Helping Students Become Flexible, Sophisticated Thinkers

            In this Educational Leadership article, author/consultants Harvey Silver, Abigail Boutz, and Jay McTighe say that five thinking skills are essential to grappling with the modern world’s complex problems (acronym IDEAS): 

• Inquiry – Thoughtful questions drive an investigative process that seeks to explain and understand. Inquiry involves analyzing documents and data, generating models, and conducting experiments. 
• Design – An iterative process produces a new way of solving a problem, addressing a need, or improving an existing product or way of doing things. Designers describe a need, generate possible solutions, test options, and plan for implementation.
• Evaluation – Appropriate criteria are used to assess a product (for example, the strength of a bridge), an outcome (how the stock market did), or a process (did a group collaborate well?).
• Argumentation – This involves making a claim or critique and justifying it with reasons and evidence. 
• Systems analysis – Changes in one or more parts of a system may produce short- and long-term consequences. 

            These are the very skills that have been used during the Covid-19 pandemic: scientists inquired about the origins and mode of virus transmission; the pharmaceutical industry designed vaccines; government officials evaluated different strategies for reducing the risk of infection; everyone argued about which to prioritize; and system analysis is being used to address supply-chain issues. 

            Silver, Boutz, and McTighe believe the goal of K-12 education is to develop “sophisticated thinkers and learners who understand content deeply and can transfer their knowledge and skills to real-world challenges.” But even in schools committed to project-based learning, they say, there’s not nearly enough practice with the IDEAS thinking skills. They give examples of tasks that focus on authentic issues, are engaging and relevant, and require deep thinking and transfer of knowledge: 

            - A secondary social studies inquiry task – How did a ragtag colonial militia with limited financial support defeat Great Britain, at that time the world’s most powerful nation? 

            - A high-school psychology design task – After studying the behavioral and intellectual development of toddlers, create a safe educational toy that will appeal to toddlers and help them develop attention, memory, reasoning, imagination, and curiosity. 

            - A secondary ELA evaluation task – Examine three options for a complete 10th-grade reading list, make a recommendation, and explain your thinking. 

            - A primary-grade health argument task – Use insights from sleep research to advise your parents on how to respond to your sister’s argument that bedtimes are silly and she should be able to stay up as late as she wants. 

            - An elementary science systems analysis task – Research an endangered tropical animal and create a children’s picture book that explains the rainforest ecosystem and predicts what might happen if the animal became extinct. 

This link provides additional task starters and guiding questions for the five skills. 

 “5 IDEAS for Developing Real-World Thinking Skills” by Harvey Silver, Abigail Boutz, and Jay McTighe in Educational Leadership, May 2022 (Vol. 79, #8, pp. 38-42); the authors can be reached at hsilver@thoughtfulclassroom.com, aboutz@thoughtfulclassroom.com, and jay@mctighe-associates.com.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #937 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Recommended Graphic Novels

            In this School Library Journal feature, Brigid Alverson recommends ten standout graphic novels: 

• Almost American Girl by Robin Ha, grade 7 and up 
• Chibi Usagi: Attack of the Heebie Chibis by Julie and Stan Sakai, grade 4-7 
• Geraldine Pu and Her Cat Hat, Too! by Maggie Chang, grade 1-3 
• Lola: A Ghost Story by J. Torres, illustrated by Elbert Or, grade 3-6 
• Marshmallow & Jordan by Alina Chau, grade 4-7 
• Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim, grade 11 and up 
• The Princess Who Saved Her Friends by Greg Pak, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa, grade 4-6 
• The Rema Chronicles Book 1: Realm of the Blue Mist by Amy Kim Kibuishi, grade 3-7 
• Stealing Home by J. Torres, illustrated by David Mamisato, grade 4-7 
• Wingbearer by Margorie Liu, illustrated by Teny Issakhanian, grade 5-8 

 “APA Artistry: 10 Standout Graphic Novels” by Brigid Alverson in School Library Journal, May 2022 (Vol. 68, #5, pp. 24-27)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #936 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Preparing Students for an Uncertain Future

(Originally titled “Future-Proofing Students”) 

            When they’re adults, more than half of today’s students will work in jobs that don’t yet exist, says author/psychologist Michele Borba in this Educational Leadership article. Her research has identified seven skillsets that are vital to success in this ever-changing world. “These strengths are not fixed nor based on scores, IQs, or ZIP codes,” says Borba, “but teachable abilities that can be woven into daily lessons and help prepare kids for life.” Here are the strengths, each with several associated abilities: 

            • Self-confidence: Self-awareness, strength awareness, finding purpose – “Confidence is the quiet understanding of ‘who I am’ that nurtures inner assuredness and appreciation of one’s unique strengths and interests,” says Borba, “as well as areas in need of improvement.” Schools can develop self-confidence by having students keep digital portfolios of their learning progress and scheduling “genius hours” to encourage students to get deeply involved in a particular area of interest. 

