simManual

I n s i m -

School you

are the teacher

and responsible for the

learning of all your students. Just

like in school, you can learn about your

students by reading their student profiles that

include statements about their behavior and learning

preferences. In the simSchool classroom, you select tasks and

conversational exchanges to best

fit your students’ needs. Students

respond to tasks with changes in

posture and statements. As you play

simSchool you make decisions and

experiment. Then based on what

happens you refine your strategies.

With simSchool you play to learn to

develop expertise and think like a teacher.

In simSchool, success comes through helping your

simStudents improve, both in their academic performance

and their behavior. Each simStudent in the class has an indi-

vidual personality with settings (in the demo version) on 6 dimensions:

expected academic performance, openness to learning, conscientiousness to-

ward tasks, extroversion or introversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. The

settings range from very negative to very positive on each dimension, with about 20 different

possible points on each of the 6 dimensions (actually there are many more, but this will make the

point). Thus simSchool can define 20*20*20*20*20*20 students, that’s about 64 million students. We’ve

selected 8 of them for the demo version of simSchool. Each student’s settings (hidden settings that are invis-

ible to the player) determine exactly how the student learns. Correlated with these settings are a set of narrative hints

about the student as a learner that you can read by clicking on the laptop computer on the desk in the classroom. There are

5 possible points for these that translate into characteristics (for example: very academically capable, moderately capable, expected

to be on grade level, has a few difficulties, has many difficulties). So with 5*5*5*5*5*5 narrative varia-

tions, simSchool can describe over 15 thousand students. The 8 students we’ve selected for the demo

version (3 in the single student mode and 5 in the 5 student classroom) may or may not remind you

of students you’ve had, but we hope that they resemble profiles of students you may have someday.

We can see why this task was so hard for Lacey. The performance expectation is far above her

current expected performance level. That is one of the reasons for the slow learning curve,

but there are also other influences. This task poses several challenges to Lacey at the same

time. She is a bit withdrawn and likes to work alone, but making a presentation is a public

act requiring emotional stability, and a fairly high degree of extroversion. Since the presenta-

tion is “from memory” the task also requires high persistence to enable memorization and to

recall the memory. All of these additional task requirements add layers of difficulty for Lacey.

The cognitive load of this task is outside the ZPD of her learning characteristics, adding to

the difficulty and impeding achievement on this task. During theat the dial. Now you can see

the particular components of why that task was difficult by looking at these reports.

Guiding Development fromVirtual to Real Teaching!

Lisa Hettler David Gibson Rhonda Christensen Melanie Zibit

How to Use the Handbook

The SimMentoring project seeks to help novice teachers more rapidly develop maturity and expertise in adapting teaching to the diverse needs of all learners and increase retention rates of new teachers through development and use of simSchool – a web-based dynamic simulation of a classroom – together with new forms of pre-service teacher mentoring. The project stems from a partnership between the teacher education program at University of North Texas and CurveShift, Inc, a private sector educational solutions company that developed simSchool.

This handbook has been designed to provide an individual or group with support for learning simSchool and pro-vides lessons for running simulations in order to gain practice in planning and adapting instruction. There are a total of 15 lessons that start with the basics and then increase in complexity. As you and your preservice teachers experi-ment with lessons you will find ways to modify and improve these lessons. It is not necessary to complete all 15 lessons in order to benefit from simSchool. An individual will want to work through a different list of lessons depending on the end goal. In order to begin using simSchool it is suggested that Lessons 1, 2, and 3 be completed first. Then you should pick and choose the lessons that fit the objectives for your classroom. Lesson 4 was originally a slide deck and provides the theoretical basis behind the creation of simSchool. This can be used before completing any lessons but it seems to work best if introduced after the first three lessons. Lessons 5-7 deal with a five student classroom and work with planning an appropriate set of activities for a given time period. These lessons are good for lesson planning practice and differentiation issues. Lessons 8-10 deal with creating students in simSchool based on actual students seen in classrooms and then teaching the created students. These lessons are good for practice in identifying characteristics in individuals that can affect learning in the classroom and how to account for these characteristics in teaching. Lessons 11-12 deal with creating tasks to then use to teach any of the simSchool students whether provided in the program or added by the participants. These lessons provide practice in thinking about the strengths and weakness-es of tasks as well as the sequencing and scaffolding needs of tasks and students. Lessons 13-15 deal with the eighteen student classroom. These are the most advanced lessons and the recommendation is to attempt these only after a significant amount of practice has been completed with the other lessons.

The authors would like to express their thanks and gratitude to Dr. Carol Wickstrom and her language arts methods students at the University of North Texas. Their willingness to use simSchool and provide feedback were instrumental in the lessons and learning aids in this handbook.

We also extend our thanks to Dr. Kelley King and her secondary preservice teacher education students. Their participation and feedback provided the impetus for refinements to several of the lessons and learning aids.

We gratefully acknowledge the valuable artistic contributions by Rebekah McPherson of the video tutorials referenced in this manual. Her numerous discussions with the authors and the project directors helped formalize instructional processes as well as in-tended outcomes from simulation activities.

A final acknowledgement is due to FIPSE. This guide was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improve-ment of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Grant #P116B060398. Principal Investigators: Rhonda Christensen, Gerald Knezek, Leslie Patterson.

Acknowledgements

Copyright © CurveShift 2008

Table of Contents

The simSchool Interface

Outline of suggested lessons

What is simSchool?

How simSchool Works

Lesson 1: Introducing the program- How do I register?

Lesson 1: Introducing the program- Running a simulation

Lesson 2: Learning the program basics- Tasks

Lesson 3: Learning the program basics- Comments

Lesson 4: Presenting the theories behind simSchool

Lesson 5: Introducing the five-student classroom

Lesson 6: Designing a lesson plan

Lesson 7: Improving a lesson plan

Lesson 8: Creating a student- Introduction

Lesson 9: Creating a student

Lesson 10: Running a class of five created students

Lesson 11: Creating a task- Introduction

Lesson 12: Creating a task

Lesson 13: Introducing the eighteen-student classroom

Lesson 14: Using created tasks in the eighteen-student classroom

Lesson 15: Adding up to 5 created students and tasks in the eighteen-student classroom

Appendix

Copyright © CurveShift 2008

The simSchool Interface

In the teacher console you can select tasks and talk.

Click the bell to assign tasks and make comments to the whole class. Click on an individual student to impact one student at a time.

The far right hand corner con-tains the buttons that control the game. They are play (► ) pause (► ), and stop (► ). Beneath these buttons is a sentence saying that the Simulation is either running or paused and below that a line that saying Simulation time: ___ simMinutes.

simTime is much faster than real time. Ten seconds of real time equals one minute of simTime.

The thermometer shows how well-matched the student is to the task. The round white meter with a red needle is like a speedometer that shows how quickly the student is learning.

Click on the laptop computer to see your class roster and read student profiles. Profiles give you clues about how your students learn.

When you select an individual student you see an update on the power (ability to do a task); happiness (feelings about the task), and academic changes (gains or losses in perfor-mance).

Lesson one: Introducing the program. Register students, run Everly’s Bad Day simulation, reflect in blog (45-65 Minutes)

Lesson two: Learning the program basics, tasks. Pair up students, provide tasks learning aid (Appen-dix B), and have them run Everly’s Better Day, reflect in blog. Discuss. (45-60 Minutes).

