The Essentials of science, grades 7-12

In Rick Allen wrote The Essentials of Science, Grades 7-12: Effective Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. NCLB was just beginning to be fully implemented. The National Science Education Standards were more than 10 years old. Fast forward to today. We have seen the implementation of the Common Core State standards (CCSS) with its emphasis on reading, writing and math in all curricular areas. We have been weathering the backlash as states look to modify the standards and examine how to evaluate success. We have seen the reauthorization of the education law, now back to the ESSA branding. We also have seen the emergence of the Next Generation Science Standards with its 3D focus: core ideas, cross cutting concepts and practices. With all that change you might think that this text is woefully out of date. Unfortunately not.

He outlines instruction through inquiry, an approach that remains important in the science classroom today. He talks about all teachers being teachers of reading, something that has become increasingly true in this era framed by CCSS.

In the chapter on assessment he provides an overview of formative assessment. His suggestions to improve student performance include (p. 101)

• Questioning- increased wait time and using responses to develop understanding
• Feedback- allowing opportunities for revising work based on performance feedback. One of the more powerful tools includes not grading work, but providing feedback on performance.
• self-assessment and peer assessment- peer judging to reevaluate individual work and traffic light evaluation of understanding
• Formative use of summative assessment- reflect on what they know using the traffic light technique and allowing students to better understand assessment processes.

A thread that permeates the text is the idea of correcting work. This mastery idea enables students to continue to pursue understanding even after a summative assessment. One suggestion was to submit test corrections- write the correct answer and an explanation of why it is correct for every incorrect question. This reinforces the idea that learning never ends. Further, when a final exam is going to be cumulative, it focus attention on the correct information and allows for additional learning opportunities.

I have recently thought that using a teacher website with links to video snips reviewing each day's learning. This could be teacher podcasts, Khan academy videos, textbook resources, TED talks and other YouTube/TeacherTube links. After viewing this material, students could participate in learning activities to reinforce the learning. If student struggles trigger a need for increased instructional input, student performance should increase.

While this book is out of date, it does provide some useful information about transforming science education for improved instruction.

Charisma: The Art of Relationships

In Michael Grinder's book, Charisma: The Art of Relationships, he employs an extended metaphor to describe people. People's styles are made up of dog and cat components. People are not exclusively one or the other and in different settings and situations may exhibit different combinations of characteristics.

In general dogs like to please. The ultimate dog prototype is the golden retriever. He loves to loved, feels guilty when yelled at, even if it is not his fault, want to be part of the group and have a high degree of accommodation. Cats, on the other hand are more independent. Think Siamese. They want to be respected, don't care what you want, and are highly independent. Dogs are people pleasers while cats are oblivious to pleasing or ruffling feathers. Cats need to be teased into doing something whereas dogs do it to make others happy. Dogs are more in tuned with emotions of the group. Toddlers are like dogs- eager to please and heartbroken when they disappoint- vulnerable. Teenagers are like cats- eager to be independent from you, arrogant about skills and never backing away from conflict- ambitious. Cat people tend to be better decision makers and more apt to climb the leadership ladder. Dog people want the group to be happy and tend to be great information gatherers and followers.

Charisma is achieved by balancing these two forces. Recognizing the characteristics of the group in which one is in and responding by bringing in appropriate skills to appeal to the catty or doggy nature of the group. The book describes how to recognize these traits in others and how to manage them to increase success. Vignettes throughout the text demonstrate the issues discussed. Exercises are spattered throughout to allow readers to practice the skills.

Points of interest.
"In school our 'talented and gifted' pupils aren't interested in studying" (p. 31). Their ambition to achieve has been stifled by the search for "something worthy of their attention" (p. 31). When we look at statistics they suggest as many as 30% of this group are drop outs. Famous ones include Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Grinder has stumbled upon one of the greatest challenges of our American education system- what to do with our brightest kids?

"The goal of winning the match [for the cat] isn't that relevant; your opponent isn't your enemy, but an ally in your quest to improve yourself" (p. 34). Cats want worthy adversaries. In school cats want groups and challenges against well matched peers, not very mixed ability groups. It is no challenge to win the spelling bee against an "inferior" opponent. When working on a project, they want to be pulled up, not have to manage relationships and work to make those weaker better. When we ask students to participate in group work, it is important to give them opportunities to work with similar peers sometimes so that they can feel empowered and grow.

