Deep Appreciation for All You Do!

This week’s article summary, A Letter of Appreciation for Educators in The Pandemic, written by a college dean of education, captures the gratitude the entire country—if not the entire world—needs to bestow on teachers for their efforts over the past eight months.

 

I especially liked the words from the article’s penultimate paragraph that elevate our profession: Our country’s scientists are taking care of the science. Our medical professionals are taking care of our health. Our first responders are taking care of our safety. Similarly, our teachers are teaching our children. 

 

I’ve always been proud of being a teacher, yet today our profession--to which the vast majority of us have been called--is finally beginning to get the recognition it deserves.

 

At Trinity, all of us have made tremendous sacrifices during the first months of school, have diligently followed our PRP guidelines, and have masterfully put into practice our school mantra of Reimagination, Flexibility, Patience, and Grace. We have helped and supported our students in countless ways. We have witnessed the importance of in-person school for our students’ academic and social-emotional health and growth. And as we’re attending to our students at school, we’ve supported those who have needed to learn from home.

 

As we head into our Thanksgiving Break, I am so thankful for all your efforts, fortitude, energy, imagination, teamwork, positivity, and hope! As we take a collective breath over Thanksgiving, let’s appreciate what we’ve accomplished thus far this year!

 

Over the past eight months whenever things have looked particularly bleak or my physical or emotional energy was sapped, I imagined it was 2, 5, 10 years in the future and how proudly the future me will look back on what I did. For most of us, this will be the greatest moment of our teaching careers!

 

It can be very solitary and lonely during these unsettling times, and I feel deeply sorry for those who don’t have family, friends, and colleagues they can lean on for comfort, support, and even a good vent now and then.

 

To paraphrase Robert Frost, We have miles to go before we sleep, yet I am buoyed by being on this journey with all of you! 

 

Enjoy a restful, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving!

 

Joe

 

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While most of us are well into this unprecedented academic year, I want to say thank you to you—our nation’s teachers, who are giving 110 percent every day! Not only is your work and dedication vital to our children, schools, and communities, but it is also central to the progress of our society, especially during these particularly challenging times. You have always been at the forefront of shaping the next generation.

 

Thank you for spending countless hours collaborating with your colleagues. We see the 12-hour days, evenings, and weekends. We know you are probably worried about making mistakes, which are inevitable right now. We understand the challenge for you to learn and relearn new curricula, programs, and assessment approaches. All this while you are still expected to be fully present, including for your students who are learning remotely.

 

We see the high stakes involved with teaching at this moment, even when you have lives to live. Some of you have school-aged children of your own, some of you are caregivers for your own parents or other family members. You are doing spectacular work under extraordinary circumstances, and we recognize your commitment.

 

In many ways, this is nothing new. As teachers, you have always stepped up. When students needed safety, you provided it. When students needed mentorship, you provided it. When students needed academic engagement, you provided it. Now, during a pandemic, you have once again stepped up, albeit in different ways. By providing a space of stability, security, and safety, you are helping us collectively heal, learn, and persist. 

 

For all of these reasons, you—our nation’s teachers—need our gratitude. You are providing structure. You are providing consistency. You are providing an opportunity for our children to engage with their teachers and peers. You are providing opportunities to learn. You are reinforcing many of the basic skills that are necessary to be successful in school. Rather than asking what learning is lost during these times, we should be asking a different set of questions: How are teachers being creative? What policies, practices, and support systems have leaders put in place to make sure that you and your students flourish? What can others learn from you?

 

Our country’s scientists are taking care of the science. Our medical professionals are taking care of our health. Our first responders are taking care of our safety. Similarly, our teachers are teaching our children. It is time for us to support you—time to trust your professionalism and commitment and time to recognize the work behind your personal and professional efforts to excel for our students every single day in less than desirable circumstances.

 

While the teaching and learning experience will be different for the foreseeable future, the service that you are providing to our children, families, and communities during these challenging times is, indeed, recognized and appreciated. For those of you who are engaging and affirming your students, and supporting families, you are providing the hope that we all need right now.

 

 

 

Is Turn and Talk Effective in Classrooms?

This week's article's summary is Why Teachers Need to More Than Have Kids 'Turn and Talk'.

When I was in graduate school, one of my education professors asked his students to tape-record their classes and then re-listen to the class and provide a numerical rating every 7 seconds on the type of talk that was occurring in the class. How often was the teacher talking, how often were kids talking, and were they talking to the teacher or to other students?

My classmates and I were surprised that the vast majority of our classes were dominated by teacher-to-whole-class talk. Back then (and to a certain extent now) the Holy Grail of a great classroom was student-to-student talk. In other words, teachers should minimize their lecture time and allow for much more student-to-student interaction.

