Feedback to Feed Small Groups

There has been a lot said about the power of small group instruction, but one thing that has come up recently in several educational circles is the power of using small groups to deliver effective feedback.

This got us thinking about how we've seen teachers using small groups in their classrooms to have a big impact on student learning. 

Teachers have pulled groups with similar scores or incorrect answers to conduct targeted review. Writing teachers have pulled groups with similar patterns to deliver feedback collectively, and then teach (or reteach) to support students in making effective revisions.

Using small group time as prime time for feedback not only supports student learning, but also teacher sanity. Certainly it is more efficient to give feedback to 4-5 people at a time, vs. writing painstaking feedback on each piece of work (or meeting 1:1). And if teachers can connect that feedback directly to next steps for instruction, the feedback literally saves instructional time.

And research (i.e. John Hattie's visible learning) would suggest that when small groups are used to give students targeted, timely, and specific feedback (.70 effect size), provide time for deliberate practice (.79 effect size) and thus to build student self-efficacy (.92 effect size), the groups are worth the trouble. 

Planning for Small Group Feedback

Hattie and Yates paper on "Using Feedback to Promote Learning" includes three feedback questions to help guide preparing and delivering effective feedback:

1. What is the goal?
2. What is the progress being made?
3. What is the next step?

In "Feed Students through Feedback," Sandie Novak affirms that feedback is something to be planned for as part of the lesson, and that planning begins with the learning target. Once the teacher and student really know what the goal is, they can begin the process of monitoring and using feedback to adjust progress toward that goal. 

Thus, the teacher can use where students are making progress and what the next step will be to provide targeted feedback and instruction. Likewise, students can use their understanding of the goal to self-assess their progress.

How might this look in your classroom?

Tuning Out, and Tuning In: Video Instruction May Be More Effective

 

A recent article by Erik Ofgang of Tech & Learning shares an analysis of more than 105 studies comparing the effects of live, pre-recorded, and combination instruction.

Interestingly, the research suggests that students learn better from videos, and best from a combination of video and in-person instruction.

Dr. Michael Noetel, lead author of this research and professor of psychology at The University of Queensland, says, "Sure, we want to make classes interactive and engaging, but when we need to explain a concept in the first place, then videos are some of the best ways of doing that."

Why?

Dr. Noetel says, “Probably because we cut out all of the rubbish and we edit ourselves to be more concise. We lose all of the irrelevant stories, and students can skip the parts of our lectures that they think are boring. That was really surprising, and a little bit of a hit to the old ego to find out that they prefer to be able to skip parts of my lecture rather than have to sit through my stories.” 

In other words, class time can be saved because the teaching gets right to the point.

This connects with the idea of the microlecture. By focusing on one particular concept or skill for only 6 minutes or less, a teacher creates powerful instructional video. This allows learners to slow down or catch up if needed, and frees up the instructor to work more with individual students and structure class time to maximize "interactive, higher-order activities where they can benefit from the support of others" including peers.

Instructional videos that combine audio and visual cues, packaged in easily digestible segments, also aligns to research about how students of all ages learn best.

Other uses for video instruction include, well, giving instructions! By recording instructions for stations or bigger assignments that students can pause, rewind, and return to, the teacher is able to reach more learners directly, by being freed up, and indirectly, by giving learners the power to customize their pace.

How might you use videos to more effectively meet the varied needs of your learners?

For more on making effective instructional videos and incorporating them wisely into class, check out these research-supported steps from Modern Classrooms Project founders and these 9 instructional video techniques that drive engagement from Screencastify.

Podcast Roundup: On Reading Levels and Illustrative Mathematics

 

Back to school is a great time to kick off new routines or to explore new resources. Two podcasts that are of interest to us as we move Griswold Forward are "Literacy Talks" and "Making Math Moments that Matter." 

In the episodes below, researchers and experts weigh in on the instructional practices and curriculum that Griswold is moving forward with. These are worth the listen!

Literacy Talks Podcast, Episode “On Levels: A Candid Conversation with Guest Dr. Matt Burns”

The gist: A famous reading researcher shares the research on what works when working with developing and struggling readers.

Takeaways:

• Leveled readers don’t align with research; decodables do.
• Effective assessments for reading skills help drive intervention.
• Partnered reading is an effective way to build fluency.

Making Math Moments that Matter, Episode “Engaging Students, Empowering Minds: A Conversation with Bill McCallum”

The gist: Illustrative Mathematics co-founder and distinguished math education professor shares the power of connecting mathematics to stories in problem-based learning. He connects to program practices and discusses the potential impact of AI and digital tools.

Takeaways:

• To learn math, students need to do math
• The instructional routines are key to the success of the curriculum.

