Academic Dialogue: Deep Listening

In an effort to engage our students in a discussion, the art of deeply listening is sometimes overlooked.  The various academic dialogue techniques discussed in previous TXT4 Teachers have included components of active listening: paraphrasing and seeking clarity for what one hears.  Deep listening, however, is distinguished by “listening over hearing and connecting over responding.  In relationships, deep listening means acknowledging others’ emotions so they are heard.  In careers, deep listening means developing productive communication by listening to understand, not merely to reply” (Heusterberg-Richards, 2016).

Instead of a video, today we offer a thoughtful Edutopia blog post from Amy Heutersberg-Richards, “Deep Listening Activities for Academic Discussions.”

http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/deep-listening-activities-academic-discussions

We invite you to visit her post for a full description of the following deep listening activities:

Follow the Thread Discussion

Conversation Circle

Acknowledgment Transitions

Paused Pair-and-Shares

Inviting Quietness

Undoubtedly, these activities are adaptable to all grade levels and content areas.  The challenge, of course, is to intentionally implement one or more of the strategies and consistently build them into either small or whole group discussion protocols.  Imagine the pay-off, however, as students learn to “better know each other’s ideas…It can mean a more inclusive atmosphere where all voices feel respected and where moments of silence are welcome.”

Academic Dialogue: Cute Kinders give Peer Feedback

Thus far this month, we have primarily examined small group academic discussions.  Today, we will visit kindergarteners who are holding peer feedback discussions that would knock the socks off of many adults!

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/growth-mindset-young-students

Academic dialogue tends to be synonymous with small groups.  True, intentional, and thoughtful small group conversations are fertile ground for growing a plethora of academic and social skills.  However, this video exemplifies how a well-structured whole-group peer feedback session:

Provides specific, meaningful peer feedback on a writing assignment

Affords students an opportunity to set their own revision goals based on success criteria

Builds respectful dialogue and active listening skills

Encourages a growth mindset for both students and teachers

Upper grades will especially appreciate the incredible gift this kindergarten teacher is giving her young students by empowering them with these experiences.  Plus, they are super cute!

Assessment Strategies: One Final Word

Throughout this month, we have explored strategies for incorporating authentic and formative assessments into daily practice.  Our videos have featured math, language arts, and collaborative assessment practices from a span of grade levels.

Today’s video movingly depicts the aim of all teachers:  graduating seniors who are ready to take on the world, as evidenced by a culminating “defense of deeper learning.”

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/college-success-portfolio-defense-structure-eed

Whether one teaches kindergarten or high school, all educators will appreciate how the teachers and students featured in this video demonstrate the power of many formative assessments culminating into this final articulation of deeply personal, while also academic, learning.

You might want to have a tissue nearby, especially towards the end.

Assessment Strategies: Smarter not Harder

Today’s video is 15 minutes, but it is packed with loads of working “smarter not harder” collaborative learning and formative assessment strategies.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/formative-assessment-example-ela-sbac

The lesson exemplifies Smarter Balance’s four “Formative Assessment Attributes:

Clarify – Students collaboratively clarify success criteria for effective academic discussions.

Elicit – The teacher elicits evidence of learning of the collaborative success criteria as students discuss connections to events in a novel.

Interpret – The teacher interprets student performance evidence as they engage in the collaborative discussion about the novel.

Act On- The teacher provides immediate feedback to students’ use of performance criteria; students adjust their group discussion based on the teacher’s feedback; students reflect on their performance.

As you view the video, you might consider:

How does the lesson exemplify authentic as well as formative assessment of collaborative discussions?

How might you adapt the assessment strategies used in this video with younger or older grade students?

How might you adapt the assessment strategies for other content areas?

What are other benefits to both teachers and students of the four “Formative Assessment Attribute” as highlighted in this video?

Break out the popcorn, and sit back to enjoy this rich example of authentic-formative assessment!

Assessment Strategies: Combining Authentic with Formative for the Win

In an educational setting, “authentic assessment” is understood as tasks that look and sound “real-world” and that “value the thinking behind the work process, as much as the finished product” (Pearson & Valencia, 1987; Wiggins, 1989; Wolf, 1989).

