Leveling the Playing Field

Transcription

Leveling the Playing Field: Achieving Fairness in Education Through Thoughtful Differentiated Instruction Silver Strong & Associates | 227 First Street | HoHoKus, NJ 07423 | www.ThoughtfulClassroom.com Table of Contents The Geometry of Fairness, a Study in Equity ................................................................................................ 1 Reading for Meaning ..................................................................................................................................... 3 How to Play the Game .................................................................................................................................. 7 Pillar I: Hidden Skills of Academic Literacy ................................................................................................... 9 The Importance of Notemaking ............................................................................................................. 10 Looking at State Test .............................................................................................................................. 11 Pillar II: Research‐Based Strategies ............................................................................................................. 18 Compare and Contrast ........................................................................................................................... 19 Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois ............................................................................................ 22 Phase 1: Description............................................................................................................................... 24 Phase 2: Comparison .............................................................................................................................. 26 Phase 3: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 27 Phase 4: Application ............................................................................................................................... 28 Pillar III: Diversity That Works ..................................................................................................................... 30 A Quick Review of the Principles of Style ............................................................................................... 35 Learning Styles and School Success ....................................................................................................... 36 Pillar IV: Classroom Curriculum Design ....................................................................................................... 37 Task Rotation: A Diversity That Works ................................................................................................... 37 Four Task Rotations ................................................................................................................................ 39 Designing Task Rotations ....................................................................................................................... 50 Pillar V: Professional Learning Communities .............................................................................................. 52 How does the Learning Walk build the capacitates of CRAFT? ............................................................. 54 The Geometry of Fairness, a Study in Equity Ron Suskind won the Pulitzer Prize for his book about Cedric Jennings, a bright and determined honor student at Ballou High School in one of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods. The book, called A Hope in the Unseen, tells of Cedric’s odyssey from the inner city to Brown University. “It is an absolutely gripping book,” says Walter Kirn, of National Public Radio. Here are some of Cedric’s thoughts on fairness: “The first step is to agree that most people share the goal of true diversity, with many races competing freely and successfully. But everyone wanting the same thing doesn’t tell us ‘how’—
how do we get there? How do we lift often poorly educated minorities to an equal footing in the classroom?” From Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League Thoughtful Questions • What does it mean to be treated fairly? • Do we all start the race at the same time? With the same resources? What role, if any, do our individual differences play in being treated fairly? • How does the playing field in education influence the rules of the game as well as who wins and who loses? • How can we make the game of education equitable? “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place
for all of us to live in.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 1 What words come to mind when you think of the words of fair and unfair? Fairness Unfair Is fairness treating everyone the same? Is it treating everyone differently? What does fairness in education mean? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 2 Reading for Meaning Purpose Reading for Meaning is a teaching and learning strategy that helps students become proficient at reading claims, finding main ideas, and using reasoning and details to support their ideas. With a Reading for Meaning lesson, students are presented with a series of statements about a text that they are about to read. After carefully reviewing the statements, students read the text and collect evidence both for and against the statements. As students discuss their discoveries in small groups, they improve their abilities to make inferences, identify important information, and develop convincing and well‐organized explanations of what they have learned. Steps 1. Students read the Reading for Meaning statements carefully before they read the text. 2. Students then establish a tentative hypothesis (decide if they agree or disagree) for each statement. 3. As students read the text, they collect evidence that supports and/or refutes each statement. 4. Students then decide if the evidence is sufficient to support or refute each statement. 5. As students discuss the statements and the text, they follow these guidelines: • Listen carefully to other group members. • Try to come to a consensus. • If your group cannot agree, revise the statement so that all can agree. 6. Students share their ideas and evidence within groups known as Reader’s Clubs. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 3 Directions: Examine the following statements before you read the text and then put an A if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. Next, read the text and find evidence to support or refute the statements by determining if the author would agree or disagree with each one. Finally, discuss your evidence with a group of other readers to see if they concur with your analysis. Try to arrive at a consensus. If you have to change the wording of the statement to agree, feel free to do so, but be ready to explain why you made the change. Before Reading After Reading Mathematical truths cannot be disputed.
Support Refute Life is a stage, and we all play a part, but few people are aware of the play they are in or the part they are playing. Support Refute The shape of the playing field has a dramatic impact on how the game is played. Support Refute Science and mathematics are not of much use when it comes to solving social problems. Support Refute Handicapping in golf, and in life, makes for an even playing field. Support Refute Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 4 The Geometry of Fairness K.C. Cole. From Mind Over Matter: Conversations With the Cosmos The last place you’d think to find insights from Einstein is the debate over affirmative action. And yet, there’s a sense in which the whole thing is a fairly simple problem in geometry. The underlying question here is: What’s the shape of the playing field? If the playing field is tilted in favor of women and minorities, then obviously affirmative action is unneeded and unfair to white guys; if the playing field is tilted against women and minorities, then affirmative action just as obviously is needed. Alas, few people stop to think about the shape of the stage on which we play out our lives, mainly because it’s normally invisible. But ever since Einstein refashioned the way we think about space and time, it’s become a real factor in every physical equation. great deal more than lines and angles; it can also determine how physical forces act. According to Einstein’s relativity, for example, gravity is really the result of the curvature of four‐
dimensional space‐time (a joining of space and time that creates a backdrop for our universe). So it’s the geometry of the unseen background that determines what rises and what falls on its face. How can you measure the shape of something you can’t even see? Surprisingly, perhaps, it is doable. Take the curvature of space‐time. Even though you can’t see it directly, you can measure its warp by observing the way it bends light from distant galaxies. You can even determine the shape of the universe at large by measuring the way its contours affect light reaching us from the farthest shores imaginable—the afterglow of the Big Bang. If the To get a sense of how the geometry of the playing light makes a triangle whose three angles add up field can change things, consider the to more than 180 degrees, you know you’re on a following riddle. You are at some unknown surface that curves in on itself—like the surface location on Earth. You walk one mile south, make of the Earth. And if it makes a triangle whose a ninety‐degree turn, and walk one mile east, angles add up to less than 180 degrees, you know then walk one‐mile north. You are back at your you’re on a surface that curves outward—like a starting point. saddle. What color are the bears? Scientists use these tools to get a grip on such The answer is white, because you’re at the North unwieldy matters as the ultimate fate of the Pole.* universe. If the universe curls in on itself, then it Of course, anyone who took geometry knows you can’t make three right‐angle turns on a flat surface and get back to your starting point. But if the surface is curved—like the surface of the Earth—you can do all sorts of things your geometry teacher never taught you. For example, most people learned in geometry that two parallel lines never meet. Again, this is true enough for space that’s flat and two‐
dimensional like a piece of paper. But two lines of longitude that are parallel at the equator meet at the poles. The shape of the background, in other words, makes a huge difference in how things work, whether we’re aware of it or not. And it affects a will eventually collapse into a single point; if the universe curves outward like a saddle, then it could keep expanding indefinitely. To be sure, debating affirmative action requires measuring devices different from rulers and protractors. Still, if we can measure the shape of the universe at large, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to come up with a set of tools for figuring out the shape of the economic and social playing field here on Earth. One way to start is to look at the patterns of who tends to rise—and who consistently falls. If it’s always the same players, one begins to suspect that the shape of the playing field needs fixing. *This is not literally true, of course; there are no bears at the North Pole. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 5 Some Questions to Reflect Upon What is the shape of your school’s playing field? Is it tilted so that some students to succeed and others to struggle? Two students who come to your school eager to learn. Why might one experience success and another failure? What do you think your school needs to do to even the playing field? What are the hidden dimensions that must be addressed? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 6 How to Play the Game In his new book, Results Now, Mike Schmoker asks us to imagine a new future. He writes, Imagine a time...when people speak matter‐of‐factly about how dropout rates and the achievement gap are inexorably shrinking, when record numbers of students are entering college, and when professors are noticing how much more intellectually fit each year’s freshmen have become. Imagine palpable, irrepressible hope emerging in our poor and urban schools. All of these improvements result from a new candor that has emerged in education and a willingness to see that historic improvement isn’t about ‘reform’ but something much simpler: a tough, honest self‐explanation of the prevailing culture and practices of public schools, and a dramatic turn toward a singular and straightforward focus on instruction.” (Schmoker, 2006, p. 2)
If we are to fulfill the “Hope in the Unseen,” we must focus our attention on those actions and arrangements that ensure effective, ever‐improving instruction. The evidence is indisputable. Mortimer and Sammons (1987) found that teachers had six to ten times as much impact on achievement as all other factors combined. Research from Marzano (2002) demonstrated that two teachers working with the same socioeconomic population can achieve starkly different results on the same test. In one class, 27% of the students will pass. In another, 72% will pass. In another study conducted by William Sandler, it was found that three years of effective instruction produced average improvement gains of 35 to 50 percentile points. Eric Hanushek found that five years of instruction from an above‐average teacher could eliminate the achievement gap (Haycock, 2005). Research shows that the best teachers in a school have six times as much impact as the bottom third of teachers (Haycock & Huang, 2001). Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 7 We know that what teachers do makes a difference. Improvement is not a mystery; it is a matter of attention. To address the challenge of a fair and equitable playing field, the Thoughtful Classroom focuses its attention on five questions: 1. What skills do student need to develop in order to achieve at high levels? 2. What instructional strategies enable the greatest gains in student performance? 3. How can we address the diversity of our students in a way that is manageable and provides an equal opportunity for all students to achieve? 4. How can we design units of instruction that motivate learners with different learning styles yet still address the skills and core content knowledge students need to succeed? 5. How do schools become professional learning communities that support teachers through the improvement process? The answers to these questions come in the form of five best practices, or the five pillars of The Thoughtful Classroom. Pillar I: Hidden Skills of Academic Literacy A concise list of the skills that separate high achievers from low and average achievers Pillar II: Research‐Based Strategies A set of research‐based instructional strategies and classroom tools proven to make a difference in student learning Pillar III: Diversity That Works A manageable system for differentiating instruction and assessment using learning styles and multiple intelligences Pillar IV: Classroom Curriculum Design A simple and deep unit design model that helps teachers maximize learning and motivate all students to do their best work Pillar V: Professional Learning Communities Collaborative and coaching structures that make professional learning communities a reality Let’s take each pillar, one at a time. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 8 Pillar I: Hidden Skills of Academic Literacy What skills do student need to develop in order to achieve at high levels?
