Deep or Wide?

It pains me whenever I read or hear someone say, “I was never taught __(insert information here)__ in school”. Or “Twenty Things You Were Never Taught about __ (insert issue here)__”.  And I have to be honest here, I feel pained because I am fiercely proud of my former profession, my colleagues who are still fighting the good fight, my former students, and the schools in which I have taught. But, beyond my own ego, there is a very good reason why educators need to reflect on these statements. It might go a long way towards helping with what my spouse calls “client education” so that people have a more realistic understanding of what goes into creating curricula for the classroom and across grades.

In educational circles curriculum developers try to straddle the gulf between “survey courses” and “in-depth courses”.  A survey course is one where you cover a lot of information in a short amount of time.  They are often introductory courses which are meant to give the students the big picture of a field of study, and the expectation is, generally, that the student will go on to study the topic in more detail later.

Students of survey courses are expected to handle a lot of information quickly and are expected to regurgitate said information on demand or on tests designed to measure how much of the information stuck. Their grades, often, are tied to tests and possibly a term paper which employs a limited number of learning modalities that can be difficult for students who find traditional learning difficult. (I’d use the word Medieval, but this type of learning was proliferated by Queen Elizabeth I, which means it really falls in the English Renaissance.)

This mode of delivering curriculum generally requires from students a proficiency at note taking, textbook reading, memorization, and fluency with the writing process.  Teachers and professors who lead survey courses rarely have time in class to allow for in-depth questions, work on papers, and textbook reading, putting the entire responsibility of the learning onto the student.  It is what is called “teacher centered” as opposed to “student centered”.  As in, the onus is on the student to react positively to the professor, as opposed to the teacher learning the ways of and responding to the needs of the students.  So, interestingly enough, a survey course which is meant to be an introduction, requires more from students in terms of learning proficiency because the teacher has so much material to get through that the best they can do is get through the material. This methodology leaves the bodies of students on the side of the educational highway, which is why they are also often considered “gate-keeping” classes, weeding out those students who struggle.

An in-depth course is one where the teacher or professor picks a few seminal items to create the curriculum and requires students to use Bloom’s Taxonomy (or something in that line) to get a deeper understanding of the topic.  Students also generally have many different ways to prove that they have grasped the material. Often the teacher will use one learned item to build upon the next item.  This takes a lot more time than a survey course, which is why you cannot dispense as much information in them.

In my experience, students prefer an in-depth approach to curriculum than a survey approach, which is why many of us use this model if we can, even though it is more work (far, far more work).  (It’s also why I often feel the need to kick survey course professors in the teeth when they complain about their students.  These people are not teachers; they do little but profess.)

So, let’s do the math.  Let’s say you’re a teacher. You see 35 students in one 50 minute class per day.  You know it takes 4-5 minutes to settle the class down at the beginning, and at least 4-5 minutes to get students packed up and out the door.  You are now at 40 minutes.  In that time, you need to pick up and/or hand back work, you need to hand out new assignments, answer questions, and get students started on new tasks, which may or may not include the amount of time it takes for a class of 35 students to get into small groups or pairs.  You may need to go over the homework due that day.  You will give a lecture or mini-lecture to help students grasp the material.  You will tell students what they are going to do.  You will show students what they are going to do.  You are going to help students do what they are going to do.  You are going to let the students do what they are going to do.  You will make corrections and suggestions and let them do what they are going to do.  You will ask them to demonstrate proficiency.

In my experience, students enjoy this learning modality more than one where they come in, sit down, listen to a professor profess for 40 minutes, maybe take notes, and leave.

Research also indicates that in-depth learning has more staying power for long-term learning, because it has more opportunities to make connections with past learning, or at least it stays with the learner for longer than the memorize-and-regurgitate model.

So why the hell are you blaming me for the fact that I didn’t teach you frickin’ everything there ever is to know in the whole frickin’ universe? (Pardon my Klatchian.)

Well, if you are going to blame me (and by me, I mean us teachers, professors, administrators, state legislators, curriculum developers, textbook writers, bus drivers, lunch staff, crossing-guards, secretaries, custodians, and all the others who go neatly into the category known as “school”), then blame me for not teaching you how to educate yourself.

