I thank Jeanne Post for letting me know about Barbara Wood, a talented 4th grade teacher in the Elmira School District. In response to a recent column on teaching strategies to create independent learners, Barbara forwarded an idea she uses in her classroom. Barbara agreed to let me use her name so that if anyone has any questions, or follow-up ideas, you will be able to contact her.

Here is how a 4th grade teacher encourages students to accept responsibility for their own learning: According to Barbara, these are "a set of procedures I have found very useful for nurturing independent learners in my fourth grade classroom."

Early in the school year I have my students brainstorm a list of classroom jobs, enough so that everyone will have a job. Each student draws a job out of a hat and that is their first job of the school year.

Each student creates two laminated index cards: one has a picture suggesting the job the student selected out of the hat; the other laminated index card has his/her name. These two cards are posted on the board near the classroom door. They are rotated each week.

One of the most important jobs is "Morning Coordinator". This person rings the chimes at 8:05; this signals the students to take their seats and quietly listen to the morning coordinator who reads the message (usually a greeting and an assigned task) that I have put on the board.

The morning coordinator calls up the attendance taker, the lunch count person, and the pledge leader.

Following these tasks, the Homework checker, with a clipboard and a name chart, goes to each student and checks homework completion. Meanwhile, the rest of the students are doing the assigned task and I am checking with students who need special services to get them started in the morning.

Another job is the Afternoon Coordinator. Five minutes before the dismissal bell, this person rings the bell three times which signals the students to Stop, Look, and Listen.

The going home coordinator then rereads the homework assignments and reminds students what books will be needed for homework, asks students to clean off their desks and pick up pencils, etc. from the floor and then excuses students individually.

It is amazing how these procedures occur with efficiency even if I am in the hall or on the phone talking with a parent. When I am at a district meeting and there is a substitute in my classroom, they are always pleasantly surprised to find that my classroom runs itself.

One of the jobs is a Noise Checker. This person rings the chimes and asks students to use their 12 inch voices when voices become louder than they should be.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

As a teacher and staff developer, the process of learning how to conduct learner centered classes (and workshops), where students take responsibility for their own learning, is one of "continuous improvement." Currently I am working on ways to upgrade some of the approaches I tried last semester with my students at St. Lawrence University (SLU).

How do we know when we have been successful in accomplishing our goals for student learning - and to what degree?

Student attitudes toward what they are learning are not necessarily a valid indicator of the success of teaching strategies. We can enjoy a lesson, yet, not learn much from it. However, the papers the students have turned in, their portfolios, their dialogue during a half an hour interview I have with each student in lieu of a final class, and my observations of student interaction satisfied me that they have come a long way toward understanding the course content, last semester.

On November 2, two thirds of the way through the semester, I asked the students in my class at SLU what they felt was different about this class from others they have taken, and are taking. Here are some of the responses:

QUESTION:
What do you like and/or find different about this class compared to your other classes?

RESPONSES:

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
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Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
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An increasing number of districts are confronted with budget crises. Some of the best professional development ideas don't cost money and require a minimum of effort.

In an article released by Richard Jones while he was with SED, about a year ago, research was cited indicating that teachers need to see examples (on tape and in person) of innovative practices and need the opportunity to try out new strategies many times before they become comfortable with these strategies. Any teacher who is competent with journals, portfolios, cooperative learning, or authentic assessments knows that the journey to competency wasn't paved with a single workshop or a well written article; there was much study, implementation, revision, more study, more implementation.

Unfortunately, school districts often spend money on presenters where, instead, what teachers need is the opportunity to see models and then implement. If we trust our teachers, as I do, to study, learn, and innovate if given the opportunity to experience new models and try them out, then here is an inexpensive strategy for furthering the change process:

Here's another thought on a different, but related, topic. Good teachers want to observe other teachers using effective strategies. Yet, working through several grants, we have failed to uncover any list of teachers who are modeling strategies and would be open to visitations.

If you know of such a list, I would welcome receiving a copy. I know there are lists of model schools and model programs. I'm referring to a list of teachers who can be observed using math portfolios, or ELA portfolios, or cooperative learning strategies, or journal writing, or authentic performance assessments. In other words, very specific strategies.

