Teaching Writing is as Hard as Living a Virtuous Life

Virtuous behavior is like good writing. We know it when we see it, but it is not easily taught or described with any precision.

- Russ  Roberts paraphrasing Adam Smith in "How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life

What I Wish Nancie Atwell Had Said

Nancie Atwell was awarded the Varkey Foundation's first global Teaching Prize this week in which she was recognized for her outstanding work at the Center for Teaching and Learning.  If you don't know about Ms. Atwell, here's a quick summary of her achievements.

She was interviewed on CNN about her award and after discussing her philosophy of learning and education - which is rock solid amazing, focusing on authentic literacy,  She was then asked a great question:

CNN: What do you say to kids out there who are trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up and  might be considering teaching?

Nancy: Honestly , right now I encourage them to look in the private sector.  Public school teachers are  so constrained right now by the Common Core Standards and the tests that are developed to monitor what teachers are doing with them.  It's a movement that has turned teachers into technicians, not reflective practitioners.  If you are a creative, smart, young person, I don't think this is the time to go into teaching unless an independent school would suit you.

You can watch the interview here:

So, here's what I wish Nancie had said!


Now is an amazing time to enter the teaching profession.  Public attention on education has never been greater.  The integration of effective teaching practices and the best technology is a recipe for engaged, authentic, and relevant learning.  The missing ingredient is smart and creative teachers  to lead the way.

Yes,  some schools and districts are thoughtlessly pursuing test scores, but our children's education is too important to leave public education to those who mindlessly follow dictates without thinking.

Our schools and students need smart creative teachers who will challenge the status quo.
Our schools and students need smart and creative students who  love literacy and will infuse that love of literacy to the next generation.

So, if you are considering teaching as a profession, don't hesitate!
And, if you are not considering teaching as a profession, think about it now.
The rewards are satisfying personally, but more importantly, students across the country are waiting for you to join this exciting endeavor to set children up for a lifetime of learning.

Nancie, thank you for setting such a standard of excellence for education by your amazing school, and your many contributions to authentic literacy instruction, but please don't wave the white flag!  Use your exposure to inspire those smart and creative kids to join us because some of us would love to nurture those young people into educational leaders who can write the story of education for the future - a story that does not need to be about mindless technicians, but can be about thoughtful and reflective educators who create life affirming learning environments.

Thank You Ron Schwab

It was Summer School 1977 and it was my last hurrah before heading to High School.  I was handed the baton for the final leg of the relay race.  My team was solidly in 2nd place, far behind the leader, but the team behind us had Ron Schwab awaiting his chance to run me down and hunt down the leader.  Now, Ron Schwab was a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Usain Bolt.  He was strong, powerful, and fast and  a member of our school football team - an imposing figure with every athletic credential. Me - I was a skinny guy who liked to play finesse basketball, so I did the only thing I could  possibly do .... I ran!  I ran away from Ron Schwab, feeling his presence behind me at every step.  As I rounded the track for the final stretch, I was still holding off the barreling linebacker at my back and something strange happened.  The team that was far away in first place was falling back to me and I somehow sprinted into the lead, held off my nemesis and threw the baton into the air as I crossed the finish line leading my team to victory in this small corner of Chula Vista.  Nearly 40 years later, I still remember the effect that this physical challenge had on my performance.  Needless to say without Ron Schwab...

I would have never run as fast as I did that day.
I would have never overcome the front runner to capture the victory.
I would have never benefited from the competition that made all of us reach new heights.

Most recently I have seen again the benefit that well designed competition does to improve the performance of an entire group.  Some teachers at my school were sporting Fitbit trackers this January, booty from their Christmas feasts and/or possibly personal gifts to encourage New Year's commitments to health and wellness.  They mentioned something about a challenge that I eagerly asked to join.  "Why not join my colleagues and encourage one another to reach our goals?", I thought to myself.   Before long we has nearly 20 staff members in a frenzy of physical activity, each trying to outdo one another in ... moving!   Quickly, it became apparent that some of our mild mannered colleagues had fire in their belly and the competitive juices started to flow.   Our cell phones were flooded with messages of goal attainment, encouragement, and a snarky comment from time to time.  I started out on a little jog then got this notification.

