Before the travel seminar you are expected to practice with your students two of the "Marzano" strategies presented in the pre-travel seminar. On completion of your practice lesson, please utilize the blog to present your ideas, reflect and evaluate the procedures. The strategies you used do not necessarily need to be within the context of teaching Lewis & Clark. Please take the time to read what others have posted and share suggestions and experiences that can improve our collective teaching. If you have lessons or ideas you would like to post online, please send me a copy at cindy_ness@byu.edu and I will post the assignment or link within the strategies thread.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Strategies that worked... or didn't Thread
Before the travel seminar you are expected to practice with your students two of the "Marzano" strategies presented in the pre-travel seminar. On completion of your practice lesson, please utilize the blog to present your ideas, reflect and evaluate the procedures. The strategies you used do not necessarily need to be within the context of teaching Lewis & Clark. Please take the time to read what others have posted and share suggestions and experiences that can improve our collective teaching. If you have lessons or ideas you would like to post online, please send me a copy at cindy_ness@byu.edu and I will post the assignment or link within the strategies thread.
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I have been trying to teach the reading strategy of summarizing to my class. This week I used the Narrative Frame (pg 35) to work on this skill. It helped tremendously! The questions asked in this story frame helped my students to find the most important information for the story, such as characters, setting, consequence, and resolution. When we finished the questions, I then led them through a discussion of taking that information to write a complete and concise summary. It helped so mucht to show them what is important and necessary in a good summary. I think this will help in the future as we apply this skill to other stories and passages that they read. Summarizing is a skill that good readers can do in their mind as they read, and this strategy can be used by my students even when they are reading for pleasure.
ReplyDeleteThis week we are reviewing fossils for science. We rotate for science, so my class hasn't talked about fossils since September (they need a review;)). I decided to organize some cooperative learning groups (p. 84) to help them review some concepts from our fossil unit. Each group had a different topic they were to study and review as a group. They had jobs in their groups, but they were all accountable for their own learning (because they had their own paper they had to fill out at each station.) These groups worked out really well for my students, and helped them review (and learn some new things) about fossils.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reviewing Classrooms Instruction that Works, I found an interesting Venn Diagram activity. I incorporated the activity in my classroom as we had been talking about holidays and traditions. I asked them to use the Venn Diagram provided to compare holidays and traditions of today with those of the pioneers that settled Utah. It was interesting to hear the perceived notions (Martin Luther King Day was celebrated by the pioneers - didn't you know?) We had a great discussion about holidays and traditions, how some seem to endure and others have changed and will continue to change. The discussion also led to a better understanding of the many cultural differences that existed then and now in Utah as people from many places came to settle and continue to today.
ReplyDeleteThis would be an easy actitvity to incorporate in any subject area.
Excellent ideas. Thanks Jana, Melanie, & Rebecca for sharing. I teach at the collegiate level; however I find the same strategies Marzano identifies are as effective for adults as for elementary and secondary students. This past week I used a nonlinguistic strategy that was very effective. The activity was an assessment activity in which the students were to create a sound track which best encapsulated the key battles and/or events during the American Revolution. Each student choose a play list then working in cooperative groups they were to choose the best song for each event, lastly each group brought their winning songs before the class. Students had to explain their musical choice and defend their song as the best piece for the event. When finished I downloaded the songs and put together a quick muscial review of the American Revolution. We showed the final piece in class, I then posted it online. Over 50 of the students have been into the site to review the finished musical review. It was both entertaining and enlightening. If I am able I will upload it to the site.
ReplyDeletePlease continue to share your strategies and suggestions.
I teach 11th graders and we use the Internet and other sources instead of a textbook, so one of the critical skills I am trying to teach is how to find the important stuff and gloss over the rest. I tried out the "Rule-based summarizing" on page 32. We had a current newspaper article that flowed from an event in World War Two. The students were supposed to cross out the unnecessary stuff (according to the specific rules) and generalize where needed. Some students started with the article and crossed stuff out and reworded it. Others read the article and wrote their summary as they read. I found excellent summaries from both methods, but the creation rather than deletion efforts caused them to think more, and to be more selective in what was really important.
ReplyDeleteI teach mainly sophomores. I have been working summarizing. Like Cory, I found the rule based strategy is helpful for my students. Summarizing sounds like an easy strategy. Therefore, my students would chose summarizing over other strategies. They think it’s condensing the same information word for word. So when they get into trying to delete items out of their reading, it gets difficult. Then, when I have them find their own topic sentence they aren’t thrilled at all. It has been a great strategy and fun to see them evolve in their writing by creating their own topic sentence from their readings. I’m glad Marzano has acknowledged summarizing as a deep level of analyzing. I loved these few pages for the chapter.
ReplyDeleteI decided to try the Non-linguistic Representation Strategy with my US Government and Citizenship class. We’ve been talking about influences on the Constitution. Everything from Greek and Roman government, to documents like the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, etc.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been unconvinced they’ve been getting it. So, I divided the class into teams. Handed them a reminder list of the eight items we’ve learned about and a piece of poster paper and told them to create a mobile representing them all.
The looks on their faces was priceless. I love ninth graders. However, after only a brief moment, they dove into the challenge, digging out markers, paper, staples, string, etc.
As it turned out, they went far above and beyond my expectations. Not only did they do things like cut out a ring of people which they mounted onto a bent hangar to represent unity among people, they built engineering marvels. We had everything from Greek columns, to a King and Queen literally holding up a document as they upheld the law to represent the concept of “rule of law”. We had scales of justice, letters to King George, the Mayflower, a miniature of the battle of Runnymeade, even a gavel and many stick people vs 1 stick person to show majority rule.
