Three Rs

I still remember doing a WHOLE lesson on the difference between slavery and indentured servitude. And then, the long-answer question on the test asked the kids to explain the difference. And THEY ALL BOMBED THAT QUESTION!!!!

WHAT THE HECK??!?!? I TAUGHT MY BUTT OFF!!!!

It can’t be that they’re ALL stupid (although I might have said something along those lines, purely out of frustration!).

And then, the inevitable question of “what do I do now?” arises. Do I review the concept quickly and hope that sticks when the “real” lesson didn’t? Do I go back and reteach the whole thing? Do I say “oh well” and move on with pacing?

Well, first, let’s talk about the difference between Review, Reteaching, and Remediation.

Review is spending a shorter amount of time just looking at the content again (re-view). It’s that study guide before the test, the review packet before the exam. It’s a game where we get to look at content from a while back. It’s where you tackle 3 months of content in one class period. Everyone needs review.

Reteaching is where the majority of kids didn’t get a concept and you need to try to teach it again, another way. Maybe you tried the first time with a reading and now you’re going to try a concept map. Maybe the first lesson was video-centered. This time, try a graphic organizer. Most kids probably need that lesson retaught.

*Note: Reteaching requires teachers to make pacing decisions. You WILL have to determine if you take less time on another topic to reteach this one.

Remediating is where you fix a problem, particularly student-by-student. To remediate is to try to address a problem -- like, if Student A didn’t get Concept B. Remediation is more student-specific and attempts to target a problem with a specific piece of content or a skill.. Remediation isn’t the same as reteaching, although they’re often mixed up together. Remediation is more targeted and more clearly defined.

Let’s look at the difference when we look at a one benchmark.

If I were going to REVIEW Civics Benchmark 2.4 (Bill of Rights), I would go back over the Bill of Rights, maybe including it in a review game or playing a video and asking kids to reflect after the video.

If I were going to RETEACH Civics benchmark 2.4, I might start with teaching the hand signals for each amendment (to engage tactile learners) and help the kids organize slips (with one amendment written per slip) into categories. I think I would finally give kids scenarios that had them applying the amendments to a particular topic.

If I were going to REMEDIATE Civics Benchmark 2.4, I would first check my data to see which kids struggled with that benchmark. Then, I would use formative assessment data from my class (I might need to make one) to see WHAT PART of the benchmark (or which benchmark clarification) the kids missed. Then, I would specifically create a lesson or a mini-lesson to address and fix that deficit. Maybe we would look at just the amendments they did NOT get -- maybe they got the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th. So we will work on the others (4, 5, 6, 7, 8)  in a small group, using the hand signals and having the kids illustrate those particular amendments.

So what do we do after the main teaching?

It depends on IF kids bomb, how MANY kids bomb, and HOW they bomb.

We adjust from there.

There’s no silver bullet. But there are plenty of ways to adapt to moments where kids don’t learn what/as much as you want.

Think about using review, reteaching, and/or remediation to help your kids tackle stuf they need to tackle.

As always, let me know how it goes!

Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

Problem Questions

Ask a better question...

Life is full of questions.

So is teaching!

Tell me if this looks familiar:

• You are teaching something.
• You are not sure if the kids are getting it.
• You ask a question about what the class just heard/read/saw/did.
• A couple of hands raise in the air.
• You call on one
• That kids attempts an answer (that isn’t quite what you’re looking for)
• You call on another kid
• That kid answers well.
• You move on.

This is how we were taught. But what problems might be a part of that?

Problem #1: We only hear back from one or two kids.

1. Really, in many classes the rest of the class has learned to let “Lisa Simpson” or “Hermione Granger” answer the question all the time so everyone else can sit back and not have to think.
2. 
   Possible Solution A -- Try a turn and talk BEFORE you ask for raised hands. That gives kids a chance to TRY OUT a thought or idea. It raises the number of kids THINKING and  TALKING about the question. It increases the number of kids who feel confident about raising their hands and trying to answer.
3. Possible Solution B -- Hold EVERY kid accountable by using a randomized “call on” system. Sometimes these are digital systems (like Class Dojo) but more often, I see teachers with numbered seats and a can of popsicle sticks where every popsicle has a number that corresponds to a seat number. The teacher pulls the popsicle stick out of the can and if they call #17, then the kid in seat #17 has to try to answer. This helps everyone be “on the hook” for participating and trying to answer, not just the hand-raisers.

