Literacy is All

First Teach Your Administrators Well - Then Teach Your Teachers

Susan Engel's (The New York Times Nov 2, 2009) analysis wasn't flawed but she forgot to mention the lack of administrative/educational leadership in many public schools. My forty-two years in public education and countless visits to a wide variety of private and public schools has convinced me that administrative/educational leadership is the major element of "good" schools. You can entice the intellectually superior into teaching programs; you can provide excellent teacher training courses and you can provide on-the-job collegial support.  However, a less than stellar leader will never create a showcase school and will cause potentially excellent teachers to wither .

Certainly, as Engel points out, the best colleges need to develop teacher educator programs. These programs need to be taught by outstanding professors who model exemplary teaching - "best practices." It is impossible to create Engel's "critical mass of great teachers' if their models have primarily been mundane, uninspiring teachers.

Engel provides further solid advice for teacher preparation: intense supervision with expert mentors; video-taping and reflection of their practice and application; rigorous content study; theory and research into developmental stages.  She forgot to mention that no candidate should be considered into teaching programs if they lack competent literacy skills. additionally, every candidate needs to acquire a foundational understanding of how English operates at the word level (semantics, phoneme and morpheme), at the sentence level (grammar, syntax and semantics) and as oral and written composition.

However, if that's what we expect that of the teacher practitioners, then what do we expect of the leaders? Engel ends by saying that a school with smart, well-educated, skilled and passionate teachers is a school where students get a good education.  I know that a principal can fail to provide the organizational and collegial opportunities for those teachers and the students will have a fragmented and ineffective education.  Let's start with "sweeping changes to the way we select and train" administrators. We might find that less teachers need "fixing."

What's A Parent To Do?

Many parents search for common sense parenting suggestions.  I recently heard Dr. Michele Borba (http://www.micheleborba.com) speak about raising kids who have empathy, conscience, and self-control.  These three attributes comprise a moral core.

Empathy is identifying with and feeling other people’s concerns and requires that one “walk in another’s shoes.”  Dr. Borba identifies three ingredients:

1.       Unconditional love and acceptance which develops real self-esteem (I love you and like you for what you are now.)

2.       Reachable expectations, less-permissive environment where kids will nag but parents will still say no.

3.       Respectful and democratic environment where parents to listen more.  This listening requires fair and consistent rules: get eyeball level; establish and maintain eye contact; respond with positive acceptance (nods, smiles, positive comments).

This balance nurture and structure requires that parents stretch kids whenever possible with caring discipline to develop empathy:

·         Call out uncaring attitude on the spot

·         Ask – helpful or harmful

·         Reflect on feelings

·         Express disapproval

Conscience is knowing the right and decent way to act and choosing to act that way.  Three traits are related to conscience: compassion, honesty, persistence.  Values such as these are gained through repetition.  Dr. Borba provides T.E.A.C.H. Conscience Builder.

·         T – Target Values  (Parents should the trait they value most.)

·         E – Be An Example  (Show not tell; kids come equipped as video cameras.)

·         A – Accentuate naturally

·         C – Catch the kid doing it and always use the “language of virtue” – because it is the right way to live/treat others.

·         H – Highlight why “In this house we finish what we start.”

Self-control comes from having the skills to regulate your thoughts and actions.  Dr. Borba recommends that parents, and teachers, look for kids’ flash points – what are the physical signs (flushed cheeks, clenched fists) – and teach relaxers.  Families and individuals need techniques.  Each technique needs to be practiced for 0ne minute for 21 days.  Common ones are chill/relax through very deep breathes or the “stop light” popular with younger kids (red: say calm down; yellow: take twelve deep breathes; green: count to ten).

Dr. Borba operates from the philosophy of “strength focus” where one earns and deserves.  To accomplish this she provides a simple plan:

1.       Target one to two desirable qualities (virtues, assets, talents or behaviors) every month to replace one’s “old image of self.”

2.       Praise quality and be specific – “You are so cooperative because you ---“

3.       Cultivate the quality – plan activities to “show off the strength.”

4.       Continue at least 21 days until the child can verbalize the desired quality and the child’s performance of that quality.

