TOPIC: “How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom”
Volume #4, Edition #29__________Date: October 26, 2003
How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom is a book, by Robert Delisle, that is filled with examples for practical application by classroom teachers in any discipline, at any grade level. In a moment, I am going to quote directly from the book so that you can assess whether this has practical application for you.
Bob didn’t know that I intended to promote his book until I notified him this week. The Institute is privileged to have Bob as a facilitator working in St. Regis Falls with a Literacy Core Group that is designing and implementing a birth through 12th grade plan for improving student literacy as a way to raise student achievement in all disciplines. He is also facilitating the ELA department of the Malone Middle School through their design of a plan to raise the achievement of middle school students.
From the book:
Page 19: Checklist for Developing a Problem:
Have I:
Page 44: Self Evaluating Teacher Performance in the PBL (Problem Based Learning) Process:
This format, on page 44, continues with four more categories of questions for self evaluation: Setting up The Structure, Visiting the Problem, Producing a Product or Performance, and Evaluating Performance and the Problem.
Page 66: Classroom atmosphere:
Such an interactive lesson would not work effectively without first creating an atmosphere in which children felt comfortable taking risks, where they could readily admit that they are unfamiliar with something and are willing to explore to learn something new. In Ms. Williams classroom, she has created an environment where her students can speculate about solutions to problems and where a variety of opinions is valued.
Ms. Williams created this non threatening classroom by encouraging everyone to participate and by valuing student responses, even those that are not the desired answer. Instead of asking all the questions and demanding that students instantly produce a correct answer, she encourages them to ask questions, think through a problem to develop an answer, and even make mistakes if it will bring the class closer to finding a solution. She asks questions that force students to think but do not have a right answer, asking “why?” and “what do you mean by that statement.” Finally, she has redefined the relationships in her class so that they are student centered, with students asking each other questions and seeing all the members of the class as possible sources of valuable information.”
Page 67: Questions to Ask Before Starting:
Before creating a social studies PBL problem, consider the following questions:
Delisle’s book begins with this appropriate commentary from John Dewey:
Robert Delisle is Associate Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Specialized Services in Education, Lehman College, City University of New York. He teaches in the graduate program in reading. “How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom” is published by ASCD, and is available for $12.95 ($10.95 for ASCD members); it can be ordered by calling 800-933-2723.
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) 2003, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.
TOPIC: Classroom Application of Multiple Intelligence Theory
Volume #4, Edition #30__________Date: November 2, 2003
Before discussing “Multiple Intelligences,” I want to forward a reader’s request for “information that deals with lengthening the public school day.” If you have any information about “lengthening the school day,” please let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the person who requested it.
I sense that some teachers avoid utilizing what we know about Multiple Intelligences because they fear they must go through a time consuming process of learning the strong and weak intelligences of every student. There are five minute tests available to inform us of our strong and weak intelligences and there are teachers who make wonderful use of this information. However, there are also ways a teacher can take advantage of what we know about multiple intelligences without necessarily learning the strong and weak intelligences of each student.
As long as we accept the premise that students have different strong and weak Intelligences, here are two things a teacher can do to improve lesson design:
We all need the reinforcement that comes from working in areas of our strengths, areas where we can shine. Students are forced to work in areas of their weakest intelligences, enough of the time, particularly if they are not strong linguistically or mathematically-logically. We need to allow all students options that let them shine at least some of the time.
Offering options for students to demonstrate competence, or allowing students to work on group projects that allow for each student to select a different role, are two ways for a teacher to accommodate Multiple Intelligence Theory without necessarily going to the trouble of even knowing which Intelligences are the strongest of any particular student.
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.
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TOPIC: Lizzie Maguire Likes Constructivist Learning
Volume #4, Edition #31__________Date: November 10, 2003
What kinds of television programs do teens like to watch?”
I found out when our 13 year-old daughter, Raina, suggested we watch Lizzie Maguire together. As we settled in for the half hour show, I was sure I would be sneaking peeks at the Newsweek by my chair. But Lizzie stole my attention.
Lizzie and her two friends wanted to win a trip to Miami as the prize for beating another team of three in a game of “Factoids.” A substitute teacher agreed to coach them and they arrived for their first tutoring session armed with textbooks and research from libraries and the web. The sub, obviously a constructivist, laughed at them and told the incredulous students, “Put your books away; you’re going to learn history by experiencing it.” For the next few minutes of the show, the students had a ball. They dressed as monarchs, enacted scenes from the civil war, and participated in a variety of active learning sequences.
