Course Description:
Participants will review and utilize the research on what constitutes “Best Teaching Practices.” They will become familiar with which tools are most effective for teaching (based on the goal for the teaching process). Participants will review four elements that have a profound effect on student learning and how to use those elements in teaching.
A model for putting together effective lessons and the guidelines for using that model in the classroom will be included. Participants will identify goals for their own classrooms and use the research to determine the best practice for teaching to those goals.
Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to self-awareness and classroom implementation of effective strategies.
The successful practitioner of Creating a Variety of Tools for Teaching will:
- Identify best practices in teaching and learning.
- Know why the practices they are investigating are considered to be best practices.
- Use the information learned to teach effective lessons.
- Create lessons that incorporate a variety of teaching tools.
- Have a clearer understanding of how the brain works and why certain teaching practices are effective while others are not.
Objectives:
Participants will know: (declarative knowledge)
- The terminology related to best practices.
- The connections between current brain research and best practices.
- Various teaching structures such as direct instruction, lecture, discovery learning, inquiry, role-play, individualized instruction, cooperative learning, and interdisciplinary instruction.
- The research-based recommendations for working with students from diverse populations.
- Ways to introduce a lesson so that students are motivated to learn.
- The factors that cause the brain to move the learning into long-term memory.
- The steps needed to achieve learning goals using practices that have the most impact on student learning.
- Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)
- Build into their classroom and lessons a variety of teaching tools.
- Create a classroom that maximizes the sensory factors that contribute to learning.
- Learn and use a process for making the learning meaningful.
- Develop lessons around goals for student learning.
- Evaluate which teaching tools are appropriate for their classroom.
- Design and implement a plan for using best practices in their own classrooms.
- Incorporate teaching tools that assure student success.
Procedures:
Each lesson includes activating prior knowledge, tutorials, assignments, and Learning Log reflections. Participants will use information from the instructor along with readings from the bibliography and exploration of Web sites to build their knowledge about and confidence in creating teaching tools that work. The course is designed to be interactive between and among the instructor and other participants.
Participants will design and implement several tools related to the teaching and learning involved in developing a variety of teaching tools. They will use the Toolbox and Conference Center to share and compare ideas with other participants, and they will write their reflections in the Course Journal. The instructor will offer feedback through e-mail and the Conference Center.
Evaluation:
Lesson 1 – Terminology and Concepts Related to Vocabulary Strategies.
Lesson 2 – Terminology Test.
Lesson 3 – Impact on Learning.
Lesson 4 – Connections to Brain Research.
Lesson 5 – Connections to Multiple Intelligences.
Lesson 6 – Modeling and Guided Practice for developing and using a variety of teaching tools.
Lesson 7 – Application in the Classroom.
Lesson 8 – Post Test.
Lesson 9 – Reflections.
Evaluation:
Assessment Tasks:
• Task 1 – The learner will complete the Terminology Test with a mastery level of 90%. (Lesson One)
• Task 2 – The learner will identify the connection between best practices and the vocabulary words. (Lesson Two)
• Task 3 – The learners will explain how they make decisions about instructional practices in their classrooms. (Lesson Three)
• Task 4 – The learner will write a paragraph about each of the four factors that influence student learning and will create a symbol to help them remember each factor. (Lesson Three)
• Task 5 – The learner will create a mind map (non-linguistic organizer) for one of the three systems of thinking. (Lesson Three)
• Task 6 – The learner will identify how they have used the first three levels of the cognitive system so far in their learning. They will predict how they will use the fourth level in Lesson Seven. (Lesson Three)
• Task 7 – The learner will describe his or her classroom in terms of the senses. (Lesson Four)
• Task 8 - Participants will identify three teaching tools for each of the memory systems that could enhance that system in the classroom. (Lesson Four)
• Task 9 – The learner will analyze his or her lesson plan format in terms of the three systems of thinking.
• Task 10 – The learner will choose a knowledge goal for their classrooms. They will list the goal, how to teach for that goal and create a non-linguistic organizer. (Lesson Five)
• Task 11 – The learner will compare linguistic and non-linguistic organizers using the Compare and Contrast Tool. (Lesson Five)
• Task 12 – The learner will complete an analysis chart on a lesson to determine the different teaching tools used and at which intervals in the lesson. (Lesson Six)
• Task 13 – The learner will create a plan for teaching using the teaching model provided. (Based on the Systems of Thinking). (Lesson Seven)
• Task 14 – The learner will complete the Post Test with a mastery level of 90%. (Lesson Eight)
Bibliography:
Fogerty, R. (1997). Brain Compatible Classrooms. Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight Publications.
Hansen, J.M. & Childs, J. (1998). “Creating a School Where People Like to Be”. Educational Leadership. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 56:1, 14-17.
Jensen, E. (1998). Introduction to Brain-compatible Learning. Del Mar, California: The Brain Store Inc.
Jensen, E. (1997). Completing the Puzzle: the Brain-compatible Approach to Learning. Del Mar, California: The Brain Store Inc.
Margulies, N. and Sylwester, R. (1998). Emotion and Learning. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr.
Marzano, R.J. (1998). A Theory-Based Meta-Analysis of Research on Instruction. Aurora, Colorado: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.
Marzano, R.J. et.al. (1992). Dimensions of Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Marzano, R.J. (1992). A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Dimensions of Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Marlowe, B.A. & Page, M. L. (1998). Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
National Association of Secondary School Principals. (1996). Breaking Ranks: Changing an American Institution. Reston, VA: NASSP.
Payne, R.K. (2001) A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Highlands, Texas: Aha! Process Inc.
Sousa, D. (1995). How the Brain Learns. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Springer, M. (1999). Learning and Memory: The Brain in Action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tileston, D.W. (2000). Ten Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles, and Standards Define Teaching. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Tileston, D.W. (2003). What Every Teacher Should Know About Instructional Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin Press.
Web Resources:
http://www.infomall.org
http://www.pbs.org
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov
http://sunsite.unc.edu/cisco/schoolhouse.html
http://www.ascd.org
http://www.greatsource.com
http://www.mcrel.org
http://www.multi-intell.com
http://www.ncte.org
http://www.nwrel.org
http://www.thinkingmaps.com
http://www.newhorizons.org/blab/html
http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/other/homepages.html
http://www.ktca.org/newtons/12/brain.html#cerebellum
For more information, please contact: info@whateveryteachershouldknow.com
3. What Every Teacher Should Know About Creating a Variety of Tools for Teaching