Teachers & Students Learning Together | Teachers working smarter; Students worker harder…

January 12, 2012
by literacydoc
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Story Impressions

Looking for a way to help your students figure out what they already know about a topic? How about integrating more writing into your content area? Doug Buehl’s Story Impressions does both. This strategy works best with cause/effect, chronology, or key events.

SUPPLIES
Teacher-created chain of events using key terms and concepts in the order in which they will appear in the students’ reading.

DIRECTIONS
Set up a single page of paper with 2 uneven columns. Make the left-hand column about 3 inches wide and use the rest of the page for the right-hand column. Select key events, or terms, or moments in time and list them, vertically, in the left-hand column.

MODELING
Consider modeling how story impressions works using a quick demonstration in a topic familiar to students.

SAMPLE

Story Impression for Science

November 3, 2011
by literacydoc
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Paragraph in a Word

Revising writing can be a real chore for some students (and for teachers, too!). Even for willing writers, it is often difficult to revise our own work because we know what we’re trying to say so it makes sense to us. Imagine how much more tedious revising is for those among us who would rather express themselves in formats other than writing.

Rich Kent taught me this strategy to use with my students. It’s easy to do and makes a difference in students’ writing.

Paragraph in a word helps writers with organization. Each paragraph is summarized in a word or phrase written out in the margin of that paragraph. Chances are that if a paragraph can’t be summarized like this, there’s more than one paragraph’s worth of material floating around. This helps students to organize, see the flow of their ideas, to catch paragraphs which need to be split into multiple paragraphs, and to learn to summarize their own thinking and writing.

For some students this is easier to do with a colleague’s writing than with their own writing.

November 2, 2011
by literacydoc
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Loop Writing

Sometimes students have trouble narrowing their focus, or they struggle to decide on a topic. Many times I’ve had students write their way to a conclusion, but they turned in these drafts of their thinking as their final papers. What these drafts show is a great deal of fumbling around to get started, and then an increasingly strong focus, an improving marshaling of facts or quotations to support their thinking, and conclusions that are often the strongest paragraphs in their papers. What they need to do is congratulate themselves on figuring out, OVER THE COURSE OF WRITING THEIR PAPERS, what it is they are actually writing about AND REVISE their papers so that the beginnings and middles are as focused and persuasive as their endings.

Loop Writing is one strategy that might help with this. For struggling writers I think working with a partner is helpful.

SUPPLIES
Students need paper and pen, or what ever writing technology they prefer. Teachers will need a model they’ve generated that shows Loop Writing in action.

DIRECTIONS
After students have generated a first piece of writing, ask them to share their writing with a partner. Partners’ jobs are to read the writing and note a couple of places where they would like to know more or they feel the writer is glossing over something which could be interesting.

MODELING
Using short, teacher-generated text, show students the evolution of a piece of your own writing. Be prepared to think aloud for students, explaining how you chose a couple of points from the first draft to loop back to and expand upon in your 2nd draft. Be specific about why you chose to loop back and how the looped writing is more focused because it is more specific.

WORK LOOP WRITING DOES FOR TEACHERS
1. Loop Writing supports writing as a process, and makes writing to figure out what it is we actually think a natural part of class.
2. Loop writing assumes that students will generate more than a single draft.
3. Loop writing may be an opportunity to have students conference with each other early in the writing process, or for the teacher to conference with students, or for students to work individually through a series of drafts.

WORK LOOP WRITING DOES FOR STUDENTS
1. Loop writing supports students using writing as a tool for thinking and for focusing their thinking.
2. Loop writing helps students generate increasingly focused text based on their own generation of ideas and thinking–Britton’s expressive writing at work.

WAYS TO USE
1. As an individual writing exercise: each student generates and loops his/her own writing.
2. Partners: Students generate their own writing, but a partner helps to identify things that might be worth looping back to for more in depth exploration.
3. Partners in review: Students generate text individually, but then swap with a partner to have the partner select the “loop” and write on that. In a unit of study, ask students to write on a broad idea. Then the loop writer selects one thing to write about in more detail. This allows students to see how much they know and can contribute, in writing, to a review of a topic.

TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS
1. Use Google Docs to have students share their loop writing.
2. Use a blog or website to post the sort of chapter summary that might typically appear in a text book. Ask students to select one element of the posted summary to do their loop writing on the blog or website to share with peers. This gives the class a group-generated written review of a chapter or unit’s worth of material.

Here’s a Loop Writing Sample

May 19, 2010
by literacydoc
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Prepping Students for Tests & Exams

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”

Lena Horne

Who does the work of prepping for exams in your classes? Have you been carrying too much of the review load? Are you using your precious time to compile list of key vocab, important ideas and people? Wasting time in line at the photocopier so that you can give your students your summary of the semester?

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Often, in the name of efficiency, we do too much of the work. I know, it IS more efficient when you put together a crib sheet of important terms, key concepts, and formulas. But doing so deprives, yes DEPRIVES, our students of the very work they most need to do: show themselves that between notes, class texts, colleagues, and their own memory, they can reconstruct the important knowledge and skills of the semester. Instead of you charging straight up the mountain, organize your exam review so that the students are winding their way up themselves.

Here are some ideas for having the STUDENTS do the work leaving you to observe, facilitate, and fill in the gaps.

Class Dictionary–in a class with a great deal of vocabulary

Is the work of the semester deeply embedded in content vocabulary? Is it practically IMPOSSIBLE to think about your exam without using any specialized vocabulary? If you answered “yes” to these questions why not use the vocabulary as the framework for review?

In small groups have students create a dictionary for a chapter or unit. Students should find all the important content vocabulary, organize it alphabetically, create definitions in their own words, and create illustrations where appropriate. Set a time limit for group work. Each group must then present their work to the rest of the class. In the end each class will have generated its own unique review document.

Class Jeopardy–in a class using a broad themes or issues approach

Have your students spent the semester learning about large concepts like “westward expansion” or “hubris?” Can you help your students think about the work of the semester by theme: who was involved? important places or times? key players?

With your students as a whole class, generate the categories like in Jeopardy. In small groups, have students select one category and generate the answers and questions. Put the Jeopardy “board” together, and play a round. If you have more than one section of the same class, classes could challenge each other by swapping Jeopardy Games. Are there some gifted and talented students in the room? Have them design the “daily double” questions.

Mind Mapping–in a class using thematic questions

A study by Farrand, Hussain and Hennesey (2002) found a 10% increase in memory retention by students using mind mapping to take notes.

Mind mapping helps students see connections and relationships. It’s a great way to wind up a unit or semester when you want students to show they understand how details support a main idea. In small groups have students create a mind map for a chapter or unit of study. Set a time limit for this work and then have each group share their work with the rest of the class.

FREE online mind mapping sites with a screen shot of what a mind map might look like and concise reviews of each site.

Pictograms–in a class with formulas

Language, whether in words or symbols, is how we demonstrate that we understand something. If students can’t find the words to explain something they don’t understand it. Here’s an example from math: 2+3=5. In words, that sentence reads, “Two plus three equals five” or “Two added to three is five.” Can I do this in pictures? I’m so glad you asked! Or, if I already have the pictograms can I put words to the pictogram? Here’s a link to a CHEMISTRY site that uses pictograms to show the 6 types of common chemical reactions…exciting eh?!

May 2, 2010
by literacydoc
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Definition in 4 Parts

This is an idea for helping students to learn a BIG vocabulary word–the kind of word that has a common dictionary definition and often a specialized definition in a content area. Ideally, it’s a word that is critical to understanding the work of a unit, a quarter, or even a semester.

Let’s take a look using the word “fit.”