To change the playing field, we must develop students’ intellectual capacities to learn how to learn. In our workshops, we often ask the participants to spell the word “responsible.” We like to spell it differently. We spell it “response – able.” We spell it this way because we believe you cannot hold people responsible for their learning if they do not have the knowledge and skills needed to be able to respond. Therefore, if we are to level the playing field, we must make a deep commitment to developing the skills students need to learn to be successful learners. Here is an excerpt from A Hope Unseen describing a conversation between Cedric and his psychology professor: Psychology, he knows, will be a battle, but at least he’s made a passing grade a possibility.
After scoring a 70 on his second midterm in early April, he went to Professor Wooten’s
office to plead for mercy. The professor, a distant character in the lecture, was warm and
engaging up close. He invited Cedric in and gave him some valuable strategic tips, the sort
of thing many other kids know walking in the door.
“Don’t be a lecture-hall stenographer,” he started. Instead, listen and take notes in outline
form. The notes should be a guide to reading the thick textbook, highlighting only the
sections with ideas mentioned in class. Once that’s all done, carefully read each paragraph
in those sections, listing the five key words in each paragraph on a separate study sheet.
Use that last sheet for final cramming. Cedric nodded, grateful, and waited for something
more. Wooten, like a lot of teachers of large, predominantly freshman, survey courses, is
witness to heightened dropout rates for African-American students.
Cedric knows such issues of racial attrition are subjects of debate on campus, and he looks
intently at the professor, letting the silence hang, hoping for a break. Pass the final,
Wooten finally says, and, based on “demonstrated progress,” he’ll pass Cedric in the course.
Running all that over in his head as he listens to the rain, Cedric thinks about how many
paragraphs of his psych text he’ll have to annotate and block out for cramming in the
middle of next week. He marks it on his desktop calendar mat. He simply must pass.
(Suskind, 1998, p. 336)
“Even though Cedric was a straight “A” student at Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., he lacked the skills needed to succeed in a more rigorous academic environment. People are often surprised to find out that more than half the students who go on to college or other institutes of advanced academic learning do not graduate. This number is twice that for black and Hispanic students (insert citation). Clearly, as Cedric’s story makes clear, one skill that students need to succeed in any advanced academic learning environment is the ability to collect and organize information from a text. We call this skill notemaking. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 9 The Importance of Notemaking The research is clear: students who know how to make effective use of notes perform better than those who don’t. Pulling from a variety of studies on the effects of Notemaking on student achievement, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) found that note‐savvy students saw an average percentile gain in academic achievement of over 30 points. Research Results for Notemaking Strategies Synthesis Study No. of Effect Sizes (ESs) Ave. ES Percentile Gain Pflaum, Walberg, Karegianes, & Rasher, 1980a 2 2 .62 .73 23 27 Crismore, 1985 100 1.04 35 Rosenshine & Meister, 1994 10 .88 31 Hattie, Biggs, & Purdie, 1996 15 .88 31 Rosenshine, Meister, & Chapman, 1996 16 .87 31 Raphael & Kirschner, 1985 3 1.80 47 a‐Two categories of effect sizes are listed for the Pflaum et. al. study because of the manner in which the effect sizes were reported. Readers should consult that study for more details. Why do you think notes are so important to academic success? What other skills do students need to develop to become response‐able learners? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 10 Looking at State Test It’s not just the research community that has been emphasizing thinking and learning skills. State tests, with their new and more rigorous items assess a host of academic skills. Below, you will see two science questions taken from a state assessment test. The question printed on the left is a more “traditional” type of test question. The item on the right is representative of the “newer” questions that are appearing more and more frequently on today’s state assessment exams. Take a minute to think about how the questions differ. What skills would students need to respond to the “newer” question successfully? The lesson on the next two pages shows how a teacher used the Reading for Meaning Strategy to help students respond to the newer test item above. How does the teacher’s use of the strategy help the student practice and develop the skills you identified above? What evidence of these skills can you find in the student’s work? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 11 While traditional test questions were designed to test students’ mastery of the content, newer test questions require students to know more than just the content. In order to succeed on today’s state assessment tests, students need to possess a wide variety of skills. This simple fact raises a question: What skills do students really need in order to succeed on today’s state assessment tests?
Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 12 This was a question that we were very interested in answering—and one that we spent a lot of time investigating. We gathered test questions from every state and from all content areas, analyzed the questions to determine what skills were needed to answer them correctly, and compiled a list of the “most‐needed” skills. The skills that we identified—skills that students need to succeed regardless of grade level or content area – because known as the “Hidden Skills of Academic Literacy.” We called them Hidden Skills because we discovered that these skills were rarely taught in classrooms, rarely assessed or benchmarked at the various grade levels, and rarely addressed in state curriculum documents. Here are the twelve Hidden Skills we identified through our research: Reading and Study Skills Collect and organize ideas through note making Make sense of abstract academic vocabulary Read and interpret visual displays of information Thinking Skills Make and test inferences/hypotheses/conjectures and draw conclusions Conduct comparisons using specific criteria Analyze the demands of a variety of higher‐order thinking questions Communication Skills Write clear, well‐formed, coherent explanations in all content areas Write comfortably in the following nonfiction genres: problem/solution, decision‐
making, argument, comparative Read and write about one or more documents Reflective Skills Construct plans to address questions and tasks Use criteria and guidelines to evaluate work in progress Control or alter mood and impulsivity Which of these skills do you pay most attention to in your classroom? Which do you think need more attention? Put a check mark in the box next to each skill that you currently teach and assess in your classroom. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 13 Do the Hidden Skills really make a difference?
