Last Blog Ch.11 and 12

Final Posting for “From Telling to Teaching.” Ch. 11 & 12 .

Ch. 11 is brief and discusses the use of graphic organizers to help learners organize their thoughts and any new information. Norris reminds us that 4/5 of the brain processes visually, while 1/5^th processes words. The example she uses is how many of us have said,” I never forget a face but I’m not very good with names.” This example shows the importance of using graphic organizers.

Ch. 12 concludes this book with three facilitation skills that help to keep your class/training in the dialogue approach mode.

Wait time: Norris expounds on wait time, counting to five when asking open ended questions.  She is still adamant that she does not call on people in a bigger group unless she uses “invitational language”. Examples of this could be questions like “who would like to share?” I invite someone to give us an example.”

Did you know “silent” rearranged spells “listen”?

Affirming all voices:  A simple thank you and possibly using the speaker’s name is straightforward effective technique. It is good to add why you are thanking them: “I am glad you added that thought”......and repeat what the student said.

Overall Norris stressed that giving a voice to affirmations works well versus silent nods.

Weaving: Teacher becomes the “thread that holds the tapestry together. “ This suggested seemed harder. It requires the teacher have the ability to summarize what has been learned.

It is important to use weaving language to tie concepts together. Here is the final example from Norris, “We’ve heard so many great examples of adults as decision makers in their own learning. Hold these examples in your hearts and minds as we begin to examine some classroom strategies.”

In concluding my blog I must say I have learned a lot from the book I read, “From Telling to Teaching.”  Yes, I like the dialogue approach to learning and the use of open ended questions. In many ways Norris’s teaching suggestions reflect a lot of the theory I am learning in the AET program; in addition, this type of teaching is what I strive to do and I have added new ideas and techniques to my repertoire. Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you spend time teaching or training.

Seven steps to lesson planning

July 25

Ch. 9 & 10Norris again cites Vella as enlightening her to the seven steps to planning a workshop or class.

The answer to these questions lead the way to creating a learner centered class. Here are the  steps:

1.    Who-find out who your participants are?

2.  Why- What the learners need and why?

3.  When-Date and time of program.

4.  Where- What is the location? What does the training       space offer?

5.  What-You name what skill, knowledge is to be     taught, and what sequence it will be taught.

6.  What for-a written learning objective using action verbs.

7.  How-How will this lesson be designed so that the learners will have achieved the objectives set out for them?

There is a lot more detailed explanation in this book about lesson design. After examining my own lesson planning skills, I think I can take something away from Norris’ book and that is to spell out what you want students to learn. Of course if you are teaching daily this gets tedious, but I think revisiting learning objectives and even writing them on the board is a great way to “keep your eye on the prize.”

Lesson/workshop design-Needs assessment

July 20

Ch. 8 of “From Telling to Teaching”, transitions into another part of teaching specifically lesson design. As a review, the author revisits the meaning of “a dialogue approach to learning.” Another way to put this is a conversation, open ended questions are asked by the teacher, and small group interaction is personalizing the learning. But there is more to learning than just how information is delivered. Norris once again cites Jane Vella who I know some of my peers are blogging about. Vella’s  system of learning needs assessment involves three ways an instructor can gather information about learners and their needs....ask,study,observe.

·       Ask- send an email to the people you will be training asking several, what else but, open ended questions. An example of one question might be,” What strengths do you bring to this program? Or what do you believe would be most helpful to you to learn in this training? Asking is all about “taking the pulse” of the students.

·       Study-Read and find who your learners are. Read articles that will inform you about their work and field.

·       Observe-Understand by observing, a day in the life of your participants. Understand their special language, the daily challenges they face, their strengths.  This picture can go a long way in guiding your teaching.

It is important to educate yourself about who your learners are, their strengths and needs.

Ch. 7 reinforcing the learning

July 15^th

As promised in the last blog, I have been trying to ask more open-ended questions to my students. This type of questioning is leading to some interesting dialogue and feedback between me and the students.  It is like trying a new path on a hike you have been doing for years, the senses are more alert, you don’t know what to expect but it is somehow more satisfying.

Speaking of dialogue, Ch. 6 of “From Telling to Teaching” is about partner interaction. Norris believes most students need to connect their learning on a personal level and make meaning that way. She thinks having students connect to another student or in small groups in the classroom is an excellent method for students to personalize their learning, and create good energy in a classroom. Here are a few ways she suggests you can do that:

·       Howdy and quote-give members of small group each a quote on the topic you will be covering. Students then have to introduce themselves and talk about the quote.

·       Partner interview-have students interview one another using questions you developed related to topic to be covered.

·       Verbal list and share-this is an excellent warm up for students with literacy issues. Ask participants to list with a partner for example 5 holiday foods that are important in is/her family and share it with their partner.

