Tag: reading

Tips to make more out of your readings

tips & ideasLeave a Comment on Tips to make more out of your readings

Quite a few people I know struggle to get into the habit of reading, let alone enjoy reading. In this post, I’m going to share some tips and ideas of how you can take more out of reading both in terms of comprehension and enjoyment of the process.

  1. Take notes. Whenever you read something, it’s worth making an effort to record the most important points. Some people like to underline or highlight ideas, but it tends to be a very ineffective practice. Instead, rephrase the ideas or copy quotes if they are so very well phrased, but don’t simply leave them on the page. Have a place where you collect these ideas or decide how you want to revisit them. If you have enough notes/quotes, you can try the constant comparative method to tease out even more ideas (tip 4 below).
  2. Organise your notes into subtopics. You can understand a topic much better if you have several ideas about it, or even if you have several perspectives on the same concept. Once you start to organise your notes into groups of ideas, you will realise that you have a wider and/or deeper understanding of it, with possible nuances, challenges and so on.
  3. Lateral reading. Read more on the same idea or concept to find out if it is the majority or minority opinion. Read more on the same idea or concept to deepen your understanding, to find out novel perspectives, controversial points, weaknesses, contradictions and so on. It’s super important to have layers and nuances about what you read because nothing is one-dimensional or easy. Lateral reading involves reading up on concepts that are related to the main idea or how certain ideas or methods are conceptualised in a related discipline. This way you can find some novel ways of doing an old thing or a new perspective and thus new understanding you never thought of.
  4. Constant comparative method. This method used in qualitative research is about reading and rereading your notes or quotes in order to organise them into topics. Reread your notes several times and you will notice that the ideas start “talking to you” and new ideas you didn’t see before will emerge. I suggest you put each idea or quote on a separate sheet of paper if you want to do this manually, then organising them into topics is easier. Give a heading to a subtopic if you find one and don’t hesitate to rename them, merge subtopics or create new ones on the way. Of course, this can be done electronically as well, where it’s a lot easier to manipulate the quotes, but maybe it’s more difficult to get an overall picture. You can find more on the constant comparative method in Maykut and Morehouse’s Beginning qualitative research (chapter 9).
  5. Book club. A lot of things are more fun when you do it with others, and reading is no exception. Get together your collaborative team or PLN and discuss your readings. You might find that an important idea eluded you or that a colleague understood a nuance about the topic that you interpreted differently. New ideas and perspectives thus deeper understanding are guaranteed!

πŸ”§ Resources. Find my collected readings in this regularly updated Wakelet collection.

Do you have some other tried-and-tested ideas? Share them with us in the comments section.

5 important things to do to improve your teaching practice

food for thoughtLeave a Comment on 5 important things to do to improve your teaching practice
  1. Read. Read a lot. Identify issues in your teaching practice you want to improve and find relevant reading – both academic and practical. If you don’t know where to start, talk to the Training Department, your librarian, or ask an experienced colleague. If you find the books and articles valuable, browse the sources the authors used to read further. Reading is important for several reasons. It gives you a wider perspective about the issues in teaching, whether they are advantages/disadvantages of a method or practical advice and so on. Also, you can dig deeper in a concept or idea to find the nuances. You can find some more ideas on reading in an earlier blog post.
  2. Observe teachers in action. So much can be learnt from observation – and the observed teacher doesn’t have to be the same subject teacher or super experienced. I tend to observe teachers who are a lot less experienced than me and I learn a lot from them and through observation. Just by looking at a teacher at work can give invaluable insights into what works and what doesn’t work, and thus we can activate changes in our own practice.
  3. Talk to experienced teachers. Any time you have a question, you can turn to a more experienced colleague and discuss the issue (at least at our school this is the case). Are you stuck with assessment? You don’t know how to design more engaging lessons? You are starting to have doubts about Bloom’s taxonomy? You have a difficult student? Talk to experienced colleagues, who might not be able to solve the problem (and that is not their job), but they can help you with thinking or they will ask the right questions to move you forward.
  4. Experiment with new things. Try out new techniques, new tools, new ways to write objectives and so on. Be proactive and see what happens. Be deliberate in your actions, rather than random and haphazard. Introduce small and incremental changes. Be patient because sometimes the effects are not immediate. Collect some data (evidence) to see if your intervention works – for example student work, student feedback, peer observation. Be honest with yourself when it comes to claiming positive changes.
  5. Reflect on your practice. Reflecting on our practice is crucial. This includes analysing and evaluating what happened and coming up with ways to improve. Honesty is of utmost importance, otherwise no improvement. Make reflection your habit. Here are some questions to start out with after each lesson: What went well? What didn’t go well? How do you know? What needs to be changed? Why? As you improve with reflection, you can come up with your own sets of questions. An advanced form of reflection is what SchΓΆn (1983) called reflection-in-action. This means that the teacher is assessing the lesson on the spot and making changes as the lesson is unfolding to address potential issues. These issues don’t have to be problems, they can be simple things such as changing the instructions or the planned grouping, removing some scaffolding, and so on.

