Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

158 Search Results for: "self-control"

May 11, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Research Studies Of The Week

I often write about research studies from various fields and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages is from TIME Magazine. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual.

Walk-to-burn-calorie menu ‘diet aid’ is from The BBC. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Nutrition & Food Safety.

Being Sad Makes You More Impatient comes from The Harvard Business Review. It shares a study that found people who felt sad had great problems with self-control. I’m adding this to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Black Men’s College Success Depends on Grit, Not Just Grades, Study Finds is from Sarah Sparks at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Importance Of “Grit.”

Fostering A Culture Of Gratitude comes from The Harvard Business Review. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Gratitude.”

May 6, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Texting & Marshmallows

Yella Mella Macra
Photo Credit: flattop341 via Compfight

I’ve written a lot about self-control (see The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control and lesson plans in my books).

A year ago I wrote about a newer study suggesting the ability to resist texts was the new “marshmallow test (the famous one that you’ll read a lot about in previous paragraph’s links). I also included a brief comment about it in my new book, Self-Driven Learning.

Just in the past week, others have begun to pick-up on that study and new similar ones. Those articles provide much more substance to the idea, and I’ll certainly be incorporating them in a new supplemental lesson plan related to the marshmallow experiment.

Here are their links:

You’ll Never Learn! Students can’t resist multitasking, and it’s impairing their memory is by Annie Murphy Paul and appeared in Slate.

Brain, Interrupted appeared in The New York Times.

April 22, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Infographic: “How To Teach English” (With A Bonus!)

Here’s a interesting infographic from Kaplan on “How To Teach English.” The bonus is that, along with the infographic, they published this comment from my co-author and colleague, Katie Hull Sypnieski:

Katie Hull Sypnieski, co-author of The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels, said: In our ESL classes my teaching partner, Larry Ferlazzo, and I use international celebrities to increase engagement with our students. We also use celebrities in our lessons on developing successful life skills. In these lessons, we focus on the non-cognitive traits of celebrities such as self-control, taking personal responsibility, and having grit.

how to teach englishLearn English with Kaplan

April 9, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
4 Comments

Helping Students Make A Connection Between What They’re Learning In School To Their Goals In Life

'Stepper connection' photo (c) 2009, Simon Vanherweghe - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

I’ve previously posted, and written in my books, about a study that showed the value of having students write a few sentences after lessons about how what they just learned can be connected to their life (see “Relevance” & Student Learning). I’ve also posted a comic strip that humorously highlights the impact of seeing relevance can have on a student.

We just finished a unit (on Jamaica) in our ninth-grade English classes and, before we began our next one on Everest, I thought I’d apply a version of this kind of reflection to see how it went.

First, I gave each student a sheet asking them to list what units and life skills we had studied so far this year, and how we studied them (you can download this sheet and, in fact, all three sheets I used in the exercise here). Then, after they had completed it, I gave them a sheet asking them to list their personal, academic and professional goals. After that sheet was done, I had them clear their desks, put the first sheet on their left and the second sheet on their right with space in the middle for the the third sheet I then gave them. That sheet said “List ways how what we have studied and how we have studied them this year can help you achieve your goals.”

In other words, how what we have done (on their left) can help them achieve their goals (on their right).

I’ll share some examples in a minute of what students came up with, but it’s safe to say it was an exceptionally successful reflection. After people made a list, they made them into posters, which they will share with each other tomorrow.

Though I shouldn’t have been surprised — since this is what happens all the time when I ask students to write what they think are the most important things they have learned in class — it’s the life skills lessons that seem to stick (those are the ones found in my books on helping students motivate themselves.

Here’s a sample of what they wrote:

Self-control can help me with my career by helping me not get angry.

Self control can help me by remembering to use condoms.

You need grit to succeed in college because it’s probably going to be kinda hard.

Self control can help me with the military because if I have self control I won’t have to worry about losing my anger and snapping at one of my teammates or my drill instructors.

Patience and self-control can help me get along with my brothers and sisters better.

Writing, reading, typing and speech can help me with becoming a lawyer.

Grit is going to help me in my own business on the days I just don’t feel like working.

Taking personal responsibility is a step to me becoming a good husband for my wife and a good father for our kids.

The life skills we learned will connect to my career because I will have to have patience to be a teacher to younger kids.

Reading better will help me get the credits I need to graduate.

As always, I’m eager to hear suggestions from readers on how to make my lessons better!

March 18, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Our Students Are Not Supermen & Superwomen

Doppia Identità
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Gioia De Antoniis via Compfight

A few minutes ago I published a post that repeated my admiration for Carol Dweck’s work, one of numerous posts I’ve written sharing that perspective.

However, I did publish one a couple of years ago that was critical of an op ed piece she did in The New York Times questioning extensive research that found self-control to be a limited resource that needed to be replenished. Dr. Dweck suggested that operating under that belief was contrary to her rightfully admired perspective on having a growth-mindset. In other words, it only needs to be replenished if you believe it can be depleted.

