Knowledge Base of Effective Teaching 10 p. I-3 Cognitive Context Anb 274 10 p. I-3 GB I-3 Pleasure and Honor to be here. I know your time is valuable an appreciate and take seriously having this 90 minutes of your time. Explain that 40 educators, mostly teachers, provided the information that is in this book. Every example is a real example used by a teacher in his or her classroom. We also had a PHD, MD in neurology help us with this chapter and the chapter on the brain 8 Tell them that they are in three groups. Group 1 knows everything I am going to talk about today. It is important for them to be here so they can assist others when you have your afternoon work sessions. Group 2 knows some of what I will say today. In addition to being here to learn something new, it is important for you to be here to help those colleagues who do not know what you already know. Group 3 knows little or nothing about. You will learn as much from your colleagues in this afternoons work session as you will learn from. Please note and hold your questions during my presentation. We are a large group and questions during the session will not allow us to get to the content others may be interested in hearing. You will have two opportunities to ask your questions. At the end of my talk and in your afternoon work sessions. 1

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Much of what I am going to speak about in terms of why these strategies are effective from a brain based point of view we did not know 10 years ago. We learned this because of the recent use of functional MRIs to study the brain during learning. The cost of this technology came down considerably and enabled educators to use the technology to study learning. This is just here for those of you who are interested in the anatomy. We won’t talk about the anatomy but those who are interested can read chapter 8 in the text Instructional Practices That Maximize Student Achievement copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 2 2

By the end of today’s address we will be able to explain how differentiating instruction by creating the cognitive context for learning results in higher levels student achievement be able to describe the eight most commonly used cognitive context strategies work with the teachers and administrators in your school/department to raise student achievement by implementing more cognitive context strategies into our teaching.

Agenda Creating the cognitive context for this talk The brain based reasons why creating the cognitive context raises the level of student learning 8 key cognitive context strategies Your questions about the cognitive context strategies Overview of the afternoon work sessions

05 p. 286 10 p. 353 The brain does not have a “learning” or “memory” region that stores what is learned. Learning new information or a skill is the process of the firing of neurons along a neural pathway. Remembering this new information or skill means that the neurons along that neuron pathway communicate so effectively with each other that the brain can easily recall the information or skill. Tell the analogy to the pathway you can wear to the mail box after a snow storm.

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 05 p. 6 10 p. 3 Application Mastery Mastery Immediate Mastery Immediate Application Mastery Guided Practice How Much Students Learn Is More Important Than How Much We Teach Using some of these strategies does not increase how much we teach but will does increase how much students learn. I would be lying if I said that if you do everything in the book all of your students will get to application mastery on all the concepts. I would be lying if I told you there is anything that will get every student to application on all the concepts. However, using the cognitive context strategies will get more students up this continuum more quickly then not using the strategies. Introductory 6 copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 6

05 p. 286 10 p. 353-4 The reason we become more skilled at a particular task the more we practice it is that the neurons involved in that particular task actually “get better at communicating with each other across their synapses.” This practice causes the neurons to develop additional branches that facilitate better communication between the neurons.” Tell the analogy story of walking through deep snow. The first time down the path is hard work. If we don’t go down the path again then the snow will quickly cover over the tracks and beginning pathway is lost. If we walk the same path multiple times then we wear down a pathway that is easy to follow.

Neurons (a.ka. Brain Cells) 05 p. 287 10 p. 354 Exercising the neurons through learning enriches the neurons making it to easier move along the pathway and remember information or skills. Impoverished neurons Enriched neurons This explains why some of our students enter school behind others as a result of less stimulating home environments. And, stay behind or fall farther behind as the years progress. Most of that falling farther behind is due to loss during the summers and other vacations times.

