Professional+Development

== Professional Development Page Faculty Meeting 4/14

TERC math debate using narrative Using judgment

Presentation of ³Brain-Based Teaching² for Faculty Meeting 5/20/10

Creating long term memory

Brains know how to learn

How to align our teaching to the way brains learn?

Brain activity

Extremely integrated across systems

For example: Limbic areas (emotional/fear) can interfere with cortex and learning

Classroom worries of embarrassment and humiliation triggers amygdala, makes learning more difficult

Links between music and math performance‹correlation, not nec. Causality

Learning before 10: acquiring

Learning after 10: organizing

Each lesson should be crafted to

INVITE involvement, participation, and interest

CAUSE thinking and work in the students¹ minds

CREATE connections with other knowledge

Don¹t wait until the end of a unit to ask questions.

Ask the same question twice in a row

Create connections and interest‹evaluation and judgment cause memory and learning

Ideas for exercises

Write a story but you must use three adjectives each time you use a noun

You can¹t repeat a word

You can¹t use any verbs

Make a mind map of #

Lists

Canine death spoon flower bread tree magazine tent

Count vowels

Rate on a pleasantness meter

Memorize

Subvocalize/repeat

Imagine things interacting

Pillow

Brook

Rock

Spoon

Bow

Canary

Cow

Tree

Pen

Dog

Table

Car

Guitar

Brush

Lamp

Boat

Techniques

Wait times

1st wait time (after teacher question)

2nd wait time (after a student response)

Homework Gains when graded, commented on

Feedback Makes a differenece when done well Reflective system

Awareness of question syntax to provoke specific behavior Provoke recall (1 answer) Provoke list (more than 1 good answer) Provoke critical thinking Five natural learning systems

Cognitive Physical Any movement will do Touch Write on back Body in space—not nec. Movement Use different fingers/hand to trace or write Tap on arm in sequence Physical retrieval cues Posture and associate it with concept/content Lighting Sleep Get up and write on board Emotional Social Reflective Examples: Activity in pairs Read silently, then summarize to partner They listen, then add to the summary any interesting or important points Heterogeneous groupings Auditory learners get to hear strong readers’ summaries

Creating personal meaning KWL Non linguistic representations Safe learning environment Emotional IQ

6 aspects to successful teaching gain attention and participation emotional significance engage working memory engage long-term memory review/rehearse final assessment

Rate each thing below on a pleasantness scale. 1 for unpleasant, 4 for very pleasant.

Canine Death Spoon Flower Bread Tree Magazine Tent Taxi Hiccup

Write down the number of vowels contained in each word.

Canine = Death = Spoon Flower Bread Tree Magazine Tent Taxi Hiccup As you read the list of words below, try to memorize as many as you can.

Canine Death Spoon Flower Bread Tree Magazine Tent Taxi Hiccup

Ideas for PD Day Mini-workshop

Multicultural checklist

Cognition research

(Self-reflection helps, when you use the right strategy: spacing and generation)
 * Metacognition

Spacing better than massing (due to context variability?) Generation better than reading This study showed that by explicitly instructing students to become more aware of their own learning, monitoringaccuracy may be improved—. Further research mightexplore whether, as a result of improving monitoringaccuracy, children’s control of their own study strategiesmay subsequently develop at a more accurate, or faster rate. Our data provide empirical evidence of the beneficial effects of “teaching” monitoring strategiesto young learners—in support of Willingham’s (2003-2004) proposal. Although metacognitive abilities developnaturally at very young ages—as was demonstratedby the Encourage condition—children who were explicitlytaught to use the appropriate betting monitoringstrategies had a faster learning curve. More importantly,children who were explicitly taught obtained afaster learning to learn curve—demonstrated by theimprovement in monitoring accuracy when given anovel task. (Son, 2007)

The particular cognitive-science principles that we endeavored to implement included (1)meaningful, elaborative, multimodal processing, (2) test-specific or transfer appropriate processing, (3) self-generation of responses, and (4) spaced practice.

