Schools That Learn: Classroom Discussion

HMS Hat Day 2008

Once in a while, we allow the kiddies to have a little bit of fun at school - here are some pictures of this year's Hat Day! Sometimes I am so focused on the curriculum and forget that they are only kids... it was good to see them have such a great time just breaking the hat rule for one day!


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Five Boro Bike Tour - Music Slide Show

I joined a few of my colleagues in the annual New York City Five Borough Bike Tour - it was a blast! Check out the cool music slide show. It's fascinating how technology can turn a simple collection of digital pictures into an awesome production that can be showed off to others - in the wise words of PhotoShop master Jarrod G... "its all smoke & mirrors!"

Module Response: Learner Differences

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Module Response: Multiple Intelligences (Part I)

At a recent conference, Howard Gardner indicated that his theory of multiple intelligences cannot be accomplished in the face of No Child Left Behind and standards-based education. In some of his writing he has also said, "to the surprise of many, including me, the theory of multiple intelligences has become influential in educational circles. It is often assimilated, inappropriately, in my view, into work on cognitive or learning styles. Educators have sought to determine the intellectual strengths (the intelligence profiles) of their students through a variety of informal, jerry-built methods. They have also drawn a multitude of often inconsistent inferences about practice from the theory. These range from teaching seven or eight different subjects, each centering on a particular intelligence; to organizing groups of students based on their favored intelligences; to building curricula that focus on specific intelligences; to teaching subjects in seven or eight different ways." Discuss your reaction to each of the statements.

It is interesting to learn that an educational theorist, like Howard Gardner, was able to recognize the inappropriate application of his theory and although he strongly believes in the presence of multiple intelligences, it cannot be the magic solution to be poured upon the current education system. According to Gardner, everyone possess all nine of the intelligences outlined in his theory and each of the intelligences can be “nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened”. This is the reason why grouping all the musical learners together and have this group write and perform a song about every lesson is not the correct approach to applying the theory of multiple intelligences. Most of our students are still in the process of developing their different intelligences, which makes it difficult to label them right away. Moreover, what is the purpose of labeling each student with one intelligence when Gardner clearly stated that we all possess all the intelligences? So why not grant students the chance to develop all of their intelligences? Students will have the rest of their adult life to pick their learning style preferences – high school electives, college majors and minors, career paths, etc. As a middle school teacher, I believe in affording my students a variety of experiences as part of the development of their personality, preferences and intelligences. Lastly, it would be impossible for educators to create lessons that accommodate the specific needs of all the intelligences listed by Gardner. I think the most important application of this theory is awareness of the various intelligences. It would be a nightmare for educators to design lessons that embrace all the educational theories out there!

My First Music Video

This semester in T.E.A.M. we are working in collaboration groups. Our group is working on a project that hopes to engage students in exploration of worldwide challenges such as hunger, human rights, crime, education and discrimination.

I've chosen to work on the topic of crime because it's something we hear about every day and I'm appalled by the fact that our children are desensitized by the widespread of crime all around them. We cannot raise a generation of young people that feel powerless against crime!

This is my first music video made from www.animoto.com, hoping to create awareness and inspire future leaders of change in this world.

VoiceThread and Beyond

VoiceThread is a great but extremely multi-faceted tool - the T.E.A.M. program collaborated with the Heckscher Museum of Art, located in the town of Huntington. In order to practice creating VoiceThreads, we cataloged the special exhibit of "Long Island's Best" exhibit, featuring the winning entries of an art competition involving high school students from both Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, NY. This was a meaningful workshop and inspired to think about how I can use this tool with my students in the classroom.

Please leave a comment on this VoiceThread if you wish - these are some wonderful art work created by the young people of Long Island.

Logo Mania

after an entire week of sleepless nights, i finally have something to show for my time spent in PhotoShop - here's the draft of my logo... depending on what i learn in the next few days, i might add to it or start from scratch... again! but for my first logo production, i'm pretty happy with the result.

and now.... some sleep!

