Worthy Texts: Who Decides?

Worthy Texts: Who Decides?

What is good poetry? Good literature? Who decides? These are the questions that this article discusses. One of the goals of reading in school is to help the student develop the love and enjoyment of reading. Teenagers who read for pleasure read a variety of texts – except in class. Teachers and schools play an enormous role in developing attitudes toward reading. Many schools and classrooms fall short of helping students learn to love reading for two specific reasons. 1. They adhere to the canon of Western literature. 2. They fail to motivate students through choice.
*Nearly half of all 18-24 year-olds read no books for pleasure.
*Less than one-third of 13-year-olds read daily.
*Teens and young adults spend 60 percent less time on voluntary reading than the average adult does.
These statistics should be disturbing. The way reading is introduced in schools and the classroom is important in shaping the love of reading.
When an adult searches for a book at a bookstore, there are hundreds of books to choose from and a variety of genres. If an adult was only given one choice, that would be frustrating, yet this happens to students every year in the classroom. The article gives some practical ways to instill a love of reading in students: choice.
1. Pair a nontraditional text with a traditional one.
2. Use reading circles in place of one canonical text.
3. Highlight outside reading choices.
4. Choose books that link content areas and coordinate across departments.
In order for this to be successful, everyone must be supportive. Administrators must allow time for the departments to get together and discuss which books could be cross-curriculum. Teachers must have rationales ready for parents who may not understand alternative reading choices. It is only through reading what is great, what’s partially great, and what some people think is great can young readers develop the ability to evaluate, compare, and think critically about what they read.

Gilmore, B. (2011). Worthy texts: who decides? Educational Leadership. 68(6), 46-50.

"The Inner World of Teaching"

“The Inner World of Teaching” by Robert Marzano

Synopsis by Krissy Brown

How often do we as teachers assume the worst about our students? In his article, ‘The Inner World of Teaching,” Robert Marzano offers a strategy that all teachers need to consider when dealing with and evaluating students’ misbehaviors. After all, if our behavior in the classroom directly affects our students’ achievement, isn’t it important to take a deeper look at what affects our behavior?

Every teacher has had to interpret students’ behaviors, and Marzano encourages teachers to ask themselves three questions to help them better control their interpretations and to avoid over-reacting. For example, when a student disrupts a class, the teacher should ask:

1. How am I interpreting this event?

2. Will this interpretation lead to a positive outcome?

3. If not, what’s a more useful interpretation?

Rather than just assuming that the disruptive student is intentionally trying to be disrespectful, the teacher will be able to resolve the situation with a positive outcome. If the teacher takes a moment to reflect on the situation before reacting, she can avoid an unnecessary confrontation and have better control of his or her interpretation of the student’s behavior. We need to train our inner-selves to control our reactions and remember that negative interpretations have negative outcomes and positive interpretations have positive outcomes.

Bibliography

Marzano, R. (2011, April). "The Inner World of Teaching". Educational Leadership , pp. 90-91.

Demystifying the Adolescent Brain

Robert Ostrander

Education Leadership

Demystifying the Adolescent Brain

Adolescents can be mature one moment and frustratingly immature the next. Why?

The brain has reached its adult size by the age of 10, making it impossible that changes in thinking during adolescence are the result of sheer increase in the brain’s size.

Scientists can no take a picture of the brains activity (fMRI)- (measuring its brain function).

Many of the most important brain changes that take place during adolescence are not in the brain’s structure, but in how the brain works.

The brain has been studied when students are asked to do a task alone or when their friends are watching. The mere presence of peer’s changes brain activity between those of adolescents and those of adults.

Peers present in an adolescent’s life activate the reward center, but not those in adults. This makes teenagers MORE inclined to take risks when they are with their friends because they are more likely to focus on the reward of a risky choice than on the potential costs.

It is all starting to make sense to me now…

A key process in the early brain development is the development of connections – synapses – between neurons. By age two, a single neuron may have 10,000 connections to neurons. The development of new synapses continues throughout life as we learn new skills, build memories, acquire knowledge, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Synaptic pruning begins – at the age of one a brain will have twice as many synapses than the adult brain. Soon after birth, unused and unnecessary synapses start to be eliminated – this process called synaptic pruning.

