Reflecting on Cues, Questions, Advanced Organizers, Nonlinguistic Representations, Summarizing, and Note-Taking

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

            Setting the stage for learning is vital to help students getting the most out of each and every class.  By using cues, questions, and advance organizers, teachers can help students activate prior knowledge, organize their learning, and review/study information. 

            One strategy I think could be pretty powerful is the use of multimedia narrative and expository advance organizers.  Not only can pictures, videos, and internet simulations set the stage for student learning, these nonlinguistic representations can give something visual to which students can connect their learning.  These visuals could also trigger great classroom discussions and perhaps help students develop questions that could trigger self-directed learning.  I also am really excited about using tools like Today's Meet, WallWisher, and Linoit as bellringer activities or as question activities throughout a lesson.

 Nonlinguistic Representation

            Nonlinguistic representations force students to think about their learning in a different way.  Too often classrooms are focused on just linguistic representations of knowledge, and this hinders student achievement and cannot meet the needs of all learners.  A combination of both linguistic and nonlinguistic representations in the classroom will increase student learning and student achievement and engage all learners more deeply.

            During my last semester as a traditional classroom teacher, a student teacher and I experimented with using digital cameras to help students learn vocabulary.  It was definitely a successful activity; the students had fun, exercised their critical and creative thinking skills, and learned their vocabulary in a unique, active way.  This nonlinguistic representation of their vocabulary was useful as both a learning tool and a review tool.  One drawback was the amount of time it took. 

Summarizing and Notetaking

            I witness the problems students have with summarizing and note-taking frequently in my role as a teacher librarian.  The difficulty students have with these skills manifests itself in copying and pasting, plagiarism, and blank stares at information on the computer screen and in books. 

            I think all teachers need to overtly teach the processes of summarizing and note-taking.  I also firmly believe that teachers should teach a variety of note-taking methods, with the ultimate goal of students begin able to choose the best method for them and for the activity.  Discussing the students’ choices with them would be a powerful metacognitive activity for the students.

            Technology can definitely help with the teaching of summarizing and note-taking strategies.  Similar to the Microsoft Word tools discussed in the book, Google Docs could be used to document the steps in a summarizing process through tracking revision history.  I also like to teach students how to use PowerPoint, rather than notecards in the research process.  They work just as well as the notecards we all used during our intense research papers, with the added benefits of not being as easy to lose or misplace!  This, however, does not teach students how to pull out important information from their reading during the research process, so it is important to remember to teach and have students repeatedly practice that skill.

Online vs. Blended vs. Traditional Learning Environments

Using Creately, I created the following venn diagram comparison of online, blended, and face-to-face learning:

The point I was really trying to make with my comparison is that there are certain core principles of education that hold true, no matter the learning environment.  In order to maximize student learning, quality teachers need to create engaging learning opportunities based upon clear standards and objectives.  These teachers need to provide timely, constructive feedback to students in order to help them grow.  Clearly, I am focused on the teacher’s role in education, rather than on the student or family role, but that is the only that I, as an educator, can fully control.  

In my comparison, I also overlook the role of technology in face-to-face learning.  I know that in many of today’s classrooms, technology is required and is being integrated effectively into classroom instruction and student learning.   However, I also know of many classrooms that do not use much technology or where technology is integrated ineffectively.  Although quality learning and teaching can definitely take place without technology, this may be short-sighted if our ultimate goal is to prepare students for the world outside of a traditional school. 

Rubrics Vs. Online Quizzes

            Rubrics are valuable tools to assess and provide feedback on student work.  A good rubric gives specifics targets for which students can strive and can help students self-assess their own work.  I have used RubiStar several times over the years and like the features it has to offer.  I do like to make my own rubrics; however, if I am struggling with how to word something I use RubiStar’s rubric creators or public rubrics to help me.  I also looked at Rubrix, but I hesitate to embrace this type of subscription product.  The ease of use and the exciting features are great, but in an era of budget cuts, I think quality feedback can be provided in other ways.  At this year’s WEMTA Conference, I learned of scripts that can be used with Google Docs and Forms to help create rubrics for both student work and administrative classroom walkthroughs these scripts make these tools as functional as Rubrix, sending the student or teacher immediate feedback based on the created rubric.

            Online quiz programs like QuizStar and Quia can also be used to give feedback to students; however, most times, that feedback cannot be as detailed and in depth as the feedback that can be provided using rubrics.  The best use is for quick checks for understanding, rather than for checks for more in-depth student learning.  The fact that Quizstar is free makes it more useful to me, and I do like that you can use media files within your quizzes.  I also like the variety of activities, games, and quizzes that Quia can help you create.  I think students would really respond to that variety.  (I really wanted to continue playing the figurative language jeopardy game I stumbled upon…!)  All in all, though, I think these kind of tools are better used for student practice at home or during free-time, so that more time can be spent doing more real-world, project- or problem- based learning.

