Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Visual Literacy: How Do Your Students Share Their Thinking?

The perceived audience / purpose for most student work is the teacher / because it was assigned. Learning becomes more meaningful when students are given chances to share their thinking with more authenticity. It's as simple as adding an audience to an assignment. Example: "How would you explain your solution to younger students?" This also opens the door to more relevant self evaluation. "Did my presentation suit my audience and purpose?"

Visual literacy is the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations. Visual-Literacy.org has assembled a collection of visualizations in as a periodic table. Mouse over each element and a sample pops up. The examples range from simple to complex and they provide a vast array of approaches beyond the overused Venn diagram or T-chart. 

A pdf of the table is also available. On another page you can group the visualization methods by your criteria and  find background information for a specific visualization method via Google Images and Wikipedia

Principal Academy - Rigor and Relevance Walk-Through Training

This past week I conducted a series of walk-through training sessions for principals. Our workshops were hosted by North West Regional ESD and they took us through NWRESD's four-county service area in the northwest corner of Oregon - Washington, Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook.

Each day opened with a discussion of rigor and relevance "look-for's." I used videos of classrooms that allowed the local principals to generate observations with "virtual walk-throughs." Then we traveled to a local school where we could work in small teams to hone our observations skills using this basic guide. (16 kb pdf.) The day closed with a full-group session where we processed our reflections. Our goal was to assist principals in fostering dialog with teachers about a more shared vision of teaching and learning.

Evaluations from the principals were positive  - they wrote:

The real walkthroughs were beneficial because I was practicing what we discussed in the morning.

This will push me to look for a deeper level of instruction from staff - a deeper level of learning in students.

Just the nudge I needed to "refocus" my professional conversations. I'll be looking at classrooms with a more focused lens.

It makes me want to go back to teaching students - I would be a much better teacher.

Fostering Creativity

Creating is Bloom's highest level of thinking. Creating is not limited to "the creative." We all create when we make new combinations of existing elements. Someone put wheels on the bottom of a scaled-down surfboard and created the skateboard. And so it goes...

While teachers and students are constrained by mind-numbing test prep, the rest of society is working overtime to foster creative connections. In September the annual "IdeaFestival" was held in Louisville, KY. It brings together creative thinkers from different disciplines to connect ideas in science, the arts, design, business, film, technology and education. The festival motto - "If it can possibly go together, it comes together here." Why not apply that perspective in our schools?

Here are some suggestions from the festival on how to come up with new ideas. Many can be easily adapted to help our students discover their creative potential in the classroom.

1. Think when you are not thinking, for example, on a run or walk.
2. Listen to classical music, go to a concert or a play or sit quietly in a park to daydream.
3. Read periodicals you would not typically read — a scientific magazine, for example, if you are more interested in business. Same with books outside your typical genre.
4. Attend a conference outside your field.
5. Surround yourself with creative thinkers.
6. Immerse yourself in a problem; ask questions, investigate possible outcomes.
7. Keep an idea journal.
8. Take a course to learn a new language or some other skill outside your expertise.
9. Be curious and experiment.
10. Articulate your idea, seek feedback, put structure on it, harvest it.

For more on teaching innovation.

Visualizing Data and Text - A Comparison Learning Strategy that Works

Comparing is the most powerful instructional strategy you can use in the classroom. But it's the person who does the comparing that's learning. Therefore, we must ask students to develop the comparison, not just learn and repeat the model that we present to them. (Remember, asking a student to fill out a Venn diagram that you created, is just a graphic form of information filing). After they have designed their comparison, students should also be asked to share what they learned.  A major component of 21st century literacy is finding meaningful ways to share information with others.

Many Eyes is a great new website that gives teachers and students a chance to easily use sophisticated graphic tools to analyze data and create interactive displays. Those who register at the site can use 16 visualization types to present data. My favorite visualization is the "Wordle," which enables you to see how frequently words appear in uploaded text, or see the relationship between a column of words and a column of numbers. You can tweak your word "clouds" with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Why not have your students use Wordle to analyze a selection of non-fiction text to uncover the main ideas and key vocabulary of the piece? Or they could compare text from different sources. Want your students to more fully understand your course content? Let them use Many Eyes to visualize and discover patterns as a catalyst for discussion and collective insights about information, text, and data. As they say at Many Eyes, "Finding the right way view your data is as much an art as a science. The visualizations provided on Many Eyes range from the ordinary to the experimental."

