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"reciprocal teaching"

Reciprocal Teaching with Popular Reading Apps

by Miguel Guhlin June 20, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

Few would disagree that reading plays a crucial role in life. Scaffolding student cognition during reading can enhance student achievement. One of the techniques I employed as a young teacher included Reciprocal Teaching. In this blog entry, you will see a few amazing reading apps you can try reciprocal teaching on.

Google Rivet Transitions to Google’s Kids Space

This blog entry previously featured Google Rivet, which Google shelved on October 16, 2020. The Rivet content (3500 books) found its way into Google’s new Kids Space. Per the Google Kids Space website, you can get to it via select Android tablets. Children are able to access apps, books, and videos. These are age-appropriate and targeted by age. One neat feature is that multiple children can use the same tablet. This is because children’s accounts are kept separate. Children’s education and media specialists have all reviewed apps and books included.

Effect Size of Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) has strong support among researchers. Consider that John Hattie’s meta-analyses results include reciprocal teaching as a high-impact strategy. Its effect size of .79 means that it can advance student achievement almost two years growth for one year of school. (You can learn more about Hattie’s research in these blogs or join TCEA’s empowerED program and receive inexpensive professional development on his strategies.)

rivet

What Is Reciprocal Teaching?

This tried-and-true technique works especially well with second language learners. Under the tutelage of Mark Gabehart (Round Rock ISD CTO), I discovered this first-hand working with bilingual/ESL students in urban school settings. Reciprocal teaching includes a cycle of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. The video below illustrates the reciprocal teaching cycle:

Through the use of statement stems, students are able to learn critical processes. For example, for Predictor, students think about what they have read. Then they predict what will happen next. Assisting students in understanding how to predict is key. For questioning, students can use sentence stems such as “I wonder…” or the five Ws to unearth ideas and information. You can see some sentence stems via this reciprocal teaching Pinterest board. Explore the Wakelet embedded below:

View Wakelet on Reciprocal Teaching

Why Is Reciprocal Teaching Needed?

If your students face any or all of the following obstacles (adapted from ASCD Publication: Lori D. Oczkus’ Reciprocal Teaching At Work), reciprocal teaching may be what’s needed.

Students don’t remember what they read, even when they can decode text
Little to no engagement with reading material
Students read at two or more years below grade level
Informational text (non-fiction) is difficult to understand
Challenging words are difficult to decipher
Students may be unable to describe the difference between main idea and supporting details

As a result of reciprocal teaching technique’s effectiveness for over thirty years, it is worth adopting. The National Behaviour Support Service offers this visual which may assist you:

Image Source: The National Behaviour Support Service

Reciprocal Teaching Outside the Classroom

We imagine that RT may be for classroom use only, but that’s not true. We can encourage its use outside of the classroom by helping students to become teachers. “The act of teaching activates more regions of the brain,” says Dr. Lou Whitaker. Another approach could involve students modeling the RT cycle. They use this high impact reading strategy with Flipgrid, as you can see below.

Can #FlipgridFriday be a thing?! Ss created SWBS summaries after using reciprocal teaching strategies to understand details in the text. Most importantly they had fun recording their responses ???? Thanks @Flipgrid pic.twitter.com/MzPM1xgFdL
— Ashlyn Pierce (@ashlynpierce4th) August 17, 2018

Another may involve recording a video and then using EdPuzzle.com to empower students. These students create a video with questions interspersed throughout.

How could students use this with new reading apps, such as Google’s Kid Space and other amazing reading apps?

:video

Exploring Five, Incredible Reading Apps

One of the challenges students face is access to common text. Now, with these reading apps, students can access common content and can apply reciprocal teaching strategies to that text. Having apps you can share with students that feature common content is a win for both teachers and students.

A Story Before Bed. Record a children’s book with audio and video. Kids can play back recording on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and/or Windows. Pre-recorded stories are also available for free or purchase.
Epic! books. An incredible collection of ebooks available via the web. Educators get free access to the content and can generate class codes for their students.
FarFaria Read Along Kids Books. Available for Android and iOS, you get access to one free story per day. More are available for a subscription. Preview their book catalog online.
Skybrary Kids Books and Videos. This free, albeit with in-app purchases, app is available from Reading is Fundamental, Inc. You can get it in Android and iOS flavors.
Tales2go. This website and cross-platform app features over ten thousand high interest audio book titles from leading publishers. Get a look at their catalog. Pricing varies for school districts, schools, and individuals.

While most educators may rely on Epic! books as their common text, don’t forget about other great sources of reading material online. You can find a comprehensive list in this TCEA TechNotes blog entry, Digital Stories for Remote Learners.

This blog entry was updated on 6/29/2021 with new content.

June 20, 2019 1 comment

Good Teaching Professional Learning

Teaching Strategies That Work

by Miguel Guhlin September 12, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

“We have a wide array of instructional strategies implemented,” Terri said. “We use depth and complexity to improve student understanding.” Like this fourth grade educator, many educators rely on classroom instructional strategies. These strategies differ in effectiveness, as John Hattie’s meta-analysis shows. Often, these most effective strategies are unknown to classroom teachers. This blog entry suggests one way to introduce them to effective strategies.

What is “Depth and Complexity?”

The Depth and Complexity Icons are visual prompts. They assist students to enhance their ability to think in a critical manner. These critical thinking tools enable students to dig deeper into a concept (depth). This facilitates understanding a concept with greater complexity. (Source)

First Contact

“Did you know about reciprocal teaching?” I asked the group of educators in my session. Only one had heard of reciprocal teaching, a strategy with an effect size of .74. A strategy’s effect size, when greater than .40, can result in more than a year’s growth in learning for students. For educators comfortable with a wide array of strategies, one question rises to the top. The question is, “How do you know if what you’re doing in the classroom is effective?”

Gauging Effectiveness

Into the stunned silence that question results in, John Hattie’s meta-analysis provides answers. Although critiqued as flawed, Hattie’s work highlights strategies that stand on their own. These strategies empower teachers with research-based tools to nurture student growth.

Teachers employing instructional strategies in tandem may not know their effect size. In this case, effect size translates into effectiveness at improving student growth. As pointed out in this chart (shown above), below zero reverses achievement. What do those below zero activities look like?

Anything below .40 has low to minimal effect. The zone of desired results includes anything between .40 to 1.6. It’s important for us to recognize that strategies that fall below .40 are not worth instructional time.

Strategies That Work

You may be implementing classroom instructional strategies, unsure of their impact. The app shared here introduces you to strategies that enjoy research-based support. Broaden your awareness of these strategies, no matter your experience as a teacher. Get the Strategies That Work app for your mobile device (also works on laptops).

September 12, 2019 1 comment

Educational Trends ESL/ELL Good Teaching

Remote Learning Strategy #3: Three More

by Miguel Guhlin October 20, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

In our Remote Learning Strategies series so far, we’ve explored two powerful strategies. Those strategies included classroom discussion and summarization. In this blog entry, we’ll review three more strategies that teachers should use. Ready for a whirlwind review of evidence-based strategies?

Strategy #3: Teacher Credibility

“One high-effect size instructional strategy would be teacher credibility,” says a teacher. She points out that understanding what she is teaching garners trust. Students respect her more when they understand what she is teaching and why. Of course, knowing the research about how to teach is important. To convey her confidence, she relies on screencasting (e.g. Screencastify).

Did You Know?

You can explore teacher credibility, along with other core strategies, via the TCEA self-paced, online course. The course Strategies That Work*: Core Components* explores evidence-based strategies and how to use them in the classroom and is now available.

When you think of teacher credibility, know that it is about perception. Teachers convey competence, trustworthiness, and caring. Students have to be answer affirmatively when they ask themselves, “Is this someone I can turn to?” (Source: Visible Learning Meta X database).

How do you influence student perception? One way might be to meet these three criteria:

Show up on time
Be prepared to teach
Have a thorough understanding of the content and be able to explain why learning it is important

Technology can assist some teachers in appearing as experts. For an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher focused on phonics, a digital platform such as ESL Games works well. When I first saw the website, I was a bit worried because it looked like it was just games focused on pronouncing words and learning vocabulary. Then I realized I had a bit of “old research” stuck in my head that needed replacing.

