September 6 Crumble - How do we use our data?

I usually try to write these blogs as focused on instruction as possible so that they apply to a variety of educators from anywhere, but I've had some requests and questions about benchmarking, assessments, and progress monitoring over the last few months, so I've decided to dedicate this early-in-the-year blog to explaining the process that we use at our middle school to assess for reading and plan the proper programs for our students.  I'll also talk a little about how we are using lexile scores, as lexiles were recently under question by Tween Tribune and Fox News in the last month, for those of you who saw the reports. 

The last few years, our district has chosen to use Scantron Performance Series as our benchmarking and screening tool for reading comprehension at the middle school level.  This test uses a combination of vocabulary, non-fiction, long and short passages to assess a student's reading comprehension and provides a National Percentile Ranking (NPR), Scaled Score (Scantron's own scoring system), a lexile score, and a lexile (research) score.  I do a few things with these scores.

First off, if a student's NPR is below the fiftieth percentile (out of 100 students, his scaled score fell below at least fifty of them), his language arts teacher is then required to run the AIMSWEB Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), which is a three minute test of oral reading where the teacher listens to the student read, out loud, three different passages (on grade level) at one minute each.  From the ORF, we can determine whether a student reads at an acceptable pace or not and whether she is an accurate reader (misreading words).  AIMSWEB gives us specific benchmark scores that show where students should be at different times of the year (depending on their grade level), and these scores are used to guide us in choosing the correct program for the students.  We are just finishing up Performance Series right now, and I've already started going through rosters and highlighting students who need AIMSWEB benchmarking for teachers so I can get those out early next week. 

Here is where things start to get tricky.  Often, a student will read below the fiftieth percentile but his fluency has met the benchmark.  At this point, as long as the student's score is above the twenty-fifth percentile (still talking Performance Series), then no intervention is recommended.  I will sometimes put kiddos on my monitor list (unofficially) if they are below the thirtieth. 

Fluency scores that fall below the twenty-fifth percentile (on the AIMSWEB ORF) are flagged, and we place those students into a Small Learning Community (SLC, which is like a homeroom.  Ours is sixteen fantastic minutes.) where they will participate in the (super easily implemented) program The 6 Minute Solution (Adams and Brown).  We are lucky to have teachers across content areas who are willing to work programs like this.  They're scripted and easy and don't require the implementing teacher to know a lot about reading fluency, as long as I'm around for consultation and direction.

Yet there are still students who need more.  The ORF also tells us how accurately a student reads a passage.  For example, if a seventh grader reads her passages and miscues (gets them wrong) more than five percent (sometimes I will check over three percent) of the words for that benchmarking period, I will pull that student to run a few different screening tests on the student to see if she has some gaps in her phonics skills (putting letters together to make words). 

We use 95% Group's PSI to start.  Our high school reading specialist also developed a syllable-types screener (to determine if the student may just have trouble with identifying/reading a specific type of syllable).  But one thing that I'm starting to learn is that basic sight words are a source of trouble for a small group of our middle schoolers, especially those who are still learning the language.  Because of this, I started using the Scholastic Phonics Inventory (SPI) to gather information on sight word recognition and fluency, and wouldn't you know it?  My theory about sight words tended to be true.  At this point, we haven't developed a specific intervention that targets those students with sight word deficiencies.  This is on my list of things on which to research.  I've also used the SPI to identify students for placement in System44, one of our Tier 3 programs, which takes the place of the student's exploratory class.  I hate to use that time because the exploratory cycle is so important for so many of these kiddos, but time is not on our side, and this is the most logical place to insert a Tier 3 intervention. 

I also look at Performance Series scores to see if students need extra support in reading.  Sometimes I'll catch an incoming student on the opposite side of the spectrum who may need to be referred to our Gifted Coordinator so she can take a look at the student's scores.  This doesn't happen very often, however.  Ironically these students seem to come in with all of their paperwork lined up, every I dotted and every T crossed.  Its our new struggling readers who end up popping up in November, and then we shake our heads trying to figure out how we missed them.  Usually its because they came in after Performance Series or they're on my To-Do list, but we DO eventually pick them up and get them what they need. 

Teachers who take a good look at their data will often look at lexiles and NPRs and email me about kiddos about whom they have immediate concern.  I will then consult my vast spreadsheet of scores over the last two years and let the teacher know if the kid tanked the test or if maybe there is more to the student. 

