Student Autonomy

I am a huge believer in the student-centered classroom. I believe that students learn best (and develop the motivation to learn) when they are given opportunities to take ownership of their own learning. There are many studies that prove students learn better (and, more importantly, are more interested in learning) when they can construct their own learning plans, compared to when teachers simply talk at them. There is an expression, in fact, that teachers should serve as a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage." The former phrase suggests that teachers' roles are to guide students in their own discoveries, whereas the latter states that teachers have all the answers and are simply regurgitating the information, which I strongly disagree with.

Many leading education experts agree that teachers should be more of a guide and less of a sage. At the forefront of this movement is Alfie Kohn, who for decades has supported progressive education. In this essay, he explains how widely-used reading practices in particular kills students' love of reading. When I read this, I agreed with him wholeheartedly, yet I also felt empathic for educators, whose professions revolve around formalized assessments, and thus encouraging students' own construction of their learning is often not possible.

I especially like the part toward the bottom where Kohn discusses self-determination theory. (I discussed this theory briefly as well about six months ago.)  Here, he offers further evidence that VAM are the opposite of effective education. Teachers and principals (in other words, those in the trenches) have known this for years. When will policy-makers (those who have no experience in the classroom, by the way) come to their senses?

Finally some good education reform

I've always felt that many of the disruptions in class come from when students are bored. That's why an engaging lesson plan is extremely important. But even with the most engaging lessons, some students move at a faster pace than others. Many of the adult students I currently work with are incredibly smart, and didn't finish school just because they felt bored, because they moved faster than their peers and were not given any recognition for it. (Not to mention, DC Public Schools are not known for having the best GT services, which these students would most likely have benefited from.)

But there is good news! DC is in the process of implementing graduation requirements based on competency, rather than on number of hours spent in class. This supposedly radical policy has already been implemented in New Hampshire. Hopefully once implemented, rewarding students based on competency rather than class hours will solve several problems all at once: a) students who "pass" to the next grade level will not have holes in their learning; b) students can learn how to take charge of their own learning and develop life skills such as time-management and self-responsibility; c) the independence required in college and in other options after high school won't be as much of a transition; d) students who are really motivated can finish high school early (i.e. by 15 or 16) and have time to work to pay for school (and get real-world experience) before heading off to college; and e) as I've already stated, classroom discipline will be less of an issue since students can always be doing something.

So many good things can come from this! Hopefully this policy will come to fruition.

What motivates you?

Yesterday I participated in Part 1 of 3 of a webinar training about Self Determination Theory. As this was the first session, we merely brushed the surface, but our primary objective was determining the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and how we can encourage the former.

For those who don't know, intrinsic motivation happens when people want to do something because it appeals to their sense of relevance, values, and/or long-term goals. An example relevant to education would be people doing well in a subject because it interests them. An example relevant to all of us would be taking out the garbage because we don't want the house to smell. Extrinsic motivation is when people do something for external reasons, like getting a good grade or getting a promotion. So for example, if a parent tells a child to do their homework or they're grounded, the child has external motivation to do it, but isn't necessarily getting anything out of it because their internal motivation hasn't been activated. Thus, homework to the extrinsically motivated child is something they "must" do rather than "choose" to do.

The tough question is: how do we get students to "choose" to do something, thus propelling their internal motivation? External motivation alone won't cut it. This is the case regardless of your age. Yes, my adult students respond to candy in the same way my teenage students did -- but what's the bigger motivation that drives them? Getting their GEDs, sure, but there has to be something beyond that point. Part of my job is to steer them toward a more long-term goal, but this is challenging when they didn't grow up in an environment in which "long-term" was normal vocabulary. I'm eager to see if this webinar will uncover ways to help students reach this mindset.

At the end of the webinar, the instructor gave us an assignment to complete before the next session to get full PD points, to which one participant said it was external motivation that was making us complete the assignment -- but I think it's a little of both (if you're interested in this topic, that is). At this point I'm still chewing on what we discussed yesterday, and will hopefully have more to blog about next week.

Testing, again

It seems like there are fads throughout different parts of the year when it comes to education journalism. In April and May, it seems all anyone can talk about is standardized testing. With good reason, as that's the time of year which is when students take (and complain about) standardized tests. Of course, to have a program or curriculum succeed, it must be tested, and the same goes for tests. But this article explains the dangers (and possible legal consequences) for having questions that don't count on standardized tests.

