AVReading Newsletter December-- Manufacturing a Schedule

Much to the credit of our administration, the set up of our distance learning model this fall is much more workable than the one from last spring.  Having a more formalized structure to our day with synchronous online classes has made things a little less chaotic this time around. 

                  With that said, there is still a struggle (at least for me) to manage all of the moving parts of our schedule.  It probably makes sense. Since it took me the better part of 30 years to figure out how to manage things with students in real life, I can’t expect to have everything figured out in this new environment in less than a few months.  

                  One of the more challenging elements of this new model is how I schedule my day and allocate my time.  I have found that without some type of structure (which is usually provided in the rhythm of bells and movement of students), I have become both inefficient and even negligent in certain areas.  Considering this, I have had to manufacture a structure in order to be sure that I do not create a type of imbalance. 

                  If I had to roughly guess the divide of my time under normal conditions, I would say that the largest segments of my time are devoted to planning and direct instruction.  The next largest category would be the time set aside for correcting and assessing, and then the smallest category would be time for “other business” (answering emails, calls, meetings, help sessions, bathroom breaks etc).  When we moved to distance learning, all of this got completely disrupted.  Things had to change. For example, the planning phase took up a lot more time, since so much of the curriculum had to be re-designed for the digital environment.  Things that might only take 30-40 minutes a day, now took 1-2 hours.  Direct instruction time has dropped, but I spend a lot more time with students who come in for help beyond the school day.  Correcting and assessing remained the same, but the “other business” category demanded a lot more attention.  This was largely because my time spent talking with (or trying to reach) families grew considerably.  

Unfortunately, this has also been the category that is most often neglected.  When I go into survival mode, which unfortunately has been my predominant mode over the last eight months, I am not as good at managing my time.  I focus more intently on the tasks and items that require immediate attention, which is important.  But, doing so also comes at the cost of other important factors-- like getting the family involved or searching for and exploring new curriculum ideas, or even getting to know the students a little better.  I go from planning to teaching to correcting, and then I simply repeat.

As of recently, I have made a more concerted effort to restore a little bit of the balance.  It isn’t always pretty, but it allows me to invest more time into these other neglected areas.  Here are some ideas for managing that workload balance in distance learning. 

Set the Clock.  When there are no bells, it's hard to stay on track.  So I set the timer on tasks like planning.  This brought a little more urgency to my time use and kept me from getting sucked into that rabbit hole where I end up overplanning (e.g. I make a video for how to understand the first video and then create a written version for everyone who doesn’t have video capabilities etc).   Once you set the clock, abide by it.  Neglecting other areas of teaching comes at a significant price. And if something like planning is taking up too much time, it might mean that I need to consider simplifying  assignments or reducing expectations in the short term. 

Prioritize.  Within these blocks of time, designate tasks as high, medium,  or low priority.  Start from the top and work down.  I will often write these out.  I have found that it is really easy to get distracted when I work online.  The list helps me in those moments when I realize that I have been pulled away from my original work and have forgotten what it was that I was supposed to be doing. This happens so easily.  I will be working on a lesson, and a Schoology message comes in.  I respond to that, and then find myself wondering, “What was I working on again?”  Having the list next to me helps me to stay focused and to more easily pick up where I have left off.  

Communicating with Students and Families.  For distance learning, this has been my biggest challenge.  Comparing my data at the end of last year to that of my colleagues, I discovered that my failure rate was a bit higher than theirs.  In talking with them, I learned that I had been much less focused on reaching families. They had been much better at establishing lines of communication and contacting them when students began to slide.  This is hard.  Surviving on a daily basis means lesson planning.  Surviving on a weekly basis means correcting.  And surviving for the trimester means reaching the families. This fall (starting in week three), I devoted at least 30 minutes each day to contacting families.  Instead of waiting until things got really bad, I just started calling, texting, and emailing families individually whenever a student missed one of the summatives.  In addition to getting better results than last spring, I also feel less overwhelmed by undertaking the process each day.  Making calls (or emailing or texting or contacting other stakeholders)  for 30 minutes a day is simply a lot more manageable than trying to complete a week’s worth of communications on a Friday afternoon-- or worse yet, a Saturday morning.

 

Read the full newsletter here.

AVReading Newsletter October: Notice and Name

 

In Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s 2013 book on strategies for close reading entitled Notice and Note, they suggest that our current method of teaching students to read is flawed.  They claim that the problem is we have made reading too much about comprehension, at the expense of many things that make texts more interesting and powerful.  We focus far too often on the “what” of the text, not the “why” and “how.”  They offer the process of noticing and noting.  For this month’s newsletter, I would like to discuss the strategy as one we can apply both to reading and to broader issues of justice. 

