The week-long summer constructivist conference is designed with YOU in mind. I realize you are overworked, stretched thin, and just can’t see your way clear to taking a week from your busy schedule in the middle of the summer. Consider this: the people who do participate in the conference are just like you. Most come, reluctantly at first. However, there must be a reason they keep coming back. Please call or e-mail so we can discuss an appropriate role for you. There is a ten percent discount for registrations received prior to February 1.

Read on:

January is “recruitment month” for the 2004 constructivist conference at St. Lawrence University, July 26-30. Perhaps the value of the conference is best described in this transcript of a public radio conversation with two teachers who had attended in 2002 and were interviewed immediately prior to the start of their week at the 2003 conference.

Announcer: The idea (of this conference) is to model the constructivist style of learning; hands-on, experiential education. I am joined this morning by two. . . teachers who are returning for their second year at the conference. April Martin teaches Social Studies at Potsdam High School. "Good morning April"

April: "Good Morning"

Announcer: And Steve Manders teaches Science at Colton-Pierrepont

Steve: "Good Morning"

Announcer: “Constructivism” sounds kind of like this arcane, philosophical statement and I define it kind of bluntly as hands-on education. How do you describe constructivism to people who aren't at the conference?

Steve: Well from an educational bent instead of standing up in front of students and just lecturing, it’s really providing a good activity that not only educates but also illuminates. It opens their eyes up and gets them involved. I think one of the real important things about constructivism is teaching; teachers teaching kids who can teach other kids. That's really probably the best way to learn something. If you can teach something to someone else, you will learn it very well. And I think that's one of the pieces of constructivism.

April: Yes, that and encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning. We act more as a guide and set the stage for them and they take the ball and run.

Announcer: What external signs of that do you see when they take responsibility for their own learning?

April: It depends. If you set them up either with partners, or if you set them up in small groups, you wander around the room. You check with them. It's really neat to see what they come up with. Sometimes at first if they're not used to that kind of work, they're a little reluctant, but they like it. And they don't waste time. There is social interaction, and teachers will worry "Oh, no I can't, I have too much to teach. I don't have time for them to get into groups. They'll just socialize too much.” But actually they're learning. They're processing, they're talking about it, they're hearing it, and then usually I make them responsible for then teaching the kids in the class their little bit of information.

Announcer: Why don't you each give a concrete example of a subject or one specific topic that you teach and then an example of before you started learning this hands-on education and after.

Steve: We don’t get up and simply lecture about a topic, and disseminate information – like “the sage on the stage.” It's really getting the kids to start doing some things and getting them involved. It's not orderly, necessarily. It's not quiet. There's a lot of noise because kids are interacting. They're communicating. Learning is social and I think if you as a teacher can step back a little bit and be more “the guide on the side,” that's really what's happening. Instead of just lecturing about a particular topic, it’s giving kids either assigned tasks or a direction to be able to discover the material rather than you saying 'this is what's going on'.

Announcer: Let's say you were teaching the periodic table of elements or something.

Steve: Instead of saying this is this element, I might have kids take a periodic table and cut it up. Make some kind of game out of it or take some of the elements and do some research on them, report back to their groups, report back to the class, whereas instead of me teaching them about the elements, they're teaching themselves.

April: In the past, when I’ve done my unit on “England's Industrial Revolution”, it was just basic lecture and a little discussion and so on and so forth. However, this past year, after participating in the summer conference, I decided to use the constructivist model and I broke the kids into groups. This one group did this really extraordinary thing to help the class understand England’s Industrial Revolution. They used the entire class to show how people went from farms into the city, how they urbanized. So they had the kids spread throughout the room and then certain kids had certain numbers. They would be the ones that eventually would not be able to make it in the city. They had desks in the middle so they went from the outside and then crowded into the city. Kids were under the desks, on top of the desks. I mean if the principal walked in she might have been a little concerned about what was going on in the middle of my classroom. But boy did the kids get to understand about overcrowding and urbanization from the English Industrial Revolution and how it affected people and then how people with the certain numbers died out from cholera and certain diseases. This lesson wasn’t my idea, it was the students’, and everyone learned from it. It was great.

