Motivating Reluctant Writers

This week's article summary is Motivating Reluctant Writers.

As a former English teacher, writing remains my favorite topic in education. Not because I was the best writing teacher but because I know firsthand how difficult writing can be for so many of us. 

The three things people are most phobic about are math, public speaking, and writing. 

I was lucky that math always came very easy to me. 

In high school, I was terrified to speak in front of people. But I had the self-awareness that I would never get over this fear unless I pushed myself. So in my junior and senior years I volunteered to speak in public wherever and whenever I could. My school had a daily upper school morning assembly and I became the default assembly convener in front of about 300 students and 60 teachers. After stuttering and sweating my way through my initial assemblies, I eventually gained more self-confidence and assurance speaking in front of crowds.

So as I headed into college, I had math and public speaking covered. But writing remained a palpable fear. I wasn’t much of a reader in middle school and high school, so I didn’t get much modeling and my vocabulary and sentence construction were rudimentary. Like a lot of others, I just couldn’t articulate on paper the thoughts in my head. But once I got to college I almost magically began to enjoy reading and over time became an avid reader. I kept a blank piece of paper as a bookmark and I would write down vocabulary words I didn’t know and then look them up in a dictionary later. How else would I have learned what jejune meant?. As I read more, I began to notice how differently sentences could be constructed. I attended a small liberal arts college with discussion-based classes. More for academic survival, I learned to form opinions and support them with details. Most of my tests (I majored in history) were essay, so through practice and trial and error my writing strengthened. And then when I began teaching (I’m sure my high school English teachers would have been shocked that I was teaching English), I read a lot about the craft of writing.

So now after forty years, I am finally at the point where I feel comfortable with and relatively confident about my writing. I embody the Stephen King quote, “You become a writer simply by reading and writing.”

One of my assets as an educator is I vividly remember what it was like to be a student in 4th, 9th, 11th grade, particularly the self-doubt and insecurities most students have.

So as you’ll see below, the advice for helping students become stronger, more confident, more expressive, more effective writers isn’t earth-shattering. Rather it’s about breaking down the intimidating topic of writing into smaller, manageable pieces: idea generation, frequent practice, letting a rough draft flow, separating revising (which is fun) from editing (which is more tedious), sharing the different processes of one’s writing with others (something I was terrified to do as a student).

Math, writing, public speaking: I sure if I had gone to Trinity as a student, I would have been stronger in all three areas!

Joe

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Students are natural storytellers: We know this by the stories they tell us when they come in each morning. Why is it, then, that many kids freeze up or feel like they have nothing to say when it comes to writing? There is often a disconnect between kids’ natural storytelling abilities and getting these stories on paper. 

Over the years, these strategies have helped make my reluctant writers feel more comfortable and confident as writers.

Students need time to write every day: Any new skill needs to be practiced, and writing is no exception. This daily writing should be considered practice and should not be assessed. It is important to provide students with many choices for this “free writing” time. This could be offered through a slide show with different pictures that they use as a springboard for their writing, or through a series of prompts or ideas that they can choose from. This time can alternate between an assigned topic and a time to write whatever they choose.

Provide writing projects with a purpose and an authentic audience: A writing project becomes more meaningful when a written assignment has an intended audience in addition to the teacher. When students know that their writing has meaning and someone outside of the classroom is going to read it, they are motivated to write more clearly and creatively in order to effectively communicate their ideas to the reader. This can be even more meaningful and effective if the reader will offer a response or feedback.

Give time to brainstorm and generate ideas: Some students can spend a lot of time generating ideas, planning things out, drawing pictures, and preparing to write. However, this step can be challenging for other students who have trouble generating new ideas for writing. During brainstorming time, I like to give students categories for ideas and model my own ideas for the class. For example, if we are generating ideas for personal narratives, I might divide my paper into different categories to be used for story ideas such as embarrassing moments or stories about me and my dog. I would list out multiple ideas under each category to be used as story ideas. Eventually, I would model how I choose one of these ideas to develop into a story. Categories can help offer students more structure, and modeling my ideas often inspires ideas in my students. At the end of brainstorming time, I often have students leave their notebooks on their desks (if they feel comfortable), and other students can take a gallery walk around the room to see the ideas that their classmates have in their notebooks. This can often spark new ideas for students as well.

Students need to see examples of good writing: Students need to see examples that demonstrate the beauty of the written word and the way that authors choose words carefully to help readers create an image in their minds. I like to select sections or passages from picture books, novels, songs, poems, and magazines to share with students. This could be a passage that describes something or a metaphor used to compare two things. I highlight what stands out in these passages and give students an opportunity to analyze and share their thoughts. As the year progresses, students begin to share their own selections of good writing with me and the class.

Teach students to utilize digital tools: There are so many tools available to students. Google’s Read&Write is a speech-to-text add-on for Google Chrome. Story-writing sites such as Storybird allow students to create their own stories and share them with others. There are also many sites that assist students with planning out a story, such as MindMup. I also use Flip to allow students to share their stories.

Prioritize content, clarity, and craft over conventions and punctuation: Writing is a tool that we use to express ourselves, which can be scary for students. When they begin to do this work, it is important to honor their ideas rather than spend too much time focused on conventions and punctuation. In early stages, instead of focusing on smaller issues, I teach students that writing can be messy, and it can be challenging to communicate our ideas clearly so that the reader understands, so the goal is to write clearly and concisely. Once the first drafts are complete, I have students work independently, with a partner or a teacher to edit for clarity and make sure the story is clear to the reader. This often involves the reader asking questions for clarification and the writer editing as they work through the piece together. This can take multiple sessions. Once the piece is clear, it is then time to focus on punctuation, grammar, and spelling.

