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The Dress

2/27/2015

The dress pictured above nearly broke the Internet. People argued day and night to decide what color it is. Blue and black? Gold and white? Orange and blue? Turns out there is a scientific explanation to our differences in visual perception, that is related to context. Our eyes are trained to filter things in or out, due to backgrounds and lighting. So, what we see is very much a product of the environment we find ourselves in at any point in time, and what our experiences have been in the past. Turns out this dress is kind of a metaphor for our perceptions of life in general. How we view the world is a sum of all of our experiences combined with our current environment.

Reading instruction can be a platform for helping our kids understand the points of view of others. These second grade students are comparing and contrasting a story told in the context of two different cultures. Very simple questioning allows them to discover the similarities and differences of the stories. This is the beginning of cultural understanding. Don't get too excited, though. It won't help you convince anyone of the color of the dress.

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Suspensions Hurt Everyone

2/26/2015

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When most people think about school suspensions, they think they are necessary to maintain order in the classroom. We have been programmed over the past couple of decades to demand "zero tolerance" for certain behaviors. Originally, we were addressing the presence of drugs and weapons in schools. But, somehow over the years, this concept of zero tolerance has shifted to include other less egregious behaviors. Unfortunately in many schools, the go-to disciplinary procedure is suspension. Suspending a student is serious. It means we are denying a child's civil rights by removing his or her access to a free and appropriate public education. A child who has experienced suspension becomes likely to develop continuing difficulties in school and becomes at greater risk of failing and/or dropping out of school. I learned about this in a very personal way in my early days of teaching. I was a resource room teacher in a public high school which prided itself on zero tolerance. At this school, zero tolerance included almost all behaviors. It is important to note that enrollment at this particular school was highly integrated, split about evenly between very poor Black kids and very wealthy White kids. Enrollment was where integration ended. Students were "tracked" into basic and honors classes, which translated into Black and White classes. Certain sports such as football were Black sports and others such as soccer were White sports. When a Black student got into trouble he (it was usually a boy) was almost usually suspended, and when a White student got into trouble, there was usually a warm and friendly phone call to his parents.

One of my students named Dante was Black. He came from a very poor family that lived on an island in the middle of a river. Dante had to take a boat to get to the bus that brought him to school each day. He often arrived hungry, without clean clothes. Although our school was just a mile or two from one of the best beaches on the East coast, Dante had never been there. Like most of the Black students in our school, he believed the beach was not a place he was supposed to go. Dante played football and he was quite talented. The football field was the place where he really shined. He lived to play and was willing to work hard in class to maintain the grades necessary to stay on the team. One day Dante was in English class and he did not have a pencil. The teacher of that class had a zero tolerance policy for being prepared for class. Any student who arrived without a pencil (not a pen) or a specific notebook was required to serve a 30 minute detention. On this particular day there was an away game. Dante knew that if he attended detention he would miss the game. He was supposed to start as quarterback for the first time, so this was a really important game. Dante skipped detention and went to the game. The teacher referred him to the principal for skipping detention. The principal had a zero tolerance policy for skipping detention. He issued a one-day suspension for Dante. The next day, Dante tried to come to school. The security officer knew he was not supposed to be there and brought him to the principal. The principal then gave him a five-day suspension for attempting to come to school and threatened to have him arrested if he showed up on school grounds again. This time Dante complied. By the time he returned to school he had missed a couple of tests which he was not permitted to make up. His grades plummeted and by the end of the first marking period he lost his eligibility to play football. Within a week Dante dropped out of school. All because he forgot to bring his pencil to English class.

While Dante's story is extreme, it is not unique. I wish I could tell you that I never saw anything like this happen to any other student, but that would not be true. I have seen horrible abuses of power by school administrators over and over throughout my three decades as an educator.

Many years later I became an administrator in a district that had a suspension rate of 39% for high school students and a suspension rate of 17% for middle school students. This translated to 1,339 students being suspended in a single year. I considered this a crisis and worked to change it immediately. We took several steps to remedy the problem. First, we defined what behaviors could potentially result in a suspension. These included possession of drugs and weapons, extreme violence (not just a shove in the hallway) and significant, severe disrespect or disruption that could not be remedied through multiple attempts using other efforts. Next we created a procedure to ensure we were only suspending students when it was absolutely necessary to maintain safety and order in the schools. Any administrator who wanted to suspend a student was required to engage in a conversation with a designated central administrator about the incident. Together they debriefed what had happened and why the suspension was necessary. Together they determined the minimum number of days that would be necessary in order to address the issues that had caused the behavior. Finally they determined the re-entry plan for the student which may include restorative meetings with other students or staff, additional supervision for the suspended students, making up work, or revised scheduling. The re-entry plan was intended to ensure the safety of all students, to prevent the behavior from recurring and to help the student back on track. The results were immediate. Our suspension rate for the high school fell to 5% and the middle school rate fell to 3%. Instead of 1,339 students losing their right to an education as had happened in the past, only 141 had that experience. At the same time we reduced the suspensions, we saw a marked decrease in violent and disruptive behaviors. It seemed that FEWER suspensions resulted in BETTER behavior.

