Nov

25

Common misunderstandings about teaching

Filed Under SOS for Teachers | 3 Comments

I don’t know about you, but in the last few years I’ve been to so many educational conferences, lunch and learn workshops and professional development sessions during and after school I’ve lost count. I’m not complaining. Far from it. I’m absolutely delighted that my Board is making it possible for me to meet people who have made the commitment to be life long learners and share strategies and insights that they value. When I leave these sessions , I feel energized by what I’ve learned and by the people I’ve met. I usually come away with an insight or strategy that I can use in the classroom for the benefit of my students. I love the internet for that reason, too. I can just google any topic and find the latest developments. When I find something really cool, I take it back to school with me and share it with my colleagues. It gives us something positive to talk about. The internet really makes every day a professional development day.

Oh yes, getting back to all the exciting ideas that have come away during all the PD sessions I’ve attended.. It seems to me that at the end of every PD session, as I walk out the door I hear some teachers saying that they don’t have time to do whatever it was that we’ve just been introduced to because they have so much content to cover the content in their course. They hardly have enough time now to do what they have to.They could never take the time to do x, y or z because they would never get through the textbook. When I hear this argument, with all due respect to all those teachers who tell me this because I do respect them, I think that can’t be the case. But, I’m told time and time again that teachers have to finish teaching all the content which is usually the entire text book so their students will be prepared for the next grade and the next textbook- I presume.

Why does it have to be that way? Do students really have to learn all those facts? Who made that decision anyway? I keep asking that question every time I hear the ” I have to cover the content and textbook” argument. So, when I came across Chapter 5 of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s book Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement I was intrigued. I’ll admit I was a little brain dead when I started to skim through chapter 5. It had been one of those more interesting days in the classroom.You know the one that sucks all the energy out of you and leaves you feeling like a zombie.

When I got to the section titled Teacher Misunderstandings and read ” Misunderstanding 1: “My Job Is to Cover the Content”, my brain came to life. What was that? The system was overloaded with content because when content standards committees at the different levels met to decide what was essential, they came up with an overly ambitious list. I can see that happening. When you really love a subject area, it’s hard to draw the line between what’s really necessary to know and what would be nice for students to know. One summer not too long ago, I was on a curriculum writing team for the school district I work in, and we had a really difficult time cutting things out. We sat around the table for a long time debating what to leave in and what to take out. Everyone had their pet area that they wanted included- me too.
Wiggins and McTighe explain that the ‘my job is to cover the content” misunderstanding stems from the best of intentions. The various standards committees are including more content than is absolutely necessary and the text books publishers are trying to include all of the content in their textbooks so that the textbook adoption committees will choose their textbooks over their competitors. Then there is the tendency for some teachers to think that they should only use the textbook to teach the content of the course.

I was at a series of workshops last summer and met someone who was going to teach at a brand new school and the department she was in was not going to use textbooks. They were going to use teacher created materials. I don’t know how that worked out. I do know that I haven’t been totally happy with any textbooks I’ve seen, and if I was forced to use just a textbook, I would hate it. I like having the textbook as a resource, but I also like developing my own resources to meet the needs of my students. Fortunately, my Board offers lots of opportunities for professional development. so that I can do this. It’s actually very exciting.

Why do some teachers think they have to cover what’s in the textbook ? According to Wiggins and McTighe, some teachers think that’s what their supervisors want , but they found no evidence to support this. Nor have they seen a teacher’s contract that has stated that a teacher’s job is to cover the textbook. Clearly, it’s a misunderstanding to believe that the textbook has to be covered. The textbook should only be a resource, not the syllabus.

What is a teachers job then if it’s not to cover all the content in a course and not to cover the text book? Wiggins and McTighe argue it is

to cause understanding, as reflected in worthy accomplishments…. facilitating the learners’ insights and coaching them to transfer their knowledge and skill, as reflected in significant performances involving such transfer.