I must admit my first inclination was to look behind me wondering where Amy was hiding.   While some were worried that it was a little creepy to see who was moving and when at all hours of the day, the pros far outweighed the cons as our mutual commitment to healthy activity was making it harder to stay on the couch and waist away those promises we had made to our self.  There were daily winners at the top of the leader board, but one and all reported that they had increased their personal accomplishments because of the public competition.

Today I came back from our District spelling Bee where we crowned champions from Grades K-6.  Some would decry that competition leaves students anxious and unnerved, but I would argue that all of these students put in tremendous effort and determination to strive for the crown.  No, not everyone finished at the top, but all of them learned valuable lessons and, no doubt, all became more familiar with words and literacy because of the competition.

So, thank you Camarena colleagues for spurring me on to better habits.
Thank you Ron Schwab for pushing me to strive for my very best.
Thank you competition for fostering growth, excellence, and effort toward achievement.

How are you incorporating healthy competition into your life, classroom, or school?

Quality Control and Student Ownership

Math With My Duaghter

Driving home from the grocery store, my daughter and I got into math related to the Golden Hour.  You see, my 8th grade daughter had recently shared with me her discovery of the Goden Hour and I was noting that we had just hit the tail end of tonight's Golden Hour.  I then explained to her how many Golden Hours we can expect in a lifetime.  Since we have approximately 50 cloudy days in Chula Vista in a year, we can count on about 300 Golden Hours a year.  Lifespans are generally 70 years.  So, that's 21,000 Golden Hours.  Since she has already lived nearly 15 years (She needed to remind me that she is 13, but we are estimating here, so back off on the specifics), she only has about 16,500 Golden Hours left.  Me, on the other hand, having pushed pass that Golden number of 50 can only count on, Lord willing, another 6,000 Golden Hours.  In the end, I'm so blessed and grateful to have enjoyed the latest Golden Hour with my thoughtful and kind daughter.  Life is a very precious gift and savoring a moment with my daughter on cloudy days or sunny always adds up to a good day and time well spent.  Who says nothing gold can stay?

The Progress Principle

Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. 

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer

Learning What Works Through Failure

Misconceptions are a natural phase in the learning process.  Here's  a great quote from Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning about the benefits of failure and problem solving.

It's not the failure, that's desirable, it's the dauntless effort despite the risks, the discovery of what works and what doesn't that sometimes only failure can reveal.  It's trusting that trying to solve a puzzle serves us better than being spoon-fed the solution, even if we fall short in our first attempts at an answer.

Research shows that effort is required for learning to be lasting and durable.  Sweat equity must be paid and the task for teachers is to design learning experiences that allow for productive struggle and determination without leading to frustration and burnout.

Every Child

“I have never encountered any children in any group who are not geniuses. There is no mystery on how to teach them. The first thing you do is treat them like human beings and the second thing you do is love them.”

Dr. Asa Hilliard

Simple Solutions are an Illusion

Learning That Feels Easy is Ineffective

It's Always About the Learning

Camarena Elementary is considered a technology school.  Some days I feel like that is unfortunate, because I don't want the perception to be that our focus is primarly on technology.  As the two posts below show, the focus needs to be first, last, and always about  learning.


Words Matter: Let’s Talk About Learning, Not Technology

This summary of phrasing sums up this point of view well.

Technology is a Tool, Not a Learning Outcome

Bill Ferriter's summary helps put learning and technology in their proper place.

2 Class Dojo Points for Bill!!!


At the end of the day, my hope is that our work with students moves the needle forward on learning and we will use any and every technology tool that helps us accomplish that goal.  

Everything Bad is Good For You

That's the title of an intriguing book by Steven Johnson and appears to be the theme of the science of learning form the authors of Make it Stick.  In my first summay, I described the testing effect and how it is superior to rereading.

The next section of their book describes the antitode to massed practice or blocked practice, the idea of practicing one skill until it is burned into memory - think math homework over the past 50 years.  It turns out that this type of focused and repetitive practice is not as beneficial as we would believe.

The antitode to massed practice  is spaced, interleaved, and varied practice.  It turns out that the goal is to make the practice a little harder to encourage retrieval in a manner that leads to improved descrimination skills.

Spaced Practice - Leaving a little time (at least a day) between practice sessions allows the learner to forget just enough so that it requires effort to retrieve the content.  It is this act of retrieval after a little forgetting that actually impedes the forgetting process.  Daniel Willingham summarizes the studies about massed practice and shares suggested implications here.

