Helping Students Learn & Retain Knowledge

This is version 2.0+ of my blog this week.  For some reason, when I attempted to save my original versions, I got a "You were not successful" page and had to start over several times.  This version is not as complete, but  is better than if I had just given up..



This week we were looking at using advanced organizers to help students learn and retain knowledge better.  One of the articles we read was written in 1960, but is still appropriate to teaching students today.  The gist of this article was that if teachers are able to connect new information to the prior knowledge of students, then the learning and retention of the information is enhanced.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizer

My class starts daily with a "focus question" that brings higher order thinking (according to Bloom's Taxonomy) and gives students an idea about what we will be doing during the class period.  For the majority of students, this is taken in stride and they at least make a guess when they do not "know the answer", even if there is not technically a "right" answer to the question.  The problem with this is that in some cases, I have students who do not want to think more than it takes to find specific answers that would be located in a textbook.  These students exhibit a huge amount of resistance to the probing questions as well as attempt to disrupt the discussion of the questions.

Non-linguistic Methods

The longer I am in the classroom, the more I employ non-linguistic methods of conveying information.  Maybe it is due to the prevailing entertainment culture of current students, but most are not practiced at being able to sit and listen to a lecture on a topic.  However, if that same information is put into a YouTube video, they will pay attention raptly for 20 or more minutes.  Streaming video has become an integral part of my classroom, since it is one medium that I know my students are engaged by.

Summarizing and Note taking
 This is a weak spot for most of my students.  Most students have been trained to copy verbatim from textbooks to answer questions posed by their teachers.  In my class, I try to design my lessons so that this is not able to be done.  If I ask questions, I ask some that would need to be answered by synthesizing information from multiple passages.  Another thing that I have started doing is that I give my students a synopsis of the unit we are going to be investigating.  The only problem is that these are worded using scientific terms.  One of the first assignments for the units is for the students to translate these synopses into "regular English" so that anyone would be able to read it.  This is done in groups so that the students who do not have the best reading abilities are still able to participate with the rest of the class.  Once all the groups are done "translating", the groups all share out what they thought the synopsis meant.  We then discuss these interpretations as a class, and what their teacher actually meant.  This is usually an engaging discussion. 

Review of 3 Non-Linguistic Applications.

Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition.

This week we were supposed to reflect on Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition as well as the article Feedback that Fits.  These three areas are where many teachers have weaknesses.  In some cases, all three are weaknesses, or sometimes one or two are.  For this reason there are many technologies that have been created to shore up these weaknesses in order to best help the student to be able to achieve.  Feedback that Fits is an article that encompasses the different ideas we are supposed to blog about.

Setting Objectives - 
  
Setting the objectives for a class can be both easy and hard.  This is easy due to the fact that state educational standards are published and give each teacher the objectives for the class(es) they teach.  The hard part of this is being able to discern how to best communicate these objectives to your students.  The way that MPS is attempting to communicate objectives is requiring teachers to post "What we are going to learn today is..." and "What we are going to do today is..." somewhere students are able to see it.  If these postings are not referenced by the teacher during the class however, it is only lip service to the true objective, getting the student to understand what they need to from the lesson.  Rubistar is a nice program that allows the teacher to create a rubric that shows students exactly how they are able to earn the grade they want.  Unfortunately, when most rubrics are used, they become a simple checklist.  While this allows for unbiased and quick grading, this might also not allow for the depth of feedback that is needed when used to score and given back to the student.  I have to admit to having used rubrics in this manner in the past.  However, it does not allow for the true differentiation of scoring that is required.  This leads into the next topic.


Providing Feedback-


In many cases, teachers might jot down a word or two on assignments as feedback.  Sometimes, a section might re-teach a topic in order to redress the issues found in the work produced by the students.  These would be examples of written individual and group verbal feedback.  Using a rubric would also be a benefit to students so that they would be able to see how they are able to attain a certain grade as well as how they did compared to how they thought they did when the rubric is returned.  If details are included on rubrics, these can be incredibly effective modes of feedback.  The Milwaukee Public Schools uses an online gradebook that can be accessed from any computer by parents or students to see how the student is progressing in the class.


