teaching as failure (don't worry, that's a GOOD thing!)Watch this short video about teacher reflective practice.
In it, you'll see Dylan Wiliam talk about the need for continuous development for ALL teachers, the teacher-research approach! (I have just discovered several other videos by him--interesting stuff!) For me, his comments--these two minutes-- have fundamentally and forever changed how I think about teaching AND writing. Watch! And comment!
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A Gradeless ELA Class Check out this very short write-up in a local online newspaper about a "gradeless" high school ELA course:
Woodland teachers rethink how they give out grades By Adam Littman, posted today! From the article, "“They have to be proficient in everything,” Blackwelder, 45, said. “The standards are a lot higher than they used to be. The way we used to do things, what does a B mean? If a student writes an essay with proper spelling and grammar, but no analysis? Or is it the opposite? This way, the assignment is incomplete until it’s proficient.”" What do you think about their evaluation process? How does it extend or differ from Gallagher and Atwell's models of assessment? Is this something you'd try? Why or why not? On Teaching Language CHANGESRead this post about teaching sentencing with a non rules-based approach, one that emphasizes the changeability of language over time. Blogger PL Thomas emphasizes the "violations" or rule-breaking habits of our most prized authors (like Shakespeare!) and attempts to put all the grammar hand-wringers' concerns to rest.
He comments on a recent language change (that we will or have talked about in class): the case of the use of "they" as a gender-neutral and general singular pronoun. This is a real-life, current example of how language changes! Here is a news story about the AP guide changes. Read the post and consider in the comments his "convention awareness" approach. Higher-Level Thinking vs. State Benchmark Tests: A Battle Between Cognitive Development and “Measureable Success” Read this post from classmate, Jenna Sheeran!
She pulled this from some research writing she did in a graduate course, ENGL 797. The Problems with Too Much Testing Test companies and policy makers make the claim that holding teachers and students accountable to a benchmark test is the answer to improving the quality education. Higher test scores must mean higher achievement is taking place. However, as Linda McNeil states in her book, Contradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized Testing, these policy makers consistently tout the benefits that standardized tests will bring to the table, but scarcely consider or report possible costs. McNeil follows children in Houston public schools that were receiving quality education before the implementation of stricter standards and testing, finding that much of this quality was lost as a result. She describes the effect that these standardized tests have had on teachers as “de-skilling” them. With the adoption of standardized tests comes a curriculum modeled after test questions, which is usually paired with teacher materials made by the test companies. A 2014 research brief published by the NCTE outlines how accompanying test materials have played a large role in lowering the quality of education, stating how teachers are now held to mandatory curricula that often comes with prepared teaching materials. Because of the rigidity of such a system, teachers are unable to design curriculum and use teaching methods that will be most effective for the individual needs of the students in their classroom (Burke et. al.). Additionally, these prepared materials tend to focus more on how to effectively answer lower-level multiple choice recall questions than on higher-level writing, invention, or creative thinking skills. This description of what standardized tests have done to teaching is a bleak one. Even as teachers are being trained to base their curriculum and lessons on student needs and abilities, guided test preparation materials are disallowing them from doing so. Despite value being placed in higher-level thinking activities and creativity in the classroom, these test partner materials are stripping that from public education as well, taking from teachers the freedom to run a student-centered classroom and instead imposing upon them older and less effective teaching styles, such as long lectures and “skill-and-drill” worksheets. These tests could be even more detrimental to the shape of education in that they are teaching students poor learning habits. In Alfie Kohn’s critical book, The Case Against Standardized Testing, he reveals how different studies have marked a correlation between students with high scores on standardized tests and shallow thinking. The main study that Kohn referenced categorized students into “actively” engaged and “superficially” engaged in learning. The superficially engaged students did not go back to check over answers, merely copied down answers, and tended towards guessing rather than thinking through a question. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly if you already harbor a distaste for testing), these superficially engaged students had high scores on the standardized tests that they took (Kohn). Looking at this example makes a frightening point that an over-reliance on high-stakes testing is rewarding students for being superficial learners and shallow thinkers, which will slowly push out the students that are engaged and employ critical thinking. It might be time to ask ourselves how this shift towards shallow intellect will shape society in coming years. At the same time, as I said in the beginning of this article, I think it is indolent to believe that doing away with some level of standardized achievement tests will be the final answer to education reform. Schools do need to be held accountable to some degree to their students and for the education they are providing for them. So what then are education reformers to do? If schools need be held to some level of quality, but standardized tests as they exist currently are in fact lowering the quality of public education, how do we measure success without sacrificing higher-level instruction and learning? Before finding a more logical solution to the problems that standardized testing has created, it is necessary to better understand how these tests operate, and the ways in which their formatting is contributing to the decline of quality education. There Must Be a Better Way Research suggests that most standardized tests used in public schools are questioning students at very basic levels, which means that the preparation guides and materials will reflect these basic levels, and classroom instruction in turn loses a good amount of its value and emphasis on higher-level thinking. Focusing on a study done by Rand researchers Kun Yuan and Vi-Nhuan Le, I would like to examine these tests a bit more closely, especially in relation to other forms of standardized tests that are doing a better job at assessing higher-level thinking. Yuan and Le used Norman Webb’s Depth-of-Knowledge (DOK) framework, which categorizes assessment questions into four levels, ranging from recall to critical thinking. For the purposes of the study, questions that were rated at or above DOK level 3 were considered cognitively demanding. Yuan and Le measured 6 different benchmark tests, including Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), in comparison to several state-level achievement tests. It is important to note here that AP and IB tests are designed for specific AP and IB classes, which are usually taken by advanced high school students. The other four benchmark tests are designed more generally to assess student knowledge in a wider range of areas. Compared to the state achievement tests that were examined, the six benchmark tests (AP, IB, NAEP, PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS), were more successful in testing students at a higher level of thinking. Where the state achievement tests contained questions at or above DOK level 3 for only 2% of mathematics questions and 20% of English language arts (ELA) questions, the six benchmark tests surpassed this by having 15% of mathematics questions and 40% of ELA questions at or above DOK level 3 (Yuan and Le, 2012). With state tests that have 2% of mathematics questions asking students to think strategically and use extended thinking, and only 20% for ELA, it is clear that these tests are not asking much of our students, nor preparing them for life outside of the classroom. The majority of test questions require only minimal demonstration of a skill or simple recall. It is alarming to think that state tests meant to assess student learning design most of their questions around low-level thinking, especially when there is research that says better testing methods exist. While these state tests may show how well students are able to memorize information and spit it back out, it doesn’t do much to encourage that our students be able to think, or even apply the facts they have memorized to other situations. In William McComas’s and Linda Abraham’s article “Asking More Effective Questions”, they hone in on questions that teachers themselves are asking of students in their classroom. Questioning is an important tool for teachers to guide students to think about what they know and formulate it into an answer, as well as to foster verbal and written skills, and to simply to assess how much of a concept the class is grasping. However, what McComas and Abraham found about the nature of teacher questioning is that it is beginning to follow the same low-level thinking pattern as the state achievement tests. Citing previous research from William Wilen, they highlight how only 5% of questions that teachers are asking their students are challenging students to do more than just remember facts and recite them, but to apply knowledge and think critically. As these state tests take on more and more importance, and can mean the difference between a pay raise or a pay cut, it is not really surprising that teachers are reforming their classes to model test questions that students will see at the end of the year. The students may very well pass these tests, but are they truly receiving a valuable education? I would like to take a look at two of the benchmark tests in Yuan and Le’s study that were most successful at requiring students to operate at higher levels of thinking: the AP and IB tests, which were both deemed cognitively demanding per the DOK rating system in both mathematics and ELA. These results are important because if teachers are modeling their classroom instruction after test formats, then it would follow that students who are on the track to take an AP or IB test at the end of the class are receiving a higher quality education. They are doing more than answering close-ended questions and completing fill-in-the-blank exercises. They are actively learning, applying knowledge, justifying and thinking through their answers, and creating new thoughts and ideas. In an article written by Applebee and Langer, they include brief interviews with teachers who have experience teaching AP or IB classes, showing the extent to which the format of the AP and IB tests influences the culture of their classes. A sixth grade language arts teacher in an IB school commented, “Because we’re an IB school, there is a big emphasis