http://www.mckenzie-pediatrics.com/shop/images/BobWelch.pdf
Just out of curiosity one day I typed into a google search--"What's wrong with parents today?" I am sure you all know what kind of day I had had that day and I think a this simple google search was better than many of the alternatives at the time! But I digress, I found the above article and it came to mind again today as we were ending our time in this course having spent what seems like so much (even though it has been so little) time dicussing the new generation 0f students and what that means to our classrooms. What about the new generation of parents? Have they changed as well? I know I think so, and my collegues seem to think so but does anyone else?
In the above article a pediatrician is discussing parents today and that some of his happiest patients come from his low-income families. Why you might wonder? Because they keep it simple, not neccesarily by choice as much as by necessity but still it is a simple life they tend to lead. The parental units whatever makeup they may be are not generally tied to their laptop and blackberries and pda's at every waking second. The kids aren't lost in their bedrooms on their playing Wii while downloading new tunes to there ipod, while talking to six friends on facebook. They are talking to each other, they are out in the yard/front street/whatever it may be playing ball, or tag, or something. They keep it simple.
Another point he made was about parents today going to the internet, the morning news, the daily talk shows, and any myriad of places for the latest greatest parenting advice, when in the past parents looked back to their parents. Previous generations were more closely knit and reliant on older generations for parenting advice, and support in some cases. Often times kids went off to college and then moved closer to home to be near family for these reasons. Today this doesn't happen as often, although it seems to be shifting back a bit. Low income families and their children may not have had these opportunities to move far away and make a new life, therefore these bonds of family and of the generation working together to parent children still exists. They are keeping it simple.
I guess my point is this--it is easy to say what is wrong with parents today, but aren't we to some extent making the same choices in our classrooms? Are we furthering the dependence on technology, and independant solitary stimulation? Are we furthering our students bad behavior that may have been created by all of the modern convenience technology offers when back to the basics and the basic way of doing things may be better? Or is this just one more obstacle we need to overcome? Are the low income students another group to be brought up while we work to push the already better off students even higher? Does class have nothing to do with any of this and I am reading to much in to a simple article?
I had a very hard time trying to decide what to write about this week, and then I went to my "being a better teacher/humor file"-- I know it seems strange that they share a folder but it is what it is--and found the article. Up until rereading it I was gungho my classroom is going to be technology central, and we will blog and twitter, and students will lead more of their learning, and, and, and...and wait a minute--now I am doing what I said earlier today was a bad plan. I cannot throw the baby out with the bath water and start over, but I don't think staying in the same place I have been is good either. I do not think all modern parents are bad, nor do I have a huge problem with families who have the income to afford some of these things. I just feel like I am caught in limbo--we all are. We want what's best for our classrooms and our students but I am not sure we have decided what that is. Are parents really any different? They get the same mixed messages we do.
So I am going to keep it simple, I will bring about change in my classroom in measurable increments that hopefully benefit my students and myself--but while I am doing that I plan on keeping on eye on the past to see if there is a way this can all work together--hey maybe if it goes well it will be me on the morning news spouting my ground breaking new idea. Or better yet, me 20ish years from now god willing talking to my kids about how I did things to help them be the adults I hope they grow into.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Book Review Understanding by Design
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd Ed). Prentice Hall.
I read and am reviewing the book Understanding By Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Wiggins and McTighe both worked successfully for many years as educational consultants around North America. Working together and on their own they began to address the idea of assessment and worked to design a plan which they feel will help teachers and students have a more authentic learning experience, and have an experiene that has a measurable goal in mind.
Thus the Understanding by Design(UBD) template and this book. I was first introduced to this concept in 2002 while working with a group of educators to create media literacy standards and sample lesson plans for North Dakota. We used the UBD template to create our lesson plans. At the time I had only been teaching a couple of years and the whole idea seemed crazy. Now after re-reading and revisiting the book and the idea, it seems extremely valuable.
First and most important before talking about any other part of the UBD template is the "essential question". Even if you have never heard of UBD or Wiggins and McTighe you have heard of the essential question. It is the kind of question that doesn't just elicit a yes or no answer but asks its answerer to dig deeper, to find the answer and to gain knowledge and skill while looking for the answer. If you read this book for no other reason, please read the section on essential questions!
