Best Practices in
Education
Dr. Timothy L. Heaton
Professor of Education
Cedarville University
[email protected]
Entrance Slip
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1. Fill out a note card with your name,
your school, your grade/subject level.
2. Make sure you are registered for this
session or get registered immediately
afterwards. You must attend all sessions
to get C.E.U.credit.
3. When you see Dr.Heaton raise his
hand, this is the quiet signal, you raise
your hand to show you are ready to listen.
Groups
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1. Find others with your same color card
and form a group( no less than 3, no more
than 5)
2. As soon as you form your group, move
to an area of the room where you can sit
and discuss information and work together
and yet see the projection screen.
Introduce yourself to one another.
Assignment #1:What did you
learn in school?
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Jot down a few things that you learned in school
other than academics as a child. ( i.e. kids can
be cruel)
Jot down a few things that you’ve learned about
school since you’ve been a teacher about the
“system”. ( lesson plans are a pain)
You will have 2 minutes to do this.
Turn to a neighbor or neighbors and share your
items you learned. You’ll have 2 minutes to do
this.
Share some significant items which your
neighbor mentioned.
Best Practices in Education
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1. Psychologically Safe Environment
2. Academically Challenging Curriculum with
High Interest Level
3. Collaboration between student and teacher,
student and student, teacher and home
4. Understanding the Learner and the Learning
Process ( Intelligences, Learning Styles, Brainresearch)
5. Time On Task and Classroom Management
and Discipline.
6. Authentic and Alternative Assessments
Schools are NOT the best places to
learn
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1. Research says that 1 in 20 students are school-aphobic.
2. Research shows that 1-10 teachers are not
competent in the subject they teach.
3. Research shows that most teachers main problems in
the classroom is classroom management and discipline.
4. Research shows that bullying occurs in every grade
and in every school, especially in lunchrooms, restrooms,
playgrounds and on the way to and from school.(
including busses).
5. Research shows that over half of students do not
sense their teacher cares about them as a person.
How to Make Your classroom “
Safe”
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1. Create a warm, nurturing environment.
2. Have students take ownership of their
classroom including the class rules, class
orderliness, and class reputation. Give them
responsibility and teach them how to be
responsible.
3. Greet the student and know their name and
their individual interests outside of class.
4. Know their learning modality and their
emotion and intelligence.
Safe Classrooms
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Student and Teacher Bulletin Boards
About family, hobbies, grade cards, awards, etc.
Never lose control…never cry in front of your
class, never scream at your class or show you
are irritated. Be cool, calm and focused.
Always keep children in your sight. Playground
and Lunchroom. Listen to what they say
happens on the school bus and follow up on it.
Safe Classrooms
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Build rapport with your class, be friendly,
but not their friend.
Have a uniform discipline system( more
later) and let them know what they do
and say is important.
Go to games, concerts, special events,
and know your students ( Miss K).
Positive Phone calls and home visits.
Academically Challenging and High
Interest Curriculum
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1. Know your State Standards and hold yourself
to a higher level than this.
2. Know your School’s mission and make sure
you are modeling that mission and disciplining
the students towards that mission outcome.
3. The Textbook is only the beginning of the
curriculum. Most teachers worry about
“covering” it, when they need to know how to
uncover the information so the students will
remember.
Academically Challenging and High
Interest Curriculum
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Know what is going on in your student’s world
and teach to those high interest topic areas
using your set standards and objectives.
Teach Thinking Skills, Problem Solving and
Concepts, not facts in isolation.
(The Bee Hive- neighborhoods)
Use cooperative learning groups, projects,
learning centers, hands on learning, and multisensory teaching methods.
Academically Challenging and High
Interest Curriculum
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Teach Using Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Research shows most schools only get to
perhaps the Comprehension level at the
highest and usually are only at the Factual
Regurgitation level in most courses.
What about Analysis, Synthesis,
Evaluation levels?
Curriculum in Bloom
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Factual Recall: ( Finding out)
Locate, demonstrate, recognize, discover,
restate, identify, inquire, match, translate,
illustrate
Application: ( Making Use of Known)
Model, apply, organize, construct, collect,
experiment, choose, sketch, solve, paint, draw,
generalize
Analysis: (Taking Apart the Known)
Categorize, take apart,, analyze, dissect,
diagram, separate, classify, compare, contrast,
describe
Curriculum in Bloom #2
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Synthesis: ( Putting together the new)
Add to, create, imagine, combine, plan,
modify, suppose, predict, hypothesize,
design, what if…, invent, infer, explain,
improve, compose, originate
Evaluation:( Judging the Outcome)
Justify, debate, solve, recommend, judge,
criticize, consider, weigh, appraise
Know How to Plan for Success
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Ask:
1.What do I want my students to know when they are
finished with this lesson? ( Backwards design beginning
with your end assessment designed from your
goal/objective)
2.How does this lesson connect to other lessons or
information they have already learned?
