I'm so far behind . . I think I'm first

After such a long absence from this blog, I wonder if I can say anything of substance at this point. I've thought in fits and snippets off and on since the semester began, but have just not had the time to really sit down and post a reflection - and this has been such an odd semester so far. Maybe, thought, I've just been too lazy to sit down and think through my fingers. But here's my rationalization: To begin with, I was in Scotland until less than 24 hours before the semester began - and although I'd gotten my syllabi ready, had my plans done well before the opening date, and after teaching this course for 20 years or more, I still felt so behind. I've been playing catch up since the very beginning. Of course, I didn't think of everything I needed to do before we left on the trip -- so when I got back, with school looming immediately, I decided not to do my usual syllabus quiz. In all honesty, I just didn't have the time it would take to go into the new Blackboard Learn and edit the "old" quiz to have it reflect the new things in the syllabus, like different office hours, projects, etc. To rationalize, I reasoned that these were seniors in college and a syllabus quiz might be too "elementary" -but I was wrong. What I discovered was that going over a few things and then directing students to read the syllabus didn't seem to make a dent. By the time I discovered that students had not looked at the syllabus, it was too late to go back to a syllabus quiz. Or maybe I was just too tired to do that. We cannot duplicate our syllabi anymore because of the current economic situation, so uploading the syllabus to Blackboard or to a website or Wiki or Ning so that it is available to students is the only recourse. I wonder if that causes students to overlook the importance of the syllabus? Whatever the cause, students haven't taken the time to look at or think about the syllabus and I've had to be sort of hard-nosed about the file naming convention, among other things. Oh well, there has to be something I can do to get students to pay attention to the information in the syllabus - but I haven't found it yet. Maybe next semester I'll do a scavenger hunt?

I tried not to overwhelm students this semester with an in-depth description of all the projects, so I introduced the projects VERY briefly on the first day, but waited until they could sort of figure out what was expected to give an in-depth view of the projects as we got to them. For example, the Disciplinary Literacy Digital Essay, I wanted them to have read the first chapter at least, and get an idea of the differences in the various disciplinary fields before we looked at the project. Once we sketched out a chart summarizing the challenges of each discipline, and added a row for them to list/find examples of each challenge, I thought they would understand what was expected. We'll see when I finally get around to grading the DLDEs - which is another thing I feel bad about; I'm so far behind on my grading I think I'm first - I've just never been this far behind.

Likewise, the assessment project would not have made any sense at all unless students had experienced a Strategic Content Literacy Assessment themselves, heard it explained, and then read about it in their text. Maybe I waited too long to explain what was expected -- but I assumed [again, doing assumptive teaching is dangerous] they would read the scoring guide and see the expectations clearly outlined there. HMMMM - some students may still be confused, but I hope not. In reality, they probably won't understand the whole process until they've collected and then analyzed their data - and operating in that arena of uncertainty is unsettling to these students. They don't have much capacity for confusion. Maybe it's just me, but students these days seem to want to know everything they are supposed to learn over the span of a semester in the beginning - and not to actually know and be able to use the information, but to earn an A. I know that many are operating under tremendous pressures of maintaining GPAs to keep scholarships and grants - but the atmosphere of such pressure seems to me to be counterproductive in terms of their ability to tolerate uncertainty. Shoot, if they knew everything they needed to know before they came to class, there would be no need to come to class. Where is the joy of learning?

Well, I set out to reflect on the lesson from today [Bionic Trees] but all I've managed to do is gripe and complain. And that's not really fair - I have thoroughly enjoyed classes thus far, even with a teaching schedule that is worse than I've had in 20 years, which is saying something. I was pleasantly surprised by Section 03 when their response to questions about why there seem to be people who learn easier than others was one that focused on the context of that learning rather than on the constrained abilities of the learners. And the Section 02 initial professional reflections were at a level I expect to see in practicing teachers who have had several years of experience. I can see the results of the junior year methods courses already - and that has been positive. I just want these students to leave my class every day with something they can use in their own teaching - one idea, practice, principle, or strategy that is valuable to them. Because I've been where many of them are right now [wondering why in the world they are required to take a @#$#@ reading course] and because I know that about mid-term or a little after, the value of these ideas will sink in for most of them, I can be patient. So, I think I'll end this gripe session and return to a reflection on Bionic Trees tomorrow, when I've had some rest and some coffee -- lots of it.

