Whirlwind Finish

The end of the school year is upon us. We all jump from one event to another to bring a fitting conclusion to all the commitments and programs that we have nurtured and supported throughout the year. As for me, I fluctuate between exhaustion and exhilaration every 2-3 hours. Missing a deadline knocks me back a few pegs, then some strong assessment data pumps me back up. Culminating this year with quality commemorative events is balanced with the need to sow some seeds for the year just ahead. It's all just a little overwhelming at times. I woke up the other morning (After a late night of planning) and the first thought that popped into my dreary head was, "Why am I doing this?". The biggest treat I can give myself and my staff and students is a solid night's sleep, so that would be my next stop tonight. Cheers!

Technology in service of Education

This post from Edustat underscores how technology as a focus is doomed to fail. Here is what they say must happen with our teaching so that technology can actually be of some use.

Move all rote curriculum to the web for immediate student review and to free teachers from the tedium of delivery and assessment chores of this kind of content
Design more motivating and rigorous assignments
Redefine literacy to include web literacy and global communication literacy
Shift the balance of control between learners and the organization of school
Redefine education from the child to the whole family
Redefine the job description of students to be content producers as well as consumers
Redefine the job description of teachers as building learning communities instead of teaching 20 individuals in a classroom
We need to redefine leaders to be innovators and team leaders instead of managers

Challenging thoughts, especially when one considers the high cost of keeping up with the technology bandwagon.

BHAG for Halecrest

That would be a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) and it's one of the ideas in the book Built to Last from Jim Collins. There is a BHAG coming to Halecrest real soon. I shared this with our leadership team last week and will be sharing it with the rest of the staff any day now. Here's a sneak peak for those of you Halecrest folks who actually read this. Drum roll please...

90% of all 3rd graders will be reading at grade level.

This assumes that we will maintain that grade level proficiency through 6th grade. The goal is not unique. Kennewick School District set the same goal in 1996 and achieved their goal in 2006. You can read their story in Annual Growth for All Students, Catch-Up Growth for Those Who are Behind.

Here are some of the benefits for having one of these BHAG's:

1. It provides a clearly articulated focus for everyone to pursue.
2. It is measurable, allowing us to gauge our progress.
3. It provides a sense of urgency, and that tension that is needed for change. :)
4. It is energizing and motivating (fingers crossed on this one)

What do you think about our goal? Any downsides? What are some other benefits as you see it?

Fluency is slowing me down

We've been focusing on increasing fluency for our students since October of 2006. After reading a couple articles and having some district resource teachers give us tips, I'm surprised at the still superficial level of understanding of what it means to teach students to improve their fluency.

We have reminded ourselves that reading faster is not the answer. In fact, reading for pure speed will surely get in the way of comprehension. I have done a poor job of explaining the benefits of fluency (accuracy, expression, and comprehension) and how best to teach so that students become more fluent readers, and therefore, able to comprehend increasingly more difficult texts in larger quantities.

This phenomenon has reminded me how difficult staff development can be. It is complex work to present a strong case for a particular approach, then provide good modeling, followed by coaching and feedback before mastery is eventually accomplished.

I am reminded that I need to embrace this role as a teacher and consider my students' individual needs as I plan future staff development endeavors. If nothing else, I'm more sympathetic to my teachers who must make these same considerations with their little 4-11 year old learners.

Sick Day

Go ahead! Take a sick day, really!

Cougher :30

And you thought 7 year olds liked to share their germs?

I can't wait to take that test

It was Rick Stiggins who first introduced to me the idea that we should be creating tests that students can't wait to take. This idea was foreign to me because I grew up in American schools where it sure seemed like most tests were a hurdle to overcome, created by sadistic publishers in order to inflict the most damage to our self esteem as humanly possible. So, Stiggins comes along and says, "Develop assessments that your students are enthusiastic and excited to take because they know all the answers". (paraphrase)

I recalled Stiggins this week when a 2nd grade teachers was describing the attitude of one of her students who was preparing to take the California Standards Test for the first time. The little rascal was genuinely excited, which of course, is in contrast to many of our teachers, who are sitting on pins and needles for days as students take the test. Then, we get to wait 3 excruciating months until we view the results. So, why was our little 8-year old in such a good mood for this high stakes test that is supposed to make children vomit and cower in fear? I think the main reason is that this teacher has thoroughly prepared her students for this standards based exam. The grade level standards are well known, and the students are given ample opportunity to practice their application in a variety of settings. In short, the content and format of the test was not a mystery. The instruction in the classroom matches what is being assessed, and at least this one student, couldn't wait to show everyone what she had learned.

My hope and prayer for all of my principal and teacher friends is that your classes are filled with excited little learners as testing season rumbles through your campuses. Bring on the test booklets, and let the celebrations begin!

Here is more evidence that inspiring kids to read has many benefits. Some are trying to ascertain the longterm benefit of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Here's what one recent study found from some of J.K. Rowling's fans.

A 2006 study by Scholastic and Yankelovich found that the Harry Potter books have had a positive impact not only on kids' attitudes toward reading, but also on the quality of their schoolwork. The Kids and Family Reading Report surveyed 500 children ages 5 to 17 and their parents or guardians. More than half of Harry Potter readers said they hadn't read books for fun before the series, and 65 percent said they have done better in school since reading the books. The study also found that the reading habits of boys – who consistently have lower literacy test scores than girls – changed the most as a result of reading the books.

Did you get that? They hadn't read books for fun before the series! Given the overwhelming evidence to the benefits of reading quantity, this is a tremendous breakthrough for so man kids. One young man shows what an avid reader he has become.

Marcus credits the series for getting him interested in reading. He says his grandfather read him the first five books, but he wanted to read the sixth one himself. Since then, he loves to read medieval, fantasy, and science-fiction books, he says. He also now likes the many books he reads for school – even though the majority aren't his favorite genres, he says.

"I whip through 50 books a year," says Marcus matter-of-factly.

Whether it's Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, or some other reading craze, everyone is a winner when kids get excited about books.

Race is still an issue

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink about the power of the subconscious mind to make decisions. One section of the book discussed race and our subconscious affiliation of stereotypes to certain races. He encouraged his readers to take the Implicit Association Test which would give you an idea if you favored one particular race to another I decided to take his challenge and let the chips fall where they may. After taking the test I was given the following summary:

Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between European American and African American.

Needless to say, I was quite pleased with myself. Though I didn't expect to come out as an out and out racist, I was afraid my subconscious was hiding some unspoken prejudices that might arise. However, I did cheat a little, in that Gladwell mentions that one of his students had gotten a better score after watching the Olympics earlier in the day, therefore he surmised that focusing on positive examples of African Americans would increase your chance of associating positive elements to African Americans. So, I kept that in mind as I took the assessment.

This book reminded me of the following video that depicts African American girls' opinions of race. This one will break your heart and, I hope, cause all of us to consider what sterotypical messages we are sending to students about race, gender, age, etc.

Flash Discovery: Reading is important!

I just got a little gift in the mail called, Annual Growth For All students, Catch-Up Growth For Those Who Are Behind, compliments of the National Children's Reading Foundation. The book chronicles a decade's worth of work in the Kennewick School District in Washington state. They set out in 1995 to get 90% of their 3rd graders reading at grade level, and by golly, they did it. They share all the gory details of how they got it done and their accomplishments are encouraging and challenging at the same time. This quote on page three dovetails nicely with the thinking I've been doing on the primacy of primary instruction in reading. Check this out.

Students who fail to learn to read in the primary grades rarely develop into great readers in middle and high school. They generally enter kindergarten behind, read two to three years below grade level in elementary school, and are still two to three years behind their average classmates in middle and high school. Districts that lack the organizational will to teach their students to read at or above grade level by second or third grade, when it is relatively easy and inexpensive to do so, rarely get them to grade level thereafter when it is much harder and more expensive.

That doesn't leave much wiggle room. Get to work in primary grades when you've got a fighting chance to make a difference.

Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is natural and inevitable with any break from the norm. Tom Peters likes the idea of ignoring stodgy resistance by accentuating the positive. That reminds me of the Whale Done philosophy that we have read and tried to put into place here at Halecrest. I've also found that some resistance, thought not all, is most helpful in crafting decisions that avoid pitfalls. I try and listen to folks who are resistance to make sure that our new course takes into account their concerns and this often leads to a different, and oftentimes better path, than we would have envisioned if everyone had just bought the new idea hook line and sinker.

