What is Effective Teaching and Learning? Jeffrey D Wilhelm Boise State University Based on work explored in Strategic Reading, Wilhelm, Baker and Dube.

What is Effective Teaching and Learning?

Jeffrey D WilhelmBoise State University

Based on work explored inStrategic Reading, Wilhelm, Baker and Dube

Heinemann Publishers

• What was learned?• Why was it learned?• How was it learned?• How do we know it was learned?• Provide procedural feedback for each . . .• “The way Frank can repeat the principles but not

employ them leads me to the conclusion . . ./indicates that what he learned was . . .

• Then try to reach consensus, along with evidence and reasoning for your ranking; if you cannot reach consensus be able to describe the reasons for your disagreement

What is Effective Teaching- and Learning?

• Rank the following scenarios from the scene in which the best teaching is taking/has taken place (1) to the scene in which the least admirable teaching and learning has taken place (6). After you do your individual ranking, you’ll be working in small groups to try to persuade others of your ranking. Therefore, as you do your ranking you should be thinking about the principles that inform your ranking and how you’ll explain and defend them to others. Consider WHAT is learned, HOW it is learned, and HOW you know it was learned and HOW you value these various WHATS and HOWS.

Declarative/Conceptual and Procedural Understanding

• ____ 1. Frank has been taking golf lessons for six months.

His pro is famous for basing his instruction on four key principles. Frank knows these principles by heart. In fact, he’s so good at explaining them to others that his playing companions feel that they are getting the benefit of professional advice without having to pay for it. However, Frank isn’t always able to put these principles into practice. Sometimes everything clicks for a hole or two but rarely for more than that. Frank scored in the low 90’s when he began his lessons, and he typically scores in the low 90’s now.

Passion and Purpose/ Gano!• • ____ 2. Maria has completed her dissertation and has just accepted a

job in the Department of History in a major research university. As she packs up her apartment, she finds herself thinking about the course that started her on her way, an introductory course on 19th century European history. Although she doesn’t remember much about the specific content (in fact, she chose an entirely different area for her own specialty on the role of immigrants in the labor movement) and has rejected the type of historiography her professor did, she does remember the passion that Professor Neal displayed in her teaching, and the profound conviction she expressed that “doing history” matters. That was the first time Maria thought that studying history could make a difference, and that being a historian was a worthwhile pursuit.

What is enduring understanding? Vs. what works in the moment – what are we really trying to achieve?

• _____3. Peter recently moved with his two small children to a

house in the city on a street far busier than the one they lived on in the suburbs. Peter explained to his kids, ages two and three, that they must never walk in the street because cars were dangerous. One day he was raking leaves while the kids were playing. He turned his back for a minute or two and looked back, horrified to see his kids jumping in the leaves he had raked into the street. He ran to the kids and slapped their hands, the first time he had ever physically disciplined them. The children were shocked and burst into tears. Neither child ever went in the street again.

What constitutes the process of learning? Understanding?

• _____4. As Jude looks back on high school, she realizes that her favorite class was

sophomore English. It was different than any other class she had ever taken - maybe it was this uniqueness that made it powerful and special for her. In this class there were no formal assignments. Her teacher, Mr. James, began the year by soliciting topics from the class that were of interest to them and that were also of social significance. He then brought a wide variety of materials in on these topics - ranging from articles and videos to classic pieces of literature. He also encouraged them to find their own information. Students spent almost all of their time reading and thinking about these issues, usually on their own. Each week, discussions and debates would be held in small groups. At the end of each quarter, groups formed and created “knowledge documents”. They were free to choose their topics and their projects. During the year, Jude had participated in creating a museum display, a video documentary, a hypermedia document, and an informational website. Each quarter ended with a “Family and Friends Night” where these projects were shared. Though Jude couldn’t remember Mr. James ever actually instructing her in any way, she had never read so much or been so motivated to learn. And though she couldn’t really name what she’d learned, she knew it had to do with asking questions, working alone, and working with others.

What’s not to like? The issue of transfer

• 5. Tom has a piano competition coming up soon. His teacher has gone through Tom’s piece with him several times, note by note, explaining every detail. His teacher has also recorded the piece the way it should be played. Tom listens to it all the time; he even falls asleep with his Walkman on. Tom practices hours every day until he plays the piece exactly the way his teacher did. At the competition Tom plays the piece just as he had hoped and he wins first place. His parents have never been so proud.

