Monday Morning Memo--Aug 18

Monday Morning Memo!

Monday, August 18

A is for Active Learning

Students who actively engage with the material are more likely to recall information later and be able to use that information in different contexts.

J. S. Bruner (1961)

This year marks my fourth year of writing and sharing thoughts about teaching and learning through the Monday Morning Memo format. Each year, we I've tweaked this professional writing and sharing opportunity a bit. This year, our focus will return to classroom instruction, as we work through the alphabet, writing about some aspect of instruction related to each letter of the alphabet, from A to Z. For many of these, we are using Barbara Blackburn’s book, Classroom Instruction from A-Z: How to Promote Student Learning (2007) as a reference along with other resources you may find useful. 

 In kicking off the A-Z schedule, we'll rely on Blackburn’s text for an idea related to the letter A: Active Learning. As Bruner suggests above, students who are actively involved in their own learning are more likely to both recall and use such learning later in life. What constitutes “active” learning? Certainly, much of what we have learned over the years at the system level through our working-on-the-work (Schlechty, 2002) focus relates to the concept of active learning. It encompasses a host of characteristics, but is most pointedly evidenced when students are authentically engaged in the lesson. Blackburn (2007) suggests that such engaged students exhibit several key characteristics:

A    Attention

C    Concentrated Effort

T    Thinking

I     Involvement

V    Variety

E    Engagement

All of the above are obvious components to and requirements for engaged learning. Interestingly, they are also necessary components to engaged teaching. Active learning requires that both the student and the teacher become involved in the learning activity. As a classroom teacher myself for 11 years, I still reflect back on my own strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. I honestly think that I was a master at being actively involved in each and every lesson as the teacher. Alas, I was deficient in ensuring that my students were equally active. On the other hand, we have all known teachers whose students were very “active” but not necessarily in a way that was related to learning, rather than random, outcomes.

            Each day when I made the morning announcements at HMS, I talk about working hard and having fun. In my own life, these two actions have always gone hand in hand. If we make learning fun, we are sure to produce excellent student work and active learners. If we can make the learning meaningful and relevant, we are much more likely to actively engage our kids in learning. Finally, if we establish routines and expectations, we can encourage our kids to take an active role in their own learning. Our kids must take an active role in their own education; it is up to us to cultivate this accountability within them. Gain their Attention at the outset of every lesson; require a Concentrated effort on their part as well as your own; inspire them to Think critically; plan carefully to ensure their Involvement; and offer a Variety of learning tasks during each class session. By doing so, we will achieve active and authentic Engagement in our classrooms. These gifts will stay with our kids ages and ages hence.

            Understanding what active learning looks like and what it requires of us, as educators, is another way we commit to teaching with all of our heart and with passion this year!

Have a great week!

Videos to check out!:

Football Season is upon us Again! (2 min)

Re-designing the classroom experience (9min)

Effective Educator (3 min)

Articles you might want to check out:

  

Before You Post...T.H.I.N.K. 

What is a Great Teacher? 

Book Suggestions for Onomatopoeia

Calendar of Future Events:

August 22--Marsha Moyer--IRR @ BHS--8AM
August 29--Jamie Almanzan@ BHS--8AM
Sept 12--Harney Tech Conference @ BHS
Sept 19--Indistar Training
Oct 3-4--CCSS Science, Math, ELA training

Kudos/Citation to Jeff Zoul for above blog post information and blog adaptation from Buiding School Culture and Improving Your School One Week at a Time! You can see Jeff's blog at http://jeffzoul.blogspot.com/.