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Teaching with Primary Sources

by Miguel Guhlin March 3, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

I recently read Dr. James Loewen’s book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me.” With this book, I saw my illusions of history crumble. During my high school history classes, I loved the stories Brother Blake and Brother Sobel at Central Catholic High told. Unlike others in class, I made straight 100s on pop quizzes and tests. And like many Americans, I never gave those stories another thought.

History’s truths weren’t reflected in what I learned in history class, though.

I discovered these when reading works like Clint Smith’s “How the Word is Passed” and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s “An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States.”

Teaching History Today

Now, in the midst of talks of banning books and tensions surrounding what can be taught and can not be taught, it’s not an easy time to be a history teacher. How do you teach the truth about history and meet the state standards using secondary sources that may or may not be factual? With this question in mind, I asked a regional education specialist as we sat at an Exhibit Hall table during TCEA 2022 Convention and Exposition. I’ve changed her name to keep her anonymous, and I will refer to her as Kristin.

Recommendations for Teaching History

“What’s the best approach, Kristin?” I asked.

“Want to teach history? You have to realize it’s a lot of ground to cover,” she said. “And teachers are legally required to teach the TEKS.”

“But are the textbooks even accurate? In these times, how can history teachers ensure they’re aren’t teaching stories that fall short of the truth?” I countered. Textbooks fall into secondary sources that retell and interpret events.

“Teaching out of a textbook…robs the students not only of critical-thinking skills, but also of the richness of history, and the other voices that are there,” says history teacher, Liz Ramos. (source)

Kristin recommends:

Focusing on a specific period, relying on the TEKS to guide you, and using tools like these:
- Lead4ward
- TEKS Resource
Encouraging cooperative learning and classroom discussions
Defining key vocabulary
Taking a hard look at the “raw materials of history”– primary sources

“The way to teach history is with primary sources,” Kristin said.

This makes sense, doesn’t it? Focus on primary sources and get students to discuss their perceptions and perspectives. It reminds me of how another teacher of mine taught religion class– never share your own opinion, only invite students to interrogate the information available.

Primary sources are the raw materials of history. They are original documents, objects, and artifacts that were created during the period of time being studied. They differ from secondary sources. Secondary sources are accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events. Usually, these appear after the events and period of history being studied. (Adapted from source)

Approaching History with Primary Sources

But what’s the best way of approaching the oceans of human history?

A challenge I imagine one might have is uncovering how to best teach history using primary sources. Textbooks align with the curriculum but primary sources present an unvarnished version of what happened. Students plug that into their brains, discuss with peers, then draw conclusions. There’s real value for educators in becoming curators of quality primary sources.

“The truth of the matter is education is political,” says Tinisha Shaw. She suggests that each teacher create curated lists of materials they’ve vetted, “primary sources and secondary sources that hit particular themes [to be] discuss[ed].”

Dr. James Loewen suggests (source as cited) questions to apply to secondary sources:

When was the secondary source created?
Who created it, included or omitted from the account? Are they treated as heroes or villains?
Why was it created? What were their ideological needs and social purposes?
What was/is the intended audience? How does the account change if it includes powerful people or institutions? What do other sources say?
How could the story differ if a different group had told it? How is the story received? Forgotten or remembered? Accurate account or less than accurate?

This is a lot of questions and perspectives to juggle. It’s the perfect situation to rely on two powerful high-effect strategies. Those include the Jigsaw Method in the context of a Problem-Solving Teaching lesson.

With all this in mind, the teacher’s role becomes one of “orchestrator.” The teacher organizes the sources and then has a process– a process that involves students comparing perspectives. Here are three approaches you can take to teaching with primary resources.

Image Source: Matt Doran, Historiography for the Secondary Social Studies Classroom

Approach #1: Historiography

This approach involves understanding changing interpretations of past events. In this case, students can follow a step-by-step guide to creating a historiography. Those steps may involve:

Identifying a Topic. Students can create a concept map to explore past events and how others have interpreted them. You can use concept mapping tools like CMAP Tools that make it easy to embed links, and links can go directly to primary sources.
Creating a bibliography. This can include book reviews, books, article anthologies, videos, and periodicals.
Assessing Perspectives. Map out the perspectives presented. Be sensitive to how authors represent events and determine and identify bias.
Crafting a historiography. Create a chronological timeline, tracing changes over time, and identifying perspectives. Make a note of each topic and how interpretations have changed over time. (Adapted from source.)

Approach #2: Four Question Method (4QM)

In the 4QM, students work to engage in four acts:

Narration
Interpretation
Explanation
Judgment

Each act comes with a question:

Narration- What happened?
Interpretation – What were they thinking?
Explanation – Why then and there?
Judgment – What do we think about that?

This approach enables students to process key information. Students make connections. They link what they are studying and their own thoughts on what’s happened. Explore the Four Question Method (4QM) online on the authors’ website.

Approach #3: Curating a Collection

Create and curate a collection of trusted primary courses with students. Know about the APART method (watch video)? It’s an approach that involves looking at:

A – Author

P – Prior knowledge

A – Audience

R – Reason/purpose

T – The message

Another approach you could choose to use is the OPVL technique (watch video) and the OPVL site:

O – Origin

P – Purpose

V – Value

L – Limitation

Where Can I Find Primary Sources?

Now that you have some ways of analyzing historical documents, what primary sources are available? Ample resources exist for teaching with primary sources, and you can find a list in this Wakelet collection.

View Wakelet Collection – https://tinyurl.com/yd2rmoak

Teaching history with primary sources works. It works because it focuses on what happened, who did what, and why. And, more importantly, it challenges students to think in a critical manner about how interpretations of history have changed to fit the needs of the powerful. How have you used or will you use primary sources in your history class?

March 3, 2022 2 comments

Powerful and Easy Digital Tools for Formative Assessment

by Miguel Guhlin February 9, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

Interwoven into instruction, assessment has many benefits. Its biggest benefit? Aiding students and teachers in closing the learning gap. In the Fall of 2021, I attended TCEA’s Campus Technology Specialist Academy (CTSA). One of the sessions, led by Destiny Wagner and Kristofer Thurston, offered several gems related to using digital tools for formative assessment. These gems became some of my favorite takeaways. But before diving deeper into the tools, let’s take a look at formative assessment.

digital assessment — Reach out to Destiny Wagner (email: edtechdestiny@gmail.com) for more info on their excellent session.

What Is Formative Assessment?

