Learning Challenges Archives

Personalizing a Lesson: Check In Before They Check Out

May 4, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

By Johanna Rauhala
Original Source: Edutopia
Originally posted April 30, 2015

The lesson has gone smoothly. It’s time for independent work, and students sit with pens poised, ready to write. Most students, that is. One student, let’s call him David, picks up his pen, then puts it down, folds his hands over his chest, and slumps. Another student, Lisa, furrows her brow and stares long and hard at the paper, looks up, then back at the paper. She does this several times. Alex, though, grabs her pencil, starts writing, and doesn’t look up for about ten minutes.

Three high school students. One assignment. Fifteen minutes left in class. What to do?

It’s time for the individual check-in. It’s that time when the teacher can circulate, observe, and individually work with students. It seems like a self-evident, natural thing to do, but like much in the classroom, check-ins can have a rich, deep impact, and can help support student engagement both short- and long-term. They can also be used as a tool for assessment and relationship building, and should always start with the belief that each child is doing the best he or she can. As the task of the lesson shifts into independent practice, our work transitions into the role of coach — we guide, redirect, and question, and undergird those stances with a deep belief in student capacity. In my work as both a teacher and peer coach, I’ve seen that effective check-ins have several important functions.

1. Refocusing Students

A student like David is having trouble approaching and sustaining the task. You might open with a friendly question to assess his mood or comprehension. “How’s it going, David?” might be a way to ease into the conversation. After listening carefully and responding accordingly, tell him that you will return to him in a few minutes to see his work. Then do so, and affirm his progress (even if it’s just writing his name or the assignment title). Affirming student progress is important because:

It builds task persistence.
It checks for understanding.
It validates student effort.

You might also need to redirect the student’s behavior or help him take out needed materials. Doing this quietly communicates your belief in the expectation that a student like David is capable of the work — as well as communicating your helpful alliance.

2. Clarifying Instructions

Lisa is perplexed. She’s thinking, but she’s not writing. As you approach her desk, her brow is furrowed and she’s staring at the paper. She’s willing to try, but she needs some guidance. Lisa needs a gentle opening question or comment to check for understanding. One way to start might be: “I see you’re looking at problem #3. Any questions about it?” After hearing her response, home in on an area of confusion and guide her to the next correct step. Once you’ve checked for understanding by having her repeat or clarify directions, move on to assist others in the class. Observe Lisa, and note her progress. Circulate back to check in after a few minutes.

3. Affirm Progress

Alex is confident and usually speeds through her work, often finishing early. She’s also the kind of student that, due to her independence, may learn to slide under the radar and resist taking risks. She gets it but goes no further. With Alex, you can build rapport by validating her strengths and then asking higher-level questions to extend her thinking. “What if” and compare/contrast questions would be good places to start. One other thing: before asking a student like Alex to publicly share her work, get her permission. She may be an introvert, and that too needs to be honored.

4. Assess and Reteach

As you complete the circuit of student conversations, you will probably find commonalities in questions and performance. Talk about those with the kids. Open up the classroom for discussion about challenges and ask successful students to voluntarily share their solutions. In that closing dialogue is a thread that, articulated, tightens the circle around learning and trust. Your whole-class feedback, based on one-to-one check-ins, can help struggling students feel less alone, and high achievers feel accomplished. And you can use this information to plan forward.

While the purposes of these check-ins are primarily academic, the underlying tone of the teacher has a profound and lasting impact on the classroom community. Student by individual student, we have the opportunity to build not just attention, which implies duty, but connection. Connection is what “How’s it going?” sounds like. It’s the genuinely stated invitation of “Talk to me about this part.” When we observe, talk with, and listen to our students, we can strengthen the bonds that bridge us to each other and to the poems, problems, and laughter that school life brings.

The Key Component to Success: Quality of Instruction

April 30, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

After reading domain three in Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework For Teaching by Charlotte Danielson, it is evident to note that the quality of instruction is of one the main components to student success. There are a number of factors that influence the quality of a lesson: a teacher’s questioning techniques, their way of communicating with the students, their way of engaging the student in his or her learning, their way of assessing the student during instruction, and their flexibility when a change in instruction is needed. Not only does the content of what you teach matter, but also how you teach it. After reading this chapter, I’ve realized that one of the most important factors of teaching is to engage the students.