To me, it seems like not testing the test when you're actually testing is common sense, but then again, when would you be able to test the test? If the students *know* nothing counts, they have no motivation. But then again, students in DC have no motivation to begin with since the real tests do not affect their grades or graduations (unlike the SOLs in Virginia), but they do have an overwhelming effect on teachers and administrators. What moron designed that system?

I really don't understand the ridiculousness of standardized testing. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- what's the point?

Teaching and Leading

The fourth (and last) quarter always seems to be the most difficult one to get through. The teachers are just as sick of school as the students, and the students know it. It's so hard to stay motivated to teach, and therefore it's so hard to stay motivated to learn. Of course, it doesn't help that May is inundated with all the standardized tests, and regular teaching seems to get pushed aside.

I know I have complained this year that my supervisors have not been in my classroom enough, which has definitely affected my motivation, but according to veteran teacher Larry Cuban, principals' managerial duties are far more effective than their classroom visits. I really enjoyed reading this article, but I'm not really sure what to say about it. Really, it speaks for itself.

Here's another article that speaks for itself. Marion Brady makes an excellent point about comparing teachers to other professions that cannot be fit in a box. I wish more people would realize and appreciate the absolute complexity and nuance that goes into teaching (and learning, for that matter), and therefore understand that it cannot necessarily be measured in a standardized way.

Speaking of which, this kid has nailed satire and is only in eighth grade. There is hope for our education system yet.

Community & collaboration

Two things. First: because it is the last quarter and senioritis has set in, the attendance problem in my fifth period class (seniors) has gotten worse. I've had 4 students from that class I haven't seen since the quarter started. So I sent an email to their administrator and the Attendance Specialist (I'm not exactly sure what his job is, but he seems to be effective) about it. The next day, each of these students were in class. That was kind of amazing, though I wonder how long it will last.

Secondly: With the same class today, we finished up reading Macbeth and I wanted to do an interactive activity with it so I explained that the classroom was now a courtroom and divided the class into two groups. One group was playing the Prosecution, proving Lady Macbeth's guilt and sanity, and the other group was the Defense, proving that she was just an accomplice, and that she was insane. I told them to make their cases they had to find textual evidence from the play. I was anticipating groans when I said this, but there was nary a peep.

With this class in particular, I am weary of trying anything the least bit nontraditional, even something where students get to argue (and they LOVE to argue). Plus, this activity did not go as well as I had hoped with my previous senior class, the one I use with which to gauge the effectiveness of activities, since they seem to be generally less apathetic. So I was a little concerned when I introduced the activity, but they were totally into it. Even the students who weren't saying anything were interested in the arguments. It was a fantastic class. I hope the attendance and the interest will not completely dissipate before the end of the year.

Broken System Is Broken

Another disappointing discovery in the local policy department. I got an email from a student's counselor yesterday asking what grades this girl would need for the final quarter and the final exam to pass. She has failed all three quarters so far.

So this morning I sat down to start doing the math. Her three quarter grades averaged to a 45%. I was a little confused how to figure out how this would affect the rest of the year for her, but I was doubtful she could pass if she earns less than 100% from here on out. So I went next door to another (English) teacher to ask how he figures those things out.

However, he told me I couldn't use a number. I had to use a letter grade. Umm, but teacher, letters can't have averages. Apparently, though, each letter is assigned a number much like the GPA scale: A is 4, B is 3, C is 2, D is 1, and E is 0. Ok, I guess that makes sense.

But here's the broken part: A student needs a total of 5 points to graduate. Which means my failing student -- a girl who rarely comes to class, never completes her homework, bombs most tests, and barely completes classwork -- can theoretically get an A, then a D, and then it doesn't matter if she fails the last semester or the final. Think about that: we have built a system that actually encourages students to slack off after just nine weeks of school.

If you have failed three quarters, I don't think you should be able to pass the course. Otherwise, we are teaching children that it's okay to be lazy for most of your life as long as you do *some* work the last month or so of school. Teaching life lessons? We're doing it wrong.

Year of the Rat

Yeah, long time since an update. Whoops.

Spring break is over, which means the fourth and final quarter has started, which means this is the most difficult time of the year to keep students engaged, especially seniors. I spent this afternoon at the final training for second-language learners, and this was probably the most valuable session, as I got several (mostly movement-based) interactive activities which would work well with (woo alliteration!) all students. I was talking to a colleague after the session about our difficulties with getting students -- particularly the younger ones -- to turn things in, and even do work in class. I was telling her that at my school everyone agreed that this year's sophomores has been the worst group of students people have ever seen. The juniors are fine. The freshmen are fine. There is something seriously wrong with the class of 2014. She said it was exactly the same thing at her school, and as she put it, "there must have been misalignment in the stars or something." It's really quite baffling.

