Have you heard? The new CPR isn’t really CPR.
Those of you required, or just plain disciplined enough, to stay current on your CPR/First Aide certifications likely know what we’re talking about. Those of you still in the dark, fear not, this isn’t really about CPR.
The new CPR (the kind when only one person is around) isn’t technically CPR because there’s no breathing (AKA the Pulmonary component). Research demonstrated that just doing chest compressions was ultimately more effective. CPR is practically already a household name, but it took many years to accomplish. A change in names could have set back the cause. So, a smart group of marketing folks convinced the medical gurus to keep the “CPR” and add the words “hands-only” to it. The theory here: anchor to something people already know and twist it to show them the difference. You can apply to same thing in your classroom. Start with providing your students’ brains something they are familiar with and then explain how this new thing or process is different.
Here’s how it might sound:
If I had never seen an earthworm and you had to describe to me how to draw one, what would you say?....(drawing) How does it look?...Anything I should change?...
Now, we’ve been investigating amphibians. Are earthworms amphibians? Nope, you’re exactly right. However, if I were to color this in with a bright color like blue or orange, it would look just like a certain type of amphibian. These bright, worm-like amphibians are called caecilians .That’s spelled c-a-e-c-i-l-i-a-n, but pronounced “see-sill-ee-un.” Say that with me….
Next time you introduce a new concept to your students, figure out what you can anchor to from their world and you’ll need only explain the “twists.”
Sidenote: The scary thing is that infomercials do this really well. They show you all horrible and non-functional products you’re familiar with and then show you their miracle-gadget and its new features. Now admit it, you’ve wanted to order at least one as-seen-on-TV item!
A big thanks to FastCompany Magazine for sharing the “Anchor and Twist” concept below. I’ve done my best to summarize, but you should really read the original article. It’s short, sweet and to the point.
Anchor and Twist
Play Games. Really! It's okay!
A while back, we put up a post to spread the news about Edutopia. I’ve become a self-proclaimed junkie (with a name like Edutopia, how could I resist?). I get their weekly newsletter and love to peruse their site. The March 25th update was about computer games and teaching social issues. It had such valuable resources that I just had to pass them along. The update was based around this article titled “Computer Games Explore Social Issues: The fluid, interactive nature of simulations makes them ideal for tackling complex subjects.”
If you’re interested in trying some games out in your classroom, here are a few to explore:
- Games for Change – Real World Games, Real World Impact. You’ll find games in many academic areas.
- Operation Climate Control. You’ll find games to help students grasp climate changes and carbon emissions. There are even lessons plans and helpful links to accompany the game!
- Play the News! Here are games to engage students in what’s currently happening in the world.
…and there are more!
Do you like what you see, but aren’t sure how to manage teaching through games? Here’s some great advice.
Are you still trying to convince your administration that games are good? Check this article (“Serious Gaming: Computer Games Become Potent Student Motivators and Evaluators: A new generation of video games sneaks into assessment tools”) out.
Decreasing Down Time between Student Presentations: A PowerPoint Trick
You have 20+ plus students in class.
You’ve assigned a small project and want each student to give a small presentation to the class.
Students, or you, spend more time loading their presentation onto the computer than they do presenting.
The class grows restless.
You grow restless.
Sound familiar? Science teacher, Malinda Burk, found a solution. She used the “Reuse Slides” feature in PowerPoint® to combine all the students’ slides, including their custom backgrounds into a single presentation. She loaded it, each student presented using their slides and when they were finished they scrolled to the next slide which happened to be the title slide for the next student to present. No time was wasted and she could review each presentation later without having to open more than one file. Check out the nifty how-to video to see for yourself.
PowerPoint 2007 Directions
- Open a new file or the file you would like to add slides into
- Click on New Slide>Reuse Slides
- (On the right side of your screen) Click Browse>file
- Navigate to a file you would like to use
- Select the slide(s) you would like to include from the file and click to add them to your new master presentation
- Choose Browse>file again to select other files
Classroom Engagement Tip for February 12, 2009
Questions that Count
Perhaps it was because I could not see, but I clearly noted the following distinct pattern:
The above situation is not isolated; we’ve all taught classes where creating discussion felt like pulling teeth. Here are my thoughts on why student often don’t participate:
- It is easier, requires less thought and is less risky to wait for the teacher to answer his or her own questions.