Providing Recognition-


In many cases, the recognition that students I see has almost all been negative.  This does not mean that I am the source of this negativity.  Personally, I attempt to emphasize the good that I find in students.  This can get worn down over time, but I do try to make sure students know that they have the ability to do what is right for themselves and the others around them.  In many cases, words of encouragement, a note recognizing the good in their work, behavior, etc or a phone call home letting the family know about something positive can be a great motivator for my students.  For the most part, negative recognition is seen as earning "street cred" so that most recognition of negative behavior results in more negative behaviors.  Many of the students that I deal with are in the situation outside of school with at most one parent who lives at the same address.  In many cases, the only people who recognize the student for anything (positive or negative) are their teachers.  This might explain why students who have the reputation for being "chronic disruptors" come to school every day they are allowed to.  Recognition of being a person, good or bad, can be a huge motivator for students.  Teachers and the people in those students lives need to recognize this and make the effort needed to reach them.  

Technologies available-

There were many ideas for using technology for giving feedback.  The main problem with the online or e-mail generating technologies is that for the students I have, the main technology they have outside of school is their cell phone.  Depending on the applications they need to be able to be seen (for example adobe flash), the technology centered feedback might not be able to be received (the iPhone).  For the most part, I would suggest that in an urban school system, some of the traditional technologies of stickers, a good word, or recognition in front of peers can be great motivators.

Learner Centered Education

One of the paradigm shifts that has happened within my lifetime has been the shift from the needs of the curriculum to the needs of the learner to be able to acquire the curriculum.  With the learners of today, there have been many things that have been found that can affect their ability to acquire knowledge.  Whether it is learning styles or prior knowledge, the teacher should tailor their lessons to be able to meet the needs of students to find success in a multiple of ways.
  When reading Learning Principles from Carnegie Mellon University, I was somewhat surprised but some of what I saw.  I had realized that prior knowledge can help the learner positively if the prior knowledge is appropriate and accurate.  However, I hadn't really thought about the fact that "when knowledge is inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning."  I have seen this in many of my students over the years and had thought of it as a learned behavior where students who show helplessness are enabled by some teachers in order to show some growth.  This is not something that will help the child in the long run.  However, I am not sure how to combat this.  Having a low tolerance police for not trying does not seem to have much effect.  However, enabling the negative behaviors also would have negative results.  So, I seem to find myself with a problem.  Strong feelings and ideas can be dealt with even if not reasoned with, but how can one be made to care?  How can one deal with apathy?


Waxman, H.C., Lin, M., & Michko, G. M. (2004) A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning is  an interesting examination of the effect of technology and learning.  For the most part, it seems that it has a minimal positive effect on learning.  Technology also seems to have a minimal negative effect on behaviors.  It seems that technology is not the panacea that people are looking for when it comes to today's educational woes.  However, the studies did not state that all of the students in the studies were taught by educators who are proficient in technology.  This could make a major difference in both learning and behaviors.

Work Responsibilities vs. Worker Rights

Within the last week, the news that has been on all of the teachers that I have been listening to has been the "Union busting" maneuvers of Governor Scott Walker and the Republican majority of the Wisconsin State Senate.   I got into teaching after working in many other fields before obtaining certification.  The reason I gained certification to teach is that I have a passion to help kids in Milwaukee who might not find many people in their life who are willing to take the time to attempt to know and help them.  This is not only just teaching them the required curriculum.  This is to also push the students we have in our classes to their utmost.  If this makes me a person that is hated in the present, I hope that the students will respect the fact that I only pushed them as hard and far and fast as I believed they could handle.  When being challenged, people find out more about themselves.  With encouragement and being taught how to persevere until they succeed, failure can be a better learning experience than any success that a student has.
  