3. Which is the best teaching strategy for me to
accomplish that task? ( remember if you are bored…they
are more bored).
4. How can I tell whether they learned the material well
or not? Authentic Assessment
5. What biblical truth is taught in this lesson? ( If you
can’t find one…then don’t teach it) All truth is God’s
truth. Search the Scriptures Daily.
Let’s Talk About….
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Take a minute and think about the value of the
following items and at what level the students
are learning re: Bloom’s taxonomy…be able to
give rationale as to why we need to use these.
Worksheets and Workbooks
Textbooks
Homework
6 hrs of class and 3 months off in the summer
Academically Challenging and High
Interest Curriculum
The Research in Education shows:
 Workbooks and Worksheets
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that either of these are effective teaching
items….but they do keep the students busy)
 Textbooks ( It takes the average textbook 2
years from beginning to end, so a textbook with
a copyright of 2008 was begun in 2006 and
contains information from 2006. Research
shows teachers are overly dependent on
textbooks, and rarely no more than it.
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Academically Challenging and High
Interest Curriculum
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Homework: In Elementary school ( K-8), research
shows it has it has little value.
There are also too many variables in individual homes
and too many “helicopter parents” who do the student’s
work.
Homework at Middle and High School should be
meaningful and not beyond 1 hr a night total.
Homework needs to be monitored by teacher to see
what student knows, not what the parent did.
Research beyond the classroom is best done on the
internet or sites of high student interest. Create a Blog
or Web site for different subjects, let the students
discuss and evaluate items online.
Collaboration
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Cooperative Learning and Collaborative Learning
are all the “catch phrases” in Education today.
In some settings it is called Team Building.
Cooperative is not Group work. Cooperative
Learning is a series of defined teaching
strategies that a group uses to reach a goal or
accomplish a task. Roles are given, time is
limited, accountability is expected using record
sheets, note-card participation during processing
time, and evaluation of the task and group
members is done with reflection for
improvement next time.
Cooperative Learning Strategies
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Turn to a Neighbor ( Rather than call on a
student cold)
Pair-share, Numbered heads ( share ideas and
discuss at their level)
Jigsaw Method ( accomplish a lot in a small
amount of time dividing up a larger assignment
and then becoming an expert on the smaller
assignment to share with rest the group
Pair Reading ( Never do Round Robin Reading)
Inside-Outside Circle ( all students on task and
engaged)
Inside/Outside Circle Demo
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½ class on inside circle face outward
½ class on outside circle face inward
Inside circle stays stationary
Outside circle rotates clockwise
Share information with inside/outside
partner, rotate around sharing same info.
How to use teaching content in
classroom?
Collaboration/ Learning
Communities
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Teacher Collaboration: Teachers work together
to establish goals, creative learning strategies,
extend their learning with one another and find
ways to reach students through brainstorming
many ideas on how to teach a subject or a topic.
School-Home Collaboration: School and Home
work together to find best ways to teach
children, learn about family life, expectations,
learning styles, discipline…valuable insights are
gained regarding the child’s background
knowledge and abilities. Home visits.
Collaboration
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School and Community collaboration
Tutorial programs
Gym programs and Exercise programs
Cooking classes
Teaching English as a second language
(Example: Japan Church in reaching the lost)
The Christian school needs to open it’s door to
the community and build relationships.
Understanding the Learner
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Many of our programs are built around a child’s score on
an achievement test or an I.Q. score…all of which
research show as unreliable data and which can change
if adjustments in environment are made.
We need to learn more about:
Multiple Intelligences
Brain-Compatible Classrooms
Multi-sensory Learning
Building Schemata on Prior Knowledge
Emotional Intelligence
Spiritual Gifts ( Katie and Don Fortune)
Setting the Stage for Learning
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Regardless of what type of learners you have in
your classroom, there are essential researched
based procedures which you need:
1. Establish your expectations!
a. Quiet Signal
b. Rules for Behavior ( 3-5)
c. Routines and Procedures
d. Who you are as a person (Personal
Questions)
Understanding the Learner
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Learning Modalities: Visual, Auditory,
Tactile-Kinesthetic
Learning Styles: Temperature needs,
Noise Needs( Music/Talking), Space
needs, People/Social needs, Lighting
needs, Visual/Color needs, Movement
needs, Food needs, Environmental needs.
