AVReading December Newsletter

Recognizing Privilege

Since I first read Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack back in grad school, I have been on a rather humbling journey-- one where I have started to notice little things about my life.  In fact, originally it was hard for me to process.  It’s like, in my first reading, I could only sip small amounts from the cup because I wasn’t quite ready to admit some things about my life that were rather uncomfortable.  

                  Let me back up and explain some things about McIntosh’s article.  In it, she outlines the idea of privilege and gives some examples of how it plays out in her life.  She is careful to talk about privilege in very personal terms, for fear of generalizing how others might know or experience the world.  She explains that privilege is a system of advantages bestowed upon a group by nature of their race, gender, ethnicity, class, religion or sexual orientation (to name just a few). “I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.”  She explains that many of us from the dominant culture are familiar with the idea of individual acts of oppression (ie. racism, sexism, classism etc), but that we don’t often recognize how they operate systematically.  

                  There are two important elements of privilege I would like to discuss briefly here. First, privilege is very hard to spot because it requires that we step outside of our regular zone of comfort. And since we generally tend to avoid discomfort, we can get stuck in this cycle of benefiting from the advantages of our privilege without really questioning how we got so comfortable to begin with. Second, living with privilege allows people to live under the false notion that everything they have gained has been due to their own hard work, talent, and intelligence.  And I have learned, that this isn’t always the case.  There are a number of advantages I have likely received due to my race, gender, sexual orientation and class-- advantages that many others have not received.  And it is pretty safe to say that there are many people who have worked as hard as I have but who have not seen the same results, in part because they have not been afforded the same privileges.  Again, it is a humbling thought because we would like to believe that everything we have accomplished has been accomplished by our own merit.  

                  There are times when regardless of  our privilege, we are disrupted by the events around us.  Maybe it is the sudden realization that many of our workplaces are toxic for women after yet another story of sexual harassment and assault.  For those, like myself, who have lived with the privilege of my gender, it is a shocking realization.  Shocking because these incidences have been happening all along, and shocking because we-- the dominant culture at least-- have largely ignored them up until this point.   For some of us, it took a group of NFL players to take a knee during our favorite weekly sports event to contemplate the injustices that linger today for people of color. For those in the dominant culture, the players disrupted our thinking and made us feel uncomfortable for a few moments.   I wonder if our discomfort with these displays is about the perceived lack of respect of the players or our unwillingness to recognize the inequities that exist and the role that our silence has played in perpetuating them. It’s these extraordinary moments that give us an opportunity to see through our privilege.  

                  In her footnotes, McIntosh states that her purpose in discussing privilege is not to make anyone feel shame or guilt. She isn’t saying that some people are not “nice people” because they have benefitted from privilege or that this makes people innately racist.  But she does say that discussing privilege is about observing, recognizing, and identifying the subtle ways that some people may be advantaged by our culture.  

As teachers, this becomes even more important.  Terry Jess, a high school social studies teacher from Bellevue High School in Washington State, explains that white privilege has permeated many different aspects of our educational system.  From the way we train and prepare teachers, to the factory model of education, to the policies that demand compliance and obedience over engagement and empowerment, we privilege certain ways of being.  And it is extremely important that we become more aware of the way systems work within our schools and classrooms.  Addressing privilege requires a mindset that allows us to continually question our practices and choices as teachers. To be open to considering how our decisions may reflect a position of privilege and to continue our path as educators devoted to engaging all students and creating a more equitable system for everyone.

See the entire newsletter here. 

AVReading Newsletter November

Talking about race for many members of the dominant culture is not easy.  Even for those who believe strongly in the principles of equity and justice, it can be difficult, uncomfortable and awkward.  In fact, for some of us, it’s a topic we just choose to avoid all together-- which is a type of privilege that not everyone is afforded.  As one of my friends stated last week, race is the single most important issue of our country: both its past and present.  And moving ahead as a community will mean that we get used to these uncomfortable and necessary conversations.

With the beginning of each Culturally Proficient session we have had this year, leaders have posted the guidelines created by Glenn Singleton for having “courageous conversations.”  They typically include: Stay engaged, Speak your truth, Experience Discomfort, Expect a lack of closure, Listen to understand.   For this month’s newsletter, I’d like to more carefully examine these guidelines with the hopes that becoming more familiar with them, will help take away some of our apprehensions about conversations centered around race or culture within our classrooms.

