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.
Holding the Map Backwards: Not Always a Problem
I do not currently teach, but I expect to teach in a secondary school English Language Arts when all is said and done, in Hawaii, which uses the Common Core State Standards. As such, for my planning today, I will be using standard CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.3 for 9th and 10th graders. This standard reads
"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."
I chose this standard as it is quite important not just in class or in school, but in the world at large. Many different companies or groups use language differently, and as a functioning member of society, one must be able to not only hold a conversation with your friends, but be able to communicate with the legal system and the government, understand warning labels on packaging and doctor's notes, and otherwise be able to understand complicated language and, often, explain it to people who don't have these skills. It is a vital and useful ability in this day and age, and one that we shouldn't skimp on teaching.
Also, for the student in school, this standard involves critical thinking in being able to understand and edit papers they both receive and are working on, giving them the scholastic tools to be able to write academically when they need to and creatively, informally, or professionally when it is more appropriate.
When my students are done with this unit, the proficiencies I can expect are:
- Be able to recognize the differences in language used in different contexts.
- Be able to edit other people's writing to fit into a specific context.
- Be able to write their own work as appropriate for a specific context.
- Be able to understand new information when it is provided to them, regardless of the context.
- Using a fresh text (not given to the student before), each student has to write a summary and rewording of what is being written.
- Using a fresh text read aloud in class (one they have not heard before) students must be able to summarize the statements and give suggestions on what kind of contexts those statements might be appropriate for.
- Using a prompt and given information, students must be able to write a letter or paper appropriate for different contexts.
- Using a fresh text, students must be able to guess the context it was written in, then edit the content to fit into a different context or make suggestions on how to change its context.
- A summary practice day: Students read several short passages from different contexts. Initially as a class, but later on their own, students identify the contexts the passages may be from and summarize their meaning.
- The summary should be short (A single sentence to a full paragraph, depending on passage length) and clearly show the information given.
- The summary should identify what context it is in.
- Letter writing practice: After discussing how students talk differently to their parents, their teachers, prospective employers, and people like police officers or guards, students are given a single situation and some details and must write a version of a letter or essay for their family, for a classroom presentation, for their boss, and for a courtroom to demonstrate their ability to write for different contexts.
- Students would be able to peer-review each other's works, editing and suggesting changes to better fit contexts.
- All students would have the same information to begin with, but may use their own critical thinking and creativity to create any letter they wish.
- Letters would be collected, and exemplary instances of writing for each context would be shared with the class in a later discussion on the topic.
- Conversation time: Students would be placed into groups, each of which having different information. They would have to share that information, but when a bell is rung, must change how they speak to fit a different context. At the end, one person (chosen at random) must present the information they gleaned from the experience.
- Students must share all information, or else the student sent up would not be able to share their information with everyone else.
- Students must be able to understand multiple contexts, and be flexible enough to share information with a student not-comprehending in a context they might understand.
- Groups would be assessed in whole, and by anonymous peer review after the fact to narrow it down to individuals.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Classroom Rules and Procedures
Applying rules and procedures to a classroom is key if you want your students to behave and, more importantly, learn. Having a rule in place lets them know what the boundaries are for them to explore, and having procedures keeps them grounded in ritual and order, making it easier for them to explore the area given to them and find every last bit of information they can.
But just having these things in place is meaningless without ways to enforce rules and reinforce behavior. That, however, quickly becomes complicated, as this chart can show you (I will link the picture below as well). However, with the integration of modern tools and technology, along with good, old fashioned withitness and empathy, every teacher should be armed with the tools to manage his or her classroom.
To begin with, I'd like to talk about rewarding good behavior. This part seems the easier area, as it has less chances for confrontation with the students, but it is actually the trickier half of the prospect. You see, rewards can cause perverse incentives. If you only give rewards for certain behaviors, students may lose some creativity for things that are following the rules, but aren't blatantly following the rules, causing even more disruption as students try to get your attention with how good they're being. Or, they may get jealous at a student who is more obviously being rewarded, causing "bad" students to act worse as they try to get the chance to shine themselves by bullying the "good" student when you aren't around.
As such, you, as a teacher, have to make sure that students are rewarded fairly and, if at all possible, equally. This is why, personally, I would rather have students grouped together, giving rewards to the table or group, rather than the individual, for good behavior. This will allow students to police each other, as all of them work towards a common goal. Now, the actual act of rewarding comes in a few ways. Tokens or points (such as those awarded by Class Dojo or Classcraft) create an obvious, tangible thing that students can strive for. If these points are able to be traded in, either for a big prize at the end of the year, or little prizes along the way, students will naturally strive to get the points and do the right thing. If the rewards seem a little too much for you personally, verbal encouragement and pointing out students doing the right thing has an equal amount of positive effect on the other students, as everyone likes being praised for being a good student.
Now, for myself, I have another category, called a major reward. These would be very rare, but very big rewards. Things like a student who was doing badly getting a perfect score, or a student standing up to bullying that I had possibly missed, even if it was out in the yard at recess, or one student helping another or a table understand an idea that they were having problems with while I helped a different group of students. These kinds of large actions would get bigger rewards, and truly heroic ones would be rewarded with a call to the parents praising their student and letting them know how good the child is. It could change the entire dynamic at home and keep the praise and the good feelings going through the whole week.
Conversely, negative behavior has to be punished. There should be layers of punishment, with students being able to correct themselves before I step in. If they're in groups, I expect the entire group to keep tabs on each other, so that they don't lose points or anything, but I would look at the offending student while continuing with the lesson, or talk to them quietly if everyone was supposed to be silent and they realized they were caught. If they didn't realize I saw them, then I would get closer to them, until, if they are so oblivious with whatever had their attention that they didn't notice me looming, I would stop the class to punish them verbally. It wouldn't be anything big or scolding if it was a quiet disruption only for a couple of students, but just enough to let the students realize what they were doing wrong. If it caused a larger problem and there was a point or token system in place, they'd lose some, based on the rules, so they knew why they were being punished and how to fix it.
If they repeatedly broke the rules, or broke the rules in a larger way, such as obvious disruptions or bullying, I would stop with quiet warnings and moving over and begin positioning myself near them more often, giving full scoldings for repeated behavior, or a sharp warning to make them stop their actions before someone got hurt. Points would be deducted if it was an obvious problem, and if they were damaging books or desks or something, I would force them to fix their damage, as well as any other damage in the class, overcorrecting to let them realize what the initial problem was.
If these larger actions continued, or if they had a truly bad disruption, like trying to start a fight with another student, inciting a class to mock someone, or a huge confrontation with myself, I would immediately react with accordance to school guidelines. I would break up a fight or call security to do the same, and in the other situations, I would find the leader and, calmly but firmly, calm them down, explain what I needed them to do, and discuss why their behavior was bad and the consequences of their actions. Only as a last resort, should the problem not be able to be dealt with in the class or the disruptions are so frequent and large that there's no other option, will I actually send a student to detention or the principal's office, and I would make sure the incident was followed up by a call to the parents (a strong tool, whether positive or negative) to explain why it happened and hopefully help instigate discipline following the student home so it is drilled into them by people they do listen to and respect, since they've proven, at that point, that they don't listen to or respect me.
Discipline is a messy, complicated, not at all fun, but crucially important part of a classroom. You must, as a teacher, reward good students and punish bad, not only because these are how the rules are set up, but because this is how society works. You aren't just teaching students new information, these children are learning how to be responsible, dependable adults functioning in a society that has very clear, very strict laws with very clear punishment should you break them. You must be a force of order (sometimes, the only force of order) in the student's life so that they understand how laws and order work and learn to operate within those forces. A quiet, respectful classroom is just a pleasant side-effect to the larger mission of even this dirty job.