Then each group presented their mobile with each member saying something about their choice of images.
Needless to say, I was THRILLED! They’d got it, understood it and could prove it!
Sara, I love your activity. I might just borrow it to share with my history strategies course! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI knew that I wanted to have my 11th grade students look at some primary sources and other information about the Civil Rights fight during the early 1960s. The Historical Investigation on page 107 seemed to be the obvious choice, but as I read, I was drawn to the Experimental Inquiry description on the next page. I was anxious for my students to form opinions up front and to see how a string of facts or information might affect those opinions. Essentially this method fit better in every way except the experiment.
ReplyDeleteI prepared 14 pieces of information that led the students from an introduction through the intrigues with President Johnson and the FBI and ended with the Selma Marches and the March 15 speech by the President. The students got the pieces one by one, establishing an idea of how things would and should turn out. The Marzano book says nothing about it, but having the students glue each item to a large poster had a very positive effect on the effort they put into understanding the information (some written, some photos, some videos).
Reviewing the results, some students were more descriptive than imaginative, but the majority of the students caught the vision of taking a stand and not being afraid to state opinions and modify them or back them up as more info came their way.
I also used the non lingustic representation strategy with my Ninth grade U.S. Govenrmnet and citizenship class. As we were discussing the Bill of Rights I decided to use this strategy to see how well my students understood what these rights actually protected. I had a large number of old magazines so I divided the class into small groups (3-4) and told them to look through the magazines and find appropriate pictures to represent each of the amendments. They were instructed to use their pictures to create a Bill of Rights Collage which they presented to the class, explaining why they used each picture. I was impressed by how hard they worked on these projects. (I think they liked using scissors and glue sticks.) I was especially happy with their explanations of their picturs and their different interpertations of the meaning of each amendment. I will use this activity again next year.
ReplyDeleteI have been focusing on giving effective praise for my students. I was interested to study the chart on page 56 that shows effective and ineffective praise. I have worked to make sure I am being specific about the effort they have put forth in a successful outcome, not their talent or ability. And I have tried to give individual feedback for student in the form of a note of letter to them that they can take home and show to their families. My fourth graders are eating this up!! They can't wait to find a postcard tucked into the corner of their desk, and read what I have written to them. I have seen remarkable improvement in effort and achievement in some of my students, and I'm sure it is because of this strategy.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Melanie's post I decided to re-look at page 56 that talks about effective and ineffective praise. This afternoon I gave my students a cursive writing assignment, (boy do 4th graders dislike cursive writing.;)) I decided to walk around a give effective praise according to their effort and performance. This was the quietest I have seen them work, and I got some of the best cursive handwriting I have gotten ALL year! Some of the best came from some of my students who are usually the laziest. I even had one student (who usually never finishes his assignments,) ask if he could stay after school to finish his cursive! Amazing difference. And the first day back from Spring Break too. This is a strategy I will try and use more often:)
ReplyDeleteAfter receiving Cindy's email I realized that I had been slothful lately, so I got on to read the posts. Thanks to Melanie and Rebecca, I too plan to work on effective praise this week in class. As spring (TRIES) to come, the kids are becoming a little less attentive and I found that as I concentrated on effective praise, they seemed to concentrate on me and the instruction as well. Thanks guys for the "effective" ideas.
ReplyDeleteFor my second teaching strategy I also used a nonlinguistic representation activity. I have found that the Juniors I currently teach have a difficult time identifying the most important information from their readings. I have them a graphic organizer, similar to the one on page 75, with the topic of Great Depression in the middle. I had the class list who, what , when, where, why, and how in one of the outside circles. They were instructed to read a two page hand out from which they were to fill in all of the circles. I found that through this activity they were better able to identify the most important information from the reading. Some of my students had a difficult time recognizing that there could for example be more than one answer for each circle. With some assistance most of them were able to take all of the important information from the reading. It was an effective method of note taking.
ReplyDeleteAnother strategy that I use with cooperative learning and grouping of my students is Lit. Teams. We began working in lit teams yesterday after months of preparation for team work. To group my students for this, I gave them seven choices of books. I "blessed" each book and then gave them the opportunity to vote for their three favorites. I then organized the groups so that there were four students in each group. As a group, the students choose/assign roles for the group and rotate turns as a team captain. This completely cuts out the "ability" grouping and keeps the group at a size that allows for sharing and participation by each student. This could be used with any curriculum effectively. As an aside - it is so much fun to see how the groups interact as personalities come to light.
ReplyDeleteI teach 5th grade, and I too have liked using the comparing strategy, both with the Venn Diagram and Comparison Charts. Recently we studied about the earth’s layers. I assigned the students to bring a model of the earth to school. They were to find something around their house that could represent the earth and its layers. The next day we compared each other’s models on a chart that listed the model, if they thought it was a good model, and in the last column how it was different from the real earth layers. As my earth model I always make a cake that has different colored layers and then of course we get to eat our earth models.
ReplyDeleteI use the Venn Diagram when I bring hard boiled eggs to show the layers of the earth and plate tectonics. We crack and peel them and use dental floss to cut them open. They draw a picture of it and then make a Venn Diagram of the egg and the earth layers.