As a third grade student, I had learned phonics growing up as a second language learner. As a teacher in training, my professors denied the efficacy of phonics. Yet, it turns out they were wrong.

Reading comprehension is the product of two things. First, a child needs to be able to sound out a word. Second, the child needs to know the meaning of the word she sounded out.

Many educators don’t know this.

That’s because the cognitive science research has not made its way into many schools. Nor has it made it into many schools of education (Source: At A Loss for Words). More reading on vocabulary.

Can a credible teacher admit they are wrong? I’d like to think so. This next strategy taps into several other evidence-based strategies. Lori Oczkus (@LoriOczkus) terms these strategies as the “Fab Four” in her book Reciprocal Teaching At Work. John Hattie writes the foreword.

teacher credibility

Strategy #4: Reciprocal Teaching

“One high-effect size instructional strategy is reciprocal teaching,” says one educator. She goes on to say:

I love this one and I am learning more about this. The tool to help with it is Seesaw as you can see how they are processing and understanding of your teaching.

Reciprocal teaching aims at improving reading comprehension across all subject areas. It does this through the use of four strategies, including:

Summarizing
Questioning
Clarifying
Predicting

The teacher and students take turns leading dialogue about the text or media in question. They ask questions geared toward the role a person has assumed. One teacher relies on Zoom to engage in active monitoring of students’ use of the strategies.

Consider how this teacher uses Zoom:

Incorporating active monitoring by having students show me their work during ZOOM! I also love using the chat as a way for students to answer intro questions!

Other teachers rely on NearPod. They share informational text so that students have summaries and questions. Then, students make their own clarification statements and predict how something will work. “NearPod allows me to see all students working. I can provide instantaneous feedback as necessary.”

A final approach involves students using reciprocal teaching via Google Slides. “Do this when you use an organizer via a Google Slide.” She goes on to explain the directions in this way:

First, divide students into break out rooms.
Second, allow students to discuss and complete their respective roles in the team.

Reciprocal teaching has proven effective for K-12 and adult learners in my experience. Yet, it is a deep learning strategy for when deeper learning of already mastered basic concepts is needed. When introducing students to brand new information, consider using the jigsaw approach instead. Let’s explore that next.

Strategy #5: The Jigsaw Method

Explored in detail in other blog entries, this surface learning strategy is great at introducing new information. The Visible Learning Meta X database describes it in this way:

The Jigsaw instructional method is a cooperative approach to learning originally developed by Elliot Aronson. Following this method, a teacher introduces a main topic and several subtopics.

Jigsaw students are broken into “home groups”, and each member of the home group is assigned a subtopic. Then, students form expert groups to study their assigned subtopic through research and discussion.

After the students have mastered the subtopic in question, they return to their home group to report on their findings. At the conclusion of the exercise, each home group member has learned about each subtopic from a member of the relevant expert group or through their own investigation with an expert group.

One way that teachers are using jigsaw in remote learning involves Google Slides. This approach lends itself for use in the regular or hybrid classroom as well.

To use the jigsaw method with Google Slides, assign expert groups a collaborative slide deck. Each student adds their info to the expert group slide. Comments within the slide deck make up the final presentation slide(s). At the end, each expert group member copies the slide/s to the “table group” slide deck. They include any explanation in the slide comments or as an embedded video.

Aside from Google Slides, Google Classroom was also mentioned. “I love the idea of using Jigsaw in the classroom.” That teacher describes it in this way:

Teachers can divide roles and create prompts in Google Docs. Then they can be assigned in Google Classroom. Teachers can later have students work as a whole by having them collaborate on a final group Doc.

In the next installment of this series, we’ll explore more ways that teachers are matching up digital tools with high-effect size strategies. Stay tuned!

October 20, 2020 0 comment

ELAR English Language Arts ESL/ELL

SIOP Model and Digital Tools

by Miguel Guhlin October 23, 2024

written by Miguel Guhlin

How do you integrate language and content instruction? One established approach is the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model. Let’s see how SIOP phases align with different learning intentions and instructional strategies and discover digital tools to support your teaching.

A Quick Overview of the SIOP Model

Let’s take a moment to review key areas of the SIOP model. The authors (Echevarria, Vogt, Short) designed it to support English language learners (ELLs). The SIOP model has eight inter-related components. Those components include the following:

Lesson preparation. Teachers create lessons that include content and language objectives.
Building background. This involves connecting new concepts to students’ personal experiences and prior knowledge.
Comprehensible input. Teachers use a variety of techniques to make content easy to understand for learners. These can include speaking in a clear way, using visuals, and hands-on activities.
Strategies. These strategies include teaching and modeling learning strategies to help students process and retain information.
Interaction. This involves giving students opportunities to practice language skills in a safe, supportive environment.

Below is a diagram I made to capture my understanding of the SIOP model (view full-size | get a copy):

Benefits of the SIOP Model

Many benefits have been ascribed to the SIOP model. You can find a round-up of them online at Jana Echevarria’s website. Here are a few:

Gains in academic achievement (source)
Development of personal and academic language skills (source)
Active participation and increased engagement
Differentiation aligned to students’ diverse needs and proficiency levels

What’s more, the SIOP model is often a go-to approach for supporting language learners. Echevarria makes the following point on her website linked above:

…SIOP instruction is making a positive learning difference for multilingual learners and other students who are in the classrooms. Teachers can learn to implement the model to a high degree with ongoing PD and support. No one is disadvantaged by SIOP instruction; rather, the focus on academic literacy and scaffolded instruction helps all students learn academic English and grade-level, content curricula better (source).

Now that you have a clear understanding of the phases of the SIOP model, let’s explore how it aligns to learning intentions. I’m curious to connect it to Hattie’s Visible Learning as well as Mike Bell’s The Fundamentals of Teaching.

Understanding SIOP Phases and Learning Intentions

As you may recall, learning intentions refer to what your intent is for students to learn. Having an awareness of your learning intensions, as well as what phase of learning students are in, can be useful. It’s useful because it enables you and students to choose specific high-effect instructional strategies. These strategies are often grouped according to three phases of learning:

Surface learning
Deep learning
Transfer learning

John Hattie points out the following when choosing what strategy works best to impact learning:

“What and when are equally important when it comes to instruction that has an impact on learning. Approaches that facilitate students’ surface-level learning do not work equally well for deep learning, and vice versa. Matching the right approach with the appropriate phase of learning is the critical lesson to be learned.”

With this in mind, it’s important to match high-effect size instructional strategies to the appropriate phase of learning students are in. To determine what phase of learning students are in, you will want to take advantage of formative assessments. What’s more, being aware of what your learning intention is for students can inform your next steps. Let’s briefly explore these points aligned to the SIOP model.

Lesson Preparation: Building the Foundation

“I use Quizlet to create interactive flashcards for key terms. It’s a game-changer for vocabulary retention!” says Mrs. Johnson, a 5th-grade teacher. In this initial phase, focus on surface learning through direct instruction and vocabulary programs. Both direct instruction and vocabulary programs are appropriate to use in this phase of learning (Surface Learning).

Surface learning is important because it is a critical step towards transfer learning:

…the process of developing sufficient surface knowledge to then move to deeper understanding such that one can appropriately transfer this learning to new tasks and situations. (Source: Hattie, Fisher, Frey in Visible Learning for Literacy)

To assist students in connecting the dots, it’s important to consider students’ prior knowledge. As Mike Bell, The Fundamentals of Teaching, puts it, “No one can learn anything if they cannot link it to something they already know.” On his website, Bell quotes psychologist David Ausubel:

If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.

David Ausubel as cited

Our theory of the world, also known as our “schema,” is what makes up our prior knowledge. It is so important that Mike Bell enshrines it as the first step in his five step teaching approach. He encourages teachers to assess prior knowledge, as well as fill in missing knowledge.