on students being able to reflect their learning…So there is a big emphasis on writing that reflection. So they’re getting writing in all their classes”. Similarly, a high school math chair reports how the AP exams have shifted instruction in math classes: “I guess 15 years ago, I would never have asked my kids to justify anything; it was just an answer, and I graded it. And now, I am trying to get them to be able to validate what their answer is and be able to put it into words so that they can support it…I think one of the main influences in that has been the AP test, probably” (Applebee and Langer). Both of these instances reflect a shift towards better teaching and a push for students to exhibit higher levels of thinking, all due to a certain format of test that is used to culminate the class. Seeing how both low-quality and high-quality tests influence teaching to such a large degree, it is explicitly obvious that high-quality tests should be the replacement for the many state achievement tests that are corrupting public education. Better Questions Can Lead to Better Teaching When looking at the value that AP and IB tests have put on higher levels of student thinking, and how they have given a quality boost to their respective classes, it begs the question why state tests and other benchmark tests are not doing the same thing. Obviously one must take into account that AP and IB classes are higher-level in terms of content, and are majorly constructed with the aim to prepare students for post-secondary learning. However, there is a difference between asking questions of difficult content level, and asking questions of difficult thinking level. If we are happy to content ourselves with having students memorize information and nothing beyond that, then maybe the existing nature of state tests and consequential teaching is acceptable. But as public education continues to be slammed for not meeting standards and slipping in quality, it is evident that this kind of testing and teaching is not sufficient. I propose a re-working of state tests that is modeled after AP and IB exams, not so much in content but in question form. If state tests for all students required higher levels of thinking, while keeping with grade-level content matter, not only would students be tested more accurately on their abilities, but the education they would receive in preparation for the tests would be monumentally more useful and enriching. The answer to the high-stakes testing question seems clear after looking into the design of state achievement tests and their higher-quality counterparts. If the public school system is being asked to reach higher standards, than the achievements tests that assess its students need to actually measure higher standards. The low-level of thinking that current achievement tests assess has trickled down into instruction, creating a trickle-down by which students are not given a valuable education that can be transferred to real-world applications. The first step to rectifying the quality of public education is not to abolish high-stakes tests, but to drastically reform their question construction. As the research done by Yuan and Le show, this kind of testing can be achieved. It is already being used in AP and IB tests. What Are We Waiting For?? Although my suggestion is fairly simple: give students better tests; the road to this goal is not quite as simple. Better tests cost more money, and more money is not something that is readily available for America’s public schools. But if we can understand the massive effects that bad tests are having on students, it seems more than sensible to spend a little bit more. Testing students with low-quality tests leads to low-quality instructional materials (which cost money), which leads to low-quality teaching, which leads to low-quality and ill-prepared students (which eventually will cost money to society). It is clear that the need and desire for better education exists, but improvement cannot happen until we are ready to identify bad tests as a huge culprit for the declining status of education, and solve this problem by increasing funding for testing to ensure a future society that has not been taught to memorize answers and think shallowly. Works Cited Burke, Ann, Gail Gibson, James Hammond, Anna Knutson, Ryan McCarty, Chris Parsons, Molly Parsons, Elizabeth Tacke, and Bonnie Tucker. "How Standardized Tests Shape— and Limit—Student Learning." How Standardized Tests Shape— and Limit—Student Learning (2014): n. pag. NCTE. Web. Kohn, Alfie. The Case against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools By Alfie Kohn (2000) (n.d.): n. pag. Teacher Renewal. 2000. Web. Kohn, Alfie. The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000. Print. McComas, William, and Linda Abraham. "Asking More Effective Questions." (n.d.): n. pag. University of Southern California Center for Excellence in Teaching. Web. McNeil, Linda M. Contradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized Testing. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print. Junot Diaz on Language "Incomprehension"Here is a link to the video clip of celebrated contemporary fiction writer, Junot Diaz, talking about language incomprehension and the nature of his multi-lingual novel, The Brief, Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. The clip I showed, where Diaz talks about how much we accept that we don't fully understand most things as we walk around in the world, and how much we hate when we face that "incomprehension" in our books, starts at around 7:30. I recommend maybe starting around 6:50 this time around, though, to hear what the interviewer asks to prompt Diaz's comments (the link should start you there)....
