Edina Public Schools NUA Program

EHS Culturally Responsive Leadership Team

2009-06-05T09:10:00.002-05:00

Vision

Since EHS has devoted resources to the National Urban Alliance (NUA) program for the past five years, and since EHS staff development will continue to focus on literacy during the 2009-10 school year, funding has been secured for a Culturally Responsive Leadership Team to continue developing the talents of teachers to ensure personalized learning for all students.

Leadership Team Description

The team is facilitated by Jackie Roehl, EHS Literacy Coach
The team meets approximately once per month. Meetings will focus on learning new teaching strategies and discussing the school’s NUA and culturally responsive sustainability efforts.
Since many NUA participants over the years felt that missing instructional days was difficult, this team will only be out of the classroom for two days throughout the school year. Other meeting times will be before or after the school day.
During the two full-day workshops members will learn new strategies, share artifacts and ideas, discuss articles and research, discuss and possibly collect data, and plan for EHS staff development days.
The team is responsible for presentations at the November 24 and February 23 building staff development days.
Team members will facilitate artifact sharing and dialogue about strategies and culturally responsive issues at a few staff meetings.
Team members may choose to attend Cultural Collaborative workshops and report back to the team since WMEP is planning on bringing in a number of NUA’s senior scholars for Cultural Collaborative workshops next school year.
The team may work with any future equity teams implemented at EHS.

Team Members

Jackie Roehl (Facilitator)
Kristin Benson (English)
Elizabeth Barniskis (English)
Rachel Tholen (English)
Chris Dalki (social studies)
Amy Kampf (social Studies)
Dana Weiland (science)
Page Kinner (science)
Natasha Kissock (ELL)
Jenn Cordes (special ed)
Alexis Galt (math)

Podcast about NUA

2009-05-28T09:44:00.002-05:00

The other day I received a phone call from Podcaster Stan Goldberg about the upcoming San Francisco NUA contract. Stan wanted to interview a high school teacher who was supportive of the program, so he googled NUA and found my blog—hence the reason for the phone call.

I did my best to be coherent since I was being taped for a podcast (difficult at the end of long, spring teaching day). Although I ramble at times, I did manage to mention personalized learning, differentiation, and a specific thinking map example.

Click here for the link to download the podcast if you are interested in hearing my opinions on the impact of NUA at Edina.

Engaging Vocabulary Strategies

2009-02-27T14:31:00.007-06:00

My students spent the entire class today learning vocabulary words from the novel, Things Fall Apart, that they begin reading on Monday. The lesson went great for a Friday afternoon.

First, groups of four students created 4-square vocab quilt squares for their assigned 2 or 3 words. Here's the 4-square vocab format:

They then used their group's two or three assigned words to create a skit incorporating the words. Groups performed the skits for the class, and we used the applause meter to determine the winner.

To keep the vocabulary celebration going, students participated in "Give one, get one" where they circulated around the room with their vocab square, stopping when the music stopped to pair up and "give one" vocab word (explaining their word), and then they would"get one" vocab word before the music started and they moved around searching for new words to learn.

For homework over the weekend, I assigned creating a Thinking Map that further illustrates their word from 4-square. Students can create any Thinking Map that they want that illustrates or expands on their assigned vocab word. For example, they could make an analogy on a bridge map, define the word with a circle map, describe the word with adjectives in a bubble map, analyze the causes and effects of the word in a multi-flow map. Click on the double bubble map to the left to take the map to full screen to see a comparison of Kola (the vocab word) with coffee that the students and I created quickly as a model in class today.

A follow-up vocab strategy that my students can’t wait to do is to compete in an "I have, who has" vocab contest with the other English 10 classes for the fastest time. I even heard some students state that they were planning on studying words already this weekend.

To use the "I have, who has" strategy, a teacher simply needs to create a circular recitation of vocab words and definitions. One student says, "I have (insert vocab word). Who has (insert definition of another vocab word)?" The student who has the sheet with the vocab word that fits the previous definition responds, "I have----who has?" And so on.

Thinking Maps Software

2009-02-11T10:34:00.010-06:00

EHS and Valley View recently received a campus community license for Thinking Maps software. This easy-to-use program will allow teachers to easily create Thinking Maps right in class that are projected on the big screen for all to see.

The community license also allows teachers and students to install the software on their home computers.

Teachers and students can also create thinking maps that can be exported as PNG or JPEG file formats that can be uploaded to blogs, inserted in PowerPoints, and pasted into Word documents. In PowerPoints and Word the exported picture files appear in the same high quality that the files appear when viewed in the original Thinking Maps software. However, when the files are uploaded to blogger much of the clear focus is lost when enlarged. See the below comparisons of the quality of the inserted file formats when uploaded as "large" pictures in blogger.

PNG Format

JPEG Format

The easiest work-around for the clarity issue is to upload the picture files in "small" picture size in blogger. The "small" size allows blog readers to click on a picture to take it full screen. Then the Thinking Map is clear and easy-to-read.

Try that below with this png file in small size.

Also, by having students insert the map in "small" size on their blogs, they can wrap the text that they've composed from their pre-writing map right next to the Thinking Map. This technique has the added bonus of promoting that the end product of writing is a desired outcome from using thinking maps, and that the Thinking Map is a mid-level tool that should be used before writing, speaking, discussion or other creations.

Literacy Strategies Website

2009-02-03T14:53:00.004-06:00

Kelly Wheaton, literacy coach at Valley View, found a great website the contains links to a number of literacy strategies. Many of the strategies collected there are the same strategies that people have learned from NUA.

Click on the Adolescent Literacy website to check out their descriptions of a number of strategies.

Vocabulary Trifold and Essay Adaptation

2008-11-21T08:49:00.005-06:00

At the last NUA site visit, Cohort 5 members learned the vocabulary tri-fold strategy. Here are the strategy steps:

Teachers create a list of words from the text that are somewhat familiar to the students but that need some elaboration for full mastery.
Students select a vocabulary word from the list of words provided by the teacher.
Students take a piece of paper and fold it hot dog (i.e. landscape) style. Then they fold the paper in thirds to create a brochure/booklet.
On the front page of the booklet, the student writes the vocabulary word. (panel 1)
Opening the booklet, the student writes a sentence defining the word on the left-most panel. (panel 2) If students need to look up their words in the dictionary, they cannot simply copy the dictionary definition here. Students need to make their own personal meaning and their own sentence.
In the middle inside panel (panel 3), students draw a visual of the word and write a first person sentence using the word. This first person sentence makes the word culturally relevant to the student.
On the right-most panel (panel 4) students write down as many forms of the word as they can to demonstrate their knowledge of morphology.
On the two panels that would appear on the back of the brochure when opened up, students write synonyms on one panel (panel 5) and antonyms on the other panel (panel 6).
Once students have finished their vocabulary tri-folds, they move around the room until the music stops. Then they pick a partner, and the partners take turns teaching each other the word.
The teacher allows for several rounds of mixing it up during the music and teaching vocabulary words when the music stops.

Writing Adaptation

The English 10 teachers at that NUA site visit liked the kinesthetic appeal of the vocabulary tri-fold strategy and wanted to try it with essay instruction, so we adapted the panels to reflect the parts of an essay. As synthesis after instruction on each part of the essay, students wrote a few key ideas about that topic on the appropriate panel of their essay tri-fold.

Here's how we adapted the panels for a literary analysis essay on The Odyssey:

Essay topic and title
Introduction with attention-getter and The Odyssey by Homer (so they remembered to include that)
Thesis statement
Body Paragraph structure including transition, topic sentence, 2 PIEs (point, illustration, explanation), and recap sentence.
Conclusion with circling back to attention-getter and a reason for the reader to care about the topic.
Modern Language Association (MLA) essay formatting, works cited, and in-text citation information.

The students ended essay week with a visual that we called "essay in your pocket."

One student emailed his English 10 teacher, Rachel Tholen, and had this to say about the tri-fold, pocket essay.

"I really like the way you're approaching this paper. I found the little "5 Paragraph Essay" booklet helpful, and also just the sort of "I'll hold your hand" approach, because myself, along with many other of my classmates are... well basically clueless when it comes to essay formatting. Okay, not clueless, just not very well educated. So, to sum things up, thanks."

Paraphrase Passport for Reading

2008-11-10T10:38:00.002-06:00

The protocol for the paraphrase passport strategy is as follows:

Students pair up A and B, and they sit shoulder to shoulder, not facing each other.
A reads to B for 30 seconds with both students looking at the text.
Then B puts the text face down and paraphrases to A what was read.
For the next 30 seconds B reads to A (starting where the partnership left off), followed by A's paraphrase.
Rotations continue until the students finish reading the text.

Many teachers at last week's site visit were skeptical of the strategy because of the noise that might happen in the room and because the teachers felt comprehension would go down because students do not read at the same pace. However, Beth Neary tried the paraphrase passport reading strategy in her small, AP Spanish Literature class, and she sent this report.

Positives – 9 students want to do it many more times this year!
· If you missed part of the reading, your partner recaps/explains it to you
· It is a fun way to read
· It keeps you focused while reading as you have to keep switching roles
· “I know a lot more because we read it two times” – translated by Beth Neary

Negatives – 1 student did not like it that much, but was fine if we do it again
· It takes longer to read
· It loses a bit of the excitement as you have to keep stopping

Suggestions from students:
· Give 2 minutes to read and one minute to recap (I think that’d change due to the difficulty of the reading), but the short 1-2 minute periods were actually more effective than Beth thought they’d be.

Observations by Beth:
· The students were really into it and wanted to continue the whole hour to finish the story.
· While they recapped, Beth heard them actively analyzing. Examples heard: “I bet the apron represents the lower class.” “I bet the señora will do something crazy.” “He’s definitely criticizing class struggles – Neary’s going to make us write an essay on that.”

Basically, the observation Beth had was that the strategy helped students cue into what was important in the reading. Beth was quite surprised. She liked it!

Multi-flow Map for Character Change

2008-11-10T10:35:00.001-06:00

Kristin Benson's student teacher Sean did a great culminating activity for The Crucible using the multi-flow map to uncover the central conflict for each of the main characters in the play. He assigned groups to focus on one main character like Abigail, John Proctor, Rev. Hale, Rev. Parris. Then kids were asked to find a quote from the beginning of the text as a cause, a quote from the end of the play as an effect and to write a paragraph of explanation summarizing their understanding of each quote. Then as the last step, kids filled in the central conflict for their character. He phrased it like this on his model map, “What causes your character to go from this person at the beginning to this person at the end?” The end products really yielded some higher level thinking.

A to Z Taxonomy

2008-10-07T13:09:00.002-05:00

A number of English teachers have recently had great success with using an A to Z taxonomy to help students uncover the themes and symbols in a novel.

With Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver in English 10 the students went through the steps of creating a personal taxonomy, sharing ideas in a small group, reporting to the full class, and then composing with key words to get a start on their literary analysis essay.

To report a word for the taxonomy to the class, students used an oral speaking frame that stated: "I have a/an ____ to contribute to the "Search for Self Taxonomy" and it is _________ because Kingsolver believes ______________ about finding yourself, and this word represents _____________________."

The depth of the student reports when adding to the taxonomy were deeper than I have ever seen with the taxonomy, and many of the words that students shared were symbolic. In fact, the taxonomy finally allowed students to see symbols that they had been struggling understanding prior to the taxonomy.

The amazement with the taxonomy's success was reiterated by English 10 teacher Rachel Tholen, who reported: "The kids are creating their taxonomies. It’s amazing. It’s the best thing we’ve done with this book so far. I’m a total convert to the taxonomy."

Rachel emailed again after another successful class period, stating: "I know I’m a broken record on the taxonomy, but my sophs are finishing up our discussion on the search for self taxonomy today, and I can’t believe how well it works. It may be the perfect way to teach symbol. My second hour had some thoughtful things to say about the afghan, and how it represents comfort and safety for Codi, but also how it's woven together by Uda, and how the older women in the community weave together the relationships, past, and history of the town and the people in it."

Kristin Benson also reported that the taxonomy worked well to discuss the rebel theme in Catcher in the Rye.

Youth and Digital Literacy

2008-10-07T13:05:00.003-05:00

A number of Edina teachers attended Jabari Mahiri's session on digital literacy on Sept. 30. We were able to discuss ways to improve youth literacy through digital mediation. Mike Walker, Edina's Technology Integrationist, blogged right from the workshop. So click here to read all about Jabari's workshop.

Science and Thinking Maps

2008-09-18T11:24:00.007-05:00

Two science teachers recently shared with me some exciting uses of Thinking Maps in their classes.

Mike Roddy used a circle map to activate students' prior knowledge on cycles in his physical universe class. In the circle students defined cycles with synonyms, symbols, ideas and examples of cycles. In the frame they elaborated on why they included ideas. Then Mike used a second color marker and put astronomical in front of cycles, and students added words that defined the new concept astronomical cycles. The students were able to make lots of connections between astronomy and their prior knowledge of the term cycle. After they finished the circle map, Mike pointed out that circle appeared on the definition of cycle, and "isn't it cool that we did a circle map?" The joke bombed. I apologize to Mike because I had made that comment to him earlier when I realized the connection between cycle and circle.

Mark Harelstad has adopted the flow map in his biology class. Not only does he have the unit flow map posted in front of the room to keep his lessons flowing, but also he used a flow map to teach his students about the scientific method. Mark gave them the individual steps of the scientific process, and they had to construct a flow map that indicated the correct order of steps. Now, those steps are posted in the lab on posters, making a big flow map of the scientific method, and students need to follow the same steps for every biology lab.

Thanks science for sharing your stories.

Thinking Maps for Study Skills

2008-09-18T11:24:00.003-05:00

High School 101 is a class designed for sophomores to explicitly teach them the skills necessary to be successful in high school and to improve their English and math skills. One teacher manages the class, contacting teachers and parents for information updates on the students. Other high school teachers work with the students one or two days a week on specialized topics. Two days a week the students work on language arts skills. Two days a week on math skills. And one day a week they work on general study skills.

I designed a unit to be implemented in a series of study skills days, and Doug Eischens, the school social worker, is team-teaching the unit with me.

During the Thinking Maps Unit students move from guiding questions on their lives in general to guiding questions that specifically deal with their academic habits and life as a student. Examining themselves as students will allow them to evaluate their study skills and school habits. The bridge map serves as the bridge between their lives in general and their lives in school.

Each map is presented in this sequence:

Students learn the map by making one with personal information.
Doug debriefs the personal information to blend the students' social/emotional needs with their academic needs.
Students are taught practical ways to use the map for reading and lecture comprehension with content from their current English 10 course, social studies course, and/or science class.

Here's the lesson from the first day--

Tree Map

Jackie Teaches the Tree Map:

What was your youth culture like when you were in elementary school? (branches of tree map are recreation, clothing, and family traditions) Frame: Simultaneously jot down stories that go with the items. This map will be used first as a community builder since students will mingle and share their information. All students must share this information but will be told that ahead of time.

Doug Debriefs the Personal Information:

Introduction to the idea that sharing will happen after each map is completed, but students will only be asked to share what they are comfortable sharing. Doug plans to facilitate the after each map debriefs similar to how he runs his student support groups. The students really enjoyed this activity as a way to find out things that they had in common with other students in the room. Doug told them that a support network of friends at school is key, so this sharing of cultural backgrounds really helped that.

Jackie Makes Content Connections and Study Skill Applications:

I wanted to show the students some practical study skill uses for the tree map. I had the students make tree maps for the main character in their English 10 novel in their English notebooks. I have students in two different English classes, so I just did both novels on the white board at once. The English 10 students mapped Codi’s (Animal Dreams) clothes, recreation, and family traditions, and the boys in Guys 10 did the same three branches for Siddhartha. This activity helped students bring the characters to life and allowed them to make personal connections.

