Issue 15: Aug 25, 2008 Connections Newsletter
Four Easy Ways to Add the Personal Touch and Connect with the Disconnected Student
Debbie Willingham
Aug 25, 2008
Motivating students who are at risk of failure is one of the toughest jobs teachers have. Students who have already experienced failure often "turn off" to school and assume they cannot be successful before they ever try. While much of what leads students to become unmotivated is beyond the school's control, schools must accept the role of preparing children to be thinking, responsible adults who can make good choices in their lives and in their communities. While we may wish we did not need to take on that role, teachers really can make a huge difference in their students' attitudes about learning and school, based on the expectations they have for students. Teachers need to start the school year by assuring all their students that, despite any previous negative experiences in school, this year is a new year, and that, while they will be expected to work very hard, if they try their hardest to do their best they CAN be successful.
Some things are obvious; teachers should, of course, recognize students who may need to be seated in close proximity. Teachers must also be cognizant of students needing a little differentiating. Beyond that, what are some things teachers can do to motivate and connect with the disconnected student? Most important is the need for the personal touch. Some students need to know that there is someone watching, caring, and following up on what they are doing at school. They need a caring adult who checks up on them and checks in with them on a regular basis. This is true of all students from kindergarten students to seniors.
There are many ways to do it, but here are four easy ways to add a personal touch to the teacher's role. Sending a positive postcard or making a call to a parent for a positive reason are great ways to make students realize that the teacher really does want them to be successful. A good rule of thumb is two positive contacts per week, to different students on a semi-rotating basis. This serves several purposes; it lets the student know that the teacher knows who they are and cares about them as a person. It also sets a good tone in case later parents must be contacted for less than positive reasons. Acknowledging students' birthdays by posting them on a monthly calendar, bulletin board or calendar handout, then giving the birthday student a small token on their birthday (front of the line, pass to not answer a question when called on, etc.) are easy ways to let students know you care about them as a person. Giving "I'm Perfect" buttons or acknowledgement on a bulletin board for perfect attendance during a given period of time also lets students know you think it is important that they are with you each day and that you notice that they have made the effort to be present. Finally, "Adopt-a-Student" programs are used school-wide in a variety of ways. The idea is that every student has a caring adult who regularly talks to them, asks about them academically and personally, and follows up on how things are going with them. This ensures that students cannot be anonymous and slip between the cracks when problems arise academically or otherwise.
While these are just a few simple ways to connect with disconnected students, they are easy ways to start making inroads with every student. No matter what their personal baggage and battles happen to be, helping students to carry that load is part of what good teachers are all about.
Make the Most of Your Time
Bill Blynt
Aug 25, 2008
In a recent article in District Administration, the allocation and efficient use of time in America's schools was investigated. Educators have been involved in discussions about the impact of time on learning for many years. Although the findings show that time plays a significant role in promoting student learning, the research shows that simply adding time to the instructional school year, day or course will not increase student achievement. It is not only the amount of time allocated to instruction, but also the efficient use of this time that influences the degree and depth of learning. The research presented indicated that the relationship between time and learning is not a direct relationship. The degree to which the time allocated is used with students engaged in rigorous learning activities that are aligned to the priorities identified in a course curriculum has the greatest impact on learning. Simply adding more time to a school year, allocating more time to core subjects or providing additional time through after-school or summer programs will not automatically increase student achievement.
Time can best increase learning when this time is used to provide students with enriched learning opportunities focused on the essential content identified in a course curriculum. This additional time should not only be focused on the essential content, but also be used to provide students with opportunities to learn at a higher level. Activities designed should not be focused on doing the same thing over but be used to provide activities that allow students to anchor their knowledge. These activities should require students to extend their thinking. Extending Thinking activities require students to use one of the level two thinking skills (cause/effect, induction, analyzing perspective, etc.). These skills enable a student to anchor their learning and thus retain this learning over a longer period of time. Research cited in the article, "Using Time Effectively", showed that students in the same course, but provided additional time and engaged in rigorous activities were able to perform at a higher level on higher level assessment activities and retain their learning for a longer period of time.