- Teachers don’t provide enough time for students to think and discern an appropriate answer before the teachers answer themselves or move on to the next question.
- Students don’t feel confident or safe sharing their initial thoughts.
How do we fix the problem? Here’s what I’ve learned from watching good teachers and by trial and error in my own classroom.
- It’s not easy. You have to commit to setting the expectation of participation and plan to work through the initial awkwardness.
- Create a safe environment to share. Consider asking more open ended questions or those with no particular right or wrong answer.
- Ask clear questions.
- Wait! Students need time to think, digest and work up the courage to say something aloud
- Lower the level of risk by starting with:
a. “Think to yourself…”
b. “Share with the people next to you…”
c. “Who will share something they heard with the class?”
Number five is a personal favorite of mine as it can be used as a bail out when you’ve asked a question and students aren’t willing to share with everyone. Eventually students understand they are expected to participate and the process becomes more natural. Remember, it will take time and effort and it is worth it!
Classroom Engagement Tip for January 8, 2009
Smart Art is Your Friend
You’ve heard the mantra of graphic and advance organizers for years. Quit wasting your time drawing them by hand! Open up an Office 2007 program, choose INSERT and click on SMARTART. Choose the graphic that meets your needs, enter your information, play with the colors or the layout and you have a beautiful graphic organizer! Below are a just two examples.
Want some more resources on creating effective advance organizers? Check out these sites:
- Ausubel's Theory - Ausubel originally proposed advance organizers as an instructional tool.
- Example Advance Organizers - A great page with a few easy to use examples!
Storyboarding to Build Understanding
The next time you deliver a lecture or assign students to read a long passage, encourage them take notes using a storyboard format. A storyboard is a timeline of events that are visually displayed for use in movies, commercials and animations. Storyboarding notes during the lecture or while reading involves the students creating a series of frames with images to represent a sequence of events or topics. Under each frame students should place a caption that describes the particular event in the sequence. The storyboarding process will encourage students to meta-cognitively process the information in the lecture and/or passage. The following shows an example of storyboarding a basic photosynthesis process.
Tips for success with storyboarding:
- If this is the first time you have students take “notes” in this way demonstrate what you expect them to do for the first few frames by showing them an examples.
- If this is the first time that students are learning the content make sure to share the number of “frames” students should have in their storyboard. This will help scaffold their understanding as they complete the task.
- This approach works especially well when the content of the lecture or passage is a process or procedure.
- If you use this technique with a lecture pause intermittently throughout the lecture to let students capture the information in a frame.
Genius Playlist
The Countdown is On!
Classroom Engagement Tip for October 20, 2008
Priming Students for Learning
Have you ever heard someone say, “Let me give you a little context.” Setting context is something we do on a daily basis as we engage in conversations with others. You tell a little of the background or at least express where you are headed in the conversation. It gives us mental pegs to understand where a conversation is coming from or where it is headed. How do you “set context” to prime students in your classroom? Here are a few tips for setting context effectively:
Setting context in a learning environment means that we put a “frame” around the learning event at hand. Just like a frame around a painting helps to focus our attention on the picture, setting context is a way of focusing student attention on what you want them to notice and/or do during the learning event without giving away the “punch line.” As you set context let students know what they should be thinking, feeling, and/or doing with their body to achieve the desired result. Remember this, if you don’t set context – they will! When they set the context, they may not focus their attention on the same things you hoped they would. The end result? You have to go back and re-explain what they “should have noticed.” Here are some examples of what “setting context” might sound like:
- In this short video you’ll see the photosynthesis process come to life. We’ve studied the process, now let’s see how the process works in the real-world. Grab a pen and your notes on the process. Follow-along in the video and when you notice a step in the process is complete, check if off in your notebook. After we finish the video you will use the examples to answer a few questions on a quick quiz – sit up, lean in and let’s get started.
- As you complete the scenario provided pay close attention to what it takes to be successful.
- Think about a time when you struggled to bring a group of people together to accomplish a goal. Jot that experience down on a sticky-note and keep it nearby. The next few moments will reveal two fail-proof strategies for rallying people around a common goal. As you listen to the strategies think about how you could have employed them in your own situation. Be prepared to respond with your example.
Don’t Let A Blank Page Intimidate You Anymore!