Engaging kids through technology

This video from TeacherTube should get us all thinking about how we need to keep up with the technology for the benefit of our kids. I've seen plenty of bored to tears teenagers in high school and it pains me to see a few of those in upper grades as well. Technology isn't the only answer, but it can definitely be part of the equation.

Literature Circles

Here's a video on literature circles that would be great for our upper grade teachers to take a look at.

Engagement and Feedback Make a Difference

Two critically important factors for effective instruction - student engagement and teacher feedback - were sorely lacking in this study of 2,500 elementary school classrooms. It behooves all of us to reflect on our own practice to see if this is also true of our teaching. Do we value orderly, quiet environments over dynamic learning communities that can sometimes be a little messy?

Teens are Reading. Cheer Up!

Here's a great article that demonstrates that teens are buying and reading books in record numbers. I'm confident that the work we do with our pre-teens at Halecrest is the key to creating either a band of voracious readers or a horde of lethargic couch potatoes.

Drumroll Please...

And the winner is...

Decoding, Word Recognition, and comprehension scores in 1st grade are a better predictor of reading breadth in 11th grade than intelligence. How do you like them apples? Do you realize what GOOD NEWS this is!!! Let me clarify. Of the two choices, how much control do we have over our students' innate intelligence? Well, unless we are the mother or father, not a whole lot. Therefore, the area where we have nearly exclusive control - instructing the building blocks of literacy - turns out makes all the difference. The importance of those Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers to a lifetime of literacy success is incalculable. So, teach them well, O might primary teachers. Your work has a resounding impact for years and years to come.

Pop Quiz

Ann Cunningham and Keith Stanovich have unearthed some astounding findings in their research with plenty of implications for primary reading instruction. After establishing many benefits of extensive and wide reading, they went about to determine the antecedents of students who read widely. They performed a longitudinal analysis of 11th graders whom they had studied as first graders, which leads us to our pop quiz question. Which of the following 1st grade measures is the greatest predictor of 11th grade reading habits?

1) Intelligence

2) Decoding, word recognition, and comprehension


Stay tuned tomorrow for the cliffhanger answer... or just read the article and show your stuff ... or guess and hope for the best.

You call that wide reading?

I previously mentioned Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich's article What Reading Does for the Mind and will be making several posts from this research. They cited a study done by Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) which analyzed the out-of-school time use by fifth graders. Here are some highlights. The average student was reading about 5 minutes a day which equates to 282,000 words a year. If you improve that reading to 21.1 minutes a day you will read over 1.8 million words a year. Only 10% of the students in that study were reading at that rate. Imagine if we could get every student to read a paltry 30 minutes a day - which I believe most teachers "assign" regularly!! What would be the impact on vocabulary development, knowledge, and ability.

Emily Reads

Quotes on math

My foray into assisting with 6th grade math has got me thinking about the subject more than usual. Here are some great quotes about the validity of math instruction from a math teacher/blogger.

Reading early makes you smarter!

As the reading challenge kicks off today I found an article by Anne Cunningham that describes her study of the long term effects of reading on academic success and general knowledge. Check out this gem.

This is a stunning finding because it means that students who get off to a fast start in reading are more likely to read more over the years, and, furthermore, this very act of reading can help children compensate for modest levels of cognitive ability by building their vocabulary and general knowledge. In other words, ability is not the only variable that counts in the development of intellectual functioning. Those who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence; that is, reading will make them smarter.

More evidence to support a big push for simply getting kids noses into books. If you don't want to read the whole article (because you'd rather watch 24 reruns) Martha Brockenbrough has a brief summary at MSN Encarta.

It's clicking....

The University of Oregon, the birthplace of DIBELS, from all I can see has a companion website on reading. It is a great place to go to get some understanding of the elements of reading that DIBELS assesses and the rationale for their approach to diagnosis and intervention. I'm finally getting my head around the term "phonological awareness". Hey, it only took 2 1/2 years!

Is there any argument reading is of primary importance?

The Education Commission of the States site is a wealth of research summaries to inform policy makers. Check out this quote regarding the long range implications of our failure to teach kids how to read - early.

Academic success, as defined by high school graduation, can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by knowing someone’s reading skill at the end of 3rd grade. A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by that time is unlikely to graduate from high school. (National Research Council, 1998)

Our work needs to move forward with a sense of urgency. We must teach all kids to read early or doom them to an academic life of futility, frustration, and ultimately failure. You can see more quotes like the one above right here.

No prescriptions

Here's what teachers say about scripting lessons.

IB interested

Here's an article about an elementary school that has been certified for IB.

Take a look

Whining Rubric

Here's a rubric to inspire great performance!!!

Teaching Reading

Teachers, you all need to read this article. This is definitely worthy of our attention. Yes, we will have a very big philosophical debate (which is always kind of fun!) but the cost of doing nothing is paid for by students.

Would you rather be smart or be a hard worker?

The debate over innate intelligence versus environment in the development of a peson's abilities has been argued for many years. This article provides some new data for the discussion. The bottom line is that intelligence is overrated and disciplined study gets a lot of the credit. This adds credibility to our Halecrest motto: "Work Hard, Play Hard ... Leave 'em in the dust".

More on Fluency

An article from Educational Leadership by Timothy Rasinski gives some food for thought on the fluency question. It provides a balanced approach between reading for speed and comprehension.

If we emphasize speed at the expense of prosodic and meaningful reading, we will end up with fast readers who understand little of what they have read. Fluency instruction leads to impressive gains when it provides regular opportunities for expressive reading through assisted and repeated readings coupled with coaching; it doesn't require explicit reference to reading for speed. Students' reading rates will improve as they become naturally more efficient and confident in their ability to decode words.

Based on his research he has found assisted reading and repeated reading to be the most beneficial modes of instruction to promote fluency that leads to improved comprehension.

After reading a passage aloud to students, I ask them to follow along with me, first silently and then aloud, as a group. Sometimes I ask students to orally read a passage with a partner who is at the same reading level. At other times, I ask more fluent readers to read with students who are having difficulty with reading (Eldredge & Quinn, 1988; Topping, 1987a, 1987b, 1995) or I have students silently read while listening to a fluent rendering of the passage on tape (Carbo, 1978; Pluck, 1995). Such practices constitute a powerful strategy for improving fluency and comprehension.

Developing fluency in reading requires practice; this is where the method of repeated readings comes in (Samuels, 1979). Research indicates that repeated readings lead not only to improvement in reading the passage but also to improvement in decoding, reading rate, prosodic reading, and comprehension of passages that the reader has not previously seen (Dowhower, 1994; Koskinen & Blum, 1986; Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; National Reading Panel, 2000).

These are things worth considering as we seek to help students read for understanding.

Did I say that I love cats?

I promise you won't be reading any articles like this one about me anytime in the near future. I think I'll go give a hug to the neighborhood cat.

Talking about formative assessment

Here's a post that is a great perspective on formative assessment from a teacher's perspective.

The type of information that is valuable in making instructional decisions is what we are after with our formative assessments.

Writing in the content areas increase comprehension

Here are some ideas on integrating writing across the curriculum on p. 127.

Use shared writing to create informational texts based on content material your kids have studied or other knowledge they have.
Have students keep journals in content areas to explain their thinking, problem-solve, and document their observations.
In the primary grades, use current content area information to compose sentences to use with word work.
Help other students be more strategic, reflective readers: have them keep a notebook or journal ihn which they write predictions or summaries, copy quotations, make notes, and create charts.

I'm sure we can come up with even more to add to the list.

Writing improves Comprehension

Ok, I just have to quote this whole section from p. 126 because it hits the nail right on the head.

Composing text and comprehending text are closely related processes. Students who write better get better reading comprehension and vocabulary scores. Students who receive good writing instruction also become better readers. And when students have opportunities to do a lot of writing in the content areas (learning logs, summaries, essays, writing for specific audiences), they learn the subject matter more thoroughly than student who do not do much writing.

Children develop meaning as they write. It's what we all do, especially when we're writing about something we don't fully understand or haven't figured out yet. It's what I do when I write a book. Writing makes us think harder.

Write on Regie!

