Effective Effort ETHS

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Effective Effort _at_ ETHS
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Objectives

• To define Effective Effort
• To share what we have been doing with EE
• To share resources--research, articles, etc
• To map current work
• To dream and map future work
• To connect to curriculum, PD, other change
  efforts

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Overview of Meeting
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Norms for Our Work together

• Actively listen to each other
• Push for clarity
• Allow for vulnerability

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Introductions

• Find someone you dont work closely with
• Take ten minutes to share
• An experience when EE was part of your life
• An experience when EE was important in helping a
  student
• Introduce partners EE story to the group
• Processing What patterns do we hear?

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What patterns do we hear?

• Making concrete pictures/examples of EE
• Dedication to hard work (value)
• Changing belief system about smart
• Success building confidence pointing out
  successes
• Self-examination
• Relationshipst/sthat allow self-examination
• Feeling comfortable enough to be vulnerable
• As adults, our stories started with internal
  motivation
• Were pushing students to operate at a higher
  level than previously
• Kids have different amounts of extrinsic
  motivation and other supports that impact their
  performances
• Someone else cares and notices

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Map of current Effective Effort work
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Current Applications
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Current Applications
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Current Applications
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Map of possible applications

• Component of every 9th grade core course
• Affect our hiring decisions
• Part of a stated school set of beliefs/values
• Create a school culture that counters beliefs in
  our culture that negatively impact kids (racism
  and beliefs about intelligence)

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What exactly is Effective Effort?

• Using Understanding by Design, we will identify
  core elements
• What are the enduring understandings we want
  students to carry with them?
• What is the essential question?
• What is the knowledge (concepts, ideas, facts)?
• What are the skills (processes, strategies)?
• What are the habits of mind?

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Planning to teach Effective Effort
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What knowledge?

• Incremental vs. Entity Theory of Intelligence
  (I can get smart.)
• Beliefs about intelligence matter
• Meta-cognition
• Learning is a social activity I need to be a
  member of a learning community
• Learning Styles
• Characteristics of a successful learner
• Attribution Theory

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What skills/strategies?

• Time management
• Organizational skills
• Self-advocacy and self-monitoring
• How to get help when you need it
• Self-reflection
• How to identify and use resources
• How to set and monitor goals
• Study skills note-taking
• Reading comprehension skills What do you do
  when you dont know? (vary by discipline)
• How to be meta-cognitive
• How to build an effective learning
  community/study group (breaking down the
  task/problem into component parts)

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What Habits of Mind?

• Persistence in the face of failure, setback
• Hard Work
• Resiliency
• Appreciation for learningvalue learning
  personally

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Routines/Methods for Teachers can use to
reinforce Effective Effort

• No grade on failing paperreteach and identify
  what the students needs to do
• Error analysis and retake tests
• Take on the role of coaching and preparing
  students to be strong independent learners (move
  the locus of control to the students/tenacity
  continuum)learn how to learn
• Answer every question with a question
  (redirecting students question to others)
• Being clear about assignments and have strong
  rubrics so that students can self-assess

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What have we accomplished?

• Identified what we are already doing
• Found some commonalities across our work
• Dreamed of new approaches school-wide
• Raised some good issues about how to teach, how
  to do this work
• Started defining effective effort at ETHS

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How do we want to use April 29 ?

• Possible Tasks
• How to work with kids who have a competitive
  nature but are not focusing on achievementhow
  might we create an academic learning group to use
  this competitiveness?
• Continue to use coaches, PE teachers share the
  common language
• How do we make this school-wide?
• How do we involve staff as well as students?
• How do we connect this to being more successful
  in ensuring students learn content?
• Clarify what is the core curriculum (knowledge
  and skills) and what are the structures and
  policies that teachers can put into place?

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NOTES from April 29 meeting with Jon Saphier
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Whats the purpose of the group?

• JS This is a think tank how to move the school
  culture so that EE shows up in 3 domains
• Teacher beliefs and practices what does it look
  like and sound like in classrooms? (I have
  believe that they have the capacity and I have to
  get them to believe in their capacity.)
• Direct teaching of EE what it is and how to do
  it?
• Formal Structures Programs, procedures, and
  policies of the school embed and support EE.

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Next Steps Summer, fall

• Anthony advertise and celebrate EE (t-shirt and
  a campaign)
• David figure out how to fold this work into what
  were already doing
• Vernon fold into RtI
• Ali Select some common strategies and start to
  develop a common vocabulary (e.g., test
  corrections)
• Nicole share informally across departments
• Tenesha elicit EE strategies from other teachers
  and organize
• Nicole teach what it is and how to do it in
  Summer Bridge to AP US History
• Jack develop a straight forward message about
  what it is, e.g., 1 Humanities team
• Aracely Work with Lucy Pulido and use in Latino
  Quest workshops for teachers on specific
  practices
• David W Build a critical mass of teachers to
  lead the group we need to become a choir we
  need to rehearse our song
• David C teachers are open to new strategies
  lets figure out how to share specific strategies
  
• Regina connect to work on literacy start using
  the vocabulary when teaching literacy strategies

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EE Group Next Year?

• Meet next year
• Experiment with specific strategies
• PLCs
• Invite Jon
• Consider opening the membership to group
• Continue work on defining EE
• ½ day

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Why would a kid exert EE?

• Knows how to do it
• Accurate self-assessment of what s/he knows or
  doesnt know
• Its relevant learning it would be worth it
  (This is not about being entertaining.) Lessons
  start or connect with kids questionsactive
  engagement.
• Inherently interesting
• Because my teacher or another significant person
  asked me to
• Wants to be recognized for EE (student of month)
• Knows that its OK not to know somethingin fact,
  that is what successful learners do and ask for
  help.
• Strong social norms that reinforce that this is
  what we do here.
• Transfers from another arena in life (e.g.,
  athletics)
• Letting kids in on the full and transparent
  planwhy and what are we doing?
• HOPE kids believe that they can succeed at the HS

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Sharing Resources
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Whats our purpose?

• Develop a plan to do this systematically be
  consistent, have follow-through, ongoing support,
  not just for the volunteers