Lesson three: Learning the program basics, com-ments Pair up students, provide the circumplex (Appendix A) and comment learning aid (Appendix B) Have them run the two simulations with Lacey. Reflect in blog and discuss. (Approx. 60 Minutes)

Lesson four: Presenting the theory behind sim-School On this day present the power point (video) about the theory behind simSchool. (45 Minutes)

Lesson five: Introducing the five student class-room Pair students and have them run a five student classroom, fixed personalities. Reflect in blog and discuss (45-60 Minutes)

Lesson six: Designing a lesson plan Pair up stu-dents and have them complete and run the lesson plan (Appendix D) for a five student class, fixed personalities. Reflect in blog and discuss. (50-75 Minutes)

Lesson seven: Improving a lesson plan Using the data from day five, have the students attempt to design a better lesson plan. Reflect in blog and discuss. (45-60 Minutes)

Lesson eight: Creating a student-Introduction Handout and go over the Create a Student handout (Appendix E). Direct the students to observe an average student in their observations and complete the handout. (30-45 Minutes)

Lesson nine: Creating a student Have student create a student in simSchool with the information collected and then run a 45 minute simulation using that student. Reflect in blog and discuss. Direct stu-dents to now complete the handout for a below and above average student. (45-60 Minutes)

Lesson ten: Running a class of five created stu-dents Pair students and have then pick from their six available students to create a classroom of five in simSchool. Complete and run a five student lesson plan. Reflect in blog and discuss. (45-60 Minutes)

Lesson eleven: Creating a task-Introduction Pair students and have them design two tasks to run in simSchool using the Create a Task handout (Appen-dix F). (30-45 Minutes)

Lesson twelve: Creating and assigning a task Pair students and have then run a five student classroom using their designed tasks. Reflect in blog and dis-cuss. (45-60 Minutes)

Lesson thirteen: Introducing the eighteen student classroom Pair students and have them run an eigh-teen student classroom, fixed personalities. Use the sample seating plan (Appendix G) for taking notes on students. Reflect in blog and discuss (45-60 Minutes)

Lesson fourteen: Using created tasks in the eighteen student classroom Pair students and have them create several tasks and then assign them to an eighteen student classroom simulation. Reflect in blog and discuss (60-90 Minutes)

Lesson fifteen: Run an eighteen student class-room with created students and tasks Pair stu-dents. Using students and tasks they have created have them run an eighteen student class room simulation. Reflect in blog and discuss. (60-90 Minutes)

I. Outline of Suggested Lessons

What is simSchool? In simSchool you are the teacher and responsible for the learning of all your students. Just like in school, you can learn about your students by reading their student profiles that include statements about their behavior and learning preferences. In the simSchool classroom, you select tasks and conversational exchanges to best fit your students’ needs. Students respond to tasks with changes in posture and statements. As you play simSchool you make decisions and experiment. Then based on what happens you refine your strategies.

With simSchool you play to learn to develop expertise and think like a teacher. In simSchool, success comes through helping your simStudents improve, both in their academic performance and their behavior.

How simSchool WorksSimStudent Profiles

Each simStudent in the class has an individual personality with settings on 6 di-mensions: 1) expected academic performance, 2) openness to learning, 3) consci-entiousness toward tasks, 4) extroversion or introversion, 5) agreeableness, and 6) emotional stability. The settings range from very negative to very positive on each dimension, with about 20 different possible points on each of the 6 dimen-sions (actually there are many more gradations.).** We’ve selected 8 students for the demo version of simSchool.

Each student’s settings (hidden settings that are invisible to the player) determine exactly how the student learns. Each student’s profile has a set of narrative hints about how the student learns correlated with the student’s hidden settings. You can read the student profile narratives by clicking on the laptop computer on the desk in the classroom.

The narratives describe each of the student’s personality dimensions using 5 possible points that translate into characteristics (for example: very academically capable, moderately capable, expected to be on grade level, has a few difficul-ties, has many difficulties).***. The 8 students we’ve selected for the demo ver-sion (3 in the single student mode and 5 in the 5 student classroom) may or may not remind you of students you’ve had, but we hope that they resemble profiles of students you may have someday.

** simSchool can define 20*20*20*20*20*20 students, that’s about 64 million students

*** So with 5*5*5*5*5*5 narrative variations, simSchool can describe over 15 thousand students

Lesson 1Introducing the program-Running a simulation

I. Getting Started

• Selecting your browser: simSchool works with Firefox, Netscape and Safari. We recommend using Firefox.

Download Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

• Connect to simSchool - https://simschool.org/my/

• On the initial screen, Register your Informa-tion to set up your account: https://sim-school.org/my/register

• Make sure to use an e-mail you can easily access.

• After clicking on register, a confirmation e-mail should appear in your inbox.

• Click to confirm registration.

• Login with your password on the next screen.

• You are now ready to experience simSchool!

For a more detailed dem-onstration on registering, download and view the videos located at:

http://www.iittl.unt.edu/iittl/fipse/simMentoring_web/simSchool.mov

and

http://www.iittl.unt.edu/iittl/fipse/simMentoring_web/Comments_in_sim-School.mov

Lesson 1

Lesson 1Introducing the program-Running a simulation

Warm-ups

The “Warm-up” scenarios give you basic knowledge about how the game is played and how it works.

Scenario 1: Everly Kassam’s Bad Day

Everly Kassam is an “on grade level” student. In relationships, he shows self-confidence and likes stimulation. He manages to get along with others most of the time. He is diligent about assignments, follows instructions and stays on task. He is a steady, friendly, warm person with good self-esteem. He’s interested in a lot of things, enjoys new ideas, and likes a chal-

lenge. When approaching tasks, he talks a lot, likes variety and interaction. He learns best by “doing” and likes to work with others. He is generally positive and enthusiastic. Everly likes to plan and have structure. He needs closure, and thus completes every task. He wants everything “to count” toward the grade. He is creative, makes up hypotheses, improvises answers, and takes risks.

Let’s see if we can teach him!

Step 1: Set up to teach Everly

click on the tab “New Simulation.”

click on the box “Use preset students”

click on the box “1 student”

click on the box “At grade level”

click on the box “Fixed personalities”

click on the box “Include visual, audi-tory, and kinesthetic variables”

type “Everly Kassam”

click on the box “Create”

At the completion of this step, you have defined a “game” or “scenario” with

Objective: Players will gain an under-standing of the available tasks and how the simStudent responds to tasks based on their spe-cific profile.

Lesson 1.1

a well known student who is expected to perform at grade level in any subject you teach. Step 2: Teaching Everly

click on the box “Launch” next to “Everly Kassam”

The classroom now loads to your computer. This might take several minutes. Sim-School is loading the body positions, talking exchanges, and learning characteris-tics for Everly. When finished, you’ll have a new window looking like this:

Figure 1. Everly, waiting for class to start.

When the game opens it is now “paused,” indicated by the gray parallel bars in the middle. The game starts when you click on the white triangle in the lower right corner. To the far right is the white square “stop” button. Don’t start or stop the game just yet.

Click on the laptop computer screen on the desk. This takes you to your class list, with student records. You can read about Everly and see past grades. Read the profile, focusing on the personality profile and teacher reflections. Don’t worry too much about the grades.

Let’s build a lesson with a set of tasks for him!

Everly’s nightmare 45 simMinute lesson plan Go over last week’s lessons (15 simSimMinutes) Take notes during lecture (15 simSimMinutes) Take an oral quiz (15 simSimMinutes)

That doesn’t look like an inherently bad teaching plan does it? It’s not that exciting, but truth be told, we’ve all had classes like this. If we teach Everly using this plan, he will not do well; how do we know this? Let’s do it just to see what will happen. (One of the advantages of simSchool is the ability to experiment like this without hurting students). Every minute of class time (simTime) that passes (about 10 sec-onds of real time) Everly feels and reacts based on your choices.

Oh! Before you do the Step 2 actions, you might want to read through them first, because once the game is start-ed, time is ticking.

Lesson 1.2

Step 2 (cont’d): Teaching Everly (with a bad lesson plan for him).

click on the “Start button”

click on Everly

The round white meter with a red needle is like a speedometer that shows how quickly the student is learning. It’s based on expecting the studentto gain 1.0 in the academic variable, over the course of asimulated 45-minute class. If the student is on track to meet thatgoal, the meter will be pegged at the far right. If the student isn’tlearning at all, the meter will be at the far left, and if the studentis learning, but slowly, the meter will be somewhere in between.

The theromometer shows how well matched the student is to the task, bylooking at the difference between the student’s power/affiliation andthe task’s power/affiliation. Everly’s thermometer on this task will never move, since there is no learning opportunity in the task. Let’s assign a task, the clock is ticking!

FYI: Leaving the simulation at this point. If you need to “bail out” on this or any class, close the browser window. Do NOT click the “Stop” button. If you click the “Stop” button, the simulation will record your scenario as a completed session and will save your incomplete results – so, only use the “Stop” button to save your work, finish the session, and begin re-flecting on your teaching. If you hit the pause button at this point and then also close the browser, the game will save as though you had pressed the “Stop” button. Here we go.

