tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86444507651066633612024-02-19T15:49:31.436-08:00The Educational Arsonist"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-59363785149337503782017-02-01T11:29:00.004-08:002017-02-01T11:29:42.330-08:00Student Guest Post: Robinson’s View of Education: Replenishing the Creativity Drainage System<em>Here's a guest post from one of my students, Lauren Broseker. Lauren's desire to change the way schools work is matched only by her curiosity and work ethic. She submitted the following paper after studying Sir Ken Robinson.</em><br />
<br />
<b id="docs-internal-guid-c658753c-fb24-3479-e36c-0d8c249b04ab" style="font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Robinson’s View of Education: Replenishing the Creativity Drainage System</strong></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Humans are naturally creative. This remarkable ability of ours to forge fresh and innovative ideas is why the world has become so advanced. We are unlike any other species because this capacity that we have for ingenuity and originality allows us to fix nearly every problem we come across and aim higher each time. Frank Zappa claimed, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” We have proven this to be true by developing at such a rapid pace through entrepreneurship and inventiveness. Creativity allows us to make something out of nothing, and this aptness is found to be especially present in children. There are no limits to their imaginations because “kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go… they’re not frightened of being wrong” (Robinson). To them, mistakes are not an area of worry; they use them to learn and improve upon ideas, and to expand their creative minds even further.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, as we grow up, our capacity for creativity seems to shrink. Why is this? The answer is simple. The school system is educating us out of it. Sir Ken Robinson is an expert in creativity and is known all over the world for his well-regarded TedTalk, which delves into how the education system is ridding students of their creativity and why it is essential to promote this capacity of ours in school, instead of stigmatizing it. His concepts and ideas are thought-provoking and should be expanded upon and explored further. Another speaker for Ted, Tom Wujec, conducted several design workshops. In the workshops, he analyzed how different groups of people, including architects, kindergartners, and recent graduates of business schools, performed the Marshmallow Challenge. In this challenge, a group must build a structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and to top it off, they must place a marshmallow on top. The aim is to produce the tallest tower without it collapsing. However, the main issue in this challenge is that the tower must be completed in 18 short minutes. The results, at first glance, are surprising. While the business school students consistently performed poorly, the kindergartners proved to be quite successful. They produced some of the tallest and most unique structures out of all the groups. However, when we look deeper into the processes the groups took, we can understand why the results turned out this way. Most people, including the business school students, spent the first few minutes orienting themselves with the task and vying for power. Then they planned what the tower would look like and laid out all of the materials. The majority of the time was spent building the tower, and at the very end, when the marshmallow was placed on top, the structure would collapse, but there would be no time left to try another strategy. However, when the kindergartners approached the task, they delved into it headfirst, without planning or overthinking. This allowed them more time to try new ideas if others failed. They were left with successful and interesting designs. This shows that when people try without thinking of the improbabilities or possibilities of making a mistake, creative ideas are shared, and therefore, problems are successfully solved. Ken Robinson said, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original,” yet the education system is operating directly against this. As we constantly move towards an unknown future, the public education system continues to stigmatize mistakes and eliminate opportunities for creativity and individualism, squandering possibilities of innovation that keep this world running.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All across the world, people have a common misconception about how school works and the purpose of it. As Robinson said,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “It goes like this: Young children go to elementary school mainly to learn the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics. These skills are essential so they can do well academically in high school. If they go on to higher education and graduate with a good degree, they’ll find a well-paid job and the country will prosper too.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This may seem like it makes sense, but when one looks deeper into it, they will come up with some harrowing questions. Why are we commonizing education for everybody when we all have different talents and skills? We can’t force all students into the same category of interest and aptitude. The choreographer for two of the longest-running shows on Broadway, “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera,” was a victim of this “education malpractice,” as Prince Ea, a word artist and filmmaker likes to call it. Her name is Gillian Lynne, and when she was younger, she underperformed at school. When her mother consulted a doctor about Gillian’s constant fidgeting and movement, he left Gillian in a room with the radio on, and observed her. After seeing her immediately get up to dance, he concluded that she was a dancer, and that she should be brought to a dance school. Now, she is a highly acclaimed choreographer, whereas if she had been told that she had a condition, she would have had to sit in school and never would have found her talent (Robinson).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This raises another question concerning success in life. Why should the only way to be able to live a comfortable life be to get a job that is only given to those with a good degree from a prestigious school? Gillian’s story goes to show that you don’t have to get a higher education in order to be successful, and to assume so is absurd. “Children are born with different amounts of this intelligence, and so naturally some do well at school and some don’t,” said Robinson, speaking about academic intelligence. We are all being molded into robots and replicas of each other, and are all expected to travel down the same path towards the future. Students who excel in less valued subjects are discouraged from pursuing those, and are instead shoved on the assembly line that is school to get constant information, which may not even pertain to their interests, thrown their way. This is a ridiculous notion, yet this myth about how schools are run is trapping us in a never-ending game. It is the main reason why reform efforts end up failing because we feel we have to continue to adhere to the expectations and rules of education to be successful.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All across the world, we have the same hierarchy of subjects. Mathematics and languages are at the peak of the pyramid, the humanities are in the middle, and the arts are rock bottom. To go even further, there is a ranking of specific areas within the arts: drama and dance are valued less than music and art. In fact, “There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics” (Robinson). Why is this the case when the arts allow us to open our minds to critical thinking, expose us to all that the world has to offer, and teach us how to collaborate and cooperate with each other? Eugene Ferguson, a historian said, "Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry, theories of structures, or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture - literally a vision - in the minds of those who built them.” Every student has a flame of brilliance in them, and the education system is extinguishing those flames by teaching students material that they may not grasp or care about. Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” So why are we determining the intelligence of students based on subjects some are not meant for?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to this hierarchy of subjects, budget cuts have been made to schools more and more frequently. In the Chicago public school system a few years ago, over 1,000 teachers were laid off due to budget cuts, and 10% of those teachers were in the arts programs (Hambek). Instead of listening to students’ opinions about what to cut from the curriculum, policymakers immediately get rid of programs in the arts. This is because they find them less important than the core subjects we study, but it completely eliminates the opportunity for students to express themselves creatively. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aside from the hierarchy of subjects and budget cuts in schools, there has also been a massive rise in preparation for standardized testing. A continual increase in stress is being put on schools to produce top-notch test scores, making the sole focus of education being prepared for the test at the end of the year. Instead of teaching to help nurture the developing minds of our youth, teachers have begun teaching to the test. This limits creativity and individuality because students who write more original and unique responses may receive a poor result based off of the fact that they don’t follow the structure preferred by test makers. Tests also create narrow-minded thinkers because they suggest that there is only ever one correct answer to a question, when in reality, we should be encouraging the idea that there are several solutions to an issue. We live in a society where “mistakes are the worst thing you can make” (Robinson). Yet, making mistakes is the only way we can learn how to persevere and eventually succeed. The most worrisome part about standardized testing however, is what the creator of the tests, Alfred Binet, remarked about them: “these tests are too crude to be used and should be abandoned.” How is it possible that our education system is centered around something that isn’t qualified to measure our intelligence? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robinson brought up an interesting concept in his TedTalk. He suggests the idea that if an alien came to Earth and asked what the point of public education is, we would have to conclude, by looking at the “winners” and most successful people, that public education is meant to produce university professors. However, shouldn’t the answer to the alien’s question be to prepare students for whatever comes their way in the future to further advance the world? How can we possibly expect all students to become professors when we all have different capabilities, some academic and some not. Education should not be one dimensional. It should be diverse, dynamic, and distinct. We learn in endless ways: mentally, visually, kinesthetically, abstractly, and so on, and through interactive education, creativity can more easily be expressed (Robinson). These are not the bases that the education system stems from, however.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before the 19th century, there essentially weren’t any forms of public education. Robinson said, “These systems were developed in large part to meet the labor needs of the Industrial Revolution and they are organized on the principles of mass production.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” At the time, it made sense for all the students to learn the same few subjects because that was what was required for jobs in the industrial field. However, the world has vastly changed, so why is our education system remaining in the past when everything else has advanced and progressed? The modern world calls for entrepreneurship and innovativeness, which can only be fostered by creative and critical thinking in schools. However, colleges have also twisted education into a “protracted process of university entrance” (Robinson). This allows only those who excel at the valued subjects to believe they are intelligent, and those who are skilled in areas that are stigmatized in schools are led to think they are not talented. Robinson continues to say, “We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.” This means a major change must be made to the education system.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, many people don’t realize a change can be made. Robinson states, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“If you want to change education, it’s important to recognize what sort of system it is. It is neither monolithic nor unchanging, which is why you can do something about it. It has many faces, many intersecting interests, and many potential points of innovation.” </span></div>
<br /><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While there is no doubt that a change can be made, it may take time and consistent effort. To start, people need to define what the issues with education are currently, and using these pinpointed problems, a vision and plan for what education should look like can emerge. Will standardized testing be included in new visions of education? Will grades still exist, or will the arts be of a higher standard than the current core subjects we value? These questions are an essential part of making adjustments to schools. By having examples of difficulties in the classroom and providing specific areas of improvement, others can become aware of the education reform that needs to be made, causing more people to take a stand. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The best way to make a change would be to not just reach people in general, however, but the education policymakers themselves. The policies through which political pressures are being pushed on schools need to be confronted and revised. However, the time it would take for policymakers to realize an extensive upgrade needs to be made would be quite lengthy (Robinson). This is because their, as well as universities’, main focus has shifted from education to money, similar to most societal ventures in today’s esurient world. Jana Kasperkevic, a reporter, commented about universities’ “transformation from providers of education to business ventures that strive to be the biggest and the best providers of the ‘college experience.’” Instead of cutting important and creative classes which help expand students’ minds, policy makers should be made aware of the possibility of reconfiguring the entire structure of school. This change is long overdue, but policy makers are not going to step up to the challenge on their own.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is up to those who are actually involved with schools and the current education system at the ground level. Students, teachers, parents, and administrators alike can all make a difference and can vouch for creativity to be brought back into education. Robinson said, “If you’re a teacher, for your students you are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the system. If you’re a school principal, for your community you are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the system. If you’re a policymaker, for the schools you control you are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the system.” By making small changes or endorsing adjustments to education within the system, or taking initiatives outside the system, a substantial modification can be made to the public education system to reclaim the values we want and need students to learn to make the most of the future.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As students grow and learn throughout their years in school, their capacity for creativity and ingenuity are drained, posing a serious issue for this ever-changing and developing world we live in, which thrives on innovation and entrepreneurship. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the future cannot be dealt with close-minded and uncreative people; the world as we know it is dependant on innovation, and we need to fuel it with original and fresh ideas, which can only occur if we expand upon children’s creativity from the time they are born, and certainly throughout their school years. Children are the future, and our job is to help them find their talent and build upon it to reach their full potential. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So why is it that in a study by Kyung Hee Kim, a professor of education at the College of William and Mary, children were found to be, based on scores from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle?” Along with the fact that the number of startups over the last few decades has steadily diminished, it seems that there is a plausible major economic issue in store for us. The need for change in the classroom is long overdue; we need to stop suffocating children’s creative spirits and let them live colorful and diverse lives. Picasso once said, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” Let’s stop stigmatizing and undermining subjects which have just as much value as mathematics and writing, and let mistakes be made to promote perseverance and a want to share new ideas. It’s time to stop judging fish by their ability to climb trees, and for everyone to remain and flourish as their own creative artist.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Works Cited</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Awosika, Ayodeji. "25 Quotes That Accurately Represent the Problems with Our </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Education System." Thought Catalog, Thought & Expression Company, 17 Apr. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 2015, thoughtcatalog.com/ayodeji-awosika/2015/04/ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 25-quotes-that-accurately-represent-the-problems-with-our-education-system/. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Accessed 16 Nov. 2016. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B., Robin. "Standardized Testing." Letters to the Next President, National </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Writing Project, 7 Nov. 2016, letters2president.org/letters/16441. Accessed </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 16 Nov. 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Batten Institute University of Virginia Darden School of Business. "How </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> America's Education Model Kills Creativity and Entrepreneurship." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Forbes, 19 Mar. 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/darden/2015/03/19/ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> how-americas-education-model-kills-creativity-and-entrepreneurship-2/ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> #5ee217b81ac7. Accessed 10 Jan. 2017. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Build a Tower, Build a Team. By Tom Wujec. Perf. Tom Wujec. Ted. Ted Conferences, Feb. 2010. Web. 7 Jan. 2017. <https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower#t-129388>.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do Schools Kill Creativity? By Ken Robinson. Perf. Ken Robinson. Ted. Ted Conferences, Feb. 2006. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. <https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hambek, Jill. "Arts Programs in Schools Often in Danger of Being Cut." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Washington Times, 14 Mar. 2016, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/14/ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> arts-programs-in-schools-often-in-danger-of-being-/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2017. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I Just Sued the School System</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. By Richard Williams. Perf. Prince Ea. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Youtube</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. N.p., 26 Sept. 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija8>.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kasperkevic, Jana. "The Harsh Truth: US Colleges Are Businesses, and Student </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Loans Pay the Bills." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Guardian</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Guardian News and Media, 7 Oct. 2014, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/oct/07/ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> colleges-ceos-cooper-union-ivory-tower-tuition-student-loan-debt. Accessed </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 10 Jan. 2017. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Quote by Frank Zappa." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goodreads</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, www.goodreads.com/quotes/ </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 4408-without-deviation-from-the-norm-progress-is-not-possible. Accessed 7 </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Jan. 2017. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robinson, Ken, and Lou Aronica. "How Schools Kill Creativity: Forget </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Standardized Tests, Here’s How We Really Engage Our Kids." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Salon</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Salon </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Media Group, 26 Apr. 2015, www.salon.com/2015/04/26/ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> how_schools_kill_creativity_forget_standardized_tests_heres_how_we_really_engage_ </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> our_kids/. Accessed 12 Jan. 2017. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Useful Quotes for Arts Advocates." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">National Performing Arts Convention</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 27 Mar. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 2012, www.performingartsconvention.org/advocacy/id=28. Accessed 7 Jan. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 2017. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong><em>Lauren Broseker is a freshman at Morristown High School in New Jersey. She is an avid reader and loves to write as well. She is a strong believer in keeping creativity and arts programs in schools, and hopes this paper will bring more awareness to the change that must be made in the education system.</em></strong></span></span></div>
