Reducing Standards

The part about chapter 2 that I found most interestin was when they referred to reducing the amount of content standards and teaching the few remaining standards more in depth.  They mentioned that Oregon had recently drastically reduced the number of standards we are teaching and that we have seen a huge growth in 8th graders knowledge as a result (they said they perform more like sophmores).  Is this something that our district did prior to common core (cut some standards out) and if so did it work as well as they talk about in the book?  Just wondering.  I often feel as an elementary teacher, overwhelmed by having to teach them every subject with enough depth and understanding so this has been something that really got me thinking about how in depth each of my lessons are and which standards should hold priority over others if any...

Switch to Common Core and Literacy

After attending the conference Digging Deeper into the Common Core English Language Arts, many important thoughts about the importance of Literacy came to light.  In Chapter Two: What We Teach, Schmoker details Literacy as the "Spine" to learning.  Literacy is in all things.  If we don't teach our students to read or write well they will forever be behind.  The level of rigor in Literacy needs to increase in our schools and in all grade levels, K-12.  Spending time understanding the changes that are coming when we make the switch to Common Core Standards, it is very clear that we need to make improvements in the realm of Literacy. Schmoker has many suggestions for these improvements: textbooks, more reading, more writing, asking questions, delving deeper into texts.  By starting to incorporate these ideas into our classrooms now we will not only be more prepared for the upcoming new standards, but give our students the opportunity to be successful in class and ultimately the world.

Focus: Ch. 2

OK! After spending the better part of the evening trying to figure out how to get on here and write a post, here I am! Needless to say this is my first blogging experience, so let's hope this goes through!
The area that had the biggest impact on me as I was reading was the section about "Literacy as the Spine." I think that a solid literacy foundation is the single most important aspect of a person's education. This foundation is essential for all other learning through out school as well as life. As a first grade teacher I feel a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure that students have a solid foundation before moving on to ensure that they get the most out of their education.
I also liked that the chapter talked about these skills as being important for everyone, to prepare them, not just for college, but careers and citizenship as well. Citizenship isn't a word that we use often, but I like that he used it, because we really are preparing students for the world, not just college.
I agree with Schmoker that we need to simplify the curriculum and really focus on teaching less, well, but I'm unsure of how, as teachers, that we are supposed to do that. I know that he says we need to cut the standards down to about 50%, but as a district, we are assigned curriculum that we are expected to teach with fidelity. I don't think we have the freedom to cut anything out.

Identify the Problem : Ch 2

As I was reading chapter 2, many thoughts came to mind that I've been thinking about lately. One of the major ones was when the author talks about how it is often not a lack of knowledge or skill that prevents someone from solving a problem, but rather the motivation to do so. This is something I struggle with constantly when looking at my students. Many of them have the skills/knowledge to solve problems or do assignments I put in front of them, but they are not motivated to do so. It is a constant battle of trying to "intrinsically" motivate my students to want to be successful, when in reality the kids of today are so extrinsically motivated. I see the effort they put when doing assessments even sometimes and I think to myself, "I never would have just acted like I didn't really care when I was their age!" I will watch them click through an easyCBM assessment, not picking up the pencil and using the paper they have in front of them to help them solve equations or story problems. So my problem is, how do I get these students to care about their learning/success? That EVERY assessment or assignment is important and worth their time to do their absolute best. How do we motivate a generation that is so used to being rewarded with something concrete every time they complete something, rather than just being proud of being successful?

FOCUS Chapter 2

FOCUS chapter 2

Some thoughts..

We are to educate each child as if they are going to college.  Yes!  I consider my teaching to be college prep...and I teach first grade.

Does LHS offer speech/debate class?

Meaningful reading, writing, speaking and thinking.
I am using non-fiction text in my classroom more than ever before.

Problem solving is a big hurdle for my first grade class.  It seems that the children come to me without the ability to solve the smallest hiccup in their day.  Their pencil breaks and I am asked "What do I do?'
I am teaching children how to apologize and how to accept an apology...

What We Teach

I thought it was interesting reading chapter 2 because when I was at the district wide meeting last Wednesday we were just discussing how there is a standard in the Common Core that says students must be aware of and use different types of technology in 2nd grade. (I am assuming even younger grades have this too.) My group was commenting about the time commitment it takes to teach different computer programs like Word, Excell, Powerpoint etc. My 2nd graders know exactly how to get on the internet and go to gaming sites, but they have no idea how to type in a Word document or even know what the program is. I agree that these are skills they need to know, especially starting in younger grades for the reason that when they reach upper elementary they can have the skills to publish and edit each others work. I remember that typing was a part of my elementary curriculum and I still remember learning how to type.