Problem #2: We ask low level questions

1. Really, kids often trick us into THINKING they can’t do higher level thinking. And because we are honest people ourselves, we BELIEVE them! Sometimes they aren’t ready to answer the question, but they make us think they might NEVER be ready!
2. Possible Solution C -- Try asking “spiraling questions”. Start with a low level (or two) to build confidence and work your way up. One of the things I learned from Core Connections is the idea that kids need to gain a little confidence by answering some “right there” questions -- and them move up from there. What did Hamilton say about a National Bank? WHY did he say that? Or, “what did China trade along the Silk Roads. WHY did they trade THOSE things and WHY is that important? How did that change their lives?
3. Possible Solution D -- open ended “what if” questions with no “wrong answer”. Why would people risk their lives to trade halfway across the known world? Why would the Chinese historians hate Empress Wu? What would you do if you were faced with this choice? If we struggle to ask higher order questions, start with just making open-ended questions.

Problem #3: We-the-teachers ask all the questions.

1. Why is it that the teachers always ask all the questions. Aren’t we (at least theoretically) supposed to know more “answers” than the kids? How can we get our kids to ask more (and better) questions?
2. Possible Solution E -- Start with “Why”.. Once upon a time, your adolescent students were curious toddlers who asked “why” until their parents wanted to go nuts. So, let’s bring that back. Teach them to ask “why” about everything -- and then try to make educated guesses as to the answers.
3. Possible Solution F --Teach higher order thinking explicitly. Give them the Costas Questioning House, the DOK Wheel or the Bloom’s Flipbook. Then, directly teach them how to to make good questions from the various levels -- and how to answer them!

Kids are kids and they struggle with questions. How can we keep them all accountable, using higher order questions AND creating their own questions?  Same way you get to Carnegie Hall -- practice, practice, practice!

How to you deal with problems that come up around questioning? As always, I love to hear from you!

-Tracy

Make Your Life Easier

Now that we’re over the “honeymoon” period of the new semester. They’re all done with that post-winter break sweetness and they are up to their old tricks again.

Life is getting complicated again. The stack of stuff to grade is back. The lesson plans we got caught up on are now all used up and the next ones aren’t yet written. The meetings and conferences are filling up the calendar.

So let’s make life easier.

Here are my top five favorite tips to make your life easier in the classroom. Maybe if ONE of them works, then one little corner of your life has gotten easier? I can’t promise miracles. But if your frustration level is a 6 today, maybe we can move it down to a 5 or even a 4 with one of these ideas.

5. Written Directions: Not every kid is an auditory learner. And to be honest, not every kid is even listening when you give directions (I know, they should be, but daydreaming and distractions happen). So how can we help from repeating ourselves five hundred times? How can we stop getting work from kids who clearly missed the directions?

Write them down.

It’s so easy! Why did I never think of it?

Write down the directions step by step. Like this: “Step One: Put your heading on your paper. Step 2: Read the paragraph carefully, looking for a main idea or claim. Step Three: Answer the two questions on your own paper”

I know you say it. But if you don’t write it (on the board, the screen, or right on the handout) then a bunch of your kids might miss it. Especially ESE kids, ELL kids, kids with auditory processing, ADHD kids, kids who never (or rarely) do anything -- AS WELL AS kids without issues who are just zoning out, secretly texting, half asleep, or daydreaming.

Written directions will help increase the number of kids on task and the number of kids who correctly complete an assignment. Write them down separately for EACH part of your lesson (don’t put bellwork directions on the same list or slide as the reading directions or the exit ticket directions).

4 Praise, praise, praise: There are few tools that I learned from the teacher down the hall that  help as much as this one: give your kids constant, individual, public praise.

“Make it rain” with praise.

