EARCOS 2013
For further conversation about any of these topics:
Rick Wormeli
rwormeli@cox.net
703-620-2447
Herndon, Virginia, USA
(Eastern Standard Time Zone)
@Rickwormeli (Twitter)
Adams, William
Cavaletti, Anthony
Duch, Phuc
We need a volunteer to come up to the
front and sing a beautiful song.
- Risk An activity one engages in for
which the outcome is uncertain.
Be clear:
The amount of risk a student takes in a modern classroom
is directly proportional to his sense of strong relationship
with the adult in charge.
It’s the same with teachers and principals.
Great Fodder for Risk-taking:
“If I had been a kid in my class today, would I want to
come back tomorrow?” -- Elspeth Campbell Murphy
“Nothing ventured, something lost.” -- Roland Barth.
“The most extraordinary thing about a really good
teacher is that he or she transcends accepted educational
methods. Such methods are designed to help average
teachers approximate the performance of good teachers.”
-- Margaret Mead
“Most educators would continue to lecture on
navigation while the ship is going down.” -- James Boren
“The fellow who never makes a mistake takes
his orders from one who does.”
-- Herbert Prochnow
“I have learned throughout my life as a
composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits
of false assumptions, not my exposure to founts of
wisdom and knowledge.”
-- Igor Stravinsky
“There are two mistakes one can make along
the road to truth -- not going all the way, and not
starting.”
-- Buddha
In the popular game, Hacky Sack, you’re not
allowed to say, “Sorry,” “I’m sorry,” or any
other version thereof.
In highly effective
classrooms,
failure is
normal.
Worry,
if it’s not.
“Whoppers” of Failure
in the Classroom or Profession
Paradoxical Commandments
•People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
•If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior
motives. Do good anyway.
•If you are honest, some people will laugh at you. Be
honest anyway.
•If you speak out for what you believe, people may make
fun of you. Speak out anyway.
•Think big and small-minded people will sneer at you.
Think big anyway.
Paradoxical Commandments
•What you spend years building may be destroyed
overnight. Build anyway.
•People are crying out for help but may attack you if you
help them. Help them anyway.
•Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing
anyway.
•The world loves top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs
anyway.
•Give the world the best you have, and most people will not
even notice. Give this miraculous, fragile
•world the best you have. Anyway.
EMORY AUSTIN (Copyrighted 1996 All rights reserved.
Used by Special Permission)
(Adapted)
Our greatest
Compass Rose:
Doubt
Writer and educator, Margaret
Wheatley, is correct:
“We can’t be creative unless
we’re willing to be confused.”
Grades are
communication.
compensation.
Paramount:
In order for someone to accept feedback or
take a risk with a new idea, they must first admit
what he was doing could be improved, or was less
effective than he thought it was.
Example: Baby Mortality Rate in Impoverished region
It is counter-cultural, subversive,
to differentiate instruction .
The best teachers of my own children have been the ones who
respect the school’s system, but parted from it as necessary in
order to teach my child.
q p
c d
Which letter
does not
belong, and
why?
Cultivate Personal Creativity.
Seriously, it’s just as vital as content expertise,
professional behavior, and maintaining proper records.
Develop a curious, risk-taking culture.
Frank Noschese -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GkY-ZXnx4w
How would such a teacher on your
faculty pose difficulties? ‘Inspirations?
Risky Teacher/Principal Actions
that are Worth Doing
•Deviate from the program here and there as necessary for
students’ success, but translate what you’re doing into the
language of the district so you can keep your job.
•Tell those questioning your deviation from the establish
program that you’re doing a “pilot.” People get panicked by
permanence.
•Connect with someone you respect and trust. Sharing your
reasoning with him or her will strengthen your arguments
and fortitude to do the right thing.
Risky Teacher/Principal Actions
that are Worth Doing
•Risk-taking and reform happen easiest and work best in
schools in which teachers participate in national
conversations.
•Invite Devil’s Advocate, Socrates, “Yes, but…” questions to
let folks to get answers to specific concerns, but also
facilitate an equal number of “Yes, and…” responses in
which colleagues improve or extend ideas.