Any ideas on the above? Any other practical things to do to improve our teaching practice? Share with us in the comments section.

Why do we read criticism of theories?

food for thoughtLeave a Comment on Why do we read criticism of theories?

I’ve been an advocate of reading in general and reading for professional development purposes in particular for a very long time. I keep encouraging my colleagues and everyone around me to read more, read more extensively and read more deeply. A special type of reading for PD, in my opinion, should be criticism of theories – but why? Here are some of the reasons how reading criticism of theories enriches my understanding and teaches me new things.

  1. Avoid one-sidedness and have a balanced view. Knowing one side of the story only will lead to half-truths or misconceptions. Not being willing or open to arguments against our favoured position is blindness we impose on ourselves. I’m in favour of the full picture, so I love reading criticism of theories, methods, tools, etc. and I can even gain new insights and learn new things.
  2. Educate yourself on issues you know less about. If you know less about an issue, it might mean that finding the weak points of an argument by yourself is more difficult. There are plenty of smart researchers and scientists out there who move forward their field by offering criticism of theories. Read those to learn more.
  3. Anticipate problems. Knowing that a method, or a tech tool for that matter, has downsides makes you more prepared, which is invaluable knowledge in teaching. Teachers cannot allow avoidable blind spots by ignoring potential negative consequences or downsides. For example, buying into “constructivism” without knowing where extreme versions of it can lead to is irresponsible. We can prevent such issues by being conscious of and knowledgeable about the negative side by being aware of the criticism.
  4. Improve critical thinking. We tend to get overenthusiastic when we find a “magic method” or a fantastic new tool, with each seemingly having the potential of solving all our problems. Not so fast. Think of potential problems, negative effects or cons. This will improve your critical thinking and you will not fall into traps that can be avoidable.
  5. Rethinking. Adam Grant’s Think again details why it is so important to keep rethinking our ideas. One way to do so is to read positions that contradict our own ideas, including criticism of theories and methods. Make yourself smarter by considering opposing views and potentially reconsidering and fine-tuning your own position.

What are other reasons why we need to read the criticism of theories? Share with us in the comments section.

What am I reading?

food for thought, tips & ideasLeave a Comment on What am I reading?

I recently posted about why I consider reading an important part of professional development. I’m always baffled by people saying they don’t like reading and I think I cannot accept this from a teacher. At the same time, I understand time constraints as well as the sometimes impenetrable language/concepts presented in academic journals. Therefore, I’ve started a collection with articles and blog posts that are easily accessible both in terms of their availability online and their language. In most cases they shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to read. This is by no means an exhaustive list of must-read articles, neither is it a representative cross-section of basic concepts and theories in teaching. Rather, it is intended to raise interest in certain topics, show that notions and concepts are not one-sided, and raise curiosity to dig deeper. The collection reflects my personal interests.

