Monday Mustang Memo

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Paired Verbal Fluency

mohsmustangmemo.blogspot.com

Ideas in Education: Paired Verbal Fluency

Last week’s entry sparked several conversations with teachers about activating prior knowledge and priming the brain for learning. Paired Verbal Fluency is a learning strategy that can be used at multiple points in the learning process, including Activating Prior Knowledge. It can also be used for engaging and integrating learning.

Directions:

Have students partner up. This could be pre-established partners that you post on the overhead or have students partner up with someone. I suggest avoiding allowing them to partner with friends.
Have students identify who will be A and B.
Our topic for discussion is _______. When I say START student A will have 60 seconds to talk about the topic. While A is talking, B you need to be listening. After 60 seconds, you will switch and B, you will begin talking. BUT, there’s a twist. B you shouldn’t repeat anything A said.
Get ready, GO!
After 60 seconds, SWITCH!
Walk around the room. After 60 seconds, provide a quick feedback statement. STOP! Thank your partner. Eyes on me. Now B is going to go first. Think back to your 2 minute conversation. This time, you’re going to have 30 seconds to add whatever is missing. When I say SWITCH! A will have 30 seconds to add whatever else needs to be added.
Get ready, GO!
After 30 seconds, SWITCH!
STOP! Eyes on me.
I’ve got one more challenge for you. When I say GO! A will summarize 20 seconds the most important points made by both of you. Then I’m going to say SWITCH! And B will have the opportunity to share and summarize any points not made by A during this stage. Questions? Ready?! Go!
STOP! Eyes on me. Thank your partner with a high-five, handshake, or a bow. And to your seats!

Why Paired Verbal Fluency:

This is a flexible learning activity that can be used in every subject and at every point in the learning process (activation, during learning, formative assessment, after learning, etc.)
It’s non-threatening for students. Silence is OK.
Everyone is involved, so everyone is learning. Learning should be a social endeavor.
It gets students out of their seats and is part of a state change. Students become active learners and work on their communication skills.

Variations/Tips:

If Paired Verbal Fluency is used during or after the learning, you may allow students to refer to their learning materials and/or you may provide opportunities for review of material before starting the activity.
Change the activity so you allow students to repeat information. This works best when there are differences in student knowledge.
You can go the opposite way and increase time--instead of decrease--through the 3 rounds (Round 1: 30 seconds, Round 2: 45 seconds, Round 3: 60 seconds). The no repeating process is waived and the learning is extended.
The purpose of declining amounts of time is to focus thinking while the purpose of increasing the time is to broaden thinking.
Allow the listening students to write down key words they hear from their partners.
You can vary the times as needed and can do this without scripted times.
This can be followed by a quick write: What are the ideas you learned? What are you not sure about or want clarified? What questions do you have about the topic?
You can be as specific with the question or topic as you want. At the beginning of learning, the topic will most likely be broad while if you use Shared Verbal Fluency during or after learning, you may want to be more specific.

Important Dates and Information

This Friday will be an anchor day with 1A extended for a computer check and a state-required survey. We’ll be sending out more information about the survey on Friday. The computer check will be the same as last time. Please remind your students to bring their computers and chargers to 1A on Friday.

Mustang Morning: Please remember to request your students for Mustang Morning for this week as the slates were wiped clean.

Showcase form due February 8.

The showcase is a great opportunity for our students and teachers to show all the excellent learning that takes place at Monticello. If we don’t tell our story, who will? Another way for us to tell our story, is the student newsletter. Maeve Connaughton is doing a phenomenal job of proving our students and community with information and she’s looking at more ways to brand the ways we Embrace, Inspire and Innovate. Check out Maeve’s work here and submit story ideas here.

February 14 (Lovefest) will be an anchor day. Friday will convert into a B-Day. See below

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

Please take a couple of minutes to review the NHS Eligible students and provide feedback by copying the form and sharing it with Barry. Due February 11.

Technology Vetting: Essentially, teachers should be using this for websites/programs that are used classwide, especially any that require login information. It should also be used for other forms of media (films, for example).