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Context for Learning Agenda/Itinerary 05 p.35-38 10 p.40-41 Mastery Objectives 05 p.15 and 34-35 10 p.11-13 and 39-40 3. Activators 05 p. 39-45 10 p. 43-50 4. Summarizers 05 p. 45-49 10 p. 62-68 5. Connections to previous learning 05 p. 50-51 10 p. 55-56 6. Essential Questions 05 p.58-59 10 p. 52 7. Connections to real world/students’ own lives 05 p. 60-61 10 p. 56-58 8. Assigning homework at the start of the lesson 05 p. 38-39 10 p. 42-43 These are the 8 brain based strategies I will be discussing this morning. The page numbers are the pages in chapter 2 of the book Instructional…. Copies of the book are at each school and will be given to each working group. See your administrator if you want to borrow a copy. Some of these strategies can take larger amounts of teacher preparation time to implement (e.g. posting agendas and mastery objectives). Some take little or no time (e.g. making connections such as my snow story). Hearing that story will cause a number of you to remember how the neuron pathways are developed. Making that connection took only the minute or two it took me to think of a story that illustrates the connection.. Even those that take more time to implement such as making posters of your mastery objectives are typically one time work that can be used from year to year. It is also work that can be divided among teachers so no one person need do all the work. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 9 9

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Creating a Context for the New Learning: Nolet & McLaughlin (2000) 05 p. 289 10 p. 356 As information is detected through one of the senses, it is held briefly in sensory memory…Sensory memory has an extremely limited capacity. Visual information begins to fade after only one-half of a second and auditory stimuli are held for only about three seconds. Information that has been perceived and recognized is passed on to the working memory… Sensory memory- limited capacity, short “shelf” life Working memory- like the internet search function Long term memory copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 10 10

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Creating a Context for the New Learning:Nolet & McLaughlin (2000) 05 p. 289 10 p. 357 …Information is held in working memory temporarily while it is compared with information already stored in long-term memory. If the new information is related to some prior knowledge, it is moved out of working memory and stored along with that related information in long-term memory… If the new information cannot be connected to prior knowledge, it is less likely to be moved into long-term memory. Ask for anyone who drove to school today to raise their hand. With this slide tell the story of driving to work with a problem on your mind and being asked to describe the people you saw on the side of the road. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 11 11

Without Cognitive Context O O O O O O O O O O O O O Information and Skills Taught in a Lesson O O O O O O O O O O O Some of these connections in the circle are conscious some are subconscious. In either case the brain is connecting and better understanding and retaining longer what is taught With Cognitive Context

Information and Skills Students Mastered Information and Skills Without Cognitive Context More Gaps in Learning O O O O O O O O O O O O O Information and Skills Students Mastered Information and Skills Taught in a Lesson O O O O O O O O O O O Where are my special educators? You can probably think of specific students for who the amount of information that is lost is even greater than what is shown in the upper part of he diagram. With Cognitive Context Fewer Gaps in Learning

Differentiating Instruction for Whole to Part Learners Cognitive context strategies raise the achievement of all students. Whole to part learners are particularly impacted in a positive way by cognitive context strategies such as agendas, post and stating mastery objectives, and summarizers. As you know many differentiated instruction strategies take a great deal of teacher planning and preparation time. The great thing about cognitive context strategies is that many of the cognitive context strategies take little or no extra planning by the teacher yet have a significant impact on the learning. Those that do take more time can often be divided up among teachers so the amount of time an individual teacher must commit is significantly reduced. Also, once the task is completed it can usually be used every year without further planning.

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates What do you know/ think you know about agendas? How do they raise student learning? Agendas/itineraries Discuss the question above with someone next to you. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 15 15

Agendas (a.k.a. itineraries) 05 p. 35-36 10 p. 40-41 Creates a context that tells the students where each individual piece of learning fits in the big picture of the lesson Keeps students focused on learning the concepts rather than wondering “what’s next?” Tells student with specific learning styles when the part of the lesson most interesting to them will occur Tells student arriving after the start of class what we are doing in the lesson Keeps us (the teacher) on schedule Cognitive context Keeps students focused Increase student interest Helps students who arrive late catch up Keeps us on schedule Copies of the chapter from the instructional strategies that maximize student achievement book will be back at your school for you to use. A copy of the chapter has also been posted for teachers and administrators on the Dedham Public Schools website. There are also some copies of the entire book in each school that people can borrow. See your building administrator for to borrow a copy. There are also 90 teachers taking a PD program during the early release days who have a copy of the book. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 16 16

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates What do you know/ think you know about mastery objectives? How do they raise student learning? Agendas/itineraries Mastery objectives copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 17 17

