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Good TeachingProfessional Learning

Napkin PD: PBL Your Jigsaw

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

What happens when you combine two instructional strategies like PBL and jigsaw? That’s exactly what I did when developing a new workshop for the TCEA 2020 Convention & Exposition called Coaching for Strategic Technology Integration. My initial results? Positive. In this edition of napkin-PD, I share the results of the new structure of my experimentation.

Session Description: Ready to set your students and teachers up for learning success? You will need be strategic. In this session, learn how to blend four components into one. You will adopt high effect size instructional strategies. Then, use a process for blending technology into learning experience. Finally, reflect on a pupil-focused results coaching tool.

Essential Elements

In each of my napkin-PD sessions, I focus on organizing the entire workshop into three chunks. Those three chunks may vary a bit in title, but generally fall into these areas:

  • Explore. This is where participants learn something new. They are developing background knowledge on a subject.
  • Adapt/Create. This is where they make connections between new information and old.
  • Share. They create something tangible.

For the 50-minute session of this 90-120 minute learning event, I had to truncate some of the activities or drop them altogether. Let’s take a deeper look.

pbl your jigsaw

Revisiting the Objectives

In my session, I wanted to achieve the following objectives. You’ll note that I have attempted to word them as “teacher clarity goals.” The reason why is that the teacher clarity strategy is a high-effect size strategy with an effect size of .76. Here’s a little background on teacher clarity if you are not familiar with it:

Teacher clarity relates to organization, explanation, examples and guided practice, and assessment of student learning. It can involve clearly communicating the intentions of the lessons and the success criteria.

Clear learning intentions describe the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values that the student needs to learn

There are a lot of ways to use technology to support teacher clarity. In this case, I decided to be up front with adult learners and so told them what my goals were at the start of the session:

  • Today we will examine, explore, and reflect how to achieve academic standards. We will do this through the combination of several components. Those components include high-effect size instructional strategies, strategic technology, and pupil-centric coaching efforts.
  • So we can construct learning experiences for students and staff that will lead to accelerated learning and growth.
  • We will know we have it when we reflect on our use of action steps via educational frameworks that provide insight into our work.

To organize this learning adventure, I divided it into three big pieces.

Did You Know?

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Chunking Learning into Modules

pbl your jigsawCreating bite-sized chunks can be a lifesaver for learners. It makes the learning manageable, memorable, and improves comprehension (source). For adult learning participants, it gives them autonomy within each chunk. That is, they can explore content as they choose. It also enabled me as the lesson designer to take complex content and make it easier to process in the short time available.

The main pieces, which I further chunked into smaller bites, included:

  • Meet the Problem. “There’s a big school board meeting coming up. Your superintendent needs you at Central Office right away. Drop what you’re working on and head on over there.”
  • Crafting Your Solution. Now’s the time to put your heads together to craft the best presentation you can that combines the four key elements.
  • Reflect. Take a moment to reflect on the process. Explore the gap between where your organization is now and the ideal and then reflect the ideal in your team’s presentation with steps to get there.

Each section involved more work.

pbl your jigsaw

Smaller Bite-Sized Chunks

To get people moving in the right direction, I introduced a problem via role play. This involved casting some audience members (I recruited them as they arrived). The unlucky folks stepped into the role outlined in the problem below. Here’s the call to action, although you can read the whole scene online:

“Our school board president and I have spoken. Our scores say we are treading water, maintaining the status quo. For some districts, that would be enough. But here in our district, we must have a focus on accelerating student growth more than one year.”

“We have agreed that we’re going to put together a plan for moving forward, a plan that accelerates growth for ALL students. For too long, we’ve been working in silos with several initiatives. We will put those together. We will be successful, we will ensure accelerated student growth is our TOP priority.”

“I’m going to ask you to divide up into several teams to deepen your knowledge. You will become an expert in your area, then share it back with your team. Afterwards, you’ll make a first effort at putting together a board meeting presentation.”

“I want you to know that I’m counting on you. The future of our district is in your hands. Ready to begin? If so, I’m going to turn it over to Miguel to get this started.”

If you’re familiar with PBL, you know this is an ill-structured, messy problem. My goal with this problem was to set up (and this is what’s different from other napkin PD) a jigsaw activity.

Revisiting the Jigsaw Method

Wait, wait, why am I using a jigsaw? The goal of this workshop was to introduce participants to some amazing ideas. This made it a surface learning activity, that is, an activity focused on introducing new concepts to students. Why use a jigsaw? The jigsaw method enjoys an effect size of 1.20, which is very high, and is a cooperative approach to learning. You can learn more about it through other blog entries, but here is a quick overview:

Following this method, a teacher introduces a main topic and several subtopics. Jigsaw students divide into “home groups,” and each member of the home group chooses a subtopic.

Then, students form expert groups to study their assigned subtopic. They do this through research and discussion.

After delving into the subtopic, they return to their home group to report on their findings.

At the conclusion, each home group member has learned about each subtopic. They have learned from their own investigation or a member of the relevant expert group.

The other strategy in use is problem-solving teaching (.68 effect size). I regret that in a 50-minute session, there wasn’t time. We couldn’t get to the part that had participants solve a new problem.

pbl your jigsaw

Turning a PBL into a Jigsaw Activity

This is the part I was most excited about. Could I embed a jigsaw activity inside of a PBL? The answer is, “Yes, you can.” Each of the four member teams would join their expert group. Expert groups worked alone at first, then together to explore the project stations. I provided paper copies of a digital organizer. Of course, some chose to use the digital version on their devices.

pbl your jigsaw

Project Stations

pbl your jigsawThe project stations focused on four key areas. Those areas included:

Putting these components together was not obvious to me. In fact, I outlined everything ahead of time because outlining made it a lot easier for me. You can see my first draft outline, although it had a few more revisions. In the end, the organization of each station followed a pattern.

Project Station Organization

  • Picture and overview
  • Contained three parts, in no particular order:
    1. Watch the video. This included a video and a short summary of the content.
    2. More material to explore
    3. Explore
  • An expert discussion question

When I revise each of the project stations in the future, I will be more deliberate about structuring them. That is, I will make each part focus on media type and action desired. For example, here’s a revised outline:

  • Overview with picture
    • 1: Watch the video
    • 2: Explore source material
    • 3: See examples
  • An expert discussion question

Now, if you are familiar with the jigsaw method, you may see that I included an extra piece. That extra piece is the expert group discussion question. I wanted to focus experts’ discussion given the time constraint. This had the desired effect.

pbl your jigsaw

Listening in on Participant Conversations

One of the most rewarding aspects of the jigsaw method is listening to expert groups dig deep. But having them report back to their home groups can be a joy as well. After the time was up, I invited insight sharing from the whole group. What amazed me was the depth of insight. Participants reflected the information provided in the project stations. In a way most curious, they owned the information as they shared it. This was fantastic and I couldn’t have been more delighted with their work.

pbl your jigsaw

Reflection

As time elapsed, I realized that we had spent the entire time on the jigsaw. To have executed this workshop, an entire 90-120 minutes would have been desirable. I am still pleased with the first module work, especially as participants expressed how happy they were with the  juxtaposition of these ideas.

Want to schedule TCEA professional development that focuses on project-based learning? Fill out a TCEA logistics form. We can help you turn your napkin professional development plans into a reality. And be sure to check out other“napkin PD” blogs here.