Dog people live by the golden rule- do unto others as you would have done to you. Cat people live by the platinum rule- treat others they way they need to be treated (p. 134-5). Equal treatment is the goal of dog people, but cat people see that equal treatment is not fair treatment. When working with cats it is important to have something they want- perhaps merely novelty, but you must be careful because novelty quickly goes away. Cats need cajoling. Dogs need encouraging.

I am a cat, strongly. This means that if I want to develop more charisma, I need to focus on those doggy skills.

Executive function foundations

The Landmark School Outreach Program has published a language-based teaching series for teachers looking to enhance their skills working with students with language based learning disabilities. Patricia W. Newhall's book, Executive Function: Foundations for Learning and Teaching, looks at executive functioning from a slightly different angle than many other authors I have read.

She broadly defines executive function (EF) as "the brain's ability to coordinate the cognitive and psychological processes needed to initiate, sustain, monitor, and adapt the behaviors and attitudes required to achieve a goal" (p.2). This idea that executive function is the underlying skill that enables one to accomplish something is a common thread. She includes Howard Gardner's concept- the integration of

• the hill- establishment of a clear goal
• the skill- the requisite abilities and techniques for attaining that goal
• the will- volition to begin and persevere until the goal is reached (p.71)

Where she goes off a little is in using Brown's 2007 paradigm in seeing the skills as clusters: action, memory, emotion, effort, focus and activation (p. 4). She sees EF troubles as stemming from one of two points- academic weaknesses that stress the prefrontal lobe so as to be unable to bring to bear EF skills or EF weaknesses that interfere with the brain's ability to learn academic skills. On the surface, a teacher might see a student with little motivation to learn, task persistence, or organization yet deeper study is required to identify the weak points and present instruction in a way that meaningfully improves instruction.

Landmark clearly promotes student centered instruction. Throughout the book references to students self-awareness of what is going on, active multisensory learning and inquiry learning abound. This may be more challenging for some teachers to implement than others. Issues around curriculum pacing, content covered and large class sizes are ignored throughout.

One important detail that she points out is that initiation issues are often the result of emotional motivation concerns whereas persistence of effort more often result from poor goal-orientation. Seeing what behaviors the student exemplifies indicates where the intervention needs to occur.

The book offers some useful worksheets to help students and teachers assess general EF skills and motivation. These are available online in modifiable formats for both younger and older students. The book also offers many strategies to help students be successful. One I particularly liked was her class wrap-up strategy (closure activity). It includes a checklist for what study skills were focused on, and short answer responses to identifying the most important concept and what is desired for review. Using this kind of approach improves metacognition of these underlying skills that we often expect students to have that are trouble spots for people with EF weaknesses. I have previously commented on her inclusion of card sort type activities.

The book includes a series of case studies but leaves the thinking entirely up to the reader. While intro questions are provided, a thoughtful debrief is missing. These vignettes might be useful if the text were used in a professional learning opportunity. Overall a short easy to read book full of good suggestions for both individual interventions and whole class instruction aimed at improving EF skills and academic proficiency.

student anxiety

I have a child with ASD and its frequently comorbid cousin, anxiety. I worked with a student who could not attend school because of anxiety.  The August edition of ASCD's Education Update includes an article entitled "Helping Ease Student Anxiety" by Sarah McKibben, which talks about anxiety. I have seen extreme anxiety as it impacts students, and this article rings true.

First she says look for clues:
1. somatic complaints- My son could not sleep. He picked his fingertips raw and then had sore hands. Some students have mysterious aches- headache, stomach aches, generally not feeling well. Be sure to rule out physiological problems. A student with a bladder infection needs to go to the bathroom a lot. So might a student with a nervous bladder. Students with chronic complaints should be checked out by a doctor.
2. distorted cognition- preoccupation with failure or perfectionism. Catastrophic thinking. Black or white universes.
3. behavior- mostly avoidance. This could be skipping class, putting a head down, refusing to answer, not attempting assignments or a variety of other things.
Students who exhibit these clues should be suspected of having anxiety. Remember we are lay people not diagnosticians. Suggest it as a possibility to investigate. Keep observing for clues.