Module Response: Developmental Psychology

When students approach abstract concepts at different stages of their academic career, they often use rote memory because it has proven to be a successful method in the past and perhaps it’s the auto-pilot response. There are different schools of thoughts regarding developmental psychology in relation to students’ approach to new and abstract concepts.

According to Piaget’s theory of schema organization, all human beings develop by passing through “natural” stages – the mastery of one stage bring the individual to begin the next stage, etc. Students formulate various schemas throughout their early developmental stages and as they mature, they encounter situations that don’t fit their existing schema. Therefore, one strategy that a teacher might use to trigger learning is to present students with scenarios or examples that challenge their existing knowledge and/or system of approach to solve a problem. For instance, if students know that all birds can fly, then the teacher will give examples of birds that cannot fly; or if students know that a Supreme Court decision is final, then teachers will give examples of Supreme Court decision being overturned by later decisions, etc. In both situations, the teacher threw the kid out of balance – in Piaget’s terms, teachers’ job is to create disequilibrium in order to bring about active advancement in learning. Piaget also believe in using peers of similar developmental level to find a way to fix the disequilibrium created by the teacher – either by assimilation or by accommodation. Students will hopefully bring the new concept/example into existing schemas or work on changing the existing schemas to include the new concept/example. Overall, the role of the teacher is to point out the “conflicts and inconsistencies” in the students’ thinking and give enough guidance to encourage advancement of cognitive development.

According to Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective of learning, student’s cognitive development does not follow a universal “natural” progression of stages. Instead, Vygotsky believes that the interaction with the cultural environment surrounding an individual determines cognitive development. A teacher has a more important role in Vygotsky’s theory because teachers will need to be models for students to imitate and advance. An useful strategy would involve the teacher giving students a problem that is a little beyond what the student is capable of solving but does not seem to be impossible (in another words, a problem in which the solution is difficult but feasible). The student is then surrounded by individuals with higher abilities and through the mere interactions and scaffolding provided by these advanced individuals, students will learn the new and abstract concepts. This theory is very much dependant on the student’s interaction with the environment and people, such as teachers, parents, siblings, etc. However, many circumstances often keep parents and/or teachers from giving each child the individual attention and help needed for proper development. Therefore, technology can help to provide some of the missing interaction time of a student’s life. For example, if the parents/guardians of a student is not available after school to help him/her with homework, the student can use communication tools such as Skype or Instant Message to communicate with mentors, tutors, teachers or relatives.

Module Response: Complex Cognitive Processes

Perhaps one of the most difficult and abstract concepts to teach in U.S. Government is the system of checks and balances between the three branches of the national government. When faced with a difficult concept, it is always wise to explore different approach and see which one would fit the developmental understanding of your audience’s age group. For me, I need to find the least confusing but most effective method for my 7^th graders not only to understand but to be able to transfer this knowledge to other systems of our society that would benefit from “checks and balances”. There are two key principles of “checks and balances” – first, the principle that each branch of the government has the right to limit the other two branches from abusing their powers; second, the principle that each branch often are limited by the other two branches. Sounds confusing, doesn’t it?

According to Bruner’s discovery learning, teachers will have to first provide examples and guide students to work on these examples until the students find the fundamental idea/ subject structure of the abstract concept. Students will first be presented with different powers given to each of the three branches of the government (legislative, executive, judicial), specifically powers that set restrictions on the other two branches. After all the examples of powers are presented, teacher will ask a guiding question – “which of these powers are related to each other?” For example, the presidential veto is an executive power that sets restriction on the legislative power of Congress to make laws. From there, students will be able to work through the other examples and find that although each branch possesses powers to limit the actions of the two branches, each branch also is subject to the limitation set by the other two branches. Although Bruner’s model is time consuming, I believe that since the students discovered the relationship between the branches of government on their own, the understanding becomes more intrinsic and it will allow a more meaningful transfer later on. Technology can definitely create a helpful visual of the relationship between the three branches of government. An interactive diagram of the three branches can be created for the students to click & drag different powers to the correct branch. Then the students can create different color arrows to show how each branch can “check” and “be checked”.