Staying Engaged: Conversations about race and culture are hard.  There will be times when your students will want to emotionally remove themselves from the discussion because hearing some of these thoughts and feelings from others is difficult.  But the challenge is to stay present and stand in the discomfort of that moment.  

Speak Your Truth:  Sometimes students are hesitant to say what they really think because they think it might offend someone.  They fear being labelled “intolerant,” “close-minded,” or even “racist,” and hope that by simply remaining silent this will end quickly.  But the purpose of a courageous conversation is to speak honestly, even when things might get heated.  Discuss communication styles with the class.  Discuss how speaking loudly does not always mean that someone is angry. And sometimes when someone gets emotional, that emotion or anger or hurt is not really directed at you. And in those cases when it is directed at you, it doesn’t mean that the person no longer has relationship with you.  Encourage students to speak their truths.  Help them to avoid stereotyping and stay away from absolute statements.  Coach them to use qualifiers like “many,” “often,” “sometimes,” and “some.”  Finally, show them how to stay focused on “I” statements which will keep them closer to speaking their truth versus generalizing to the broader community.  

Experience Discomfort:  People generally work really hard to avoid discomfort, which makes sense.  I mean, looking for pain is usually considered unhealthy.  However, that discomfort is -- at times-- a necessary part of addressing (and even confronting) injustice.  When it comes to courageous conversations, if it is completely comfortable, then chances are you might not be fully engaged.  Being open and vulnerable is part of the process.

Don’t Expect Closure:  Racism and injustice can not be solved with a single conversation. There will be unresolved questions.  Know that it is not your job to end classroom discussion with a “make-me-feel good” moment every time.  Instead, you hope that students will leave with some food for thought and a desire to more closely examine some of their unquestioned assumptions.  

Listen for Understanding:  This takes some coaching as well.  It requires that we help students to remain engaged and listen even in those moments when it is uncomfortable to do so. Beyond that, it means that they learn to listen without judgement.  Instead of listening with the intent to respond or argue or disprove, listening to understand is a concerted effort to consider another’s point of view.  

Having discussions about things that matter is incredibly important.  When we don’t acknowledge the big questions of our day within our classes, they become sterile environments where students will constantly question the relevance of what we ask them to study.  However, carelessly introducing topics and issues can be equally ineffective-- and sometimes simply irresponsible.  Take the time to practice meaningful conversation and to build trust with your students so that they know they can speak without being judged.  Serve as a guide who offers assistance not answers, and help them to start their journey today.

Read the full newsletter here. 

AVReading Newsletter October

The strength of lifelong teachers comes from their insatiable curiosity. They are perpetually dedicated to learning more, discovering more, questioning more.  They are intentional in the way they devote their resources to finding new and better ways to engage students and empower them to learn on their own.  

In a similar fashion, we need to be intentional in our approach to cultural proficiency.  It isn’t something that happens in one or two, professional development sessions but a constant dedication to seeing and discovering the world around us, a conscious decision to prioritize equity, to better understand the inequities that exist, and to honor and acknowledge the humanity of all people.  For this month’s newsletter, I would like to offer some thoughts about how we can become more intentional with our choices, so that we can reduce some of our blind spots and foster a mindset that allows us to continue growing in our understanding.

The concept of intentionality is quite simple.  It refers to the idea that while we might be comfortable with our current beliefs, habits, practices, and experiences, we could benefit by intentionally choosing to expose ourselves to new and different people and experiences beyond those from the dominant culture.  And since many of us do not do this on a regular basis, it may cause discomfort.  Intentionality takes more effort and requires a willingness to be vulnerable.  It can be exhausting, but it will offer us opportunities to think about our world differently, ultimately enabling us to question some of our long held assumptions and become stronger educators.  

The survey we took in Friday’s cultural proficiency workshop gives you some indicators about ways we can be intentional with our choices.  How do we spend our time?  Who do we spend our time with?  Where do we spend our time?  Here are just a few ways to ease into a more intentional life.

