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Educational TrendsESL/ELLGood Teaching

Remote Learning Strategy #3: Three More

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

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

Strategy #3: Teacher Credibility

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

Did You Know?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Many educators don’t know this.

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

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

teacher credibility

Strategy #4: Reciprocal Teaching

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

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

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

  • Summarizing
  • Questioning
  • Clarifying
  • Predicting

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

Consider how this teacher uses Zoom:

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

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

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

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

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

Strategy #5: The Jigsaw Method

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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writing in a notebook
Good Teaching

Virtual Learning Strategy #2: Summarization

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In “Virtual Learning Strategy #1: Classroom Discussion,” I highlighted a popular strategy for virtual teachers. Yet classroom discussion does not reign supreme. It is not the sole high-effect size instructional strategy teachers are relying on. In this blog entry, we’ll explore another strategy that has garnered attention for your distant learners.

Weston Kieschnick’s Blended Approach

In his approachable book, BOLD Schools, author Weston Kieschnick (@Wes_Kieschnick) lays out a simple plan that blends a high-effect size strategy with a digital tool. He emphasizes that adding too many tools or strategies can be confusing. Worse, it may have the opposite effect than what you intend, which is, as John Hattie puts it, to speed up student growth in one year.

Let’s explore some of the strategies and digital tools educators are using. Here’s a hint which strategy we’ll be focusing on:

summarization

Strategy #2: Summarization

The second most oft-mentioned strategy is summarization. I have adapted the description below from the Corwin Visible Learning Meta X database:

The ability to summarize a text is often taken as a marker of reading comprehension. For this reason, many scholars have advocated explicit summarization training. For students who struggle with comprehension, explicit summarization training is a recommended.

Summarization isn’t only about finding what’s worth keeping. It can also be about deleting unnecessary material, or  material that is redundant.

The act of summarizing can involve substituting a subordinate term for a list of items. It can also have students selecting a topic sentence. Students may construct a topic sentence if one is only suggested in a text.

Summarization enjoys an effect size of 0.74, the same as reciprocal teaching. This makes it a powerful tool for teachers and even more powerful as a self-regulation strategy for students. Summarization allows students to control their own learning.

In a similar way, teachers can scaffold student metacognition. They need to reflect on their own work. Weston suggests asking practical questions, such as:

  • Which specific strategy will you leverage to meet goals?
  • What will you as the teacher be doing?
  • What will students be doing?

This boils down to a question Diane Sweeney poses: “What instructional practices will help students reach the goal?” Let’s take a stab at responding to these questions. Summarization is the second high-effect size strategy in use to meet academic goals.

Summarization for Virtual Learning

Summarization, a surface learning strategy, works great for introducing students to new learning and plays well with virtua learning tools such as Flipgrid. Here’s what teachers are saying about this digital tool:

  • “I plan on using FlipGrid. Students submit timed audio submissions of them synthesizing the info.”
  • “Students need a lot of practice with summary. I use summary and Flipgrid to empower students. Students can create a summary of a text. Then they critique the summaries of others to determine who had the best summary. It also gives students the benefit of hearing the information several times as well.”

Other resources that have drawn the attention of teachers include KAMI and Buncee. In this example, you can see that selecting text is one way to summarize.

“The HESIS I will use is Summarizing.  I will use KAMI to present a text as it allows students to highlight key terms.  I will have students share the key terms they highlighted. Then, they will discuss why they selected the terms they chose. As a continuation, students share their summaries aloud.

“I could use summarization. Then, I would ask students to use Buncee. They would use it to share their thoughts and notes over the topic,” says another teacher. As you may have noted in each of these responses, there is something missing. Teachers assumed, or chose not to state, what they would be doing.

Let’s revisit Weston’s questions:

  • Which specific strategy will you leverage to meet goals? Summarization is the strategy teachers above chose.
  • What will you as the teacher be doing? We’re not sure what the teacher will be doing to introduce summarization practices. This is something that they could clarify.
  • What will students be doing? Students will summarize or highlight content then share what they have done. Technology tools like Flipgrid, KAMI, Buncee play a key role.

