- Question 1: Sebastian
During the "post mortem" of his chess match, Sebastian was praised for his strong moves, encouraged to think of better alternatives, and criticized for thinking "too quickly."
How often do you provide your students receive this type of "post mortem" response to their work? - Question 2: IQ and Chess
Johnathon Rowson, Scottish Grand Master of chess, argues that the most important talents in chess are not intellectual at all; they are psychological and emotional.
"In reality, if you want to become a great chess player, or even a good one, your ability to recognize and utilize your emotions is every bit as important as the way you think."
Take out "great chess player" and insert student, musician, athlete, artist, mathemetician, scientist, soldier, etc.
How do we help our students recognize and utilize their emotions? - Cognitive Self-Control
Cognitive self-control is the ability to inhibit an instinctive or habitual response and substitute a more effective, less obvious one.
In this article from American Educator, researcher and author, Daniel Willingham tackles the question, "Can Teachers Increase Students' Self-Control?" - Cognitive Flexibility
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to see alternative solutions to problems, to think outside the box, to negotiate unfamiliar situations. - Ken Robinson: Paperclip Creativity Test
Ken Robinson points out how we tend to lose some of our creativity and divergent thinking (e.g., cognitive flexitility) as we get older. Why? He sees a common factor as being school. His question, "How can we change the way we 'do' school in order to nurture creativity?" After all, what the paperclip challenge showed us is that we all have this within us. - Jump Start Creativity with the 30 Circles Challenge
- Question 2: 2 Questions
Elizabeth Spiegel asks her chess players to questions after each match. How can these questions be adapted for our students when asking them to reflect back on a project, a task, an interaction, or an assessment?
1. Which especially creative "winning move" have you overlooked?
2. Which potentially lethal move of your opponents are you blindly ignoring? - Question 3: Thinking About our Thinking
Elizabeth Spiegel says ,(pg. 114) "Teaching chess is really about teaching the habits that go along with thinking. Like how to understand your mistakes and how to be more aware of your thought processes."
In what ways do you encourage your students to think about their thinking . . . to understand their mistakes and be more aware of their thought processes? - Questions for Metacognition
These questions will encourage students to reflect on their learning, consider transfer possibilities, self-assess their performance, and set goals. - Question 4: Making This Strategy Work
Elizabeth Spiegel (pg. 115) shares how her piece by piece "deconstruction" of her students' moves did not play out as well when she was an English teacher. With that said, there is still a lot of value in her approach. How might her "deconstructing" and "teaching kids a new way to think" method be adapted for students in English, math, science, and history? - Excerpt from Classroom Instruction that Works: John Hattie's Research on Feedback and Metacognition
The studies related to feedback underscore the importance of providing feedback that is instructive, timely, referenced to the actual task, and focused on what is correct and what to do next (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Shute, 2008). They also address the use of attributional and metacognitive feedback. For example, a study by Kramarski and Zeichner (2001) investigated the use of metacognitive feedback versus results feedback in a 6th grade mathematics class as a way to help students know what to do to improve their performance. Metacognitive feedback was provided by asking questions that served as cues about the content and structure of the problem and ways to solve it. Results feedback provided cues related to the final outcome of the problem. Students who received metacognitive feedback significantly outperformed students who received results feedback, in terms of mathematical achievement and the ability to provide mathematical explanations. They were more likely to provide explanations of their mathematical reasoning, and those explanations were robust—they included both algebraic rules and verbal arguments. - Question 5: Young Children vs. Adolescents
Tough makes an interesting point on pg. 121. Based on observations and research, he has come to understand that the "licking and grooming" theory works best with young children; however, if we want to impact adolescents, we need to take them seriously and challenge them to improve. Do we have evidence of this from working with our own students? Are we nuturing our youngest students? Do we take adolescents seriously? (Do THEY think we take them seriously?) How are we challenging them to improve? - Question 6: Teaching Grit, Curiosity, Self-Control, and Optimism
"Every day in the classroom and at tournaments, Spiegel tried to teach her students grit, curiosity, self-control, and optimism." (pg. 122) How do we try to teach our students grit, curiosity, self-control and optimism? - Question 7: Boneheaded Mistakes
What strategies do you use to diffuse your students who get caught up in impulsive, emotional "interruptions." How, like Elizabeth Spiegel, do you help your students "interrupt the interruptions" that get in the way of their success . . . both academically and socially?
Tough asks this question: "How can we help kids from making boneheaded mistakes?" - Question 8: An All-Encompassing Pursuit
In recent years, a lot of attention has been given to video games and their influence on learning. We have seen the way in which kids who engage in these video games demonstrate persistence and stamina. For example, a child who may exhibit a lack of focus in the classroom will rarely lose this focus when playing for hours on a video game.
In Tough's book (pg. 130), he begins to address this issue. He quotes Matan Prilleltensky, a chess champion studying to earn a MA in special education. Prilletensky says, "A lot of people with attention issues crave intense experiences andserious stimulation. They want to be absorbed in some sort of all-encompassing pursuit."
In what way(s) does "school" absorb students in some sort of all-encompassing pursuit? How can we improve on this? - Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell discusses "desirable difficulty." - Question 9: Motivation vs. Volition
On pg. 130, Tough shares a quote from chess grand master, Jonathan Rowson: "When it comes to ambition, it is crucial to distinguish between 'wanting' something and 'choosing' it. Decide that you wantto become world chaption, and you will inevitably fail to put in the necessary hard work. If, however, youchoose to become world champion, then you will 'reveal your choice through your behavior and your determination.' Every action says, 'This is who I am.'"
How do we help our students in choosing to be successful? What outcomes have we seen when our students have wanted rather than chosen to be successful at something? - Marzano Design Question
What will I do to communicate high expectations for all students? - Marzano
"High Expectations for All" - Question 10: Making Success Attractive
On pg. 147, Tough describes James Black's tireless efforts to persist as he worked toward his goal of becoming a national master in chess. "He was a case study in grit."
His teacher, Elizabeth Spiegel, believed this could transfer from the chess board to academics:
"As long as there's a teacher out there who can make succeeding in school as attractive a prospect as succeeding on the chessboard . . . "
The bottom line, how do we make succeeding in school an attractive prospect to all our students? - Elizabeth Spiegel's Blog
Beautiful photos of James Black playing chess. Check out the HUGE smile on his face!