Understanding by Design is often called backward design it is beginnign with the end in mind. As a teacher creating a unit on The Tragedy of Julius Caesar rather than figure out all the worksheets, study guides etc you will use to lead up to the test you will begin by listing the "enduring understandings" you want the students to have. I know it seems crazy but it does make sense. Was it Mary Poppins that said "begin with the end in mind"? By beginning with the enduring understandings--the one, two, or three ideas we want students to take away from the lesson and then building in activities to meet those understandings all parts of the lesson become more connected.
The next step is determining acceptable evidence. What activities can our students participate in to help them get to the essential understanding. This obviously looks different for every lesson, and may sometimes be the standard paper and pencil worksheet, but if you are really working toward all of your students reaching the essential understanding the learning activites woud provide a cornicopia of evidence, an essay, a web page, a collage, and a test might all work together as part of one unit and relate evidence of students achieving the essential understanding. Another point the authors make is that evidence should be collected over time and in many different ways.
The third step is to plan the learning experiences and instruction. In step two you decided what evidence you deemed as an acceptable demonstration of students grasp on the essential understandings. This third step is where many of us traditionally start our planning. What will our students read, write, watch, do in our lesson. Each item listed in this area should be able to be attached to one of the products that will demonstrate acceptable evidence. This could mean that it is background reading about the topic, it could be library research, it could be viewing a presentation of the play, but one thing is clear--if the activity cannot move students toward creating a work that demonstrates acceptable evidence of their essential understanding it does not belong in the lesson.
As I said earlier I did not fully appreciate this book the first time I was introduced to it. Now being given a second chance to work with the Wiggens and McTighe information and having ten years of teaching in my background has lead to a perfect storm of sorts for me. The authors lay out their idea in very simple to understand language, with explainations and also "misconception alrerts" at several stop points throughout the book. They acknowledge their skeptics and also do their best to explain, and then explain again, and then one more time how UBD works and why they feel it is successful. There are vignettes about how it could be and how it is being applied in classroom today.
I think especially in this day and age of many of us needing to be able to match our classroom work to a state or national standard at every turn using the UBD template for lesson design would allow for an easy synthesis. I personally have been struggling to find my way in the classroom, I have felt out of touch to some extent with my students, and have not felt good about what I was accomplishing the Understanding by Design book has given me a new lease on lesson planning and a reason to head back to school in August and give it another try!
If you have experience with UBD please share in the comments section, I hope to continue to share my experiences as I put UBD to work in my own classroom and I look forward to hearing from all of you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBt_GjOYXYM
I read and am reviewing the book Understanding By Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Wiggins and McTighe both worked successfully for many years as educational consultants around North America. Working together and on their own they began to address the idea of assessment and worked to design a plan which they feel will help teachers and students have a more authentic learning experience, and have an experiene that has a measurable goal in mind.
Thus the Understanding by Design(UBD) template and this book. I was first introduced to this concept in 2002 while working with a group of educators to create media literacy standards and sample lesson plans for North Dakota. We used the UBD template to create our lesson plans. At the time I had only been teaching a couple of years and the whole idea seemed crazy. Now after re-reading and revisiting the book and the idea, it seems extremely valuable.
First and most important before talking about any other part of the UBD template is the "essential question". Even if you have never heard of UBD or Wiggins and McTighe you have heard of the essential question. It is the kind of question that doesn't just elicit a yes or no answer but asks its answerer to dig deeper, to find the answer and to gain knowledge and skill while looking for the answer. If you read this book for no other reason, please read the section on essential questions!
Understanding by Design is often called backward design it is beginnign with the end in mind. As a teacher creating a unit on The Tragedy of Julius Caesar rather than figure out all the worksheets, study guides etc you will use to lead up to the test you will begin by listing the "enduring understandings" you want the students to have. I know it seems crazy but it does make sense. Was it Mary Poppins that said "begin with the end in mind"? By beginning with the enduring understandings--the one, two, or three ideas we want students to take away from the lesson and then building in activities to meet those understandings all parts of the lesson become more connected.
The next step is determining acceptable evidence. What activities can our students participate in to help them get to the essential understanding. This obviously looks different for every lesson, and may sometimes be the standard paper and pencil worksheet, but if you are really working toward all of your students reaching the essential understanding the learning activites woud provide a cornicopia of evidence, an essay, a web page, a collage, and a test might all work together as part of one unit and relate evidence of students achieving the essential understanding. Another point the authors make is that evidence should be collected over time and in many different ways.