            Teachers in my school use a variety of tools.  some already use RubiStar and QuizStar, but many create their own rubrics.  Some teachers use the quiz feature in Moodle, but I know that it often takes a lot of work to get it working perfectly.  We also recently got our older Clicker technology to work with updated versions of Windows and PowerPoint, so I think more teachers will start to utilize those; teachers were very excited when we showed them what the clickers could do (even though they weren’t yet glitch-free!).  I also think teachers will be receptive to using Google Forms for these purposes, as well.

Refelecting on Week 1 Strategies: Objectives, Feedback, & Recognition

Setting Objectives

            Honestly, this is something I didn’t give as much thought to earlier in my career.  However, my position in the school library has offered me a chance to witness great teachers and look at things through a new lens.  Through this lens, I know that some of my favorite classroom activities would not meet the objective I would really want students to master.  My classroom would look completely different today.

            Today’s technology would help with setting objectives.  Teachers can post student-friendly copies of their lesson plans on the SMARTBoard as students enter the room that can help students be fully prepared for the class and for learning.  They could project a document that had materials needed, the plan and objectives for the day, and a bell-ringer to begin class.  I also like the idea presented in the book to create a class contract for unit learning objectives, that allows students to personalize the learning objective to meet their own learning needs and goals.

Providing Feedback

            Feedback is going to be an important discussion in our staff development this next year.  We are moving on to creating better assessments and having been talking a lot about formative vs. summative assessment.  Through these discussions I have changed my curriculum so that everything I do with technology and information literacy in grade six and seven is formative work that leads to an 8^th grade summative assessment in the form of a research project and presentation.  Student success at this summative assessment will depend on them receiving quality feedback throughout their tech projects throughout middle school.

            Technology can definitely help to provide this quality feedback.  We are just starting to use Google Docs and Gaggle, and there is a lot of potential for delivering feedback through Google Docs, Blogger, and Google Forms.  Not only will teachers have the opportunity to use tools such as these to provide feedback to students, but students will be able to give feedback to one another.

Providing Recognition

            Everybody likes to be recognized for quality work.  It is a simple fact of life.  As a teacher,  I need to be cognizant of this and make a concerted effort to make time for recognition.  I also think it is important to remember to provide specific praise on what students have done well, not just generic “good work” or “great effort” or “nice essay” comments.  Students need to know specifically what they are doing well so they can replicate it.

            Technology can definitely be used to provide recognition.  One way that I will do this in the very near future is to create a slideshow using Picassa to showcase the best of the best from our Book Spine Poetry activity in the library.  Students snapped photos of the poem they created using books/ book titles in the library, and I hope recognize the most creative examples through a slideshow on the school website.  

Feedback that Fits

            The article “Feedback that Fits" strikes me as the kind of article that should be required reading in a teacher education program.  It also strikes me as proof of why class sizes need to be MANAGEABLE. 

            Clearly, meaningful feedback is imperative for students.  The article focuses on the following feedback for criteria: timely and as frequent as practical; focused on processes and learning targets; descriptive and non-judgmental; and positive and specific.   This kind of feedback would have significant impact on student learning and growth.  These criteria can also be easy to forget or overlook in the daily grind of a classroom.  I can unfortunately say that as an English teacher, I handed back more than one set of papers that looked more like the “what-not-to-do” example.  As there is a chance that I will be back in a traditional classroom next year, I need to remember what meaningful feedback looks like and strive to give this kind of feedback on formative assessments. 

            I also think it is important to remember to give students time to do something with the feedback.  Too often, teachers correct something, offer suggestions, make comments, etc., and then the class moves on to the next assignment/assessment/unit.  Without time to do something with the feedback, what are the students really learning?  How can they show any growth?

            Another important question:  how can a teacher provide meaningful, timely, and frequent feedback to each and every student in an overcrowded classroom?  When there are 30+ students in a class that meets for 45 minutes, it is very difficult to hold those conferences that can provide meaningful feedback.  When one teacher has 150+ students, writing 150+ paragraphs or essays, the problem seems even more difficult.  Technological tools can provide some help.  Comments on blogs or on Google Docs could help teachers provide ongoing feedback through the writing process.  Digital recorders could help teachers give feedback to students in a way that perhaps scribbled comments on a paper might not be able.  Whatever the tool, teachers need to provide this kind of meaning feedback to students during formative assessments.  It is the best way to ensure student learning and success.