Dr. Donna Walker Tileston

Workshops & Presentations

Dr. Donna Walker Tileston : Workshops & Presentations

• The Silver Bullet of High Stakes Testing
• Teaching 21st Century Kids: What’s The Difference?
• Power Tools for Learning
• Gifted Strategies in the Regular Classroom
• What Every Teacher Should Know About Today’s Diverse Learners
• What Every Teacher Should Know About Motivation
• What Every Teacher Should Know About How Learning Occurs
• What Every Teacher Should Know About Planning that Develops Self-Directed Learners
• What Every Teacher Should Know About Which Teaching Practices Make the Most Difference for Student Learning
• What Every Teacher Should Know About Classroom Management and Discipline
• What Every Teacher Should Know About Assessment

The Silver Bullet of High Stakes Testing

Presentation Type: One-half to multiple days
Theme: Identifying the key elements of high stakes tests and using meta-analysis to determine the most effective ways to prepare kids for success on state tests.
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote and break-out sessions

Synopsis: Today, as educators, we live and work in the age of No Child Left Behind and increasing expectations by federal, state and local governments for accountability in the form of improved test scores by ALL students. These initiatives have moved us from an educational philosophy that says all kids CAN learn, to a philosophy that all kids MUST learn.

Approximately 85% of all state assessments are based on one thing: a comprehensive understanding of the critical vocabulary that is embedded within state standards and benchmarks.

Research has shown conclusively that THE most important factor in success on high stakes tests is the ability of the students to define and use the vocabulary contained in standards and benchmarks.

What this means is that educators need a working knowledge of how to identify and use the language of state standards to prepare their students with the critical skills needed for high success on state exams. Once the essential vocabulary has been identified, educators then need to know which instructional strategies will be the most effective in teaching the vocabulary and processes that underpin success on high stakes tests. That’s what this session is designed to do.

Participants will first learn a step-by-step process for identifying the critical vocabulary contained within their own state standards; and then they will learn the most effective methods for teaching this vocabulary to students.

Meta-analysis of the research has conclusively shown that when teachers effectively introduce these specific vocabulary strategies to students that the class average will improve a minimum of 30 Percentile.

Let me translate what I just said. By teaching these specific strategies, if the class average was at the 50th percentile, THIS ONE TOOL can move the class average to the 80th percentile. Let’s be clear—that’s the difference between failure and exemplary performance.

Workshop Objectives
Participants will know (declarative):

• The key to raising test scores
• How to identify the key components of state tests within the participants’ own state standards
• Which tools have the highest impact on helping prepare students for high stakes testing

Participants will be able to (procedural):

• Unpack their own state standards
• Identify the key elements of their state test
• Utilize a variety of teaching tools that directly address the elements necessary for success on their state test

Teaching 21st Century Kids: What’s The Difference?

Presentation Type: Keynote to three day
Theme: How to teach digital kids with emphasis on differentiation and the teaching tools determined to be the most effective for student learning.
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote and sessions from one to three days

Synopsis: How do we reach multi-media kids in today’s school environment? This comprehensive new workshop examines how kids today are different and which strategies are shown through meta-analysis to make the most impact on their learning. How do teachers make important decisions about how to teach these diverse learners so that they are successful from the beginning? Based on one to three days of training, participants choose from the following learning pieces:

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know (declarative):

• Which teaching practices make the most difference in student learning and why
• How to plan effectively for good pacing and for brain-compatible lessons
• How the brain is motivated to learn
• The processes involved in keeping students on task
• Why some information and processes are easier to remember than others
• How to help students remember the learning
• The “silver bullet” for high stakes testing

Participants will be able to (procedural):

• Make informed decisions about which teaching practice to use
• Use at least ten effective teaching practices
• Use effective techniques to help students learn and remember at a more efficient rate
• Help more students to be successful on high stakes testing
• Differentiate instruction for different types of learners
• Differentiate for urban learners and for students from poverty

Questions Answered:

• Who are today’s students?
• How do we facilitate motivation in student s today? Which teaching tools do we know through meta-analysis will have the highest effect size on increasing motivation?
• How do we help students to plan and follow through with the learning?
• How do we create and use effective advance organizers to help students to organize informational in such a way that they are successful from the beginning?
• How do we decide which teaching strategies will have the highest effect on student learning?
• How do we teach and use linguistic and non-linguistic organizers in the classroom
• Which teaching tools have the highest effect size on student learning?
• How do we help students create independent projects that are at a quality level and that teach to higher-level thinking?
• What is the silver bullet of high stakes testing and how can we help more students to be successful?

