This past Tuesday I had no idea what would happen in class. Four of my undergraduate students had the task of conducting a one hour presentation plus an eight minute exploratory activity, plus a five minute reflective activity for closure. (As you read this, be aware it can be done in Kindergarten or at any grade level and in any discipline. The only accommodations necessary are the level of expectations, the degree of scaffolding, and the amount of time allotted.)

I did know that the student team’s topic (which they had chosen from a list) was “constructivism.” As I climbed the stairs toward the classroom (ten minutes before the start of class), I heard soft music playing. Four student presenters were hard at work setting up a PowerPoint presentation, and rearranging the seating. (This was evidence of time they had spent in preparation as well as evidence that they had studied their topic.) The music continued in the background.

As twenty-one of their peers drifted in, there was a calm and a sense of seriousness that isn’t usually accompanying students as they arrive in my class. When the clock indicated the starting time had arrived, one of the students announced to his peers, all seated in a circle, that they were to take out a sheet of paper and draw something that would reflect their understanding of the topic that was the purpose of the presentation.

After allowing five minutes, and then asking students to share their art work, another member of the presenting group asked her peers to share their reactions to the music as they entered. Reponses varied from, “It made me curious,” to “I think we were all quieter and more attentive because of it.”

Then she explained why the music had accompanied everyone’s arrival. She read a paragraph she had researched which explained that there are studies demonstrating that music (in this case Mozart) can create a relaxed environment conducive to learning and that it can also help people develop some of the skills necessary for success in school.

As I sat in the back observing and learning, I reflected on my trip to Delaware last April for a key note presentation. Pat Flynn and I had been setting up, alone in the presentation room, and we were enjoying Tony Bennett on the CD player, fully intending to turn off the music as the participants began to arrive. However, the first participant who walked in the door immediately commented, “Oh, I always have music in the background as my high school students enter class – it improves the learning environment and changes the way they approach the start of class.” With that in mind, we left the music playing as workshop participants followed this social studies teacher into the room.

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

Have you seen Dead Poets Society? Remember the three minute scene where Robin Williams’ character asks his students to rip out the pages that describe a process for structuring poetry because, in his opinion, it takes away the essence of a poem?

As an English teacher, think about showing that brief clip and then challenging your students to react: “Why is Robin Williams’ character opposed to the description in the book? What do you need to know about poetry?”

Regardless of whether you teach English, history, math, science, music, or art, you can find brief video clips around which you can frame some probing questions. I use the Dead Poets Society excerpt in my education course and then ask students whether Robin Williams’ character would be opposed to using rubrics. When I posed this question earlier this week, all twenty students said, “Yes, he would be opposed,” except one student who said, “It would depend on the kind of rubric.” I sided with that one student and we had a lively discussion.

I’ve used two to five minute excerpts from “Good Will Hunting,” Boyz n the Hood,” “To Sir with Love,” and many other videos. Now some of my student teams are including brief video clips in their presentations – everything from South Park to James Bond. Yes, the next time you watch 007, think of the possibilities for a science class.

A few guidelines:

• Always pose the question, or questions, (preferably in writing) BEFORE you show the clip. As Pat Flynn would advise, create a lens through which your students can view the clip.

• Following the clip, don’t just throw the question out as an invitation to anyone who wants to respond. You might ask every student to record his/her own response and then either call on people individually or, better yet, pair students or put them in groups of three, ask them to reach consensus on a response, and then have reporters share. Or, if time is short, skip the step of having them record their responses individually and move them directly into pairs or groups to reach consensus on a response to your question(s).

The use of video clips changes the pace of the classroom instruction, attracts the attention of visual learners who may tune out other types of instruction, and creates an opportunity for engaging students with the information you want them to analyze.

However, it is the change of pace of instruction I like best. I think a lesson should be choreographed like a dance, a show, or a concert. A concert artist mixes fast numbers with ballads, a little dialogue, at least one humorous song, and maybe even use of a musical instrument the audience wouldn’t expect him/her to be able to play.

A lesson should also change the pace frequently for the same reasons. A carousel is great at the start of a lesson or right after a meal when it is most difficult to communicate with people who are seated. Beginning a lesson with a carousel, pair-share, jig saw or some other active learning strategy is effective because students don’t expect it. It can set a positive tone. We all arrive for a class or workshop and expect to be talked at, at least at the start.