Community Matters

The Research: "Students writing for real audiences are motivated in a way that churning out papers for grades are not. Students have to experience writing for real audiences before they will know that writing can bring them power." (Rodier, 2000, p.3)

This week, students in GMS technology classes used 2D or 3D Minecraft builds to celebrate their teachers, to be distributed during teacher appreciation week. Instead of just learning the book and quill tools for some possible future unknown application, students learned these tools to achieve a meaningful purpose for a very authentic audience. It got us thinking about some research revisited recently as the LEARN regional book study of Joan Sedita's The Writing Rope concluded.

Writing (and creating) for an authentic audience and purpose has been shown to improve student performance:

• It motivates students to do their best work.
• It provides a practical reason to get feedback, revise, and edit.
• It creates a sense of pride as students see the impact of their work on a greater community.

GPS students have many "big" opportunities to showcase their work, such as the spring musical and Expo night, but we can create similarly powerful experiences with small adjustments to many of our existing assignments:

• If a current assignment is only for a teacher to read, consider:
• How might this work might be used in the real world?
• Who do mathematicians, scientists, artists or historians share this work with? What do they write or present?
• Partner up with another class: who else in the building or district might you share with?
• Consider a contest or competition: who might be an authentic reader or judge of product quality?

An authentic audience can even turn necessary tasks into more meaningful experiences. For example, you might have your students send a bi-weekly email to their parents with a recap of activities or their accomplishments in the class.

For more inspiration, check out the Edutopia article "Creating Authentic Audiences for Student Work" and the MiddleWeb article "Students write better for authentic audiences", and check out this video of 4th graders writing for authentic audiences and purposes:

Just Escape

Escape rooms aren't new, but they are a game-based learning technique worth dusting off when review threatens to get stale. Kids as young as preschool can find success with these tasks when provided the right modeling and support!

The Benefits

We recently observed a 4th grade teacher using an escape room in math to review place value/rounding. In addition to the benefit of the task being fun and academically engaging, the teacher and students experienced additional academic and SEL benefits. According to the teacher:  

One of the greatest parts about using the [digital] escape rooms is the computer knows the correct answer so the students are provided with direct feedback as to whether their response is correct or incorrect. This allows for me to be able to assist students without having to provide each student in the class with feedback (checking their work immediately).

Students love the challenge of attempting to "escape" and they dive right into each escape room, determined and ready to solve any problem. I typically have them work in partnerships/small groups in order to be able to discuss and share their thinking. Many times, there is quite a bit of dissonance taking place and I absolutely love it. I am consistently telling them to persevere and they own it!

This aligns with the research: in addition to supporting motivation, game-based learning contributes to stronger problem-solving skills, language development, memory, self-esteem, and cooperative work skills.

Planning an Escape

There are many pre-made escapes and templates you can use to build your own escape room, such as those that use Genially or Google forms or Google sites.

But really, before doing any of that (admittedly fun) stuff, be sure you have a clear picture of the skills you want your escape room to test: what is the focus? How will the applications show student mastery of the concepts and skills you have been covering in class?

If an escape room sounds like something you want to do, someone from TLI would love to support you in the planning process, whether it is helping with the template, the plan, or even just connecting you with another teacher who has used an escape room in your content area or grade level.

Game on!

Can you smell what the podcast is cooking?

Science suggests that as you listen to a podcast or radio show about cooking and you hear the sizzle of the stove as the broadcaster describes adding garlic, the smell center of your brain will light up, activating memories and prior knowledge. You might actually SMELL the food cooking. 

"When we listen, our ears aren’t just passive absorbers of information. We are activating systems in the brains that are responsible for sight, sound, motor control and olfaction. 'We imagine sounds using the same brain regions that allow us to hear real sounds,' says cognitive scientist Benjamin Bergen."

Audio, and podcasts in particular are powerful in the classroom for so many reasons:

• Helps build empathy and impacts social-emotional well-being.
• Models powerful/fluent speaking.
• Supports listening comprehension skills (which are tested on SBAC)
• Helps build vocabulary.
• Builds background knowledge (especially for ELLs or struggling readers)
• Supports the development of reading (see the Simple View of Reading formula)
• Provides models for composition/presentation.
  

Other benefits? You can often speed them up, slow them down, or use tools that read along with transcripts to increase accessibility. TED Talks on the TED platform include transcripts in multiple languages, which highlight as the speaker talks.

How can I use them?

• There are many short (under 5 minute) podcasts for kids. These might be a great warm-up once a week, with the class working on retelling, identifying key information, or just brainstorming questions about a topic or current event.
• You might use longer podcasts as part of a station rotation to build prior knowledge or provide more first person, non-fiction accounts of events.
• You might use podcasts to appeal to different learning modalities, giving kids the option to listen to sources rather than simply reading all of them.
• You can create IAB-style comprehension questions to help students practice for the listening part of the SBAC test, and discuss the techniques students used during listening. Kids can listen and discuss  individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.
• You can use them to model, guide, and have students practice the note-taking skills you teach.
• Have students write (or use flip to record) the connections they make between the current events from the audio to the historical events, general science topic, or other concepts they are learning about.