</b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-44378864102168357162016-10-04T15:30:00.004-07:002016-10-04T15:33:11.831-07:00Design Thinking in the Classroom: Setting the Tone for the Upcoming Year<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was fortunate over the summer to do some contract work for a social entrepreneurship in New York City. <a href="http://www.thefutureproject.org/" target="_blank">The Future Project </a>is a company that is attempting to change the lives of young people in a variety of ways, but most specifically, by inserting outside actors, called Dream Directors, into schools to maximize student abilities. At the time I joined the company, they had just revolutionized their Research and Development Department, and were beginning to train staff on these changes. I was lucky enough to be a part of this transition, and also used their process to develop some ideas for future projects within the organization. The lead designer, Anjali Balakrishna, was tasked with taking my teacher-brain, and retraining it to think using the Design Process. This wasn’t necessarily easy for me. I’m typically a person who jumps to solutions first, and has a difficult time removing my instincts and personal bias from my solutions. This new way of thinking, however, demanded a more careful and intentful approach at the outset, and Anjali guided me through the somewhat bumpy process, allowing me to create work that was much stronger than it could have been had I used my previous way of doing things.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think one of the biggest difficulties I faced was due to the amount of time I have spent within the educational system, both as a student and teacher. For the most part, my experiences in education have been intensely personal, and it is rare that true collaboration or agency are offered. This unfortunately leads to some myopic approaches to my own learning and, I fear, the learning of my students.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After getting back into the classroom in September, I resolved to create a new version of my classroom, one that incorporated the ideals of Design Thinking, and made them available to my students. I began looking into ways to foster this in my classroom, and came across the Stanford Design School, or d.school. The website is replete with resources and walkthroughs, and I decided to take my students through the <a href="http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/" target="_blank">Gift Giving Challenge</a>, as a way of introducing them to this new way of approaching tasks. Before I could show them this new way however, I had to break them out of their previous ways of thinking.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMT8Vnb9PVxEfSjEkvCmabrWhSKOQ8Usz0z0ghvKlO3nhyphenhyphenB2QNOi55aAZQ_eyitFiOLOnoEbrDDp7OSzUZw_3T5hjXSCpi6jntZdStiPR8dzKBlytHIzwYK_GYToE7pAiQMM0K6BPtCBE/s1600/design-thinking2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMT8Vnb9PVxEfSjEkvCmabrWhSKOQ8Usz0z0ghvKlO3nhyphenhyphenB2QNOi55aAZQ_eyitFiOLOnoEbrDDp7OSzUZw_3T5hjXSCpi6jntZdStiPR8dzKBlytHIzwYK_GYToE7pAiQMM0K6BPtCBE/s400/design-thinking2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://dschool.stanford.edu/redesigningtheater/the-design-thinking-process/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students came into a classroom that was a virtual blank slate. I removed all posters, graphics, and color from the classroom environment. The only thing that stayed in the room were the desks. I informed the students that they would be populating the walls with a variety of infographics and tools, and that the classroom was not mine to decorate. Each class was given a task, some were asked to create physical and digital tools for the room, like a variety of seating charts to fit the needs of each day, or an abilities tracker for students to collaborate throughout the year. I gave a brief overview of what the requirements were, and then told them to get to work. I sat in the back of the room, taking notes, as abject chaos ensued.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students attempted to take the lead, others fled into themselves, consensus could not be found, and students began protecting their first ideas with borderline obsessive zeal. Frustration mounted, and by the end of class, almost nothing had been accomplished.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After allowing the confusion to reach a peak, we discussed the things that had gone wrong. Students in general were fairly accurate in their descriptions of their failings, and I promised them that we would be learning a better way to approach the difficult problems I had presented them.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before they could get settled the next class, I had printed out worksheets, and queued up the d.school Gift Giving Challenge video on the projector. I randomly placed the students in pairs, and began the session. The video runs itself, and I merely had to clarify directions and remind them of times as the students moved through the activity.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The video runs about 80 minutes, and goes through each step of the design process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Watching the video prior to implementing it was very helpful, and allowed me to better direct the students. It is designed to be fast-paced, and make the students uncomfortable, and it accomplished this. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we were done, I had the students write reflections about what they learned, and we held a large in-class discussion around what we could take away from the experience.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the next class, we went back over the original project that they were assigned, and we began using the language and techniques of the Design Process to accomplish the goals. Each class still struggled with the process, but there was a noticeable difference in the quality and depth of their ideas.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The application of this way of thinking may seem like a stretch in a Language Arts class. There are a couple of reasons that I would argue that it is actually vital.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My students are 9th graders, they have just entered a school environment that, for better or worse, will shape their lives tremendously over the coming four years. By giving them a better way to approach and solve problems, they stand a much better chance of finding success in the ever-changing economy that awaits them. From a content standpoint, my students will be asked to complete a variety of papers and projects over the course of the year. The approach we must take in writing especially, relies on the same approach utilized in Design Thinking. We gather evidence, develop a plan, execute the plan, and then present it to an audience. The process also lends itself to the reading of Literature. The role of the hero, and the hero’s journey, is very similar to the design process, and plots in general. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Design Thinking has changed the way I approach tasks, and made my creativity and work stronger. Instituting these ideas in your classroom is a great step in increasing both the quality of student work, as well as the collaborative and creative skills of you students. I’ll check back in soon with the results!</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-46714784605792202992015-07-10T07:58:00.004-07:002015-07-10T07:58:48.103-07:00Checking their Pulse: Consequences of Comparative Grading <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzkeHokCRZXxWYBR4ygKej1MnGZt7giatrZqeqoEWNEY_3xGWyzN5hQFr7VpzDQQN9T8koxhzZdXuENY-A8ZRpdw6PTlTyU9SwnIfVk1drcx3MSvFtUJvrOgWNPAYtCGyOHP3tMpyHQGo/s1600/trackpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzkeHokCRZXxWYBR4ygKej1MnGZt7giatrZqeqoEWNEY_3xGWyzN5hQFr7VpzDQQN9T8koxhzZdXuENY-A8ZRpdw6PTlTyU9SwnIfVk1drcx3MSvFtUJvrOgWNPAYtCGyOHP3tMpyHQGo/s320/trackpic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">John and I jogged around the track at Conard High School, dew tipping the long blades of grass that covered the football field. We moved at an easy pace, talking about the game we would play later that day on the same field. Lacrosse season was at its peak intensity, and we weren’t going to waste energy on the mile run we were completing in gym class. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even at our pace, we would finish under 10 minutes, and we chugged slowly by some of our less-athletic classmates, breathing heavily, or slowing their feet to a walk, beads of sweat dripping down their faces, like more blades of swaying grass.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I crossed the finish line as my gym teacher began walking towards me. He was a small guy, more of a coach than an athlete, so it took me completely off guard when he reached for my throat.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I knocked his hand away out of instinct.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Relax, Daly,” he said, “I’m just checking your pulse.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He placed his index and middle fingers against my Carotid artery, and started counting while he looked at his watch.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I thought so,” he exclaimed in disgust, moving his fingers away from my neck. “You’re an athlete, you’re supposed to be an example! And you’re not even trying!”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I turned back to the track, noticing the substantial number of my classmates that were still running.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Are you kidding me?” I asked, pretty annoyed. “I finished before almost everyone! We have a game today, I’m not spending all my energy here!”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He shook his head, looking down at the track. “I understand that you guys have a game today, but this class isn’t about how you do against others, it’s about how you do against yourself.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">***</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I used to tell that story for a different reason. Usually it was to ridicule the teacher, and explain how crazy he was for grabbing my neck. He was a bit of a clown, and it was easy to dismiss his opinions because I was young, and headstrong.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, however, I see the wisdom in the lesson.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Imagine the same scenario inside a non-physical education setting. Students are given a standard task, such as writing a 5-paragraph essay. A group of students that are already writing at grade-level toil appropriately at the task. The students that are above grade-level are capable of breezing through the assignment, and the students that struggle are forced to work much harder to complete the task, if at all.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now think about the way these students will be graded. In general, the higher level students will receive the higher grades, and the lower level students will be assigned the lower grades.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We typically rationalize this behavior for one of two reasons.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fairness</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting them ready for “The Real World”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s approach these rationales, and explore why they represent gross fallacies that may actually border on student oppression.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fairness</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Often, when dealing with less progressive teachers, the subject of grades and fairness arises. At the middle and secondary level in most American schools, the A through F approach is still both a requirement and reality.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theory, there is nothing wrong with this.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is perfectly acceptable to assess a student’s work, and assign a number or letter to that work.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem arises in the way we are assessing, and the role that Personalization and Individualization, along with proficiency and growth, play in reaching that letter or number grade. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dweck’s work on Mindset plays a key role here, as the importance of factoring a student’s effort into their grade, and how that effort is perceived by the rest of the class, is integral to developing grit and perseverance in our students. To put it plainly, our grading and assessment systems need to promote the idea that EFFORT EQUALS ACHIEVEMENT. Anything that gets in the way of this is short term or arbitrary at best.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In order to be truly fair, we need to individualize student work, using standard acquisition and effort as the formula for grading.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Real World</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This fallacy is tied to the previous section as well.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are often in positions as teachers where we are receiving pressure from some other entity above us, bemoaning the lack of student readiness. In the public school system, this is always true, as the influence and anxiety that the college acceptance process creates looms large over all decisions in a trickle-down manner.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Proponents of this type of thinking see college as a hard deadline, one where their students must be up to proficiency at the end of the 12th grade.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This assertion is sloppy, lazy, and used to create excuses against innovation.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The real world exists, but we cannot use a child’s experience as a student in our system to pretend that what happens prior to their eventual high school and college graduation is a preamble to some “Real” life that exists.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been working now for around 20 years. What makes me a good employee, and an effective worker, have been my ability to be resilient, to understand how important a work ethic is, to see myself as a learner, to know how to ask questions, to cultivate healthy relationships and communication with my colleagues, to be empathetic towards my students or customers, to care about what I do, and to show up day in and day out.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">None of those skills are related to my ability to determine the points on a parabola, or name the capitals of 50 states. The grades I received through my education, and the tasks i was required to complete were rarely things I have used in my adult life.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Imagine now that you are entering high school reading below grade-level. You desperately want to improve, but none of the classes are built to specifically address your literacy deficiencies. You are asked to read Shakespeare, or Salinger, Steinbeck if you are lucky. You are going to learn one thing very quickly: that you are unable to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That you are stupid. That hard work is a waste of time.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Imagine instead that we reward resilience, learning as a process, grit, hard work, pushing yourself. These qualities couldn’t be more needed in a workforce and economy. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We do need to get students ready for the “Real World”, but I would argue that comparative grading is getting in the way of that.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">***</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moving away from static ways of assessment, and comparative grading, is the only way to ensure that all of our students are being treated fairly. This can be accomplished through the adoption of grading platforms and structures that take into account growth, standard acquisition, and effort. In order for this to occur however, we must move toward a policy of personalization and individualization of curriculum as well.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These days, I don’t run as much as I should. With my two children (with one on the way), work requirements, tutoring sessions, coaching, and the never-ending joys of homeownership, exercise has too often taken a back seat.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I do get out for a run or walk, I find myself putting my two fingers to my neck, making sure that I am pushing myself, measuring whether I’m making the most out of the time that I have. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are we doing this for our students? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can we do better?</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-46474795738737059752015-06-08T19:01:00.000-07:002015-06-08T19:01:21.643-07:00Good Kid, M.a.a.D. City: Trauma and Education: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0E6o6r6m-7t73DIlGycXpJRp0CRxPaZuZhGmwNk2mzvgpASQK7-C0nj8ZnzbUAahyphenhyphenKWcSwNankFZ9q9I8D1LXiCG2SlKQ-PRiloV8-mhGyiuomOIprm_9LpJRov_KdaC2ph_IR8AE85Y/s1600/GoodKidCaravan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0E6o6r6m-7t73DIlGycXpJRp0CRxPaZuZhGmwNk2mzvgpASQK7-C0nj8ZnzbUAahyphenhyphenKWcSwNankFZ9q9I8D1LXiCG2SlKQ-PRiloV8-mhGyiuomOIprm_9LpJRov_KdaC2ph_IR8AE85Y/s320/GoodKidCaravan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px;">Trauma and Education: </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px;"><i>Addressing the Needs of Struggling Learners in Heterogeneous Environments</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-6a618421-d600-c90a-fb7e-8fa22c48ccbc" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I. Art of Peer Pressure</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My sister graduated from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia last Saturday. Our entire family was attending, so my brother drove down from his home in Boston to pick me up in Jersey. Steve has always had a strong love of Hip Hop, especially the emcee’s that are associated with the Consciousness movement. We listen to The Roots obsessively, and for years have talked at length about how underrated they are as a group. I remember, vividly, driving through the streets of our childhood town of West Hartford, CT, listening to De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. At that time, in our town, our high school experience was incredibly eclectic, our side of West Hartford boasted a very diverse population, both racially and economically. This diversity exists today, but it also calls into sharp focus the disparities at play between these different groups.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A homogenous experience would have created a myopic blindness around these issues.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the car, Steve suggested we listen to an artist named Kendrick Lamar. My only experience with him up to that point was an appearance on the Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show, and some related passing articles by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I knew he was a West Coast rapper, from Compton specifically, and that he was generally considered an up-and-coming artist.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve suggested that we listen to his major-label debut, titled “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City: A Short Film by Kendrick Lamar.” He explained that it was a concept album, and we began listening.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track after track, and skit after skit, I realized that this was an experience as well as a collection of songs. The album chronicles a young Lamar navigating his way around Compton as a 17-year old. Over the course of the story, he details the various pressures and concessions he is forced to endure, often in brutal fashion.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the narrator of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” however, Lamar is viewing all of this through a lens of both art, and reflection. The album was released when he was 25, a good 7 years removed from his time on Rosecrans. Breaking out of the bubble allowed Kendrick to view his experiences from outside his singular frame of reference, and turn it into art.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we drove, admiring the linguistic and sonic intricacies of the album, I felt myself becoming overwhelmed. The album and its atmosphere were creating stress for me. Kendrick’s portrayal of Compton put me in the car with him, driving around in a white Toyota with the constant threat of violence and death surrounding us.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> At points, Lamar confronts these feelings directly:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“I suffer a lot, and every day the glass mirror</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Gets tougher to watch; I tie my stomach in knots</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>And I'm not sure why I'm infatuated with death</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>My imagination is surely an aggravation of threats</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>That can come about,”</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.56; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought about how suffocating, how madness-inducing that could become, and, as my mind tends to work, began to think about both the educational consequences and implications of that type of upbringing.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.56; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A child raised in that environment is almost certainly exposed to enough stress that it could be considered some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but the problem, is that there is no “post” anything, the children are in a constant state of trauma and anguish.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">II. Allostatic Load</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In his book, “How Children Succeed,” author Paul Tough outlines the ways that neuroscience can help us as educators better understand the human learning experience. One of the topics he discusses at length is the concept of Allostatic Load, and the role of sustained adverse experiences on the developing mind.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tough uses for a definition and its effect as “...the process of managing stress, which [McEwen] labelled allostasis, …[which is] what creates wear and tear on the body.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are consequences to Allostatic Overload. The same process that is designed to help our bodies deal with stress, can eventually turn on people, literally affecting them physically:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Although the human stress response system is highly complex in design, the practice has all the subtlety of a croquet mallet. Depending on what kind of stress you experience, the ideal response might come from any number of defense mechanisms… But the HPA axis can’t distinguish between different types of threat, so it activates every defense, all at once, in response to any threat” (Tough, 13).</i></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From an evolutionary standpoint, our body’s ability to transfer resources, and allocate oxygen and antibodies to specific areas of our system is important if we are being chased by a Sabretooth tiger. We escape, maybe with a few wounds, but this is followed by down time, a period of safety. During that time, our bodies switch back to a normal state of being. Unfortunately, the body cannot differentiate between threats, and is actually harmed by a state of constant stress.