Students need to talk about their writing with each other: Talking about writing helps students to formulate thoughts and develop ideas. It is important to give students time to talk about their writing throughout the writing process. As a whole class or in a small group, students can share their ideas, drafts, things that are going well, or any struggles they are having.

Use writing conferences to guide students: The writing conference is a time to offer one-on-one guidance. During the conference, choose one specific teaching point to focus on, and offer guiding questions or a model that the student can use as they continue to work independently. Some students need more support and structure, so a writing conference can be a time to offer this scaffolding.

Emphasize that writing is hard work: Many students write one draft, and they are proud to say, “I’m done!” It is important for students to know that good writing takes many drafts and a lot of time and effort. In my experience, the best way to teach this is by modeling your own piece of writing. I always have a draft going right along with my students, usually in the same genre of the unit we are currently working on. When they can see the multiple drafts and revisions it takes to get to a final piece, they are more likely to do this work on their own.

Celebrate: Most important, take time each day and at the end of each unit to celebrate in some way. This could be highlighting one small thing you noticed or having a celebration party at the end of a unit. Writing is personal and hard work—it deserves a celebration! My favorite way to celebrate is to have students get into small groups, and each student gets to read their piece to their group members. It is always fun to have treats to add a little something special.

How to Foster Productive Conversations with Colleagues

This week's article summary is How Not to Hit Land Mines in Coaching Conversations.

My wife and I have been married for 41 years. We take turns cooking dinner, something neither one of us truly enjoys. A number of years ago, we agreed that the person who didn’t cook could not criticize that night’s meal, even if it was inedible--and we’ve both had some epic disasters. 

Our no criticism rule has worked well.

As you’ll see in the article, receiving criticism (even if constructive and respectful) is very difficult—even painful—for most of us. Why? it’s challenging for us to separate ourselves from what we do. Even cooking reflects on my wife and me on a personal level: if you don’t like what I cooked, I guess you don’t like me.

This holds true in our professional lives. Getting honest feedback can also be hurtful.

The article provides some interesting points to consider when giving or getting feedback. Most intriguing to me is getting the person being evaluated to lead the process through self-reflection/evaluation on his/her performance and strengths/areas to grow. Whenever a supervisor of mine (division head, head of school, board chair) has asked me to provide a summary of my performance, I have been more engaged in my evaluation than listening to them critique me. For most of us, an honest self-assessment is more valuable than comments from others.

The next time my wife asks me what I think of a new recipe she’s trying, I’m going to start by asking her how she think it tastes!

Joe

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I sometimes share a thought experiment in presentations: Imagine that you have a sister who has a daughter. You love your niece almost as much as if she were your own child. Now imagine you see your sister making mistakes as a parent, and you feel you need to talk with her about how she parents. You need to tell her she is, in some way, raising your niece incorrectly. How easy would that conversation be?

Most people tell me they think the conversation would be so emotionally complex that they might be unwilling to have it even though they love their niece and are sure they have good advice to share. When you criticize how someone parents, you seem to criticize who they are as a person, their identity. And when you talk about something that touches another's identity, you walk on dangerous ground.

Teaching is as personal as parenting. When you critique how someone teaches, that teacher's identity is often at play. For this reason, understanding the ingredients of identity, and how to work with them, can help anyone have better conversations in schools, at home, or anywhere else. In working with educators over the past 25 years, I've found that there are four especially important ingredients of identity connected to a person's inner dialogue about themselves. When you're aware of these ingredients, you should be able to have more productive, life-giving conversations.

I'm a Good Person: Every person I've ever met either believes—or wants to believe—that they are a morally good person. As a result, conversations break down when people perceive they are being told they aren't acting in a morally correct manner (even if you haven't directly said this). The topic at hand gets forgotten. One way to keep conversations from becoming overly personal is to provide opportunities for teachers to watch videos of their lessons and draw their own conclusions. What professionals discover for themselves about their practice is often more valuable than the comments of an external observer watching one lesson. Stanford researchers David Bradford and Carole Robin also offer a helpful suggestion for avoiding appearing to make a moral judgment. All feedback conversations, they explain, involve three realities: (a) what the other person intended, (b) what the other person did, and (c) what we noticed about the impact of the other person's actions. When we talk about complex topics such as teaching, try to focus on action and impact and avoid talking about intent: We might say, for example, "I noticed that students got involved in the classroom discussion when you asked open-ended, opinion questions." When we start to talk about intent, people start to feel hurt or defensive.

I'm Doing a Good Job: Most of us believe or want to believe that we're at least competent at what we do, and we want others to see us that way. For this reason, we need to look for the good in others and communicate that we see others' strengths whenever we do see them. Positive comments are most effective when we avoid broad general statements, like "You're such a patient teacher," and instead describe evidence that proves the overall positive sentiment you want to express ("When you waited for Katrina to answer, and then you praised her, she lit up like a Christmas tree"). When we just tell someone they have a general trait, they often quickly deflect that affirmation by thinking of all the times they didn't exhibit that characteristic ("You think I'm patient, you should have seen me getting my son ready for school this morning"). When we describe a single, specific action someone took that embodies a positive characteristic, that comment is much more difficult to deny and more likely to land ("You know, I diddo that").

