Category: 4Cs

Concept Mapping: The Map that Leads to Effective Instruction

3/25/2019

Gif of a variety of people viewing the same map

When thinking of concept mapping, graphic organizers often come to mind. But concept mapping is more than that. The graphic organizer is the tool for this strategy, but can often be confining to our students that see connections outside of the typical graphic organizer. Concept mapping has an effect size of .64. It is important to highlight that this is effective when students are making their own connections and not the connections predetermined by the teacher.

This instructional strategy is comprised of three specific steps.

Step 1. Predetermine the topic or question for the concept map. “A helpful way to determine the context of your concept map is to choose a focus question--something that needs to be solved or a conclusion that needs to be reached (Kieschnick, Bold School, pg. 124).” Teachers can help students focus their concept map by asking essential questions.
Step 2. Pull a list of key terms or ideas from the topic being addressed. Students should work to classify those key terms or ideas in some way. For example, they might identify the broadest ideas working down to the most specific details. Because students may visualize this in different ways, it is important they have the freedom to choose a tool that best supports their thinking.
Step 3. Connect concepts by creating linking concepts and words. In this step students might need language stems to support the connections they are making. For example, “is related to”, “as a result of”, “caused or causes”, “leds to”, etc.

Incorporating Digital Tools

It is important to provide kids with a variety of options for concept mapping, both digital and unplugged. For example, Mindy would rather create a sketchnote as a tool for concept mapping while Gina really likes being able to have a stack of manipulatives with a broad canvas to organize and connect. Online tools that support concept mapping might include Jamboard, Mindmup, Lucidchart , or Google Drawings. For kids who prefer an unplugged option, the Post-its App can allow students to start their work in an analogue environment and then move it and manipulate it online. Finally, for kids who prefer a drawing or sketching method for organizing their thoughts, consider using a camera to capture and share unplugged work.

Key Takeaways

Concept maps are NOT graphic organizers. Instead, it is the process of organizing thoughts and key ideas.
Concept mapping is a scaffolded process facilitated by the teacher. Teachers help students identify the relationship between key terms by asking probing questions and providing language stems.
It is crucial to honor student voice and choice when concept mapping to support personal visualization of the connected concepts.

~Gina Rogers
~Mindy Cairney

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Riddle Me This? Incorporating Questioning into Instructional Technology

3/4/2019

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Questioning as an instructional factor weighs in at a .68 effect size, demonstrating the capacity to have a significant impact on student growth. Teachers ask anywhere between 300 and 400 questions a day, with the vast majority of those questions being lower level questions - recalling facts, demonstrating knowledge of procedures, etc) (Wilen, 1991). The researchers suggest that since these questions are lower in their cognitive level, teachers need to use many of them to get students to recall concepts (Wilen, 1991).

Effective questioning is a complex teaching task and should be planned for. Scripting out questions and evaluating them for their complexity has a significant effect on student’s ability to more deeply understand and evaluate concepts. According to Weston Kieschink, “What gets scripted gets asked”, and spontaneous questions are often low-level questions (Bold School). Additionally, supporting students in developing their own questions about concepts can lead them to deeper levels of conceptual understanding (Hattie, 1998).

Using a resource to develop and evaluate teacher and/or student questions is key in this process. Here are a few tools that we use at GWAEA:

Looking to get your students to ask more questions?

Incorporating Digital Tools

So, what does this look like in practice in a tech-rich environment? Pre-planned scripted questions can be loaded into a variety of different tech options. Poll Everywhere lays the foundation for high-level, pre-planned questions. With one click, teachers can display responses or additional questions for a deeper classroom discussion around misconceptions or opinions. Additionally, teachers could also structure a series of higher order questions into Socrative or Nearpod. These could be used to launch into a longer discussion of a concept or as an exit ticket to help plan for further discussion and instruction. Teachers can display student answers anonymously for further consideration by the class.
With regards to soliciting student questions and structuring student-led discussions, a few approaches and tools come to mind. Students can contribute their questions to an online board like Padlet. The ‘Shelf’ feature in Padlet can be used to model, organize, and scaffold student questions from recall to analysis/evaluative questions. This online question board may also serve as a spot for students to begin to prepare for a Socratic Seminar.
As students are engaged in discussion, Google Slides Q&A option allows students to pose questions in real-time and additionally upvote questions they find intriguing. Teachers or student moderators are able to choose and present any question to the whole class to build-up the discussion or introduce a new thought.

Key Takeaways

Research suggests effective questioning by teachers and students has a positive effect on student achievement.
Effective Questioning is a skill. It should be planned for using a tool to develop and evaluate rigorous questions. Students also need tools/scaffolds to develop their own questions.
Well chosen technology can amplify teacher’s and student’s ability to pose and respond to thoughtful questions.

~Gina Rogers
~Mindy Cairney
Digital Learning Consultants

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Above All Things, Communicate.

2/4/2019

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4 people holding speech bubble cutouts above their heads

Communication could be one of the most important skills a teacher utilizes. Communication welcomes and encourages outsiders to peek inside that magical world of a classroom. I don’t think I truly understood how utterly important this was until I became a parent of a kindergarten student.

