Review from Last Week:
Brain-Friendly Teaching- One reason why Kagan structures are effective is that they create situations that optimize brain performance. When you implement Kagan, you are teaching in ways that align with how brains naturally learn.
In lesson plans and walkthroughs I looked for examples of brain-friendly teaching and I scored once again!
In lesson plans I saw many examples of planned Kagan structures. In walkthroughs, I saw teachers purposely providing opportunities to clear working memory to help students focus on their work! Be sure to ask Mr. Thompson how the intermediate teachers have been having students write down their worries and ask Mrs. Patterson about her doll that eats students worries!
Check out this center activity in Mrs. Coleman's class...
Mrs. Coleman had cause and effect cards posted around the room. Students had to determine whether the underlined statements were causes or effects and write them on a chart! The movement nourished their brains and the novelty provided engagement and high level learning!
Students in Mrs. Best's class were signalling they had the answer by standing to nourish their brains with oxygen!
She was also incorporating overt responses with hand signals!
So…now what?
First, in order to make a mid-course correction, a teacher would have to elicit some kind of overt response from students. This might be a hand signal, a white board response, a Kagan structure, choral response, or computer app like clickers, Kahoot, etc. that provides a check for understanding. Then a teacher would have to be able to adjust instruction ON THE SPOT based on the results. One of the coolest examples of this I have ever seen came from a 4th/5th grade math teacher. He made overt responses and mid course corrections a part of his daily lesson structure. He would plan a very quick mini lesson based on the learning target. After this 10 minutes, he would have students complete an exit slip. The exit slip would determine what the students participated in that day. Students would either complete Kahn Academy extension lesson, direct instruction in a small group with him, or a prerequisite skill lesson with the special education co-teacher. It was brilliant.
This type of sophistication of instruction-overt response-mid-course correction is not easy. Many Kentucky schools have adopted exit slips as their go-to school-wide instructional strategy for checks for understanding because they provide a concrete way to provide preplanned, high quality daily intentional checks. The most successful Kentucky schools provide school-wide structures and plans for providing those daily mid-course corrections for the learning checks.
What to Expect When You Are a Teacher at Paint Lick:
You should be able to…plan overt responses like hand signals, exit slips, Plicker activities, etc.
Brain-Friendly Teaching- One reason why Kagan structures are effective is that they create situations that optimize brain performance. When you implement Kagan, you are teaching in ways that align with how brains naturally learn.
In lesson plans and walkthroughs I looked for examples of brain-friendly teaching and I scored once again!
In lesson plans I saw many examples of planned Kagan structures. In walkthroughs, I saw teachers purposely providing opportunities to clear working memory to help students focus on their work! Be sure to ask Mr. Thompson how the intermediate teachers have been having students write down their worries and ask Mrs. Patterson about her doll that eats students worries!
Check out this center activity in Mrs. Coleman's class...
Students in Mrs. Best's class were signalling they had the answer by standing to nourish their brains with oxygen!
She was also incorporating overt responses with hand signals!
What’s Next: Mid-Course Corrections Brilliance in a teacher's craft can often be seen in what he or she does to adjust teaching and learning in the midst of a lesson or the instructional sequence. Mid-course corrections are changes to the "steps, strategies, or activities designed to reach a goal" after some kind of check of understanding. While mid-course corrections are a change to a plan, I would assert that they, themselves, require preplanning. Below is a diagram that shows the sequence of a lesson with overt responses and overt response examples. Descriptions of each strategy can be found here.
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| Types of mid-course corrections from The Artisan Teacher. |
So…now what?
First, in order to make a mid-course correction, a teacher would have to elicit some kind of overt response from students. This might be a hand signal, a white board response, a Kagan structure, choral response, or computer app like clickers, Kahoot, etc. that provides a check for understanding. Then a teacher would have to be able to adjust instruction ON THE SPOT based on the results. One of the coolest examples of this I have ever seen came from a 4th/5th grade math teacher. He made overt responses and mid course corrections a part of his daily lesson structure. He would plan a very quick mini lesson based on the learning target. After this 10 minutes, he would have students complete an exit slip. The exit slip would determine what the students participated in that day. Students would either complete Kahn Academy extension lesson, direct instruction in a small group with him, or a prerequisite skill lesson with the special education co-teacher. It was brilliant.
This type of sophistication of instruction-overt response-mid-course correction is not easy. Many Kentucky schools have adopted exit slips as their go-to school-wide instructional strategy for checks for understanding because they provide a concrete way to provide preplanned, high quality daily intentional checks. The most successful Kentucky schools provide school-wide structures and plans for providing those daily mid-course corrections for the learning checks.
What to Expect When You Are a Teacher at Paint Lick:
You should be able to…plan overt responses like hand signals, exit slips, Plicker activities, etc.
You probably will be able to…plan reteaching for the whole group when your check for understanding deems it necessary.
You may possibly be able to…plan a time for reteaching for only those students who need it based on your evidence from your overt responses.
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