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knowt
Good Teaching

Test-Enhanced Learning Made Simple with Knowt

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

The research is clear: rereading a text doesn’t work as well as taking a test over the material. Known as retrieval practice, it involves students studying a passage of text. Then, students take a low-stakes test about it. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a tool that empowers students to make their own tests.

The Testing Effect

“Retrieval practice” involves frequent testing or quizzing. Students take practice tests over a period of time. This pushes them to recall material from memory. In time, this assists students with remembering the material. Research shows that students recall more information from practice testing than rereading.

Practice testing has an effect size of .46. The Visible Learning Meta X database describes it in this way:

Practice testing is a well-established strategy for improving student learning. The aim of practice testing is to support long-term retention. It is also to increase access to retrieving the “to-be-remembered” information. Sometimes called retrieval practice, practice testing, or test-enhanced learning.

Let’s take a look at some research. These results compare studying versus practice testing as a way to increase retention:

  • Studying
    • Need information retained for a short time? Study it.
    • Studying over fewer, longer sessions is less effective than its alternative. The alternative is spacing out the intervals of study over a longer period of time. This is called Spaced vs massed practice and enjoys an effect size of .65.
  • Practice Testing
    • Need long-term retention of information? Use practice testing.
    • Testing has a greater impact than repeated study when done over time.
    • Testing after reading improves students’ ability to answer questions. That includes questions that are “in the text” and “in the head.”
    • Testing done once a day after covering material increased retention
    • Students tested often had increased retention.
    • It doesn’t matter what form the questions take. Students gain the benefit of practice testing regardless of question type. All questions were as effective as the others at enhancing the students’ learning. Question types include:
      • multiple-choice,
      • short-answer, and
      • hybrid questions

You can deepen the impact of practice testing if students receive feedback. Delayed feedback yields better results. That’s no surprise since feedback has an effect size of .64 itself.

What’s convenient about practice testing is teachers or students can create the test. The question is, what’s the best way to do that?

Reviewing High-Effect Size Strategies

Before we jump into the technology side of this, notice that there may be a happy confluence. The confluence is of high-effect size strategies that include the following:

It’s easy to see how these powerful strategies speed growth in a year and a half in a school year. Ok, now that’s out of the way, let’s review some technology tools.

Ways to Create Practice Tests

Although teachers can make a practice test, there’s a benefit to students making it. No doubt, teachers are making tests using various tools that support quizzing.

Some of those tools teachers use include the following:

While students can use these tools, there is another one available.

Student-Created Quizzes

As a high school student, I stumbled upon a technique that I wish someone had told me about earlier. That is, how to read a selection of text then select content that might appear on a test. At the time, I did not create a test. I highlighted, wrote down or summarized critical test information. It was only later that I would reformulate my notes into test questions. This technique was quite effective in history classes, which I made straight “As” in.

Students can now use a free service to turn their notes into practice quizzes. Students can use an online notebook, or import their notes. The imported notes can be in Google Docs, or Word format. Once imported, the student click a button and their notes get turned into a quiz.

Wondering what the digital tool is that can students can use? Asking yourself what tool can they use to get a .47 effect size boost to knowledge retention? Let’s find out.

Meet Knowt: Get to Know Your Notes

Students can take their online notes, click a button, and a quiz appears. Knowt features fill in the blank, multiple choice or short answer questions. Recall that question type doesn’t matter for practice testing. Instead, it’s the repetition on a daily basis to allow for spaced practice (.65 effect size).

For fun, I asked Knowt to import a tough Google Doc. The Google Doc? Matching High-Effect Size Instructional Strategies and Digital Tools. It created a twenty-five question quiz out of the content.

Here’s the first question:

In case you’re wondering, the answer is C. Performance. How did Knowt do this? Knowt describes their process in this way:

First, we take your notes and analyze them using machine learning. On our server, the A.I. determines the best question formats for each sentence. Once it knows the best questions, the algorithm sends it to the web or mobile app for you to take a quiz. It only takes seconds. At the end, you get great quizzes that are custom made from your notes that you can take anywhere you go.

In this 25-question quiz that I created from complicated content, the questions made sense and worked. Here’s what my notes looked like in Knowt:

Fiction vs Non-Fiction

For fun, I decided to drop one of my favorite stories into Knowt. The story? Frank Stockton’s The Lady or the Tiger (online).  One of my favorite teachers, Fr Richard O’Shaughnessy, introduced it to my classmates and I. Like everyone else, we agonized over the ending.

Knowt turned the story into another 25-question quiz. Some of the questions were not reasonable, but if you have to know it cold, Knowt works great.

Watch a Video

Need a quick way to get started? Check out esteemed educator, Richard Bryne, as he shares a demo of GetKnowt.

A teacher’s edition is under development and is due out in April 2020. That’s right around the corner. Sign up for the beta.

Making an AI-powered quiz of study materials has never been easier. Give Knowt a try. Want to share quizzes you create as a teacher? The Knowt Teacher’s Edition makes it possible. It also features a class section, student management, and more. Pilot programs for the teacher’s edition are also available.

Image Source

Feature image. Screenshot by author.

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classroom
Good TeachingWeb 2.0 Tool

Class Discussions Gone Digital

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

A colleague recently posted the following request for help in finding an interactive way for his students to respond to literature questions via class discussions. He received some fascinating responses to his question. In this blog entry, I’ll try out some of the suggestions and share my thoughts about them.

“All teaching boils down to three key processes…The processes are: finding out where learners are in their learning, finding out where they are going, and finding out how to get there,” says Dylan Wiliam (2011, The Case for Formative Assessment, page 45).

Create Opportunities for Digital Class Discussions

Here’s a copy of the original request that a teacher shared:

Hi, would you happen to have ideas? I want to create opportunities for digital interaction around a short story. We’re reading the short story, and I want students to respond to the questions. Students need to be able to read each other’s responses and leave comments. I want to keep track of how many comments they leave so I can grade them. Thanks in advance for your ideas.

This teacher, whose request I’ve revised for length and clarity, is really looking for a virtual space. In this virtual space, students should have the option to post their responses to questions and should have the ability to comment on other students’ posts and responses.

The main challenge here is keeping the virtual space a safe place for learning conversations focused on the content. For K-12, the goal is to create a walled garden where students can interact. In this way, others (e.g. parents, community, strangers) don’t intrude on fragile chats.

Caution: In some districts, providing students with a virtual space is not allowed. Even when there is teacher supervision, in a secondary setting, there may be too many posts to review. That said, as teachers, we need to encourage civil discourse in our classrooms. Students’ failures to interact in an appropriate manner are opportunities for growth. Do you agree? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Solution #1: Learning Management System (LMS)

A learning management system with a built-in discussion board is one possible response. Many schools provide teachers access to an LMS for use in their classrooms. If not, there are many other solutions you can take advantage of that are no-cost. Whether you are using Instructure’s Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard, or Moodle, solutions abound. You can even use Microsoft Teams and set up a specific area for discussion. Google Classroom may offer some opportunities as well.

One response to this teacher stated the following. I laughed when I read it because I did something like this once. Since then, I’ve learned to push for a school/district approved response. The one thing that will raise eyebrows is the following:

Get a free moodlecloud site and create a chat forum! It will do exactly what you want.. You can even make it so they can’t comment until they’ve posted their own response. Source: Kerry Crawford via Facebook group

If you are in a situation where going rogue with an LMS not under district control is okay, then options abound. You can find Moodle hosting sites everywhere with a low monthly price. Some districts or schools host Moodle instances in-house. This is great because it makes account management pretty easy.

