Engagement and Assessment (P

Habits of Mind Website

by Fran

Direct “quotes”

http://www.habitsofmindinstitute.org/about-us/

Our Mission:

To transform schools into learning communities where thinking and Habits of Mind are taught, practiced, valued and infused into the culture.

Our Vision:

To create a more thoughtful, cooperative, compassionate generation of people who skillfully work to resolve social, environmental, economic and political problems. Founders and Co-Directors: Art Costa and Bena Kallick

What is the Institute for Habits of Mind?:

The Habits of Mind are dispositions that empower creative and critical thinking. Habits of Mind International has an outreach around the world. We have a growing team of affiliates, each representing the power of the habits in classrooms, schools, and communities. We have certified Habits of Mind Learning Communities of Excellence each committed to the Habits of Mind as central to a thoughtful learning environment. Our Institute offers professional development through virtual media, workshops, consultations, and conferences.

16 Habits of Mind Chart

More Information about Habits of Mind:

"Model" Individual Differences

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“…but all kids have a voice and they deserve to express it.” Michelle Hammond

by Fran

Excerpts from CASEL post received on July 18, 2018–just I was planning an Executive Function post on “Student Voices”

https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SEL-Trends-Youth-Voice.pdf

”TRENDS CASEL • Empowering Youth Voice 5 Empowering Youth Voice Washoe County: Even Kindergartners Have a Voice This year, Washoe County School District (WCSD) has worked to utilize student voice at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. “We know that the best information we have about supports and obstacles in our system often comes straight from the students.” says Laura Davidson, the district’s director of research and evaluation.

”Student voice looks different at the elementary level, but it’s equally important,” says Michelle Hammond, student voice coordinator. While high school students tend to focus on issues like bullying and school climate, elementary students look at issues close to their classrooms. They’re helping change school rules to reduce behavior problems in the cafeteria. In one elementary school the Student Advisory Council addressed equity concerns by changing the gift policy for teacher appreciation week so that all students had something to give. “A lot of what we see in our student voice work is geared toward high school students, so we are exploring what student voice in elementary schools can look like. We know student voice fosters social and emotional learning, so let’s start early in life to lay positive groundwork,” says Hammond.

A unique feature of Washoe County’s work is the Strength in Voices Symposium, now in its fourth year. Attendance has grown to 400 participants attending the Spring 2018 event. Elementary, middle, and high school students lead all breakout sessions, which focus on a variety of topics like equity, assessments, analyzing results from climate surveys, and the challenges that issues like poverty present to students. In each session, students provide recommendations for change, and adults are present to capture that input.

“One of the best things about this event is that we work to ensure a representative sample of students so we have all voices at the table. We provide schools with a randomly selected list of 15 students from which eight are selected to participate,” says Hammond. “When it comes to leadership opportunities, we often default to students perceived to fit certain criteria, but all kids have a voice and they deserve to express it. If we’re really trying to drive change and improve, we must have students with diverse experiences at the table.” That’s one of the implementation challenges the district is addressing. Getting educators on board isn’t always easy because they have so much on their plates. “We are working with teachers to embed student voice into their existing practices, including SEL, so it is not seen as one more thing,” says Trish Shaffer, the district’s MTSS/SEL coordinator. …”

Executive Function Student Voices Uncategorized

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All Kids DESERVE To Be Readers

by Fran

All Children Deserve to Be Readers

Beliefs About Learning Learner Stories (Self-Management} Student Voices

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Metacognition: A 28 Minute Video from The Annenberg Learner Site

by Fran

From Annenberg Learner

Thinking About Thinking – Metacognition. Understanding the Concept of Metacognition (Executive Function) This is a wonderful resource!

https://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/session_overviews/metacog_home9.html

*9. Thinking About Thinking – Metacognition*

“We can teach children to think about their thinking in ways that help them understand what they know and what they don’t know and what they’d like to learn, and to help them reflect on their learning and to evaluate their work against a continuum that they’re on. All of those kinds of thinking actually make the learning process more powerful.” Linda Darling-Hammond

Key Questions:

How can people learn by reflecting on what they know and do?
How can teachers help students think about their own thinking?

Learning Objectives:

Defining metacognition – Teachers will understand what metacognition is and how it improves learning. They will become familiar with two aspects of metacognition: reflection and self-regulation.
Developing metacognitive skills – Teachers will understand what it means to develop a culture of metacognition in the classroom. Teachers will become familiar with strategies for helping students regulate, monitor, and guide their learning.