Step 1 Dictionary Definition

Fit–adj.: adapted or suited; appropriate: This water isn’t fit for drinking. Proper or becoming: Fit behavior. Qualified or competent, as for an office or function: A fit candidate. Prepared or ready: Crops fit for gathering. In good physical condition; in good health: He’s fit for the race. (www.dictionary.com)

Step 2 Personal Definition

To be fit–just like the ancient Greeks said: “A sound mind in a sound body.” It’s not a particular size but a state of being–happily eating and regularly exercising. Having time to read and think and having time to go out with friends…a fit life…a life of balance. Having some muscle and some flexibility. Being in control of emotions and energy levels. (Maureen’s definition)

Step 3 Specialized Content Area Definition

In biology fit means: A. being adapted to the prevailing conditions and producing offspring that survive to reproductive age. B. contributing genetic information to the gene pool of the next generation. C. (of a population) maintaining or increasing the group’s numbers in the environment.

Step 4 Putting It All Together

Now, using the dictionary, personal, and specialized content area definitions, I come up with the following for the word “fit:”

My family doesn’t meet the requirements to be biologically fit: we’re a basically healthy bunch, BUT… My grandmother, oldest of 18, had 5 children, of those 5 children 4 each had 3 children, and of those 12 only 3 have had 2 children each. So although we’re a fun-loving clan of basically fit individuals, and we are generally fit for duty and clean up nicely for public occasions, we’re not contributing much to the gene pool and our numbers are shrinking!

The Beauty?

The beauty of “definition in 4 parts is that the students are doing the work. This is for big concept words. An idea that you know your students will return to again and again, an intellectual touch stone of the semester; a measuring stick against which the work of the quarter will be pressed and evaluated by the students. And the STUDENTS are doing all the work by getting

1. practice with dictionary
2. personal thinking and connecting
3. finding glossary or text book definition
4. synthesizing of information and personal context to create meaning
5. multiple uses of the concept word

Ways to Use…

Use this as the opening activity for a key concept word. An idea that you know your students will return to again and again, an intellectual touch stone of the semester; a measuring stick against which the work of the quarter will be pressed and evaluated by the students. So using my example of “fit” the question of the unit, or quarter, or semester might be “What features of an organism make it fit?” Over the course of their studies, students learn about the different features of organisms that allow them to adapt, reproduce, survive, and thrive…all in the service of considering what makes “fitness” in biology. This is applicable from single-celled organisms right on through to complex organisms.
It’s often challenging for us to help our students grasp a concept to the point that they can explain it in their own words. Definition in 4 parts gives the opportunity to have students connect the new to the known. Current brain research teaches us that it is the connections we can make for ourselves between the understood and the knew that allow us to understand, use, and evaluate something new. Even if the dictionary definition is challenging, step 2 requires students to think about the vocab word and try to identify, define, and exemplify it in their own words. This is critical to creating meaning. Here’s an example using a history vocab word: citizenship. Who gets to be a citizen, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship has changed over time. If part of the definition includes the right to vote, then women weren’t citizens of the USA until 1920. Students could create a time line and place definitions of citizenship along the timeline. Definitions could include examples of good citizens of particular time periods as well as lists of who was not considered a citizen. Would Arizona’s recently passed legislation be on the timeline?!

March 3, 2010
by literacydoc
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Everybody’s Talkin!: Classroom Discussion

What does classroom discussion look like? Research shows that in many classrooms discussion follows the I-R-E pattern: teacher INITIATES by asking a question; student RESPONDS by answering the question; teacher EVALUATES the student response, typically by saying things like, “good,” “yes,” or “not quite,” or “not exactly” and moving on to have another student answer the question by filling in missing knowledge or correcting the first student’s attempt. Then the I-R-E pattern repeats. This is often called classroom conversation but we know that’s not how conversation happens outside schools.

Some ideas for scaffolding classroom discussion:

Silent Discussion

Got a particularly energetic group of students? Or shy ones? Silent discussion allows students to discuss without speaking. This can work as whole class or small group discussion. Each student needs a piece of paper and writing instrument. Ask students to write for 1 minute on________. Then have every student pass her/his paper to the left, or right, or behind. Ask students to now take 2 minutes to read and respond to what the first student wrote. Pass the paper again. Give students 3 minutes to read and respond to the first 2 students. Depending on your students, you may need to provide more specific prompting than “respond.”