However, on a positive note, students from all over the country are capable of doing amazing things. I have to constantly tell myself this. This video is proof.

Teach to learn, learn to teach

I'm introducing The Taming of the Shrew to my sophomores, and am prepping them by focusing on the themes in the play first. Last week, one of their questions to answer was to explain how they view gender roles in a relationship, and whether or not love is necessary for marriage. During the course of reading their answers, I learned two important things.
1) Teenagers are extremely jaded about marriage. That was not terribly surprising, as at least half of them have divorced parents or have only known one parent, but it was interesting to see how they expressed these opinions.
2) I have one student who has said three words to me all year and is rarely in attendance, who is actually quite bright when he shows up, who, for this assignment, wrote something incredibly poignant. Unfortunately, I do not have his paper in front of me so I cannot cite it verbatim, but he compared a relationship to a house of cards: All pieces have to work together in a very specific way or everything will fall apart. I was floored. Most of my students don't even know what an analogy is; much less can they make one that is so appropriate and complex.

It's things like that that make me wish I could just randomly pull kids into a quiet corner and say "You're awesome." It's moments like that that make me forget about all the bad in the world.

Standardization baaaaaad... Curiosity goooooooood

Every month, the English department (like every other discipline) has a dept. meeting. Invariably, the meeting entails reiteration of what the county and/or principal wants us to implement, and then there is the requisite whining. This week, there was a raucous ruckus (see what I did there?) about the new grading policies that will most likely begin next September. Currently, we can basically weight the grades however we want, as long as homework is not a ridiculous amount (I think 15% is the max). However, the administrators on high in their infinite "wisdom" have declared that now, homework and classwork together can now not count for more than 20% of a student's grade. Which means that 80% comes from tests. What happened to all their bitching about not wanting us to "teach to the test"?

On the one hand, I can see where having a student's grade based primarily on their knowledge makes sense, and the practice with which to master this knowledge counts much less. However, students will quickly realize with this system that they can do little to no work in class and at home and they can still most likely earn a passing grade. But what they will fail to realize is that they can only master the information on tests if they spend enough time practicing. Therefore, students who just care about grades and not learning skill sets (which, let's face it, is how most of them think, as do their parents) will not be motivated to ever attend class unless there is a test. (Just like many college students... but that's another subject.)

Furthermore, as one colleague pointed out, this will mean we have to "test the shit out of these kids" in order to get enough data for sufficient grading, which will make them even less engaged in school and more apathetic toward learning in general. Another teacher pointed out that in the city in which he taught before he came here, these standards were implemented, and because of them, teachers had to have a specific number of homework assignments, tests, seminars, etc., and because it was almost impossible to fit all this in and not make themselves (or the students) crazy, teachers ended up randomly calling a classroom activity a test or project, and thus the categories lost all meaning.

Yikes.... I could go on, but I won't. Sooooo glad it's the weekend and there are only four more days of school before Winter Break. Before I sign off, I thought I would share this, with which I agree 100%. That's where we should be headed, not prescribing random percentages to classroom procedures.

Whoops...

Haven't updated in a while. Bad blogger. Also haven't been keeping up on education news. Bad Ms. Brown. But today, my students took the PSATs. Most of them complained about it. Can't say I really blame them. They are so inundated with standardized tests that the important ones are starting to mean nothing. Not to mention that the class time taken out to administer these tests could be used for actually teaching something. What a novel concept. Anyway, here's an article about it (by guess who) that sums up yet another problem with the standardized milieu affecting education today. Woot?

One more day!

Even though one of the mottoes of this school is "Learn many things," little of that goes on in the last week of school. I was subbing for a teacher today and her instructions to me were "They can play games, talk, do whatever." Really? You're not even going to attempt to teach them anything? Another room I walked by was playing SpongeBob on the TV.

On one hand, I can't say I blame them. Grades are turned in, students have checked out, everyone (students & teachers) just want to be done. But if that's the case, why is there still school? It's just a waste of time and money at this point. In fact, I even considered not coming into work tomorrow (the last day) because what will I have to do? But then I justified it because I would be paid for it. That's really a stupid reason.

Here is, probably, the last article of the year. I feel like it is an extremely accurate portrayal of what is wrong with DC school policy, and why what people are doing to fix it goes against everything education stands for.

