Time Flies....

Competency 2.7: Classroom Management and Maximizing Instructional Time.

Words of wisdom from some great minds on the use of time:

·          “How did it get so late so soon?” Dr. Seuss

·         “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”  JRR Tolkein

·         “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn

Philosophy and Planning: A Sense of Urgency about Time

The starting point for good classroom management is the belief that your time with students is a precious commodity.  Pick any one of your classes and think about how much you want each student to know and be able to do by the end of the semester.  Think about the level of mastery you expect and start breaking down the semester by unit and lesson.  Then think about how little time you actually have with students in your room: about 50 minutes a day for 90 days.  That doesn’t give much time, and it certainly doesn’t give time to waste. 

On the daily level, this means that how you plan to use each period is critical.  Each class needs to have worth and value.  Every minute is important.  You need to make the most of the little time you have together with students because time is gold.  You can’t afford to throw it away.  When teachers have this sense of urgency and get students to buy in—the hard part—classroom management issues tend to go away. 

The beginning of class might sound something like this: “Welcome back to class.  We have lots to do today, but your hard work is going to pay off…”  That gets you off and running.  The end of the day might sound like this: “That’s the bell.  Nice work today.  We’ll pick up first thing tomorrow with…”

Here are some thoughts on what might help with competency 2.7:

In the Classroom: Sweat the Details in Order Use Time Well

Jacob Kounin coined the phrase “withitness,” but I first heard this phrase from Robert Marzano.  Kounin defines withitness as “a teacher’s ability to correct misbehavior before it gets out of control and before other students in the class see it and also begin to do it.”  Part of withitness has to do with your awareness of what is going on in your classroom, but your planning and attention to detail are equally, if not more, important.

·         Teach procedures and routines: What should students do when they enter your room?  Where do they hand in papers?  How do you efficiently pass out materials?  All of these common procedures should be taught, so students know exactly what to do during a normal class.  Put in time up front teaching procedures and routines, and you’ll save time later.

·         Pay attention to transitions: Moving from one activity to another can and will lose time, but this loss of instruction time can be kept to a minimum and the momentum of a lesson carried from one activity to the next.  I’ve been in classrooms where transitions seem almost choreographed.  It is a beautiful thing to watch a class flow smoothly from one task to the next.

·         Keep your toolbox full and ready: When you have five minutes or ten minutes, how can you use the “free” time most effectively?  Every class has key terms and concepts that need continual review.  Every lesson can be connected to some larger idea.  Be ready to take advantage of unexpected time.  Instead of saying, “That’s it for today,” be ready with, “Good.  We have five minutes left.  I want to see if we can make a connection from today’s lesson to…”

This competency speaks to the sense of urgency associated with time management, and it also has indicators that are all about taking care of the business of running a class smoothly.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion is a great resource if you want ideas that will help with classroom management.  Some of his topics that might fit well with this competency: Entry Routine, Tight Transitions, Seat Signals, SLANT, Warm/Strict, Emotional Constancy, Every Minute Matters, and Work the Clock.

Read the indicators from 2.7 and think about what an observer might be able to mark as “hits” in your class today.

Effective

·         Students arrive on-time and are aware of the consequences of arriving tardy.

·         Class starts on-time and continues bell-to-bell.

·         Routines, transitions, and procedures are well-executed.  Students know what they are supposed to be doing and when with minimal prompting from the teacher.

·         There is only a brief period of time where students are not engaged in meaningful work.

·         Almost all students are on-task and follow instructions of teacher without much prompting.

·         Disruptive behaviors and off-task conversations are rare; when they do occur, they are almost always addressed without major interruption to the lesson.

Highly Effective: For Level 4, much of the Level 3 evidence is observed during the year, as well as some of the following:

·         Routines, transitions, and procedures are well-executed.  Students know what they are supposed to be doing and when without prompting from the teacher.

·         Students are always engaged in meaningful work while waiting for the teacher (for example, during attendance).