Higher Level Thinking

Many of our staff indicated they would like to see us work on higher level thinking next year. I was thinking of this when I got to Routman's comments (p. 125) on examining written responses to reading. She noted the following:

For example, research shows that when students answer teacher-originated short-answer questions, they quickly look for the needed information and copy it, with little thought or reflection. Basically, such exercises (which we have to read and assess) are not a good use of our time or the children's.

She goes on to advocate writing that enhances the reading. Here's how she puts it:

What we're after is a written response that deepens comprehension, causes the writer to reflect on the content, and/or fosters appreciation for the text. When children have to think about their response, meaning is likely to be extended . And be sure that before you ask students to explain, summarize, compare, evaluate, draw conclusions - all valuable activities- you first demonstrate and give adequate guided practice.

Well, there it is in a nutshell. We just need to clearly model that higher level thinking, provide guided practice, then actually give assignments that require students to do more than regurgitate information. Who needs staff development? Follow these three easy steps and your students will be out-thinking Stephen Hawking. :)

Reading widely supports writing

Read alouds are an integral part of the balanced literacy program. Routman encourages teachers to read aloud often, especially on topics that interest the students:

Teachers need to read aloud stories, poems, short books, long books, fiction, nonfiction, about topics and ideas that kids can connect to.

Quality Reading = Quality Writing

"Garbage in - Garbage out" goes the old refrain. This is Routman's basic premise when it comes to the type of literature students read and its effect on their writing. We need to surround our students with quality literature experiences to serve as models for their writing. She also makes a big push for non-fiction:

Children who read nonfiction have more information with which to write, have writing models at hand, and are more aware of nonfiction features such as visual aids.

English Learners benefit from Reading-Writing connection

Routman hails the benefit of the reading writing connection for English Learners:

When I cannot find texts students can easily read, we write our own. Students can read familiar stories that they tell and write far more easily than they can read commercial texts. Because it is easier to learn to read and write words that you already understand orally, creating original texts with familiar language Andy concepts makes good sense.

How are we doing on creating texts that are then used for shared, guided, and independent reading?

Routman on reading and writing

In preparation for our staff development I've been reviewing the notes from our staff meeting last spring to select work that both honors the wishes of staff for next steps and connects what we are to learn with our previous study on writing with Routman. Here's a good quote from Writing Essentials on the Reading-Writing connection:

Efffective teachers who have high-achieving students (including on high-stakes tests) do more writing and reading of whole texts and spend little time on "stuff" - activities about writing and reading.

So, consider your work during the school day. How much of your work with students is on whole texts as opposed to artificially created worksheets using language without context? For students to become more proficient writers they need to read lots of good pieces and not just isolated skills on worksheets.

High Expectations and Caring Support

In Closing the Achievement Gap 2nd Edition, a collection of essays highlight beliefs and practices that are making a difference with the most challenging students. Bonnie Benard writes about Turnaround Teachers and Schools and when asked what quality teaching looks like students say:

a caring teacher who accepts "no excuses" and who refuses to let them fail.

What I like about this is its perfect balance. Imagine the caring teacher who is not concerned with achievement. This person just wants students to feel good about themselves, but isn't concerned about real achievement or improvement. Clearly this type of teacher is doing no service to his students. But the other extreme is just as bad. The teacher who has unyielding expectations, but no emotional consideration for her students has just as negative an impact on her students. Students are sure to be exasperated by the intense pressure unaccompanied by gentle support and encouragement.

Therefore, we all need to strike that balance to show students that we truly care for them and at the same time we are not content to leave them as they are. We need to hold them accountable to reach their highest achievement, coming alongside to support them every inch of the way. May all of us at Halecrest aspire to be those caring and challenging educators that make a difference in the lives of children and leave an impression that will last a lifetime.

Not to early to start thinking about the SAT

This tidbit from Joanne Jacobs should encourage us continue to turn every Halecrest student into an avid reader. Just think, next year's kindergarteners are about 11 years away from their first SAT exam. :)

All for one and one for all

Here's another nugget from Andy Hargreaves by way of Margaret Scherer around the ideea of shared leadership:

High-performing schools are communities of grownups whose members have real input into conversations about reform.

Believe me the door is open for everyone to have a say. There is no blueprint for success because I don't know what it looks like. We need to create this school together and unless every one of us takes ownership for our direction we cannot succeed. It reminds me of Doug Smith, Principal of Helix High who said, "It's not OK to be here and expect someone else to make decisions".

Slow Schools Movement

The latest edition of Educational Leadership has a collection of articles on Challenging the Status Quo. Editor Margaret Scherer begins by citing Andy Hargreaves who articulated the seven characteristics of sustainable change for schools. The first characteristic is depth. Scherer explains:

...schools that undertook reform slowly and persistently produced greater lasting effects on student achievement than did those trying to get immediate returns. Teaching to the test, reducing learning to scripts and pacing guides, or concentrating primarily on lifting up only those students who are just below the proficiency line are short-term strategies. Instead, schools should join the "slow schools movement," he urged, and that means "concentrating on teaching for understanding and connecting to all students."

Although as a leader I feel like I have bounced back in forth from long-term to short-term solutions, I wholeheartedly want to see us engage in the type of slow school reform that leads to lasting change. That's why I'm optimistic that our renewed instructional focus, partnership with Debra Crouch, and our collaboration time will be the vehicles to help gain new insights into teaching for understanding that are developed and spread from teachers learning together as opposed to a principal or district office mandate. The former type of program has all the benefits of buy in and durability! Looking forward to the adventure with this amazing Halecrest staff.

Authenticity

Frank McCourt's book Teacher Man is a biography that focuses on his days in the classrooms of New York City teaching English to some rather unenthusiastic students. As the teacher, he frequently received notes from parents explaining why their children had missed school. Mr. McCourt knew most of these notes were forged, but he didn't do much with them - preferring to stuff them in a drawer. One day he got an inspired idea to get students to write. He noticed that many of these creative notes were some of the best writing he had ever seen his kids do. So, he decided to analyze the notes with his kids to learn what made them such good writing. After their brief analysis, he assigned students the task of writing excuse notes for Adam and Eve. His previously lethargic students couldn't wait to put their pencils to paper. He even dared to assign the rest of the note as HOMEWORK!

Mr. McCourt discovered that his student could indeed write creative, well thought out letters if given the proper audience and purpose for writing. He went on to have student write excuses for historical and literary figures which earned him praise from the Superintendent of schools.

This story reinforces one our Halecrest beliefs that an authentic audience and purpose for writing is essential if students are to invest themselves in their writing.

Modeled to Guided to Independent

During some observations recently I've been thinking about transfer of skills into students' independent work. How can teachers create an environment where reading comprehension strategies, for example, are sufficiently modeled and practiced so that they become ingrained into students' independent work? How do we create a connection between the basal worksheet, STARS workbook, or any other resource to independent reading? Is there sufficient practice with support (guided reading) to help students play with the strategy? Is there monitoring of independent reading to assess whether the strategy has actually transferred? Routman talks about the gradual release of responsibility and I think that phrase says a lot. This is where the art and science of teaching collide. When to release students to independence does not have a simple answer. Any thoughts?

So What

Here's another reminder from Ms. Routman. One thing she sees a lot of in schools is what she calls "So what" writing. So much of what students write doesn't say anything interesting or important. The remedy for this is AUDIENCE. Every piece of writing needs to have an authentic audience. After all, if there is no audience (including self), what's the point of writing?

I really think this tendency to assign writing for no apparent reason leads to much of the student's apathy about writing specifically and school work, in general. We need to help students make the connections between their work in school and real tasks that they will do in life, whether it's writing, reading to understand, or doing math. All of these skills are used throughout life. I do believe that some of the lack of motivation that students develop is because they see the work they are doing in school as pointless.

Therefore, the burden is on us to make that work relevant, for it truly is relevant. So, let's get those authentic writing tasks every day and watch our students shine.

Revising as you go

Another of the refreshers that was brought to my attention by the Regie Routman conference on Tuesday was the need to model and teach revision throughout the writing process. I remember my days as a 9th grade English teacher drilling students on the writing process "delivered from the mountain", which was: Prewriting, Rough Draft, Revision, and Final Copy.

In reality, writers are constantly revising, even as they are drafting. This authentic part of the writing process needs to be constantly modeled by teachers and expected from students. I think one of the reasons it's so hard to get students to revise is that most of the writing they see teachers do is either presented as a finished product or written without revision. They don't see enough of the authentic struggle that is involved in creating a worthwhile piece of writing.