The big question is - What would cause immediate concern?  Well, that's another tricky question that comes with a variety of tricky answers.  I try to use lexile.com's CCSS Text measures (at the bottom of that link), but most of our kiddos struggle to hit those, so I also take into consideration their past years' growth and what classes they were taking at the time.  For example: if I'm looking at an eighth grader in a regular language arts class with a lexile score of 700, this is undoubtedly low for eight grade.  The teacher may question the student's placement, but what the teacher may not know is that in sixth grade the student was at a 500 all year and had been receiving support in the intervention language arts classroom.  The following year we decided to place the student in a regular language arts classroom around peers who were great models of reading and give this student a vocabulary intervention in SLC.  In seventh grade we saw that lexile score creep up to 700, so we decided on the same program for this student for eighth grade.  This is how the scores can be used to shift students around in the Tiers. 

Language arts teachers who have these growing strugglers have options of using material of different text complexities for instruction.  Our current text book has text selections that are paired and labeled for more accessible vs. more complex text.  Teachers can choose selections and differentiate right in their classrooms if need be.  Plus, all of this data is available to any of our content area teachers, as well, and if there are students who need support, we try to make people available for that (Special Education teachers, paraprofessionals, myself, support staff). 

One last thing I like to do with lexiles before I sign off for the weekend.  Tween Tribune and Fox News went on a lexile rampage about a month ago, talking about teachers who get lexile scores and make kids read only at that level, and it frustrated me.  I think we truly have a good thing going in our use of these scores.  The reason I bring this up in this blog is because I think its important that everybody understand how they're used in relation to the testing process. 

First off, many of our teachers share the most recent lexile scores with students and will often use this score as a springboard for conversations about what students can do to maintain or improve.  But lexiles were not designed originally as a benchmarking measurement.  Just like so many of our educational tools, the lexile score morphed into something it was never intended to do.  Lexiles were designed to match a student with a piece of text.  Period.  Now there's all sorts of research out there that tells us that students should read at their independent level, and now we're seeing stuff come out that we should instruct students at their frustration level. 

I'm talking strictly independent reading now, friends.  Put yourself in the shoes of a thirteen year old.  If you didn't like to read, and you were given a book where thirty percent of the words were a challenge for you and the sentences were lengthy, what would you do?  I know what I would do, and it isn't pick up the book and read for twenty minutes a day!  I'd chuck that baby at the bottom of my locker and put on my bad-girl face as I walked to language arts.  Struggling students need to feel success before they can choose to grapple!  They need to want to wrestle with the text before they do it.  It's like learning to do anything for fun.  If I don't want to do it, why would I do it?

So when we walk into the library of 10,000 books with a class of students who are all struggling to read, the last thing I want them to have to do is decide which one out of the 10,000 they will hate the least.  So we take their lexile score (Not their lexile research score from Performance Series - the lexile score from Performance Series considers the student's grade level and will give us books that are more age appropriate because some of these kids have scores that are so low there is nothing available for them that is age appropriate.  This works in our ET classes also where we have some students whose lexile research scores max out at 1400, but the only thing we have to give them at that level would be a college text book from one of our grad classes!) and we plug it into our computer catalog along with information from an interest inventory that we have given them before we go to the library, and Voila!  A short list of books at an attainable level that might be interesting enough to crack open this week.  And then we look at them, read the back, analyze whether the length will be something they want to tackle, and maybe even check it out with a smile. 

And that, my friends, is my long winded narrative of how we acquire the scores, how we use them, and how they can work for us.  Please ask if you have questions, as I am open to answering.  Also, if you're reading this and disagreeing with something, I'm also open to having that conversation as well.

Happy weekend!

August 30 Crumble - Daily writing ideas for ALL contents

Writing is tricky to weave into some content areas, but it can and should be done as often as possible.  While my previous blog on Reaching Social Students discussed why we should allow students to discuss to process content, another of Project CRISS's Principles and Philosophies is writing for the use of processing content.  Both target different learning styles but are beneficial for all learners.  What writing does that discussion does not is allows an individual to reflect upon himself without the distraction of others' thoughts in the middle of a reflection.  "If we can write about content and explain what we are learning, we can claim knowledge as our own" (Santa, et. al, 2012).

And any teacher can use it.  Our job is to decide how and how often.  Just like with reading, sports, or music - daily practice makes writing a habitual activity.  Throwing it in on a weekly basis is definitely a good start, but what if you required writing daily?  So instead of boring you with theory and pedagogy, I've decided to give you some ideas and choices so you can decide how writing would work best for you:

• Daily writing prompts (could be used as bellringers).  For science, life skills, PE, woodshop, computers, math, and other classes where physical action is required at times, consider having students write out their best idea of how they think they will accomplish a task, how they accomplished a task, or how they think they did on the accomplishment on the task.  Ask students to use a few of the Tier 3 words (content area words) that you've been introducing as a bonus!
• Free writes.  During a lab, lesson, lecture, video, reading assignment, or other academic activity, stop about every six to eight minutes (1 minute per grade level) and ask students to write down anything that comes to mind about what they're doing (a question, prediction, inference, idea, connection, etc.).  They can use their class notebook, a sheet of paper to turn in, sticky notes, or desk white boards (these are always fun).  Change it up each time so they don't get bored with it, but the activity is the same.  Give students a 2-3 minute pause to write.  Decide whether you'll let them share with a partner or just move on.  This acts as a reset button for those who are starting to zone off, and it also allows for some processing time for those who need to catch up or who have questions.  Demonstrate this for your students as you're doing it so they understand that you truly are leaving it up to them!
• Writing templates.  For your struggling writers who can barely get words out of their mouths, let alone produce anything in the form of a complete sentence in writing - use a writing template or paragraph frame for any writing activity!  I used a previous blog to discuss paragraph frames, and wowza!  What a difference it made in the writing of some of our students!  You don't want to give them a template forever, but you do want them to get into the habit of writing in a comprehensible way, so start out with a few templates.  An example of a writing template would be, "I don't understand why . . . because . . . "  or "I can really relate to . . . because . . . "  Giving students four to five templates from which to choose keeps their options open but also takes the stress out of forming understandable thoughts.  These work really nicely as exit slips.  And, again, after a PE activity, math lesson, art lesson, literature lesson - there is no limit here, friends!

• Double entry reflective journals. Although not meant to necessarily be a daily activity, I believe this is one of my favorite of all of the CRISS strategies. To build some background on the topic or unit you're about to introduce, start your students off with a set of questions, quotations, thoughts, problems, etc.  Have them write their thoughts about each one.  Students can write questions, answers, inferences, predictions, reflections, or discuss anxieties about the content.  Then you teach the lesson or unit.  In a third column, have students go back to the same sheet and write their new thoughts about the information they were given before learning took place.  To expand on this even further, have them compare their thoughts before and after learning and write why they think their thoughts changed!  Here is an example of a double entry reflective journal.  If you click on it, it should enlarge well enough for you to see that the student reflected upon who he thought Edgar Allan Poe was after hearing about some of his writing and then who Poe really was after watching a documentary on Poe's life.
• Dialogue journals.  These work similarly to the free-write above but with the added component of having a written discussion with a partner.  As a teacher I can use this as part of the free-write process if I choose.  Once students write their free-write, they can switch papers, read what their partner has written, and then respond.  Some care should be taken to teach students how to respond.  You might consider giving students some options such as: "I agree because . . . " "I understand what you mean when . . . " "I see what you're saying, but in my opinion . . . "
• Observation entries.  These are so much fun and can be used anywhere!  Have students observe anything and write about it.  Period.  What you did to find a research topic, how you play an F on a clarinet, how you work together in groups, how to properly use hand tools . . . anything!  When I went to the IRC Conference back in March, observation was such a key tool in so many of the ideas presented.  Friends, we are the models for our students - have them watch you do what you do best and then have them write about it!
• Perspective entries.  Have students write about what they're learning, but have them write from a perspective other than a student sitting in your class. 

You can't tell me that there isn't one writing idea above that you'd can't use in your classroom this week.  Writing (as you can see) is a bit of a passion for me, and the thought that our students could potentially be doing it eight periods a day makes me giddy!  It would be like a basketball coach watching students practice basketball drills for ten minutes every period while reviewing math concepts before getting down and dirty with a new lesson in algebra!  Can you imagine how much better writers our students would be if we had them writing more often?  Just consider it this week.  Your content areas are so important, and adding a writing component would be like plugging in another tangible way for you to assess how well your students are internalizing what you consider to be important.

Stay cool!

August 23 CRISS Crumble - Choose Your Words Carefully

Welcome back, friends! This week has been one of adjustment for both students and staff as we move into another year of change, but I have already begun to see glimpses of normalcy throughout the day. By the end of next week, this place will be radiating with the routine hum of learning, and things will settle down.

So what is on the plate for our first Crumble, you ask?  Vocabulary is my focus for our students this year. Every year at the end of the year when we take a look at scores, we shake our heads and say, "I wish there was something more we can do for these kids to help build their vocabularies." But then we leave, hoping something will miraculously come to us (perhaps in a vision induced by overexposure to the sun) over the summer, and by the time we are back into the routine of things here at school in the fall, that wish is forgotten, only to be dredged up again in May. Please tell me that I'm not the only nerd who has this wish every year AND who thinks about it periodically over the summer!