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

The UNOS (organ donor organization) presentation that was supposed to be in December and got snowed out has been rescheduled for Wednesday February 13th. The presentation will be one hour long and will start during Mustang Morning and go into the first 30 minutes of 2nd block. Students in HMSA and SNHS will need to get permission from their teachers.

February 15: Drama @NSU

Shout Out

The first ACPSConnect ever had a mini podcast created by our own John Mitchem; staring Meghan Streit. Check it out https://sway.office.com/qFnT0ZfKutcoBo1h?ref=Link&loc=play

Birthdays

February 5: CeCe Brown (cafeteria)

February 6: Ruth Tapscott

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

Public school salaries fall short on average in nearly every state

Supporting kids dealing with trauma

School suspensions don’t stop violence--they help students celebrate it

Teacher: What happened when I stopped focusing on test prep with my students

Relationship with the teacher are essential (a tech perspective and how-to)

Schedules

February 14th LoveFest Schedule

7:40-8:40

Zero Period

8:55-9:40

9:45-10:27

10:32-11:14

11:19-12:44

Lunch	Class
1st: 11:14-11:46	11:51-12:44
2nd: 11:46-12:14	11:19-11:46 and 12:19-12:44
3rd: 12:14-12:44	11:19-12:14

12:49-1:31

1:36-2:18

2:23-3:04

3:09-3:50

AM CATEC: Depart Monticello at normal time and return from CATEC by 12:15

PM CATEC: Leave Monticello at normal time.

B-Day Friday Schedule with Long Lunch

7:40-8:40

Zero Period

8:55-10:15

1st Period

10:20-10:55

Thursday’s Mustang Morning

11:00-1:00

2nd Period

Lunch	Class
1st: 10:55-11:35	11:40-1:00 Baber, Di Battista, Brown, Csapo, Deegan, Easton, Eddy, Eisenhauer, Eliason, Fisher, Goodin, Jennings, McClung, McDonald, Meade, Mound, Scott, Shepherd, Smith, Stallings, Streit, Sullivan, Wade, Warren, Weaver
2nd: 12:20-1:00	11:00-12:20 R. Brown, Clark, Colgan, Dove, Dudley, Garland, Haney, Kai, Keith, Lawrence, Lindemann, Lipscomb, Lloyd, Mann, McCaskill, Parks, Parsons, Pippin, Price-Thomas, Redd, Reynolds, Ritchie, Rocco, Schafer, Skelton, Stanek, Thomas, Waters, Wendell, Wilkerson, Williamson

1:05-2:25

3rd Period

2:30-3:50

4th Period

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Increasing Relevance

Ideas in Education: Increasing Relevance

For most of my educational career, I taught World History to 1500. I’ll be the first to admit that this period of history isn’t extremely interesting or relevant to their 14 and 15 year-old lives. As such, I tended to focus more on the themes of history--the BIG ideas, if you will--than the minutiae. These themes--haves and have nots, identity, moral/religious codes, etc.--are what repeat throughout history and continue into our modern day lives; to me, this is why the study of history is important.

Of course, the SOLs still required students to know facts like that the Phoenicians were known for their trade of purple dye and cedar wood and their alphabet was a foundation for Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek alphabets.

As a teacher I wrote DORM on my board every day.

D: Do Now

O: Objective

R: Relevancy

M: Most important

I believe the DORM served both my students and me well. It forced us to focus on the objective, the relevancy and what was most important. We completed the relevancy section in parts: at the beginning of the class, during the class and at the end of the class. The most important portion, which consisted of a 1-3 sentence summary, was saved for the end of the class or homework.

Providing relevancy occurs before and during the lesson. Below are some strategies and ideas to ensure and increase student relevancy.