·         Students share responsibility for operations and routines and work well together to accomplish these tasks.

·         Students are on-task and follow instructions of the teacher without much prompting.

·         Disruptive behaviors and off-task conversations are rare; when they occur, they are addressed without major interruption to the lesson.

·         Teacher has developed clear and efficient procedures for the collection and distribution of student work.  (This includes work for absent students, make-up, etc.)

Preview: Next week, Competency 2.8 is about creating a safe and positive classroom environment and a culture of respect.  I think you will see many, many connections and overlaps between 2.7 and 2.8.

Since I started with a few quotes about time, I thought I might end with some as well.

·         “Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.” Roger Babson

·         “Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” Groucho Marx

·         “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” Mother Teresa

Let us begin, HSE.  Have a great week.

Phil

Instruction and Work

Competency 2.6

This competency is one that we very easily could spend the entire year exploring.  It is packed full of information and possibilities.  I stood in my office looking through the bookshelves for resources and became almost immobilized.  How do I get a handle on this topic?  People much smarter than I am have written entire books and built entire careers around high-level work and rigorous instruction.

Rather than give up completely, I will leave you with three points and add the Effective and Highly Effective Indicators at the bottom of the page.  This is, I know, inadequate, but I hope it will help you understand a bit more about this competency in the Teacher Effectiveness Rubric.

1.      Class SLOs Help: You are just finishing the process of developing Class Student Learning Objectives (SLOs).  During this past few weeks, you created an assessment which covered all the key standards for the first semester for one course and were asked to examine closely the Depth of Knowledge of each question using four levels: Recall, Skill/Concept, Strategic Thinking, or Extended Thinking.  The point of creating a class SLO is that you should know exactly what you want students to know and be able to do and at what level of understanding.  Paul Bambrick-Soto says, “Standards are meaningless until you define how you will assess them.”  He goes on to make the argument that assessments are not the end of the learning process.  They are where you start—which is exactly what you are doing with SLOs.  Look over your class SLO.  What instruction will you provide and what work will you assign in order to have students to master the material to the depth you are assessing?  If you assess at higher levels, students need to learn how to do the work at higher levels.  Observers will see this in your lessons.

2.      Assignments Matter: This extends my first point about the work you have students do and at what level they complete it.  Think about the rhythm and patterns you have in teaching.  It often follows the “I Do, We Do, You Do” pattern.  You introduce the new learning, show students how and why, help them practice, have them practice with each other, and then have them practice on their own.  Every lesson should include higher level thinking (for example, through questioning or problem-solving) but at certain points in the unit, students need to have opportunities to go beyond and extend.  Eleanor Dougherty, among others, talks about “anchor” assignments in courses.  These aren’t every day assignments.  They are assignments that require application of concepts to new situations.  These are the assignments that will prepare students for Common Core assessments.  These are the assignments that engage students and push them to the next level.  If you have these assignments, they are the times you look forward to with your students because you know it will be great and students will perform at high levels. It is worth looking to see where your anchor assignments are and spending time making these assignments even better. 

3.      Look for Repeats (Power Indicators): I have said this before, but it is worth mentioning again: When a lesson starts “hitting” in one competency, it often picks up many others.  You will find repeats from other competencies in the Effective and Highly Effective indicators listed below.  When you differentiate and give students choices, when you ask probing questions and make students defend their answers, when you give meaningful practice and have them read and write, when you provide exemplars or samples of quality work, and when you can use student interest to engage them in the work, you are “hitting” the power indicators on this competency—and in many others.  Rigorous work and instruction is all about best practice teaching and pushing students to maximize their understanding and achievement.

Here are the indicators for 2.6:

Effective

·         The lesson is accessible and challenging to almost all students.

·         Teacher frequently develops higher-level understanding through effective questioning.

·         Lesson pushes almost all students forward due to differentiation of instruction based on each student’s level of understanding.

·         Students have opportunities to meaningfully practice, apply, and demonstrate that they are learning through assigned work that requires the use of academic skills in relation to course content (critical reading, writing process, or critical thinking).