(The chart linked above:)
But just having these things in place is meaningless without ways to enforce rules and reinforce behavior. That, however, quickly becomes complicated, as this chart can show you (I will link the picture below as well). However, with the integration of modern tools and technology, along with good, old fashioned withitness and empathy, every teacher should be armed with the tools to manage his or her classroom.
To begin with, I'd like to talk about rewarding good behavior. This part seems the easier area, as it has less chances for confrontation with the students, but it is actually the trickier half of the prospect. You see, rewards can cause perverse incentives. If you only give rewards for certain behaviors, students may lose some creativity for things that are following the rules, but aren't blatantly following the rules, causing even more disruption as students try to get your attention with how good they're being. Or, they may get jealous at a student who is more obviously being rewarded, causing "bad" students to act worse as they try to get the chance to shine themselves by bullying the "good" student when you aren't around.
As such, you, as a teacher, have to make sure that students are rewarded fairly and, if at all possible, equally. This is why, personally, I would rather have students grouped together, giving rewards to the table or group, rather than the individual, for good behavior. This will allow students to police each other, as all of them work towards a common goal. Now, the actual act of rewarding comes in a few ways. Tokens or points (such as those awarded by Class Dojo or Classcraft) create an obvious, tangible thing that students can strive for. If these points are able to be traded in, either for a big prize at the end of the year, or little prizes along the way, students will naturally strive to get the points and do the right thing. If the rewards seem a little too much for you personally, verbal encouragement and pointing out students doing the right thing has an equal amount of positive effect on the other students, as everyone likes being praised for being a good student.
Now, for myself, I have another category, called a major reward. These would be very rare, but very big rewards. Things like a student who was doing badly getting a perfect score, or a student standing up to bullying that I had possibly missed, even if it was out in the yard at recess, or one student helping another or a table understand an idea that they were having problems with while I helped a different group of students. These kinds of large actions would get bigger rewards, and truly heroic ones would be rewarded with a call to the parents praising their student and letting them know how good the child is. It could change the entire dynamic at home and keep the praise and the good feelings going through the whole week.
Conversely, negative behavior has to be punished. There should be layers of punishment, with students being able to correct themselves before I step in. If they're in groups, I expect the entire group to keep tabs on each other, so that they don't lose points or anything, but I would look at the offending student while continuing with the lesson, or talk to them quietly if everyone was supposed to be silent and they realized they were caught. If they didn't realize I saw them, then I would get closer to them, until, if they are so oblivious with whatever had their attention that they didn't notice me looming, I would stop the class to punish them verbally. It wouldn't be anything big or scolding if it was a quiet disruption only for a couple of students, but just enough to let the students realize what they were doing wrong. If it caused a larger problem and there was a point or token system in place, they'd lose some, based on the rules, so they knew why they were being punished and how to fix it.
If they repeatedly broke the rules, or broke the rules in a larger way, such as obvious disruptions or bullying, I would stop with quiet warnings and moving over and begin positioning myself near them more often, giving full scoldings for repeated behavior, or a sharp warning to make them stop their actions before someone got hurt. Points would be deducted if it was an obvious problem, and if they were damaging books or desks or something, I would force them to fix their damage, as well as any other damage in the class, overcorrecting to let them realize what the initial problem was.
If these larger actions continued, or if they had a truly bad disruption, like trying to start a fight with another student, inciting a class to mock someone, or a huge confrontation with myself, I would immediately react with accordance to school guidelines. I would break up a fight or call security to do the same, and in the other situations, I would find the leader and, calmly but firmly, calm them down, explain what I needed them to do, and discuss why their behavior was bad and the consequences of their actions. Only as a last resort, should the problem not be able to be dealt with in the class or the disruptions are so frequent and large that there's no other option, will I actually send a student to detention or the principal's office, and I would make sure the incident was followed up by a call to the parents (a strong tool, whether positive or negative) to explain why it happened and hopefully help instigate discipline following the student home so it is drilled into them by people they do listen to and respect, since they've proven, at that point, that they don't listen to or respect me.
Discipline is a messy, complicated, not at all fun, but crucially important part of a classroom. You must, as a teacher, reward good students and punish bad, not only because these are how the rules are set up, but because this is how society works. You aren't just teaching students new information, these children are learning how to be responsible, dependable adults functioning in a society that has very clear, very strict laws with very clear punishment should you break them. You must be a force of order (sometimes, the only force of order) in the student's life so that they understand how laws and order work and learn to operate within those forces. A quiet, respectful classroom is just a pleasant side-effect to the larger mission of even this dirty job.
(The chart linked above:)
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
High Performance Learning
Today I will be talking about three learning experiences, evaluating positives and negatives involved in their use. They will be Roller Coaster Physics (as found here), the Chinese approach to math (as explained here and shown off here), and Whole Brain Teaching (as shown here). We'll look at their strengths, their weakness, and whether or not they'd be good options for applying to my own theoretical classroom.
First, the Roller Coaster Physics. Watching the video, it is clear that Donna Migdol holds very high expectations for her students by both academic and behavioral standards. She treats the students like adults, essentially, not talking down to them or repeating information ad nauseam when they understand it the first time. And this is important for what she is expecting of her students. They are to build a roller coaster for their marble, getting it to the end safely without rushing off the track, and they have a 'budget' they can use to get all of the materials they need. Each student has their role, and you can tell from the way they talk to the camera that they are taking their roles quite seriously.
For this class, procedures and norms are everything. They have to work and communicate as a group, they have to be sure on their decisions when 'buying' materials (as there's no refunds, and they're quite expensive) and everyone has to be on top of their part of the design. As a result of holding the students to such a high level, you see them respond in kind, being quite professional and able to talk and plan with each other, all coming together to make and adjust their group roller coaster without stepping on anyone's toes.
This is a fantastic model for teaching STEM, particularly since it lets you get hands-on immediately, giving the students something real to connect their ideas to. I may have my issues with STEM focus (being a large proponent of the arts myself) but when they work, they do work wonders.
The second group I'll cover is the Chinese math class. As the video shows, there is a large focus on drilling and running the numbers with rhymes and songs as a group. This repetition does wonders to lock the idea in the student's mind, and has been a plan people and governments have used for ages to get people to quickly learn a new language. One could argue that math is the language of the universe, or of numbers, so I think that argument can be applied here too.
The class seems engaged with the teacher, and they all are working well at answering the questions, with clear norms and procedures to answer questions when called on, to repeat after the teacher, and to work as a group, but it's a bit harder to tell what the expectations are. Parents in China have very high expectations of their students, both behaviorally and educationally, but some from other countries might see those same expectations as restrictive to personality. Between the article I linked and many people I know who have talked of teaching in China, interaction between students and between the student and the teacher is very low, favoring drilling and testing over giving practical applications or help to individual students. This means that the students are very good at what they're doing, but lose out on some of the practical applications and social aspects of life. It is impossible to argue with the effectiveness of this teaching strategy, but a human side seems to be lost if one isn't careful.
The third learning strategy to cover is Whole Brain Teaching. The video for this one feels chaotic, and the website explaining it... well, didn't do a good job of explaining it to me, but I understand the theory. Students learn in multiple ways... some are visual, some are auditory, some are kinetic, and this method reaches out to all of them. The motions, sounds, and visuals all combine to teach the same thing, letting students acquire the knowledge in the way that best works for them.
There are clear procedures when it comes to following the teacher, repeating after them, and how groups work together depending on how the assignment continues, and those seem to be followed strictly and with little teacher intervention, suggesting the teacher thinks highly of the students' abilities when it comes to following instructions. However, one could argue that this entire method thinks a little less of the students than some other methods, as it hold their hand all the way through, with the teacher watching like a hawk for mistakes or non-comprehension and little freedom on the part of the student. On top of this, the actions are functional in this setting, but not all information is going to be given to you in this way in the real world, and adding motions on your own might cause a whole new set of issues when it comes to appearances for social sanity. Therefore, it's hard to determine whether the expectations for education are truly high, or just the expectations that students will follow the rules are high.
