Transcript Slide 1

VCE Learning in Terms 3 and 4
John Munro
A VCE year learning plan
Learn,
memorize
and apply the
new ideas
Automatize
what you
know
Exam
Preparation
In the exam : A
strategic exam
plan
VCE learning in Terms 3- 4 : changing what and how
you know
VCE learning at this time of the year involves students
•reorganizing what they have already learnt,
•making new links between ideas,
•seeing when/how/why to use them to solve problems,
•automatize them.
Make sure you help students understand that they need to learn in these ways.
Include this in your dialogue with the students.
VCE co-ordinators in Terms 3- 4 as learning coaches
1. Coaching students to make maximum use of what they have learnt and know
and to how to manage their knowledge retrieval and display most effectively in
assessment contexts
1. Coaching colleagues to understand the learning and emotional-attitudinal
factors that are impacting on their students’ learning and knowledge.
1. Work on setting a culture of ‘consolidating and automatizing knowledge’ in
your classes.
1. Unpack in your own mind what the automatizing, transfer and application of
knowledge processes will look like in your subject area/s.
Automatize what you know
Teach students to
1. use what they know automatically and make links between ideas more automatic so that
one ideas stimulates others.
2. link questions with what they know; learn to ask different types of questions about the
topics they are learning
1. summarize topics and summarize them again : compress what they know.
Teachers use dialogue that
guides/directs the
automatizing
1. practise looking at a topic in multiple ways; How would you
explain /
1. practise applying the ideas in a range of contexts.
compare/analyse/apply/expand on/ it.
1. practise remembering, for example, What are the four main ideas you know about ….?
1. see themselves automatizing what they know.
Teachers use dialogue that guides/directs the automatizing
Exam Preparation: link knowledge with assessment tasks
Guide students to
1. Draw up a working study plan.
1. Practise doing past exams and link these tasks with their topic knowledge. What ways of
thinking do they want you to use ?
1. Practise interpreting different types of tasks; work on what each type asks them to do.
1. Practise using different strategies for showing what they know in writing and organize
how they do this,
1. improve their time management on task
1. Explain key ideas to someone else.
1.
Replay time or stretch time.
1. Work with friends
Teachers use dialogue that
guides/directs students
to ‘play the assessment
game’
In the exam : A strategic exam plan
Guide students to
1. Fit their knowledge to the exam; Know what they to say, Know the types of
questions they will be asked; practice answering exam tasks
1. Plan how they will 'unload' your ideas, plan how they will use their time
1. Preparing for subjects they 'can't' prepare for, eg English
1. Using the reading time
1. When writing begins
1. Use effective self-talk
1. Help the examiner see what they know.
Teachers use dialogue that
guides/directs students
to show their
knowledge in the
assessment context’
Outcomes of survey
Rating values : not a problem at all (0)’ to ‘a major problem (4)’
Possible problem area
Possible problem area
Have a superficial, literal knowledge/skills for topics but have difficulty using this to
answer questions; they don’t easily link questions with what they know.
Have difficulty thinking about their knowledge in ‘deep ways’, answering questions
that require them to interrogate and analyse their knowledge of topics, for example, for
the assessment /instructional verbs ‘analyse’, ‘evaluate’, ‘compare’.
Can recall ideas when scaffolded or prompted, but not independently or autonomously
3.4
3.4
3.2
Lack the necessary vocabulary for the topics they need to know
3
have difficulty dealing with the amount or breadth of knowledge they need to know;
they have difficulty learning and keeping track of all of the ideas; they have difficulty
handling literally all the ideas that they are learning and studying
Don’t seem to understand what to do / the learning strategies to use in order to revise,
review and consolidate what they know
3
3
Outcomes of survey
Rating values : not a problem at all (0)’ to ‘a major problem (4)’
Possible problem area
Possible problem area
Are not aware of or appreciate the depth or breadth of knowledge they need to be
successful
Seem to be drowning in the content that make up the subjects; have difficulty
organizing their knowledge into main and subordinate ideas, seeing the main ideas,
forming a ‘big picture’ understanding of topics
Have difficulty applying and transferring their knowledge/skills to new contexts and
unfamiliar tasks, for example, for the assessment /instructional verbs ‘apply’, ‘infer’,
‘predict’. Their knowledge seems to lack ‘flexibility’.