Intelligence type/ Right/Left Brained
Distractions and Helps
Find out a child’s modality first
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Modes of Learning I John 1:1
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Swassing-Barbe Modality Kit
Zaner-Bloser Company
Columbus, Ohio $219.00
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
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Dr. Howard Gardner, developed and introduced this theory in his
book: Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, in 1983.
In 1993, he published the companion volume: Multiple Intelligences:
The Theory in Practice.
Logical-Mathematical
Linguistic
Spatial
Musical
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Intra personal
Naturalist
Spiritual
Important Things to Remember
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Each person possesses all intelligences, but to different
degrees.
Most people can develop each to an adequate level of
competency
There are many ways to be intelligent in each category
Learning styles can be seen as the intelligences are put
to work.
Traditional assessments demonstrate successful
memorization, not comprehension
Students always enjoy doing something at which they
succeed.
Logical-Mathematical
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The ability to handle long chains of reasoning and to recognize
patterns and order in the world.
Scientist, Mathematician
I easy compute math problems in my head,
Math and Science were my favorite subjects in school.
I enjoy playing games or solving brainteasers that require logical
thinking.
My mind searches for patterns, regularities, or logical sequences of
things.
I sometimes think in clear, abstract, wordless, imageless concepts.
I feel more comfortable when something has been measured,
categorized, analyzed, or quantified in some way.
Linguistic Intelligence
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Sensitivity to the meaning and order of words and the
varied uses of language. Poet, Journalist
Books are very important to me, I can hear words in my
heard before I read, speak or write them down, I get
more out of listening to the reader or spoken word than
I do from TV or video.
English, Social Studies and History are easier for me
than Math or Science.
I show an aptitude for word games like Scrabble,
Anagrams, or Password.
I enjoy entertaining myself or others with tongue
twisters, nonsense rhymes, or puns.
Musical Intelligence
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Sensitivity to pitch, melody & tone, a Composer, violinist.
I have a pleasant singing voice
I can tell when a musical note is off-key
I sometimes catch myself walking down the street with a
television jingle or other tune running through my mind.
I now the tunes to many different songs or musical
pieces
If I hear a selection once or twice, I am usually able to
sing it back fairly accurately
I often make tapping sounds or sing little melodies while
working, studying or learning something new.
Spatial Intelligence
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The ability to perceive the visual world accurately, and to re-create,
transform, or modify aspects of the world on the basis of one’s
perceptions. Sculptor, navigator.
I often see clear visual images when I close my eyes
I frequently use a camera or camcorder to record what I see around
me
I enjoy puzzles, mazes and other visual puzzles
I have vivid dreams at night
I like to draw or doodle
I love to read maps or study schematics/ floor plans
I can comfortably imagine how something might appear if it were
looked at from a bird’s eye view.
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
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A fine-tuned ability to use the body and to handle
objects. Dancer, Actor, Mime, or Athlete
I engage myself in at least one sport /physical activity
regularly. I like working with my hands at concrete
activities such as sewing, weaving, carving, carpentry, or
model building
I often like to spend free time outdoors doing something
active.
I frequently use hand gestures or other forms of body
language when conversing with someone.
I need to touch things to learn about them
I am fairly well-coordinated.
Interpersonal Intelligence
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An understanding of interpersonal relations and the
ability to make distinctions among others. Therapist,
Salesperson.
I am the sort of person that people come to for advice
and counsel.
When I have a problem, I am more likely to seek out
people to help than attempt to work it out on my own.
I have at least 3 close friends
I enjoy the challenge of teaching another person, or
groups what I know how to do.
I consider myself a leader and am involved in social
activities.
Intrapersonal Intelligence
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Access to one’s own “feeling life” A self-aware, reflective
individual.
I regularly spend time alone reflecting about important
questions.
I would prefer to spend a weekend alone in a cabin in the
woods rather than a fancy resort with lots of people
around.
I keep a personal diary/journal to record events in my
inner life.
I have opinions that set me apart from the crowd
I consider myself strong-willed or independent
I march to the beat of a different drummer
Naturalist Intelligence
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The ability to recognize similarities and differences in the
physical world. Biologist, Anthropologist
I love being outdoors and investigating flora and fauna
I collect leaves, insects and rocks
I am not afraid of wildlife, but treat it with respect
I am ecologically aware and recycle everything
I love organic foods and natural products
I’d much rather talk to the animals than people
Spiritual
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Loves to study religion and is inquisitive
about the spiritual realm.
I serve in a religious organization
I spiritualize things regularly
I am optimistic and see a spiritual
outcome in everything.
I believe in a supreme being
I love to philosophize about life, religion,
god, etc.