As schools look for ways to increase time with students by changing schedules, extending the school day, or offering Saturday and summer opportunities, care should be taken to monitor how this time is used. Targeting instruction during this time to the priorities identified in the curriculum and requiring this time be used with students extending their thinking about the content or accelerating their learning by previewing and/or building background knowledge will have the most dramatic influence on achievement and maximize the benefits of this increase in instructional time.
Making Connections Beyond Text
Cindy Riedl
Aug 25, 2008
When our clan gets together, the first thing we do is update our family photo album that represents many years of expressions, dreams and events. The past becomes connected to the present as the stories are retold from generation to generation, causing those snap shots to come alive. Everyone looks for a personal connection: was life better then? Best of all, a history of survival, triumphs and tragedies is told first in brown and white still shots, then black and white and finally in living color. These photographs evoke a sense of mood and convey meaningful information that communicates far beyond any written description could, because the photos 'talk' to us.
Think beyond the family album. Could there be a similar connection to why many textbooks now include many photographs and other visuals in their chapters? Possibly a connection can also be drawn between the old adage, "a picture is worth a thousand words". After participating in an ASCD conference presentation conducted by several professors from a Copenhagen University, I discovered what a powerful learning experience can be attained by constructing meaning from photos and pictures. Think about the cognitive process that is set in motion when a photograph or picture becomes the focus. The mind automatically begins to question searching for meaning.
It is really elementary! What happens almost automatically now relates to what happened when we experienced the primary grades and the picture walks we learned to take when we experienced new reading materials. We typically formed predictions about the story using our prior knowledge and the illustrations. Unfortunately students from the intermediate grades, as well as high school grade levels, often take the "quick trip" through a textbook, overlooking these rich sources of insight that can be found in pictures about the content, to simply glide through text and answer the questions at the end of the chapter.
This is why it is important for teachers to take the time to guide students through a thoughtful examination of photographs that can help students connect to concepts as was done in the "picture walks" of the past. The goal is to encourage students to examine pictures with a critical eye, as well as print, to process new learning using mental imagery. The mind has a tendency to store images, especially those that evoke powerful feelings, longer for easier retrieval. Besides utilizing the illustrations and other visuals in text books, teachers can create portfolios of outstanding illustrations and photography that will extend and expand important ideas and concepts of a unit of study. Some of the best photography can be located in vintage magazines that are stored in the basements or attics of second hand book stores.
For example, one of the most engaging examples of differentiated instruction was the launch activity for a unit of study about the 1950's. Each group received a portfolio of photographs, advertisements and newspaper articles. Although their tasks ranged from more support to greater challenge, each group had to construct support using the information they gathered about transportation, cultural differences, leisure activities, life styles, ethic and drama of that period of time. Students had to apply deductive reasoning skills as they searched for clues and patterns they experienced to make and present their positions in a variety of different formats. Talk about student engagement and invigorating challenge! Everyone was on board.
Instruction that extends surface thinking to a much deeper level should be the goal of every teacher at all grade levels. Using photographs during instruction engages the left side of the brain as it searches for connections and enhances the text, giving it richer meaning for the reader. Photos and pictures can also be extremely useful when introducing new vocabulary about a topic. The words and their meanings become embedded in the visuals that the mind remembers. This explains why Marzano stresses using imagery when students are learning new terms. Research continues to support his position. The latest research on imagery as elaboration states that students who used imagery to learn new vocabulary, on average, performed 37 percentile points higher than students who kept repeating the definitions and 21 percentile points higher than students who were using the terms in a sentence.
In summary, teachers can use photography and imagery to evoke a sense of mood and convey meaningful information that communicates far beyond any written description. It is worth the effort to explore the tangible reality that only photographs can express causing students to apply a higher level of thinking as they use deductive thinking skills to construct support for their generalizations. The results could be astounding!