Before we leave these questions, take a moment to reflect on these questions from a teacher and/or coach perspective.

In Their Shoes

How would you, as a teacher, clarify one of the teacher activities above? What instructional practices would you, as a coach, encourage teachers to use? Coaches, be sure to check out Diane Sweeney’s free ebook, Moves for Virtual Coaching.

summarizationDid You Know? 

Get an introduction to core learning, high-effect size instructional strategies. Do that via TCEA’s Strategies That Work, Part 1: Core Components self-paced course. Take the mystery out of teaching and learning strategies. Available online now and get a year of access to content.

Other Digital Tools to Pair with Summarization

In Matching HES Strategies and Digital Tools, find other ed tech tools to pair with summarization. Here’s a quick list:

Digital Annotation Tools

Highlight the Relevant/Irrelevant

Summarization works as a powerful, surface learning strategy. Combine it with a digital tool to move beyond paper and pencil activities and end up with greater engagement and retention.

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nonfiction
Content AreasGood Teaching

Nonfiction Media for Remote Learners

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

If you need more nonfiction content for your remote learning classroom, several online providers of nonfiction have made resources available for K-12 education. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a few high-effect-size instructional strategies that can enhance the use of nonfiction media sources.

Did You Know?

More than 85% of the reading and writing we do as adults is nonfiction. But most of the reading and writing in K–3 classrooms is fiction or personal narrative. Students competent in reading fiction are often not competent in reading nonfiction. Seventy-three percent of students read nonfiction three levels below fiction. That’s at least three Reading Recovery levels below. Students who were competent readers of nonfiction were ALSO competent in reading fiction. (Source).

The Structure of Nonfiction

What’s the structure of nonfiction content? If you haven’t asked yourself that question, you may be missing out on a key insight. Readers who understand the schema of a piece of writing are halfway to comprehending it. When you know the underlying structure of text, that assists your understanding and focuses student attention on key elements of the genre. It makes it easier for learners to expect what’s next. And, most important, it helps them track their own comprehension as they process media (source).

Flocabulary has a wonderful breakdown of text structures in this video:

  • Description
  • Sequence
  • Cause and Effect
  • Compare and Contrast
  • Problem and Solution

Here’s another way to look at it:

nonfiction

via Mrs. Odle’s Class

Nonfiction content structures make learning predictable. Once you know how nonfiction content is structured, you can better comprehend it.

To deepen comprehension, you can combine high-effect-size instructional strategies.

High-Effect-Size Instructional Strategies

Read the TCEA TechNotes blog? If yes, you know of our ongoing 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 0.40. 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 (0.74) yields almost two year’s growth in one year.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

Picking a high-effect-size strategy is not enough. These strategies also fall into general categories that include “surface,” “deep,” and “transfer” learning.  You can introduce students to these strategies with text and then expand that to media.

Strategies That Support Surface Learning

Surface learning strategies build foundational knowledge. When you want students to gain deeper, conceptual understanding, rely on deep learning.

Strategies That Support Deep Learning

  • Reciprocal Teaching (0.74) strategy fosters deeper reading comprehension. Learn more and here’s a guide you can use.
  • Outlining and Summarizing (0.66) has students identify the main ideas. Then they put those ideas into their own words. The essential skill involves differentiating between main and supporting ideas. Read more.
  • Concept Mapping (0.64) has students doing the heavy lifting. That’s because they learn best when they are required to organize new information. They are the ones who have to make the connection between old and new information. Learn more.

Now that we’ve reviewed those strategies, let’s dig into media sources for nonfiction.

Nonfiction Media Sources

Need access to nonfiction media sources? You’ve come to the right place. Ask your students to create a concept map as they listen to an audio story from NPR or watch a documentary.

Source #1: Netflix Documentaries

In an April 2020, announcement, Netflix says you can now screen documentaries. While intended for classroom viewing, they have made a new option available which allows a select number of documentaries to be available via the Netflix US YouTube channel.