Absolutely! In fact, one of the primary factors that distinguishes ‘high achievers’ from ‘average achievers’ is the degree to which the twelve Hidden Skills have been mastered and developed. How can you help students build these Hidden Skills? Each of the twenty teaching strategies that appears in The Strategic Teacher has the capacity to help students develop at least two – and sometimes as many as six! – of the Hidden Skills. As a result, you can help your students acquire the skills that they need to succeed on state assessment tests (and in the classroom in general!) simply by incorporating a variety of teaching strategies into your lesson plans. Let’s take a few minutes to experience a Hidden Skill first hand. Examine the picture on the next page. The title of the picture is Guernica. It was painted by Picasso in 1937. Take a few minutes to examine it carefully. Then make some notes. List any facts, feelings, ideas, or questions that come to mind while you gave the picture your attention. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 14 My Notes: Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 15 Share your notes with a neighbor, are they more alike or different? What are some of the differences between your notes and your neighbor’s? Now try to categorize your notes using our Window Notes organizer. Facts Feelings Questions Ideas/Connections/Associations Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 16 Which type of notes were predominate? Which notes were most important to you? Discuss these questions with your neighbor. What do you think this little experiment tells us about what your mind tends to pay attention to? Did you know that high achievers make significantly more notes than average
achievers make on state assessment tests? What’s more, while high achievers
tend to make all four kinds of notes average achievers’ put their notes
predominantly in one box.
Which box do you think that is?______________________________ What if we taught students to make all four kinds of notes when they read? What do you think would be the impact on their reading? We call this notemaking strategy Window Notes. The strategy has four steps Focus on the new learning at hand and your own mind. Organize your paper into the shape of a window. Use notes to record facts, feelings, questions, and ideas/associations Review your notes and find the relevant information by asking yourself, “What is most important?” Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 17 Pillar II: Research‐Based Strategies What instructional strategies enable the greatest gains in student performance?
For many years, educational researchers have been interested in finding out whether teaching strategies were actually having a positive impact on student achievement—and if so, which ones. One of the most extensive and influential of these studies was initiated by the renowned educational researcher Robert Marzano, who used meta‐analysis to identify the types of instructional strategies that have the highest probabilities of enhancing achievement for students of all ages, across all content‐areas. Marzano and his team presented their findings in the aptly titled and best‐selling book Classroom Instruction That Works: Research‐Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, Classroom Instruction That Works, 2001). In Classroom Instruction That Works, Marzano describes the nine categories of instructional strategies that affected the greatest gains in student achievement (across all grade levels, in all subjects). These nine categories, which we refer to as “The Marzano Nine,” are listed below. Which three categories of instructional practices/strategies do you think would have the greatest impact on student achievement? Mark your choices with a “X”. CATEGORIES OF INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES & STRATEGIES*

Ranking % Gain Generating & Testing Hypotheses
Summarizing & Note‐taking Identifying Similarities & Differences Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers Reinforcing Effort & Providing Recognition Cooperative Learning Nonlinguistic Representation Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback Homework & Practice *We acknowledge the use of nine strategies from Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock’s Classroom Instruction That Works.
Copyright © 2001 Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). Adapted by permission of McREL. 4601
DTC Boulevard, Suite 500, Denver, Colorado 80237. Phone: 303.337.0990. Web: www.mcrel.org/topics/products/19/ Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 18 Compare and Contrast Teaching students how to identify similarities and differences was the practice that produced the greatest gains in achievement. The best strategy for building this critical skill is Compare and Contrast, a four‐phase approach to teaching comparative analysis. Phase One: Describe Help your students describe each item carefully before conduct a comparison. • Provide sources of information about the items. • Develop criteria to help focus the description. • Model how you observe and describe. Phase Two: Compare Tell your students what you expect: e.g. “Try to find four similarities and differences.” Provide visual organizers to help students organize their comparisons. Phase Three: Conclude Use questions to stretch your students’ minds and extend what they learn through comparison. For example, Which difference is most important? What caused the similarities? Are the two items more alike or more different? Phase Four: Apply Ask students to create a product that integrates what they have learned from the comparison. The next two pages come from Compare and Contrast: How Comparative thinking Strengthens Student Learning, one of the titles in the Professional Learning Portfolio Series published by Thoughtful Education Press. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 19 2/20/09
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TH E
PHASES OF
A SUCCESSFU L
COM PARISON
Guide your students through the
following phases. Regular practice
will lead them to independent use
of the Compare & Contrast strategy.
C
A
ompare
Use a visual organizer to
record the similarities and
differences you discover.
onclude
Discuss what you have
learned from your
comparison.
pply
Show how you can use
what you have learned.
© 2009 Thoughtful Education Press, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without the written permission of Thoughtful Education Press, LLC.
How Comparative Thinking Strengthens Student Learning
D
C
escribe
Describe each item
separately using criteria
to keep yourself focused.
Compare & Contrast |
4
How Comparative Thinking
Strengthens Student Learning
R ES E A R C H - BAS E D ST R AT EG I ES
Compare & Contrast
LEARNING FROM STUDENT WORK
TH E THOUGHTFU L CLASSROOM™
W H AT I S C O M PA R E & C O N T R A S T ?
P RO F ESS I O NAL LEAR N I N G P O RTF O LI O
Examining student work can provide us with unique insights into what our
students know and understand, how they think, and how they approach the
task of creating high-quality products based on thoughtful comparisons.
Ask yourself the following questions as you examine the work your students generated during the
Compare & Contrast lesson. Use your answers to determine the steps you need to take to further
develop your students’ capacity for comparative thinking. Samples of student work, teacher tips,
analysis forms, and worksheets are provided in the accompanying Resource Guide.
CO M PAR E & CO NTR AST
CMK201-CC Port_R7_07.qxd
CONTENT
What does the student work in comparison suggest about students’ grasp of key ideas and
details? What parts of the content are firmly in their grasp? What ideas and details are
slipping through the cracks?
Compare & Contrast
™
How Comparative Thinking
Strengthens Student Learning
This portfolio focuses on Compare & Contrast, a strategy unique in its
capacity to build students’ memories, eliminate confusions, and highlight
critical similarities and differences. Compare & Contrast is one of a family
of four comparative thinking strategies that have the greatest impact on
improving student learning. (See Classroom Instruction that Works by
Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock, 2001.)
Compare & Contrast
Decision Making
is used when you want students to conduct
a careful analysis of two concepts or objects
in order to discover key attributes,
similarities, and differences.
is the most personal form of comparison,
inviting students into the content where they
examine alternatives and use their own
values to make and justify a decision.
Example: Compare and contrast prime
and composite numbers.
TEACHER PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE
PROCESS
What does this work suggest about how your students describe, compare, and synthesize?
How do they use criteria? Do they note and make use of big ideas and relevant details?
PRODUCT
What similarities and differences do you notice in the quality of the student work? How well
are they communicating their ideas? What signs are there that they are reaching towards
excellence? What patterns of strength and weakness do you find compelling?
Example: What was the most important
scientific discovery of the 20th century?
Classification
Metaphors
requires students to examine a set of
examples or a bank of data and develop
a classification system.
engage students in creative comparison,
asking them to make and explain
connections between two dissimilar
ideas or items.
Example: How would you classify the
different types of friendships we have
read about?
Example: How is democracy like a diamond?
NEXT STEPS
Taking your thoughts about your students’ work into account:
Content – What have I learned about my students’ grasp of ideas and details in the content area?
Process – What have I learned about my students’ ability to describe, compare, and synthesize
learning?
Product – What have I learned about my students’ ability to communicate? What motivates
them to reach towards excellence?
What can the Compare & Contrast strategy do for you and
your students?
Goal #1
What will you do next to make use of your learning and insights?
Compare & Contrast:
3
3
3
3
3
Strategy Implementation Milestones
Where am I now?
Goal #2
Goal #3
I know what Compare & Contrast is and can describe what it looks like in the classroom.
I understand Compare & Contrast and can explain how it works.
Goal #4
I have planned several Compare & Contrast lessons, used them in my classroom,
and reflected with my colleagues on their effects on my students.
My students have a solid understanding of Compare & Contrast, and I can see
them transferring the thinking skills involved in the strategy to other situations.
I am ready to teach other people how to use Compare & Contrast.
2nd Edition
Memory
By focusing student thinking on analyzing pairs of ideas, the
Compare & Contrast strategy strengthens students’ ability to
remember key content.
Higher-Order Thinking
Compare & Contrast acts as a practical and easy-to-use
introduction to higher-order thinking.