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consequently, as teachers, we are faced with a system that contains children that are in dire need of intervention, and in a heterogenous environment, where these students may appear as simply “struggling learners”, it is incredibly important to have a way of mitigating the stress of these students.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">III. Empathy and Individualization</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If anything, the knowledge of neuroscience should at the very least result in a change in our attitudes toward struggling learners. Developing an empathetic view of your students should be a non-negotiable on a personal level, but this must be reflected in our practice as well. Gone are the days of a learning environment that is at best, static, and at worst, comparative in nature.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking at the mastery of standards called for in the Common Core, it is the height of oppression to gauge students successes and failures as tied to the achievement of their peers.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we combine the idea of educational empathy with the movement towards a standards-based approach, a necessary change in both practice and classroom structure becomes paramount.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The only ethical way to mitigate the problems presented by these new understandings is to individualize curriculum at the district and classroom level. The oft-referred to concept of differentiation breaks down under true heterogeneous groupings.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of the charter schools that have demonstrated “success” in helping struggling learners have made their hay from moving in the opposite direction. The use of mnemonic devices or songs, strict emphasis on rote memorization, and even the implementation of dress codes and public shamings, seem to work initially due only to the homogenous makeup of said schools. As the data has shown, intervention in this way has only created change at the schools where the students attend, with alarming dropout rates spiking after the student leaves.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A balanced or blended learning environment addresses the needs of individual students within any system, however, this is vital to the success of schools with heterogeneous populations. In schools where the label of “struggling learner” exists due to comparative norms, there must be a system in place that can adapt to student need at the structural level.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By using a mixture of technology, flipped instruction, direct instruction, small group and individual intervention, and a strong screening tool, schools with a wide variety of students can better assist students in taking control of their learning, regardless of their environment.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IV. Good Kids, Mad Cities</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ultimate realization that frees Kendrick from the cycle of violence and fear that surrounds him, is a focus on his art. He uses this skill to escape his toxic environment, and much like the protagonist in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, returns enlightened to shine a light on his experiences. I worry about the students that don’t have the ability to transcend their situations through raw talent and luck.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are we doing with our systems of education to combat this? How can we better provide access for these students that so often slip through the cracks?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These questions are at the core of not just the problems we face in inner city education, but in the suburbs as well, where a wider variety of learners often reside.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dove into the album after the car ride, using Rap Genius and other sites to compile as much background as I could on the songs and messages it contained. The cover art is a picture, a purple Dodge Caravan, circa the late 90's. It's the same car I drove around the streets of West Hartford. I know for a fact that the worries and anxieties I felt within that car, were radically different, trivial at best, when compared to the night, one of many, that a young Kendrick experienced in his neighborhoods.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schools must become outposts on the front line of triage. In order to do this, we must build systems that are able to handle the many issues and traumas facing all of our children.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Works Cited</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lamar, Kendrick, et al. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City [sound Recording]: A Short Film</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. [Deluxe ed., explicit version]. Santa Monica, Calif.: Aftermath/Interscope, 2013. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tough, Paul. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. New York: Mariner, 2012. Print. </span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-84390862028796080472014-12-18T15:54:00.000-08:002014-12-18T16:00:10.608-08:00Nitty-Gritty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Grit. It's a word that is thrown around quite often in the world of education. It's the word of the moment. Despite its recent pop culture explosion, grit is a concept I buy into wholeheartedly. Here's why.</div>
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Grit is the single most predictive factor of success, as told by Angela Duckworth and her research with the University of Pennsylvania. Despite this, Grit is something typically overlooked in the American public school system. From what I've observed, the bulk of what we value as educators, is "accuracy, correctness." This mindset not only shortchanges students, but also reduces the educational process. Students who frequently get the answers right are often missing this essential life skill. There <i>will </i>be a time when these students don't know the answer and don't know <i>how</i> to find it.</div>
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I've often heard this tale in Algebra 1. Students sailed through elementary and middle school math with A's, then by midyear in Algebra 1, they are lost. They don't know how to study for math, because they never had to. Frequently, this snowballs into lower math grades, feelings of frustration, and most significantly, a lack of willingness to put in the time and effort needed to learn the material. </div>
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"The other behavior that seems to explain why grit is a marker of future success is deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is the sort of practice experts to do improve...In the National Spelling Bee, for example, gritty finalists log more hours of deliberate practice, and this time uniquely predicts final ranking whereas less effortful and more pleasurable forms of practice do not" (Duckworth). It is obvious, for long-term goals which demand a continued practice and attention to skill, grittier individuals will exceed their peers. The question becomes, how do we instill grit in our students? Is it inborn or is it something that can be cultivated over time? In my classroom, there are small adjustments I've made in an effort to promote grit. </div>
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First, an assignment is never truly considered "done." I put a grade in the system, return work to my classes, but students can revise and rewrite to their hearts' content. I see no problem with allowing a student multiple opportunities to improve his/her work. As long as this continued effort doesn't interfere with the class period at hand, there are no problems. Second, in a question and answer session, I try not to move on when I hear the answer I want; I probe, inquire further, and encourage students to challenge each other's thoughts. There is often a "right answer," but why not push the student to think further? The word "elaborate" works wonders in a class discussion. Lastly, a major project that requires precision and time is a unique approach to promoting grit. Last year, my students completed a large mural based on the work of Sol Lewitt. Although it was "easy" work, it was evident that most honors students did not have the grit to master the product. They were impatient, hasty, and made simple mistakes because of their lack of sustained effort and precision. Large-scale projects like this are messy and ambitious to implement and manage, but the student perspective that can be gained is unparalleled. In any classroom, designing assignments that require slow work and precision is a great way to harness grit.<br />
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The willingness to struggle through a seemingly impossible task is not only an academic skill, it is a life skill. Character is built in moments of frustration, anger, and failure...moments which often evade our brightest students until they reach high school, or for some, college. It's not to say that there is no merit in positive reinforcement, there absolutely is, but the stamina that comes from sustained effort and the momentum it builds has a decisively more substantial impact on a student's life. Motivation is often what eludes so many of our students and promoting gritty activities can help build true, intrinsic motivation which lasts and extends beyond the classroom walls. Whether through a job application process, a difficult time with family, or a time-consuming project, grit makes navigating demanding tasks much easier. </div>
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The idea may seem trendy, but the heart of this dogma is at the core of American culture. As LaBoeuf said in <i>True Grit, "</i><span class="s1">You'll find I go ahead with what I start."</span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -35px;">"The Duckworth Lab." </span><i style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -35px;">Research Statement</i><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -35px;">. University of Pennsylvania, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -35px;">"True Grit" (1969). </span><i style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -35px;">IMDb</i><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -35px;">. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.</span></span></div>
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Danielle Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11971376551174462568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-89147568191255266612014-12-15T10:54:00.001-08:002014-12-17T06:01:31.736-08:00The Complexities of Simplicity: The Importance of Common Core Aligned Curriculum Planning and Implementation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-4dd1c281-4f4a-b846-8066-1f3a2c0ec797"></b>Comic by Scott Adams</span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-4dd1c281-4f4a-b846-8066-1f3a2c0ec797"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-4dd1c281-4f4a-b846-8066-1f3a2c0ec797"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It stands to reason that the simplest explanation for some unknown phenomena is probably the best explanation. This concept, known as Occam’s Razor, has been used to eschew excesses from theories, and was even used as an explanation for the existence of God. This reliance on simplicity however, can sometimes be lost on the true application of the idea: </span></b></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-4dd1c281-4f4a-b846-8066-1f3a2c0ec797"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Occam's razor is often wrongly applied. The key is the the phrase "praeter necessitatem" in the Latin formula. Not all complications are forbidden. On the contrary, complications necessary to cover the facts are not only allowed but required. However simple or even beautiful a theory may be, if it does not cover the facts, it is not viable. A complex theory may be a sign that the thing it is trying to explain is not yet deeply understood. But it may also be the correct explanation of a genuinely complex phenomenon” (The Principle of Simplicity).</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While it is tempting to view the planning of curriculum as a simple, step-by-step process, it is important to not lose focus on the fact that proper curriculum planning is an incredibly important, and incredibly complicated task. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The design and implementation of curriculum is a highly difficult and nuanced process that requires an understanding of student learning styles, proper implementation and review, and an evaluation system that tracks efficacy. While the introduction of the Common Core State Standards may seem to be a panacea in the process, thorough work must still be done at both the educational and administrative levels for it to be implemented properly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The topic of learning styles, and the many different approaches that have been taken over the years, have given educators a wealth (perhaps and overabundance) of psychological and philosophical approaches to instruction. This makes the planning stages of the curriculum especially difficult when we take a standards-based approach.The educators and supervisors involved in the decision making process must take into account the idea that not all students learn in the same manner, and therefore, the curriculum must reflect both this understanding, as well as guide the construction of frameworks that provide this necessary differentiation. There is a general consensus in education that “Learning theorists and researchers have not arrived at a universally accepted, precise definition of learning” (Parkay, et al., 189). This is a potentially disturbing admission for those that consider themselves educators. What must be understood by curriculum planners, before anything else, is that the curriculum will be implemented upon students of vastly different backgrounds, shema, and learning styles. “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d1d1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A program should strive for the optimal match between learner capacity and level of experiences provided. Some children have greater facility with abstract thought, critical reasoning and meta–cognitive skills than others (Braggett et al., 1999). This means that to avoid underachievement a curriculum needs to be developed that will both challenge and stimulate students appropriately” (Differentiating the Curriculum). To not take this into account, is to guarantee the weakening of any curriculum that is produced.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The supervisors in charge of the curriculum design process must be sure not to simplify or overly downplay the significance of each curricular decision, as it is there job to ensure proper implementation of the curriculum after it has been accepted. Failure to act in the developmental design stages of the curriculum will almost certainly result in a flawed and therefore ineffective document. The Common Core Standards are able to fill an important gap in the implementation and design of the curriculum. As most school districts use a “Backwards Design” model of curricular planning, the standards become the jumping off point. The more clear and precise these standards are, the more likely the prescribed curriculum becomes the enacted curriculum. Too often, this process is short-changed. “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jumping from the standards to create lesson plans misses a crucial middle step of developing a coherent curriculum. The absence of this more complex work of creating a local curricular framework for the district, which informs the sequence and breadth of instruction (usually referred to as “scope and sequence”), will result in weak implementation of Common Core” (Honig).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Using the CCSS correctly, and determining them as the basis for subsequent discussion of scope and sequence at each grade level subject simplifies the process of planning, and makes the implementation more clear for those tasked with using it on a daily basis.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In order to determine the success of the curriculum, supervisors need to be vigilant in collecting data that concerns the efficacy of the program. Is it being properly implemented? Are their benchmark assessments? Are PLC’s functioning in making the curriculum stronger? Do teachers understand that the curriculum is a document that by all means evolves over the course of its existence? The state of New Jersey released a Powerpoint to principals and supervisors during a recent professional development. In addition to the many pages of common sense approaches to CCSS and curriculum evaluation, they recommended a prioritized list of goals for every school district in terms of curricular evaluation:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“On the three highest priorities: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Ensure that a coherent curriculum with standards selected by a team of teachers is actually taught and tested with common assessments.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly, the State takes great interest in the supervision of instruction as it relates to curricular alignment, as well as the use of Common Assessments to achieve this end. Teachers will do themselves a great service by routinely discussing in their Professional Learning Communities the type of instruction they are using, and the data that backs its efficacy. So to must administrators be present in these meetings as a way to guarantee that this work is being done, and has become an accepted practice in their building.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the Common Core provides us with a useful and unifying framework at the start of the curriculum planning process, it must not be seen as the curriculum itself. That work must be undertaken by group of educators, administrators, and community members tasked with its success. Only by starting off with and understanding of student learning styles, developing and implementing the curriculum through shared outcomes and common assessments, and ensuring the implementation is occurring through proper supervision, will the curriculum designed by these stakeholders do what it has been tasked with, namely, increasing the education of the students it serves.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">References</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Differentiating the Curriculum." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Differentiating the curriculum</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. NSW Department of Education and Communities, n.d. Web. 12 June 2014. <http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/policies/gats/programs/differentiate/></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Shifting Gears! Using the CCSS, PARCC and Educator Evaluation to Drive Student Achievement." . State of New Jersey, n.d. Web. 12 June 2014. <http://www.state.nj.us/education/sca/ppt/gears/MSUPricipal.pdf>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Understanding History | The Principle of Simplicity." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Understanding History | The Principle of Simplicity</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2014. <http://www.umass.edu/wsp/history/outline/simplicity.html>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honig, Bill. "Coherent and sequenced curriculum key to implementing Common Core standards." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EdSource Today</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. EdSource, 29 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 June 2014. <http://edsource.org/2014/coherent-and-sequenced-curriculum-key-to-implementing-common-core-standards/56704#.U5kFXZSwIjA>.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parkay, Forrest W.. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Curriculum Leadership: Readings for Developing Quality Educational Programs</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 9th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.</span></b><b id="docs-internal-guid-61624a0e-4f40-f29e-e054-0a242e1230e4"></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-12345223052926458602014-12-11T16:18:00.000-08:002014-12-12T16:12:14.762-08:00"Equal" Doesn't Equal Fair<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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A mounting frustration for any teacher is a concern for failing students. "He didn't complete this, so he got an F." "She didn't turn in the last project, so it's a zero." It seems very logical, a student who fails to do the work, gets a zero, fails the assignment, and with enough zeroes will fail the marking period or the year.</div>
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In my personal experience, I never understood why "not completing an assignment" was an acceptable reason to fail a child. Of course, in theory, I understand it very well-there was something assigned, he or she didn't do it, so he/she receives a zero. In practice, though, it is not that simple. There are a plethora of reasons why a student may fail to complete an assignment. Sometimes, those reasons deserve an F, such as laziness, insubordination, or pure apathy (although, even these are often not the fault of the child). Other times, however, there is an abusive parent at home, a lack of internet access, or a myriad of other issues that lead to that zero. As teachers, a core issue we face is dissecting those reasons.<br />
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First, due to confidentiality laws, we are not always privy to personal information about a student. Second, even if we are, we have to decode whether a student is exaggerating, lying, or is too shy to tell us the real story. There is a great deal of detective work that goes into figuring out <i>why</i> a student failed to complete an assignment. There is no a-ha moment to this paragraph, just an honest explication of a challenge that teachers face everyday.</div>
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Next, we have the students who do the assignment, but fail it. Either they were inaccurate, got things wrong, wrote poorly, or have some other deficiency which in our minds warrants an F. In speaking with another teacher recently, I asked why a student had a D, his response was, "he failed the last two quizzes." In my mind, I thought, "Okay, he failed. If that content was important enough for you to quiz him on, shouldn't you insist that retakes it, or completes another assignment showing that he has some knowledge of what you felt was quiz-worthy?" I don't mean to say I offer extensions, retakes, and alternate assignments everyday, however on major grade-determining assignments, it seems that if the content or skill is TRULY important, you would want the student to master it, despite what may be "equal" or what options the other students received.</div>