Have difficulty interpreting assessment tasks, linking the tasks with what they know.
They have difficulty describing what particular assessment /instructional verbs are
asking them to do.
Can talk about or do the ideas adequately but have difficulty writing about them at the
same level
Difficulty using their study times effectively; don’t know how to study effectively
2.8
Have difficulty setting effective goals for reviewing and consolidating what they know;
they set unrealistic goals or no goals.
2.8
2.8
2.8
2.8
2.8
2.8
Outcomes of survey
Rating values : not a problem at all (0)’ to ‘a major problem (4)’
Possible problem area
Possible problem area
Lack a satisfactory breadth of knowledge for their subjects; they have limited
knowledge of most of the topics
Not being able to use effectively the feedback they receive from teachers to modify or
improve their knowledge
they have difficulty recalling literally ideas they have learnt earlier
2.6
Difficulty allocating enough time to study; handling competing demands on their time
2.2
Use a lot of negative thinking and self talk about the likelihood of being successful in
the VCE subjects
Dealing with parent expectations; these can include being inappropriately demanding,
not supporting the student’s need to study
Neglect their physical health and well-being
2
2.4
2.4
1.6
1.4
Issues in VCE learning to target through coaching in Terms 3-4
1. Guide students to use effective self talk
2. Lack a satisfactory breadth of knowledge for their subjects.
3. Difficulty storing new knowledge in their long term memory : they
have difficulty recalling literally ideas they have learnt earlier.
4. Difficulty knowing the topic at the required depth.
5. Seem to be drowning in the content that make up their subjects.
6. Difficulty interpreting assessment tasks.
7. Difficulty displaying their knowledge in writing.
8. Difficulty using feedback effectively.
9. Difficulty allocating enough time to study; handling competing
demands on their time
10. Need to know how to handle the stress in the pre-assessment and
assessment contexts ?
11. Taking care of physical well being.
Following each issue:
1. What do you want your VCE students to know about the
issue ?
1. What do you want your VCE colleagues to know about
how to guide their students to increase their ability to deal
with the issue in their subject ?
1. What actions would you be advising them to take ?
1. How will you plan to increase their awareness of this ?
Following each issue:
1. What do you want your VCE students to know about the
issue ?
1. What do you want your VCE colleagues to know about
how to guide their students to increase their ability to deal
with the issue in their subject ?
1. What actions would you be advising them to take ?
1. How will you plan to increase their awareness of this ?
Guide students to use effective self talk
Self talk influences how individuals learn and use their knowledge.
VCE students frequently use a lot of negative thinking and self talk about
the likelihood of being successful in the VCE subjects.
They frequently need VCE co-ordinators to suggest alternative self talk.
What negative self talk does your students
use ?
What positive self talk could you
teach ?
Lack a satisfactory breadth of knowledge for their subjects.
Recommended teaching procedures
Reasons for lack of breadth:
1.Poor recall of topic vocabulary.
2.Can’t talk about enough propositions /key ideas for the topic in sentences
Target the lack of necessary vocabulary for the topics they need to know.
During revision, work on one topic at a time, select the main terms and
1.Have students say, write, recall explicitly the meanings of terms, link images
and actions with them.
2.Teach them synonyms for key subject vocabulary.
3.Link concepts into categories, draw concept and network maps for each
section, paragraph that shows how the subject area vocabulary fit together.
4.Teach students how to deal with and work out the meanings of unfamiliar words.
5.Guide students to think about and sort the terms into big concepts, middle
concepts and specific concepts and detail for particular topics.
6.Help students see how their vocabulary knowledge is improving.
7.Help students see the value of an enhanced vocabulary.
Lack a satisfactory breadth of knowledge for their subjects.
Talk about key ideas and propositions for each topic. Students do activities in
which they
1.say, read and write propositions (sentences) that link together the subject
terms.
2.paraphrase each proposition and main idea.
3.decide whether each proposition is a generalization, cause and effect,
conditional proposition, how it contributes to their understanding of the topic and
the implications of each.
4.say the question/s each proposition answers.
5.visualize particular propositions and then talk about them in sentences.
6.organize the ideas they know about a topic into one or more hierarchies.