Comprehension
Compare & Contrast improves comprehension by eliminating
confusions, highlighting important details, and making abstract
ideas more concrete.
Writing in the Content Areas
The Compare & Contrast strategy helps students strengthen
their writing skills by providing tools to help them write with
better organization and greater clarity.
2nd Edition
RB-002
Silver Strong & Associates • www.ThoughtfulClassroom.com
© 2009 Thoughtful Education Press, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Thoughtful Education Press, LLC.
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C O M PA R E & C O N T R A ST
I N T H E C L A S S R O O M : R E F L E CT I O N
P L A N N I N G A C O M PA R E & C O N T R A ST L E S S O N
Thoughtful Compare & Contrast lessons move through four phases: description,
comparison, conclusion, and application.
C O M PA R E & C O N T R A ST
1
The Phases
Description: Students observe and
describe each item separately.
Teacher Planning:
– What’s the purpose for this
comparison?
1
– What sources of information will my
students use?
2
– How will I help students identify
the criteria they need to focus
their descriptions?
An Example
Andrea Rimbaldi wants her eighth
graders to evaluate President Jefferson’s
purchase of the Louisiana Territory from
France. She provides her students
with maps, primary documents, and
appropriate textbook passages. Andrea
helps her students describe the United
States just before the Louisiana Purchase
and the United States ten years after.
Students use the following criteria to
focus their descriptions:
Teacher Planning:
– What kind of visual organizer will
students use to record their
comparisons?
• Economic opportunities
• Resources
2
Phase One: Description
• How was the lesson introduced?
• Arguments for the purchase
• Arguments against the purchase
• How did the students make use of the criteria?
Phase Two: Comparison
• What kind of visual organizer did the students use?
Phase Three: Conclusion
• What question was used to open up the discussion? To focus and guide the discussion?
• How would you describe student participation and contributions to the discussion?
Phase Four: Application
Andrea provides students with a Top
Hat Organizer so they can record the
differences next to each other and
collect the similarities below.
U.S. in
1803
?
• How did the students approach the task of describing each item separately?
• What patterns did you notice in students’ work in identifying similarities and differences?
• Population
Comparison: Students use a visual
organizer to identify similarities and
differences between the items.
Now that you have implemented the Compare & Contrast strategy in your classroom
and had the opportunity to observe another teacher using the strategy, take some
time to reflect on how Compare & Contrast affected the students you taught and
observed. Consider your answers to the following questions, then meet with your
Learning Club or Teaching Team to discuss your responses.
• What task was used to help students apply what they learned from the comparison?
• What differences did you notice among students’ responses to the application task?
U.S. in
1813
Lesson observation and reflection forms are provided in the accompanying Resource Guide.
3
Similarities
Conclusion: Students discuss the
relationship between the items.
Teacher Planning:
Design discussion questions that will
help students draw conclusions:
– Are the items more alike/different?
4
– What causes the differences and
similarities between the items?
Application: Students apply what they
have learned through the comparison.
Teacher Planning:
– Create a task that will help students
synthesize their learning.
3
4
Andrea then asks her students to think
about and discuss this question:
Was the United States before the
Louisiana Purchase (in 1803) more
similar to or more different from the
United States ten years after (in 1813)?
To help her students synthesize their
learning, Andrea asks them to take
the position of an editorial writer in
1803 and to argue for or against the
Louisiana Purchase.
Sample lessons and planning forms designed for various content areas are provided in the
accompanying Resource Guide.
What? So What? Now What?
Now that you have designed and implemented a Compare & Contrast lesson, ask yourself:
WHAT HAPPENED?
Looking back, what are your general thoughts about the lesson? What feelings, questions, or
ideas occurred to you?
SO WHAT?
What did you learn from this experience? What have you learned about the power of making
comparisons? About student thinking?
NOW WHAT?
Where do you go from here? How will this experience affect the way you will approach
comparisons and other forms of student thinking in your classroom?
Compare and Contrast Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois Introduction (Hook and Bridge) At the same time that our tests have become more rigorous, authentic, and problem‐based, many of our leading thinkers in the worlds of business, economics, and psychology have been busy thinking about the near future. What these leading thinkers have recognized is that success in the 21st century requires a new, higher‐order skill set. Many experts have pointed to instruction based on “21st century skills” as the best way to prepare students for the competitive, global world of work that awaits them beyond school. So, what are these skills exactly? Examine the list below, then respond to the questions that follow. 21st Century Skills Accountability and Adaptability—Exercising personal responsibility and flexibility in personal, workplace, and community contexts; setting and meeting high standards and goals for one’s self and others; tolerating ambiguity Communication and Collaboration Skills—Understanding, managing, and creating effective oral, written, and multimedia communication in a variety of forms and contexts Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity—Developing, implementing, and communicating new ideas to others; staying open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking—Exercising sound reasoning in understanding and making complex choices; understanding the interconnections among systems Information and Media Literacy Skills—Analyzing, accessing, managing, integrating, evaluating, and creating information in a variety of forms and media Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills—Demonstrating teamwork and leadership; adapting to varied roles and responsibilities; working productively with others; exercising empathy; respecting diverse perspectives Problem Identification, Formulation, and Solution—Ability to frame, analyze, and solve problems Self‐Direction—Monitoring one’s own understanding and learning needs; locating appropriate resources; transferring learning form one domain to another Social Responsibility—Acting responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind; demonstrating ethical behavior in personal, workplace, and community contexts Source: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. www.21stcenturyskills.org. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 22 After reading the list, what does it seem to be telling us about success in the 21st century? What does this work suggest about how teachers and schools can better prepare students for career and personal success in the 21st century? You’ve just taken a closer look at some of the different ideas in the discussion about what 21st century skills are. But what about 20th century skills? An odd question, perhaps, but it is a good way to think about a similar debate in education that went on over a century ago – a debate that focused on the careers and personal success of African‐Americans. This educational debate between two influential African‐American thinkers – Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois – was, in many ways, a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement. The short reading that follows highlights each man’s ideas about African‐American education. As you read, think about these questions: • What did each see as the primary purpose of education? • What did each want the education of African‐Americans to focus on? • What did each hope to help African‐Americans achieve through education? (Goals for social change) Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 23 Phase 1: Description Use the Description Organizer below to make notes as you read. Booker T. Washington Criteria
Purpose of education Focus of education Goals for social change W.E.B. Du Bois
Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 24 Reading Booker T. and W.E.B. on Education The greatest leaders of the black community at the turn of the twentieth century were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. In the years and decades following the Civil War, African‐
Americans faced stifling Jim Crow laws and strict segregation in the South, and widespread discrimination and constraints on their rights throughout the United States. Both Washington and Du Bois were concerned with the limited economic opportunities and civil rights afforded to blacks, and saw education as the key to social and economic progress. However, their philosophies on education were starkly different. Booker T. Washington (born 1856 in Virginia; died 1915 in Alabama), was an educator, reformer, and arguably the most influential black leader of his time. His philosophy was one of industry, self‐reliance, racial solidarity, and accommodation. He believed in education in the crafts, agriculture, industrial skills, and the cultivation of such personal virtues as patience, enterprise, and thrift. In 1881, Washington became the first leader of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. (Today the school is known as Tuskegee University.) Students constructed buildings, built barns, grew crops, and raised livestock in addiction to their curriculum of trade and core academic skills. Graduates were encouraged to become teachers of trades and farming throughout the rural South. Washington felt that hard work and a solid education in agriculture and skilled trades would eventually lead to economic – and then social – equality. W.E.B. Du Bois (born 1868 in Massachusetts; died 1963 in Ghana), was a writer, professor, political thinker, and one of the premiere intellectuals of his time. Du Bois believed that obtaining civil rights and greater economic opportunities required an organized, active approach, and helped found the NAACP in 1909. Du Bois believed that blacks should seek higher education in the liberal arts to become leaders and thinkers of their generation. He also advocated directly addressing the issues of segregation and discrimination in society, encouraging blacks to confront these issues head‐on. He believed that “The Talented Tenth” – the best and brightest within the black community – could become the academics, activists, and teachers that would bring about lasting change and open up the greatest economic and educational opportunities for all African‐Americans. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 25 Phase 2: Comparison Now that you’ve read about both Washington’s and Du Bois’s ideas about education, and have started to collect some initial thoughts of your own, complete the Top Hat Organizer that follows. Similarities Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Du Bois Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 26 Phase 3: Conclusion After reading, reviewing, and analyzing both Washington’s and Du Bois’s ideas about African‐
American education, respond to this question: Which position do you find more persuasive? Why? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 27 Phase 4: Application While both Washington and Du Bois had similar goals of wanting to dramatically improve educational and economic opportunities for African‐Americans, each had different ideas of how best to go about it. Now let’s bring their debate into our current discussion of 21st century education. Think back to the challenges that Washington and Du Bois faced over 100 years ago. How are teachers and administrators facing similar challenges today? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 28 Finally, think about this one last question, and what it means for what – and how – we teach. What is more important to being a successful worker and citizen in the 21st century – intellectual ability or practical knowledge? How might your opinion affect your classroom instruction? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 29 Pillar III: Diversity That Works How can we address the diversity of our students in a way that is manageable and provides an
equal opportunity for all students to achieve?