A Conundrum

I probably owe my class an apology – tonight, even though I skipped an activity I had planned on for them, we ran a bit over – by my calculation, 5 minutes, by theirs, 20. I realized tonight that some students expect class to be over in 2.75 hours, whereas I look at class as a 3 hour class. Even with the three hours, I don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do. I have to be realistic, though, and realize that it is impossible to teach them everything I’ve learned about disciplinary literacy – my learning curve has taken 35 years; just not feasible to cram all that into one little semester. So, I need to pull back and adjust my thinking – and for sure be finished in 2.75 hours next time or take a break of 15 minutes half way through the class. Trouble is, I get so involved in what we are doing and I lose track of time. Seems strange to still be so passionate about teaching and learning and students after 41 years of this. But there it is: I am, I suppose, an odd person. I know that there are kids in those middle school classrooms for whom these pre-service teachers can make all the difference, if they choose to do so. I know it is hard work, that it is mostly thankless work, that it is mentally and physically exhausting. But I also know that when you see the light come on in the eyes of just one student, it makes your day.

I didn’t get to the semantic feature analysis tonight, and I’ll probably skip it and leave it until later in the semester – use it once I’ve taught a few more concepts. So, next class I’ll teach a new lesson, probably from social studies, then unpack it – and have them read about preparing students to learn. Vocabulary is a huge part of middle school learning, but I think we’re all about sick of it, so I’m moving on and I’ll come back to the topic toward the end of the semester – as a summing up activity to help them pull it all together.

Wow - Ning rocks!

I am amazed [and delighted] at how this MAT group is actually using the Ning from our class. They've taken over the Blog and are actually blogging themselves, and such wonderful, reflective thinking - I'm sold on Ning and hope that my future classes will be just as active as these teachers are.

I'm looking so forward to class tonight!

Advice to me: relax and breathe!

OK, here goes: I am thinking about class next Tuesday and trying to resist the urge to teach you everything I've learned in the past 41 years in one night. Seriously, though, I need to just chill a bit - we have some unfinished business to take care of on Tuesday night, and I have to be comfortable with not "covering" anything new at all if that's how things go. That's why I need to just relax and breathe a bit.

Here are my thoughts at the moment about class this coming Tuesday [2/9/10]:
1. We need to spend some time with the SCLA data you bring to class - how do you analyze it? Do you have your scoring guides [aka rubrics] ready to use? I also need to share the scoring guide I'm going to use with the SCLA assignment - that is, the rubric I'm using to grade YOUR work!
2. I need another opportunity to use the List Group Label strategy with you, without messing it up this time. I also want to share with you the review sheet [aka vocabulary reinforcement sheet] I used with my students so you can see when and how I used the vocabulary reinforcement strategies with my own students. Then maybe some of this will make sense to you.
3. We need to make some time for Book Clubs to meet - I don't want to forget that!
4. I really want an opportunity to have you experience a Semantic Feature Analysis activity, but that may be pushing it for Tuesday evening.

All of the above may be just too much for one night's class, and I know where I'll draw the line. That's the secret, you know, as you plan, you plan in modules [and you plan more than you think you'll get to], then you can decide as you are teaching what will actually make the "prime time" and what won't - what will be left for another day and what simply won't see the light of day.

OK, it's snowing out and I need to get home before I can't -- Here's to a great weekend!

Back to the drawing board - again!

I love this MAT class - they really make me think and they ask the best questions. Frequently, though, the questions they ask are ones I wish I had considered before planning our lessons. Today, I probably pushed them over the edge and it wasn't my intention. Had I planned my lesson differently, it would have been much more effective. Some candidates had been in class yesterday for 9 hours - I can't even imagine, except that I remember working in professional development in Eastern Europe, and the Latvians would push for sessions from 8 AM to 11 at night – grueling, but still and all, I was presenting not having to absorb 9 hours worth of information – a very different proposition. Today's class was OK, but not great. Disappointing [for me and for the 867 candidates]. I know I missed the mark. I went through the fundamentals of vocabulary instruction, including introducing vocabulary and then teaching strategies to help students refine their understanding of the vocabulary terms. What I had not considered was the conditional knowledge I needed to supply. Why didn't I? Have I suddenly become senile? I wrote an article on this very thing - and it's so important. But I was so busy focusing on the declarative [what the strategy is called] and the procedural [how to do the strategy] that I neglected the when and why [conditional] knowledge that is crucial. Fortunately, Darryl asked the all important question: when do we do this? So, here is what I need to remember to do next time I teach this topic:

First, I need to use some of the preactive strategies [knowledge rating, morphology, graphic organizers] as I'm teaching the lessons - then I can refer back to the activity when I discuss preactive strategies. I did use a graphic organizer with them, and later labeled it as a strategy I had used, but I needed to take the opportunity to be more explicit and use knowledge rating, for example, because that would have helped the 867 candidates understand where I was going. Then I need to use the interactive strategies [Four Square, Frayer Model, and Word Map] to help students refine their knowledge of terminology we have covered [like ZPD, cognitive flexibility, efferent, and aesthetic] and I need to show them [rather than tell them] how to do it. Specifically, I could show them a Four Square, for example, using one of the terms we have already studied [say, schema theory or semantic knowledge, or syntactic knowledge], then have them collaboratively complete a Four Square on ZPD, for example. Then they could complete a Four Square on aesthetic and efferent stance/purpose -- and we could then unpack the process. That way, they would have experienced the use of these strategies - DARN!! That would have been perfect today. Rats. Well, next time class meets, that's what I'll do - we will refine our understanding of those terms - and I may even use a knowledge rating sheet, too. Hmmmmm - I'd better get busy and do the power point now before I forget all this!