Over time, people discover that one path is more direct than others, so this path becomes wider and deeper. Because the other paths are not being used anymore, the grass grows over the path and now they disappear.

Just like pruning a rose or a Christian, this is a healthy process in ones development.

What does this mean for the adolescent’s brain?

The most important part of the brain to be pruned in adolescence is the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain directly behind your forehead, which is most important for sophisticated thinking abilities, such as planning, thinking ahead and weighing risks and rewards.

Maturation of the prefrontal cortex is not complete until the mid 20’s, a much later point in development than scientist’s had originally thought.

What does this mean for the adolescent?

An adolescent will be more quick to jump into the reward and punishment process, and they will be quick to judge the social aspects – judging what a person thinks of us and reading facial expressions.

They are maturing in reasoned thinking as well as taking more risks.

Kissing, music, and much more become part of the risk reward behavior.

Dopamine is released when a pleasurable experience occurs, and this can becomes so strong that just the anticipation of a moment can produce the dopamine effect.

We know there is a rapid increase in dopamine activity in early adolescence…in fact more at this time of their life than at any other. Adolescents will go out of their way to seek rewarding experiences.

Unfortunately, this causes adolescents to overlook the risks.

They are in a tough situation…their ability to control their impulses is immature at the same time that their interest in sensation seeking is at its strongest.

It’s like starting a car without a skilled driver behind the wheel.

Can you say JESUS!

Teachers sometimes are surprised by the inconsistency in student’s behavior, especially during the MIDDLE SCHOOL years.

Understanding what is going on helps us know what is behind it. As far as basic abilities involving memory, attention and logical reasoning, the 15 year old is just as mature as the adult; but the brain maturation such as thinking ahead, consequences of a decision, balancing risks and rewards, or controlling impulses are still developing.

Experiences in the classroom re what help the adolescent learn how to think ahead and control impulses.

Practicing something will strengthen the brain circuits that control that behavior…so we must provide adolescents with opportunities to practice things like planning, anticipating the consequences of a decision, and regulating their own behavior.

Although it is frustrating, when they push for more control we are to give them slowly.

Adolescents who have not been given this opportunity to develop may not succeed, but be patient, with practice, they are pruned and maturity arises.

PRAISE GOD!

Educational Leadership

April 2011

“Let Strategies Serve Literature” by Diana Senechal

Synopsis by Krissy Brown

Students need to learn reading strategies, but have literature teachers been neglectful of teaching the text by placing more emphasis on how students read rather than on what the students read?

When a teacher approaches a literature unit, she will most likely focus on teaching her students reading strategies to help them find the main idea, visualize the details, make predictions and inferences, make connections to one’s own life, and summarize passages. These are certainly skills that all students need to learn; studies even show that learning these skills help students solve problems. When a teacher uses strategy instruction as a main form of teaching; however, she is at risk for neglecting the actual content. Studies reveal that when the teaching focus is on strategy alone, students do not read the text for actual content comprehension. E.D. Hirsh Jr. explains that before students can “activate background knowledge, it must be built first.” (Hirsh 2010-2011)

Another problem with concentrating too heavily on teaching strategy and not enough on the actual text is that strategy alone treats text as being interchangeable. Students, thus, do not learn and are not exposed to specific works of literature that cultivate knowledge of cultures and demonstrate particular literary interpretations.

Strategy instruction has its undeniable place in a literature curriculum. As Diana Senechal points out, however, it must not become the curriculum. Literature curriculums need to be rich in the study of complex works that generate whole-class study and analysis.

Reference: Senechal, D. (2011, March). "Let Strategies Serve Literature". Educaitonal Leadership , 68, pp. 52-56.

Evaluations That Help Teachers Learn

Why are evaluations of teachers so important? Teachers offer a service and it is important that the public receive a high quality service. One of the challenges of teacher evaluations is how to evaluate properly in a way that is beneficial to improve teaching. This article discussed the Framework for Teaching method of observation that has proven effective for both teachers and administrators. There are 3 areas of the teacher evaluation system that will ensure teacher quality.
1. A consistent definition of good teaching. – Good teaching practice should be defined. It is not enough to just “know good teaching when I see it.”
2. A shared understanding of this definition. – Teachers, administrators, supervisors, coaches, and mentors must know and understand the definition. The common language of the definition must be discussed and understood so that all parties involved know what is expected.
3. Skilled evaluators. – The evaluators must be trained in good practices in order to be able to assess teachers accurately.