We would like to ask you strange question about yourself. Are you more like... A paper clip? A teddy bear? A magnifying glass? A Slinky? The point of this little activity is to help us see that there are different ways—or styles—of learning. To level the playing field, we must address the diversity of student learning styles in a way that is both meaningful and manageable. There is no one best way to learn, nor is it best for teachers to teach students using just one style. A learning styles approach begins with a conversation about learning and is founded on an understanding of the key patterns of cognitive differences found in any classroom. The problem is that many schools have a bias toward certain styles of instruction at the expense of other styles (Hanson and Dewing, 1991; Sternberg, 2006). But if we expect all our students to succeed then we’ll need to make sure our instructional approach incorporates all four styles. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 30 Our model of learning styles is derived from the work of the great Swiss psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. Jung was the first modern psychologist to address the problem of cognitive differences, and he did this by asking himself two questions: How are minds similar? and How are minds different? He answered the first question by declaring that all minds are similar in that all minds perceive the world and make judgments about it. He answered the second question by noting that minds perceived differently and made judgments differently. He saw that there were two unique ways of perceiving (sensing and intuition) and two unique ways of judging (thinking and feeling Source: Learning Style Inventory for Adults. Thoughtful Education Press, LLC. Copyright © 2007. Put a check mark next to each behavior in the tables above that seem to describe you and how you learn and think best. In terms of perception, which is your preferred model, Sensing or Intuition. Why do you think so? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 31 In terms of judging, which is your preferred model, Thinking or Feeling? Why do you think so? Jung called these four ideas, Sensing (S), Intuition (N), Thinking (T), and Feeling (F), functions. He saw them as unconscious aspects of our different dispositions to life and learning. Later, researchers noticed that if you combined each perception function (Sensing or Intuition) with a judgment or decision‐making function (Thinking or Feeling), you could see four distinct styles of learning: A Mastery Style (S & T) An Understanding Style (N & T) A Self‐Expressive Style (N & F) An Interpersonal Style (S & F) Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 32 The table below provides a brief overview of the four learning styles. Mastery Emphasizes: Memory (knowing) Looks for: Specific knowledge and skills Learns by: Modeling , exercising, practicing, and receiving immediate feedback Values: Correctness and competence Performs as: Competent worker Interpersonal Emphasizes: Connecting with people (social skills) Looks for: Social utility of learning Learns by: Experience, empathy, and making personal connections Values: Caring and cooperation Performs as: Community contributor Understanding Emphasizes: Discovery (reasoning) Looks for: Ideas, patterns, principles, and rules Learns by: Inquiry, explaining, proving and probing Values: Critical thinking and problem solving Performs as: Complex thinker Self‐Expressive Emphasizes: Invention (creativity) Looks for: Issues, speculations (what if?), ethical and philosophic dilemmas, and creative products Learns by: Challenge, choice, creativity, and originality Values: Craftsmanship and communication Performs as: Creative contributor When we look at the four styles, we are, in effect, looking at a map for differentiating instruction. To ensure that you are reaching all styles of readers, all you need to do is provide activities and ask questions that engage different styles. Over the course of lessons and units, rotate around the “wheel of style” so that all students are equally engaged by activities in their dominant styles and encouraged to try out new ways of thinking through activities in less‐
preferred styles. To help you achieve this goal of style rotation, we have included a simple Question Menu, which outlines the kinds of thinking associated with each style and provides a set of stems or question starters for developing your own questions in style. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 33 Four Styles of Questions Mastery questions focus on remembering key content and skills. They ask students to: Recall – Who? What? When? Where? Describe: – How? – Observe and describe _______________. Sequence – Put the following __________________in order. Provide Examples – Can you generate any examples that fit our criteria? Summarize – Restate or retell what you’ve learned in your own words. Understanding questions get students to think about concepts, big ideas, and generalizations. They ask students to: Compare and contrast – What are the key similarities and differences? Prove or disprove – Support or refute using evidence. Explain – What are the causes and/or effects? – Why? – Can you develop an explanation for ____________? Classify – Group and label the following items… – How are _____________________________related? Interpersonal questions help students make personal connections to the content. They ask students to: Describe feelings and reactions – How do you feel about ______________________? – What’s your reaction to ______________________? Empathize – If you were _______________, what would you do? – How would you feel if _______________________? – What advice would you give __________________? Value or prioritize – Which is most important to you? – Where do you stand on ______________________? Reflect – What went well? – What was difficult for you? – How can you improve next time? Make or evaluate decisions – Which would you choose? – What do you think about ________________’s decision? Self‐Expressive questions stimulate students’ imaginations. They ask students to: Associate – What comes to mind? Think divergently – How many possible ways can you think of to _____? Develop similes and metaphors – How is _______________like _________________? Imagine or hypothesize – What if? – What do you think will happen next? – Can you develop a hypothesis? Create or synthesize – Can you develop a visual icon for _______________? – Can you put ___________together in a unique way? Infer or interpret – How do you interpret ______________________? – What conclusions can you draw? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 34 A Quick Review of the Principles of Style tyle is a basic orientation to the world resulting in preferences in the way we perceive and process reality. here are two modes of perception: S T The Sensing orientation, which focuses on things as they are, and the Intuitive orientation, which focuses on the inner meaning of, and relationships between, what is occurring. Y There are also two modes for judging information: Thinking judgments, based on facts, logic, analysis, and external evidence, and Feeling judgments, made on the basis of personal likes, dislikes, values, and beliefs. our style is a result of the combination of your preferred mode of perception and your preferred mode of judgment. As a result, there are four basic styles: Sensing + Thinking = Mastery Style Intuition + Thinking = Understanding Style Intuition + Feeling = Self‐Expressive Style Sensing + Feeling = Interpersonal Style Your style is neither good nor bad. All four styles are equally valuable and have their own assets and liabilities. Furthermore, each of us has access to all four styles. earning requires both support and challenge. We need to work in the style where we are most comfortable, one that validates who we are and how we function. We also need to work in styles that challenge us to grow, develop, and become whole. ducation needs to provide a “home for the mind”—a place where all four functional modalities (Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, and Feeling) are nurtured and challenged so that they are developed to their fullest. tyle can be used as a decision‐making tool for designing and selecting goals and objectives; questions and activities; strategies for teaching; and techniques for learning, assessment, and evaluation. L E S Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 35 Learning Styles and School Success Are there particular learning styles that are more vulnerable in our present school design today than others? When comparing normal student populations and their distribution of styles to those populations that are most at‐risk, it is quite evident that there is one style that is most vulnerable. Which style do you think that might be? Which Style Do You Think That Might Be? Look at the data from the research study conducted by J. Robert Hanson and Thomas Dewing (1991) of at‐risk student populations. In their study of over 1,000 students who were identified as being at‐risk of not succeeding in the present school design, the percentages compared to typical school populations were as follows: Data from Learning Style Inventory for Students for At‐Risk Students MASTERY LEARNERS (ST) INTERPERSONAL LEARNERS (SF) General Population: 35% Students at risk: 12% General Population: 35% Students at risk: 63% UNDERSTANDING LEARNERS (NT)
SELF‐EXPRESSIVE LEARNERS (NF) General Population: 15% Students at risk: 1% General Population: 15% Students at risk: 24% How does this data compare with your hypothesis? Based on the way schools are designed, why do you think Interpersonal learners are most at risk of not succeeding? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 36 Pillar IV: Classroom Curriculum Design How can we design lessons and units of instruction that motivate learners with different
learning styles yet still address the skills and core content knowledge students need to succeed?