Here’s a video overview of discussion forums in Moodle:

If you want to try this suggestion out, get yourself a “Droplet” in Digital Ocean. If you want to grow and learn more about GNU/Linux distributions, there are many you could start with (e.g. Ubuntu Linux).

Solution #2: Flipgrid

“Flipgrid? That could be fun!” says Bethany Nopajaroonsri. Would you like to try a solution that’s not text-heavy? Consider giving Flipgrid.com a try. It’s a versatile tool, cross-platform, and works great on smartphones. You can set up your Flipgrid to capture students’ responses to questions. Consider this example of Flipgrid use for Student Book Talks.

There’s no reason why a teacher couldn’t set up a Flipgrid Topic for their short story. If you want to learn more, explore Mike Tholfsen’s Wakelet collection, #FlipgridPD: Getting Started.

class discussions

One of the best aspects of this solution is that Microsoft’s sponsorship has made it completely free. And Flipgrid’s developers are conscious that their product must be K-12 friendly.

Solution #3: Padlet for Class Discussions

Need a virtual bulletin board solution? Padlet might be your answer, if you don’t mind paying almost a hundred dollars. Imagine your students posting content of all sorts, such as video, text, G Suite EDU documents, and more. Everything appears in the form of a post-it on a bulletin board. Ben Fisher describes it in this way:

Padlet is like a virtual bulletin board. Students can comment on a post you’ve made or they can make their own post on the Padlet board. It allows them to post text, images, and videos.

Padlet offers many different ways to organize content, as well as protect content. Your padlet can be as public or private as you like. As a veteran Padlet user, the only question you need ask yourself is, “Are you ready to pay $99 a year?” If so, you’re ready to get going.

class discussions

Solution #4: Verso Learning

“Check out Verso. It allows you to post a video, link, text, etc. and have students respond. They can then respond to each other’s answers. They even can upvote the responses they find helpful,” says Keith Schoch. You can read about Keith’s use of Verso Learning in his blog entry “How to Teach a Novel: How to Create Interactivity, Even Remotely” where he lists ways that teachers can use Verso to:

  • Build understanding of historical context of a novel
  • Review a concept or skill covered in class
  • Generate background information for a current events debate or writing
  • Review the steps of a process
  • Integrate SEL and discuss sensitive topics such as bullying
  • Provide alternate interpretations of classic literature
  • Practice inference skills
  • Create an online crowd-sourcing site

You will want to read his blog entry for the details. Verso’s website includes references to evidence-based, high-impact strategies. They  assert they have put these together around the work of luminaries such as John Hattie, Robert Marzano, and Michael Fullan.

Watch the video appearing on this page to learn more. There’s a lot to like on the Verso website, and may well be worth a separate blog entry. There is a cost associated.

class discussions

Solution #5: Parlay Ideas

Parlay offers discussion prompts at a price. Teachers can get started with a no-cost account. You can see how it works via their website or watch video below:

As you might imagine, there are ways to use many of these digital tools to enhance class chats. You can stay old-fashioned with discussion forums (e.g. LMS-based forums) or go all in for video (e.g. Flipgrid). You can rely on Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, or even G Suite EDU Slides comments. There are many choices. Remember to keep it simple and inexpensive.

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empowerED
Good TeachingProfessional Learning

empowerED: Giving Your Teachers the Tools to Be Successful

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Today’s educator has a lot on her plate. Besides knowing all of the key concepts of the content area she is assigned to teach, she must at times also be a: counselor, disciplinarian, coach, motivator, parent, nutritionist, listener, advocate, mediator, scholar and researcher, assessor, leader, manager, environment creator, role model, protector, trouble spotter, prompter, tech user, resource, and organizer.

I could keep going, but you get the idea. Today’s educator has an unbelievable amount on her plate. To make the job of teacher even more difficult, she has literally no time to become better or learn how to manage all of these roles. That’s where TCEA can help.

The empowerED Program

TCEA recognizes that dedicated educators need help in the form of time and opportunities for innovative learning and practice. To help meet those two needs, we created the empowerED program, designed to provide teachers and their leaders with the resources and tools needed to affect change at the classroom learning level.

The year-long program provides a proven methodology and process by which districts and campuses can create purposeful teaching and learning that accelerates student learning and is based on the latest research and the effective use of technology. Through a pre-assessment, two full days of onsite professional development tailored to your needs, full TCEA membership for all participants for one year, a community of practitioners sharing questions and insights, and post-assessment and planning, program participants can learn the latest on effective teaching strategies and technology integration. This gives your entire team a unified set of instructional techniques, as well as a school or district-wide game plan for future success.

empowerED

Dr. John Hattie’s Research

Based on the proven research of Dr. John Hattie over the past 25 years with more than 3,000,000 students, the program gives educators specific strategies that increase achievement in all grade levels and subject areas. Hattie found that, while there are a number of instructional strategies available to use, there are specific ones that are the most effective and provide the maximum results in the same amount of time. Strategies such as reciprocal teaching, teacher clarity, and the jigsaw method are just a few of these. The empowerED program establishes a basis for using them and then provides educators with hands-on practice in using them, regardless of the content or the grade level they teach.

In addition, teachers learn how to best integrate technology so that the tools support and enhance the learning and the content being studied. Instead of technology being an add-on or, even worse, taking over the lesson, the devices and resources compliment the instructional strategy being used to maximize student focus and learning.

“The overall information related to Hattie’s work, as well as the presentation and practice related to reciprocal teaching, was incredible! Many of our teachers are “practicing” what you “preached” and the current culture reflects the excitement that quite a few are experiencing in their classrooms!

-Dana E., empowerED Participant

Program Costs

Because TCEA believes so strongly in the power of this program and in the need that exists for it across the country, we provide it at very little cost. For up to 50 educators on a campus, school, or district, the total cost for one year is just $2,800. (Additional teachers can be added at a reduced rate.) That price includes the following:

  • Pre- and post-assessment to determine where the campus/district is currently and how much it improves
  • Strategic plan to fully implement the strategies that are taught
  • One full day of onsite professional development for administrators and leaders
  • One full day of customized, onsite professional development for teachers
  • One year of TCEA membership for all participating educators within the district/campus (to ensure that the learning continues all year)
  • Access to a cohort group of participants to share ideas, questions, and insights
  • Access to a library of pre-recorded webinars and online resources
  • Complimentary registration for 10 individuals per enrolled campus/district for the TCEA Innovative Learning Strategies Conference, September 26, 2020 in Austin
  • Complimentary registration to the TCEA 2021 Convention & Exposition for the district superintendent or campus principal
  • A 20% discount on all other TCEA events and additional professional development

If you have questions about the program and how it can fit in with other initiatives, please contact Executive Director Lori Gracey. Then register your campus/school/district today and help your teachers master the instructional strategies that will ensure success for both their students and themselves.

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train station with train
Content AreasGood Teaching

How to Create a Choice Board

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Creating a choice board has never been easier than it is now with digital tools. At the recent TCEA 2020 Convention & Exposition, my colleagues Peggy Reimers, Diana Benner, and I shared a little of what we know. We set out to curate a variety of resources and present examples with templates. Maximizing student choice remains an important tenet of learning. Come along, if you like, and learn more about choice boards. There’s a Wakelet of resources provided, too.

