LEARNING STRATEGIES IN ALL SUBJECTS December 13, 2012

Our Day At some point and in some way, we hope to:  Engage in a simulation  Reflect on Learning Strategies and their impact on achievement  Reflect on our own understanding  Apply our learning in a meaningful and practical way

Simulation, Discussion and Strategy Sort

Simulation (Let’s Play!!)  Group yourselves according to your letter.  Groups A and C join Reanne and B and D join Katie. Receive instructions.

How do I improve learning for students through the use of learning strategies?

Discussion  Which strategies did you observe the “Monster Builders” using?  Which strategies did they not use as much? Why?  How did strategy choice impact the results?  “Monster Builders” – What would you have liked to have done differently? What strategy would have led to this result?

How do we know this needs attention?  RAD  AFL  Less than stellar products  Learning challenges  Renewed curricula – attention to reflection

 How do we build strategies students are missing AND honour the strategies they ALREADY HAVE?

Discussion  Are there strategies that we use more often? Less often?

Before, During and After  Cut the strategies into strips and sort into whether they happen BEFORE, DURING or AFTER the experience.

Discussion  How do we decide whether a strategy is Before, During or After?  Why does it matter?  Where did we spend most of our time when trying to be successful?  Were there strategies we didn’t apply that we could have, to experience greater success?  Why are strategies so important?  Why do we miss some strategies that could lead to greater success?

Active Engagement in Acquired Learning

Think-Pair-Share  What is a learning strategy?  What is its relationship to an instructional strategy?

What is a learning strategy?  Learning strategies are the thoughts and actions we engage in, consciously or not, to learn new information.  The goal of explicitly teaching learning strategies is to help students consciously and metacognitively focus on how they learn so they apply strategies before, during, and after engaging with texts across all subject areas. Students, over time, will develop skill in using multiple strategies which they can then independently apply to new and different situations.

Learning strategies as “Thinking routines”  Learning strategies are “thinking routines”...they move across contexts and content. They are part of all thinking and learning.  They should become part of the way of “doing thinking.”

“Make sure you make your connecting flights,” is like telling someone about the outcome without equipping them with strategies on how to do so. Airplane analogy

So how is a learning strategy different from an instructional strategy? Learning strategyInstructional strategy Activating prior knowledgeK-W-L Anticipating author’s messageThink-pair-share Pausing, thinking and making notesT-chart Consider illustrationsPicture walk

Tracking graphic  How do learning strategies apply to every subject?  Watch the video clip and track the strategies you see.video clip

So why does this matter for everyone?  Every single thing students do in every single class is part of communication.  When students read a science textbook, they are reading to understand. When they create a poster in health, they are composing a representation. When they give an oral presentation, they are speaking.  If you have ever wondered why students submit a less than quality product in any subject, it is because they did not use learning strategies effectively before, during and after their learning experiences.

What we want to know…  Are they engrossed in the text?  Are they asking questions?  Are they recording connections?  Are they noting significant or key ideas from quotations, illustrations, or a speech?  Can they summarize what they’ve read or heard?  Can they make inferences?  Can they have deep conversations about what they are reading or viewing or hearing?  Are they open to other viewpoints?  Do they reread or revisit portions of the text?

Middle and secondary  Reading at the secondary school level is more demanding, in part because the texts are longer and more complex, in part because the expectations for prior knowledge are so high, and in part because the concepts become more abstract and complex.  Reading in the domains is reading to learn, but it nevertheless requires that young people also learn to read these specialized texts. Subject matter teachers are the best people to teach youth how to make sense of the texts of those domains.  Comprehension Across the Curriculum: Perspectives and Practices K-12, Ganske and Fisher, 2010

Multiple subject areas  A significant difference between expert and novice mathematicians and between high and low performing students is in their use of metacognitive skills during problem solving. Whereas novices tend to read the problem and then use trial-and-error methods to solve it, experts devote considerable time to analyzing the problem, planning, and verifying the results of their chosen strategy. Schoenfeld, 1987

Observation, discussion and brainstorm  Watch the video and think about the following questions:video  How do we teach learning strategies?  What is the process?

Brain research  Research shows that students can only make sense of texts, either through composition or comprehension, by attaching new information and ideas onto old schema.  Students do not often come equipped to do this on their own. Engaging in a learning event or linking one learning event to the next is not easy and must be taught explicitly.