Announcer: Did it surprise you?

April: It did. They always surprise me. The kids come up with the best ideas. They really do and they connect with each other. I learn from them as much as they learn from each other. It was neat.

Steve: That's very humbling. That's very important. Your kids are going to teach you things that maybe you did not know. So you're going to have to be able to be the kind of person that is willing to be 'wowed' by your kids.

Announcer: I've checked out the conference a couple of times in years past and you go in and it’s really buzzing with activity and lots of positivity, hope and inspiration. It was almost like a revival meeting or something. What's it like to take that positivity and excitement back to your home school and your classrooms where you have the daily grind of grades, standardized tests, and administration. What's it like to bring this stuff back and try to implement it?

Steve: There's no doubt about it, teaching is tough. I've been doing it sixteen years and I love it, but it is incredibly draining. And I don't care what anybody says, I need my summer to recharge my batteries and I always try to go to at least one conference and this conference for me really gets me recharged. It gets me thinking about what I did. It gets me planning for the next year in a way that you said you've come to the conference and seen. It's very infectious. You go there and you become inspired.

April: Last year we went as the social studies department - everyone but one teacher and we, also, had a new teacher on board. It was a great way to get to know her and then we just carried into the whole school year. We continued to share ideas, and projects and things that worked with us and materials. It was great to get together to talk about our curriculums because we teach the same classes. We had the opportunity to discuss how we can help each other and what works and what doesn't work and it was just wonderful for us. And like I said it continued through the year.

Steve: We usually don't get enough time as teachers during the year to talk to each other, to communicate; interdisciplinary or in your own discipline. That's why this conference is great. It's very cross discipline. The people that you meet from all over the place become connections that you have for the rest of your life.

Announcer: There was a lot of news this June about the Regents' test that most students failed and teachers who have no choice but to teach to the test to help their students graduate. This sort of teaching takes more time in the classroom, is a little bit more chaotic (and I’m saying that in a good way) with students running around and doing things in the classroom, where does this fit in with the era of greater standards, greater responsibility, which seems to be the opposite of that?

April: You do mix it up. I do traditional teaching. I do all sorts of different things but our department, and our district’s long-range planning team, wanted a success rate of 85% to pass the Regents, both the Global Studies Regents as well as the U.S. History, and we exceeded that. We achieved an 86% passing rate for one and 89 % of the kids for the other. So we have a very strong success rate and constructivism obviously does work.

Steve: What's really nice is Regent Dawson is at the conference, and to me that is a statement. Here's someone who is very important in terms of assessment and standards and here he decides to come to this conference and spend time with us. To me that's very important. The assessments have to change and I think they are slowly changing. If you are going to assess someone in a constructivist way, the test is going to look very different.

Announcer: I expect you have to get back to the conference. You have a big day ahead. Thanks very much for joining us.

Steve and April: Thank you!

(If you are interested in this one-of-a-kind conference, please reply by e-mail, and we will immediately send you a packet of relevant information.)

A ten percent discount is available to teams that submit a registration form prior to February 1. Information packets may be requested by sending an e-mail to dmesibov@twcny.rr.com

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.

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.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

What should every teacher, administrator, staff developer, university professor, and state education department official have foremost in mind when approaching the design of a lesson, unit, or any block of time for a class with students?