As I wrote in that post:

I’m all for having a “growth mindset,” which is another concept that Professor Dweck is known for and which I use with my students. However, especially with adolescents, it seems to me that we need to recognize that our students are not Supermen or Superwomen, and it’s unlikely that many — if any — have an unlimited level of self-control. My students and I have found Professor Baumeister’s research very useful and I have often seen it work effectively.  The key, of course, is that we need to help our students develop effective strategies to replenish their capacity for self-control.

So why am I bringing this up now? Well, another researcher whom I admire, Heidi Grant Halvorson, has just written a widely-seen article with the title How You Can Benefit from All Your Stress. She makes an argument for stress similar to Dr. Dweck’s on self-control.

Comments on that piece make many of the same points I would make in a critique, though more eloquently than I would.

I believe that there are much more effective coping ways I can help students at our 100% free lunch (who also receive free breakfast and dinner) school to deal with stress than encouraging them to look at it as a way to grow (and an extensive lesson plan in my new book provides even more details).

I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that:

your mindset about stress may be the most important predictor of how it affects you.

We’re all familiar with the saying, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, than every problem looks like a nail.”

Fragile
Photo Credit: Matthew via Compfight

Helping our students develop a growth mindset can be one of the most important life skills lessons we can teach. But let’s also recognize that it’s not the solution to everything.

March 7, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“Short Bouts of Exercise Boost Self Control” — Is That Your Experience With Students?

Short Bouts of Exercise Boost Self Control is the title of an article about a new study.

Here’s an excerpt:

Short bouts of moderately intense exercise seem to boost self control, indicates an analysis of the published evidence in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The resulting increased blood and oxygen flow to the pre-frontal cortex may explain the effects, suggest the researchers.

They trawled medical research databases for studies looking at the impact of physical exercise on higher brain functions, such as memory, concentration, planning, and decision-making, in three groups: 6 to 12 year olds; 13 to 17 year olds; and 18 to 35 year olds.

They found 24 relevant studies published up to April 2012. Nineteen of these, involving 586 participants, addressed the impact of short bouts of exercise.

….12 of the 19 studies looked at self control, and the analysis indicated that short bouts of exercise did improve this higher brain function across all three age groups, registering a small to moderate impact.

This is particularly important for children and teens, because well developed higher brain functions are important for academic achievement and other aspect of daily life, say the authors.

“These positive effects of physical exercise on inhibition/interference control are encouraging and highly relevant, given the importance of inhibitory control and interference control in daily life,” they write.

This study has prompted me to plan to ask “sixth period” teachers of some of my ninth-grade students who happen to have P.E. during fifth period if this reflects their experiences. I know that it’s a very rough period for many of our students and teachers, but it would be interesting to see if they’ve noticed a difference among the students with P.E. immediately preceding their class. If so, this could be a pretty important scheduling issue to take into account for some of our students.

I’ve always had an International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class at the end of the day and, though I emphasize recruiting non-IB Diploma candidates to take the course, too, few of those students have self-control challenges. It’s a different story for some students I have earlier in the day, though my double-block ninth-grade class is always the first two periods of the day so I don’t know if they would be different if they had P.E. prior to entering my class.

What has been your experience with students immediately following P.E. ?

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

February 25, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
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February’s Best Posts From This Blog

I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see older Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month (more recent lists can be found here).

These posts are different from the ones I list under the monthly“Most Popular Blog Posts.” Those are the posts the largest numbers of readers “clicked-on” to read. I have to admit, I’ve been a bit lax about writing those posts, though.

Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this past month (not in any order of preference):

Summary: Week Four Of Twitter Chat On Student Motivation Using #selfdrivenlrng Hashtag

I Began This Blog Six Years Ago: Here Are My All-Time Most Popular Posts

Video: Excellent Classroom Example of Dan Pink’s “One Sentence Project”

What A Neat Lesson Idea For Using Photos!

Knowledge Isn’t Power — “Power is Power”

Study: More Power Equals More Self-Control & Less Power Equals — You Guessed It!

Free Book Excerpts — Lesson Plans On Bloom’s Taxonomy & Metacognition

“Teachers As ‘Persuaders’: An Interview With Daniel Pink”

The Harlem Shake As A Language-Learning Activity

“7 Qualities to Maximize the Impact of Your Lesson Plans”

“Several Ways to Balance Between District Mandates & Student Needs”

You Can Now Pre-Order My Book, Self-Driven Learning, On Amazon

I’ll Be A Guest At An Ed Week Webinar On “Developing Intrinsic Motivation in Students”

“What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?”

“Brainy Box” Is A Winner!