Dr. Borba asks parents and teachers to make that 21 day promise or commitment and to remain focused on the desirable attribute.  Selecting the attribute requires that we ask “What is the single most important thing I can try?”  Experience with adolescents suggests that they should help select the attribute to cultivate; they might also be helpful in determining a trait their parent s could practice to improve family relations.  Younger children can also discuss traits to be fostered.  Dr. Borba’s website is a wealth of information to support parents and teachers.  She draws from her experiences as both, a perceptive mind and available research. 

Bus, Bath and Bed Problem Solving

Have you ever had a situation that bothered you for weeks at school, an issue you couldn't seem to resolve, only to find the solution came to you when you least expected it?  The late psychologist Wolfgang Kohler called this the "bus, bath, and bed" phenomenon:

"After periods during which one has actively tried to solve a problem, but has not succeeded, the sudden right orientation of the situation, and with it the solution, tend to occur at moments of extreme mental passivity..."

A well-known physicist in Scotland once told me that this kind of thing is generally recognized by physicists in Britain. "We often talk about the Three Bs," he said. "The Bus, the Bath and the Bed. That's where the great discoveries are made in our science."

Ever wondered why so many educational meetings end in frustration?  In schools the norm is to present a problem at a meeting, with a goal of brainstorming a solution together by the end of the hour. If a leader can resist that urge, and present the issue with a goal of discussing possible solutions at a meeting the next day or week, one’s colleagues will have their own flashes of insight while sitting in traffic, or dashing through their rote morning routines.  The lesson for educational leaders is to practice and model the same patience that teachers need to exhibit in the classrooms. Is there research that demonstrates that the "wait time" for "weighty thinking" needs to be exponential? 

Brenda Power, choiceliteracy.com, tells us that anyone can harness the power of the "Three B's" for problem solving in a few practical ways. Keep a small notepad and pen at your bedside or on your car's armrest console for when those solutions emerge suddenly in traffic or almost out of a dream.  In educational meetings plant a seed and give your colleagues time to mull it over. You will definitely get more interesting and inspired suggestions by way of the bed, bath, or bus.

Rejuvenate Teacher Learning

http://www.choiceliteracy.com provides many valuable ideas for educators.  A recent publication dealt with teacher study group ideas.

Jennifer Allen provides some excellent guidelines for teacher study groups.  She observes “Teacher study groups are becoming more popular in schools, fueled in part by the surge of interest in adult book clubs in the U.S. over the last decade.”   In Allen’s study groups, teachers explore a topic of interest in-depth by reading and discussing a book about the issue, trying out new practices in classrooms, and returning each week or month for more conversation.  Allen has condensed  her experience from the  past seven years as a literacy specialist in Waterville, Maine:

• Choose a clear focus in advance
• Seek volunteers--never have mandatory attendance
• Limit the number of participants (eight or less works well)
• Set meeting dates in advance so participants can reserve them
• Order books for everyone in advance
• Organize resources for participants
• Limit sessions to an hour, and stick to the time limit
• Meet in a relaxed, comfortable environment
• Provide plenty of refreshments
• Don't teach--the goal is a conversation where everyone talks freely
• Establish a predictable format

These guidelines sound like excellent advice for any group activity, including classrooms.  They exude respect for the participates' comfort and thinking - a winning combination. 

Allen is a keen advocate of teacher study groups because of the large base of research that demonstrates this teacher-initiated, in-house professional development is more likely to lead to sustained change in classrooms than other staff development models.  Allen further recommends consulting two websites, http://www.readinggroupguides.com/ and http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/rstfocus.pdf, and Diane Sweeney's book Learning Along the Way available from Stenhouse.

When forming a teacher study group there are some basic questions to consider:

• What do you hope will happen for children as a result of this study group?
• What are all the ways to encourage attendance?
• Who might you consider inviting outside the immediate faculty?
• How involved are the participants in designing the format and content?
• Are there rituals that you can use to define your study group?
• Do you need a facilitator? Should this position rotate or be held by the same person each time?
• How can you encourage the principal's participation?
• How will you and the group assess its effectiveness?

