An American Call to Test

It's March, the month of the annual writing championship (aka 'the PROMPT'), and as of Tuesday, it was finally done! Are they smarter than they were in fifth grade, well I guess we'll find out for sure.

The Connecticut Mastery Test, the other March Madness...is finally underway. For anyone outside the States, this means our testing season has begun. For the next two weeks, kids are being tested in reading, writing, math and some in science too. For the past two days, our kids have had a forty-five minute essay writing assessment (the writing prompt) and an hour of editing and revising as well. And now, after two long months of unrelenting snow, closed schools and frequent delays, we're pretty sure we've squeezed in just enough learning to ensure our students succeed...I think.

But on Tuesday? My nerves were a little on edge. Just as they were about to put that pencil to the page, a litany of ideas started rattling around inside my teaching brain. Anecdotes, quotes, similes/metaphors, statistical information, what else did I think they really could use? What have I missed out on this year? But then, I watched them creating boxed lay-outs, webs and bulleted execution plans. I'd taught how to plan out each of the component parts, and I spent time modeling my own plan too. The second thing I worked on this year, was stamina. Writers must write regularly in increasingly long spaces of time.

When the period was up, I strolled around the room, eyeballing each student's work. Every student had a minimum of two and many had three pages written in just under forty-five minutes and most wrote right up to the end. Of course, I have no idea what the level of content is, but if I adhere to my previous assumption, generally longer tends to earn a better score.

In my earlier teaching years, I didn't want to overwork the plan for fear that I'd stifle creativity! I sometimes laugh at the way I thought back then. Yes...they were creative, but did I not see all the pointless, wandering trails? Today, I'm satisfied. I started this year with many able writers, but many were compromised as well. I tend to shy away from the 'one size fits all' teaching, spending many long hours in small conferences, catching kids on the way to lunch or during their reading time. I kept it casual, but I kept it specific as well.

Many disparage these high stakes test, and I certainly can understand why. Millions of dollars go into them, test variation among states is incredible, and the pressure on staff and students is great. And while I'm not a fan of lock-step teaching/learning, I am glad that I live in a state where standards and expectations are high enough to ensure that students can and will succeed.

As March turns to April, we'll move on to the finer art of writing poetry and believe it or not, fictional short story in the form of mystery writing (a new state requirement) too! We don't expect our kids to become novelists necessarily, but it is a well-established fact, that the more varied opportunities you have to hook them as writers, the more strength and creativity they'll show overall.

Now, I'd like to see a fresh approach to ensure the students in America's cities will have an equal opportunity to be creative and experience the same learning opportunities too.

Teach Smart: Tangible Ways to Improve Student Writing

Well, good afternoon, Spot! You're looking like quite the intellectual with those new trendy glasses of yours! I'm glad to see you're in there editing and revising your latest CBAS entry! That PEG sure can score at lightning speed. The uncanny thing about her, Spot? Is that she is not too far off the mark from my scoring and the scoring of other teaching friends of mine.

Recently, I posted a lesson plan, I'd like the writing teachers and/or parents to see. The other day, I took the time to teach my students to 'get a visual/quantifiable' understanding of what the scoring on CBAS or my rubric scoring might actually mean. Following that, I gave them some strategies to help. Here's a little look into what we accomplished that day:

How do I apply writing process/writer’s workshop principles in other forms of demand writing? Recognizing the things that I know as a writer and transferring it to: 1) demand/’quick writes’ and 2) revising my work?

Background:

Up to this point students have worked in CBAS as a parallel assignment at home, writing for 15 minutes or more each night, and crafting a response to a prompt at home.

In the classroom, students are working on a feature article. In a series of short mini-lessons each day, they have learned how to plan (“What’s in Your Wallet?”), how to pack (“Touching the Specifics”) and how to insert research (“Listing Facts, Then Crafting them into Your Piece”).

All the while, parallels have been drawn in an explicit manner to show kids how this genre transfers to the writing prompt on the CMTs, to the CBAS home work they are doing, to the college essay or an essay that they’d be asked to write in order to attain a job.

Today’s objective:

Students will visually scan and mark-up their work to give it balance: paragraphs equal in size and/or sentences that vary in length, based on the following assumptions about good writing:

*Length is strength! If your work is not long enough, you haven’t sold your idea to your reader. (In truth, some writers are able to get to the point in a quick and clear manner. But more often, ideas need to be drawn out in a longer text.) Your purpose is to take the seed of an idea and help it grow in the reader’s mind. If your piece is short, your reader’s understanding will be limited.