            • Empathy: Emotional literacy, perspective taking, empathic concern – “Empathy allows us to feel with and understand others,” says Borba, “setting us apart from the machines we create. Its cultivation will be crucial to successfully navigating life in a world dominated by artificial intelligence and augmented reality.” Students can get better at perspective-taking through cooperative learning activities, retelling stories from the point of view of different characters, or acting out a different way of seeing a historical or current event. 

            • Self-control: Attentive focus, self-management, healthy decision-making – Many young people can’t go more than two minutes without checking their devices, so self-control is a key growth area. Schools can help students set limits and teach mindfulness, meditation, and yoga. 

            • Integrity: Moral awareness, moral identity, ethical thinking – “Students don’t learn integrity through osmosis,” says Borba; “it must be intentionally taught, and we have to work at it.” Studies show that despite expressing self-satisfaction with their ethical standards and conduct, 57 percent of teenagers agree with the statement, “Successful people do what they have to do to win, even if it involves cheating.” Teachers can lead ethically focused discussions about books like The Outsiders and foster moral consciousness through service projects addressing issues like climate change and income disparities. 

            • Curiosity: Curious mindset, creative problem-solving, divergent thinking – “If adversity strikes,” says Borba, “this strength helps kids stay open to possibilities and find solutions.” Curiosity is an essential skill in a rapidly evolving job market. Teachers can nurture it by asking provocative open-ended questions, designing lessons that make students pause and wonder, scheduling innovation days where teams can explore topics of interest, and providing time to tinker in maker spaces. 

            • Perseverance: Growth mindset, goal setting, learning from failure – “Students who attribute gains to their inner drive are more creative and resilient than those who think they have no control over outcomes,” says Borba. Schools need to temper parents’ overprotective tendencies; for example, a school that forbids parents, starting in third grade, from escorting children to their classrooms and dropping off forgotten assignments or nonessential items. Schools also need to cut back on extrinsic rewards like trophies and stickers, foster an “I got this” attitude to challenging situations, and teach students to set goals and track progress. 

            • Optimism: Optimistic thinking, assertive communication, hope – One in three high-school students report persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, reported a recent study, and instant access to disturbing news is making the world seem volatile and scary. Fortunately, research has shown that explicit, skillful teaching of optimism protects against depression, increases engagement and resilience, and boosts learning and work productivity. In their morning announcements, principals can highlight stories about young people who made a difference; schools can play video clips on hallway screens of inspiring local and national stories; and service projects can give students a chance to make a difference, however small. “Our moral obligation,” Borba concludes, “is to equip this generation with the content and abilities they will need to handle an unpredictable future and thrive. Doing so may be our most important educational task.” 

 “Future-Proofing Students” by Michele Borba in Educational Leadership, May 2022 (Vol. 79, #8, pp. 18-23); Borba’s book is Thrivers: The Surprising Reasons Why Some Kids Struggle and Others Shine (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #935 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Notable Children's Picture Books of 2021

            In this feature in Language Arts, Jeanne Gilliam Fain, Vera Ahiyya, Elizabeth Bemiss, Janine Schall, Jennifer Summerlin, and Fran Wilson list the books they selected from 538 titles as the best for readers in grades K-8: 

• Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Frank Morrison
• All Because You Matter by Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier
• Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Cozbi Cabrera
• I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon James
• I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith 
• If Dominican Were a Color by Sili Recio, illustrated by Brianna McCarthy 
• Lift by Minh Le
• On Account of the Gum by Adam Rex 
• Once Upon an Eid: Stories of Hope and Joy by 15 Muslim Voices edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed 
• Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James Ransome 
• Packs: Strength in Numbers by Hannah Salyer 
• Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal 
• Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Don Tate 
• The Day Saida Arrived by Susana Gomez Redondo, illustrated by Sonja Wimmer 
• The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, illustrated by Oge Mora 
• The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel Payne by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by John Parra 
• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Grade 
• What I Like Most by Mary Murphy, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang 
• Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus, illustrated by Yas Imamura 
• Write! Write! Write! by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke 
• Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompson-Bigelow 
• Your Place in the Universe by Jason Chin 

 “The 2021 Notable Children’s Books in the English Language Arts” by Jeanne Gilliam Fain, Vera Ahiyya, Elizabeth Bemiss, Janine Schall, Jennifer Summerlin, and Fran Wilson in Language Arts, March 2022 (Vol. 99, #4, pp. 281-290)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #931 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Shifting Feedback Conversations to Results

 (Originally titled: “What Teachers Really Want When It Comes to Feedback”) 