Here's a few examples of the same data in three different Wordle visualizations that analyze the frequency of words in 30 school district mission / vision statements. 

Click on images to enlarge.

The original data and was uploaded to Many Eyes by PPreuss and used to create the visualization above.  I modified the existing online data set mission / vision statement words with the Wordle tools to represent the same data in different layouts and styles. In this second version (below)  I limited the analysis to the top 100 words.

Here's a third representation of the same source data that analyzes 2-word clusters and displays their frequency in alphabetical layout. Below is  a screen shot of the Tag Cloud, but in its original form at Many Eyes, when I click on any of the word clusters,  a pop-up shows the context of how the cluster is used in different sentences from the source mission / vision statements.

Wow! Looks like we educators have a lot on our plates. Personally I think we might want to admit our mission / vision may simply be  "Trying Hard Not To Become Obsolete."

Bloom's Taxonomy: Creativity and 21st Century Literacy

Innovation requires both a strong foundation in content knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in new ways - usually across a variety of disciplines. And it requires using all of Bloom’s skills from remembering through creating. Creating is not a skill limited to the gifted. It's something that all students can do - think of it as a new combination of old elements.

Digital technology gives students access to information and creative tools that enable them to be creators as well as consumers of content. New technologies have put students in charge of the information they access, store, analyze and share. You can’t broadcast (lecture) at students.  They won’t be a passive audience. They expect information control and functionality. 

For more, I recommend a site from Andrew Churches, a New Zealand educator who matches Bloom's Taxonomy with instructional technology to move students from lower to higher order thinking skills. 

K-12 Walk Throughs Foster Teacher Reflection

I recently conducted walk through training (WT) at Hood River County School District in Oregon. I thought the model we used was very effective at engaging teachers and administrators in reflective discussion on instructional practice.

In February, I did half-day presentations on Rigor, Relevance and Literacy to Hood River's K-5 and 6-12 faculties. In April, I led teams on WTs to give them on opportunity to hone their observational skills. It's one thing to talk about rigor and relevance in a workshop. It's another to go into a classroom and try to decide the level of Bloom's taxonomy being used by the students.

Observers were not in classrooms to evaluate teachers or instructional strategies, but to test their observational skills and have an opportunity to dialogue about their conclusions. We used this simple form to guide our efforts and keep our focus on observation, reflection and discussion. R-R-guide2.pdf  16kb pdf

One day was devoted to K-12 administrative and TOSAs. The next two days were spent with K-12 teacher teams. Each day we began with an orientation session. The team started doing WT's at an elementary building, then moved to middle and finally, high school. We only visited teachers who had volunteered to host our team. At each building we met periodically to process what we had seen.

The most powerful element of the day, was the K-12 settings of the WTs and the use of K-12 teacher teams. Teachers seldom see other classes in action and it rare that a high school teacher would be given a chance to observe an elementary class or vice versa.  All the participants agreed it was a very valuable experience and they came away with greater respect for the contributions being made all each levels of the program. Most importantly, they became more skillful at assessing the rigor and relevance of a variety of instructional strategies. They were then able to apply those perspectives to their own instructional practice.  The district intends to support teachers in collegial observation and peer reflection.

Rigor, Relevance and Reading for Content-Area Mastery

This week I’m presenting four workshops at the 2007 MAPSA Conference in Detroit Michigan.

Three sessions addressed "Rigor, Relevance and Reading for Content-Area Mastery" at elementary, middle and high school. The sessions demonstrated that teachers don't have to sacrifice content to help their students achieve academic success. I featured practical examples of how teachers can support standards-based instruction in their subject area while improving student skills in vocabulary, comprehension and analysis. My goal is to present a session that is rigorous and relevant to teachers—we’ll actually use the strategies being promoted, not just talk about them!  Here’s the handout for these sessions.
Elementary Session (1.1 MB pdf)
Middle School Session (1.4 MB pdf)
High School Session (1.6 MB pdf)

I used my TurningPoint audience response system and posed questions which probed participant expectations of students and instructional strategies. The system allows me to capture participant thinking and use it foster some lively discussion and reflections. You have to model what you preach, so we worked through some higher-order thinking and problem solving ourselves. Thanks to Christina Stellers at Turning Point for supplying additional responders.