I have been hearing reactions from "I'm proud that the Democrats are taking a stand" to "We knew this was going to be coming, why are they protesting now?"  The main quandary that I find myself in is that for the most part, I do believe that all levels of government (as well as individuals) should practice balancing their budgets and not engage in deficit spending.  However, I do not believe that union members should have to give up the ability to bargain pension and health care as well as their wage rates.  The problem with part of the current fiscal "crisis" that Governor Walker is having to deal with now is also seen as a way to be able to strip most unions of their most central powers.  If the reports that I have been hearing are correct, the amended budget would  require all members of unions that deal with public entities pay higher percentages of both health care and pension.  This was accepted by most as a given when Governor Walker was elected in November.  The reason that I feel that many of the people who are protesting in Madison are there is that the language regarding unions effectively negates the reason to have unions in the first place.  Some talk show hosts are asking, "Why are people worrying about this?  Public employees are protected from working in an "At Will" state and do not need to worry about being fired as people who work in private industry."  While this is true in the general sense, the wording of the language regarding public unions removes all of the bargaining power of unions except for negotiating pay rate.  At least according to the union representatives that I had talked to, this means that a district would be able to institute longer work days, year round school, larger class sizes and a multitude of other changes.  This means that even though the union would be able to go to the district and claim that wages would need to be raised to compensate teachers for longer hours and more work, the districts would be able to refer the union request to an arbitrator.  The problem is that because of the "Qualified Economic Offer" law that has been in effect for quite a while, the school district would always have the decisions come down in their favor and be able to institute whatever they want.  This is due to the fact that the QEO had been interpreted in a way that the arbitrator needs to only consider the fiscal needs of the district when making their decision between the two sides.  So, even though Governor Walker states that this is only an attempt to reign in out of control spending, it is effectively a way to totally gut the teachers unions of any bargaining power in the state of Wisconsin.
 
My usual feeling about the union that I belong to, the Milwaukee Teacher's Education Association, is mainly existing for the political motives of the hierarchy of the union.  There have been numerous occasions that the majority of the membership have asked for  the elimination of the residency requirement for MPS teachers in the contract discussions.  Every time that this is brought up, it seems as if the union poses the questions, gets told "no" and then accepts that answer.  For those of us who are cynical, this is also seen as a way for the union to keep its political power.  Because if its members have to live in the city of Milwaukee, then they also all would vote in the elections of politicians in Milwaukee.  These politicians would owe some of their political capital to the MTEA and then on the whole, vote favoring the MTEA .
 
This is why I am torn.  I see the origination and original reason for unions as a good thing.  But the current union structure is somewhat a parody of the original good idea.  Reform is necessary for the unions, but the elimination of the unions as a functioning body is going too far.

Finance Reform and Education

  In the news lately has been the idea that public employees have been at the public trough for too long and have been draining the pocketbook of the ordinary taxpayer.  In today's economy, I would have to agree.  This is even though I am a teacher at a public school in one of Wisconsin's worst performing districts.  Do I believe that teachers and other public employees should have their benefits and pay more in line with what is able to be supported by the taxpayers?  In principle, yes I do.  The problem where it gets tricky is in the details.  Personally, I would have no problem with paying more for my pension.  However, if I am paying more for my pension, should I not also have the ability to have my pension in a fund type that is not historically inefficient?  Should I pay more in health care costs?  With the newest contracts that teachers have signed, that is going to be put into place.  Have teacher pay be related to student performance?  This would really need to be researched and attainable goals would need to be put into place for this to happen.  Otherwise, it will be the case of the poor getting poorer ("failing" school districts and their teachers), and the rich getting richer (successful districts and their teachers).
   Let me tell you a little about myself before I go further.  I am a person who believes that you should take care of your responsibilities and not ask others to do so.  As as teacher, I do my best in order to help my students meet or exceed the state standards for 7th grade science (what I am currently happily teaching).   One of the hottest topics that is happening in the Wisconsin state capital of Madison is one attempting to cut down on the expenditures of the educational system, in MPS specifically.  It is said that if a school district is failing to help students achieve the "standards" that are assessed in the high stakes tests, that the district should be penalized by losing the funds and allowing students to attend other schools with the money that is taken away from the district.   In principle I agree with this idea.  However, this would hinge on multiple assumptions being made. The assumptions that I am able to think of are as follows:

1. The only effects on the education of students are the quality of instructional practices that the classroom teacher uses as well as the effectiveness of the teacher to implement them.  
2. The schools that receive the money forfeited by the failing district will educate the students for the full term (either year or semester).  
3. Students will meet the same standards expected of the failing district in an alternate placement.

