Happy holidays!

The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.

~W. H. Auden

For the vampire in you...

I was never a vampire-lover growing up. If truth be told, I don't think I ever saw Interview with a Vampire; I wasn't a Buffy-groupie; and Ann Rice did nothing for me. So when a student insisted that I read Twilight, I broke one of my own rules--I ignored her. I hemmed and hawed and claimed that I would...and I didn't.

Rule #4 to building a reader--Take his/her recommendations to heart and give them a shot.

So I finally got around to reading Twilight last spring--actually I listened to it on tape in my car. I liked it. I wanted to find a copy so that I could read in addition to listen (now wouldn't that have been interesting?). I devoured the other two and of course snapped up Breaking Dawn immediately. I've since reread Twilight and seen the movie twice. Right now, I'm listening to the soundtrack. Hmmm, me a vampire-lover. Who woulda thunk it?

So now that I am intrigued by this world and want nothing more than to be bitten so that I too can possess ethereal beauty and super powers, I find myself looking for other fixes. I've had a hard time reading anything to completion since the end of Breaking Dawn. Maybe I'm making bad choices, but I've really struggled. Until now. My struggles are over. I have met Melissa de la Cruz and Schuyler Van Alen.

Melissa de la Cruz is the author of lots of teenage chic lit. But her Blue Bloods series is what has gotten me back in the saddle again. So far, there are three novels in the series and she promises to write at least 6. In the first, the reader is introduced to Schuyler Van Alen, a thrift-store shopping outcast at a ritzy, ultra-exclusive private school in Manhattan. She and her sidekick, Oliver, stick to themselves and try not be trampled on by the elite. However, she soon learns that her fate is intertwined with those that she tries to avoid. Schuyler is one of the 400 Blue Bloods, a vampire who recycles in and out of the Red Blooded world for all of eternity. As they reach their mid-teens, Blue Bloods begin their Transformation and begin to come into their memories--all of them.

The books are fast-paced and easy reads. There is some vocabulary that seems a little extraneous (isn't that ironic?), but for the most part, the reader can skim right over them. I did. The characters are both likeable and detestable. Schuyler makes a great protagonist, even though her fashion sense apparently leaves a little to be desired. Her direct antagonist, Mimi, hates her for not fitting in, but then learns to hate her for many more reasons. The book has the typical teenage drama--puppy love, school dances, and clubbing--but also deals with heavier vampire issues--immortal bonds, the Sacred Kiss, and age-old battles of good and evil. The books mix in a great deal of history--more so than the Twilight saga. Whereas the Cullens were turned, there are only 400 Blue Bloods. And that's it. So if something happens, they decrease in number. Period. No do overs.

I've really enjoyed to books. The only downfall? The 4th one doesn't come out until next fall. Maybe. :(

Re-Engage Adolescent Readers

No all secondary students who fail to read do so because they can’t read. Granted, there is a certain percentage who lack the basic skills needed to decode. And there is a larger group who do not read because, while they can “sound words out”, they can’t make sense, comprehend, what they read. But the largest majority choose not to read. In fact, their interest in reading lessens with the passing of each school year.

Yet the necessity of reading does not pass with the handing out of diplomas. High school graduates have to be able to read a wide variety of texts. It’s not just about literature and poetry—it’s about charts, ballots, internet information, maps, graphs, applications, warranties...the list goes on and on. Yet many of our students lack the sheer motivation to pick up a book and become a stronger reader.

Motivation can be described as a student’s willingness to read when he/she is not compelled to do so by academic assignments. High school students are not typically readers of habit. There are plenty of programs at the lower-levels that are designed to motivate them to read, but the results rarely last past the end of the program. In order to truly change reading habits, the reader must be intrinsically motivated. Therefore, the opportunities for choice and self-selection play a vital role in in developing a desire to read outside of academic assignments.

In order to generate intrinsic motivation to read, we must offer two things to our high school students: time to read and interesting texts. Providing opportunities each day to read texts of their own choosing can energize readers. This is where SSR fits into the scheme of things and how it can promote healthy reading habits. Students are more likely to finish reading a book that they started at school. Many times, without that chance to read at school, the book won’t get cracked open at all.

Student interest is another factor in creating intrinsic motivation. When it comes to voluntary reading, the subject of the text is critical. A book or article that matches a student’s interest is more likely to be read. In addition to giving the book a chance, a reader is apt to comprehend more when he/she is interested in the text. The interest level causes the reader to attend to the text more closely. A book or article of interest is more like to be read, and more likely to be understood.

Ultimately, the re-engagement of adolescent readers requires that they discover how meaningful reading can be in their own lives. This is only a few books, songs, audiobooks, or graphic novels away.

Rights vs. Responsibilities

A public university recently banned a website, juicycampus.com, from its campus servers. This is similar to what public schools try to do with social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. There are groups of people who want to cry "Free Speech" at the university and insist that it violates their Constitutional rights.

But where do our rights begin and end? What are our responsibilities as public institutions? The website in question is quite controversial. Students can basically write whatever they want, and they don't have to put their name on it. In fact, when you visit the site, here is the banner at the top of the page:

This is the place to spill the juice about all the crazy stuff going on at your campus. It's totally anonymous - no registration, login, or email verification required.

The posts range from the mild to the XXX. Some posts even have students' names as the subject line. Now I love a good story. I've been known to engage in a little tell-all. But, with verbal gossip, there's accountability there. When it comes out of your mouth, people can see your face. They can repeat it with your name attached. But when you log online, anonymously, it's out there for everyone and there is no accountability.

I think I applaud the Texas school for banning it from their servers. I think that young people need someone to lay down control once and a while for them--they often make decisions that aren't in the best interests for anyone. I'm all about free speech, but students and adults alike have to remember that with that right comes heavy responsibilities. And using this site to shirk those responsibilities is not good.

You are what you type.

We all grew up knowing that you are what you eat. Everything that you put in your body makes up the magnificent, or otherwise, temple that it is. Likewise, if you are a teacher, you are what you type.

There are a group of North Carolina teachers who are in hot water right now over their Facebook status postings, pictures, and other comments. Basically, they are learning a very hard lesson--what you put out into the world will come back to you ten-fold. Did no one sit these children down and explain to them that you don't even talk about students in the check out line at the Publix, because there may be ears listening to you? Did no one sit them down and tell them to keep their mouths shut?

The answer is, apparently not. In this world of media, our personal thoughts are out there for everyone to see and read. Right now, anyone visiting my Facebook page knows that I'm contemplating the lit review that's hanging over my head. What they won't read is about the more adult activities I might wander into later on this weekend (all of which are perfectly legal, FYI--so stop imagining the worst!). Do I edit myself when I visit my page or even my friends' pages? Of course I do! I'm a public educator. The key word is public. We are public servants and we must set an example for children that is above reproach, for the most part. We do have private lives, but when you post those pictures on the Internet for everyone to see, those lives aren't private anymore.

These young people made some unfortunate decisions. They made their private lives public. They invited people to search for them and read their personal thoughts about their jobs and their lives. But the fact remains, they chose to put those things out there for all to see. I leave school frustrated every now and then (and sometimes more now than then), but I don't vent about my children on my networking sites. I don't call my school "ghetto" or the children I work with "chitlins" (as they chose to, in very poor taste). Nor do I think that these thoughts are anywhere near appropriate for public posting.

It is a hard lesson for young educators to learn. They have to leave the wide open world of college, where just about anything is okay, and come to a society that expects you to be perfect and chaste---or at the very least to not have a life outside of school at all. It is the sacrifice that we make. It isn't easy. It's why I choose to live in another town from where I teach. But it is what we must do.

Podcasts in Education

I worked with a new tool recently. Podcasts. Sure, I'd heard of them and even subscribed to Robin Meade's for a while--though I never really listened/watched. So I was intrigued at how Podcasts could be used in education.

Basically, a podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files, distributed over the Internet through syndicated download. Students can use programs such as Audacity to create their own audio file, upload it to the internet, and then send it out for public sharing.

What a great way to do book talks! Students can prepare their book talks, and since teens so often don't want to get in front of their classmates, they can get on a computer and create their own podcast to be downloaded. Also, what a great way to record book club conversations. Students can plan out the skeleton of their conversation and then record the meat of the talk. It's a great way to increase accountability.

Podcasts are easy to use. If they're easy for adults, then no doubt students will be able to figure them out with little to no guidance. This is just one more thing for students to run with and showcase their learning.

Creating a Culture of Literacy

What happens to a school when it becomes so immersed in literacy that reading is a part of every child’s every day? What does that school look like?