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It seems that we get caught up in "equity." There is no equity in education, and there never will be, what we should be aiming for is what's <i>fair</i>. Fair is equitable with Just, as the above cartoon illustrates. The world is a harsh place, that does not care about someone's circumstances, however, school is not the real world. I do believe a twelfth grader should be held to a standard of equality more rigorous than say, a ninth grader. What may be fair for "Sue" who has a ride to and from school, a nice house, internet access, and doesn't worry about from where her next meal is coming, probably isn't fair for "Jane" who is between two residences, has social anxiety issues due to her parents' divorce, and walks herself to and from school. It's obvious that in the real world, these circumstances become irrelevant, but for a fourteen year old, they shouldn't be. Equal doesn't equal fair. </div>
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This brings me to the age old debate, does an F mean "incompetent in this skill or content, unable to master the work" or does it mean "failure to be compliant?" The negative connotations work both ways; we have students who are VERY skilled, but refuse to do the work, so they receive F's. On the other hand, we have students who can get by, but truly have not mastered the skills, so they pass. Therefore, in looking at a gradebook, you frequently can be mislead. The students with the A's are not always the smartest, of course, sometimes they are, in fact I would say <i>usually</i> they are, but almost every class has some exception. Similarly, all the students who fail aren't "below level." In an English class, where 20/25 students are reading below a 9th grade level and have not mastered the skills, one would assume they should fail. Seems fair. On the other hand, if they try, put in effort, and improve, then maybe they should pass.<br />
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These are my nagging thoughts day in and day out. Grades and numbers fail to capture the student's whole story. The story of an academic year is complex: a student who begins with an F, and ends the year with an A, will end up with a C on his or her report card. A student who went from an A to an F, will end up with that same grade. It essentially tells us nothing about the student's story. The grades are <i>equal</i>, but they are not <i>fair.</i></div>
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There's no major point to be made, except that grades and "equality" are serving us poorly in today's schools. Data can make extraordinary things possible, but still fails to make "possible" a reality for many students. </div>
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Danielle Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11971376551174462568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-68601006986317907182014-12-08T06:36:00.000-08:002014-12-11T16:18:56.369-08:00Self-Empowerment through Self-Analysis and Intentional Mindsets<b id="docs-internal-guid-700e75b9-2a56-6e05-f641-1d252e92aea4"></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-700e75b9-2a56-6e05-f641-1d252e92aea4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-700e75b9-2a56-6e05-f641-1d252e92aea4"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the looming onslaught of state and federal mandates descend upon the legions of educational professionals tasked with their implementation, a workforce that has spent the last decade under the mentality that their field and passion is under siege, it is increasingly common to hear a flow of helplessness and despair in faculty rooms and PLC meetings around the state. How can anyone combat this overwhelming negativity? The answer lies first in each individual. In Dr. Anthony Colella’s essay, “Pathways to Self-Empowerment”, a simple set of guidelines for self-change are presented. Readers will note that in order to truly change, an individual must truly reflect inward and repetitively reinforce the life they imagine. Henry David Thoreau, in his seminal work, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walden</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, noted that “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” Colella recognizes that through recognizing the personal belief system, determining the self-talk an individual engages in, and modifying that talk while supplementing strong visualizations, an individual can take the first step towards changing the environment; changing himself.</span></b></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-700e75b9-2a56-6e05-f641-1d252e92aea4"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before we can ever hope or even expect to change, there must be a period of honest self-reflection and analysis. Too often the ability to look clearly at our biases and excuses get in the way of changing our lives. One of the fundamental mistakes we make as people is to fall into the cynical belief that we are simply unable to change “who we really are.” This belief alone can have devastating consequences toward our ability to alter our outlook on life, and then improve it. In a study on “mental strength training” performed by exercise psychologists “conclude[d] that the mental training employed by this study enhance[d] the cortical output signal, which drives the muscles to a higher activation level and increases strength” (Ranganathan, et al.). Simply pretending that they were lifting weights in their minds produced actual increases in their physical ability to lift weight. While the rational aspects of our brain would typically reject this anecdote if it were presented by a lay person, a clinical research study is certainly more reliable, and therefore, harder to simply dismiss. Only when we have removed this barrier, the acceptance that we are not simply capable of change, in fact we are built for it, will we be able to take the next step toward creating the changes that we desire. These techniques alone are not a panacea however, and will require dedication and practice in order to see lasting results.</span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-700e75b9-2a56-6e05-f641-1d252e92aea4">
<div dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the same way that we must focus on being self-critical enough to recognize the biases and belief systems that influence our thinking, so too must we take a hard and accurate look at the way we speak to ourselves. Colella refers to this as “Self-talk”, and prior to change we must first determine whether ours is positive or negative: “Simply stated - if one believes that he or she is not capable or competent or lovable, then that person will develop a mental vocabulary and complete life script to substantiate and validate the accuracy of the belief system; however, if one believes that he or she is capable, competent and lovable, the tape and script which follow are consistent with that belief.” Similar to the thesis posited by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset, Colella places a great deal of weight on the perception of an individual in the desire to effectively change. This awareness of how self-talk influences our decision making process, and self-awareness, must be realistic and critical in order for the next step to take place, changing the way we self talk and visualize ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we typically think about athletes, we focus on their physical attributes first, how quickly they run, how much weight they can lift, and their various body measurements. What we fail to look at in most instances, are the routines and practices that these same athletes put themselves through outside of the field of play. Johnny Damon, an outfielder for the first Red Sox team to win a World Series in 86 years, stated in his book </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Idiot</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, that the only thing that differentiates Triple-A players from Major Leaguers is their dedication to work. Even the highest performers in their sports realize the value of self-empowerment. “...Muhammad Ali, used different mental practices to enhance his performance in the ring such as: ‘affirmation; visualization; mental rehearsal; self-confirmation; and perhaps the most powerful epigram of personal worth ever uttered: ‘I am the greatest’”(LeVan). The ability to train yourself towards positive self-talk and visualization, in place of any type of physical action, still has the capacity to allow for tremendous personal change.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don Quixote sits aloft his frail horse, with Sancho Panza at his side. Picasso’s rendering of this scene in a simple sketch is often paired with a Spanish verb in strong, red letters: Sonar (To Dream). This poster stood in my classroom for 10 years paired with a different quote, but one that resonates in lieu of Colella’s article. "I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Thoreau once again reminds us that we alone hold the key to making the changes we wish to see in the world. The more this mindset begins to permeate our educational institutions, the more we will see a workforce ready to respond to whatever initiative is thrown their way, with both confidence, and excitement at the challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">REFERENCES:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Colella, Anthony J., Ph.D. "Pathways to Self-Empowerment." (1994): n. pag. Print.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LeVan, Angie. "Seeing Is Believing: The Power of Visualization." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Psychology Today</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 12 Dec. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ranganathan, Vinoth K., Vlodek Siemionow, Jing Z. Liu, Vinod Sahgal, and Guang H. Yue. "From Mental Power to Muscle Power--gaining Strength by Using the Mind." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Neuropsychologia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 42.7 (2004): 944-56. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science Direct</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Web.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thoreau, Henry David. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walden</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. N.p.: n.p., 1929. Print.</span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-68427335716177502562014-12-05T09:15:00.004-08:002014-12-05T10:33:18.264-08:00Butterflies, Hurricanes, and Curricular Intent: Working Back to the Individual in Curricular Design<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a metaphor based in Chaos Theory, known as the “sensitive dependence on initial conditions” which we commonly know today as the “Butterfly Effect”. In this metaphor, a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, leading to a series of events that culminate in the creation of a hurricane. This concept of both the importance of a starting point, and the possible drastic effect of seemingly small actions, on the surface, may be used to relate to the design of curriculum in school districts. This metaphor is further bolstered by the idea that a “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">useful starting point when studying what is curriculum is to consider three levels,namely the ‘planned curriculum’, the ‘enacted curriculum’ and the ‘experienced curriculum’ “(Marsh, pg. 3). When combined with the flapping of the butterfly’s wings, this idea seems to paint a picture that there can be almost no way to adequately predict or enforce the way that a curriculum will affect the students it is enacted for, but nothing could be further from the truth. The metaphor instead must be used as a catalyst, that ensures we as curriculum planners are taking into consideration both the three perceived levels of curriculum, as well as those affected by it’s implementation.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Curriculum design must start in the abstract, with goals and values, respond to needs of groups and social forces, and then become refined by understandings of Human Development. In other words, the more we move toward curricular implementation, the more we must begin to think of the individual student. After this initial work is completed however, the refinement and cyclical adjustment of the curriculum must take place.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the start, the conversations that lead to frameworks of curriculum design must begin with the Goals and Values the district and community espouse. “The goals or purposes of a curriculum are among the most significant criteria for guiding the curriculum planning process” (Parkay, pg. 5). As it relates to the three levels of curriculum, this stage is most aligned with the Planned curriculum, as decisions and ideas during this time are confined, as they should be, to abstract ideas. This phase of planning is the furthest removed from the individual student, and takes into account first, the greater overall needs of the district itself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the Goals and Ideas are fleshed out, the next area of consideration becomes the social forces that are guiding the process. Financial, political, and social realities must be taken into account at this time, as we move from abstraction to enactment. The three levels of these social forces include the national and international level, the local community level, and the cultural level, and within these are further specific and delineated influencers (Parkay, pg. 57-58). To plan a curriculum in a vacuum is not only foolish, but detrimental to those it is intended to serve, and ignoring the social realities will result in an enacted curriculum that has almost no chance of being experienced by the students. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After these forces have been taken into account, and the represented forces or groups are represented in the curriculum, the ability to hone the process down to the individual learner can take place. The work done in regard to the Human Development of students will create the level of curriculum most closely tied to the Experienced Curriculum. James Comer explains that “[w]e will be able to create a successful system of education nationwide only when we base everything we do on what is known about how children and youths develop and learn” (Comer via Parkay, pg. 132). In this regard, the final act of the process prior to roll out, is to do the research on the individual needs of our student populations, to ensure that we are including structures and experiences that will have the highest likelihood of success. One of the most ethical way of ensuring that this happens is through differentiation practices, and an RTI (Response To Intervention) tiered program that is built to adapt to the specific learner and his or her needs. Only by creating structures within the curriculum that address the developmental needs of children can we be sure they are being exposed to the original intent of the curriculum document. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The major folly that can occur at this point is what destroys the original intent of the Butterfly Effect metaphor. None of these events exist as a singularity in time. In order for the process of curriculum design to be both effective and ethical, it must retain the three levels though a constant cyclical reassessment process. To believe that the decisions that are made at any level of the process as set in stone, is to render the document worthless. Analyzing the Goals and Values of the curriculum, the Social Forces that influence it, and the role that Human development plays in its enactment, is the only way to maintain the curriculum as effective. What we can learn from the Butterfly Effect metaphor is that we must be vigilant and self-reflective of the unintended consequences of our decisions, and have a plan in place to change and alter those decisions in a swift and efficient manner. By moving from whole to part, from abstract to concrete individual, and repeating the process through a design loop, we create the atmosphere for powerful curriculum design, that is human in its application.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">References</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marsh, Colin J.. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Key concepts for Understanding Curriculum</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. London: Falmer Press, 2007. Print.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parkay, Forrest W.. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Curriculum leadership: readings for developing quality educational programs</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 9th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-22047791223347719512014-07-30T10:36:00.003-07:002014-07-30T10:36:49.698-07:00Creating Relevancy through Meaning and Metaphor<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-7b2e0b56-8859-f79b-af86-29882451ddc2" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared. We walk from room to room, look into the room that is lit, the present moment, then walk on. We do not know the rooms ahead, but we know we cannot change them. We are spectators of our lives.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In a world without future, each moment is the end of the world.” </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 247.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Alan Lightman, from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Einstein’s Dreams</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exercises in metaphor pervade our history, whether it is Sir Isaac Newton’s revelations concerning the physics of our universe from his experience with a small apple, or Christ’s ability to paint parables for his disciples that illuminated the word of God. Metaphors allow us to explain the sometimes unexplainable, as the early mythologies were less religiously intended as opposed to a necessary way to explain the terrifyingly inexplicable events that surrounded early man, such as bolts of electricity falling from the sky. In his excellent novel, Einstein’s Dreams, Astrophysicist and Creative Writing professor Alan Lightman imagines the dreams of Albert Einstein. The dreams are not mathematical equations or a blank slate blackboard filled with calculations and diagrams. The dreams he imagines are the dreams of worlds. The worlds all vary in one fundamental way, the role that Time plays in them. In one, he imagines time as a fixed point, in another, a flock of birds. He then observes the way that people react in those worlds: What would they love? What would they fear? These nightly meditations eventually lead him to his truth, that to understand how time works in our world, he merely needs to observe how the people around him behave. Like his non-fictional counterparts, this Einstein has learned through the power of metaphor, and a strong reliance on the learning principle of Meaning.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meaning requires an emphasis on bringing relevant and engaging experiences to students. “The more meaningful or relevant the task or application of information is to the students’ work, the easier it is to learn. The teacher may make explicit reference to students’ personal experiences as a link to connecting content with the students’ lives or they may actually simulate the experience in the learning activity” (DBTC). In the public school classroom, now more than ever, the diverse populations of students that enter our doors bring with them a multitude of different attitudes, experiences, beliefs and feelings about school. The typical schema that we expect students to have, schema that represents a more culturally exclusive time, no longer exists in all our students. For many teachers, the response to this inability to guarantee what students are bringing to the classroom, causes them to simply start over, treating the students as blank slates. The prolonged effects of this “Episodic View of Reality” (Feuerstein</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Feuerstein, Falik, and Rand, 2006) can have devastating long term consequences. A better, more ethical way to combat the diverse schema that students are bringing to the classroom, is to provide meaningful, metaphorical anchor experiences at the start of units, that will pre-load metaphorical and experiential schema for later reference, building relevant and usable meaning into the lessons that follow.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One issue brought forth when meaning is not addressed in the classroom is that there is little to no transfer of skills from class-to-class, or, more insidiously, from grade-to-grade. The episodic view is the result of a lack of connection that the student feels toward the subject matter. In short, their education is something that is being done to them, not something that they are actively participating in. In some colleges, “Anchored Instruction” is being used to ground certain instructional practices in relevant life experiences. In this case, a Computer Learning class, where students were learning how to use technology, was paired with a teaching and learning class that used the students own struggles as a basis for studying instruction. A study of the experiment concluded that ““Evidence from other research projects suggests that a specific emphasis on analyzing similarities and differences among problem situations and on bridging new area of application facilitates the degree to which spontaneous transfer occurs” (Cognition and Technology Group, 1990).” by providing the students with a relevant and meaningful basis for discussion, they were more likely to retain, and later use, the skills they were introduced to.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another anchor activity our district was introduced to recently was the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment program. Based on the theory and research of Reuven Feuerstein, the program consists of simple instruments, such as recognizing pattern, or connecting dots, that are seemingly unrelated to content area studies. “Organization of Dots engages children in projecting virtual relationships in an amorphous cloud of dots to form specific geometrical forms. The resulting products must conform to given forms and sizes in changing spatial orientation. The exercises become progressively complex as the child gradually overcomes the challenges of conservation, representation, and precision” (Ben-Hur, 2006). As you bring the students through the instruments however, it becomes a metaphorical discussion regarding learning styles in general, that can be applied into almost any situation. To teach us how to use the instruments, we were first tasked with completing them, and the frustration and learning that occurred even in the adults, was eye-opening, and empathy inducing. We have used this experience with classes of all levels, and it has myriad connections that we continue to reference throughout the year. Without providing this anchor experience, our ability to tap into relevance and meaning would be greatly diminished.