Professional Development Workshop

Debra Hadley

RE5730

Dr. Gary Moorman

Fall 2011 Hickory

Focus of plan

The theme of this professional development is “First, you have to teach them how to learn …then you can teach them your content.”

The theoretical perspective on this is that teachers are afflicted by the “Curse of Knowledge.” I first encountered this idea in the book, Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. This is the phenomenon that makes it very difficult to remember or imagine what it is like to not know something once it has been internalized. Teachers are, to put it mildly, specialists in some realm of knowledge and so not all that objective. Teachers know lots and lots about some very specific content area. This makes them, and by extension their students, especially prone to victimization by the curse of knowledge. When a science teacher says the word lipids, she knows that it that means fatty acids or in regular terms – fat. But the student has no idea what a lipid is, so from the very start of the teaching moment, there is a critical gap. Anyone who has spent any time in the teacher’s lounge or around the lunch table will have heard statements that stem directly from the curse of knowledge. Teachers who are blinded by the curse of knowledge say things (with extreme exasperation) like,

“How could they NOT know that!?”

“I told them that 10 times, how could they not remember it?”

“Do I really have to dumb it down that far?!”

The other thing that teachers know is how to learn. Most teachers were successful students, and school was place that they enjoyed going to and that reinforced and improved their self-esteem. Because teachers know how to learn, they have the curse of knowledge on that as well. Some students have the skills needed to learn, and these are the ones who succeed in school without a lot of teacher prompting. To be honest, these kinds of students don’t really need a teacher. It is the struggling student who really needs the teacher and who needs to be taught how to learn before any content instruction can be meaningful.

So being able to identify the gap between what the student already knows and what she needs to know is key in helping any student – but particularly critical with the struggling student. Noting accurately and without judgment the state of the student’s current knowledge is the first step toward teaching anything. Actually, I think that simple idea is the genius of really great teaching. The really great teacher can still see or at least imagine what it is like to not know and so design work to get the student from where he is to where he needs to be.

Many very good-hearted people in the teaching profession are blinded by their own knowledge, and students suffer because of it. Effective teaching is not so much about what the teacher knows. Effective teaching is getting at least some part of what the teacher knows into the student’s heads.

Objectives

Note: Teachers will be asked to bring specific curriculum materials, Common Core or Essential Standards and student assignments with them for the hands-on planning work that is an important part of the workshop pieces.

Teachers will understand the “Curse of Knowledge” and see how it can be a drawback to effective instruction.
Teachers will understand the basic skills of the learning process from introduction to mastery including the concept that learning must be built upon what students already know.
Teachers will understand the different types of thinking as described by Buehl.
Teachers will explore a variety of strategies to help support and improve students’ basic learning skills.
Teachers will begin the work of applying the concepts and strategies to their specific curriculum as student assignments or units.

Instructional Activities

Brainstorming

Visual presentations (Prezi)

Large and small group discussion

Graphic Organizers

Lesson Planning

Reading

Self-directed research

Outline of Workshop

Icebreaker – Presenter and students will introduce themselves to the group.

1. Introduction: The Curse of Knowledge – Participants will be introduced to the theoretical perspective of the workshop with a Prezi. This part will introduce students to the “Curse of Knowledge” and its implications. It also will make the point that many students don’t know how to learn. The benefits of directly instructing students on how to learn are invaluable. Already the reader may hear the naysayer in the workshop. “That all sounds good Miss, but I don’t have enough time to cover what is on the (insert name of odious state- or federal-mandated test here) already. The answer to that teacher is that they don’t have time NOT to do this. Every minute spent teaching students how to learn will pay itself back with interest by having more engaged and productive students in class. If the students are working more efficiently, then that curriculum crunch will be lessened.

2. The Learning Process – Participants will brainstorm and record on a concept map ways that student learning breaks down in classrooms and their frustrations with trying to get students to really learn something. Participants will be given an overview of Guided instruction: How to develop confident and successful learners. They will then participate in a group activity that brings the strategies back around to the frustrations.

3. Three types of thinking – A Prezi will introduce Doug Buehl’s ideas on the types of thinking. One important point to make is the difference between thick and thin ideas. He also categorizes the different ways people think about academic concepts and themes. They translate beautifully into the classroom setting in this way – Words to Use (vocabulary), Facts to Know (content knowledge) and Big Ideas to Think About (synthesis, every teacher’s dream).

Participants will then be given time to take their own curriculum content and break it down into Buehl categories.

4. Benchmarking students and still having a life – The presenter will guide participants through various strategies and techniques for benchmarking students without losing one’s sanity. Benchmarking can establish either students’ existing content knowledge (How much do they know about cells already?) or skills knowledge (how much do they know about using a microscope?). It can also establish basic learning knowledge – Can or will they read a passage and get meaning from it? What can spelling tell you about their reading?

5. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time to dream up engaging strategies; other have already done it – Sources for strategies will be explored. A variety of hardcopy resources and webpages will be provided for teachers to explore. It should be contemplated in the context of the graph that shows where their frustration INTERSECTS with the learning process.

Small Group Activity

Objective No. 2 – Participants will be asked to brainstorm their frustrations with student learning. These frustrations will be recorded on a concept map. Participants will be asked to reduce their frustration to the nutshell or the very essence or gist. That shortened version will be recorded on a sticky note shape (maybe a bomb or something else symbolic) called the “sticky gist.” It represents the sticky point where learning breaks down.

Participants will be given an outline of the principles in Guided Instruction. They will be asked to translate the principles onto a graphic representation that is logical to them. Various formats (flow charts, graphs, charts, outlines etc. will be provided to help participants if necessary. When complete, participants will be asked to take their “sticky gist” and place it on the graphic representation on the place in the learning process where the breakdown occurs. They will reserve this graph for a later activity.

Follow-up Activities

Participants will be given time to use references to begin applying strategies to the curriculum materials they have brought with them. A strategy to alleviate frustration from the “gist sticky” should be sought.

Participants will be asked to share an overview of how they will apply a strategy (rough as it will be) to a lesson or unit and what they hope to improve or accomplish with it.
Participants will be given the opportunity to join a Workshop Blog or Moodle to report successes, failures and frustrations and to discuss implementation of strategies.

Evaluation of Workshop

Participants will do a Plus-Delta evaluation at the end of the workshop to give immediate anonymous feedback as they leave.
Registration information will be used to compile an email list of participants. Follow-up emails will be sent to survey participants asking if the strategies are being implemented.
If strategies are being used a follow-up survey will inquire: what strategy, how it is used, what curriculum it is applies to and how the teacher views its success.
If strategies are not being used a follow-up survey will inquire: why the strategies are not being used, what would make it more likely to use strategies, how workshop could help ensure use of strategies for future participants.
Participants who reported using the strategies will be asked if a classroom observation could be conducted to observe the strategies in action.
The Moodle or Blog can be monitored (in a friendly way, not a big brother way) for constructive feedback.

References

Buehl, D. (2008). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Newark, Del.: International Reading

Association.

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2010). Guided instruction: How to develop confident and successful

learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Golub, J. N. (2000). Making learning happen: Strategies for an interactive classroom. Portsmouth, NH:

Boynton/Cook Publishers.

Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2007) Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. New York:

Random House.

Iverson, K. M. (2005). E-learning games: Interactive learning strategies for digital delivery.

Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Partin, R. L. (2009). The classroom teacher's survival guide: Practical strategies, management

techniques, and reproducibles for new and experienced teachers. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.