Issue 2: May 26, 2008 Connections Newsletter

Exemplary Leadership

Barbara McSwain
May 26, 2008

Exemplary leaders are brilliant at prioritizing and focusing on what is truly important. This is as true in the education world as it is in the world of business. Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world, was asked in an interview by Charlie Rose about the secret to his success as a businessman. Buffett answered that it was his ability to focus. Buffet is able to pick just the right things to focus his attention. First he does extensive research and finds companies in which to invest that meet specific criteria, including having the right people. Buffett allows those people to run the companies and he is committed for the long term. It is not complicated. It does not hurt that he happens to be brilliant!
Exceptional leaders discover high payoff activities to engage in and think about. They are decisive and take action. In the world of an educational leader, that would include the Learning-Focused Balance Achievement model.

            

After years of implementing Learning-Focused in thousands of schools across the United States, "We have learned a lot.  We have learned that schools can and do achieve when they concentrate on a prioritized curriculum, common unit/lesson design that emphasizes the top 5 learning strategies identified by the U.S.D.O.E. Districts should systematically address as many of the bubbles as possible on the Balanced Achievement Model," stated Max Thompson, founder of Learning-Focused at the Amazing Conference on Continuous Improvement in February 2008.
Educational Leaders must continuously challenge themselves to the following questions:

• Where should I focus my attention and actions in order to insure the highest increase in student achievement?

• How can I prioritize my time to ensure that I am able to conduct 5x5's (Monitoring 5 minutes a day, 5 different classrooms, 5 times a day) and conduct Walkthroughs (a vertical walkthrough the school 3-5 times a year for a snapshot of the entire school)?

• How do I get "buy in" from the Board of Education, teachers, students and parents?

• How do I know when to change from a supportive role to an evaluative role?

Exceptional leaders focus on benchmark assessments to guide decision making. Formative and summative assessments guide decision making for instruction and of learning. Benchmarks for progress serve as a guide to move the district/school forward. This approach allows leaders to focus their time and attention on the most essential components of Balanced Achievement to increase student achievement.
Exceptional Leaders are constantly assessing where they can best use their time and attention. They have the ability to focus!

Helping Our Students to Remember

Jennifer Partrick
May 26, 2008

How a person feels about a new learning situation will determine how well the new information is learned. It is impossible to recall information that the brain has not retained. Daily, teachers teach only to have students have no recollection of the information they taught. Why does this occur? Teachers must think about the complete environment as they think about learning. The most important process of the brain is survival and data affecting survival will always surpass any new information. Thus, if students are afraid, sick, or uncomfortable, this data will be processed and take precedence over anything the teacher says. Students must feel physically and emotionally safe before any new learning will take place.

The brain can only process so much information at any one time. Sousa (2006) suggests that students younger than 5 can process an average of two items at any given time, students between five and fourteen, the average is five items, and students over fourteen years the average is seven items. How does this information impact teaching? If a teacher expects their fourth grade students to remember the eight rules for using the comma in one lesson, they are in trouble. The high school teacher who expects their students to remember the names and locations of the ten most important rivers and their locations in one lesson is also in trouble. In order to help our student process large bodies of information, we must teach them how to chunk the information. Talking facilitates chunking. As students learn a body of information they talk about it, consolidate it, taking that information and breaking down into one chunk. Graphic organizers are another tool that helps students to chunk information. As students talk about the new information using their own words, the information can then be placed on a graphic organizer for later use. When the information is broken into smaller chunks, the brain is then free to process and manipulate more information.

Information must make sense and have meaning for students if the information is to be processed and eventually stored for later use. If students do not understand what they are learning they cannot store it. When students say that they do not understand what is being taught they are in essence saying that it does not make sense. Students must also believe that what they are learning has meaning to them. Meaning is a personal thing and different things have different meanings for different people. Things that carry meaning are influenced by personal experience. If students do not see the relevance of the information being taught as meaningful to their lives then the likelihood of the information being stored in negligible. Of sense and meaning, meaning is the most powerful.

For students to be actively engaged in their learning they must feel physically and emotionally safe and classrooms must be conducive to learning. Lessons should be broken into chunks that best suit how their brains work. Giving students opportunities to talk and use graphic organizers supports how our brains work. Lessons must make sense and students must see them as having meaning for their academic and personal lives if the information is to be stored.

Reference:
Sousa, D. (2006). How the brain learns. (3rd. ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Company.

Student Learning Map Questions- Essential Questions and Assessment Prompts

Bill Blynt
May 26, 2008

When developing Student Learning Maps, teachers must distinguish between three types of questions:

Unit Essential Questions

Lesson Essential Questions

Lesson Assessment Prompts

Unit essential questions refer to the big ideas students will be engaged with throughout the unit and beyond. These are the 'big ideas' that students should remember well beyond the period of study. They are questions that may run across subject s and time.  The question must have multiple answers and require the student to use multiple sources to make connections to prior knowledge and/or reach new levels of understanding. It must be able to help the student link his/her thinking to previous units or years of study. Unit essential questions are built from the components of state standards. This question requires a student to develop a broad understanding of a whole unit. Students demonstrate their understanding through a performance or development of product at the end of the unit.

