hazelratliff

Tom Rath's grandfather, Dr. Don Clifton, a Psychology professor at the University, decided to undertake a study on what is right with people instead of the basis of psychology to date - what is wrong with people?  From his work, Dr. Clifton became known as the Grandfather of Positive Psychology.  

He utilized the simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket to make his work more understandable to the "non-psychology" person.  His premise is that each person has an invisible "bucket" that is emptied or filled by what others say or do to us, and each has an invisible dipper that we use to fill or empty others' buckets by what we say or do.

A study of 1,000 American prisoners of war who had been detained in a North Korean camp, conducted by Major William Mayer, was described in this book.  It was found that the "most extreme and perversely effective case of psychological warfare on record" was used against those prisoners. There was no real physical torture or punishment used here.  There was no barbed wire fences or armed guards.  They regularly turned against each other and formed ties with their captors.  The tortue that caused them to "curl up and die"was simply this.  They lost all hope and gave up because of the mental tactics of their captors - that of denying the men "the emotional support that comes from interpersonal relationships."  They use the tactics of "informing, self-criticism, breaking loyalty to leadership and country, and withholding all positive emotional support."  They rewarded prisoners who snitched on each other, but did not punish either the informer or the one that was informed on.  They had to confess all the wrongs they had done in the presence of their peers.  They undermined the men's alligence to their superiors and to their country.  The last tactic proved to be most harmful.  They withheldall positive emotional support while inundating them with negative emotions.  They delivered only the "bad news" letters and bills to them.  All of these combined put the prisoners into an emotional and psychological isolation never before experienced in the history of warfare.

The researchers decided to frame the question, "If the negative could have such devasting effects, could the opposite make a life-changing difference for people?"  Their findings were that great recognition and praise, in the right, individually personal form, could immediately transform the workplace.

"The #1 reason people leave their jobs is they don't feel appreciated," states Rath.  employees whose buckets are constantly drained are less productive, less profitable, have a higher turnover, more accidents on the job, lower customer satisfaction, innovation, and quality scores.

Schools yield much the same story according to research done in 1925 by Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock.  She found that overall improvement for the various groups was as follows:  71% of those praised improved, 19% of those criticised showed some improvement, and only %5 of those ignored improved.

There are approximately 20,000 "individual moments" every day, according to Nobel Prize-winning scientist Daniel Kahneman, with each "moment" lasting several seconds. A ratio of 5 to 1 positive to negative moments is significant and "magic".  there is an upper limit of 13 positive to 1 negative ratio.Research in this section relates to marriages.

Negative emotions relate to failed marriages, lack of productivity and success in school and work, and to poor health.  They can reduce life expectancy 5.5 years for males and 7 years for females.

To increase positive emotions, you must habitually fill buckets.  Just knowing this isn't enough.  One must have "specific, actionable plans."  The author has narrowed from 4,000 open-ended interview responses to five strategies that will most likely produce results.  They are:  "Prevent bucket dipping, Shine a light on what is right, Make best friends, give unexpectedly, and reverse the Golden Rule" ("Do unto others as they would have you do unto them,'' or the things that make you really unique is what reaches you and fills your bucket.)

On their web site, you can find out how well you "fill buckets" compared to others by taking their 15-question Positive Impact Test.  Those questions are listed on page 94.  Their bucket-filling Interview is found on page 105.  Knowing this information about a person would allow you to reverse the Golden Rule and to better fill their buckets. 

At the end of the book, the author challenges the reader to imagine what our world would be like after one year of practicing bucket-filling.  He suggests that the following will result:  "your workplace will be more productive and fun; you'll have more friends; your colleagues and customers will be more satisfied and engaged;your marriage will be stronger; you'll enjoy closer relationships with family and friends; and you'll be healthier, happier, and well on your way to a longer like."

The above was one of the more practical, down-to-earth, psychology books that I have read.  The steps are doable, and the expected results have been well-documented.  Following the principles laid down here can impact every facet of your life, from school and work to family and friends.  This is a book worth reading and its tenents are worth practicing.

Content is what we teach and what we expect the students to learn.  Differentiating content can be done by adapting what we teach, or adapt or modify how we give students access to what we want them to learn.  In general, we should hold what students learn relatively steady, but change how we give them access to the content to match their needs.  Sometimes, we must change what we teach as well.  Ways we can do this follow.  We can focus on teaching  concepts vs miriads of facts or we can compact the curriculum.

"A good differentiated activity is something students will make or do in a range of modes at varied degrees of sophistication in varying time spans with varied amounts of teacher or peer support (Scaffolding) using an essential skill and essential information to understand an essential idea/principle or answer an essential question."

The following are among the many strategies that educators have devised that support differentiated processing.  learning logs, journals, graphic organizers, cubing, learning centers, Literature Circles, role playing, jigsaw, mind-mapping, etc.

A high-quality product assignment must cause students to think about, apply and expand on all the key understandings and skills.  The following elements must be encompassed in creating a powerful product:  Identify what the students must know and be able to do; identify the format for the product; determine and communicate expectations for quality; determine the scaffolding needed; differentiate versions of the assignment based on student readiness, student interest, and student learning profile; and lastly, coach for success.

