Can You Fix Broken Teachers?

Get rid of professional development.
Stop throwing good money after bad.
Once a bad teacher, always a bad teacher.

You don't agree? Perhaps I'm reading too much into a new Department of Education report called the Middle School Mathematics Professional Impact Study. The study concluded that intensive, state-of-the-art training to improve teaching skills doesn’t seem to lead to significant improvements in student achievement, even when the teachers who underwent the training changed some of their instructional methods.

Teachers in 12 medium to large schools underwent 68 hours of rigorous training that covered the teaching of such hard-to-grasp mathematical concepts. It spanned several months and included summer programs, follow-up sessions and some in-class coaching.

Is it possible that such a quick fix solution isn't the only way to go?

I'm a teacher of over 20 years, and I constantly tweak my instructional practice in response to workshops, professional readings, collegial relationships, and technological innovation. Does every change in my practice result in a corresponding improvement in student achievement?

I wish.

Perhaps, cumulatively, those changes, along with changes instituted over time by my peers, will increase achievement. But perhaps those changes in instruction need a greater period of time to be measured before they can be discounted.

So just as a precaution, why don't we keep training our teachers, just in case. I don't think we'd throw up our hands in surrender and give up on our students this easily, so maybe teachers deserve just as much time and opportunity to develop and grow.

What Student Writing Teaches Us: The Blog Tour

Today I have the pleasure of hosting Mark Overmeyer's Blog Tour for his Stenhouse publication What Student Writing Teaches Us. This fabulous new book (see my full review in the post below) answers many of the questions teachers have about using formative assessments to improve student writing. I also challenged readers of this blog to send in questions for the author which might not have been addressed in the book.(For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, you'll find the full book online at the Stenhouse site).

I was surprised at the in-depth responses Mark provided for the questions sent in. Check out the questions and Mark's answers below, and be sure to grab a copy of his book when it becomes available.

Next year I am planning on using the areas listed on our state writing rubric (ideas and content, organization, sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions) to be the main form of assessing most of my student writing, whether it is to assess just one of the areas (or subcategories within an area) or to look at student writing as a whole throughout the year. I thought of setting it up similar to the CAFE Menu for reading.I thought it would be helpful since we would build common language about writing and it would help students to evalauate their own writing and their peers better. It would also help me to see student progress over time. I am still trying to think through the process before school starts next year though. Do you think this will be effective or do you have any words of caution for the route I am going? (from Mrs. V)

You ask a great question - one I have thought about often as I teach writers of all ages...

I think your idea of using qualities such as ideas and content, organization, word choice, etc. to help students self assess is a good one, and not just because these categories are listed on your state writing rubric. I think this is a logical move on your part because strong writing does, in fact, contain these elements. Like you, I teach students to be aware of their progress in using these qualities or traits in their writing - and my state rubric also evaluates student success based on these factors.

One piece of advice I can provide that I hope will help you: Try to always think of writing instruction as "whole to part" first, not "part to whole."

Years ago, when I first used the traits you mention in my writing instruction, I based all of my mini-lessons on the qualities of writing, but I did not always provide a context. So, since I love word choice lessons, I spent two to three weeks on word choice. I also like to teach sentence fluency, so I typically followed the word choice work with fluency mini-lessons.

Were my students engaged?

Yes.

Did they improve as writers?

I am not convinced they did improve as much as they could have because I was teaching part to whole.

Now, I always provide a context for any mini-lesson about a particular writing trait. For example, if I am asking my students to write personal essays, we first study models of this genre, and then we begin generating ideas and writing drafts. Once we have begun the genre study, I can infuse mini-lessons about word choice, organization, and sentence fluency that are genre specific. Word choice is not the same in a poem as it is in an essay, or a persuasive letter, or a lab report. All traits are genre specific, and when we think of genre first, we are thinking "whole to part."

When I plan now for any type of writing, regardless of the length or complexity of the writing students will produce, I answer the following question: "What am I asking students to write?" (or, as Katie Wood Ray once phrased it when I heard her speak: "Ask yourself: What are we asking our student writers to make?")

When I focus my word choice, organization, and sentence fluency mini-lessons on specific genres, my work is much clearer, more "true" to real-world writing, and more focused on the "whole" rather than the "parts". And, in my experience, students become much stronger writers who are able to more easily self-assess their progress.

For more information about this type of instruction, read Katie Wood Ray's brilliant book Study Driven. I use it regularly as I plan for all ages of writers.

