Make Any Lesson Come to Life in Your Classroom!

Everyone knows that for students to truly understand lesson content, they must be actively engaged in the learning process in ways that address all learning styles.  To pull this off successfully, teachers must monitor student understanding regularly throughout a lesson in creative ways-ways that hold all students accountable for learning.  Regular checks for understanding keep all students alert and on their toes since they know that not only might they be called on once, but possibly more than once so it is necessary for all students to stay focused:)

Look at this turn to your partner activity from The Teaching Channel.  Notice how every student is on task and enjoying the assignment.  Note how the teacher monitors progress, intercedes when necessary, motivates strugglers, and ensures that all are actively engaged in the assignment.  Though the teacher makes the turn-to-your-partner activity look easy, it wasn't.  Rather it was the result of regular practice until all students knew what was expected of them and delivered.

Another approach which should be part of every lesson is an engaging effective HOOK.  The hook grabs student attention, plants the "seed" for the upcoming lesson, and sets students up to experience success with the lesson.  In this video from the Teaching Channel, a break-up letter sets the stage for the writing of the Declaration of Independence!  Note the giggling:)

One last suggestion is to never be afraid to add some humor:)  

Denise

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1 Excellent Source With a Proven Strategy to Boost Academic Language Skills of ALL Students--FISHBOWL!

For English language learners and students with special needs to do well with common core based lessons, they must develop critical skills in the use of academic language both in academic discussions and reading/writing academic tasks.  Since many of these students (not all) are operating far below grade level proficiency in reading and writing, they must not only be exposed to academic scenarios where both key content vocabulary and academic language are used regularly, but also be held accountable for integrating this language into their vocabulary base.  After all, without multiple opportunities to use such language in all 4 language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) scenarios, they will not be able to grow in the language skills needed for life beyond high school.

A great tool to build confidence in identifying academic language and using it to defend or take a position on controversial issues is fishbowl.  In life beyond school, taking a position or defending it occurs regularly and for students to survive in this setting, they need practice and reinforcement here in school.  Common Core lends itself naturally to this.   With fishbowl, the teacher creates two circles of students-one inner and one outer.  The inner set could be composed of students with a stronger background and grasp of the concepts initially.  This group would discuss key questions in a debate-like setting.  While they are doing that, the students in the outer circle (ELLs should start out here until they become more familiar with the activity) are taking specific notes on what they heard and whether or not the comments made are valid or not (by citing evidence from the text to support or refute the oral arguments).  Once the class has been through the routine a few times, the teacher could mix up the inner circle with ELLs since the routine by then would be routine one for the class.

With the instructional demands of common core, ELLs will require more than handouts to bridge that learning gap and this is a great start:) 

Denise

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Make Teacher Evaluations More Meaningful

With the shift to common core, schools are also looking at revising the teacher evaluation process.  After all, if teachers are expected to embrace change, they would need to know that by accepting the challenges to motivate and fully engage students in creative instructional settings they will be fully supported by their administration in the process.  A new look at the evaluation process is necessary to both keep and attract teachers.

In this clip, the evaluation process has been reformed to the point that teachers see it as an opportunity to perfect their trade.  Though there might have been some anxiety at the start on the part of the teacher in this video, it disappears by the end.  The teacher sees the administrator working as a partner in the  adventure.  The transformation not just in the layout of the room but in the focus of the students in tackling problems is quite impressive.

TEACHER EVALUATIONS

Denise

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Regular Checks for Understanding Are a Must For Common Core Based Lessons

Though technology has its definite pluses in the classroom, it should not be the only tool used by the teacher to assess student understanding in a lesson.  Since not all schools have the most recent versions of iPads or MAC, they need to look to other sources of materials to support/scaffold/assess student progress throughout a lesson.

So what forms of non-tech formative assessments are available for teachers?  I am pleased to say that there are many out there.  In fact, none of them are new.  Most have been around for years and are just as effective now as they were in the past.  Each one has its own unique way of keeping "a finger on the pulse" of class progress and only costs a very small fraction of what an iPad would cost.  Further, each offers a unique way of delivering formative assessments and this allows a teacher to address the many learning styles of students. 

Which ones are the best?  That decision rests with each teacher and his/her teaching style:)

EASY NON-TECH Checks For Understanding FOR ANY SUBJECT/GRADE LEVEL

Visit our website for more ideas in this area:)

Denise

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Creative Ways to Fully Engage ALL Students in Learning Process!