The third step is to plan the learning experiences and instruction. In step two you decided what evidence you deemed as an acceptable demonstration of students grasp on the essential understandings. This third step is where many of us traditionally start our planning. What will our students read, write, watch, do in our lesson. Each item listed in this area should be able to be attached to one of the products that will demonstrate acceptable evidence. This could mean that it is background reading about the topic, it could be library research, it could be viewing a presentation of the play, but one thing is clear--if the activity cannot move students toward creating a work that demonstrates acceptable evidence of their essential understanding it does not belong in the lesson.
As I said earlier I did not fully appreciate this book the first time I was introduced to it. Now being given a second chance to work with the Wiggens and McTighe information and having ten years of teaching in my background has lead to a perfect storm of sorts for me. The authors lay out their idea in very simple to understand language, with explainations and also "misconception alrerts" at several stop points throughout the book. They acknowledge their skeptics and also do their best to explain, and then explain again, and then one more time how UBD works and why they feel it is successful. There are vignettes about how it could be and how it is being applied in classroom today.
I think especially in this day and age of many of us needing to be able to match our classroom work to a state or national standard at every turn using the UBD template for lesson design would allow for an easy synthesis. I personally have been struggling to find my way in the classroom, I have felt out of touch to some extent with my students, and have not felt good about what I was accomplishing the Understanding by Design book has given me a new lease on lesson planning and a reason to head back to school in August and give it another try!
If you have experience with UBD please share in the comments section, I hope to continue to share my experiences as I put UBD to work in my own classroom and I look forward to hearing from all of you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBt_GjOYXYM
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Old Dog learning New tricks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiD1UqLPrOg
This has been the week of revelation for me! First of all I think I have officially decided I am a "half-millenial". I sort of fit but not completely, I am addicted to my facebook account and my husband and I don't even have a landline phone. I get irritated when a website I frequent doesn't have a blackberry application, and I am currently loading up my ipod! However, I tend to be fearful of group learning and tend to want to be independant. I am also still holding on to the idea that paper and pencil learning is good--isn't it?
The video from youtube did make me feel better about my teaching up to this point. I was teaching the way I was taught. I thought adding in a powerpoint assignment or a publisher assignment was teaching with technology--NOT! I now see that these are as outdated as my Dad's motorolla bag phone he is still angry about not being able to use anymore.
I am committed to going back into my classroom in the fall with a new focus on technology and how it can work for me. Blogging, activstudio flipcharts, and maybe even twitter are going to be my new staples. Do not fear I am not throwing out the standards, I am still very aware of the importance of testing and NCLB--but I am going to work hard to engage my students in ways that are meaningful to them and that hopefully have a positive affect on their learning. Youtube is my new BFF--what a wonderful wealth of information and entertainment all at one's fingertips.
Last but not least, I am done complaining about kids not engaging, and complaining, etc. I realize now why they were doing such things and am going to do my best to meet their challenge. Yes I realize it may not all be roses--but I can certainly aim for at least for being a 20 3/4 century teacher versus what may now seem like 19th century teaching!
This has been the week of revelation for me! First of all I think I have officially decided I am a "half-millenial". I sort of fit but not completely, I am addicted to my facebook account and my husband and I don't even have a landline phone. I get irritated when a website I frequent doesn't have a blackberry application, and I am currently loading up my ipod! However, I tend to be fearful of group learning and tend to want to be independant. I am also still holding on to the idea that paper and pencil learning is good--isn't it?
The video from youtube did make me feel better about my teaching up to this point. I was teaching the way I was taught. I thought adding in a powerpoint assignment or a publisher assignment was teaching with technology--NOT! I now see that these are as outdated as my Dad's motorolla bag phone he is still angry about not being able to use anymore.
I am committed to going back into my classroom in the fall with a new focus on technology and how it can work for me. Blogging, activstudio flipcharts, and maybe even twitter are going to be my new staples. Do not fear I am not throwing out the standards, I am still very aware of the importance of testing and NCLB--but I am going to work hard to engage my students in ways that are meaningful to them and that hopefully have a positive affect on their learning. Youtube is my new BFF--what a wonderful wealth of information and entertainment all at one's fingertips.
Last but not least, I am done complaining about kids not engaging, and complaining, etc. I realize now why they were doing such things and am going to do my best to meet their challenge. Yes I realize it may not all be roses--but I can certainly aim for at least for being a 20 3/4 century teacher versus what may now seem like 19th century teaching!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Big6 and Information Literacy Skills
http://www.big6.com/2008/08/18/do-integrated-information-literacy-skills-affect-student-learning-enews-93-2/
In this article from the Big6 website there is a lengthy discussion about teaching students using the Big6 model for researach and its affect on both student achievement as well as student self esteem. I have spent quite a bit of time in the last few months studying the Big6 and am preparing to implement its concepts into my own classroom. I feel like its focus on student centered learning and also on investigation of a research question fits well with the topic of "teaching thinking" our chapters discussed this week.
