Differentiation for the Bright and/or Highly Capable Learner: Extension Activities

This coaching tip is written with the “Cougar Classroom” (Cluster Group Classrooms)  in mind, and it is applicable for any differentiation a teacher wants to do to challenge students.

When you have a student who completes work quickly and needs a challenge activity, one option is to have a board with cards in it with challenge activities related to THINKING (not necessarily specific content).  By limiting the choice each couple of weeks, you can have the necessary supplies available to students.

On the attached blog you can find Suggested Extension Activities for both primary and intermediate students, and a Daily Log where students can track their own progress of which extension activities they complete.  When the sheet is filled, have the student take the sheet home to show their parents how they have been challenged!

Pose/Pause/Pounce/Bounce–Formative Assessment and Student Talk Strategy

Who doesn’t love a 2 for 1 deal, right? Here is a great strategy that allows an opportunity for student talk AND formative assessment! Click here for resources

What? 

A student talk and formative assessment strategy that elicits evidence of student learning. High engagement classrooms have a significant impact on student achievement. This high engagement, no opt-out strategy creates accountability for individual student learning and allows teachers insights into student understanding.

Why? 

According to formative assessment guru Dylan Wiliam, there are only 2 reasons to ask students questions: to cause thinking and to provide information for the teacher about what to do next. Meaningful student talk is a strategy to elicit evidence of student thinking and learning. It becomes formative assessment if and only if evidence of learning is elicited and used by the teacher and or students to inform next steps. As teachers listen to student responses they should listen less evaluatively (listening for correct answers) and more interpretively (listening for student THINKING…misconceptions, fuzzy areas, understanding of topics and strategies). This information will allow teachers to make in the moment, informed decisions about how to move instruction forward.

How?
Strategy: Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce 
POSE: Teacher poses a thoughtful question
PAUSE: After posing the question, pause for at least 5 seconds to allow think time 
POUNCE: Randomly choose one student to answer the question (popsicle sticks, randomizer app, etc.)

BOUNCE: Bounce to another student at random asking “What do you think of that answer?” Students can respond by agreeing, disagreeing, adding on, asking a clarifying question, etc. using student talk stems. If a student is truly stuck, they can phone a friend for help before providing an answer.
As students talk, the teacher listens interpretively and uses the evidence gathered to inform next steps. Looking for a simple recording sheet? Click here

Bonus: Here is a great visual defining formative assessment, and comparing it with both pre-assessment and summative assessment from Crockett's Classroom Blog: 

Strategies to keep audience learning during peer presentations

Many teachers incorporate student presentations as an essential part of their classes. The challenge is to ensure that the listeners in the room continue to learn during the presentations.  Giving students a specific assignment to do in relation to the presentation will raise the level of audience thinking and engagement.

First, ask students, “What does it mean to be a good audience member during presentations? How might you maximize your learning from these presentations?” You might want to co-create the success criteria with students on the white board.

For a content-based presentation, you might also ask students to:

1.      1.  Be a critic on the content presented. Students could list strengths/weaknesses of the presented content.
2.       Create a list of questions about the content of the presentations. Teacher could cold-call on 2-3 students after each presentation to share their questions with the presenter. OR, the teacher could ask students in pairs or small groups to record three questions raised by the presentation. They could then choose the best one to add to a Google Doc or place on a Post-It for sharing.
3.       Take notes on the speaker’s presentation.
4.       Write a summary of the presenter’s information.
5.       Develop an argument on the opposing side if the student is trying to argue or persuade the audience.
6.       Think of themselves as researchers needing to develop the next research question, listing the next steps.
7.       Pause between presentations to give students a chance to ask questions, clarify and consolidate their notes with others.
8.       Insert brief demonstrations, short ungraded exercises, and/or simulation exercises between presentations to apply the learning.
9.       Use clickers or electronic programs such as Socrative, Plickers, or Kahoot to find out if students are understanding the material.
10.   Give specific feedback based on the rubric for the presentations

For a presentation evaluated on performance or presentation skills, you might also ask students to:

1.      1.         Complete a rubric on the presenter.
2.      Offer the presenter “Two Stars” (positive feedback) and a “Wish” (suggestion to improve their presentation).

Please share with us any other ideas that you have used in the classroom!

Some of the ideas above came from http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/tips/spal.shtml and   https://www.sdstate.edu/engr/upload/Engaging-Students-ASEE-CoE-3-24-11.pdf

Write About – Formative Assessment Strategy

Read below for rationale, how-to directions and modification tips. You can find the pre-made documents for Kinder, Primary & Intermediate classrooms here.

