Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Dr Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---December '10 Edition--- (current subscribers: 21,385)
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News and updates to Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum® Sites for Educators:
http://Help4Teachers.com
http://brains.org
Do you have a NEW EMAIL address? You can unsubscribe your old one and
subscribe the new one using the link at the bottom of this newsletter.
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--------SECTION ONE: TEACHING TIPS ------
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TEACHER TIP # 1: I keep a bag full of mini jolly ranchers and give one out
to a selected volunteer to clean boards, rewrite agendas, vocab, etc (wash
desks even!) no name, Rockford, IL
TEACHER TIP # 2:For spelling practice I make play dough (mixed with kool-aid
to make it smell good) for students to practice spelling. They roll out the
play dough and then form the word. Tom Ashley, Rockford, IL.
Send your favorite teaching tip to me at Kathie@brains.org
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------SECTION TWO: HOT TOPICS in Neuro & Educational Psychology------
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HOT TOPIC # 1: There is a lot of discussion today on how to best encourage
adolescents who appear highly talented in the areas of math and science, to
pursue successful adult endeavors in the STEM areas (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math). A new longitudinal study released last month tracked
high-ability adolescents from early adolescence through mid-life. As one might
expect, those mathematically talented youth whose schools provided both richer
and deeper density of advanced educational experiences were more successful in
STEM areas as adults. Richness includes things such as AP courses, college math
courses offered in high school, etc. Deeper density includes things such as science
and math fair opportunities, research, etc. Interestingly, it doesn't appear to make
a difference as to whether these talented students get a lot of opportunity or just
a little, but that opportunity is present. If you work with high gifted math students,
you may want to take a look at this new study. Wai, J., Lubinski, D., Benbow, C. P.
& Steiger, J. H. (2010). Accomplishment in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) and its relation to STEM educational dose: A 25-year
longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4), 860-871.
HOT TOPIC #2: If you've ever questioned the value of having students draw or sketch
a concept while learning about it, and/or the value of actually grading the drawing, you
might be interested in another study out this month. The study involved 9th graders learning
a chemistry lesson. Some students were asked to draw the process while learning about
it. Some just read the text. The quality and accuracy of the drawings were also evaluated.
On later testing for understanding, the students were drew pictures of the concepts scored
higher than those who just read the text. And the better / more accurate and detailed the
drawings, the better the test score.
Schwamborn, A., Mayer, R. E., Thillmann, H., Leopold, C., & Leutner, D. (2010). Drawing
as a generative activity and drawing as a prognostic activity. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 102(4), 872-879
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---SECTION THREE: WEB UPDATES ---
BRAINS.ORG & HELP4TEACHERS.COM
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New video lessons & hot topics on my YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/
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New BOOKS in the bookshop:
=> Using Humor to Maximize Learning by Mary Kay Morrison
=> Robert Sylwester's BRAND NEW "A Child's Brain"
As always, we have discounted prices on all Layered Curriculum® materials and
the Layered Curriculum® study kit for individual teachers.
http://brains.org/store
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-----SECTION FOUR: KATHIE'S EMAIL
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Dear Kathie,
I will be starting Layered Curriculum this month. I have a question
about how you record grades. I use a grading software. My question
is, would you record grades for each individual assignment, or would
you just record the total number of points the student received for
the unit? Also, I have one problem: the grading scale. In our
District, we use a straight grading scale: 60-69=D; 70-79=C;
80-89=B; 90-100=A. How can I incorporate this grading scale
into the Layered Curriculum? How many points should I give
each layer? Please help. Denise Hytower, 8th Grade Science Teacher
Detroit, Michigan
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Denise,
Your question is a common one for people starting Layered Curriculum® and
one of the reasons I dedicated a whole chapter to variations in grading in my
"Differentiating the High School Classroom" book. To address the first one
on how to record grades - that's up to you. Some people record them daily by
objective (Day1 objective - score), some people record them by layer
(Layer C score, Layer B score, etc) Some people just record them by unit and
keep the actual unit sheets for documentation at conference time. Regarding
your grade scale question - feel free to adjust your points to fit your scale. If
70 is the minimum for a C in your school, figure out what you want your students
to do to earn a C and then adjust the assignments/ points to fit.
- Kathie
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------SECTION FIVE: WORKSHOPS / SCHEDULE / MISC CHAT------
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Happy Winter everyone! (except down under, happy summer!) I know many
of you are preparing for a winter holiday break and I wish you a joyous celebration
for whatever holiday you are planning.
We celebrate Christmas at my house and I love this time of year when I can
creep downstairs in the morning, through the dark house and find the switch
for the tree lights - it's my favorite way to greet the day!
I'm home now for the holiday, but want to thank the teachers at Margaret
Buerkle Middle School in St. Louis for their warm hospitality last week.
As soon as the new year begins, I'll be heading back out with a couple of
trips back to New York City and also to Los Angeles in January.
New workshops are going up for spring 2011. If you are looking to attend
a Layered Curriculum® workshop, check the calendar page.
http://help4teachers.com/
I still have a few openings in spring 2011 and my fall 2011 calendar is open for
those of you interested in hosting a workshop at your school.
As always, my best to you and yours, and a special greeting for this holiday season,
Kathie
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