strategies Archives - Page 16 of 18 - Inspired Together Teachers

The Learning Power of Touch

July 26, 2016 by Inspired Together Teachers Leave a Comment

“Don’t touch that!” Children hear this phrase in stores, homes and classrooms everywhere. Kids are filled with curiosity and often want to touch things to better understand them. In our haste to preserve the items from harm, or to protect the child, we are quick to stop children from touching objects around them.

However, great learning can occur in if children are allowed to utilize their sense of touch. Many children learn about things by exploring objects with their hands. They like to see how things feel, to pull apart objects and put them back together to see how they work. We miss many opportunities for learning when we stop a child from using their natural instinct to learn about something by touching.

We present the following guideline (TOUCH) for encouraging kids to become actively engaged in their learning through touch:

T- Tactile. Tactile learners are those who learn best through hands-on experiences and “doing” what they are learning. These students NEED you to find ways to make the material more meaningful to them by touch. You will find that tactile learners will be much more actively engaged in their learning, and much less off-task, if you can incorporate hands-on activities whenever possible. Projects are great for tactile learners who like to learn by doing something rather than by listening or reading.

O-Outside of the box thinking. In order to incorporate more touch into the child’s learning, you will need to think outside of the box. What manipulatives can you use to better demonstrate fractions? What mini-figurines can you use to represent all of the characters and act out the events in the story the child is having a difficult time comprehending? (Hint- those free McDonald’s toys work wonderfully for this). In what other ways can you incorporate manipulatives as a guide in the child’s learning or to demonstrate that they have learned? We are surrounded by manipulatives that can be used to aide child in their learning. We just have to think outside of the box to see them as such.

U-Under a dollar. People often think that the best manipulatives come in purchased kits. This is not the case. Manipulatives are all around us. Those found in nature, in homes, and other naturally occurring environments provide a relevance that pre-fabricated manipulates cannot. For example, when a child learns basic addition and subtraction, they are often given counting bears or other purchased manipulatives. This works fine because it gives young children the tactile experience of actually moving bears to understand that the algorithm of 2+3 is two bears plus three more. However, rocks from the driveway could do the same and kids are more likely to count rocks in their driveway at home after school than multicolored plastic bears, making the learning more relevant to them. Most manipulatives found in nature or in the home are free or incur little cost to acquire. We challenge you to find manipulates for under a dollar. You do not need large amounts of money to put manipulatives into the hands of a child.

C– Check for understanding. Just having the item in their hand does not necessarily mean the child is learning. Make sure the child describes to you what it is that they are doing/feeling/manipulating. Clarify the points they are making and correct any misconceptions that they may have. Make sure the child is describing their learning so you can be assured they are correct in their thinking. Errors in their thinking cannot be remediated if you don’t know what it is that they are thinking.

H- Have fun. Touching while learning can and should be fun! It can be fun for the learner and fun for the adult teaching. The more fun kids have while learning, the more likely they are to continue learning and to seek out their own opportunities to learn. Reading a book about earthworms can be incredibly boring for most kids. However, going outside after a heavy rain and watching and touching earthworms while looking up facts about them in that same book can become a learning experience they will never forget.

How do you use tactile learning? Have you found great inexpensive manipulatives? We would love to hear your ideas about teaching through touch!

Happy Exploring,

Why You Should Think about the 3R’s this Summer!

July 19, 2016 by Inspired Together Teachers Leave a Comment

Retention. Regression. Recoupment.

What????

These words may sound foreign or out of context in relation to children’s learning. But they SHOULD be key considerations of summer programming for kids.

Veteran teachers have long known and understood how students lose learning over the summer months. Parents may also understand that their child may stop progressing over the summer. Often, neither party feels in control to change the situation. However, teachers and parents both play a role in eliminating “summer slide” and insuring children come back to school ready to learn and with limited loss of skills.

Everyone can benefit from thinking about and taking action to intentionally address these three R’s impacted by summer break. It is not to late to take action to help children learn this summer. We offer these suggestions to you so you will know how to answer parent questions about summer learning and/or give suggestions to parents as to ways they can combat the 3 R’s over the summer.