After reading Chapter 2, a lot of things were important but just the statement: "Think of literacy as a spine; it hold everything together."  How true is that.  Without the skill of reading and understanding our complex language, our spine is flawed.  We have to crawl before we walk and if students miss out on important foundations in literacy, how difficult is it to get them where they need to be?  I think all of us have seen the results of a student missing the important components of reading and the long road to get them repaired.  I just thought that it was an interesting analogy of literacy.

"Focus" ~ Chapter 2: What We Teach

So let me start by saying that I am enjoying this book because I do agree with the fact that it seems like education has been overtaken with loads of new programs, assessments, curriculum, techniques, strategies etc. etc... and it often times feels like we don't give something enough time to really prove it works or doesn't work. In addition, I also agree with Schmoker's top 3 elements to a "reasonably good" education: 1. What we teach 2. How we teach and 3. Authentic Literacy (pg. 10).  However, I guess he makes me a little nervous when he talks about reducing standards and that "no one could meaningfully teach more than half of them" as he referred to his 7th grade History standards (pg. 47). I know looking through standards can sometimes feel overwhelming, but I know they each have been put in place for specific reasons; therefore, as I read through this chapter it just made me start thinking about Common Core and evaluating what I think are the "essential standards" in first grade.

Data Analysis: Identify the Problem

Identify the Problem.
A few weeks ago, I sat at my desk completely exhausted from a crazy, chaotic Friday.  I felt like we completed everything I had planned, but the day definitely didn't go how I had planned. Before I knew about Tool 2, I actually made a list of all my stressors, including all the little things (seating arrangements, unsharpened pencils, etc.) and all the big things (not meeting the needs of my lowest 2-3 students, wanting to challenge my higher students, etc). I was able to solve a few problems right away with some more thorough planning and rearranging; however, the biggest problem that is still weighing on my heart is helping my red zone students make progress and finding the time to give them the appropriate interventions and/or support.

How do I feel?
What data do I have?
I have a total of 28 students with 57% (16 students) meeting or exceeding the reading benchmark, 32% (9 students) below benchmark, and 11% (3 students) in the red zone according to my EasyCBM data. It's those bottom 3 that really scare me because I fear that they are going to continue to fall more and more behind as the year continues.

What am I doing about this problem?
In my first grade class, we are implementing ECRI (Enhanced Core Reading Instruction) and I do believe that this program is helping all my students make tremendous progress with our whole group lessons. However, ECRI focuses on the Tier 2 students, who get 30 additional minutes of small group reading instruction (11 of my students). While those students are in small groups I try to meet with my Red Zone students for one-on-one help; however, there's always 'something' that seems to interfere. I have recently rearranged my schedule to complete more of our literacy activities before lunch and this has seemed to help keep everyone on task and focused. I will continue to do my best to meet the needs of all my students and I am looking forward to collecting more data to track their progress.

21st Century Education

I find that Schmoker’s writing lacks the openness and complexity I appreciated reading Teach like a Champion.  In TLC techniques were described along with the shortcomings we could expect when using them.  In the second chapter of Focus Schmoker criticizes the 21 Century Education hype and recommends a “content-rich curriculum” heavy on literacy.  I agree with him, but he is missing that corollary piece I so appreciated in TLC that made if feel like I was being addressed by a fellow professional that had tried out their own recommendations and found limits to them.  The way Focus continually bludgeons me over the head with the same simple repetitive (and yes, good) ideas instead brings to mind a teacher-student interaction.

Time should not be wasted making wikis, videos, and webpages when simpler, more time efficient activities would suffice, but students should not be allowed to graduate from school technologically illiterate/ phobic.  When I ask students to email me lab data some don’t know how or they don’t have an email account or know how to quickly get one.  When I ask a student to email themselves some work because they can’t figure out how to log on to their H drive and they lost their jump drive they don’t understand what I mean.  They don’t know how to attach a file to an email.  When I ask students to include their own name in their file name they delete the file type extension when renaming it and then can’t figure out how to open their file anymore or what went wrong.  When I ask students to use Pinnacle to check their grades they don’t know how, they tell me they don’t like computers, that they don’t need to know how to use them and that their teachers will inevitably print their grades for them.

Sorry for that little rant, but when I talk to a 17 year old students and he refers to computers as my grandfather might, basically  - that confusing annoying box over there that I never want to (and won’t need to) use – it scares me.  Not knowing about computers is ok (but unfortunate), but refusing to try to learn is not.  I have been in discussions with teacher that went something like “kids these days” have this technology stuff down. This just isn't the case.  What have you seen in your classrooms?  Can we assume students growing up in the 21^st Century now the basics of using technology?  What is the role of the state of technology in our schools in this whole problem?