As kids walk into your room, call them out, out loud, individually, by name, with praise. “Thank you, D’Angelo for coming in quietly and getting your materials out. Thank you, Rachael for sitting quietly and starting your work. Thank you, Hector and Jayden, for staying on task”

This simple act actually hits management from four angles.

a.       It tells your kids that you’re watching them and noticing their behavior.

b.       It makes a show of the GOOD behaviors, not the bad ones (those negative behaviors like “Juanita, sit down; Milo, be quiet; Olivia, put your phone away”)

c.       It gives positive attention to the good kids (who are usually ignored when you’re telling James to stop annoying his neighbor)

d.       It reminds kids to do the positive behaviors without waiting for them to mess up.

You can’t possibly overdo this praise. But don’t do it by whole class. Do it by individual. It makes a whole world of difference. Praise every kid as he or she “gets with the program” and does what he or she is supposed to do. You might think they should do good things anyway, but if they don’t feel that anyone notices, they might stop doing the good things. If you notice, and SAY SOMETHING, you will keep them on track.

3. Formative Assessment. Every day, when your kids leave class, you should know what they did learn and what they didn’t quite get. Every day, when kids leave, you should have done some sort of formative assessment. It’s easy to work it in daily.

You can give a formal exit ticket or have kids turn in an assignment. BUT you can also just listen in on their turn and talks. You can read what they’re writing. You can do a formal quiz. You can ask them to do a quickwrite with a higher order question. Actually, formative assessments are a GREAT chance to have kids use what they’ve learned and practice applying it!

But you should be able to know every day how it’s going. It doesn’t all have to be at the end of the period, (sometimes it’s best in the middle of your class period. but you should be able to know how your teaching is going (or went). It doesn’t even have to be always graded.

2. Tell Them WHY:  “Why do we have to do this?” It’s a common thing for kids to say. And to be fair, WE-the-teachers usually know WHY we are doing an activity, but we often forget to tell kids that reason.

Set a purpose for every activity you do --  and tell them WHY you ask them to do the stuff you ask them to do. Why do we do bellwork? Why are we doing this in groups? Why do we have to be quiet? Why do we need to know about international organizations? Why do we need to know about Manifest Destiny? Why are we reading this?

Tell them.

Tell them every day. It helps them to buy in to what you’re doing AND it helps them to connect their learning to reasons for that learning!

1. Turn and Talk: Still winning Most Useful Teaching Tool contests, the turn and talk is versatile and powerful.  

• It can help you get/keep your kids on track (“turn and tell your neighbor what we’re supposed to do next”)
• It can help your kids process content in digestible chunks(“turn and talk about what we just read”)
• It can help you take a lower-level lesson up to higher order thinking (“turn and talk about what possible impact this could have”)
• It can help you give your kids a chance to talk -- but about content, not about Fortnight (“turn and talk about what you think about that idea”)
• It can help you make your classes more student-centered (“turn and explain this concept to your partner”)
• It can impress your administration (“turn and talk about why you chose the answer you chose”)

In addition to being powerful and effective -- it’s quick (30 seconds!) and can be thrown into the middle of a lesson when needed.

Kids need breaks to process content. Do you ever notice that they stop paying attention or stop working at a certain point? It’s because they are overloaded and need time to digest content. Turn and talks can provide that “content digestion” and can provide that break from concentration.

In Marzano-land, turn and talks COULD address...

• Helping students process new content
• Helping students elaborate on content
• Reviewing content
• Helping students practice skills, strategies, and processes
• Helping students examine their knowledge
• Helping students engage in cognitively complex tasks.

Turn and talks make every lesson better. You only need one or two or three a class period to up the rigor and increase the student ownership in your lessons

**Honorable mention: Call and response: If you don’t have a quick attention-getting system, please get one. Use a call and response like “”If you hear my voice clap once” or “Hey class/heyteach”. Here are 50. Many are elementary, but not all I know we talked about using a call-and-response  to get kids’ attention and to get them quiet.

