When it comes to teacher evaluations, there are a lot of important factors to consider. Do we focus on things like state test scores and arbitrary meetings? Do we make it a surprise, or something the teacher can plan around? Where do the students and their growth play into all of this?
The sad thing is, for a long time, the student's growth meant hardly anything compared to the outcomes on tests. Despite vastly different start points and end points, not to mention the myriad ways that people, young and old, all are different and unique in their own ways, we relied quite heavily on a one-size-fits-all rubric, but many organizations are attempting to change that. For example, we have the Danielson Framework, which tries to set our a very comprehensive rubric for teachers focusing on four domains: Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities. Each of these domains have smaller component parts, and those are all ranked from unsatisfactory to distinguished, letting teachers see precisely, in hard, clear terms, where they can improve and grow.
Similar to that is the Teaching as Leadership Rubric, which is used more to reflect on yourself as a teacher, keeping focuses much like the Danielson Framework, but also adding in areas for reflection in the teacher's mind. And then, of course, we have the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) which combines a look at the student test scores with factors measuring student growth and progress over their time at school.
Personally, while I haven't been evaluated myself, I would put a little more weight in the TVAAS, depending on how it was conducted. I would assume that teachers should have notification that classroom assessments are coming, with a meeting for pre-evaluation, but the assessment itself could happen randomly, so teachers can't try to make sure their "highly polished" work is on display rather than their best day-to-day work. After that, a cool down meeting with the people evaluating you would be good to see where improvements could be made and where explanations might clear up some misunderstandings on their part. Finally, I believe a self-reflection/assessment would not be amiss, along with student feedback and, finally, the test scores and growth indexes of the student. This is not to imply that the figures and numbers aren't important: unfortunately, we're a goal-oriented society, and an incredibly engaging teacher than never gets students to where they need to be is not as useful, in a public school setting, as a slightly more boring teacher than gets the job done well and gets those test scores high.
On my end, I believe the most effective evaluation would cover everything: in class viewing, student feedback, self reflection, peer feedback, student growth markers, and test scores compared to other students at the same level. This huge array of data STILL wouldn't get the comprehensive evaluation of all of a teacher's effectiveness, but it would do wonders for making sure that the people doing the evaluating know as much as they can and can make informed, logical decisions as they rank the teachers.
Teachers are already underpaid, under appreciated, and under-funded. The one thing they shouldn't be is under-represented when it comes time to make a case for or against one's performance.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
The Importance of Pre-Assessment
Using Quizlet I created a quick pre-assessment of some terms students should know in relation to reading literature at this level, some that may or may not have been acquired yet, and a few that I expect they won't know off the top of their head (following the link, you can click "test" to create a quiz, or simply use these terms as flashcards for studying after the initial pre-assessment). I created this in relation to the following Common Core 9/10th Grade English Literature Reading Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
... with the objective being that, by the end of the unit, 80% of students will be able to define, identify, and analyze any or all instances of the terms I gave when used in a piece of literature. I would print out the first test, giving it to the entire class to see what kind of knowledge they have on the terms attached to the subject. After doing so, I would follow the steps listed in this flowchart to determine how I would move forward with differentiating instruction for students who are excelling, on par, and/or falling behind. These students would be easy to identify, as Quizlet shows you results based on who got which questions right, as well as whether or not a majority of the class did so.
With the initial quiz, I would expect an average student at the 9th/10th grade level to score about a 60 or 70%, with scores higher than this belonging to students who are a little more knowledgeable about literary terms. Students performing above that level would have their comprehension tested, and if they were proving to do well at it, would be challenged with additional work or deeper, more intricate questions when it comes to regular quizzes to check for learning.
All students would have regular quizzes to assess how they were learning, at least once a week, on vocabulary and comprehension of the piece we were reading (for the sake of this assignment, I shall say the students are reading Shakespeare's Hamlet). Students at the remedial level would quickly be drilled into remembering the vocabulary, while students at the meeting level would learn the last few words' meanings from repetition. As students began to show consistent proficiency on the vocabulary section (something that could be measured on Quizlet), it would be removed from those who no longer need it, with a greater focus on the quiz going to reading comprehension and critical thinking questions.
For students who continue to struggle, I will provide the option of being given an oral examination, in case their continued low score comes from the testing itself and not the knowledge base. They will also be prompted with questions that focus more specifically on areas they are struggling with, giving more explanations to Foils or Flashbacks, while the bulk of the class might have a question asking about the same sort of thing, but without a clear starting point or instance in the play provided. If the issue is in the reading itself, due to a disability or not having learned a good reading strategy, the options become either letting them watch a visual version or listen to an audio version of the play, or else spend time in drills to help improve reading speed to help them in other subjects. Both of these can be effective, depending on the students and their needs, and a blend of both is not out of the question.
For students that excel, the quizzes would quickly drop the vocabulary portion, focusing on comprehension of the reading. If they begin to excel there too, we will begin to reach for critical thinking questions and "Why" and "How" questions about the plot and story line instead of "What" questions. If students begin to excel even here, the opportunity arises to offer them a chance at a side project or comparing Hamlet to another of Shakespeare's works to compare similarities and differences, or compare Shakespeare's works to another author's to see how the same ideas present themselves in new contexts.
The summative assessment can come in two forms, depending on how the students catch up or speed ahead (for the sake of the flowchart, I showed the "Single unified test" path). Either there will be one test for everyone, with the expectation that they are all to get past a certain score, or there will be versions of the test for remedial, proficient, and advanced learners catering to the lessons learned. This is a double edged sword, as it keeps the advanced learners engaged and doesn't make them feel like their time is wasted while making sure that less proficient learners are meeting the standards in their own test, but also provides more opportunity for unintentional testing biases as questions are tailored to the student and questions are purposefully made easier or more difficult depending on past performance. I personally believe in giving everyone one test and giving extra credit or rewards to students that go further, rather than punishing them with extra mandatory work that may bring down their grade, but this is a balancing act that will need careful consideration with each and every class.
In the end, even on a subject as seemingly simple as this, clear divisions in the class can become apparent, and one should make sure not to hold back the fast students just because the slower ones need to catch up. Each set of students should be given their own challenges and goals to better themselves, with summative assessments, ideally, to be a capstone for whatever they achieved rather than simply a marker to move them from one unit to another.