I began addressing this question, this morning, as I prepared for a presentation before middle school teachers, January 23, entitled, “Champions of Active Learning,” at a conference sponsored by the Public Education Network of New York City. I asked myself, “What do I regard as the most significant information that can be shared in a limited amount of time with professional educators?” Here is what I concluded and will build my presentation around:

NINE GUIDELINES for an EFFECTIVE LESSON

1. Never begin a lesson with the teacher talking except to give directions for some kind of student engagement with information. Even if the remainder of the class will consist of a lecture (which is OK under appropriate circumstances) something must be done at the outset to motivate students and to engage them in thought about the subject of the lecture.
2. Without engagement with information, there is no understanding.
3. We memorize information best when we have engaged with it in meaningful performance.
4. An effective lesson must challenge students to evaluate, synthesize, analyze, apply, and comprehend, as well as recall.
5. Anytime you begin a class, lesson, or unit, the teacher should have in mind a few very specific objectives for student learning. These should be framed as one or more of the following:
• Facts, information, formulas that can be memorized
• Concepts or information that need to be understood and applied
• Competencies that need to be demonstrated.

For each learning objective that will be required of every student, the teacher should know how she will assess student learning of the objective.

6. Reflection (individual and/or group) must be part of every class. Students must be taught how to reflect, and/or led through a process that requires reflection. If reflection is left for the end of class, it should not be scrapped because time runs out. Research indicates that reflection is a critical part of the learning process. It must be regarded as just as essential to a lesson as addressing the material to be learned.
7. You cannot know what a student understands or can apply unless you require a performance that demonstrates competent application. There are legitimate reasons for requiring memorization of certain facts, information, and formulas. It is therefore OK to assess for memorization as part of a teaching and learning process. However, unless performance demonstration is also part of the assessment process, we will not know what a student understands and can demonstrate with the information he may have memorized.
8. There are appropriate places for lecture in a constructivist process.
9. Ultimately, a teacher can cover more information through performance based activities than through excessive lecture. It is not easy and it takes time to achieve this ability. It is possible to prepare students, effectively, for standardized assessments while utilizing strategies based on constructivist theory of how people learn; however, it takes time for a teacher to gain experience spiraling the curriculum and creating activities that address as many important learning objectives (drawn from required local and state standards) as possible.

I have not provided any rationale for my list of priority thoughts for an educator to consider. I have elaborated on many of these points in previous articles, will continue to do so, and welcome any questions or challenges anyone may want to send in response.

1. NEVER BEGIN A LESSON with the TEACHER TALKING
2. ENGAGEMENT with INFORMATION is a PREREQUISITE for UNDERSTANDING
3. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT with information also INCREASES RETENTION
4. EFFECTIVE LESSONS CHALLENGE STUDENTS to THINK
5. The TEACHER SHOULD FOCUS on a LIMITED NUMBER of OBJECTIVES for EACH CLASS
6. REFLECTION should be STRUCTURED into EVERY CLASS
7. TO ASSESS COMPETENCY and UNDERSTANDING REQUIRES PERFORMANCE
8. LECTURES ARE APPROPRIATE in a CONSTRUCTIVIST PROCESS
9. ACTIVE LEARNING CAN COVER MORE CURRICULUM, in PREPARATION for STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS, than TRADITIONAL TEACHING STRATEGIES

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.

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.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Socrates, as quoted by Plato:  

A life without reflection is a life not worth living.”

Perhaps, we can paraphrase this as:

“A lesson without reflection is a lesson not worth teaching.”

Terry Mazany, Chief Operating Officer of The Chicago Community Trust, told facilitators at the 2003 summer constructivist conference that research demonstrates reflection is an integral part of the learning process.

Here is a simple strategy to generate reflection from every student. Try it, at least once – maybe tomorrow:

Step One:       Five minutes before the end of class, tell your students “I am going to ask each of you to respond to a question; I want you to limit your response to ten seconds; I will (ring a bell, sound a buzzer, make a certain sound) if you go over ten seconds. If you make a sincere effort to give an honest response, you will get maximum credit for classroom participation in this activity.”

