Today, as I was browsing some feeds I had let languish, I came across a URL for an article in Psychology Today in a post @ Dangerously Irrelevant about student presentations at conferences. While I have been tossing around such an idea for awhile, the article I was directed to prompted thought on another matter altogether, which is often what happens when reading blogs.

The article, entitled Trashing Teens, is an interview with Dr. Robert Epstein, host of Sirius Radio’s program Psyched! and published author. The interview covers the idea of adolescence and its relative newness in terms of a classified time span in history. I found it an intriguing read and suggest you do the same if you have ever questioned the idea of teenagers and are they still children or adults.

Dr. Epstein suggests we have created the idea of adolescence and have created the environment which feeds the idea of teenager as consumer.

We have completely isolated young people from adults and created a peer culture. We stick them in school and keep them from working in any meaningful way, and if they do something wrong we put them in a pen with other “children.”

Instead of teaching or guiding them to adulthood, as biology suggests we should, we cater to their needs and create the idea of freedom with no responsibilities.

In recent surveys I’ve found that American teens are subjected to more than 10 times as many restrictions as mainstream adults, twice as many restrictions as active-duty U.S. Marines, and even twice as many as incarcerated felons. Psychologist Diane Dumas and I also found a correlation between infantilization and psychological dysfunction.

One of the best questions had to do with the competence of teens–if, as Dr. Epstein suggests, teens are competent at adult levels, why do they not show it?

Teens in America are in touch with their peers on average 65 hours a week, compared to about four hours a week in preindustrial cultures. In this country, teens learn virtually everything they know from other teens, who are in turn highly influenced by certain aggressive industries.

As an educator at the high school level and as a mother with two daughters on the verge of the teenage years, I was forced to reflect on this concept and agree with much of what Dr. Epstein suggests. I, myself, have always been the person in the family who felt older than she was. I was the oldest by four years, no cousins within the same age group, and was often left in charge of things progressively as I got older. But, I was also held back in some respects from being a true adult, when it seemed to fit the whim of the adults around me. I find myself doling out the same ideals at certain points with my own children, but also stick up for the “adultness” of their behavior around others.

In the classroom, I see the fallout of this treatment even more acutely. After all, we are prohibiting and restricting, where we should be teaching and guiding. Look at the following list of “restrictions” many teenagers face today.

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  • New rules prohibiting cell phones in schools or use of cell phones by minors while driving
  • Libraries and schools block access to Internet material by minors
  • New dress code rules in schools
  • New rules restricting wearing of potentially offensive clothing or accessories in schools
  • New laws prohibiting teens from attending parties where alcohol is served (even if they’re not drinking)
  • New laws restricting teens’ access to shopping malls
  • Tracking devices routinely installed in cell phones and cars of teens
  • New availability of home drug tests for teens
  • New laws prohibiting minors from driving with any alcohol in bloodstream (zero-tolerance)

Before anyone screams about my willingness to encourage underage drinking or driving–I did mention I agreed with most of Dr. Epstein’s ideas, not all of them. I am still struggling through how to overcome things like drugs and sex, however, I think the drug issue is taken care of–since they are usually illegal no matter how old you are.

Looking at the list of restrictions about, many of us in the edublogosphere have lamented about these same issues from the standpoint of them being a step back–banning cell phones, instead of embracing their usage in classrooms–blocking web content, instead of teaching analytic literacy skills. These types of restrictions help feed the problem of a disenfranchised population and make us (the adults) the police and them (the teens) criminals UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. We have already convicted them. We say–We know you cannot make the proper choices when it comes to these matters so you won’t even be given the chance to learn and prove us wrong. WE IMMEDIATELY HOLD THEM GUILTY!

Now, as a mother, I give my daughters more latitude than many teens get or deserve based on previous behavior. However, there are other adults in their lives who insist on keeping them, as Dr. Epstein puts it, infantilized. How do I encourage their growth, when blocked by society?

I ask for readers of my blog to read the article. Consider the ideas put forth. Comment. Start this discussion in your personal/professional life. I feel it is worth discussing.

Excerpts from above are taken from Marano, H.E. (2007) Trashing teens, Psychology Today, March/April 2007, Sussex Publishers, retrieved from http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070302-000002.html on July 9, 2007.

