Author Archives: Colleen Behrens

Climate Teach-In 2023

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Today’s blog is about the Global Climate Teach-In and climate education resources you can incorporate into what you already teach. – By Jackie Mueller, BLS Sustainability Coordinator

The biggest threat to our future is thinking that someone else will solve the climate crisis.

This year COCC and Bend LaPine Schools are partnering to unify our messages through the Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice, a global learning effort launched by Bard University. The Worldwide Teach-in gets people talking about climate and justice solutions. If we don’t talk about Climate Change, we won’t act to stop it. As educators, we can bring climate science to our students.

Students are excited for teachers and community leaders to step up and take action. Students from Bend High School and Caldera High School have formed Our Future clubs and recently participated in public testimony in support of SB 854 Climate Education bill. Many student have formed Green Teams at their schools with the help of teachers that volunteer their time for club meetings and actions.

On Wednesday, April 19th from 1:30 to 5:30, COCC is holding one of only two Climate Teach-ins in the Pacific Northwest. Several BLS teachers and their students are going to the event on the COCC campus. Follow this link for more information about speakers and live streaming.

It you are interested in teaching about climate change this year, check out the google drive of resources and search the resources below. You can also involve your students in DOTs.

DOTs: Do One Thing – Community Action Piece

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when talking about ways to address climate change, there is not an easy solution, but we can all DO ONE THING. We can all focus on solutions to reduce our individual impact as collective action make a big difference. If everyone committed to one thing, one shift or change, we would start to see the ripples of our actions. It can be as simple as reducing use of single use plastics, reducing meat consumption by one meal a week, biking more, carpooling, recycling, volunteering, or advocating for change. Work with your students to learn more about climate change and discuss individual actions and solutions.

Step 1: Educate about Climate

  • For upper level high school, start a discussion about Project drawdown. This site has 6 units with 15-minute videos and additional discussions.
  • Watch the Our Climate Our Future  a simple but engaging video series for secondary students that explains the climate crisis and provides actionable ideas and opportunities for making a difference. 
  • Review the Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World – Super easy ways to make change. Choose your level of commitment and take small steps to make an impact.
  • Check out the google drive of Oregon k-12 resources for all grade levels and subject areas.

Step 2: Do One Thing

  • Work in small groups to discuss individual actions that we can choose to take to either reduce our greenhouse gas emissions or something to sequester carbon.
  • Have students write down their one thing. In the past teachers used cut-out construction paper green dots or handprints or leaves. Students can write their one thing on the colored paper.

Step 3: Create Art Installation

  • Send what your students created to Jackie Wilson Mueller, Admin Office. All DOT’s (Do One Thing commitments ). We will create an art installation with the actions. If you find a simple creative way to get students to commit to one thing, will be showcased at the green school showcase and Rubbished renewed eco fashion show on May 20th.
  • If it is easier for you to do this via Jamboard or Padlet, please share results to [email protected] and the students DOT’s will be included.

Climate Science Resources

Grades 9-12:  The National Center for Science Education: Climate Change Curriculum

The Financial Times – Special Report (and Resources)

Searchable Resources

  • Subject to Climate – Free, easy-to-use database that connects educators of all grade levels and subject areas to the resources they need to teach about climate change.
  • OER Commons – Climate Education – Climate education resources for k-12 educators in multiple subject areas. This Hub is designed to be a library of educational resources about climate change and intersectional topics.
  • CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network – Easy-to-read  explanations of science and policy, designed to step students through the key principles of climate and energy. Suggested teaching approaches, selected for various grade levels with supporting materials and spanish-language versions of lessons.
  • United Nations – Take Action Now – 10 Impactful actions to tackle the climate crisis. Start with your carbon footprint. Jump into energy saving tips, green travels and food hacks.
  • National Center for Science Education -Supports teachers with tools and skills to overcome misconceptions and misinformation about climate change and evolution

Oregon Climate Policy and Action

  • K-12 Climate Action State Standards Aspen Institute review of states and their level of action
  • Oregon Educators for Climate Education – a statewide group of educators working toward Oregon legislation that would integrate and infuse PK-12 climate change education across all core subject areas. Advancing Climate Change Education in Oregon, GeoFest 2022
  • Senate Bill 854 – Climate Education: Will requires each school district board to develop written plan establishing climate change instructional program for kindergarten through grade 12 no later than June 1, 2026. (In Senate Education committee as April 2023)
  • Climate Change and Youth Mental Health – Oregon Health Authority report, June 2022 As the impact of climate change grows, students are feeling hopelessness, despair, anxiety and frustration about climate change. Students feel dismissed by older generations and angry that not enough is being done to protect their future. They are asking for adults to take action and to provide climate education.

