Classroom Instruction that
Works--Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, 2nd
Edition (Ceri Dean, Elizabeth
Hubbell, Howard Pitler, Bj Stone, ASCD McREL, 2012)
I have read and used the 2001 version of
this book, which for many of us was our first exposure to Robert Marzano.
In that book he and his coauthors Debra Pickering and Jane Pollock
identified the "notable nine"--nine instructional strategies that
have been assigned effect sizes for their supposed correlation
with student achievement. For many BHS teachers the data behind these
strategies validated lesson planning choices that were already being made, and
for others the book may have influenced some changes in how teaching was
planned, but building-wide I don't think there was any large effect from the
book because we didn't attempt to implement a planned and monitored program
around the nine concepts. Even now, under the PLA/Transformation Plan,
there is no intervention based on utilizing the notable nine. However,
the redesign plan through its various elements (teacher performance evaluation,
data teams, formative assessment, differentiated instruction, common lesson
plan format) does require teachers to be very creative in instructional
design--to select strategies that best address students' needs and that create
the greatest student growth toward learning goals. For that reason
teachers will need a large repertoire of strategies; the information in this
book can be a good starting point.
In my opinion this 2nd edition is superior to the first as a usable resource for teachers. In the 1st
edition a lot of time is spent in discussing the meta-analyses that were done
to compute the effect sizes, and then the strategies are listed in order by
effect size. But, this order isn't particularly helpful to lesson planning,
and the book didn't always provide much help for actually putting the nine categories
into action in a classroom. One of the best detailed explanations in the
1st edition is about how to directly teach vocabulary--great stuff! but not
even one of the nine strategies. Also very helpful from the
first book is the discussion of how to approach teaching different types of
knowledge: details, organizing ideas, skills, processes. What's
nice about the 2nd edition is that it takes this useful information that was in
just one chapter of the first book and reorganizes the whole text to give
clearer direction to teachers.
Introduction
The notable nine are categorized into
three groups:
- Strategies
to create the environment for learning
- Strategies
to help students develop understanding
- Strategies
to help students extend and apply knowledge
The introduction also contains a section
on the importance of developing good student-teacher relationships in the
classroom, something that I don't recall the first book dwelling on. Yet,
we all know this is critical. If students and teachers don't like and
respect each other, then no strategies, however notable, are going to work.
Part 1 Creating the
Environment for Learning
Chapter 1 Setting Objectives
and Providing Feedback
The 2nd edition gives an average 0.31
effect size for setting objectives and a 0.76 effect size
for providing feedback. What this means is that when
recommended techniques for these strategies are used with fidelity,
students should increase their achievement by about 12% and 28% respectively.
That is, if a student would score 50% on a test without having received
the strategy, she should score about 50 + 12 + 28 = 90% when receiving the two
strategies. Of course, we know it doesn't really work this way; in fact,
this overestimation of the influence of effect size is a common criticism of
the work of researchers such as Marzano or John Hattie. It's not so
simple as just picking a few strategies with large effect sizes and thinking
that alone is going to raise students' achievement. No doubt despite
researchers best efforts to control other factors there is still overlap
between the influence of instructional strategies, for example, the 28
percentile gain predicted from feedback might overlap the 12 percentile gain
from objectives. Also, these are just averages from multiple research
studies--some studies in which there were negligible or even negative
associations between a strategy and achievement. The 2nd edition authors
are more forthright about this, and that's why they don't dwell on the
"size" of the effect size, but instead have sought to identify
features within the strategies that would seem to lead to positive correlations
with learning. It is these recommendations and tips that I want to
summarize here.
Recommendations for setting
objectives in the classroom:
- Set
learning objectives that are specific but not restrictive
- Communicate
the learning objectives to students and parents
- Connect the
learning objectives to previous and future learning
- Engage
students in setting personal learning objectives
So, students are supposed to average
about 12% better on assessments if we use objectives (learning goals) in our
classrooms. Well, I did that last year and am not convinced that my
students did any better (they may have done worse than the previous year's
students). How could this happen if there is a 0.31 effect size?
Well, what if the largest portion of that effect size comes from students
personalizing the objectives and that wasn't something that I handled
effectively? (It's actually kind of hard for students to personalize
algebra learning goals--they're so removed from their experience.)
There's just no way for me to know for sure what's going on because the
book doesn't detail the original research; it just gives average effects.
