If you believe that the goal of education/the teacher is to develop lifelong learners then how will this book in the future play a role in your mission? Site examples from the book including page number(s) of the ideas that will assist you with students.
page 174: The DAP tool can be used to facilitate students being prepared for what lies ahead-not with the answers but with the skills....Ulitmately the habit of self-assessment leads to the self-monitoring of performance.
ReplyDeleteI want to communicate to my students the importance of self-monitoring and developing skills of life long learners. I need to use vocabulary from this book in my conversations with my students, to plant the seeds of being life long learners from 2nd grade on.
Early in the book the authors discuss how the DAP tool will facilitate lifelong learning. On page 3 the authors say, "Products develop lifelong learners." They go on to say that as students experiment with products, they will ask questions that will lead them to new knowledge. I completely agree with this. If we offer a range of products for the students to experiment with, they will learn how to choose a product that best matches their needs, and will also learn that it is okay to branch out and choose something that has never been done. When they get into the real world and are faced with having to produce something for their jobs, they will be more willing to look into new and interesting vehicles for presentation.
ReplyDeletePage 174 I think this book points out that: 1. We need to remove the learning ceiling and 2. we need to foster the creativity and reflection aspects of the learning cycle. I need to slow down and allow the students time to reflect and time to be creative when they do projects or labs in science. They need time to think about what is really important, why am I learning this and how can I apply what I have learned.
ReplyDeleteI found the content of this book to be highly useful to me as an educator. As stated in the book (page 174), "The goal of project-based learning is not the earning of a grade but rather the preparation of young people for the future." If used properly, the DAP Tool is a flexible means to pre-assess students, differentiate products, and raise the learning ceiling for students at all levels.
ReplyDelete@Melanie I so agree with your comment about student self-assessment and it is a requirement of so many standards that guide education. I'm currently working with standards from AASL and the 21st Century Learners, NETS and Partnershipfor 21st Century Skills and the self-assessment is vital in each one!
ReplyDeleteresponding to WonderWeiss:I like how you said they will also learn how to choose a product that best matches their needs, and that it is okay to branch out and choose something different. When our gt kids get in a rut, or really any kids, they do a disservice to themselves. My goal is to help my students this year experience with as many ways to publish research as possible.
ReplyDeleteMelanie--I appreciate your comment on students not having all of the answers, but with having the skills. If we are teaching them through the DAP tool how to work out different problems, they will be ready in the future when they are not in a comfortable bubble. I know that I am often too focused on the answers and not the skills, and your post reminds me that I need to rearrange my attitude.
ReplyDeleteThis book supports project/product-based learning which I think is key to promoting a love of learning for students. If students get some choice in what they will research and/or create, and if this product will have a real audience, then students will be more motivated to do a good job and they will remember what they have learned. I think they will also be inspired to learn more if they are successful in the projects that they create. It may even get students excited about learning about a subject that in the past they viewed as unimportant or boring. "If a student has a product choice that intrigues her (e.g. technology), she may well be enticed to study a content area that doesn't interest her" (6).
ReplyDeleteI like what Melanie said about teaching students to learn to be self-monitors for their work. There isn't always going to be a teacher standing there to evaluate their work or tell them what to do next. I think we need to raise the academic conversation level in all classes but especially in the GT class so students can "talk the talk."
ReplyDeleteresponding to arkreynolds: While self-assessment is so important, many students will do anything to avoid it--just like adults do! Even the very brightest children get sooo off task and have to be redirected over and over to evaluate themselves. With 7 and 8 year olds, it's definitely the boys that find this a ridiculous request.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Oliver when he states that our students need time to reflect on what is really important about the learning process. In our standardized, grades-based system, personal involvement in one's learning is often missing. Perhaps the use of project based learning, with the reflection component, will help students tap into this often neglected area.