A large percentage of our student population lacks basic academic vocabulary – plain and simple. A few years back I had an eighth grade student (formerly bilingual, but transitioned in fourth grade) whose social studies teacher reported that he "just didn't care" and refused to do the work. After meeting with this student a few times and just listening to him speak, it dawned on me how often I had to either repeat what I said to him or reword entire sentences until he understood what I had said or asked. If I had to do this with him one-on-one, imagine how he felt in a class filled with thirty students and a teacher who couldn't monitor his comprehension every second! So I asked the teacher to reflect upon her presentation style. How did she speak to the students? Her response was, "As adults." But my real question is - what kind of adults? Did she speak to them as if they were all adults who had a rich literate background like she did as a child? Or did she speak to them as if she herself had a rich literate background, but with an understanding that her students may need clarification on basic academic conversations due to lack of vocabulary? Her response was simply raised eyebrows and an, "Ohhhhhhh! Aha!"

To break it down for you, there are three tiers of vocabulary (and many definitions of these tiers, depending on who you ask):

• Tier 1 – basic vocabulary and acquired through every day speech
• Tier 2 – high frequency, academic / multiple-meaning words that appear across all types of text
• Tier 3 – low frequency, domain-specific / content-specific words often termed “vocabulary words” in content areas

Most of our kiddos have a good handle on how to speak to each other using Tier 1 vocabulary (some a little too much!). And we are doing a pretty decent job of exposing them to Tier 3 - but we assume that they can absorb what we are saying in front of our classroom using our Tier 2 words. This is not always the case. Words that we take for granted are being thrown out at our students without even realizing the damage we could be doing by not supporting our own rich use of vocabulary. In this paragraph alone there are probably a dozen or more words that have multiple meanings and would confuse even some of our hardest working strugglers. Words like handle, decent, exposing, assume, absorb, granted, and rich all have double meanings and make the heads of our English language learners spin like tops! And heaven forbid you use an idiomatic phrase (such as make your head spin) with them! They'd go off the deep end for sure. I really need to stop.

The point is, friends, that we need to choose our words carefully. Am I saying that we need to simplify how we say things for our students and stay away from using words that may challenge our kiddos? Heavens, no! In fact, I encourage the use of fancy words! But know that the more you use them, the more you will need to rephrase, check for understanding, illustrate, model, and allow for processing before you move on.

So, create a quiz with words in parenthesis near tough Tier 2 words where you think a student might trip up. Know that your text books are not only full of your content-area vocabulary, but they are also very heavily loaded with Tier 2 words that may confuse your students as well. Teaching Tier 2 words as vocabulary doesn't necessarily make sense in a science or social studies class, but don't assume that your kiddos are going to be able to understand the text book without a lot of support. Know that part of the job that I do at school is to help you service these students, not just in their language arts classes, but across the curriculum, and I am certainly willing to do so. And enjoy reflecting on your own vocabularies over the next week, because I know you will.

Have a fabulous first weekend of the school year.  You deserve it!

The Apothecary - book chat

Now that I am done with my graduate work, I am going to get back to filling out book chat forms so that I have a stash of books I can share with students.  I just finished a book this morning, so here goes!

Download my book chat on The Apothecary by Maile Maloy.

Book Title	The Apothecary
Book Author	Maile Meloy
Illustrations?  Illustrator	Ian Schoenherr
Genre	Fantasy / historical fiction
If you read a narrative (story)
Book Summary:	Janie    wanted   to help Benjamin save his father , but she was way over her head when she realized that he was involved in an international, magical scheme to stop the Soviets from testing a nuclear bomb north of Norway.  So she went ahead and helped him, discovering secrets about the world that she thought were only fantasy (things like humans turning into birds and paint that paints walls on its own).   Then she is captured, but she manages to escape – almost losing her life in the process.  In the end Benjamin’s dad gives her a potion that erases her memory, and the only recollection she has of the entire three weeks is a diary that she kept while on the adventure.
One quotation that meant something to you.  Why?	p. 25 starting with “Mr. Burrows”.  I chose this passage because it was the single act of defiance on Benjamin’s part that showed the reader immediately what kind of kid he was.  Although it almost gives the reader an inadequate impression.  Benjamin felt so passionate about NOT participating in the bomb drill because he knew from experience that a table would not save them from destruction if a real bomb hit.
If you read an expository book (informational)
What was the main subject of the book?	Click here to enter text.
What were some of the main ideas (categories) of the book?	Click here to enter text.
All books
Why did you choose to read this book?	It was a part of the Battle of the Books.
I would recommend this book to students who like . . .	I would recommend this book to kids or adults who like fantasy and adventure.  It wasn’t completely over the top, and yet it had a good hint of science and fantasy along with some great historical stuff.  I thought it was a great balance.  I DO think, however, that a little background knowledge on the whole Soviet Union situation might be helpful, however.

Reaching our social students

Last week I submitted my final essay for my last class.  Ever.  At least I keep saying its going to be my last class, but I have a feeling there will be more.  However it is, the class I just finished, presented information on how to best teach our Latino students.  Considering forty-four percent of our student population, according to the State of Illinois interactive report card, are of Latino heritage, I figured the class was appropriate.