In the Amazing Learning Design Outline (ALDO), I highlight the importance of assessment. Assessment is critical to crafting feedback that closes the learning gap. That gap, of course, is between where the student is now and where they need to be. Did you know that formative assessment can double student learning gains? Formative assessment is an ongoing, low-stakes assessment that provides such feedback to both students and teachers regularly. In other words, to gauge where students are in their learning, they must be assessed before, during, and after learning. And these assessments can tie into a wide variety of strategies.

It is also important to note that students are active collaborators in closing this gap since they are involved in the formative assessment process. Some have organized a list of assessment criteria teachers can use, and you can read the complete list in this online document (PDF). But today we’ll focus on assessments that I’ve grouped into understanding checks, checklists, and self-assessment tools.

Get PDF version – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R4LmCIqn6vuupDer7478Vww0X3tu14j_/view?usp=sharing

When working with students, keep these three tips in mind when providing feedback:

1. Ask the four questions:

What can the student do?
What can’t the student do?
How does the student’s work compare with that of others?
How can the student do better?

2. Take advantage of single-point rubrics to convey expectations.

3. Connect the feedback language you use to specific success criteria. One example might be, “How will I know I have learned this?” Be sure to share that feedback at the start of the lesson (adapted from source).

Group 1: Understanding Checks

Checks for understanding are one aspect of formative assessment. ASCD even published a book on the topic. It can be defined as:

The frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding. These checks for understanding identify learning needs. They also allow the teacher to track and adjust teaching.
Adapted from Source: Todd Finley’s Dipsticks to Check for Understanding via Edutopia.org

An example of a type of understanding check is the pre-assessment. The goal of pre-assessment is to discover what students know and to identify what they need to learn. Students can use these to set learning goals and also predict how well they will do.

One idea for formative checks for understanding also comes from Dataworks’ TAPPLE concept:

(T)each first
(A)sk a specific question
(P)ause, Pair-Share, and Point
(P)ick a random non-volunteer
(L)isten to the Response
(E)ffective Feedback

Are you already thinking of some ways you could use digital tools to (A)sk a specific question about what students have learned, or to (P)ause, Pair-share, and Point?

Since digital tools are flexible and can be used for a wide variety of purposes, they may lend themselves well to checks for understanding. In their session, Destiny and Kristofer shared several powerful and easy digital tools that could be used for understanding checks. Among those tools shared were:

Baamboozle. A versatile tool that students can use to create or participate in a wide variety of games. View video.

Mentimeter. Provides student polling and creates open-ended results in word clouds out of responses. View video.
Pear Deck. Perform “on the fly” assessments with social- emotional health check-ins. It works well with a variety of Google and Microsoft Office products. View video.
Plickers. Print coded cards that students can use. The teacher relies on a free app to scan student cards. The direction of the card shows students’ response. View video.
Poll Everywhere. Assess students with a simple poll. View video.
Socrative. Set up multiple choice, true/false, or short answer assessments. View results in real time via a teacher dashboard. View video.
StrawPoll. Create easy-to-embed, mobile-friendly polls students can complete. View video.

StrawPoll has become one of my new favorites but others at TCEA rely on Gimkit, Kahoot, Quizziz, and Quizlet. Of course, there are others, such as EdPuzzle, Playposit, and more.

Adapted from David Perkins (2003) The Ladder of Feedback and John Hattie (2014) The Power of Feedback | Get Your Own Copy.

Group 2: Checklists

Use checklists and rubrics to identify and clarify success criteria for students. Think of success criteria as a to-do list for learning intentions. This short twelve minute video can provide some background on success criteria.

One easy tool you can use to create a checklist is simply Google Sheets. Here’s a quick video on how to do that:

You can also create rubrics for students directly in Google Classroom. Here is a quick six minute video on how this can be done.

Group 3: Self-Assessment Tools

Self-assessment tools are used by students to take their own measure. As you might imagine, many of the digital tools shared so far would also work well for this purpose.

Becton Loveless offers these suggestions for students designing their own assessments:

Explain what self-assessment is and why it matters
Show a model of what it looks like, preferably from previous students
Teach students different strategies of self-assessment
Have students practice creating assessments, then discuss as a group
Conference with students throughout the process

Becton also offers several low-tech examples that may get you thinking. Among those examples you can adapt and use digitally, consider these:

For example, PBIS Rewards offers several ways to create rubrics online. My top three in that list include iRubric, Rubistar, and Teachnology Rubric Generator. And a web search on rubrics will yield many PDF-based rubrics.

Choosing a Digital Tool

Which tool you decide to use will depend on the depth of complexity and funding you have available. For example, Mentimeter, StrawPoll, Plickers are free. With the others, there may be costs associated depending on the features you want. The important point to remember is that creating low-stakes assessments is your focus, and these assessments should always connect to the learning objectives.

Feature Image Source

Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

February 9, 2022 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.

Created by author. Get a copy

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.

Feature Image Source

Created by author. Get a copy

January 22, 2022 0 comment

Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO) created by author

Educational Research Good Teaching

Meet ALDO: Amazing Lesson Design Outline

by Miguel Guhlin January 11, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

Ever wish you had an easy-to-follow checklist when designing learning for students? I know I have…often. Some of my colleagues effortlessly design amazing lessons, but I have to plod through each point. But lesson design is something that is critical to ultimate success in the classroom for each student. That’s why I’d like to take a moment to share my latest version of the outline I use. At the end, you will find a custom GPT you can use to get an AI spin on ALDO.

You can also explore this choice board organized with the outline in mind:

ALDO Choice Board — **Get your own copy**

As you work through this list, ask yourself, “What schema or plan do I follow?” If you show me your district’s mandated lesson plan format, well, that may not get the job done. At the end of this blog entry, I’ll share a heuristic, a Google Doc, that you can use. I like it because it combines many resources in one place and works to help you more efficiently plan your lesson design.

For now, let’s work through the major components of my Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO). Ready? Let’s get started.

Did You Know?

Robert M. Gagne’s Theory of Instruction (1965) offers some suggestions worth revisiting. He divides instruction into nine events. Those events include 1) Gaining attention; 2) Informing learners of objectives; 3) Stimulating recall of prior learning; 4) Presenting the stimulus; 5) Providing learning guidance; 6) Eliciting performance; 7) Providing feedback; 8) Assessing performance; and, 9) Enhancing retention and transfer. You might also enjoy Mike Schmoker’s Focus: Elevating the Essentials visual or Madeline Hunter’s version. Some prefer the Gradual Release Model. When considering amazing lesson design, it’s important to remember this is well-traveled ground. Find what inspires you.