What can you do with this collection? You can pick an article that tickles your fancy, you can share articles with colleagues, you can start your own reading lists, you can start a reading circle, you can search for articles that fit in with your current interests for self-development, you can suggest further articles to share, and so on.

Do you have any questions or suggestions? Leave a comment below.

The role of reading in professional development

food for thought, tips & ideasLeave a Comment on The role of reading in professional development

One might argue that reaching a certain level of professional knowledge will be sufficient to get by in the profession and no more is needed. In the unlikely event that some gaps in knowledge are highlighted, quick training sessions will be enough where someone (the trainer) tells the participants what to do and how to do it, the participants (teachers) will “get it” and off they go, everybody is happy. However, not only is this approach deeply faulted, conversing with colleagues only, in the name of social constructivism or peer discussion or something similar, will not broaden a teacher’s knowledge and understanding of current state of affairs. I suggest reading in order to deepen and widen knowledge (see this blog post on the breadth and depth of knowledge). So why read?

  1. While normally you cannot choose who your colleagues are, you can definitely choose what you want to read. You can pick up the books and articles of the greatest minds, thus reading cutting edge research and smart points and counterpoints. You can always be in control of what topics, concepts, notions and theories you want to know more about.
  2. You can decide to deepen or widen your knowledge. Do you want to dig deeper in a topic (depth of knowledge) or do you want to be more familiar with related ideas, concepts and competing theories (breadth of knowledge)? You can do either or both. You can create bibliographies, select great ideas you want to revisit or learn more about, or you can start with a question you want to learn more about and follow its lead.
  3. You can read up on different perspectives, compare differing viewpoints, follow reasoning and finally come to your own conclusions. Thoughts and claims in academic books and articles will be backed up with credible evidence, which will further advance your knowledge as you can follow up those sources.
  4. There’s always more to learn. If you talk to colleagues who don’t want to read or deepen and widen their knowledge in other ways, how are you going to learn anything from conversations with them? Reading academic articles and professional books will allow you to be on top of the trends in education, whether its technology, educational psychology, the sociology of learning or anything you’re interested in. Any professional, whether it’s a teacher, a doctor or a physicist, needs to learn the latest development in their profession so that they can serve their clients (students) the best possible way. Do you want to learn from somebody who hasn’t updated their knowledge in the past couple of decades? No? Then don’t do the same to your own students and start reading.
  5. You don’t have to do the reading on your own. Invite like-minded colleagues to discuss readings, recommend books and articles, set up a book club – anything goes. If you start (continue) reading, you will see that new horizons open up and you’ll become more knowledgeable than your colleagues who don’t read.

πŸ“š Reading. How knowledge helps? It speeds and strengthens reading comprehension, learning – and thinking by Daniel Willingham will add invaluable scientific insight to the above point: reading, learning and thinking are deeply intertwined.

Do you have any other ideas? Has any of the above points grabbed your attention and you have a comment? Share with us below or ask a question.

Explore BW’s online library

trainingsLeave a Comment on Explore BW’s online library

Reading for PD is essential; you can update your knowledge and broaden your horizon by reading quality articles and books. There is absolutely no teacher development and improving practice without engaging with professional readings.

For this reason, the Training Department has started to collect articles available on the internet, and organise them thematically. These curated lists of readings currently contain the following:

  1. Assessment, evaluation, feedback
  2. Differentiation and inclusion
  3. Lesson planning, curricular planning
  4. Teacher research

πŸ”§ Resources. Find all the collections here.

Would you like to contribute with your own curated list? Do you want to add items to the existing collections? Send the TD an e-mail!

AI in teaching

food for thought, tips & ideasLeave a Comment on AI in teaching

AI is everywhere from algorithms to face recognition and to art. There are even tools we can use in teaching! Here are some tools and ideas, but I feel the possibilities are endless.

1. Photos. There are various ways AI can generate or manipulate photos. Here I’m talking only about honest takes on this, where the source of the photos is not hidden and the purpose is transparent. Check out generated.photos to see 100% AI generated photos.

