Teacherscribe's Teaching Thoughts
Week 21 - Jan 27-31
College does NOT begin in Kindergarten
I never feel this way
You are the average
The World is a Fine Place and Worth Fighting For
The Art of Discussion-Based Teaching by John E. Henning
Too often, my discussions end up with me fishing to the information I'm looking for. This book, though, offered me a number of strategies on how to have good discussions in class.
Now, I haven't overhauled my class room so that discussions drive it - as the title of this book suggests - but the ideas I gained from it have certainly helped me liven up and demand more from my students when we discuss issues. What I enjoyed about this text is that there are sample discussions to evaluate and to help you get thinking about how to craft them in your own classroom. The biggest take aways for me dealt with framing questions, how to offer clues to spur discussion, and how discussion is part of the overall culture of your classroom.
Teaching Thoughts
Week #21 Jan. 27-31
Teaching Thought #88 - The power of retrieval practice
One of my favorite podcasts is The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. In this episode she focuses on Four Research Based Strategies All Teachers Should be Using. These come from the authors Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain in their book Powerful Teaching.
The first of the four strategies is simple retrieval, but it’s not all that simple. The practice of retrieval is critical to helping students not just remember information but also truly learn it. Retrieval goes beyond just rote memorization. This involves letting the information that has been committed to memory sit there for awhile (even if it’s just overnight) and then having to retrieve it later, without rote memorization. The focus on this is that the student should be simply have students struggle mentally to think back in time to bring the key information back.
“When students pull information out, when they have to think back,” explains Agarwal, “they then are better able to remember that information for the long term than if they just kind of shove it into their heads. In the classroom we’re often re-reading or lecturing and trying to shove things into students’ heads, and retrieval is really about pulling information out.”
One way to do this is with mini-quizzes. Bain uses these in her classes at the start of every period. She just asks students - without consulting their notes - to jot down four or five key points from yesterday on their mini-quizzes (which are mini - literally the papers she hands out are smaller than post-it notes).
Now, I know what you’re thinking, for I was thinking this too: she doesn’t grade them. The point is not to have students do it for points. The point is to get the thinking and retrieving the information. If she does give points, she only gives five points max.
I like this because it’s a great way to segue from what we did yesterday into what we will add to it today. I think I’ll have students hang on to their mini-quizzes for the period and then on the back have them write down the four or five key things they learned today as an exit slip. Then repeat that same thing the following day.
When I listened to this, I realized this is exactly why I can remember every first round draft choice that the Bengals have made since 1988. I practice retrieval all the time for this. I don’t have it committed to memory. If you asked me who did Cincy draft in 1995, I can’t spit it out off the top of my head, but if you give me a minute to retrieve it, I can come up with it.
Here is how my retrieval process works: My senior year of high school was 1992, and that spring they drafted the quarterback David Klingler. In 1993, they drafted DE John Copeland and in 1994 they actually had the first pick in the draft and selected DT “Big Daddy” Dan Wilkinson out of Ohio State.
I can retrieve this information because it’s connected to other information and gives me a context for retrieving it. This is the kind of ability we want our students to have rather than just simply memorizing (without any context or stories) a key fact or piece of information.
Teaching Thought #89 - The importance of giving students spaced practice
One of my favorite podcasts is The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. In this episode she focuses on Four Research Based Strategies All Teachers Should be Using. These come from the authors Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain in their book Powerful Teaching.
The second strategy is called spaced practice. This involves having students remember and recall information that isn’t recent. Retrieval tends to focus on more recent information, but spaced practice is for older, yet still very relevant information. As teachers, though, we have to be okay with the time, effort, and difficulty students will have when recalling this information.
“Students are going to forget,” she says. “I asked my college students this past week, hey, it’s Week 12, think back to Week 3 of this semester. What are two things you remember about neuroscience? I just got blank looks from students, which is okay. At first they were uncomfortable, and at first I’m like, Gee, I didn’t teach that very well. But it’s actually a benefit. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but it’s important for students to forget. Because with spacing, they bring it back up, and that then solidifies that learning moving forward.”
They are bringing it back from the deep reaches of their memory, so it should be tough, but that’s what is so good about this act.
“We’ve talked about ‘desirable difficulties’ being a phrase that we use in the scientific literature,” Agarwal explains. “It’s desirable to help students engage in more difficult retrieval and spacing as opposed to what Patrice was talking about with the homework where students are simply copying down answers.”
This is easily done. And it is actually something I’ve done quite a bit. You just need to add a question on a retrieval mini-quiz from a previous unit. In fact, many of my quizzes will have questions from past quizzes on them at the end. For example, in CC we start out reading The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Then a few weeks later we read The Element by Sir Ken Robinson. On the quizzes for The Element, I not only include questions about previous chapters in The Element but also a question about a key concept from The Ghost Map. My next step - and I haven’t done this yet - is to try and connect the main concept from The Ghost Map with whatever we are reading in The Element to help provide context for their memorization.
Teaching Thought #90 - What is interleaving?
One of my favorite podcasts is The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. In this episode she focuses on Four Research Based Strategies All Teachers Should be Using. These come from the authors Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain in their book Powerful Teaching.
The third strategy is called interleaving. This is when teachers have students students mix up and recall information from different areas. Instead of having students recall just information about the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” in one class period, try having students retrieve information about the main characters from all of the stories they have read (“The Black Cat,” “Through The Tunnel,” “The Cold Equations,” “In Another Country,” “The Lottery,” and “The Scarlet Ibis.”). Believe it or not, when students recall information this way, it is far more effective than if they just recall information in isolation.
