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Extending Thinking to Raise Achievement: Standards Driven Learning Grades 3-8
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The Learning-Focused Connections Newsletter is a weekly link to exemplary practice and ideas that will help you as an educator to increase achievement in your classroom and school. Some weeks there will be a mix of articles in the mailer; other weeks we will follow a theme. We are all working with the same goal in mind, continuous improvement in student achievement.
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Critical Literacy: Reading Vann's Sneakers, MTV, or Georgia O'Keefe
by Peggy Corbett
Traditionally, literacy has been associated with what we read in books and text as a body of printed words. Despite this strict interpretation, teachers have always understood that actions, experiences, and subtleties of innuendo may either obscure meaning or enhance it. If this were not true, we would not need a full-time Supreme Court to constantly interpret the same U. S. Constitution! If we broaden the definition of text, as it surely has been, with the advent of modern technology the condition is the same. The same principle is applied to "non-word" text such as emblems, art, music or popular icons. Flags, for example, may appear visually identical to any viewer, yet they are interpreted in many contradictory terms by the same viewers.
Every day our students are bombarded with media images that have become the language and literacy of their generation and still the canon is taught as if it were the only authentic literacy. (Smelling salts for English teachers, please.) Ignoring the "new language" places students at risk of being unable to acquire critical discernment.
Teachers know that reading is more than decoding, fluency, or moving through the eight tested reading skills. At least equally important is the ability to construct meaning from text - and realistically that text may be a historical marker, a piece of music, a statue, or even an entry structure in a new subdivision. If we throw in the bewildering world of internet "misinformation," the urgency for teaching new forms of literacy is even clearer. In advertising and other persuasive media, the ability to discern the implicit message is more important than the explicit.
In planning any content lessons, including English, it is important to provide opportunities to read and interpret a variety of texts throughout the learning stages. Certainly the most interesting opportunities for students and teachers lie in the Extending Thinking stage. As you plan acquisition and extending thinking lessons evaluate whether you are providing students with these opportunities. Students might be surprised at just how much "reading" they are actually doing each day.
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Why Map Your Curriculum?
by Bill Blynt
In the 1970's and 1980's Dr. Fenwick English introduced the mapping process as a component of his curriculum development process. Since that time, numerous individuals have encouraged schools to develop curriculum maps as part of their curriculum review process.
The purpose of maps is to clearly articulate for teachers what is to be taught in their particular course or grade-level. For many years teachers were provided extensive course syllabi and textbooks that would frame their instruction. Teachers were left to determine the importance of each component of their curriculum, develop lessons to address each element and utilize 'approved' textbooks and materials with their students. Without state standards and universal state assessments, this system seemed to work.
With the implementation of No Child Left Behind, all states were required to develop core state standards and common state assessments. This standards movement heightened the awareness that a common curriculum must be taught to every student. It was no longer acceptable for each teacher to determine the priorities within a given subjects. A common curriculum was essential for student to be adequately prepared for their summative state assessment. Mapping emerged as the endorsed process to identify this 'core' curriculum. Aligning
instruction to state standards became critical to the success of a
school in terms of state expectations. Mapping was a process that
attempted to identify what specific content should be taught at each
level.
Mapping requires that groups of teachers assemble to discuss and dissect each state standard to determine what their students must know or be able to do in order to master the intended content. Once maps have been developed at each grade-level or course, teachers have a clear understanding of the outcomes expected of students in their course. Maps also enable a teacher to quickly ascertain an understanding of what is taught at a previous grade-level or course.
Curriculum mapping needs to be focused on what is best for students and to be standards driven. Teachers can utilize maps to reflect on their instructional practices as they relate to student performance. Instruction must be seamlessly aligned to state standards. A mapped curriculum can be easily adjusted after analysis of student performance data or a change in state standards. Curriculums are ever changing. Mapping provides a forum to reflect on these changes and efficiently adjust course curriculums as needed to address these changes.
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Higher Level Questioning
by Laurian Phillips
When it comes to asking good questions during the distributed summarizing part of the lesson, sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the same questions we have always asked. When examined more closely, these questions tend to utilize lower level thinking skills.