Did You Know?
You can watch a TCEA Lunch and Learn on Prior Knowledge via the TCEA Community. Follow this link, then enter your login credentials to access. Not a TCEA member yet? Join.

A part of presenting new material (step two in his five-step process) involves linking new information to prior knowledge, using advance organizers, and connecting the abstract to the concrete. To put it simply, it involves connecting the dots.

Building Background: Connecting the Dots

“I love using Mindmeister for collaborative mind mapping,” says Mr. Rodriguez, a high school history teacher. “It helps students visualize connections between new concepts and what they already know.” In Mike Bell’s book, The Fundamentals of Teaching, memory is explained as a link to component parts of that memory. The component parts include our emotions, colors, shapes, tactile feelings. The network of links is the schema.

If some of the new concepts are held in long-term memory, “it takes less space in working memory.” You can see how someone can liken the responsibilities of a president to that of a parental guardian.

Mnemonics and integrating prior knowledge are crucial here. A key component is connecting the dots through graphical organizers, modelled and worked examples, as well as meta-cognitive tasks. Students can use graphic organizers and modeled examples to better understand and retain new information. They do this when they link new concepts to what they already know. This approach also enhances metacognitive skills. It helps them become more aware of their thinking.

As you can imagine, the SIOP model seeks to encompass this cognitive work. It covers critical steps of learning, such as:

Activating and assessing prior knowledge
Presenting new knowledge
Setting challenging tasks that involve collaboration, thinking, and examples
Providing feedback to learners for improvement, as well as questioning
Spaced repetition and deliberate practice

Connecting the dots takes advantage of several strategies that encouraging making connections. Those connections happen between prior and new knowledge, which lays the groundwork for deep learning phase of learning.

SIOP Phase with Learning Intention

Take a look at this chart and how it matches SIOP model phases with learning intentions, strategies, and digital tools.

SIOP Phase	Learning Intention	Instructional Strategies	Digital Tools	Example
Lesson Preparation	Surface Learning	Direct Instruction (.56), Vocabulary Programs (.62)	Quizlet, Kahoot	Using Quizlet to create flashcards for key vocabulary terms
Building Background	Surface Learning	Mnemonics (.65), Integrate with Prior Knowledge (.93)	Padlet, yED Live, Cmap Tools	Creating a mind map on yEd Live to connect new concepts with prior knowledge
Comprehensible Input	Surface Learning	Repeated Reading Programs (.80), Questioning (.49)	Newsela, Edpuzzle	Using Edpuzzle to embed comprehension questions in a video lesson
Strategies	Deep Learning	Metacognition Strategies (.52), Critical Thinking (.84)	Padlet Video Recording, Socrative	Students using video to explain their problem-solving process
Interaction	Deep Learning	Classroom Discussion (.82), Reciprocal Teaching (.74)	Zoom breakout rooms, Canva Whiteboard, Miro	Facilitating small group discussions in Zoom breakout rooms using a collaborative whiteboard
Practice & Application	Transfer Learning	Problem-Solving Teaching (.68), Transfer Strategies (.86)	Scratch, Minecraft Education, Minetest	Students applying coding concepts learned in class to create a game in Scratch or virtual world in Minetest
Lesson Delivery	Deep Learning	Elaboration and organization (.75), Concept Mapping (.62)	Pear Deck, Nearpod	Using Pear Deck to create interactive presentations with embedded formative assessments
Review & Assessment	Transfer Learning	Self-Reported Grades (1.33), Self-Judgement and Reflection (.81)	Google Forms, Seesaw	Students reflecting on their learning progress using a digital portfolio in Seesaw

Comprehensible Input: Ensuring Understanding

Repeated reading programs and strategic questioning enhance comprehension. Consider using Edpuzzle to embed questions in video lessons, promoting active engagement with content. Comprehensible input is a concept first suggested by Stephen Krashen. It exposes students to linguistic input slightly above their current language level (i+1). The reason for this is that i+1 allows learners to understand the new input. Strategic questioning can scaffold this process.

Use strategic questioning to do the following:

Get responses from students at their current level and slightly beyond. For example, a current level question might be, “What is the main character’s name?” An i+1 example might be “How might the main character’s actions influence the story’s outcome?”
Tailor questions to target specific language structures or vocabulary. For teaching past tense, an example might be “What did the protagonist do after he discovered the secret door?”
Ensure that question complexity is adjusted to ensure input remains at the optimal i+1 level. To adjust a question’s complexity, go from simple to complex. For example, shift from “Can you describe the setting of the story?” to “How does the setting contribute to the overall mood of the narrative?”

Both strategies (repeated reading and strategic questioning) can be useful in ensuring understanding.

Diving Deeper: Strategies and Interaction

Fostering Critical Thinking

Metacognitive strategies and critical thinking activities are key for deep learning. “I use Padlet Video to have students explain their problem-solving process. It’s amazing to see their metacognition in action!” says middle school science teacher, Ms. Lee. To encourage metacognition, consider using check-ins to enhance learning. According to Schraw (1998 as cited), checking in stimulates learners’ self-reflection on their own understanding. This, of course, leads to increased metacognitive awareness (source).

Promoting Meaningful Interaction

Classroom discussions and reciprocal teaching strategies encourage student engagement. You can use Zoom breakout rooms for small group discussions and collaborative whiteboards for idea sharing.

Applying Knowledge: Practice and Transfer

In applying knowledge phase, students are expected to apply what they have learned to new situations. In transfer learning, students apply what has been learned to novel situations. This may involve metacognition, collaboration, and problem-solving. This can be done in a variety of ways, including:

“Building virtual worlds has been fantastic for my students to apply coding concepts in a creative way,” notes Mr. Thompson, a technology integration specialist. One example could involve using virtual world building through Minetest or Minecraft. Other activities like story bins can also work well.

Stages of the Engineering Design Process

Public View Link | Template Link

Delivering Lessons and Assessing Progress

Facilitating lesson delivery often involves a dash of direct instruction, hands-on activities, classroom discussion. Through it all, the teacher is working to assess the level of understanding students have in the midst of a conversation.

Effective Lesson Delivery

Use elaboration, organization, and concept mapping to deepen understanding. Try Pear Deck for interactive presentations with embedded formative assessments. For example, when teaching photosynthesis, you can compare it to a factory taking in raw materials and outputting products:

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis as a process can be a model for making widgets in a factory:

As you can see, concept maps can assist students in connect new information in such a way as to facilitate deeper comprehension. The visual structure can make it easier for students to see relationships. Tools like Pear Deck can integrate concept maps into interactive presentations. When students make their own diagrams, the diagrams reveal gaps in understanding. Teachers can look at what’s missing from the students’ view of a concept. Then, they can work to provide experiences that enable the student to learn.

Review and Self-Assessment

“I use Seesaw for digital portfolios. It’s an excellent tool for students to track and reflect on their progress over time,” suggests one elementary school teacher. When considering review and self-assessment, other strategies are also helpful. Two include self-reported grades and reflection for transfer learning.

Let’s consider some guided activities and see how they connect to the SIOP model phases.

SIOP Model Activity Examples

Here are some activity examples that match a particular SIOP model phase.

Activity	Description	SIOP Phase
Vocabulary Bingo	Create digital bingo cards with key terms	Lesson Preparation
Concept Connection	Use mind mapping tools to link new and prior knowledge	Building Background
Video Quiz Creation	Embed questions in educational videos	Comprehensible Input
Think-Aloud Recordings	Have students record their problem-solving process	Strategies
Virtual Jigsaw	Assign topics to groups for research and presentation	Interaction
Real-World Application Project	Design projects applying learned concepts to real scenarios	Practice & Application
Interactive Lecture	Create engaging presentations with built-in assessments	Lesson Delivery
Learning Journal	Implement digital portfolios for ongoing reflection	Review & Assessment

Additional Resources

SIOP Model Overview: A comprehensive guide to the SIOP model (K-12, Higher Education)
Edutopia’s Technology Integration Guide: Strategies for effective tech integration in classrooms (K-12)
TCEA Courses on Digital Learning: Professional development opportunities for educators (K-12, Higher Education)

October 23, 2024 0 comment

ELAR English Language Arts Reading

Five Ways Educators Can Leverage Virtual Author Talks to Boost Literacy This School Year

by Miguel Guhlin August 8, 2024

written by Miguel Guhlin

Did you know that only 43% of children aged 8-18 enjoy reading? That number is down from 58% in 2016 (source). What’s more, both American 9- and 13-year-olds who read for fun on a daily basis has dropped to the lowest level since the mid-1980s (source). The good news is that virtual author talks offer a way to spark students’ interest in reading. Let’s explore a possible resource that can enhance literacy in classrooms. At the end of this blog, I’ll also remind you about AI narrated audiobooks that are currently available. What’s more, this blog will introduce you to a free-for-US-schools tool for human-narrated audio books.