What to do: look at your work and physically touch each line as you count how many lines in your piece. Write the number in pencil in the lower right hand corner.

Canvas students for their responses to create a range with no judgment.

*Ideas are balanced. This means your ideas are packed in tight, specific paragraphs. Remember how we packed our ideas for our feature article? Each paragraph, including the introduction and the conclusion should have a minimum of four sentences inside.

What to do: scan the sentences with your finger. Write the number of sentences in the lower right hand corner underneath each paragraph.

NO PARAGRAPHS? No problem! It’s important to indent as a sixth grader/to shift each time you move into one of your three focus ideas. Be sure to get into that habit! It makes revising your piece much easier.

(For those viewing this with horror in the outside arena...yes, we still have sixth graders who are missing this critical skill. It can often make for very confused writing. But we must proceed with caution, these are often our most fragile writers.)

What to do: take your pencil and draw a vertical line along the left side of the margin, stop when you need to shift into a new paragraph and mark it with the paragraph symbol.

*Sentence lengths should vary. Just as we’ve done with the ‘feature article’ in Writer’s Workshop, we’ll do right here in CBAS—study your sentences. Go in and trace a line underneath each sentence in your first paragraph. Some sentences should be longer, others should be shorter in length. You should have a nice mix of long and short. You can easily see the ‘shorties and the longies’, but if you’re having a hard time with that—think…4 or 7 words=equals a shortie, and longies=7 or above. You’ll see it right away!

Talk to the other writers in your cluster grouping about what you notice inside your piece. Make a list in your mini-lesson notebook of two things you’d like to change.

How to fix any of the imbalance in your piece:

*Balance of ideas: if you have shorter paragraphs, or if your piece is short in length, you should go in and take the mini-lesson on support. WHY? Your ideas are not completely developed. You may need to add some strong proper nouns, or create a one sentence connection to make your reader understand what you are talking about (an illustration…your idea in action.)

*Sentence length: If your sentences don’t vary in length, your piece will not have the fluent sound of someone talking. That is what you really want here. You need to speak on the page the way you speak in the classroom. Too many short sentences sound robotic. Too many longer sentences can confuse the reader by bogging them down in either over-stating (repeating yourself) or too many unnecessary words (too chatty!). Take a mini-lesson on sentence structure and/or mechanics.

Your job now is to go into your work, you’re already logged in, and start to take your ideas right from the page to the computer. Always reread the section you want to ‘perform surgery’ on, so you can warm your brain to make the right decision. When you are finished, be sure to save your work, so you can work on it some more at home.

CLOSURE: We’ll close in the same way we always do…asking ourselves two questions: 1) What have I accomplished with this piece today? 2) What is my work for next time?

A footnote: Upon reflection, this lesson was a lot to take on in one session. All good ideas, but too much for a sixth grade class in one sitting. What I've done though, is give them a tangible overview, an understanding of the what and why of scoring, and a hands-on way to make changes in their work. The next time I see them, I'll crack open each of the principles: show them student work that is shorter in length and discuss what an undeveloped piece offers. I love this lesson! I follow it with an 'Extreme Makeover' lesson, something we can break apart and brainstorm and then come back together and work on together.

Why does this model work? Well, honestly, there are no quick fixes in writing! Writing is a process that takes years of non-judgmental coaching, and lessons to achieve student success. The hope should be that each writer will, in fact, progress under my tutelage. So I know I have to get a leg-up with each one of them this year! I do think this instant self-scoring, CBAS program is a great tool. But it is one that could certainly raise concerns and suspicions for sure. So to each of you out there using it in the trenches--be sure parents and students as well know that you are doing a heap of background work to support it in the classroom. Otherwise it could succumb to public misinformation and then tank-out for sure! For now, for this teacher? It's working, and with no data as yet, I still believe it will boost skills like never before.

Happy writing, Spot! And happy teaching of writing to all my colleagues out there in the teaching world!

Teaching in my Pajamas

Okay, Spot...you can stay home AGAIN today. The roads are icky and it's snowing like nobody's business out there!

About ten years ago, my teaching buddies and I used to joke about a day when we'd be able to 'mail-it-in' so to speak. I know, that sounds harsh, and believe me, I'm not that kind of teacher, you know that Spot! You're just so cute I have to have face-time with you!! But...

All this snow? It does nothing for continuity of instruction, consistency in learning and actual daily practice on your part, Spot. Take that little yellow ball sitting there on the floor alongside you. You're a master at the bounce-catch, the roll and toss and any other number of tricks. You have practiced for countless hours outside and inside the house. When you're obsessed about learning the learning happens. Perseverance, long term practice, that's what it takes.