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ability to create transfer across grades is important, but it can be even more powerful when it is planned through the use of interdisciplinary anchors. The answer is that children learn by mobilizing their innate capacities to meet everyday challenges they perceive as meaningful. Skills and concepts are most often learned as tools to meet present demands rather than as facts to be memorized today in hopes of application tomorrow. Further, daily life is not separated into academic disciplines or divided into discrete time units; instead, the environment presents problems that one must address in an interdisciplinary, free-flowing way, usually in collaboration with peers and mentors” (Barab and Landa, 1997). By connecting experiences and metaphors that breach into different subject area, we increase the capacity for meaningful experiences, that also privilege the concept of transfer simultaneously. Again, the created meaning becomes a common reference point that teachers can refer back to in order to help students facilitate learning.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lightman’s Einstein envisions a world where time is fixed, and everything that will happen is already known by the people that inhabit it. He describes this life as a series of rooms, with the absence of choice, its inhabitants serving only as “spectator’s in their lives”. Without meaning, a child’s education must feel this way. The student who is tasked with navigating these rooms, only to move onto the next, truly comes to believe as well that each day is “the end of the world.” We must as teachers be sure to provide relevant and meaningful experiences for our students. We must help them to see that they have agency and choice, and we must create for them, reference points that they can use to put their education in the context of their own lives. Short of taking them around the world, and covering all of the potential references they may need in our diverse curriculum, we can still produce metaphorical anchors that can be used to help students bring a common experience and schema to their day-to-day learning lives.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">References</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Barab, S., & Landa, A. Designing Effective Interdisciplinary Anchors. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How Children Learn</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">54</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 52-55.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben-Hur, M. (2006, December 1). Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment-BASIC. . Retrieved , from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/Instrumental%20Enrichment/hur3.htm</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Feuerstein</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Feuerstein, Falik, and Rand (2006), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creating and Enhancing Cognitive Modifiability: The Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment Program</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, ICELP Publications</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Principles of Learning. (n.d.). . Retrieved July 11, 2014, from http://d20uo2axdbh83k.cloudfront.net/20140516/950b5968383aac0612b95267241b6fbb.pd</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 31.5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -31.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saphier, J., & Gower, R. R. (1997). </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The skillful teacher: building your teaching skills</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (5th ed.). Acton, Mass.: Research for Better Teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vanderbilt, Cognition and Technology Group. a. Anchored Instruction and Its Relationship to Situated Cognition.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Educational Researcher</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 2-10.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-11087025768429062512014-05-09T06:28:00.000-07:002014-05-09T06:28:45.696-07:00From All Sides: The Disastrous Effects of Short-Term Thinking in Educational Policy<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
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<h1 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 2pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“As soldiers arrive on the battlefields of Afghanistan, they face enormous expectations to show "progress." It is an impossible situation: the military's counterinsurgency strategy requires, by all accounts, years to implement and even longer to succeed. Yet officers are pressured, both by political considerations in Washington and command expectations in Kabul, to accomplish big objectives on very short time frames. Because it's rare for a tour of duty to last more than 12 months, commanders are severely constrained in what choices they can make. It's difficult to be slow and deliberate when one must show progress, right now, in time for a Congressional hearing or a strategic review. Those pressures constraint incentives and shape day-to-day decision-making. Officers, perhaps understandably, look for ways to demonstrate short-term gain, sometimes at the cost of long-term success. Today, Tarok Kolache is "cleared." Three years from now, when the Obama administration says it will begin reducing troop numbers, how stable, safe, and anti-Taliban will its remaining villagers really be?” (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #242b30; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How Short-Term Thinking is Causing Long-Term Failure in Afghanistan, by Joshua Foust, The Atlantic)</span></h1>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Putting professionals into situation where the emphasis on showing short-term progress in lieu of the overall long-term goals of a particular situation can have devastating and long-lasting effects on an organization. No where is this more true in education than it is in the State of New Jersey, where a recent confluence of political, economic, and social variables threatens to undermine the profession of teaching, and the role that public education plays in our state. The long term effects of these policies and shifts in social values will make it much harder to attract competent professionals to the public schools in our communities, and the effect on students will only serve to exacerbate this looming catastrophe. The game is being played right now in a way that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, unless the root causes for these changes can be recognized, the myths dispelled, and a more ethical and intelligent course of action can be reached by all involved parties.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At first glance, the primary culprit in the changing view of educational professionals can be laid at the feet of our state political system. The attacks on unions, lead primarily by the governor, have fundamentally weakened the public perceptions and the bargaining ability of the unions, both of which are essential to continue their relevance and existence. There are numerous, dubious reasons for these attacks. “In the past five years</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, we have witnessed a demonization of teachers unions that is close to achieving its goal: destruction of the most stable and potentially powerful defender of mass public education. Teacher union’s continued existence is imperiled — if what we define as "existence" is organizations having the legal capacity to bargain over any meaningful economic benefits and defend teachers’ rights to exercise professional judgment about what to teach and how to do it” (Werner). The successful destruction of the union would have many negative effects on the quality of our teaching workforce. There would be unprecedented numbers of people leaving the profession, and those that would choose to become teachers given the negative way that they would be treated would call into serious question the standards to which these potential candidates hold themselves. Losing good teachers to the demonization of our profession would therefore have a direct impact on the quality of education provided to our students. As with most states that have a history of strong Teacher’s Unions, New Jersey is consistently ranked highly when compare to the other states, with a strong union having an almost direct correlation to highly achieving student populations. The continued deconstruction of the unions is a short-term idea, that would have devastating long-term consequences.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone likes the idea of lowering taxes. This is uniquely true in New Jersey, where we have the highest percentage of property taxes in the United States. It was easy to run on this, as Chris Christie discovered (although he has demonstrated much more difficulty in devising ways to actually lower them), and he eventually passed a 2% cap on local governments that wanted to avoid referendums that went to a vote. Naturally, as local school budgets are tied directly to the property taxes, this in effect created a 2% increase on schools themselves, “thus </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scoring a political triumph that could give voters greater control over how their towns and school districts raise and spend money. With his signature, Christie lowered the existing ceiling on annual increases from 4 to 2 percent, and closed most loopholes in the existing law. When towns and schools starved of revenue want to raise taxes higher, they will have to get permission from a majority of local voters — something foes warn will widen the chasm between rich and poor communities” (Heininger). Another byproduct of this law, has occurred in the hiring process at local schools. I came to realize this in full after last year’s interviews, where the Director of Human Resources instructed all building principals in our district to not interview any potential candidates with more than 1 year of teaching on their resume. This edict, and various others across our state, make it difficult to hire qualified staff, while at the same time making it almost impossible for established teachers to switch districts if they are unhappy. Clearly, this affects students when they will be increasing placed in front of teachers that are either brand new, and learning on the job, or teachers that are stuck in buildings they may no longer wish to be in. Over the long-term, the effect of this seemingly innocuous short-term decision represents a perilous path for New Jersey.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recent years have seen the number of students applying to, and being accepted by, colleges rise at an exponential rate. As this national trend has continued, it has had obvious effects on the types of programs being implemented in public schools to prepare students for this eventuality. Schools pride themselves on the number of students that they place into colleges, and the state and federal government adopted new ways of assessing schools by this criteria. Somewhere lost in this seemingly common sense approach however, is a basic truth, “what's still getting lost, some argue, is that too many students are going to college not because they want to, but because they think they have to” (Marklein). Clearly, all students should have the opportunity to go to college, but what is less easy to say, is whether or not all should. The social pressure that districts are under to show that their schools send students to colleges at high rates poses some questions about the degree to which they are assessing and attending to the needs of a diverse population of individuals. No where is this more apparent than the loss of Vocational education programs with normal public high schools. Where once these classes were filled by students confidently preparing themselves for the workforce, we know see scores of students that have simply been removed from the mainstream due to lack of engagement or skill. The social stigma that is now carried by those that aren’t “college material” often means that these students, many of whom have been made to feel less than for much of their academic careers, see where they have been placed not as an opportunity, but as confirmation that they are broken or deficient. When too many of our curricular decisions are made in this regard, we do our students a great disservice, all in the name of “helping” them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The past few years in education have shown a great deal of upheaval, and a slew of initiatives and changes designed to better the future and opportunities for our students in a new and growing global marketplace. It is our job as leaders within these communities to make sure that the decisions we are making make just as much sense 20 and 30 years down the line as they do in the immediate years to come. The political, economic, and social pressures that are being exerted on our profession are strong, but we as educators have a duty, to inform those around us, in both our teaching and social lives, that these types of knee-jerk reactions will do far more harm than good. Hopefully, we are successful in this endeavor, our students’ future may depend upon it.</span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Foust, Joshua. "How Short-Term Thinking Is Causing Long-Term Failure in Afghanistan." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Atlantic</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Atlantic Media Company, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heininger, Claire. "N.J. Gov. Christie Signs 2 Percent Property Tax Cap Bill."</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Star-Ledger</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Nj.com, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marklein, Mary B. "What If a College Education Just Isn't for Everyone?" </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">USA Today</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.</span></i></div>
<i><br /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Werner, Lois. "Teacher Unionism Reborn." </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New Politics</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.</span></i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-85877101672256757012013-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:002013-02-27T06:58:33.478-08:00Bringing Weapons to School<br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.30870581790804863" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In so many of the movies that I’ve watched over the past 25 years, a common trope is apparent. Anytime there is some new technology or innovation introduced into our society, it is almost always co-opted by some form of bureaucracy, and in most cases, weaponized.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXrKHDIgoW2gC9VUrrY7yG2PiZc7Q46-TncbuTIywd8ITqqi_rrjxj37t2XO-nz1OkaYEUnFjOZEfjSHCNuC_4JgL3YqzEF5JqYPXud4SLKTsWP3N4qGOTYtDKt8LG6q7vgwVF7eFixP8/s1600/Johnny+5+from+Short+Circuit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXrKHDIgoW2gC9VUrrY7yG2PiZc7Q46-TncbuTIywd8ITqqi_rrjxj37t2XO-nz1OkaYEUnFjOZEfjSHCNuC_4JgL3YqzEF5JqYPXud4SLKTsWP3N4qGOTYtDKt8LG6q7vgwVF7eFixP8/s320/Johnny+5+from+Short+Circuit.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The movie that really drove this point home for me as a child was “Short Circuit,” a quintessential 80’s flick starring Steve Guttenberg, Ally Sheedy, and of course, the sarcastic robot, Johnny Number 5. As anyone my age will tell you, the idea of having a robot like Johnny 5 around would have been, in the parlance of our time, radical. This was an amazing technology, an artificial intelligence capable of independent thought, with a thirst for knowledge, and a desire for fun as well as social justice.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The main crux of the film was that Johnny and his creators were trying to save him from being turned into a mindless killing machine. Of course they succeed, and evil is punished accordingly.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A more recent and, in retrospect, way cooler, example of this is the plotline in the latest installment of the Batman franchise, “The Dark Knight Returns”. At one point in the film we learn that Bruce Wayne and the R&D wing of his company have constructed an experimental energy reactor capable of delivering free power to all of Gotham (read, NYC). The only catch is that he refuses to turn it on, because he is afraid that the introduction of the technology will call for, wait for it, a desire from others to turn it into a weapon.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eventually, it IS turned on, subsequently weaponized, and used as a bludgeon to bring the city to its knees. Batman’s only solution is to drag it out to sea, where it can explode without hurting anyone.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Over the past few weeks, the hazy details of the State of New Jersey’s plan to enforce the development of Student Growth Objectives (SGO’s), also known by their alter-ego, Student Learning Objectives, have begun to emerge. As the Instructional Leader in my building, I’ve been tasked with helping the staff through this process.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We are currently developing the Objectives themselves, essentially the skills that educators will target in their classrooms as a way of gauging the progress of their students.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On it’s face, a Student Growth Objective is a great idea. The concept is that teachers will create assessments that will check a student’s level of understanding of specific concepts multiple times over the course of the year. The teachers will look at the data that has been collected on each child, and use that information to guide the instruction for EACH INDIVIDUAL CHILD BASED ON THEIR SPECIFIC LEVEL OF NEED.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>If you are at all familiar with the blog, you know what a high value I place on Individualized Instruction, and this appears to be a great tool that we can use to start actually altering the types of instruction that are considered acceptable in a 21st Century Classroom. The more I have gone through the process with the staff in my building, from Math teachers to the In School Suspension teacher, the more I have come to realize how innovative and valuable this exercise has the capacity to become.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But here’s the problem, and isn’t this always the problem? They want to turn it into a weapon.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The SGO process is tied directly to the state legislation known collectively as EE4NJ (Excellent Educators for NJ), an acronym that begs two initial questions:</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. By what measure are the educators in NJ, a state that consistently over the last 40 years has been ranked among the top 5 performers in the country, not excellent?</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and,</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. How can we strive for excellence when the bill itself substitutes the word ‘for’ with the letter ‘4’ in its own name; did they write it through text message?</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All joking aside, the bill calls for the SGO’s to make up 50% of a teacher’s evaluation each year. While this may not seem problematic, there are many troubling reasons this should not be tied to keeping your job.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first is that teachers, in order to guarantee that they can keep doing what they love, will be reluctant to make the SGO’s as rigorous as they should, or can, be. By holding the bar as high as possible, you are potentially shooting yourself in the foot. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition, the student populations in individual schools will now be consistently called into question within that school. Since the ability to show growth in your students is the measure of success, a teacher with a different classroom make-up compared to his or her colleagues may be at an advantage or disadvantage. Students with strong work ethics and supportive families will be a hot commodity for teachers. In some schools, however, the strongest teachers are sometimes syphoned students that struggle in various ways, because of their previous track successes with such students. Unfortunately, a class full of struggling students competing against a more heterogeneous grouping may hurt these high quality teachers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, those that teach Math or Language Arts are considered teachers of a “Tested Area”. In addition to their SGO’s, these teachers will have up to 35% of their retention evaluations linked to Standardized Test scores alone. Aside from keeping potential Math and Language Arts graduates away from those subjects, and the lack of job security linked with pay that they offer, current teachers in those subjects have a distinctly different level of anxiety when compared to their colleagues in the “Non-tested Area’s”.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The culmination of the building-wide anxiety that was created by this law, and its intended effect of essentially ending tenure, brought the tension in our building to the forefront the past three weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it didn’t have to be this way. They took a great, innovative idea, and used it to create a cudgel, a weapon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is nothing new, the influx of high-stakes testing as an evaluative tool is in and of itself a very similar story. What we need to ask ourselves as we move forward, not just as educators, but as a society, is what do we truly value in the education of our children. Do we hope to make them into critically thinking innovators, or simply an army of test-taking, institutionally bullied imitators.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The state has it half right, looking at students as individuals is key to unlocking their potential as students and learners. The problem is taking that good idea, and using it to intimidate and threaten the very people responsible for creating the type of students we all want to see in our society.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think back to the way this is handled in the films that I’ve seen. The only way to stop the potentially damaging weaponization of quality innovations is simple, you have to fight back, and you have to let everyone see you doing it. If we do it that way, we can retain the value of the innovation, and shame those who would use it inappropriately into the background. That, or we’re going to need a talking robot or Batman to save everyone.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think I’m more comfortable relying on us.