“Teachers must place a strong emphasis on rigor, relevance, but most of all, on developing relationships with children,” says Dr. Asa Hiliard, former Director of Urban Studies at Georgia State University. I’ve seen this firsthand. Let me share that with you.

Watching my wife, a masterful second grade teacher, you’d never guess she had an outline. Her lesson design first includes building powerful relationships with her students. It has her finding out what TV shows they like, what they like to eat, their life story, and building connections through an ongoing conversation with her class. She focuses in to connect academic content to specific students. Her approach leaves me in awe. When she asks her students to get to work, they do. When it’s time to behave, they do.

The first part of my lesson design outline? It’s build relationships. As Dr. James Comer (Yale University) says:

No significant learning can occur without a significant relationships of mutual respect, teacher to student.

“Brain-based learning can positively impact student motivation, attitudes and academic achievement,” say researchers. Without relationships, students won’t trust what you have to say. Absent powerful relationships between students, you have no community. And that would be a tragedy because of the next step.

2 – Assessment

As coaches and teachers, we have to, as Dr. John Hattie says, “Know our impact.” If you don’t know where students are, you will be unable to give them feedback on future growth. Worse, students won’t be able to self-regulate their own learning when given feedback. Students have to be clear on what they are to know and do. They have to know where they stand in their own learning relevant to growth.

To gauge where students are in their learning, you need to assess them before, during, and after. And those assessments can be low-stakes. They can tie into a wide variety of strategies that are proven to work, including retrieval practice and spaced vs massed practice. They can also rely on a wide variety of digital tools designed for that purpose.

Tip: You may want to use the SOLO Taxonomy to chart student growth. Learn more about SOLO via this blog entry.

3 – Teaching and Learning

The first step for those savvy with brain-based learning research is to engage students. Once you have figured how to best engage students, give thought to another question.

“What high-impact approaches align to the learning intention?” That’s a question that kept me up and reading. How can we align effective, evidence-based strategies to students’ learning needs? You can find a variety of evidence-based, high-effect size strategies that you can use at the best time.

Remember, only rely on one strategy at a time. For example, don’t try to put in place two teaching strategies like direct instruction and flipped classroom. Pick one. The same for students. Avoid trying to teach students to do concept mapping and outlining at the same time. Focus on one until you and your students can do it really well.

Social Media Response to ALDO

Thanks to those of you on social media who have shared ALDO with others. Here’s what some of you are saying:

Fantastic visual representation of the stages of learning and using a critical lense when creating lesson experiences! I can’t wait to use this with our new Ts as they continue to deepen their thinking abt. teaching/learning. Thx! via Meg Burke

Thank you for this wonderful resource! I’m definitely sharing it with my teachers! After having a coaching conversation this morning with a teacher about her PBL lessons, this is a great resource for deep and transfer teaching/learning with intentional design. TY via Myla Lee

The “Amazing Lesson Design Outline” (ALDO) created by Miguel Guhlin @mguhlin for @TCEA features mountains of terrific teaching strategies intuitively organized. Wow! https://bit.ly/3A99v6M via Todd Finley

Great distinction between Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning. via LanguageTeachingLab

Did You Know?

Get a guided introduction to Hattie’s work via the TCEA Strategies That Work courses. What’s more, you get powerful videos, a $49 TCEA membership, and CPE hours for the same or less than buying a book. You have fifteen courses to choose from, including the latest Evidence-Based Teaching course.
The Evidence-Based Teaching course provides a detailed walkthrough of the Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO), including the research underpinnings. It’s the perfect way to introduce your instructional coaches, teachers, and administrators to research that works. Participants earn 12 CPE hours, a digital badge, and certificate upon completion.

4 – Assess and Gauge Progress

As you did in Step Two, take a moment to re-assess students. Discover where they are in relation to the learning objective(s). You can rely on existing goals.

A Cry for Help: I Can’t Form an Online Community

An email request for help came in the other day. My diagnosis? The teachers had not put in place (yet) what they needed to create a sense of community. As a result, it made everything they tried to do difficult. My prescription? Intensify relationship-building efforts with teachers and students. Also, put into place the following tips:

1- Model for teachers social and emotional learning opportunities for virtual classroom use appropriate for the middle school students.

2- Set up criteria, such as a rubric, not as a staff assessment but, for a self-assessment checklist teachers can use when planning lessons. That checklist is the Amazing Learning Design Outline (ALDO) that appears later in this blog entry.

3-Adapt evidence-based strategies to support instruction. For example, this includes direct instruction, jigsaw for introducing concepts and ideas, classroom discussion and/or reciprocal teaching for digging deeper, problem-based teaching, and self-reported grades. Remember, use only one strategy at a time depending on the learning intention.

4-Implement coaching for results. I like Diane Sweeney’s model and suggest you explore the Coaching for Results series (Parts Three, Four, and Five are relevant here). Diane Sweeney has a handy one-pager that is designed to assist coaches with teacher work. It incorporates formative assessments, including entry/exit tickets.

5 – Reflect

Make sure to take some time to reflect on what worked and what did not for both you and your students. What role did technology play in enhancing teaching and learning? You might also ask yourself, What could I do differently next time? How can I assist students in becoming more metacognitive about their own learning experience?

Remember that reflection isn’t only for you as the teacher. It is also for students to engage in.

Get ALDO, the Amazing Lesson Design Outline

Ready to get the ALDO? Keep it by your side as you are planning a lesson or preparing activities. The links to digital tools and resources will soon become gateways to new ideas.

Let’s take a moment to walk through the creation of the prompt via video:

Test the ALDO Coach GPT

Update 1/20/2024: Please note that ALDO has been updated with the latest effect sizes from the Visible Learning MetaX database, and converted to Canva format (Canva is free for educators). Feel free to make copies and share widely so long as credit is given as indicated and original authors (cited in bibliography on page one) remain included.

