Strategy Reflection #9 Cues, Questions, & Advance Organizers

What?

Marzano states that cues and questioning are the heart of classroom practice. They are ways in which a classroom teacher can help students use what they already know about a topic. Cues involves "hints" about what students are going to experience and questioning previews what students already know about a topic. Advanced organizers are a way to simply present new content to students that will be taught in the duration of the lesson. One type of advanced organizer is skimming. Skimming is a way to expose students to information before teaching the lesson. I decided to utilize skimming into my classroom practice.


So What?

I decided to use skimming when I introduced a new chapter to my students. Before I started the lesson I gave my students about 5 minutes to look through the chapter. I asked them to look at key terms, charts, graphs, time lines and headings in the chapter. Once they finished skimming the chapter we discussed what they read or what they saw. They were able to tell me what we would be learning and already started asking questions about certain topics. By doing this my students were introduced to the material so when they saw it again the information was not new to them. Then they were able to recall the information better when they saw it again which helped their retention rate. I also incorporated a strategy called picture walks. In a picture walk students are instructed to look over the pictures in the chapter and try to explain what each picture is representing. Once they looked over the pictures I walked through the pictures with them again and asked them to tell me what they saw. We then read the captions under each picture to help us understand what the picture was depicting. Then once we started our lesson it was easier to understand because they were already familiar with the information and understood the pictures.

Now What?

Skimming is used a great deal in my classroom. I not only use it in my classroom, but I also use it when I am helping in Content Mastery. I try to teach students how to find the answer they are looking for by reading headings in the chapter and skimming to narrow down their search instead of reading everything word for word. Most students understand and are able to skim on their own, however, I have had a handful of students who just didn't understand what I was asking them to do. I will continue to use skimming because I feel that it familiarizes my students with key terms and information that we will discuss which makes it easier for them to understand.

Strategy Reflection #8 Generating & Testing Hypotheses

What?

Marzano explains generating and testing hypothesis as involving the application of knowledge. Most of the time when you generate and test hypotheses, you use two types of thinking, deductive and inductive. By using a variety of structured tasks to help guide students to generate and test their hypotheses, students can reach a higher level of thinking. The one that I used in my history class is the historical investigation.

So What?

My students had been learning about the early European settlers who came to the New World in the 1500s. Upon learning about the early settlers, we also discussed the Lost Colony of Roanoke in North Carolina. As many of you may well know the Lost Colony was settled in 1587 and started out with 115 men, women, and children. However when their leader left for England and returned three years later, he came back to discover that everyone on the colony had disappeared. Naturally my students' enthusiasm on the subject amplified. They began asking me questions about what happened to the colonists. I saw this as an opportunity to incorporate the historical investigation. I created a worksheet and required my students to respond to four instructions. I asked them to clearly describe the historical event being examined, identify what is known about that time period, offer a hypothetical scenario about what they believed happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke, and finally research evidence to determine if the hypothetical scenario they came up with was plausible. My students were split into groups where they worked together to complete the worksheets. I was amazed at how well my students had understood the assignment. They were able to describe the possible diseases that were around during this time period that might have possibly led to the disappearance of the colonists. By the end of the assignment my students came up with scenarios that the people just moved to another location and didn't leave a note behind, they were killed by either Indians or the Spaniards, they all contracted the diseases and died from not being treated or they starved to death. Then once we discussed their scenarios I showed them the research that suggests that most of the things they said were the same explanations historians had come up with already.

Now What?

My students were so excited about trying to figure out what happened with the Lost Colony that they enjoyed the lesson. They were engaged in the group work and coming up with solutions to the disappearance. I found it impressive that my students were able to generate and test their hypotheses. I decided that I will use this lesson for as long as I teach US History so my other students can discover the same enthusiasm. I will also use it in my other history classes.

Strategy Reflection #7 Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback

What?

Providing feedback is one of the most powerful single modification that enhances achievement according to researcher John Hattie. When we consider feedback, it should be "corrective," timely, specific to criterion, and student led. To utilize feedback, I decided to use all of these but one suggestion. I have unintentionally become the world's worst when it comes to grading papers. When I first became a teacher I did well on grading papers and returning them back to my students. Now since I teach bell to bell I would just pile all the work in a grading folder to grade later. However, it started becoming a problem because with five preps I am constantly getting ready for the next class. When I thought I would have time during my conference to grade papers, something else always came up. Soon it was 2 weeks before my students received their work back. Then when I did grade it I would only put an "X" on the wrong answer. I never wrote down the correct answer or circled it.

So What?

Instead of putting a big "X" on my students' work I have since started circling the correct answers. I was usually in such a big hurry to finish grading that I didn't take the time to circle correct answers. I've started noticing that my students now look closer at their graded papers when I circle the correct response. I have also made it a point to grade their work as soon as they turn it in. By doing so I am able to provide them with immediate feedback. I have also found it keeps my papers graded so it doesn't pile up on me. I have been assigning reflections for my students to write after each section we discussed that day to grasp a better understanding of what they learned during the discussion. To utilize student-led feedback, I asked my students, on occasion, to exchange papers with either the person in front of them or behind them. I instruct them to read their peers reflection and make comments regarding the concept of the paper and to check for errors with either grammar or spelling. Although most of my students are unable to actually do this task, I have found that they enjoy being able to pretend to be the teacher. I go back after they turn in their reflections to read the peer suggestions because then it gives me a chance to see if my students knew enough about what was discussed to make corrections on peers' reflections.

