Entries Tagged as 'Common Core Standards'

What REALLY MATTERS? We need to be more compelling!

June 30, 2012 · 1 Comment · 21st century classroom, 21st Century Literacies, About Me, Common Core Standards

We (educators) have made lots of progress in education over the last few years, but know one really knows about the work we have done. Yes, much of it has been blood, sweat, and tears. We have many good teachers in our profession and they were not born with the talent of being good. They did it through tears, sweating, going the extra mile, reading, learning, praying, late evenings, Sunday afternoons. It did not just happen. We gave our life and soul for the kids we serve, but all we can say we have made progress. But who is really paying attention.

President Obama nor Mitt Romney. Neither one of these great men are talking about education.

People in our professional are not making the really big decisions about what matters in education! We keep talking about what really matters, but our voices only seem to get heard by the choir. The public talks about what they know about education and what they think matters, their voice is heard. Our politicians hear their voices.

We have done a better job in articulating What Really Matters! But we have to do it better so that our parents, our community leaders, the business leaders, and our politicians hear us. We have to engage them in that conversation! We have to find a way to listent to them and them listen to us!

I can go further and make a list of the many things that matters in education, but I want to focus on one BIG thing that has the potential to change our culture of learning, our culture of public education!

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

CCSS goes to the heart of preparing my sons and daughters to be College and Career Ready (CCR)! The standards tells us what they must be able to do in order to be CCR. We need our students to be

  • communicators,
  • collaborators,
  • able to work together in teams,
  • be independent learners,
  • build strong content knowledge,
  • respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline,
  • comprehend ideas as well as critique them,
  • to value evidence, use technology and digital media strategically and capably, and
  • and come to understand other perspectives and cultures.

And this REALLY MATTERS!

From Kindergarten through the 12th grade the CCSS calls for students to have these experiences in our classrooms each year starting in K. And this REALLY MATTERS!

The anchor standards describe a portrait of students who are able to read, speak, write, listen, and use language well to do these task. “They are able to exhibit with increasing fullness and regularity these capacities of the literate individual.”(from the ELA CCSS) And this REALLY MATTERS!

“Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational text that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language.” (from the ELA CCSS) And this REALLY MATTERS!

I want this for my own two children! Students need to see that learning involves struggling and not always coming up with the correct answer. Many times there is no correct answer. CCSS calls for every student attending our schools to be taught like this! And this REALLY MATTERS!

This is the opportunity for us to change the culture of learning in this nation! But here is my fear! Smarter Balanced and PARCC Assessments. Once as a school system we understand the assessment, will we revert back to what happened the last ten years in education with testing and data collection? Will the test change the intention of the writers of the CCSS? What will the public say? How will the politicians react!  Folks this REALLY MATTERS!

We have to start now finding ways to have this conversation about What Really Matters with our communities! We need to find as many ways we can ask it and start forums! This may be our last effort to reform public education as we know it! As we all know there is a force- a political force- working agains what we believe to be true the need for public education in this country!

And this REALLY MATTERS! We MUST be more COMPELLING!

 

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Using Historical Fiction Picture Books Part Two

December 7, 2011 · 1 Comment · Common Core Standards, Disciplinary Literacy, history, learning, literacy, Literacy in Social Studies, Picture, Picture Books, reading, Reading and Writing Enrichment, Reading Comprehension, reflecting, social studies

In the Article “Comprehension Strategies for Reading Historical Fiction Picturebooks” by Suzette Youngs and Frank Serafini in The Reading Teacher, October 2011 the authors offer suggestions for moving readers from the literal details to the interpretive assertions.  Yesterdays post focused on the considerations for using historical fiction picture books.