ReplyDeleteoliverl--You are completely correct with your response that we need to give students time to reflect. In the rush, rush, rush of filling their little brains with knowledge, I think that we forget to give them time to reflect on what they have learned. In order to really learn, kids need to reflect, and then have discussions about what they have reflected on. This is like what we have done today--we had great discussion after we had time to reflect, and my learning became deeper.
ReplyDeleteI think this will help me remember just how different products/projects really are. As stated on 9 and 10 just because it is written or oral it is not all the same thought processes. Each activity is targeting different thought processes and skills that need to be analyzed before being assigned. I feel that this in itself will keep me focused on the true meaning behind certain projects that we do in the classroom. That way I can get the most out of the assignment from my students and they in turn can discover the deeper meanings in the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI also will refer back to pages 53-55 in order to create students that are continuing to move ahead in their thought processes and education. By asking myself the three questions for each of my students and creating goals for them, I can not only track their process but also help show them their own potential that they can work to.
As a government teacher, I always try to get my students to articulate why they feel a certain way about things and give evidence to back up what they think. Using tools such as the debate DAP tool (p. 81-83) forces students to think at a higher level which is critical in the 21st Century. The great thing about the DAP tool is that it allows you to adjust to different learning levels. We must prepare our students to be able to think indpendently and problem solve. Having students participate in things such as a service learning project (p.79) forces them to relate their thinking to real life problems and solutions. The best thing for me about this book (and the last book study) is that it gave me tools to help me challenge all of my students more. The tools are very user friendly and fairly easy to implement in the classroom. I liked how the last book study showed teachers how to implement different menu items (choices for students). This book study focused on pushing students based on their own levels.
ReplyDeleteoliverl: I think you hit on one of the most important parts of this which is reflection. If our school could improve in one area that is going to promote higher level thinking skills, I would say that self-evaluation and reflection would be a great place to start.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the book study because it opened my eyes even more about the importance of differentiation in the classroom. I will use this book to create learning opportunities that challenge all levels in a way that they buy into the content. I will definitely make sure that the projects are meaningful and the students are not graded mostly on “the attractiveness”, but the content. I teach 12th grade students who are about to enter into the post-secondary world in which they will have to show they know how to use higher order thinking. I will create lessons that will be similar to activities they may encounter in this post-secondary life. For example, I would like to use the Podcast DAP tool on pages 114-116 in my economics classes because this seems to be the direction that our “technological generation” students are going to. I would probably have them listen to an example “Freakonomics Radio” podcast to model what a podcast is and what they are supposed to do. I would then have the students pick an economics concept and relate it to a current event. I like that all of these DAP tools have 3 tiers that enable teachers to assign lower level special needs students to Tier 1 and advanced AP students to tier 3. I feel the grading aspect becomes one in which you grade it based on the individual and his or her capabilites. I also plan on using the Power Point DAP tools (pgs 117-119) and the Graph DAP tools (pgs 129-131) in my classes.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, I agree with you in that wew need to teach children how to self monitor and be more disciplined in their education. So many times, students get through school and then make it to college unable to have the study skills or abilities to stay focused.
ReplyDeleteThe section starting on page 55 is highly motivating.This book serves as a resource for student projects. I would like to use tools (pp 60-166) so that children can make choices about what they would like to attempt. This might be a launching point prior to the interest inventory. What comes to mind, however, is the sense of trying to change the tire on the car while the car is moving. The first step for me is translating a few of the "products" on Tiers 1 and 2 into Spanish. Then, I will build from there.
ReplyDeleteI like what Betsy said about students having some choice in what they research or create. It is a new concept for many of the students but it places the responsibility for academic excellence on the student more than the teacher. For the teacher it can be an enlightening process, I learn quite a bit from ideas the students come up with.
ReplyDeleteAs Betsy states, students who are given choices frequently find a task more motivating. Even if a project proves challenging, if a student is connected to the material, or the means of presentation, their level of involvement will be greater. The DAP tool's tiered system allows students to raise the bar to their own learning.
