learntolearn

Learn: what…why…how…you and…

Growth Mindset (4M’s) that goes beyond “effort”

One of the best Growth Mindset postings I’ve read!

Four Teaching Moves That Promote A Growth Mindset In All Readers

By Katrina SchwartzAPRIL 3, 2017Mind Shift

https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/04/03/four-strategies-that-promote-a-growth-mindset-in-struggling-readers/

Some short excerpts:

“Most often teachers spend their time assigning what students should read and how they should show what they read, monitoring to make sure students have done what was asked, and making decisions about what students will do and how they will do it. Those roles make the teacher the main driver of the learning. In order to step back from those traditional roles, teachers have to replace them with new strategies.

“There’s a place for those three, but when that’s our main role there isn’t space for ownership and to develop that growth mindset,” Goldberg said. She coaches teachers to think of themselves in four very different roles, and to step back from constantly stepping in when students struggle. A big part of that is making it clear that struggle is part of reading, not a unique experience to students learning to read. It’s common to start a book and be confused, or to read a passage and miss something, but teachers don’t often make it clear how universal that experience is, no matter one’s reading level. Rather than being assignors, monitors and managers, Goldberg coaches teachers to see themselves as miners, mirrors, models and mentors”

I encourage you to watch the 7 minute video where Goldberg teaches us how to be miners, mirrors, models and mentors.  The article continues with a description of these 4M roles.

 

 

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Feedback is Essential to Learning How to Learn

Actionable Feedback Is Essential for Growth

By Starr Sackstein on October 16, 2016 7:08 AM

 

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2016/10/actionable_feedback_is_essenti.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=workinprogress

A short excerpt:

Perhaps it’s just the new buzz word of the moment or maybe it’s the missing piece in how we make feedback more meaningful, but actionable feedback means not only identifying what needs improvement, but also offering a plan of action to make the necessary improvement possible.

It’s easy enough to tell a person what’s wrong with their writing or a math set but it is a whole other thing to help them understand how to tackle the challenge and start to improve it. This is clearly more important than naming the problem.

Too often in education we spend time naming problems rather solving them. We talk about what’s wrong at length instead of living in solutions.

Actionable feedback is where the solutions begin….”

 

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Self-Assessment

Practices that work from

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2016/05/student_self-assessment_practi.html

A short excerpt

Student Self-Assessment Practices That Work

By Starr Sackstein on May 26, 2016 5:00 AM

“Understanding how we learn best is one of the keys to growth as human beings. This essential metacognitive skill is not innate and must be modeled and taught in school starting as early as possible.

The way it looks for different age groups will be different, obviously as younger students are not always cognitively ready to do this kind of thinking. However with the right scaffolds in place, reflection and self-assessment can be a rich way to extend the depth of independent learning and also aid in informing the teacher about valuable data around growth and understanding.”

 

 

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Learning to learn, Feedback and Assessment

Learning, Feedback and Assessment

Do we dare give up grades?  Starr Sackstein thinks so…  What do you think?

A short excerpt from her blog:

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2016/08/approaching_the_new_year_with_.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=workinprogress

Approaching the New Year With a No Grades Classroom

By Starr Sackstein on August 18, 2016 5:43 AM

“……it’s a whole philosophical shift that you’re ready to make because you know it will benefit kids.

 

Now it’s time to start a new year fresh without grades or at least some version of a standards based classroom that strays from traditional beliefs about how grades communicate learning and you want to make sure you do it right….”

 

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Mistakes: One Key to Learning How to Learn

Highlighting Mistakes:  A Grading Strategy (7 minute video)

Leah Alcala shows how she turns kids’ mistakes on tests into whole-class learning moments

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/math-test-grading-tips/?utm_source=newsletter20151128/

We can’t learn if we don’t know what we don’t know.  Here is a short video from a courageous teacher who is willing to take the risk of doing something different.

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Two New Links on Learning

The Learning Journal Via SeeSaw

Sharon Davison and colleagues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEOISp6Cp68&feature=youtu.be

 

This article looks at students’ “grit” or determination to learn. It explains how the NAEP will begin to collect student data. Meta-cognition is finally coming to the front! Enjoy! Courtesy of ASCD SmartBrief.

NAEP exam to collect data on “grit” in 2017

Via Darlene’s blog

http://dbassett.blogspot.com/2015/07/this-article-looks-at-students-grit-or.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ReflectionsOnMeta-cognition-ForEducatorsByEducators+%28Reflections+on+Meta-cognition+-+For+Educators+by+Educators%29

 

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Nurturing Metacognition in Kindergarten

https://kindergartenlife.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/a-culture-of-learning-connecting/#comments

A great example of nurturing “metacognition” in kindergarten

“As an educator I am always trying to weave big ideas we have explored into the work, the choices my students make. Just by doing this I begin to help my students explore and also think about the what and how they came up with when they are creating their own representations of their learning…..”

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Students’ Choices

The ‘most powerful’ classroom innovation — by the $1 million teaching prize winner   By Valerie Strauss April 16

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/16/the-most-powerful-classroom-innovation-by-the-1-million-teaching-prize-winner/ A short excerpt:

“Nancie Atwell is the renowned founder of the Center for Teaching and Learning, an award-winning non-profit independent K-12 demonstration school in Edgecomb, Maine, where she teaches seventh- and eighth-grade writing, reading and history….”

“More than anyone we teach, our inexperienced, unenthusiastic readers—our Mikes—need compelling stories, characters they can identify with, vicarious experiences, and pleasure. Give them intriguing introductions to compelling stories and time in school to read them. Give them a community to read in, a healthy collection of books to choose from, and conversations with a teacher who knows the collection, and they will grow into fluent, passionate readers.”

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Collaborative Learning Can Begin in Kindergarten

A Culture of Learning: Connecting

Posted on March 29, 2015 | By Sharon Davison, Vermont Kindergarten Teacher

https://kindergartenlife.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/a-culture-of-learning-connecting/

A short excerpt:

“Lately I have been thinking a lot about the importance of having learning opportunities available throughout the day, but also thinking about where are the times, the moments where my students have choice and also opportunities to collaborate around an idea and interest…..

…..

When I create opportunities to work alongside my students I am also modeling the importance of a collaborative, rich, interactive learning culture too. I have noticed lots of my students seeking out places inside our classroom where they can connect and collaborate with others. These partnerships, opportunities for collaboration are important because they all help shape the classroom culture. All students begin to take risks and reach out to others to explore an idea. Students begin to connect, collaborate, share their ideas and have conversations that offer invitations to reflect…..”

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The Teacher’s Role in Metacognitive Learning

Helping students become more effective and more independent as learners means being explicit about where they are in a learning task/ process.  Here are some excerpts about formative assessment that addresses building that kind of student knowledge.

From Edutopia by Andrew Miller

Formative Assessment Is Transformational!

February 3, 2015

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessment-is-transformational-andrew-miller

”Teachers use formative assessment to let students know where they are in the learning journey. Assessment is no longer a surprise! Student learning becomes transparent and also personalized. In addition to just-in-time learning, students get just-in-time feedback. Teachers rely on formative assessment to give students specific, actionable feedback that they can use to refine their work, seek out resources, and engage in learning that is specific to their needs. Because of this, all students increase their capacity for success….”

…….

“Another big transformation that occurs when teachers practice formative assessment is a classroom of empowerment. Students are empowered to take ownership of the learning process. They know where they are and can set goals for next steps. They are given the power to “fail forward” and know that it’s never too late to learn…”

 

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