Silent discussion prompts:

Agree or disagree with previous statement and explain why.
Add an example to illustrate a previous statement.
Write a summary statement of all the previous statements.
Respond to a previous statement.
Make a connection between 2 previous statements.
Ask a question of a previous statement writer.
Answer the question of a previous writer.
Make a connection to another book or topic.
Draw a parallel.
Make a connection to an idea, experience, vocab word….from another class.

Fostering Listening Skills and Focused Conversation

Perhaps you have a class of “enthusiastic” or competitive talkers? You know, the classes in which discussion is a series of isolated and unrelated comments or displays of one upmanship…no connection from one speaker to another. Nancy Steineke’s book Reading and Writing Together has many classroom-tested ideas for fostering conversation and collaboration through academic work. Stop by my office for 2 initial activities from her book–one involving reading a picture and the other a short piece of writing.

Save the Last Word for Me

This is a great discussion activity because it allows students to prep ahead of time, students are in small groups, and there’s a framework to keep time and order. For students who are self-conscious about their writing, or writing under the time constraints of a silent discussion, “Save the Last Word for Me” is an alternative. For homework, students are asked to select and copy 3 quotations from the reading material. Be sure to have them note page numbers for each quotation. In small groups of 4-5 students, students:

First person reads 1 of her/his quotations. That’s it–just read it. No comments.
Moving around the circle, each student has 1 minute to say something about the quotation shared by the first student. One minute…no more, no less.
Once each student has had 1 minute to respond to the quotation, the selector of the quotation get the last word for 1 minute…hence the name of the activity. The last words might be an explanation for why the quotation was selected, or a tying together of all the group members’ comments on the quotation.

Why have 3 quotations? If there’s any overlap in the selection of quotations, students will have a Plan B and a Plan C.

Conscious Segues

Have students practice deliberately seguing from the previous student’s comments. It will seem forced, but it helps students listen to each other and figure out a way to connect one comment to the next. It also might mean allowing for more pauses between comments as students think about how to make the segue from what was said to what s/he wants to say. Initially you may need to provide some scaffolding in the form of the segues:

Questions

I have a question similar to Alyosius’ question about —-
I think I can answer Olivia’s question about—-
Yeah, I didn’t understand — either

Agreement

Patrick’s comment about — reminds me of—
I agree with Elizabeth about — because —
Yeah, another example of — like Tinkerbelle said is —

Disagreement

Although Sarah says — I think—
I don’t agree with Henry’s definition, statement, claim, suggestion, idea, that — because —

Elaboration

Building on what Jess said on — I’d like to add —
Frank’s saying — makes me think about —
Lulabelle’s idea that — shows up again when, in —

Connection

Bob’s statement that — reminds me of —
Another reason Trudy’s explanation of — is important, true, correct is —

February 4, 2010
by literacydoc
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Collaborative Questions

I keep asking myself, who is doing the work? Teachers work extremely hard to be knowledgeable, organized, and interesting. I don’t think it’s our job to be entertaining, but I also don’t believe we get up and think, “What would be the most tedious way to teach today? I’d like to bore those kids to tears.” Collaborative Questions is a strategy that works well as a before, during, and after reading strategy. It gives your students a chance to work with Bloom’s taxonomy of questioning, and it means THEY are doing the hard work of the class. YOU get to facilitate!

SUPPLIES: class reading materials. If the reading material is in a textbook your students can not write in, save yourself time and a tree by using sticky notes instead of photocopying.

DIRECTIONS: Ask students to read a passage and write questions in the margins or on sticky notes.

MODELING: Depending on what you’re asking students to read, you may want to model this strategy by using the first paragraph or section before sending your students off to try this on their own. Using either a laptop or overhead projector, show the section to the entire class. Read aloud, pausing to ask and write questions. This may seem awkward to you because you probably don’t have many questions because you’re an expert, so try to imagine it from a novice’s point of view. Questions might include: who is this person? what did s/he do? what is —? what does — mean? where is this? when is this? how does this relate to —? how does this illustration, map, graph explain or connect to —?

WORK COLLABORATIVE QUESTIONS DOES FOR TEACHERS:

As we model it, slows us down and helps us make visible to our students the moves we make to engage and make meaning from text.
Gives us a break from creating a worksheet of questions to check for reading and comprehension.