Power Tools for Learning

Presentation Type: one to three days: interactive
Theme: Which teaching tools make the most difference in student learning and why
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote, individual sessions and in-depth one to three days

Synopsis: This highly successful workshop has been featured for the last two years at the Southern Regional Education Bureau’s National workshop. Participants are actively involved in teaching tools that transform the classroom into a student centered learning environment that follows closely the way the brain learns and remembers.

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know (declarative):

• Which teaching practices make the most difference in student learning and why.
• Why alignment is important.
• How to plan effectively for good pacing and for brain-compatible lessons.
  How the brain is motivated to learn.
• The processes involved in keeping students on task.
• Why some information and processes are easier to remember than others.
• How to help students remember the learning.
• The “silver bullet” for high stakes testing.

Participants will be able to (procedural):

• Make informed decisions about which teaching practice to use.
• Use at least ten effective teaching practices.
• Create a teaching plan that utilizes the processes of good alignment, standards and rubrics.
• Use effective techniques to help students learn and remember at a more efficient rate.
• How to help more students to be successful on high stakes testing.
• How to use a rubric for planning and for assessment.
• How to differentiate for different types of learners.
• How to differentiate for urban learners and for students from poverty.

Gifted Strategies in the Regular Classroom
Presentation Type: Interactive workshop
Theme: Moving students to actively using higher level thinking daily.
Audience: All educators (separate elementary and secondary workshops.
Duration: Five to six hours each day – one to three days

Synopsis: Participants will examine higher-level strategies that can be used in every classroom to help students use skills such as compare and contrast, problem solving, forecasting, and decision-making. Participants will examine ways to lead students into meaningful and high level independent projects that mirror real world problem solving. The workshop is based on practical application of the strategies in the regular education setting.

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know (declarative):

• Productive thinking strategies
• Decision making strategies
• Forecasting Strategies
• The steps to creative problem solving
• Questioning strategies for Socratic Studies

Participants will be able to (procedural):

• How to create and use tools for productive thinking
• How to create and use decision making matrices
• The process for creative problem solving
• How to conduct Socratic studies
• How to create and solve logic problems and the matrices
• How to solve problems using syllogisms

What Every Teacher Should Know About Diverse Learners

Presentation Type: Interactive workshop
Theme: Diversity and its implications in the classroom.
Audiences: All educators (separate elementary and secondary workshops.
Duration: Five to six hours each day – one to three days

Synopsis: The purpose of this workshop is to provide information on diversity and its implications for the classroom to the teacher. Emphasis is on the urban learners, students from generational poverty and English Language Learners. The meaning and use of contextualizing and pluralizing will be an important part of the lessons. Specific ideas for the classroom teacher will be included. Participants will examine the seven types of bias and will plan for identifying and eliminating bias in their classrooms. They will also prepare a lesson that makes modifications for students from generational poverty, the urban poor and English Language Learners.

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know (Declarative Objectives):

• The vocabulary associated with working with diverse learners
• The seven types of bias
• The research related to generational poverty, urban learners and English Language Learners
• The brain research related to working with diverse learners
• The steps for making modifications for diverse learners
• The importance of a positive climate for learning.

Participants will be able to: (Procedural Objectives):

• Identify areas of bias within their own classroom and school.
• Create a plan for eliminating bias
• Create a lesson plan that includes modifications for diverse learners.
• Use the information from the research to contextualize.
• Develop lessons that include pluralizing.
• Develop a plan for creating a positive climate for learning.

What Every Teacher Should Know About Student Motivation

Presentation Type: Interactive workshop
Theme: Root causes of de-motivation.
Audiences: All educators (separate elementary and secondary workshops.
Duration: Five to six hours each day – one to three days

Synopsis: Through this workshop participants will examine the root causes of temporary lack of motivation, the more serious de-motivation, and the steps teachers can take to change these conditions in the classroom. Information on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the effects of rewards on learning, and on the importance of self-efficacy will be examined. Learners will review current thinking on motivation and learning and will walk through a structure for changing de-motivation to high intrinsic motivation. Ways to prevent, and to change, off-task behavior through motivational strategies will be included. Participants will utilize the information on the self-system and metacognitive systems of the brain that control motivation.

