This Again

In a meeting today, I made a positive response about an organization and added (without really thinking) that any organization is only as good as its communication.

The notion of communication keeps popping up, all the time and in any situation. Communication in a relationship, in a business, in school - without it, any of those endeavors will stumble.

So boiling it down to its simplest terms, education is about helping kids become good communicators. Can they process information and can they express themselves? Everything else follows.

Feedback

I am referencing the post of a friend and fellow educator, Michael Corso, on the Quaglia Institute blog. In it, he relates the experience he had in a school where teachers had made a conscious effort to inform students of the goals of each class. The students reported significantly increased awareness of the practice and engagement with their learning as a result.

In my own classroom, another friend and fellow educator who works with one of my students suggested that student would find a similar focus on lesson objectives beneficial. I agreed, and have begun to write some key-words on the board at the beginning of each class as a way of narrowing students' attention.

The thing is, I knew this already and have known it to be a good practice for years. And sometimes I remember to do it, at least verbally, as we begin class. But I have not been consistent, and I regret the missed opportunities since September to help students better manage their learning. One strategy I am trying to employ is jotting a couple of items on a post-it and sticking it to the board in the morning as a reminder when the daily routines threaten to sidetrack my good intentions.

It's good to have friends in the business - and I always welcome their feedback.

The Forest

Late October in Pennsylvania means fall colors at their peak, and the best way to experience them is by taking a walk in the woods. A forest provides a palette that a single tree cannot.

We all know the saying about missing the forest for the trees, when we miss the colorful palette because we are too focused on a single specimen. This is a time of the school year when it becomes very easy to get bogged down in everyday items like grading homework, giving tests, contacting parents, and attending meetings.

So . . . this post is about stepping away from the tree and seeing the whole palette by revisiting the big picture goals. I want my students to become more literate by developing their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. No single lesson, test or homework assignment will accomplish that, so I need to make sure I keep all aspects of the program in place.

That includes the type of reflection that blogging allows. I hope to avoid a ten-day lapse between posts again.

Being Institutionalized

While at a meeting this week, the speaker noted that as the organization we are a part of grew, it became more institutional in the way it managed tasks. He also opined that this was not necessarily a good thing.

The parallel to education revealed itself immediately. As the education system has metastasized towards amorphous entities with increasingly narrow goals, teaching practices have become standardized, even scripted in many cases. The narrow goals result in what I like to call the 'franchising' of education - the same experience for every student in every place.

This works well with hamburgers. A Big Mac in Philadelphia tastes the same as a Big Mac in Riverton, Wyoming. But does the same hold true for education? No - because the ingredients are too different. Students in Riverton would likely have an understanding and appreciation for the outdoors that Philadelphia students might lack. And in Philadelphia, students have access to an arts scene that would be foreign to kids in Wyoming. Within any classroom, you will find students with different experiences, enthusiasm levels and learning styles. Squeezing them all through a narrow set of goals reduces education to a matter of least common denominator - the bare minimum that must be mastered rather than taking advantage of the multiple gifts that students come to school with.

The least common denominator, the standardization of the experience reflects the institutionalization of education. Students, parents, teachers and schools need more choices, developed with the best interests of all in mind. This means more local control, more choices, and validation of the belief that there are many ways to be productive in this world.

Would more choices be tidy? Certainly not. But it is hard to argue that there are not already plenty of messes to clean up. I would much rather see achieving maximum potential as our goal, rather than settling for minimum standards.

Process Over Product

Education has (at least) one great luxury over business - the luxury of an extended learning curve. By definition, business depends on the bottom line, where one must produce or hit the pike, but school is a place where management has the option of being reasonably patient.

As teachers, we love to receive a great product when a student hands in an assignment and slap that 'A' on the top of the paper. But there is a critical next step to take that is often overlooked.

If the student doesn't understand how she created that product, then how confident can we be that she will be able to duplicate similar results the next time? Or that she can apply her skills to new and different situations?

This is where a determined focus on process comes in. After an assignment or activity is completed, teachers should debrief with their students and give them the opportunity to genuinely consider what worked well, what was a challenge, and what they learned from the experience. It is through this kind of metacognition that a student can gain a greater understanding of himself as a learner and approach his education in an active rather than passive way.