I Want to Be Accepted: People want to be accepted, or loved, or at least not rejected. Conversations can be poisoned if people perceive we are rejecting them, even if that rejection—temporary and probably more connected to our own emotions—is revealed in a flash through a frown, sigh, or other nonverbal communication. One form of rejection is moralistic judgment, any communication implying the other is bad in a moral sense. As psychologist Marshall Rosenberg asserts, moralistic judgment includes verbal communication that signals such judgment—such as blaming, put-downs, labels, and criticism—and also nonverbal communication that implies judgment. Moralistic judgment such as this interrupts learning and extinguishes intimacy. We don't seek help from someone who rolls their eyes when we talk.

I Want to Control My Life: Our identity is defined in large part by our ability to make choices. This is definitely so for most people working in education. As a result, when we feel we don't have a choice, we often resist. So when discussing concerns about a teacher's behavior with them, let go of trying to control their actions or choices if you want to have a meaningful conversation and fuel learning. We can address this identity ingredient by structuring conversations so the person we're talking to can make choices—or at least be invited to do so. A fruitful question is one that coaching expert Michael Bungay Stanier shared with me: "You've probably thought a lot about this. What are you thinking that you might do?" By asking that question, we communicate our assumption that others have valuable ideas. We give control of the conversation to our conversation partner. Even when people really need or solicit advice, it's best to always talk in terms of choices ("Here are three possible ideas that come to mind; which one do you feel most confident implementing as a teacher?")

Speaking So Others Can Hear: Understanding identity this way helps us speak the truth in ways that can be heard. When we find ourselves in potentially complex, personal conversations, we typically respond either by stopping the conversation or pushing on even though we see that our comments are causing our conversation partner to feel upset or defensive. Neither approach leads to a positive outcome. Understanding the ingredients of identity provides a third way. When we separate issues from identity, communicate that we see others' strengths, avoid moralistic judgment, and let go of control, we create conditions where real conversation about real issues can happen.

Top Education Studies in 2022

This week's article summary is The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2022.

Edutopia annually compiles the most important educational research studies from the previous year. What I always take away from the summary is that Trinity stays on top of and has implemented most if not all of these research studies, which often validate—although sometimes refute—best practices in education.

Here’s a quick summary of the 2022 studies:

Similar to last week’s summary, research supports how important it is for teachers to develop strong relationships with their students and to demonstrate care and concern for their students in order foster student confidence to push and challenge themselves academically. It’s an example of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: physical and emotional safety precedes learning.

Learning (the ability to retain, retrieve, and transfer information) is supported through graphic organizers and sketchnotes as these tools help students be more active participants in the process of learning. Similarly, while textbook highlighting is inefficient overall, it remains a common strategy and thus its proper use needs to be explicitly taught to students.  

Periodic brain breaks (particularly physical activity) benefit student learning and focus. Cramming for a big exam is ineffective compared to spread-out retrieval practice. Our high school teachers knew what they were talking about when they advised us to review our notes nightly.

For those of you (like me) who always feel inadequate decorating bulletin boards, a research study warns teachers of making their classroom too cluttered in order to minimize possible student distractions.

And as always, the benefits of play-based learning in the younger grades and a multi-sensory approach to teaching literacy skills is validated by current research. 

Joe

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THERE’S NO CONFLICT BETWEEN RELATIONSHIPS AND RIGOR: Observers sometimes assume that teachers who radiate empathy, kindness, and openness are “soft” and can be taken advantage of by students. But new research shows that when you signal that you care about kids, they’re willing to go the extra mile—giving you the flexibility to assign more challenging school work. The researchers found that the most effective teachers build their classrooms by getting to know their students, being approachable, and showing that they enjoy the work, and then deftly translate emotional capital into academic capital. “When students feel teachers care about them, they work harder, engage in more challenging academic activities, behave more appropriately for the school environment, are genuinely happy to see their teacher, and meet or exceed their teacher’s expectations,” the researchers conclude.

HIGHLIGHTING ISN’T VERY EFFECTIVE, UNTIL TEACHERS STEP IN: Students often highlight the wrong information and may rely on their deficient highlighting skills as a primary study strategy, leading to poor learning outcomes. The researchers determined that “learner-generated highlighting” tended to improve retention of material, but not comprehension. When students were taught proper highlighting techniques by teachers, however—for example, how to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas—they dramatically improved their academic performance. Crucially, “when highlighting is used in conjunction with another learning strategy” like “graphic organizers or post-questions,” its effectiveness soars.The need for explicit teaching may be linked to changing reading habits as students graduate from stories and fables to expository texts, which require them to navigate unfamiliar text formats. To bring kids up to speed, show them “examples of appropriate and inappropriate highlighting,” teach them to “highlight content relatively sparingly,” and provide examples of follow-on tactics like summarizing their insights to drive deeper comprehension.

SKETCHNOTES AND CONCEPT MAPS WORK—EVEN BETTER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK: Simple concept maps, sketchnotes, and other annotated jottings—akin to doodling with a purpose—can facilitate deeper comprehension of materials than more polished drawings. Representational drawings, such as a simple diagram of a cell, may help students remember factual information, but they “lack features to make generalizations or inferences based on that information.” Organizational drawings that link concepts with arrows, annotations, and other relational markings give students a clearer sense of “the big picture,” allow them to visualize how ideas are connected, and provide a method for spotting obvious gaps in their understanding. On tests of higher-order thinking, fifth graders who made organizational drawings outperformed their peers who tried representational drawings by 300 percent. To reap the benefits in class, have students start with simple diagrams to help remember the material, and then move them up to sketchnotes and concept maps ask they tease out connections to prior knowledge.