•Give yourself a daily failure budget. First year teachers, for
example, are allowed 12 whopping mistakes per day. If it’s
less than 12 on any given day, they came in under budget –
Celebrate! If over 12, wallow in self-pity for one hour after
school, then get back to work. Budget allotment resets to 12
each day.
Michael Jordan Nike video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the
game-winning shot, and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why… I succeed.”
And what’s a successful batting average in baseball?
F.A.I.L.
First Attempt in Learning
Mr. DaVore’s Do-Over
By David Puckett
“Risk-Taking” Segment
From, “How Difficult Can This Be?
The F.A.T. City Workshop” video
by Rick Lavoie
The professional model for
ALL professions is: work,
receive feedback, revise
according to feedback, work
more, receive feedback, revise
according to feedback, work
more,
and continue.
Two Ways to Begin Using
Descriptive Feedback:
• “Point and Describe”
(from Teaching with Love & Logic, Jim Fay, David Funk)
• “Goal, Status, and Plan for the Goal”
1. Identify the objective/goal/standard/outcome
2. Identify where the student is in relation to the goal
(Status)
3. Identify what needs to happen in order to close the gap
Positive Mindset/Culture for Failures
in Middle School
• Academic struggle is virtuous, not weakness.
• To recover from failure teaches more than being
labeled for failure ever could teach.
• Failure can teach us in ways consistent success
cannot.
• Initial failure followed by responsive teaching that
helps students revise thinking results in greater longterm retention of content.
• “The expert in any field is the one who has made the
most mistakes in that field.” (Neils Bohr)
Carol Dweck (2007) distinguishes between
students with a fixed intelligence mindset who
believe that intelligence is innate and
unchangeable and those with a growth
mindset who believe that their achievement
can improve through effort and
learning…Teaching students a growth mindset
results in increased motivation, better grades,
and higher achievement test results.”
(p.6, Principal’s Research Review, January 2009, NASSP)
Remember:
There is a big difference between what we
hold people accountable for demonstrating
during the learning cycle versus what we hold
people accountable for demonstrating once they
are fully certified, i.e. finished the learning cycle
and received passing scores on valid
assessments.
Recovering in full from a failure teaches more than being
labeled for failure ever could teach.
It’s a false assumption that giving a student an “F” or wagging
an admonishing finger from afar builds moral fiber, selfdiscipline, competence, and integrity.
Re-Do’s &
Re-Takes:
Are They
Okay?
More than “okay!”
After 10,000 tries,
here’s a working
light bulb. ‘Any
questions?
Thomas Edison
From Youtube.com:
Dr. Tae Skateboarding
(Ted Talk)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY
It takes doing a task (or revisiting
content) about 35 times to get to
an 80% proficiency level with that
skill or content in long-term
memory.
Teacher Action
Result on Student
Achievement
Just telling students # correct and Negative influence on
incorrect
achievement
Clarifying the scoring criteria
Increase of 16 percentile points
Providing explanations as to why
their responses are correct or
incorrect
Increase of 20 percentile points
Asking students to continue
Increase of 20 percentile points
responding to an assessment until
they correctly answer the items
Graphically portraying student
achievement
Increase of 26 percentile points
-- Marzano, CAGTW, pgs 5-6
A Perspective that Changes our Thinking:
“A ‘D’ is a coward’s ‘F.’ The student
failed, but you didn’t have enough
guts to tell him.”
-- Doug Reeves
We don’t let a
student’s
immaturity
dictate his
learning and
thereby his
destiny.
•
•
•
•
A
B
C
I, IP, NE, or NTY
I = Incomplete
IP = In Progress
NE = No Evidence
NTY = Not There Yet
Once we cross over into D and F(E) zones,
does it really matter? We’ll do the same two
things: Personally investigate and take
corrective action
If we do not allow students to re-do work, we deny the
growth mindset so vital to student maturation, and we are
declaring to the student:
• This assignment had no legitimate educational
value.
• It’s okay if you don’t do this work.
• It’s okay if you don’t learn this content or skill.