Yet, I can do my best to follow the recommendations in the hope that
there will be some positive influence upon student achievement.
Recommendations for
providing feedback:
- Provide
feedback that addresses what is correct and elaborates on what students
need to do next
- Provide
feedback appropriately in time to meet students' needs
- Provide
feedback that is criterion referenced
- Engage
students in the feedback process
The book gives some explanation for each
of these recommendations and then concludes the chapter with additional tips
for setting objectives and providing feedback. Here are the tips:
- 1. State learning objectives in simple
language and in terms of knowledge rather than learning activities.
- 2. Relate the learning objectives to things that
are personally relevant to students.
- 3. Model for students how to set their own
learning objectives, and provide feedback on the learning objectives they set.
- 4. Periodically check student understanding of
the learning objectives.
- 5. Select content sources, discussion questions,
activities, assignments, and assessment methods according to how well they help
students achieve learning objectives.
- 6. Provide students with information about what
good performance or high-quality work looks like well before an assessment.
- 7. Provide students with feedback as soon after
the event as possible and throughout a unit of instruction--not just at the end
of a unit.
- 8. After providing students with feedback about
what they did correctly and what they need to do to improve performance,
provide opportunities for them to continue working on the task until they
succeed.
- 9. Consider using technology to increase the rate
of feedback, help organize it, and document it for further reflection.
Chapter 2 Reinforcing Effort
and Providing Recognition
This chapter begins with a discussion of
the importance of motivation and identifies several factors that influence
motivation: student beliefs, parent beliefs, cultural beliefs, teacher
beliefs, student beliefs in their own competence and whether they have any
control over the outcome of a task, student interest in a task and the reason
why they're interested. The research cited in the chapter indicates links
between the two instructional strategies and the following variables that
affect motivation:
- Self-efficacy:
beliefs about one's competency
- Control
beliefs: beliefs about one's ability to influence what is happening
or will happen
- Intrinsic
motivation: motivation that comes from an individual's desire for
self-satisfaction or pleasure in completing the task rather than from an
external source, such as a reward
- Task value:
beliefs about the reasons for doing a task
Recommendations for
reinforcing effort:
- Teach
students about the relationship between effort and achievement
- Provide
students with explicit guidance about exactly what it means to expend
effort
- Ask
students to keep track of their effort and achievement
Recommendations for
providing recognition:
- Promote a
mastery-goal orientation
- Provide
praise that is specific and aligned with expected performance and
behaviors
- Use
concrete symbols of recognition
The first recommendation goes hand in
hand with differentiated instruction, but it isn't enough to just establish
multiple performance levels for a learning goal. If students are to
derive any feeling of recognition from mastering goals (in turn enhancing their motivation), then the goals have to be masterable (this isn't a word, but
it should be). So, when differentiating, we have to ensure that goals and
tasks are scaffolded for students so that they experience success and are able
to progress. At BHS the data team process will classify student
performances on pretests into four levels, the last being Intervention
Students--students far to go and not likely to become
proficient. For these students the teacher may have to develop completely
different goals and tasks and delay the targeted learning goal until students
are developmentally in the ballpark.
Tips for Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
- Ensure that
your curriculum recognizes the importance of effort by allocating time
over the course of the academic year to assist students in learning about
effort and how to apply and track it. This means building attention
to effort into curriculum documents and lesson design and delivery.
- Reinforce what
effort is and how knowledge about effort translates into success inside
and beyond the classroom. This helps students develop a sense of
control over their learning.
- Keep praise
simple and direct, using straightforward sentences without gushing or dramatizing.
- Specify the
particular accomplishment being praised, pointing out any noteworthy
effort, care or perseverance and calling attention to new skills or
evidence of progress.
- Vary the
phrases you use to praise students, and use nonverbal communication along
with praise to convey warmth and appreciation for students' efforts and
achievements.
Chapter 3 Cooperative
Learning
By glossing over the research and effect
sizes that were such a major part of the 2001 edition, the 2nd edition I think
is missing some crucial information for us with respect to cooperative
learning. So, I'm going to include some of the 1st edition information in
the summary that concerned homogeneous vs. heterogeneous grouping. I
believe this is important to us at BHS because of two initiatives starting in
2012 - 2013: ability-grouped sections and differentiated instruction.