So...right now, you and the rest of the doggies are all hooked up for bad weather. I'll be sitting here in my jammies, and no doubt you will too when that next huge storm rolls in. Last week, you were home researching on Expert Space, Grolier's online research program that is leveled to match any reader's needs. This week, it's CBAS, a computer-based writing program set up by the state of Connecticut allowing students extensive time in drafting and revising prompted writing, so you can challenge yourself in writing at home...or in school.

Why, Spot, would I the writer/writing teacher want you working in this formatted/timed way?

Well, writing is a personal process. In the classroom, we'll be working on longer, more detailed process writing. I do believe in the human hand in critiquing written work...it is the MOST important way to improve a kid's work. I know for sure, I've made the greatest improvement with input from my writing mentor, Patricia Reilly Giff and the six members of my critique group. But, as you know, I can't be there every minute of every day. Practicing and getting feedback in a more regular way will really help you to take a huge leap!

So, tomorrow, Spot? When the snow is piling up outside? You and I will be inside writing, and when you click 'submit', that feedback will come back to you in a blink of an eye!

Think Spot!

Okay, Spot, okay. I know I pushed my luck today. I asked you to think, and really? It's only Tuesday...two days after turkey overload. "Stop the action," I said. "Put me inside your brain." What was I thinking, honestly?

I looked up from the piece of writing I was crafting in front of you and all the other pooches...and that's when the smiles and the smirks began. Inside your heads, you were thinking...lunch, definitely, lunch or recess, definitely, recess. You were chasing a squirrel or sniffing around a bush in the park. I knew that, Spot. After all, I'm not that old a dog myself. I get it.

It was writer's workshop time, and we were and still are embarking on a whole new journey. You see, Spot. Teaching is not just about tests. My job is to get you to make your thoughts and feelings known and expressed clearly on the page. So...when everyone loosened up a bit, I could hear the laughter erupt around me. The conversations about what you were all thinking broke out and that's when the fun began. I caught myself...I was being the 'sage on the stage' talking too much and forgetting to engage all of you.

The lesson; crafting a meaningful 'thought shot,' slowing down the action within a story to live inside the character's mind. Lemony Snicket, EB White, and JK Rowling were our guests today, and what a great job they did! You see, Spot, there's no greater teacher than those kind of experts. I can talk and talk until, as my dad would say, I'm blue in the face (oy, that's an awful thought!). But the truth is, kids love to dig into great literature. They can find those thought-shots, watch the true writing unfold and talk to each other to discover what to put on their own page.

So, now, after a very long day in the trenches, Spot...I'm thinking. Some folks call it metacognition, when a person thinks about and evaluates their own thoughts. But...I'm thinking about your thinking, so I'm not at all sure what you call that! I'm after elaboration...in small vignettes, in the exposing of the moment and in the snap shot too. I have a range of doggies this year, who seem to fall in the 'somewhat developed range' with either inadequate or minimally adequate details. My challenge is to get you over the fence, to think as you write, and to express all the smallest details.

So Spot? No more chasing rainbows...I want you to grab that squirrel by the tail! Specifics, that's the difference in your work.

Here's a bit of JK Rowling's specifics for you:

Harry looked around. One thing was certain: Of all the teachers' offices Harry had visited so far this year, Dumbledore's was by far the most interesting. If he hadn't been scared otu of his wits that he was about to be thrown out of school, he would have been very please to chance to look around it.

It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing in their frames.

There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard's hat--the Sorting Hat.

--JK Rowling, THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, ch. 12

JK did for me what I could not do for myself: she showed, firsthand, how to put a few thoughts on the page, create a mood and then show me what Harry was walking into. She had us eating out of the palm of her hand, Spot! We could see, feel and think right inside Harry's brain. And, best of all, she got us to the sorting hat...which, of course, is where she wanted us all along!

So tomorrow, Spot, we'll think it, show it, and make it real for the reader, because that, in a nutshell, is what good writing is all about. Find that in all your reading, and believe me, Spot, you won't chase the squirrel, you'll be chasing those words on the page!

Good dog, Spot. You're dismissed for today!

At Long Last, A Shift in Teacher Training!

The Rookies are coming! The Rookies are coming! Well, not so fast, Spot. You're still stuck with little old me.

Ever since I got out of school, lo those many years ago, I've often thought about how very different teachers in our country should be trained. We all adapt once we're on the job. We hide under our proverbial rocks and pray no one opens our classroom doors.