ReplyDeleteWonderWeiss: You and I were on the same page. I agree with you that many jobs are all about what you PRODUCE. If our students get used to taking pride in their work now, it will carry over into their adult lives. I hope that they will choose careers where they enjoy creating the products that are necessary for that field.
ReplyDeleteI think through out the book the authors stress one point, " ...remove the learning ceiling for students, an essential characteristic for encouraging continuous progress and developing lifelong learners." That's it in a nutshell. If we want kids to perform and leave our schools with the attitude that learning and performance isn't just to get an "A", then I think we have done our jobs. Otherwise we are here only to make them learn that if you make your project pretty, and Mom and Dad own stock in Micheals, ou
ReplyDeleteAs a librarian one of my goals is to develop life long learners and readers. Librarians have been challenged to go beyond books and to meet our students where they are and where they are going to need to be by teaching them be transliterate. That being able to communicate their learning, interest, skills, knowledge or whatever in various ways using various tools. That is why we now have so many new "tech" tools in our libraries so we can help students show their learning through the use of Skype, powerpoint, podcast, research. The DAP tools will be most helpful when I work with teachers to design lessons that meet student learning styles while giving them choices. While the DAP's provided are only a start I do think it is a challenge to move in a direction that will challenge all of our students!
ReplyDeleteAs part of the instructional leadership team on my campus, I would like to take the ideas from both this book and the previous to the teachers on my campus in order to not only provide another means by which they can differentiate their instruction but also cultivate a common culture utlizing the same strategies and language. If we can all begin using these tools and pushing our students at the earliest levels to achieve all that they can, perhaps this will open doors to higher achievement as they grow. I do think that we sometimes are limited as educators in our thinking by the TAKS and forget that we want them to gain lifelong skills.
ReplyDelete@Oliver
ReplyDeleteI agree that I also need to slow down and give students time to relflect and dig deeper into projects that interest them. I get in the routine that I think most teachers get in, worrying about getting the information covered. I also think that having students spend more time relfecting is important. They can help understand their strenghts and weaknesses.
I alos agree with oliverl with the need for time!! It seems that we are only able to show the skill, give a practice, and then move on. Where did the time go to experiment with the curriculum in different settings or activities? We seem to always teach, practice, then test; no exploration into the topics to make more interest.
ReplyDeleteWonderWeiss responded to oliverl on December 7, 2010 2:51 PM. I want to make the reflection piece a homework assignment because there is never really time during the day. Maybe a large sticky note that can be taken home with a question, then the answer can be brought back the next day to be attached to the DAP Tool. Add a parent involvement piece inadvertently to build that connection.
ReplyDeleteBetsy,
ReplyDeleteI agree that students respond better when they feel they have an audience and that the assignment is meaningful. This is especially true for subjects that students find boring or are not interested in. I like the idea of letting the students have a choice so that they have more of a buy in compared to being told “you will do this…and this is the way it will be done”. This allows students the opportunity to challenge themselves and to reach higher order thinking levels.
@Kandall
ReplyDeleteI think that the interest inventory is very important. I told myself this summer that I was going to have my students complete one this fall and I haven't. However, the more I participated in the book study, I was reminded that ultimately it is about the student more than the curriculium.
I agree with Betsy in that students appreciate not only the choice to create something that they have a genuine interst in but also be motivated by their own successs. It is too often we see reluctant learners and students who feel defeated at school and if this can provide another means by which to motivate and generate interest in learning again, it is something we should all try our hands at.
ReplyDeleteChrista,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the book was an excellent choice for a book study. Teachers are always looking for creative ways to present content, and this book provides this. I like that the book provides so many ready made tools for teachers to use or to modify.
@ Betsy yes! It is so about finding that which makes our students excited about producing work that shows their learning/knowledge. Hopefully they will carry that knowledge of what they enjoyed into their careers!