Movies

I know that many times when we sit down to watch movies, we gravitate to the genres that we have come to know and love the most.  However, doing so merely ensures that we stay fairly isolated in our bubbles of experiences.  Here are three (just from the last year) that might offer some new perspectives:  13th, Get Out, and Moonlight.  Or if you would prefer a comedy series Master of None.  

Books

Okay, you had to know I was going to suggest some books.  Of course, I enjoy reading fluffy beach reads as much as the next person (Lee Childs and Nevada Barr are my go-to), but I also feel a responsibility to push myself to grow as a reader by exposing myself to lots of different viewpoints.  Some of my most recent favorites include the following titles: This is Just My Face, The Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching, The Book of Unknown Americans, Americanah, Underground Railroad, Just Mercy (Top 5 books I’ve ever read), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Hate U Give,  Evicted, and Laughing All the Way to the Mosque.  

Food

There is some truth to the axiom that food unites us. Being intentional with your choices of food establishments will not only expand your experiences, but put you in neighborhoods and spaces that you might not normally travel.  There are plenty of options. . . as long as you stay away from large chains and franchises.  Here are a few: Midtown Global Market, Supermercado LomaBonita which has a deli (on County Rd 13 in Savage), Golden Thyme Café on Selby and the Mini Pac Grill (this is a gas station deli that serves fantastic gyros), 1184 Maryland Avenue East, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55106.  

Social

Expanding your social circles simply takes time.  I believe it mostly involves being open to people and experiences.  Stay in touch with past students, attend graduation ceremonies, weddings, and even funerals.  Invite groups to dinner.  Get involved in community organizations.  Attend interfaith ceremonies. Seek people who are different from you, and chances are you will find out how much you actually do have in common.  

Cultural

Prioritize events within our community that celebrate culture.  From Rondo Days in St. Paul to a Native ceremony like the one this last weekend at Harriet Island, to presentations and events sponsored by District 196.  

I have a loved one in my life who has a particularly stubborn blind spot.  He has such a narrow view of a particular community in his city, and he would often send me chain emails that largely de-humanized them.  He finally stopped sending the emails to me because I would reply to each of them.  In one of the last chain emails he sent me on the topic, I told him,  “I don’t think you would have these same thoughts if you actually knew some of the people within this community.  Do you know anyone personally?  Have you made an attempt to meet people who might trouble your assumptions?”  He didn’t respond, but I suspect that he had no personal connections to these people. Avoiding them just made it so much easier for him to maintain some of his most unsubstantiated beliefs.  And this is the power of our choice to be intentional.  Being intentional means that we are intentionally finding ways to encounter more people from different backgrounds and belief systems with the hopes that we can recognize the humanity in others.   

Here is the full Newsletter.  

AVReading Newsletter September 2017

Following the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia a few weeks ago, the hashtag Thisisnotus surfaced on Twitter.  The intention of the hashtag was to distance our culture from that of the white supremacists.  However, in doing so, the hashtag seemed to suggest that these events were an anomaly, that they are the exception to our culture, and that they do not represent our society today.  

It didn’t take long for civil rights activists to point out that this notion is quite false.  In fact, this is us.  Our struggle with white supremacy is not new.  These organizations did not sprout overnight or spontaneously form over the summer.  What might be new is the awareness of the dominant culture.  The events of this summer have forced all of us-- even those who might have been unaware-- to come face-to-face with white supremacy throughout our country.  For some, it was a rude awakening.

Part of the problem is many of us in the dominant culture simply don’t know what we don’t know.  And it, unfortunately, means that we only come to terms with these difficult issues when there is a national tragedy or when we are called out for assumptions that we didn’t even realize we were making.  We didn’t know what we didn’t know. And so, for those of us who have the privilege of not having to constantly think about this, we might be continually caught off guard by these revelations.  

It is important that as a lifelong practice, we devote time to uncovering both our unexamined biases as they apply to race, class, culture, and gender and facilitate conversations with students-- and the people around us --  about them.   And this will be the focus of our AVReading Newsletters this year.  

