Thomas - Two False Claims That Drive School Reform

Posted by Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post "Answer Sheet" blog. Thomas excellently breaks down the false claims about teacher-based merit pay and increased funding for charter schools being purported by the "ed reform" folks.

Ferlazzo: The Best Resources Documenting The Effectiveness of Free Voluntary Reading

Extensive reading (also known as Sustained Silent Reading or Free Voluntary Reading), the idea of having students read text of their own choosing without necessarily having to do book reports, etc, is an important instructional strategy that many of use. Its academic benefit has been widely documented, especially by Stephen Krashen.

I thought it would be useful to pull together some of research that backs-up its effectiveness.

Feel free to offer additional suggestions.

You might also be interested in My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources Documenting The Effectiveness of Free Voluntary Reading:

81 Generalizations about Free Voluntary Reading is by Stephen Krashen.

The Benefits of Extensive Reading (ER) is by Richard R. Day.

Extensive reading: why it is good for our students… and for us, by Alan Maley, is from The British Council, and cites multiple studies.

Extensive Reading: Why? and How? is by Timothy Bell.

Extensive Reading: Why? and How? and is another study on extensive reading and ELL’s."

Ferlazzo: More Resources On Wealth & Income Inequality

Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality:

It’s the Inequality, Stupid is from Mother Jones and has eleven infographics.

Malcolm Gladwell On Why Income Inequality is the Next Big Issue Facing America is an article and video."

Ferlazzo - “Film Education” Looks Like An Excellent Resource

Film Education is a UK site with tons of study guides and other resources on how to integrate movies into any curriculum. It also has some neat online activities.

I’m adding it to The Best Places To Find Theatrical Movies On Science, Math, & History."

Ferlazzo - Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

"The attacks on teachers and other public sector workers in Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker and his allies could be a dangerous sign of things to come throughout the United States. Fortunately, the courageous and well-organized opposition could be an even more powerful indicator for the future.

I have a particular interest in what happens in Wisconsin — beyond its national implications. I lived in Milwaukee from age ten to fifteen, and know first-hand, and fondly remember, the hard work of educators in that state.

I hope readers will provide additional suggestions for this list — I’m sure there are plenty of good articles I don’t know about."

Ferlazzo - If You’re Not Suffering From “Rhee Fatigue,” Then Here Are Two Good Articles

If You’re Not Suffering From “Rhee Fatigue,” Then Here Are Two Good Articles: "

Michelle Rhee has been all over the news, and on this blog (see The Best Posts About Michelle Rhee’s Exaggerated Test Scores and 4 concerns about Michelle Rhee). If you’re not tired of hearing about her, here are two good articles that have just been published:

Still Waiting for Superwoman: What Michelle Rhee’s fans don’t get about education reform is from Slate.

The Meaning of Michelle Rhee is by Mike Rose."

Stenhouse - Planning for writing instruction

“Writing is hard work,” says Mark Overmeyer in his book When Writing Workshop Isn’t Working. To make teaching writing easier, Mark answers the tough questions about writing workshop: How can I help students who don’t know what to write about? How can I help my students organize their writing? How do I manage writing conferences? And how do I plan for writing instruction. For this week’s Quick Tip, we pulled a section from Mark’s book where he talks about planning writing instruction for a school year.

Planning for a year

If certain units of study are going to be followed through the course of a year based on state, district, or school guidelines, setting deadlines for these units of study can be helpful when planning instruction.

For example, for many years when I taught fifth and sixth graders, my teammates and I ended the year with a unit that required students to create their own magazine. This project required students to use all of the writing strategies they had been working on all year, and the open-ended assignment allowed for maximum choice while still providing a tool for determining how much students had grown in the year. The magazine became a sort of community celebration as it continued over the years, and families looked forward to seeing what their students would create during this project. Since the magazine took approximately five weeks to complete, and it was one form of summative assessment, we placed it at the end of the school year. We worked backward from there, fitting in units that included research, narrative, memoir, and technical writing.