In the comments: respond! What do you think of Diaz's idea that we often don't know perfectly what everything means all the time? How does a second language speaker experience this differently? How might his ideas be useful to students in a class? How are they useful to you asa teacher who deals everyday with trying to understand what students are saying in their writing and speaking? This is the written interview I showed on the slide: Tortured artist: Junot Díaz talks language, writing--April 4, 2013 I mentioned as well his personal about his struggles with writing, something you could have students read and discuss along with some of his fiction: "Becoming a Writer" (2009). It's really good! *note: there are TWO pages On the Teaching of Poetry as Key to Writing InstructionMany of you have been interested in the teaching of creative writing genres.
Here, poet Dorethea Lasky argues for poetry as the foundation for writing instruction. Read her full comments here: "What Poetry Teaches us about the Power of Persuasion" She says, "If we care about how well our students write, we should not condescend and limit their exploration of language, either. We should make sure students have the space in schools to learn that they can write, and develop a lifelong passion for words. Poetry is the way to do this." What do you think about this approach? How do you think a poetry-centric approach would be received by other teachers, administrators, parents? Steven Fry on Language AttitudesSteven Fry is an author, comedian, actor etc. This is a "kinetic typography" video of some of his comments on language.
Watch this video and respond: What do you find interesting about his comments? What do you see as important in them? How and why, do you think, that the language attitudes he's against persist? How can teachers of writing guide and adjust negative language attitudes? Ripp's Blog Post on the Question of the Whole Class NovelRead Pernille Ripp's short blog post, "Can we Discuss the Whole Class Novel for a Moment?"
In it, Ripp asks why we hang on to this highly standard practice, if it may be mostly killing students love for and drive to read. Ripp approaches this topic from curiosity, rather than a "rant." This creates space for teachers to get into the discussion in the comments--check those out too! In the comments, what do you think about teaching the "whole class novel" (WCN)? How should we decide what students read? If we teach the WCN, how do we decide which novels everyone reads? What could be lost and gained if we stop teaching WCNs? Morrell on Reading the Word AND the WorldRead former NCTE president, Ernest Morrell's short article, "English Teaching as Teaching Students to Read the Word and the World" (2014). In it, he establishes how teaching reading goes far, far beyond teaching students the mechanics of reading.
What does he mean by teaching students to read the world? How can we do this in our classrooms? More on AUTHENTIC WRITING INSTRUCTIONIn his post, "School Writing vs. Authentic Writing" on Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers who Care (a really great blog to bookmark!), Ken Lindblom describes authentic approaches to writing instruction as an alternative to "schooled," rote, scripted writing that most students are usually asked to perform.
Have a read through this short resource. Consider any of these questions or respond to something else!:
Fake News, Information Literacy, and Rhetorical ReadingMary Lamb notices a problem in ELA classrooms: often reading mostly literature, students can begin to assume that all texts are "stories." Not having enough exposure to a range of genres and practice at differentiating between them, students can miss the critical component of "constructedness" of nonfiction texts--the HOW of a text, the choices the writer has made to deliver their purpose and persuade their audiences. Lamb writes, "Growing up in this digital age, students have a tenuous grasp on the differences between fiction and nonfiction, which can result in a lack of critical thinking about important political and cultural issues" (43)
Lamb anticipates a very recent concern among ELA teachers--the problem of fake news. This issue, not a new one but certainly one which has gotten much attention recently, makes understanding who is writing, where their writing appears, context, language choices, purpose, evidence, credibility/ethos etc. evermore critically important. This article in NPR, "The Classroom where Fake News Fails," relays how one high school is working on information and news literacy skills. Have a read over it and comment: why is are these skills important? How do we best build them in our students? What resources or alliances do we need? Or, you might look for another resource that shares how educators are incorporating news literacy skills in their classrooms. Share the source in the comments and tell us what you see as the merits/usefulness of the approach. SC State Legislature, Testing, Teaching in SC Today Dec 24, 2014: SC Students Face New Timed Tests for Eng and Math
March 25, 2015: SC Panel Upholds Ruling to end ACT Contract After One Year April 12, 2015: SC Students Count Down to New Timed Tests Dec 18, 2015: ACT Testing Contract to be Ended after One Year, official rules March 23, 2016: South Carolina Still Lagging in Literacy Recent Update on SC Teacher Shortage, Jan 20, 2017: Report: SC Teacher Shortage is Getting Worse Browse through the top 4 articles regarding recent testing and standards changes and their challenges in the legislature (that don't seem to have to do, primarily, with educational concerns). And/or browse through the bottom 2 articles regarding the literacy rates in the state and the state's worsening teacher shortage. In the comments, consider what learning about some of these state-specific challenges and dynamics mean to you as you approach literacy education? Or what changes might help retain teachers? Resources from the Short History of Writing InstructionNewsweek's 1975 article, "Why Johnny Can't Write"
"Your Kindergartner's Writing Under Common Core" from Greatschools.org ILA, NCTE, etc. "Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches" In the comments, please feel free to read one or more of the resources linked here and write a response to get the conversation going! Spectacular Things Happen Along the WayFor your reference: the book Alyson mentioned, Spectacular Things Happened Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom (2008), Bryan D. Schultz. Something you might want to check out! Review are very positive. Thank for sharing Alyson!
