Halfway there…

So, 56% of my students are “approaching grade level” in reading (according to the Teachers College Readers Assessment Project), 5 are at grade level, and 5 are considered “in need of support”.  As most readers know, I teach a self-contained ESL classroom, so while there are grade-level benchmarks, my students also have personalized goals called AYPs (A Year’s Progress). For ELLs, the goals is for them to make a year and a half’s worth of progress because, typically, they are that far behind and then some. So, while we can say that 61% are still “below grade level”, the majority have made and even surpassed their AYP.

The first column is their reading levels when they entered third grade. For those who don’t know, A-I is generally first grade. I-L is second grade. M-Q is third grade.  The ones who met or exceeded their AYP are in green (as I recall anyway – I don’t have the sheet in front of me to reference). As you can see, many of my students moved from first grade level to third grade in half a year.

I hate to say it, but I have no idea if these kinds of leaps are normal (anyone know?), but I’m told that the percentages in my class are “practically that of the general ed” classes at my school. I put that in quotes since basically all our classes are majority ELLs, just that the general ed ones tend to have more advanced ELLs. The majority of my students are Intermediate and Beginner. I’m very proud of their progress and excited to see how much further they go. ELLs tend to “stall” at level M at our school, and more broadly at level N because the language tends to get more idiomatic and difficult for them — they get the gist, but not the deeper meaning. So, we’ll see where they end up in June. Of course, thanks to the way Teachers College assesses students, the major leaps they made don’t matter when it comes to their report card. Only the benchmarks used to assess native speakers matter.

F	I
F	L
I	L
K	M
H	M
F	L
H	M
I	N
I	L
C	E
L	N
F	H
H	J
I	M
K	M
F	L
F	L
E	J
K	N
E	N
I	M
F	N
G	L

The One to Blame or Thank?

In the hallway, she muttered about teachers who spend too much time cutting out elaborate bulletin-board decorations or chitchatting at “morning meetings” with their third-graders before the real work begins.

This is the problem with so many articles on education for the general public. Most everyday-readers do not know what morning meetings are, and here their purpose is compared to bulletin boards and chitchatting. Yes, it’s a throw-away quote in a sense, used to introduce the person being written about, but it invites the unknowing reader to think, “Oh, yeah, she must be a no-nonsense woman who has some good, controversial ideas I might like – that call for ‘real work’.”

The “she” in that quote is Michelle Rhee, the Chancellor of Education, and the quote is from a brief piece Time magazine published on her last month, making me aware of her name and existence for the first time. And I must say, the article left me uneasy. Not simply because of Rhee’s beliefs and approaches but more so because of the article itself. Rhee is portrayed as a rebel, and her ideas are constantly pitted against teachers in an oversimplified “heroic” way.

There’s always this morality play that unfolds in articles like this – the veteran teachers who just want to love the kids and let them do arts and crafts because she instinctively knows what’s better, and the ambitious, research-focused and data-driven authority who is trying to save students from a “touchy-feely” education.

In my first read of the article, I drew the conclusion that it is the kind of philosophy she espouses that has landed so many of our public schools in this factory-producing-the-best-products approach to education that is deadening and sickening. A philosophy that demands teachers differentiate but then re-mold the students through undifferentiated standards and standardized tests that insist on and reinforce inequality and setting students up for failure. And then giving raises or pink slips to teachers based on those same test scores.

Back to the quote above.

questions and color

Today my class had a great moment talking about the elections. Developing specific time for learning and experimenting with oral language is so key for ELLs and today I wanted them to discuss and develop questions for the presidential candidates. We have been talking about the elections and, as a project, they are polling other classes during lunch with a few questions we will later put in tables and bar graphs, etc.

Anyway, I gave them some sentence starters such as “do you think…” and “what will you do about…” and “why…” we came up with a few together, and it gave me a sense that there has been some real conversations during their polling. For example, here are some of their questions (the way they worded them):

Senator McCain, why don’t you like Obama?
… what will you do about the environment?
… will people from other countries have to leave if you are president?
… why do you want to be President?

