Transcript McREL Strategies and BTOP

Today’s Agenda:
9:00
Introduction into the
McREL Strategies
10:30
Break
10:40
Finish McREL
Strategies
11:45
Lunch
12:30
BTOP Info
1:00
School Wires Training
McREL Strategies
and BTOP
Barb Light, BTOP Project
Director
Why?
These are two regional efforts you may (should?)
hear about.
This information should give you an idea of where
we have been and where we are headed.
Plus, it’s good stuff!
McREL
 It started as for Mid-continent Regional Educational
Laboratory; now it stands for Mid-continent Research for
Education and Learning.
 It is a research and development corporation in Denver.
 Dr. Robert Marzano, Dr. Debra Pickering, and Dr. Jane
Pollack wrote a book called Classroom Instruction that Works
while they worked for McREL.
 The strategies come from that book.
 They are often referred to as Marzano’s strategies, but
technically McREL “owns” them.
Meta-Analysis
Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock wanted to know
what strategies were the most effective teaching
strategies.
Instead of designing a new study, they searched
existing research and identified 9 strategies that
work.
Called a “meta-analysis” because they analyzed so
many studies to derive the conclusions.
Instructional Strategies that Make a Difference
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
PERCENTILE GAIN
Identifying Similarities and Differences
45
Summarizing and Note Taking
34
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
29
Homework and Practice
28
Nonlinguistic Representation
27
Cooperative Learning
27
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
23
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
23
Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers
22
Identifying Similarities and Differences
 45 percentile gain compared to classrooms that did not use it
 Compare & contrast
 Venn diagrams
 Analogies
 ______________ is to _____________ as ____________ is to ____________
 Noun is to verb as shopping is to money.
 Similes and metaphors
 The cell nucleus is like a human brain because _______________
 Classifying or grouping things
Try It!!
Think of something you will be teaching this year
and figure out how you could use one of the
identifying similarities and differences strategies we
just discussed to deepen the learning for your
students.
Think, pair, share
From: Marzano, R. J. The art and science of teaching. (2007).
<http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107001/chapters/what-will-i-do-to-help-studentspractice-and-deepen-their-understanding-of-new-knowledge%C2%A2.aspx>
Summarizing and Note Taking
 34 percentile gain
 These are skills that must be taught with focus on deep
knowledge over focus on the process.
 To summarize some material must be kept, some must be
reworded, and some must be deleted.
 Think Twitter. 
 Reciprocal teaching
 Main point or most important idea or one thing you learned
 Note taking can be words, pictures, diagrams, etc.
 Model it
 Big picture sets the stage for learning and allows for connection to background
knowledge
 Layering information builds understanding piece by piece
Try It!!
Think of something you will be teaching this year
and figure out how you could use one of the
strategies we just discussed to deepen the learning
for your students.
Discussion Question: How can you make note
taking fun/engaging/worthwhile/meaningful for
students?
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
 29 percentile difference
 People like to be recognized for EFFORT and SUCCESS.
 Believe it or not, research shows that students do not
always connect effort to success.You should clearly state
that effort matters and leads to success in education.
 Students can track their own efforts and see if increased
efforts = increased success.
 Rewards – most effective when linked to meeting a
standard; research shows that specific task related verbal
praise is much more motivating to students than candy or
even money.
Try It!!
Think of something you will be teaching this year
and figure out how you could use one of the
strategies we just discussed to deepen the learning
for your students.
Brainstorming Session: List all the ideas you have
for reinforcing effort and providing recognition.
Homework and Practice
28 percentile difference
Let’s get real about homework and its role in
education:
 Do kids have to hate homework?
 Will kids do homework?
 Yes, if it is interesting or worthwhile.
 No, if it is punishment or boring.
Homework and Practice
What is effective homework?
 Amount of homework = 10 minutes per grade of student maximum
(3rd grader = 30 minutes max)
 Homework is LEAST effective in grades middle grades (4th-8th
grades).
 Minimum parent involvement makes for better homework.
 Purpose of homework must be identified and articulated.
 All homework must be evaluated somehow (graded, commented on,
etc.). If they do it you need to acknowledge their efforts and offer
specific feedback.
Homework and Practice
Think, pair, share: What will you do to make
homework an effective part of your student’s
education?
Homework and Practice
 Practice can lead to mastery.
 What is mastery and when is that our goal for students?
 Is there a difference between teaching skills and teaching
knowledge?
 What skills will you have to teach?
 How will you encourage students to practice?
 How will you encourage students to practice knowledge?
Nonlinguistic Representation
 27 percentile gain
 Simple idea – have students draw pictures, create
models of or act out concepts. Graphic organizers are
great, too!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxsEYWHb4i8&featu
re=plcp
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVavAC3Tclk&featur
e=plcp
 Picture was done by a teacher
to represent the concept of
sentence fluency in writing.
Cooperative Learning
 27 percentile gain
 Grouping by ability is less effective than mixed ability
grouping and low achieving students learn less in a low
ability group than when working on their own.
 Group sizes: 3-4 students/group is most effective;
pairs are next most effective, and 5 or more
students/group is ineffective
 What are some creative ideas you have seen or have
about cooperative learning?
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
 23 percentile gain
 Gosh, you mean, setting goals and letting students know if they are
headed the right direction is effective education? Rubrics actually
work?!?
 Put the standard on the board!! (Or else you lose points when your
principal walks through your classroom.)
 Feedback should be corrective in nature – specifically what student is
doing correctly and specifically what student is doing incorrectly –
focus on the task or standard to avoid student’s taking it personally.
 Feedback should be timely. You have certainly had a teacher or
professor who took forever to grade your work. How effective was
that for you?
 Students can provide feedback for themselves and should be part of
this process! Thoughts on how to do this?
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
 23 percentile gain
 Making an educated guess and then figuring out if you are right
creates meaningful learning. Some students love the idea of
challenging themselves. It’s key to some students that it’s OK to be
wrong in your hypothesis.
 Predicting what will come next in a story
 Science class experiments; science fair
 Relationships and problem solving in math
 Historical investigations of events – plausible scenarios for events that are debatable
 Can be used in any class
 Key: have students explain their hypotheses so you can
understand their thought processes (be on the lookout for
misconceptions), how they tested them, and what they learned
from all this.
Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers
 22 percentile gain
 Set the stage for learning
 Students want to know why they should learn today’s
lesson.
 Students want to know how today’s lesson connects to
what they already know.
 What’s the big picture??
 Use questions, cues, and advance organizers to set the
stage.
Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers
How did I do this today?
How will you do this in your classroom?
BTOP
 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
 Federal grant (ARRA funds) awarded to EUPISD
 $3.165 million granted + 28% match = $4.4 million project
 Jobs provided: project director, instructional technologist, 3
techs, half time community outreach specialist
 Provided netbooks for all 7th-12th graders in region, teacher
PD, community outreach events about broadband use
 Technology and 21st century education is a big deal in our
schools!
So, what can you do with technology?
Instructional Strategies that Make a Difference
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
PERCENTILE GAIN
Identifying Similarities and Differences
45
Summarizing and Note Taking
34
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
29
Homework and Practice
28
Nonlinguistic Representation
27
Cooperative Learning
27
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
23
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
23
Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers
22