Another reason that teacher evaluations are important is to promote professional development. To foster the professional development the teacher must be a part of the assessment. This can happen in 3 ways.
1. Self-assessment
2. Reflection practice
3. Professional conversation
According to the Framework for Teaching method, the evaluator should take notes and make comments during the lesson and then give those notes and comments to the teacher before the post observation meeting. This allows time for the teacher to self-assess the lesson before just listening to the evaluator give his/her thoughts. This also allows time for the teacher to have some self-reflection of good and bad points of the lesson. Teachers have a tendency to be just as critical of themselves as the evaluator. Finally, during the post observation meeting, a professional conversation can occur between the teacher and evaluator rather than the conversation being just one-sided by the evaluator. The professional conversation can stimulate teacher development.

The Framework for Teaching evaluation method focuses on 4 domains.
1. Planning and preparation
2. Classroom environment
3. Instruction
4. Professional responsibilities
There are some challenges to using this type of evaluation system. The first challenge is training for the evaluators. This training will take some time and practice. Another challenge is finding the time for the professional conversations.

Danielson, Charlotte. (2011). Evaluations that help teachers learn. Educational Leadership, 68(4), 35-39.

Classroom-Tested Tech Tools Used to Boost Literacy

Several teachers explained how they used the existing technology in the classroom. They did not need to buy programs; they just used what already exists in various ways. One teacher had her student teacher read the vocabulary words and then created a PowerPoint to go with the words. Then she burned the presentation onto DVDs and gave each student a DVD. This allowed each student to hear the words pronounced properly and also gave a visual for each word. The teacher found that it made students more adept at recognizing the words. Audio books were also found to help students with fluency and comprehension.
In an elementary school, one teacher utilized webcams to help improve student’s reading. He had the students read aloud while being recorded. Then, the teacher was able to view the video with the student and help point out some errors and how they could improve. Within 5 weeks, the teacher found that students made at least 2 fewer mistakes in their reading.
Blogs are also a way for students to practice fluency and engage students in reading and writing. When students connected with other students from other countries with their blogs, it forced the students to polish their grammar and pronunciation. The students were excited and wanted the other foreign students to know the proper way to speak and write; therefore, the American students wanted to perfect their speech and writings.
Some other technology tools that were used were VoiceThread, Storybird and Teachers’ Domain, an online repository of free media resources for teachers run by the Boston-based WGBH Educational Foundation, provides multimedia-rich science and social studies curricula infused with literacy lessons. The overall concept for utilizing existing software was to cut down on purchasing pre-packaged, expensive software and to use the tools in an effective way to make a difference.

Ash, K. (2011). Classroom-tested tech tools used to boost literacy. Educational Week Digital Directions, 4(2), 22-24.

Good Teaching Thumps Good Tools

"Good Teaching Thumps Good Tools"

by William M. Ferriter

Summary by Krissy Brown

The author of this article points out that having a 21^st century classroom does not necessarily mean you will have 21^st century teaching. We can have the most high-tech classroom in the universe and still not effectively use the technology in our lessons. At the same time, a teacher could have no high-tech devices in the actual classroom, and still be able to provide 21^st century teaching.

Many teachers get caught in the trap of focusing on the digital tools themselves instead of simply using the tools to instruct the students in the different academic content areas. Teachers need to learn how to “craft lessons that integrate the skills needed for success.” (Ferriter, 2011)

William Ferriter recommends two powerful online discussion tools that teachers can use to generate conversation amongst the students. They are great options for teachers who may not have many “devices” in the classroom, but still want to incorporate technology into their lessons. The first resource that Ferriter discusses is VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com). You can create voice threads by uploading topics for discussion to the website. These can be cartoons, images, quotes, etc. Your students can then go on-line and add comments to the conversation. The purpose of incorporating this into the classroom, is to teach students how to contribute worthwhile comments to conversations and to strengthen language skills. By using VoiceThread, students get the opportunity to polish their ideas before publishing them to the conversation.

The second tool that Ferriter recommends for teachers is Diigo (www.diigo.com). Through Diigo, users can annotate, tag, organize, and share online information. You can bookmark specific websites for your students to visit, and once on those websites, both you and your students are able to annotate, highlight, and make comments about the posted text. This preparation before class then leads to sophisticated, in-class discussions.

