The Cart Before the Student

So, okay - it's been over a year and a half quite a while since my last post. My sincerest apologies. I have been presenting at conferences and also designing a new course called "21st Century Literacy."  Well, not exactly designing it: more like REdesigning it. It will involve not just text literacy in the 21st century, but also new media literacy, visual literacy, and other elements (think infographics, Web 2.0 tools, online collaboration, etc.). More on that in a future post.

Today I am administering a Gates-MacGinitie Online Reading post-test. Why, you might ask, am I giving a summative measure designed to assess my students' reading growth during their freshman year in JANUARY?  Two words: class registration.

At our high school, and many others similar in size, I would guess, class registration for the next year's course schedules is performed in January and February. There are several good reasons for doing this: (1) Schools can examine enrollments and allocate teachers effectively; and (2) The Guidance Office has months rather than days or weeks to get the students registered into their new classes.

As the freshman reading teacher, I am expected to provide recommendations for my struggling readers' class placements for the following year. Many of my students will be "released" from Tier 2 reading RTI intervention class having been able to demonstrate comprehension at or above grade level. Some students, however, will be recommended to stay in the program. Yes, it's good for them. Yes, they need it, yada yada yada. However, as a reading teacher, it feels extremely wrong for me to give my seal of approval (or disapproval) for students' year-long progress in JANUARY.

 I make my recommendation based on where kids sit at this point in the year. Those on the bubble could go either way and I have to rely on my professional expertise to make a decision.  The good thing is, should kids make abundant progress between now and May (or for whatever reason revert), their class schedules can be adjusted on an individual basis later on.

Here is my problem: I have quite a few kids who have made a lot of progress, but aren't at or above grade level yet. It's not a fun conversation to tell a kid who has been working hard and who has been making big improvements that it's not enough. Especially when there are kids who were "closer" to begin with who make the cut with very little effort.

I realize there's no way around it. This must be what doctors feel like when they have a patient who has been following all of the "rules," working hard to be healthy and get better, but just not making progress health-wise to be "cleared" for whatever it is they want to be free to do.

Most of the time, it's fine. Because I communicate with the kids early and often about their progress and their performance, they often have a good idea whether or not they'll need to stay in the program when the time comes. However, it has always irked me that this conversation has to take place in January, not May.

Thoughts?

Against the Whole Class Novel

Another interesting article from Education Week. This one, by Pam Allyn (June 15, 2011) is about how the whole-class novel is alienating students--especially boys--and they shouldn't be done.

Against the Whole Class Novel

Wow, I'm seeing more and more research pointing in this direction. Yet another article telling us what we've done in the past may have worked in the past, but it needs to change as times--and students--change. I try to do this in my classroom already, but probably not to the extent that I should. For example, I allow students to choose their reading materials, but I've specified that they need to be novels. I allow them to read on nooks, Kindles, and iPods (as long as they can show me they're really reading!), but I hadn't thought of letting them read informational blogs. I like the idea, but would the administration see this as valuable? I guess it's up to me to educate them if they question it. And it's up to me to make sure the students are really engaging with "good" blogs...or at least ensuring they are questioning the value of questionable blogs? Lots of gray areas here, but tons of potential too so I think the risk is worth it.

Surprise, Surprise....

It seems the heavy emphasis on testing the life out of students is not producing the desired effects. Had policymakers asked educators before they shoved the all testing, all the time diet down the throats of American schools, they could have known this years ago.

Check out this Education Week article by Sarah D. Sparks (June 15, 2011).

Panel Finds Few Learning Gains from Testing

A 10-year study by a blue-ribbon panel of scientists concluded that high-stakes testing and other accountability measures have largely failed to translate to real improvements in student achievement. No way, really?

What quick, inexpensive punitive measure will they think of to squelch the effectiveness of schools next? As always, expediency trumps virtue. I am so proud of our teachers who find ways to be innovative and creative each day to educate their students in spite of these fetters.

Books in Their Hands

Just a quick thought for today, but it occurred to me that the materials that get the most attention and positive reaction from my remedial reading students are--drumroll.......NEW NOVELS! Whenever I go to Barnes and Noble, I pick up an extra book or two for my classroom. I try to get the coolest, newest YA novels (and those with the most buzz) when possible, and this really pays off.

The only problem is that I have a wait list for the new books a mile long and my students tend to take a longer-than-average time (several weeks to a month) to finish a longer-length book. Sometimes, by the time the student with the book is finished, students on the list have lost interest. You really have to have the book to back up the hype it generates. Not sure what to do about this dilemma as I have a limited book budget (and most of the "new" books I get throughout the year come out of my own pocket money).

But the bottom-line lesson that can be learned here is, the best way to get kids to read is to get good books into their hands. It's all about access. It would be great if they'd seek out good books on their own, but struggling readers often do not have reading for pleasure at the top of their list. When given good books to read and a stretch of time in which to do it, though, it happens!

Motivation and Comprehension

"Motivating Low Performing Adolescent Readers" (Decker-Collins, 1996) is an oldie but goodie about the link between low comprehension and low motivation. It sort of states the obvious, that low performing readers need to have a valid reason (or well established purpose) to read something.

It points to the idea that reading skills are also thinking skills, and how instilling student choice, making texts more accessible, and most importantly, how the best way to improve reading skill is to read more--something that will not happen if we are not able to motivate students to read and to think deeply about what they read.

I like to re-read this article over the summer to remind myself of these important ideas.

The full text of the article can be found here:

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED396265.pdf

More Bang for the Buck?

I'm still reading and came up with some more info that might be helpful as we look at what vocab we teach to students in the future (what books, what words, etc.).

From another article (section titled "What Words Should Be Taught"):

• Start with words that are important to the content and are crucial to text understanding. (Ex: photosynthesis or reconstructionism)
• Teach useful words that students are likely to see in many different contexts. (Ex: fragment and revolve rather than fractal and gyrate since the former appear more frequently)
• Provide instruction on difficult words and phrases such as those with multiple meanings and idioms.
• Latin and Greek root words and affixes help.
• Vocabulary instruction was found to be more productive when students were actively involved in selecting words and working in pairs and groups.

(These are from Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000; Dole, Sloan, & Trathen, 1995; and Malone & McLaughlin, 1997).

As a colleague said when I shared this with her, how do we go about teaching Latin and Greek root words so that it's not "just another list" to memorize? I have done some wordbuilding activities where students create new words and play with roots, prefixes, and suffixes, but I would like more ideas for activities.

Anyone have ideas for challenging, engaging activities that help teach word parts to high school students?

Just 15 Minutes a Day

I found this neat fact in some of the readings for a class I'm taking and thought I'd share.

"A 'good' reader who averages 15 minutes a day reads approximately one million words a year. Out of this vast number of words, a few hundred to thousands will stay in the reader's vocabulary--at least as words the reader is familiar with" (Nagy & Anderson, 1984).

To put this in context, they were discussing adolescents and adults, not younger children. Their point was that with more than half of all secondary students reporting reading very little, it's even more necessary to help students learn the vocabulary they need to understand their content area reading.

I'm going to share that with my reading students next year, maybe as some sort of trivia question / warm-up.