Ahh, the end of a long, first semester back in grad school (Side note: Anyone remember when I bored this past Fall? It's like a faraway dream now!). Now, I'm on the brink of celebration. Two finals down, one to go! I love the feeling that accompanies the culmination of a semester. Almost of my "to do" items have been completed. A truly, genuine sense of achievement has been acquired.
As an educator, it's these same emotions I want my students to experience. I'm first challenged to remember how I am able to arrive at this whimsical place. It's simple--I function on internal motivation. External motivation typically throws my equilibrium off. I joke with my family that I succeed in spite of them. (Disclaimer: I have the most supporting family, but compliments and congratulations weren't easily distributed. We had to work harder and better than the previous attempt.) A constant point of confusion in my own teaching has been the equal use of internal and external motivation for my students. Given how I was raised, and to what I'm accustomed, I've always had difficulty over-accentuating external motivating factors. By high school, I believe students should be functioning 85% of the time from an internal root. It turns out that research supports this too! I might be exaggerating with the random 85%, but the point is that good readers are motivated to read via basic human motivation theory? Who knew I was onto something?
In my seminar paper, I explored the connection between motivation and reading comprehension. Those who are internally motivated to read can typically focus more closely and exhibit stronger reading comprehension as a result. It seems straightforward. I wasn't surprised by anything I read. The literature helped me to contextualize my past teaching life. When I explain the logistics of teaching in a high-needs, low-income school, people want to talk about laws, teacher tenure and budgets. My rebuttals always put the focus back on the children--who are simply just children. An underserved population.
In my current teaching life, I experience a very different set of variables on a daily basis. I teach a well-served population, filled with internally motivated students. I'm blessed in a new way. My instruction pushes them to reach new depths of understanding, and stronger comprehension. No longer do I struggle to keep them focused, but now I must motivate them to want to go deeper--and have the confidence to know that they can.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
Musings on the Role of Poverty in Vocabulary Development
There's undeniable, powerful connection between the socioeconomic status of students and the achievement they experience in school. This gap follows students into "real life."
At the heart of the achievement gap lies Literacy. It's a skill many of us take for granted: read a street sign, pick up a newspaper (those the numbers are dwindling), complete a job application and the list goes on. We rarely question how life would be different if we lacked what seems to be a relatively easy skill. Or let's scale it down a notch, think about how life would be if you were perpetually stuck on a 3rd grade Reading level?
Children living in low-income, high needs communities face this reality every day and it doesn't seem to be changing. Resources in the schools are lacking and there's often little support coming from home. Most material learned during an effective school year is lost over the summer. How does a child possibly learn and retain a functioning vocabulary?
Oh wait, this happens before a child is even enrolled into school. By the age of 3, children in low SES are already experiencing a 30 million word gap. 30 MILLION WORD GAP. Who realized that it was even possible for a 3 year to 30 million words? Children in an SES are exposed to less than half the amount of words that a children in an average professional family is. The problem starts before school even starts.
That's what's astounding. The next 18 years of a children's life can one long epic struggle.
How is this fixed? It's not early intervention programs. It's not prescriptive reading programs. Shoot, it's not even "great" teachers. It's not different parents. The solution lies in poverty and the solution that people claim isn't available. How do we fix poverty? I can save those musings for another day, but you can be guaranteed the fault isn't with the parents or schools.
At the heart of the achievement gap lies Literacy. It's a skill many of us take for granted: read a street sign, pick up a newspaper (those the numbers are dwindling), complete a job application and the list goes on. We rarely question how life would be different if we lacked what seems to be a relatively easy skill. Or let's scale it down a notch, think about how life would be if you were perpetually stuck on a 3rd grade Reading level?
Children living in low-income, high needs communities face this reality every day and it doesn't seem to be changing. Resources in the schools are lacking and there's often little support coming from home. Most material learned during an effective school year is lost over the summer. How does a child possibly learn and retain a functioning vocabulary?