I hope this helps! Take care, and good luck! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

This question is related to student writing, but not so related to the topic of your book. But I would appreciate if you had any advice. I teach 6th grade Language Arts. Any suggestions for how to most effectively use five classroom computers for in-class writing? Too often I see my colleagues having their students using the computers simply as word processors (typing up final drafts). I'm hoping to make them a bigger part of our writing process. Suggestions or thoughts?
(from Colleen in New Hampshire)
Colleen:
Thank you for your question.

Here are a few ideas, and a resource I hope can help you with further suggestions. While technology is not always my strength, I am lucky enough to work in a district that provides a lot of staff development on technology and literacy. I take advantage of these courses and workshops whenever I can!Some thoughts:

1. Use the computer for different types of "final copies", such as podcasts. Podcasts are relatively simple (if I can do them, anyone can!) and they are best created in small groups anyway. Teachers I know who are most successful using podcasts discover which students in the class already have some expertise in creating them. These students can become tech experts as other students create their podcasts. Podcasts work well for genres such as personal essays, photo essays, and any type of research-based writing that can include photos and voice-overs.
2. Ask students to use the computers to participate in blogs or wikis as they respond to each other about the literature they are reading. Five students per day per class period can spend some time on the blog or wiki, and this can become part of the way your students respond to each other's thoughts and ideas. It's like an online discussion. You can also use blogs and wikis for students to respond to each other's writing.
3. If you ever use quick write exercises, consider using visual prompts on the computer screen for students to respond to. They can write for 5 to 10 minutes after looking at a photo or video clip to practice descriptive or narrative writing. If you try this, then each day, five different students can respond to the visual prompt. By the end of the week, everyone will have had a chance.

Sara Kajder has a wonderful book out about how to use computers effectively in the classroom. Sara's book is called Bringing the Outside In, and you should check out her website as well. If you ever have the chance to see her speak in person, by all means go. She taught me so much at IRA a few years ago.

I hope this helps! Take care, and good luck!
Mark: I read through the book and got some great ideas. I'd like to know what other books and sites you would personally recommend to a new Reading/LA teacher who will be teaching average ability students in grades 5-7. (from Karen)
Karen:
Thank you - I am glad you found the book helpful.
Here are some books that I highly recommend, annotated briefly:

1. Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray. I cannot recommend this book more highly for helping you to create solid, genre based units of study. In Chapter One, the first description of a fifth grade classroom studying commentary made me rethink everything I do with all students. Katie Wood Ray not only helps us to raise the bar for all our students, she helps us find interesting genres for students to study. I have read this book twice per year for the past three years for courses I teach, and each time I read it, I find new nuggets of wisdom.
2. The No-Nonsense Guide to Teaching Writing by Judy Davis and Sharon Hill is full of great ideas for setting up and maintaining a writing workshop, and includes a curriculum map for the year. I have used it many times as a resource, and I especially like their suggestions about writer's notebooks and teaching poetry. Bruce Morgan's book Writing Through the Tween Years will support your work if you are interested in learning more about using mentor texts and student interest to drive your writing instruction. You also need to know about Kelly Gallagher's excellent Teaching Adolescent Writers. He takes on many of the same topics as Bruce Morgan and Davis / Hill, but he provides more concrete suggestions about grading, developing mini-lessons and helping students to self edit. If you have some structures already set up in the writing workshop and want a troubleshooting guide about conferences, reluctant writers, helping students edit, and other topics, my first book is called When Writing Workshop Isn't Working: Answers to Ten Tough Questions, Grades 2-5. (I always hesitate to recommend my own books when I am asked this question, but many teachers in upper elementary and middle school have told me my book helped them refine their workshops...)
3. If you want resources on teaching grammar in context, look no further than Jeff Anderson's Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop and Everyday Editing. These two books finally help us answer the question about how to embed skill instruction in the writing classroom without resorting to error-correction exercises and worksheets. They deserve a place on every language arts teacher's shelf!
4. For reading instruction, I must recommend Cris Tovani's classic I Read It, but I Don't Get It. Though she works with struggling and reluctant adolescent readers, I used this book when I taught gifted fifth and sixth graders with great results. Cris's book helped me to understand how important it is for all readers to establish a clear purpose for reading, and she also helped me see that all readers need to know when meaning is breaking down. When meaning breaks down, we have to know it first, and then change our strategy - and she provides practical, classroom-tested suggestions. I use Cris's techniques with all ranges of readers, from struggling to on-grade level to gifted.

Happy reading! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

All best -
Mark
I know that the old adage says, "Write what you know." I also accept that students will write more enthusiastically about topics that have meaning to them personally. But how can we wean them off of such egocentric writing into areas which may not relate to them personally? (from E-man)
E-man:
This is a great question, and one I have pondered for at least 20 years.

