Makes Sense Strategies Created for Lauderdale County Professional Development Training November 2010 By L. Stamps, C. Heaps, and J. Lundin

Developed by Edwin Ellis, PhD Professor, University of Alabama

Makes Sense Strategies are scientifically research-based SMARTsheets™ interactive graphic organizers with prompts designed for teaching receptive and expressive language, vocabulary, reading, writing, science, social studies, math, and social /behavior literacy Makes Sense Strategies were designed to help students make sense of complex information integrate critical, analytical and creative thinking skills into the curriculum facilitate students’ use of information processing strategies and thinking skills integrate strategic instruction, differentiated instruction, standards-based instruction and the use of graphic organizers (SMARTsheets) to form an effective means of teaching. make information more “learnable” Makes Sense Strategies can be used in primary, intermediate, middle, high school and college levels and are validated for use in general and special education Receptive Language is Learning to Listen, and to Understand Language Expressive Language is Learning to Speak, and to Use Language

SMARTsheets™ are research based teaching tools based on 3 fundamental principles- 1. Students learn better when they are actively engaged in processing new information in meaningful ways. 2. Increasing the learn-ability of information or skills is preferable to dumbing them down. 3. Students should focus on understanding big ideas rather than memorizing trivia. High levels of active engagement during lessons are associated with higher levels of achievement and student motivation. Dr. Ellis’ rationale for designing these MakesSense strategies was to help teachers avoid “watering down” the curriculum. Watering down the curriculum is less complex and sometimes results in a disjointed curriculum that is composed largely of various relatively insignificant concepts and facts to be memorized (Ochoa & Schuster, 1980; Passe & Beattie, 1994). The content may not be taught in a manner that allows students to form understandings of the various concepts and facts are connected. The content tends to be taught in “little unrelated packages.” Instruction can focus on relationships and connections among ideas and avoid having students memorize facts. Big Ideas are bascially what you should keep coming back to when teaching something. It’s a concept, theme or approach that is the focus of the lesson..not just little bits of stuff to learn. Fore example the big Big Ideas in Beginning Reading focuses on the five BIG IDEAS of early literacy which are Phonemic Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, Accuracy and Fluency with text, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.

MakesSenseStrategies Strategic Instruction Routines Specific research-validated instructional strategies designed to maximize student engagement and elaboration of concepts, skills, and learning strategies Three categories of Strategic Instructional Routines Activation Routines employed at lesson beginning for pre-assessment, activating background knowledge, and reviewing critical prerequisite knowledge Scaffolding Routines for scaffolding the development of new knowledge and skills during a lesson. Do these routines sound familiar? They should because they are aligned with differentiated instructional methods of teaching. What makes MSS effective is that ways/methods are available to help students and teachers pull out core ideas of instruction. Reflective Review Routines for reviewing and reflecting on new knowledge and skills at lesson end.

Organizer SMARTsheets Graphic organizers enhanced with embedded semantic higher-order thinking, elaboration, and structural cues Can be used for science, social studies, literature, writing, vocabulary and math instruction Essential Understanding SMARTsheets Genre-specific specialized visual tools enhanced with embedded semantic prompts focusing on specific “essential understandings” of high-frequency topics in comprehension, writing, vocabulary, math, etc….. Then this is the page you will get. This is similar to a table of contents. There are 4 sections, each with sub-sections. In these all, there are applications really too numerous to list or discuss. Let’s look at these 4 sections briefly. (Click to add descriptions of each) Instructional Design SMARTplanners Used by teachers to differentiate curriculum, plan instructional units and lessons using MSS Strategic Instructional Routines Implementation SMARTplanners Used by teachers, instructional leaders, and professional development teams to plan, implement, and evaluate Makes Sense Strategies

Some Examples For Elementary Grades Now we are going to briefly peruse some applications in the elementary grades.

This is an example from the Reading: Questioning Strategies section This is an example from the Reading: Questioning Strategies section. This example shows how to apply the 4 W’s and an H to the book I Don’t Want to go to Bed.

An example from Vocabulary: Word Connections called “Word Reminds Me of….”

Vocabulary: Word Features for word meanings and different contexts the word can be used.

This is a Venn with Sub-Topics – a more specific Venn Diagram This is a Venn with Sub-Topics – a more specific Venn Diagram. This could be used for many different things, i.e character, places, Native American tribes, etc…

Some Examples for Junior High and High School

Classroom Applications Utilize in learning centers or learning stations Review for tests Use as an assessment of student learning Use on SMARTboard, ELMO, Mobi, for WG guided practice Note-taking (especially for Visual or Kinesthetic learners) Use in your computer lab (students type in information as you teach) Have participants work collaboratively to list ways to use MSS in classroom instruction. Have each team jot down 3 ideas for use, then share. Type ideas on PPT.

Your Turn to Explore and Pre-Plan….. Go to your Novell window and open the Making Sense icon. Read the fine print. DO NOT put any of these sheets on a website or share them with teachers outside of Alabama. This product is copyrighted. It may be used by any Alabama public school teacher. All others must pay for a license. Explore. When you open your link to MSS, this is what the first page will look like. To open the MSS, jut clip on the logo. One more thing before you start exploring……[YELLOW BOX]