Does anyone know what happens to blogs that disappear? I posted yesterday, but it doesn't show up here.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, one of the strategies I used was the Venn diagram comparing and contrasting (and finding differences and sameness) for my 4th grade classes with the Revolutionary War. We talked about Valley Forge (Patriots) and the Loyalists in Philadelphia. They did find that even though the Patriots were frozen and starving, and the Loyalists had warmth and enough food, they still had some things in common. Some of them even came up with a few quite sophisticated ideas. We also did some journal writing where they placed themselves in the position of either a Loyalist or Patriot. I am completely amazed at how well these young students actually were able to place themselves in a position of someone so very long ago. They have really been enjoying this exercise.
To help my students understand emigration/immigration and the experience of several groups coming into the country during the 1800’s, I decided to use the Cooperative Learning Strategy and Advance Organizers. First: I posed the question: what might convince them to leave where they were move somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteWe began with an informal group in a Think, Pair, Share. Then we had a race where everyone had to run to the board and put one of their ideas up and if someone else had already written it, they’d have to do another. (I love controlled chaos sometimes).
Then we broke into pre-assigned groups…groups we’ve used throughout the year (this time I used their color groups…sometimes I use shapes….sometimes letters—each different groups so they don’t always work with the same people, but they know their team and can get organized quickly). They read brief scenarios about different ethnic groups, then used a matrix to distill the important information onto their paper and finally worked in their groups to answer a series of questions comparing and contrasting the experiences.
Even my struggling readers did well. They’ve learned to ask the stronger readers for guidance as they work through projects. I really like using these small groups and matrices to help them discover the important things they’re asked to read.
One strategy that I have working in my WWII Unit is Questioning.
ReplyDeleteI have spent a lot of time using three-level reading guides. I’ve been having students create their own questions. As it states in the text, teachers have continually used questions as a post-reading activity. There are so many ways of using questions throughout learning activities. They have come up with great questions about WWII, which they can begin to make inferences a lot easier. As hard as it is to go out of my zone and try new things, the strategies text and this blog has made it a lot easier to do.
Marci,
ReplyDeleteSorry I don't know how to find lost postings... frustrating I know.
Regarding the rest of your posts all excellent ideas, and quite frankly I would imagine at this time of the year somewhat motivational. I remember when I was teaching secondary school the last month was sooooo long. It's far too easy to fall back into lecturing and text book work, strategies often go out the window and forget providing feedback and reinforcing effort. Melanie's & Rebecca's post are good reminder that when all is said and done they often do not care how much we know until they know how much we care.
Please keep the ideas generating!
I also have been working with my 4th grade students all year on summarizing. When I read Marzano's summarizing strategy, a light bulb went on in my head. I knew this would help the students understand the process better. I decided to walk them through the process before having them try it on their own. I gave students a text on what it was like to be a pioneer woman. I took the same text to Alphagraphics and had a 2ft. x 3ft. poster made up. While students had a copy of the text in front of them, I read the text aloud and demonstrated Marzano's strategies of deleting, substituting, and keeping (in the past students have always used a highlighted to underline info they felt was important.) I showed students what I felt was unnecessary information in each paragraph and crossed it out on the poster. I had them do the same on their copies. I showed them how to substitute a single word for a series of words, and how to select or invent a topic sentence for each paragraph. After we did this for every paragraph in the text, I gave them a different text to use to "show me what they knew." Even though I told them they could use any strategy to summarize the text, I heard several students say the strategy we'd learned that day made summarizing easier--YEAH! I needed to read the Marzano book last summer so I could have started out the year teaching "child friendly strategies." Oh well, better late than never. I think the strategies were great and it worked well to walk students through the process first.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, I also was impressed with the idea of using a summary frame. This is the next strategy I'm going to try with my students. It seems so brilliant and yet so simple--why didn't I think of something like this? Perhaps it is because I've only taught 4 years and I'm still working on covering curriculum and basic strategies. I love the idea for use on both informational texts and stories.
ReplyDeleteIdentifying similarities and differences is an integral part of the AP class that I teach. One of the essays my students write is designed to show their mastery of this skill, so I am always looking for new ways to teach them to do this. After reading the chapter in Marzano, I decided to do a few activities with them to develop this skill. To start, I put the students into random groups and had them divide themselves into several categories, based on whatever they could come up with. They devised some interesting categories like foot size, shirt color, vision acuity, musical tastes, etc. After they understood the concept, we moved on to historical processes. I gave them a group of world leaders and they had to identify ways in which they were similar and different. They made comparisons based on mustache size, uniform styles, level of authoritarianism, similarities to 1984, and success with the ladies. From there, we expanded out to civilizations (which is the level their essays must address). At the end of the class, their comparisons were far more analytical than they had been in the past, and their essays had improved by leaps and bounds.
ReplyDeleteThe other strategy I implemented was from Ch. 3. In my ancient world history class, my teaching style is heavy on class discussions, which makes it difficult for some students to sift through the information and identify the main ideas. It is even harder because we cover multiple regions in a single unit (because I organize the course thematically). I usually have the major points on the board before class begins, but students still struggle in keep in track, and I find that sometimes they spend so much time copying my outline that they tune out and don't understand why they are coping stuff down. So I decided to try some guided notes for the students, especially when we did world religions that involve a lot of vocab.
ReplyDeleteI made outlines for Islam Buddhism, and Hinduism, and I was very happy with the results. Rather than just giving them complete outlines, I only included the vocabulary terms and important people. Then, as we had discussions about the history of the religions, the students could listen, and then I would pause for a couple of minutes while they filled in summaries. So, for example, we talked about the history of Siddhartha Gautama and his early life, and then the Four Sights. Then I stopped the discussion and had them summarize what we had talked about on their discussion guides. One thing I found was that the document I created didn't have enough space for the students, and I needed to leave bigger spaces between terms so the students could write down all their summaries. I think the classes flowed a lot better with the discussion guides, and the students felt more confident that they had included all the pertinent information. It was also helpful for them to study with for the next class, and the printed guide was more organized than most of the notes that the students take themselves.