"Write what you know" seems like a simple adage, but it does not provide simple answers to the problems we may encounter as writing teachers.

As a teacher of writing, when I focus solely on topic choice, some writers improve, and others don't. I will fully admit that maybe I am doing something wrong in my instruction, but I am just speaking from many years of experience when I say topic choice alone does not necessarily make for great writing experiences for all students.

The more I work with students, the more convinced I am that "write what you know" fits best within a genre study.

So now, I work within what I call a "framed choice" while we study a specific genre.

For example, when I return to school in the fall, I am going to support primary students as they write poetry, intermediate students as they write personal essays,, and high school students as they write restaurant or music reviews.

The choices they make will "live" inside these specific genres, and I find this provides more opportunities for success because when we study the same genre as a class, we can all become more clear about how to be successful in this genre.

The book that has influenced me greatly in my work with genre studies is Katie Wood Ray's Study Driven. I cannot tell you how much it has transformed my thinking with all the writers I work with, from kindergarten to graduate school. The best part is that I see a lot more energy from all these writers as well, and their self assessment of their own work has convinced me that genre studies are the way to go. Many, many writers have told me that they start to think of many new topic ideas when they become clear about how genres work.

My advice if you are working with fourth graders through high school is to NOT begin the year with personal narratives. Try out a completely different genre - maybe begin the year with personal essay (for a mentor text, see the last piece in Charles R. Smith's book Rimshots where he talks about his influences) or commentary (see multiple suggestions for how to use commentary in the classroom in the first chapter of Katie Wood Ray's book Study Driven). In my experience for the last five years, new genres bring out new topics, and new excitement.
Wow! Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail, Mark! I especially appreciate the book suggestions, since I'm always looking for proven practices from my colleagues in the field.
Thanks to all who sent in questions, and let's keep up the dialogue! There's a lot we can learn from each other.

How to Teach Reading and Language Arts

In response to one frequent reader of my Teach with Picture Books blog, I have created a lens over at Squidoo (How to Teach Reading and Language Arts) that aggregates the feeds from my three blogs into one place. So now it's easy to see the last four posts of each of those sites in one location. For all the graphics and certainly the video clips, you'll need to click on individual posts, but at least now you've got a single vantage point to check out my latest resources and rants.

While there you'll also find the lenses (static sites) that support each of those blogs. These static sites contain links and information which you'll never see on the blogs, so be sure to stop by and visit those as well. Teaching with Picture Books features 13 reasons why upper elementary and middle school teachers should be using picture books in the classroom (a great resource if you're trying to convince teachers, colleagues, or your boss of the importance of picture books), How to Teach a Novel features ten steps to doing it well (notice I didn't say ten easy steps), and Teaching that Sticks provides an overview of the best-selling Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (which inspired that workshop and the blog that you're reading right now).

How to Teach Reading and Language Arts will change almost daily, so stop by often to see what's being served up.

You Can Handle Them All

Classroom management is key to effective instruction. You can't even begin to worry about making your teaching sticky if you don't first have an environment which is respectful, safe, and orderly. For novices and veterans alike, one of the best classroom management websites available can be found at http://www.disciplinehelp.com/. This website, maintained by The Master Teacher, lists 117 problem behaviors, structured by

• behavior (attitudes and actions of the child),


• effects (ways in which this behavior affects home and school),


• actions (to be taken by the adult in dealing with this child), and


• mistakes (common errors which may actually perpetuate the problem).

A behavior labeled The Smart Aleck, for example, is defined by these characteristics:

1. Makes "funny" comments that actually go far beyond humor. And the cutting effect is intentional.


2. Often rude, and usually disrespectful. Different from the smartmouth; the smart aleck's misbehavior includes both word and deed.


3. Has been overindulged by adults.


4. Tries to act superior to others.


5. Attempts to cover an inferiority complex with this type of behavior.


6. Denies, and hides from facing, the feeling of inferiority. Is fooling him/herself-and possibly others.
   (and so on, for a total of eleven descriptors).

So, does that define your problem behavior? If not, the site offers related behaviors: The Class Clown, The Defier, The Distracter, The Loudmouth, The Show-Off, or The Smartmouth. Yes, these are separately defined behaviors! Step one, then, is making sure that you zero in on the appropriate behavior.

So let's suppose that The Smart Aleck is the proper label. You'd then be able to view the Effects of this behavior. The Effects list helps you realize that that the feelings you're experiencing are a natural outcome of this behavior and not simply you "overreacting." The Effects list can also help you dialogue with the student and parents about the behavior's effect upon others.