Get a copy of ALDO v2 (shown above) | View Full Size

Want to view the OLD ALDO v1? Use these links: View the ALDO v1 | Get a Copy of v1

January 11, 2022 0 comment

Educational Research

Why It May Be Time to Dump Bloom’s Taxonomy

by Lori Gracey December 9, 2021

written by Lori Gracey

Over my 40-year career in education, I have come to recognize that what I was taught back in college about being an effective teacher is not necessarily true today. It’s not just because times have changed (they have), students have changed (they have), or the world has changed (it has). It’s because, over the past 30 years, more research has been done on what works best in teaching and learning than in all the years before that. And the results of all of that research are startling, to say the least. One of the most astonishing findings has to do with the value of following Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The History of Bloom’s

The taxonomy was created in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom and some of his colleagues as a way to leave behind behaviorist theories of learning that were being used at the time (memorization, rote learning) and embrace higher-order thinking skills. They incorporated aspects of cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor domains into the taxonomy to make it more all-encompassing. It was a radical change in how educators were taught to teach. Then, in 2001, Anderson and Krathwohl offered a revision to Bloom’s, indicating that “in the cognitive domain, creation appears as a higher-order process as compared to evaluation.”

Bloom’s Taxonomy is easy to implement. We are all familiar with the “verb chart” that lets us select the level of thinking we want our students to work at. We pick a content standard, decide what level it is best learned at, find a verb at that level in the chart, create the learning activity, and we’re done. But is this approach still valid today?

Bloom's

Why Bloom’s May Not Be the Best Approach

The first reason to reconsider using Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom has to do with how the brain works. Thinking does not operate within hierarchies (as outlined in the taxonomy). All of these “levels” happen simultaneously in a variety of places in the brain.

The second reason to stop relying on Bloom’s is that it was created before rigorous research into its effectiveness was put in place. At more than 60 years old, the taxonomy is simply not supported by any empirical research on learning. The only piece of this hierarchical approach that is validated today is the existence of factual-conceptual knowledge, often called prior knowledge. But there is no clear research on its basic assumption that there are lower- and higher-order thinking skills. The brain doesn’t look at a problem to be solved and decide that it only needs a lower-order process.

The third reason Bloom’s may not be the approach you want to follow in your classroom has to do with new research on the social relation of persons in the creation of knowledge. The taxonomy does not consider the learner and the differences that each learner brings to the table. Motivation, their intellectual values, their past experiences with the content, their differences in cognitive processing: none of these are considered. The approach is based on the belief that all learners are at the same place in their learning, which is inherently false. In short, Bloom’s Taxonomy focuses on abstract cognitive domains and not on the individual learner. It is teacher-centered and not student-centered.

Conclusions to Take Away and Next Steps

I realize that this blog may shock some educators. And for that, I’m sorry. But we want to put our time, effort, and focus into instructional strategies and approaches that we know will work best for our students. And I believe that we must stay current with what the latest (and verified!) research says in order to do so.

So what might your next steps be? Make time to examine what the latest and best research says about effective teaching and learning. TCEA has a series of blogs on instructional strategies that have been proven to work, as well as several online, self-paced courses that will help you dive into how to apply the best approaches in your classroom. Be open to new ideas and new ways to help your students master the content. Question the strategies that are your “favorites” and ensure that they are based on valid, current research. And talk with your colleagues and administrators about getting more professional learning on the most effective teaching methods.

Research and Supporting Articles

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective. Annual Review Of Psychology, 52(1), 1
Bandura, A. (2006). Toward a Psychology of Human Agency. Perspectives on Psychological Science, (2). 164.
Barney, Jason (2021). Breaking Down the Bad of Bloom’s: The False Objectivity of Education as a Modern Social Science.
Berger, Ron (2018). Here’s What’s Wrong with Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Deeper Learning Perspective.
Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.
Briñol, P., & DeMarree, K. G. (2012). Social metacognition. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Case, Roland (2013). The Unfortunate Consequences of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Motivation, personality, and development within embedded social contexts: An overview of self-determination theory. In R. M. Ryan (Ed.), Oxford handbook of human motivation (pp. 85-107). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Efklides, A. (2006). Metacognition and affect: What can metacognitive experiences tell us about the learning process? Educational Research Review, 13-14.
Kim, Y. R., Park, M. S., Moore, T. J., & Varma, S. (2013). Multiple levels of metacognition and their elicitation through complex problem-solving tasks. The Journal Of Mathematical Behavior, 32(3), 377-396.
Schraw, G., & Moshman, D. (1995). Metacognitive Theories. Educational Psychology Review, (4). 351.
Schraw, G., Crippen, K. J., & Hartley, K. (2006). Promoting Self-Regulation in Science Education: Metacognition as Part of a Broader Perspective on Learning. Research In Science Education, 36(1-2), 111-139.

December 9, 2021 9 comments

Announcements/Important Dates Technical Support

Educational Technology Appreciation Day: December 8, 2021

by Jennifer Bergland December 6, 2021

written by Jennifer Bergland

Thinking about Educational Technology Appreciation Day brings a distinct memory to my mind. It was 30 years ago, and I was in my classroom staring at my Macintosh Classic computer screen.

To be honest, it was so long ago I don’t remember exactly what was wrong with the computer. I just remember the panic I felt when I saw the screen. Was I going to lose ALL of my work? I knew there was only one person who could help me: Henry. I ran down to the teachers’ lounge to call him. He was one of two computer repair technicians that worked for the school district at that time, and he was located at the district’s maintenance office. When he picked up the phone, I quickly told him what was wrong. He quickly said, “Whatever you do, don’t….” Again, it’s been a long time, so I can’t exactly remember what he told me not to do! But I remember that I let a student try to troubleshoot my computer before I called Henry (big mistake), and that student had done exactly what Henry told me NOT to do. Ugh!

He said he’d be right over. It wasn’t too long before Henry arrived, and sure enough, he knew exactly what to do. Henry took those types of calls daily. He quietly went from school to school, helping teachers, administrators, and office personnel with whatever kind of technology problems they were facing.

Ed Tech Staff Is Vital

There are thousands of “Henrys” across the state of Texas. Every school district has employees who help their students and staff with a myriad of technology issues. These activities range from training on a new software application or device to telephone assistance, network outages, device repair, or software glitches. Since I made that desperate call to Henry in the early 1990s, our dependence on technology has only increased. These employees are essential to the instructional success of our students and the business operation of a district. This is why TCEA is proud to sponsor Educational Technology Appreciation Day on December 8. We celebrate this day every year on the Wednesday of Computer Science Week, which is December 6-12 this year.

Ideas for Ed Tech Appreciation

To generate ideas for honoring these employees, I asked the TCEA staff and some technology directors for suggestions on expressing gratitude and appreciation to all the “Henrys” in your district. Below is a compilation of their recommendations.