You can find a complete list online. Here are three that caught my eye:

  • Babies: A series that explores the first full year of life.
  • Chasing Coral: Follows marine biologists as they invent the first time-lapse camera to record bleaching events in real time.
  • Our Planet:Explores the natural world and comes from the creators of the award-winning series Planet Earth.

There are other documentaries available. Check them out.

Source #2: Open Culture

Need access to more than 250 documentaries? Look no further than Open Culture’s collection. They have a rich list of content you will need to review as an educator.

Again, a few of my selections with original text from Open Culture:

  • Conversations with Myself – Free – Alan Watts walks in the mountains. Talks about the limitations of technology and the problem of trying to keep track of an infinite universe. (1971)
  • Creative Process: Norman McLaren – Free – Explores Norman McLaren’s process of artistic creation. (1990)
  • Future Shock – Free – A short documentary based on a book written by futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. It’s narrated by Orson Welles. (1972)

Be sure to explore the extensive list.

Source #3: Top Documentary Films

A mind-boggling collection of documentary films are available online. Top Documentary Films offers a searchable index of websites.

My quick picks:

Knowing how to analyze the structure of content is important. Having those structures in mind, along with strategies that work, can impact student learning.

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buncee
Good TeachingOnline Tools and Apps

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.

View this example

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:

View this example

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.

View this example

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.”

View this example

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:

View this example

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.

View this example

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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Classroom Discussions
Good TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

High-Impact Classroom Discussions with Google

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

John Hattie’s research identifies classroom discussions as having an effect size on student achievement of 0.82, which means approximately two years’ of growth in one year.  Do you have classroom discussions in your class?  Do you use Google tools to promote classroom discussion? If not, let’s take a look at how you can use them to increase student learning in your classroom.

The Power of Classroom Discussions

Classroom discussions are an instructional strategy where students are invited to speak about the topic at hand. But it involves much more than just a teacher asking a class a question and then another, etc., It involves all students having robust discussion with each other in order to think more critically about a topic.

Using Classroom Discussions to Adapt Instruction

Classroom discussions allow students to improve communication skills by voicing their opinions and thoughts. Teachers also benefit from classroom discussion as it allows them to see if students have learned the concepts that are being taught. Moreover, a classroom discussion creates an environment where everyone learns from each other, which is the best kind of learning.

The key to successful classroom discussions is the feedback given by and the instructional adjustments made by the teacher. According to Hattie, “when implemented correctly, classroom discussions can be a source of rich, qualitative data – data that allows teachers to understand the thinking of their students more closely and determine if there are information processing errors that need instructional intervention immediately.”

Planning for Classroom Discussions

When planning for classroom discussions, teachers should consider the following:

Classroom Discussions

  1. Share expectations. When planning for Classroom Discussions, it is important to share your expectations for participation, including the ground rules for the discussion. Sharing a rubric with students will help to clarify your expectations.
  2. Create questions. Create a series of questions for the students to think about. Make sure these are open-ended and thought-provoking questions. Your questions could spark controversy or draw on common experiences. This way, you will spark a meaningful discussion.
  3. Allocate enough time. Discussions take time to get started.
  4. Ensure that it’s the students talking and not you. You already know the content being discussed!
  5. Facilitate the discussion and adjust instruction, as needed. Monitor what is being said and ask students for clarification. This is where you get an understanding if the student understands the topic being discussed and adjust instruction as needed.
  6. Deal with conflict. It is important not to ignore conflicts. If a misunderstanding occurs, make sure you step in and clarify. Do not let certain students dominate the discussion. In addition, make sure that students can freely express their opinion without being laughed at.
  7. Summarize the discussion. Provide a summary or some conclusions of the discussion.
  8. After the discussion, reflect on what worked well and what you might do differently next time. Think about the students that didn’t participate much or didn’t understand the topic.