Creative Teaching Strategies
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Cooperative Learning
Hands on/Manipulatives in every subject area
Games ( Basketball/Baseball games)
Skits and Role Plays
CSI investigations/Field Trips
Special Speakers
Teach more by Teaching Less
More Critical Thinking and Less Factual regurgitation.
Conceptual Curriculum, Enduring Understandings, Big
Picture( Walk through the Bible)
Teach for Mastery, not a one shot deal. You are
responsible for motivating the student.
Education Research’s affect on
Content Area
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Reading: Multisensory Approach: Show
Briarwood DVD
Phonics vs. Whole Language
Manuscript vs. Cursive
Integrated Language arts, not isolated subjects.
( Using Writing to teach Language, Spelling,
Reading in every subject
Block Scheduling: Movement, Varied strategies
Short Daily Evaluations/Entrance Slips/Exit Slips
P.E. Music and Art: What are your objectives?
We All Learn Differently
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Thomas Jefferson said that: “ All men are
created equal”.
The Bible states continually that: “All men (and
women) are created differently, uniquely,
specially gifted and have a purpose”.
We should differentiate our teaching and not
make it all bland and the same. We are
entrusted with God’s children in our classrooms
and we need to make a difference in their lives.
I.E.P’s for every child by Year 2015
Understanding the Learner
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Special Needs children
ADHD
Learning Disabled
Gifted
Class Size and Make up
Team Teaching
Outdoor Education
Art, Music, P.E. and Bible integrated into Subject
areas instead of separate dichotomous entities
Research on Brain-Based Learning
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Original research was a result of clipping of
nerve bundles between hemispheres of brain to
help epileptic seizures.
Discovered certain functions existed in each side
of the brain in regards to learning
Aligned research with learning styles research in
the 1980’s.
Further brain-research has been done
technology in scanning brains of learning
disabled, dyslexic, ADHD, students showing
dominance in the right hemisphere.
Right vs. Left
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We all use both sides of our brain, but we
have dominant tendencies to use one side
of our brain over the other despite our
upbringing or training.
It is the way we are created, wired…the
way we grow and should go… “Train up
a child in the way he should go and he will
not depart from it”…..
R/L Brain Dominance Characteristics
Left
Right
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Remembers names
Responds to verbal
Breaks into parts to solve
problems
Objective judgments
Planned and structured
Established certain information
Analytic reader
Reliance on language
Prefers talking and writing
Multiple choice test
Ranked authority structures
Controls feelings
Auditory/visual stimuli
responses
Not facile in interpreting body
language
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Intuitive
Remembers faces
Responds to demonstrated or
illustrated instructions
Solves problems by looking at
whole, uses hunches
Makes subjective judgments
Fluid and spontaneous
Prefers elusive, uncertain
information
Synthesizing reader
Reliance on images to remember
Prefers drawing and manipulates
objects
Open-ended questions
Prefers open-ended studies/work
Participatory authority structures
Free with feelings
Responds to movement/action
Good at interpreting body
language
Screening Checklist
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Eye Dominance
Hand Dominance
Hand Position
Muscle Testing
Body Symmetry
Eye Movements
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( From “Unicorns are Real” by Vitale)
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Learning Disabled/ ADHD/ or Right Brained?
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Appears to Daydream
Talks in Phrases or leaves
words out when talking
Uses fingers to count
Draws pictures on papers
Difficulty following directions
Makes faces or other forms of
nonverbal communication
Fine motor problems when
doing structured task, but none
when doing own thing
Recall places, events, difficulty
recalling names,
letters/numbers.
May forget what he went to his
room to do
Good in Athletics, poor in
English
May chew his tongue while
working
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Difficulty in phonics/decoding
Is on move most of the time
Likes to work partway out of
eat or standing up
May exaggerate when retelling
an event
Often has a messy desk
Difficult in completing work on
time
Like to take things apart and
put them back together
Impulsive behavior
Tries to change the world to
meet his own needs
Likes to touch, trip, poke when
relating to others
Gets lost coming to classroom
May be a leader in class
Child Development and
Brainedness
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Boys tend to be more right-brained in early years….large
motor movement/ tactile kinesthetic…creative, color
outside of lines
Girls tend to be more left-brained in early years…playing
school…structure, form, color in lines
As boys mature, they become more left-brained( usually
high school/college) and girls become more feeling
oriented, intuitive nurturers.
( See recent Newsweek article on boys and how they
learn and how they are falling further behind as schools
become more structured towards analytical testing)
Differences
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Right Brained learners are independent
and learn through visual holistic methods
and rarely learn best through left-brained
strategies.
Left Brained learners are adapters and can
learn in spite of the method of teaching
and will learn well through right brained
strategies.