VCE students are not aware of or appreciate the breadth of knowledge they need
to have in order to be successful. Guide them to
1.note how broad successful responses are in breadth
2.suggest how they could improve the breadth of the response
Lack a satisfactory breadth of knowledge for their subjects.
VCE students often have difficulty dealing with the amount or breadth of
knowledge they need to know. Useful teaching procedures include:
1.after learning a topic, ask the students to list all of the ideas and show the
relationships between them.
2.make students aware of the various relationships between ideas
3.guide students to ask questions about the ideas they remember that are based
on the various relationships to recall other ideas.
4.encourage the students to link the set of ideas in images/episodes, to visualize
them.
Students may not have a clear idea of what their topic knowledge ‘looks like’.
Difficulty storing new knowledge in their long term memory : they have
difficulty recalling literally ideas they have learnt earlier
To assist them to store topic knowledge in memory. At the end of reading a
section of their notes or a text, teach them to
1.say what you will remember as concisely as possible.
2.link it with what you know.
3.try to compress it using an acronym, a mnemonic, a formula
4.Where would you use it in the future ? Visualize remembering it
For further ideas in this area, see suggestions in Know how you learn Parts 2, 3
and 6.
3.2 They need to store ideas in language forms. Teach students
1.how to talk/write about this knowledge in words and sentences and to practise
doing this as much as possible
2.paraphrase the key ideas, say the ideas in multiple ways.
3.practise linking the verbal tasks with their imagery/action forms of knowledge.
4.reading aloud from text or notes.
Difficulty storing new knowledge in their long term memory : they have
difficulty recalling literally ideas they have learnt earlier
To assist them to recall the ideas in the future. Teach students to gradually
improve their recall of a topic:
•‘go back in their minds’ to when they last heard or saw the ideas
•write down all of the ideas they can recall and reflect on the gaps
•tell themselves : The ideas will come into my awareness if I let them float up.
•Teach them to use a meaningful action or mnemonic for ‘pulling in’ the ideas they
didn’t recall.
•Teach the importance of ‘practising to recall’.
Difficulty storing new knowledge in their long term memory : they have
difficulty recalling literally ideas they have learnt earlier
Some students can recall ideas when scaffolded or prompted, but not
independently or automatically Teaching /coaching to get at this:
1.for each topic, select the essential ideas students need to recall and use
automatically and target them, bit by bit, in your teaching.
2. provide repeated strategic practice
3.guide students to link together ideas so that one idea stimulates other ideas.
4. have them practise summarizing topics.
5. teach them to use key words for a topic and to draw network diagrams where
they are given one/a few word/s and they provide the rest.
6. show them a topic and have them imagine in their minds first the key ideas and
then the details for each key idea.
7. use pictures, images, symbols and mnemonics that pack as much information
as possible into each key word or picture.
8. use ‘replay time’.
Difficulty knowing the topic at the required depth.
Some students difficulty applying and transferring their knowledge/skills to new
contexts and unfamiliar tasks, for example, for the assessment verbs ‘apply’,
‘infer’, ‘predict’, ‘analyse’, ‘evaluate’, ‘compare’. They have difficulty
1.applying and transferring their knowledge/skills to new contexts and unfamiliar
tasks.
1.analyzing and evaluating what they know, answering questions that require
them to interrogate and analyse their knowledge of topics.
1.being aware of or appreciating the depth of knowledge they need to be
successful; they don’t seem to know what a ‘deep understanding’ looks like.
They show depth difficulty when they need to answer the more probing questions
that require them to manipulate what they know in the specified ways.
Difficulty knowing the topic at the required depth.
Useful teaching procedures:
1.Take a short topic in the subject. Identify key thinking actions students need to
apply. These will be indicated in the assessment verbs used in the subject, for
example, outline, evaluate, apply and compare. Show your students a good
example of each of these responses to the topic, for example, an explanation, a
comparison, an evaluation, a summary. Have them
• describe how they differ.
• analyse and describe the thinking that underpins each.
• discuss how the person who wrote each response seemed to think about
the topic.
• say what more they know about the topic having applied the assessment
verb.
• say how they will apply this analysis to their work. What have they learnt
about how to do the thinking actions for each of the assessment verbs ?
1.Make a list of these ‘thinking actions’ your students will need to use in your
subjects and have them practise applying them to what they know about
particular topics and say what new things they know having done this.