Here are the 3 R’s:

Retention– Retention refers to the amount of previously learned knowledge that a student can remember over the summer. This is not about gaining new knowledge. Retention refers to students keeping knowledge that they have previously learned even though they are not in school to practice and apply that knowledge. One student may retain much of what she has learned during the previous school year while another student may find the knowledge “escapes” her over summer break. Depending on the child, retention of learned skills and knowledge can be greatly impacted by long breaks such as summer vacation.
Regression– Regression refers to the sliding backward of skills that some students experience over the summer or other extended breaks. Unlike retention, where educators consider if a child retained what they had previously learned, regression focuses on the loss of skills and knowledge. Specifically, we look at what the child was able to do when school let out for break and which of those skills are lost over the summer. When regression occurs, students need to be retaught the skills that they forgot over the summer break. Much like retention, the existence of, and the degree to which regression occurs, is dependent on the child and the particular skill.
Recoupment– How long will it take the child to re-learn the skills that they lost over the summer? A week? A month? Almost all students need to be re-taught skills after long breaks. Teachers build recoupment time into their lesson plans at the beginning of the school year. However, some students need longer to recoup their learning loss than others. Recoupment refers to the amount of time needed for a student to relearn the skills that they lost over the summer.

So, what can we do to address these issues? We can intentionally incorporate experiences that help children and adolescents practice skills learned during the previous school year.

Consider Tutoring

Parents might consider hiring a tutor for a few hours a week. Many teachers work as tutors over the summer and parents may be able to hire a certified teacher that will help their child to maintain and even gain new skills. Many college education majors work as tutors over the summer. Your local school of education may be able to help find a qualified tutor. Parents can also post ads on sites like Craig’s List. Spending a little money to help a child go back to school without having lost skills may be a very worthwhile investment for families.

Consider Summer School and Camps

Summer classes and camps are often educational opportunities dressed up as fun. Many classes and camps incorporate activities that address the 3 R’s. Don’t forget about free summer programs at the local library. Research has shown that reading just twenty minutes a day will help students keep reading skills learned during the school year.

Suggest that Families Plan Educational Activities at Home

Activities at home with parents, siblings, and babysitters can help students retain the information they learned while eliminating regression and recoupment time at the beginning of the next academic year. Many card and board games such as Uno, Backgammon and Scrabble allow children to practice basic skills. Create a list of your favorite educational games and send that list home in May. Suggest to parents that family vacations and day trips can also be learning activities. Zoos, museums, aquariums, and even a trip to the grocery store can be educational. Suggest to your students that they volunteer to add up the groceries as they go through the store to practice math. Suggest students utilize the unused pages of a school notebook by writing and illustrating a summer travel journal.

Get Ready For the New Year

Many schools and teachers send home notes at the end of the school year listing summer book suggestions. Consider sending a note home before school starts welcoming your new students and giving some suggestions for books, games or websites for students to explore before school starts.

Being intentional in addressing the 3 R’s over the summer does not have to be costly or time consuming. We would love to hear what you are suggesting parents do over this summer to address retention of knowledge and/or skills, in turn reducing regression and recoupment time in the fall.

Happy Summer Learning,

8 Big Truths About Learning

April 26, 2016 by Inspired Together Teachers 1 Comment

Learning strategies and trends come and go, but with all of the current issues and debates in education, a few ideas remain constant. Here are 8 big truths that hold true no matter which strategy, method, or curriculum you use.

Understanding the big picture helps learning.

Have you ever tried to memorize random facts or bits of information? Chances are that although you might have been successful enough to answer test questions, the information left your brain shortly afterwards.

The brain is a pattern seeking organ. It wants to make connections. Our memory works better when it can see how information fits together. Connecting new information to the already known is a great way to build on existing knowledge and make learning stronger and deeper.

To helps students see the big picture, ask questions such as:

How does this connect to what I already know?

How and when will I use this information?

Why is this important?

Emotion helps memory.

How does learning become permanent? Why do we remember some things forever and forget other things? Chances are, when things are connected to our emotions, we remember them. Emotionally charged information gets our attention. We make stronger connections when information is tied to our emotions, which leads to improved memory.

Leverage this insight by helping students to connect to emotions. Make them laugh, or get angry or feel empathy. Involve the senses or music. Use stories to humanize topics. Make it personal by connecting to their experiences or examples. If students feel something, they are more likely to remember.

Visualization is powerful.

For many people, images are easier to remember than words. Visualizing helps us to see things in our mind and remember them. In some cases, visualizing an action evokes the same biological results as actually performing a physical task. Elite athletes have learned to harness the power of visualization to improve their skill. Visualizing is a powerful tool. You can help students visualize by encouraging tasks such as drawing a picture or map to explain a concept, using graphs, charts or graphic organizers, or asking them to close their eye and imagine how something looks or feels.

Practice makes permanent.

Remember the old adage practice makes perfect? Actually, it is not true! Practicing something over and over again does strengthen the neural pathways in the brain to make an action permanent. However, if you repeatedly practice something incorrectly, your brain will have learned how to do it the wrong way! Once the wrong habits are ingrained, it is even more difficult to try to do something the correct way. Make sure students don’t practice incorrectly. Guide students as they do the first few math problems to see that they understand the correct procedure. Watch them as they practice a musical instrument to make sure their position is correct and that they are playing the notes correctly. Once you know that they can do a task correctly, then they can practice.

