Literacy & Social Life

Just wanted to share an idea on promoting literacy – organize a book swap.

Yesterday we hosted over two dozen friends and family for a potluck dinner, and asked everybody to bring some books they were done reading to trade. The response was positive and we had a great time with the social interactions, but especially pleasing was the chance to promote literacy.

An obvious benefit was the opportunity to pick up new (to you) books for free, while clearing out shelf space at home. But you also have the advantage of being able to ask about a particular book before selecting it – a more in-depth way of making a judgment than relying on the cover.

Having an event like this makes it clear that you value reading, and want others to share your values. What a great message for kids! Hosting a sleepover? . . . bring books to trade as the ‘cost’ of attending.

Even if you can’t hold an event, it would not take much effort nor space in a workplace or classroom to create a book swap area for all to enjoy. Celebrating and modeling literacy are great promotional tools.

West Coast Opinions

Education continues to be regular fodder for the editorial pages. Yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer carried an opinion piece by Walt Gardner, a long-time teacher in the Los Angeles School District. It is validating to hear from others who believe that a one-size-fits-all education does an injustice to our communities and to our students.

Certainly, many kids are well-served by their education, but there are also many who are under-served - gifted children who are bored by scripted, lock-step reading programs as well as artistically talented ones who attend schools where one art teacher or one music teacher serve over 500 students.

It would be wonderful to see a focus on multiple intelligences take its rightful place among educational policies. Nurturing students’ gifts and affinities will provide benefits long after the school year has ended. Instead, we (the collective we) have accepted the existence of an assembly-line model that seeks to turn students out like so many identical widgets. The skills required for success in many schools are not the skills required for post-graduate success – Ready or Not, Here Life Comes is an interesting read on this subject.

A Virtual Revolution

Well, it may not yet qualify as a revolution, but virtual learning is an increasing part of the educational landscape.

A Reuters article from last month describes the efforts of an urban middle school in Boston that has implemented a digital curriculum. Students no longer have textbooks, but use electronic materials, maintain blogs, and submit assignments using laptops that are checked out each morning and returned at the end of the day.

There is, naturally, a large start-up cost involved in an endeavor like this. Over time though, it seems like it may be more economical to maintain.

What I find most interesting is that the article provides a glimpse of the possibilities available when we combine digital, online learning with the social and activity-related benefits associated with a bricks-and-mortar school. Critics may say that moving to an online educational model would isolate students, though, in fact, it may be exactly the opposite. By having students work at an appropriately productive pace, they may have more opportunities for collaboration with peers and teachers. Engagement could increase because the pacing would be matched to the needs of each student, and students might feel a greater sense of autonomy and ownership.

There will certainly be bumps in the road, but online learning is a 21st century skill that will become increasingly prevalent. Why not have students begin to acquire this literacy while in school?

SAT Left in the Wake?

About a month ago, Wake Forest University announced that it was moving to an SAT-optional admissions process. To date, it is the highest ranked (by US News & World Report) national university to do so.

Among the reasons given for the move was the concern that research shows the SAT favors students from higher socio-economic classes, partly through the practice of expensive SAT-prep courses. No doubt though, Wake will have to face backlash from people who will accuse them of 'dumbing down' to diversify.

To that I say, "Oy vey".

I can't argue about the correlation between SAT and SES because I haven't read the research on it. But I don't have to because it would not change my thinking - the SAT is but one tool of many, and should not be used a s sole determinant of college admission.

In its announcement about the admissions change, Wake indicated that it would base decisions on high school curriculum and grades, essays, extracurriculars, and personal interviews with admissions staff - a far more qualitative process than SAT cutoffs. Students will still have the option to submit their SAT scores as a way to build their admissions resume.