None of these is acceptable to the highly
accomplished, professional educator.
Helpful Procedures and Policies
for Re-Do’s and Re-Takes
• Always, “…at teacher discretion.”
• Don’t hide behind the factory model of schooling that
perpetuates curriculum by age, perfect mastery on
everyone’s part by a particular calendar date.
• As appropriate, students write letters explaining what was
different between the first and subsequent attempts, and
what they learned about themselves as learners.
• Re-do’s and re-takes must be within reason, and teachers
decide what’s reasonable.
• Identify a day by which time this will be accomplished or the
grade is permanent, which, of course, may be adjusted at
any point by the teacher.
• With the student, create a calendar of completion that will
help them accomplish the re-do. If student doesn’t follow
through on the learning plan, he writes letters of apology.
There must be re-learning, or learning for the first time,
before the re-assessing.
• Require the student to submit original version with the redone version so you and he can keep track of his
development.
• If a student is repeatedly asking for re-doing work,
something’s up. Investigate your approach and the child’s
situation.
• C, B, and B+ students get to re-do just as much as D and F
students do. Do not stand in the way of a child seeking
excellence.
• If report cards are due and there’s not time to re-teach
before re-assessing, record the lower grade, then work with
the student in the next marking period, and if he presents
new evidence of proficiency, submit a grade-change report
form, changing the grade on the transcript from the previous
marking period.
• Reserve the right to give alternative versions and ask followup questions to see if they’ve really mastered the material.
• Require parents to sign the original attempt.
• It’s okay to let students, “bank,” sections of the
assessment/assignment that are done well.
• No-re-do’s the last week of the grading period.
• Replace the previous grade with the new one, do NOT
average them together.
• Sometimes the greater gift is to deny the option.
• Choose your battles. Push for re-doing the material that is
transformative, leveraging, fundamental.
Consider…
Motivation is doing what you are already capable
of doing, not trying to do something for which
you lack the tools.
Carrots and stick
approaches
don’t work.
Avoid them.
Characteristics of Motivational Classrooms
(Rick Lavoie, The Motivation Breakthrough, 2007)
1. Relevance
2. Control
3. Balance of Support and Challenge
4. Social Interaction
5. Safety and Security
Motivational Forces (Needs):
To Belong
To be Independent
To be Important
To Know
To be Acknowledged
To Control
To Assert
Three elements in intrinsic motivation:
•Autonomy -- the ability to choose what and
how tasks are completed
•Mastery -- the process of becoming adept at an
activity
•Purpose -- the desire to improve the world.
-- Daniel H. Pink
Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us
2009
Deciding to Take the Risk
• Am I making this choice with the hope that no
one will find out?
• How will I look back on this choice ten years
from now?
• Am I doing to others what I would want done to
me?
• If < insert name of someone admired > were in
the same situation, what would he or she do?
• If everyone were about to do what I’m about to
do, would it be a positive thing -- Is that the kind
of world in which I want to live?
Ask what a
respected
colleague or
leader would do.
Everyone needs to save face and have
experience and wisdom valued by
others.
Some teachers and school leaders are irrational, territorial,
uninformed, or ill-suited to their jobs. With these people we
can:
•Help them see how they come across in
whatever diplomatic way we can
•Help them get guidance if they are poorly trained
•Offer them alternative compromises between
their needs and our needs so that both are served
•Educate them patiently so they can “save face,”
by speaking from understanding and not being
threatened by the proposed changes
•Present concerns along with their solutions so
they are not stressed further
•Acknowledge that they are having a tough time
and come across as supportive, not adversarial
•Quit working for him or her
•Make it very comfortable for him or her to vacate
the position
•Share our concerns with someone in supervisory
capacity
“Courage is not the absence of
fear. It’s the judgment that something
else is more important than that fear.”
-- Ambrose Redmoon, rock band manager
in the 1960’s. Oh yeah, he was a quadriplegic as well.
What do we judge as so important,
it trumps our fear of rejection, failure,
and questioning from colleagues,
parents, administration?
