THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

TOPIC: Dr. Seuss - A Poor Student

Date: March 9, 2007 Newsletter Edition: Volume 8, Issue 9

Did you know that "Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) was a below average high school stud- ent?" Not only that, but according to a two page biographical sketch in a book entitled, When They Were 22, "Doodling instead of taking notes at Oxford cost Theodore Geisel the chance to succeed at the esteemed university."

I wonder if his teachers ever thought about multiple intelligences - of course this would have been before Howard Gardiner's 1983 literary contribution to the topic. But I wonder how many of his teachers might have given an assignment like this:

"You need to demonstrate your understanding of the causes of war. You can do this in any of the following ways:

Write a three page essay on the causes of war using the Boar War as an example

Submit a graphic (artistic expression) of at least two pages which demonstrates your understanding of the causes of war using the Boar War as an example.

Write a poem that demonstrates your understanding, using the Boar War as an example

Demonstrate your understanding of the causes of war using the Boar War as an example through any combination of essay, poetry, and artistic design that effectively shows that you understand the issue."

The point is that Theodor's teachers probably did not distinguish between their learning objectives and the vehicles for students to demonstrate mastery of the learning objectives. In the examples cited above, the learning objective is that students demonstrate an understanding of the causes of war (a concept) and also show that they have studied and understood the Boar War (content information). Should it matter to a teacher whether the students demonstrate their understanding through written essay, poetic words, or artistic design?

Here's a radical thought - what about also offering an option that might enable students with musical ability to demonstrate their understanding of the causes of war through use of their talent:

Demonstrate your understanding of the causes of war using the Boar War as an example by writing a song that articulates what you understand about the topic. You can write your own music or you can write lyrics to an existing tune.

How many teachers today limit students in the options they offer for demonstration of knowledge? And when teachers offer limited options, most of the time the option they offer strongly favors the students with linguistic or mathematical/logical intelligence.

Is it any wonder that study after study shows that there is not a substantial correlation between the grades students receive in school and how well they do in the real world, whether measured by happiness, financial success, or status?

What teachers want students to learn, as a minimum, needs to be non-negotiable. However, the way students demonstrate what they are learning should be open to more options than many teachers allow.

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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) 2005, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

TOPIC: STUDENTS SHOULD MAKE, NOT TAKE, THE TEST

Date: February 24, 2007 Newsletter Edition: Volume 8, Issue 8

In a recent newsletter, I wrote of my experience when I was administered a multiple choice test on the telephone by a representative of Verizon. My concluding observation was: "Teachers should check for student understanding of concepts. Instead, we often don't know what their understanding was of the questions we posed."
In that newsletter, I referred to the frustration my daughter, Marli, experienced in 6th grade when a multiple choice question seemed to allow for two right answers depending on how you interpreted it. Marli read my newsletter and then was quick to let me know that dad didn't quite recall it exactly as it happened - I had the wrong grade level. Here is the e-mail she forwarded to me:

Dad,
It wasn't 6th grade, it was 10th grade, and my answer was correct but was marked wrong!!!

The question was, "What is the best way to get rid of bad luck from killing a spider, according to Tom Sawyer?"

I said E, there IS no way to get rid of the bad luck, and the teacher said it was C, "throwing salt over your left shoulder and turning around 3 times." Tom CLEARLY states that he threw salt over his left shoulder and turned around 3 times even though he knew "there's really no way to get rid of bad luck from killing a spider."
Well, if dad can be forgiven for forgetting the grade level, at least I had the concept right: whether a multiple choice response is correct often depends on how you interpret the question even though reasonable people can interpret the same question differently.
It all still comes down to something Paul Vermette and Mike Smith discussed recently: when you use short answer questions you are primarily assessing for recall. The only ones being challenged at the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy are the test makers, not the test takers. Therefore, if you want your students to think critically, ask them to make up the short answer test, not take it.

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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) 2005, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

TOPIC: 2nd EDITION of CONSTRUCTIVIST On-Line JOURNAL NOW AVAILABLE

Date: February 16, 2007 Newsletter Edition: Volume 8, Issue 7

The second edition of JPACTe has just been published and is available on-line. The Table of Contents is below; scan it and see what is of interest to you. The on-line address is: http://learnercentereded.org/JPact/Home_page/index.html
You can also get there through a link from the Institute page: www.learnercentereded.org
JPACTe is the Journal for Practical Application of Constructivist Theory in Education

IN THIS ISSUE:
Active learning: A hybrid approach
Rinaldo, V., Sheeran, T., Vermette, P., Smith, R.M., & Heaggans, R. (Niagara U.)

The constructivist design model for professional development
Flynn, P, Institute for Learning Centered Education, & Shuman, J., St. Lawrence University

Evaluation and assessment in middle-level art education: Applications of constructivist theory
Eck, L. Los Angeles (CA) Unified School District

Seventeen Intentions of an effective teacher
Flynn, P. & Mesibov, D., Institute for Learning Centered Education (NY)
Vermette, P., & Smith, R. M., Niagara University

Creating a multi-age constructivist magnet school: The challenges, travails, and successes - Part I
Richter, Craig, Ronald Reagan Elementary School (Lake Elsinore, CA)

Descriptors of a learning-centered school
Waterson, J., Ed., St. Lawrence University (ret.)

