Activating Prior Knowledge as a Way to Engage Every Student
This year, I taught a social studies lesson on the Colorado Gold Rush. The students responded well once their prior knowledge was activated and they felt safe to make mistakes. To start, I unpacked the standard as a way to help students understand what they were learning. Hattie explains that by simply telling students what they will be learning before the lesson begins is one way to raise student achievement by as much as 27%. One way to be intentional with planning is by communicating the standard (learning goal) by unpacking the standard in student-friendly language.Using pictures in the standard works well for primary grades, English Language Learners, and even in intermediate classrooms as a scaffold for various students. It is developmentally appropriate (and FUN) to use pictures in place of the nouns, verbs, and adjectives to ensure students clearly understand what they are expected to learn.
I used pictures to activate students' prior knowledge in many components of the lesson. I showed them various pictures that connected to the Gold Rush. Many of my students had no prior knowledge on the gold rush, thus, I showed them various pictures that were connected and asked them what they could tell me about them. I showed them a picture of an expensive- gold chain with the price tag attached, a picture of the rocky mountains, clip art of someone thinking of how much gold is worth, as well as the tools used for gold panning. Next, as an engaging do-now activity, I asked students to write down what they know about gold on a KWL chart. I intentionally choose these pictures because I used what I know about my students' engagement and motivation to learn. I understand my students' strategies for thinking to help me advance their thinking. Since transitioning from 2nd grade (primary) to 4th grade (intermediate), I am learning that students' in the intermediate grades begin to catch on to social trends and what seems to be "cool" at the time. Students in my 4th grade class want to portray that they have knowledge of the cool aspects of society, thus, I hook them every time with something that is relative to their generation. Many of my students wear gold necklaces and they relate to gold in the jewelry form. Thus, my students responded to this picture with excitement and a sense of ownership.In fact, they could not wait to share what they recorded in the know column of the graphic organizer!
As a 2nd grade teacher last year, however, I would have definitely taught this lesson around St. Patricks day as an engagement technique since students would be motivated by fiction stories of how to catch a leprechaun. For 4th graders, putting a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow would almost be insulting. Hattie (2012) supports the use of Piagets' stages of childhood development (pp. 42-43). According to the stages, my students are in the Concrete Operational Stage (7-12), and at this stage, logical thinking emerges and reversibility begins to occur. For lesson planning, this means that students need relative and true information in order for them to be engaged and motivated to learn.
References
Colorado Department of Education Content Specialist uses a graphic organizer to unpack standards. Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W452p7sgQ8 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for teachers: Maximizing Impact on learning. New York, NY:Routledge
Engaging Students by Including Movement and Student Interaction in Every Lesson
I provided learning strategies that gave students an opportunity to practice learning when I taught students how to read an analog clock. This was a 2nd grade math lesson in which students were expected to recognize the hour hand from the minute hand. As an extension of learning, students were also required to count by fives.
During the mini lesson, I explained that the short hand represents the hour and the long hand represents the minutes.Every learning style was included in this lesson. Auditory learners enjoyed playing my version of Simon says in which I would call out "hour hand" and "minute hand." Students' response by stretching their arms long or barely holding their arms out to represent the hour hand. Next, we played a game in which two students were picked to be "hands" and 12 students were chosen to hold the numbers of the clock face. All remaining students were required to watch so they could tell the time. Students determined as a class which student would represent hour hand and which student would represent the minute hand based on the students' height! I watched as students worked together to make the time, and other students worked together to tell the time. Once I had given the directions for the game, I sat back and facilitated instruction while using the students' reasoning as data. Ellis (2010) explains that when students help each other, they are more effective at providing instruction than adults believe because students interact with each other in their own way. As a result, students often understand concepts better from their peers than from adults!
I determined that this strategy would be effective because I had many different types of learners and performance levels within the classroom. Having students engage in rich discussion guided by open-ended questions is one way to increase student talk and allow students to explain their reasoning to each other. Intentional questioning can be effective for both extending learning as well as an informal assessment. When teachers have prepared intentional questions, there is a clear understanding of what it is the students should be thinking to show mastery of a skill. Knowing the ideal student response also helps the teacher focus on what she is looking for the students to say to show they understand the task.Students were able to demonstrate their effective learning through discussion and reasoning.
References:
Morgan, H. (2014). Maximizing student success with differentiated learning. Clearing house: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 87 (1), 34-38.
I provided learning strategies that gave students an opportunity to practice learning when I taught students how to read an analog clock. This was a 2nd grade math lesson in which students were expected to recognize the hour hand from the minute hand. As an extension of learning, students were also required to count by fives.
During the mini lesson, I explained that the short hand represents the hour and the long hand represents the minutes.Every learning style was included in this lesson. Auditory learners enjoyed playing my version of Simon says in which I would call out "hour hand" and "minute hand." Students' response by stretching their arms long or barely holding their arms out to represent the hour hand. Next, we played a game in which two students were picked to be "hands" and 12 students were chosen to hold the numbers of the clock face. All remaining students were required to watch so they could tell the time. Students determined as a class which student would represent hour hand and which student would represent the minute hand based on the students' height! I watched as students worked together to make the time, and other students worked together to tell the time. Once I had given the directions for the game, I sat back and facilitated instruction while using the students' reasoning as data. Ellis (2010) explains that when students help each other, they are more effective at providing instruction than adults believe because students interact with each other in their own way. As a result, students often understand concepts better from their peers than from adults!
