TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

August 3, 2001

 

POOGI

  (1)   Mistake Alert!  Mistake Alert!, Rami Goldratt/Cheryl A. Edwards

  (2)     From the Teacher’s Lounge to the Classroom (Revised Version), Cheryl A. Edwards

Editor’s Notes

   (3)     Kay Buckner-Seal

 

POOGI

(1)  Mistake Alert!  Mistake Alert!

From Rami Goldratt and Cheryl A. Edwards

 

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable,

but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

—George Bernard Shaw

 

Oh, yes! …considering the number of mistakes I seem to make, I guess I can interpret this to mean that my life is becoming increasingly useful!  But, why, I wonder, do I always have to make them in public?

 

In “From the Teacher’s Lounge to the Classroom”, TACTics, July 27, 2001, I made some errors in describing Rami’s process.  From Rami:

 

Dear Cheryl,

I've just finished reading the Tactics.  Thank you for the excerpt of my presentation that you wrote.  The example you shared is excellent and demonstrates beautifully the procedure.

 

BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM!  The first two stages of the process that you've described are not the ones I presented at the conference! 

 

The process you described:

1.      Select a text for your students to read that includes a problem.

2.       Verbalize the action or decision that must be done to solve the problem.  Start building a cloud with the conflict.  Remember in TOC there is no problem if there is no conflict.

 

The appropriate process:

1.      Examine any kind of text or subject matter that you are about to teach.

2.      Find a meaningful action or decision that is described in this text.

3.      Write the execution of this action/decision as one of the wants in the cloud (D).

4.      Write the opposite of the action/decision as the other want in the cloud (D').

 

As you can see, there is a huge difference in the initial stages:

     I don't ask the teacher to look for a text that describes a problem.  Asking it will narrow down greatly the texts that could be taught using this process.

     I ask for any text, knowing that almost all of the texts/subject matters that we are teaching involve a meaningful action or decision that there is a consideration not to take it.

     I ask to find any meaningful action/decision that is described in the text.  It doesn't have to be a solution to any problem!

 

The rest of the process is like you have described.

 

Thank you, Rami, for catching my mistake so quickly and making the necessary corrections.  Following is the revised step-by-step procedure.  If anyone has any questions regarding this process, please do not hesitate to send them to TACTics and we will invite Rami to respond to them.

 

Mea Culpa,

Cheryl

 

(2)  From the Teacher’s Lounge to the Classroom (Revised Version), Cheryl A. Edwards

 

Do you find that planning a really good lesson for your students takes a lot of time? So much time, in fact, that you don’t seem to be able to plan as many effective lessons as you would like?  What if there was a way to plan a lesson that included the strategies that have proven to have a profound effect on student learning and it only took the time it takes to cruise from the teacher’s lounge to the classroom?  Rami shared such a procedure that can be used at any grade level, for teaching in most of the content areas except the sciences.

 

Rami’s 5-Minute Technique

1.        Examine any kind of text or subject matter that you are about to teach.

2.       Identify a meaningful action or decision that is described in this text.

3.       Write the execution of this action/decision as one of the “wants” in the cloud (D).

4.       Write the opposite of the action/decision as the other ‘Want’ in the cloud (D').

5.       Identify the NEEDS that will satisfy each side of the conflict.  In other words, what are the needs to take the action, and what are the needs not to take the action.

6.       Verbalize the common goal.  You have a meaningful cloud that describes the text!  (We shall call it a “text cloud.”)

If you want to demonstrate to the students how this cloud is relevant to their personal lives:

7.       Examine each entity of the “text cloud”, and write it in a very general (generic) way so that every entity will be relevant to the student’s life. Now, you have a “generic cloud”

8.       Ask the student to create and share his or her own examples of this cloud.

 

The student is moving from very specific to general and then back to a very relevant specific.

Text Cloud  à  Generic Cloud  à  Personal Cloud

Rami explained how using this procedure would be Teaching (content) as well as Educating (values).  The student is actively dealing with the text and making it relevant to their own lives.

 

An Example:

1.     Examine any kind of text or subject matter that you are about to teach.

 

2.     Find a meaningful action or decision that is described in this text. 

From Frearon’s Economics, 1995:  American companies are asking the government for millions of tax dollars to help with research and development so that they will be able to compete with Japanese technology.

