Can we make sure our students learn mastery of a subject?
How would constant professional support change our attitude toward restructuring our lessons?
How do DOK tools affect students preparing for standardised exams?
Jeff Gargas is the person to call when you want support. He’s not going to recommend a different curriculum, he’s not going to ask you to invest in a pricey assessment packet, he’s not going to even try to convince you to switch publishers. He’s simply going to support you. Well, he’s going to support you in rethinking your curriculum and assessments and publisher’s books, but only to the extent you use them all just a little differently so that your students master those skills that they need to triumph in the standardised exams they have waiting for them at the beginning, middle or end of the year.
Activities to use this podcast in your classes:
- Jeff encourages teachers to make sure students have gained mastery over their studies – whether it be homework or classwork. Give your students a poll and ask them whether they feel like they are up-to-date with the curriculum or whether they would like a catch-up day or week. In this catch-up day/week, students would work. inpairs or small groups and go over all the material presented during that school year and clarify and doubts.
- Part of the work of Teach Better is using The Grid Method, which is a mastery learning framework that leads students from lower to higher order thinking. You can use the the Question Continuum to compare the questions you usually ask your students to questions of mastery that Jeff and his team promote. (If your students have trouble with higher-order level questions, you may want to propose them more often.) Ask your students to work in pairs and verbalise the differences between lower and higher order questions.
Music: The Brandenberger Family
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Scaffoldingmagic.com is your entryway into DYNAMIC bilingual learning methodologies, such as Phenomenon-Based Learning, CLIL, EMI, and ESL. You’ll find ways to implement critical thinking tools (DOK) to promote higher level thinking, the growth mindset, instil an ethic of excellence, deep reflection on learning, and all through multi-cultural, interdisciplinary activities. We have the keys to turning competences into action and to creating collective efficacy in your school so you move ahead as a unified, enthusiastic team.