The final classroom we will be covering is my own. Now, I intend to teach English, Theater, and/or English as a Second Language to students in secondary school. I do not know my class level yet, but for the sake of this piece, let's pick Sophomores (10th Grade). The first teaching method would be the one I would want to follow as much as possible. Having students in groups builds their communication, large projects with the freedom to tackle it however you want, but expectations of a quality result, place high expectations on the students while also trusting them with the freedom to do it however they want, and as long as the base rules are well defined, I can imagine a quite composed classroom coming from this. Now, these ideas are a little harder to tie to real-world projects in English than they are in STEM subjects, and it would involve a lot more creativity, but if I set the bar, I know that the students will be able to reach it.
If I am teaching ESL, or if I need to cover remedial parts of grammar quickly, I will probably use the method in the second video at least a few times. It is one of the fastest way to drill basic concepts into students, and once they have the basics, it is much easier to give them the freedom to be more creative and tackle more complicated things. It is not quite as effective for languages outside of formulas, as language tends to be much more nuanced than numbers do, but it's still a very useful tool.
If I find I have a lot of trouble students, or ones that learn differently than my main teaching methods, I might employ Whole Brain Teaching. It can be useful both for foreign language students, as the motions give an anchor from which further understanding can bloom, and for students labeled as "trouble students" because they just don't learn the same way everyone else does. I would need to do a lot more study on the method to truly feel comfortable with it, but even from a cultural standpoint, with Hawaii's emphasis on hula and chants - storytelling through means other than words - applying more motions and vocalization to the class might not hurt.
No matter what strategy I end up going with, or even if I blend all of them, strictly defining and enforcing the rules is a must. In all ways, we should do our best to treat the students as human beings, giving them real responsibility so they can rise to the challenge. The contexts around that principle may change, but those rules should always be held in the highest of regards.
Resources:
Chen, C. (2011, June 13). 3rd grade Chinese--math class.avi. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g
roxishayne (2011, May 31). Whole Brain Teaching Richwood High - The Basics. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXTtR7lfWU&feature=youtu.be
First, the Roller Coaster Physics. Watching the video, it is clear that Donna Migdol holds very high expectations for her students by both academic and behavioral standards. She treats the students like adults, essentially, not talking down to them or repeating information ad nauseam when they understand it the first time. And this is important for what she is expecting of her students. They are to build a roller coaster for their marble, getting it to the end safely without rushing off the track, and they have a 'budget' they can use to get all of the materials they need. Each student has their role, and you can tell from the way they talk to the camera that they are taking their roles quite seriously.
For this class, procedures and norms are everything. They have to work and communicate as a group, they have to be sure on their decisions when 'buying' materials (as there's no refunds, and they're quite expensive) and everyone has to be on top of their part of the design. As a result of holding the students to such a high level, you see them respond in kind, being quite professional and able to talk and plan with each other, all coming together to make and adjust their group roller coaster without stepping on anyone's toes.
This is a fantastic model for teaching STEM, particularly since it lets you get hands-on immediately, giving the students something real to connect their ideas to. I may have my issues with STEM focus (being a large proponent of the arts myself) but when they work, they do work wonders.
The second group I'll cover is the Chinese math class. As the video shows, there is a large focus on drilling and running the numbers with rhymes and songs as a group. This repetition does wonders to lock the idea in the student's mind, and has been a plan people and governments have used for ages to get people to quickly learn a new language. One could argue that math is the language of the universe, or of numbers, so I think that argument can be applied here too.
The class seems engaged with the teacher, and they all are working well at answering the questions, with clear norms and procedures to answer questions when called on, to repeat after the teacher, and to work as a group, but it's a bit harder to tell what the expectations are. Parents in China have very high expectations of their students, both behaviorally and educationally, but some from other countries might see those same expectations as restrictive to personality. Between the article I linked and many people I know who have talked of teaching in China, interaction between students and between the student and the teacher is very low, favoring drilling and testing over giving practical applications or help to individual students. This means that the students are very good at what they're doing, but lose out on some of the practical applications and social aspects of life. It is impossible to argue with the effectiveness of this teaching strategy, but a human side seems to be lost if one isn't careful.
The third learning strategy to cover is Whole Brain Teaching. The video for this one feels chaotic, and the website explaining it... well, didn't do a good job of explaining it to me, but I understand the theory. Students learn in multiple ways... some are visual, some are auditory, some are kinetic, and this method reaches out to all of them. The motions, sounds, and visuals all combine to teach the same thing, letting students acquire the knowledge in the way that best works for them.
There are clear procedures when it comes to following the teacher, repeating after them, and how groups work together depending on how the assignment continues, and those seem to be followed strictly and with little teacher intervention, suggesting the teacher thinks highly of the students' abilities when it comes to following instructions. However, one could argue that this entire method thinks a little less of the students than some other methods, as it hold their hand all the way through, with the teacher watching like a hawk for mistakes or non-comprehension and little freedom on the part of the student. On top of this, the actions are functional in this setting, but not all information is going to be given to you in this way in the real world, and adding motions on your own might cause a whole new set of issues when it comes to appearances for social sanity. Therefore, it's hard to determine whether the expectations for education are truly high, or just the expectations that students will follow the rules are high.
The final classroom we will be covering is my own. Now, I intend to teach English, Theater, and/or English as a Second Language to students in secondary school. I do not know my class level yet, but for the sake of this piece, let's pick Sophomores (10th Grade). The first teaching method would be the one I would want to follow as much as possible. Having students in groups builds their communication, large projects with the freedom to tackle it however you want, but expectations of a quality result, place high expectations on the students while also trusting them with the freedom to do it however they want, and as long as the base rules are well defined, I can imagine a quite composed classroom coming from this. Now, these ideas are a little harder to tie to real-world projects in English than they are in STEM subjects, and it would involve a lot more creativity, but if I set the bar, I know that the students will be able to reach it.
If I am teaching ESL, or if I need to cover remedial parts of grammar quickly, I will probably use the method in the second video at least a few times. It is one of the fastest way to drill basic concepts into students, and once they have the basics, it is much easier to give them the freedom to be more creative and tackle more complicated things. It is not quite as effective for languages outside of formulas, as language tends to be much more nuanced than numbers do, but it's still a very useful tool.
If I find I have a lot of trouble students, or ones that learn differently than my main teaching methods, I might employ Whole Brain Teaching. It can be useful both for foreign language students, as the motions give an anchor from which further understanding can bloom, and for students labeled as "trouble students" because they just don't learn the same way everyone else does. I would need to do a lot more study on the method to truly feel comfortable with it, but even from a cultural standpoint, with Hawaii's emphasis on hula and chants - storytelling through means other than words - applying more motions and vocalization to the class might not hurt.
No matter what strategy I end up going with, or even if I blend all of them, strictly defining and enforcing the rules is a must. In all ways, we should do our best to treat the students as human beings, giving them real responsibility so they can rise to the challenge. The contexts around that principle may change, but those rules should always be held in the highest of regards.
Resources:
Chen, C. (2011, June 13). 3rd grade Chinese--math class.avi. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g
Kan Wei Associate Professor, Beijing Normal University. (2014, March 25). Explainer: what makes Chinese maths lessons so good? Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-chinese-maths-lessons-so-good-24380
Teaching Channel. (2012, October 11). Roller Coaster Physics: STEM in Action. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Caring for Your Students
When you are a teacher, you have to care. That is just the plain truth of the matter. This means you have to care for everyone: every race, gender identity, creed, sexuality, political opinion… It doesn’t matter if the students under your watch are immigrants from Syria escaping oppression or rich white children from a family that has lived in the area forever, all of them deserve the same opportunities for care, affection, and learning no matter their background.