Interleaved Practice -  Learning several new and related concepts at the same time is actually slower and feels less productive. Intuitively we all want to practice one thing at a time until it is mastered.  It turns out that for long term benefit, even though we feels like we are not, we are actually benefitting from a less uniform approach to learning new concent.  Instead of learning the formula for area of one shape at a time, it will be better for long term memory to learn the area formula of several different shapes interleaving them together thus solidifying our ability to choose the  right formula when needed.

Varied Pracitce - The authors cited another study that showed two groups who were practicing tossing a beanbag.  One group practiced consistently at three feet. The other group practiced at two and four feet.  They were both tested on a three foot toss and the group that had NEVER practiced on three feet performed better than the group that ONLY practiced on three feet.

My biggest takeaway is that we need to develop practice routines that allow the learner to rehearse the decision making that they will face in an authentic setting.   In closing, the authors spoke about the need to add reflection to all learning expereinces. Asking questions such as What happened?, What did I do?, How did it work out? are invaluable tools to cement learning in every experience.  Finally, we should ask, What should I do next time?

Maybe Weighing Pigs Does Make them Fatter?

Photo Credit: Ethan Block on Flickr

A good friend of mine likes to remind me that simply testing kids doesn't increase their learning, thus the title of this post derives from her catchy phrase that, "weighing pigs doesn't make them fatter".  The authors of Make it Stick (Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel) might disagree with that statement.  The subtitle of the book is The Science of Successful Learning and their aim is to review the research on what practices help us learning.    You can get a summary of their work on the American RadioWorks podcast here and a related podcast here.

The first strategy that they discuss is the benefit of retrieval to aid memory, especially when compared to simply rereading content.  Retrieval is described as self testing, using flash cards to practice the content, summarizing after reading short chunks, writing key ideas after reading, and low stakes quizzing.  Study after study compares the benefits to learning that accrue when one retrieves the information periodically during a course of study instead of simply reading and rereading the material and notes.   Students who stop to recite what they are learning or are asked to answer short quizzes learn more both in the short term - and here's the big bonus - in the long term.  This is called The Testing Effect.  For those of you who are still bent on cramming, you will see some immediate benefit from that frenzied approach, but the gains quickly disappear in to the black hole of long term forgetting.  You will get more benefit from studying and testing yourself AND you will remember more of what you have learned a month later.

Their research about this topic also found that learners benefited from questions and testing that were spaced out to allow some forgetting to occur such that the act of retrieval was accompanied by cognitive effort.  The greater the effort (so long as there was ultimate success) the more that the learner remembered.   Other benefits of frequent quizzing (effortful retrieval) included students understanding the content that they knew and didn't know in order to study more effectively, lower test anxiety because frequent quizzes helped students gain confidence, and slight improvement in attendance in higher education courses.

I see several implications for schools.

1.  Teach students how to study.  Explain to students the benefits of summarizing what they are learning through taking notes about the content they are grasping.

2.  Embrace low stakes quizzing throughout all units of study.  While we are in an environment of high stakes testing and there are plenty of reasons to eschew more testing.  Research has shown that low stakes questioning will enhance learning of all content and allow students to perform higher order thinking because of the rich content that is solidifying into their long term memory.

3. Implement this research today.  Too often educators have sneered at research that seems counter intuitive and the big losers are our students.  Check out the research yourself and you will see that this practice consistently allows students to learn material at a much higher rate than merely rereading.

Let's try this out!

Misconceptions, Mistakes, and Error are the Seeds of Learning

In an excellent article at Edutpia, Richard Curwin discussed 9 ways to embrace mistakes to enhance Learning. I especially like #7:

"Instead of (or at least in addition to) walls filled with students' achievements, have a wall where students can brag about their biggest mistakes and what they learned from them"

Indeed, if we are able to develop risk takers and curiosity we will ned to embrace errors without judgment so they we can all be better off because of them.

Motivating Teachers

A colleague asked for some tips on motivating teachers for a school and district that are facing conflict and tensions.  I thought I'd collect my ideas here if it would be helpful to others. Actually, the request was simply for inspirational videos, as I have used videos in the past for motivation.

However, I thought it important to say some things about the context and culture that need to be in place for sustainable motivation to occur. Showing an inspirational video during a time of crisis may lead to temporary feelings of re-commitment or renewed energy, but we need the determination that comes from day to day motivation that can only be achieved through attention to culture over the long run.


