Displaying Student Work

The English teachers have increased their efforts this semester to display student work in the classrooms and the hallways. Through a Parent Council grant we received large rolls of construction paper and bulletin board strips for the halls. The big paper is great for group work and carousel brainstorming activities.

The teachers have noticed that when students realize that the work may be displayed in the hallway, they take greater pride in their products. And we often find students from other classes checking out the assignments. Overall, displaying student work has helped us with classroom management and building relationships with students.

Idealistic Leader Traits

KC West has been using the idealistic leader traits as community builders in her English 10 classroom. Each week she has presented a different trait and students have worked on defining the traits, either with a circle map or an A to Z taxonomy.

Not only have these discussions of idealist traits helped KC build relationships with her students, but also students have reported that they have used information from classroom discussions outside of class, even at job interviews.

The idealistic leader traits from Admission Possible are:

"Strive to be DELIGHTFUL!

ENERGIZE those in your presence.

Keep your EYES ON THE PRIZE.

CHALLENGE CYNICISM whenever you encounter it.

MOCCASIN the lives of others. Imagine life in someone else's moccasins.

Learn to be GRATEFUL.

HAVE FUN!"

Visit Admission Impossible for more information on the Idealistic Leader Traits.

Pedagogical Flow Map

With the start of the second semester, I added a pedagogical flow map across the top of my white board so that students could track their progression through a unit and know where they were on the map each day. I made magnets that say "today" so that I can move those to the appropriate box of the pedagogical flow map each day. I can also write specifics on the white board about the area with the "today" arrow, basically making a flee map for the day's activities.

Some days involve more than one area. For example, the day displayed in the photo above has arrows pointing to both "concept development" and "skill development." Students were exploring the concepts that will develop into themes in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and students new to my classes this semester were developing their skills with Thinking Maps as they explored those concepts.

I reduced the pedagogical flow map to eight boxes by combining some areas so that it didn't appear too overwhelming for students. And practically, it now fits well across my white board. The eight boxes are concept development, vocab development, skill development, guided lesson, mediation & reflection, independent practice, review, and assessment. Since the unit will be working on vocab and concepts and reflecting throughout, I told students that the "Today" arrows would not be progressing exactly from one box to the next.

The pedagogical flow map is new this semester, but for the past two years I have kept a flow map for the daily agenda on the right side of my white board (see photo above). With the start of the semester I added just two simple magnets--a stop sign that says reflect and an arrow that says "We are here." Simply adding the arrow and moving it throughout the day allowed students to see that they were progressing through the day and allows them to know where they are at all times, even if they happen to daydream for a few minutes. My seniors were so impressed that I made magnets to keep them on track.

I hope that both flow maps will be a classroom management aid by helping students stay focused because they know what they are supposed to be doing at any given time. The pedagogical flow map also lets students know that I have a plan for each unit and that everything we do is connected and has a purpose.

Finally, the "reflect" stop sign reminds me and my students that their brains need a break throughout the daily agenda flow map. Yesterday, during 6th hour with my second semester seniors, I noticed that the noise level was picking up, so I moved the "reflect" stop sign to the middle of the white board and put the "We are here" arrow by it. Two minutes later, I simply moved the "We are here" arrow back to the appropriate place on the daily flow map. The students calmed down and got back to work. I couldn't believe how smoothly that worked.

Instructional Flow Map

NUA has introduced the Instructional Flow Map this year as a tool for curriculum planning. I have seen the presentation on the instructional flow map three times: 1) at large group with Carlton, Alexis and Norman, 2) at EHS's site visit with Alexis, and 3) at Cornelia's site visit with Stefanie. Each presentation has brought me closer to a full understanding of the power of this curriculum planning tool.

The boxes of the instructional flow map follow this order:

1. Introduction
2. Concept Development
3. Vocabulary Development
4. Skill Development
5. Teach The Lesson (Guided Practice)
6. Mediate for Mastery
7. Teacher (self) Reflection
8. Release the Lesson (Independent Practice)
9. Review
10. Student Reflection
11. Concept Confirmation
12. Assessment

As I have begun to use the instructional flow map in planning my lessons and coaching other teachers with their lessons and units, I have had these initial reactions:

Teaching the lesson does not occur until a lot of priming has happened for the students. In the introduction stage students need to be informed explicitly at the beginning of the lesson what are the goals, standards, strategies, and assessment for this lesson. Lately, I have been more careful telling students the what, why and how of each lesson, and specifically, I write the "explicit strategy instruction" on the board when students will be learning a new strategy.