The thousandth time is the charm!

I felt really, really good about today's class. I guess it only takes teaching for nearly a half century to get some things right! The awesome thing about today was that I was able to have the MAT students experience the learning cycle one more time with the Columbus lesson, and experience how sometimes the learning cycle begins at the end of a class period and continues the next day. I hope they realized that comparing the "homework" they did last night with a partner served as a preactive strategy today.

For the first time, the theory lesson went well for all of the theories. I've always been pleased with the schema theory sections with all the experiments - gets students involved and makes clear the connections between schema and instruction. But I've never quite liked doing the kind of activities I've done in the past with the other theories. But today, I was able to illustrate the other theories [Vygotsky, cognitive flexibility, and reader response] by refering to the lessons students had just experienced - and it worked so much better and was more efficient, too. Makes me wonder why it took me so long to figure this out. I've only been teaching a version of this stuff since 1975. DUH!

Through the looking glass: Seeing and seeing again

Every now and again, my experience helps me to not make mistakes while I am teaching. Weird, I guess, when classes that are planned on the fly go better than classes planned to the last detail. Maybe I pay attention to the students more closely when I am flying “by the seat of my pants” – I don’t know. But class last night went so well, and I learned so much, that I need to hold my thinking [not to mention hold my memory of a good class experience] that I need to think through my fingers about the class.

Class had not met for several weeks – it is a class taught through the Center of Excellence for Adolescent Literacy and Learning, and we meet about every two weeks but took off between Thanksgiving and New Years. Anyway, I knew that after so long a time we would all need a refresher – a review – of what we had experienced and learned, so I planned a few strategies that would accomplish that task: a content-focused People Search, List-Group-Label [LGL] and Semantic Feature Analysis [SFA]. Three strategies for three hours of class: OK – we could go early, I reasoned, if it didn’t take the entire three hour class period. First, though, I had to figure out just what I had done with this group of teachers. Trouble was, with my senility I couldn’t remember!

So I had to take some time to dig up every lesson plan/power point I had used, then go through them to figure out the strategies we had experienced. Good thing, too, because I needed to do that in any case – just for record keeping with the grant, but I digress. OK – so, after figuring out the list of strategies we had experienced and/or talked about, I designed a People Search that asked teachers to find someone who had used several of the strategies and ideas we had discussed. Next, I drew up the list for a “word sort” aka List-Group-Label activity. Then I put the same strategies in a Semantic Feature Analysis grid and created descriptors to use in the SFA activity. A word here about the SFA might be needed: In the past, I had always gotten into trouble with this particular strategy because there are many ways to use the strategies we have learned, and there are NO RIGHT ANSWERS to either of the activities – so discussions and disagreements have often broken out as I have used these strategies in the past. Not to worry – I was trying to review with them and remind the teachers of what they had learned. I trusted that I could figure out a way to handle this – and so I plunged ahead.

The People Search was a good “ice breaker” and helped teachers clear their minds of all the stuff from the day’s teaching; it didn’t take too much time, and served as a way to get them up and moving initially, and talking about the ideas and strategies we have been learning. Next, we moved on to the List-Group-Label. While giving directions for the List-Group-Label, I mentioned that they could sort the strategies listed in any number of ways, that there was no one right way to do it, just that however they came up with the groups had to make sense to them and they had to be able to defend their groupings and the labels they used. I gave a few examples [preactive, interactive, reflective, writing, discussion, vocabulary, etc.]. The teachers got into small groups of three to four for the List-Group-Label activity, and took 20-30 minutes to discuss each of the strategies, and decide how to sort them into groups. Meanwhile, I circulated among the groups, listening to their conversations – asking questions when they needed to clarify an idea or answering their questions about different strategies. Once I had seen that teachers had just about completed the grouping and labeling task, I asked for a representative from each group to come up and write just the group labels on the chart paper [a better way to approach the collating of data than I had tried before]. We then took a look at the labels and discussed their similarities and differences – ultimately coming up with a set of labels that we could all agree on. Thus, we pulled the big ideas together [that strategies can be used before, during, and after reading to help students learn, and that some strategies can be used in more than one phase of the lesson] and I was able to make the point that when you find a strategy that is flexible enough to be used in several lesson phases [i.e, KWL, graphic organizers, Think Writes] they are very powerful tools for fostering student learning.