Authentic assessment is typically viewed as synonymous with “performance based assessment” or its newest incarnation, “Project Based Learning,” which tend to connote larger and more complicated projects – summative assessments. Yet, what about the day-to-day formative assessments that are foundational to scaffolding learning?

Over the next few weeks, we will hone in on melding “authentic” with “formative” assessments. Today’s resource comes from The Teaching Channel.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/quick-student-assessment

As you view this short video, you might consider:

How is this strategy an authentic and formative assessment?

How might it be adapted for younger students?

Stay tuned for more spiffy strategies!

De-escalating Challenging Behavior: Teacher's Personal Approach

Welcome to our final installment of the de-escalating challenging behavior series!

Haim Ginott’s words continue to resonate nearly 50 years later.  Although we have laid the foundation for understanding students with anxiety or defiance disorders, this insight is all for naught unless we are mindful of our responses to challenging behaviors.

The adage “catch ‘em being good” applies to students with anxiety or defiance disorders.  However, students who have difficulty controlling behavior may have precious few opportunities to be “caught being good.”

Instead, a teacher might consider saying random kind words or ask the student to take-on a responsibility well-suited to his abilities.  According to Katrina Schultz, “This kind of non-contingent reinforcement helps the child to see the teacher likes him for who is, not because he does math well or reads perfectly” (Schultz, 2016).

Moreover, not responding yes or no to a student’s request or using non-confrontational body language can allow students the time needed to use self-monitoring strategies and diffuse a potentially explosive response.  For instance, rather than making eye contact and waiting for compliance in response to disruptive behavior, a teacher can instead quietly and respectfully ask a student to stop the behavior and then move away in order to give the student time to do a “body check” and activate a calming strategy.  Or, rather than answering a yes/no question, a teacher can rephrase the student’s query, e.g., “Can I go to the bathroom now?” to “When may I go the restroom?”  Doing so removes the yes/no dichotomy and bypasses a potentially explosive response. And, of course, praising a student for employing de-escalation strategies is imperative to reinforcement of these powerful life-skills.

Without a doubt, anxious or defiant behavior is stressful for both students and teachers.  Yet, a teacher’s “personal approach” indeed creates the “climate of the classroom.”  Remember, “We are 50% of every interaction with a child.”

This four-part series of TXT4 Teachers is based on Katrina Schwartz’s article, “20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions with Anxious or Defiant Students” (2016).  The original article is located at https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/04/21/20-tips-to-help-de-escalate-interactions-with-anxious-or-defiant-students/.

De-escalating Challenging Behavior: Work Avoidance Strategy

Today is Day 3 of 4 of our de-escalating challenging behavior series!

We have examined how students with anxiety or defiance disorders experience typical behavior management techniques differently and how to pro-actively create an environment that decreases the likelihood of disruptive actions. Today’s focus is strategies to overcome a common side effect of anxiety:  Work Avoidance.

Unsurprisingly, when a child fails to initiate and follow-through with tasks, adults tend to attribute such avoidance to laziness or inability.  In truth, a child’s anxiety, caused by a diagnosed anxiety disorder or simply from past failures, “freezes” working memory, making it impossible for the child to move forward.  Luckily, myriad strategies exist to either mitigate or prevent anxiety-provoked work avoidance altogether.

1.     A teacher might allow a student to preview assignments before they are assigned in class.  Doing so bypasses the “flight or fight” reaction anxious students experience when they first see an assignment.  Similarly, students can be allowed to use individual whiteboards as a rough draft before committing their work to paper, thereby minimizing anxiety about “messing up.”

2.     Directly teaching and labeling strategies when used by the child is another excellent preventative tool.  If a student has difficulty getting started, rather than swooping in to help, the teacher can label what is occurring and ask the student what strategy she might use: “Looks like you’re having trouble persisting.  What strategy are you going to use?”

3.     Speaking of persistence, a teacher can encourage students to use strategies such as chunking an assignment to complete easier problems first, checking their own work, or collaborating with peers.

