Test Scores

Question: How does the Disney Teacher of the Year deal with the stress of test scores?

Question: “You also write that teachers need to stop stressing about test scores. Is that really a practical suggestion in light of the current implementation of the Common Core State Standards?”

Answer: “What I mean is that teachers should avoid mention of them as much as they can. At our school we just focus on teaching. No one mentions test scores here—that’s a strict rule. We want learning to be joyful at all times. We save the mandated tests until the last week of school. And we describe them to the students as a celebration of our learning. And do you know what? Our test scores are great!” Ron Clark.

Comment: A healthy approach to the stress of test scores. Just teach. The scores will take care of themselves. That’s what I always did. I didn’t care what tests were thrown at the students. If I taught well, the test scores would take care of themselves. I know that sounds simplistic. Students need to know how to take tests. That was always part of my curriculum anyway, especially when it came time for the SAT. RayS.

Title:  “Annual Convention: Ron Clark, ‘America’s Educator,’ Tapped for Featured Keynote at Second General Session.” Interview by Ron Clark. Reading Today (April/May 2012), 16-17.

New Elementary Teachers and Reading

Question: What should new elementary teachers be asked about teaching reading?

Answer/Quote: “…if beginning teachers who go into schools where they are expecting to use core programs with fidelity and are told what to do and how many minutes to teach, all of which is monitored, they end up three years later as stupid, lazy teachers. However, if they go into systems where the first question they’re asked  is what do you need to become successful at teaching reading?, three years later they end up being successful at teaching kids to read.” Richard Allington

Question: How would you characterize a teacher preparation program in college?

Answer: As a teacher education program, not a teacher training program. P David Pearson.

Comment: Both these answers contain ideas that need to be thought through. The problem with a canned program in reading is that the teachers cannot grow beyond the specified reading program. They are “canned,” meaning “trained.” “Education” is distinctly different from “trained.” RayS.

Title: “The Casualties of Policy on Early Literacy Development.” Richard Allington and P. David Pearson. Language Arts (September 2011), 70-74.

Writing Conferences

Question: What is Donald Graves’s most important question to young writers in a writer’s conference?

Answer/Quote: “ ‘ There’s one question I’ve found more useful than any other question I’ve used in conferences.’

“ ‘What’s that?’ I eagerly awaited Don’s elaboration….’

“ ‘I ask the writer, ‘What’s the most important part of your piece?’ and once that’s identified, I try to help the writer figure out how that can be highlighted.’ “

Comment: Cryptic, but worth thinking about and trying. RayS.

 Title: “Finding the Heartbeat: Applying Donald Graves’s Approaches and Theories.” Allen Koshewa. Language Arts (September 2011), 48-56.

Trends in Writing Instruction

Question: How has the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) modified the teaching of writing?

Answer/Quote: “Secondary literacy educators, such as those in NCTE leadership, have worked for much of English discipline’s history to prevent so much of the Writing curriculum being focused on writing about literature.” P. 41.

Comment: A trend that I heartily endorse. RayS.

Title: “Relating Policy to Research and Practice: The Common Core Standards.” R Bomer and B Maloch. Language Arts (September 2011), 38-43.

Common Core Standards

Question: What are the implications of the Common Core Standards?

 Answer/Quote: “Readers of Language Arts, with relatively few exceptions, are probably familiar with the 2010 Common Core Standards, even if they didn’t follow the story of their development and adoption. [The Common Core Standards were reviewed in this blog from March to July 2010. Simply type in March 2010 in the search in the upper-left-hand corner of the blog to begin the reviews. In general, I was impressed by the standards. RayS. ]

 “That’s because, as of this writing, 42 states, plus Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands—representing around 86% of the students in the US—have adopted the Common Core Standards as either the ‘core’ of their state standards or the entirety of those standards…. Most teachers are therefore aware that these new standards have made a substantial difference in what they are supposed to teach and what students are supposed to know and be able to do by the end of each grade level.

 “Indeed, the adoption of these standards has brought about the most sweeping nationalization of the K-12 curriculum in US history.” P. 38.

Quote: “The main contribution of the CCS (Common Core Standards), the dimension that is new in them, is the shoving down—all the way through the grades to kindergarten—of a restricted image of college or academic literacy.” P. 40.

Comment: In other words, the Common Core Standards make the purpose of K-12 education college. For some educators this is a controversial concept. RayS.

Title: “Relating Policy to Research and Practice: The Common Core Standards.” R Bomer and B Maloch. Language Arts (September 2011), 38-43.

Student Teaching

Question: How does student teaching affect new teachers’ performance?

Answer/Quote: “Participants reflected on what they learned from student teaching and how student teaching experiences contributed to their successes and struggles as beginning teachers….” P. 23.

Comment: Every teacher education instructor and cooperating classroom teacher should ask new teacher graduates to answer that question. The student teachers’ answers could improve teacher education. RayS.

Title: “To Follow, Reject, or Flip the Script: Managing Instructional Tension in an Era of High-stakes Accountability.” J Stillman and L Anderson. Language Arts (September 2011), 22-37.

Challenges in Teaching Reading

Question: What are three challenging concepts in teaching children to read?

 Answer #1 and  #2: From guided to independent reading; from prior knowledge to new concepts: “It is the conscious movement from guided to independent practice that students build a … model that links their prior knowledge to new concepts.” P. 15.

Answer #3: Applying strategies from one text to a new text: “They see how they can apply each strategy they are learning to a new text.” P. 18.

Comment: From guided to independent reading, from prior knowledge to new concepts, from using a strategy on one text to another text. Three challenging concepts in teaching reading. RayS.

 Title: “Post-scripts: Teaching Reading in the Aftermath of Prescriptive Curriculum Policies.” H Maniates and J Mahiri. Language Arts (September 2011), 10-21.