While one consequence of enrolling students into sections of a course based on
standardized test scores is to make each section more homogeneous, which
facilitates differentiated instruction, our data team protocol will still
generate four classifications of students per classroom. And, while
targeting instructional activities to these students doesn't necessarily mean
separating them into ability-grouped cooperative groups, in many instances that
is a realistic way to accommodate differentiation. With that in mind,
here are the pertinent research-based facts:
- Cooperative grouping (if implemented with fidelity to cooperative
learning models such as Johnson's 5 elements, Kagan's structures, or
Cohen's model) has positive effect sizes vs. no grouping for all ability
levels
- Cooperative grouping, if implemented poorly, has a negative
association with student achievement (i.e., students will do worse when
teachers subject them to poor cooperative learning experiences)
- Low-ability grouping: has a large negative effect size vs.
heterogeneous grouping
- Middle-ability grouping: has a large positive effect size vs.
heterogeneous grouping
- High-ability grouping: has a very small positive effect size
vs. heterogeneous grouping
- Group size: Pairs: small positive effect size; 3-4:
slightly bigger effect size; 5-7: tiny negative effect size
This data has several inferences for us. One, we should make effective cooperative grouping a systematic
part of our instructional program and follow all recommendations for what makes
grouping effective. Two, we need to keep group size to a maximum of 4
students--this means that when differentiating we can't just split up the class
into four groups, we need to make sure that groups are of appropriate size.
Three, we need to be very careful with the tasks given to our groups.
It doesn't surprise me that when high-ability groups are formed
that there isn't much gain vs. heterogeneous groups because in either case the
performance of the group will be largely established by the ability of the
"smartest" student or students in the group. The data about
middle-ability groups is a little surprising--it seems to indicate that a group
of middle-ability students will outperform a heterogeneous group that might
contain one or more high-ability students. I wonder if research has
looked into why this might occur. But, our more important concern at BHS
has to be with low-ability groups, whether they happen to be the
"lowest" group in a classroom or
whether they are groups formed in our "lowest" section of a class
(which may or may not be the section that contains many of the special
education-identified students). What will that "lowest"
cooperative group in the "lowest" section of a class be like?
And, what is the realistic potential for that group to master the content
identified in our high school courses? Teachers will need to do some
serious reflection here and make some important decisions about grouping.
Maybe in some sections of a class any cooperative groups will need to be
made as heterogeneously as possible considering the students in those sections.
Or, maybe goals and tasks will need to be scaffolded so that they are
manageable for students. I've already mentioned in this summary and in
others that a basic tenet of differentiation is to give students what they need
and that sometimes this means delaying the "required content standards"
until a time when they're developmentally appropriate for a student.
Back to the 2nd edition...
Tips for cooperative
learning:
- Establish a
classroom culture that supports cooperative learning by being clear with
students about the norms and parameters within which cooperative learning
will take place.
- Focus on
the underpinnings that lead to group success by establishing and teaching
the structures and processes students will follow as they work in
cooperative groups. Model what students should do as they move into
and work in their cooperative groups. Be sure they understand how to
use the social skills required of them.
- Provide
additional instruction, practice, and corrective feedback on the social
skills necessary to function successfully in cooperative groups.
- Ensure that
the use of cooperative learning aligns with the intent for learning.
When the target for learning includes mastery of skills or
processes, balance the use of cooperative learning with sufficient
opportunities for students to practice those skills and processes
independently.
- To avoid
misuse of cooperative learning, use cooperative learning tasks that are
well structured. A well-structured task has clearly defined goals
for learning, roles, and responsibilities for each member, and it maintains
individual accountability.
- Design
cooperative learning tasks to include strategic use of other instructional
strategies that help students deepen their understanding and use knowledge
meaningfully.
Two final comments: (1) remember
that you are to score students' progress toward successful cooperative learning
as one of the life skill goals, (2) I wish that our school would establish
specific expectations for building-wide cooperative grouping structures and
protocols (like we have for a reading & writing strategy) because if all
students were engaging in the same structures upward of six times per day, then
we'd likely have more success with teaching our students the social and work
skills needed during groupwork.
