Close the Achievement Gap: Simple Strategies That Work

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Close the Achievement Gap Simple Strategies That
Work

• Chapter 5 Make No Excuses Encourage At Risk
  Participation
• March 2005

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• What is it about me you cant teach? Is it that
  I am hearing impaired? Is it that I speak a
  different language? Is it because my parents
  dont come to conferences? Is it that I am a
  different color? Is it because I am ADD? Is it
  because Im late for school? Is it because I
  learn more quickly than some? What is it about me
  you cant teach?
• Eleanor Renee Rodriguez (1996)

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One of the most powerful strategies to close the
gap

• The frequent, fluent, and full participation by
  all students.
• If learners are there, in the moment, ready and
  willing to learn, the chances of them learning
  are increased greatly (62).

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The Challenge

• No matter how much they care or how hard they
  try, many teachers feel that the situation in
  their school is hopeless for these youngsters.

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The Challenge

• This is the most difficult issue in school
  reform convincing teachers that they can, and
  do, make the difference. (Schmoker, 1996 Reeves,
  2001 Marzano, 2001 Haycock, 2001)

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What is it about me you cant teach?

• Nothing! There is nothing about you I cant
  teach. In fact, I believe that I can teach any
  kid anything. I am a master teacher. I have a
  vast repertoire of instructional tools to work
  with. Among my most valued tools are
• Active Learning
• Mindful Engagement
• Intense Involvement
• Invested Stakeholders

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Active Learning

• Cooperative Learning
• Let students feel like part of a team
• Give students roles and responsibilities
• Multiple Intelligences
• Allow different entry points and end points for
  learners
• Find the gift in every student (M. Kennedy)
• Higher Order Thinking
• Challenge kids to think, make decisions, and
  solve problems
• Leave kids wanting more than the tip of the
  iceberg

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Mindful Engagement

• Solitary Endeavors
• Learner searches for meaning in very individual
  way.
• Highly reflective
• Connects new learning to existing schema or
  background knowledge.
• Team Efforts
• During cooperative task, learner becomes actively
  committed and begins to explore, examine, and
  extrapolate ideas that fit with previous learning.

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Intense Involvement

• Highly Focused
• Highly focused, persistent, and even
  tenacious define this state of intense
  involvement
• Level of concentration that defies interruption
• Flow
• When the learner has a level of expertise that
  allows him/her to enter into a state of
  awareness, of an intense enjoyment, of time
  passing without noticing.

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Invested Stakeholders

• Relevance
• Key to authentic learning
• The solution to problem solving becomes a
  personal victory
• Point of View
• When learners take on a point of view, they have
  a built in bias that causes emotional involvement
  and real investment of time, energy, and emotion.

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Strategies

• Fishbowl, Card Game, and TAG
• Random systems that ensure all students get
  called on to participate
• Call on students using a fishbowl of names
• A deck of cards
• TAG Talk Around the Group. Students pass an
  object to the next person in the group.

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Strategies

• Cooperative Learning
• Encourages at-risk students who may be least
  willing to talk in class.

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Strategies

• Whole Group Strategies
• The People Search
• Prepared by the teacher, prior to kids arriving,
  The People Search asks kids to Find someone
  who
• Used before a lesson, it allows students to
  interact and stir up prior knowledge
• Used after a lesson, it allows students to
  revisit and review ideas from the lesson.

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Strategies

• Whole Group Strategies
• The Human Graph
• Requires kids to stand along a continuum based on
  their opinion of a given statement and physically
  form a graph of human beings.
• The Three Musketeers
• Three students meet and discuss a specified
  topic. The team then reports back a summary
  statement.

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Strategies

• Partner Strategies
• 2-4-8 Focus Interview- Students tell three
  stories, each one different from the last
• Two kids begin by sharing an artifact of their
  work (ex. A book report)
• Four kids meet as a pair of pairs and retell
  their partners stories
• Eight kids meet, 2 sets of 4, and each tells a
  story from the previous group of 4.

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Strategies

• Partner Strategies
• TTYPA
• Stands for Turn to your partner and
• Students discuss an assigned topic or idea
• Think/Pair/Share
• A more formal interaction
• Students think on their own time and then pair up
  to generate a shared answer

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Teachers who take the time to encourage all kids

• are the teachers who understand that the
  achievement gap affects the entire child, not
  just his academic standing.

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Youre a hero to someone

• act like the hero you are. Say something so
  profound and lasting to some kid who needs that
  energy and encouragement at that very moment.