My thoughts are based on my own experience and Daniel Pink's book Drive, which outlines the three main drivers for motivation in the knowledge worker economy.  Those drivers are Purpose, Mastery, and Autonomy.

Purpose

In order to motivate teachers, it's critical to reconnect them with the goal of our work.  This is not a difficult task.  It's not like we're selling vacuum cleaners.  What teachers do every day is, without question, life changing and transformational even on an ordinary day.  Videos and discussion about the purpose of learning will reengage teachers with their initial calling to work with children.  More importantly, the day to day actions of leaders must be congruent with the goal of improving learning opportunities for all students.

Leaders need to ask, What is the purpose of our school?

Sometimes, it's best to let the kids start the conversation. Adora Svitak can get them to see What Adults Can Learn from Kids



and teachers can answer the question Do you Believe in Me, by Dalton Sherman.

Furthermore, Rita Pierson will remind teachers,  Because Every Kid Needs a Champion.



If you are rethinking your school mission, vision, or purpose, you may want to watch Simon Sinek's excellent talk on How Great Leaders Inspire Action.



While working on purpose, one must focus on the future and not the past. Opportunities for new learning are everywhere.  Get your staff thinking about kids,  while imagining and creating an amazing future together.

Maybe you want to discuss Dan Meyer's Math Class Needs a Makeover



or Ken Robinson's provocative How Schools kill Creativity.



You could also read Seth Godin's treatise on Stop Stealing Dreams: What is school for?.  Some of his ideas will anger or frustrate but they will get your teachers talking about the future of schooling and encourage them to band together to write their own story for their students.

Mastery

Everyone who shows up for work wants to be known for excellence.  Leaders can create the environment where excellence can thrive.  You need to embrace the growth mindset, which says that everyone can learn. Leaders should highlight existing strengths within their staff and elevate teachers to lead the learning.  Teachers should be encouraged to share their best work by blogging and sharing through other social media streams.

Leaders need to ask. How can I create a school where adults and students are always learning?

There are so many examples of individuals who have overcome struggles to achieve great things.  I always get emotional when I see the story of Jason McElwain, the autistic basketball manager who finally gets in a game and then ... well, you'll just have to watch it.



Of course, some athletes achieve greatness because of their God given abilities but hard work is still needed especially when it comes to other areas of their life. This decorated and famous University of Georgia football player was a highly sought out recruit who decided to become a great reader too.



Everyone wants to work in an environment where they have the tools, collegial relationships, and encouragement to produce their best work.  Leaders who inspire provide all the ingredients necessary for mastery to occur.  They provide clear and explicit targets with lots of timely feedback that helps every learner in the school learn and grow.  There is great satisfaction in mastering something that beforehand seemed impossible or out of reach.  Teachers are motivated when they are improving in their craft and they see the fruit of their mastery in the lives of students.

Autonomy

Finally, when teachers take ownership of their learning to improve their craft, they will be highly motivated to do the work that lies before them.  There is no one who will eagerly pursue rote implementation of programs and curriculum that are handed down from the state, district, or even the Principal.  Teachers should be deeply involved in the development of the course of action at a school as well as its implementation.  Do you want motiavted teachers?   Give them a voice.  Give them choice.  Give them "autonomy" to define how they accomplish the goals you have set for your school.

You can do this in any number of ways.  Leadership, grade level, and course alike teams are all vehicles through which teachers can chart a course (with guidelines of course) that make sense to them and allow them to define their reality.  In Ed Catmull's excellent book Creativity Inc he describes the feedback that directors receive on their films from a group called The Braintrust.  Although The Braintrust gave many suggestions, ideas, and feedback, ultimately it was the director  of the film alone who was tasked with choosing from all of these suggestions to modify and adapt the film based on the feedback.  Teachers need that same structure and power if they are to be motivated to pursue excellence  in the classroom every day.

Leaders need to ask the question. What structures and processes can I create so that you can do your work better?

So, if you want to motivate teachers to create schools where students AND adults can flourish, then by all means, show some video!  However, you also need to commit to doing the work every day that builds the kind of environment where motivation is ongoing and sustainable.

What other ideas do you have for motivating teachers?

Flow and Learning

I came across this quote from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow and it reminded me of the work we are doing around success criteria, feedback, and visible learning.