</span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-80285453892832596262013-01-29T18:30:00.000-08:002013-01-30T11:02:41.012-08:00An Open Letter to Students: What to do While the Adults are "Reforming" your Education<br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.36347297625616193" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Students,</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.36347297625616193" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you attend my district, you’ve probably noticed a slight chill in the air this week at school, that has unfortunately very little to do with the weather. Your teachers had a full staff meeting this week, where they were formally introduced to the newest reform initiative in our state, the “Excellent Educators for New Jersey” (EE4NJ) evaluation reform law that goes into effect next year. Now, that may sound like a strange thing to you, and it should. As much as it claims to be for your benefit, you can simply add it to the numerous other acronyms that will be done in your name over the rest of your public education; QSAC, PGO, CCSS, PLP, ASK, PARCC, HIB, SST, and SIP to name only a few more.</span></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.36347297625616193" style="font-weight: normal;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EE4NJ is essentially a guarantee. A guarantee that your teachers will probably have a latent, hopefully subconscious, level of disdain for you for the rest of their careers, now that your progress through school is directly tied to whether they get to keep their jobs. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It also guarantees that those once-a-year, mind-numbing, single measure tests that you’ve been taking will simply not be enough data to fire those terrible teachers, so expect standardized assessments in EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR CLASSES 4 TIMES A YEAR, until you graduate, or tap-out from exhaustion or anxiety. This doesn’t include the new and improved end-of-the-year standardized tests, which will also become 4-time-a-year as well. If you’re counting, that’s somewhere around 24 standardized assessments a year, and that’s the minimum. Over a public school career, the total conservative baseline number is 325 tests. Awesome.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can expect that you’ll be well prepared for these tests, because if you fail them, half of your teacher’s evaluation is in jeopardy, so be ready for a year of test prep, every year. Teachers will also be observed about twice as many times as well, so the odds of a great teacher deciding to get a job in this state is probably going to decrease as well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But enough about us teachers, you still need to learn don’t you?</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t hold a whole bunch of stock in Self-Help style texts, nor am I one who outwardly seeks out the various advice columns in my paper, but I think you all might need some assistance in the coming years. Here is a handy checklist of activities that you should be doing on your own, while us adults are busy “reforming” your education.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Find something you love to do, and do it as much as possible. The odds of your classes being a place that values self-expression, or various ways of solving a problem, are on their way out. Expect that the time you spend in school will do little to develop yourself as a person, as you will primarily be viewed as a number moving through a system from here on out. That means when school is out, you need to follow your passions, and seek out mentors that can help you actually learn things. Look at stuff on the internet, there’s some worthwhile stuff being done on the fringes, here’s a good example: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc">Seth Godin, "Stop Stealing Dreams"</a></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Read for fun. Trust me, this one’s going out the window. You’ll be doing mostly “informational” reading at school, sounds like a blast right? They’ll also want you annotating everything and proving that you understand the various intricacies of historical and scientific texts, yippee! Books are one of the best pleasures that you can take in life, don’t let them destroy that for you.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Ask your teachers and principals “Why?” whenever they ask you to do anything that sounds or feels like compliance, and not learning. When they run out of answers, work your way up to your Superintendent, Board of Education, and eventually the people your parents elect to represent them. Don’t expect a whole bunch of logical responses outside of demanding that you do as you are told... keep asking.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. Remember what is happening to you, remember how it feels to be a part of this system. Go into the world, regardless of the cynical way you are being taught, and be an agent for change. Remember what you had to do outside of your school to be effective, smart, and caring. Do your best to force people to give our next group of kids a real shot at a quality, ethical, and humanistic education.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m sure there’s more to add to this list. I wish it didn’t have to exist, but as far as us educators are involved, it’s being decided for us, and is therefore our reality. While the adults are busy figuring this thing out though, time is passing, time that you need to spend protecting your biggest investment, your mind.</span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What advice do we still need to give? Students, teachers, parents, politicians, and community members, please let me know...</span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-45364092831693658882013-01-01T07:15:00.002-08:002013-01-01T07:15:28.895-08:00"Strikethrough" Nominated for "Story of the Year: All Genres"Extremely proud to announce that my short story, <i>Strikethrough</i>, has been nominated for "Short Story of the Year: All Genres" at Preditors and Editors.<br />
<br />
The award is a reader's poll, and the voting is live from now until January 14th. You can vote <a href="http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstory.shtml">here</a>.<br />
<br />
It was a great writing year for me, and this nomination was just a bit more icing on the cake, and any support you can offer would be much appreciated.<br />
<br />
Thanks!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-12798934692084419812012-12-21T07:21:00.001-08:002012-12-21T07:21:19.009-08:00Guest Blog on Project Middle Grade MayhemVery excited to announce that I have a guest blog up at <a href="http://project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogspot.com/">Project Middle Grade Mayhem</a>, concerning authentic writing in Middle School classrooms. Please check it out today! <br />
<br />
Also, a big thanks to Eden Unger Bowditch, author of <u><a href="http://www.bancroftpress.com/atomicweight_praise.html">The Atomic Weight of Secrets: <i>The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black</i></a></u>, for a very kind introduction.<br />
<br />
Here's the link:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-voice-of-mg-teacher.html">http://project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-voice-of-mg-teacher.html</a><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-78312482802364678282012-12-12T06:57:00.000-08:002012-12-12T06:57:39.775-08:00Writer's Workshop Conferencing Tips
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My class workshop/studio focuses on 3 major "Process" papers, with additional supplementary papers that emphasize full student choice. The following are tips for conferencing with students during the supplementary paper process, but they have direct applications for conferencing in general with students as well.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq-uDdMufWnWakNtQimVMSYrDey-LmyM_ytJt68SSWM1QudnLT9UQPg2XcCSfAAW1xbcuF1Bhb_KqP4unrUUrHns9Mxm44kvZjzDN4Eh3I2ws9VduTOEa3o9xBhxdO9sXz8h1436WTlXo/s1600/writing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq-uDdMufWnWakNtQimVMSYrDey-LmyM_ytJt68SSWM1QudnLT9UQPg2XcCSfAAW1xbcuF1Bhb_KqP4unrUUrHns9Mxm44kvZjzDN4Eh3I2ws9VduTOEa3o9xBhxdO9sXz8h1436WTlXo/s320/writing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The supplemental
papers can cover a very wide range of genre, lengths, and subjects.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Frequent conferencing, particularly on
the front-end of the paper, is key to student success.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The following is a brief overview of the
path students might take through the supplemental paper process.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">I.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Topic/Genre
Generation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
main issue at the beginning of the process is helping students to face the
“white page.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can often be a
daunting task, especially for students who may not consider themselves
writers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most important
question to ask the students during conferences at this point, is whether their
topic or genre interests them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Failure to attach themselves to a topic of importance will doom the
product to failure, as it will neither engage the students, nor make their
writing exciting and valid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“But it’s Hard!”: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Allow students to flounder here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no rush to find a topic, and
it may take students time to make a decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the best time to give students a chance to explore
their desires, wants, and interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do not confuse a student struggling at this point with a student “not
doing,” give them the time they need to find something worth saying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">II.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Outline/Planning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
step will be different according to genre and topic (as well as the student’s
level).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember to gauge the
steps in a way that is authentic and meaningful, not simply arbitrary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Start Small, Go Big</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember that planning is the act of creating a paper’s skeleton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will add the muscle and skin later,
but now we need a strong foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The outline and planning provides this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Allow students to create plans that help them to look at the
document as a whole, and help them to see all of the moving parts, before we
ask them to compose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">No One Way</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Use your knowledge of the individual students to determine what steps
you’d like them to consider in their plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make sure that they also have authorship in these plans, and
that they understand each step, and why they are doing them. Without the
buy-in, the paper will end up being for you, and not for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">III.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Text
Generation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Simplest Step</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Get out of their way and let them write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let them write for extended periods of time, and stress the
need for getting everything down, not simply the bare minimum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The More the Better</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Writing is sculpture, we start with a large chunk of rock, and we will
eventually cut away from it and shape it to our desires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Text generation is building the rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be enough to cut away from
when we’re done, so urge students to write as much as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">No Arbitrary Rules</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t tell the students that paragraph must be a certain length.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t tell them that a persuasive essay
is five paragraphs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t
true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t tell them that you
must provide a counter-point in every argument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Avoid any type of arbitrary rule that is not indicative of authentic
writing, and certainly don’t tell them that there are writing rules, which are
in fact designed by you to guarantee certain types of outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">IV.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Drafting/Editing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once
the student has generated the requisite amount of text, they should begin a
typed draft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students should be
cognizant of self-editing during this process, but understand that this is not
relegated to getting rid of the red and green “squigglies.” Before they begin a
formal, “hard edit” they should print the document, which will force them to
look at the paper in a different way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don’t Overwhelm</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When editing a printed piece, resist the urge to correct every
mistake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Odds are that this will
result in a paper filled with red marks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rather, read the piece looking for a pattern of errors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you recognize the pattern, stop
reading the document, bring the pattern to the student’s attention, and teach a
mini-lesson if necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask the
student to go forward through the remainder of the document and find other
examples of this mistake, and have them corrected when they bring it back to
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the student is recognizing
the mistake, great!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, re-teach
accordingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try not to mark for
more than three areas of improvement per draft, as this will allow the student
to manage the drafting and editing process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">V.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Publishing/Performance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Make
sure students know that they are not simply writing for their teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By requiring the students to either
publish or perform their work, it forces them to take pride in their endeavors,
and to write for themselves. The added pressure of “getting it right” falls on
them, and placing the writing in the public arena is a powerful motivator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Things to Remember:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>these papers are about
creating buy-in, and opening up students to a writing life, where
self-expression is sought and encouraged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As teachers, we can provide individualized instruction that is
student-directed, and still cover the curriculum requirements we are
responsible for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For formal,
class-wide pieces, we can still have process-driven papers, but supplementary
papers can allow additional opportunities for individual growth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-70194825201465322012-12-03T12:05:00.001-08:002012-12-03T12:05:51.461-08:00Talking about Poetry with Middle School Students
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> As my classroom begins to roll over into full workshop for the rest of the year, I know that many of my students will be attempting poetry, many for the first time. It's important as teachers that we have authentic discussions with students surrounding our expectations. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 24px;">Middle
school students generally come into poetry with similar misconceptions or
issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a list of the most
common:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> -</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry has “No Rules”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> -</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry must rhyme<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> -</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry must be short<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> -</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poems must be on a serious topic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> -</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry should be difficult to understand
or vague<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> -</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry only needs to make sense to the
writer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">None
of these things are true, and helping writers through these assumptions is key
to getting them to write poetry well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are a few general ways you can attack these conceptions, and
create a more meaningful and authentic experience for children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry is not Anarchy</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As with any other piece of prose, poetry must be created with intent
behind it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This intent can be
shown through many different ways, but unless the student is writing poetry
that purposefully assaults the conventions of Standard English, poetry should
be grammatically and conventionally sound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the most common mistake kids make when starting
middle school poetics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To address
this, have he students redraft their work in paragraph form, or ask them to
compose in this manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
will allow them to make sure that the poem follows standard conventions without
confusing them in terms of line breaks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry is written for Performance</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Poetry has historically been a spoken art form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, the use of commas and periods
in the poem must be used with intent, directing the reader as to how the poem
should sound when read aloud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is also an opportunity to teach mini-lessons around the use of Alliteration,
Assonance, Metrics, and Rhyme (although these are higher level concepts).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry is not from Concentrate</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A poem is as long as it “needs” to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some cases, this is predetermined, as in Sonnets or
Villanelles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other poems have
their length determined by subject alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In either situation, the economy and functionality of words is
paramount.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There should not be any
words or phrases that amount to excess baggage, and students should be able to
justify why things are included on the page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poetry is not all Dirges</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neruda wrote about fruit and salt, Whitman and Ginsberg wrote about
their bodies, and Bukowski wrote about his own depravity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no “set” topics for poetry,
the desire to write alone is the key, the need to capture, to “Name the World.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the student wants to create a Haiku,
make sure they research the form, understand the subtleties it provides, and
not focus on the fact that it is only 3 lines. Choosing a topic is important,
but not limited to what we would typically define as “momentous” or life
altering events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good poem adds
grace to the mundane, meaning to normalcy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This post is as yet unfinished, what would you add to it? What issues do you see when students attempt poetry?</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-31449159588368630342012-11-29T07:10:00.001-08:002012-12-03T07:32:46.616-08:00The Thick of It<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I always found popular culture
intriguing because it represents what is relevant RIGHT NOW.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think many students share this sentiment
but often find popular culture and current events quite distant from what goes
on in their classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the recent
super storm, Hurricane Sandy, students in Morristown, New Jersey were in the
thick of what was on the news and flooding social media networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought this was a great time to capitalize
on their interest with what was going on RIGHT NOW.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we returned from our seven days off from
the storm, I immediately presented the students with “The Hurricane
Sandy Relief Project.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The project has
two components, a short term (individual), and a long term (group).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The short term project involves donations, interviews
with the those involved, and immediate relief for victims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often in our society, donating time and money is seen as the endgame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I disagree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While donations are essential and necessary,
they do not change an infrastructure in a way that creates long term
improvements for the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Therefore, students</span> are spending more time on the long term aspect of the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Students are required to focus on one issue related to the Hurricane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of their topics include the gas crisis,
the electric grid, price gauging, and Morristown preparations, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are required to research how this issue
unfolded during Hurricane Sandy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then,
they will write a business proposal to the appropriate person with a plan of how to improve on their topic of choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will include a statement of need, a budget, and an
overview of their creative suggestion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lastly, they have to “sell” their idea to their classmates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The goal is to eventually send off the best