Changing the pace means having students stand, having them sit, having them dialogue with each other, having them listen to you, having them dialogue with you, having them move around, having them reflect, having them draw, having them write, and having them do all these things in a sequence that doesn’t allow people with particular learning styles to feel out of it, and does allow every multiple intelligence to come into play at least a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully, the days are in the past when someone could experience an entire school career (k-12) utilizing little more than linguistic and mathematical/logical intelligences.

Following a lesson on Harriet Tubman, Paul Vermette challenged middle school students to name a song title that would help them recall something about the lesson. Do you think the student who responded, “Brittany Spears’ I’m a Slave for You,” will ever forget Harriet Tubman?

When was the last time you asked students, in groups of three, to write lyrics to a tune (they select) that relates something about the lesson you just taught? Or, have you ever asked them for a song title that reflects the essence of the lesson? How often do we give children with strength in musical intelligence the chance to function in their area of talent, except as an extra curricular activity? Here’s a chance to use musical ability in service to learning math, science, social studies, or English.

Students love movies in class. But why do we only choose between tapes that last half an hour or longer and not showing anything? Build a lesson around a brief clip!

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

Pat Flynn tells of a veteran language teacher – obviously excellent – who approached him after a workshop and wanted to know how she could continue to generate improved test scores since that was now a requirement of her district. Since this district mandate took effect, the number of students passing the standardized tests had increased from 80% to 86% the first year and then to 90%. She didn’t need to be a math teacher to know that chances for continued improvement were going to be more difficult and, eventually, impossible.

Pat asked her what her goal was for her students. “To do well on the standardized test,” she responded,” and then, seeing a questioning look on Pat’s face, she added, “Isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Pat asked. When the teacher maintained her puzzled look, Pat continued, “If one of your students received a 98 on a test, but the first time he entered a Spanish speaking country he couldn’t order breakfast off a menu written in Spanish, would you be satisfied?”

“Well, of course not,” the teacher answered, finally understanding what Pat was getting at. “I want my students to learn to speak and write Spanish proficiently.”

Many excellent teachers would have responded as this teacher, initially, did. At teacher workshops, I find no concept more difficult to convey than the concept of what constitutes evidence. My students at St. Lawrence University struggle with this concept. Professional teachers and administrators whom I hold in the highest esteem - including close friends – are so caught up in a system that uses standardized tests as evidence of student mastery, that they’ve forgotten what real evidence looks like.

I am not suggesting that scores on tests (whether standardized or teacher-made) are irrelevant. They are a small part of the evidence a teacher must review in assessing student performance. However, currently, most tests are over-weighted with short-answer and essay questions which assess memorization, and reading and writing skills more than they assess critical thinking abilities and other work-force/university related abilities.

Until this country learns how to standardize performance assessments, we are at the mercy of unreliable, often largely irrelevant standardized tests to guide student instruction except when teachers think in terms of examples of evidence that are in front of them every day in the classroom.

Recently, Paul Vermette and I brainstormed a list of what constitutes evidence of student success. We did this on a napkin in five minutes and we intend this list to be a starting point that we hope each of you who is reading this will help us polish and complete. Please send your own examples and then, when we have heard from many others, we will edit this list and publish it once again:

WHAT IS EVIDENCE a teacher may identify (while working the room) as data that will help assess student learning for purposes of improving instructional strategies?

Evidence would be when the student:

• asks a question that would have easily been answered if the student had done the required reading, listened in class, and/or taken any initiative.

• uses recently introduced course vocabulary in an appropriate and original way.

• makes a visible effort to stay on task and/or keep the group on task.

• asks a question that reflects thought and/or follows up with questions that demonstrate an effort to understand.

• provides information to the group (or partner) in response to a peer’s question and/or corrects misinformation offered by a peer.

• displays a degree of comfort, or discomfort, articulating understanding when reporting to the entire class.

• is overheard to say, “I never thought of it that way.”

• works up to the limit of the time available as opposed to being satisfied with a quick response and no further analysis.