            To start with, “notice and note” is a framework where we teach students to interact more deeply with their texts.  Beers and Probst unfortunately limit their process largely to texts of fiction.  But it really does not take any imagination to apply these strategies to nonfiction. 

In the book, Beers and Probst outline six types of “noticings.”  Beers and Probst call these noticings “signposts”, and show how teachers can help students to first see them within the text, but then to also make note of them through annotation. They suggest spending a lesson or two on each of the signposts to train students in first, the strategy of annotating the text; then second, the practice of the specific “noticing”.  

The signposts / noticings include “contrasts and contradictions,” “aha moments,” “tough questions,” “words of the wiser,” “again and again,” and “memory moments.”  Most of them are self explanatory, but some, like “words of the wiser” refer to times in the text when someone imparts knowledge or wisdom on other characters (or the reader more generally).  Or “again and again” which refers to repetitions of phrases or concepts within a text.  Or “memory moments” which are moments in the text when the narrator or author interrupts the moment to recall a previous event.  Again, the use of the signposts fits a little better with fiction, but they could be applied to nonfiction as well. 

Beyond using them as a strategy for the close reading of text, I think (with a slight tweak) we can use the process for a closer reading of our world and what happens there.  Instead of “notice and note,” however, I encourage people to get better at Noticing and Naming.  Speaking as a white teacher, I believe it is something that we have not been very good at in the past.  Too often, we have not noticed or named the things happening in our classrooms, our hallways, and more broadly our communities.  Perhaps we justified our silence on these events because we felt like it was not our place, it didn’t fit our lesson or it just seemed too difficult to do.  

When we haven’t noticed, and when we haven’t named the racism of our community, we have done all of our students a disservice.  For our Black students, we have rendered them invisible.  For every major event that we ignored, every day where we jumped over that national event or moment and moved directly into our day’s lesson, we sent the message that those events and moments-- along with the feelings of grief, pain, and anxiety they may have felt-- were really not that important. And for our white students, our unwillingness to notice and name became equally hurtful because in doing so we ensured that their lives would continue without disruption, and on some level we have prevented them from becoming fully human in their understanding of the world in which we live.   

I need to remember to read my world as closely as I read my texts.  To first notice the pain and suffering of those around me and to name it.  On Thursday and Friday of last week, I gave my best attempt at it.  I told my students that I wanted to start class by noticing what had happened in Louisville with the Breonna Taylor decision to charge the officer with the lesser crime.  And I named both the pain and injustice that exists today because of our racism.  I spoke briefly to my Black students telling them that I could not -- as a white man-- truly understand or imagine what they might be feeling, but I said that for today especially, I held them in my heart, and hoped that they would find some comfort.   To my white students, I encouraged them to be good allies.  I told them that for the moment, it was a time to simply listen.  They didn’t need to apologize or take responsibility for something they clearly did not do.  They didn’t need to get defensive or feel attacked by the pain and grief their Black friends expressed.  They just needed to listen with an open heart, and to sit in the pain and discomfort for a while.  

I have to tell myself, “Notice and name.  Be present and available.  Be vulnerable and open.  Be willing to make mistakes. Be full of grace and strength.   Just, don’t be silent.”

Read the full newsletter here.  

 

 

AVReading September Confronting Dangers of Our Innocence

 

Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton recently stated in an interview that “America is not unique in its sins. . . we are not unique in our evils.  Where we may be singular is our refusal to acknowledge them.”  In speaking directly about race, he connects the dots between the ignored history of our country and the ever real violence and hatred that continues on today.  

The idea is that when we refuse to acknowledge the devastation of the past, the way it was fueled by belief structures, and the way that it has evolved over time, we are less likely to acknowledge that the events of today-- a police shooting, mass incarceration, disparities in education, discriminatory lending practices, voter suppression-- are really just the latest manifestations of racial violence and injustice that have always been a part of our country. 

Glaude says that we, as a community, have not been good at seeing the links between the past and the present.  And he states that we need to “confront the danger of our innocence,” underscoring the significance of studying and learning about our past. 