My fourth session was "Digital Publishing: Rigor, Relevancy and Literacy in Action."   In case you haven’t heard – print on demand technology has made it possible to produce beautiful hard cover and paperback books without minimum runs or prohibitive upfront costs. Kids are motivated by producing books for an authentic audience. Publishing helps students master course content and develop project management and teamwork skills. The power of publishing enables students to think like writers, to apply their learning strategies and to organize and express their learning. It exemplifies the best of the information revolution –students as creators of content rather than as passive audience.

I featured two new products: FlipNLearn, is an innovative learning foldable that student design and print on school printers using specialty paper. EdteckPublisher – is book design software that allows students to design paperback books and then easily upload them for publication by digital on-demand press.
Publishing workshop handout (1.6 MB pdf)

Rigor and Relevance Walk–Through Training for Principals

I’ve been working with Elizabeth Forward School District in Elizabeth PA to enhance the rigor and relevance of their instructional program. I’ve been impressed with the high level of involvement by the full administrative team. We started with half-day workshops for their K-5 and secondary teachers on classroom strategies. I used my TurningPoint audience response system to gather feedback from both audiences. The following day, the administrative team met to analyze the data and develop an action plan.

Soon I will return and we’ll conduct walk-though training for the administrative team. We’ll spend a day working in small teams to observe classrooms in action and alternately meet as a full team to process our observations. By the end of the day we should have a model for conducting walk-throughs that will help principals and teachers to collaborate in a way that is rigorous and relevant to them. Our goal is quick 5-minute walk-throughs that help principals manage the demands of instructional leadership and provide feedback that will enable teachers to reflect on their craft.

I value results over process so I’ve developed a walk-through observation form RR-guide that targets the essentials without becoming a burden to the principal. It designed to serve as the catalyst for a positive principal-teacher discussion. Hopefully that conversation can model the “student-centered” reflection we want to foster in the classroom.

For more on walk-throughs see: Leadership By Walking Around and Walk-Throughs are on the Move!

Rigor, Relevance and Technology

New technologies have put students in charge of the information they access, store, analyze and share.  To paraphrase David Warlick, “Literacy in the 21st century will mean the ability to find information, decode it, critically evaluate it, organize it into personal digital libraries and find meaningful ways to share it with others.”

Next week, I’ll be returning to Pottsgrove School District outside of Philadelphia to work with high school science, social studies and special education teachers on strategies for utilizing technology to incorporate more rigor and relevance into their classrooms. I’ll be joined by the Chris Shaffer, the principal of Pottsgrove High School. Together we’ll demonstrate strategies and technology resources and then give teachers time to work on integrating the strategies into upcoming lessons. Later in the school year we plan to reconvene the group to assess the impact on classroom instruction and student engagement.

Chris will be sharing a variety of websites that provide teachers and students with Web 2.0 tools to transform the learning environment. They include: www.Del.icio.us.com, www.Nettrekker.com, www.Unitedstreaming.com, www.Fantasycongress.com, www.Moodle.com.  I believe that rigor and relevance improves when students have an opportunity to read, think, write and publish for an authentic audience and purpose. I’ll be showing the Pottsgrove audience three approaches that give students a chance to share their learning with others.

Judy Kinz, a very innovative technology specialist, has developed “Virtual Books,” a clever PowerPoint template that simulates the turning pages of a book. I used it to make demo PowerPoints for the Pottsgrove social studies and science teachers. Here's a sample. Don't focus on the content - it's the look of the template that's the point. homefront-virtual-book (1.9MB PPT)  In partnership with a paper engineer, I’ll soon be launching FlipNLearn, an innovative learning foldable that student design and print on school printers using specialty paper. Presentation notes: Pottsgrove-10-08-07 (1 MB PDF)

Leadership for Literacy and Learning

Next week (August 6-8), I will present at the Oregon Department of Education’s 2007 Summer Institute: “Strategies for Student Success” at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. More

I’ll be bringing my TurningPoint audience response system and we will model student engagement strategies with the audience. The last time I was in Oregon, I ran a full day session for over 350 teachers and administrators with a response system and live blog. It includes some great posts by teachers on rigor and relevance in their classrooms. More

Download revised presentation material for each a session below - includes audience response data.