You know, just reading that quotation is inspiring. Yes, that’s what I want in my classroom. I want all of that. I want understanding reflected into worthy accomplishments. I want skills and knowledge to be reflected and transfered into significant performances. I want all that, but I’m not always getting it. What I got this week was three of my almost- eighteen year old male students throwing Lego pieces at one another behind my back. Don’t ask! I think they’re bored with the topic at hand. To be honest, so am I. It’s time for some thing new. The flying Lego made that clear.

OK, let me move on to the second teacher misunderstanding. While some teachers mistakenly believe that the textbook is the syllabus, and they must teach all the content in the text book, other teachers feel that they shouldn’t use the text book at all and prefer to develop their own interesting resources to engage students. Wiggins and McTighe argue that this is all well and good, but sometimes teachers “get lost in the activities and lose sight of purpose as well as results… activities must be seen as a means to important learning ends and not ends in themselves. They go on to suggest that teachers need to ask questions like the following ones about the activities they plan for their students to ensure that the activity is the means and not the end in its self.

  • Are the learning outcomes clearly identified and embodied in the work?
  • Do they reflect important enduring outcomes( big ideas in the discipline) or simply “nice to now”?
  • Do students know the intended learning outcomes and spend time processing the activities in terms of those goals and the purpose behind various activities?
  • Can students explain the purpose behind various activities.
  • Do we have appropriate evidence of learning important ideas and in meaningful ways?
  • Were the time and energy devoted to the activities commensurate with the resultant learning and a wise use of time given all other obligations?

You know, these questions are very useful ones to ask, especially for me. I like activity based lessons and asking these questions would help me stay on track. I certainly don’t want the intended learning outcomes to get lost in the activities I have my students do. Quite the contrary. I want the activities in my classroom to be engaging and effective. That’s one of the challenges of teaching that I relish.

The final misunderstanding Wiggins and McTighe talk about is the one where some teachers think a teacher’s job is to teach to the test. Let me just say something here. I’m on the Literacy Committee at our school and the pressure is really on. Since the government has decided that all students must pass the provincial grade ten literacy test in order to get a high school diploma, there have been meetings ad nauseum on how best to prepare students for the test. Students need to get a grade of 75% on the literacy test in order to pass it. There’s something I don’t get about the provincial standards though. 75% is the provincial standard for passing the literacy test , yet students only need to get a grade of 50% to pass their other courses. I’m sure someone has an answer. If you happen to, please tell me .

Some teachers argue that we should teach to the test so the students will be as prepared as possible for the Literacy Test. What happens then, as far as I’m concerned, is that the test hijacks the regular curriculum, and class time is spent practicing test questions like the ones on the literacy test. It becomes a “drop everything else and teach to the test endeavour”. At my school, we did a blitz where every subject teacher spent one class teaching to the test in some way. Let me tell you the teachers who said they had too much content to cover before we had to teach to the literacy test were outraged. They argued that they don’t have enough time now to cover everything so why was valuable time taken from their class to prepare kids for the literacy test. They’re not English teachers they said, and teaching literacy is the job of English teachers. I guess they don’t really get it. Do they? Every teacher in every subject is a literacy teacher.

Now there is a more compelling argument against teaching to the test than the one I just discussed. Teaching to the test is not best way to go. As Wiggins and McTighe so eloquently noted it, the best way to raise the test scores in the long run is to :

teach key ideas and processes contained in content standards (content that is purportedly tested) in rich and engaging ways; collect evidence of student understanding and transferability of that content via robust local assessments; and, raise standards and quality control for local assignments to gather evidence of all that we value, not just what is easiest to measure.

In closing now, I just want to review the teacher misunderstandings that Wiggins and McTigne discuss. One misunderstanding is that a teacher’s job is to cover content. Another misunderstanding is that a teacher’s job is to engage learners with interesting activities( no flying Lego, please) , and finally a teacher’s job is to teach to the test. If these are the misunderstandings about what a teacher should do, what then is a teacher job?

It’s to cause understanding, as reflected in worthy accomplishments … facilitating the learners’ insights and coaching them to transfer their knowledge and skill, as reflected in significant performances involving such transfer.

