Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 168: Teaching Beyond the Bell Curve: Helene Alalouf on the Learner Variability Navigator

Transcript

Ep 168: Teaching Beyond the Bell Curve: Helene Alalouf on the Learner Variability Navigator · New Teacher Talk

Hi, my name is Helene Alalouf.
I am an instructional coach with 32 years classroom
experience and I am a professor at Touro University
Undergraduate Education in New York City.
Today,
I'm going to talk about the Learner Variability Navigator,
a free open source tool from Digital Promise based on the
whole learner framework with evidence-based strategies to
meet state learning standards.
With all of life's personal and professional demands and
the wealth of resources available from colleagues and the
worldwide internet,
it is challenging to know which strategies to implement to
optimize learning for all of our students.
Whatever grade and subject you teach,
you will leave today knowing where to find the high
-leverage strategies so your planning and instruction will
address your students' learning needs with strategic
integration for your articulated standards.
I wish I had had this tool when I was a classroom teacher
because I made a terrible mistake that I would like to
share with you.
I was called into the principal's office because many of my
student's report card grades were below the school's
student performance targeted goal.
The principal asked me how I was teaching.
Coming prepared to the meeting with data,
I proudly displayed the bell curve performance which showed
most of my students in the middle with some students at the
low end and a few at the high end.
He inquired with dismay.
Helene,
why would you accept poor performance and mediocre students
in the middle?
I felt as if he had splashed cold water in my face.
I was so embarrassed.
I was operating on a misperception that if I teach to the
middle, I am an effective teacher.
As Shelly Moore states in her YouTube video,
Transforming Inclusive Education,
how is bowling like teaching?
If we aim for the center bowling pins,
we will leave pins in a challenging 7-10 split.
There is no average learner,
so aiming for the center will always leave students
behind.
On the other hand,
throwing the ball with an intentional curve will reach all.
Two caveats.
I am not suggesting you need 30 individual differentiated
lesson plans,
nor am I promoting learning styles as there is no research
supporting either.
What is supported is data-informed design of your four
classroom elements.
The classroom environment,
including flexible student grouping and social-emotional
development,
your multimodal presentation with students' access to grade
-level content,
the very rich standards-based learning experiences to
process the learning cognitively,
and multiple opportunities of products to show what they
know in their progression towards standards mastery.
Had I known then what I know now,
what works best instructionally for marginalized and
striving students will work for all.
After that incident,
I met with my colleagues to share their best practices and
I pioneered and attained national board certification.
My teaching team unpacked the articulated standards to
identify what students need to know and be able to do
towards mastery.
Then we looked for research-evident practices and
strategies to support their social-emotional and cognitive
growth towards those standards.
Do you know your students?
Do you know your standards?
Are you ready to plan instruction?
Then the learner variability navigator is your framework.
But before I share the steps for how to use the LVN,
I would like to first tell you about the strategies it
presents and secondly,
to describe the learner factors critical to learning
outcomes.
First, for each of the 100-plus strategies in this tool,
you will have a descriptive overview,
classroom video with tips and examples of implementing the
strategy, ed tech example,
and related strategies and factors.
You can even create a personal workspace to save the
strategies you select for easy reference when planning your
instruction.
You can explore other educators' workspaces by searching
for digital promise signature workspaces to see examples
such as supporting SEL,
students with disabilities or unit planning.
So you're probably thinking to ask me, Colleen,
how do I know which of the strategies I should select?
indulge me with a two-fold answer.
After that pivotal conversation with my principal,
I attended a professional development on Marzano's nine
instructional strategies for effective teaching and
learning.
Keeping in mind the mantra of small steps to success,
I chose only two for the year,
for implementation with fidelity and consistency.
Strategy number two,
summarizing and note-taking with graphic organizers and
foldables modeled and think aloud and guided practice with
feedback in the moment of how to use the notes and graphic
organizers in their assessments.
Strategy number six,
cooperative learning with discussion protocols and project
-based learning or problem-based learning.
My students excelled on state standards-based tests,
but more importantly,
they grew in confidence and transferable skills and
knowledge.
They even came back as high schoolers to say how they were
using their notes to comprehend and excel.
So that is how I chose the strategies.
Today,