Food

Who doesn’t love treats? You could provide:

Jars with snacks (healthy and/or candy)
Popcorn (a mixture of cheese and caramel is my favorite!)
Gift cards to their favorite beverage place: Sonic, Starbucks, etc.
Homemade sweets (cookies, fudge, cake pops)
Breakfast or lunch (bagels or doughnuts with coffee, pizza or burgers with soft drinks)
Lunch, as your treat, off campus

Words of Affirmation

Everyone likes to hear how their work has positively impacted others. Here are a few ways to say thanks:

Handwritten notes are always in style!
Commandeer the high school scoreboard and make their names flash all day long for the whole community to see.
Create a Kudoboard for each staff member and encourage the district staff to post notes on each board
Record a short interview with each tech staff about what they love most about serving others. Post it on various social media platforms, tagging them and bragging on them.
Ask your superintendent to recognize the tech staff at each campus during a morning or afternoon meeting.
Create a social media post for each staff member with their photo and what they do to help the district. Make them go viral!
Create a FlipGrid for the staff and encourage the district to post short videos thanking them for all they do.

Experiences

Throw some type of event that lets them know how special they are!

Organize some type of unusual outing. At TCEA, we went to a place where we learned how to throw axes. It was so much fun!
Create some type of digital scavenger hunt using Apps like GooseChase or Geocache. My staff used to love to go on Geocaching adventures.
Give them an afternoon off!
Rent a local theater so you can enjoy a movie together.
Find some place to take them where they can be together and have fun (zoo, a lake, a sporting event, etc.).
Get the high school band or choir to come serenade them for all of their hard work.

These are just a few ways to demonstrate your appreciation for your tech staff. I’d love to hear from you about how you have acknowledged this critical group of employees. Every one of us has had a “Henry” in our lives. They’ve not only made our lives easier, but at times, they have gotten us out of a big jam. Let’s show them how much we appreciate them, not just on Educational Technology Appreciation Day, but every day.

December 6, 2021 0 comment

English Language Arts STEM/STEAM Writing

STEM + ELA: The Eight Building Blocks of Argument Writing

by Erik Murray and Casey Siagel November 3, 2021

written by Erik Murray and Casey Siagel

When they’ve been swirling around in my head, words never seem to come out the way I intend them to. Writing and getting ideas down on paper has always been a struggle for me. Even for this article, I’ve spent so much time thinking about what to write instead of just writing it all down! The prewriting process can be a challenge for adults, so it must also be for some of our students.

An ELA and STEM Collaboration

I’ve always been a good builder and engineer. And the idea of being able to physically “build” an essay before writing it appealed to me. I could see this as a way to help students get their ideas organized before diving into the task. So after a teacher-led “unconference” about merging engineering and other content areas, I met with an intrigued English teacher who wanted to approach writing differently in her class.

After a lot of brainstorming, drawing, erasing, sketching, lego construction, and laughter, we landed on a way to make students’ thinking and planning for argumentative writing visible and tangible in English class: 3D-printed blocks.

Organizing Writing Through Building

Students were learning about the foundational elements of argumentative writing, but they were struggling to understand the correct way to structure an argument. As a result, it was difficult for them to see how all the “parts” of the argumentative piece worked together to form a cohesive presentation.

To bolster student comprehension and confidence, we wanted to create an opportunity for them to literally construct their argument and then get feedback from the teacher before writing the first draft. We were determined to create an engaging, hands-on learning experience for students to help them plan and revise their writing.

We broke down argumentative writing structure into the following parts:

Central Idea
Thesis
Claim
Context
Evidence
Zoom In/Out Analysis
Conclusion

We knew that to help make students’ thinking visible, we had to be deliberate with our design and color choices. So we made our decisions based on the different parts of an argument, their purpose, and their relationship within the argumentative writing structure.

Colors were intentionally chosen to both highlight function and relationship to other parts of the argument. For example, the thesis was built to only fit into a claim piece because they are dependent on one another within the argument. The transition was designed as a smaller, red block because it should be a noticeable, short phrase that links two ideas together. The context was designed to fit between the claim and evidence. The central idea became a spindle since it is “the core” of the argument.

blocks for writing — *Students working together to analyze text structure using the blocks*

The STEM and Writing Mini-Unit

We planned for our two-week, co-taught, mini-unit to be broken down into eight lessons.

First, students were exposed to the argumentative writing vocabulary and how the parts of an argumentative essay worked in relationship to each other. After becoming familiar with the vocabulary and parts, they were given the blocks and an argumentative mentor text. They were asked to “build” the argument based on how the author structured it on the page. After building, students compared their argumentative “towers” with their peers while we circulated and gave feedback on their structures.

After getting teacher feedback and practicing with mentor texts, students began writing their own drafts, using the blocks for support. Then, with a partner, they participated in a peer review activity using their rough drafts. They were asked to build their partner’s essay using the blocks. From there, they gave each other feedback on their text structure about what was strong, missing, unnecessary, or out of order.

We then, as teachers, shared our design process for the blocks with the students, explained our reasoning behind the design decisions, and asked students for feedback on our designs.

new writing block design — *Students redesigning and creating their own 3d model of the argumentative model*

The result? They gave great feedback, encouraging us to:

Modify the blocks to allow for a notecard with writing to be inserted
Create different shapes
Ensure better fitting pieces
Reconsider color choices.

We tasked them with designing a better version. Afterwards, students used the upgraded design to work on constructing their final drafts.

Reflections on the Unit

We observed that students were invested in the lesson in a way they hadn’t been with writing before. They enjoyed having the ability to physically manipulate objects to assist them in the writing process. The color choices and block fittings also helped them interact with the writing differently. They truly internalized the function of various parts of a written argument. We heard things like, “You can’t have a thesis there because the blocks don’t fit together,” and “The central idea is missing. See, your argument is just falling apart!”.

There were several light bulb moments from the kids, and they began to speak confidently about the connection between the blocks and their writing. We heard, “That makes sense. Transitions should be short because their job is to take you to the next part!” and “The conclusion should have a little bit of everything in it, because it’s white, and white has a little bit of every color in it.”

Perhaps the most valuable part of the lesson for us was when we described our planning process, and decision making to the students and then handed them an opportunity to design their own, better model. Partnering with the students to bring their writing to life not only helped them deeply internalize argumentative writing but also forged an invaluable learning partnership between us teachers and the kids. It opened a critical dialogue about how students learn best and deepened students’ confidence and trust in themselves and their teachers.

