High Social Capital

"High social capital can be described as the relationships that are forged in a community between its adults and its young people. In communities that are characterized by high social capital, parents often know the names of other children in the neighborhood; they'll offer children they know a ride; they'll cheer for children at sporting events and congratulate individuals on their successes; they'll call one another to share what they saw, particularly if anything they see is suspicious. Children who grow up in communities with high social capital tend to do well in school. In communities that are characterized by low social capital, children move through the neighborhood seemingly unnoticed; often no one at home asks about them or their schooling; sometimes children are left home alone for long periods of time without anyone checking in on them' parents in the community do not necessarily the other children nor engage with them. Children who grow up in communities with low social capital who attend private or parochial schools that foster high social capital tend to improve their academic performance."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

How does your school promote high social capital?

What strategies do you use to make sure students have strong relationships within the classroom?

Collaboration

"Cooperative learning describes a group working together and typically dividing up tasks to complete a particular assignment. The word cooperate intimates 'putting up with one another' for the common good. For example, if the class wants to get to lunch on time, everyone should cooperate and get on line and be quiet. Collaborate, on the other hand, intimates that some new knowledge is going to be developed based on the 'two-heads-are-better-than-one' principle. Collaboration results in an end product that is enhanced by the input of more than one person; thus, collaborative activities are open-ended and focused on higher-order thinking."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

When do your students naturally come together to collaborate rather than cooperate?

When have you been empowered to collaborate personally or professionally?

Connected Learning

"Students are motivated by real-world events, fueled by accessibility via the Internet. Brain research demonstrates that it is important to connect learning to students' lives; the reality-based shift in society provides additional evidence of the importance of connected learning.

Problem-based tasks provide the real-world authenticity for learning; the next step is to make deliberate connections to students' lives. Science teachers launch into the study of genetics by having students analyze their own genetic traits. Health teachers have students study their own nutrition. In designing problem-based tasks, consider the activities or requirements that could be used to connect the learning to students' lives."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Listen to this NPR Podcast on learning with real world connections.

Reflection Questions:

What real world connections have you used to engage and motivate your students?

How can you best organize your curriculum to most effectively take advantage of connected learning?

Student Responsibility for Learning

"Children are inquisitive from birth. From the time they can talk, they start asking questions and they explore everything within their reach. The quest for learning is innate, and children learn a tremendous amount from their peers. A young skateboarder sees an interesting move and begins to put a plan into place to learn that move. It may include watching others in person, on television, and on videos posted on the Internet. It may include creating a practice course and making it increasingly harder. It may include endless hours of practice. Your students know how to take charge of their learning, but schools teach them early on simply to listen to the teachers and do as they are told, thus squelching this natural pursuit of learning."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

See this blog post for ten tips for encouraging student responsibility.

Reflection Questions:

In order to be responsible for something, we must have power over it - what strategies have you used to empower students in their learning?

On what occasions in your classroom have students taken the most responsibility for their learning?

Individual Learning Path

"Clearly, there are not enough hours in the day to set up an individual learning path for every student and monitor each student's progress. This is why individual learning path and student responsibility for learning go hand-in-hand. If you provide students, even the youngest, with tools for assessing their own learning style and preferences, and you offer various learning options, they will learn to make appropriate choices, with you providing guidance on those choices."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

How do you accommodate a range of student needs and starting points in learning in your classroom?

What strategies do you deploy to empower students to self-assess content mastery and skill level in order to inform choices in learning?

Technology Infusion

"Technology should be seamlessly infused into the learning environment with students accessing hardware and software as needed to pursue the greater goals of completing their problem-based tasks. When used effectively, technology becomes a powerful partner in the learning process, and particularly, for differentiating instruction."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

How do you use technology in your classroom to differentiate instruction?

What technologies do you use transformationally? (Technologies that allow you to do things you could not do without technology)

Global Citizenship

"The Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom provides students with many opportunities for building their skills as global citizens. Make direct connections to other countries in your classroom activities. Students can engage in online activities with students in other parts of the world.

Build students' overall awareness of other countries. Students studying government structures can identify similar governments in countries around the world. Students can trace inventions to other countries; and they can look at today's manufacturing cycle in terms of other countries around the world."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

How will students be impacted by and be able to impact global events in their future?

What opportunities exist in your classrooms and schools for students to be active global citizens?

Learning from a Felt Need

Traditionally we have asked students to learn skills and concepts before they understand the reason or purpose to learn them. If we present students with a problem as a context for students to apply skills, we can create a felt need in them to learn the skills and concepts.

"It can be easier just to present content to students; however, it is unlikely that they will remember it past the test, if that far. When students experience a felt need to learn, and they are provided with just-in-time instruction, they retain that learning."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

Think of the skills that you are most proficient with - give an example of a skill and your felt need to learn it.

When have you created a felt need in your students? How did it change their engagement with learning?

High Academic Standards

"Students can accomplish amazing things when faced with high expectations and instructional supports - the two go hand-in-hand. Raising academic rigor will only result in more failure if students are not provided with the support to achieve at high levels. Teachers must overcome the tendency to teach to the level of the lowest-performing students and, instead, teach to a high level and help all students reach that level through differentiated opportunities to learn."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Watch this video to see one way that High Academic Standards can be achieved.

Edutopia Video - Teaching with High Academic Standards

Reflection Questions:

How do you set high expectations for all of your students?

What are your most effective strategies for helping students meet the high expectations you set for them?

Higher-Order, Open-Ended Thinking

"While it is true that one must master lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy before achieving the higher, attempting to build higher-order skills creates a felt need for the lower order. Deciding where to build an airport requires skills of map reading, graph reading, research, and more. Devising a plan for a bio dome on the moon requires concepts and skills related to ecosystems and living things."

Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge

Reflection Questions:

When have students had opportunities to engage with higher-order thinking skills in your classroom?

What difference does an open-ended question make to student thinking?