 

Let me say that again- a teachers job is to cause understanding, as reflected in worthy accomplishments … facilitating the learners’ insights and coaching them to transfer their knowledge and skill, as reflected in significant performances involving such transfer. I just love the eloquent way Wiggins and McTigne define our job as teachers. They make it sound so noble. I especially like “worthy accomplishments ” and “significant performance”. Of course, Wiggins and McTigne apply these terms to students, but I want them to apply to teachers as well. I want them to apply to me- worthy accomplishments and significant performances. That’s my goal for myself and my students. My worthy accomplishments and significant performances are their worthy accomplishments and significant performances and vice-versa.

 
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Nov

18

Kindergarten math skills seem to be the best predictor of future achievement

Filed Under "At-risk" students | 4 Comments

Kindergarten math skills seem to be the best predictor of future academic achievement according to a recent study of School Readiness and Future Achievement in the November 2007 issue of The Journal of Developmental Psychology. I found that amazing. I’d always believed that reading skills were the best predictor of academic achievement. But, I guess I was mistaken.

Just recently, I’d been part of a committee at my school that analyzed the results of the provincial math scores for our school to determine where the grade nine math students who wrote the test last year had the most difficulty, because of course we want the kids to do better. It seemed to me that many kids were being tripped up by word problems. They had little difficulty with the knowledge questions, but as soon as they were called upon to apply their knowledge in word problems, they were in trouble. I put that down to poor reading skills, but maybe something else is at work.

When I ask kids to solve word problems many of them have no idea how to go about doing this. I think that these kids would benefit from learning self-scaffolding strategies so they would automatically ask themselves the questions that would help them help themselves. English classes have the 5 W’s that students use to help themselves. You know- the where, when, what , why , who and how we tell kids to think of when they are completing reading or writing assignments. Math needs something like that for word problems. Yes, kids use BEDMAS to help them determine the order of operations, but they need something like that for word problems. One of the science teachers said that the mnemonic G R A S S could be used. I’m sure the kids would remember the word GRASS. However, it’s not that grass. It’s G for what are you given; R for what are you required to do; A for what application would do- that is would you +,-, x or /, S for solve it and S for use a statement answer. I’m going to try the GRASS strategy with my grade nine students. I’m sure it will create a buzz!

Getting back to that study about math and future success. Apparently math skills or I guess in the case of kindergarten, it would be pre-math skills, also predict reading achievement by grade three. Another surprise- what can I say. I knew reading skills affected math achievement, but I didn’t realize math skills affected reading achievement. Oh yes, according to the study the other important predictor for achievement is attention span. Well, that makes sense. That’s not surprising. You have to be able to focus in order to learn, and you need to be able to focus in order to be able to complete the task. Something else that was surprising though was that academic achievement isn’t affected by anxious, withdrawn or aggressive behaviour if kids have pre-math and pre-reading skills and are able to focus on what they’re doing. That’s good to know.

What can we take away from this study? Well, for me it suggests that not only would pre-school kids benefit from being read to on a regular bases, but they would also benefit from having numbers incorporated into their lives. Little did I know how beneficial it was to have my little ones count stairs as we climbed them, or count the the number of people who would be staying for dinner so that we could set the correct number of plates, forks, knives etc on the table. I found that the little kids that I was around loved counting things. I wonder why that is and I wonder why they lose the love of numbers.

 
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Nov

11

Not getting all the paperwork back is driving me crazy.

Filed Under Special Education | 7 Comments

I’ve come to terms with the volume of paperwork I have to do because of my job as special education teacher. I’ve come to terms with it, but I don’t particularly like it. Usually, I just try to suck it up and get on with it. Most of the time I’m successful. What I haven’t been very successful at is not going absolutely crazy when people don’t return the forms with information that I need so that I can do my job properly and efficiently. But, I been really thinking about it for the past week, and I think I’ve come up with a plan or at least a new way of looking at the problem that will me help come to terms with the fact that some people are not going to complete and return the forms that I need to do my job properly.