“How Peer Assistance Can Improve Teacher Practice”

Brain “Priming” In The Classroom

What A Great New Financial Literacy Tool For English Language Learners & Everybody Else

“Creating a Culture of Improvement With Peer Assistance & Review (PAR)”

Student Reflection Form On Goals & Joy

New Research Shows Why Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Character Education Are Not Enough

One New Activity I’m Doing To Help ELLs Learn Academic Vocabulary – & Practice Speaking It

Washington Post Reprints My Evaluation Post

“Response: Do’s and Don’ts for Better Project-Based Learning”

February 19, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Study: More Power Equals More Self-Control & Less Power Equals — You Guessed It!

A new study finds that the more power people feel they have, the more self-control they exhibit. Researchers:

…speculated that power holders may be willing to wait for the larger rewards because they feel more connected with their future selves, a consequence of experiencing less uncertainty about their futures along with an increased tendency to see the big picture.

This is just more evidence backing up recommendations I make here and in my books to share power with students in the classroom. It’s also connected to other recent research I’ve written about that has found poverty tends to contribute towards the loss of self-control and not the other way around.

I’m adding it this info to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

January 31, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

New Research Shows Why Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Character Education Are Not Enough

With my two books and constant blogging about Social Emotional Learning/Character Education, it’s obvious that I’m a big believer on its importance for our students. It’s critical for our students to strengthen their appetite for learning, their self-control, their perseverance, etc.

At the same time, as Mike Rose writes in the Christian Science Monitor, Character education is not enough to help poor kids :

…it is difficult for enrichment programs alone to lead to educational mobility. Children from poor communities need social policy that involves schools and enrichment programs, but also need programs to address the conditions that devastate students’ lives: poor nutrition and healthcare, inadequate housing, parental unemployment, violent streets, and a dysfunctional immigration system. When we ignore these broader conditions, we turn an ungenerous scrutiny on the children themselves.

Coincidentally, new research has just been published that backs up this position.

The research paper, Poverty and Self Control, takes issue with a common belief that many low-income people are poor because they don’t have traits like self-control. Instead, it finds that that poverty causes a loss of self control:

…the chain of causality is circular, and poverty is itself responsible for the low self-control that perpetuates poverty….policies that help the poor begin to accumulate assets may be highly effective…

Even though a large portion of the paper is highly technical, and not particularly accessible to a layperson like myself (and its PowerPoint presentation is not that much better), here’s my understanding of what they found….

If you don’t have many assets, and you’re used to the environment of living on the edge, then self-control really doesn’t offer that many benefits — as Janis Joplin sang “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” — you might as well give in to your whims because not giving into them doesn’t really pay off based on your experience (instead of Joplin, the researchers quote Bob Dylan, ” When you ain’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose.”)

On the other hand, if you have some economic (or, I’d suggest, non-economic assets, too) assets, and you’ve experienced the benefits of them, you want to work to keep them.

It makes sense to me, but certainly doesn’t negate the importance of doing whatever we can to support our students to develop these traits (though let’s not grade them, please).

But it does reemphasize the value of teachers, schools and families working together to push for the types of changes Mike Rose suggests in his piece, and I suggest in my book on family engagement, to attack the root causes of the challenges faced by our students….

I’ll add this post to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.

January 17, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Here’s The “Growth Mindset” Article & Prompt We’re Using As Part Of Our Semester Final

My colleagues and I help our students learn about the importance of a “growth mindset” during the year (see The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset”).

My colleague Katie Hull and I are going to use the following prompt with this NPR report, Students’ View of Intelligence Can Help Grades, as part of our final next week. We thought others might find it helpful:

Writing Prompt:

According to Carol Dweck, what is a “growth mindset” and why is it important? Do you agree with what Dweck is saying? To support your opinion you may use examples from your own experiences, your observations of others, and any of your reading (including this article and the other articles on the brain, self-control, and grit that are in your notebook).

January 4, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
4 Comments

More Evidence Showing The Dangers Of Using High-Stakes Testing For Teacher Evaluation

I’ve posted a lot about the shortcomings of using Value-Added Measurements (VAM) and, in general, any kind of student test scores in standardized tests in teacher evaluation (see The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation).

Another study has come out confirming those shortcomings, but using a different “lens” to look at it…

Non-Cognitive Ability, Test Scores, and Teacher Quality: Evidence from 9th Grade Teachers in North Carolina has just been released by C. Kirabo Jackson at Northwestern University.

His study considers the widespread research that non-cognitive skills like self-control and perseverance have been shown to have as great an impact, if not a greater one, on long-term success than cognitive skills. Given those findings, he looks at how teachers who have generated high and low student test results have done in generating positive student outcomes in those non-cognitive skills (which he measures by “student absences, suspensions, grades, and grade progression”).

Though slogging through academic papers like these often lead me to thoughts of shooting myself, I think this paragraph sums it up and is worth a read:

In sum, the results indicate that a teacher’s effect on test scores and other non-cognitive outcomes are largely orthogonal such that teachers who tend to improve test scores are no more or less likely to improve non-test score outcomes…. It is clear that a teacher’s effect on non-cognitive skills is essentially missed by her effect on test scores.

