This is your last assignment for this course...all assignments are due 3/20...thanks for participating!!!
Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part Dto the blog. We’re trying to make the blog more user-friendly and easier to read. Thanks!
Assignment #10: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 10: Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers.
Remember: Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part C and D. We’re trying to make the blog easier to read and more user- friendly. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategy of Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment.
• What is your purpose of using cues and questions in your classroom?
• Study the research results in Figure 10.1 for "Cues and Questions." In your experience, what makes some experiences with cues and questions better than others?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 10 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers. You may want to consider the point below in your reflection.
• Many teachers who are aware of the research on the use of "wait time" will confess that they do not use it often enough. What do you think are some of the reasons that might explain why teachers do not use this strategy systematically and effectively?
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to try out with your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may reflect upon how you would use this strategy in your classroom).
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/prompts to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Ten: Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• Research confirms that advance organizers are powerful when they help students focus on what is important, not on what might be unusual. All the different types of advance organizers described in this chapter, however, require up-front planning on the part of the teacher. How would you respond to a teacher who complains that there just isn't time to prepare the organizers?
• What will you do to improve the effect of using cues, questions, and advance organizers in your classroom? – Will you make changes?
• How might you monitor the effects of cues, questions, and advance organizers on student learning?
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Until reading this chapter I was not aware of how fortunate I have been to have received training in this type of teaching through a few district paid courses. Within the last four years I have taken both write to learn and differentiation through using the different layers of taxonomy. Many of the ideas expressed in this chapter were explored in these courses.
After attending these courses I implemented many of the new teaching ideas into my own practice without even realizing how effective they can be to engage and enforce learning. I loved reading about the research and studies that support these ideas and practices. This chapter helped to show me how to strengthen my current practices by reviewing precautions to take when using cues, questions and advance organizers.
One of the cues and questions methods I use is through picture exploration at the beginning of a unit. I put a photo on the projector screen and ask the class to perform a quick write about what they know and then generate some questions they have about the photo. I was always using really unique or unfamiliar photos about the subject, especially when beginning my rocks and coral reef units. I was hoping that this would really “hook” the class into the unit and get them excited for the study. What I learned form this chapter is that the research shows this not the most successful method. I need to find clear photos that let the class feel good about their prior knowledge. The research shows that students are more engaged and learn more in this way. I need to heed their warning of making clues focus on what is important and not unusual.
The reminder of effectively using wait time also helped to show me an area to strengthen in my own teaching. I worked on wait time as a goal when I was new to teaching and a method that I found to help me out was to print out a picture of a clock and make a card out of it to use as a visual reminder for myself and the class. After I ask a question or want the students to really process an idea I have just shared, I show the clock and no one is allowed to talk or raise their hand until the clock is down. I teach this routine at the beginning of the year and explain the reasoning behind it is to allow everyone to have time to create their own ideas before hearing or being distracted by others. What I gleaned from this chapter is that I am doing a good job of presenting think time when I am sharing my ideas, but I am NOT honoring think time after a student presents an idea. I don’t know why, but it had never occurred to me to also use the clock method after a student shares an idea. I will be teaching this routine and adding it into our class discussions right away. Such a simple thing, but I am curious to see the effectiveness it brings.
The discussion in the chapter about higher-level questions was a good reminder for me to review my use of this method. After my differentiation work, I built a little book that I have positioned at my teaching spots that has a page for each level of the taxonomy with questions or quick ideas to help reach instruction at these levels. I used it faithfully for the first couple of years, but have to admit I have been a little lax about checking that book lately. I need to get back to using these ideas and to be sure that I am reaching levels of instruction that allow students learning to get to the synthesizing, analyzing and evaluating domains.
As far as monitoring the effectiveness of my use of cues, questions and advance organizers I am going to have to try a few different things. I think I will ask my principal or instructional specialist to come and observe a lesson. During this lesson I will be asking them to focus on my use of questioning by counting and evaluating the type of questions I use during the lesson. I want to be sure to get to the higher-level order of questioning. I am gong to change my photos for my unit introductions and then monitor this effectiveness by reviewing students questions and quick writes to see if their answers are deeper and more in-line with unit objectives. I will also watch to see if their journal entries are anymore analytical in response. If they are then I will know that the changes are working.
For me, this chapter serves as a reminder that even if you believe you are using the best effective practices possible, it is still important to stay diligent to the practice. I need to take a little time to review my teaching with these methods and make sure I am staying true to the intention and form of each of these ideas.
One of the strategies I want to use in my classroom is asking more higher-level questions. I know I ask my students lots of questions throughout the day, but they are often recall questions. I think one of the reasons why most of my questions are lower-order is because they seem more efficient. They are quick checks to see whether your students understand the information and don’t require a discussion. It would be better to choose a few higher-level thinking questions and have students really think deeply than to answer a lot of lower-order questions. One way I can be sure I am asking more higher-level thinking questions is to write some out on post-its while I am doing my planning. Then I can keep track of how many higher-level questions I am asking.