Meg,
ReplyDeleteI too will be teaching World Civ from 1500 to the Present at the Y this coming semester I am just putting together my Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions, I would love to cross note and compare if you wouldn't mind sharing I would love your ideas.
The activity you are talking about sound like using reflective journals, I have used this in the past, and though I am not doing it this upcoming semester I have found it very helpful for students to learn how to take notes and summarize. It is amazing that at the collegiate level they still do not know how to write concise, succint summaries.
Keep the good ideas coming
Cindy
Vocabulary has always been a weak point with me. I have always listed the words on a study guide and talked about the word when we covered it in the curriculum. I didn't really do more than that. After reading this book and Marzano's vocabulary book, I began using a couple of strategies he suggested. I have added a vocabulary page to my unit packets. I choose 8 of the most difficult concepts from the vocabulary list and I have lines for a definition in their own words and an open space for them to draw a picture of the word or concept. I also have them rate their own understanding on a scale from 4 to 1. I didn't do anything else to my teaching of vocabulary but I did notice a small increase in correct vocabulary answers on the unit test. The real unexpected reward of this simple assignment is I get to see through their drawing how well they understand the concept. I had a lot of students write an okay definition in their own words but the visual representation was not correct. I asked a few students about their drawing and they really didn't know what the word meant and I could help them instantly. I am planning on having students come up and present some of their visual representations on the document camera to show the class how well they understand. I think this will help some of the students that are still struggling by seeing the work of others. As will all new things I try give me a while and it will get better.
ReplyDeleteMelanie...
ReplyDeleteI just read your post about effective and ineffective praise. I'm so glad you mentioned it. I went back and looked at that section again. I'm trying very hard to be that positive force in my class...8th graders like to be negative to each other and see this organized out is very helpful!
Thanks!
I have appreciated all of the ideas presented here. When teaching about summarizing to my fourth grade students, I introduce and teach Lori Oczkus' Super Six Comprehension Strategies. In her program, summarizing is compared to a news reporter reporting only the most important details of a news story in a matter of minutes. We discuss what this means and look at current news stories. We go into details of the current stories, but look at what is actually reported on tv. With this analogy, students are better able to understand the concept of summarizing.
ReplyDeleteOne example of incorporating summarizing into my curriculum is when we read The Wishgiver. After each section (Polly's wish, Rowena's wish, etc.), the students are asked to write a short summary of the wish, and in one or two sentences tell what happened as a result of that wish. The students then draw and illustrate a picture of a scene from that particular chapter. At the completion of the book, they design a cover and staple their pages together. They now have in a few pages a summary of the entire book, with the "most important details of the story" covered, similar to the news reporter analogy.
In my world Civ class we were talking about the Spanish inquisition. I decided to to use the non linguistic one that everybody has raved about. I told them they needed to come up with a visual representation of what they believe represents the Spanish inquisition. I got quite a few small scale model torture devices (no real blades or anything that could be considered a weapon) and a lot of barbies. It wasn't just the guys who were bringing them in either. It surprised me to see so many of the girls do so as well. I actually had a parent complaint... just not one of my students parents. It was a parent of a student who overheard one of my students talking about it at lunch. That was kind of funny, I thought.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago my husband and I stopped, quite by accident, in a small village in Northern Spain that housed a fascinating exhibit on the inquisition. It was nightmare inducing. Today the inventors of these devices would (or should) be jailed simply for thinking of such nasty tortures. It's frightening to think "the church" played a role in helping fund and support the inquisitions. In fact I have never forgotton the stetching tables, for that reason when I go for my bi-weekly torture, excuse me physcial therapy sessions, I refer to the Doctor as Senor Torquemada... I'm not sure he finds it as humorous as do I, it is however an apt title for the work he does
In my US History I did a cause and effect cube for the great depression. On one side of the cube they were supposed to write a cause and effect statement and the other sides were evidences that proves their statement. The students seemed to like it. They liked the creativity that it allowed them and also made them think about actions and consequences.
ReplyDeleteOne of the activities i have used frequently is Venn diagrams. Earlier in the year, when studying Jamestown and the early exploration of North America, I do a strategy called "a book in a day". Using Weetamoo, Journal of Jonathan Jasper Pierce, and Remember Patience Whipple, the students read sections of these books to get three different perspectives of what happened when the English arrived to the New World. The students complete a jigsaw activity and then compare the three different stories using a venn diagram, noting the similarities and differences between the Indian's perspective; an indentured servant's perspective, and a young pilgrim girl's perspective. Brings out great discussions as we try to figure out how these new immigrants would impact the land, culture, and peoples already living here.
ReplyDeleteJust recently I used the Venn Diagram to discuss the Lincoln/Douglas Debates and the issues of slavery vs. States rights. Again promoted great discussion. This one took a little more teacher instruction, as the topic for 8th graders is a little difficult.
Another Marzano technique that I use is the Comparison Matrix. When studying the Civil War, it is easy to be one-sided on issues, however when you lay out the similarities and differences between the North and South I found more students were sympathetic to both sides and realized this was a lose/lose situation, but one that had to be addressed. The moral issue of slavery eventually must win out when debating whether or not War is necessary. It was fun to compare the economies of the two regions as well as the social characteristics of the two. I even had a reenactor come in to talk about Gettysburg. I only wish I had someone to represent the south as well. That would have been awesome.