About the Authors:

Erik Murray (left) is a Middle School STEM teacher in Lexington, Massachusetts. His focus has been on making simple, hands-on activities. You can follow him on Twitter at @mrstemurray.

Casey Siagel (right) is a middle school English department head and ELA teacher in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is passionate about making reading and writing accessible and meaningful for all students.

November 3, 2021 2 comments

Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks Podcasts

A Simple Process and Template for Student Podcasting

by Dr. Bruce Ellis October 12, 2021

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Maybe you’ve heard the saying that whoever is talking is the person learning. Or, the teacher should do less talking in the classroom than the students. Both of those sayings have truth to them. With that in mind, let’s see if there are benefits to student-generated podcasts.

How Does Podcasting Benefit Students?

Through discussion, discourse, and debate, students can gain a deeper understanding of content and language and grammar skills. Research indicates that students who create podcasts show improved language, speaking, and grammar knowledge. They are also more confident in using academic vocabulary in context. The podcast creation process incorporates high student engagement, which increases the likelihood that it may also positively impact student achievement. And using student-generated podcasts can be a strategy for learning in early elementary up through college. Be sure to check out this Research for Student-Created Podcasts Wakelet collection for specific and deeper study.

A Simple Podcasting Process

That all may sound good. But many teachers feel that having students create podcasts will have a high learning curve; it could end up more like herding cats. No worries! We’ve got you taken care of with a template for you to use and a drop-dead simple process. Let’s take all the technical mumbo jumbo out of it! To make it easy to go through, we’ll share the who, what, when, where, and how you and your students can take learning to the next level with podcasting.

Access the Student Podcasting Template

Step 1: Establish Criteria and Define Roles

Remember the KISS – Keep It Super Simple (or something like that). Keep the process as simple as possible– at least initially. As the students become more comfortable and skilled, then you can add more expectations. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there is no “one right process” to go by for a great podcast. I recommend checking out the following rubrics for ideas on defining the roles and teamwork necessary for each group. Having the rubrics will also help your students self assess (and peer assess) between group meeting times with you. A few rubrics to check out for ideas include:

University of Wisconsin – Stout Podcast Rubric – A very robust rubric. You may need to scale it back initially, but this rubric highlights important parts of the process.
University of Missouri Podcast Rubric – This is a slightly older rubric; however, you will find that many of the sections are still very relevant and usable.
ReadWriteThink Podcast Rubric – This rubric is most relevant for a high school English or science class as it refers to a podcast addressing a thesis argument.
Pacific Lutheran University Podcast Rubric – This one is nice in that it fits on one page, but addresses pretty much everything. Depending on the age of your students, you may want to tweak some of the wording.
University of Northern Iowa Podcast Rubric – Though unclear as to the author, this rubric does an excellent job of identifying the different details and criteria for creating a podcast. Consider using this one when identifying roles and steps in the process. Older students will do well with this, but it’s too complicated for younger learners.
Kathy Schrock’s Podcast Rubrics – Kathy has compiled six different rubrics for you to consider. Click on the link given and then scroll to the Multimedia and Apps Rubrics section.

Step 2: Explore and Choose Tools for Podcasting

podcasting tools icons — Screenshot by author

If your students have cell phones, then they all can record audio. But they may need to check to see that their apps can save and share the files in an MP3 format. Or you may be using school-issued devices such as Chromebooks or iPads. Below are a few of the tools and apps you might consider during your planning and producing stages.

Voice Recorder – https://online-voice-recorder.com
Audio Joiner – https://audio-joiner.com
GarageBand – for Mac and PC
Audacity – https://www.audacityteam.org
Anchor app – for iOS and Android
Pixabay – Free Music – https://pixabay.com/music
Pixabay Special Effect Sounds – https://pixabay.com/sound-effects
Free Music Archive – https://freemusicarchive.org
Free Sound – https://freesound.org

Step 3: Determine the Pacing and Process

Having students create podcasts is a great learning strategy, but it is best implemented once you understand your students and how they work. Decide on how many class sessions they will have to produce the podcast. You will also need to determine if the students are to work on the podcast outside of class or if they will record during class time. Initially, review the rubric that you will be using with your students, go over the process for recording, and outline the pacing of the project.

TIP: Podcast Recording Environment

It might be that students can only work on the podcast while in your class. If this is the case, it might be necessary to allow students to step out into the halls to record or to visit the library to record briefly. You may have the benefit of being in a larger room so that groups can spread out. If your school encourages “bring your own device” (BYOD), students may find that they can easily record on their phones outside of class and use class time to piece it together and post it.

Unless you are trying to compete in a student podcast competition (such as the Annual New York Times Student Podcast Competition or NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge), realize that perfection may be nice, but is not realistic. It’s okay if there is background noise, as long as the student speakers can still be heard. Make the learning fun. Be creative with where students can record and with your expectations of what is acceptable.

Step 4: Practice Podcasting as a Class

While some tasks work well for individuals, podcasting is definitely not one of them. With project-based learning, students are more successful when they have clearly defined roles, working together to accomplish the task.

You may want to initially have just one large group, the whole class, as you create the first podcast or two. This will allow everyone to get familiar with the process and expectations. It will also allow students to explore the different roles, how they interact, and understand how each role is critical for the project’s success. Yes, initially, it will be teacher-assigned, but you are working towards having students take ownership of the grouping and even the roles over time.

Step 5: Group Students for the Podcasting Project

Once the process is understood, at least in theory, break students into groups, assign roles, and, initially have them all work on the same podcast. Consider grouping students as you would for other assignments in which each group has a good mix of academic levels. There should be the same roles within groups, and it will be important to scaffold the grouping process over time.

Steps 6 and 7: Assign Podcast Topics and Start Recording

Initially, you may consider having students work on the same topic as they learn the process. Yes, that means that if you have six groups, you will have six podcasts on the same information. Each group may address it in their way, but they will all be using the same information. For example, they may podcast about chapter three of their textbook or chapter five of the class novel. Having the students listen to the other groups’ final projections will spark some ideas on how they can enhance their next podcast.

Once student groups have a podcast or two under their belt, start varying the topic or perhaps have student groups each record an episode related to a subtopic of a broader topic. This allows students to become experts on sections of information. These podcasts can end up replacing your lecture or enhancing it, giving students ownership in their learning. Though each group will be creating a podcast for a particular portion of the content, they are all accountable for all the information. This means they should both understand it and be able to apply it in different situations. (This is similar to the Jigsaw approach in teaching.)

