With grateful appreciation to Marli Mesibov who shared this workshop activity which she discovered as a student at Brandeis University:

“A woman who was abused as a child and now leads workshops, was talking about an exercise she uses, that I thought you'd appreciate/maybe even use in your newsletter.

”She has 2 people stand back to back, such that one is facing a window, the other a wall. She asks each what they see. The person facing the window mentions trees, cars, sky, maybe a house or something. The person facing the wall mentions a poster, a doorframe, maybe a person.

“She has them sit down and asks the rest of the people which of them was lying. The group tells her neither and she says, "But I just asked them what they saw and they gave me completely different responses...." Soon the group is arguing with her over whether or not someone was lying.

“Once they start to argue with her, she says "Wait, you mean that two people could be in the same room at the same time, right next to each other, and have completely different experiences?"

”It was a pretty impressive exercise!”

Post script, added by dad: I have used this activity twice in my classes at St. Lawrence University. It works as long as the instructor sticks to his guns and keeps pressing the participants to explain how two people can be in the same room at the same time and have different perceptions of what is being observed. Conducting the activity early in the year creates a context for referral many times in subsequent classes.

As the good witch Glinda says to Dorothy, near the end of The Wizard of Oz:

"I couldn't tell you. You wouldn’t have believed me. You had to learn it for yourself...."

This activity helps people understand that just because two people appear to be in the same environment it doesn’t mean they are observing the same things.

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.

We recently received an update on the team from India that graced our 2000 summer conference. These wonderful people included a 17 year old named Neerja Chauhan, her family led by her father who founded the Jiva Institute, and Steve Rudolph, from New Jersey, who had been living in India and directing the Jiva Institute. What was impressive about Neerja, and her older sister Meenakshi (19) was that they came not as students, but as members of their school’s faculty. The expertise they demonstrated gave credence to their titles as staff members.

The task of the team from India was to create standards and performance indicators for their entire country. While part of their learning experience at our conference was the recognition that this task would not be completed in a week, they did accomplish a great deal, with facilitation by Dr. Alannah Fitzgerald, and it is apparent from this recent e-mail that their work and successes continue:

Hello to everyone!

Everything is going on perfectly fine and so is everyone in the family. Here are some of the developments that have happened so far:

Jiva Education

• Jiva has produced three new ICOT textbooks (India's Curriculum of Tomorrow) for Science and Social Studies. The series has reached over 600,000 students in 20 Indian states.

• Jiva signed two agreements to provide its content to government-run schools in India free of cost. One agreement is with the State of Jammu and Kashmir (which will affect 500,000 students). The other is with Shiksha India (an initiative of the Confederation of India Industries), which aims to provide quality educational content to 20 million children in government schools through the Central Government’s Vidya Vahini Project.

• Jiva joined hands with Healing the Divide (a New York based foundation) to develop an in-service teacher training program for 4,000 Bhutanese teachers on the effective use of technology

Jiva Health

• Jiva's TeleDoc project is now running in 20 villages, providing affordable, quality healthcare to communities totaling 20,000+ people from low-income households.

• In November, the TeleDoc project, won the World Summit Award for the best eHealth initiative. The project was competing with entries from 136 countries in a juried competition held in Dubai.

• Jiva Ayurveda launched a new set of residential courses on Ayurveda, Yoga, Meditation and Massage, being held at our campus in Faridabad.

• Jiva Ayurveda launched a new website, AyurBuyer, which offers a range of authentic, all-natural products that visitors can purchase online. These include beauty products, special healthcare packs, organic food supplements, and even classical and contemporary Ayurvedic books and CDs. And there are many more things going on.

How'z everything going on there? Are you having the Constructivist Conference this time too? I can never forget the time I spent in the conference. It was really wonderful. It was an interesting place where I learned a lot about constructivism and various teaching methodologies. Hope to be there again soon

Keep in touch!

Regards,

Neerja

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.

“Treating everyone differently to treat them the same.” was the topic of Steve Abelson’s presentation, at our conference last summer; many teachers have told me they have replicated Steve’s activity with their students. A recent USA Today article on Minnesota Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders makes the same point that Steve puts across experientially:

“You can’t treat all players the same because everyone is motivated by something different,” Saunders says. “I don’t have to scream at Kevin Garnett, for instance, because that guy gives 100% every time he steps on the floor. For me, to be yelling at him for doing something wrong or for not playing hard or something wouldn’t be fair to him. Every player has a hot button that motivates them, and you have to find out what that hot button is.