ReplyDeleteIn response to arkreynolds, what an interesting and valid connection with the to the technology we are responsible for teacher the students and utilize as teachers ourselves. This in itself is such a strong motivator for our students and if we can outline specific goals via DAP tools I truly believe that we will see great results! What an exciting tool to share with our students and fellow professionals.
ReplyDeletesanchezh made an interesting comment(on December 7, 2010 2:55 PM). I agree it would be powerful tool for a campus to make use of the DAP Tool across the grade levels. Student cognitive growth would be significantly enhanced, in my opinion, if they knew the tool that carries the learning expectation and the opportunities it holds. It bumps up their thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe eighth reason of why products are important in classrooms is that products develop lifelong learners (page 3). Products are something our students will have in their lives for a very long time, both in future years of learning as well as eventually in their careers. Creating products not only allows them to demonstrate what they know about a topic, but also, while in the process of creating, new learning occurs because they are making connections and finding new ideas to explore.
ReplyDeleteMelanie I agree with your first comment. Students need to learn more than just how to answer questions on a test (either made by us or the state of Texas). Being able to reflect on what they have learned and know when it is time to move on to the next level is a skill that all students need to leave school with.
ReplyDeletesanchezh said...
ReplyDeleteAs part of the instructional leadership team on my campus, I would like to take the ideas from both this book and the previous to the teachers on my campus in order to not only provide another means by which they can differentiate their instruction but also cultivate a common culture utlizing the same strategies and language.
How many of us are the lone voice in the wilderness? Let's think realistically, until the climate changes and schools (along with administrators)begin to think outside of what they were doing ten or fifteen years ago, we will contintue to be that lone voice.
As a school improvement specialist, I work with teachers on ways to enrich students' thinking. Students need to be flexible in their thinking, but in order for that to happen, their teachers must also be flexible in their thinking. This book can serve as a powerful tool to broaden thinking across a grade level or indeed, an entire campus. Everyone could get out of the stand-up-oral report or the sit-down-essay rut that everyone is so used to. There really wasn't one part of the book that stood out for me; it had to come together as a whole. I just think that this idea of a product versus a project is very powerful, and I want to explore it more as I work with teachers and students on my campus.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with Melanie about the importance of self-monitoring. It truly is a life skill. We try to teach readers to self-monitor as they read, but how often do we connect that to everyday experiences and learning experiences beyond whether or not that sentence just made sense? It is vital that we help students make those connections.
ReplyDeleteI also like what WonderWeiss says about the DAP tool requiring students to work through issues as they come up. WonderWeiss calls it a comfort bubble. Everyone needs a certain level of discomfort, which I've heard called productive discomfort, to really lean into something and thrive. If we can show students ways to work through different scenarios, that's another life skill they will have in their tool kits.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that our goal as educators is to produce life long learners. Having said this, I like how the book provides several realistic experiences to show their thinking and learning, rather than just a paper/pen test or multiple choice test. If we want to encourage our students to get excited about learning, we need to provide different experiences for them and I think this book, as a whole, does a great job of giving me ideas how to do that within my classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Rebecca J:
ReplyDeleteI think the quote you selected from the book sums up this whole thing really well--it is not just the present learning we need to be considerate of, but also what happens to our students in the future too.
In response to Jeff W.--
ReplyDeleteI like what you said here:
"That's it in a nutshell. If we want kids to perform and leave our schools with the attitude that learning and performance isn't just to get an "A", then I think we have done our jobs. Otherwise we are here only to make them learn that if you make your project pretty, and Mom and Dad own stock in Michaels"--excellent point!
RE: Betsy & WonderWeiss: Excellent point! I really think that doing all we can to connect the “now” with the future is the key to getting students to "buy in". It seems that the classroom experience is so much more useful, meaningful, and relevant to students when they understand (not easy to communicate) that the skills they are learning now will serve them in their future endeavors.