Studies show that those schools find success in test scores—exit exams, end of course exams, college entrance exams. Studies show that those schools have higher graduation rates. And studies show that those students, those that become lifelong learners and readers, have
more success in their lives and become beneficial contributors to our democratic society.

Creating a culture of literacy is something that we have worked on here at Newberry High School. We have implemented sustained silent reading into our daily schedule. We have used book clubs, not only in English classes, but in human growth and development classes as well.
Teachers are using read-alouds to help students anticipate subject matter and build background knowledge. And the library has become a happening place to be. So what are you doing to help promote this culture we are striving to create? What more can you do?

It’s quite simple. You can promote literacy by using read-alouds in your classroom daily. Use picture books, newspaper articles, essays, or even primary documents to engage students in your lessons before you begin. Offer students time to reflect on reading and learning through a learning log, a journal, or an exit slip. Move away from your text book and make learning more authentic by offering authentic texts for students to sample from. And, lastly, show students what an adult reader looks like. You may be the only one he/she knows.

Book Club Fever

I've caught it. It's highly contagious. And I've got the fever. Book club fever, that is.

Everything that I read and breathe these days deals with book clubs. I'm in the middle of a major review of literature for a grad class, and I am proud to say that I chose something that I can truly enjoy. And I chose something that has widespread ramifications for the high school English class.

Good books demand good talk. Marginalized readers often do not understand how to find a book and a library, even a small classroom library, can seem very daunting. But get kids talking about the last book that they enjoyed and someone will surely step up and say, "I'll give that a try!" Book clubs engage student in that necessary talk.

The more I read and the more I see, the more powerful I realize book clubs are. And I've got the test scores to prove it. Students engaged in authentic book clubs are more likely to have significant gains on Measures of Academic Progress tests. Students grouped by like levels and then given a high-interest appropriate leveled book are even more likely to have significant gains. This shows great promise for our lower-level students. If structured correctly, I believe that they could improve grade levels over the course of just one school year. And that improvement is invaluable.

Working Translation Magic

Students who work their way to the higher levels of foreign language classes will find themselves faced with a translation nightmare. They are often handed packets of papers with the expectation that they will walk away with an understanding of the main ideas of the packet.

Many students attack this challenge the best way that they know how--word by word. They read and understand each word as they come to it, but they don't look at the piece as a whole. Each word has it's own meaning, but doesn't necessarily contribute to the overall meaning of the piece. The task is to understand the words first, and put meaning to them later.

I imagine this is not so different from the way that a struggling reader attacks a difficult piece of literature. Or that some of our AP students go about reading their AP assignments. They all become struggling readers at some point, no matter their age or reading ability level. We have to remind them to use context clues, connotations, and the basic vocabulary that they do know in order to figure out the rest.

This was my task in an advanced Spanish class. Filled with honors level students, they weren't used to struggling with reading and I heard more than one willingly give up the fight. The Spanish teacher came to me after a recent assessment and wanted my help figuring it all out. I took an old reading strategy that I'd had some success with, and revamped it to guide the students through the piece. And it worked. It worked well. The students used for boxes to organize their knowledge: 1) what they know for sure; 2) what they are still unsure of; 3) what assumptions or inferences they can make based on their knowledge; and 4) what words they have figured out by piecing the puzzle together. Of course this new strategy was heavily scaffolded. We did several paragraphs together--filling in the boxes and then writing a 2-3 sentence translation of the paragraph. Then I let them go just a little bit. They did the boxes on their own and we shared. Then they wrote their translations based on the combined knowledge. Finally, they were on their own to do the last two paragraphs. The teacher was thrilled at the results and the kids really understood the art of skipping words you don't know and using context clues to create meaning from the piece.

I imagine that this could be used with any "translating" that students are being asked to do. Remember, we ask our marginalized learners to translate every day that they enter our classrooms. We ask them to internalize our particular vocabulary and be able to use it effectively. And we forget that there are 7 other teachers doing the exact same thing.

Click here to visit my literacy page and see a copy of "Say Something" for the translation exercise.

Reaching a Reader

Let's call him Daniel. Protect the innocent, so to speak.

Daniel is not a reader. In fact, he is a senior that still hasn't passed the exit exam, a diploma requirement here in South Carolina. He's close--last spring he scored a 197. He has to have 200. And he wants nothing more than to be done with the test so he can enjoy the rest of his senior year.

He came to me at the beginning of the year, wanting help for his fall administration of exit. We wrote and went over rubrics. I used every trick in my bag. And I asked him what he was reading during SSR. He wasn't, and that was a little bit of a problem. He was reading the exit exam workbook during SSR--his choice, but hardly building a healthy reading habit.

At the end of one of our study sessions together, he handed me an open door. He apparently heard on the news that if you don't learn to really read by third grade, then you'll struggle the rest of your life. He felt like he was struggling and was doomed to continue to do so. It was the opportunity I had prayed for. Someone on the outside was telling him what his teachers were telling him--you have to be a reader. So we talked about what he was reading and how boring he thought it was. We left the conversation without true resolution to our problem--just with me telling him to read a book and him saying sure, whatever.

Fast forward to the following morning. He's in math class across the hall from me. His math teacher does SSR during first block, just like all first block teachers have been asked to do. Even though I'm on my way out the door to yet another meeting, I grad Day of Tears by Julius Lester off my shelf and thrust it at him. "Trust me," I say. "It's great. You'll really like it." Not much of a sale, but apparently enough of one.

Daniel read that book. In fact, one teacher told me that she couldn't get him to do anything else but read that book. And the next time that we met for test prep, he had finished it and we used it in our test question examples. He got it. He really got it.

He took the test this week. Now we are playing the waiting game. But I'm going to grab the chance to give him another book, and another, until the day that he walks across that stage.

Need a real good story?

Sometimes you just want to escape. You don't want to read what the kids are reading. You don't want to read what you SHOULD be reading. You just want a vessel to escape in.

I highly recommend Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Gruen has created two settings in her novel that completely envelope the reader--a nursing home and a 1930s circus. She switches between the two as the circus arrives in town, sparking the narrator, Jacob Jankowski, to remember his days with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. As the reader soon learns, the show is hardly spectacular behind the scenes.

I'm not a huge fan of the circus. I went when I was a kid. Loved it. But, now that I'm older and oh-so-much-wiser, I can see the circus for what it is--large animals in tiny crates, traveling on cramped trains and trucks, only to be poked and prodded into showing off for a crowd of cheering humans. I think Jacob would have shared my views.

Be warned--there's a twist in the novel. I didn't think a novel with a prologue could throw me a curveball, but it did. I couldn't put this one down. I loved it from page one and was totally enthralled in the picture that Gruen painted of a Depression-era circus. Great, great read!

Do you believe?

Fridays can be rough. You can get knocked down, ignored, yelled at, and cussed at (or around). But this a reminder of what we need. From the mouthes of babes...

http://www.dallasisd.org/keynote.htm

A Little YA Worthy of Attention

I'm constantly looking for good books for some of my Hispanic students--girls, especially. So I was excited to see Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez.

Rodriquez is the author of Dirty Girls Social Club, a piece of chick-lit about 6 Latina women who have remained friends despite different complications and triumphs throughout their 20s. I enjoyed DGSC for the relatively easy read that it was and I looked forward to Haters. It didn't disappoint--I think I enjoyed it more!

Haters has several stories--father-daughter drama, new kid in school, the quest for popularity, and boy meets girl. The main character and narrator, Paski, is uprooted from her home in Taos, New Mexico when her father, a cartoon artist, moves to LA for work. She ain't in Kansas anymore, that's for sure. She likes the diversity in her new school, but soon learns that the popluar girls all have intense cruelty in common. If it can happen, it seems to happen to Paski. There were several places where I wondered what, if any, storyline would be left out. Regardless, it is a good read and pretty PG rated. I did find myself rooting for Paski and pretty engrossed in her new life in LA. She is a strong role model, too--she is strong and independent and not afraid to embrace her individuality.

Haters is a good girly read for any student, but the Hispanic main character helps with some of our students that often don't have many choices.

A Classroom of My Own

Adapted from Sandra Cisnero's "A House of My Own"

Not a model lesson. Not a team-teaching experience. Not a guest appearance. A classroom all my own. With my own reading corner and piles of pillows, my peace lily. My books and my read-alouds. My posters hanging on the wall. Nobody to invite me in. Nobody to judge my performance.

Only a classroom, a tabula rosa, a space for magic, a place for knowledge.

We're reading this book because it's a great story.

In Kelly Gallagher's Deeper Reading, he notes that many of our students don't understand what it is like to lose yourself in a book. They are missing the moments that many of us remember as readers. That wait-a-minute-what-time-is-it moment. Our students don't understand what it is like to have the moments of a book linger in your mind long after the book itself is over.

