Literacy+Training+10-20-2009

Date: 10/20/2009 Location: Instructional Resources Speaker: Lin Kuzmich Title: Learning the Language of Content: Getting Students to Work Harder than the Teacher


 * Homework to complete before the next meeting:**
 * Check out the web site (see below).
 * Teach your PLC about the Brain and Learning Research (see below)
 * Overview of the Literacy Project (see the slide with the pyramid)
 * Teach/share one vocabulary activity we learned about today (see the PPT--find that file and add it here).

**GUHSD Literacy Web Site**
 * Your log in will be your district log-in.
 * We, GUHSD teachers and Lin Kuzmich, will be creating this web site and using the web site.
 * The web site will be a resource for:
 * Literacy Research
 * Literacy Strategies

**Strategies:**
 * Definition Web
 * Sequence Map (4 square & center diamond)--vocabulary instruction/note taking, for when you are teaching a large amount of vocabulary in a natural order--also good for teaching sequences in texts.

**Vocabulary:**
 * When teaching two ideas that are similar, separate the teaching of them by 24 hours--this will help struggling learners retail the information. Sometimes, struggling learners have difficulty learning new things that are similar because learning requires difference (store by similarity, retrieve by difference).
 * The order of instruction matters.


 * __Before__ getting to the definition:
 * Identify
 * Category and examples.
 * Similar and dissimilar concepts.
 * Attributes
 * Definition (student produced) of the concept/word.


 * The three __**LEAST**__ effective methods of initially teaching vocabulary:
 * Write the word several times.
 * Find the definition.
 * Write it in a sentence.
 * Source: Meta-research, William Nagy: __Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Comprehension__


 * **Order matters**: teach students about the word first before helping students generate their own definition to compare to the dictionary definition.


 * **10 effective vocabulary strategies** (coming soon after Lin adds the PDF in the literacy web site).
 * Before the next meeting, we need to try to add one or more of these strategies to our instruction as school-wide as possible.
 * Ex: Frayer Method: [|Frayer Method.pdf]
 * Use with academic vocabulary--universal theme vocabulary.

**Brain Research to share:**
 * **Learning is a permanent physiological change that takes place in the brain.**
 * In early learning, you strive to create new connections.
 * Later in learning, you strive to create new dendrites.
 * If these steps don't occur, learning isn't happening!
 * **Learning comes in through our senses. There are two kinds of sensory input:**
 * Passive
 * Listening, looking.
 * Active
 * Talking, taking notes, drawing...
 * The more the learner struggles, the sooner they need to have active sensory input. They must personally act upon what you are asking them to learn.
 * In order to learn, students need a processing break every 7 to 12 minutes. (TV programmers understand this, we need to also)
 * During processing breaks, have students talk about what they are learning (active output).
 * We need to pause frequently to make students make meaning.
 * **Emotional Connection: The Limbic System**
 * **Am I safe?** Students need to feel safe in order to learn. Consider this when you develop your opening rituals and how you greet students.
 * **Do I care?** If we don't have their attention, they can't learn. How do we get teenagers to tune back in to class? See Active learning from above. What are some ways to re-establish attention with students?
 * Teenagers' brains are developing rapidly. Their frontal cortex is reorganizing--for the last big re-organization their brain undergoes in their lives.
 * We used to think by the time students leave high school this re-organization has completed. However, new research shows this does hot happen until the mid 20s.
 * Risk-Benefit thinking: the adult brain of prioritizing Risk over Benefit.
 * Benefit-Risk thinking: the teen brain of prioritizing Benefit over risk.
 * **Video from PBS**: Inside the Teenage Brain
 * View the entire program online by following the link.
 * We need to help students understand the benefit of doing what we are asking them to do because they value Benefit over Risk.
 * **Association and Analysis**
 * Help students associate new knowledge with old knowledge.
 * Help students get to the analysis level of thinking. End the class at the analasis level and your students will retain more. Never end a class without doing some comparison. The brain stores new learning by similarity. It retrieves by differences. Make sure students know similarities and differences if you want to increase the probability of retention.
 * **Critical Thinking and Integration: Long Term Memory**
 * Long term memory only occurs 10 to 12 days after the first day of instruction.
 * Students need sleep for the dendrites to grow for the students to learn.
 * We can't control their sleep, but we can control the quality of repetition in class. We need to repeat learning sequences in class for students to integrate them. We need at least 4 repetitions, in 4 different ways, so that students are really using the new knowledge over a 2-10 day period: reading, writing, listening, speaking, highlighting, drawing, folding, moving. When you do this, you increase the probability of learning.
 * How do you know what you are doing is working?
 * Can the child self evaluate the quality of their learning or not?
 * Can students justify an answer?
 * If a a child can self evaluate against a checklist or model that student will grow the dendrites needed to cause long-term learning.
 * Ask high level Bloom's Taxonomy questions--be sure to ask analysis questions.

**21st Century Framework:**
 * Our brains are shaped by the world around us.
 * The world around us has significantly changed. Our students are growing up digital.
 * Students do some things well (multitasking, social networking, searching for info, creative expressions), but they often have difficulty seeing how all things are connected.
 * Students also struggle with inferential thinking.
 * New Learning about Learning. Students need: Context, Caring, Construction, Competence, Community.
 * We need to develop ALL of these in the classroom:
 * Conversing & Sharing
 * Searching & Exploring
 * Collecting & Organizing
 * Modeling & Simulating
 * Creating & Constructing