Units of Study

Just recently I have begun some coaching around the Units of Study.  I thought I had best go into some classrooms and try the lessons out myself before coaching work began.  I am very familiar with Lucy Calkins' old grade span writing resource, but these grade level ones are new to me.  What I found was that they are much more wordy and dense than her last grade span books (which is saying a lot because those are pretty dense too!).
Even after modeling how to unpack a couple of lessons and teaching the lessons in some classrooms myself with the teacher watching, teachers are still coming and saying that they just sat and looked at a lesson for an hour and still didn't know what to pull out to teach.  Does anyone have any suggestions to help teachers with this?  I've tried the "set a learning target and pull material to teach to the learning target" approach.  I've tried having them read and sticky the parts they want to teach, or underline.  Teachers are still overwhelmed with the amount of material.
The other part I am seeing is the Unit of Study lessons assume that the previous year's teacher taught the lessons too.  So, 4th and 5th grade students do not know what a "Small Moment"story is and the lessons do not necessarily lend themselves to teaching what it is.  Any suggestions for helping teachers with that also?

Blog Summary

     I am taking a coaching class this fall that is centered around writing.  I do believe the instructor is going to have everyone develop their own blog to keep posts about how our coaching in writing is going.  This will be the only reason, probably, why I will continue to blog.  I think it would be a very useful tool when thinking about the professional development aspect of my job, but blogging is not a common topic in the district where I work as it is off limits.  Teachers are not allowed to keep classroom blogs, therefore, I'm quite certain they do not know the ins and outs of one, and wouldn't be inclined to follow one for PD purposes.  I probably would be more inclined to continue blogging on a regular basis if someone were inclined to read it!
     I am excited, however, to explore some of the digital media sites that I looked into for the purposes of creating my curriculum.  I think once I learn more about those and how they can expand students' knowledge of writing, I can provide some PD at grade level meetings about them.
     It was helpful to get some of my thoughts about the CCSS and even the summary of my comparison paper of Singapore and US education down.  Putting thoughts on "paper" makes you think more deeply about them and analyze those thoughts with a different lens.  It was also very useful to review chapters 1-4 and summarize them as it had been a bit since I read them (plus many other items).  There was some useful information in them and helped me to form my curriculum plan.
    

Chapters 1-4 Summary

Summaries of chapters 1-4 in Curriculum 21:
Chapter 1- Backwards design is important, curriculum on replay does not work, the need for revision of dated content skills and assessments.
I have not seen much curriculum work in the district for which I work.  It does seem as though we are on replay, especially above grades K-5.  I know the middle school still "teaches" the same books in the same way they did 20 years ago.  Where is your diorama?
Chapter 2- Technology needs to be replaced, not integrated!  Developing curriculum starts with assessment and looking at how we are assessing students and moving towards more modern ones.  Curriculum maps also breathe life into the curriculum, they zoom in on the individual child.
Our viewpoint on technology is if kids are typing up a story they wrote they are using (integrating) technology.  I think this would take some professional development to change our ways and thoughts.  We do not do curriculum mapping in the district I work for.  I've never seen one.
Chapter 3-It is important to update content.  Should we keep what we have?  Cut some or all of it?  Create new?  Or all 3?  What is timeless?  Everyone who works in the school should be involved in reviewing maps in vertical teams.
I think this would be a place to go where I work.  Some of this work was done this summer in math.  Only as it pertains to alignment however (to CCSS).  Teachers were taking the math resource (Scott Foresman) and checking to see what aligned with the CCSS, and what could be cut out. Everything where I work is textbook based, so if it isn't in the social studies book or science kit, it isn't getting taught.  I'm not sure how old these resources are!
Chapter 4- This chapter was about school structures.  Why does a student's school experience always have to be 13 years?  Could it be shorter?  The U.S. has the shortest school year.  Should we change our grouping patterns?  Do all 7 year olds have to be together?
Our system follows the typical US school schedule with a very short day too!  9-3, which is a bit cramped!