proposals/presentations to local government officials, power companies, or
local community members, whomever the relevant recipient may be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We are
halfway through the project and students are collaborating effectively
with Google Docs, sharing ideas at any time of the day via their computer,
phone, or tablets, which allows me to immediately see any changes they make to the document and to
keep track of their pacing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Google Docs
is a teacher’s dream as I don't feel the need to hover over them in class, I can
keep track of who is doing what from anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a phenomenal monitoring
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The greatest thing I have
noticed is how invested students are in this project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because they feel an intimate connection to
the Hurricane, they care immensely about the success of their proposals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I (the teacher) am not the final viewer of
their product, in fact, I am the first of many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Their product will be judged by their classmates and ultimately their
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stakes are high
for this assignment, students refuse to stay married to their product, they see
it as adaptive and ever-changing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
don’t want to continue with a “bad” idea, as many of them do with their
traditional assignments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once they start a traditional assignment, they are hesitant to revise and change it, because they know that their perhaps sub-par idea will receive an acceptable grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This assignment is about more than grades, thus they are willing to
revisit, revise, and reflect. </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From an
educational standpoint, this project allowed for genuine, meaningful research,
collaboration, and communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
are learning a variety of skills such as persuasive and informative writing, public speaking, and
prototypin<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">g. </span>They are
also beginning to think about important marketing questions; what presentation will impact
their classmates the most?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the
best method to capture the attention of an audience? How will our classmates connect emotionally to our product or idea? I love that students
are beginning to understand the process; discussion, research, discussion,
dividing of tasks, writing the proposal, and bringing the proposal to life with a
presentation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ordering is difficult for
many students, as they are quick to jump around and find it perplexing to follow a
pattern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This project guides them in how thinking should be sequenced for the best possible product. I look forward to sharing their presentations and proposals in the coming weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
Danielle Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11971376551174462568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-79407319876891071842012-10-03T10:45:00.000-07:002012-10-03T10:45:06.120-07:00Portal Flash Learning: Part 2
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Portal Flash Learning: Part 2</div>
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<br /></div>
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After the initial class, with it’s focus on “Learning” as
its theme, the next two classes focused on “Collaboration” and “Communication”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The class continued to use the free
Flash version of Portal to accomplish this.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwG2kfn2cfSXZXVOluc_ABe66du7_F9JynJKgILsoSfdj_QIN29-fQIr0kOXbKSlMZHTFXOwssuEwl_BmUFgaGSlV95webdtZp_eL_sSCxr1wd9FJtrmajBigU53lVN0xkfnyhhfTcGjs/s1600/FlashPortalGame.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwG2kfn2cfSXZXVOluc_ABe66du7_F9JynJKgILsoSfdj_QIN29-fQIr0kOXbKSlMZHTFXOwssuEwl_BmUFgaGSlV95webdtZp_eL_sSCxr1wd9FJtrmajBigU53lVN0xkfnyhhfTcGjs/s320/FlashPortalGame.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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For the day on “Collaboration” the students were asked to
find a partner and log in to their computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The game requires the your left hand operates the keyboard,
which controls player movements, while the right hand controls the mouse, which
is used to place portals in the testing room.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is physically impossible to negotiate any of the puzzles
without using both hands.</div>
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<br /></div>
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With their partner, students were instructed that only one
partner could control one device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One player could operate the keyboard, and the other could operate the
mouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This task was also
buttressed by three of our class rules, which they were asked to reflect on
when they began playing.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The rules were as follows:</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->My Words Matter</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I have a Voice, I will Use it</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->We can’t do it Alone.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As expected, this caused a great deal of frustration, but
eventually, they began to figure out a series of commands that they could use
to accomplish their goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
ended with another discussion around the parallels between this activity, and
the group work they are usually assigned in school.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third and final day focused on “Communication”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The students were asked to find a different
partner from the previous class, and again log in to the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they began however, I told them
that they would not be allowed to talk or write directions to one another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After 30 minutes of this, I began to allow them to write or draw
as a way of communicating, and at the end of class, I allowed them to begin
speaking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of the students felt that this was extremely
beneficial, as the silence in the room, and the need for forced listening that
non-verbal communication created, actually made things easier.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are currently starting a paper that will begin to address
the overall experience and its efficacy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is the prompt:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Portal Flash Unit</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Did you find this unit to be of value? Is it something that
should be taught again in the future?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Think about the three themes:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Day One: Learning</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Day Two: Collaboration</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Day Three: Communication</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You will write a paragraph/section on each of these
themes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each paragraph/section
should answer and discuss the following questions:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How did the game address this theme?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Was it effective in teaching you about the theme
as it relates to you?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Why should it be taught again next year, or why
should it not be taught?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-57901953568698654962012-09-28T06:07:00.002-07:002012-09-28T06:08:14.257-07:00Portal Flash Learning Lesson<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Now that the first few setup
lessons have been completed, we are moving into some of the experiential
learning that will shape the class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Since the main thrust of the class is to break students out of their typical
assumptions about what “school” can be, I wanted to provide an initial
experience that was seemingly as far from these assumptions as possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhybevNNJiUmWtPLMUB-uYdHOHLdSi2c0YUUZq_VhS1Ly-q_qoFuPsinOjAPK_-yg0MiIPj0FULAHviaZVAFL0i487nBaLwVUO_xmR2pev6FdzSsnHwDffyPfEoddt9np8ApEANHyBO-bA/s1600/flash-portal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhybevNNJiUmWtPLMUB-uYdHOHLdSi2c0YUUZq_VhS1Ly-q_qoFuPsinOjAPK_-yg0MiIPj0FULAHviaZVAFL0i487nBaLwVUO_xmR2pev6FdzSsnHwDffyPfEoddt9np8ApEANHyBO-bA/s320/flash-portal.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The students were asked to log into
their computers and run a Google search on “Portal Flash”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This should bring up multiple
accessible links to the game, Portal: The Flash Version.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Flash version of the popular game
Portal was not made by the developer, Valve, and is free on various Flash sites
on the internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike the
console and PC version, the Flash version offers physics based puzzles in a 2-dimensional
environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The puzzle require
“portals” to be placed to allow the player to find a pathway to an exit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the game progresses, the puzzles get
more difficult, and start introducing variables that affect the player’s
ability to easily pass through the game.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
When we began playing, I set up a
few rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students were told that
their goal was to get to the highest level that they could, but that they could
not ask me questions about the game, or I would simply reply with a
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told them that they
could use the tools available to them such as Youtube or Wiki’s, to help them
through.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Then I sat back and observed the
chaos.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Invariably, even the most
accomplished gamers in the class hit a wall, a point where they could no longer
breeze through the levels without pausing to think, or ask questions of their
classmates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here was where the
game began to provide gold.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Kids became frustrated,
agitated, excited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They clicked the mouse
too hard, or squirmed in their seat as the character fell into a pit or was
incinerated on a laser floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were animated, began asking questions of one another, furiously searched Youtube
for the best walkthrough videos.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
They were engaged in the truest
sense of the word, despite the difficulty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The students continued to play
through to the lunch break, and when they returned, we started talking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked the following 4 questions,
giving them time to write their responses prior to sharing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->What were the difficulties you faced during the
game?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How did you deal with these difficulties?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How was this experience different from your idea
of what “school” is supposed to be?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->What have you learned about learning, or how you
learn best?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The discussion went well, with most
of the students explaining the benefit of doing it themselves, and of not being
given answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They said that
there was a sense of accomplishment when they finished a level on their
own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simply saying these things to
my students would have paled in comparison to having them complete the activity
first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They need the experience of
learning outside of what they have been conditioned to believe it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I was struck by some of the student
responses in other avenues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a
lecture is occurring, or they are being asked to participate in activities that
“feel” like “school”, my students are constantly asking to get a drink or go to
the bathroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the 80 minute
block, over 2 different classes, not a single student asked to leave for any
reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not surprised by this
at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We need to think about how we can
demonstrate LEARNING in our classrooms, not simply explain to our student’s why
it is important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
more we can begin to understand that learning is something that is happening
within these children AT ALL TIMES, the more we need to be cognizant of the worthiness
of the tasks we ask them to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
it simply busy work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we just
padding a grade book? Justifying our own existence?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Take some time to try the game
yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What emotions does it elicit
in you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you deal with
frustration and failure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do
you manage a lack of ability or control in something as simple as a
two-dimensional computer game?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
What can you learn about your
student’s educational lives from it? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Log on, and get uncomfortable.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-10453299413101969102012-09-25T06:42:00.000-07:002012-09-25T06:42:23.526-07:00Fast Food Education Nation
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6T0ck6I3-dzy466ytznxQv9Qgr8in_D6W5iIW7_hSUS3SuEXwH6EWlp-6nslWgrjxrjEq-DFyX9eSHefWbQNkJEMNqtFgi2-bbyZ1tRsvnfzkK2__3Tzq_KNjbbytTV5fc8DFGWYUo8/s1600/the_element.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6T0ck6I3-dzy466ytznxQv9Qgr8in_D6W5iIW7_hSUS3SuEXwH6EWlp-6nslWgrjxrjEq-DFyX9eSHefWbQNkJEMNqtFgi2-bbyZ1tRsvnfzkK2__3Tzq_KNjbbytTV5fc8DFGWYUo8/s320/the_element.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">Education is being strangled persistently by the culture of
standardized testing. The irony is that these tests are not raising
standards except in some very particular areas and at the expense of most of
what really matters in education.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> To get a perspective on this, compare the
processes of quality assurance in education with those in an entirely different
field- catering. In the restaurant business, there are two distinct
models of quality assurance. The first is the fast-food model. In
this model, the quality of the food is guaranteed, because it is all
standardized. The fast-food chains specify exactly what should be on the
menu in all their outlets. They specify what should be on the burgers or
nuggets, the oil in which they should be fried, the exact bun in which they
should be served, how the fries should be made, what should be in the drinks,
and exactly how they should be served. They specify how the room should
be decorated and what the staff should wear. Everything is standardized.
It's often dreadful and bad for you. Some forms of fast food are
contributing to the massive explosion of obesity and diabetes across the
world. But at least the quality is guaranteed.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> The other model of quality assurance in catering is
the Michelin guide. In this model, the guides establish specific criteria
for excellence, but they do not say how the particular restaurants should meet
these criteria. They don't say what should be on the menu, what the staff
should wear, or how the rooms should be decorated. All of that is at the
discretion of the individual restaurant. The guides simply establish
criteria, and it is up to every restaurant to meet them in whatever way they
see best. They are then judged not to some impersonal standard, but by
assessments of experts who know what they are looking for and what a great
restaurant is actually like. The result is that every Michelin restaurant
is terrific. And they are all unique and different from each other.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> One of the essential
problems for education is that most countries subject their schools to the
fast-food model of quality assurance when they should be adopting the Michelin
model instead. The future in education is not in standardizing but in
customizing; not in promoting groupthink and "deindividuation" but in
cultivating the real depth and dynamism of human abilities of every sort.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-From “The Element: How
Finding Your Passion Changes Everything”, by Sir Ken Robinson</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbw9YadNEc2ErLJyCG_e7G7m6HyERQ7vCeK4YRpMqLsGhnGSM5M4e_Tgffss-NSuGe-6YbgfFnz9CUVxF-pYowo5UbKCbsWThPd7jDL-wLFBkkYAFAEhwoW7U20ZlVYOdsa8rKCjc1Wj0/s1600/448px-Fast_food_(282678968).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbw9YadNEc2ErLJyCG_e7G7m6HyERQ7vCeK4YRpMqLsGhnGSM5M4e_Tgffss-NSuGe-6YbgfFnz9CUVxF-pYowo5UbKCbsWThPd7jDL-wLFBkkYAFAEhwoW7U20ZlVYOdsa8rKCjc1Wj0/s320/448px-Fast_food_(282678968).jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">I’m
thinking about the balancing act that teachers are being forced to play these
days, especially the good ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
seems we’ve moved into an era where we need to go underground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The attacks on the profession have
created a false accountability that is more political than effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good teachers are forced to whisper
about the progressive individualization they employ in their classes, or face
possible public scrutiny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bad
teachers embrace the calls for standardization because it is easier to
implement, and is in their eyes, more easily defended. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">As
the stakes become higher, and pressure is mounted, we see a desire to return to
more draconian practices in the classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The need to pass standardized tests as a district, by its
very definition, robs the individual of his or her rights as a learner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need more analogies like
Robinson’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to get the
information out there that our students DESERVE a personalized education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">It
is not frivolity, it is not a pipe dream, it is not a lofty goal to be
attained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is their RIGHT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Everything
we do to posture and squirm around this fundamental truth will only delay the
inevitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can change the
system to make it work for our students, or we can allow outside forces to
declare our regressive system a failure, and shape it to their interests, whatever
those may be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As teachers, I
believe that we are the protectors of our students; we got into this to make a
difference in their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
better difference could we make than to hand them a system that they deserve?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">There
is a change coming, and it’s up to us to get in front of it before the cynics
among us unintentionally damage it beyond repair. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That greasy burger is not good for you, even though it’s
cheap and fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try not to choke
on it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-49886608522084580502012-09-21T15:55:00.000-07:002012-09-21T18:28:04.600-07:00Sol Lewitt Mid-Week<br />
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Day 2 of Sol Lewitt Project: Calm
to Chaos, Collaboration to Cooperation, Communication to Coordination, and of
course, creativity. <br />
My apologies for all
of the alliteration but I am an English teacher at heart. The past two days have been the best I have
known as an educator. It is unbelievable
to me what children are capable of when we let them think outside of the
box. I almost feel guilty taking credit
for any of their success because they are so self-directed in the tasks of the
past two days that it must be their inherent will to collaborate or their
amazing middle school teachers. If you
insist, I will take credit for the structures of this assignment, and the
risk-taking it entailed.</div>
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Before we
began this journey of constructing an 8x40 foot mural which will be displayed
at <st1:placename w:st="on">Morristown</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">High
School</st1:placetype>, in the <st1:placename w:st="on">Morris</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Museum</st1:placename> of Art, and then around <st1:city w:st="on">Morristown</st1:city>, I was
apprehensive, nervous, unsure, and anxiety-ridden. I didn’t know where this journey would take
the freshman. Think about it…here I am asking
them to read directions critically (directions that require reading, math, and
logic skills), prototype a design, agree on the best design, and execute that
design on an 8x8 panel. After that, I am
asking them to blog about their role for the day, which rotates through the
experience. Each day students will
either be prototyping/drawing, filming, or analyzing some aspect of the
process. This request is a tall order
for students who are used to sitting in their desks and taking notes.</div>
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I don’t
want to become overly optimistic, but I can’t help it. The past two days have shown me students who want
to work together, who can overcome adversity, and who can challenge themselves
and their classmates with respect and poise.