Let's take advantage of the extended learning curve the education laboratory allows us. It may be nice to develop producers, but it is even nicer to create producers who can think and lead.

Student Bloggers

One of the Language Arts requirements for my 7th and 8th graders this year will be to contribute to a class literacy blog. Unlike many assignments, they actually seem eager to do it.

There are several desired features:
- students will be writing for authentic publication
- each poster will have two peer editors to work with, so there will be practice with proofreading and constructive criticism
- because they will have considerable flexibility in topics, students may discover new areas of interest they would not have otherwise explored
- we will have an archival record of the growth and progress of the classes

Digital natives are typically quite comfortable with technology, and Blogspot provides a great free service - it makes sense to tap into these two realities to promote literacy. Once the sites are active, I will publish links.

Underway

Students returned to school today and we have begun the long journey through the school year. Realistically, it is much longer for them than me - at my age, a school represents less than 2 percent of my life. To an 8th grader, it's more than triple that percentage.

An objective for today was to survey the reading enjoyment level of the students, and I found that over 60% of the responses to survey items indicated a positive disposition towards reading. That's a nice start. But there was some discrepancy between how some students viewed their ability to read and their desire to do so.

One of the duties of my job this year is to help enhance the perception of literacy of those students who would rather not read. Today's survey was completely anonymous, but it provides a group baseline. My hope is that there will be a significant increase in the percentage of positive responses at the end of the year.

Upcoming Projects

Students return in one week so I want to be sure to complete the prep work on several web-based projects. The availability of so many free sites makes it easy to experiment, but I want to be sure the project pays real educational dividends, rather than simply being technological fluff.

For each of my Language Arts classes, we will be maintaining a literacy blog. Each week, two students will be assigned to post to the blog on a topic relating to literacy and our work in class. Each poster will be assigned two peer editors who will have to check their work before posting. This will tap into authentic writing and editing/proofreading skills, as well as provide an opportunity for students to publicly express their ideas, create a working portfolio of the group's growth, and provide parents the opportunity to have perspective on our work.

In Social Studies, I have created a wiki for each class. New pages will be created for each unit of study and students will use them to strengthen understanding and create their own study guides. Some of the posting to the site will be done in class (thank you, SmartBoard) but the majority will be done by the students on their own time. I am curious to see if they embrace the opportunity to develop their own study aids.

As these projects take root, I will provide updates and links. To protect their privacy, all students will be required to create an alias before contributing.

Sources with Scientists, Part 2

We covered a number of areas in our discussion, one of which was what to consider when assessing data. In other words, what do we want to know about the data before deciding whether it is worth using.

Here are some of the considerations:
Age of the data
• What has changed since data was published?
• Is there newer data on same topic?
What are the qualifications of who supplied the data?
• Background
• Reputation
• Potential bias
• Credibility
How close is data source material to raw data?
• How is source using raw data?
• Is the data research-based and cited?
• Can the data be confirmed?
How clear is the data?
What is the volume and specificity of information?
Is there depth and sophistication to the data?

In a school setting, perhaps a pre-requisite research skill would be to assess data sources before having to use them. Create a rubric that will allow students to ‘grade’ a data source as a way of developing a more critical eye towards the data they collect, rather than assuming that all sources are of equal value.

A further thought is that this evaluative process may be done through a ‘low-stakes’ exercise to encourage kids gain comfort with the process without feeling that asking questions or making mistakes will result in penalties.

Still more to come . . .

Evaluating Sources

There is a further idea on pursuing study of how to equip students with the new literacy skills necessary for a global world. I will be speaking with people in the working world who regularly have the need to evaluate data sources to study the thought processes they engage.

For example, a journalist receives many bits of data while preparing a story, but must discard some because they don’t meet a professional standard or are not relevant to the story. I’m not worried about the procedures of source evaluation, but the underlying thought processes and the corresponding literacy skills that are engaged.

By interacting with people in a number of diverse fields, I hope to be able to use the backwards design process to develop a program of literacy enrichment for today’s students. I have my first research partner on board, and am working on lining up several more.

More as this develops . . .

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?

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!