10 Principles of a Successful Classroom Felt Need

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10 Principles of a Successful Classroom

10 Principles of a Successful Classroom

Felt Need • Students are presented with meaningful, higher-order, activities that create the context

Felt Need • Students are presented with meaningful, higher-order, activities that create the context for learning and build a “felt need” to learn lower-order skills. • The teacher identifies the skills, concepts, and content to be taught and crafts a problem-based learning task to lay a context for the students that will build a felt-need to learn. • The teacher presents students with a problem-based task up front and then with the students decides what the learning goals are and provides a variety of instructional options for students to learn. • When students are presented with a rubric, they read through the Practitioner (grade-level) column and underline or highlight the skills they do not know so they can set learning goals. • If asked why they are working on a particular task, students will explain how it relates to a greater problem-based learning task that required them to know this skill, concept, or information.

Questions to Consider • Can you think of learning situations you have been in

Questions to Consider • Can you think of learning situations you have been in where the felt need preceded the learning? • Are there any structures in place in your classroom that were introduced based on a felt need? • Is there a place in your classroom that you are experiencing a felt need to introduce a new structure to help increase student responsibility?

Working Well Collaboratively • Students are presented with problem-based tasks that require collaboration for

Working Well Collaboratively • Students are presented with problem-based tasks that require collaboration for brainstorming, solution decisions, and presentation decisions. • Students work independently on subtasks. • Students reach consensus through the sharing of ideas and insights, as opposed to voting, to reach decisions. • Students fill out table journals or use other assessment tools to reflect on their performance as a team. • Students encourage one another to contribute to group discussions. • Students critique one another’s work and ideas. • Team grades are only used to assess the students’ ability to work well collaboratively.

Questions to Consider • What is the difference between collaborative work and cooperative work?

Questions to Consider • What is the difference between collaborative work and cooperative work? • Which do you use more in your classroom (collaborative or cooperative)?

High Academic Standards • All students are expected to achieve at high levels utilizing

High Academic Standards • All students are expected to achieve at high levels utilizing the teacher, peers, and other resources to meet with success. • Teachers write assessment rubrics in which the Practitioner column contains grade-level expectations that clearly define the skills, concepts, and content to be mastered. The Expert column contains expectations that challenge students and meet the needs of gifted learners. • Reference charts (e. g. grammar rules, spelling words, definitions, periodic chart, etc. ) hang on the walls. • A quality work board offers models of exceptional work completed by former students or by the teacher. (The purpose is to provide a model, not competition, therefore no names are on the work. ) • Students have rubrics for performance standards that apply to all work, such as writing standards, neatness, scientific process.

Taking Responsibility for Learning • Students take responsibility for setting goals, scheduling time, utilizing

Taking Responsibility for Learning • Students take responsibility for setting goals, scheduling time, utilizing resources, and making other decisions. • Students set personal learning goals based on their need to learn required skills. • Students use assessment rubrics to assess progress and set goals for continued improvement. • The teacher designs an “activity sheet” listing the various assignments for which the students are responsible (problembased activities, textbook assignments, benchmark lessons, other assignments. ) Students use this to plan their time. • Students break projects down into smaller parts and decide when they plan to work on each part. Continued

Taking Responsibility for Learning • Students create a schedule for how they use their

Taking Responsibility for Learning • Students create a schedule for how they use their time, taking into account when the teacher plans to conduct whole-class lessons or mini-lessons and when they or team members will be out of the classroom. • Students have folders in which they manage work completed and work in progress. • Students take responsibility for specific roles within their collaborative teams. • Students keep a reflective portfolio through which they collect and reflect upon their work based on goals they set.

Reflect… When you look around your classroom, you probably have lots of posters and

Reflect… When you look around your classroom, you probably have lots of posters and other aids that support academic content. Do you require that your students use the tools around the room before coming up to you?

Individual Learning Paths • Teachers differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each individual

Individual Learning Paths • Teachers differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each individual learner. • All students’ activity sheets are not the same. The teacher assigns varied tasks to individuals according to their needs. • Each problem-based learning task includes several individual components so that students develop individual mastery in skills and content that enable them to contribute to the collaborative work.

Think About It… When introducing a new skill, how well do you utilize a

Think About It… When introducing a new skill, how well do you utilize a pre-assessment in order to determine previous knowledge? Have you tried planning a tiered lesson in which you had multiple activities planned for the first skill?

High Social Capital • Students have strong, consistent relationships with adults in school; parents

High Social Capital • Students have strong, consistent relationships with adults in school; parents are involved as partners in the learning process. • Rather than merely circulating to see if students need help, the teacher sits with a team or individual to discuss their work and offer suggestions and encouragement. • A community resource corner may exist in which various community members work with students on problem-based tasks, sharing their particular expertise. (For example, if students are working on designing a tour of the United States, community members who are travel agents or those who have traveled to various parts of the United States may come in to offer their expertise, not as a whole class presentation, but as advisors to small groups of students. )

Technology Infusion • Technology is used as a tool and a resource to support

Technology Infusion • Technology is used as a tool and a resource to support learning and not seen as a goal unto itself. • At least one computer is unassigned so that students can use it as needed throughout the day. • Computers are not only used in automating ways (drill-and-practice, word processing, spreadsheet generation) but in transforming ways that allow students to do that which they would otherwise be unable to do in a classroom (Internet connections with others around the world, simulations, designing cause-and-effect models. ) • A series of “how-to” sheets are available to provide direct instruction in a written format on technology skills that might be needed (Please visit www. ideportal. com for sample “how-to’s”.

Questions to Consider • How are you currently infusing technology into your lessons? •

Questions to Consider • How are you currently infusing technology into your lessons? • Can you share one great lesson you did where technology was seamlessly infused? • Are both you and the students utilizing the technology in your classroom? • Are you utilizing student expertise in your classroom?

Focus on Higher-Order, Open Ended Problem-Solving • Problem-solving activities are the focus of the

Focus on Higher-Order, Open Ended Problem-Solving • Problem-solving activities are the focus of the learning environment, setting a context within which to learn lower-order skills. • Curriculum topics are addressed through open-ended problem-based learning tasks that require students to engage in higher-order thinking. • The problem-based learning tasks drive further instruction in the lower-order basic skills, providing students with a felt need to master these skills in order to solve the larger problem. • As teachers facilitate learning by sitting and talking with students, they ask open-ended questions that cause students to apply higherorder thinking skills.

Connected Learning • Students see learning as being connected, both across the disciplines and

Connected Learning • Students see learning as being connected, both across the disciplines and to their lives. • Teachers design problem-based tasks to address curricular content that cause students to use skills, concepts, and facts across the disciplines. • Teachers take advantage of opportunities to point out connections across the disciplines.

Questions to Consider • Are there topics you are currently teaching separately in your

Questions to Consider • Are there topics you are currently teaching separately in your class that could be addressed together? • Do you consider your curricular topics while reading the newspaper or watching the news to find connections between reallife and your classroom?

Questions to Consider • Which of the 10 Principles are you already addressing in

Questions to Consider • Which of the 10 Principles are you already addressing in your classroom? • Which of the 10 Principles would you like to address more in your classroom THIS YEAR? • Which of the 10 Principles would you like to focus more on NEXT YEAR? • How can we help you address the 10 Principles in your classroom?

10 Principles of a Successful Classroom For more information on the 10 Principles of

10 Principles of a Successful Classroom For more information on the 10 Principles of a Successful Classroom visit http: //idecorp. com/philosophy/index. htm