There are moments from books that stay with me now, and Gallagher brought these back to mind for me. I remember the exact second that the horses hooves landed on Tom Booker's skull in The Horse Whisperer. I still feel vindicated when I think of Susan Hayes and the urine she substituted for her unfaithful husband's cologne in Sullivan's Island. My heart still hearts when I think of the great earthquake that snatched Elizabeth from the earth in On Leaving Charleston.

There are more moments from literature that make me happy, sad, vengeful, or vindicated. I know what it is like to lose myself in a book. I know what it is like to lose track of time, look up at the clock and realize half the night is gone, and still not be able to sleep for fear of losing that deep connection. I want my students to feel that love for reading. I know that telling them to read just because I said so isn't enough. They have to have that first experience in order to be willing to come back. I had it. It was when Rhett turned to Scarlett and said, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." My heart broke for her because over the course of the novel I had become her.

That was my moment and it led to so many others. What was yours?

The Role of Text Features in a Student's Success

I did a "mini" lesson (read one hour here--a little longer than expected) this week on the text features in a physical science book. I've done a mini-lesson on text features before, but felt like it fell flat and was not well-received. So I spent a great deal of time preparing for this one, trying to figure out how to make sure it wasn't just busy work; trying to figure out how to make analyzing text features interesting to tenth grade students.

I learned something interesting in the midst of poring over the physical science textbook. (We use Glenceo, FYI.) I found 13 different types of text within on chapter. Thirteen! I couldn't believe all the different types of text that students are expected to read, and are practically bombarded with as they move through the book. I'm not convinced that the average high school quite knows how to decipher all that he/she sees on the pages.

That, of course, was the purpose of my little lesson. We jigsawed the different parts of the chapter--sidebars/pull boxes; pictures/graphics; typography/color; organization/navigation; and how to prepare for a test. Students were engaged and willing to share what they learned. We called attention to parts of the text that they probably had not paid any attention to before. Hopefully, as their teacher moves them through the text, she can remind them of what they learned when they jigsawed the chapter and students will become more independent with their books.

Courtesy in the Halls

Does anyone else have this problem? The bell has rung to change classes. You try to role-play salmon spawning as you work your way up the hall. The biggest problem, though, is the groups of students that just stand. Right in the middle of the walkway. And then are angry with you for coming too close to them.

I read the Words of Wisdom every morning at our school and I looked hard today for one that said, Move out of my way! But, alas, that was not part of the wisdom portfolio. There were plenty concerning respect, though, and that is close. But how do we train our students to be respectful in the hallways? How do we teach them to get out of the way? To move expeditiously? I'm interested in hearing anyone else's solutions for this one. This is just my rant of the day!

Using Mentor Texts to Guide Writing

Katie Wood Ray says its all about "texts, texts, and more texts." If we want students to be good writers, then they have to be exposed to a wide variety of texts. The more reading experience they have, the better the writer that they will be.

So. Humph. I worked with a SAT-prep class today on essays. They were writing about power and corruption. There were some good, real-world examples in the essays. But the format of the essay...now that's another story. Our students often pigeonhole themselves into a five-paragraph format, or something close to it. The first thing that they do is repeat the question in the form of an answer. Then they very systematically give examples. The essays are almost perfunctory. There's no zest.

So I'm intrigued by the idea of influence from a mentor text. These students should be reading contemporary essays. (Of course, they should just be reading, period.) My hopes are that, through the use of mentor texts, they will see what authentic writing looks like and then will begin to experience such writing. Let's break out of the school-writing mode. Let's show students what real writers do and what they look like. Once they have those authentic writing experiences, then they are sure to improve.

And if you can write well, you can scale back and write to a formula. There's no problem.

Finding the Disconnect

How many times have we, as teachers, stayed up late at night to develop engaging lessons? We're so sure that they're the best lessons ever, but when we get the tests back, the grades range for so-so to oh-no. If you're anything like me, this has happened more than once.

Teacher reflection is the key to finding where the breakdown in learning begins. I sat down with a teacher recently to look at her tests. There were a variety of questions--matching, multiple choice, document-based, and essay. And the grades ranged from As to Fs. After pouring so much time into making the lessons engaging and hands-on, it was more than a little frustrating to see such an obvious breakdown in comprehension. So what caused it?

We sat down together to do an item-analysis of the tests and found where the biggest weakness was (besides student aversion to studying once in a while). Basically students were struggling with the bar graphs. This didn't show up in the lessons, but was glaringly obvious on the tests. All it took was a little time and even less effort and we were able to see one of the biggest barriers to student success.

Teacher reflection is key. We often blame the students for everything and sometimes we assume they know things that they, in fact, do not. I'm headed into that teacher's classroom today to do a little mini-lesson of graph reading. And the students will have a chance to look at their tests again.

Our next challenge--content area vocabulary.

An Unexpected Hiatus

I'm back. Finally. After unexpectedly taking nearly two months off. From blogging, that is. Nothing else has stopped over the last two months; I have just been swamped with work. I am working on some things, though, that I think will make for some interesting blogs--student-led book clubs, student motivation, test prep, and of course adult study groups. So stay tuned for some authentic musings from me. I promise to fully return this week. I've missed blogging.

Abstinence only?

There's a big difference in the two ways that sex education is taught. You have either abstinence-only or abstinence-plus. We are to teach students that abstinence is the only way. I would nickname us Positive Polly. Knowing the high school boys that I do, abstinence ain't gone happen.

But, with the abstinence-plus option, we can at least give students information about contraceptive use and let them know that options are out there. That does not seem to be the option in Texas.

In Texas, course materials dealing with sexual issues are reviewed by local advisory councils of parents and community members. This council decides what can be taught. And contraceptive use is omitted from health textbooks.

In 2006, 82% of parents surveyed wanted sex education that not only teaches abstinence, but also methods for preventing pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Nearly 70% of parents want schools to give lessons in the proper application of a condom. Yet, even though this demand is out there, Texas, leading the nation, has pledged nearly$20 million for education that teaches the psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sex.

What is wrong with this picture? The parents want it; the kids need it. If your high school is anything like mine, we should start talking contraceptive use in the fourth grade. There are plenty of YA novels to help ease this conversation. Angela Johnson's First Part Last is one of those. No matter what text you use, we have to open to channels for conversation about safe sex. Teenage pregnancy is nearing epidemic proportions and we must do our part as educators to educate our children.

Black Males and the Reading Acheivement Gap

What do we do with the students who come in, sit at the back of the room, put their iPod ear buds in, and tune us out? We know that they need specific instruction, but what can we do with them when they adopt their "cool" pose and insist that nothing we do is for them?

Alfred Tatum states that effective teachers of black males understand the need for moving beyond reading instruction. Its all about the texts. We must put texts in front of them that address the psychological and emotional scarring that occurs when you grow up black, male, and poor in America. And how do you do this? By building relationships. By understanding where the students come from. By integrating knowledge gathered, not only as an educator, but as a sociologist, an anthropologist, and a social worker.

In his book, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males, Tatum explores the roots of black turmoil and its effects on the teens that sit in our classrooms every day. Imagine going from a place where you are allowed to develop your own personal power and shared values in a strong community setting to a place where you have no political rights, are considered a piece of property, and are forced to live a new worldview. So much time in this new world convinces you that you are inferior. Inadequate. This is the historical lineage of our black male students. After coming to America, they were bombarded with the image of the black male as "subhuman, unintelligent, sexually promiscuous, idle buffoon" (27).

There are also present day factors that lend itself to this inferiority complex and the aftermath--urban economic neglect, pop culture, and the persistence of racial discrimination. (And if you don't believe that racism is alive and well, look at the Don Imuses of society. It is still alive and well.)

So how do our black male students respond? They adopt the "cool pose" (29). You know the student--pants below the waist, prolific profanity, the fist bump. The cool pose is a defense mechanism. It can account for just about anything--inner conflict and anxiety; social environment; rage in the face of racism and descrimination. The cool pose is a way for young black men to keep the world at bay until he figures out how to handle it.

But this coping mechanism has unfortunate side effects. It leads to authority issues, refusal to find experiences to aid in growth, reluctance to share with teachers, and a refusal to 'turn the other cheek' in the face of violence.

In order to help black males close the reading achievement gap, we have to lose the mentality that test scores are the sun and the students are in orbit around them. Data can be helpful, but can also pigeonhole students. We also have to ward off barriers to learning. If we expect students to be low acheivers, then they will be. We have to raise our expecations and beliefs of them so that they will have something to work for.

