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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
New SEL Meta-Analysis Finds That SEL Improves “Prosocial Behavior” AND That Less Is More
Social and Emotional Learning Programs and Students’ Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analysis is a big new study that recently was published, and it’s not behind a paywall. It found that SEL can work, and it also found that SEL programs that took less time tended to be more successful than longer ones. But, for a very thoughtful and thorough analysis of the study you should read one appearing in From Experience To Meaning. Here’s an excerpt: Many SEL programs remain strongly curriculum-oriented: separate lessons, separate modules, separate exercises. While at the same time one can argue that prosocial behaviour originates primarily in daily culture, routines, and relationships, in how teachers respond to conflicts, how class discussions unfold, how collaboration is organised, and how adults themselves deal with respect, empathy, and boundaries. Perhaps that is also why some relatively limited interventions still show effects: because they succeed in changing something in daily interactions rather than merely adding extra lesson content. I’m adding this info to The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources, and you can find all my SEL resources here.      SEL Weekly Update
I’ve begun this weekly post where I’ll be sharing resources I’m adding to The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources or other related “Best” lists. Also, check out “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources. Here are this week’s picks: Using Restorative Practices Proactively is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Restorative Practices – Help Me Find More. Science shows well-being drives performance. It’s no longer even a debate is from Fast Company. I’m adding this video to The Best Resources On The Importance Of Correctly Pronouncing Student Names:
I like this quote from Cameron Young just won The Players. A simple mental shift helped make it happen:
 The Best Research & Reflections About Why Test Scores Should Not Be The Be All/End All In Evaluating Schools & Student Progress netzwerker / Pixabay
It’s fairly typical for public panics to ensue when reductions in student test scores are made public. But the full story is not typically told, as I described in May (see Yes, A Big Study Came Out Today Highlighting Plummeting Test Scores But, No, I Don’t Think It Tells The Whole Story). Here are more reflections and research why, perhaps, test score panic might be overblown (you might also be interested in The Best Articles Describing Alternatives To High-Stakes Testing — Help Me Find More): New Research Again Says Maybe Test Scores Should Not Be End All Be All For High Schools Beware Studies Of “Student Achievement” is by Peter Greene.
 Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week
Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. You can also see all my “Best” lists on instructional strategies here. Here are this week’s picks: 8 science of reading strategies is by Teach Learn Grow.
I’m adding this tweet to Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad):
Whiteboard Work: More Than Just ‘Show Me’ is from Ben Cooper. I’m adding it to SOME “BEST” IDEAS FOR USING MINI-WHITEBOARDS IN THE CLASSROOM. Bringing the Power of Debate to Math Class is from Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieval and Spaced Practice: Study Strategies That Must Be Combined is by Kate Jones. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Spaced Practice.  A Look Back: How I Turned A Lesson On Writing Good Summaries Into A Game – It Worked!For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful. This post first appeared in 2022.
 MoteOo / Pixabay
A week-or-two ago I published This New Edutopia Video That Turned Writing Argument Paragraphs Into A Game Has Given Me An Idea… In it, I discussed a strategy I was going to try in my English Language Learner World History class to help students learn to write better summaries, and involved turning it into a game. Well, I tried it on Friday, and unlike practically every other thing I try to do in the classroom, it went exactly as I had planned – and hoped! Students first got into their regular groups (comprised of between two-and-four students), and each group was given a mini-whiteboard, marker and eraser. I explained that I was going to put up a series of very short paragraphs, and they would have to choose which of the three answers was the best summary. A peer tutor would keep score on the main whiteboard. Here’s an example of one of the exercises:
You can find the handout of these exercises in one of my books, though I can’t remember which one. All of the handouts from all of them are available for free download. And you can always easily create your own. Once we had gone through four of them, and I had looked for opportunities to explain the characteristics of good and bade summaries, we moved to the next step. I asked everyone to opened their World History textbook to the chapter on Islam that we began last week. I explained that they would get ten minutes to read the page and then, keeping in mind what they had just learned, would need to write a good summary. I would determine how many points each summary was worth. Students read in their books (taking turns reading each paragraph out loud), and wrote their summaries. One or two groups finished early, and I told them they could get a head start on reading the next page. I yelled “Time’s up” and asked all groups (about eight of them) to hold up their boards. As I went to each group, I would hold their board so everyone could see and read their summary out load. I would then give each group one, two, or three points, and quickly explained the reasons why (maybe they copied a sentence from the page, or they did or didn’t include the real main idea of the page, etc.). A peer tutor wrote the point total next to each group member on the front board. The second round’s summaries were all better, and they were all very good by the time we got to the third page. We won’t “gamify” summaries for every chapter, it’s clearly worth doing now-and-then. This strategy can also be used to teach so many other writing techniques, too! I’m adding this post to: The Best Posts On “Gamification” In Education — Help Me Find More Best Posts On Writing Instruction
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