WORK COLLABORATIVE QUESTIONS DOES FOR STUDENTS:

Helps struggling readers ask genuine questions, specifically connected to a word, a line, a sentence of text or an image.
Challenges gifted readers to think more deeply about a word, a line, a sentence of text or an image.
Provides opportunities for real questions to be asked and answered.
Gives students an opportunity to read and think about a passage, and demonstrate that they’ve done so without answers questions (which is probably the most common way to check for reading and comprehension)

WAYS TO USE:

Teacher selects the passage for collaborative questions.
Students select a passage and then swap passages with another student.
In small groups students work collaboratively to generate questions to share with the whole class or to swap with another group.

TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS:

Have students use the yellow comment stickies available in both Pages and Neo Office to add their questions. Email their doc to a classmate to get answers.
or email their doc to you to see if there are trends–lots of students who don’t know a particular word, person, term…

February 4, 2010
by literacydoc
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Possible Sentences

What’s your reading strategy when you hit a word you don’t know? Do you skip it? Look it up in a glossary or dictionary? Use context clues? Do you have different strategies in different disciplines? I sure do! In English I can probably get the gist of the word using context clues and happily continue with my reading. In the sciences, I better look that puppy up, reread the sentence with my newly-found definition in mind, and even make a note about what the word means.

When we ask students to read textbooks they typically read passively: their eyes are moving over the pages but their brains are thinking about what they’d rather be doing. At the end of the reading, students who read passively are unable to talk about what they’ve read. They’re unable to ask questions. They’re even at a loss to define words that are defined for them in the text, even when the vocabulary is in a text box and set off from the rest of the page. Possible Sentences is a strategy that requires students to engage with some vocabulary and make educated predictions BEFORE they begin reading. This activates those little synapses in their brains, gives them a purpose for reading, and helps to enage them with the text.

SUPPLIES: 10-15 vocabulary words

DIRECTIONS: List the 10-15 vocab words on the board or in your KeyNote presentation. It helps if there’s a mix of word types (people, actions, names of things or places). Working in pairs, students write sentences using at least 2 vocab words in a sentence that could possibly appear in their textbook.

MODELING: The first time you try this, talk your way through the choices you’re making. Do you know one of the words so that helps with your construction of a sentence? Are you noticing that some words are proper names so those people must be doing something? Are there words that have more than one meaning, or a common-use meaning and a content area specific meaning?

Here are some samples:

Science

Frederick Griffith
strains
transformation
bacteriophages
viral genes
backbone
radioactive isotopes

Possible Sentences:

Frederick Griffith used radioactive isotopes to discover viral genes.

Bacteriophages are the backbone of all cells.

History

ten-story
Triangle Shirtwaist
fire escapes
women
investigation
teletype
cloth
stairways
supervisors

Supervisors were never women.

Triangle Shirtwaist Company had an investigation into which cloth makes the best shirts.

A ten-story building has a lot of stairways and fire escapes but only one teletype.

MATH

congruent
same
perfectly
shape
angle
trapezoid

An angle is congruent when it is over 180 degrees.

A trapezoid is the same shape as a square: all 4 sides are perfectly even.

WORK POSSIBLE SENTENCES DOES FOR TEACHERS:

Engages students with texts
Identifies vocabulary students are likely to struggle to understand
Facilitates paired and classroom discussion on vocabulary before it is encountered in the text

WORK POSSIBLE SENTENCES DOES FOR STUDENTS:

activates prior knowledge students may have about some vocabulary words, word roots, prefixes, suffixes
allows students to work with a partner, examining list of vocab and constructing sentences they think are possible/plausible
creates predictions so that when they read the text they are reading to see if their predictions are correct
creates opportunities for conversation using the vocabulary so students begin building familiarity with the words’ pronunciation

WAYS TO USE:

Teacher previews chapter or section and selects up to 15 words. (Note: in some densely written texts, this may mean multiple “Possible Sentences” exercises because there are so many words. I found 18 vocab words in 4 pages of a biology book. In that same 4 pages, the text book identified 4 vocab words).
Students read a section and create a list of 10-15 vocab words to exchange with another student.
Pre and post check: teacher selects the vocab, students create the possible sentences, and then teacher collects their work. At the end of the chapter, return sentences to students to have them check for accuracy or correctness.
Use only as an end of the chapter review…after reading the chapter, participating in class work, and taking notes during teacher talk, can students correctly use 10-15 key vocab words correctly?

TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS:

Students could go paperless and create their possible sentences in a class blog, in a GDoc, or any word processing program, and share with each other and the teacher electronically.
After doing “possible sentences” strategy and learning the material of the chapter, check out Wordle.net and have students create a wordle using vocab. Since wordle assumes the repetition of a word equates with importance, ask students to manipulate their wordle so that their wordle indicates priority of importance (essential vocab vs. nice-to-know). Ask students to be prepared to explain/defend their wordle.

December 16, 2009
by literacydoc
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Question Answer Relationships (QARs)

Students expect that all the answers will be in the text. They believe that we ask them to read something because everything they need to know about a subject will be contained in the text. The answer might be in a single sentence, or it might be scattered across a couple of paragraphs or pages, but it WILL be right there on the page. It’s a lot of work when the questions we ask require our students to put together information from different texts, or different classes. QARs are a great way to explicitly teach how questions are formulated and what it takes to find the answer.

So what are the relationships between questions and their answers?!

Right There The answer is right there, in a single spot, in the text.

Think and Search The answer is in the text, but the reader must put together information from different sentences, paragraphs, sections, or chapters to create a complete answer.

Author and You The answer is created using a combination of things supplied by the author and by the reader. Author and you questions often ask about tone, attitude, or stance. They’re tricky because readers must be sophisticated enough to pick up on nuances of author style, voice, bias.

On Your Own The answer can be offered without ever having read the text. This may seem like a funny kind of question, and truthfully this type is unlikely to appear on a test of reading comprehension, but in our classrooms it gives every student a chance to participate in the conversation.

SUPPLIES: QAR handout explaining the different question types. A content area short passage consisting of a couple or three paragraphs and some sample questions illustrating each of the QAR types using your content area passage.

DIRECTIONS: Share the QAR handout with your students and explain that knowing how questions and answers relate to each other makes them better constructors of answers and of questions. Give them the content area passage to read and then the questions. Ask students to explictly show HOW they got the right answer.

MODELING: The first go you might want to use this silly example using Jack and Jill, or some equally short and accessible content text.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. After filling their bucket at the well,
Jack, the poor fellow, fell down and broke his crown. Jill, clumsy as ever, came

tumbling after him. It’s hard to say why the silly girl fell because Jack was really the one carrying

all the weight of the bucket full of water. What a terrible jumble of Jack, Jill, and bucket! Grandma

came out and screeched at them to climb back up that hill and fetch more water so she could do her

“warshing.” Right then Jack knew it was going to be a very long day.

Right There question: Who climbed up the hill? (answer: Jack and Jill)
Think and Search question: Why did Jack and Jill climb the hill? (answer: to fetch a bucket of water so Grandma could do the laundry. The complete answer isn’t just to get a bucket of water, but why they’re getting a bucket of water…2 different sentences to get the whole answer.)
Author and You question: Is this a factual reporting of the bucket incident ? (answer: Nope. The author seems to favor Jack (he’s carrying more than his fair share of the bucket’s weight) and Grandma is “screechy” and Jill is silly and clumsy so you have to wonder if the author is a bit biased in favor of boys.)
On Your Own question: What are some reasons for fetching a bucket of water? (answers: water the plants, do the dishes, water the horses…any number of things that could be suggested without having read the passage.)

WORK QARs DO FOR TEACHERS:

Helps us look more critically at our questions…where are they on Bloom’s Taxonomy? Right There questions are recall/find; Think and Search tend to be find/analysis (moving up Bloom’s); Author and You are evaluative (up there in Bloom’s); and On Your Own are potentially creative (way up there in Bloom’s).
Helps us help our students think more metacognitively about their learning. Once they understand QARs we can ask them to design a particular QAR question type…making them do the thinking!

