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Response to Intervention in the Blended Learning Environment
Sept. 22, 2015
A Guide to Common Core
Aug. 21, 2015
Three Strategies for Consistently Engaging Learners
Aug. 10, 2015
The importance of cultivating a growth mindset with students
July 15, 2015
Becoming a reflective educator
July 7, 2015
Developing prosocial behaviors and interactions within the classroom experience
June 30, 2015
Identifying at-risk learners. Two critical components
June 15, 2015
Three key factors in igniting the fire in learners
June 9, 2015
Memories of school veterans. Thank you
May 24, 2015
Keeping early course finishers engaged
May 17, 2015
The right curriculum for blended learning
May 11, 2015
Blended Learning Technology. Selection Process
April 26, 2015
Students who finish early. Four ways to keep grads-to-be engaged
April 20, 2015
Generation DIY. Benefits of blended learning that transcend instruction
March 30, 2015
Generation DIY. Benefits from the Blended Learning homefront
March 23, 2015
Top 6 Lessons from Madness. NCAA March Madness
March 16, 2015
Preventing the Dreaded: "Why Do We Need to Learn This?"
March 9, 2015
8 Blended Learning Space Considerations
March 2, 2015
5 Favorite Practices for Effective Communication
Feb. 23, 2015
Second-Order Change: The Blended Learning Mandate
Feb. 16, 2015
6 Ways to Match Blended Learning Models
Feb. 9, 2015
Using the SAMR Model in Blended Learning
Feb. 2, 2015
Planning for 1 to 1 Learning: Making the Blended Learning Model Local
Jan. 24, 2015
Eight Elite Questions to Ask When Selecting Online Content Providers
Jan. 17, 2015
Five Tips to Overcome the "January Syndrome" in Professional Development
Jan. 11, 2015
Blended education: Student-led discussions
Jan. 5, 2015
Next Generation Learning Spaces eBook offer and conference information
Dec. 9, 2014
Learning from Reality TV. Five Important Presentation Lessons for Teachers
Oct. 31, 2014
Six steps to great technology training
Oct. 27, 2014
Why I’m "Bullish" on Blended Learning
Oct. 20, 2014
Lessons from the One-Room Schoolhouse
Oct. 13, 2014
6 Keys to Deliberate Practice in Blended Learning
Oct. 6, 2014
Top Fifteen Skills Students Need for College and Career Readiness
Sept. 29, 2014
6 Ways Google Drive Docs Rocks in Blended Education
Sept. 22, 2014
Effective Instructional Probing Questions
Sept. 12, 2014
6 Career Types for Personalizing Learning
Sept. 8, 2014
Back to school thoughts
Aug. 29, 2014
Using data to inform instruction. Rigor, Relevance, and Results
Aug. 25, 2014
Teaching to Learn
Aug. 14, 2014
Social and Emotional learning matters
Aug. 9, 2014
Infographic: 7 Blended Activities to Start the New Year
Aug. 4, 2014
Tips for electrifying instruction (even when the lights go out)
Aug. 1, 2014
Lansing's Woodcreek Achievement Center: Blended Learning ideas to improve reading comprehension
July 26, 2014
Top Five Blended Learning Tweets (of the summer so far)
July 21, 2014
Infographic: 8 key points to include in digital citizenship
July 8, 2014
Deliberate practice makes remember-able perfect
July 4, 2014
The 'One Minute Manager's' advice to teachers and students
June 27, 2014
Ways to Get the Most from ISTE 2014
June 23, 2014
Educators advocate for new programs, more technology, increased funding. 3 simple steps.
