Productive Struggle

At our morning meeting, our principal shared with us an article about "productive struggle." It emphasized the importance of making mistakes in the learning process. In it, David Ginsberg says, "students' grasp of new concepts and skills is often better when they struggle through the process of learning those concepts and skills than when teachers error-proof that process."

I find myself error-proofing often for students and I know that I need to work on allowing students to trouble-shoot on their own. However, it can be hard to put this idea into practice. My colleagues and I wondered this morning about helping unmotivated students, the issue of time, and the possibility that a "wrong" idea sticks in a student's head instead of the correct one. How do we deal with these issues?

The article can be found here: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2012/01/dont_prevent_students_mistakes_prepare_for_them.html

What do you think? Do you have "no help days" or productive struggle activities? If so, how have you made them work?

MCA Prep

MCAs are right around the corner! Well... ok, in two months, but in the math world that is pretty close! My PLC has been trying a lot of new things to get math scores up. I just wanted to share what we are doing and also see if anyone else has good ideas!

Our students took the OLPA test, which is basically a practice MCA. We were able to get a ton of data from it. We have grouped our students into six different groups based on their scores. We are using these groups to pull students for SWAT (school-wide enrichment/intervention time). As we are able to see whichstrands were strengths and which were weaknesses, we can focus in on one or two concepts during a SWAT to reinforce specific skills. We have only done this once so far, but we did it last year and it had good results. Another thing we are doing differently this year is putting more MCA type questions on assessments and in our daily lessons. At the end of each unit, we will devote an entire day to going over the types of questions students may see on the MCA using the concepts we have just learned. We are also trying to build in more test prep questions into homework assignments. I am excited to see how far our students can get before the test at the end of  April.

What kind of activities or interventions will you use to prep for the MCA?

Bullying

Hi Everyone!

This is an article that my principal forwarded to our staff.  The article provides some interesting points to keep in mind as educators, so I thought I would share it with you.

http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1411641979

7 Reasons Teachers Should Blog

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/seven-reasons-teachers-should-blog.html?m=1

Co-teaching

This semester, I am fortunate enough to be co-teaching one hour of English 7 with an ELL teacher. This is my first experience with co-teaching. Do any of you co-teach and have advice/suggestions to share?

Cursive Writing

A friend forwarded this article to me about cursive writing.  It is disappearing from most state standards as we move into an age when computer keyboarding skills are much more valued.  Still, some people think that cursive writing helps with brain development. It is almost like a foreign language - without it we couldn't read the Declaration of Independence! My second grade students are excited to learn it, but there are so many pressures to prioritize and maximize instruction time that I can see why cursive would be sidelined.  What do you think?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323644904578272151551627948.html

Beth

PBIS-Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies...

I've always been a huge advocate of rewarding students for doing the right things. As opposed to punishing students for doing the wrong things. For, instance, having a marble reward jar for students who make it on time to class with their supplies ready to go for the day's lesson. Do you have any other neat positive ideas to assist in student motivation both academically or behaviorally?