“Rigor, Relevance and Literacy for Middle School Teachers”

Boost student achievement with rigor, relevance and literacy. This session is designed for intermediate and middle school teachers of all disciplines. It will demonstrate that teachers don't have to sacrifice content to help their students achieve academic success. You’ll experience practical examples of how teachers support standards-based instruction in their subject area while improving student skills in vocabulary, comprehension and analysis. This engaging workshop guarantees to be rigorous and relevant to teachers—we’ll actually use the strategies being promoted, not just talk about them! It will feature an audience response system that helps us model a student-centered approach to learning. Teachers prefer workshops that share practical instructional ideas—and you will leave with many strategies ready for use in your classroom.  MS-presentation.pdf (2 MB)

“Rigor, Relevance and Literacy for High School Teachers”

Same themes as the middle school  presentatation with some different examples. HS-presentation.pdf

“Leading for Rigor, Relevance and Literacy”

See what happens when schools share a vision of quality instruction based on Rigor, Relevance and Literacy. The session demonstrates how educators can boost achievement with a consistent focus on common standards-based instructional strategies in a student centered classroom. It is designed for district and building administrators of all levels. The session will demonstrate that teachers don't have to sacrifice content to help their students achieve academic success. This engaging workshop guarantees to be rigorous and relevant to instructional leaders. You'll leave with many new ideas and loads of strategies ready for use with your teachers. We’ll use an audience response system to effectively model a student-centered approach to learning. You’ll experience practical examples of how school leaders can support their teachers while they build student skills in vocabulary, comprehension and analysis. Admin-presentation.pdf  (1 MB)

It's about Rigor, Relevance AND Relationships

In May of this year I ran a two-day workshop for the social studies department at New York City’s High School for International Business and Finance. We focused on rigor and relevance and explored a variety of strategies that enable the student to “do the work of the historian.” More

I was pleased to see the school profiled on the front page of today’s New York Times “The High School Kinship of Cristal and Queen.” PDF version: Download Cristal-Queen.pdf

The feature dealt with the struggles and accomplishments of two recent graduates.

"By the time Cristal and Queen were freshmen, their math and reading skills were well below grade level, and school administrators considered them 'at risk': at risk of failing and dropping out. The high school, with graduation rates higher than the citywide average, turned out to be a place where they discovered talents and aspirations they never knew they had. 'They turned on the switch,' Cristal said. 'It’s like my brain opened up.' ”

Cristal reminds us of the importance of the “three R’s” - rigor, relevance and relationships. Students need a rigorous program with challenging goals and effective feedback. A focus on relevance helps students to better understand themselves as learners and measure progress towards their goals. But most critical, are supportive relationships with educators who can provide the scaffolding that students need to take responsibility for their learning.

I’m grateful to have had the chance to meet the teachers, administrators and support staff that make the New York City’s High School for International Business and Finance an effective small learning community. Read the NY Times article and view the audio slide show “The Kinship of Cristal and Queen.”. ... See for yourself.

Small School – Big Results

Last week I had the opportunity to spend two days working with the social studies department of New York City’s High School for International Business and Finance. The school is housed in the historic George Washington High School in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. GWHS was once a premier high school in NYC, but it spent most of the 1990's on the NYS SURR list of failing schools. Since then, it has undergone a positive transformation.

The High School for International Business and Finance is one of four small, themed academies that has resided in the GWHS building since 2000. It is an example of what happens when administrators and teachers share a vision of instruction based on high expectations, responsibility and personalized approach for each student. Located in the center of the city's largest Dominican neighborhood, 750-student school and it's partner academies are a focus community pride and accomplishment. Student achievement is on the rise and the High School for International Business and Finance  now has a large surplus of applicants for its freshman class.

Our two-day workshop focused on rigor and relevance in social studies and our team of teachers explored a variety of strategies that enable the student to “do the work of the historian.” We modeled that approach throughout the sessions – as one teacher noted, “I liked that while we were given examples, you let create our own learning.” 

For more on schools with a "shared a vision of instruction" visit my website Small Learning Communities that Work.