You might wonder why a newsletter devoted to reading would choose this as a topic of study.  There are many reasons, but I will focus on the one that matters the most.  Teaching reading and literacy is all about access.  After all, being able to understand complex texts offers students access to the world around them.  But teaching someone to understand complex texts means that you do more than just teach them to read the words on the page. As Paulo Freire stated, you must also teach them to read the world.  This means that we must teach to not only read stories, but what those stories mean within our culture.  It means helping perceptions of the world might be influenced by our race, class, culture, and gender.  It means that we need to show them how to decode institutions and how they can sometimes trample on non-dominant groups in subtle ways. Teaching students to read the world offers them access to the language of power.  It teaches them how to navigate between cultures, and ultimately, empowers them to speak out and act in order to re-shape our community and world.

This year, my focus will be on the discipline of critical literacy.  For the most part, the emphasis will be on challenging teachers to think more deeply about their own belief structure when it comes to race, class, culture and gender.  We will examine things like biases and blind spots, privilege, microaggressions, and language.  We will also examine some very practical ways that teachers can bring culturally responsive practices into their classrooms: setting up courageous conversations, making connections, using historical and current events to invite discussion.  

In traveling the country for speech and debate, I have been blessed with the opportunity to visit so many different schools.  it is interesting how you can get a feel for a school, even when the student body might not be present.  Countless artifacts litter the buildings communicating (in the absence of students and teachers) what the school seems to value and represent.  There is one, here in Minnesota, that we travel to every year, and I’m always so impressed by the work they do as a building.  From the artwork posted in classrooms to the banners and posters to the notices from clubs and committees to the permanent displays, you just sense that equity is an ongoing and significant part of the school culture.  Our challenge is to live and teach in a similar fashion, creating a space that not only fosters learning and growth but also awareness and transformation.

See the full newsletter here. 

AVReading Newsletter May

This year, using Jeff Zwier’s Building Academic Language as a guide, we have examined ways that we can better help our students “talk” the language of school. As we bring this study to a close, I would like to highlight a few last academic language practices offered by Zwiers.

First, it should be re-stated that building academic language requires constant attention. It means devoting time and thought to assist our students with not only the content of what we teach, but the language and grammar of school and the specific disciplines with which we work.

Once that commitment is made, we have to work to find novel and varied ways to foster this language growth. Here are a few more practices that might be of use to you towards that end.

Presentations and Evaluations: While some of us are using student presentations (group and individual), we might want to re-think how we use them, specifically with student audiences. For example, we typically put the emphasis on the product (the presentation), but do we think much about the students who listen to those presentations? In the instances where we do, we typically are more inclined to ask students to evaluate the presentation of their peers, which is good, but not the only way to engage the audience. One potential shift is to turn these presentations into learning experiences for the audience. Perhaps the most basic way of doing this is through quizzes designed by the presenter, but it could be more than that as well. When asked to view multiple presentations, open ended questions can ask viewers to connect dots, or look for trends across the speeches. Or perhaps, you hold viewers accountable by requiring them to develop “thoughtful questions” that can be posed to the presenters at the end of the performance. Doing so encourages students to be more invested in the presentations and develop the language necessary to analyze and synthesize the information.

Professional Conference: A professional conference reminds me of the “authentic assessment” and “problem based learning” movements from the past. Essentially, you ask the students to take on the role of a professional from within the field and to develop a presentation (or display) that they will share with the community of learners in school. This format really drives students to take on the language of a specific field to build or establish their credibility.

Analogy Prompts: Analogy prompts can take the form of writing projects or even small group presentations. Essentially, students are asked to develop a comparison between an important concept from class and an unlikely concept unrelated to the field. The purpose of doing so would be to spotlight an element or aspect of the classroom concept that one might not normally consider. This practice allows students to develop their thinking and employ the language of their discipline that is necessary for a tone of credibility.

Read Alouds: One of the most valuable formative assessments you can do is to have students (one-on-one) read aloud one paragraph for you. You learn a lot about students as they read to you-- perhaps you notice a limited vocabulary or a slow pace. Perhaps they actually read much better than what you had originally assumed. It is time consuming (2-4 minutes per student), and it requires a set-up where you can have a little privacy (so that students don’t feel like they are reading aloud in front of a silent class), but it certainly is valuable. I also have students do student led read alouds, where I pair them (randomly) with a partner, give them a text, and have them read to each other (Partner A reads a page, Partner B summarizes at the end of the page, then reads aloud the next page before Partner A is asked to summarize, and then they repeat the process).