Then, I made the students pull out their history notebooks and look at their last lecture notes. I had the students create category titles for a tree map on Mesopotamia--and they came up with religion, literature, and government. They reviewed their notes and synthesized their notes in a tree map. Making a tree map for lecture reflection was hard for them to do, but the product was fascinating.

Stay tuned for future installments of how teaching the other maps goes in High School 101. The circle map is on tap for next week.

2008-2009 Cohort Calendar of Events

2008-09-05T14:22:00.002-05:00

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008. Site Visit #1 at EHS. Cohort 5 = 8:00 to 11:00. Cohort 6 = 12:00 to 3:00.

Thursday,October 2, 2008. Site visit #2 at EHS. Cohort 6 = 8:00 to 11:00. Cohort 5 =12:00 to 3:00.

Thursday, October 23, 2008. Cohort 6 has a full-day session off-site with all WMEP schools.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008. Cohort 5 has a full-day session off-site with all WMEP schools.

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008. Site Visit # 3 at EHS. Cohort 5 = 8:00 to 11:00. Cohort 6 = 12:00 to 3:00.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009. Site visit # 4 at EHS. Cohort 6 = 8:00 to 11:00. Cohort 5 = 12:00 to 3:00.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009. Cohort 5 has a full-day session off-site with all WMEP schools.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009. Cohort 6 has a full-day session off-site with all WMEP schools.

Thursday, March 19, 2009. Site Visit # 5 at EHS. Cohort 5 = 8:00 to 11:00. Cohort 6 = 12:00 to 3:00.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009. Site visit # 6 at EHS. Cohort 6 = 8:00 to 11:00. Cohort 5 = 12:00 to 3:00.

2008-2009 EHS Cohort Members

2008-09-05T12:08:00.002-05:00

Cohort 5

1. Sarah Jarrett
2. Jenn Carter
3. Jen Cordes
4. Beth Neary
5. Amanda Schutz
6. Kurt Hunter
7. Rachel Tholen
8. Emese Pilgrim
9. Kristin Benson
10. Eric Nelson

Cohort 6

1. Jeff Mace, math
2. Lori Songstad, math
3. Lizzy Johnson, math
4. Steve Clarke, special education math
5. Jeff Krause, science
6. Steve Sanger, science
7. Page Kinner, science
8. Dana Wieland, science
9. Mark Harelstad, science
10. Kjersti Olson, social studies
11. Sarah Burgess, English
12. Beth Mohs, English
13. Amy Kampf, social studies
14. Principal Bruce Locklear

Scott Woelber, K-12 math coordinator, and Jackie Roehl, EHS Culturally Responsive Literacy coach, will attend events with both cohorts.

Synonym Triplet Quilts

2008-09-05T08:54:00.002-05:00

I have selected two vocabulary words for each reading day of the unit on Brave New World. I will start each day by giving the students the two words and reading the sentence (or few surrounding sentences) where the word appears. I will ask students if they can figure out the word in context, questioning them on why they think that is the definition.

Then students can check their answers in the dictionary and/or thesaurus at their table, culminating their initial exploration of the vocabulary word my writing a synonym triplet in their notebook and drawing a corresponding symbol or picture next to the word.

Because of the illustrations, I am having students save two pages in their notebooks for the 22 words in the Brave New World Unit. That way all of the vocabulary words will be in one place to study for the test.

One day mid-unit, I will have students make a synonym triplet quilt for the room of the words learned so far. Partners will be assigned one or two words, and they can explore many student notebooks for their assigned words, selecting the best synonyms and symbol/illustration. Those partners will be responsible for creating quilt squares for their words.

Then at the end of the book, students will complete quilt squares for the rest of the words. This procedure will give them a few encounters with each word before the vocabulary test and also break up the study of their words.

Strategy Review Chart in Student Notebooks

2008-09-05T08:31:00.002-05:00

My students set up strategy review charts as a glossary in their notebooks during the first week of school. It took about 15 minutes just to set up of two charts, but I am hoping that it will pay off in the long run with students using the strategies correctly and me not having to do as much re-teaching of strategies .

I reduce the columns to five, deleting the "best use" column since I did not want to get into a discussion about priming, processing and retaining for mastery with my students.

Students left the last page of the notebook for "Classmate Contact Information," and then they could set up their first strategy review chart on the first double-page spread in the back of the notebook.

On the left facing page, they made the columns 1) strategy, 2) function and 3) resources. On the right facing page they had the columns 4) remember to and 5) primitive. That way they had more room to draw the Thinking Maps, defining format chart, key word notes, etc. Plus, the remember to column contains a lot of information.

In a wide-ruled composition notebook, students left four lines per row, allowing them to get five strategies on each spread.

I had them set up two charts right away because I had them save space for all 8 Thinking Maps so that those strategies would all be together, even though they will not be learning some of the maps for a few weeks. After they set up the boxes, students who had time started copying the map primitives and writing the function. I told them that the remember column would be discussed as they learned/reviewed each map.

Since students had already learned the bubble map, they filled in that remember to column with adjectives only, support/prove adjectives in frame, and only use bubbles (no squares) so that you are communicating in a common language. As a sidebar, I told them that they wouldn’t start writing A’s as B’s, so why make squares when the language calls for bubbles. I also told them about the time a group of students last year made a bubble map with squares for a presentation, and I thought that I was looking at a multi-flow map for the first few minutes of the presentation. Talk about miscommunication.

Before students created their strategy review charts, I told them explicitly why they were taking the time to keep a glossary of strategies. Here are the reasons that I used:

If they are absent the first time that I teach them a strategy, they can learn how to use the strategy from a friend (who has it written in a chart).

Since we use so many different strategies in class, they may not see a strategy again for a month or two, but I will assume that they can implement it, so they need to look at the glossary. The resources column has the author’s name like Hyerle, Rothstein, or Nessel, but also the page # of their own notebook where the strategy first appears so that they have an example.

During the choice book unit, each student will teach his or her group for one full day, and they will be developing a lesson with all nine components of the unit flow map. I am actually making them complete a unit flow map lesson plan for one day of the choice unit.

If another teacher at the high school ever says, "today we are going to do such and such strategy" (defining format, for example), the student can pull out the glossary and be ahead of the class since they know how to use the strategy.

Thinking Maps in AP Government

2008-09-05T06:17:00.003-05:00

During the English and Social Studies Community of Practice session last week, teachers explored how they could use Thinking Maps at all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, especially the highest levels. Betsy, Heidi and Fred came up with the idea of using a double bubble map to compare and contrast Obama and McCain for AP Government. In the frame of reference, the students would take on the persona of a certain person, such as a soccer mom, a single mother living in poverty, or an Iraq War veteran, and the frame content would be reactions that the assigned persona might have when evaluating the information on the double bubble map. This activity incorporates analysing information from another's point of view and evaluating the candidate.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Jackie's Summer Academy Top 10

2008-07-20T12:19:00.006-05:00

As I reflect on the week in Albany, so many new ideas have filled my personal frame of reference. Below is Jackie’s Top Ten List of NUA Summer Academy 2008 Highlights. I know that I am missing a ton of memorable moments, so I’d love to hear from you regarding what's in your frame. Simply click “comments” below this post if you would like to share your reflections and highlights. The blog comments section allows for an online dialogue of sorts, and I have used the comments feature with my students to continue a discussion on a certain topic.

Jackie’s Top Ten List

David Hyerle: David’s work has such a direct impact on my daily classroom instruction that I was honored to get the chance to talk with him at length on Wednesday night. Over the years my head has been filled with a list of questions that I would ask David if I ever got the chance, and I finally got that chance. Not only did the conversation with David provide me with a deeper understanding of the knowledge structures behind Thinking Maps, but also I was able to formulate a new game plan for promoting the use of Thinking Maps with my students and teachers. Thanks David for that great opportunity. You really were the WOW of my week.

Eric Cooper: My frame includes Eric as the spiritual center of NUA. Eric’s enthusiasm and beliefs that education is a civil right, and that when we teach for justice, we can really make a difference in people’s lives provide the energy that I need when I am bombarded daily with negative messages about public education. Eric reminded me of the power of positive thinking, and he really made me feel at home with NUA. Whenever I am feeling down at school, I can just think to myself, "What would Eric say?"

Yvette Jackson: When I reviewed my notebook entries from the past week at Summer Academy, I realized that Yvette and her ideas were everywhere. No wonder she is one of the main voices that runs through my head. I know that I will share Yvette’s triangle of fluency, construction and communication with my staff as a way of looking at literacy and high intellectual performance. Also, thanks Yvette for sharing Eliot Eisner's definition of literacy as “constructing, communicating, and creating meaning in many forms of representation.” I plan to use that quotation with my staff as a means into a conversation that all teachers use text and are literacy teachers.

Denise Nessel: Although I neglected to give credit to one of the inspiring influences for my creation of this Edina NUA blog during my presentation during the NUA Summer Academy, I really have to credit Denise Nessel for that spark. On the final day of last year’s NUA Summer Academy, Denise approached me after the Edina presentation and told me to consider capturing coaching stories and to consider writing a book about my experiences as a part-time classroom teacher and part-time NUA coach. Denise’s idea to capture my coaching notes was one of the early sparks for the blog. Besides being one of the blog inspirations, Denise's strategies have a profound impact on my classroom.

Evelyn Rothstein: The always entertaining and educational Evelyn Rothstein was back again this summer. Since Year 2’s didn’t have an Evelyn presentation on our agenda, some of us cornered her for private audiences. Nguyen, Deb, Kelly and I enjoyed her definition of cultural universals during a conference with Evelyn about our staff development plan. And Evelyn shared her personal story of getting her first teaching license in New York with a small audience of WMEP teachers. Thanks Evelyn for all of your cultural insights.

LaVerne Flowers: Although LaVerne was often in the background during workshop sessions this week, I always draw inspiration and security from her presence. LaVerne has been my key connection to NUA over the last five years, and she has had a huge influence on my confidence and competence as a teacher and coach over the years. Without LaVerne pushing me to be even better, I would not be the teacher and coach that I am today.

Frame of Reference: The frame became a common theme of the week, even getting its own hand gesture, and the insights gained from frame discussions will carry over to my classroom and staff development activities this fall. I am especially excited to try out the simultaneous frame on Thinking Maps to get teachers and students to listen to the voices in their head, an idea taken from David Hyerle’s session with Year 2 participants on Wednesday afternoon.

Networking: Collaboration and networking with people from other school districts is a great component of the summer academy. WMEP networking highlights for me this year include my usual breakfast talk with Wayzata educators, sitting with and sharing ideas with Karin, Shelby and Andrew from Hopkins during most of the sessions, Edina Year 1’s adopting Terri from Robbinsdale, and my Friday night spent in Chicago with Dominic, Beth, and Lisa from Eden Prairie. (United Airlines put us up at The Westin when our connecting flight to Minneapolis was cancelled since our plane from Albany landed shortly after a Mexican Airlines plan skidded off the runway at O’Hare.) Besides connecting with WMEP folks, another collaboration highlight of the week was the Edina Year 2’s working with Melissa and Peg from Albany on our taxonomy presentation with the serve it up, bump, set, spike, everybody rotate method of presentation. Peg and I left the week vowing to keep in touch.

Creating Staff Development Plans: During district meeting time and Year 2 planning time for a staff development seminar, I was able to take home plans that I can immediately begin implementing to promote culturally responsive strategies in Edina Public Schools. Nguyen, Kelly, Deb and I used the pedagogical flow map to finalize a seminar plan for our before school workshop week. And thanks to Carlton Long for giving us some great ideas for text from Jabari Mahiri to use with our seminar plan.

Music: From songs created in skits to formal gatherings, music energized the week. Eyka leading The Cupid Shuffle woke me up after dinner, and the NUA Trio with Stefanie’s lead vocals for Lean on Me was a fitting send off for the week. An outstanding find of the week was Jeremy Dudley and his original rap. Jeremy’s performance at the talent show Friday was so exciting that I have already ordered his CD from http://www.originalrap.com/.

Thanks to everyone for making family reunion week (Nanette's metaphor), aka NUA Summer Academy 2008, an enlightening and energizing experience. Also, thanks to the Edina adminstration for supporting our efforts at NUA. Thanks Jeff for sharing all of the photos online so that I could post a few.

Synonym Triplets

2008-07-10T21:20:00.005-05:00

A favorite vocabulary strategy at the high school this past spring was synonym triplets. In brief, the strategy involves finding two synonyms for an assigned vocabulary word. Drawing a symbolic representation of the word further enhances the understanding of the word.

Most teachers simply modeled one synonym triplet for a vocabulary word and then assigned other vocabulary words to pairs or groups of students so that the synonym triplets would be student-generated. This also saves teacher preparation time.

Students only need a dictionary and a thesaurus to find their synonyms, but deciding on which synonyms will best help their classmates learn the word involves some great discussions. This is another reason to have students work in pairs or groups to create synonym triplets. And the symbolic representation is also a great discussion topic for groups.

In World Literature, I gave my seniors a list of the vocabulary words so that they had a place to record the synonym triplets generated in their class. Since I assigned vocabulary words at the beginning of each act of Othello, I wanted to vary the synonym triplet assignment each time. One time students drew a symbolic representation; one time they performed a dance or stood in a tableau that represented their vocabulary word, and one time they created a hand gesture. By the end of the play, I was feeling overwhelmed by the number of vocabulary words that I had given students, so I created just one list of vocabulary words for Acts 4 and 5 together. That day I assigned pairs their vocabulary word and told them to either create a synonym triplet or simply find the definition in the dictionary. Here's my recollection of the classroom discourse that followed my assignment:

Student 1: Are we supposed to draw a picture, create a hand gesture, or what for our word?

Teacher: You don't have to do anything fancy. Just find the definition.

Student 2: You're kidding us. Are we just doing vocabulary the old fashioned, boring way?

My students were not deterred by my simplified assignment. I saw many students discussing, "If we had to create a hand gesture or body movement, what would we do?" It was then that I realized the true power of this strategy. Students were engaged with learning new words, and I was trying to hurry them along.

Sarah Jarrett also had success with synonym triplets in her classroom. Sarah commented that her students were very enthusiastic during synonym triplet days, and some students even beat boxed during their vocabulary word presentations. Sarah observed that one student, who was very excited about this vocabulary strategy and the beat boxing, did so much better on the vocabulary test on the words from synonym triplet day than he done on previous vocabulary tests.

Beth Neary also noticed increased vocabulary retention with this strategy in her Advanced Placement Spanish Literature class. Beth reported that her advanced students could ace vocabulary tests just by memorizing lists of words and definitions; however, when she used the words later in the year, they couldn't recall the definition. In January Beth had students create a synonym triplet quilt (in Spanish) for the vocabulary words in that unit, and when Beth asked the students about the words in May, they could still recall the definitions.

The synonym triplet quilt idea was the brainchild of Jen Cordes, a special education teacher at the high school. She had her students create a quilt of words for Midsummer Night's Dream. Both Jen's special education English 10 class and Beth's AP Spanish class, created quilts of vocabulary words where students punched holes in their squares and tied the squares together with yarn.

Edina's NUA coaches used a similar quilt strategy in a teacher workshop this summer, but we didn't tie the squares together. Instead, Deb Stortz just made sure colors of paper squares were equally distributed and then hung in a quilt pattern. The finished quilt is shown below.

Displaying Student Work

2008-05-06T15:10:00.005-05:00

The English teachers have increased their efforts this semester to display student work in the classrooms and the hallways. Through a Parent Council grant we received large rolls of construction paper and bulletin board strips for the halls. The big paper is great for group work and carousel brainstorming activities.

The teachers have noticed that when students realize that the work may be displayed in the hallway, they take greater pride in their products. And we often find students from other classes checking out the assignments. Overall, displaying student work has helped us with classroom management and building relationships with students.

Idealistic Leader Traits

2008-05-06T14:58:00.003-05:00

KC West has been using the idealistic leader traits as community builders in her English 10 classroom. Each week she has presented a different trait and students have worked on defining the traits, either with a circle map or an A to Z taxonomy.