Keeping a student engaged is, in my opinion, one of the most rewarding feelings for both the teacher and the student. When a student is deeply engaged, he or she is eliciting conservation, asking questions, maintaining discussions, and can even teach other students about the subject at hand. When students are engaged they are, “mentally involved in understanding important content; they are actively participating and are making genuine contributions to the effort” (Danielson, 2007). There is no question that instruction with active engagement is the best way to learn.

One way to actively engage a student is by eliciting discussions that consists of powerful questions. This way of teaching makes a significant contribution to student learning and is valuable for many instructional purposes. According to Charlotte Danielson, these instructional purposes include “exploring new concepts, eliciting evidence of student understanding, and promoting deeper student engagement” (Danielson, 2007). Teachers need to acquire skills in questioning that do not include low-leveled or boring questions. Teachers also need to ask higher order thinking questions; this way, students are encouraged to think critically. When this type of questioning takes place, students are more likely to make connections among previously believed, unrelated concepts or events, which will lead them to new understandings of complex materials. Teachers need to skillfully question to engage their students in critical thinking.

One idea that I greatly agree with is that “engaging activities” for students are not always hands-on. When using manipulates, students can be distracted with the materials instead of using them to solve problems. According to Danielson, mental engagement or “minds-on” activities are most beneficial for the students. Therefore, active mental engagement of all individuals, not just physical engagement, will challenge students to think broadly and deeply about certain subject areas.

Overall, instruction is the driving force for teaching. Without great instruction, students would not strive to be the best they could be. It is up to the teacher to motivate and encourage students to think critically about every new idea they encounter.

By Evelisse Mercado, Learning Specialist

Reading Specialists

April 15, 2015 Leave a Comment

Do you have a child who is struggling with reading comprehension, decoding or fluency? Or perhaps your child is ready to accelerate reading or writing instruction? If so, you may be seeking a Reading Specialist, Learning Specialist, or skillful educator.

Remediation or Acceleration

At My Learning Springboard, we value the science of reading and an approach that considers the 5 pillars of a strong reading program to support your child’s reading and writing development. We especially believe that building strong foundational skills in preschool and the primary grades is a strategic investment that bolsters a child’s success as a lifelong learner. Because each student’s needs are different, our reading specialists and learning specialists are well versed in a variety of approaches, interventions, and programs so that we can tailor instruction to each student’s needs using evidence-based practice that maximizes engagement.

Our reading specialists and learning specialists include both elementary and secondary educators, special educators, and dyslexia interventionists with expertise in Orton-Gillingham based programs, including PAF (developed at Windward School), Wilson, and Boost. Other programs we regularly use include Judith Hochman’s Writing Revolution and Sounds in Motion.

Our reading specialists and faculty also provide enrichment teaching and accelerated instruction for students ready to take on more difficult reading and writing tasks. We begin instructional planning by gathering as much information as possible, which often includes conducting individualized assessments in order to determine a student’s decoding needs, developmental spelling stage, independent and instructional reading levels, and writing needs at the sentence and paragraph (or multi-paragraph) levels. This benchmarking helps our reading specialists or learning specialists to more effectively customize targeted reading and writing instruction in any or all of the following areas:

In our work to help students become confident readers and writers, our reading specialists, leadership team, and faculty also help parents to support their children’s reading and writing development at home.

Popular Programs and Approaches

A variety of reading and writing programs are used depending on the needs of a particular student. Similarly, students are matched to specific Reading Specialists based on the student’s needs and the Reading Specialist’s professional expertise. We value customizing the approach for each learner, thus our practices are informed by research, programs, materials and diagnostic tools that include but are not limited to:

Orton-Gillingham
The Science of Reading
Phyllis Bertin and Eileen Perlman, Preventing Academic Failure (PAF)
Dr. Judith C. Hochman, Teaching Basic Writing Skills
Frances Santore, Sounds in Motion
Patricia Cunningham, Making Words
Dr. Donald Bear, Literacy Development and Words Their Way
Dr. Jan Richardson, Guided Reading
Stephanie Harvey, Strategies That Work
Fountas & Pinnell, Guided Reading and Writing
Advancing Literacy, Teachers College, Columbia University

Writing Instruction Framework

Our writing instruction is also informed by the 6+1 Trait ® Writing Framework developed by Education Northwest.
These writing traits include:

Ideas
Organization
Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency
Conventions
Presentation (+1)

Please contact our office to discuss your family’s specific needs.

