Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor | Edutopia

Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor | Edutopia

Merkel HS Flattens Their Walls During Animation Class

Merkel High School is flattening the walls of their classroom with Skype!

Students taking an animation class participated in a Skype Q&A with David Condolora, formerly of Dreamworks, Disney, and Pixar Animation Studios.  They prepared questions to ask before meeting their chosen guest expert on animation.

You want to see student engagement?  Skype in an expert on things the STUDENTS are interested in.
What about Differentiated Instruction??? There was absolutely no way to determine what students, if any, had an IEP!  How cool?  Uninhibited participation for all students!

Just a few student comments:

• When asked if they would want to participate in this type of thing again, they said, "Absolutely!"
• Benefits/Drawbacks of learning from an expert versus learning from a textbook, they said,  "He gave us more insight."  "It was nice talking to someone who knows."
• Other comments: "He mentioned the Reel FX in Texas.  We should connect with them."

Merkel is currently participating in a Region 14 initiative called Culture Shift.  They began their journey in December of 2013.  Following a School Climate Survey, a Stakeholders group, and numerous leadership team meetings, a few teachers that make up a Teaching And Growing (TAG) team gets to play in the world of non-traditional instructional strategies.

How well do you plan your questions? Part I

When you work in education a key strategy in teaching is questioning. So how well are you planning the questions you ask your students?

The idea....

The idea is simple.  Create 3 different cubes for different aspects of the question you wish to ask with visual icons. (I used Boardmaker® symbols by Mayer-Johnson© but you can use any icons that you choose.)

• One cube is the 6 WH questions.  {Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How} 

• One cube is the linking verbs. {might, can, would, is, will, did}

• One cube is the type of question or purpose of the question.  {analyze, verify or prove, list, predict, compare, contrast}

The teaching....

Begin asking the questions you want the kids to ask. Now, let's get real.... do you PLAN your questions?  I mean really sit down during your planning time and write out the questions you are going to ask during a lesson OR do you do my favorite- Ask as you go and "off the cuff?"  

How do we plan instruction for the unknown?  Are we as educators asking questions that haven't been asked yet? Hmmmm... Check out Part II for more information on how to get started asking better questions with and without cubes.

Thanks for stopping by to read about planning your questions!  Feel free to follow Special Education Perspectives, Trudy_Little on Twitier, TrudyLittle on Pinterest, Trudy Little on Livebinders and Google+

How well do you plan your questions? Part II

Previously.... How well do you plan your questions? Part I suggested using cubes to plan various levels of questions.  Part II goes into greater detail regarding the creation of the cubes as well as the nuts and bolts of getting started.  Enjoy! 

So How Do I get started...

Ideas to plan for questioning:

• Search for question stems online- there are tons.  Be cautious though, you can use a stem and create a complicated application question and NOT a higher level, open-ended question.
• Team plan and write out the questions you and your colleague(s) will ask.  This adds validity and accountability in instruction if you and your colleague are are asking the same questions to their students and them compare the responses.  Team collaborators can compare question outcomes and raise the level of instruction by working together to alter practices and share resources to keep the students successfully accessing higher level thinking skills.  
• Use the cubes- the cubes will help to practice creating questions in a fun way, but it will demonstrate to students how to form questions also. You may have to turn a cube to make the stem make more sense, but it does help you to get the language started. 

Ideas to teach questioning skills: 

• In General: Ask the types of questions you want to hear from your students.  Children have no problems asking questions, but they do not always know how to answer questions.   **Remember expressive language develops AFTER receptive language!  They begin to hear and understand LONG before they begin to speak.**
• Create teaching flash cards for all six sides of each cube.  Teach each icon and begin to ask the WH questions on the red cards/cube. Most teachers already ask excellent WH questions.   As you ask questions to your students, you can verbally identify them using the flash cards.  
• Have your students ask specific types of questions, i.e. those WH questions.
• As you notice 50-75% of your class are proficient creating and identifying questions on demand, introduce the helping verbs or the blue cards/cube.  You may be introducing helping verbs very quickly.  Just know your class.
• As you notice 50-75% of the class being successful asking and identifying the questions you have taught, move to the higher level actions on the green cards/cube.  
• Once students understand the icons, you can allow them to play with the cubes.  

Rules for cubes...

