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The Learning-Focused Connections Newsletter is a weekly link to exemplary practice and ideas that will help you as an educator to increase achievement in your classroom and school. Some weeks there will be a mix of articles in the mailer, other weeks we will follow a theme. If there are questions you want answered, or strategies you want to know more about let us know by emailing info@learningfocused.com. Please insert "newsletter article request" in the subject line. We are all working with the same goal in mind, continuous improvement in student achievement.
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Squirm to Learn
by Debbie Willingham, Ed.D.
Our students are body-centric-they notice their bodies (and each others'), they wiggle their bodies, and they use their bodies to talk-so why not use all that to help them learn? The research tells us that intellectual memory is connected to movement and that spatial location helps make connections, so here are a few easily adaptable ideas that will help all students learn, remember, review and practice in motion.
The Human Continuum
Assign one end of the room for "strongly agree" and the opposite for "strongly disagree" and have students move to the place along the invisible line that matches their level of agreement on your statement. Give each student a fraction, decimal, or percent and have them get in line in order from smallest to largest (.099, .2, 1/3, .39, 2/5, .6, 2/3, 68%, etc.). Give each student a letter from a tough vocabulary word and have them get in the correct order to spell it.
Life-Size Matrix Organizer/Grid
On two adjacent walls of the room put the markers for each category of a matrix (what would be at the top and left side on paper). Give each student an index card with a characteristic that fits in the matrix. Have them discuss and move to the correct grid location, then have them switch cards, move around, and do it again. Examples are part of the multiplication table, characteristics of folk tales with examples from specific stories, or countries, planets, etc. and their characteristics.
Inside-Outside Circle
Have students make two concentric circles with pairs facing each other (one from the inside circle facing outward to see their partner in the outside circle, who faces inward). Students discuss topics or answer questions, then the outside circle rotates clockwise one person and they do the same with a new partner. Give each student a person studied in history to have a conversation with another person in history they are facing. Assign each student a fraction that is to be multiplied with the partner's fraction. The teacher may choose to do this as one large class circle or to have two smaller groups with identical assignments.
Kinesthetic Spelling
Have students look at the word and trace the letters with their index finger as they say them (aloud or silently). Have students practice writing the word in salt in a box, finger paint, pudding, or shaving cream. Have students write the word in the air with their eyes closed, then write it on paper and check their accuracy.
These are just a few simple ways to get students moving as they learn or review what they have learned. While some students are kinesthetic learners and need to use this method of differentiating, all students can benefit from "squirming as they're learning!"
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Assessment Prompts
(Making sure they are structured)
by Carol Brewer
Assessment Prompts are questions that are asked throughout the lessons. These questions should be well planned and should have a purpose. This questioning purpose might be to satisfy a State Standard, modeling, assessment, thinking question, comprehension strategy or prepare students for their State Tests, etc. When teachers ask questions that are not well planned, they seem to be at a low level, or do not meet the thinking level of their students. Teachers need to think about the questions they are asking and adjust accordingly. These questions need to follow what is being taught. The following structure seems to work well for teachers when planning their Reading Comprehension Strategies questions.
Question #1 & # 2: The question is based on the comprehension strategy.
Question #3: The question is based on the Author's Purpose or Genre.
Question #4: The question is a review question from a comprehension strategy that has already been taught.
Question #5: The question is a higher level inference or connection question.
(Refer to the Reading to Learn or the Reading Strategies for Assessment book for further questioning support)
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Effective Praise as Feedback
 by Denise Burson
Researchers who study the effects of academic reinforcement are usually most interested in measuring effects on achievement. Some, however, are also concerned with other outcome areas. Findings from this research include:
- When students are reinforced (by any means) for learning achievement, their on-task behavior increases and disruptions are minimized.
- A combination of reinforcement and corrective feedback is positively related to positive attitudes toward learning, toward particular subject areas, and toward teachers.
- Contingent reinforcement is positively associated with increases on measures of self-efficacy (internal locus of control).
- The behavioral improvements noted in response to reinforcing students for learning achievements tend to persist after the removal of the reinforcers.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE PRAISE (Excerpted from: J.E. Brophy, "Teacher Praise: A Functional Analysis." REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH 51 (1981), p. 26.)
EFFECTIVE PRAISE
1. Is delivered contingently
2. Specifies the particulars of the accomplishment
3. Shows spontaneity, and other signs of credibility; suggests clear attention to the student's accomplishment
4. Rewards attainment of specified performance criteria (which can include effort criteria, however)
5. Provides information to students about their competence or the value of their accomplishments
6. Orients students towards better appreciation of their own task-related behavior and thinking about problem-solving
7. Uses students' own prior accomplishments as the context for describing present accomplishments
8. Is given in recognition of noteworthy effort or success at difficult (for this student) tasks
9. Attributes success to effort and ability, implying that similar successes can be expected in the future
10. Fosters endogenous attributes (students believe that they expend effort on the task because they enjoy the task and/or want to develop task-relevant skills)
11. Focuses students' attention on their own task relevant behavior
12. Fosters appreciation of and desirable attributions about task relevant behavior after the process is completed
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Connecting Classroom Structures
by Jennifer Partrick
How do teachers connect whole group instruction to flexible groups and independent centers so that there is cohesion between different classroom structures? One way to do this is to focus on the comprehension strategy taught during whole group instruction. Bare in mind that flexible groups and independent centers should be linked to students' instructional level when possible.
Imagine that during whole group instruction students are working on comparing and contrasting using fictional text. Also imagine that students will be learning about themselves, their culture and other cultures as stated in their social studies standards. With that in mind let us look at creating lessons for each flexible group and each center.
While the teacher works with small groups of students to teach reading, the students are placed in heterogeneous centers to complete different assignments. The assignments are placed in folders ranging from easy to difficult. Students work their way through each folder. Since the whole group lesson was comparing and contrasting students will apply what they have learned when working at centers.
In the folder for the lower performing students the assignment is to compare themselves to their best friend. They plot the information on a Venn Diagram which will be used later in the week as a pre-writing tool. Books and tapes are available for students to read about things children like doing.
The next assignment would be for students to compare their family to another family. This assignment asks students to manipulate more information simultaneously. Students will place information on a Venn Diagram to be used later in the week. Books and magazines will be available for students to read that relates to family structures.
The most difficult assignment asks students to read about different cultures and compare them to their culture. This is more intense as students must now think about the entire culture of others and compare and contrast that to their culture. Information is placed on a Venn Diagram which will be used later in the week as a pre-writing tool.
With each activity students are applying their understanding of comparing and contrasting but at different levels. Giving students the opportunity to choose an activity facilities learning.
When students work with the teacher they read text that is appropriate for their instructional level. The teacher focuses on comparing and contrasting information that is located in the text.. During this time, the teacher works with students on specific word study skills that students need in order to move to the next reading level. During this time students are completing a graphic organizer and writing about what they are reading.
Connecting assignments for different classroom structures gives students the support they need as they learn new material. Providing choice creates excitement and motivations in students. Teachers use the student output to determine how well they have internalized the new skill or material and to note where break down in understanding occurs. Having this information helps the teacher decide what skills need to be revisited and the students who need more support.
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Past Connections Articles
Past Connections articles are available through the archive tool of this newsletter. Please click here to view these resources.
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