·       Partner circle and share-Create an open-ended question, use 2 rows of chairs, teacher plays music at each interval students move to the next chair and talks to the next person about the open-ended question.

Norris references Jane Vella and says the deepest learning takes place in the affective domain and using open-ended questions that relate to that area can be very effective. She also recommends that small groups should include no more than 4 people. 

July 14

The final chapter (7) of part one of “From Telling to Teaching”, is about how to reinforce learning. Norris maintains that new learning needs to be reinforced. The language of that learning needs to be used so it is not lost. Teachers can help reinforce language (new learning) by creating closing and bridging activities that get students reviewing what they have learned.  Here are a couple of ways Norris suggests you can do that:

·       Teacher creates a checklist and student partners mark off what they understand and what needs clarification. Students help each other clarify terms and concepts.

·       Teacher creates “looking back” questions- “What was the most difficult part of this exercise for you?”, What was the highlight of this training for you?”

·       Bridging forward questions “What new writing skill do you think you will put in your next English paper (I just made this up)”.

·       Other closers may be familiar to some of you trainers out there-“What part of the workshop on managing stress made the most sense to you?”

·       Students create 2 columns on a sheet of paper labeled a-m, and n-z. Two learners together fill out the chart and put down any related terms, words, phrases they learned today. Then have students share their results with the class.

I like the techniques Norris is writing about here. They are simple activities that get students involved in what they are learning, and I think they can be adapted to lots of learning environments. I agree with her that getting engagement and personalizing learning is a great way to help students to understand the material. I am curious what my readers think?

More on asking open-ended questions

July 11th

Ch. 5 deals with open ended questions. Norris points out the 4 most popular questions teachers use in the classroom.

·         Closed questions that require yes and no answers

·         Recall questions-test students memories, an example is “What was the date of the Battle of New Orleans?"

·         Informational questions-questions that are used to gain information, “What is your name?”

·         Open ended questions-These are the questions teachers want to make sure they use in the classroom. Norris states that open ended questions require using deeper thinking skills.

Here is an example of 2 different ways to phrase a question:

·         “Name 2 books on leadership for the new millennium?”

·         “What do you believe any new book on leadership- to be relevant in our world now-needs to address?” (p. 38)

·         Which question is more effective in teaching students to think deeper? You guessed it the second one.

Here are a few examples of her greatest hit question starters....

“What questions do you have?”

“Tell me more about????”

“What do you think of????”

“What information do you need to make this clearer???”

Tomorrow I pledge to create a good open ended question to prompt my students to think deeper about sentence types!. Although I like this book, I have to think long and hard to apply this type of questioning to teaching English.  Perhaps I will use

  “What information do you need to make this clearer???” I love that question.

Last bit of worthy advice in Ch. 5 –wait time. This author recommends counting to five. 

July 5th- Learning Modalities

July 5, 2011

More on learning modalities in Chapter 4. It is challenging to incorporate all three modalities into your teaching. Here are some helpful hints from Joye Norris:

·         Use round tables for seating

·         Make sure all learners can see you

·         Use graphic organizers

·         Get people out of their seats!

·         Put something in a learner’s hand (does a pen count?)

·         Incorporate experiences that use hands on learning

The last bit of advice in this chapter is to make the class interesting. I tend to use comedy, self depreciating humor works well with me. But teaching grammar is not always a lot of fun. I wonder if you think about learning modalities (auditory,kinesthetic, visual) when you teach, and how do you make a class interesting. Just thoughts to ponder!

activate learning

July 1, 2011

Sorry for the delay in posting this blog. I left the book on an airplane and had to reorder!  I promise to blog more frequently and besides I truly like this book and all the very practical classroom applications Norris shares with her readers. She cites many other authors and their books and I will include those in my post whenever possible.  Chapter 3 covers how to activating prior learning in your students. The author states that we (educators) have to help students create brain addresses for new learning. I like this concept because I deal with dev-ed students and they often do not have good retention skills so I was interested to learn more.

Norris believes teachers need to activate prior learning regularly with students. She likes to use warm-ups that bring the students into the subject to be taught. Here is an example: Teaching nursing ethics, the instructor can ask students to turn to a partner (she is big on sharing with a partner) and describe a time the student was stuck between a rock and a hard place, what did the student do and why? How did he/she feel? Right away a simple conversation has anchored the topic of an ethical dilemma in the student’s mind. Here are some other techniques she recommends to help students activate prior learning in warm-ups:

·         KWL chart- with colored post it notes

·         Multiple Intelligence bingo-can substitute other topics

·         Passion posters-teacher places quotes around the room (in this case about stress) and ask students to stand near the one that speaks to them.

I plan on giving all of these a try this fall but already I am wracking my brain on how to integrate this into an English class. Final thought for you all...60% of us learn by seeing, 25% learn by doing, and 15% learn by hearing. It is important to use all three components when you teach. There lies the challenge.