·         Teacher helps students to persevere even when faced with difficult tasks.

Highly Effective

·         Lesson is accessible and challenging to all students.

·         Students are able to answer higher-level questions with meaningful responses.

·         Students pose higher-level questions to the teacher and to each other.

·         Students are required to form and support arguments through application and evaluation of course content.

·         Teacher highlights student work that meets high expectations.

·         Teacher expects students to resubmit work that does not meet high standards.

·         Teacher encourages students’ interests in learning by providing students with additional opportunities to apply and build skills beyond expected lesson elements.

I am reminded again of Phillip Schlechty, who said that the most important work a teacher does is to design lessons that engage students.  Students do not fully engage until they are given opportunities to rise to a challenge.  They engage when you devise meaningful instruction and work that deepens their understanding and mastery of important ideas and skills. 

Have a great week, Southeastern.

Phil

Modifying Instruction

This competency is the outlier in the nine Instructional competencies, so you might want to read this carefully.  The main difference from this and the other competencies is that a teacher’s score on this competency is dependent on the score from a previous one.  The actual wording:

In order to be scored Effective at this competency, a teacher must have at least scored a 3 [Effective] on Competency 2.4.—In order to modify instruction as needed, one must first know how to check for understanding. 

I stated in previous emails that you would see reoccurring and overlapping indicators.  Differentiation is definitely one of these.  Look through this chart:

Effective (3)	Improvement Necessary (2)	Ineffective (1)
Teacher makes adjustments to instruction based on checks for understanding that lead to increased understanding for most students	Teacher may attempt to make adjustments to instruction based on checks for understanding, but these attempts may be misguided and may not increase understanding for students.	Teacher rarely or never attempts to adjust instruction based on checks for understanding, and any attempts at doing so frequently fail to increase the understanding for students.
Teacher responds to misunderstanding with effective scaffolding techniques.	Teacher may primarily respond to misunderstandings by using teacher-driven scaffolding techniques (for example, re-explaining a concept), when student-driven techniques could have been more effective.	Teacher only responds to misunderstandings by using teacher-driven scaffolding techniques.
Teacher doesn’t give up, but continues to try to address misunderstandings with different techniques if the first try is not successful.	Teacher may persist in using a particular technique for responding to a misunderstanding, even when it is not succeeding.	Teacher repeatedly uses the same technique to respond to misunderstandings, even when it is not succeeding.

Highly Effective (4) adds this: For Level 4, much of the Level 3 evidence is observed during the year, as well as some of the following:

·         Teacher anticipates student misunderstandings and preemptively addresses them.

·         Teacher is able to modify instruction to respond to misunderstandings without taking away from the flow of the lesson or losing engagement.

The notes on the rubric also give some guidance as to how this might look: A teacher can respond to misunderstandings using “scaffolding” techniques such as: activating background knowledge, asking leading questions, breaking the task into small parts, using mnemonic devices or analogies, using manipulatives or hands-on modes, using “think alouds,” providing visual cues, etc.

This competency is all about monitoring student learning and providing interventions in a variety of ways for students who have not mastered the content.  In the classroom, it might sound like this:

·         Adjustments to Instruction: “Yesterday at the end of class I had all of you complete this problem.  It looks like we still have some misunderstanding when it comes to….”

·         Differentiation: “I’m going to work with this group on….The other groups should….”

·         Scaffolding: “You are close, but not quite there yet, Joe.  Keep going.  Remember what Carla said about….”

·         Modeling/Think Aloud: “Let me talk you through my thinking when I see something like this.  Listen to what goes on in my head…”

·         Anticipating Difficulties: “Be careful right here.  It is where most students have problems.”

·         Modeling/Differentiation: I showed you how I came to the answer.  Who has a different way of getting to the same place?”

·         Visual Clues/Different Learning Modality: “Is it possible to literally draw a conclusion?  What could you picture to make connections to….”

