People are not restaurants or water, Michelle Rhee

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In her editorial, "Opt out of standardized tests?  That's the wrong answer," Michelle Rhee tries to explain that angry parents and educators should not merely opt out of standardized testing but work to make the tests better.  She writes, "Opt out of measuring how well our schools are serving students?  What's next:  Shut down the county health department because we don't care whether restaurants are clean?  Defund the water-quality office because we don't want to know if what's streaming out of our kitchen faucets is safe to drink?"  Seriously?  Those are the best comparisons she can make?  Of course restaurants and water should be subjected to quality control standards and measures.  They are THINGS.  Students and teachers are PEOPLE who cannot be measured or assessed as easily as the chemical components of tap water. 

Rhee takes one step further in the dehumanization of standardized testing.  She tells the folks who are concerned about the stress and anxiety that students feel because of the testing to simply get over it.  "You know what?" she writes, "Life can be stressful; it can be challenging.  The alternative is to hand out trophies just for participating, give out straight A's for fear of damaging a kid's ego--and continue to fall further and further behind as a country."  Enough, Michelle Rhee.  Children and adolescents are supposed to be falling in love with learning, to be exploring their passions, to be uncovering their greatest strengths.  School does not need to be a competition or a training ground for real life. 

Thankfully, the Washington Post had the good sense to balance Rhee's article with one from Alfie Kohn, "Sometimes it's better to quit than to prove your grit." 

The Importance of Play(ing)...in the snow

We get one or two good snows around here a year, if we are lucky.  By good snow, I mean enough to play in but not so much that children can't maneuver in it.  A few inches of fluffy, glorious snow that draws kids outside into temperatures they would otherwise not choose to play in. 

In the two days that we've been out of school, my daughters have spent at least five hours (thus far) out in the bitter cold.  When they come in their cheeks are red, their noses are running, and their eyes are shining.  For some of those hours, my husband and I have joined them.  We have gone sledding, played on two snow-covered playgrounds, and tried (without success with this powdery stuff) to build a snowman. 

Hooray for snow and all the fun it brings.  Hooray for the extra playtime it brings our way.

Until tomorrow, when they go back to school and can't go near it.  When recess time rolls around the kids will have indoor play, either in their classrooms or in the gym.  I'm not sure why.  But I know they aren't supposed to get near the snow.

After the last snow, a friend in Pennsylvania emailed around a copy of a letter her son's teacher sent home.  It asked parents to send in snow pants and boots so the children, third graders, could enjoy the snow during recess.  Right on.

We all know about the importance of play--especially physical play.  So what if the kids get wet.  So what if the floors get wet.  Their shouts of joy, their enthusiasm, their complete immersion in fun, are worth it.

World Read Aloud Day

March 5, 2014.  This time, we are going to do it up right!  I'm so excited to partner with our fabulous lower and middle school librarians to support this excellent cause.  Check out all the information about the day from LitWorld. 

Every year on the first Wednesday of March LitWorld's advocacy campaign for the human right of literacy calls worldwide attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories. 

Imagine a world where everyone can read...

World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.

- See more at: http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday#sthash.PbHLcEFZ.dpuf

And go vote for this organization over at the Project 4 Awesome!

Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment: My Favorite Passages from Maja Wilson's book

Wilson, Maja.  Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann, 2006.


I ordered this book right after P.L. Thomas referenced it in his De-Testing and De-Grading Schools session at NCTE. 

The book arrived at my door, along with several other gems I ordered while in Boston (look for favorite passages from these soon), and I took some time yesterday to plow through it.  The timing was perfect since I'd come to a roadblock in the planning of my semester project for my sophomore English class:  how to assess.

First, a confession:  I have used rubrics to grade writing.  I am even a certified 6 +1 Traits trainer.  I believe rubrics are better than a grade at the top of a paper.  But I know they aren't authentic.  I just don't know how else to assess in a grade-hungry school environment.

The book explains the history of assessment, what's wrong with rubrics, and Maja Wilson's approach to assessment.  While I'm still figuring out how to stop grading writing, I can change how I assess it.

First, from Alfie Kohn's forward...

