Anchor Posters in Social Studies

Anchor charts or anchor posters are visual aids to help students remember previously studied ideas.One blog, Coaching Chronicles describes anchor posters:

Anchor Charts are artifacts of classroom learning communities. An anchor, by definition, is an object used to hold something firmly in place. Anchors are a source of stability and security. Thrown overboard, the anchor stables the boat holding it firmly in a desired location. Likewise, an Anchor Chart displayed in a classroom learning community anchors student thinking while offering a source of visual reference for continued support [scaffolding] as the learner moves forward. Classrooms with rich anchor support leave little doubt about what a student is expected to learn and offer a “public trail” of thinking, a collection of learning.

Anchor charts are best when created with students during class. (Of course, to save time, I'm making some of mine this summer and will add things to them in class). What are some things we might want to "anchor" for students in the area of social studies?

Thinking Like a Historian
APPARTS
Reading Thoughts
Expository Essay Format
DBQ Essay Format
Word Walls with Vocabulary Words
APUSH Test Taking Tips

Whole Brain Teaching Conference

Two teachers, Nancy Gajewski and Patty Mayo (English teacher) attended a Whole Brain Teaching Conference on July 17th and 18th in Union, Missouri. They have provided us with information on Whole Brain Teaching.

I [Nancy] started researching Whole Brain Teaching after an old colleague and previous DCE teacher, Pattii Waldo recommended it. My first impression was - Wow! This stuff is strange! But the more I investigated their website, the more I liked what I saw. I liked that students were highly engaged and Chris Biffle is quite brilliant in terms of strategy when it comes to dealing with challenging students. I started watching "Coach B's" Tuesday night television broadcasts and implemented a few strategies the last month of school. The strategies worked well. Patty and I (along with 620 other teachers) attended a two day conference in Union, Missouri. Chris Biffle (founder) happened to be staying at our hotel so we asked him if we could get our picture taken with him. Here is information from the Whole Brain Teaching website.

Whole Brain Teaching (originally called “Power Teaching”) is a highly interactive form of instruction that delivers information to students in short “chunks.” Kids then teach what they have just learned to their partners, using hand-gestures to help remember specific vocabulary. While students teach each other, the teacher walks around the room to formatively assess who understands the lesson and who needs more instruction. Research shows that children retain more information when they have an opportunity to put it into their own words and use gestures to emphasize key instructional units… plus, it’s amazingly fun! Whole Brain Teaching was developed by Chris Biffle, Philosophy professor at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, CA (San Bernadino County). Fourth grade teacher Chris Rekstad is one of the whole brain teachers who has worked a lot with Chris Biffle.

Whole Brain Teaching makes claims that students learn better because they are using many parts of their brain. They have a research section on their websites which provides some statistics about student achievement from a few school districts. The claim regarding the use of "the whole brain" may be difficult for them to prove. All I know is  know it that it gets people focused in a quick, fun and efficient manner (We were on-task 98% of the two days in Missouri) and the use of gestures provide cues for students. I found several articles about the use of gestures and learning: Students' Gestures Boost Learning Gesture Give a Hand to Language and Learning, Teachers Gestures as a Means of Scaffolding, The Role of Gestures in Learning  The Role of Gestures in Geoscience Teaching and Learning, Why Kids Need to Move http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2012/04/advice-from-ot-if-you-want-children-to.html?m=1

Probably the best part of Whole Brain Teaching is how much the students are talking and teaching. Whole Brain Teaching is like "Think Pair Share" on steroids. The teacher is continually walking around and formatively assessing understanding.

Here is a great site which explains the Whole Brain Teaching basic components.The blog describes the Core Four and Class Rules:
The Core 4 are, simply put, the four main things you can incorporate into your class to implement Whole Brain Teaching quickly, effectively, and with immediate results each and every day.
They are:

1. Class-Yes
2. The Scoreboard
3. Mirror
4. Teach-Okay

They are meant to:

1. Bring the class together (Class-Yes)
2. Keep them motivated (Scoreboard)
3. Get them active (Mirror)
4. Build community and be accountable for their learning (Teach-Okay)

Here is another website which contains many Whole Brain Teaching videos. The program also provides many well-thought out strategies for challenging students. A "Super Improver's Wall" is also part of the program.

 

Pictures are credited to the blog Third Grade Thoughts: Reflections From My Little Classroom.

Social Studies Extracurriculars include a Vibrant and Successful Mock Trial Team

The 2012 Mock Trial season was a successful one for DC Everest,  and the program continues to grow with the help of the Wausau legal community (namely Greg Strasser, Robyn Kennedy, and Rick Cvyekus).  In an increasingly competitive climate Everest ran two teams at regionals with one of the teams placing second, and losing their only match to the team that took first.