What Parents Need to Know: The Common Core

April 15, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

By Anne O’Brien
Original Source: Edutopia
Originally posted February 27, 2014

Educators know the important role that parents (and other family members and guardians) play in academic success. And when it comes to advocating for education policies that benefit all students, they know that parents are important allies. Here’s what parents need to know: the Common Core as a road to success and education.

So when it comes to one of the biggest education initiatives of our time, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Math and Literacy, it is concerning that educators are not doing more to build awareness of, and support for, the standards among parents and families. An August 2013 PDK/Gallup poll found that just 45 percent of public school parents had heard of the Common Core. And while awareness of the standards has likely risen in recent months as issues with their implementation have surfaced, the circumstances surrounding that increased awareness (for example, the drop in test scores in Common Core aligned assessments in New York last fall) could actually decrease support among parents.

To counteract the negative circumstances of implementation in many places, Common Core advocates need to work deliberately to gain the support of parents in the face of political backlash against the standards.

Raising Awareness

So what do you need to do to build parental awareness and support around the Common Core? In a recent interview, National PTA President Otha Thornton points out that:

It is important to identify the real cause of concern for the Common Core. Many parents are finding that their concerns are not actually related to the standards, but rather issues surrounding implementation (teacher training, aligning curriculum) and assessments (testing schedule, accountability, privacy).

Especially in areas that are experiencing pushback against the Common Core, this is an excellent starting point. Particularly when parents are getting much of their information from the popular press, which often lacks the nuanced analysis that is needed for its audience to sort through conflicting opinions and facts, knowing the issues in your community allows you to target messaging appropriately.

In general, Thornton says that the most important things that parents should know about the CCSS are that:

They are internationally benchmarked and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that students need to compete globally
With the transition to the Common Core comes a transition to new assessments that better measure if students are on track for college and career readiness — and while test scores may temporarily drop, educators expect the short-term decline to improve as teachers and students are better equipped to meet the new standards
More than 70 percent of teachers are enthusiastic about the implementation of the standards in their classrooms, believing they will hold students and teachers to higher expectations, improve students’ ability to think critically and use reasoning skills and provide nationwide consistency in a positive way

He also points out that it is important that parents know that the Common Core only sets expectations for what students must know to leave school prepared for college and careers — it is not an academic curriculum, and states, districts and teachers remain in control of curriculum and assessment decisions.

When it comes to student privacy, an enormous concern of parents and families, Thornton reminds us that the Common Core is not a mechanism for federal data collection — the federal government does not have access to the student-level data held in state databases, and federal law prohibits the reporting of aggregate data that could identify individual students.

Building Capacity

For implementation of the Common Core to be truly successful, parents and families must not only know about the CCSS, they must have the capacity to help students learn in accordance with the standards. The Common Core requires a number of shifts in the teaching and learning of English/language arts (for example, an increased emphasis on non-fiction reading and discussion of reading using evidence) and mathematics (for example, a focus on going deeper into fewer topics and applying learning to real-world situations). So to best support their child’s learning, parents need to be aware of what is being asked of their students and learn strategies to work with them at home.

There are a number of resources available to help increase general awareness and build capacity to support learning under the Common Core among parents, including:

Parents’ Guide to Student Success detailed grade-by-grade information from the National PTA to help parents understand the importance of academic standards; what students should be able to know and do at the end of each grade K-8 (plus separate overviews for high school math and high school English based on the CCSS; and how they can support their child’s learning at home
Common Core State Standards Assessment and Accountability Guides, another National PTA resource, developed for every state that has adopted the Common Core State Standards and including state-specific information about their assessment consortium, the testing timeline, sample test questions, impacts on students, new accountability systems and ways for parents to get involved and support their child’s learning at home
Spotlight on the Common Core State Standards: What Do Parents Need to Know?, part of Northwest Education’s series of documents to keep stakeholders informed about the Common Core, featuring basic information about the standards as well as samples of how students might learn under them
Sample Parent Letters on selected mathematics topics for grades K-8, prepared by the AFT, to help parents better understand some of the new language in the CCSS and identify strategies they may see their children use on their journey to achieving under the Common Core

Additional articles and resources can be found in the National School Public Relations Association’s Common Core Communications Network, which includes a section on How Parents Can Help Their Kids (some resources are available only to NSPRA members, but many are available to the general public).

