Tag Archives: skills

Teaching Thinking (and Other Critical Skills)!

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Teaching Thinking!  Is this an impossible task?

Clearly the work of teachers and parents is to help students become better thinkers, problem solvers, and communicators.  We want students to become more creative and critical in their thinking.  It is challenging work.  How do you support students in becoming true inquirers who are curious, interested, and capable of asking probing questions?  How do we support students as they engage with their own thinking?  How do we help students develop resilience?

True Resilience!

True Resilience!  (www.jscottfitness.com)

Below is a “story” that I’ve held onto for years. I remember hearing this story when my own children were young boys.  I found a source of the story online as a letter to the editor to the New York Times.

The following letter to the editor appeared in the New York Times on January 18, 1988

‘Izzy, Did You Ask a Good Question Today?’

Isidor I. Rabi, the Nobel laureate in physics who died Jan. 11 (1988), was once asked, ”Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighborhood?”

His answer has served as an inspiration for me as an educator, as a credo for my son during his schooling and should be framed on the walls of all the pedagogues, power brokers and politicians who purport to run our society.

The question was posed to Dr. Rabi by his friend and mine, Arthur Sackler, himself a multitalented genius, who, sadly, also passed away recently. Dr. Rabi’s answer, as reported by Dr. Sackler, was profound: ”My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: ‘So? Did you learn Continue reading →

Maintain Focus on Instruction!

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I believe that focusing attention on  high leverage instructional practices impacts learning, adult

LCS Faculty dialogue - Instructional Principles for English Language Learners

LCS Faculty dialogue – Instructional Principles for English Language Learners

learning and student learning.  That is my intent and this is influencing recent topics at faculty professional learning meetings.

What are those instructional practices that we are exploring?

Earlier this year, I asked  faculty to set two professional goals related to the following areas. These areas were identified as potential high leverage practices related to research from John Hattie.

 

 

Identifying Learning GoalsSetting clear learning expectations

Appropriate level of challenge for students

Clear success criteria (exemplars, rubrics, etc)

 Feedback processes 

Clear exemplars

Clear and specific feedback

Use of formative assessment

 

 Questioning techniquesTeacher talk & Thinking time

High level questioning and discourse within classroom

Classroom positioning and classroom discourse

 

Simply put, if teachers do these things well, students learning will improve!

 

Great teaching is hard. It requires intense thought, planning, and instinct. We are trying to maintain a focus in the Secondary School on several specific areas that, if done well, are definite elements of great teaching!

  • Clear learning goals & targets.
  • Clear language goals & targets (“all teachers are teachers of language”)
  • Goals & targets for students that are appropriately challenging.
  • Scaffolded instruction to support students in meeting targets
  • Differentiated opportunities to support students (“differentiation is a mindset”)
  • Formative assessment that provides clear and specific feedback
  • Minimizing teacher talk and maximizing classroom discourse

If we work hard to become even better at our craft and expand our understanding, knowledge, and skills in these areas, we will be better teachers and student learning improves.  This is my belief.

I think finding and maintaining a focus around instructional strategies and best practices is incredibly challenging.  If teachers can really try to find those few areas to focus upon, latch onto, dig into their professional learning, and experiment with then adult learning will take place.  If adults learn and expand professionally, student learning expands.

Motivation, Self Directed Learning & Resilience

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In two weeks our Grade 12 students will participate in a special workshop led by Mr Lance King (www.taolearn.com).  The title of the workshop is Building Exam Confidence. Mr King is known for his provocative thinking around teaching and learning.  He focuses an audience on supporting students in becoming lifelong learners who regulate their own learning and learn independently. In a workshop for teachers last year, he challenged educators to clarify the “real purpose, the overall aim of school”.   Is it about getting into a good college? Is it about finding a good job? Is it about producing life long learners?  How do we help students become intrinsically motivated for learning?  What’s the role of teachers in supporting students in becoming independent, self directed learners?

In his faculty presentation he highlighted three important areas for students to really develop.  These were self belief (also known as self-efficacy), strategies for learning how to learn (learning how to reflect on strengths and chart an individual learning path), and learning how to “fail well” (learning to be resilient and reflective).

How do you develop the self-belief that you are capable of achieving success?  For some it’s about seeing role models around them, someone who helps establish aspirations.  Supporting the development of self-confidence and self-worth in students is an essential part of the work of a parent and a teacher.

As an individual, how do you respond to learning challenges?  How do you learn best?  How do you respond to the challenge of learning something new?  How do you react to challenges?

  • What is the hardest thing you have ever done?
  • What is your strategy to do something hard?
  • How did you get yourself to do that hard thing?
  • Can you analyze your strategy and break it down?

Thinking about how you learn best is part of becoming an independent learner.

How motivated to learn are you? How do you respond when you aren’t successful?  Do you want to overcome obstacles? How resilient are you?  Do you  FAIL WELL when you don’t achieve the goal you set for yourself?  In his research, he found students who “fail well”:

  1. acknowledged they had some failure,
  2. looked back at their failure,
  3. analyzed results,
  4. analyzed strategy,
  5. put in place a new strategy and had another go.

They did not blame the school, or the system, or others.  They moved forward without getting caught up in the drama of failure.

In his upcoming workshop for students, the focus will be upon developing confidence, specific strategies for learning, and resilience in the face of challenges to cope with the academic workload and demands of the IB.  Challenging yourself and overcoming obstacles in your learning journey is important.  Schools must create safe places in order to allow students to accept challenge, fail with challenge, and recover to learn from setbacks.  Very few people find success in life without feeling “knocked back” at some point or other.

The timing of challenges for Grade 12 students is ripe for a focused workshop experience that will give students an opportunity to reflect and consider what lies ahead in the very near future!  The first semester of Grade 12 is a notorious time during which layers of challenge are placed upon already weighted shoulders.  How you respond and manage provides multiple opportunities for learning.