Another priming observation that I had with the instructional flow map is that teachers need to front-load vocabulary. When Scott, the math coach, and I were discussing ways to introduce the ray, segment, and line unit for geometry students, we kept the instructional flow map in front of us so that we realized that the time taken for vocabulary development before teaching the lesson would be time well spent. So Scott planned to have students create a tree map or use defining format for the terms.

Next week before my World Literature students read "The Infant Prodigy" by Thomas Mann, I will spend a lot of time on vocabulary development before reading since the short story includes a number of musical terms that will be unknown to many students. During the vocabulary development stage of the instruction, I will employ the "Possible Sentences" strategy in Denise Nessel's Thinking Strategies book.

Another part of the instructional flow map that I felt has been neglected in my lessons in the past is the student reflection component. Stefanie pointed out that students need to be included in the equation when deciding if they are ready for the assessment. The day after Stefanie's instructional flow map presentation at Cornelia, I implemented this student reflection step by using the red light/green light approach that Stefanie had discussed.

The red light/green light strategy is simple yet effective. I gave students three cards--yellow, red and green--to keep on their tables as they prepared for a group fishbowl discussion on an assigned sonnet. If the group did not feel that they were ready to discuss their sonnet, they had the red card displayed. If they felt that they were close to being ready, they put out their yellow card. And if they were 100% ready to have their sonnet discussion assessed, they put out their green card.

My seniors were sceptical at first because they didn't understand why they couldn't just tell me when they were ready to present. I informed them that the visual display of cards around the room would allow other groups to also keep an eye on the progress of others, and if they noticed that many groups were going "Green," they would have to pick up their pace. The other benefit of the red light/green light strategy was that on-task time seemed to increase. As I circulated around the room, if I heard a group with a red card displayed talking about something unrelated to the assignment, I could flip their card to yellow, saying, "You must be close to being finished." I only had to do that to a few groups to keep everyone focused.

The instructional flow map has immediately impacted my curriculum design in the ways mentioned above, and I am sure that it will have an even greater impact as I use the tool even more.

Final Word Timer

Jim Hatten used the final word protocol twice this past unit with his sophomore English class and felt it went well. His sophomores discussed an article on cheating and then an article on environmental threats. Jim's also planning on using final word with his senior journalism class.

Jim projects a timer on his screen so that students can keep track their talking time.

Click here for a free, classroom timer to use on your computer.

Teachers with Interwrite pads also have a classroom timer as part of their gallery teaching tools. Projecting a classroom timer has a variety of uses to assist with classroom management.

Tree Map for Classroom Rules

During the first week of school, I had students create a tree map for the class rules. I provided the tree branch headings of Work--Respect--Belong. (Thanks KC for those headings.) Students then decided what those concepts looked like regarding specific classroom behaviors. Classifying classroom behavior details in this manner allowed students to see what types of activities they should engage in to be successful in my classroom.

This process allowed me as the teacher to give some direction as to the general code of conduct while allowing students to take ownership in how the general rules would play out specifically in the classroom.

Those tree maps are posted in the classroom, and I refer to them when a student needs a reminder.

NUA Insights and Applications from the CoP

On the last day of the high school NUA CoP, people shared the following summary statements from their key word notes page to provide a quick review of the weeks activities:

1. NUA strategies address culture, language and cognition and require students to think about their thinking.


2. NUA and Thinking Maps address classroom management by bridging the culture and achievement gaps.


3. NUA provides a variety of strategies to assist students in learning with particular attention to culture, language and cognition.


4. NUA strategies provide a common language to foster equity in learning that sometimes doesn't occur.


5. Thinking Maps connect all disciplines to all cultures.


6. I have a better grasp of NUA foundations. The research with Gifted and Talented students has mixed results since 10% of students said their writing skills declined because of Thinking Maps, but students were self reporting.