What Is a Choice Board?

A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose how they will learn a concept. Usually a choice board includes these aspects:

  • 9-square grid
  • Each square has an activity
  • Each activity might relate to one of the multiple intelligences
  • Level of difficulty can vary or stay consistent throughout the board

Hattie’s Mindset

One of the powerful aspects of strategies that work is how they connect to the ways humans learn. John Hattie (Visible Learning, 2009) says the following:

“Learning progressions ensure that appropriately higher expectations of challenges are provided to students…there is not one right trajectory of progress for all students.

Instead, it is more critical to analyse closely how students progress….there is also the question of how to move each student forward from wherever they start through these levels of achievement….”

The money quote here is, “There is not one right trajectory of progress for all students.”  Educational research clearly shows that choice leads to more confident, capable, and interested students. The classic article “Choices for Children” (Alfie Kohn) cites relevant findings that include:

  • Giving students choice in learning tasks led to greater task completion in less time. 
  • Students asked to write up chemistry problems without step-by-step instructions completed better write-ups. What’s more, they remembered the material better. This is no surprise given generative note-taking (d=.51) research.

Put in a simple way, student choice, when implemented in the right way, works. Choice boards are one way to do it right.

How to Create a Choice Board

Now that you’re convinced, let’s revisit the choice board creation process. The process you choose reflects what you know and how you connect ideas and information. Some steps you can follow:

  1. Choose the target concept/standard .
  2. Outline or draw out your concept map.
  3. Make a list of discrete ideas/skills/strategies.
  4. Connect those to modalities that meet the needs of different students.
  5. Design the choice board in your tool of choice.

Ready to give it a try?

Some Examples and Templates

Here are some examples with templates, where appropriate.

Google Slides

Templates

(Source)		Google Drawings

Template		Wakelet
Example
Microsoft OneNote

Take advantage of digital tools to empower self-directed learning choices for students. No child follows in another’s footsteps. The changes exist, even if we can’t see them. Choice boards are one way to scaffold their learning journey.

References and Resources

All references and resources for links above appear in the companion Wakelet collection.

Choice Board Resources

Want to learn even more about Choice Boards? Take the TCEA course: Choice Boards for Educators.

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Good Teaching

How to Increase Reading Fluency with Repeated Reading Strategies

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

How do you increase a child’s reading fluency? It’s a question that seems to have an easy answer. One common response is that you give them more opportunities to listen to others as they read. You also make it important for them to read aloud and then provide them feedback on their reading. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a high-effect size instructional strategy that can increase reading fluency and explore some ways technology can make implementing this strategy easier.

A Quick Review

If you’ve been following the TCEA TechNotes blog, you’ve sensed our new focus on the work of John Hattie. Hattie conducted meta-analyses of research on instructional strategies. Some strategies fall above what he characterized as the “hinge point,” or an effect size of .40. Strategies that speed up student growth in one year fall above the hinge point. For example, the jigsaw approach (1.20) yields three years of growth in one year when used in a consistent way. Reciprocal teaching (.74) yields almost two year’s growth in one year.

Picking a high-effect size strategy is not enough. These strategies also fall into general categories. They include “surface,” “deep,” or “transfer” learning. That’s because Hattie defines learning in this way:

…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: Visible Learning for Literacy)

Jigsaw is a surface learning approach that assists students in two ways. Fisher, Frey, and Hattie says that surface learning consists of two sub-phases. The first to help students acquire, summarize, and outline a topic. The second is to practice testing and receiving feedback. As you might imagine, the jigsaw approach works great for this.

Reciprocal teaching focuses on comprehension. As such, the goal is to assist students to transition. That transition is from surface knowledge to a deeper, conceptual understanding. Knowing when and why you will use a strategy remains important. Neither strategy (e.g. jigsaw, reciprocal teaching) would be appropriate for developing decoding as a part of reading fluency, which is our primary concern in this blog entry.

Definition: Decoding: Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven’t seen before. (Source: Reading Rockets)
Definition: Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. (Source: Reading Rockets)

Developing Decoding Skills

Listening to teachers at a professional development event, one teacher pointed something out. She made a connection to the type of problem reciprocal teaching solves. “Students first need to move beyond the mechanics of reading. They need to become fluent readers first.” Reciprocal teaching addresses a different problem. That problem is, “What if students are fluent readers, but cannot comprehend what they read?” But what about those students who haven’t overcome the mechanics of decoding?

Why Decoding and Fluency Are Important

Students, from grades one through middle school, may encounter decoding challenges. This might also be true for older students learning a second language. Timothy Shanahan  offers the need to:

  • Get students to read the author’s words in an accurate manner.
  • Read texts at about the speed of oral language.
  • Make reading sound like language. This involves pausing in the right places so that text makes sense.

While there are several approaches for addressing decoding, repeated reading offers one approach. It works for young readers as well as middle school students. Repeated reading (effect size of .75) enables students to move from decoding to meaning:

Repeated reading involves students reading the same passage (=>3x) to teachers. When the student miscues, the teacher can read the correct word aloud. Then, the student rereads the passage until reaching a satisfactory reading level.

Repeated Reading Approach

There are several other approaches to achieve repeated reading effectively. One way is to have a student listen to a passage read aloud by the teacher. Then the student reads it to himself several times. Then, the student reads it aloud. The teacher calculates the rate, accuracy, intonation, pacing, and expressiveness and reports this to the student along with elapsed time. The student re-reads the passage again with this information in mind. The student has the goal of improving these elements.

How could classroom technologies facilitate repeated reading as a strategy? Let’s consider one of the challenges teachers and students face.

Opportunity for Repetition with Repeated Reading

One of the challenges teachers and students may encounter with repeated reading is the opportunity for repetition. A teacher with a large class may be unable to read for each child. Carol Chomsky suggested another approach that involves teachers recording a selection to audiotape. Students are then invited to record themselves as well.

With modern technologies, teachers have several options:

  • Option #1: Use Flipgrid. The teacher can read the text, modeling facial expressions and word formation for students. This is great for dramatic readings since students can see it. In return, students can record themselves reading their text. They can submit as many repeated responses as they like. What’s more, Flipgrid includes Microsoft’s Immersive Reader. This makes it a fantastic addition given Immersive Reader’s features.
  • Option #2: Seesaw. Teachers can share an audio/video recording of a reading, then invite students to leave a video/audio recording of their repeated reading. This is great because it makes archiving and tracking student growth easy for sharing via Seesaw.
  • Option #3: Google Slides or PowerPoint Online. The teacher can display text to be read on screen via a slide and then insert an audio recording. Students can then record their own versions for a particular number of times (three to five times) before turning it in to their teacher.
  • Option #4: Use web-based audio recorder. Using a web-based audio recorder, the teacher or student can record audio. Copies of recorded items can be saved to Google Drive, OneDrive, or submitted as part of Microsoft/Google Forms.

These are great options to use because they result in a record of reading, and it can be dramatic to see growth over time. What’s more, they make it easier for the teacher to provide corrective feedback. Corrective feedback has a significant impact on fluency and comprehension.