Rigor and Relevance in Amman

I’m writing this post from Amman Jordan, where I’ve been visiting family and seeing the sights. In addition, I took some time for professional contacts to learn more about education in Jordan.

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to visit the American Community School in Amman. I’d like to thank my hosts – Brian Lahan, School Superintendent and Brien McCall, Curriculum Coordinator.

Behind an impressive security perimeter (it’s the US Embassy “school”) I found ACS to be an engaging pre-K-12 learning community. I began the day by touring the school and classrooms. During the brief walk-throughs, I saw small sections, with students actively engaged in their learning. The student body is very diverse with a sizable Jordanian population. Not surprising, Arabic is taught at all levels of the program.

My visit coincided with an early release day for students and professional development in the afternoon. Brien McCall and I had worked in advance to arrange for me to give a 2-hour presentation on “Rigor and Relevance.” I’ve gotten so hooked on my TurningPoint audience response system, that I brought it to Amman. But I’m glad I did. It was the first time most faculty had seen one in action, and as always, it fostered great discussion. The workshop was an opportunity for me to work with a talented group of teachers in a unique setting. Their evaluations suggest they found it equally rewarding. Here are a few teacher comments:

"I really loved how you synthesized the many best teacher practices that we have tried to initiate at ACS. There are so many things we do, do well, want try to improve on.  Your information is practical and will bring results."

"Today’s workshop reinforces the need for students to create, and think more on their own".

"I am currently using writing prompts in my science class and have systematically worked to give more control of learning over to my students. Your workshop confirms this approach and provided valuable ideas for me to continue in this direction."

Talking About Rigor, Relevance and Reflection

I’ve been doing follow-up workshops with teachers who attended my Rigor and Relevance training. Our goal is to discuss their implementation of the learning strategies I shared in our first training session. Everyone agrees that rigor, relevance, and student-centered learning are good in theory, but how do we get past the challenges? - lack of time, students who can’t (or won’t) do independent work, overcrowded curriculum, state tests, etc. I’ve developed this "Quick Guide to Rigor, Relevance and Reflection" to assist teachers in evaluating instruction in their classrooms.  Download Quickguide-rigor-relevance-reflection (267 KB pdf)

Our goal is connect students with their learning. To enable them to answer questions like:

• What am I learning today?
• Why am I learning it?
• How can I use this knowledge and these skills to make a difference in my life?
• How can I work with teachers and other students to improve my learning?

Throughout their lives our students will need to be adaptable, self-directed learners. They will need to be able to reflect and:

• Judge if this information and these skills are appropriate to their goals.
• Appraise the merits of different strategies and problem solving approaches.
• Evaluate their progress as a learner.

Teaching Innovation in Routine Schools? Part II

On March 7, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testified before Congress on changes needed in the nation's schools and immigration laws. When your foundation gives away more than $3 billion, you earn the right to an opinion. He said, “the U.S. cannot maintain its economic leadership unless our work force consists of people who have the knowledge and skills needed to drive innovation." For more of Bill Gates thinking on this subject see: How to Keep America Competitive, Washington Post 2.25.07

Innovation requires both a strong foundation in content knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in new ways - usually across a variety of disciplines. Thus it requires using all of Bloom’s skills from knowledge through synthesis and evaluation.

Gates envisions a workplace of the future characterized by innovation and change.  Workers will need to be flexible and able to adapt to new situations - self starters capable of working independently and able to readily change teams in an ever evolving work environment. Innovation requires thinking out of the box with the ability to learn from success as well as failure.

That doesn’t sound like the learning environment created by NCLB. Our schools are aiming too low - we force feed the content required for “adequate progress” as measured by standardized state tests. Too little time is left for student-centered, project-based learning that allows students to work at the upper level of Bloom. Innovation requires much trial and error (Bloom’s evaluation). Learning to self-assess your problem solving approach is not a skill fostered in multiple-choice test-prep environment.

NCLB correctly put the focus on student achievement. Our students will need a strong foundation in core concepts. But schools can’t be filled with routine tasks. They need to be fluid environments focused on helping students take responsibility for thinking and problem solving where there sometimes isn’t a right answer.

PS When Microsoft “borrows” the Mac OS “widget” and adds it to their new Vista OS and calls it a “gadget,” does that qualify as innovation?

For my prior post see "Teaching innovation in routine schools?"