Week 1: High Yield Strategies

     Education is always changing and evolving.  In recent years, technology has become a platform to help aid students through their education.  When I look at high yield strategies in my or any classroom setting, I first address the question, "how do we maximize achievement in our schools?"   Marzano discussed nine high yield strategies for effective teaching which can be found below:  

Creating an environment for learning is the first category.  In this category the high yield strategies are:

• Setting Objectives/Providing Feedback
• Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
• Cooperative Learning

The second category is helping students develop an understanding

• Cues/Questions/Advanced Organizers
• Non-linguistic Representations
• Summarizing and Note Taking

Last three strategies are:

• Homework and Practice
• Identifies Similarities and Differences
• Generating and Testing Hypotheses

     According to Marzano, we as teachers should focus more on the process rather than on the right answer.  While listening to Mr. Marzano speak I couldn't help but think of the phrase, "if you give a man a fish he will eat tonight, if you teach a man to fish he will eat forever."  It seems as though Marzano and Hattie talk about similar ideas. Providing information and asking the students to repeat it is not the important part.  What is important is the message you are portraying as the teacher.  Addressing the higher order thinking questions like applying, critiquing, and hypothesizing.  I believe this directly aligns with the Common Core State Standards in various ways.  The CCSS is designed to help students develop those ideas of higher order thinking and enhance their knowledge in the application.  It is important to concentrate on the process and help the students learn the strategies rather than solely the right answer.  A question I may pose then is, how do our state tests fit this idea of the process?  It seems as though the test is looking for the "right answer" rather than the process of how to get there.

     Marzano suggested it will take a human at least three to four times of exposures to a topic in order to learn it. He also stated, "our jobs as teachers isn't to get the student to reach their potential but to exceed it."  I started to look at my classroom.   Specifically, in my physical and health education setting, there are many high yield strategies I already use and some I would like to incorporate into my teaching more.  But do I push my students to reach their potential, or do I push my students to exceed it?  I believe in my classroom I try and push my students to their potential but am resistant with certain students when it comes to exceeding it.  It seems as though parents are students are comfortable with below standard material so to push them to their potential is extreme.  To actually push them further too much for them to handle and may give up.  Once a student reaches their potential I do try and "push the envelop". I like to challenge their thinking with more questions similar to the strategies Marzano discussed like similarities and differences and Hattie's self reflection.  I believe those are two key strategies in pushing students to develop a higher order thinking.  I also am an advocate of decision making as well as collaborative learning.  Students can learn a great deal from their peers.  Not only can they learn a lot from their peers but they also provide a foundation of the topic while teaching their classmates.  All are important strategies when talking about the common core and aligning curriculum's with each other.

     Hattie also discussed great ideas when it comes to a teacher's mind frames.  After watching the required video, I looked up another talk from based on Hattie's ideas.  The video discussed eight mind frames of a teacher.  Here is the video of Hattie’s 8 mind frames.  Below are the topics discussed in the video:

• Evaluate my students learning
• Teachers are the change agent
• Talk about learning rather than teaching
• Assessment is about my impact as a teacher
• Dialog is more important than monologue
• Enjoy the challenge
• Positive relationships
• There is a language of learning

    Here is another article I found useful when looking at the strategies provided.  Every teacher is required to give the students the best possible education.  This means pushing the students to their highest potential and thinking outside the box. Remember, "if you can be replaced by YouTube, you should be." 

Resources:

1. Classroom Instruction That Works by R. J. Marzano, D. J. Pickering, and J. E. Pollock, 2001, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 
2. Introduction Marzano's Nine Strategies for Effective Instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2015, from https://youtu.be/yGqfA5MaFCk
3. John Hattie, Visible Learning. Pt 2: Effective methods. (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2015, from https://youtu.be/3pD1DFTNQf4
4. Marzano, R. (n.d.). Marzano’s (Nine) High-Yield Instructional Strategie s. Retrieved April 3, 2015, from http://www.palmbeachschools.org/qa/documents/Handout5-MarzanoHighYieldStrategies.pd
5. Wakefield, J. (n.d.). Technology in schools: Future changes in classrooms. Retrieved April 3, 2015, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30814302