There is no way, none, to teach a person absolutely everything that he or she will need, will want to know, or will find interesting enough to put in a Buzzfeed list, in his or her life.  In fact, the very teaching modality that reaches the most learners will by its very nature require that not everything can be taught.

The only way to solve this problem is to create learning environments where students are taught how to teach themselves. That, we can do.

We can teach how to research, how to sift and mine for useful information, how to ask the kind of questions which lead to answers (or better yet, more and better questions).  We can praise and provide a place for independent learning.  In this way, we may see more articles called What I Taught Myself about the Senegalese Boat People Because My Teachers Were So Busy Teaching Me How to Teach Myself That They Didn’t Have Time to Teach Me Themselves about the Senegalese Boat People, And What a Cool List It Is, Too.

A girl can dream.

 

 

 

 

 

The Word to Ban in Education

Of all the words that are used in education circles there is one which tops out all the others because of its sheer destructive force.  It is a word that makes all other words cringe in fear.  It is a word that is divisive, that is cruel, that invites laziness and derision.  It is worse than “tracking”, worse than “punishment”, worse even than these three words put together: “emergency staff meeting” on a sunny Saturday morning.

Are you ready?  Let me put my haz-mat gloves on. …  Here we go:  should.  Seriously.  Should.  It’s a horrible, horrible word and needs to be banned.

Don’t believe me?  Want to know why?  Should is used by teachers or professors when they are frustrated by their students, parents, or administration.  It sounds like this: “They should know that when they come into a classroom they should put their cell phones away.”  Sound familiar?  I know I’ve said it.

But what does it really mean?  It means that, in this case, the students are not meeting the expectations of the teacher.  Furthermore, it means that these expectations are ones that the teacher does not think (or, more appropriately, does not feel) they need to explain.  These are expectations that the teacher thinks are common enough norms that they don’t have to explain and are royally cheesed-off that they might have to.

Should is used in the staff room or at liquid staff meetings (Friday evenings in the pub) to garner support from other teachers.  It’s basically asking that all the other teachers nod their heads, jump on the band wagon, and slag off their students to the appreciation of all the other teachers there.  Sometimes it even becomes a pissing match between teachers about the depths to which they have to sink in order to educate these boils on the bottom of humanity.  And as a way of burning off the trials and tribulations of the week, it’s not even that effective.  I know because I’ve tried.  I always come away wishing I hadn’t been there at all.

But this is fairly innocuous.  Teachers can be forgiven for Friday afternoon bitch sessions.  What I can’t forgive teachers and professors for is when they allow the word should to interfere with good teaching.  I’ll give you an example: “My students should know how to use a comma”.   Really?

What is being said here is that the teacher or professor expects that no matter what the students’ former education, no matter where they come from, what their home languages are, no matter their health histories, personal histories, no matter where they live, or what stresses they have been under, it is those students’ job to make sure that when they walk into my classroom, they can use the comma perfectly.  It is their fault that they don’t know this.  It is their fault that I have to work harder.

Then the teacher or professor has a choice to make.  The choice between teaching how to use a comma or simply ignoring the problem, or worse yet, grading the students as if they did know how to use a comma and are simply choosing to do it wrongly.  Or the Pythagorean theorem.  Or how to take notes.  Or how to create a Word document.  Or how to ask for help.  Or how to format an essay.  Or how to find for x.  Or how to not plagiarize.  Or how to ….  Or how to ….  Or how to ….

Let the whining begin.  “But it’s not in my syllabus!”  So what?  “But it takes time away from my curriculum!”  So what?  “But it’s not my job to teach them that!”  So what?  “It’s their former teacher’s fault for not teaching them this!” So you want to perpetuate that crime, ultimately dooming them to repeating the mistake over and over because you won’t even tell them that they need to go look up how to use commas?  No, because they should know it.  And you’ve just lost all of my respect.

Teaching is binary.  (Unless you are a professor, and you rely heavily on the Latin definition as a person who professes, and your only job is to stand up and spew forth what you have learned.   As opposed to a teacher, the definition of which is to cause or help (a person or animal) to learn how to do something by giving lessons, showing how it is done, etc.)  In this case, your students either know it or they don’t.  Binary.  On or off.  Do they or don’t they?  There is no place for an emotional reaction, and it only tires you out.  If they know it, move on.  If they don’t know it, teach it and move on.  There is no room for should in the classroom.