This line of research suggests two things: (1) It is important to guard against people’smetacognitive feelings, since they are often misleading, and (2) the illusion of overconfidencemight be offset, and performance enhanced, if students can be biased to expect that a test will be difficult, rather than easy.

The risk in stressing the difficulty of learning materials in realisticeducational contexts, however, is that the children may believe that the task is simply impossible,or worse, that they are not smart enough to do it, and hence give up (e.g., Bandura, 1986; Cain &Dweck, 1995; Kamins & Dweck, 1997). This risk may be especially high in the targetedminority population, given Steele's findings on the effects of stereotype threat, a predicament thatcan handicap members of any group about whom stereotypes exist (e.g., Steele & Aronson, 1995).



A crucial development in the Cognitive field has been to promote the Metacognitive learner. Metacognitive strategies include procedures where teachers encourage students to take active control of their own learning by being aware of their own strategies. Students may also use strategies that may seem unfavorable in the classroom or for the short term, but are in fact beneficial for long-term learning and in novel situations. The following a few effective long-term learning strategies that will be discussed under the general topic of Metacognition: The practice effect, the spacing effect, the generation effect, etc. Tying these ideas together is the notion that strategies that benefit short-term performance may harm long-term performance. More specifically, "effort, variability, and process" when learning (rather than comfort, constancy, and performance), may be the key to the long-term maintenance of knowledge. Spacing is a strategy in which one studies information across a significant period of time, taking relatively long breaks between numerous study sessions. This is in contrast to massing, where study is crammed into one uninterrupted session. Even when the total study time is equal in the two cases, cognitive researchers have repeatedly found that if the goal were to enhance test performance, individuals should space rather than mass their study—a phenomenon known as the spacing effect (Dempster, 1987; Hintzman, 1974; Mammarella, Russo, & Avons, 2002; Melton, 1970; Toppino, Hara, & Hackman, 2002; Underwood, 1970; see Son, 2004 for a review). One reason as to why spacing might help long-term learning is that it (more so than massing) allows for a high degree of context variability (Birnbaum & Eichner, 1971). During spaced study sessions, the task environment is likely to be more variable and more unpredictable on each study occasion. Furthermore, having experienced study in those contexts would prepare the learner better for the final test, which is, itself, bound to be more variable and unpredictable. The notion that learners perform better when the study and test environments are similar—a phenomenon known as encoding specificity—has been well documented in the field of cognitive psychology.
 * Spacing vs. massing

Generation vs. reading

In a typical laboratory procedure investigating the gains from generation, participants are presented with a list of cue-target pairs (e.g. chin-game). Then, the pairs are separated into two different conditions: Generate and Read. In the Generate condition, the cue is presented with only a fragment of the target (e.g. chin-g ) and participants are asked to try to retrieve the target. In the Read condition, the entire cue-target pair is presented (so only passive reading is required). Then the participants are given a subsequent cued-recall test where only the cue is presented. Results have shown that pairs in the Generate condition are remembered significantly better than those in the Read condition. As in the spacing effect, some have proposed that the mechanism of the generation effect is the high degree of cognitive activity required in retrieving the correct response (Begg, Snider, Foley, & Goddard, 1989; Crutcher & Healy, 1989; Gardiner, Smith, Richardson, Burrows, & Williams, 1985; Griffith, 1976; Hirschman & Bjork, 1988; Tyler, Hertel, McCallum, & Ellis, 1979). In addition to cognitive effort (and again as in the spacing effect), one can also imagine that encoding specificity—the finding that the Generate condition creates an environment more like that at final test—would give rise to the generation effect. Given that context variability may be the mechanism driving the benefits of cognitive strategies such as spacing and generation, the field—the ultimate variable context—may be the most optimal location for learning. Priest and Gass (1997) identify the following as being associated with field learning: direct and purposeful experience, appropriate level of challenge, natural consequences, participant-based change, present and future relevance, and perhaps the three most important in terms of metacognitive strategies, synthesis and reflection, participant responsibility for learning, and active engagement. Powers (2004) presented survey data that evaluated how field-based learning changed teacher’s classroom practices and found that the “use of community provides teachers and students with diverse viewpoints, access to resources, facilities, and financial support, as well as a broader base of skills and knowledge.” (p. 21) In addition, she outlined 6 points of impact on teacher methods. They are: (1) use of local places and resources, (2) interdisciplinary teaching, (3) collaboration with other teachers, (4) teacher leadership and personal growth, (5) stronger curriculum planning skills, and (6) greater use of service-learning in the curriculum—all of which enhance both cognitive and metacognitive thinking. And in Dittrick’s theoretical framework (adapted from Powers’ 2004 model), “if one develops an attachment to one’s place and has the skills to proceed”, that individual will become a “more active participant in the community” (p. 20). And finally, depicted in the framework is the idea that with field learning comes an increase in self-awareness, self-confidence, and maturity, as well as a broadening and deepening of individual participation and community engagement.