             In this Educational Leadership article, Thomas Guskey (University of Kentucky) and Laura Link (University of North Dakota) say there’s no shortage of suggestions to teachers from principals, instructional coaches, teammates, and PD providers. But how much of that feedback is helpful? Teachers in a K-12 midwestern school district told Guskey and Link that five types of feedback are truly helpful: 

• Information about student learning – Most teacher evaluations focus on posting lesson objectives, asking higher-order questions, differentiating instruction, and other teacher behaviors. But these don’t resonate with many teachers, and besides, formal observations happen only once or twice a year. “Above all else,” say Guskey and Link, “teachers want to know if they are making a difference for their students” – Are kids “getting it”? Can they solve problems they couldn’t solve before? Do they feel good about themselves as learners? Sharing observations about outcomes like these and what the teacher did to make them happen – that’s solid gold for teachers.
• Local evidence – Most teachers have learned to be skeptical about ideas that supposedly work for other teachers with different students in different contexts. “Eliminating that skepticism,” say Guskey and Link, “requires personal mastery experiences that provide teachers with tangible evidence that the ideas work with their students in their classrooms.”
• Trustworthy assessments – Administrators and school boards use standardized test scores to judge schools’ success, but those results arrive too late to help improve classroom instruction in the here and now. Many teachers look at high-stakes tests with a jaundiced eye, especially if they aren’t aligned with the curriculum they’re asked to teach. What teachers do trust is students’ daily work, their projects and presentations, and data from teacher-made assessments. One of the most powerful improvement dynamics is teachers looking at an error analysis of a common formative assessment and zeroing in on items that need to be retaught using a more-effective strategy.
• Timely feedback – “When it comes to classroom-level strategies or procedures,” say Guskey and Link, “teachers want evidence of improvement quickly, typically within the first few weeks.” Lacking that, teachers often abandon an innovative approach, especially if it comes from outside. That’s not because they’re against change but because they don’t want to waste time on practices that don’t benefit their students. New methods and materials should have built-in assessments that give rapid feedback on what’s working and what isn’t within days or weeks, not months or years.
• Feedback that’s constructive and diplomatic – Guskey and Link say that helpful correctives for teachers parallel what we know about feedback to students: 
• Begin with something positive. 
• Describe non-judgmentally what needs improvement. 
• Offer ideas and practical guidance on an approach that might be more effective. 
• Express belief in the recipient and confidence in success. 

            “Teachers want timely and trustworthy feedback that focuses on their students’ learning and offers practical suggestions for classroom applications,” conclude the authors. “When we offer teachers this type of feedback, they gain meaningful information for improvement and direct evidence that their work makes an important difference.” 

 “What Teachers Really Want When It Comes to Feedback” by Thomas Guskey and Laura Link in Educational Leadership, April 2022 (Vol. 79, #7, pp. 42-48); the authors can be reached at guskey@uky.edu and laura.link@und.edu; a related article by Guskey and Link is summarized in Memo 925.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #931 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Recommended Children's Books on Climate Change

             In this School Library Journal feature, Baltimore librarian Liz Bosarge recommends books for tweens and teens on global ecology: 

Elementary: 

• Living Planet: The Story of Survival on Planet Earth from Natural Disasters to Climate Change by Camilla de la Bédoyère, grade 3-6 
• Climate Action: What Happened and What We Can Do by Seymour Simon, grade 3-6 
• Young Water Protectors: A Story About Standing Rock by Asian Tudor and Kelly Tudor, grades 2-5
• Can You Hear the Trees Talking? Discovering the Hidden Life of the Forest by Peter Wohlleben, grade 3-5 

Middle school: 

• The Beekeepers: How Humans Changed the World of Bumble Bees by Dana Church, grade 6-10
• All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal with Climate Change by Leslie Davenport, grade 6-9
• Be the Change: Rob Greenfield’s Call to Kids Making a Difference in a Messed-Up World, by Rob Greenfield, grade 4-7
• Hothouse Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Importance of Carbon Neutrality by Stephanie McPherson, grade 8-10 
• Imaginary Borders by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, grade 7-9 
• Planet Ocean: Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean by Patricia Newman, grade 5-8 
• Girl Warriors: How 25 Young Activists Are Saving the Earth by Rachel Sarah, gr. 7-9 
• Seen: Rachel Carson by Birdie Willis, illustrated by Rii Abrego, grade 6-8 
• Earth Squad: 50 People Who Are Saving the Planet by Alexandra Zissu, grade 4-7 

High school: 

• The Story of More (Adapted for Young Adults): How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren, grade 8 and up 
• How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and 
• Each Other by Naomi Klein, grade 8 and up 

 “An Eco-Hero’s Bookshelf” by Liz Bosarge in School Library Journal, March 2022 (Vol. 68, #3, pp. 47-50)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #929 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Dealing with Math Anxiety

             “Up to 30 percent of adults report moderate or severe mathematics anxiety, experiencing fear or dread when encountering mathematics,” report Holly Klee, Michelle Buehl, and Angela Miller (George Mason University) in this article in Theory Into Practice. For many people, math anxiety begins in elementary school and increases as they move through the grades, leading them to avoid courses and careers that involve math. Research points to four variables that are at play with math-anxious students:

• They believe that doing well in math is important. 
• They compare their performance to that of other students and external benchmarks. 
• They strive to not mess up and avoid failure versus mastering the material. 
• They believe they have very little control over how they’ll do. 