Once we had completed discussion of the LGL activity, I handed out the SFA sheet. First we completed several of the rows together, discussing the fact that some strategies will have checks in more than one block, and some won’t. Once the group had discussed the three examples we had done together, I let them work in their groups again to complete checking the characteristics of the strategies [I used preactive, interactive, reflective; Assessment for learning: affective, Assessment for learning: cognitive; associated with prior knowledge, develops disciplinary thinking, vocabulary, discussion, writing to learn, study strategy – the last few were added just to help them think of the features of the strategies]. I was most interested in the first three items drawn from the Learning Cycle – an idea that is foundational to the Center’s professional development program. Teachers worked diligently on the SFA, which required a lot of thinking and talking in order to complete it. After teachers had completed the SFA, we began talking about the strategy and how to use it. As I heard myself say, “the real value of SFA is not just filling out the chart – it’s the rich discussion about the terms and characteristics that occurs after students complete the chart.” I realized that I needed to model this – so I selected just the three initial characteristics listed and asked them to look down the chart and come up with the things they noticed about all the strategies tagged as “preactive” – and as we talked about the characteristics of preactive strategies, I was able to guide the discussion to the idea that some preactive strategies are dependent on students having some prior knowledge, whereas others are less dependent on students’ prior knowledge. This characteristic is very useful when selecting an appropriate preactive strategy. If you don’t think students will have much prior knowledge about a topic, best to choose a strategy that does not require a lot of prior knowledge [i.e., one that is not based on brainstorming] OR you better have a way to provide some additional prior knowledge if their prior knowledge level is so low that a brainstorming session falls flat – something like previewing the text, for example.

Pulling these sorts of characteristics out of the discussion of all preactive strategies was a much better way to help teachers see these big ideas than what I have done in the past [an interactive lecture on preactive strategies – yuck!]. We moved on to interactive strategies and I was able to discuss scaffolding and organizing features of strategies and able to point out that some interactive strategies are ones that students can become independent users of [2-column notes, INSERT, and chapter mapping] whereas others will remain those that teachers will use [structured notes, some graphic organizers]. When we turned to a discussion of reflective strategies, we discussed using a balance of discussion and writing and having students use a variety of forms of writing [i.e., drawing or graphing, for example] as they select reflective strategies. We also discussed different vocabulary strategies that promote refining vocabulary knowedge [four square, Frayer model, and concept of definition map] vs. those that promote reflection on larger chunks of content [i.e. LGL and SFA, categories, and analogies].

All in all, the class was much more successful that I had ever dreamed – and I learned a lesson all over again – structuring activities that enable participants to construct their own understandings is much much better than a lecture – even an interactive lecture! This will influence the way I teach the middle school reading class this semester – I’ve found a way to focus on teaching lessons in which strategies have been embedded, then using reflective strategies to help participants see common characteristics of strategies that will aid in selecting strategies for lessons. What a rush this experience was!

Overwhelmed? 1-06-10

Well, I may really have pushed the class over the edge today. I thought there would be a general revolt when Lisa started her Twitter introduction. Perhaps I have overwhelmed them with all the technology, but the MAT candidates need to learn about the technology their students use today and it doesn’t seem like there has been a lot of technology built into their program. Maybe I should have delayed the Twitter deal until next week – but with 3 hours of class every day, and having to be at mid-term by next Friday, I’m not sure they wouldn’t be overwhelmed anyway. Oh well, I seem to leave out increasingly more of the topics every year, and I’ll have to carve out even more after today, so it becomes a juggling act to include the most important topics and at the same time provide them with experience using a wide variety of strategies in class. What could I have done to lessen the impact of so much information?

I could have delayed the Twitter introduction until next week [but Lisa was only available up until Wednesday of next week, so that might have been problematic]. I suppose I could have eliminated the Twitter information altogether. But that feels like cheating them out of experiences and knowledge they need – or will in the future. If I had delayed or eliminated the Twitter information, I might have gotten the topics scheduled for today “covered” – but what then? I hate feeling that old “cover the curriculum” urge, but at the same time appreciate that there are topics that must be addressed in this one and only literacy course. I know I tend to plan more than I can possibly do, but in all honesty I’d rather have topics and activities I change during class [to model what happens in the “real world of a middle school classroom” when time runs short] than to short change them on a sound foundation in literacy. Trouble is, many of the MAT candidates have developed a “hard copy” view of literacy – they have never heard of the New Literacy Studies, or of the ideas and concepts that accompany NLS. I can only hope that as the semester progresses, they begin to see the place of literacy in their disciplines, and in their own classrooms.