A school can be exemplary in many ways and yet a visitation to a particular teacher in that school may not reveal the teaching practice that one is seeking. Similarly, a school may have a well deserved poor reputation, yet there may be a teacher with exemplary cooperative learning strategies in that school.

If, for instance, a teacher wants to observe another teacher using multiple assessments in science, where does the teacher find a list of possible visitations?

If such a list already exists in New York State, or elsewhere, please send a copy. If not, wouldnąt it be a worthwhile project for a BOCES or teacher center to compile such a list and keep it updated? Or for SED?

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
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I've received a request for information about elementary schools with six day cycle schedules. If you know of any, please forward relevant information.

The responses to last week's article on "No Cost Professional Development" was overwhelming. Several of you indicated a willingness to create a list of strategies and teachers who can model them. If I can be of help, please let me know.

Here's a suggestion for a review activity - any grade level, any discipline:

You, as a teacher, will learn a lot just from seeing what your students decide to focus on and how they review the class. Then, as the class participates in this student led activity, you will learn what has stuck with the students, what they have ignored, and what you might want to reinforce for the rest of the year.

Example (Middle School Math):

"I want you to think about everything we have studied this year. Create an activity that will require the entire class to review some of the things we have learned. It can be a lecture or presentation, it can be an activity that has the class participating, it can be something you ask the class to do in writing, either individually or in groups. It can be a quiz you give the class. The entire presentation or activity should last approximately 15 minutes, but if it takes longer, or is a bit shorter, that is OK. You will be graded (or will get extra credit) based on how much effort you put into coming up with something worthwhile. The rest of the class will be graded on how well they pay attention or participate in the activity."

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

In this issue, I want to say "Thank you" and then share responses from readers on learner centered instruction and a "Review Activity.

1. THANK YOU:

I want to thank the eleven of you who responded to the request I forwarded from an elementary building principal for information about six day scheduling cycles. I forwarded each response to this principal and he asked me to express his appreciation.

2. Learner Centered instruction:

Here is a note from a Spanish teacher, Sharen Gendebien of Lisbon, in which she contrasts the Learner Centered approach she has taken as part of our Targeted Instructional Staff Development grant initiative with more traditional teaching methods.

"It turns out that my best experience, under this grant project, has been with my student teacher, Pam Bice. After observing me for 8-10 days, she took over two levels of Spanish and is utilizing many of the strategies which she observed.

"Pam says she plans to use groups when she becomes a teacher. She likes the way students spontaneously help and correct one another, ie with verb endings, or with pronunciation, even when there isn't a formal task to accomplish. She has had no difficulty getting groups to volunteer giving a sample of a new structure.

"Her previous experience was quite different in a traditional classroom where there was lots of grumbling and occasional refusal to participate. She circulates up the middle of the room, easily getting to individuals when they need assistance. Her supervisory teacher told me that mine is the only group managed class she has observed, foreign language or otherwise. (That surprised me.)

"Pam's main concern was with testing, which is really no problem. I have the kids move their desks back about a foot. "Separense, por favor" and that works fine."

Sharen concludes her comments about her work in the Targeted grant initiative with this observation:

" I want to thank you again for all your efforts to keep the grant going. I learned a lot and pushed myself to try a lot of new things. Today, in fact, one of my students made her first power point presentation about Palenque, a Maya ruin in Mexico. When we're connected to the Internet next fall, I hope to be able to integrate Internet activities as well. Muchisimas gracias!"

3. A REVIEW ACTIVITY:

Here is an idea for a "Review Activity" that was e-mailed by Arline Ely in response to a column I wrote recently in which I suggested a review activity designed by students.

Dear Don,

Thank you for the newsletter issue on a "Student Designed Review Activity!" I always appreciate getting GREAT ideas to pass along!

Here's another neat idea for review:

At the high school and middle school level, sometimes teachers "lose" the idea of "stations." This concept is used at the elementary level often. There are some really terrific ways that stations can be used for review.

For example, in math:

Use the Key Ideas--reasoning, numeration, modeling, measurement, patterns...etc... and design a station around each one.

The kids, in groups of three or four, can move from station to station, either every 15 minutes during a class, or the groups can do one station per day.

I watched this being done with English concepts as a review for ELA 8. The teacher had folders that corresponded to each station. The folders contained exemplars for the students to observe. The students who were absent or behind in their work, went to the folders for a point of reference.

