Learn Twitter

Every two and a half days a billion tweets are sent!

It’s important that we as teachers understand Twitter as our students are using it as one of their main means of communication. But, more importantly we should be using Twitter to learn, collaborate and improve as educators. By expanding our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), we will be better able to address the challenges of educating our students.

In Learning by Heart, Roland Barth pontificated, “I wonder how many children’s lives might be saved if we educators disclosed what we know to each other?”

Twitter enables use to tear down those walls and to openly communicate.

I hope you’ll join millions of other committed educators and me on Twitter. Looking forward to learning from you.

Your Back to School Letter

At the end of the first day of school, students will be caring home 4, 5, 6, 7 back to school letters to their parents. Multiply that by the number of children and you can easily approach two-dozen letters! A cynic might say, “That’s why I don’t write a back to school letter. Parents don't read 'em anyway."

Maybe that explains why, as a teacher and parent, I've seen my fair share of bad back to school letters. These would be the letters that are: 

• riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors.
• too long; Listing every intricate detail, procedure and rule
• threatening in tone. Overuse of statements like “I will not,” “…will result in…” I still remember a student sharing a letter from a teacher that read something like, “My job is to teach the students. It is their responsibility to adapt to my style and to learn.”  Needless to say, the student wasn’t looking forward to this class; who can blame her?

On the other hand, a great back to school letter sets the tone for parent-teacher-student engagement.

What's included in a great back to school letter?

• Your passion for your subject and your students. Why do you teach? What do you hope students will bet out of your class? What will students learn about themselves? 
• Something personal--break down the walls. Learning should be a shared endeavor; so let your parents and students get to know who you really are.
• How are you going to ensure that all students are successful?
• Contact information. I've always included my personal phone number and only once in 20 years has it been any sort of problem (1 prank phone call from a student). 
• What parents can do to help their children be successful in your class.
• What makes your class different--and better--than the rest.

Powerful words and phrases:

Shared                        Journey                      Exciting                    Together       

We                             Incredible                   Success                     Effort

Connect                     Communication          Develop                    Engaging

Expect                       Learn                          Progress                    Us

Contact me                Background                Looking forward to   Believe

Different                    Care                            Challenge                  Help

What do you think should or shouldn't be included in a back to school letter? 

Parents, do you read them? Do they matter? 

Going Beyond Standards

Several months ago I wrote about embracing risk-taking in our schools (here, here, and here). Wanting to show my confidence in our teachers and to encourage risk-taking, I talked to teachers about stepping beyond their comfort zones. I attempted to ensure teachers that risks were not just acceptable; they are desirable.

After a couple of initial conversations, I realized one of the largest impediments to risk-taking was—and is—our state standardized tests, the SOLs. Teacher after teacher commented, “I’d like to try something different, but the SOLs.” With so much emphasis placed on SOLs from the federal, state and local governments, school administrators (including me), parents and students, who could blame them for not wanting to diverge from the state’s curriculum?

The teachers’ motives made perfect sense? I don’t want to be the one responsible for a student not passing the SOL/earning their advanced diploma/graduating. Hard to argue with logic like that.

Only a couple of years removed from teaching, I too fell victim to over-emphasis on standardized tests. Now I had to plead to the teachers to do what I said, not what I did. To best move teachers—anyone for that matter—I’ve always found it best to ask questions instead of preach to them. Below are some of the questions I asked:  

1.     Why did you enter teaching? Not so amazingly, none of the teachers said, “So I could teach a prescribed curriculum and my students will ace the SOLs.”

2.     What is it that you want students to get out of your class?

3.     Where’s your passion?

4.     How can you pass that passion on to your students?

5.     What would your students say if you tried something different?

6.     Tell me about some of your most successful lessons and what made them successful.

Most of the teachers seemed to enthusiastically embrace risk-taking and the idea of going beyond the SOLs. I promised to support them. Undoubtedly, failures will occur. I ended each conference with a simple message, “I’m going to support you and I look forward to working with you and seeing the changes.”

Now about those standardized tests...

Comment Only "Grading"

You burn the midnight oil, staying up late to grade and make thoughtful comments on students’ papers.

After entering the grades into your grade book, you breathe a sigh of relief and feel good about your accomplishment.