A recent editorial by Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, supported Wake Forest's decision by suggesting that qualities like resilience and motivation, critical to college success, cannot be measured on an assessment device, but should be viewed through a long-range lens on a student's life and academic career.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the list of schools that offer SAT-optional admissions, over 700 of them, according to Fairtest.org. While a good number of schools on the list are specialty schools that focus on areas like art & religion, there are many reputable universities as well. Some quality private colleges in Pennsylvania are there, schools like Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg and Muhlenberg. Somehow these schools have managed to maintain their standards.

As to the charge of 'dumbing down' . . . some folks have a hard time recognizing that changes to the status quo can actually create progress. A generation from now we'll wonder what the hubbub was.

A Feeling About SPD

One of my nieces will be a senior in high school this year and has been looking at colleges that offer programs in Occupational Therapy. I think this is a great field to examine because I suspect that OT services will be in increasing demand as Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) becomes a more common diagnosis in schools.

A succinct description:
"Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, formerly known as "sensory integration dysfunction") is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. Pioneering occupational therapist and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological "traffic jam" that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly. A person with SPD finds it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks. Motor clumsiness, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, school failure, and other impacts may result if the disorder is not treated effectively." (SPD Foundation website)

There is a growing body of research on SPD, no doubt made more comprehensive by advances in brain imaging. But what brings an issue to the forefront sometimes is not research but the reporting of research.

SPD may be following a similar path. Articles in mainstream sources like Time Magazine and the New York Times have raised awareness in the general public. I tend to think that in ten years, SPD will be seen, as the Time article suggests, as the next Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is good news and bad news. A diagnosis of ADD or ADHD can have positive results for families and children so diagnosed. There are many strategies associated with the field that have been helpful to many people. The problem arises when a term or diagnosis becomes a catch-phrase that is either too broadly applied or used as an excuse.

Attentional issues exist on a continuum - the child who exhibits classic ADHD symptoms during story time may be able to sit with a box of Legos for hours. Internal and external environmental issues greatly influence the appearance, severity and duration of ADHD symptoms.

This may well turn out to be true of SPD, in which case mis-diagnosis may be followed by backlash. In the meantime though, occupational therapy looks to be a career path with very solid prospects.

Shelfari

Mark Twain is credited with the following quote: "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
We'll excuse Mr. Clemens his gender specificity long enough to ponder his meaning. In a recent graduate course I taught to reading education students, I assigned them the task of interviewing secondary-aged students about, among other things, their attitudes towards literacy. A distressing commonality existed in many of the interviews - even students who were proficient readers tended to place little value on reading.
It was a small sample and I won't draw any sweeping conclusions, but I do worry about today's students who have so many other draws on their attention. And it is certainly true that many people of my own generation do not actively read, yet have turned out to be well-adjusted and productive adults.
But there is quite a world that literature allows us to visit, and anything that promotes reading gets a thumbs up from me.
That is why I'd like to thank a friend for introducing me to Shelfari, a social networking website that revolves around reading. It allows you to keep track of books you've read or want to read, and see the comments of other readers.
I have added my current list of books I plan to read on this blog, and I encourage you to visit the site and join up - it's free. I can see this site being another tool educators can use with students to promote literacy by providing a sense of belonging and connection.
Thanks, Mara!

Charter Woes

Charter schools have been part of the educational reform landscape for a generation now. As with all things educational, there are many mixed feelings about them.

Locally, the big story is the Philadelphia Academy Charter School and the shenanigans perpetrated by the people who have run it. Simply put, they gamed the system in every way they could think of, as outlined in the story. It leads one to wonder if there wasn’t even more fraud – like identifying kids as special education students, writing an IEP, and demanding the higher per-pupil spending that comes with identified students. Let's hope that angle gets investigated.

Taxpayers have taken a hit from PACS.

But so have other charter schools.

What happened at PACS will be used by critics of the charter school movement to cast aspersions on any charter school. And it would be hard to argue that the same types of things couldn’t be happening at other schools in the city and across the nation. Many charter schools are providing students with great opportunities to be successful, but incidents like this one provide people who wish to paint with a broad brush the tools to do so.

Nice job by the Philadelphia Daily News in their opinion piece today.