The students truly were controlling their own learning experience.

This turned review into an active class experience, rather than a boring sit through hundreds of pages.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Student involvement at the 2001 summer constructivist conference continues to grow. We will be offering at least four options for students, ages 8 - 18. If you are a participant or a facilitator and you would like your child registered for one of the following four activities, please notify us ASAP. We have very few openings available:

NOTE: Information packets are being sent to participants as soon as we receive their names. If you are sending a team, please send in the registration form so that we may begin the flow of communications!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Whoops! After distributing a weekly article for two years, I have missed the past six weeks due to the need to address personal situations and to devote time toward planning our 9th summer Constructivist Conference. The articles will resume this coming Monday.

The conference, July 30 - August 3, is sold out except for a few teams that were given extensions on time to register. We will be slightly larger than last year, yet small enough to retain the intimacy that is critical to the success of the conference.

Below is a list of tasks being addressed by more than 36 teams registered for the conference. Teams range in size from three to ten people. Regent James Dawson will join us Monday afternoon, July 30 and that evening. Assistant Commissioner James Butterworth will interact with teams Thursday morning, August 2. Forums will be established for Regent Dawson and Commissioner Butterworth to ask questions of participants and to receive feedback and participant inquiries.

For each of the tasks, listed below, at least one team is registered to address the task during a week of work at the conference:

TASKS

How do we list and map student centered activities and technology?

How Do We Design a Teaming Approach to Creating and Integrated Middle School Curriculum?

How Do We Integrate Technology and Writing Across the Curriculum?

(All three of these tasks (above) are for the same team of nine middle school teachers and principal).

How Do We Design a "Parents in Support of Parents" Program to Take Back to Our 40 member Parent Involvement Group for Approval and Implementation?

How Do We Create A Learner Centered School? (Nine teams will focus on this task as part of our Targeted Grant Staff Development Initiative.)

How Do We Align a Social Studies Curriculum, K-12?

How Do We Prepare Students with Listening Skills for State Assessments?

How Do We Design A Standards Focused Sequence (5-8) Around a Local Grist Mill and Focus on 8th Grade Assessments?

How Do We Develop A Pilot Assessment and Evaluation Course Designed Under the New Provincial Guidelines)?

How Do We Develop a Final Report on Data Collected from the Literacy Action Research Project ?

How Do We Design an Action Plan for a June, 2002 Constructivist Conference for the Albany Region?

How Do We Become Trained in the IBM Model with "Learning Village" Technology?

How Do We Develop A Turnkey Training Approach to the IBM Model?

How Do We Develop Parameters for Aligning a 6-12 Math Curriculum in One Targeted district with the NYS Standards and Related Assessments?

How Do We Design A Meaningful Alignment of Our ELA Curriculum?

How Do We Develop A Second Family "U" Night and/or Parent Project?

How Do We Design Assessments Aligned with Curriculum and Standards?

How Do We Design A Multi-Year Plan for School Improvement?

How Do We Design A Transition Course for Students Entering Middle School?

How Do We Create Replicable Models for the Adirondack Curriculum Project?

How Do We as A Regional Support Team, Create A Work Plan for 2001-2002?

How Do We Use the Vopat Model to Increase Parent Involvement?

How Do We Align A Junior HS Curriculum?

How Do We Establish A Rubric for Post-Graduate Success that can be Used to Guide Design of A University Program to Prepare Future Teachers?

How Do We Collect Learner Centered Activities from Conference Participants and Compile Them for Publication?

(Note: This group consists of university undergraduates.)

How Do We Design A Model for Curriculum Alignment in Every Discipline?

How Do We Develop Hands-On, Integrated Science Program for Our School, Based on the NYS Standards?

How Do We Write A Report, Based on Participant Interviews, on the Impact on Education of a Late NYS Budget?

As middle and high school students, how do we publish a daily newsletter?

As middle and high school students, how do we produce and tape a daily video cast?

As middle and high school students, how do we publish a book of poetry, written and illustrated by students?

As middle and high school students, how do we design an educational "Pete Seeger" website?

NOTE: Information packets are being sent to participants as soon as we receive their names. If you are sending a team, please send in the registration form so that we may begin the flow of communications!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Even legislators who support education fail to grasp the impact of a late State budget. They seem to feel that as long as districts eventually receive a reasonable amount of state funding, what's the difference if the amount is known in April, July, or September?

