In order to actively engage with information we must be motivated to do so. A teacher may be able to command our physical presence in a classroom, but no teacher can require our minds to be present along with our bodies.

How do we motivate people to engage with information? There are two ways:

¨     People are motivated if they see a purpose to engagement with information that they feel is relevant. While it is desirable to attempt to help students see the relevance of what is being taught, it is not always possible.

¨     People also are motivated to engage with information if they perceive an activity to be just plain fun.

Performance tasks are assignments that result in a product (something for a science fair) or a process (a mock trial of Socrates). Performance tasks allow a teacher flexibility to motivate some students who will see relevance to what is important to them and to motivate other students who may simply enjoy the undertaking. By offering options (choices) the teacher increases the likelihood that more students will be motivated by either relevance or fun.

If the task is authentic (has audiences other than the teacher for a grade, according to Fred Newman, University of Wisconsin ), it is more likely to be perceived as relevant and/or fun.

If the teacher identifies learning objectives that are essential for passing the course, and assesses student performance with regard to those learning objectives during the performance task, then the teacher and students are likely to believe that more time can be allotted to performance learning because it is not taking time away from the curriculum, it is actually affording us a better way to teach and learn the curriculum.

The following was located on a plaque on the wall next to the door at a conference center in Star Lake , New York :

LEARNING TO .    .    .

                                                “A child does not learn to ski

                                                to look good. He looks at it

                                                from a different angle. He

                                                likes to go over bumps and

                                                he likes speed! Chasing

                                                each other is more

                                                important than

                                                learning to turn!

                                                Make skiing a game, and

                                                the child will learn in spite

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Jim Thompson, former Hollywood producer and currently an educational consultant wrote these interesting observations in response to an early December newsletter on “Perceptions of Parents”:

Hi Don,

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

A few years ago, radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger said that once you stereotype you create an obstacle to letting in information that might conflict with your views. At least I think I recall her saying that; if she didn’t she should have. I do know (because I wrote it down) that she once said:

“When you put everyone in the same category, you isolate yourself.”

On July 14, 2005, I also heard her say:

“I don’t think anybody should put their children in a public school if they can avoid it.”

WOW – talk about putting every one in the same category.

If this weren’t so serious it would be laughable. At a time when this nation needs to pull together to find solutions to the problems involved in raising our youth, here is someone with a large audience making the kinds of generalizations an English teacher would not accept in a student essay.

Dr. Laura, repeat after me:

There are good public schools; there are bad public schools.

There are good private schools; there are bad private schools.

Some good public schools have situations and practices that are not good.

Some good private schools have situations and practices that are not good.

Some poorly performing public schools have some exemplary practices.

Some poorly performing private schools have some exemplary practices.

Stereotyping such as “I don’t think anybody should send their children to a public school,” does nothing to contribute to an enlightened discussion of how we can all work together to improve educational opportunities for all children.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

There is often less light than heat in the debate over standardized assessments. On the other hand, I have a rather simple mind and perhaps I am oversimplifying the issue. If so, I know I can count on some of you to weigh in and correct me. Here goes.

• The issue is not - as some would portray it - whether to discard the concept of standardized assessments. We will always have standardized assessments. This is a political reality. The public will continue to demand it. Besides, it may be a good idea. How else can we compare an A in Yonkers with an A in Canton, or Maryvale, or Elmira?
  
  The issue, therefore, is what form the standardized assessments should take, not whether they should exist.

• While standardized assessments, currently, are not nearly as performance based as they need to be in order to be accurate reflections of what students understand and can demonstrate, they are certainly more performance based than these same assessments were a few years ago. They are changing.
  
  I’ve had good teachers tell me that the movement toward performance assessment and assessment of higher level thinking skills is forcing some of their more change-resistant colleagues to alter their teaching practices. Who had heard of, much less used, DBQs before they were introduced in the standardized tests? What about rubrics? Few teachers had ever heard of a rubric in 1995. It was the use of rubrics with standardized assessments that caused professional educators to sit up and take notice. And how about foreign language exams that require a dialogue between teachers and students, something that wasn’t part of the language assessment a few decades ago?

• On the other hand, standardized assessments are still primarily multiple choice and essay. While they assess performance, and higher level thinking skills MORE than a decade ago, they are still testing memorization far too much, thinking skills far too little, and are relying on formats that favor people with strong linguistic and mathematical/logical intelligences and tend to be unfair to people whose strengths lie in other intelligences.
  
  In other words, the standardized tests, for the most part, are not an effective way to let students demonstrate what they really know, understand, and can apply.

• Why can’t states move toward standardizing a system of performance assessments? It can be done. It isn’t economically or administratively impossible.

• I’ll tell you why we aren’t moving more rapidly in that direction. It would require risk taking and thinking out of the box.
  