This implies that roughly half of teachers classified as above average at improving test score will be below average at improving non-cognitive ability and roughly 25 percent of teachers in the top 25 percent of improving test scores will be in the bottom 25 percent at improving non-cognitive ability. Because unexplained variability in outcomes associated with individual teachers is not just noise, but is systematically associated with their ability to improve unmeasured noncognitive skills, classifying teachers based on their test score value-added will likely lead to large shares of excellent teachers being deemed poor and vice versa

…. Another implication is that if teachers must expend less effort improving non-cognitive ability in order to improve cognitive ability, regimes that increase the external rewards for test scores (such as paying teachers for test score performance or test-based accountability) may undermine the creation of students’ non-cognitive skills (Holmstrom & Milgrom, 1991). In light of the large estimated benefits to higher noncognitive skills (particularly for students at the lower end of the earnings distribution) in Table 2, this may be cause for concern.

A cause for concern, indeed….

January 1, 2013
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2012

I put out a request, as I do every year, to readers to share the best education-related books that they had read over the past year. The books could have been published earlier and the only requirement was that you had read them sometime this year.

You might also be interested in these posts from previous years:

The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2011

The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2010

The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2009

The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2008

Thanks to all of you who took the time to contribute. Even if you didn’t, though, you can still share your recommendations in the comments section of this post.

My personal favorite was The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don’t by Nate Silver. It’s full of insights about the possibilities and, more importantly, the limitations of how data can be used. Much of what he writes can be applied to schools, and I’m looking forward to writing a post about it in the future.

Here are The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2012:

Cathy:

DRIVE by Daniel Pink-speaks volumes to non-educators, educators and definitely administrators!

Jim Homan:

“Why School” by Will Richardson. An ebook for sale on Amazon that takes about 90 minutes to read. One of the most important books of this year.

Leigh Ann:

The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller is the best book I’ve read this year. Her voice jumps from the pages and inspires you to do more. Inspires you to give students the unique opportunity to find what types of literature they enjoy. You can feel the warmth and connections that she has made in her classroom. I don’t know how any teacher who reads this book wouldn’t be compelled to make a change. Love it.

Jeffrey Temple:

Stratosphere by Michael Fullen

Jane Bozarth:

Katz, “Designing Information”. My Amazon review: “Three pages in I wanted to stop and write this review but forced myself to read the rest of the book before writing. My opinion was unchanged. “Designing Information” is a delightful, delectable, informative, visually rich, entertaining exploration of the business of making information more accessible…..”

dogtrax:

I’m choosing Why School? by Will Richardson, too. I think Will does a fantastic job of exploring the changing nature of education and offers up suggestions for how teachers and administrators can take steps to meet the changing needs of today’s students (for tomorrow).

Kurt Reynolds:

Don Tapscott’s “Grown Up Digital.” I reference it nearly every day in class. It gives me great hope for this generation. Check out his excellent TED Talk too. Tapscott uses startling examples and backs them up with research. A great counterpoint to a lot of what comes out denigrating this generation (Mark Bauerlein’s “The Dumbest Generation” or Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows” or Jeane Twenge’s “The Narcissist Epidemic”). A must read for every teacher entering the profession.

Jonathan Martin:

Net Smart by Howard Rheingold: Hugely informative and wise on the topic about how the thrive online. My review here.

Robert Ryshke:

Creating the Opportunity to Learn by Wade Boykin and Pedro Noguera. This is one of the best books on what we need to do in America to deal with the huge gap in accessibility to quality education in the US.

The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen was also a wonderful book. It is very interesting to think about how to apply these principles to schools, to help teach our students to be creators or innovators.

Susie Highley:

Fall Down 7 Times, Get up 8: Teaching Kids to Succeed by Debbie Silver. I am so tired of all of the time and effort some educators put into devising elaborate reward systems, which, in my opinion, do little to change behaviors. I reviewed this book for Middle Web. Debbie does a great job of combining current research and practicies in an entertaining manner, filled with many examples. Here’s a link to my review.

Linda Aragoni:

A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives edited by Anderson and Krathwohl moves away from the multiple choice tests that were the focus of the original taxonomy. Since educational objectives are the foundation of the Common Core State Standards, this book is already more influential than the original. The revised taxonomy answers many of the questions teachers raise about how to teach under Common Core.

Bill Sterrett:

I recommend Doug Lemov’s “Teach Like a Champion” book (with accompanying DVD of video teaching clips) as a great illustration of numerous actual teaching tips, strategies, and approaches. Theory is important, but educational leaders need to always prioritize real-life examples, challenges, and solutions.