Lastly, Tatum addresses the need for multiple literacies. We must beware the misinterpretation of the cool pose--it isn't that they don't care. This misinterpratation can lead to "negative reciprocity". The student thinks the teacher doesn't care and the teacher thinks the student doesn't care so no one is doing what is best for the child. (And when it boils down to it, no matter the age or size, they are still children.) As we move away from a reading instruction style that is focused on test scores and begin to develop a complete understanding of the turmoil faced by young black men, we can work on the multiple literacies in the lives of black men: academic literacy, cultural literacy, emotional literacy, and social literacy.

As teachers, it is our responsibility to become personally invested in our black males and to move them beyond the existing curriculum. Instruction must hit students at their "life-level", not necessarily at their reading level. How would you like to be a 16-year-old boy, the bread winner of your home, and stuck in class all day reading Dick and Jane?

The Death of the Sentence? Oh my!

At the recent release of the NAEP scores, Librarian of Congress James Billington sent out a cry concerning the "slow destruction of the basic human thought--the sentence."

The most recent test scores show that only one-third of 8th graders in this country can write with proficiency. Billington, among many others, blame online communication and herald the end of the sentence as we know it.

This is no new debate. Text messaging and IM speak has been seeping its way into student writing since the turn of the century. If you work with high schoolers, you know that most of them come to you as poor writers. It is what has lead to such an influx of writing workshop-style classes, even at the collegiate level.

But the demise of that basic human thought goes back even further than the late 90s. Wilson Follett wrote for Atlantic Magazine that the sentence is a "structure greatly faithful to the pattern of consciousness" and insisted that the sentence was under attack. In 1937. At a time when sentences were long, loopy, and followed no strict grammatical rules.

Now our students are concise. To a fault.

What scares me more than the imminent demise of the sentence is the soon-to-follow revival of DOL--daily oral language. Grammar in isolation. My arch-nemesis. Students are not going to learn how to use commas correctly by copying a sentence with no commas and guessing where they are supposed to go. In fact, I would bet my next paycheck that more than half of the warm bodies in the room sit there and wait for the correct answer. So they are copying down WRONG SENTENCE STRUCTURES and then adding in commas, capitalization, etc. arbitrarily. Hmmmm...sounds like a sure fix.

So what can teachers do? Work with mentor texts. One teacher had great success with inner-city minorities and dictation. I have used short snippets that showcase what I want students to grasp. Working with descriptive passages? Pull out brief examples from a variety of young adult novels and let students highlight what they consider to be excellent details from the passage. Then they can go back to their own piece to make revisions.

Grammar instruction in isolation is not the answer. We can however embrace text-speak and teach students appropriate times to use it. This isn't a new battle for teachers. The enemy has just morphed into a new shape.

The Power of Book Clubs

"We were to experience how the ordinary pebble of ordinary life could be transformed into a jewel through the magic of fiction." (Reading Lolita in Tehran, 8)

To anyone who is a reader, there is no doubt that books change lives. The only thing stronger than a good book is the powerful conversations that surround that text. This is where the true power comes in.

Reading instruction at the secondary level is a tricky thing. How do you teach a seventeen-year-old mother to read? Where do you start? Do you do a miscue analysis and examine her grapho-phonic mistakes? You can. But imagine engaging her with literature that is on her life-level (Tatum) instead of on her reading level and then following up those textual experiences with genuine conversations. It is this type of reading, the reading for a discussion, that changes the nature of reading itself. This type of dialogue, with peers and with the text itself, help readers to rethink and re-envision who they are in context to their lives and how those lives relate to the text and the world around them.

Book clubs are our best chances to reach these students who feel like school has stopped reaching out for them. They view reading as a chore, not something that is enjoyable. Reading is a stringing together of symbols on a page. It's a scavenger hunt for similes and metaphors and foreshadowing, but not for understanding. Students don't search for how these things relate to the beauty of the work; they just know what these things look like in order to bubble in the right answers. But imagine a group of girls looking at the way a simile wraps itself around a comparision to create the image in a reader's mind. Imagine looking at the way a metaphor showcases the craftiness of an author.

This won't happen in isolation. But it can happen in valid, real-life conversations about books. It can happen in book clubs.

I'm looking forward to seeing the year-long effects of book clubs on teenage girls. The potential for life changes is great. As I work my way through the Nafisi memoir about her female book club in Iran, I see that book clubs can and will change the lives of the students involved in them. The conversations just need to be guided.

NBCTs do it better!

Or at least according to a new study reported on by USA Today. According to this study, students in classes taught by National Board Certified teachers make bigger gains on standardized tests than students taught by other teachers.

Interesting. The question, though, is the process of getting certified according to national board standards what makes teachers better or are those who are certified already top performers? What changes are the national boards process making to the face of public education today?

The number of teachers is growing, but is still fairly sparse. According to the survey, a mere three teachers in five schools are national board certified. States that supply additional incentives for those certified--such as South Carolina and its northernly neighbor--have high numbers of teachers who go through the process. However, teachers who are going through the process are less likely to work with marginalized learners, those students who need someone with passion, drive, and expertise.

So, are national board teachers making great gains or are they in a point in their career where they get to work with the kids who would pass the test anyway? It is an interesting question. I know some NBCTs who aren't changing the face of education dramatically. But what they are doing is reflective practice. One thing that the process is good for is forcing teachers to become more reflective in their teaching. The journal entries and videoed lessons help teachers look closely at what is and what is not working in the classroom. Teachers learn to look back at themselves when something doesn't go quite right instead of always looking back at the students for the answer.

Should you run right out and get certified if you haven't already? Not necessarily. If you live in a state that gives incentives, then it sure does help with the rising gas prices. But you can be a reflective practitioner. Keep a journal. Reflect on the drive home. And for goodness sakes, stop looking outwards and start examining what you can do differently.

What Really Works with Struggling Readers

I just finished deeply reading a 2004 article from English Journal by Dauna Howerton and Cathy Thomas. Their article, "Help for High School Students Who Still Can't Read," gives powerful insight into what secondary teachers can do to help their struggling readers in high school classes. There were many interesting points made, with vignetters offering realistic examples.

So what does matter with struggling readers? What does work? I recently sat through an extensive sales pitch (even though it wasn't supposed to be) that offered lots of options for testing and identifying needs in struggling readers, but I did not run out and buy anything. There is really only one thing that works for struggling readers. Reading. That's it. That's the magic answer. They just need to read more. And they need to read stuff that they like.

The fact is that our students start to see a decrease in the desire to read around the 4th grade. What does this coincide with? Standardized testing, for one. But also an increase in nonfiction texts in science, social studies, and health. Not exactly page-turning-reading, you know?

Unfortunately, as Howerton and Thomas pointed out, our reading programs lack the systematic instruction to help students with these new types of texts. From third to fifth grade, students can receive at least sporadic skill instruction, but this instruction is buried in a content-focused ELA class more and more as students move into upper grades. They simply do not get the skill instruction that they need. However, regardless of skill level, students can gain leaps and bounds in reading ability by simply reading more and reading at their "life level" (Tatum).

We use book clubs in human growth & development at NHS. The teacher has selected several texts that support the curriculum covered over the course of the semester. These students, mostly tenth graders, are tested using the Measures of Academic Progress test at the beginning of the year, sometimes the middle, and at the end. Students in the lower percentile of reading levels showed large gains in RIT ranges after participating in the content area book clubs.

Another guaranteed method for increasing student fluency--something recommended by every great literacy thinker and tried and proven in classrooms--is reading to students. This something else that has been tried at NHS. The teachers that do it always come back to me and can't believe that even their hardest kids will sit still and be read to. The students love it, no matter the age. As Howerton and Thomas point out, "story time" is often long gone by high school, but the benefits are not. Hearing someone read expressively from a text can help improve student fluency levels and that can only aid in comprehension of more difficult texts.

So want to see great gains in your student acheivement? Read to them and give them time to read for themselves. That's really all it takes, believe it or not. If you want the hard data, stay tuned. I'm gathering and will post it as I find it. Happy reading!

Is grafitti art?

My principal brought an idea to me today that I'm struggling to turn into a reality. Our kids put grafitti all over the walls, the lockers, the bathrooms, themselves...anywhere that is still long enough to draw on, they are all over it. So how do we channel that into positive writing experiences?

He wants to do a grafitti wall in our school so that students will have a place to write freely and maybe we'll see the outside grafitti decrease. This intrigues me. How does this work in a school? Do we use plywood? Chalkboard paint? How do we keep gang signs off the board? Where is it located?

So this is my mission...and I need some input. Has anyone tried a grafitti wall in their class or their school? What works? What doesn't? What are the benefits? Advice needed!