Building academic vocabulary is pretty important, not only to the success of a student in school but to their ability to envision themselves as students. Giving them the tools to “sound” more academic empowers them to feel more like a member of the learning community.


See the full newsletter here.

AVReading Newsletter April

The relationship between reading and writing is complex. In fact, sometimes we write ourselves into comprehension. Or put another way, we write ourselves into understanding. A rather dramatic example of this is Supreme Court Justice Kennedy who originally voted on the side of Chief Rehnquist in the case of Planned Parenthood vs. Casey but sat down to write his position and came out on the other side of the decision, thus changing his vote.

Writing plays a critical role in our processing of information. We make meaning as we take in information, process it, evaluate it, and ultimately communicate it. However, there isn’t really a universal style of writing. After all, the language and grammar of Fifty Shades of Gray is a little different from a textbook on human sexuality. The purposes of each are unique. Therefore, writing a log / journal for FACS should have a different tone and purpose than an analysis written for U.S. History or a lab report for earth science.

Now here is the trick. To become better at writing in each of these disciplines, students need some specific tools. First, they need to read deeply within each discipline. When I started grad school, I will never forget my first classes where people used a combination of words and phrases that were completely new to me. I kept a running list of those words and phrases. Then I read EVERYTHING. If they assigned it, I read it. If they recommended additional texts, I read those too. And I marked them up, looking for phrases or words that I liked. I highlighted passages that had an interesting flow or logical build. As I began to write, I flagrantly stole jargon and tones of my favorite writers. And with a unique blend of the researchers and writers I admired and respected, I created my own voice within this field.

Second, we have to give students the opportunity to write. While it would be nice if they came to the writing experience on their own, the reality is that we need to push them into it. For this, we need to balance prompts and assignments that are innovative and creative with more traditional formats and structures (ie. five paragraph essays, lab reports, literary analysis etc). This is not easy. The assessment of writing is time consuming and draining. The constant battle against plagiarism and other questionable academic choices can be discouraging. However, we do no one any favors by dodging or scaling back our writing assignments.

At the risk of revisiting ground that I have covered in earlier newsletters, I am going to review some important tips for assigning and assessing the writing skills of students. See those tips in the full newsletter here.

MCA III Online Practice

Click here to take the MCA III Online Reading Practice Test.