=============================================================
A note on Quizlet: While I think this app is fantastic for creating quick quizzes and using for flash cards or review/study material, this isn't a solution to all sections of the class. For example, some students here may know the definition, but not actually know how to identify it, leading to this pre-assessment being followed up or paired with a short reading comprehension section where they are given a cutting from a story (a page or so) and asked to identify any instances of the terms listed in the Quizlet. Students who need help here would get a different version of study aid than students to failed the initial quiz. That said, for the purposes of this blog, I am pretending to be functioning purely off of that initial quiz
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
... with the objective being that, by the end of the unit, 80% of students will be able to define, identify, and analyze any or all instances of the terms I gave when used in a piece of literature. I would print out the first test, giving it to the entire class to see what kind of knowledge they have on the terms attached to the subject. After doing so, I would follow the steps listed in this flowchart to determine how I would move forward with differentiating instruction for students who are excelling, on par, and/or falling behind. These students would be easy to identify, as Quizlet shows you results based on who got which questions right, as well as whether or not a majority of the class did so.
With the initial quiz, I would expect an average student at the 9th/10th grade level to score about a 60 or 70%, with scores higher than this belonging to students who are a little more knowledgeable about literary terms. Students performing above that level would have their comprehension tested, and if they were proving to do well at it, would be challenged with additional work or deeper, more intricate questions when it comes to regular quizzes to check for learning.
All students would have regular quizzes to assess how they were learning, at least once a week, on vocabulary and comprehension of the piece we were reading (for the sake of this assignment, I shall say the students are reading Shakespeare's Hamlet). Students at the remedial level would quickly be drilled into remembering the vocabulary, while students at the meeting level would learn the last few words' meanings from repetition. As students began to show consistent proficiency on the vocabulary section (something that could be measured on Quizlet), it would be removed from those who no longer need it, with a greater focus on the quiz going to reading comprehension and critical thinking questions.
For students who continue to struggle, I will provide the option of being given an oral examination, in case their continued low score comes from the testing itself and not the knowledge base. They will also be prompted with questions that focus more specifically on areas they are struggling with, giving more explanations to Foils or Flashbacks, while the bulk of the class might have a question asking about the same sort of thing, but without a clear starting point or instance in the play provided. If the issue is in the reading itself, due to a disability or not having learned a good reading strategy, the options become either letting them watch a visual version or listen to an audio version of the play, or else spend time in drills to help improve reading speed to help them in other subjects. Both of these can be effective, depending on the students and their needs, and a blend of both is not out of the question.
For students that excel, the quizzes would quickly drop the vocabulary portion, focusing on comprehension of the reading. If they begin to excel there too, we will begin to reach for critical thinking questions and "Why" and "How" questions about the plot and story line instead of "What" questions. If students begin to excel even here, the opportunity arises to offer them a chance at a side project or comparing Hamlet to another of Shakespeare's works to compare similarities and differences, or compare Shakespeare's works to another author's to see how the same ideas present themselves in new contexts.
The summative assessment can come in two forms, depending on how the students catch up or speed ahead (for the sake of the flowchart, I showed the "Single unified test" path). Either there will be one test for everyone, with the expectation that they are all to get past a certain score, or there will be versions of the test for remedial, proficient, and advanced learners catering to the lessons learned. This is a double edged sword, as it keeps the advanced learners engaged and doesn't make them feel like their time is wasted while making sure that less proficient learners are meeting the standards in their own test, but also provides more opportunity for unintentional testing biases as questions are tailored to the student and questions are purposefully made easier or more difficult depending on past performance. I personally believe in giving everyone one test and giving extra credit or rewards to students that go further, rather than punishing them with extra mandatory work that may bring down their grade, but this is a balancing act that will need careful consideration with each and every class.
In the end, even on a subject as seemingly simple as this, clear divisions in the class can become apparent, and one should make sure not to hold back the fast students just because the slower ones need to catch up. Each set of students should be given their own challenges and goals to better themselves, with summative assessments, ideally, to be a capstone for whatever they achieved rather than simply a marker to move them from one unit to another.
=============================================================
A note on Quizlet: While I think this app is fantastic for creating quick quizzes and using for flash cards or review/study material, this isn't a solution to all sections of the class. For example, some students here may know the definition, but not actually know how to identify it, leading to this pre-assessment being followed up or paired with a short reading comprehension section where they are given a cutting from a story (a page or so) and asked to identify any instances of the terms listed in the Quizlet. Students who need help here would get a different version of study aid than students to failed the initial quiz. That said, for the purposes of this blog, I am pretending to be functioning purely off of that initial quiz
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
High Stakes, High Stress, High Reward?
High stakes assessments are the bane of every school year. Yes, it does wonders for providing benchmarks and being able to measure student performance across districts and states, but... is it really worth the hassle? Well... it clearly depends on who you ask. For example, Columbia University (Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing, 2013) can give an entire, seemingly unbiased list of pros and cons for the process. However, many students, teachers, and parents I have talked to, both in person and online, tend to have an opinion far more negative than good. Obviously, having unbiased tests able to compare the success of schools does wonders for being able to weed out "bad" schools and remedy and help schools that under-perform. Also, these tests give a good starting place for what should be taught when, right? What could be bad about that? Well, for this particular assignment, I conducted a study in my old high school here in Hilo, Hawaii, and asked a friend of mine for information about a school he teaches in in Alabama, getting some information and opinions as best I could.
To begin with, I have to think back to my own time in high school. I graduated in 2009, so it honestly wasn't that long ago (still running under No Child Left Behind rules) when I left the public school system to enter college, and I still remember 11th grade as a plague on my schooling career. Entire weeks of meaningful, interesting instruction were thrown to the wayside so that we could be briefed over and over again on how to properly take the ACT. We were instructed on filling in bubbles (like we'd never used a Scantron before), briefed on all sorts of oddly worded questions, and given a lot of seemingly unconnected information because "you'll have to know this for the test." It was quite clear that the teachers were teaching to the test, and nobody liked it, but we all had to do it. Now, I am a good test taker and a naturally calm, relaxed individual, so I had very little extra stress (taking the SAT in 7th grade and scoring at a 12th grade level does a lot to calm one's nerves about their abilities), but some of the students around me I vividly remember vomiting more than once in class on the days leading up to the test. People were crying about ruined futures, hair was being pulled out... it was like the world was going to end.
Unfortunately, when talking to my friend in Alabama, that seemed to still be the case. The school he works in tends to focus on teaching to the test, despite quite a number of protests from parents and the district alike, and it is mostly for two reasons: funding, and teachers keeping their job. The principal doesn't hide the fact that teachers are moved around based on the performance of their students on the tests, and teachers who fail repeatedly soon find themselves looking for a job. The school is suffering enough from a lack of federal funding, largely due to low test scores. It doesn't really matter that the reason scores are so low is due to a large amount of ESL students in the classroom, or that they have been so severely punished already that the money spent on restructuring to meet the standards is making the school run on a shoestring budget... it's how the tests must be administered there. Everything, everything, is riding on the students' performance, to the point that many teachers in Alabama have been caught tampering with or changing test answers out of worry. The students know it, the parents know it, the teachers know it, and the school knows it... so the test is all that is taught for.