Successful teacher study groups provide concrete suggestions:

• Make faculty meetings the study venue. Coaches can get the ball rolling by introducing the book and chapter 1. Grade levels can take assigned pages from chapters to read and share.
• Door prizes, a book---sometimes a "big book" or a book w/cassette, can be given to the first teacher who arrives for the study. Vary the forma, from coaches who led discussions to other faculty members taking the lead. Teachers can also sit in "literature circles," and all share with one another - the nature of the discussion can dictate the format
• Hold book study sessions every three weeks with everyone in attendance, so all "heard" the information presented even if they didn't add to the discussion. One person can gave chapter summary/highlights and facilitate an open discussion. Coaches may have some back-up questions just in case the discussion lags but  it seldom will.
• Bring in a small group of students every other week or so a coach can demonstrate, it makes the study groups more real. For example, if you are reading a chapter on "inferring," bring five kids in and do a short lesson with them on inferring so teacher can observe and make connections to their own settings. You might also find it useful to do short bursts of adult reading, asking participants to follow their own thinking as they read.

The experience of others also provides some less effective strategies…

• Mandatory attendance
• Inservice with little interaction
• Assuming the role of an expert
• Excluding certain grade levels or groups i.e. specials teachers, paras, or principals who may wish to be invited
• Rehashing unpopular district or school policies
• Allowing one or two participants to dominate or discourage
• Assuming what you are not sure about

What better way to instill rigor and relevance into classroom learning than to engage teachers in the instruction experience you want them to institute in their classroom?

What About Boys and Literacy

Boys and literacy, or boys and academic achievement, has become one of the season’s hot topics.  Concern for boys' literacy began in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia and then followed suit in Canada and the United States. Addressing the issue of the achievement of boys' literacy is now an active goal of the aforementioned countries.  It is certainly not a new topic in published literature; Michael Gurian, among others, launched his “boy campaign” years ago.  His many books, The Minds of Boys,  The Wonder of Boys, Boys and Girls Learn Differently, provide research and insight for addressing the male learner. Ralph Fletcher published Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices;  Thomas Newkirk gave us Misreading Masculinity, Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture. 

The research from regional, national and international assessments reveal the following trends:
•    Boys read less than girls.
•    Boys generally think that girls are better readers.
•    Boys do not perform as well as girls in reading and writing tasks.
•    Boy's scores are lower than girls in Language Arts.
•    Fewer boys are finishing High School than girls.
•    There are less boys enrolling in University.
•    Boys prefer information texts to narratives.
•    Boys read less for enjoyment than girls.
•    Boys' attitude towards reading tends to be more negative than the girls.

The two vital factors to engage boys in reading are letting them have choices of literature and giving them time to read.  When the reading habit is established during the primary years, boys are often solely exposed to narrative texts, which research shows, does not interest them fully.  In finding the solution to engaging boys in reading, we must expand our definition of literacy. Literacy encompasses the ability for someone to navigate through any text and make sense of it. Books are only one type of text, and it is unfortunate that schools don't offer more of a variety of texts for students to interact with. While books can help many children to discover reading, other forms of texts include magazines, instruction manuals, Internet sites, information books, comic books, etc.  Boys enjoy reading about facts and will be more motivated to read if their learning environment includes a variety of reading options.

Boys must be allowed to choose from a variety of texts with the following opportunities:
•    The content makes them laugh.
•    The text contains factual information in authentic formats like baseball cards, magazines, comic    books or instruction manuals.
•    Genre include science fiction or fantasy literature.
•    In fiction the focus is more on what the characters do and not on his or her emotions.

Once a student has chosen their material to read, they must be given ample reading time on a consistent basis. Fluency in reading is an important indicator of success; fluency is achieved by wide and frequent reading.  Both homes and schools need to encourage reading, and sharing of that reading, in authentic ways which does not include answering questions, completing a study guide or writing a book report/review.

