Habits of Mind Questions for Students (plus UbD)

from Marshall Memo 828

Essential Questions for Habits of Mind

(Originally titled “Dispositions by Design”)

            In this article in Educational Leadership, Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick (Institute for Habits of Mind) and author/consultants Jay McTighe and Allison Zmuda suggest ways to apply the Wiggins/McTighe Understanding by Design framework to Costa and Kallick’s 16 Habits of Mind. Here is a selection of Essential Questions for each of the Habits of Mind (see the full article link below for the Understandings):

• Persisting

-    Why should I keep trying?

• Managing impulsivity

-    What do I do when I am driven by emotions?

• Listening with understanding and empathy

-    How might it feel to be…?

• Thinking flexibly

-    In what other ways might I think about this?

• Thinking about thinking (metacognition)

-    What kind of thinking is called for in this situation?

• Striving for accuracy

-    How can I continue to perfect my craft?

• Questioning and posing questions

-    What questions do we need to ask?

• Applying past knowledge to new situations

-    What do I already know, and how does it apply here?

• Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision

-    What are the consequences of imprecision?

• Gathering data through all senses

-    What sources of data should I consider?

• Creating, imagining, and innovating

-    What is another way of seeing or doing this?

• Responding with wonderment and awe

-    Why is this so amazing, interesting, or mysterious to me?

• Taking responsible risks

-    What might be the effects of taking this risk – or of not trying?

• Finding humor

-    Am I taking myself too seriously?

• Thinking interdependently

-    How can we work best together? How can we avoid “group think”?

• Remaining open to continuous learning

-    What do I still wonder about?

Costa, Kallick, McTighe, and Zmuda suggest several ways the questions might be used:

-    Posting some of them in classrooms or common areas;

-    Drawing attention to a relevant question during a class;

-    Looking for an opportunity to highlight a Habit being used by a student;

-    Teachers thinking aloud about how they are using a Habit;

-    Having a Habits of Mind “show and tell;”

-    Students writing journal entries about using the Habits;

-    Before embarking on a project, having students reflect on the Habits they might use.

“By visiting and revisiting the essential questions across the grades,” say the authors, “students will come to better understand and internalize these productive mental dispositions. Ultimately, we want students to be asking these questions of themselves, without prompting. The long-range goal is for students to develop an internal compass to help them recognize the need for, and appropriately invoke, the appropriate habit(s) when confronting new challenges and opportunities, within school and throughout their lives.”

“Dispositions by Design” by Arthur Costa, Bena Kallick, Jay McTighe, and Allison Zmuda in Educational Leadership, March 2020 (Vol. 77, #6, pp. 54-59), available to ASCD members and for purchase at https://bit.ly/2x0RmeO; the authors can be reached at artcosta@aol.com, kallick.bena@gmail.com, jay@mctighe-associates.com, and allison.g.zmuda@gmail.com.

Essentials of Lesson Planning by Mike Schmoker

from Marshall Memo 828

Mike Schmoker on Lesson Planning 101

            In this article in Education Week Teacher, author/consultant Mike Schmoker lays out what he says are the rock-solid, research-based components of a well-structured lesson. Citing research by Robert Marzano, Dylan Wiliam, Doug Lemov, James Popham, and John Hattie, Schmoker says these elements “are at or near the top of the list of the most effective known instructional practices” and apply to all types of lessons, “no matter how creative or ‘constructivist’ we wish to be.” Here they are:

-    A carefully-formulated, clearly-stated purpose for the lesson;

-    A brief explanation of why that objective is worth learning;

-    A preview of how it will be assessed;

-    Modeling or demonstrating that shows students exactly how to do the thinking and work necessary to succeed in the day’s assessment;

-    Guided practice, with students applying or practicing each step;

-    Checking for understanding – using assessments that reveal the learning of all students, not just a few eager volunteers;

-    If not enough students are succeeding (which is often the case), bringing the class back together and clarifying or reteaching, or enlisting students’ expertise by having them work in pairs to help each other;

-    This recursive cycle continues until all (or almost all) students are ready to complete the day’s assignment, project, or assessment by themselves.

