Monday Mustang Memo: February 2019

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Placemat Activity

Ideas in Education: Placemat Activity

The placemat activity has multiple uses in a multitude of learning scenarios. It integrates cooperative learning and meaningful student dialogue. It can be used to explore concepts, ideas, or content. It can be used on its own or as a starting spot for more in depth learning.

How it works:

Divide the class into groups of 4. The placemat can be modified to groups of 3 or 5.
Have students work on the problem alone (no talking) and write down their solution on one of the edges of the placemat. The size of the placemat depends on the problem provided; it can range from a standard piece of paper to a bulletin board size.
Each member of the group reads the solutions suggested by their group mates and discusses each. Think of this as a mini-presentation. Students may agree/disagree/modify/continue with the next group member’s thought.
The group agrees on the common solution and writes it down in the middle of the placemat. Alternatively, the group writes down what they reach a consensus on.

Why it works: Like any cooperative learning task, the placemat activity works best when dialogue is required and students possess surface knowledge. It can be used when there is a right/wrong answer but works best when negotiation and judgment are needed. Additionally, it would be best if the students can’t rely on the group’s “smartest” student.

Student learning (through collaborative learning) enables students to think critically. Learning is more likely to become permanent and seen as relevant when they have the opportunity to discuss and reflect. Because students are in small groups, it’s easier and safer for them to share and learn. The placemat activity requires students to build on the ideas of their group mates, and for some students this might require teaching and modeling.

Some possible uses:

Math class where students are working through a complex problem, especially one where there may be more than one way to answer the question.
Any activity requiring brainstorming
Recording research information or analyzing documents
Science labs (hypothesizing and results)
Review.
A topic where there is no right/wrong answer or multiple reasons.
Each group can be provided with different topics or concepts.

Extension ideas:

Have students rank the responses in order of importance.
Extend the consensus/common understandings through a poster, presentation, etc.

Important Dates and Information

Mustang Morning: Any session put in before last night was carried over through the week of March 25.

Please add students to Mustang Mornings as you normally would. We have done our best to populate Mustang Mornings with students who had D’s and F’s
Honor society sponsors or teachers who have one time sessions, please add your sessions and students. You may also want to add notes to your sessions or students.
Directions https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pR76sh_49zasEAhMGKca_gW_TdjHy2jIR93qSTc-e5w/edit?usp=sharing

March 7: Student Showcase

March 12, March 13: English 10 Writing SOL. No Mustang Morning during these days. 1st block will be extended. Almost ALL 10th graders will be taking the SOL during time.

Working Conditions Survey (state required: March 1 close)

Teacher Link: teacher.vaschoolsurvey.info Teacher Password: T312GAP

Staff Link: staff.vaschoolsurvey.info Staff Password: F312GAP

Field Trips and SOLs

February 21: Manufacturing Day @ PVCC

March 6th: UVA Apprenticeship Job Fair for Interested Seniors

Birthdays

February 25: Paul Jones, Krista Matheny, Joe Weaver

March 2: Brenda Coffey (cafeteria)

March 3: Chris Stanek

Useful Information

Bell Schedules : http://bit.ly/MOHSbells

FAC Form

To add to Monticello-Outlook, School Calendar, PowerSchool Daily Bulletin

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm

Announcement Request

Athletic team schedules, rosters, etc.

Teacher Handbook

We’ve got something new! Want something included on the Monticello Outlook Calendar, the Monticello website, in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin, or the student newsletter (viewed by parents, students and staff)? Please use this link https://goo.gl/forms/bIjfJLKokWPcEHx33

Student, Staff, Student of the Month Form

Worth Your Time

Understanding a teacher’s long-term impact

This article about a study does a great job highlighting the non-cognitive impact teachers can have. Including:

Increasing in measures of students’ noncognitive skills increased likelihood of graduating high school by 1.47 percentage points, compared to .12 for an increase in test scores
Teachers have the greatest impact on student achievement
A teacher can increase a student’s lifetime income by $250,000

Why in the world shouldn’t kids learn this at home? Is it really a school’s job to teach children to do laundry?

Sunday, February 17, 2019

ARCS Model

Ideas in Education: ARCS Model

Everyone is motivated. There’s no such thing as an unmotivated person. What motivates and how one is motivated are what differ from person to person.

Some students may be motivated by good grades. Others may find the subject interesting. For some, it may be the desire to please. For the rest, however, it is our responsibility to motivate our students.

Several years ago, I came across the ARCS Model by John Keller. Keller’s model promotes a problem-solving approach to lesson design that breaks our ability to influence and motivate using four different approaches: Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction.

Attention

Think of attention as the hook or tease, often used at the beginning of the learning process. This can include perceptual arousal which originates with novelty, doubt, or disbelief. Attention can also be piqued through inquiry arousal by presenting students with challenging problems.

Ideas: games, role playing, humorous stories, conflict, variety, real-world problems. In a math class, this may mean starting off with the word-problem or in a history class it may mean presenting the dilemma or controversy before the background information.

Relevance

We should strive to link learning to students’ lives. Keller suggests providing relevance by presenting objectives and the purpose of learning with specific and measurable examples of success. Since most learning builds on prior knowledge, try to connect new information with previously learned information.

When the material isn’t relevant to the students’ lives (yes, that is sometimes the case), focus on the other aspects of the ARCS model. Relevance can be increased by using Universal Design concepts and student choice. By allowing students to choose an instructional strategy to learn or demonstrate their learning, motivation will increase. Much to my chagrin, my daughter hates social studies and history, but when given a project that enables her to tap into her passions (art, music, theater, etc.) she excels--even in history. She definitely knows more about Alexander Hamilton than I do because of some little musical.

Confidence

Students need to believe in their ability to succeed. This requires scaffolding instruction and generating confidence by requiring tasks that are appropriately challenging. By informing students of the learning/performance criteria and individualizing the targets, we can build student confidence. Conversely, imagine being given a task that is impossible for most of us, like dunking a basketball and being assessed on our dunks. At what point would you give up? Would you even try?

Within this strategy we should encourage students to make progressive gains and measure their own learning. It’s important, however, that we avoid ambiguous statements like, “Do your best.” As students learn, we must provide feedback to eliminate confusion while focusing on progress and building stick-to-itness.

Satisfaction

The final component of Keller’s model is satisfaction. We want our students to be proud of their achievements and their learning. On the most basic level, the reward is meeting the learning criteria for an assignment or earning recognition from the teacher. Going a step further, the students may self-analyze their progression and build self-efficacy.

Sometimes the satisfaction may come from a life skill that is secondary to the content. For example, when assigning students to a collaborative learning project, establish a behavioral target for students and explain why it’s important. A second example: students may feel satisfaction learning how to use a technology. Students must feel as though the skills they are mastering will be useful for their futures.

Keller’s ARCS model doesn’t require a total reset because undoubtedly you’re already doing many of these things. I like using it as a reference or checklist for each individual lesson.

Important Dates and Information

Mustang Morning:

Request students for this week. Note that Monday was moved to Friday.
Check your Mustang Morning sessions for NEXT week.
Request students for next week. On Wednesday, February 20 we will copy the schedule and requested students for the next four weeks. If you want students only for a week, wait until Thursday to request the student.

Intent to Return (or not) here (Intent to Return) Due February 22.

This Friday is an A-Day with Long Lunch. See below.

February 20/21: Help Save the Next Girl Symposiums.

February 20: 9th/10th graders
February 21: 11th/12th graders
Split classes send students based on their grade level
Mustang Morning will continue

February 22: A-Day; end of interim period