Ways to Teach Right Brained Kids
in Left Brained Schools
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Writing:
Cursive vs. Printing
Phonics:
Look/Say method
Reading
Use Color/Music/Rhyme
Use visualization
Use Manipulatives in
Math
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Take notes with pictures
Use computer graphics
Graphic organizers
Webbing/Diagrams/
Charts/graphic organizers
Videos/DVD’s
Creative methods of
teaching that help
student visualize
Motion, Music, Art
Right/Left Brain Test
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We all tend to teach the way we learn best……..
Some are creative right brained…others are
analytic left brained and others are haptic or
integrated learners using both sides of their brain
equally.
http://www.web-us.com/BRAIN/braindominance.htm
http://www.lifescript.com/Quizzes/Personality/Are_You_A_RightBrain_or_Left-Brain_Thinker.aspx?trans=1&du=1&gclid=CIWrN20zpgCFQMnGgodWHDb1g&ef_id=1350:3:s_320c548214e01b2f
b664e4a8e0e7d8bf_2540340815:S67PQ0oJyIAAFlpu30AAAAn:20090209024037
http://similarminds.com/brain.html
Whole Brain Learning
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Left brain students learn well with the
structure of school, but right brained
students need to be taught in their
dominant strength in order to first be
successful in academics in order for them
to become more geared to using their left
brain and succeeding in a left brained
world.
Understanding the Learner
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Middle Childhood Education:
A very difficult time of social, physical and emotional
adjustments…highs and lows…rapid growth of intellect,
questioning and freedom.
Most ideal time to Home-School kids…this age is where
children are the most vulnerable and most likely to
develop bad habits, language, attitudes, as well as get
wounded deeply, or become insensitive.
Sports programs need no cuts at this age….it’s
developmental in so many ways.
This age is where the home needs to get more involved,
yet where it is less involved because it is what the
parents believe the students want.
High School
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Independent
Self-Actualizing
Taking responsibility
Involvement
Relationships
Sports, Music, Cars, Idols, Looks and Sex.
Academic achievement begins
Multisensory Lesson
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Association
Mnemonics
Visual Images
Auditory Sounds
Kinesthetic Activity
Graphic Organizers
( Multisensory Activity)
Time on Task and Classroom
Management and Discipline
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Quiet Signal: Establish and have 100%
participation ( Hand Clap, If you hear my voice)
Rules: Teacher guided, students given choices
and ownership given.
Discipline system: School wide and promote
right thinking and wisdom, not just punitive, but
discipling.
Students should not have to guess each year
what rules their teacher will have or how they
will be enforced.
Assertive Discipline is a good beginning, but is
not enough. Wise Up
Discipline Techniques
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Proximity- Move to the source of the problem
Use of Facial Expressions “The Look” Practice in front of
a mirror.
Non-Verbal Signals/Cues
Voice Variation( Slow Down/Deepen voice)
Circulate and Observe and Correct
Verbal Cues ( We are waiting on one more person, etc.)
Repeat the rule: Call on Betsy to tell the rule, Call on
Carl to tell the rule, Call on Dan( who has broken the
rule) to repeat the rule. Hears it 3 times and isn’t
embarrassed in front of class.
Discipline Rules
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Never Embarrass A Student in front of the class.
Never send a child outside the room without any
supervision
Never punish the whole class for one child’s
offense( Even if you say the entire class was
acting up….there was at least a few good kids)
When a teacher does this, it signals poor
supervision and time on task.
Never use homework as punishment ( Contrary
to Ron Clark’s 55 Essential)
Discipline Rules
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Model Self Control at all times!!!!
Never Cry in front of a class
( Unless it is a very sad occasion, like someone has died)
Never Scream or yell
Never Throw Anything or Touch a student in a rough
way
Remain Cool, Calm and Collected.
If a student can “ press your button”, then you are not
in control and should reassess your call to teach.
Fairness: Is not equality, but giving each child what she
or he needs. CPR example
Never leave the class unattended, make sure you see
and hear everything going on…good and bad noises.
Positive Reinforcement
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Post the Rules ( 3-5) Make general, yet
applicable to all situations.
“ NO Killer statements” No Killer actions”
What and How would Jesus say, do, act?
Choices and Consequences
Use a Token Economy( Bonus Bucks)
Use of a Store at the end of the week
Behavioral Charts with upward as well as
downward progression.
A thought
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Our Christian school had decided to follow
Lee Cantor’s Assertive Discipline system.
However, I thought…why couldn’t we
come up with a system that taught
wisdom and discouraged simple, foolish
and scorner-like behavior?