• Cubes can be used in centers, stations, partners, collaborative teams, individually, etc. 
• Cubes are tools.  When TOOLS become TOYS they are TAKEN away.  
• Allow the children to "free play" for 30-60 seconds when introducing the cubes to reduce novelty.  
• Give clear instructions for "free play" such as, "You may play with the cubes for 30 seconds.  You must keep them on your desk or in your hand.  You may roll them, or stack them.  You may not throw them or share with a friend."  
• For PreK, cubes can be experienced in small group with the teacher instead of large group instruction.  They may also require additional time to allow for the novelty to wear off.  Allowing the cubes to be experienced in centers can help the "playtime period" move more quickly.  
• Once "free play" is finished, students are more likely to use the cubes appropriately.  
• I highly recommend you write a lesson plan for teaching the early childhood students to use the cubes to ask questions with PreK and K.  The cubes are fun to play with, but to just tell a student how to create a question with the cubes is more complicated than one might think.  

**But wait, there's more....

So you have seen the cubes, you know how to use the cubes, you have instructional strategies for using the cubes with students, but where do you get them?  Click the images below to download and print the 3 cubes on card stock. **Great project for those helpful parent volunteers at the beginning of the year**

5WH? Cubes (print on card stock)

Linking Verb Cubes (print on card stock)

Bloom's Taxonomy Cubes (print on card stock)

If you would like to use the foam cubes by Learning Resources, I found them here on Amazon.

Click the image below to download and print mailing labels sized to stick on the foam cubes by Learning Resources.  **Note: I am a little OCD and designed the icons so that if you cut them out on the black line they will fit on the cube.  Unfortunately when you print the borders do not always fall exactly on the pre-cut label - but I cut them out anyway....

1" cube labels- for all 3 cubes

Thanks for stopping by to read about higher level questioning!  Feel free to follow Special Education Perspectives, Trudy_Little on Twitier, TrudyLittle on Pinterest, Trudy Little on Livebinders and Google+.  

My Go-To Behavior Interventions

Challenging behaviors create chaos within classrooms everywhere.  So, I have a few Go-To Interventions that are tried and true for any age!  Many of the resources appear to be more for early childhood, but there are many variations to utilize each intervention at all grade levels.

1. Schedule(s)- Simply interacting regularly with your posted classroom schedule reduces stress and anxiety created from not knowing what comes next and when the day is over. Visual schedules work best.  Clip art, symbol software, photographs, or line drawings can be used. For more intense behaviors, a PERSONAL visual schedule can be added. 
2. Timer(s)- Setting a timer for, a kitchen timer will work, but a visual timer helps with understanding elapsed time. Some examples are Time-Timer©, sand timer, goo timer, On Task On Time© timer.  The hardest timer to understand is a digital timer.  www.online-stopwatch.com has several great online visual timers that work well with interactive whiteboards.  My favorite is the Clock Countdown.  
3. First/Then Board- A First/Then Board is a simple T-chart that has "First" on the left, and "Then" on the right.  It teaches immediate compliance for getting a Teacher directed task completed. First work:  What task(s) do you want completed?  How much of that task is reasonable, i.e. 2 out of 10. Then play: Allow the student to choose what they are working for and put that or a representation of that in the "Then" column.  You can set the timer to limit the "play" time.  Be sure the "play" is worth working for.  If the First is too hard and the Then is not enough, this strategy will fail.  
4. Safe Place©- Dr. Becky Bailey, author of Conscious Discipline, describes the development, implementation, and student instruction surrounding a Safe Place in your classroom.  The Safe Place allows the student a location in your room to decompress, calm down, and return to rational behavior.  If implemented and taught correctly, students can learn to self-regulate and return to class quickly and independently.  This strategy can be highly effective.  Check it out on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUMc3fWgLEk 

A note about visuals.  The brain processes visuals before print, especially in crisis.  Think about shopping for your personal care products.  Do you look for the color & shape of the bottle and logo or do you read the print?  And what happens when they change the bottle?


So the next time you have challenging behaviors in your class, try one or more of these and see what happens!  Let me know!  If you have questions, or need more, drop me a line. I'm happy to help!
 

Poverty is timeless, ageless, and does not discriminate...

Kudos to the Missouri Community Action who created the Poverty Simulation.  http://www.communityaction.org/poverty%20simulation.aspx

We never had tons of money growing up and I was always proud - and still am by the way- that we made ends meet as a family.  My parents never talked about just how bad things got at times until after I was grown and married.  Plus, our humble living abode was in a nice neighborhood with the largest yards NOT in the country that became "the hood" pretty quickly.  Still- I am proud- to say that is my childhood and adolescent history.   

Why the little rant? Well.........I experienced in the Poverty Simulation for the first time 4 years ago.  I have since facilitated the simulation many times.  It NEVER fails to hit me that I have only experienced a small slice of low income and struggling finances yet, hardly poverty!  Participants, mostly school faculty in sessions, are assigned a role in a family.  Each family and its membes have a scenario they must play out for "a month." Some people are children ages 2-17.  Some people begin the month already homeless in the shelter.  Some are elderly and living alone.  Others are unwed teens with a child.  