What can we claim? Ideas for helping students with CERs in Science

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Writing a well crafted Claim-Evidence-Reasoning(CER) is a struggle for students at many grade-levels. Often teachers find that students can write a claim and provide evidence but they struggle connecting the reasoning to their claim.   In science, it is not uncommon for a middle schooler to write a conclusion to an experiment citing evidence that seems disconnected and could not possibly support or refute the hypothesis (claim) they investigated.  No wonder the reasoning is difficult.

Many science teachers, me included, have asked for help from our language arts colleagues, when it comes to teaching students how to write a cohesive CER.  In Language Arts a CER is written in a format that starts with the claim, followed by evidence from a source and reasons why the evidence supports the claim.  In science, we need evidence before making a claim and explaining the scientific reasons for a phenomenon. Kristin Hunter-Thomson, a former middle school teacher and data literacy expert with Dataspire, suggests a few strategies for helping students write a meaningful CER in science.  

Start with small steps:  Expose students to visual representations often. Before they analyze and interpret their own data they need a lot of practice with a variety of visual representations.  Start with the basics as students analyze and discuss the different types of visualization in groups.  Start with simple questions and about structure and then look for patterns. Gradually the questions and thinking gets more complex.

What kind of visual is used? ( pie, bar, scatter plot, histogram,etc)

What are the parts of the visualization?

What is the overall shape of the visualization?

What is the context of the visualization?

Are there outliers? What does the data show? How does each variable change?

What is the pattern in the data?

What can you infer and why?

Flip it: Start with the evidence before making a claim. Describe the evidence and reason it connects to an important science concept and then make a claim that ties it all together.

What can’t the evidence say: Kristin Hunter-Thomson advocates for teaching students to make inference about what the data can and cannot say.   She points out that students often over-conclude from their data and miss the data limitation.  By teaching students to think about what the data can and cannot say, they begin to see boundaries and make meaning.

Which one doesn’t belong: Kristin Hunter-Thomson gives students evidence of a visual representation and then gives students two claims.  Students must decide which claim the data represents and write a CER for it.  For deeper thinking, explain why the other claim is not supported by the visual representations.

Build it backwards: Valerie Overley at PBMS has her sixth graders start with the reasoning then identify the evidence before making a claim.  Students read and highlight an article while answering questions about renewable and non-renewable energy.  Then students analyze a graph looking at the evidence.  From the evidence and reasoning they write a claim.

Resources


Student Thinking Toolbox

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This website by Project Zero of the Harvard Graduate School of Education is full of routines for getting students to think critically about their learning and about the perspectives of others.

Search by subject area and grade level. Dig deeper and find that each routine has lesson strategies. For example, under the blue tab for Synthesizing and Organizing Idea is Portable Surprise with a Resource Link that summarized the routine and suggested ways to use it in an Ecology unit. Click on the image below to go to the website.

The following video talks about routines rather than strategies, meaning try one strategy with lots of practice to make it a routine. The video is 4:36 minutes.

#ConnectionB4Content

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“My favorite teachers have been super personal. Real conversations, ask about my weekend. Those teachers make me want to do better. “ Bend-LaPine Student Excellence and Equity 2019 talk session

We all know the pressure to meet the standards and to get all the content taught in the school year.  With the pandemic, many of us feel we have to teach more than a year’s content in one year. On top of that, our students are exhibiting outward behaviors that many of us have not seen in our classrooms before. These behaviors stem from a sense of not belonging, hinder the academic performance, and work to increase the learning gaps teachers are trying to close. 

In the book Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation by Floyd Cobb and John Krownapple, the authors make the case that schools need to focus on creating a culture of belonging before content is delivered. They define belonging as a sense where one feels appreciated, validated, accepted and treated fairly within an environment. When students feel that they belong, they aren’t worried and distracted about being treated as a stereotype… instead they are confident that they are seen as a human being. Belonging is a basic need.