A similar perspective is needed to promote writing. Ralph Fletcher, Boy Writers, Reclaiming Their Voices, says that boys, more than girls, take an enormous risk when writing in school.  There is no choice, their humor and interests aren’t appreciated, their literacy practices (comic books, video games and IM’ing) are devalued and all writing must flow through the teacher’s perception of writing process using her format.   To create boy-friendly classrooms, Ralph mentioned some basic components:
•    Real choice about what to write and how to write it
•    More acceptance of reasonable violence (murder, mayhem and dismemberment) and quirky humor
•    Room for “boy” genres – sports, spoofs and parodies, fantasy, comics, graphic novels
•    Opportunities to draw while composing as an element of the composition
•    Cooperative writing and peer review so writing is more social than solitary
•    Allowance for messy handwriting as a developmental issue for boys – allow keyboarding

In analyzing the current achievement gap teachers, schools and governments must be acutely aware that current standardized literacy assessments do not motivate boys to perform at their best. Changing those assessments to reflect what boys like to read, would affect the results in a more positive manner. Boys might then be more comfortable with sharing and writing their ideas, thereby improving their self-image when it comes to literacy. Attitude improvement is vital to attaining strong literacy skills. Educators need to adjust their views of literacy achievement and expand their understanding of literacy to encompass different forms of media (TV, Internet, radio, magazines) and texts to better prepare their students

Ralph Fletcher Live!

Click photo to enlarge.

Two hundred area educators had the opportunity to met Ralph Fletcher on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at St. John Fisher College.  During this day long conference, Ralph presented the thinking embodied in his newest book, Boy Writers, Reclaiming Their Voices.  With many samples of student writing Ralph illustrated the need for teachers to set kids free from the formula writing for “test prep.”

Boys, more than girls, take an enormous risk when writing in school.  There is no choice, their humor and interests aren’t appreciated, their literacy practices (comic books, video games and IM’ing) are devalued and all writing must flow through the teacher’s perception of writing process using her format. 

To create boy-friendly classrooms, Ralph mentioned some basic components:
• Real choice about what to write and how to write it
• More acceptance of reasonable violence (murder, mayhem and dismemberment) and quirky humor (farts)
• Room for “boy” genres – sports, spoofs and parodies, fantasy, comics, graphic novels
• Opportunities to draw while composing as an element of the composition
• Cooperative writing and peer review so writing is more social than solitary
• Allowance for messy handwriting as a developmental issue for boys – allow keyboarding

Other elements necessary for writing classrooms appear less gender specific.  Teachers need to get students excited about and engaged with writing first; quality comes later.  Teachers need to provide specific praise during conferencing and focus on strengths.  Teachers also need to be aware that they sometimes censor what they “praise” or allow students to share; the realistic, sincere writing of girls is often publicly admired while the satirical writing of boys is often shunned.

A small amount of time was spent discussing Craft Lessons, Ralph’s earlier books, and Teaching the Qualities of Writing, a curriculum he created with wife JoAnn Portalupi.  He did spent some time discussing the importance of writer’s notebook and its place in the classroom and life for all writers.  Three resources for teachers would be Lessons for the Writer's Notebook by Ralph Fletcher & JoAnn Portalupi (Heinemann), A Writer's Notebook
by Ralph Fletcher (Avon Books) and Breathing In, Breathing Out - Keeping a Writer's Notebook by Ralph Fletcher (Heinemann).  There are additional helpful comments at Ralph’s website.

Homework Debate Heats Up, Again

As Nancy Keates points out in her article “Schools Turn Down the Heat on Homework” (Wall Street Journal, Friday, January 19, 2007) the homework argument is not a new one. I researched the topic twenty years ago during an administrative internship. The news is that schools in some affluent areas are limiting homework for intermediate, middle and secondary students while eliminating homework for primary students. Keates contends that the educational community at large watches and follows the innovations in such elite institutions. The homework discussion arose numerous times during my forty years in public education. Teachers agreed to alternate days so students did not have every subject every night. We argued that mindless “drill-and-kill” worksheets did not positively impact student learning and that ten instead of fifty math problems would review the process. We even agreed that one thought-provoking, multi-step, authentic math problem would yield a better grasp of mathematical concepts and provide valuable feedback for the teachers. Alas, as Keates points out, American schools have consistently swung back-and-forth on homework when national and world events provoked attacks on American education. Keates says that the problem of lagging US scores is not because of homework. More superficial work does not add the necessary depth or rigor to the curriculum. In some cases, an inverse relationship may exist between achievement and homework.