Lesson essential questions are questions that focus the learner on the critical ideas (concepts) embedded in a particular unit.There is only one lesson essential question per lesson. This question frames the series of instruction that will lead the learner to understanding the focus of that particular 'chunk' of learning. The content of the lesson will provide the student with the answer to this question. It should be poised to the students at the beginning of a lesson and should be answered, by the student, at the conclusion of that lesson. As such, it serves as a formative assessment that provides valuable and timely information to the student and teacher. The information ascertained from student responses to the lesson essential question should assist the teacher in determining the next step in the learning process. Lesson essential questions do not reflect a 1:1 relationship with each state standard. Questions can address multiple standards or be focused on just part of a single standard. Lesson essential questions evolve from a Know-Understand-Do (KUD) analysis of state standards that have been grouped together to frame a teaching unit. Lesson essential questions flow from the Know and Do components of this analysis. Unit essential questions emerge from the Understand column of this matrix.

Lesson assessment prompts are questions that guide the learner through a series of activities or instruction specifically focused on a particular concept or skill central to that unit. There may be multiple assessment prompts throughout the lesson. These questions have correct and incorrect answers. Student responses to these questions indicate understanding of the sequential elements of content or series of steps in learning a skill required for a student to master the primary lesson objective. These questions provide a framework for the student that serves to keep them focused on the intended lesson outcome.  

Examples:
Unit Essential Question
  How and why do we provide checks and balances on government power?

Lesson Essential Question
  Does separation of powers inherent in our government create a deadlock?

Lesson Assessment Prompts
 How is government power shared in the government of the US?
 What are the powers given to each of the branches of government?
  Why do we have three branches of government at the federal level in the US?

The Challenge of Student Engagement

Carolyn Boyles
May 26, 2008

Having students engaged in learning and invested in school has significant payoffs at the elementary level as well as through secondary schooling. At the younger grades, the engaged student is less likely to engage in inappropriate and off-task behaviors or to mentally "check-out" on active learning. Students at the middle and secondary level who are engaged in the academic and social aspect of schooling are less likely to drop out of school or become disenfranchised with school before finishing.

While engagement does not take the place of effective planning and focused teaching strategies, it does provide teachers with a more willing recipient of that effort. How then do we keep them engaged?  Based on researchers who have looked at student engagement, there are three factors that can improve engagement of students throughout their school experiences if they are used to guide decisions that educators make about choices of activities, scheduling of students, selection of materials and organization of space, time and energy.  

Providing students with activities that are meaningful and interesting are more likely to capture and hold the attention of learners. That means that teachers need to know and understand what is meaningful and interesting to their students by understanding their developmental level, life experiences and cultures. If teachers are to apply new skills to real life experiences of students, it is imperative that the application is real to the students - not just the teacher. If a teacher has students use math skills to solve a real situation in their neighborhood or town, it should both be relevant to the student and respect their community. Applying lessons from science to understand environmental issues, or having students write letters or stories for real audiences are other ways to make content more interesting. Using students' names in word problems gets their attention.   

Most students become frustrated when most of their tasks are too difficult and failure is anticipated. At the same time, students become bored when all tasks are too easy and they are not challenged by their assignments. It is important that students are provided with challenging but achievable task. Students who read at lower levels can be provided with alternative sources of the same information so that even the most at-risk learner has an opportunity to interact with text and understand the content. There are websites that will search for content at requested reading levels to reach the students who can understand at a higher level than they can read.  

Being organized for instruction and using students' time and efforts with respect contributes to student engagement in several ways.  Students of any age lose interest when they have downtime, wait-time or wasted time. Instead of having students raise their hands to respond and wait to be called on, have a way for all students to respond - white boards, cards, thumbs up and down, etc.
The first part of any lesson, class period or block are important times to capture students' attention. Students need to have engaging activities as soon as they enter the classroom to decrease inappropriate behaviors or mentally "checking out" for the period.   

The organization of materials and their appropriateness for the tasks are also ways that maximize students' engagement in assignments.  Teachers need to plan in order to be ready to teach with well-planned lessons and materials ready. Spending time at the beginning of every class searching for pencils, paper and other activity supplies can take the enthusiasm out of any learner. Instead have a supply of the needed tools for students' use and have students help to keep the supply stocked.   

Strategies that are marketed for home and personal organization can be very effective in classrooms. Using colored file folders, hanging shoe holders for supplies, and well labeled cubbies and shelves help teach students organizational skills. Well organized teachers and classrooms communicate higher expectations for success and respect for the learner.   

There are many ways to engage students that utilize these three concepts. Use them to assess the learning environment for this upcoming year. It is important for teachers to know their students well and to understand the components of engagement in order to grab students' attention and to keep it.