I think consideration must be given to teaching the teacher before teaching students from the transition from literal to interpretive assertions.  To a certain degree the teacher must own the content or have a clear understanding of the content before moving further.  With inquiring minds of all ages (teacher included) we hope the multimodal text will plant a seed in the learners head to inquire further. At the completion of the reading- pre, during, and post- I would hope the book would help the reader form an emotional attachment with the book. The article by Youngs and Serafini offers three strategies:

 

Phase I: Previewing, Noticing, and Naming

As readers approach a picturebook, we encourage them to focus on these elements or thoughts>

  • What visual and design features do you notice?
  • How do the visual, textual, and design modes relate to one another?
  • What did the illustrator, author, and publisher include in the peritext?
  • What type of historical fiction might this be?
  • Focus attention to Historical fiction as a Genre. Are they aware of different examples of historical fiction? I suggest keeping a chart somewhere in your room of different historical fiction books you have read and be able to talk about what they notice in the differences.
    • o   fictionalized memoirs
    • o   fictionalized family histories and stories
    • o   fiction based on research
  •  Essential Questions to Ask When Reading Historical Fiction
    • ·         Is this true? How much is this true?
    • ·         How can we distinguish between fact from fiction?
    • ·         How do the authors know?
    • ·         How much of it happened like this?
    • ·         How can the auto rote help to construct meaning?
    • ·         What type of historic fiction is this?
    • ·         How do the illustration and the text work together?
  • Attention to Visual and Textual Elements
    • ·         What did you notice about the cover, back cover, title page, end pages.
    • ·         What did you notice visual and design elements of the picturebook”
    • ·         By allowing readers to determine what is important by focusing on what they notice, teachers can shift the focus of the discussion to what matters to their readers. (Youngs, 2011)
  • During this first read-aloud, we take note of the balance between narrative and factual elements, how color is used throughout the text to suggest moods and themes, how characters are portrayed in the written text and images, how the story unfolds and how it makes us feel, and other narrative features such as setting, character, plot, and resolution. By focusing readers’ attention on the visual, textual, and design elements of the picturebook, we establish a foundation for readers to move from attending to the visual and verbal features of a picturebook to the interpretation of these elements. (Youngs, 2011)

Phase II: Moving Beyond Noticing to Interpretation

  • Read the book a second time!
  • Invite readers to consider the meaning potential of various visual and textual elements embedded within the picturebook and how these individual elements contribute to the story as a whole.
  • Help the learners pay attention the one telling the story and their perspective.
  • Help the learners pay attention to how the image is framed, the setting of the image or illustration. Framing is a way illustrators invite viewers into an image or distance them from what is being presented.
  • Character-reader relationship- A technique that illustrators use to develop a relationship between the character and viewer is called demand and offer. When a character in an image or illustration makes direct contact with the viewer, this is called demand and when a character looks at other characters or objects within the image, it is called an offer. (Youngs, 2011, p. 120) Demand offers the reader an interactive role and demands the attention of the reader where as an offer does not bring the reader into a direct relationship with the character. Rather these scenes and actions serve as information for the reader to consider. The author and illustrator works together to create a relationship between the reader and the characters and events in the story. (Youngs, 2011, pp. 120-121) This is an important position to consider in the genre of historical fiction.

Phase III: Moving Beyond Interpretation to Critical Analysis

What happens in the phase depends on the background knowledge readers bring to the text and the intention of the books use in the content area. Let me point out whether one is using historical fiction or another type of fiction the three phases need to be taught along the continuum of early and intermediate literacy stages. The more background knowledge learners have prior to reading the picture book, will help them assume a critical stance.  This path must be modeled and taught.  The path is a forward movement from early literacy to intermediate literacy and the higher level would be disciplinary literacy.  Important considerations include:

