Step 4: Reinforce- Pages 81-102

Effective feedback begins with clearly defined and 

clearly communicated learning goals.

This chapter had me reflecting about not only student feedback but teacher feedback as well.  Not only do students need clearly defined and clearly communicated learning goals, but so do teachers.  Teachers should also have goals or targets that are reinforced through continuous feedback, as well as building leadership.  Sprenger (2018) suggests that routinely providing feedback and reinforcement (by teachers or peers) to students will improving learning results.  Would this be the same for our teachers?  Do our teachers need feedback and reinforcement?  

As teachers, how do we like to be given feedback?  This caused me to reflect more on what the author was conveying in this chapter.  "The type of feedback you use, as well as your timing and your method, can alter your students' (& teachers') motivational state."  (Sprenger 2018)

Positive feedback is the reinforcement that makes students (& teachers) want to keep doing what they've been doing

• Positive Feedback:
1. Reinforce immediately
2. Reinforce any improvement, not just excellence
3. Be specific in your reinforcement
4. Continuously reinforce positive new behaviors
5. Intermittently reinforce good habits

Negative corrective feedback is how to address issues that need correcting.

• Negative Corrective Feedback:
1. Focus the evaluation
2. Point out the original goals
3. Identify responsibility
4. Communicate specific components
5. Discuss a new plan of action
6. Confirm correct results

Watch the following video~

After watching the video, identify the positive and corrective feedback that she suggests we give our students.  What parallels can you draw from both our reading this week and the video?  Try to recode your takeaways from this week's reading.

Step 3:  Recode Pages 60-80

What is RECODING and why is it important?

We are now getting to an important step in the learning process that demonstrates the transfer of learning.  The author states that recoding is the ability to take information from one source and then generate your own language from the information.

Here are my 3 AH HA! quotes and my recoding of the quotes:

1.  "Self-generated material is better remembered."  Sprenger (2018) page 61

I believe it is essential that scholars have the chance to generate their own work around the learning that is taking place in the classroom.  I have been in many classrooms where it is the traditional "lecture-style" environment and scholars are recording like robots exactly what the teacher is writing on the board.  How could we use this opportunity for scholars to recode the information?  I love Doodle Notes!  The website is listed below the graphic.  If we have our scholars record notes while we teach they do not have time to reflect and recode in their own words.  Rather, the teacher should only record bulleted keywords and then pause during the lecture to allow scholars time to recode on their Doodle Notes their own self-generated information.  

Doodle Notes

2.  "Asking students to retrieve information right after it has been introduced promotes retention (e.g., "Tell a neighbor what you just learned!") Sprenger (2018) page 65

Turn and Talk!!  This is huge!  I actually did a classroom observation this past year where a teacher effectively used turn and talk.  She would ask an essential question and 2 hands went up.  She then asked them to turn and talk with their neighbor.  She then restated the question and 15 hands went up.  This teacher has now added refection time, collaboration, and recoding to her lesson to increase participation and engagement. 

3.  "Recoding needs to take place in the classroom.  Sending students home with new material to recode may be stressful.  This is not the time for homework and practice; rather, this is the time to ask questions and iron out wrinkles in thinking." Sprenger (2018) page 78

Homework has become a hot topic in education over the last few years.  I AGREE with the statement above.  Homework should be practice after recoding has happened in the classroom.  Each scholar's home life is not built equally.  We should not expect new learning to take place at home, but rather in our classroom so that we can check for understanding through recoding.

This week's task is to identify 3 AH HA Quotes that provoked strong feelings within you.  Then recode the quote and the connection you experienced while reading.

Have a great week!  😊

Step 2:  Reflect Pages 37-59

A Time to Be Silent and a Time to Speak

The silence that encourages reflective thinking can eventually lead to long-term memory.

Sprenger breaks down Focus Time, Wait Time, and Time for Reflection as being the keys to success for reflection.

Focus Time:

I found it powerful when the author spoke to us about how difficult it is to sometimes sit still for long periods of time and without hitting a wall.  As adults, we can get up and take a break, walk around, or grab a snack. However, we expect our scholars to sit for long periods of time with no talking, no getting out of seats, and no snacking. If we don't read their body language correctly, it could lead to a very disruptive situation.  The visual below helps us understand how to plan an incremental lesson where you change your teaching strategy to keep our scholars focused and engaged in their learning based on their age. 

Wait Time:

Wait time plays a vital role in the retention process.  We must give our scholars time to reflect and then connect new information to prior knowledge.  If we don't give them the time to connect, they will lose the new information.  I have observed serval classrooms using wait time effectively and increasing scholar participation.  It works!!  :)  Try counting to 5 in your head before calling on a scholar or probing after a scholar answers.  (Lower level questions require less wait time and higher-level questions may take 5-10 seconds.)  Watch the short video clip below to see wait time in action.  Watch how hands keep going up the longer she waits!

Time for Reflection:

We must allow our scholars time to reflect and process new information.  Reflection involves the use of feelings and opinions.  It leads us to ask questions and think at a more cognitively challenging level.  Stop, Think, and Jot is a great strategy to incorporate into your lesson that allows for reflection time.

1.  Questioning

2.  Visualizing

3.  Journaling

4.  Using Thinking Directives

5.  Thinking Like a PMI (+ - Interesting) Chart

6.  Collaboration

7.  Four-Corner Reflection

Reflect on the above, The Seven Habits of Highly Reflective Classrooms, by creating your own PMI Chart.  

 + List parts from The Seven Habits that were positive (+) for you

 -  List topics or concepts that you don't like or understand from The Seven Habits

 !  List the parts that you found most interesting from The Seven Habits

Step 1: Reach and Teach pages 1-36

I found step 1 to be imperative when working with our scholars to ensure we REACH them on a daily basis.  Marilee Sprenger points out a variety of ways that we can REACH our kids cognitively and on an emotional level.  Below is a list of some of the suggestions she included in the book:

• Reach students through their emotions
• i.e. attach emotion to lessons, provide emotional hooks, and greet scholars at the beginning of class and say something positive to them
• Use advance organizers to focus attention
• i.e. agree/disagree charts and other graphic organizers
• Connecting with students through their senses
• i.e. visual, auditory, and kinesthetic connections
• Relationships
• i.e. Take time to set up relationships with EACH of your scholars; those that need us the most are the hardest to build relationships with~ don't give up!
• Finding Connections
• greet students at the door
• hold informal conferences
• attend after-school activities
• give students responsibilities in the classroom
• hang up students' work
• employ humor
• Relevancy, relationships, and the real world
• help them find the relationship between their lives and our goals
• A novel approach
• Surprise students before or after introducing content you want them to remember
• Accessorize, play music, dress-up, display a quote...
• Presenting in chunks
• feed them the information bit by bit; incremental design 

Blog with your colleagues about the two suggestions above that you do really well.  Share an idea or two!  :)  Then discuss two suggestions that you would like to work on incorporating in your classroom next year to make learning more relevant for our scholars.