Strategy	Explanation of the strategy	In the Phoenician Example
Anticipation Set/Guide	Before teaching, get students to think about how the subject is relevant to their own opinions or ideas and how it may relate to something they already know. For example, before reading, you may have students read 5-10 statements and have them agree, disagree, or qualify each statement. This could be done individually or in pairs. After the reading or lesson, the students could discuss the same statements from either an accuracy perspective or based on the author’s perspective.	The do now for this assignment was Tally how many people were wearing red, blue, purple, green, yellow, black, and white. Then, work with a partner to figure out the “meaning” associated with each of the colors. Usually only a couple of students associated the color purple with royalty (this was in the days before cell phones/computers in classes where I could’ve had students look this up). Then I asked why would purple be the color of royalty? (We came back to that at the end of class.) We also talked briefly about where these colors natural dyes could come from (the most common guess for purple were berries).
Using Advance Organizers	Advance organizers, which can be graphic organizers, help students see how they parts of the unite are connected. An advance organizer can be distributed at the beginning of a unit (Grant Wiggins talked about completing concept webs throughout a unit, for example).	For this lesson, I provided students with a storyboard. The students would draw a picture and a caption for each part of the lesson with a focus on Politics, Military, Economy/Trade, Culture (these were themes that they were used to seeing).
Build Background Knowledge	Using mini-lessons to provide background knowledge before diving in is extremely important, especially for students who lack the background knowledge. Use mini-lessons for some or all students a couple of days before the lesson. These mini-lessons prime the brain. This would be a great use for Mustang Morning.	Several days before the lesson, I provided students with a Readers’ Theater script that I created for this lesson. Students were to read their sections for homework. The day before the lesson, we watched a short video about the Phoenicians.
Engage the students	As a rule of thumb, the drier or less relevant the subject, the more important it is that the we bring the subject alive for the students.	I chose to create a Readers’ Theater for this lesson. Each student had a role (or in smaller classes multiple roles). The students performed the lesson, reading and acting along the way. We had props (a sailboat, a fake tree, snail shells, beautiful purple fabrics, cedar wood, and scenery) as the students traveled throughout the Mediterranean. After each scene, the students stopped and completed their organizer. I carefully chose the roles in advance based on the students. I worked with and supported some of the students more closely.

After the Readers’ Theater, we’d complete the Most Important section of the DORM and we’d revisit the Relevancy section as well. We would discuss Why did purple become the color of royalty? To me, these were both great indications of the lesson’s effectiveness and provided me with great student feedback about the lesson and what was learned.

I knew this was a good lesson when students asked questions about the natural color of fibers and were encouraged to learn more. Comparisons were made between the Phoenicians and modern trade (ranging from comparisons to Japan, NAFTA, multi-national companies, etc.). Students also discussed the role of colors in culture.

For the Most Important, students often needed reminders about how to truly glean and summarize what was most important and were encouraged to look back at the learning objective and their organizers. Otherwise, I found that students tended to focus on some of the more trivial (see below) or on the parts that they played in the Readers’ Theater.

And just so you know: The Phoenician purple was one of the only bright dyes available to ancient civilizations. The sought-after dye, whose color often worn by royalty, was created from the extracts of marine snails. It required thousands of snails to produce miniscule amounts of the dye (reportedly 10,000 snails for 1 gram of dye). The snails were collected by the thousands, left out, and then boiled, which broke down their glands which secreted a protective slime. Needless to say, the dye was extremely expensive; a pound of dyed wool was worth a pound of gold. The exact nature of the chemical process has been lost in time but the manufacturing process dictated the shade of purple. Today there are still mounds of discarded snail shells that measure over 125 feet high.

The Phoenicians, who originally settled on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, were skilled seafarers. Their trading routes took them as far as Britain, the Canary Islands, and India and they established outposts and later colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Carthage, ancient Rome’s enemy, was a Phoenician colony in north Africa. As their trade empire expanded, they became both importers and exporters, often serving as middlemen. Goods were bought and sold in a controlled manner with pre-set prices established through bargained trade agreements and trade treaties (often promising protection and open ports to the Phoenicians). In addition to their famed purple dye, the Phoenicians were most notably known for their exportation of cedar wood.

Important Dates and Information

Mustang Morning: Please remember to request your students for Mustang Morning for this week as the slates were wiped clean.

Showcase form due February 8.

Fire drill: Monday during 1A

February 14 (Lovefest) will be an anchor day. Friday will convert into a B-Day.

County Bell Schedule Survey (closes Feb 1) : https://survey.k12insight.com/r/C3Zx2y

Working Conditions Survey (state required: March 1 close)

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

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

SpeakUp Survey https://speakup.tomorrow.org/SpeakupQuestions.aspx

Field Trips and SOLs

February 15: Drama @NSU