Oh wait, this happens before a child is even enrolled into school. By the age of 3, children in low SES are already experiencing a 30 million word gap. 30 MILLION WORD GAP. Who realized that it was even possible for a 3 year to 30 million words? Children in an SES are exposed to less than half the amount of words that a children in an average professional family is. The problem starts before school even starts.
That's what's astounding. The next 18 years of a children's life can one long epic struggle.
How is this fixed? It's not early intervention programs. It's not prescriptive reading programs. Shoot, it's not even "great" teachers. It's not different parents. The solution lies in poverty and the solution that people claim isn't available. How do we fix poverty? I can save those musings for another day, but you can be guaranteed the fault isn't with the parents or schools.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Musings on Informational Texts
The research I read in Duke's article "3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in the first grade" didn't come as a shock to me. Having spent my entire career at the secondary level has made this fact apparent. Even in my teaching of eleventh and twelfth grades, I've had to "undo" what students have retained about narrative texts when attempting to teach informational texts. They regularly refer to all texts as "stories." Actual people are called characters. They ask about the plot. The headings and subtitles confuse them. It is clear though that they are well-versed in the world of narrative reading and navigation thereof.
I couldn't help but laugh when I read this excerpt from the article:
I assume that development of genre knowledge proceeds in a genre-specific matter. That is, I assume that one learns how to read or write a genre through experience with that genre, experience with other genres may be helpful but will not be sufficient. So, for example, all the experience in the world reading and writing comic books will not by itself render someone able to read or write a cookbook. Similarly, extensive experience with storybooks, while beneficial in many respects, will not alone result in children being able to read and write information books. Learns must have experience with the particular genres in question in order to fully develop the ability to read and write (in) those genres.
It's one of the most logical passages I've read in a long time. What I have trouble understanding is why teachers, curriculum supervisors and book publishers aren't taking this to heart. Why aren't we reevaluating what we provide students on a regular basis? Do we continue to rely on narrative texts because they are easy? Because students like them? Many adults I know do not pick up novels to read for pleasure. Those same adults, though, regularly read articles--informational texts--online. It's ironic that the one text we escape as young students creeps up regularly in our adult life. We must review our practice and our curricula. Are we preparing students for success or are we leaving them in the lurches?
I couldn't help but laugh when I read this excerpt from the article:
I assume that development of genre knowledge proceeds in a genre-specific matter. That is, I assume that one learns how to read or write a genre through experience with that genre, experience with other genres may be helpful but will not be sufficient. So, for example, all the experience in the world reading and writing comic books will not by itself render someone able to read or write a cookbook. Similarly, extensive experience with storybooks, while beneficial in many respects, will not alone result in children being able to read and write information books. Learns must have experience with the particular genres in question in order to fully develop the ability to read and write (in) those genres.
It's one of the most logical passages I've read in a long time. What I have trouble understanding is why teachers, curriculum supervisors and book publishers aren't taking this to heart. Why aren't we reevaluating what we provide students on a regular basis? Do we continue to rely on narrative texts because they are easy? Because students like them? Many adults I know do not pick up novels to read for pleasure. Those same adults, though, regularly read articles--informational texts--online. It's ironic that the one text we escape as young students creeps up regularly in our adult life. We must review our practice and our curricula. Are we preparing students for success or are we leaving them in the lurches?
Friday, February 21, 2014
Musings on Motivation
If I had to summarize my formal teaching experience in one word, I'd pick motivation. In teaching a high-needs community, I had to motivate my students on a daily basis. I often felt like I fulfilled the role of a parent when I motivated them to come to school. For some, I kept some snacks (healthy, of course!) on hand, so they didn't have to eat the frozen school breakfast when there was nothing at home. For others, I had pens stuffed away in a secret drawer because organization just wasn't in the cards for them. Another group of students required a song and dance. Literally, a song, as I would sometimes play music while they worked. Several students I promised I would hand deliver photocopies during my prep to their classroom if they lost an important one. Of course, I always made time on my calendar to fit in school events, like sporting events and proms. Then, at nine different instance, I attended student's funerals. These were the paths I took to motivate my students to attend school and engage in learning.