Here We Go Again

Another spring semester begins tomorrow - and this time around got smarter and read the initial blog entries from last spring, thus saving me from making the same mistakes I made last spring - or at least saving me from making the ones I blogged about! We'll see how this goes.

I am going to teach this semester without a book and that feels good to me right now. I'll use current articles from the major content focused journals on the various topics we will be exploring. Hopefully, this will establish a habit of professional reading for the students.

I've planned several activities for tomorrow's class, and hopefully will have planned so that I don't have too much crammed into the class, but will provide a good overview of the course for students. Sure glad I looked at the earlier blog entries!

Once again - less is more

Class [Center of Excellence for Adolescent Literacy and Learning] for October 19th was focused on the topic of vocabulary. I had intended to provide participants with a lesson in which they would experience vocabulary instruction embedded in the lesson, and also provide information about different types of vocabulary terms [particularly polysemous terms, which are most problematic for students] and explain different levels of vocabulary knowledge – and relate these to comprehension levels. I wanted to focus on three vocabulary strategies that are particularly helpful to facilitate students’ learning the meaning of vocabulary terms and with which our Teaching Consultants have had excellent success [Four Square, Frayer Model, and Concept of Definition Word Maps]. Finally, I intended to embed vocabulary instruction in the overarching Learning Cycle that we have been working with in CEALL. Hopefully, I will see evidence of attention to vocabulary in their lessons. Well, as they say – all good plans of mice and men . . .

The lesson began pretty well, with participants understanding my emphasis on vocabulary as an important part of instruction. I’m not sure the math teachers understood that mathematics involves not just English terms, but symbols and numbers as well – but that can be made clearer later.I realized pretty quickly that I should have done the lesson – that is, just taught the lesson top to bottom, with out the introduction to vocabulary and the interruption of the explanation of vocabulary selection – rather than getting bogged down in what turned out to be a very fractured lesson that kept going back and forth between a “lesson on photosynthesis” and information on teaching vocabulary. Instead, I stopped the lesson on photosynthesis and showed 4-square, Frayer, and CD Word Map, which I think just confused the issue. In the end, I should have taught the lesson, then gone back and summarized the strategies on a chart [we still need to create a chart that summarizes all the strategies we’ve experienced].

When I stopped the lesson and started giving examples of vocabulary strategies, I lost the participants – folks were nodding off and it was my fault! Because I interrupted the flow of the lesson, participants did not see the flow of vocabulary instruction integrated into a lesson . . . and the lesson ceased to be meaningful; thus, I lost the participants attention. When the focus of the lesson became muddled [in reality I had two objectives that were just not compatible], the lesson fell apart. Oh how I wish I had done the lesson, including having students create the 4-square, Frayer, and CD Maps using the photosynthesis terms, so that participants could “see” how the vocabulary strategies were part of the lesson. I could then have unpacked the lesson and summarized the strategies, and have participants complete some of the strategies using their own disciplinary vocabulary. Why did I make the disastrous choices I did? I think it was time – we had talked a bit about the assessment project at the beginning of class, and about the required lesson reflections, and I had about an hour left to do what would take an hour and a half. As I was planning the evening, when I added the discussion on the assessment project I realized that time would be very short and I decided to break up the lesson in order to “cover more content.”

What did participants learn? I’m not really sure! I had hoped they would learn that vocabulary is important, and that when you teach vocabulary you teach your content; that different disciplines have different vocabulary characteristics; that vocabulary instruction can be integrated into lessons easily, using strategies that take very little teacher preparation time. What they actually learned, though, might be vastly different: that the topic of vocabulary is so confusing that it is one they will avoid at all costs! Maybe if I unpack last week’s disaster, they can learn from my mistakes. I sure hope so.

When will I ever learn????? Invariably, when I try to do too much, I end up just confusing things. So, what will I take from this experience? First, I need to teach an illustrative lesson OR focus on the ideas in CEALL outside the context of a lesson, but it doesn’t work to mix these two purposes. From here on, I’ll need to select lessons [or parts of a lesson] that take no more than 45 minutes so I have time to both teach the lesson and unpack it the topic OR I’ll need to engage the participants in an interactive lecture during which time they create models /examples of the ideas and strategies we are discussing. I suppose it all comes down to the old adage “less is more.”

Motivation, American hegemony, and other random thoughts

Well, well, well. I can hardly believe it but I am caught up - even though we spent a week longer than I had planned on assessment issues. I am hoping that the SCLA assignment will reflect that attention - I'm confident that everyone can do an excellent job [and fervently hope you do, as that makes grading so much easier and faster!].