As teachers, we sit in an unusual position.  We see ourselves as part of a progressive institution that promotes equality and justice.  Historically, however, the classroom has been used as a tool to do the opposite.  Slaves were prohibited from the classroom, for fear that teaching them to read would increase their desire for emancipation, which privileged their white peers who used education as the means of social advancement.  The reign of fear which lasted through Deconstruction made school very difficult for Black students. Segregation laws of the Jim Crow era ensured that while Black students could go to school, they would not be given equal educational opportunities.  Most of us know that Brown versus the Board of Education was certainly a symbolic milestone for racial justice, but few of us know that some districts throughout the country chose to entirely shut down instead of integrating their students. Some districts never did make any changes.  And many of those that did, caused problems when suddenly all of the Black teachers from the predominantly Black schools found themselves unable to get a job in these desegregated schools.  

In more recent times, educational access inequalities have been exasperated by school funding models that depend heavily on local property taxes. The policy has ensured that many of the communities who needed the most, often got the least.   Underfunded schools, located in rural areas throughout the south and many urban areas throughout the north, struggled with staffing ratios, outdated facilities, and lower pay scales for teachers, making it difficult for these communities to keep well-trained, experienced professionals on staff.  

As mass incarceration began to grow, many schools became a part of the “school-to-prison pipeline”, which refers to a number of zero-tolerance policies implemented by schools that would result in the arrest or detention of students for offenses ranging from truancy to insubordination and fighting.  The passage of No Child Left Behind did wonders for documenting the gross inequities of our school system in regards to race, but ultimately it did more to punish low-income schools and students than it did to fix the underlying causes.  Among other problems, No Child Left Behind created our dependence on high stakes tests, which meant that many students were held back or even unable to graduate because they could not pass these tests.  In the intervening years, we have discovered the inadequacies of these tests not only because of issues like negative stereotype threat, but because of the many cultural and implicit biases of those assessments.  

Even today, we struggle with many of these same issues.  A close look at our statistics show that our schools and our classrooms remain segregated.  In some cases our rules themselves, and the way we enforce and maintain them disproportionately impact our students of color.  

As Professor Glaude reminds us, knowing and learning about this past is important.  Doing so is an important step in addressing our ongoing racial inequities. On a more pragmatic level, studying our racialized educational history should also inform our current choices.  From attendance and grading policies to dress codes and classroom management practices, knowing a little of our history enables us to make better choices and to re-think and re-imagine our schools in ways that empower and engage instead of silence and subvert.

 

 Full newsletter here. 

AVReading Newsletter June Cultures of Anti-Racism

Though my focus for this year’s newsletters have been on classroom strategies, I have decided to end the year by addressing the recent events of our community and how we can be more mindful and intentional in teaching critical literacy with our students.  As Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Friere writes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it is not enough just to teach our students to read words, sentences, and books.  We must teach them to read the world.  This month’s newsletter will focus on how we can better commit to doing this within our classrooms.

                  To start with, teaching our students to read the world assumes that we, as teachers, are learning alongside them.  It is important that we are acknowledging the ways we have been socialized into racist assumptions and beliefs that have influenced the way we see other people.  We are reading. We are reflecting. We are engaging with and listening to voices that have been suppressed and silenced.  We are standing in our discomfort and recognizing that no matter how upsetting it might be to hear what is being said or to see what is being done, it does not compare to the daily experiences of Black people in our society today.  As Drew Mons has stated before, this means that we must listen with the purpose of understanding, not with the purpose of defending or excusing or arguing.  A good deal of our struggle today stems from an unwillingness of many to truly listen to the pain and hurt that has been so often expressed by the Black community. Becoming more anti-racist means that I begin my journey by dedicating myself to constantly checking my own biases and assumptions and being open to hearing what those biases and assumptions might be without taking offense or shutting down the discussion. 

                  Once this first step is in motion, the rest falls into place. Dedicating yourself to becoming more anti-racist will put you into contact with others who are also on the same journey. It puts you into spaces where you become more aware of how you can bring these thoughts and concerns into your classroom.  It puts you into books and resources that help you to think about how you might address race and become a little less uncomfortable doing so, with the knowledge that there will always be a level of discomfort when addressing white supremacy and racism in your classrooms.  