Part 2 Helping Students
Develop Understanding
Chapter 4 Cues, Questions,
and Advance Organizers
Recommendations for Cues and
Questions:
- Focus on
what is important
- Use
explicit cues
- Ask
inferential questions
- Ask
analytic questions
The first piece of advice reminds me of
something I read elsewhere, but I can't remember where. It had to do with
selecting appropriate activities to engage or hook students. At the start
of a lesson a teacher did a really cool demonstration--lots of fire and
explosions--and followed up with the science concept. But, when students
left the classroom that day, all they remembered was the fire and explosions,
they had missed the important science because the cue was too distracting.
Maybe the lesson would have been more effective had the science been
discussed first, then the neat demonstration, then a quality summary to tie the
demonstration back to the concepts.
This section also reminds me of the
recent book summary I did for math teachers using the book Accessible
Mathematics. Non-math teachers might want to check it out too in the
Livebinder because it'll make you feel good--the premise is that math
teachers should start teaching like other teachers because students are usually
more engaged in those other classes. Math teachers need to start using
the strategies that other content area teachers use. And, specifically in
regard to questioning, math teachers need to get away from the basic "what
is the answer?" and start using inferential and analytic questions.
It may have been in that summary where I cited a quote from a teacher
that went something like "I never ask a question for which I already know
the answer." What she was getting at is that she doesn't waste her
class time asking students to do factual recall, but she asks questions that
get at how and why they're thinking what they're thinking. Good advice
for all content area teachers.
Recommendations for Advance
Organizers:
- Use
expository advance organizers
- Use
narrative advance organizers
- Use
skimming as an advance organizer
- Use graphic
advance organizers
All of this reminds me of our commitment
in 2012 - 2013 to make pre-teaching an integral part of our
lesson design. The lesson planning form lists the steps to follow for
direct instruction of vocabulary (part of which is pre-teaching). The 1st
edition of the book gives an effect size of 0.32 for direct vocabulary
instruction. And, while I can't locate any specific effect sizes for
other instructional strategies that involve pre-teaching (not even in John
Hattie's book), common sense would indicate that if teachers prepare students
ahead of time regarding what content and activities are upcoming, then students
would be better prepared to succeed with them.
Chapter 5 Nonlinguistic
Representations
Recommendations:
- Use graphic
organizers
- Make
physical models or manipulatives
- Generate
mental pictures
- Create
pictures, illustrations, and pictographs
- Engage in
kinesthetic activities
With respect to graphic organizers,
remember that a few years ago our school made a commitment to using Thinking
Maps (well, a weak and short-lived commitment due to no follow-up) so we would probably achieve the
greatest benefit if we used those building wide. I'll link the Thinking
Maps website to the Livebinder as
an instructional resource to remind everyone what the maps are and which type
of thinking each is used for.
Tips for Teaching Using
Nonlinguistic Representations
- Model the
use of the strategies for nonlinguistic representation through
demonstrations and think-alouds.
- Provide
students with opportunities to practice each of the strategies with
familiar information before they are expected to use the strategies with
new material. This makes it possible for students to focus on the
process and not worry about learning new content at the same time.
- Provide
students with a variety of opportunities to use nonlinguistic
representations as they learn new content.
- Model how
students can use more than one nonlinguistic representation as they learn
a new concept or vocabulary term.
- Provide
students with information about and opportunities to use graphic
organizers when developing summaries, taking notes, identifying
similarities and differences, generating and testing hypotheses, and
organizing information that may be difficult or poorly organized.
Chapter 6 Summarizing and
Note Taking
The 1st edition gave an average effect
size for this category of 1.00 (that's big). The 2nd edition separates
the two strategies and gives effect sizes of 0.90 for note taking and 0.32 for
summarizing. Thus, effective note taking is a more powerful strategy than
summarizing. We have building-wide strategies for both, but only
the Stop & Jot (followed by a written summary) is
specifically mentioned in the PLA/Transformation Plan and included in the
teacher evaluation system as a scored element (note: remember that not
only are you to regularly--like every day--make use of literacy strategies in your
classroom, you are to formally score and submit data to the Reading &
Writing committee according to the schedule given in the Google Calendar, which
is available via the Livebinder and other places). However, you are
strongly encouraged to teach and require your students to use the Cornell notes method. I'll link some information about Cornell
notes in the Livebinder as an instructional resource. But, if you are
already familiar with Cornell notes, you know that they combine note taking
with summarizing, so in a sense Cornell notes is simply an alternative to the
Stop & Jot + Summary method for reading comprehension. Check out the
Reading & Writing tab or the Instructional Coach tab in the Livebinder for
more information.