This, to me, is a travesty. Accountability is important, as is making sure our students are prepared for the outside world and life beyond high school, but punishing an already struggling school with a test that, while objective, is not really suited to the students taking it, only causes them to look bad and meet with disaster. The constant restructuring and changing curriculum drives the teachers and the students crazy and... honestly, it sounds like a mess I am happy not to be in.
I was worried, going back to my old school, that I would be running into a similar situation, and I was all girded up and ready to hear tales of that madness... but none came. It turns out, for a few years now, Hawaii has been involved in using the Strive HI Performance System. This system still takes test scores into account (particularly in high school, where these scores transfer into college applications) but it also takes in factors like the percentage of students who have improved in a subject, how many students graduate and go on to college, and how much of a difference there is between high-needs students and their non-high-needs peers in terms of achievement. It is a system that rewards achievement, as that is obviously important, but also rewards growth and helps schools prove their worth by more standards than just a few test scores.
This system seems a lot more inclusive, and while the numbers in a lot of schools in the state aren't pretty (in fact, on this island, they're rather atrocious), they seem to be getting better. This system also means that a teacher in a class that doesn't test well, but shows amazing growth, is able to prove their worth without being reduced to one number. Students and teachers are still stressed about the ACT, and many still find themselves teaching to it when they know they should be doing something different, but none of the teachers I asked felt like the results of that score were going to, alone, determine whether or not they'd still have a job the next year.
When it comes to standardized, high stakes testing, there will always be worry, stress, and fear in the students over their very futures. And, while the standards are good for data... in many ways they hurt the children and do a disservice to the efforts put in by teachers and school officials. The benefits, to me at least, are largely outweighed by the lost opportunities and days spent on the testing. However, in the end, opinions don't matter that much... results do. I am just happy my results will be judged on a few more numbers than just one test.
========================================================================
Resources:
Kamenetz, Anya. (2015) The Past, Present And Future Of High-Stakes Testing. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/22/377438689/the-past-present-and-future-of-high-stakes-testing
Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing. (2013). Retrieved from http://worklife.columbia.edu/files_worklife/public/Pros_and_Cons_of_Standardized_Testing_1.pdf
Strive HI System Index. (n.d.). Hawaii DOE. Retrieved from http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/VisionForSuccess/AdvancingEducation/StriveHIPerformanceSystem/Pages/Strive-HI-System-Index.aspx
To begin with, I have to think back to my own time in high school. I graduated in 2009, so it honestly wasn't that long ago (still running under No Child Left Behind rules) when I left the public school system to enter college, and I still remember 11th grade as a plague on my schooling career. Entire weeks of meaningful, interesting instruction were thrown to the wayside so that we could be briefed over and over again on how to properly take the ACT. We were instructed on filling in bubbles (like we'd never used a Scantron before), briefed on all sorts of oddly worded questions, and given a lot of seemingly unconnected information because "you'll have to know this for the test." It was quite clear that the teachers were teaching to the test, and nobody liked it, but we all had to do it. Now, I am a good test taker and a naturally calm, relaxed individual, so I had very little extra stress (taking the SAT in 7th grade and scoring at a 12th grade level does a lot to calm one's nerves about their abilities), but some of the students around me I vividly remember vomiting more than once in class on the days leading up to the test. People were crying about ruined futures, hair was being pulled out... it was like the world was going to end.
Unfortunately, when talking to my friend in Alabama, that seemed to still be the case. The school he works in tends to focus on teaching to the test, despite quite a number of protests from parents and the district alike, and it is mostly for two reasons: funding, and teachers keeping their job. The principal doesn't hide the fact that teachers are moved around based on the performance of their students on the tests, and teachers who fail repeatedly soon find themselves looking for a job. The school is suffering enough from a lack of federal funding, largely due to low test scores. It doesn't really matter that the reason scores are so low is due to a large amount of ESL students in the classroom, or that they have been so severely punished already that the money spent on restructuring to meet the standards is making the school run on a shoestring budget... it's how the tests must be administered there. Everything, everything, is riding on the students' performance, to the point that many teachers in Alabama have been caught tampering with or changing test answers out of worry. The students know it, the parents know it, the teachers know it, and the school knows it... so the test is all that is taught for.
This, to me, is a travesty. Accountability is important, as is making sure our students are prepared for the outside world and life beyond high school, but punishing an already struggling school with a test that, while objective, is not really suited to the students taking it, only causes them to look bad and meet with disaster. The constant restructuring and changing curriculum drives the teachers and the students crazy and... honestly, it sounds like a mess I am happy not to be in.
I was worried, going back to my old school, that I would be running into a similar situation, and I was all girded up and ready to hear tales of that madness... but none came. It turns out, for a few years now, Hawaii has been involved in using the Strive HI Performance System. This system still takes test scores into account (particularly in high school, where these scores transfer into college applications) but it also takes in factors like the percentage of students who have improved in a subject, how many students graduate and go on to college, and how much of a difference there is between high-needs students and their non-high-needs peers in terms of achievement. It is a system that rewards achievement, as that is obviously important, but also rewards growth and helps schools prove their worth by more standards than just a few test scores.
This system seems a lot more inclusive, and while the numbers in a lot of schools in the state aren't pretty (in fact, on this island, they're rather atrocious), they seem to be getting better. This system also means that a teacher in a class that doesn't test well, but shows amazing growth, is able to prove their worth without being reduced to one number. Students and teachers are still stressed about the ACT, and many still find themselves teaching to it when they know they should be doing something different, but none of the teachers I asked felt like the results of that score were going to, alone, determine whether or not they'd still have a job the next year.
When it comes to standardized, high stakes testing, there will always be worry, stress, and fear in the students over their very futures. And, while the standards are good for data... in many ways they hurt the children and do a disservice to the efforts put in by teachers and school officials. The benefits, to me at least, are largely outweighed by the lost opportunities and days spent on the testing. However, in the end, opinions don't matter that much... results do. I am just happy my results will be judged on a few more numbers than just one test.
========================================================================
Resources:
Kamenetz, Anya. (2015) The Past, Present And Future Of High-Stakes Testing. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/22/377438689/the-past-present-and-future-of-high-stakes-testing
Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing. (2013). Retrieved from http://worklife.columbia.edu/files_worklife/public/Pros_and_Cons_of_Standardized_Testing_1.pdf
Strive HI System Index. (n.d.). Hawaii DOE. Retrieved from http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/VisionForSuccess/AdvancingEducation/StriveHIPerformanceSystem/Pages/Strive-HI-System-Index.aspx
Sunday, June 18, 2017
One World, One People, Many Cultures
When it comes to multiculturalism and its importance, I, myself, am an open book. I believe that we are all one race. With many creeds and drives and reasons for what we do, and we will never all agree on anything, but that doesn't mean that anyone should be discouraged from what they believe so long as it isn't hurting anyone else. And I hope, one day, that the world will be able to live peacefully.