Carol Gardiner:

21st Century Skills Rethinking How Students Learn edited by James Bellanca & Ron Brandt This book is a culmination of research and expertise written by favorite authors of education. They provide a framework of learning that marries core knowledge and background knowledge with innovation, creative thinking, problem solving and technology.

rhoffman:

“Teach Like A Pirate” by Dave Burgess. The cover tagline reads: “Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator.” This claim holds up! This book will inspire the tenured and new teacher to unleash their passions in the classroom. The book has three parts: 1. The PIRATE (acronym) philosophy and system 2. How to create engaging lessons 3. Final thoughts and guidance. The two things I like most about Dave Burgess’ approach is that he is tells classroom stories I can relate to and I feel challenged by his strategies for creating engaging curriculum.

Matt Renwick:

I have to go with Opening Minds by Peter Johnston. This resource, along with his previous book Choice Words, has helped me change the way I listen and speak with students. Opening Minds is the only book I can think of that I have personally shared with teachers, parents and my wife.

jimlerman:

I really enjoyed “How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character” by Paul Tough. I think Tough argues quite vividly and persuasively that the skills such as “curiosity, self-control, and social fluidity” (ability to get along); skills that today are often called “soft” or “non-cognitive.” The book focuses on the determinants of success or failure among developing children and argues clearly and persuasively, in non-technical plain English, that the current-day educational policy emphasis on cognitive development among young people is seriously off-base. Tough’s book is brief and right on point. I recommend it highly.

Brenda giourmetakis:

Carly’s Voice by Arthur an Carly Fleishmann. While it is not a how to education book, it offers a deep understanding of children with autism who are non verbal. Because I had a student starting at my school with this description, I knew this would give me insights. It has made it’s rounds through my staff and because they have read it, they understand our new little student. They have more compassion and less pity for his situation. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels that autism is a mystery. Carly helps you understand more of the “why’s” behind the actions and reactions of children with autism.

Mary:

I will be using Eleanor Dougherty’s book, “Assignments Matter: Making the connections That Help Students Meet Standards” as a resource for my curriculum class this spring. I believe it is well written and extremely helpful for teachers trying to align standards with assessments.

Ellen Adolph:

Angela Maiers’ Passion Driven Classroom and Habitudes has been very enlightening to my teaching. Another book I’ve recommended to at least 2 dozen folks (parents, neighbors) anyone who is truly interested in education is Tony Wagner’s Global Achievement Gap; it will really get people thinking!

Christian Klaue:

Necessary Endings by Dr. Cloud. Once we find something that works, we don’t just stick with it forever after. We need to keep reevaluating if it is still the best way to go. Carol Dwecks Mindset and Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage are honourable mentions.

Blair Peterson:

As a parent and educator I love Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner. Wagner profiles real life innovators and their parents and the educators who influenced them. I’m seriously thinking about how our school can do a better job of developing innovators.

Jan Hamilton:

What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. An inspiration for all teachers and reminder of the power we wield. The perfect book to read before heading back to school.

principalliz:

Pathways to the Common Core : Accelerated Achievement by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman was a very informative and motivational read in preparation for transitioning my staff into common core. It explains how the new standards will work and creates an easy to follow roadmap that helps a CCSS novice navigate through this new transition and movement.

John Berray:

My top read of 2012 for educators is Dave Burgess’ Teach Like a Pirate. Dave shows teachers how to develop energized lessons, the kind that make his classes among the most popular on campus. Teach Like a Pirate offers specific strategies on how to tap into and cultivate the wellspring of creativity educators already possess! This book is an empowering read, transcends disciplines, and is the type of book I wish had been included in my own teacher preparation program.

Joy Kirr:

Classroom Habitudes by Angela Maiers. Kids need to be told that they are geniuses! They need to keep that spunk and assertiveness well into high school, so they can truly show their geniuses as they mature, instead of being ashamed of what they do. Great lessons embedded, and resources any grade can use.

Rachel Amstutz:

Several of my favorites have already been listed here but I have to lend my support to them as well! Creating Innovators is a fantastic read as it tells an important story by spotlighting students and families. Pathways to the Common Core is also a great tool to support our transition. I’m only half way through it, but it’s impacting my work tremendously.

Other favorite that were not yet listed include:
Best practices, 4th edition as it reflects on what we know works and incorporates the new movements/initiatives thoughtfully.

Blackants and Buddhists for proving a concrete example of teaching perspective, tolerance, openmindedness, evaluating for biases, and for its usefulness as a tool for my equity team.

Jennifer Lawler:

Sensible Mathematics, 2nd Ed. by Steve Leinwand. There aren’t a ton of books written about teaching math, or leading the reform that math education needs in this country. Leinwand hits the nail on the head with this book, laying out exactly why and how math class needs to change if we are to realize the promise of the CCSS. His companion work, Accessible Mathematics, geared more towards classroom teachers, is equally as good.