  In regards to the first assumption, students are not a "blank slate" when they get into a classroom.  In many cases, students have a definite opinion of what school should be and how they measure their success.  Unfortunately, not all students define success the same way that teachers, parents, political pundits and the population of Wisconsin does.  Hard work, critical thinking and responsibility are foreign to many of the students who are judged as "failing" according to the high stakes standardized tests that are given to measure academic ability.  In many of the cases of "failing" students there is little or no support for either the student or the school when it comes to behavior and effort in the classroom.  I have asked many of students who choose to either be disruptive or show little to no effort in the classroom environment the reason they made the choices they did.  In some cases, students claimed boredom with the topic or the type of assignments given or with school in general.  This usually was in the case of disruptive students, but also with some students who gave little to no effort.  I have also heard that the subject matter is either too hard, too easy or the student will never use it when the grow up anyway, so "why bother?"  Another answer that has been given more times than I would like is that "I have acted this way for years, and I still pass."  I have also heard one of the most discouraging phrases, "My [parent(s)] don't care, so why should I?"  This last is one that upsets me tremendously.  I love my daughters and want them to be successful.  I want to help guide them from some the mistakes that I made so they do not need to experience some of the failures that I have.  This is not to say that I am easy on my children.  I would think that it is more the opposite.  I want them to do well.  To do well in today's work place, you need to be a hard worker, self-reliant, polite, as well as being able to provide the services the consumers of your work want and or need.  This last part means that my kids need to do well in school and learn as much as they can about the real world and how to solve the problems that they are faced with.  I can not prepare them for all of what they are going to face, but I hope that I can help then learn the tools that will be effective in crafting a solution to those problems.  But for the majority of the students that I have been in contact with for the last decade and more, this is not the case.  In many instances, students are going to be succeeding without much input from influences outside the school.  Many of my students have not had stable living situations.  Many do not have parents that can be there at night to support their child's education.  Many have living situations where they can not plan for the next test or the next grade because they are wondering where their next meal is going to be coming from.  There are so many issues that effect the ability of students to concentrate on the academics of schools, that traditional public schools will not be able to be effective for those students.
 
  Every February, I am told to expect at least 4 to five more troubled students who are "returning" from their other schools.  In most cases I am told that these schools that the students have left are "alternative" or "choice" schools who received the funding for educating the students.  Now that the funds are secured, the students are cut loose and returned to the public schools where they are guaranteed an education by the Wisconsin State Constitution.  In 1972 the Wisconsin State Constitution was amended in Article X regarding education : "The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable; and such schools shall be free and without charge for tuition to all children between the ages of 4 and 20 years".  This is widely accepted as fact that if a student can not afford a private institution of learning, they would be able to go to a publicly run school.  I was not able to find an amendment which allowed for the disbursement of public funds to private entities for the means of education, but I do not have a background in law.  This is not to mean that it does not exist, but that I was not able to find one.  I also did not find that if a entity contracted to give a "free and without charge for tuition" for a student for a semester or school year, that that entity would be able to keep the money that was going to be used for that students education if that student is sent back to a publicly run school.  If "choice" schools are able to skim the cream of the crop of students, wouldn't that by definition send a public district at a competitive disadvantage?  If not only would the "choice" school be able to keep the best of the best, but also send away those that do not fit this criteria after receiving the compensation for the students, the competitive advantage of the "choice" school would grow even greater.  On the whole, if students learning is impacted positively, I am all for doing whatever is legal and more to do so.  However, if what is legal, is not moral, then I would need the merit proven to me before it is done.