Video Program 28 minutes

This episode explores how thinking about thinking helps students to better manage their own learning and to learn difficult concepts deeply. The episode features two teachers – Kendra Hearn, who teaches senior English at West Bloomfield High School, West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Kathleen Hayes-Parvin, who teaches sixth grade at Birney Middle School, Southfield, Michigan. University of Michigan professor Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar and Lee S. Shulman, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching provide their insights for teache

“All material on this site has been made available for educational purposes and is intended for personal, non-commercial use.”

Executive Function Learning How to Learn Meta Teachers Metacognition

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Connecting Executive Function (Metacognition) to Learning

by Fran

In conversations with students about their learning, we need to understand what they know about the “topic” of learning. We need to ask where they acquired their knowledge of the topic of “learning.” Ideally we hope they will compare their beliefs against their experiences as learners.

I believe that there is an expectation that teachers in their preparation (training) were required to “take” a course on learning. What do teachers take away from such a course and apply to their teaching? How does a teacher’s knowledge base about “learning” change over time? Do teachers and students believe the same things about learning? Do they talk about those beliefs?

As a starting place, I have researched recent articles on the topic of learning. Over the next few weeks, I will blog about a few of these.

I start with a series of videos about learning featuring Linda Darling-Hammond and published by the Annenberg Foundation. Here is the link:

https://www.learner.org/resources/series172.html

This is a series of 13 videos about learning covering a range of topics

The first is “How People Learn – Introduction to Leaning Theory and focuses on a discussion with teachers.

https://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/session_overviews/intro_home1.html

Beliefs About Learning Dialogue Executive Function Feedback Frameworks/Research Learning How to Learn Metacognition Student Voices

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A Simple Q About Student Voice(s)?

by Fran

Is there a difference between what “successful” and “unsuccessful” students tell us about their learning?

Does this question lead us to other questions? A few examples:

*Does it matter why the student is not successful (a) In the learner’s view? (b) in the teacher’s view?

*Does it matter at what age a child begins to see him/herself as unsuccessful?

*Does history of “success” or “lack of success” matter…over a grade? Over several grades?

*Does it matter how “success” is determined and documented?

*Do we have examples of student-teacher dialogue to begin to answer these questions?

Beliefs About Learning Executive Function Individual Differences Learning How to Learn Meta Teachers Metacognition Student Voices

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How, When and Where Do Students Begin to Use Their Voices for Learning?

by Fran

I just finished a post on my Dialogue blog about being “Open to Learning” that was addressed to Educational Leaders. It consisted of excerpts from a pdf and video by Viviane M J Robinson,

The University of Auckland, an expert on school based communication. This particular link addresses the ways in which educational leaders/administrators can communicate with teachers about learning.

file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Open-to learning_Conversations_Background_Paper_In%20(1).pdf

As I finished the post and began to think about students’ voices, I began to wonder where the awareness of having a “voice” in one’s education/learning begins. When and How do students learn to speak about their learning to those who have the power to respond to their views, interest and concerns? And when/where to they learn to be silent?

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately in preschool and kindergarten. Maybe that is a good place to start to understand how children/learners (students?) begin to think and talk about learning, their learning.

Beliefs About Learning Collaborative Learning Learning How to Learn Preschool Student Voices

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Giving Students Voice Through “Evaluation” of Their Work

by Fran

One of ways students have and use their voice is during the process of evaluation.

http://www.ethicalela.com/7-reflections-quiet-ghosts-gradings-past/

by Sarah J. Donovan, PhD on January 8, 20

Here is a short excerpt from an article well worth reading about one teacher’s approach to student evaluation. In her approach, students become collaborators.

“Grades are letters that conflate the learning from the entire semester or quarter. I have to assign a grade for my seventh and eighth grade readers at the end of every quarter, and I struggle with this every time because their learning defies such neat, confining symbols, which is somewhat ironic because we talked a lot about symbolism in literature this term. Such is my perspective of grades.

Some students, however, see grades as part of their identity….

Students in junior have been carrying around these identity markers for many years and have, in some cases, committed to this the identity of a perfectionist or failure or resigned to the good enough “C’ or passing “D.” When it comes to final grades each quarter, I find myself battling these identity markers like they are ghosts hovering over and among us. The Ghosts of Grading’s Past.

In the portfolio process at the end of each quarter, I invite these ghosts into our individual grade conferences to see if we can illuminate the narratives they are whispering in our ears in the hopes that I can make space for some new, healthier perceptions of learning and self.”

Voices and Choices

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Feedback is Essential to Learning How to Learn

by Fran

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….”

Beliefs About Learning Feedback Meta Teachers Teacher Suggestions, Stories, Qs

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Self-Assessment

by Fran

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.”

Beliefs About Learning Learning How to Learn Metacognition Teacher Suggestions, Stories, Qs

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