Co-Creating Solutions. A CTL-sponsored blog to foster and encourage professional conversation about teaching and learning.

In my blog post of May 28^th I shared an interview I had with a colleague who was just completing four years of work as a school-based literacy coach in a combined middle and high school.  In this conversation we discussed her experiences as a coach and discussed the mentoring process that was part of the support system designed to provide job embedded training and support. The two questions guiding our conversation were:  What is the value of having a mentor coach?  How do mentor coaches and literacy coaches develop mutually supportive relationships that allow them to learn and grow together?

In this month’s post I’m sharing the rest of that conversation.

Q. So, what do you think you’ll take with you from the mentoring experience?

A. I think the most important thing a mentor does is listen and be a sounding board; the bible talks about how the stones are refined by the fire and you guys kind of refined us. Through your different ways of doing things you shaved off the rough edges, and helped us shine. I think I’m much different now than I was four years ago.

Q. In what ways?

I’m an absolute advocate for using literacy strategies with anything you teach.  I don’t think there’s any content area that the use of literacy strategies won’t make better; that won’t make learning more accessible to kids.

I kind of believed that before, but now I have a lot more tools at my disposal.  I can look at my content and figure out which strategies will help me best teach the content.

Teaching with literacy strategies is completely ingrained in my head. I wish I could go back ten years, when I was in resource class, because I think my kids would soar now.

So, you’ve really internalized literacy strategies and the impact they have on teaching & learning.

Q. What do you think the difference is between being a mentor coach and a literacy coach?

I think the mentor coach has to have the big picture in mind.  As a literacy coach I had a big picture in mind but it was only part of the picture. You had the big picture and I just had a piece. Because of this, you networked the coaches, and tried to make our vision bigger than just our school.

It’s really easy when you’re a literacy coach to get myopic and have tunnel vision, “this is all I have to think about” when it’s not true. Because of the mentor coaching we got, the coaches in my district ended up working closely together and providing support to one another. And because everybody brought a different perspective it was like looking through a kaleidoscope.

For example, at the beginning of the school year we did one training for all the new teachers in the district instead of doing separate trainings in our buildings.  We all collaborated in the planning and delivery of the training.  I don’t think that would have happened if there hadn’t been somebody out there continuously saying, “There’s a bigger picture than your school”.  And my job as literacy coach is to say, “There’s a bigger picture than your classroom.”  When the teachers can understand they’re a piece of the whole, they begin to work together and collaborate and that helps the kids make connections.

Photo: New Horizons, by drp

I’ve recently been doing a major spring/summer cleaning at my house. I’m an admitted neatnik as it is, but I’m also both a practical and a sentimental saver. As a professional writer, I know that hard-sought contact information and resources can be valuable and, at least in the past, difficult to reproduce. As a hopeless romantic, I treasure mementos of the past–particularly things that provide insight into the lives of loved ones and times gone by. Nevertheless, there’s room for only so much “stuff” in file cabinets and storage containers and on bookshelves. So I’ve been sorting, tossing, recycling and re-organizing. My treasure hunt has unearthed items long ago stowed away that continue to delight–a packet of letters my mother received from a friend stationed in Europe during World War II, my father’s large framed certificate for winning a national oratorical contest in 1927, my own journals from the first cross-country camping trip my husband and I took together 33 years ago, and so on. (Yes, these are among the keepers!)

I also worked from home as a freelance writer and media consultant for more than 25 years, and in delving into the files, I was struck by the extent to which I had carefully culled and held on to notes and print references that contributed to drafts of published articles and produced educational television scripts. Some are irreplaceable and even now prove handy to have: I got an email a few months ago from a former 3-2-1 Contact colleague who is about to publish a book, asking if by chance I had a research report we had put together that summarized children’s questions about science. I did, and continue to hold on to that binder which contains the results of all the work we did to prepare producers to create the nationally broadcast children’s science series more than 30 years ago.

I’ve also held on to at least one copy of every article I’ve ever published. There is something to be said for holding that finished piece of printed work in your hands. On the other hand, I’ve now recycled a minivan’s-worth of old notes, outdated references, and duplicate copies of published work that I will never need again, because the relevant information now and forever more lives online. And to my clutter-averse delight as I work on the development of articles, proposals and other materials these days for CTL, I find that I need to keep less and less paper around in the first place for that reason. Not only is it a good idea to make sure I’m working from the most current information by going online, it’s significantly easier to search online documents and web pages for whatever information I’m looking for. (When my former colleague called about that old research report, I wished there was a way to Google my huge old research binder!)