If a teacher complained about the time it takes to prepare an advance organizer I would explain that not only will the information help the students have a deeper understanding of the information, but it will also help you as a teacher to focus on what is really important. The advance organizer can also be used throughout the unit of study, so it can be used over and over. It can also be something that students add to, so the teacher doesn’t necessarily provide all the information.
I want to ask more higher-level thinking questions in my classroom because I think it will demand more analytic thinking and will lead to a deeper understanding of what we are studying. Most of the questions I ask are simple recall questions and I want to change this so students are thinking more deeply about their learning. I often ask a lot of questions during my guided reading groups. Oftentimes I feel a lot of pressure to keep moving along with my reading groups so I can meet with as many groups as I can. The first thing I often cut-out are the higher-level questions. If I ask more higher-level questions, this would help students with their reading comprehension because they would be more focused on the meaning. I could monitor the effect of the questions by seeing if students’ comprehension and retellings of stories progresses. I could use the Developmental Reading Assessment to see if their comprehension improves after implementing higher-level questions.
Hi Hope,
I love your idea of holding up a picture of a clock as a visual for wait time. I learned about wait time when I took classes about how to effectively teach students who are learning English. Since taking these courses I have always given students wait time, but I don't have a visual for it. Thank you so much for the wonderful idea!
If a teacher complained to me about the time involved with the use of advanced organizers, I would assume that they didn’t have a very good understanding of this strategy. Expository organizers could be something that is teacher created, or it could be some piece of related reading that would provide and or activate prior knowledge for students. A narrative organizer could be a personal story like the example provided in the text, or perhaps a picture book related to the topic to be studied. Skimming as a form of an advance organizer would only be taxing on a teacher’s time in the sense that the process of skimming would need to be taught, practiced, and reinforced in order for it to be a valuable strategy for students. Finally, graphic advance organizers are so readily available and easy to produce that I don’t see them as requiring a great deal of time to prepare. The bottom line is that the use of advance organizers has been proven to have a significant impact on student learning, so the time that is spent planning and preparing should be worth it to a teacher who is focused on improving teaching and learning. I think skeptics might be surprised that many of these activities/organizers are things that they’re already doing and using. But the use of this strategy should be explicit and specific toward a desired outcome, not just something that is done without thought or purpose.
As a Title I teacher, I have lots of mandates that have to be considered. One being, that the curriculum I use is usually very scripted in nature. I am constantly disappointed by the low-level questioning that seems characteristic of such programs, so I’ve made it a point to add my own higher-level questioning as a way to enhance the curriculum. I’ve also been focusing on preparing students for a reading passage by exposing them to word lists. I ask students to use the word lists to make predictions about what we’ll be reading. It’s a good time for us to discuss what they already know, what they are unfamiliar with, and what connections they might be able to recognize between words. This is a simple way to activate prior knowledge. I’ve also been working to improve my older students’ comprehension by presenting a focus question (usually a question that is asking about a universal theme) prior to reading so that they may read with more of a purpose.
In thinking about how I will monitor the effects of cues, questions, and advance organizers on student learning, I am reminded of the higher level nature of the questions they are asked to answer on high-stakes standardized assessments. Their performance on these tests is one way that we can monitor the effectiveness of this strategy. But, on a more day-to day basis, I am beginning to notice that students are asking these questions without prompting by me. Sometimes they’ll stop and ask, “Can I make a prediction?” or “”I wonder why…?” This is encouraging and tells me that all the modeling and question asking is having an effect.
• How would you respond to a teacher who complains that there just isn't time to prepare the organizers?
I think a teacher who argues that they don’t have the time to prepare advanced organizers truly does not know what advanced organizers are and how to use them. They don’t have to be labor intensive; in fact, they are less labor intensive than assigning, collecting, correcting, and recording typical “homework.” I would say to a teacher who complains that advanced organizers take too much time, put your typical homework requirements aside, and try a few simple advanced organizers. They will soon see that they are not as difficult and labor intensive as they originally thought.
• What will you do to improve the effect of using cues, questions, and advance organizers in your classroom? – Will you make changes?
First, I am really eager to try to incorporate the use of advanced organizers in a truly effective way as a component of my homework requirements. I want to see the impact these may have on my students learning the following day if they “pre-load” some information. What I’m thinking is give them a reading, a reflective writing, or a topic to be research a couple of day per week and have the write down a few thoughts prompted by questions I give them. This would take the place of their 20 minutes of writing I have them do for their homework cycle/menu tasks each night.
As far as cues, I would like the use of them in my classroom in a more formalized manner. I use cues and questioning, sometimes I feel I use them well, but I feel that they are, at other times, not as thought out as I would like them to be. I would like to focus on my cues and questions in all areas of my instruction so they are more purposeful, planned, and intentionally delivered though out all of my instruction. If I can get there, I would like as many cues and questions to be displayed for students so my visual learners can further benefit from this strategy.
• How might you monitor the effects of cues, questions, and advance organizers on student learning?