Do you ever find that your students are intimidated as they begin to complete a writing assignment?
Who isn’t a little intimidated to start writing when all you have is a blank white page staring back at you? The next time you hand out a writing assignment, consider making some time for the class to collaborate and share ideas to “pre-populate” the blank page prior to sending students off to complete the assignment. Here is one way to facilitate this process:
Step 1: Present the topic for the paper to the whole class.
Step 2: Ask each student to write at least two main points they would include in a paper about the topic. If possible, have them capture each of these on a separate sticky note, index card or small slip of scrap paper.
Step 3: Place students in groups of 4-5. Ask them to share the main points they generated in step 2.
Step 4: Encourage each group to brainstorm additional main points to include in the paper. They should capture each new main point on a separate sticky note, index card or small slip of scrap paper. To encourage collaboration ask groups to appoint an ambassador. This person is responsible for selecting the group’s three best ideas and sharing those with another small group in return for that group’s best ideas.
Step 4: Direct groups to organize the slips of paper with main points into a short outline for the paper. Encourage students to use a large table or area of the classroom floor to complete the sorting activity. Depending upon the level of experience in preparing outlines, you may have to scaffold the group through this process. Encourage them to put similar points together and identify larger themes in the points they have generated to include in the paper.
Step 5: At the end of the process. Have students capture the outline their group generated. If time permits, have students conduct a gallery walk around the room to review the outlines generated by other groups. As they do, encourage them to personally collect additional ideas and revise their initial outline.
Students are sure to walk away with plenty of ideas to start writing the paper you assigned!
Classroom Engagement Tip for 9.25.08
Passport with a Purpose
Sometime in the next week, pose a question at the end of class, have students answer on a slip of scratch paper (with their name for credit!) and, as they leave class, collect their answers (their passport out of class). This may sound like, “In a moment, you’ll provide your thoughts to a question I pose about today’s class. Be ready to hand it to me as you leave the room – it’s your passport out the door today. You’ll record your thoughts on a piece of scratch paper. The question is: "INSERT QUESTION HERE?" (see suggestions below)
Now you know where students stand and they’re continuing the learning process, even as they leave your room!
Some possible questions to pose for their passport entry:
· What piece of knowledge from today sticks with you most?
· What concept are you interested to know more about?
· How does what we learned today connect with our conversations last week on "INSERT IDEA HERE?"
· What concept do we need to cover more or in a different way to solidify your understanding?
This activity can become a tradition in your classroom with slight modification. Instead of having students hand you a piece of paper at the door each time, have them reserve a section of their class notebook for “passport” entries. Each time you’re looking to do a quick review like listed above, have students enter their answer in their passport section and you can “stamp” it for credit. Initials work just fine to stamp the entry. If you want to go crazy, use a fun stamp you find at the store! This version of the passport, of course, takes more time than collecting papers quickly at the door, but students are able to check back over their learning in their passport throughout the course of your class.
Judging a Book Completely by Its Cover
As a teacher, you wear a million different hats. Not the least of which is that of marketing professional. You have content that your students need for their life experiences and you work to fulfill that need by engaging them in a learning adventure. Marketing 101.
Did you realize the colors you use in your classroom and on the materials you provide play a key role in their connection to the content that you share? It’s a big conversation in the book publishing industry now – What colors do we use on a book cover to entice customers? What color will best connect with our target audience? Check out this reference chart. It’s written, based on research conducted by publishers, for those who design book covers, but the concepts apply in the classroom as we design handouts, bulletin boards and learning centers. Do you often run content outlines or handouts on yellow paper (or green, blue, salmon, goldenrod, etc.)? Who in your class does that most connect with? Who could you better connect with if you used a different color on your next copy job? What messages could you send your classes with the predominant color that’s up on your bulletin board right now? How about the PowerPoint you put together for an upcoming unit opener? Color can do so much to impact the messages we send our students!
For more detail, check out the expanded report.
Classroom Engagement Tip for September 11, 2008
Dots
Very Cool Class Project Idea
If you’re teaching in the classroom or work with teachers, you’ve got to checkout Common Craft. They’re a small on-line company doing great things. They self describe their product as “explanation.” They produce short, on-line videos which explain things like social media and the election process in “plain English.”
Electing a US President in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.