Peristent Issues Summary

     A persistent curriculum issue/problem in the district I work for is inconsistent writing workshop/instructional times.  When looking at different teacher's schedules I found as much as 35 hours difference (a year) of instructional time between Teacher A and Teacher B.  On average, it seems as though teacher's have writing workshop between 1.5 and 2 hours a week.  Knowing how heavy the CCSS places on writing as a process and for responding, I thought writing would be a place to start thinking about.
     Writing to Read, published in 2010, clearly articulates the need for consistent writing times and explicit instruction in the area of writing because research has shown that it improves students' reading skills.  The CCSS also advocate for students to be writing on a routine basis for extended amounts of time.  Lucy Calkins and many of her colleagues to include Fountas and Pinnell say that writing instruction should occur daily for about 60 minutes with 45 of that for students to independent write on self-selected topics.  So clearly, the research tells us that writing time each day is important for students.
     I plan on sitting with the administrator for which I work to examine more teachers' schedules to look at not only current writing times, but also figure out in our busy and short day how to fit more consistent writing times in.  Hopefully bringing about an awareness of our inconsistencies if the first step to help solve the problem.  We can't fix what we don't realize is happening!

CCSS

     Wow.  The articles on the CCSS were very enlightening.  The district for which I work has not really delved very deeply into these new standards, so I have done nothing but simply peruse them to know the layout.  We have no real plans to do so either, except to know the broad topics.  I am wondering how much that will really change after giving the Smarter Balanced Assessment next spring.  Judging from a few of the articles I read, some feel the standards are way too high and that most students will fail.  I'm wondering at this point (when admin experiences such high failure rates) if they will chalk it up to, "oh well, the standards are set way too high", or if major reforms will soon follow (like where I work).
     Either way, it is always good to know why something came along.  Too often we are left with the question of why.  The articles I read certainly answered that question.  It was very disappointing to read that educators did not really have any input with the creation of the CCSS and that they were created due to the great cloud of negativity surrounding public schools.  It is also unfortunate that we will not know the effects of the CCSS for another 12 years.  The problem with that is the current rate in which technology changes, our way of life could be completely different by then and the standards may be obsolete.  Like one author pointed out, there is no one currently slated to fix any problems when they arise.

Globalization in Education

     I have not thought much about education beyond K-5 literacy in some time.  The readings this week certainly opened my eyes to the need to change education to prepare students to be able to compete on a global level.  As of right now, I don't think our schools/state/nation does enough to get our kids ready.  Other countries immerse students in another language (typically English) as soon as they begin school.  We are  lucky if students are merely exposed to other languages in high school.  For example, my daughter took French in 7th &8th, Latin in 9th and is switching to Chinese in 10th.  That is certainly not a way to master a foreign language!  We also put heavy emphasis in high school on history.  While this is important, wouldn't it benefit students to learn about other cultures in their current state?  To have knowledge and respect for other world regions and cultures?  It seems as though, like the author suggests, time to redefine our high school requirements to include some of these critical areas that will make our children marketable on a global level.

School Reform

     The article, "The Myth of Charter Schools" was very interesting and informative.  The buzz behind poor performing public schools holding onto tenured "bad" teachers has not dissolved itself in the almost 4 years since the publication of this article.  I don't know if it's because we are in Maine, or in central Maine, but I do not hear much about charter schools or the dissatisfaction of public schools to the degree in which the article discusses.  It was nice to read though that not everyone feels public schools are all doom and gloom.  The author, Diane Ravitch does talk about some areas in which we could improve upon (like other countries- Finland, Japan, Korea) for example, better screening of teacher candidates, higher salaries for retention, and better support systems & mentoring programs for new teachers, she does defend public schools.  It was nice to hear that while teaching can be a small percentage of the issue of student performance (10-20%), nonschool factors make up a much larger % at 60.  And what can we do about poverty?  Working in Bangor, this is a reality of every school day.  One of the K-3 schools has a 93% poverty rate, with others being in the 40-60% range.  Maybe government officials so quick to put all blame on teachers for poor student performance (based on one standardized assessment) should worry more about how to improve poverty rates instead?

Week 3 Thoughts...

I was very surprised indeed when I checked out the resources at the bottom of Moodle...I didn't realize there were so many available!  Or maybe I really did know, but hadn't explored any or gave it much thought.  I will spend more time getting to know some of those because they looked very interesting!
I had never heard about the Cloud Institute Framework before reading chapter 10 in our text.  As I read, I kept thinking how that is what I would like to learn about and in that manner.  The broad topics that students learn about are very current and would interest any child.   Cultural preservation and transformation, sustainable economics, and dynamics of systems and change (to name a few) all sound very engaging.  How interesting to learn about a history topic and think about why it occurred and how we changed because of it.  And then to think even deeper about how it still effects us today and how to prevent repetitive actions in the future.
Chapter 13 seems rather hard for some when thinking about shifting our mentalities.  All 3 areas do need examination however.  We should be constantly evaluating what we teach, how we teach it and the best method for assessing what we just taught.  It would be very irresponsible indeed to be neglectful in self reflection in those areas.  I found areas of the 16 habits to be something students do not complete on a regular basis (like thinking flexibly, thinking about your thinking, trying something in a different way, and taking risks).  Too often students sit there in defeat when they can't accomplish a task the first time or with a method that has been successful in the past.  They take little risk and do not try the problem in a different way.  It seems as these 16 habits should explicitly taught to children, so they do actually become habits.