When I first taught English as a Second Language, it was in Japan.  I was hired by a University, Women’s College, and a High School.  Almost all of my students had from six to eight years of English before they darkened my door.  And they could barely hold a conversation.  They did not know how to pronounce the alphabet, to the extent that playing Hangman was out of the question.  (At some point I will tell you that story.)  Not only that, but we were not allowed to fail them.  I used up my lifetime supply of shoulds before I even started a credential program.  And once I gave up trying to reassure myself that it wasn’t my fault that their spoken English was so bad, and I gave up my preconceived ideas about what a speaker of English with eight years of tuition should be like, I started to actually teach.

Give it up.  Burn it.  Drown it.  Let the word should fall from your vocabulary into the deepest, darkest cavern on the ocean floor for now and forever more.  Focus on what is or what isn’t.  Find ways to turn what hasn’t been learned into what has.  Students do not come prepped and ready just for you.  You form yourself to them.

This is a tall order because should is so insidious.  Still, try to stop using it.  If you struggle, start by raising a little flag in your head every time you hear yourself use the word.  Try to restate your idea without it. My friend told me about the strategy of snapping a rubber band on your wrist whenever you think of doing something bad for you, but that might be overkill.  What you will find is that the blame and guilt associated with it drop away, too.   And we can all use less of those.

I know you can do it.

 

Week 38 – Can the Training Wheels Miss the Bike?

We were on our last week of school.  Tuesday was our last day of regular classes.  Wednesday students watch the Upper School Performance (which was wonderful) and had two Humanities classes.  We finished up our last essay which students presented as a speech. The 6th had a math class, but then, that’s it.  Thursday was a half day and that was all about cleaning up, gathering up, signing year books, and saying good-bye.  We also finished watching most of The Holy Grail, skipping Castle Anthrax.

The speech writing used the same pattern as any other expository writing.  Brainstorming, outlining, writing, and for some of the faster students, a chance to revise.  The main difference was that I wouldn’t help them.

One student was not about to be put off.  She kept asking me to check her work.  Now this is a student who was writing her 14th essay for me.  I knew, really knew, that she didn’t really need my help. I had her previous 13 papers in her portfolio in the back room.  Every time she asked for help I referred her to her Tools folder, or the rubric, or the book, or a classmate.  Still, she kept asking questions that I knew she knew the answer to.

I finally stopped her and asked if she knew how hard it was for me not to help her?  Everybody thinks that the teacher is there to guide and help students, but the teacher is also there to help students do it themselves.  Once the how-to-do-it-ive-ness has been established, the teacher needs to step back and let the students do it.  I think they had noticed by now, as it was the end of the year, that I am both nosy and bossy.  I find it very, very difficult not to look over their shoulders and point out places where they could be doing it the way I would be doing it, even when there is no guarantee that their way isn’t better.  It is why I make myself sit at my desk and often knit or write blog entries until one of them needs help.

The student looked at me and said, “So, you are kind of like training wheels?”  Yes.  I am the human equivalent of training wheels.  My job is to make myself superfluous.  Then I asked her if she ever considered that the training wheels might miss the bike.

There was a moment of reflective silence in the room.

Week 36 – A Pop Essay to Make You Foam at the Mouth

As the year is winding down, I’ve been wanting to assess my students on the writing process when left totally up to them.  I also wanted to know what they took from the movie “A Knight’s Tale” that we watched in class as part of our unit on the middle ages.  (We watched a safer, denuded, and cleaned up “airplane” version.)   So when they came back from recess, I said, “Okay, Pop Essay!  Get out binder paper and your notes.”

POP ESSAY!

Using your notes and the True/False list you made while viewing the A Knight’s Tale, outline and write a first draft of an expository essay.  You have one class period only.

 Here is your prompt:  How historically accurate is the movie “A Knight’s Tale”?  Describe the most important moments that are accurate and explain why, and then describe the most interesting  moments that are inaccurate and explain why.  What conclusions can you draw about our popular notion of the middle ages based on the film?

