WELCOME
Transformative Learning:
Answering the Essential Questions
Michael VanHook, M. Ed.
MSV Educational Network
Learning Revolution
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be
those who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. —
Alvin Toffler
Questions that Haunt Me
1. Are my students learning?
2. Are they acquiring the skills and knowledge
necessary to advance?
3. How do I know that they are learning?
Commonplace Default Keys
• Administer a test
• Assign additional
homework
• Assume it’s been
taught, it’s been
caught
Pressure
Teaching to the Test
What do they tell us?
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Today, I can begin to answer the essential questions and
transform my students’ learning by:
1. Applying and implementing strategies to
become a purposeful teacher.
2. Applying and implementing strategies to
become a responsive teacher.
Transformative Learning
BECOME A
PURPOSEFUL TEACHER
What’s observations can you
make about these learning
objectives?
• To talk about TV and music.
• To practice present and past
verbs.
• To read a short text about a
famous person.
• To watch a video.
• To listen to a song and fill in
the blanks.
• To review and practice the
perfect tenses.
• To write a movie review.
Any Road
And if you don't
know where you're
going,
Any road will take
you there.
George Harrison,
Any Road
Three Strategies to Become a
Highly Effective Teacher
Highly effective teachers:
1. Teach with purpose, focus, and
intentionality. They do more than “cover”
information and standards. . . . they
challenge thinking and create a culture
where lifelong learning and success for all
students is the goal.
Three Strategies to Become a
Highly Effective Teacher
2. Construct and ask more engaging questions.
3. Move students away from self-centered
learning to idea-centered learning and
create a more collaborative learning
environment. Self-centered learning basically
tells students to solve or answer a question
and then check for correctness. Idea-centered
learning requires students to look deeper into
their responses and the response of their
peers.
Jeff Marshall, The Highly Effective Teacher
A PURPOSEFUL TEACHER
PERSON
PROFICIENC
PROCESS
Become a Purposeful Teacher
1. PERSON:
BECOME LEARNER-CENTERED
A Human Business
Education has to be recognized as a human
business. It’s a personal process. We’re dealing
with living human beings in the middle of all of
this. They’re not statistics or data points. They’re
not data sets from a test schedule. These are living
people with feelings and aspirations and hopes
and ambitions and fears and talents, like you and
me and everybody else. As soon as you recognize
that education is not a processing plant, it’s about
people, then the whole equation starts to shift
around. My argument, really, is that we should be
personalizing education, not standardizing it.
—Sir Ken Robinson
Informal Pre-Assessments
How well do you know each
of your students?










Their motivations
Their dreams
Their experiences
Their training
Their present levels of
proficiencies
Their learning styles
Their availability
Their strengths
Their limitations
Their fears
Formal Pre-Assessments
 Curriculum
Placements
Examinations
 Student
SelfEvaluations
Formal Pre-Assessments
Formal Pre-Assessments
Become a Purposeful Teacher
2. PROFICIENCY:
BECOME FOCUSED
Purpose
The first component. . . involves an established
purpose, objective, or learning target. When
students understand the goal of the instruction, they
are more likely to focus on the learning tasks at hand.
When the goal “is clear, when high commitment is
secured for it, and when belief in eventual success is
high,” student effort is amplified and achievement
increases. Having a purpose isn't new, but it is critical
to the implementation of a formative assessment
system because when teachers have a clear purpose,
they can align their checking for understanding
strategies with their intended outcomes.
(Kluger & DeNisi, 1996, p. 260).
FIVE AREAS OF PROFICIENCY
LISTENING
WRITING
SPOKEN
PRODUCTIO
READING
SPOKEN
INTERACTIO
A-B-C-D’s
 Audience
 Behavior
 Conditions
 Degree
After watching a 5 minute
informational video (C), the
intermediate language
student (A) will be able to
interpret the main idea of
the speaker and support
their position with 5 key
words or phrases (B) (D).
Becoming a Purposeful Teacher
3. PROCESS:
MOVE TO A HIGHER LEVEL
Rote Memory & Recitation
Deeper Levels of Learning
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Using Depth of Learning
Student Presentations
Transformative Learning
BECOME A
RESPONSIVE TEACHER
What Are Formative
Assessments?
A process used by
teachers and students
during instruction that
provides feedback to
adjust ongoing
teaching and learning
to improve students'
achievement of
intended instructional
outcomes.
State Collaborative on Assessment and Student
Standards/Formative Assessment for Students and
Teachers (FAST SCASS, 2006)
What Are Formative
Assessments?