“Repeated readings has been the most researched and successful approach to improving reading fluency,” says Lauren Nienhuis. These technology tools mentioned can assist you in maximizing your impact on student readers. Give them a try for repeated reading.

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Coaching for Results, Part 5: Completing the Formula

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In the first four parts of the Coaching for Results series, we covered quite a bit of ground. In this blog entry, I’ll share the final two action steps you need to take. I also discuss and share some resources.

Coaching for Results

Image Source: Corwin Press

Of the coaching models available, Diane Sweeney’s calls out to me. Imagine the work and wisdom that went into creating the Results-Based Coaching Tool. In her must-read book on coaching, Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals, Sweeney says:

I have always believed we could find a way to link coaching with student achievement. Yet as a coach, I experienced mandates where I was required to log my daily conversations, turn in my schedule, survey teachers and keep track of which teachers participated in professional development…I realized that if we wanted to collect data that measured the impact of coaching on students then we had to collect a different kind of data.

Her coaching tool arose from the insight and wisdom of her efforts. When I write of coaching for results, it is Sweeney’s efforts I have in mind. But I also combine them with the work of Weston Kieschnick in Bold Schools. Doug Fisher’s, Nancy Frey’s and John Hattie’s work in Visible Learning for Literacy are also relevant. Each of these paints a powerful picture of how the three components can come together in five action steps.

Reviewing the Five Action Steps

The action steps we’ve covered so far include:

  • Action Step #1: Develop and Pre-Assess Learning Outcomes
  • Action Step #2: Select Your High-Effect Size Instructional Strategy
  • Action Step #3: Decide on the Digital Tool(s)
  • Action Step #4: Craft Your Lesson Procedure
  • Action Step #5: Post-Assess Student Learning and Reflect

Coaching for Relevance

The formula is simple to grasp, but complex in each component. You can spend a lifetime learning about each strategy. One example of this is learning when to use high-effect instructional strategies at the surface, deep, and transfer levels of learning. One approach is to consider Sweeney’s methodology, which she outlines in her book:

  • At the beginning of a coaching cycle:
    • Coach and Teacher:
      • Discuss the goals for student learning using “Students will learn…” statements.
      • Preassess students to determine how they are doing in relationship to the goal. Preassessments can take a variety of forms, including the use of technology tools.
  • During the coaching cycle:
    • Coach and Teacher:
      • Design a set of instructional practices that link to the goals for student learning.
      • Determine what coaching practices make sense for the teacher and coach.
      • Work together to put in place instructional practices.
      • Reflect on how those practices assist students in achieving academic goals. (excerpt from Figure 5.1: Capturing Data Across a Coaching Cycle, page 87)

Sweeney includes more suggestions, but one of the key ideas is that  of post-assessment. In post-assessment, we measure performance in relationship to the academic goal. In a similar way, Weston Kieschnick urges us to assess our own praxis. One way could be a depth of knowledge, or use of difficulty and complexity (Fisher, Frey, Hattie, 2016).

coaching for results

Image Source

These assessment tools provide us with insight about what our students know. They also suggest to us areas of potential growth in our own preparation. Having a coach to discuss this can be quite helpful, much the same way I found my colleague’s suggestion.

When we coach for results, we:

  • Assist teachers in crafting instruction that works.
  • Develop tech-enhanced, evidence-based learning experiences that are relevant and rigorous.
  • Scaffold accelerated students growth.
  • Conduct pre/post-assessments that align to high-effect size instructional strategies in use.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the last two action steps.

Action Step #4: Craft Your Lesson Procedure

“Plan your lesson, every activity, thinking through what your students will do.” Words of insight from a few years ago via my colleague, Diana Benner. I was in the throes of planning out a workshop that strained complexity. Whomever your audience for lesson design, put yourself in the place of your students.

In Sweeney’s coaching cycle, this is when the coach and teacher get together. They plan out instructional practices. This means you identify what you are going to do as the teacher, and what students will do. You can put it in narrative form or bullet list. In my own classroom, a graphic organizer worked quite well to map out activities.

Image Source: Bold School

Weston Kieschnick’s book, Bold School, offers many examples. In one of my favorite chapters on Direct Instruction (effect size of .59), he describes it in this way:

What will the teacher do?

  • Using direct instruction, the teacher explains a way of interpreting text/chart, etc…
  • The teacher will then show students an example…
  • With Kahoot!, the teacher solicits students input.
  • The teacher will provide more direct instruction based on results of input….

What will the students do?

  • Students will work to comprehend material.
  • Students will take part in a guided practice exercise.
  • Students will engage in independent practice.

To better illustrate this process, here’s one chart. It focuses on the use of Reciprocal Teaching (.74).

Note: Reciprocal Teaching is a deep learning strategy. It relies on scaffolded student conversations (via sentence stems) to develop skills that include summarization (.74), metacognition (.58), questioning (.48), and vocabulary development (.63). Want to learn how to implement it in your classroom or school? Contact TCEA.org’s empowerED program.

Action Step #5: Post-Assess Student Learning and Reflect

What student data will inform teacher instructional practices? For many educators, learning to analyze state assessment data as a team is familiar. Others may find they need more personalized data. For this, they may rely on a variety of assessment tools, many of which are available online. Some are tech-based, but others can be paper-and-pencil or other.

coaching for results

Image Source: Slide 16

The goal of these assessments is to gain insight into what students know before instruction. It is also to gain insight into what they have learned after instruction. Use assessments to adjust instruction as well to meet the needs of students.

Coaching for Results

Keep in mind that high-effect size instructional strategies endure over time. They do so because they have a growing body of research that reveals their efficacy in accelerating student growth. Use technology in ways that make learning relevant to real life, and amplify the impact of strategies that work. When relevant, use it. When not, skip the tech. Focus on accelerating student growth and you won’t go wrong. Remember that less is more.

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Coaching for Results, Part 4: Accelerated Growth

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

How do you coach for high-effect size instructional, technology-enhanced strategies? In the first three parts of the Coaching for Results series, we explored coaching models. We also spent time clarifying vocabulary. In this blog entry, I will share five action steps to achieve accelerated student growth.

Reviewing the Components

Think of the components as reactants in a chemical formula that results in a product. The product? Accelerated student growth. It might look like this:

HESIS + STI + SCC –> Accelerated Student Growth

The fusion of the three reactants yields accelerated student growth. Isn’t that amazing? Of course, it’s not as simple as a chemical formula. The three components that must combine include the following:

  • High-Effect Size Instructional Strategies( HESIS). Describes evidence-based strategies highlighted in John Hattie’s research. Static info on the strategies leaves you looking at what worked in the past. The latest, best source of fresh insights is online. Instead of books, use Corwin Publishing’s Visible Learning MetaX database. It’s an interactive database that allows you to pull up the HESIS and supporting research.
  • Strategic Technology Integration (STI). Addresses the use of ed tech tools. Those can include many available now, such as EdPuzzle, Padlet, G Suite EDU, Microsoft EDU, etc. The goal of these is to “elevate” the HES Instructional Strategies.
  • Pupil-Centric Coaching Efforts (PCC). Diane Sweeney (@Sweeney_Diane) suggests instead of starting with teachers, we begin with students. It’s a powerful shift in perspective from traditional coaching. To do that, Diane includes a results-based coaching tool (view Google Doc version). The tool provides an excellent model to follow.

Innovation flourishes at the juxtaposition of ideas, so let’s put these ideas together.