Creative thinking is not just about the arts.

Of course the arts and creativity go together, but creative thinking is bigger than the arts. Creative thinking is an essential tool for problem solving. When we think creatively, we combine things in new ways. We look at problems from multiple perspectives. We relax and play and allow our unconscious minds to work out solutions. Albert Einstein once said that the solution to a problem will not be found with the same level of thinking that created the problem. Solutions often require creative thinking.

We can encourage creative thinking. We can teach students to brainstorm and generate lists. We can teach students to reframe the problem. We can also encourage open mindedness, exploration and divergent thinking. We can encourage imagination and flexibility, and focus on ideas, progress and growth versus rigid answers, set attitudes and one way of doing things.

We learn socially.

For many years, learning was an individual, rather than a social activity. The reality of learning is that often, we learn with and with the help of others. Who hasn’t talked out a problem with a friend in order to find a solution? Who hasn’t learned from a conversation with others? Many times, we can do things with the help of another person that we cannot do alone.

Today’s teachers understand this which is why you will often see group projects, partnerships, and jigsaw activities where students divide up a task and deliver portions of the knowledge gained to each other. Activities such as buddy reading or cross-age learning partners help both individuals learn better.

Talking in school, once a taboo, is now a method for learning. A wise adage says that he who does the talking, does the learning. Who is talking in your classroom?

Preventing a problem is better than fixing a problem.

The best learning environments are active and productive. With lots of activity and many minds in one place comes the potential for off-task behavior and general chaos. Fortunately, preventing problems is possible.

Master teachers use many strategies to prevent problems. They establish clear procedures and rules, and teach students how to use those procedures and rules. They also understand that students must be busy with engaging and worthwhile tasks. Good teachers show enthusiasm for the subject and help students to be interested and excited too. Good teachers are actively involved in the classroom, and guide students throughout the activity. They build relationships with students and guide behaviors rather than demanding them.

Intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation.

When we have intrinsic motivation, we are generally interested in learning or doing something. We enjoy the activity and find purpose in it. Think of the activities that you choose to do in your free time. It is a good bet that no one is forcing your or bribing you to do those activities. You do them because you see a benefit, because you enjoy them, or because it fulfills a need or purpose in your life.

The opposite of intrinsic motivation is extrinsic motivation. With extrinsic motivation, an outside force is acting on you to get you to do something. You work for the prize, the reward or the incentive. Your students might work for the sticker, the extra recess or the grade.

Extrinsic rewards often work, especially in the short term or with unchallenging, repetitive tasks. But for long term gains, changing behaviors or creating life-long learners, intrinsic rewards work better.

How do we increase intrinsic motivation? Help students become interested in a topic by connecting it to their lives. Offer students choices- of topics, process of learning or products of learning. Mix up teaching methods and activities to keep things varied and interesting. Help students to set their own learning goals and to see how the learning will help them both now and in their future.

There you have it- our 8 BIG truths about learning. What about your BIG truths? What do we miss? We would love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Happy learning,

10 Ways You Can Model Learning in Your Classroom

February 23, 2016 by Inspired Together Teachers Leave a Comment

Do you model learning in your classroom or school? Educators have the opportunity and responsibility to be a both a catalyst and a role model for learning. You can show them how it’s done, demystify the process and empower learners.

Being a model for learning requires that you open yourself up to vulnerability. As educators, we sometimes think we need to know it all- or at least know more than our students. When you admit that you don’t know something and then proceed to talk about how you will find out, you are demonstrating that learning is a life -long process rather than a body of content knowledge to be consumed.

Here are some easy ways you can share your learning with students:

1) Make your learning processes evident by thinking out loud. “I don’t know where the Heilongjiang River is. Let’s go look at a map of China and see if we can find it.” Share your learning struggles, and how you work through them.

2) Read during silent reading time. Model good reading habits. Laugh, smile, hold your breath at a scary part, groan a little when it is time to stop. Let them see that you enjoy reading. The more students read, the better they will read. Know that if you want to create readers, your actions are more powerful than your words. Grading papers or putting up a bulletin board during silent reading time sends the message of “do as I say, not as I do.”

3) Talk about things you learned while watching television. When a discussion about migration comes up, you can share that you watched a National Geographic special about the great migration in Africa where thousands of animals move across the plains in search of better food and water. Students are going to watch television- you can model some better options.

4) Ask open ended questions. When questions have a right or wrong answer, there is less possibility for dialogue. Ask for students’ opinions and share yours. Ask how they do things. Open yourself up as a learner by being genuinely interested in students’ ideas. Learning requires give and take- don’t just give information to students, seek it from them as well.