Although I had ‘gone to school’ for 30 years and was a kindergarten teacher myself once, I still wanted to be a part of my child’s day and know what he was doing. We were lucky to have a kindergarten teacher that also believed in the power of communication (insert Seesaw). Seeing what my little one was doing and hearing his young voice explaining a math problem or reading a book was more compelling than reading a newsletter emailed on Friday afternoon.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for teachers to tell the story of their classroom. Technology allows us to share all types of evidence of learning and excitement with parents beyond a classroom newsletter. Seesaw allows teachers and students to share all types of media and learning artifacts instantly with parents. Not into Seesaw? Social media is popular with parents too! Read about how to create a classroom Instagram account that captures your classroom throughout the day. Let your students caption it. Thinking outside the box? Listen about ways to record a short podcast, either solo or with your students, to share weekly classroom highlights.

As a teacher, communication doesn’t stop there. Connecting with other educators was a career changing event for me. When I first started using Twitter, I was shocked at all of the other educators that were thinking and discussing the same things that were swirling around in my mind. Once I joined Twitter chats, I couldn’t stop. There were so many ideas that I discovered while communicating with others that I had never met but found inspiring. Not only was I collecting new ideas, but sharing things I was doing. And even though I didn’t find my everyday classroom all that unique, people found my ideas inspiring as well. And all of a sudden, I didn’t feel alone and isolated. I felt connected and validated.

Although you might not find me on Twitter quite like you used to, I feel very strongly about how important it is to continue to share ideas with other educators, which led Jonathan and I down the road to podcasting. It allows us to share all of the great things Grant Wood AEA school districts are doing to provide the best learning environment for our students. Because of this experience, we’ve been able to meet and chat with so many amazing educators that also share new ideas with us, which we then pass onto you.

Technology has truly changed the way we communicate with one another. And although there’s nothing that trumps a face-to-face chat, our conversations can expand around the world with the tap of a button.

We would like to challenge you to take this month to try something new. Perhaps connect with someone outside your inner circle or share something a little differently with the parents of your students. We would love to hear about it!

~Mindy Cairney
Digital Learning Consultant
GWAEA

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4Cs: Communication in Today's Classrooms

2/1/2019

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Communication is increasingly important in education. It’s one of those crucial life skills that students will use long after they have finished with school. Yet, communication isn’t a new idea in education. We’ve been teaching this for years, but as Jeff Utecht noted, technology has changed how we communicate, and it will continue to do so as it evolves. The tools, etiquette and means we use to communicate today are a lot different from those that we used even 10 years ago. In this blog post I am going to take a look at some ideas to help you explore the notion of communication in the classroom and what that looks like for today’s students.

The P21 framework suggests students need to be communicating to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade, and that they should this using oral, written and non-verbal mediums. So what does that look like in the age of technology that we live in? Here are some ideas for the kinds of mediums you could explore. It’s not an exhaustive list, but I think it includes some of the more popular communication channels that students are engaging in today. They include:

Email or texting
Blogging, journalling, and online writing
Podcasting
Video production, video conferencing, or vlogging
Social Media
Graphic design
Multiplayer games

This inevitably raises the question, how can we help model and give students a safe environment to explore these kinds of experiences? Step one could be to practice with peers. When you are introducing one of these mediums to students, let them practice on each other before you go public on the web. Have a conversation about what is appropriate to be shared privately, versus what should be shared publicly, and if you need ideas for what that looks like, check out some of the modules from Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Curriculum because if you haven't considered this before, communication has strong ties to digital citizenship.

There are lots of great edtech tools to support communication in these kinds of mediums. In fact, many of the best communication tools are actually creative tools, because when we create something, more often than not, it is to communicate a message, tell our story, or share our thinking in a new way. Blogging, podcasting, video production, and graphic design are all creative endeavours, but they are also almost exclusively about communicating an idea or a message.

So, if you find a great creative communication platform to use with students, (e.g. Flipgrid, Twitter, Anchor, Canva, YouTube, Adobe Spark, etc.), then by all means use it, but don’t get too attached. Anyone who has been a teacher for any length of time is well aware that tools come and go. In fact, the way we communicate with each other today has changed over the years precisely because tools have come and gone.

Instead, teach the skill of communication. Teach students the value of communicating effectively, clearly, concisely, accurately, and politely. Teach them how to be empathetic, to be culturally aware, and to communicate with a purpose. If you teach communication in this way, the tool you use is just the vehicle that helps students share their story. If you teach communication, and not the tools, your students will become esteemed global citizens who are better prepared to succeed in a technology infused global workplace.

Jonathan Wylie | Digital Learning Consultant | Grant Wood AEA | @jonathanwylie

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Concept Mapping: The Map that Leads to Effective Instruction

Incorporating Digital Tools

Key Takeaways

Riddle Me This? Incorporating Questioning into Instructional Technology

Incorporating Digital Tools

Key Takeaways

Above All Things, Communicate.

4Cs: Communication in Today's Classrooms

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