Target Teams
The sandy bottom of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea is littered with ancient ships that failed to navigate the prevailing winds, stormy waters, and resident shortcomings of their captains and crews.
In response at that time, the City of Alexandria built one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a structure that stood as the tallest structure on Earth for centuries. Made from stacked limestone with a burning furnace at the top, the Lighthouse at Alexandria set a standard for navigation that continued for more than two millennia.
Those seafarers who sought safe port are not unlike our students. And we are the architects who are called to provide a beacon that draws towards it every vessel, regardless of mast, sail or cargo.
The harbor was a place of hope in the world of empires. In the end, the work of our school is no different. Our students need well-lit paths towards productive ends. We hold the lamps that provide the distant horizon a consistent sign and clear direction.
How can we do that?
- Provide students ACCESS to the information, tools and strategies they need to be successful;
- Cultivate ADVOCACY in order to support students through struggle;
- Give students opportunities to practice essential ACADEMIC skills that transfer across subjects.
In response at that time, the City of Alexandria built one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a structure that stood as the tallest structure on Earth for centuries. Made from stacked limestone with a burning furnace at the top, the Lighthouse at Alexandria set a standard for navigation that continued for more than two millennia.
Those seafarers who sought safe port are not unlike our students. And we are the architects who are called to provide a beacon that draws towards it every vessel, regardless of mast, sail or cargo.
The harbor was a place of hope in the world of empires. In the end, the work of our school is no different. Our students need well-lit paths towards productive ends. We hold the lamps that provide the distant horizon a consistent sign and clear direction.
How can we do that?
- Provide students ACCESS to the information, tools and strategies they need to be successful;
- Cultivate ADVOCACY in order to support students through struggle;
- Give students opportunities to practice essential ACADEMIC skills that transfer across subjects.
Explicit patterns of instruction that integrate Access with - not in addition to - lessons and activities
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DEVELOP AND USE SHORTCUTS TO CLASS INFORMATION
Despite our belief that kids are better at technology than adults, their skills are fleeting: sharp at the edge of social media, but dull at the undercurrent of organization. What can you do to make sure students have no-questions-asked access to agendas, calendars and assignments? REQUEST A CUSTOM SHORT URL BUILD IN WAYS TO INCREASE WEEKLY GRADE AWARENESS "Fine." It's what every kid tells every parent about every day at school. Even if it's not. Force students to face the music and increase their access to their own performance. What can you do to make grade checks more than a product of episodic panic? ENFORCE HABITS OF ORGANIZATION Chromebooks are the new Trapper Keepers - and equally misused. While the tools are right there (Chrome, Drive, Keep) many times they sit idle while organization remains the No. 1 obstacle to student success. What can you do to move your practice from hoping they use those tools to suggesting they use those tools to requiring they use those tools? PROVIDE STUDENTS TOOLS TO MANAGE TIME Did hear about the Procrastinators Club meeting? Postponed. Of course it was! Think about the discipline it takes to plan ahead. One of the more widely used calendaring tools is the Final Exam Study Planner. How could we take the spirit of that tool and apply it to earlier tests, projects or other assignments and deadlines? BE INSISTENT WITH ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY Students who can't access the right words can't access success. Like organization, it's a non-negotiable. What can you do to ensure students know the key vocabulary in your content and are able to use it in speaking and writing? MAKE TIME AND SPACE FOR STUDENT CONFERENCES Of all the resources we want students to access, you are the most important. That time is invaluable - but difficult to make happen. What can you do to create time during the day/class period to meet with students individually? |
RESOURCES
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Explicit patterns of instruction that build awareness and strengthen resolve
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CREATE WAYS TO ILLICIT STUDENTS' STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Students who don't know their strengths and weaknesses can't self-advocate because they don't from where they need to grow or change. As teachers, we are in the business of telling students all the time what they are good and not good at. What can you do to help students better address those questions and initiate their answers? GROW THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF FAILURE Would students agree that FAIL is just the First Attempt in Learning? Doubtful. Certainly not as long as the letter F is inseparable from that term. What can we do to change that? What can we do to chip away at the notion that this fixed mindset prevents an adaptable definition of failure? REDUCE BARRIERS TO STUDENT-INITIATED QUESTIONS On a scale of 1-5 the rank of a student announcing in front of others that he or she is unsure about something is around a 7.5. Students with the greatest obstacles to asking questions - self-inflicted or not - are also the ones that should have the most questions. What can we do to lower those barriers? How can use tools that allow for anonymity or privacy? How can we use question seeds to plant in the "audience" as a way to slowly pivot from teacher-initiated questions? EXPLORE WAYS TO BUILD A CULTURE OF APPROPRIATE SELF-CONFIDENCE It would be great if a poster could do the job, but like a wagon with no horse to pull it, we're not getting anywhere with just a cool picture and a hype quote. They need a certain degree of saturation - what the see, hear, do - for anything to sink in. It's amazing how many students are not convinced we believe in them. Again, this is more true for the the students that need it most. What can you do to move that mindset? USE A RUBRIC FOR MORE THAN CALCULATING POINTS Rubrics are essential tools, but students rarely invest in them as much as we do. Rubrics can be a report on achievement, but also a recipe for improvement. How we write the rubric makes a difference. How can we construct a rubric, and the strategies we use to share them, in order to value both points and progress? |
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Explicit patterns of instruction that build essential academic skills that transfer to every class
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TOOLKIT FOR TEXT
Your toolkit for text is filled with the methods and materials that help you comprehend what you read. You have habits, built over years of experience as a reader, that you employ to help you know and grow. We need to help students build their own toolkit for text. It opens the gateway to making sense of new information and growing their ability to do something with it. How can you build text-dependent learning opportunities? V IS FOR VOCABULARY Students who have not been in an environment where vocabulary is routinely taught are nearly 6,500 words short of their peers by Junior year. If we want students to be literate in our content areas, they must unlock their ability to use the right words at the right times. TEACHING THE TRIANGLE Putting together different pieces of information - such as text, graphics, data - is a Bermuda Triangle for students. When students “don’t know” something, many times it is not a matter of not knowing the content, but not having the skill to put an answer together. Working through a process, even when the parts of the process are understood individually, can be difficult when they are combined. THE ART OF ARGUMENT Students want to live in a world of persuasion, but need to be skilled at argument. Argument is the art of supporting your opinion with facts and evidence, not just preference. Building an argument is a sophisticated skill, yet when done right is a clear sign a student has reached understanding. Good arguments are evidence of critical thinking. MADE TO MEASURE Effective teaching and learning is rooted in feedback. Feedback can close the gap between where your students are and where you want them to be. Anecdotes, artifacts and assessments each provide rich opportunities to provide students feedback. What is your framework for feedback? |
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