AVReading March

Reading Complex Texts
Do you sometimes worry that your curriculum has been watered down to meet students where they are at? Do you worry that if and when these students make it to post secondary courses, they will be unprepared to meet the demands of school? This is perhaps my most regular and persistent concern in teaching. It feels like I am constantly tacking between assignments, tasks, and expectations that are too rigorous and those that are not rigorous enough, constantly searching for that sweet spot, that almost mythic and generally elusive Zone of Proximal Development where students get into that “productive struggle”.
On occasion, I will steal some of the assignments my son-- Jacob-- has from college. I might post a writing prompt or an excerpt from one of his readings for my 9th graders to see. I show it to the students and ask them to reflect in writing for a little while. What do you think of that prompt / text? Would you be able to tackle it? What do you have to do in the next few years to prepare yourself for that level of academic rigor? In some ways, it is a good accountability check for students. Are you complaining about your assigned readings? Do they seem unnecessarily difficult? Are your academic choices now going to put you in a position to be successful later?
Reviewing those assignments, also reminds me of the need to expose these students to demanding and difficult texts. But it isn’t enough to simply throw Beowulf, War and Peace, and The Brief History of the Universe at them and hope for the best. Native Son is a powerful, intense, and truly tragic piece, but once we get a student to actually pick the book up, it will be our responsibility to give them the tools necessary to make meaning of that highly complex text.
There are many different things that teachers can do to promote good reading skills with rigorous texts, so this month, I’ll share a number of specific practices. Listed below are various ideas taken from Jeff Zwiers’ Building Academic Language. These activities can be done within your content areas to help students take on these demanding-- but important-- texts.
Read Alouds
I truly believe that students are never too old to be read to. Not only do I read aloud to my own children (who are now in their early teens), I read three books a year to my 9th graders. I always give them a “managed choice”, meaning I create a pool of books from which they can choose and then they work as a collective to narrow down their choices. I intentionally create pools of books that will stretch them in someway. My hope is to show them something new and different.
Comprehend Alouds
A comprehend aloud is really just a type of “think aloud”. It is a read aloud, where the teacher models the reading to students by stopping as one reads to make observations. In this way, the teacher demonstrates the types of thinking that a good reader does when reading. For this to be effective, students should have the copy of the text in front of them, and teachers should confine their reading to just a few paragraphs, 5-7 minutes maximum. I will also use a document camera to show how I mark up the text or do annotations as I read.
Paired Reading
I’ve been using this more in the last year, and I have been surprised by the overall results. For this, I will pair up students and assign a text. I tell them that they will need to do the following: First, they must assign one person the role of Partner A and the other as Partner B. Partner A begins by reading the first section of text (could be a paragraph or a page depending on the text), while B listens. Upon completion of that section, Partner B must do a “think aloud”, where he / she must summarize, question, or evaluate the text. Then Partner B reads the subsequent passage, after which Partner A then does a “Think Aloud.” I then scatter pairs around the room (and into the hall) and then evaluate their participation. I tell them that it isn’t enough to simply read aloud; I must be able to observe their thinking as they read as well.
Text Discussion Activities
I won’t go into much detail on Text Discussion Activities because I have covered them in an earlier newsletter this year. However, I will add a couple of thoughts. First, for some students, they need to “talk themselves into comprehension.” It’s like they can’t understand the text fully, until they have a chance to process it out loud with a partner or a group. Second, students generally rise to the occasion. Of course, some groups are better than others, but whether you have them do a Fishbowl or a Jigsaw or a Tea Party, students do a decent job at getting involved, especially if you are observing them. In general, I am reminded as I listen to these discussions that I need to take more opportunities to step back and allow the students to construct their meaning versus making them be dependent on me for giving it to them.
Anticipation Guides
Texts are generally very difficult because students have little background information on the topic or story. A good anticipation guide can allow students to either mentally activate what they already know or to establish background on a topic they know nothing about. I generally start with five simple “Agree / Disagree” statements that can be pulled from the theme or central ideas of the text. I have students read the statements and indicate whether they agree or disagree with it. Students then read the text and return to the statements to indicate whether their stance has changed on any of the items.
Word Work
So much of difficult texts is managing the words. However, just telling students what words mean before they read them has little educational value. As Zwiers points out, in our many years of vocabulary learning research, we can now make some general, conclusions about effective strategies. First, students who read widely can grow their vocabulary. Second, targeted instruction of words is effective when students have a chance to meaningfully interact with the new words. On such activity is the “Have you ever. . . “ activity. You can choose three words relevant to the current unit and construct three “Have you ever. . . “ statements. “Have you ever made a proposition? Have you ever felt animosity? Have you ever met someone who as conceited? Describe that situation. Third, students need to learn word attack strategies (ie. using context clues, clues within the word, learning prefix / suffix / root.

View the full Newsletter here.

AVReading February 2017

     As we move to more of a workshop model for our classes, we need to continue promoting classroom habits that enable students to become better at independent and small group tasks.  When it comes to small groups in particular, our goal is to both help them use their time wisely, to make meaning as a collective team, and to grow their language of school.  While students can develop and practice their academic language in writing and in full group activities, it is probably most meaningful to help them do so working in small groups.  

    It isn’t always easy for teachers to hand over responsibility to students for small group work.   And for good reason.  How many times do we designate learning or activities to small groups, and then realize that a number of the groups just don’t function well?  Either they are completely off task or one participant does all of the work.  Or worst of all, they all just sit there, silent, unwilling to do anything at all.  

    Intervention courses and pull outs might face a unique collection of personalities where small group work is very difficult.  For starters, small group work is hard because the class itself is not much larger than a small group.  In larger classrooms, the hubbub of sound that happens when small groups are engaged is nice because it doesn’t feel like making a comment to the group is a

speech to the class.  However, when your room is small and has only two or three small groups, it can feel as though your comments are being heard by the entire class-- the room lacks the background noise that the larger classrooms generate.  Additionally, students in intervention courses sometimes lack the ability to navigate group work or they just don’t see it as meaningful.  And sometimes, certain combinations of students are just not conducive to small group activities.