Then came the day of the contest:
Lizzie and her friends (our heroes) were shut out. The other team got to the buzzer, and answered each question correctly, sooner than Lizzie’s team. At one point, when Lizzie’s girlfriend couldn’t recall the date of the Emancipation Proclamation, she blurted out several sentences that demonstrated a complete understanding of the significance of the event even if she couldn’t recall its exact date. Thus, the writer put across his (or her) point that recalling obscure dates and understanding and applying concepts are different kinds of learning.
Lizzie and friends didn’t win the trip to Miami, but they did agree that they had more fun, and learned more, thanks to the sub’s emphasis on experiential learning.
The show was more engrossing than I had anticipated and I was pleased to see experiential learning as its focus. It also got me to thinking that the writer would have benefited from a dose of research from David Perkins of Harvard, as it appeared in the November, 1999 issue of Educational Leadership, the issue that had articles related to constructivist theory from cover to cover. Dr. Perkins cited research showing that we actually retain more when we are actively engaged with information than when we learn through more traditional drill and kill methods.
Unfortunately, the substitute teacher who worked with Lizzie didn’t complete the lesson as effectively as he might have. He did a wonderful job of engaging students with the information they needed to retain for the contest. He succeeded in helping them understand concepts which they will be able to apply throughout life. Since memorization of discrete facts was also important, he could have added some activities that might have improved their chances of recalling facts during the contest. After they had re-enacted scenes from history, he could have had them create a timeline of events. He could have put them in groups and had them develop short answer questions for each other. Since they were motivated to want to learn discrete facts (by the authenticity of the contest) he could even have encouraged them to do some drill and kill.
The key was that, by starting with engagement, the substitute teacher had given the students hooks to hang their thoughts on. He just missed the last step of focusing on that which they needed to memorize.
Let me be explicit because I don’t want the main point obscured. Those who call themselves “constructivists,” often concede that if our goal is rote memorization, we need traditional teaching methods. However, they then go on to argue that constructivist behaviors will teach critical thinking skills more effectively than traditional methods of teaching and that critical thinking should be preferred over rote memorization of discrete facts. My point, and the reason for citing Perkins’ research, is that constructivists can have their cake and eat it. Active engagement results in better retention of discrete facts as well as challenging students to think. Actively engaging students with information they need to memorize doesn’t preclude some drill and kill, but the drill and kill should come AFTER the engagement with information and at a time when students are motivated to want to learn the facts.
This is the long-range answer to teachers who applaud strategies based on constructivist theory, but argue that “I can’t teach that way because I have to prepare students for standardized assessments.” In actuality, teaching strategies based on constructivist theories of how people learn can be more effective than traditional teaching even if the goal is to prepare students to spit back data. However, one who has taught traditionally for an entire career does not become proficient with a different way of teaching overnight.
If you have not taught using behaviors based on constructivist theory, then you will not walk into the classroom tomorrow morning, completely change your teaching strategies, and expect to prepare your students for standardized tests that value critical thinking or rote memorization of facts. But it is important to recognize that active engagement of students (tempered with scaffolding, appropriate times for reflection, and on-going assessment of student learning) is the most effective way to teach, regardless of whether we are focused on facts or concepts. If a teacher is at least focused on the most effective way to teach, the competence with strategies will come with time.
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) 2003, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.
TOPIC: Dear Dr. Laura
Volume #4, Edition #32__________Date: November 16, 2003
Dear Dr. Laura,
The abused and neglected children you are helping through your foundation may be the ones suffering the most because of your criticisms of the public schools.
Dr. Laura, I admire you for your brilliance as a therapist. For more than six years, I have listened to you assess situations, instantly, and with an amazing degree of accuracy. Whether you use the term or not, you effectively implement “constructivist,” inquiry-based approaches toward helping callers self discover the next steps for addressing their dilemmas. What I have heard you accomplish, often with less then two minutes of dialogue, is impressive.
I am writing this letter to address a concern I have about the way you stereotype public schools with comments that indicate that any flaw in a public school is reason for assuming that all public schools share that flaw. This past week you commented about a specific situation in one public school in Florida and then generalized that this reflects “the hypocrisy of public schools.” On more than one occasion, in the past, I have heard you respond to a listener’s complaint about a single public school by using the complaint as a launching pad for encouraging people to move children into private schools.
Dr. Laura, there are good public schools and there are good private schools. And there are bad apples in the private and public school domains. My real issue is that any damage you succeed in doing to the public school system is harming the children who are neglected and abused more than any other children. Think about this last statement.
