What Study Strategy is the Best?

Guess what?  The least popular study strategy is the most effective.  This article summarizes research done at the Memory Lab at Washington University in St. Louis.  http://learning lab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2012_Karpicke_Smith_JML.pdf

The most common way to study was to reread material but was not the most effective as a study strategy. Students who self-tested or quizzed did better.  "Tests" have gotten a bad rap, but as a form of frequent retrieval as a study strategy it is the most effective for long term learning. 
Those of you who are teaching SRSS classes for Title I students, do you include quizzing in your repertoire?  Try it with students who are having a big test coming up.

Research Finds Students Short on Study Savvy.  Sarah Sparks. 6.6.12. Education Week.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/06/06/33study.h31.html?tkn=ULMFNK6%2BfY2FH18S2XKNfGUT6QxESg2q3MRd&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

Teach Math Like a Eating Healhy Diet

Author, Robert Kaplinske compares math instruction to eating a balanced diet. Mistakes teachers make in solving robust problems:  breaking down the problem to individual skills so that students have consumed all required skills.  The math problem then no longer resemles the original form; instead, they become a collection of disconnected skills as in a textbook factory. The Common Core Standards the potential to take a more balanced approach, not the current long list of skills taught in isolation with no context.  This he says is like taking lots of dietary supplemenhts instead of maintaining a healthy diet of whole foods rather than adding a bunch of vitiamin/mineral pills.
Strange comparison, but Kaplinske has it correct.  It makes sense to teach one skill thoroughly.  How do you feel?

Eat Your Math.  Robert Kaplinsky. 6.6.12. Education Week.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/06/06/33kaplinsky.h31.html?tkn=XTPFG%2Fp0b%2FUMY6hWHNL9ZNIEgVL8vRo96Chi&cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS1

Which is Better for Early Readers, Print or E-Books?

Very interesting study from the 'Joan Ganz Cooney Center' at Sesame Workshop.  Its purpose was to discover the differences in the way parents and young children interact when reading print, basic e-books, or enhanced e-books together.
Definitions:  E-book: digital version of a print book
                     Enhanced e-books:  offers interactive media that may include videos & games.
Kids in different reading scenarios were then tested on their story comprehension and parents were interviewed about their reading practices.
Guess what?  My blog description will not reveal the results of the study.  Take a guess and then read.  Were you correct?  How do you feel about the results?  Please comment.

Print or E-Books:  Which Are Better for Early Learners? Julie Rasicot. 6/6/12. Education Week - Early Years
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/early_years/2012/06/with_the_growing_popularity_of.html?cmp=ENL-CM-NEWS2

How Can We Give Better Feedback To Our Stakeholders?

As teachers, one of the most important parts of our job is giving feedback to stakeholders.  We record all communications on CORE, our web-based data management program.  We don't explain these communications, just record that they occurred.  But have we ever asked ourselves what are the most effective ways to give feedback to our stakeholders.....Students?  Parents? Classroom Teachers? Administrators? 
We all know that feedback, especially to our students, can improvement student achievement.  The author, Grant Wiggens, lists and explains 7 feedback essentials:  goal-referenced, tangible and transparent, actionable, user-friendly, ongoing, and consistent. 
We need to look more closely at just what feedback is----and isn't. 
This article is a must-read for all LEX employees! All of us, no matter what our specific role is can learn important points.
Any ideas you would like to share with your colleagues in LEX?

Seven Keys to Effective Feedback.  Grant Wiggens. September 2012. Vol 70. No 1. Educational Leadership - ASCD.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept12/vol70/num01/Seven-Keys-to-Effective-Feedback.aspx

Common Core Will Allow Us Do Things Differently

As Learning Exchange teachers try adapting shifting  teacher practices this year to better align to Common Core Standards, this article is for you.   The basic changes are highlighted as in other posts on my blog, but the explanations are worth reading "closely." 
Pay particular attention to #4 - Emphasis on Practices where 8 criterial for mathematical practices are examined.
Hope this article will apply to what you will change in your Title I classes.  We would love to hear about those plans.

Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practice.  Robert Rothman. Vol 28, No 4, July /August 2012.  Harvard Education Letter
http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/543#home

What Does 21st Century Education Look Like Today?

Adam Bellow writes that we cannot completely define a 21st Century Skills Set just yet. [There are 87 years to go in the century he jokes.] We see shifts  and questions rather than answers. He says no one-size fits-all education solution can or will work for our 21st century citizens.
(Adam Bellow, founder of eduTecher and eduClipper, was recognized in 2011 as Outstanding Young Educator of the Year by the International Society for Technology in Education.

Here are some observations Bellow notices...

• Educators are not only those in front of the room.
• Students are the key stakeholder in their education.
• Education as a "system" is a 20th century model.
• Learning can occur at any time and anywhere.
• 20th Century educators were used to resources in boxes or taken from the "tried & true" manual.
• 21st Century education needs to be based on connectedness to information.  That may or may not include technology.
• The larger classroom is without boundaries just like the larger world, tangibly and socially.

Interesting to read. And yes, we don't have all the answers. What are the questions you see? Pose them in Comments.

Seeds of Change in 21st-century education. Adam Bellow. 6.25.12 SmartBrief-SmartBlog on Education.
http://smartblogs.com/education/2012/06/25/seeds-change-21st-century-education/

Working Class Parents Should Learn Education Advocacy

Several studies contrast working-class parents and parents of students in the middle or upper class in how they teach their children to navigate the school system.  Parent advocacy skills vary according to social class.  Here is a quote from Ms. McCrory Calaro from Indiana University in Bloomington.

"I find that although both middle-class and working-class parents teach children skills for negotiating with institutional authorities on their own behalf, the nature and content of these lessons varies along social class lines," she said. "Whereas middle-class parents stress the development of children's self-advocacy skills, working-class parents instead emphasize skills for problem-avoidance."
 

We see this in Title I, not only in parent 'disinterest', but in student avoidance in solving problems.  Asking for help is not something that seems to be encouraged, but figuring "it" out by yourself is encouraged.  On the other extreme, we have the helicopoter parent who hovers over every decision a child need to make.  Some kind of balance certainly is certainly in order.
Comments?

Middle-Clss Children Learnn to Be Squeaky Wheels.  Sarah D. Sparks.  8.29.12. Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/08/29/02parents_ep.h32.html?tkn=NPCFJehy1cXcgXi8ZNKQo%2BLy4kim1weBuQk3&cmp=clp-sb-teacher