  Since 1970 when the New York State Education Department launched “Project Redesign” - to be followed by Shared Decision Making, the Compact for Learning, and Standards-Based Education - the adages from the mount in Albany have often implored us to “Think Out of the Box!” (Remember when Joel Barker’s “Paradigms” tape was the biggest thing since hula hoops?)
  
  We need leadership to practice what state education departments have been preaching for years:
  
  
  1. Let’s think out of the box.
  
  2. Let’s create new paradigms.
  
  3. Let’s take risks.
  
  4. And let’s take another phrase form the distant past – right out of the Compact for Learning: Let’s have “Top down support for bottom up reform.”

I’m at the bottom of the hierarchy. I have no title, no elected or appointed governmental position. I, along with many others working in the trenches of education reform and trying to help schools raise student achievement, constitute the bottom that is saying “We need performance assessments so that we can more accurately and fairly assess student performance and IT CAN BE DONE!”

Now if we could only get some top down support!

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Effective teaching practices based on constructivist theory of how people learn requires one to have a trusting (not naïve, but trusting) nature. If you are convinced that most important questions have only one right answer, and that only the teacher has the wisdom to know that answer, you will have difficulty conducting a classroom using practices based on constructivist theory.

I have often quoted Paul Vermette as saying that his major function as a teacher is to get his students to think. But what if they think the wrong thoughts? What if they come up with answers that are anti social, against what a reasonable person would consider appropriate behaviors?

First of all, if student responses to inquiry based approaches are such that they would make the teacher cringe, then we must recognize that the questions did not cause the student to think this way – the questions merely caused the student to reveal her thinking. In such a case, the teacher must be prepared to ask follow-up questions designed to challenge the student to reexamine her premises.

Can a good teacher always succeed in causing a student to reflect on what we would consider to be an inappropriate response, and then to change that response? Of course not. But, then again, we must recognize that the teacher is not the cause of the response.

Wouldn’t we rather bring to the surface what students are thinking so we can have the chance to address those thoughts than not to know about them at all? Think about it!

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Continuing our discussion of teaching time management skills which we began December 13, continued February 6, and resumed March 2, here is a response I sent to the excellent second grade teacher who was seeking strategies for working with students on their ability to manage time:

Dear Second Grade Teacher,

The question you posed and the response from Pam Horton seem to address a major component of time management which is completing a particular task on time - and this is extremely important.

I'm also thinking of the difficulty my college students have with budgeting their time and scheduling their work when it can't (or needn't be) completed in one sitting. Our own daughter, a HS sophomore, exhibits this tendency with projects. She waits until the last minute (takes after her father), but then she often finds that some of the requirements of the task cannot be completed unless started earlier; or, she gets sick or is confronted with some other last minute development that precludes giving the necessary time to the task at hand.

Some college students, also, suffer from the problem that, in high school, the work comes too easy. They don't need to plan their work because they are capable of getting good grades without an organized approach to their studies. Then when they get into college, two things happen: 1) the work gets harder and more demanding and less susceptible to a last minute work ethic; 2) the potential distractions are greatly increased due to social events, freedom to do what you want when you want (no parents around to ask, "Did you do your homework?" or to say, "You can't go out on a school night," or, "You have to be in bed by midnight.")

What I am suggesting is that "scheduling" as a time management skill can be addressed as early as kindergarten and should be reinforced at every grade level.
Here are some strategies:

1. Even before students can read and write, teachers can put a calendar on the board (or on a hand-out) and model good planning strategies by filling in dates with indications of what must be accomplished each day en route to completion of a task. (Or, you could even use a calendar for the school day by modeling for your students how you plan the day in order to be sure to cover everything you want.)

2. When you are going to work with students on a task that has multiple elements, can you put a calendar on the board (or on a hand-out) that breaks the larger task into the smaller chunks you are going to demand? For instance, if the kids are going to make a drawing in stages, can they be asked to complete a draft on January 5 to submit to you for approval, a revision by January 8, and then create the frame by January 12? I'm being completely hypothetical because I am not that familiar with course content at your second grade level, but the idea is that instead of only giving the students small, isolated tasks with a time restriction on the day of the assignment, string together several tasks which will make a complete project and show the students how to plan their time so they meet each deadline.

3. Another thought is to give them a ten minute homework assignment; then conduct a brief discussion asking them what strategies they can use when they get home to be sure the homework is completed. Some might say, "I'll do it when I get home before I do anything else." Others might say, "I can do it just before dinner, at 5:30." Then ask them to complete a blank calendar, in your presence, for the time from when they leave school until bedtime, indicating when they are going to allow time to complete the assignment. They can each complete their separate calendars as you direct from the front of the room. It is valuable for them to see that they can have different calendars, but that all calendars will have in common that they build in sufficient time for the homework (maybe 20 minutes for a ten minute assignment) and they are all scheduled realistically - i. e. they haven't scheduled a time for their homework that is likely to be usurped by other events). The next day, ask them if they were able to do the assignment at the time they had indicated on their calendar and, if not, how they adjusted?