Now, there are still times when it’s helpful, even important, to hold a lengthy article, report or proposal in hand, turning actual pages, using an actual highlighter or pen to make notes in actual margins. And as a reader and writer, I will always relish the sensory experience of holding a book in my hands, touching and even smelling the faint, familiar sent of ink on paper. (Heck, I miss the sound of the gentle click of a library card catalog drawer as it slides smoothly back into place after a needed reference is discovered, its Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress catalog number duly noted in pencil on a tiny square of paper.)

But I’d like to believe that students coming of age today–while perhaps missing out on some of those literary sense memories that we Boomers still hold dear–will benefit from the far broader, always up-to-date and readily searchable access to resources that we lacked. They know to hit “save” when they write online, to back up their mobile devices, and to share nearly everything with nearly everyone via social media.  While it’s wonderful to come across the dusty old stack of letters or the journal in a younger hand, they won’t have to spend as much time as I am currently cleaning, sorting and recycling. 

But for all of the advantages of the new world of virtual media, which if not fully paperless at least requires less paper, is the experience of reading and writing changing in ways that concern you?  Are you entirely comfortable with a world in which words endure virtually and in our minds, but much less frequently on paper?  To invoke the late communications scholar Marshall McLuhan, how does this major change in the medium change the message?  Let me know what you think–electronically, of course!

In my post Why Support the Arts? I noted six points summarized from an article “Willingham: Six Practical Reasons Why Arts Education is Not a Mere Luxury” (Washington Post, November 23, 2009) by cognitive scientist Dan Willingham. Development psychologist Jerry Kagan presented these points during a 2009 conference called “Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts and the Brain.” This post addresses the second point: The arts offer that sense of agency, of creation.

Like many parents today, we allowed ourselves to be haunted by the ghost of ‘what if.’”

Kagan observed that today’s children have “very little sense of ‘agency’— the sense that they undertake activities that, however small, have an impact on the world.” As a child he had the autonomy to explore his hometown on his own. But this is something that many parents today do not allow. “When not exploring, my activities were necessarily of my own design, whereas children today typically watch television or roam the internet, activities that are frequently passive and which encourage conformity.” The arts, Kagan argues, offer that sense of agency and open avenues for creation.

I find Kagen’s points here to be thought-provoking. As the father of two children, I have tried hard to avoid the cliché incantations of how hard my life was as a youth—when actually, compared to the life of my depression-era grandfather, my youth was a cake-walk. I never trudged miles to school barefooted and in the snow, nor did I have to work long hard hours on a farm for pennies day. My parents were able to provide a stable setting for me and my siblings where we could readily explore our worlds with relative freedom and autonomy.

My wife and I were never comfortable with allowing total freedom of exploration for our two children. Like many parents today, we allowed ourselves to be haunted by the ghost of “what if” and the potential horrors that would inevitably befall a child left alone to explore much beyond a one-block radius from our house–or beyond eye- and ear-shot. But exploration can be accomplished in multiple ways. I am fortunate enough to be married to one of the most creative people I know, and she instilled a life-long sense of wonder and awe in our children through a multitude of art projects, construction of imagined worlds, environments and scale models, long hikes, bike rides, snow fort building, scrapbooking, etc. Our children are completely at home in a museum and a public library and have suffered through their share of historic homes and dusty Civil War forts.

So, none the worse for wear are we. And the arts, and I hope a sense of agency, are alive and well!

Last month I touched on the topic of males as readers in my blog post Snakes, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails. The research I interesting to me and motivated me to read more. I skimmed and scanned Boys and Girls Learn Differently! by Michael Gurian. This brain-based research informs teachers how to improve student performance by first understanding how the brain works.

Here are some points made in this teacher and parent guidebook:

1. Boys see better in bright light verses girls who see better in dim light. Also correlates to why boys are less sensitive to the sun than girls. Consider how this is important in classroom design and classroom instruction.

