student ownership - Gtec Kids

Open-Ended Questions

Research has shown time and time again that if we pose a close-ended question, our students will elicit a minimal amount of answers. However, we can draft the same question using the following question starters that provoke higher level thinking coupled with brainstorming.In the beginning, you will find that it is hard to draft an open-ended question. However, with time, it will become easier and easier until it becomes a habit. So, how do you break the habit? Use this simple...

Essential and Guiding Questions

Using essential and guiding questions certainly binds a unit of study together, bringing a clearer focus to the lesson. Originally introduced by Heidi Hayes Jacobs, we modified the practice and infused it into our Exploring History series back in 2000. We are finding that more and more people ask for a clear explanation of how to draft these questions for each unit of study.The Essential QuestionWhat is an essential question? Simply put, the essential question:is a definition question, serving as...

Enlivening Social Studies to Meet the Test

Andi Stix was interviewed by Donna Green from the New York Times on why Social Studies instruction needs improvement.Coming soon from the same people who brought New York students new tests in reading and math – a new test for social studies. The tests are mandated by the Board of Regents and are aimed at raising academic standards. For fifth-graders, the test is to be given this year, although there is talk of delaying it a year; for eighth-graders,...

Classroom Strategies That Motivate the Reluctant Learner

In a society where no child is left untested, it may not be surprising that many states have dropped their passing grades during the past decade (NYC Board of Education, 2007; Banchero, 2007; Kolkey, 2007). If we examine the amount of material that is covered in Social Studies, Science, and Math exams, then the drive to memorize facts would leave even the more ambitious student disinterested and disengaged. Then why should it be so surprising that the struggling reader...

Pic-Jour Math: Pictorial Journal Writing in Mathematics to Understand Pi

Come every fall, teachers of mathematics are confronted with oversized classes filled with students who vary in both their learning style and their way of communicating what they have learned. Teachers are challenged to recognize and exploit those differences or risk bored or confused students who lack any true mathematical understanding and may end up manipulating numerical symbols and equations by rote.Both experience and research in the past twenty years have demonstrated the clear effectiveness of using a multimodal, interactive approach...

The Link Between Art and Mathematics

There would seem to be an implausible relationship between art and mathematics. After all, the two domains seem to depend on vastly different thinking patterns. We do not question the interrelationship between science and mathematics, and the scientific process is clearly contingent on mathematics. How then did Ferguson (1977) manage to put together a historical review linking art and technology? Ferguson’s research indicates that inventors and art are more closely affiliated than either group would have us believe.Ferguson cites many examples...

Creating Rubrics Through Negotiable Contracting and Assessment

What would happen if students were invited to help decide how their work should be evaluated? Would they exploit the opportunity, designing standards so ridiculously low as to guarantee a glut of effortless good grades?Surprisingly, the answer is no. Experience in Mrs. Martha Polin's class at Robert Wagner Middle School in Manhattan shows that students who are given a role in the assessment process of a mural from a historical novel lesson can and do rise to the occasion....

Using Multi-Level, Young Adult Literature in the Middle School American Studies

Talk to middle school teachers about the challenges of teaching today, and you are likely to be barraged with a long list of factors that make their jobs difficult. Class size, lack of materials, poor attendance– the list of problems facing today’s teachers sometimes seems endless. We often hear middle school teachers from all subject areas complain that, “It is so difficult to motivate students today.” Another complaint, often made by teachers is, “My students read on so many different...

Differentiating the Curriculum- How We Established a Multi-Level, Young Adult Literature Bookroom for the Social Studies Department

Recently, the District #2 Office in New York City mandated that all children at the middle school level should read 25 books per year. While the burden of this mandate fell most heavily on the shoulders of the Language Arts department, we at Robert Wagner Middle School in Manhattan began to discuss ways the social studies department could help to increase literacy, a goal important to all subject areas. As we talked, we agreed that it was misguided to assume that the language...

Students and Teachers Alike Can Benefit from Rubrics

Joyce Kasman Valenza from The Philadelphia Inquirer Interviews Dr. Andi StixDid you ever wonder why your school paper got an 85 when Suzie’s got a 94? Did you ever ask your teacher exactly why? Was the answer a little vague? And did that grading process really help you understand how you might improve your work next time around? and benefit from rubrics?Five years ago, if you had asked me what a rubric was, I would have been puzzled. Now...

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Open-Ended Questions

Essential and Guiding Questions

Enlivening Social Studies to Meet the Test

Classroom Strategies That Motivate the Reluctant Learner

Pic-Jour Math: Pictorial Journal Writing in Mathematics to Understand Pi

The Link Between Art and Mathematics

Creating Rubrics Through Negotiable Contracting and Assessment

Using Multi-Level, Young Adult Literature in the Middle School American Studies

Differentiating the Curriculum- How We Established a Multi-Level, Young Adult Literature Bookroom for the Social Studies Department

Students and Teachers Alike Can Benefit from Rubrics

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