For links to elementary-age podcasts, check out this resource.

For more research, check out the Cult of Pedagogy blog/podcast about using podcasts.

For more ideas, listen to or view the video podcast from Truth for Teachers.

Take Time to Save Time: Planning to use Rubrics and Success Criteria

In a recent conversation with a team, the topic of rubrics came up. Several teachers shared that they weren't sure it was a good use of their team time and effort to put details into a rubric that students don't use well.

And this raises a good question: do we always need detailed rubrics?

Well, the short answer is, no!

But research suggests that having clear success criteria--and in cases where a skill recurs, develops, or is reviewed for a long period of time, rubrics--is powerful:

"When students are clear on expectations of learning, they tend to double their rate of learning. Moreover, when students are clear on expectations, they have a better chance of assessing their current performance and using feedback accurately. As John Hattie explains in Visible Learning, self assessment, feedback, and student clarity yield substantial growth in student learning."

So how can we make this easier on teachers and on our time?

1) Have clear learning targets for the assignment, and share them in student-friendly language.

One big concern teachers share is that students can't or don't accurately monitor their progress or provide accurate feedback to each other. The more "targeted" and clear we can make expectations for students, the more likely they are to hit that target.

“When students understand exactly what they’re supposed to learn and what their work will look like when they learn it, they’re better able to monitor and adjust their work, select effective strategies, and connect current work to prior learning.” (from Brookhart and Moss “Learning Targets. On Parade” Educational Leadership, October 2014, v. 72 p. 28)

2) Use models to help build success criteria.

There is power in SHOWING, not just telling, what we are looking for. In fact, for bigger assignments, this can be done as a co-construction activity, in which the teacher shows examples of what they are looking for and asks students to identify what made the work successful. In this way, students "own" the drafting of the criteria for success. 

This can even develop as a checklist! This checklist can become the core of a rubric, or students can use those criteria to review their work during and after it is created.

3) Build in time for students to use them.

Giving class time for students to use a rubric or checklist to review and revise their work is tough--after all, there is a lot to cover in that precious time! But if we want to make sure students feel more success the first time, and to save ourselves time reteaching (and taking home assignments to write feedback on!), this is time well spent. One way to engage students is to use a single-point rubric

Not only does this save time in creating a big, detailed rubric, but it provides the student (and teacher) space to provide specific feedback on how the student work does or doesn't meet the criteria. This can be a formative assessment, as students who can't or incorrectly identify evidence that they meet the success criteria are good candidates for reteaching, while those who can identify why they aren't yet meeting success may be able to improve after self-reflection. 

Make time to save time

It seems counterintuitive to plan more class time to review learning targets, co-create success criteria, and spend time using a rubric, but that time is shown by research to be well-spent. Students show greater understanding and success, and teachers do LESS of the work in the long run. It's a win-win!

Should students sit in rows?

This week's blog post by teacher author Dave Stuart Jr. tackles a question that has been making the rounds more recently as people compare the classroom environment of compulsory rows that COVID protocols demanded to other seating arrangements: should students sit in rows?

Spoiler alert: His answer is, it depends.

In the post, he discusses two seating arrangements: one, is paired rows, with students always having a seating partner, but more or less in columns and rows, and the other is desks grouped into four, all facing each other. He makes the point that by comparison, rows provide less distraction during independent work and a clearer view of the board during direct instruction. And of course, research and common sense supports this.

But the post, while pointing out that other seating arrangements may be more beneficial in situations requiring more collaboration, fails to explore any other options, such as the horseshoe or circle, and research, suggests that "'the most effective way to organise a classroom is to be as flexible as possible with teachers regularly moving furniture to suit the activities' (Maddern, 2011) – for example, Harvey and Kenyon (2013) found that students tend to prefer more flexible seating arrangements.

It won't surprise any teacher that research has shown that classroom seating impacts "student learning, motivation,  participation, and teacher-student and student-student relationships (Fernandes, Huang & Rinaldo 2011)." What might be more surprising is that recent research suggests that the set-up of the classroom actually impacts the TEACHER and her pedagogical choices as well; according to the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale: 

For example, a classroom with seating affixed and directed toward a podium at the front of the room results in instructors spending more time in lecture and students demonstrating less active engagement. In contrast, roundtable seating arrangements lead to instructors and students engaging in more active learning activities, resulting in improved learning outcomes (Brooks 2012). 