Step Two:       “Here is the question: What is the most important thing you know now, about what we have studied during this class, that you didn’t know when you entered this room earlier today? I am going to give you twenty seconds to think about your answer. Then I want you to give the answer that you are thinking of, whether it is the same or different from answers that other students give. If I think you are changing your answer because of what you hear, you will lose credit.”

Step Three:    After waiting twenty seconds, “I’m going to start with a volunteer and then go around the room from that person until everyone has responded. If you are not ready, you can pass and we’ll get your comments after everyone else has responded. Remember, keep your response to ten seconds or less.”

Keep in mind that students need to be trained to do group work, to reflect, or to engage in any strategy with which they are unfamiliar. If you feel your students will comply with these directions easily, you can eliminate the references to a class participation grade. If you are fearful that students will not take this seriously, will simply reiterate previous responses, or will give frivolous answers, then make it clear you will judge them on effort (not quality of response), and that you will take into account how seriously they take this activity.

Your goal is to require students to give a thoughtful response so that you can see what “sticks” from the lesson. Therefore, you do not want to discourage any thoughtful response, even if it is repetitious of what others have said. If the same observation is echoed a number of times, this is giving the teacher valuable feedback.

(However, if you fear that some students will simply repeat what others have said as an alternative to thinking about their own responses, you can require them to write down their responses before offering them verbally in front of the entire class. Then you can ask them to read what they have written, and you can collect all the responses solely for the purpose of letting students know they are being held accountable for repeating, verbally, what they wrote down before they heard the responses from their peers. I suspect that if you do this once or twice, you will be able to eliminate this step - having students write their responses before giving them verbally - after you have repeated this activity a few times.)

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.

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.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Brandeis University student Kevin Grinberg forwarded this article about free primary education in Kenya. It should make us reflect on what we take for granted as citizens of the United States:

The provision of free primary schooling in Kenya has been widely welcomed as a success since it was introduced last year by the newly-elected government. The policy has had some unexpected consequences though - not least, the enrolment of the country's oldest schoolboy.

Maruge took part in the Mau Mau rebellion against the British. Wearing a faded blue blazer, shorts and long socks, Kimani Nganga Maruge walks to school with his classmates dressed much like any other new boy - except that he also carries a walking stick and happens to be 84 years old. Two of his 30 grandchildren attend the same school in the western town of Eldoret, but they are in more senior grades.

Mr. Maruge says he decided to enroll when he heard that the new government was providing free primary education. He had hoped to go to school before, but had never had the opportunity. He says one of his main aims is to learn to count the money he expects to receive in compensation from the authorities for fighting against the British in the 1950s. He also hopes to learn to read the Bible - because he does not trust the version he hears each week in church.

While there is general support for the Kenyan Government's policy of providing free schooling, some parents have complained that standards have dropped and classes have become overcrowded. Mr. Maruge thinks he might be able to help - he intends to provide informal history lessons to his younger classmates.

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.

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.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

I had the privilege of key-noting two presentations for middle school teachers from around the country January 23 at a conference in Brooklyn sponsored by the Public Education Network. The teachers in my session, by nature of the grants which supported their work, were believers in performance based instruction and assessment, yet their concerns mirrored what I hear from teachers everywhere:

• Even when I see the value of active learning, how do I justify the time that is involved in a good project when I have so much curriculum to cover in order to prepare students for standardized assessments? This is the essential question. Unless there is a satisfactory answer, teachers will continue to limit the time they are willing to allocate toward active engagement of students with the information we want them to understand and apply.

Here are some of the points that I made during my presentation and which I propose as part of the answer to this essential question:

PREPARING STUDENTS for ASSESSMENTS
THROUGH USE of ACTIVE LEARNING TASKS

1. If the school doesn’t have one, create a list of every learning objective that needs to be addressed during the length of the entire course. If the district has such a list, make sure it is relevant and accurate – not something that exists on paper, but fails to mirror what you need to teach. In other words, you should be able to look at your list of learning objectives and say, “If I teach everything on this list, I will be teaching what I feel I need to cover this year.”