The first two days of this project saw students measuring, talking, focused, engaged, and IN
THE MOMENT. What a concept: in the
moment, working hard, observing others, and seeing the results of their productivity
on something that won’t be thrown out or never referenced again after its due
date. It didn’t end there, students were
blogging about the dynamics of their group, the divisions of the class, the
leaders, the connections to academia, and their progress as a class.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssBllDukBBG2OAKZIFuskpFTkxGDhC9XrpeoJZzC3fdXPDhonyAJg4-m649fNFSP8hr5ADlfNUcbTZNPCObuCcpZGNsJVJkmgo3nhOD3p3O4HqP9ZDVXpEwTnrRbLg9qNR-yPtsiM7Mo/s1600/photo+(7).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssBllDukBBG2OAKZIFuskpFTkxGDhC9XrpeoJZzC3fdXPDhonyAJg4-m649fNFSP8hr5ADlfNUcbTZNPCObuCcpZGNsJVJkmgo3nhOD3p3O4HqP9ZDVXpEwTnrRbLg9qNR-yPtsiM7Mo/s320/photo+(7).JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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I cannot
wait to see if the remaining weeks of this project are as epic as I’ve imagined
them, I have no reason to believe otherwise. </div>
Danielle Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11971376551174462568noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-81347588694255155872012-09-19T10:38:00.003-07:002012-09-19T10:38:48.228-07:00Introduction to the Moby Dick LectioYou may have noticed a new page on the blog in the top right portion of the page. You may have wondered what the "Moby Dick Lectio" was, but were too scared to stray away from The Educational Arsonist proper.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwXlO4WWsj3NBH0iZnqROKUeGICwHQ3Iha53Ah4PaNsi2wFPGIWcPSOPK3m7pfgnucya4ofgAJZsEhoxLbP8kI21M54StUcM7ys1iqd8Vq_betqktuUGCg-pA9vtRke0w4UNx69Ay3IM/s1600/Moby_Dick_final_chase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwXlO4WWsj3NBH0iZnqROKUeGICwHQ3Iha53Ah4PaNsi2wFPGIWcPSOPK3m7pfgnucya4ofgAJZsEhoxLbP8kI21M54StUcM7ys1iqd8Vq_betqktuUGCg-pA9vtRke0w4UNx69Ay3IM/s640/Moby_Dick_final_chase.jpg" width="396" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Fear not! The "Moby Dick Lectio" is simply an experiment/exercise I will be doing over the course of this school year. The term Lectio come from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina">Divino Lectio</a></i>, a process of reading sacred texts, usually the Bible, where the goal is not necessarily aimed at discerning "Truth" from a passage, but simply taking some time to meditate and contemplate around a small sampling of writing.<br />
<br />
For my purposes, I dropped the "Divino" part (although some would treat Moby Dick as a sacred text) and will be reading a chapter each day. The link hosts a document that I will update each day as well, with the goal being to keep a record of my observations and connections to the text in real time.<br />
<br />
The basic idea come from a book by Nicholson Baker, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Box-Matches-Novel-Baker-Nicholson/dp/0375502874">A Box of Matches</a>." It chronicles the day to day life of a man who spends a small amount of time each morning making a cup of coffee without the use of any modern electrical technology. He simply lights the burner on his stove with a match, performs this ritual, and thinks about his day before it starts.<br />
<br />
I hope that this ritual becomes a calming, meditative part of my day as well, and that my students can also observe that as I ask them to reflect on their reading according to Probst's Reader Response, that I am actively engaged in the same process.<br />
<br />
I've invited my good friend and colleague John Madden to jump in when he can, as he represents the biggest Melville fan that I know, and have left a column open for him on the document as well. If you are interested in reading along, or attempting your own "Lectio", please let me know about it, and I'd be happy to promote or link to it.<br />
<br />
Thanks!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-50096650156855206952012-09-18T16:22:00.000-07:002012-09-18T16:29:03.367-07:00Setting The Stage For a Year of Freedom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Please join me in welcoming our newest author to The Educational Arsonist, Danielle Firavanti. Ms. Firavanti is a Progressive High School Language Arts Teacher in New Jersey. She will be blogging about her experiences in her classes this year. Enjoy!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0HfaN9mg6ktjZFozX5OfqfqCqc8tFISVCT4R9ebPNk3hDf8fyjWLOICPxwbKIxtQw8JEGP9GyD2ucCcbA9G7WtT4gSziL5RXIM3qyyz9lLNZ2pkRsLq-8hwYgT6ldv0C1G3hbyzSugI/s1600/Classroom_843785861.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0HfaN9mg6ktjZFozX5OfqfqCqc8tFISVCT4R9ebPNk3hDf8fyjWLOICPxwbKIxtQw8JEGP9GyD2ucCcbA9G7WtT4gSziL5RXIM3qyyz9lLNZ2pkRsLq-8hwYgT6ldv0C1G3hbyzSugI/s320/Classroom_843785861.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.28462774073705077" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.28462774073705077" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.28462774073705077" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The status quo is out the window for my freshman who are (hopefully) on their way to become the school's best collaborators and thinkers. Before we learned names, decided on class rules, explored norms, or even assigned seats, we created blogs. Creating blogs sounds like a pretty simple task, but for students who are are quite unfamiliar with the interface of Google, this was a task that was well worth our time. Currently, of five freshman English classes (approximately 120 students), we are at about 92% functionality with log-ins, e-mailing, and blogs. My future self is thanking me for taking this time to set-up technology needs early. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An influx of questions have been coming my way, most commonly, "What do we need for class? Where is our supply list?" In an attempt to create independence, I tell the class they need something with which to write, somewhere to write, and somewhere to keep papers. Their expressions of confusion blow me away as they are conditioned to hearing what to buy, how to keep their notebook, and how their dividers should be labeled. Instead of rejoicing in the freedoms, they seemed unsure of themselves. I informed them that my students can keep their work however they see fit and that I will not disrupt this flow unless a problem emerges. My past experience tells me that 90% will not have a problem, so why should they be coddled? I would rather differentiate the structure for the 10% that may need it. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I began the year with an exploration of Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"</span><a href="http://www.brucemaudesign.com/4817/112450/work/incomplete-manifesto-for-growth"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.brucemaudesign.com/4817/112450/work/incomplete-manifesto-for-growth</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Mau provides a list of tips for how to construct new ideas, forge connections, and spark creativity. Some examples include, “Work the Metaphor,” “Don’t clean your desk”, and “Go Deep.” I was a tad apprehensive about giving this to my students on the first day, but they RAN with it. I was impressed with their methodology in first selecting 5 important tips, then coming to consensus on 4 tips for the class, and finally blogging about the 1 tip they plan on implementing for themselves. Most responses have been thorough, reflective, and forward-thinking. All of this is being done in preparation for The Sol Lewitt Project, an 8x40 foot wall mural that will be completed using interdisciplinary skills. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first days of school can be seem tedious and daunting, but putting in the logistical forces out of the gate ensures time for creative and innovative endeavors in the future. I would be lying if I said the students didn’t seem nervous and uncomfortable about not being told what to do, but the gold is what follows this uneasiness. Students attacked this “outside-the-box” assignment with intensity and great interest. They were engaged fully with the text in front of them, and reflected on it afterwards. As an English teacher, what more can I ask for? </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although I am sacrificing my progress in what some may call a "traditional curriculum," the students are gaining priceless metacognitive skills which will stay with them throughout the year. After reflecting on a few more of their posts tonight, it is safe to say I am stunned by their responses. That's the thing about kids, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">if you let them</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, they will pleasantly surprise you.</span></b>
Danielle Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11971376551174462568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8644450765106663361.post-75042612252196357422012-09-18T06:41:00.001-07:002012-09-18T10:15:48.648-07:00Design Loops and American Idol <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Teaching students to be creative is
often seen as a difficult thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We feel the need as teachers to direct this process as a way of better
controlling outcomes so that they are more easily measurable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We create specific rubrics that tell
students how many points will be lost for certain infractions, we create
arbitrary rules to guide the types of products that we will be comfortable
putting a number grade on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
surprisingly, this approach rarely leads to inspired work; rather, it only
creates compliance.</div>
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I fell into creativity as a result
of my perceived isolation as a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was looking for a way to express myself in ways that could communicate
my feelings in ways that I seemed unable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Poetry was something that I learned outside of “school”, and that I did
almost exclusively in my “free time”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It would be anathema to bring what I was doing into a classroom, because
it wouldn’t be mine any longer.</div>
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After college, I enrolled (read; Lucked Into) an MFA program in Poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The writing workshop was the first time that my art was being judged in
authentic ways, by like-minded individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The worth of what I was doing became paramount, and the
criticism I received (believe me there was plenty of it) was easy for me to
accept, I knew I had work to do.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTN5HhGADbsTSWJLhJUpP1z0gl6mbCNgbt6wSiEPvADlIcGLSeOg7SxwOu7ZtrsaVFXyWCGqKktFlwuA4gN5OzihjGpMoIEHihUtN653meRb8evamGKUGozQ3UcwBgQ6695mr2tvMDpFA/s1600/300px-American_Idol_logo.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTN5HhGADbsTSWJLhJUpP1z0gl6mbCNgbt6wSiEPvADlIcGLSeOg7SxwOu7ZtrsaVFXyWCGqKktFlwuA4gN5OzihjGpMoIEHihUtN653meRb8evamGKUGozQ3UcwBgQ6695mr2tvMDpFA/s1600/300px-American_Idol_logo.svg.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy 19 Entertainment, FreeMantleMedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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When I watch television now, and I
see the rash of reality shows that deal with talent competitions, I’m often
struck by how they represent the opposite of the true creative process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shows like American Idol and Project
Runway create challenges for the competitors, whether it’s designing Women’s
Outerwear using only Twizzlers, or picking the right song to perform on Barry
Manilow Week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The constraints that
are placed on the competitors are often arbitrary and strange, and the
critiques that are given are usually equally disturbing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a certain amount of anger in
the judges, they seem to feel a strong need to put everything into two distinct
categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The performance or
piece is either the best thing they have ever seen/heard, or a complete
disaster that requires the shaming of the player.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Putting forth an effort that the judges deem to be poor,
almost always results in them becoming seemingly offended at the contestant.</div>
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Notice here that I don’t say
Artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are players or
competitors only.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The irony is
that they are competing for a title that is supposed to verify that they are in
fact, true artists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us for a
few seconds look at the track records of some of these so-called winners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American Idol, considered the premiere
singing competition in the world, has been miserable in its supposed aim,
finding talented individuals that will become stars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 11 seasons, the show has produced only 3 contestants that
have arguable staying power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Likewise, Project Runway has yet to find mainstream sustainable success
for any of its winners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would
argue that this is because the assessment techniques, and the work products
created are not as much a function of an aspiring artist, but simply a
compliant show character.</div>
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My biggest concern as an educator,
and as an artist, is the effect that these shows are having on the
perceptions of creativity in our students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than anything else, these shows espouse the idea that
you can bypass the very important phase of the creative process that requires hard
work, refinement, and adequate time for self-reflection needed to become a
functioning artist.</div>
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Our district is in the process of
rolling out a series of “loops” to replace and improve the standard ways of
planning that most students have been exposed to over their education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The loops allow students to enter the
process at any point, and to begin to see that the creative process (as all
loops lead to creating something, whether tangible or not) is rarely a linear
event.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfaPNye0E-NmoCXPUEw_-1l_-zBhVvzNB8416DoNCg4956fV7yvzSMQhFrb_Pg-2M9rjs1auh6mwusRcnXtun-hg0x3zPHjz9WtiyrWVYj1Pb9yK-mvLO1t_rK8kfAN9KZ1yMjcvyf5m0/s1600/discover_flow_chart_5d1__1280x989_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfaPNye0E-NmoCXPUEw_-1l_-zBhVvzNB8416DoNCg4956fV7yvzSMQhFrb_Pg-2M9rjs1auh6mwusRcnXtun-hg0x3zPHjz9WtiyrWVYj1Pb9yK-mvLO1t_rK8kfAN9KZ1yMjcvyf5m0/s400/discover_flow_chart_5d1__1280x989_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
loops that we use are currently in development, and are hosted on the high
school’s Media Center website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
can explore the work that Deb Gottsleben and Anne Piascik have done <a href="http://mhs.msd.libguides.com/content.php?pid=251966&sid=2678552">HERE</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to the research loop, John
Madden, Instructional Leader at MHS, has developed a series of other loops for
other processes, such as an Identity Loop and a Critical Thinking Loop among others.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
goal here is to begin looking at the reality of being creative, that it is a
way of thinking and problem solving, not just arbitrarily jumping through
teacher-provided hoops. It requires authenticity, a desire to improve for the
sake of improvement, and feedback that is not simply punitive and mean.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Only
when we begin looking at authentic modes of inquiry can we begin to create the
problem-solving, creative artists we will need, to begin changing the perception and efficacy of publicly-educated students in this country.</div>
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<br /></div>
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As always, a few questions:<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How can we create better environments for
“authentic” experiences for students?</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->What can be done to counteract the onslaught of
inputs that tell our kids that taking the risk to be creative is a punishable
offense?</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How can we more effectively spread the idea of
looping in our educational system?</b></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597817384432679249noreply@blogger.com0