Ropes Course Games
Electric Fence (Getting over triangle fence without
touching)
Spider Web (Pass bodies through “webbing”
withot ringing the attached bells)
Group Balance (2’X2’ platform on which everyone
stands and sings a short song)
Nitro-glycerin Relocation (previous slide)
Trust Falls (circle style or from a chair)
Ropes Course Games
Negating Students’ and Colleagues Incorrect Responses
While Keeping Them in the Conversation
• Act interested, “Tell me more about that…”
• Empathy and Sympathy: “I used to think that, too,” or “I
understand how you could conclude that…”
• Alter the reality:
-- Change the question so that the answer is
correct
-- That’s the answer for the question I’m about to
ask
-- When student claims he doesn’t know, ask, “If you DID
know, what would you say?”
Negating Students’ Incorrect Responses and
While Them in the Conversation
• Affirm risk-taking
• Allow the student more time or to ask for
assistance
• Focus on the portions that are correct
Bold Actions and Policy Changes I am Pursuing
Even though I Might Fail:
•Remove Honor Roll. It has little to do with students’,
advanced or not, academic achievement and
personal maturation.
•End averaging of grades.
•Build and use full ropes initiatives courses on school
property.
•Put vocational training back into middle schools.
•Be open to students skipping grade levels.
•Train all teachers in gifted education so as to meet
advanced needs, at least to some degree, in regular
education classrooms, if necessary.
• Change the way teachers see their role in students’
learning: Back end just as important, if not more so,
than front end.
• Turn middle schools into true middle schools, not
junior versions of high school, a.k.a. junior high.
• Start all middle and high schools at 9:30 in the
morning or later.
• Denying students the tools of their daily reality
hastens our irrelevance and negates all claims
we’re preparing students for the working world.
Invite students to use personal technologies in the
classroom and teach them to use them ethically.
•Adjust the school’s master schedule to
support best practices; don’t sacrifice best
practices to support the master schedule.
•Mandate all students and teachers get
residential, outdoor education experiences of
a week or more
•Revise our thinking in light of new evidence –
be open to correction.
•Pass a law that we cannot take students out
of P.E., fine/performing arts, and tech classes
to double-up on their math or reading
remediation for state exams.
•Assign a teacher to be the school’s official
grant coordinator. ‘One period off every day to
research and write grants.
•Differentiate teachers’ professional
development
From “At Work in the Differentiated Classroom”
(ASCD video):
Jesse, Writer’s Voice, and Barber’s Adagio
New
from
Dr.
Debbie
Silver!
Great Resources
•Covey, Steven. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
Simon and Schuster Publishers, New York, 1989
•Fluegelman, Andrew, Editor. The New Games Book,
Headlands Press Book, Doubeday and Company, New
York, 1976.
•Henton, Mary. (1996) Adventure in the Classroom,
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt
•Kriegel, Robert. If it ain’t Broke, Break it! And Other
Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World,
Warner Books, New York, 1991
•Newton, Cathy Griggs. Risk It! Empowering Young
People to Become Positive Risk Takers in the Classroom &
Life, Incentive Publications, Inc. , Nashville, TN 1996
ISBN 0-86530-346-0
• Popkin, Dr. Michael. Active Parenting of Teens, Active
Parenting, Inc., 810 Franklin Court, Suite B, Marietta, GA
30067
• Rohnke, K. (1984). Silver Bullets. Dubuque, Iowa:
Kendall Hunt.
• Rohnke, K. & Butler, S. (1995). QuickSilver. Dubuque,
Iowa: Kendall Hunt.
• Rohnke, K. (1991). The Bottomless Bag Again.
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt.
• Rohnke, K. (1991). Bottomless Baggie. Dubuque, Iowa:
Kendall Hunt.
• Rohnke, K. (1989). Cowstail and Cobras II. Dubuque,
Iowa: Kendall Hunt.
• Wormeli, Rick. Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an
Accomplished Middle Level Teacher, Stenhouse
Publishers, 2001, ISBN 1-57110328-7
‘Didn’t fail at something today?
You’re not trying hard enough.
Our students deserve teachers who
fail at initial attempts and learn from the
experience.