So what is the answer? It depends. If you are delivering direct instruction, then a clear, unobstructed view of the instructor is best in that moment. However, if you want students to collaborate, seating them with other students is key.

And even with traditional desks, teachers can try to get the best of both worlds. Recent research on elementary seating arrangements supports the horseshoe seating arrangement with flexible seating (i.e. chairs and triangular desks that reconfigure easily). For those with "traditional" desks, the pair square (alternately known as the pair pod) is a style of flexible seating arrangement that gained renewed attention: essentially, students are seated in pairs, but each pair has a pair in front of or behind that they can turn and work with to make a group of four.

What is clear is that if you are thinking of changing up your seating, think about your goals and how your physical space can match your pedagogy. Do you want to create more space for students to Think-Pair-Share? To debate? To collaborate? To create? Then rows might not be the way to go.

Mindset, Behaviors, and a Routine

January is a turning point for new and veteran teachers alike. For some, the end of a term brings new classes. For others, this is the point at which a lot of hard work really starts paying off.

What can make the difference is mindset--both the mindset you hold (i.e. it's going to get good!) and the mindset you project (i.e. you guys are going to be great!). One key ingredient that helps both these mindsets is praise.

While we've written in praise of praise before, we really can't praise the power of behavior-specific praise enough. Both research and experience tell us that it is more effective to build positive behaviors than to control negative student behavior (Strain & Sainato, 1987). However, some people have said that it is tough to give more praise:

• "I don't want it to feel fake."
• "Kids don't want to be called out."
• "I just don't know what to praise."

And research shows that especially by middle school, kids get good at knowing when praise is insincere. So how do we praise sincerely AND frequently?

It got us thinking about how can teachers can find it easier to give behavior-specific praise. Our thought, and the thought of educators like Todd Finley, is to make it part of a routine. You might use a clipboard with a praise checklist to keep track of who is praised and how often, but how do you know what to praise?

This is where you, the teacher expert in the room, come in: what behaviors do you value? If you want students to enter or transition around the room quietly, consider putting quiet movement on your checklist for the week. If you want students to raise their hands to share, you might put that on your checklist for the week. And as for academics:

"Jim Wright, of Intervention Central, lists several academic dispositions that can be reinforced through praise, including effort, accuracy, fluency, goal-setting, and meeting an external standard. As an example, Wright describes how to encourage effort: “You wrote nonstop through the entire writing period. I appreciate your hard work.”

If you are looking for a planning sheet, this resource is great for developing your initial plan for behavior specific praise. TLI has made a template that you can choose to copy and adapt for this purpose. If you want help designing your own behavior checklist (or adapting something you currently use in the classroom to include praise), contact us!

Pass the Vocabulary

This week, in speaking about the importance of building knowledge and teaching vocabulary as part of the science of reading, we were reminded of a favorite activity of students and several GHS English teachers: the "pass the vocabulary" story. Here's how it works: 

1. Using a given word list, each student would take a blank piece of paper and write the first sentence(s) or a story using one of the words correctly. (TIP: Have students highlight or circle the word, to make it easy to know what was used!!)
2. After the given time (1 minute), they passed the paper to the next person.
3. The next person would write the next sentence(s) of the story, using a different vocabulary word.
4. The process of writing and passing would continue until time came for all the words to be used.
5. At the end, students would take their stories and join a small group, which would share the stories for peer review for meaning, revise, and then share out the "best" story from the group.

Students LOVED this activity, as the stories often got very silly by the end, and it was a great challenge. They also loved that they had a chance to discuss and revise the stories, as it rewarded their growth. And teachers, well they loved that students had to discuss, correct themselves, and collaborate in a low-prep activity that the students themselves helped evaluate. 

So, aside from being fun and easy, why is this valuable?

The science of reading makes it clear that pre-teaching vocabulary is important; students need to build knowledge, especially knowledge of words, to be more proficient readers. But this applies beyond students learning to read, and continues as students read to learn across the content areas.

Learning science also shows that memorizing a list of vocabulary words and their definitions for a quiz--especially a matching or multiple choice quiz--isn't a great indicator of how well students have learned words. Most often, students cram, storing these words in their short term memory, but not making the connections that encode them into their long term memories in ways that make the learning stick. Students, especially struggling students, need a dozen or more exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them.

Research suggests that these things help students with vocabulary building:

• Explicit instruction of words and their meanings increases the likelihood that young children will understand and remember the meanings of new words.
• Higher frequency of exposure to targeted vocabulary words will increase the likelihood that young children will understand and remember the meanings of new words and use them more frequently.
• Questioning and language engagement enhance students’ word knowledge. This can include retrieval practice, scaffolding from low-demand questions (i.e. meaning) to high-demand questions (i.e. how would you use...?)