Now, I am a native Auroran, and I figure thirty-eight years of life in this city gives me some sort of honorary diversity-certificate, but I was surprised to find out how much I didn't know about my neighbors, and I was horrified to discover that there are certain behaviors that I need to reconsider as I continue working with our Latino families.  

Before I get started, just as my last blog about boys in education, some of what I will say here will sound generalized and stereotypical.  In no way am I asking my respected colleagues to start treating all of our Latino students and families a certain way.  What I am asking is for an open mind so that we can work together to embrace our diverse classrooms.  Each of our students comes from a wide variety of backgrounds that may or may not encompass what I bring to the table today.  All I want to do is point out that there are more cards in this deck than the ones we are currently playing, and if we want all of our kiddos to play, we need to play their cards as well.  

The author team of Bridging Cultures Between Home and School breaks our student groups into two commonly referenced cultural categories: individualist and collectivist; individualist being a culture that emphasizes "individual fulfillment and choice", whereas our collectivist cultures focus mainly on the well-being of the entire group and downplay individual accomplishments and choice. A lengthy list of characteristics describes each group, but the class spanned two books and a nineteen page article, so I will do my best to give you the highlights and points relevant to direct instruction.  

There were several main characteristics that stuck out to me, and I felt I could change them in my own behavior when trying to reach our diverse groups.  Because each characteristic held so much depth, I will touch on only one here.  The first aspect was the idea that part of the collectivist culture is working as one collective group - in other words, sharing is not an option - it's a way of life (supplies, lockers, homework, and test answers).  How often have I, as a teacher, marveled at the audacity of a student who reaches across an aisle or behind him to grab a pen or pencil to make a change on a paper . . . without asking?  And how many times have I been flabberghasted at the number of math books that can be shoved into one locker?  It's also been an interesting phenomenon how willing some of our young ladies are to do the homework of their male counterparts, but one thing I haven't really stopped to do is consider who it is performing these acts. 

Looking back at my sixteen years of teaching experience, I can easily align this idea of working as a group and for a group to our large groups of Latino students.  In fact, last year while on bus duty, I did an informal observation each week and noticed that the only consistently homogeneous group of students standing together outside were our Latin American males - a clear indication that their comfort zone was within their cultural group.  Interestingly, however, the Latin American females were peppered within other cultural groups (although often in pairs) - giving evidence to support brain research that theorizes our females can more easily adapt socially due to the way their brains are wired.  Nerdy, I know.  But fun to learn!  I dare you to look at this the next time you're out on the blacktop.  It'll give you something to do other than scan the crowds looking for suspicious behavior. 

How can we make this collectivist mentality work to our advantage in the classroom?  The idea that we should all be working for a common good and sharing responsibility is obviously a trait of cooperative learning.  What is interesting to me is the complaints I hear, across the board, from teachers who can't seem to understand why our kids can't work in groups very effectively.  When I walk into my own children's Montessori classroom I am bowled over by independence that even the primary students display.  Why does this happen?  A systematic approach to teaching students how to work independently and in small groups from the get-go, the expectation that they will all accomlish this, and the consistent monitoring and interaction of teachers in these classrooms is what works, and it is what builds the confidence of some of our kiddos who lack the academic self-esteem necessary to surive in our individualistic society.  If four-year-olds can do it, middle schoolers can too, right?  I mean, brain research often parallels the early-teenage brain to those of early preschoolers in terms of development, and there are definitely some behavioral commonalities. 

Chapter four in the fourth edition Project CRISS manual gives the reader solid research on social learning before diving into ways educators in a traditional classroom setting can promote it.  As I process through this information, I am reminded about a lesson I co-conducted with our sixth grade intervention teacher called Save the Last Word.  This was a powerful lesson that involved 100% of our sixth grade students and required them to listen and speak as equal partners in small groups.  I can remember after the first few classes how pleased we were with what our students could do, simply because we had given them a structure for their cooperative learning. 

We were disappointed, however, to find that the more adults that were in the room, the less effective the activity became because our students fell back on their old go-to behaviors and refused to rely upon themselves as learners and participators in their learning.  Interestingly, as I continue to reflect on this, it dawns on me that another characteristic of the collectivist culture is the idea that if you are talking you are not learning.  When an adult is around, your mouth closes.  Ask no questions.  Do not provide your own ideas.  Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.  Period.  Had I known this back in the winter I would have addressed the issue by telling students that adults will hang back (and then asked the adults to hang back) as the students maintain control of their discussion.  Then I would have only allowed a few adults to circulate the room and only to listen, not to participate.  Hindsight, right?