Country Mean Math score % of students assigned 4+ hours of homework nightly Lebanon 434 24% Armenia 478 23% Romania 474 22% South Africa 266 22% Tunisia 411 20% Moldova 459 19% Jordan 424 19% United States 504 5% England 498 3% Morocco 387 3% Netherlands 536 3% Scotland 498 2% Korea 587 1% Japan 569 1% Source: Gerald K. LeTendre & Motoko Akiba. “A Nation Spins its Wheels: The Role of Homework and National Homework Policies in National Student Achievement Levels in Math and Science,” 2007. Mean scores range from 266 to 605. Teachers have claimed that homework teaches responsibility but the opposite appears to hold true. Common sense alone suggests that organized students are most likely to complete homework independently whereas capable, organized parents are needed to superimpose organization for students still developing this quality. Teachers have claimed that homework mirrors “the real-world.” Society has certainly seen a recent change in how much work Americans are carrying home and no one is praising that practice. Why then, would we want to extend a student’s work day by hours? One final claim by teachers has been that they are expected to carry stacks of papers home to correct so why should students not also work beyond the school day. That is a punitive argument and very faulty reasoning. Research has shown that papers covered in red check marks do not comprise a valuable learning experience for students. WritingNext reiterates the research that teaching students to revise and edit their writing has the greatest impact on the quality of student writing. Surely, students working together in math to find and correct errors in thinking would have a similar effect. The achievement levels of elementary students are not positively impacted by homework except for independent reading. Based on research many schools require thirty minutes of “home-reading” a day. I would also ague that if students are going to spend their time watching mindless television, perhaps the homework is a better alternative. But, if the students can engage in sports and physical exercise, play games and do puzzles, socialize and converse, help family members with chores, lie on their backs and watch the clouds … we will actually go further in helping young students become active and engaged learners during school hours.

Educating The Elite Versus The Masses

While reading Charles Murray’s “Aztecs vs. Greeks” in Thursday, January 18, 2007 Wall Street Journal, there were moments when I wondered if he was actually discussing blond haired, blue-eyed Aryans.  The title alone suggests an Eurocentric attitude that is supported by his comment that our intellectually elite should focus on the best that came before them.  That means “a light dose of Aztecs and a heavy one of Greeks.”  When I recall that Mr. Murray also wrote the articles “Where Are the Female Einsteins?” and “The Black-White IQ Gap: Is It Closing? Will It Ever Go Away?,” I wonder how homogeneous his pool of intellectually elite will be. 

The intellectually elite comprise the top 10 percent of the intelligence distribution: those individuals destined to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, professors, writers, scientists, inventors and the top ranks of corporate America and government. 
It was a relief to learn that most gifted children are born to parents who value their child’s talent and are able to provide a higher education.  Fortunately those few without such parental support are given the opportunity for a higher education in the nation’s most prestigious schools.  I’m guessing that scholars of the American Enterprise institute don’t read Time so Mr. Murray had not read the article “Who Needs Harvard?” nor the recent article reporting that the highest proportion of our high-school drop-outs are among the most academically capable.  But then, he provided the solution already that those drop-outs can develop portfolios and get jobs in information technology (“What’s Wrong with Vocational School?”). 

Mr. Murray warns, “…our future depends crucially on how we educate the next generation” of intellectually gifted people because this group makes the decisions and policy that govern the government, the economy and the culture.  Worried that the curriculum and pedagogy of American schools will not prepare these gifted students with the necessary tools to be leaders (particularly wisdom, humility and intellectual discipline), Mr. Murray believes that only a separate setting, curriculum and pedagogy can establish the necessary rigor of true challenge to their intellect. 

Mr. Murray, by his own admission, is only pleading for greater realism in the nation’s educational outlook.  Such realism would provide a special education for the top 10 percent of our students. It would accept that 50 percent of our young cannot rise above basic literacy or functional literacy no matter what programs or instructional approaches we adopt.  For the remaining 40 percent we should provide vocational training.  It sounds like the intelligence “sorting hat” has accounted for everyone.  I recall that Harry Potter once asked, “Does the hat ever make a mistake and place a student in the wrong house?”  The answer was no.  I trust that Charles Murray’s “sorting hat” is as infallible.