Here are five ways educators can harness virtual author talks to enhance literacy in their classrooms this school year.

1. Integrate Author Talks into Your Curriculum

“How can educators effectively integrate author talks into their curriculum to maximize the benefits for their students?” you might ask. One way is to use services like BookBreak.org.

BookBreak is a platform created and developed by the industry-leading Library Speakers Consortium, which has many years of experience working with authors and publishers in delivering amazing online programs. It makes it easy to bring authors into the classroom and that can boost student engagement with literature:

Screenshot by author of The Library District, Las Vegas-Clark County — Screenshot by author of **The Library District, Las Vegas-Clark County**

“BookBreak brings 2-4 bestselling elementary and middle school authors to schools each month via live stream. Events are geared toward specific grade cohorts such as K-2nd, 3rd-5th and 6th-8th. Each grade level has the opportunity to hear from an age-appropriate author at least once per month throughout the school year. Recordings of the talks are also available on our platform. The live events are 10-15 minutes long for elementary school and 15 to 25 minutes long for middle school.”

Here are three ways to blend this software into your classwork:

Schedule author talks to coincide with relevant units in your language arts curriculum.
Use the author’s books as part of your reading assignments before the virtual visit.
Develop writing prompts inspired by the author’s work or writing style.

For example, a 5th-grade teacher at Edgewood ISD incorporated a virtual talk with a historical fiction author into their American Revolution unit. Students read one of the author’s books set in that era, then had the chance to ask the author about their research process and character development.

2. Foster A Range of Perspectives Through Author Selection

“By featuring authors from diverse backgrounds, we can ensure that students see themselves in the stories they read. This can foster a deeper connection and understanding of literary works.” Virtual platforms like BookBreak prioritize a wide range of voices and experiences:

Choose authors from various cultural backgrounds to reflect your student population.
Balance male and female authors throughout the year.
Include authors who write about diverse topics and themes.

A middle school English teacher at Edgewood ISD reported increased engagement from her students. This happened when they had the opportunity to interact with authors who shared their cultural backgrounds. “Seeing themselves represented in successful authors really motivated my students to pursue their own writing,” she noted.

Screenshot by author of Scholastic's Storyvoice website — Screenshot by author of **Scholastic’s Storyvoice website**

3. Use Pre- and Post-Talk Activities to Deepen Learning

Maximize the impact of virtual author talks by framing them with thoughtful activities:

Before the talk: Have students research the author and prepare questions. They can read excerpts or summaries of the book as well as other works to gain deeper insight. Character analysis can also be an important component.
During the talk: Guide students in taking notes on the author’s insights and advice. Handwritten notes, concept maps, graphic organizers can scaffold student thinking.
After the talk: Facilitate a class discussion about what they learned and how it applies to their own reading and writing.

Example: An elementary school librarian at Edgewood ISD created a “Meet the Author” bulletin board where students posted their favorite quotes and lessons from each virtual talk, creating a visual reminder of their literary connections.

Consider giving students a reverse outline or advance organizer that they can add to throughout the virtual talk. Some other ideas include:

Read aloud, then get feedback from others (Repeated Reading)
Discuss with others (Classroom Discussion, Reciprocal Teaching, Jigsaw Method)
Clarify vocabulary and meaning (Vocabulary Programs)
Jot down important ideas and information (Outlining, Summarization, Concept Mapping)
Annotate your text, write in the margins (Underlining and Highlighting)
Interrogate text (ask questions and make a quiz for Retrieval Practice)

Screenshot by author of Jefferson County Library District website — Screenshot by author of **Jefferson County Library District website**

4. Leverage Recording Features for Flexible Learning

“We’ve found that the recorded author talks on platforms…are just as valuable as the live events. They allow our teachers to revisit the content with their students, pause and rewind when needed, and even share with students who may have missed the live event. It’s been a game-changer for our district’s literacy initiatives,” says Brad CLoud, Director of Instructional Technology, Edgewood ISD. Virtual author talk platforms often offer recordings of their sessions. This makes it possible to do the following:

Use recorded talks as part of lesson plans.
Assign specific talks for independent work. This gives students time to engage with the content at their own pace.
Create a tailored list of author talks students can listen to for inspiration and research.

“Being able to view the author visits after the fact is crucial, as ALL teachers are busy and can’t always catch a visit in real time,” one user mentioned.

5. Extend the Impact Beyond the Classroom

One big benefit of virtual author talks? They facilitate collaboration between teachers and campuses. Consider these points:

Foster collaboration with other teachers to create cross-curricular projects.
Share highlights from the talks in school publications that engage parents with their children as they read.
Create displays featuring books by visiting virtual authors.

Some libraries may find that virtual book talks enhance their role as a collaborative learning space. These often enable them to set up author-themed reading corners. Those have the potential to become popular spots for students.

Leverage Virtual Author Talks to Boost Literacy

Use virtual author talks to enhance student literacy, engage interest, and encourage young readers. You may end up changing the reading statistics for the next generation with the power of author voices.

Supplemental Resources

Below you will find an AI-generated guided activities table, as well a curated list of virtual author talk platforms.

Guided Activities Table

Activity Name	Description	Teacher’s Role	Student Engagement	Learning Outcome
Author Bio Scavenger Hunt	Students research the visiting author and create a visual biography	Provide research guidelines and resources	Collaborative research and creative presentation	Improved research skills and author familiarity
Question Craft Workshop	Students learn to formulate thoughtful questions for the author	Guide students in developing open-ended questions	Peer review of questions	Enhanced critical thinking and inquiry skills
Virtual Book Club	Students read and discuss the author’s book prior to the talk	Facilitate discussions and provide reading prompts	Active participation in book discussions	Deeper comprehension and analysis of literature
Writing in the Author’s Style	Students create short pieces mimicking the author’s writing style	Analyze the author’s style with the class and provide writing prompts	Creative writing and peer feedback	Improved writing skills and style analysis
Post-Talk Reflection Journal	Students write about their takeaways from the author talk	Provide reflection prompts and feedback	Personal reflection and connection to their own reading/writing	Self-awareness of reading preferences and writing goals

Generated with Perplexity.AI

Virtual Author Talk Platforms

Title with Embedded URL to Website	Description	Pricing	Use Scenario
BookBreak	A platform that brings 2-4 bestselling authors to schools each month via live stream, catering to specific grade cohorts. It aims to ignite enthusiasm for reading and writing by providing comprehensive planning resources and ensuring diversity in featured authors.	Not explicitly stated, but offers free access to high-poverty schools when other schools join the program.	Ideal for schools looking to integrate author talks into their curriculum, especially those seeking to enhance literacy and engagement among students.
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Virtual Author Talks	Offers free virtual author talks with critically-acclaimed writers, available for viewing from home. Past talks are archived for later access.	Free	Suitable for public libraries and individuals interested in attending virtual author talks from the comfort of their homes.
Storyvoice	Features live read-alouds by award-winning children’s authors and illustrators. The platform allows for interactive sessions and is accessible via share-screen or individual devices.	Not explicitly stated, but implies free access.	Ideal for classrooms and families looking for interactive live reading sessions with popular children’s authors.
Library Speakers Consortium	Provides live online author talks in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium, featuring multiple bestselling authors each month.	Not explicitly stated.	Suitable for libraries and educational institutions seeking to connect with a variety of authors through live online events.
Authors Who Skype Free	A list of authors who connect virtually and in person	Varies by author	Ideal for educators hoping to connect with specific authors listed.