"What's our reason for trying to evaluate the quality of students' efforts?  This is a question we rarely ask, but it matters whether the objective is to (1) rank kids against one another, (2) provide an extrinsic inducement for them to try harder, or (3) offer feedback that will help them become more adept at, and excited about, what they're doing" (xii).

"Studies have shown that too much attention to the quality of one's performance is associated with more superficial thinking, less interest in whatever one is doing, less perseverance in the face of failure, and a tendency to attribute results to innate ability and other factors thought to be beyond one's control" (xiv).

Now, from Maja herself...

She begins with a history of assessment, which I found interesting.  Here she explains how universities' admission policies impacted standardized writing:  "As the efforts of the College Board attested, standardization was becoming crucial in the effort to rank students and their work or capabilities.  The vocabulary of ranking includes variations on three words:  worst, average, and best.  Determining winners and losers, as everyone who has watched a contest of running ability knows, requires common starting and ending points and times...The effort to standardize writing tests and their scoring in the service of ranking would guide writing assessment through the birth of the rubric" (15).

Later, in her chapter entitled "The Broken Promises of Rubrics," Wilson slams home her problem with rubrics:  "If rubrics, developed in the mid-twentieth century, are based on a limited notion of good writing, then we hold students to an outdated notion of good writing when we use them today" (37). 

She continues, "The disconnect between the writing we honor in our own literary lives and the writing we encourage from students is illustrated by our approach to teaching research and expository writing versus the research and expository writing we actually read" (38).

And two more doses of reality from this chapter:
"Rubrics encourage us to read and our students to write on autopilot" (39).
"The reductive categories of rubrics don't honor the complexity of what we see in writing and what our students try to accomplish" (41).

The realization?  A radical idea:
"Each piece of writing might demand an entirely different response, based on its structure, intent, and effect.  In other words, we need to look to the piece of writing itself to suggest its own evaluative criteria" (42).

In later chapters, Wilson outlines her vision for how to assess:

"I wanted my assessment and assignments to honor the rhetorical purpose of writing, be meaningful, to match writing pedagogy, and to avoid reductionism" (69).

"I don't view assessment as something we do after the writing process is complete.  All writers assess writing as we go, hesitating slightly as we make judgments about what works best or what ideas should come next" (89).

"In order to find time for these assessment conversations, I have to give students time to write in class.  I've never walked into an art class where students aren't actually engaged in making art; imagine how silly art classes would become if the teacher expected students to work on all of their projects at home alone, leaving class time for lectures or slides" (90).

No new ideas here--just a well-written reminder to do what we know is right:  to assess students the way we would want to be assessed--the golden rule of assessment.

Academic Awards: What's a mom to do?

Last week was the fifth and sixth grade awards assembly.  During the assembly, which all fifth and sixth graders attend, any fifth and sixth grade student who earned all A's during the first quarter was to be publicly named to the Headmaster's List.  For many reasons, I am not in favor of this award.  First, it puts emphasis on grades, which contradicts the work the teachers are trying to do with the students to help them be intrinsically motivated and attentive to their individual growth.  Second, according to my fifth-grade daughter, 10 out of 14 students in her class received this honor.  Picture the four who were not called up to the stage to shake the Headmaster's hand and how they must have felt.  I have a knot in my stomach imagining it.  Third, if 10 out of 14 received the award, what's the great accomplishment?  Earning A's is the norm--why reward that?

So, given my beliefs about awarding academic success for middle schoolers, I faced a dilemma.  Should I stand on principle and not attend the awards assembly?  Would my daughter's feelings be hurt?  Or should I just go, clap for her, and be a "normal" parent?  It helped that I had a meeting that went until 1:50 (the assembly began at 1:35) and that the assembly was just ending as I headed toward my office (my route there passes right by the theater). Lucky break. 

As I passed the stream of students going back to class, I scanned the kids for my daughter.  I wanted to tell her that while I don't believe in the award, I love her and am proud of her for doing her best in school.  She had already gone back to her class, so I ran up to her classroom to whisper my message to her. 

Before I could tell her anything she looked at me and said, "I know why you weren't there, Mom.  I know you don't believe in it."  That made me more proud than any award she could receive.  I gave her a quick squeeze and walked away.

