There's one other fact. A pane in the dining-room window has been smashed- and there are only three...on the table.
The Chappuis' three-question model for enhancing student metacognitive development and self-sufficiency continues in this module and next. The fact that three of the ten modules in ED 235 rest squarely on the Chappuis approach (formative assessment) signifies the value this instructor puts on her materials.
"Metacognitive skills include taking conscious control of learning, planning and selecting strategies, monitoring the progress of learning, correcting errors, analyzing the effectiveness of learning strategies, and changing learning behaviors and strategies when necessary."
- Ridley, D.S., Schutz, P.A., Glanz, R.S. & Weinstein, C.E, "Self-regulated Learning: the Interactive Influence of Metacognitive Awareness and Goal-setting," Journal of Experimental Education,1992
21st Century Skills Assessment
This is where we are going; this is the future in public education ... timely, relevant feedback.
Formative assessment; it begins and ends with Chappuis for us in ED235.
1. Review Chappuis, "Helping Students Understand Assessment", Educational Leadership, November 2005 (Introduced previous module).
2. Where Am I Now?
Team Project:The very same script-writing, “canned “ dialogue, play-producing exercise introduced in Module 7 extends to this module. Yes, the modus operandus remains constant, but the focus shifts to the second act, Strategies 3 and 4 as manifested in Scenes 3 and 4.
Where Am I now?
Create a fresh sample script for Strategy 3 (“ Offer regular…”) and another for Strategy 4. (“Teach students to…”).
Strategy 3 becomes Scene 3 and Strategy 4 turns into Scene 4.
500 words of script each, not counting attachments...just like before, in Module 7.
Nothing changes basically. Same approach. Same format.
Ready, get set, go!
It's the thing to do...Down Under
"Recently the New Zealand Ministry of Education proposed a framework of key competencies to underpin the New Zealand school curriculum. These include principles associated with self–regulated learning such as reflective thinking, meaning making and self-management.
- Conner, "Strategy Use, Self-regulation and Achievement", Academic Exchange Quarterly, Summer 2006
"Breakfast of Champions"!
"It is often said that feedback is the breakfast of champions. All kinds of learning, whether on the practice field or in the classroom, require feedback based on formative assessments. Ironically, the quality feedback necessary to enhance learning is limited or nonexistent in many classrooms.
To serve learning, feedback must meet four criteria: It must be timely, specific, understandable to the receiver, and formed to allow for self-adjustment on the student's part (Wiggins, 1998)."
- McTighe and O'Connor, "Seven Practices for Effective Learning", Educational Leadership, Nov 2005
ADDENDUM # 1
Excerpts from COMMENTS 2/18/06...
Many scholars who study what happens in schools believe that teachers (especially new ones) face the following 3 stages or phases with any new class.
PHASE 1: The Grace Period
Students, even in the most difficult of classes, are generally quiet and subdued the first class (when they meet their teacher), the first week and sometimes longer. They quiet down while they listen to the teacher's "pitch".
Don't get fooled by the Grace Period. It won't last!
PHASE 2: The Testing Period
This is where the real action begins. This is where a giant test of wills, teacher's vs. students', occurs.
This is where the teacher must ultimately win this struggle over who "really runs the show" in this classroom.
The battle can last for months!
Some of the more aggressive students in the class will begin to "act out" in various ways, defying the teacher and her "rules".
Less aggressive kids, "on the fence" at the start of the battle for control of the class, will wait to see who (which side) appears to be winning the "test of wills" before joining sides. If they eventually join the side of the Aggressive Kids, the teacher has practically a whole roomful of kids giving her a hard time daily.
If they join with the teacher, however, she can begin to isolate and divide the aggressive "hold-outs" and ultimately "manage" them, too.
Phase 2, the "Testing Period" can be compared loosely to a cowpoke riding a bucking bronco. The teacher is the cowpoke. The bronco is the class (aggressive students).
The class is trying to throw the teacher "out of the saddle". The aggressive kids will try, day after day, for months, to succeed in this regard. If the teacher can "stay in the saddle", however, the kids eventually begin to yield to her strength and determination. They concede "victory" to the teacher. They stop "bucking" and settle down!
At that point, the "Testing Period" is over and the class enters the last phase or stage...the Respect Stage.