Do your outline here.

Go!

The students never batted an eye.  They all got out paper and their notes, and we looked at the prompt.

We took a minute to “deconstruct” the prompt.  First I asked them where we would find our thesis statement.  We underlined the first question.  I explained that they would need to turn it into a statement, but clearly I need to go over it again because one student used the question as it was written.

Then we numbered the jobs that the prompt was asking to be answered.   We put a 1 at “describe” and drew an arrow to what we were to describe and circled it: the important moments.  Then we put a 1a at the word “why” to remind us to give examples and reasons.  Then we put a 2 at the second “describe” drew a circle around the words “interesting moments” and drew a squiggly line under the word “interesting” to make it clear that “important” and “interesting” are two different concepts.  Then we put a 2a at the word, “why”.

Then we looked at the last sentence, and students were relieved to see the word “conclusions”. They accurately connected the word to a conclusion paragraph.  You don’t need to do it that way, but it does make a nice way to wrap up your thoughts.

Then I introduced the idea of the magic number 3.  They need two sets of moments.  Emphasis on the plural.  I told them that it is always useful to pick three ideas to support their thesis.  This meant that with a topic sentence they would be looking at about seven sentences for their body paragraphs.  Each moment must be supported.  The three moments plus three examples plus one topic sentence equals about seven sentences.  That gave them an idea of the length of the paper.

I wanted them to give me strong outlines, and so I told them that they needed to make the outline specific enough that if they didn’t finish the paper, I could still give them credit based on what they were planning to say as shown in their outline.  One the other hand, I warned them that they didn’t want to make the outline so specific that they didn’t have time to write it.  Only one didn’t get to write.  But his outline is amazing.  (We’ll work on it.)  Some finished early.  I told them that in this case, they need to check that they were on topic, then do as much revision as possible before the essays are picked up.  They needed to think about legibility, grammar and mechanics, idea and content, organization, word choice, and voice.

It takes time to master timed writing. They should not beat themselves up because they didn’t finish, but to consider why they hadn’t.

Instead of posting several essays, I thought I could get more student’s work up if I cherry picked some paragraphs and moments that I found to be most interesting.

Here are some openings:

The movie “A Knight’s Tale” focuses on medieval times.  But is the movie accurate to history?  In this paper:  What is accurate?  What is inaccurate? and why?

How accurate is the movie “A Knight’s Tale”? This movie is about a squire, the helper of a knight, named William, and how he changed his stars.  Which means that he went from squire to knight.

Is “A Knight’s Tale” historically inaccurate? Or is it both?  Let us find out.

And some 1st body paragraphs:

This will be the accurate section of my paper.  Training daily is a huge part of a knight’s  life.  That is how they have lots of power to hold these huge swords (not always big swords, but heavy).  Courtly love is love in the nobility.  One of the rules is when you speak to your lover, you will foam at the mouth.  The Black Prince is a real character.  His real name is Prince Edward.  He is famous for his victories.  He does help other kings and, yes, he does tournaments.  There is still many more. 

First of all, this movie had a lot of accuracies, some unexpected.  There was, in fact, daily training for all knights.  William wasn’t doing a lot of extra training. All the rules of jousting and the stuff that happened (including getting hurt) did happen.  This is important because it was actually unwarped despite how silly it sometimes seemed.  William also followed the rules of courtly love.  That is very important because to some people could see that it would be crazy how one would follow and constantly think about another.

Now I will describe a few accurate parts.  Most of the dances were accurate, but not all of them were.  This was important because William got closer to the girl he liked.  Only widows having men’s job (blacksmithing) was accurate.  William needed a good blacksmith.  People were hanged.  Roland uses this to show William what could happen to him.

First, I will discuss the accuracies of this movie. First on accuracies is Knights.  Knights had to have people pay them taxes so they can go to a tournament.  Also, in Europe, if you are not of noble birth, you cannot be a knight.  Next is Ulric von Lichtenstein.  Ulric was an actual character from history who was a knight.  Next is apprentices.  Most children were apprenticed around the age of 7.

And some 2nd body paragraphs (I didn’t give the whole paragraphs for some of these because there was a lot of repetition.)