She then offers some tips for avoiding or mitigating anxiety in the classroom.

• Tackle tensions- moving to non-preferred activities can provide a focus on anxiety. To keep kids from becoming disregulated she suggests minimizing downtime and starting class with a soft activity that is more motivating than hard-core. Instead of "bell-work" she suggests a review game or video. This could present a logistic challenge for a teacher who needs a few minutes at the beginning of class to complete administrative tasks like attendance.
• Cognitive Distractors- Often I see breaks as accommodations on IEPs, but McKibben suggests a wander break may not be enough. Some students will wander the halls or sketch on a pad and dwell on the anxiety trigger, resulting in no behavior change. Data should be kept on whether the structured break provides a reduction in anxiety or not. Instead of merely walking around a school loop, have them sing a favorite song while they walk, complete an unrelated task like Sudoku or hidden pictures, or perform an unrelated automatic memory task- tell me the names of your cousins or about your favorite football team or, for my son, your latest bottle acquisition.
• Make it manageable- break tasks down and present in chunks to reduce the scope of the project. This is especially true of long term projects, but even a worksheet full of questions can be too intimidating. Cut it into sections and present one section at a time. Instead of three directions, provide only one.
• Apply a label- Use language to label fears specifically and in detail. This is a great way to approach catastrophic thinking. Professionals who deal with anxiety will use this as a first step in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), the preferred intervention for anxiety.
• Teach physical signs- controlled muscle tension exercises to identify what physical signs are present with anxiety and tension. Rate feelings on a scale.
• Help initiate- sometimes the hardest part is getting started. Help students to complete the beginning. I think her idea of having a student start writing in class and stop- midword/sentence- and then go home to finish has merit. Most students can finish a started word. I fear that most would be unsettled with leaving a word unfinished which might elevate anxiety, but it might be different kid to kid.
• Check in- once you start them off, let them know you will check in at certain points, perhaps ten minute intervals. Working side by side with another peer might be enough.
• Private praise- while some students love public praise, many with anxiety hate being pointed out. Perhaps ask how they liked to receive recognition. A quiet nod might be what makes one happy while a posted perfect paper is good for another.

Her suggestions are solid from the classroom ideas that might make the difference for some kids. Mostly work as a team to get to know those students and what works for each one individually. Anxiety is more present in schools than ever before. We need to help students deal with it so they are better prepared for the world beyond us.

Executive function- language based materials

Patricia W. Newhall's book in the Language-Based Teaching Series, Executive Function: Foundations for Learning and Teaching, strongly encourages multisensory learning experiences. One strategy presented in the second chapter is manipulative sorting. Several of her suggestions are card sorts and games. While I have used card sorts to preteach vocabulary and games to reinforce concepts and vocabulary, one of her ideas struck me as useful.

She suggests taking quotes from a book or pertinent paragraph, break it up into sentences or utterances and have students sort them. When I was thinking about this, I thought this could be a great tool for helping with understanding classics and created the simple example below for Romeo and Juliet. Student groups get the cards cut up and are asked to organize them in a meaningful way. (You might want to add more quotes- pick the ones that you are focusing on in class.) Chronological order, speaker, or theme are a couple of possibilities.  Then they need to share with the whole group their results. Alternatively they could then be asked to sort by a different system. Both would involve doing, negotiating and thinking, all critical elements for learning. Another possibility for students involved in writing about the text would be to have students sort the quotes, then use them to write about the play.

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. . . . The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night.	O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. . . . She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomi Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.	From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. . . .
O, I am fortune’s fool! . . .	Then I defy you, stars.
A plague o' both your houses!	For never was a story of more woe [t]han this of Juliet and her Romeo.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet.	Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

If a paragraph were broken into sentences, students could be asked to organize it into a meaningful manner. This could be based on content area review- take the a summary of a chapter and ask students to organize it so that it makes sense. It could also be a writing exercise- use information about topic sentences, concluding sentences and transitions to create the reconstruction and then write a paragraph using similar transitions.

Other suggested sort activities involve:

• words- definitions- images
• put in chronological order- either historical/literary events, steps in processes or numbers
• questions and answers.

