Zaretta Hammond, Presenter August 8, 2016
Moving Beyond Luck
Too often, school initiatives designed to improve academic outcomes for underperforming diverse students feels like trial and error. We adopt and then abandon new initiatives every year. In order to be successful, we have to be intentional around implementation across the school as well as within each classroom. When we build our will, skill, knowledge, and capacity around culturally responsive teaching, we move from being what Dr. Douglass Reeves calls “lucky” or “losing” and begin moving toward learning and leading.
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Levels of Engagement According to Phillip Schlechty, there are five ways that students respond or adapt to school-related tasks and activities.
ENGAGEMENT HIGH ATTENTION - HIGH COMMITMENT The student associates the task with a result or product that has meaning and value for the student. The student will persist in the face of difficulty and will learn at high and profound levels.
STRATEGIC COMPLIANCE HIGH ATTENTION - LOW COMMITMENT The task has little inherent or direct value to the student, but the student associates it with outcomes or results that do have value to the student. (such as grades) Student will abandon work if extrinsic goals are not realized and will not retain what is learned.
RITUAL COMPLIANCE LOW ATTENTION - LOW COMMITMENT The student is willing to expend whatever effort is needed to avoid negative consequences. The emphasis is on meeting the minimum requirements. The student will learn at low and superficial levels.
RETREATISM NO ATTENTION - NO COMMITMENT The student is disengaged from the task and does not attempt to comply with its demands, but does not try to disrupt the work or substitute other activities for it. The student does not participate and learns little or nothing from the task.
REBELLION DIVERTED ATTENTION - NO COMMITMENT The student refuses to do the work, acts in ways to disrupt others, or substitutes tasks and activities to which he or she is committed. Student develops poor work sometimes negative attitudes toward formal education and intellectual tasks. based on P. Schlechty and vizualization by R. Rios
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The Dual Roles of Culture “Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture has two key roles in culturally responsive teaching: Affective:
In this role, culture is equated with trust between individuals and within a group or community. The task is to leverage culture to build, establish, and maintain trust with another or with in a group.
Cognitive:
In this role, culture is equated with schema (our brain’s network of knowledge). The task is to leverage cultural knowledge to scaffold a learner from the known to the unknown.
Note To Self
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Levels of Culture
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The Individualism - Collectivism Continuum The Cultural Dimensions Index was created by cultrual psychologist, Geert Hlofstede. Countries are evaluated on a 100-point scale in seven dimensions. One dimension is the level of individualism within a society. At the high end of the scale are extremely individualist cultures (self oriented, individual effort favored in business and learning, competition over cooperation) while a lower number signals a more collectivist culture (group orientation, relationships essential to business and learning, and cooperative over competition).
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Activity: Levels of Culture Reflect on your own culture (i.e., racial, gender, linguistic, etc.). Identify a few core items, concepts, norms, and/or beliefs at the appropriate levels. Be sure to include culture associated with your racial identity.
Level
Focus
• Surface Culture
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• Shallow Culture
• •
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Deep Culture • •
Your Experience
Concerned with the artifacts of culture: food, dress, music style, holidays, hairstyles Impact on trust insignificant Low emotional impact generally
Concerned with unspoken rules of interpersonal interaction. Impact on trust significant. High emotional impact that affects relationships
Concerned with mental models, core beliefs and values. Identity of self, relationship to other humans, animals, and nature. Sense of spirituality and cosmology. Impact on trust fundamental Intense emotional impact that affects mental health
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Trust is Broken: The Impact of Intellectural Apartheid “Trust between teachers and students is the affective glue that binds educational relationships together. Not trusting teachers has several consequences for students. They are unwilling to submit themselves to the perilous uncertainties of new learning. They avoid risk. They keep their most deeply felt concerns private. They view with cynical reserve the exhortations and instructions of teachers.” Because of structural racialization in education, culturally and linguistically diverse students experience intellectual apartheid. A disproportionate number of them are dependent learners who cannot access the curriculum because they aren’t given the opportunity to build the cognitive skills to do deep learning on their own. As they progress through school, they recognize that they are struggling, but don’t see their teachers trying to get to know them as learners and help them build the necessary skills to be successful. Instead, teachers lower their expectations, dumb down the curriculum, and slow down instruction. This leads to boredom and disengagement. Consequently, trust is broken between student and teacher. This leads to: t
Mistrust of teachers leading to disengagement
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Learned helplessness and mistrust of one’s own ability as a learner
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Anger and defiance at educational inequity and neglect
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Inability to see relevance of schooling
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Rejects learning in order to protect self from failure
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Trust Generators
Selective Vulnerability
Familiarity
Similarity of Interests
Concern
Competence
People respect and connect with others who share their own vulnerable moments. It means showing your human side that is not perfect. Also called selective vulnerability.