                  Regardless of the content area, there are steps that we can all take to foreground racial equity. To start with, make a concerted attempt to honor Latinx History Month, Black History Month, Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth.  It could be as simple as five minutes once a week during those months where you spotlight an important figure, concept or event.  I also take these opportunities to find people or events that are new to me.  This helps to expand their exposure beyond just the small cannon of civil rights figures that we typically use.  Additionally, consider finding discipline related materials that complement lessons already in your curriculum.  In reading and English classes, for example, assigning one or two articles a trimester that address race not only fits the curriculum, but also helps to normalize conversations about race. The artwork and artifacts that decorate our rooms could also be an opportunity to expand representation of people of color and to disrupt some of the stereotypes that students may have.  Finally, have regular conversations with classes about things that matter.  Conversations this winter about Kobe Bryant were important.  Giving students of the color the chance to share a little about their feelings on his passing allowed them an opportunity to share their grief, while giving the rest of us a little insight into what he meant beyond the basketball court.  To do this, however, assumes that we have done our work ahead of time.  Conversations about race require some preparation.  I encourage you to read Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations for more information, but in general, ask students to stay engaged, expect discomfort, speak your truth, and expect / accept a lack of closure.  Beyond that, know that it is not acceptable to call on a Black student to speak on behalf of an entire community, or to ask them to respond to comments made by other students.  A poorly run conversation about race can actually do more damage than good if we haven’t been thoughtful in how we approach them. 

                  This is definitely a tough time to have a conversation about race, especially if we have never had one with our students in the past and because we cannot be with them face-to-face.  Moving forward, however, it is necessary that we do so on a regular basis. 

                  In closing, I also think it is important to address our own reactions to George Floyd’s murder and the protests that have ensued.  Numerous Black people have both expressed frustration over our silence and over the ways that people have attempted to discuss things online.  Here are some things that have been suggested.  Do not re-post images or videos of these deaths.  For many Black people, these images can trigger trauma.  Forcing them to re-live a reality that they encounter in real life is tremendously disturbing.  Speak out unequivocally against racism and white supremacy, but then create space for Black voices.  Do not speak over or for them. Take this opportunity to elevate the voices of others versus elevating your own.  As Uzo Ngu (Class of 2019) once stated, our job is not to speak for the voiceless. It is to pass them the mic.  

                  We should also be asking, “How we can support our Black students?”  It does not need to be much, just a word or two when possible to tell them that you are thinking of them and that you hope that they might find some comfort and peace amidst the pain and suffering today.  Even this is not going to be enough, and it will not be exactly correct or easy.  But, silence will only make our Black students feel even more invisible.

As Halima Badri (Class of 2019) tells me, know that you, as a white person, will always be an imperfect ally.   Start with the assumption that we have been socialized into these biases and beliefs, that we will always be incomplete in our understanding of what it means to be Black in today’s world, that we will never be completely free of these deeply ingrained, racialized thoughts and responses.  And with that understanding, we humbly approach each and every day with a sense of urgency to hear the voices of those who have suffered at the hands of injustice, to speak out, and to take steps to make our community safe for everyone.   

See the full newsletter here.  

AVReading Newsletter May -- Differentiation

The factory model of education, which to a large degree still remains prevalent in our classroom practices today, focuses on finding the most efficient means to educate students on a large scale.  It’s about looking for that perfect lesson plan or the perfect classroom set-up that will finally work for all students. We spend a great amount of time and energy constructing those fool proof lessons that reach each of our students.  Too often, however, those plans fall far short of our hopeful goals. And that is why an adaptive lesson or approach, also known as differentiation, can be very effective.  

            The practice of differentiating our curriculum and lessons is not easy.  It’s time consuming, and potentially counter productive.  So, for this month’s newsletter, let’s examine some ways that differentiation can be used within our classrooms. 

Let me begin by defining differentiation as the practice of modifying curriculum in order to meet the specific needs, values and strengths of a student or group.    If someone were to oversimplify the concept, they might say it is “lowering expectations” for some students.  However, this ignores both the purpose of differentiation and the conditions under which it is best applied. If we recognize that everyone is entering our classroom with a different level of background knowledge, different experiences and different abilities and skills, then we should recognize that the “zone of proximal development” (that  perfect level of discomfort where students are challenged just enough without being overwhelmed) is going to be a little different for everyone.  Since my objective is to try to put as many students as possible into their zone of proximal development, it will mean differentiation.  

Here is what that can look like.  

Content.  Differentiating content means that we offer students various avenues for accessing the ideas, concepts, and thinking we teach.  It means offering leveled readings so that even those who have lower reading levels can have the chance to learn and understand. It means that we find alternative types of texts, when possible, to offer students this information-- audio recordings or video versions.  I think of how hard English teachers sometimes work to prevent students from seeing the movie versions of the books and plays we read, when those movie versions offer some students a path to understanding the content and participating in the dialogue that a vibrant classroom needs.  When possible, this might mean that we avoid books we read as a class in favor of lit circles or choice novels, so that students can find something that not only is appropriate to their reading level but that they find engaging. 

