Student Discussion Student discussion refers to the cognitive process in which students engage in critical thinking by posing and investigating questions, making connections between information and their personal experiences and cultural background, substantiating their reasoning, and questioning their own and others’ perspectives to achieve clarity and comprehension. This definition is...
Authentic Self To be authentic is one of the 12 traits essential to every student’s success in life. It is an important virtue to also be humble. Humility does not mean being debased or self-degraded. It means “being right-sized,” which has two components: – Authentic persons are objectively aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. – They don’t pretend to be someone they aren’t...
Effective Questioning To Prompt Students to Think Critically Provoke and Release What prompts students to ask questions in class? According to the book Beautiful Questions in the Classroom by Warren Berger, a two-part strategy could be considered “provoke and release.” The idea is to provoke curiosity in students, which will tend to inspire specific, authentic questions, then provide a release...
Creating a Culture of Inquiry Table of Contents Culture of Inquiry Six key things educators can do to create a culture, atmosphere, and environment where students are more comfortable asking questions and more inclined to do so are: Foster an appreciation of questioning Create a stimulating environment for questioning Make it safe to question Make questioning a team sport Provide a basic...
What Makes a Good Question? Jim Knight, author of The Beautiful Questions, asks what makes a good question? Answer effective questions are Empowering Authentic Respectful Invitational Empowering Asking good questions empowers the one receiving the inquiry, not the one posing it. When Knight asks someone he coaches, for example, “How close was that class to how you wanted it to go, on a...
Planning SEL Lesson Table of Contents Tracey A. Hulen and Ann-Bailey Lipsett share planning tools to support elementary teachers in providing authentic forms of SEL. Hulen and Lipsett ask how do we bridge knowing to actually doing? Authors believe the link that binds the two is often planning. Planning can help us reach our goals and be more efficient with our allotted instructional time. In many...
Student Agency in the Classroom Giving students the power to be involved in their own learning, or “student agency,” in the classroom means giving them ownership of their learning. When students are given choice, they show the following traits: Choice and Decision-Making: Students talk about how interested they are in something, what they like, and how they can make their learning...
3 Authentic Strategies To Take to Your Classroom to the Real World There are ways to take your classroom to the real world by making the classroom a real-world setting, where students make real-world decisions with real-world consequences. 3 strategies serve as steppingstones to get you where you are ready to jump headfirst into authentic learning in your classroom. SIMULATIONS SOLVE REAL-WORLD...
Table of Contents Effective Feedback Effective feedback needs to be reviewed as just right, just in time, and just for me. It can nourish unprecedented growth in learning for all students. O’Connell and Vandas, authors of Partnering With Students Building Ownership of Learning, deconstructed feedback by synthesizing research and best practices into an easy acronym, using the word feedback...
Learning Progressions: A Pathway for the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Clarify Learning Progression Clarify learning progression within standards is a critical first step for teachers and students to share ownership of learning with students, according to Mary Jane O’Connell and Kara Vandas, authors of the Partnering with Students Building Ownership of Learning book. O’Connell...
What is Cyber Bullying? Cyberbullying encompasses harassment using digital means such as social media, emails, and texting. Navigating the pervasive digital landscape requires a nuanced understanding of how these behaviors manifest and the effects they produce. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying exploits the widespread reach and anonymity afforded by the internet. This new dimension...
Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders Collaborative Relationships for Learning Improving Students’ Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning In their book, Partnering with Students, authors Mary O’Connell and Kara Vandas provide strategies for better collaborative relationships of learning. Collaborative relationships for...
I am sure many educators have heard this before: Many students who disrupt learning are actually struggling academically, and would rather be seen as “the bad kid” than as “the stupid kid.” Educators know how important engagement is for student learning, but how do you meet the goal of education “prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives”? Authors Laura Greenstein...
SEL 101 What are Core Competencies and key setting? Effective SEL Teaching Practices In their book, Building Blocks for Social-Emotional Learning, Tracy A. Hulen and Ann-Bailey Lipsett introduce ten SEL instructional practices you can use to teach and integrate social-emotional skills into academic and social settings throughout the school day: Transitions Student goal setting SEL daily...
Phase 1: Clarity Design PBL with Clarity Rigorous Project Based Learning by Michael McDowell Video Michael McDowell, author of Rigorous PBL Design, suggests 5 steps to ensure students can answer where I am going in my learning: Step 1: Prioritize key learning intentions. Step 2: Create success criteria at surface, deep, and transfer levels. Step 3: Design driving questions that align with...
Design Shift 1 Clarity Shape Project Design with Clarity Michael McDowell’s first design shift, Clarity, focuses on shaping project design (PBL) to enable students to address question 1, where am I going in my learning? McDowell ensures clarity by using two design challenges that emerge for teachers: Supporting context and tasks from learning intention and success criteria Scaffolding...