  • Many historical fiction picture book illustrators draw on cultural, political, and social symbols to make inter-textual connections within the illustrations and to other visual images. (Youngs, 2011)
  • Here are some open ended questions that will promote this type of thinking”
    • o   Whose view of history is being presented in the book?
    • o    How are historical characters portrayed?
    • o   What systems of power and social issues are being challenged?
    • o   Whose view is privileged in the telling of the story?
    • o   What has been left out of the story?
    • o   How do the images presented affect the readers’ interpretations?
  • Visual Symbol Analysis: “Illustrators of historical fiction picturebooks often embed historical images within their illustrations. Analysis of these images requires readers to construct an image as a historical symbol, to place the image within its original historical context, and to make intertextual connections between the book being read and the embedded image. Anstey and Bull (2006) referred to the use of intertextuality and described it as “the ways one text might draw on or resemble the characteristics of another causing the consumer of the text to make links between them” (p. 30).” (Youngs, 2011, pp. 121-122)
  • Placement of Characters within an Illustration- How the character is placed in the illustration carries additional meaning to the whole text. It tells us lots about the characters social standing and power structures with other characters. Characters placed at the top of the image are given higher social status or power compared to those place near the bottom of the pictures. Characters placed side by side might be entering into an adventure  (Youngs, 2011, pp. 122-123). Other questions to consider:
    • o   What might the spatial relationship suggest?  (Youngs, 2011, pp. 122-123) How might we interpret the placement of characters or objects on the page and throughout the book?  (Youngs, 2011, pp. 122-123) Who or what is privileged in the various images?  (Youngs, 2011, pp. 122-123)
    • o   What systems of power are represented? (Youngs, 2011, pp. 122-123) (We must teach learners to take a critical stance of various images and symbols represented in historical fiction picture books) (Youngs, 2011, p. 122)

These strategies presented by Youngs and Serefini need to be considered as we prepare our learners for the real world. This framework can better prepare teachers for using historical fiction or any fictional picture book in the content curriculum.  It serves as a guide, but should help to focus on the teacher how picture book could be possibly used. I think it is important the teacher understand the framework so that parts as necessary can be modeled and taught to all learners.

Bibliography

Piercy, T. a. (2011). Disciplinary Literacyq. Englewood, Colorada: Lead and Learn Press.

Youngs, S. a. (2011). Comprehension Strategies for Reading Historical Fiction Picture Book. The Reading Teacher , 115-124.

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Using Historical Fiction Picture Books Part One

December 6, 2011 · 2 Comments · Common Core Standards, history, learning, literacy, Literacy in Social Studies, Picture Books, Reading and Writing Enrichment, Reading Comprehension

In the Article “Comprehension Strategies for Reading Historical Fiction Picturebooks” by Suzette Youngs and Frank Serafini in The Reading Teacher, October 2011 along with other important notes struck a chord with me: “Cognitively based reading comprehension strategies (e.g., predicting, summarizing, visualizing) often focus exclusively on written text. However, picture books and many other texts that readers encounter in their daily lives are now dominated by visual images Therefore, comprehending the visual images and design elements presented in historical fiction picture books require developing a new set of strategies in addition to the strategies used for comprehending written text alone.”

I love historical fiction picture book and I have a growing collection as more and more are being published. I have used picture books across all curriculum area to supplement both social studies and ELA content.  I used picture book as mentor text in classroom writing workshops and I continue to use them in professional development classes as well.

The article pushed my thinking in new ways about using quality picture books in teaching and learning. I have held a strong belief that picture books are a great way to help bridge connections to the content being taught in content subjects especially history. Pictures, images, and designs features enhances our understanding of the world today just by the way they are presented and used on a daily basis on billboards, TV, Internet, Theater, and other mediums in public places.  In historical picture books they help the readers to make sense of historical events and concepts. In a way picture books are the pre-Madonna of today’s literacy. Picture books helps teachers and students take complex issues, events, and concepts and helps readers bridge a connection for future learning.   We use picture books across the curriculum to supplement social studies content, present complex historical concepts and promote critical discussions. (Youngs, 2011, p. 116)

“Cognitively based readi(Youngs, 2011, p. 116)ng comprehension strategies (e.g., predicting, summarizing, visualizing) often focus exclusively on written text. However, picturebooks and many other texts that readers encounter in their daily lives are now dominated by visual images (Kress, 2003). Therefore, comprehending the visual images and design elements presented in historical fiction picturebooks requires developing a new set of strategies in addition to the strategies used for comprehending written text alone (Serafini, 2005, 2010; Youngs, 2010).” (Youngs, 2011, p. 116)

A picture book brings a unique experience beyond the text, but not so unique when you think about the digital media that all our youth are exposed to beginning at birth.  Beginning with early literacy, picture book use in different areas of the curriculum should expose readers to making meaning of the story or the informational message beyond the text.  Early literacy places lots of instruction based on a text environment. Early literacy and intermediate literacy focuses lots of efforts on skills such as main idea, supporting details, predicting, summarizing).  Unfortunately literacy instruction has prepared students for the multiple choice test.

