Small Changes, Big Impact: Ten Strategies to Promote Student Efficacy and Lifelong Learning (A pocket guide to school reform through research-based instructional strategies)

by Anthony R. Reibel, Matt Thede

Overview

Discover a pathway to improvement that is simple and field tested. Designed as a practical guide to school reform, this resource outlines a series of ten small-scale changes powerful enough to make a lasting impact in schools and districts. Within each chapter, you will find easy-to-implement strategies for strengthening culture, building relationships, and promoting student growth at every K-12 grade level.

Use this resource to leverage student reflection and reperformance to ensure high levels of learning:

• Understand how to redefine student success as efficacy and ownership of learning.
• Gain research-based instructional strategies and teaching methods for creating student-centered mission statements that promote student success, self-reliance, and social-emotional learning (SEL).
• Explore how to use performance-based assessments as a process for learning.
• Examine the qualities of growth-based feedback to promote a future pathway for achievement.
• Obtain tools for developing dynamic reporting structures that communicate stories of learning and promote self-evaluation.

Contents:

Chapter 1: Redefine Student Success

Chapter 2: Create Student-Centered Mission Statements

Chapter 3: Organize the Curriculum Around Skills, Not Content

Chapter 4: Develop Student-Centered Rubrics

Chapter 5: Use Assessment as a Process for Learning

Chapter 6: Implement a Generative Learning Model of Instruction

Chapter 7: Provide Critical Growth-Based Feedback

Chapter 8: Leverage Reflection and Reperformance

Chapter 9: Use Evidence-Based Grading Practices

Chapter 10: Establish Dynamic Reporting Structures

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949539301
Publisher:	Solution Tree Press
Publication date:	07/08/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	3 MB

Table of Contents

About the Authors xi

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

A Final Thought 5

Chapter 1 Redefine Student Success 7

What Student Success Looks Like 8

Guidelines for Redefining Success 8

Positive Self-Concept 9

Self-Sustenance 9

Accurate Perception of Abilities 10

Social Connection and Emotional Awareness 11

Articulation and Communication 11

What Student Learning Looks Like 12

Guidelines for Defining Learning 12

Personal Agency 13

Generative Learning 13

Rooted Competence 13

Constructive Failure 13

Conclusion 14

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 14

Chapter 2 Create Student-Centered Mission Statements 15

Characteristics of a Student-Centered Mission Statement 16

Academic Acuity and Interest 16

Social Connection 16

Emotional Awareness and Self-Concept 17

Self-Efficacy 17

How to Develop Student-Centered Mission Statements 18

Values Self-Reliant Learning 19

Guards Against Transient Learning 19

Doesn't Make Assumptions About Student Learning 19

Avoids Common Misperceptions About Student Learning 20

Uses Student-Produced Evidence to Make Decisions 20

Conclusion 21

Big-Impact Recommendations for implementation 21

Chapter 3 Organize Curriculum Around Skills, Not Content 23

Create a Skills-Based Curricular Structure 24

Start With Enduring, Transferable Skills 24

Create a Standard or Standards for Each Skill 25

Develop Proficiency Gradations for Each Standard 26

Set Criteria for Each Proficiency Gradation 28

Know the Difference Between Proficiency Gradations and Learning Progressions 31

Differentiate Between Recursive and Nonrecursive Criteria 34

Conclusion 36

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 36

Course Description 38

Chapter 4 Develop Student-Centered Rubrics 43

How to Create Student-Centered Rubrics 44

How to Use Student-Centered Rubrics 49

Student-Centered Rubrics Are for Conversation; Traditional Rubrics Are Primarily for Evaluation 49

Student-Centered Rubrics Allow Students to Give Themselves Feedback; Traditional Rubrics Provide Feedback to Students 51

Student-Centered Rubrics Appear Throughout the Learning Process; Traditional Rubrics Appear at the End of the Learning Process 52

Conclusion 52

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 53

Blank Rubric 54

Chapter 5 Use Assessment as a Process for Learning 55

How to Create Process-Based Assessments 57

Let Standards Guide Assessment Development 57

View Assessments as Experiences, Not Events 58

Use Assessments to Get to Know Students 58

Implement Simulations, as They Are Crucial to Learning 59

Make Sure Assessments Are Assumption Proof 59

Conclusion 61

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 61

Planning Assessment and Instruction as a Continual Learning and Reflection Process 62

