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My interest in the idea of sharing pedagogical purposes comes directly with the contact I have had with the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning at Monash University in Australia. Now each of these teachers were very active in establishing learning agendas with their classes. The impact they were having was inspiring. Each classroom tool can have a purpose beyond delivering content, and this needs to be shared.
I suppose the purpose of this website is collate, crystalise and open dialogues about how to increase this within classrooms. As the quote from Carl Bereiter illustrates this classroom methodology can empower our students.

Thursday, 30 December 2010

Metacognitive wrappers based around Marzano's 8 C's of engament.

This is an attempt at personalising the start point of a learning experience. I have planned a choice of four different metacognitive wrappers. These have been designed around the four classification of Robert Marzanos learning styles ( from On excellence in teaching"").
The students will arrive and "best fit " themselves to a category. I have intentionally dropped the labels, although this may be a mistake, to keep the start of the lesson as simple as possible for the students.
I have tried to simplify Marzanos language for year 7 students and phrased them as questions to invite self reflection. I will record their preferred style for future reference and use.
















Once selected the students will have Metacognitive wrapper for their prefered style. These have been designed to meet the assigned C's of engagement. The basic format of these wrappers are to get the students to think about the content of the lesson and also about a strategy that will facilitate their learning. I have attempted to match these thoughts with their particluar C. I don't think these are perfect yet. Any suggestions to improve them are welcome.

1. Mastery learners who are driven by success and are engaged predominately by Competition and Challenge

















2. Interpersonal learners who are driven by relationships and are engaged by Cooperation and Connections.
















3. Understanding learners are driven by the need to make sense of things and are engaged by Curiosity and Controversy.














4. Self Expressive learners who are driven by origionality and are engaged by Choice and Creativity.















I will update this post after I have used them with some student reponses, and when I have overcame the Nuthallian problem of what success will look like in this lesson.
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 December 2010 at 11:42

    Fascinating experiment, not sure myself what success would look like, apart from the fact that the playing field should be levelled. Using Marzano rubrics! (ie scored objectives) students should be able to make measurable progress which can be scored. I am also very much enjoying the recent Marzano suite of books, especially rethinking ways of tracking, scoring and measuring outcomes of learning not only for the students but ourselves. let the classroom always be a place to experiment!
    @paulshakesby

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  2. Anonymous30 December 2010 at 12:02

    Couldn't you just try teaching them?

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  3. Gwyn ap Harri30 December 2010 at 14:23

    Hi Darren, really good way of classifying what motivates students to learn. It might be a bit dangerous like "learning styles" which could pigeon hole kids, but it will be great to find out how they respond, and then get the balance right.

    Just ignore numbnut's comment. must be all that anti Gove stuff attracting attention.

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  4. DKMead30 December 2010 at 15:26

    Just to clarify this is the first 10 minutes of a lesson. The idea is you engage the students in the topic and then it is easier to teach them. Maybe I over complicated this, but I know my year 7's understand what a metacognitive wrapper is for. I think credible teachers do this much planning to create a challenging authentic learning experience. I may post the rest of the lesson, with , planned teacher question, formative assessment points and alternative routes the topic.
    I wonder if these will be miss interpreted too?

    Gwyn - that's why I have called them colour groups as I'm unsure about the pigeonholing.... I think I need to see what happens first.
    Paul- I'd be very interested to hear about what you are upti using Marzanos ideas- I'll hook up with you on Twitter...

    Thanks all for your comments

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  5. Laura31 December 2010 at 10:56

    I agree that this starter could really help with motivation, especially at the tricky beginning point of a lesson when there's so much to contend with meaning it is helpful that can get each student motivated.

    I'd be interested to know how many students pick something because they simply like the colour, or because their friend is doing it -- rather than because they have actually thought through their strengths and preferences. But even watching for that sort of behaviour is likely to give you clues on levels of maturity and ability for meta-thinking (at this young, year 7 stage!)

    Thanks for sharing and I look forward to hearing how it goes. I get the point made by the person above ("Couldn't you just try teaching them?") but as a teacher I am always interested to know *how* others are teaching and if it is successful. This website is a great way to do that.
    @miss_mcinerney

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  6. DKMead1 January 2011 at 17:59

    Thanks Laura

    Thats the point exactly!

    I really believe teachers need technical language of some sort to fully describe not only the task but the process of the task.

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