Now, I live in Hawaii, have all my life, and a quick googling of the census data puts the population of white people living in Hawaii at either 26.7% or 22.9% depending on which number you want to go with. Either way, that seems like the kind of number that would make any place the minority, until you realize that the largest population is Asian, with 37.3%, a number small enough to make them the minority by most standards. For some, this makes the islands look like a confusing mash of cultures where nobody would know their identity… but that is not at all the case. What we have here is the end result of truly integrating immigration for over two centuries.
To add to my difficulty, I am not just white, I am a 4 family, 7th generation descendant of missionaries. The Judds, the Rices, the Cooks, and the Bonds all were missionaries, and my middle name was given to me because I was born nearly 150 years after the arrival of Elias Bond in the islands. There are reminders of my heritage all over the islands, from the Bond historic district in Kohala to Judd street on Oahu, all named after people who served the Kingdom of Hawaii and fought valiantly for its right to remain a free entity.
Do the locals, distrustful of haoles (derogatory: foreigners), look at me, a person who barely speaks Pidgin, let alone Hawaiian, and couldn’t tan if his life depended on it, and see that rich heritage working for them? No, they see a white person to yell at for their problems. What’s worse, despite the fact that I am as poor as the rest of them (as, last I checked, about 90% of students got a free or reduced lunch, and I was definitely in that number), they will often see me as a rich, entitled snob with no empathy for any of them. If I want to teach in this state (and I do, because I love this land and will do everything in my power to make it a better place and give back to the community I adore) I will be going up against a harsh cultural barrier, and I know that. But I don’t care.
It is my firm belief that what matters in a person, as I will now paraphrase from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is the content of their character, not the color of their skin. This means that I don’t judge people by how they look, only how they act. This is doubly important in Hawaii, where more than one case of a smelly bum being turned out of a museum has resulted in said bum walking down the street to another one and buying a multi-million dollar painting there instead. But on top of that, there is a spirit of aloha that so infuses any native to the islands (whatever their race may be, as even the Native Hawaiians are descended from Polynesian explorers, making this place truly a land of nothing but immigrants) that it cannot be untied from their very way of being.
Aloha is hello, aloha is goodbye, but it is more. Aloha is wishing perfect strangers well, it is greeting everyone with an open heart and understanding, and trusting people unless they prove you can’t. It is being a good neighbor, respecting each other, respecting ohana (family), respecting the ‘aina (land). This spirit is what I want to bring with me into the classroom: one of respect. Not just for the teacher, but for the students, for the school, for the books, and for each other.
In my class, which will be open to everyone, the desks will either be arranged in a circle that everyone, including myself, if equal in, or else around tables where everyone in the group can discuss with each other. I won’t focus my pictures around the class on any specific race or gender, but motivational, supportive phrases (and possibly some helpful knowledge. No class is complete without a map, even if it’s an English class). Since I will be in secondary school, this is when students should have already learned lessons of respect, though so few seem to. Still, I will make it clear what I expect: they aren’t kids anymore, and while they are still learning, they should do their best. I will treat them like responsible people so long as they prove that they can be, and will greet every single one of them with eye contact, a smile, and an open heart and mind so long as they are willing to do the same. Respect and trust will be the foundations of all of my actions in the classroom, and to start off, I will expect each of them to agree to rules we all come up with as a group, showing I am willing to listen to them and take their voices and concerns into account.
This will continue into the school year. I won’t waste student time if they clearly can do more, as I will challenge them, trusting them to push themselves to learn. If someone new enters the class, they will be greeted like an old family member, with that spirit of aloha making them one very soon. If bullying starts, I will listen to both sides, wanting to know why the bully bullies, if I can fix it, and how to stop the behavior without stunting anyone’s learning. But bullying is one of my triggers, as it is a complete lack of respect. I will not be a bully. I will not tolerate bullying. I am as appreciative of jokes as the next person, but cross that line from fun to hurtful and I will not stop in my efforts to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I may be quixotic, but I am an actor. I have studied for years to understand and feel the experiences of people completely unlike me in situations I hope I’ll never have to face. Empathy is linked into my soul, and I hope that that skill is something I can teach all of my students as I combat the ignorance that breeds bigotry, hatred, and fear. It’s a hopelessly romantic notion, but then… we all strive for that impossible dream.
Now, I live in Hawaii, have all my life, and a quick googling of the census data puts the population of white people living in Hawaii at either 26.7% or 22.9% depending on which number you want to go with. Either way, that seems like the kind of number that would make any place the minority, until you realize that the largest population is Asian, with 37.3%, a number small enough to make them the minority by most standards. For some, this makes the islands look like a confusing mash of cultures where nobody would know their identity… but that is not at all the case. What we have here is the end result of truly integrating immigration for over two centuries.
To add to my difficulty, I am not just white, I am a 4 family, 7th generation descendant of missionaries. The Judds, the Rices, the Cooks, and the Bonds all were missionaries, and my middle name was given to me because I was born nearly 150 years after the arrival of Elias Bond in the islands. There are reminders of my heritage all over the islands, from the Bond historic district in Kohala to Judd street on Oahu, all named after people who served the Kingdom of Hawaii and fought valiantly for its right to remain a free entity.
Do the locals, distrustful of haoles (derogatory: foreigners), look at me, a person who barely speaks Pidgin, let alone Hawaiian, and couldn’t tan if his life depended on it, and see that rich heritage working for them? No, they see a white person to yell at for their problems. What’s worse, despite the fact that I am as poor as the rest of them (as, last I checked, about 90% of students got a free or reduced lunch, and I was definitely in that number), they will often see me as a rich, entitled snob with no empathy for any of them. If I want to teach in this state (and I do, because I love this land and will do everything in my power to make it a better place and give back to the community I adore) I will be going up against a harsh cultural barrier, and I know that. But I don’t care.
It is my firm belief that what matters in a person, as I will now paraphrase from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is the content of their character, not the color of their skin. This means that I don’t judge people by how they look, only how they act. This is doubly important in Hawaii, where more than one case of a smelly bum being turned out of a museum has resulted in said bum walking down the street to another one and buying a multi-million dollar painting there instead. But on top of that, there is a spirit of aloha that so infuses any native to the islands (whatever their race may be, as even the Native Hawaiians are descended from Polynesian explorers, making this place truly a land of nothing but immigrants) that it cannot be untied from their very way of being.
Aloha is hello, aloha is goodbye, but it is more. Aloha is wishing perfect strangers well, it is greeting everyone with an open heart and understanding, and trusting people unless they prove you can’t. It is being a good neighbor, respecting each other, respecting ohana (family), respecting the ‘aina (land). This spirit is what I want to bring with me into the classroom: one of respect. Not just for the teacher, but for the students, for the school, for the books, and for each other.
In my class, which will be open to everyone, the desks will either be arranged in a circle that everyone, including myself, if equal in, or else around tables where everyone in the group can discuss with each other. I won’t focus my pictures around the class on any specific race or gender, but motivational, supportive phrases (and possibly some helpful knowledge. No class is complete without a map, even if it’s an English class). Since I will be in secondary school, this is when students should have already learned lessons of respect, though so few seem to. Still, I will make it clear what I expect: they aren’t kids anymore, and while they are still learning, they should do their best. I will treat them like responsible people so long as they prove that they can be, and will greet every single one of them with eye contact, a smile, and an open heart and mind so long as they are willing to do the same. Respect and trust will be the foundations of all of my actions in the classroom, and to start off, I will expect each of them to agree to rules we all come up with as a group, showing I am willing to listen to them and take their voices and concerns into account.