“My job as coach,” Saunders continued, “is to get the players to play as close to their potential as I can, and they have to be relaxed to do that. I was taught by my parents a long time ago that if you have fun doing something, you usually do it better.”

In the recently published book by Flynn, Mesibov, Vermette, and Smith, the point is made that an Exploratory (opening) activity with students should not only access their prior knowledge, but also their interests so that the teacher can individualize examples when working with students. For instance, in my class at St. Lawrence University, I will often change my metaphors when working with individual students depending on whether the student is a hockey player, a member of the accappello group, or someone who lives in a city or in a small rural community. The more I know about a student’s background and interests, the more likely I can come up with analogies that will improve the student’s ability to understand the lesson. The same point is made in the USA Today article on Saunders:

“Where many coaches like to keep their distance from players off the court, Saunders wants to know as much as he possibly can. ‘I want to know what Mark Madsen did when he was on his mission (as a Mormon after high school) and that Fred Hoiberg has a new car dealership in Iowa City and what kind of music Kevin Garnett likes to listen to.’”

According to Garnett, “He (Saunders) knows us and understands us and cares about us. That’s why we have always had a close team under him.”

Whether dealing with professional basketball players or students in a classroom, it is important to access their prior knowledge AND INTERESTS, and it is important to “Treat everyone differently to treat them the same.” Right, Steve?

Steve Abelson’s presentation will once again be available to participants at the 2004 summer conference, July 26-30. Inquire now (with an e-mail) if you are not yet registered.

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.

Dr. Laura, several months ago I asked you to consider that most of the abused and neglected children for whom you advocate are currently in the public school system that you constantly denigrate in favor of private schools.

There is one more point that needs to be considered. Private and charter schools are often free of the regulations (red tape, bureaucracy, special education requirements) that preoccupy everyone in the public school systems. If we are going to privatize education, and that is clearly the alternative you imply when you encourage parents to enroll in private schools and you put down the public schools, then what will happen if we follow this to its logical conclusion? If every student is enrolled in a private or charter school then these schools will have to deal with all the regulations and all the students (special education students, disruptive students, abused and neglected students) who are largely in the domain of the public schools.

Or, would you propose not extending to private and charter schools the regulations currently enforced with public schools? If a private system wouldn’t need them, why do the public schools? In other words, many private and charter schools are able to achieve higher standards precisely because they are not required to meet the same regulatory obligations of public schools. (This should not diminish the credit private and charter schools deserve if they are successful, but it must be considered in any comparison with public schools.) If, presumably, there is a need for the regulations that govern public schools then that same need will exist if private schools ever predominate. However, if certain regulations aren’t really necessary, then let’s remove them from the public sector so that public schools can have the same advantage as private and charter schools. Either the web of regulations is necessary or it’s not. Why should it be necessary for public schools and not for private and charter schools?

And then there are the special education and abused and neglected children. If we achieve total privatization of the schools, do we require private and charter schools to accept students they are allowed, currently, to turn away? But if we require private and charter schools to accept special education, abused and neglected students, then what will be different from what currently exists in the public schools?

I don’t want to leave anything to the imagination. What I am asking you to think about is that maybe you should use your enormous influence to encourage everyone to work together to improve all of our schools, public, private, and charter. I am asking that you consider that the real crisis is primarily in the public schools, but not because of their policies or personnel. I am asking you to consider that the quickest way to help the abused and neglected students, whose cause you espouse, is to mobilize support for the public school system.

Dr. Laura, this country needs to take the same attitude toward our schools that we are taking toward terrorism. There is no question that if we don’t protect our country from terrorism, there will be neither children nor an educational system to discuss. It is also true that for the children who fall through the cracks of our educational system, fighting terrorism is irrelevant – they often do not live long enough, or in comfortable enough circumstances, to be affected by what happens in the war on terrorism. This country needs to address terrorism and its educational system with the same approach – do whatever it takes and cut budgets elsewhere.

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.

It’s not only the students who are counting the days until the end of the school year, is it?

As the year does draw to a close, here is an effective review activity that can be used in any grade, or discipline. I am continually amazed at the results with my college students, but I have also seen it work with kindergarteners.

Ask students to prepare a review activity for their classmates. You can make this a task for one small group of students (maybe the ones you want to challenge while others are more slowly completing another assignment). Or, you can divide the class into small groups and ask each group to create a brief review activity. If you feel the class will need some additional guidance for this task, brainstorm a list with the entire class of all the topics, concepts, and skills addressed during the year. Then ask each group to take a different set of items from the list and create a review activity. (Unless I feel the class will really need this kind of guidance, I prefer not to do the brainstorming – at least at the college level – because I learn something just from seeing what the students decide is important for review.) Be sure and let the students know how much time they have to use for the review activity.

