Reading #9 - D&Z Chp. 11: Help for Struggling Readers

This chapter has provided me with, yet again, another opportunity to emphasize the importance of PERSONALIZATION in the classroom. D&Z spend chapter 11 discussing the ways we can help our struggling readers. A huge part of this is, yet AGAIN, making students accountable for their learning and encouraging teachers to put things in a context in which their students can relate. The other variables are trust and classroom community building.

The first part of the reading discusses the issue of students not having the mental images to apply to the materials they are reading. This is why it is imperative that we, as teachers, make every attempt to relate the course material to our student's experiences. IF they have their own experiences to pull from they can see the images. If the material is not a direct representation of their experiences, we need to help them make connections (reach to inspire a connection, if you will?). This helps to remove any doubt in what a student is learning, in turn, boosting their CONFIDENCE (another variable mentioned by Smokey and the Bandit) and self efficacy. No images, no confidence, resulting in frustration and students shutting down and becoming unwilling to learn (return of the Gremlin). As I have grown to notice through my observations at NPHS, student attention is INCREDIBLY fragile. As teachers we need to be helping OURSELVES by making all material engaging, otherwise we will lose our students.

D&Z make the mention that teachers complain that they "aren't reading teachers!" I agree with D&Z in the sense that we don't have to teach our students to read. What we need to be doing is GUIDING them in the right direction. Similar to cooperative learning where the teacher plays the mediator. We need to set goals for our students and give them something to work towards, they know how to read at different levels so lets help them use what they know and allow them to expand on that knowledge. For instance, I know how to drive, no one needs to teach me -- but just because I know how to drive doesn't necessarily mean that I know how to get from Providence to New Hampshire. We need to provide our students with directions, a road map, whatever analogy you want to throw at it.

Giving context to reading is the best we can do, other than building morale and efficacy. We need to give our students perspective and a lens in which to read with. Hopefully this lens is their own experience. Another great tool, discussed by D&Z, is roll play. Give your students a reason to care, ask questions from a specific perspective. Bellow I have provided a link to a video that discusses the effective implementation methods for "role-play"... I think this is a method worth considering. As you can see from the thumbnail...the video discusses EXPECTATIONS, I believe those are key to providing our students a "road map."

Reading #8 - D&Z Chp. 9 & 10: Book Clubs and Inquiry

I love the idea of book clubs. I believe that they are a smart way to encourage students to become accountable for their own learning. The idea of the teacher/facilitator role in book clubs is paramount to the success of this exercise. In order for a child to truly retain anything they learn, they have to make the important discoveries themselves, then an imprint/memory can be made. The most important discovery a student can make, in my opinion, is finding out why they care about what they're learning. Once the student is engaged the teacher can be there to facilitate and lead the students towards higher levels of thinking (this reminds me of class last week -- we should be asking our students questions ALL OF THE TIME -- not just asking them, "do you understand?" "does that make sense?" and other questions of the like). Bookclubs, or literacy circles as they are sometimes referred to, are student exploration at its finest! They choose their own reading, they develop their own discussion questions, they investigate the text together, and they challenge themselves and their peers. All the while, the teacher nudges them in the direction of their learning goals. The best part about these circles/clubs is how they can be assessed. This is an opportunity for students to express their creativity and to choose the best method in which they can show what they have learned -- all the while showing something new to their classmates.

What I was interested to see in D&Z was the section on preparing students for book clubs. This reminded me about our class discussion on metacognition. As I began to read about book clubs, I immediately saw the value and how I could implement them in my classroom, and began to think on how I would "facilitate" in-depth discussions. But D&Z helped me realize that maintaining these book clubs will be easier said than done. What I took away from the reading is that in order to start book clubs/literacy circles, you need a strong foundation in expectations. Making a list of rules either under your own discretion or with the students themselves will help them know what they need to accomplish within the circles (another way to make them accountable). The scheduling of these clubs is also important so that students can get a sense of consistency. However, the largest aspect contributing to the success of book clubs is the note taking. You need to provide students with methods in which to note take. Besides, this is the basis of the in class discussion. There may be some trial and error but if implemented correctly, book clubs are the most effective tools. I know this is all easily said as an English teacher. But I'm sure that this would be effective in any concentration. I know that if I were a math teacher I would use this as a way to gain student interest. (I know this would have been helpful for me when I was in high school). By having students engage in some research and dissuasion on relevant mathematical topics it might help to foster some deeper level thinking that would in turn contribute to the students ability to understand the course content.