1. Process- ongoing, not
a test
2. Use- teachers &
students
3. Occurrence- during
instruction
4. Feedbackassessment- based
5. Adjustments:
•
•
Teachers adjust their
ongoing instructional
procedures
Students adjust their
current learning tactics
Feedback
Monitors student learning to
provide ongoing feedback to
be used:
1. By teachers to
improve
instruction
2. By students to
improve learning
Identifies:
1. Conceptsstudents are
struggling to
understand
2. Skills- students
are having
difficulty acquiring
3. Learning
standards- not yet
achieved
Adjustments can be made to
lessons, instructional
techniques, and academic
support
Benefits for Students
1. Self-identify- aware
of their strengths
and weaknesses and
helps them to target
areas that need
work
2. Encouragementbuilds on their
strengths rather
than fixating on
their deficits
3. Learning processfocuses on acquiring
the knowledge and
skills rather than on
grades
Benefits for Teachers
1. Recognition- know
where students are
struggling and
address problems
immediately
2. Refocus- on the
learning process
and its intrinsic
value, rather than
on grades or
extrinsic rewards
A RESPONSIVE TEACHER
ASSESS
ADJUST
IMPLEMEN
ANALYZE
IDENTIFY
Guidelines
1.
2.
3.
4.
Engage students
Provide feedback
Guided instruction
Differentiate the
instruction
5. Modify instruction
Become a Responsive Teacher
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
STRATEGIES
Formative Assessment Strategies
1. INTENTIONAL
QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
“You can tell whether a man is clever by his
answers.
You can tell whether a man is wise by his
questions.”
Formative Assessment Strategies
Questions
About Questions
Formative Assessment Strategies
The Strategy
• Posed during the
learning process to
determine what
specific concepts or
skills students are
having trouble with.
• Strategic questions
deepen learning, build
a growth mindset, and
help students become
more aware of their
own thinking
processes.
Formative Assessment Strategies
1. Intentional
Questioning Strategies
Lower-order
questions
vs.
Higher-order
questions
Formative Assessment Strategies
Applications
1. Use all cognitive
levels
•
•
Lowestremembering
Highestunderstanding,
applying, analyzing,
evaluating, and
creating?
2. Use questions to
empower learners
•
Critical thinking,
creativity,
collaboration
Formative Assessment Strategies
Applications
3. Use questions that
encourage
reflection
•
Transferring knowledge
to new situations
4. Use sequences
• Questions about basic
facts that require
recognition and
recollection
• Descriptions and
comparisons
• Challenge to justify
responses and positions
• Predictions and
explanations of cause
Formative Assessment Strategies
2. KEEP THE QUESTION
GOING
• Ask one student a
question
• Then, ask another
student if that answer
seems reasonable or
correct.
• Then, he or she asks a
third student for an
explanation of why
there is an agreement
or not.
3. EXIT / ADMISSION SLIPS
• Collect student
responses to questions
at the end or beginning
of a lesson or class
period.
• Based on the
responses, modify the
next lesson to address
concepts that students
have failed to
comprehend or skills
they may be struggling
with.
Daily Exit Slip
Today:
I learned . . .
I have questions about . . .
I need help with . . .
The teacher(s) . . .
Formative Assessment Strategies
4. VENN DIAGRAMS
a
c
b
• Comparisons and
contrasts
• Likes and dislikes
• Similarities and
differences
• Relationships
Formative Assessment Strategies
5. SELF-ASSESSMENTS
Ask students to think
about their own learning
process, to reflect on
what they do well or
struggle with, and to
articulate what they have
learned or still need to
learn to meet course
expectations or learning
standards.
Formative Assessment Strategies
6. PEER ASSESSMENTS
• Allow students to
use one another
as learning
resources.
• Peer correction
Connections
THEORY
• Essential Questions
• Evidence-Based Research
• Assessment Strategies
PRACTICE
• Classroom Environment
• Curriculum Application
• Teaching Style
Resources
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Educational Reform
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/117001/chapters/Needs-Assessment@-What-Do-You-NeedMost%C2%A2.aspx
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/05/20/qa-with-sir-ken-robinson.html?cmp=ENL-EU-MOSTPOP
http://inservice.ascd.org/three-strategies-to-become-a-highly-effective-teacher/
http://smartbrief.com/original/2016/07/students-evaluators-inquiry-based-classrooms?utm_source=brief
http://smartbrief.com/original/2016/07/students-evaluators-inquiry-based-classrooms?utm_source=brief
Formative Assessments:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108018/chapters/Formative-Assessment@-Why,-What,-and-Whether.aspx
Bullmaster-Day, Marcella L. Strategies for Dynamic Formative Assessment with Digital Tools. White Paper: Waggle
http://edglossary.org/formative-assessment/
http://www.marzanoresearch.com/resources/tips/fasbg_tips_archive
https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/22-easy-formative-assessment-techniques-for-measuring-student-learning/
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-we-use-them
Learning Objectives
http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2014/02/incorporating-blooms-taxonomy-into-your-lesson-objectives/
Questioning
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/115012/chapters/[email protected]
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept15/vol73/num01/Five-Strategies-for-Questioningwith-Intention.aspx
http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/energy-and-the-polar-environment/questioning-techniques-researchbased-strategies-for-teachers