Power/Affliation: The sim-School model posits that we interact with one another by negotiating power and affiliation. For example, if a teacher and student are friendly with one another, the student will react differently to the teacher than if the student didn’t have a level of trust already established. Conversely, if a student approaches a teacher submissively, the student is likely to expect the teacher to assume a dominant role in his or her response to the student. In this case, inherent in the tasks are settings related to power and affiliation, e.g., Power – the student’s sense of ability to do the task at hand; Affiliation – the stu-dent’s compatibility with the task’s academic potential.

Lesson 1.2

1. Assign the task “go over last week’s lessons”

click on the “Task Menu” in the lower left of the teacher’s console

click on “Level 1” and mouseover on the tasks until you find “go over

last week’s lessons” and then click that one.

When you select Everly by clicking on him, you will see an information update in the center portion of the teacher’s console. It confirms that he is working on the task you assigned and is listening. Notice that you are tracking changes over time in:

Power - his sense of ability to do the task at hand Happiness – his sense of af-filiation with the task Academic Growth – his academic performance.

If you mouseover the white update screens, they will expand for detailed viewing.

watch the “Simulation time” in the lower right hand section of the console.

About every 10 seconds, 1 minute of class time goes by. The readout tells you how many simMinutes of simulated class time have elapsed.

2. Assign the task take notes during lecture:

click on Everly when 15 simMinutes have passed

click on the “Task Selector” again

click on “Level 3” and then

click the first task “take notes during lecture”

watch the “Simulation time” until 25 simMinutes of class time has

elapsed.

Lesson 1.2

3. Assign the task take an oral quiz:

click on Everly [click] on the “Task Selector” again


click the second task “take an oral quiz”

click the “Stop” button when 45 simMinutes of class time has elapsed.

At the completion of this step, you have recorded a “simulation.” Press the stop button and go to step 3.

Step 3: Seeing Your Results

click on the words “View data” next to “Everly Kassam”

There are many ways to analyze your results, so we’ll only point out a couple of the most obvious ways now. You should see a timeline as in figure 3:

Figure 3. Viewing the data from a simulation.

Everly’s learner characteristics at the start of class are the positions on six vari-ables of expected performance: Academic, Agreeableness, Emotional Stabil-ity, Extroversion, Intellectual Openness, and Persistence. Everly is clustered at or slightly above grade level expectations on all of these variables.

Lesson 1.3

The scroll bar at the bottom allows you to see the entire timeline. The dark blue line is tracking Everly’s academic performance during this class. We can see that after 1.5 simMinutes (3 vertical lines) of doing “nothing,” his aca-demic performance begins to drop when the task is changed to “go over last week’s lessons.” The task is not asking Everly to “stretch” his performance. He just needs to sit there while the teacher is going over last week’s lessons. While that task might be good for solidifying knowledge for some students, for Everly the task expectation is below his expected grade level of academic performance, so it can only elicit a lower level of performance than he is capa-ble of giving. This feature of tasks (its fit with a student’s profile at a moment in time) can be thought of as the task’s “opportunity to learn” for a particular student. It will be different for different students. (e.g. A task might be a good fit for one student and at the same time, a bad fit for another student.)

Using the slider bar to examine the transition from the first to the second task (indicated by the change in color), we can see that for Everly to “take notes during lecture” raises his intellectual openness and as a result, slightly raises his academic performance.

Examining the last transition of the class, we see that the ten-minute lecture’s expectation for academic performance remained low and the oral quiz was even lower so his academic performance (blue line) declined.

In behavioral terms, Everly did not cause trouble during this class, even though he wasn’t learning much, because his emotional variables, (i.e. agreeableness and emotion), were relatively undisturbed. We will examine behavioral actions and variables in another scenario with another student.

Lesson 1.3

You can see more about each task’s expectation if you click on the box “Show details” (Refer back to Figure 3). In this visual analysis, each task’s expectation level on all variables is shown in relation to Everly’s actual perfor-mance.

[Interpret] Everly’s academic performance

For example, his academic performance drops to the level expected and required by the task, converging about four simMinutes into the review of last week’s lessons. If we had only reviewed lessons for about one or two sim-Minutes, Everly’s performance would not have dropped as low. After about 5 simMinutes, Everly’s drop in performance reaches its minimum. At the tran-sition to the second task, the task requirement is considerably higher, and Everly’s performance is slow to catch up.

There are several underlying reasons for this. Acquiring new knowledge is harder work than forgetting or losing ground, and a task with an expectation above the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development ) of his current performance level slows the process of learning even more. In addition, if any of the other five emotional variables are involved in the task, then Everly’s cognitive load also increases. Although Everly was making slight academic gains, when as-signed the oral quiz, the task’s performance expectation drops again, and his performance sinks to match.

Overall, after 45 simMinutes of the worst possible lesson plan for Everly, we can see that he lost about .5 from his initial expected academic performance. We can see this visually by comparing beginning to ending positions of the variables. His initial expectation was “at grade level” and at the end he was performing below that level. We can also download exact numerical results, which we’ll do in a future scenario.

Lesson 1.3

TIP: ZPD is the differ-ence between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help

The meaning of gains and losses in simSchool is relative to the actions of your teaching decisions (e.g. in this case, choosing and sequencing tasks) on a scale of zero to 100% in either a positive or negative direction. In this scenario, we forced a bad lesson plan on Everly and he lost ground – about 50% of the pos-sible ground that he could have lost.

This means that we could do even worse (make teaching decisions that are not helpful) with Everly, but let’s not torture him or ourselves any further. Next time we want to explore or experiment with this scenario, Everly will be right where he started today, happy and ready to learn from you (or not) depending on your decisions. This allows you to Explore and Experiment.

Step 4: Reflecting on Teaching

It’s a good idea to step back after teaching and think about what worked and didn’t and what you might try next time. Take a moment to think about what this warm-up exercise means. Does it bring up questions about classroom structure and the nature of classroom tasks? What does it say about getting to know your students? If you know your students, how does that impact what you do as a teacher? With simSchool, reflecting on teaching can lead immediately to Exploration and Experimentation. In real teaching, it can lead to ideas for “action research” – where you become a teacher-as-researcher in your own classroom.

Exploration: Is there a “better lesson plan” for Everly? ______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Experimentation: What is one thing you can vary with Everly to improve his academic achievement? ______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Thinking about the above questions, write a reflection in the simSchool blog about your first experience with simSchool.

Exploration captures the idea that new questions might come up at any time. Some of them will not have definitive answers; some will have groups of answers that are better than others.

Experimentation in simSchool occurs when you control some things and vary others, watching for significant differences between scenarios.

Lesson 1.4

Lesson 2 Learning the Program Basics, Tasks

Scenario 2: Everly Kassam’s Better Day

What is a task in simSchool?

Tasks Tasks change a student’s academic performance.

Four types of tasks available Recall Skill/concept Strategic thinking Extended thinking

Task Characteristics

Each task is characterized by 6 dimensions, which interact with the simStudent profile to produce classroom and academic behavior. The dimensions set performance goals (act like “attractors”) for each sim-Student’s current characteristics. For example, the task has a setting for intellectual openness, which acts on the student’s setting for intellectual openness.

Tasks exert performance requirements independently on each student, causing some to learn and others to be stymied or get bored. The 6 di-mensions align exactly with the personality and academic performance dimensions of the students (this is after all, a model of teaching, not the real world!).

As each task requirement dimension is compared to each simStudent personality setting, the distance to the goal of the task may or may not be within the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development. If the task is too hard, the student’s progress may be very slow or never get off the ground. If the task is too low, then the learner gets bored. A steep decline in the academic line indicates that the task was too low.

The trouble is, with 6 dimensions for each task, parts of some tasks are good for only parts of some of the student personalities. It’s complex!

Objective: To learn the kinds of tasks and how they can effect student learning

TIP: Select the kind of task that best fits the learning and be-havioral characteris-tics of your students.

Lesson 2

A Note about Assigning Tasks You can assign tasks to the whole class or individual students. To assign to the whole class you click on the bell on the desk. To assign to an individual student you click on that student. For right now, we only have one student so either will work.