This will continue into the school year. I won’t waste student time if they clearly can do more, as I will challenge them, trusting them to push themselves to learn. If someone new enters the class, they will be greeted like an old family member, with that spirit of aloha making them one very soon. If bullying starts, I will listen to both sides, wanting to know why the bully bullies, if I can fix it, and how to stop the behavior without stunting anyone’s learning. But bullying is one of my triggers, as it is a complete lack of respect. I will not be a bully. I will not tolerate bullying. I am as appreciative of jokes as the next person, but cross that line from fun to hurtful and I will not stop in my efforts to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I may be quixotic, but I am an actor. I have studied for years to understand and feel the experiences of people completely unlike me in situations I hope I’ll never have to face. Empathy is linked into my soul, and I hope that that skill is something I can teach all of my students as I combat the ignorance that breeds bigotry, hatred, and fear. It’s a hopelessly romantic notion, but then… we all strive for that impossible dream.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Mobile Learning: Engagement, or Entrapment?
When asked why a teacher should be prepared to use mobile devices in the classroom, the answer is quite simple: It is the wave of the future, and it's already passing over us. Mobile devices are an amazing tool that is going largely untapped in our schools and, frankly, most other parts of our lives, and the benefits of using it towards teaching are astounding. Even in my own personal mobile learning task, which I recruited middle-aged and older actors to do after a show (when everyone's brains are fried) the simple use of technology and one little question garnered a wealth of untapped curiosity and learning in people who wouldn't have given the topic another thought if I hadn't needed someone to video for my lesson.
The impact that technology has on teaching, and the availability of knowledge in any form you could want it, is staggering considering the world just 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30. But we have to make sure this new tool is being used for good, and not just as a gimmick. There are plenty of advantages to it, sure, but the risks of distraction cannot be ignored. This is why the question of requiring mobile learning devices is still questionable at best.
For starters: not everyone will have one. At the moment, very few schools have the funding to give every kind of student the devices they'd like, or even the bare minimums. In my personal school district, they are aiming to have a computer lab for every grade, but many schools are running on about 100 computers shared between 1200 students... Not the best ratio. And, depending on where you are, there's no guarantee that every single student will have access to a computer, let alone a mobile device capable of the more advanced things technology can do nowadays, so even the best intentioned, most forward thinking teacher will need to have backups for the children, technologically, left behind at home without support.
But if we assume that the funding was there and all students had access to a mobile device purely for learning... it would have to be privatized to the school. There would need to be a private network, not for fear of other schools or students sharing ideas (sharing information is the main boon of the internet) but because public forums and systems are a danger. I honestly wish this weren't the case, but as soon as you have something open to the public, someone will come along and mess it up. It's the reason there's always graffiti and a broken toilet in any park restroom. If you're setting up a classroom network, you must make sure it is private to the students. They can share whatever they wish (though there would need to be someone making sure the content is appropriate and giving warnings and punishment to those who break the rules), and should be encouraged to, but if everyone's getting their own system, they need to be kept under watch for everyone's privacy and safety.
Finally, and the private network would do wonders here, there can't be outside distractions. Things like Twitter and Facebook are incredible tools to interact and coordinate with people outside of the classroom, or to bring parents into their students lives in a way they are much more likely to check on a regular basis, but within school walls they are a menace trying to pull people from their task and constantly making people judge themselves against the entirety of human existence. These are just sadness generation sites, and if people want to make themselves sad on their own time, fine, but no checking on it in class.
With the ground rules in place, let's move to how these devices can better the classroom: They engage every type of student. This, alone, might as well be a miracle. Creative learners, visual learners, auditory learners, avid readers... everyone can find ways to get the information presented to them exactly how they need it, if they go searching, and a teacher that is on the ball will have a list of possibilities on hand to give to students who are struggling, or just to vary up their own instruction.
On top of that, flipping the classroom, with videos at home teaching lessons, will free up the teacher to focus on the student's understanding, making sure they gain knowledge that lasts and not just memorized formulas and facts for tests. English teachers have already been doing that (books were the first technology able to be taken home and read on their own, with discussions happening in the class) but new innovations like the Khan Academy are opening up this door to more and more subjects.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. Videos and reading, home research... it's all taking the old ideas and letting them follow into the home life. People are making games and tools that allow you to diagram anything from sentences to molecules to entire cities with a few strokes of your finger. Scavenger hunts with GPS could send students on an adventure like Captain Ahab, or get ESL students to take pictures of things they don't know to discuss in the class... The possibilities are getting endless, and the limits are now the teacher's creativity and their (or someone else's) programming capabilities.
If you plan on designing mobile activities for your own class, follow some simple words of advice:
The impact that technology has on teaching, and the availability of knowledge in any form you could want it, is staggering considering the world just 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30. But we have to make sure this new tool is being used for good, and not just as a gimmick. There are plenty of advantages to it, sure, but the risks of distraction cannot be ignored. This is why the question of requiring mobile learning devices is still questionable at best.
For starters: not everyone will have one. At the moment, very few schools have the funding to give every kind of student the devices they'd like, or even the bare minimums. In my personal school district, they are aiming to have a computer lab for every grade, but many schools are running on about 100 computers shared between 1200 students... Not the best ratio. And, depending on where you are, there's no guarantee that every single student will have access to a computer, let alone a mobile device capable of the more advanced things technology can do nowadays, so even the best intentioned, most forward thinking teacher will need to have backups for the children, technologically, left behind at home without support.
But if we assume that the funding was there and all students had access to a mobile device purely for learning... it would have to be privatized to the school. There would need to be a private network, not for fear of other schools or students sharing ideas (sharing information is the main boon of the internet) but because public forums and systems are a danger. I honestly wish this weren't the case, but as soon as you have something open to the public, someone will come along and mess it up. It's the reason there's always graffiti and a broken toilet in any park restroom. If you're setting up a classroom network, you must make sure it is private to the students. They can share whatever they wish (though there would need to be someone making sure the content is appropriate and giving warnings and punishment to those who break the rules), and should be encouraged to, but if everyone's getting their own system, they need to be kept under watch for everyone's privacy and safety.
Finally, and the private network would do wonders here, there can't be outside distractions. Things like Twitter and Facebook are incredible tools to interact and coordinate with people outside of the classroom, or to bring parents into their students lives in a way they are much more likely to check on a regular basis, but within school walls they are a menace trying to pull people from their task and constantly making people judge themselves against the entirety of human existence. These are just sadness generation sites, and if people want to make themselves sad on their own time, fine, but no checking on it in class.
With the ground rules in place, let's move to how these devices can better the classroom: They engage every type of student. This, alone, might as well be a miracle. Creative learners, visual learners, auditory learners, avid readers... everyone can find ways to get the information presented to them exactly how they need it, if they go searching, and a teacher that is on the ball will have a list of possibilities on hand to give to students who are struggling, or just to vary up their own instruction.
On top of that, flipping the classroom, with videos at home teaching lessons, will free up the teacher to focus on the student's understanding, making sure they gain knowledge that lasts and not just memorized formulas and facts for tests. English teachers have already been doing that (books were the first technology able to be taken home and read on their own, with discussions happening in the class) but new innovations like the Khan Academy are opening up this door to more and more subjects.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. Videos and reading, home research... it's all taking the old ideas and letting them follow into the home life. People are making games and tools that allow you to diagram anything from sentences to molecules to entire cities with a few strokes of your finger. Scavenger hunts with GPS could send students on an adventure like Captain Ahab, or get ESL students to take pictures of things they don't know to discuss in the class... The possibilities are getting endless, and the limits are now the teacher's creativity and their (or someone else's) programming capabilities.
If you plan on designing mobile activities for your own class, follow some simple words of advice:
- Be Engaging: Not every lesson has to be a game, but if the students don't want to learn, they won't.