According to Ausubel’s exposition teaching, teachers will first have to explain the fundamental concept by using an advance organizer, which will serve as an “introductory statement” about the information that is about to be presented. In the case of teaching “checks and balances”, teachers will start with the definition of “checks and balances” and a triangular diagram showing the three branches of government along with all the powers possessed by each of the branches. Then the teacher will then move on to demonstrate the first example of the concept, which has already been defined and (hopefully) understood by the students. The teacher will show that although the executive branch of the government has the power to veto, the legislative branch of the government has the power to override the veto. Following the initial example, students will pick another power of a specific branch (ex. the executive power to appoint federal judges) and determine which other branch is affected/limited by this specific power. Technology will probably serve a similar function in the Ausubel’s model as it did in the Bruner’s model – the presentation of an interactive diagram, which will allow students to draw arrows from one branch of the government to another to show the ways in which they can “check” and “balance” each other to prevent the abuse of power by any one branch.

The concept of “checks & balances” will probably be very difficult to transfer. Teachers will need to ask guided questions and perhaps give another example of a system of “checks & balances” that is not related to the structure of our government. Teacher might ask students to consider other situations in which there are divisions of powers – for example, the powers divided between parents/guardians/stepparents, between coaches/teachers, etc. As soon as students identify a similar structure, teachers should create a diagram that will help students recall their work from the three-branches-of-government example. If students can clearly identify different powers belonging to each of the groups in the new scenario and demonstrate the relationship between each of the groups, then transfer will most likely take place. An extension of this activity will be to allow students to find a situation in society that will benefit from having a “checks & balance” system in order to prevent the abuse or misuse of power.

Module Response: Metacognition & Self-Regulation

Metacognition, the process of thinking about thinking, sounds like something impractical that belongs solely in the realm of theory at first, but it’s actually very relevant to the means of teaching and learning. Students who have trouble solving problems in a cumulative assessment probably lacked the mastery of various skills that were introduced and thus a conscious learning process must take place in order to be better prepared. According to the “Metacognition” article written by Halter, there are two types of learners – novice and expert. A novice learner goes through the motions of learning and leave retention of the information to chance. On the other hand, an expert learner takes the time to think about the process of learning, evaluate what works and what doesn’t, and make appropriate adjustments to behavior based on reflection. The difference between these two methods of learning can be seen in the result – although the ways of an expert learner might seem time consuming at first, but after metacognition becomes an automatic approach to learning anything new, it will prove to be more efficient

Similar to metacognition, self-regulation requires students to be actively aware of their learning and be intrinsically driven to reach specific goals. According to Woolfolk and Schunk, having a reachable and challenging goal will increase self-control because students will strive to narrow the gap between their current understanding of a topic and the stated goal. Having a clear goal causes learners to identify factors that contribute to reaching that goal, which is directly related to being aware of his/her thinking (metacognition)! Not only do learners seek knowledge about themselves, they analyze other aspects of reaching their goal such as the subject of study, the tasks at hand and how to maximize the time allotted for these tasks, etc.

There are many strategies that educators can use to help students develop metacognition and self-regulation so that they not only become more efficient when learning new information, they will be able to apply their knowledge appropriately. For example, when students learn to conjugate a verb in different tenses (either in English or in a foreign language), the teacher usually focus on one verb tense at a time – starting with repeated practice of different verbs in the present tense then moving on to the past tense, etc. By the end of the unit on conjugation, many students will confuse the usage of different tenses on a cumulative test although they’ve mastered the assessment at the end of each section within the unit. One way to improve this scenario is for teachers to steer clear of merely teaching a behavior – for example: “students, for past tense, just add ‘-ed’ at the end of every verb”. Instead, after teaching the past tense, teachers should ask students to record how they’ve associated the verb tense with the new information about conjugation. If the students keep an organized record of how they individually learned new material, they will soon see a pattern of their strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge becomes a guide to how the student should face new information, which allows monitoring, reflection and adjustment of behavior and approach. Knowing what works and what doesn’t gives students ownership of their learning and teach them how to cope with future unfamiliar circumstances.