Gathering the Right Evidence 63

Chapter 6 Implement a Generative Learning Model of Instruction 65

Characteristics of a Generative Learning Model 65

How to Implement a Generative Model of Instruction 67

Design Mastery Experiences, Not Lessons 67

Align Instruction to the True Nature of Learning 69

Use Proficiency Gradations During Instruction 70

Leverage the Inseparability of Instruction and Assessment 71

Use a Diamond Structure When Lesson Planning 73

Teach With Student Thinking 75

Conclusion 75

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 75

Planning Instruction Using Proficiency Gradations 77

Instructional Diamond Template 78

Chapter 7 Provide Critical, Growth-Based Feedback 79

How to Provide Critical, Growth-Based Feedback to Students 80

Use Rubrics to Give Prescriptive Feedback, Not Diagnostic 80

Use Summative Experiences Throughout a Unit 81

Use Rubrics to Invite Students Into the Feedback Conversation 82

Use Positive Language on Rubrics 83

Be Positive, Not Punitive 83

Use Nonevaluative Language Before Evaluative Language in Feedback 84

Conclusion 85

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 85

Changing Diagnostic Feedback to Prescriptive Feedback 86

Success Criteria That Lends Itself to Co-Constructed Feedback 87

Chapter 8 Leverage Reflection and Reperformance 89

How to Add More Student Reflection to Lessons 90

Serious Self-Questioning 91

Self-Deliberation 91

Reliable Reflective Mechanics 92

Differentiated Reflection 93

Reperformance 95

Reassessments in Practice 95

Reperformances in Practice 96

Conclusion 96

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 97

Chapter 9 Use Evidence-Based Grading Practices 99

How to Use Evidence for Determining Grades 100

Inform Professional Judgment With Evidence 100

Align Proficiency Scores With Letter Grades 101

Include Reperformances 102

Make the Gradebook an Active Part of Learning 103

Ensure There Is Enough of the Right Evidence 104

Assign Incompletes as Final Grades, if Needed 104

Communicate Grades as Trends and Projections During Learning 105

Assign Grades After Conversations With Students 106

Consider Homework as Evidence 106

Rethink the Format of Culminating Assessments 106

Conclusion 107

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 107

Chapter 10 Establish Dynamic Reporting Structures 109

Characteristics of a Dynamic Reporting Structure 109

How Is the Student Growing? 112

How Is the Student Performing? 112

How Is the Student Behaving? 113

How Is the Student Preparing? 114

Conclusion 117

Big-Impact Recommendations for Implementation 117

Home-work Log 118

Epilogue 119

A New Focus on the Student 119

Mission Statement Alignment 120

Curriculum Review 120

A New Look at Intervention 121

More Effective Collaboration Time 121

Conclusion 121

References and Resources 123

Index 133

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"What is student success? In this powerful and practical book, Small Changes, Big Impact, Anthony Reibel and Matt Thede identify student success, not in the traditional sense of academic achievement, but as student self-efficacy and agency. They identify ten small changes schools can make to impact culture, learning, and relationships in order to foster self-efficacy and agency. Ideally, schools would implement all ten of these changes over a period of time, but what makes this book so valuable is that schools could choose to implement only one or two of these changes and still see very positive results. This book is a must-read for teachers and administrators who want to prepare students to be reflective, independent, lifelong learners so they are successful in whatever they choose to do in school and beyond."

--Ken O’Connor, educational consultant and author

"Small Changes, Big Impact is one of the few books that lives up to its title. Authors Anthony Reibel and Matt Thede assert that the smallest changes to already-existing practices and processes can bring about monumental improvements to culture, learning, and relationships. They detail ten ways teachers can put students at the center of the educational experience. By redefining student success around efficacy, this book offers a substantive examination of how student agency can thrive in any classroom."

--Tom Schimmer, education author, speaker, and consultant

"Small Changes, Big Impact details ten changes educators can implement to create significant school improvement. Whether it is embracing evidence-based grading practices or creating a student-centered mission and culture, this book helps schools take immediate action to increase student efficacy. The authors detail practical strategies for educators to reach organizational goals by increasing student voice and agency."

--Nathan Wear, associate superintendent and chief academic officer, Linn-Marr CSD, Iowa

"In Small Changes, Big Impact, Anthony Reibel and Matt Thede have crafted a thorough, highly defensible, and broadly applicable prescription for transformative change in schools. This is a compelling, well-researched guide grounded in high-quality practices employed at the authors' respective schools. At the core of their work is the shifting of our collective lens to a redefined definition of success focused on student efficacy, positive relationships, growth-based assessment and, ultimately, transferability of skills to lifelong learning. Progressive thinkers in education have been endorsing these concepts for years, and my enthusiasm for this book stems from so much important information and practical advice, articulated so well, in so few pages. I can't wait to get this 'buffet of small changes with a big impact' into the hands of my students."

--Randal Peters, associate professor of education leadership, Drake University School of Education