Bibliography

Ferriter, W. M. (2011, February). "Good Teaching Thumps Good Tools". Educational Leadership .

ASCD Educational Update January 2011
Cyberbullying Is it Happening In Your Class? by Bijal Damani

Many of the problems that occur in the classroom are connected to incidents that occur outside the classroom. Traditional bullying has always taken place in our schools and took the form of verbal or physical abuse. Many students have a digital life of which their teachers and parents have little knowledge. Cyberbullies don't conform to a particular type. People can use multiple online identities to harass others and technology allows the content to circulate very quickly to a very large audience.

Cyberbullying may include:

• Hacking into a person's email account and sending inappropriate messages or pictures.
• Hacking into someone's personal website and leaving inappropriate messages.
• Posting the mobile number of the person online with an indecent message.
• Circulating photographs (actual or morphed) that will embarrass the victim.
• Discussing the person on a social networking site and spreading rumors.
• E-mailing a virus to crash another person's computer.
• Copying or deleting important data from a person's computer.

What can we do?

• Teachers should be aware of behavior changes in students who have been bullied or harassed.
• Be tech-savvy and have a presence in cyberspace where bullying is likely to take place.
• Student community plays an important role in stopping cyberbullying.
• It helps tremendously if bullies are confronted by their own peers who stand up against their actions.
  
• Victims and witnesses should be encouraged to report bullying of any kind to school authorities
• of any kind.
• Bullied students should talk to their parents about the harassment without being judged.
• School administrators have to take a firm stand against bullying of any kind.
• Students should all understand the school's policies regarding cyberbullying.

What Makes a Great Teacher?

“What Makes a Great Teacher?” by: Sonia Nieto, Joseph Semadeni, Johanna Mustacchi, Pete Hall, Deirdra Grode, Terence Clark, Renee Moore, and Linda Nathan

Educational Leadership asked several top educators what makes a great teacher. These are their answers:

1. Great teachers know that humility is important so that they never quit learning, and so that they don’t limit the people from whom they glean knowledge. A first grader can teach us a lesson that is just as important as that which a college professor can teach us.

2. Great teachers must have passion for what they teach. Their excitement trickles down to the students. If we want for our students to be motivated and eager to learn our content, we must demonstrate passion for what we do. It will rub off on the students.

3. Great teachers have courage and the ability to use what students already know to help them apply the new things that they are learning. These teachers equip students to use the skills they teach the students not only when the students are in the classroom, but also when they are in “real life.”

4. Great teachers are always checking themselves and seeking ways to refine their practices. They practice self-reflection daily!

5. Great teachers seek constructive feedback in order to grow. They observe other successful teachers and model their effective practices.

6. Great teachers are prepared with intentional, essential questions. They don’t “wing” questions because they understand that the questions they ask develop the backbone of the lesson.

7. Great teachers don’t give up on students. They create an environment that emits trust, safety, and comfort. Great teachers use a variety of teaching methods so that all types of learners achieve success.

8. Great teachers are flexible in techniques and styles. One of the most important factors in being flexible is to have a sense of humor! Great teachers remain calm and do not engage in power struggles with the students.

Bibliography

Nieto, S., Semadeni, J., Mustacchi, J., Hall, P., Grode, D., Clark, T., et al. (2011, January). What Makes a Great Teacher? Educational Leadership , 68 (4), pp. 74-93.

Educational Leadership
The Effective Educator
December 2010/January 2011
Volume 68 NO. 4

“What Makes a Great Teacher?”

Five key characteristics were identified by prominent educators as being the most important quality of an effective teacher.

The first quality identified was humility. True humility is a quiet self-confidence. In teaching, it means understanding that one does not know everything, and there is always more to learn and improve on. It means acknowledging that one can learn from other professionals, as well as from peers, immigrant parents, or even first graders. It is an understanding that no one method is the “magic bullet” to teaching and learning.

The second quality identified was excitement about learning. Students are motivated by a teacher’s passion for the subject he or she teaches.

The third quality was making meaning. An effective teacher teaches students to process what they have learned. Teachers teach such processing by having students practice critical thinking and problem solving . It is also done through the practices of collaboration and communication.

