Topic: Data-Driven Schools

10-second review: Teachers are, through technology, tracking students’ progress, individually and in groups, almost instantly. If, for example, a very young child is able to read only 95% of words accurately, he or she is immediately placed in a special center to give instant help to achieve 100% accuracy.

Title: “Data-Driven Schools See Rising Scores.” John Hechinger. Wall Street Journal (June 12, 2009), Internet.

Summary: Using statistics and anecdotes, Hechinger supports the Montgomery County, Maryland, Schools’ contention that individual students receive quick help when needed, and groups of students do too. Large central database spews out data that is studied for patterns, with reaction following quickly.

“The high-tech strategy…uses intensified assessments and real-time collection of test scores, grades and other data to identify problems and speed up interventions….” p. 1 of 6.

Everything from students who are suddenly and uncharacteristically failing, to using PSAT scores to encourage minorities to take Advanced Placement courses is identified and responded to.

Those unhappy with the very expensive system say that there is too much testing and not enough emphasis on creativity. At least in this article, these objections seem weak and unimpressive.

Comment: Quick intervention with individual and group problems is the purpose of this expensive technological system. I was particularly impressed with notifying parents when a student was beginning to fail. It’s not only standardized tests but also teachers’ personal tests and students' grades that supply the data on each student’s progress.

Hechinger makes the system look good. I know that when I was teaching I could see students beginning to fail and could do practically nothing about it. Data on test scores, compositions, etc. would provide real evidence that could alert students, counselors and parents to do something about it.

That part of the program I like. To the degree that too much testing and test preparation replace teaching I don’t like. It has the feel of industrialization, that we are producing a product, a test score, instead of educating.

Quick response is good, especially if we know and understand what we are responding to. What I like about this system is that it goes well beyond standardized test scores. Teachers teach and provide data on individual and group performance. That data could be as interesting to the student as it is to the teachers or parents. From my point of view, the teacher must make a decision when to supply such data. RayS.

Topic: Pen Pals, Second Graders, Pre-Service Teachers and Math

10-second review: The students made up math problems for their pen pals, second-graders and pre-service teachers. Gave the letter writing purpose beyond the “get-to-know-you.”

Title "Writing a Mathematics Community: A Pen Pal Inquiry Project.” L Norton-Meier, C Drake and M Tidwell. Language Arts (March 209), 245-256. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary/quote: “My second-grade students were pen pals with teacher education students this year. They had opportunities to practice their letter-writing skills, which is one of our writing requirements for second grade."

“We sent information about ourselves, wrote math story problems for the pen pals to solve, and answered the math story problems sent by the pen pals. The latter activity required my students to write out their work and their understandings of the math concepts."

“The second-grade students were so proud to have new friends. Their friendly letters improved over the semester as a result of having an authentic audience, and the bond between the students was amazing. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable my students were in talking and working with their pen pals."

“They had so much fun while working on story problems that they didn’t realize they were actually making themselves work harder trying to “trick” their pen pals by using large numbers and writing complicated problems. Socially and intellectually, it was a big ego boost for my students.” Ms. Larsen. 2^nd-grade teacher, interview data, May 2007.

Comment: What an ingenious idea. Second-graders tried to “trick” their pen pals, other second-graders and teacher education students in college, who also had to explain how they solved the word problems. Suggests the use of other subject areas in pen-pal exchanges and inquiries. RayS.

Topic: Reading and Writing Identity

10-second review: Defining a writing identity begins with reading.

Title: “Developing Personal Literacies: Writing Through Reading.” N Paley. English Education (January 2009), 177-186. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary: [RayS: I’m going to write the author’s reasons for forging a writing identity through reading. I state clearly that I don’t understand anything of it after the first sentence.]

“Reading is fundamental to the development of a thoughtful, writing self. Rich and wide-ranging reading experiences affirm the complex pleasures inherent in the human experience and the communicating of those experiences through writing. Reading helps you see yourself in a more-dimensioned way, which then helps you better see others in the world in a more-dimensioned way, thus helping you better to write something of meaning and critical value about both. Reading provides crucial knowledge to help you identify the politics of your writing interests so that you can understand what you might want to choose to write for in your life, or what you might write against.”

[RayS: The author then gives nine “Tips for Writing”]:

1. Choose a plan. 2. Record every drop. 3. Specify what you hear. 4. Watch yourself separate and describe it as best you can. 5. Don’t look up. 6. Fall through the night. 7. Never trust them again. 8. Return the gift. 9. Good luck. p. 185.

[What do you think of the author’s comments? RayS.]

Comment: In one of my very early writing workshops for fifth-and sixth-grade teachers in 1973, I invited eight writers to address the workshop’s participant. One was a writer of children’s literature, two were newspaper reporters, another was a lawyer and several others wrote as part of their careers, but not to publish. Each of these writers addressed our group, one a day.

The first questions we asked was, “How did you learn to write?” Their answer? “I don’t know, but I never remember being without a book when I was growing up.”

I always ask that question of people whose writing I respect. The answer is almost always, “I never learned to write in school. But I never was without a book when I was growing up.” Of course, these are older and more mature people. The tide begins to swing toward school with the emphasis on writing beginning in the 1970s. Still, my experience has been that people who read learn to write, even without direct instruction in writing. RayS.