PHASE 3: Respect
All in the room are basically together. The business of this class is doing "schoolwork"...reluctantly perhaps. There is little "messing around" of any substance.
Students and teacher respect each other. They are NOT friends, however. They are like "business associates", doing a job together in a calm, rational supportive manner.
If a teacher cannot make it to this last stage (Respect), then it is simply a matter of time before he/she leaves teaching. The daily experience is simply too painful emotionally.
There are important variables that affect the intensity of the classical conflict described above. Large, older teachers with deep voices have fewer problems.
Small, younger teachers with soft voices can expect to be tested severely and for months and months with some classes. They may never reach the Respect Stage!
Gender is a factor: usually large people with deep voices are male!
Age is a factor: people over age 30 and with a bit of gray in their hair generally reach the Respect Stage faster.
What's the best way to reach the Respect Stage ASAP?!
ANSWER: "Kick butt"...professionally!
Force the aggressive kids to show up in your classroom at lunch, before school, after school. Call their parents. Call their coaches. Make their lives "miserable" in a calm way. Make them do sloppy work over and over and over until they do it right and take your assignment seriously. Never raise your voice.
Be more persistent than they are. Stay until 5:30 P.M. at school dealing with them if you have to. Don't take "No" for an answer.
Break their wills to defy you, to "blow you off" as irrelevant!
Your continued employment as a teacher, your well-being as a person, depends upon your success in getting to the Respect Stage. It does not appear magically; you have to EARN it!
Our best teachers do. They have the "heart" of a lion, the mental toughness of an athlete...all the while having a propensity to be Authentic, of course!
ADDENDUM #2
Excerpts from Saturday's COMMENTS to ED 235 students 4/14/07
We are now heading down the backside of April, looking toward May, sunlight and warmth...and freedom from Blackboard and Dr. Z's rantings!
CHORUS: Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait...
DR. Z: Not there...not there yet! Work on, work on!!
ADDENDUM #3
Excerpts from Saturday's COMMENTS to ED 235 students 11/29/08...
1. Less than two days from December. My! My!
Before we address the work of the week, I'd like to "profess". That's what professors are supposed to do. Profess.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CHAPPUIS MODS 7, 8, 9:
In my opinion, the singlemost important research study (actually a review of the existing research) of the past 15 years or so done on the relationship between instruction/assessment and how it is carried out in the classroom and whether certain changes lead to increased academic achievement is the Black and Wiliam review cited in Chappuis.
They focused on Assessment for Learning...AKA as Formative Assessment strategies, as you should know.
These British educational researchers managed to convince many that the kinds of meta-cognitive, effort-based teacher initiatives put forth by Chappuis actually lead to higher rates of achievement by students.
That is, teachers who actually do the strategies identified in the Chappuis reading selection teach more effectively than teachers who don't.
But here's the rub: most teachers don't!! Most employ FEW of those CHAPPUIS strategies you have come to know and love.
Sad, huh? On the one hand we have identified evidence-based teaching/learning strategies but on the other hand we know most public school secondary teachers employ only a smattering of these powerful strategies.
A large gap exists between what we know we should be doing based on latest research and what teachers ARE actually doing.
Chappuis, dear students, attempts to inform you on what state-of-the-art teaching should look like as we approach 2009. I hope you realize this.
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2. What Questions Will They Ask?
In a few years, those who remain in education (about half of you) and apply for a full-time position in teaching will have to face a formal interview often conducted by a panel of teachers and administrators who fire questions at you and study your answers.
What Questions?
Based on my contacts and experience, I suggest the interview questions will likely focus on the following topics in this order of probability:
1. Standards (both content and performance standards or rubrics). Know your Curriculum Frameworks. Know MCAS!
2. Cooperative learning. Most teachers are poor to middlin' at doing cooperative learning. Simply put, they don't know how to do it right.
I happen to address cooperative leatning in several addenda in the modules. A vital, question, however, is whether you are smart enough and care enough to read my comments. Up to you.
3. Constructivism. Module 4, remember?
4. Teacher Oral Questions. Addressed in another addendum. Did you find it?
5. Assessment. This is where Chappuis, Black and Wiliam, and Mods 7, 8, 9 come in.
**I have finished professing for today. Now on to current work.