When you return the papers to the students, they immediately look at their grades. Some complain. Others act nonchalant. Others immediately begin to compare with their classmates. Most frustratingly, a couple crumple up their papers and throw them away. Few, if any, take the time to read your comments—the comments that you spent hours working on.

So why did you spend hours writing the comments? Because you know feedback ranks as one of the most effective and influential teaching practices (Dweck, Hattie, Marzano, et al).

But did you know ineffective feedback can actually reduce student motivation? Psychologist Edward Deci found that when students feel they are being too closely monitored, they can become disengaged from learning. Furthermore, Deci discovered that learners often interpret feedback as an attempt to control them (grading as a method of control or statements like, “You cannot do that.”) Finally, Deci discovered a third condition of ineffective feedback occurs when it can be used for competition (I did better than you did).  

Comments only grading maximizes the positive effects of feedback by spurring student learning and instilling a growth mindset.  In comments only grading, the teacher provides only comments on student work. By writing comments only, students learn how to improve their work.

For assignments that required a grade, I employed a simple, yet remarkably effective strategy. I returned the assignment with comments, but no grade. I required the students to read my comments and respond to them (either orally or written depending on the situation). Only then would I provide them with the grade. While it took students a while to get used to this system, they soon grew to appreciate the true meaning of my comments/feedback.

 

Some feedback tips:

1.     comments must be specific

2.     supply information about what the learner is doing

3.     allow students time to read and respond to the comments

4.     allow time for improvement

5.     praise effort NOT intelligence

6.     supply information

10 Lesson Ideas for the Post State Test Doldrums

With our state and AP tests upon us, we’re faced with a new challenge: how do we keep students engaged in learning?

We often complain about the constraints associated with prescribed curricula; the end of the year liberates us—and our students—from these shackles. We’re finally free to teach as we want to teach! We can develop lessons that require collaboration, higher-order thinking, creativity and more (notice: I did leave 21^st century skills off the list because I know many of us don’t have access to computers because they're used for testing).

Here’s a list of some great year-end activities I’ve seen in the last two years. What’s your favorite year-end activity? I’d love to add to the list, so please comment! 

1. Create a book or video review. Each student/pair of students creates a chapter reviewing material from the year. These books could easily be used for next year’s review sessions. 
2.  Make use of flip cameras and have students create skits, chapter/unit reviews, etc. Again these can be shared with next year’s students.
3. Make use of Skype—host an expert, collaborate with another class from around the world, compete versus a class from a nearby high school.
4. Teach a fun unit that you didn’t have time to teach.
5. Debates and discussions.
6. Have students write a letter to next year’s students.
7. Cumulative assignments. As a history teacher, I tried to take a thematic approach to my teaching (some themes: role of geography, power, economic haves-have nots, etc.), so at the end of each year, students were assigned a theme and created a project highlighting examples of the theme from throughout the year.
8. Give the students a FedEx Day. Essentially, a FedEx Day is where you allow the students to take an idea of their own and run with it. For more http://goo.gl/zWUCq  
9. Try a new teaching strategy or style. This is a great time to take risks and become innovative. For example, I always wanted to use Project-Based Learning part of my classroom instead of simply assigning projects. The end of the year was a great time for me to try it out.
10. Begin preparing students for next year by pre-teaching a lesson from next year's curriculum. If possible swap classes with another teacher. For example, if you teach fifth grade science, have the sixth grade teacher teach your students.

What are your best end-of-year lessons?

A Late Work Policy That Supports Learning

In my first fifteen years of teaching, I struggled to develop an effective, fair and student-learning centered late work policy. My policies changed from year to year. One year, I’d accept no late work. The next, I’d accept any and all late work with no consequences.

I faced four conflicts as I tried to create a policy that maximized student learning while instilling responsibility.

Conflict 1:

I want each of my students to be responsible and submit their work in a timely manner.

-VS-

In the “real-world” deadlines are often negotiated and extensions are often granted.

Conflict 2:

As a teacher, I need to maintain a pace to meet curriculum requirements.

-VS-

Given the choice, I’d rather students submit work late than not at all.

Conflict 3:

Late penalties may deter students from turning in work late.

-VS-

Late penalties don’t work for many students who are consistently late turning in work. 