Suzanne Porath:

I would agree with Matt Renwick on Opening Minds by Peter Johnston. This book has influenced my own work in the classroom and also my understanding of my dissertation work. As Johnston says, words create worlds, and each interaction I have with my students creates a particular type of world. Johnston has helped me become more conscious of what worlds I’m creating and be more intentional with my language. I believe that all teachers should read both Choice Words and Opening Minds several times during their careers as with experience and new circumstances, Johnston’s ideas become more relevant.

Suzanne:

I share a strategy a week with our staff from Doug Lemov’s “Teach Like a Champion; 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College”

Thanks again to everybody who contributed! Feel free to leave additional recommendations in the comments section.

December 30, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

My Best Posts Of The Year — 2012

I’ve recently looked back in the archives of the blog to identify the best posts of each year, and now I’m up to 2012!

The first list in this series, My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume One, focused on the year 2007 and included a fair amount of still-useful material (at least in my opinion).

I’d say the same thing about my review of posts from 2008, which you can find in My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume Two.

Volume Three covered 2009.

Volume Four reviewed 2010.

Volume Five looked at 2011.

And now it’s time for 2012:

I published my fourth book, “The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels,” (co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski). You can see lots of excerpts here.

Here are some of my favorite “The Best…” lists from this year (by the way, the total lists I’ve published reached 1,000 this year):

The Best Sites To Learn About Saul Alinsky

The Best Fun Videos About Books & Reading

The Web 2.0/Social Media Tools I Use Everyday & How I Use Them

The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change

The Best Posts Questioning If Direct Instruction Is “Clearly Superior”

The Best Resources For Teaching “What If?” History Lessons

My Best Posts On Metacognition

The Best Funny Movie/TV Clips Of Bad Teachers

The Best Resources On The Newly-Released California Educator Excellence Task Force Report (I served on the Task Force)

The Best Resources On The Importance Of Knowing What You Don’t Know

A Sampling Of The Best Tweets With The #SaidNoTeacherEver Hashtag

I’ve published quite a few articles in other publications this year. Here are a few of my favorites:

I’ve enjoyed doing my monthly New York Times column on teaching English Language Learners and my weekly teacher advice column in Education Week Teacher.

My article in ASCD Educational Leadership, Eight Things Skilled Teachers Think, Say, and Do, has been the most popular article on their website for months.

Here is a good post on classroom management:

How To Recover From A Classroom Train Wreck….

And one on education policy:

“Sacramento City Teachers Association declines to participate in Race to the Top “

Here are some on instruction:

“Instead of seeing students as Far Below Basic or Advanced, we see them as learners” (Guest post by Lara Hoekstra)

Have You Ever Had A Student Say “This Is Boring”? Here’s A Lesson On It I’m Trying Out Tomorrow

Series Of Good Dan Pink Videos To Use With Students

“What I Cannot Create, I Do Not Understand”

Ducklings Video Demonstrates Great “Differentiated Instruction”

And here are a few miscellaneous ones:

All My Class Blogs

Eight Ways To Build An Audience For Your Blog

Prof. James Heckman Says Adolescence Is Key Time To Teach (& Learn About) Self-Control & Perseverance

“You Cannot Make A Plant Grow — You Can Provide The Conditions For Growth”

How I’m Helping My Students Try To Avoid The “Summer Slide”

Wow! Voice Of America Dramatically Redesigns & Expands Its Learning English Features

Part Two Of “How I’m Helping My Students Try To Avoid The “Summer Slide””

Daniel Pink Answers Two Questions About Group Incentives

Is This The Most Important Research Study Of 2012? Maybe

December 13, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice & Resources To Teachers In 2012 — Part Two

I continue my end-of-year “The Best…” lists…

The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice and resources to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.

For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.

You might also be interested in:

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers In 2012 — Part One

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers In 2011

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009

Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice & Resources To Teachers In 2012– Part Two:

You might find my teacher advice column in Education Week Teacher and my monthly posts at The New York Times Learning Network useful.

The Best Online Tools For Using Photos In Lessons

Our Grading Guidelines

Have You Ever Had A Student Say “This Is Boring”? Here’s A Lesson On It I’m Trying Out Tomorrow

Video Addition To Marshmallow Lesson On Self-Control

“This is Your Brain On Reading”

New Organizational Tool I’m Using This Year: Double – Sided Notebooks

Evaluating Student Athletes

Eight Ways To Build An Audience For Your Blog

What Does A Broken Escalator Have To Do With A Lesson On Personal Responsibility?

“Instead of seeing students as Far Below Basic or Advanced, we see them as learners” (how we assess writing at our school)

The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset”

Follow-Up To My Lesson On “Grit”

What Worked For The Obama Campaign Can Work For Us & Our Students In The Classroom

Kate Kinsella is well-known for her research on helping students learn and use academic vocabulary. The California Department of Education has put a series of her videos and materials on their website.  The videos don’t at all capture her dynamism that you see in person, but downloadable “apply the concepts” materials are worth their weight in gold! And, they’re free.