Sharing with a student a challenge you had as a young person or as a learner. Sharing new skills you are learning as an adult. The information shared is selective and appropriate.
People develop a sense of familiarity with someone who they see often in a particular setting such as at a bus stop everyday or in the café on a regular basis.
Crossing paths with a student during recess or lunch. Bumping into students and their families at a community farmer’s market or at a local park. Attending community events that you know the student may have attended.
People create a bond with others who share similar likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. This common affinity allows a point of connection beyond any obvious racial, class or linguistic differences. This plants the seed of connection in the relationship.
Sharing hobbies, sports, or other things you like that are similar to a particular student’s interests. Also sharing social causes that you are passionate about, such as saving the environment, caring for animals, etc.
People connect when another shows concern for those issues and events important to another, such as births, illnesses, or other life transitions. This plants the seed of personal regard.
Remembering details from student’s life. Demonstrated by asking follow up questions about recent events.
People tend to trust others that demonstrate they have the skill and knowledge as well as the will to help and support them. This plants the seed of confidence in others.
Students trust the teacher when the teacher demonstrates the ability to teach effectively or make learning less confusing, more exciting, and more successful.
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Activity: Points of Connection
My Points of Connection • • •
What do you see as the best points of connection you can make with your diverse students? In the space below, identify a few ways you might integrate two or more trust generators. Create a simple script for sharing
Trust generators to consider
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Selective Vulnerability
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Familiarity
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Similarity & Interests (Affinity/ Adversary)
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Concern
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Competence
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The Warm Demander
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Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain Institute | Summer 2016
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Academic Mindset and Alliance: Getting Permission to Push It’s when the teacher moves from rapport to alliance that she becomes most effective as a culturally responsive educator. Because it’s during this phase that you leverage the trust you have built up with diverse students and earn their permission to push them into their zone of proximal development. t
The Pact. The pact is both an informal and formal agreement between teacher and student to work on a learning goal; it’s also a relational covenant between them. They each pledge to bring their attention and effort to the pursuit of the goal.
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Teacher as ally and warm demander. As part of her commitment, the teacher acts as an ally to the student in his quest toward independent learning. In this role, the teacher offers both care and push as needed. The skills and attributes of warm demander pedagogy allow teachers to push students to take more academic risks and gain confidence
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Student as driver of his own learning. For his part in the alliance, the student commits to being an active participant in the process and taking ownership of his learning as he works toward his learning goals, building cognitive routines, and improving his learning moves.
As an ally and warm demander, you help move the student along his quest toward independent learning, especially through the hard parts where he may have less cognitive stamina and an underdeveloped academic mindset. Unfortunately, the only way to develop either one is to engage in productive struggle. In this dual role as ally and warm demander, the teacher offers both care and push as needed. The main focus here is cultivating the skills to push students into their zone of proximal development while helping them manage their emotional response so they don’t set off their amygdala. The skills and attributes of warm demander pedagogy allow teachers to push students to take more academic risks and gain confidence (Ware, 2006). Your role as an ally in the learning partnership calls for you to know when to offer emotional comfort and care and when to not allow the student to slip into learned helplessness. Your job is to find a way to bring the student into the zone of proximal development while in a state of relaxed alertness so that he experiences the appropriate cognitive challenge that will stimulate his neurons and allow dendrites to grow.