As you’ll see from the article below, there are some benefits to student-to-student talk, yet educational research shows that more often than not student-to-student talk doesn’t lead to better student learning.

What I especially like about education today compared to when I started in the 1980s is how the focus today is on the evidence of student learning, when years ago the focus was more on the components of exemplary teaching. I know this sounds weird—as the purpose of education should always be on what the student learns--yet my graduate studies focused more on improving teaching methods under the assumption that better teaching would lead to better student learning. Many teachers in the 80s thought they taught wonderfully. Back then I heard a lot of bragging about how stimulating teacher presentations had been and it was the kids’ fault that their test results were so poor.  

Today teachers truly empower kids and not just through student-to-student talk. We help students be more aware of not just what they’re learning but literally how they are learning, including the different pedagogies we employ to help them learn, remember, and then transfer and apply. Having kids be more cognizant of thinking about their thinking (metacognition) and having teachers guide them to various types of thinking with appropriate cues and scaffolding aids in remembering, recalling, and applying.

While art remains an important part of being a great teacher, the science of learning is certainly more prominent in schools today as our focus is on learning, not only teaching.

Lecture isn’t all that effective because it doesn’t necessarily actively engage students. But as the article below attests, student-to-student interaction isn’t always that effective either. 

Joe

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Teachers have been led to believe it’s good practice to have students work in groups or pairs, to boost learning and critical thinking. But too often, students get little or no benefit. Walk into almost any elementary classroom and you’ll see the teacher introduce a question and then immediately direct kids to “turn and talk” with a partner. I’ve seen this happen as often as every five or ten minutes. And I’ve seen kids have some lively discussions. But here’s what else I’ve seen:

• Kids having a lively discussion about a topic that has nothing to do with what they’re supposed to be talking about
• Kids having a discussion about the intended topic but saying things that don’t make a lot of sense
• One kid holding forth while a partner just listens—or stares into space
• Both kids staring into space, waiting for the teacher to say that time is up

Teachers may suspect that “turn and talk” isn’t always working the way it’s supposed to, but it’s been drummed into them that it’s an essential part of their pedagogical repertoire and should be used often. Relying on theories formulated many decades ago, schools of education train prospective teachers to believe that standing before a class and explaining things doesn’t work. What does work, they’re told, is having students interact with peers. 

To be sure, there’s truth to the idea that interaction has educational benefits. Learning doesn’t happen unless students are engaged, and group and pair work can be very engaging for students. But it’s possible to have engagement without learning. 

Research studies show that students can learn more from interacting with peers than from working independently, but just telling them to “turn and talk” isn’t enough. Teachers need to give kids guidelines that require them to debate and negotiate—for example, “Make sure you understand your partner’s perspective.”

That could work—but only if students start out with some understanding of what they’re discussing. Often, they’re directed to “turn and talk” about a topic the teacher hasn’t explained, on the theory that it’s better for them to figure out the facts for themselves. If learners don’t know much about a topic, they may not yet have a “perspective.” They may not have much to say at all—or they may come to erroneous conclusions.  Peer interaction may be great for getting students to share opinions or for reinforcing learning through discussion, but when it comes to factual conveyance, that’s what a subject expert is for.

In many ways group work is one of the most enduring myths in education. 

That’s not to say students should never be asked to work in pairs or groups. 

The alternative to group and pair work isn’t necessarily having a teacher just lecture to passive students. A teacher can impart information and guide thinking in engaging ways. In fact, the recent meta-analysis of studies on group and pair work found that having students interact with an adult one-on-one was more effective than having students interact with each other. But given that most classrooms have one teacher and 20 or more students, that’s not a realistic approach.

Still, teachers can read aloud or explain a concept to the entire class, and pause periodically to ask questions designed to check comprehension, focus attention on what’s important, and prompt analysis. A whole-class discussion can’t involve every student, but the teacher can expand the possibilities—and keep students on their toes—by calling on kids who haven’t necessarily raised their hands. Further questioning can encourage students to respond to others’ ideas and get a true conversation going. Once students seem to have a basic grasp of the subject matter and possible interpretations, a turn-and-talk activity might be appropriate.

One other potentially powerful and underused interactive technique that reaches all students is writing. That may not look like it involves interaction, but writers are inevitably trying to communicate with a reader. Writing requires much of the same cognitive work that underlies what scientists call the protégé effect--the boost to comprehension and retention of information that occurs when one person explains something to another. The caveat is that writing is far more difficult than speaking or even reading. Inexperienced writers need to be guided through carefully crafted activities that free up enough cognitive capacity to allow them to grapple with the material they’re writing about.