Very little pedagogical attention has been places on visual system at all grade levels and that poses a new challenge for teachers.  Picture books brings a multimodal system that needs to be understood , modeled, and taught so student will fully comprehend the text.

Below are some considerations for using historical picture books:

  • Teachers must take the time to fully understand the content that is being presented through the picture book.  What part of the book is fiction? Many historical fiction books provide additional background knowledge on the event, time period, person, or conflict and provide information what is fact and fiction. The danger is the teacher not knowing and not discussing this with students.
  • “Historical fiction picturebooks are challenging because many readers lack historical background knowledge, are not familiar with the genre, and are inexperienced with the language specific to the historical era.” (Youngs, 2011)
  • The teachers needs to have some understanding of the context of the text and images presented. Are the images accurate of the time period?  The context affects how we will view the text (including all multimodal pieces of the text) and it will affect how we respond. In understanding the context, we must consider the background knowledge. Our goal with a picture book might be to help students to piece together a context for understanding the content that they must learn. We are helping them to piece together clues that will them build a larger picture around the things we what them to learn. It is valuable to know that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was given during a critical phrase of the Civil War. It was given at the dedication of the cemetery for fallen soldiers after the most critical battle of that war. (Piercy, 2011, pp. 77, 80)
  •  The teacher must focus on text. I am including the design, pictures, images, and print for the meaning of text. Here we must focus on the fabric of the communication. What is the author‘s message? That is determined by how she wishes to communicate it including text style, design, images, pictures, use of blank spaces, etc. Consideration must be given to the audience and the intended imagery of the reader’s imagination.  Think closely about how commercials are designed and the audiences they are intended.
  •  This focus on the literary aspects of picturebooks and the lack of pedagogical attention to visual systems of meaning present serious challenges to teachers at a time when image has begun to dominate the lives of their students . This may be due to the fact that multimodal texts other than picturebooks have not been as prominent a feature in the instructional framework of today’s reading programs as they are in the lives of the students for which the curriculum was intended. If teachers are going to be able to help children make sense of the visual images and written language of multimodal texts, they need to first be able to analyze and comprehend these multimodal texts themselves. (Youngs, 2011) The use of tablets and eReaders are posing new challenges are they are being introduced into the classrooms. Reading on-line requires a different a different set of reading skills that are different from reading from one medium. Picture books offer a way to introduce different reading comprehension strategies.

 

Bibliography

Piercy, T. a. (2011). Disciplinary Literacyq. Englewood, Colorada: Lead and Learn Press.

Youngs, S. a. (2011). Comprehension Strategies for Reading Historical Fiction Picture Book. The Reading Teacher , 115-124.

 

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Who will teach kids to climb

December 5, 2011 · 2 Comments · Common Core Standards

Here I shared some notes from watching this video with David Coleman talking about the shifts in literacy with the full implementation of Common Core Standards. Hearing David in this video allowed brough fresh and renewed eyes to my thinking about CCS.  Two shifts have have caused lots of deep thinking and wonderings.

First, 50 percent stories and 50 percent informational text are expected in reading classrooms in K-5. We know in K-5 that is where the foundation of knowledge is developed.  The early years are great place to learn about the world and create mental structures for future learning. Are our teachers prepared for such a shift?

I heard once again from an elementary principal say that k-5 instruction in his school will focus on reading and math instruction. We don’t have time for science and social studies. If the teacher can fit it into her schedule, it happens. This is true in most schools across the US. Science and social studies is just not important in K-5.

If the full implementation of CCS happens, how will that thinking shift.

  • Reading Today Online > Common Core Standards: Are We Going to Lower the Fences or Teach Kids to Climb?

