Lambs to Lions

The BFM has been challenging each other to blog about something.  Tony asked the question about whether he is the enemy…he is.  Anna wrote a touching tribute to her dad after our BFM field trip to see the King’s Speech…one of the better movies I have seen this year…almost as good as Machette.  But for some reason I do not possess a singular train of thought.

• I have pondered on my place in the teaching profession of today.  Once apon a time I was considered cutting edge.  Project-based, thematically geared, visual, Socratic, query-based, and genuinely sought to inspire my students to become more…more of a person, more of a learner…more.  Today I feel that what I am out of sync.  I don’t care about data.  I care about kids.  My data is based on observation of growth.  My growth model is not found in DASH, it is built on watching my students take on bigger challenges, pushing their answers from rote to thought, it is based on listening to the nuances of answers, it is from watching extra effort done for the sake of proving themselves to me, it is from me caring enought to notice my students’ actions.  I can’t put it into a spreadsheet so therefore I am out of sync.  I may well be judged ineffective on the rubric that made Tony the enemy; of course,  this would someone wired like me. 
• My kids are so very visual.  It is amazing to me that my students can still attach words to pictures (no matter how metaphoric), but struggle with simple definitions.  I am building a vocabulary model for my class where I present vocabulary through sights and sounds, but don’t necessarily have the kids write anything down.   I want to see if my dealing to their strengths that I can break the vocabulary cycle that we all know does not work.  I write more about that later.
• I need to be more intentional with the learning in my class.  I have always struggled articulating my learning objectives to my kids…for those of you that have never been in my class I tend to like to build to the end by stringing my students on…it can be a little like watching Lost…  I’m going to work on incorporating a daily entry and exit task.  This will be tough for me, but I am going to try.

I liked this so much that I joined Education Week. 

It’s Time to Focus on In-Depth Learning, Not Shallow Answers

By Kelly Gallagher

In the midst of controversy surrounding “value added” teacher assessment, which flared recently following the Los Angeles Times’ public teacher rankings, the real issue is often overlooked: The state tests being used to evaluate student progress—and, in turn, the effectiveness of teachers—virtually ensure mediocrity.

Consider the following California 10th-grade-history standard: “Relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought.” How long do you think it would take to teach this standard before a classroom of 16-year-olds reached a thorough understanding? Weeks? Months? Consider another social studies standard: “Compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.” How much time for this unit? A semester? A year? I am sure that history teachers would love to have the opportunity to delve deeply into these standards, but the state test does not permit deeper instruction. Why? Because these two standards come from a much longer list of standards that will be measured on the exam. Teachers in California know the results of this exam may now be used as a factor in their evaluations, so they are forced to accelerate their instruction into “sprint and cover” mode.

What harm comes from a sprint-and-cover approach? A study published in the journal Science Education in December 2008 looked at two sets of high school science students. One set “sprinted”; the other set had teachers who slowed down, went deeper, and did not cover as much material. The results? The first group of students actually scored higher on the state tests at the end of the year. This is not surprising, as their teachers covered more of the test material. I am sure it made their parents, teachers, and administrators happy. What is more interesting, however, is that the students who learned through the slower, in-depth approach actually earned higher grades once they made it to college. This, too, is not surprising. These students were taught to think critically.

In considering this study, it is important to note that the standards are not the problem. We all want standards that set high expectations for our children’s learning. The problem is that there are too many standards. If teachers were to teach all the standards at the level they need to be taught so that students would acquire meaningful understanding, one study found, we would have to change the educational system from K-12 to K-22. Because there are too many standards, and because most of these standards are assessed on the state tests, teachers are pressured to cover everything. When everything is covered, shallow teaching and thinking occur.

Any teacher worth his or her salt knows that if you really want to measure the level of student thinking, you have to have students write. Answers to multiple-choice questions can often be faked; answers to essay questions cannot. This is why it is heartening to note that on the California High School Exit Exam, students must produce an on-demand essay. But allow me to let you in on California’s dirty little secret: A student can receive a zero on the essay portion of the exam and still pass the exam. That’s right. A student can write absolute gibberish, or write nothing at all, and still pass the exam. How is this possible? It’s because the weight placed on the multiple-choice section of the exam is four times heavier than the weight placed on the essay section. The essay section counts for so little of the final score that it is possible to blow it off and still receive a diploma. Sadly, the state’s high school exit exam values shallow thinking (multiple-choice) much more than it values critical thinking (writing). When multiple-choice becomes the valued assessment, essay-writing gets placed on the back burner, and we end up with a school system that raises multiple-choice thinkers in an essay world.