Now, this means that students can't just start by writing stories. Teachers need to make time for explicit instruction, be it reviewing the words with students in context, or reviewing the roots or related words, or to support students in making Freyer Models or semantic maps/word webs. But beyond that, students need time to work with the words.

But what if I don't want my students writing stories.

Another group activity that was relatively low prep was a card sort. Have student groups make index cards (or cut out card sets) of the vocabulary words. Then, have students organize them into 3-4 categories. This could be categories you provide, or categories the students create. They then have to explain why the words belong together, and how they relate.

Here are some other ideas:

1. Pass the Parcel: Review vocabulary in whole group or small group with a game-like atmosphere with some bags full of vocabulary.
2. Paper Plate Match Game: Have small groups cut paper plates in half, and write the word on one half and on the other, write a definition, synonym, antonym, example, etc. (whatever serves your purpose). Then have them shuffle them up and find a match.

Want more? Check out these ideas from We are Teachers and Gifted Guru.

Unburdening the Brain & Shifting the Cognitive Load

There's been A LOT written and talked about recently in regards to "cognitive load"; brain science is showing us more about what does and doesn't work for learning, and the impacts of trauma (like a certain pandemic) and still being felt by our students.

A recent podcast from Truth for Teachers, "Help students do more with less effort using cognitive load theory", explains:

Cognitive load theory includes intrinsic, germane, and extraneous loads. Intrinsic load is the complexity inherent in the content. Instructional designers recognize that most of this load cannot be mitigated. Content load should not be confused with task or assignment load, which are addressed in the next two types.
In germane load, learners are integrating new information into an existing schema. Designers tend to increase this load since it helps ensure learning makes it to long-term memory. Finally, there is extraneous load, which designers seek to eliminate as much as possible. These are the other weights our students carry: distractions (environmental or internal), redundancy of content, and so forth that interfere with deep learning.

(For a more detailed report on what teachers need to know about cognitive load, check this out.) 

What does this mean for us? In short, we want to plan to support the germane load and decrease the extraneous load so that students can spend most of their energy on the intrinsic load. 

What does this look like in class?

If I'm introducing a new competitive review game for some recently taught content, I might not be affecting the intrinsic load because the students should know the content. In fact, frequent, short review games as retrieval practice are good for learning! 

However, by adding a new game and making it competitive, I've potentially increased the extraneous load because of stress AND not taken advantage of the germane load, as students are expending more energy learning something new than perhaps they are on reviewing.

Does this mean we never use a novel approach? Of course not--that would be boring! However, it might mean that I should go with tried and true games FIRST when planning, or that before I use a game like this for content, I introduce it with something fun and low stakes so that students can learn the rules before "it counts." 

In short, the more we rely on routines and solid practices for activating prior knowledge and scaffolding, the more we help our learners focus on learning! 

For more practical tips, this recent Edutopia article also outlines "How to Reduce the Cognitive Load" includes several tips for reducing the extraneous load and supporting the germane load with scaffolds. 

Let us know what stood out for you or what you want to know more about in the comments.

🧠 Emojacognition!

Using Emojis for Student Self-Assessment

We talked a lot this August about the power of student self-assessment and metacognition. This strategy is so simple and so powerful, but it draws its power from regular practice.

So how do we make this easier to incorporate into your routine?

Use emojis! (And templates.)

While many of us used emojis during the pandemic for SEL check-ins, emojis are so much more than faces. Sites like emojicopy.com let you search for icons that help emerging readers AND proficient readers quickly identify the choice they identify with, whether it be a stop sign🛑, a bright sun☀️, or big eyes 👀!

Emojis can draw attention 📢 to ideas and more quickly communicate with a variety of learners.

Teachers in Kindergarten use emojis to support blended learning for emergent readers, along with audio and video.

Teachers of English Language Learners use this as a way to scaffold a "write-pair-share" conversations about their weekends. (You might want to give a table of emojis students can pick from to avoid inappropriate fruits!)

If you are looking for a digital exit ticket 🎫, you might draw inspiration from this doc template.

You can assign this to each student in Google Classroom with "Make a Copy for Each Student," and students can use the drop-downs you customize to answer. You can use different colors and symbols to help students quickly reflect on their learning or how well they met the student-friendly objectives for the day. (For more on using drop downs in Docs, check out the linked video!)

You could also use a Google form Exit Ticket with emoji or picture responses for reflection.

 (Click the link above to create a copy of a template with some pre-made options). The advantage is that you get a quick visualization of the data, showing which students did and didn't understand and supporting the development of student groups.

There are so many ideas for using emojis for student thinking and feedback. Let us know in the comments if you are using it!

Templates for Teaching

On a recent Truth for Teachers podcast, Marguerite Redelfs shared how she uses templates to save time AND support deeper student learning. Perhaps this is a no-brainer for some of us, but it can be worth remembering that there are a lot of ready-to-use structures out there to make teaching not just easier to prepare for, but also better for deep student learning.