Not only have these discussions of idealist traits helped KC build relationships with her students, but also students have reported that they have used information from classroom discussions outside of class, even at job interviews.

The idealistic leader traits from Admission Possible are:

"Strive to be DELIGHTFUL!

ENERGIZE those in your presence.

Keep your EYES ON THE PRIZE.

CHALLENGE CYNICISM whenever you encounter it.

MOCCASIN the lives of others. Imagine life in someone else's moccasins.

Learn to be GRATEFUL.

HAVE FUN!"

Visit Admission Impossible for more information on the Idealistic Leader Traits.

Metacognitive Frames and Peer Support

2008-04-08T13:03:00.006-05:00

KC West had great success having students explore a novel's characters and their motivations through metacognitive frames. The students found the frames engaging, and one student even commented, "These are fun--like Mad Libs."

KC was pleased with the assignment because is was naturally differentiated. One student could simply write a word in the blanks of the frames, while another student might write detailed phrases. All students could successfully showcase something that they new about the characters in the novel.

KC's Enriched English 10 students were analyzing the characters in Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, and here are the frames that students used:

Blevins is a ________ who __________.

Above all else, Rawlins wants ___________, and so he _________________.

John Grady values ______________, so he ________________.

I was so impressed with the student work that KC displayed after this exercise, that I tried a metacognitive frame in my World Literature class this week. As a priming activity for Shakespeare's Othello, I had students complete the following frame:

Relationship Advice

The important thing to know is that __________ screws up a relationship because ______________. When this happens, I feel ____________ and ____________. Therefore, to prevent this relationship obstacle I __________________.

After students completed the frame with their own ideas, I had them complete a second frame from another person's point of view. I used the peer support strategy where students chose a laminated picture of a famous person and then wrote their relationship advice on a speaking bubble. Since I wanted to give each hour the chance to use some of their favorite stars, I simply taped the frame bubbles to a "relationship advice" poster after the end of each hour.

During the gallery walk to read all of the famous people bubbles, students commented that they enjoyed the activity and hope we use the famous people more often. I wanted to introduce peer support with the Othello unit because I feel that the class will be able to have richer discussions about the racial issues that arise in the play when the feelings can be coming from Hilary Duff, OJ Simpson, Patrick Dempsey, Britney Spears, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Oprah, Barack Obama, Dennis Rodman, etc.

More information on metacognitive frames can be found in Writing as Learning by Andrew Rothstein, Evelyn Rothstein and Gerald Lauber.

Who What When Where and How

2008-03-18T10:59:00.004-05:00

The Who What When Where and How strategy engages students by tapping into youth culture and Hip Hop. Basically, students write a four-beat song to demonstrate their thinking on a particular topic.

Chorus: (all students sing)

Who, What, When, Where and How
Who, What, When, Where and How

Verse: (individuals or groups of students sing--see sample below)

In World Literature I employed this strategy to make their setting brace map come to life. Student groups were assigned a setting in The Handmaid’s Tale. They dissected the setting description to come up with people (cast), props (objects) and infrastructure (scenery). Those were the main brace map parts, and students dissected those main parts into the sub-parts of concrete nouns that would appear in those areas of the brace map if they were directing a play of the book.

From the brace map students easily wrote the Who What When Where and How song. Here’s an example of a verse hanging on my student Hall of Fame from The Handmaid’s Tale for Offred’s bedroom.

WHO: Offred Alone
WHAT: She lives simply
WHEN: Most of the time
WHERE: A Tiny Room
HOW: Forced to Remain

Each line has four beats. I lined up a singing volunteer from each group in front of the room so that the students could sing the story. The entire class sang the chorus between each verse. The chorus is just Who, what, when, where and how repeated twice. The entire class also did a call and response, calling out who, and letting the appropriate singer answer.

This day was met with mixed reviews from "one of the best classes ever" to "I am not going to sing."

The Bubble Map Was Just the Beginning

2008-03-17T12:25:00.004-05:00

A recent American Literature assessment involved students using a bubble map as the first step of a character analysis assignment. The assessment extended the student's thinking beyond the bubble map to first a creative product and then to a written reflection.

Here is the description of the assessment from the student direction sheet:

Goals of the assessment:

To demonstrate a sophisticated, in-depth understanding of the relationship between character motivation and themes in The Great Gatsby.
To apply contemporary modes of expression to this novel of the 1920s.
To flex your creative muscles. This is your opportunity to express your ideas in a creative format.

Final Work Product:

You will create either character recipes, Facebook pages, postcard secrets, or web logs for three of the main characters in The Great Gatsby. Your creative representations of the characters should reflect in-depth analysis of each character’s development throughout the course of the novel. Consider how these characters have or have not achieved the American Dream. Make sure you do not focus all of your efforts on creativity at the expense of meaningful analysis.

You must complete the following pre-writing preparation:

Select three main characters from The Great Gatsby.
For each character, create a bubble map with at least 10 adjectives that describe your character. Consider social, emotional, psychological and physical aspects of the character.
In the frame, for each adjective, provide a description of events or forces from the text that help to shape the character. Include at least 5 direct passages from the novel. For longer passages you may cite the beginning phrase and last phrase of the passage along with the page number.

Next, choose one of the following options for a final product:

Option 1: Character Recipe Cards

Writing the Recipe:
For each character, create a “recipe” that combines your character traits and bakes them into your character. The list of ingredients should include the character’s traits, and baking instructions should show how the plot events help shape the character. You must use at least 5 vivid, concrete verbs in baking instructions.

Revising: Stir. Add ingredients. Checks to make sure instructions are clear and in logical order. Stir some more and check appropriateness of verbs in baking instructions. Also, proofread recipe for spelling errors. Once you have it completely right, prepare your recipe for publication.

Publication:
Write out the complete recipe on a 4 x 6 note card. Decorate the card with symbols and images appropriate for this character.

Sample Recipe: Tragic Romeo Rolls

1 cup passion
½ cup anger
5 tablespoons love
1 teaspoon regret
2 pints confusion
3 pinches of family feuding
¼ cup revenge
4 drops blood red food coloring

Directions:
Gather all ingredients. Start with passion and love and mix family feuding deep into the middle of it. Beat until well blended. Heat the ½ cup of anger until it comes to a boil. Pour into the mixture. Next add the ¼ cup of revenge and stir until clumpy. Then stir confusion throughout the mixture. Pour into baking tins. Set oven at a searing 450 degrees. Bake overnight. After baking, top with seasoned regret, stain red with food coloring.

Result: One confused, and ultimately regretful, young lover.

Serves: Two wretched families who eventually learn to eat “Tragic Romeo Rolls” and “Passionate Juliet Cobbler” peacefully together.

Option 2: Facebook pages

For each character, create a Facebook page. As you create your page for each character, remember that you are trying to show your insights into this character’s development throughout the novel. Your page should portray an accurate overall representation of what this character would do, say, or think. What are the crucial conflicts and ethical dilemmas that this character faces?

Your pages need to show careful consideration of character motivation, relationships, and conflicts. Think about elements that will highlight personality well. Also think about appropriate symbolic images that you may wish to include.

Format these appropriately, either by creating the pages online and printing them or mimicking the format in your written work.

Option 3: Character Postcard secrets

Check out the website http://www.postsecrets.com/ (Warning: There are some very provocative confessions on this website.) This is a website that allows real people to offer confessions and secrets anonymously. Your mission is to create a postcard secret for three of the main characters in The Great Gatsby. Each postcard must include images and text.
Here are the rules, as detailed on the Post Secret website: “Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, betrayal, desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything—as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.”

Create a 4 x 6 postcard but stick to one secret per card. Choose secrets that fit the characters as developed in the novel and that are appropriate for a classroom setting. Put your complete secret and image on one side of the postcard. Be brief, legible, and creative. On the back of each postcard, write a paragraph, from the perspective of the character, that explains how or why the confession of this secret is vital to your existence. Using passages from the novel would strengthen these paragraphs.

Option 4: Character Blogs

Create a blog that includes a dialogue among at least 3 of the main characters in The Great Gatsby. You should write from the first-person perspective of the characters. Your blog should include images and formatting that shows your understanding of deeper motivations and dilemmas.

Each character must offer at least two, 1-2 paragraph long entries to the blog. So, you will have at least six entries in your blog. You may pose different questions that relate to important issues throughout the book, or use the blog to allow a character to offer thoughts not revealed in Fitzgerald’s text. How might the characters react to current events of 2008?

Be creative; however, first and foremost, make sure that your entries are true to the characters’ motivations, actions, and language throughout the novel. Your blog entries may include direct passages from the text incorporated into the characters’ comments; make sure not to let these dominate the entries.

Written Reflection

Once you have created your items, you must also complete the following reflection on the creations:

Write a one to two page (typed, double-spaced) reflection that answers the following questions:
How does the creative creation for each character demonstrate an analytical perspective on the character? What thoughts or ideas are revealed through each creation? Connect these creations to specific aspects of the text, using examples and/or cited quotations as support. You may wish to consider themes revolving around the American dream, rebellion, or other significant ideas the novel raises.

Thinking Maps for Independent Reading Project

2008-02-28T11:29:00.009-06:00

Jim Hatten developed the following independent unit for students to complete outside of class for a book of their choosing.

Each quarter, English 10 students select one book to read outside of class. Though somewhat structured, the purpose of the outside reading project is to help students develop into independent readers by allowing them to choose a topic or title that is of interest to them.

During the quarter, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency at comprehension, interpretation, and evaluation of reading.

In Quarter 3 of English 10, the category for the outside reading project is a book that has won a significant publishing award such as the ALA, Caldecott Medal, the Pulitzer Prize, the ALA Alex Awards, and many, many others.

A parent must approve the book chosen by the student and needs to sign the cover to this packet signifying their approval and understanding of the project. Students complete projects spread throughout the quarter and hand them in on time or ahead of time to receive full credit.

The following Thinking Map assignments are part of the independent study. The descriptions have been taken right from the student assignment packet.

Circle Map Clue Search

Examine the book before reading and complete a circle map for their "clue search" for this pre-reading, prediction activity. Put the book's title in the middle of the circle map and define the book with words and phrases that you have found through examining the following possible sources of hints:

Dedication
Title
Author
Cover illustration
Back cover/jacket
What others said
A quick glance at a few pages

In the frame of the circle map, write your predictions about the book.

Characterization Tree Map

Characterization is the process of conveying information about characters in a piece of fiction. Characters are usually presented through their actions, dialect, and thoughts, as well as by description. Characterization can regard a variety of aspects of a character, such as appearance, age, gender, educational level, vocation or occupation, financial status, marital status, social status, cultural background, hobbies, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ambitions, motivations, personality, etc.

After reading one-fifth of your book, you should have a good idea of the development of the main character (or person of central focus in your non-fiction book). The author should be developing the main character – how he/she looks and acts. Complete a tree map using information from the first one-fifth of your book.

Four ways to learn about characters--Look carefully for quotations about the main character’s appearance and personality to collect on the tree map. Character development is done in four ways. The four branches of your tree map need to reflect the following four ways of character developement.

Narrator’s Description--The way the character is described by the narrator (what the author literally says about what a character is like);
Character’s words--what the character says to describe him/herself;
Character’s actions--what the character does (the actions and physical appearance of that character);
Other characters say--what other characters say or do to that character.

Cause/Effect Multi-Flow Map

Create a multi-flow map that analyzes the causes and effects of the central conflict in the book. The causes of the conflict are on the left, and the major effects of that conflict are on the right.

Double Bubble Comparison to Another Text

Using a double bubble map, compare and contrast your book, character or characters, events, issues, topics, motifs or theme to another book, movie, story, play or other work of literature.

--Jim Hatten, English 10

Organizing Writing

2008-02-26T11:55:00.004-06:00

Sarah Burgess submitted the following information about recent NUA strategies in her classroom.

My English 10 students are working on analytical essays based on their reading of Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies. I differentiated the pre-writing process per my LINKS assignment this past month. After writing question papers and crafting thesis statements (that were differentiated per their ability levels), students were invited to select the type of outline they would most like to use. The choices included: a traditional written outline, an NUA thinking map (brace map), and a drawing for understanding outline (based on Linda Rief’s work).

Many students chose the brace map and completed their rough outlines of body paragraphs on large 11x17 sheets of paper. I was really pleased because those outlines are the easiest to share, and I was able to walk around with the thinking map outlines as models for other students.

In addition, I found that some students were using thinking maps as a brainstorming device before even beginning their outlines. Some were using bubble maps when trying to determine how they would characterize a particular sister. Others experimented with double bubble maps to compare two particular sisters in preparation for discussions of how they may have influenced each other.

One NUA strategy, “Read Draw Talk Write” technique, seems somewhat similar to the “drawing for understanding” outline that I have inserted below. Students have read the book, they are drawing their paper topics, they will talk me through the outline, and finally will write their papers.

I am also thinking about adding the 4-Square Writing graphic organizer as an outline option in the future. I like how this visual aid forces students to think about how their examples and supporting details relate to the topic.

--Sarah Burgess, English 10 Teacher

Pedagogical Flow Map

2008-01-30T12:47:00.000-06:00

With the start of the second semester, I added a pedagogical flow map across the top of my white board so that students could track their progression through a unit and know where they were on the map each day. I made magnets that say "today" so that I can move those to the appropriate box of the pedagogical flow map each day. I can also write specifics on the white board about the area with the "today" arrow, basically making a flee map for the day's activities.

Some days involve more than one area. For example, the day displayed in the photo above has arrows pointing to both "concept development" and "skill development." Students were exploring the concepts that will develop into themes in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and students new to my classes this semester were developing their skills with Thinking Maps as they explored those concepts.

I reduced the pedagogical flow map to eight boxes by combining some areas so that it didn't appear too overwhelming for students. And practically, it now fits well across my white board. The eight boxes are concept development, vocab development, skill development, guided lesson, mediation & reflection, independent practice, review, and assessment. Since the unit will be working on vocab and concepts and reflecting throughout, I told students that the "Today" arrows would not be progressing exactly from one box to the next.

The pedagogical flow map is new this semester, but for the past two years I have kept a flow map for the daily agenda on the right side of my white board (see photo above). With the start of the semester I added just two simple magnets--a stop sign that says reflect and an arrow that says "We are here." Simply adding the arrow and moving it throughout the day allowed students to see that they were progressing through the day and allows them to know where they are at all times, even if they happen to daydream for a few minutes. My seniors were so impressed that I made magnets to keep them on track.

I hope that both flow maps will be a classroom management aid by helping students stay focused because they know what they are supposed to be doing at any given time. The pedagogical flow map also lets students know that I have a plan for each unit and that everything we do is connected and has a purpose.

Finally, the "reflect" stop sign reminds me and my students that their brains need a break throughout the daily agenda flow map. Yesterday, during 6th hour with my second semester seniors, I noticed that the noise level was picking up, so I moved the "reflect" stop sign to the middle of the white board and put the "We are here" arrow by it. Two minutes later, I simply moved the "We are here" arrow back to the appropriate place on the daily flow map. The students calmed down and got back to work. I couldn't believe how smoothly that worked.

Great Gatsby Introduction

2008-01-30T11:53:00.000-06:00

Kristin Benson shared with me a few NUA strategies that she may use this week to introduce The Great Gatsby unit. Below are the ideas that she shared with her American Literature team.

I may use some of Rob’s quotes from the paper, write them on newsprint and have kids circulate around the room with them. I’ll ask kids to write a few sentences about the one quote that resonates with them. (Moving Quotes strategy)

Then I think I’ll do a circle frame map on the American Dream and ask kids to generate a 1-2 sentence definition after they've completed their circle map . Once they have their definitions I’ll ask them to draw a picture that is symbolic of their understanding of the American Dream. We can then post some of these.

For some background on the 1920’s/ Fitzgerald/ Gatsby: I think I’ll lecture a bit on Monday and then we’ll develop individually and as a class an A to Z taxonomy for this background information to review what they learned from the lecture.