Conflict 4:

Given no due dates, students rush to finish assignments and will turn them in at the last possible moment (i.e. right before the end of the marking period)

-VS-

Firm due dates are needed to allow me to provide feedback and meet reporting dates.

After much experimentation, I eventually created a policy that maximized student learning while emphasizing timely work completion. Here’s how it works.

Each assignment/assessment includes both a due date and a deadline date. The deadline date is the absolute last day an assignment/assessment could be turned in. As long as the work was completed by the deadline, students could earn full credit.

Students who did not complete work by the due date were required to complete a missing homework sheet. By quickly reviewing these sheets, I could determine which students needed additional academic support versus who needed help managing their time.

A couple of other items of note:

• Often I involved students in setting the deadline date. This collaborative process created buy-in and simulated real-life negotiations.

• My grading program, allowed me to create a footnote if an assignment was turned in late. Keeping track of such information was vital.

• For students who were chronically late completing assignments, I worked with their parents, other teachers, guidance counselors, etc. to communicate deadlines (emails, text messages, posting assignments online, creating student contracts, etc.)

• This policy actually helped students learn to better manage their time. For example, Susan was an excellent student who was involved in many extra-curricular activities and took several challenging classes. On Monday, I assigned a mini-assessment project on the Roman Empire with a due date of Wednesday and a deadline date of the following Monday. On Monday and Tuesday, Susan had several hours of homework from her other classes and she had away soccer games both nights. Instead of rushing to complete all of her assignments, Susan was able to concentrate on completing her work for her other classes and could dedicate the necessary time and effort later in the work on her Roman Empire project.

What are the advantages of this policy?

1.     Grades are linked to learning not to behaviors (poor time management)

2.     It makes the entire process more manageable for both students and me

3.     It enables me to work with students who have trouble completing assignments and provide timely feedback to all students

4.     It gives me an opportunity to help students learn AND build relationships with the students as I work closely with them

What is your late work policy? What do you like or not like about my policy?

12 Steps to Creating a Successful Redo and Retake Policy

The following is a follow-up to my post on redos and retakes. 

Implementing redos and retakes takes extra time and effort, but the following guidelines minimize teacher effort and maximizes student learning.

1.     To ensure students understand your high standards, instead of assigning A-F grades, use A, B and Not Yet. The Not Yet tells students that you are not yet satisfied with their learning, but have faith in their ability to learn.

2.     When students fail a quiz, test or project, require them to complete a Retake Ticket or Reflection like this one. The Retake Ticket requires students to reflect how they prepared for the original assessment, describe how they’ll prepare differently and includes requirements and due dates. Some teachers require parent signatures on the form or an informal meeting with the student.

3.     One of the most important aspects of redos and retakes is that corrective instruction should occur. Originally, I required each student to attend an after-school study session, but this proved too burdensome for some students. Instead, I created a series of podcasts and worksheets for students. I also made use of youtube videos, graphic organizers and study guides.

4.     Don’t let students off the hook. Require that they complete all missing assignments before retaking the quiz/test.

5.     If students are retaking a quiz/test, don’t use the same test. The idea behind redos and retakes is for the students to master the essential understandings not to memorize the answers (A, B, D, D, C, F, etc. or Rome, Caesar, Pax Romana, Increased, etc).

6.     Instead of using the same test, change the question style from a multiple choice to short answer or essay.

7.     Another strategy I used was instead of requiring a retest, have the student show mastery in another manner (essay, project, etc.)

8.     For students who were close to achieving mastery on a quiz, instead of requiring students do go through several hoops and hurdles, I met with the students and discussed the quiz’s content with the students to see if they mastered the essentials. These brief discussions were great timesavers and allowed me to provide pinpointed and individualized instruction and allowed students to prove they mastered the essential understandings.

9.     Don’t average the scores. The new score should replace the old one. Mastery is mastery. It shouldn’t matter if it took the student one or three attempts to master the essentials.

10. Don’t redo or retest on everything. Each of my tests was divided into sections based on various standards. If a student did poorly on one section, but did well on the rest of the sections, only require the student to retake the “poor section.”

11. Everyone is eligible for retakes and redos. High-achieving students who earned B on quizzes, were allowed retakes.

12. If a student continually fails—and I did have them—focus on improvement and seek answers to why this student is struggling.