The case this year dealt with a uniquely Wisconsin Northwoods issue, the problem of adverse possession in the form of two families disputing the ownership of a parcel of overgrown land.  Something like this usually only exists in areas that are sparsely populated and so most lawyers never see one of these cases in their careers.  However, given that this type of civil case can be very contentious and easily written to be balanced for both sides, it provided students with an excellent opportunity to hone their analytical and debating skills.
 

Formative Assessment and Social Studies Revisited

Two years ago the the Social Studies staff  looked at formative assessment. We looked at what we considered to be Eleven Attributes of Formative Asssessment. These attributes are as follows:

1) Partnership with Students

Formative assessment involves teachers and students working together to improve student learning (and teacher instruction).

2) Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes (also called learning targets) are what the students should accomplish during the lesson. Learning outcomes make sure that the learners have a clear view of what they should achieve. 

3) Success Criteria

Students must know what the success criteria is for the learning outcome. Teachers should provide models/exemplars for students. Students should be involved  in the discussion of the success criteria.

4) Collaboration with Colleagues

Teachers collaboratively determine the power standards, essential understandings and develop assessments for the learning outcomes. Teachers collaboratively gather data and develop plans for remediation.  

5) Daily Assessment Embedded in Lesson–Formative assessment takes place on a daily basis and is a part of the daily lesson.

6) High Level Questioning/Discussions

Teachers should use questioning which goes beyond the recall and comprehension levels by using Bloom’s taxonomy. They should collaborate with colleagues to develop high level questions which will elicit intellectual discussions.

7) Teachers as Observers and Data Collectors Formative assessment involves teachers observing students on a daily basis. It also involves collecting data about students’ learning and responding to the data.

8) Data is Used to Modify Instruction 

Teachers use the data from assessments to alter their instruction (provide corrective instruction) to assist students in learning. Assessments are only considered  “formative” if the information is used to adapt teaching and learning

9) Quality Feedback to Students

Students need feedback that will help them close the gap between their work and the learning outcome. Feedback should be about the qualities of a student’s work. 

10) Students Actually Use the Feedback

Students are given time to read teacher feedback comments. Students must act upon the feedback to close the gap.

11) Student self-evaluation and peer evaluation

Students analyze either their own work or a peer’s work in relationship to the success criteria. Students self-reflect on themselves as learners. 

 

We compiled 55 simple strategies to formatively assess students understanding of social studies.

We have made great strides in some of these areas. For example, #4 - teachers have been able to collaborate in their PLCs to determine what should be taught. They have developed remediation plans. We still have work to do and will continue to move forward in assessing student understanding of social studies concepts.
FOCUS
1) Staff will focus on developing several common formative assessments to assess student learning while they are in the middle of a unit so remediation can be done well before the final summative assessment. Hopefully this way there will not be as many students to remediate after the summative assessment. 

2) Use technology for quick feedback for students. Teachers will use a variety of ways to give common formative assessments. They will use the SMART Response system (clickers), Socrative iPad app, online textbook assessments, and other technology methods.

3) Additionally, teachers will assess writing formatively by allowing students time to write in class and checking student writing along the way (e.g., checking thesis statement, checking first body paragraph, checking student use of Thinking Like a Historian in the writing, checking refuting an argument).

Teachers will be encouraged to assess learning to informally assess student learning (e.g., listening to the questions students ask during or after class, listening to pair-share and small group discussions, collecting exit passes, etc.)
RESOURCES
James Popham (who recently spoke at the Minnetonka Institute) has a book on formative assessment entitled Transformative Assessment. The first chapter can be read online. Dylan Wiliam offers many practical ideas and great analogies in his book entitled Embedded Formative Assessment. 

 Discussion of Quick Response Systems

 

Using VoiceThread to pre-assess

  Using Smartboard, whiteboards, and student self-recording   TCI guy discusses informal assessment

 

Social Studies Staff Attend Minnetonka Institutes

Over the past three years several social studies staff members (along with other school staff) have fortunate to attend the leadership institutes put on by the Minnetonka School District. The Minnetonka Summer Institutes have cutting edge leaders in the field of education. Doug Reeves, Dylan Wiliam, Bill Daggett, and Mike Schmoker have been just a few of the top leaders who have spoken. The focus over the past three years has been on assessment of student learning and grading. Staff have come back to the district with sound ideas based on research. Being able to have staff attend these institutes has propelled us forward in terms of assessment. Handouts from this summer's sessions can be found at Minnetonka website and notes from the Bill Daggett, Ann Davies and Doug Reeves presentations can be found here.

