1. Deep Practice What is it? Why do we need it? How do we create it?
Ralph Tyler, in the 1940s, and later Benjamin Bloom, both said there are three things we need to do in education and in this order. Know exactly what it is you want students to know. Know how you want to assess it. Know how you will teach it. Our first basic is know what you are supposed to teach – the unwrapped TEKS. That one is easy. So let’s move on to how we will assess it. That’s with STAAR – another easy answer. But what about how we will teach. That’s where deep practice comes in.

2. Deep Practice Short intense practice on one to five questions.
Questions are rigorous and make the learner stretch.
Always includes deconstruction; it is a minimal amount of time solving the problem with the REAL learning in deconstructing it.
Occurs on a daily basis and starts at the beginning of the school year.
What is Deep Practice?

3. Why do we need it?

4. Test scores show our students perform poorly on dual-coded questions.
Dual coded questions are questions that require the student to engage in more than one cognitive process.

5. Let’s look at an example.
TEK 5.5A
83% Statewide
83% District
NO PROCESS STANDARD

6. A Dual Coded Question – Same TEK
52% Statewide
57% District
DUAL CODED WITH:
5.2D Analyze and interpret information to construct reasonable explanations from direct and indirect evidence.

7. 1. Students score 20% to 45% lower on questions that require more than one cognitive process. 2. We need DEEP PRACTICE on dual coded questions to get good at them. 3. They make-up 40% to 90% of all test questions on an exam, depending on the test taken.

8. Conclusion: Until we have explicit practice on dual coded questions… our students won’t do better on STAAR or EOCs.
There are so many duo-coded questions on STAAR and the EOC’s, that our students have simply “topped out” for the last two years.

9. The Paradox
Operating on the edge of your ability, where you make mistakes, makes you smarter.
Experiences where you’re forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them, make you strengthen your critical thinking skills.
Think about this first bullet. It is easier to HEAR about how to put on an oxygen mask that it is to learn by actually doing it.

10. PART II: HOW TO WRITE A DUAL CODED QUESTION

11. WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS?
A dual coded question has:
A process skill from the content area TEKS
A readiness or supporting skill from the content area TEKS

12. That sounds really hard!

13. Not really. Take this question…
Which of the following does not produce electricity?
Fossil fuels
Solar energy
Geothermal energy
Carbon dioxide energy

14. What cognitive process do you have to apply?
ONLY ONE!
RECALL OF INFORMATION

15. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT?
It’s not real life. Solving problems in the real world always requires several cognitive steps.
Recalling information does not prepare students for the real world, or even for assessments like STAAR , EOC, PSAT, SAT, LSAT, MCAT, etc., etc.
These assessments are also the gateway into almost all professions and trades.

16. HOW DO YOU CHANGE IT?
First, choose a process skill from your TEKS in science that you want to help students practice on. 5.2D Analyze and interpret information to construct reasonable explanations from direct and indirect evidence.

17. Now let’s look at that question again, and add something to analyze.
Here is a figure of a power plant, something that produces electricity.

18. Now let’s ask the students to analyze and interpret the diagram.
This power plant produces electricity most likely by using –
F. Fossil fuels
G. Biofuels
H. Solar energy
J. Geothermal energy

19. Here’s the difference-
Question 1: Recall information.
Question 2:
Study the diagram.
Analyze its components.
Interpret what it means.
Read the question and answers.
Determine which answer is correct based on the information given.
This is a dual coded question. Remember it makes up 40% to 90% of tests.

20. NOW YOU PRACTICE – First Step
Choose one of your tests that you’ve given in the past.
Read each question and code it to the TEKS.
Write a “1” beside it if it requires one thinking step to solve.
Write a “D” beside it if it requires more than one cognitive process to solve.
Reading the problem and answers does not count as a cognitive process. 

21. Second Step
Get the process skill TEKS for your grade level and content area out.
Highlight all of the cognitive verbs, such as, analyze, infer, interpret, categorize, etc.
Select a verb or two from the process skills that your students need work on.

22. Next… Choose one of the simple problems on your test.
Add a diagram, picture, chart, or more information to the question to give more visual information to process.
Rewrite your question and/or answer choices to cause students to exercise the cognitive verb(s) you selected for them to practice.

23. The more you do this, the easier it gets!

24. PART III DEEP PRACTICE AND DECONSTRUCTION

25. WHAT??? THERE’S MORE???

26. DEEP PRACTICE IS SIMPLY:
GIVING STUDENTS AT LEAST ONE DUAL- CODED QUESTION EVERY DAY AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS.
IT SHOULD BE ON CURRENT OR SPIRALLING CONTENT.
IT SHOULD STRETCH THEIR THINKING – IT SHOULD NOT BE EASY.

27. ALWAYS DECONSTRUCT THE QUESTION AFTER IT IS ANSWERED.

28. DECONSTRUCTION
Asking students to think through how they got an answer and to discuss it out loud.
Rules are simple:
Everyone participates.
Everyone respects the speaker.
It can be large group or small group, even in pairs.

29. Process
Ask students to circle or underline the words, numbers, or the objects, (if using a diagram), that helped them to get the correct answer.
Have them do a “turn and talk”, small group share, or shout out.
Ask students to put an X on the incorrect answer choices.
Have students describe what made each answer incorrect. Annotate these by underlining words, making symbols by clues, etc.
Ask student to describe what information made them select the answer they have.
Make sure students debate, explain, and engage!

30. Different variables will cause the process to vary.
answer choices
age of the class
type of problem
difficulty level

31. Deconstructing the question helps to: reinforce mental steps in solving difficult problems, model for students having difficulty, improves everyone’s ability to get dual-coded questions correct.

32. Let’s look at that question about electricity again.
Which of the following does not produce electricity?
Fossil fuels
Solar energy
Geothermal energy
Carbon dioxide energy
You can’t help kids get smarter by practicing on questions like this.

33. How do students think smarter and achieve more?
By having target practice on dual-coded questions - not just any questions, but challenging dual-coded questions.
By practicing them everyday in short bursts.
By deconstructing them to learn how to think.

34. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Solve and deconstruct dual-coded questions every day.
Soon you will find that your students can do three or four in just a few minutes.