Brain research supports the use of using and reusing "standardized" approaches to tasks or topics, as the familiarity with the process increases students abilities to focus on the new learning. For example, if we introduce a new review game to students, they spend as much if not more of their mental energy on learning the game as they do accessing the content. Thus, playing Blooket to review at the end of each week or unit allows students to focus on the learning and not the rules of the game.

Likewise, using Google Slides or Google Jamboard templates for Visible Thinking Routines that you can use over and over is not only a huge time-saver for the teacher, but helps students focus more on the product than the process.

Using templates for hyperdocs or other lesson organization structures is just smart. The time YOU save on creating something from scratch can then be spent on other activities that support student learning.

Start with a Vision for your Classroom

There was quite a bit of talk in education circles over the summer about how new advances in VR and in the development of the "metaverse" would impact education. Will this be a way to connect students to people and places they would never otherwise see--or will it be a gimmick?

We'll have to wait to see, but it did get us thinking about the renewed interest in visualization. 

Visualization, imagining things at their very best or mentally (or virtually) rehearsing what you want to see or do before you actually do it, has been proven to have a powerful impact on performance. Olympic athletes use it. Business executives use it. And more and more, educators are using it too.

Visualization is a brain booster, impacting memory, planning, and control. And creating and staying focused on a vision is a great way to meet your goals.

As we start the year, it is worth taking some time to visualize your ideal classroom. 

• What are the students feeling? How do you see this in the way the students are behaving?
• What does the learning look like? What are students doing? Where are they?
• What will the teacher be doing? What is the lead learner's role?
• What academic and social/emotional results are evident?

Brainstorm or take note of what you see. Then identify the 3-5 elements of your "vision" that you want to focus on every day as you set your goals. 

When you plan your lesson, you can keep these elements in front of you. When you reflect on class that day, you can think about how it aligned to your vision--and what you might want to shift to make that vision more of a reality.

You could even try making a vision board. Jennifer Gonzalez recently shared how teachers are using vision board to plan units (it's very cool), and this speaks to the power of keeping this "vision" at the metaphorical or literal front of your classroom, as well as the power of involving students in creating the vision.

What is your vision for learning in your classroom this year? 

PBJ is PBL?

My daughter is obsessive and picky about her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. As I was putting just the right amount of peanut butter on her lunch, listening to a podcast, and thinking about project-based learning (PBL), it occurred to me that with this sandwich, I might just have a project on my hands.

You see, many teachers of writing have done some version of the peanut butter & jelly sandwich writing activity. (I used to do a version called "How to Eat an Oreo.") The gist is to model how "bad instructions" can lead to confusion (i.e. smearing jelly on a nose, instead of on bread), while clear and specific instructions lead to perfection.

While this is certainly a fun activity, most educators would say it doesn't rise to the level of project-based learning (PBL). We often hear that PBL has to have certain steps or rules, like an authentic audience and outside experts, and making a PBJ just doesn't cut it.

But who gets to say that isn't PBL?

PBL Works shares that:

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

About 15 minutes into a recent podcast, PBL expert Trevor Muir shares that his own first grade son's experience crafting his dream house as part of class showed him that PBL is flexible, as "real-world authenticity" can vary a lot based on the students in the classroom. 

For example, if your child is very, very picky about how her PBJ is made--lots of jelly, cut into squares, arranged in a circle on the plate, etc.--then that child will have a greater sense of ownership than a student who is allergic to peanut butter or who doesn't eat bread. Likewise, students interested in food science might want to investigate what it is about the PBJ that makes it such a popular combination of flavors, or experiment to see if other PBJ applications are as popular.

The key is helping to make the learning address or solve a problem or questions that is meaningful and relevant to YOUR students. Often times we have elements of this in our classrooms already, and framing our planned activities with a question or giving students opportunities to own a topic can make the difference. The GHS Biology team made a similar shift two years ago, taking a project they would normally do at the end of the unit and making it the driving purpose of a unit: as students explored their species, the lessons the teachers taught about evolution were made all the more relevant.

There is so much research behind the power of PBL that it is worth the try. Feeling like you have to be "perfect" before trying it or that students can't handle it ought not to stand in the way. Students can learn just as much, if not more, from a failed experiment as an epic project, and as a teacher, you get to model the same humility and growth mindset that you want to foster.

Think that your unit would be more interesting if centered around addressing a  real-world problem or question? Check out these resources for more ideas on how to start using PBL to make your classroom more responsive to student voice and choice.

Take Time to Save Time: Learning Targets

Let's begin with a confession: we didn't always care about learning targets. When they were first all the rage, we thought that surely, students didn't care about our learning targets...