How can you use it? Teach media literacy! Generate a discussion about AI or any aspect of being human without actually offending anyone (as the photos don’t depict real humans). Use varied faces in your projects with a clear origin of the source.

2. Art. Would you believe the painting below was produced by AI?

Source: www.artaigallery.com

If you feel artistic, you can create your own portraits, landscapes, album covers and much more with Artbreeder.

You can turn your photos into artwork, using Deepart: just upload a photo and select the style.

How can you use it? As with photos, teach media literacy. Also teach critical thinking, and appreciation of art. You can lead a discussion into the value of art work, the place of AI in a human world, the relationship between AI and humans and much more. You can set up a friendly competition between AI and the students, with blind judges evaluating the art work created by AI and humans, then discuss the conclusions you have drawn.

3. Voice. There are an endless number of tools to generate voice out of text. Read this blog post on some of the text-to-speech (TTS) softwares out there. Voki is a fun one for the students to play around with. Check out this elephant talk.

How can you use it? You can use TTS softwares to speed up your video production. Write the script, feed it into a TTS tool, download the MP3 and that’s it: fast and no mistakes. You can use this audio file as voice over in videos or share with students or parents. (In cases where audio is additional to text. Both students and parents might prefer the teacher’s voice.) To make the most of Voki, create an avatar of yourself or a class mascot, who will introduce new topics or tell instructions to the students. This way, you don’t have to repeat the instructions over and over again! Students can create an avatar, who will be their spokesperson when it comes to summarizing concepts or the lesson, or sharing new ideas with others.

Talking. Sophia is currently the most famous AI you can talk to. Watch and listen to her in action. Although it’s not possible for most of us to talk to an AI like Sophia, we use chatbots all the time, for example when we need help on a new online platform or when we get stuck and need some troubleshooting online.

How can you use it? Teach students to ask the right questions so that a chatbot can find an answer whenever they need one.

4. Videos. Create a video out of a photo, or add audio to it. Rosebud can create a short video, a face loop or a cartoon character out of your photo. Synthesia goes further, in that it can create an AI reading out the text you’ve inputted. Watch a short video created with Synthesia.

How can you use it? You can use these as part of video creation, whether it’s a tutorial or a scaffolding video. Check out these ideas on how teachers can make use of videos in teaching. Students can play around and create clips of what they’re studying or feed these blocks into a video creating tool. You can use student-created clips as a starting point for collaborative work, discussion, or a project.

5. Reading. The Immersive Reader is part of most tools nowadays. Check out Wakelet for example. If you add a note, the Immersive Reader will read it out for you. There are several extra options to choose from: voice selection, speed, font type and size, line focus, translation, etc. More on the Immersive Reader in Wakelet here. Microsoft has created an awesome tool, Reading progress in Microsoft Teams, which will help young readers and their teachers. Watch the video below on how it works.

How can you use it? If you have non-native speakers as students, they can make use of the immersive reader! Teach them to look for the sign of the immersive reader and have (pieces of) texts read out to them. Microsoft’s Reading progress is a great tool for young students: they can practise, check and self-correct. Their teacher can assign more practice assignments or set the level a bit higher up. As the process is automated, more practice can be done than ever before.

6. Drawing. Google’s AI can guess what you’re drawing! Book Creator’s Auto Draw uses the same concept. When you create, you can add professional looking drawings to your books to tell your story.

How can you use it? If it’s important to illustrate your content with nice-looking drawings, you can make use of Book Creator’s Auto Draw function. You can use Google’s Quick, draw as a hook or a discussion starter on AI, assistive technology, or algorithms.

🎁 Bonus. Don’t forget to teach media literacy skills to students so that they can find their way among fakes, hoaxes and security issues. Check out Common Sense Education website for various media literacy resources.

Do you have another great idea on how to make use of AI in teaching? Do you know of other great tools? Share with us in the comments section.

