Elements of Standardized Testing

Several times yesterday while tooling around on facebook I came across an article titled A Warning to College Profs From A High School Teacher.  After ruminating for a night and reading the article a second time, I have to say that I feel for Strauss.  I was fortunate to have all the say I wanted in my curriculum development while I taught high school for 9 years.  And as a college professor, I once again have that advantage.

I have to wonder though....if I hadn't made the leap to university...would I still be teaching high school?  I honestly cannot answer that question.  I try to stay in contact with what is happening in school districts.  Though I am a professor in an English Department, I teach several English Methods courses to the Secondary English Ed majors.  I try very hard to avoid being in "the ivory tower" because I witnessed that in my graduate program and swore I would always stay connected to the "real world."  But after reading this article I really started to worry.  How can we keep good teachers in schools of the curriculum is becoming more and more rigid.  I think I might have an answer.  At least I hope I do.

Consider the skills on which students are being assessed.  For example...everyone knows that students have to learn to make inferences.  But does that mean you have to skill and drill it?  No.  One of the best experiences I have had with teaching inference was seating the class in a circle and having them read aloud the play Sorry, Wrong Number, a suspenseful piece in which a woman over-hears a plot to murder her.  The clues were becoming more and more obvious that the woman was going to be murdered that at one point one of my students yelled out "Mr. O....this woman is so stupid!"  I asked why she thought that and the student told me that there were several clues in the story that suggested she was the intended target.  I then looked at the student and told her that she made an inference.

The student learned the concept before knowing what the concept is called.  This is quite similar to an instructional method called concept attainment.  The difference is that in concept attainment the instructor gives positive and negative examples of a concept, and the student, seeing the similarities in positive attributes, is able to identify the concept.  The point of the comparison is that rather than saying to my students..."today we're going to learn about inference" and then giving them a definition and a few unrelated examples...we dug deep into a text...found solid examples that CONNECTED to a text....used/discussed them authentically....then learned the concept.

I think the same could be done with other strategies. Context clues, for example, can be taught while teaching almost any piece of literature.  Have each student pick out a word or words that they aren't 100% familiar with, note the page number and take a guess.  By pairing and sharing they will discuss and hopefully, eventually come up with the correct meaning of the word.

I know that re-developing lessons takes an incredible amount of time....but my point is that if you are a future or practicing teacher, try not to become discouraged with what you HAVE to teach...and try and focus on the WAYS you can teach.

You go English Majors!

So while my doctorate is in English Education, and while half the courses I teach are required courses for secondary English Education majors, the reality is that I am an English Professor in an English Department.  And while I couldn't be happier at the variety of courses I teach, I am often asked by people "What can you do with an English Degree?"  I am constantly stating how English majors are typically well versed in reading and writing, something that ANY career requires.  The path may be less direct than it is for a Business or Technology major, but every job out there, in one way or another, requires reading and writing.  But I always forget, that there's more to it that that, which is why I am so happy to have found this article which essentially suggests that there is a lot of complex cognition going on in the department of English.  In other words, yes, there is a lot of reading and writing, but there is so much more than that, as the authors suggest.  Creativity, does have value.  That's the number one reason why I went into English Education.  If I can't find creative ways to teach and assess...then I'm not happy.  But not everyone that majors in English wants to be an educator.

Give the article a read if you are interested in majoring in English or if you are curious as to why the major has value, or especially if you know someone who is interested in majoring in English.  Like I said earlier...the career path may not be direct....but there are a multitude of positions out there that require complex thinking and analysis, skills that all English majors acquire.

Signs? Sig(h)ns.

If you know me at all, or have followed this blog, you know that I am a proponent of multimodality.  I love teaching about, learning about, using and advocating multiple modes in the classroom.  I also propose that we pay attention to the modes around us outside of the classroom.  I do worry, though, that  the world depends so greatly on signs.  Just like we have multiple interpretations of words, we, too, have multiple interpretations of signs.

Just a few minutes ago, I logged into my blogger account so that I could read some more of my students' blogs.  I have decided to follow all their blogs, so that when I log into dashboard...there they are.  The problem...I can never remember how to log in to my dashboard. I typically have to click two or three places before it shows up.  It wasn't until a few minutes ago, that I clicked on the white B in the orange box.  To me...that logo meant "blogger" and I assumed it was going to take me to the home page.  Makes sense right? But because I was logged in, it took me to my dashboard.  I could swear that when I started this blog almost a year ago, there was an actual link to dashboard.  I mean the word "dashboard" was underlined.  So I am used to clicking on the word.  Not the logo for blogger.

So...why the change? The same thing happened to me a few years back.  I wanted to delete an e-mail from my g-mail account.  Typcially, I would click on the box to the left of the e-mail...go to the top and click on the word "delete."  I swear, it took me longer than it should have to eventually figure out that they replaced this with an icon of a garbage can.  Now, why did I never click on the garbage can?  Because in another e-mail program, the garbage can led you to your deleted e-mails.  So in one e-mail program the garbage can was literally the place where your "deleted" e-mails or "garbage" was found.  And in another e-mail program, you had to click on the garbage can to delete your message.

So here is the issue.  One sign means two different things.  When there are words, it is much simpler.  You know the meaning.  But with symbols, it might take multiple attempts or some practice to understand what they mean.

I truly believe we are becoming more sign-based because we are a global society.  The plus side to using images is that they are (most often) universal.  But the negative side is that even signs can have different meanings depending on one's prior knowledge.

I pose no question.  I just wanted to rant about signs for a moment.  While I do love teaching about understanding signs and other modes, I too, get tripped up from time to time.

