PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION GUIDE [PDF]

Differentiation is an important strategy for helping all students succeed, and it is having positive effects on achievem

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SUPPLEMENT TO PHI DELTA KAPPAN

*

for the September 2013 issue

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION GUIDE By Lois Brown Easton

Contents 3

Guide to Broadening the view of differentiated instruction Seth A. Parsons, Stephanie L. Dodman, and Sarah Cohen Burrowbridge Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (1), 38-42

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Guide to Building a pedagogy of engagement for students in poverty Paul C. Gorski Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (1), 48-52

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Guide to Learn more: Show what you know David Bergin, Christi Crosby Bergin, Bridget Murphy, and Teresa Van Dover Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (1), 54-60

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Applications



Using this guide This discussion guide is intended to assist Kappan readers who want to use articles in staff meetings or university classroom discussions. Members of PDK International have permission to make copies of the enclosed activities for use in staff meetings, professional development activities, or university classroom discussions. Please ensure that PDK International and Kappan magazine are credited with this material. All publications and cartoons in Kappan are copyrighted by PDK International, Inc. and/or by the authors. Multiple copies may not be made without permission. Send permission requests to [email protected]. Copyright PDK International, 2013. All rights reserved.

Broadening the view of differentiated instruction By Seth A. Parsons, Stephanie L. Dodman, and Sarah Cohen Burrowbridge Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (1), 38-42

OVERVIEW OF THE ARTICLE Needing to broaden their concept of differentiation beyond planning for differences, during instruction teachers need to use ongoing informal assessment and pedagogical content knowledge to notice and respond to individual learning problems.

KEY POINTS • Differentiation is an important strategy for helping all students succeed, and it is having positive effects on achievement; however, it is usually focused only on planning instruction. • Differentiation leads to effective practices such as flexible grouping, curriculum compacting, tiered activities, and student contracts. • Adaptive teaching, during instruction, is a necessary component of differentiation. • Adaptive teaching is a real-time, moment-by-moment differentiation strategy that is less of a simple reaction and more of a planned awareness of unanticipated issues and a readiness and an ability to address them. • It is based on continual informal assessment of student progress. • It is based on knowledge about how students learn and, in particular, how they learn specific content. • It relies on well-honed conditional knowledge, “knowing why one is using particular instructional practices and knowing when to use them.” • It is reflection in action rather than reflection on action. • Both kinds of differentiation — planning and adapting — are needed.

DEEPEN YOUR THINKING 1. Think of yourself as a driver. What do you do before you start a trip? What happens when you encounter a difficulty, such as a closed road, during the trip? In what ways does driving relate to differentiated instruction? In what ways is it different? 2. As a student, did you experience differentiated instruction in any way? What was it like? 3. To what extent do you think teachers today engage in differentiated instruction? What promotes this practice? What hinders it? 4. What actions might teachers take when they encounter an unanticipated problem in the middle of instruction? Which of these promote success? Which do not? 5. What might prevent a teacher from engaging in adaptive differentiation? 6. How is reaction different from adaptation? 7. How is formative assessment important in terms of planning and adapting?

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EXTEND YOUR THOUGHTS THROUGH ACTIVITIES FOR GROUP DISCUSSION Formative assessment is key to planning. The teachers in this article use formative assessment as a way to plan how they will differentiate. This type of formative assessment may be formal — a pretest, performance on a prerequisite, an inventory, response to an introductory lesson, surveys, etc. Formative assessment is also important for adaptive differentiation. With colleagues, examine the following strategies for differentiation during instruction. Decide on the benefits and barriers for each one. If possible, create the following chart and record your ideas on this chart. Add strategies suggested by your group.



Strategy for differentiation during instruction

Possible benefits of strategy & how to maximize them

Observation during a walkaround Direct questions to individuals/groups Listening in to pair-share Listening in to small-group discussion Listening to whole-group discussion Reviewing exit and admit slips Reviewing learning logs Reviewing graphic organizers students complete during instruction Asking students to evaluate themselves on learning Having students present their learning Looking at their whiteboards Listening as students teach each other the concepts Having students self-group according to difficulties and addressing the groups Giving a quiz midway through instruction Having students write items for a quiz Training students to use a signal for not understanding Having students raise their hands if they don’t understand Having students complete a mid-lesson sentence, such as “The most important thing about. . . .” Other Other Other

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Possible barriers & how to overcome them

Building a pedagogy of engagement for students in poverty By Paul C. Gorski Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (1), 48-52