Step 1: Set up “Everly’s Better Day” simulation




click on the box “At grade level”


click on the box “Include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic variables” type “Everly Kassam2”

click on the box “Create

Step 2: Teaching Everly

click on the box “Launch” next to “Everly Kassam”

The classroom now loads to your computer. This might take several simMi-nutes. SimSchool is loading the body positions, talking exchanges, and learn-ing characteristics for Everly.

The game starts when you click on the white triangle in the lower right corner. The game is now “paused,” indicated by the gray parallel bars in the middle. To the far right is the white square “stop” button. Don’t start or stop the game just yet.

click on the laptop computer screen on the desk. This takes you to your class list, with student records. You can read about Everly and see past grades. Read the profile, focusing on the personality profile and teacher reflections. Don’t worry too much about the grades.

Let’s build a lesson with a set of tasks for him! See Appendix C for a list of the twenty available tasks found in simSchool. Spend a few simMinutes with your partner looking over the tasks and the levels. For this simulation we have chosen the following:

TIP: A task that is highly structured is more suited to students who are “teacher directed” while a task that allows students to work on their own fits those who prefer to work “indepen-dently.”

Lesson 2.1

Everly’s Better 45 minute lesson plan Take a written test (15 simMinutes) Apply a formula (15 simMinutes) Develop a hypothesis (15 simMinutes)

Take a few minutes and discuss with your partner why these three tasks are better for Everly. Refer back to his profile for supporting evidence.

Remember, before you do the Step 2 actions, you might want to read through them first, because once the game is started, time is ticking. Every minute of class time (simTime) that passes (about 10 seconds of real time) Everly feels and reacts based on your choices.

Step 2 (cont’d): Teaching Everly (with a better lesson plan for him).

click on the “Start button”

click on Everly

1. Assign the task take a written test

click on the “Task Menu” in the lower left of the teacher’s console

click on “Level 1” and click on the seventh task “take a written test.”

2. Assign the task apply a formula:

click on Everly when 15 simMinutes have passed

click on the “Task Selector” again


click the fourth task “Apply a formula.”

watch the “Simulation time” until 30 simMinutes of class time has elapsed.

Lesson 2.2

3. Assign the task “develop a hypothesis”:

click on Everly click on the “Task Selector” again

click on “Level 4” and then click the fourth task “Develop a hy-

pothesis” click the “Stop” button when 45 simMinutes of class time has elapsed.

At the completion of this step, you have recorded a “simulation.” Press the stop button and go to step 3.


[click] on the words “View data” next to “Everly Kassam” Observe the graphs and discuss with a partner why this was a better lesson plan for Everly


After reviewing the data for Everly, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about what tasks are in simSchool and how adjusting tasks can raise performance.

Lesson 2.4

Lesson 3Learning the Program Basics, Comments

Scenario 3a: Lacey’s Self-Esteem

Lacey Blakely is someone who needs to think things through. She must be undisturbed in her own private space to be successful. She can be aloof at times, and can be critical of others. She gives up easily, has low self-esteem. She tends to resist new ideas, and has trouble integrating new information. Her feelings get hurt easily. She will withdraw or rebel if pressed. She is somewhat cautious, pays attention to immediate details in the environ-ment, and likes set procedures.

Lacey is teacher-directed, and likes simple goals and clear objectives in assign-ments. She does best with familiar contexts and guided instruction.

Let’s see if we can teach her!

Step 1: Set up to teach Lacey

Have students get into pairs.




click on the box “Below grade level”


click on the box “Simplified simulation”

type “Lacey Blakely (below grade level)”


Objective: To practice in simSchool with a below grade-level stu-dent and to gain an understanding of the use of comments

Lesson 3.1

Step 2: Teaching Lacey

Lacey responds to tasks differently than Everly. She doesn’t lose as much ground on the tasks that were bad for Everly, but several more tasks don’t work as well for her. Given the same amount of time on a task that is good for Everly and Lacey (e.g. silent reading, creating a graphic, taking a pop quiz), Lacey’s academic gains accumulate more slowly than Everly’s because Lacey’s ability to learn is lower. For this scenario, we’ll run an experiment. First we’ll let her work on “a brief presentation from memory” for 30 simMinutes on her own. Then we’ll do the same task, but talk to her during the half hour. We’ll see if we can improve her performance on the task by talking to her. First, establish a “baseline” for Lacey on the task

click on the “Start” button

click on Lacey

click on the “Task Selector”

click on “Level 1” and then “a brief presentation from memory”


During the 25 simMinutes, you’ll notice that Lacey shifts around in her seat several times, and may raise her hand. This task is far above her current level of performance, so she needs help, but is not getting it.

She may raise her hand for help. If none arrives, she may get a bit discouraged and sink lower. If you continue to ignore her, she may blurt out something or act out.

If you click on her, looking at the thermometer you’ll see that the task has potential for her. You’ll also see that she has made no discernible progress on the task.

At 20 simMinutes into the lesson, Lacey has had ups and downs in her feel-ings about the task, mouseover the “Happiness” graph, but has steadily gained capability to do the task mouseover the “Power” graph, and has started to adapt her learning to match the task characteristics (the thermom-eter has risen slightly).

Lesson 3.2

At the end of 25 simMinutes, we can see that the task goal or requirement is a long way above her. But, Lacey has recently rapidly adapted her learning to match the task (the thermometer has moved up more) in the last 5 simMinutes than in the previous 20. Why do you suppose this might be?

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

click the “Stop” button

Lesson 3.2


You can now review her performance on this task

click on “Saved Simulations”

click on the words “View data” next to “Lacey Blakely (below grade level)”

The full 25 minute lesson looks something like this:

click on the box “Show details”

We can see why this task was so hard for Lacey. The performance expectation is far above her current expected performance level. That is one of the reasons for the slow learning curve, but there are also other influences.

This task poses several challenges to Lacey at the same time. She is a bit withdrawn and likes to work alone, but making a presentation is a public act requiring emotional stability, and a fairly high degree of extroversion. Since the presentation is “from memory” the task also requires high persistence to enable memorization and to recall the memory.

All of these additional task requirements add layers of difficulty for Lacey. The cognitive load of this task is outside the ZPD of her learning characteristics, adding to the difficulty and impeding achievement on this task. During the simulation you had an indication of the task difficulty and cognitive load by looking at her body position and the game feedback indicators. Now you can see the particular components of why that task was difficult by looking at these reports.


Can you improve Lacey’s performance by talking to her? In Everly’s Bad Day we saw that changing task requirements can improve student performance, but what about leaving the task as it is, and trying to encourage, scaffold and support Lacey through talk as a student works on a task?

Let’s try boosting Lacey’s self-esteem, by giving her academic direction (taking control) in a friendly way, and experimenting with giving her control.

Lesson 3.3

Scenario 3b: Lacey Needs Direction

Step 1: Set up to teach Lacey again


click on the box “Use preset students.”


click on the box “Below grade level”


click on the box “Simplified Simulation.”

type “Lacey Blakely (talking experiment)”


Step 2: Teaching Lacey

If you left the computer and came back later, go to www.simschool.org

click on the tab “My simSchools”

click on the tab “Saved Simulations”

click on the box “Launch” next to “Lacey Blakely (talking experiment)”

click on the “Start” button

click on Lacey


click on “Level 1” and then “A brief presentation from memory”


click on the “Conversation Bubble” in the teacher’s console while re-ferring to your comment learning aids (Appendix A: the Circumplex and Appendix B: Comments in simSchool). You’ll see six choices that rep-resent an assertion (!), observation (*) or question (?) concerning either behavior (B) or academics (A).

click on A! to make an academic statement

Lesson 3.5

You have stated your intention to speak about academics and to make a statement. Now it’s time to make the “tone” choice. You’ll see a range of colors for the conversational bubbles: Greens emphasize being assertive or taking power in a friendly wayBrowns emphasize friendliness while increasingly giving power Reds emphasize giving power while growing cooler and distant Blues emphasize cool distance while increasingly taking power

The colors blend into each other without clear demarcations as do the influ-ences of the choices.

click on a green conversation (the 3rd one is in the middle of the “greens”)

watch the class time for one or two simMinutes (10 to 20 seconds)

click on A! to make an academic statement [repeat these three steps two or three times]

Now, let’s change our conversational approach

click on a red conversation

watch the class time for one or two simMinutes (10 to 20 seconds)

click on A! to make an academic statement [repeat these three steps two or three times]

click on the “Stop” button after about 25 simMinutes of class time


During the first half of this 25 simMinute lesson, Lacey’s emotional stability, extroversion and persistence were all raised by teacher talk, and academic performance improvement resulted. If the teacher had left her alone for the remainder of the lesson, Lacey’s academic gains would have been improved from the baseline established earlier. However, during the last 10 to 12 sim-Minutes of this lesson, the tone of the teacher talk brought down some of Lacey’s key “self-esteem” variables and contributed to losses in academic performance. You may have noticed that Lacey’s responses to your talking seemed unhappy or perhaps even slightly hostile. Even though you were making good impacts on her emotional state during the first half of the les-son, the task was still very hard for her and she knew she was not making much progress on it. She would have been much happier with a new task that was better matched to her strengths. However, since your goal was to help her with this task, the best that you could do is talk her through it.

