The Winning Team: Build the tallest structure measured from the table top surface to the top of the marshmallow. That means the structure cannot be suspended from a higher structure, like a chair, ceiling or chandelier. The Entire Marshmallow Must be on Top: The entire marshmallow needs to be on the top of the structure. Cutting or eating part of the marshmallow disqualifies the team. Use as Much or as Little of the Kit: The team can use as many or as few of the 20 spaghetti sticks, as much or as little of the string or tape. The team cannot use the paper bag as part of their structure. Break up the Spaghetti, String or Tape: Teams are free to break the spaghetti, cut the string or tape to make the structure.
Students must see the value in what they are learning and how it applies to their lives, cultures and interests.
We can do this as educators by creating activities that help engage students on one or all of these levels.
Quick Write
Reflect on the Marshmallow Challenge. In what ways did your behavior during the challenge affect the outcome of your team? Were you a successful team? Why or why not? What would you do differently if allowed another chance to complete the challenge? In what ways could a challenge like this work in your classroom to engage your students and teach them cooperative learning skills?
Please see the below video for additional information regarding the Marshmallow Challenge.
Why shouldn't you give students the opportunity to write often and regularly? If not you, then who?
In this entry, we will discuss why all content areas should have a focus on writing regularly in the classroom.
The Difference Between Writing to Learn and Learning to Write
When you are a math teacher, the idea of teaching a student to write can be overwhelming. Non-language arts teachers often feel they do not have the skills necessary to teach writing. This prevents them from incorporating a great technique, like Writing to Learn, in their classrooms. There is a big difference in teaching writing and having students write to learn. The key to having students write to learn, is to find authentic purposes for writing in your classroom, model your expectations around writing, allow ample time for students to practice before being graded, and offering genuine feedback so students can grow.
Authentic Purposes for Writing
Students must understand why they are writing in math class or art class before they can truly engage with the effort it takes to write. Teachers must be transparent about the many ways students will utilize writing in their lives, regardless of their occupations. Students must be able to see how professionals in the different subject ares are using writing. Students are already communicating with each other linguistically for several hours during the day, texting, emailing, posting on Facebook or Twitter. Writing can be both formal or informal. Students must see the importance of representing themselves positively through their writing and also, finding meaning in what they are learning through their writing. The following websites offer many writing assignment ideas to help you begin to incorporate writing or incorporate writing on a larger scale in your classroom.
Writing Across the Curriculum - This is a complete guide on the why and how of incorporating writing into your classroom.
Modeling Writing Expectations
If teachers don't see themselves as writers, how will they teach students the importance of writing regularly? You must start with yourself. You must begin to reflect on your teaching practices, your personal experiences and your professional decisions before you can engage students in writing.
You should always know your expectations for your student writing before assigning writing. When you know your expectations, I want students to write quietly for 3 minutes summarizing the day's learning, you are able to model this expectation, monitor it and evaluate the progress which leads to feedback. You have to get comfortable with modeling writing. Be honest with the students when you know you have some insecurities around spelling or grammar, let them know that the most important part of their writing is that they are writing to learn the concepts. Grammar and spelling are things that can be worked on and are worked on the in the language arts classroom. Prepare what you plan to model prior to your class, but write with your students and in front of your students even though you already know what you are going to write. In the beginning, this takes some of the anxiety out of modeling. Once you are more comfortable with modeling, you can model right in front of them without having written out exactly what you plan to model.
Most importantly, see yourself as a writer so that your students can see themselves as writers. Start writing in your free time as a way to professionally develop this skill. Writing is just like playing a sport, it takes time and practice.
Allow Time for Practice
Students need to get comfortable with writing before they start receiving grades on their writing. This does not mean you can't give feedback. In fact, you should be giving as much feedback to students on their writing, as regularly as possible. It can be as informal as a brief one on one conversation at the student's desk, to a rubric you've filled out based on their writing assignment. Students need that feedback so that they can set goals for improvement. Once you've modeled expectations for your students around their writing, they then need ample time to practice while receiving constant informal and some formal feedback.
