Dave the Potter: Book-of-the-Month February 2015

Book of the Month is a long time Chets Creek tradition.  Each month the Principal introduces a new book to the faculty as part of our on-going professional development.  Each year the books are picked specifically with goals in mind.  Some years they have been about school culture.  Other years they have been about vocabulary strategies or good read aloud strategies.  This year the emphasis has been on deepening comprehension to ready our students for the rigor that is expected with the implementation of  the Common Core Standards.

Today we were treated to the new Book of the Month. The mood was set as we walked into a darkened Media Center with a center spotlight on a potter's wheel.

You could hear the steady hum of the wheel as Chet's artist Karen Willet shaped a pot while we watched in total fascination. Soon Principal Susan Phillips began to read with dignity and grace ...  We followed along as she read the beautifully illustrated Caldecott Honor book, Dave the Potter, the story of a prolific South Carolina slave whose talent and strength shown through the great pots that he created.

After the reading we were challenged to use a  close reading lens (illustration, word choice, history, what was not stated...)  with small groups to discuss and come up with the central message of the book. This inspiring story captures the human spirit, overcoming all obstacles and flourishing.  What a treat this professional development was!

Testing Rant

I have already ranted about the excess amount of testing in our county at the beginning of this school year for our youngest learners.  In our sixth week of school this year, our district finally revised its testing calendar and dropped the Science, Music, Art and PE pre and post tests that they had originally required of Kindergartners.  They also dropped the Reading, Math, and Science tests they had originally required at the end of each nine weeks and only required post tests in Reading in Math.  Hallelujah! However, they added  post tests for the computer programs we have been using... when we were able to get to the computer lab, as we worked around the computer testing program (we have one lab for 1300 students!)  To say this year was full of disorganized chaotic testing is an understatement.  The amount of hours of instruction lost to a ridiculous testing schedule is disgraceful.

Lucy Calkins made a statement about testing being the Titanic of the Common Core, and I think she is right. I'm not sure how testing got tied to the Common Core because there is nothing in our new standards that require the type of testing that is being done today.  Certainly we need to understand where our students are at any given time so that we know how and what to instruct, but it seems we've just gotten into testing, as if by simply testing students, they can improve!  We miss the point entirely.  Assessment completes the prescriptive cycle of identifying through assessment, writing a prescription, selecting the appropriate resources to instruct, instructing, and then assessing again to identify the new targets.  Testing without engaging appropriate instruction is simply wasteful. It's malpractice.

As I was leaving school this afternoon, I caught this picture outside the Test Administrator's Office.  Fifty-eight boxes were taped and labeled, ready to go to the District's Testing Office.  That's not the state required high stakes test that was given in the Spring but 58 boxes of required county tests given to our K-5 students at the end of the year.  These will be used for performance pay for teachers, eventually, although the inaccuracies are mind boggling.  I know that the intent is to move the county forward, but it just seems like the implementation has been boggled at every turn.  We were fortunate to have a Test Administrator who was able to shoulder the enormous time and responsibility of organizing the distribution and administration of such a massive testing schedule (I guess you could say her part time job was being the only Assistant Principal at our very large school!)  Her talent and perseverance were noticed and appreciated by all.

As for my school, we tried, as we always do, to carve a course through the mine field and to just keep doing what we know works.  We gave the assessments that we absolutely had to give, although it is difficult to trust the results of a new test - we were not able to depend on it for anything.  We did the best we could in a "red" school (meaning we do not have the technology infrastructure that we need to support the expectations of computerized testing) and tried to soothe the hysteria of high performing teachers  who often were on the verge of tears knowing how hard they had worked and how much they wanted to prove it. The principal continued to work on relationships and easing the stress and pain, instead of playing into the panic.  She continued to assure our faculty that if we continued to keep our eyes on our students, we would prevail... and we have.

With a population that is changing (our second language and free/reduced numbers continue to climb) our results continue to remain high (we had the highest writing scores in the county!)  Our teachers are collegial and continue to depend on each other.  We are not always in charge of our own fate, but we are in charge of our destiny. We continue to see through the fog into the eyes of the children.  Now that is leadership.

Falling in Love with Close Reading

I love reading a  good book that offers me something that I can use immediately in the classroom.  Better than that is a book study where I can read and think with colleagues who have similar passions. By discussing what I read, just like our children, I guess, I form new ideas and build on my thinking.   Before the holiday, Reading Coach Melanie Holtsman asked who would like to study the new book, Falling in Love with Close Reading by Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts.  Melanie had been introduced to the book and the authors during her study at Teachers' College this past summer.  Close reading is one of the new buzz words that came with the common core and we have been actively pursuing good information on the subject, so I, along with 30 other colleagues, quickly signed up.  We've done lots of book studies over the years at Chets Creek and done them in all sorts of different ways with different leaders and configurations, so I was interested in how Melanie would choose to roll out this Book Study.

As usual,  Melanie did not disappoint - using her natural insight and creativity, she decided to incorporate some of the lessons and strategies she had learned this summer into the book study.  She also has kept in touch with the authors of the book through Twitter, so each week, Melanie LEADS the study with a short introduction, some time for the participants to talk about what they read, and an activity that helps teachers feel the engagement of a learner.  When I can, I attend both the morning and afternoon sessions, although they are on the same topic - I guess I'm really a professional development junkie!  However, the mix of the participants is difference and it never fails, that the emphasis is different because of the interests and engagement of each group.  We've only studied the first two chapters and already I am hooked on this design for a book study.  I can't wait to read each new chapter and to see how Melanie will help us look closer at our reading... and our lives.  I'm sure this isn't easy for Melanie.  It's not like this design was just laid out there and she's following some script.  She really has to think deeply and creatively about how she can present the content to a group of adult learners who have such expertise and high expectations.  She takes risks, the kind of risks that she is asking teachers to take.  She teaches us the way that she expects us to teach our children.