thanks to cognitive science and the science of learning,
we know your selection depends on the social cognitive and
content factors you identify that are embedded in the
standards you have articulated for the lesson or unit and
those factors beyond academics in your class profile.
The learning variability navigator has identified those
strategies aligned to those factors and has categorized
those factors in four domains.
One, student background, two, social-emotional learning,
three, cognition, and lastly, four,
your content of either literacy or mathematics or what's
called portrait of a learner by grade band.
As I describe the details,
please think of your own class and the standards.
For example,
what factors would my students need to become proficient in
in a math unit on ratios and proportions, or in general,
solving word problems, or in reading, writing,
and debating arguments,
or working collaboratively on an interdisciplinary project
or literature circle.
I will pause briefly after each one so you can jot down one
to two factors in each domain via future exploration.
The first factor domain is, no surprise here,
the characteristics of the students themselves.
Which of these are challenges for your students?
Student background includes adverse experiences,
hearing or vision challenges, physical wellbeing, language,
safety, sleep, social supports, and socioeconomic status.
The second domain is social-emotional learning.
Which of the following is a challenge or a requirement?
SEL factors include emotion, mindset, motivation,
the CASEL-5 competencies including self-regulation,
sense of belonging, social awareness,
and relationship skills, and stereotype threat.
What skills do your students need for your selected
standard,
and what challenges may some have in the third pillar of
cognition?
In the cognitive domain, factors are attention,
auditory and visual processing, and speed of processing,
long-term and working memory, metacognition,
cognitive flexibility, and reasoning.
With a particular standard in mind,
let's look at the final fourth domain,
which is content-based, either literacy or mathematics.
In the literacy model, we have argumentative reasoning,
background knowledge, critical and disciplinary literacy,
inferencing, fluency, syntax, and vocabulary.
In the mathematics model, we have algebraic thinking,
geometric reasoning, math communication,
mathematical flexibility, measurement, operations,
proportional reasoning, and statistical reasoning.
What did you jot down as the learning need or needs?
With this knowledge of students and standards,
you are ready to apply the learner variability navigator
framework for the factors and strategies essential for your
articulated standard and your class profile.
Here are the steps for using the LVN.
Step one, visit LVP, digitalpromiseglobal.org,
and register for a free learner variability project
account.
With any email address,
you do not need to be associated with a school to have an
account.
Step two,
create a workspace by selecting make a new workspace and
title it for your standard or unit.
Step three,
select a learner model in either literacy or mathematics
with a grade band or select portrait of a learner in either
PK3, grade 4-8 or grade 9-12.
Step four,
peruse the factor map for those affecting your class
profile and for the expectations in your standards.
Visit the factor summary pages where you may select the
evidence-based strategies.
Or for a faster approach, use the strategies tab first,
check the factors relating to your standard or unit or
class profile and the strategies that are appropriate would
be available for you to select.
Step five, peruse the selected strategies,
both the description and classroom video and click the plus
sign to add them to your workspace so that you have quick
reference when planning your next cycle of instruction.
Step six,
in your workspace you will see the factors and the
strategies you filtered as well as related ones.
You can view the details, add notes or access more.
You can even add collaborators so your team can be
successful.
What's next?
Small steps.
As you start your implementation as I did with Marzano,
select a few factors in each domain, a few strategies,
share your implementation reflectively.
As the LVN teacher guide states, quote,
one of the most powerful aspects of the LVN is the ability
for educators to select strategies that intentionally
address certain factors, end quote.
In conclusion, let's reflect.
Was learner variability a new concept for you?
Have you identified the factors that your standards require
across all four domains?
Have you identified the factors of your class profile?
How do you think the learner model framework in the LVN
will support your efficacy?
Colleagues,
thank you so much for your time today and for investing in
your professional growth by exploring the whole learner
model framework presented by the learner variability
navigator.
Your students and colleagues will thank you also.
Thanks for spending some time with us on New Teacher Talk.
Connect with us on social media.
We love sharing more goodies there.
You can find us @NewTeacherTalk on Instagram and Blue Sky
for our Tuesday Teacher Resource and Thursday Thought.
If this episode hit the spot,
smash that follow button and pass it along to your teacher
friends.
We're always here cheering you on.