Why do some people not like Obama because he is brown?
Why do some people care about the color (of Obama’s skin)?
Why do people have to vote for President?

Senator Obama, what will you do if the people vote for a tie?
… what will you do about the environment?
… do you like to ride bicycles?
… who will you vote for?
… why do you want more war?
… where are you from?

And then, as they were finishing writing down their own questions that we will later post on a “town hall wall”, some kids started raising their hands and asking each other questions saying, “I would like to ask Jennifer, who do you want to vote for AND WHY?” I put the last but in caps because I was really impressed that 1. They thought to ask a two-part question and 2. They seemed genuinely interested in the answer.

Remember, some of these students have a lot of difficulty getting their thoughts formed in English and using auxiliary verbs like “do” can be tricky. Only one student said she liked McCain and at first it was because she felt Obama was too “brown and gross”. The kids quickly started saying “the color shouldn’t care” and asking each other if they “care about the color”. This allowed me to teach them the phrase “shouldn’t matter” and “skin color”.

I was really pleased how they got into it.

Finally, one student started to ask kids who they would vote for and if it mattered who wins. Most kids were really adamant that they wanted Obama to win but one girl said it didn’t matter because nothing would really change from how they have been. Pretty heavy cynicism from an 8-year-old!

Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

“Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback (‘Well done!’), whereas negative feedback (‘Got it wrong this time’) scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring.”

Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests.

I just knew I should be using positive reinforcement more! Argh!

What’s funny (or sad), is that plenty of people don’t learn from mistakes after age 12 either!!

drained

My mentor recommended giving more jobs and encouraging more independence among the students as a way of gaining greater control. So, I implemented a Homework Monitor who has to check and see if everyone at their table (they sit in groups of 4 and 5) have done their homework. Then, I come and check who did it all and they get a check on a chart on their desk. It worked remarkably smoothly this morning.

One new detail to the Table Monitor job did not work so well. I told them it was now also their job to keep everyone working either in silence or using their library voices. This did not seem to help much. Maybe tomorrow.

respect and logic

I was feeling really frustrated the other day because two veteran teachers who were in my room ended up yelling at my kids to stop talking. That’s really the only way, or the main way, they “misbehave”. I was so embarrassed because I felt their actions reflect on me. I started to agonize over whether the rules, routines, and procedures I had established weren’t having the effect they’re supposed to and what I was/am doing wrong.

But the bigger struggle I have been having, is while I want a classroom that is full of kids passionate about learning and who follow the rules because they know it helps them to learn, I don’t want to be a drill sergeant. It’s not my style. Some may see it as a strength and some may see it as not belonging in the classroom, but I have a lot of respect for kids – their desire to ask questions, play, laugh, discover and try out. I don’t want a classroom that is silent. I have English Language Learners (ELLs) and I want them to talk – to sort out their problems orally and learn how to discuss their problems.

So I realize what I need is to focus more on allowing them to respect me and each other easily, and to learn HOW we talk in a classroom. And I need to find more ways to be better prepared so that lessons are more engaging and they reach kids from different angles and, on the one hand, lessens the language obstacles, and on the other, teaches them the language they need.

My thinking was sparked in part by finding loveandlogic.com, and while I don’t know enough to say I agree with their approach totally, I do like their list of classroom expectations:

(I combined two different lists from their site to make it like this)

1. I teach when there are no distractions or other problems.

2. I listen to students who raise their hand.

3. I listen to one person at a time.

4. Please treat me with the same respect I treat you.

5. If someone causes a problem, I will ask them to fix it.

• If they can’t or will not fix it, I will do something.

6. What I do will depends on what happened and what the person is willing to do to solve the problem.

This really speaks to the side of me that respects kids and wants to see them grow as responsible members of a community, and sees that they already have that potential. I like how it is written with emphasis on the teacher and uses positive language. NO ONE in my school, from what I can tell, uses this approach.