For the Class of 2008

Its hard to believe that all around us, newly diplomaed high school graduates are being released unto the world. Look out. Trust me, I've seen these kids for the past 4 years and you are not ready for them.

But for the class of 2008, I do have some advice. I've stood in front of our school every morning for the last two years and preached to them the importance of thank yous, you're welcomes, and a profanity-free vocabulary. Here is my last installment of this year's words of wisdom...

• Read. There are things that you cannot possibly find out in the real world, things that are only afforded to you through a book. Open one up every now and then and see you life be enriched beyond your wildest imagination.
• On that same note, read to your children. You will save them some of the heartache that you have suffered as students if you just open a book for them early in life. Show them the power of the written word and remind them of it daily. They will soar as high as you will let them.
• Wear sunscreen. This advice was given to the class of '99 in a fairly popular song of the time. It has not dimished in its power--wear sunscreen. Some of you will be alligator hides in a matter of years. Seal the lid of your tanning bed, put on at least some 15, and take care of the skin that you are stuck with for the rest of your life. If nothing else, look at Priscilla Presley as your Glamour Don't--plastic surgery CAN ruin your life.
• Open-toed shoes are great. Pairing them with panty hose or tights is your worst idea yet. Go with one or the other. No matter what the fashion mags say, let your cute pedi show!
• Invest in a nice set of slips. A nude, a white, a black...maybe more than one of each color. Some may tell you that these are out of date as well, but they aren't. Buy one that fits properly and it will give you a nice smooth line in your dresses. (BTW--don't look for them at Target. Apparently they don't have enough demand for them and they don't carry them anymore.)
• Learn something new every day. The world does not end at high school. There is much more to be learned and gained out there. Get out and explore and learn all that you can about the world around you.
• Look both ways before you cross the street. Look before you leap. Think about the lifelong implications of the day to day decisions that you make. Taking that path may not seem big now, but how will it effect you later on in life?
• Be kind. Above all else, be kind. Good karma will surround you for all of your days and will bless you endlessly.

So, that's it. That's my recipe for a good start to the next phase in life. This does not guarantee success. If you want that, stir in some hard work, diligence, and perseverance. At this day, the world is at your fingertips. But you have to be the one to get up and grab it.

What We Say when we Speak to Students

There is a gift that some teachers are born with. The ability to tame the beasts that are this generation of teenagers with a single word. Its uncanny the children that they can reach with their humor, their sarcasm, their love.

Then there are those adults that are just the opposite. They seem to antagonize students with every word that they utter, every grunt that issues from their lips. Although they wouldnever admit to hating teenagers, the disgust drips from the words as they float down the hallway.

I'm lucky. I'm of the former crowd. Students who I never thought I would be able to reach seem to be willing to meet me halfway. I can make wisecracks and joke around and be stern--I'm taken as I am.

I sat in my office this morning and listened as a colleague cajoled a student for going to class, "just ten minutes after the tardy bell." The student was told that going to class was probably a good idea, since this was still school and all. The words are not that hateful and their intentions are not to wound, but they did. They fell on ears that weren't receptive to that sort of conversation. And the student shut down just a little bit more.

When we speak to students, they remember it. We can scar them with what we say, and even what we don't say. They are children, after all. Even though their language doesn't show it and their actions don't show it, they are still children at heart and they can be bruised easily.

I'm not perfect. I cringe sometimes when I'm in a bad mood and hear myself not being so nice. But I try to think about what I'm saying to others before it comes out of my mouth.

Tips for Hosting an Author

The end of the year is near and I am looking for another author to visit Newberry High. We have hosted both Alex Flinn and Sharon Draper in the last two years and there is no better way to kick off your literacy campaign.

Before you rush out to book your author visit, here are some lessons that I've learned. Learn them here and save yourself some time and heartache.

~ Plan in advance. Popular authors are booked a year or more in advance. You may be let down early on if you aren't thinking about next spring already.

~ Know the author. Sharon Draper is probably the best author to ever visit a school. (Note that she is starting to limit her travel a little bit.) She was a school teacher in her former life and she brings that aura onto the stage with her. Some authors are not very good public speaker, and that does not make for a good visit with your students.

~ Know your students. You don't necessarily want to put all the sweat and tears into bringing in someone like Carl Hiassen when your kids are more like the Bluford Series. Realize what they like to read and find an author that will deliver--the visit is for them after all.

~ Be ready to spend some money. There are grants out there to help you with this, but be prepared. The author alone is going to cost anywhere form $1,500 to $3,000 just to darken your door. Now add in travel cost. Don't forget the hotel. And if you really want to make the visit a huge success, add in the cost of the book for every student in your school. For our Sharon Draper visit this year, each student got a copy of one of her books (determined by their grade level and curriculum). This set our students on FIRE about the visit. And it ensured that every student had the opportunity to read one of her books before she came on campus, a must for a successful visit.

~ Study the contract carefully. Most authors come with a contract for their visit and some very particular requests. The water may need to be room temperature. They may not be willing to speak to gyms. Study this contract so that both of you have a nice day with your students.

~ Bask in the glory of a literacy revolution at its heyday. An author visit can really set your school on its ear about reading and you can't replicate those benefits.

Now that I've imparted my little bit of knowledge, anyone have any recommendations? I'm strugging to find someone for next year!

Great YA Lit!

I really took my time getting around to reading Stephanie Meyer's vampire series. I actually bought a copy of Twilight last spring and it sat, unread and unopened, on my bookshelf until some student came and kept it for herself.

Why did I wait? What was I thinking? I finally experienced Twilight on audiobook earlier this month. It was a long, drawn-out experience and I savored every morsel. I've never had much success with audiobooks, but I found myself looking forward to my morning commute. The book was amazing.

If you haven't checked out this series (starting with Twilight and then followed up by New Moon and Eclipse), its about vampires. Bella Swann, an innocent little junior in high school moves up to Washington to live with her father. There she meets the Cullens, who are a family of vampires. The books chronicle their perils and their growing relationship. Now, probably the most unrealistic part (aside from the vampire thing) but also the most beautifully written part, is the love that grows between Edward Cullen and Bella. It is truly a beautiful thing, but if you know high school juniors, it isn't really realistic.

I'm through with the second in the series now and I have loved every second. Pick up a copy, if you haven't already. I've heard that high school libraries can't keep them on the shelves anymore.

A new Twist on an Old Conversation

Written conversations. Its a nice way to let students pass notes in class. They get to talk to friends, quietly, and you get to read their thoughts on what you're teaching. Written conversations are great ways to find the breakdown in communication from your lesson to their brains.

A sociology teacher in my study group has taken the written conversation to a whole new level. Her students have been watching "Kid Nation" in order to analyze group dynamics in society. (This is a unique idea in and of itself.) Last week, she took the written conversation to a whole new level. After printing out bulletin posts from the ABC website regarding the show, students passed the posts around and responded in the same fashion. Students showed insight into the show and the reactions of others. Talk about bringing authenticity to your classroom!

That had me thinking about other ways to incorporate this new conversation into other classrooms. Teachers can find bulletin posts regarding their subject, or they could make their own. If Jay Gatsby kept a blog, what would he write about? What sorts of posts would he make to Daisy's blog? What type of bulletin would be written about the Boston Massacre? The possibilities are endless. Students can respond to posts and show a higher level of thinking about the content.

And he's still reading from that d@mn book!

Teacher reflection is important. In fact, its vital if you want your students to avoid statements such as the one above. If you want to know what is working and what is not, then just ask your students. They'll tell you. And no matter how important you think the material is, listen to what they are telling you--if they don't find the authenticity in your lesson, then they aren't learning anything.

There are some easy ways to avoid the pitfalls of thinking that you know what your students will find important. First and foremost, involve them in your planning process. This is much easier said than done, but not totally impossible. Teacher assistants are the best for this--its some one on one time with a young mind and you can pick it for free. You can also poll your students or have them create their ending project. Not every part of your lesson is going to appeal to your class and not every part of your lesson is going to fall flat. You can allow students to further their education on their own by looking for something that they are interested in.

Exit slips are another great way to see what is failing and what is winning. Have students give you two stars and a wish for your lesson. You'll see very quickly if that read aloud is as interesting as you seem to think it is.

My one last soap box for the day...don't be the student that you complain about. As a coach, I get to see up-close-and-personal why our students have the habits that they do. I have really tried hard the last few years to erase those habits in myself--they aren't very attractive. Its easier said than done, but its worth it.