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Checklist for (Re-) Engaging Diverse Students Provide social connection to re-establish trust (oxytocin) at start of school day or class. Practice some combination of the trust generators selective vulnerability and similarities/affinity. Take 30 seconds to 5 minutes to affirm through inspirational poetry, a class manifesto, or mantra that is developmentally appropriate everyday. Choose either a regular mantra or motto to recite or rotate content for this part of the class. This will appeal to the cultural archetype of spirituality that runs through several communities of color. Excite the brain (attention) with a social learning activity (collectivist) related to the topic/lesson of the day to create a state of relaxed alertness in students. Provide opportunities for choice and self-direction within the unit or lesson. Create at least one (1) verve-oriented/ multi-sensory learning experience per week: allow students to stand while working on a hands-on activity. Be sure to include background music at 60-100 beats per minute. Ground curriculum content in real world contexts connected to diverse students’ communities. Be sure not to romanticize poverty or stereotype community issues. Learn about the feeder pattern of your school and draw from those community events and projects. For upper grades (4-12), incorporate messages that recognize and validate the socio-political context that often marginalize culturally and linguistically diverse students. Flip the script by acknowledging this social reality (for example, language discrimination for Spanish speakers, color bias in real life issues related to unit content or specific lesson) and offer a counter-narrative to ground unit or lesson.
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Building a Culturally Responsive Lesson Our ultimate goal as culturally responsive teachers is to help struggling learners “learn how to learn” while also grasping the core content. We want them to have the ability to size up any task, map out a strategy for completing it and, then, execute the plan. But there is a lot of confusion about how to integrate culture into a unit or how to build a culturally responsive lesson for this purpose. People often get intimidated by the words culturally responsive because of the incredible mix of cultures in our classrooms. There’s a misconception that you have to give every culture equal time in the curriculum. Another common misconception about culturally responsive instruction is that teachers must teach the “Latino way” or the “Black way” or that students of color have a particular “learning style” such as being “kinesthetic learners.” An even more limiting misconception is that culturally responsive teaching is simply about building self-esteem or focused solely on building relationships. The main concept that’s important to grasp here is: “Culture determines how children perceive the world around them and their relationship to it.” Our job is to simply recognizing the common cultural reference points that help students make sense of new content. Culture also shapes how students process information. Collectivist cultures come to learning with a set of learning tools that we have to mimic in our teaching. These learning tools help students deepen their understanding and higher order thinking. Keep in mind that culturally responsive teaching doesn’t ask teachers to replace the mandatory standards-based curriculum. Instead, it asks the teacher to integrate into the traditional curriculum materials references, stories, images, and issues that are relevant to students’ lives as a scaffold and reference point. In addition, there has to be a focus on information processing that leverages the cultural learning tools students bring to school (even if they cannot name them specifically).
Lessons cannot be truly culturally responsive without these two parts
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The Building Blocks Here are the key components of a culturally responsive lesson plan. These components parallel the brain’s information processing cycle. Here they are in relationship to a traditional lessoning planning template on the right. Culturally Responsive Model Objectives • Have process and content goals • Connect to standards
Traditional Model Objectives • List learning target and standards
Essential Question/Headline
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Ignite (Attention) • Wake up the brain’s RAS • Make the brain curious to find answers (priming) • Make it social (collectivist)
Anticipation Guide • Pre-assessment • Determine what the student knows
Input • Cultural reference points • Contextualize content with cognitive hooks (i.e., metaphor/ analogy)
Input • Modeling • Questioning
Cognitive Routines • Point out which thinking routine to employ • Build “meta-strategic” awareness
Checking for Understanding • Questioning • Listen for right answers
Chew (Elaboration) • Help students make sense of new content using cultural learning tools • Use thinking dispositions to make connections • Sharpen use of cognitive routines for independent learning
Guided Practice • Group work
Review (Consolidation) • Focus on making learning stick • Light chewing within 12-24 hrs.
Independent Practice • Do more of the same by yourself • Worksheet or chapter questions
Culture as a Hook and a Scaffold Most teachers think we use culture to give diverse students pride and raise their self-esteem. Yes, affirmation and validation matter. It’s important for students to see their life experiences mirrored in the curriculum. But culture is also about cognitive development. Consequently, the most frequent questions that comes up about designing culturally responsive lessons are: • •
How does culture fit into the learning process? Does it mean I have to know specific details of all the different cultures in my classroom and cycle them all into my lessons?
