Shifting Our Focus from Teaching to Student Learning

Presented by Celeste D. Sosa, Assistant Principal

Thomas F. Bayard Middle School

December 22, 2011

Today’s Essential Question

How can we use research-based

instructional strategies to make our

current lessons more engaging?

What is Learning-Focused?

• Framework for thinking about, planning, and delivering instruction using exemplary practices.

• Focuses on learning.

• Incorporates research-based instructional practices.

3 Levels of Learning• Acquisition: Acquiring new knowledge.

– Link to prior learning, create meaning, organize

information and begin to store information. This is

short term memory.

• Extending Thinking: Greater understanding.

– Deepening understanding, building connections,

thinking on a higher level. Helps retain and transfer

information.

• Authentic, Meaningful Use, Maintenance: Applying

the learning.

– Using meaningful ways, assessing through

performance and using over time for retaining.

The Acquisition Lesson

A lesson plan designed to help learners acquire new knowledge, concepts and skills.

What is it like? Thought provoking, exciting, uses prior knowledge, wobbly at first…

Planning an Acquisition Lesson1. Write the lesson’s essential question; Ask yourself, “What must

students learn in order to answer the essential question?” Develop two to three assessment prompts. Know the answer to the EQ.

2. Choose and complete the best graphic organizer for this lesson.

3. Organize the teaching component of the lesson (assessment prompts and distributive summarization).

4. Plan the culminating assignment (the last check for understanding).

5. Plan the activating strategy (prior knowledge).

6. Plan the summarizing strategy (exit ticket).

Typical Lessons for Coverage

What Is The Objective Of The Lesson ??

Preparation

Active Teaching

Massed Guided Practice

Closure

Acquisition Lessons for Learning

What Is The Essential Question Of The Lesson ??

Activating/Previewing

Teaching Strategies

Distributed Guided Practice orDistributed Summarizing

Summarize & AnswerEssential Question

Components of anAcquisition Lesson

• Essential Question

• Activating & Vocabulary Strategies

• Teaching Strategies

• Summarizing Strategies

What Is An Essential Question?

Concepts or skills in the form of questions

Purpose:

• Sets the focus of the lesson.

• Helps teacher gather evidence of learning (assessment).

Key Points

• Posted highly visibly in the classroom.

• There is only one essential question in a lesson.

• Organize units, & lessons around questions; the content of lessons answers the questions.

• Based on curriculum

• Allocate time to answer

Writing An Essential Question

• Make the teaching objective a question.

• Students should be able to answer the question at

the end of the lesson.

• Write the question for the lesson and then, if

necessary, rewrite the question for the students.

• Question cannot be answered with yes or no.

• Create connections for the learner with the content.

About Activating Strategies

• Purpose

– To hook the students and link prior

knowledge

• Why use?

– To motivate

– To preview key vocabulary

– To prepare for learning

KWL OutlinesKWL Outline 1

-K-Think I Know…

-W-Think I’ll Learn…

-L-I Learned…

KWL Outline 2-K-

I Know-W-

Think I Know

-L-Learned

Wordsplash

Plants

Leaves

Trees

Green

Sun

Me Text Statement

___ ___ 1. The Democratic Party is the oldest in the United States.

___ ___ 2. A political party is a social gathering held for a bunch of politicians.

___ ___ 3. Because all presidents have primarily been elected by two major political parties, the United States is said to have a two-party system.

___ ___ 4. Party members usually share the same beliefs about politics and about the role of government.

___ ___ 5. The Whigs were a political party that required the long white hair wigs but when men wearing wigs went out of style, they disbanded.

Anticipatory Guide (Unit: Political Parties – Civics)

Brainstorm

First Day of School

EQ: How do I get ready for the beginning of school?

Draw a Picture or Diagram

EQ: How do I identify points on a grid?

Draw a picture of how to get to school from your house.

Activating Strategies Categories

• Recall

• Make Predictions

• Game

• Humor or Mystery

• Exploration or Experience

• Role Play or Simulation

• Video clip

Teaching Strategies

• What are they?– Series of cognitive strategies

• Why use?– Mentally engage the learner because they

take into consideration attention span

– Organize information

– Store information

Collaborative Pairs• Collaborative Pairs is the base grouping and

organizational tool for a classroom…

• It is hard to get lost in a pair.

• Research says that learning is constructed by the learner and is first a social activity before it is a cognitive activity.

• Actively engages students in the lessons.

• Students are individually accountable for their own learning.