2. Prioritize the list. Which objectives on the list are more important (either because they count more on standardized assessments, are necessary as a foundation for learning other objectives, or because they are critical, in your view, to what students need to learn)?

3. Identify the most important concepts and competencies you will require of students (based on your prioritized list) and begin addressing them as early in the course as possible so that you can revisit them (spiral them) as you teach other lessons throughout the course.

4. Identify a limited number of learning objectives for each lesson (or unit). These objectives should be the ones you expect every student to master by demonstrating at least a minimum level of competency.

5. Each time you plan a lesson, you should design an assessment for each “priority” learning objective; you do not assess student performance on every possible objective. For example, in a good performance task (i.e. activity), it may be possible for students to address laws of gravity, battles of the Trojan War, parts of speech, rock formations, spelling, fractions, decimals, oral comprehension, and reading comprehension. The teacher should only identify one, or a few, of these as required learning during a particular lesson and these are the ones that should be assessed. The objectives you identify and assess are your “priority” learning objectives. Students may master other objectives and this is a bonus of a good lesson. What makes the activity worthwhile is that there are so many possibilities for student learning. However, you create a focus, and make sure the required curriculum is taught, by limiting the learning objectives that are assessed at one time, and by making sure that students are focused on learning objectives that are important to the curriculum.

6. Spiral, spiral, spiral. When you teach something early in the course (that you have identified as a priority - see 3, above), be sure to build it into occasional lessons throughout the rest of the course. You don’t have to assess student performance on your priority objectives every time you integrate them into a lesson or unit, but you should require students to continue using the concepts or competencies that you introduce at the start of the course. First grade teachers do this automatically with reading. Once they have begun instructing students on how to read, they use every opportunity, even when the main focus is on something else, to enable students to practice reading. Teachers need to do this will all the important concepts, not just reading. Here are other examples:
• If you teach about the American Revolution in September and your learning objectives, at that time, include understanding the causes of war, memorizing the names of important generals and battles, and comprehending the significant aspects of the setting and the characters in Johnny Tremain, then in November when you are focusing students on the industrial revolution, have them do a project that compares inventions, attitudes, characters and the setting during the Industrial Revolution with the same elements in the late 1700s.
• If you teach decimals in September, find ways to require the use of decimals on projects you assign later in the year where the primary learning objectives have nothing to do with decimals.

7. If you are able to coordinate with one or more other teachers, spiral your learning objectives into their lessons and theirs into yours. For example:
• An English teacher who wants to focus students on character analysis, or setting, can use a short story that occurs during the time of Julius Caesar, if the social studies teacher is covering (or has covered) the Roman Empire. Or, perhaps, the English teacher could use Louis Pasteur as the subject of a biography if this addresses what is being covered in chemistry.
• A math and English teacher can collaborate on a piece of writing that expresses rationale for solving a problem.

8. Your district needs a curriculum map and an aligned curriculum to make it easier for teachers to coordinate and spiral. What is the difference?
a. A curriculum map, mistakenly called an aligned curriculum by many administrators and teachers, is a reflection of what is being taught by every teacher and when it is being taught. It doesn’t take long to create a curriculum map for an entire school – usually less than a full staff development day, maybe a little longer.
b. An aligned curriculum lists every learning objective for a course with a sample activity and assessment. Depending on how much of a priority a district makes the alignment of curriculum, it can take anywhere from a minimum of half a year to at least three years to complete. A “curriculum map” reflects what is. An “aligned curriculum” reflects what should be.

Here is the short-list summary of the eight steps toward covering more curriculum through active learning tasks than with traditional teaching strategies.

1. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: A list, in outline form, of facts, concepts, and competencies required of students in the course.

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES PRIORITIZED: What is most important?

