Scaffolding Learning

          When I was a young girl, I wanted to ride a bike.  However, I had to start with a tricycle.  I needed to be close to the ground, and I needed the support of extra wheels.  However, after a couple of years, I was ready to ride a children’s bicycle.  Of course, it had training wheels, because I still needed the balance of two additional wheels at the back.  Next, I remember the day my father took off the training wheels so I could ride without them.  He still held on to the back of the seat, to make sure I learned how to keep my balance without the extra wheels.  Finally, he let go of the seat and let me ride by myself, one of the proudest days of my young life.

            That’s one way to think of scaffolding.  At the beginning of a new concept, students may need strong, consistent support so they don’t falter.  Then, lessen the support a bit, but still ensure that you have built in the scaffolding strategies, Next, pull back a bit, but still stay close by to make sure they are successful.  Lastly, they’ll try it by themselves and show they understand the concept without your help.

Optimism

Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.  Colleen Wilcox

Characteristics of a Rigorous Classroom

Last week, I was asked what I look for in a rigorous classroom.  Although there are a variety of things I look for, a couple of the major ones are questioning and structure of assignments/assessments.  With questioning, I pay attention to what the teacher asks (higher order questions of course) but also how the students answer.  Too often I see teachers asking higher order questions yet accepting lower level responses from students.  That's not rigorous.

Next, I look at the assessments, assignments, or tasks the teacher uses.  Where do they rank on Bloom's Taxonomy or Webb's Depth of Knowledge?  Are they complex or simple?  Do they require one step to complete, or are they multi-step?  Are students required to explain their thinking?  

Take a minute today to consider your own questioning and assessments.  How rigorous are they?

Lowered Expectations

I was listening to two teachers talking in a workroom a few weeks ago.  One commented, "Now that I've met his parents, I understand why he's the way he is!"  That may sound funny, and it may remind you of the old saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.", but it reinforces low expectations of students.  It's one of those comments that, subconsciously, means that we don't think a student can live up to high expectations.  A friend of mine remembered a comment she heard in a workshop:  "Your
DNA doesn't determine your destiny."  Isn't that powerful?  How do you view your students today?  Do you need to shift your expectations of any student?

A Pep Talk from a Student President

Literacy in Math

I ran across this blog entry about word problems in math.  Written by a professor at a university in Australia, the points are very relevant to our teaching.  Literacy is an important skill--especially in math, and she makes the point with a clear example.  It's worth your time!

Students often complain they can’t see the point of math - beyond basic arithmetic. In response, keen teachers look for ways to show them how math is relevant to their daily lives. Trigonometry is set inside problem solving about rugby ball angles and penalty kicks, probability is used to predict the winners of X Factor and Pythagoras’ theorem is applied to save people from a burning building. This shift to meaning and context in learning maths is laudable, but it does fundamentally change the nature of math teaching in ways that teachers are not currently trained for.

Rigor in Your Classroom: A Toolkit for Teachers

I'm very excited today.  My fourteenth book, Rigor in Your Classroom:  A Toolkit for Teachers, comes out next week.  It has over 200 tools to use to increase rigor in your classroom.  Topics include:  curriculum standards (Common Core and more), higher order questioning, strategies to scaffold learning, assessment, and extending your reach to parents, substitute teachers, and more!  Check it out.