            Instruction. Beyond just changing up the content, teachers can do more to differentiate the form and structure of how they deliver that content.  I recall the 1996 National Teacher of the Year Mary Beth Blegen (who had been a long time teacher from Worthington, MN) talking about differentiating instruction in her class.  One day, she actually crawled under her table before class began and waited for students to enter.  Students were stunned. She used it as a lesson that fit the specific piece of text they were studying, but she often told this story to teachers to remind them that we need to always keep our students guessing.  If they can absolutely predict what is going to happen at every minute in our classes, then we have forgotten that our classrooms should be a place of adventure, excitement and awe.  This means developing a toolbox of activities that allows you to avoid deep patterns: walk-n-talks, fishbowls, small group discussions, paired readings, group papers, presentations, tea parties, read alouds, philosopher corners, walk the line, one minute essays, silent discussions, padlets, stations, concept checks, tableaus, back channeling, games, graffiti walls, word sorts. . . the list goes on and on. Some of them are gimmicky but fun.  For example, I have this terminology rich activity where I’ve printed off about 20 terms on thick stock paper. Before class, I tape the terms to the bottom of various chairs.  Then, during class, I have them reach down and look for the hidden word or phrase. Then we do a class “group sort” as they bring them up to affix the term on the board in various categories.  The goal is to keep things different.

            Assessment.  Too often we privilege just a few ways of demonstrating knowledge:  tests, essays, and speeches.  While it is important that we help students develop these academic literacies, we should be careful that we do not exclusively depend on these assessments.  It is okay to allow students to demonstrate their knowledge through artwork, song, poetry, dance, and acting.  I also like to assess students by just allowing them to demonstrate their thinking during an article.  I use text with thought boxes and simply ask students to show their thinking in the boxes.  Whip Arounds are also a good formative assessment that allows me to get a good snapshot of where a class (and specific individuals) might be.  

            In a recent lecture on “Avoiding Marginalization During Distance Learning,” Michael V. Walker discussed the Law of Requisite Variety, which states that with more options to demonstrate understanding, there are more opportunities for success.  That is the essence of differentiation. 

See the full newsletter here.

Senior Speaker Materials

Guidelines for Writing a Commencement Address

The draft you write for consideration does not need to be a final version, but should give the panelists a clear idea of what you plan to say in your speech. The traditional commencement address has had content which reflects back on the class's experiences and also gives advice or guidance for the future. The tone should be one which inspires and motivates the listeners.

Although the Commencement Address is directed at the graduating class, the message needs to be meaningful and appropriate for the adult audience present as well. Content, language, or style which parents or grandparents might find offensive is not suitable for a Commencement Address.



Humor can be an effective minor element of a Commencement Address. The predominant message, and consequently the predominant writing style, should be serious, thoughtful and inspirational.



Format: This might be helpful. It is an all purpose formula. It is not required. Feel free to be creative. But as a starting point, you might want to observe the following steps.



Introduction--


* Attention getting anecdote


* Establish a theme -- Past speakers have used themes likethe qualities of Eagles or the symbolic importance of bridges


* Set purpose or message



Body--


* Reflect on events of past 4 years


* Reflect on present status


* Reflect on where things are headed



Conclusion--


* Re-emphasize message


* Closing thoughts and anecdotes



A few helpful suggestions:


Though you may want to fill your speech with inspirational quotations, and heartfelt thoughts of hope, be careful of overusing clichés. Because they have been used so often, clichés do not always hold much power within a text and tend to be easily forgotten by an audience.



On the other hand, the most memorable speeches are those that tell some type of story. Typically, speakers will use either brief anecdotes or longer narratives to convey their message. As opposed to citing bland clichés that are easy to forget, stories tend to stay with people and carry a stronger emotional and intellectual impact.


Here are some samples of past commencement addresses.


2018


2017


2013


2012

AVReading April: Digital Reading

Although our focus this year has been on instructional strategies, in light of our current E-Learning push, I’ve decided to change focus and offer some helpful strategies for assigning and assessing reading in those spaces.

                  We’ve learned a lot recently about how to set-up our E-Learning spaces and the types of expectations, lessons, and assessments that we will need to construct as we move our curriculum over to the digital world. 

