Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---April Edition--- (current subscribers: 16,935)
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News and updates to http://brains.org and Kathie Nunley's
Layered Curriculum (tm) Site for Educators: http://help4teachers.com

~~The NO-MEMBERSHIP-REQUIRED website ~~

Complimentary newsletter subscription available at:
http://help4teachers.com/newsletter.htm
Unsubscribe & email change information link at the bottom of this newsletter
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SECTION ONE: Teaching Tips -
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Teacher Tip # 1: I stand at the door and speak to each of my students
as they leave. Some kids are thanked for working hard, some are reminded
about special projects and with some, we just commit to a better day tomorrow.
Nancy Blue, 2nd grade, Weiser, ID.

Teacher Tip #2: Tape a file folder closed on the sides with clear packing tape. Tape
the folder on one side of students' desks so they have access to unfinished work.
It helps them not to lose unfinished assignments in their cluttered desks. Park Ridge
School, 2nd grade teachers, Nampa, ID.

Teacher Tip #3: I have a pocket pencil chart. I give each of my students a pencil with
a number on it. At the end of the day the students put the pencils back in the
numbered pockets to be sharpened. Misty Koeppen, Kuna, ID.

Send your favorite teaching tip to me at Kathie@brains.org
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SECTION TWO: Hot Topics
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HOT TOPIC #1: Educators have spent a great deal of time trying to measure
student learning styles and some time trying to match instructional style
to learning style. Researchers at the University of Regina have shown that
students' perceived learning styles (as measured by paper/pencil tests) do
not correlate to real objective measures of learning success using visual,
auditory and kinesthetic instructional methods. Further investigation shows
that paper/pencil learning styles tests may simply measure a student's preference
for learning and a general belief about how they learn. Other factors such as interest
in the subject, engaging method of delivery and other motivational issues play
a bigger role in successful learning. Learning styles vary, in fact, within one
student for various subjects and task difficulty. Kratzig, G. & Arbuthnott, K.
(2006). Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 98(1), 238-246

HOT TOPIC #2: Two of my favorite researchers, Lynn & Douglas Fuchs teamed
up with other researchers to look at 3rd graders' cognitive skills and how various
ones correlated to the 3 areas of 3rd grade math - arithmetic, algorithmic computation,
and word problems. They looked at how each influenced the other and how,
language, problem solving, working memory, processing speed, phonological
decoding, attention and sight word efficiency also correlated to them. A few surprises:
While arithmetic influence the other two, algorithmic computation did not correlate
to word problems (you can do one without the other). Attention strongly
correlated to all 3, and interestingly, short term memory did not correlate (which
goes against previous research). Educators involved with mathematics may want
to take a look at this study in detail. Fuchs, L., et al (2006). Journal of
Educational Psychology, Vol 98(1), 29 - 43.

HOT TOPIC #3: Cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists and muscians will
be teaming up this weekend for a rather unique research project out of McGill
University (Montreal). They will be measuring a host of physiological and
neurological responses at the Boston Symphony. They will measure responses
from the conductor, musicians and audience members as well as audience
members at a taped viewing. Researchers seek to find the differences in
the way we respond to music, both as performers and listeners and as
live versus recorded. You can watch for the results here in this newsletter or
at: http://mcgill.ca

More Hot Topics at the websites!
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SECTION THREE:
Website updates
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***NEW at the Help4Teachers.com****:

NEW LAYERED CURRICULUM UNITS posted
~~ Simple Machines (Gr 5) sent in by Nicola Ferguson
~~ Their Eyes were Watching God ( H.S.) sent in by Melody Aldrich
~~ Utah History (Gr 7) sent in by Julie King
You can view these and all our LC sample units at:
http://help4teachers.com/samples.htm

Layered Curriculum text, workbook and video training materials
can be found at: http://help4teachers.com/books.htm

*** NEW article on Accountability and our Grading System, "If
We Must Use Grades, Let's Make Them Reliable" which you can read at:
http://help4teachers.com/reliablegrades.htm

***NEW at the Brains.org SHOP: ***
Spring Special on 3 new titles at the shop:

"All the Math You'll Ever Need" - Slavin's survival guide to Math.
"Blink" - Gladwell writes a fascinating book on cognition.
"On Intelligence" - A Jeff Hawkins book that was highly recommended to
me recently by my colleague Robert Sylwester. A great read!
http://brains.org/store/index.htm

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SECTION FOUR: Kathie's Email
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Hi, Kathie! I am very excited to start my first Layered Curriculum project with my
8th grade Spanish classes studying Cinco de Mayo. My question is: about how
long to the projects take? What’s an average timeline for students to complete
all the work? We have 80-minute blocks and I see my students every other day.
I checked the FAQ page and didn’t see the answer. Thank you! Jennifer, IL

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Jennifer,
Excellent question, and one I guess I should have on the faq page. Unit
lengths vary of course, but most teachers make one or two week units.
If you are on an 80 minute block, I'd say 2 weeks, or 5 class periods would
be a good goal. However, in the beginning, start short! Even a 2 or 3 day
unit is a good size for beginning. It takes a unit or two to work out the kinks.
While I've heard of teachers doing 4 and 5 week units, I would never recommend
that, as you'd leave yourself open to way too many problems.
I hope that helps a bit. Good luck and let me know how it goes
- Kathie

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Kathie
My teaching partner and I went to your workshop in Idaho. We
are working on creating our first Layered Curriculum units and were trying
to design some generic rubrics that will work for both of our classes
(he teaches science and I teach social studies). I was wondering if you
have an example of one of your rubrics. Thanks, Jennifer T., 6th grade, ID

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Hi Jennifer,
There are some examples on many of the units at the website.
There's an article with examples too at: http://help4teachers.com/grading.htm
And of course the text and workbook have some as well.
I hope to see some of your units! - Kathie

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SECTION FIVE: Workshops/calendar schedule/misc
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Happy Spring everyone. We've had such a wonderful first week of
spring here in New England. The hardwoods are starting to bud out,
and I can see a hint of green in the lawns. I celebrated our sunshine and
warm days by cleaning out the flower beds this week. I also put a fresh
coat of paint on the chicken coop and the bee hives, and our new little
chicks have been moved outside.

The end of the school year is in sight, graduation plans are being made,
college acceptances are flowing into mailboxes and AP and assessment
test are looming on the horizon. The changing seasons of the school year
bring as much excitement as the changing seasons of our weather.

It's time to start planning for summer. Those of you looking for a summer
workshop might want to join me and my colleagues, David Sousa, Gayle
Gregory, and many others in Virginia Beach June 18 - 20th at the
"Differentiation and the Brain-Friendly Classroom" Conference. I'll be there
June 19 and 20th speaking on both Layered Curriculum and specifically
differentiating the High School Classroom. Information can be found at:
http://www.corwinpressconferences.com/2006_Corwin_Workshops.pdf

If you can't join us in Virginia Beach, I hope our paths cross at one of
my other workshops this year. My calendar can be found at:
http://help4teachers.com/calendar.htm
New workshops are in the planning for Wisconsin and Michigan.

But for this week, I'm off to Columbus Ohio to work with the great teachers
in the Columbus City Schools.

As always, my best to you and yours,

Kathie
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- posted by Kathie @ 1:29 PM