To combat this problem, one teacher offered a suggestion. She put up question stems on a poster at the back of the room to remind her to ask better questions. These can be obtained from the Learning-Focused Extending Thinking Flipchart and can also be found in all of our books. Good questions, such as, "Why did you use that strategy? What would happen if ___? Can you explain to your partner___?" will help elicit more thinking and discussion than "Who is the main character in this story? What operation would you use to solve this problem?"
Questions should be thought out ahead of time and written in the lesson plan, but a poster might also allow for additional questioning and serve as a reminder to distribute summarizing throughout the lesson, not just at the end. This teacher suggested that it helped to remind her to do more with pairs. She said that it also was a visual to remind her to look back at her lesson plan to ask those great questions that she created to use during her lesson.
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Leadership
by Barbara McSwain
Winston Churchill said it best, "The key to your impact as a leader is your own sincerity. Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe."
Headlines from the ASCD Smart Brief recently read, "U.S. students fall short in Math and Science." Sean Cavanaugh further stated that the "new results from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today, show U.S. students ranking lower, on average, than their peers in 16 other countries in science out of 30 developed nations taking part in the exam. The top-scoring American students' averages were statistically worse than those for 23 of those nations, and equal to only those of Spain and Portugal. Just four countries, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Mexico scored lower than the United States.
With doom and gloom in the news, my question becomes one of leadership. Principals face retention issues with personnel, achievement levels of students and, in many cases, decreasing budgets. Lee Iacocca's recent book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, made me ponder the description of a great leader, not only world class but also great.
Kevin and Jackie Frieberg wrote about leaders with passion, guts and glory in Executive Excellence. One of the leaders they cited was Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff, U. S. Navy. The Friebergs suggested that, "perhaps it was bold and courageous leadership that encouraged Captain D. Michael Abrashoff to deviate from U.S. Navy policies and in the process inspire 300 sailors with the passion needed to create the most combat-ready Navy warship in the Pacific Fleet, the USS Benfold. In 1998 under the command of this gutsy leader, the Benfold offered huge payoffs to the Navy and returned $600,000 of its $2.4 million maintenance budget, $800,000 of its $3 million repair budget, and became the most sought-after ship assignments in the Pacific Fleet. This gutsy leader believes that improving his little 300-person piece of society is as much a part of the bottom line as operational efficiency. As a result, passionate people feel compelled to perform at peak levels, and retention rates soar. On average only 54 percent of sailors stay in the Navy after a second tour, but on the Benfold 100 percent of the sailors sign on for more."
If we look at Capt. Abrashoff more closely, we can see an analogy within a school district or a school. Often we think that we cannot make a difference in the whole scheme on U.S. test scores because we are a small pebble. If we could take a more courageous approach and begin to see how we can retain the teachers within our building and improve achievement within our school/district, we would soon discover success breeds success!
In the Learning-Focused math training teachers are encouraged to develop math units based on state standards and built around problem solving. Learning-Focused encourages teachers to add additional Extended Thinking to every essential unit.
Learning-Focused has developed new science materials to enhance science instruction and raise achievement in your school/district - inquiry science lessons/units with multiple opportunities for student to problem solve, to explore and to use extended thinking skills. Toolbox is available online to develop math/science unit/lesson plans.
The Learning-Focused reading materials guide teachers in the use of comprehension skills across content areas. The Learning-Focused writing materials encourage writing across content areas to improve transition from short term to long term memory. All of these tools enable students to achieve at higher levels.
Teachers and students deserve strong leadership to guide them in making focused instructional decisions. Through courageous, gutsy leadership with monitoring for achievement we can raise the achievement levels of all students!
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Past Connections Articles
Past Connections articles are available through the archive tool of this newsletter. Please click here to view the resources.
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National LEARNING-FOCUSED Conference
February 4-6, 2009
Cobb Galleria Center
Atlanta, GA
Registration Fee: $125.00 per person/day
Includes all conference materials (notebooks, flipcharts, handouts)
Registrations after November 1, 2008: $150.00 per person/day
Sessions and registration available August 1, 2008 at www.LearningFocused.com.
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