ReplyDeleteSummarizing is an activity that I try to teach my 8th graders from the beginning of the school year. I have used several techniques to try and get my students to truly focus on the important stuff. That is a challenge at times because I believe at this age, many 8th graders believe every word that I utter is of the utmost importance. :-) Sometimes I like this. I have found that if I give an assignment to summarize, lets say, the Emancipation Proclamation, that about 25 % can do it without problem; 25 % can get most of it down; and 50 % will basically re-write the entire document. So this time, We read the document as a class; We translated it into our own words and then I had the students write down the four most basic points and each one had to be 5 words or less. This worked out reasonably well, however, I did find that my percentages remained the same. About 50 % of the class had to be spoon fed, working with a partner, to reasonably break it down. I feel like this is an area that I need to improve in my teaching. I need to do a better job of teaching summarization as well as modeling it from the beginning of the school year through the end. Perhaps I will use this strategy as homework, or exit cards, something that will force them to revisit what they learned. Since Marzano is big on homework, maybe I will have homework assignments that require the student to "teach" their parents what they learned in class and have their parents take a quick quiz to see if they learned anything. :-) That ought to go over well. Anything to promote discussion around the dinner table.
ReplyDeleteLibby
The second Marzano strategy I tried was reinforcing effort and providing recognition (chapter starts p.49). I started out my lesson by reading a picture book about Sammy Lee (U.S. Olympic Diving Champion). The book talks about the effort Lee invested to become an Olympic Champion and Doctor. After reading the book we had a class discussion about the correlation between effort and success. I gave a few examples from my own life and then students gave examples from theirs.
ReplyDeleteAll year I've been having a celebration at the end of each month for students who made my "A List." (students who didn't have behavior problems during the month) We decided the "A List" for May would be based on effort and achievement rather than on behavior. I passed out a paper to students and had them write two goals they wanted to achieve during the month. Those who achieved their goals would attend the A List celebration. As the month progressed, I recognized students who achieved their goals and complimented those who showed increased effort.
My class had been working on memorizing multiplication and division facts. The majority of students seemed stuck at a certain level. After our lesson on effort, I saw achievement rise. Many more students started passing off multiplication levels. I think students were impressed with the results they were seeing, and that helped them keep the momentum going.
I loved Marzano's idea of having a personal honor roll. Next year I will teach students about effort at the beginning of the year. I think all of my end-of-month celebrations will be based on individual effort. I've realized I have much room for improvement in recognizing student achievement and in cheering-on student effort. I plan to spend some time this summer figuring out how to do that better.
My class
One strategy I have used here at the end of the year in my Comparative World Religions class was the Venn Diagram. I created a diagram with 5 different circle to cover the 5 main religions that we have studied so far. The reason I did this is because i want my students to focus on the many similarities instead of the few differences. It is my way of trying to dispel misconceptions and allows the students to make connections to people of other faiths.
ReplyDeleteThe Marzano book talks about generating and testing hypotheses in Chapter 9. One section talks about different types of structured tasks to guide students through this process. When we studied about Jamestown this past year, I had my students do a historical investigation where they construct plausible scenarios for events from the past, about which there are conflicting versions. Each student had to analyze many different sources of information about the "starving time." They read primary sources from John Smith, and also sources from archeologists who are now excavating the Jamestown site. These sources present evidence of different things that may have caused the starving time. Based on their study of these documents, they were then asked to offer a hypothetical scenario. The second part of this skill is to ask students to explain their thinking and how they generated their hypothesis and which documents presented the most plausible evidence for their scenario. They turned in a written report on their findings. This activity was very good for teaching critical thinking and giving evidence to support it. Their opinions were very interesting and different from one another. This skill is often taught in science, but it applies to a variety of tasks from any subject and is a very important life skill.
ReplyDeleteVickie, I think we are doing a similar thing in generating hypotheses as we contemplate the suicide/murder question. However, I wonder if we have a hard time describing our process in choosing our side. I suspect your students (and we in this case) fall back on "gut feelings", preconceived opinions, or a single powerful source. Those things tend to cause us to ignore or discount competing evidence. Did your students do a better job of carefully considering competing scenarios?
ReplyDeleteThe use of analogies was discussed in chapter 2. The teacher-directed analogy is something I incorporate each morning into our self-start work. I place an analogy on the board with one element missing. The analogy usually pertains to the current curriculum being studied. The students need to identify the relationship and then fill in the blank with the correct answer. I have them discuss their thoughts with a partner first, then we discuss it as a class. It is very effective and the students never tire of it. They love the analogies. It's the element of discovery that they seem to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI used some nonlinguistic representation with vocabulary words from the Percy Jackson book I was reading to my fourth grade class. I wanted them to have a picture in their minds of the words from Greek mythology and I knew I couldn't put them there. I gave them eight words, minotaur, titan, Zeus, etc. They had to look these words up and then draw pictures of them or a picture that represented them. I have done this exercise before with vocabulary words, but I have never gotten such fantastic and imaginary results. I don't know if the interest came first or the kids were more interested in the book because they had the pictures in their heads. I think this would be a great technic to use with a lot of history vocab. because kids frequently take in the info without trying to imagine what it must have been like, One of the things that makes the Stephen Ambrose so great is picturing what it was the Corp of Discovery was seeing.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to figure this out! Help!
ReplyDeleteI figured this out.