Check out the
Classroom Engagement Tip for August 28, 2008
Digg It – Classroom Style
Digg is a popular Internet widget that allows readers to “tag” articles that they enjoy. Every time an article is tagged (when the user clicks on “Digg It”), that information is sent to the Digg website where a real-time listing of the Internet’s most popular articles is presented. In this way the rest us can see which internet articles (of the millions posted every day) are most popular with fellow readers. It helps us sort through the blizzard of information to find the “good stuff.”
As a unit review activity, have your students “tag” their favorite “article(s).” Have students review notes, activities and assignments and make a list the things they found most interesting, helpful or unexpected (at least one). Have the class share and compile on the board. It will be interesting for students to see what their classmates were “Digg-ing”. It’s also great information for you to see if there are consistent activities, points, or assignments to which students positively responded
Classroom Engagement tip for the week of August 21, 2008
Roll the Dice Review
Looking for an easy way to wrap-up a lesson? Prepare six questions and post them on the board. Grab some dice (even just one is fine). Select a few students or have students partner with a few peers around them and roll. The number they roll is the question they will answer for the class.
You can write content-specific questions or have a general set of questions. Below is a sample set of general questions:
What was one thing you learned during class today?
Of the topics discussed today, what things seemed confusing?
Of the topics discussed today, what did you already know?
What is one test question you could write based on what we learned today?
If you had to summarize what was covered in class today in three sentences, what would you say?
How would you explain to an elementary student what we are learning about in class right now?
Consider posting a generic set of questions on a poster in the class to refer to whenever needed. Depending on the time available, you can have students roll two numbers, share answers aloud or write them down.
If you’re looking to go the content-specific route, consider having small groups of students write sets of questions and trade with other groups.
If you’re looking for some fun dice to use, a quick Google search yields many options. Here is one: http://dicegamers.com/m_foam.htm.
Classroom Engagement Tip for August 14, 2008
And Now for the Day's Current Events
Encourage your students to be students of the world by announcing that at the beginning of each class (or every Friday, or at the end of each class, or every Monday and Friday…whatever works for you) the class will have an opportunity to share current events they hear about. This will give you great insight into how students get their news, what they care about and how they react to various topics in the news. You might even be surprised by how often they pick up on something that directly applies to your course!
Classroom Engagement for July 31, 2008
Classroom Engagement: Whole Foods Help Students Succeed
Countless studies support the fact that healthy eating contributes to better scholastic performance in the classroom: higher grades, better handling of complex tasks and more attentive students who participate in class.
When celebrating with food: think whole foods (the outside aisles of the grocery store): fruits, nuts, whole grains, low fat yogurt, etc. The more students eat wholesome foods, the more they will crave it and the better they will feel. And maybe they’ll even save an apple for the teacher!
Out of the Bag
This review activity is great fun for your students and establishes a review procedure that students become familiar with so you can use it with ease over time.
To succeed with this strategy, assemble a durable bag and three different colored balls (foam, racquetball, rubber, etc.). Place the balls in the bag. During review time, without looking, students choose a ball out of the bag and answer a review question that corresponds with the ball color.
Here are a few sample questions:
What is one new concept you learned today?
What idea challenged your current thinking?
What new connections did you make between our topic today and your life?
How does what we learned today connect to what we learned yesterday?
The questions should be open-ended enough that you could ask multiple students to respond. You might want to avoid right/wrong questions unless you think there could be discussion among students about which answer is really correct.
The benefit of this strategy is that is provides a consistent activity for review. Once established, you don’t need to introduce and explain the activity. You can just pull out the bag and list the questions. Let the fun begin!
Classroom Engagement Tip for July 10, 2008
Get more from Power Point®
The transition from overheads to LCD projection has allowed many of us to simply type our notes in Power Point® slides and use the software as mechanism to deliver content – lots of it. A movement is underway to transform the use of Power Point and reclaim the role of educator not just content provider. Here’s a great You Tube video of Garr Reynolds, author of the book, “Presentation Zen” making the case at a Google meeting for better, more engaging presentations.
Of course, the act of taking notes is still a useful learning activity. This tip shouldn’t be seen as a condemnation of using Power Point to provide notes, rather a suggestion to use Power Point for more than providing notes.
Classroom Engagement Tip for July 3, 2008