Response 2, Week 2

     I completely agree that technology should be a part of the every day classroom.  In chapter 12, the author discusses how technology improves motivation and provides authentic connections to kids.  She also talks about how kids in the classroom are bored because of how material is being delivered and they feel it is irrelevant to how they learn.  Chapter 5 also talks about assessment and if students are presented with alternative types of assessment rather than high stakes, standardized types, underperformers might produce highly creative work.  We need to ensure that students are ready to face our advancing world.  We need to keep up with how students learn and what interests them.
     The author goes on to describe in each of the chapters how, "...technology is changing at an exponential rate...".  As educators how do we possibly keep up with learning all these new trends?  How does administration keep up with the cost of providing all the technological updates that are needed in a time of budget cuts and fiscal hard times?  While I agree that to engage students and keep them learning by doing, how do we make that possible with 2 very large issues blocking our way?

Response 1, Week 2

In chapter 4, there were 2 points that really stood out to me; one was the groupings of students and two was the grouping of professionals. 
When talking about groupings of students, the author stated, "What type of grouping would best support learning for a specific group of students to address specific objectives?".  I'm quite certain she isn't talking about ability grouping of students into very high, high, medium, and low groups all year long.  I haven't figured out how this long standing practice is what is best for students.  Wouldn't it be better to assess, then figure out what each students' needs are based on a short section of say math, group them for a short time, reassess and then regroup?  Knowing what I do about literacy, putting students into static groups does nothing for their self-esteem (if in a low group), plus they do not have the benefit of learning from their higher achieving peers.  In literacy, groups are supposed to be dynamic so students have the chance to learn from others.  They also have thinking to offer that can benefit the whole group.
The second point was grouping of professionals.  Wouldn't grouping by problems instead of by department be differentiating on the presenters part?  Whoever is providing PD, or running the meeting should differentiate based on the professionals needs.  We do or should be doing this in the classroom, so why not during PD?  I hate going to a meeting (staff, grade level) and sit there listening to information that doesn't pertain to me.
The author brings up 2 very good points that would influence both student learning and PD for teachers.

Curriculum 21

After reading chapter 3 of Curriculum 21, I started thinking about high school curriculum (which frankly, I've never done).  My daughter, Michaela, entered 9th grade this past year and along with it came freshman English.  Michaela absolutely LOVES to read.  When you ask people about her, they automatically say, "book", or "reads all the time".  Freshman English though did nothing to foster her love of reading.  Why are some schools (teachers?) still stuck in past practices of reading old literature that kids struggle through?  And yes, everyone in this class HAS to be reading the same book.  So, she read The Odyssey and wrote essays in response, she read A Separate Peace and wrote essays....and hated them and the activities that went along with them. 
Curriculum 21 suggests reading a book that has a movie.  Kids do this all the time.  There are so many great pieces of current literature out there that have a movie out.  Wouldn't this be a better use of a freshman's time?  Doing something they would be doing anyway in the real world?  Giving students choice in what they read would provide so much more investment on their part.  Plus maybe get some reluctant readers going in the reading department.  I'm quite certain The Odyssey did not hook any reluctant readers into picking up books in their spare time.

Curriculum

Response #1 When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I do not have much experience with developing or planning curriculum.  I worked some as a classroom teacher on social studies curriculum at the district level in a previous district.  We worked grade by grade starting in at the Kindergarten level and tried to have content sequential using the Maine Learning Results as our guide.
Currently as a literacy coach, I do not do much curriculum work as the district I currently work for has a resource for reading (core program) and the scope and sequence is already laid out.  It spirals and teachers have been given instructions to follow it.
With CCSS fast approaching, I see my fellow literacy coaches and I working towards a writing scope and sequence that will support CC.  We currently do not have anything by way of writing where I work.  Math follows Scott Foresman, so that scope and sequence is done also.  Science follows the replenishable kits like forces and motion, ecosystems, etc. so that scope and sequence is established also.