4.     Ask a student his perception of a task before beginning and after completion, and keep a running record of his responses over the course of a few weeks.  Then share this data with the student.  More often than not, the perceived difficulty is greater than reality.

Anxiety-induced disruptive behavior is another form of work avoidance.  As a result, students can be taught self-monitoring skills by recognizing their own signs of agitation and skills for calming themselves.

1.     Making students aware of their own physiological signs of anxiety is a good starting point.  The teacher can prompt students to describe where they are feeling anxiety in their bodies and keep a record of such responses to then share with students.  This data is used to teach student to do a “body check” and implement a strategy to calm herself if she feels anxiety building.

2.     Collaborate with the student to find a calming strategy, preferably one that does not require cognition, such as singing softly to himself or repeating a phrase.  Rehearsing calming strategies while the student is not agitated builds the “go-to automatic reply” needed in stressful situations.

More importantly, teachers should remember that what adults perceive as negative behavior is often a manifestation of uncomfortable emotional and physiological responses.  Our final instalment will reiterate the importance of the teacher’s response to anxious and defiant behavior.

De-escalating Challenging Behavior: Triggers: Antecedents to Negative Behaviors.

Welcome to Day 2 of our de-escalating challenging behavior series!

You will recall last week we examined “All Behavior Has a Function,” where we explored tips for providing pro-active positive attention to students, especially those who may have anxiety or defiance disorders.

Sudden change, social dynamics, transitions between  activities, independent writing activities, or just about any unstructured time or unexpected demand can create a space for negative behavior, especially  for anxious students. Clear communication with students coupled with thoughtful strategies can alleviate anxiety and the likelihood of acting out during these trigger times.

Provide a specified activity during “wait time” (e.g., early finishing of an assignment, transition to specials) to occupy a student’s attention. Such activities should cognitively engage the child without necessarily being academic. For instance, a child who finishes assignments early might be directed to turn over his paper and draw a picture or complete a puzzle.

Similar to discovering a student’s preference for receiving praise, a teacher can confer with the student to discover a suitable “wait-time” activity.

Likewise, providing a “find a good stopping place” cue instead of a time limit warning also reduces anxiety for students prone to perfectionism.

Provide “in-between” activities when transitioning from a pleasurable activity such as socializing to an academic one. For example, perhaps give students a few minutes of coloring time before launching into the next academic activity. Remember, “Kids of all ages” love to color! 

Other transition activities might also include playing content related but motivational videos or music as students enter the classroom.

This list is only a beginning! Consider setting aside a few minutes during Professional Learning Community meetings to devise other strategies to mitigate any antecedents to bad behavior.

De-escalating Challenging Behavior: All Behavior has a Function

What happens when a conflict arises in your classroom?

Our next four Texts 4 Teachers posts will focus on strategies for de-escalating conflict with anxious or defiant students.

Today’s topic:  All Behavior Has a Function

A long-standing psychological principle is that if a teacher ignores negative behavior, then the behavior will be eventually “extinguished.” Not true for students with an anxiety disorder, a recognized learning disability.  Anxiety disorders are often perplexing because, unlike ADHD-related behaviors, which tend to be consistently present, anxiety is situational.  The good news is, according to Jessica Minahan, co-author of The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students, “we are 50% of every interaction with a child, so we have a lot of control over that interaction” (Schwartz, 2016).

When a student is anxious, their working memory shuts down.  Yet, once the student is calm, she performs on par with her peers.  Moreover, typical consequences such as ignoring negative behavior or offering a reward for positive performance can actually amplify anxiety.

Additionally, whether a student has a diagnosed behavior disorder or not, many children figure out early on that negative behavior is a quick, easy way to gain an adult’s attention.  Some effective ways to de-escalate anxious, attention-seeking negative behavior are:

1.      Engage anxious or negative-attention seeking students at the beginning of the period with a positive presupposition such as, “I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our topic today.  I’ll check-in with you in about five minutes.”  It’s important for the teacher to follow-through with this initial check-in and consistently circle back to the student throughout the period.  Thus, the student receives positive attention from the beginning of class, and the anxious student receives regular feedback about her progress, thereby heading off any potential outbursts.