One reaches flow in activities where ... "a sense that one's skills are adequate to cope with the challenges at hand, in a goal-directed, rule-bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing."

This quote demonstrates several truths that are the hallmark of quality learning experiences.

First, the learner must believe that she has the skill to meet the challenge so a) there must be some challenge and b) the challenge cannot be so great that the learner doesn't believe that she can attain the goal.  

Second, sufficient structure must be provided so that the learner can navigate the activity with a certain degree of certainty.

Finally, feedback must be connected to the goal that one is pursuing and must be explicit in describing the current performance against the ideal state.

Does this square with your beliefs about what quality teaching and learning looks like?

Reading Instruction from the Master

Richard Allington, in his recent article at Educational Leadership has some concrete steps that teachers can take to improve reading instruction.   He unmasks two villians of poor reading instruction 1) Overusing and misusing  oral reading and 2) Asking Low Level Questions.  Here is his remedy for oral reading.

1. Use oral reading selectively. By the middle of 1st grade, most reading should be done silently.
2. If you elect to have students read a text aloud, consciously bite your tongue as they read. Wait until the student has completed at least a full sentence before you interrupt, and then interrupt with a comment that encourages the student to self-regulate.
3. Ensure that other students who might be following along or listening to the student read aloud also do not interrupt the reader.
4. If you're concerned that you cannot monitor the accuracy of students' reading when they read silently, remember that all you really need to do is ask them to retell what they've read. Misreadings become obvious during retellings.

(numbers not in original, because bullets drive me crazy.)

And here is what he prescribes in place of Low Level Questions

In a study of high-poverty schools, Taylor and colleagues (Taylor, Pearson, Clark, & Walpole, 2000; Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2003) found that more effective teachers asked five times as many higher-order questions and offered twice as many opportunities for discussion as less effective teachers did.  The more effective teachers were also more likely to ask students to respond in writing to higher-order questions.

He goes on to describe a familiar routine of turn pair and share that is an excellent structure in which to engage students in literate conversations answering high level questions, while also including writing about what they are reading.

If You Could Write the Formula for the next California Academic Performance Index (API)...

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bionicteaching/

For years I have longed for a dynamic school dashboard. I'd like to refresh my computer every morning and look at all the most important data to help me get a picture of how the students at my school are progressing toward their individual and collective goals?  But, so many questions remain.  What is of greatest importance and how best to meausure?  Here are some things I believe would be beneficial to measure (notice I didn't say easy to measure).

1. Attendance - Easy to measure and of obvious importance
2. Tardies - would definitely encourage commitment to getting to school on time.  
3. Number of books read - This is of critical importance.  The challenge is verifying that students have actually read... or I should say read with high comprehension.  
4. Reading Conferences/Writing conferences - I believe anytime that a student spends time with a teacher getting feedback on their reading and writing life they are on the way to reaching the next step.
5. Writing Entries - All writing is beneficial (just like books) Of course, it would be even more beneficial to get data on writing that is of high quality or meets certain criteria.   Since we are working at Camarena Elementary to get every class blogging, we could measure blog posts rather easily.
6. Mastering Math Facts - Whenever students master these building blocks of learning they become more capable and able of thinking critically and problem solving.
7. Student Teaching Videos Created - Clearly these need to be previewed and judged for quality, but it is without a doubt that the creator of these videos solidifies and enhances their learning.
8. Formative Assessments - Students tested on their skills learn more when that assessment is coupled with explicit feedback.
9. Parent/Community Volunteer Hours - Parent engagement in school (for any reason) strengthens our connection with families and supports learning in every way.

What am I missing?  What would you add to this list?  What would you take away?  What assessments of these areas would be most helpful to collect?

Persistence in Teaching and Coaching

Give Students a Purpose for Listening

Caught this excellent post on Educating Grace about small things that increase participation in classroom discussions and especially appreciated this nugget:

Providing clear instructions for how others should engage when their peers are talking, beyond simply "tracking" or "listening" or "following along," such as "listen for whether you used a similar method or did something different" or "as you listen, think about how you would say this in your own words" or "listen for how [student] used a pattern to find a solution" gives students a reason for listening...

This is a much more authentic reason for listening that gives students a clear purpose that will enhance their own understanding of the content and process that is being discussed. Go on over and read the rest here.