I think through careful observation. For example, spend a couple of days being “lazy” about your approach to cues and questions. Observe the participation from the class, accuracy of responses, and depth of knowledge presented. Then, change your focus. Be thoughtful, careful, and meaningful about developing and delivering cues and questions in your instruction. Observe what happens. Are students responses more impactful, thoughtful, and deeper. Then reflect on the outcomes you witnessed.
Hi Hope,
We had the same take away point from this chapter. I also was struck by the information to focus on what is important and not unusual. I LOVE the idea of actually showing the students a clock to remind them (and yourself) to give wait time. First of all it’s a visual and second of all, wait time is a difficult thing (even for us trained professionals…and if you’ve ever been on the east coast, prob. even harder for us here as we speak so fast ;) )
I think your plans to measure if there is improvement in student retention and performance are good ideas. Your ending point is excellent, yes, we all need to revisit, reflect and evaluate our teaching methods! A great reminder.
Hello Molly,
You plans to write out the post it notes when doing your plans is an excellent way to be sure to include higher order questioning (and/or projects or activities) to check understanding.
Have you seen Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy? Of course, as with anything, you can just google it, but here’s a link to show you a quick visual of the differences.
http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm
Personally, I like the newer version better, for some reason it’s easier for me to understand and remember.
Hi Sarah and Brad,
Great points, as you said graphic organizers are easy to find and make so they truly don’t take a lot of time on the teachers part. But if teachers do put a little thought and effort into creating the organizers the better the results will be. I think that’s great that your students are starting to ask those questions! Def. your efforts are paying off because these are the skills that strong readers use! Good job! :D
Great answer Brad! I would have to agree, I would also think that the teacher didn’t know what they were or how to use them. ;) As Molly stated above developing your cues and questions when planning your lessons will create more intentional and purposeful questions and cues. Having them displayed not only helps your visual learners but also lets the students know what is important for them to focus on.
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful posts this term. We hope that you have a great Spring! Mary and Jackie
Hope,
I love your quick write idea. Holding a picture up is a great way to bring up prior knowledge, introduce a new unit, generate questions, and dig in to learning! Fortunately it is Kindergarten appropriate and I can use your brilliant idea in my classroom! Thanks for sharing!
If a teacher complained about the time it takes to use advance organizers, I would listen to him/her and empathize with the challenges of teaching so much in such a short amount of time. Then I would try to explain to the best of my ability why I use them and how they have increased learning in my class and made instruction more efficient in the long run. I would challenge them to start by using graphic organizers in class, since this requires the least amount of preparation. I would show them the graphic organizers I have had success with and make copies if he/she wanted to use them. Then I would share how I have used other advance organizers in class. By showing him/her how they have worked for me, they might gain a better understanding of how they can utilize them themselves. As with everything else in teaching, the best way to start something new is to choose one thing to try and see how it goes. Over time, the teacher would be able to build more advance organizers into his/her curriculum and it would become easier. Sometimes teachers just need a little encouragement since we are given so much to do!
I remember learning about the importance of wait time in college. Reading this chapter made me reflect on my teaching and made me realize that I often don’t wait long enough before giving children opportunities to share. This might be why it is the same children who normally raise their hands in class.
This book has really helped me realize that I need to do a better job explaining why we do what we do. I don’t know why, but I do this thoroughly in some areas, and not at all in others. Like Hope, I think that I should explicitly teach why it is important to wait before calling on a child. Her idea of using a visual would be wonderful cue!
One of my goals this year was to isolate the most important things to teach and dig deeper in subject matter, rather than try to cover a little of everything. Utilizing higher level questions is one way I can help children gain a deeper understanding of what we are studying. I have not had any formal training in this area, but am well aware of the positive effects it can have on student learning. I do not currently write down which cues and questions before I teach. I think that brainstorming some higher level questions ahead of time and writing them down would help me to use higher level questions at a greater frequency. Eventually this type of questioning will become a regular part of learning in my class. It will also give me an opportunity to use wait time because the questions will involve more thinking.
I would monitor the effectiveness of using cues, questions, and advance organizers by looking at formative and summative tests. I would make comparisons between the children’s depth of learning over the years and examine the data I had collected. It is without a doubt in my mind that the results would prove that these teaching strategies increase comprehension and depth of learning.
I like to relate common interests with the target that we are trying to cover, in this I find that the students can relate to what I am trying to teach. Although this method can be a slippery slope if not kept in check, the students can go off in a different direction, or maybe even me. All in all this has been a good tool to have in my box of teaching tools.
Oh, great point Raquel. I'm so glad you mentioned it. It is important to listen to people, especially when their view or methods differ from our own and try to understand where they are coming from. First of all, this is respectful and second of all, I believe, it's best to assume good attentions of everyone. Lastly, if we know what their road blocks are, we can offer solutions without making the teacher feel they are being singled out. It's so easy to jump into the blame game. Well said, sometimes teachers just need a little support and encouragement!
Randy, it is indeed easy to get off track, but sometimes this is when the best learning takes place.
Thank you both. You've completed the course work and earned A's for the course. Have a great Spring.
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