Why is this such a big issue for me? Let me explain. Some of you will already know this, but some of you won’t. Students who have been identified as having a learning disability or a behaviour problem have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) which among other things outlines the accommodations that teachers need to make in the classroom so that students can be as successful as possible. The accommodations can be instructional accommodations like students having all instructions read to them, environmental accommodations like having students sit near the front of the class away from distractions, and evaluation accommodations like having extra time for assignments, tests or exams. Student’s accommodations are determined using input from various sources such as any psychological testing and the recommendations that flow from the results of the testing, student input, parental input, the special education teacher’s input, past and present teacher input, and previous report cards.

Each student’s Individual Education Plan generates at least seven forms that I send out because I either need information from people, or I need to provide information to them. This semester, I’m giving special education support to 32 students. So that means, I have to send out 32 x 7 or 224 forms and get them back quickly so that I can complete the IEPs before the deadline-the first 30 days of school. Oh by the way, the 224 forms I mentioned earlier do not include the 32 appointment forms that I put into the homeroom teachers’ mailboxes for them to give to the students so that I can meet with the students to get the ball rolling.

This semester, I have one 75 minute period a day that is designated for special education support. (I know it sounds like a lot of time, but it doesn’t feel like it) This is the time when I am scheduled to meet with my approximately 32 students and give them whatever support they need. I say approximately 32 students because the number of students increases or decreases as the semester progresses depending on such things as whether new kids transfer into our school or transfer out of our school. Of course during each semester some student’s will have had the testing done that identifies that they have a learning or behaviour disability and are entitled to support from the spec. ed. program.

I meet with my students at the beginning of the semester to discuss their IEPs, and send a letter home explaining things and asking them to return the enclosed form with input from their parents or guardians about the accommodations they think are appropriate. Here’s where the craziness begins. Sometimes kids will not come to their appointment with me because they didn’t get their appointment slips for whatever reason, or the appointment slip got lost, or they forgot about their appointment, or they simply didn’t want to come. Of course I shouldn’t be surprised that this happens. Forgetting things, losing things, and not being organized is why some of these kids get the special education support they do. But this means that I have to follow up again and with some kids it’s again and again and again until I get the information that I need.

Once I get all the feedback I need, I complete the IEP and send a copy home with the student for a parental signature. The student is to return the signed copy to me. In the meantime, I send copies of the student’s strengths, needs and appropriate accommodations to their teachers- 32 x 4= 128 more forms that I put into mailboxes. Then at regular intervals of 4-6 weeks, I send another form to each of these teachers asking them to give me a progress report about the students. Now, I’m not complaining about the number of forms I send out. That’s how I get and give the information I need to support my students. That’s my job. That’s what I get paid to do. That’s OK. What drives me crazy is that not only are some kids not co-operating, but some teachers aren’t either. When I send out 128 progress report requests for teachers to complete and return, and I get less than half back, that’s a problem. That’s what drives me crazy, and that’s what drives other special education teachers crazy, too. I’ve tried all kinds of things in the past including asking the administration for help. But, you know what. That just solved the problem that one time. Now it’s a problem again. What to do?

Well, I’ve decided to do two things, one I’ve never done before and the other one I don’t do often enough. First, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done before. I’m going to practice collaborative problem- solving. Last week I attended a workshop by Dr. Ross Greene called The Explosive Child that was, in part, about collaborative problem-solving and wrote about it here. I like Dr. Greene’s model of collaborative problem-solving wherein each person respects the other person by being empathetic with the other person’s problems and concerns, and then each person is invited to propose solutions to the problem after the problem has been clearly articulated. Finally, the people involved agree upon a solution to the problem they both can live with. The second thing I’m going to do is to remember to live in the moment at work and not focus on the past or worry about the future. I’ve got to stop focusing on what didn’t get done and what might happen because it didn’t get done. I’ve just got to do whatever in the moment.

 
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