The Best Ways To Use Interactive White Boards

Using The “Carrots, Eggs & Coffee” Story In Class

The Best Videos To Help Students Visualize Success

My article, Eight Things Skilled Teachers Think, Say, and Do, appeared in ASCD Educational Leadership.

Series Of Good Dan Pink Videos To Use With Students

Guest Post From Rick Wormeli: “Fair Isn’t Always Equal: $5 Bills on the Wall Technique”

There used to be a Bloom’s and Star Wars video on YouTube, but that was taken down awhile ago. I just discovered this other version that was created by “baldmisery” (if you’re reading this on an RSS Reader, you’ll have to click through to see it), which I’m adding to The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom:

I have had quite a few class blogs over the years, and have now updated them on the Blogroll over on my sidebar. Here are the most recent ones (one or two might be a little old, but are still useful examples):

I found this nice and simple Bloom’s Taxonomy Poster on Pinterest via Carla Arena. Teacher Jennifer Jones created it. She seems to have a number of useful materials on her site, so I’d encourage you to check it out. I’ve added this chart to The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom.

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the 1000 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

December 11, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

What Can We Learn From Today’s Most Depressing Piece Of News?

Though it could easily fit the label of “today’s most depressing piece of news,” the title of this post is not referring to the Michigan Governor’s signing of awful “right to work” legislation.

No, it’s referring to a major new report summarized by Sarah Sparks at Education Week in a post titled Students Who Struggle Early Rarely Catch Up, Study Says.

Here’s an excerpt:

ACT found that only 10 percent of students who were far behind their peers in college- and career-readiness benchmarks in reading in 8th grade were able to meet readiness benchmarks in 12th grade. Other subjects were even harder to recoup: only 6 percent of students far behind in science and 3 percent of those far behind in math had caught up by the end of high school. Moreover, they found that only about 1 in 10 students who were “far off track” in reading or math in 4th grade met the on-track benchmarks in 8th grade, suggesting these children’s academic gaps start early and never close.

Granted, the study seems to base all their conclusions on standardized test score results, which are not the best measure of student learning (see The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad) ). Nevertheless, it still doesn’t indicate anything good….

The researchers recommend earlier interventions, but that doesn’t help those of us who teach in challenging secondary school environments now, and it certainly doesn’t help our students today. And I’m not holding my breath on when those “early interventions” might be starting.

It does seem to me that these research results can point to the importance of us helping our students develop the lifelong learner skills of grit, self-control, handling stress and other social-emotional learning skills.

What do you think we can learn from this report?

November 24, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Self-Control Resources

Here are the newest additions to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control:

How having self-control as a kid can affect your health later is from The Globe and Mail.


Labs worldwide report converging evidence that undermines the low-sugar theory of depleted willpower is from BPS Research Digest. I think the headline is a bit misleading, but the info in the article is interesting.

Improving Willpower: How to Keep Self-Control from Flagging is from TIME.

November 12, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

What Worked For The Obama Campaign Can Work For Us & Our Students In The Classroom

The New York Times just published and article detailing how the Obama campaign convened a group of social scientists to help them apply their research to campaign tactics (see Academic ‘Dream Team’ Helped Obama’s Effort).

I’ve written in this blog, in my Helping Students Motivate Themselves book, and in its upcoming sequel, how to apply some of the same research to the classroom.

Here are a couple of examples…..

Obama volunteers also asked people if they had a plan to vote and if not, to make one, specifying a time, according to Stephen Shaw, a retired cancer researcher who knocked on doors in Nevada and Virginia in the days before the election. “One thing we’d say is that we know that when people have a plan, voting goes more smoothly,” he said.

Recent research has shown that making even a simple plan increases the likelihood that a person will follow through, Dr. Rogers, of Harvard, said.

In my lessons on self-control and on grit, students develop alternative plans — “If I feel like throwing a paper wad and Johnny, I’ll instead remember the time he helped me with my homework.”

Another technique some volunteers said they used was to inform supporters that others in their neighborhood were planning to vote. Again, recent research shows that this kind of message is much more likely to prompt people to vote than traditional campaign literature that emphasizes the negative — that many neighbors did not vote and thus lost an opportunity to make a difference.

This kind of approach trades on a human instinct to conform to social norms, psychologists say. In another well-known experiment, Dr. Cialdini and two colleagues tested how effective different messages were in getting hotel guests to reuse towels. The message “the majority of guests reuse their towels” prompted a 29 percent increase in reuse, compared with the usual message about helping the environment. The message “the majority of guests in this room reuse their towels” resulted in a 41 percent increase, he said.

One way I’ve applied this research is by putting a color label on the books in my classroom library that have been most popular over the years, and keeping the very most popular ones in a box behind my desk. Being able to truthfully tell my students that these have been popular in the past definitely makes them more interested in reading them.