Google Tools for Classroom Discussions

Classroom Discussions

Google tools can complement the effectiveness of classroom discussions. With online discussions, teachers can view and select individual student responses to deepen further discussion for the whole class. This way, the teacher is using the thinking of students to drive instruction for the entire class. Teachers can also use whole-class views to push students’ thinking beyond the material being studied. In addition, online discussions will give a voice to those students are aren’t comfortable speaking up in class. The main thing to remember is that the teacher must model how to post in the online forum. Below are a few tools to get started with.

Google Classroom – The Google Classroom question feature allows teachers to have their own version of an online discussion board. Simply ask a question and students can begin having a discussion online.

Google Slides – Teachers can have a classroom discussion using Google Slides. As Alice Keeler points out in her blog, you can post a question in Google Slides and then have the students insert a slide to respond to the question. Students can insert comments on the slides of other students to respond. Get the discussion template here.

Google Sheets – Google Sheets can also be used to facilitate classroom discussions. On her blog, Alice Keeler mentions how you can create a list of discussion topics on the first sheet and then run a script to create a tab for each question. Students can then respond to the questions collaboratively. Get the discussion template here.

Pear Deck Google Add-On – Pear Deck is an add-on for Google Slides that will allow teachers to ask students questions. Students will be prompted to answer your questions as you advance your slides.

Additional Digital Tools for Classroom Discussions

Some additional digital tools for classroom discussions include:

Back Channel Chat – Backchannel Chat is a class discussion tool that was designed to look like an online chat room. Teachers can control of all aspects of the discussions. They can remove messages and prevent students from posting, if the pace of the discussion is overwhelming and key messages are lost.

Flipgrid – Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that helps teachers see and hear from every student in class. Teachers can post a topic for discussion and students then respond by recording their thoughts via a short video clip. Students can then watch the videos of their classmates and respond back to them to generate further discussion.

Nearpod – Nearpod provides another way to hold classroom discussions. Students can answer a prompt by reporting their thoughts and feelings through open-ended text. When answers are submitted, the teacher can see everyone’s response on their dashboard. They can even push out the responses to each student’s device. The teacher can keep it anonymous or mention the student’s name.

Padlet – Padlet is an online bulletin board in which students can post responses to discussion questions. Teachers should instruct students to put their name in the Title of their Padlet post. After students have posted their response, teachers can reply to their post. Students can even attach files or links to their responses.

Try a Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussions can be a powerful data source for teachers to adapt instruction. Therefore, you should try a classroom discussion or adjust a discussion you already have. As a result, it will lead to increased student learning in your classroom.

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Good TeachingProfessional Learning

Teaching Strategies That Work

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

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

What is “Depth and Complexity?”

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

First Contact

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

Gauging Effectiveness

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

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

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

Strategies That Work

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

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High Impact Strategy: Using Google and Self-Reported Grades

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Are you getting the most bang for your buck by utilizing the high impact instructional strategies made famous by John Hattie combined with the wonderful tools from Google? If your answer is no, then look at how you can employ practices, such as self-reported grades, that are scientifically proven to increase student achievement, and incorporate Google tools at the same time.

John Hattie’s Effect Size

John Hattie developed a way of synthesizing various influences in different meta-analyses according to their effect size. Effect size is a measure of the contribution an education intervention makes to student learning. In his first study, Visible Learning, he ranked 138 influences that are related to learning outcomes from positive effects to negative effects. He found that the average effect size was .40 and anything above this line is considered “highly effective.” Hattie has updated his work to include over 250 influences on student achievement. You can read more about John Hattie’s work here.

Now, let’s look at one of the strategies that is high on Hattie’s list, and how it can be applied to your classroom teaching using Google tools.

Self-Reported Grades (Effect Size 1.33)

Self-reported grades is a practice by which students assess the quality of their own work or their level of mastery over a given objective. With an effect size of 1.33, it can provide up to three years of additional growth in learning for every year. That’s a huge impact! The validity of self-grading is often assessed by comparing a student’s self-reported grade with the grade  provided by a teacher. Below are a few examples of how you can allow students to track their own progress.