Wise Column to Simple Column
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All names began on Monday in the Wise
Column. With each simple mistake the
student would move down a row in the
Simple column without any penalties….but
with 3 simple mistakes…3 strikes and your
out….you moved to the Foolish column
Foolish to Scorner Columns
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There were three levels in the Foolish column:
1. Recess Plan: Talk about what is going wrong and
how you are going to fix it.( Don’t keep them in…just
conference and pray with them)
2. Time Out: Ponder whether you are making the right
changes and what consequences will happen next
3. Call Home: Call the parent( usually the father at
work) The child calls the parent under the teacher’s
supervision and the parent knows there have been at
least 6 interventions before this action happened.
Scorner Column
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If the student continues to disobey, they
move to the first of three levels in the
Scorner which is:
1. Trip to Principal’s office
2. Parent Teacher Conference
3. Expulsion
Wise Up !
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Every student had the chance to “wise up”
which met if their behavior changed and
improved and they began making wise
choices their name could move up a level
and could end up in the wise column
Moving Names and Modalities
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I John 1:1 Modalities in the Bible: See( Visual),
Hear, (Auditory) Touch( Kinesthetic)
The student’s name was called:
“John move your name down one in the Simple
column”.
John would get up and move his name down(
Kinesthetic)
And his Name was visually displayed( Visual)
How many times have you told
a kid to be….
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Quiet or to do something and they persist at
doing it….perhaps they need to see it modeled,
perhaps they need to have some action done, or
perhaps they need to hear it in a different way.
We all prefer one mode over another…find out
what works with your students, but use Multisensory for Discipline.
Sometimes……
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Kids made serious mistakes…downright
Foolish mistakes and their name was
moved automatically to the appropriate
level in the Foolish column. ( for
instance…hitting another child, doing
something dangerous, talking back, etc.)
Teacher’s prerogative
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Each move up or down the chart is
teacher initiated…students don’t
decide…you decide how many levels they
go up or down…any complaining they go
down further and further…it’s just simply
not allowed.
Teacher’s name on the Chart
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The teacher’s name is also on the
chart…because we make simple and
sometimes downright foolish mistakes and
we need to show the class we are not
immune from discipline
Wisdom Award
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At the end of each day, I’d tally to see
where children ended up for the day and
at the end of the grading period the
student that stayed most continually in the
Wise Column got a little Wisdom Trophy.
End of the Week
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At the end of the week, my students knew
they would get to go to my classroom
store with their bonus bucks, but only if
their names were in the wise or simple
column. My class was the best behaved
at the end of the week, when other
students were being discipline problems.
Monday Morning
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At the beginning of every week, all names
went back to the Wise column and
students got a fresh start at being Wise
again.
In the several years I used this chart…no
child ever went past the Call Home level.
Realizing My objectives
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My objective was to teach my students to
make wise choices in their language, their
actions and their academics. I wanted
them to think like Jesus, act like Jesus and
speak as Jesus would. My students
learned how to implement wisdom in their
everyday life.
Routines and Procedures
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Established routines and procedures for
everything you do.
A place for everything and everything in
it’s place.
Passing papers, getting materials, lining
up for lunch, fire drills,
Set the expectation and then practice,
practice, practice.
Transitions and Time on Task
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Time is wasted:
Getting materials ready
Transitions between subjects
Bathroom and Snack breaks
Morning Exercises( Prayer Requests and Routine
of Poem of Month, Prayer Warrior, Attendance,
National Anthem…all done in 5 minutes).
Taking grades or grading papers in class.
Dismissal time
Transitions and Time on Task
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Research shows that students are more fully
engaged if you “chunk” the lesson and do a
variety of different strategies and have active
learning than passive learning techniques.
You should be teaching every moment.
Those who sit behind a desk to teach a lesson
are not teachers. Teaching is active and
engaging and there is no down time.
A Day at a Glance( Syllabus)
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Create a syllabus for your class with all the
assignments for the week and
expectations for that week. Keep copy at
desk, send a copy home on Fridays.
It is your lesson plans in abbreviated form.
Illustrate how simple it is when a student
misses class how to get them caught up.
Nurturing Environment
A carpeted area/A tiled area
 Print Rich environment
 Plants/Animals/Water access/Restroom access
Use folding tables, not desks
Use cubicles, not lockers or desks
Stackable chairs
“A clean room is a happy room” Have students
help with room decorating and their living
environment.
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Brainstorm Time
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Turn to your neighbor and talk about
subjects you have trouble with and ask
me what creative way to teach them.
What are some struggles you have with
establishing routines and procedures.
What handicaps you from effective
teaching
Chunking a Lesson
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7:30 Objectives for the day Written on the Board.