Now What?

I didn't realize how harmful it was for me to not mark the correct answers before I hand back papers. I always assumed my students would be able to determine the correct given the wrong answer. I now take time to circle each answer when it is wrong so my students will have a higher percentage of success. The part of feedback that has been the most helpful is providing feedback in a timely manner. I didn't realize the importance of immediate feedback. My students would constantly ask me what their grade was on a particular assignment and I would tell them to wait until next time. Then weeks later I would finally give it back to them. What was worse is when I'd give back their work it would be after we took the chapter test. By the time my students got back their work they were unable to use the information to help them understand the chapter. I also found that I have less stress about getting my papers graded. When I keep up with them and grade them by the end of class I don't have a "to do list" hanging over my head for weeks. Now when I give my work back at the end of class my students immediately go back to their seats and look up the answers they got wrong in the book. Before this my students would just look at the grade and then put it away in their folders. I am definitely going to continue to return papers by the end of the period or by the next class period. In regards to student feedback, I only see a little change in success. Although my students enjoy grading each other's reflections, I have discovered that some students will make fun of others who didn't understand the assignment or made spelling errors so I will probably not use student led feedback in the future.

Strategy Reflection #6 Cooperative Learning

What?

Cooperative learning is one strategy that I use in my classroom on a regular basis. I decided to create a heterogeneous group for the next cooperative learning assignments I assign. I usually allow my students to create their own groups which I have found tends to lead to more socializing. I also noticed that my higher performing students would pair up and my lower performing students would pair up in groups.

So What?

The statistics involving the success rates of the lower performing student groups versus the higher performing groups was an eye opener to me. I had never considered the negative effects in allowing my students to determine their own groups. I decided to create the cooperative learning groups myself. In my US History class I have exactly 12 students. I figured I would split my groups into 3 groups of four students since the statistics revealed groups of 3-4 students had a +9% success rate. I looked down my gradebook and noticed that I had 3 students who currently had an A in the class. I separated them and put each in their own group. I then began looking at my B, C, and F students then split them up between the 3 groups. I had 4 students who were currently failing so I put 2 of the F students in the group with the person who was making the highest A average to make it more even. I was a little weary about splitting the groups the way I did considering that my A students usually don't associate with the F students since they tend to be the students who are always in the office. However, as I monitored their groups I noticed that they were all working together to come up with the correct answers. I was amazed to discover that the cooperative learning groups I created seemed to be functioning well. Once they completed their assignments I had them return back to their seats. Then I decided to have a debriefing to reflect on how they felt about their groups. Surprisingly, I had students that mentioned they enjoyed working with their groups. The higher performing students mentioned that they enjoyed being able to help other students because it made them feel like the teacher. They also mentioned it gave them a chance to get to know other students in the class they wouldn't associate with normally.

Now What?

Since the heterogeneous cooperative learning groups were so successful I plan to always arrange my groups that way. When I graded their work each student performed better. They were also able to explain to me what they learned from the assignment. I plan to include more cooperative learning projects into my lesson planning since it appears that peers can sometimes teach better than the teacher. The students enjoyed it and it prevented them from asking me a million questions regarding the work. They were able to ask their peers questions which made it easier on me. They were able to solve the problems on their own within their groups.

Strategy Reflection #5 Nonlinguistic Representations

What?

Nonlinguistic representation can be described as a way to get students to create an image of what they learned through graphic organizers and other strategies. I decided to utilize the describing wheel graphic organizer to enhance my students' understanding of the Industrial Revolution in World History. My usual classroom routine is to read the selection of text aloud and discuss it. Once we discuss it I have my students complete questions and worksheets to conduct more independent practice to see what my students got out of the lesson. I decided to try a graphic organizer to determine if they comprehended what we had been discussing the past couple of days.

So What?

I printed off copies of the describing wheel that was passed out during a group presentation. I explained to my students how to use the organizer and what I was expecting them to do. I had them write "Industrial Revolution Inventions of the 1700s." I wanted them to list all the inventions we discussed and include the year the invention was created and the person responsible for the invention. Most of my students went straight to work without any hesitation, but I had others who were still confused. I wrote Eli Whitney-cotton gin-1793 on the board and told them to put it in one of the boxes on the graphic organizer. The demonstration helped them to understand what I wanted. I walked around the room and observed my students writing down the inventions. I was surprised at the number of students who didn't use the book as often as others. It showed me that those students understood the material enough to create a mental representation such as a graphic organizer. Some were so pleased with their assignment that once they finished they asked to color it. I posted each graphic organizer on my student recognition board so they can gain confidence in knowing they were able to create a visual representation.

Now What?

After the success of this activity, I decided to implement graphic organizers into my lessons each week. In the past I would occasionally use graphic organizers to check for understanding anyway, but now I will make sure to use them more. Instead of doing my usual worksheets and questions I plan to check for understanding by having my students complete graphic organizers. I didn't realize how many different graphic organizers were available online. After this activity I researched other graphic organizers from the handouts given to us during the presentation and was overwhelmed with the results. I now understand why graphic organizers and other nonlinguistic representations are so important in determining whether or not students grasped a concept.