Except, that once we started crafting them in student-friendly language, and once we started using them intentionally to plan and communicate the lesson intention to students, the students did care. And we realized we did too.

Students stopped asking "Why do we have to do this?"; closure activities and formative assessment became easier; and work that we didn't realize was more "busy" than valuable began to work itself out of the lessons, leaving more time for high-quality learning experiences. And less time spent planning.

The research is clear: "learning targets" are important to share with students. In the Edutopia article "How to Make Learning Targets Clear to Students," Dr. Michael McDowell shares:

"When students are clear on expectations of learning, they tend to double their rate of learning. Moreover, when students are clear on expectations, they have a better chance of assessing their current performance and using feedback accurately."

The challenge is that just because we write a target on the board, it doesn't mean the expectations are clear to students. So, how do we make our learning targets useful for teachers and students?

1) Plan student-friendly learning targets for the lesson.

The more direct and accessible we make our goal statements, the clearer we are about the intended learning. This can be tricky if we have other underlying goals for our work (i.e. students will practice collaborating, critical thinking, perseverance, etc.). While these are worthy practices, sharing too many goals for the day can be confusing when planning--and when presenting the goals to students.

As you work on this skill, it may help to brainstorm all the goals you can think of for the lesson, and then refer back to the standard(s) of focus for the learning experience when picking the main one or two targets to share with students. 

Make sure that you draft and share the goal in terms that students can (or could, with support) understand. Often when we break things down into terms a child could understand, we understand more fully ourselves!

2) Align your planned activities and assessments with the target.

If you think about the "assessment" you will give to gauge student progress during the lesson, does it align with your learning target? Does it show if students know and/or can do what you want them to? If not, you may need to revisit the target OR the assessment. 

Likewise, before you plan activities, think: do they support students in reaching the learning target? If not, think about how you might replace them with opportunities for students to collaborate, practice, reflect, or revise their thinking to better meet that goal. This can be done with thinking routines like 3-2-1, see-think-wonder, or word-phrase-sentence, which can be used over and over again, or other low-prep practices like brain dumps, summarizing  learning, or making connections in a write-pair-share-revise.

3) Provide time in the lesson for students to make sense of the targets.

Rushing often leads to reteaching! Taking a few minutes at the start of class to have students paraphrase the goals OR make a plan to meet them might save time in the long run. Teachers can check for misunderstandings before students get too far into the process, and students can see where their understandings are incomplete and ask questions before they start. 

Taking a few minutes to reflect on progress at the end of class with a simple "Fist to Five" or an exit ticket reflecting on the goal is easier with a clear target too!

Learning targets = happy classrooms.

By focusing carefully on your goal for the lesson and clearly communicating that goal to students, you save time on planning and on student confusion, leading to less stress and more learning.

For more on how to create learning targets, check out EL's resources.

Put a Hex on Them!

A recent GMS lesson reminded us of how powerful, flexible, and relatively low-prep hexagonal thinking is as a tool/strategy for teaching and learning.

What is Hexagonal Thinking?

Maybe you caught the Cult of Pedagogy post on Hexagonal Thinking last year and thought, that looks cool, but I'm not in a place to cut out a bunch of paper hexagons right now. Or maybe you haven't had time to read through the variations and ideas, and now that you have seen people using this tool, you are wondering how to make it work for you. (If you want to see how hexagonal thinking works in detail, this post is so good!)

Why would I use Hexagonal Thinking?

If you haven't tried it, there are so many research-based reasons to think about using hexagonal thinking as an activity for review, formative assessment, or even summative assessment in your classroom.

1. It uses manipulatives (physical or digital)
2. It encourages academic conversation and collaboration
3. It elicits higher order thinking
4. It calls for identifying similarities and differences
5. It is highly visual and encourages students to "build" a graphic organizer
6. It supports long-term learning

Examples and Templates

The Cult of Pedagogy post links to many resources for physical and digital templates and examples. There are tutorials for creating digital versions of hexagonal thinking, but if you really want to save time, try starting with this Google Slides template/history example. If you are looking for more in your content area or grade level, you might check out some more examples:

• Social studies examples
• Science example (in Edutopia article explaining the technique)
• Health example
• World Language example
• ELA example (this is a template that uses IMAGES in the hexagons, which might be extra great for elementary students or struggling readers)

There are so many ways to use and adapt this activity. Let us know how hexagonal thinking goes with your students!

Finding Balance with Grading

 

February is always the longest short month, but this year feels harder in many ways for teachers. While there are no miracle cures, one step teachers can take to enhance teacher well-being AND student well-being is finding a balance with our assignments.

