Summer Reading

My summer reading list usually includes a little thoughtless fiction, some good spiritually challenging books, and something about literacy and leadership. This summer, I'm starting with a book that was on my list last summer, but never made the nightstand. A recent staff developer tried to scare me away, stating that it was too dense, or something like that. Maybe she meant I was too dense! That was probably a little closer to the truth. The book is Becoming Literate: The Construction of Inner Control by Marie Clay. It's a classic about early literacy development, and I'm finding Ms. Clay, who spent her life researching and studying early literacy is a fine writer. She's practical and witty and summarizes lots of research with clear and insightful applications. I'll be sure to have more to say about what I'm learning in this space over the summer.

A Sigh of Relief

The dust has settled on another school year and a sense of relaxation and rest is slowly, and I do mean slowly, coming over our household. The end of the year is full of activities, end of the year events, ceremonies, goodbyes, and loose ends to tie up. This year at Halecrest was eventful and successful by many measures. It was great to end the year with a solid increase in our Local Measures Reading and slight increase in our Local Measures Math scores. To top that off, our district came to a tentative agreement with the teacher's union the final week of school. This should alleviate that cloud that was hanging over everyone's head this year during the stalemate negotiations.

As I reflect on how physically and emotionally drained I felt at the end of the year, I can only sympathize with my classroom teachers who have the daily pressure of molding, shaping, sometimes herding, and ultimately teaching 20-30 pre-adolescents 7 hours a day/180 days a year. Teaching is a demanding, complex proposition that is not for the weak, disorganized, or uncommitted. Effective teachers, and I'm glad to say that Halecrest has a cupboard full of these, are invaluable to our local community and greater society. I make every effort to pass along to the teachers I work with a sense of their impact and importance in the grand scheme of things. I know that I do that poorly at times, even adding to their frustration on some days. However, I hope they know that their efforts do not go unnoticed and the lasting impression they leave on their learners will authenticate their significance for years to come.

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.