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the Weekly | 1.31.22
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Agent of Change: Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu
"Chinese American Nuclear Physicist. Known as the “Chinese Marie Curie” and the “Queen of Nuclear Research,” Dr. Wu was born in Jiangsu Province, China, in 1912, and moved to the U.S. in 1939 to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. As an experimental physicist, Dr. Wu made significant contributions to the study of nuclear physics, and as a member of the research staff at Columbia University, she played a critical role in the Manhattan Project, the research and development consortium led by the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom that created the first nuclear weapons. Dr. Wu was the recipient of the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics and was the first woman to serve as president of the American Physical Society" (from 16 Asian American Heroes Our Kids Need to Know About).
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Wellness: Breathing Techniques
A lot of research has been done on the power of breath work to manage stress. Here are three strategies to try - anywhere, anytime.
Falling-out Breath: Take a deep breath in, filling your lungs as much as possible. At the top of your breath, take one more sip of air. Exhale with a big, out-loud sign (something like "HHHAAAA") as you release the air. (Great for releasing physical tension in your body.)
Box Breath: Inhale to the count of four. Hold your breath at the top to the count of four. Exhale to the count of four. Hold your breath at the bottom to the count of four. (This can help increase your mindfulness.)
Emptying Breath: Inhale to the count of three. Exhale slowly to the count of six, releasing as much air as you can. (This can activate your parasympathetic nervous system and calm your sympathetic nervous system to help you 'take it down a notch'.)
For More Info on This Week's Topics
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Chapter 6 of Tom Schimmer's book, Grading from the Inside Out, addresses repurposing homework.
To access eBook, click on link for the 香港六合彩资料 Start Page, choose Gale Group, then Gale eBooks. Find Grading from the Inside Out in the Grading and Assessment section.
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Spotlight On...Teaching Executive Function
The information included here comes from "15+ Ways to Teach Executive Functioning Skills", from The Pathway 2 Success.
Executive Function: "the mental processes that help learners plan through assignments, organize materials, initiate a task, manage time well, stay focused, try new strategies when stuck, and persevere until the completion of a goal."
- Teach Skills Explicitly: By learning skills for planning, organization, time management, attention, and more, students will have more strategies necessary to succeed in school and beyond.
- Engage in Class Discussions: As a group, openly talk about each of the skills and ask questions to get students really thinking. Some examples of questions might be: “Choose any class. If you had a test in that class, what 3 pages from your notebook would you study from? (this focuses on organization)” or “You have a lot of homework and you have practice at 6pm. What can you do?” (this focuses on planning). The whole idea is to get learners thinking and activating their brains for each of the skills.
- Play Board Games: Games are a fun, interactive, and motivating way to practice executive functioning skills. The key is to be purposeful about highlighting and teaching the skills as you play.
- Integrate it with Curriculum: Executive functioning skills are in everything we do. It only makes sense to teach and discuss them in everything, too.
- Read Literature & Stories: Literature can be used to discuss and highlight a number of skills. Again, the key is to be purposeful and directed about discussing and teaching those skills. You might ask how a character planned for a certain event, why they used self-control, or how they used perseverance to work through a challenge.
- Highlight Skills Throughout the Day: Just like with academic content, students need to hear EF terms and phrases over and over again. One simple way to help kids learn about executive functioning skills is just to talk about them and highlight them on a regular basis. Remind them when they are using self-control to stop and think before answering a question. Encourage a student who organizes their binder during downtime in class.
Click the link in the Resources section to read about more.
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FAQ | Standards-Based Grading
Question: What about homework?
Response: In his book, Grading from the Inside Out, Tom Schimmer addresses the importance of repurposing homework so that "teachers can create an environment where mistakes are instructional (rather than judgemental) and early stumbles no longer compromise the integrity of what teachers ultimately report about student proficiency" (p 78). I'll address this topic in my next few editions of the Weekly. This is Part 2.
While the chapter on homework does share research on the debate about homework, we won't get into that here. Instead we'll focus on how a teacher who chooses to give homework could make it a more effective tool. Striving for balance here is critical - "juxtapose research and experience by closely monitoring student responses" and find the best middle ground between "an aggressive approach to homework and no homework at all" (p 78). Schimmer provides a number of insights and thoughts to help teachers repurpose homework as a formative tool and understand the reasons for not grading it.
- Make it a "formative exercise that focuses more on progress than the final result and on feedback and improvement rather than the accumulation of points and percentages;"
- Stick to the "notion that practice is essential to learning" and that "we focus on feedback and growth, not immediate mastery and fear of falling behind in the gradebook;"
- Providing feedback on homework tasks rather than grades encourages more authentic effort and risk-taking on the part of students, and gives teachers a better idea of the level of understanding students have of a concept;
- In athletics and the arts, we accept practice as a means to an end - a way to learn and improve, without a score or a grade. It is the game or the performance that is scored or measured in some form. The same concept should apply to the process students need to follow in classrooms. Practice is formative so that a cycle of feedback can lead to improvement. It is not summative. It is not for the sake of verification and so it should not be graded.
- "Grading homework not only distracts many students from working independently, it also has the potential to significantly distort the students' true level of proficiency" for the following reasons:
- Whose work is it? Because "we can't control who actually completes the homework...we can't know the degree to which any grade represents the students' level of understanding."
- Are you that flawless? "The notion that a lesson need only be taught once and a class of diverse learners will all master the concept is absurd. Even the most effective teachers aren't so good that some students won't need more or different instruction and support."
- Are you sure they know what to do? "Sometimes what looks like a lack of effort is actually a lack of clarity...Grading the homework results would prematurely measure proficiency and a student's ability to decipher our instructions."
- Are you emphasizing learning or completion? "Grading homework tends to put unnecessary pressure on students to get it done at all costs. The more attention we give grades, the less attention we have for learning. If homework is to play a formative role, then grades have no place in the process."
- Will your feedback matter? "We know how important effective feedback is and how scores and points distract students from making good use of that feedback...grades distract from the process of learning."
- Where is the risk? "...students won't [take risks] if it proves costly to their overall grades. We need to give students the space to practice without penalty."
- Are they ready? "Some students take longer to learn and may not be ready to work independently. This is often the case with new learning where students' familiarity with the topic at hand is limited."
- Is it too early? "The early measurement of proficiency puts students at a mathematical disadvantage. Even if they improve, they often do not receive full credit for this improvement."