BRAIN BREAKS ARE MISUNDERSTOOD (AND UNDERUTILIZED): Conventional wisdom holds that the development of a skill comes from active, repeated practice: But recent studies reveal that the intervals between practice sessions are at least as crucial. Brain breaks play "just as important a role as practice in learning a new skill.” The kinds of breaks make a difference, too. One study compared in-classroom breaks like drawing or building puzzles to outdoor breaks like running or playing in sandboxes. In a nod to the power of movement—and free time—it was the kids playing outside who returned to class ready to learn, probably because indoor games, like indoor voices, required children to engage in more self-regulation. Depriving kids of downtime, it turns out, is a threat to the whole proposition of learning. To commit lessons to memory, the brain demands its own time—which it sets aside to clean up and consolidate new material.

ON CLASSROOM DESIGN, AN ARGUMENT FOR CAUTION—AND COMMON SENSE: When it comes time to decorate their classrooms, teachers often find themselves on the horns of a dilemma: Should they aim for Pinterest-worthy interior design, or opt for blank walls on the strength of research that emphasizes the risks of distracting students? A study published in February this year argues for minimalism. Researchers tracked the on-task behavior of K-2 students and concluded that visually ”streamlined” classrooms produced more focused students than “decorated” ones. During short read-alouds about topics like rainbows and plate tectonics, for example, young kids in classrooms free of “charts, posters, and manipulatives” were paying attention at significantly higher rates. But it might not be a simple question of more or less. A 2014 study confirmed that posters of women scientists or diverse historical figures, for example, can improve students’ sense of belonging. And a recent study that observed 3,766 children in 153 schools concluded that classrooms that occupied a visual middle ground—neither too cluttered nor too austere—produced the best academic outcomes. The rules appear to be relatively straightforward: Hang academically relevant, supportive work on the walls, and avoid the extremes—working within the broad constraints suggested by common sense and moderation.

FOR YOUNG CHILDREN, THE POWER OF PLAY-BASED LEARNING: Children aren’t miniature adults, but a bias toward adult perspectives of childhood, with its attendant schedules and routines, has gradually exerted a stranglehold on our educational system nonetheless, suggests the author and early childhood educator Erika Christakis. How can we let little kids be little while meeting the academic expectations of typical schools? Play gently guided by adults, often called play-based learning, can satisfy both objectives. Teachers of young students can have a “learning goal” in mind, but true play-based learning should incorporate wonder and exploration, be child-led when possible, and give students “freedom and choice over their actions and play behavior.” Interrupt the flow of learning only when necessary: gently nudge students who might find activities too hard or too easy for example. The playful approach improved early math and task switching skills, compared to more traditional tactics that emphasize the explicit acquisition of skills. To get it right, focus on relationships and ask questions that prompt wonder. “Rich, open-ended conversation is critical,” and children need time ”to converse with each other playfully, to tell a rambling story to an adult, to listen to high-quality literature and ask meaningful questions.”

A BETTER WAY TO LEARN YOUR ABCS: Getting young kids to match a letter to its corresponding sound is a first-order reading skill. To help students grasp that the letter c makes the plosive “cuh” sound in “car,” teachers often use pictures as scaffolds, or have children write the letter repeatedly while making its sound. Sound-letter pairs are learned much more effectively when whole-body movements are integrated into lessons. Five- and 6-year-olds in the study spent eight weeks practicing movements for each letter of the alphabet, slithering like a snake as they hissed the sibilant “sss” sound, for example. The researchers found that whole-body movement improved students’ ability to recall letter-sound pairings, and doubled their ability to recognize hard-to-learn sounds—such as the difference between the sounds c makes in “cat” and “sauce”—when compared to students who simply wrote and spoke letter-sound pairings at their desks. The approach can make a big difference in the acquisition of a life-changing skill. Educators should “incorporate movement-based teaching” into their curricula, giving special consideration to “whole-body movement,” the researchers conclude.

AN AUTHORITATIVE STUDY OF TWO HIGH-IMPACT LEARNING STRATEGIES: Spacing and retrieval practices are two of the most effective ways to drive long-term retention and students should know how and why the strategies are effective. Researchers explain that students who prefer techniques like reading and re-reading material in intense cram sessions are bound to fail. Instead, students should think of learning as a kind of “fitness routine” during which they practice recalling the material from memory and space out their learning sessions over time. Teaching kids to self-quiz or summarize from memory—and then try it again—are the crucial first steps in disabusing students of their “false beliefs about learning.”

Bad Advice: Don't Smile Until Christmas

This week’s article summary is Don’t Smile Until December: Bad Advice Based on the Either-Or Fallacy, which is an apt article as we settle into the second half of the school year.

Through my years in education, I’ve had a number of colleagues who embraced the mantra of not smiling until Christmas. 

I also had some colleagues who had lost control of their class by Christmas due to their overt permissiveness during the first months of school. 

Similar to effective parenting, classroom management shouldn’t be viewed in an either/or manner, but rather from a both/and perspective. Research consistently shows that combining firmness and kindness is most effective.