3 tips to make kids love books (or at least start interacting with them)

preschool, primaryLeave a Comment on 3 tips to make kids love books (or at least start interacting with them)

Reading has many benefits as language and cognitive development go hand in hand. Benefits include greater visualisation capacity, ability to relate to others, developing deep understanding, resilience and grit, heightened empathy and willingness to help others, and it also fosters belonging (source).

Here are three ideas on how to make students start reading and potentially love books.

#1 Treasure hunt. Bring the children to the library and organise a treasure hunt where either the clues or the answers are the books or in the books. You can use QR codes to elevate the fun. (More ideas on this in the next blog post.)

#2 Goodie bags. Create goodie bags with the most interesting books like this teacher did.

#3 Flipgrid. Have students share their reading experiences on Flipgrid.

πŸ”§ Resources Find literacy-related resources in the following collections: Story-telling and Young learners

πŸ’‘ Tip Use both mirror and window books when selecting books for the children. Mirror books are the ones in which we can recognise ourselves, and window books are the ones that open a window to another world with people very different from us, helping understanding and acceptance. Follow this tweet below for more detail.

πŸ“š Further reading Edutopia has thousands of ideas and blog posts on reading and literacy. Start reading here.

Do you have other ideas on how to make students read? Or do you have an initiative to motivate students to read in the school? Share your tips and ideas with us in the comments section.

How can children start their own stories?

tips & ideasLeave a Comment on How can children start their own stories?

Who doesn’t like great stories? We love them for so many reasons: they are engaging, they play on our imagination and creativity, they enhance verbal intelligence, they build communities and so much more. In this post, find some ideas on how to start story-telling with young and very young learners, more specifically how you can encourage the little ones to tell their own stories.

1. Use a picture prompt to finish, coupled with some questions. As the students finish the drawing, they start thinking about the characters. Who are they? What are they doing here? They can tell the story afterwards.

2. Use a series of pictures to prompt a story. The students need to finish the drawings, then they can use their own words to tell the story.

3. Use a cute character, add a speech bubble and encourage the students to say what the character is saying, thinking, dreaming about. Then the story starts.

4. Picture prompt and question combined. Use a fun pic and an inviting question for the students to start their story.

Find out more about the above comics and search for equally fun picture prompts on the author’s page: Jarrett Lerner’s website.

5. Get inspired by Danielle Davis’ videos in This writer’s life channel. She offers advice and prompts to young writers on how to start writing, how to develop characters and what to write about. One of my favourite episodes is Small story, big problem, in which Danielle walks budding authors through the steps of writing a story of the same title. Another similar episode is the 5-thing story generator, which helps you write a story out of things familiar to you. Give it a go!

6. If your students respond to moving images better, create an animation. You can put together the backbone of a story with a video maker (adding no sound) and the students can narrate their story. You can use their own drawings by scanning them, and you can add questions to prompt them to add more, or you can ask them to continue the story. As an additional challenge, you can ask older learners in the school to create such an animation for young learners.

If you need more ideas on what to do with stories in class, read this recent blog post on story-telling. Share with us in the comments section great ideas and success stories with stories!

Young learners in video/audio mode

preschool, primaryLeave a Comment on Young learners in video/audio mode

Young learners just love videos and interactive content. What if someone is camera shy? Use audio only. Here are three ideas of how to use Flipgrid/Seesaw video/audio with young learners.

1. Make them say it. Use it for sound discrimination with very young learners. Check out Flipgrid’s discovery library for more ideas on word families and sound discrimination.

2. Reading fluency. Students will show off how good their reading has become by reading out short segments. This can be done in camera or mic mode.

3. Draw and explain. Students can draw or illustrate a problem, for example a simple equation, and explain how they’ve come to their conclusion.

If you want to know more about the new mic mode in Flipgrid, watch this short video in which Matt Bergman explains it.

The above ideas can done in Seesaw too. How do you use the video/mic mode with young learners? Share it with us in the comments section.

Skip to toolbar