Gone, But Not Forgotten...

I have been absent from blogging for quite a while as I have tried to get acclimated to a new classroom, in a new school, in a new district! I am in the process of creating modules that use a modified version of PARCC's 4th Grade ELA Model Content Framework. Wish me luck!

One of the themes I am using is Nature's Fury (Extreme Weather). To support this theme, I will be using Eye of the Storm: Chasing Storms with Warren Faidley by Stephen Kramer. I have checked out the eBook from Open Library. I am embedding the mini-book player here and hopefully it will work (just in case the website is blocked by this district's strict web filters).

Inside the CCSS Literature Standards

Chapter 4 of Pathways to the Common Core goes deeper into the actual implementation than any other resource I've seen. Rather than a bird's eye view, this chapter takes you directly into the standards, inviting you to read and engage in a close reading of the texts (ala ELA Anchor Standard 1) of E. B. White's Charlotte Web and Cynthia Rylant's Poppleton, then walks you through implementing ELA Anchor Standards 2 - 9, just as students would.

This book is definitely worth the purchase. I will return to it repeatedly after I'm done.

~TF

A Change Is Gonna Come

Soon I will leave my position as District Instructional Technologist to return to a 4th classroom teaching reading, language arts, and social studies. Most people are astounded when I tell them this and wonder why I would ever return to a classroom. I honestly never thought I'd be anywhere but the classroom; although, this position has been a nice change of pace - I have grown in my leadership capacity; had opportunities to see education from a different perspective; and made/helped make decisions that would affect teaching and learning in our district. Despite all of this, I am headed back to the classroom.

The reason for the change has nothing to do with discontent with my current role. I quite enjoyed the challenge; but, over a year ago, I moved out of state (112 miles from my current district) creating a 4-hour, round-trip commute. Most wondered how long I could sustain in that fashion. I lasted a full school year, plus a couple of months at the end of one and the beginning of this one. Commuting proved to be expensive and physically taxing. So after much prayer and consideration, I began to look for positions closer to home. Ironically, the new school is 66 miles away from home - exactly half of my current commute. It's not as close as I wanted to be, but hopefully, this will be a good fit and an easy transition.

I am not without anxieties. The shifts in content (CCSS and new state frameworks) and grade level will be huge for me. I will also be entering nearly two months after the beginning of the school year which presents its own set of challenges.

During the 2005-2006 school year, I taught in a self-contained 4th grade classroom; however, the standards I used were our old benchmarks. In school year 2006-2007, I taught reading only - still under the old state benchmarks. Since then, the standards for reading and language arts were merged and repackaged as a combined ELA framework. The social studies standards have also changed. Now the Common Core State Standards have been implemented. I spent the following years teaching 6th and 7th grade math and pre-AP pre-algebra and then as District Instructional Technologist since May 2011.

Pray for me as I return to the classroom and continue my travels on a shorter (thankfully) commuting!

Goldilocks and the Three? Bears

I really like the promise of the Common Core. When the standards were released in 2010, I was head over heels in love with the idea of common standards across the states. Most important to me was the idea that teachers would be given the opportunity to narrow the focus to fewer standards per year and teach those deeply, to mastery. 

It had been my long-held belief that it is ridiculous to attempt to teach a multitude of skills shallowly - which were usually repeated as students matriculated. I mean, how many years does it really take to know what nouns are and how to use them? Under this model, teaching standards was nothing more than briefly introducing and objective and repeatedly assessing all "covered" standards. There were too many standards to effectively teach to mastery in an academic year that is shortened by the frequency and number of assessments.

Consider my formula for instructional days from the 180-day/36-week school year based on the last year I taught.

  5 - # of days spent pre-testing

18 - # of weekly or bi-weekly common Teacher-made assessments (Mandated)

18 - # of review days for aforementioned Teacher-made assessments

15 - # of testing days required for 3 week-long DWAs (District-Wide Assessments)

15 - # of review days for aforementioned DWAs

15 - # of days for MAP testing

10 - # of review days for MCT2 (state-wide, end-of-year assessment)

+5 - # of days for MCT2, including make-up testing

101 assessment days

 180 days of compulsory attendance

-101 days of assessment

   79 instructional days

Keep in mind that instructional days were also impacted by assemblies, field trips, PBIS parties, field day, inclement weather days, fire/tornado/lockdown drills, actual lockdowns, widespread absenteeism due to H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu), professional development days, early-release days, parent-teacher conference days, and any other number of things.