Again, the success of the Common Core depends in large part on parent and family understanding and support of it. Educators must address their concerns and provide the opportunity to help them help their children succeed, which is, after all, the ultimate goal of the standards.

Teaching Confidence to Kids

April 14, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Where does confidence come from?

Some people would say it’s a quality some people have inherently, while others think it can be learned. Despite controversy of its origin, most agree that confidence is a positive quality that helps young people and adults attack daily tasks with less anxiety, inspire others, and feel more comfortable in one’s own skin.

There’s no solid answer to where confidence comes from (the same lack of a definitive answer applies to most questions involving human beings), but I can share some observations about false confidence and true confidence.

Most of my students have been told their entire lives how smart they are and how they can accomplish anything because of their pure potential. A great aspect of this type of confidence is that young people attack tests and homework assignments without being intimidated because they are comfortable in their abilities. They’re smart people, their parents and teachers told them so.

However, when these students reach middle school and high school their confidence can falter. This is when classes get more difficult.

This is when young people need to cultivate a new form of confidence through experience and hard work.

It’s the old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A chicken had to lay the egg, right? But, the first chicken hatched from an egg too.
Which came first?

In America we believe that confidence comes first and performance logically follows. If a student believes they can succeed, they will. And, they do…for a while.

In other countries, students are treated differently. They are informed in their early years of school how difficult their lives will be if they don’t get into the best schools. The proof is in the performance, and you can’t be perceived as a great student unless you can get good grades and test scores.

For us, confidence comes first, for them confidence comes after years of hard work.
Both systems have consequences.

I’ve seen so many kids attack the SAT again and again who are astounded to see that they keep earning the same scores. They’ve been told they are smart their entire lives and lower scores confront their beliefs and erode their confidence. Many of my students (and myself at that age) thought that if they went at it with the most enthusiasm and positive thoughts, the test scores would soar. They didn’t.

The other side of this spectrum is a collection of sad stories of children and young adults in other countries that fail to get into the best schools and punish themselves because they believe they are not a person of value.

I don’t think either model is ideal and for my students and your children.

There is a third alternative to build the most confidence and achieve the most success possible.

Early on kids need to be encouraged. They should be told that they are intelligent and capable so they can experience their schooling with enthusiasm and joy. Learning is fun for them because they are smart and good at it—they’ve been told this repeatedly and…it must be true.

Later in life, confidence needs to evolve from something that comes from the outside to something that’s born from deep within. Instead of being told by others they will succeed, students need to know that they will succeed because of their hard work.

With my younger students, I heap on as much praise as they can stand and keep pointing out all of the things they do correctly. Enthusiasm for learning is key at all levels of school and it needs to be a part of their lives early on.

Later, especially with High School students, I talk about earning confidence

When I do test prep for the SAT/ACT, I recommend students take practice tests and that they do sections for homework. After a few months of study, I point out how they can feel confident and prepared because of how much they’ve studied the test and how well they have done every time.

While it’s still a good idea to praise your kids on their abilities, it is especially important to cultivate in later years examples of how they can feel confident in themselves due to the amount they studied and their amount of practice.

Boys in particular like sports analogies—for example:

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team and forced to play on the junior varsity team at Laney High for his freshman year. Instead of being angry, he decided to improve himself. In addition to regular practice, he threw 100 free-throws and 100 3-point shots every day. He put in the time and got the results. He earned his confidence (and developed skills) and became the best basketball player in the world.

I find it kind of funny that most kids have no problem accepting that in order to be the best at a sport one needs extra practice; however, they have a very hard time accepting the idea that they need to study.

Any student can get any score on any test if they put in the practice over time. I’ve tutored some “Michael Jordans” of the SAT world and they feel confident because they know they demanded more of themselves than anyone else would expect.

They feel good and they are confident because they did the work and they believed. They earned it, and they got the rewards.

Encourage your kids to feel good about themselves early on, but later push them to earn their confidence through hard work. Theirs will be a solid sense of self-worth built up inside over the years.

Practice makes it all happen. Go out there and earn that confidence.

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.