                  For struggling readers, this move can be daunting.  Research shows that the obstacles struggling readers face is more than just limited vocabulary and slow reading rates.  It’s also understanding the organization and flow of visual texts.  This could mean difficulties in “reading” the layout of non-traditional (non-linear) texts, like websites, blogs, discussion rooms, wiki pages and many more digital texts.  In some cases, texts that were actually designed to be more visual and more accessible can cause more difficulty.  With this in mind, it is good to be mindful of what we assign students to read under this new E-Learning environment and how we can support those who might have reading difficulties.

                  Finding Material: As you look for material that might normally have been presented in class, consider the general readability of the material.  While it probably is not reasonable to run a “lexile” test on it (nor is it particularly useful considering the shortcomings of readability tests), you can do this on your own.  Here are some guidelines.

                  Length: A fairly easy measure of readability is simply it’s length.  Struggling readers are easily overwhelmed by long, uninterrupted texts.  Remember that many students with reading disabilities move much slower through texts, taking two to three times longer to read something when compared against their peers.  

                  Vocabulary:  For this, you will need to “eye ball” it.  Watch for unique and interesting word choices that might make the reading more lively, but could also cause some confusion.  Consider how many “technical” or “expert” terms are being used and if the writer adequately explains or defines the terms.  Remember, if a reader struggles with more than 10% of the words in a text, they will be in their “frustration” range.  

Organization:  How is the text organized-- both in form and content.  In form, does the text move across the screen / page in a way that is easy to understand.  Or might a reader get easily lost at the end of one paragraph or block.  In terms of content, does the writer have a clear overview at the beginning of the text to give the reader a good roadmap.  

Conceptual Density:    A user friendly text is able to communicate new and novel (and often complex) ideas in ways that are accessible to them.  Here are two good criteria for measuring conceptual density.  First, consider how many new ideas are being presented in each reading.  Covering too many complex ideas in a short space can be overwhelming.  Second, a good text will actually build in redundancy.  In comparison, high level texts will simply state an idea and assume the reader doesn’t need further explanation.  A more accessible text might explain something once, and give one or two examples along with a visual or graphic display to accompany it. 

Assigning Texts: Beyond just finding the right texts to assign to students, teachers should also consider how they present those texts in online spaces and what they expect from students as they read them. 

Presenting the Text:  Struggling readers can often take on difficult texts if teachers scaffold the text for them.  Pre-reading scaffolding can mean many things, but here are a few.  If you wanted, you could do a 3-5 minute screen cast that walks students through the text.  In that “think aloud”, the teacher would start by telling students what to look for (1-2 things), then previewing the text with them, pointing out how the text might be organized, and asking them a question or two to think about before they read.  This could also be done with a short paragraph at the top of a reading.  The key is to tell students exactly what it is you want them to look for as they read and to give them some tips on how to read the text.  

Assessing the Reading:  Finally, it is important to consider how you will evaluate students’ understanding of the text.  The easiest way is probably a comprehension quiz.  Just be sure that the questions (or at least some of them) link back to whatever pre-reading questions you originally asked.  I also suggest designing questions / items that mirror the language of ACT and / or the MCA tests (we’ve been working on this throughout the year, but I have more resources if you are interested).  Beyond quizzes, I will also use article “mark-ups”, where students are asked to download the text into Notability, mark-up at least six things, and then submit it back into schoology.  I then read their mark-ups to assess their level of understanding and interaction with the text.  Discussion boards can also be useful.  One easy activity is to ask students to respond to two (or three) open ended prompts from the text.  I might also ask students to do just a good old fashioned “summary” of the text, a skill that all students could probably improve.  

The abundance of online resources can be both a blessing and a boundary.  It can be a blessing because we have so much from which to choose. But it can be a boundary because it just takes so long to actually find something that fits the rather narrow criteria we have for a given assignment.  But, like so many things in life, the time we put into these types of details will be helpful for all students, but especially those who might struggle with academic texts.

See the full newsletter here. 

AVReading March: Reading Strategies

As part of our year long focus on teaching strategies, I am going to focus my attention this month on reading.  Of course, it is not an extensive examination of good reading strategies to use in your class.  However, they are the strategies that I have more recently been using with students in response to data trends and things that I have noticed within classes.  Before getting into the strategies, let me start with some things that reading research has established as good practice. 