Giving Genuine Feedback
Do not become overwhelmed with trying to enhance your student's writing around grammar and conventions. Be more concerned with is the student demonstrating an understanding of the concepts you've presented. Comment on the student's thinking rather than their writing. Only give 1-3 ways the student can improve their writing for next time. You do not want to discourage the student from writing in the future. You want them to know that their writing can and will grow with practice. Show students your own growth with writing through allowing them to see different drafts of your writing developed over time for the more formal writing assignments you assign. Write with your students so that they can see, not even teachers have perfect writing the first time around. It takes practice and constructive feedback for someone to improve. Give them examples of good writing that consists of the areas you wish for that student to focus. There are two major ways to give feedback on writing, written or orally. Informal conferencing tends to lend itself to the greatest growth, because it is tailored to the student's needs and it is easier for a student to understand than a note left on their paper.
Read Write Think is another great resource for writing to learn in your classroom.
ANNOTATING TEXT
Annotating a text, can help students make meaningful connections to what they are required to read. Annotation is a great resource to use to help students get started writing after reading quicker. If they've already thought through responses to the text while they were reading, it is easier for them to get started writing immediately after reading. Annotating makes summarizing less difficult, because a larger text is broken down in to small chunks while reading. Like with your expectations of writing, you must model, model, model annotating. The below link is a helpful article regarding how to go about annotating with your students.
Respond to the quote below by relating it to your work ethic and your views on teaching.
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abe Lincoln
3 Person Groups
Each person is going to share their lesson plan. You are going to make meaningful comments and give constructive feedback to help your partners improve their lesson or make them aware of potential challenges.
After you finish discussing, you may take the rest of the time to ask questions and work on your lesson plan.
We've discussed connecting to students through authentic purposes for learning. We've discussed involving students by engaging them in a meaningful way in the lesson. As we continue to look at how teachers are taking these daunting tasks and accomplishing amazing things in their classrooms, we will continue to focus on how to make the observing of these teachers meaningful to us as classroom teachers. The below video is another example of a teacher that has connections with her students that enable a meaningful learning environment. Video #2 You are going to take detailed notes over her lesson in order to complete your Video Reflection #2 paper and have a discussion with your classmates about what you say in the video. Please be able to answer the below questions.
What was she doing to engage her students?
How did her lesson connect to the 3 Class Domains?
What are you taking away from this lesson that you can utilize in your own classroom?
After viewing the video, we will continue to discuss strategies that will increase student learning and engagement. Please see the below links to help you plan intentionally for increased engagement and rigor in your lesson planning. 4 Ways to Increase Engagement Bloom's Taxonomy Revised Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel With the Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel you were given, write for 15 minutes about your lesson and where it falls on the wheel. Determine if your lesson is a higher level, how you've scaffolded to ensure your students are successful. Or if your lesson is lower, how will you increase the rigor of your lesson later on in your school year to challenge your students. Finally, get with a partner and discuss your lesson planning process.
What steps have you taken to come up with your lesson?
How will you know if your students have taken away from your lesson what you wanted them to?
What checking for understanding techniques do you see yourself using most often in your classroom?
Represent visually your learning and understanding of the lesson planning process.
Read through the CLASS Domain information. "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." Write for 10 minutes about how this quote relates to the different CLASS Domains and lesson planning using the CLASS Domain documents.
3 ways to involve students in learning are Inquiry-Based Learning, Project-Based Learning and involving student choice by focusing on the Multiple Intelligences.
Summarize your learning of these 3 techniques, CLASS domains and how all of these together can inform your lesson planning. Be prepared to respond during a class discussion to the essential questions: "How has learning about CLASS informed your lesson planning?" "What are the challenges you anticipate encountering while lesson planning?" "What are the advantages of using IBL, MI and PBL?"