- Real-World Applications are a Must: The biggest thing to stall learning is "Ugh, *eyeroll* why do I need to know this?" The biggest solution to that problem is showing them exactly why it's important to know.
- Allow for Creativity: Whether it's a presentation, a report, or just how the student learns on their own, let them be creative. They might have an idea that really resonates with those around them that you never even thought of.
- Be Flexible: The world, and its technology, is always changing. Be able to change and adapt, no matter what the world throws at you.
- Be Willing to Say "No" to Gimmicks: Not every lesson needs to be on a mobile device. Sometimes, two students talking, or just some pencils and paper, is all you need to make the lesson work. Just because a million new ways have appeared doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
With careful planning, some effort on the school's part, and creativity and intuition on your own, the wonders of mobile learning can be integrated into any curriculum and unlock wells of hidden potential in your students. Embrace the new technology... but carefully, lest we be swept under the wave of the future, rather than ride it towards a brighter tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Planning for English Language Learners
In my role as a teacher, it is quite possible that, at one point, I would have to have students analyze a book they have read for its characters. Let's, for example, use Ender's Game as the book of choice for a high school class. In this book, we would discover the archetypes of the characters and their roles in the larger narrative.
While there are multiple different version of language standards proficiency, depending on your state, there is a well known order of language acquisition, and I will be using the list provided here as my basis for student fluency in regards to how I would accommodate them.
1) Early Production.
At this point, producing language would be difficult for the student, and they would only have simple answers to most questions. When talking about characters (having given them plenty of time to read the section beforehand or at home) I would ask them to describe the characters simply. Boy, girl, hero (or good), villain (or bad), and ask them yes/no questions to make sure they did their reading. If possible, I would also pair them with a more proficient English language speaker to see if the two of them could come to a more complex solution without badgering the student or stressing them. If the class was primarily at this level, I would use a simpler book, or give the whole year to one book rather than multiples if, for some reason, I couldn't use a more simple text.
2) Speech Emergent
For students in this area, I would ask them to actually give simple answers based on ideas and vocabulary that I had presented previously in the class. I would also give a fill-in-the-blank sheet of characters they have run into in the book so far and what roles they might have played in a word bank, while more advanced students would have a similar sheet without the answers provided in a word bank.
3) Beginning Fluency
Students in this area would be asked to read aloud in the class, with patience knowing they may take a little bit of extra time. I would also consider giving an oral test on what characters were doing or how they were portrayed, making sure to have given the definitions of important words before, and possibly having a word bank or hint system to give them reminders if they get stuck not on not knowing something, but not knowing the word for it. Written tests wouldn't be quite so complex, but I would start feeling confident in the student's abilities around here.
4) Intermediate Fluency
Students at this level would start getting questions about opinions, or more deeper questions of themes such as why certain characters acted certain ways, or what order of events caused certain things to happen. I would still have understanding for when the problem is vocabulary and not their knowledge on the topic, but written tests would begin to reach the same level of complexity as verbal testing. I'd give them a little extra time on tests. I would also be very confident in putting them in a group for discussions at this point, as they could likely add as much as any other student to the conversation.
While there are multiple different version of language standards proficiency, depending on your state, there is a well known order of language acquisition, and I will be using the list provided here as my basis for student fluency in regards to how I would accommodate them.
1) Early Production.
At this point, producing language would be difficult for the student, and they would only have simple answers to most questions. When talking about characters (having given them plenty of time to read the section beforehand or at home) I would ask them to describe the characters simply. Boy, girl, hero (or good), villain (or bad), and ask them yes/no questions to make sure they did their reading. If possible, I would also pair them with a more proficient English language speaker to see if the two of them could come to a more complex solution without badgering the student or stressing them. If the class was primarily at this level, I would use a simpler book, or give the whole year to one book rather than multiples if, for some reason, I couldn't use a more simple text.
2) Speech Emergent
For students in this area, I would ask them to actually give simple answers based on ideas and vocabulary that I had presented previously in the class. I would also give a fill-in-the-blank sheet of characters they have run into in the book so far and what roles they might have played in a word bank, while more advanced students would have a similar sheet without the answers provided in a word bank.
3) Beginning Fluency
Students in this area would be asked to read aloud in the class, with patience knowing they may take a little bit of extra time. I would also consider giving an oral test on what characters were doing or how they were portrayed, making sure to have given the definitions of important words before, and possibly having a word bank or hint system to give them reminders if they get stuck not on not knowing something, but not knowing the word for it. Written tests wouldn't be quite so complex, but I would start feeling confident in the student's abilities around here.
4) Intermediate Fluency
Students at this level would start getting questions about opinions, or more deeper questions of themes such as why certain characters acted certain ways, or what order of events caused certain things to happen. I would still have understanding for when the problem is vocabulary and not their knowledge on the topic, but written tests would begin to reach the same level of complexity as verbal testing. I'd give them a little extra time on tests. I would also be very confident in putting them in a group for discussions at this point, as they could likely add as much as any other student to the conversation.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Special Education, Special Consideration
When it comes to special education in America's schools, the process can be seen with a lot of stigma. A teacher I interviewed, when it came time to possibly go with special education consideration for a student, had the process stopped by the parents, who did not want to deal with the stigma of having a special education student.
This seems entirely unfair to the student, but, honestly, the most important element of special education is the family. Often times, they can be one of the people who refer the student for special education services, they are integral to the failure or success of most forms of special education the students would need (as the skills learned in the class must be reinforced at home)... but, above all, it is their child who all of this is happening to/for, and one must always respect the parent/guardian's wishes when it comes to the child. However, if we want to remove some of the stigma surrounding education, educating the parents on what it would entail would do wonders.
For starters, it's not a fast process, nor is it undertaken lightly. Six weeks of data are collected by the teachers, with different strategies and situations provided and applied to see if, perhaps, there is another solution that can solve the problem without special education. Even then, the referral could go to doctors or other professionals who decide that, while there is an educational issue, special education may not be the solution, and thus a simple change of the academic order will happen. For those students who are identified and qualified under IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), a team is immediately put in place with goals to support the teachers, the parents, and above all, the student in the road to the child's education.
All public schools must comply with FAPE (Free and Appropriate Public Education), but to what degree that is depends on the students' needs. They must provide help in the Least Restrictive Environment, but whether that is a Fully Self Contained classroom where the child (or children with similar needs) are separated entirely from the other students, a Resource room where the children are brought for extra care or attention apart from the general education, or simply additional SPED support for the student in the General Education classroom depends on the disruption it would cause the child and the children around them. However, before you worry that a child with a minor disability will be locked away in a completely separate room, know that school, like anyone else, want to spend the least amount of money on a problem, and thus will default to simple solutions if they will work before working on more complex or extreme ones.
The important thing when it comes to Special Education is that it is caught early. The earlier a disability is found and worked around, the less impact it will have on the child's education and opportunities in the world going forward. There are programs around the world that are working to ensure that every single child has the best chances going forward, whether it be Finland's focus on catching disabilities early and working incredibly hard with the parents and teachers for the good of the child, or the School of One in New York working to specialize education for all students based on their needs. On the day when the funding for these kinds of programs is widespread enough for all schools, it will be a new advent in education all across the globe. Until then, we must work with what we have to personalize special education to the needs of the student and give them just as many opportunities as the children around them.
This seems entirely unfair to the student, but, honestly, the most important element of special education is the family. Often times, they can be one of the people who refer the student for special education services, they are integral to the failure or success of most forms of special education the students would need (as the skills learned in the class must be reinforced at home)... but, above all, it is their child who all of this is happening to/for, and one must always respect the parent/guardian's wishes when it comes to the child. However, if we want to remove some of the stigma surrounding education, educating the parents on what it would entail would do wonders.