We now know that suspensions also hurt "well-behaved" students. The problem in many places may even be evident in elementary schools. Schools that overuse student suspensions create a culture that is oppressive to students. We know that kids need a safe and caring environment in order to learn. When you just throw kids out every time they have a behavioral issue, they feel unsafe and don't believe teachers and administrators care about them.

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In Kindergarten, Comprehension Comes First

2/18/2015

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If you have been following the national conversation about the Common Core, you have probably heard how teachers of kindergarten students worry that too much is being expected of our youngest elementary kids. I DO agree that we need to allow kindergarten kids to move more and have a learning environment that more closely resembles an early childhood classroom. I just shudder when I walk into a classroom for five-year-olds that includes little desks and chairs. These kids should have activity centers full of great learning opportunities. They shouldn't be asked to face the front of the room as they sit in individual desks and hear a teacher lecture. They ABSOLUTELY should not be exposed to multiple choice tests.

However, when it comes to reading, I don't think the Common Core is asking too much. I have spent a great deal of time understanding the standards for reading, and believe they are appropriate and will provide students with a solid foundation for greater learning in the years to come. If anyone disagrees, I would love to better understand the issues of concern. If you wish to help me understand your concern(s) with the standards (not PARCC or teacher evaluation - that is a completely different issue), please cite the kindergarten reading standard, what you believe is inappropriate about it and why, in the comment box below. I hate that I have to say this, but PLEASE refrain from reducing our conversation to name-calling, irrational rants, or other non-productive practices.

The Common Core provides expectations of reading comprehension before students really learn to read. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it actually makes perfect sense. I don't think anyone would argue that we should be reading to our kids from the time they are babies. We know from experience and from research that this practice improves oral language skills and, later, reading skills. In kindergarten, the teacher begins the year by reading stories TO students, with a strong focus on phonemic awareness and comprehension skills. Students can understand stories long before they can read them on their own, so she will spend most of her guided reading time helping children understand the story. During kindergarten, we are expecting students to transition to reading very simple stories independently. To illustrate what happens at the beginning of the kindergarten year, I am providing this video of our youngest students learning how to identify key ideas and details and character motivation. Please note the repeated use of the word "evidence" which lays the foundation for citing evidence in text as students develop greater competence. This lesson is less than 15 minutes long and is about the longest amount of time students of this age should be focused on this type of activity. The text and the learning objectives are consistent with Common Core expectations for this grade level.

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The Missing Link of Syllabication

2/10/2015

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Today's Reading Teacher Tuesday includes two videos: Syllabication Part 1 - "One will run!" and Part 2 - "Two Will Split!" Helping students master these skills will allow them to decode any word. Teach these skills to any students who seem stuck in their word attack skills and you will be amazed how quickly they move.

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The Missing Link

2/9/2015

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Sometimes there is just one little misunderstanding that leads to great educational difficulty. A small skill that has a huge impact on reading is syllabication. This is the ability to divide words into syllables. A syllable is a group of letters that contains a single vowel sound. Many of us were taught to "clap out" the syllables in spoken words, but very few of us were taught how to divide unfamiliar words into their respective parts. As students move from single syllable words to more complex words, we begin to see reading difficulties. This usually happens at the end of first or beginning of second grade. Many kids just get stuck; unable to apply what they have learned about vowel sounds and consonants. Their frustration can lead to anxiety and even behavioral issues, further preventing them from moving forward in learning. Syllabication is often the "missing link" that allows a beginning reader the ability to fearlessly engage in more challenging texts.

If you are evaluating a new reading series or instructional approach for reading, either for beginning readers or older reluctant readers, consider the issue of syllabication. Is it explicitly taught in order for students to become better readers? Many reading programs will include this as a spelling skill, but omit it when students are learning to decode words. Is the teaching method for this skill simple and clear? It should have just a few steps such as this:

1. Identify how many vowel sounds the word has. Every syllable must have one (and only one)vowel sound. Vowel combinations like the "oa" in boat only count as one sound. An "e" at the end of the word, that you know will be silent, such as like, doesn't count.
2. If a word has only one vowel sound, you can rest assured there is only one syllable and no need to divide.
3. If it has two or more vowel sounds, you must look at the consonants following each vowel sound and apply these two simple rules:

*One must run.
*Two must split.

For example, in the word "beside," the first vowel sound will be represented by e. Only one consonant follows the e, and then there is another vowel, signaling another syllable. So...one (consonant) must "run" to the next syllable. The word is divided into two syllables - be-side.

An example that follows the "two must split" rule is "subject." In this word, the first vowel is a u. Then there are two consonants before we come to the next vowel, signaling a new syllable. The word is split between the two consonants - sub-ject.