What? A concrete tool for use in classroom or at home where students summarize what they have learned about a topic using key words and pictures then combine their thinking into a written summary.  This tool is for use with a single concept (ex. Underground Railroad) within a larger unit (ex. Civil War). 

Why? This strategy helps students with long term retention of information and it helps them process information they have learned.  It allows the teacher to see at a glance trends in the information students are grasping and then allows the teacher to fill in gaps where needed.  

How?

1. Provide “Write About” sheet to students at end of lesson.
2. Model how to complete sheet by brainstorming key words and drawing a picture to represent main idea.  The level of independence will be depend on your class and grade level.  This might need to be modeled multiple times, depending on grade level.
3. Demo how to write a summary using the key words from your brainstorm.  Be sure to check off the words as you use them and circle them in your summary.
4. To start, you might want to use the gradual release of responsibility model, first guided by you, then as a whole class, then in pairs and finally on their own, when ready.
5.  Collect paper and provide feedback to students.  You are looking for mastery.  One suggested feedback tip is to use a check to show a student understands most terms and ideas but still has to master others.
6. Plan instruction for the next lesson to fill any gaps in student’s understanding.  Your follow up can be whole class, flexible grouping, or tiered based on data you collected.

Modifications: Expert Groups/Jigsaw, provide template with portions filled in (ex. key words supplied) and have them compete the rest, etc.

You can find the pre-made documents for Kinder, Primary & Intermediate classrooms here.

Learning Targets for Review Days

Have you found yourself wondering how to write a Learning Target for a unit or test review day?  Here are some ideas:

I can identify which learning targets from this unit I have mastered and which ones I still need to practice.  I can create a plan to for working on the targets I haven't mastered yet.

I can identify which skills I can apply independently, and which ones I still need to work on. I can create a plan for how I will practice and/or learn the skills I can't apply independently yet.

I can develop and refine my skills in ________________________.
Student would select specific skill(s) from the unit.

I can apply the skill of ________________________ to novel or real-world situations.


Possible Success Criteria:
Identify the specific material I need to master.
Identify who can help me with my plan for learning what I want to work on.
Identify the resources I will need.
Identify a timeline.



Students will make the best use of their time if they focus on skills they haven't mastered, rather than reviewing every skill or concept taught in a unit.  Setting up this type of review should also allow students to predict fairly accurately how they will perform on an assessment.

If you have students who have already mastered all of the skills or concepts, give them the job of coaching other students during the review.

Two More Easy Student Talk Strategies

Did you get a chance to try our student talk suggestions from last week? Here are two more suggestions, again from Sarah Tantillo’s blog, “12 Ways to Get Students Speaking and Listening.” Feel free to visit her blog to find even more.

7. Don’t repeat what students say.

Students are like cats who want more food in their bowl: they train us! If you allow students to train you to repeat what they say, then they won’t develop proper speaking or listening skills. When you repeat what students say, it sends the message that they should not to listen to one another. It also teaches them to mumble because they know you will amplify everything.

Another downside is that repeating unnecessarily lengthens class discussions and undermines the ratio of student cognitive work. Doug Lemov (Teach Like a Champion) describes an array of methods for enhancing this ratio, including unbundling (asking numerous questions to dissect a topic or problem), feigning ignorance, and batch-processing (instead of responding to every single comment, responding after several have been made), among others.

                   

9. Invite students to ask questions as often as possible.

But this does not mean asking, “Does anyone have any questions?” for which the answer is almost invariably, “No.” Instead, ask, “What questions could we ask in this situation?” or “What questions can we ask about ____?” Then write their questions down on the board to show how much you value them. As a default, students need to know the utility of applying Five W’s and the H (who, what, when, where, why, and how) to pick apart texts.

Is there data to support student talk?

John Hattie says that “self-verbalization and self-talk” has a .64 effect size in enhancing student achievement.  Since any effect size over .4 exceeds the normal effect that student development with an average teacher would yield in a year, it’s no surprise that our CEL 5D document has two criteria for student talk: 2.2 (Expectation, support, and opportunity for participation and meaning making) and 2.3 (Substance of student talk).

Setting Goals With Students

A Parent’s Guide to Setting Goals With Their Children:

For more tips on setting goals with students, check out the following:

http://www.educationtransformation.org/2013/01/5-tips-for-setting-goals-with-students.html

http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2011/10/meeting-with-parents.html

Student Talk

How might you painlessly integrate more student talk opportunities into your classroom?  Sarah Tantillo’s blog,  12 Ways to Get Students Speaking and Listening is a great resource. 

Here are two of our favorite suggestions from her blog. We’ll share two more next week. Feel free to visit her blog to find even more.

3. Move from paraphrasing to inference as much as you can, and ask students for evidence to back up their ideas or arguments (2.1, 2.3).