·         Adjust Instruction/Scaffolding: “Everybody seems stuck. Turn to a partner and see if you can….We will share results in one minute.  Go.”

·         Breaking into Parts: Let’s break this down and see if that helps get us where we want to go.  What is the first step?”

·         Alternative Explanations: “Let me try a different way of explaining that.”

·         Student-Driven Instruction: “Here is my key question….Take two minutes to write an answer.  We will share your responses soon, so be ready.”

·         Scaffolding: “Rachel, she is stuck.  What helpful advice could you give her right now?”

·         Visual Clues: “Look at this picture on the wall.  It might help you arrive at a better answer.”

·         Persistence: “Think about it a bit Carly.  I’ll come back to you in a few minutes to see what you’re thinking.”

For this Indicator, the key is to constantly check for understanding and then to provide the support and scaffolding for those who haven’t reached mastery.  It’s not easy, but it is at the heart of good teaching.

Have a great week, HSE.

Phil

Check for Understanding

I am a huge fan of Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College.  My experience has been that when Lemov’s techniques are used well, all students achieve more and at higher levels than previously.

One really great thing about Teach Like a Champion is that you don’t need to read it cover-to-cover.  If you are struggling with a particular issue, having difficulty with a group of students, or looking to add to your instructional toolbox, turn to the Table of Contents.  You can read for five minutes, walk into class the next period, and put the strategy into use.  When you buy Lemov’s book, he even provides a CD with video clips of teachers using some of the techniques, so you can see them in action.  We may spend some professional development time this year looking at some of these.

They aren’t long.  They aren’t rocket science.  They do work.  They improve both your instruction and student learning.   Below is an abbreviated list of some of the techniques Lemov advocates.  Read through these and then read the indicators for Competency 2.4 below.  I think you will see the connection.

Lemov on Asking Questions and Checking for Understanding:

·         No Opt Out: How often are you faced with the response of “I don’t know” when you ask a question of a student?  If you move on, the student learns that this response gives him or her a free pass.  “No Opt Out” teaches what to do with this response and how to help a student get to the right answer if he or she really doesn’t know.

·         Right is Right: Be honest: How often do you take a partially right answer from a student, say “right,” and then expand to make the answer correct?  This technique reminds the teacher that partial answers or partially correct answers really aren’t “right.”  Lemov gives four ways to use this technique.  He calls these “Hold Out for All the Way,” “Answer the Question,” “Right Answer/Right Time,” and “Use Technical Vocabulary.” This is one of my personal favorites.  It changes how you listen to student answers to your questions. 

·         Stretch It: Instead of stopping the questioning when a student gives a correct answer, Lemov advocates following the question up with another question that extends and checks for depth of understanding.  For example, a teacher might ask how the student got to the answer or if there are other correct answers.

·         Format Matters: Answers are not just about what the students say.  They are also about how they say it. The answer should be in complete thoughts/sentences and correctly stated.  If applicable, it should include units and/or part of the question in the answer.  Think about how much more thoughtful answers have to be to meet these criteria.

·         Cold Call: When the teacher asks the question first and then calls on a student, it is “Cold Call.”  Simple as it seems, Lemov says this is the single most effective technique in the book.  There are many advantages to this order of questioning.  It allows you to hear from all students, not just the volunteers, and it keeps students engaged because they know they will be called on some time soon.

·         Wait Time: Three to five seconds is a long time to wait.  Try it.  It seems like an eternity until you get used to it.  This is the wait time you should give before you speak again after asking a student a question.  Students process at different rates, and you do a disservice by bailing them out too soon.  Avoid the temptation to fill the silence.  There are lots of other ways to make sure you are intentional with wait time as well.  For example, you can ask for hands to go up when students have an answer.  When you get enough hands, use “Cold Call.”  There is even the wait time between an answer from the student and your response.  Give students time to think!

·         Stock Questions: Develop a toolbox of stock questions that you use regularly.  These often are sequence questions that push students to higher-level thinking and require that they defend their answers.  Examples: Why? How do you know?  Can you add to that?  What has he missed?  What will that mean for….?