7:45 Be doing Entrance Slip Activity at your desk: What did you
learn yesterday? ( This connects lesson to previous learning).
8:00 Prayer, Devo, Personal Question
8:15 Housekeeping items
8:20 Group Discussions in groups
8:40 Processing Time
8: 55 Mini lecture with Power Point
9: 10 Video clip
9: 20 Discussion with group
9: 30 Process Video clip
9: 40 Go over homework for next class session
9: 45 Closure/Lesson Wrap up/Recap of Objectives taught
9: 50 Exit Slip( write 3 things you learned about teaching today, and
1 thing you want to know more about).
Authentic and Alternative
Assessment
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Establish a Base Line of what students know. Pre- Post
Tests.
KWL chart
Use Inquiry Teaching and Problem Solving
Scaffold on Pre-existing Schemata of Student’s
knowledge base.
Establish Rubrics and Show examples
Use formal and informal assessments
Give choices in Assignments/Differentiated Assignments/
Strategies.
Use Online and Visual Modes more frequently
Teach Students how to take tests, what words tell them
what to do in a question, how to look for hints.
Grading
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Immediate Feedback
No Zeros, but a failing grade for the
assignment( Assessment shows the whole
picture of student’s learning, not a one
time blunder or poor choice).
Homework grades? Why or Why not?
Finished or Not Finished vs. Credit or No
Credit
Assessment
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“We teach in a day and age when many educators are
abandoning the concept of grading and with it the
concept of accountability. Our task as Christian
educators, however, is not to avoid man’s confrontation
with responsibility, but to strengthen it by making it
more meaningful, accurate and consistent with our
philosophy of Christian education”
John Blanchard in Christian Teacher ( 1970)
Questions to ask about
Assessment
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Can we accurately assess
knowledge, ability and
effort?
As creations of God, are
students too complex to
assess with paper and
pencil?
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Why do we grade?
What role does learning
styles play in
assessment?
How can we develop
assessments that go
beyond the first two
levels of Bloom’s
taxonomy?
Biblical Assessment
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We need to scrutinize every area including
assessment by biblical standards…yet we don’t
find any Quizzes Christ gave his Disciples on the
Beatitudes, and no percentages are recorded in
the Lamb’s book of Life….all the assessments of
one’s life are recorded as processes, not final
products.
Some biblical principles to consider: To
Make Lifelong learners
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1. Make Lifelong Learners…growing in wisdom, stature
and favor with mankind. (Luke 2:52)
A. Developing Biblically critical thinkers who can
analyze, synthesize, and evaluate this world through the
Word. ( wisdom vs. knowledge)
B. Physically( Good health, nutrition, practices)
C. Favor with Mankind ( Ethics, Behavior, Character
Qualities)
Purpose of Evaluation
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The evaluation is used by the teacher to assess
what learning has taken place and what changes
need to be made to increase learning.
Grading is a product, but evaluation is a
process; a percentage in a grade book teaches
nothing, but a good assessment can teach a lot.
Assessments are Not Perfect
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Test Biases
Human error and biases
No system is ever totally objective
because they were created by flawed
humans.
Assessments must be ongoing,
multifaceted, informal and formal.
Questions to Ask when teaching
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What is important?
Why is it important?
What biblical truth does it teach?
How can I best illustrate this truth in my
teaching of the content?
How can I best evaluate whether my students
know what is important and why?
How can improve on helping my students learn
what is important and why better?
Testing Tips
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Use Pre and Post Tests to measure students progress
and learning as well as see where your deficits in
teaching lie. ( If a student is failing you are failing as a
teacher until you find out the reason why.)
Give students multiple attempts at the same test, but
use a different format.
Don’t test students over items they can look up or items
which change frequently, but rather teach them where
to find these items.
Testing Tips
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Be creative in your testing. Scantrons and
multiple choice tests rarely test the upper levels
of Bloom’s taxonomy. Think of applicationoriented activities.
Think outside the box and do something other
than paper and pencil tests.
Grading Tips
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Grading on Effort: This element used so
frequently in grading is difficult if not
impossible to evaluate. It is purely a
teacher’s judgment, there are too many
variables in a student’s life to enable us to
evaluate their effort accurately.
Grading in Class
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This can be devastating to most students, both
to those students who are struggling or who are
unprepared, but also to those students who
excel and earn names like Nerd, Geek or Brain.
If a teacher is to nurture students and celebrate
their uniqueness, this practice certainly violates
this concept.
Giving and Grading Homework
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Parent involvement makes an uneven playing field for
students. The kid who has a very involved parent with
homework is given an academic advantage over the
single parent who has to work.
