Topic: Publication in Professional Education Journals

10-second review: “Publication Does Not Equal Advocacy.” Just because an article appears in the pages of a professional journal does not mean that the editor of the journal advocates that point of view.

Title: “Publication Does Not equal Advocacy.” Louann Reid. English Journal (May 2009), 11-12. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary: The author of this “Letter to EJ,” Louann Reid, former editor of the English Journal from 2003 until 2008, responds to charges that the publication of two articles favoring the use of the five-paragraph essay constituted advocacy by the editor and the journal She rightly points out that both articles were opinion pieces and not subject to scholarly evaluation. However, she makes clear that publishing any article in the journal does not constitute advocating it.

Comment: I have been reading English Journal since 1964. I remember clearly that the guideline for NCTE publications at that time was representation of all points of view regarding issues in English education.

However, when the NCTE began making resolutions concerning issues, editors of its professional publications began favoring—it seemed to me—articles favoring the NCTE’s positions. I watched the appearance of a preponderance of articles trashing the teaching of grammar, the significance of the writing process and the unimportance of the writing product, and now a preponderance of articles in various NCTE journals denouncing the five-paragraph essay as a formula for expository writing.

During the time that Dr. Reid was editor of English Journal, she was a model for what the NCTE used to represent—unbiased selection of articles on all points of view toward controversial English education issues. I, too, need to be reminded of her point in this letter that publication does not equal advocacy. RayS.

Topic: Method of Assessing Discussions

10-second review: Listen for…. Count…. and Look for….

Title: “Discussions in a Fourth-Grade Classroom: Using Exploratory Talk to Promote Children’s Dialogic Identities.” K B Renniger and L Rehark. Language Arts (March 2009), 268-279. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary/Quotes:

“Listen for the following: The kinds of questions students ask. The length of the responses (should be more than one or two words). The details students use to support their thinking. Chains of reasons.”

“Count the following: The number of consecutive students turns. The number of teacher turns. The number of interruptions.”

“Look for the following: Student-to-student eye contact. Students looking back to the text.”

Comment: Put these assessments together and you have a pretty good idea of how well students really did discuss. These would be interesting assessments to use at a faculty meeting on the topic of student discussions. Start with what each assessment means and then their implications. Come up with some published guidelines as part of the curriculum for a good student discussion. RayS.

Topic: Reader's Club and Action Research

10-second review: Ten fourth-graders who loved to read met and discussed books they had read in the past and now together. Met twice a week at lunch time. Purpose was to research the experience of reading. 29 initial applicants. 10 selected by lottery. The students were active co-researchers.

Title: “Readers Researching Their Reading: Creating a Community of Inquiry.” LT Parsons. Language Arts (March 2009), 257-267. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary: Children and teacher were co-researchers in learning about the process of reading.

Quotes: “The children felt their voices were heard and their ideas mattered.” p. 263.

“…the children re-voiced each others’ thoughts, built upon and contested ideas, and moved toward consensus.” p. 264.

“Disagreement and respect for differing viewpoints were essential to knowledge construction.” p. 265.

[As the teacher]: “…during any given session, I raised the opening question, brought us back to topic when the conversation strayed too far a-field, and summarized my understanding of the knowledge being constructed.” p. 266.

“They [the students] examined their thinking, made connections, and contributed insights as they participated in group discussions. They actively participated in coding, analysis and interpretation of data and later elaborated on, verified and clarified my final interpretation. We did indeed work together as co-researchers.” p. 266.

Comment: Interesting concept. Teacher and students worked together on research involving the students’ learning. Love it! RayS.

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.