• HELP US OUT – WHAT WOULD YOU ADD??? We’ll print your responses in a future newsletter.

Paul and I sent our list (above) to Pat Flynn. Here is how he responded:

What evidence can a teacher gather, while working the room, that will help that teacher construct lessons and select learning strategies that will improve student learning?

The things that are revealed by the questions a student poses.

The things that are revealed by the students use of subject-related vocabulary.

The things that are revealed by the students’ interaction with fellow students?

The things that are revealed by the students’ use of time.

The things that are revealed by the students’ wrong answers.

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

When parents object to cooperative learning activities, they often have a horror story about their own child whose grade suffered because of the actions of other students in the group. Here are five ways of addressing the issue of grade equity and maintenance of discipline when students are dependent on others in a group situation:

1. Paul Vermette has suggested grading each student independently, but offering bonus points to everyone in the group if the group is successful with its task. Or, offering extra points to each group member if no one in the group gets less than a specified grade (perhaps 80) on a test that will follow the group activity.

2. Ask students to complete a journal reflection following group work and, require them to address questions like:
a. “What did you do, specifically, to help the group accomplish its task? “
b. “What did each other member of your group do to help the group accomplish its task?”
c. “Did anyone in the group inhibit the group’s progress and, if so, how?”
d. “Could you have done anything differently to help the group accomplish its task?”

Of course, if you do require these kinds of journal reflections, you must be careful not to violate confidences and you must use the information only in ways that cannot be traced to the student whose candor enabled you to act. However, this – along with your own observations during group work – will enable you to focus on those students who may be causing a problem without holding the rest of the group accountable for anything over which they have no control.

3. A teacher recently told me she empowers groups to fire members whose behavior inhibits the group from working effectively on its task. She requires documentation and provides students with guidelines to address to justify firing a member of their group. If the teacher agrees that a student’s behavior warrants removal from the group then she creates a separate, individual assignment for the student while the rest of the group works on its task.

4. Sometimes the group takes care of the problem. Recently, a student said to me, “You can ignore what I wrote in my last journal entry; the rest of us in the group spoke with the person I complained about and straightened out the problem.”

5. Often, you can utilize group work as an effective vehicle for student learning without assigning a grade. For example, a high school teacher told me he informs his students that as long as they make a sincere effort to participate effectively in the work of their group, he will give maximum credit. He also, often, will let them know that following group work there will be an assessment of their understanding of the information that was discussed. Or, he may require them to demonstrate understanding, either verbally or on a test, of information that was studied during the group work.

Student learning is enhanced by work in pairs or groups for several reasons. Because we all have different strengths and weaknesses with regard to our multiple intelligences, and because our learning styles differ, it is often the case that one student in a group may be able to communicate more effectively with another student than the teacher is able to do. For example, I am not artistic so I tend to share information verbally, often using probing questions, or analogies to help students understand. However, when my students are working in a group, one student may be able to cut through another’s confusion with a graphic representation, or an allusion to something that they share in common, as peers.

Also, there is a significant amount of research demonstrating that when we are required to explain our point of view (i.e. teach someone else), we are actually the one learning the most because of our need to develop an articulation for what we understand in the gut. A teacher is always limited in how much time she can allow for each student to speak in front of the entire class, but when students are in pairs or small groups there can be as many as half of the kids in the class articulating their thoughts simultaneously.

If we want students to learn, it is not an option to avoid frequent use of pair and small group interaction. The question for the teacher must be, “How do I do it effectively?” not “”Should I engage my students in group discussions?”

Two additional tips:

1. Ask your students to take out a sheet of paper, write their names at the top, and list three qualities they feel they have a right to expect from someone who works in a pair or small group with them. Collect the responses and save them.

Occasionally, throughout the year, hand them back to students and ask them to self assess their own work in a group based on what they said they have a right to expect of others. If a student does act inappropriately in a group, meet with the student privately and ask him to self assess his own behavior based on the qualities he said he had a right to expect from others.

2. Utilize Paul Vermette’s approach which is to let students know that they don’t have to like the people they are working with, but they do need to work with them and treat them with respect (just like in the workplace). Paul takes this a step further and has people in pairs or small groups shake hands, look each other in the eye, and state: “I don’t have to like you, but I will work with you and I will treat you with respect.”