WORK QARs DO FOR STUDENTS:

Alerts them to question types (useful on the SAT!)
Gives students a framework for thinking about the different ways that answers to questions can be, must be, constructed.
Gives students the opportunity to learn about learning–this kind of higher order thinking helps them answer more questions more correctly more of the time; it helps them construct better questions; and it gives them the tools to evaluate the type and quality of questions their peers and teachers design.
It makes explicit the invisible moves students must make to fashion answers that some students seem to get by magic…the old “where’d you get that?!” our students are fond of asking!

WAYS TO USE:

Initially, I’d label questions by QAR type. As students get proficient I’d ask them to do the labeling.
Ask students to design questions…1 right there, 3 think and search, 2 author and you, 1 on your own…much more interesting than saying come to next class with 7 questions!
Have students swap and answer each others’ questions.
Collect questions and pick some to use on your next review or test for that class.
Inter-class challenge: one class designs QAR-style questions to be swapped and answered with another class.
Review: have more senior students create what they feel are the “essential” QAR-style questions for study guides for younger students. For example, AP bio students recall and review what they know about cell mitosis (that’s cell sex for those of you not in the know !) and create a study guide for use with 9th or 10th grade students when they study cells in their science class.

TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS:

Use a moodle or Google doc so that students or classes can easily swap and answer each others’ questions.
Create an online template of QARs to guide your students in the search for answers or construction of questions.

December 16, 2009
by literacydoc
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Time Management…an Executive Function

I am time-challenged. I did not learn to tell time until I was in the 4th grade. My older brother sat me down one afternoon at the picnic table in our backyard with our MUCH younger brother’s green puzzle clock with bright red hands, and worked and worked to explain to me how the numbers were themselves, but also another set of values like quarter past, and half-after. It was a long afternoon. And then about the time I was in junior high digital clocks came along and I could tell time without thinking so hard about it.

But the truth is, I am still time-challenged: I’m always scampering to get somewhere, rushing to be on time or not too horribly late. Projects always take longer than I think they will. I convinced myself that Emerson’s “…consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds” explained my ongoing struggles with tardiness. Turns out I forgot the first word of the sentence: “Foolish.” Makes a bit of a difference, doesn’t it?!

How are we helping our students to learn to be better managers of their time? Do we break all the big projects into incremental steps for them? Do we do all the calculating of how long each step will take? How does our doing all this work help our students learn to better manage time and projects?

Brain research shows that we’re in our early 20′s before the concept of time is truly solidified in a practical way. (And for some of us, it may never have happened!) Here are some ideas for helping your students think about and experiment with time management:

You do your typical planning for a large project. Include what ever steps and time guidelines you normally would. As students progress, ask them to track how much time and when they actually work on each phase of the project. No criticisms here–just an honest accounting of when and how much time is spent. When the project is done, ask for input–are there phases of the project that could be shortened or expanded? Are students claiming they work best under the pressure of a deadline? If so, does this mean that having shorter work times will make them be more productive?
Ask students to help you organize the time phases for a project. You’ve already done half the work: you’ve taken a large project and broken it into incremental steps. Now in small groups, ask students to discuss and negotiate for the amount of time each step will take. Have groups share their time line suggestions and reach consensus as a class.
Assign a substantial project or essay. Put students into small groups and ask them to create the planning steps or phases to go from an assignment being received to the day when they hand in a finished product. What are the steps? What are the check in points for each step? Are there discreet products for check in points (outlines, lists, lab notes, evidence of research, drafts, logs, etc)? Are there grades at check in points?
How about a homework calendar? My students often complained that it felt like teachers were in cahoots to have tests, papers, and projects all due in the same week. Although the end of the semester is often filled with a rush of work, what would happen if we co-ordinated a little more on major assignments and tests over the quarter or semester? Should we consider a homework calendar, accessible online through the school website for each grade? Could the “homework guru” (see earlier post) be responsible for posting to this calendar? Google calendar offers enough space to put the assigning teacher’s name, due date, and enough information to jog even my memory!