Set these guidelines:

1. Think about what we have learned this year. Make a list of topics we’ve covered, skills we’ve used, and concepts we’ve addressed.

2. Circle what you feel are the most important items on your list.

3. Create an activity that will engage the entire class in reviewing the items you have circled.

What is the value of the student-led review activity?

1. Simply seeing what topics the students select gives the teacher information about what has “stuck”. (Even if you brainstorm a list of topics, skills, and concepts with the entire class before assigning specific items from the list to each group, it is informative seeing what the students put on the brainstormed list.)

2. The students who conduct each review activity will get a through review of what they select as topics.

3. The students on the receiving end of the review may pay better attention when their peers are conducting the review than when the teacher does.

4. As you, the teacher, observe, you will see what needs to be worked on and what has already been retained. Following the student-led review you can still conduct your own review and you can address any misconceptions that become apparent as you observe the student-led review.

My fondest recollection of my under-graduate course on “Problems in Education” at St. Lawrence University is a time I asked four students to take 30 minutes to review the entire class on whatever they felt was important that we had covered during the semester. They created a game of jeopardy. The five categories they selected told me what they regarded as the most important aspects of the course. They divided the class into two teams and kept score, allowing each team to try to answer any questions the other team botched. All 24 students got into the flow to the point where there was cheering and yelling and mock cries of “unfair” when they didn’t agree with a judge’s decision. In fact, there were spirited debates about what was the right answer and, in arguing their case, each team was demonstrating how much they understood.

Just observing all of the students engaged in the activity generated an enormous amount of data for my on-going assessment of each student. While many of the students validated (positively or negatively) my conclusions about their knowledge of course content, concepts, and skills, a few students surprised me. Some of them were able to demonstrate verbally, in this environment, understandings that hadn’t come through in their written work during the semester.

The game was only partly completed after the half an hour I had allotted, and the reviewers offered to end it then, but there was so much valuable dialogue being generated, I encouraged them to continue until every category had been exhausted.

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.

At the end of the semester, I ask each of my university students to complete a twelve item questionnaire. The feedback I receive is invaluable. I think a similar questionnaire could be worthwhile with a class of students of any age. See what you think. You might want to try it tomorrow, before the school year ends.

Here are the questions I pose:

1. What was the most valuable part of class for you, and why?

2. What was of the least value for you, and why?

3. What did not appear to have much value, when we began it that, in retrospect, had a great deal of value for you? Please explain what the value you received was.

4. Which guest was of most value to you, personally, and why?

5. If you were teaching this course next year, what would you do differently? Please give details.

6. If you were teaching this class next year, what would you be certain to do as much the way we did it this semester as possible? Why?

7. Please define ___________as briefly as possible. (Note: fill in the blank with the most important concept addressed during the course.)

8. What was the most difficult part of class for you?

9. How did the workload in this course compare with other courses?

10. With regard to your response to the previous question, is this good or bad?

11. What is one question I have not asked, on this form that would give you the opportunity to share information about this course –which you would like to share - that is not included in your previous responses? (This question MUST be answered.)

12. What is the answer to the question you posed in 11 (above)?

(ed. note: The reason I added “This question MUST be answered” to question 11 is the surprising number of students who would put, “I can’t think of anything” as their response. Since I added this sentence, everyone has responded.)

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.

As readers of this newsletter are aware, I rarely use this space to self promote. Please permit me to advertise, very briefly because this is in reference to a resource we designed specifically for people interested in practical classroom applications of constructivist theory.

Pat Flynn, Paul Vermette, Mike Smith and I have written two almost identical books and the middle school/high school edition is now on the shelves. The elementary edition was released in early winter and many of you already have your copy. Entitled “Standards-Based Constructivism: A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Middle and High School Students, here is what it contains:

• Specific examples in every discipline of classroom strategies

• Suggestions for opening a lesson with an Exploratory Phase that contains the best elements of an anticipatory set, bell ringer, ice breaker, lesson launcher, and motivational beginning

• Sections on designing learning objectives, assessments, reflective activities, and authentic tasks.

• Detailed examples of lesson plans in math, science, ELA, and science; frequent references to strategies in technology, music, art, physical education, health and career options.