For example: “What can you infer from what James just said? What evidence gave you that idea?” Teach students how to paraphrase and infer early in the year so that they can log many hours of practicing these skills. Also, clarify the difference between argument and evidence. No matter what grade or subject you teach, even if the terms are not new to them, the review will establish a common language in the room. Posters can serve as handy reminders. The more students are invited to explain their ideas, the stronger their inference and comprehension skills will become.

5. Ask why as often as possible, to give students more opportunities to explain their ideas (2.1, 2.3).

This will boost their inference skills. Even when they give the “correct” answer, ask them why because (1) they might have guessed and (2) their explanation will teach others in the room who might not have understood the material.

Note: The first few times you ask why, students who aren’t accustomed to being questioned might back away from their response or become defensive. I like to tell students, “I’m not asking why because I think you’re wrong; I’m asking why because I genuinely want to know how you think and because your explanation will help your classmates understand this better.”

Is there data to support student talk?

John Hattie says that “self-verbalization and self-talk” has a .64 effect size in enhancing student achievement.  Since any effect size over .4 exceeds the normal effect that student development with an average teacher would yield in a year, it’s no surprise that our CEL 5D document has two criteria for student talk: 2.2 (Expectation, support, and opportunity for participation and meaning making) and 2.3 (Substance of student talk).

3-2-1 Summary-Formative Assessment

Looking for a new way to assess for learning? Here’s one that is easy to use and easily modified to fit the needs and grade level of your classroom. The 3-2-1 summary is a strategy that allows students to be reflective, while providing teachers with clear evidence of understanding and/or misunderstanding at the end of a lesson. This strategy can be adapted to any topic or content area. The numbers, 3-2-1, refer to how many of each kind of summary statement or response you are asking students to provide. For example:

·         3 facts I learned

·         2 questions I have

·         1 personal connection

Here are some examples of what this could look like in the classroom:

This sample is from the blog Create-Teach-Share

The possibilities are endless, and the responses students give will allow you to assess for student learning to guide future instruction and/or student groupings. The more focused the prompts are, the better the assessment will be to guide next steps.

Here are a few very focused examples for using the 3-2-1 strategy from the book “25 Quick Formative Assessment Strategies for a Differentiated Classroom” by Judith Dodge:

Math:

• 3 strategies for solving word problems
• 2 important things to look for when solving word problems
• 1 solution to a provided word problem

Science:

• 3 parts and functions of a plant
• 2 ways to keep plants healthy
• 1 way the earth would be affected if there were no plants

This strategy elicits student learning by nature, but remember it is only formative assessment if and only if evidence of learning is elicited and used by the teacher and or student to inform next steps.

Claim Evidence Reasoning - Supporting Students in all Core Subjects

Help your students work toward mastering Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA, History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subject and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Math Practice #3, Communicating Reasoning.

Using your own content, ask your students to use the claim, evidence, reasoning framework:

1. Compose an arguable claim (also argument, thesis, statement that answers a question)
2. Support the claim with evidence (also text based evidence, data, observations, sources, personal experience)
3. Explain their reasoning (also elaboration, commentary, explanation; showing thinking about the evidence)

This can be accomplished through student talk as well as writing.  

Additional Resources and Information:

     Claim-Evidence-Reasoning in Science by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

     CCSS for English Language Arts 

     look on the right side for history/social studies, science, and technical subjects
     CCSS for Math

Flip Card - Formative Assessment

One quick way to check for understanding and have students reflect as they are working is by using Flip Cards. This strategy can be used in many ways throughout your lesson.  In a 1st grade classroom, the teacher used the gradual release of responsibility model.  After teaching the content on the rug, students were released back to their seats.  As soon as they got back to their seats, they flipped their card to reflect where they were in relation to the skill just taught.  Students with "I got it!" displayed got right to work.  Students with "I almost have it" and students that flipped their card to "I don't get it" were gathered on the floor for continued support and reteaching.  As the skill became more clear, students were able to leave the small group to work independently.  As students continued to work, they changed the side that was displayed that matched their understanding, helping the teacher and themselves know where they were in relation to the success criteria.  Having students self-reflect gave the teacher quick insight as to who she needed to connect with and formatively assess what they needed to be successful with the skill at hand. Remember, it is only formative assessment if and only if evidence of learning is elicited and used by the teacher and or student to inform next steps.

Visit Crockett's Classroom Blog for ideas like this one and more.

Using Cue Cards - Formative Assessment

Do you want instant feedback on who understands, who needs clarification, and who is ready to learn more?  Watch this brief video (2:45) to see an easy-to-use, instant-feedback (6.3) strategy that provides in-the-moment feedback and allows students to assess their own learning, determine learning goals, and monitor their progress (6.5).