Mastery Objectives 05 p.15 and 34 10 p. 11 and 39 Helps students understand the importance of each piece of learning in the context of the entire lesson thereby increasing the likelihood the learning will move into their long term memory Tells students who are curious, the information and skills they will learn today Keeps us (the teacher) focused on those activities that serve to increase student mastery on the information and skills identified as essential and most important Cognitive context Curious students know what they will learn and will stay focused Keeps us focuses copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 18 18

Objectives written in mastery form 05 p. 15 10 p. 11 Uses language that is observable Uses language that enables effective assessment Are presented prior to the teaching Are presented to the students in language they can understand In your handout packet on pages 13 and 14 you have some sample mastery objectives for various grade levels. On page 14 you also have some sample words that can be used to make your objectives observable and assessable. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates What do you know/ think you know about activators? How do they raise student learning? Agendas/itineraries Mastery objectives Activators copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 20 20

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Activators 05 p. 39 10 p. 43 Some create a common base of information on the topic which is shared by all the students Some connect previous learning to new learning Some inform the teacher about the students’ current knowledge of the topic Some inform the teacher of the students’ confusion and misconceptions about the topic Some inform the teacher about the parts of the topic that may be most interesting to the students Shortly I will show you a list of activators and summarizers. Common info base Cognitive connection to previous learning Pre-asessment of current knowledge Identification of misinformation Informs about student interest copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 21 21

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Activators (Erlauer, 2003, p91) A Brain Compatible Classroom 05 p. 297 10 p. 365 “ the first ten minutes of class represents the period during which students are most likely to focus, comprehend and commit to long-term memory the information they are taught” Tell the story about all of us watching a movie and remembering a year later what comes at the beginning and the end the best. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 22 22

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates What do you know/ think you know about summarizers? How do they raise student learning? Agendas/itineraries Mastery objectives Activators Summarizers copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 23 23

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Activators (Erlauer, 2003, p91) A Brain Compatible Classroom 05 p. 297-298 10 p. 365 “A second prime period for learning is the final ten to fifteen minutes of a lesson or class. Summarizers that review content covered during the during a class period are invaluable for ensuring that the content will become part of the students’ long-term memory.” copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 24 24

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Summarizer 05 p. 45-46 10 p. 62 Puts the learning into a context by helping students to see the “big picture” Tells the teacher what the student has learned Tells the teacher what the student believes is important about what he/she has learned “Back end” loads the information into a time in the lesson when the brain is more likely to remember what was learned Creates cognitive context connections Post assessment of learning Tells what students think is important Back end loads learning into a time when it will most likely be remembered. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 25 25

Commonly Used Activators and Summarizers KW, KWL, KWLU (both) Give-one-get-one (both) The three most important things you learned today and why you think they are important (summarizer) Paired verbal fluency (both) Group verbal fluency (both) Three, Two, One (summarizer) What do you know, what questions do you want to know, what did you learn, how will you use what you learned. These are described in the copies of chapter 2 the administrators have for each group back at the schools and are posted on line. You also have some samples in your handout packet.

Commonly Used Activators and Summarizers A Thought Going Round In My Head…(summarizer) Quick writes (both) Ticket to leave (summarizer) Agree/disagree (both) Create your own sentence (both) Word splash (activator) Bingo (summarizer) What do you know, what questions do you want to know, what did you learn, how will you use what you learned

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates What do you know/ think you know about connecting to previous learnign? How does it raise student learning? Agendas/itineraries Mastery objectives Activators Summarizers Connecting to previous learning copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 28 28

Connecting to Previous Learning Creates a cognitive context by establishing a foundation on which to connect previous learning Catches up students who missed previous learning Informs the teacher if there is a need for re-teaching Creates a common base of previous learning among a larger group of students Cognitive context connections Catches student who missed previous learning Tells what re-teaching is needed Creates common base of learning. You see that some of these strategies overlap. For example, the BINGO activator can serve as an activator that also connects to previous learning.

Essential Questions: Grant Wiggins 05 p. 58 10 p. 52 causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content; provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions; requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers; stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons; These contain larger concepts. They connect the individual lessons to their overall context in the unit. They provide deeper meaning to the more discrete information and skills that students learn in an individual lesson. You see Grant Wiggins has identified a number of other learning impacts for essential questions. In a minute I will show you some samples of essential questions

Essential Questions: Grant Wiggins sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences; naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.