I indicated this is a self promotion, but actually we have been alerted to expect that our expenses in writing the book will probably exceed any proceeds, divided four ways. This was a labor of love because, for the same reason the Institute exists, we are trying to fill what we feel is a vacuum between constructivist theory, which a growing number of professional educators and parents appear to be gravitating toward, and practical classroom (and home) applications which are not easy to learn.

The elementary edition is the same as the secondary accept all examples of classroom application (and there are many) are given in the context of an elementary classroom whereas the secondary edition gives examples at the middle and high school levels.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Seeking answers to the following questions, which inform the teacher about the effectiveness of teaching strategies, should be among the purposes of the teacher’s multiple forms of assessment.

Copies are available for $29.95 through the Institute web site (www.learnercentereded.org), the publisher’s site (www.eyeoneducation.com) or by sending a mailing address and a check for $29.95 to Don Mesibov, 414 Bagdad Road, Potsdam, New York 13676. If you would like your copy autographed, please indicate. Feedback will be welcome and appreciated, but not required.

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.

In New York State, all it would take is for the commissioner of education (or one of his deputies) to station himself on the capital steps and announce, “I am going to wait here until the legislators and the governor join me, and then I am going to ask them to lock themselves in their legislative chambers and not emerge until they have a budget compromise that addresses the needs of the educational system and the taxpayers.

How long would it be before legislators and the governor flocked to the capital and accepted the challenge – particularly if those of us who understand the devastating impact on children of a late state budget were to support such an effort with letters and phone calls?

It doesn’t have to be the commissioner taking the lead, although that would be most appropriate. It could be any legislator; it could be the governor.

If none of these people act soon, I’ll be there and trust others will join me.

Dear Governor Pataki and all legislators: A plague on all your houses – the only thing you agree on is that it’s politically popular to blame everyone else for the budget stalemate. However, you’re all as guilty as the others whom you blame. You need to put your behaviors where your mouths are.

Professional educators, parents, and students understand how crippling the budget delay is to educational progress. We will support that one profile in courage who will step forward and start the avalanche of opinion rolling down the mountain of indecisive legislators.

The budget stalemate is one situation where every politician is either part of the problem or part of the solution – there is no in-between.

Where is a profile in courage when needed most? Do I, personally, have to take up residence on the capital steps to start the avalanche of public opinion heading toward the politicians? I will if no one else steps forward. Preferably, the commissioner, a state legislator, or the governor will stop talking (and blaming) long enough to act.

Declare the capital steps to be the playing field and the people will come! Our children are too important to be used as pieces in a game of politics as usual.

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.

Recently I shared descriptions of education in India forwarded to me by a wonderful educator, Kumar of Hyderabad, who had contacted me by conducting a web search for “constructivism.” Our year-long correspondence has been a learning experience for me. Last month in Albany, Glasser Institute staff developer Pat Baldauf and I had the privilege of spending a day with Kumar, and his colleague Rakesh Bhatnagar who lives in New Jersey, during Kumar’s visit to the United States.

In this morning’s e-mail, Kumar forwarded his latest newsletter which concludes with two insightful quotes. In addition to the quotes, it is always valuable to see the similarities between the challenges that confront us here and in places as far away as India. Here are some excerpts:

JanaMitra NEWS LETTER No. 4 dated 24 June 2004

In the well attended Parents’ meetings, several parents appreciated the Fellowship program as very motivating to the students. Another interesting development is that our program is motivating others to donate for new activities. Good activity is contagious.

The most interesting NEWS item of this NewsLetter is that in SSC exams, out of 29 students (Hindi & Telugu media) 12 got first class, 7 Second class, 2 third class and 8 failed. The pass percentage is 72 %, an all time record for the school. The programs initiated through JM have contributed to this in a significant way.

(The school has two media (regional languages) Hindi & Telugu. The first, second and third classes refer to the range of marks. First class = 60% and above, Second class = 45 to less than 60%, Third class = 35 to less than 45 % . Students of class 10 have to face public examination which is conducted under external control.

A few years back the average pass % used to be around 11%. In 2003 it was 62% and in 2004 it is 72. This means more students are leaving the school with success, confidence and hope for a career. This year and future we are planning 100%. Some schools have this record. many government(Public) schools have less than 10% pass %.)

The program started in November 04 to teach 15 slum children on three evenings in a week in the Rock Park in Methodist Colony, Begumpet has been going on well. During my absence three volunteers attended to the programme. Children are happy and want the programme to be made daily!

I end this newsletter with two quotes:

"What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things."

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

With loving good wishes to all JM members for their support.

GS Kumar

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.