    • Memories appeared to be constructed from structural frameworks and not just rote recall.
    • There was an important flaw in the research results. Young children didn’t remember some story elements. Though they easily recalled actions and outcomes, they struggled with the emotional or psychological aspects of stories.
    • Most story maps are more like the incomplete memories of young children than the content of stories. Instead of trying to help kids to master the insights about stories that were hard, our now-simplified maps encourage them to focus on those things that don’t pose them much problem
    • Reading educators have long argued for matching books to kids by difficulty level. We have claimed that it is essential that students work at their instructional levels. The driving force behind informal reading inventories, basal readers, leveled books, guided reading, and low readability/high-interest textbooks ha
    • But the common core starts from a different premise: Their notion is that students will do better if required to read harder materials rather than easier ones. How can they so blithely reject what so many of us “know?” Well, again, this is where the story gets interesting.
    • Studies have shown that over the past 70 years, school textbooks have grown easier. But despite this trend, each generation of teachers has been perplexed anew by kids who can’t read their textbooks, which has led to a further ratcheting down of text difficulty.
    • Truth be told, there is little research supporting matching kids with books, and there are even studies suggesting that teaching children from frustration level texts can lead to more learning than from instructional level ones.
    • Based on such evidence, the common core requires that students spend most of their time reading texts that they are likely to struggle with.
    • First, while evidence suggests kids could learn from harder materials, these studies have not been done with beginning readers.
    • I worry for two reasons:
    • we have tended to overgeneralize from younger readers (for whom easier text allows a more systematic focus on decoding) to older readers (who may do better with more intellectually challenging texts). Now, I fear that the common core is over-generalizing in the other direction. Harder beginning reading books may stop many young readers in their tracks.
    • While I’m convinced that teaching with harder books is the way to go with the vast majority of kids, I doubt we’ll reap any benefits from this direction until teachers know how to teach with such materials. When the books get hard, the usual responses have been to move kids to easier books, to stop using textbooks, or to read the texts to the students; none of which will make kids better readers or learners.
    • we will need to avoid such practices and to strive to identify what makes a book hard and then to provide the scaffolding and motivation that would sustain students’ efforts to learn from such challenging texts.
    • Timothy Shanahan is professor of urban education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of the UIC Center for Literacy, Shanahan@uic.edu.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Ramblings about Literacy and Blogging

December 2, 2011 · No Comments · Blogging, Common Core Standards, connective writing, Content-Area Writing, Digital Literacies, learning, literacy, Literacy in Social Studies

I can only write about blogging from my point of view and what I have learned about the bloggers that I follow in my Google Reader and blog post that are recommended through my Twitter feed. In some ways I feel uncomfortable writing about it here, but after reading posts at Langwitches about the posts related to Learning about Blogs for Your Students here and here I began to wonder how I would address blogging in my Literacy in Social Studies series. Foremost, I am all about encouraging more writing in all content area and any form of writing to learn. Writing is our visible thinking and we must find ways to make thinking and learning more visible to get our learners to think critically!

I am not an advocate of a blog being another writing assignment for students to check off! If a blog were to work in a classroom, the teacher must have invested quiet a bit of time learning about blogs:

  • Reading other blogs. I suggest picking four or five blogs and follow over several months. Make comments to blog posts. Pay attention to their writing style, voice, the links, the images and other comments that are left behind.
  • Embrace blogging by blogging. Don’t just jump into! Feel comfortable by following other bloggers who have like minds as you do. Don’t feel like you have to be a perfect writer! Just write and give yourself permission to write terribly, but keep writing. Through time you will get better. Forcing one to blog to become a small piece of the conversation that is so important. It has great benefits for the one doing the writing.

Learning is not about right or wrong, rather, it is discovering what you love, searching for more and creating with what you are learning along the way. Blogging has allowed me to discover my own voice, dabble in collaboration, reflect then make changes in my own practice and share my love of teaching and learning with others.

Using a blog in a history classroom must be about learning and  a teacher using a blog with her students must be willing to be the role model in taking the learner into a deeper learning experience that is way more personal.