·         Simple to Complex: This is in the same category as “Stock Questions.”  Start with the simple questions and move to the more difficult.  Have in mind before you start key questions that you want to make sure all students can answer.

·         Hit Rate: Too few correct answers and too many correct answers are both problems.  If you are getting 100% of your questions answered correctly, you might need to ask harder questions.  If students are really struggling to answer questions, they might need more instruction or scaffolding.  Monitor the “hit rate” to adjust instruction.

·         Check for Understanding—And Do Something About It: Lemov says good drivers check their mirrors every five seconds.  You don’t wait for an accident before you adjust your driving.  Teachers must constantly gather information formally and informally to see how students are doing.  The hard part: If the data you gather shows lack of understanding by some students, you need to do something about it, or you are bound to be witness to an accident when you give the summative assessment.

·         Exit Ticket: Collect answers to one or two important questions at the end of each class.  It will tell you the percentage of students who are on track and the common misunderstandings, incomplete understandings, or misperceptions.  It will help you plan the beginning of the next day’s lesson.

·         Everybody Writes: If you have a key question, one you want to everyone to answer, having everyone do so in writing makes sense.  You don’t have to “grade” it if you don’t want.  Ask the question.  Give students a few minutes to write, and then have them share with a partner or with the class.  This technique can be used in every class.  Lemov lists six reasons this is effective.  You won’t use it for every question, but when you do, students will learn and retain the material at a much higher level.

All of the techniques listed above would be “evidence” for the Competency 2.4.  Look at the indicators below and watch the connections between Lemov’s techniques and the rubric jump out at you.

2.4 Check for Understanding

Effective (3)

·         Teacher checks for understanding at almost all key moments (when checking is necessary to inform instruction going forward).

·         Teacher uses a variety of methods to check for understanding that are successful in capturing an accurate “pulse” of the class’s understanding.

·         Teacher uses wait time effectively both after posing a question and before helping students think through a response.

·         Teacher uses leading questions or other strategies to prohibit student from “opting out” of checks of understanding and cycles back to these students.

·         Teachers systematically assesses student’ mastery of the objective(s) by the end of each lesson through formal and informal assessments.

Highly Effective (4): Much of the Level 3 evidence is observed during the year, as well as some of the following.

·         Teacher checks for understanding at higher levels by asking pertinent, scaffolding questions that push thinking; accepts only high quality student responses (those that reveal understanding or lack thereof).

·         Teacher uses open-ended questions to surface common misunderstandings and assess student mastery of material at a range of both lower- and higher-order thinking.

Let me know if you want to borrow my copy of Teach Like a Champion.  It is a great read and easy to use in the classroom immediately.

Have a great week.

Phil

Student Engagement

I’m going to start with the Indicators from Competency 2.3 and add commentary at the bottom.  Homework Warning: Then I’m going to encourage you to do a little informal action research. 

By the way, one teacher stopped by my office this week and said, “I enjoy reading your books.”  Here is chapter 3.

2.3: Engage Students in academic content

Effective (3)

• ¾ or more of the students are actively engaged in the learning process and are not off task.
• Teacher provides multiple ways, as appropriate, of engaging with content, all aligned to the lesson objective.
• Ways of engaging with content reflect learning modalities or intelligences.
• Teacher adjusts lesson as needed to accommodate for student prerequisite skills and knowledge so that all students are engaged.
• ELL and students with an IEP have appropriate accommodations to be engaged in content.
• Students work hard and are deeply active rather than passive/receptive.
• Teacher delivers instruction at a pace that enhances engagement.

Highly Effective (4)

• All students are actively engaged in the learning process.
• Teacher provides ways to engage with content that significantly promotes student mastery of the objective.
• Teacher provides differentiated ways of engaging with content specific to individual student needs.
• The lesson progresses at an appropriate rate so that students are engaged, and students who finish early have something meaningful to do.
• Teacher effectively integrates technology as a tool to engage students in academic content.
• Classroom activities offer students choices that enhance engagement.