                  First, engagement and motivation matter with reading.  Since we are asking students to do something that is cognitively demanding and rigorous, we have to do what we can to engage them as best we can.  There are numerous ways to do this like giving more choice to readings, having really good pre-reading activities,  and using powerful and interesting texts. Second, students need to have access to texts that are within their reading range.  In some cases, we are using texts that are higher than a student’s frustration level. For them, it is just easier to shut down and avoid the reading all together than it is for them to try to get through the text.  Third, students get better at reading when they do it on a regular basis. Sometimes we-- as teachers-- get into this feedback loop where we see that students are not reading because we don’t think they can, so they don’t read, in which case they don’t get any better.  Building environments where students are given choice of texts within their reading levels along with suitable amounts of time (including in class), we can increase the likelihood that our students will see growth.

With that said, none of these tasks are easy.  Finding books that are engaging when your content area might have very limited options available, is not easy.  Getting a rowdy class to be quiet long enough to read a text is not easy.  These steps simply take time and sustained commitment.  

Here are some strategies that you might find helpful in assigning, assessing, and working with texts in your classroom. 

Three Thoughts Before Starting:  I use this at the start of a major work, but it can easily be done before any given assigned chapter or article.  Simply have them do some pre-reading writing by responding to the following prompts:  I think this text will be about. . . One prediction I have is. . . One connection I have is. . . 

Introductory Think Alouds:  An introductory think aloud is starting the class off with a teacher modeled think aloud.  It works like this.  You get everyone on the same page and tell them that you will be reading aloud the first part of the text for them.  Tell them that you will also model the types of thinking (or marking up) as you read that first part.  Plan to stop at least three times to model questioning, predicting, summarizing, connecting or evaluating.  Then, hand over the reading to the rest of the class. 

Anticipation Guides:  Develop a list of about 6-8 statements related to the topic of the given reading.  Ask students to read each statement and either “agree” or “disagree”.  Again, the purpose is to activate and generate background knowledge.  It works especially well, if each statement corresponds with specific details or ideas that you want them to focus on as they read.  At the end of the reading, ask students to return to their anticipation guide, review the items, and identify those where their thoughts have changed.  

Paired Reading: While asking students to read aloud is generally not a good practice (especially cold readings for struggling readers), here is one activity that allows students the chance to do it in a low risk environment.  For paired readings, students are given a partner.  Spread them out a little so that each pair has a little space.  (I usually move four or five pairs into the hall.)  Step one, each pair must find a common starting point (for a novel or book).  If it is an article, obviously, this is not necessary.  Step two, Person A reads aloud while Person B listens.  Step three, at the end of a page or section, Person B must think aloud (predict, question, connect, summarize, or evaluate).  Then Person B reads the next page / section, while Person A listens and thinks aloud.  Repeat the process through the entire article or for about 20-25 minutes.  I walk around with a clipboard, and document students reading and think alouds.  

Silent Discussions: Hand-out a sheet with five to six boxes on it.  Place students in groups of four.  Tell them that they will participate in a silent discussion based around the assigned text.  Give the class a prompt related to the text and ask them to respond (in box 1) to that prompt.  After two minutes, students initial their writing, and pass the sheet clockwise.  In box 2, students must respond to the thoughts in box 1 (agree, disagree, extend, question).  After two minutes, students initial their entry, pass the sheet clockwise again and you can either ask them to respond to the first two boxes in box three, or you can give everyone a new prompt.  After the sheet is full, send the sheet back to the original author, have them read the sheet and identify the most important idea or concept they can find.  

Audio Texts: Kindle (Amazon) and Audible now have compatible systems.  If you buy a text in Kindle, you will see an option to add the audio version for a small additional cost.  Once you do that, you can actually open Kindle and find a play button at the bottom.  This allows you to project your iPad on the screen and play the section of a novel or book AND see the text at the same time.  It even highlights the text as the reader reads.  This is especially meaningful since many of these books are recorded by professional readers / actors.  

Jump Aheads:  Assigning books is important.  In order to help our students develop their reading muscles, they need to have the opportunity to read extended texts (something more than just textoids or short articles).  However, sometimes entire books are just too overwhelming.  Therefore, I will assign a book, recommend they read the entire piece, but give them opportunities to jump ahead when they fall behind.  The jump aheads tell them what they are missing, but allows them to “catch up” and to be part of the discussion.  If the alternative is that they never pick up the book and they give up easily, I would much rather drag them ahead then to simply NOT assign a challenging text to begin with.  I’m not as concerned about catching them when they don’t read as I am setting a high bar for them and hoping that they feel comfortable enough to take some chances with reading a difficult text. 

Full newsletter here. 