Personal Grade Tracker

A personal grade tracker is a way for students to practice personal grade and progress monitoring in a structured way. Personal grade trackers are a great way to teach students how to monitor their growth and progress. They also help teach responsibility and self-awareness. Students keep track of each graded assignment throughout the year. Check out this Google Sheet Template by Mathew Mays. I really like that it includes a space for personal reflection!

 

Rubrics

Rubrics are a wonderful way to give your students the power to assess their own work. As the teacher, you also grade the student’s work with the same rubric. Afterwards, you compare the two rubrics and then discuss the results with individual students. By using rubrics as a way for students to self-grade, you are allowing them the opportunity to think critically about their work. Regular use of self-graded rubrics will help your students learn to target their work toward your expectations. They might even have fun playing the teacher and grading their own work.

It’s a Win-Win

Using self-reported grades is a win-win in the classroom. Not only does it alleviate student anxiety, but it also makes students feel that they have control over their own evaluation and learning. In addition, when students grade their own work, they can see exactly where they are making mistakes. They obtain this feedback far sooner than if the teacher collects the work, grades it, and then returns it later. There’s no reason not to try it in your classroom.

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AndroidChromebooksGood TeachingiOS Tips and Tricks

Back to School Apps for Lesson Planning

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Does the TEKS Resource System have an app?” asked a classroom teacher in one of my sessions. “I want to pull up my lessons.” The question got me thinking. After some fruitless searches in the Google Play store, I failed to find an app. But I did find a few, no-cost apps that teachers may want as they head back to school. Care to see what they are?

App #1: Effective Instructional Strategies

Looking for a collection of research-based instructional strategies? While you may look no further than John Hattie’s list of effective strategies, where’s the app? If you’re wondering, you may disappointed to discover there is no an app. Until now.

Thanks to the magic of Glide, a website that lets you turn a Google Sheet into an app, it’s pretty easy to make your own. The resulting product works on any device, not only your smartphone. With that in mind, I’ve created a Hattie effective instructional strategies app.

lesson planning

The  Strategies That Work  app includes a short list of effective instructional strategies. As a technology director, I wish I had known about John Hattie before now. They are a real eye-opener when it comes to popular technology-focused strategies.

While Hattie says that “Everything works” with the 250+ instructional strategies we use, not everything accelerates student growth. Want an illustrated, quick reference on your device with links to video and more info? This app will get you started. What’s more, I’ll be adding more instructional strategies at least once a month. Want to help me? Make contact via Twitter @mguhlin.

Get the Strategies That Work app

App #2: TEKS

Are you a Texas educator? You may want to have quick access to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Any teacher worth their salt will soon have these memorized (well, if they write lesson plans). But if your brain isn’t cooperating, why not load the TEKS app onto your phone? You can find the TEKS in detail for any content area. Give it a try.

Get the TEKS app

App #3: Lead4ward

The Lead4ward folks have a lot of fantastic resources for schools. As a classroom teacher, I love their app’s “quickchecks.” These provide a wealth of activities such as one-question quizzes, seven little words, etc.

The list of quick checks is a searchable collection of assessments. You can tap on the assessment and get instructions on how to use it in the classroom.

What a handy aid! And there’s even more included in the app. Why not check it out?

Get the Lead4ward app for iOS|Android

These three apps make it easy to engage in lesson planning. You can find instructional strategies that align to the TEKS and assess learning. Give them a try.

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Reciprocal Teaching with Popular Reading Apps

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

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

Google Rivet Transitions to Google’s Kids Space 

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

Effect Size of Reciprocal Teaching

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

rivet

 

What Is Reciprocal Teaching?

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

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

rivet

View Wakelet on Reciprocal Teaching

Why Is Reciprocal Teaching Needed?

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

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

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

Reciprocal Teaching Outside the Classroom

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

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

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

:video

Exploring Five, Incredible Reading Apps

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

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

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

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feedback
Good Teaching

Ensuring That Feedback Is Meaningful: Part 2

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Students want to improve. They want to learn better, faster, and retain knowledge longer. Our job is to provide them the specific help that they need.