Vygotsky; inquiry and apprenticeship into expertise; the ZPD, the social nature of

knowledge; knowing and doing

6. Arlene is working this summer with her uncle, who is an electrician. He insists that she know how to do everything, and that she understands why they do things the way they do. It is hard, frustrating, challenging, but fun - and she feels like she is learning a lot. Her uncle often tells her: “I want to help you understand electricity the way electricians AND physicists understand it.” To this end, they began playing with batteries, conducting wire, and light bulbs to make different kinds of circuits. Her uncle then asked her to articulate rules of electrical circuits. He then took what she thought and set up experiments that contradicted what she thought. He often said to her: “Observe, explain and observe again!” Pretty soon her uncle would ask her to explain problems that she saw on the job and to talk him through his repairs. Soon after that, he let her do her own work, under his careful eye, then allowed her to work on her own. Arlene felt like she really knew about electricity, and that every day she knew a little bit more that built on what she knew before. Still, this kind of learning took a long time, and there were still things she didn’t understand and that her uncle wouldn’t let her do.

How Do We Learn?

1. Think about something you learned to do?

2. Why did you want to learn it?3. How did you learn it?4. How did you know you learned it?

Essential Questions to Guide Our Work…

• When and how is teaching most powerfully enacted? Under what conditions does learning most powerfully occur?

• How can the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model build capacity in my students as learners?

• How do I sequence instruction to effectively transfer the load of cognitive complexity over to my students?

• What are effective scaffolding techniques to use with my students as I transfer responsibility for learning and knowledge over to them?

Gradual Release of Responsibility: an Effective Delivery Model

“The gradual release of responsibility model of instruction stipulates that the teacher moves from assuming “all the responsibility for performing a task…to a situation in which the students assume all of the responsibility.”

Duke and Pearson, 2002, p. 211

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Focus Lesson

Guided Instruction

“I do it”

“We do it”

“You do it together”

Collaborative

Independent “You do it alone”

A Model for Success for All Students Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

But…

In some classrooms …

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Focus Lesson “I do it”

Independent

“You do it alone”

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

And…In some classrooms … it’s just assign and

assess . . .

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY(none)

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Independent

“You do it alone”

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

And Still…In the “Good Enough” Classroom

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Focus Lesson

Guided Instruction

“I do it”

“We do it”

Independent“You do it alone”

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Just “Getting the Job Done” is not enough.

Debbie Moore Foster & Sarah King Veigel Boise State Writing Project

Clarifying Some Terms…

• What is sequencing?

• What is scaffolding?

• What’s the difference between the two?

Principles of Sequencing

From… To…Easy Hard

Immediate Imagined

Close to Home Far From Home

Familiar Unfamiliar

Oral Written

Concrete Abstract

Visually, visually supported Textual

Short Long

Stated Implied and Inferred

Collaborative and Socially Supported

Individual and Independently Maintained

Scaffolded and Assisted Activity Independent Activity

Framework for Implementing the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model:

• Focus Lesson: Modeling

• Guided instruction: Mentoring

• Collaborative Learning: Mentoring

• Independent Experiences: Monitoring

Lesson Delivery Sequence

• Model: Focus Lesson– How will I focus my students on what they need

to learn? How will I show my students what they are expected to do?

• Mentor: Guided Practice– How will I help my students practice? How will I

differentiate instruction?

• Mentor: Collaborative learning– How will I incorporate collaborative structures?

• Monitor: Independent Practice– How will my students become independent

learners? How will they demonstrate independence?

“I DO”Focus Lessons:

“I DO” Focus Lessons

Types of Focus Lessons:–Modeling–Think Alouds–Metacognitive Processing–Explicit/Direct Instruction

“I DO”…Modeled Instruction

• Modeled Instruction– Select examples aligned with guided

practice, independent practice, and assessment.

– Demonstrate how to complete examples step by step.

– Verbalize thinking• teacher think-a-loud• forming mental pictures,• connecting information to prior knowledge, • creating analogies,• clarifying confusing points, and/or • making/revising predictions.