Regie Reminders

This past Tuesday, eleven of us had the opportunity to hear Regie (that's pronounced Reejee!) Routman and it gave us cause to reflect on our progress in writing instruction. Here is the first in a series of posts on some of the "Ahas" from my perspective.

First, teachers need to jump right in and write in front of their students. By this, I mean authentic writing, revising as they go. This modeling is clearly part of the equation in the success that Regie has with her students. I'm looking forward to seeing lots more attempts at authentic modeling for students. Kudos to those staff members who have already made this a regular part of their Writer's Workshop. The benefits for our students will be immense.

By the way, we also learned that Regie is not too fond of cats, a point that shifted her even higher on my list, thought it might have knocked her down a little for a few of my colleagues.

Valuing What Students have to Say (Write)

Jeff Anderson has published an article in ASCD's recent Educationa Leadership titled Helping Writers Find Power. As a 6th grade English teacher, he comes across plenty of struggling writers. One of his first maxims is to:

Say something good about the content of students' writing before saying anything else. Hands down, that's the most important thing. This is their soul on the page. Be sincere; you don't neeed to go gooey over everything they produce. But do rummage for and celebrate what they've done well.

This fits hand in glove with what we have learned through our study of Routman's work. This type of encouragement and celebration will produce students who see themseles as writers with meaningful messages. They will be more invested in making those corrections that will make the meaning all the more clear and appealing.

Primacy of Literacy

In an article on Education World, Pete Hall describes some priorities for focusing the work of an elementary school. Here's what he says about meeting all the needs of content instruction through literacy development.

Teach content through literacy. We would be remiss to bypass the important content areas of science, social studies, mathematics, the arts, physical education, and baseball history. Each of those subject areas has its place in the education of every child, and each, surprisingly enough, can be taught through literacy. Success in integrating content into literacy instruction is not contingent upon having a ton of reading materials and every child's individual level for every topic; rather, it involves utilizing solid literacy-focused instructional strategies to teach the content areas. A serious dedication and laser-like focus on literacy-based instructional methods does not preclude a well-rounded education. In fact, it is a requirement of one.

What I like about this is that it helps solve some of the "time" issue. It's not a matter of maknig more time for literacy, but teaching literacy strategies while delivering all types of content.

High Stakes Learning

I was reading an article in the Los Angeles Times this morning on the high school drop out problem, an issue that I became all too familiar with during my years in high school. I was intrigued by one stat that was quoted for the article. I'm familiar with the usual comparisons of graduates earning more money over a lifetime than non graduates, but this quote really caught my eye.

High school graduates live an average of 9 years longer than non-graduates.

Wow! There's an eye opener. Why is this important for Halecrest Elementary? Well, let me make the connection. Most students who drop out of high school drop out in their 9th grade year. They hit high school with either major gaps in their learning or face life-changing events or make bad choices (e.g. drugs). These students that have major gaps in their learning come from middle school where they are often socially promoted. I worked at a school that regularly sent approximately 15% - 20% of its 8th grade to high school as social promotions. These same students usually left elementary school well below grade level for a multitude of reasons. That brings us to our little cherubs. If we don't help students overcome learning gaps that surface in the primary grades, we are creating an almost surefire drop out! We must have a sense of urgency that every student leaves each grade at grade level or move heaven and earth to make it happen. Understand that the stakes are high. Not to be overly dramatic, but our students' very lives are depending on it.

A challenge to my thinking

My wife handed me a book this weekend by Susan Ohanian which I couldn't put down. Ms. Ohanian has some strong opinions about the Standards movement. Although I think her response to the standards movement is a little harsh (The use of the term Standardisto occurs approximately 279 times in the book - I confess I didn't actually count, but I think I'm close.), she makes some excellent points about keeping students in mind. I can hear a few of our Halecrest staff cheering in the background :). I'll post more on this here later this week - time permitting.

It's the principles, stupid!

Here Fountas and Pinnell describe the goal of our word study instruction.

The goal in phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction is to help upper elementary students expand the categories (in their head) by making connections among words and drawing out important principles that they know in a deep way.

I'm wondering how much we focus on these principles of phonics, vocabulary, and spelling versus memorizing a list of words for a weekly test?

What does word study look like?

My Principal Peer Group is reading sections of Guiding Readers and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell. This month we are reading the chapter entitled Teaching for Word-Solving: Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary. I'll be sharing some excerpts from this chapter followed by some thoughts and reflections. Here's a good introduction to the chapter.

Word study is not so much about learning individual words as it is about learning how written language is organized - how written language "works." There are many word-solving strategies you can teach students to help them learn important concepts related to decoding, spelling, and vocabulary. You can also support word solving during reading and writing.

It seems to me that the main idea of this chapter is that teachers increase students' knowledge of words by explicitly teaching word-solving strategies and helping students apply these strategies as they read and write.

Boys will be boys

I definitely saw the trend during my 17 years in high school. Compared to girls, boys struggle in school. Year after year, the top performers were overwhelmingly females. Here's an article from the Kansas City Star that refers to current brain research that finds that, by golly, boys are wired differently than girls. Here's a suggestion for teachers if they have some over-active boys, and who doesn't?

Gurian urges teachers to allow kids — boys in particular — to walk freely around the room, squeeze stress balls, deliver papers to the principal’s office, build a report instead of writing one, and work often in same-sex groups.

Good food for thought. Giving a little latitude might help some students perform. Of course, in one particular 2nd grade class, (you know who you are!) you might have more traffic than an Indy speedway.

Building Blocks

Kim Marshall has written much about school improvement and has some excellent ideas about the role of the principal in developing more effective teachers. His article, Recovering from HSPS (Hyperactive Superficial Principal Syndrome) A Progress Report, has some excellent insights on that role. Some of you are probably ready to diagnose me right now! His aricle gives some suggestions on walkthroughts that I'm workin on currently. (The biggest change is one I mentioned a couple weeks ago, namely giving verbal feedback within 24 hours instead of relying on written or e-mail feedback).

He also delineates the structures that need to be in place in a school for significant progress to be made. Here are those four elements and a quick assessment of where Halecrest stands (from one perspective, of course :)

Clear grade by grade curriculum proficiency targets

The standards are definitely in place, but I'm not sure we have a definition of what proficiency looks like in every grade level. Our collaborations around student work are getting us closer to being able to articulate proficiency in writing, for example. I see us slowly, but surely building a common understanding as we spend time discussing student work in light of the standards.

Teacher teams that plan curriculum units with an end in sight

This is very much hit and miss right now. Our work last June was a good start at designing a unit of study around the standards at a particular grade level. We as yet have not moved into planning curriculum units on a consistent basis. It would be good to knock off a couple of collaboratively planned units this spring. It wouldn't take much to plan a lesson around writing. We could even use the models in Routman's book as a springboard for those plans.

Teams engaging in Japanese-style lessons study

We have discussed videotaping our lessons for reflection. The ILT sort of volunteered to do that this year, yet it hasn't got off the ground. I think it's time I put my money where my mouth is and jump out there to videotape a lesson. That will be on my short list of New Year's Resolutions.

A power "learning cycle" in which teachers use student work and data to improve teaching and learning

Of all of these elements, I believe we are farthest along on this one. The staff has embraced the use of data to inform instructional decisions. Our recently adapted Learning Cylce Planning Tool is a step in the direction of refining our dig into data to make specific decisions about students and develop SMARTE goals that can be reviewed and analyzed. I'm hoping this will lead us naturally into developing those curriculum units based on our data analysis, which in turn could lead naturally into lesson study of those very curriculum units.

Thinking about these elements of quality schools gives me great encouragement. The work we are doing is not a band aid approach. We are taking the long view of careful analysis of what students need, how we can deliver that instruction, and assessing if we have been successful. I probably need to be reminded of the adage that "Go slow to go fast" more anyone.

Schools make a difference, not demographics

Or, so says Joanne Jacobs, who just wrote a book about a high school charter school in San Jose. Here she talks about some of the lessons learned by that school in its quest to raise the achievement of disadvantaged students. She also writes about successful elementary schools. Here are some of the insights from a study by Stanford's Michael Kirst who interviewed 257 high achieving elementary schools to determine what they do differently.