That’s where feedback comes in. In this graph from John Hattie’s Visible Learning, you can see that students recognize the value of specific feedback strategies in learning something new, in this case, to draw:

feedback

In the last blog, we looked at Hattie’s definition of feedback and its importance in accelerating student learning. We also examined the four types of feedback, and which ones are best used when.

Now we’ll attempt to put those into practice, and look at some examples of powerful feedback and when it should be given.

Things That Must Be in Place First

Before a student can learn from feedback, there are several things that the teacher must put into place. The very first thing is that the student must fully trust the teacher. This requires that they have a positive relationship which has been developed over time. Secondly, students are more likely to pay attention to feedback and take steps to close the performance gap when the intended goal is clear.

This means that the teacher has shared the goal and its importance in a way that the student can fully understand. Then, both the teacher and the learner must be committed to achieving the goal. Finally,  the student must believe that the goal is actually achievable. If all of these pieces are not in place, then feedback becomes meaningless.

Providing Good Feedback

Once a trust and clarity are established, students can begin benefitting from meaningful feedback.

Feedback that allows a student to grow and improve their learning focuses on three concepts:

  • Where am I going? — focusing on the learning intentions, goals, or targets
  • How am I going? — focusing on the progress toward the goal and how to proceed relative to a personal best or curriculum progression
  • Where to next? — focusing on the learning activities needed to make more progress such as enhanced challenges, greater fluency, different strategies and processes to work on the tasks, and deeper understanding

When to Provide Feedback

Obviously, if a student is doing a task incorrectly, then the feedback about that should happen before they continue it any further. But at other times and for the other types of feedback, it may be better to wait a little bit before providing a response.

Hattie says, “Yes, there can be many instances when delayed feedback is more powerful than immediate. Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of the moment we do not ‘hear’ feedback or focus on the wrong part of the feedback information, so delay can sort some of this out.”

So, for example, the teacher may find it helpful to record video or audio feedback at the end of the day for the student to listen to the next day.

Knowing when to provide feedback helps us understand how to better deliver it, but teachers must also account for different types of feedback, and the strengths and challenges of each.

Making Different Types of Feedback Meaningful

As we learned last time, task-level feedback is the least effective, as it focuses on the task (answering the question correctly, finding the main idea, even behaving in a certain manner), and does not help the learner to improve the process of learning. However, there are times when it is beneficial to provide feedback about how the student is doing the task itself, especially when new material is being learned. It might sound like:

  • “Your learning goal was to structure your writing in a way that the first thing you write is the first thing you did. Then you write about the other things you did in the same order that they happened. You have written the first thing first, but after that it becomes muddled. You need to go through what you have written and number the order in which things happened and re-write them in that order.”
  • “I think that the answer you have found in this problem may not be correct. Perhaps you should recalculate it, checking for accuracy.”
  • “Your report may not provide all of the information that a reader might want. What additional information could you add to make sure you answer all of the possible questions?”

Process-level feedback is about the procedure the student is using to learn. It may help them develop or apply strategies for completing or fixing a performance. It sounds like:

  • “You are stuck on this word and you have looked at me instead of trying to work it out. Can you work out why you may have got it wrong, and then you try a different strategy?”
  • “Please edit this section of your paper by elaborating on each of the descriptors listed in class.”

Feedback at the self-regulation level focuses on how the student monitors, directs, and regulates actions toward the learning goal. It might sound like:

  • “Your paper shows you know the three key features of supporting a claim; now reread this section of your paper to see whether you have incorporated these features.”
  • “You checked your answer with the resource book [self-help] and found you got it wrong. Any ideas of why you got it wrong [error detection]. What strategy did you use? Can you think of another strategy to try and how else could you work out if you are correct?”

Learning Together

At the end of the day, it is the teacher’s job to provide information about what a student does and does not understand and what direction the student must take to improve. A powerful way to implement this is to simply ask a student to tell you what they think you are trying to say to them. Creating a mutual understanding is a catalyst for learning, and using feedback wisely is how teachers and students can gain such an understanding.

Part 3 of this series will dive deeper into feedback and its use in the classroom.

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