Reflections on constructivist student teaching in business education
Rosts, A., Niagara University (student)

JPACTe is published by the Learner Centered Research Collaborative, an organization that includes as its affiliates The Institute for Learning Centered Education, Niagara University and St. Lawrence University.

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) 2005, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: Constructivism Defined Three Ways to be Reader-Friendly

Volume #8, Edition #6 __________Date: February 10, 2007

Recently Pat Flynn and I were asked to write a one paragraph definition of "constructivism" for a brochure advertising the 2007 conference at Grand Island. Through an exchange of e-mails we agreed on five concepts that needed to be addressed in any definition.
When we shared our definition at a meeting of Institute planners, Walt Potocki suggested that there should be a more teacher-friendly version and he created the accompanying Power Point (click to view). Then Roni Brierley proposed the definition be rewritten in more student-friendly language.
Here is the definition put forth by Pat and me, followed by Roni's "Kidspeak"version. Credit for the writing and design of the Power Point goes to Walt.
HOW DO I KNOW IF IT IS CONSTRUCTIVIST?
Pat Flynn and Don Mesibov

Constructivism is a theory, not a practice, even though certain practices in the form of strategies and techniques are more likely than others to be based on constructivist theory. To self-assess whether an activity, product, lesson, or learning experience is based on constructivist theory of how people learn, ask these questions:

o Are students actively engaged - either using the information you want them to understand, or applying the skills and/or concepts with which you intend them to become adept?

o Are students given the opportunity to construct their own meanings and understandings by connecting new information to their prior knowledge/perceptions? (This requires the teacher to elicit a student's prior knowledge/perceptions before assigning the student a task that will confront him/her with the need for new information.)

o Are the sources of this new information student-appropriate? That is, do they take into account availability and the student's understanding of how to access them? (The sources of this new information may vary depending on the student and the task. They can include; the teacher, other students, on-line sources, textbooks, encyclopedias, etc.)

o Are the learning experiences you are creating for students cognitively challenging and essentially experiential?

o Is critical thinking the touchstone of the cognitively challenging learning experiences you are presenting students?

The degree and extent to which a teacher can respond affirmatively to each of these questions increases the likelihood that the teacher is teaching, in a way that is aligned with what we know about how people learn!

IS IT CONSTRUCTIVIST? - in "Kidspeak"
Roni Brierley

What do I already know (or have experience with)?
What else do I want to know?
What plan will I use to find out more? (process)
How will I connect it to what I already know?
What resources can I use to find out more?
To whom can I talk to find out more?
How will I show (what) I know? (product)
To whom will I show it?

The Institute is currently registering teams for the 2007 summer constructivist conference at Grand Island, New York, within sight of Niagara Falls. 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 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) 2007, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

TOPIC: Theater as an Authentic Task, Multiple Intelligences, Intrinsic Motivation

Date: February 2, 2007 Newsletter Edition: Volume 8, Issue 5

A few weeks ago I described a lesson prepared by some of my sophomore university students for a beginning level course in the education department. Here's one more. I share it to focus attention on:

Use of an authentic task

Extrinsic followed by intrinsic student motivation

Multiple Intelligences

Eddie Cruz and Samantha Rivera not only share Brooklyn as their hometown, but they also share a love of theatre. They will be terrific teachers. They are the kind of students every teacher loves - bright, enthusiastic, conscientious, confident but not arrogant.
When I offered ten options for their major course project, they selected the one that read, "Or anything you might propose as long as it addresses course objectives." They wanted to know if they could work with students in a local school and design their own curriculum of activities that would help the students learn about theatre and culminate with performance of a skit.
They contacted guidance counsellor Lori Sheffield at the Canton Middle School who set them up with a group of students whose self esteem could use a boost. A week later Eddie and Samantha asked me to review a 50 page curriculum they had put together that would do an experienced teacher proud. (My course is a beginning level education course, mostly for sophomores, so they have had little if any experience designing lessons, but you wouldn't have known it from what these two turned in.).
At this point it was clear to me that Eddie and Samantha were intrinsically motivated, knew exactly what they had to do, and the only scaffolding they needed was for me to get out of their way and turn them loose.
Eddie and Samantha named their theatre group "Encore." For the next 12 weeks, they met twice a week with their middle school students, and they coached as the students learned stage presence, built a set, and wrote their own script for a ten minute play. I would occasionally ask "How's it going?" and they would smile and say, "OK." Late in the semester, they encountered a major challenge as some of the students stopped attending in part because lack of parental support was undercutting their efforts. I met with them and it was their decision to conclude what they had begun no matter how few students stayed involved. Then they continued on their own for another two weeks.
The last week of the semester Eddie handed me an attractively decorated invitation the to a student performance of a brief skit in the Canton Middle School cafeteria.
Their cast of four included students who had been selected by Ms. Sheffield because they were not particularly out-going, yet they performed before 100 of their peers and not one of them missed a line. The theme of their skit addressed bullying and smoking. The audience laughed at the right times and was appropriately respectful the rest of the time. Afterward, Eddie moderated a Q and A as seven different students asked questions of the cast. The question asked by several was, "Will you do this again and how can I get a part?"
The principal brought closure and, after thanking Eddie and Samantha, he reminded the audience that casting for this show had been open to all - the number of performers was limited only by the number of volunteers. He praised the four performers and the student who worked back stage for being the brave ones. '"We're all reluctant to do something the first time," he said, "and that's understandable, but these are the students who took the risk and now some of you are saying 'I wish I had done that.' Hopefully, Eddie and Samantha will be able to do this next year."
As the students filed away from the cafeteria stage, I handed a rose to each of the performers and to my two university students and I thought to myself: "While I try many things that aren't worth repeating, this one worked: I offered options for authentic tasks for my college students, each option requiring strength in a different set of multiple intelligences. Two students with strong interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and linguistic intelligences had proposed a task that would play to their strengths. They, in turn, had created an authentic task for some Canton middle school students and it was a "win-win" all around."
I also reflected on Fred Newman's definition of an authentic task: a task that has an audience other than the teacher for a grade.
Eddie and Samantha may have chosen to do a task because it was a course requirement and they needed it to get a grade (external motivation). However, at some point the intrinsic motivation took over and they worked more for the pride and fulfillment than the grade. How do I know? What evidence did I see? The looks on their faces as they prepared, presented, and - eventually - congratulated their students; the preparation of the curriculum that went far beyond what they needed to get an "A" on the task; and finally, the fact that they ended up putting in well over 50 out-of-class hours on this project even though my requirement was for 30 hours.
When a teacher values student recall of information (by assessing for memorization) it's like placing a lid on what a student will demonstrate. You already know the maximum you can expect from the student - 100% accuracy on a short answer test. However, a well designed project with criteria for a student to address and a rubric to assess the quality of a student's work is as challenging and refreshing to the teacher as it is to the student.

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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) 2005, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

TOPIC: A STUDENT - TEACHER CONTRACT
Date: January 25, 2007 Newsletter Edition: Volume 8, Issue 4
Some teachers reading this newsletter already use "contracts" with their students and probably have a better approach than I am going to suggest (and I would welcome hearing from you). I just began using a contract with my undergraduate students yesterday. Teachers at the Ronald Reagan School in Lake Elsinore, California are using them with kindergarten students through fifth graders.
Here is how you can do it - the only tweaking needed for younger grades is to take a whole class approach and facilitate an agreement from the front of the room rather than the think/pair share I am going to suggest for any students old enough to write their thoughts:

Ask students to take out a sheet of paper, or distribute a worksheet, and have them respond to two statements:
1. List at least three and, no more than nine, things you think you have a right to expect of me as your teacher.
2. List at least three, and no more than nine, things you think I have a right to expect of you as a student in my class.
If students have difficulty getting started you could give them the following prompt, but I would only offer it if they struggle for a few minutes and need help: "Do I have a right to expect you to be in class on time and in your seat ready to work?" "Do you have a right to expect me to treat you with respect?"

When it is apparent that every student has at least three responses to each statement, partner them with another student, ask them to share their responses and compile one list of no more than nine items, for each list.

Preferably with chairs in a circle (but in standard rows if that is not possible or you are not comfortable with it), conduct a whole class sharing. Ask one pair to share its responses. Then ask each succeeding group to share anything on their list that is not already on the list being generated in front of everyone on large paper or an overhead.

In front of the class, prune each list to no more than five or six items; eliminate redundancies, and seek consensus that the two lists reflect reasonable expectations. Pledge to adhere to the behaviors on your list and ask the students for a similar commitment.

Post the lists and keep them posted throughout the year - renegotiate if a situation arises that justifies it; reference the student list when addressing misbehaving students.

The teachers at the R.R. elementary school call their contract "A Quality Audience," a term and technique they picked up through excellent professional development from Jack Drury and Bruce Bonney of Leading Edge. It works so well that while I was there, all one teacher had to do when a student was being loud was look at the student, glance at the list of behaviors of a "Quality Audience" on the wall and the student immediately said, "Whoops, I'm not showing the speaker respect."
I am not suggesting that every student will respond this quickly and appropriately. I am suggesting that negotiating a contract with students can be a valuable technique for giving students ownership of the rules and procedures a teacher wants to enforce in a classroom.
In December I wrote an article about our wonderful experience visiting the R.R. School in California and I described the "quality audience" contracts they have with students in first through fifth grades. Barbara Wilson, an outstanding teacher herself, sent me this response:
"I read your newsletter yesterday and have been telling everyone that I agreed with everything except the part where you state that first grade on up can articulate what a quality audience is! I will speak on behalf of my Kindergarteners - they can not only articulate what a quality audience looks like, but also a quality class and quality work!"
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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) 2005, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.