To help us answer this critical question, let’s take a close look at a strategy that uses the framework of learning styles to differentiate instruction and assessment. We call this strategy Task Rotation. Task Rotation: A Diversity That Works Task Rotation was designed specifically to address the manageability issue that so many educators face as they are being called on to raise standards while, at the same time, respond meaningfully to the diverse needs and interests of their students. The Task Rotation strategy is based on a model of diversity that is both practical and well‐researched: learning styles. Over the last thirty years, we have helped thousands of schools engage, motivate, and raise the achievement of all learners with a classroom‐friendly model of diversity based on four dominant learning styles: The Four Learning Styles Mastery Learners Interpersonal Learners Want to learn practical information and procedures. Like drills, lectures, demonstrations, and practice. May experience difficulty when learning becomes too abstract or when faced with open‐ended questions. Learn best when instruction is focused on modeling new skills, practicing, and feedback sessions. Want to learn about things that affect people’s lives. Like group experiences, discussions, cooperative learning activities, role‐playing, and personal attention. May experience difficulty when instruction focuses on independent seat work or when learning lacks real‐world application. Learn best when their teacher pays attention to their successes and struggles. Understanding Learners Self‐Expressive Learners Want to use logic, debate, and inquiry to investigate ideas Like reading, debates, research projects, independent study, making cases or arguments, asking “Why?” May experience difficulty when there is a focus on the social environment of the classroom (e.g., cooperative learning). Learn best when they are challenged to think and explain their ideas. Want to use their imaginations to explore ideas Like creative and artistic activities, open‐ended and non‐routine problems, generating possibilities and alternatives, asking “What if?” May experience difficulty when instruction focuses on drill and practice and rote problem solving. Learn best when they are invited to express themselves in unique and original ways. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 37 Engaging all four learning styles is a challenge. But, if the learning preferences and styles of some learners are routinely ignored, then those learners will likely disengage from or feel threatened by the material. Quite simply, by failing to reach out to the different learning styles, teachers produce uninterested, unmotivated, uncomfortable students. Task Rotation provides a diverse and manageable structure for instruction and assessment that allows teachers to reach all students without imposing a hierarchy of style. All styles are equally important and all styles must be used by every individual throughout his or her life. By using the Task Rotation Strategy, teachers will help students see material in new ways and investigate content more deeply through a series of tasks that emphasize facts and details; logic and critical thinking; creativity and self‐expression; and personal and social relevance. Task Rotation is a flexible strategy; it can be used in a variety of ways to meet a host of instructional and assessment purposes. You can design Task Rotations that ask students to: • Complete all four activities in a specified sequence • Complete a certain number of activities in any sequence • Complete specified task(s) and choose a preferred task • Choose the tasks they want to complete On the pages that follow you’ll find four sample Task Rotation Cards. Notice that each Task Rotation Card: • is aligned with specific state standards. • includes a brief scenario that situates the Task Rotation into a relevant, real‐world context. • has a “hook” designed to capture students’ interest and prepare them for the tasks. • presents four interrelated tasks, one in each style. Working with a partner or small group, review each Task Rotation Card. Use the organizer on next page to determine the core content each Task Rotation addresses, the thinking skills each promotes, the product(s) each asks students to create, and how each teacher captured student interest. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 38 Four Task Rotations Task Rotation Upper Elementary Math Area/Perimeter Middle School Reading “Incident” High School Social Studies Bill of Rights Elementary Science Lions and Tigers and Bears & Mosquitoes Content Addressed Thinking Skills Promoted Product(s) Created How It Captured Students’ Interest Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 39 Science Rotation, Side 1 Elementary
Science
COLORADO MODEL CONTENT STANDARDS Science (Grades 3‐5) 1. Students apply the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations. 1. design, plan, and conduct a variety of simple investigations 2. select and use appropriate tools and technology to gather and display 3. Life Science: Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of living things, the processes of life, and how living things interact with each other and their environment. 1. each plant or animal has different structures and behaviors that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction 4. there is interaction and interdependence between and among nonliving and living components of ecosystems 7. there are similarities and differences between organisms Reading and Writing (Grades K‐4) 2. Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. • generating topics and developing ideas for a variety of writing and speaking purposes • organizing their speaking and writing • revising and editing speech and writing • creating readable documents with legible handwriting or word processing at the appropriate time 5. Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources. • using organizational features to locate media or electronic information, sorting information as it relates to a specific topic or purpose THE SCENARIO
Younger students are often fascinated with animals that are exotic, scary, or even bothersome. This Task Rotation helps students move beyond their initial reactions and go deeper than “Wow!”, “Cool.”, or “Eww, gross.” By studying an animal in‐depth, students will learn about its unique attributes, habits, and how it functions every day. This exploration will help students see how individual organisms – like their animal – are integral parts of larger ecosystems. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 40 Science Task Rotation, Side 2 THE HOOK
Our world is full of animals which are exciting, dangerous and yes, sometimes annoying. Why are they here? Let’s investigate. Select an irritating, powerful or dangerous animal and explore its role in our world. When you think you know your animal well, select two of the challenges on this Task Rotation to show what you have learned. We hope to include your work in our “Animals We Know” library. Mastery Task Select an animal, research it on the internet, and use Microsoft Word™ to create a profile sheet. Use the following criteria to describe your animal: • Where does the animal live? • What are its physical features, skills, and/or unique characteristics which help it adapt and survive? • What role does the animal play in its environment? • Who are its natural predators? • What foods does your animal need? Include a picture of your animal on your profile sheet. Interpersonal Task Write a letter to a friend explaining why your animal might be easily misunderstood. Be sure to include what people need to understand about your animal that might help to change their minds about. Understanding Task Explain why your animal is important to the environment in which it lives. Be sure to explain how your animal contributes to the balance of nature within its habitat. Self‐Expressive Task Suppose the population of your animal suddenly doubled. How would this upset the balance of nature? What might happen as a result of this imbalance? Math Task Rotation, Side 1 Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 41 Upper Elementary
Mathematics
KENTUCKY LEARNING GOALS AND ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS
Kentucky Academic Expectations:
1.5 ‐ 1.9: Students use mathematical ideas and procedures to communicate, reason, and solve problems. 2.9: Students understand space and dimensionality concepts and use them appropriately and accurately. Core Content Standards: MA‐E4‐2.1.1c‐ Students will use measurements to describe and compare attributes of objects to include length, width, height, money, temperature, and weight, sort objects, and compare attributes. MA‐E4‐3.1.2‐ Students will identify, describe, and give examples of basic two‐dimensional shapes, and will use these shapes to solve real‐world and/or mathematical problems. THE SCENARIO
Area and perimeter are two geometric properties that are very important in everyday life, but which are often confused. By using exploratory examples and activities, this Task Rotation illustrates the difference between perimeter and area and provides practice for students to explore the concepts on their own. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 42 Math Task Rotation, Side 2 THE HOOK
Think of a time when you didn’t receive enough information. How much information do you need to find the perimeter and area of a square? Only the measurement of a single side: because of the unique properties of a square, the measurement of a single side allows you to compute both perimeter and area. Today we’re going to look at irregular shapes. How much
information do you need to find out their perimeter and area? Mastery Task If a rectangle that is 4” x 10” is placed next to one that is 5” x 12”, what is the perimeter of the combined figure? What is the area of the combined figure? 4’ 12’ 10’ 5’ Understanding Task If you have a figure like the one below, what are the fewest number of sides you must know to accurately calculate the perimeter and area? Explain your answer. Interpersonal Task Draw a picture of the floor plan of your home showing the dimensions of each room. Then compute the perimeter and area for each room and order them from largest to smallest according to their perimeter. Self‐Expressive Task Create a problem in which students must find the perimeter and area of two rectangles, a square, and an equilateral triangle. The problem must be solved using four measurements. Can you create another problem using only three measurements? How about two? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 43 Reading Task Rotation, Side 1 Middle School
Reading
INDIANA STANDARDS
Indiana E/LA Standards, 9th Grade: 9.1.2 Distinguish between what words mean literally and what they imply and interpret what the words imply. 9.5.2 Write responses to literature that: •
demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of the significant ideas of literary works. •
support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works. •
demonstrate an awareness of the author’s style and an appreciation of the effects created. •
identify and assess the impact of ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text. THE SCENARIO
Literature that withstands the test of time — that people read, enjoy, and quote over and over again — usually works on more than one level. For instance, the well‐known poem “Indcident” by Countee Cullen tells the story of an eight year‐old boy who spent a few months in the city of Baltimore. The poem does more than recount the drama of a few months spent in Balitmore, however; it also explores the relationship between pressure and attitude. As such, the poem presents a great opportunity for students to use their own experiences and mental attitudes to connect with literature.
Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 44 Reading Task Rotation, Side 2 THE HOOK
Describe an example of a personal incident that changed the way you see things, the way you think and feel about things. As you think about this incident, try to recall what happened BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the incident. Mastery Task Find two other poems that fit the slide structure. Use the slide organizer to analyze each of the poems. Interpersonal Task Identify a personal incident that was a turning point in your life. Use the slide structure to organize your thoughts. Write a personal narrative describing the incident and its impact on your life. Understanding Task Self‐Expressive Task Use a metaphor to write a thesis essay about Create your own poem using the slide prejudice. structure to describe a personal incident in your own life. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 45 Math Task Rotation, Side 1 Middle‐High School
Mathematics
COLORADO MODEL CONTENT STANDARDS Mathematics (Grades 9‐12) 4. Students use geometric concepts, properties, and relationships in problem‐solving situations and communicate the reasoning used in solving these problems. • making and testing conjectures about geometric shapes and their properties, incorporating technology where appropriate Reading and Writing (Grades 9‐12) 2. Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. • conveying technical information in a written form appropriate to the audience 5. Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources. THE SCENARIO
Students study right triangles because they are predictable: two sides can be used to calculate the third, and any three values can be checked to see if they are the sides of a right triangle. Due to this predictability, right triangles are also a powerful force in geometric modeling and have many real‐world applications. Look around you; how many structures do you see that are supported by right triangles? Do your students realize that right triangles can be used to model many different kinds of problems? By helping students see these connections, you can help them gain a deeper understanding of the material. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 46 Math Task Rotation, Side 2 THE HOOK
When the last movie in the Star Wars franchise premiered, avid fans camped out in long lines before the tickets went on sale just so they could attend the very first screening. Even though they already knew the outcome, many people went to the movie over and over again. What mathematical concept or theorem could cause the same kind of devotion among laymen and mathematicians alike? What could be so interesting that it inspired several books and hundreds of proofs? What else but the Pythagorean Theorem? The Pythagorean Theorem has been proven a hundred different times in a hundred different ways since its origin more than two millennia ago. Mastery Task You are going to use a strategy called Convergence Mastery to take five short geometry quizzes. Each quiz will ask you to solve problems using the Pythagorean Theorem. Each quiz will take you about five minutes. If you get 100% correct on your first quiz, then you don’t have to take any more. Instead, you will help a classmate study for the next quiz. By the end of the fifth quiz, all students should have a grade of 100%. Interpersonal Task There is geometry all around you. Find four examples of right triangles being used in art, architecture, or the real world. List your four examples in your Math Journal and be sure to explain where they came from. Then, write a brief entry on the important role that right triangles play in everyday life. Understanding Task Self‐Expressive Task Go to the following website: www.cut‐the‐knot.org/pythagoras. Use this website to research the different ways mathematicians have proven the Pythagorean Theorem. From these proofs, pick the three that you find most powerful. Of your three proofs, which one would you use to explain the Pythagorean Theorem to fifth graders? Why did you select this proof over the other two? The Greek government is planning a celebration to honor Pythagoras’s contributions to mathematics over the past 2500th years. Design a poster for the celebration. Use at least six different right triangles. The poster needs to illustrate the Pythagorean Theorem and its converse, Pythagorean triples, as well as the two “special” triangles. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 47 History Task Rotation, Side 1 High School
History COLORADO MODEL CONTENT STANDARDS Civics (Grades 9‐12) 1.3 Students understand the principles of the United States constitutional government. • analyzing the political thought that influenced the development of the United States Constitution • explaining how the United States Constitution is a vehicle for continuity and preserving liberty, yet allows for change 1.4 Students know the distinctive characteristics of the political culture of the United States. • developing, evaluating, and defending positions on the effectiveness of the Constitution and Bill of Rights in protecting the rights of all citizens History (Grades 9‐12) 2.3 Students apply knowledge of the past to analyze present‐day issues and events from multiple, historically objective perspectives. • using historical information to interpret and evaluate decisions or policies regarding contemporary issues. THE SCENARIO
The First Amendment of the Constitution protects our most treasured rights including the right of free speech, the right to practice our religion, and the right to a fair trial. What do these rights mean to students? Why is the Bill of Rights so important and how does it protect them? In this Task Rotation, students will explore why the Bill of Rights is so important and how it protects their fundamental freedom—freedoms that can be taken for granted all too easily. The Task Rotation culminates with a performance assessment in which students will apply their understanding by designing a students’ Bill of Rights for their school.
Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 48 History Task Rotation, Side 2 THE HOOK
Many hospitals now provide patients with a “Patient’s Bill of Rights” when they enter the hospital. What if there were a Student’s Bill of Rights? You are going to create a Student’s Bill of Rights for students who enter your school. Think about what responsibilities and guarantees your school, teachers, parents, and students would have in your Student’s Bill of Rights. Before you begin, complete the four tasks below to develop a deeper understanding of the ideas and principles underlying the Bill of Rights. Mastery Task Make a glossary for the Bill of Rights by writing each amendment in your own words. Then create an icon for each amendment. Interpersonal Task Rank order the rights guaranteed citizens in the Bill of Rights, from the most important to the least important to you. Explain your first and last choices. Understanding Task Agree or disagree: In certain instances, law enforcement should be able to set aside the Bill of Rights. Explain your answer. Self‐Expressive Task What if there was no Bill of Rights? What would the world be like now? What would have changed in history that would affect how we live presently? Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 49 Designing Task Rotations To design a Task Rotation, we use the acronym CIRCLE to guide the planning process. CIRCLE stands for: Collect your standards Identify your purposes Rotate tasks to reach all four learning styles Create a scenario and hook to arouse interest and create meaning Look for criteria that unite all four task Establish a work plan Let’s look at how two teachers used the CIRCLE design process to create high‐quality Task Rotations. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 50 S I X ST E P S I N T H E C I R C L E
SCIENCE, GRADE 1 - PLANTS
1
2
Identify your purposes:
out in student-friendly language.
What do I want my students to know?
What do I want my students to understand?
1
2
An Example
Julie Morales has just finished a unit with her first
graders on plants. Focusing in on first-grade science
standards related to the relationship between structure and function and plant and animal interdependence, Julie decides to design a Task Rotation as a culminating assessment.
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The Steps
Collect your standards and write them
Next, Julie sketches out her four purposes:
Attitudes:
What skills do I want my students
to develop or improve?
Know: The main parts of
flowering plants
Empathy: students will get
to “be” plants
Appreciation: Plants are
essential to our world
What attitudes do I want to foster
in my students?
3
Understand: Why are
plants important to us and
to our world?
Rotate tasks to reach all 4 learning styles.
MASTERY TASKS
Recall
Summarize
Sequence
INTERPERSONAL TASKS
Describe feelings or values
Empathize
Make connections
3
Skills:
• Visual representation
• Imaginative thinking
Julie then designs her four style-based tasks:
Mastery: Draw a flowering plant and label its parts.
Understanding: Why are plants important to our world?
Think of three reasons.
SELF-EXPRESSIVE TASKS
What if?
Create
Think metaphorically
4
C reate a scenario and a hook to arouse
5
Look for criteria that unite all four tasks.
6
interest and create meaning.
(How will I connect this topic to my
students’ interests and experience?)