I also find it odd that while many states have raised their test scores over the past few years, we as a country continue to fall in international comparisons of academic achievement. How can this be? If we are getting “better,” why are we declining internationally?

In an attempt to answer these questions, Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University studied high-achieving countries from around the world. Her findings? School systems in high-achieving countries value higher-order thinking. They parse their standards to make them lean. They use very little, if any, multiple-choice assessments to monitor student progress. They require students to research, to inquire, to write—to think critically. They give students time to reflect upon their learning. They emphasize the skills graduates will need to be college- or career-ready in a globally competitive marketplace. They surround their students with interesting books. Because their assessments demand critical thinking, their students are moving ahead. Because our assessments demand shallow thinking, our students are falling behind.

As teachers, we want to know if we are doing a good job. We want to know our strengths and our weaknesses. We welcome accountability. Frankly, I am embarrassed by how hard teachers’ unions have fought to protect weak teachers. It is shameful. But scoring all teachers based on a system that pushes educators to produce memorizers instead of thinkers is not the answer. Worse, it actually rewards mediocre teaching.

The argument on whether “value added” should be used to assess teacher effectiveness misses the larger point. Why do we want to assess a system that is broken? Fix the system first, and then design tests that will accurately assess deeper learning and better teaching. Let’s begin to think like those educators in the highest-achieving countries. We could start by ending this false pursuit of unobtainable standards and design tests that truly value writing and critical thinking. Let’s aim for creating big thinkers, not small thinkers. And let’s recognize that critical thinking in many classrooms will not occur until the state assessment demands critical thinking in all our classrooms.

As I plunge into the school year, my highest priority is to design lessons that enable my kids to think critically and to give them the skills they will need to live productive lives. I want my students to grow up to be problem-solvers, not test-takers. I want them to be innovators, not automatons.

So, go ahead. Tell me my value-added score if you’d like. Just remember, I am not teaching to that test.

KELLY GALLAGHER teaches at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, Calif. He is the author of Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It (Stenhouse, 2009).

First off, I’m sorry to have been away for so long; I am fighting being sick, my secret affairs that I am having with many doctors in the Indy area eats into my available time, and I’m rewriting lessons I rewrote this summer on the fly.   

I watched Dave Eggers Wish Once Upon a School TED talk after watching the CNN Student News feature on what makes a great teacher.  It struck me how big of a leap it is from good to great.  I have had a lot of success teaching, but I’m not fooling myself into thinking that I’m great.  The difference between good and great is a gulf wider than the Red Sea.  Great requires inspirational life change. 

What is holding me back?   Why do I lack the energy?  It is not like I cannot think of things to do?  It is not like that I could not start a tutoring program for our team.  I have students with educational deficits.  It would not take much to set up a program to help those kids.

How about Exit 4 Tutoring?

The first week is over.  Impressions have been made.  I can’t hang a banner saying “Mission Accomplished”, but there has been some progress. 

I am having trouble with the timing in my classes.  It seems like the clock rings early in two classes…periods 4 and 6.  It is driving me crazy.  I have always struggled with this as I become more comfortable as I go along and my shtick gets more polished.   The image based country review for my classes on Friday was good, but I kept adding details and as a result the Mylar-7 maps for those periods are still a mystery.

I’m going to end this entry with a rip-off of Mike Reiss’ 3 Up/3 Down for the first 8 days:

Up:

1. Students.  The kids seem like a really nice bunch.  There will be some challenges, but nothing we cannot work with.
2. Focus.  I have a really clear focus on this year.  My curriculum is set and I fell comfortable, for the first time, on the balance between what I want to teach and what I have to teach.
3. Inspiration.  The hook is in the mouth.  I just need to be patient on setting the hook deep.

Down:

1. The Bell.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
2. Back to School night being on the same night as my oldest daughter’s B2S.  This is the first time I have not been able to attend for my own children.  Double Grrrrr.
3. Humidity in my classroom.  The rotund one is too warm.

I attacked the notion that History is Boring by using my Cleopatra meets TMZ PowerPoint.  The “real” story is one of betrayal, incest, and politics of a major kind.  It hooked the kids.   Win for me.