Reserve College for Our Most Intelligent Students

Since using a bell curve to leave behind half of the student population, students with measured or perceived intelligence below 100, Charles Murray turns to the upper 50 percentile and their perchance to attend college in the Wednesday, January 17, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal, “What’s Wrong With Vocational School?”

His reasoning relies on two propositions.  First, he believes that students with an intellectual ability below 115, or 85% of the population, are not intellectually capable to succeed at a four year college.  They attempt college because “our culture puts a false premium on the college degree.”  In the current society, you have to attend college to get a job that ensures a good living. 

Mr. Murray proposes that individuals who are not qualified to attend college, because of their lack of intelligence, and individuals who aren’t motivated should instead seek vocational training.  Whereas it is easy to find a lawyer or doctor, it is difficult to find a carpenter, painter, electrician, glazier or mason.  In Mr. Murray’s estimation there are sufficient jobs available and the work exists regardless of the economy.  Furthermore, the incomes of journeymen craftsmen are in the top half of the income distribution and master craftsmen earn incomes in the six figures.

That would mean, of course, that master craftsmen are making at least $48.08 per hour.  Considering that the median teacher salary is $52,000, which is about half or $25.00 an hour, I would agree that everyone should become master craftsmen instead of teachers. 

Secondly, Mr. Murray proposes that the social significance of a college degree will disappear as “large numbers of high-status, high-income people do not have a college degree and don’t care.”  He believes that the information technology industry will create that class of people.  I just hope that all those jobs aren’t out-sourced to India and Brazil before young Americans realize that technology not college is the passport to their future. 

Mr. Murray fails to mention an important aspect of employment without a college degree.  “To present an employer with evidence that (one is) good at something” our young will need to develop high school or vocational school portfolios illustrating their skills and expertise.  Portfolios are certainly not a new concept in education but the practice is not as prevalent as is needed to support student reflection and to record growth and achievement. 

Intelligence Limits Literacy

On a bleak winter’s day of gray skies and bone-chilling temperatures it was heart warming to read in the January 16, 2007 Wall Street Journal that the well publicized failure of American education to produce literate citizens is not the fault of the teachers or the schools.  In his article “Intelligence in the Classroom, Charles Murray, of the American Enterprise Institute, points out that “we have never known how to educate everyone.”  It is purely the function of intelligence and where one falls on the infamous “bell curve” that determines the limits of one’s literacy.

As Mr. Murray explains “half of all children are below average intelligence.”  That is the nature of the bell curve.  Although intensive intervention to raise an individual’s intelligence has been tried, the small effect fades after a few years.   There is simply nothing that can be done about the intelligence with which one is born.  Mr. Murray is sure that “even the best schools under the best conditions cannot repeal the limits on achievement set by the limits on intelligence.”  This presents a whole new perspective for restructuring our schools.

Unfortunately, Mr. Murray points out, no one knows what intelligence is necessary to achieve basic literacy.  However, he is sure that a student at the 49th percentile (intelligence just below 100) cannot be taught to comprehend material beyond a limited level of complexity.  A student at the 20th percentile (intelligence of 88) can only comprehend the simplest of written material and is confined to jobs requiring minimal reading skills.  It certainly sounds like the US needs to create an economy where half of the work force can perform low level jobs requiring little problem-solving, decision making and thinking – or literacy.

As a parent that would alarm me. We know that measures of intelligence are language based and children from lower socio-economic levels enter kindergarten with less language than their more affluent peers. “If you don’t have sufficient intellectual ability when you enter kindergarten, you are never going to have a lot of it.” It sounds like schools are not expected to be places of achievement for students from lower socio-economic levels and children who have developmental language delays.  Of course, Mr. Murray does not say that he is using “the sorting hat” on incoming kindergarteners; I’m merely assuming that early in a student’s educational career that pre-ordained literacy expectation would be determined by “intelligence” or achievement and an appropriate educational path would be established for that child.

The positive interpretation of this article is that we can probably stop worrying about reforming our educational system or funding additional academic programs.  I’m wondering what changes Mr. Murray might recommend for schools because, by his own admission, “many of them, especially in large cities, are dreadful.”  If the perfect system “is not going to make much difference in the performance” of more than 50% of our children, how should we organize our institutions of learning and what learning activities should we effectively plan for the students?