And on that positive note... I want school to be over too.

Counting Down

Is it terrible that I'm just counting down the hours to spring break? And have even less motivation than usual?

Speaking of motivation, this article is astute and very worthwhile. The question of how to help students motivate themselves cannot be easily solved, but Ferlazzo definitely gets the conversation going.

Off topic (big surprise), but I am not easily offended. However, the first time I saw students wearing bracelets that said "I <3 boobies," I was slightly offended. But, as with everything else, got used to it in time. Apparently, though, these bracelets were the catalyst for a lawsuit. I think I side with the judge on this one. It's not as if their bracelets said something really offensive, after all.

Victory!

An actual assignment today. For most of the day, I was helping out the HILT-A classes, and for the first two periods (a combined English/reading class), I was helping a boy one-on-one with his reading skills and comprehension. It was pretty great, and also pretty challenging since it was essentially teaching a five-year-old learn how to read. (He can read better in English than a typical five-year-old can, but what made it that difficult was that he could barely speak the language, so when I asked him to do something he may not necessarily have understood.) I also accompanied the students to their math class, and didn't really have much to do there but was basically on-hand to answer questions. The science teacher didn't need assistance, but I did help with social studies, and that was great, too. I was working with all the students and actually had a fair amount to do. What's interesting, though, is that all classes involved language skills (basic acquisition, grammar, etc.) since all these children are coming from a native language that is not English. They were at different levels but were all able to glean something from the lessons at hand. They were also all incredibly eager to learn. I wonder if part of that eagerness comes from a survival mechanism, but whatever the reason, they all seemed motivated, which kept me motivated, as well. Hopefully this will become a regular thing.

Sometimes People Do Things That... Well, Just Don't Make No Sense

So this weekend I went to a holiday party at an apartment of a math teacher I worked with while I was interning. There were several other teachers from that school there, and at some point they brought up the fact that they were all having trouble implementing the new "No Homework" policy. At that point, I inserted myself into the conversation with a type of WTF look on my face. We all seemed to be on the same page-- we didn't see the point of the policy and thought it was completely counter-intuitive. The math teacher said she could encourage students to practice their skills, but since the new policy disallows teachers to grade homework, students won't practice and thus will fail the tests. The English teacher said the students couldn't discuss the books in class since they are not motivated to read them at home. Evidently, this trend is only spreading. In a middle school, it is especially harmful since kids at that age don't understand that in order to master a skill they must practice it consistently, not just for the 40 minutes they are in class. I really hope this trend is incredibly short-lived. Yikes.

Speaking v. Writing

Of the essays I've perused while looking over students' shoulders, a fair number of them are of quality but need work, but almost all of them are downright terrible. Why can't kids write? I find it especially interesting that these kids, when given the chance, are extremely articulate when they speak. I know that some of them have learning disabilities that hinder their writing skills, but that is not the case with most of them. I was working with several students this past week who could not write down a coherent sentence, yet when I asked them to explain to me what they mean, they were able to express it perfectly. I realize these are two completely different skill sets, but I will never understand why what's in a student's brain gets all jumbled up when s/he tries to write down his/her thoughts. And while I'm sure it's possible to teach this skill, I do not know how to do it. Often I find that when I talk it out with the students, they are able to take what they told me and write it down on paper, with much prompting from me. I think if I better understood how the brain worked, it would be easier for me to help students who literally cannot write a coherent sentence to save their lives.

Also, I am constantly fascinated with how many little tiny moments of which our lives are made up. There is one student in the 7th grade reading class before lunch I have again in an English class after lunch, and it was like he was a completely different person in each period. In reading, he was one of the only students on task, asking questions, and being polite, yet in English he kept his head down the whole time, and it was only after the students had been working on their tests for 10 minutes that I noticed he hadn't even started, and only did so with prompting from me. Same thing when he finished his test and had to finish his packet. He was quiet and did his work once he was asked, but was nowhere near his usual, enthusiastic self. It was actually quite disturbing how much his personality changed in English. I'm thinking something happened during lunch. I know this kid has emotional problems and a pretty terrible family life, but because he does not have an IEP, no one at school can really do anything about it. That sucks, but that's the truth.

Which leads me to yet another educational oped. In case you haven't guessed yet, I heart progressive educational reform. This one is fantastic, and I agree with everything said. We really need to get on this.

Hooray for Grammar!