But wait, there’s one more FREE option!

Although not a virtual author talk source, Bookshare.org provides easy-to-read audiobooks and ebooks for readers, no matter what their ability. Get this…Bookshare is 100% free through an aware from the Office of Special Education Programs!

You can see a sample of their book selection via their website. What’s more, you can find a collection of human-narrated books (also, read TCEA’s blog entry on AI narrated books):

Bookshare has thousands of human-narrated audiobooks. You can listen to them in either MP3 or DAISY Audio formats on a variety of devices. Browse reading lists of their texts:

See how to qualify and complete membership in the United States.

August 8, 2024 0 comment

Artificial Intelligence ELAR Math Science Social Studies

New Free AI Tools from TeacherServer

by Miguel Guhlin July 5, 2024

written by Miguel Guhlin

When I stumble across new educational technology tools, my heart races with excitement. It’s not about collecting amazing tools to fill my toolbox; it’s about finding those rare gems that can transform teaching and learning. Today, I’m sharing a few free tools from TeacherServer. Each of these has caught my eye and solved a real-life problem that teachers have. A bonus resource is included.

An screenshot by the author capturing a few of the tools available at TeacherServer.com. — *An screenshot by the author capturing a few of the tools available at TeacherServer*

Introducing TeacherServer

TeacherServer offers 47 different AI-powered tools, all available at no cost. A breakdown of these tools appears at the end of this blog entry. For now, here’s a list arranging the tools by grade level and function:

Elementary (K-5): six tools
Middle School (6-8): five tools
High School (9-12): five tools
All K-12: 16 tools
Adult Learners/Higher Education: four tools
Teacher Professional Development: 11 tools

TeacherServer’s collection of AI-powered tools is fantastic, and a great starting point. This is true even if you have not had much experience with AI.

Note: All images featured are screenshots, or generated, by the author.

How Do I Get Started?

You will need to create a free account with TeacherServer. Make sure you remember your password since it lacks an OAuth-type solution. That means you can’t log in with your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 credentials.

Hot Tip: Use a free password management solution like Bitwarden or Keepass.

Get Hands-On: A Quick AI Tool PD Activity

Ready to jump into exploring TeacherServer? Grab a few friends before you read the rest of this blog entry.

*Author generated image. Get a Copy link in text.*

Collaborate with a few colleagues to compare available tools on the TeacherServer. Consider using this note-taking document (View | Get copy of Canva template) to assist you in taking notes.

Activity Instructions:

Form groups of three to four participants.
Pick a category of tools from the TeacherServer list (see end of blog entry).
Spend 20 minutes exploring the tools in your assigned category.
Use the note-taking comparison chart provided in this blog to take notes on each tool you explore.
After explore time elapses, each group will have five minutes to present their top two favorite tools.
End with a ten-minute open discussion. Discuss how these tools would fit (or not) into daily teaching practices.

Discussion Questions

Some discussion questions to get you thinking:

Which tool surprised you the most and why?
How could these tools save you time in your daily teaching tasks?
What challenges might you face in implementing these tools in your classroom?
Are there any tools you wish existed that aren’t on the list?

Now that you’ve had a chance to explore these tools, here are a few of my favorites.

Tool #1: Tailor Your Texts with Precision

As a Language Arts teacher, finding text at the right lexile level can be a challenge. During an Elementary Technology Conference session, I relied on AI chatbots to create stories at grade level for Reciprocal Teaching practice.

The Lexile Score Adjuster on TeacherServer is a game-changer for differentiated instruction. This AI tool can generate a similar text at a higher or lower Lexile score. This makes providing reading materials matching each student’s reading level easier. You can simplify a complex text or challenge advanced readers with this tool and help you make sure that content you are teaching is reading accessible.

Tool #2: Spice Up Your Science Classes

Are you a science teacher? Give the Science Experiment Generator a try. It generates creative and safe science experiments for your classroom and takes the guesswork out of lab planning. You put in your grade level and topic and get a detailed experiment. This tool works for elementary to high school.

Here’s an example relying on grade 6 new science TEKS:

Tool #3: Master the 5E Model

No doubt, you have seen my other blog entries on the 5E Model. The 5E Model includes the following phases of learning:

Engage. Activities that capture the students’ attention, stimulate thinking. What’s more, they help students access prior knowledge, and focus on “how” or “why.” Phase of Learning: Surface Learning.
Explore. Enable students to explore ideas, alone or in groups. Provides time to think, plan, investigate, and organize information. Phase of Learning: Surface Learning.
Explain. Students get opportunities to connect their previous experiences. It also allows them to make conceptual sense of the main ideas of the topic under study. Phase of Learning: Deep Learning.
Elaborate. Students apply or extend previously introduced concepts and experiences to new situations. Phase of Learning: Transfer Learning.
Evaluate. Students with their teachers review and assess what they have learned and how they have learned it. It is a summative assessment. Phase of Learning: Transfer Learning.

TeacherServer will generate a 5E model lesson for you if you provide the grade level and topic, standard, or objective:

This tool helps you create daily, weekly, and unit lesson plans aligned with this popular teaching framework. It’s easy to miss the boat when it comes to addressing each element of the 5E model, but this tool can assist you in your planning.

Tool #4: Boost Your Students’ Vocabulary

If you are a K-3 teacher, you already know about the importance of a vocabulary program. It is a powerful high-effect instructional strategy. Vocabulary acquisition is the single most important factor in reading comprehension (source). TeacherServer has an amazing Vocabulary Builder that ggenerates exercises and activities to expand students’ vocabulary.

Like its other tools, you select your grade level and subject area. Then it provides you with a variety of engaging vocabulary-building activities. These can include any of the following:

Word game
Context-based exercise
Graphic organizer
Sentence completion

As an example, take a look at the sentence completion exercise below for a 12th grade math class:

After analyzing the data, we formed a _____ that the relationship between the variables was linear.

The graph of the function has an _______ at x = 2, which means the function approaches infinity as x approaches 2.

By ________the trend in the data, we can predict the stock market prices for the next quarter.

Based on the statistical analysis, we can ________ that there is a strong correlation between the two variables.

The graph of the quadratic function is a _______ that opens downward, indicating a maximum value at the vertex.

Another example includes creating a graphic organizer:

Create a graphic organizer with the following columns:

Vocabulary Term
Definition
Example Sentence
Context-Based Question

Sample directions for the activity include:

Ask students to complete the graphic organizer for each vocabulary term. Students should refer to the example sentences and context-based questions provided earlier. This activity helps students organize their thoughts and visualize the relationships between the vocabulary terms.

Author generated image from TeacherServer text using Mermaid code. — *Author generated image from TeacherServer text using Mermaid code*

Tool #5: Phonics and Reading Comprehension Coach

The Phonics and Reading Comprehension Coach creates phonics exercises and generates reading tasks for specific grades. This is helpful when you are targeting key literacy skills such as:

letter-sound relationships
Blending
Advanced reading comprehension strategies

Consider using it for the creation of differentiated reading assignments or to make intervention materials for struggling readers.

BONUS: Streamline Your Grading Process

The Assignment Feedback generator assists you in getting a second opinion for grading. You submit an assignment along with the rubric. Then you receive detailed feedback and comments. It may save you some time in grading. TeacherServer relies on a local AI server. This means you get super fast responses that don’t compromise privacy.

Wrapping Up

The best part of these tools? They’re completely free to use. Check back for new tools every week. TeacherServer has you covered, with all the activities below:

Adjusting text complexity
Planning science experiments
Structuring 5E lessons
Building vocabulary
Boosting phonics skills
Streamlining your grading process

Be sure to check out the many other tools they have available. Several charts appear below that highlight some ideas of how to best use them.

An Organized List of TeacherServer AI Tools

As nice as TeacherServer AI tools are, it can be a bit daunting to view a full-screen of what’s available. This list should narrow things down a bit for you. You may find a few tools repeated in different categories for your convenience.