ReplyDeleteApril 18, 2010: (I actually tried to post on 4/18/10 but it disappeared and it’s taken awhile to figure out why I couldn’t post.) This is my 5th grade students’ first introduction to writing an outline before we start writing about a great American Hero. I proceeded with my normal lesson by modeling an outline. I became a fashion model for the day. My clothes and accessories became the topics. Style and color became the subtopics, and description became the details. I took the lesson further this year by using Marzano's Process for Teaching New Terms and Phrases on page 128. Using a graphic organizer, I first presented students with a description of an outline and the purpose for using one. Second, I drew a non- linguistic representation using pictures of different clothing articles to represent new topics and new paragraphs. Third, I had the students rewrite the purpose for using an outline in their own language and fourth, the students created their own nonlinguistic representations. I think this helped cement the concept in my students' minds. The next day I had the students outline a partner's clothing for practice. (This went very well.) This week we'll actually start creating an outline for our Great American Hero as we continue to research.
ReplyDeleteMay 4, 2010: Yesterday I decided to use Marzano’s Combination Technique for Student Notes. (Pages 46-48) Though I’ve done some note taking with science and a little with writing, I decided to try it in math. I usually teach, have students share strategies, and do practice problems on our whiteboards. Today I introduced surface area, the bane of my scores on the Math CRT. So, we split our notes in two using an informal outline on the left, diagrams on the right, and a summary of how to find surface area on the bottom.
ReplyDeleteOn the left we included the formal definition of surface area, an informal definition (How much wrapping paper to cover all the sides of a box?) and the formula. On the right we drew rectangular prisms, and examples solving problems. In the summary, the students restated in their own words how to find surface area. One of my students came up with an easier way to solve it than the formula we were using. Instead of 2(lh) + 2(hw) + 2(wl) he came up with 2(lh + hw + wl) which is the same thing but somehow easier to do. We are going to keep coming back to our notes to add or revise.
Cory,
ReplyDeleteYour comment on my historical investigation/hypothesis strategy was right. It is very difficult for kids this age to see different sides to a problem and realize that there is good supporting evidence for many different opinions.
My 5th graders are (supposedly) gifted and talented. Some of them did a great job of supporting their theory with several examples of evidence from what they read, and others ended up relying on one influential source. Still others were just at the step where they summarized each of the readings and didn't really take any kind of stand! We had to begin working on persuasive writing techniques early in the year because we were required to take the State Writing Assessment in 5th grade this year. In good persuasive writing, the student needs to be able to identify the strongest evidence and arguments from both sides of the issue. We practiced this with debate and with lots of different discussions where there were many answers or no right or wrong answers. (Trying to build their thinking and reasoning skills). The most advanced students did really well with this while others were still trying to get a handle on it. I see by previous posts that you teach high school. I'm hoping that by the time some of my 5th graders reach 11th grade, they will have had a little bit of experience in this type of thinking and it won't be totally new to them. I'm also hoping that our Lewis and Clark group will keep an open mind about the suicide/homicide issue since I am one of the attorneys advocating homicide! Hoping everyone will be able to see good evidence on both sides!
Libby,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your venn diagram activity getting the three perspectives of the Pilgrim girl, indentured servant, and the Native American. This winter I was working with the State Office in writing UTIPS questions and I too used a venn diagram as a question stimulus depicting the degrees of freedom held by different groups comparing slaves and indentured servants.
I now have about 3 Marzano books that I have been given in different classes in the last few years. Because of this assignment I actually opened it and looked at the table of contents. Then I focused on chapter 3, Summarizing and Note Taking. This is nothing new. I have been creating my own graphic organizers for a long time. For example, I dislike the workbook for our 4th grade Language. I have made new graphic organizers for many of the selections in our anthology that are more user friendly, including the narrative frame for fiction and the main idea detail frame for non-fiction pieces. I have taken the Utah Adventure text for Utah history and made and outline our some pages, leaving blank some of the lines and have the kids read the selection from the book and compete the outline.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see more research on the effectiveness of homework. I think most homework for 4th grade is useless. The students who don't need more practice are the ones who do it and the ones who need more practice, either don't have confidence to do it or just plain don't want to use their time that way. In Davis district our new reporting system does not allow homework to be averaged into the grade. The reasoning is that we don't know who did the homework; was it mom or dad? Does homework really show a mastery of the subject?
ReplyDeleteCooperative Learning, chapter 7
ReplyDeleteFourth grade fossil study includes learning about the geologic time line and we focus on four periods from which Utah has many fossils. The fossils are the trilobite, Green River formation fish, the allosaurus, and the woolly mammoth. I divide my class into these four groups and put a stack of books, computer printouts, pamphlets, posters, etc from which to gather information about that Era and Period. It's amazing how much information there is about dinosaurs that is fourth grade appropriate and not much about climate or vegetation. There is very little about the other periods, but I have assembled enough for them to research and share with each other. They fill out a graphic organizer about about the plants, animals, and weather and color a map of Utah that shows the land and water of that period. Then they create a mural where some of the kids color the land or water and others draw plants and animals on separate paper which they color and cut out and glue on the background. They are very proud of their product.
Commenting on Libby's note of May 20th, about being spoon fed. I feel like the last two years my fourth graders say, tell me what write and where to write it and I will do it, but don't expect me to think. It is frustrating when they ask me how to do an assignment because it is easier that reading the directions. I am always telling them, especially in math, but other subjects, too, that 'the answer' isn't as important as knowing how to get an answer. I am having to rethink some of my teaching techniques to make kids think and figure things out for themselves.