Thinking Maps and Drama

2008-01-25T11:52:00.000-06:00

This past semester English 10 teachers used Thinking Maps to help students with their reading comprehension in the two plays studied--Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

One successful comprehension check involved students completing a multi-flow map at the end of each act of All of My Sons. Students analysed the causes and effects of the main conflict of each act and were able to build the next act's multi-flow onto the previous one. In other words, the effects of Act 1's conflict became the causes for the conflict in Act 2. This compound multi-flow is similar to the change over time continuous multi-flow that works for analyzing historical events.

The English 10 Shakespeare unit was shortened this year to fit into the 12 days between winter break and the end of the semester, so teachers did not have the time to repeat the continuous multi-flow process with Much Ado About Nothing. However, when I teach Othello this spring with my seniors in World Literature, I will have the students create the continuous multi-flow so that they see how the dramatic structure builds in Shakespeare. Traditionally, I have taught Shakespeare with the triangle dramatic structure of exposition (Act 1), rising action (Act 2), climax (Act 3), falling action (Act 4), and resolution (Act 5). With the continuous multi-flow, I will still be able to use those dramatic structure terms by labeling the appropriate section of the multi-flow map.

My hope is that students will see how Shakespeare builds his drama from one act to the next. The multi-flow map is also a great tool for discussing themes, so students should be able to see how Shakespeare's theme development is closely tied to the dramatic structure.

Logistically, I will have students build the continuous multi-flow in their notebooks and as a whole class on long sheets of construction paper. Since I teach three sections of World Literature, I will be able to roll up those sheets after each hour and un-roll the next hour's multi-flow.

The bubble map has also been used successfully with both English 10 dramas this year. Students were able to describe characters and find textual support for their adjectives. Sarah Jarrett recently used the bubble map as an assessment after Act 2 of Much Ado About Nothing, and here's her reflection on the assignment:

"The character bubble map assessment worked very well with my
sophomores. They were focused, were forced to work specifically with the
text, and came up with some great descriptors for the characters. I also
think it helped them feel more confident about their knowledge of the
characters."

Theory of Cognition Course

2007-12-19T13:37:00.001-06:00

St. Louis Park teachers Rose Korst and Mary Norris will premier a new course spring semester at St. Louis Park High School entitled "Theory of Cognition." The course has been designed as the bookend course for the school's International Baccelaurette (IB) capstone course--Theory of Knowledge.

Students in Theory of Cognition are sophomores who want to accelerate their skills in order to be successful in IB classes as juniors and seniors. Rose and Mary are keeping with the NUA philosophy of "Do not remediate kids--accelerate them."

Rose and Mary have extensive NUA and Thinking Maps training, so this pre-IB course will involve the explicit instruction of thinking skills and concentrate on the metacognitive processes involved in reading, writing and math.

The ultimate goal for the students will be for them to see a problem and be able to tell themselves: "These are the thinking skills that I can use to solve this problem." In other words, the teachers will help the students to learn how to "mediate their thinking for self-directed learning."

Besides using Thinking Maps ad other written forms of metacognition, students in Theory of Cognition with employ Socratic dialogue. For example, students will use Socratic defense with math problems. If two students have different approaches to solving a math problem, each will defend his or her approach with reasons why.

Mary and Rose invite area teachers to observe their class and provide them with feedback. They can be reached at norris.mary@slpschools.org or korst.rose@slpschools.org.

Writing and Thinking

2007-12-18T12:37:00.001-06:00

Jane Buckner in David Hyerle's Student Successes with Thinking Maps states that "writing is actually thinking written down." Buckner makes this claim because she believes that many educators feel "writing is just talk written down" (page 78).

That statement equating thinking and writing started me on my quest to explore writing connections in the books that I had received from NUA. Although I had used or seen many of the strategies modeled, I had not scanned the books with a "writing and thinking" lens. I got some great ideas that I could pass on to teachers who had specific questions about teaching writing. Below is a summary of my findings:

Student Successes in Thinking Maps

Buckner's chapter in Student Successes in Thinking Maps called “Empowering Students from Thinking to Writing” specifically addresses how to help students write a non-plagiarized, authentic research paper. Buckner advocates the use of the tree map or flee map for note taking. English 10 teachers had great luck with the flee map last year during the research paper unit to help students organize their research findings before writing their paper.

In addition to tree or flee maps for note taking, Buckner states that teachers can help students with disorganized papers through a process of “reverse mapping.” Basically, students cut apart their paper and try to fit their sentences into a flee map. Reverse mapping also allows students to see any holes that they have in their paper.

Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement

Denise Nessel’s book, Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement, has a wealth of writing strategies. Here is the briefest of summaries of writing-relevant chapters:

Cubing (p. 39): Chapter 5 describes this strategy which allows students to think about a topic from multiple perspectives (describe, compare/contrast, associate, analyze, apply, and argue for/against). This strategy increases students' fluency on a topic and helps them learn the cognitive clues that are often used in essay questions.

Freewriting (p. 67): Chapter 9 discusses a long-time favorite strategy for English teachers that involves students writing for a sustained period of time without stopping. This technique is a great tool for generating ideas and overcoming writer's block.

I-Search Reporting (p. 81): Chapter 12 includes a number of follow-up questions that teachers can ask students to make research paper topics relevant to their lives by having students formulate questions that are related to their concerns and pursuits.

Imitation Writing (p. 87): Chapter 13 outlines this strategy which involves taking a known work or famous quotation and substituting words while maintaining the text's structure.

Journal and Learning Logs (p. 101): Chapter 15 includes a number of journal writing prompts not only for English teachers but also for math, social studies, and science logs.

Key Word Notes (p. 109): Chapter 16 details this strategy that many Edina teachers use for lectures, readings, films and classroom discussions. Key Word Notes is a quick and efficient information gathering strategy if students need to write an essay after a reading selection as part of an exam. To learn about more applications of this strategy, click on "Key Word Notes" under "NUA Topics Discussed on This Blog."

Paraphrasing (p. 141): Chapter 21 discusses how teachers should start students with paraphrasing of texts that students can’t copy—e.g. videos, the teacher reading aloud. Then students can progress to reading, putting down the text, and taking notes.

Saturation Reporting (p. 171): Chapter 27 discusses this eye witness written report based on intense observations of a certain location and/or event. These reports become detailed, sensory descriptions.

Writing Frames (p. 187): Chapter 30 of Nessel's book summarizes the strategy of using frames (text structures with blanks to be filled in) that is detailed in Writing as Learning by Andrew and Evelyn Rothstein.

Sample Descriptive Writing Lesson: On p. 171, Nessel outlines a writing lesson that incorporates a number of strategies previously mentioned in her book.

Thinking Maps: Tools for Learning

David Hyerle's Thinking Maps binder has many ideas for prewriting and essay organization. The "Teaching" section of the binder shows how each map can be used for prewriting an essay, and an essay prompt is included. Also, pages 3-17 and 3-24 have writing starter patterns.

If students learn cognitive clues in essay questions, they will be able to select the appropriate Thinking Map for organizing their ideas. For example, Thinking Maps are associated with the following expository text structures:

1) sequence is flow map

2) double bubble is compare and contrast

3) multi-flow is cause and effect

4) circle map or bubble map for describing

5) problem/solution involves multiple maps (circle map to define, double bubble to compare to possible solutions)

Writing as Learning

Andrew Rothstein, Evelyn Rothstein and Gerald Lauber's book Writing as Learning includes a number of strategies to assist with writing across the curriculum. The book discusses how the A to Z Taxonomy can be used both to engage students and to help them organize their ideas for writing. Chapter 7 "Profiles and Frames: Organize Your Writing" and Chapter 9 "Reasons, Causes, Results--The Basis of the Essay" appear to be the most relevant chapters to assist teachers with high school essay writing.

Circle Map in Elementary Science

2007-12-17T19:35:00.000-06:00

After the LINKS Thinking Map training for new teachers, an elementary science teacher, Josh Bettes, sent me the circle map below that his students had completed. Josh used the circle map as a student reflection piece to assess how much they had already learned about levers in the middle of the unit.

Instructional Flow Map

2007-12-13T12:39:00.000-06:00

NUA has introduced the Instructional Flow Map this year as a tool for curriculum planning. I have seen the presentation on the instructional flow map three times: 1) at large group with Carlton, Alexis and Norman, 2) at EHS's site visit with Alexis, and 3) at Cornelia's site visit with Stefanie. Each presentation has brought me closer to a full understanding of the power of this curriculum planning tool.

The boxes of the instructional flow map follow this order:

Introduction
Concept Development
Vocabulary Development
Skill Development
Teach The Lesson (Guided Practice)
Mediate for Mastery
Teacher (self) Reflection
Release the Lesson (Independent Practice)
Review
Student Reflection
Concept Confirmation
Assessment

As I have begun to use the instructional flow map in planning my lessons and coaching other teachers with their lessons and units, I have had these initial reactions:

Teaching the lesson does not occur until a lot of priming has happened for the students. In the introduction stage students need to be informed explicitly at the beginning of the lesson what are the goals, standards, strategies, and assessment for this lesson. Lately, I have been more careful telling students the what, why and how of each lesson, and specifically, I write the "explicit strategy instruction" on the board when students will be learning a new strategy.

Another priming observation that I had with the instructional flow map is that teachers need to front-load vocabulary. When Scott, the math coach, and I were discussing ways to introduce the ray, segment, and line unit for geometry students, we kept the instructional flow map in front of us so that we realized that the time taken for vocabulary development before teaching the lesson would be time well spent. So Scott planned to have students create a tree map or use defining format for the terms.

Next week before my World Literature students read "The Infant Prodigy" by Thomas Mann, I will spend a lot of time on vocabulary development before reading since the short story includes a number of musical terms that will be unknown to many students. During the vocabulary development stage of the instruction, I will employ the "Possible Sentences" strategy in Denise Nessel's Thinking Strategies book.

Another part of the instructional flow map that I felt has been neglected in my lessons in the past is the student reflection component. Stefanie pointed out that students need to be included in the equation when deciding if they are ready for the assessment. The day after Stefanie's instructional flow map presentation at Cornelia, I implemented this student reflection step by using the red light/green light approach that Stefanie had discussed.

The red light/green light strategy is simple yet effective. I gave students three cards--yellow, red and green--to keep on their tables as they prepared for a group fishbowl discussion on an assigned sonnet. If the group did not feel that they were ready to discuss their sonnet, they had the red card displayed. If they felt that they were close to being ready, they put out their yellow card. And if they were 100% ready to have their sonnet discussion assessed, they put out their green card.

My seniors were sceptical at first because they didn't understand why they couldn't just tell me when they were ready to present. I informed them that the visual display of cards around the room would allow other groups to also keep an eye on the progress of others, and if they noticed that many groups were going "Green," they would have to pick up their pace. The other benefit of the red light/green light strategy was that on-task time seemed to increase. As I circulated around the room, if I heard a group with a red card displayed talking about something unrelated to the assignment, I could flip their card to yellow, saying, "You must be close to being finished." I only had to do that to a few groups to keep everyone focused.

The instructional flow map has immediately impacted my curriculum design in the ways mentioned above, and I am sure that it will have an even greater impact as I use the tool even more.

Reading in Chemistry Foundations

2007-12-05T14:02:00.000-06:00

The chemistry foundations class for sophomores includes reading about relevant, real-world connections to chemistry. In fact, their textbook, Chemistry in the Community, includes many stories about the real-world applications of chemistry.

In preparation for the sophomore state reading test, Chemistry Teachers Chad Nyberg, Dana Weiland and Mike Roddy used some NUA strategies in a lesson as part of the introduction to the heavy metals unit.

The lesson began with an anticipation guide listing statements that would be discovered in the readings that day. The lesson involved four articles for a group jigsaw, so a few statements were made from each reading. Upon reflection, however, the cumulative amount of statements was too large for the time allowed. Around five statements total would have proven sufficient to start the discussion of the impact of heavy metals on people's health.

After the students shared a few responses to anticipation guide statements, they formed groups of four, and each student read a different article. Two articles were on lead poisoning, and two were on mercury poisoning. As students read their assigned article, they completed a 4-Square writing that required the students to find three main ideas and supporting details for each main idea. The fourth square was where students recorded the author's purpose for writing the article. Although the fourth square is typically for a conclusion statement, we changed the box to purpose since we felt purpose was close to a student's final thoughts on an article and since the GRAD reading test often asks the question: What is the author's purpose.

After reading and writing about their articles, students shared the information with their groups, and then the groups re-visited their anticipation guides, discussing and correcting any of the statements.

The format for 4-Square Writing looks like this:

Thinking Maps in Art of Film

2007-11-16T12:50:00.000-06:00

Rachel Tholen's Art of Film students, mostly seniors, used Thinking Maps to review the Westerns that they had studied in class prior to the Western unit exam. Students selected three maps to complete and present to the class. Rachel said the final discussion day with the map presentations went very well.

Rachel gave her students the following possible maps and tasks:

Circle map: Define the elements of the Western genre, typical characters or one aspect of the film.

Bubble map: Describe the film, a character or the genre.

Double Bubble Map: Compare and contrast two films, two characters within a film, two main characters from different films, or two directors' styles.

Tree Map: List details about the literary, dramatic and cinematic elements of a film and in the frame comment on their effects on the viewer.

Brace Map: Break down the setting of a film into its subparts. In the frame, answer the question: How does the director use set direction to enhance theme?

Flow Map: Sequence the main events of the film and include important substages of that event.

Multi-Flow Map: Analyze the causes and effects of a main conflict in the movie. The frame should answer the question: How do cinematic elements enhance conflict?

Bridge Map: What analogies can you make between this movie's characters and events and pop culture of other films and books?

Dancing Definitions

2007-11-15T10:47:00.000-06:00

After the first NUA Large Group Sessions, a few teachers in cohorts 4 and 5 decided that they would try the Augusta Mann dancing definitions strategy that was modeled. Claris Springob noted that world language teachers often use similar strategies because they need to bring the vocabulary to life for students.

Here’s the summary of the dancing definitions strategy:

1. Teacher writes a rhythmical definition on a poster to display during the teaching. The poster also includes a tag sentence that uses the word in a way that connects to youth culture. The teacher should also consider adding a differentiation word to the definition for those students who already have a strong vocabulary.
2. Teacher recites the definition (repeating the key words of the definition) and tag sentence. The recitation also involves memorable movement(s).
3. Students recite the definition and tag sentence and do the movement two times with the poster visible.
4. The teacher then puts the poster down, and the students recite, from memory, the definition and tag sentence while doing the movement for the fourth time.
5. The poster should then be hung on the wall. Depending on wall space in your classroom, you may have to rotate words every few days.

Here's an example of a definition of a vocabulary word from The Crucible:

arbitrate: To arbitrate is to judge or decide, judge or decide, a dispute. The umpire will arbitrate the play at first. (motion: the baseball out signal with thumb coming out).

Teacher Responses to the Strategy:

Within a few days of the large group, KC West had incorporated the dancing definitions strategy into her English 10 class. The first time that KC taught a word, she told the students that they may find the strategy funny, but that it would help them learn the definitions of their vocabulary words. KC reported that the students really liked the strategy, and she heard students comment: "Wow, I can't believe that I actually remembered that definition." KC also felt that the activity helped build rapport with her students. She felt that they respected her more for taking a chance on a strategy that took her out of her comfort zone.

Scott Woelber tried a dancing definition with volume in geometry class, and here's his report on how the definition went:

"I actually wrote the definition of volume on poster paper along with an association. Volume is the amount enclosed. Volume is the amount occupied. The volume of the Metrodome is enormous. The volume of an iceberg is enormous. I said it three times like a chant (but within my comfort level!). The students repeated it back once while looking at it, and then again but with the poster covered. Hand movements were included. This activity went well, but it takes a little convincing that chanting a definition isn't just for little kids!

Some American Literature teachers are planning on trying dancing definitions with the vocabulary words from The Crucible.