Difficulty knowing the topic at the required depth.
Useful teaching procedures:
3. Ask your students to practise applying each key assessment verb and
describe the outcome to someone else.
4. Have students look at a topic from multiple angles, for example, de Bono,
Bloom.
5. Have students discuss what the depth of knowledge of a topic means.
Seem to be drowning in the content that make up
their subjects.
Some students seem to be overwhelmed by the content and detail in their
subjects. It is useful to
1.help the students see how the various topics fit together and how the details fit
within each.
1.encourage the students to see ‘digestible bits’ in both the subject as a whole
and in individual topics, and how individual topics and ideas within each topic are
linked.
1.help the students see the knowledge pathway that underpins the subject.
1.help the students see what they already know about each topic.
Difficulty interpreting assessment tasks.
Some students have difficulty interpreting assessment tasks and linking the tasks
with what they know. Using teaching procedures include
1.teaching students how to interpret each task in the intended way. The students
need to connect what they know with what the task asks for.
2.teaching students that the task may not match what they know directly; they
may need to interpret it, reword it, use synonyms, etc.
3.guiding students to visualize what their response to an assessment task will be
like.
4.Guiding students to work out key questions answered by key topics.
5.making up mock assessment and exam tasks.
Difficulty displaying their knowledge in writing.
Some students can an adequate understanding of the ideas by talking about
them or doing them but they have difficulty writing about them at the same level.
1.Break the writing task into segments: teach the students to
visualize outcome
of the task,
note down or record what they
know in key words or drawings
put them in sentences
and connected prose
1.practise organising the ideas in terms of the key elements of an extended
response.
1.dictation to model writing ideas in sentences.
1.practise expressing ideas first in 1-event sentences and then moving to more
complex sentences
1.practise writing responses to typical tasks, think though writing.
2.how to make their knowledge as clear / obvious as possible for examiners.
Difficulty using feedback effectively.
How you give students corrective feedback at this time is critical to exam success
in a few weeks time. Feedback is given for multiple purposes, for example:
1.to correct incorrect understanding, applications, skills or interpretations;
substantive feedback
2.to modify how the student expresses their knowledge; their use of conventions;
mechanical feedback
3.to focus or re-focus their learning activity and their attitude to learning,
continuing to study, etc.
Students need to know the reason or focus for the feedback. Depending on the
importance of the student’s knowledge that led to the corrective feedback,
encourage students to
1.see that the feedback can potentially enhance their knowledge and their final
outcome
2.see that the feedback can help them improve how to learn/think in the next few
weeks
3.say what they will do differently in the future.
Difficulty using feedback effectively.
Some key characteristics of feedback
Give students feedback strategically.
Give feedback that is clear and explicit. Common problems with ineffective
feedback:
•teachers avoid negative information to protect students’ self-esteem or
motivation,
•feedback is too global or too specific
•teachers sometimes feel they do not have time to provide the feedback
necessary.
Decide on how you will give feedback and what you will give it for.
For any student, how much corrective feedback will you give for a given piece of
work; voluminous corrections versus balanced versus sparse corrections ?
Some students need to be persuaded that a greater amount of feedback than they
would have expected may help them.
Under certain circumstances, peers can give effective feedback each other.
Difficulty using feedback effectively.
Some key characteristics of feedback
Form of feedback : Aspects of giving valuable feedback
•Include the most pertinent comments where the student will be most likely to see
them.
•Balance the positive and negative comments.
•Keep the overall tone of the comments professional and constructive.
•balance mechanical and substantive feedback.
•Ask : will my feedback help the student grow optimally ?
•Informal teacher-student conferences and written comments without grades
helpful.
Initial feedback
•should focus on effective behaviors demonstrated by the student.
•should focus on a mastery criteria know to students.
Difficulty using feedback effectively.
Some key characteristics of feedback
Corrective feedback should
•focus on the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the strategy employed by the
student.
•focus on error patterns, not specific errors.
•use examples and nonexamples to help illustrate effective behavior.
•be selective.
Effective feedback
•includes student elaboration.
•focuses on increasing effort to use the strategy.
•includes establishing goals for improving specific behaviors on subsequent
attempts.