Research is a frightening idea for students. One student once described it like learning to walk and then being thrown out into the middle of the Boston Marathon. Often times as teachers we just expect students to know how to look up information and to translate that into some kind of grand research project. When the fact is we have spent so much time telling students this is the question go here to find the answer we have almost crippled their ability to work independently of us much less think for themselves. Many students seem frightened to some extent when given any kind of freedom to think on their own.
The solution to some extent I think was answered in our chapter, by daily working to ask deeper more thought provoking questions and to ask students to really think about how they arrived at their conclusions leads them toward having the ability to be independant and critical thinkers.
My school has spent the better part of the last year trying to figure out the best "program" to help students learn to be better researchers, when in actuality there isn't any program out there that will be successful at teaching students to research until we teach students to think!
In this article from the Big6 website there is a lengthy discussion about teaching students using the Big6 model for researach and its affect on both student achievement as well as student self esteem. I have spent quite a bit of time in the last few months studying the Big6 and am preparing to implement its concepts into my own classroom. I feel like its focus on student centered learning and also on investigation of a research question fits well with the topic of "teaching thinking" our chapters discussed this week.
Research is a frightening idea for students. One student once described it like learning to walk and then being thrown out into the middle of the Boston Marathon. Often times as teachers we just expect students to know how to look up information and to translate that into some kind of grand research project. When the fact is we have spent so much time telling students this is the question go here to find the answer we have almost crippled their ability to work independently of us much less think for themselves. Many students seem frightened to some extent when given any kind of freedom to think on their own.
The solution to some extent I think was answered in our chapter, by daily working to ask deeper more thought provoking questions and to ask students to really think about how they arrived at their conclusions leads them toward having the ability to be independant and critical thinkers.
My school has spent the better part of the last year trying to figure out the best "program" to help students learn to be better researchers, when in actuality there isn't any program out there that will be successful at teaching students to research until we teach students to think!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Student Centered Learning
Everyday we as educators are given a new list of to do's. The list generally includes making sure all students are reading at the right level, and every lesson you teach can be tied to a standard and lead to better test performance, and make sure you are incorporating the six pillars of character, or the bullying prevention lesson, or the new study skills desing, and the list goes on. It is a list we never see the end of we just check off the same tasks everyday and there they are back staring at us tommorow. So with all of these things on the list that WE are being help responsible for can we really allow students to direct their learning? Is student led discussion or cooperative learning groups the most effective way to check things off the list? After all the students haven't been trained in the newest reading/writing/math/ insert new program here.
This weeks chapters have lead me to think that the student led classroom might just be the most affective at achieving all of these goals. Afterall who do the students listen to and trust above all else? Their peers! Yes I know we would all love to believe that it is their parents or educators but c'mon people five minutes in a high school hallway and you will know what I am saying is true. So I have now come to see my job in a different way--my job is not to be the sole provider of all the information that needs to be imparted in the days lesson. My job is to give the students the skeleton and the tools to add the meat onto the bones. Now this does not mean I can be absent and walk away from the process. I still need to be a good pilot of the plane and gently and unobtrusively guide it to the right landing pad, but I need to work on allowing my students to take the controls more and lead themselves to the landing pad of information. The benefit being students working together to reach the right answer have ownership which leads to pride which leads to good feelings and with any luck a desire to try it again!
This weeks chapters have lead me to think that the student led classroom might just be the most affective at achieving all of these goals. Afterall who do the students listen to and trust above all else? Their peers! Yes I know we would all love to believe that it is their parents or educators but c'mon people five minutes in a high school hallway and you will know what I am saying is true. So I have now come to see my job in a different way--my job is not to be the sole provider of all the information that needs to be imparted in the days lesson. My job is to give the students the skeleton and the tools to add the meat onto the bones. Now this does not mean I can be absent and walk away from the process. I still need to be a good pilot of the plane and gently and unobtrusively guide it to the right landing pad, but I need to work on allowing my students to take the controls more and lead themselves to the landing pad of information. The benefit being students working together to reach the right answer have ownership which leads to pride which leads to good feelings and with any luck a desire to try it again!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Lesson Planning
TIME, what a valuable commidity that ther is NEVER enough of. In college obtaining my undergraduate degree many of my subject centered education courses focused on making lesson plans or unit plans for different topics. This was important and a valuable learning experience, however since leaving college unless it has been for another conintuing Ed course I have never made another. I post lesson plans weekly during the school year, and I have found myself sitting down with a blank calender to prepare for two maternity leaves and laying out the information to be covered worksheets to be used etc. but never have I sat down and planned all out goals objectives, the whole works a lesson.
