Art and Science of Teaching: Chapter 1

Our district is investigating The Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano (@robertjmarzano).  

I originally read this book in 2008.  I loved it.  I fell in love and used it to catapult my craft of teaching for the last five years.  Since taking a new job in a new district I have started over in more ways than one.

I'm going to use these spaces to post my largest takeaways from each section.  Enjoy, challenge me, question, use this to move yourself forward.  I'm excited for this new endeavor.

Here goes:

Introduction:

• Schools have little impact on student achievement that is independent of their background and SES.
• Better teachers yield better results from students
• "Mathematical models are false" there are patterns but no certainties
• No matter the strategy there is no silver bullet that works for every student
• Effective teaching is 1-part knowing your students and 1-part knowing how to teach

Chapter 1:

• "Set goals, track progress, celebrate success"
• "Goal setting has a general tendency to enhance learning"
• Feedback is as important as goal setting
• Celebrating effort is as important as progress or product
• Capitalizing on student interest has a positive effect on student motivation
• "A learning goal is a statement of what students will know or be able to do."
• Two kinds of learning:
• "declarative learning: informational in nature"
• "procedural learning: Strategies, skills, and processes"
• After a learning goal, write a rubric.
• Have students write what they know, want to know so you can wrap up with what they learned in a unit. (KWL strategy)
• Even though teachers make a rubric, let students make their own student friendly version.
• Challenge students to track their own progress and take charge of their own learning.