For starters, it's not a fast process, nor is it undertaken lightly. Six weeks of data are collected by the teachers, with different strategies and situations provided and applied to see if, perhaps, there is another solution that can solve the problem without special education. Even then, the referral could go to doctors or other professionals who decide that, while there is an educational issue, special education may not be the solution, and thus a simple change of the academic order will happen. For those students who are identified and qualified under IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), a team is immediately put in place with goals to support the teachers, the parents, and above all, the student in the road to the child's education.
All public schools must comply with FAPE (Free and Appropriate Public Education), but to what degree that is depends on the students' needs. They must provide help in the Least Restrictive Environment, but whether that is a Fully Self Contained classroom where the child (or children with similar needs) are separated entirely from the other students, a Resource room where the children are brought for extra care or attention apart from the general education, or simply additional SPED support for the student in the General Education classroom depends on the disruption it would cause the child and the children around them. However, before you worry that a child with a minor disability will be locked away in a completely separate room, know that school, like anyone else, want to spend the least amount of money on a problem, and thus will default to simple solutions if they will work before working on more complex or extreme ones.
The important thing when it comes to Special Education is that it is caught early. The earlier a disability is found and worked around, the less impact it will have on the child's education and opportunities in the world going forward. There are programs around the world that are working to ensure that every single child has the best chances going forward, whether it be Finland's focus on catching disabilities early and working incredibly hard with the parents and teachers for the good of the child, or the School of One in New York working to specialize education for all students based on their needs. On the day when the funding for these kinds of programs is widespread enough for all schools, it will be a new advent in education all across the globe. Until then, we must work with what we have to personalize special education to the needs of the student and give them just as many opportunities as the children around them.
Monday, February 6, 2017
The Arts in Education: Cutting Flowers for the STEM?
For a long while now, STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) have been sited as a sign of how well our nation compares with other ones on an intellectual level. It also, due to the current technological trends, seems to be the only way to have marketable skills in the new world economy. After all, in these modern times, who lives without a computer? With technology advancing each and every day and new programs and ideas seeming to develop by the minutes, how could anyone put focus on anything other than technology? According to the U.S Department of Education (DOE) (2015)...
"The United States has developed as a global leader, in large part, through the genius and hard work of its scientists, engineers, and innovators. In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, where success is driven not only by what you know, but by what you can do with what you know, it’s more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information. These are the types of skills that students learn by studying science, technology, engineering, and math—subjects collectively known as STEM." (U.S. DOE, 2015)
They go on to show the expected increase of expected jobs in these fields, as well as outline a plan to increase funding in these fields, on the related article here. This idea and focus was compounded by a search of the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers, a non-partisan organization of school leaders from all across the USA that makes sure that students graduate prepared for college and easing states through implementation of new ideas and standards) database, showing many instances of them increasing or focusing on STEM activities, without mention of the humanities or the arts in anywhere near the same number.
However, think back to the core classes you had to learn as a kid. I know this is a generational thing, but for myself, there were four pillars of education: Science, English, Math, and Social Studies. Now, it is true that SEMSS doesn't quite flow as well (and replacing Social Studies with History will only get us SHEM or MESH, which... the second one actually should probably have been how the areas were billed, to be honest) but it seems like these pillars of education, held on to for so long, are crumbling beneath the all-powerful tech giant that is STEM. And if it is getting more funding, that means that it is being removed from other areas, right?
Yes and no. While it is true that the NEA (the National Education Association, a group that does wonders in advocating for quality public education in the USA) does put a focus on STEM education, with a dedicated site that says that "bolstering the nation’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is essential." (National Education Association, "STEM", n.d.) with no similar page made for the humanities or the like, they also are dedicated to the ideas of the Common Core State Standards.
NEA believes the Common Core State Standards have the potential to provide access to a complete and challenging education for all children. Broad range cooperation in developing these voluntary standards provides educators with more manageable curriculum goals and greater opportunities to use their professional judgment in ways that promote student success. (NEA, "Our Positions and Actions", n.d.)
This is where the interesting "loophole" comes in, as the Common Core State Standards Initiative points out the importance of language on their website.
The standards establish guidelines for English language arts (ELA) as well as for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Because students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, the standards promote the literacy skills and concepts required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, "English Language Arts Standards", n.d.)
They understand the importance of all of the subjects and disciplines to work together, allowing for complex and critical thinking from one area to branch into another, working all aspects of the mind (an important thought, considering all of those words problems you probably had to do in school). Essentially, while schools may continue to place a premium on STEM, in the 42 states and additional territories that have accepted Common Core State Standards as their standards for at least ELA/literacy and math (CCSSI, "Development Process," n.d.) continue to focus on at least English as a vital part of continuing to learn the language.
This all makes sense, as English is the means by which we in the United States of America (and an incredibly significant portion of the world) communicate. All words, all knowledge, all wisdom, all thought... it is all bound up in language: its use, its understanding, its conveyance... Without a basis in the language, how is a student supposed to learn the skills they need that are only taught in said language? There is a desperate need for people to be able to understand languages, as even with my own investment into the inner workings of English as a language (having a degree in it, a degree in using it for performance reasons, a certificate in using it creatively, and a certificate for teaching it to people who don't speak it) I found myself wrestling with the true meaning of some of these websites. I feel the language needs to be taught, and used, at both the technical/academic level and level for daily use by people who may not be as devoted as I to the wonderful intricacies of language... but that's a completely different argument.
With the knowledge that English as a language was safe from the looming shadow of STEM, I had to wonder about the arts. Arts funding has been on a steady decline for years, at least if you ask any of the schools in the area around me (who have boarded up most of their art programs in favor of football funding and new gyms) and the beautiful flower of communication, the part which transcends even language, striking purely at emotion and feeling, seems to be disappearing...
But is it really? There are two key factors that keep the arts alive and kicking, and they come from places both unlikely, yet incredibly appropriate.
The first to catch my eye was the statement by the AFT (American Federation of Teachers, a group that advocates for the rights of teachers, students, and their families and neighborhoods for high quality education, social activities, and health care using things like activism and collective bargaining). They have two important ones that I wish to point to personally. First, in 2010...
All students need a rich, well-rounded curriculum.
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. ... Let's ensure that every student has a rich curriculum that: ... *Includes the arts, physical education, technology and foreign languages (AFT, 2010)
This shows that they mean it when they wish to have a well-rounded curriculum, letting the student learn not just about STEM, but about arts, their bodies, the outside world... They are focusing hard on everything a student needs to function. But they are not alone, due to something mention in their resolution in 2016...
WHEREAS, the spirit of the Every Student Succeeds Act aligns with the AFT’s commitment to reclaim the promise of public education, and, if implemented properly, ESSA has the potential to ensure every public school is a place where parents want to send their kids, where students are engaged, where educators want to teach, where the curriculum is rich, where there is joy in teaching and learning, and where all children are successful (AFT, 2016)
This brought my attention to the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, signed into law on December 10th, 2015. This law updated No Child Left Behind, giving power back to the states to determine standards and helps to make funding available to areas that need it instead of punishing poorly performing schools to make them perform even worse. While this act opens the door for arts funding to stop (as the previous laws held the funding of the arts on par with science and history and the other subjects for a well-rounded education, and now this is no longer the case) I choose to believe that, despite the statement by the DOE made earlier in the piece and the focus of even President Obama on STEM programs, individual states will realize the importance of the arts in their efforts to give students a well-rounded education. And if they do not do so on their own, we must make sure, as citizens of this country, to remind our local school boards and state legislatures of the importance of the arts in society.