Now comes time to take Action. In the words of the site: "Identify causes of misbehavior. Pinpoint student needs being revealed. Employ specific methods, procedures, and techniques at school and at home for getting the child to modify or change his/her behavior."

Perhaps most useful of all is Mistakes, a list of those misjudgments which may "perpetuate or intensify the problem." It's so tempting to respond in turn, yet rarely productive (or mature).

Looking for preemptive strategies and structures to use in the classroom? I highly recommend Setting Limits in the Classroom: How to Move Beyond the Dance of Discipline by Robert J. Mackenzie. If it had been the first book on the topic that I purchased as a new teacher, I would not have purchased any others. He later came out with another title, Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child : Eliminating Conflict by Establishing Clear, Firm, and Respectful Boundaries which offers solution for more difficult students.

When you visit You Can Handle Them All, be sure to first read the sidebar to the right. It begins: "We are labeling behaviors, not children!" A good sentiment to keep in mind when approaching your discipline problems.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Victor Hugo once said something to the effect of, "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." Teachers are constantly torn between embracing new technologies, which come fast and furiously, and clinging to their traditional methods.

Back in the olden days of 1990 I presented a group project for my Masters in Instruction and Curriculum. Our lesson plan included the use of the Green Acres theme song as an anticipatory set to a unit on rural versus urban lifestyles. The professor was satisfied with the project overall but asked, "Keith, how would the average teacher be able to get the opening song for Green Acres?"

I had stayed up until 1:00 AM and copied it (most likely illegally) from an old rerun, but I answered, "In a couple years they should be able to get it from an electronic library. You know, sign out television shows the same way that people sign out books." (I wasn't being prophetic; I had probably read somewhere that such a capability was just over the horizon). The professor laughed, as did a couple students in the audience, so I added, "Or they can stay up until one in the morning to copy it off an old rerun."

The fact is, many teachers now drown in the tidal wave of new technology. That's why I'm so grateful for sites like Recess Duty, EduTechieGal, and Free Technology for Teachers which give us our tech immersion just one ankle-deep wave at a time. I can handle that.

How about you? Are you feeling overwhelmed? How do you keep up with the latest tech products and applications? What professional development opportunities does your school offer on a regular basis for the average classroom teacher to keep informed about tech advances? Which delivery system has your school or district found most useful in educating teachers in this area? Are there other technology-for-teacher sites that you can recommend? Leave a comment or drop me a line.

I Made Something, Look!

Josh Selig, president and founder of New York’s Little Airplane Productions, shares on the need for professionals to take some creative time for themselves. Sorry, teachers, but writing lesson plans, mapping curriculum, and grading papers do not count as creative time, no matter how good you are at those tasks and how much you enjoy them (and I know we all enjoy them). Check out Josh's insightful blog at Planet Preschool.

Trackstar: Staking Your Claim on the Internet

In terms of the Internet, Trackstar is old school. Many teachers, however, haven’t had the chance to see it in action. Basically, Trackstar is a collected set of websites framed by a table of contents which is always visible. As each site is selected, the heading above the site viewer changes to include the teacher’s notes about the site being viewed, as well as questions about its content.

Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, check out a couple examples that make it very clear. Stayin' Alive: How Plants and Animals Adapt to Air Pollution is a well constructed track with clear instructions and a variety of sites. In addition to the frames format of that previous link, you also have the option to see your links and notes in text form.

An example of how this application can be used for professional development purposes can be seen in Teaching Writers Right. Presenters or teachers forming collegial study group will find that this is an efficient way to organize sites and documents for group viewing.

Is Trackstar difficult to use? Not at all, since you don’t need to create your own tracks; you’re welcome to use the hundreds that have been created over the years. The homepage allows you to search by topic, author, or top tracks. Just be sure to check that all links are still working, and that the related heading content and questions are appropriate for your student group.

If you do wish to create your own, the process is simple, with ample prompts and sequenced steps.

Using Trackstar, teachers can

• present students with online learning tasks within a controlled scope of sites;


• assign individualized online tasks, differentiated by both web sites viewed and annotations added;


• incorporate current events using the Trackstar’s monthly themes or the Track of the Day;


• create modules that can be independently completed by students as homework or extra credit;


• structure lessons which can easily be carried out by a substitute teacher or a cross-grade learning partner;


• supply parents and students with a “virtual study guide” for upcoming tests;


• store, categorize, and tag their own favorite sites for future use (all sites for one unit can be found in one location;


• share their “best of” sites with virtual colleagues; and


• collaborate with colleagues to compile sites and comments in using a “wiki” format.