Totally separate from the topic of this blog post, but I was listening to NPR on my way to campus this morning and I stumbled across this. The segment is on the top lowest performing higher ed. establishments in the country. The criteria for low performance is summed up to how poorly these schools are using their federal funding. The segment raises the question as to whether or not this is helping or hindering the schools at the bottom of the list. The intent is to make those schools achieve better standards, but some experts say the only thing the list is doing is plummeting their registration numbers. The reason I post this is to ask whether or not this would be a beneficial tactic to raise awareness of the performance of formal education. It doesn't seem to be a good fit for higher ed.

The Opposite of the Dean's List

Reading #7 - D&Z Chp. 5 & 8: Tools for Thinking & Reading in Content Areas

As Daniels and Zemelman point out, there has been a lot of discussion on textbooks thus far in the semester. The question now becomes, once a teacher finds the reading materials for their course how do they implement the material and ensure that their students are getting the most out of what their learning. Well, as you might imagine, this does not happen by chance. This is the part I have been waiting for and alluding to in my previous posts. I have made mention of "making students accountable for their learning." In order to make that possible, we the instructors, need to engage our students. D&Z provide a BEVY of material and learning strategies to help make this possible.

Chapter 5 starts by acknowledging the fact that not everything needs to be graded in the classroom. The "tools for learning" are the jumping points in which we prepare our students for their assignments. What I find to be exceptionally beneficial about these various tools is that any of them can be "expanded" into a larger assignment if a teacher sees fit. Versatility, as I have come to find out, in the most poignant buzzword for a teacher.

While I find the "gradual release" format of these activities to be moderately traditional, the variety that D&Z provide help to avoid complacency and that "stale/traditional" sense. What I find most intriguing about these activities is what they accomplish. If done correctly and purposefully, at the end of these activities students are going to be able to expand on what they already know. Rather than learning isolated materials students are able to make connections and elaborate on what they already know. The big picture learning is what's most important for our students.

These activities are largely didactic. Their main goal is to provide students with reading/learning strategies BUT at the same time, if implemented correctly, there is ample space to be teaching content.

The "THINK ALOUD" is what I can see myself using the most. For example I would implement it while teaching any Shakespeare play that we might cover (obviously this works for all reading but I love Shakespeare). I would take the time to read in class, firstly so we can make progress on finishing the play in a timely manner. I would also read as a way to introduce themes, questions, and concepts that I want my students to be looking at throughout the play's entirety. But most importantly, I will be able to teach the students the necessary tools for dissecting, analyzing, and understanding the text. I would also provide resources that they could use on their own. The goal of this assignment would be to prepare students for independent reading. I can ensure that the students are following the text and that they are getting what I want I want them to be getting out of it. The think aloud provides the opportunity for students to ask me questions about the reading that I might not have thought to cover. While the think aloud provides the students with reading skills for complicated texts it also helps to eliminate uncertainties on what is expected of them. I know for me, when I was in high school, sometimes reading (especially complicated texts like Shakespeare) assignments made me feel left in the dark. The teacher assumed that we could read, therefor left us to our own devices. Sometimes the reading was so difficult that the most important points were lost.


This video is on reading Shakespeare...it's mostly just for fun but there is some sound advice! Go Shakespeare!    

Reading #6 - D&Z Chp. 6&7: Textbooks & A Community of Learners

My last few posts have been filled with textbook related gripes. After reading chapters 3 and 4 from Daniels and Zemelman, I was beginning to wonder if textbooks really deserve a place in our education system. While that question may still up for debate, in chapters 6 and 7, Daniels and Zemelman provide some timely advice on how to cope with a textbook if a teacher is mandated to use one. Their advice is reassuring to me because I feel as if I have already been following their train of thought as you can see in some of my previous posts. Ideas such as not assigning the whole textbook – not letting them dictate lesson plans but using them to enhance instruction – sample different text materials instead of using one book as the end all be all – GET STUDENT FEEDBACK. The last note is pivotal to classroom success and most closely relates to the next chapter from D&Z.   