In 2004, I drove right past HSE High School (without guessing I would ever be on the inside) on my way to Louisville.  In Louisville I sat down for about an hour with Phillip Schlechty and one of his associates in the Schlechty Center for Engagement to pick his brain about shaping school culture through the lesson planning process.  Phil Schlechty, like many in Louisville, has more of the South in him than the North.  He speaks slowly, laughs often, and makes complete sense when he talks about student engagement.

In 2002 he published a book called Working on the Work.  It takes about three hours to read it cover-to-cover, but it can be a great resource to visit and revisit.  I thought immediately of Phil Schlechty, his laughter, and his sharp wit when I read through Competency 2.3.  This competency is all about student engagement.  The actual wording in TEDS: Engage students in academic content.  Those five little words are so simple to read and write, and so difficult to bring into the classroom consistently.

Phil Schlechty does several things very, very well.   First, he defines levels of student engagement, and then he teaches how to improve it.  The single most important job of a teacher, according to Schlechty, is to design lessons that engage students.  He states that students will respond in five different ways to our lessons.  Their level of engagement will determine whether they find meaning in the work and will make the difference between profound learning, superficial learning, or worse yet, no learning at all.

The levels of engagement according to Schlechty:

• Engagement: The student sees the lesson as personally meaningful, of sufficient interest to persist through challenges, and worth optimum performance.  Students who are engaged learn at high levels and have a profound grasp of what they learn, they retain the learning, and they transfer it to new contexts.
• Strategic Compliance: Students substitute the stated goal of the learning with their own goals, such as grades, class rank, college acceptance, or parental approval.  The focus is on extrinsic motivators rather than the inherent interest in learning.  Students learn at high levels but have a superficial grasp of what they learn, do not retain the learning, and are often unable to transfer it to a different context.
• Ritual Compliance: The student sees no meaning in the work, but rather than experience confrontation or take unpleasant consequences will do the work.  The emphasis is on doing the minimum requirements to get it done and over.  Students learn at low levels, do not retain the learning, and are seldom able to transfer the learning to a new context.
• Retreatism: The student is disengaged from classroom activities and goals, thinking about other things or withdrawn, and sees little relevance to the lesson.  Since they do not participate, they learn little or nothing from the lesson.
• Rebellion: The student is disengaged from the lesson and actively engaged in substituting his or her own goals, usually by acting out and/or encouraging others to do so as well.  Little or nothing of the lesson objective is learned, but they do learn how to negatively impact others.

Honestly, at HSE, we don’t usually worry too much about the bottom two categories, and compliance is much better than those options!  According to Phil Schlechty, students move in and out of these categories regularly during a lesson.  It is rare to have all students fully engaged for a full period.  The goal, however, is to design lessons that move students to engagement as much and as often as possible. 

Scan back over the indicators above and look at key words: multiple ways, differentiation, deeply active, pace, technology, choices. These resonate with Phillip Schlechty’s key design qualities for engagement.  If you want to see the full list and more about Philip Schlechty, check out his website: www.schlechtycenter.org.

For our purpose, evidence for this competency will be found when students are actively involved, when they are interested in posing and answering important questions, and when individual student needs are met.  Engagement can be seen in the body language of students, in the questions they ask, in the interactions they have, and when they surprise you by going above and beyond what you ask for.

Action Research: One very helpful exercise is to monitor your classes for student engagement for one week.  At the end of each class period, jot down and track when students were fully engaged, when they were merely compliant, and when they were in retreat or rebellion.  Note what you did and what the students were working on during these times.  My guess is you find several things: 1) We tend to have compliant students, and 2) When engagement happens, you will recognize it, the period flies by, and both you and your students are energized.

Let me know if my guesses are right—or whatever else you discover this week about student engagement.  I’ll share results if you’ll let me.

Have a great week.

Phil