5) Be open about your technological issues. Technology is an area where everyone has had difficulties. When glitches occur, use it as an opportunity to ask for help. Share the ideas you have for solving the problem and how you will learn for the future. Technology changes rapidly, therefore it is a great place to demonstrate that we never master the content and there is always something to learn.

6) When you attend a conference or training, share a little of that knowledge with students. They might like to know that you are learning more strategies to help them with math, or new understandings about the brain that make everyone learn better.

7) When you don’t know something, and don’t have time to address it in the moment, promise that you find out and get back to them. Follow through.

8) Don’t just assign writing tasks, model how to write. Use your smart board and write together, demonstrating the process you use and sharing processes they use. One teacher shared how she used sticky notes to jot down important ideas when she researched something and the next day looked up to see students busy writing on sticky notes.

9) Bring in experts. This shows that not only are you not an expert in some areas, but that you are excited to learn new things. Your community is full of people with expertise you don’t have. Reach out to local experts and invite them in, more often than not they are happy to share their knowledge with students. The energy and enthusiasm will likely be contagious!

10) Be curious. One of the most joyful things about learning is following where your curiosity takes you. Children are naturally curious and want to explore things that interest them. If you have ever seen a young child intently watching an insect, you have witnessed curiosity in action. Don’t get so wrapped up in all of your responsibilities that you forget to be curious.

As a teacher, you can’t be the expert in everything, but you can be the expert in learning. You can make your classroom a place where everyone enjoys learning together, and that is a fun and rewarding place to spend your days.

What learning strategies do you use to model learning in your classroom? We would love to hear your ideas!

Happy learning,

11 Ways to Help Students Fall in Love with Writing

February 16, 2016 by Inspired Together Teachers Leave a Comment

Do you struggle to help your students become engaged with writing? Textbook exercises and worksheets teach skills, but don’t give students any reason to care about the writing skills they are learning. We have all done the rote task of underlining the nouns once and the verbs twice. This kind of work does not inspire a love of writing.

Consider teaching one or two necessary skills in a mini- lesson, and then engaging students in writing for real reasons and real audiences. These activities will allow students to practice and refine their skills while creating content that they will enjoy and find relevant, which increases their motivation to use and remember the skills they are taught. Any of these activities can easily include school, state or Common Core English Language Arts standards.

1. Arrange for students to interview nursing home residents to capture details about the residents life or life in the past. Students then write up their stories in the form of a biography or historical essay. After revising and editing, students can share stories with the resident.

2. Allow students to write a play or skit with content from any of their content area curriculum. Students will be working with both content information and writing conventions. Encourage great headlines too. Imagine your classroom coming alive with The Time Travels of George Washington or DNA Rock Stars: Watson and Crick Live! The chance to perform is often extremely motivating.

3. After teaching letter writing conventions, have students write letters to people around the school who help them on a daily basis. One of our former students recently had her class write Valentine’s Day letters and then secretly deliver them.

4. Engage students in writing a history of your school or your town. Students can learn to interview, research primary documents and ultimately write their own historical document. It works well to divide students into smaller teams- each team taking a set of years or topic to research and write about.

5. Give student the choice to write a sequel, a new chapter, or a different ending to a book or story they have just finished reading. Another idea is to write the story from a different perspective, ala The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. Students can also modernize old fairy tales, myths or classical stories.

6. Introduce students to informational writing. Have them write a school handbook from the student’s perspective. This can be revised and edited and eventually included with information for new students.

7. Create a living museum. Students research a living or dead person. They create a poster or tri-fold display and then write an introduction speech as if they were that person. Students dress up like their characters and present a living museum, sharing their speeches with each other or an audience of peers or parents.

8. Arrange to have students work with a pen pal from another part of the country. Students can exchange letters, stories, informational writing and poems with other students via the internet.

9. Read different types of poetry and teach students the formats for different kinds of poems. After experimenting with different forms, let students choose their favorites and create a class poetry book. They can illustrate them using either traditional or graphic design tools.

10. Create a classroom webpage. Empower students to write and upload the content!

11. Find student’s passions and then let them write about it. Robots, cooking, concussions in the NFL, saving the earth, yoga, politics, current events, cafeteria food, hunting and fishing laws, and movies are all examples of topics students have passionately researched and written about. This is a great way to explore different writing products and let students choose a format that makes sense, whether it is a poster in the hallway, a letter to the local paper, or a family inspired cookbook with recipes and the stories behind them.

These are just a few ideas to help students engage with writing. We know you have many more ideas and we would love to hear them in the comments!

Happy writing,

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Connect with us on Social Media!