-    The teacher helps or tutors those who need additional assistance.

“Unfortunately, for decades, the elements of a well-structured lesson have been marginalized or ignored in most schools,” says Schmoker, “forced to compete for time and attention with unending, successive waves of (mostly) unproven innovations and policy requirements. This prevents the kind of sustained practice educators need to master these elements well enough to enjoy the profound impact they would have on student learning… Our  highest-achieving teachers know that these elements reduce boredom, increase student engagement, and guarantee significantly higher rates of student success on assessments of everything from content mastery to critical and creative thinking, to close reading, writing, and problem-solving.”

“The Lost Art of Teaching Soundly Structured Lessons” by Mike Schmoker in Education Week Teacher, June 3, 2013, https://bit.ly/2wd3ut1; Schmoker is at schmoker@futureone.com.

How to Reassure Staff During a Crisis

from Harvard Business Review

Reassure Your Team During Uncertainty

When the news is scary and the future is uncertain, many employees will look to managers for reassurance — even though you might not have the answers yourself. You can help by first finding your own sense of focus. Before you start communicating, take a minute to pause and breathe. Then put yourself in your audience's shoes. What are their concerns, questions, or interests? What do they need an immediate answer to? You might use language such as, “I know many of you may be thinking…” The quicker you can address what’s on their minds, the more likely you’ll be able to calm them down. Seek out credible sources of information, and read fully before distilling it into clear, concise language. You can confidently express doubt or uncertainty, while still maintaining authority. You might say, “Reports are still coming in, but what we understand so far is…” Communicate frequently, even if you don’t have news to report, so that people know you are actively following the issue. And provide tangible action items. Use language such as, “Here are the steps we are taking,” or “Here’s what you can do,” to demonstrate action.

How to Encourage Participation in a Virtual Meeting

From Harvard Business Review (at the beginning of Social Distancing measures and during our first week of Extended Remote Learning)

It’s hard to get people to pay attention in meetings when everyone’s in the same room — let alone if they’re all calling in from home. How can you get people to actually participate in a virtual meeting? The key is to create structured opportunities for attendees to engage. Do something in the first 60 seconds to help participants experience the problem you want them to solve. For example, you might share statistics or anecdotes that dramatize the topic. Then assign people to groups of two or three and give them a very limited time frame to take on a highly structured and brief task. Be sure to give them a medium with which to communicate, like a Slack channel. If you’re on a virtual meeting platform that allows for breakout groups, use them liberally. Then ask the teams to report back. Never go longer than five to 10 minutes without giving the group another problem to solve. The key is to set and sustain an expectation of meaningful involvement. Otherwise, your participants will retreat into an observer role, and you’ll have to work extra hard to bring them back. 

Students Face Challenges When They Return Back from Mental Health Out Placements

link to Hechinger report

Change Behavior with "Microhabits"

from Harvard Business Review daily email 3/2/2020

High achievers often have lofty aspirations for self-improvement. But big goals — such as “meditate for an hour every day,” or “read more” — are often more burdensome than they are sustainable. So, start small by focusing on “microhabits” — more achievable behaviors that you build over long periods of time. These habits should be ridiculously small, like meditating for 30 seconds or reading a paragraph each night. To minimize effort, piggyback on a daily task. Perform your new action at the same time as (or right before) something you already do every day. Read that one paragraph while brushing your teeth. Meditate while waiting for your coffee to brew. Then, track your progress, but keep it simple. Try using a “yes list” where you write down the desired action, and under each date simply note a Y or N to indicate if you completed the task. Once you’ve accrued several weeks of Ys, you can increase your microhabit by a small increment, say 10%. Continue these tiny, incremental adjustments until the new habit is part of your muscle memory. By starting small, you can achieve big results.

This tip is adapted from “To Achieve Big Goals, Start with Small Habits,” by Sabina Nawaz