Powerful Learning strategies focuses on three drivers: Strategic Instruction, Authentic Engagement, and Connecting and Contributing.
3 Ways Building Mistake Tolerance Carl Slater, author of Nurturing Mistake Tolerance in the Classroom article, suggests 3 ways to build mistake tolerance in the classroom by: Use Jigsaw Activities Guide students to Get the GIST Actively Model Critical Thinking Slater points out that “Teachers can help students get over the fear of making a mistake by showing them that errors are just a part of...
What is Unconscious Bias? Unconscious bias is also called implicit bias—a type of social cognition that occurs below the surface, making it harder to detect as defined by Huda Essa, author of the book The Consciously Unbiased Educator. Essa cites social scientists who believe unconscious bias can develop as early as age 3 (Flannery, 2015). They are often undetected and may even contradict a...
Self-Efficacy with Student Agency Agency is a composite set of essential skills researchers refer to, as self-efficacy, planning, and acting, reflecting on learning, and having a growth mindset are important to long-term student success. This is explained in the book, Teaching Kids to Thrive, by Dr. Debbie Thomas Silver and Debra Stafford. Dr. Silver and Stafford cite educators and researchers at...
Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Definition How much students need to know, understand, and be aware of what they are learning is called their “depth of knowledge.” This helps them find answers, outcomes, results, and remedies and explain them. It also says how much students are supposed to use and apply what they have learned in different schools and real-life situations. This definition is from...
Burn This! Why the D.O.K. Wheel Is Inaccurate Misconceptions of Rigor and Depth of Knowledge Seven misconceptions of rigor and depth of knowledge and they are: Misconception 1. All students can’t think deeply; all students shouldn’t need scaffolding to support deeper thinking. Misconception 2. Depth-of-knowledge levels should function as a taxonomy. Misconception 3. You can equate verb...
Building a Belonging Classroom Student Sense of Belonging Strategies How to Build a Strong Foundation for the Year Student Sense of Belonging strategies are Reflections of Self, Quick Checks, 2 x 10 strategy, Kid watching, and Student and Family Inventories. These 5 strategies are from authors Colleen Urlik and Rebecca McKinney of Accelerating Learning For All Equity in Action. These strategies...
Learner Strategies Defined According to O’Connell and Vandas, learner strategies are the plans or actions that help you learn faster and can be used in other learning situations. How do teachers help their students come up with ways to learn? This post will show you how. Why Is It Important? For kids, the most important part of learning is to teach them how to learn better and find the...
Design Learning Experiences 3Es in Designing Learning Experience How do you begin to design a meaningful learning experience for students? Andi McNair, author of A Meaningful Mess, suggests 3Es: Engage: How can students be engaged in ways that will make them want to learn? Experience: What experience can be designed to give learners a reason to invest in their learning? Empower: How can learners...
Table of Contents Identity and Agency Defined Identity refers to our comprehensive understanding of our own features, our self- perception in relation to others, our perceived abilities, and our recognition of our weaknesses, as stated by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Dominique Smith, the authors of the book “All Learning is Social and Emotional”. Authors define Agency as the capacity...
Identity Safe Classroom Identity Safe Classrooms are, according to Dorothy M Steel and Becky Crohn Vargas, “those in which teachers strive to ensure students that their social identity is an asset, not a barrier to success.” Shane Safir, author of the article “Fostering Identity Safety in the Classroom“, notes that such classrooms students feel safe, included and valued...
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...