Cobb and Krownapple explain that belonging and dignity go together. They have a cause-and effect relationship in that we build belonging by honoring dignity. When we understand this dynamic, it becomes clear how the concepts of dignity unlocks the potential of the teacher-student relationship, especially across dimensions of difference such as race, gender, class and culture.(Cobb & Krownapple,2019) Students are not ready to learn until they feel connected and a sense of unconditional of belonging.

This Fall, sixty-three teachers and staff across our district participated in a book study with John Krownapple and the book Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation. The book study, included webinars with John Krownapple, small group discussion and culminating of projects designed to create a sense of belonging among staff and students. Some projected focused creating a culture of belonging among staff. Other projects focused on creating belonging in the classroom.

#ConnectionB4Content is one of the of projects that came out of the book study. You can be part of the #ConnectionsB4Content Project. Visit this link and pick 2 or 3 new strategies you will try. We will check in with you about the strategies you chose and how you feel it affected your classroom culture.  The first 30 people to complete the project will receive a t-shirt.

Book Study starting in January 2023!

Join the Central Oregon Regional Educator Network for Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: A Book Study beginning January 2023! Participants will learn how to shift mindsets and develop an understanding of what it takes to address educational disparities by creating the conditions that will help all students and staff members thrive. This series is for school-based teams of 3-8 people!  Participants will be compensated with a $700 stipend for their time and engagement and will receive a free copy of Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity by Floyd Cobb and John Krownapple. Please visit this link for more information and to register.

If you would like to add a shout out to a colleague, please do so here.

To Math Teachers at Caldera High School:

The Caldera Math team engaged in their first Math Studio this week. It was a great opportunity for the group to engage in rich conversations about instruction. Extra big thanks to Erin Hoffman for taking the risk to teach a lesson with her peers in attendance.

To Patrick Kilty (SHS):

Pat is always finding ways to bring the outside world to his classroom. He brings outside professionals, lawyers and judges to speak with APGOV class. He works with outside organizations like Classroom Law Project to find opportunities for his students outside of the classroom.  Recently he sent a students to the Gubernatorial Debate that was held in Bend.

Going Global: World-Readiness Across the Board

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By Julie Montoya, Spanish Teacher and World Language TOSA, Summit High School

How do you usually finish this sentence:  I always wish I spoke _________.  I always wish I had learned French at some point since my father’s side of the family was from Quebec. I’m bilingual in English and Spanish, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing I spoke yet another language.  Inherently, we know that each language we speak opens up authentic connections with a vast portion of the world, so we wish on…

Take Away #1: Learning multiple languages creates better learners.  Period.  As secondary teachers, regardless of which department we roost in, understanding the World-Readiness standards by ACTFL can help us all support our students in their journeys to learn languages and become culturally competent.

World Language standards have changed substantially in the last 10-20 years. To learn about the foundations of what we do in the World Language classroom, watch this 4 minute video.

Take Away #2:  I am constantly amazed at the cross-curricular connections my students are making between the content they learn about in my Spanish class and what they are learning in their other classes.  This is primarily by happenstance.  I can only imagine how we might work together to intentionally support our student’s global readiness. We’d love to work with you!  Here are a few examples I can think of.

  • Music: We watch a documentary that studied the importance of Mariachi music to the Mexican-American communities in Texas with their fierce high school Mariachi competitions.  We learned about the history of this genre, its key instruments, and its vocal features.
  • US History: We studied the important connections in Oregon to the Bracero program that began in 1942, bringing 15,000 Mexican men to Oregon to aid in critical agricultural roles.  These efforts helped aid hungry American families and supported the men fighting abroad.
  • Literature: Thanks to the film study of Disney’s Encanto, even our beginning Spanish students know about magical realism, birthed by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Students can identify and explain the presence of magical realism and its purpose in story-telling.
  • Math: Students learn how Chileans developed a mathematical formula to calculate the risk of certain geographical areas for earthquakes, which Chile experiences at an incredibly high rate.
  • Science/Archeology:  Students learn about the prolific archeological evidence of brain surgery practice in the Incan cultures of Perú.  Through studies of how bones heal, we can better understand the success rates of these practices.

