Marzano weighs in on Interactive Whiteboards

Dr. Robert Marzano is one of the leading researchers in education and I highly recommend any of his books. He's a true believer in data driven instruction and uses research to back his claims on the best way to instruct.

I ran across this article in Educational Leadership that he wrote about interactive whiteboards.

A few interesting tidbits...

"The study results indicated that, in general, using interactive whiteboards was associated with a 16 percentile point gain in student achievement. This means that we can expect a student at the 50th percentile in a classroom without the technology to increase to the 66th percentile in a classroom using whiteboards.

A second feature is the use of graphics and other visuals to represent information. These include downloaded pictures and video clips from the Internet, sites such as Google Earth, and graphs and charts. Use of these aids was also associated with a 26 percentile point gain in student achievement.

A third feature is the interactive whiteboard reinforcer—applications that teachers can use to signal that an answer is correct or to present information in an unusual context. These applications include dragging and dropping correct answers into specific locations, acknowledging correct answers with virtual applause, and uncovering information hidden under objects. These practices were associated with a 31 percentile point gain in student achievement."

He also weighs in on the use of "clickers" that allow the teachers to use data driven instruction. The best part of the article however is when he explains specifically what you should or shouldn't do to have the best results. For all of us SMART users - think SMART notebook when he says "flipchart."

Marzano's recommendations:

• Teachers should think through how they intend to organize information. They should group information into small, meaningful segments before they start developing the digital flipcharts. Once they've organized the content, then they can design the flipcharts to complement the organization. To ensure that they don't run through the flipcharts too quickly, teachers can insert flipcharts that remind them to stop the presentation so students can process and analyze the new information.

• Digital flipcharts should contain visuals, but those visuals should clearly focus on the important information. Also, no single flipchart should contain too many visuals or too much written information.
• After asking a question and getting student responses using voting devices, the teacher should typically discuss the correct answer along with the incorrect answers, making sure to elicit opinions from as many students as possible.
• When using reinforcing features like virtual applause, teachers should make sure that students focus on why an answer is correct or incorrect. Although these features can produce high engagement and certainly enliven the atmosphere in a classroom, they can also be distracting if used without a clear focus on essential content.

Read the full article here.

SMART Response VE

Don't have access to a Response receiver in the lab? Want to try out something new? Response VE is a way to have students respond to a test that you are giving online. Any tool that they have that has internet access can be used. If a student is at home sick, on vacation or you are in your lab - you can give an assessment (without using a receiver). If you are a teacher who is presenting to other teachers - this would also be a great way to give an assessment if you don't have a receiver available. Do a pre-assessment and find out what they know before you begin your presentation.

1. Create your assessment in notebook as you normally would. However, I have found that multiple choice questions are the only format that worked. I am assuming it is due to it still being a beta version. Save and close your notebook.

2. Go to "all programs," "SMART technologies," "SMART Response," "Set up tool," and change the response type to VE.

3. Open your notebook, start a class and start assessment. The assessment will be processed and a 6 digit code will pop up on your screen.

4. Students go to response.smarttech.com and log in with the code and their ID. They take the assessment on their device at their own pace.

5. Stop the assessment and review the results as you normally would. The student sees their score on their device.

Email me if you have any questions - shawns@bradfields.com.

The Games That We Play! - Zack Gilbert

Check out Zack Gilbert's list of games that he suggests that teachers use in the classroom. Zack is a former teammate of mine and awesome 6th grade social studies teacher who effectively integrates technology. Games are a great way to entice students to further their learning and better their understanding.

EdRead - The Games That We Play!

Planbook

If you haven't already read about planbook or aware of what it is, now is the time to check it out. There are new features that have recently been added.

Planbook New Features

Planbook is an online lesson planner that is free the first year. After that it is only $7.95 per year. Open an account and check it out. It is definitely worthy of a look.

planbook

Shout Out

I have been traveling a lot lately and wanted to give a shout out to all of the teachers in East Aurora, Carpentersville and Deland who I have met in the past few weeks. I am always impressed with the educators that I meet and learn so much doing this job.

Today, a teacher at Krug (East Aurora) came up with a great solution to one of the hide/reveals that I often teach. If you have been in one of my sessions or familiar with hide/reveal it is the one where the name of the object is written on the object and revealed by the magnifying glass. This is a great hide reveal if the object is one color. In the past, I have shown that you can create a frame around the object and put the name of the object on top of the frame if the object has many colors. This wonderful teacher said, "can't we make the background a different color?" DUH - Yes, you can! Put as many objects on a page that you want and make the background a dark color (or keep it white if you want to use a black reveal object). Bring in your magnifying glass after placing your objects. Type the names of the objects underneath your objects in the same color as your background. The magnifying glass will now reveal the names of your objects. A huge thank you to this fellow educator for helping me find another easy way to help teachers find their way with SMART!

The Hat

There are different ways within notebook that you can use to randomly choose a student, vocabulary word or item. This free software allows you to have another method outside of notebook. It is a free download. You enter your student's names and they are randomly pulled out of the top hat with a drum roll. A cute new way to keep your students interested.

The Hat

7-12 Interactive Web Sites

It's often difficult to find interactive sites to use with students at the secondary level. The links off of this site include all subjects and will definitely keep your students engaged. Imagine your students performing a heart transplant on the SMART board or computing ratios from a recipe.

7-12 Student Activities

3-6 Interactive Websites

Whether it's music, art, social studies or science that you are teaching, this site has links that will help make your lesson more engaging. One of the cute activities is in the Language Arts section called "Huggy Freeze Dance." Students are given a word that is shown as well as said and three monkeys. One of the monkeys is behaving like the word. Words such as irked and lackadaisical are used that would be great writing starters.

3-6 Student Interactive Activities

Wonderful Primary Sites

More great websites to help students stay engaged with your SMART board.

This first one has different activities that enhance your student's listening skills. One is titled "Pounce." The students hear the word and then have three word choices. The cat pounces on the word that they choose and they are given instant feedback. Another called, "What's in the Bag?" gives the students three clues on what could be in the bag. Students use inference and listening skills to determine what the object/item is. The 2nd link is the main site with other activities besides listening.

K-2 Listening activities

Main K-2 site

SMART Exchange - Change coming!

Most of you are familiar with the SMART exchange and have probably downloaded a lesson or two. There are some significant changes coming up that you should be aware of. Please read below information from SMART. The "My Resources" area will be a great tool to utilize.

Registration on SMART Exchange™ Required

Starting February 28, SMART will require users to register and become members in order to download or upload files on the SMART Exchange website. This change will provide educators with more control over the resources they share.

Membership benefits
Once registered, members will continue to have full access to all educational resources and interactive lesson activities. As part of their account, each member will also have a My Resources area in which to edit, delete or replace their uploaded files at any time. The My Resources area also enables users to view all resources they have shared and view statistics on how many times they have been downloaded or recommended.

This update will streamline the process involved in uploading teacher-created content to the site, shortening the time from when a teacher shares a file to when it becomes available to others.

SMART Exchange
The SMART Exchange website is SMART’s home for content and community, providing users with more than 50,000 lesson resources created by SMART, publishers and educators. It is easily accessible from within SMART Notebook software, and it adds significant value for customers who are considering buying SMART products.