Your Foundation for Abused and Neglected Children supports agencies that rescue children from bad homes and from families that are ill-equipped to provide appropriate parenting. But what about the abused and neglected children who are not rescued, or are not rescued until an older age? How many abused and neglected children do you think are in private schools?
If a family would abuse or neglect a child, is it logical that they would be paying money (or taking the time to locate a voucher or scholarship) to send the child to a private school or a charter school?
Please think about this. Even if our country should privatize education, practically and politically that won’t happen for decades. Are you willing to abandon and sacrifice many of the abused and neglected children in this country on the chance that, over the next few decades, we will change from a country where the overwhelming majority of children are in the public schools to one which is completely privatized?
My point is that, for better or worse, almost all abused or neglected children are in the public school system. If this is true, then our best chance, as a nation, to help abused and neglected children, as well as most other children, is through the public schools. Yet, the bad economy is combining with competition for funding from private schools, voucher programs, and charter schools to put a real financial drain on public schools.
And which public schools do you think are the ones with leaky roofs, uncertified teachers, rotating administrators, insufficient and dated textbooks, inadequate heating and cooling systems, and on, and on, and on – the schools in communities with a high economic base or the ones where you will find the majority of abused and neglected children? Communities with an above average economic and educational level of its citizenry will raise whatever funding is necessary to provide a quality education for their children? The communities with the fewest resources are the ones hardest hit, economically, when resources are drained from public schools and this is where many (not all) of your abused and neglected children reside.
Dr. Laura, if you would walk through the corridors of some of our inner city schools and talk with the average, excellent teachers and administrators; if you would walk through the corridors of some of the schools in poor, rural communities where administrative vacancies sometimes go unfilled for years because an area considered out-of-the-way by many candidates for positions also offers lower salaries due to its economic base, then you would realize the legitimacy of what I am suggesting.
You take justifiable pride in citing research and shrouding your opinions in an aura of what has been supported by evidence. Many studies indicate that public school students do as well or better than students in private schools. This is amazing because it would be understandable if private school students performed substantially better, on average, than public school students. How many private schools accept students with disabilities, regardless of the disability? (A study, a few years ago, of over 50 charter schools in Arizona, revealed that very few were complying with the minimal special education requirements. And these schools weren’t required to accept students with the kinds of severe disabilities that public schools must accept.)
Student discipline problems are one of the major obstacles to raising student achievement in the public schools – for the students who cause the problems as well as for other students. A private school often gives a difficult student one warning (change your behavior or you’re out), and then has the ability to deal with repeat offenders with a simple call to the parents: “Take your child out of here.” Public schools not only lack the leverage of threatening expulsion, but often are confronted with students who want to be thrown out of school. Try disciplining unruly students who want to be thrown out of school and know the law requires them to be there, and whose parents heap blame (sometimes threaten lawsuits) on the teachers who call, asking for support.
Dr. Laura, wouldn’t research show that abused and neglected children are much more likely to be found in the public schools and much more likely (understandably because of their neglect) to be disruptive in a school setting? Ironically, the economic drain is causing schools to lay off social workers and to diminish other support services – even those services that train teachers to identify abused and neglected children.
I know you are proud of the impact you have on your listeners. Almost every caller gives testimony to the power of your voice. How do you think the thousands of teachers, administrators, and hard working public school employees feel when you grasp every opportunity available to put down the public schools? How do you think parents of public school children feel when they hear you knocking the schools to which they are entrusting the care of their children? Do you think this encourages them to unite with their children’s teachers for the purpose of teaming on their children’s education?
Teachers, in public schools (as well as private) have a difficult enough time with a society of parents who, all too often, believe their children rather than the teacher when the school tries to administer discipline. Even though you may not knock teachers, personally, are you naïve enough to believe that you can knock down the institution of public education, but expect parents to believe they should trust and interact positively with the people who work in those institutions?
Dr. Laura, you may disagree with all that I am saying – that is your right. But you and I have one thing in common. I have heard you boast, frequently, that you are an advocate for children and you make it clear that anyone else’s needs have to come second to those of the child. I, too, am an advocate for children. I implore you to reconsider your almost ritualistic condemnation of the public schools. If you insist on carrying out an initiative for privatization, then put all of your might into the effort and make it happen overnight. During the interim, the children you profess to care most about are in the public schools and the educators in the public schools need all the help they can get from people like you and me in order to see that no child is left behind.
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) 2003, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.