As we planned for the year, we noticed when we could fit writing in across the curriculum. For example, we could do a research unit closely connected to social studies topics. Students had a choice of what they wanted to research, but we connected it to our American history standards. Technical writing in the form of lab reports could happen in science class.Writing did not have to exist just in the domain of language arts, so if there were days when we would have to shorten our language arts block, we could plan accordingly and make sure to have writing happen in science or social studies.Writing in other content areas is not only a good idea in terms of planning and scheduling, but I think it is also good for students. Many of my reluctant writers in the past have loved science, and they were more than willing to write in the context of their favorite subject. They may have reluctantly completed a memoir, but then enthusiastically explained their thinking in science class.

Planning for a year is an excellent way to think backwards: once my teammates and I decided which type of writing would occur in each month, we could begin gathering our resources and planning for instruction.We knew what types of writing we would need to cover in order for students to be successful in each unit.

Though we knew we would have to adapt our ideas according to student need, having the plan created a strong scope and sequence that covered the requirements of our district curriculum. Organizing for the year ensured that we would give students ample opportunity to demonstrate their growth in writing.

An example of a yearlong plan is found in Appendix F.

"

Sitomer - Bring on the cell phones!

"The 'No Cell Phone' policy which so many schools still have in place just doesn't make sense to me. Why? Because the phone of today is, well... no longer a phone.

Yes, phones are phones. But they are also...

• planners so kids can keep track of all their assignments.
• research tools to quickly find facts, reference info, and the such.
• blah, blah, blah. (Really, if I kept listing and listing all the possibilities of today's phones, I'd never be able to stop typing right now and get to my bigger idea.)

Stenhouse DBQ Resources

3) PD Corner: Document-based questions

The vast majority of our students will not become professional historians. In their careers, however, they will need to know how to find valid information, analyze it from multiple perspectives, and communicate it clearly. —Sara Cooper, from Making History Mine Analyzing documents from multiple perspectives and communicating ideas clearly are the essence of a document-based question (DBQ). DBQs challenge students to write and think critically in response to a set of documents. Get the gist of the DBQ process at Peter Pappas's site, Teaching with Documents. Find worksheet organizers to support students' analysis as well several example DBQs: http://www.edteck.com/dbq/index.htm Want to construct your own questions around a historical theme? Dip into Paula Goldstein's treasure trove of primary source and DBQ resources: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listdocumentpa.html Or discover the interactive National Archives Experience and build a question to support students thinking about American history or literature: http://www.digitalvaults.org/ Do your students struggle with analysis? Help them make sense of the evidence with History Matters. Review how to make sense of a variety of text types: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/makesense/ Hone your craft with Making History Mine by Sara Cooper. Chapter 5, "How Historians Think: Writing as a Way of Understanding," builds a foundation for the DBQ process: http://www.stenhouse.com/0765.asp?r=n209 (Click on the Table of Contents tab.)

Alfie Kohn - STEM Sell: Are Math and Science Really More Important Than Other Subjects?

Alfie Kohn: STEM Sell: Are Math and Science Really More Important Than Other Subjects?: "What's the single most alarming educational crisis today? That's easy. It's our failure to pay more attention to the academic field of whichever educator happens to be speaking at the moment.

Just listen, then, and learn that while there may be other problems, too, the truly urgent issue these days is that we're just not investing in math and science instruction the way we should be -- with predictably dismaying results. No, it's that kids are outrageously ignorant about history, a subject that ought to be, but never is, a priority. No, it's that even in high school students still can't write a coherent paragraph. No, the real emergency is that reading skills are far from what they should be. No, it's that music and the arts are shamefully neglected in our schools. And so on.