June 16, 2014
7 Favorite Ways Students Like to Learn
June 9, 2014
Adapting Teacher Observations to Blended Learning Environments
June 2, 2014
Celebrating Successes. Student Learning in a Blended, Personalized Environment
May 26, 2014
Teaching in a Blended Environment: 12 Questions for Reflection and Discussion
May 19, 2014
Great ways to support teachers in blended, personalized, and online learning classrooms
May 12, 2014
Engagement doesn't necessarily equal buy-in. Working through pushback in Blended Learning environments
May 5, 2014
Connecting Classroom Instruction to Online Content
April 28, 2014
Blended Learning Classrooms Start with Blended Learning Professional Development
April 21, 2014
Top 3 Ways Blended Learning Really Works in Professional Development
April 14, 2014
Must Follow Organizations Supporting Blended, Personalized Learning
April 7, 2014
Great Probes for Blended, Personalized, Online Teaching
March 31, 2014
Four Key Considerations for Selecting Blended, Personalized, and Online Learning Tools
March 24, 2014
Four Creative Ways to Share the Vision for Blended, Personalized, Online Learning
March 17, 2014
Series: Planning for Blended and Personalized Learning: Blended Learning Goals
March 10, 2014
Planning for Blended and Personalized Learning Series: Crafting a Vision
March 3, 2014
News from the Field: eLearn Magazine – Call for K12 Blended Learning Articles
Feb. 24, 2014
Does Big Bird "Tweet"? Teaching Generation Z
Feb. 17, 2014
Five Characteristics of Great Blended Learning Teachers
Feb. 10, 2014
Empowering Students with the Top Four Blended Learning Models
Feb. 5, 2014
Three Interrelated Parts of Real Blended Learning
Jan. 28, 2014
Deliberate practice makes remember-able perfect
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July 4, 2014
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“Amateur musicians, for example, tend to spend their practice time playing music, whereas pros tend to work through tedious exercises or focus on difficult parts of pieces. Similarly, the best ice skaters spend more of their practice time trying jumps that they land less often, while lesser skaters work more on jumps they’ve already mastered. In other words, regularly practicing simply isn’t enough.” Joshua Foer, NY Times, February 2, 2011.
My own, personal experience with project- and problem-based-learning (PBL) in the 70's holds an important lesson for teaching and learning in the 21st century. I remember Ms. Larkin letting us write and shoot our own movie in eighth grade social studies. I forget what the movie was about.
I remember Ms. Huffman, in ninth grade Guidance class, giving us options as to how we were going to complete a given set of activities and problems. Then, contracting with us for the grade we wanted to reach. I have no memory of what the activities were about nor why they were important.
In contrast, what I do remember includes:
- Literally singing “adjectives modify nouns and pronouns” for a full hour, maybe more, in Mr. McGrath’s ninth grade English class. I will always remember the difference between adjectives and adverbs.
- Reciting all the helping verbs, in a specific order, in Mr. Jones seventh grade writing class. I reference this every time I write. It helps me instantly find and edit “passive voice” sentences.
- Competing in second grade flashcard Olympics related to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and percent. I still compute these automatically even after learning them 40+ years ago.
Our job, as educators and instructional leaders, mandates that we dive deep into the core skills that students use in the PBL activities. K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of Psychology, pioneered work in the field of Deliberate Practice. He found that getting students to become expert (fully-proficient) had more to do with how the student practices than with the number of repetitions or amount of time spent doing activities - including projects.
PBL proliferates many of the discussions related to integrating technology with instruction. Many educators today believe that students will learn those core skills through the PBL activities. They may be right. Students may learn discrete skills through PBL. But, how much sticks in their long-term memory ready for automatic recall and fluent usage at a moment’s notice? And, what does PBL do to ensure sustained Deliberate Practice as Maintenance?
Let’s ask my granddaughter. Now finished with her second year of high school, she gets good grades, works hard, but still struggles when I ask her to compute simple math problems on the fly. No one challenged her to be an expert (master precisely) in core lower-level skills. She didn’t have to repeat, recall, and sing about adverbs. Can she solve a problem? Sure. She knows all the steps to do so. But, she maintains lower levels of automaticity related to basic everyday cognitive tasks. Where was Deliberate Practice in her early years?
Today’s Challenge: Ask yourself what you remember most about your own K12 experience? What pieces of learning have stayed with you – that can’t be forgotten? How did you learn them? Then, contrast that to some of the fun activities you did. What did you really learn in the activity? Or, do you only remember the activity?
Key Words: Deliberate Practice Blended Learning PBL Project based learning K. Anders Ericsson Joshua Foer
comments
Sue Kelley
July 4, 2014, 8 p.m.
I would agree with LeAnn, One of the most prominent memories of 4th grade was Mrs. Thompson who drilled us on our multiplication tables. She would periodically throughout the day just point to a random student an ask them to recite a specific times table from 2 through 12 on the spot. By the end of 4th grade I believe all the students could easily recite and always remember all their times tables.
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