2. Boys do not hear as well as girls. Interesting Fact: girls are 6 Xs more likely to sing in tune over boys. Consider this when positioning boys in relation to teacher position, speakers, etc.

3. Testosterone hormone has direct impact on boy behavior because it is an aggression-inducing chemical. 69% of middle schools males interviewed said fighting is the best conflict resolution. This is why physical education is so important for males. It teaches them to self-manage testosterone. Maybe even makes an argument for mandatory sports? This aggression also has them wanting to show off for girls. This is why separating boys from girls is important. The separation could be in groups, classrooms or even in lunchroom. The book talks about how many lunchroom discipline problems arise and how removing the girls from the boys will minimize these problems. Hmmm…boys go through puberty within the window of 9-15 and the changes can take up to four years. Wow!!!

4. Boys have a far greater academic success rate after puberty. Another wow for me! Eighth-grade boys are 50% more likely to be held back at 8th grade than an eighth-grade girl. IQ scores for boys rise dramatically from ages 14-16. (Side Note: Performance on writing exam drops by 14% for females during menstrual cycle; interesting.)

5. Boys are spatial and therefore tend to take up more space in a class. Boys like to stretch out arms, legs, have space between each other. Important to honor this because movement helps to stimulate brain and relieve impulsive behavior. The spacing allows a boy to self-manage his need to kick, flick, or pick on someone close by. The book also suggests routine 60 second movement breaks for males.

6. Boys are more developed in the brain’s right hemisphere. Therefore, they tend to do better with symbolic texts, diagrams, and graphs. Consider a literature class. Girls tend to ponder the emotional workings of a character where as a boy tends to focus on author’s symbolism and imagery patterns.

7. Boys benefit from character education that’s absorbed into all classes. Boys need practice with peer-dilemmas scenarios to learn how to appropriately respond to situations. Important middle school teachers take time to mentor these students. Their first reaction is to fight so we have to equip them with more appropriate reactions.

8. Boys may try to become an Alpha and dominate and destroy. Why do they do this? Interesting analogy. A group of young elephants had been brought up in Africa without parents. When their testosterone came in, they began killing rhinos (not usual behavior) and trying to mate inappopriately. Park warden ordered them be put to sleep until a ranger suggested these adolescent elephants needed elder elephants to act as role models. Without guidance from elders, the elephants were following their hormonal pressures without guidance, much like our young boys. After a week of bringing in the elder elephants, the inappropriate behaviors stopped. How does this transfer to our students? Provide mentors. The Alpha research also supports a need for dress code because boys will dress toward dominance strategies (gang, hip-hop).

9. As boys are learning to manage their hormones, schools can help by managing their diets. Switch out processed foods for natural foods like vegetables, nuts, instant oatmeals, granola bars, air-popped popcorn, hard-boiled eggs, low-fat yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, fresh/fronzen/dried fruit, reduced-fat cheese, whole grain crackers, peanut butter, healthy cereals.

What I most appreciate about the book is that the author does not stop with the biological research but closes with practical solutions and applications. The book would make for an interesting book study for parents, teachers, and administrators looking for brain-based instructional approaches.

The new framework for national standards has arrived, and it is a powerful document. The committee garnered a lot of feedback from the mathematics education community and created a set of standards that did exactly what it set out to do; lessen the number of standards taught at each grade level, make the standards more rigorous, and provide structures and processes for the learning of mathematics.
I am impressed and in my first reading (yes, it will take several to figure out all of the nuances) my initial reactions are:

• Grade 8 looks a lot like traditional algebra I used to look like; this is loaded with important implications. (I will save this for another post)
• There is considerable expectation that students are fluent in number sense as well as number computation; I hope that educators everywhere are prepared to help students become fluent in number sense and not just focus on times tables.
• High School algebra looks much more conceptual in nature, with connections and being able to create expressions and equations as essential skills.
• Grades 4 & 5 are the cornerstones of rational number development for later years.

I have a lot more observations that I will be discussing as I reread and process the new standards, but for now these are my initial, WOWs. The last one keeps coming back to me as being critically important. It’s not that the expectations for 4th or 5th grades are any more difficult than any other grade, but the expectatios are more rigorous. There are, also, mediating factors involved with these grades;

• many students moving into content specific courses for the first time,
• teachers who are elementary specialists and not necessarily mathematics specialists are being asked to teach content that may be beyond their training.