Essential Question Examples Why did mammals thrive and develop while dinosaurs became extinct?  How does what we measure influence how we measure? How does how we measure influence what we measure?   Is there really a difference between a cultural generalization and a stereotype? 

Connecting to Real World and/or Students’ Own Lives Pick a concept that is taught in the curriculum that you are responsible for. Give and example of how you do (or could) connect this concept to students’ own lives and/or the real world. Tell your example to someone sitting next to you. Tell the story about the high school teacher in the alternative classroom. Tell about the boy who was complaining that he would never need to know algebra. Tell how the teacher said to the student that after the explanation he would let the student know why it is important to him. Once the other students started working he came over to the student and spoke quietly to him. I couldn’t hear what he said but I saw the student start working. I asked the teacher after class what he said The teacher said, “I knew I couldn’t say he needed it for college because that wouldn’t make him care. I knew I couldn’t say it was so he would pass the MCAS because I know that wouldn’t make him care. So I said, “see all that bling, bling you are wearing- right now your mother buys that for you, in a couple of years she won’t be buying it anymore- you need to know this so you can get a job that will enable you to buy the bling, bling I copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 33 33

Assigning Homework at the Start of Class 05 p. 38-39 10 p. 42-43 Make clear that students won’t know how to do this until the end of class and that you will teach them how to do it before the end of class. It takes practice to get the students comfortable with the idea that you are assigning homework at the beginning Have a clear management plan for students who try to do the homework while they are supposed to be doing other tasks during the lesson. This can be one of the trickier strategies. You need to train students so aren’t trying to do the homework in class. Clear they won’t know how to do Takes time for them to get comfortable with this Build into your class management plan

copyright 2008 Ribas Associates Context for Learning Agenda/Itinerary 05 p.35-38 10 p.40-41 Mastery Objectives 05 p.15 and 34-35 10 p.11-13 and 39-40 3. Activators 05 p. 39-45 10 p. 43-50 4. Summarizers 05 p. 45-49 10 p. 62-68 5. Connections to previous learning 05 p. 50-51 10 p. 55-56 6. Essential Questions 05 p.58-59 10 p. 52 7. Connections to real world/students’ own lives 05 p. 60-61 10 p. 56-58 8. Assigning homework at the start of the lesson 05 p. 38-39 10 p. 42-43 These are the 8 brain based strategies we discussed this morning. The page numbers are the pages in chapter 2 of the book Instructional…. Copies of the chapter are at each school and will be given to each working group. There are also extra copies of the entire book at each school.. See your administrator if you want to borrow a copy. Some of these strategies can take larger amounts of teacher preparation time to implement (e.g. posting agendas and mastery objectives). Some take little or no time (e.g. making connections such as my snow story). Hearing that story will cause a number of you to remember how the neuron pathways are developed. Making that connection took only the minute or two it took me to think of a story that illustrates the connection.. Even those that take more time to implement such as making posters of your mastery objectives are typically one time work that can be used from year to year. It is also work that can be divided among teachers so no one person need do all the work. copyright 2008 Ribas Associates 35 35

Planning Sessions: The work sessions that follow are designed to give you time to plan to use some of these strategies with your students. Set a manageable goal for yourself for what you can achieve in this session. Set a manageable goal for yourself for using a new cognitive context strategy with your students. Tell the teachers that what they learned today will not work as well in their classrooms as what they are already doing. You are all now probably wondering why the heck have I been sitting here if this doesn’t work better than what I already do. Tell them the bicycle analogy.

By the end of today’s address we will be able to explain how creating the cognitive context for learning results in higher levels student achievement be able to describe the eight most commonly used cognitive context strategies work with the administrators in your school/department to raise student achievement by implementing more cognitive context strategies into our teaching.

Questions? We will now do a question and answer time. You can raise your hand or pass your written questions up to me. If you don’t feel comfortable asking in the large group then you can ask your questions in the afternoon work sessions. You will have colleagues and an administrator who will be able to answer your questions.

Knowledge Base of Effective Teaching 10 p. I-3 Cognitive Context Anb 274 10 p. I-3 39