The blank calendar might look like this:

Name:
Day:
Date:

4 pm
4:15
4:30
4:45
5:00
5:15
etc.
etc.
etc.
9:00 pm

4. Another thought would be to occasionally give the class a hypothetical situation where a person has multiple tasks to complete and various deadlines for each. As a class, work out a timeline/calendar for completing all the tasks. Or, let them do this in pairs or small groups and then process it out in front of the entire class.

I am not suggesting that a teacher needs to devote a great deal of a class to teaching time management skills. Rather, integrate some of these strategies so they are addressed periodically and referenced frequently (though briefly).

We learn concepts (and time management is a concept that requires use of specific strategies) through repetition.

¨ Take advantage of opportunities when students have tasks to ask them if they are using strategies to be sure they finish on time.

¨ Take advantage of situations where multi-tasking is required to ask them if they are using a calendar or schedule of some kind to plan their time.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Frank Pickus, Institute Board of Director member and administrator (former special education teacher) in Gloversville, responded to a fall newsletter about how a well designed lesson is like a choreographed show.

Don, I Love the analogy. That's why our best teachers are always 'on.' The best entertainers, even when following a script, need to be responsive to their audience, adjusting for what is and isn't working.

The greatest film actors always complain about their directors not doing enough takes, they always want to alter the interpretation. A teacher gets to do this each and every lesson.

You start with an activity that will grab people's attention and set the tone for the remainder of the lesson....if you're lucky. Otherwise, the director just talks at you for half an hour and then wastes an hour of your time showing you how to act your part before announcing a run thru.

Although it was very time consuming, when I taught, I never saved the materials I made; I felt that each group of students deserved their own tailor made items. I left the high school, after 20 years, with one small box of materials.

–Frank

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Here’s an e-mail from Toby Marr, an outstanding business teacher from Ontario, Canada. It is in response to a newsletter focused on the importance of “choreographing” a lesson (changing the pace throughout a class period):

Don,

In Ontario, our high school classes are 75 minutes long so the choreographing is extremely important. If we are not careful we will lose the students after 20 minutes and that makes for a long period. This choreographing has been one of my focuses this year. I am thinking about it all the time...during planning and during execution.

I wonder if students have any idea how much thought goes into the lessons we prepare for them? I wonder if they realize how much of our creative selves we are sharing every time we deliver a message?

Thanks for the food for thought. I appreciate your support very much.

Appreciatively,

Toby Marr

Dear Toby,

Rarely do students think about how much their teachers care and how hard they work. One of the values of the “Student-Run Classroom” which I encourage teachers to try just occasionally, each year, is that it helps to sensitize students to the difficult role of the teacher. The “Student-Run Class” is a format for creating a situation where the teacher can sit in the back of the room for 40 minutes while students take turns teaching each other. The feedback we receive from students who have engaged in a 40 minute “student-run class” is similar to what one student expressed to her middle school teacher in Malone, New York a few years ago when he exclaimed: “You write a plan for every lesson? WOW, I can’t believe it. It was hard enough for us to do just one lesson plan for this class.”

When teachers place students in the position of planning and teaching a class, among other values it sensitizes students to the difficulty of the teacher’s role and this has a definite carry-over in terms of student behavior. I recall in 1992, following a three day workshop for Niagara Falls’ shared decision making committees (which included students), one student observed, “I have a whole different view of teachers as a result of this training. I am impressed that teachers would take three days in the summer just to focus on ways to improve schools for us.”

I received the same reaction eight years ago in Brooklyn when we conducted a full-day staff development session that included students and parents. During the course of the day, we asked students to react to lessons that the teachers were designing and to let the teachers know how they felt their peers would react to these lessons. At the end of the day, when we asked participants to share one reaction they had as a result of our work together, each of three students said essentially the same thing: “This is the first time I’ve ever been asked by an adult to evaluate their work and give my opinion. I really liked this.”

I could cite many more examples of how well students respond when treated with respect and put in a position where their own expertise is valued. If anyone reading this would like a copy of the guidelines for a “Student-Run Class” just send me an e-mail.

Over the past five years, we have received feedback from more than 40 teachers in all disciplines, grades Kindergarten through 12, who have used this model and who value it. The purpose is not to suggest that teachers should create a student-run class frequently. As one teacher observed: “I might do this once or twice a year, but now that I see how capable my students are of functioning independently and assuming responsibility, I will use strategies like this in smaller bits and pieces.”

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

In a future article I intend to focus on the role of the effective administrator. For now, I will simply pose two questions for administrators:

· Would you want your teachers to conduct their classes the way you organize your staff meetings?

· When preparing for a staff meeting, a committee meeting of a few teachers, or a staff development day, how much thought do you give to the comfort level of participants – refreshments, seating, room environment?

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.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 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.

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) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.