As noted in the previous post, I attended the ASCD summer conference on differentiated instruction. In today’s post, I am going to attempt to share my learning. In doing so, I will further reflect on and refine my own thoughts and concerns with differentiated instruction and it will allow others to share in the conversation. First, let’s start with what differentiated instruction is and is not:

Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. ASCD: Alexandria, VA.

I had many misconceptions about differentiated instruction after graduating from ed school 5 years ago. It had never been presented in the way Carol Tomlinson presents it in her numerous resources, such as the one above. I had always thought it must be individually planned for each student. I thought I would be creating 30 separate lesson plans. I thought grading and assessment would be a nightmare. Now, after having read everything she has written and having attended this conference, I now know I knew very little about how to actually differentiate instruction.

There are three ways teachers can differentiate instruction:
1) Differentiate the CONTENT,
2) Differentiate the PROCESS, and/or
3) Differentiate the PRODUCT.

There are many manners of differentiating, but the following are the most planned for:
1) Differentiating for READINESS,
2) Differentiating for LEARNING STYLES, and/or
3) Differentiating for INTERESTS.

Where does a teacher start when the goal is differentiated instruction? Start with the end in mind. Hm… This sounds similar to what McTighe and Wiggins suggest with UbD, which if you have been reading HuffEnglish, you know all about. (If you haven’t run right over and catch up!) I will also post tomorrow about UbD and Differentiated Instruction and how to work them together, which was one of the most valuable sessions I attended.

So, start with the end—assessment—what will your assessments gauge? What understanding and knowledge do you want your students to have after the unit/lesson? Once you know this, you can begin to think about differentiating. Pre-assessing student knowledge can give you a look at student readiness for content. Student inventories can give you an idea of their interests and preferred processes. What is the best way to differentiate for this material and this unit? It’s not always going to be the same. It’s not always going to be necessary.

Let’s look at content first: How does one differentiate for content?

• Curriculum Compacting—if a student aces a pre-assessment and obviously knows what you are going to teach, why should they struggle through the material at the same pace as everyone else? The student can work through the material at their own pace, especially if they only need to cover a few select concepts in depth to pass the post assessment. When the finish, they can take their learning more in depth by analyzing, evaluating, or synthesizing information and creating a product, or they can use the information to solve a real world application problem.
• Using Varied Text and Resource Materials—this is most applicable today in the inclusion classroom, where every classroom has many different reading ability levels. Give students at a lower/higher level materials they will be able to use to increase their knowledge. (*NOTE—tomorrow when I post about UbD and DI, I will cover the idea of how hard work should be for students—just a little too hard)
• Learning Contracts—these allow choice and can differentiate for content, process, and/or product and by readiness, learning styles, or interests. Provides common class goals with an independent work format.
• Minilessons—splitting kids into groups based on need and presenting minilessons on the needed concepts or skills.
• Varied Support Systems—audio learners/provide audio recordings, note-taking difficulty/provide more advanced or less advanced note-taking organizers, different reading abilities/offer highlighted passages as key concepts so as not to overburden the struggling readers

Now, how to differentiate for process:

• “Process means sense-making or, just as it sounds, opportunity for learners to process the content or ideas and skills to which they have been introduced.” (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 79)
• These are the activities teachers are gung-ho to create and afford students.
• Think first about whether the student needs the sense-making activity or not. A student who understands the content/skills does not need an activity to help with sense-making. Likewise, the student who is struggling with a concept/idea needs a sense-making activity.
• The activities should be designed so it is interesting, calls on student to process at a higher level, and causes student to use key skills/ideas.
• Strategies include: learning logs, journals, graphic organizers, creative problem solving, cubing, learning centers, interest centers, learning contracts, Lit Circles, role playing, cooperative controversy, choice boards, Jigsaw, think-pair-share, mind-mapping, PMI, model making, and labs.

And, how to differentiate products:

• Teachers must insure products ask students to use the requisite skills/knowledge/understandings in a higher level manner.
• Identify a format for product.
• Determine expectations for quality.
• Decide on scaffolding to promote success.
• The product assignment should clearly say to students: You should show you understand and can do these things: proceeding through the steps, in this format, and at this quality level.
• Differentiate on student readiness, interest, learning styles.

In short, differentiating instruction takes into account what students need to know, how they will gain the knowledge, and how best each student can and will learn the knowledge and use the knowledge. If you have questions or suggestions please comment. I am looking forward to a conversation growing from this series of posts.

I spent my weekend at the ASCD summer conference, which focused on differentiated instruction. After several travel bumps on Friday-we (a group of six teachers) arrived in Salt Lake City Saturday and began by scoping out the area we were sure to explore during down time.