Topic: Board Certified Teacher vs. Mandated Assessment

10-second review: The definition of teacher according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) conflicts with the realistic requirement to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing students for assessments rather than teaching.

Title: Performing ‘Teacher’: A Case Study of a National Board Certified Teacher.” T.S. Johnson. English Education (January 2009), 158-176. English Education is the NCTE’s publication on teacher education.

Summary: A veteran English teacher undergoes the experience of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). However, in her school district, she is constrained to emphasize test preparation rather than real teaching. Conclusion? “Be compliant and selectively defiant.” And remember that Foucauld said, Teachers “are much freer than they feel.”

Comment: I never had the problem that today’s teachers have of substituting test preparation for teaching. And I don’t know what “Be compliant and selectively defiant” means in practice. I have always felt that if I taught students to read and write that they could pass any test. When I taught in New York State, I approached the Regents’ Exam in that way and was quite successful in terms of percentage of students who passed.

But then came the SAT when it was an IQ test—antonyms, analogies, sentence completion and reading comprehension—that had relatively little relationship to what I was teaching in English and I knew that I had to give some time to test preparation. That would be my solution today: Teach students to read, write, speak and interpret literature and work briefly on test preparation. When students know what to expect on the test and understand strategies for taking the test, they are able to do their best.

Topic: Shared Research--University Researchers and Practitioners

10-second review: University researcher and high school English teacher collaborated on planning and implementing a teacher-education course.

Title: “Co-Learning Agreements in Research and Teaching: Another Approach to Collaboration in Teacher Education.” D Zigo and RD Derrico. English Education (January 2009), 135-157. English Education is the NCTE’s publication on teacher education.

Summary: The co-researchers were able to discern the problems in implementing the program they had planned, but they grew as both researchers and teachers.

Comment: I applaud the researchers’ honesty in evaluating what they were doing. It wasn’t easy to admit mistakes and shortcoming in their favorite ideas, but they did: “The manifestations of our work together in teaching and research will hopefully demonstrate to students and colleagues our unflagging commitment to a stance in language arts and teacher education that Bob Fecho calls ‘a practice in process, in a continual state of learning.’ ”

In other words, the researchers found what they should find in completing research—what works and doesn’t work, promising ideas, practices that have problems, and a continuing commitment to learning while they teach. In my opinion, this article is another step forward in improving education. RayS.

Topic: Perspectives on Teaching Poetry

10-second review: Enduring questions about poetry: “Whose poetry is worth teaching?” “Why teach poetry at all—of what real educational value can it be?” “Is it even possible to teach poetry so most students will enjoy and understand it?” The authors studied issues of English Journal from 1912 to 2005 and discovered two approaches to teaching poetry: Formalist and Populist. The authors favor the “Populist’ point of view.

Title: “The Other Tradition: Populist Perspective on Teaching Poetry, as Published in English Journal, 1912 – 2005.” M Faust and M Dressman. English Education (January 2009), 114-134. English Education is a journal concerned with teacher education and is published by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary:

Formalist Perspective—“The best of the English language’s power and range of expression.” Emphasizes “correct interpretation and taste.” Studies rhyme, meter, literary allusion. Acquires appreciation of the cultural heritage. Poems are timeless, self-contained, precious objects. Teach about the lives of poets. Select the greatest poets to teach. p. 116.

Populist Perspective: “Do not explain poems to students. Do not give tests on poetry. Do not be overly concerned with poetic techniques. Do not approach a poem with historical matters. Do not impose the critics on students. Expose students to beautiful, powerful language. Allow time for multiple oral readings of a poem. Lead discussions that encourage a personal relationship with a poem. Teach contemporary poetry first and then go backwards in time. Teach poems you do not fully understand. Teach poems that are accessible to students. Allow students to sometimes choose their poems. Provide opportunities for students to write poetry.” D. Lockward. 1994. “Poets on Teaching Poetry.” English Journal 83(5), 65-70.

Comment: To put this Populist point of view in perspective, I have found that the editors of publications from the National Council of Teachers of English tend to encourage articles that resist the current thinking in the classroom. Since the current thinking during those years (1912 to 2005) was the Formalist and the New Critics’ thinking, you would expect the NCTE’s journal editors to favor the Populist point of view. I’m a middle-of-the-roader, mixing elements of the Formalist and the Populist points of view in teaching poetry.

This article is a “keeper.” If you can purchase it, you should. Go to http://reading.indiana.edu/. RayS.

Topic: Poetic Devices

10-second review: Students looked for poetic devices in lyrics for songs they liked. Color-coded the devices: orange for allusion, blue for metaphor, pink for alliteration, etc.

Title: “Let the Rhythm Move You…to write!” M Uscategui. English Journal (July 2008), 115-117. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary: After finding the poetic devices, students played CDs of their favorite songs. They explained why the song was important to them. The teacher introduced students to a traditional poem comparable in some way to the song. They used the genre of the song (narrative, for example) to write in a similar genre. They chose an audience and wrote on the topic of the song to the audience. “They wrote letters to their senator, created public service announcements on PowerPoint, pamphlets and posters.”

Comment: The songs had to be school appropriate. What intrigues me with this activity is that students’ songs in which they found and color-coded poetic devices, led to many related activities in the traditional curriculum. I’m curious about whether the lyrics to their favorite songs are published and available for students to copy and use. RayS.