Recommendations for
Summarizing:
- Teach
students the rule-based summarizing strategy
- Use summary
frames
- Engage
students in reciprocal teaching
Each of these three strategies deserves
some explanation.
Rule-based summarizing: "The rule-based summarizing strategy helps to
demystify the process of summarizing by providing explicit, concrete steps to
follow" (p. 80). Here are the steps:
- Take out material
that is not important to understanding.
- Take out
words that repeat information.
- Replace a
list of things with one word that describes them (e.g., replace "oak,
elm, and maple" with "trees").
- Find a
topic sentence or create one if it's missing.
- Optional
step: share the summary rough draft with a peer, then revise.
The text states that when rule-based
summarizing is used school wide, students receive the greatest benefit.
At BHS we are to teach a building-wide
literacy intervention (Stop & Jot + summary), and we could simply add to this a common note-taking approach (Cornell).
Summary frames: These guide how students approach summarization based upon
the structure of the information to be summarized. Pages 83 - 88 discuss
six frames (sets of questions students would address in their summary):
narrative, topic-restriction-illustration, definition, argumentation,
problem-solution, conversation. The point of these is to support students
in summarizing instead of making them guess at what constitutes a good summary.
Reciprocal teaching: Consulting my John Hattie book (he researched effect sizes
for 150 different strategies), I see that reciprocal teaching was the 11th most
powerful instructional strategy. Even though it is a specific procedural
thing, it's up there with the likes of major system strategies such as RTI,
formative evaluation, and intervening with LD students. It is more
effective than strategies like direct instruction, peer tutoring, and giving
homework. Those three strategies are perennial favorites for a lot
teachers, but how many of us utilize reciprocal teaching which supposedly is
even more effective? Reciprocal teaching is basically a cooperative
learning strategy in which the group collaborates to deepen their understanding
of a topic. Pages 88 - 89 explain it very well, but in brief here it is:
- It's used
primarily with expository text.
- When
students first learn it, the teacher will need to model how to use the
four comprehension strategies that are the heart of the process:
summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting.
- Gradually
the teacher releases control of these strategies to the students.
- Groups of
4; roles: summarizer, questioner, clarifier, and predictor (note:
with smaller groups, students just take on additional roles)
- Step 1:
The summarizer reads a short passage and summarizes it. Other
students may add to the summary.
- Step 2:
The questioner asks questions in order to identify important
information. The rest of the group answers the questions to move
deeper into the meaning of the text.
- Step 3:
The clarifier clarifies vocabulary words, pronunciations, and new or
misunderstood terms.
- Step 4:
The predictor asks for predictions of what will happen next based on
relevant information that the group already possesses.
Notice how reciprocal teaching combines
cooperative learning with summarizing and note taking, inferential and
evaluative questions (higher order thinking), peer discussion and feedback, and
I suppose even nonlinguistic representations and identification of similarities
and differences if the group's discussion goes down that route. So, it's
no surprise that it's a powerful technique since it incorporates many of the
notable nine.
Recommendations for Note
Taking:
- Give
students teacher-prepared notes
- Teach
students a variety of note-taking formats
- Provide
opportunities for students to revise their notes and use them for review
I'll share a strategy that the math
department has committed to in 2012 - 2013. Each teacher will use
Academic Notebooks (Learning Logs, journals, whatever you want to all them)
that are to be stored in the classroom and used to store the artifacts of
students' class work including notes and summaries. Class time will be
provided for students to regularly interact with their own notebook (review it,
write a summary, copy down some of the notes, create a practice problem to
match a procedure, etc.) so they can in effect take home information from the
notebook without the actual notebook ever leaving the classroom. Math
teachers have decided on this approach in the attempt to support BHS students
who don't study for upcoming assessments, don't practice, and don't use their
notes effectively.
Tips
- Post the
appropriate steps for rule-based summarizing, and reference the poster as
students summarize information.
- Come to an
agreement with colleagues about the version of rule-based summarizing that
will be used throughout the school.
- Provide
students with opportunities to practice summarizing and note-taking
techniques using familiar information before they are expected to use them
with new material.
- Model the
note-taking process several times before students are expected to
demonstrate an understanding and appropriate use of the various formats.