I am reading research with my doctoral level class that has been niggling at my conscience for a few days now. I have rehersed this posting in my head, and it's time to actually record my thoughts. The research is on motivation, and one of the statements, loosely paraphrased, is a lament that we teachers focus on teaching strategies to students but don't pay sufficient attention to the will to use them. That is, we ignore the essential element in motivation: valuing the task assigned. I wonder if I have been guilty of focusing so much time on conveying a variety of strategies to my students that they will come away from class thinking that disciplinary literacy is just a bunch of strategies that have to be chosen carefully. Sort of like science students who leave a biology class thinking that biology [or any science] is just a bunch of facts that have to be memorized. Without the will to learn no strategy is going to produce students who are self-reliant, resilient, and life-long learners. Likewise, no collection of teaching strategies will produce self-reliant, resilient teachers who view themselves as students and their students as teachers. So, I need to carve out some time to explore these issues in class - to think deeply with my students about the valuing aspect of motivation and how to engender this in their own students.

On another note, morbid I'm afraid, I noticed the press getting focused on education again - and of course, laying the problem at the feet of teachers - because of the heart breaking death of an honors student in Chicago, which was caught on video as he was beaten to death. Americans in general don't value education [at least that's my impression] and any geek who has survived the painful experience we call high school can attest to this. Girls in particular learn early on not to appear too smart, but boys are also victims of this cultural aversion to the educated. We don't value education, but we want to be #1 in the world on all the international tests. That we are not first [actually, we are near the top in the fourth grade comparisons, but in the middle at the 8th grade and second from last at the high school level] rankles those with power - and they lay all that at the feet of teachers and expect them to solve the problem by themselves [by imposing lots of punitive measures]; but they don't consider that the countries that are tops in the international comparisons have a culture that values education and families - and are very socialistic.

For a long time, America has maintained scientific and technological superiority because of all the immigrants who were educated here and chose to stay in the States. Now, however, there are positions for them in their own countries, and the brain drain we are experiencing will only get worse. Just attend a university graduation - how many Americans, male or female, are majoring in science, math, or engineering? As the government wakes up to this coming crisis, they will probably focus on classrooms and teachers [blame first, then impose a remedy they come up with] but won't consider the sociocultural aspects that mediate this situation. And nothing they come up with will make the slightest difference, at least not in the way they think it should. NCLB was supposed to have every child in America on level in reading and math by third grade, but the unintended consequences of that ill-conceived program is that we have prepared a generation of children for the world of 1950. Unfortunately for them and us, that world is long gone, and the "basic skills" so important in all the assessments forced on children these days will do them little good. Barbara Tuchman, in what has been described as the best written non-fiction paragraph ever [The Guns of August] when describing the funeral of King Edward VII of England, said, ". . .but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again." I feel that way exactly - on history's clock, it is sunset for the American century.

OK, not sure where all that came from - but I can't bring myself to take any of it back.

Technology: A double-edged sword

Well, I now have a half dozen places in cyberspace I have to check, upload to, or otherwise keep track of - this is nuts! I went to the Pearson MyEdLab site and took a look at the students' [ok, two students'] responses to the video for chapter 3 - they were good! But now I want everyone to be able to see what their peers say - so I think I'll have them view the video at the MyEdLab site but post their comments on the Ning.

That means I'll need to set up some discussion boards on the Ning [or does Ning call them Forums?] and remember that they appear in the reverse order [which means you have to enter them backwards - all very confusing]. That way, all of us can see posts made related to the videos connected to the various chapters. My only misgiving is the possibility that some students might shortcut the assignments and merely read their peers' comments, then bs their way through the assignments. But I am not a policewoman - and the only person who loses in that sort of scenario is the person who is copying others' ideas. It might not make a difference in the immediate context, but if students have not had practice drawing inferences, making connections, and thinking through the videos when they get to student teaching, they will be less well prepared than if they had done the thinking necessary to process the videos.

Meanwhile, I'm anxious to see how Twitter would work for exit slips - the math section is using them, and I think they would work for us in science. We'll see - time to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day . . .

Forty-one years and counting

I am beginning my 41st year teaching this semester, and you'd think I'd get tired of this. Fortunately, I am still excited about teaching [which is a good thing since I'll probably never be able to retire due to the recession/depression we are in now].

I've been so absorbed in trying to get ready for the new doctoral class that I've sort of put READ 498 on autopilot - after teaching the class regularly since 1974 [whoa - that's scary] I ought to be able to do that. Of course, I arrived in class today sans folder for the class -- good thing I had done this so many times -- and as usual I didn't get finished with everything. I really need 90 minutes for class . . . but students reading this right now are probably freaking out at the thought.

I want to remember to do less this semester, but in more depth - I always begin with that in mind, and then I don't know what happens - I sort of morph into this fire-hose wielding lunatic with all the information. It's just that I know how much they will need to know in student teaching and in that first year - but I have to remember that I didn't know any of it when I began so maybe it's enough to do a less is more kind of semester. Maybe.