To read more on the strategy, visit this website:
http://www.successfulteachers.com/strategies/dd/dd.html

Multiple Maps for Deeper Meaning

2007-11-11T20:23:00.000-06:00

As the culminating U.S. History project, Ruth Mary has her students go through a complete problem solving process using thinking maps. Students pick a problem that they think the world is facing, like AIDS or environmental issues, and they work through the maps to come to a solution.

The steps in the process are described on page 4-21 in the Thinking Maps: Tools for Learning blue binder.

The problem definition stage involves creating a circle map to define the problem and a bubble map to describe the attributes of the problem.

The collect and organize data stage involves the students classifying details that they found during the research process in a tree map.

The brainstorm solutions/options stage has students brainstorm possible solutions to problem with a circle map and then use a flow map to prioritize options.

The evaluate consequences stage has students create a multi-flow map for each possible solution to analyze the causes and effects.

In the choose a solution stage students complete a double bubble map that compares and contrasts the two best solution possibilities, and then their final solution is expressed in a bridge map to make an analogy for better understanding.

Tree Map to Organize Writing

2007-11-11T20:19:00.000-06:00

Betsy's World History students created tree maps after completing research on a person of historical influence. The papers had to address three areas of influence for their historical figure, so a tree map with the influences as categories was a logical way to classify details to use in the paper.

Betsy provided her students with the following sample tree map as a model.

More Math Thinking Maps

2007-11-11T20:10:00.000-06:00

Scott and Lizzy have really embraced using Thinking Maps in math classes this fall. Below is an example of how they have used the flow map to show the sequence of a variation problem.

Here's an example of a multi-flow map to prove a theorem.

Comparing Math Equations

2007-11-11T20:08:00.000-06:00

As part of their math exam, students in Lizzy's class had to compare and contrast two equations by creating a double bubble map. Here is one student's answer:

Algebra Problem Takes Three Thinking Maps

2007-11-11T20:00:00.000-06:00

Scott and Lizzy have been working this fall with Algebra students and using thinking maps to solve problems. The students went through a process of defining the problem with a circle map, classifying known information about the problem in a tree map, and then putting the equation steps into a flow map.

The teachers prompted the circle map creation with the question, "what do you need to define to solve this word problem?" "What distance" was the essential question, so that became the center of the circle map, and students defined "what distance" with all the details they knew from the word problem.

The second step was to classify the details into a tree map. Lizzy and Scott did not tell the students the categories, so many students struggled with this step. Upon reflection, Lizzy and Scott felt that the tree map categories should be worked out in a full class discussion so that students are not led too far astray. Here are the resulting tree maps:

List Group Label

2007-11-11T19:50:00.000-06:00

KC's sophomores completed a list group label activity to analyze the props in Arthur Miller's All My Sons. KC had her students list all of the props that they could find in the play, then the students grouped them into categories on a tree map. Finally, they had to label the categories. The activity got the students thinking about the significance of Miller's props, and they realized that the detailed stage directions are included for a symbolic reason. One of the more interesting tree maps had the categories of positive, negative and unimportant props.

Click here for a full description of the strategy.

Question Stages for Reading

2007-10-28T17:35:00.000-05:00

In preparation for the GRAD reading test that all sophomores will take next April, I have begun working with the Chemistry Foundations teachers to add more reading to their sophomore class. If the science teachers use the same reading terms (e.g. literal, inference) when discussing articles read for class as appear on the GRAD reading test, students, hopefully, will have a better grasp of what the test questions are asking.

I developed a sheet for the science teachers that list the three stages of questions. I modeled the sheet after the one English 10 teachers are using for even more consistency across the curriculum when discussing reading. If both classes employ a similar framework with common GRAD test terminology, the students should start seeing connections. Enriched English 10 used a similar three-stage question framework for poetry analysis this week, and I'm confident that standard English 10 will be able to implement the question stages during a poetry unit just prior to the GRAD reading test.

Below are the stages for science that have many of the question stems that are on the Minnesota GRAD reading test.

Science Stage 1 Questions (Literal)

Summarize the article.
Paraphrase the article.
What are the main ideas and supporting details?
What do words mean in context?
What is the text structure?
What is the point of view—first person or third person?

Science Stage 2 Questions (Inference)

What is the purpose of this article?
What tone does the author establish in the article?
What are the connotations of words?
What figurative language, such as metaphor, simile or symbol, is used?
How does the structure enhance the meaning?
What are facts and what are opinions in the piece?
Is there any bias in the text?
Is the information in the article credible, or is it contradicted elsewhere in the text or does it contain logical fallacies?
Is there any satire in the piece?

Science Stage 3 Questions (Constructed Response)

What connections did you make between the article and science class?
What personal connections can you make with the piece?
What connections to the world today are you making?
Compare the ideas from the piece to other books, films and pop culture.

Below is the list of poetry questions by stage with questions that correspond to the wording of the Minnesota GRAD reading test questions.

Poetry Stage 1 Questions (Literal)

Paraphrase the poem.
What are the main ideas?
What do words mean in context? (Denotation)
Who is the narrator?
What is the text structure?
What are facts and what are opinions in the piece?

Poetry Stage 2 Questions (Inference)

What is the theme or life lesson of the poem?
What is the poet’s tone?
What are the connotations of words?
What figurative language, such as personification, metaphor, simile, imagery, and symbol, is used?
How does the rhyme scheme and structure enhance the meaning?

Poetry Stage 3 Questions

What personal connections can you make with the poem?
What connections to the world today are you making?
Compare the poem to other books, films and pop culture.

Final Word Timer

2007-10-26T13:08:00.001-05:00

Jim Hatten used the final word protocol twice this past unit with his sophomore English class and felt it went well. His sophomores discussed an article on cheating and then an article on environmental threats. Jim's also planning on using final word with his senior journalism class.

Jim projects a timer on his screen so that students can keep track their talking time.

Click here for a free, classroom timer to use on your computer.

Teachers with Interwrite pads also have a classroom timer as part of their gallery teaching tools. Projecting a classroom timer has a variety of uses to assist with classroom management.

Outside Reading Thinking Maps

2007-10-24T15:46:00.000-05:00

Jim Hatten created a comprehensive assessment using Thinking Maps for his sophomore English class. His students create four Thinking Maps on the memoir that they read outside of class. This activity replaces a traditional literary analysis essay.

Jim created a website to help his students understand ways that they could use each Thinking Map to show their understanding of the book that they read. Since students were able to choose which four maps to use, the website helped students explore their options.

Click here to explore Mr. Hatten's website.

Character Development with a Double Bubble Map

2007-10-24T13:24:00.000-05:00

English teacher Kristin Benson submitted the following assessment that her eleventh graders in American Literature will complete as the final test on a choice book that they read outside of class.

Outside Reading Quarter 1 -Young Adult Literature

One of the trademarks of young adult literature is that the protagonist or main character is typically a teenager who comes of age. That is, he or she is faced with challenges that result in some sort of change, learning or growth. Here is your chance to show what you’ve learned about your main character.

Part I: Create a Double Bubble Map

Create a double bubble map comparing your character at the beginning of the novel to your character at the end of the novel. (See board for example). Fill the bubbles with phrases or words that describe his or her attitudes, ideas and beliefs. You should offer a minimum of 3 similarities and 3 differences. You may also exceed expectations and do more.

Part II – Explain the ideas in your double bubble map

In a well-organized paragraph, explain how your character grows, matures or comes of age in this novel. You should provide at least two specific examples from the text to support your ideas. If you brought your book to class you may use it to provide direct quotations with page numbers. Remember to include a topic sentence, context for your quotes, examples from the text, analysis that connects to your topic sentence and a concluding sentence that sums up your ideas. (You may write on this sheet or on lined notebook paper, if you prefer)

Advanced Placement and Final Word Discussion

2007-10-16T11:49:00.001-05:00

Lonni Skrentner, retired AP history teacher, submitted the following information about using the Final Word Discussion with her advanced placement students.

My favorite NUA strategy in Advanced Placement was “Final Word Discussion.” In that strategy, students read an article (something biased or analytical works best). While reading, they highlight sections (no more than two or three lines each) that they think are important, interesting, about which they have questions. I tell them to number the highlights they want to share – 1-2-3, so they have at least two back ups when someone in their group shares their highlight before it is their turn.

Using a deck of cards, “deal” your students into groups of no more than four. You decide which “suit” starts (you’ve culled your deck to include just enough cards for your class – so a class of 12 would only need aces, twos and threes – for an odd number choose a joker and let them pick a group to join). Tell groups their goal is decide on one highlight and a back-up to share with the whole class. Then the strategy works as follows:

First person shares a highlight with their rationale or question
Each other person in the groups reacts to that person (I don’t get what you mean, I highlighted the same thing but because... etc.)
The speaker gets the “final word,” a reaction to what their peers have said.
Next person goes and so on.
They decide which highlight they want to share in the large group – who will read, who will explain etc.
Bring the class back together as soon as you realize most groups are finished sharing (with adults this strategy needs a timer because they will go on talking, but teens will probably be able to go twice around the group in 15 minutes or so!)
Have each group share one highlight (make sure they say page number, column and approximate spot so students can follow along) – as teacher ask some clarifying, analytical or further descriptive questions.

Got questions? Want to brainstorm? Get a coach or colleague to sit down with you. Call Lonni Skrentner, retired EHS social studies teacher (952-946-1173, skrents@aol.com) and she’d be glad to come in on an off day during your prep.

Advanced Placement and Thinking Maps

2007-10-16T11:42:00.000-05:00

Lonni Skrentner, retired AP history teacher, submitted the following information about using thinking maps with her advanced placement students.

Thinking Maps

Most folks see NUA strategies and maps as tools for use with struggling students. I discovered they were phenomenal for use in Advanced Placement. The maps can be used for analysis, review and essay creation. A useful idea is to allow students to choose a map to use whatever the assignment. It seemed that students had “favorite” maps that they used well.

For analysis, you choose the concept or question and the students (usually in pairs) choose a map. Most students are tech savvy enough to draw a map in Word, Paint or PowerPoint programs. The maps can be emailed to the teacher one day in advance of class use or brought on a memory stick to load. So you make the due date one day early essentially. Create a folder within your documents and save by hour or just as a jumble together. When you put the map up on the screen, students “present” their ideas.

Good questions to use with class are:
Is there anything on this map that is outright wrong?
Why is it wrong? Creators – what led you to put it there?
Are there things you would add to this map? What? Why?

You probably won’t have time to use all student maps, and some may not be worth using. To grade this type of assignment, make sure you use a student’s map sometime within a unit and grade them for that presentation – that way you are not grading everyone each time.

For review, the field is more wide open. The most thoughtful review I found, simply puts the Unit in the center of a Circle-Frame Map. Some students began dividing the descriptive circle into arcs and putting topics like “political, economic, social” in them with specifics. The most important piece was the presentation of the outer frame – with the following question:

What forces created the specifics of this unit? (Obviously, you would make the question more descriptive to the unit!)

I also told students that they could combine maps in order to describe the unit. Sometimes you could use “Mapmaker Man” (See Jackie Roehl if you haven’t met “him,” though I don’t think there is an electronic version.) Again, electronic submission is the key to being able to use them in class – you save the maps (a day early!)

Essays are the toughest “gig.” I created maps for the two types of AP World History essays and they really helped some students. I never really figured it out for APUSH, though. I had students map the topics for essays – which worked well. Someone needs to figure out the “stems" for APUSH essays and then map templates could be created.

Now – will this work for all students? – NO! Will all students do the assignments? – NO. Is there a way to differentiate so that students who benefit can get credit from this while others get review, analysis, and essay credit some other way? – YES! BUT, that takes some grading creativity on the teacher’s part. I’d create a Grade Quick assignment simply titled Review, or Analysis or Essay Review and make it worth a certain number of points. To simplify grading, I’d probably use the column for a unit or a quarter, thus having to think about each student only once.

Got questions? Want to brainstorm? Get a coach or colleague to sit down with you. Call Lonni Skrentner, retired EHS social studies teacher (952-946-1173, skrents@aol.com) and she’d be glad to come in on an off day during your prep.

Jabari Mahiri: NUA Culture Consultant

2007-10-15T15:53:00.000-05:00

photo from UC Berkley

Jabari Mahiri, a professor at UC Berkley and former English teacher in Chicago public schools, presents culturally responsive strategies at National Urban Alliance workshops and conferences. Marhiri's book Shooting for Excellence: African American and Youth Culture in New Century Schools is given to NUA cohort participants and is an excellent starting point for discussing issues of race and teen culture in the classroom.

For a list of all of Mahiri's publications and for more biographical information, visit his Berkley home page.

The Edina CoP will discuss chapter 4 of Shooting for Excellence entitled "Changing Classroom Discourse and Culture" at their next meeting on Nov. 27.

Here is a brief breakdown of what is contained in the subheads of Chapter 4:

"Classroom Discourse" explains teacher talk and control
"Classroom Culture" discusses tracking and institutional structures
"Problems of Changing Classroom Discourse and Culture" includes information on the history of hatred and racism in schools and contrasts Ms. Jackson's World Literature class with her Ethnic Literature class, which is a tracked, low-level class.
"Possibilities for Changing Classroom Discourse and Culture" analyzes Ms. Park's classes and her emphasis on building relationships.
"Culture and Curriculum" discusses the need to connect with teen culture, and rap music is explored as one way to do this. Mahiri provides lesson ideas that do not involve listening to rap music, but rather reading and writing about text-based material about rap.

CoP Meeting Dates

2007-10-15T15:25:00.000-05:00

Edina High School's NUA Community of Practice (CoP) will meet five more times this school year.

Here's the schedule:

October 17, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. in Room 271

November 27, 2007 at 8:00 a.m. in Room 271

February 26, 2008 at 8:00 a.m. in Room 271

March 21, 2008 at 12:00 p.m. in Room 271

April 8, 2008 at 8:00 a.m. in Room 271

Brace Map Helps Bring a Novel's Setting to Life

2007-10-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

To help students with reading comprehension and bring the setting of a novel to life, I have students, working in groups, dissect an assigned portion of the novel to uncover all of the details. I assign each group a section of the novel that contains just one setting, and I even tell the students the setting that they will present to the class. This assignment worked well with Brave New World this past fall, and the American Literature teachers are planning on trying it with Huck Finn.

Steps of the setting assignment as given to students:

After the lottery for setting selection, base group members will skim the assigned pages, jotting down all objects they encounter in those pages in their notebooks. This is similar to what we did for objects in Room 271.

Then students will take all the sub-parts and work back to the whole of the assigned setting by organizing the details in a brace map. The brace map should be created in your notebook.

The frame of the brace map should contain the most illustrative and visual quotation, in your opinion, that the author puts forth in your assigned setting pages.

The frame of the brace map should also contain your thoughts about the author's intent for including the specific objects. How does the setting relate to themes, images and character development in the novel?

The base group will create an artistic representation of the setting to use as a visual aid for the class presentation.

Groups present their setting creations while discussing their brace map and sharing their key quotation and commentary on the author's intent.

Students will reflect on their classmates' setting presentations on a Key Word Notes page, which includes a summary sentence at the bottom of the chart on the author's intent regarding his detailed settings.

More Notes on This Assignment

Setting Flow Map: After all of the presentations were made, I picked the best of each assigned setting to display on the wall of fame, so students were competing with the groups in my other hours for first place. Those hall of fame settings were displayed on the wall in a flow map so that students could have a visual flow of the first part of the book.

Key Word Notes Summary Statements: Summarizing each setting presentation to one word (that couldn't be the setting name itself) led to some very interesting student thoughts since I had a few students share their key words and explain as a transition between presentations. And the summary statements at the end of all of the presentations amazed me. Basically, students had created a thesis statement for an essay on the author's intent and how setting relates to theme.