To that end, what we need in school is empathy. Empathy, defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another," is not a uniquely human trait... in fact, humans can be quite bad at it, when they don't want to be. This is why this is something that has to be taught in school, and Language Arts, with a little help from History and the other humanities, is the perfect place to learn empathy.
Language Arts, or English, or whatever you want to call it, is the study of stories and, in its more basic form, language. One could argue that language's ENTIRE purpose is to make it possible for people to share stories, experiences, and the world around you. Without language, no two humans would be able to understand anything about each other other than their looks and actions. With language, we have meaning to those actions: why, how, who, what? We can find out the purpose of people, what they perceive differently than us, what they fear and what drives them. Through Language Arts, or just he Arts in general, we gain a window into other people, other worlds, other possibilities, whether its through reading their memoirs or stories written to capture a time period. The humanities are just that: how we become human. Or, rather, how we connect to the rest of humanity.
Every culture has story tellers. Every culture, every religion, every tribe or modern nation, has similar stories. Creation myths, fables, fairy tales... and, if nothing else, they can always spin a yarn about a friend or family member's event, laughing about the memory as though it was happening now, and getting complete strangers to gasp and laugh and enjoy the thrill ride with them. Language Arts (and theater... and art... and history) are all windows into each other's souls: places where any person, through just some words on a page or sentences spoken aloud, can be transported from their own little corner of the world to anywhere else, become anyONE else, and experience it all firsthand in their imagination.
With these windows to the entire world, even into worlds that may never be, available to us, it is important to include them all in our curriculum. We can have anyone, from any background, experience the trials, struggles, and triumphs of anyone else. We can humanize people deemed "The Enemy" by politicians, give reason and understanding where there was only confusion and fear. And, yes, this can be used for ill, as some may see another's struggles and be turned to a way of thinking that isn't good, in the long run, for everyone, but... It is always, ALWAYS, better to light a flame than curse the darkness. It is better to know and understand all you can before you act, and make decisions based on reason rather than fear. And maybe, through providing windows into these other worlds, we can convince students to do their own looking, expanding their horizons to places and thoughts they never would have considered, inspiring them to do good in their own way out in the world.
As for how to do these lessons in the class... that's simple. Pick a variety of stories to base your lessons on. Yes, it will involve a lot of reading, but that is kind of the point of Language Arts. If done right, the students will be absorbing knowledge of many different ideologies without even noticing, and be learning the lessons presented all the while. You'll know a student is on the right track when they can question a story from another perspective. When they ask "Why did that character do that?" on their own, genuinely curious as to their motives and eager to finish the story to know if a person completely unlike them makes it to the end safely. Or if you can ask them why a character did something and they can answer not just with the facts that lead up to it, but the thoughts the character might have had... that is when you know they've opened their mind to other cultures.
Also, in Hawaii, with the amount of cultures always blended together, it's rare to see anyone completely against multiculturalism. But if you can get the "local" (read: darker skinned people, not necessarily of Hawaiian ancestry. Local, in this context, began with Hawaiian, but it often expands to include Filipino, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Micronesian, Chinese, and anyone who isn't obviously white) students and the "haole" (read: lighter skinned people, not necessarily of non-Hawaiian origin, but pretty much used on anyone who looks white) students to hang out outside of class, you've definitely accomplished your goal of cultural competence.
To that end, what we need in school is empathy. Empathy, defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another," is not a uniquely human trait... in fact, humans can be quite bad at it, when they don't want to be. This is why this is something that has to be taught in school, and Language Arts, with a little help from History and the other humanities, is the perfect place to learn empathy.
Language Arts, or English, or whatever you want to call it, is the study of stories and, in its more basic form, language. One could argue that language's ENTIRE purpose is to make it possible for people to share stories, experiences, and the world around you. Without language, no two humans would be able to understand anything about each other other than their looks and actions. With language, we have meaning to those actions: why, how, who, what? We can find out the purpose of people, what they perceive differently than us, what they fear and what drives them. Through Language Arts, or just he Arts in general, we gain a window into other people, other worlds, other possibilities, whether its through reading their memoirs or stories written to capture a time period. The humanities are just that: how we become human. Or, rather, how we connect to the rest of humanity.
Every culture has story tellers. Every culture, every religion, every tribe or modern nation, has similar stories. Creation myths, fables, fairy tales... and, if nothing else, they can always spin a yarn about a friend or family member's event, laughing about the memory as though it was happening now, and getting complete strangers to gasp and laugh and enjoy the thrill ride with them. Language Arts (and theater... and art... and history) are all windows into each other's souls: places where any person, through just some words on a page or sentences spoken aloud, can be transported from their own little corner of the world to anywhere else, become anyONE else, and experience it all firsthand in their imagination.
With these windows to the entire world, even into worlds that may never be, available to us, it is important to include them all in our curriculum. We can have anyone, from any background, experience the trials, struggles, and triumphs of anyone else. We can humanize people deemed "The Enemy" by politicians, give reason and understanding where there was only confusion and fear. And, yes, this can be used for ill, as some may see another's struggles and be turned to a way of thinking that isn't good, in the long run, for everyone, but... It is always, ALWAYS, better to light a flame than curse the darkness. It is better to know and understand all you can before you act, and make decisions based on reason rather than fear. And maybe, through providing windows into these other worlds, we can convince students to do their own looking, expanding their horizons to places and thoughts they never would have considered, inspiring them to do good in their own way out in the world.
As for how to do these lessons in the class... that's simple. Pick a variety of stories to base your lessons on. Yes, it will involve a lot of reading, but that is kind of the point of Language Arts. If done right, the students will be absorbing knowledge of many different ideologies without even noticing, and be learning the lessons presented all the while. You'll know a student is on the right track when they can question a story from another perspective. When they ask "Why did that character do that?" on their own, genuinely curious as to their motives and eager to finish the story to know if a person completely unlike them makes it to the end safely. Or if you can ask them why a character did something and they can answer not just with the facts that lead up to it, but the thoughts the character might have had... that is when you know they've opened their mind to other cultures.