Yet, those of you in the trenches know that positions are eliminated, valuable people switch jobs and are lost to their school district, teacher center, or BOCES, and a myriad of other decisions, often irreversible, are based on the uncertainty created by the lack of a budget.

At this summer's constructivist conference, three people will undertake the task of documenting the impact on education of a late New York State budget. These three people will interview people from all stakeholder groups, and then draft a report.

If you will not be at the conference, but have insights to share, please send them to me for forwarding to the three people undertaking this task.

If you have been (or are) personally affected by a late State budget, know of someone who is, or, in any way, have experienced the impact on education due to the economic uncertainty caused by a late budget, please share your perceptions with me in a brief written e-mail.

We must make legislators aware that simply delivering a reasonable amount of State aid, and, perhaps, adding a few dollars to cover lost interest costs, does not even begin to address the damage done to the educational process by the uncertainty that persists from April 1 until a budget agreement is announced.

In exchange for your feedback, you will receive a copy of the report when it is completed, following the summer conference. Your feedback is needed prior to July 27.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

The State's efforts at AIS (Academic Intervention Services plans) may be the key to whether education reform is successful in New York State.

Currently the prognosis (my assessment): doing poorly, still has great potential.

Many districts are putting anything, on paper, that they feel will satisfy the State, without regard to whether their AIS plan has the potential for improving student performance. Other districts are submitting good plans, but with no intention of implementing them. Some districts are trying to comply with the spirit and intent of the AIS initiative, but are limited in people power for effective planning and/or implementation.

If I am correct, that relatively few districts are designing and implementing AIS with the appropriate "spirit of intent," why is this happening?

Two reasons:

1. The State doesn't have the people power to monitor the plans and, at a time when everyone in education is stressed out with work overload, districts are responding only to those initiatives that can be monitored, with penalties assessed for failure to comply.

2. Those districts making an honest effort to design an effective AIS are often using old paradigm strategies for a process that requires out of the box thinking. (Can we provide meaningful academic assistance to students falling through the cracks of our school systems if we rely on strategies that may or may not have worked successfully in the past.)

What is the solution?

There is no question of the validity of the AIS concept. When a student reaches the end of the school year, ready to move ahead in certain academic areas, yet unprepared in others, it is a no-win situation for the school and for the student. Hold the child back in every area and you damage the child's self esteem, possibly irrevocably. Why should we have to fail an elementary student in areas of his/her strength at the same time we are holding him/her back because of an inability to master other areas? This makes no sense. Yet, our schools are ill equipped to advance a student in areas of strength while nurturing that same student in areas of weakness. (Not to mention, that research demonstrates that a remedial year of the same strategies that failed the first time around holds little chance of success the second time around.)

However, to move a child ahead, when that child has not mastered certain reading, writing, or other skills, is equally counter productive. Our middle and high school classes are filled with students who have not mastered the skills and concepts that were prerequisites, thus, leaving teachers with the impossible challenge of trying to help a student learn and understand that which the student is not prepared to master. Self esteem is damaged as much by putting a student in a class for which he/she is not prepared as by holding a student back.

The solution could be AIS: provide academic assistance as soon as a student falls behind. Don't wait for the end of the year. However, this requires early identification of problems, the ability (in the school system) to individualize instruction, and the flexibility of scheduling to adapt to the needs and time constraints of students, parents, and teachers. (The issue of scheduling sufficient time for AIS may be the biggest hurdle blocking successful interventions.)

In order to design an effective State wide AIS process, we must recognize that what ails current AIS thinking, at the district level, is what has plagued school-to-work. School-to-work is a process, yet school districts approach it as if it were a program. Thus, instead of school-to-work being viewed as a variety of strategies and programs, K-12, most districts adopt a Tech. Prep. program and call it school-to-work. Tech. Prep can be an excellent program that can be a major part of an effective school-to-work process. But it should be integrated with kindergarten class visits by business organizations, first and second grade class visits to universities, and a myriad of other initiatives at all grade levels and disciplines.