While there is plenty of research that shows the value of feedback (and tips for how to make that feedback the best possible), there is little research that supports the value of grading for student learning or well-being. Research shows that grades MIGHT impact student motivation positively if they are perceived as providing helpful feedback, but on the whole:  

"Grades did not enhance academic motivation. Instead, grades enhanced anxiety and avoidance of challenging courses. In contrast, narrative evaluations supported basic psychological needs and enhanced motivation by providing actionable feedback, promoting trust between instructors and students and cooperation amongst students." 

So, what do we as teachers do, when the reality is that grades are expected and still carry importance in the wider world?

The most recent episode of Catlin Tucker's podcast The Balance is an 11 minute gem devoted to grading. If you find yourself drowning in student work to assess, this is worth the listen. 

In her blog reflection, Catlin Tucker shares:

"A few years ago, I hit a breaking point. My grades didn’t feel like an accurate reflection of my students’ skills, and I was spending hours wading through paperwork instead of designing dynamic learning experiences for my students. Now, when I work with teachers, I encourage them to ask these questions: What is the purpose of this work? Why am I grading this?"

Catlin found that a few changes helped her spend MUCH LESS TIME grading, shift her practice to more time spent in class on feedback, reflection, and setting goals for learning, and find MORE MEANING in the time she spent giving feedback. She shares the following helpful flowchart in her blog:

If this seems interesting, take 15 minutes to check out the blog and podcast. Let TLI know if you want to chat about how you might strike this balance in your classroom!

 

Time for a Snowball Fight!

During the tough winter months, we can all use some play. Plus, who doesn't love activities that are FUN for kids, can be done at a distance, AND which are low-prep for teachers?

Enter: the snowball fight.

A short clip, originally captured by Louis Lumière in 1896, documents a rowdy snowball fight on the streets of Lyon, France. 

Teachers often put pressure on themselves to come up with unique and creative activities for their classes. And while these memorable activities are valuable, there is also value to using routines and predictable strategies that put students in charge of the learning activity. While not exactly a routine, the snowball fight "strategy" can be deployed in many different ways, some of which are very low prep, and some of which can be deployed in the moment when you need (or want) to fill time with meaningful learning activities.

So what is it?

To have a snowball fight in the classroom, simply give each student a piece of paper, have students crumple the paper up, and then throw it around the room.  After you stop the snowball fight, each student picks up one of the snowballs and is responsible for doing something with that sheet of paper.  Then, students crumple up their snowball and play again! 

Classroom Management Note: You will want to give clear guidelines to manage the mess and keep students safe (i.e. no throwing at the plants, no tight wads that would sting, don't throw at people, etc.). You might also use the balls in a manner more akin to bowling, avoiding throwing in rooms where kids can't handle airborne objects!

Teaching Made Practical clarifies that this strategy works well for retrieval/practice and sorting/comparison. Both of these are high-yield teaching practices! 

"A Quick Review - On each snowball, I would write something that students should be able to answer very quickly like a math problem or a sight word.  After the snowball fight, each student would quickly answer the question on their snowball before playing again.

Sometimes I would have students partner up to answer their questions, and other times I would have everybody bring their snowball to the carpet and they would share their answer one at a time so I could quickly assess everybody.

A Sorting/Categorization Activity - I would hang "category" signs around the room and each snowball would have a number or sentence that would fit in one of the categories.  After the snowball fight, students would open their snowball and decide which category they belonged to."

The Teaching to the Top podcast shared several ideas for this strategy. With a little prep, the teacher can pass out papers with different problems, words, or topics related to the learning targets: 

• In math class, students might solve the problem on the first turn, and on the second turn, they might solve the problem a different way. 
• In English, the teacher might put different characters on paper, and students would add traits to the characterization (perhaps with evidence) on each throw. 
• Any class can use this to review content area vocabulary, adding a synonym, example, sentence, etc. to the paper each time they pick one up. You could even use a Freytag organizer and have students complete one part of it on each throw, exposing them to many words over the course of the game.

This could also be used for peer review of short drafts. For example, students might create a word problem that results in a given number as an answer, and their peers have to provide feedback on the quality of the problem. Students might likewise create sentences with certain characteristics, and their peer then "annotates" the sentence for the required features.

The Beakers and Ink blog shared this idea for adding more writing to the science classroom, but which would work across disciplines: ask students to write several sentences about what they just learned, watched, read about, etc. Then, snowball! Students pick up and read, maybe writing a response suggesting a change or addition. And they can repeat or return the ball to the owner.

"Not only are they practicing summarizing new information, but they are sharing and reading multiple summaries!" 

This Edutopia video shows how this strategy can also be used for an end of class debrief, but with an SEL twist:

There are so many ways to use this strategy, many as simple as giving game guidelines and putting the students in charge of writing something on a piece of paper. While not fancy, this fun strategy can be used over and over again for high quality learning. How do you see this working in your classroom?