Studies have shown there’s no correlation between math anxiety and ability and IQ; when students are anxious, they have difficulty with tasks they were able to perform when their anxiety was low. 

            How does math anxiety make people less capable? Klee, Buehl, and Miller believe it’s because the anxiety reduces working memory. “The cognitive worry experienced by students with mathematics anxiety,” they say, “can occupy a large portion of working memory, leaving less available to process the task at hand… Thus, students with mathematics anxiety are performing two tasks when others are performing one: they are working to solve the problem while also coping with their anxiety.” 

            Klee, Buehl, and Miller suggest six ways for teachers to decrease students’ math anxiety and thus improve their self-efficacy and performance: 

• Conceptual teaching – “The ‘drill and kill’ method of practicing procedures, while easy to implement and effective in producing ‘correct’ answers, does not help students gain deep understanding of mathematics concepts,” say the authors. It’s better to frame goals in terms of understanding versus correctness and good grades, praise students for working hard and explaining their reasoning, and wrap up lessons with a short explanation of the conceptual takeaways. 
• Contextualizing mathematics – Studies show that the more personal and real-world connections students see, the less anxious they are, the more agency they feel, and the better they do. 
• Partner and group work – “Encouraging students to work together to discuss potential solutions,” say the authors, “provides students the opportunity to voice their own understandings and potentially recognize there are multiple ways to find the correct solution, which can also support autonomy.” Working together in pairs or small groups is also reassuring when students realize that they’re not the only ones having difficulty. In addition, they can get insights as they wrestle together with problems and come up with novel solutions. Group work increases student autonomy – a valuable psychological factor in success – and allows the teacher to circulate and get ideas about what’s causing difficulty and how to boost the conceptual level of the material. 
• Formative assessment and feedback – Frequent, low-stakes checks for understanding let the teacher know whether to slow the lesson down or increase the conceptual level, and also give students feedback on their level of understanding – perhaps a sense of mastery. Low-stakes assessments convey the importance of mastery, versus students comparing themselves to peers. Short online quizzes during and after class give students an immediate sense of how they are doing and focus on whether they used successful or unsuccessful strategies. Some teachers ask students to self-report on their level of mastery and confidence and follow up with individual check-ins. 
• How summative assessments are framed – Final exams and end-of-semester tests are when student anxiety is highest, and teachers need to address this head on. Having students talk openly about how they’re feeling before a big test is surprisingly helpful, say the authors: students realize they’re not alone and gain a greater sense of self-efficacy and control. It’s important for teachers to verbally emphasize mastery – This is an opportunity to show what you know – versus performance – I’m looking to catch you on what you don’t know and compare you to your classmates. Teachers should point out that the summative assessment has the same material students have been seeing in formative assessments in recent weeks. It’s also good to be open to feedback on the quality of test questions: if all students got a question wrong, that test item needs to be revised – or the teacher needs to change how the concept was taught. 
• Student awareness of strategies to address math anxiety – “One of the most powerful things we can do as educators is to help students be aware of the anxiety they are feeling,” say Klee, Buehl, and Miller. Polling students on their anxiety on the first day of class reveals that students are not alone in the way they are feeling, which is tremendously reassuring. “Hearing anxiety is normal seems to function as a form of social persuasion that increases self-efficacy beliefs and decreases anxiety,” they say. “Checking in throughout the semester, especially around exams, continues this acknowledgement from educators and increases students’ sense of autonomy. Making anxiety a purposeful conversation is an important strategy for reducing it.” One study showed that getting students to write about their worries just before an exam improved performance and speeded up processing time, indicating that working memory had been improved by neutralizing some of those anxious thoughts. Mindfulness interventions have also been shown to improve performance for math-anxious students. 

 “Strategies for Alleviating Students’ Math Anxiety: Control-Value Theory in Practice” by Holly Klee, Michelle Buehl, and Angela Miller in Theory Into Practice, Winter 2022 (Vol. 61, #1, pp.49-61); the authors can be reached at hklee@gmu.edu, mbuehl@gmu.edu, and amille35@gmu.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #929 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.