Similarly, those districts that are making the effort to design an effective AIS are looking for that one program that they can label "AIS" without regard to the spirit and intent of the State's initiative. Hence, districts create a tutoring class and call it their AIS program. Some districts hire an additional teacher as their AIS teacher and claim that this fulfils their AIS commitment.

For AIS to be successful, it must be viewed as a process that is comprised of many initiatives. The goal must be to identify a student in need, at the earliest possible time, and to provide sufficient academic assistance to enable that student to "catch up" before the no-win "pass-fail" decision has to be made at the end of the school year. AIS must utilize summers, evenings, and/or Saturdays, if necessary. There must be out-of-the-box thinking. Clearly, strategies of the past are insufficient. Adapting more of the same will promulgate more of the same results.

What can (must) the State do to generate meaningful AIS plans from every district?

Most importantly, the State must be realistic. It does not have the people power to police 700 school districts. Here is what it must do:

1. DEVELOP CRITERIA and DESIGN A RUBRIC: Establish written criteria (a rubric) for what constitutes a good AIS plan. The criteria must be specific and must be assessable.

Example

Criterion One: "An AIS plan will identify specific areas of learning in which students need to improve. The plan will specify how many students would have been identified, the previous year, utilizing this method of assessment."

Criterion Two: "An AIS plan will list, specifically, the strategies that will be utilized to remediate students identified through the process described under criterion one."

These criteria are just samples. They may or may not be good. The point is that any group of SED representatives, combined with other stakeholders, could easily brainstorm criteria for a good AIS plan, and could then design a rubric for assessing whether a district is in compliance. It would probably take a day or two of brainstorming and refinement. The State needs to monitor both the quality of the plan AND whether there is quality of implementation.

2.MONITOR COMPLIANCE SELECTIVELY:

Because the State doesn't have the people-power to monitor compliance of 700 districts, it shouldn't try. Randomly focus on a few districts in every area of the State and monitor their compliance, like the federal government does with tax returns, like State troopers do with speeders. Do we feel we have to catch everyone who speeds in order to punish those violators who are caught?

3. APPLY STIFF PENALTIES*

The penalty for non compliance with the State's rubric should be a very stiff financial penalty. However, a district found to be in non compliance should have an alternative to the financial penalty. It should be a process of training for an administrator, selected by the district, who will help the district come into compliance.

Example: The administrator shall participate in a three day session, in Albany, where he/she will receive coaching and training with the goal of revising the district's AIS until it is in compliance with the State rubric for AIS plans. Then, perhaps, there shall be a six month period during which the administrator will comply with certain communications responsibilities to keep SED informed about the district's progress toward implementation. Perhaps this culminates with one more day in Albany, at the end of six months, to bring closure.

A few caveats:

1. As an alternative to a financial penalty, the State (under my proposal) would be offering to facilitate (support) a district as it comes into compliance. The superintendent would determine who, in the district, should be responsible for receiving the State's facilitative support.

2. If the State designs an effective rubric, one which requires out-of-the-box thinking, districts may very well find that funding, beyond what a district can reasonably be expected to provide, is required for an AIS to be effective. If this is the case, then the State needs to learn this. It does no one any good for the State to require AIS plans, if districts won't design effective plans because of the cost involved. The proposal I am putting forth should enable the State to document whether the reason there is insufficient academic assistance in most districts is because districts are not making the effort or because an effective effort would result in an unreasonable economic cost. At least if we can determine what an effective AIS would look like, and how much it would cost, we can then challenge government officials, and the public, to make choices.

In summary, in my opinion:

1. SED must design a very specific rubric for AIS processes

2. SED should monitor a few districts in every region; this will enable it to create and disburse models by using those plans which do comply with its rubric

3. SED should administer harsh financial penalties to those districts whose plans do not meet the standards of the rubric.*

4. As an alternative to a financial penalty, a district should be given the option of electing to receive support and coaching in order to bring its plan into compliance.

This is my proposal for a Statewide AIS process that is meaningful and effective.

*If there is reluctance to attach a financial penalty (even though districts would have an alternative option), then SED could offer to provide in-depth coaching and support for a few districts in each region that are willing to accept assistance in creating an AIS plan in compliance with the rubric that would be advertised. This would enable SED to generate models of what a good AIS plan can be like. Financial penalties could be considered only if all else fails to generate sound plans throughout the State, beginning with a few good models, and spreading.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a
message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.