Maja Wilson teaches high school English in Ludington, Michigan. She is the author of Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment,
published in 2006 by Heinemann. email: maja384@yahoo.com.
Ms. Wilson's beautiful article on writing, assessing, revising and how rubrics fall short.
http://secondaryenglish.pbworks.com/f/rubric_use.pdf
Friday, September 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Gotta Love Those Ironic Typos! (or are they Freudian Slips?)
Hole Brain Owner/Operator and Genuses Builder extraordinaire, Chris Biffle writes,
"Okay, my dear Wibbeteers! You've been waiting for it! Our email boxes have been jammed with requests for it! What will be the FIRST EVER Valentines WBT contest? And what, oh what, will be the prize?????
Sometime betweeen now and the end of Feb. 14, give a student in your class a timer set to five minutes. Ask her to make a tally mark every time you use "Teach-Okay" during a five minute burst of instruction. Excellent use of WBT would be a score of 10 or more "Teach-Okays" ... at least one every 30 seconds. Post the results of your experiment here with a description of your lesson ... and conclude with your best, most endearing and original student responses when you give your kids the sentence frame, "I love WBT because _______."
What does the winner get? I'll call you, yes call you!, and give you AN ADVANCE SNEAK PREVIEW OF OUR MOST EXCITING GAME YET ... GENIUS BUILDING!!! You know how in muscle building we build muscles? Well, in Genius Building, we build GENUSES!
The Valentines WBT contest starts now!!!!"
Sometime betweeen now and the end of Feb. 14, give a student in your class a timer set to five minutes. Ask her to make a tally mark every time you use "Teach-Okay" during a five minute burst of instruction. Excellent use of WBT would be a score of 10 or more "Teach-Okays" ... at least one every 30 seconds. Post the results of your experiment here with a description of your lesson ... and conclude with your best, most endearing and original student responses when you give your kids the sentence frame, "I love WBT because _______."
What does the winner get? I'll call you, yes call you!, and give you AN ADVANCE SNEAK PREVIEW OF OUR MOST EXCITING GAME YET ... GENIUS BUILDING!!! You know how in muscle building we build muscles? Well, in Genius Building, we build GENUSES!
The Valentines WBT contest starts now!!!!"
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Marketization v Professionalism
The difference between U.S. and Finland educational systems laid out in this beautiful, clear concise lecture.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Kids, the lesson for the day is; Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Deb Weigel of Desert View Charter School in Yuma Arizona teaches first graders everything she knows about the human brain. in the latest Whole Brain ad. Too bad she's only spouting bullshit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDJtuNsYsdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDJtuNsYsdY
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Diana Senechal calls Whole Brain Teaching "Shameless"
Diane Senechal points out "Whole Brain Teachers" and their flimflam in comments on Daniel Willingham article from Washington Post, The Answer Sheet.
Willingham: How to guarantee active learning? (Or, manipulatives vs. PowerPoint)
Senechal writes, "Great piece. I cackled out loud when I came to the part about how "the latest cognitive research showed" that PowerPoint turns people into passive listeners. Maybe road signs turn people into passive drivers!
People are shameless in their claims that "research has shown" this or that. The "Whole Brain Teaching" website states, "Twenty years of education research tells us that the most effective learning takes place when a student engages the brain's primary cortices- visual, auditory, language production and motor-at the same time." Really? What is that "research?"
I went to their research page, and they cite only one specific study, which turns out to be a paper for an education course. The teacher used Whole Brain Teaching for one week and reported a 50 percent decrease in "negative behaviors."
I still haven't found any research supporting the idea that "the most effective learning takes place when a student engages the brain's primary cortices-visual, auditory, language production and motor-at the same time." Nor does such an assertion make sense. It might be true for certain situations, but there are plenty of others where a certain stillness is much more conducive to learning.
But when will schools get beyond the nonsense about "passive" learning? you point out, workshops are not suited to all topics; when misapplied, it can result in a great deal of passivity. Moreover, "participation" takes many forms, one of which is attentive listening and thinking."
Posted by: DianaSenechal | September 7, 2010 9:36 AM | Report abuse
Friday, October 1, 2010
Who is Earl Brown?
I can't believe it! I've stumbled upon a school wide behavioral system worse than Whole Brain Teaching.
It's called "Make Your Day Citizenship program."
Ford Middle School
Parents and kids who've lived the Make Your Day nightmare read the comments.
A teacher who's adding Whole Brain Teaching on top of Make Your Day Poor kids!
It's called "Make Your Day Citizenship program."
Ford Middle School
Parents and kids who've lived the Make Your Day nightmare read the comments.
A teacher who's adding Whole Brain Teaching on top of Make Your Day Poor kids!
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@reiddy155 It's interesting that it's in our nature to feel defeated when we see someone who is better at our passion than us. Men and women around the world give up their desires in favor of something they're good at, even if it's something they don't WANT to do. But can a pro-footballer not be a budding chef? Can the Zohan not cut hair? True, you may never reach his level of dexterity, but stick with your guitar, friend, and maybe one day, you'll write a song that Igor will want to cover.