Prior Experience With Task: During the first week of school, I reviewed the Thinking Maps in the context of getting to know each other, the teacher, the course syllabus, and even the classroom environment. Students completed a similar brace map activity with my classroom, so this setting assignment was not their first time with the activity. On that brace map day, students listed as many objects in my classroom that they could in two minutes. Then they organized the objects into a brace map. The frame of the brace map answered the questions: What does this arrangement tell me about the teacher? How will the contents of this room help me with my learning? What am I wondering about regarding the classroom environment?

Thinking Maps and Memoir

2007-10-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

KC submitted this English 10 assessment involving thinking maps. Students completed the assessment after reading a selection of short memoirs, letters, and This I Believe essays from National Public Radio. Below is the assessment description in language for students.

Final Assessment

This group activity is designed to help you think about memoir as a genre – the tools the writers’ tend to use, the themes and conflicts that recur, the ways in which characters are drawn. Refer to your notebook as you work on these three tasks. Much of the information you need to complete the activities should be there. You’ll use it to draw further inferences and conclusions about memoir.

Here is a list of the memoirs we’ve read in the order we read them: An excerpt from Black Boy by Richard Wright, “We Are Each Other’s Business” by Eboo Patel, “A Duty to Heal” by Pius Kamau, “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude” by Sarah Adams, “Harper Lee’s Letter to Oprah” by Harper Lee, “I’ll Eat What He’s Wearing” by David Sedaris, excerpts from I Thought My Father Was God by various authors, and “A Perfect Day” by David Benjamin.

Part One: Author’s Style
Product: Double Bubble Map

Directions: Choose two memoirs and compare and contrast their styles. Style includes use of dialogue, descriptive techniques, figurative language, word choice, sentence structure, and tone. The two pieces you choose should have at least two elements in common – the writers use dialogue similarly, for example; or they both use personification. In addition to similarities, identify differences between the pieces on your double bubble map.

Part Two: Characterization
Product: Two Circle Maps

Directions: Choose two additional memoirs (other than the ones you used in Part One) and examine the ways in which authors use indirect characterization. I suggest you use the David Sedaris piece and one of the I Thought My Father Was God pieces, as you already have notes on characterization for these. In the center of each circle map, put the name of a main character from the memoir. In the inner circle, write characteristics of that person. For instance, if I were writing about the kid in “A Perfect Day,” I might include “incompetent” as one of his characteristics. In the outer circle, provide the specific examples (quotes are best) from the text that led you to identify the character as you did.

Part Three: Conflict
Product: Multi-Flow Map

Directions: Choose two more memoirs (other than the ones you have used already) and identify a common conflict that the characters face. Put the conflict in the center of the map. On the left, identify the common causes of that conflict in the characters’ lives. On the right, identify the common effects of the conflict. Be specific! You must have at least four causes and four effects. If you’d like to include causes and effects that one memoir has and the other doesn’t, be sure to make it clear which piece you’re discussing.

A to Z Taxonomy

2007-09-23T18:54:00.000-05:00

An A to Z taxonomy in the first few days of a unit works well to activate students' prior knowledge and get them excited about the overall theme of the unit. Students love this creative and fun activity.

Strategy steps:

The teacher gives the unit's theme to the students. The theme needs to be broad enough and real-life enough that students can use their prior knowledge and cultural background to complete the task.
This tasks works best in groups to really build excitement.
The group's recorder starts lettering a large sheet of paper with A, B, C, D . . . . X, Y, Z.
Group members create a list of words that they think are examples of the main theme or illuminate the theme in some way.
Students do not need to progress sequentially through the alphabet. They just fill in the blanks as they think of words or phrases that start with a given letter.
If students have difficulty completing the list, the teacher may allow one member per group to wander around the room for one minute and "spy" on other posters being created.
The teacher may or may not allow the use of a dictionary and a thesaurus.
Once all groups are completed, then the teacher may have people share their lists with the full class or have the class come up with an agreed-upon word or phrase for each letter.

With Brave New World in my World Literature class, students made an A to Z Taxonomy of science and technology issues they felt the world would be facing in the future.

I’ve had equal success with this activity with the word “relationship” with Othello. At the end of the Othello unit, students revisited their A to Z Taxonomies to see if Shakespeare had addressed all of their relationship words. With a little creativity and successful use of synonyms, students found that they could find an example from Othello for each word in their A to Z Taxonomy. Students really learned that Shakespeare is timeless and universal.

I will have students revisit their Brave New World Science and Technology lists too. They will then evaluate just how much of a futurist Aldous Huxley really was.

Tree Map For Peer Review

2007-09-21T11:46:00.000-05:00

At the English 10 meeting, KC discussed using the tree map for peer review for the student's first essay. Each branch would be labeled with the six traits of writing--ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.

Under each of the six branches, sub-branches for strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) would be drawn. As students read each other's essay, they list details under the appropriate + or - branch.

To facilitate this process, students exchanged notebooks with their peer review partner. The peer reviewer created the 6 Traits tree map in the author's notebook. That way, the author not only had the information ready for revision of this particular essay, but also the author had the tree map record in the notebook to review when writing subsequent essays.

This strategy reminded me of the time that I graded blue book essays by simply creating a strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) tree map on the front of each blue book. I then listed a few ideas under the - and a few under the +. Assessing essays this way was efficient since I did not write comments throughout the blue book, and the tree map was meaningful to students because they could see a quick summary of their strengths and weaknesses. Students also liked seeing that they did get at least one positive comment.

Key Word Notes Update

2007-09-20T10:43:00.001-05:00

After Chris, KC and Sarah reported great success with the Key Word Notes strategy, I wanted to try it. I was amazed both times that I have used the strategy this week. The students were able to synthesize the information being learned into high level summary statements.

The first time that students completed Key Word Notes was Monday during setting presentations. Each base group presented information on the details of a different setting in Brave New World. Those presentations also included information regarding Huxley's intent for including such a detailed setting in terms of character development, symbolism or theme.

While a group was presenting, all other members of the class had to listen attentively and come up with a one-word summary of the entire presentation. Not only was I amazed that the audience was practically on the edge of their seats to cue into a key word, but also the words that were chosen were usually at the symbolic or thematic level. Words like sterile, brainwashing, unnatural, inhumane and conformity were captured on the Key Word Notes page of their notebooks. After each presentation, I asked a few students to share their words and reasoning, and again students displayed a high level of thinking during this synthesis activity.

In fact, the summary sentence at the end of the Key Word Notes chart was often a thesis statement for an essay on Huxley's intent regarding setting details.

The second time that I used Key Word Notes this week was during a classroom discussion. The last time that we had a full day of classroom discussion on the novel, I noticed that many students were tuning out, and I was kicking myself for not providing some type of formal reflection activity. So today, which was slated to be another full day of classroom discussion, I had students create a Key Word Notes chart. After about seven minutes of an open forum discussion (where students pose questions for other students to answer), I would say, "Timeout! Summarize the past seven minutes into one word."

After each reflection minute, I had a few students share their word and reasoning. I was disappointed that the words chosen were not as high level as the ones earlier in the week during the setting presentations. There was no unifying theme for the seven minutes prior to reflection time because two or three unrelated questions were posed by the students. I feared then that I had misused the Key Word Notes strategy in this artificial task.

I feared that the words were so disconnected that the summary sentence would not make sense or be too difficult to write. Before I had students write the summary sentence, I told them that this sentence should capture their closing thought of the day; what they had gotten out of today's discussion. I was pleasantly surprised that the sentences shared were as high quality as the setting ones earlier in the week.

I've concluded that the Key Word Notes strategy gives students the framework to make personal meaning out of classroom discussions, even when a number of various topics and questions are raised.

Tree Map for Classroom Rules

2007-09-19T12:54:00.000-05:00

During the first week of school, I had students create a tree map for the class rules. I provided the tree branch headings of Work--Respect--Belong. (Thanks KC for those headings.) Students then decided what those concepts looked like regarding specific classroom behaviors. Classifying classroom behavior details in this manner allowed students to see what types of activities they should engage in to be successful in my classroom.

This process allowed me as the teacher to give some direction as to the general code of conduct while allowing students to take ownership in how the general rules would play out specifically in the classroom.

Those tree maps are posted in the classroom, and I refer to them when a student needs a reminder.

Anticipation Guide to Engage Students

2007-09-19T11:43:00.000-05:00

An anticipation guide is a set of true/false or agree/disagree statements that are presented to students prior to informational text (including math chapters), films, and guest speakers. The strategy sharpens a student's thinking skills while building curiosity. When information is memorable, student learning increases.

The steps:

The teacher writes several declarative statements that are based on the upcoming reading, film, chapter, speaker, etc. The best statements are possible yet open for debate.
Before the reading, students decide on their response. Students could complete the anticipation guide with just their own opinions and then check with a partner or group.
The group discusses some of the statements as a whole class, having students tell the reasoning behind the response. The teacher can prompt: "Why do you think so?
Students read the assigned material and change their answers so that they leave class with the correct answers to study.

Generally, anticipation guides are used with non-fiction texts so that students can reason with prior knowledge. With fiction, the author could take the reader anywhere. However, anticipation guides can be successful with fiction when the agree/disagree statements get at the big ideas or themes of the novel.

Here are some example fiction statements for anticipation guides:

Huxley's Brave New World--
A society's stability is hindered by people expressing their individuality.

Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--
A natural father's rights are more important than a child's welfare.

Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing--
Before deciding to marry someone, people need to agree with their parents' wishes.

This strategy is culturally responsive because students share their reasoning behind statements with small groups and the entire class. Since the reasoning is based on what students know, various cultural backgrounds will emerge. Hopefully, this leads to students appreciating other backgrounds and life experiences.

English 10 teachers used an Anticipation Guide during the first week of school where students agreed or disagreed with statements about life if high school. This activity worked well.

KC even created an anticipation guide of personal information as a way for students to get to know their teacher.

Math Thinking Strategies

2007-09-19T10:34:00.000-05:00

Scott, the high school numeracy coach, and I have been meeting over the past few weeks to discuss ideas for Advanced Algebra. Since my math skills left me 25 years ago when I dropped Calculus II in college, these meetings have been a challenge for me.

However, my lack of knowledge may be paying off. Last week, Scott gave me a word problem to solve and asked me if I could use thinking maps to solve it. Being true to the belief that the brain thinks eight ways as represented by Hyerle's Thinking Maps, I set out on the task. I falsely started with a tree map and then realized I didn't even know the ideas to classify yet.

After backtracking to a circle map to define the problem, I felt much better about the problem. I then could make a tree map that classified the parts of the problem, which turned out to be the parts of the mathematical expression I needed to arrive at to solve the problem. The solution to the problem was just a quick flow map away.

I have to confess that it took me nearly 20 minutes to solve this one word problem from an Advanced Algebra sophomore class. Scott found my thoughts fascinating because I was talking out what I was thinking as I was making the Thinking Maps. Scott said that with students he never gets to hear the thought process; students usually just shut down and say, "I don't get it."

Scott and I came to the conclusion that my brain needed to go through the following three thinking processes to solve the problem:
1) a circle map to define
2) a tree map to classify
3) a flow map to sequence the stages of the mathematical expression

Since the problem solving process took so long (even with Scott asking me clarifying questions along the way), I wanted to test the idea that I had, in fact, learned something and could solve another problem. I wanted to show Scott that taking the time up front to get me to understand the process would pay off in the end when I made up time on future problems.

I went through the same three-step process with a second problem and arrived at the correct answer in only five minutes, and I had sketched out the three Thinking Maps. I was amazed at my ability to solve the second problem, and I was actually enjoying math.

After this session with Scott, I pulled out Hyerle's Thinking Map binder to look if he had addressed math problem solving steps. He had! I can't believe that I neglected to look there first, but in retrospect, I am glad I tried to construct meaning on my own. Hyerle proposed using the same three-step process that I had arrived at on my own--the circle map, the tree map and the flow map in that order. Arriving at that process independently further strengthened my belief that the brain does think in those eight ways.

Scott took my completed maps back to the math department. One teacher couldn't believe that I had thought that way to solve the problem. She felt I should have done it another way. Scott said that he realized then that people have different frames of reference when solving math problems and there are probably students sitting in the math classes needing to think out the problems with all the steps that I needed.

Writing in Math Class

2007-09-16T18:25:00.000-05:00

Scott's math students are writing their robot stories on his blog, http://www.woelber.blogspot.com/. I love that students are writing for math classes as part of their homework. Now if only I could figure out how to teach math across the curriculm.

For more information on Scott's work as the EHS Numeracy coach, visit his blog at http://www.ehsnumeracy.blogspot.com/.

Levels of Questions

2007-09-16T18:13:00.000-05:00

Students in World Literature create their own questions about the novels that they then pose to the class for open forum classroom discussions. To get students beyond simple content questions, I reviewed with them the three levels of questions that I learned both from an NUA session a few years ago and from Augsburg's Paideia Institute.

This is how I worded the types of questions for my students:

Stage 1 Questions: (Re-tell the story.) These are content questions where the answer is right there in black and white. These questions are similar to reading quiz questions. You may ask a stage 1 question when you feel clarification is needed regarding the facts surrounding the plot, settings or characters.

Stage 2 Questions: (Extend the story to themes.) These theme questions uncover the deeper meaning of a text. What is the author's central meaning or life lesson? Theme questions get at eliciting people's opinions that are supported with textual references.

Stage 3 Questions: (Connect the themes to personal experiences or world events.) These questions allow students to express their opinions about personal and world issues that they feel are relevant to their lives. Opinions and debate abound when these questions are posed to the class in an open forum. You will almost hear Socrates whispering, "good job," as you take World Literature: A Senior Seminar to this highest stage of discourse.

Soundtrack Assignment

2007-09-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

As a final project for Catcher in the Rye, American Lit teachers will have students create a soundtrack of the songs that remind them of the books themes or characters. Each soundtrack song is accompanied by one paragraph that explains why the song was chosen. This assignment really allows students to showcase their teen culture.

Here's a full description of the assignment:

The Catcher in the Rye Soundtrack

Most movies today come with a soundtrack of songs and music heard in the film. These songs sometimes are incidental (i.e., not important) to the film, but other times they add meaning to the plot or highlight the emotional aspects of particular characters.

For this assignment, you must create a soundtrack for The Catcher in the Rye that represents theme, illustrates growth of character, and reflects the plot meaningfully. The soundtrack that you create should be appropriately and respectfully representative of the novel.

Here are specific criteria:

1. You must have a minimum of eight songs. You may choose any kind of music. You may want to think about having a “theme” to your music; that is, have all music be from one genre. (WWHLT? What would Holden listen to?)

2. At least three of these songs must be for specific characters. That is, find a song that best represents each character you choose. In essence, this should be the character’s “theme song.”

3. At least three songs must be meant for specific scenes of the novel. Focus on specific, meaningful scenes. Ask yourself: if this scene were made into a movie, what music would be played in it?

4. At least one song must represent a theme found in the novel overall.

5. Not all the music you choose must have lyrics. Instrumental selections are also appropriate.

6. For each song you choose, you must write a paragraph explaining your choice. Comment on the connection between the music and the novel. The song must fit the character/scene/theme well. For each song, use at least one quotation from the book as support for your choice. Also, you will probably want to quote specific lyrics in your discussion. Make sure you offer insightful reasons to justify your selections and connections.

7. You must either provide lyrics for each song or make a tape/CD with the music on it. You may wish to just present the lyrics that would be heard in the movie, or you may provide the entire lyrics since the full song would appear on your soundtrack.

8. Create the cover jacket for the CD soundtrack jewel case (front and back). The cover should include the name of the CD and at least one visual reference to the novel; the visual(s) should also connect to the characters/scenes/themes that you emphasize on the soundtrack. Other text that you may wish to include on the front or back: a list of the songs/performing artists, credits, recording company information, dedications, lyrics. Push your creativity here.

Using Blogs

2007-09-12T13:35:00.000-05:00

Many of our NUA CoP members have implemented blogs this year in the classroom. I have linked a few to this blog so that you can further see how NUA strategies are coming into the classroom. KC's blog even has photographs of the Thinking Maps on the white board. I need to pack my digital camera to start capturing class information like this.