Some other discussion activities that might help our social creatures are the quick and simple ones:

• Think-Pair-Share (Think and write down your answer, quickly discuss with a partner, and share out with the class.)
• Three Minute Pause (Pause learning every five to twelve minutes for three minutes to discuss with a partner by summarizing, identifying something interesting, and asking questions.  Then continue learning.)
• ABC Brainstorm (In partners or small groups come up with words or phrases beginning with each letter of the alphabet that directly relate to the topic.  Be prepared to explain.)
• Read and Say Something (One person in the group reads out loud while others follow along.  person to the right says something related to the reading and the rest of the group responds.  Move on to the next reader, and continue in this fashion.)
• Read and Explain (Read a small selection, pause and explain it, ask questions or talk about problems you encounter, move on to the next reader.)

Or the more extensive ones:

• Discussion webs (These work really well for topics that have opposing sides.  Have students work in groups to fill out the web.  The web gives students an automatic format for discussion.  CRISS has a nice one you can use also.)
• Carousel Brainstorming (Select a number of topics related to your lesson and post them on large poster paper around the room.  Separate students into that number of groups and put each group at a poster with one marker.  Give groups one minute to brainstorm everything they can think on their particular topic and write it on the paper.  When time is up, have students "carousel" to the next topic, pass the marker to another person in the same group, and read/respond or correct information.  Repeat.)
• Cooperative roles (Just Google it.  But CRISS's new manual lists roles for fiction, nonfiction, math, and poetry because they get that those discussions are going to require different facilitation).The photo to the right is taken from the manual and gives an idea as to the differences between what roles would look like between fiction and nonfiction discussions. 

As I stated earlier, preschoolers in a Montessori classroom can work cooperatively because they are exposed daily to the expectations of independent and cooperative work.  Daily.  If we truly want to embrace our kiddos whose lives revolve around their collective groups, perhaps giving group work a conserted effort on a regular basis would be a good place to start.  Just like with any other strategy, cooperative grouping and discussion will never become a comfortable part of a student's education if that student is not exposed frequently, so bring it on!  But remember, asking students to work in groups is not enough.  Highlight some guidelines for yourself as some of you move into this uncomfortable territory:

• Create a structure for group work (assign and define group roles, even if it is "partner one does this and partner two does this").
• Communicate this structure . . . over and over and over again, expect that the structure is followed, and possibly assign one role in the group to be the one who oversees the structure itself.
• Monitor closely without interfering with the collective group work (remember, they're supposed to be learning from each other).
• Give collective feedback without interfering (maybe leave feedback to the end).  Because you have a group of kids whose culture may disappove of individual feedback, picking out something positive you saw in each group and giving the feedback to a group rather than individuals may still give the feedback needed to keep motivation going without embarassing or singling out any one student. 

I look forward to consulting with some of you this year on the art of cooperative grouping as we continue to learn how to support all of our students more effectively in all content areas.  I'm still baffled at my own ignorance of some of the more obvious differences between our cultural groups, and I'm anticipating an even better year as I use this knowledge to my advantage while maneuvering interactions with students and parents.  The biggest challenge for me will continue to be utilizing my observation skills and intuition so that I can use what I know to meet the needs of each individual family rather than using the knowledge as a blanket over a large group whose individual participants may actully take offense to things that I do as an educator.  As they say, knowledge can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse. 

See ya'll in two and a half weeks!

Reaching our active learners

June has moved surprisingly quickly, and my promise to myself to blog twice monthly has already been abandoned - at least professionally.  I've been writing for myself personally, but that wasn't my original intent for the summer.  Thankfully, I have some friends and family members who are heavy thinkers and debaters, and I have had two very interesting articles shared with me within the last few weeks that I figured would make excellent blog topics.  Both, in fact, align nicely with the classes I am taking this summer and with my experience with Project CRISS.

The first article was posted by my cousin, a naturalist, certified nurse, and set to start her doctoral degree in nursing this fall.  I have a lot of respect for her as a mom, a nurse, and a friend.  Our connection to the article stems from our experience with highly energetic sons who currently attend Waldorf and Montessori schools.  The 2013 article is entitled, "Stop Penalizing Boys for not Being Able to Sit Still in School."  The end.  

Just kidding.  But the title does kind of sum up the article, doesn't it?  Jessica Lahey, author of the article, begins with a narrative reflection on her pile of discipline slips from this last school year, noting that the names on the slips were heavily male and generally written due to little success in grabbing the attention of the boys, not due to lack of effort (in other words, they were doing something other than pay attention).  Lahey connects her discovery with reports in a book called Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work and Why.  Basically, the book discusses that our current education system is failing boys.  An over-generalized statement, but I'd say a fairly accurate one when you compare the number of boys versus girls who find themselves sitting in student services or struggling academically.  