New Content, New Expectations

How do we plan to quickly support these teachers to implement these standards successfully? I’m sure there will be a lot of pieces written across the country to help address this and I look forward to reading, and experiencing as much of the ideas as I can. My own initial thoughts are to:

• Create communities for teachers to plan for achieving new standards in their district/state
• Develop coaching plans that allow teachers to experience the activities that will be crucial to deepening student understanding,
• Support teachers as they try to implement these new approaches,
• Work with other teachers to observe/experience the kind of teaching for depth that has not previously been the focus of many mathematics classes.
• Work with teachers to fully understand the content beyond basic application and the ways of representing rational numbers:
  • forms: fraction, decimal, percent, written
  • models: set, length, part/whole
  • expressions/equations

• Develop a key set of processes that teachers can utilize across grade levels to model and communicate their understandings.
  • Multiple representations and understanding of modeling
  • Developing deeper and intentional mathematical literacy opportunities

The new standards address: equivalent fractions, fraction computation, decimal place value development, proportional reasoning in several forms including unit conversion, and the introduction of systematic pattern recognition and quantification. These are all skills that have traditionally been the domain of grades 4 through 7 and even 8 in some cases that are now focused on grades 4 & 5. Yes, they have fewer standards to develop with students, but does this population of teachers have the requisite skills necessary to develop conceptual understanding so that students can flexibly apply these concepts to linear functions, to analysis of data, to applications of systems of equations? It is a question that we will find out the answer to in a few short years.

I look forward to these conversations with teachers and I know I’m going to start my conversation with the 4th and 5th grade teachers I work with because I think they are going to be expected to up the ante with these new standards!

Photo: Yes, Maths by akirsa

When I was little, school seemed to drag on long past May. Maybe I’m not remembering it correctly but I recall wistfully staring out the window on warm days like these and getting lost in the possibility of what was just beyond the classroom walls and windows. As a student, I regularly asked if we could go outside to play or learn. Generally the answer was no. But I can recall very specific instances where my teacher caved and let us take the learning outdoors. Those were the best days; the days that stuck with me.

I had a college professor that regularly scheduled class to meet in odd locations across campus. I’m not sure if he was just bored with the concrete block walls and fluorescent bulbs or if he truly meant to inspire. Either way, I am certain those classes we spent outdoors caused us to mingle differently, think more deeply, and engage in ways we would not have done in a traditional classroom.

It wasn’t until graduate school that I figured out that my inclination to be under a tree to learn had less to do with my wanting to get out of class and more to do with what Howard Gardner labels “naturalist intelligence.” (Side note: I recognize there is substantial controversy surrounding MI theory, and I’m not equipped to debate the research other than with my own anecdotal and very individual experiences. I’m a believer because school simply did not “fit” me, and the research and thinking behind the theory explains a lot about who I am as a learner and how I learn best. But that’s a different entry entirely.) Students with naturalist tendencies are ones who crave fresh air and have deep sensitivity to the natural world. We like the feel of earth beneath us and are centered by being outside. In my pursuit to celebrate naturalist learners everywhere, I challenge you to think outside the walls and halls of your schools for ways to enrich learning of students and teachers (closing day staff meetings!). If  for no other reason, the oxygen surge will bring a sense of calm to the frenetic end of the year. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

-Consider sidewalk chalk and wide open pavement as a replacement for poster paper and markers. (Gallery Walks, Café Conversations, Brainstorming, Mind mapping, Sketch to Stretch, etc.)

-Circle up under a tree for Socratic Seminar, Literature Circles, Ordered Sharing or Book Talks.

-Try a Walk-n-Talk where students are given a problem to solve, an index card and a pencil, and a designated amount of time to walk it out with a partner and come back with a solution.

- Take the reenactment to the school yard! Simulations and role play can be a tremendous help for students grappling with conceptual ideas and global concepts. (You’ll also not disturb neighboring classes if things get noisy.)

- Traditional mix and mingle strategies like Block Party, Circle the Sage, or Give One/ Get One can be freshened up by moving to a veranda or open space for sharing

- Allow pairs of students to find an outdoor nest for Parallel Reading, peer editing/ review, or Paired Verbal Fluency.

