Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

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!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

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.