Motivation in a literacy-based classroom isn't just about "getting students to read," but rather about pushing students to engage with the reading. Literacy isn't simply reading and writing words, so they need to learn this early. Reading and writing words will open doors that will otherwise stay closed. In our digital world, it's more important than ever to be able to differentiate between fact and opinion, essential and non-essential, researching and defending opinions, etc. We can now access information without much effort, but students need to understand the process and the skills involved in finding the information. All of this is done through literacy, and should somehow be part of the motivating process.
After reviewing numerous articles on this topic of motivation, I am more frustrated than ever. If researchers are taking the time to seriously investigate this topic, I want to see real results. I want to see something beyond an interest inventory completed by first or second graders in suburban America. I want to see a more authentic cross-section of the American population. I want to hear from the kids who have trouble even getting to school because no one pushes them out the door in the morning. I want to hear from the struggling sixth grader, because suddenly his textbooks are confusing.
I want the researchers to ignite the process in finding solutions. I have yet to come across answers to the problem of motivation, or rather, lack thereof. Nothing I've read has been surprising. Through the formal research, we learn that kids hear that reading is important. The studies also go onto show us that students who struggle in reading don't value reading. My point is: nothing was groundbreaking. In fact, I feel like I could have conducted any one of those same studies in my classroom and received the same lackluster results. I want to be WOW'ed. I want some possible strategies to improve student motivation in the classroom.
Motivation in a literacy-based classroom isn't just about "getting students to read," but rather about pushing students to engage with the reading. Literacy isn't simply reading and writing words, so they need to learn this early. Reading and writing words will open doors that will otherwise stay closed. In our digital world, it's more important than ever to be able to differentiate between fact and opinion, essential and non-essential, researching and defending opinions, etc. We can now access information without much effort, but students need to understand the process and the skills involved in finding the information. All of this is done through literacy, and should somehow be part of the motivating process.
After reviewing numerous articles on this topic of motivation, I am more frustrated than ever. If researchers are taking the time to seriously investigate this topic, I want to see real results. I want to see something beyond an interest inventory completed by first or second graders in suburban America. I want to see a more authentic cross-section of the American population. I want to hear from the kids who have trouble even getting to school because no one pushes them out the door in the morning. I want to hear from the struggling sixth grader, because suddenly his textbooks are confusing.
I want the researchers to ignite the process in finding solutions. I have yet to come across answers to the problem of motivation, or rather, lack thereof. Nothing I've read has been surprising. Through the formal research, we learn that kids hear that reading is important. The studies also go onto show us that students who struggle in reading don't value reading. My point is: nothing was groundbreaking. In fact, I feel like I could have conducted any one of those same studies in my classroom and received the same lackluster results. I want to be WOW'ed. I want some possible strategies to improve student motivation in the classroom.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Musings on Explicit Instruction
What a tricky topic! It's defined in many ways by many different sources. Here's a quick random sampling of those definitions:
Explicit instruction is a systematic instructional approach that includes set of delivery and design procedures derived from effective schools research merged with behavior analysis.There are two essential components to well designed explicit instruction: (a) visible deliveryfeatures are group instruction with a high level of teacher and student interactions, and (b) the less observable, instructional design principles and assumptions that make up the content and strategies to be taught.
(http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/explicit_instruction#.UvKHgaUw0y4)
Explicit instruction means that we show learners how we think when we read…
(Harvey and Goudvis' Strategies that Work)
Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented--and has been shown to promote achievement for all students.
(http://explicitinstruction.org)
At the heart of each of these definitions is one very common idea: systematically teaching students how to read and think. A key factor of explicit instruction is bringing light to those implicit actions that good readers do. A teacher must strategically construct lessons to direct students to full comprehension of a text. Different texts will require different strategies. A novel might call for a read aloud, while a non-fiction text might necessitate a think aloud.
On the surface, explicit instruction seems quite straight forward and manageable to infuse into teaching. Upon further inspection, it's clear that there's a fine line between guiding students and telling students. This is the delineation that many teachers teeter upon, and I know that I did.
