Making Special Education Special:

A Review of Highly Effective Educational Practices

Agenda

• Building our PLC community• Short review of PLC• Overview of Visible Learning • Implications for your work• Break and break out• Hattie for “at risk” learners• Hot topics• Power of words!

Judicious Review…Becoming a PLC

• Review from last week ….video

• Review of PLC

• Meeting NormsMeeting Norms:

1.) Start/End on Time2.) Student/student learning centered issues3.) Listening and Learning from each other 4.) Safe place to question and learn

Getting to know you and our topic!• Think for a minute about effective teaching

then jot down one sentence that describes effective teaching (Quick thinking)

• Divide into groups of three or four by numbering off

• Introduce yourself and what your teach• Share with your group the one sentence that

describes effective teaching• With your group come up with one sentence

from your group with all the best ideas to share with the larger group (8 minutes).

Learning Intentions

• Explore the important new work of John Hattie (overview)

• Examine key research and find significant practical implication for teachers of “at risk” students

• Look over the resources provided to increase your access to this up to date information

So much to do….

What Works in Education?

Michael Fullan says...

One of the most critical problems faced by schools is “not resistance to innovation,

but the fragmentation, overload and incoherence resulting from the uncritical

and uncoordinated acceptance of too many different innovations.”

What’s New…Important

What is Visible Learning?

Visible Learning is the result of 15 years’ research and synthesises over 800 meta-analyses (over 50,000 studies) relating to the influences on achievement in school-aged students. It presents the largest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning (and what doesn‘t).

Special Education in an MTSS Framework

Comprehensive Interventions for LD Students (.77)

Overview of Hattie

Visible Teaching – Visible Learningmeet John Hattie

A little background information… • Meta-Analysis: Compares results of many different research

studies and outcomes• Effect sizes: Converts outcomes of studies to a single scale we

can compare outcomes across studies.

• The vast majority of innovations or educational strategies WORK…have a positive effect. A student left to work on his own would be likely to show improvement over a year.

• Notions of meta-analysis – whereby the effects of each study are converted to a common measure or effect size.

• An effect size of 1.0 would improve the rate of learning and mean that on average, students receiving that treatment would exceed 84% of students not receiving that treatment.

Variables Impacting Achievement

• Please complete the variables impacting student achievement handout.

• Work with a partner to rank order the influence each variable has on achievement (7 minutes).

Rank these 14 effects • Acceleration• RTI• Formative Assessment • Feedback • Student-teacher relationships • Teaching study skills • Reading Recovery • Cooperative learning • Homework • Individualized instruction • Ability grouping • Open vs. traditional classes • Retention (hold back a year) • Shifting schools

Rank these 14 effects: Answers RTI 1.07 Formative Assessment .90 Acceleration .88 Feedback .73 Student-teacher relationships .72 Teaching study skills .59 Reading Recovery .50 Cooperative learning .41 Homework .29 Individualized instruction .22 Ability grouping .12 Open vs. traditional classes .01 Retention (hold back a year) -.16 Shifting schools -.34

Keeping you up to date-Take a look at your handouts

1. The Main Idea (Summary of book)2. John Hattie Research explanations3. Have we “Hattie” enough debate

• Take 3 minutes to review these handouts• Talk with a partner about what surprises you!

Don’t blame the kids

Social class/ prior achievement is surmountable

All students can be challenged

Strategies not styles

Develop high student expectations

Enhance help seeking

Develop assessment capable students

The power of developing peer interactions

The power of critique/error/feedback

Self-regulations and seeing students as teachers

Big Idea: MindsetsIt’s about the teacher’s mindset, not the kids!

Achievement is changeable and enhanceable vs. immutable and fixed

Teaching as an enabler not a barrier

Engage in the total learning and not break into steps and chunks

The Power of learning intentions

The Power of success criteria

Teachers as change agents

Activator or Facilitator ?

An Activator A Facilitator

Reciprocal teaching Simulations and gaming

Feedback Inquiry based teaching

Teaching students self-verbalization Smaller class sizes

Meta-cognition strategies Individualized instruction

Direct Instruction Problem-based learning

Mastery learning Different teaching for boys & girls

Goals - challenging Web-based learning

Frequent/ Effects of testing Whole Language Reading

Behavioral organizers Inductive teaching

Activator or Facilitator ?An Activator ES A Facilitator ES

Reciprocal teaching .74 Simulations and gaming .32

Feedback .72 Inquiry based teaching .31

Teaching students self-verbalization .67 Smaller class sizes .21

Meta-cognition strategies .67 Individualized instruction .20

Direct Instruction .59 Problem-based learning .15

Mastery learning .57 Different teaching for boys & girls .12

Goals - challenging .56 Web-based learning .09

Frequent/ Effects of testing .46 Whole Language Reading .06

Behavioral organizers .41 Inductive teaching .06

ACTIVATOR .60 FACILITATOR .17

Summing Up Good Instruction

• Hattie on good instruction

Break…and Break Out with Job Alike Folks!

• Find other– Elementary – Secondary– Basic

– Discuss and write down the three most important points for you in this Hattie research.

– What is one thing you will take back to your classroom?