Well, I just remembered I need to upload some stuff to Blackboard and then figure out this Ning - why do I always think I need to learn something new each semester? I must be nuts.

Next time . . .

May 1st - May Day. I feel as thought I've been set free - everything is graded, grades are posted. An admission here: I sent out the message to my middle school reading class that I had completed logging in all the Diligence and Responsibility points and that grades posted to Blackboard were final. I've given them a day to get back to me about any discrepancies . . . except that today I realized I had not penalized students for absences. Oh well, I just didn't have to energy to go back and do the grades again, and when I played around with them, it was apparent that very few would have been affected. So, next time - maybe I'll remember. But this time, well, I am ready to get on with the next thing - and ready to be finished with spring classes.

When students "get it" -- fabulous!

I have been grading non stop for hours. The great thing about this is that I've been grading Book Club papers. Students self-selected into "book clubs" to read professional books and discuss them in small groups. I suggested about four to five titles for students to choose from; they discussed the book on their own schedule, group members posted reflections of the discussions during the semester, then everyone wrote a reflective paper on the experience. This is the pay off - students are making connections between class activities and discussions and the books they read; they are making connections to their own student teaching experiences. These have been the best papers I've gotten on this assignment in a number of semesters.

I don't know whether students are just giving me what they think I want or whether their connections, inferences, and assertions truly represent their views. The optimist in me chooses to believe that they do - that the assignment has made a difference for them. I hope so. We need every good teacher we can get in middle school classrooms.

Truly, it was a pleasure to read the papers I graded tonight - makes grading them easy!

Dreams

I watched a video on YouTube today - I've watched it five times and am still hitting replay - the URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_xFNa7YKDw -- it is the most inspiring performance I've ever heard. I just wish I could download the audio to my iPod.

Here is this dowdy, older, graying woman - unemployed 47, and never been kissed -- everyone was judging her by her appearance, expecting little. She began to sing and the audience [and the judges] were on their feet, applauding. How unbelievable that someone so unassuming could take that song - I Dreamed a Dream - and knock everybody's socks off!

It makes me think of all the students that are judged unfairly because they are unkept, unwashed and/or untutored. We overlook their needs and we overlook them, sitting in our classes among smartly dressed, smartly turned out kids who have had all the advantages. So often all it would take is a kind word, a little positive attention. What is it about human beings that makes us overlook what people have inside them and focus only on the surface?

I remember a student I taught 25 years ago. She was a student in what was then [and remains] perhaps the worst class I've ever had to teach - mostly kids from the "wrong side of the tracks" - many could barely read, and they had been passed on from grade to grade up through the years with little expected from them, until they landed in my 9th grade "basic physical science" class. I kept Chris after school during the first week of class because she had not done her homework. Immediately, she had a hundred reasons including that she had 13 sibblings that she had to take care of when she got home from school - getting supper for them, getting them ready for bed [which they all shared] - it was intolerable that children should live in those conditions, and unimaginable that a 14 year old would have those responsibilities. But I made her stay until her bus came - that day and every day after. She stayed in my room instead of going to her "bus room" and did her homework, not only mine but for all her classes.

Fast forward five or six years. One day I got a letter with a return address that said "from the last person on earth you ever thought you'd hear from." In the enclosed letter, Chris apologized for the class - she knew they had really tried my patience -- but she also said thanks; I was the first teacher who had ever made her do her homework, the first teacher who believed she could do her homework. Because I believed in her, she said, she could believe in herself. She went on to say that she had gotten involved in the Salvation Army and had continued to do her homework and study - and that she was at Belmont Abbey College on a Salvation Army scholarship, studying to be a psychologist. Had I not paid attention to her, and made her do her homework, she might well have simply slipped through the cracks as so many students do.

And I wonder how many other students didn't make my radar - that I didn't do what was needed for them. What happened to them?

In spite of the regrets for students I perhaps did not reach, I have to say - this is the paycheck, folks - one letter in 40 years of teaching. But it is worth it.

Life in a movie

I watched a movie the other day – Lions for Lambs – a film by Robert Redford with three story lines that were connected, but in the beginning you couldn’t tell how. Essentially, the movie was about engagement. It was one of those movies that, after it was over, you wanted to discuss with someone – it left so many ideas swimming around in your head – the movie itself was engaging.

And I started thinking about what passes for education in so many of our classrooms today and the most common complaint I hear from teachers: apathetic students – students who are not engaged, who are physically present but mentally absent without leave. Students who complain about mindless “busy work” assignments that are unrelated to anything they know about [or so they think]. Students who are bored and restless. Teachers who are tired and frustrated. And who can blame either students or teachers? Teachers who feel they are at the mercy of the almighty End of Course tests, High School Assessment Program, and the PASS [replacement for the PACT]. Students served a steady diet of worksheets, “answer the questions at the end of the section,” or “look up the words and write a definition” – and the miracle is that anyone ever does any of that mind-scalding stuff.  Sometimes I wonder – if the tables were turned, and teachers had to complete the homework they assigned, would they?