Hint: The exact phrase spoken is not as important as the tone, in influencing Lacey. “It’s not what you say but how you say it.”

Lesson 3.6

Examining what happened in more detail, you can see that for Lacey, speaking with an outgoing and assured voice makes a positive impact on her academic performance. The impact is slight because of the difficulty of this task for her. But notice that speaking from a purely dominant tone causes her academic im-provement to halt, flatten out and begin to decline. Even returning to the out-going and assured tone of voice does not help reverse the negative impact.

(She is so touchy!)

You can also see that a warm and deferring tone is not very helpful to her (these tones are in the red zone). Remember that Lacey is teacher directed, so if the teacher says in effect “do whatever you want to do” it does not help her learn.

She needs the teacher to be assured and outgoing.


Knowing what you do now, what would be the best way to help Lacey master this difficult task?

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Experiment on your own to help her achieve better than your baseline results with the task alone.

The Theories Behind SimSchool

The psychological, physical and cognitive learning

theories underlying the simSchool simulation

Lesson 3.7

Lesson 4 Presenting the Theories Behind SimSchool

The Theories Behind SimSchool

The psychological, physical and cognitive learning

theories underlying the simSchool simulation

Lesson 4

The fundamental idea of simSchool is that just as pilots learn how to fly by practicing in a simulator, teachers can also learn by practicing with a specially designed computer program. The kind of knowl-edge that develops through practice is sometimes called “know-how” to distinguish it from the kind of knowledge that is memorized and remem-bered for tests. We hope that playing and experimenting with simSchool develops hab-its and insights that are usually learned through trial and error in real classrooms.

SimSchool’s software engine is conceptually organized along the lines of an experimental scientific inquiry. The components of the experience can be thought of as groups of variables: observable, hidden, independent and dependent. Teachers can see and read ob-servable variables such as a student’s past school record and profile and the way the student behaves and performs in class. Teachers create changes in the parameters of independent variables such as which classroom tasks are given, in what order, for how long; and what is said to students from moment to moment. Those decisions inter-act with the student’s hidden variables, primarily the internal learning characteristics. Finally, as the student reacts both a moment-by-moment and histori-cal record is created as the depen-dent variables of student outcomes.

Lesson 4

Three subsystems or submodels make up the simStudent personality: physical, psychological and academic-cognitive.

We’ve selected three physical dimensions that seem to be most relevant for typical classroom learn-ing: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (VAK). The “theory of multiple intelligences” utilizes a high setting on “V” to characterize a highly visual learner.

The Five-Factor Model of personality informed the creation of ranges of expected performance along continua that have been long recognized in psychology. The model is sometimes referred to as the OCEAN model as a mnemonic of the five factors. For example, “E” stands for “Extroversion” and represents the fact that all students lie somewhere on the continuum from extraversion to introver-sion.

SimSchool assumes that students might change where they lie on each continuum during a lesson or in response to a new context such as a new task or something the teacher says.

Finally, simSchool uses a changing number of academic dimensions (A) to represent content knowl-edge and cognitive processes highly associated with specific subject areas. In the current models, only one general “academic performance” variable is used while we are studying alternatives for multidimensional representations for various subject areas.

Lesson 4

SimSchool uses nine dimen-sions just outlined (VAK, OCEAN, A), with sliding scales on each one that bring up 5 narratives. For example “highly introverted” “some-what introverted” “ambiva-lent” “somewhat extraverted” and “highly extraverted.” The total number of students that can be represented equals the number of scale posi-tions raised to the power of the number of dimensions, or in this case 5 to the 9th or 1.9 million different student profiles.

The profiles are generated dy-namically on the fly as needed by the application.

There are no static “personali-ties” in simSchool.

This slide illustrates how two different students might look on the 9 dimen-sions.

The space of all possible students is 1.9 million when considering the dynamic narratives that are assem-bled into student profiles. But in actuality, the simula-tion uses 20 positions on each dimension, which raises the number of potential students to 20 to the 9th (which is more students than anyone needs to think about!) about 512 billion personalities.

Lesson 4

A common set of 20 tasks comes with the basic version of simSchool. Users can add their own tasks. As a task is created, it is characterized by a profile using the same VAK-OCEAN-A variables.

During each moment of the simulation, students are im-pacted by the task that has been placed before them as well as by any verbal interac-tions of the teacher.

We can think of the individual learning challenge as a set of simultaneous requests or requirements for the student to perform on each of the VAK-OCEAN-A variables. Some of them require the student to “climb up” to the requirement and others require “dropping down.” This situation in each moment of the simulation places various pressures on the student to perform and affects the student’s power to accom-plish the task as well as happi-ness about doing it.

Lesson 4

Teacher conversations are organized into 16 categories arranged along two axes of the Interpersonal Circumplex: pow-er (dominant – submissive) and affiliation (hostile – friendly). The player decides whether the conversation should be warm or cool (affiliation), and wield-ing power or empowering the student (power) each time they interact with a simStudent.

As a result of their choice the interaction will reinforce or inhibit the student’s actions positively or negatively.

Choosing to talk to a student about behavior slightly favors the affiliation dimension, and choosing to talk about aca-demic matters slightly favors the power dimension.

Users see body position chang-es that represent various states of attention and on-task behav-ior, and students talk back when spoken to.

Lesson 4

The user generates a steady flow of independent decisions that constantly impact each student. Some decisions im-pact everyone, and others only impact a single student who has been selected. It is thus pos-sible to individualize instruction, adapt lesson plans, and make disciplinary and personally sup-portive decisions.

As time progresses during the class session, each student is evolving toward the task requirements and is either hindered or helped along by what the teacher says as well as by each change in task. The progression is dynamic and determined by each user decision, so each class session is unique.

Lesson 4

Gains take time to evolve. In this illustration the student Ali has been given three different tasks at the beginning of a class ses-sion, with three different results that appear after 5 simMinutes of class. Note that if we stopped and measured her academic gains after only 2 simMinutes, then the gains would be small and about equal for reciting a poem and participating in a whole-class oral response

The sum total of all changes in the academic dimensions rep-resents the total academic gain for the class, so gains and losses can cancel each other out, or gains can accumulate depend-ing on the user’s choices. The user can also examine the moment-to-moment changes to learn how individual decisions effected the outcomes.

Lesson 4

Lesson 5 Introducing the Five Student Classroom

By this time students should be familiar with the available tasks, comments, and options found in simSchool. They should now be ready to work with more than one student.

Scenario 4: Teaching five students at once

Step 1: Set up to teach the five student classroom Get with your partner.


click on the box “5 students”



type “Class of five”


Objective: In this lesson, the students will run a five student fixed personalities simulation. It will be left to them to decide on what tasks to as-sign and comments to make.

Lesson 5.1

Step 2: Teaching the five student classroom

click on the laptop and read each students profile. You and your partner may want to jot down some notes about each student.

Amazo, Jay

Young, Aaron

Young, Airianna

Youngston, Alonzo Zeba, Ali

If at any time you would like to make a comment to an individual student

click on that student

click on the “conversation bubble”

click on one of the letters and then a colored bubble to make the comment. Refer to Appendix A, B, and C for assistance.

click start

click the bell on the desk (Remember this is so we can assign a task to the whole class)


click on “Level 1” and then choose a task that you think most stu-dents will benefit from doing.

watch the “Simulation time” until 15-20 simMinutes of class time has elapsed. During this time

mouseover each student to gauge their progress.

click the bell again.