Effective schools make student achievement the school's top priority. The principal and teachers define plans to improve teaching and set measurable goals for exceeding API targets.

This has got to be our primary focus. At Halecrest, we are still trying to get our walk to match our talk. I honestly can say that we are getting closer to this ideal every day.

At these schools, reading, writing and math curricula are designed to teach the state's academic standards; teaching is consistent within grades and from grade to grade. Teachers don't close the classroom door and do their own thing.

Once again, we are approaching this goal. For the past year and a half, we have been striving for consistency. The collaboration is helping us achieve that goal. The process may seem too slow at times for some, and too fast for others, which means we are probably moving at a pace that is just right for all.

Principals manage instructional improvement with district support. High-scoring schools tend to be in districts that set clear expectations and evaluate principals based on student achievement.

My take on Chula Vista Elementary District is that this describes them perfectly. The expectations and the support are not lacking in the least.

At high-scoring schools, principals and teachers use data on student performance to fine-tune teaching, target help to students who are falling behind and identify teachers who need to improve.

Without this type of approach, all we have are opinions.

Parent involvement programs, strong discipline policies and collaboration and training opportunities for teachers had some benefit, but not nearly the impact of prioritizing achievement, implementing a coherent, standards-based curriculum, using data to improve teaching and providing adequate teaching resources.

It's good not to lose sight of these priorities and it serves as an excellent checklist to make sure that we are on the proper course.

Synchronicity

Here I was ready to hit the sack when I come across this tidbit thanks to Joanne Jacobs. It appears the Gates Foundation investment in small schools is getting results in reading and language arts but faltering in math. (I sure hope their technology skills are booming!) Does this sound familiar?

"[W]e concluded that the quality of student work in all of the schools we studied is alarmingly low," the evaluation says. "This is not surprising, however, because students cannot demonstrate high-quality work if they have not been given assignments that require deep understanding" and higher-order thinking skills.

That sounds like something Eldon Anderson has been telling us the last two weeks and it definitely is exactly what Marilyn Burns is saying. Let's keep digging deep into quality math instruction. Our kids will thank us when they reach high school.

Connections

Hmmm, one post a month! What does seem to be the problem here?
Since we have been focusing on math instruction this month I thought it interesting to note the connections between the Marilyn Burns article on Math instruction with the Regie Routman principles. Here are Marilyn's 10 Big Ideas for Math. Notice how they dovetail nicely with Routman.

1. Success comes from understanding.
2. Have Students explain their reasoning.
3. Math class is a time for talk.

All three of these reinforce Routman's emphasis on thinking and giving students opportunity to think and discuss before writing.

4. Make writing a part of math learning

I think Regie would give a hearty cheer to this statement.

5. Present math activities in context.

Authentic math activities makes as much sense as an authentic writing activity with a real audience.

6. Support learning with manipulatives.
7. Let your students push the curriculum.
8. The best activities meet the needs of all students.

Whether it's shared writing,independent reading, or conferring with students, Routman always keeps differentiation and individual needs in the forefront.

9. Confusion is part of the process. (No, this is not in reference to one of my e-mails!)
10. Encourage different ways of thinking.

These are a few connections I've noted. Basically, good instruction has many common attributes.

Give 'em the real thing

I've been thinking about our discussion related to isolated skill work compared to the whole-part-whole philosophy espoused by Regie Routman. Years ago I heard someone describe to me how tellers were trained to detect counterfeits. According to Bankers Online training is based heavily on the trainers being able to feel the difference between counterfeit and authentic money. This is the most effective means because the tellers handle so many real dollars day after day that when they feel the fake, it stands out like a sore thumb . (No pun intended!)

I was thinking of this in conjunction with practice exercises that provide errors for students to correct. What evidence is there that this isolated skill practice transfers to independent writing? It makes more sense to me that students will benefit from more time spent immersed in reading. Read alouds, partner reading, guided reading, and independent reading all seem to me to have a greater impact on students' knowledge and facility of language.

I'd love to read the thinking of others on this.

Encouraging Words

Ms. Eilat's 5th graders took the time to write me a thoughtful and kind note on Boss's Day and I thought I would take the opportunity to reciprocate by sharing a letter of gratitude with them.

Dear Mighty 5th Graders,

Your letter on Monday really made my day. I appreciate the thoughts which were both kind and funny! I hope you appreciate the power writing has on people. Your letter lifted my spirits and encouraged me even thought quitting is the last thing on my mind. Working at Halecrest is truly a joy because of the dedicated and inspiring young people, like yourselves, as well as the professional and compassionate staff, like Ms. Eilat. I hope you will continue to develop those outstanding writing skills and use them to write notes and letters to your family and friends who have helped you along the way.

Sincerely,

Dan Winters

Great Writing - Go no farther than Halecrest!

Today I had the chance of visiting two first grade classes that had both recently finished a non-fiction writing piece. I was impressed with the variety of writing that the students had produced as well as the detail and organization of the paragraphs. While talking to the students and subsequently, the teachers, I found several elements that contributed to these wonderful examples of independent writing. The teachers had included both fiction and non fiction read alouds or shared reading as a springboard to discussion. Modeled and shared writing was the next step in getting students more experience with the content and language they would need to write on their own. Students then had a chance to discuss what they were going to write before putting pen to paper. All of this prewriting made for some high level first grade writing, including English Learners. Whale Done Teachers and students!

Do we really have time for all this writing?

That is certainly a valid question. Here are a few thoughts from Regie Routman on the issue.

So when teachers say to me I don't have time to teach writing every day, my response is Yes, you do, if you value it; if you don't have time, you're valuing something else more (perhaps skills in isolation or phonics drills or worksheets). Take a look at your teaching day, and decide what's really most important for helping students to become independent learners. Writing is one of the best ways I know for developing deep thinking, so I make time for it.

I especially agree that writing promotes higher level thinking and reflective learning. If we ask students to explain in writing what they have learned in math, science, and social science, they will understand more clearly what was taught and strengthen those thinking muscles. Write On!

Back from Hibernation

It's been a while since I've been able to post here. Getting the school year off to a good start seemed to be a little more pressing. Well, here's a great article on the 10 myths about reading instruction. This would be a good topic for a staff dialogue. The myth about phonemic awareness caught my eye. I recall my first year in elementary education (last year) asking one of my kindergarten teachers to explain to me what exactly was meant by phonemic awareness!! Let's hope my primary teachers have a better understanding of its importance than I did.

Halecrest beliefs about Writing

A hearty thank you to Sea World, our fine partner, and the wonderful Joy Wolf, as well as Soung Pae who contributed to a fruitful day of learning to kick off the 2005-06 school year. As a staff here are the top seven beliefs about writing that we developed with the assistance of Soung.

We believe...
Reading and writing need to support each other (share literature).
Writing everyday (anytime writing) isessential.
Students should write with a purpose; keep audience/reader in mind.
Authentic and honest modeling and using whole/part/whole methodology is crucial.
We need to have high expectations for writing quality.
We must see ourselves as writers, take risks, and create a safe environment for students to take risks.
Students should talk about their writing with teacher, peers and the whole class.

This will be a work in progress throughout the year, but what a great start we've made!

Too good to be true?

This paragraph in Chapter 1 of Writing Essentials is one of the reasons why Routman is so appealing to read as an educator.

A major purpose of this book is to help you develop and refine your beliefs and practices for teaching writing effectively and in a way that is sensible and enjoyable. By reducing the clutter in our teaching lives - the overplanning, the unnecessary activities, the paper load, all the "stuff" that takes our time and energy and does little to improve teaching and learning - we bring joy back into our work. Nothing I do in classrooms is difficult or draining. As you read this book and get ideas, you will be thinking, I can do that, too.

I hope you have this intended response as you dig into Routman's book.

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Words Really Hurt

As we work to improve our skills in teaching writing, one element that Regie Routman highlights so effectively throughout her book is the central place of the realtionship between the teacher and the student. She emphasizes the need to speak to students in a respectful and kind voice. She also says that teachers should use supportive language in conferenceas and always begin with positive comments. Criticism kills! I think her approach dovetais nicely with the Whale Done philosophy in Ken Blanchard's book. Students will work harder and with greater purpose if they believe that you are for them. It's an old cliche, but full of truth that, "They won't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Writing to understand

One of the purposes of writing is that it can help one more fully understand a concept or line of thinking. This was illustrated to me while reading Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, a wonderful gift from one of our very kind teachers. Friedman was discussing the genesis of his book idea and said this:

I wanted to drop everything and write a book that would enable me to understand how this flattening process happened and what its implications might be for countries, companies, and individuals.