Also, in Hawaii, with the amount of cultures always blended together, it's rare to see anyone completely against multiculturalism. But if you can get the "local" (read: darker skinned people, not necessarily of Hawaiian ancestry. Local, in this context, began with Hawaiian, but it often expands to include Filipino, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Micronesian, Chinese, and anyone who isn't obviously white) students and the "haole" (read: lighter skinned people, not necessarily of non-Hawaiian origin, but pretty much used on anyone who looks white) students to hang out outside of class, you've definitely accomplished your goal of cultural competence.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Let the Approach fit the Student
When creating materials for instructing your students, you have to be prepared for all eventualities. Whether it is students from other nations who don't speak English well, students who have disabilities that cause extra considerations when teaching them, or simply students who aren't grasping ideas or are moving faster than you're ready for. Each of these eventualities, which all teachers, even in private schools, will likely run into in some way, shape, or form, must be planned for. Here is a link to my personal flow chart for dealing with these eventualities (it may be a little small, in which case you'll have to open it on the website to zoom in).
Students Falling Behind (If a word is in bold, it's for the assignment. They might just be key words)
ELL Students
Over the course of a lesson or year, you may find that students are falling behind. There are many reasons this might be. The student may be an English Language Learner (or any other home language, if you're reading this in a country where English is not the native language) trying to comprehend instructions in a language foreign to them. In this instance, the onus is on the teacher to incorporate the student into the main classroom. As cited in the blog post by Jennifer Gonzales, the creator of the Cult of Pedagogy blog site, there are many steps one can take to help the student even in secondary school.
Helping an ELL student may require the teacher to make process changes to their lessons, such as making the lessons more visual and require less written or auditory instructions, or, if that is difficult (as it might often be in my own line of interest, English Language Arts) it may become important to focus on group work or, if possible, pairing the student with someone who speaks their native language (mentioned furthermore as L1). Changing the learning environment in such a way can really help. Students often learn from each other, so a group can help someone who doesn't quite grasp a concept on their own get it from others who may explain it in a way that clicks for them. And, should another student be able to understand the ELL's L1, this can help get the ELL through some of their awkwardness and fear that they won't say what they mean.
This idea carries over into writing: if the ELL understands the question, but can't quite figure out how to say it in English, let them write in their L1. You won't understand it without a translator, it is true, but this affect change can help them brainstorm where they are comfortable before delivering a more well-written final product. You may need the help of a translator or ESL teacher to help get the writing into something you understand, but it's better than having the student sit there doing nothing. And, if you must force an ELL student to speak when they're worried about it, make sure to give them scaffolding and help them through cultural language that is unique to your own country so that they know what to say and aren't confused by odd language uses.
For the unit I have been describing in other posts, involving language use in different contexts, an ELL student, while at an advantage for translating things, as they are already working on picking out nouns, verbs, and important parts of speech, will be at a severe disadvantage when it comes to idioms, vocabulary, and explaining the thoughts in their mind, but I am sure that the insight they can bring to the table could be invaluable to native speakers, while they could learn quite a lot about our language in the process.
Disabilities
IDEA identified disabilities run the gamut, and if they have yet to be identified, it can be a problem figuring out how to differentiate instruction for your students. Luckily, students identified early often come with IEPs (Individualized Education Program) that identify what a student needs and what considerations may be needed to help a student along in their learning. Often, giving them a little more help, something to focus on, or a little extra time to work on subjects can do quite a lot when it comes to helping students. If you don't know if a student has a disability, but you suspect it, you may need to begin gathering the data for a referral. These processes are long and specified by the state, so I won't go into them here, but in these instances you'll have to be the judge of the student's needs, so you'll just have to get to know them better and keep a close eye on them.
When it comes to disabilities, as an English teacher, I can think of one that could really be tricky to deal with: Visual Impairment. Luckily, there is a website designed to give help for just this kind of thing: www.teachingvisuallyimpaired.com.
For myself, in that same unit I mentioned above where students would need to learn based on language in context, there would need to be a lot of process considerations for a blind student. For starters, anything given in written form would have to be read aloud or provided in braille for the student to read, which could limit the student from projects where one student needs to write anything another one reads and corrects. Secondly, any advertisements or videos shown would have to come with a clear auditory component for the student, and any visuals would need to be explained. And, of course, considerations of seating, floor plans, and many other factors of the learning environment would need to be kept in mind. However, if a blind student was falling behind due to poor planning, the teacher's job would be to figure out how to make the class work for the student. This may involve a lot of reading aloud, or giving special versions of the test for the student to fit with their impairment, or letting them give oral presentations when other students are giving written ones, letting them produce a product that might be different from other students'. No matter the considerations, though, it is important not to leave a student behind for any reason, and they'd need to be kept up to speed as much as any other student.
Not Grasping the Concept
There are two categories of students who are falling behind: those who don't get it, and those who would get it, but you're not teaching it how they'd understand. The second one is a problem on the instructor's end, where your process simply isn't correct. This can be fixed in many ways, such as giving more visual instructions to visual learners, more movement opportunities to kinesthetic learners, or figuring out how to better blend your learning environment to appeal to all types of learners. Having students help each other, particularly ones who are getting the idea or moving ahead, can do wonders when it comes to helping a struggling student understand. Even getting to know them can be useful, though often the main use of this change of affect, apart from increased camaraderie, is to better learn how it is the student learns. Giving many creative options for what product they can return can also do wonders to help build student interest in learning and let them know that the process is fun and engaging.
For students who just aren't grasping it, even when you've changed all of the things above, there are three ideas I rather like to consider: tutoring, peer help, and reteaching. The first individualizes the student, giving them exactly the help they need, though they might end up feeling like the affect is a bit much, turning sour on the idea or feeling like a dunce. Having other students help with group work in a friendlier learning environment can help students who don't want to learn from a teacher, for one reason or another, get the information without feeling like it is being given from someone they don't care about. However, should neither of these ideas help, you might simply have to reteach the lesson for the students who didn't get it the first time, attacking it from a new angle and carefully explaining what they need to know. This might involve changing the process to be more visual or involve more movement to fit the learner's style, but whatever you do, you must make sure the information is successfully passed on.
Students Running Ahead
While this might not seem like an issue, or may even seem like a blessing to a teacher, a gifted student comes with its own set of problems. As one myself when I went through school, I know just how aggravating it can be to be stuck in a class when you're leagues ahead of everyone else and the teacher doesn't know what to do with you. Luckily, the internet is now a very common, well understood thing, and there are websites dedicated to this sort of thing.
The first thing you should do, as a teacher with a gifted student, is see if their parents are willing to put them in any sort of gifted and talented programs the school may have. Some parents might not want to for whatever reason, but the child shouldn't be forced to lag behind if it can be avoided.