TOPIC: CELEBRATING the HOLIDAYS in SCHOOL
Volume #4, Edition #33__________Date: November 23, 2003
I am indebted to Principal Gail Weinstein of the Strafford Road Elementary School in the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District for describing the year round efforts in her school to enable students to understand and respect people of different cultures and backgrounds. In a moment, I will share Gail’s information.
Each year, at this time, I climb upon the soapbox and urge schools to think about the majority student population, as well as those in the minority, in planning decorations, concert songs, and other visible, or audible aspects of holiday celebrations. I try to get people to realize that sharing customs and philosophies of people from different cultures shouldn’t just be done as sensitivity to the minority population students – if your school were 100% one race or religion, you should still integrate understanding of as many cultures as possible because of the value to those students in the majority. Sometimes we give recognition to the minorities represented in our student body and/or staff because we feel a need not to ignore them (or because they protest if we don’t recognize them), but we fail to recognize that it is the majority population students who may need this the most.
Yes, we should have exhibits, songs, and other forms of representation for minority groups because all of us need to feel part of the school and to feel that the school includes us in its planning. But we also need to recognize that, more than any time in our history, the students we educate today will, likely, find residence and employment in some other locale. Therefore, while we need to be sensitive to the minority populations in our midst, we must also prepare students of the majority population for the time when they will be living and working in a community where they are the minority.
A year ago, when I wrote of the need to utilize the holiday season as a catalyst for enabling all students to learn about different cultures, Ms. Weinstein wrote that her school does this throughout the year. She elaborated on what is done in her school and I asked permission to reprint her observations in this newsletter.
Here are some of the ways we encourage children to understand and respect other cultures:
In December, our concert focuses not only on Christmas and Chanukah, but we also include a song about Kwanzaa as well as a Spanish song or a song from some other culture. I am mindful of the fact that many children and parents in our audience celebrate neither Christmas nor Chanukah, so that simply balancing the two holidays isn’t really sufficient. (I always address the parents who don’t celebrate either by wishing them a happy new year even if this isn’t their time of religious celebration!)
We teach Chinese to all grades and that includes not only language, but culture, holidays, customs, value systems, etc. Our Chinese teacher (who is Irish!) produces quite an extravaganza at Chinese New Year time. In addition, we do not schedule events on Chinese New Year night, which is a very festive family night for the entire Asian community.
We have a Heritage Day, during which parents bring in and serve their ethnic dishes to our children. We hold it in the cafeteria for everyone’s convenience. Some of the parents come in the clothing of their native countries, and they dress the children in their native clothing as well.
In addition to Heritage Day, many of our teachers hold individual celebrations for their classes at other times during the year. The ethnic foods are delicious and the children and parents are encouraged to bring in artifacts from their country as well. Each child has an opportunity to explain something about his native country that is important to him.
Some teachers have invited parents into their classrooms to tell their stories about what life is like in their native country and why they decided to come to the United States. The children are fascinated by these stories, as are the teachers as well!
Our class libraries have stories about children in other countries and they are used frequently to the enjoyment of our children. (I recently saw a lesson in which the teacher provided different versions of the Cinderella story from all over the world. The children noted similarities and differences, and why some elements of the story might be different in other places).
Martin Luther King Day is a time of reflection in our classrooms. Children are asked to do different projects which bring them into contact with our segregated past, the civil rights movement and our quest for equality even today.
Our goal is not only to teach children about different cultures and norms, but to provide a place where every child feels welcome and is encouraged to take pride in his/her heritage in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.
Gail Weinstein
Principal, Stratford Road Elementary School
Plainview-Old Bethpage School District
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) 2003, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.
TOPIC: I WAS AS BORED AS THE STUDENTS
Volume #4, Edition #34__________Date: December 01, 2003
Sonia Basko and Carol Amberg are two teachers who model classroom strategies based on constructivist theory of how people learn. Each is a talented, caring teacher and is in demand as a workshop presenter. A recent e-mail from Sonia reminded me of a story told by Carol a number of years ago about what motivated her to abandon traditional teaching strategies for classroom activities that engage the learner.
Carol’s conversion started early in her career when, while teaching traditionally, she was as bored as the students. She announced that she was going to change her approach and wanted the students to help her.