That really struck me. He indicates that the process of writing the book would better help him understand this phenomenon that he had been uncovering. This underscores the great value in writing across the curriculum. Students should be encouraged and taught to write a summary of a new concept in math or a finding in science. They shuold also be able to write as they explore new ideas. The process of writing will hellp refine their thinking and cement new concepts. This announcement of an NCTE conference gives more food for thought on this topic. Professor Jeffrey Golub says,

We can do so much more with writing than simply use it to show what we have learned. We can actually accomplish the learning itself through writing.

Janet Swenson adds,

These actions are dependent, however, on a student's ability to 're-view' what they have been thinking at a particular point in time--in other words, asking students to write is not always for the purpose of measuring their learning about a particular subject; sometimes it is for the purpose of improving the quality of their thinking.

So, by students writing they can accomplish more learning and improve their quality of thinking, or maybe even write a national bestseller like Thomas Friedman! Let's get to writing!!

Qualities of great schools

I'm always interested to read studies that define the qualities of great schools. This article in the Toronto Star describes the results of a study by economist David Johnson which will be published Thursday by the C.D. Howe Institute. In this study he found evidence that socioeonomic status is not an unbendable influence on student performance. Comparing several demographics across 3,000 schools he uncovered several that outperformed similar schools. He visited 13 of these higher performing schools and found these characteristics.

The teachers worked in teams, particularly in the primary grades. In some cases, schools started preparing children for testing from the time they started kindergarten, but not at the expense of other activities, teachers said.

Higher performing schools had strong extracurricular programs and effectively communicated their expectations about homework and behaviour to parents.

Schools with lower socio-economic data relied heavily on the strong leadership of their principal to provide discipline and communicate expectations.

Except for that last one :), I think we can discuss how those characteristics can be applied to Halecrest. I also like some of the practices of Burnhamthorpe Public School, one of his exemplar programs.

Every month the entire school focuses on one concept that improves literacy. One month the whole school worked on how to phrase a question.

The parent council at Burnhamthorpe puts out a newsletter with articles on how to nurture children's intelligence and improve literacy.

There's an emphasis on the arts that has made for an award-winning choir, visiting opera performers, choral and jazz music. Extracurricular activities range from chess club and math club to line dancing and soccer.

Every Burnhamthorpe student has a T-shirt with the school motto: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest until my good is better and my better is my best."

Definitely some ideas worth thinking about.

The purpose of staff development

I came across this quote in a book by Richard Dufour, The Principal as Staff Developer, and it says better than I what the goal of staff development should be.

The ultimate goal of training programs is not to create individuals who unthinkingly follow a cookbook approach to teaching, but to develop thoughtful professionals who have the ability to assess and revise their own actions in order to improve the likelihood of success for their students.

Quality staff development is about thinking and learning.

Craft - The Missing Link

No, I'm not weighing in on the evolution versus intelligent design debate - at least not yet :) I was reading Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi's book Craft Lessons and noticed the similarity of their emphasis with that of Regie Routman. Here's what they say on pages 2 and 3.

Many teachers show students elaborate prewriting strategies (webs, story maps, time lines, outlines), and expect students to use them. They give students detailed editing checklists to use, either individually or in pairs.
The middle element - craft - gets the least attention. During this part of the authoring cycle, students are left on their own to make a thousand decisions in their texts about leads, voice, structure, supporting detail, setting, mood , character, and so on. This is unfortunate because craft is the cauldron in which the writing gets forged.

This is the very aim of modeled and shared writing. Students need to be given explicit examples of a writer making those myriad decisions (modeled) as she writes, then provided the opportunity to join the teacher in creating a product (shared). Having taught 9th grade English over 10 years ago, I wish I could go back and try it again. I'm afraid those poor students received very little in the way of modeled or shared writing.

We don't need no stinking writing program!

That's a take off from some bad movie, I think. Regie Routman would agree that there is no perfect writing program that is waiting for us to discover it. We need to develop into a team of excellent writing teachers.
Ms. Routman provides a summary of the main components of a writing workshop:

1. Establish a genuine purpose and audience for all writing
2. Start by demonstrating (writing aloud, shared writing, sharing exemplary writing).
3. Gradually release responsibility to students (a samll group or partners conversing before writing or writing together, sustained writing with your guidance).
4. Celebrate, respond, evaluate, teach, amd move forward (have conferences with students).

We will be focusing our staff development this year on the second and fourth items on the list, but I think the first one bears constant attention. Students will genuinely be excited about writing when the writing has a real purpose and a clearly intended audience.

From the Mouth of Babes

Here's a little piece of authentic writing from my house this summer. I just got through scolding my boy for messing with his sister and I noticed that he was over in the corner concentrating on something. As I got a little closer, I noticed that he was writing a note for a very real audience - me - with a cryptic message.

As it turns out everyone except me had been ill the last couple days and Phillip thought now was as good a time as any for me to take my turn. More evidence that with the right motivation students will write without even being "prompted". We celebrated our little tyrant's note and searched his backpack for arsenic.

Lasting Change

Regie Routman describes what happens when a staff of committed professionals work together to produce lasting change.

Change happens one person at a time, one school at a time, but when it's lasting change (not the fake kind that comes from a teaching-to-the-test obsession),change brought about by hearts and minds working together as knowledgeable, caring colleagues, it has a very large ripple effect. When our work gains credibility in the eyes of our colleagues and the public, excellent teaching becomes the norm rather than the exception.

My wish for Halecrest is that we will become such a school.

Write to an Audience Every Time

Or so says Regie Routman over and over again in her fine book Writing Essentials. In fact, the first of her 12 Writing Essentials for all grades is...

Write for a specific reader and a meaningful purpose. Write with a particular audience in mind (this may be the author herself or himself) and define the writing task.

Throughout her book she provides clear rationale for this idea and myriad examples of outstanding student writing motivated by a real audience. This goes to the heart of why I have enjoyed reading Routman's books. Her ideas are full of common sense and they work. I can see our students developing a procedural handbook for classrooms, lunchroom, playground activities and much more (p 113). I'm eagerly anticipating the collaboration among our staff around her strategies and thinking. I'm with Regie encouraging our teachers to...

Imagine happy and energetic students and teachers, quality writing, and high-test scores! That's what happens when the writing program is all about excellent writing for genuine purposes and real audiences.

Celebrating excellence or just plain mediocrity

Here's an excellent post by Joanne Jacobs on the celebration of mediocrity. It made me think once again about our Recognition Assemblies. What message are we sending to student and parents about what we value?

Math-A-Thon

Here's an idea to get some focus on math and community service as well. The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Math-a-Thon helps raise money for child cancer research and builds math skills.

Joseph Marsh, great American revolutionary

So, you've never heard of Joseph Marsh? Well, don't be discouraged. I only stumbled upon him recently reading David Mccullough's book
John Adams. It appears that young John Adams ran into a lackluster "churl" of a teacher early in his educational life and told his dad he wanted to be a farmer. Dad decided to switch schools and Adams came into contact with the aforementioned Joseph Marsh. The change was immediate and powerful.

John made a dramatic turn and began studying in earnest.

What a wonderul illustration of the power of a teacher. In this case we observe the power of a poor teacher to nearly kill the spirit of an obviously capable young student as well as the power of an outstanding teacher to re-ignite interest and enthusiasm toward learning. A salute to all the teachers who have paved the way for great achievements of their students both past, present, and future!

To worksheet or not to worksheet

I got through a couple pleasure books these first two weeks (I highly recommend the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker), and finally picked up Regie Routman again. I came across this tidibit on page 142 of Writing Essentials that is worth thinking about.

I have not been able to locate any research showing that worksheets or drills carry over into students' successful application of skills in authentic reading/writing contexts. In fact, decades of research show that drills do not improve student writing. Much like passing the Friday spelling test, students can perform the skill in isolation, but they don't apply it in the course of daily writing and reading.

She goes on to explain that the skill we want students to master islearned best in the context of a meaningful piece of writing where the student can see how the skill being taught makes the writing clearer and more understandable to the reader. Food for thought as we consider purchasing a truckload of workbooks for our literacy program.