Explain What Matters - Formative Assessment

How to Do It

On a 3” x 5” card, ask students to:

Explain the most critical part of _________  to a specific audience of your choice in four or fewer sentences.

Examples

Topic:  Thesis statements

Audience: Jay-Z

The most important part of a thesis statement is clarity and conviction, so it’s kind of like the hook or title of one of your songs–it delivers the message that the song goes on to explain. Feel me?

Topic: The decision to dump the tea into Boston Harbor

Audience: Sixteen-year-old who just got her driver’s license

The most important factor that made colonists decide to dump the tea into Boston Harbor was that they had to pay for the taxes on tea, but they didn’t have anyone represent them in the government. It would be just like if your parents decided that you needed to get a part-time job to help pay for a car for your older brother, but you weren’t going to be allowed to drive it because you were a girl. Lame!  Wouldn’t you throw something, too?

My Favorite No - Formative Assessment

Check out this 5 minute video My Favorite No to learn about a formative assessment strategy (6.3) for identifying and addressing student misconceptions (4.5) in a positive way.

“A mistake is your opportunity to share with me how much you understand so I can teach you before the test.  The test is too late.”

Socratic Seminar

Your Teacher Leaders were introduced to, and participated in, a Socratic Seminar at their Teacher Leadership Institute.   The feedback was positive and some people expressed interest in trying it out.  Here are directions for the Socratic Seminar.  This 7 minute video will show you Socratic Seminar in action.   

Group Feedback Helps Involve Everyone

Do you ever find yourself wondering how to improve how students function when talking in groups, or how to get the introverts in your class more involved?  You can use this form to have a student collect data about a discussion and give feedback to a group.  

This is a great way to get shy students talking.  First, they have to listen carefully to their peers and take notes.  Second, they are able to talk from their notes when giving the group feedback, which can help them build confidence.  

Student Talk with a Purpose

Do you find yourself doing student talk for the sake of student talk?

How is student learning in your class different because of the talk in your classroom?

As you prepare for student talk, be intentional about your purpose by identifying the goal of your student talk:

Goal One:      Help Individual Students Share, Expand and Clarify Their Own Thinking Goal Two:      Help Students Listen Carefully to One Another Goal Three:   Help Students Deepen Their Reasoning Goal Four:     Help Students Think With Others

 Once you have identified your goal check out these strategies connected to each goal!

This was adapted from TERC The Inquiry Project: Bridging Research and Practice

Getting More Out of A/B Partners and Think/Pair/Share

This week's tip is from Edweek.org.

Find out how one instructional coach helps teachers get more out of Think-Pair-Share and A/B Partners in David Ginsburg's A Think-Pair-Share on Think-Pair-Share.

Wait for it . . . Wait for it . . .

You’re the teacher.  You have just given students opportunities to dig deep into thinking.  You have set the classroom environment; you have scaffolded; you have had students sharing thinking; now you want an all class discussion.  What is the most important “talk move” you can do at this point:  Wait Time. 

Wait Time might seem like an unusual “talk move” because it is a pause in the talking.  But it is the most researched of all the talk moves and has been shown to remarkably impact the quality of both students’ and teachers’ thinking.  Wait Time, as described in the work of Mary Budd Rowe (1986), involves waiting at least 3 to 5 seconds after you ask a question, and then waiting again for the same interval after a student responds to the question. 

The research on Wait Time is extensive.  The research literature talks about two different kinds of wait time, both important, and powerful.  The first is after you ask a question but before you call on a particular student or before a student begins to speak. 

The second kind of Wait Time is pausing before you respond to what a student has just said.  And, of course, sometimes in the middle of a turn, a student pauses and this second kind of wait time is important as well, waiting after a student pauses or stops talking.

The research – at all grade levels and across all subject domains – shows that if you increase your wait time – to 3 seconds or even more – dramatic changes take place.

1.      Students say more.  The length of student responses increases between 300% and 700%.

2.      They expand and clarify and explain their thinking with evidence.

3.      The number of questions asked by other students increases dramatically.

4.      Student-to-student talk increases.

Increasing Wait Time AFTER a student has talked is particularly powerful for expanding the complexity of student explanations, the depth of reasoning and in growing the amount of student-to-student talk where students spontaneously address or ask questions of peers.

How long are you waiting? 

Excerpted from the Talk Science Primer, TERC, 2012

Accountable Discussions

This week's tip comes from The Teacher Toolkit, a good place to find simple, quick strategies.

In this post at The Teacher Toolkit, you'll learn about how "accountable discussion empowers students to draw up arguments based on evidence."

You can even find the accountable talk cards, here.