As we reestablish our classroom and school culture after an extended mid-year break, we need to remind our students how much we care for them while also being responsible for their safety, growth, and learning.

The article reminds us that consistent classroom routines are critical to optimizing student learning. I especially like how the article explains that it’s within parameters of consistency that student agency develops. Teacher clarity in terms of classroom expectations, instructions, and feedback also helps students learn more efficiently and effectively.

While teachers need to monitor classroom expectations, they also need to develop honest, trusting relationships with their students. The Rick Wormeli line that kids don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care is accurate. Continually remind your students how much you believe in them and their ability to learn and to help and support others in and out of the classroom.

Not smiling until Christmas assumes that teachers should be stoic, unemotional automatons, yet the article urges us to more open with our students. Show empathy by sharing things you struggled to learn. Help them see that even when embracing a growth mindset, we can still have bouts of self-doubt. Invite them to share how they have handled disappointment and confusion in and out of school.

Even if the first half of the year has gone smoothly for you and your students, this time of year is ideal to reflect on what’s worked and areas to further enhance over the next five months. 

Joe

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It’s amazing that new teachers are still being told, Don’t smile until December. 

Whatever truth this cliché communicates is outweighed by the reality it denies: neither consistent classroom management nor challenging academic content need be in competition with expressions of kindness, caring, or joy. To the contrary, consistent challenge, discipline, and joy should all be part of the classroom climate that students come to expect. 

Here are some important elements to their both-and approach:

Autonomy Support and Structure: It’s a fallacy that students need to be tightly managed for four months before being allowed to make choices. Consistent structures should be implemented alongside autonomy support so that in the context of consistency, students also perceive that they have agency in their learning. When students have the three interdependent elements in self-determination theory – autonomy, competence, and relatedness – they’re more likely to develop intrinsic motivation for learning. And indeed, studies show that teachers who take a both-and approach get better results. The key elements of a structured classroom are clear and explicit directions, guidance for ongoing classroom activities, and feedback on how to be successful. Autonomy-supporting practices include getting students’ perspectives, responding to students’ individual preferences and interests, and providing relevant and interesting instruction. Classrooms high in structure need not be doctrinaire; instead, they offer proactive clarity and ongoing support. Students know what to do because they have been clearly told, and if the message was not clear, then students get constructive feedback to get them back on track.

Pedagogical Caring: Studies show that students regard effective instruction as one of the best ways teachers can show they care. That includes helping students with their work, explaining assignments clearly, making sure students understand, offering encouragement, orchestrating good classroom management, and planning fun activities. In other words, there’s no conflict between caring and rigor. Students work harder and engage in more prosocial activity when they believe teachers care about them. If teachers focus on either one aspect of caring or the other, then we have embraced a more truncated form than students seek.

 Challenge and Warmth: Another aspect of the don’t-smile-till-December trope is that rigorous instruction needs to be delivered in a standoffish manner. But students have a more-nuanced view. Educational research suggests students experience teachers’ high expectations as a form of concern and respect as long as these expectations are coupled with effective student supports and strong student-teacher relationships. Students respond to this with greater effort and increased achievement. Students appreciate higher-order questions, interactive lessons, and feeling respected as learners.

 Cognitive Empathy: This means understanding the thoughts and feelings of another person, from that person’s perspective. Affective empathy is different: it’s sharing the feelings of another, while recognizing that the other person is the source of those emotions. Both kinds of empathy are important in a productive teacher-student relationship. What makes advice like ‘don’t smile until December’ so attractive is that it suggests good teaching can be accomplished without seriously consulting one’s students, as if teaching were a series of strategies that, when performed correctly, led students – any students – to higher achievement. Cognitive empathy is the trait that allows teachers to understand life from their students’ perspective, thus, it provides the information necessary to make classrooms more conducive to student learning and motivation. Taking the time to get to know students is a vital part of balancing caring and rigor. Some students require a great deal of structure to succeed while others would find that level of scaffolding to be suffocating. Not until teachers can see the world from their students’ eyes will they be able to craft lessons that balance autonomy and structure successfully for them. In the same vein, when does pushing a student to do their best become nagging them? It depends on the student, which is why effective teachers commit to getting to know each of them. 

Thank You for Your Dedication and Efforts!

As we reach the mid-point in the school year, let’s enjoy a well-earned holiday respite while also taking some time to reflect on what thus far has been a truly outstanding school year!

We began the year with the plan of Trinity functioning without any Covid protocol restrictions. Reviewing the first months of our school calendar, I am elated that we have been able revive school events that we had to modify or cancel the past two years like last week’s 5th Grade Nutcracker performances, Monday’s EED Holiday Sing-a-long, and tomorrow’s UED Holiday Program at Trinity Church. It’s been so enjoyable and important to come together as a full community once again and for our students to perform in front of in-person audiences!

Despite being back to pre-pandemic normality, this year like any school year brings with it inevitable fatigue, stress, and frustrations. Teachers on the whole are perfectionists and idealists, and we tend to dwell on what we haven’t been able to do and not enough on our many successes. Yet regardless of the ups and downs of a school year, we most significantly make a difference in the lives of others. For me, that’s why teaching when all is said and done is so rewarding: we positively impact others and we help shape the minds and character of the next generation. I feel fortunate to work in a school with its eternal optimism and hope. Yes, there are struggles and downtimes, yet whenever I reflect on my chosen career, I picture the thousands of students I’ve helped guide and support!