Important distinction… Teaching learning strategies must be explicit and… if we don’t go to the next step to discuss how using the strategy helps us understand text more deeply, then we are teaching a strategy for the sake of teaching a strategy.

All too often we are giving young people cut flowers

When we should be teaching them to plant their own gardens...

Continuum of learning  I do, you watch  I do, you help  You do, I help  You do, I watch Wilhelm, Baker & Dube Hackett, 2001

Introducing a new strategy  Name the strategy to be learned.  State the purpose of the strategy  Explain when to use the strategy  Link prior knowledge to the new strategy  Demonstrate the use of the strategy  Talk about errors to avoid when using the strategy  Check the use of the strategy  Adapted from Differentiated Professional Development by Linda Bowgren and Kathryn Sever, 2010.

Concept mapping  Think about a specific learning experience you would have in any of your classes. Using your concept map, consider:  How do I recognize learning strategies when I see them in this situation? What would I see and hear?

Content Understanding what I am reading. Strategies Understanding how I understand what I am reading. Cinderella has my friend “Ella’s” name in it. I think the step sisters are going to be mad at Cinderella. I wonder what happened to the mice? C..a...r..r..i..a..g..e looks like the word marriage.

Strategy proficiency People who are “good” at comprehension and creation:  Consider the text  Question the author (or director or actor or…) and the information  Solve problems while engaging in the text  Enjoy humour  Savour interesting language (visual, written, spoken)  Marvel over fascinating facts  Wonder what may happen next

Strategy challenges The elements learners bring to a text are:  Word recognition knowledge  Vocabulary knowledge  Background knowledge  Linguistic and textual knowledge  Ability to infer meanings  Ability to use strategies when comprehension or composition is challenged  Motivation and interest in engaging in text This makes the teaching of learning strategies so important!!

Emphasis  In the C and C goal area, the greatest emphasis rests on the work students do before producing a product (70%)  In C and R, this emphasis shifts to the work students do during their interaction with texts (80%)

Analysis and Application

Pairings for card sorts – Find your partner by matching images

Filter: Comfort Sort your strategy cards according to the following question and record your responses in the chart columns:  Which strategies are you VERY COMFORTABLE teaching, SOMEWHAT COMFORTABLE teaching, and UNCOMFORTABLE teaching?

Discussion  Are there any strategies we need to clarify in terms of meaning and intent?

Filter: Frequency Sort your strategy cards according to the following question and record your responses in the chart columns:  Which strategies do you ask students to currently use OFTEN, SOMETIMES and RARELY in your subject areas?

Discussion  Why do you ask students to use some strategies rarely?  What purpose does each strategy hold in your subject area? (Really discuss this as a pair)

Student samples  With your partner, look at the student examples you brought and consider:  How did the students do?  What areas were a concern? (refer to rubrics if needed)  Which strategies could have led to a better result?

Mini-lesson design  Choose two strategies you would like to teach in the context of any subject area you teach. Consider the areas where students are struggling (student samples).  Design mini-lessons in which you will explicitly teach the strategies.  Remember the continuum and remember to explain why and how the strategy will be helpful.

Continuum of learning  I do, you watch  I do, you help  You do, I help  You do, I watch Wilhelm, Baker & Dube Hackett, 2001

Introducing a new strategy  Name the strategy to be learned.  State the purpose of the strategy  Explain when to use the strategy  Link prior knowledge to the new strategy  Demonstrate the use of the strategy  Talk about errors to avoid when using the strategy  Check the use of the strategy  Adapted from Differentiated Professional Development by Linda Bowgren and Kathryn Sever, 2010.

Curriculum Corner  So where can I find additional supports?  Have we got good news for you!

Feedback tool

Involving students in metacognition  Feedback tools can make the language of strategies common.  They can help students to ensure they are using all the strategies available to them.  They allow for goal setting, redemonstrations that show real improvement and increased learning.  The clarify the path to success.  They can be used in the context of rubrics.

Feedback tool  Create a strategy feedback tool for one of your learning experiences.

Parking Lot

Reflection  Today was like a walk in the park because...  Today was like a trip to the zoo because...  Today was like space travel because...  Today was like building a house because...