Jim Hatten has developed this website to help students get started on creating their own blogs. Jim's site is awesome, and I'm sure it will help my students when they start creating their own blogs.

If you want to link your classroom blog to this site, just let me know the URL, and I'll add it as another way to keep our learning community going.

Key Word Notes

2007-09-12T10:37:00.001-05:00

The Key Word Notes strategy allows students to restate information from readings and lectures in their own words to increase comprehension and retention.

Strategy Step by Step:

Students make a chart of boxes (see above) in their notebooks.

The teacher divides the reading into four sections.

Students read the first section of text and then stop to reflect. During reflection, teachers may want students to discuss the reading with a partner or base group.

After reflection and/or discussion, students write just a few words in the appropriate box. Alternatively, students could write the key words first and then discuss with a partner about why they wrote those specific words.

Students repeat the process with the next three sections until the top four boxes all have key words noted in them.

Then in the bottom box students write a summary sentence (two at the most) about what they learned in the reading. Students may or may not incorporate the key words from the top boxes in this sentence.

The Key Word Notes strategy also works with lectures. Students may be taking detailed notes on one page of their notebooks, but then on another page they have their Key Word Notes chart. This chart will provide for summary and reflection as the teacher pauses four times during the lecture to let students jot down and discuss their key words.

Key Word Notes also works well for students during a research paper or project unit. Students simply record a few key words from each source in a box. In fact, this strategy was devised from a high school teacher concerned with plagiarism during a research paper unit.

The number of boxes can also be varied if a reading or lecture fits logically into 6 sections, etc.

Chris Dalki, KC West and Sarah Burgess (nee Striffler) have all reported great success so far this year with Key Word Notes. Enriched Sociology students used the strategy with a nonfiction piece.

Enriched English 10 students used the strategy to share information from their summer reading journals with a partner. Students wrote down ideas after their partner sharing in a Key Word Notes chart set up with boxes labeled: main character, other characters, images and big ideas. After writing their summary sentences, students then discussed the themes that they saw in the book. KC and Sarah reported that this was an awesome lesson.

I will try this strategy in a few days during a discussion of Brave New World to give students a chance to reflect on the discussion occurring in the classroom and to capture those key ideas.

EHS NUA Cohort Calendar, 2007-2008

2007-09-11T11:19:00.000-05:00

Cohort 4

Members: Arne Bolstad, Kim Caster, Natalia Kissock, Jeff Mace, Ellen Mundt, Chris Dalki, Claris Springob, KC West and Jane Yanda

10/25/07: Large Group at Adath, 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
11/01/07: Site Visit at EHS, 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
11/29/07: Site Visit at EHS, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
01/17/08: Large Group at Adath, 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
02/12/08: Site Visit at EHS, 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
02/28/08: Large Group at Adath, 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
03/20/08: Site Visit at EHS, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
05/7/08: Large Group Celebration, site TBD, 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Cohort 5

Members: Sarah Jarrett, Jenn Carter, Eric Nelson, Jenn Cordes, Elizabeth Neary, Amanda Koehler, Kurt Hunter, Scott Woelber, Rachel Tholen, Emese Pilgrim, Ann Little and Kristin Benson

11/01/07: Site Visit at EHS, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
11/8/07: Large Group at Adath, 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
11/29/07: Site Visit at EHS, 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
01/23/08: Large Group at Adath, 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
02/12/08: Site Visit at EHS, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m.
03/06/08: Large Group at Adath, 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
03/20/08: Site Visit at EHS, 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
05/8/08: Large Group Celebration, site TBD, 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Flow Map of Vocabulary Words

2007-09-05T12:04:00.000-05:00

When teaching vocabulary words for Brave New World this year, I am going to try something new to bring the words alive and give the students a sense of the story's sequence at the same time. I will give them all 30 vocab words upfront--that's two a day for 15 reading days.

On day 1 of the reading schedule, the students will glue the vocab list in their notebooks. They will also make a 30-box flow map, spanning at least two pages of their notebook. I will make sure that students leave space below the boxes to have the luxury of space to add a few written details to the story sequence.

On day 2 of the reading schedule, I will discuss the two vocab words that students encountered as they read their assignment the night before. Then students will write one vocab word in each of the two first boxes of the flow map and then illustrate those words.

I hope this technique brings the vocab words to life for my students and provides them with a graphic review (like a comic strip) of the novel.

Thinking Map Frames

2007-09-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Every Thinking Map should have a frame around it. Some people think that the frame only goes around the circle map because the posters show only that one framed, but that is really an error in the posters. Last year, RuthMary drew frames around all of her posters to emphasize the point that EHS's first NUA consultant, Rick Olenchack, used to say, "It don't mean a thing if it don't have that frame."

The frame around the maps provides an extension of the thinking and helps the teacher understand the students frame of reference. Frames help bridge the culture gap because multiple backgrounds come across with references to personal and cultural experiences, values and belief systems. When a Thinking Map is done as a group activity, the frame can even be split into sections to indicate which portion came from which student. This emphasizes that each student brings a different frame of reference to the classroom activity.

Below is a tree map from Thinking Maps Inc., Training Manual on uses for frames of reference.

NUA Insights and Applications from the CoP

2007-09-02T16:20:00.000-05:00

On the last day of the high school NUA CoP, people shared the following summary statements from their key word notes page to provide a quick review of the weeks activities:

NUA strategies address culture, language and cognition and require students to think about their thinking.

NUA and Thinking Maps address classroom management by bridging the culture and achievement gaps.

NUA provides a variety of strategies to assist students in learning with particular attention to culture, language and cognition.

NUA strategies provide a common language to foster equity in learning that sometimes doesn't occur.

Thinking Maps connect all disciplines to all cultures.

I have a better grasp of NUA foundations. The research with Gifted and Talented students has mixed results since 10% of students said their writing skills declined because of Thinking Maps, but students were self reporting.

In addition, CoP members shared the following specific strategies that they plan on implementing in the classroom in the coming weeks:

Ann will use the multi-flow map with students to discuss the causes and effects of controlling their asthma and the double bubble map to compare and contrast rescue inhalers with preventative inhalers.
Elizabeth will implement the notebook this year to cut down on photocopying and help students get organized.
KC, and the other English 10 teachers, are using an anticipation guide for community building in the first few days of school. KC has teacher facts on one anticipation guide. Another one English 10 will use is "High School Anticipation Guide" with questions about academic honesty and high school concerns. Many of the questions will be answered in the syllabus.
Jim is doing his anticipation guides on surveymonkey.com and linking to his blog.
Betsy pointed out that blogger just added the poll option so that teachers could do a weekly poll on an issue.
Jackie has a flow map of the semester units on her bulletin board to build interest. Heidi (not a CoP member but an NUA Cohort member who shared this idea) is building a flow map across her wall as a unit progresses. Scott will consider doing this in his math class on his back white board. He could have each day's outcome summarized with a Thinking Map which flows into the next day's map summary or items learned list.
Jackie is also adapting many of Baruti Kafele's classroom management ideas. She has a vision statement on the bulletin board, a wall of fame in back, teleflip text messaging for positive comments, student goal setting on a multi-flow map, highlighting students through their Ipods, and putting an essential question of the day and agenda on the white board each day so that students know what they are supposed to get from each day.

Text Messaging Teleflip Tip

2007-09-02T15:52:00.000-05:00

At the NUA CoP we discussed using text messaging to build relationships with students and bridge the gap between teen culture and teacher culture. Using teleflip.com allows teachers to use Microsoft Outlook to send text messages to students. All you need to do is type on the Outlook TO: line the phone number.teleflip.com.

I'm planning on getting student cell phone numbers on the first day of school, and I will try to text a few students each day. I will use text messages to remind students of missed assignments or if I need to meet with them, but mainly, I plan on using text messages as positive reinforcement for something I witnessed them doing well in class.

My husband read about teleflip in PC World, and he reminded me that sending the messages in Plain Text from Outlook will make the messages easier to read on cell phones. To get to plain text, simply click on the drop down menu where the HTML default is located on your email message.

The Star Tribune had a story on text messaging using email today, and they said how easy it is to do if you know the recipient's cell phone service provider. I guess the reporter had not heard about teleflip.com which requires no provider information. It's even easier than the Star Tribune realizes. Sometimes it pays to have a Tech Geek, PC World reading husband.

Technology and NUA: A Perfect Fit

2007-08-29T19:41:00.000-05:00

After Scott McLeod's staff presentation, the NUA CoP discussed the connections between Scott's philosophy of technology integration and the culture, language and cognition philosophy of NUA. The CoP decided that the two philosophies mesh well, and teachers working on closing the cultural and achievement gap would be served well by incorporating blogs into their courses.

Here's why . . .

Students are engaged because they are happy to meet teachers in a communication forum very familiar to students, thereby closing the cultural gap between students and teachers.
Students learn the ethics of the Internet and are able to police themselves.
Students of all cultures have a voice on the blog, so students are more equal.
Shy students have a place to express their opinions.
Students can express opinions that they were afraid to bring up in class.
Teachers are equipping students with a new literacy (language) for the 22nd Century.

The following question was asked in our CoP: "Do the relationships built online transfer to face-to-face classroom relationships?"

KC West, who just finished her Master's Thesis on blogs in the classroom, stated that the current literature on the topic does not claim that the relationships transfer to face-to-face friendships. KC's article on the new literacies is being published next month, so stay tuned for more information on this topic.

Anticipation Guide

2007-08-29T19:14:00.000-05:00

The tree map above was created during the CoP's debrief after the didgeridoo anticipation guide and subsequent reading. Many people are planning to use an anticipation guide early in the year to spark student curiosity for reading from novels to math textbooks.

To watch the apnea-free Jeremy flex his neck muscles, click here.

Thinking Maps with Gifted and Talented Students

2007-08-28T12:26:00.001-05:00

Much of the research about the effectiveness of Thinking Maps has been conducted on underachieving students. However, The Thinking Maps Foundation does offer grants to educators who wish to study the effectiveness of the maps. One study, conducted on Gifted and Talented high school students, found that students involved in the school's Thinking Map project, did improve their SAT scores one complete level. A brief sampling from the study is below. The complete 34-page study is available from Thinking Maps Foundation.

"Fifty Gifted and Talented (G&T) learners from Birchwood Community High School were involved in the project, alongside five learners from year 3 G&T from years of Gorse Covert Primary School. Staff and learners from Birchwood Primary School
were also involved in the training and piloting of Thinking Maps although they removed themselves from the final research outcomes.

We identified G&T learners in line with our respective G&T policies (please refer to
appendices) Bob Burden’s NFER questionnaire Myself As a Learner Scale (MALS)
was used to base line the academic self concept of our G&T cohorts.

Birchwood Community High (BCHS) and Gorse Covert Primary school conclude that
Thinking Maps were an effective tool in raising the quality of pupils thinking and
planning. On average BCHS learners improved their SAT scores by one complete
level. Gorse Covert Primary School learners demonstrated that they were able to
organise and sustain their writing through the usage of Thinking Maps."

NUA EHS CoP Members

2007-08-27T16:39:00.000-05:00

At EHS 43 staff members have studied NUA strategies through either a cohort or the Community of Practice. Many others have incorporated NUA strategies learned at staff development days or from teachers on their course-alike teams.

The following staff members make up the 2007-08 Community of Practice:

Elizabeth Barniskis
Chis Dalki
Rob Gardner
Ruth Mary Gens
Jim Hatten
Heidi Howard
Sarah Jarrett
Ann Little
Eric Nelson
Betsy Nimmo
Jackie Roehl
Rachel Tholen
Brian Simpson
Sarah Striffler
KC West
Scott Woebler

EHS NUA Cohort Members

2007-08-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

Cohort I (at Valley View)
Pat Corcoran
Diane Daniels-Stromberg
Joel Nasset

Cohort II
Martha Cosgrove
Ruth Mary Gens
Josh Grenier
Mary Manderfeld
Colleen Raasch
Jackie Roehl
Dalen Towne
Meggie Trenda

Cohort III
Barb Anderson
David Boone
Elizabeth Barniskis
Heidi Mathers
Carolyn Ocampo
Bob Schneider

Cohort IV
Arne Bolstad
Kim Caster
Natalia Kissock
Jeff Mace
Ellen Mundt
Chris Dalki
Claris Springob
KC West
Jane Yanda

Cohort V (starting this year)
Sarah Jarrett
Jenn Carter
Eric Nelson
Jenn Cordes
Elizabeth Neary
Amanda Koehler
Kurt Hunter
Scott Woelber
Rachel Tholen
Emese Pilgrim
Ann Little
Jackie Roehl
Kristin Benson

Final Word Strategy Notes

2007-08-27T15:35:00.000-05:00

During the debrief the Final Word on Baruti Kafele's "Managing Your Classroom," CoP members came up with the following ideas:

The Final Word strategy allows all students to speak, creating an equality of cultures. The strategy allows all ideas to be affirmed, and the sense of order is a classroom management tool itself.

Discussing Kafele's ideas sparked a lively discussion from "we resist rigid classroom management" to "we still struggle with managing a classroom." KC shared her three classroom rules: Work, Respect, Belong. The group liked the idea of keeping rules vague since teachers can't predict all of the infractions.

Jackie's Note: Although many folks were turned off by some of the specific ideas that Kafele proposes, the animated discussion and comments such as "I've always been afraid to talk about classroom management issues" and "The faculty needs to have a larger discussion of rules for consistency across classes" made the 25 minutes valuable for me. Thanks for your great discussion.

Closing the Gap by Connecting Culture, Language and Cognition

2007-08-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

Below is a brief summary of "Closing the Gap by Connecting Culture, Language, and Cognition" from Student Successes with Thinking Maps. Click on "post a comment" at the end of this entry to comment on the full article.

Yvette Jackson, the Executive Director of the National Urban Alliance, hopes to change teacher perceptions about underachieving students. NUA also hopes to bridge the cultural gap between students and teachers. Jackson and NUA believe that a shift needs to occur from what has to be taught (content) to how learning happens (process).

NUA believes in the following equation:

Learning = (Understanding + Motivation) (Competence and Confidence)

NUA believes that Thinking Maps are "essential tools in bridging the cultural gap between teachers and students" because they address the inter-related nature of culture, language and cognition.

NUA does acknowledge that Thinking Maps are one tool to give teachers a language to address the needs of underachieving students because they help eliminate textual blockers, both semantic and structural blockers. This mediation happens because Thinking Maps provide a clear language to discuss metacognition, and the maps become external memory patterns for students.

Thinking Maps are a common language that can be transferred across disciplines and grade levels.

List Group Label Strategy

2007-08-26T15:25:00.000-05:00

The List/Group/Label strategy offers a simple three-step process for students to organize a vocabulary list from a reading selection. This strategy stresses relationships between words and the critical thinking skills required to recognize these relationships.

List/Group/Label challenges students to . . .

List key words (especially unclear and/or technical terms) from a reading selection.
Group these words into logical categories based on shared features.
Label the categories with clear descriptive titles.

Steps to List/Group/Label:

Select a main topic or concept in a reading selection.
Have students list all words they think relate to this concept. Write student responses on the whiteboard.
Divide the class into groups of 3 or 4 students. Have these teams join together related terms from the larger list. Have the teams provide "evidence" for this grouping—that is, require the students to articulate the common features or properties of the words collected in a group.
Ask the student groups to suggest a descriptive title or label for the collections of related terms. These labels should reflect the rationale behind collecting the terms in a group.
Finally, have students read the text selection carefully and then review both the general list of terms and their collections of related terms. Students should eliminate terms or groups that do not match the concept's meaning in the context of the selection. New terms from the reading should be added, when appropriate. Terms should be "sharpened" and the groupings and their labels revised, when necessary.