OVERVIEW OF THE ARTICLE Although poverty seems to be an insurmountable system problem, educators can take action today in their own classrooms and schools to improve educational opportunities for children from impoverished families and communities. KEY POINTS • It is probably not within any single educator’s sphere of influence to eradicate poverty, but each educator can work toward that and, at the same time, take low-level (classroom and school) and high-level actions to mitigate the effects of poverty. • The basis of these actions is honoring “the expertise of people in poor communities — to team with them as partners in educational equity.” • Instead of lowering expectations for poor students, raise them and provide effective “learner-centered” teaching. • Consider how hard it may be for parents and guardians to participate in school life and offer assistance, such as transportation and child care, to help them be a part of the school; help families see school as a positive environment for themselves and their children. • Instead of eliminating the arts in favor of the basics, keep the arts in the curriculum for all students, and recruit local artists and musicians to help. • Keep physical education, in some form, in the curriculum, especially since students who are physically fit do better academically than those who are not. • Make sure that stereotypes of poor families are not incorporated in classroom materials. • Ensure that students have positive experiences with literacy. • Work with community agencies, including local farms, to link education with social and health services; increase health awareness and services in schools. • Reduce class sizes to personalize education for students.

DEEPEN YOUR THINKING 1. What “markers” or characteristics identified children in poverty when you were growing up? (The author mentions poster board.) 2. What do you know about poverty in schools in your own community now? 3. What are schools in your community doing to ameliorate poverty? 4. The author writes, “As long as inequality abounds, so will those pesky achievement gaps. That, I’m afraid, is a certainty.” What evidence do you have to support or refute this statement? 5. The author recommends that, even if individuals cannot remove poverty, they can work to improve educational opportunities for children from impoverished families. What policies and school conditions support that kind of effort? What policies and school conditions hamper that kind of effort?

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6. In what ways do schools and districts honor the author’s plea that people in poor communities are treated as partners? In what ways do they not do so? 7. In what ways are people in poor communities treated as having an intellectual deficiency? 8. What specific classroom strategies would you use to express high expectations and provide support for success?

EXTEND YOUR THOUGHTS THROUGH ACTIVITIES FOR GROUP DISCUSSION The author cautions against a well-known stereotype of poverty: the hobo. Many myths and misunderstandings about poverty create stereotypes like the hobo. With colleagues, consider these statements about poverty in the United States (World Visions, n.d.). Use the following template to focus your discussion:



Why people believe the myth

What educators can do to counteract the myth

Myth #1

Myth #2

Myth #3

Myth #4

Myth #5

Myth #6

Myth #7

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What YOUR institution can do to counteract the myth

Myth #1: Even if you’re poor in the U.S. you’re doing pretty well. The Reality: The U.S. ranks near the bottom of the world’s wealthiest countries in how well it cares for its children in poverty. Out of 24 nations, the U.S. ranks between 19th and 23rd in critical areas of health, education, and material well-being (UNICEF, 2010). Myth #2: No one goes hungry in America. The Reality: One in six Americans lives in a household that is “food insecure,” meaning that in any given month, they will be out of money, out of food, and forced to miss meals or seek assistance to feed themselves. Nationally, more than 50 million Americans were food insecure in 2011 — a 39% increase from 2007. Among the hungry are nearly 17 million children (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2012). Myth #3: Poverty has little lasting effect on children. The Reality: Research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children’s well being. Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and it can contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor physical and mental health. Risks are greatest for children who experience poverty when they are young and/or experience deep and persistent poverty (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2012). Myth #4: Few U.S. children are homeless. The Reality: More than 1.6 million of the nation’s children go to sleep without a home each year. Homeless children experience a lack of safety, comfort, privacy, reassuring routines, adequate health care, uninterrupted schooling, sustaining relationships, and sense of community. These factors combine to create a life-altering experience that inflicts profound and lasting scars (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2012). Myth #5: All U.S. children have equal opportunities to succeed in school. The Reality: • Children born poor, at low birth weight, without health coverage, and who start school not ready to learn often fall behind and drop out. • Teachers in high-poverty schools are more likely to have less experience, less training, and fewer advanced degrees than teachers in low-poverty schools. • 22% of children who have lived in poverty do not graduate from high school, compared with 6% of those who have never been poor. • 32% of students who spent more than half of their childhoods in poverty do not graduate (Children’s Defense Fund, 2010; Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012). Myth #6: People who are poor are lazy. Fact: More than 10.5 million people in poverty formed the “working poor” in the U.S. in 2010, meaning they were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). Myth #7: Those living in poverty just want to stay there. Fact: Millions of Americans move in and out of poverty over a lifetime. More than half the U.S. population will live in poverty at some point before age 65 (Urban Institute, 2010).