How does a teacher infuse instruction with enough creative student engagement activities to hold and maintain student attention for the length of the lesson?  It is an issue most teachers grapple with every day since it is their goal to motivate students to want to learn and enjoy the experience every step of the way.  Productive student engagement with regular monitoring on the part of the teacher holds all students accountable to learn.  This approach leaves no student behind.  English language learners especially need this type of active instruction and monitoring.  It is the only way they will acquire both content and English proficiency.

In this video, a national board certified English language arts teacher leads his class through some lessons on  To Kill a Mockingbird.  Though the video is about 26 minutes, it is well worth the view.  Teacher evaluators and coaches are viewing David Preto's English language arts class to see if he has generated a lesson that is more active in its delivery--more directed student engagement.  In this video, evaluators observe the lesson on site as well as on video to see if he is following up on suggestions.  See his skills grow over the full length of the video.  Does he achieve the perfect lesson?  No, but through his willingness to keep honing his skills, it is evident that he will do it.

GREAT STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN LEARNING PROCESS

As teachers, such self-reflection should be an on-going process for all.  Lesson delivery should be adjusted regularly.  Why?  This is a must because student populations change from year to year.  Also, with the number of English language learners growing from year to year, lessons that worked well 10 years ago with English speaking populations might not run as effectively with this new population. 

In less than 2 weeks, it will be the start of 2013.  A new semester will be here.  Why not shake things up a bit in class by reaching outside the comfort zone and try some new approaches:)

Enjoy your well deserved winter break!

Denise

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HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES TURN ABSTRACT INTO CONCRETE IN GEOMETRY CLASS

Long-term English language learners often times struggle with language intensive geometry.  Trying to interact with the heavy textbooks frequently leads to ELLs just sitting passively in the hopes of not being noticed by the teacher.  The fear of having one's weaknesses exposed for all the class to see can be quite intimidating. 

What if teachers took a slightly different approach with easily accessible "intro" materials" at the start of the lesson?  This type of approach allows every student to feel a connection with the upcoming material.  It validates that every student has some experience related to the topic though of varying degrees.  This sets the students up to believe that they will experience success in tackling the topic of the day in geometry class.

In GEOMETRY LESSON, the teacher has some simple materials to start the lesson on quadrilaterals--simple pieces of construction paper, scissors, and pens.  For the kinesthetic learner, cutting the corners and putting them together to discover the properties of quadrilaterals leads to the student's grasping (and therefore remembering) the concept.  ELLs need such approaches as well to fully comprehend the complex content of the subject.  Further, as the teacher has students go through the properties of the quadrilaterals, he maps them out on the white board as students discuss their findings.  The type of mind map presents the complex in a simple format that students can easily copy and most importantly, refer to if they encounter difficulties in completing the assignment.

Though it takes time to generate support materials, it is will worth the effort.  After all, what better feeling could a teacher have than knowing that s/he successfully reached every student in class:)

Denise

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Watch Scientist Inspire Diverse Middle Schoolers to Think About Pursuing Careers in the Sciences:)

It is never too early to start inspiring students of all ages and backgrounds to think about their future careers.  Though students know that school is there to assist them in planning for their lives beyond high school, they often times fail to make connections between courses and career options.  Including guest speakers on a monthly basis, for example, is one very effective way to tap student interest in the subject matter and link career options to it. 

With an upcoming shortage of scientists in many parts of the world, why not start bringing in professionals from various science fields to ignite sparks of interest in the minds of students.  Many of the presenters are trained on how to work with diverse student bodies including ELLs.  Some may have a background in education while others are just naturally talented in assisting kids on making those connections from the classroom to the lab for example. Further, since diversity in the workforce is increasingly more common than in the past, it would be possible to have female/male speaker representatives from all the ethnic groups.  This would be quite empowering for minorities especially.

BEST PRACTICES FOR SCIENTISTS VISITING CLASSROOMS

Notice how Daniele Bergeron, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, delivers a presentation on careers in science and in doing so, employs many tried and true instructional techniques to capture and then maintain student interest.  In fact, this would be a wonderful video to share with teachers in general since Daniele uses many checks-for-understanding, has excellent classroom management skills, employs short videos to spark interest, validates all answers without passing judgement, relates academic concepts to student background knowledge, addresses academic vocabulary by relating it to what they know, has a great sense of humor, etc. 