An alternative use of this strategy is for the teacher to provide the list of terms or vocabulary words for the students to organize. Then students can speculate about the topic to be read. These word lists can be copied on card stock for easier manipulation.

The finished, labeled categories can be presented in a tree map since the tree map is for classifying details and grouping ideas.

Using the List/Group/Label strategy develops critical thinking abilities and uses motivation to increase comprehension. The strategy engages students by building their curiosity and allowing them to activate their prior knowledge. Hilda Taba created this strategy because of people's interest in inductive thinking, making generalizations based on specifics. This cognition strategy is also based on Jerome Bruner's research on how people learn, organize and retain information.

Some teachers may feel that they need to teach all of the word definitions for students to be successful with this strategy; however, not knowing all of the definitions also adds to a student's curiosity and guessing definitions may increase student enjoyment in the task.

Math teachers have found success with this strategy when they have students List/Group/Label various terms, expressions and symbols.

Bryonn Bain: Hip Hop in the Classroom

2007-08-26T14:31:00.000-05:00

photo from bryonnbain.com

Bryonn Bain, who has joined the National Urban Alliance as its Artist-in-Residence, is Brooklyn's Famed Spoken Word Poet. Bain currently teaches at Columbia University and at Riker's Island Prison. Bain first came into the national spotlight when he was falsely imprisoned by the NYPD during his second year at Harvard Law School. Following his false imprisonment, Bain wrote the article "Walking While Black" for The Village Voice, and that article earned him a Mike Wallace interview on 60 Minutes.

For more information about Bryonn, visit his website bryonnbain.com.

Bain proposes that it is important for teachers today to connect to teenagers through music, and since the music that many teens, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, listens to is Hip Hop, teachers should be incorporating Hip Hop into their lessons. In fact, Bain asserts that 70% to 80% of Hip Hop consumers are white, suburbanites. Bain, in a WMEP/NUA Reunion class on March 7, 2007, cautioned the teachers present not to be racist in their critique of Hip Hop.

During the NUA Hip Hop session, Bain briefly lectured on the components of Hip Hop--the DJ, the graffiti artist, the B-Boy or B-Girl breakdancer, and the emcee (also known as the spoken word poet or rap artist). Many people think of Hip Hop only as the rap portion of the Hip Hop culture. Bain claims, "Rap is something you do; Hip Hop is something you live."

Bain proposes that teachers use Hip Hop in the classroom not only as text to analyze, but also teachers should have students create their own Hip Hop. Creating Hip Hop works especially well in history classes because Hip Hop can tell the story of a historical event. Besides connecting to youth culture, teachers who employ Hip Hop in the classroom will be promoting creativity and discovery, using rhythm, rhyme and repetition to enhance memory and verbal skills, and they will be allowing listening and dancing to release student stress.

Bain's Hip Hop lesson ideas have been greatly influenced by Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For an excerpt of Freire's book and a look into his educational philosophy, click here.

James McBride, author of The Color of Water, would most likely agree with Bain's assessment because McBride discussed the importance of Hip Hop in the world today in the April 2007 issue of National Geographic. McBride's article traces Hip Hop back to its African roots and proposes that music is a great equalizer among people.

NUA Culture Consultant Augusta Mann holds a similar view that teen culture today has its basis in African American culture.

Final Word Protocol

2007-08-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

The CoP will be conducting a Final Word Protocol text-based discussion on a chapter by Baruti Kafele. Basically, a Final Word Protocol involves a group of four or five students responding to quotations that they found of particular interest in an assigned reading. The timed discussion allows for only one person to be speaking at a time, and the listeners must respond to specific comments made by the first speaker. Click here for a handout on Final Word Protocol instructions.

The Final Word Protocol forces all students/participants to listen carefully to the speaker because they need to respond to the speaker's comments. Often times people are thinking about what they will say when it's their turn to speak rather than listening to the speaker. Since all students must discuss the assigned text, students are more likely to read the assignment and be prepared because of peer pressure.

The Final Word Protocol is a culturally responsive strategy because all students are allowed to share their perspective.

If you use the Final Word Protocol in your classroom, be sure to click comments below to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy.

NUA Principles of Learning

2007-08-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

Many principles of learning underlie NUA's work. The following five are particularly useful because they are relevant across the full range of grade levels and content areas:

Students must bring their own perspectives to lessons so that they will see the relevance of the content to their own lives.
Students must make thoughtful and active use of their prior knowledge in order to learn new information.
Students need challenges to keep them motivated and engaged in learning.
Students need opportunities to talk to each other to construct, process, and reflect on meanings while hearing and appreciating one another's points of view.
Students need to represent their learning in interesting and creative ways that enhance their comprehension and retention.

Cognitive Coaching Ideas

2007-08-26T13:29:00.000-05:00

The Community of Practice (CoP) watched the seven-minute video clip featuring Robert Price and Yvette Jackson in a cognitive coaching session. After sharing information about the video clip in their small groups, the CoP created the following list of cognitive coaching and Thinking Map applications for Edina High School:

Special Education could use to establish IEP goals and expected behaviors.
Administrators and teachers could use to discuss behavior issues.
Administrators could use in a pre-conference before teacher observations.
Teachers could use in a student writing conference.
The school nurse could use to explain procedures and to discuss health issues with students.
Cognitive coaching can be used to build relationships with students.
Administrators and teachers could use in conferences with parents.
Meeting and classroom agendas can be given in a flow map.

During our discussion some concerns were raised about the reduced amount of eye contact and the distraction teachers might feel when they are concerned about what is being written down. Some of these concerns can be alleviated though when understanding that Cognitive Coaching/discussions with Thinking Maps do take out some of the emotion and force the coach to be a more active listener. Also, teenagers may find that making a Thinking Map during a behavior conference may keep them occupied and not worry about the reduced eye contact.

EHS Community of Practice Norms

2007-08-26T12:30:00.000-05:00

During the first meeting together, the NUA Community of Practice developed the following norms:

Members will respect and affirm each other's ideas.

Members will respect each other's time by attending meetings.

Members will explore the research behind and the implementation process of NUA strategies.

Members will address applications outside the classroom for NUA strategies.

Members will communicate comments and findings at http://www.edinanua.blogspot.com/.

Why Thinking Maps Work

2007-08-26T10:39:00.000-05:00

image from Thinking Maps.com

The EHS Community of Practice (CoP) wants to delve deeper into the research behind the Thinking Maps. Members of the CoP see that the maps work, but they want to know why. Thinking Maps, Inc.'s introduction video provides a good start to understanding the research, the development, and the practical applications for Thinking Maps. The 10-minute video is just a click away at the top of Thinking Maps, Inc.'s Home Page.

Regarding research behind the maps, Thinking Maps, Inc., explains why the maps work on their website:

"Thinking Maps® have assisted many educators and students with the learning process. By linking a visual pattern to specific thought processes, Thinking Maps® enable students to develop neural networks for thinking that the brain recognizes and builds on continuously. Thinking Maps® enhance the student's ability to independently transfer thinking skills to content learning across disciplines and to lifelong learning. Through repetition, consistency and extension, the use of Thinking Maps® strengthens networks for thinking which in turn enhance the brain's natural ability as a pattern detector."

Thinking Map, Inc.'s website also includes data from schools across the country who have improved standardized test scores since implementing Thinking Maps.

David Hyerle developed Thinking Maps using the brain research of Art Costa, Al Upton and Robert Marzano. Hyerle summarizes research into the successes of Thinking Maps that is found in his book Student Successes with Thinking Maps. For more information explore Hyerle's website, mapthemind.com.

Even more research on student successes with Thinking Maps can be found at Thinking Foundation's website. Teachers interested in conducting their own research on the effectiveness of Thinking Maps can apply for a grant from Thinking Foundation.org.

One question that teachers always ask is: Do bubble, double bubble, and circle maps really need to be circles; can't students just create squares? The answer is NO. Since the Thinking Maps are a common language and since the brain is a pattern detector, students and teachers need to keep seeing the same shapes and format for the maps. Some teachers may believe that strict adherence to these shapes and forms is ridiculous, but to use the maps to their optimum benefit, teachers need to help students' brains detect these common language patterns. Consistency is the key!

bubble map from thinkingmaps.com

Principal Baruti Kafele

2007-08-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

photo from principalkafele.com

Although Baruit Kafele is not a National Urban Alliance culture consultant, his ideas about reaching and teaching students from all cultures overlap well with NUA's culturally responsive teaching practices. Kafele is currently a high school principal in Newark where his student body is mainly Latino and African American. WMEP's cultural collaborative brings Kafele to the Twin Cities so that West Metro teachers can enroll in his one-day workshop where participants receive his book A Handbook for Teachers of African American Children. To learn more about Principal Kafele's background, read his complete biography and watch his 11-minute video presentation that introduces his educational philosophy.

One day on an airplane, Kafele pondered what educators need to be effective with students of all cultures. That day, Kafele's 50 I's for Effective Teaching emerged, and those common themes run throughout his book A Handbook for Teachers of African American Children.

The Edina High School NUA Community of Practice decided to read the chapter from Kafele's book entitled "Managing Your Classroom" for a final word text-based discussion. Further comments about Kafele's ideas can be posted on this blog entry.

Thinking Maps as a Transformational Language for Learning

2007-08-26T08:40:00.000-05:00

Below is my summary of David Hyerle's chapter, "Thinking Maps as a Transformational Language for Learning," found in the book Student Successes with Thinking Maps from Corwin Press, 2004. The National Urban Alliance partners with Thinking Maps, Inc. to provide teachers with the tools needed to make thinking explicit for students.

By providing a common language for teachers and students, thinking maps have been closing the achievement gap in schools across the United States. Currently, 4000 school faculties in the U.S. have been trained to use thinking maps in their classrooms.

David Hyerle, who brought the Thinking Maps to schools over 15 years ago, refers to the maps as a transformational language because the maps can be used across disciplines, cultures, and ability levels; they also work with students from kindergarten to college. Once students and teachers have a common visual language, higher order thinking can be explicitly displayed and assessed.

Some teachers believe that the maps are just an interesting set of graphic organizers, but they are so much more. Graphic organizers are static and focus on isolated content tasks whereas Thinking Maps are a theoretically grounded language based on eight fundamental cognitive processes. In fact, since the brain is a pattern detector (binding together data through neural patterns to network information) and since all humans communicate with language, employing a brain-patterned language makes sense.

The classroom benefits for using Thinking Maps are numerous. First, they are flexible tools that can be used in isolation or in combination with other maps to solve multi-step problems and for thorough reading comprehension. Second, Thinking Maps are great assessment tools since they clearly and explicitly demonstrate what a student is thinking. Third, maps provide an opportunity for focused cooperative education, which is a key to bridging the cultural gap between students. Fourth, Thinking Maps allow a teacher to mediate a student's thinking and literacy development, not simply remediate students through repetition of content. Finally, Thinking Maps bridge the cultural and discipline gap between teachers in a school since they provide a common language for instruction.

Hyerle ends his chapter with a call to all people involved in the educational process to use Thinking Maps, not just classroom teachers. Thinking Maps foster constructivist conversations that not only allow for efficient problem solving, but also make staff meetings more reflective and less procedural.

Jackie Roehl's Coaching Action Plan

2007-08-24T05:49:00.000-05:00

This school year Edina High School has implemented a part-time Culture, Language & Cognition (CLC) Coach to work with teachers on NUA strategies. During this pilot year, Jackie Roehl will work with staff to sustain NUA through the following activities:

Showcase NUA strategies in Roehl's World Literature classes so that all interested teachers could observe an NUA strategy at work.
Co-teach a lesson with interested teachers as a way for those teachers to learn a specific strategy.
Attend English 10 and American Literature meetings to offer lesson design assistance as requested.
Meet with other interested teachers to plan lessons and discuss NUA strategies.
Be available to sub for teachers if they would like to observe another teacher implement an NUA strategy and debrief that observation with the teacher. Alternatively, secure a sub so that Roehl and an interested teacher can observe an NUA lesson together for a more meaningful debrief.
Facilitate EHS NUA Community of Practice, keeping members connected throughout the year with this blog to share strategy successes and weaknesses and to discuss articles of interest.
Work with Scott Woebler, the EHS Numeracy Coach, to clarify NUA strategies and develop joint coaching plans.
Organize the NUA Cohort 4 & 5 calendar.
Attend Cohort 5 large group meetings and site visits to work with the cohorts and the NUA consultant on a sustainability plan.
Meet monthly with the Culture, Language and Cognition Committee led by Gwen Jackson to discuss a K-12 NUA sustainability plan.
Review WMEP Cultural Collaborative Brochure and suggest classes to staff, especially look for Thinking Map Train the Trainer.
Meet monthly with all K-12 Literacy Coaches.
Showcase student work and strategies at staff meetings, on an NUA bulletin board, and through this blog.
Assess NUA strategy use through staff surveys, blog posts, and through tracking observations and other coaching activities.
Teach Introduction to Thinking Maps at LINKS.
Hold a Thinking Maps course with Nguyen Dang for teachers K-12.
Observe St. Louis Park's implementation of NUA strategies in their International Baccalaureate classes and offer suggestions to Edina's Advanced Placement teachers.

Cultural Consultant: Augusta Mann

2007-08-08T15:32:00.000-05:00

photo from nuatc.org

Augusta Mann works closely with the National Urban Alliance to provide culturally responsive teaching strategies that "touch the spirit" of all students. Augusta asserts that students learn best when their youth culture is drawn upon, and today's youth culture is based on African American culture. Therefore, she believes that focusing on strategies that are especially relevant to African American students will improve the achievement of all students regardless of their cultural background. Augusta details her beliefs on her website successfulteachers.com.

Augusta believes that the Five Teaching and Learning Patterns for African Americans are:

Ritual (Affirmations/performances)

Rhythm (In music, speech and movement)

Recitation (Oral performance/memorization)

Repetition (To enhance meaningfulness)

Relationships (Relationships of love, respect, and belonging) (Recognizing ties between humans and nature) (Scientific study of patterns in nature and the phenomenal world) (Making connections between school work and students’ life experiences)

The Nine Supportive Practices for Augusta's Touching the Spirit cultural connection philosophy are:

Expectations of Excellence

Continual Search for Patterns

Insistence on Working Toward Mastery

Teacher Modeling of Skills and Processes

Intensive Direct Instruction and Practice

Study of African Deep Thought

Focus on Discourse, Inquiry,and Creative and Symbolic Thinking

Using Knowledge for Social Criticism and Community Action

In-Depth Study and Performance of African and African American Culture

Augusta is a recognized expert on teaching vocabulary, and her full biography can be found at the NUA website.

Yvette Jackson, NUA Chief Executive Officer

2007-08-08T14:38:00.001-05:00

photo from nuatc.org

Since Edina began working with the National Urban Alliance, Yvette Jackson has been the organization's Chief Executive Officer. Yvette speaks at most NUA WMEP Large Group Sessions where she not only motivates educators with her passionate belief that all students can achieve, but also she presents her latest findings regarding the strategies that work to engage students and improve their academic performance.

In November 2006, the Knoxville Channel 2 news featured a story on Yvette's presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English conference where she shared her belief that motivated teachers can reverse student underachievement. Yvette's handout from this NCTE Conference presentation is similar to the handout coaches and administrators received at the NUA Summer Academy in Albany, NY in July 2007.

Another video clip of interest can be seen at eggplant.org where Yvette and Robert Price demonstrate the power of Thinking Maps during a cognitive coaching session. Eggplant.org features a variety of film clips on Thinking Maps and NUA Consultants, so scrolling down the web page at the link above is necessary. Look for the cognitive coaching Quicktime video link with Yvette's name by it.

Yvette received her doctorate degree from Columbia where she completed research on literacy, gifted education, and the cognitive theories of Reuven Feuerstein. Yvette's full biography can be found on the NUA website.

Welcome to Edina's NUA Blog

2007-08-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

Edina Public Schools has partnered with the National Urban Alliance for the past five years to implement culture, language and cognition strategies to raise the achievement levels of all students.