How is it that we have so many interesting things going on in the world – and all those interesting things are at our fingertips via the Internet – and yet so little of it makes its way into a classroom? 

And the mistakes just keep on coming

Spring break is over. What a depressing thought! Now, we all just have to endure until the end of the semester – and these MAT students are weeks away from graduation, so I suppose its natural for them to have “senioritis” of a sorts. They are exhausted from student teaching and to make matters worse, I’ve pushed them ever closer to the proverbial edge in READ 867. I sure hope they learn from my mistakes, because I’ve made a ton of them this semester, each one seems to be worse than the first.

During spring break, I got several e-mails from students asking about what was a rather vexing assignment they had been given in the last class. In addition to preparing for the struggling learner jigsaw, I had directed them to read Chapter 10 and to choose two strategies they might use instructionally: one informal grouping strategy and one for cooperative learning groups. Sounds simple enough, right? Except that in my haste to get the assignment pulled together, I had a typo – it was chapter 9 that focused on grouping strategies. Chapter 10 focused on struggling learners. I don’t know whether it was fortunate that the two topics are so interrelated in my Jigsaw or whether that just confused students more. My intention had been to prepare them to read chapter 10 through the struggling adolescent learner Jigsaw. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men as they say. What a mess!

So I’ll have to somehow use this mistake to their advantage – and fortunately, after teaching a hundred years, I can figure out a way to do that. Students will share whatever strategies they chose from each of the chapters – then read the alternate chapter for next class. Seems easy, but I feel an ambush coming on. Discussions are richer when students have read different articles or information on similar topics, and that’s what I’m counting on . . . but it feels a bit uneasy to have this almost too-easy solution pop up so quickly, and seem so perfect. Nothing is, of course – but we’ll see.

Irony at work

The other day, I was checking the page proofs of a chapter I wrote with four of our Teaching Consultants from the Center of Excellence - the chapter is to be published soon and I have to get the page proofs back to the publisher asap. Anyway, the chapter focuses on assessment for and as learning - assessment that helps students grow as independent learners.

While I was proofing the chapter, I kept getting e-mails from graduate students in my middle school reading class - with questions about the assessment project that they are currently working on. I had intended to create the scoring guides with the students but decided to ditch that when I ran out of time during two consecutive classes. Looking back, perhaps I should have eliminated something else. In any case, the irony of my authoring a chapter that addressed creating scoring guides with students and simultaneously handling so many questions about an assignment because I had chosen not to involve students in creating the scoring guide for the assignment was not lost on me. Once again, I have not modeled behaviors I want to promote in my own students.

The least I could have done was to have the scoring guides ready at the beginning of the semester, but I didn't even have my act that together! I'm hoping that students in class will see how frustrating this has been for them and intuit that creating criteria with students or providing the criteria when an assignment is made will save their own students from just such frustration. Wish I could say I had done it on purpose to make a point with them - but I just goofed!

ADEPT Police????

Several students have used the term "ADEPT Police" either in class or in replies to this Blog - and it brings to light something I believe in: by changing our attitudes, we can change how things affect us. Looking at ADEPT [the assessment system for teachers in South Carolina] as something enforced by "police" it makes the program into an enemy, which casts the assessment into a role it was truly not intended to have. ADEPT replaced the APT [assessment of professional teaching, I think] which was much more formulaic in approach - I remember using the APT assessment instrument where you had to have humor in your lesson. Now, that's not a bad thing, but it can be misused. Imagine that a teacher is conducting a lesson on the Civil Rights movement - does the teacher tell a joke about THAT?? Clearly not. When I used the APT instrument, I gave credit if the teacher smiled! But I know that others interpreted that item differently. I also remember sitting through lessons that scored very high on the APT scale, but that were really really boring. 

At least with ADEPT three lessons are observed and de-briefed - in the old APT days it was just the observation, a number score and out the door. With the de-briefing, teachers can provide a rationale for any changes made in the lessons, or reflect on something that didn't quite work the way it might have worked earlier in the day or perhaps reflect on something that worked much better than expected. There is a conversation about the lesson -- and the standards for ADEPT are nothing more than just good teaching. The crux of the problem is how ADEPT is used, and how observers use the guidelines. As usual, the devil is in the details.

On another note, I'm planning class for next Tuesday evening and hoping that I can provide an experience in which students grow as professionals and leave class refreshed and inspired rather than more tired than they arrived. We'll see . . .