Lesson 5.2


click on “level 2” or “level 3” and choose another task.








click the stop button


click on the words “Show details” next to each student. Observe the graphs and discuss with your partner which student was most successful? ___________________________________________________________ Least successful? ___________________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for the five students, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching more than one student in sim-School. With your partner discuss what tasks you could assign to improve the learning of all or most of the students.

Lesson 5.3

Lesson 6 Designing a Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students use a worksheet (Appendix D) to plan in advance the tasks they are going to assign to their five student classroom. After they plan, they will run their lesson plan and then review how successful they were.

Scenario 4: Planning in advance for teaching five students at once





click on the box “Simplified simulation” type “Class of five-lesson plan1”



click on the laptop and read each students profile. You and your partner may want to jot down some notes about each student.

Amazo, Jay Young, Aaron

Young, Airianna


Lesson 6.1

Using your task list and the lesson plan worksheet, decide on four tasks you plan to teach to your class. Remember to decide on the best order and time for each before starting the simulation.

If at any time you would like to make a comment to an individual student

click on that student

click on the “conversation bubble”

click on one of the letters and then a colored bubble to make the com-ment. Refer to Appendix A, (The Circumplex) and Appendix B, (Comments available in simSchool) for assistance.

click start



click your first task from your lesson plan

watch the “Simulation time” until the number of simMinutes of class time you and your partner decided on for this task has elapsed. During this time




click on task 2.





click on Task 3.



Lesson 6.2



click on Task 4.





click on the words “Show details” next to each student. Observe the graphs and discuss with your partner which student was

Most successful? ____________________________________________

Least successful? ___________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Which tasks worked the best for the most students?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Which tasks, if any, were not effective with any of the students?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for the five students, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching more than one student in sim-School. With your partner discuss what tasks you could assign to improve the learning of all or most of the students.

Lesson 6.3

Lesson 7 Improving a Lesson Plan

Using your reflections on how your simStudents responded to task assign-ments in lesson 6, decide on four tasks that you plan to teach to your class that will work best for the majority of students. Then decide on the best alter-native assignment for the low performing student. Remember to decide on the best order and time time for each before starting the simulation. Refer to your task list and the lesson plan worksheet found in Appendix D.

Scenario 5: Planning in advance for improving teaching five students at once






type “class of five-lesson plan2”



click on the laptop and read again each students profile. You and your partner may want to jot down some notes about each student. Focus on those areas you want to improve on from the previous lesson. Make a note of the student that performed the poorest in scenario 4.

Objective: To improve the learning of their lowest student from scenario 4 while keep-ing the performance of the highest student up.

Lesson 7.1

Amazo, Jay

Young, Aaron

Young, Airianna


Look for key words that will help you to identify appropriate tasks for all.

Using your task list and the lesson plan worksheet, decide on four tasks you plan to teach to your class that will work best for the majority of students. Then decide on the best alternative assignment for the low performing stu-dent. Remember to decide on the best order and time for each before starting the simulation.

click start



click your first task from your lesson plan

click on your low performing student


click on your first alternate task





Hint: If at any time you would like to make a comment to an indi-vidual student

click on that stu-dent

click on the “con-versation bubble”

click on one of the letters and then a col-ored bubble to make the comment. Refer to Appendix A, (The Circumplex) and Ap-pendix B, (Comments available in simSchool) for assistance.

Lesson 7.2

click on task 2.



click on your second alternate task





click on Task 3.



click on your third alternate task





click on Task 4.



click on your fourth alternate task




Lesson 7.2


click on the words “Show details” next to each student. Observe the graphs and discuss with your partner which student was most successful? ___________________________________________________________

Least successful? ___________________________________________________________

Was this lesson plan more or less successful than your previous one? ___________________________________________________________

Which tasks, if any, were not affective with any of the students?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Did your alternate tasks improve the success of your low performer?

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for the five students, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching more than one student in sim-School. With your partner discuss any difficulties you are seeing. Also talk about what you are learning about choosing tasks for a variety of students and assigning modified tasks for some students.

Lesson 7.3

Lesson 8 Creating a Student-Introduction

For this lesson you are introducing the Create a student handout (Appendix E) and asking Students to go out and observe a student in a classroom that they can then attempt to recreate in simSchool to try to teach. For this attempt, have students look for an average student. Pass out the Create a Student paper to each person. Go over each step and discuss any questions or concerns. You may want to have students go to simSchool and load a class to read profiles and discuss with a small group how they would translate what they read about each student onto the available slider variables. Have the groups discuss several different students until they have a good “feel” for how to scale certain kinds of behaviors. Direct the students to choose a student in their current classroom or field experience to observe. Then from their observations fill out the handout for where they think the student falls along the different variables. Direct them to bring their completed handouts to the next session.

Lesson 8

Objective: Students will use the hand-out (Appendix E) to create a simStudent based on a actual student that they ob-served in a classroom

Lesson 9Creating a Student

Scenario 6: Teaching a created student

Step 1: Create the student

click on the tab “Custom settings.”

click on the line “Create a new student” Use the information that

you collected to “create your student”

click on the box “Save student” Step 2: Set up and run the created student simulation

click on the tab “New simulations”

click on the box “Use my custom students”

click on your student you created.

click on the box “next step”

click on the box “Include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic variables”

Objective: Creating a student based on observation and then placing that student in a classroom to teach him or her.

Lesson 9.1

type in the name “created student1”

click the box “Create”.

click start

click the bell on the desk or on the individual student


click on a task you think will work with this student


mouseover the student to gauge his/her progress.



click on another task.


mouseover the student to gauge his/her progress.



click on a third task.


mouseover the student to gauge his/her progress



click on a fourth and final task.


mouseover the student to gauge his/her progress


Lesson 9.2


click on the words “Show details” next to your created student. Observe the graphs and think about the student you created and the tasks you assigned. Were your tasks successful? _______________________________________________________

Did the student respond like you suspected he/she would? _______________________________________________________

Why or why not?

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for your student, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching a created student in simSchool. Using the same planning sheet, next time you are in your classroom or field experi-ence, observe and make notes about a student you consider below grade level and one you consider above grade level.

Lesson 9.3

Lesson 10Running a Class of Five Created Students

Each student should have created three students: at-grade level, below grade level, and above grade level. By this time the students should be familiar with how to create a student and how to set up and run a simulation.

Scenario 7: Teaching a 5 student class of created students

Step 1: Create each of the five students


click on the line “Create a new student” Use the information that you collected to “create your student”

click on the box “Save student” Repeat the above steps four more times

Step 2: Set up and run the created student simulation



click on the five students you and your partner created.



type in the name “created students5”


click on the laptop and read each students profile. You and your partner may want to jot down some notes about each student. Using your task list and the lesson plan worksheet, decide on four tasks you plan to teach to your class. Remember to decide on the best order and time for each before starting the simulation.

click start.

click the bell on the desk.


click on Task 1 from your lesson plan

Objective: To havestudents workcooperatively tocreate new studentsto add to their sim-class

Lesson 10.1

watch the “Simulation time” until the number of simMinutes of

class time you and your partner decided on for this task has elapsed. During this time




click on Task 2.





click on Task 3.





click on Task 4.




Lesson 10.2


click on the words “Show details” next each student. Observe the graphs and think about the students you created and the tasks you assigned. Were your tasks successful?

_______________________________________________________

Did the students respond like you suspected they would? Why or why not? _______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

What could you and your partner do to improve the performances of your created class? _______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for your student, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching a class of created students in sim-School.

Lesson 10.3

Lesson 11Creating a Task-Introduction

In simSchool, players have the ability to design their own tasks to assign to stu-dents.

Pass out the Create a Task paper (Appendix F) to each person. Go over each step and discuss any questions or concerns.

Share the following information about how tasks are designed in simSchool with your students to help them understand how to design a task for simSchool.

Depths of Knowledge

Level 1 (Recall) includes the recall of information such as a fact, definition, term, or a simple procedure, as well as performing a simple algorithm or ap-plying a formula. Key words that signify a Level 1 include “identify,” “recall,” “recognize,” “use,” and “measure.”