Workshop Objectives
Participants will know (declarative knowledge)

• The terminology related to teaching motivation and the environmental factors that affect motivation.
• The differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
• The connections between Multiple Intelligences Theory and motivation.
• The root causes of temporary lack of motivation and the more permanent de-motivation.
• Ways the brain perceives and reacts to motivational factors.
• The connections between emotion and learning.
• The effect of rewards on motivation.
• Why students exhibit off-task behavior.
• The factors that inhibit intrinsic motivation.
• The steps in the self-system and metacognitive systems of the brain that affect motivation.

Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)

• Create a classroom environment conducive to intrinsic motivation.
• Walk through the processes of the brain that affect motivation to understand why students become de-motivated, and what must be done to change that process.
• Incorporate the steps and appropriate content into a plan for creating an enriched environment in which the brain is naturally motivated to learn from a chosen scenario. The plan will reflect all of the key elements for success (e.g., threat-free, acceptance, order, relevancy, etc.)
• Change an activity in which their students show low motivation to a high motivation for the same activity through a step-by-step process. The process that will be taught can be used for any activity or teaching step in the classroom.

What Every Teacher Should Know About How Learning Occurs

Presentation Type: Interactive workshop
Theme: Brain research and effective teaching and learning strategies
Audiences: All educators (separate elementary and secondary workshops.
Duration: Five to six hours each day – one to three days

Synopsis: Jensen (1997) says that, “While the old academic model addressed primarily the intellectual aspects of learning, the prevailing model suggests that we learn with our mind, heart and body. This more holistic view underscores the importance of considering all of the learner’s issues.”

This workshop examines how learning occurs and the implications for helping all students to be successful. Participants will look at the factors that identify being smart and the factors that label us as slow learners or overachievers. Participants will look at the factors that help students process information at a more efficient rate and the factors that help students to retrieve information from long-term memory. Information on the importance of activating prior knowledge and on providing opportunities for reflection will be discussed. Participants will learn tactics to help students learn and remember declarative knowledge, and the importance of procedural tools. Participants will make connections between the information on how learning occurs to ways to prepare and teach effective lessons

Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to greater awareness of the factors that affect learning and how to maximize positive teaching tools in the classroom.

The successful practitioner of How Learning Occurs will:

• Identify the importance of both explicit and indirect teaching activities and when it is appropriate to use each.
• Understand how the brain takes in information, how it processes the information and how it retrieves information from storage.
• Develop a process for helping students store information more efficiently.
• Explore ways to help students become independent learners.
• Create lessons that activate prior learning.
• Have a clearer understanding of the retrieval systems of the brain and their importance to student success.

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know: (declarative knowledge)

• The terminology related to how learning occurs.
• The differences in explicit and indirect teaching and when it is appropriate to use each.
• The implications of how learning occurs for students with learning problems.
• The research-based recommendations for helping students learn and remember.
• What is meant by “chunking” and how teachers can help students use chunking to increase brain storage capacity?
• The importance of “activating prior knowledge”.
• The importance of “reflecting on the learning”.
• Teaching strategies to help activate the retrieval systems of the brain.
• The steps to help students become independent learners.

Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)

• Create lesson plans that take into account the neural learning processes of the brain.
• Create and use teaching strategies that help students learn at a faster and more accurate rate.
• Create and implement strategies that help students put information into long- term memory.
• Develop and teach students strategies that help activate the memory systems of the brain.
• Design activities that help students make connections between prior learning and new learning.
• Design activities that help students make connections to the new learning when there are no prior experiences from which to draw.
• Implement teaching strategies that help students to reflect on their own learning
• Create and implement strategies that help students put information into long- term memory.
• Develop and teach students strategies that help activate the memory systems of the brain.
• Design activities that help students make connections between prior learning and new learning.
• Design activities that help students make connections to the new learning when there are no prior experiences from which to draw.

What Every Teacher Should Know About Planning that Develops Self-Directed Learners

Presentation Type: One-half to full day
Theme: Introduction to planning tools that help create self-directed learners in the classroom
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote and break-out sessions

Synopsis: Participants in this session will work through a teaching and learning model that follows research on quality planning. Information on alignment, teaching to declarative and procedural objectives and teaching for long-term memory will be explored. Participants will follow a procedure for developing lessons that incorporate ways to develop students that are planners.