AVReading Newsletter February: Movement

I believe that one of the most significant changes to my teaching through the years is the way that I think about student bodies within my classroom.  It was just never something that was ever discussed in my teacher training courses, and it certainly was not a regular feature of my own middle or high school years.  As a teacher, I conceived of students as these entities that merely showed up in the room, took a seat, participated in some writing, reading, and talking (along with a healthy dose of listening), and then they moved on to another class.  

            I sometimes forget what that must be like.  And then we will have one of those rare professional development days where we are asked to sit for long stretches of time, and suddenly I can get a feeling for what it must be like to move from class-to-class only to spend 48 minutes of seat time at each station.

Of course, movement for the sake of movement in the classroom isn’t good strategy.  In fact, this is supported by the work of former AVHS student (now cognitive science researcher at University of Illinois, Champaign) Robb Lindgren who specifically studies a type of movement in learning known as embodied learning. I wrote a newsletter about it last year, so I won’t re-visit his work, but it is good to know that there is a body of research out there to support the use of physical movement as part of the learning process.  While Professor Lindgren is much more specific about what makes for meaningful movement, I am a little more liberal in how I conceive of and use movement in the classroom.  In fact, I try to keep it in mind as I plan each day.  Is there a way to get them out of their seats?  Will they need to move?  Sometimes, I might call an audible, and work movement into the lesson-- either because they lack energy, or even because they have too much of it.  This means that time of day plays a role in how I design my lessons, since I am more likely to use movement in my first and seventh hour classes then in my other periods.  I’ve even seen a middle school English teacher devote the first three minutes of class to yoga!

Here are some of my most frequent uses of movement.

Walk the Line:  For this, I have students stand in two lines facing each other with an imaginary line separating them.  I tell them that the activity must be done in silence, and that they are only to walk to the line if they agree with the given statement.  I tell them that I will hold them on the line for a few moments, and that I want them to think about what they notice.  (I usually use this at the start of a unit that involves rich discussion.)  I’ll start with easy (generally unrelated) statements like , “Step to the line if you had a good breakfast this morning.”  And move to harder questions, “Step to the line if you have seen someone get bullied or harassed within the last week.”  I then send students back to journal about their observations, and eventually share out.

Agree / Disagree / I Don’t Know:  I have three stations in my room marked “Agree / Disagree / I Don’t Know”, and will often have students move to the station that best fits their opinion or understanding of a given concept or idea.  Sometimes, I will do something like, “Do you believe teachers should be carrying guns in school? Move to the station that best fits: agree, disagree, I don’t know”.  Then I have them share their thinking with someone standing next to them, and I call on  a few participants to talk to the class.  Sometimes, I’ll even choose statements that are related to definitions and terms.  “I know what ‘plot’ is and can explain the plot of my current book.”  

Walk-N-Talk: I see more and more of this, so I won’t spend a lot of time discussing it.  But sometimes I’ll turn think / pair / shares into walk-n-talks.  I just give the class a prompt, and tell them to make a quick spin around the block of classrooms in A-Wing.  Or in some cases, just up the stairs, down the hall, down the opposite stairs, u-turn, and back to class.  (2-3 minutes). Depending on the day, I might print little slips of paper from which they can read their prompts. In the fall and spring, I try to make at least one visit to the outdoor classroom. And since it is about a five minute walk there, I have walk-n-talk prompts to be completed on the way out as well as on the way back.

Tea Party:  For this, I give everyone a slip of paper as they enter class, each one with a passage from the assigned reading (I usually only have five total passages).  I tell students to read the passage silently, and then to consider what the passage means and why it is important.  Then, I give them 6 minutes to visit three other people, to share their passage and explain its importance along with why they feel it is important.  

Give One, Get One:  For this, I give students a slip of paper with 8 blank lines.  On the top four, I have them identify four things they found in the assigned reading that  they felt were important.  When done writing those out, I have them move about the room to visit with four more people.  In that exchange, they must give one detail they had written down, and they must get one detail from their colleague.  

            There are many other little choices I might make.  I have them come to the board to write graffiti on our given topic, to vote on the white board, to place an X on a continuum, or even to just bring an assignment to my desk.  Variety is the splice of life. 

            I think it is all part of expanding the tools we have available in our toolbox.  The goal is to find inroads to with students we have not traditionally been able to reach.  So much of what we choose to do in the classroom centers around control and submission.  Allowing for a little more movement can force us out of that box a little.  It requires a little more tolerance of energy and can provide a moment or two of relief for those who find the general business of the classroom to be restrictive and confining. 

See the full newsletter here.