Does curriculum need to go on a diet? A follow-up to #edchat

As expected, tonight's #edchat was not disappointing as we talked about how to deal with an overloaded curriculum.  It was as fast and furious as ever.  There are some things I'm sure I missed and probably will miss even after reviewing the archive dozens of times.  After trying to pre-load the discussion earlier, I came away with even more questions and ideas tonight.  These are the ones that were most impactful to me.

At the risk of sounding like a traitor, sometimes I wonder how many times we as teachers are responsible for our own problems?  A lot of discussion centered around teaching standards, not long lists of content.  Out of curiosity, I ran the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for sixth grade science through Wordle and was surprised at the results, particularly the prominence of the higher order verbs "analyze" and "evaluate".  Of course there is the possibility of the curriculum writers covering themselves to look good.  For the sake of argument, let's say that is the case.  If the "official" curriculum is stated this way, the teacher now has plenty of freedom on how she or he teaches the course.  We just don't do it.

Let's look at a different curriculum such as math.  I'm also a math teacher and math always seem to stand as the exception to the possibilities.  Math tends to be skilled based, at least for K-8.  Doing the same thing as with the science curriculum, the results are dramatically different.  It's hard to find the verbs.  When you do, they are lower level.  Waldo is easier to find than the verb "analyze".  Two dynamics are at work here.  One, math is just a different beast.  Two, maybe it's not as rigorous as we'd like to believe.  HOWEVER, I do think that it is possible to weave the goals and strands in such a way as to cover concepts that are demonstrated by all the skills we worry about being on the end of year test.

Another common error we make as teachers is confusing curriculum with the textbook table of contents.  Textbooks are even more arbitrary than curriculum is.  This fallacy is not as common as it once was because of district imposed pacing guides.  Now the pacing guide becomes the curriculum impostor.  As someone said tonight, it's interesting that we are told to focus on higher level thinking skills with particular concepts that are given one day on the pacing guide.  How one should deal with the pacing guide is a more delicate matter.  It is largely dependent on your school and/or district admin.  For some the consequences can be quite severe if the  pacing guide is not strictly followed.  That's a sad indictment on the state of education.

Moving away from condemning ourselves, another very important point was made tonight.  Content cannot be thrown out.  Even if a conceptual framework is going to drive future curriculum development, then it is still permissible to select particular content to teach those concepts.  Someone else noted that there are some important content pieces that are being cut out, perhaps wrongly so.  The example given was the Holocaust.  Of course, these will always be subjective judgments.

After tonight, I'm not as dismayed about the future as some.  Despite what the talking heads and policy makers tell us, I think we can make it work as the folks on the front line.  What do you think?

Content vs. Concept or "How do I cover all this stuff?"

In anticipation of the January 26 edition of #edchat, @paulawhite and I are going to try to preload some thoughts for deeper discussion. I agreed to take on topic #1 in the poll – With an overloaded curriculum, what should be emphasized and what should be eliminated? A few disclaimers ahead of time:
1- There are a lot of people out there much smarter than I on this subject.
2- There are a lot of people out there much more articulate on the subject than I.
3- I'm very opinionated, handicapped by numbers 1 and 2 above.
4- I teach a course that "doesn't matter".  More on that later.

Here's where I predict #edchat will go on this subject. Eventually, if not quickly, the subject of end-of-year summative assessments and their knowledge based, level 1 questions will come up. The topic of NCLB, RttT, and all other insufficient (first instance of strong opinion) means of measuring success will get thrown around. We will all protest that these measures “require” us to squeeze in an impossible amount of content to be regurgitated at the end of year. We will all lament not being able to teach thinking skills, how to learn, creativity, etc. or as someone will call them, 21^st Century skills, starting a sidebar argument about that label.

I currently teach a course that “doesn't really matter” - sixth grade science. Here's why it doesn't matter – there is no end of the year test. In North Carolina, there are end of grade tests for fifth and eight grade science, but not sixth. This year, NC temporarily discontinued the eight grade computer skills test because of funding. The scores were not part of NCLB rankings, so money was diverted elsewhere. By the way, this goes to show that we aren't all that concerned about testing what really matters are we? (there's that opinion thing again) Last year when I taught seventh grade math, the stakes were much higher for me, or so it felt. All year my PLC was frustrated because, in our opinion, most of the standard course of study was above where seventh grade students are developmentally.

Before I answer the real question, a few paragraphs heavy on philosophy, opinion, and perspective. After school today my teammates and I were discussing this very issue in the context of whether we are adequately preparing our students for next year, i.e. next year's teachers. As a team, our quarterly assessment scores generally run higher that the rest of our grade level. We have far less behavior problems. Most students who have been predicted to not meet proficient standards (“pass”) on the end of year assessments are performing well above expectations. Our final grades for the grading period are generally higher than the rest of grade level.

The question we tried to answer was, “Are we being too soft or too easy on these kids?” We concluded that we are not. We are rigorous in the content and skills we expect the students to master. We have a shared philosophy regarding grades in that everything is basically seen as a formative assessment. You get to retake an assignment as often as necessary to master the material. We have frequent and immediate remediation on all tasks. NOTE: This does not mean simply re-doing the same exact assignment. In a nutshell, our philosophy as a team is that we believe we should be teaching skills and concepts, not force feeding knowledge.

As we discussed this matter, we had a sudden light bulb moment that enabled us to formulate a hierarchy of what the major focus should be in various grade levels of school. We concluded that we believe that elementary school (K-5) should focus on building prior knowledge and reading. Middle school (6-8) should focus on developing skills such as how to do research, how to learn, how to think, how to work collaboratively, problem solving skills, etc. High school then becomes a place where the focus can be to build specialized areas of content by building on prior knowledge and applying the skills learned in middle school.  This might not be original, but it was new to us today.