It was cookie (80), icing (80-10), and sprinkles (80-10-10) time.  Many years ago either Baney, Sturgeon, or I came up with 80, 80-10, and 80-10-10.  First off for the non-Globetrotters, 80 means what 80% of the people do in a project, life, whatever.  80-10 means what the 10% do above the norm.  They are the ones that try to separate themselves by taking the extra step.  The rare air is breathed by the 80-10-10 kids.  They are the ones who are special.   

I love the square watermelon.  It gives me a place to teach students to push beyond what they think is a limitation.  Beautiful to watch their faces after I have set them up so bad. 

Remember Me.  I did not do this justice.  I plan on revisiting this on Monday as I introduce vocabulary.

Boyfriend Lets Foul Ball Hit Girlfriend There is always the moment of truth in a young knights journey…the moment when they meet their first dragon…the moment when they find out whether they will walk into the fire to save the damsel in distress…this guy failed…epic failure…

One of the parts of my class is the concept of prom points.  I stole this from Brad Jackson, my early inspiration.  Prom points in a cosmic plus and MINUS system where every act of kindness adds one point to man’s prom points.  However, one act of unkindness wipes out the entire bank of points.  Of course, since women are psychic about prom points this information is available to every women in the world. 

Of course, the couple went on national television to announce they have broken up.  So sad.  Another male victim of negative prom points.

I began the day with the ShiftHappens PowerPoint (updated).  The goal was for my students to understand why I emphasize thinking, problem solving, and cultural literacy.   I also wanted to set the hook a little on why it is important for them to be globally aware.  The PowerPoint went well and I think the kids understood some of the basic ideas. 

The second part of the class was an explanation of the my only class rule…don’t interrupt my groove; of course, this allowed me to show a clip from Emperor’s New Groove…the kids liked it.

The last part of class was to set up the interactive notebook.  This is one of the necessary evils, but my new clicker (which I LOVE) made it a bit more fun.

My master plan included getting to my “Is History Boring” slide show on Cleopatra, but I ran out of time.  So now I have transferred it until tomorrow and will delay starting my geography review until late next week.

Ahh..the first day is nearly here….Wednesday…the most crucial day of the school year…Day 1.    I have already set the hook a little at last Thursday’s schedule pickup.  Many a future student walked over meet me which resulted in the “spin the pencil” trick (someday I’ll post a video) which led to some of the kids getting a first day of school assignment of finding the definition of my favorite vocabulary word, “Akrasia”. 

The Greek word ‘akrasia’ is usually said to translate literally as ‘lack of self-control,’ but it has come to be used as a general term for the phenomenon known as weakness of the will; the disposition to act contrary to one’s own considered judgment about what it is best to do.

On the first day of class these students will be asked to “stand and deliver” the fruits of their research.  This is the tip of the sword that I hope will result in them engaging into my class.  I have tried to make sure there are more than one kid in every class. 

I took and modified an activity from a science teacher from Penn High School that she demonstrated at the Armstrong Retreat.   The idea is for my students move around the classroom and complete some of MY unique classroom tasks (e.g., longitude/latitude ceiling coordinates, filling out their Lamb cards, thinking about the first paragraph of Winnie-the-Pooh, and introducing them to my right-handed rock. Day 1 – Opening Project – Lamb, Rock, Seat, Pooh

This is the plan along with passing out our team’s supply list.

Reality: Okay the supply list never made the conversation.  The lambs got carded, the rock became a tool, they have no idea why Winnie goes “bump, bump, bump”, and a few began to show some thought.  One of the things that make this day tough is all “things” that have to be said in one class, but necessary in all classes.  They are valid things that have to done, but it is hard to have the classes to get the same experience.  I liked the theme music “Hakuna Matata” entrance and the class moving thing worked pretty well.

I want to matter.  I want to leave something behind that matters.  As a father, I want to leave behind children that contribute to the world.  I want them to raise good children, be a faithful wife, be a pillar in the community, and serve God in a way that brings honor to Him. 

As a teacher, I want to help mold students that contribute.  I want them to understand that what they do should matter.  I want them to become productive as parents, spouses, community leaders, business innovators, and to have a heart for life. 

I’m putting the sign on the top of the door.  I stole this from The Emperor’s Club, but the message is solid and worth sharing with my students.