If they do remain in your classroom, you should get to know them a little better. A friendly affect can help you determine how they best learn, letting you create advanced learning opportunities for them and additional challenges to help them strive forward. These shouldn't be side tangents or meaningless busywork, but actual process advancement in their learning past what everyone else is getting, with an expectation for an equally advanced product.
If the student wants to help, they can become perfect peer mentors for struggling children, helping to explain the concepts to the other students in ways they might understand. Be careful with this, though, as it is not the gifted student's job, and is taking time away from their advanced learning. Also, not all gifted students, like me, are going to want to be teachers, and if they don't want to help teach, don't force them. Whether they are willing to be a peer mentor or not, make sure you continue to challenge them to do their best and keep learning. Squashing their enthusiasm for learning is the worst thing you can do.
References:
Tomlinson, C. A. (n.d.). What it Means to Teach Gifted Learners Well. Retrieved from https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices/what-it-means-teach-gifted-learners-well
Students Falling Behind (If a word is in bold, it's for the assignment. They might just be key words)
ELL Students
Over the course of a lesson or year, you may find that students are falling behind. There are many reasons this might be. The student may be an English Language Learner (or any other home language, if you're reading this in a country where English is not the native language) trying to comprehend instructions in a language foreign to them. In this instance, the onus is on the teacher to incorporate the student into the main classroom. As cited in the blog post by Jennifer Gonzales, the creator of the Cult of Pedagogy blog site, there are many steps one can take to help the student even in secondary school.
Helping an ELL student may require the teacher to make process changes to their lessons, such as making the lessons more visual and require less written or auditory instructions, or, if that is difficult (as it might often be in my own line of interest, English Language Arts) it may become important to focus on group work or, if possible, pairing the student with someone who speaks their native language (mentioned furthermore as L1). Changing the learning environment in such a way can really help. Students often learn from each other, so a group can help someone who doesn't quite grasp a concept on their own get it from others who may explain it in a way that clicks for them. And, should another student be able to understand the ELL's L1, this can help get the ELL through some of their awkwardness and fear that they won't say what they mean.
This idea carries over into writing: if the ELL understands the question, but can't quite figure out how to say it in English, let them write in their L1. You won't understand it without a translator, it is true, but this affect change can help them brainstorm where they are comfortable before delivering a more well-written final product. You may need the help of a translator or ESL teacher to help get the writing into something you understand, but it's better than having the student sit there doing nothing. And, if you must force an ELL student to speak when they're worried about it, make sure to give them scaffolding and help them through cultural language that is unique to your own country so that they know what to say and aren't confused by odd language uses.
For the unit I have been describing in other posts, involving language use in different contexts, an ELL student, while at an advantage for translating things, as they are already working on picking out nouns, verbs, and important parts of speech, will be at a severe disadvantage when it comes to idioms, vocabulary, and explaining the thoughts in their mind, but I am sure that the insight they can bring to the table could be invaluable to native speakers, while they could learn quite a lot about our language in the process.
Disabilities
IDEA identified disabilities run the gamut, and if they have yet to be identified, it can be a problem figuring out how to differentiate instruction for your students. Luckily, students identified early often come with IEPs (Individualized Education Program) that identify what a student needs and what considerations may be needed to help a student along in their learning. Often, giving them a little more help, something to focus on, or a little extra time to work on subjects can do quite a lot when it comes to helping students. If you don't know if a student has a disability, but you suspect it, you may need to begin gathering the data for a referral. These processes are long and specified by the state, so I won't go into them here, but in these instances you'll have to be the judge of the student's needs, so you'll just have to get to know them better and keep a close eye on them.
When it comes to disabilities, as an English teacher, I can think of one that could really be tricky to deal with: Visual Impairment. Luckily, there is a website designed to give help for just this kind of thing: www.teachingvisuallyimpaired.com.
For myself, in that same unit I mentioned above where students would need to learn based on language in context, there would need to be a lot of process considerations for a blind student. For starters, anything given in written form would have to be read aloud or provided in braille for the student to read, which could limit the student from projects where one student needs to write anything another one reads and corrects. Secondly, any advertisements or videos shown would have to come with a clear auditory component for the student, and any visuals would need to be explained. And, of course, considerations of seating, floor plans, and many other factors of the learning environment would need to be kept in mind. However, if a blind student was falling behind due to poor planning, the teacher's job would be to figure out how to make the class work for the student. This may involve a lot of reading aloud, or giving special versions of the test for the student to fit with their impairment, or letting them give oral presentations when other students are giving written ones, letting them produce a product that might be different from other students'. No matter the considerations, though, it is important not to leave a student behind for any reason, and they'd need to be kept up to speed as much as any other student.
Not Grasping the Concept
There are two categories of students who are falling behind: those who don't get it, and those who would get it, but you're not teaching it how they'd understand. The second one is a problem on the instructor's end, where your process simply isn't correct. This can be fixed in many ways, such as giving more visual instructions to visual learners, more movement opportunities to kinesthetic learners, or figuring out how to better blend your learning environment to appeal to all types of learners. Having students help each other, particularly ones who are getting the idea or moving ahead, can do wonders when it comes to helping a struggling student understand. Even getting to know them can be useful, though often the main use of this change of affect, apart from increased camaraderie, is to better learn how it is the student learns. Giving many creative options for what product they can return can also do wonders to help build student interest in learning and let them know that the process is fun and engaging.
For students who just aren't grasping it, even when you've changed all of the things above, there are three ideas I rather like to consider: tutoring, peer help, and reteaching. The first individualizes the student, giving them exactly the help they need, though they might end up feeling like the affect is a bit much, turning sour on the idea or feeling like a dunce. Having other students help with group work in a friendlier learning environment can help students who don't want to learn from a teacher, for one reason or another, get the information without feeling like it is being given from someone they don't care about. However, should neither of these ideas help, you might simply have to reteach the lesson for the students who didn't get it the first time, attacking it from a new angle and carefully explaining what they need to know. This might involve changing the process to be more visual or involve more movement to fit the learner's style, but whatever you do, you must make sure the information is successfully passed on.
Students Running Ahead
While this might not seem like an issue, or may even seem like a blessing to a teacher, a gifted student comes with its own set of problems. As one myself when I went through school, I know just how aggravating it can be to be stuck in a class when you're leagues ahead of everyone else and the teacher doesn't know what to do with you. Luckily, the internet is now a very common, well understood thing, and there are websites dedicated to this sort of thing.
The first thing you should do, as a teacher with a gifted student, is see if their parents are willing to put them in any sort of gifted and talented programs the school may have. Some parents might not want to for whatever reason, but the child shouldn't be forced to lag behind if it can be avoided.