Action Steps Overview

As you know, Weston Kieschnick (@Wes_Kieschnick) inspired these steps in his book Bold School. To get a greater effect, I’m going to suggest we include some of Diane Sweeney’s work on coaching tools. There is quite a bit of overlap in Diane’s and Wes’ approaches, so it makes sense to combine them.

Action Step #1: Develop and Pre-Assess Learning Outcomes

Focusing on learning outcomes enables both teacher and coach to develop student-centered goals. What’s more, focusing on learning outcomes lets you connect to standards-based goals. Weston suggests several questions. One of the important ones is What priority standards will you focus on? If you were going to write these as “I can” statements for students, what would they look like?

Tip: Avail yourself of resources for the standards. These include The TEKS Resource Center, the TEKS, and the ISTE Standards for Students.

It’s worth pointing out that the effect size of the Teacher Clarity Goals is d=.75. This makes Teacher Clarity a core teaching factor that influences learning. Unlike other high-effect size (HES) instructional strategies, it affects everything you do. Here’s an example of Teacher Clarity for this blog entry:

  • What am I learning today? A process for combining research-based instructional strategies with technology tools to achieve standards-based learning. Follow up with how to best coach (and be coached) in a pupil-centric classroom.
  • Why am I learning this? Knowing how to integrate technology into effective, evidence-based strategies to achieve curricular objectives is critical. Knowing how to coach and be coached in this process is important. The more we all know, the better.
  • How will I know that I have learned this? I’ll be able to apply effective strategies, educational frameworks, and pupil-centric coaching (PCC).

Note that clarifying these goals in a consistent way can impact students. Do this for every lesson, and your students will gain almost two years of growth in one year. Isn’t that incredible? Some educators craft these in shorter statements that begin:

  • Today we will…
  • So we can…
  • We will know we have it when…

As you identify desired academic goals, Diane Sweeney recommends collecting some baseline data. She suggests you assess who is proficient, almost there, or below. You can use a variety of pre-assessment instruments (including ed tech tools that make this easier).

coaching

Note: Effect sizes displayed in the chart above have been updated in the Visible Learning MetaX database.

Action Step #2: Select Your High-Effect Size Instructional Strategy

In this action step, you will reflect on the academic standards and skills you want students to know. Weston suggests asking questions that are quite practical. For example, which specific HES instructional strategy will you leverage to meet goals? Diane poses a relevant question of “What instructional practices will help students reach the goal?” Two follow-up questions Weston suggests include:

  • What will I as the teacher be doing?
  • What will students be doing?

For example, the teacher may rely on direct instruction (effect size of .59).  In regards to the second question focused on students, we have to ask which strategy works best? High-effect size strategies fall into several categories. Understanding these may assist you in selecting one.

Approaches that help students’ surface-level learning may not work for deep learning. This is true in reverse (deep learning strategies may not work for surface learning).

Match the right approach with the appropriate phase of learning. – Hattie, Fisher, and Frey (Visible Learning for Mathematics, 2017)

These are organizational categories for educators, but they are more to students where they serve as stages of learning. Click the strategy to learn more about it.

Gaining a deeper understanding of high-effect size instructional strategies can be difficult. Remember to come back to the two questions by asking yourself, “What will you and your students be doing in the lesson?” This will assist you.

Also, you should keep your use of strategies simple. For example, as teacher you may choose to use Direct Instruction or Explicit Teaching. Use these to answer the first question, “What will the teacher do?” and then map out what you will do. To answer the second question (student), consider whether this is concept/skill focused. Select a strategy from the surface learning category. If it’s deep learning, use one of those strategies. Once you have decided on what you will be doing and what students will be doing, you’re ready for Action Step #3.

coaching

Action Step #3: Decide on the Digital Tool(s)

Was the temptation to jump to Action Step #3 overwhelming? For ed tech advocates, the rush to select a digital tool is strong. So many tech tools are available now, it’s tempting to use as many as possible. To better explore this, you’ll find several sections below. Those include 1) Finding Free Tools; 2) A Quick Example; and 3) Coaching for Digital Tools. Let’s begin our exploration.

Get the Google Doc that matches high-effect size instructional strategies
with technology tools

Finding Free Tools

Which tech tool best aligns to a chosen high-effect size instructional strategy? While I have some suggestions available (which appear in Part 5 of this series), check these ideas out:

coaching

1. TCEA App Lists. How do you determine what apps are game-changing and which should you skip? Check out this collection of apps. You will find an iOS, Chrome, and Android app list.

2. EdSurge Product Index. This community-sourced database offers quite a lot, including a list of classroom-related activity software, apps, and more.

3. EdTech Advisor. This exclusive platform curates new digital tools and aligns them to the ISTE Standards. You can find digital tools (e.g. apps) via a search dashboard that also allows you to search by grade level, product type, and more.

4. Miguel’s List of Free Tools. Want to find free digital tools? Check out my free resources. They include Free Resources for Teachers and Free News Sources. Also, Copyright-Friendly Media includes a list of free tools, apps, and websites. You may want to read this blog entry, Buncee-Based Learning, to see how to match one strategy to a digital tool.

The challenge isn’t finding digital tools. It’s knowing how they “elevate,” as Weston K. points out, a HES instructional strategy. A bit of wisdom: You may want to unleash many HESIS and digital tools. Resist the temptation. Choose just one strategy for students and look for technology that makes it better.

In Part 5, I will share a lesson that aligns to each of the action steps. For now, let’s take a look at an easy one, a digital tool many of us have access to, multimedia slide decks. Multimedia slide deck tools abound. Some you may be familiar with include G Suite EDU, PowerPoint, Buncee, and Prezi.

Source: Joel Bednar (@jsbednar) Tweet

A Quick Example

Use a multimedia slide deck in two ways. For the teacher, you can use it as a way to organize information for direct instruction. With direct instruction, you present material in a straightforward, sequential manner. You control the content or skill. This works great as a way to introduce students to fresh ideas they may have no or little prior knowledge about. That makes it a great surface learning approach.

For students, you want to give them a systematic approach to understand the content. With a textual passage, summarization would work. Again, students are learning about new information unfamiliar to them. They summarize the main ideas of a text (fiction or non-fiction) in audio format. Then put the text excerpt on the slide. Their summary may appear in slide notes. To the slide, they add audio.

Summarization enjoys a learning effect size of 0.74, which accelerates student growth. Students can also include a variety of media that expand on their summary.

Coaching for Action Step #3

An instructional coach can play a key role in narrowing down both the HESIS and digital tools, but a solid knowledge of Hattie’s strategies and digital tools is critical. It is important to ask these questions:

  • How will student achievement increase because of the strategies and digital tools selected?
  • How will technology deepen the impact of a high-effect size instructional strategy? Will it add or subtract from the learning?

Coaching support, as Diane Sweeney points out, focuses on:

  • Creating learning targets
  • Collecting student evidence during class
  • Analyzing student work
  • Establishing success criteria
  • Planning collaboratively with the teacher
  • Sharing learning and insights to enhance content and pedagogy

coaching

These components are critical to success. Coaches may need to bring in an educational framework.

You may also need to use something like Willard Daggett’s Rigor and Relevance (more) framework. Use a research-backed edtech framework (you can find several online at this site).

In the final segment of this series, we’ll continue our exploration of action steps and you will get suggestions for digital tools that align to HES instructional strategies.