But today, Spot? I was listening to Marketplace and Kai Ryssdal was reporting on the miserable state of affairs in Louisianna schools today. But then, there was that little ray of hope I always listen for. University of Louisianna at Monroe has completely revamped its teacher training program. Now honestly, it's an idea whose time has finally come.

'In my day,' we sat in stuffy classrooms, doodling and taking notes, doing anything we could do to stay awake. I didn't really take my first 'methods' class until my junior year! I remember that mostly, because I just couldn't wait. My sophomore year, I was required to observe in a classroom, and man did I lap that up! But then I waited all the way until my senior year to find myself in front of kids again.

And the sad news, Spot? Is the same system is still in place. Recently, I had a college student come in and observe in my room. She took her notes, tracked a single student and sat down and chatted with me. But that was it, Spot. And we won't see her again until her senior year. Imagine if our medical professionals, sales professionals, culinary students or trade school students operated like that. The carpenter would be able to tell you everything she/he learned about the angle one must take in lowering the hammer, but they'd never hit the nail on the head.

My hope is that America finally wakes up, cleans up teacher training programs, and places apprentice teachers out in the field. First of all, our resources are shrinking and we really could use their able hands. But more importantly, our students' needs are greater than ever before. And no child should ever have to be the one training the teacher...it should always be the other way around!

Demystifying the Mystery

What is it about good writing that makes it so hard to define? I'm so sorry, Spot...I've had to pull in Calvin and Hobbs today...I know. Yick, right?! A cat in your SPOT. Today, I'm sending you off with a bone. You, my friend, are dismissed.

I'm talking now to all my teacher friends, to kids and their parents, to anyone, really, who is eager and willing to listen.

My school system, much to the chagrin (and understandably so) of the parents, has decided to take a half day to inservice its teachers in good teaching practices focused on good writing. The bottom line, of course, is the test scores, and everyone knows this is so. But to the outside communty at large, this is a huge sacrifice, and therefore there has been quite a bit of strife.

Our teachers are not remedial, they say. Why do they need all this extra time?

I'd like to set the record straight, to give an inside peek at what is really happening inside the walls while the kids are outside on the street.

Teaching is not innate, and just as with students, teaching practices repeated over time can become habitual. There is no 'eye-in-the-sky' even under the best administrative practices that can equally insure quality control. No teachers are created equal, nor should they be. No one would want that robotic teaching, the 'cookie-cutter' approach to learning. For that, we all know is deadly. But teachers have to come together to find common ground, common issues and understandings that we can all support through instruction.

So here we were, on a sunny day in October, eleven or so of us, all in classrooms, gathered together over our 'Tuning Protocols'. I had the good fortune to be sharing one of my 'cuspy-kid's' writing. I say that not to be demeaning, nor to create a stereotype about a student, it is simply a designation made about the level of writing that this student is able to achieve, which is marginal...but really just below marginal at best. This student has just missed goal on the CMTs, and left to his/her own device, it will always be that way.

Our task: 'How can we elevate this student's ability to improve in the area of writing in this piece?' I gave the group some background...nothing personal, gender neutral, about this students' overall performance. Where he/she started on the writing continuum, and the goals and objectives that I am working on right now in class. Then the team set to work dissecting the piece and looking at that which we hoped to see improve.

The commentary was wide and diverse. Questions arose immediately related to the score I'd give this student for his/her writing if this were an assignment in class. I resisted. The facilitator returned to the question at hand and encouraged teachers to take notes and mark up the piece as we moved along. The same teacher who had raised the question about score, pressed again to inquire about grade, "What grade would you give this piece," he asked. His background is math, so the question did not surprise me. He deferred to his own education and how he, himself, would've been scored on the piece. His issue was missing capitals and periods. Another teacher asked about paragraphing.

When asked what the expectation was for a sixth grader, grammatically speaking, my colleagues and I were able to defer to the standards...yes, paragraphing and periods should be in place. Sentences, at least those in the simple variety, should be well-defined with a capital and period. But this student was stretching his/her simple sentence border, and expanding ideas within. We could then say that commas are the order of the day in sixth grade. Kids are learning how to combine sentences effectively, stretching into compound, complex sentences. This is their whole year's challenge at this grade. The piece was written in September, the very beginning of school.

And then we launched into another discussion about what we hoped to see in a piece of writing.

This was the best part of all. Around the table sat the physical education, art, band, math, science, social studies and language art teachers. We all looked at the ideas this student had tried to put forth in this piece. He'd stretched to identify the person that most inspired him, but his reach was not really developed at all. We talked about what we would've liked to have seen, as he put his dad up there on the page. Many of the students identify their parents as inspirational, but they don't have the meat...the specifics to put a fluent piece together at all.