A month ago, I received an e-mail from Sonia, an English teacher in Maryland whom I came to admire during our week as colleagues at the 2003 summer constructivist conference. It would not be fair to suggest that Sonia was a traditional teacher until the episode, this fall, which she describes in her e-mail. Clearly Sonia has been designing activities focused on constructivist theory, for some time. However, on-going reflection has led her to what she feels is a rather radical change in her approach to teaching. While I am flattered that Sonia shares any credit at all with me, the truth is she is on Deming’s “continuous improvement” cycle and may just have moved from a very high notch to an even higher one. Here is the e-mail I was privileged to receive in mid October:
Dear Don,
“In order to thank you properly, I must first share with you my morning. I came to school very well rested due to the daylight savings time and therefore extremely motivated to begin a new week. Every morning, my day begins with below average English 11 students. They should probably be reading To Kill a Mockingbird right now, but knowing how grueling that text can be for low-level non-readers, I chose a shorter piece--Fahrenheit 451. Well today after reading with them for a while, I too became bored. I got through a few pages of reading and asked them, "What is going on in the text?" And they either stared at me blankly or tried to avoid eye contact at all costs. So I thought what am I doing? This is crazy. I need to get them involved in some sort of project--something of meaning. What are they interested in?
So as I muddled in my thoughts, I sat there for about five minutes just looking at them. Some of them got nervous and tried to look back through the text and come up with something. Others wondered what they were supposed to be doing. And yet others got nervous and thought that I was about to yell at them or something.
I asked them to take out a piece of paper, and someone mumbled: "She is going to make us write a paragraph about the book." I looked over kindly and said, "Don't assume to know what I am going to do next." I then told them that most of them would be graduating next year and a few of them this year; and that I wanted them to write down what they wanted to learn from me in English before they left high school.
I then asked them to write down their strengths, weaknesses, and goals in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Reflecting this way was difficult for many of them--it is hard for some of them to think this critically about their own skills.
After collecting this, I asked them to follow me. I wanted to have a sort of class meeting and share my concerns with them. I thought about this one area in the library that has comfy chairs and is set up in a large circle. As I walked by the media center, I quickly realized that the library was too full for the sort of intimate conversation that I wanted to have with them. So I kept walking. As we got to a staircase, Joey asked where we were going. I admitted that I didn't know yet. As we walked by the office, Joey said, “Are you going to take the entire class to the office because we were bad?” I laughed and said "no!" He then laughed and said, "Wouldn’t it be funny if she did walk the entire class into the office?"
I took them to a corner of the cafeteria and pushed two tables together. After getting settled, I admitted my concern over the fact that I didn't think that they were getting enough from me this year. I also admitted that part of that was my fault. I am expected to "do what everyone else does," (because of our pacing guides and canned curriculum). I admitted that I thought that some of it was them. Many of them nodded. I said that I wanted to change that, but I needed to think about it some and make some decisions. I said that whatever I decided would look very different from any of their other classes and if I was going to put in the time, energy, effort, and risk ridicule from my colleagues, I needed their cooperation and a commitment from them.
I continued on from there--I'm sure you get the picture. I also added the idea that some of them are divided and in distinct cliques which also bothers me some. We need to all get along in order to work together as a class, and take on the kinds of activities and projects I imagine for them. They agreed. Steve asked what he should do if he gets "stuck in a group with someone that doesn't do any work and it upsets him." I assured him that I would help them work through that and other group related issues.
At the end, I asked them if they wanted me to know anything. I wanted to hear their thoughts. They want to go on field trips. They then told me that no one takes them anywhere. Many of them have never been to Washington D.C. and it is only 1 hour or less from school. One of them just wanted to go to that "big library" in Baltimore and do some research. Another said that he wanted to read about the Civil War and take a trip to Gettysburg. And then Mikael said, "I have an idea. We can all write down our ideas about field trips and projects for you and then you can look at them and make some decisions." I told her that we would do that. They started to get excited about the prospect of "getting into" English--as am I
In the end, I realized that I had been walking this line between following orders about what is expected of me by way of curriculum and have since lost my "spark." I immediately started thinking about student-based projects and my head started reeling. Quite honestly, I felt somewhat numb and dumb at the same time. I haven't had to really think about this stuff for a while and make my own decisions in the best interests of my students. Needless to say, at the risk of losing my job, I am going for it--curriculum be damned. I can't keep wasting their time for 85 minutes every other day on stuff they don't really care about and sometimes, neither do I.
Now for my thank you; just after that class, I went to check my email only to see your newsletter about student based projects and considered it a little message from God that it IS in fact what I should be doing, despite my apprehension.
Thank you for all you do.
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) 2003, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.
TOPIC: Important Questions for a Teacher
Volume #4, Edition #35__________Date: December 8, 2003
Here are three important questions for a teacher to ask while self assessing a lesson:
** The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2004 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information. **
The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).
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) 2003, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.