I have attended so much professional development during my years as a teacher and much of it has honestly been VERY BAD.  It is so refreshing to look forward to reading a chapter and to get up on the morning of the book study and hurry to make sure I'm not late so I won't miss a single minute.  That is the same feeling I want in my students each morning that they come to class!  The best part is that I leave the book study with a new insight and a smile on my face - invigorated and excited! 

Lucy Calkins - About the Common Core

So today I traveled to Orlando, FL with eight of my Chets Creek colleagues for a Heinemann Workshop with Lucy Calkins.  I learned so-o-o-o much.  Here is a review of some of the big ideas.

What are the issues with the Common Core?

• The problem in American education is poverty.  23% of our children are growing up in poverty which is up from 10%.  Standards cannot make up for all that poverty takes away from these children.
• The estimated cost of the Common Core is $15.7 billion for the beginning phase.  The problem is that half that money is going to developing new assessments and the rest to the new technology needed to give the tests!  Where will the money come from to provide rich libraries and non-fiction books for each classroom?
• The Common Core is not really researched-based.  We really don't  know what the pathway is to achieving the Common Core Standards.
• The design itself may be flawed.  Working backwards from college readiness may not really provide the best standards for K-1 students.

We are at a crossroads.  Can we see opportunity and possibilities?

We have learned a lot about what NOT to do.

• Adopting a new core reading program will not solve the problem.  We spent $87 million on new reading core and reading flatlined.  Adopting a basal and trying to teacher-proof learning just shows a lack of confidence in the profession.
• Turning down the lights and turning on the music and just letting children write will not produce results without quality instruction.
• Adopting too many innovations with a little bit of this and a little bit of that will not work.  If you have more thatn 4 or 5 innovations, you will not see gains.  Innovations need to be implemented with 90% fidelity to make a difference.

What we need is a model of continuous improvement.

Why is the Common Core gold?

• It's a wake up call.
• It calls for collegiality.  Gone are the days of closing your door and doing what you want. We are now in a time when teachers will have to work together in learning communities in order to lift the level of their practice.
• There is an emphasis on writing.  Not only are there writing standards, but part of the reading standards are about writing.
• There is an emphasis on text complexity and moving kids up through levels of more and more difficult text.

You need to know that comprehension is complex and that there is no researched magic list of strategies that will guarantee that you get all your students to the standards.  The BEST strategy is still a teacher who can make a difference.

Lucy Calkins - About Opinion Writing

The afternoon of Lucy Calkin's Heinemann Workshop in Orlando, FL was spent looking at writing.  Of the three types of writing emphasized in the Common Core - narrative, informational, and opinion - opinion writing is the one that we have done the least with in Kindergarten and first grade, so what does Lucy say it should look like?

Persuasive Writing In Kindergarten - Using Words to Make a Change

• In your school - Students look for problems in the class and around the school and find solutions.  They make signs.
• Writing letters to make a change - Write letters addressing a problem with  solutions to spark change.  You can embed a story or anecdote into a persuasive piece or add politeness in the closing.  You can persuade with information.
• Take on a persuasive project that requires research to make the world a better place.  Sound like an expert.

Persuasive Writing in First Grade - Writing Reviews

• Best in Show -  Ask each child to bring in a shoebox collection of something they care about.  When you care about something, you have a best.   Now how do you decide which is the best item in your collection - the winner?  Which is the second place? third place? and why did you make that choice?  Which thing in your collection takes the booby prize?  Can you defend your choices?
• Writing reviews - First graders can write reviews of restaurants or video games or toys...    They learn to hook the reader, to defend their choices and to make comparisons.  They learn to use checklists.  They study published reviews.
• Writing persuasive book reviews - Learn to share a summary of a book but don't spill the beans by telling the entire story.  Don't make it too long or too short.

That gives us a great outline for persuasive writing and what it should look like at both grades, but I can't wait until Lucy's new Units of Study for Writing, which are grade level specific, come out in March.  It's been ten years since the first primary units were written for K-2.  Lucy said 65% of the classrooms in the country have those units!  Wonder where the money will come from to buy the new units?

Compare/contrast

I think one of the most difficult things for a young first grader to do is to compare and contrast when they read - books, characters, themes, whatever.  So to begin teaching that skill, after we have talked deeply about characters, we have our students begin by comparing a character to themselves.  Who do they know better in the world than themselves?!

Although the new Common Core talks about changing directions and having children do less thinking about connections to their own lives and more thinking about the evidence that is actually stated or inferred in the story, very young children still need to think about what they know about stories before they begin and as they read. They do need to access their prior knowledge so that they can take that knowledge and put it with what the text says to form new opinions and interpretations.   They still need to think about times when the same thing happened to them so that they can understand the setting, the problem, the solution - so they can understand why a character does what she does.  That's not to say that our thinking and conversation don't need to be ratcheted up a level and that we then don't need to look for the direct evidence in the book to back up any claims we make.  We can't just talk off the text anymore.  The Common Core demands a much higher and deeper comprehension than we have expected from our youngest readers.

At least this is how my own thinking is going right now... as I grapple with these new expectations.  Below are some of the Venn diagrams that our students did as they were beginning to understand this very complex skill of comparing and contrasting.