Monday Mustang Memo: Is Chunk-Chew-and-Check Enough

Excellence in Education: Is Chunk-Chew-and-Check Enough?

Chunk-and-Chew is a highly effective and simple to use instructional strategy that breaks content into smaller pieces (no more than ten minutes worth) and allows students to process and interact with the material.

Several years ago I wrote about Chunk-Chew-Check as an effective strategy:

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen several great examples of interactive lectures or chunk and chew learning. Because students can be overwhelmed with too much information, it’s important to give students time to process and interact with content by giving it to them in manageable chunks and providing them with opportunities to chew on it. Just as importantly, while students were chewing on the content, teachers used that time to listen for misconceptions or misunderstandings (formatively assessing students) while providing feedback.

Some Chewing Activities I observed:

Turn-n-talk: Teacher provides a question and student partners respond and discuss.
Quick writes: Students are given a writing prompt or question and are given a minute or two to write answers. Students can then share answers with others or with the class. One possible quick write structure: Have students respond to I was surprised that…..I learned that….I wonder about…..
Creating questions: Students are provided with index cards and are asked to formulate questions or ask for clarification. After collecting the cards, the teacher can use the questions to close class. If students need help developing questions, you may simply ask, “What’s the most confusing thing?” or “What do I need to do a better job of explaining?”
Graphic organizer: At the beginning of the class, have students develop a graphic organizer strategy (different students chose different strategies: chart, web, skeleton notes and were grouped accordingly). The lesson was chunked and students were provided opportunities to add to their graphic organizer and share with their new partners (students who chose the same graphic organizer).

Without a doubt, the Chunk-Chew-Check model of teaching has its place, but it doesn’t allow students to truly dive into a subject matter and truly interact with the information. By adding a couple of steps, we can rectify Chunk-Chew-Checks shortcomings.

Chunk: The teacher chunks lesson content into sections.

Challenge: The teacher challenges students to think about what has just been taught, read, viewed, etc. In this new stage, the teacher presents a targeted question or two to guide students to dig deeper into the content. This is also an opportunity to differentiate instruction based on student readiness.

Chew: Students chew it over and begin processing the challenge.

Chat: Students chat with each other and then with the whole class through a variety of structured activities (pair-share, philosophical chairs, pinwheel discussion, affinity diagramming, etc.) During this stage, students express their understanding, allowing the teacher to engage and assess students.

Check: As students chew and chat, the teacher roams the classroom with targeted checks for understanding. The formative assessment strategies can be informal (talking to students, listening to responses,thumbs-up/thumbs-down) to more formal ones like a quick write, completion of a graphic organizer, etc.

This is a great strategy to use when teaching content, a skill or a process. It provides opportunities for formative assessment, feedback (both teacher and student directed) and reteaching.

Need To Knows

Sign-up for Faculty Meeting Focus Groups. If you haven’t yet signed up for your focus groups, please do so by visiting https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzmj7rx5158rs1ZeQRNLVy3KdYebAP0yEJbQ5lwg0yB7YHUQ/viewform

Also, if you haven’t yet signed up for Making Connections, here’s the link https://www2.k12albemarle.org/dept/instruction/arc/PD/connections2017/Pages/default.aspx Making Connections is on November 6 and is required professional development. There are some great presenters this year. I can vouch for Ron Nash, Zaretta Hammond, and Richard Byrne.

Mustang Morning. Please remember that you should draft any student who has a D or F. Absences to Mustang Morning should be recorded in the system, but as administrators we can only see this when we look up the individual student. If a student skips Mustang Morning, the consequences are as follows

Teacher discusses matter with student and family
Teacher writes a Mustang Morning Referral (½ sheet referral available in mailroom) and administration discusses matter with student, issues administrative warning and contacts family.
Teacher writes a Mustang Morning Referral; student will be assigned Mustang Morning or Lunch Detention by administration.
Teacher writes a Mustang Morning Referral; student will be assigned After School Detention by administration.

Blackboard Please remember that ALL homework assignments and project due dates must be posted on the class calendar.

The crisis notification phone number in the event of a sudden emergency near your working area will enable you to reach someone immediately by dialing 61911 from any phone in the building. The number will ring all telephones in the main office, clinic, and each administrator's office in the event of a crisis.

Pledge of Allegiance: School Board Policy: "No student shall be compelled to recite the Pledge if he/she, his/her parent or legal guardian objects on religious, philosophical, or other grounds to his/her participating in this exercise. Students who are exempt from reciting the Pledge shall quietly stand or sit at their desks while others recite the Pledge and shall make no display that disrupts or distracts those who are reciting the Pledge ."

Leaving your classroom: If you and your students leave your classroom, please post a note on your door stating where you will be and notify the following people: Nurse Tomlin (ttomlin), Tiffany Daniels (tdaniels), Kate Melvin (kmelvin), Miriah Dudley (mdudley) and Cynthia Serrano (cserrano).

Substitutes: As you create your substitute plans, please be sure to provide them with information regarding student accommodations (health plans, SBIT, 504s, IEPs). Please be sure to turn your emergency lesson plans into Kate.

Useful Links

Activity Period Calendar

Technology / Website Permission Request Form Please use this form to request use of a website or any resource that requires student log-in if the site is not already on the approved list. DART approved list

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm Please be sure to have announcements cued and ready to go at 8:55 every morning.

Announcement Request: http://tinyurl.com/requestannouncement

Teacher Handbook

Birthdays

October 22: Jeremy Dove, Paige Pippin

October 23: Josh Flaherty

October 27: Lynn Waidelich

October 29: Irving Walker (cafeteria)

Calendar and Memo Items

October 23: Picture Retakes

October 25-26: Exams for semester-block classes 1st/3rd and 2nd/4th periods, respectively

October 26: End of Quarter 1