I remember a few years back when I read Engaging Tweens and Teens: a Brain Compatible Approach to Reaching Middle and High School Students by Raleigh Philp (2007).  This book was one of the most refreshing books I have ever read on how to hit middle schoolers because it explained WHY we needed to use certain strategies, not just "strategies that work".   For those of us who need the full equasion, this book fills in those gaps left wide open by other works that just present a collection of ideas.  My Project CRISS  manual plays a similar role.  The manual presents a wide variety of strategies and examples under philosophy umbrellas with brief narratives that discuss brain research, whereas Philp's book fully explains the brain during adolescence with a few general ideas for teaching.  Both books compliment each other, making it easy to work with a combination of ideas from both.

 

Lahey's article continues with a set of disturbing statistics taken from the Journal of Human Resources (see below).

 

 

Now, let me just throw out a disclaimer right now before I get a bunch of hate mail from my respected colleagues.  I feel like this report is over-generalized and a little over-the-top.  However, the truth is, friends, that when I walk into student services on many days, I see a higher percentage of boys.  When I walk into our classes designed to support our struggling readers, I see lots of boys.  When I see our detention go-ers gathered outside the office after school?  Boys.  Higher percentage of suspension?  You guessed it.  Boys.  Most of the conferences I attended this year for students whose teachers were struggling to motivate them to do much of anything?  Boys. 

 

Boys. Boys. Boys.

 

Philp quotes multiple studies that report glaring differences between male and female brains.  In his chapter on brain mapping he touches on testosterone levels in males and although he never says, "This is why you may have trouble grabbing the attention of boys," the evidence is pretty clear.  "Men have as much as twenty times more testosterone in their systems than do women" (Kastleman as quoted in Philp, 2007).  "Testosterone levels correlate several behaviors such as competition, self-assertion, and self-reliance. This makes men typcially more aggressive . . . "  Philp goes on to discuss the idea that men rely more on their sense of doing to help them learn and don't necessarily put much emphasis on their sense of hearing (which he goes on later to say is more of a female trait). 

 

Take this information and line it up to Lahey's article on our boys' behavior and academics, and do you see where the problems lie?  Not to mention that our teaching staff is heavily-female!  This is like a morphed Venus & Mars nightmare!  What can we do to figure this out and get our tough-to-reach population of kiddos on track for this coming year?

 

Lahey asked this question also.  What she found was a study performed by Dr. Michael Reichert and Dr. Richard Hawley in 2009, called Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices.  One of the end products of this study was a composite list of guidelines for lesson creation that over 2500 surveys showed as being effective strategies for reaching boys.  After looking at this list, my first response is, "Well, that's just good teaching," but I have to remind myself that every teacher needs reminders and thought-provoking challenges.  And our staff is no different.  But I'm also looking at this list and smiling widely because Project CRISS oozes from each line. 

 

 

The Project CRISS manual and training includes ideas such as transforming information into visuals, organized writing, pattern puzzles requiring motor activity, group work, problem solving organizers, metacognition, and discovery.  Cracking open that manual when planning each lesson may encourage students (especially boys!) to participate more than we realized - and the strategies aren't earth-shattering or difficult to implement.  They're just good teaching!

 

What's really nice about all of this is that we now see why some boys struggle with our system of education.  We see that even though we'd like to point fingers at outside circumstances, the fact remains that these students are ours to educate.  What are we going to do?  Recreate the wheel?  I hope not!  But throwing in some fully-engaging activities daily will keep your difficult-to-reach students more engaged.  If they're more engaged, the chance of a struggle becomes less.  How many behavior problems do you have when 100% of your students are engaged in a project or activity?  Very few compared to when students are required to listen to a lecture or instructions, participate in a teacher-directed question session, or watch a documentary video.  When total engagement happens, trouble decreases, teacher-student relationships change from negative to positive, and teaching becomes more effective. 

So as you are resisting thinking about the 2013-2014 school year, consider some of those highly engaging strategies that you can recall.  Consider how you can include reading, writing, discussion, and reflection in every lesson.  And when you're stuck, look to your colleagues for support.  I know for a fact that we have some hefty thinkers and problem solvers on our staff with creative minds and the drive to reach every student.  I'm certain we can pull together to create a more motivating environment for our kiddos this coming school year. 

Happy 4th of July, all!

2012-2013 Reflections

Well, this is it, I suppose.  The day that we all have anticipated this week - the day we say good-bye to our kiddos for the summer and our eighth graders for good.  I always get this panicked feeling about mid-year when I realize I only have half a year left to prepare our eighth graders for the high school where the expectations continue to increase in the areas of responsibility, citizenship, and academia.