I determined that this strategy would be effective because I had many different types of learners and performance levels within the classroom. Having students engage in rich discussion guided by open-ended questions is one way to increase student talk and allow students to explain their reasoning to each other. Intentional questioning can be effective for both extending learning as well as an informal assessment. When teachers have prepared intentional questions, there is a clear understanding of what it is the students should be thinking to show mastery of a skill. Knowing the ideal student response also helps the teacher focus on what she is looking for the students to say to show they understand the task.Students were able to demonstrate their effective learning through discussion and reasoning.
References:
Morgan, H. (2014). Maximizing student success with differentiated learning. Clearing house: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 87 (1), 34-38.
Another way to truly engage students in learning is to understand who they are as individuals, what interests them, learning what they are curious about and what they like to do! To understand more about what students are interested in reading, I created a short reading survey. This survey helped me to pick engaging texts for whole-group instruction, build a classroom library that is relative to students' interests, as well as learned more about each student. Take a look at the following survey and feel free to use it in your own classroom!
| 4th_grade_student_interest_survey.docx |
Bringing the element of choice into the classroom is one effective way to instantly increase student engagement! Review the following checklist used for a recent project in which students demonstrated learning their learning through a google slide show presentation.
Poll everywhere and Survey Monkey serve as great tools to engage learners and evaluate their social-emotional development, all while including technology! These interactive APPS would work especially well in middle and high school classrooms. intermediate grades would also enjoy activities like this one that they could participate in during class using their assigned chrome book or I-pad!
Here are a few polls that you can participate in for a chance to have your teaching philosophies, discoveries, and best practices displayed here to share with others. Take a look at a few polls and share your thoughts!
Challenges & Difficulties of teaching
Respond at: pollEv.com/Kaylanrobins587 OR
Text KAYLANROBINS587 to 22333 once to join, then text your message
Social Emotional Tools/ Curriculum
Respond at: PollEv.com/KAYLANROBINS587
text KAYLANROBINS587 to 22333 once to join, then text your message
Evidence-based Rationale for using Poll Everywhere as a Social-Emotional support
Although I strongly believe that standards-based models are an accurate measurement of student growth and learning, I have struggled with the validity and fairness of measuring teacher effectiveness based on student achievement alone; without considering other factors that could play into overall student achievement! Considering the other factors that affect overall student achievement, is a way to hold school districts more accountable for student learning and, more importantly, provide genuine social-emotional supports for students. Teachers generally collect and evaluate academic data to inform their practices; but how can educator's begin to collect and evaluate social-emotional data from our students when they don't always show how they are feeling? Interactive tools like Poll Everywhere and Survey Monkey can help us understand students' social-emotional needs; giving us a peek into their minds and how they think!
Hull, J. (2013) forces me to reflect on the fairness of standard-based assessments when I learned that teacher evaluations have began to be significantly informed by student achievement. This is troubling considering all of the other factors that should be included in a teacher-effectiveness evaluation! One of these factors; Social-Emotional development, directly affects how well students learn and process new information. Since 24 states allow for teachers to be dismissed based on teacher-evaluation ratings, these teacher evaluations should combine both standards-based and growth-based models to accurately assess how effective a teacher is! Standards-based assessments are great for evaluating teachers based on student achievement, but fail to evaluate school districts based on the factors that can influence student learning; like students' social and emotional growth and development!
Achievement tests don't measure the important character traits, academic curiosity, or persistence in tackling difficult challenges that teachers help build and maintain throughout an academic school year!
All in all, standards-based models should no longer be viewed as the single and most-effective way to measure teacher effectiveness alone. Because teaching is indeed so complex, school districts should be held accountable for social-emotional growth of students as well. Using multiple methods to evaluate teacher effectiveness is a great start to holding districts accountable for student learning as well.Poll-everywhere is one interactive application that teachers can use to gather social-emotional data from their students. Asking students questions about how they are feeling about learning a particular subject,If they feel safe at school, or if they feel proud of themselves are questions teachers and districts should be consistently asking. If we use value-added models to help evaluate teachers, then other factors are considered. Once these factors, such as attendance, family environment, Social-emotional development, past schooling/scores, and second-language learners, are measured and evaluated, school districts will be forced to reflect on the services and supports they provide to schools in order to help increase and maintain student achievement, helping to bridge the gap between schools and home.
References:
RAND Corporation. (2012). Value-added modeling 101: Using student test scores to help measure teaching effectiveness Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved from
http://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP693z4-2012-09.html
Hull, J. (2013).Trends in teacher evaluation:How states are measuring student performance. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Evaluating-performance/trends-in-Teacher-Evaluation-At-a-glance/trends-in-Teacher-evaluation-Full-Report-PDF.pdf.