To facilitate the simulation, community agencies surround the room.  Typical agencies include the police department and juvinille hall, the grocery store, bank, employer, pawn shop, social security office, school, day care, and others.  Families have responsibilities and tasks to carry out throughout the month. Each week of the month lasts 15 minutes.  Oh, and in order to visit any agency, the family member must use transportation passes.  

The reality is that for some families their situation never improves only deteriates.  The snowball effect of consequences and circumstances grows to epic proportions.  Participants who take the simulation seriously get emotional, irritated, even hostile at times at the helplessness and chaos of trying to "make it work."  At the end of the day we debrief with the group and discuss situations, scenarios, and feelings experienced during the "month".  As I watch and listen the participants usually have the "Ah Ha!" moment of just how poverty affects the students and the families they work with on a day in and day out basis.  

If you ever have the opportunity, check out a half day session of the Poverty Simulation.  It may be the experience of a lifetime that changes your whole perspective and inturn makes a difference in the lives of those who live in the hopeless trenches of poverty.

As always, thanks for stopping by!  Follow Trudy_Little on Twitter, TrudyLittle on Pinterest, Trudy Little on LinkedIn, Trudy Little on Google+!  

                                                                                                     

On the Hunt for FREE EC Tech

I was asked to present 4 mini sessions on technology integration for early childhood.  I LOVE working with technology, early childhood, differentiation and accessibility for special needs students.  I did not, however, already have this presentation ready.  So I began my search for ideas.

Pinterest was my first "go to" for ideas.  I always ask, "what is everyone else doing?"  I also know that many teachers "pin" from teacher blogs!  Cool! Two birds, one stone..... But what I discovered is that days of all free is dwindling and morphing into occasionally free, but mostly for purchase. Let's face it, money is money and teachers don't ever and may never make enough!!!!  I am all for supporting your family and supplementing the pitiful salaries teachers make, BUT I needed free resources for the other teachers who are not supplementing and have no budget to purchase cool creations and apps for their class.... NOW THE HUNT FOR FREE REALLY BEGAN.... 

So, I asked myself, "Where can a teacher find free resources without being directed to "MY TPT" page????" I actually answered my own question! The following resources are great to find FREE technology apps, websites, interactive whiteboard resources and much much more!  There are paid resources also, but those are EASY to find, right???

	Symbaloo Webmixes	Symbaloo offers free accounts.  Webmixes are created to house favorite sites, files, apps, etc in a grid of clickable buttons.  Webmixes can be saved, shared, embedded, and followed.  Webmixes are customizable and SEARCHABLE!!!! Here are some of my favorites for EC Tech.... Matt Gomez webmixes (he has several wonderful resources) PreK - K- 1st TA Networking Fall Great Classroom Tools
	Livebinders	Livebinders are digital "3 Ring Binders" online.  They can store websites, PDFs, Word docs, PowerPoints, and more all online.  They can be shared with others and embedded on blogs and websites in a variety of ways. Livebinders are SEARCHABLE also!!! To create your own binder, you must have a livebinder account, but it is free.  Livebinders has even created a bookmarklet tool to add to your browser toolbar for easy website saving.  Look for this handy feature under the "tools" tab of livebinders.
	Teachers Noteboook	Teacher's Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers are online stores where you can create educational products and house them for sale in your own shop.  Sites like these are assisting teachers in making a little extra income on the things they are making for their classrooms anyway.  The beauty of these sites is that they offer freebies, drawings, specials, and even ideas of ways to create your own material specifically for the needs in your classroom and your students. You can search for any grade level, any subject, or resources by type, i.e. interactive whiteboards.  If you watch the sites regularly, and follow the creators on their blogs, many of them will host drawings and contests for free materials.  Sometimes all that is required is being the first to comment on the posting.  Weighing the cost of purchasing someone else's work against the amount of time it would take me to recreate it, and asking the question, "would it be just as cute????" *because CUTENESS can be a factor!* sometimes shows it is way worth it for me to buy.
	FREE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS ON Teachers Pay Teachers

This was an incredible journey searching for free materials! I think that I found plenty of things for those teachers to go back to their classrooms and implement at least 1 thing they learned without a lot of prep.  If you would like to check out the resources I collected, feel free to check out MY livebinder here.

Where do you go to find the cool stuff, preferably free for your early childhood classroom?   Do you know about a well kept secret?  PLEASE SHARE!  We are all dying to know!

Until next time, Happy hunting!!!

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