I consider us to have pretty rigorous expectations here, but even with those expectations I worry myself sick about how our students are going to "measure up" with the rest.  Will his freshman English teacher ask, "Who was your teacher last year?" and then judge us because he is not measuring up?  Will she have difficulty adjusting so much that she falls apart in the fall?  The high school IS big, and sometimes the shock is enough to send a kid into melt-down mode. 

But most importantly, as a reading specialist, I shake in my shoes as I send kids over - hoping that they've been able to stock up on the most essential skills and praying that the communication I have with the high school will be enough to provide them a window into the students' reading skills and build upon the work we have done here. 

Honestly, I'm proud of what we have accomplished this year, so I thought I'd make a list of all of the things that make me most proud in hopes that the rest of you can see just how far we have come.

• I have worked with every LA1 teacher in the building to support them in benchmarking their own students in comprehension using the Performance Series test.
• After I determined which students needed it, every LA1 teacher in the building made an attempt to benchmark at least some (and many - all) of their necessary students in fluency - and FAST. Whatever they were not able to finish, I picked up or helped with the process.
• A collaborative atmosphere was maintained, which allowed decisions to be made and for us to make schedule changes when appropriate.
• I was able to get lists to our schedule guru for SLC classes for next year (because of our timely testing) so that we can deliver more fluency practice (Tier 2) and some additional vocabulary interventions (Tier 2) to those students whose scores and performance show they might need it. 
• Trained expert teachers in the building delivered multisyllabic training as a Tier 2 intervention in SLC to students who showed gaps in their decoding skills. 
• Expert intervention teachers showered our struggling students in their LA1 classes with good, solid comprehension skills and devices to use when tackling complex text (Tier 1).
• Many of our LA1 teachers and I shared test scores with our students, and some of us even made time to have students set goals and review them at each benchmarking time!  Some of us used these scores to help narrow down reading material in the library, and our ET students used them to find more challenging material! (Tier 1) Awesome!
• Every week during grade level meetings, specific students-of-concern were discussed. This often led to Tier 1 strategies and Tier 2 interventions for these students, which were then evaluated and tweaked until we could find the right plan for some of our strugglers.
• Every few weeks, our school psychologist, social worker, speech pathologist, reading specialist, and an administrator were able to meet and review data, student concerns, and next steps for some of our kiddos who were brought up as concerns to the grade level teams.  This led to a small group of Tier 3 students. 
• Several teachers and administrators in the building, along with myself, set aside time once every two weeks to help progress monitor our 120+ students who were receiving Tier 2 and 3 interventions. Much of this took place during SLC time.
• I have had conversations with reading specialists at all of our feeder elementary schools regarding specific students who will need support next year.  Communication between myself and the bilingual teachers of transitioning students have occured.  And I have been able to sit and discuss individual students with our high school reading specialist, as well, so she knows which students to target at the beginning of the year. 
• More content area teachers have expressed interest in collaborating with me on projects, reading skills within the content areas, and using student data to explain student learning.  Much of this happened this year, and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn from these teachers and work with their students.
• And last of all, we have worked together to create readers.  Are they all readers?  No, but how can they not see the passion that many of our teachers have for reading?  Some of our SLC interventions were delivered flawlessly and skillfully by teachers with expertice in subjects other than the language arts.  We had teachers of several content areas require independent reading every day. And over twenty teachers in the building participated in reading and writing questions for our 2013 Battle of the Books!  Incredible.

Next year our plan for Tier 2 expands to vocabulary interventions during our SLC time.  Fluency training will be strategically and systematically planned during SLC and at other times in the day for students who need both fluency and vocabulary.  Progress monitoring will continue during SLC, so if you're interested in joining me once every two weeks for a progress monitoring session, please let me know!  We are going to need all the help we can get, and it is pretty easy.

I also have lists of students who I am watching carefully, and once we finish benchmarking in January, I will spend springtime working on diagnostic testing on students who still seem to be making little progress.  I'm excited for this new plan!  Additionally, we have some specific, strategic interventions put into place for our students who, even after the multisyllabic training, have made little to no progress in their decoding and fluency.  Plans for including parents are also being developed, and a new system for Tier 2 and Tier 3 communication amongst staff will be up and running when school opens in August.

What I have learned this year is that the role of the reading specialist is a bit of a tight-rope walk around here. It's a walk between reading and literacy, in my opinion: reading being the actual skill of reading and literacy being the ability to tackle more complex text, grappling with the meaning, and making beautiful connections. Literacy is at the heart of Common Core, but in order to be literate, you have to first be able to read.  In order to learn how to read at this age, you have to want to be literate. In order for us to build these types of learners, we have to have passionate teachers. And that, friends, is the foundation and why my year has been one of gratitude for the passionate people with whom I work.

Have a restful summer.  Read a lot.  Get ready to run again next fall!