Take away #3 In our World Languages classes, we consider culture through the 3 P’s: products, practices, and perspectives.  Our students know this language, so try framing cultural observations in your classes with these terms.  An example of this framework might involve noticing how many yellow and red flags are draped over balconies in Barcelona, Spain. The flag is the cultural project, while the public display is the practice.  This leads to a discussion of the perspective of cultural, historical, and linguistic autonomy that many Catalán people feel in this region of Spain.  

In a nutshell, consider exploring the cross-curricular connections at your school.  Our students will grow into Global Citizens they need to become to be ready for the world. 

Earth Day, April 22, 2022 Invest in our Planet

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Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate 2019, member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation

Today is Earth Day, a time to remember who we are as a species and how we are connected to the Earth that sustains us. Earth Day started on college campuses April 22, 1970 to bring awareness of human’s impact on Earth and its systems. Earth Day has become a global day for action and awareness about the effects of climate change. There are a plethora of resources for involving students with Earth Day in all subject areas. I have seen many teachers and students incorporating Earth Day themes into their lessons. For example, I was at Summit High School and was excited to see students advocating actions such as used mask collection, recycling and resource awareness. At Pacific Crest sixth grade students held a Socratic Seminar on alternative energy requirements. Action empowers students and inspires change. Below are just a few some Earth Day resources.

Bend’s Earth Day Parade is Back!

The Environmental Center is set to host their annual Earth Day Fair and Parade in-person after moving to virtual events for two years during the pandemic.  Click here for details! This is a fun community event that involves many students and families in the area. The parade is downtown with the Earth Fair to follow.

Conservation International – Nature is Speaking Videos

I love these videos! Excellent video clips that can be used to inspire writing and reflection in all subject area. Beautiful videography around themes such as on water, fire or air with celebrities voice over. Below are two examples of the videos, one in English and one in Spanish.

Invest in the Planet

This year’s Earth Day Theme is Invest in the Planet . Earthday.org provides resources for educating and inspiring students and communities members to get involved. Some resources inspire activism and show locations around the world where students are standing up for the Earth. Some resources focus on Climate Justice and actions to help the most vulnerable populations locally and globally. Other resources focus on individual moves such as eating a plant-based diet or starting a local Clean-up. Below are some tidbits from the website.

Climate Justice

Climate Justice is a term referring to inequitable impacts climate change on marginalized populations. Advocates for Climate Justice are calling out the social, economic and public health crisis created by a changing climate. It is predicted that climate change will result in over 1 billion climate refugees by 2050. Climate refugee are people that are displaced by ecological changes and natural disasters cause by effects of global warming. Oregon State Science Standards will incorporate climate justice in the next standards adoption. Here is a toolkit for for teachers interesting in Climate Justice topics.

Citizen Scientists

Students and community members can be Citizen Scientists that collect real data for scientists around the world. Topics range recording bird migration at backyard bird feeders to reporting bloom dates of trees. Below are a few website to get you started.

Giving Students a Sense of Hope

Discussing climate change can cause anxiety in students. A few years ago my 8th graders I asked them to think about what they would be doing in 10 years. I was shocked at the number of students that thought that the Earth would be destroyed in the next decade because of climate change. They had a fatalistic view that was heartbreaking, and this was before the pandemic. To be scientifically literate, students need to learn about climate change and the impact of human activities. As teachers we need to be aware of what is age appropriate and how students might internalize the the impacts of global warming. It is important to give students a sense of hope and the belief that they are part of the solution through action and innovation. Our students are the innovators of the their future and want to be involved.

10 Tips For Getting To The Finish Line (When You Have Zero Left To Give)

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By Amy Yillik, EdD, Culture of Care Coach, HDESD

You don’t need to be a psychologist or someone that has experienced Burnout to see the writing on the wall in education right now: Educators are exhausted! And while some of you may or may not be in Burnout, our educational environment has been primed for educator enervation for some time: toss in a pandemic, hybrid learning, politics, & social discord, how could we not be debilitated and unmotivated? When experts discuss Burnout, the solution is generally in prevention. But here’s the thing: Educators are in Burnout right now!  We are past the point of prevention; We need intervention. So if you’re tapped out and not sure how you’re going to get to this school year’s finish line, I hope these suggestions are helpful!:

  1. Rest to Energize

If you are exhausted, then the first thing you need to do is rest. Give yourself permission to “do nothing.” While productivity can be a component of a meaningful life, our bodies need 6-8 hours of sleep a night under normal conditions. What you are experiencing in schools right now is not normal. So rest. This might require creativity and asking for help, but rest. And once you’ve rested, consider ways to replenish your energy: “What do I need to get my pilot light back to a functioning flame?” Did I forget to mention you should rest?