Technology can prove to be extremely useful in gathering students analysis of their own learning process, creating an organized archive of past experiences and most importantly, helping students make sense of their thinking patterns. For example, at the end of the unit on conjugating verbs in the past tense, students can fill out an online survey (e.g. surveymonkey) created by the teacher. While questions about the content will evaluate WHAT the students have learned, the metacognition survey will require students to think about HOW they were able to master the information. The survey will facilitate students’ consideration of their goals, their level of motivation, their time management and what worked vs. what didn’t. After filling out a survey, students would be asked to make any conclusions they’ve reached after being “forced” (by the survey) to consider all the different factors that contribute to learning. I truly believe that students might come up with shockingly revealing insight about their own learning that will benefit them for the rest of their academic career and beyond!

Lastly, I was also very impressed with the description of “academic controversy” in the article written by David & Roger Johnson. It reminded me of a mock debate in my Social Studies classes, in which students become extremely motivated and want to be more than prepared to defend their point of view against the attacks of others. So many times, students are not given the chance to have a point of view because they’re simply told what to think. For example, while teaching the debate for the independence of the 13 American colonies – instead of putting up a “pros vs. cons” chart on the blackboard and giving students notes about the two sides of the debate, why not let the students take a side and really debate the issue? Knowing that there will be opponents next day in class, students will be self-regulated and a lot more motivated to research and refine their arguments. Technology can definitely facilitate this process because sometimes in a classroom of 30 students under the time pressure of a 42-minutes period simply isn’t enough to hear everyone’s point of view. So teachers can set up a forum online, such as a blogmeister or a quicktopic, in which students can continue to comment on each other’s arguments outside the classroom.

Greetings, Earthling...

To the amazing people who have the time, intellect and energy to think outside the box, to explore alternative usage of technology, to find humor in almost everything and be so willing to share it with the world - I thank you for keeping life fun!

check out the secret message the earth has for t.e.a.m.

(p.s. technology is amazing - thanks karen!)

Meeting Ann Rinaldi

The Independence Park Institute (IPI) held an Educators' Open House on Jan. 26th, 2008 at the Independence National Historical Park and invited author Ann Rinaldi as the keynote speaker. Ann Rinaldi is the author of many amazing historical fictions for young people. Rinaldi's books are based on key turning points in American History and characters depicted in the stories capture the powerful emotions, conflicts, perspectives of the time.

At the seminar, Rinaldi describe the research that was involved with every project - since all her books are based on historical events or historical figures, Rinaldi is careful not to recreate or misrepresent history. Rinaldi expressed that in her writing, she refuse to put words into historical characters' mouths without proofs from historical documents. I was extremely impressed by her knowledge and dedication to historical authenticity - I'm sure being someone as creative as she is, it is so much easier to make things up! At the same time, I cannot imagine the catastrophic impact it will have in her young readers if the history behind Rinaldi's stories are inaccurate or poorly researched. Young people are drawn to stories and they remember story plots much better than textbooks - sometimes, in attempt to understand the background of a story, students are intrinsically motivated to do research on their own hoping to find the truth.

Some books tell the stories of famous American characters:
"Or Give Me Death" - A Novel of Patrick Henry's Family
"Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons" - The Story of Phillis Wheatley
"Finishing Becca" - A Story about Peggy Shippen and Benedict Arnold

Some books are based on important events in American History:
"A Break With Charity" - A Story about the Salem Witch Trials
"The Fifth of March" - The Story of the Boston Massacre
"Cast Two Shadows" - The American Revolution in the South

Secretly, I've always loved literature and felt strongly about using historical fiction as a enrichment tool to teaching history to young people. I am inspired by Ann Rinaldi's passion for American History, her courage to discuss controversy, and her creativity through storytelling.

Many times, I hear students complain about how disconnected their classes are, how they have to change gears every 40 minutes throughout a school day walking from English to Math to Spanish, etc. I am hoping to collaborate with the English teacher of my students and design a curriculum that incorporates English and Social Studies. Perhaps this could be a good start to true interdisciplinary collaboration at Herricks Middle School!