ReplyDeletePOSTED BY BECKY MULLENS
ReplyDeleteUse of Best Strategies
One of the teaching stratagies I use most often with my classes is found in chapter seven of "Classroom Instructions" Cooperative Learning. Recently we were finishing up our unit on Utah Government. I assigned each small group to research and study certain assigned topics and become the experts. They worked together to find what they felt was most important in their area of study and they were to also find what they felt would be the best way to present this information to others. When that portion of the work was done, then one representative from each group was paired up with one from the other groups. They then presented their lessons on their assigned topics and shared what they had learned. AFter each person had presented, then they went back to their origional groups and shared and compared what the others had learned form their secondary groups. Some of the information was repeated while others brought back new facts. As a conclusion, each group was then to write two papers. One on their oritional assigned topic and the second on what they had learned from visiting with other representatives from other groups. It was fun and interesting for them because they were in charge of what they would teach, how they would present, and how they would write their group papers. I found it very interesting to watch the dynamics of each group. Some were given leaders, while others took turns and then let others take over when they felt that the other person had more to offer. Everyone participated in various degrees. When a shhort quiz was given at the end of this activity those who more involved than others had better recall and did better on the quiz.
Becky Mullen
POSTED BY BECKY MULLENS
ReplyDeleteThe other strategy I used lately with my class was the one listed in chapter #3 Summarizing and Note Taking, found in "Classroom Instruction." I used this strategy while teaching reading combined with a unit on Utah Native Americans. Summarizing and note taking skills are essential to a person who is learning to read. Finding or creating a main idea, shortening lists and deleating unnecessary information helps a reader better comprehend what the author is trying to convey. It helps to make recall easier, too. For this activity, I spent several days modeling for my kids how this is done. Then they were given short essays on verious native American topics and they were to work alone writing their own summaries. Then, they were given time to comparae their writings with those of others in the class. It was fun to listen to their expressions of excitment when they found someone who had the same or close to the same ideas written.
Becky Mullen
I realized that I hadn't posted a second strategy from the Marzano book yet. I realized as I read this book again that I use a lot of the Marzano strategies in all of my units. I noticed that many of you used the venn diagram successfuly and this is a favorite of mine also. I use that strategy several times a year in different units. I also do a lot with rubrics and have found those to be very helpful to make my job easier, and in giving the students a chance to get instant feedback on their work even before they hand it in.
ReplyDeleteThe strategy I wanted to mention in this posting is a non-linguistic representation which is a type of graphic organizer. I use this a lot when I am discussing a certain event in history to help the kids remember all the key concepts. It's called a story mapping history frame. It is a chart which maps these things: The title of the event, the key players, the problem or goal that they have, the place and time when it happened, the key episodes or events, the resolution or outcome, and the theme or lessons learned. I used it this year when we were studying exploration and the Spanish Armada. We broke everything down into each of the boxes just like a story. History events are actually stories! I think the kids could understand it a lot better and remember it. I especially like the part where we find a theme or lesson in the event. I think a lot of kids have a hard time figuring out why we are bothering to learn about certain events and this lets them see the "so what?" of the event. At first they need quite a bit of guidance in using it, but they get more adept at filling it out themselves as time goes by. It is hard to describe a graphic organizer in words, so if anyone is interested in looking at it, I found it on a website http://www.readingquest.org. This site has a wealth of graphic organizers to help with reading in content areas.
Tamra,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I sometimes question the value of homework, I'm generally a homework supporter. I teach 5th grade, but even when I taught 3rd grade I still assigned some homework. Even though it seems true that those who don't need it do it, and those who do need it, don't, maybe there's a correlation. Those who do homework do better on their classroom work. I experimented this year. I had several really low students who didn't have the family support at home to see that they did their homework. I recruited several "Math Parent Volunteers" They worked with the students on concepts they needed more practice on but they also helped the students with their homework. My math parents came four days a week. The extra practice really helped these students improve and their scores went up. I also think homework helps students develop study skills they'll need in the upper grades. I wish I could have a separate homework grade.
Commenting on Wes' note on May 10th. I've been studying Marzano for a couple of years but like you I hadn't done much with vocabulary before that. In fact, it's embarrassing to admit that when I finally looked at the core to see specifically what words I should have taught I was mortified to find out what a poor job I had been doing. I have since mended my ways using Marzano's strategies.
ReplyDeleteAn extension game that I use with my students is to call a student to sit in a chair up front. I put the vocabulary word over the student's head (so he can't see it). The student calls on other students to give definitions of the word and the student tries to guess the word.
It really makes the students think about what the words mean. I think I'll add a non-linguistic component to the game next year where the students can also draw the meaning.
I noticed that Jana had mentioned using Lit. Teams to study a book together. Jana, I have also found these to be a fun way to utilize cooperative grouping. I had my students select a book they wanted to read with a small group. There were three students in each group. This year I used a variety of genres, although it works well with a certain genre such as Historical Fiction also. My students loved these, too. I had given them quite a lot of training beforehand about discussion techniques and how to ask questions. It's funny though, there is always the occasional child who just doesn't want to work in a group, or who sabotages everything by not doing the assigned reading. Did you run into problems with that?
