WAHS Wisdom

Jigsaw = CRT, SEL, Learning For those who have been in education for a significant period of time, we’re aware of educational fads. Some lack scientific merit or are at best badly misconstrued--multiple intelligences, zero tolerance, tracking and whole language. Unfortunately, employing some of these fads actually harms children, especially those who are most vulnerable. Conversely, there are other times that we’re too slow to act; I would include addressing racial disparities and meeting the needs of special education students as two examples. Sometimes it’s the tried and true approaches that, when used correctly, are what’s best for students. Examples include summarization (.79   effect size according to John Hattie ), phonics (.70), classroom discussion (.82) and the Jigsaw Method (1.20). Jigsaw is a multi-step process that was   invented by Elliot Aronson   and his graduate students at the University of Texas-Austin in 1971 not as an instructional strategy but as a ma...

  Using Examples and Non-Examples to Provide Effective Feedback, Clarifying Success AND Activating Learning Earlier this week, I participated in a webinar with John Hattie on feedback. He started the webinar with a “feedback is an interesting variable because what works for one student doesn’t work for another student,” and then reminded participants the best feedback answers these questions: Where am I going? What is the learning intention/objective. How’s it going? Feedback informs practice.  How do I improve? Directing the next steps.  After sharing several principles and strategies he shared, “Effective feedback clarifies success and activates learning” and how to use examples and non-examples.  Give students an example and non-example Example 1 Example 2 If you enjoy seafood, the restaurant offers many fish selections. The kitchen prepares several fresh fish dishes that are sure to please you. On my visit I enjoyed a pan-fried, fresh-caught trout, one of the ...