The workshop is developed around a model that communicates important benchmarks to students and provides opportunities for the students to monitor their own learning. Teacher self-assessment of the planning process is also included.

Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to greater awareness of the factors that affect learning and how to maximize positive teaching tools in the classroom.

The successful practitioner of Planning will:

• Understand the importance of planning for specific outcomes.
• Understand and be able to use procedural and declarative tools for learning.
• Provide opportunities for students to use all three types of learning; individualistic, competitive and cooperative.
• Know how to effectively communicate the learning.
• Know how to create lessons that indicate an understanding of the process of planning.
• How to use the principles of effective instruction in the classroom.
• Have a clearer understanding of the need for planning that leads to self-directed learners.

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know: (declarative knowledge)

• The terminology related to effective planning.
• The steps involved in planning.
• The steps necessary for learner-centered instruction.
• The difference in declarative and procedural knowledge
• The steps in assuring that information is put into long-term memory
• The ways that we communicate with students
• The roles of the teacher.
• The role of planning in alignment.

Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)

• Take into consideration factors such as desired learner outcomes, input from students, learners’ backgrounds and other factors in the planning process.
• Use information from brain research to be a more effective planner in the classroom.
• Work with students to help them plan for their own learning.
• Use individual differences in the planning process.
• Develop and use best practices tools in the planning and teaching process.
• Create non-linguist organizers
• Use a model for planning effective lessons and demonstrating understanding.

What Every Teacher Should Know About Which Teaching Practices Make the Most Difference for Student Learning

Presentation Type: Keynote to three day
Theme: Using meta-analysis to determine which teaching strategies have the greatest effect on student learning
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote and one to three day sessions

Synopsis: The purpose of this workshop is to introduce teachers to effective teaching practices that have a high effect size on student learning. (Based on the Meta-analysis of Marzano and others). Participants will examine good teaching tools in regard to the alignment of the written, taught and assessed curriculum. They will also learn to make informed decisions about which teaching process to use for given lessons based on what they want students to know and be able to do.
Participants will review and utilize the research on getting and keeping the brain’s attention. They will also review the research on attention span by age groups and why it is important that students have independent time for reflecting. How to re-teach as well as good questioning techniques will be included.

Learners will examine critical issues such as time on task, active vs. passive learning, declarative and procedural knowledge, and how to build benchmarks for learning. A variety of teaching tools for each of the three learning modalities will be included. Participants will identify which tools are appropriate for their classrooms and will implement new teaching ideas with their students.

Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to self-awareness and classroom implementation of effective strategies.

The successful practitioner of Which Teaching practices Make the Most Difference will:

• Identify best practices in teaching and learning.
• Know why the practices they are investigating are considered to be best practices.
• Use the information learned to teach effective lessons.
• Have back-up ideas for those days when all else fails.
• Create lessons that incorporate a variety of teaching tools.
• Develop a repertoire of ideas for re-teaching based on individual differences.
• Have a clearer understanding of the differences that exist between students who come from poverty, from middle class backgrounds and from wealth in terms of teaching tools that work.

Workshop Objectives
Participants will know: (declarative knowledge)

• The terminology related to teaching to best practices.
• The differences in active and passive learning.
• The connections between current brain research and best practices.
• Various teaching structures such as direct instruction, lecture, discovery learning, inquiry, role-play, individualized instruction, cooperative learning and interdisciplinary instruction.
• The research-based recommendations for working with students from poverty.
• Ways to introduce a lesson so that students are motivated to learn.
  The factors that cause the brain to move the learning into long-term memory.
• The history of best practices.
• What to do when students do not respond to the teaching method.

Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)

• Build into their classroom and lessons a variety of teaching practices that are research based.
• Use meta-analysis to make informed decisions on how to teach.
• Create a classroom that maximizes the sensory factors that contribute to learning.
• Learn and use a five-step process for making the learning meaningful.
• Develop lessons using various tools.
• Evaluate which teaching tools are appropriate for their classroom.
• Design and implement a plan for each of the three types of lessons.
• Create benchmarks in the learning.