Grading in Social Studies - Emphasis on What Students Know and Can Do

Social studies teachers grades 6-12 have come a lot closer to eradicating "toxic" grading practices by following last year's department guidelines.  Several social studies staff members have been involved in our district grading committee. Many have attended professional development opportunities (e.g., Minnetonka Leadership) and have read various books on current grading practices. 

Teachers are trying their best to make grades reflect what students know and can do. A few teachers have switched to the 4 (5) point grading scale while some are still using the traditional 100 point scale. Teachers have either gotten rid of extra credit or have significantly reduced the impact of extra credit!  They are not using zeros to average into grades. In most cases grades are based on unit summative exams, essays or DBQ writing experiences, and possibly a project-based learning product. Rubrics have been developed for most essay/project type assignments and staff have spent some time making sure they are all evaluating work in a similar manner. Daily homework is viewed as formative assessment and counts (depending on the grade level) between 0 -15% of the grade.  

Secondly, all teachers as part of their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have implemented retake policies that require students to retake unit exams if they score below 70 percent.  Students scoring over 70 % have the option to retake.  DCE Junior High policy requires teachers to accept the second score.  At the Senior High some teachers allow retake scores to reach a maximum of 90%.

Here are some good grading practices to use:

·   Do not grade practice (homework, classwork).
- Do not allow extra credit (or minimize the impact of it)

·   Use separate systems for grading behavior, attendance, lateness of work and work habits.

·   For missing work - require that the student does the work

·   Set high expectations for achievement
- Use systems that reflect highest level of learning (retakes, performance assessments)

·   Teach resilience/persistence

·   Proficiency scales instead of percentages

·   Use smaller, more frequent assessments
- Make sure that assessments really teach what we want student to know

Academic Conversations

 

Discussion is indeed an essential part of a university education. But not, alas, of K–12 education. As the Learning 24/7 study makes clear, there was evidence of “academic dialog and discussion” in only 0.5 percent of the 1,500 classes they observed (Learning 24/7, 2005). Despite the importance of academic dialog, most students don't engage in it until college or later— Results Now  - Mike Schmoker – Chapter 6 Authentic Literacy 

At D.C. Everest we had always tried to incorporate discussion into the classroom, but it was not until around 2006 that we discovered Socratic dialog.  After researching what Socratic discussions were we began to implement them via the use of Socratic Circles.  I read Socratic Circles by Matt Copeland and found his dual circles to be effective in my American History Seminar class.  Other teachers also began using Socratic circles and the department came up with some effective observation forms that students could use to gather data on their peers during discussion.  The most effective discussion model turned out to be the 4 by 1 which put the students in groups of 5 with one observer and 4 discussants.  With each agenda item the observer form would rotate.  Students were more apt to engage in discussion in the small groups.

Recently I read Academic Conversations by Jeff Zweirs which identified five conversation skills to help foster critical thinking.  The five discussion skills are as follows:

Elaborating, clarifying, and questioning

Supporting ideas with examples and evidence

Building on ideas

Paraphrasing

Synthesizing key ideas of the conversation

Interestingly enough, Zwiers uses symbols and gestures (posts them in the room) to get students to use the conversation skills automatically. I plan to integrate the teaching of these five skills into my discussion unit along with the skills that I have previously taught.

Another good book on the value of classroom discussion is Discussion as a Way of Teaching.These authors give many practical tips for thoughtful discussion in the classroom. They emphasis a reflection paper by students after the discussion as a way to see how their attitudes may have changed and what they learned during the discussion. 

Hmong Children's Book Zaj Lus is Published

The Oral History Project published a Hmong Children's Picture book entitled: Zaj Lus: A Hmong Children's Story Collection. The book contains four Hmong children's stories. A sample story can be viewed at the D.C. Everest Oral History site. The artwork was drawn by D.C. Everest student artists. The text in the book is written in both Hmong and English. Student authors read stories from book to elementary students. A book reception was held to share the book with the community. Student authors were honored with an award from Skipping Stones: An International Multicultural Magazine

iPads in Social Studies

  

One of our 9th grade American Institutions teachers is piloting the use of iPads in his classroom. Mr. Bergstrom was able to use them for the last two months of school once things were up and running. He has started a blog about using iPads in his classroom entitled the iPad Experience.  In one post he discusses the immediate feedback students received by using the iPads the the Socrative app. He was also able to have students analyze political cartoons using the iPads and an app.  Check out his blog. Mr. Bergstrom attended Minnetonka's Ipad Institute this summer. Here are the presentation notes from the Ipad Institute. Here is Minnetonka data that was collected regarding the use of ipads.