Check out The Times’ article and leave a comment about if you have used the techniques it discusses in your classroom…

November 12, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Marshmallows & Trust

I’ve written a lot about self-control and the famous Marshmallow Experiment, and how I use it in the classroom.

An intriguing study was recently published that brings an additional perspective to the experiment. In this new research, researchers first divided the children into two groups to perform an art-related task prior to marshmallow experiment. Both groups were told that the researcher would return with better supplies, but in one group the researchers did not deliver on their promise. Afterwards, all the children took the marshmallow test and the ones that had been in the group where the researchers had followed-through waited far longer than the other children.

In other words, children who had a previous history of adults delivering on their promises performed better in the marshmallow test. Researchers suggest, then, that it might not be only an issue of self-control. Being in a stable — or unstable — environment could also influence the outcome.

I don’t necessarily think this new experiment affects how I use the Marshmallow Experiment in my classroom (though I’m open to hearing ways that it should). But it does seem to me to re-emphasize the importance of maintaining a relationship of trust in the classroom. It doesn’t negate the value of self-control. But, as an article in the Smithsonian says:

parents [and teachers] of kids who appear to lack self control might want to look more closely at why they would eat the marshmallow–is it because they can’t wait or because they can’t trust that the next marshmallow will appear?

Here are some articles on the new study:

The Marshmallow Study revisited

The marshmallow test, revisited is from The Washington Post.

The Marshmallow Test Gets More Complicated is from The Smithsonian.

Marshmallow-ology: Why Wait, When the Better Treat Might Never Arrive? is from TIME.

To Predict Success in Children, Look Beyond Willpower is from Scientific American.

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control and to The Best Posts About Trust & Education.

October 22, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

Have You Ever Had A Student Say “This Is Boring”? Here’s A Lesson On It I’m Trying Out Tomorrow

Tomorrow, I’m doing a lesson on the importance of “grit” and a “growth mindset” (I have the full lesson plan in my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves, and additional resources at The Best Resources For Learning About The Importance Of “Grit” and at The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset” ).

One of the elements of the lesson plan has us reviewing the difference between a “fixed” and a “growth” mindset, and then students explore some of the challenges they face and how they might deal with them from a “growth mindset” perspective.

Before they start making their list, I’m going to share this short read aloud on boredom I’ve written based on several research studies that have come out over the past few days. I don’t know about you, but I periodically have a students shout-out “This is boring!” during a lesson (which is followed by this conversation: Me: Is it okay for you to think that? Student: Yes; Me: Is it okay for you to say that to your friends between classes? Student: Yes; Me: Is it okay for you to tell me that privately and respectfully? Student: Yes; Is it okay for you to shout it out in class? Student: No). I thought this Read Aloud might be useful.

I’m publishing it within this blog post, and you can also download it here.  Let me know if you have ideas on how I can improve it!

 

“This is Boring!”

We have all experienced times as a student when we have felt bored.  Sometimes, it’s because a teacher hasn’t done a very good job of preparing a lesson or teaching it.  Teachers can get make mistakes or get lazy.

Sometimes, though, there are other reasons why students can get bored.

Studies have shown that stress students might be feeling about their lives outside the classroom can make them more likely to feel bored by school.

Researchers have also found that we generally find the first time we do something or even hear something (a song, for example), we tend to find it pretty interesting.  However, as time goes on, and we do the same thing (or hear the same thing) often, it’s easy to get bored by it.

They call it “satiation.”

Scientists suggest that, in addition to teachers working hard at creating and teaching more interesting lessons, students can also take responsibility for slowing their “rate of satiation.”

They suggest that students can acknowledge their negative feelings as they start to get bored (though they don’t necessarily have to say it out loud in class :)   ).  At the same time, they can try to focus on positive learning opportunities.

Researchers had people listen to a boring piece of music.  Participants who learned the importance of distinguishing details of the music, and how to look for them, enjoyed the music much more than others.

In other words, when they started feeling bored by just the “surface” of what they were listening to, they were able to become more interested in it by looking at it in a deeper level.

In our class, for example, if you started feeling bored by doing one of our projects, you could remember that learning makes your brain grow stronger, or about how focusing can help you develop more self-control, or how you are strengthening your “grit.”

None of this research means that it’s not the teacher’s responsibility to create a positive learning environment.  However, the next time students begin to feel bored, they might want to take a moment to consider what they could do about it, too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-markman-phd/boredom_b_2000662.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/10/10/07boredom_ep.h32.html

By Larry Ferlazzo, http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

October 14, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

“Don’t Eat The Marshmallow, Mr. Ferlazzo”

I did my self-control lesson two weeks ago (a summary is here and the complete lesson is in my book).

On Friday, I showed impatience with one of my students. Another student then called me over and said, in a respectful tone, “Don’t eat the marshmallow, Mr. Ferlazzo.”

I thanked him, and then went over to apologize to the student with whom I had been short.

It’s always a positive sign when students feel that they can critique the teacher….