Level 2 (Skill/Concept) includes the engagement of some mental processing beyond an habitual response. A Level 2 assessment item requires students to make some decisions as to how to approach the problem or activity, whereas Level 1 requires students to demonstrate a rote response, perform a well-known algorithm, follow a set procedure (like a recipe), or perform a clearly defined series of steps. Key words that generally distinguish a Level 2 item include “classify,” “organize,” ”estimate,” “make observations,” “collect and display data,” and “compare data.” These actions imply more than one step. Some action verbs, such as “explain,” “describe,” or “interpret” could be classified at different levels depending on the object of the action. Caution is warranted in interpreting Level 2 as only skills.

Level 3 (Strategic Thinking) requires reasoning, planning, using evidence, and a higher level of thinking than the previous two levels. In most instances, requiring students to explain their thinking is a Level 3. Activities that require students to make conjectures are also at this level. The cognitive demands at Level 3 are complex and abstract. The complexity does not result from the fact that there are multiple answers, a possibility for both Levels 1 and 2, but because the task requires more demanding reasoning. An activity, however, that has more than one possible answer and requires students to justify the response they give would most likely be a Level 3. Other Level 3 activities in-clude drawing conclusions from observations; citing evidence and developing a logical argument for concepts; explaining phenomena in terms of concepts; and using concepts to solve problems.

Lesson 11.1

Objective: To learn how to create a task for a simClass

Level 4 (Extended Thinking) requires complex reasoning, planning, develop-ing, and thinking over an extended period of time. The extended time period is not a distinguishing factor if the required work is only repetitive and does not require applying significant conceptual understanding and higher-order thinking. At Level 4, the cognitive demands of the task should be high and the work should be very complex. Students should be required to make several connections—relate ideas within the content area or among content areas—and have to select one approach among many alternatives on how the situ-ation should be solved, in order to be at this highest level. Level 4 activities include designing and conducting experiments; making connections between a finding and related concepts and phenomena; combining and synthesizing ideas into new concepts; and critiquing experimental designs.

Task Characteristics Each task is characterized by 6 dimensions, which interact with the simStudent profile to produce classroom and academic behavior. The dimensions set per-formance goals (act like “attractors”) for each simStudent’s current character-istics. For example, the task has a setting for intellectual openness, which acts on the student’s setting for intellectual openness.

Tasks exert performance requirements independently on each student, caus-ing some to learn and others to be stymied or get bored. The 6 dimensions align exactly with the personality and academic performance dimensions of the students (this is after all, a model of teaching, not the real world!).

Direct the students to design two different tasks using the provided Create a Task Handout. Direct them to bring their completed handouts to the next ses-sion.

Lesson 11.4

Lesson 12 Creating and Assigning a Task

Scenario 7: Assigning a created task

Step 1: Create the tasks

Get with your partner click on the tab “Custom settings.”

click on the line “Create a new task” Use the information that you collected to “create your task”

click on the box “Save task” Repeat the above steps for the other task

Step 2: Set up and run the created tasks in a five classroom simulation






Objective: Creating a task from observa-tions and then assign-ing and then assign-ing that task to their classroom of students.

Lesson 12.1

type “class of five-tasks”


click start

click the bell on the desk


click on one of the task you created. It will be listed under the level you assigned it as the first task


mouseover the students to gauge their progress.



click on the other task you and your partner created. watch the “Simulation time” until 20-25 simMinutes of class time has elapsed. During this time

mouseover the students to gauge their progress.



click on the words “Show details” next to each student Observe the graphs and think about the tasks you created. Were your tasks success-ful with any of the students? ______________________________________________________________ Did the students respond like you suspected they would? Why or why not? _________________________________________________________ Do you think you could assign the tasks in the opposite order and im-prove performance? Why or Why not? ______________________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for your students, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about creating a task in simSchool.

Lesson 12.3

Lesson 13Introducing the eighteen student classroom

Provide each pair of students with the Seating Chart for 18 Classroom Notes (Appendix G)

Scenario 8: Teaching eighteen students at once

Step 1: Set up to teach the eighteen student classroom Get with your partner.




click on the box “Include Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic variables” type “class of eighteen”


Step 2: Teaching the eighteen student classroom

click on the laptop and read each students profile. You and your partner will want to jot down some notes about each student. Your teacher will have provided the Seating Chart for 18 Classroom Notes.

Objective: Run an eighteen-student simClass in which students choose ap-propriate tasks and comments based on prior experiences in simSchool as well as through a care-ful reading of the student profiles.

Lesson 13.1

click start



click on “Level 1” and then choose a task that you think most students will benefit from doing.




Lesson 13.2

Class roaster












click on the words “Show details” next to each student. Observe the graphs and discuss with your partner which student was most successful? ___________________________________________________________

Least successful? ___________________________________________________________

How does teaching a class of 18 differ from teaching the class of 5?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________


After reviewing the data for the eighteen students, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching more than one student in simSchool. With your partner discuss what tasks you could assign to improve the learning of all or most of the students.

Lesson 13.3

Lesson 14 Using created tasks in the eighteen student classroom

This lesson is for use when your students are very comfortable creating tasks and have had some experience with the eighteen student classroom. Once again you will want to provide the students with the Seating Chart for 18 class-room notes (Appendix G).

Scenario 9: Teaching eighteen students with created tasks

Step 1: Set up to teach the eighteen student classroom Get with your partner.




click on the box “Include Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic variables”

type “class of eighteen_tasks”


Step 2: Teaching the eighteen student classroom

click on the laptop and read each students profile. You and your partner will want to jot down some notes about each student. Your teacher should have provided the Seating Chart for 18 Classroom Notes.

click start



click on “Level 1” and then choose a task that you created. Remem-ber they should be listed first.




Lesson 14.1

Objective: In this les-son, students will use tasks they created to teach eighteen stu-dents and reflect on how to improve the tasks so that as many students as possible will be successful.


click on “level 2” or “level 3” and choose another task that you cre-ated.





click on “level 3” or “level 4” and choose another task that you cre-ated.





click on the words “Show details” next to each student. Observe the graphs and discuss with your partner which student was most successful? Least successful? How did the class of 18 respond to your created tasks?


After reviewing the data for the eighteen students, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching the class of 18 with created tasks. What could you do to improve the success of your tasks or how could you modify them so that more students would be successful?

Lesson 14.3

Lesson 15 Running an eighteen student classroom with created students and tasks

Prior to being able to run the simulation they will need to have time to create enough students. They can use ones they have created previously, ones you have them collect prior to this lesson or ones their classmates have created. If they use their classmates’ students, they will need to use the information on their handouts and create the student in their account.

Scenario 10: Teaching eighteen created students with created tasks

Step 1: Create each of the eighteen students


click on the line “Create a new student” Use the information that you collected to “create your student”

click on the box “Save student” Repeat the above steps as many times as necessary until you have 18 students to pick.

Step 2: Set up and run the created student simulation



click on the eighteen students you and your partner created.



type in the name “created students18”


click on the laptop and read each students profile. You and your partner may want to jot down some notes about each student. Using your task list and the lesson plan worksheet, decide on four cre-ated tasks you plan to teach to your class. Remember to decide on the best order and time for each before starting the simulation.

click start.

click the bell on the desk.


Lesson 15.1

Objective: To create a classroom made up of original simStudents and then attempt to teach those students with original tasks

click on Task 1 from your lesson plan





click on Task 2.





click on Task 3.





click on Task 4.




Lesson 15.2


click on the words “Show details” next each student. Observe the graphs and think about the students you created and the tasks you assigned. Were your tasks successful? Did the students respond like you suspected they would? Why or why not? What could you and your partner do to improve the performances of your created class?


After reviewing the data for your simulation, reflect in the simSchool blog about what you have learned about teaching a class of created students with created tasks in simSchool. Can you think of ways you could improve your tasks or the order to encourage more learning?