  I also would not have as much of a problem with students given the ability to go to "choice" schools if they were expected to meet the same benchmarks are the students in the public schools.  The Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE) is currently given to all public schools.  At this time this high stakes test which is given in the first 2-1/2 months of the school year is how school districts are determined to be either succeeding or failing.  This test is not required of "choice" schools.  As far as I know, and I may be missing a lot, there is not standardized benchmark that "choice" schools are required to meet.  If there is going to be competition, let it be fair.  Let all schools have the same benchmarks and be scored using the same procedure.  In science, if you do not control all of the variables (other than the one you are testing), and test multiple times, you are not able to determine if the results you have received have any merit. 

  All that I am asking for is that the playing field be leveled before decisions are made regarding the livelihoods of many educators.  If the Milwaukee Public Schools were to be broken up, what would have changed in the culture of the students that would allow them to be successful.  Trickle down theories are great when it comes to macro-economics, however, to build a successful school that is able to educate all of its students, you need the grass roots support from the families and community (including businesses) in order to have the impact necessary.  If teacher pay in the Milwaukee Public Schools were linked on how students perform on the WKCE, either you would have qualified, energetic teachers leaving the district that needs them the most in droves.  Until you are able to have a paradigm shift that puts the students to the top over the wants and needs of the teachers and parents and community, there will not be meaningful change.  This does not mean that throwing money at a bad situation will help, but neither will using punitive economic ideas.

Are the tools we are using effective?

This past week, we have been looking at effectively using the internet resources that are available.  One step that we needed to take was to create a web page score sheet or rubric that would allow us to determine if the internet resources that we are using were appropriate for what we were trying to get out of them.  We were given two examples one from U.C.- Berkley, and one from Discovery Education.  I found it somewhat funny that after I was done with all of the creation of my version of a rubric, that I ended up scoring Discovery Education (where one of the score sheets is from).  The main reason that I used Discovery Education as one of the sites that I scored is that I tend to use many of the streaming videos from the site in order to help my students understand the subjects that we are learning better.  The link to my blank rubric is here and the scoring of Discovery Education as well as the score of Sciencebuddies.org are located if you click the link in the name.  If I hadn't had these sites recommended to me in the past, I would never have thought of them.  As it is, I use them extensively during the school year.  My only issue is that I am curious if my scoring rubric is too easy.  Will it give most web pages that even attempt to stay educational a good score?  What else could or should I have included in it?

How to use our Blogs in CEdO 520

Originally, we were supposed to use our blogs to discuss what we have learned and how it would be able to effect our personal and professional lives. During the discussion at the end of class, the idea was brought up that we answer the same question over and over again. To some it seemed somewhat redundant and to some it seemed a difficult chore when the class did not offer anything immediately applicable to their life (either personal or professional). So, our first assignment in our blog is to come up with ways we would be able to use it effectively. Below is a list of some of my ideas:

•   Use the blog to discuss the pros and cons of specific uses of technology.
• Make us take a stand on an issue regarding technology and education.  We would need to then support our ideas.
• Use the blog to give feedback about the work we do.  Explain how we feel it could either be improved or what we appreciated and learned from the assignments.  If we don't have opinions on the assignments we are given, are they really having an impact?
• Have us attempt to write through the experience of a student who is watching their teacher going through the process of implementing technology in our classroom.  It could be as short as a diary entry. 

Those are the ideas I came up with.  I hope that some others find then useful.

Looking back at CEdO 515

CEdO 515 (Using Productivity Tools Effectively) has been a very interesting experience.  I was able learn how to use more of the applications that are found and stored online.  This is very useful in the fact that it is accessible to anyone who has internet access.  Embedding things into blog posts and websites also will be able to help with my instructional ability since I would then be able to have students access specific online resources that I need them to from my Moodle site.  An example can be seen below of one minor project that I needed to embed.



As you can see, I can improve on some things (such as formatting), but overall, I have learned how to get improve many of my uses of technology. With the use of embedding, I do not need to use local server space in order to have videos that are available online for my students to see them. I am able to either link to them, or embed the video for them to watch. (an example is below)


Overall, I have been pleased with what we needed to learn in class. I hope to be able to put most of the things we have learned into practice in my classroom.

Graduate School Affecting Real LIfe?