MLK Jr. - “The Purpose of Education”

Dr. King on the purpose of education in America: “The Purpose of Education”

Teaching Tolerance - Jim Crow Today

Jim Crow Today: "
It can be daunting but also amusing to set the context for Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird. If my students thought the 1992 L.A. Riots were “back in the day,” imagine how long ago the 1930’s feel to them. Not only that, but when I refer to the southern United States, several of them think I really mean “a place near L.A.” To conquer this, we spent a period locating Alabama on the map, sipping sweet southern tea and checking out Dorothea Lange’s Depression-era photos. I even play a compilation of tunes that were popular then, including A Tisket, A Tasket by Ella Fitzgerald. Overall, we have fun as we look back...

NY Daily News - Public schools trail charters in funding for students

Public schools trail charters in funding for students: "Most city charter schools got $649 a student more than public schools did last school year, a new analysis by the Independent Budget Office finds."

The Learning Network - Ways to Teach About the Unrest in Egypt

The Learning Network: Ways to Teach About the Unrest in Egypt: "We'll continue to update this post, which provides a variety of ways to address the breaking news about Egypt in the classroom."

Ferlazzo - Today, A Reporter Asked Me What I Thought Of Michelle Rhee. This Is What I Told Him…

Today, A Reporter Asked Me What I Thought Of Michelle Rhee. This Is What I Told Him…: "

A local magazine here in Sacramento is doing a big story on Michelle Rhee who, apart from Governor Jerry Brown, might be Sacramento’s most famous newest resident. Their writer asked if I would be willing to answer a few questions, and we arranged a time to talk. The article won’t come out until late March, and who knows if anything that I said will even make it into print, but I thought readers might be interested in a short summary what I told him when he asked what I thought of the policies she and her allies in the “school reform” movement are promoting.

I responded by saying that I had four main concerns:

NYTimes - On Education: Closing the Achievement Gap Without Widening a Racial One

On Education: Closing the Achievement Gap Without Widening a Racial One: "Ronald Ferguson has explored the reasons black students’ grades lag behind those of whites."

Huff Post - McCaskey East High School Divides Students By Race, Gender For 'Better Mentoring'

McCaskey East High School Divides Students By Race, Gender For 'Better Mentoring': "UPDATE: After the segregated mentoring program sparked national outrage, McCaskey East High School has ended the policy, CNN reports.

Pennsylvania's McCaskey East High School has come up with a controversial plan to help the school's black students: to segregate them.

The policy applies only to homeroom, which meets each day for six minutes and once a week for 20 minutes, and was intended to help close the school's racial achievement gap.

Huff Post - Rita M. Solnet: Who's Kidding Who With These Reforms?

Rita M. Solnet: Who's Kidding Who With These Reforms?: "I summarized Florida's Education Summit yesterday indicating that the event may have moved us a step forward towards genuine dialogue on education reform. We are certainly better off than if the summit never occurred!

What we haven't looked at -- as a state or nation -- is the big picture on some of these proposed reforms. Let's take a step back and away from the intense debate and ask this question:

Who are these reform initiatives really intended for?
The triumvirate of reforms being aggressively pushed right now are: 1) ending teacher tenure; 2) merit pay based on standardized test scores; and, 3) closing schools/firing staffs.

Ferlazzo - Talking To Students About Their Reading (& Their Data)

"As regular readers know, our school works closely with Kelly Young from Pebble Creek Labs on our curriculum and instructional strategies. One of the Pebble Creek-designed assessments we use in our English classes is having students complete the same two clozes three times each year — September, January, and June — to assess reading comprehension and vocabulary development. In addition, we have students read to two passages for one minute each to us during the same three times during the year in order to measure reading fluency. You can see The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment for more information about these assessments.

But these assessments, especially the one for reading fluency, is about much more than data. Those few minutes are also opportunities for us to check-in with students to find-out how they’re doing. In addition, individual conversations teachers have with each student after the results of the assessments are known are good times to converse about their future hopes and goals (see My Best Posts On Students Setting Goals). These conversations help us connect genuinely useful data to genuine student self-interests. This, in turn helps students develop intrinsic motivation to achieve goals that they set for themselves — with some teacher assistance. I write more about this process in my upcoming book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges.