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Lesson 15.3

Appendix A: The Circumplex-Comments in simSchool

Cool

dist

ance

whil

e inc

reasingly taking power Being assertive or taking power in a friendly way

Friendliness while increasingly

givin

g pow

erGiving power while growing cooler and distant

Dominant Assured Exhibitionistic Sociable

Deferent Trustin

g War

m

Frie

ndly

A

loof Inhibited Unassured Submissive

Hos

tile

Co

ld

Mistru

sting C

ompetitive

Appendix A

B!=Behavioral Assertion

Get back to work now.You just earned two points toward the pizza party.I need your attention.You’re setting a good example for others.You’re being so good, it makes me feel great.I don’t really want to make you stay after school...I am sure you can get your work done on time.Do you want to lose your recess?If I tell you one more time to stop.Go to the office.I can’t believe you are still acting this way!You just lost your privileges.Move your seat.Detention for you, see you after school.Put your head down on your desk.Stop that!

B*=Behavioral observation

You’re falling asleepYou seem confidentYou’re showing others how to behaveGood team workYou’re being friendly(smiles)I trust you to behave(sigh and walk away)I can’t tell you anythingI don’t get youHmmm(look away from the student)You’re asking for itYou’re being a painI can’t turn my back on youEveryone else is behaving well

B?=Behavioral Inquiry

Are you doing what I asked?Can you do what I do?Do I need to show you?Want to work in teams?How are you doing?Are you OK with this activity?Would you like a break?What do you want to do?What can I do for you?Are you sure you heard what I said?What do I have to do?What is it with you today?What are you doing?Do you know the rules here?Can I turn my back on you?Can you act like the others?

A!=Academic Assertion

Evaluate the question firstYou can understand thisLook at this exampleLet’s think about what we didYour restatement was clearGreat! I couldn’t have explained it any betterYour idea seems validI never would have thought of thatTell me what you need to get startedMaybe I should go over it againCan’t give you that informationThat report can’t be your bestStop it right nowYou need to recall those detailsI don’t think you get itPull out your rubric sheet

A*=Academic observation

Your evaluation worksYou have a good understanding(thumbs up)Others are being influenced by you(smiles)I see how thorough your work isYour ideas are to the pointI notice you wait to contributeI see you agreeing with everythingI think you’re on trackI haven’t seen you or heard you yetIt is obvious you cannot follow directions(sarcastically) Don’t you think you’re smartYou’re putting people offYou’re acting like you don’t trust meYou’re racing ahead

A?=Academic Inquiry

Have you evaluated the question?Do you understand?Can you demonstrate another way?Can you explain this to your neighbor?Can you restate your idea?Can you tell me more please?Can you describe your thinking for me?What are your thoughts?Should I repeat the question?Should I go over it again?Do you need more details?Is that report the best you can do?How could you make such a comment?Can’t you recall the facts?Aren’t you able to define these ideas?How about a comparison with the rubric?

Appendix B: Comments Available in simSchool

Appendix B

Appendix C: Tasks in simSchool

AVAILABLE TASKS in SIMSCHOOL

Level 1: Recall (e.g. computation) nothing do an oral quiz go over last week’s lessons take a pop quiz do a brief presentation from memory recite a lengthy poem take a written test

Level 2: Skill/Concept (e.g. word problem)

do silent reading

do whole-class oral response

do a team worksheet

apply a formula

Level 3: Strategic Thinking (e.g. problem involves reasoning)

take notes during lecture

play a game

analyze text

create a graphic

compare and contrast

do design on multiple criteria

Level 4: Extended Thinking (e.g. develop a project plan)

student-lead class discussion

make a creative product

develop a project plan

develop a hypothesis

Appendix C

Appendix D: The Five Student Classroom Lesson Plan

Objective: You and your partner are going to select four tasks that you think will be most effective in teaching your class for a 45 minute period. You will need to decide on the tasks, the time to spend on each task, and the order of the tasks.

1. Log into simSchool and create a 5 student class named LessonPlan1. 2. Load the game and read the 5 student profiles. While you are waiting for

it to load, begin to make some decisions about possible tasks. 3. After reading the profiles, write the four tasks you are going to run in the

space below with the length of time for each. Total time should not equal more than 45 simMinutes.

TASK ONE____________________________________________________

TASK TWO___________________________________________________

TASK THREE__________________________________________________

TASK FOUR___________________________________________________

4. Now you may start the simulation and begin running your four tasks in order. You may not change tasks once you have started but you may make comments to either the group or individuals as you and your part-ner think is appropriate. Use the space below to record any comments that you make indicating to whom the comment is directed (either whole class or give the student name):

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

After about 45 simMinutes in simSchool time stop the simulation and analyze your data. Focusing on the Academic graph for each student, decide who was most successful? Least successful? Can you think of some immediate changes you could make to improve one or more of the students’ learning?

5. If time allows, create a second lesson plan and see if you can improve the academics of the least successful student but still stay successful with the previous highest student.

Appendix D

Appendix E: Create a Student Worksheet

Complete this worksheet with a particular student in mind that you would like to create in simSchool.

1. First decide on a gender:

MALE FEMALE

2. Now decide on the race of your student:

African American Asian Caucasian Hispanic

3. From the screen in simSchool you will need to choose a name from a list of provided ones as well as a picture for your student’s profile.

4. Write a brief description of your student. Think about the kind of terms and sentences used in the profiles in simSchool.

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

5. On a scale of -1.0 to 1.0 what academic level is your student? (-1.0 would be a below level student and 1.0 would be an above grade level stu-dent) _______________________________________________________

Appendix E

6. Using the same scale , -1.0 to 1.0, set the levels for the following:

Pays attention to private thoughts and feelings or expresses privately

Extroversion

-1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Pays attention to things going on around oneself or

expresses publicly

Works alone or avoids others

Agreeableness

-1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Works with or depends on others

Works creatively or with abandon

Persistence

-1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Works ultra-carefully or with persistence

Shows unrestrained emotional response or is highly sensitive

Emotion

-1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Tempers emotions or is imperturbable

Solves well-defined problems or likes to do repetitive tasks

Intellect

-1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Solves ill-defined problems or like to change approaches frequently

7. Finally, using a scale of 0.0 to 1.0 decide on the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic levels of your student. Keep in mind that a zero in any one area means complete absence of that sense (e.g. a zero in visual would mean blindness). For most students, 0.5 would be the minimum for each with one or two being higher meaning that they have a strong leaning in that direc-tion.

Visual ____________ Auditory ____________ Kinesthetic ____________

Appendix E

Appendix F: Create a Task Worksheet

Complete this worksheet for a particular task that you would like to create and assign in simSchool to a student or group of students.

1). First pick a level for your task

Level one: recall Level two: skill/concept Level three: strategic thinking Level four: extended thinking

2). Now name your task ______________________________________________

3). Give a brief description of your task _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 4). On a scale of -1.0 to 1.0 how difficult is your task? What is its academic potential? (-1.0 would be a low level academic task and 1.0 would be a high academic task) _________________________________________________________________

5). Using the same scale, -1.0 to 1.0, set the levels for the following:

Extroversion: ____________________________ Agreeableness: _________________________ Persistence: _____________________ Emotion: _______________________ Intellect: ______________________ 6). Finally, using a scale of 0.0 to 1.0 decide on the visual, auditory, and kin esthetic levels of your task. Keep in mind that a zero in any one area means complete absence of that sense (e.g. a zero in visual would mean no visual information is needed or required for this task)

Visual: _________________ Auditory: ______________ Kinesthetic: ____________

Appendix F

Pays attention to private thoughts and feelings or expresses privately

Extroversion -1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Pays attention to things going on around oneself or expresses publicly

Works alone or avoids others Agreeableness -1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Works with or depends on others

Works creatively or with abandon Persistence -1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Works ultra-carefully or with persistence

Shows unrestrained emotional response or is highly sensitive

Emotion -1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Tempers emotions or is imperturbable

Solves well-defined problems or likes to do repetitive tasks

Intellect -1……-.5……..0…….5…..1

Solves ill-defined problems or like to change approaches frequently

Appendix G: Seating Chart for 18 Classroom Notes

Benson, Keri Yarbrough, Alvin

Alvarez, Xavier

Armstrong, Katherine

Arnold, Marcus Zhu, Abraham

Ancheta, Lucia

Wright, Ajanee

Amaya, Esmerelda

Anderson, Lawrence

Alder, Mary Zavala, Adela

Alba, Yael

Young, Airianna Amazo, Jay Youngston, Alonzo

Young, Aaron

Zeba, Ali

Teacher Desk

Appendix G

www.simSchool.org

Documents

simManual