S3E6: Kent Johnson and Andrew Kieta on Behavioral Education
Jan 29, 2024
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Kent Johnson and Andrew Kieta, who run Morningside Academy, discuss their unique approach to education with an emphasis on students with learning disabilities. They explore instructional strategies, grouping students based on needs, thinking aloud problem-solving, and the impact of their model on frustrated parents and students.
Morningside Academy utilizes evidence-based strategies and programs, such as Direct Instruction and Precision Teaching, to accelerate student growth and improve outcomes.
The school implements homogenous achievement grouping, organizing students based on similar learning needs to provide focused and targeted instruction.
The TAPS method, a problem-solving approach that involves active speaking and listening, is used to teach problem-solving skills and encourage active participation in the classroom.
Deep dives
Morningside Academy: A Unique School with Evidence-Based Strategies
Morningside Academy is a unique school that focuses on evidence-based strategies and programs to accelerate growth and improve the lives of students. The school utilizes the Morningside model of generative instruction, which employs curriculum deconstruction and component behavior teaching. Students track their growth on standard celeration charts and receive daily support cards that track their skills and behaviors. The school attracts both tier one and tier two students, providing robust professional development and instructional coaching. The school's approach emphasizes best practices and adherence to evidence-based principles for continuous improvement and effectiveness.
Homogeneous Achievement Grouping: Organizing Students Based on Learning Strengths
Morningside Academy implements homogenous achievement grouping, organizing students based on similar learning strengths and weaknesses rather than age or grade. This approach ensures that students with similar needs are grouped together, allowing for focused and targeted instruction. The school conducts assessments to identify learning needs and places students in groups accordingly. By grouping students homogeneously, more instructional time is dedicated to direct teaching, resulting in higher efficiency and improved learning outcomes.
Direct Instruction and Instructional Design at Morningside Academy
Morningside Academy utilizes direct instruction and precision teaching methods in their classrooms. Direct instruction involves explicit teaching of component skills and breaking down curriculum into smaller parts. The school follows a model-lead-test instructional approach, ensuring content is delivered in a structured and systematic manner. Teachers are trained in instructional design, allowing them to modify and enhance existing curriculum materials. Through ongoing coaching, teachers enhance their instructional practices, ensuring effective delivery aligned with students' learning needs.
Building Fluency through Precision Teaching
Morningside Academy emphasizes precision teaching to build fluency in students. Precision teaching incorporates measurement systems and standardized acceleration charts to track behavior and make informed intervention decisions. Students actively engage in deliberate practice and work towards incremental goals. By practicing skills regularly, students develop fluency and increase their ability to perform tasks accurately and efficiently. Precision teaching not only improves academic fluency but also fosters goal-setting and develops a scientific approach towards maintaining and improving performance.
Teaching problem-solving through TAPS method
The podcast episode discusses the TAPS method, which stands for Thinking Aloud, Problem Solving. The method allows students to engage in problem-solving by actively speaking and listening in a dialogue-like manner. The TAPS method involves students embodying the roles of problem solver and active listener, taking turns to solve problems. Through this method, students learn problem-solving skills such as checking for accuracy, breaking problems into parts, and making marks and diagrams to aid in problem-solving. The teacher's role is to teach the qualities of a problem solver and an active listener, find meaningful problems for students to solve, and coach them on using each skill effectively. The TAPS method encourages active participation, movement, and dialogue throughout the problem-solving process.
The Daily Support Card for behavior management
The podcast episode highlights the use of the Daily Support Card as a behavior management tool in the morning side school. The Daily Support Card is multi-functional, serving as a tool for students to organize their behavior, for teachers to provide feedback and reinforcement, and for parents to stay informed about their child's daily activities in school. The card consists of different categories such as academic expectations, organization skills, learning skills, and citizenship skills. Students earn points in each category based on specific expectations and goals set for each class period. The points help teachers provide feedback and reinforcement, and parents can engage in conversations with their children about their daily progress. The card also serves as a tier one behavior support plan, with 90% of students successfully managing their classroom behavior using the Daily Support Card. Additionally, the card can be modified or applied differently in other schools or interventions based on specific requirements.
Today we are going to be talking to Kent Johnson and Andrew Kieta, who run a very unique school that is just up the road from me called Morningside Academy. Morningside utilizes evidence-based strategies and programs, including Direct Instruction and Precision Teaching. They offer their teachers robust professional development and instructional coaching around their model, … Continue reading S3E6: Kent Johnson and Andrew Kieta on Behavioral Education
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