Step 8: Check in Regularly

Just like you attend regularly-scheduled staff and faculty meetings, it will be helpful to schedule regular, though short, meetings with each group. This will give students the opportunity to report on their progress, challenges, solutions, and next steps in their process. As such, you will be mentoring them on how to manage themselves and other group members. The goal is for students to be successful and accountable for their learning. As you have students add to the podcasts, you can begin using them as a review for quizzes and exams. This will hold students accountable to make sure they have all the needed information in their episode(s).

Step 9: Publish the Podcasts with a Template

For simplicity’s sake, here is a Google Slide template to use for publishing your podcasts. Google Slides isn’t considered the typical method of publishing/hosting podcasts. But it does offer a bit more security over who has access to the podcasts. Once a student group has completed their podcast, have them upload it as an MP3 file into their Google Drive and share it. They should then copy the link to the file and add it to the appropriate slide in the template along with the title, episode number (if used), description, and show notes.

TIP: Publishing the Google Slide Deck

podcasting tools — Screenshot of template

If the podcast’s content is intended for a real audience outside the classroom, consider publishing the slide deck. This will make it much easier for everyone to access it in presentation mode and listen. To publish the slide deck, click on FILE –> Publish To The Web. Leave the defaults so that the slide deck does NOT advance on its own; this will allow your listeners to click on the appropriate links to go to the intended slides. View the published template here so you can see how a published podcast slide deck appears. If your podcasts are only to be accessed from within your school’s domain, be sure to click on the Published Content and Settings link and then tick the box for your school’s domain.

Step 10: Review and Revise the Process

After your podcasting project, take time to review and reflect with your students. Assess the number of class sessions used for the project. Was it enough time, too much, too little? What about the tools used? Did they work well? How could the process be improved moving forward?

Pass the Mic

So, I’m now passing the mic to you. How will you do podcasting in your classroom? What are some ideas you have for implementing student-generated podcasts? If you’ve already had students create podcasts, what is one tip you would share with others who are thinking about doing the same? Leave your comment below so you can be heard loud and clear! You can also take a look at other posts on podcasting here.

October 12, 2021 5 comments

Educational Research Good Teaching

Peer Feedback: An Essential Skill to Teach

by Dr. Bruce Ellis September 13, 2021

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

It is important for students to receive valuable feedback on their work. Typically as educators, we assume full responsibility for this and become the sole distributor of feedback in our classrooms. But developing students’ ability to give peer feedback is a much-needed skill. Even though we may have modeled how to provide good feedback, that doesn’t necessarily translate to students having the skills to give that same quality feedback to their peers.

I found this out the hard way when I was a classroom teacher. I asked my students to get with a partner and share feedback on a writing prompt assignment. Consequently, I almost needed to call in the counselor to do therapy for my students because their partners were brutally honest, sharing that this was the worst writing they’ve ever seen. That day I was reminded that even third graders can give honest but cruel feedback unless taught how to say it constructively.

One of my favorite videos that deals with feedback is Austin’s Butterfly. It’s a true story told by Ron Berger. In this story, first graders learn to give constructive and helpful feedback to each other as they work on an art project that they want to submit to their state for a postcard. NOTE: These are typical first graders. They’re not descendants or protégées of van Gogh, Monet, Kahlo, or Cezanne. As you watch the video, think of how the same process could be tweaked and used with your students. Also, it might be helpful for you to show the video as you start talking with your students about giving quality feedback.

Feedback: What It Is and Isn’t

If we’re not careful, we can assume that everybody has a shared understanding of the definition of feedback. Marzano noted in his research that knowing the critical attributes of something is essential to understand the topic, concept, or skill better. Dictionary.com defines feedback as “a reaction or response to a particular process or activity.” Dr. Valerie Shute brings the definition more into focus by noting that feedback is the “information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify his or her thinking or behavior for the purpose of improving learning.” Wow! That’s exactly what we want when we give feedback: to cause a change in students’ thinking or behavior so that they improve their mastery of the skill or concept we are teaching.

So, for our purposes, feedback isn’t sharing our opinion about their work. Feedback is not saying something like “Good job!” or “Great work!” These types of statements don’t strengthen any particular skill, nor do they offer corrective insight to consider.

Here are a few ideas to help you and your students develop the skill of giving quality feedback. And, as with any skill, we want to consider going from concrete to abstract in our scaffolding. For most, if not all, of your students, this will be a skill they have not been taught before. We will be using the example of giving peer feedback on a piece of writing. But you may find it helpful to tweak these activities for providing feedback on student products, presentations, or other assignments.

Activity #1: Identifying Helpful and Unhelpful Feedback

In this first activity, you will begin by working with your students in a whole group setting. Start by asking students what “feedback” means to them. What is it? What is it not? Ask students to share a time when they received helpful or meaningful feedback. What was the feedback and how did it help them? Ask for non-examples where they received “feedback” that was confusing, didn’t help them, or wasn’t specific. Following this, share Dr. Shute’s definition of feedback above.

Ask students to work with a partner to translate Dr. Shute’s definition into what could be used in your grade level. Then, they will draw a picture of what feedback is and isn’t. Refer to the image to the right as an example layout.

For the next part of this activity, you will need a sample text for which students will provide feedback. I recommend that you write it yourself. You will need to make sure there are some errors for students to catch so that they can practice crafting feedback to share with the class. If you need help priming the pump for sample documents to use, consider choosing one from these:

Once you have given them the document to read and review, give them a few minutes to discuss the writing with their partner or table group. If the piece of writing comes with a rubric, then create some example feedback cards in advance based on the rubric. If not, create your own feedback cards to use as examples. Depending on how many cards you have, you can call on a group, a partner team, or an individual.

Some sample cards might say something like:

I can’t follow the writer’s thinking.
Good use of adjectives when describing the animals
The handwriting is terrible!
Each sentence should begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation.
Be careful not to start multiple sentences in a row with filler words such as “and” or “then.”

If needed, you can download the Sample Feedback Cards document and edit the cards. There should be some examples of valuable feedback and examples of unhelpful feedback in the mix.

Randomly select one of the example cards and call on a group, team, or individual. Then, read the card aloud and ask if it is quality feedback or not. If it is not quality, ask students for suggestions on making it more meaningful and focused.

If you would like to learn how the feedback you the teacher provide to students can be improved, check out our online, self-paced course Assessment-Based Feedback Tools. You’ll get more practice in providing effective feedback and learn some new ways to use technology in the process.