•is provided immediately after the practice attempt and just before the next
practice attempt.
Difficulty using feedback effectively.
Some key characteristics of feedback
•
Feedback should focus on a mastery criteria known to students.
•
What do you want your VCE students to know about how to use corrective
feedback most effectively?
Difficulty allocating enough time to study;
handling competing demands on their time
A key aspect of using study time here involves students not learning new content
but enhancing the knowledge they have already learnt. Particular problems
include: students
•Don’t seem to understand what to do / the learning strategies to use in order to
revise, review and consolidate what they know. You may need to model to them
how to review and revise as described in 3.3 and 3.4.
•
•Having difficulty setting effective goals for reviewing and consolidating what they
know; they set unrealistic goals or no goals.
You can begin with the section Part 5 : Organizing yourself as a learner in Know
how you learn.
What do you want your VCE students to know about how to organize their
learning activity most effectively?
Need to know how to handle the stress in the
pre-assessment and assessment contexts ?
Stress is caused by a perceived threat. Some students perceive the assessment
situation as threatening.
A key factor here is the student’s self talk about
•what they know
•how well they will be able to show it in the exam context
•implications of low performance for their future options.
Key aspects to teaching positive self talk for dealing with anxiety
•Try to get an impression of exactly what the student is telling themselves.
•Identify the irrational aspect of it and work out alternative more functional self
talk. This often includes the phrases
•
•
•
must
awful /dreadful
should/shouldn’t
Need to know how to handle the stress in the
pre-assessment and assessment contexts ?
How to teach more positive self talk
•
I may not remember
some of the ideas I
need to say
I may not remember
some of the ideas I
need to say
I may not remember
some of the ideas I
need to say
I’ll tell myself to
think of what I last
heard /saw them
anxiety
less anxiety
Model how to use se effective self-talk, for example :
•
•
•
Tell yourself that you will use the exam to show what you do know.
If there are things you can't remember about a task, don't panic.
Remember that they will probably come into your mind in a short while.
Concentrate on what you do know, not on what you don't.
Taking care of physical well being.
Some physiological
cause problems of
VCE students at this
time, such as
fluctuating ability to
focus, concentration
•
•
•
•
Physiological causes;
•low blood sugar,
•body's circadian rhythm is lower,
•mid-afternoon indeterminacy.
they work well in the morning and
slow down in the afternoon;
their attention fluctuates between
on- and off-task,
mind wanders,
make mistakes
Coffee can do more harm than good.
•Its stimulating effect drops after just
weeks of repeated use and
•can lead to persistent adrenal fatigue,
can mar the quality and depth of your
sleep.
Reducing caffeine helps keep you naturally energised by enabling your
hormones to balance while giving your body the chance to catch up on
accumulated "sleep debt". Recommended liquid alternatives to reenergize include black tea and green tea.
Taking care of physical well being.
Push eating and drinking for learning. Ways to get long-lasting, even flow of
energy:
Begin with protein.
Breakfast includes protein and good-quality, low-GI carbohydrate, such as
poached egg on wholegrain toast, cottage cheese on high-grain English muffins
or porridge with yoghurt and nuts. Nutrients at noon.
Replace starch for lunch contain with salads such as spinach, tomato, onion,
broccoli, asparagus and capsicum.
Sip H20 regularly.
Even slight dehydration causes. reduced performance and fatigue, Suggest
students drink/ sip water regularly throughout the study periods or day..
Taking care of physical well being.
Push eating and drinking for learning. Ways to get long-lasting, even flow of
energy:
Keep the hardware tuned. Maintain physical well being while studying.
Extended sitting at a study station can cause distractions. Integrate your physical
well being with the physical space. Issues such as posture during study, stretch
to stay flexible, simple neck, shoulder, "glute" and pectoral stretches can all
help. Check that their chairs and desks are study-friendly.
Get physical.
Physical activity for 5-10 minutes after each hour of study. It can include a run, a
brisk walk or any other activity that stimulates the blood flow, best in the fresh air.
Many students miss or postpone their 15-minute fitness breaks.
Take a cat nap
Some students need to ‘take a cat nap’ during the day when studying at home.
They may feel guilty about this. Let them know that a 15-20-minute sleep can
rebuild energy, as long as it doesn’t inhibit sleep at night.