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

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The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: CHECKLIST for SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Volume #5, Edition #41 __________Date: October 18, 2004

Whether your school is on a government list indicating it needs to improve or is at the top of the list of outstanding schools, here is a checklist to see where you can improve:

1. If I, as a parent, walked into your central office today, could you produce a list of the five most important learning outcomes that are required of every student at each grade level and in each discipline?
2. If you have such a list, is it user-friendly and does it fit on a few pages, in a well-spaced, reader-friendly format?
3. Is your academic assistance program aligned in support of student achievement of the five (or less) learning objectives that are the most important in each discipline at each grade level?
4. At the secondary level, does each department have frequent meetings, with ample time to develop its own data based plan for addressing weak areas of student achievement?
5. At the elementary level, are teachers divided among the disciplines and given ample time to develop their own data based plans for addressing weak areas of student achievement?
6. If the answer to 4 and 5 is “Yes,” is there structured facilitation for each department when it dialogues? (This can be facilitation by a member of the department provided training and scaffolding is available.)
7. Do you have an aligned curriculum (as opposed to a curriculum map) in each discipline – a curriculum that lists (and prioritizes) everything students must learn, along with sample activities and assessments for every learning objective?
8. Does the board of education, central administration and building administration see its role as making sure 1 – 7 happens (even if it is a multi-year process)?
9. Does the board of education, central administration and building administration see its role as providing the resources and support that are necessary in order for 1- 7 to become reality? Do they provide adequate structure and support for the staff they have engaged to do the work and then step back and trust the people they have employed to do the job (while holding them accountable for the results)? – I mean the results of 1-7 (above), not the results of standardized assessments.

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

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The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: Inquiring Minds Learn Best

Volume #5, Edition #42 __________Date: October 25, 2004

Stephen Levy is a 4 th grade teacher in Lexington , Massachusetts . I have never met him, however, I became acquainted with his work about ten years ago when I viewed a 90 minute tape produced by the Northeast Laboratory for Educational Improvement. I will discuss Mr. Levy’s classroom strategies in a subsequent newsletter; for now, I want to focus on a quote from him:

“Most significant learning begins with a question. No matter what you are presenting to children, unless they have a question to receive it, it often falls on deaf ears.”

Pat Flynn taught me to “create a lens” any time you assign a reading, show a tape, or ask students to receive information in any kind of format. I create a lens by informing students (or teachers at a workshop) of the question I will ask them to address after they have viewed a tape or read a text. For instance, if I were showing the opening scenes from “Boys-n-the hood,” I might let you know, in advance, that “After you watch these opening scenes I’m going to ask you what you think the director was trying to get across by starting the movie with these two particular scenes.”

A middle school science teacher in Far Rockaway was approached, after class, by a student she describes as “The one whose name evokes knowing nods from every one in the faculty room.” He wanted to know, “Can a virus get a virus?”

The teacher responded, “That’s an excellent question. If you can answer it, I’ll turn over the class to you for a presentation.” The teacher thought that would be the end of it until, a week later, the student came up to her before class and said he had done his research. To the teacher’s amazement, the student gave a professional presentation to his peers.

This kind of story is unusual and I am not suggesting that it is typical. What is typical, however, is that:

“Most significant learning begins with a question.”

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

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The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: The Interrelationship of Teaching and Testing

Volume #5, Edition #43 __________Date: October 28, 2004

In the traditional teaching model:

• We teach
• We stop teaching and test
• We resume teaching

In a constructivist model, the assessment activity continues the learning process

Think of game-day in sports, or opening night of a play. Don’t we often learn more the day of the game, or performance (i.e. the authentic task) than in many of the previous practices and rehearsals?

ASSESSMENT and
COVERING the CURRICULUM

Are We Assessing what was Taught; or what was Learned?

In traditional classrooms, the expression “I covered the curriculum” has referred to a teacher who has taught what the curriculum required students to learn. Perhaps the major pedagogical shift as we seek to reform education is a movement away from judging our success on how much was taught to a new focus on assessing how much was learned.

NOTE: The information on this page is based on concepts initially articulated by Pat Flynn in the early 1990s.