  1. Laugh

There’s tons of research out there to support the idea that laughter is the best medicine. So go ahead, tell a dad joke, follow Tony Baker on Instagram, Bored Teachers on TikTok, or watch America’s Funniest Home Videos on YouTube. Whatever makes you laugh, add a daily dose or two.

  1. Use the Ostrich Approach

Okay, this one might ruffle some feathers (see what I did there?), but we all could probably benefit from taking a break from the negative stimuli coming at us. Microdose (or eliminate) the news and social media you take in rather than ruminating on things we have little or no control over. 

  1. Get Outside

Here me out. I’m not asking you to go for a run when you’re too tired to put on your shoes. I am asking you to go outside. Sit on the curb. Find a bench. Lay on the grass. If you’re inspired to move afterwards, fine, but this is not what I’m encouraging you to do at this point. Just being in nature is shown to reduce the impact of stress and has tons of health benefits. So spend some time outside. It helps.

  1. Call the Doctor &/or Therapist

Don’t underestimate the power of medical practitioners on our mental wellness. If you are barely hanging on, you really should be talking with your medical provider and/or therapist (bonus tip: research shows doing both simultaneously is where we get the biggest bang for our buck). Medications and supplements such as magnesium, B-Vitamins, L-theanine, are clinically proven to boost mood, so talk with your doctor to see if any of these could be helpful for you. (Reminder: OEBB benefits include free counseling through the Employee Assistance Program)

  1. Express Yourself

What’s the saying? “A problem shared is halved; A joy shared is doubled.” The data indicates that talking about an issue with the purpose of processing our feelings improves our mood and functioning. Also, research shows it is just as beneficial to journal about our experience as it is to talk with someone. So let it out! Come to our Culture of Care Virtual Community Circles and talk with other educators or scream onto the paper. Either way, be brave and communicate your feelings.

  1. Revisit Your Why

Taking time to reflect on our meaning and purpose in regards to our work, works! Research shows that people who take time to reflect on their values have lower levels of that pesky stress hormone cortisol! So go ahead and reflect on your career in the current environment:  “Why did I choose education?” “Where do I add the greatest value?” “How do I measure success?” “What do I need to keep going?”

  1. Practice Maitri

Maitri is Sanskrit for “gentle loving kindness towards oneself.” We are wired to be negative. If we were perpetually positive, we’d probably be extinct. Still, somewhere along the way, this negative propensity has turned against us. Data suggests that negative thinking is directly tied to mood disorders and cognitive functioning. I am not telling you to “turn that frown upside down” (gross!) but instead, squash those ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) with more helpful realistic statements. 

  1. Adjust Expectations & Postpone Big Decisions

Regardless of your situation, this is not what we signed up for. The entire world is struggling to adjust to the current state of affairs. I know this isn’t easy, but the expectations we held even at the beginning of this year do not fit the current situation, so we need to let it go. Along that same line, as you’re relinquishing your expectations, postpone making any big decisions until you are rested and regulated. It is absolutely okay to adjust course and change plans (sometimes it is imperative), but research indicates that we tend to be less satisfied with our choices when we make them under duress. 

  1. Plan the After Party

Planning a trip or something fun is important to our wellbeing. I know there have been years where all I wanted to do for summer break was nothing. But data indicates that planning a trip is as beneficial as actually taking one! It’s like the process of planning allows us to take a mini-vacation just by thinking about what we will be doing.  So even if you don’t end up taking a trip, mapping out an ideal vacation, whether it’s a trip to Tahiti or a hammock in your yard can help relieve your stress in the here and now. 

Resources

Student-Led Conferences Means Empowering Student Voice

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by Linda Adams and Colleen Behrens

“It’s not about us as teachers! The student is the center of the conference, so the student gets to be the one who facilitates the conference.”

