Five More Strategies from "17 Ways to Combat Learned Helplessness in the Classroom" By Sarah Tantillo
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Tantillo says:

13. Assigned reading should always have a purpose
IF: You assign reading with students without establishing a purpose for reading…

THEN: Students don’t know what they are supposed to look for or pay attention to. The default is NOTHING. So you can’t blame them if they stare out the window and think about lunch.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Clarify why you are reading this particular bit of text and what they are supposed to do while reading. Either provide a question or ask them to generate their own questions about the text.

Bridget and Brooke say:

• Having one or a series of "focus questions" for kids to read for can benefit their understanding of the text and can provoke great discussion--especially if  the reading offers different perspectives. 
• Providing a note-taking template or organizer can also help kids focus on what you intend them to read and comprehend. 
• TPEP Criteria Connection:  4.3: Discipline-specific conceptual understanding

Tantillo says:

14. Define the reading partnership

IF: You tell students to “read and work with a partner”…

THEN: You will see a lot of chatting and no reading. This is because students are unclear about their roles, so they wait for each other to take the lead, with the result that neither does. It’s easier to chat.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Clarify the role that each partner will play in the work: e.g., “Partner A will read aloud while Partner B will raise and record questions about this page. On the next page, you will switch roles. Partner B will read, and Partner A will surface the questions and write them down.” Choose the partners ahead of time so that you are purposeful in the groups with respect to ability/personality, etc.

Bridget and Brooke say:

• The A/B partner is a GREAT idea for any subject area. 
• This also helps students who are English language learners, who are still navigating the language, work with  a partner to hear the words and help them with their comprehension.
• TPEP Criteria Connection: 4.2: Alignment of instructional materials and tasks.

Tantillo says:

15. Don’t overdo the partnership work strategy
IF: You do ALL the work as a group or in partners…

THEN: Students learn they don’t need to do the hard work since it’s always done together and for them by others if they choose not to.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Plan and keep independent work time sacred in class with aggressive monitoring and personal feedback.

Bridget and Brooke say:

• This reminds us of the idea of gradual release. Starting with partners is a great idea, especially in the beginning phases of new learning. However, as kids start to get the hang of things then that would be a great time to allow them to work independently.
• TPEP Criteria Connection:  2.4: Scaffolds the task; 2.5: Gradual release of responsibility; 4.2: Alignment of instructional materials and tasks

Tantillo says:

16. Stop sweeping in to save the day
IF: You answer student questions immediately during independent work time…

THEN: Students learn not to try or struggle on their own. They’ll always wait for you to swoop in!

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Set a timer as soon as 100% of students are actually working and you have announced that you will address questions after 5 minutes of sustained work time. When the timer goes off, you can say, “Raise your hand if you need my attention,” and write student names on the board. Students then return to work and you address questions in the order of the names on the board so students aren’t sitting there waiting with their hands up.

Bridget and Brooke say: 

• It's so easy to fall into the habit of answering kids' questions right as they raise their hand. We find that allowing some kids to conduct in some struggle can be a good thing! This allows kids to try and fail in a safe environment where they know they can eventually get some help from their teacher. 
• The strategy "3 Before Me" can also apply in this situation. Students must ask three peers for support before they can ask the teacher for help. Students can make great resources for each other. 
• TPEP Criteria Connection: 2.5: Gradual release of responsibility; 3.3: Strategies that capitalize on learning needs of students

Tantillo says:

17. Always encourage wonder
IF: You ask all the questions…

THEN: Students never learn to ask their own or invest themselves enough to wonder.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Create time for asking and answering questions about the text, problem, or content at hand. Invest students in seeking their own answers. Keep the wonder alive!

Bridget and Brooke say:

• One strategy we've seen put in place is a class "Parking Lot." Kids put their questions about the day's lesson on a sticky note and place it on a big chart paper where the teacher can read it during class or after to be answered the next day. 
• No chart paper? We've used our windows to post questions from students, too! White board markers work well on windows. 
• A fun strategy called "Snowball" is another way for kids to ask questions. Kids write a question on a piece of paper, ball it up like a snowball and throw it into the middle of the room. Kids then pick up a paper and take turns reading the questions aloud for either other students to answer or for the teacher to answer. This also keeps things anonymous so kids might be afraid to ask in front of the class has the opportunity to do so.  
• TPEP Criteria Connection:  2.1: Quality of questioning; 3.3: Strategies that capitalize on the learning needs of the students. 

Four More Strategies from "17 Ways to Combat Learned Helplessness in the Classroom" By Sarah Tantillo
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Tantillo says :

9. You should teach hand-raising. Really.

IF: You ask questions during class discussions without modeling hand-raising…

THEN: Students are likely to call out. While this might not seem like a management or assessment problem, it can become an ENGAGEMENT problem because some students – especially quieter ones – feel intimidated by those who tend to call out, so they share their ideas less often if calling out is the norm.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Model hand-raising to ensure that students raise their hands to answer. Ensure you call on multiple students – or better yet, let students know the expectation is to call on another student when they are done to continue the discussion without you driving it!