D&Z delve into “classroom community.” The classroom community, I believe starts with us teachers. Gradually, I feel as if I am starting to make the transformation that Dr. Horwitz has been talking about. This transition of course is from student to teacher. Not only do we need to be thinking and acting like teachers rather than like students, but we need to be thinking and acting like teachers FOR our students. While this transition is paramount, we mustn’t forget our roots. What will make us good teachers is by remembering where we came from. Compassion and empathy. Our students and their learning need to be the crux of all decisions and discernments we make as education professionals. It starts with reaching out to the individuals and catering to our student’s differentiated learning styles. Students need to feel welcomed and assured that they are an asset to the class. Students need to be accountable for their own learning but also made to feel as if they are a part of a team. Cooperative learning allows for this communal sense. The best example of this idea is represented in our very own SED 407. Seldom do I get the sense of feeling that translates into the traditional, rigid, and formal classroom format. I feel as if every Wednesday at 4 I get together with a group of people to have a well guided discussion about our passion for education. The secret is getting students to learn without them knowing that they are learning. This is exactly what Dr. Horwitz has accomplished. A classroom community filled with learners who are responsible for their own learning. As D&Z recommend, students need to feel comfortable enough to take risks and they need to know that their opinions are valued.

This is some good insight on classroom community building in regards to making student's learning PERSONAL. As D&Z suggest, if what the students are learning effects themselves and/or their community, they will become more involved/invested. Let me know what you think....and for some reason I wasn't able to patch the video in through the post so I just provided the link...it's a TED talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-WnwKrMLEU

Reading #5 - Strong Chapter 6: C+RAFT

Immediately, I knew that I was going to enjoy Chapter 6 by Strong. While the Darth Vader analogy wavered on the side of exaggeration and hyperbole, it made me think: If the education system has been flawed for so long and little has been done to make a nationwide change in the system, is there a proverbial Darth Vader out there? Regardless of whether there is or not, the time has come to rally all of the Han Solo’s and Luke Skywalker’s of the world and start a “teaching-method rebellion.” Traditional and conventional teaching methods and styles have been missing the mark for most students for some time now and a change must be made.

“Assignments by Design” seems to be the Millennium Falcon, or the “air-CRAFT” (another horrific pun, excuse me) to this educational rebellion. To be honest, while reading some of this material I thought to myself, “well, duh.” I thought everyone knew things like, “choose topics with a purpose—choose topics that make the students pull from their own experiences—try to give students a choice in their writing assignments.” I thought that anything less was an insult to my students. But, the harsh reality is, however, we have all had at least ONE teacher who never even considered a single “design principle.” To have it all laid out in writing makes assignments by design seem so obvious, but really it’s genius.

Teachers who neglect to utilize assignment by design are serving a huge disadvantage to their students. As educators we need to guide students in the direction we want them to go in. It sounds manipulative, but we’re the teachers, they depend on us to ask thought provoking questions. It is not our job to ask a questions of them that simply require them to regurgitate the information they learned in a lecture. We need to be asking questions and getting them to write in a way so that allows them to apply what they have already learned so that they can reach their own conclusions. This is how you provoke thought and develop a thirst for learning. STUDENTS FORMING THEIR OWN OPINION?! Taking a personal stance and caring about the this is how you provoke thought and develop a thirst for learning. School is about teaching students how to think so that they can form their own opinions once they reach "the real world," not cramming their brains with facts so that they can pass the next state exam. 

Assignment by design most closely resembles my experience with AP United States History in my Junior year of high school. While the course required a tremendous amount of independent study and outside of class reading, the instruction time was invaluable. Commonly, we would practice writing for the AP exam and to do this we would write mock DBQs (Document Based Questions). As a student I enjoyed these questions very much. Typically a writing prompt/question in a history class falls along the lines of what Strong depicted to sound like, “describe the political, social, and economical climate of EXAMPLE A.” Questions lacking depth. APUSH gave a refreshing twist to essay writing. In a well thought out question/prompt, we were asked to use our prior knowledge of historical events, people, and concepts and to use the provided historical documents as evidence in our responses. They were timed as well, and I loved that. Writing is one of my passions, so to do it well and to do it quickly was always a challenge that gave me a certain rush. I’m a geek. Anyway – the design of these particular questions kept me interested in history class that year. The effect of this teaching method would have been tenfold, however, none of my other classes followed this design. When so many courses require you to think in such a linear way, it is hard to adapt your way of thinking for one single subject. Don’t get me wrong, it was still impactful, even out of a vacuum. I just feel that if every class strived to teach assignments by design, then our students will become for stimulated and they will be encouraged to think on higher levels. I’ve always thought that the purpose of education was to inspire thinking among students.  A student is only willing to learn new things if they possess the proper tools. Motivation and stimulation to encourage thinking.

Reading #4 - Why Textbooks Are Not Enough

While I do realize that my last post pertained to textbooks, an opportunity to rant about them has presented itself yet again. Chapter 3 of Daniels' and Zemelman's book "Subjects Matter" delves quite deeply into education's hot button topic; textbooks. A majority of the chapter is dedicated to why textbooks are "bad things". Granted, there are some pieces of advice on how to get the best out of a textbook if a teacher is forced into using one for their lessons, but on the whole, the chapter discusses how they are a hinderance in the classroom. Although it is a seemingly negative chapter, I tend to share the same sentiments as Daniels and Zemelman.