ReplyDeleteI used the compare and contrast strategy with the book and movie Sarah Plain and Tall. We read the first half of the book and then watched the movie up to that point. I modeled the comparing and contrasting. Then we did the second half and I had them do the comparing and contrasting on their own. They took the assignment very seriously, even asking if they could look at the book again. I saw them looking through the book and then checking with their neighbors. I think the key was the modeling I had done. It encouraged them to dig a little deeper
ReplyDeleteAs I have been reading through the posts and Marzano, I realize that affective teachers use a variety of teaching strtegies. As I have worked with my students over the years, I have found that not one techniques works for all students all of the time. As I was reading the chapter on cooperative learning the point was made that this strategy could be over used and lose its effectiveness. I think that is true of all strategies presented so far.
ReplyDeleteThis year I tried putting my students in pairs as math buddies. I had several students who whized through the assignments then distracted the rest of the class. Others struggled to finish or even understand some of the concepts. It was very difficult to support and teach a dozen struggle students. I then tried the math buddies. I, for the most part, randomly assigned students a math buddy. (Some were carefully selected as pairs.) I instructed the students that they weren't done with their assignments until their buddy was done. They had the option of working alone, but could not turn in their assignment until their buddy was finished. They had to help each other finish the assigned work. Those who struggled got help from those who where more competent in that particular skill. If someone had a question or didn't understand a concept they had to work with their buddy before asking me for help. This made math time a lot less hectic for me and the students enjoyed working with a partner on their assignments. Ever few weeks we would reassign buddies so that everyone got a chance to work with different stuents with different skill levels. I also put the answer book out on the table and let them check their own work. I told my students if the answer was wrong they had to check their work and be able to explain to me what they had done wrong and how to correct their answer. This was also very effective.
As I have worked with my 5th grade students this year, I found that many had a dislike for school. It seems to have come from the idea that they were not smart and that they could not succeed in school. Some had even come to the point where they would not try new things or make an effort to do the assignments.
ReplyDeleteI tried to use the reinforcing effort and recognition strategies with these students, along with the others too. I started by reinforcing their successes and pointing out the skills that they had. When there were successes recognition was provided. I found that as they felt more success they weren't as negative about coming to school. Even though they would say they didn't like school, many of them loved coming and being in class. They felt good about what they were doing and made efforts to be successful.
As was mentioned earlier, the students don't care what you know until they know how much you care. I have tried to make my students feel important and successful in my class. recognzing their successes with just a pat on the back or a "good job" goes a long ways. Just like the rest of us our students want to be recognized for the things that we accomplish.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your idea of putting the answer book out on the table and letting your students check their own work. It does sound like it would be a valuable experience to be able to explain what they had done wrong and correct the answer. I'm going to try it!
Over the last 23 years in the classroom I have used almost all of Marzano's strategies, usually by happenstance or as a good idea from a fellow educator. Cooperative Learning was a new big deal in the 80's, reinforcing effort AND achievement made headlines in the 90's, and the debate over homework has been continuous since I was a kid. Setting Objectives, Cueing and Questioning, Nonlinguistic representations...all good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI have watched the pedagogical pendulum swing through several cycles and I have come to the same conclusion as Dr. Haim Ginot:
"I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”
Dr. Haim Ginott
I truly believe that teaching is both an art and a science. Yes, we can quantify and diagram "effective" teaching. We can publish studies and create massive statistical analysis, and pontificate at length about metacognitive risk-taking...then a true artist chooses the right colors and textures and pleasing compositions in infinitely unique and wonderful ways, and a student becomes more than the sum of his parts.
In my 4th grade classroom we constantly use graphic organizers in all their varieties, in science, writing, reading, even math and music. My visual learners love it.
Praise and affirmation for a job well done boosts energy and work completion rates. The quickest way for my students to know they are off course is to NOT hear anything from me. Whenever we have needed to have a little "discussion", I have never had a student leave angry. We always end up with a positive plan of action that will be positively reinforced.
We use Literature Circles and the small groups choose their own reading by consensus. There are general formats of study units for each genre for the group to follow, and specific products designed to make the experience rigorous and satisfying.
I try new things every year, based on sound principles, and each year is a new adventure.
Karl-
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this post. Sometimes I forget that my job is more than just 'teacher'. When my children were small and I was not able to be the 'stay at home mom', I often prayed that their teachers would 'care for them.' I have to remind myself that I, too, need to do the same thing for those in my keeping for the few hours I have them each day. Each child does learn differently and what a great opportunity it is for me to help them find those ways.
Becky M.
I too have received several of the Marzano books over the years at various inservice meetings, but have found I do not like how the book is organized, but I looked past this to fulfill this assignment. I have a Master's in Literacy, so my history classes have a different perspective than most, we complete a literacy strategy daily. Most students complain that we do more literacy than they do in their English classes, and it just makes me smile. But, one strategy that I didn't realize Marzano supports is a vocabulary activity, where you make a grid (usually I have my sophomores fold the paper into a grid) then have a column for the word, definition in their own words, and a picture to represent what it means. I have always had success with this strategy, especially if I provide page numbers of where to find the word in context. I highly recommend this strategy.
ReplyDeleteCooperative learning, venn diagrams and many other activities that have been talked about are commonplace in my classroom, but in the spring I read through some posts looking for ideas, and one written by Melanie about praise caught my eye. I decided it was an area that I could focus and see how I could better incorporate it in my classroom. I had a particularly difficult spring, laced with job uncertainty, and although I have a general positive outlook and attitude, there were several days that I struggled to keep upbeat with the woes of my work environment. On those days I decided to focus on praising my students as Marzano instructs. It made all the difference. I am not sure if anyone else would even see a difference, or felt a difference, but it was the boost I needed to endure varied student personalities I thought I might otherwise explode at! As my Dad always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!"
ReplyDelete