Bridget and Brooke say:

• While we totally agree that letting students shout out responses can cause a lack of student engagement or inequity, we also think that you can solve this through no-opt out strategies, such as giving students a couple  of minutes to write their thoughts and share with a partner, and then cold-calling on them. Then EVERYONE gets an equal chance to speak.
• Giving all an equal chance to speak would address 2.3, Substance of student talk, and 2.2. Expectation, support, and opportunity for participation and meaning making (Exemplary = All students have the opportunity to engage in equal talk).

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10. Encourage students to try out their best answers

IF: You ask open-ended questions without adding, “There is more than one right answer”…

THEN: Students might believe there is ONE right answer, and they don’t know it for sure, so they will not take the risk of trying out a possible answer.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Say, “There is not one right answer” more often to invite students to take more risks and participate without fear of being wrong. [See note above about having students build on one another’s answers.]

Bridget and Brooke say:

• We love this idea, which ties both with the substance of student talk (2.3) and the quality of questioning (2.3). We also love the idea of eliminating the question, "Do you have any questions?" and replacing it with "What questions do you have?" Giving students a couple minutes to share questions will then allow easy answers to be answered  by a peer or can help shy students gain the confidence to share their questions.
• Another idea, one we learned from Kathy Whylie, is to respond to students who say, "I don't know" with, "Well, what would you say if you DID know?"  Amazingly enough, many students will respond to that question, as opposed to the original.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Use your questioning to promote inference and explanation.

IF: You ask students to guess what word you’re thinking of (which you think they should know)…

THEN: Students will call out random guesses until you give them enough hints to say the right word. Or they will say nothing because they don’t know what you’re talking about.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: Stay away from guessing games like, “What word am I thinking of?” Tell them the word, tell them that you think it’s important, and ask them why you think that. Focus less on recall questions and more on using information/clues to infer and explain.

Bridget and Brooke say:

• Too often as teachers, we try to direct students to one answer. When they start to guess, we say things like, "Well, that's not what I was thinking" or "I guess that could also work," and, without meaning to, we imply that the student's answer is less worthy than the hidden one in our brain.  Instead, as Tantillo says, avoid the guessing game altogether, AND try not to have one answer in your mind. Praise students who come up withh out-of-the-box and credible responses.
• This hint aligns with 2.1, Quality of Questioning.

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12. Make sure they wrestle with new learning

IF: You introduce new concepts or definitions by requiring students to copy down notes…

THEN: Students will not necessarily grasp or retain this information because they have not had to wrestle with it. Copying down definitions does not teach students how the concept works or how to use it. Telling is not teaching.

SO DO THIS INSTEAD: When introducing NEW content, give clear examples of the phenomenon (e.g., two bold-faced examples of “metaphor,” explained), then ask students to INFER from those examples what the phenomenon appears to be and how it seems to work. There is not one right answer.

Bridget and Brooke say:

• This is our favorite one of all, especially the "telling is not teaching."  New learning that requires us to ponder, puzzle, and struggle is new learning that we recall later. Asking students to make a prediction, take a pretest, do a KWL chart (What do I know? What do I want to learn? What did I learn?), solve a problem independently without guidance--all of these help students care about and remember the learning to come, as they now care more deeply about what they will learn..
• TPEP Criteria 2.2, "Expectation, support, and opportunity for participation and meaning making" asks that teachers "provide support for a variety of engagement strategies and structures that facilitate participation and meaning making by students."  Following Tantillo's hints above will help you to nail the criteria!

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Increasing Student Engagement and Rigor with Student Talk

Teachers often feel as though they need to debrief any student talk (pairs, small groups) with the entire class. Consider this for keeping the momentum up in your class.

Rather than calling on students after a pair share or small group discussion, circulate around the room during that discussion time and note the BEST THINKING that you hear.  

You could write on a small whiteboard, and then you could hold it up to show students your notes, or you could write notes on a clipboard and display them using the document camera. When you bring the class back together, share the BEST THINKING and use student names.  

Advantages:

• Everyone hears the BEST THINKING.
• BEST THINKING provides a model for rigorous work for the entire class.
• You elevate student status by naming students who demonstrated good thinking.
• It’s quick—you can share what you heard in a minute or less, and keep the momentum of the class going toward the next activity.
• Listening to pairs/groups provides you with a formative assessment opportunity, and gives you the opportunity to address any misconceptions students may have.
• Shy or introverted students will be less intimidated sharing in a pair or small group, and elevated when you share their good thinking.

Students talk in pairs = 100% of students participate

Teacher calls on 5 students in a class of 32 = 16% of students participate

Student to Student Feedback

Supporting students in creating effective peer feedback is one of teachers' greatest challenges.

This three-minute video shows an easy-to-implement strategy called "I Noticed and I Wondered" that generates incredibly sophisticated feedback  for students in grades 4-5. Just imagine the feedback it could elicit in older students and

 Student to Student Feedback

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: 

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).

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).

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.