- Let the natural world be the backdrop for silent reading or inspiration for reflective journaling

In my last post Why Support the Arts? I noted six points summarized from an article “Willingham: Six Practical Reasons Why Arts Education is Not a Mere Luxury” (Washington Post, November 23, 2009) by cognitive scientist Dan Willingham. Developmental psychologist Jerry Kagan presented these points during a 2009 conference called “Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts and the Brain.” This post is in regards to the first point: The arts offer students another chance to feel successful, and to feel that they belong at school.

As I have discussed before in this blog, the arts bring to the formal educational setting, a sense of place and possibilities for struggling students as well as those more able to achieve in the traditional school setting. The arts provide all students with new avenues for learning, multiple ways to be successful and a healthy sense of actually belonging at school.

The arts… offers such students another chance to feel successful, and to feel that they belong at school.

In his address Kagen estimated that around 95% of students are capable of doing the work needed to obtain a high school diploma. But the dropout rate stays at about 25%. He says that many of these students quit public education because they decide, usually at a very young age, that school is not the right place for them. He continues that “This decision is based largely on their perception of their performance in reading and mathematics.” The arts, Kagan argues, offers such students another chance to feel successful, and to feel that they belong at school.

In my experience in working with schools to implement comprehensive arts education programs, and as a former K-6 art specialist, I am aware of a boat-load of anecdotal evidence to support this reality. Time and time again, I have witnessed a turn-around attitude among “problem” students who come to see themselves differently through the arts. What’s more, their teachers come to see the student differently as well.

Children gather to learn in an alternative setting

In my work at CTL and in my personal life, I have opportunities to travel and work across the globe and into local settings in the developing world, where the daily struggle to live in harmony and productively with a difficult environment is evident at the turn of your head. Through this work, I have come to be more informed about and concerned about the state of human development and the reasons we should all be concerned about it.

In 2000, the United Nations created a set of global development goals called the Millennium Development Goals. These include ending hunger, promoting gender equity, ensuring child health, combating HIV, sustaining the environment, and providing universal education.

Given the increasingly dependent and interconnected nature of regions and countries across the globe, it is no longer possible to maintain the belief here in the US that these goals for the developing world have little to do with us and our daily lives. Additionally, while each alone is a daunting yet admirable goal, the complexity of relationships between each cannot be overstated.

As I read through reports, projects, and projections from UNESCO and various international NGOs (non-governmental organizations), several things become clear. First, in 2010 progress has been made on all fronts, but it is next to impossible that these goals will be met on the 2015 timeline. Second, one underlying issue pervades all other challenges and barriers within and across goals, the key issue within the goal of Universal Education – basic literacy.

We take access to basic education and literacy as a given in this country. Yet, in the developing world access continues to be limited. For example, across the African continent, approximately 40% of children never even enter a school building. This is improving, but reports from UNESCO state that “in order to meet the goal on the African continent, we will have to train 6,000,000 teachers by 2015.” Six million in five years, how do you go about something like this?

The World Bank reports that even limited formal literacy education for girls can impact all other global development goals. Basic literacy education increases future household income by at least 16%, reduces the spread of HIV by more than 50%, and cuts maternal and infant mortality by 25%. All of this can be accomplished by simply teaching people to read, and it costs less per year than US citizens spend on ice cream.

As I write, I realize I have known this information for a long time, and I know that there are educators and policy makers across the globe who have also known this information for a long time. But I still find myself incredulous – that the information, strategies, and capacity is there, yet we fall further and further behind in providing the most basic education to our developing neighbors.

I know we have troubles and challenges on our own shores, and in our own educational system. But I have to believe that we understand, in this increasingly shrinking world, we cannot afford to allow our neighbors around the world to languish without basic life skills and literacy development. I will continue to work, as one person, to make a difference – by promoting and designing literacy programs, working with partners to secure funding and staffing for work in developing areas, and to spread training and schooling across the globe, one teacher and one student at a time.

So, what’s my point? I’m simply asking for each of us to be informed, consider what it means to us, to call on the better angels of our nature, and lend a hand.

For more information on the UN Millennium Development Goals, click this link to End Poverty 2015: http://www.endpoverty2015.org/