Here is a link to 50 different ones https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/50-fun-call-and-response-ideas-to-get-students-attention/

Here are a couple of Youtube videos showing Call and Responses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78eiLtQjmss (don’t do bubble in the mouth. That’s elementary school. But some of the others might work)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1QxsqrdpyI (elementary and over the top, but fun)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Wr9NDcTMs (dance moves I don’t think I could master, but he requests eyes tracking him and that’s important)

If you haven’t tried one of these -- please do! They will make your life easier and drop your stress a notch or two. I promise -- if you try them a couple of times they will become habit and you will see results!

Need ideas? Want to talk it out? Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

Teaching Hacks, The Look, and Monitoring

Teaching Hacks, The Look, and Monitoring

Y’all know that I love Teaching Hacks! You know what I mean? Those Pinterest-y ideas for quick fixes in the classroom?

Here are a few of my faves ...

1. Turn and Talks. All day, every day. Makes kids process learning and therefore RETAIN learning
2. Having kids use Whiteboard markers to write ON the desks. And then baby wipes to remove. (so much more fun than paper!)
3. Using Plickers to formatively assess in under 2 minutes. Because time is EVERYTHING to teachers. (except today they introduced a pay system?)
4. Bathroom pass on a lanyard (because, ewww, where does the pass go when they’re using the facilities?)
5. Written directions for everythingeverythingeverything. Every activity, assignment, everything with written directions on the board or screen. Helps ESE kids, ESOL kids, kids who have auditory processing issues, kids who just weren’t listening, kids who are flakey, and kids who are all over the place. If you write the directions down, half your management improves!

Ok, I’d like to add a new Teaching Hack to your list.

It’s so simple, but so rarely used.

It’s called “Read student work WHILE they’re working”

No, really. Stay with me!

Kids will trick you all the time. They can’t help it. They’re kids.  One favorite trick of most students is The Look.

This is different from the Teacher Look, the Mom Look or  The Administrator Look.

The Student Look is an “I’m innocent look”, maybe an “I’m thinking deeply look”, or even an “I am on task” look.

They use it all the time

Kids are great at looking busy. I used to happily walk around my classroom and monitor my students. I loved to walk around and do what  I THOUGHT was monitoring.

“Thanks for being on task, Destiny!”

“Let’s start our work, Carlos!”

“Brittany, you don’t have any work done! What have you been doing?”

“You’re almost done, Austin! Great job!”

What was wrong with those? I was monitoring for compliance, not for comprehension.

What’s the difference? I used to monitor to see if my kids were DOING their work, not if they were LEARNING what I wanted them to learn!

A kid can write stuff on paper all day but have no idea what we’re learning. They can be compliant by copying their friends’ words, they can be compliant by copying some things out of the book/packet, or they can be compliant just staying quiet and making wild guesses.

Kids can be tricksy. They can definitely LOOK busy but be missing the point.

I was constantly surprised AFTER students turned in their work and it was waaayyyy off, super wrong, or missed the point of the assignment/question entirely!

So how can we monitor for LEARNING? What’s the Teaching Hack here?

It’s so easy. Just read what they write WHILE they’re writing it.

I know we think we’re all already doing it. And maybe it was just me. But I see and hear lots of teachers monitoring around the room talking to kids about DOING work, not about WHAT they’re writing.

As you walk around the classroom, read what they write WHILE they are writing. Are they on point? Are their answers aligned to your question or are they off in left field? Do their answers read EXACTLY like the answers of the kid next to them? Are they wildly making stuff up? Are they copying some sort of answer out of the book without actually understanding it? Are they jotting down “IDK” for every third question?

And then -- when you see them on task but OFF-TRACK (not understanding), STOP and help them right then.

Don’t wait until kids turn in their work. Help them fix it right away, in the moment.

This takes EXACTLY as much effort as your monitoring for compliance does. You DO have to get up and walk around, just the same amount of steps. But it pays out waaayyyy more in student learning.

Totally worth it. Do mostly the same thing you are already doing but make it work better for you and your kids. Don’t get fooled by “The Student Look”. Monitor for LEARNING not for compliance.

Now that’s a Teaching Hack!!

Thoughts? Questions? Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org