Strategies for Special Education• First off RTI is powerful….Effect Size 1.07• Teaching Strategies

– Formative Evaluation– Direct Instruction– Comprehensive Interventions for Learning Disabled Students– Feedback– Spaced vs. Mass Practice– Meta-Cognitive Strategies– Self-Verbalization/Self-Questioning

• Teacher Strategies– Teacher Clarity– Teacher-Student Relationships

• Curricula– Vocabulary Programs

Teaching

Formative Evaluation (.90)

Review of Formative Assessment

• Dylan Williams assessment review

DefinitionsAssessment refers to all those activities that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities.

Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs.

Black and Wiliam

Think-Pair-Share

Individually, THINK about the following• What are two ways are teachers currently

using formative assessments?• What one strength can you build upon for

the increased use of formative assessments in your classroom?

then PAIR with a colleague and SHARE.

32

Comprehensive Interventions for LD Students (.77)

Direct Instruction +7 steps1.Learning intentions2.Success criteria3.Build engagement4.How to present the lesson5.Guided practice6.Closure7.Independent practice

Teaching Strategies• Scaffolding• Directed response and

questioning• Sequencing• Drill-repetition-practice-

review• Segmentation• Strategy cueing

Comprehensive Interventions for LD Students (.77)

• Based on research, combined direct instruction and strategy instruction model is an effective procedure for remediating learning disabilities.

• These two approaches are somewhat independent, hence the importance of using both to maximize the effect on achievement.

• The important instructional components include attention to sequencing, drill-repetition-practice, segmenting information into parts or units for later synthesis, controlling task difficulty through prompts and cues, making use of technology, systematically modeling problem solving steps, and making use of small interactive groups.

Feedback (.73)

• Feedback is most powerful when it is from student to teacher!

• Teachers need to seek and be open to feedback about:– What students know– What they understand– Where they make errors– When they have misconceptions– When they are not engaged

Feedback is the breakfast of champions!- Ken Blanchard

“The most powerful single influence enhancing achievement is feedback”

• Quality feedback is needed, not more feedback• Much of the feedback provided by the teacher to

the student is not valued and not acted on• Students with a Growth Mindset welcome feedback

and are more likely to use it to improve their performance

• Oral feedback is much more effective than written• The most powerful feedback is provided from the

student to the teacher

Looking at Feedback

• Read handout about feedback

• Dylan Williams Feedback

Challenge or “Do your best”

Maintain the challenge not break it down

Power of learning intentions

Power of success criteria

If feedback is so important, what kind of feedback should be

taking place in our classrooms?

Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes

Spaced vs. Mass Practice (.71)

• Frequency of opportunities to respond is critical versus spending more time on a task in one sitting

• Students need deliberate practice in order to become fluent

• Students often need exposure to learning over several days before they will learn new content

• Both acquisition and retention are improved when practice is spaced

Metacognitive Strategies

• Applying a strategy to solve a problem and selecting and monitoring the strategy.

• Thinking about thinking.• Activities can include planning how to approach a

given learning task, evaluating progress, and monitoring comprehension.

• The more varied the strategies used throughout a lesson, the more students are influenced!

Examples of Metacognitive Strategies

– Making an outline before writing a paper– Delaying fun things until work is completed– Verbalizing steps to solve problems– Checking work before handing into teacher– Using a study partner– Taking class notes – Rehearsing and memorizing– Making lists to accomplish during studying– Keeping records of study output– Creating mnemonics to remember facts– Scheduling daily study and homework time– Studying in a secluded spot.

Self-Verbalization/Self-Questioning

• Likely more useful for those students with lower to middle ability

• Provides assistance in searching for information, resulting in increased comprehension

• Effects highest for pre-lesson questioning and post-lesson questioning

Teacher

Your Turn: Favorite Teacher

• Think of your favorite teacher.– Make a list of the top three things you liked about

them.– How much did you learn in these classes?

• Now, think about a teacher you liked the least.– Why didn’t you like this teacher?– How much did you learn?

Teacher factors

“The impact of decisions made by individual teachers is far greater than the impact of decisions made at the

school level.”

“More can be done to improve education by improving the effectiveness of teachers than by any other single

factor.”~Robert Marzano

Teacher Clarity (.75)

Setting Clear Learning Targets•Organization•Explanations•Examples and non-examples•Guided Practice•Assessment of Student Learning

How do you communicate the intention of each lesson? How do you know when students are

successful?

Teacher Student Relationships (.72)

Factors that are important:•Demonstrate that you care for the learning of each student as a person•High levels of empathy (see their perspective and communicate back)•Warmth•Encouragement of higher-order thinking•Adapting to differences•Genuineness•Respect of self and others

Curricula

Vocabulary Programs

• Students who experience vocabulary instruction have improvements in reading comprehension

• Most effective vocabulary teaching methods included: – Providing both definitional and contextual

information– Involved students in deeper processing– Gave students more than one or two exposures

Repeated Reading Programs

• Re-reading a short and meaningful passage until a satisfactory level of fluency is reached

• Timed tests had larger effects than untimed tests

• Effects found on both reading comprehension as well as reading fluency, although comprehension effects didn’t transfer to new passages

What do you see?The Power of Words

“The Power of Words … Change your words, Change your world” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU

JMC – B 8/2014©

3-2-1 Activity

December 15th PLC

kgibbons@scred.k12.mn.us sbrown@scred.k12.mn.us