- When
students practice note taking, provide explicit corrective feedback that
helps them elaborate on their understanding and improve their note-taking
skills.
- Instruct
students to leave space between each note they take to create room to add
to their notes as they continue learning about a topic.
- Intentionally
build time into your lesson plans for students to review and edit their
notes. Do not expect students to take care of this important step on
their own, especially if they have had no prior experience doing so.
- When
possible, provide time for students to share their thinking with other
students. This provides opportunities to rehearse their learning,
use relevant vocabulary, and deepen their understanding.
Chapter
7 Assigning Homework and Providing Practice
While the
1st edition found a positive effect size for homework (it was next to nothing
for elementary homework and greater for high school homework), the 2nd
edition authors state that the association needs to be used carefully because
other factors influence the effectiveness of homework: degree of parental
involvement and support, homework quality, students' learning preferences, and
structure and monitoring of assignments. If a school or teacher decides to use
homework, then here are some recommendations:
- Develop and
communicate a district or school homework policy
- Design
homework assignments that support academic learning and communicate their
purpose
- Provide
feedback on assigned homework
In
2012 - 2013 the math department, at least in its double-dosed classes where
more time is available to do practice during the school day, has established a
No Homework policy. The reasoning behind this decision is: (1) many
BHS students don't receive adequate support at home or have a fair opportunity
to complete homework outside of school hours, (2) math homework is generally
used to increase fluency but that can only be done with skills that students have already mastered, (3) most BHS students don't do
assigned homework, (4) failure to complete assigned homework, whether because
students don't know how to do it, do it incorrectly, or choose not to do it damages students' motivation and self-efficacy in the classroom.
Math teachers believe they will be further ahead in the long run by
dumping the non-effective practice of using homework at BHS. I think that
other content area teachers need to reflect on their experience with homework
completion, and if it's historically been a struggle, then to bag it.
Unless BHS is going to institute a homework policy accompanied by a
homework completion policy (one that we stick to--we dumped ZAP/working lunch
after just one year because we couldn't manage the number of students who
didn't complete their work), then homework is a lost cause for us. With
classwork we seem to have much better luck in getting students' compliance to
do the assignments, especially when appropriate classroom environments and
teacher-student and student-student relationships are developed. If we
keep giving homework and expecting it to be done, but students don't do it and
we have no workable mechanism to follow-up and arrive at compliance, then
we're reinforcing exactly the wrong sort of academic culture. We don't
want students to not succeed with instructional tasks, and unfortunately
homework is a task that for whatever reason many students don't complete
successfully. Let's replace homework with distributed in-class practice.
Now, having suggested that, I realize that beginning
in 2012 - 2013 there is a 7th period class which is primarily a study hall for
students to complete assigned work. What work are they to complete if not
homework that was assigned that day? I think that it could be short
assignments given by teachers with the specific intent that they are
to be completed in 7th period. 7th period is 40 minutes long, and if
every one of a student's six teachers gave an assignment, then it would be fair
to make each assignment require about 6 minutes of time from students.
Examples: a reflective question in science, create a thesis
statement for an upcoming writing assignment in ELA, five practice problems
(over a skill that students' have already mastered) in math, study notes taken
from social studies' academic journals for an upcoming test, etc. But,
we would need to agree as a staff that a teacher isn't going to
break ranks and assign a 30-minute worksheet, or 20 math problems, or a 4-week
extended project. Unless...... For
instance, maybe 11th and 12th graders should have greater requirements relative
to independent/outside of class work? Maybe there is some big research
paper expectation in an ELA class that necessitates extended outside of class
time? These sorts of special cases are why the school should have a
policy so teachers can make instructional decisions that support overall school
improvement goals.
Recommendations for practice:
- Clearly
identify and communicate the purpose of practice activities
- Design
practice sessions that are short, focused, and distributed over time
- Provide
feedback on practice sessions
If
the purpose of doing practice math problems is to increase accuracy and
fluency, then tell students that and create a structure for the practice that
aligns with this purpose. Research apparently indicates that students
need to practice a skill at least 24 times before they reach 80% competency (p.
111, taken from Anderson, 1995). In a math class I don't think this means
to assign 24 problems once. Instead, I think it's closer to meaning
students should practice a skill on 24 separate occasions! All teachers,
not just math teachers, need to put some careful thought into lesson planning
this year to distribute practice over time, something that I don't think many
of us have been doing very effectively in the past.