Please understand I think the taxonomy and the learning styles discussed in the chapters are important to my teaching and I think I need to work harder to take these into account when preparing for the week, but cannot honestly say that I will be changing my habbits enough to write out in depth lesson plans. This all comes back to time. I need time to study keep up on the standards and to meet with collegues and prepare for state testing, and to correct assignments, and and and, the list goes on and on.
Are my students better or worse off for this lack of "formal" planning? I don't know the answer, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Please understand I think the taxonomy and the learning styles discussed in the chapters are important to my teaching and I think I need to work harder to take these into account when preparing for the week, but cannot honestly say that I will be changing my habbits enough to write out in depth lesson plans. This all comes back to time. I need time to study keep up on the standards and to meet with collegues and prepare for state testing, and to correct assignments, and and and, the list goes on and on.
Are my students better or worse off for this lack of "formal" planning? I don't know the answer, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Nationwide Education Standards
Two of the main ideas that really stuck with me in the first two chapters was first the idea of teacher's working in "isolation", and also the idea of "standards" for teachers and also for curriculum and how both of these ideas affect how we do our job. I found an article in Education Week that addressed the idea of Nationwide education standards.
As it stands right now each state has their own set of standards for almost every subject if not EVERY subject and each grade has its own version of these standards. As a teacher in 7th-12th grade teaching Language Arts/English I have been charged with educating my students and teaching them based on the North Dakota English/Language Arts standards for those grades in North Dakota. While every teacher in North Dakota teaching in my grade and subject area is using this same set of standards--it is extremely likely we each have a different way of doing that, now multiply that times 50 states and while standards might have some overlap you have thousands of teachers teaching the same subject to the same grade in extremely different ways. While I don't believe that having nationwide standards will completely bring us all together and relieve some of the isolation and make as all one big happy English teaching family I do feel it facilitates some interesting interaction.
If I now have the same standards as English teacher's across the nation, I now have a much wider group to go to when I need lesson plan ideas, or when my school is struggling in an area I can put out a quarry nationwide for help. It creates a common language which by itself brings us all a little closer.
The second affect I feel this has is allowing students from across the nation to be on a more even playing field. Now you can think this is good or bad, but if all students in all 9th grade English classes across the nation are being taught from the same set of standards, this has to lead toward some equality. I believe this equality will also lead to my students in small rural North Dakota being more able to compete with the student from large urban New York City.
I am aware that some teacher's would prefer less government "intrusion" in their classroom but I personally welcome this change and look forward to feeling part of a greater community of English teachers across America.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/01/33standards.h28.html
As it stands right now each state has their own set of standards for almost every subject if not EVERY subject and each grade has its own version of these standards. As a teacher in 7th-12th grade teaching Language Arts/English I have been charged with educating my students and teaching them based on the North Dakota English/Language Arts standards for those grades in North Dakota. While every teacher in North Dakota teaching in my grade and subject area is using this same set of standards--it is extremely likely we each have a different way of doing that, now multiply that times 50 states and while standards might have some overlap you have thousands of teachers teaching the same subject to the same grade in extremely different ways. While I don't believe that having nationwide standards will completely bring us all together and relieve some of the isolation and make as all one big happy English teaching family I do feel it facilitates some interesting interaction.
If I now have the same standards as English teacher's across the nation, I now have a much wider group to go to when I need lesson plan ideas, or when my school is struggling in an area I can put out a quarry nationwide for help. It creates a common language which by itself brings us all a little closer.
The second affect I feel this has is allowing students from across the nation to be on a more even playing field. Now you can think this is good or bad, but if all students in all 9th grade English classes across the nation are being taught from the same set of standards, this has to lead toward some equality. I believe this equality will also lead to my students in small rural North Dakota being more able to compete with the student from large urban New York City.
I am aware that some teacher's would prefer less government "intrusion" in their classroom but I personally welcome this change and look forward to feeling part of a greater community of English teachers across America.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/01/33standards.h28.html
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