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We all know the scene too well: a teacher packing up to go home for the evening or weekend with a large stack of papers or student projects to grade. After hours of reading, writing comments, and giving feedback, the teacher hands back the assignment only to watch the students quickly read it and stash it in their folder where it is never to be seen again. In this scenario there is little opportunity to use the feedback provided in a constructive manner for improvement and learning. The April 2016 edition of Educational Leadership offers several articles, perspectives, and strategies to enhance reviewing student work for increased student achievement. These strategies sometimes involve more time in class for feedback, but saves the teacher grading time outside of class.  Here are some key takeaways to consider:
All ideas pulled from: The April 2016 issue of Educational Leadership, “Looking at Student Work,” (Volume 73, Issue 7). This post brought to you by Erin Broviak, APOSA overseeing Career and Technical Education
 English Learners are the fastest growing student population in Minnesota. According to the Minnesota Department of Education’s English Learner Fall Report, the number of students who are English Learners has grown by 300 percent in the last 20 years. For this reason, among others, it is important that teachers have tools that they can use to scaffold academic English for EL students. Here are few more tools you can use that do not take a lot of prep and can assist your English Learners in acquiring academic language (click here to see previous tools). Connect new information to prior learning or experiences An anticipation guide can be a great tool to assist students as they access prior knowledge and transfer to new knowledge.
Provide opportunities for students to talk Think-Pair-Write-Share is a strategy to allow students the opportunity to express their thoughts orally before writing.
Use graphic organizers to help students organize their thoughts An “H-Map” is a variation on a Venn Diagram for compare and contrast.
This post brought to you by Katie Miller, K-12 EL Implementation Associate
It’s that time of year! Students have gotten to know each other and are feeling more comfortable with one another and undoubtedly your “blurters” have revealed themselves. Here are some tried and true ways to get students to share their ideas in a more productive way. 1. Set expectations Remind your students of how you want them to share their ideas. One author calls this “important participation.” It might sound something like this: “I know you are all anxious to share your thoughts and you have a lot to say. I’m going to give you a number of chances to turn and talk to a partner as well as time to share. To keep things interesting and fun I need you to keep your comments or thoughts in your head until we have a talking time." For students who are having a particularly hard time, schedule a one-on-one conversation to talk with them about your pride in their great ideas but your goal for them to let others share as well. 2. Set Up Routines that give students wait time When you ask a question, give students time to stop and jot down a few ideas before they share. This gives everyone time to think and reassures students that their ideas won’t be lost. 3. Plan for academic conversations every ten minutes Students are less likely to blurt out if they know they’ll have time to chart. Research suggests that students need two minutes to process information every ten minutes in a lesson. You can make this work quickly and efficiently by assigning talking partners and by planning these stops into your PowerPoints if you use these to help organize your lesson. 4. Post your expectations for discussions and refer to them Have a discussion with your students about what a productive discussion or contribution looks like. Create a chart that captures these ideas and refer to them when you need to reteach expectations or redirect behavior. 5. Give your chronic blurters a bit of one-on-one time If you know you have a student that has a difficult time waiting to share ideas, try to give them a minute of one-on-one time as they come in the door. Often this bit of attention will help them feel valued and will make them less likely to steal the show later. If you are having a difficult time with one class hour, remember you can connect with your instructional coach for more ideas. Ideas inspired by the Scholastic article "Seven Ways to Cure the Blurts: How one teacher curbs disruptions and keeps things running smoothly" by Ruth Sidney Charney. This post brought to you by Heather Willman, APOSA overseeing Secondary Curriculum and Instructional Coaching
As we help our students develop skills that will suit them well in the world beyond our secondary classrooms, many of us find ourselves moving to more and more partner work, group tasks, and full class discussions and debates. These opportunities help our students to develop collaboration skills and illustrate teamwork, to develop communication skills and think critically—all skills which today’s students need to thrive in the 21st century workforce that awaits them in their not-to-distant futures. The struggle, however, is in ensuring that all students still walk away with deep levels of understanding. Far too often in partnerships, in small groups, and in full-class activities only a few students are actively engaged. Unfortunately, some students choose passivity. When this happens, does it mean that only those few students walk away with the learning? I fear that it does, and it becomes our jobs as their teachers to ensure that all students engage in the learning that we offer them. As we move into more and more collaborative learning environments, here are some strategies to help ensure that all learners are still learning at high levels:  For Groups of 2-3 StudentsPartners A & BWhat to do:
This ensures that there are equal voices, encouraging shy students to speak up while preventing naturally talkative students from taking over. It also teaches students balance, which is not a skill that many students develop naturally. More details on this strategy can be found here under “Student Engagement” TriadsWhat to Do:
Just like with Partners A & B, Triads ensures balanced voices and balanced participation within a small group; the addition of a third student, however, allows for more versatility and creativity within the structure of the activity. Additionally, the ‘additive’ element in almost all variations of Triads forces students to see and to work with how other students think. Often, there are multiple routes to the same answer, or various correct answers, and should ‘student 1’ opt to take a route different than what ‘2’/‘3’ were expecting, then the thinking of ‘student 1’ must broaden and thereby deeper learning will occur. More details on this strategy can be found here under “Student Engagement”  For Groups of 4-6 StudentsNumbered Heads What to Do:
When students are assigned to work in groups, particularity groups larger than four or more, it’s common to assign roles. Where roles certainly have their merit, they can also backfire. When one student is assigned to be “recorder” others in that group might hear, I guess I don’t have to write any of this down, and thereby may disengage. Likewise, when one student is assigned to be a “reporter” others may hear, I guess I don’t need to really know this if I won’t have to share out later—again, potentially encouraging some disengagement. However, when students know you use Numbered Heads to determine whose work is turned in and/or who shares out, then all must stay engaged for the entire activity. More details on this strategy can be found here under “Student Engagement”  For Whole Class DiscussionsRandom SelectionWhat to Do:
When facilitating a whole group discussion, students who blurt answers aloud or constantly raise their hands tend to take over, giving other students perceived permission to tune out and disengage. However, establishing that all students will be called on at some point encourages students to stay engaged throughout. This strategy ensures that both shy students and students who prefer to be passive learners stay more active in their learning. Chip TossWhat to Do:
Again, as was noted with Random Selection, large group discussions tend to foster environments where some students naturally dominate, either pushing quieter students aside or giving students who wish to disengage permission to do so. However, a strategy like this helps combat that by making students aware of the discussion's balance—helping those likely to over-contribute keep themselves in check while simultaneously motivating those likely to under-contribute to add their voices into the conversation. For more about 21st Century Skills, consider reading this Mind Shift article: “Three Trends that Will Shape the Future of Curriculum.” This post brought to you by Heather Lyke, Secondary Implementation Associate
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