This next paragraph is about how inaccurate it is.  They filled the lances with pasta.  The makers did that so they could have an effect.  The blacksmith put a Nike symbol on the armor.  First, they didn’t have Nike, and second the blacksmiths did not put a symbol on armor (as far as we know).  They did not know what people looked like back then.  For example, the Black Prince, we don’t know what he looks like.

Now I will explain three false moments.  One of them is that David Bowie did not exist then.  He was born very recently.  The outfits for women were very inaccurate. They looked like “Star Wars” clothes!  The lances broke.  They wouldn’t have been able to afford so many.

Next,  the inaccurate moments.  They had no trial for criminals.  When William got arrested, he went straight to public humiliation.  They also filled the lances with linguini.  I would not expect to see that in the middle ages, but it did add pop to the jousting.  Finally, the women used hair dye.  We know that women would dress their hair elaborately, but did not color their hair. 

Finally, roses were pink and white, not deep red.

They did not eat turkey legs.

First, in the middle ages, there was no hair dye and women would have worn their hair up and covered.  I know this because we have watched many middle ages documentaries and they said exactly that.

And for some conclusions:

Not thinking historically, this movie was funny and exciting.  If we had not learned about the middle ages, everyone in the class would think that the middle ages wasn’t all that bad.  They also would think most knights were mostly too snobby and proud to congratulate anyone else.  If everyone had thought these things, they would be totally wrong.

I learned that some movies are accurate and some aren’t.  Example, this one was more accurate.  I learned and saw some of the rules of courtly love. Like when the two lovers, William and Jocelyn, are talking and William is tripping over his words and you can hear him.

I am very pleased with the results.  The students’ voices come out loud and clear while strongly reflecting what we learned in class.  They also had little problem transferring the writing process to a quick essay test.  So, yay, yay, and yay.

So, here’s to Heath Ledger (god rest his soul), people having fun with History, and whoever created the essay.  Add them all up, and you get statements like “when you speak to your lover, you foam at the mouth.”

Cheers!

Week 35 – Our Path Leads to Tiblet

Yes. I meant to write “Tiblet”. Actually, I didn’t mean to originally, but it’s the way it came out as I was trying to research some questions that my students were asking about this amazing book. The real title is My Path Leads to Tibet by Sabriye Tenberken.

Every day during our writing class, students read a chapter of her book and then write a Reading Journal about it. I think I’ve talked about this before. We moved swiftly through the book reading a chapter or two every day.

6th grade students wrote a five-sentence summary of the chapter, they gave evidence of the writing trait we are working on, and then they wrote a ten sentence reflection. They practiced using academic English, and the things they are learning in Grammar class. The 5th grade did variations on this theme. These students needed a little more help with vocabulary which slowed them down a little.

I’ve been blown away with the students’ response to this book. After reading The Alchemist with them, I’m no longer surprised at the depth of their thinking, but this book is tapping into their innate sense of justice. They want to stop and talk about what Sabriye is going through as they feel it. It’s sometimes difficult to keep them on task because they get so angry at what she’s put through. It’s the right moment to say to a student, “Good, I’m glad that you are reacting, but what you are saying belongs in your reflections. Make a note about it, or hold on to it until you are ready to write.” Of course this is not satisfactory, but generally, I find that students do write those reactions in their journals.

Today, students wanted to know if there is another book by her. They wanted to know what her organization was called, and they wanted to keep reading. What I love is hearing their voices in their reflections. I learn so much more about them by what they write.

As we just finished the book, students are pooling their reflections to write letters to Sabriye and her school in Tibet. I compiled all the reading journals for each student and handed them back to them in packets. The students want to make little origami gifts to put in the box along with the letters. If they give me permission, and thankfully, they generally do, I’ll post some of them before we send them.

Again, I’m just so proud of them.

Week 33 – Sacred Triangles

Trinities are amazingly important to us because they embody such truths.  But there is one trinity that is ultimately important in my professional life as a teacher.  It is the trinity of teacher, student, parent.  This was brought home to me recently when I read this article:

School suspensions: Does racial bias feed the school-to-prison pipeline? – CSMonitor.com.