That is really all there is to it. If you are frustrated by a lack of reading proficiency and not sure what the problem is, consider syllabication. It might be the missing link for your students.

Watch this blog tomorrow for the next installment of Reading Teacher Tuesday to see syllabication in action with some beginning readers. You might also want to check out Reading Horizons to view their reading workshop on this topic.

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Everyone Loves Batman!

2/3/2015

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I almost made a terrible mistake while working on comparison of literature with a group of third grade students. Since the learning objective was to compare a single character in a variety of texts, I wanted to be sure that I had a character that would be very interesting to all of my students, boys and girls. Initially, I intended to allow them to choose between two characters. I thought it would be a good idea to have one choice be some type of superhero that would appeal more to boys, and then perhaps a female character that might be more appealing to most girls. So, I dove into kid literature with gusto, searching for just the right characters to motivate my kids to read. The more I read, the more I felt that providing a choice was a mistake. Batman was awesome. His character was layered and complex. There were so many stories about him, with so many different plots. There are many different authors who have written about him so it is easy to find a wide variety of levels of books. The "girl" characters I found for this particular age group, for this particular learning objective, just didn't measure up.

Choice, when it comes to gender issues in schools, can sometimes be a bad thing. If I were to present two characters as options, girls would tend to pick what they think the culture says they should pick. Boys would do the same. Imagine if a teacher were to provide the option of an American Girls book and a Batman book. Almost all girls would pick what we would expect them to pick, and so would the boys. If we want our kids to be exposed to a wider variety of literature, sometimes we should require they read something that might be considered more typical for the opposite gender. In this case, NOT providing choice gave ALL of my third graders a better reading experience. The main thing to consider when selecting literature is the quality of the literature.

Here is a quick video that shows the introduction to a Batman chapter book. I learned through these lessons that everyone loves Batman!

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Mind the Gender Gap

2/2/2015

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The United States has a serious gap in learning, that begins to become evident in elementary students in the area of reading. Although we can see test results sorted for boys and girls, schools and districts have no mandate through No Child Left Behind to address this issue. Instead, we require "Adequate Yearly Progress" (referred to as AYP) in narrowing the gap among racial/ethnics groups and for lower income groups. We just ignore the biggest gap which is between boys and girls. It is not unusual to see girls demonstrating adequate reading skills at a much higher rate than boys. For example, in New York, 35% of girls are proficient in reading in grades 3-8, while only 27% of boys are proficient. I attempted to find data in my home state of New Jersey, but their school report cards are no longer including data sorted by gender. It boggles the mind that our federal mandates do not require states and schools to address the gender gap. Our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has continually revealed this gap, with as much as 19 percentage points separating boys and girls. This problem is not unique to the United States. Although causes may differ, we can see girls outperforming boys at astonishing rates all over the world, particularly in developing countries.

Here in the United States, educational deficiencies lead to other problems. Boys are more likely to be suspended from school, be involved with gangs and violence, and much more likely to be arrested. In order to help our boys, we have to change our schools.

How can we improve outcomes for boys, while not diminishing achievement for girls?

There seems to be agreement on a few possible explanations, with associated solutions to this problem. Here are three things we can do to improve educational outcomes for boys.

1. Attract more men to elementary education. As a society, we have been reluctant to accept men as teachers of young children. Walk into almost any preschool or elementary school in the United States, and you are likely to see all or nearly all teachers are women. I have personally worked in several schools where there were no, or maybe just one or two, men in the classrooms. Much more work needs to be done in this area so that boys will have good role models in their early academic lives, and schools will reflect practices and cultures that are more conducive to learning for boys.

A faculty that includes women AND men will be good for boys AND girls.

2. Include more movement into the daily school routine and schedule. Every day in most schools, we are asking children to do things they are not naturally inclined to do. Kids just don't want to sit still. This is even more true for boys than it is for girls. Can you imagine sitting on a hard, wooden chair at a little desk for hours on end? This is what is expected of elementary school children. We need to closely examine classroom routines and daily schedules in schools to ensure there is plenty of movement throughout the day to foster learning.

A day full of movement is good for boys AND girls.

3. Ensure that reading selections are interesting to boys. Students are not always offered a wide selection of reading materials. Sometimes boys just don't find books that are interesting to them. As a result, boys tend to read independently much less than girls, which prevents them from improving their skills. Since almost all elementary teachers and librarians are women, they don't always gravitate to books that may be more appealing to boys. It is also interesting to note that girls are often more excited about books that are more appealing to girls such as superheroes or gross things.

A wider variety of reading materials is good for boys AND girls.

Working toward these three things will allow boys and girls to improve reading skills, and allow boys to find the success that has eluded them in our schools.

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The Dress

Suspensions Hurt Everyone

In Kindergarten, Comprehension Comes First

The Missing Link of Syllabication

The Missing Link

Everyone Loves Batman!

Mind the Gender Gap

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