That’s challenging but far from impossible. Instead of repeatedly having students turn and talk—and running the risk that the talk will lead nowhere or not even happen—teachers could sometimes ask them to take a few minutes to reflect and write.

Literacy, Reading Comprehension, and Social Studies

This week’s article summary is School Reading Classes Still in a Slump Without more Social Studies.

An article summary from a month ago focused on the importance of background content/prior knowledge as a significant benefit to reading comprehension, and the one a few weeks ago focused on how superficial and incomplete most of today’s history textbooks are.

This article focuses on how American schools devote 40% more class time to learning to read compared to other countries. This high percentage is unquestionably influenced by high-stakes math/literacy testing mandated by our federal and state governments.  

The article’s author, an avid student of history, makes the case for how students by studying more history in school will increase their content knowledge, which in turn will raise their reading comprehension scores.

I agree with him up to a point. While content knowledge is good (and helps us answer questions on Jeopardy), a perplexing question is what constitutes accurate, truthful history. 

As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think the author loves history yet also thinks of it from a one-dimensional, one-perspective manner. Too often we learn only one diluted version of history. 

I agree with him that history can be exciting and thought-provoking, but it needs to push and challenge students by going beyond the superficial. We need to guide students to actively ask questions like ‘Whose experiences and perspectives are lacking’ and ‘In what way might this text skew the full story or omit disturbing events for the sake of narrative/thematic flow?’

I grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, a small town on Long Island Sound. In colonial times, it was a whaling village. When I was a kid, my town was a popular tourist stop with lots of quaint antique stores and even a small but popular museum on the history of whaling. From my kid’s perspective, my town’s history was bucolic.

Imagine my surprise when as an adult I learned that my idyllic hometown in the early 20th century was the infamous epicenter of American eugenics studies and research. (For those who don’t know, eugenics was the racist belief that Nordic whites were genetically superior to other people.) While textbooks commonly attached eugenics to Nazi Germany, America’s part is never covered.

As a history major in college, I read a lot of textbooks but by the time I was a junior and senior and taking discussion-based seminar classes, I mostly read primary sources, especially novels, to get a fuller view and feel of the time period. Nevertheless, what I read was mostly a white, male, Eurocentric perspective. Well-written books with provocative ideas but hardly the only perspective. 

So while I agree that content knowledge is important, we also need to teach kids to think for themselves, and to not assume what they read is the complete story. We all benefit from healthy skepticism of what we read, hear, and see--today more than ever. Superficial textbooks can help kids grow their content knowledge, but whose content knowledge? 

Joe

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From an early age, I have been a social studies nerd. Elementary school lessons on Civil War battles, besieged presidents, and westward expansion thrilled me.

So I am sad to learn that, according to a recent study, U.S. elementary schools are spending only 28 minutes a day on my favorite subject, while English language arts gets two hours and math almost an hour and a half.

The authors of the report say the puny history lessons are bad for reading achievement. “On average, students who receive an additional thirty minutes of social studies instruction per day . . . in grades 1-5 outperform in reading students with less social studies time. Social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.”

E.D. Hirsch and others have been pointing out for decades that children need more background information to become good readers. Yet the conventional wisdom still rules. Kids just need more reading instruction, we are told. That approach has left 2/3s of 4th and 8th graders not reading proficiently.

“Social studies has long been neglected in American primary school,” the authors say. “Elementary teachers are often taught that students should ‘first learn to read, so they can read to learn,’ even though youngsters can learn a lot about the world before they can decode.”

Other developed countries devote much less time to literacy classes than we do. American schools spend about 40% of class time on reading. In Japan, the number is only 24%. In Germany, it is 20%, in Finland 24% and in Canada 27%.

Part of the blame is the belief among many people that reading, beyond decoding, really is a skill independent of knowledge. School districts brag about their big blocks of time for reading instruction without bothering to see whether they work. Federal policy may have contributed to this trend by mandating annual state testing in reading and math.

Virginia’s annual state history tests were much admired around the country, but the scores were disappointing, perhaps because too little time was devoted to teaching social studies. The state solved the problem by killing state history tests. The English language arts exams remain.

This study notes a contrary trend in Louisiana. It is putting out reading assessments that align with the state’s English language arts and social studies curriculums. Natalie Wexler, author of “The Knowledge Gap,” said that literacy curriculums that incorporate social studies content may be the way to go.

“I’ve seen second-graders who are using that kind of curriculum eager to find out who won the War of 1812,” Wexler said. “They were also learning lots of other history and geography.

Could rebel teachers sneak more intriguing lessons on history and politics into the English curriculum? My grandsons often leave their school backpacks lying around. I will search them in hopes of finding unauthorized lessons on the Alamo and Teapot Dome.