills they'll use in the "real world"

"working the room"

• make sure the groups are working together well and everyone is contributing

• assess the quality of thinking AND personal interactions to provide feedback on both

• clarify and reinforce community norms

spontaneous interventions to provide feedback on:

• ideas, plans, decisions and SEL skills and interactions

Walking around the room during group projects

Built on "spontaneous interventions"

A chance to evaluate students on affective skills and

• "assure that students are doing the work in an effective fashion and that each one is contributing

• assess the quality of the thinking and the quality of the interactions with the purpose of preparing and delivering feedback on both

• clarify and reinforce community norms and strengthen relationships to foster an effective learning environment" (p. 97)

the group seems to be generally working towards the goal, maybe with a tad too much joking around

• I would maybe interject to help keep them focused - scaffolding

• hopefully he also gave some ground rules at the beginning

• it doesn't seem like he mentioned that they'll be marked on social skills

my take is similar to the last one in that the teacher should make sure to ask questions to multiple students in the group, and prompt a discussion on how well they worked together

Students are talking about the teacher and playfully joking with each other

• Authors suggest not to mention these things, but take note and continue observing

Students are all interacting and contributing, aiming to ensure they understand the task, listening to others' contributions, and encouraging good contributions for other group members

• they are "thinking interdependently" and "striving for accuracy"

The authors suggest asking two specific students questions; one in order to gauge background knowledge that another student seemed to have and possibly be able to support the group with and the second in order to gauge how well the group was working from the student who seemed most organized and on-task

students seem overly focused on their mark

after a bunch of minor, playful arguing , including discussing doing the least possible or cheating and using their phones, they seem to have decided to follow the rules and try to do the assignment properly

they could be left alone here, but I think that a short response 3 - may help push them to be a bit more creative with their responses as they may feel a desire to meet their teachers expectations and please her

• this also gives them positive reinforcement for putting the phone away

spend some time working through vocuabulary definitions

• rectangle vs. square - one student does a good job of explaining to the other

then decide how to accomplish the task

• tracing and counting together

the authours suggest giving positive feedback about how well the group worked together

the authors suggest documenting observations of all group work

• collect evidence for feedback

• develop your own tool based on your affective objectives

The students do a good job working through a problem together, all contributing to a solution, and working together on enacting their solution

• These can be good opportunities to provide meaningful positive feedback!

The authors suggest creating an affective evaluation tool that the teacher can use to take notes on behaviour and evaluate while working the room

• Base the tool on the specific affective objectives we are evaluating

Giving relatively small positive feedback (like a smile and a thumbs up) is still good feedback

• Giving a thumbs up and then writing down some notes is a good way to evaluate students affectively

Since this is a group with a new student, asking the students how they are doing in involving everyone might be particularly insightful and helpful

mostly working well together

• new girl in the group

the teacher provides non-intrusive positive encouragement with a thumbs up

• could also ask the students about involving everyone especially the new girl

Mr. Donoski has a very detailed and thoughtful lesson here with explicit opportunities for students to practice affective skills and a meaningful belief in his students' potential

It's clear that Donoski sees his students and full people who can grow and learn in myriad ways, and this is an important stance to have when teaching

He has an effective checklist and is doing a good job at clearly and systematically evaluating affective skills

He has done a good job foreshadowing/signposting every element of class -- objectives covered how he approached those objectives, why students were doing different activities, how their work today impacts their work tomorrow

He focuses on effort more than grades in evaluation

He could emphasize the ability to respond to failure more clearly (his positivity suggests that the only option is enthusiastic success, which may make students who are struggling to learn stressed)

whole group watching videos

• make predictions of demonstrations

This is a very well-planned lesson with many activities and opportunities for students to demonstrate affective skills and reflect on their learning

The authors note that this lesson plan has students switch partners a few times, and suggests keeping teams together in other units if the teacher wants to mix and match partnerships in this lesson

Since there's a lot of cooperative learning, there could be students as "free-riders" if the teacher relied on group grades; that said, by having students submit their individual notes for grades, the teacher can evaluate students individually even while using cooperative learning heavily

These activities are non-competitive, which support interdependent learning and working together

Authors highlight utilizing technology, implementing cooperative learning, and tasking students to read for meaning as major positives of this lesson as it gives students many ways to succeed

The teacher is taking notes on students' individual work with a checklist

students have opportunities to reflect on learning and discuss it in a group discussion the next day

complex lesson with many different partners and many different activities

I liked how the assessment asked them to reflect on how they worked well with peers

While many teachers claim that they love those famous “teachable moments” when a spontaneous class discussion gets into important, relevant, confusing and fascinating topics that touch the students and their everyday lives, the use of the Dual Objective Model creates those opportunities in a way that is planned and anticipated.

The use of the Dual Objective Model takes the teacher from “well-meaning and intuitive to systematic and intentional,” regarding students’ affective growth. The teacher must be explicit about the affective skill(s) being used and clear in his or her feedback; most schools do not have a systematic framework.

The approach called Habits of Mind (Costa & Kallick, 2008, p. 14) provides an exemplary taxonomy of affective competencies that could be easily integrated into the Dual Objective Model.

As teachers “work the room” during group work, they must listen, assess, and decide on the content and timing of their interventions with each group. This feedback system for both affect and cognition is the essence of the Dual Objective.

Among the questions that teachers will be reflecting on as they “work the room” are the following: (a) Are the interactions and contributions of each member effective? (b) What does this student (or this group) need right now and/or in the future? (c) How productive is the environment within the team?

During group work, the teacher is in the perfect position to reinforce meta-cognitive and self-assessing student efforts. The actions involved in collaborating allow the teacher the chance to observe affective behavior both audibly and visibly for analysis and feedback.

Students must assess the team effectiveness regularly; this leads to goal formation and developing a realistic sense of self.

Teachers using the Dual Objective are in a very complex and stimulating environment most of the time; it is highly skilled instruction. Dealing with the many simultaneous interactions becomes a highly developed skill with extended and thoughtful experience.

“Working through” cases and sample situations helps clarify human thinking and decision-making as well as offering options and alternatives to existing behaviors. (p. 114)

practise and reflective experiences will help teachers become more effective facilitators during group work

interventions during the work have to be systematic and intentional and are important factors in effective instruction

practising and assessing affective skills and giving feedback is important for the student and the teacher

The Dual Objective Model is more effective in incorporating affective skills than waiting for teachable moments