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Coaching for Results, Part 3: Terminology

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

How do you blend technology into instruction while also providing coaching support? In this third installment of  Coaching for Results, we’ll explore several key concepts. Then we’ll put it all together. Before we do that, it’s important to clarify vocabulary, so let’s begin with that.

Overlapping Terms

The following list of words and phrases often mean different things to people. Let’s take a look at each one and define it.

  • Blended learning
  • Coaching
  • Evidence-based learning
  • Instructional strategies
  • High-effect size instructional strategies a la John Hattie
  • Technology integration
  • Strategic technology integration

As you might imagine, quite a bit of confusion exists around each of these terms and they do overlap each other.

Clarifying Vocabulary

Let’s revisit what some of the terms used in this blog entry mean to most of us:

  • Blended learning:  This term has resulted in much confusion. It is often seen as the successor to the term “technology integration.” Clayton Christensen defines the term as “not the same as technology-rich instruction.” It’s often seen as the way to blend technology into teaching and learning. Blended learning advocates incorporate the idea of active, engaged learning with a flipped classroom approach. Station rotation includes activities like small group instruction and group work. Advocates like Caitlin Tucker (see my Wakelet on her work) include online learning.  Collaborative projects are a key component of Caitlin’s brand of blended learning.
  • Coaching: Many coaching approaches are teacher-centric. That is, they are about building relationships with staff. The goal is that these will result in changes to teaching practice. When we shift our focus from the teacher to student, then we may get the results we seek. Many coaching models exist. Two worth your time include Knight’s The Impact Cycle and Diane Sweeney’s Student-Centered Coaching. Diane’s efforts focus coaches on student-centered change efforts which transform teaching practice.  We’ll come back to Diane Sweeney’s approach later.
  • Evidence-based learning: Many different kinds of activities find their way into classrooms today. Some are not evidence-based, or based on research that is in itself questionable. As Cathy Lassiter points out, “Many old assumptions about what works best in education have been disproven.” As a result, we have to rethink positions on certain instructional strategies. This requires accepting new research that challenges what we once believed to work. Evidence-based learning means no less than knowing how new research defines success. What we do as teacher and students must align to the findings of scientific research. This means new research takes precedence over what we would like to believe. Old, disproven assumptions offer opportunities for reflection and new learning.
  • Instructional strategies: This includes the entire collection of instructional strategies (sans ed tech) available to us. (Check out this extensive list here.) As educators, we’ve seen many instructional strategies. Some are research-based, many are not. How do you differentiate between cutesy activities and strategies that work?
  • High-Effect Size Instructional Strategies (HESIS): “We have no right to teach in a way that leads to students gaining less than d= 0.40 within a year,” says John Hattie (Visible Learning, 2009). These are research-based strategies that are shown to work. Now, when I say research-based, this isn’t your run of the mill research. You can learn more about these strategies online. As educators, why not use strategies that work best instead of those that are less effective? In particular, strategies that meet or exceed an effect size of >.40. These HESIS have the potential to accelerate student learning in one school year. Instead of one year’s growth that some instructional strategies offer, these accomplish more. For example, jigsaw has an effect size of 1.2, equating to three or more years of growth for a student in one year. If you focus on using high-effect size instructional strategies, students will learn faster.
  • Technology integration: This is an older term that many ed tech veterans have relied on. It is a catch-all phrase that involves using technology as part of teaching and learning. Some see it as an all-inclusive term that includes blended learning, while others dismiss it as first level use. Whatever your definition, the term is old, abused, and difficult to refresh. Many choose to abandon it in favor of “blended learning” (leading to confusion). Others use terms such as “technology-rich instruction” in lieu of it. Both replacement terms lack specificity.
  • Strategic technology integration: Weston Kieschnick coined this term. He refers to it as a merging of two components. That is, Hattie’s high-effect size instructional strategies with educational technology.  The term includes the use of both desktop and internet-based technology approaches. This includes blended learning as both Caitlin Tucker and Clayton Christiansen define them.

Three Aspects

Now that we have a clearer understanding of terminology, we can get to the heart of good teaching. Achieving academic standards is accomplished through the union of three aspects of teaching and learning. Those aspects include the fusion of the following:

  • High-effect size instructional strategies
  • Strategic technology use in the classroom
  • Pupil-centric coaching efforts

We merge these so that we may construct evidence-based learning experiences. These experiences lead to accelerated growth as John Hattie defines it.

  • High-Effect Size Instructional Strategies (HESIS). Past assumptions have not held up. Consider Natalie Wexler’s and Cathy Lassiter’s perspectives. Hattie provides definitive work on the subject of what strategies work and when it is best to use them.
  • Strategic Technology Integration (STI). The prevalence of technology in today’s society makes strategic technology integration critical. That is, as Weston Kieschnick says, technology integration that elevates high-effect size instructional strategies.
  • Pupil-Centric Coaching Efforts. This is Diane Sweeney’s student-centered coaching. It involves doing pre- and post-assessments of student learning followed by discussions with the teacher and student about both instructional strategies and strategic technology integration.

How do we combine these into a working model? To simplify the process, Weston Kieschnick offers five actions we can take. With some minor modifications, we can see how these three components can work together.

In part four of the series, I’ll share the fusion of these three aspects in a working model you can use in your K-12 or adult classroom.

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Buncee-Based Learning: Building Block for Knowledge Construction

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to adopt powerful learning strategies for use in your classroom? John Hattie, author of the acclaimed Visible Learning research, points out that technology alone has little impact on learning outcomes. In this blog entry, we’ll explore strategic ways we can blend technology tools like Buncee into student learning strategies.

…teachers have access to a variety of curriculum resources, such as open educational resources, playlists, digital textbooks, and teacher-developed curriculum. Having access to options is a good thing, but having many choices does not ensure all choices are well aligned to the school’s GVC. (Source: MCREL)

Tips for Blending Technology into Hattie Strategies

Avoid blending too many technologies into your classroom. This can be overwhelming. Here are three obstacles to keep in mind:

  • Teachers’ approaches to the use technology may fail to create powerful learning interactions.
  • Face to face teacher-student interactions generally yield a greater learning effect than student to computer learning.
  • Technology alone has a limited impact on student learning.

Some tips for leveraging technology to impact teaching and learning:

  • Encourage teachers to model and do think-alouds for students before turning them loose on any technology.
  • Use student creations as the source for insight about student thinking made visible in technology-created work.
  • Create a learning strategy system in your classroom that grounds students before they embrace a technology.

These quick tips can offset some of the obstacles teachers encounter when blending technology into effective instructional strategies.

Reviewing Hattie Effect Sizes

No doubt you are already amiliar with John Hattie’s work through the Research-based Practices series here at TCEA TechNotes. But you may not be aware of the details regarding effective instructional strategies. Often, we imagine that putting technology into the equation can have a big difference. This isn’t quite true, which can throw educators for a loop.

For example, using the Visible Learning Meta X database, we can see that the effect sizes for technology on its own are low. Technology in reading and math have typical teacher effect sizes, scoring 0.29 and 0.33, respectively. When we ask students to collaborate in small groups, we have to be careful. “Teaching learners how to collaborate, and in particular how to work together to negotiate meaning, is a necessary part of the process of learning collaboratively,” states this study (Source). With this in mind, how can we maximize technology without losing the value of higher effect sizes for strategies?