 * Praise vs. feedback


 * Intelligence vs. effort

==
 * Perserverence (brain as muscle)
 * Inspirational imagery (e.g., stereotype threat)

__Next steps__: We can begin to focus on the two strands:

 * Collective project**
 * PD (PASE) Teams**

I hope that, as we have more time for professional development as the year goes on, you are energized, supported, and satisfied that we are living up to the principles I mentioned in August:

Time for reflection, collaboration

 * For the Collective Project**, we can probably start thinking about this one more specifically. Maybe we even want to consider the language-based LD focus. I think that, as a school, it might be helpful to work on classroom management issues as well, since some specialty teachers seem hungry for more coordination on this front, and there isn't much time during the day to have conversations about general class routines/systems or specific plans we may have implemented for individual kids.

*Additionally, from the **arts classes perspective**, I also think it would be important to revisit the "common language" that we are using in terms of the whole school, strategies in classrooms for management and traveling through the school, picking up/ dropping off students and organizing A/B groups, communication with arts teachers, your strategies in the classroom (star charts, checks, warnings, etc.) and our collective methods for supporting all students. Meeting on a regular basis with the arts teachers to discuss behavior, success, etc, that is happening in arts classes will be helpful. Also, often, behavior that we notice is different in the arts classes, and we see things that you may not see in your classrooms in terms of friendship skills, budding talents,etc. I will check-in with teachers about their regular team meeting time so that arts teachers may attend-I would like to go to as many as possible. thanks! -Beth

__Some suggestions (probably similar to what we did last year)...__
 * For the PD teams**-- we will start breaking up into groups and planning some development goals for the rest of the year. From the guidelines I suggested in August, the PD we do in the teams could incorporate:
 * ====== Flexibility ======
 * ====== Menus of topics and action ideas ======
 * ====== Face-to-face meetings ======
 * ====== Wiki message board postings ======
 * ====== Time and resources ======

5. Reflect and assess the plan
__OLDER POSTS:__ We are collecting ideas for future meetings, workshops, or mini-presentations.

If you are interested in or can lead a lesson on a particular topic that would be helpful and/or fascinating to your colleagues, please post your ideas below. If possible, write a brief description of the topic. Thanks!

__Topics to Offer__
Soren: I'm interested in research-based findings on cognition in the last 20 years. I know a few brief demonstrations and explanations of how learning, attention, and REtention are affected by different kinds of teaching. I could talk a little about what I found interesting from the workshops I attended. Also, many people are not familiar with the criticisms that E.D. Hirsch makes of the "progressive" approach to education-- many of his points are reinforced by specific research in cognition, and probably need to be addressed by teachers (like me) who come out of Bank Street or TC. "You Can't Teach What You Don't Know" is a powerful book that deserves some discussion: for an idea why, look at the subtitle: "White Teachers, Multiracial Schools." I also think that Lisa Delpit's "The Silenced Dialogue" is awesome and deserves some discussion, and would love to facilitate...