Grade Level	Tool Name	Description
Elementary (K-5)
	Phonics and Reading Comprehension Coach	Create phonics exercises and reading tasks for specific grades.
	Vocabulary Builder	Generate exercises & activities to expand students’ vocabulary.
	Daily Warm-Up Activity Generator	Create daily warm-up activities reviewing previous material.
	Science Experiment Generator	Create creative and safe science experiments for the classroom.
	Worksheet Generator	Generate a worksheet for your lessons on any topic and grade level.
	Word of the Day (Weekly)	Create a weekly poster that defines words, provides their meaning, and shows their usage in a sentence.
Middle School (6-8)
	STEM Project Designer	Generate ideas and plans for STEM projects to guide student inquiry.
	Critical Thinking Exercise Generator	Design critical thinking exercises that challenge students.
	Group Work Idea Generator	Create group work activities based on grade level and subject.
	Mistake-Based Assignment Creator	Generate assignments with intentional errors for students to identify and correct.
	Quote of the Day Activity	Create a quote of the day activity along with your grade level and subject area.
High School (9-12)
	SAT Exam Question Generator	Provide customized quizzes to enhance SAT readiness.
	ACT Exam Question Generator	Craft practice questions for the ACT exam.
	Essay Evaluator	Critically assess student essays, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement.
	Lexile Score Adjuster	Generate a similar text at a higher or lower Lexile score.
	Text Summarizer	Condense lengthy texts into concise, informative summaries.
All K-12
	Lesson Plan Generator	Generate daily, weekly, and unit lesson plans aligned with curriculum goals.
	5E Model Lesson Plan Generator	Create daily, weekly, and unit 5e model lesson plans aligned with goals.
	K-12 Curriculum Quiz Maker	Design quizzes that align with the K-12 curriculum and learning objectives.
	Formative Assessment Generator	Create various formative assessments to monitor understanding.
	Assignment Feedback	Submit your assignment along with the rubric to receive feedback.
	Rubric Generator	Design clear and structured grading criteria for assignments.
	Extracurricular Activity	Propose non-academic activities to foster holistic student development.
	Classroom Case Generator	Provide detailed classroom case studies to simulate challenges.
	Student Behavior Analysis	Evaluate student behaviors to provide insights into classroom dynamics.
	Behavior Intervention Plan Generator	Detailed plan to help a student who is struggling to behave in class.
	ESE Lesson Modifications	Tailors lesson content and delivery methods to accommodate students with exceptionalities and special needs.
	ESOL Lesson Modifications	Adapts instructional approaches to meet the unique requirements of English Language Learners.
	Inclusive Accommodation Planner	Design and customize accommodations for students, ensuring inclusivity and support for diverse learning needs in the classroom.
	Generate a Classroom Climate Survey	Design a classroom climate survey about students’ perceptions.
	Text Translator	Take any text and translate it into any language instantly.
	Text Proofreader	Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and add clarity to any text.
Adult Learners/ Higher Education
	TOEFL Exam Question Generator	Generate targeted quizzes for TOEFL preparation.
	Academic Blog Post Generator	Craft engaging blog content on academic subjects.
	Book Summary & Review	Enter a book title to generate a summary and review.
	PowerPoint Outline Generator	Draft a structured outline for your PowerPoint presentations.
Teacher Professional Development
	Professional Development Plan	Roadmap for educators to enhance their skills and competencies.
	Teacher CV Checker	Review and provide feedback on educators’ CVs.
	Teacher Cover Letter	Guide educators in crafting compelling cover letters.
	Teaching Job Interview	Preparation tool with insights and practice questions for teaching job interviews.
	Write Reference Letter	Draft professional and persuasive reference letters.
	FTCE Question Generator	Tailor practice quizzes to prepare for the Florida Teacher Certification.
	FELE Question Generator	Tailor practice quizzes for the Florida Educational Leadership Examinations.
	Peer Teaching Evaluation	Highlight a peer faculty’s strengths and provide actionable improvement suggestions from teaching observations.
	Lesson Style Assessment	Assess students’ learning styles and create tailored support strategies.
	Classroom Case Solver	Users contribute classroom dilemmas while the AI provides solutions.
	Write an Email in Multiple Languages	Generate a professional email and translate it into multiple languages.
	Write a Multi-Language Email Response	Generate a professional email response and translate it into multiple languages.

July 5, 2024 2 comments

Students in a classroom completing outlining and summarizing activities.

Educational Research Good Teaching

Three Engaging Activities for Outlining and Summarizing

by Miguel Guhlin November 28, 2023

written by Miguel Guhlin

Wish you could empower and engage students with strategies that lead to long-term information retention? Outlining and summarizing is a strategy that assists students in learning new material and retaining it. Once students learn to read a text, watch a video, outline, and summarize, they will remember. As a deep learning strategy, outlining and summarizing assists students in connecting ideas. According to researchers, deep learning happens when learners make a conscious and explicit effort. That effort involves connecting “new knowledge to relevant concepts they already have.”

Outlining and Summarizing (d=0.62): This deep learning strategy involves students in identifying ideas. They identify the main ideas and render them in one’s own words. The core skill is being able to differentiate between main and supporting ideas.
Source: Visible Learning MetaX database

Let’s look at several deep learning activities you can complete with your students to boost retention using outlining and summarizing. But first, let’s look at the science behind it.

What Helps Us Remember and Retain

A key idea behind outlining and summarizing involves semantic processing or encoding. That is, translating what we experience through our senses into a meaningful connection. This connection, like a story you tell yourself about an event, aids in memory recall. When you outline, putting ideas into your own words, you are engaging in semantic encoding. Semantic encoding is the process of linking data and information to concepts and meanings. This improves understanding and recall.

“Memory is the residue of thought,” says Professor Daniel Willingham. To remember something better:

Think about it
Do something with the ideas (draw a diagram or a picture)
Write notes by hand to improve long-term information retention.

But what does “think about it” mean? Many students have no idea. If the goal is to remember information, you have to do something with it. That makes “thinking” a series of repeated actions that ensure long-term information retention. Want to ensure you never forget the code to your memory safe? Take one of these actions:

Read aloud, then get feedback from others (Repeated Reading)
Discuss with others (Classroom Discussion, Reciprocal Teaching, Jigsaw Method)
Clarify vocabulary and meaning (Vocabulary Programs)
Jot down important ideas and information (Outlining, Summarization, Concept Mapping)
Annotate your text, write in the margins (Underlining and Highlighting)
Interrogate text (ask questions and make a quiz for Retrieval Practice)

“Memories are stored in ensembles of neurons called ‘engram cells’, and successful recall of these memories involves the reactivation of these ensembles. The logical extension of this is that forgetting occurs when engram cells cannot be reactivated. The memories themselves are still there, but if the specific ensembles cannot be activated, they can’t be recalled. It’s as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can’t remember the code to unlock it.”
Source: Dr. Tomás Ryan, associate professor, School of Biochemistry & Immunology, & Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin

Now, let’s dive in to three activities that use outlining and summarizing to aid in retention.

Activity #1: Create a Reverse Outline

Reverse outlining instructions — Screenshot by Emily Horn: MGLead.org **Reverse Outline** Page

When you create a reverse outline, you are selecting key ideas in a reading selection. Only the sentences with key ideas will end up in your reverse outline. Cut away anything that isn’t relevant to the key sentence in a paragraph. If you can’t find a key sentence, ask yourself, “What is this paragraph about?” Then write a one-sentence summary of it. You can find some digital tools to support you, but one you could take advantage of is ChatGPT. If you have access to ChatGPT, you can ask it to make a reverse outline for you.

Example ChatGPT Prompt: Create a reverse outline of the following passage with Roman numerals, main ideas, and supporting details: Then paste in the text to be outlined.