These ideas are great ways to involve students in activities that, hopefully, could involve total participation, a key feature for increasing achievement. They also reduce writing load- students do not need to rewrite the material. For students who struggle with academics, writing is often a four letter word. Providing opportunities to sort and tape means the students have the material without the frustration that comes with writing. Further if the sort takes place in a group, often other group members can fill in executive function weaknesses for each other. They can reinforce focus, task initiation and completion so that the work, and learning, occur.

Looking forward to the rest of the book...

Parent's guide to children with Executive function disorder

Rebecca Branstetter, book, The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Executive Functioning Disorder, is an easy to read book that focuses on presenting strategies to help children who struggle with executive functioning to learn skills and become more successful. The book has four main sections:

• introduction- what is executive functioning (EF), how does it develop and what disorders are commonly associated with it
• discussion of each area- 10 chapters focusing on different skill sets and strategies to help develop them
• home life- what can you do at home- routines, advocacy, parenting and self-assessment
• appendix- checklists of strategies for each skill area.

Branstetter divides executive functioning into ten areas: task initiation, response inhibition, focus, time management, working memory, flexibility, self-regulation, emotional self-control, task completion, and organization. She discusses two important issues. One, while some specific disabilities are often characterized as having some executive function issues, not all EF occurs with a disability. We all know someone who is chronically late, or whose room/office/desk is always a mess or who frequently puts his foot in his mouth, who has no disability. It is important to normalize these concerns. That being said, they are skills that can be improved through instruction or compensated for through actions. Two, EF skills are highly heritable and environment can reinforce good or bad EF skills. Often parents struggle with the same skills that their children struggle with and parents who are working to improve problem areas are modeling self-improvement and development in a healthy manner.

Another key idea of Branstetter is to limit focus. We cannot solve the problems of the world in a day, nor can we take a child whose life is a chaotic mess an expect to improve every aspect in an afternoon. Select one thing at a time and expect to spend some quality time on it. Do not get frustrated because initial attempts are not successful. Not all strategies work for all people. My daughter's method for getting homework home, completed and back to school would make me nuts, but it works for her. Some people respond well to word based checklists, but others need more detailed picture cues. Some need a break from school before they start in on homework while others need to keep going in the academic vein. Know your child. Children with EF concerns need to find the methods of support that work for them, not ones that work for the adult. That being said, it takes longer for these kids to learn and internalize these skills. You can collect data on progress- number of late homework assignments per week, number of prompts needed to get a room picked up, or number of tantrums per week. If a strategy is showing improvement, then stay with it, if not, modify it. We need to provide support for learning these skills as if for a much younger child. Reducing support too early will result in a backslide. Other authors suggest it takes children with EF weaknesses perhaps three times as long to learn the skills as other people. That means you are in it for the long haul.

One thing Branstetter comments upon is taking care of you. As the supportive adult to a child with EF challenges, you are in it for the duration. This is especially wearing. Find time for yourself. Enlist family members or friends to take over for child care for a while, hire tutors to take over homework monitoring or academic support, take a walk, find someone to help with housework. You may not need to do these things on a regular basis, but once in a while they are essential for maintaining sanity. Further, the self-care you do today may be very different from that you do tomorrow or that which you did last year. Just remember to recharge your batteries so you can be the best parent you can be.

How to teach so students remember

 I placed a book order including Marilee Sprenger's How to Teach so Students Remember. When it arrived it seemed familiar and when I opened it up to scan the text I knew I had read it before. I searched my blog- no reference there. Clearly I did not learn the material well enough the first time through so I read it again. Some of the material that had not previously resonated with me clearly did this time. We want students to reread. We reread old favorites. This is why.