Activity #2: Practicing Peer Feedback Together

For this activity, you will need a rubric and a piece of writing for the students to evaluate. If you want them to evaluate a product, such as a diorama, a model, etc., then have a sample for them to review. If you want them to give feedback on a presentation, see if you can find a video on YouTube or Twitter for the review. Here is a sample of a student rapping her presentation. Here is another example of a young student giving a speech on why kids should have an hour for recess. For variety, here is a group presentation on a fictional company they are marketing.

After reading the writing, looking at the product, or watching the presentation, ask students to give feedback based on the rubric. In this activity, they can only give feedback based on the criteria identified in the rubric. When a student gives feedback, ask for a show of hands for who agrees and disagrees with the feedback. Ask them to justify their agreement or disagreement. After discussion and practice, ask the students to use the rubric to score the document. Scoring might be easier if done in pairs or small groups. Once finished, ask each pair or group to share a piece of feedback that is not included in the rubric, but would be helpful to the author to make their work better.

Activity #3: Practicing Peer Feedback Independently

comment message when video moderation is enabled — Screenshot by author

This is where the rubber meets the road and students start giving real feedback to each other. We want to ensure that students understand how to give quality feedback, but in order to do so, they need actual practice. This activity gives them the opportunity. You will use Flipgrid to set up a Topic in which students record their work. If it is a writing assignment, have students do a screencast to record themselves reading their writing aloud. Because this isn’t a reading fluency test, allow students to ask others to read their work as a “guest narrator.” Feedback isn’t to be given on the reading of the piece, but only on the writing, and I suggest providing a rubric for the students to use to keep them on track.

After recording or uploading their videos, ask students to choose three peers to whom they will provide feedback. Subsequently, they will respond via video based on the rubric. For this, make sure that you turn on moderation of videos and comments. This allows you to approve responses before students hear them, just in case someone provides hurtful or unhelpful feedback. If a student offers feedback that isn’t helpful, you can use it as a teachable moment. Help them think of how they can say their comment (assuming it is a good comment but poorly expressed) so that the author has a clear understanding of how to improve their writing. It may be helpful to post the THINK poster (download as PDF or PNG file) around your room or in the recording area to remind students of best practices when giving feedback.

Once you have reviewed and moderated the comments, bring the lesson back to the whole class and identify a few students who did well at giving feedback. Ask the receiver of the feedback how it made them feel.

You may have to do these exercises a few times for the concept to sink in with your students. Encourage them to look for other times to practice giving feedback to others. It could be at the grocery store, at the restaurant, or even in the lunchroom. Generally, we all want to benefit from constructive and helpful feedback.

If you want to learn more about feedback, check out these other TCEA blogs on the topic. Then share with us in the comments how you help your students grow in giving feedback to others. And, if you have a humorous story about feedback, we are always up for a good chuckle.

September 13, 2021 0 comment

Announcements/Important Dates Professional Learning TCEA Convention & Exposition

We’re Getting the Gang Back Together Again!

by Lori Gracey August 30, 2021

written by Lori Gracey

I am so absolutely thrilled to talk with you about the 2022 TCEA Convention & Exposition. Why, you ask? Well, because it’s time to start discussing how we will all meet together in Dallas, Texas February 7-10 to celebrate everything that educators have accomplished over the past two years and all that you will do in the future. It’s time to get the TCEA gang back together again!

You Don’t Want to Miss This Happening!

If ever there was a year to attend the convention, 2022 would definitely be the year. We haven’t been able to be physically together since February 2020, and I’m sure that each of you has missed everyone as much as I have. While virtual events can be a great way to learn, there is nothing better than actually being with friends and colleagues, sharing the excitement as new learning takes place and connections are deepened.

We’ve taken that into account in planning for this year’s convention and are focusing on enhancing all of the different ways you can meet up, share ideas and stories, and enjoy each other’s company. From one-on-one talks to small group conversations, workshop-sized learning to ballroom presentations that knit us even more closely together, this convention will have it all.

convention

And Dallas is the perfect place for us to meet. The city offers such a diverse array of cultures, foods, activities, and sites to visit. And they are all very eager to share their city with each one of you as we meet face-to-face together again. (We’ll share more about the fun things to do and experience in Dallas in future blogs.)

An All-Access Ticket

Those who register with the Full Conference Badge will receive an “all-access ticket” this year that will allow you to enjoy four full days of learning and networking and amazing exhibitor showcases, as well as two different online experiences. The online experiences are targeted at two critical topics for this school year: Bridging the Learning Gap and Social-Emotional Learning, with 25 credit hours of deep, innovative content included with each topic. And that online learning will be available for 30 days after convention so that you can continue the experience. That’s all included in the $339 Early Bird registration.

Other Types of Registrations

If you can only attend the convention for one day, you can register for the One-Day Badge at $159. Choose the day of the week that has the content that you need most and come and experience the full convention event on that day. Or, if you’re just interested in seeing the latest educational technology products and services, purchase the Exhibit Hall Only badge for just $59 to enjoy three full days of access to the exhibits.

We’ve Been Preparing for Two Full Years

Normally, TCEA puts one full year of planning into our convention. But due to the pandemic, the TCEA Board of Directors, Convention Advisory Panel, and staff actually began preparing for this event two years ago. We’ve toured the convention center and hotels, discovered some of the wonderful aspects of the city of Dallas, and spent lots of time on thinking of how we can best make all of this available to you. You know that TCEA puts on an amazing event any time. But we’ve pulled out all of the stops for this event to welcome everyone back. Check out the fun that the staff had while exploring Dallas.

convention

More Funding Is Available

Unlike other times, there is also additional funding available to both Texas and United States schools for professional development events like TCEA 2022. Every public school in the U. S. received quite a lot of additional money this school year and next from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to help mitigate the damage caused by the pandemic. And that money can be spent on registration for professional learning events.

For districts in Texas, the Texas Education Agency recently revised how the Technology and Instructional Materials Allotment (TIMA) can be used for professional development. One of the allowable expenses includes “Training educational personnel directly involved in student learning in the appropriate use of instructional materials.” So TIMA funds can also be used to pay for convention registration.

Don’t Miss Out!

You simply MUST join us at this amazing event February 7-10, 2022 in Dallas. The sense of family, the tremendous sharing of experiences, and the powerful learning that will directly impact your students will be through the roof. Registration and housing will open on Thursday, September 23 at 9:00 a.m. Central. We can’t wait to be with you again!

August 30, 2021 0 comment

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More Funding Is Available

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