It's no secret that our school has accomplished a great deal is the past few years. The overall learning environment has improved, teaching has grown by leaps and bounds, and students are really ramping up their academic achievement. This year's focus on rigor and higher level thinking is well-timed, as we have both the right mix of dedicated students and teachers to make this a rich experience for all involved. Arthur Costa's article "The Thought-Filled Curriculum" seems like an appropriate read to kick the year off and start some dialogue. If you don't have your copy from PD, you can read it here. If you have questions, comments, or insights about the article or our discussion in school, please post responses.
Speaking of academic rigor... here is a BLOCK SCHEDULE BRAINSTORM!
ReplyDeleteWhat to do with your young scholars for 100 minutes…
Socratic Seminar
Guided Research on-line
Writer’s Workshop
Typing Essays / Research Papers
In-class Debates
Mock Trial
Skits/Role Play
Jig-Saw with Presentations
Poetry Out Loud Presentations
Reading Assessments & Goal Setting
Student driven gallery walks
Labs & Report Writing
“Press conferences”— students take roles as experts and inquisitors
Artistic representation/Kinesthetic exercises
Peer tutoring/editing exercises
Silent reading sessions (20 minutes)
Extended Writing Prompts
Longer, full sports games (for PE)
Exams (to simulate Final exams/CaHSEE/CST style testing)
Divide class time between content and “advisory” (College Going Culture, Academic Skills/Organization, Academy “house keeping)
Movie/Video clips with guided discussion or Socratic seminar
Guest Speakers with time for discussion
Meeting / work with professionals
Frequent Checks for Understanding
Critical thinking / deep thinking exercises
Ways to Check for Understanding:
Mini-whiteboards
Fist to five / thumbs-up
Random/Cold Call
Exit Tickets
Circulating
Freewrites
What NOT to do:
Lecture for 100 minutes
“Homework” time
Catch-up work time
100 minutes of a Movie
Test for the whole 100 minutes
Break / Free Time
Field Trips
Send students out of class
A comment on the article. WOW!!!! This goes a long way in articulating how I've been feeling about teaching and what I want to do in the theater classes. I would love to see us explore these ideas as a group. I have ideas for projects that I know address this type of learning. Thanks for posting this Mannix, what's the next step in this conversation?
ReplyDeleteJennifer Looney
Regarding our recent fishbowl discussions and the value of "do-now" activities, I thought that this article had some good points.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.common-place.org/vol-07/no-01/school/
Although the article is specifically about social studies classes, I think there is information that would be valuable to all teachers that are planning to, or already are engaging in "do-now" activities.