Grading or keeping track of student growth cannot be done in the traditional manner if it is to convey useful information to the student and his parents.    It isn't necessary to throw out the grade book - just relabel the columns in a less specific, more generic way.  Information  gained via student folders that keeps a running record of work completed is powerful.  Have students share much of the record-keeping responsibility.  They can keep a calendar of daily or weekly activities completed, keep records of readings accomplished, and record their progress at a center or station.  Consider that not all work must be graded.  Allow some of the work to be for "practice' before taking a grade.  Finally, involve students in parent conferences in which students take the lead.

Pages 98-106 charts instructional and management strategies for differentiated, mixed-ability classrooms including the strategy, a description of the strategy, rationale for its use, and guidelines for its use.  This is a very helpful presentation of the information in a usable manner.

Chapter 6 offers 17 "megastrategies" to guide you as you move toward designing instruction that challenges all students.  First, develop a strong rationale for differentiating based on readiness, interest, and a learning profile.  Make sure the parents know what your thinking is.  Share your ideas and plans with them.  Begin at a level and a pace that you are comfortable with.  Plan student activities based on their individual attention spans.  Use an "anchor activity" to which students return as they finish the work given them (because they will complete their work at different speeds). 

Make sure their instructions are clear.  You may have to come up with a variety of ways to give them instructions (taped, charted, verbally, etc.).  Assign students to groups or areas in an orderly manner.  Make sure they know how to get help as needed without always going to you.  Have a "home base" for students.  There will be some noise and moving around, but minimize it as much as possible.  Teach the kids to help rearrange the furniture as activities change.  Have a plan for those who finish quickly, and be sure that those who always finish early are challenged.  promote on-task behavior.  At some point, you must call time, so have a plan for unfinished products to be done at home or some other time than class time.  Give students as much responsibility as possible for their learning and for procedures.

When planning for instruction based on student readiness, expert teachers do it "by ear".  They simply do what their intuition tells them to do in matching the tasks to the students.  Begin with foundational, basic, and present mataerial in such a way that understanding will develop.  Once a solid foundation is laid, move to transformational - to stretch and bend the idea to see how the idea can create new thought.  Move from simple to complex, from single facets to multiple, and small leaps to great leaps.  They should have to run ideas through their minds and figure out how to use them for appllication, insight, and transfer.  Move from structured, well-laid out tasks to open-ended ones.  Move from dependent to the independent study, thought, and production.  Determine when to move slowly and when they can move more quickly.   Adjust the speed of learning for struggling students as they learn key ideas more slowly at first, but then let them move more quickly as they gain independence.  Matching pacing to student need is critical.  "All students need lessons that are coherent, relevant, powerful, transferable, authentic, and meaningful."

A key feature of artrful teaching is knowing how to "hook" the learner and interest him/her in the topic to be taught.  Goals of interest-based instruction are:  helping students understand that there is a match between school and their desires to learn, the connectedness between all learning, using familiar ideas and skills to bridge to the less familiar, and enhancing motivation to learn.  There are a number of strategies useful in interest-based education.  They include:  I-Search which encourages students to be an inquirer on a topic of personal interst and to uncover their own curiosity, Orbitals which encourages students to raise questions of interest, Design-A-Day where students decide what to work on for a time, Group Investigation which is a cooperative learning strategy, WebQuests which is a teacher-designed Internet lesson, Jigsaw in which students work with peers to study one facet of a topic, Literature Circles in which students lead discussions of topics of interest, and Negotiated Criteria.

Chapter 10 deals with planning lessons differentiated by Learning Profile.  Page 61 gives a chart of the Learning Profile factors in the categories of group orientation, cognitive style, learning environment, and intelligence preference.  Strategies that support differentiation by learning profile include:  Complex Instruction, Entry Points, and Varied Approaches to Organizing ideas. 

There are many published tools to determine student readiness, interests and learning profiles, but teachers can devise a survey such as the one given on page 70.

Many of these ideas in this book are applicable to the workshop format, and many are already "built-in" to the design.  Years of working with students and teachers make part of these "second nature", but all are important.  It could be overwhelming to teachers new to the profession, but taking small, manageable steps makes it doable.

A differentiated classroom provides a variety of means to acquiring the content, the "making sense of ideas", and to developing products in order for each student to learn effectively.   In a differentiated classroom, the teacher acknowledges that different learners have different needs.  She makes learning options available, based on her knowledge of the learners' needs.  It becomes a "way of life" in the classroom, not a set of activities "if time allows".

The research tells us that, "learning takes place most effectively in classrooms where knowledge is clearly and powerfully organized, students are highly active in the learning process, assessments are rich and varied, and students feel s a sense of sefety and connection."  We also know that learning happens best when the experience pushes the learner beyond his independent level, but is not too far ahead of his current point of mastery.  In a nutshell, the intent is to maximize student capacity.