This week I’ve been talking with my ninth-grade students about their fluency scores (next week we’ll be having similar conversations about their cloze assessments, and they’ll be using them to complete goal sheets and actions plans for the semester).

Here is how I talk with them about their reading and their data, especially mid-year — all in short, private conversations:

First, I begin by telling them I’m going to ask them a question, and that I’m going to ask them to answer it honestly. I promise I won’t react negatively to anything they say, and there won’t be any grade consequences at all. “How much time to read each night?” I ask (students are supposed to read for 1/2 hour each night). Almost universally, I’m convinced that students answer candidly.

Next, I take one of three tacts — depending on their fluency scores (of course, it’s not always as clear-cut but, for the sake of this post, you’ll get the idea):

IF STUDENTS HAVE NOT MADE MUCH PROGRESS: When this is the case, almost always students have answered my question by telling me they don’t read much. I tell them that it shows in their scores. They’re going to have to do a lot of reading in high school, and it’s going to be hard to keep up if they can’t read faster — homework will take a lot longer. The student and I might take a few seconds to calculate how much faster they could read a text if they are able to increase their reading by ten, twenty, thirty and even forty words a minute, and how much time they would be able to save. I know the interests of each student, and what they say they want to do after high school, so I might ask them how much reading they think they’ll have to do to study for that profession or to actually do the profession. I’ll ask if they are having a hard time finding a book they find interesting, and we’ll discuss ways to find one. I’ll end my asking them to think about what they want their fluency goal to be at the end of the year so they can be prepared to complete their goal sheet next week, and ask them to think about specific things they can do to achieve it.

IF STUDENTS HAVE MADE GOOD PROGRESS, BUT ARE STILL NOT READING AT THE LEVEL THEY NEED TO BE: When this is the case, I’ll tell them that the average student increases their reading fluency by ten words per minute in a full year, and that they’ve exceeded that goal in five months. After that pat on the back, I’ll say something like, “Boy, if you were able to make that amount of progress in half a year by reading _______ minutes each night (whatever amount they told me initially), imagine the progress you could make if you increased that amount — even a little bit — or read a little more challenging book?” Then we’ll have a conversation similar to the one I recounted in the first instance — doing a little calculation, talking about it’s impact on their future, asking them to think about their goal and action plan.

IF STUDENTS HAVE MADE PROGRESS & ARE ALREADY READING WELL: When this is the case, I’ll tell them that I’m going to be honest with them — they’re doing fine and will do fine in school. I’ll also ask them if they want to settle for “fine” or do they want to go for “great”? We’ll then have a conversation about their hopes for the future. I’ll tell them that one thing they need to remember, though, is that it can sometimes take more work to go from reading 190 words per minute to 200 than to go from 100 to 110. It’s like a competitive runner — it can be harder for someone to go from running a four minute mile to someone running a 1:55 mile than someone going from a ten minute mile to running a mile in nine minutes. A person might go from 100 to 110 words per minute reading a Goosebumps book for 30 minutes a night, but it’s unlikely someone is going to go from 190 to 200 by doing the same thing. They’d need to look at reading more challenging books and for reading for a longer time.

The backdrop for these conversations are multiple life skill lessons we’ve done (and which you’ll find in my book) on the effect of learning on the brain, how perseverance and self-control affect future success, and on the importance of taking personal responsibility. Of course, another key element is the relationship I’ve built with each student.

Contrast how we use data with students — authentic assessments, personal conversations & relationships, connections to student’s future hopes, and self-selected goals — with how data might be used in schools. In fact, I’ll end this post with a video showing one of those other ways.

But before you watch it, please take a minute to think of any suggestions you might have on how I can improve the quality of my “data-informed” conversations with students. I’m all ears….


"

NPR / The Root - The Scary Segregated School Trend

The Root: The Scary Segregated School Trend: "
On Tuesday, Michelle Obama announced that the 2012 Democratic National Convention will be in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cynthia Gordy of The Root argues that hopefully the location of the convention will draw attention to the increasing segregated school problem in North Carolina."