I’m even more grateful to work at Trinity. I’ve taught for over 40 years in many different schools (Pre-12th Grade, Pre-8th Grade, Quaker, Episcopal, non-sectarian) across the country (New York, Oklahoma, Indiana) and after ten years at Trinity I still arrive each morning as excited as my first day back in 2013. I’ve learned a lot from all of you, been in awe of your dedication and professional expertise, and made lasting friendships. Despite seeming serendipitous, Trinity is an intricate, interdependent organization with each and every one of us fulfilling our duties and responsibilities. Daniel Pink and others write about how professional fulfillment comes when one feels he/she is part of something bigger than themselves, and that’s what education is. Daily I feel a sense of pride working with all of you. I put my trust in you and you put your trust in me. It’s this mutual trust in one another that undergirds our positive school culture.

This week’s article summary The Best Advice I Ever Received From a Teacher is a celebration of the impact of teachers on their students. It’s about simple yet wise phrases from teachers that continue to influence students as adults.

Thank you for all you do for our students! Enjoy holiday break with family and friends! 

Joe

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Effort beats skill: You don’t have to be the best or the most talented, you just have to be willing to work the hardest.

Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it: And as much as my 17-year-old old brain was at the time, that clicked. I immediately felt wiser and grateful for that information.

Keep reading: Read all you can. From my senior high school in British literature teacher.

Greatness requires sacrifice: My grandma (and teacher) told me this. She said that when I understand that, I have the basics of understanding life.

Take the next step: It wasn't what he said, but how he taught. Everyone had a place and was always challenged to take the next step

Changing: When the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change, you will change.

Writing is rewriting: The fun is in rewriting!

There’s good in people: While she wasn't my direct teacher, my mom's 30-plus year career as a teacher gave me such respect and admiration for the profession. As a teacher she was always so kind and respectful to any student she had, no matter their background or how well they fared in her class. So in a way her advice was shown through her actions of being patient with people and knowing there's good in them.

Be an active world citizen: Discover new things about the world and the people in it.

Don’t read bad books: Life is too short to read bad books. A bad book is any book you think is a bad book. My teacher had a personal policy – he'd give any book 125 pages and if it didn't work for him, he tossed it and started a new book

It’s okay to break the rules once in a while: It’s OK to break the rules once in a while, as long as you know the rules like the back of your hand. With this advice, she taught me that it’s OK to be creative. It’s changed my writing and reporting process for the better, and I’ll always be grateful for her guidance and advice.

Smart people don’t know everything: But they know how to find information.

Many things aren’t so black and white: I had a government teacher in high school who, in the face of my fixed and certain political views, told me, 'You will find that many things aren’t so black and white.' It was probably not the most profound advice I have heard, and I think about it a lot.

Find the joy: Feel whatever you need to feel, just don’t stay there any longer than you have to. Find the joy.

When presented with an opportunity: Say yes and then figure it out

 

No such thing as a free lunch:  Be prepared to work hard and never expect anyone to hand you what you haven’t earned.

 

How Today's Youth Compares With Previous Generations

This week's article summary is America's Youth Today.]

As the article points out, today’s youth have many positive attributes: they are smart (as measured by IQ tests), possess self-control and self-regulation, are hard-working and industrious, and exhibit compassion and empathy for others.

Nevertheless, today’s youth have struggles, resulting from internal and external pressures.

First, they are physically and emotionally exhausted due to their (and often their parents’) ambitious college and career goals. My high school senior class had 80 students. Our academic pecking order was well defined and accepted: a few really good students, a few who really struggled, and a group of middle of the bell curve kids. I was a middle kid and was fine getting mostly B’s, a few As, and an occasional ‘Please see me’ note from a teacher. Today with weighted grades, most GPAs are well above 4.0 and college applications demand much more extracurricular activities, particularly in service learning. Getting into a competitive college is much more daunting than when I applied. The article’s author refers to today’s youth as being ‘overwhelmed’, especially with getting into the ‘right’ college.

This leads to their second challenge: today’s youth are less confident and assured. Think back to the past generations when the emphasis for most kids was personal fulfillment and happiness. The jobs were there; it was more about finding the right fit. My parents wanted me to work hard, be nice, and become successful, yet they allowed me the latitude to chart my own path and find my professional calling. I always felt I had time to find my niche and an occupation that provided me both fulfillment and financial security. That’s not the case today with so much more competition and more limited opportunities.

And finally, today’s youth are far less trusting and more pessimistic about the future. Think about the competitiveness within the global economy, the seemingly hopelessness of environmental issues like global warming, and America’s diminishing influence as a world political and economic power. There were certainly issues when I was a kid, particularly fear of nuclear war, yet the future right now appears more uncertain than ever.

The author recommends that we adults help today’s youth by trying to redirect their priorities, perspectives, and attitudes. 

As we at Trinity shape our students’ character, we can further help them be strong, confident, positive, well-rounded, and, most important to me, carefree. My hope is that the foundational work we do in these elementary-school years will equip our students with the fortitude to handle the myriad challenges they’ll face. 

There’s so much good in today’s youth, yet it’s incumbent upon us to help them combat the negative feelings the article lists.

Joe

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“The worst part is that they don’t care what people — their mothers and fathers and uncles and aunts — think of them. They haven’t any sense of shame, honor or duty… they don’t care about anything except pleasure.”