Identify the Problem

After reading the chapter and contemplating what keeps me up at night, I have focused on a dilemma I face with being able to make progress with the students I see for speech and language services.  Having over 60 students on my caseload, I struggle with feeling like I am able to make a difference when I am only able to see each student for 2 - 20 minute sessions per week.  These sessions are typically in groups of 2-3 students, so at most, each student is really only getting 10 or less minutes of individualized instruction.  With such limited time with each student, it is very difficult to see progress on their IEP goals when it comes time to review the goals each year.  This in turn leads to fewer students being dismissed from speech/language services, which in turn leads to continually higher caseloads.

Focus: Chapter 2

This chapter helped me reflect on focusing my instruction/therapy with the students I see for speech/language services.  So many of the students I work with have so many needs/goals in the areas of speech and language, and it is often difficult for me to feel like I am making a difference when I am only able to see them 2 days per week for 20 minute group sessions.  Schmoker stated that we must, "focus on the most essential standards...to promote learning and increased test scores."  When I write speech and language IEP goals for students, I often think, "How in the world will I ever be able to target all of these goals in 1 school year seeing the student twice per week?"  I need to focus in on each student's highest need instead of trying to touch in so many different areas.  Hopefully that way, I will be able to see better progress throughout the school year for my students.

Identify the Problem

Chapter 2 has helped me narrow in on a problem and an area of growth that I can work on. It also helped me with my Feedback project. I have a lot of students in my class with a wide range of reading ability. I have students who are 2+ years behind while I have students that are 3-4 years ahead. It has been a challenge to reach every student in my class when I have such a short amount of time to do so, especially reaching those who are so far behind, and challenging those who are so far ahead. So it is clear that my strategies (or strategies I will try) need to be effective. The dilemma is to find which strategies will be the most effective for the majority of my students.

Keeping me up at night: Knowing whats going on at other high schools.

Finally, teaching for my sixth year, I have been allowed to work with an average to above average academic group of upperclassmen teaching chemistry (my primary endorsement)!  Now that I have started off with something positive I feel I can now unload a bunch of negatives:

It has turned out that my standards for this group of students has been far too high starting out the year.  When it comes to previous knowledge of the content they probably should have been the same for my chem students as they were for my frosh science class. 

My husband teaches sophomores in Corvallis the same content we are working on in my junior/senior class.  We gave a common assessment – our first test.  Corvallis sophomores on average scored 20% better than the Lebanon juniors and seniors in my class.  Many of my chemistry students have expressed a desire to go into medicine in college.  Next year or the year after when my students go to college there will be no allowances made for the city they come from.  I worry the accommodations we are so used to making at our high school are giving students like those in my chemistry class a skewed view of what it means to be a good student and to work hard. 

And yet so many students think that this work is too hard – there are only about 70 students enrolled in chemistry in our district.  LHS has about 200 more total students than my husband’s school and his has ~100 more students enrolled in chem.  I know these are two very different cities, but I feel like our students are capable, that it is fixable, and it is important – so many good jobs require at least success at chemistry in school if not application of chemistry principles in the workplace.

I am curious about perceptions of chemistry (+science and math in general) among adults and students and how this influences success and enrollment.  I want to know specifically where the hang ups are for chem students.  The math we do in my class (What is the common denominator of 3 and 2?  We have 6 on the left side and 4 on the right, how many more do we need on the right for them to be equal?) is so much simpler than what they are doing in the high school math classes I don’t feel like math can be the primary issue…  Is it vocab?  Is it something else?

What's your dilemma?

If I were to say, "What do you wish was different in your classroom right this minute?" What would come to mind? The easiest way to identify a dilemma is to start with simple questions, like....

What keeps me up at night?
Who needs help in my class? Who struggles the most?
What assessments did students do the worst/best on?
What lessons did or did not go well?
Are my students at level? Who is and who isn't?

These kinds of questions will lead you to start looking at the available data. What sources would you look at to answer the above questions? Come to class prepared to share some ideas for your data project. See you next week!

Data Class: Identify the Problem

This year I am participating in the Portfolio project and am planning on working on intervention in the classroom and tracking data on students that come to me below grade level.  I have students in literacy, reading specifically,  that are more than 2 years behind grade level and students in math that have "holes" in concepts that are making their learning and enjoyment of math, and thus of school in general, very challenging.  I am passionate that all students are capable of learning and can be brought forward if the time and effort on the part of all stakeholders is firm and unwavering.  I have read the second chapter of The Data Toolkit and began with Identifying the Problem in a very systematic format.  It is a powerful tool that has forced a lot of reflection on my part and also has allowed me to move past my frustration of "why" and toward the possible solutions that are available.  I am excited to continue this journey and am so hopeful that with support these kids will make great progress.