If they do remain in your classroom, you should get to know them a little better. A friendly affect can help you determine how they best learn, letting you create advanced learning opportunities for them and additional challenges to help them strive forward. These shouldn't be side tangents or meaningless busywork, but actual process advancement in their learning past what everyone else is getting, with an expectation for an equally advanced product.
If the student wants to help, they can become perfect peer mentors for struggling children, helping to explain the concepts to the other students in ways they might understand. Be careful with this, though, as it is not the gifted student's job, and is taking time away from their advanced learning. Also, not all gifted students, like me, are going to want to be teachers, and if they don't want to help teach, don't force them. Whether they are willing to be a peer mentor or not, make sure you continue to challenge them to do their best and keep learning. Squashing their enthusiasm for learning is the worst thing you can do.
References:
Tomlinson, C. A. (n.d.). What it Means to Teach Gifted Learners Well. Retrieved from https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices/what-it-means-teach-gifted-learners-well
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Performance-Based Assessments: Making why you learn make sense.
Conveniently, while I was writing the explanations for the first part of this week's assignments, I happened to slightly cover what one would assess for the students. However, for the rare individual that may stumble upon this blog post in a vacuum, here is what I am doing:
We are creating assessments for objectives we have generated for standards based on our school districts. Since mine is a district that follows Common Core State Standards, and I wish to teach high-school English/Language Arts, my standard is this:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.3
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
The objectives I created for this won't be posted here, however, the assessment ideas I had for the piece are below.
Formative:
There would be many formative assessments for the month-long unit that would be covering this standard, but for my purposes, I was thinking something along the line of a student check-up. What would happen is each student would bring in a piece of complicated or confusing language for the other students at their table to decipher, complete with a translation from whichever context of language the initial writing was in to something more simple. The students would trade, testing each other on something neither one would have prior knowledge of, then have a small conference where they discuss similarities, differences, and moments of confusion as they tried to translate. At the end of the day, students would turn in their snippet of language (a few sentences to a paragraph), their translation, and the translation they wrote for their partner's language snippet for assessment and review by me as the teacher. That way, they could keep practicing with real-world instances of language, and, if I saw common problems, I could give a refresher in the next class, or simply give them notes on what each individual wasn't quite understanding on their returned handouts.
For this particular assessment, they would have to do these once a week, but be given a time limit in class to translate, they would be able to work on what they don't know actively, grasping the ideas and concepts being given to them, the result would both fit the standard AND be helping them translate something they didn't know before, helping them in the real world, and since I would collect and correct the translations, I would be able to measure everyone's progress as the unit went on.
Summative:
The "final exam" of the course would be the summative assessment, and for this one, I had the perfect idea in the description of my final objective. Essentially, students would be required, on the last day of the class, to do a much larger version of the formative assessments. They would need to bring in a large legal document, technical instruction, academic paper... something at least 1 page long and written for a context that your "average" person wouldn't understand. They would also have to bring in a translation of the entire document's language into a different context (ideally something more understandable, but they could go from legalese to academic or sales-pitch, if they so choose).
If they didn't want to do that, from being sick of doing smaller versions of that or just more intrigued in the second option, they could write a letter to someone (a friend, a teacher, a doctor, etc) and then translate the contents of that letter into a formal document, a job resume, or a story to be told around a campfire... or any other contexts that weren't its original form.
Both of these options would be turned in (or presented, if the student wished and it was in a form the student could easily present) and, after a celebration for completing a section, we would move on to the next idea.
Both of these options would cover precisely what the standard is talking about, showing the translation, understanding, and creation (though this last one is more present in the second option) of language in multiple contexts. This would be a large project proposed, say, the week before it was due, giving them a firm time limit, and would be graded on quality of the overall translation (both faithfulness and ability to be understood). After all of the other work they had been doing, this would feel like, at most, a larger homework assignment that should be grasped by the students quite easily, but, by its very nature, helps them with real-world problems by helping them learn the proper etiquette for a cover letter, legal letter, or just helping them be motivated to learn how to understand legalese or see through sales-talk. It may be presumptuous of me, but this might just be a SMART idea.
We are creating assessments for objectives we have generated for standards based on our school districts. Since mine is a district that follows Common Core State Standards, and I wish to teach high-school English/Language Arts, my standard is this:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.3
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
The objectives I created for this won't be posted here, however, the assessment ideas I had for the piece are below.
Formative:
There would be many formative assessments for the month-long unit that would be covering this standard, but for my purposes, I was thinking something along the line of a student check-up. What would happen is each student would bring in a piece of complicated or confusing language for the other students at their table to decipher, complete with a translation from whichever context of language the initial writing was in to something more simple. The students would trade, testing each other on something neither one would have prior knowledge of, then have a small conference where they discuss similarities, differences, and moments of confusion as they tried to translate. At the end of the day, students would turn in their snippet of language (a few sentences to a paragraph), their translation, and the translation they wrote for their partner's language snippet for assessment and review by me as the teacher. That way, they could keep practicing with real-world instances of language, and, if I saw common problems, I could give a refresher in the next class, or simply give them notes on what each individual wasn't quite understanding on their returned handouts.
For this particular assessment, they would have to do these once a week, but be given a time limit in class to translate, they would be able to work on what they don't know actively, grasping the ideas and concepts being given to them, the result would both fit the standard AND be helping them translate something they didn't know before, helping them in the real world, and since I would collect and correct the translations, I would be able to measure everyone's progress as the unit went on.
Summative:
The "final exam" of the course would be the summative assessment, and for this one, I had the perfect idea in the description of my final objective. Essentially, students would be required, on the last day of the class, to do a much larger version of the formative assessments. They would need to bring in a large legal document, technical instruction, academic paper... something at least 1 page long and written for a context that your "average" person wouldn't understand. They would also have to bring in a translation of the entire document's language into a different context (ideally something more understandable, but they could go from legalese to academic or sales-pitch, if they so choose).
If they didn't want to do that, from being sick of doing smaller versions of that or just more intrigued in the second option, they could write a letter to someone (a friend, a teacher, a doctor, etc) and then translate the contents of that letter into a formal document, a job resume, or a story to be told around a campfire... or any other contexts that weren't its original form.
Both of these options would be turned in (or presented, if the student wished and it was in a form the student could easily present) and, after a celebration for completing a section, we would move on to the next idea.