Modeled Instruction is…

Demonstrating the strategy or

skill in a context of use

Thinking aloud (how and why)

Thinking through the process

Students observing and listening

Modeled Instruction is not…

Extending direct instruction

Lecturing

Asking questions and students answering (I.R.E. Model—Initiate, Respond, Evaluate.)

Students working or using the strategy

Showing an end product without demonstrating the process

Explicit & Modeled Instruction (I Do)

Teacher Behavior:• Initiates• Models• Explains• Thinks aloud• Shows how to do it

Learner Behavior:• Listens• Observes• Creates an example based on teacher model

“WE DO”Guided Instruction:

“WE DO”… Practice with feedback

Provide guided practice with feedback so students have opportunity to practice desired learning.

An opportunity for each student to demonstrate grasp of new learning by working through an activity or exercise under the teacher’s direct supervision.

Guided Practice Formats

Collaborative Structures

Cooperative Learning Groups

Cooperative Pairs

Working Individually with a student

Guided Practice

• Select examples aligned with independent practice and assessment.

• Start guided practice with teacher-led question and answer practice.

• Ask higher order questions requiring explanation with “Student Accountable Talk” or “Student Think-a-Loud” to justify thinking and explain logic.

• Incorporate Collaborative Structures for additional practice with peer support.

• Conduct Checks for Understanding throughout the lesson.

Guided Practice is…

– Doing it together

– Bridging instruction to independence

– Working together in whole or small groups

– Differentiating instruction

– Checking for understanding

– Facilitating the skill development

– Responding to student needs

Student Accountable Talk

Ask higher order questions requiring explanation with “Student Accountable Talk” or “Student Think-a-Loud” to justify thinking and explain logic.Ask “Why” and “Why Not” questionsUse Higher Order Thinking question stemsScaffold questions to reach higher order

thinkingAllow students’ extended time to prepare

responsesRequire use of content specific vocabularyReference vocabulary acquisition tools

(interactive word wall, lesson vocabulary on whiteboard, foldables, skill process posters, etc.)

Checks for Understanding

Conduct Checks for Understanding throughout the lesson.Thumbs Up/Down/MiddleWhite Board ResponsesResponse CardsStudent Accountable TalkJournal ResponsesCornell Notes SummariesBoard RacesExit Tickets

Guided Practice is not…

Working independently without teacher support

Working in pairs or groups without teacher support

Supporting every student the same

Guided Practice

Teacher BehaviorsDemonstratesLeadsSuggestsExplainsRespondsAcknowledgesAnswers Questions

Student Behaviors Listens Interacts Questions Collaborates Responds Tries out Participates

“YOU DO IT TOGETHER”

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative Learning IS:

• Engagement in meaningful tasks to support ongoing learning

• Positive interdependence• An opportunity for face to face

Interactions• A time for individual and group

accountability• Meaningful group processing on

progress

Collaborative Structures

Pair and Square Quads

Reciprocal Teaching

Literature Circles/Book Clubs

Labs and Simulations

Jigsaw

Rally Table

Pairs Check

Numbered Heads Together

Talking Chips

Team-Pair-Solo

Collaborative Learning is NOT

• A time to introduce new information• “Group Work” in which a single

product is produced by the group• Ability Grouping• Independent seatwork

“YOU DO IT ALONE”

Independent Learning Tasks

“YOU DO”… Independent Practice

Through Independent Practice, students have a chance to reinforce skills and synthesize their new knowledge by completing a task on their own away from the teacher’s guidance.

About.com: Elementary Education. 2010. Independent Practice. The New York Times Company.

Available on-line: http://K6educators.about.com/od/lessonplanheadquarters/g/independent_pra.htm

“You Do” (student)

A transition from guided practice and collaborative learning

Students working on their own, in pairs, or small groups to accomplish task

Teacher monitoring for understanding

Teacher providing specific feedback about progress

Independent Learning is

Independent LearningStudent

Behavior Applies learning Takes charge Practices Problem solves Approximates Self-corrects

Teacher Behavior Scaffolds Validates Teaches as

needed Evaluates Observes Encourages Clarifies Confirms Coaches

Explicit Instruction

Modeled InstructionGuided Practice

Collaboration

Independent Practice

Gradual Release of

Responsibility