Franklin High School January 2010 Instructional Strategies that Enhance Student Learning in Block Schedules Franklin High School January 2010

Bell-work What components do you consciously include when designing an effective lesson plan? List some instructional strategies that you frequently find successful. How do you go about deciding (a) what to teach and (b) how to teach it? Play music quietly in background as they work

Targets Faculty will understand the important relationship between brain based learning and effective instructional approaches in a block setting Faculty will be able to identify and apply a 5-step process to lesson planning to enhance student attention, engagement and learning Agenda Bell-work Targets Importance of planning Block with the Brain in Mind 5-step lesson plan template Why did I post the agenda and the targets? – Outcomes provide an advance organizer for the brain and enhance retention – remember the brain remembers best what it hears first and last. Because what is ultimately our goal at the end of any lesson? – They remember and understand what we want them to remember and understand

Bell-work What components do you consciously include when designing an effective lesson plan? List some instructional strategies that you frequently find successful. How do you go about deciding (a) what to teach and (b) how to teach it? What purposes do bell-work or sponge activities serve? Briefly solicit examples from teachers and then discuss the purpose of sponge activities – as an advance organizer, a tool for previewing which is a repitition strategy, and a method for activating prior knowledge.

“You can teach more faster, but students will simply forget more faster. In- depth (as opposed to superficial) learning requires time for organizing, integrating, and storing new information.” Handout “The Great Ideas of Science” – as examples of big ideas we should be spending our time on. Have Gary speak a bit about what Voc Ed is doing as their focus goal. Individually look over the Great Ideas – then find a partner not sitting within arms length of you and discuss how one of these great ideas could be taught in your content area. – Whats my point? Relevancy, creativity and interdisciplinary approaches are excellent ways to engage kids in meaningful learning. Consciously plan to teach for depth on “Big Ideas” of your subject area

Learning – 2 categories Explicit Learning: Consists of what we commonly read, write, and talk about Conveyed via such means as textbooks, lectures, pictures and videos Implicit Learning Consists of things we learn through life experience, habit, games, experiential learning, and other “hands-on” activities (Jensen, E. Teaching With the Brain in Mind) It is vitally important the we consider both kinds of learning when we plan our instructional strategies

Complex Learning – 7 Critical Factors Engagement (goal oriented attention and action) Repetition (priming, reviewing, and revising) Input quantity (capacity, flow, chunk size) Coherence (models, relevance, prior knowledge) Timing (time of day, interval learning) Error correction (mistakes, feedback, support) Emotional states (safety, state of dependency) (Jensen, E. Teaching With the Brain in Mind) Can we learn without engagement? – Yes - Unconscious acquisition – 90% of learning – not deep learning however Ask for two volunteers – quick impression of an unengaged student and then of a highly engaged student

Paying attention “Attention is ‘payment’ of the brain’s precious resources. It requires that we orient, engage, and maintain each appropriate neural network. In addition, we must exclude or suppress external and internal distracters…In short, paying attention is not easy to do consciously.” -Eric Jensen The simple point of utilizing good instructional practices it to try and win the battle for the students conscious memory – not an easy fight to win

Practical Suggestions Brevity – cut the length of focused attention – the human brain is poor at nonstop attention. It needs time for processing and rest after learning. Compelling & Relevant Tasks – meaning building tasks such as grouping & regrouping material, critiquing and analyzing it, resequencing content, using graphic organizers, summarizing Movement – raises amine levels in the brain and elicits a state of aroused attention Teachers who

Attention Spans – Guidelines for Direct Instruction of New Content Grade Level Appropriate Amount of Direct Instruction K-2 5-8 minutes Grades 3-5 8-12 minutes Grades 6-8 12-15 minutes Grades 9-12 Adult Learners 15-18 minutes Does this have some implications for how we approach instruction in 86 minutes? Based on this students would learn about 25% of what you are teaching if you only use DI

Movement Kids need to be active and move during a block lesson. How might you incorporate movement in a meaningful way in your lessons?

The Five Step Lesson Plan Introduction Refer to previous lessons/units Point to what’s coming Whet the students’ appetites Assess students abilities/past performances Direct Instruction Direct the learning Facilitate, without necessarily lecturing Assess students Guided Practice Provide opportunities for students to work with new material Guide students through the process

The Five Step Lesson Plan Independent practice Encourage student autonomy Recognize the benefits to long-term memory development Choose appropriate homework, a prime example of independent practice Assess students 5. Closure Review what has happened Emphasize key points Point to what will happen next

Getting Started “It is critical to provide activities for students that will immediately engage them as they walk in the door. Activities that are meaningful to students provide an “emotional hook” that in turn fosters attention and learning.” -Dr. Pam Robbins, Learning Beyond Boundaries

Starting the lesson “How a lesson starts goes a long way in determining how smoothly the class runs and how much the kids learn.” – Rick Smith Strategy – Sponges or Bell-Work Anything we normally have students do, as long as they can do it silently and without having to ask for directions or clarifications Assign several activities to keep all engaged – start class when everyone has the first task or item complete Eric Jensen stresses – however important you consider prior knowledge, multiply that times ten Ask for an example or two

The Lesson Itself Strategy – Variety Plan at-least 3 to 4 activities per lesson with a minimum of one in which the teacher is off the stage Employ shifts in focus and energy at least every ten to twelve minutes Plan in movement breaks several times in a period (transitions between activities are good opportunities) The brain loves to talk so provide opportunities for students to work together Ask for an example or two

Pacing, feedback & participation Build in opportunities for independent practice so you can assess and provide additional help to your slower processors Increase wait time during discussion – wait for 6 hands to be raised before calling on a student – and say “thank you” instead of “right” Class choral recital – every once in awhile ask all students to say an answer out loud together Practice effective chunking – don’t try and deliver too much content at one time

Movement breaks Strategies Find a partner in a different part of the room Transitions between activities Everyone who hears my voice clap twice (when transitioning back from small group to full group) Breathing – ask students to take a deep breath and exhale together Stretching – can be done in seats or standing up. Schedule in a “7th inning stretch” Give yourself a pat on the back on opposite sides – gets the blood flowing and activates both the right and left hemispheres Action Thermometer (Four Corners) strategy – have students physically move to a place to represent a point of view Ball or frisbee toss discussions

Closure What do students remember most from your lesson? The first and last thing they hear! The last three-minutes can be the most significant of any lesson as they can markedly increase student retention by allowing them to reflect on their learning. This enhances the potential of the material moving from the short-term to long-term memory. Whenever possible have the students actively involved during closure. Strategies – Reciprocal Teaching (students pair off and take turns summarizing), Highlights (students come up with one or more key ideas from the lesson), Exit slips, Provide a unifying metaphor or simple analogy Full group recitation of first and last thing they hear

Use the Block as it is intended! “The major power of longer teaching periods is that such periods make the attention to brain compatible teaching practices far more feasible.” (Fitzgerald, 1996)

Highlights Identify some key take aways for today’s presentation Identify some examples of instructional strategies used during this presentation Manage pacing by focusing on big ideas and depth of learning Always consider how the brain works when designing learning activities Repetition, movement & pacing are important considerations in extended periods