Once our schools went to student-led conferences we were hooked.  Parents no longer had to wait in line to talk to the teacher, students were more involved and the responsibility for the conversation shifted from the teacher to the student and parents. Students had conversations that were targeted on their learning, challenges and successes.  Students were very honest and reflective and we were observers that answered questions and provided feedback when needed. 

One thing to note, setting up student-led conferences does take some time up front, however, the reward is worth it, and once students are conferencing with their families you can relax a bit. We found it far less tiring to conference this way than the traditional ways of having the teacher lead the conference. Every student conferences, either at school or at home if they don’t come in. Watch this 5 minute video about Student-Led Conference.

Student-led conferences can be set up a few different ways.  One option is a conference with the teacher, the student and the parents with the student taking the lead as the teacher observes. Another option is setting up your classroom 4 to 6 conference areas.  Direct families to sit at an available table when they enter the room. Give parents/guardians the option to have you sit with them and answer any questions. Many times parents/guardians are satisfied with the student conference alone but others really want to “talk with the teacher”. As much as possible let the student share their learning, struggles and goals with their families, it’s a lovely process to watch, even for the students that have not done as well as they might have as families can now set goals or intervene as necessary.

Prepare Ahead of Time

  1. Determine student work: Create a list of student work that shows student learning overtime or consider letting students choose the work they are most proud of or the learned the most from. In Canvas, students can refer back to assessments that were submitted in previous quarters. If you choose assessments with the same skills then you can show growth.  For example, graphing analysis and interpretation from an assessment in October and a different assessment in January.  
  2. Reflect on learning and growth: Complete a student self-reflection ahead of time and keep the hard copy in case a student forgets their iPad conferences. Self-reflections on learning are meaningful and open the door discussions about strengths, challenges and goal setting.
  3. Provide a script: Create a simple script for students to follow if they choose.  Make sure they know where to find their self-reflection and Canvas assessments.  It might be helpful for students to make a digital presentation for parents/guardians ahead of time. This can also be viewed at home if families can’t attend a conference.
  4. Practice: Model how to do a conference and then pair up students so they can practice ahead of time. Provide directions at the table and encourage students to get started. Pre-teach this to students before conferences occur.

The following resources contain another video example, this one at the high school level, as well as a link to another awesome Edutopia blog article, a student google slide templet and a student reflection script. Be sure to check them out!

Resources

Jigsaw Revisited and Revised

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Many of us have used the jigsaw method with students in our classroom, or during  professional development. If you are like me, you’ve wondered if the jigsaw method really works to increase student learning.  Here’s the good news.  John Hattie’s Visible Learning meta-analysis reveals that the Jigsaw Method has an astounding effect size of 1.20…if done right! Remember, the larger the effect size the stronger the impact on student learning. The average effect size of Hattie’s research is 0.40, or one year’s growth. This means that jigsaw can accelerate learning 3 times faster than average.

Jigsaw Refresher

In this 6 minute video, Jennifer Gonzalez from Cult of Pedagogy describes ways to organize your Jigsaw groups. Although the video does not include this last step discussed by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey in the article from ACSD.org  Show & Tell: A Video Column / Let’s Get Jigsaw Right, it give an excellent overview of how to set-up and troubleshoot a Jigsaw.

Adding the Final Step

Puzzle pieces on their own have no meaning.  Each piece can hint at a bigger picture but until the individual pieces fit together, we can only infer the meaning of the whole picture. The same is true of the Jigsaw Method. Students often miss the bigger picture without a step in the process that includes reflecting on how their piece contributes to understanding the whole text.

According to Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, one problem with using the Jigsaw strategy is the chance that a student might teach misinformation to the rest of the group. If the “expert” student has misunderstandings about their section of the text, then they inadvertently teach it wrong to the rest of their own group, thus compromising the full understanding of the text. Misconceptions can be difficult to remedy.

Some of the misunderstandings can be corrected if each group member meets with an” expert” group that reads the same section of text. With guiding questions, students are encouraged to work together to understand the text before returning to teach it to the rest of the group.  If the teacher visits the “expert “groups while they are working, then correction can be caught early. This second step results in a much deeper understanding of the section of the text the expert learned about. The problem is that the “expert” does not necessarily understand how the section of text they learned about fits with the whole text. Fisher and Frey advocate for a third step when expert groups come back together a second time to discuss the question:

How does our part fit with what we have learned about the rest of the topic?