19 Minutes as a Literacy Coach

In 19 minutes, I can...
...find a bang-up lesson online to help ease a teacher's planning frustration.
...complete a purchase order for new books that will change a teacher's pedagogy forever
...plan a study group agenda
...teach a reading strategy
...stop a breakdown
...read a new professional book chapter
...organize a read-aloud with a follow-up activity that will seal the learning
...box up a class set for delivery to a new teacher
...write a blog
...lay the groundwork for critical literacy in our curriculum
...reignite the passion in a weary, overworked veteran
...thank a teacher for a job well-done
...get an entire student body fired up about books
...booktalk four books that will be checked out for two months straight

In 19 minutes, I can start the revolution!

On Mastery

Since becoming a coach, I've spent much time thinking about failure and mastery and student achievement. Teachers work hard to "cover" their standards and curriculum. Teachers feel end-of-course tests breathing down on them and thoughts of merit-based pay don't help.


So what is mastery? According to Rick Wormelli in Fair Isn't Always Equal, mastery is more than knowing information. Mastery is applying information, manipulating information. Howard Gardner says that true understanding involves the appropriate application of the concepts and principles to questions or problems posed. In other words, knowing what to do and when to do it. Not only knowing x equation and y equation, but knowing which one is appropriate for z problem. Knowledge implies the reinvention of new knowledge by the student.


So how do we achieve mastery in our classes? How do we know when students fully understand the new concepts?

One way is to expect students to elaborate on how they arrived at their conclusion through writing. Written responses reveal misconceptions that oral retelling cannot. Students can gloss over their insecurities through voice inflections and body language and they make it easier for us to believe that they understand the concepts. They can't do this to you in writing. It is either there or it isn't.

Remember that mastery and recitation are not the same. Mastery involves application and manipulation. Students can recite and remember and fool you good, but they may not have achieved mastery yet. Have them write it out--see where the confusion lies.

Authentic Literacy

Generous amounts of close, purposeful reading, rereading, writing, and talking are the essence of authentic literacy.

I have recently started to pay close attention to the buds beginning blossom around Newberry High. It's spring and though the late freeze might have gotten some of them, others are filling out nicely. There's an interesting metaphor here, because what has truly caught my eye is the blossoming literacy practices around NHS. There are pockets of greatness that I'm starting to pay attention to. Sometimes accountability (the freeze) can get them, but most of the time they are strong enough to endure.

There are several teachers that are experimenting with supplemental texts in their content area classes. The human growth teachers are a great example of this--they have truly taken the concept of literature circles and made them their own. Some of the social studies teachers are beginning to dip their toes and experiment with the possibilities that YA lit can bring into a classroom. English I and II teachers have incorporated the Janet Allen curriculum which uses YA lit to teach the universal literary themes that used to be taught through classics that didn't reach a single student.

This is what gives me hope. We are showing promise. We just have to get it to spread. "Literacy liberates." We have to teach our students the value of reading in order to help them leave their current world behind. Schmoker points out that 40% of those born into the bottom economic fifth stay there as adults. Literacy liberates. It is what our students need to break the cycle.

Of course we can't do this alone and it is easy to use the lack of parental support and lack of time as a crutch. As a reason for not trying as hard as we can. We have to fight against this. We can't let anything stop us from being the very best teacher that we have the ability of being...and then going further. It really is never enough. But the rewards are endless.

All you have to do is ask!

What a novel idea! Ask and you shall receive! I don't intend for you to take this and ask for miracles, but I do want you to ask your students what they need. They'll tell you. Its really that simple.

I'm in the middle of a persuasive essay with two classes of juniors. We did a ton of frontloading--research, website reviews, persuasive writing exercises--you name it. (There are some great activities in Barry Lane's Why We Must Run With Scissors.) At one point during planning, I was lucky enough to be sitting in the midst of several students, albeit advanced students, but teenagers nevertheless. I sat there and pondered what I wanted to do next in the unit (no I didn't have it mapped out beforehand--I could plead the balance of two different jobs, but this is pretty typical for me). I talked things out with the students around me. I asked them what they would want me to do. They, of course, offered up how this compared with what their teachers weren't doing, but I did get some good advice.

So I sat down to do written conversations with my students. They turned in rough drafts and I expended hours writing letters to each of them. Typing made the letter writing easier and faster, but I got to give personal advice to every child. They got those letters and their rough drafts back yesterday. They were floored. They could not believe that I had taken time to not only read their work but actually talk to them about it. They were actually grateful.

So, with my letters in hand, final drafting began. We didn't get done yesterday. There's a lot of work left to do with these essays before they are up to snuff. At the end of class, I jumped out on a limb and did the unthinkable AGAIN--I asked them what they wanted from me next. I told them that they weren't quite done, but if they would like, I would read what they had typed up and type my comments in the paper. They all went for it. No one said, no, just grade mine. No one said, I'm ready to be done with this. They all went the route of improvement.

They saw that I was out to make them better writers and they came on the journey with me.

Oh, were time not an issue!

Were time not an issue, think of all I could do. Were time not an issue, think of all that I could teach. Were time not an issue, think of the changes we could all make.

I'm sitting here working on individual letters to my juniors regarding their persuasive essays. This way every student gets a personalized letter from me with instructions and suggestions for how to make their final draft fantastic. This is a great way to talk to students one on one before they construct their final draft. As to whether or not they'll take my suggestions or just try to flit their way through the assignment, we'll see. While taking my advice will make them better writers, it also makes more work.

Written conversations between students and between the teacher and students is a valuable way to talk about learning. In a class of 20 to 30 students, maybe even more, it is hard to find time to conference with each student. Then, in group conferences, there are always students who don't get addressed and don't speak up. Getting thoughts out on paper allow students to process their information. If we didn't write, how would we know what we think?

The Struggle of Balance

I adore my job. I hesitate to call it a job most days, because I really, really enjoy working with kids--even when they are driving me crazy. Coaching has given me a new and unique perspective; teaching part-time and coaching full-time has only deepened my appreciation for both jobs. My problem--I can't be a little of either. I'm an all or nothing kinda girl.

This is my third year as a literacy coach under a state grant with the South Carolina Reading Initiative. The first year, I spent two days a month in training and the rest of my time being a full-time teacher. That was quite a year--I was constantly looking at my own pedagogy and making changes. I was much more aware of what I was expecting my students to do and how well they were achieving.

The second year, last school year, was my first year out of the classroom. I had an office. I did conference presentations. I taught a graduate class on campus. I worked with individual teachers. While all this was going on, I was still attending training sessions and I was still very much learning what to do. The learning curve is steep when you are supposed to be the expert in your field.

This year is my third year under the grant and my second year out of the classroom. Being sans children really began to take a toll on my psyche. I didn't look forward to work. The assignments for my training have really pulled me down and I find myself being more and more frustrated. So when an English teacher left mid-year and I was asked to step in for two of the classes, I all but jumped at the chance. This is what I was born to do, no doubt. My assistant principal recently visited and called it a symphony to watch.

But there aren't enough hours in the day for both jobs. I find myself wanting and needing to spend all of my time on a group of students who were abandoned for 3 months after their teacher left. I find myself needing to be the best teacher that I can possibly be and spending hours searching for new ways to teach things. I truly struggle to balance both jobs well.

This is where my calendar comes in handy. Now that 3rd quarter grades are done and entered, I can get back to keeping a strict schedule with my teachers. I'll be able to get out of my office and spend my spare time watching others teach and helping them improve. Its a fun job too--its not too far-fetched from creating lessons to intrigue reluctant learners. Only now its morphing new and innovative practices into something that anyone can implement.

When "Say Something" Isn't Enough

Spring break did not last nearly long enough. Its only Tuesday, so why do I feel like I never left?

I took the break quite literally--I did no schoolwork, no blogging, no professional reading, no nothing. Of course I took everything home with me; I always do. This year, I even went so far as to unload it from my car and sat it next to my kitchen table. And that is where it was Monday morning when I loaded it all back up. I really should just learn not to bother taking things home.

I've hit the ground running as a coach since my return. I gave my law ed. teacher some spring break homework. We are going to teach his class An Hour to Kill, a true-crime story based on a murder in Conway, SC. Now working our way out of the textbook is enough to rock his world right off its base. So I am wracking my brain for reading strategies that are easily implemented and assessed to pair with the novel, and that is easier said than done. I don't want to throw him totally under the bus because I know he can feel it bearing down on him. (Can't we all at this point?)

I've pulled out an old standby that I've used with students and teachers alike--"Say Something". This strategy can be found in When Kids Can't Read What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers (an awesome reading strategies handbook for any content area). The strategy forces students to bring their cognition to the forefront by making them do one of five things--predict, connect, comment, clarify, or question. I have a great organizer for students and have even used sentence starters to help them with the strategy. What I've noticed, though, is that they seem to get stuck on the comment section. Its like its the easiest one to do and that is almost where they hang out--in their comfort zone. So as I've prepared for my law education teacher, I've revamped the categories.