What are today’s young people like compared to young people in the past? We often hear stereotypes about American teenagers and young adults, and the above quote feels fresh, even though it was written about flappers in 1926. You can find similar views about the wayward ways of youth as far back as 700 BCE in Ancient Greece.

Older generations tend to stereotype recent generations of young people, questioning their intelligence and self-control and calling them lazy, selfish, and uncaring. 

In her book, Unfairly Labeled, Jessica Kriegel argues that, as with other stereotypes, generational stereotypes are harmful and unfair.

I’m a social scientist who has been following generational trends in the psychological traits of young Americans for most of my career. So, what does this research say about young people in recent years? 

First, recent generations of young Americans are not less intelligent than earlier generations. The evidence, in fact, suggests the opposite: There have been consistent increases in IQ scores in the past century (three points per decade in the U.S.), which is known as the Flynn Effect. This indicates that younger generations of Americans perform better on standardized measures of intelligence.

How about self-control? Are today’s young people more prone to instant gratification than those in the past? Quite the opposite. Indeed, two recent studies found that today’s children are able to wait longer for rewards than children in previous decades. 

Another common stereotype about younger generations of Americans is that they are lazier than previous generations. Yet, recent generations of American children have been in school for more of their lives, for more hours per week, with more jam-packed schedules, and with less free play, than earlier generations. Young people today are anything but lazy: They are working more and having less unstructured leisure time. 

As for narcissism and empathy, my previous research found that narcissism was increasing and empathy was declining between the late 1970s and 2008. However, new research has found that these trends dramatically reversed after the Great Recession, with a decrease in narcissism and increase in empathy among young Americans since then. People tend to turn to others during times of economic crisis.

Overall, when examining these trends, it looks like the kids are good — in terms of both their competence and their moral compass. They are increasing in intelligence and self-control, and at least since the 2008-2009 recession, they are becoming less narcissistic and more empathic. 

But are the kids okay? In my forthcoming book, Culture of Burnout: American Life in an Age of Increasing Expectations, I provide evidence that young Americans have been showing increased burnout symptoms over time.

The first symptom of burnout is emotional exhaustion. Younger generations have been reporting higher stress, compared to older generations. . They have also reported feeling increasingly overwhelmed since the 1980s. But emotional exhaustion can go beyond stress, and recent generations of young Americans also have been showing increased mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety. 

The second symptom of burnout is cynicism, or low trust in others. There have been declines in the percentage of young Americans who agree that people are basically good and trustworthy. For example, in 1972, 32.1% of 18-25-year-old Americans reported being trusting but by 2018, only 15.4% did. This is a worrisome trend because trust is the foundation of positive relationships.

The final symptom of burnout is feelings of low accomplishment or low self-efficacy. In recent years national surveys find that American high school students are more likely to believe that the plans they make will not work out, that there are barriers to getting ahead, and that they don’t have a chance of being successful in life. These feelings are especially remarkable in light of the research that finds rising intelligence, self-control, and hard work over time. 

Why are young Americans increasingly burned out? The burnout equation involve too many expectations and demands, plus too few resources and support. These increasing demands have been both internal (e.g., unrealistic educational goals and perfectionism) and external (e.g., the rising cost and competition of college and stagnant wages). 

Relative to previous generations, today’s American young people are intelligent, able to delay their gratification, and cooperative and caring. Yet, they are trying very hard to meet the increasing expectations for success in our society, only to find themselves exhausted, frustrated at the doors slamming in their faces, and minimizing their accomplishments, since they don’t seem to pay off. Burnout is an understandable response to an untenable situation: It is a forced halt to the rat race. 

What are some potential solutions to increasing burnout? We need to flip the burnout equation: decrease expectations and demands on young people, while also providing more resources and support. This needs to come from many different sources, ranging from educational institutions to workplaces to government policies. In terms of the latter, policies can focus on either limiting the winner-take-all economy or providing opportunities and subsidies that help offset the rising costs of trying to succeed in today’s increasingly competitive environment.

Unfortunately, burnout itself is a demoralizing force, making it less likely that groups of young people will rise up and fight the system. So, older generations need to fight it on their behalf, and young people need to reclaim rest, rejuvenation, and revitalization. 

Engaging in burnout buffers can help restore energy levels in order to rethink and retool the world we live in. Most of them are free or inexpensive, whether taking a hike or bike ride in nature, spending quality time with friends, or creating or enjoying some sort of art — basically, anything that is done for the sake of enjoyment alone, without an economic benefit. Make Love, Not War was the mantra of 1960s youth, and perhaps we need a new one today: Make Love, Not Work. 

Using Grades as Effective Feedback

This week's article summary is Can Grades Be An Effective Form of Feedback.

A number of my recent summaries have focused on feedback: Is Any Feedback Effective, The Many Negatives of High-Stakes Standardized Testing, IQ Testing.

This week’s summary focuses on how to make classroom grading more effective through feedback. (Thanks to Jill for sharing the article with me!)

The article begins by detailing the many negatives of grading, in particular how demoralizing a bad grade can be for a student. We tend to think that a bad grade—like punishment for bad behavior—will act as motivation for more effort. Yet, most of us don’t respond positively to negative results.

Equally interesting to me is that the absence of grades in the classroom is also ineffective. I had one class in college in which we students chose our final grade. The professor’s intentions were to motivate us. I didn’t work very hard yet still gave myself an A. All I really learned from that class was the professor was naive to trust a bunch of 20 year olds.

The gist of the article is grades are effective when used principally as a feedback tool to students, including four components. 