Many have suggested that the solution is a longer school year. I wholeheartedly disagree. The answer is less assessment. Oddly, the answer has been more, not less. Since leaving the classroom, additions to the assessment calendar include STAR testing for AR placement; Code of Conduct testing (student handbook); and pre-testing at the beginning of every term rather than just the beginning of the school year. I'm sure there are some other things I'm forgetting.

Am I the only one that thinks education reform itself should be reformed?

So, now to the bears... 

I fear that the promise of the Common Core State Standards will prove to be a failed promise because of a narrowing curriculum unintended by the standards themselves. 

The CCSS are equivalent to Papa Bear's oversized chair. A booster seat in the form of a little more specificity would make this chair a better fit. 

PARCC's Model Content Framework is Baby Bear's chair that doesn't support the weight of teacher autonomy. Local educational agencies (state education agencies, district-level curriculum personnel, and building-level administrators) may be enticed to strongly encourage (read: mandate) teachers to focus narrowly on what PARCC considers important and has specified as a "model" (read: will be tested). Now we're back to teaching to the test, the very thing that the high, clear, and few CCSS were to deliver us from.

Where is Mama Bear's just-right chair? 

I hope Pathways to the Common Core can help me figure it out. Chapter 3 gave me more questions than answers. What are your thoughts?

~TF

Calibrating Your Teaching

As I read Chapter Two of Pathways today, the most profound realization I had was about assessment. One simple sentence that the authors probably didn't intend to be prolific, nevertheless, became a seed, was planted, and has taken root. 

Why should we assess students? Why do we currently assess students?

What is the real purpose of assessments? The authors suggest the purpose of assessment is to provide teachers with feedback that will enable them to calibrate their teaching. It's such a simultaneously simple and complex notion considering how convoluted the role of assessment in schools has become. The current purpose is to compare, sort, and select students. I say this because often assessment feedback isn't received in a timely manner, and when it is received, timely or not, the results aren't used to make real instructional decisions - at least not by the teacher. There are no opportunities for teachers to calibrate their own lessons and practices. Most change is mandated from above.

Also, if the purpose of assessment is to calibrate teaching practice, there shouldn't be high-stakes tied to student assessment. We (as a field) over-assess, usually using invalid measurements. Further, student achievement and student assessment performance should not be synonymous. Not everything that can be measured should be.

How do we get from where we are, to where we need to be? How can administrators empower teachers to make instructional decisions based on assessment feedback?

Golden or Oldies? Pathways - Chapter One

Tonight I started reading Pathways to the Common Core by Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman. I got in late and had decided I would begin tomorrow. I'm glad I didn't wait.

What a fabulous read! In fact, I had to make myself put it down to write this post! I read chapter one and a sneak peak of chapter two - it's that good! The first chapter read like a novel to me because the style is very fluid. I will reread chapter one tomorrow and make notes and add chapter two - a reference for those reading along with me (Thanks, Elisabeth! Christie, I invite you to read along as well).

If you've already read the book, do you read the Common Core State Standards as an old curmudgeon or as if they are golden?

Teachers as Researchers

I consider myself to be a Teacher-Researcher. Over the years, I've read innumerable professional books, white papers, essays, articles, blogs, and the like and watched countless hours of videos of best and next practices, different teaching methods, and commentary from both sides of the education (read: public school) reform.

The newest additions to my professional collection are Pathways to the Common Core and Connecting Comprehension and Technology, both are written by teams of phenomenal educators, some of whom are very well-known.

Tomorrow, II will begin reading both and will share what I'm learning, questioning, and challenged by. Also, I'll report my experiences here when I have opportunities to practice strategies I pick up. If you would like to read along with me, let me know!

~TF

P.S. This is the second time I've written this post. >=^(  I forgot to save the draft the first time. =^{

Snowed under...

No, it's not snowing in Alabama in September, although I am being crushed under the avalanche of research I'm conducting on the Common Core State Standards and PARCC assessments. 

I have been out of the classroom for over two years doing technology professional development for teachers. As a result, I'm little behind with the CCSS and PARCC. So, now I am feverishly trying to familiarize myself with the standards, shifts, assessments, and more for an upcoming adventure - more on that later.