In it, students of color are shown to be disproportionately punished.  The punishments are pushing these students out of learning environments, dooming them to failure and many of them to prison.

I was reading it when my students came back from PE.  A student asked me why  my eyes were bugging out of my head as I read.  He said, “You look really angry.”  He was right.  I was angry.  So, I read them the first few paragraphs.  Then, they were angry.  They asked me if I had ever seen racial bias in the schools I’ve taught at.  Unfortunately, yes, I’ve seen it.

The part that the reporter, Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, misses is the part that parents play in the trinity of education.  Let me state, right now, that I am not in the business of shaming parents.  This is not a diatribe about how awful parents are, nor is this meant to make any parent feel guilty*.  On the other hand, I am not absolving parents of their responsibilities, I’m just trying to lay out what I see.  And what I see is that students whose parents are unable to come advocate for them are more likely to be singled out and more likely to be punished harshly.

Not all parents are the same.  Parents of all students are very, very complicated.  But I think the parents of minority students have it pretty bad.  Let’s list the issues I’ve personally seen.  They often work.  If the parents are at work during school hours, they find it difficult to take time off to fight with the district office about the needs of their children because, let’s be honest, to get a school to give up some of its funds is a fight.  Next, many minority parents have had their own horrible experiences with public schools.  I’ve seen mothers, white-knuckled, cautiously approach me because they were worried enough about their children to fight down their own memories of school.  One told me once that she had been beaten by a teacher because she forgot and spoke Spanish in the classroom.  Horrific.  Then, there can be a language barrier.  First- and sometimes second-generation parents struggle to make themselves understood to the school, and they don’t have time to learn the language because they are, what was that again?  Oh yeah, working.  And then there is illness.  Addiction, abuse, and depression all take a major toll on the energy parents have.  And then you must talk about poverty.  There’s a lot of it out there.  The reasons why it makes it hard for parents to advocate for their students are legion.   Parents struggling with the above have to trust that the school is able to handle the children they put in their care.

What I’ve seen is that the child who lives with his first-generation immigrant grandmother, under a bridge, is more likely to be reprimanded by teachers than that student whose parent is joked about in the teachers’ lounge as a helicopter parent.  (For those of you who don’t know, a helicopter parent is a term for a parent who is over-protective of their child to the point that they are actually doing harm.)  Teachers make intelligent gamblers.  If you can shut a situation down by coming down on a kid whose parents are not likely to come in and rip you a new orifice, you probably will.  Furthermore, if you have a kid who is making the classroom a living nightmare, and you can get that kid out of your classroom by declaring him or her defiant, would you?  I’ve seen teachers walk a classroom literally smiling on the kids who spoke perfect English and snapping at the kids who did not speak English well.  All the while, all the kids were having the same behaviors.

So, I guess this is a call for action on the part of the schools.  We need to behave as if every parent is going to be down our throats, fighting, and fighting hard for their children.  (This is a starting point.  What we really want is a working relationship with all parents.  But let’s just start here.)  More importantly, we need to teach our teachers how to have competent classroom management.  Guess how many classes I took in my Masters’ program on classroom management?   Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  Fortunately, I was working at a school that was proactive on that front.  I also had professors in my certification program who slipped it into the curricula.  But I do know that being able to keep all students on task is more important than John Dewey, bless him.  Guess which one I need every day. of. my. life.?

The trinity must stand, even when one leg of it is imaginary.  Teachers must behave as if every student in their care has an advocate checking on how they are being treated.  Even if you know their only advocate is you.  To make it harder, educators must decide that there is no principal’s office to use as an escape route, and that keeping the students in the classroom is the best option unless a child is violent.  And unfortunately, since most education programs are light on classroom management training, teachers are going to have to demand help from their administrators to get them the training that helps them to make the classroom a place where only learning is happening.  Further, teachers need to recognize when they make the easy choice: unduly punishing the kid who is already vulnerable.  That’s called bullying.  It will come back to haunt us.  It already has.  20 years of “zero-tolerance” is just giving us a new industry.  Prisons.

 

* If you would like to feel guilty, or at least have a laugh at the expense of the entire academic world, please feel free to check out my humor blog: Dun Lernen Academy.  If you laugh, let people know.  If you don’t laugh, I didn’t write it, I know nothing about it, and may the writer (whoever she may be) rot in a watery grave.  Peace out.