At the end of our two hour session, we all came to the same conclusion. This student's need was really in the area of idea generation. We could see how a mutual effort to talk to this student, to engage him in discussion as a regular practice prior to getting him to the page, we might be able to help him to practice the steps to good writing: verbal rehearsal leads to pay dirt, we concluded. So...in this short session, we hit pay dirt too. We could see the many students who are not unlike this one, who just need that steady boost to get a few clear ideas on the page.

And as far as the bottom line goes? The truth is, the bottom line is not the test or the score that matter at all. Students need to express their ideas clearly with great fluency, but Rome wasn't built in a day. The math teacher was coaxed into the simple understanding that you can't look under the hood until you've assessed the collateral effect of the piece as a hole. The band teacher left there with a plan to implement writing within his own discipline. The language arts teacher left with an opportunity to collaborate with the band teacher on that piece of writing. And the art teacher had a plan too. Last to leave were the two math teachers who also happen to teach reading as well. They were discussing writing and rubrics in reading and how that could translate to math. Teachers focused on writing is sure to bring baleful results.

What stands true in education today is that it is fluid, not static as it has been for so many years. Many teachers leave their college training programs with a bit of philosophy, a few methods courses and a student teaching experience. The great teachers evolve and evolve some more; they continue evolving and learning until the day they walk out the door. This two hour block that cost the district nothing was a bit of pay dirt for us all. Now, as I roll up my sleeves with my student, I have that deep knowledge that I am not the only one cheering him/her on!

So even though I know this is a sacrifice for the parent community, it is a breath of fresh air that informs instruction and opens the learning to a wider, grander stage. It takes a village to educate a child well in today's world, and educators must be fluid in their methods and their understandings of it all!

Out to Sea

Now Spot, I don't want you getting any ideas or anything, but imagine what it would be like to just take off one day in a little white boat and head out to places unknown. What if the pure purpose was to plan and execute your own education, to travel somewhere else to learn. Imagine how inspired you'd be!

Well, Spot, after seven years, a teacher has that opportunity, or they did at one time, anyway. They could actually take off for half a year or even a full year and still maintain their salary. Good for the kids, great for the teacher. Sabbatical-noun: an opportunity to gain new learning; to open the mind to a new way of thought.

In today's world of education, sabbatical is a phenomena that's been phased out, mostly because of cost. Paying for a substitute teacher while maintaining the regular teacher's salary is cost prohibitive, so therefore it doesn't exist. In its place, professional development became a way of bringing the best minds in education into a district or a single school building to bring to life research-based instruction ideas right to the staff on the frontline. In my current district, I've experienced the best of the best from Columbia's Teacher College Writing Project to H. Lynne Erickson's Concept-Based Instruction.

In the past two years, my colleagues and I have begun to follow the Dufour's approach to teaming with the Professional Learning Communities. PLCs are not a new concept to me. Teachers focus on data, and purposeful goals, sharing their best teaching practices is something that works well for me. PLCs, done well, require time and conversation to really go deep into the work. The Dufour approach requires teachers to come together regularly in order to design a purposeful, united community that has the child's best interest at heart. It requires hours of trusted sharing and listening with a vested commitment to the learning outcomes of each child.

You know you belong in a PLC if:

1. You believe the fundamental purpose of your school or district is to ensure all students learn at high levels, and you are committed to become a lifelong learner to make this a reality.

2. You think collaborative teamwork and interdependence among teachers and administrators is a great way to continuously improve your school or district.

3. You are hungry for evidence that students are learning and are ready to respond immediately when timely feedback tells you otherwise.

The greater community is clamoring for results. They're pointing all their energies at putting our schools under the microscope. But often, Spot, public criticism mounts before an idea is understood. Right now, we have a wonderful opportunity...to dig deep, to use the cost-free talent of our professional educators, the ones that shine inside our ranks.

Right now, more than ever before, teachers need support and understanding in order to accomplish some pretty high level goals. We have an enormous initiative in place called RtI which requires us to identify, assess, frequently monitor and intervene to insure proper outcomes for students at risk. We all want to see that happen Spot, but we need those in the know to spread a positive word, to support our work and to restore public respect to the art of teaching.

So Spot, spread the word...the learning never ends for you or for me. And that my friend, is a very good thing! I can't take off in a boat, but I can knuckle down and refresh my practice just like others out there in the professional world. And that is a very good thing for you!