Marilee studied under E. Jensen, an educational specialist who looks at the implications of brain research on learning. She idenitifes a series of steps required to learn that she calls a memory cycle:

1. Reach- students must be involved in the learning. Passive students do not learn.
2. Reflect- compare what you know to what you are learning. What questions do you have about the material? Students may be asked to visualize, restate what they learned, made sense of confused. Explain what they just covered to a peer. As a teacher, this is part of my observation process.
3. Recode- reorganize the information. Graphic organizers come into play. Presenting information is through different learning styles- act out the scene from the play, chemical action, historical event; produce a newscast of the activity; explain to your parents; create a metaphor...
4. Reinforce- Feedback. Without feedback we do not grow. Malcom Gladwell spoke of 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert, but that is practice with feedback. How do you do better? Are you still confused about some areas? Are misconceptions still present in your understanding?  
5. Rehearse- rote practice (flashcards, singing the alphabet song, answering questions using programs like quia, quizlet or StudyBlue, or IXL) and elaborative practice (apply, analyze or create using what you know) both play an important role in learning. This puts things into long term memory. Getting enough sleep is a critical component of this step. Sleep enables the brain to process information.
6. Review- retrieve and manipulate information. More types of practice in a structured way. In order to get the material to be "remembered" it must have spaced review. That good old little bit of study each night rather than cramming is true. Cramming might get you through the test, but results in little real learning over time. Periodic spaced review enables long term learning.
7. Retrieve- use the material over time in assessment situations and practice sections. For example after learning the parts of the cell, students move to learning about cellular processes. Throughout this second unit, they must use the first information.

When I think my students I break this into fewer steps- the cycle of reflect and recode. Reflect at first and get feedback about how you're doing with knowledge. It could be through a homework assignment, class activity, computer practice or independent activity like self-quizzing. Take the stuff that you struggle with and recode it: transform a chart into a paragraph, use a graphic organizer, make and explain a metaphor, classify pieces of information or ideas, craft a song, poem or video about the information, try to teach a friend using your resources, ... The list goes on. Then reflect again- how's the information gauge now? Self-test and assess. Repeat as necessary. As more information is added to the pile of things one must know, incorporate old learnings into the review process to ensure learning.

One really important thing that Marilee stresses is that kids don't know what they don't know. I remember graduating from college and thinking I knew it all. It was a rude shock to have people present information that I knew nothing about when it came to teaching. Now, nearly thirty years later, I know a lot more and will tell you I feel very ignorant because I know how much I don't know. Kids do not have the metacognition to answer an "Any questions?" response. They need to learn how to self-test and evaluate so that they can see where their strengths and weaknesses are.

Sprenger created the following chart that I have slightly modified to include extra details to showcase the next step (p. 167). I particularly like the recall verses recognition part.

If a student cannot recognize the material	Go back to reach- reteach the material in a different way. The flipped classroom may offer the opportunity to revisit information but if the student is not engaged or does not understand your explanation, the material needs to be presented a different way
If a student cannot put the facts, concept or procedure in his own words but can repeat yours	Go back to reflect- give more opportunities to wrestle with understanding the material. Perhaps more vocabulary front loading is required. Perhaps more support in going through the process of thinking, more time to process or more feedback about success.
If a student can’t recall during a review	Go back to recode- interpret, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, explaining and using nonlinguistic representations are all possible parts of recoding. Provide better feedback about previous attempts or ask to recode in a different way.
If a student cannot recall on a practice quiz (name the steps of the scientific method, reduce the fraction, explain what genre this passage represents, identify the major battles and their significance)	Give a recognition quiz (multiple choice, true false, matching)
If a student can recognize but not recall	Go back to recode- try a new recoding process
If a student can recode but has difficulty with rehearsals	Go back to reinforcement and offer developmental feedback
If a student can apply, analyze and evaluate	Go to rehearsal and add creativity or another level of complexity; or review, assess and move on

For many of my students that is where they fall down. Teaching them to practice how they need to produce is important. If all you need to do is recognize the correct definition for the vocabulary word, flashcards will get you there. If you need to select the correct word to complete a novel sentence, recall is required. This level of skill is required. If students need to be able to draw and label the map they need to be able to do that in practice. Students who must be able to read a passage and identify implied character traits have a different challenge than being able to regurgitate a class discussion. If a graphic organizer was used to recode, but the test requires paragraph writing, the student needs to be able to use the organizer to write a paragraph. We must identify the demands of the assessment and provide instruction on the memory skills to that point, and perhaps beyond.

Overall Sprenger reinforces the idea that students need increased self-awareness of the process of learning and memory so that they can independently perform the tasks required for cementing things into long term memory and getting them out again. This helps them to have the motivation to put in the effort it takes to truly learn material.