Blogs Take Over the World

OK, maybe I got a little excited after seeing a trailer for War of the Worlds and reading this article. The potential for increasing communication and immediate feedback certainly exists with this medium. I'd love to see a few teachers start a blog with their classes. Already one of our future 3rd graders started a blog this summer. It's all about reading and writing and instant feedback. Join the fun!

Check out the website of Lewis Elementary (mentioned in the above article). This is a model of the type of website I'd like us to create here at Halecrest.

Math instruction and differentiation

I was recently reading an article by Marilyn Burns on teaching for understanding in math. You can catch lots of useful articles and ideas on the Eisenshower National Clearinghouse site. Her emphasis on teaching for understanding instead of just memorizing skills and facts was reinforced by an example of learning stations found on pp. 62-65 of Carol Ann Tomlinson's book. The 4th grade example has stations that include:

Teacher Direct Instruction where the teacher gives min-lessons to small groups.

Proof Place where students use manipulatives and drawn examples to explain their answers.

Practice Plaza where students practice difficult concepts and reflect on their work.

The Shop where students apply math concepts to help Mr. Fuddle run his store or shop for items.

Project Place where students use math and connect it to a larger world that includes topics of high student interest.

There is a lot more detail provided in the book as to the specifics of organizing these stations. I'll just emphasize that these stations not only provide lots of opportunities for giving students work at their readiness level, but they present math problems in a variety of contexts which truly builds understading.

If a tree falls in the woods...

I'll be posting comments throughout the summer if for no other reason than to clarify my thinking as I take in new ideas about literacy. I'd love to hear from any of you who are reading this blog or reading something else of interest. If you find the comment section too daunting to overcome, simply send me an e-mail (dwinters@cvesd.k12.ca.us) and I can post your comment from the e-mail. Or, if you don't want the comment posted, just let me know and I'll save it for my reading pleasure.

Spelling differentiation

Carol Ann Tomlinson provides an example of a 6th grade class differentiating a spelling activity (p. 52). Students are pretested and given words at the apropriate level. These color coded levels are then the basis for their work with spelling words. Students do a variety of excercises to learn the spelling words and are tested. Any words that are misspelled are added to the new list. In this way students are continually challenged at an appropriate level.

How does this compare with the spelling programs at your grade level? Is every student on the same page of lists? How do you account for individual differences in ability?

Planning with the end in mind

Carol Ann Tomlinson elaborates on the subject of having clear objectives for a lesson. She states:

During planning, a teacher should generate specific lists of what students should know (facts), understand (concepts and principles), and be able to do (skills) by the time the unit ends. Then the teacher should create a core of engaging activities that offer varied opportunities for learning the essentials she has outlined.

This idea of backwards planning is one that we will be engaging in as we begin to map out our Language Arts block on June 20. It's an excellent practice that can be applied on a teacher, grade level, or school level.

Great teachers can make anything interesting

We're back to Carol Ann Tomlinson's book The Differentiated Classroom again and here's a quote from Paul Fleischman who wrote Dateline: Troy, which illustrates the events of The Iliad with headlines from contemporary newspapers. I think his thoughts are right on the mark.

My real hope is that teachers will be inspired to do what the best teachers have been doing all along-making seemingly remote subjects real and relevant to their students...I think that showing them meaningful links to their own lives will make real readers of them, rather than takers of tests and memorizers of facts. This applies to every subject in the curriculum. Why else did I get a D in trigonometry? I was unconvinced that mastering sines and tangents was interesting in its own right or of any practical value to me. I'm confident, however, that the right teacher could convince me (p. 41).

Aint that the truth. I still vividly remember the great teachers in my life. Through their creativity and passion, they ignited a thirst to know more about the given subject.

Product modifications

Ms. Rogers gives us one more area that can be modified for GATE students.

Product modifications can include transformations, real world problems, and real audiences as the ways students might use or demonstrate what they have learned.

I think this is one of the most doable modificatinos that can take place for GATE students. These students will thrive if given the opportunity to apply what they are learning in real world scenarios. Looking for ways to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in unique and creative ways will keep them hooked and cement their learning at a much deeper level. Can you think of an assignment that is coming up in the next couple weeks where this might be possible? How about giving it a try.

Process modifications

Karen Rogers goes on to explain the second element of instruction that can be modified to differentiate:

Process modifications can include adding (or substituting) higher-order thinking, open-endedness, group process, freedom of choice, proof and reasoning, pacing, and flexibility.

Think about a specific lesson that is coming up soon. Now, how can you adapt it to allow for some of these elements? Can you incorporate higher order thinking opportunities for some students? Is there a place where you can leave things open ended? Is it possible to have students working on this in a group? Are there elements of choice that can be exploited for the benefit of gifted students? What about allowing for acceleration for some students? These are good principles to keep in mind as you consider the effect of the lesson plan on gifted students.

Content modification

Here is the first possible modification that would benefit gifted students - for that matter - all students.

Content modifications can include adding (or substituting) abstractions, complexity, variety, organization, study of people, methods of inquiry, and a variety of forms of subject-based acceleration.

Notice the emphasis is not on quantity, but on variety and depth. Gifted students can take an objective to a new level. Instead of tutoring the struggling student, they should be given an exciting and challenging alternative. Here's a challenge. Pick a large assignment that you are going to give before the year is out and make a concerted effort to make sure that your gifted students have a choice from one or more of the options above. The results will be exhilarating for the students and teacher alike.

Gifted students and differentiation

One of our more involved parents shared with me a book she has been reading called Re-Forming Gifted Education by Karen B. Rogers, Ph.D. Her own children are gifted and she is educating herself on what she can do and what schools should provide in the way of educating gifted children. Her interest in the welfare of her children is well founded. Plenty of research shows that gifted children can easily be neglected. Halecrest's proud history of GATE education is not something that should be quickly dismissed. Teaching gifted children well is no small feat. Is it possible that some of the negative aspects of that program have led us to go to an extreme where our gifted students are now being neglected? We will definitely be digging into this topic in the years to come. Meanwhile, I'll be posting a few thoughts from the aforementioned book to highlight some of the same thoughts that we've been considering from Tomlinson's book. Your comments on GATE education at Halecrest today are quite welcome. If you still can't navigate the blog comments, feel free to e-mail.

Challenging struggling students

Here are a couple quotes from Ms. Tomlinson that are worthy of consideration:

Through increased understanding of both psychology and the brain, we now know that individuals learn best when they are in a context that provides a moderate challenge.

Searching for the perfectly moderate challenge is the quest of the differentiating teacher. Will the assignment be so hard that frustration overwhelms the student? Will the assignment be so easy that boredom seeps in? Here's how Tomlinson says it:

Put another way, students who consistently fail lose thier motivation to learn. Students who succeed too easily also lose their motivation to learn.

She also challenges teachers to never give up on any student:

It is unacceptable for any teacher to respond to any group of children (or any individual child) as though the children were inappropriate, inconvenient, beyond hope, or not in need of focused attention.

We all would benefit from checking our assumptions at the door. I know I've been guilty of giving up on students. Let's hold each other accountable to find a way to reach every child.

How well do you know your students?

The discussion on readiness is only one part of three elements that Carol Ann Tomlinson mentions as important factors to consider when modifying the content, process or product of a particular lesson. She also mentions student variability in the areas of interest and learning profiles. It's imperative that the teacher knows intimately the interests and preferred mode of instruction for each student in order to tailor lessons to those findings.

She goes on to provide a chart that describes the general principles of differentiation such as respectful tasks, flexible grouping, and ongoing assessment and adjustment. She then lists a range of instructional and management strategies to accomplish this task and heeeeeeere they are:

multiple intelligences
jigsaw
taped material
anchor activities
varying organizers
varied texts
varied supplementary materials
literature circles
tiered lessons
tiered centers
tiered products
learning contracts
small-group instruction
group investigation
orbitals
independent study
4MAT
varied questioning strategies
interest centers
interest groups
varied homework
compacting
varied joural prompts
complex instruction

More detailed discussions will follow on some of these strategies. Suffice it to say that the options are plentiful.

Advanced learners need ...