Many of the strategies are the same, just worded a little differently. I want to push students to think in different directions and I want to offer direct, on-point questions to help them get there. Here are my changes:

Where do you think the author is going with this? (I want students to really examine what they are reading and imagine why the author is giving us such information and what he/she will do with it.)

What are you confused about? What do you still want to know? (I want students to realize that questions come in many types--they can indicate confusion as well as curiosity.)

What can you assume or infer about the characters and/or action? (I had the novel in mind when I created this question. As students learn more about the accused, I want them to develop their own beliefs.)

Make a comment about something you've read.

How can you relate to the characters or the action of the story?

Tomorrow I'll be trying out my new thinking prompts. This activity is best done when modeled repeatedly. Its also best done while reading aloud, either in groups or as a whole class. Beers recommends students working in partners to read to one another and then write each others' thoughts on the organizer. Once students have internalized the expectations, they will be able to notate on the text itself.

The Buffer

I've been reading Mike Schmoker's Results Now. Its very in-your-face about pedagogy. He argues that if student achievement is to improve then instruction will have to improve. He writes about the "buffer"--a protective barrier that discourages and even punishes close scrutiny of instruction in public schools. We like to think that we are closely scrutinized--what with all the standarized testing and such, how are we supposed to teach? But are we really? As a classroom teacher, I can think of merely a handful of times that someone has visited my classroom to remark on my pedagogy. As a literacy coach? Please. Sometimes I fear that they don't understand what I do at all.


What I have noticed, as a coach, is that once deemed competent, you can trust that you will be left alone. We all get wrapped into our own worlds and let the business of the school year consume us. The best intentions of classroom visits quickly go awry.

So what can we do to keep this buffer from growing and enclosing us in our rooms? My high school has tried for two years now to get teachers to visit other classrooms. Last year we were supposed to visit 16 rooms over the course of the year. At the end of the year, teachers were scurrying around--not to get their visits in, but to just get signatures saying that they did. There was no accountability for the visits. Just get the signature and turn it in. This year, we were expected to do 8, but I can probably bet that nothing has changed.

Its not that school-wide observations are such a bad idea. I think teachers visiting other teachers is an optimal way to bring our pedagogy out into the light. However, starting at 16 isn't the way to go. Why not getting teachers to visit 2 or 3 in a semester? Why not encourage teachers to visit others in their department first?

Another way to bring pedagogy to the forefront is to have teachers video themselves and then write up a reflection on their teaching styles. Now this requires a lot more work on behalf of the teacher, but the results are limitless. Teachers can see their strengths and weaknesses right there on TV. They can replicate the strengths and hopefully eliminate the weak behaviors.

The buffer needs to be eliminated, but it has to happen in small steps. In a perfect world, administrators have more time to visit classrooms. Teachers are in and out of each other's classrooms in order to learn from one another. We are constantly reflecting on what we are doing. But for now, maybe a few peer observations and some brave souls videoing themselves will start the crumbling of the buffer.

A Tale of Two Women

If you're lucky, you have a professional mentor. Someone that you look up to and maybe even strive to be like. I'm extremely lucky. I have two.

Lorraine Paris was a formidable woman that struck fear in the hearts of not too few adults. I can remember seeing her from a distance as a child and being wary of her myself. She was the band director at the high school for 47 years and had a widespread reputation for molding the lives of young people. She was renowned in South Carolina for her work with the fine arts, not only at her own high school, but with the state organization of band directors and other high schools as well. To say she was tough is an extreme understatement--the opposite of hyperbole, if you will. She retired the same year that I graduated and I moved on, carrying with me the lessons that she taught and an assurance that I would probably blend in with the thousands of other faces in her memory. I was very wrong. Shortly after my graduation from Carolina and my hiring at Newberry High, I attended the annual band banquet with my parents and my younger sister. The woman, who I felt sure would not be able to call my name, congratulated me on my new job and told me how proud she was. Needless to say, I was in shock.

Those words were powerful and I have worked to live up to them every day since. A few years into my teaching job, Ms. Paris told me she heard what a wonderful job I was doing in the classroom and that she was not surprised. Her compliments were not given out lightly and I cherished them greatly. Still do, actually.

Physically opposite of Ms. Paris, but no less hard-nosed, was my high school assistant principal. Charlene Burton is short in stature but powerful in attitude. She is infamous for her power suits and tennis shoes (a fashion faux pas to be sure, but easy to maneuver around the high school, no doubt). By the time I worked my way through college, decided I would never be a teacher, and took a job as a long-term substitute, Mrs. Charlene gave me the best professional advice ever. Advice that I have followed since. Once I decided that teaching was indeed the life for me, she made sure that I understood that every time I moved to a new school, I would be starting over. I've held that advice close and thought long and hard before making a school change. She shined the light on the theory of the evil you know vs. the evil you don't.

Both of these women were the epitome of professionalism in my eyes. There is no doubt that I have fallen short many, many times, but I know that I will continue to strive.

Demonstrating Learning

Remember Charlie Brown’s teacher? She always came across with “wuh-wa-wuh-wa-wa-waaaa”. Who knew what she was talking about? Have you ever thought about what our students hear about 15 minutes into a lecture? I’ll give you one guess.
Telling students what to do cannot replace showing them how to do it. Someone should have told Charlie’s teacher to show, don’t tell.

Brian Cambourne studied the conditions of learning for more than 20 years. At the core of his research lies none other than student engagement. When engagement is up, discipline problems are down. Test scores are up. Achievement is up. Fun is up—for everyone involved.

One condition of learning that Cambourne has zeroed in on is demonstration learning. Demonstration is the “ability to observe (see, hear, witness, experience, feel, study, explore) actions and artifacts”.

One popular demonstrational technique for teaching reading is the think-aloud. This way, you, the experienced reader in the room, can provide the key to unlock the text. Remember that all of our content areas come with a new set of vocabulary. Students need the demonstration of cognitive strategies to help tackle the material in front of them.

Students can learn to parrot back answers, but that is neither thinking nor learning. Teachers can demonstrate thinking as a way to move beyond the questions. We need to show students that comprehension doesn’t stop with knowing all the answers. It often means that you are just starting to find the questions.

Demonstrating the process of learning rather than teaching chunks of information is one of the best practices that secondary content area teachers can use, especially when teachers are struggling to cover more and more content each year. While thinking aloud through the text may be daunting for content area teachers, it is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate to students how to access a particularly difficult text. Remember, you are the expert in the room. Share your expertise.

The Best Homework Assignment Ever

Crunch time is here. High school teachers are furiously preparing for state-mandated standardized testing--HSAP, EOC, etc. The list goes on and the teachers are sweating.

Lester Laminack recently shared with a group of teachers the following epiphany: "In our tenacious and arduous efforts to prepare our students for spring testing of their reading, writing, math, and science skills, let's not forget that it is our students who love to read who are most likely to be most successful on any test."

What a thought--if they are readers, then they will be prepared for whatever is thrown at them in whatever format. The tests don't seem to be going away. So if we are going to thrive in this world, what can we do for our children? There's an easy answer, believe it or not. But its not a program and you won't necessarily see results within the month so its a hard sell. Books cost money and SSR takes time and a little bit of effort. But if we make kids readers, then they will be prepared for college, for the workplace, for the world. We will create citizens that can actually contribute to our society.

Check the prison statistics. They are illiterate. They are high school drop outs. They are not contributing members of our society. They are the repeat offenders. Teaching kids to read and to love reading will not only prepare them for tests and college, but it will prepare them for the world. The results will be cyclical--they will only pass on a love for reading.

Imagine that--a world with a passion for the written word. What a world that would be.

The Act of Malpractice

We go to the doctor's office for our appointment and we expect him/her to be on the up and up with new technologies and treatment methods. We most certainly would scream in agony if he/she came around the corner with a jar full of leeches (although supposedly some people still do this). I have a feeling that a majority of us would be off the table and out the door with or without a stitch of clothing on.

We call this malpractice--which Webster's defines as "a dereliction of professional duty or a failure to exercise an ordinary degree of professional skill...". Basically, not doing your job as it is expected of you, and therefore causing harm to others.

That doesn't apply to eductors, though, does it? I mean, no one's life is in danger or anything. Its only their future and livelihood. Wait a minute, is it that serious? Yes, it is. Failure to do your duty as an educator is malpractice. We have answered a high calling. Education is an ever-changing field and in order to be the best we can be, we must change and adapt with it. It is our duty to be up on the newest best practices and to actually attempt to implement them. If we know that students don't learn vocabulary in isolation, then its our duty to find something that will work. If we know that grammar is best taught in context, then we should incorporate writing workshop into our lessons and address the problems of our students that way.