    Never-the-less, it is important that we help students to develop some of these skills.  It ultimately will help them to both participate in group discussions across other classes, and develop the academic language that is such a big part of school.  This will require work on the front end.  This involves coaching students on the expected norms, behaviors, and language of a small group.  Including helpful tools like sentence starters or thought beginners can jump start things as well.

    Whether you teach smaller sections of struggling students or advanced placement courses, facilitating small groups is an important and valuable educational choice. Open up the full newsletter to find some small group ideas taken from Jeff Zwiers Building Academic Language.  

Full AVReading Newsletter February 2017 

AVReading January 2017

In continuing our study of Jeff Zwiers Building Academic Language,  this month we will focus on how to create environments where students can develop their academic language through whole class discussions.

    To start with, Zwiers points out how important it is to get students involved in classes.  And though this has been generally accepted by the community in theory, in practice this does not seem to be the case.  Zwiers offers research that found 85% of our class time today is devoted to lecture, recitation and seatwork.  Part of the problem stems from the very structure of our environments, where we try to “cover” content and material within a given timeline.  Class discussions take time, and they often aren’t easy to control so they might shoot off into unrelated tangents.  Teachers aren’t always comfortable with the uncertainty that comes with open ended classroom dialogue, preferring to ask quick, low-level questions versus deeper, more thought provoking ones.  Research also indicates that teachers employ implicit bias when feeding questions to students, generally hand picking low, level questions for English Language Learners-- for example-- which assumes that these students don’t have the capacity to understand higher thinking.  

    Here are some guidelines for creating a better space for classroom discussion, some of them taken from Zwiers, and some taken from earlier AVReading Newsletters.  

    Find ways to engage all students.  Sharroky Hollie suggests that the vast majority of our questions should be involuntary, where teachers call on students versus voluntary where teachers allow students to choose to speak on their own.  Finding a way to randomize and track the students you call on is helpful and it ensures an equitable and fair system for calling on students, as well as ensuring that the quieter students will-- at least occasionally-- get called upon to speak.   However, these systems of calling out students can also have a chilling effect.  Sometimes classes become almost too dependent on the randomizing process and instead wait to be called on.  So having some variety in your approaches is helpful.

      Second, we need to shift the culture of our classrooms.  Zwiers states that too much of our classroom culture is dependent on “pleasing the teacher”.  Too often, students grow to expect positive affirmation from teachers when they make comments.  A better model is one that is perhaps more de-centralized. Students talk to the class, not to the teacher. They seek to communicate, to inform, and to persuade their peers versus attain the approval of the instructor.  It also means that there is a shift away from questions or structures within the class that make the discussion or dialogue feel like it is competitive in nature. This can happen, again, when the questions being asked come off as educational “trivial pursuit” or “Jeopardy,” when the prompts should perhaps offer students the chance to explore and develop their thoughts.  

Finally, we can transform the actual act of group discussions by becoming more creative with how we hold them.  This means moving more freely between the levels of interaction; reflection, paired conversation, small groups, whole groups and back again.  This also could mean using manipulatives. For example, give students yarn, twine, and small blocks and ask them to construct a representation of an event, idea, or process.  Then ask the groups to share out to the larger group, to listen to another group and to provide feedback about similarities and differences in the way they expressed the event, idea or process.  Zwiers also talks about using intentional errors, discrepancies and miscues to motivate or engage students to speak and  providing “target terms” for student responses.  In other words, show them two to four phrases or terms you want them to employ while formulating their ideas to the class.

Class discussions are a tricky business.  Think of how often you have facilitated a truly remarkable conversation in one period, only to have that same conversation fall very flat the next hour.  So much of it depends, as Zwiers states, on little nudges that we give throughout the discussions.  These nudges could be well placed questions, re-direction, or even carefully worded prompts that inspire students to respond to one another versus to talk with the teacher.  Like many elements of our job, creating the proper atmosphere for a class discussion takes a lot of work and maintenance.  But, in the end, doing so can greatly enhance the learning opportunities of all students.

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