ReplyDeleteRE: susanm I like your comment about “while in the process of creating, new learning occurs...”! Since doing this book study and assigning projects (product), I worry most about time (student completion time). However, it seems that (like the book posits) when they are creating the products they are simultaneously learning the content if the project is designed effectively.
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals this past couple of years has been to make my classroom instruction relevant to my students through the use of technology, implementing 21st Century Skills instruction, and menus. In the course of my career, I have always had this nagging feeling that many of my students feel like coming to school and class is part of a process that is a “must”, and that it really is not at all relevant to them in the present or in the future. This URKS me!!! That being said, the DAP tool had been useful in my effort to reach my goal because it has a built in connection to the future (levels 5 and 6). Thus far it has been seamless way to consistently show students when/where they are performing above level and when/where they are not. Many of my students seem to be responding well aspect of the tool which is helping me to get many of them to “buy in” to investing time, energy, and commitment to creating products and learning.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Betsy's comment post, "It may even get students excited about learning about a subject that in the past they viewed as unimportant or boring. "If a student has a product choice that intrigues her (e.g. technology), she may well be enticed to study a content area that doesn't interest her" (6), I find this to be similar to what we discussed yesterday at the meeting when discussing students that don't complete and turn in work. Although a simple example, I have one student this year that, given a pencil/paper task, never finishes, but the moment I open up computer use to that same child for an assignment, he gets it knocked out in no time at all!
ReplyDeleteIn response to patricet, I really like your statement about teachers needing to be flexible in their thinking if we are expecting our students to be flexible in theirs. Prior to coming to the book study session yesterday, I spent the day in a Singapore Math training where we were taught some nice alternative methods to traditional algorithms, such as partial products/quotiends and area models for multiplication. Too often we stress that the students must solve a problem the one way we want them to (the traditional algorithm) when another way might make more sense to or be more efficient for a certain student that's struggling with the traditional. Why won't we allow them to solve it in this way, if ultimately our goal is for them to be able to arrive at a correct answer?
ReplyDeleteI think it should be every quality educator's goal to have high expectations for their learners, have authentic and challenging activities to stimulate thinking, and have kiddos excited about the learning they are doing. This book was filled with wonderful, creative ways to raise expectations for all learners to meet them at their own level of thinking, and assess quickly the quality products that they produce. Although grades are important to the teacher and the learner, they should fall into place naturally if the assessment is quality and the learner cares about what he or she is doing on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteI really value what S. Acevedo mentioned about many students having a mindset that schooling is a "must" for them, rather than an opportunity. That hurts and it is also my goal to have school be a place where kiddos look forward to coming and where they get excited about the things that they will be doing. I have always said that today education almost needs to be a form of entertainment, as we are competing with many technologies and outside things that kiddos are interested in - wouldn't it be fabulous if kiddos actually wanted to learn and continue their education?! We all remember having certain classes/subjects/teachers that we liked more than others, and we should strive to all have classrooms that are on the top of the "favorites" liest for learners to attend for all of the right reasons. Education CAN be challenging AND enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what susanm posted, "The eighth reason of why products are important in classrooms is that products develop lifelong learners (page 3). Products are something our students will have... eventually in their careers... new learning occurs because they are making connections and finding new ideas to explore."
ReplyDeleteI always joke with kiddos that I won't be able to help them after our school year is over, so they need to learn to do it beyond my classroom... It is great to have ideas from this text that will relate to the outside world and give learners a glimpse of real-world action and what's to come!
P.S. ~ A big thank you to Lynette and Barbara for extending these book studies! They are a really nice way to keep ahead of the curve for our learners and develop ourselves professionally! I also love that we get a quality book to read, KEEP, reference, and integrate as we see fit!!
ReplyDeleteIn order for our students to be life long learners, I think that if we used many of the things in the book such as having the students learn in a research project based learning, using rubrics, giving high expectations, modeling and giving them opportunities to reflect on their learning. I really liked the book and I can see refering back to it.
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