No, it simply means you have to first understand the common cultural denominator that runs through the majority of communities of color: collectivism. A key point to remember is culture has two key functions: • •
It is our social-emotional entry point for getting the brain’s attention It acts as a cognitive reference point for the brain, like GPS
Ignite: Culture as a Social-emotional entry point Most of our students share music, movies, television shows, and social media across racial and cultural lines. So when we talk about making lessons culturally responsive, we can tap into this shared body of content. This is called a cognitive hook. Ignite: Culture as a cognitive reference point for the brain Another socio-cultural entry point is collectivism. Collectivism calls for students to think and talk together, even during the input phase of the lesson as a method of engagement. This can be in the form of call and response, student recitation, etc. In addition to being a social-emotional entry point, culture is most importantly a cognitive reference point. It’s like the brain’s GPS. The cultural reference point helps students map new content onto their own associations and understandings around the topic.
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Building Intellective Capacity: Elaboration is at the Key In order to do effective information processing, students have to have a way to turn inert information into useable knowledge. Cognitive routines are the basic mental maneuvers the learner uses for information processing, especially when doing higher order thinking and creative problem-solving. 1. Start with Socio-Cognitive Norms Most classrooms have norms for behavior, but few have norms for how students should use their minds. Socio-cognitive norms help all students, but especially dependent learners, cultivate the right mindset toward productive struggle. t
Failure is useful, not shameful.
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Errors are information: they promote discussion and learning.
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Ask questions until it makes sense.
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Think with language and use language to think.
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Use multiple ways to represent thinking, including non-linguistic ways like drawing, sketch notes, mind mapping.
2. Help students map their cognitive routines t
The process needs to be integrated into all lesson design
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he classroom needs to have visual reminders and prompts to guide students’ use until it automatic
3. Teach cognitive strategy The process needs to be explicitly taught, practiced and internalized. Here is a mnemonic. Size It Up What is the task asking me to do? What am I trying to figure out or understanding? Break It Down Which thinking disposition should I use? What “tools” will I need for this task? What “strategies” shall I use? Pull It Together So, how is this connected to the essential question/big ideas?
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Thinking Dispositions In order to help dependent learners build cognitive routines, teachers have to provide them with explicit cognitive strategy instruction. A skilled culturally responsive teacher plays a critical part in guiding students to use cognitive routines until their use becomes an automatic part of each student’s repertoire. The foundation of any cognitive routine is thinking dispositions. Thinking dispositions are not another pedagogical framework. They are what our brain naturally does in order to make sense of the world around us. Keep in mind that: t
They are universal
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They are often hidden or implicit
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They are overlapping and reinforcing of each other
They are helpful in getting students to move into their zone of proximal development where brain growth happens. Naming them gives us a language and a method for amplifying what our brains are already doing. When we are explicit and metacognitive about them, it encourages students to use the dispositions purposefully as they orchestrate their learning moves. The goal is to help students become aware of those dispositions so that they can guide their own learning.
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The Core Thinking Dispositions Disposition Distinctions:
Ability to distinguish between items that are near-neighbors, may have shared attributes but are different at a coarse or fine-grain level.
Relationships:
Ability to uncover the explicit and implicit relationships between things, concepts, or events.
Key Question How are these things similar or different? What is an example and a non-example of X? What is X not?
What is the relationship between X and Y? Is ______related to _____? How? Can you think of _______ as a relationship? How is Y connected to X?
Systems:
Ability to understand how very whole has parts and every part belongs to some whole. (Looking at these parts as a system sharpens our sense of distinctions and relationships between the parts.)
Perspectives:
Ability to be metacognitive about how something or someone is positioned and what view that position gives them. Student recognizes a perspective is comprised of a point (the person or thing) and a view; and that the point affects the view.
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What are the parts of X? How do the parts fit into the whole? What is whole is ______ a part of? What are the relevant parts of X? How to they interact with each other?
Example What is the difference between an equation and an expression in mathematics? What are the differences and similarities between a revolutionary and a terrorist?
What is the relationship between the author of the article and the topic? What is the relationship between each of our five senses and the physical structures of our sensory organs?
What are parts of pond ecology? What is pond ecology a part of? What are the parts that make up your concept of oppression? What is oppression a part of? What are the parts of a quadratic equation? What are quadratic equations a part of?