Reference World Vision (n.d.). U.S. poverty myths. www.worldvisionusprograms.org/us_poverty_myths.php

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Learn more: Show what you know By David Bergin, Christi Crosby Bergin, Bridget Murphy, and Teresa Van Dover Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (1), 54-60

OVERVIEW OF THE ARTICLE A K-5 school that instituted public presentations by students of projects stemming from their own interests found not only high levels of motivation but also more appropriate use of media and improved writing skills. KEY POINTS • Performance can motivate students and adults to learn and put forth substantive effort. • A K-5 school decided to offer students the opportunity to perform or present something that interested them, something unrelated to classroom expectations or requirements. • Through the Above and Beyond program the school also hoped to inspire students to use media appropriately and improve their writing skills. • Although entirely voluntary, in the second year, performances involved 69% of the students in this highly diverse school, for a total of 783 projects. • Other incentives included stickers for students’ “Passports for Learning,” individual time with the principal, and a display of the project in the school hallways, along with a photograph of the student creator. • Although the other incentives were important, when the public presentation of projects was eliminated in the third year (because it took too much time from instruction), participation nearly ceased. • The authors compare public performance of self-initiated projects to extracurricular activities — competitive and noncompetitive — describing the Above and Beyond projects as noncompetitive because the outcomes were “wins” for all. • Citing research, they describe self-selected projects and performances as opportunities for students to act autonomously, choose to highlight their own abilities, set goals, and reach closure on something personally meaningful.

DEEPEN YOUR THINKING 1. What motivates young people? To what extent are these motivational factors incorporated in today’s approaches to education? 2. Were opportunities to present or perform part of your own education? If not, would you have liked to present or perform? If so, how did the opportunities to present or perform affect you? Were they motivating? 3. What are the main characteristics of opportunities to present or perform in schools today? For example, are these opportunities competitive or noncompetitive? Are they organized by adults? Can students custom-design their performances? Do students set their own goals to prepare for their performances? How are students’ performances celebrated? 4. How might an opportunity to perform or present be different if required, as opposed to being voluntary? 5. How might an opportunity to perform or present be different if NOT based on a student’s personal interest and a self-selected topic for learning? 6. What do you think about the authors’ description of teachers’ skepticism about low-socioeconomic-status students and their interest in doing something extra to learn, something after school?

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7. Why would public performance or presentation — which takes effort — be more motivational to students than receiving stickers, praise from the principal, and a photograph with project work in a school hallway? 8. What would happen to Above and Beyond if it were made mandatory? EXTEND YOUR THOUGHTS THROUGH ACTIVITIES FOR GROUP DISCUSSION The authors’ story of a K-5 school that addressed motivation can serve as an open-ended case study. The authors don’t describe what the school decided to do next, after the public performances were relegated to classrooms and the extrinsic motivators were insufficient to sustain student interest. Performances in classrooms were not as motivating as the school assemblies. Use the Peeling the Onion Protocol (Easton, 2009) with colleagues to determine what the school might do next. Select one member of your group to act as presenter in the following steps, using this question as the key question: What can this school do, related to the Above and Beyond program, to motivate students? OVERVIEW This protocol is good to use when someone has an issue that needs to be addressed. The person who would like to bring the issue to the table does not necessarily need to be the one who HAS the issue, merely someone who wants to engage in the discussion. This person should prepare to share as much as possible with others what the issue is — its history, context, effect, etc. The presenter should come up with one or two key questions that focus the issue. More than one person — a pair or group — may function as the presenter, and their presentation and the question(s) become the “text” of the protocol. Number of participants: Presenter and facilitator plus six to 10 participants Time required: About 55 minutes, not counting Introductions and Orientation (first time only) Steps (with approximate timing for a 55-minute protocol)

Step #1: Introductions and Orientation (about 5 minutes, the first time only) • If people don’t know each other, be sure they introduce themselves. Duplicate a copy of this protocol and share it with participants, going through the steps and noting the time.

Step #2: Description of issue (about 10 minutes) • The presenter describes the issue as fully as possible while participants take notes. If the presenter has any written materials related to the problem or issue, these should be distributed. The presenter asks one or two key questions, which the participants write down.