   This week we were supposed to answer the following questions in our Blog: "How does what we are studying affect how you are teaching - what did we cover this week and how does it impact you?".  Overall, many of the topics that we have discussed in CEdO 515 have impacted how I am approaching my teaching.  Since I have started this graduate school program, I have started to suggest to my students that they sign up for a gmail account in order to have access to their documents anywhere they have access to a computer (using Google Documents).  I have also found many resources regarding how to integrate technology into my classroom.  I also have found that according to some of the surveys we have taken that I am pretty good at having my students use higher order thinking in my class.  I just need to figure out a way to integrate the technology into that learning experience while still keeping my students on track. 
   Another thing that we have been learning about is how educators should choose software and online applications to use in the classroom.  We have been given many different rubrics that we were asked to take a look at so that we would be able to explain which we would use and how we would then be able to use the rubric we chose in order to be able to choose software or apps that would be able to be effectively used in the classroom.
   The last thing that we covered in class that I found would be very helpful for my class is the introduction of Google Sites.  I feel that this is one of the sites that will be most helpful to me in my instruction.  I plan on using my Google Site for Cardinal Stritch as my portfolio that will allow me to give a link instead of having to print out a dead tree version of my portfolio. I also am planning on using Google Sites in order to give my students another resource where they would be able to find what we have been doing in class, as well as links and experiments they would be able to do to further their understanding of the subject matter.

InTime Videos & their usefullness in the classroom.

The InTime Video that I chose was Water Quality in the Greenhills Stream.  In this video, students were taught about how scientists did not just pick up instruments and use them.  This video showed the importance of keeping your instruments calibrated for the use that you need them for.  The students were able to also use their probes to check for various types of data including: turbidity (cloudiness), pH and temperature.  

In my classroom, the major ideas of being able to go out and measure data from a place that is dedicated to nature is not really something that would be able to be done multiple times in order to take samples and readings due to the location of my school as well as the short amount of time that students are in my class.  To be able to go gather data in the fashion that was shown in the video, I would need to create a field trip including transportation for my students to get this experience.  I would also be at a huge students to teacher ratio of ~1-2 teachers to 150+ students.  This would promote students to go off task and then lose sight of the purpose of the field trip.  If the focus was learning how to gather data multiple times and then comparatively analyze the date to prove or disprove hypotheses, I would think that it could possibly be modified to be done.  I would love to be able to get the students "in the field" where they are able to step into the role of a scientist and actually collect real data which would be relevant to their lives.  The other point that would be relevant from this video is to have students be reminded that the tools scientists are not infallible.  They need to be taken care of and recalibrated when necessary.  If this is not done, any data that is gathered using these instruments would be erroneous.  It can also be used to remind students that other technologies such as computers are only as good as the user.  If the user is not familiar with the abilities of the computer, either it might not be used to its potential or in a way that would create errors.

 

Spreadsheets and the Classroom

This week for CEDO 515, we were working with spreadsheets.  Spreadsheets were some of the first "killer apps" after the personal computer came to market and made a place for the IBM PC in the business world.  There are many different versions of spreadsheet software or online spreadsheet apps that are available for use.  Even though there are many versions, they all serve the same general function.  They are able to hold, sort and modify data that is stored in them. One thing that is nice is that you are able to create specific cells that rely on the data from another cell or multiple other cells and a function to calculate the data in the cell.  Our class, one of the exercises we needed to attempt was to use a spreadsheet to create a modifiable recipe.  The recipe that I used was from the Betty Crocker website for a Lemon Meringue Pie.  The only problem that I could see with using this recipe and modifying it would be that if you use # of servings that is not a multiple of 8, you would need to make individual sized pies.

One of the reasons I would use spreadsheets in my 7th Grade Science classroom, would be to have my students organize and analyze the data that they collect from doing their science projects.  One one of my favorite websites for my class is called Sciencebuddies.orghttp://www.sciencebuddies.org/.  On this site, there is a page that explicitly shows how to not only use spreadsheets (specifically Excel) to organize the experimental data, but to able to be able to create a graph that will allow the viewer of the experimental end-product to easily understand the relationship between the control data and the experimental data.  The specific page with this info for using spreadsheets in the context of science is here.