The focus of the conference–Differentiated Instruction–is not a new concept for me, as most of my teacher preparation programs have focused on the need to differentiate. However, suggesting a need (as theory) is not the same as suggesting ways to actually accomplish the task in a real classroom (as practice). I have known what differentiation is and how it is better for students, especially in an inclusive classroom, which is all I have ever taught in. But, I have never felt successful at bringing differentiation to my classroom.

The closest I came to a true picture of differentiation was when I taught 8th grade, three years ago, and had my students split into three groups for reading. The first group read Farenheit 451, the second group read The Outsiders, as did the third group. The first group was mainly independent study–I created a “work to complete today” handout each day and off they went to the library or a corner of the room to work on their own. The first Outsiders group was more independent than the second, but still needed a bit more structure. What usually happened was whole class reading of the book and then the assignments or activities were differentiated between the two groups. More scaffolding for the second Outsiders group and less for the first.

There were definite gains and losses under this program, but I have not been able to replicate anything close since then. Planning for differentiation is heavy in the beginning and time just never seems to surface. But now, after attending the conference, I am again reminded of the definite need for differentiation and now have more practical strategies to include in my teaching. Grading of differentiated instruction was also presented in a manner that makes sense.

I will be posting over the next couple of days to further explain, reflect upon, and engage in differentiated lesson planning…Stay tuned!

As I was planning for next year’s courses, I began to rethink how I think about my curriculum. I finally feel strong enough in my subject to step away from the textbook and think in terms of themes and understandings I want my students to walk away contemplating. Because of my involvement in Dana’s UbDEducators Wiki, I had planned out my essential questions and understandings, but when I sat down to do the last step (actually planning the lessons) I fell back into the habit of “coverage” and textbook chapters to cover. As an APUSH teacher, I do expect students to go through the textbook—but it is to be a resource for them. I will not lecture from the text they are expected to read, but from other, varied sources. So, I went back through my planning and took out all the Chapter 1-2, Chapter 4, etc. and replaced them all with actual topics or themes we will be discussing that day. I know it seems like a small things, especially to veteran teachers who have had this down for a while now. Entering my fifth year, I am finally beginning to feel like I sort of know what I am doing in regards to being a curriculum designer to benefit my students learning!

The students need to realize that the objective isn’t “make a project,” it’s “show your answers to these questions in the project you create.” And that’s probably going to take some work, because I bet they’re used to the former.

The above quote is from a discussion on the UbD Educator’s Wiki about thinking like an assessor.

How many times do we assign projects because they are engaging and fun, but when we sit down to grade the projects, we realize there isn’t much substance behind the glitz and glamor of the project?

I posted last year, about a project–Reconstruction Board Game and the fallout from the project when I began questioning the use of Creativity. All in all, the kids had fun, were engaged, and completed the assignment. But, as I was grading the projects, I realized content was not a big piece of the project. Sure, the game was supposed to be built around Reconstruction, but outside of that requirement there was not much in the way of getting them to truly showcase their understanding.

Reading Understanding by Design this summer and participating with Dana and others at the UbD Educators wiki has really forced my thinking about myself as a teacher, especially in regards to being an assessor. I have discovered many of my major projects are simply show pieces, which call for no great understanding. Knowledge yes, but understanding no. Looking back at the rubric I had created for the board game–only one category (remotely) relates to actual content, the rest deal with aesthetics and creative use of material. Not really an assessment of knowledge, is it?

Transfer of knowledge–Wiggins and McTighe contend teachers must ask students to use understood knowledge in new and unanticipated situations or dilemmas for true transfer to occur. When you think about it, as an adult this makes sense. I taught myself to knit four years ago. But, in assessing how I have done, I have not truly understood how to knit. I still have to have a pattern, with instructions, and nothing fancy to be attempted. If you were to give me two knitting needles and some yarn, I wouldn’t be able to create anything new. I have not learned the skills and processes involved in knitting to the point of transference. And, I fear in my own classroom, my students leave the room with the same kind of feeling.

My criteria for judging the Reconstruction project was not valid. It did not ask students to use their knowledge in new ways, it simply asked for a regurgitation of information. It also counted superficial items as more of the score than actual knowledge and understanding.

