GEORGIA STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

2009 FALL CONFERENCE

Greetings colleagues:

Members of our staff were honored to attend theGeorgia Staff Development Council’s 2009 Fall Conference. Dr. Pam Robbins led educators from across the region in a detailed examination of the concept of rigor. This term is frequently used in contemporary teacher evaluation and training, but what is it really? Our study group derived this working definition:

Rigor: developmentally appropriate, challenging and achievable tasks that connect learn-ing to real life; andwhich require higher order thought to produce meaningful products.

The B.E.S.T.Academy works to provide a world-class education for The B.E.S.T. Men. We employ many rigorous strategies daily, and room for growth remains. Critical practices include differentiation, flexible grouping, quality work, technology, andutilizing Marzano’s nine teaching strategies;among others. Further “rigorous” training is still to come. Dr. Robbins demonstrated the following specific ideasthat we can apply today:

J. Blount, 2009

  • The brain remembers best in context
  • Standing up improves retention by 15% by providing better blood & oxygen flow to the brain
  • Humor expands retention by 50%
  • Asking students to reflect increases retention by 65-90%
  • Multiple intelligence teaching works
  • Using analogies, metaphor and comparison/ contrast increase performance by 45 percentile points
  • Attention span =child’s age + 1 minute
  • It takes 24 exposures to a new idea to achieve 80% mastery
  • Real world situations matter– Can they use it?
  • It takes 28 new views to undo wrong learning. We want perfect practice
  • The adult brain holds 7+ 2 bits of info. Consider the child’s brain
  • Vocal presentations are important - the expressive verbal part of a child’s brain is smaller today
  • Information NOT in a pattern is more memorable – it sticks out in the mind

J. Blount, 2009

These classroomready ideas are just the beginning of our efforts to enhance the level of rigor that characterizes our day-to-day instruction. I hope that you will find them useful and easy to incorporate. Please find additional brief strategies on the page that follows.

Respectfully,

Jeremiah Blount, II

Gifted and Talented

GEORGIA STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

2009 FALL CONFERENCE

ADDITIONAL STRATEGIES

  • Data driven interventions provide assistance in a student’s specific areas of growth
  • Curriculum alignment is critical to long-term success
  • Meeting basic needs (food, acceptance, etc.) enables access to higher thought functions
  • Writing a letter to the student builds his confidence and acceptance
  • We tend to teach how we like to learn
  • If student work requires learning to use cognitive processes such as explanation, interpretation, analysis and empathy, it engages the learner at a higher level
  • Higher order thinking tasks provide deeper learning
  • The mind can only fully focus on one concept at a time. Effective directions are given this way.
  • Displaying pictures on the right, and words on the left, stimulates the left- and right-brain
  • Giving students feedback gives them a sense of control and willingness to grow
  • It takes 24 hours to know if information was stored in long-term memory
  • Trust among colleagues is key to sustainable success
  • Student work based on data from a variety of assessments promotes higher level thought
  • Involving students in developing/ assessing targets and standards makes them an invested part of the learning process
  • Creativity development is crucial – most future jobs have not yet been created
  • “Robust” vocabulary posters work
  • Teaming popular and unpopular students early on helps prevent bullying later
  • Teacher-student rapport increases confidence and freedom to relax, think and try
  • Linking the social and emotional with the cognitive improves learning

J. Blount, 2009