Step #3: Writing (about 3 minutes) • The participants and presenter free write on the issue and the key question(s). • The presenter then withdraws from the group, sitting so that the dialogue of the participants can be heard (and so the presenter can take notes) but in a way that prevents eye contact. The participants take on the issue, making it “their own,” wrestling with it, as the presenter listens in.

Step #4: Round One (about 10 minutes) • The facilitator (or a participant, as desired by the group) should select one of the questions/comment starters below for this round. The presenter is silent and takes notes. kappanmagazine.org

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• Participants respond to the starter, but not in round-robin style. Instead, they thoroughly discuss what one participant said in response to the starter before going on to what someone else responds. They may concur, differ, offer comments, ask questions, suggest examples, or provide details. Possible comment starters: “What I heard [the presenters say] is . . . ” “One assumption that seems to be part of the problem/dilemma is . . . ” Or, “One thing I assume to be true about this problem is . . .” “A question this raises for me is . . .” “Further questions this raises for me are . . .” “What if . . . ?” Or, “Have we thought about . . . ?” Or, “I wonder . . . ?” Step #5: Round Two (about 10 minutes) • The facilitator (or a participant, as desired by the group) selects another of the questions/comments above for this round. The presenter is silent and takes notes. • Participants respond to the starter as described in Step #4. Note: The rounds can continue as long as there is time.

Step #6: Presenter reflection (about 10 minutes) • The presenter reflects aloud about what was heard, not in a defensive way but in a thoughtful way, trying to build on the ideas that were generated. • Participants are silent, taking notes.

Step #7: Debriefing (about 5 minutes) • The whole group debriefs both on the content and the process of the protocol and continues open discussion.

Critical elements This is called “Peeling the Onion” because the process is rather like peeling an onion, getting deeper into an issue or problem with each starter or layer of the onion. It is hard to know exactly which starter should be used first, but the first one, above, is the most likely since it asks people to reframe what they heard before going on to deep discussion of what they heard. This protocol is not about solving the problem or resolving an issue. It is, like the other protocols in this section, oriented toward deeper understanding of the problem or issue in an effort to surface and explore solutions and resolutions. Tips for the facilitator The facilitator doesn’t need to choose the best starter questions; participants can determine these. However, participants should spend very little time choosing questions — in order to reserve plenty of time for the dialogue that ensues. People naturally want to jump to solutions or resolutions, so this is something the facilitator should prevent, reminding them that a solution or resolution is not the outcome of the protocol; clarity and insight are the goals.

References Easton, L.B. (2009). Protocols for professional learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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Applications This Professional Development Guide was created with the characteristics of adult learners in mind (Tallerico, 2005): • Active engagement

• Relevance to current challenges

• Integration of experience

• Learning style variation

• Choice and self-direction As you think about sharing this article with other adults, how could you fulfill the adult learning needs above? This Professional Development Guide was created so that readers could apply what they have learned to work in classrooms (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001): • Identifying Similarities and Differences

• Summarizing and Note-Taking

• Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

• Homework and Practice

• Nonlinguistic Representations

• Cooperative Learning

• Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback

• Generating and Testing Hypotheses

• Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers As you think about sharing this article with classroom teachers, how could you use these strategies with them? References

Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J.E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Tallerico, M. (2005). Supporting and sustaining teachers’ professional development: A principal’s guide (pp. 54-63). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

About the Author Lois Brown Easton is a consultant, coach, and author with a particular interest in learning designs — for adults and for students. She retired as director of professional development at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Estes Park, Colo. From 1992 to 1994, she was director of Re:Learning Systems at the Education Commission of the States (ECS). Re:Learning was a partnership between the Coalition of Essential Schools and ECS. Before that, she served in the Arizona Department of Education in a variety of positions: English/language arts coordinator, director of curriculum and instruction, and director of curriculum and assessment planning. A middle school English teacher for 15 years, Easton earned her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona. Easton has been a frequent presenter at conferences and a contributor to educational journals. She was editor and contributor to Powerful Designs for Professional Learning (NSDC, 2004 & 2008). Her other books include: • The Other Side of Curriculum: Lessons From Learners (Heinemann, 2002); • Engaging the Disengaged: How Schools Can Help Struggling Students Succeed (Corwin, 2008); • Protocols for Professional Learning (ASCD, 2009); and • Professional Learning Communities by Design: Putting the Learning Back Into PLCs (Learning Forward and Corwin, 2011). Easton lives and works in Arizona. Email her at [email protected].

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