What would I do differently? If I were to give the same assessment, content would need to be applied in a new way. I could require the game be a strategy game (I left the choice of game wide open last time and ended up with mostly trivia games). I could require students to design a game about how Reconstruction has led to the present day–having questions or items discussing current laws being argued in the Supreme Court and where during the Reconstruction the issue began. I would design my rubric so knowledge and understanding are assessed for one score and presentation/creativity is assessed for a completely different score. Why two scores? If I don’t assess for creativity/design/effort, the students tend do the minimum required. As an English teacher, as well as History teacher, I feel one of the skills/strategies they must learn is how to present material cleanly, efficiently, and professionally. I must grade for this (since I must grade-and I have discussed the concept of getting rid of grades here) if I expect them to meet this criteria. But, to make sure their understanding and transfer of understanding is the focal point, I can grade the two pieces separately.

Will this create more justified assessments? I hope so…

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Expanded 2nd Edition. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2005.

The fourth thing I believe that art education can teach other educators is that learning only occurs as an apprenticeship.  If there’s less self deception on the part of art educators, it has to do with the fact that art educators understand that you must practice what you preach.  There is less potential for hypocrisy because in an apprenticeship model, you do what I do.  If there is an inconsistency between what I say and what I do, then we’ve got a problem and we better talk about it.  One small implication of that in terms of educational reform is that many teachers of other subjects say “Well, gee, I’m offering models all the time and I am certainly giving insight to the kids about what matters in history, science and mathematics.”  But, are you doing history, science and mathematics, and are you actually modeling it, or are you modeling the teacher-as-performer? Watch me! Is very different from watch me do what you need to learn to do. In other words art teachers have to focus themselves on the learning, on showing how to learn and what needs to be learned – very different from just “teaching” things to people and letting them figure out how to learn it and from it.

The above is a quote from Grant Wiggins in an article on his BigIdeas site–Four Things Art Educators Can Teach Other Educators. In case you have been asleep at the wheel in education, Grant Wiggins is co-author of Understanding by Design, an education resource describing why and how educators should be planning their units. While planning this summer, I have chosen to attack my curriculum using the UbD ideas. Dana, over at HuffEnglish, is reading UbD after attending a training with Wiggins this past school year and is using her blog as her reading journal. (Love this idea and may be doing something similar soon, with another resource!) Read her post on the Introduction, Backward Design, and one of the most recent posts on Crafting Understandings. She received an overwhelming response from readers about studying and implementing UbD, she has started a wiki for UbD Educators.

On to the topic of the post–

Do we (teachers and administrators) practice what we preach?

From Wiggins’ article, I began to question whether I do what he suggests, in regards to doing instead of telling. This is not a new question for me, but one which is easily lost in the shuffle of administrative and daily routines during the school year. Do I do what I want my students to do, or do I simply TELL them what I want them to do. Wiggins also suggests doing is more than just modeling.

Is doing so much more than modeling?

Is apprenticeship learning more than standard teaching?

I get lost in the shuffle of trying to cover standards and meeting administrative objectives. But, I often wonder at how much more my students could walk away knowing, if I could take the time I need to develop skills and strategies to deepen their understanding. How can I accomplish this with only 180 days, 1/4 of which are taken up by testing, parties, and other events? I began my journey toward an Ed.D. over two years ago and one of my original ideas for my study was the use of cognitive apprenticeships in a social studies classroom. I am going to go back through my coursework and find the research I had started to study and decide if this is something I need to look into more closely. What are your thoughts?

Do we practice what we preach?

 It’s late.

Nothing new for me!

I have been blogging for over a year now and am amazed at how much I have grown as a professional. I use this blog to reflect on my teaching and my students’ learning. I read other blogs in the edusphere to read what others are doing, thinking, or researching. From my first post a year ago to today, I think I have become a better reader, writer, and teacher!

Thanks for reading!!!

History is Elementary often encourages deeper thought into historical thinking than many of us have ever been asked to do. HIE poses a weekly conundrum with her Wordless Wednesday posts. Check out this week’s edition here:photo riddle. I was either bored or rather intrigued by this simple, yet completely confounding puzzle. I offered up two guesses, well, actually three and await the correct response.

As a teacher of history, I love the riddles and little-did-you-knows and I can’t wait to find out who this week’s post is about, but I am writing this post for another reason. As I was searching for an answer, I began to think about the process I was going through to find it. Mind you, I still don’t know for sure if I have guessed the correct answer, but it’s the process I am intrigued by at the moment.

