THE LSA BLOG
Learning Systems Associates is proud to support school organizations that are embracing curriculum change, contemporary instruction, and assessments that are authentic and standards based.
Dr. Marie Alcock works personally with school leaders and faculty to improve curriculum and transform learning environments to meet district and state-wide goals, while providing students with
meaningful and measurable learning outcomes.
New Jersey Schools: Invite Marie to your school for a leadership meeting, strategic planning session or curriculum review and we will schedule a virtual planning and review session follow-up, at no additional cost. Or, partner with us to host a 1, 2 or 3 Day Professional Development Workshop at your campus. Partnering schools experience increased faculty engagement, broader connections to neighboring school groups, 20% discount on registration fee's and a complimentary full-day strategic planning session with Dr. Alcock.
Learn more about this project at: http://bold2.curriculum21.com
In November 2018, Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Dr. Marie Hubley Alcock, for the second year in a row, began a series of professional development sessions with Tri-State Consortium.
Sessions are offered so that school and district teams might:
When thinking about education policy around assessments, Bold Moves for Schools proposes 5 tenets to transform accountability, leadership and performance in schools.
In a previous blog post we stated, "Standardized testing has its place in education, however, it is insufficient and has the potential for far-reaching unintended consequences." Here we'll discuss 4 detrimental outcomes of standardized testing.
Misuse of Data
Standardized tests used to rank learners, faculty and schools assess a few limited proficiencies but falls short of measuring what we value as learning – that which is educationally significant. This singular method does not factor in varying student conditions and environmental factors that impact scoring. In addition, grading practices are inconsistent state to state and scorers are often encouraged to favor quantity over quality reviews.
Educators and policymakers have a unique relationship – they share responsibility for shaping learning systems and preparing students for an interconnected and ever-changing world. We often think of teachers and administrators on one side and legislators on the other in a virtual tug-of-war, each side firmly planted in ideologies that inform programs and regulations. On the contrary, diversity of thought exists among teachers, administrators, superintendents, unions, governors, legislators, taxpayers, parents and students. And in fact, we’re all in this together.
Accountability and assessment methods emerge as the single most contentious policy topic. While policymakers have the extraordinary task of making decisions that impact all aspects of education, faculty struggle with administering programs that are meaningful, effective and result in satisfactory test results.
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, Allison Zmuda
This month, we are very excited to be joined by the wonderful Bena Kallick, co-founder of the Habits of Mind Institute, and author of the recent Students at the Center: Personalized Learning with
Habits of Mind, written with Allison Zmuda.
Last August, we wrote a blog post entitled “Meet Generation Alpha: Teaching the Newest Generation of Students.” In the post, we described the unique needs of the newest generation of learners
entering our classrooms right now... [click below to keep reading]
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, Allison Zmuda
Learning-goal maps are a way to organize a learning experience that focuses on the demonstration of learning first, then aligns other elements of the experience accordingly. It also creates an
opportunity to co-create with students using a student version of learning goal maps.
This month, we’d like to share a recent upgraded experience we wrote with a media arts teacher using new arts standards in New York State and show you the associated student version as a model
for upgrading your own and your students’ learning experiences... [click below to keep reading]
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, Allison Zmuda
solutiontree.com/blog/affinity-spaces-for-teachers-collective-knowledge
When we write and share ideas with the world, we hope it will inspire conversations and new questions about how our work will impact professional practices. This is especially true for blog posts, where we can push the envelope a little further and be provocateurs who launch discourse. With social media, sometimes that discourse becomes more limited, as many readers align themselves with folks who agree with their own thinking. That’s not really discourse, though; it doesn’t push thinking or change anyone’s opinion or create actions toward better ways of doing things. Which brings us to the focus of this month’s blog post on affinity spaces...
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, Allison Zmuda
solutiontree.com/blog/driving-questions-and-student-engagement
In our current contemporary educational landscape, it has become more important than ever to invite student voice into our curriculum and instructional decisions. Their voices invite
opportunities for personalization, authenticity, buy-in, motivation, and increased performance.
In this blog post, we are continuing to discuss last month’s theme of the first Learning Tenet from The Quest for Learning: 'The learner engages with relevant, worthy inquiries and
experiences that are interesting or emotionally gripping'...
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, Allison Zmuda
solutiontree.com/blog/inquiry-learning-question-types-for-student-engagement
In a previous blog post on why games work, we shared our three learner-engagement tenets from our book, The Quest for Learning. In this blog post, we’d like to revisit Learning Tenet One: 'The learner engages with relevant, worthy inquiries and experiences that are interesting or emotionally gripping.' The teacher might think a topic worthy, but without conversation or negotiation with students, the topic may not be as worthy as the teacher thought...
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, Allison Zmuda
solutiontree.com/blog/modernizing-your-instructional-practice
In our new book, The Quest for Learning we ask teachers to consider how they might make their instructional practices more contemporary. We’ve talked to literally hundreds of teachers as we explore some of the facets of “right now” interests and skills, and we’d like to share some of what we’ve discovered. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of questions, just a few that were generated from our work with teachers over the last few years and have influenced what we wrote in the new book...
Contributed by: Craig Gastauer
This post was originally shared on Just Start for Kids & Schools and the
author has given his permission to post it here.
Natural learning experiences are generated by observation and questioning. As individuals share their different perspectives, each of us begin to make meaning of these experiences and
deepen our understanding of the world.
Hiking on the cliffs above the the Pacific Ocean with my nine year old son creates for us a safe space to explore the world. Questions abound as we come across animals, plants, rock strata,
and even the wonderful variety of people we encounter.
Contributed by Marie Alcock, PhD.
The truth is that teaching is changing in America. As a profession we have been in a state of flux for more than 20 years. In the big picture that is not much time and we can all
agree that one day we will look back and note this period and the changes that resulted from it. Here are our top ten things about teaching that have changed.
We made this movie as a way to note the key characteristics of this change. Teaching is Changing.
Contributed by: Marie Alcock, PhD
When is a video game useful? When is it a tool for education? Or even a tool for social change?
I enjoyed a TED talk featuring Jane McGonigal and her ideas about using video games as training grounds for saving the world. Check it out
here.
Jane raised some good points about the addictive rush from being on the “verge of an epic win” and the motivation from “epic quest” that is trusted to us as players. What would we need to
upgrade about our curriculums to get this kind of “epic quest” feel for the learner? How do we make each skill progression for reading or writing feel like the addictive leveling of the
“imminent win”?