The fourth characteristic of an effective teacher was reflecting on how you teach. To quote John Dewey, “It’s not the doing that matters; it’s the thinking about the doing.” An effective teacher selects, adapts, and refines every teaching move in a reflective, intentional, way.

Finally, the fifth quality of an effective teacher was a willingness to grow. Teachers must be eager to seek out support and corrective feedback from supervisors and peers and grow in their strengths as an educator to meet students’ changing needs. One way to do this is for teachers to receive feedback from administrators from evaluations and classroom observations, reflect on that feedback, and make goals for personal improvement. Through this practice, teachers will continually grow in their profession.

Following the practices of these five key qualities will enable teachers to be on track for effective teaching.

What Mentors Learn About Teaching
When an experienced teacher mentors a new one, does the veteran’s teaching life change?

This article tracked numerous teachers who were in a mentoring program of ne, first year teachers. The veteran teachers ranged in experience from 5 to 30 years of teaching. The mentor program was a pullout program that allowed the veteran teacher to mentor 3-5 teachers for 2-3 years. The mentors also attended weekly seminars and workshops and met several times a week with the other mentors to have collaborative discussions of how to be successful mentors to the teachers.
The findings of this study showed 3 main areas of growth for the mentors.
1. The mentors gained a broader perspective.
a. There was a “new awareness” between administrators and teachers.
b. The mentors were able to understand firsthand how everyone had to interact causing them to see the big picture of how things worked within the system.
2. The mentors gained a deeper understanding of professional development.
a. The mentors were able to teach each other what they had learned while teaching their new teachers.
b. “Continued meaningful interactions with colleagues can significantly alter an experienced teacher’s perspective (Hanson, 2010, p79).
c. Because the mentors met on a weekly basis, the collaborative learning was effective.
3. The mentors developed teacher leadership.
a. After being in the program, the teachers gained confidence in themselves that they had something to offer others.
b. As a result of this newfound confidence, the mentors were more willing to be leaders and teach in the next professional development meeting, the mentors were more willing to become the other teachers’ advocates to the administration.
Being mentors to others was a beneficial experience for both the mentor and the new teacher. Hanson (2010) found that the experienced teachers were strongly influenced by their work guiding new teachers and working in a professional learning community. By establishing such pathways, schools can encourage great teachers to use their potential to improve teaching and learning.

Hanson, S. (2010). What mentors learn about teaching. Educational Leadership, 67(8), 76-80.

Educational Leadership
November 2010
Volume 68 N0. 3

Gender-Friendly Schools
Kelley King, Michael Gurian, and Kathy Stevens

Do girls and boys learn differently? The Center on Education Policy released in March 2010 the report, “Are There Gender Differences in Achievement between Boys and Girls?” The center examined state test data from all age groups in all 50 states. The research found girls to be doing roughly as well as boys in math. In reading, however, boys are lagging behind girls in all states with adequate data, with gaps greater than 10 percentage points in some states.

Research has revealed that gender-related issues interfere with ability to achieve school improvement goals when educators look closely at test scores, grades, discipline referrals, homework completion rates, special-education placements, and student motivation. The areas of difficulty for girls included lower learning and engagement in science and technology classes, problems with self-esteem development in adolescence, and relational aggression in school and in cyberspace. Areas of difficulty for boys included lower achievement scores in most classes, lagging learning skills in areas such as note taking and listening, lower grades in all classes except some math and most science classes, and less motivation to learn and lower perception that the curriculum is relevant.

Some strategies used by teachers to close opportunity gaps between boys and girls are to add movement, build on the visual, and to incorporate student interests and choices. Movement helps increase brain activity and engages students in the learning process. Throwing a beach ball to a classmate to answer a question, or singing songs with hand motions are just two of many ways to get students moving. Using visuals, such as comic-strips, motivates students’ thoughts for writing. Allowing students to draw their ideas for a writing prompt can be helpful as well. Finally, students' motivation can be boosted by incorporating students' interests and choices. It is important to identify students' passions and integrate the curriculum around their interests. Sports may be a strong motivator for boys. Then, allowing students to choose the means of presentation, whether a report, or a music video, will motivate students and promote learning.

Closing gender gaps is not only essential for school improvement, but also reflects the deep humanity and love of all children and honors the uniqueness and differences in the way God created them.