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

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The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: SCAFFOLDING – the Key to Project-Based Learning

Volume #5, Edition #44 __________Date: November 1, 2004

THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER TOPIC: SCAFFOLDING – the Key to Project-Based Learning Date: November 1, 2004 Newsletter Edition: Volume 5, Issue 45 THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER TOPIC: SCAFFOLDING – the Key to Project-Based Learning Date: November 1, 2004 Newsletter Edition: Volume 5, Issue 45

In newsletter 38 I used the term scaffolding and had several responses asking for a definition.

The short answer (a more formal one is at the end of this article) is that “scaffolding” is what the teacher does to provide support to students between the time the teacher helps them understand their task and the conclusion of their work.

For example, let’s assume the lesson (or unit) starts with activities designed to help students understand what they must create for the science fair. How much, or how little, does the teacher do to guide students in their work? The teacher must strike a balance between:

• providing enough support so that students don’t get too far off track, or give up in frustration.
• not doing so much hand-holding that students become reliant on the teacher to tell them what they must do at each step of the process rather than taking responsibility for their own learning.

This is a tricky tightrope for any teacher to walk. Early in my career I was so focused on shifting the teaching paradigm from teacher directed activities toward student responsibility that I gave an assignment early in the year and told my students they would be responsible for submission of the end product on the last day of class. I wanted to give them as much time as possible to complete their work. I told them I would be available for consultation anytime they initiated it.

When the students handed in their final product, I was frustrated because most of the products could have been easily improved with just a little more feedback from me. Unfortunately, the semester had ended and I had to grade based on what I had received. I had afforded the students too little scaffolding.

Having learned my lesson, the following year I gave the same assignment, but I required a detailed outline two weeks before the end of the semester. Collecting and reviewing the outlines was a form of scaffolding. The students were still responsible for their product, but collecting the outlines enabled me to help the students improve the quality of their work to a greater degree than simply looking over their shoulders when they worked in class or waiting for them to come to me with questions.

Scaffolding occurs in smaller, simpler ways every day. A teacher is scaffolding when she observes students during group work and makes comments, or when she gives prompts, or when she challenges a student with a question designed to make him reflect on a response he has just offered.

Here is the definition of scaffolding from our recently published book (with Flynn, Vermette and Smith), “Standards Based Constructivism: A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Students”:

SCAFFOLDING

Scaffolding is a teacher designed structure to prevent a student from getting too far off track before the teacher is alerted and can coach the student back in the direction of the task requirements. “Scaffolding essentially means doing some of the work for the student who isn’t quite ready to accomplish a task independently. Like the supports that construction workers use on buildings, scaffolding is intended to be temporary. It is there to aid the completion of the task and it is eventually removed.” (Bernie Dodge, http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/scaffolding.html)

A teacher scaffolds by providing information and assistance:
• A hand-out of the inverted pyramid style of writing for an assignment.
• A graphic organizer to help students with curriculum content.
• Initially limiting the number of concepts students will be dealing with in a lesson.
• A sheet containing a resource list of math formulas for students to apply to problems.
• Two weeks before the final project is due, students are to submit a detailed outline.
• Stimulating student thinking through prompts:
o Have you done an internet search of that term?
o Have you asked Mrs. Sidney, the science teacher, whether she thinks that is a possibility?
o Did you try it with cardboard?
o Ask three more people and if they are unable to offer a productive suggestion, come back and see me.

In “Beyond Technology, Question Research, and the Information Literate School Community,” James McKenzie cites eight characteristics of effective scaffolding: 1) provides clear directions; 2) clarifies purpose; 3) keeps students on task; 4) offers assessment to clarify expectations; 5) points students toward worthy sources; 6) reduces uncertainty, surprise and disappointment; 7) delivers efficiency; 8) creates momentum. 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. Requests to be dropped from this list will also be honored. Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved. The Institute is currently offering substantial discounts for teams that register prior to January 1 for the 2005 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers 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.

Yes, it can be rough for students whose religious beliefs and December celebrations differ from those of the majority. We all like to walk the halls of our school or work site and see our own traditions recognized. However, students also suffer in schools where they are the majority if little is done to create awareness of what other cultures value.