Let me contextualize my background, so as a reader you understand this delineation and my previous confusion with explicit instruction. I have an undergraduate degree in English, which encompassed writing and literature classes. Now that same program is split into the two categories. I completely denied my eventual entrance into teaching and didn't take a single undergraduate education class. Now, years later, I see how I robbed myself of a valuable experience. A couple of years after college I started teaching via the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows program, which provided me the formal backing for an emergency certification. As I was managing a classroom, I attended grad classes. And while this isn't a knock on my graduate education, as a secondary teacher, I don't think I was prepared to actually teach the student population I was in front of every day.
Terms like "explicit instruction"and "think alouds" were mentioned a few years into my teaching at the secondary level. Imagine my confusion when I was told to use these in my classroom. I didn't have the slightest idea of where to start to be successful! I remember thinking, "How is this different from 'direct instruction'?" All of the literature we were given focused on using explicit instruction at the elementary level, and even now as I skim through books and websites that's where the focus lies. But I digress…
Explicit instruction must be useful in the classroom as it is essentially a version of loose handholding, but in the best way possible. I can relate it to teaching a child to read. If the parent sets up many opportunities for their child to read and be successful eventually that child will be just that. A teacher has the same responsibility, even into the secondary years. Here's where it gets tricky. When does the teacher release the grip? How does explicit instruction continue into the secondary years, without having the students feel childish? How does the teacher infuse explicit instruction into a secondary classroom with grade level texts and below grade level readers (and stay on a timeline, etc. and stick to all of the outside pressures)?
Explicit instruction is a systematic instructional approach that includes set of delivery and design procedures derived from effective schools research merged with behavior analysis.There are two essential components to well designed explicit instruction: (a) visible deliveryfeatures are group instruction with a high level of teacher and student interactions, and (b) the less observable, instructional design principles and assumptions that make up the content and strategies to be taught.
(http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/explicit_instruction#.UvKHgaUw0y4)
Explicit instruction means that we show learners how we think when we read…
(Harvey and Goudvis' Strategies that Work)
Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented--and has been shown to promote achievement for all students.
(http://explicitinstruction.org)
At the heart of each of these definitions is one very common idea: systematically teaching students how to read and think. A key factor of explicit instruction is bringing light to those implicit actions that good readers do. A teacher must strategically construct lessons to direct students to full comprehension of a text. Different texts will require different strategies. A novel might call for a read aloud, while a non-fiction text might necessitate a think aloud.
On the surface, explicit instruction seems quite straight forward and manageable to infuse into teaching. Upon further inspection, it's clear that there's a fine line between guiding students and telling students. This is the delineation that many teachers teeter upon, and I know that I did.
Let me contextualize my background, so as a reader you understand this delineation and my previous confusion with explicit instruction. I have an undergraduate degree in English, which encompassed writing and literature classes. Now that same program is split into the two categories. I completely denied my eventual entrance into teaching and didn't take a single undergraduate education class. Now, years later, I see how I robbed myself of a valuable experience. A couple of years after college I started teaching via the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows program, which provided me the formal backing for an emergency certification. As I was managing a classroom, I attended grad classes. And while this isn't a knock on my graduate education, as a secondary teacher, I don't think I was prepared to actually teach the student population I was in front of every day.
Terms like "explicit instruction"and "think alouds" were mentioned a few years into my teaching at the secondary level. Imagine my confusion when I was told to use these in my classroom. I didn't have the slightest idea of where to start to be successful! I remember thinking, "How is this different from 'direct instruction'?" All of the literature we were given focused on using explicit instruction at the elementary level, and even now as I skim through books and websites that's where the focus lies. But I digress…
Explicit instruction must be useful in the classroom as it is essentially a version of loose handholding, but in the best way possible. I can relate it to teaching a child to read. If the parent sets up many opportunities for their child to read and be successful eventually that child will be just that. A teacher has the same responsibility, even into the secondary years. Here's where it gets tricky. When does the teacher release the grip? How does explicit instruction continue into the secondary years, without having the students feel childish? How does the teacher infuse explicit instruction into a secondary classroom with grade level texts and below grade level readers (and stay on a timeline, etc. and stick to all of the outside pressures)?
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