In addition, CoP members shared the following specific strategies that they plan on implementing in the classroom in the coming weeks:

1. Ann will use the multi-flow map with students to discuss the causes and effects of controlling their asthma and the double bubble map to compare and contrast rescue inhalers with preventative inhalers.
2. Elizabeth will implement the notebook this year to cut down on photocopying and help students get organized.
3. KC, and the other English 10 teachers, are using an anticipation guide for community building in the first few days of school. KC has teacher facts on one anticipation guide. Another one English 10 will use is "High School Anticipation Guide" with questions about academic honesty and high school concerns. Many of the questions will be answered in the syllabus.
4. Jim is doing his anticipation guides on surveymonkey.com and linking to his blog.
5. Betsy pointed out that blogger just added the poll option so that teachers could do a weekly poll on an issue.
6. Jackie has a flow map of the semester units on her bulletin board to build interest. Heidi (not a CoP member but an NUA Cohort member who shared this idea) is building a flow map across her wall as a unit progresses. Scott will consider doing this in his math class on his back white board. He could have each day's outcome summarized with a Thinking Map which flows into the next day's map summary or items learned list.
7. Jackie is also adapting many of Baruti Kafele's classroom management ideas. She has a vision statement on the bulletin board, a wall of fame in back, teleflip text messaging for positive comments, student goal setting on a multi-flow map, highlighting students through their Ipods, and putting an essential question of the day and agenda on the white board each day so that students know what they are supposed to get from each day.
   

Text Messaging Teleflip Tip

At the NUA CoP we discussed using text messaging to build relationships with students and bridge the gap between teen culture and teacher culture. Using teleflip.com allows teachers to use Microsoft Outlook to send text messages to students. All you need to do is type on the Outlook TO: line the phone number.teleflip.com.

I'm planning on getting student cell phone numbers on the first day of school, and I will try to text a few students each day. I will use text messages to remind students of missed assignments or if I need to meet with them, but mainly, I plan on using text messages as positive reinforcement for something I witnessed them doing well in class.

My husband read about teleflip in PC World, and he reminded me that sending the messages in Plain Text from Outlook will make the messages easier to read on cell phones. To get to plain text, simply click on the drop down menu where the HTML default is located on your email message.

The Star Tribune had a story on text messaging using email today, and they said how easy it is to do if you know the recipient's cell phone service provider. I guess the reporter had not heard about teleflip.com which requires no provider information. It's even easier than the Star Tribune realizes. Sometimes it pays to have a Tech Geek, PC World reading husband.

Final Word Strategy Notes

During the debrief the Final Word on Baruti Kafele's "Managing Your Classroom," CoP members came up with the following ideas:

The Final Word strategy allows all students to speak, creating an equality of cultures. The strategy allows all ideas to be affirmed, and the sense of order is a classroom management tool itself.

Discussing Kafele's ideas sparked a lively discussion from "we resist rigid classroom management" to "we still struggle with managing a classroom." KC shared her three classroom rules: Work, Respect, Belong. The group liked the idea of keeping rules vague since teachers can't predict all of the infractions.

Jackie's Note: Although many folks were turned off by some of the specific ideas that Kafele proposes, the animated discussion and comments such as "I've always been afraid to talk about classroom management issues" and "The faculty needs to have a larger discussion of rules for consistency across classes" made the 25 minutes valuable for me. Thanks for your great discussion.

NUA Principles of Learning

Many principles of learning underlie NUA's work. The following five are particularly useful because they are relevant across the full range of grade levels and content areas:

1. Students must bring their own perspectives to lessons so that they will see the relevance of the content to their own lives.
2. Students must make thoughtful and active use of their prior knowledge in order to learn new information.
3. Students need challenges to keep them motivated and engaged in learning.
4. Students need opportunities to talk to each other to construct, process, and reflect on meanings while hearing and appreciating one another's points of view.
5. Students need to represent their learning in interesting and creative ways that enhance their comprehension and retention.

Cognitive Coaching Ideas

The Community of Practice (CoP) watched the seven-minute video clip featuring Robert Price and Yvette Jackson in a cognitive coaching session. After sharing information about the video clip in their small groups, the CoP created the following list of cognitive coaching and Thinking Map applications for Edina High School:

1. Special Education could use to establish IEP goals and expected behaviors.
2. Administrators and teachers could use to discuss behavior issues.
3. Administrators could use in a pre-conference before teacher observations.
4. Teachers could use in a student writing conference.
5. The school nurse could use to explain procedures and to discuss health issues with students.
6. Cognitive coaching can be used to build relationships with students.
7. Administrators and teachers could use in conferences with parents.
8. Meeting and classroom agendas can be given in a flow map.

During our discussion some concerns were raised about the reduced amount of eye contact and the distraction teachers might feel when they are concerned about what is being written down. Some of these concerns can be alleviated though when understanding that Cognitive Coaching/discussions with Thinking Maps do take out some of the emotion and force the coach to be a more active listener. Also, teenagers may find that making a Thinking Map during a behavior conference may keep them occupied and not worry about the reduced eye contact.