With Common Core Standards on our coattails, we know how important writing has become in the global world, which we live. Amateur bloggers will tell you how blogging shaped their writing voice. It allowed me to move past the shy writer that lives deep within me to a more confident and brave voice.

Blogging is about sharing. Sharing is the heart of what a blogger does. Another thing at the heart of blogging is the question(s) or wondering that drives the blogger.  We often don’t reveal those questions in our writing and sometimes the blogger can’t make that identity as well.  Questions, curiosity, and wonderings drive our learning and it drives us to the things that are important to us.

When one thinks about early literacy and intermediate literacy instruction (prevalent in K-5) you tend to think that kids are pushed to the higher level of blooms in reading instruction. In early reading instruction kids learn to put stories in order by the way they occur in the story- basically through rote memorization.  Teachers tend to spend more time on questions that require the regurgitation of the facts. Students have trouble recalling story elements but easily remember  actions and outcomes ,and they tend to struggle with the emotional and/or psychological aspects of a story. We tend to do the same thing with writing instruction especially teaching the perfect paragraph with a topic sentence, three supporting details, and a conclusion.  I wander if this is not the reason student struggle with writing because they don’t have enough time to think, digest, question, and wonder about the different aspects of story. They don’t have enough time dealing with the social, emotional, and psychological aspects of the story. And do you students have enough role models in this process?

For what ever reason we spend little time with the higher level of blooms questioning- the what if, the why, thinking beyond, creation, etc.  We don’t seem to value this in early stages of literacy, but it is the most important area to develop thinkers our of young learners. If we don’t value it here, we are not going to value it with writing.  We should be putting more time in this area. CCS calls that we do this! CCS will demand teacher rethink teaching practices for early learners.

We can’t let the excuse be that Johnny is a poor reader. We have to do better in building pre reading experiences. We have to offer every student challenging text to read.  Then we have to take what the kids are learning and help them visibly show what their learning through writing. Model! Model! Model!

Writing is  the heart of reading instruction. From pictures to words to sentences to paragraphs, we must insist that thinking become visible. Once are thinking is visible we can possibly begin thinking about making their visible thought in a blog. This happens once they are able to move to writing complete sentences and paragraphs.

 

I hope in the weeks to come to write more about making thinking visibly.

 

Thanks

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What’s Your Pulse?

December 1, 2011 · No Comments · Common Core Standards, leadership, learning, literacy

Today Kay Connors @kconners09 has given permission for me to repost this blog post from her blog at Dimensional Learning. The other day I was learning from Kay in a chat at #edchat on Twitter. The timing for this post is awesome with some of the discussion we are having on the district level in my office. Thanks Kay for allowing me to post it here.

Kay Conners is an 8th grade World Geography teacher in Warrenton, VA. With 14 years experience in public and private schools, Kay co-authored Anywhere Learning in Educational Leadership, ASCD, March, 2009. She has presented at the National Middle School Conference, National Social Studies Conference and VASCD, VISTE in Virginia. Kay believes in the power of collaboration and getting out of the way of students’ learning. Kay earned a BS Ed from Miami University (OH) and MEd from George Mason University.

_________________________

Just as a physician takes our pulse during an office visit to check our health, schools should be doing the same. What’s your school’s pulse? Here are some thoughts on a healthy school pulse.

When walking through the building do you see:

  • Students in groups, not just talking, but asking questions, using content vocabulary, creating learning together, excited about what they are doing?
  • The teacher is involved in student discussion and learning and not the center of learning?
  • Students can tell anyone who comes in to the classroom what they are researching, discussing, analyzing?
  • There is high expectation for learning, not just test scores? There are student projects showcased?
  • Learning is taking place all over, even in the hall with students are spread out using computers, textbooks, library books, other devices as allowed? My favorite pictures in my classroom are those of students putting together a presentation while the textbook, notebook, etc are on their laps and desks. I co-wrote and article for Educational Leadership in 2009 and it is still timely. Here is the link for those interested- http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Anywhere_Learning.aspx
  • Learning happening anytime, anywhere and are you, the teacher, a part of it during non school hours?  Are students sharing writing, projects, and anything else with you on Google Docs, Edmodo, etc.?
  • Active not passive learning?