Week 33 – Student C’s Offering

Here is another student’s response to the compare and contrast prompt.

This student worked extremely hard on this paper. His willingness to do revision after revision, to listen to those who could help him, and the choices he ultimately made to improve his paper make me so very proud of him. Notice the green underlining on the outline. He never lost patience when I asked him to go back and answer reader questions. Notice the back of the third draft. He was still working on hooks and introductory thoughts. This child knows how to work. And he did so diligently, coming up with a product he can be proud of. I know I’m proud of him.

The contrast brainstorm:

The contrast brainstorm:
:

The outline:

The first draft:

The second draft:

The third draft:

PSR: For some reason we can’t find it.

The fourth draft:

And the Graded Rubric:

Week 32 – Student B’s Offering

I’ve uploaded more student papers.  This student wrote his compare and contrast paper on Sherlock Holmes and Scrooge.  It has the same rubric as before.

Let’s see what he’s done.

And the contrast brainstorm:

Then the plot development chart. For some reason we are missing one of the plots.

Then the outline. Notice that he has chosen to outline conclusion directly after introduction.

Then the first draft:

Then the second draft:


And for some reason we are missing the final page…

Then the third draft:

Then the Personal Skills Record:

Then the final draft:

And finally, the Rubric with the final grade:

And there it is! A job well done. A paper I think most high school students would be proud of.

Week 32 – Where to Find Success

I’ve been struggling recently with what it means for students to be successful. I’m concerned about a recent trend in educational policies that swing from one extreme to the other, i.e., testing mania versus free range learning.  It has struck me that both ends of the spectrum often use “success” as the reason to do what they do.  But, I think both miss the point.

Let me start by defining my terms.  When I talk about testing mania, I’m really talking about school-wide quantitative research.  The No Child Left Behind Law essentially requires this type of research because it has to be “scientifically proven”.  Evidently, this will ensure success.   Completely out of the game is qualitative research which is more in-depth and is done in a small group (like a single classroom) and therefore doesn’t have a big enough cohort, nor can you create a testing environment which creates a “sterile field.”  The problem with it is that it cannot be generalized to all students. Only quantitative research, large group testing, is supported under the law which is why states are clamoring for it.  Without results from these types of tests, the federal government will not provide schools with needed monies.  It’s the power of the purse-strings, baby.

It seems to me that the problems with basing a school’s modus operandi on these juggernauts  are obvious, but out of fairness, I’ll list my favorites.  One, big testing as an assessment is only one of thousands of important assessments educators do and by only looking at one marker, you seriously misread your students.  It’s the problem of trying to use a snapshot to write a biography.  Two, and most importantly tests are written and read with certain purposes in mind.  It is not unusual to run across tests which are specifically written to boost the scores of one group over another.  More frequently, and less nefariously, tests are used to come to conclusions which they never meant speak to.  And some of our best minds fall victim to it.  Enter Ken Robinson.  It’s the reason why I support the Seattle teachers’ boycott of testing.  The MAP testing is not a fair or reasonable test and it’s results are used incorrectly.

At the other end of the spectrum, when I talk about “free-range learning”, I am talking about those schools that do no assessments what-so-ever, qualitative or quantitative.  They are absolutely certain that criticism damages children’s innate ability to grow and discover.  These are schools where the words “fun”, “student-centered”, and “student-driven” outweigh all other concepts.  They are based on the idea that all children are perfect learners, are naturally equipped to learn all things, and if society would only get out of their way, they will succeed.  These are often schools where students only do what and how much of a project they want to do.

Sounds great doesn’t it?  But there are some major disadvantages which I’ve seen qualitatively.  I’ll explain the major one, and I think it is by far the most important.  In my experience, these students are frequently unable to take appropriate risks.  They become very, very good at what they like or want to do but will categorically refuse to do anything they have to work for.  Dig deeper, and you discover that the reason they don’t like to do it (whatever “it” is) is because there is an underlying problem making it difficult for them. If the school stops paying attention when the child decides he or she is done, learning issues do not come to light. I’m not qualified to state whether or not a student has a learning disability.  I am, however, qualified to identify a learning deficit.  When a child is not making progress, I start asking questions.  Time and time again, my questions have unearthed an issue (vision, dental, silent seizures, are some examples) which, once identified and acted upon, allows the child to take the risks needed to grow.    Students realize that they aren’t “stupid” (their words, not mine), they just needed someone to recognize they were struggling.

