“…learned helplessness is the student’s belief that he has no control over his ability to improve as a learner. Because he doesn’t believe he has the capacity, he doesn’t exert any effort when faced with a challenging work assignment or a new skill to develop.” –Zaretta Hammond You’ve seen these kids, haven’t you? …
The neurolinguist John Schulman once told me that the best way to learn a second language is to fall in love with someone who only speaks that language. Beyond providing motivation and practice, the neurochemistry of love and attachment stimulates the neuroplasticity of learning. Perhaps this can be turned into a more general statement—the best …
Felicia Cherry, my esteemed colleague and friend, is sharing a simple, innovative tool in our weekly That Thing You Do segment. Felicia is an instructional math specialist on a middle school campus in Texas. I first met Felicia in her role as an instructional specialist on an elementary campus in our district. I am so …
When my own children were small, I read a bit of parenting advice that encouraged intentionally spending time alone with your kids engaged in fun and/or productive activities. The article went on to say that working and playing alongside your child helped to “knit your hearts together”. That little phrase stuck with me over the …
I am so excited to introduce That Thing You Do! This new weekly segment will share tips from teachers who make the learning memorable for their students. Huge shout-out to Katherine Sokolowski who teaches 7th grade in central Illinois for guest blogging on the very first ever That Thing You Do segment. Katherine blogs …
When I first became an instructional coach and found myself planning with teachers, I focused almost exclusively on instruction. I’d had over two decades in education, had read dozens of professional books and attended countless teacher training sessions. I believed myself to be an expert on effective instruction. But several years ago everything changed. I …
With this post, the five-part series on creating an environment that supports strategy transfer comes to an end. That would be the end of the blog series—not the conversation, however. There is much more to discuss. (You can read the first four in this series here, here, here and here.) In this final piece on …
In the three previous posts on strategy transfer (here, here and here), we looked at the elements of creating a system whereby students engage in the powerful work of moving from single use of a teacher-coached strategy to the independent, autonomous use of the most effective strategies chosen from a repertoire at the appropriate time …
Creating a coaching system and teaching a repertoire of strategies are the first two steps in creating an environment where students can move toward independence in applying comprehension strategies. These two components of strategy transfer in reading instruction were addressed here and here. The third critical element in designing a system for strategy transfer is …
I hear it all the time–“My students do a great job applying specific strategies during instruction, but when they are on their own, they struggle to apply the strategies they’ve learned and practiced.” Teachers work tirelessly teaching and modeling thinking strategies during reading instruction. Students work hard learning and applying those strategies as they read …