As I walk through the halls of my own building, I think about our pulse. What does learning look/sound like to you?

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Spanky and the Gang Revisited

November 27, 2011 · No Comments · Common Core Standards, history, Inquiry-Based Instruction, inspirational, literacy, Literacy in Social Studies

Today I was looking for a blog post I wrote on November 22, 2009.  Several things resonate with me as I read. First, the idea of using primary source documents, the student conversations, students making inferences, and the back channel conversations.

I am sitting in a fourth grade classroom sandwiched between two fourthgrade boys at pod of desks listening to an awesome interactive lectureon the first colonist to America. Eight flat desktop desks are pushed together face to face to make a working group. I am listening and enjoying the visuals Mrs. S was using and in awe with the interaction from the kids. Not only were they answering questions the teacher was posing they were sharing inferences about why the colonist came and offering insight
about their difficult life. Mrs. S wonderfully got the kids to think about the explorers as their background knowledge. I enjoyed the
conversation and how intelligently these fourth graders answered and discussed the topic. And this was their introductory lesson. The Images she used made the difference as she told stories about the people and places. This is what social studies is about! The kids enthusiasm was refreshing!

I liked most the part being on the student level in a student desk and listening to their back channel conversations. Yes, kids have those conversations as well. But in amazement they were so connected to the content being presented. The kids would make comments to me and I found myself whispering back as well with my comments. They would whisper a comment to me and I would pose a question to them. From the onset I thought how rude, but for the moment I got caught up in being one of the
fourth grade boys. I forgot about my manners and just enjoyed being a boy. I caught myself raising my hand to answer a question and quickly put it down before Mrs. S saw me (or anyone else).

The young man beside me who was the perfect Spanky from the Little Rascals was sitting there quietly. Now let me remind you that Spanky was a genious and probably knows more about history than me. Constantly he had the last say in whispers to me as Mrs. S taught.  I notice Spanky was inconspicuously eating a bag of CheZ Its from his desk. I noticed a few other kids eating so I thought it was okay; therefore, I kept my mouth closed. Moments later Spanky- my new pal- punched me in the shoulder. Holding a ChezIt in his hand and holding it toward me! “Have one! Are you hungry!” I froze in time as I starred at it because I don’t like to turn down food and the word “yes” started surfacing.  I caught myself and reality sat in again. I was back to being a classroom observer.

Later in the day I ran into Spankie  in the hallway and he stopped. “Hey, Mr. G, Isn’t Msr. S a wonderful social studies teacher! She
knows how to make learning fun!” “You know, you are right!” How amazing this kid!

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Addressing Rigor in our Schools

November 20, 2011 · 1 Comment · change, Common Core Standards, leadership, learning, reflecting, Rigor

A Good thing: There seems to be a wide spread concern about rigor in our schools, but addressing the change that is needed is challenging. This is especially true in those schools that the learning culture has been set by previous building leaders and well established tenured teachers in the building. Change is daunting. Most teachers have different beliefs about teaching and learning and in some cases school culture has captivated teachers thinking especially teachers who have spent many years contributing to that culture.

Bruce Torff points out in his article “Teacher Beliefs Shape Learning for All Students” that effective teachers have always delivered the same high level of rigor to all their students. Usually these teachers do it daily behind the confines of the four walls in their classroom. Everyone knows she is a great teacher but very few try to find out why she is so successful. It happens from working in isolation for so many years and usually this teacher gets all the best kids. But regardless who walks through her classroom door, the same expectation is the same for every child and she is able to hold the child accountable for learning. Usually these teachers teach with high expectations and higher level thinking skills are expected from every student.  Effective teachers have always delivered the same high level of rigor to all their student

But most teachers have different beliefs, and these beliefs are resistant to change, both during teacher training and on the job. Beliefs about learning and teaching seem to be etched in stone and difficult to rewrite.