Personally, I understand the focus on STEM. The world is an increasingly technological place, and knowledge in those fields is important to succeed in one of the mainstream markets of tomorrow. But if we lose sight of the important things of the past... of culture, of the arts, of language, of communication... we lose sight on each other as people, rather than numbers. I learned more in my life on stage (cooperation, leadership, following instructions, logic, carpentry, basic programing, basic electrician skills, public speaking, confidence, self-esteem, balance) than I did in many of the classes labelled STEM, and on top of that it was an activity after school that kept people learning, interacting, and away from the dangers and negative aspects of society. These outlets are important to being not just a skilled worker, but a well-rounded human being when you grow up, and it is important to make sure that these ideas continue on into the future.
"The United States has developed as a global leader, in large part, through the genius and hard work of its scientists, engineers, and innovators. In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, where success is driven not only by what you know, but by what you can do with what you know, it’s more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information. These are the types of skills that students learn by studying science, technology, engineering, and math—subjects collectively known as STEM." (U.S. DOE, 2015)
They go on to show the expected increase of expected jobs in these fields, as well as outline a plan to increase funding in these fields, on the related article here. This idea and focus was compounded by a search of the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers, a non-partisan organization of school leaders from all across the USA that makes sure that students graduate prepared for college and easing states through implementation of new ideas and standards) database, showing many instances of them increasing or focusing on STEM activities, without mention of the humanities or the arts in anywhere near the same number.
However, think back to the core classes you had to learn as a kid. I know this is a generational thing, but for myself, there were four pillars of education: Science, English, Math, and Social Studies. Now, it is true that SEMSS doesn't quite flow as well (and replacing Social Studies with History will only get us SHEM or MESH, which... the second one actually should probably have been how the areas were billed, to be honest) but it seems like these pillars of education, held on to for so long, are crumbling beneath the all-powerful tech giant that is STEM. And if it is getting more funding, that means that it is being removed from other areas, right?
Yes and no. While it is true that the NEA (the National Education Association, a group that does wonders in advocating for quality public education in the USA) does put a focus on STEM education, with a dedicated site that says that "bolstering the nation’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is essential." (National Education Association, "STEM", n.d.) with no similar page made for the humanities or the like, they also are dedicated to the ideas of the Common Core State Standards.
NEA believes the Common Core State Standards have the potential to provide access to a complete and challenging education for all children. Broad range cooperation in developing these voluntary standards provides educators with more manageable curriculum goals and greater opportunities to use their professional judgment in ways that promote student success. (NEA, "Our Positions and Actions", n.d.)
This is where the interesting "loophole" comes in, as the Common Core State Standards Initiative points out the importance of language on their website.
The standards establish guidelines for English language arts (ELA) as well as for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Because students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, the standards promote the literacy skills and concepts required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, "English Language Arts Standards", n.d.)
They understand the importance of all of the subjects and disciplines to work together, allowing for complex and critical thinking from one area to branch into another, working all aspects of the mind (an important thought, considering all of those words problems you probably had to do in school). Essentially, while schools may continue to place a premium on STEM, in the 42 states and additional territories that have accepted Common Core State Standards as their standards for at least ELA/literacy and math (CCSSI, "Development Process," n.d.) continue to focus on at least English as a vital part of continuing to learn the language.
This all makes sense, as English is the means by which we in the United States of America (and an incredibly significant portion of the world) communicate. All words, all knowledge, all wisdom, all thought... it is all bound up in language: its use, its understanding, its conveyance... Without a basis in the language, how is a student supposed to learn the skills they need that are only taught in said language? There is a desperate need for people to be able to understand languages, as even with my own investment into the inner workings of English as a language (having a degree in it, a degree in using it for performance reasons, a certificate in using it creatively, and a certificate for teaching it to people who don't speak it) I found myself wrestling with the true meaning of some of these websites. I feel the language needs to be taught, and used, at both the technical/academic level and level for daily use by people who may not be as devoted as I to the wonderful intricacies of language... but that's a completely different argument.
With the knowledge that English as a language was safe from the looming shadow of STEM, I had to wonder about the arts. Arts funding has been on a steady decline for years, at least if you ask any of the schools in the area around me (who have boarded up most of their art programs in favor of football funding and new gyms) and the beautiful flower of communication, the part which transcends even language, striking purely at emotion and feeling, seems to be disappearing...
But is it really? There are two key factors that keep the arts alive and kicking, and they come from places both unlikely, yet incredibly appropriate.
The first to catch my eye was the statement by the AFT (American Federation of Teachers, a group that advocates for the rights of teachers, students, and their families and neighborhoods for high quality education, social activities, and health care using things like activism and collective bargaining). They have two important ones that I wish to point to personally. First, in 2010...
All students need a rich, well-rounded curriculum.
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. ... Let's ensure that every student has a rich curriculum that: ... *Includes the arts, physical education, technology and foreign languages (AFT, 2010)
This shows that they mean it when they wish to have a well-rounded curriculum, letting the student learn not just about STEM, but about arts, their bodies, the outside world... They are focusing hard on everything a student needs to function. But they are not alone, due to something mention in their resolution in 2016...
WHEREAS, the spirit of the Every Student Succeeds Act aligns with the AFT’s commitment to reclaim the promise of public education, and, if implemented properly, ESSA has the potential to ensure every public school is a place where parents want to send their kids, where students are engaged, where educators want to teach, where the curriculum is rich, where there is joy in teaching and learning, and where all children are successful (AFT, 2016)
This brought my attention to the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, signed into law on December 10th, 2015. This law updated No Child Left Behind, giving power back to the states to determine standards and helps to make funding available to areas that need it instead of punishing poorly performing schools to make them perform even worse. While this act opens the door for arts funding to stop (as the previous laws held the funding of the arts on par with science and history and the other subjects for a well-rounded education, and now this is no longer the case) I choose to believe that, despite the statement by the DOE made earlier in the piece and the focus of even President Obama on STEM programs, individual states will realize the importance of the arts in their efforts to give students a well-rounded education. And if they do not do so on their own, we must make sure, as citizens of this country, to remind our local school boards and state legislatures of the importance of the arts in society.
Personally, I understand the focus on STEM. The world is an increasingly technological place, and knowledge in those fields is important to succeed in one of the mainstream markets of tomorrow. But if we lose sight of the important things of the past... of culture, of the arts, of language, of communication... we lose sight on each other as people, rather than numbers. I learned more in my life on stage (cooperation, leadership, following instructions, logic, carpentry, basic programing, basic electrician skills, public speaking, confidence, self-esteem, balance) than I did in many of the classes labelled STEM, and on top of that it was an activity after school that kept people learning, interacting, and away from the dangers and negative aspects of society. These outlets are important to being not just a skilled worker, but a well-rounded human being when you grow up, and it is important to make sure that these ideas continue on into the future.
Resources:
American Federation of Teachers. (2010). AFT'S Pathway to
Student Success: What Every Student Needs. Retrieved from http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs
American Federation of Teachers. (2016). Taking Action on the Promise of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Retrieved from http://www.aft.org/resolution/taking-action-promise-every-student-succeeds-act
Common Core State Standards Initiative. Development Process. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/
Common Core State Standards Initiative. English Language Arts Standards. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/
National Education Association. Our Positions and Actions. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/56614.htm
National Education Association. Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM). Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/stem.html
U.S Department of Education. (2015). Science, Technology, Engineering and Math: Education for Global Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.ed.gov/Stem
Students
cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we
only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our
curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should
equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to
lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at:
http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpu
All students need a rich, well-rounded curriculum.
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpuf
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpuf
All students need a rich, well-rounded curriculum.
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpuf
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpuf
All students need a rich, well-rounded curriculum.
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpuf
Students cannot become the thinkers, inventors and leaders of tomorrow if we only teach them how to fill in bubbles on multiple-choice tests. Our curriculum must match our hopes for the next generation, and should equip all children with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to lead successful, meaningful lives. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/resolution/afts-pathway-student-success-what-every-student-needs#sthash.eA1FAqHp.dpuf
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