From the perspective of X, what is ______? From the perspective of X, why is Y ___________ From the perspective of _____, [insert question]? Can you think about ______ from a different perspective?
Can you think about this pond from the perspective of the turtle? How does that change whether X is helpful or harmful? Can you think about the American Civil War from a European perspective? How does that explain their actions?
Cultural Learning Tools Re-state in your own words why these are cultural learning tools.
MEMORY This tool is focused on creating understanding by
comparing new information to what is already known. Luis Moll calls this “funds of knowledge.” Metaphor and analogy are the most common ways the brain uses memory as a meaningmaking aid. In the process, it activates the learner’s schema and background knowledge.
PATTERN & PUZZLES This tool is focused on exploiting the brain’s primary drive as a pattern seeker. Through this tool the brain seeks to complete a puzzle by understanding how things are connected through their basic architecture, structures, shape, or function. Missing information, puzzles, riddles, and mysteries all activate this process.
TALK & WORD PLAY This tool is focused on the brain’s so-
cial learning process. Learning happens through dialogic interaction – talking and thinking together with other learners. This is the basis of Vygotsky’s social-cultural learning theory. Word play centers on the brain’s need to figure out how concepts are connected. This is the basis of allusion, idioms, simile, and other figurative language.
PERSPECTIVES This tool focuses on making meaning through understanding the experiences and motivations of the speaker, storyteller (or protagonist). This is the basis of the “reliable narrator.” In language arts and “historical perspective” in history. The brain attempts to filter meaning through various perspectives to better understand if the information provided is trustworthy or helpful. 21
Learning Games For Elaboration The key to helping students improve their information processing skills and grow their brains is to get them to mix new content with existing knowledge in more robust, active ways during the elaboration phase. But to be effective, this practice has to be engaging and fun -- not boring drill and kill. The brain processes content best through active manipulation like games and hands-on activities. There are three basic learning games and tools you can use and adapt across subject areas to make elaboration more interactive and employ more of the brain’s natural learning ability through seeking patterns and figuring out puzzles. t
Sorting
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Matching
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Semantic Features Analysis
On the following pages are brief descriptions of each game type, tips for preparing the games, and instructions for playing.
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Sorting Sorting is a powerful activity for helping students build deeper understanding of new content as well as drive it into long-term memory. You can build a sort for any subject or content area. The goal is to get the student to think about key concepts in an active way. The process requires elaboration. In addition, it provides the student with multiple exposures to the content, requires him to think about underlying relationships, and opens up the opportunity for instructional conversation. Types of Sorts There are two types of sorts. Each engages the brain in slightly different ways. Closed – In the closed sort, the categories have been pre-determined. The student’s task is to sort the cards into these selected categories. The closed sort directs the student’s attention to trying to figure out how content is similar and different -identifying the underlying pattern that categorizes. Open – In the open sort, the categories are not pre-determined. This type of sort is more challenging because the student must first create categories out of what appear to be random cards. Here the task is to determine the overarching classification and then to sort the cards into at least two categories. Preparing a Sort
Identify the content you want your student to practice. Decide if it is a closed or open sort.
Be sure to add a few “ringers� in the mix of cards – content that doesn’t neatly fit into your categories, are exceptions to the rule, or are misleading (but not obvious). This forces the student to look at each concept more closely, making the brain work harder which grows neurons.
Make sure the number of cards in the sort is uneven.
Be sure to create “header cards� that describe the categories if doing a closed sort
Create cards by using “print yourself� business-sized cards. Use small blank business cards such as Avery #8371 business cards or Staples brand heavyweight business cards. These can be easily run through your printer, 16 to a page.
Store the cards in a small envelope so they can be used again. Laminating them helps them last longer.
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Procedure for Doing a Sort Activity t
Decide if you want students to work on the sort individually or in pairs. (No more than two players).
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Encourage the student to talk with his partner about where to place each individual card.
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When the students are working, check the sort. Using questioning rather than give the student answers. Just hint that something might not be right. Remember the brain loves a mystery to solve.
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When they have finished, check their work or have another student/pair check the work as a way to make it a group activity.