Resources in homes are vastly different dependent on
socio-economic levels.
Evaluating homework is nearly impossible since you
don’t know who did it or who helped complete it.
Checking homework, grading it and explaining the next
homework can develop into a deadly routine that creates
a non-teaching environment.
Create Rubrics for Assignments
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Don’t make it a guessing game on what you
want your students to do or to know.
Give examples of good work and poor work.
List criteria to be included
Study various rubric models( just type in rubrics
on the internet)
Revise the rubric continually to make a better
assessment tool.
Narrative Grading
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An excellent way to communicate, but
very time consuming. Essential learning
skills are established and the teacher
writes a descriptive comment of to what
degree the student learned that skills.
Some schools have coupled the narrative
form with a checklist form.
Bell Curve and Averaging
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Comparing students with other students is probably the
most unbiblical way to grade. Having a “normal”
distribution is fine for statistics, but horrific for the
regular classroom. Averaging grades also represents a
students learning poorly since it reflects perhaps poor
learning at the beginning, but superb learning at the
end, with concepts mastered, but it appears the student
doesn’t have the concept well-mastered.
Portfolios
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A thorough and ongoing process of evaluation
and assessment is the use of Portfolios where
one can see growth in a student and their
knowledge and in which there are multi-faceted
assessments, such as pre and post tests,
journals, creative projects, role plays and
scenario analysis. This show the students
strengths and weaknesses more substantially
than a letter or number grade.
Creating Valid Assessments for the
Christian school
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1. You need to know what your objectives
are which you are going to assess.
2. You need to find the best assessment
system to measure what you want to
achieve in your objectives
Demonstrative Results
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We need to be able to demonstrate what
we are doing and how we are measuring
it.
Our measurable results should tell us how
well we are doing as well as areas that
need improvement.
Some Questions to Discuss
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1. In light of God’s sovereignty and His plan for our lives,
why should we as Christians be concerned about
assessing our academic achievement? Will it actually
make a difference?
2. Discuss with your group how important grades are to
you, to the parents and how you might better
evaluate/assess the student to show what they really
know.
The education system use of grades is actually a fairly
recent invention. Consider how people have been
taught and evaluated before.
More Questions to Consider
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How are we assessed in real life?
How frequently are grades used?
What criteria are used to measure our
performance?
Are these methods biblical?
Do we evaluate and teach character qualities as
much as we do academics? What about
discernment and biblical thinking?
Truth and Tradition
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Much of what we do in schools today is
not based on the truth found in
educational research and it certainly isn’t
based on biblical truth, but rather is based
on traditions that die hard.
We need to begin re-thinking what is truly
Christian Education
How Did Jesus Teach?
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Compare how the School system of the day taught
people with how Jesus taught.
What were some of Jesus most successful teaching
techniques?
Did Jesus every use visualization techniques?
What about Brain-compatible learning ( Old vs.. New
Testament)?
Other thoughts?
Resources: A Word
Resources
I’ve attempted to synthesize the information
from a variety of sources into this presentation.
I’ve listed a few books which I believe are
cutting edge and based on biblical principles.
I’ve listed scholarly magazines which review
educational practice as well as State and
National standards including the National Board
Teacher Certification Association and the
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE). I’ve tried to integrate
biblically throughout this presentation, but have
not cited my sources formally.
Resources
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Activating the Desire to Learn Bob Sullo
Classroom Management that Works: Robert
Marzano
A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that
works: Robert Marzano and other
The Big Picture: Dennis Littky
Education in a New Era: Ronald Brandt( Ed.)
How Smart Am I?: Kathy Koch
Frames of Mind: Howard Gardner
What’s your E.Q.(Emotional Quotient) D.
Goleman
Resources
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Kappan Magazine published by Phi Delta Kappan
Educational fraternity
Educational Leadership magazine published by
Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development
Checking for Understanding: By D.Fisher and
N.Frey
The Skillfull Teacher by Sanphier/Gower
Teacher, Teacher, What does your garden grow:
Dr.Kaye Jeter.
First Days of School, Dr. Harry Wong
The Art and Science of Teaching: R. Marzano
Resources
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Foundations of Christian School Philosophy: ACSI
Journal of Curriculum and Supervision: ACSD
Linking Teacher Evaluation and Student Learning:
Tucker and Stronge
Teacher Leadership: Charlotte Danielson
Learning and Teaching: Research-Based Methods:
Kauchak and Eggen
Educational Fads: Paul and Elder, The foundation for
Critical Thinking
Understanding by Design, McTighe/Wiggins
Conceptual Curriculum for Thinking and Instruction by
Erickson.