Instant Memes

So tonight I was watching the presidential debate, and like many others, I was on facebook at the same time.  Though I heard Romney mention that he had "binders full of women" from which to seek cabinet members...I'll be honest....I didn't think too too much of it. At best, I thought he was kissing ass. About a half an hour later, I noticed that that my newsfeed on facebook was filled with binder comments.  Eventually I was led to this link.  Clearly, I first laughed my ass off.  But what fascinated me was the speed in which these were generated.  In fact, my partner was not watching tonight.  So I paused to tell him what the facebook nation seemed to focus on...this one comment.  (And believe me...if we're going to pick at Mittens...there was plenty to pick on.)  I even joked with him that this was "bindergate."  My partner's response was that there was so much mockery in such a short amount of time.

This got me thinking.  We are used to make comments on facebook within seconds.  But now we are creating memes.  In minutes after a gaffe.  Look at the speed in which we can send information.  It used to be that we could send e-mails to a selected party...but now we can communicate with ANYONE within moments after an event.  Being a multimodal theorist...I worry about this.  We tend to use multiple modes to express our thoughts...but...do we really want/need to have them out there for everyone?  Or are we impulsive?  Have you ever waken up after a drunken facebook night and thought "Jesus....I really didn't want everyone to hear my thoughts?"  I'm just worried, because with social networking....and web 2.0...do we think before we post?

i would be lying if i said i was a model example of posting.  i mean, look at my facebook any friday am and chances are...if i could take back a post i would.  not just because i may have had cocktails...but because when i facebook...which is traditionally at night...it's after a long day of work...and to tell you the truth..i am worked up.

that's what worries me about web 2.0.  It's so easy to post without full thoughts.  Think about it.  I know I will.

I know I don't want to slant my posts...but my God...binders full of women...can't stop laughing!

Calling 3rd, 6th and 10th grade teachers

If you teach 3rd, 6th or 10th grade, would you consider taking a few minutes and take the following survey.  This is for my friends and colleagues at the Institute of Learning at The University of Pittsburgh.  I know they would appreciate it.  Feel free to share the link.  Thanks!

Picture the Story

Anyone who knows me as a person or as an educator knows that I am a visual learner.  One of the things that I like about reading is making a "mental movie" in my head.  I was not taught that skill until later in life (definitely not in high school), thus I was not a fan of reading literature when I was younger.  It wasn't until I was specifically told that making a mental image is a skill that is required for reading.  I mean, yes, I made mental images, but I was always concerned with mine being wrong, or way off the mark or something like that. 

Years ago when I was teaching high school, I asked how many students make mental images when they read, and I was surprised that not many did.  Like me, when I was there age, their eyes were scanning the words, but they weren't processing a whole lot.  So I came up with an activity I like to call Picture the Story, and I'd like to share it here.

Typically Picture the Story takes place when students have finished a book, but it can actually be done at any point in time.  I break the book down into sections; one section for each student.  For example...student one is assigned pages 1-5...student 2 is assigned pages 6-10....and so on.  Then I give each of the students a blank piece of paper and some markers.  (I highly encourage markers in the classroom....no matter what level of education.) I ask the students to review their assigned section, and to draw a visual depicting an event in that section.

This is where the fun part comes in...I then choose a student at random...someone who is assigned the middle of the book. I ask them to come to the front of the room and share their image.  The other classmates try to guess what the image is, what it means and when it took place.  This dialogue is very encouraging.  Once the students have figured out what part of the story is being represented...they tape the picture to the wall.  I then ask another student to come up and we repeat the process.  However, this time the students have to decide if the new event took place before or after the event currently being presented.   Once they have decided, that picture is posted on the wall, either before or after the first picture.  We continue this process until all pictures are posted in chronological order.  Then I ask the students to write a short summary of the event and a rationale on a note card, which explains their thinking and their depiction of the event.  I then have them post these under the picture.

One nice thing about the assignment is that you now have a visual and written timeline of the events of a story in your classroom for all the students to see.  And if you teach the same book in multiple classes, you can compare and contrast depictions.

I also think that this can be useful not only for review, but to discuss symbolism and other literary events.  The students will already be familiar with the plot after conducting this activity, so they will be more apt to discuss other literary elements as well.

Teaching Digital Literacy Skills earlier in education

In his blog, Ray Kelly, the CEO of Certipoint ("the world's leading provider of computer literacy skills training and credentialing program) advocates teaching digital literacy skills in middle school.  I wholeheartedly agree with Kelly, as we are a digital and global society.  As newer and newer technologies shape the way in which we function, I agree that middle school is a good place to start.  However, Kelly lists three major components for teaching these skills:  key applications, computing fundamentals, and practical use of the internet.  While he brings up important points of each, I think his blog is a bit limited.  I'm surprised to see that digital composition isn't one of these skills.  Under key applications, he describes learning about photoshop and MS office...but I feel that these are just the tip of the iceberg.

For example, what about blogging, podcasting and other digital tools that are becoming common?  Should we train students to see what these are and allow them to experiment? Also, with so much social networking (ie. facebook, linkedin, etc.) might it be a great lesson for students to learn what these tools are in context?  Rather than saying "this is facebook" show students how companies use this tool, as so many do.

I also think Kelly needs to mention media literacy education.  Because youth are some of the largest consumers of media, I think it's important to teach them the skills they need to evaluate the ads they are being bombarded with along with the other types of media that are consumed daily.  I suggest Frank Baker's  media literacy clearninghouse as an excellent point of entry because it contains so many links about media literacy...from learning what it is, to learning how to be less passive about media, to educational links.

While Kelly's blog does suggest earlier education regarding digital literacy is important, I feel he could include more than just "computer literacy" which seems to be his main point.