A few posts back, I stated that I was fortunate to *attempt* to teach a grammar lesson about comparatives & superlatives (i.e. beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful; easy, easier, easiest) and had a difficult time because I was unfamiliar with the vocabulary. And while the lesson took place (and once the regular teacher took over) I wondered how well the students would remember, and was the vocabulary necessary for them to understand the concepts. Essentially, the question was when to use "er" and "est" vs. "more" and "most". Then a couple days later, Mr. S. taught the same lesson, but very differently.

For one thing, he didn't have the students take notes (which is a consistency between their differences; Ms. L. always has them take notes and Mr. S. almost never does). Secondly and most importantly, while Ms. L. broke them into pairs and gave them different categories on index cards (i.e. if they received "sneakers," they would have to write sentences like "Nike are better than Adidas" or if they received "soccer players" they would have to write "Ronaldo is the best soccer player"), Mr. S. gave them each an adjective as they walked in the door and had them literally hop for "ugly, uglier, ugliest," etc., until he was satisfied with both their words and hopping. Was it more effective? Hard to say. Was it much more fun? Indeed. Chances are, then, Mr. S.'s lesson was more memorable for the students, and therefore, probably more effective.

Furthermore, when Ms. L. asks her students to move around the room, they groan. They are used to staying in their seats the entire period. Mr. S., on the other hand, *always* has them get up and move at least once during his class. It is more chaotic and more noisy, but it also forces the students to be more engaged. I'm not saying Mr. S. is definitely the better teacher, but I am saying his methods are certainly more interesting and more energetic, and he is by far the favored teacher. Therefore, his students most likely remember his lessons better and therefore probably score better. Of course, this is just my humble theory, but based on everything I learned in grad school and my observations during the day, I certainly prefer Mr. S.'s methods over those of Ms. L.

The Wonders of Technology

Oh, technology. How I do often loathe thee. I find that in this incredibly high-tech world, sometimes we are too reliant upon it. Take yesterday and today as examples. Yesterday, the seventh graders were writing final drafts of their essays in the computer lab. The teacher asked them to submit it to the automatic grading program of Holt (textbook maker) in addition to printing them out for her to grade. As long as she is also grading them herself, I have no problem with this. However, the problem arises after the score is shown to the student submitting that paper, particularly if the student is already unmotivated to begin with. The essays are graded on a 1-4 scale. Theoretically, if students get less than a 3 or 4, they should edit it. But it has appeared to me that most students don't care what their grades are. They just want to finish. So it does no good for most of them to see their score. In fact, it probably hinders them because they may think, "Oh, I got a one out of four. I'm stupid. Whatever." And that's really the complete opposite point of school.

Today was even worse in terms of technology. The eighth grade reading class does a program called Journeys, which is supposed to supplement the lessons in their textbooks. I can't say how beneficial the program is since I'm not familiar with it, but today it was useless because the laptops they were logging into to use were ridiculously slow. When the teacher was getting ready to dismiss them, several students had just gotten the program up. Talk about a waste of class time. Sometimes technology cripples us, and teachers need to learn how to do things without technology just in case something goes wrong (and it will).

Anecdotes!

The seventh graders learned a new word yesterday. Anecdote. It's a great word. And it reminded me that one of the words in the title of this blog is "tales." I have been doing more bitching than tale-telling, really, and I hope to remedy that right now. So here we go.

I find it interesting that I feel like I really know so many kids already. However, I find it even more fascinating that the same child can convey different personalities depending on what class he/she is in. For instance, there is one boy in the seventh grade reading class who needs help staying focused but is generally on task and participates all the time. But in English, he's a completely different person. He is NEVER on task, is always a distraction, and rarely participates in class. I have no idea what the differentiation in his grades are (or if there is one) in the two classes, but I don't understand how he can be completely different in each one. Granted, the reading class is much smaller and thus he gets a little more attention, and the material is easier and the teacher moves more slowly, but I still don't think that accounts for the complete personality change.

As another example, a boy from the eighth grade reading class is also in one of the eighth grade English classes I help with. His situation is entirely the opposite: in English, he is polite, on task, and seems to be interested in the material. But in reading, he is constantly (and perhaps deliberately) pissing off the teacher, distracting others, and generally not staying on task. It's the same thing here-- the reading class is smaller and the material is easier than the English class. I don't think it's that he doesn't want attention, because otherwise he would avoid being yelled at, not trying to create them.

I just find it interesting that our environments have so much emphasis upon our personalities. Clearly, school is a classic example of this phenomenon.