Engaging Lessons in a Time of Review

If high-stakes testing is not going on, we will be soon reviewing for semester exams.  With all of this going on (or winding down), how do you keep students engaged in the learning process?  I have seen some great things today that were doing just that!  I saw children doing hands-on creation of original products.  I saw music being used to help students learn geographic names and locations.  I saw students using technology to develop graphs from data they gathered.  I saw students amazingly excited to look at local pond water through a microscope (their enthusiasm warmed my heart).
From my observations, for lessons to be engaging to students, activities must be relevant, creative, and meaningful.  These simple guidelines can be provided to end of year reviews.  Using a well-defined rubric, have students develop a game for a specific topic.  For example:

1. Place students in small groups.
2. Each group chooses a specific topic (which may be defined by you or the class as a whole).
3. Provide each group with well-defined instructions and a rubric.  The groups may be given the choice to complete the game on a poster board (like a board game), use technology (for example, a PowerPoint version of Jeopardy), or create something (with approval) that is beyond what any educator could even imagine.  I would recommend 2-3 days for the completion of the review game -- AND always make your expectations clear in a detailed rubric.
1. Considerations:
1.  How many students (players) should be able to play a game?
2. How much time should a given game take to play?
4. After the games have been developed, you could set the games up in a learning station format.  Groups would be given a set of time (for example, 10 minutes) at each game.  At the end of the activity, students would have reviewed all of the content.
5. Don't forget to have students reflect on their products and the learning process!

I encourage you try something new to keep your students engaged.  Share what works for you!

Good luck ~

Student Friendly Learning Objectives

Walking around classrooms this week, I once again recognized the importance of student friendly learning objectives. More importantly, the teachers that I visited with that had really good learning objectives written on their boards recognized the importance of their objectives and improving student learning.

According to Marzano (2001), using student friendly learning objectives through teacher talk, writing it on the board, on student work, and when a student can state it in their own words can improve student learning by 27%.

Students need to know what they are expected to know, how they will do it, and whether or not they are successful.   Furthermore, this is exactly what a teacher should have determined prior to instruction through lesson planning. We just need to let our students know - there's no mystery (except when it is intentional).

Integrating Technology

Here is a list of some of the great tools using technology that may be integrated into classroom instruction and lesson planning:

1. iTunesU.  If you don't check out what is added regularly, you may be missing an amazing resource.  Some of my favorites include:
1. iTunes U: Texas Education: Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 1989 
2. iTunes U: Texas Education: Challenger Explosion, January 1986 
3. iTunes U: Texas Education: Panama Canal Treaty, September 1977 
4. iTunes U: Texas Education: Little Rock Crisis 
5. iTunes U: Texas Education: Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum: High Noon Talks 
6. iTunes U: Texas Education: Voices of Texas History 
7. iTunes: Maine Department of Education: AP4ALL - AP Calculus AB
8. iTunes U: Texas Education: Lesson Launch - POWER ON TEXAS: Forensic Science Lesson, 8th Grade Science (a lesson plan created by Ms. Jarvie Stroupe at Arp Junior High School, Arp ISD, the "CSI and the Scientific Method" eighth grade lesson plan teaches the six basic steps of the scientific method, set against the backdrop of popular crime scene investigation television shows. To find the lesson plan or more about how Arp ISD joined the digital learning revolution, go to http://POWERONTEXAS.com 
9. iTunes U: Texas Education: Lesson Launch - POWER ON TEXAS: Comprehension of Literacy Text/Fiction using "Lady or the Tiger," Junior High, ELA (8th grade teacher)    
2. Wolfram.  I have been a fan of wolframalpha, but am in awe of:
1. http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ 
2. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/