(What standards will l use to evaluate
my students’ work?)
Self-Expressive: What would our world look like if there
were no plants?
Interpersonal: How would you feel on a sunny (or rainy)
day if you were a plant?
4
5
Establish a work plan.
(Ask students to choose one or more
tasks or to complete all four.)
6
Before distributing the Task Rotation to students, Julie
spends a few minutes reviewing the class’ learning on
plants. She then explains to students that they will be
working on a very special kind of assignment called a
Task Rotation, and that the idea behind a Task Rotation is
that it allows all students to show what they know in
ways that work best for them.
Julie establishes the criteria for success on the Task
Rotation as follows:
• Can students identify the main parts and represent
them accurately?
• Can students provide three central reasons for the
importance of plants?
• Can students imagine and describe a world without
plants?
• Can students personalize the life of a plant?
Julie has students work on all four tasks. While students
work, Julie walks around the room to observe them,
making herself available to students who are struggling
with particular tasks and providing coaching as needed.
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UNDERSTANDING TASKS
Compare
Prove
Explain cause or effect
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SOCIAL STUDIES, HIGH SCHOOL - PRE-AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The Steps
1
Collect your standards and write them
2
Identify your purposes:
out in student-friendly language.
What do I want my students to know?
11
Haylee Rodman uses Task Rotation regularly as a way
to provide her students with a menu of authentic
assessment tasks. She is reviewing her state’s history
standards as she prepares a Task Rotation on the
events leading up to the Revolutionary War.
2
What do I want my students to understand?
MASTERY TASKS
Recall
Summarize
Sequence
INTERPERSONAL TASKS
Describe feelings or values
Empathize
Make connections
UNDERSTANDING TASKS
Compare
Prove
Explain cause or effect
SELF-EXPRESSIVE TASKS
What if?
Create
Think metaphorically
4
C reate a scenario and a hook to arouse
5
Look for criteria that unite all four tasks.
2
Understand: The significance
6
Establish a work plan.
of each of these events, with a
special emphasis on the skirmish at Lexington.
3
(Ask students to choose one or more
tasks or to complete all four.)
• Appreciating the complexity
of history.
• Learning how to look at
history from multiple
viewpoints.
Skills:
Communicating about history in
various genres or media including:
charts & visuals • newspaper articles
interior monologues
personal opinion essays
Haylee then creates her Task Rotation:
Mastery: Prepare a chart showing the major events leading up to
the first shot fired at Lexington from the end of the French and
Indian War. Identify the reactions of both the Colonists and
British to each event.
3
Understanding: You are a reporter covering the skirmish at
Lexington on April 18, 1775. Your want the article to be fair, complete, and exciting. Before you write your article, ask yourself: Who
are you interviewing? What background information do you need?
What sketches do you want for the front page of the newspaper?
Self-Expressive: Create a reenactment of the skirmish at
Lexington. Write two interior monologues that explain what is
going on in the mind of a colonial militia member and a British
trooper as they confront each other. What is each one thinking
as the first shot is fired? Be creative.
interest and create meaning.
(How will I connect this topic to my
students’ interests and experience?)
(What standards will l use to evaluate
my students’ work?)
Attitudes:
ing up to the American
Revolution.
What attitudes do I want to foster
in my students?
Rotate tasks to reach all 4 learning styles.
Haylee determines her four purposes as follows:
Know: The key events lead-
What skills do I want my students
to develop or improve?
3
An Example
Interpersonal: If you are angry with the government, what means
do you have to bring about change? Under what circumstances
would you consider armed rebellion an acceptable option? Write
a personal opinion essay explaining your position.
4
Before introducing the Task Rotation to students, Haylee
presents them with the following scenario:
4
Our studies in American history have brought us to a breaking point:
the colonies are about to go to war with the most potent military
force in all the world—the British Army. Before we explore this seeming military mismatch, let’s take some time to reflect backwards on
the recent events that have brought the colonies to this uncertain and
potentially lethal moment in their brief history. Review the four
tasks and select two to complete. But this time there’s a twist:
one of the tasks you select must be in the style that you have
chosen least so far.
5
5
66
For each of the four tasks in the Task Rotation, Haylee
develops a simple three-point rubric at four levels of proficiency: novice, apprentice, journeyman, master.
Students are asked to select two tasks to complete.
Because Haylee has thoroughly integrated learning styles
into her classroom, she is able to take the choice concept
one step further by asking students to complete a task
that they would normally avoid.
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Pillar V: Professional Learning Communities How do schools become professional learning communities that support teachers throughout the
improvement process?
In his many years of research into how effective organizations and schools refine practices, unlock collective and personal potential, and sustain change over time, Peter Senge introduced the concept of the “learning organization.” Learning organization, or professional learning communities as they are often called in school settings, insist that no teacher is alone when it comes to raising student achievement. At the center of a successful professional learning community are collaborative support structures known as Learning Clubs. Learning Clubs consist of a small group of educators who work together to plan, implement, and evaluate lessons and units that make a difference in student learning. Through Learning Clubs, schools build five critical capacities of teaching and leadership. OLLABORATION, Or a school’s capacity to create forums that encourage teachers and administrators to exchange ideas, support each other, and work together as a team EFLECTION, Or a school’s capacity to assess student learning and current instructional practices—and to use this assessment data to develop and/or revise instructional plans DAPTATION, or a school’s capacity to support teachers in their quest to apply what they learn about effective instructional practices in the classroom OCUS, Or a school’s capacity to develop well‐defined goals that make sense based on available assessment data and to remain focused on achieving these goals over time C R A F T HOUGHTFUL TEACHING, learning, and leadership, or a school’s capacity to “row as one” in pursuit of excellence. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 52 Here’s how David Almand, Director of Secondary Instructional Support for the Simpson County School District in Kentucky describes how his district uses a technique called Learning Walks to build his school’s CRAFT: Learning Walks represent a commitment to getting into classrooms regularly. Through Learning Walks, school leaders establish a routine and rhythm for collecting data. Best of all, the process is flexible: a principal can conduct a Learning Walk alone, or with members of an Instructional Learning Teams. In Simpson County, we use Learning Walks like this: First, we (the principal and the Instructional Learning Team) establish a focus. Before beginning a Learning Walk, school leaders decide what they will be looking for while touring classrooms. For example, drawing from the work of not only Harvey Silver and Richard Strong, but also Robert Marzano, we might be looking for evidence of instructional “Best Bets” like summarizing, notemaking, or identifying similarities and differences. Or, we may be focusing on the integration of learning styles into the classroom. Second, we identify the five classrooms that will be part of the tour. Each classroom gets 10 minutes of observation time, so the whole observation process takes under an hour —and we get a wealth of data. Because five or six colleagues enter each classroom, we try to schedule observation time carefully to minimize disruptions. In Simpson County, we run both formal (or announced) Learning Walks and informal Learning Walks. Informal Learning Walks are unannounced, and the focus of the observation is not stated. We also like to invite teachers to participate in Learning Walks. Making teachers part of the process is good for everyone — it reduces the sense of “us vs. them” and leads to better observations. Plus, classroom teachers have deeper insight into the realities of the classroom. Next, we make notes describing what we see in each classroom. Observation notes are structured around a set of simple questions: • What do you see? • What do you hear? • What questions do you have about student learning? The idea is to describe, raise questions, and open dialogue channels about teaching and learning. Notes are never judgmental. Finally, we share the results. Learning Walks are not some secretive process by which one group evaluates another. Collecting data is not particularly useful if you don’t share it, talk about what it means, and collaborate on how it can lead to collective improvement. That’s why we take the time to give feedback individually to those teachers who were observed, and meet periodically as a faculty to discuss how our efforts are progressing. Source: Adapted from “The ‘Craft of Leadership” by David Almand: in Lessons from My Thoughtful Classroom, Volume 2. Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 53 How does the Learning Walk build the capacitates of CRAFT? Use the space below to collect your thoughts on how Learning Walks increase school’s capacity for… Collaboration Reflection Adaptation Focus Thoughtful teaching, learning, and leadership Copyright ©2009 Thoughtful Education Press. All Rights Reserved. This document cannot be reproduced without written permission. Page 54