Example Reverse Outline Created by the Author

Access Supporting Resources for Reverse Outlines

Activity #2: Cornell Note-Taking

Notes Organizer that accommodates Cornell Note-Taking, Jigsaw, and 3-2-1 in one document. Wow! — Author generated compilation of Cornell Notes, 3-2-1, and Jigsaw organizer

You may already be familiar with the Cornell Note-Taking method. The flexibility of the Cornell Notes format makes it one of the most important tools you can share. The Cornell Note-Taking process is straightforward:

Record your notes in your own words. Make an outline, draw a concept map, or a sketch a picture (sketch note).
Reduce your notes. Work on the cue column. Identify keywords and vocabulary. Write questions that trigger recall of ideas or use them to quiz yourself.
Recite and Reflect. Summarize key ideas from the cue section, drawing conclusions.
Review your notes. Spread out your study over several days or weeks rather than cramming them right before an event (e.g. test, quiz, project).

What’s more, there are many templates for Cornell Note-Taking online:

Paper versions

Google Docs

Microsoft OneNote

Example Cornell Notes for Outlining and Summarizing — Created by author

Activity #3: Concept Mapping

Concept maps like diagrams, mindmaps, and semantic webs can help you seize the chaotic energy of your mind by tapping into your generative power. You seek to reflect the constellations of thought and map them. There are benefits to this thought cartography. In an online compendium of research, the benefits of concept mapping are clear. These strategies have a thought-mapping component that requires students to recall information.

As I create a concept map, an outline, or take notes, I am full of questions that may include:

Should I build my understanding around this main idea?
Is this the main idea? What are the supporting or related concepts?
How do the main idea and the supporting ideas connect to what I already know?
How can I best represent or arrange ideas to reflect what I know and what I am learning?

This self-interrogation is ever-present and appears in all the strategies that involve diagramming and concept mapping. Paste in a text selection (200 or so words) to be turned into a concept map into yEd LIVE. yEd LIVE will use ChatGPT to summarize and create the map. Of course, it is more effective if students make the map and connect it to what they know.

yEd LIVE example dagram prompt — Screenshot by author, yEd LIVE

yEd LIVE Diagram — Screenshot by author, yEd LIVE AI-created map

Want to Learn More?

Want to learn more? Here is an infographic that can help you kick off your exploration.

Information on Outlining and Summarizing — Created by the author

Click here to make a copy!

Summarization and outlining are proven ways to help students retain information and learn deeply. These strategies can be used across a variety of subjects and content areas. Which of these activities will you use in your classroom? Leave us a comment to let us know how it goes.

November 28, 2023 0 comment

Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Learning_Wikipedia_together_at_the_Schomburg.JPG

Content Areas Educational Research Good Teaching

TCEA Responds: Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

by Miguel Guhlin August 23, 2023

written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

How do you go about strengthening Tier 1 instruction while also addressing Tier 2/3 needs with a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS)? Share best practices!

Thanks, Lucinda

Dear Lucinda,

Thanks so much for this insightful question. I recently read that if your Tier 1 instruction includes over 800 students, you need to improve. That is, improve your Tier 3 instruction. Let’s do a quick review of the three levels of instruction. I always have trouble remembering which is which!

The Three Tiers

The three tiers of instruction are as follows:

Tier 1: Core Classroom Instruction. This is the instruction that all students get. It’s high-quality classroom-wide instruction and support.
Tier 2: Targeted Small Group Instruction. This is instruction tailored to the needs of specific student groups. This instruction seeks to address a student’s gaps in skills.
Tier 3: Intensive Individual Intervention. This involves instruction for students in small groups or one-to-one. Intensive support is provided often and in smaller groups.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) defines multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) as a “framework that focuses on intervention best practices.” It works “within the areas of academics, behavior, and social/emotional supports.” This framework addresses the need of the “whole child” and is centered around student needs.

“The goal of MTSS is to find struggling students early and provide intervention.”

Interventions have to align with available research. Progress monitoring data suggests what movement, if any, there should be between tiers.

Image Source: Dept. of Education, Massachusetts

Strengthening Tier 1 Instruction

It’s easy to see that evidence-based instructional strategies work well. Many educators may be unfamiliar with how to use evidence-based strategies. That is, how to use them to ensure student success.

Per the American Institutes for Research’s MTSS Center, here are some recommendations:

Use evidence-based practices that yield desired outcomes
Assess how effective the core program is for students struggling
Supplement with additional programs or materials (source)

They also suggest that teachers build in the following elements:

Daily small group instruction
Increase opportunities for students to respond and receive feedback
Maximized engagements by using prompts

TCEA Solutions

Some suggestions you may find helpful appear below. While I am tempted to offer Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO) to assist you in planning Tier 1, 2, and 3 interventions, you may want more.

I keep coming back to Peter Drucker.In a previous blog entry. I quote him and then share some suggestions:

“The largest and easiest gains in knowledge work come from redefining the task. They involve eliminating what need not be done,” says Peter Drucker. Didn’t get the results you want? Prune the unnecessary. Stop doing anything and everything that fails to move you towards those results. Are you a principal focused on achieving innovative learning? How you get there varies. (source).

Consider these offerings below from TCEA:

Tier 1: Supporting Universal or Core Instruction in a MTSS

TCEA has a variety of TechNotes articles focused on evidence-based instructional strategies. You can use ALDO to see how they can fit together to enhance behavior (e.g. social-emotional learning). Also, how to impact surface, deep, and transfer learning, as well as feedback.

Here is a short list of additional TechNotes resources:

Also, a list of TCEA online courses:

Tier 2: Targeted Small Group Instruction in a MTSS

Some additional TechNotes articles:

Relevant online courses:

What else do you think might be useful? How would you have responded to this TCEA Responds query? Let us know in the comments.

August 23, 2023 2 comments

Content Creation Educational Research

Micro-Reflections: Crafting Reflections in the Moment

by Miguel Guhlin June 1, 2023

written by Miguel Guhlin

How do you reflect on your daily work? Reflection can be a bit daunting. After a long day’s work, you may stagger home, plop on the couch, and pass out. You know reflecting on your day is important, but waiting until the day’s end is too hard.

What Are the Benefits of Reflection?

Reflecting on what you do, what you learn, or what you fail to do or learn, remains critical. The benefits of reflection include:

Engaging in a thoughtful relationship with life
Becoming active and awakening to one’s lived experiences
Gaining insights from asking oneself tough questions, resulting in a more active rather than a passive, non-reflective state

What’s more, reflective practice allows teachers to:

Move from experiencing a lesson to understanding what happened and why
Challenge the underlying principles and beliefs that define the way that you work
Adapt in a quicker manner to sudden change
Improve the way you learn and do work
Be authentic and honest about growth, success, and failure

Some suggest that the process of education is about cultivating a reflective practice. You could adapt Mark Twain’s famous quote about reading to reflect in this way:

“An educated person who does not reflect has no advantage over the person who lacks an education yet engages in daily reflection.”

Self-Judgment and Reflection

Research indicates that when students do a few specific things, they can speed up growth. John Hattie refers to Self-Judgment and Reflection as having an effect size of 0.75. This is a bit better than Reciprocal Teaching (d=0.74).

The Visible Learning MetaX database describes this introspective strategy in this way:

Self-judgement is a critical component of independent, self- directed learning. Students can often over- or underestimate their own capabilities. Teachers should cultivate in students the ability to apply standards to their own work. Researchers have pressed the importance of a student’s ability to do the following: 1) reflect on her work; 2) discern its relationship to established standards, and 3) make self-judgements.

Two strategies anyone can use include cultivating metacognition and devising short quizzes. That is, thinking about thinking and quizzing yourself about what you’ve learned.

What Are Micro-Reflections?

As I get older, I’m always on the lookout to reflect along the way. This is a far better approach than waiting until the end of the day. I call these reflections about experiences along the way “micro-reflections.” How do you engage in micro-reflections?

To assist in developing micro-reflections, I carry a small notebook with me. In it, I will share what I’ve learned and what my first impressions and beliefs are about it. Let’s take a look at one approach to reflecting.

Get a copy of all images shown via Google Slides. Inspired by The Actiope Model. Learn more online.