So this is what I was musing on when I saw this article.  The Guardian reports that British teachers in a primary school make the statement that a quantitative test given to students will 1) get rid of their arts program and 2) make the students feel like failures.  I’m not sure why this would be.  You can have an arts program and testing.  I’ve seen it done.  Also, students will only feel like failures if you present it to them in that way.  Although I’m clearly not a friend to standardized testing, I’ve seen it have its uses.  Their teacher’s union is giving me emotional reasons why the test is bad for the school, not reasonable ones.

Large quantitative tests do not necessarily make students feel like failures.  (Although, I strongly suspect that the real fear is how it will make the teachers feel along with any repercussions attached to the findings.)  The adults who report on the findings of the test are the ones who make students feel like failures by how they talk about it.  Sure, if you nail up on a wall all the students’ scores and then parade them all past whacking each one who didn’t pass on the head, yeah, you’re gonna make enemies.  As you should.  But a respectful dialog, with transparency about what’s being tested, and how to fill those gaps?  No.  Students will understand.  Even young ones.  What they will feel is respected because you are talking to them like they matter, and further, you are going to help them fill those gaps.  But then, you must actually help them fill those gaps.

Which brings me to the question of what makes students feel successful.  I’ve come to know that those things I have to work for, those things I struggle to do, are more important to me than those things that were easy.  This is why I cringe when I hear about schools where students are not required to take appropriate risks and push their comfort levels.  When they come to me, those students have often had an inflated egos and yet were enormously afraid of work. They have been so afraid of failing that they have been academically paralyzed.

Which brings me to the last thing I have seen recently concerning feeling successful.  It’s this:

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com.

Let me say, it’s not for the kiddies, unfortunately.  Although the message itself would be understandable by middle schoolers, the foul language David Wong uses makes it inappropriate in a professional environment.  To paraphrase, drastically, Wong posits these six ideas.  1) The world only cares about what you can do for it.  2) The world expects you to be successful.  3) Success is about benefiting others.  4) When you are successful, you like yourself more.  5) Self-esteem comes from success not failures.  6) Success is hard work.  But click on the link.  It’s also really funny.  And don’t forget to answer his questions at the beginning.

Wong’s truths are what both the testing world and the free-range learning world miss.  Both take students at face value and both attempt to create their academic world by these conclusions.  The score on a standardized test may make or break a student.  (Ask me, I’m currently facing down the GREs.)  On the other hand, a school where a learning disability is not recognized will definitely make or break a student.  (Ask me, I wasn’t recognized as dyslexic until college when my academic life became absolute hell.)  If a school really wants students to be successful, it will not shy away from testing if it will help get a better picture of the needs of the class or the student.  It will also demand that students learn how to work, even when they don’t want to.  That way success lies.

Week 31 – Student A’s Response: Final Draft!

You heard it, the culmination of over a month’s worth of work on the Humanities Paper: the hallowed Final Draft.  Let angels sing.

And here is it: You will see all the work shown in previous posts add up in this paper. Now, I want to say that this is a 5th/6th classroom. This student is a sixth grader, aged 11 or 12 for non-Americans.  As she grows and changes, and as she re-reads these books over time, she will gain more insight and understanding because that’s how life works. Do I agree with everything she said? No. Do I need to? No. What I want is for her to present her ideas and justify them, and that she does. Am I completely and totally proud of her and her work? You betcha!

A note. Any corrections students make when they proof their paper before they turn it in do not come off of their grade. You will see that Student A made a few slight changes right before handing it in.

And the final graded rubric is below. Notice that I do not write on a final draft. There is no need. Every document that she turned in is a working document, and should show signs of revision.  All information is conveyed on the rubric below.  Students are invited to take the graded rubrics home for “braggin’ rights,” but the stack of pages making up the final paper, goes into the student’s portfolio.  And on to next months paper…