Share this with colleagues who rarely try new approaches.  It might motivate them to do something different:)

Denise
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Common Core and ELLs--Practical Suggestions for Mainstream Teachers To Offer Support For These Students

The common core standards will also be transforming the ELD standards (still in draft form).  These new standards will provide more direction for teachers in identifying their ELLs and their levels.  With this information, it will fall on teachers to address language and content in their classes. 

So what is a teacher to do?  Well, some of the strategies that have worked in the past will also transition here:  visuals, scaffolding, graphic organizers, lots of class interactions with their English peers, accommodations in assessments, structured cooperative learning activities, sentence frames, word walls, concept maps, etc.  All of those approaches and many more like them do work; however more is needed.

Teachers will need to be very focused in the delivery of their lessons.  Clear content standards written in student friendly language will especially clarify for ELLs what they will be expected to learn.  If there is no mystery behind the content standards, teachers can expect full class participation.  Next, the learning objective must be read by all and dissected by teacher into comprehensible chunks with a few random checks for understanding to ensure that everyone knows what s/he will eventually be held accountable for learning.  Then there is the need to identify academic vocabulary (words that are used in all content areas) and key content vocabulary for the immediate class.  How many words should a teacher bring in here?  Typically, no more than 7 per lesson for academic words and they are used repeatedly in all language areas thus allowing the ELL time to process and retain the words.  With key vocabulary, students need to be made aware of them and allowed time to work with them through highly supported venues.  Word walls, concept maps, frayer models are just some of the tools that can be used to provide the ELL with ways to remember those 5 or so words.  If there are more words, teachers will need to decide what words are crucial to their understanding of the concept and which words can just be talked through by the teacher in delivering the lesson.   In addition, teachers will need to do a variety of checks-for-understanding:  whiteboards, games, random call-ons, problem solving, structured cooperative groups with each student holding a role, jigsaw, numbered heads together, skits, posters, etc.

Once the lesson is done, teachers will want to try one more quick check-for-understanding called the exit ticket.  The students will be given a 3X5 index card on which they will respond to a few questions designed by the teacher based on the content the class studied that day.  Typically this tool only takes about 5 minutes for students to do and less than 5 for the teacher to assess the effectiveness of the lesson.  If 80-90% have the right answers, they will be fully capable of doing the homework assignment.  For the 10-20% who are still struggling, the teacher can pull them aside and provide some guidance while the rest of the class possibly starts on a more challenging assignment based on the day's work.

If time is spent effectively delivering solid content to every student and academic language in addition to the ELLs, 90% will be fully prepared to complete assigned homework.  That 10% who are still having difficulty can be given adjusted assignments with the understanding that the teacher may give them the more difficult assignment when the teacher feels that they have fully demonstrated their ability to now do the work that they found impossible only a couple of days ago.

COMMON CORE AND ELLS--SUGGESTIONS FOR MAINSTREAM TEACHERS TO SUPPORT ELLS  This site offers a more detailed layout on this area.  You may wish to bookmark it.  It is a good source to go to when you need some inspiration:)

Denise


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Proven Successful Teaching Strategies to Reach Your ELLs!

How would you like to have at your fingertips detailed successful teaching strategies with ELLs accompanied by FREE videos of those strategies in action? Wonder no more! Here is the site: WELCOME TO ELL BEST PRACTICES

Here you will examples of proven approaches for both elementary and secondary students. Would you like to cooperative learning at its best? Would you like to see how graphic organizers help ELLs organize their data and therefore take more accurate notes in class? How about the importance of setting clear objectives and providing clear feedback? CLICK HERE You are free to also share the videos through email.

Further, along with these excellent teaching videos, you can also access written descriptions of the strategies. The details are succinctly laid out (i.e. bullet format). Many times the video is linked to the resource to make it easier for the teacher to tie the two together. The topics also come with graphic organizers and other teaching tools used in the videos.

If your administrators are looking for resources in this area, you may pass the following link on to them: ADMINISTRATORS. It covers legal requirements, the differences between ELD and SDAIE, suggestions for observing teachers, and much more.

I hope you enjoy this site. I was impressed with the quality of instruction present and the active involvement of the students:)

Denise

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