Both of these options would cover precisely what the standard is talking about, showing the translation, understanding, and creation (though this last one is more present in the second option) of language in multiple contexts. This would be a large project proposed, say, the week before it was due, giving them a firm time limit, and would be graded on quality of the overall translation (both faithfulness and ability to be understood). After all of the other work they had been doing, this would feel like, at most, a larger homework assignment that should be grasped by the students quite easily, but, by its very nature, helps them with real-world problems by helping them learn the proper etiquette for a cover letter, legal letter, or just helping them be motivated to learn how to understand legalese or see through sales-talk. It may be presumptuous of me, but this might just be a SMART idea.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Standards Reflection
When it comes to unpacking standards and backwards mapping, while I wasn't a teacher yet, these were already concepts (if not names for them) that I was well aware of. I have been in far too many classes where there are vague standards nobody, including the teacher, seems to understand, and that doesn't benefit anyone. Sure, it makes the school look good for parents, but if nobody understands what needs to be taught or learned, what is the point?
Understanding is the goal in all things. We talk so people understand us, we write so understanding may pass on to future generations, we do experiments to broaden our understanding of the world... So it only makes sense that standards should be as understood as possible. This doesn't seem like a job for teachers but, like so many other things in the world, somehow it has fallen to teachers anyway, even in things as nigh-universal (in this country) as the Common Core State Standards (as I have to deal with in Hawaii).
The thing about standards are that they are benchmarks. They are designed to be fuzzy lines of achievement, but with real, tangible effects. I, personally, find it best to use standards as a marker of the direction students should go, hoping to cultivate a learning environment where those fuzzy lines get blown out of the water by clear pinnacles of understanding and proficiency. To do this, we have to break down the academic speak and fancy talk that looks good to politicians, lawmakers, and shareholders, and turn it into the language that everyone else speaks. What do students need to do? What do they need to know? This is, actually, precisely why I picked the standards I did for activity 1 and 2 this week. It is the one most geared towards helping everyone know how to unpack standards from their flowery academic talk to something more generally understood.
Once you know the goals, backwards mapping becomes key. You know where the student needs to end up, now all you have to do is walk them back to where they will start the year. This can be done in multiple ways, and not every single step needs to be set in stone (as many classes may grow or explore in directions you weren't expecting, but still head towards the final goal) but there should definitely be checkpoints along the way to make sure you're reaching where you need to be. Assessments and activities built in to make sure that students are, roughly, where they should be and on track to reach the finish line. But you only know the intermediate steps when you know the start and the finish: the standards of the grade before and the standards you're meant to meet this time.
The main thing this also helps you do is plan according to the grade level. The example in the video showed to the cohort was in baking a pie: while there are many ways to learn how to bake a pie, if you want to demonstrate your ability to bake one, writing an essay on the history of pies won't work. In the same way, with standards, if your final idea is to be able to speak fluently in one group and be able to write in specific contexts in a second, you shouldn't practice writing too heavily with group one or speaking too heavily with group two. While they might be useful things for each group to know, if they prove they can do the wrong thing, that gets you no closer to knowing if they have learned the standard, and them no closer to understanding the standards that have been just out of their reach.
This idea has always struck me as a relatively obvious one, but the amount of people for whom this idea is some strange, alien novelty kind of boggles my mind. It illustrates a strange stagnation we need to break free from in education, and one that will only be accomplished by creative teachers getting into the works and modifying them for the better from the inside.
In the end, these skills, while simple and obvious to myself, are vital ones that need to be drilled into all teachers, regardless of how long they may have been teaching. Teachers must understand what they are to teach before they can teach it, and students must understand what they're supposed to learn before they can learn it. You can't learn something you don't know you don't know, you can only learn information you know you don't know, solving the problem of not knowing it. Teachers must also be able to backwards map (which I always want to refer to as pamming... but this is me liking silly puns and jokes) to make sure students are engaged and learning what they need to be every step of the way towards their goal. This way, everyone is focused and unified in their efforts to teach, learn, and grow to be the people who make tomorrow the bright future it is.
Understanding is the goal in all things. We talk so people understand us, we write so understanding may pass on to future generations, we do experiments to broaden our understanding of the world... So it only makes sense that standards should be as understood as possible. This doesn't seem like a job for teachers but, like so many other things in the world, somehow it has fallen to teachers anyway, even in things as nigh-universal (in this country) as the Common Core State Standards (as I have to deal with in Hawaii).
The thing about standards are that they are benchmarks. They are designed to be fuzzy lines of achievement, but with real, tangible effects. I, personally, find it best to use standards as a marker of the direction students should go, hoping to cultivate a learning environment where those fuzzy lines get blown out of the water by clear pinnacles of understanding and proficiency. To do this, we have to break down the academic speak and fancy talk that looks good to politicians, lawmakers, and shareholders, and turn it into the language that everyone else speaks. What do students need to do? What do they need to know? This is, actually, precisely why I picked the standards I did for activity 1 and 2 this week. It is the one most geared towards helping everyone know how to unpack standards from their flowery academic talk to something more generally understood.
Once you know the goals, backwards mapping becomes key. You know where the student needs to end up, now all you have to do is walk them back to where they will start the year. This can be done in multiple ways, and not every single step needs to be set in stone (as many classes may grow or explore in directions you weren't expecting, but still head towards the final goal) but there should definitely be checkpoints along the way to make sure you're reaching where you need to be. Assessments and activities built in to make sure that students are, roughly, where they should be and on track to reach the finish line. But you only know the intermediate steps when you know the start and the finish: the standards of the grade before and the standards you're meant to meet this time.
The main thing this also helps you do is plan according to the grade level. The example in the video showed to the cohort was in baking a pie: while there are many ways to learn how to bake a pie, if you want to demonstrate your ability to bake one, writing an essay on the history of pies won't work. In the same way, with standards, if your final idea is to be able to speak fluently in one group and be able to write in specific contexts in a second, you shouldn't practice writing too heavily with group one or speaking too heavily with group two. While they might be useful things for each group to know, if they prove they can do the wrong thing, that gets you no closer to knowing if they have learned the standard, and them no closer to understanding the standards that have been just out of their reach.
This idea has always struck me as a relatively obvious one, but the amount of people for whom this idea is some strange, alien novelty kind of boggles my mind. It illustrates a strange stagnation we need to break free from in education, and one that will only be accomplished by creative teachers getting into the works and modifying them for the better from the inside.
In the end, these skills, while simple and obvious to myself, are vital ones that need to be drilled into all teachers, regardless of how long they may have been teaching. Teachers must understand what they are to teach before they can teach it, and students must understand what they're supposed to learn before they can learn it. You can't learn something you don't know you don't know, you can only learn information you know you don't know, solving the problem of not knowing it. Teachers must also be able to backwards map (which I always want to refer to as pamming... but this is me liking silly puns and jokes) to make sure students are engaged and learning what they need to be every step of the way towards their goal. This way, everyone is focused and unified in their efforts to teach, learn, and grow to be the people who make tomorrow the bright future it is.
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