I also want to offer some comments about how
practice might relate to our formative assessment system. Teachers are to
make at least four "status checks" (checks for understanding,
formative assessments, whatever you want to call them) during the instructional
phase of any learning goal. The first must be a pretest, for reasons
explained elsewhere. The second and third should be
checks for understanding along the way. Now, these checks can be scored
using the 4-point scale and the scores can be entered into the TIES gradebook,
but more important is to provide students appropriate and timely feedback from
these checks. If a score such as 2.5, when matched to a rubric, is
sufficient to give students useful information about what they do and don't yet
understand, then great, but if a lone number isn't sufficient, then the teacher
needs to provide better feedback. TIES isn't going to compute students'
"final" LG scores in the same way as Pinnacle--there is no learning
trend that is automatically calculated. Instead, the teacher will record
the pretest score, but with an assigned weight of 0, and can record the second
and third scores (again with 0 weight), and then the fourth/final score (with
100% weight). This final score could be an actual score earned on the
fourth/summative assessment for a LG, but really it should be the teacher's
best judgment of the student's final status. In addition, if at any point
in time a student demonstrates a change in status (up or down), the teacher
needs only to replace that post-test score in order to modify the final score
for the LG. I mention all of this because there is no reason that the 2nd
and 3rd "scores" can't be taken from assigned practice problems.
Practice is not necessarily separate from formative assessment; teachers
may use whatever activities they wish as their mechanism to gather data about
students' current status toward a learning goal.
Part 3 Helping Students Extend and Apply
Knowledge
Chapter 8 Identifying Similarities and
Differences
The 1st edition gave an effect size of 1.61 for this
category. The 2nd edition gives the effect size as 0.66. Oops!
Maybe Marzano, et al. were a little ambitious with respect to the
awesomeness of this category. But, 0.66 is nothing to sneeze at; it
equates to a 25 percentile point gain. Just remember my caveat from the
start of this summary, this strategy isn't mutually exclusive of all of the
rest. It's not like students will gain 25% on top of all the other
points they've gained if you do the other eight strategies. There's
probably quite a bit of overlap between this strategy and note taking, let's
say, or nonlinguistic representation.
There are many methods you can use to have students
focus on similarities and differences. Some are graphical--there's a
Thinking Map specifically for this type of thinking. And another Thinking
Map to create analogies. Cornell notes can focus on this strategy.
Even our Stop & Jot strategy can have students go after similarities
or differences--it's all in the purpose you give to students when telling them
to stop and jot something.
Pages 133 - 134 give good tips, but this summary is
getting monstrously long, and I'm getting tired of typing. So, you're all
encouraged to read it for yourself if interested in more explanation about how
to go about having students compare, classify, create a metaphor, or create an
analogy.
Chapter 9 Generating and Testing
Hypotheses
This strategy isn't just for science class.
Recommendations are:
- Engage
students in a variety of structured tasks for generating and testing
hypotheses
- Ask
students to explain their hypotheses and their conclusions
Some
structured tasks:
- Systems
analysis: analyzing the parts of a system and how they interact
- Problem
solving: overcoming constraints or limiting conditions that are in
the way of achieving goals
- Experimental
inquiry: generating and testing explanations of observed phenomena
- Investigation:
identifying and resolving issues regarding past events about which
there are confusions or contradictions
*Each
of these tasks has step-by-step procedures.
Part 4 Putting the Instructional
Strategies to Use
Chapter 10 Instructional Planning using
the Nine Categories of Strategies
In conclusion, the book is a great resource for
teachers who want to try different approaches this year. Data teams may
find it useful when trying to agree on instructional strategies to test out in
classrooms (e.g., maybe the Electives data team might agree to try out
reciprocal teaching for a few months). Please remember that when I'm not
busy with the data coordinating part of my job description I am available to
support you in any of these strategies. Even those that I'm no expert in (like not ending sentences with prepositions). I can be a second set of hands in the classroom, can help you to do lesson
plans, or can gather or create materials. I can just observe your class or
video record it if you like, afterward debriefing with you to see how a
strategy that you are trying out is coming along. Any work that you do
with me is confidential and has nothing to do with your evaluation from
Suzanne. Please see the Instructional Coach tab in the Livebinder for
more information about the supports available to you.