What Every Teacher Should Know About Classroom Management and Discipline

Presentation Type: One-half to full day
Theme: Identifying the root causes of most discipline problems and those strategies that make the most difference in creating motivation to learn.
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote and break-out sessions

Synopsis: Participants will look at the root causes of most discipline problems and seven tools that can help prevent and/or minimize those problems. Information on how learners from different socio-economic conditions view discipline, and what the teacher can do to modify discipline plans (so that all learners develop self-directed behavior) will be discussed. Ways to prevent and to change off-task behavior will be included. Current brain research on the factors that contribute to off-task behavior and the implication for the classroom will be examined.
Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to self-awareness and classroom implementation of effective strategies.

The successful practitioner of Classroom Management and Discipline will:

• Identify and understand terminology related to classroom management and discipline.
• Examine seven tools from brain research to prevent off-task behavior.
• Review information from the behavioral psychologists and evaluate it in light of today’s students.
• Incorporate the information on routines and transitions that help to give order and positive climate to the classroom.
• Communicate learning expectations.
• Set Class norms.
• Have a clearer understanding of the differences that exist between students who come from poverty, from middle class backgrounds, and from wealth and how that information affects the way discipline is conducted.

Workshop Objectives
Participants will know: (declarative knowledge)

• The terminology related to classroom management and discipline.
• The differences in how discipline is perceived, based on the socio-economic status of the students.
• The connections between current brain research and some of the past ideas on discipline.
• The connections between Multiple Intelligences Theory and providing meaningful tasks for students.
• The root causes of most discipline problems, and the factors that can minimize those root causes.
• The connection between academic learning time and discipline.
• Good management strategies that help students learn.
• Understand the relationship between learning states and discipline.
• The effects of punishment and rewards on student behavior.
• Why students exhibit off-task behavior.
• The current laws in regard to discipline.

Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)

• Build an effective management plan that takes into consideration the factors that affect behavior.
• Compare discipline methods from the behavioral psychologists with those from brain researchers.
• Work with students from poverty and urban learners to help them to develop good management skills.
• Develop a plan for discipline that takes into consideration how students perceive behavior.
• Identify states of the learners and to change the style of teaching based on that information.
• Design and implement a plan for creating a classroom that exhibits acceptance, threat-free conditions and order.
• Define and explain various elements of classroom management.

What Every Teacher Should Know About Student Assessment
Presentation Type: One-half to full day
Theme: Identifying and using authentic assessment
Audience: All educators
Duration: Keynote and break-out sessions

Synopsis: Participants will examine current research on performance (authentic) assessment, appropriate teacher-made tests, and standardized tests. Standards based instruction will be discussed along with the implications for the classroom. Participants will look at the differences in informal and formal assessment, as well as formative and summative assessments. The effect of seven kinds of tests on student achievement will be explored. Information on assessment, monitoring instructional effectiveness and the implications for the classroom will be included. Learners will examine standardized tests, teacher-made tests, multiple and authentic assessments, portfolios and self-assessments. How to prepare a rubric will be discussed and participants will build a plan for their classroom that includes planning with the end in mind. They will plan for a unit by selecting objectives (formative, summative, procedural and declarative), preparing a rubric, the assessment tools to be used and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the assessment.

Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to self-awareness and classroom implementation of effective strategies.

The successful practitioner of Assessment will:

• Identify and understand terminology associated with assessment.
• Examine the fundamentals of making effective teacher-made tests.
• Examine various assessment tools and their appropriateness.
• View assessment as a way to evaluate the teaching and learning process.
• Create authentic assessments.
• Have a clearer understanding of the differences that exist between the different types of tests.
• Be able to identify bias in tests.
• Incorporate the information on state standards into planning for classroom assessment.

Workshop Objectives:
Participants will know (declarative knowledge)

• The terminology related to assessment.
• The differences in informal, formal, formative and summative assessments and the appropriateness of each.
• The connections between current brain research and student evaluation methods.
• Ways to identify and use Multiple Intelligences as a way of assessing student strengths.
• The types of questions appropriate for teacher-made tests and when to use them.
• The strengths and weaknesses of various test formats.
• The alignment between the written, taught, and tested curriculum.
• The effect of stress on assessment.

Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)

• Interpret and use assessment for student improvement.
• Write appropriate stems for test.
• Develop a variety of assessment instruments.
• Design appropriate and effective assessments based on learning goals.
• Analyze tests for bias.
• Effectively design and use rubrics.
• Evaluate test effectiveness.
• Use backward thinking in planning for a unit.

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