3. INTRODUCE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPTS EARLY IN THE COURSE

4. NARROW the FOCUS: Identify and assess only a few learning objectives in any one lesson.

5. PRIMARY OBJECTIVES for a lesson ARE ASSESSED.

6. SPIRAL IMPORTANT CONCEPTS throughout MANY LESSONS.

7. SPIRAL CONCEPTS FROM OTHER DISCIPLINES into YOUR LESSONS.

8. A DISTRICT should have a CURRICULUM MAP and an ALIGNED CURRICULUM.

(A full day workshop outline for enabling teachers and administrators to understand and implement these steps is available upon request. I will e-mail it immediately upon hearing from you.)

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.

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.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

The nature of the person who receives this newsletter is that you are:

·         exceptionally caring

·         overworked

·         stressed out by trying to be effective under extremely difficult circumstances

·         you work in behalf of children 24/7

·         you know you are having an impact, but that only makes the frustrations of being in the field of education tolerable, not necessarily bearable.

When we advertise our summer constructivist conference, we are asking the people who are busiest, and already doing the most for children, to contribute a week of their time in the middle of the summer. We are asking you.

You are not Wanted UNLESS you want to spend a week surrounded by people with a similar philosophy to yours, confronting similar challenges, and having a similar impact.

As you check our web site and review the feedback from the past four conferences, please keep in mind:

·         not one person who came to any of our conferences welcomed the chance to give up a week in the middle of the summer

·         many people had to make enormous sacrifices in order to attend

·         most admitted, afterward, they were reluctant to come, and thrilled that they did

And they keep coming back. Once at one of our conferences, participants and facilitators alike keep returning and, often, bring like-minded colleagues. There is nothing hypothetical about our conference. You work on something you need to accomplish and you get it done in an environment filled with resources you cannot duplicate elsewhere. In the process you pick up strategies and understandings about constructivism that you will use throughout your career as well as a network of people with whom you will continue to have contact.

The Institute does not make a profit on the conference – any proceeds are poured right back into our work with people like you. None of us receives pay for our work as Institute officers. We are a non profit organization in every sense of the word. We will continue to exist as an Institute only as long as you continue to find value in our work in your behalf.

Please think about joining us at the 12^th constructivist summer design conference, July 26-30, at St. Lawrence University. We are ahead of schedule with conference registrations and, already, we have a greater diversity - geographic and otherwise - than ever before. We hope to close out registrations within the next few weeks. Send me an e-mail, and I’ll send you information.

The Book is on the shelves:

The elementary edition of the book co-written by Pat Flynn, Paul Vermette, Mike Smith, and me is now on the shelves. Our intent, in writing the book, was to suggest practical strategies, with examples, for applying constructivist behaviors in a classroom. Among the challenges addressed in the book are:

·         How does a teacher empower students to be in control of their learning while the teacher maintains control of the class?

·         What is the connection between constructivism and student motivation?

·         How does the teacher set the objectives for a lesson, focus on standards, and, yet, conduct a student-centered classroom?

·         What is the role of lecture in a student centered classroom?

·         How do you design performance based assessments, while covering the curriculum?

For a copy of the book, send a check for $29.95 and make the payable to Eye on Education, Publisher. Send the check to Institute for Learning Centered Education, 414 Bagdad Road, Potsdam, New York 13676. If your check arrives before February 27, all four authors will be glad to autograph the book (we’ll be together on February 28^th) and rush your copy to you. (If you prefer not to have the book autographed by the authors, we will admire your good judgement and respect your wishes.)

The book is entitled:

Applying Standards-Based Constructivism:

         A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Elementary Students

The “Two-Step” model for lesson design espoused in the book is compared, in an appendix, with the following models: Madeline Hunter’s Mastery Teaching Model, Trowbridge, Bybee and Powell’s 5E Model, Marzano’s Dimensions of Thinking /Learning, and with Differentiated Instruction, and Understanding By Design. You can read this appendix on the Institute’s website at www.learnercentereded.org

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.

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.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.