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Take a picture of the sort if you can with your iPhone. Use can use this as formative assessment data.
Match Game Another way to gamify the elaboration process is using a match game format. You may remember this memory game as Concentration. The goal is to collect the most pairs. Through the process of trying to remember where certain cards are in the pile, the student increases his recognition of key terms or processes. Preparing the Match Game:
Before preparing cards, identify the content you want your student to internalize.
Select 10-15 terms you want them to work with. Using the Avery # 8371 blank business cards, make duplicate cards for each word– write the each word on two separate cards. (You can also vary the game by matching definitions, examples, words and math symbols, etc.)
When setting up the game, always include an odd number of cards and a few “ringers� to up the mental challenge.
Procedure for Playing Concentration
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Place all the cards face down on the table in a random pattern (not in neat rows). The random pattern is important to making the brain work at remembering.
The first player tries to find a matching pair by turning one card at a time over. If it is a match, he gets a point.
It is then the next player’s turn. Keep rotating back and forth until the time allotted for the game has expired.
Semantic Features Analysis (SFA) Why Is This Strategy Useful? Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is considered by researchers and cognitive scientists to be an effective strategy for improving information processing because it mimics the neural pathways the brain uses to organize information. By offering students a visual representation, via a matrix, on how terms are alike and/or different, students are able to analyze the relationships among the given concepts as the first step toward understanding. In addition, the SFA strategy supports reading as an interactive process. Either before or during reading, the reader uses prior vocabulary knowledge to understand the meaning of new concepts and phrases, using SFA as a guide. Research has shown that active learning in this way is effective in increasing comprehension and in retaining knowledge. Crafting the Semantic Features Grid
Select a category. Begin by selecting a topic and identifying key concept words that relate to the unit being studied.
List the terms in the category. Down the left side, list the terms. Each term should represent a major, layered concept related to the larger unit of study.
List the features. Across the top of the grid, list the features or attributes that you want students to think about in relationship to the terms list.
Determine what type of relationship students should look for between the terms and the features. For example, you can ask students to evaluate each relationship Using predetermined symbols, such as a + (plus for yes, there is a relationship) or - (minus for no, there is no relationship). Or you can use always (A), sometimes (S), or never (N) depending on the topic, terms, and features. Yet, another way to evaluate it is according to intensity, using a scale of 1-5 or 1-3, depending on your preference.
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Doing the Analysis Introduce the thinking task to students (. e.g. “Today we are going to deepen our understanding of polygons and their geometric features.) Model it. Using a simple unrelated topic, work through an analysis as a whole class so students get the hang of the process. Have students work on it individually. They can work to complete it during reading or after reading a specific text. In pairs, students can complete the grid collaboratively, engaging in an instructional conversation during the process. Use the completed grid as the foundation for class discussion or essay writing. For example, ask them to offer evidence to support why they marked it as they did. Or you can ask them to expand on the explicit and implicit relationships across terms and features.
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Checklist for Culturally Responsive Information Processing Ignite. Start the lesson with a bang so the brain pays attention. Use urgency, high relevance, or emotion (that’s age appropriate). Try a teasing headline Make bold, provocative statement Begin with movement, bright colors or loud sounds Chunk content. Break up content into digestible chunks. The brain will disregard content when too much information is coming in too quickly. Mimic. Deliver instruction mimicking the four cultural tools – memory, perspectives, talk & word play, and patterns & puzzles. Couple the new with the old. Create scaffolds by getting students to activate their background knowledge around the topic, not just a personal connection, but recalling facts and information about the topic. Chew time. Once the brain is paying attention, give students time to move the new content through the process of elaboration. This should be the heart of the lesson, not an add-on. Allow adequate time for deeper learning and productive struggle. Use cultural learning tools in combination to create the main activity to process the new content. Coach students to use explicit cognitive routines Create a trigger to act as catalyst for students to use cognitive routines Make it stick. Help student consolidate their learning by revisiting the concept and manipulating it in some way within 24 hours. Use rhythm, recitation, repetition, or ritual to move learning into long-term memory. Help students make connections between current topics being learned and previous concepts from past lessons Use non-linguistic representations (pictures, sketch notes, etc.) to help students remember and deepen understanding
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