We no longer live in a society where children are likely to be born, raised, work and be buried in the same locale. At some point in their lives, many of our children will venture far from their birthplace and are likely to experience people with whom they have had little contact while growing up. Bigotry is sometimes a product of unfamiliarity.

The best thing we can do for children who represent the majority population in their schools is to utilize the holiday season for songs, exhibits, and demonstrations of traditions from as many cultures as possible.

In the November 23, 2003 newsletter (Volume 4, Issue 34) I cited efforts of Principal Gail Weinstein of the Strafford Road Elementary School in Plainview-Old Bethpage and her staff to create year-round awareness of different cultures and religions. In a November 2, 2002 article (Volume 3, Issue 37), I cited the Clifton-Fine District for its lobby display a few years previous, created by students: “ I saw displays reflecting at least half a dozen different religions, traditions, and/or heritages. It occurred to me that it must give a wonderful feeling to a child of a minority persuasion to see his or her own traditions on display.”

But it is the students who are in the majority in Clifton-Fine and elsewhere who also benefit, perhaps even more, when celebrations, traditions, and customs of minority students are respected and displayed. Bigotry is sometimes a product of unfamiliarity. Familiarity with cultures with whom we ordinarily would not come in contact should begin when children are young and should continue as an integral part of their education.

As students walk through the halls of your school, in December, how many different cultures, religions, and heritages will they see represented?

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

Peg D’Arpino and Jan Peters are two wonderful people who also happen to be outstanding professional educators.

Recently, a teacher described a concept he was having difficulty getting across to his students and asked if I had any suggestions. I immediately thought of Jan, a staff developer and former reading and social studies teacher. In the late nineties, Jan taught PowerPoint to her students by pairing two of them who had the expertise with two others and allowing a class period for them to teach each other. The following day, she partnered these four students with four more and, continued to pyramid until she had the entire class using PowerPoint by the end of the week.

With this in mind, I asked if any of his students had already grasped the concept or, in his opinion, had the capability of grasping it if he gave them some one-on-one tutoring. “Oh, yes, some of them have it or are very close to understanding it,” he said.

“OK,” I responded. “Identify four students whom you think have the potential for grasping this concept, offer them extra credit if you need to, meet with them once or twice to teach them and then ask them to prepare a lesson to teach the rest of the class.”

Shortly after this conversation took place, I had an e-mail from Peg. A few years ago, Peg completed a career as an excellent math teacher in Gloversville where she also developed her skills conducting workshops on cooperative learning and strategies for maintaining student discipline. Peg is currently teaching at BishopVerot High School near her home in Florida. As you read her description of how she constructed a lesson in order to address a difficult situation, keep in mind that you are hearing this from a teacher who is enormously successful and is describing how she allowed a lesson to evolve into something really special:

Dear Don,

This week I did very little in the line of traditional teaching. If you remember how awful learning long division was in grade school, you can almost imagine trying to teach it with problems like (X2 + 3x -2) x "squared" + 3x -2 divided by 2x-5. I dread it.

Well, I did my version of a "lecture" which is, at the very least, an "interactive lecture" where I do a little and then have them do a question and use scaffolding to get the process across. That was Monday.

They tried some homework Monday night. Tuesday I asked who was able to do it. Four to six in each class caught right on. I set them up as the peer tutors (after I verified their answers were correct) and assigned two to three kids to each of them and set them free. By the end of the period, every one of them could do the long division.

Related to long division is "synthetic" division. I used the same process, only this time my lecture time was even more meager. I set them free and by Thursday they all knew what to do. In fact my Wednesday afternoon kids came running into the room all excited and asked “Are we gonna do synthetic division too? I hear it's fun". It blew me away.

They did have a ball. No one paid a lick of attention to me. They got so used to me telling them to ask their group first, that hardly anyone asked me anything. I just walked around and checked on them.

I have these large dry-erase white-boards. Each group got one or used the board on the wall and did their own thing. Tutors consulted each other and I was left as "the guide on the side" instead of being the "sage on the stage", which is the way it's supposed to be. It was great.

Just thought I'd share a good example of constructivist practices. Kids were creating their own ways of explaining and making the process meaningful so they could grasp it. What a concept. I loved every minute of it.

Hugs,
Peg

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