This is our duty. Its what we are supposed to do--teach children. To do less is malpractice.

The Authenticity of Research

We speak so often of making learning authentic for our students, but what does that mean? What should we be teaching them to help them prosper in their next life? Is it recognizing rhyme scheme and personification? Probably not. But there are some valuable English lessons that can help our students in the future. Research and presentation are two of those such lessons.

Students should be taught how to discern bias in texts. Teenagers these days, it seems, believe anything in writing. Its as if its on the web, it must be true, even though they know that people put up rumors and lies all the time. But if the page so much as looks official, then it must be fact. Wikipedia has been the bane of educators in recent years. Students use it as a source, yet the very definition of a wiki is a readable, writeable space. This is not a lesson that should be discounted lightly. Students can explore Wikipedia for fact and opinion. Students can even go so far as to edit pages with their own knowledge. Classes can work together to create their own wikispace that will reflect student learning (see www.nhsenglishiii.wikispaces.com for how I am using this).

Students should also learn how to evaluate websites. If students plan to continue breathing, they need to know how to find reliable information on the web. The Internet is not going away. I don't believe that it will totally replace books--there's something sacred about the turning of a page. But the Internet is only going to grow, as is the information available on it. It is more important that students know how to determine the reliability of a web page than it is that they can document it. I don't discount the MLA lesson--I'll conduct one myself tomorrow--but let's weigh things appropriately. How many professions insist that you document your sources? Yet how important is it that, as adults, we be able to evaluate the information we're being given?

I'm going to tie research in with persuasion in my next teaching unit. I've started with several quickwrites (to be shared later) to get the persuasive wheels rolling. Students will be required to evaluate webpages based on their subject of persuasion. This will be a great way to start their research and also get them thinking about reliable sources. Wish me luck--we're using the laptop carts and you never know if they'll work or not!

Teaching (and Allowing) Students to Think

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

This month's Educational Leadership deals completely with teaching our students to think. This may seem like a daunting task, but it isn't completely impossible. Our students came to us with the innate ability to think. No one had to teach that to them—they were born thinking and questioning constantly. But do they come to us thinking critically, skillfully, and creatively? Most often, they do not. As teachers, we need to help them hone their thinking skills so that they continue to confront the world around them with questions, know how to arm themselves with data, explore various alternatives, and even predict consequences of their actions.

But how? Skillful thinking is something that must be polished, refined. One way that we can help our students learn to think is by bringing our own cognition into the open. By bringing our thinking practices out to be analyzed by others, students can emulate them and therefore become more mature thinkers on their own.

During class, use the terminology in context. Label and identify your own cognitive strategies and instruct students using that terminology, i.e. “I can infer that…”. You can also use thinking maps, graphic organizers, and other visual tools to help students break down the steps of a seemingly daunting task. As a teacher, model problem solving, decision making, and investigating. Continue to be a learner yourself so that your own thinking does not grow stagnant.

What is probably the easiest and quickest way to get students to start thinking on their own? Give them time. Yes, you may have to wait a little bit. They know that you don’t like dead silence and that you will tell them the answer if they sit still enough. Break that habit today. Wait, repeat the question, and give them time to think about it.

Help for Struggling Readers

I'm sitting here preparing my book study for tomorrow. We have our entire faculty studying Subjects Matter by Daniels and Zemelman. I'm trying to come up with something to change their pedagogy forever.

That is easier said than done. The fact is, nothing helps readers more than reading does. Its a skill and, with skills, if you don't use it you lose it. For some reason, this is a recognized fact, but not something that we truly want to address. If we know that students need more time reading in class, then why in the world aren't we offering it? It seems to me that the answer to our troubles is quite simple.

However, educators--most specifically, teachers--do not rule the world. The people that are making decisions that affect our classrooms have often never set foot in a classroom themselves. It seems easy to expect a magic fix to all of our woes. Just do this and it will all click. But those of us in the classroom know that there is no magic fix. Improving test scores is fairly easy, but improving them enough to move drastically up the comparison scale--well, that's something from fairy tales. There is no quick fix. There just isn't. There is nothing that I can do that will drastically lower scores, no matter how badly I want to have that magic answer.

My job for tomorrow: find something that will inspire teachers to fight the small battles. We have to battle illiteracy one strategy at a time. Its all we can do.

This is me, wowing Harvey Daniels with my intellect at NCTE in NYC.















I tried to impress Steven Zemelman, too. (I'm so glad I've lost weight since these pictures!)















And this is the wild group of SC literacy coaches that took NYC by storm!

The Standardization of Testing

Standardized test time is drawing near--breathing down our necks as we try to cover just a few more standards.

As teachers, we work to create authentic assessments and exciting lessons only to end the year with a bubble-in test that our students sometimes decorate prolifically with little bubble-in Christmas trees. How do we prepare our students for this experience? How can we take the travesty of the Civil War and narrow it down to two multiple choice questions? What are they learning? When will they use these grand test-taking strategies again?

The simple answer to that is that they won't, but in this age of accountability the tests aren't going aywhere. They are here to stay, at least until something better comes along. So we have to help prepare them--without teaching to the test while making lessons exciting and tying it in to what we think students will enjoy learning and use later. What a task!

I'm sitting in an assessment meeting right now, learning all that I can about our standardized tests. One thing that I can buy into one thing that I know will be beneficial. We need to use informational texts and primary documents in our classes.

I've really been trying to use primary documents in the American lit classes. For example, before teacher Sojourner Truth, we looked closely at the 16th amendment and what it allowed and did not allow. These experiences are vital for students. They need to examine real-life documents. One, it makes your entire lesson more authentic and, two, it gives them first-hand experience with history.

Teachers can also incorporate informational texts into lessons by using manual, applications, directions, essays, etc. This one is a little bit harder to mix in, but no less important. Students are going to face informational text for the rest of their lives. A majority of senior citizens do not have the reading skills to understand their prescription medicine bottles. I can't think of a more valuable and life-long lesson.

This is me, giving in to the testing dynasty. I see the value of teaching informational texts. Once I teach them, maybe one of my students can come in and set my sound system clock for me.

A Prayer for Writing

May today there be peace
In the classrooms, brought on
By the creation
And manipulation of the written word.
May today there be time
To put learning on paper
And to see in words
What is being processed in the brain.
May today students see that writing
Is essential in math,
In science, in English,
And in fine arts.
May today students be moved
By an obsession with something to say,
By new ideas,
And by infinite possibilities in front of them.

~D. Hartness, 2007

Thinking about assessment...

As a part of my assessment graduate course, we are working with Rick Wormelli's Fair Isn't Always Equal. He addresses assessing and grading in the differentiated classroom. And aren't we all so differentiated nowadays?

So how do we create successful assessments for our students? Differentiation does not mean using three different levels of worksheets. However, differentiation can be as simple as allowing students more time, regrouping by student interests and levels, or a list of choices for assessments. Some teachers are differentiating without even thinking about it. They are just acting in ways that they think are fair for individuals and they are realizing that fair doesn't always mean the same thing for everyone. So imagine how equitable classes would become if in-depth training and study was allowed into differentiation?

Wormelli speaks of beginning with the end in mind. He deals with two types of assessments--formative and summative. Summative is the summation of your lesson. The final assessment. But its also the beginning. Mapping out the final assessment first lends itself to successfully covering the lesson's essential objectives/standards. Wormelli even speaks of giving students the test at the beginning of the unit and allowing them to listen carefully for information that they know they will be tested on at the end. We have to stop letting assessments be a surprise to the students. Letting them know what is on the test isn't always about a review sheet the day before the test. Give the review sheet--or a skinny version of it to be filled in--at the beginning. Imagine the purpose that is set when you know ahead of time what you are expected to learn!

Teachers also have to use formative assessments--mini-checkpoints along the way--to examine what they are doing in their classroom and what is working. Instead of lamenting what students aren't doing, let's examine what we aren't doing. The most powerful question from Wormelli's reading is "What did you learn from a student today and what did you do with that knowledge?" What exactly are your students teaching you about your practices and what are you changing? Formative assessments, followed by teacher reflection, can help raise student engagement and achievement.

I feel that teachers are where the change has to occur, but that's the easy part. How can we begin with the end in mind when the end is being created in another state by a test-making company? How can I convince teachers to change the way they assess throughout the year when their major accountability comes from outside the room, outside the building? I feel very frustrated when I start to think about the role of government in education. Rules are being made by people who do not know at all what students are like in the classroom. So how do I fight that battle?