First, a grade shouldn’t define the student. Following Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset, teachers need to be careful that students don’t view a grade as the final word on them and their capacity for learning. Teachers need to help students see that any grade is an assessment of where a student is in the process of learning/mastering something.

Second—and similar to the previous component—is making sure students view grades as formative, not summative. Grades viewed as formative help students see what they have learned, what they still need to know, and next steps to get there. 

Third, classroom grading should be criterion-based, not norm-based. I had a few teachers when I was a student who graded on a curve, their rationale being that the curve took into account the level of difficult of the assignment/assessment. I don’t necessarily agree with all the negatives the article lists about norm-referencing in the classroom, yet I agree that basing grades on mastery of skills, concepts, and procedures is more beneficial for the learner. After all, the goal is to learn and master material, not compare oneself against the rest of the class.

Fourth, grades need to include teacher specific next steps so students can move closer to mastery.  

At our fall divisional parent meetings Sheree, Ira, Marsha, and Jill spoke about how education has evolved over the past twenty years in having grading/assessments move from the summative/normative to the formative. As I read this week’s article I was again proud of how Trinity is a leader in this area as we are in so many others.

 Joe

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Grades are portrayed as a villain by many in education today. Some researchers and authors contend grades stifle creativity, foster fear of failure, and weaken students’ interest. Others argue that grades diminish students’ emotional and behavioral engagement in learning. These claims have led some to believe that we could significantly improve students’ attitudes, their interest in learning, and the classroom learning environment simply by going “gradeless”.

But do grades deserve the supervillain label? Would eliminating grades suddenly increase students’ interest in learning and make our classrooms better places to learn? Not much evidence supports this. 

If we use grades the right way, at the right time, and for the right reasons, they can be an effective form of feedback for students. To guarantee their proper use and avoid their misuse, however, we need to be sure that teachers develop and implement grading policies and practices that highlight grades’ usefulness as a form of feedback while reducing any potentially negative connotations. To function as effective feedback, grades must meet four necessary conditions. These conditions not only allow grades to serve important formative purposes, but also help remove the negative consequences of misuse.

Grades must be assigned to performance, not to students: Beginning at the earliest levels, teachers must help students and their families understand that grades do not reflect who you are as a learner, but where you are in your learning journey. Teachers further must stress that grades never describe students’ capabilities or learning potential. Rather, they provide an indication of how near or far students are from reaching specific goals. Too often, students see grades as a reflection of their innate talent, skill, or ability. Grades become personal labels that students use on themselves that can be difficult to change. When students and families see grades as a reflection of current performance only, they recognize that knowing where you are is essential for improvement. Informative judgments from teachers about the quality of students’ performance help students become more thoughtful judges of their own work. 

Grades must be criterion-based, not norm-based: Norm-based grades assess students’ relative standing among classmates. It’s sometimes known as “ego-involving” grading or “grading on the curve.” With norm-based grading, a C doesn’t mean you are at step three in a five-step process to mastery. Instead, it means your performance ranks you in the middle of the class and is “average” in comparison to your classmates. Norm-based grading has profoundly negative consequences. First, it communicates nothing about what students have learned or are able to do. Second, it makes learning highly competitive, because students must compete against one another for the few high grades the teacher will assign. Third, it discourages student collaboration, because helping others threatens students’ own chances for success. Criterion-based or task-involving grading describes how well students have met learning goals. Students’ grades are based on clearly defined performance expectations and have no relation to the performance of other students. Thus, criterion-based grades serve the communication purposes for which grades are intended. Because students compete against themselves to meet learning goals and not against each other, criterion-based grading encourages student collaboration. It also puts teachers and students on the same side, working together to master the goals.

Grades must be seen as temporary: Students’ level of performance is never permanent. As students study and practice, their understanding grows and their performance improves. To accurately describe how well students have learned, grades must reflect students’ current performance level. When students understand that grades are temporary, they recognize that assessments don’t mean the end of learning. Instead, assessment results describe where students are currently in their journey to mastery. Teachers must emphasize to their students that achieving less than mastery doesn’t mean you can’t make it, but only that you haven’t made it yet, and there’s more to do. This temporary quality of grades also calls into question the process of averaging, which combines evidence from the past with current evidence, yielding an inaccurate depiction of what students achieved. Instead, current performance should always replace past evidence to make sure grades are accurate and valid.

Grades must be accompanied by guidance for improvement: Students need guidance and direction on how to make better progress, reach the goals, and achieve success. This is true of all forms of feedback.

This aspect of feedback stems from the work of Benjamin Bloom. In his descriptions of mastery learning, Bloom explained how teachers could use well-designed formative assessments to offer students regular feedback on what they learned well and what improvements were needed. He referred to these as corrective activities. Corrective activities must be new and different from the original instruction. Reteaching concepts in the same way simply repeats a process that has already been shown not to work. Instead, correctives must offer instructional alternatives that present concepts and skills in new ways. He also recommended that students study only the concepts and skills on which they are having difficulty. In other words, the correctives are individualized, based on students’ unique learning needs.

Students need honest information from their teachers about the quality and adequacy of their performance in school. Parents and families need to know how their children are doing and whether they are meeting grade-level or course expectations. Although grades should never be the only information about learning that students and families receive, they can be a meaningful part of that information. When combined with guidance to students and families on how improvements can be made, grades become a valuable tool in helping students achieve learning success.