Adopt a Process

This process below starts with you. It is always about you when you are reflecting. You learn how to own your actions, and what actions are not yours. In the end, you can only change yourself and learn from others, whether they intended to teach or not. You can get started reflecting with this one-pager. Let’s walk through each part together.

Inventory Beliefs, Emotions, and Biases

Once I encounter new information or knowledge, I interrupt my reaction. I ask myself how I see that reaction affected by my own emotional state and biases. This helps me inventory my biases, a critical first reaction to new knowledge or ideas. This is valuable because I’m often irritated when encountering an idea because it often runs contrary to what I already know. My goal is to shed the irritation and focus on the new idea to understand it better.

Impact on Actions

Then, I write down what the impact of that knowledge or idea might be on my space or my sphere of influence.

Impact on the World

This penultimate step is tough, because it requires me to ask what am I prepared to do to change the world. Some days, I’m not prepared, or I’m only prepared to do something small – like write a blog entry or chat with a colleague.

Wrapping It Up

This is the tough part, and it may be a few hours or days before I come back to do this. Making up a quiz about what you’ve learned can help you remember it. Make up the quiz when the information is fresh, then let it sit for a day or two. When you take the multiple choice quiz later, it will help you retrieve the information in your head.

Using the Reflection Heuristic

The idea behind this reflection heuristic is simple. It’s essentially a formula for reflecting. After a while, it gets easier to do because you do it every day. With micro-reflections, you get to go through the process several times a day.

People ask me, “How do you write about so much?” My answer is that I take a look at the notes I write first, then follow this process to share one thing I have learned. In a short time, you can amass a lot of ideas, write a reflection, and then a week or month later, reflect on your original reflection. This makes it fun to discover, “How have I grown (or not) relevant to this piece of information that was wonderful enough to write down?”

Give it a try.

June 1, 2023 0 comment

Educational Research Good Teaching

The Self-Directed Learner: Embracing Self-Judgment and Reflection

by Miguel Guhlin January 22, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

Want to encourage attributes of independent, self-directed learning? Then you will want to cultivate in your students an attitude and practice of reflection. Their ability to reflect on their work and measure progress towards standards is critical. In this blog entry, you will learn about some research on the power of reflection.

Pull the Curtain of Mystery Back for Reflection

“What worked? What didn’t? How could I do it better next time?” Those three questions were the sum of my early attempts at reflection. But I didn’t get to deeper questions until later in my career.

Reflection is something I didn’t know much about as an educator. It was not a practice I encouraged students to engage in. As a writing teacher, my goal was to get students into peer conferencing to ask tough questions that would result in revisions and re-organization of pieces.

Now, research shows that when students do a few specific things, they have the potential to speed their own growth. John Hattie refers to Self-judgment and Reflection as having an effect size of 0.75. This is a bit better than Reciprocal Teaching (d=0.74). The Visible Learning MetaX database describes this introspective strategy in this way:

Self-judgement is a critical component of independent, self- directed learning. Students can often over- or underestimate their own capabilities. Teachers should cultivate in students the ability to apply standards to their own work.

Researchers have pressed the importance of a student’s ability to do the following:

1) reflect on her work; 2) discern its relationship to established standards, and 3) make self-judgements.

But how can students engage in self-judgment and reflection? What strategies might they use and how can teachers support them?

Clarifying Strategies

Meta-analyses suggest two strategies to model for students. Those strategies include:

Cultivate metacognitive knowledge instruction in students
Use self-developed tests

As you may know, metacognition is “the process of thinking about thinking.” It involves “reflecting on personal habits, knowledge, and approaches to learning” (source). Self-developed tests involve students crafting their own low-stakes quizzes or assessments.

Let’s take a look at some specific approaches you can use.

Approach #1: Confusion Spotlight

Strategy: Metacognition

Ask students to reflect on what they were learning that day. For any area that seems unclear or confusing, ask them to shine a spotlight on it. They can jot these ideas down in a notebook, put them on a post it or index card, or type them into a digital document, and then turn them in.

Marine, Tales from a Very Busy Teacher, suggests using self-assessment bins:

Students turn in their work into one of these bins depending on their level of understanding. It does take a lot of positive culture building, as well as trust, to help students feel comfortable when turning in their work to these bins.

After the first few weeks of school, students know the system and feel confident when turning in their work. It also makes grading a lot easier, as well as pulling students back for small group reteach or extension.

As you can see, Marine relies on the cards to structure reteach groups or get ideas for lesson extensions.

Approach #2: Chalk Talk Activity

Strategy: Metacognition

A silent activity, the Chalk Talk fosters thoughtful contemplation among students. Goals include reflecting on a question or ideas, commenting, and solving problems. Use this approach with a traditional chalkboard, whiteboard, or digital equivalent.

Chalk Talk includes a four step process:

1. Explain that Chalk Talk is a silent activity (no speaking at all). Students learn they can:

Write comments on others’ ideas

Draw connecting lines from comment to another’s idea, or

Respond to questions.

2. Facilitator writes a question on board, then circles it. (See some sample questions below.)

3. All students have a way of writing on the “Chalk Board.”

4. The facilitator can interact by circling other interesting ideas. You can also invite comments and questions or reflections by drawing additional circles around student ideas.

This is a great activity for students to do alone. You can also adapt it for small groups. One student may serve as the “recorder” sharing insights from their team. You can do it in isolation or with a collaborative tool. Collective, class-wide experiences are also engaging.

Finally, there are many electronic or online whiteboard solutions you can use. Three to consider include:

You can also rely on a graphic organizer/semantic mapping tool. Those might include solutions such as Google Drawings, yED Live, or Bubbl.us. Each allows for student collaboration.

Approach #3: Capacity Matrix

Strategy: Metacognition

Use a capacity matrix that outlines key learning targets from the lesson. Right after the lesson begins, ask students to gauge their current knowledge. You can do this with a fist to five Jamboard or use a paper document.

Get fist to five Jamboard template

Marine, Tales from a Very Busy Teacher, shares her insights. She recommends creating learning target cards. Her goal is to make learning targets as visible as possible. As you might suppose, this combines with the powerful Teacher Clarity strategy that focuses students on understanding the learning goal(s).

“…self-assessment tickets help students self reflect and self regulate while they’re learning. I call them “Learning Target Tickets” with my students. They’re pretty simple to use and be used for any lesson, in any content area” (source).

Marine offers these tips for using the learning target tickets:

After the engagement activity or attention grabber, state the learning goal.
Ask students to write it down on their tickets. Then they can self-assess their level of learning in the “before lesson” column. This is a capacity matrix. I like Marine’s innovation of before lesson/after lesson/teacher analysis. Those rows are something worth incorporating in classroom practice.
When the lesson ends, ask students to rate their grasp of the new content in the after lesson column.
Ask students to write a short reflection on the lesson.

Afterwards, ask students to share their biggest growth area or reflection. These could be text-based like what Marine makes available to buy. Or you could mix it up a bit with audio (e.g. Vocaroo, Mote), or video (e.g. Flipgrid) options.

Approach #4: Interrogate Your Process

Strategy: Metacognition

Interrogating your process results in valuable information. It can also be painful to try to work through it without external questions. That’s important, though, because you need to be self-judgmental. That is, you need to measure your process against an external standard. Rubrics are helpful for this. So are questions that students can ask themselves.

Here are a few metacognitive questions with that aim in mind. Consider these below, an excerpt of the complete list:

What process did you go through to produce this piece?
What problems did you encounter while you were working on this piece? How did you solve them?
What resources did you use while working on this piece? Which ones were especially helpful? Which ones would you use again?
Did you meet your standards? Did your goals for this product change?
In what ways did your work meet (and not meet) the standards for this assignment?

You can find more in this longer question set.

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Approach #5: Pupil, Test Thyself

Strategy: Self-Developed Tests

This final approach to fostering self-judgment and reflection includes student-created assessments. There are a multitude of digital tools you can make available to your students.

Since I have addressed this in other blog entries, I won’t do more than point you to some of them below:

Give these approaches a try when fostering reflection and self-judgment in your classroom. The gains are worth the effort for students.

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January 22, 2022 0 comment

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