“The real learning power of this strategy lies in the critical third step, when students reconsider their assigned passage in light of the whole text…Students think about their thinking (metacognition) and synthesize and analyze ideas contained within the complete text. This process requires that students listen carefully to their peers and analyze the ways in which each part contributes to the entire text.”

Fisher and Frey

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When students come back to their expert groups they must think about the connections, similarities and differences of their part to the newly learned content. As an example, each member of a home group receives a section of a data set about global temperature changes over time. Each member meets their expert group with the same data set for analysis and interpretation. When they return to their home group, each member shares their data set analysis with the group. The last step is for the group to determine the sequential order of all the data sets together through discussion with evidence and reasoning. Because of this last step, the student more deeply understands their own data set and whether their interpretation of a small set of data holds true when compared to the larger over-all picture.

Cooperative Learning Culture

The Jigsaw Method is a cooperative learning strategy created by Elliot Aronson in the early 1970’s as a way to break the racial tension in his classes after the desegregation of the schools in Texas. Aronson created a situation where the success of the group depended on the success of each student. Within a few weeks he saw a positive change in his class culture. The website Jigsaw Classroom.org has more about the history and success of cooperative learning as well as tips for implementation.

Suggestions for Success

  • Discuss expectations for behaviors and outcomes with each transition from group to expert to group.
  • Create a template or organizer for students to fill out while in the expert group. This ensures the same information is taken back to the group.
  • For emergent bilinguals, annotate academic and figurative language to make it more accessible.
  • Support discussions with guiding questions and sentence starters.
  • Assign specific jobs for each member during the small group work: Discussion leader, Timekeeper, Team Captain, Materials Manager
  • Add self-reflection time for students to monitor their contribution to the group and their understanding of the article content.
  • Tell students they will return to expert groups to think about what they have learned in relation to what they taught.

Resources

Rubrics for Feedback: Getting Students to Work Harder Than You

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By Linda Adams, Math Instructional Coach

Have you ever spent the weekend grading student work, writing all kinds of comments to help them understand their grade and ways the student can improve only to find that once they see the grade they “round file” the paper without even a glance at your carefully crafted responses?  I always wondered why it seemed that I was working harder than my students and that students did not seem to care about their learning, but just the grade.

Many teachers and administrators recognize the use of rubrics in terms of an equitable grading practice. Another advantage of using rubrics is to allow students to see the specific target and to self assess where they are in relation to that target and to get immediate feedback from the teacher to reflect on how specifically they can move their learning forward.

In essence rubrics can help students:

  • Understand expectations and components of a task/assessment.
  • Become more aware of their learning process and progress.
  • Improve work through timely and detailed feedback.

In addition rubrics can improve student learning by allowing students to peer-assess and self-assess learning. Through scoring guidelines, students can learn the value of giving and getting feedback and reflect more on the learning process rather than the grade. 

What makes an ‘effective’ rubric?

The most effective rubrics lay out three kinds of information for students: the key evaluative criteria, defined as concretely as possible, an evaluative range for each criterion so that students can see where they succeeded (or not) for each criterion, and weightings for each criterion. During the task, students use the rubric as a checklist to assess their product and track their progress. Rubrics are excellent tools to promote peer assessment, where students learn how to give and receive constructive feedback. 

Traditionally rubrics are described as either holistic or analytic. If you are new to rubrics check out this one page article by Andrew Miller in Edutopia “Tame the Beast: Tips for Designing and Using Rubrics”.

Maybe you’ve already used rubrics in your classroom but find them time consuming to create. There’s a third option that introduces some exciting and game-changing potential for teachers and students. Check out  Danah Hashem’s article also in Edutopia “6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric”.

Here is an example of what a single point rubric might look like:

To delve deeper into feedback and rubrics check out Jennifer Gonzales’ infamous blog Cult of Pedagogy article “Introducing the Hyper Rubric, a tool that takes learning to the next level”.

In addition to the possible solutions for giving constructive and timely feedback to students, rubrics can help teachers manage the amount of time they spend grading. I encourage you to check out the Cult of Pedagogy video (less than 4 minutes)