Advanced learners have a special set of needs not often recognized.  They can become mentally lazy because the material is too easy for them.  They may become too concerned with grades, or may become perfectionists.  They may fail to develop a sense of self-erricacy because they may not be stretched beyond what they think is their limit, or may be afraid that it will be discovered that they aren't "all capable" after all.  Often, they fail to develop good study habits (since they often don't need to study).  Coping skills may be limited as well.  We must continually raise our expectations (and our support systems) for advanced learners.  We must clearly state what would constitute excellence so they can set clear goals to stretch for.  It is also important to strike a balance between rigor and joy of learning to keep learning fascinating for them.

There are many reasons that learners struggle.  In working with struggling learners, we must look for things each can do well.  Focus on what they can do and how they can do it.  Pay attention to what is relevant for that learner in each day's work.  Make sure they learn the big ideas and the key concepts.  Develop in them a strong sense of self-efficacy by allowing them to  accomplish (encouraging, providing support, guiding planning, etc.). 

 The teacher's role in a differentiated classroom becomes one of an organizer of learning opportunities.  They focus on "reading their students".  Being able to do this is a learned skill.   Page 17 lists numerous skills that must be developed in order to do this successfully.  Three metaphors for the teacher's role are given.  They are that of:  director of an orchestra, coach, and jazz musician.

 Rules of thumb given include: Be clear on the key concepts, treat assessment as a road map for thinking and planning, emphasize critical and creative thinking for all students, create engaging lessons, and make sure that there is a balance between student-selected and teacher-assigned tasks and working arrangements.

In a differentiated classroom, everyone must feel welcomed and must contribute to everyone else feeling welcomed.  There must be a safe environment with mutual respect, a persuasive expectation of growth for all, an opportunity for all to grow, and all collaborate for mutual growth and success.  Students must be coached to be able to be contributing members of the group.  It doesn't happen automatically! 

Chapters 6-10 deal with the remaining habits of proficient readers, beginning with "questions formed in the mind while reading" as the next comprehension strategy.  In each senerio, the author is working with classroom teachers who "do good work", but who also have a deep intuitive knowledge that they could do a better job, given the right tools and situation.

Each strategy discussed is based on years of research done by numerous people who have all concluded that there are seven habits that are practiced by proficient readers.  For best results, teachers forus on one strategy for several weeks at a time, beginning each study by frequent modeling of the strategy, having students utilize the strategy, and conferencing with the students to monitor their progress of the process.  The modeling is best served by the teacher's reading aloud and stopping to think aloud so that the students can have insight into the metacognitive process.  Students must be guided to practice the habit in their independent reading in all subject areas in order for the strategy to become a habit that is "second nature" to them.  They discovered that their modeling had to include explicit descriptions of how asking questions before, during, and after their reading would help them to comprehend the material.

Spontaniously and purposefully evoking mental images while reading is the next habit that increases comprehension.  The images should emerge from all five senses in order to be most powerful, and should involve the reader's emotions.  These images should be anchored in the reader's prior knowledge and experience.

 Learning can be imbedded in the process of determining importance, the next habit under discussion.  As we read, we make judgements about what is important, and therefore needs to be remembered, and what is unimportant and can be dismissed or forgotten.  The process is quite intricate, but can be taught if modeled and guided practice is provided.

Conditions must be deliberately set for teaching inferencing.  We must set conditions that permit students to "discuss, ponder, augue, restate, relfect, persuade, relate, write about or otherwise work with words and ideas they read."   "Inferring is the process of creating a personal meaning" from the text.  It is the unique interpretation of the text.  It is creating a meaning that is not usually stated explicitly in the text.  The reader must learn to become aware of meaning that is implied, and draw conclusions and interpretations from the text.

Synthesis is the process of "ordering, recalling, retelling, and recreating into a coherent whole the information with which our minds are bombarded everyday."  We sift through the multitudes of information and details, and we focus on what we need to know and remember. Teaching synthesis is the greatest challenge of all the habits of readers.  I will require more think aloud modeling and more teacher conferencing on the teacher's part than the other habits. 

"fix-up strategies" is the last habit of proficient readers that is discussed.  It describes a toolbox or tool kit of a variety of strategies that will help readers comprehend when they realize that they are not comprehending the text.  Readers must be able to use this arsenal of tools flexibly, adaptively, and independently.

One reason that Mosaic of Thought speaks to me so vividly is that, as I was growing up throughout my public school education, I was taught that the author had one message or was conveying one meaning, and that we had to be able to decipher what that meaning or message was.  In Mosaic of Thought,  clearly the lesson is that we each bring to each piece that we read, our own experiences, and that each of us elicit different meaning or a different slant based on our experiences, and that is a legimitate interpretation of the piece.

 I will end with a quote that sums up my feelings on the topic of teaching the strategies of proficient readers:  "We cannot expect to be able to teach these techniques for increasing the scope and depth of a chld's comprehension unless we use them ourselves.  It is through owr own experience in reading-using these strategies very consciously at times-that we internalize and are able to teach them."