Shannon: Since I began teaching, I've had a major interest in learning about supporting students with language-based learning disabilities. For the past two spring semesters at Bank Street, I had the opportunity to present a topic to a Communication Disorders class that had to do with intervention strategies that can be used to facilitate the understanding and production of narrative text structures for students with language-based learning disabilities. Using a couple of chapters from //Charlotte's Web//, I modeled how one could scaffold their instruction by using some of the recommended strategies from //Language Intervention in the Classroom// by Culatta and Merritt. I can share what I presented if anyone's interested.

Beth: I would be interested in leading an improvisational musical/ movement-based workshop/ brainstorming session to connect arts and creative writing throughout the grades-tapping into curricula to find and build connections and truly integrate literacy with the arts. I would like to share various studies that show interesting ways students have developed multi-layered skills through arts learning, (including The Donald Pond Study) and perhaps teach a short workshop on GarageBand, connecting art pieces, creative writing, and poetry with sound and original music. (it's fun :) Tim: I'm on board for this one. I think we can make something good happen.

Tim: Global outreach and awareness. I could initiate a dialogue on ways to expand our IDEAL experience as "Citizens of the World" through different opportunities including pen pals, art exchanges, humanitarian work (both local and foreign) and also grant opportunities for professional development. I have some contacts, and resources. It would be great to pool some of our collected information to see ways in which we can break outside of the upper west side box.

Noah: S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity). The SEED project on inclusive curiculum is focused mainly on multicultural pedagogy. I participated in a SEED group four years ago at San Francisco Day School. It's a year-long committment, in which people meet once per month in a workshop setting. Groups can consist of only faculty, only parents, or faculty and parents. I think SEED would be an excellent addition to our school, given the diverse atmosphere. Leaders of SEED need to be certified in the SEED curriculum, however participants need not be.

Jenn: I am trained in the PAF program, which is a multi-sensory Orton-Gillingham based reading program. The program is for teaching reading, spelling, and handwriting in grades K-3. It is similar to //Recipe For Reading// but also incorporates kinesthetics forming relationships between the sounds the students hear, the letters they see and the letters they write.

Shara: I have been a co-teaching classroom for many years, and actually attended several workshops, and helped facilitate a type of "support group" in my previous school - so I could help anyone looking for help/ideas/information about the art of co-teaching!

__Topics We're Interested In__
Zarah: Working with children diagnosed with ADHD/ADD who also present with language-based learning disabilities, better strategies for generalizing pragmatic language intervention into the classroom and less-structured environments Noah: This friend speaks my mind.

Rachel: Better Helping students with Language disabilities connect to the curriculum in the classroom (zarah has already given us so much info, and I want more! :) ) AND The Stern Math program from parkside

Kristin: Visual perceptual skills (tracking, convergence, divergence, oculomotor muscles) and How to treat/feed a picky eater secondary to sensory issues

Soren: "Singapore math" is the latest thing in the last five years, and I'm interested in learning more about the specifics. I would also like to learn more about how to build math confidence, competence, and fluency in early elementary settings.

Shannon: Strategies to better support students with language-based learning disabilities in reading and writing (seems like this sort of goes along with what Zarah and Rachel are interested in).

Beth: Supporting musical experiences with differentiated pedagogy-finding connections with skillful instrumentation, improvisation, movement, and creative writing-strategies for teaching recorder, drumming, etc. for all students and translating this into performance and developing meaningful assessment across the arts as students approach 5th-8th grade.

Shara: I'm with Zarah, and Shannon, and I guess anything else that falls into the my general idea/goal that I've set for myself professionally this year - mainly, best supporting students who fall "on the spectrum," (socially, academically, etc), as well as students with learning disabilities, and lots more - I know I'm a learning specialist/special ed teacher, but for some reason I feel like I'm missing these pieces this year. Maybe to include/learn/share current research or knew knowledge in any of these areas?!?! I know, I'm all over the place! Sorry! Noah: This friend speaks my mind- particularly with 'on the spectrum'; I would like to learn more about this piece. Jenn: Same ^

Sarah: I would be interested in learning more about SEED, I've heard great things. Also, Singapore Math seems to work well at Parkside so I would be interested in learning a bit more about what it is and how the program works.