Renton Technical College
Instructional Improvement
January 2005
Volume 3 No. 6
You Teach, Why do Students not Learn?
Gary Neill of the ITEC Automotive Program brought in a great one page article from
AutoTeacher News on the importance of significant “hands-on” or “discovery” learning, rather
than “death by lecture” or “PowerPoint paralysis.” To find out how to incorporate more handson learning go http://www.atechtraining.com , scroll down the page and click on the Nov-Dec
2004 issue.
Do you want learning groups or cooperative teams?
Interested in how to turn classroom groups into teams and design team-based learning? Then the tutorials on this
site will help you get there: http://www.ou.edu/idp/teamlearning/index.htm Another great site to guide you
through the steps to set up a cooperative learning environment is
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/EDSPC715_MCINTYRE/CoopLearning.html
Significant Learning
If you are interested in Integrated Course Design, then this website, which extends the philosophy of L. Dee Fink’s
work , is for you. It includes a summary of key ideas from the book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences,
descriptions of courses that have been successful in promoting significant student learning, as well as related
publications and websites. Especially notable is Fink’s new taxonomy of learning that dovetails with the UDL
model. www.significantlearning.org
10 Steps to Developing a Quality Lesson Plan
Simple and to the point all the steps you need to follow to develop a lesson plan. With links
to lesson plans you can adapt.http://www.lessonplanspage.com/WriteLessonPlan.htm
Why Rubrics?
What’s all the hype about rubrics? Are they worth the time it takes to create or adapt a rubric for assessment?
http://www.teach-nology.com Rubricmaker leads you through a tutorial on how to make a rubric:
http://www.4teachers.org/techalong/erica4/index.shtml
Learning and the Brain
Two articles from the Harvard Graduate School of Education which apply what we are learning about how the brain
works to educational strategies:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/fischer08012004.html
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/fischer12012004.html
Avoiding “PowerPoint Paralysis”
One of the many useful mini-tutorials from PowerPoint University this hint focuses on how
“not to use” PowerPoint. http://www.presentersuniversity.com/Courses_Not_to_use.php
A Site for Reviewing Spanish
Debbie Crumb of the Library discovered this free Spanish mailing list, for Destino watchers and others interested
in finding out more about the Spanish language and Spanish speakers. She refers us to a question she submitted
about whether to use the term "Hispanic" or "Latino." http://www.thelearninglight.com/newsletter.htm
David Dickson in the Property Maintenance Program and Noreen Light in the Emergency Dispatch
program developed a mutually rewarding project for their students. After the Property Maintenance students, who
are mostly ESL speakers, have their first aid instruction, they discuss certain situations which are likely to occur on
the workplace like a heart attack, and preview some of the questions 9ll emergency dispatchers are likely to ask.
Then the Property Maintenance students go to the Emergency Dispatch classroom where they cannot be seen by
students in the lab and make calls describing their constructed situations. This gives the dispatch students practice
with ESL speakers and gives the ESL speakers practice in case they should have to make a
911 call.
Win-Win. Contact David for information ddickson@rtc.ctc.edu
Xenoglossophobia
No, that is not a word from a medial terminology quiz. Xenoglossophobia is defined as the
fear of foreign languages. 2005 has been proclaimed the “year of languages” in a hope that
understanding a language in addition to English will spur global understanding. Read more:
http://www.ascd.org/cms/objectlib/ascdframeset/index.cfm?publication=http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_l
ead/200412/cutshall.html?reid=sb
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy is a handy tool for formulating learning objectives and
matching assessments and learning activities to the same Bloom’s level. This site puts the
taxonomy into a handy chart, complete with lists of process verbs and products.
http://nerds.unl.edu/pages/preser/sec/articles/blooms.html
Go online to identify cheaters
TechLearning News reports that a survey of 12,000 high school students by the Josephson Institute of Ethics in
Maryland found that 62% of students admitted to cheating on an exam at least once in the past year. Some students
also admit to downloading information from the Internet and using it in their own work, without proper citations.
While the Internet, cell phones and pocket PCs may make cheating easier, more and more faculty are using
http://www.turnitin.com to see if their students have been cutting corners by plagiarizing or copying work from the
internet. This site instantly color codes text that has been published before. For a full story on how one high school
teacher in Detroit is using this site, visit: http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0411/28/A01-17403.htm
Awesome Clipart for Educators
This site offers educators FREE clipart, coloring pages, backgrounds, banners, fonts, icons,
worksheets, wallpaper, and more. Choose from categories such as animals, creatures,
education, holidays, just to name a few. We have thousands of graphics organized in a simple,
easy to use format – categorized by type and keyword. Next time you need clipart – come to
Awesome. Clipart for Educators and see how easy finding clipart can be!
http://www.AwesomeClipartForEducators.com
Underprepared students
A new study by the testing firm ACT, published in the New York Times, found that in both 1994 and 2004, about
55% of high school students were taking a minimum college-prep curriculum of four years of English and three
each in math, science and social sciences. The report points out that even those students who are taking the core
curriculum are not necessarily ready for college-level work, because their courses are often not rigorous enough.
And in California a new test designed to give college-bound juniors time to boost their skills during their senior year
has found that 78% of the 11th graders who took the assessment last year needed remedial English and about 45%
required remedial math.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/14/MNGQA99FDQ1.DTL
Improving Retention
A new policy report from ACT, Inc. examines research findings on student retention and performance, highlights
successful retention strategies, and offers recommendations.
http://www.act.org/research/policy/pdf/college_retention.pdf
DSDP Grant Update:
As part of the Universal Design for Learning Pilot Project, DeEtta Ryan in Basic
Studies is piloting the use of the Cornell Note Taking System in her classroom. The
Cornell Note Taking system is a very simple method for students to take notes and
use them to study. Follow this link for details on how it works:
http://www.heritagehawks.org/faculty/dbrown/HistoryClass/TheCornellMethod.htm.
In DeEtta’s classroom, she is using Strategic Teaching to show students how to use the Cornell method. She
actually uses the method herself on her Polyvision Board, thereby modeling to students how they can be more
effective taking notes in any class! If you want to see this in action, contact DeEtta Ryan at X5583.
The Pilot Instructors are finding out about their students’ learning needs and preferences as part of the student
Learning Assessment System. (LAS) In the Fall, several classrooms surveyed their students ( a total of 139
students). Here are some of the results: 33 % of the students reported trouble with typing, 31% had concerns
about studying, 25% reported time management problems, 24% had a vision concern, 19
% were in Special Education classes in the past , 14% had a disability concern. 51%
were visual learners and only 9% learned through lecture or auditory methods. The Pilot
instructors get an individual breakdown of this and more information. They can use
these reports to customize their instruction to meet the needs of the class and also to
help individual students with their learning needs. For more information on the LAS,
contact Cathy Jenner at X5639
Quotable: “Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video
displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and
wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.”
-- Arthur C. Clark
For more information regarding the articles in the Faculty Focus or to give input or suggestions of things you would like to
see incorporated into this newsletter please contact the Office of Instructional Improvement
The mission of the Office of Instructional Improvement is to advance educational strategies, seek to improve the quality
of learning environments, and support RTC staff as they prepare a diverse student population for work.