I heard from several fifth grade teachers that the students, who are new to the idea of academic awards, wondered why the certificates weren't just mailed home.  If only one of them would start a petition...

Today's Meet Meets Macbeth

Yesterday my sophomores and I began a study of Macbeth.  My goal is to read through (or listen to/read) the whole play quickly so all of the kids know what I know about the plot and then back up and study certain scenes, monologues, and lines more closely.  But it still takes time, and we still have to stop and clarify what's literally happening.  I felt frustrated that I fell into the typical trap of stopping and saying, "So what's going on here?" and getting answers from a few kids. 

We picked up today with Act I scene 6 with a new gameplan:  Today's Meet, a free, easy backchannel site that does not require a login.  I explained to my students that I wanted to hear more of their voices and do a better job of understanding their understanding.  We talked briefly about the concept of backchanneling, I shared the link, tossed out a question, and we were off.  A transcript of their posts from the end of Act I and beginning of Act II is available here. 

I wasn't able to read their posts in class (though I'm thinking about assigning moderators for future discussions), but after class I scrolled through to see who was thinking what.  I found quoted lines from the play, quick jots, answers to questions I threw out verbally or in my own post, and general impressions. 

Overall, I think it was a success and I look forward to trying it again soon.

The Best Version of School, Revisited

Yesterday I wrote a post about what helps me get grounded when thinking about school reform--imagining my daughters' experience.

My husband, who supports my ideas but does not live in my head, sent me this comment:

"I’m all for your view of education, but I think that your three NO’s are going to lose support, rather than gain it.

Vague statements like that can quickly be damaged with examples that contradict those statements—“Biology can be looked up on the internet, but my daughter is going to be a doctor”…”Some good learning may exist outside of school, but what I learned in school helped me become a doctor….”

I’d suggest always inserting an example after each NO, so that people better understand your views.  Otherwise, statements like your NO,NO, NO sound more like the angry parent than the hard working educator.  Examples will make your blog worth reading…"

 

Thanks for this feedback.  Here's my revised version...

Do I want them sitting at their desks doing work other people deem important?  No.  But I DO want them hard at work learning how to think, how to analyze, how to appreciate different perspectives.  I DO want them to have choice in how they learn and how they share what they have learned.  And I DO want them to learn to assess their own strengths and areas for improvement.  I want them to be able to handle any academic challenge with confidence and competence.  I DO want them to have the support of talented teachers who can nurture and guide them as learners and people.

Do I want them learning content that is readily available to them all the time?  No.  But I DO want them learning all of this (and more!):

Creativity and Innovation

Using knowledge and understanding to create new  ways of thinking in order to find solutions to new problems and to create new products and services.

  

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Applying higher order thinking to new problems and issues, using appropriate reasoning as they effectively analyze the problem and make decisions about the

most effective ways to solve the problem.

Communication

Communicating effectively in a wide variety of forms and contexts for a wide range of purposes and using multiple media and technologies.

Collaboration

Working with others respectfully and effectively to create, use and share knowledge, solutions and innovations.

Information Management

Accessing, analyzing, synthesizing, creating and sharing information from multiple sources.

Effective Use of Technology

Creating the capacity to identify and use technology efficiently, effectively and ethically as a tool to access, organize, evaluate and share information

Career and Life Skills

Developing skills for becoming self-directed, independent learners and workers who can adapt to change, manage projects, take responsibility for their work, lead others and produce results.

Cultural Awareness

Developing cultural competence in working with others by recognizing and respecting cultural differences and work with others from a wide range of cultural and social backgrounds.

Beers, Sue Z.  “21st Century Skills: Preparing Students for THEIR Future.”  21^st

Century Skills.

Do I want them doing work that does not exist outside of school? No.  But I do want them learning how to make, create, innovate, experiment, reconfigure, organize, explore, imagine...

I want school to be a training ground for the work that will be expected of them when school is over.  Where working together, tackling challenges, using resources, and inventing new possibilities will equal success and fulfillment.

I hope this sounds more positive and less grumpy and stubborn!