Jump Start

By -

  1. What do you do for students who arrive with significant academic gaps?
  2. How you will identify them?
  3. How you will you know you have made a difference?

This post highlights a recent discovery that will help  address question 1, that is a book written by Suzy Pepper Rollins,   Learning in the Fast lane, 8 ways to put ALL students on the road to achieve academic success.


Suzy argues that we spend too much time focussing on  filling the gaps rather than  moving forward. In otherwords we spend far too much time remediating rather than accelerating students.
 "instruction that aims to catch up lagging students or fix all their past problems ends up providing classroom experiences that are not compelling, rigorous, or engaging. Such instruction may inadvertently widen rather than close achievement gaps."


How do students feel?
sourced from http://cpl.org.nz/Our-services/Accelerated-Literacy-Learning-ALL/Northern-region


A colleague  likened this to someone falling off a boat while out on the harbour sailing. If someone who can't swim falls overboard , you don't jump in and teach them to dog paddle while the boat sails away, you haul them aboard and teach them to dog paddle as you keep sailing.

Acceleration comes with the usual logistical challenges - which students, who will teach them and when will we do this. Acceleration in this context is meant to be an enriching experience for students and  designed to encourage thinking, build vocabulary and scaffold missing pieces as they learn alongside their peers.



Learning in the Fast Lane is an essential guide that identifies eight high-impact, easy to use, research-based instructional approaches that will help you
  1. Generate thinking, purpose, relevance and curiosity
  2. Clearly articulate learning goals and expectations
  3. Scaffold and practice pre-requisite skills
  4. Introduce and practice key vocabulary
  5. Apply the new concept to a task
  6. Regularly assess and provide feedback (ie: formative assessment)







    More...


    read the first chapter of Learning in the Fast Lane  online here .

    listen to a podcast with Suzy Pepper Rollins  here


     watch a webinar  here

    Check out the effect of some of the evidenced based strategies that form the pedagogical basis for the Learning in the Fast Lane model here. An effect size of 0.4 or more is considered significant.


    Get Learning in the Fast Lane from Kohia Teachers Centre Bookshop


    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Seven Sites to build rich mathematical discussions

    By -
    We are often looking for ideas to have students work purposefully for short or longer bursts. This post has a collection of  seven sites that you and your students could work on independently, in pairs, small groups or as whole class  Would you rather ?  Would you rather began as a way for John Stevens to start his classes. It has evolved into a large collection of graded problems that ask students to choose an option and justify their choice using maths.  Visual Patterns.org A collection of over 400 patterns to begin rich discussions which can lead to a generalisation for the pattern. Collated by Fawn Nguyen , On the sidebar of her blog you will find links to others sites. Open Middle A huge collection of  problems sorted by topic and grade level. Open middle problems start and finish at the same point but offer multiple pathways through. Put together by    Nanette Johns on and Robert Kaplinsky Estimation 180 This site is curated by Andrew Stade...
    Read more

    RISKing Success

    By -
    Image
    Happy hump day - of course hump day means that there is not long until our students are leaving to write their exams. With that comes plenty of practice tests. I wonder what effect the results of these tests have on students mindset and motivation especially those that continually get Not Achieved ? Stiggins (2007) suggests we should look at the effect of assessment from the students point of view. from his research he notes that: For students who are succeeding For students who are Not Achieving Assessment Results Reinforce success Reinforce failure Which makes them feel Hopeful & optimistic Useless They think I am in control I can’t do this Feedback helps me Feedback is more criticism They become more likely to Revise Quit Take initiative Avoid doing anything Keep going when the going gets hard Simply give ...
    Read more

    teachers learning from teachers

    By -
    Image
    Today  Ormiston Senior College opened their doors to mathematics teachers to share how they are personalising learning utilising technology. Teachers came from Albany in the north to Onewhero is the south. I was definitely the kid with a new toy as I learned to drive a sphero. With a bit of trial and error however the sphero was off. I think the best day of school just got better. Many thanks to Ormiston Senior College, Subash and his department for hosting us - A great morning - lots of learning - and lots of ideas shared. Next stop Auckland Maths Association   AGM & Quiz Night Get a team (of 4) together  or join a team on the night Wednesday February 28th  Mt Eden Bowling Club, Epsom Ave, Epsom. Happy Hour 6-7pm AGM followed by quiz night, 
    Read more