“With interleaving, mixing up very similar things provides that challenge where students have to know the difference, choose a strategy, and that then helps their learning.”
This would be useful in reviewing for a final exam or even introducing new content. For example, when I introduce the book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, I am able to use interleaving to have students recall information and concepts from several other texts we have already read Outliers, The Element, The Dip, and Mindset.
Teaching Thought #91 - Feedback-driven metacognition.
One of my favorite podcasts is The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. In this episode she focuses on Four Research Based Strategies All Teachers Should be Using. These come from the authors Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain in their book Powerful Teaching.
The final strategy is feedback-driven metacognition.
Interestingly this is all about avoiding what you already know. The authors note how their students who struggle on recalling information for tests simply study the wrong stuff. Their students studied what they already knew rather than studying the new, less familiar material.
“When you study, and you don’t do well,” Bain says, “often it is because you were studying what you already knew. It feels better. It’s like, oh, I’ve got this. And not studying what you don’t know. Feedback-driven metacognition is being able to help students learn how to discriminate between what they know and what they don’t.”
Bain uses this in her classes right after her mini-quizzes. She simply goes over the mini-quizzes and fills students in on the information they missed. The following day, she does the same thing. This time she uses spacing to have students draw the information back from their memories again, helping them recall and remember the information. She repeats this process throughout the year to help her students recall older material and to master new material too.
Teaching Thought #92 - A little inspiration
We all need some inspiration from time to time.
Here is Taylor Mali (of “What Teachers Make” fame) giving a talk entitled “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Inspiring a Thousand Teachers.”
Take time to get inspired and then pass that along to your students and your colleagues.
Why I Teach
Podcast of the Week - The Spark of Creativity
Video of the week - Pouring Happiness
As educators, what are we pouring into our students?
Thoughts from Twitter
Tech tool of the Week - Anchor
Achor is one of many ways I showed students how to make podcasts.
Where are they Now?
Sheena (Lee) Sheldon
When did you graduate from LHS?
I graduated LHS in 2013 .
Where did you go to college and when did you graduate?
I continued my education at Bethel University, graduating in 2017.
Where have you taught?
I then went on to Mankato State University to get my Masters in Reading K-12 while beginning my first year of teaching 4th grade in Faribault, MN. After my first year in 4th grade I moved on to my dream job, teaching preschool, for the second year in a row, still in the Faribault district.
Are you doing any coaching or advising?
In my third year of teaching, I am a mentor teacher, where I do my best to offer support and guidance to my mentee.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I enjoy the look on my students faces every time they come through my door, and the power I hold to make their days so exciting. I often refer to them as “my kids” because that is what they feel like to me, and how much they mean to me.
What made you want to be a teacher?
So many factors of my life drove me to go into teaching, but the most impactful one was watching my younger cousin grow up with my family, and just how important social skills, relationships, and being present in a young child’s life is to their development later in life.
What advice do you have for teachers?
One piece of advice for teachers out there is to remember to take time for yourself. Everyday we are “on” for the sake of our students, no matter what kind of a day, night, week, we personally have had. Pour into yourself, so you can pour out to others!
Bonus content of the week -
Chief Inspiration Officer of Room 205
I am married to the most amazing person in the world, Kristie. It was love at first sight. At least for me. And it still is.
We have four wonderful children, Casey, Koko, Kenzie, and Cash. I also happen to have the greatest job in the world: teaching English to high school students.
I am about to begin my 22nd year of teaching at Lincoln High School. I graduated from Lafayette High School in 1992. I decided to enter the field of education because of two amazing teachers, Mr. Mueller, my fourth and sixth grade elementary school teacher and assistant baseball coach, and Mrs. Christianson, my 9th grade English teacher.
I attended Northland Community College, and had my life changed by the amazing Dr. Diane Drake. Then I transferred to Bemidji State University in 1995. There I had amazing professors who further inspired me to teach English (Dr. Helen Bonner, Dr. Mark Christensen, Susan Hauser, and Gerry Schnabel). I graduated with my BS in English Education in 1997.
I student taught with the wonderful Lisa Semanko and then began teaching full-time at LHS in 1998.
I took a year's leave of absence in 2001-02 to return to BSU for my MA in English. There I had the privilege to teach and work closely with my greatest mentor, Dr. Mark Chirstensen. I earned my MA in English in 2006 and was honored with "Thesis of the Year" for my creative non-fiction, braided, multi-genre memoir, "Meeting Myrtle: A Biography."
In 2013, thanks to my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Jodi Holen, I was offered an adjunct teaching position fall semester at the University of North Dakota. Tuesday nights I teach Intro to Education: Teaching and Learning 250 from 5-8. Those three hours fly by in about ten minutes.
Then in 2016 I was blessed to win a WEM award (thanks to a nomination from a former student (and now an elementary school teacher), Ciera Mooney.
In 2017 I became part of the #pineconepd podcast club along with Brian Loe, Jeff Mumm, Kelsey Johnson, Kelly Weets, Josh Watne, Tevia Strand, Megan Vigen, Mariah Hruby, and Laura Brickson. This has been one of the best forms of PD I've ever been a part of. They make me a better teacher every time we meet. Please think about joining us in the summer at the Pine Cone Pub from 6:30 - until we've solved all the world's problems. For that evening anyway.
Thanks to the inspiration of Shane Zutz (our former principal) I devised this as a way to distribute my Teaching Thoughts and add more content to, hopefully, help out and inspire others.
Email: kurt.reynolds@myprowler.org
Website: http://teacherscribe.blogspot.com
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