Many students of history are forced students of history. History is a requirement in high school and in the general ed part of college. Many of these same students are tired of hearing the same old stories, usually told in the same old ways, and get no joy from history. One thing HIE does often on her blog and in her classroom is engage the reader/learner in the history. She got my attention with a simple image and a few hints at who might have been the owner of said hanky. Once my attention was hooked, I spent over an hour scouring the Internet for clues. As I was searching, I began thinking about the implications this activity has in my classroom.

First, I will outline how I went about finding answers–again not knowing if I have the correct answer, yet. Step one, I looked at the image and read the clues in the post. Then I read the comments already posted. This led to a few more clues. Then I made a gut response–Mark Twain. This was based on nothing more than my connecting Mark Twain with all his stories about Mississippi and the fact that he had a wife. As I read through the clues again, however, I realized this guess was off base. HIE offers the hint of

this person’s wife made the hanky for him before 1840

which cuts Twain out of the running, unless he married when he was learning to walk! So, going with the few clues I had

Her recent trip to Mississippi, particularly to Natchez, the plantations she toured, the fact the person is historical but relatively unknown, and the time period led me to search using multiple terms, key words, and just general intuition. I await her answer, to know if I found the correct one, but how intriguing.

Using something similar in the classroom would have to lead to greater interaction between students and history. Presenting students with an image, a small video clip, a short bit of story and letting them map out their journey to find the answer could prove fruitful. Students would be making meaning out of something, practicing research, and owning the process. What do you think?

This could lead to seeing history as a quest, a journey, rather than a set in stone fact based story, they can begin to question everything.

One would think, with summer in full gear for me, my blogging would become more regular. Well, yes and no. Let’s cover the no part first.

I can’t blog more because: I have a very needy (time wise) daughter at the moment–the older she gets the more she thinks she needs to do! I am working hard at having a solid plan for next year. I have been nursing the sunburn of all sunburns for over 4 days now.

The yes part–I have blogged, but I am blogging elsewhere at the moment. I have helped my daughter begin her first blog and will be helping my other daughter with her’s later in the week.

I have also begun work on a collaborative effort between me and Redkudu over at Redeeming Daisy to plan for our shared curriculum–English III.

Check it out. Let us know what you think. Feel free to comment or contribute at will!

I am not leaving this blog. I will be posting, but thought I would let you know where I am at the moment!

As per previous post–QoW 16–and after reading Redkudu’s post on academic vision, I have decided to share my summer planning plans. In the previous post, I shared my personal plans. Here, I will share what I have already accomplished and what needs to be done and how I think I am going to do it.

So–let’s run down my courses for next year first:

AP© US History
English III: American Literature
Academic Decathlon/Odyssey of the Mind
Gifted Program

Here are a few lists of things I need to do for each course.

AP© US History

• Write and submit syllabus for review and approval. √
• Create shorter student syllabus (the original was 14 pages).
• Finish creating year-long election project. I am really excited about this one and will be sharing plans and lessons along the way. I started the idea in an Intel Teach program.
• Creating a curriculum for course using The American Pageant (Bailey & Kennedy) and primary source documents. So far, I have started a curriculum notebook, which will have all lessons, plans, assessments included. The goal is to have it this year and use it as a base to build/change from year after year.
• Getting materials for course.

ENG III: AMERICAN LITERATURE

Note–I have taught this, as a combo with US History for last three years, so it’s not brand new, but I have never done as much as I wanted to with the English part of it.

• Write syllabus.
• Create curriculum–incorporating fiction, nonfiction, and writing into the program. In the last two years I have done one or the other but never all and never enough.
• Semester project plans–individual reading for the first semester, not sure for second semester. It can’t be too in depth as I have the same kiddos for APUSH and ENG III, and I want the election project to be great!
• Assessments–I want to try UbD planning this year and I am attending a conference on differentiated instruction and UbD this summer!

Academic Decathlon/Odyssey of the Mind

• I have the curriculum from the national organization, now I just need to figure out what I am going to do with it!
• Individual projects.
• Odyssey outline.

Gifted Program

• List of local companies/businesses willing to work with/mentor our kids.
• List of speakers/presenters to bring in.
• Send letters to above.
• Create organizational system.
• Create a list of available resources for gen ed teachers.
• Plan prof dev for teachers.

So, there’s my planning for summer. I have written it down. I must complete it. I know it will help in the long run of 07-08 school year! Let me know what you think.