Old Strategies, New Insights

When we review interactions that occur face to face, you can see powerful differences on learning effects. For example, the strategy to integrate new learning with previous knowledge has an effect size of 0.93. When student growth is 0.40 in a normal school year, 0.93 suggests a potential to considerably accelerate learning. The challenges for adopting this learning effect include:

  • What does this strategy mean?
  • How do we apply it with traditional means (without digital technologies)?
  • How do we apply it with digital technology?

Let’s explore each of those challenges in turn.

What the Research Says

This strategy is defined as the idea that readers who establish more connections between a text and their prior knowledge, thereby creating a cognitive map, improve comprehension and recall. When reading the study this strategy is based on, consider the power of learning strategies:

Devine (1987) defined ‘learning strategies’ or ‘study skills’ as “competencies associated with acquiring, recording, organizing, synthesizing, remembering, and using information and ideas found in school” (p. 5). Kim (1986) describes learning strategies as ‘the systematic procedures’ that students initiate to complete such complex tasks as skimming, determining relevant information, taking notes, and studying materials for a test. (Source: Get a copy)

As you can see, students who employ learning strategies or study skills that enable them to do the following gain learning benefits:

  • Acquire, record, organize, synthesize, remember information
  • Skim, identify relevant information, take notes
  • Study materials for a test

How might we support student learners while modeling creating a systematic approach in our classrooms?

The Strategy Without Technology

Many educators are familiar with ways to support learning strategies shown above. We often invite students to take notes in age-appropriate ways. They use different approaches as they process new information. You can use organizers like this one that facilitate note taking. You can also find a wealth of graphic organizers online. Cornell note taking offers yet another system.

Model note-taking, outlining, and skimming information for your students. Make YOUR thinking visible to empower them to do the same. Put a system in place that students can use daily. Once students have mastered it, introduce technology. It can deepen your interactions with students and their engagement. For example, use technologies to scaffold collaborative work and multimedia applications of student learning strategies.

Strategy with Technology: Buncee

What are some of the ways to achieve this? Consider that competencies involve recording, remembering, synthesizing, and organizing information.  Different technologies, as employed in the classroom with teacher support, can be used. One technology that offers this possibility is Buncee. Consider this Buncee-based organizer; click the link to view more.

 View this example | View MORE Examples

Here are several approaches that adapt Buncee to support aforementioned learning strategies:

Approach #1 – Research

Younger students can use Buncee to organize their understanding of research. In my own third grade classroom, I introduced students to vertebrates and invertebrates. We classified animals within their experience, as well as others they were unfamiliar with. After discussing this in a large group, I asked them to classify their sea creatures as vertebrates or invertebrates.

View this example

In the example shown, Sarah (a student) has created a Buncee on animal research. Note how she makes a connection between her own experience (an elephant toy) and clip art of an elephant. Sarah has created a digital slideshow that includes her understanding of elephants. She discusses what elephants eat (I didn’t know they ate cheetahs?), their weight and dimensions, and habitat.

Approach #2 – Book Trailer

Research shows that book trailers can assist learners in developing literary competence.

Literary competence includes a number of skills and sub-skills which the teacher should identify in order to plan his lessons and to offer his students clear procedures and techniques for dealing with literary texts.(Source: Mind the Gap)

In this example, you can see the use of Buncee as a way to promote books while giving students a systematic approach to understand the content. This approach can work with both fiction and non-fiction text.

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Students can incorporate audio to introduce book characters. More importantly, they are able to summarize the main ideas of a text in audio format. This is important since summarization enjoys a learning effect size of 0.72, which accelerates student growth. What is exciting is that students can use Buncee as a tool for collaboration. They can incorporate video, audio, and other multimedia.

Consider these uses of Buncee in the science classroom:

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Approach #3 – Global Buncee Book

What if you could capitalize on students’ ability to organize content, not only the content they create, but that of others? You can do this in the classroom with student-generated content as they work together to create a single text that captures their understanding of concepts.

While this particular example focuses on fiction content that students generated, consider how this tool could be used as a telegathering and curation tool by students. For understanding the organization of a text, sequencing is important.

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Approach #4 – Sketchnoting, Outlining, and Summarizing

One of the ways to take advantage of Buncee is to use it for outlining and summarizing (0.66). This can be as simple as “…identifying the main ideas and rendering them in one’s own words.”

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One extension may involve students using digital annotation tools, which are built into Buncee. Sketchnoting offers benefits as well. “Sketchnotes, sometimes referred to as visual notetaking, are purposeful doodles while listening to something interesting,” says Amy Storer (ReadAlouds and SketchNotes). Consider these points:

  • Drawn words are recalled better than written words.
  • Words drawn trump pictures.
  • The drawing effect combines visual imagery, motor action, elaboration, and pictorial representations to achieve classroom success (Source).

Another key point is that making margin annotations has a greater effect than highlighting text. Students can use margins to annotate digitized content and then review it later. Their annotations assist them in identifying content they deemed worth remembering (Source).

Buncee makes it easy to support sketchnotes and annotations.  Here are two examples that show how learners are using it:

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Approach #5 – Student-Created Study Materials

Creating study materials is often seen as a teacher-centric activity where the teacher creates those materials for students. But there is some research that shows that teacher-created review sheets may not be effective. Students want them because they provide an “illusory feeling of control and mastery” (Source: Srivastava, 2009 as cited here). Empowering students to create their own study materials after a lesson can have a powerful impact on learning.

Student created test sheets allow students to consider important vocabulary terms, decide what formulas need to be included, predict the types and kinds of questions that will be on an exam, flip through and review notes to scan over the content, look for trouble spots, and write all important things down (Bass, 2013 as cited here)

With this in mind, how can we support students creation of their own study materials? Have students use Buncee to create their own review sheet for a particular topic. Consider this example outlining the steps for multiplication, standard algorithm.

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Wait, Wait, There’s More!

You don’t need to use Buncee only for fostering student growth. The example below is for school administrators to use in creating digital slide shows to play on those giant monitors in cafeterias and waiting areas. See this example of Riverside Jr. High School:

Here are some additional ways to use Buncee as well. Check them out!

Getting Started with Buncee

“If I can use Buncee, anyone can,” said Dr. Roland Rios, Fort Sam Houston ISD. He went on to say the following:

When we first saw Buncee, we were immediately convinced that it had great potential in our district. It met our criteria for effective tools – powerful, easy to use and manage, applicable across grades and subjects, and affordable (Source: As cited on the Buncee website).

The approaches above suggest only a few of the features. If you want to learn more about Buncee, connect with Buncee team members, Francesca Arturi (email: francesca@buncee.com Twitter: @cesca_buncee) and Bryan Gorman (email: Bryan@buncee.com Twitter: @Bunceebryan).

See what Buncee can do. You may want to explore these training videos to get started.

Buncee-Based Learning: Building Block for Knowledge Construction

How can we ensure children meet a baseline level of skill in reading and mathematics? Use research-based, effective instructional strategies with fidelity. First, students learn or develop their own cognitive learning strategies. Then, they apply them often. Once that’s done, you introduce technology that enhances that usage.

In this way, students can become, as ISTE terms them, Knowledge Constructors, that is, empowered to curate a variety of resources using digital tools. They do this to construct knowledge and produce creative artifacts. It’s all part of making meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

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