 

3.     Write the execution of this action/decision as one of the ‘Wants’ in the cloud (D).

(D)         The government should support technology research with tax dollars

 

4.     Write the opposite of the action/decision as the other ‘Want’ in the cloud (D').

(D’)         The government should not support technology research with tax dollars

 

5.     Identify Needs.

(B)         Be competitive with Japanese technology                 

(D)         Support technology research with tax dollars

(C)         Have tax dollars support vital research         

(D’)         Do not support technology research with tax dollars

 

6.     Verbalize the Common Goal.

(A)         Best services to U.S. citizens

 

7.     Write the cloud in a general way so that every entity will be relevant to the students’ life.

(A)         Everyone has the best

(B)         Keep up with others         (D)         Provide support

(C)         Get what I need          (D’)         Don’t provide support

 

8.     Ask students to bring their own examples of this cloud.  Example:

(A)         Everyone passes

(B)         Friend gets a good grade         (D)      I do friends homework

(C)     I spend my time on my homework         (D’)         Don’t do friends homework

 

If I were to use this technique in the classroom I would scaffold instruction by first providing the students with the cloud that described the conflict, as well as the generic cloud, and then do a group “relevant” cloud.  As the students became proficient with the tool, I would involve them in generating the concept cloud and the generic cloud as a large group activity.  My goal would be to move the students toward developing the clouds independently.

 

What are some of the implications of using this technique?

·         Students become interactive with the text.  They create a concrete visual of the problem/conflict. 

·         Students learn to generalize through the generic cloud.

·         Students learn to develop their specific cloud from the generic cloud.  The concept now becomes relevant.  The connection from learning to their life becomes real.

·         No matter what level the student is learning at s/he will be able to participate.

·         If it is quick and easy for the teachers to develop then they will use it.

 

In Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzano, Pickering and Pollock have put together a collection of research-based strategies that have positive effects for increasing student achievement.  These strategies have proven to make a big difference.  I’m listing these general strategies so that you can see for yourself how Rami’s 5-Minute Technique and all of the other TOC applications actually enhance student learning based on this current research.

 

Research-Based Strategies as shared by Marzano, Pickering and Pollock.

·         Identifying similarities and differences enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

·         Summarizing and note taking requires students to distill information into a parsimonious, synthesized form.

·         Reinforcing effort and providing recognition based on specific performance goals addresses students’ attitudes and beliefs.

·         Homework and practice that provide students with (authentic) opportunities to deepen understanding and skills relative to content that has been presented to them.

·         Nonlinguistic representations including graphic organizers, mental pictures and kinesthetic activity helps to think about and recall information.

·         Cooperative learning grouping strategies foster interdependence, interaction, accountability, interpersonal skills, and group processing.

·         Setting objectives and providing feedback that is corrective and timely by both the teacher and the student.

·         Generating and testing hypotheses deductively or inductively.

·         Cues, questions and advance organizers to activate prior knowledge.

 

The TOC Thinking Processes involve each of the above strategies.  For example: 

-     The concrete format of the tools is actually a graphic organizer.

-      Ambitious targets and intermediate objectives are setting goals.

Can you find more?

 

It’s a great time to…

For many of us it is summer vacation.  What a great time to do some TOC planning.  Take an old lesson and try Rami’s new procedure.  Send it in to TACTics.  Seeing examples from other educators is really beneficial and we can put them in our toolbox of instructional strategies.

EDITORS’ NOTES

(3) Kay Buckner-Seal

 

Cheryl and Rami modeled for us an effective way to scrutinize the work of others.  Rami read Cheryl’s article.  He constructed, “Yes, but there are errors.”  And, in communicating the errors, he made it “learner friendly.”  Cheryl, in a way, it’s comforting to see that even an expert makes mistakes at times.  And it’s reassuring to see how you and Rami came together to handle the situation in a way to make this a learning experience for us all.  Thanks, for the lessons.

 

Feel free to share with us.  Send your responses, applications of the thinking processes, lessons, announcements, and etc. by mail to:  Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA.  Or send hyperlink to:  redwards@sault.com, or bucknek@earthlink.net.

 

 

 

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