• Collaborative Pairs are used extensively in large group acquisition lessons.

• Basic Strategy for Collaborative Pairs: Numbered Heads

Pairs Checking

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

A. Circle numbers.

B. Each student does their own work.

C. When they complete a circled number, stop. Check answers with partner. If agree, go on. If not, correct then continue.

Lecture/Large Group Lessons(Jigsaw)

• 1’s read about the lecture types on page 29.

• 2’s read about the lecture types on page 30.

• Share what you learned with your partner.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic Organizersfor

Comprehension

Build ConnectionsExplore Relationships

Organize Information/Ideas

Chunk Information

Improve memory

Follow Steps in a Process

Understand/Manage Learning

Fish Bone (Cause/Effect)

Effect

Causes

Causes

Economic Geographic

Military Social- Political

World War II

Cycle Graph– Shooting a Basketball

Compare and Contrast Diagram

Concept: FRACTION Concept:DECIMAL

How Alike?

How Different?

With Regard To:

Denominator

ConvertingDenominators

Changing toPercentage

Comparison Matrix

21 3

Structure

Setting

Problem

Choices

Ending

Aesop’s Fables have a moral

It is said that Aesop was a slave in Greece long, long ago.

Aesop was smart.

There is no proof he wrote down fables- he told others.

Author Tower

Main Idea

Main Idea – Aesop was responsible for the fables

Aesop’s FablesTOPIC

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Main Idea

Mnemonics

• Some view as “memory trick”

• Students are given a device to help remember –store/recall –long term memory.

• Student is given a framework – cues and new information is associated with it.

Types of Mnemonics

• Acrostic Sentence

• Acronym

• Rhythm and Rhyme

• Drawings

• Physical Movement

• Visualizations

Types of Acronyms

• ROY G BIV

• HOMES

• FACE

Acrostic Sentences• Every Good Boy Does Fine

• Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

• My Very Earnest Mother Just Served us Nine Pickles

• King Henry Died Drinking Chocolate Milk

• Kids Have Dropped Over Dead Converting Metrics.

• ( Play Music At the Church) - steps of Mitosis

Drawings

Ga

llo

n

Gallon Man

Cup

When students reflect on the material being taught and answer the essential

question.

Summarizing

Why Should Students Summarize?• It’s a key thinking skill for learning

• It’s a LEARNING STRATEGY

• Enables students to create a “schema” for the information and remember it better and longer

• It’s a formative assessment (tells teachers what to re-teach and when)

Student summarizing

Is to be distributed throughout a lesson,

AND at the end

Two Types of Summarizing:

1. Distributed summarizing

(occurs throughout the lesson)

2. Summarizing at the end of the lesson

(provides evidence that students can

answer the essential question)

Summarizing Strategies to Use at the End of

the Lesson

Summarizing Strategy: KWL

Know Think You Learn

Will Learn

(List what learned –(answering the EQ)

Ticket Out the Door

Give prompt –

They can show

They can tell

They can write

They can post-it!

Examples of “Ticket Out the Door”(Comprehension Lesson)

• Write three events of the story in order.

• “Prove It” – write one fact and opinion that you could get from the story (be sure to be able to “prove it” from the text).

• “Give Me Five” – trace your hand and answer the 5 Ws, one answer per finger.

3-2-1Students write about the topic

• Explain three new concepts you learned

• Define two vocabulary words related to this lesson

• What is one thing that is still unclear, or one question you have about the topic

3-2-1 (Math Example)

3 – situations where you need to find perimeter

2 – ways to find perimeter of rectangle

1 – way you will remember the meaning of perimeter

2-1(3-2-1 Adapted)

2 - Details from the story

1 - Main idea

Explain the connection.

Note to the Absent Student

Write a note to the absent student answering the essential question.

Dear ____________,

Today we learned……..The most important thing we learned was….. If you had been here you would have really enjoyed…. I hope that tomorrow we will learn ….

Your friend,

PS I’m wondering…

Learning Logs or Journals

• Prompts

• Today I learned…

• Three things I wonder…

• I know now….so I can…

• New things I learned today include…

The Most Important Thing is…

The things I know about summarizing

are________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________ . But the

most important thing is ______________

_____________________.

Key Points About Summarizing

• ALL students summarize!

• Students answer the Essential Question

• Teachers use it to assess and determine re-teaching needs

• It must be planned. It doesn’t just happen.

• Allocate time for this and don’t skip!

Summarizing must be distributed throughout the lesson, not just at the end!