Our last strategy in this series deals with what to do for advanced learners who already know the skill, already have the understanding, or are able to grasp the concept quicker than others. Here's what Tomlinson says should be done:

Activities and products that are quite complex, open-ended, abstract, and multifaceted, drawing on advanced reading materials; or
A brisk pace of work, or perhaps a slower pace to allow for greater depth of exploration of a topic.

It's easy to see how organizing lessons with these things in mind will build on the strengths of these students and allow them to go deeper, increasing their learning and maintaining their enthusiasm. Compare that response to the reaction one has when facing a page full of exercises created for practice of a skill that has already been mastered.

After reading through all these strategies and feeling a little overwhelmed by the complexity of the teacher load for differentiating lessons, I was encouraged by this timely reminder for balance.

However, you need not differentiate all elements in all possible ways. Effective differentiated classrooms include many times in which whole-class, nondifferentiated fare is the order of the day. Modify a curricular element only when (1) you see a student need and (2) you are convinced that modification increases the likelihood that the learner will understand important ideas and use important skills more thorougly as a result.

What a relief! Teachers must pick and choose those activities where differentiation will meet the identified needs listed above.

Don't beat a dead horse

Our conversation on readiness will now move over to advanced students. What adjustments need to be made for them? Here's the first strategy advocated by Carol Ann Tomlinson in her book The Differentiated Classroom.

To skip practice with previously mastered skills and understandings.

The questions that need to be asked about practice and homework are, "How much is needed to reinforce the concept?" and "When are they ready to move on." Boredom will set in if students are doing endless practice when they have already mastered the skill or objective. These students will benefit from the suggestions in the next two strategies.

Go slow to go fast

Strategy #4

A more deliberate pace of learning

This one also has a great deal of common sense. It's just not possible, nor productive to keep plowing ahead for the student that is not ready. The trick is how to manage the class for those students that need more time to absorb a difficult or new concept. Extended day clearly meets that need. What are some other ideas out there? Does anyone have some strategies that are effective in carving out more time for the struggling student?

Simplify

Strategy #3

Activities or products that are more structured or more concrete, with fewer steps, closer to their own experiences, and calling on simpler reading skills.

Logically, the struggling student will not do well with abstract concepts. Chunking is a term I've heard a lot, meaning breaking down complex objectives into bite size learning steps, and it's another way of describing this strategy. What are the classroom management obstacles that need to be overcome to make this happen? It wuold be great to share ideas and observe one another in action right here at Halecrest to support one another in pulling this off successfully.

What makes a successful program?

Joanne Jacobs highlights two schools from Milwaukee where stark differences in student achievement exist. This underscores a discussion I had recently with some colleagues who were saying that the program doesn't make the differnce. The key is the implementation which hinges on teacher ability, coaching, a collaborative culture, and administrative, support.

Not ready? How about some direct instruction?

Strategy #2

More opportunities for direct instruction or practice

This one is a no-brainer. The key, of course, is giving them instruction and pratice that is right at their ability level. Practice is only beneficial if they are getting practice and being successful. More direct instruction is the big winner. How can one organize the classroom to allow for direct instruction for these students? I've seen plenty of research that confirms the fact that struggling students benefit most from direct instruction. The Standards Plus Curriculum that we invested in this year is a useful tool for that purpose. We are trying it out in some of the Extended Day programs, but it could also be used as an intervention in your classroom. Let me know if you want to take a peak.

Ready or not, well not exactly

Readiness, along with interest and learning profile vary with each student depending on the skill being taught, says Carol Tomlinson. Over the next seven days, I'll be posting Tomlinson's strategies that can be applied for students with less developed readiness along with reflective questions on how that might be applied at Halecrest. Feel free to jump right in any time. :) Strategy #1

Someone to help them identify and make up gaps in their learning so they can move ahead

OK, I can hear you all crying out from the depths of primary to the heights of upper grades, "See, we've been telling you all along that we need more help." Remind me to put that on the agenda when we look at proposed budget for 05-06. Seriously! But first, how can we align the personnel resources that we now have to help students identify and make up gaps in their learning? Are our instructional assistants being used in this way? Do our current assessments give us appropriate data to know where student gaps are? I'm very encouraged by the Everyone a Reader training scheduled for April 21. The volunteers that come out of this program should be able to move children forward by addressing their reading gaps. Thanks a million to Barbara and Linda for their persistence and determination to bring this to Halecrest once again.

Clarity leads to differentiation

Carol Ann Tomlinson reminds teachers that articulating what's essential for learners to recall, understand, and be able to do in a given domain helps students focus on what's important. Here's what she says about teacher's clarity on these issues:

The teacher's clarity ensures that struggling learners focus on essential understandings and skills; they don't drown in in a pool of disjointed facts. Similarly, the teacher ensures that advanced learners spend their time grappling with important complexities rather than repeating work on what they already know.

Looking at the extremes might be a good way to evaluate how your students are doing. Think about those struggling learners. Does it appear that they are focused on essential understanding and skills or drowning in a pool of disjoinged facts? How about your advanced students? Are they grappling with important complexities or repeating work on what they already know? Food for thought!

Carol Ann Tomlinson in The Differentiated Classroom quotes Seymour Sarason who says

"Any classroom efforts that aren't powered by an understanding of what keep schildren eagerly pursuing knowledge are doomed to fail.

Here's some advice a colleague of hers once gave to a fellow teacher who was struggling with students who were drifting away.

Forget all the books and manuals for a minute. Go back to what it was that used to make science magic for you. Think about what it used to feel ike to do science. Then assume the kids you teach will only have your class to learn about sciene. It's their only science class-ever. What do you need to teach them so they will love science? Thnink about that for a minute. Then change one part of what I just asked you to do. Assume you only have three kids to teach: your own three children. And assume that at the end of the year, you will die. What would you teach them about science in that year?"

OK, so that's a little dramatic, but it gets at the heart of the matter. The best learning we have experienced in life has us filled with a sense of wonder and discovery. How do we create those types of experiences for our children every day? Quite a challnge!

The hope of research based practices

This article by Debora Stipek, dean of the Stanford University school of education provides some excellent recommendations and cautions about the potential benefits and pitfalls of pursuing research-based educational practices. Here are some samplings:

They (US Department of Education) recommend, for example, research that is embedded in practice and that involves collaborations between researchers and practitioners. Unlike the traditional linear model of “research-into-practice,” their view of productive research and development involves moving back and forth between research and practice. Innovations are developed by researchers collaborating with practitioners. They are tried out in classrooms, refined or developed by practitioners in their schools and classrooms, and then systematically studied by researchers. The link between research and practice is assumed to be complex, reciprocal, and dynamic.

Wouldn't it be great to have a partnership with a local university school of education that is keen on working with us here at Halecrest to develop and study promising practices. All we need are a few more Chilis retreats and we can get this one rolling. :)

Practitioners’ decisions are based primarily on their own intuitions and experience and occasionally on advice from colleagues, principals, or workshop leaders. The idea of basing decisions on research findings or even data collected at the local level is not part of the culture of teaching. New technology and the push for data-based decisionmaking and evidence-based practice are beginning to change the situation, but basing decisions on research and data is a new concept. Both the desire to consult research and the skills to interpret it will need to be developed within the teaching community.

I think this paints a good picture of the educational community. There exists a slowly growing trend to pursue research-based practices but on a superficial basis, I'm afraid. We need time to study programs and interventions in order to make reasonable and informed decisions. Generally, I think the "Accountability Movement" for lack of a better term, has been very good for education, however the one downside are unrealistic timelines for improvement and change that lead to hasty and faulty implementations.

As a consequence, teachers need to have a deep understanding of the innovative methods and programs they are asked to implement. This requires far more time out of the classroom than they have available during the workday, and more training and support than most schools are organized to provide. Without these, however, the instruction that is actually implemented may bear little resemblance to the instruction that research demonstrated as effective.

Here's another plug for more time for collaboration. This is priority number one!

Although educational practices are hugely influenced by products developed in the private sector, objective evidence on the effects of these products on student learning is rare. Until recently, there have been no incentives for carefully designed studies because buyers haven’t asked for evidence, and no outside agency has monitored the quality or even the existence of evidence.

This is very true. Our recent decisions to invest in Tungsten and Successmaker are based mostly on word of mouth testimony and data compiled by the companies themselves. Independent research would add credibilty and confidence to schools who are making such substantial commitments. Until that happens, it behoves us to design sound evaluations of these programs to document success or failure.