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Month: July 2013

How to Transform Direct Instruction

Published by K. Hancock on July 25, 2013

From here, Tools for Teaching: How to Transform Direct Instruction:

 Let’s first take this direct instruction on the topic of imagery:

The teacher begins by presenting students with a definition for imagery and a few examples of it. Then the teacher instructs students to read a short story and underline examples of imagery.

Now, let’s transform that scenario into a lesson of student-centered discovery:

First step: The teacher instead dramatically reads aloud a short story, asking students that whenever they can picture something — see an image in their minds — put a star by those words.

Second step: Then, students partner up and draw a picture to go with each star they have in common. After this, pairs of students team up in groups of four and share what they’ve drawn. The teacher asks them to also discuss in their groups how seeing these pictures in their minds made the story more interesting.

Last step: Finally, the teacher reveals that this is called imagery, and rather than provide a definition, asks the groups to each write a definition for imagery together. Each group then shares the definition with the whole class.

via Edutopia

The 40/40/40 Rule In Your Classroom

Published by K. Hancock on July 17, 2013

Power Standards can be chosen by looking at this standards that can serve to “anchor and embed” other content. This idea of “40/40/40″ is more about being able to survey a large bundle of stuff and immediately spot what’s necessary. If you’re house is on fire and you’ve got 2 minutes to get only as much as you can carry out, what do you take with you?

In some ways, it can be reduced to a depth vs breadth argument. Coverage versus mastery. UbD refers to it as the difference between “nice to know,” “important content,” and “enduring understandings.” These labels can be confusing–enduring versus 40/40/40 vs power standards vs big ideas vs essential questions.

Which is why I loved the simplicity of the 40/40/40 rule.It occurred to me that it was more about contextualizing the child in the midst of the content, rather than simply unpacking and arranging standards.

One of UbD’s framing questions for establishing “big ideas” offer some clarity:

“To what extent does the idea, topic, or process represent a ‘big idea’ having enduring value beyond the classroom?”

The essence of the 40/40/40 rule seems to be to look honestly at the content we’re packaging for children, and contextualize it in their lives. This hints at authenticity, priority, and even the kind of lifelong learning that teachers dare to dream about.

via Teachthought.com

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