2.     Give fact-based praise privately, especially to anxious students.  Consider conferring with students at the beginning of the year to ascertain their preference for positive feedback.

Tune back-in next Tuesday for “Antecedents to Negative Behaviors.”

Schwartz, K. (2016, April 21). 20 tips to help de-escalate interactions with anxious or defiant Students. 

Increasing Student Engagement

How do we know our students are truly engaged? What are easy-to-implement engagement strategies?  How does student engagement work hand-in-hand with a positive classroom culture?  Intrigued?  Read Stacy Hurst’s short article for answers to these questions and more!

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/seven-ways-to-increase-student-engagement-in-the-classroom

Bringing Your Technology Game to the Next Level

Do you have technology tools available to you but you are not quite sure what to do with them? Or maybe you are looking to go further with technology than you did last year. 

The Arizona Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) is a great resource to support you. It is a differentiated collection of lesson plans and videos that supports teachers with moving to “the next level” of implementation. No matter where you are right now. Enjoy this fantastic resource brought to you by our friends at the Arizona K12 Center: http://www.azk12.org/tim/

Remember...

Today, remember to “Be patient with yourself and your learners.  No one is perfect and its ok to make mistakes.  Its even better if you learn from them.” 

—Starr Sackstein.  You are there for your students.  Keep students at the heart of everything you do.

Be Prepared

“Be prepared! It’s not just for Boy Scouts. The most successful teachers are those who plan thoroughly — everything from lessons to transitions to classroom routines. The more you plan, the better prepared you are for surprises.”

Change it up!

Don’t get stuck in a singular mode of teaching!

“Frequently vary the delivery of your instruction. Often times we as teachers get caught up in doing things one way. We are as much creatures of habit as anyone. When things become boring and too predictable, discipline problems are undoubtedly going to become an issue.”

 — Joseph D 

Register for MCESA Summer Courses 2016

Many Thanks!

“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots." 

—Thurgood Marshall  

Teachers, what you are doing matters – the time to plan the engaging lessons, the constant thinking about how to help your students improve and become all they can be.  Today, know that all of your hard work matters!  Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Click here to register for MCESA’s Summer Courses 2016

Setting Expectations

“A great teacher sets high expectations for all students. This teacher realizes that the expectations she has for her students greatly affect their achievement; she knows that students generally give to teachers as much or as little as is expected of them.” – Maria Orlando

As the end of the school year is drawing near continue to collaborate with your students to develop shared values and expectations to end the year strong academically and prepare them to start the next year strong.  Here are some suggestions:

Write a letter to your students highlighting their accomplishments from the school year and encouraging them in their next school year. This could be mailed to them just before school starts or given to the at next years’ open house.  

Have students write a letter to themselves highlighting their accomplishments or what they want to remember going into next school year. Be creative and allow students’ to be creative.

Have students create a scrapbook highlighting their year and their goals for next year.

Shifting Gears

“A great teacher can “shift-gears” and is flexible when a lesson isn’t working. This teacher assesses his teaching throughout the lessons and finds new ways to present material to make sure that every student understands the key concepts.”    —Maria Orlando

As you are delivering your planned lessons what Monitor and Adjust strategies do you have ready so you can ‘shift-gears’ to adjust instruction to make the content more accessible for students and to increase rigor for students demonstrating mastery as well.

Goal Setting

“People who can set long-term goals and stick to them have a leg up on success in school and life.” – Deborah Perkins-Gough

What class and individual student goals can you and your students create and work towards achieving?

Amazing

“If children are given the chance to believe they’re worth something – if they truly believe that – they will insist upon it.” – Amy Azzam  

In what ways will you show your students they are amazing today?

Complex Thinking Prompts

“Planning a lesson that uses all four of the following types of questions can transform classroom questions into analytic tasks that require students to think at increasingly complex levels.”

 – Robert Marzano

Four types of questions:

Details – ask questions of students for recall or recognize details

Characteristics – move the focus to the general characteristics of the topic being studied

Elaborations – ask students to elaborate on the characteristics of and elements within a category

Evidence – questions require students to provide support or evidence for their elaborations