From the description: "What happens when a teacher resists the pressures of ''teaching to the test'' and creates a curriculum based on student needs, wants, and desires? Brian Schultz did just that when he challenged his students from a housing project in Chicago to name a problem in their community that they wanted to solve. When the students unanimously focus on replacing their dilapidated school building, an unforgettable journey is put into motion. As his students examine the conditions of their blighted school and research the deeper causes of decay, they set off on a mission of remedy and repair. It is finally their own questions and activities that power their profound self-transformations. This moving story is a tribute to what determined teachers are able to achieve in the current stifling environment of high-stakes testing and standardization. Anyone who has faith in creativity, commitment, and the deep potential of inner-city children and youth will want to read this book." What do standardized writing assessments tell us?Assessing writing through standardized tests affirms our beliefs that complex writing skills are an important.
But what do those scores tell us? What are some of the issues with these standardized assessments? How could they be better? Have a browse through this New York Times Debate on the question: Can Writing on a College Entrance Exam Be Properly Assessed? Respond in the comments with your thoughts--what resonates or surprises you in these perspectives? What do you think of standardized writing assessments? What is critical to making them maximally effective? "Stop Humiliating Teachers"This 2016 commentary in the New Yorker addresses the pervasive tendency to blame school teachers for all social ills. The author, David Denby, references a book I mentioned in class, The Teacher Wars.
Denby works through several specific entities blamed for perpetuating bad teachers and teaching, and dismisses them. He argues that the real problem is much more difficult to tackle, so teachers become a kind of scape goat: "[Teachers] are being assaulted because they can be assaulted. The real problem is persistent poverty." Have a read through his short commentary here. What do you think about this perspective? How can we change it as educators and citizens? What are some quotations from the piece that resonate with you? Nanci Atwell on Literacy and Teaching TodayNancie Atwell is a well-known middle school teacher researcher. We'll be reading some of her work on assessing student writing through portfolios later this semester. Atwell recently won an international teaching prize for her approach to literacy learning, described in her book In the Middle. Have a read over this brief article covering her award-winning approach. Atwell also shares some concerns about the current climate of teaching in this short video about her award. What do you think about her approach? About her comments about teaching today? welcome to the ENGL 461 blog!Blogs and listservs are an important vehicle for teachers’ professional development and learning. Teachers share and learn about teaching approaches by writing and reading blogs. The purpose of our blog will be primarily to:
You are asked to get in the conversation at least 5 times over the course of the semester. To do so, click the "Comments" link on the side of the post you wish to respond to, fill in your name, email, and comment then click "Submit." (You may want to save the content of your comments as you go. You should double check to make sure your content posted). You are encouraged to get involved much more. Feel free to comment more often! And I’ll post questions and resources to prompt discussion; but I also invite you also (but it’s not required) to share things with me that you’ve seen/read so I can share them with everyone. To do this, just email me ([email protected]) with the resource and a quick blurb about your interest in it. So, browse, read, watch, reflect and respond! My expectation is that you'll come on to the blog occasionally to contribute your thoughts. Don't wait until the end of the term and don't do all your commenting in one day! At the end of the term, in a brief reflection, you’ll document your participation (copy and paste your comments) and reflect on how you’ve learned or discovered by browsing/reading/responding/ talking with each other on the blog. Not proficient participation on the blog (not having at least 5 posts, leaving your posts until the very last minute, responding only in briefly or hurriedly way, not completing the reflection as advised, etc.) will result in a half-letter deduction. Looking forward to the conversation! --Dr. Rule |
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Dr.Hannah Rule | [email protected] | Humanities Office Building 203 | University of South Carolina |