Before I could even turn the first page I found myself questioning and highlighting. I suppose it was some mild form of "textbook-PTSD" that had me in a frenzy. I remember quite vividly how loathsome my peers and I were towards the four hundred paged, fifty pound, relics. I remember one of my classmates found his mom's name in a textbook from when she was a student at our high school. Ironic then, impossible to think now. What on earth is a teacher doing, teaching out of a book that was published when they were in college? And then for some classes we carried around books that we barely ever used. This is more similar to my college experience. I have run out of fingers for the amount of textbooks a professor has mandated that I purchase and then neglects to use them throughout the entirety of the semester. I wonder how often this is happening in high schools across America.

I sense myself starting to rant, so I figure it best to pull some quotes from what I read and to write my commentary about the topic...

On page 52, Daniels and Zemelman accuse texts books of being superficial. I could not agree more. The weight, length, and size of textbooks are unnecessary.  Rather than students lugging around bulging backpacks, teachers should be reviewing textbooks, using the best material and providing it for their students. The commitment to teaching an entire course based off of the contents of a single textbook is immensely limiting to a student’s learning potential.

An even worse example of restricting a student’s learning is raised on page 46 of Subjects Matter. Daniels and Zemelman reported an account that the state of Illinois made it illegal to spend state book money on anything except commercially published text books. This issue will always be beyond me. The purpose of education is to provide our students with the necessary resources to succeed. When a state limits the amount of resources available to a school, a huge disservice is paid to our students. This just becomes another hindrance towards teacher’s efforts in differentiated learning.

A counter example of the latter shows another flaw in the education system in regards to textbooks. In another account provided by Daniels and Zemelman, in 2012, the State of Louisiana’s Department of Education forbid the use of textbooks in its schools. AGAIN. Limiting. As if the limit of student learning potential wasn’t enough, this provides a classic example of the educational pendulum like paradigm shift. Rather than trying to adapt textbook usage and find a way to make them beneficial to instructors and students alike, they are abandoned. It’s time to end the limitations on source material.

I propose that our generation of students band together as “baby textbookers.” (Forgive the horrible “Baby Boomer” pun – I’m sure someone can come up with a more suitable name). Anyway, we have all had some sort of bad experience with a textbook in some form or another. As aspiring teachers we should vow to not do the same thing to our future students as was done to us. Let’s amend the textbook misusage.  

On a lighter note, I included this video that shows some textbook charity. We all know how expensive the bookstore can get. I wish more people did things like this...

Reading #3 - UbD

So often text books are looked at as the "ball and chain" of the classroom. From the student perspective I have to agree with the text book stigma. My high school and college experiences with text books have been less than favorable. Classes are either structured to the tee in accordance with a class' text, leaving no room for differentiated learning, OR the text is not used at all (the latter is the most common pattern in college). The regimented teaching style that most commonly accompanies text book usage includes an introduction to the text, reading the text, followed by answering the chapter questions in the text. HOW BORING?! As an aspiring teacher, however, I am less skeptical on the use of text books. 

UbD is a refreshing approach to teaching out of a text book and reading as a whole. Not only is the reading process changed in a way that is more intriguing, but the material is covered in a way that helps the student better absorb the content. The largest aspect of backwards curriculum in which I most agree with is the assessment portion. The idea is to assess throughout the entire learning process, not just waiting for the end of the unit. It has always been my contention that "end of the unit" testing is too late. If a teacher/instructor waits until the end to assess their students learning they are putting themselves in a tricky situation. The assessment format provided by UbD allows the teacher to gradually check their students learning process, and ensures that the students are learning all of the necessary steps along the way. Through the traditional reading style a teacher cannot be sure that their class is following along if they wait to track the student's retained knowledge until the end. In most cases it is too late to reteach what has been taught because, of course, the teacher is obligated to move on to the next part of the curriculum. 

I know full well that many schools mandate the use of text books. This, however, does not make me fret. I know that if I can utilize the text in a way that is effective then my students will not loath text books the same way that I did when I was in high school. 

The below video gives a good summation on what UbD hopes to accomplish (I think it does so successfully). Jay McTighe says that "the devil is in the detail" and that "just because our students know something, doesn't mean that they understand." McTighe delves into how beneficial the assessment process is to learning