Torff believes there are six factors at work when teachers opt for a less-rigorous curriculum for their disadvantaged students:

-          Students’ level of prior knowledge;

-          Students’ level of academic achievement;

-          Students’ level of motivation;

-          Time constraints;

-          Parents’ influence;

-          Colleagues’ influence.

And he further believes that change can happen by-

  • Conversations, journals, and assignments designed to get teachers to reflect on their existing beliefs. Telling people what to believe doesn’t work, but getting them to think about their own beliefs in light of other evidence just might.
  • Involving teachers in writing curriculum that gets all students working at high levels.

 For more reading on the topic of rigor, check these blog posts.

Common Core and Rigor

A Lack Of Rigor Leaves Students ‘Adrift’ In College : NPR

Podcast: Rigor – What is it?

Rigor!

The Benefit and Danger of Education Technology – Edudemic

“Teacher Beliefs Shape Learning for All Students” by Bruce Torff in Phi Delta Kappan, November 2011 (Vol. 93, #3, p. 21-23), http://www.kappanmagazine.org; Torff can be reached at bruce.torff@hofstra.edu.

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Disciplinary Literacy Part 2

November 15, 2011 · No Comments · 21st Century Literacies, Common Core Standards, connective writing, Content-Area Writing, Disciplinary Literacy

There are different literacy connections within specific content areas that are different from the reading instruction a student may receive in an English or English Language Arts classroom. In content reading our goal is to get students to read primary and secondary sources like an expert would read those materials. We can never assume students at any grade level or even in College would have that skill.  When students read a primary source document such as a letter written by Thomas Edison, we would want that learner to read with the skills of a historian.

We can no longer expect the literacy skills needed to read in math, science, social studies, or literature to be only taught in English or English Language Arts. We have to recognize how different those skills are. “Text in these content areas have different structures, language conventions, vocabularies, and criteria for comprehension.” (Piercy, 2011, p. 64) No longer can teachers in other content area tell us that are not responsible for literacy instruction. Many teachers in these areas will struggle if they are not willing to take responsibility for literacy instruction in their content area. However, many of those teachers who struggle have not made the mind shift of the 21st century. Those teachers tend to rest on the laurels of time past and have not paid attention to changes that have happened outside the walls of education. How many educators have taken an honest look at the world our students live in and what motivates them? Take a moment and review this blog post: A Dropout Factory!!!! Read and Listen for Change. In both interview each youth stated that school was boring and had little to interest them.

In a previous blog post Literacy in Action, I conclude the post with these questions that would act as filters for reading in the content area.

Questioning the Context of the Information and its Source:

  1. Who is providing the information and how is that source connected to the topic?
  2. Can the source be trusted?
  3. What does this source have to gain by providing this view of information?
  4. In what way does this information, provided by the people accurately inform me?

Questioning Unfiltered Information:

  1. What claims or ideas in the information must be fact checked for accuracy?
  2. Is this a primary document or has it been recycled by others?
  3. Does the information create dilemma for me or others?
  4. How is the new information connect with me and my prior information?

Distributing Information to Others?

  1. What is my responsibility in reporting this information?
  2. Will my voice be perceived as reliable?
  3. How will my reporting contribute to interdependent- or other peoples’ understanding?
  4. What medium will best communicate this information with clarity to the public?
  5. What will be the possible impact or results of my reporting?

(Piercy, 2011)

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Disciplinary Literacy

November 13, 2011 · 3 Comments · Common Core Standards, literacy, Literacy in Social Studies

In normal reading development- or in standardized dimension of education- K-2 is the learning to read or the basic literacy stage of reading development. Beginning of the third grade year, students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. The stage of Intermediate Literacy begins as students learn generic comprehension strategies, common word meaning and basic fluency.  This phase closely matches what we witness in most secondary schools today or closely tied to what we practice as reading in the content area. There is a huge transition that starts in grade six and up. With the change in literacy demands in content area study, disciplinary literacy instruction should begin when readers or ready but no later than sixth grade. The instruction approach would enable learners using filters in their reading for certain data using literacy actions to synthesize and create to transform learning.

For the purpose of this research, I will focus on the disciplinary actions of reading like a historian. 

 

Literacy in Action

 

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