It became even more apparent why the current system just isn't working. As policy makers complain that we are not preparing students for the current economy and current high school students have tuned out because they don't understand the basics, it has been erroneously concluded that the solution is to push more of the content down to lower grades. Therefore, sixth graders need to start taking Algebra 1, which is false because most of them are not developmentally ready (another opinion but one I think is correct).

So, what does all this have to do with the question of what to emphasize in an already overloaded curriculum? If the division of education foci I propose above has any merit, then the answer will require some tweaking for each level. What I believe is constant across all levels is the need to identify those essential standards and connecting concepts across the standard course of study. As a sixth grade science teacher in North Carolina Public Schools, I don't think it's all that important that a kid be able to classify a sedimentary rock into any particular subgroup of said rocks. However, it is important that a student understand that the earth's surface is in a state of constant change as various geologic forces act together, shaping continents, providing the dynamics necessary to drive the rock cycle, and produce the various minerals and other natural resources we use in a variety of ways. Scott McLeod shares a similar story regarding knowledge of a neuron.

I am a firm believer that understanding of a concept leads to better content retention. I have colleagues who go from steps in a process to grasping the larger concept in their instruction. I tend to work from grasping the larger concept to guiding the students in discovering the steps themselves. Either way will appeal to different groups of individual learners. The common theme is getting to the point of grasping the concept. That conceptual framework provides connections to many more points of content.

Hopefully I have set the stage for a more in-depth discussion of this topic. Before #edchat ever takes place, seeds of thought can begin to germinate. Long after the unofficial time constraint of one hour has passed, this can be a place to debate and flesh out ideas as they surface. I haven't given any specific strategies. That's one place where we can all begin to contribute more, not just in 140 characters on Twitter, coming fast and furious, but in well thought out replies. #Edchat will provoke dozens of other ideas. Let's not lose the possibility to capitalize on those once the hour is done.

The Joy of Learning

My wife and I are both the oldest children in our respective families.  Naturally, we started having kids before our sibs.  It's interesting to watch all my nieces go through the stages we have already passed through.  Sometimes it's a relief to say, "I'm glad we're through that!" and other times it's "I miss when they were that age."  My youngest niece is 7 months old.  Her entire life centers around exploring and learning.  She is so excited about everything around her.  I really do miss that stage of my boys lives.  Samantha is learning so much in such a short period of time.

A kindergarten teacher told me today that she chose that grade level because "it's the last fun grade in school."  What?!  That can't be.  Certainly it takes us at least three or four years to beat the enjoyment of school out of them doesn't it?  Thinking about my niece made me think about how I could create that type of environment in my classroom.  What would it take to foster a "I want to learn and explore everything" attitude in my classroom full of learners?  Tonight's #edchat addressed that very thing.  How do we best promote student ownership in their learning?

There were a lot of great ideas thrown out.  I'm looking forward to trying some of them out.  Heck, I'm even looking forward to trying out some of my own ideas :-)  That's part of the problem.  My friend @kellyhines concluded her participation in tonight's #edchat with this tweet:

Something about tonight's #edchat isn't sitting well with me tonight. We know the what & the how, so why isn't "ownership" happening?

I confess.  Ownership isn't happening in my classroom as much as I'd like.  Sure, almost all of my kids enjoy my class, even love my class.  What kid wouldn't when their teacher is as big a goofball as I?  Plus, I'll stop a lesson on a whim or a student prompted question to go off on a tangent and project all the findings on the screen.  But where is the ownership?

Last fall I set up all sorts of goals.  My classroom was going to be a "learning community".  Students would be self-directed, wholly invested learners.  It went great for the first quarter.  Then I got tired of staying up until 1:00 am every night.  All sort of other deadlines hit me.  I was negotiating philosophical perspectives with my PLC.  All I had time for was the usual.  Our first week back from winter break, one of my kids asked, "When are we going to do all the stuff like we used to do?"  I was caught red-handed.  I was convicted of my own sin.

To answer Kelly's question, it's hard to make it happen every day.  Some of us have a lot of bad habits to unlearn and even more good habits to learn.  There is the reality of NCLB, RttT, and every other false measure of accountability (editorializing? yep!).  There is the pressure we all feel to make the grade.  We talk about wanting to dig all the way to the bottom of Bloom's, but something about those pacing guides and standardized testing keeps us from leaving the shallow end of the pool.  But we still have to strive for it everyday!

I'm idealistic enough to believe we will see more student ownership of learning.  I believe it will happen because the number of us who share our own joy of learning is growing each day.  It will happen because there will be enough of them who don't get sucked dry by the system and they will become teachers themselves.  They will force shared ownership/leadership in their schools and districts.  And I believe I will see it in my day.

A Week of Faves

Tonight I sorted through about five days worth of links I had tagged as favorites on Twitter.  Some I retweeted out immediately.  Others, those listed below, I wanted to send out but pose my own take or question for further reflection, inviting discussion on those issues.  So, without further ado . . .

• The Reflective Teacher: a Taxonomy - These are great ways to reflect upon our practices. How can we ensure that we incorporate such reflection in our practices, PLC's, etc.?
• How to Put a Laptop in the Hands of EveryStudent - Are any of us willing to sacrifice to make this a reality?  How forceful should administrative policy/direction be to make this happen?
• We Have to Model Failure - How many of us really think failure is a good thing?  How many of us are willing to admit failure? How many of us are ready to let a student demonstrate they know more than we?
• Making Teaching a Profession - Some will be offended or insulted by this article.  Once you get over that, reflect on how you implement some of the recommendations even though you are already out and working.  I like this suggestion: "the problem he has seen at dozens of programs was that there was 'no connection between the clinical experience and what went on in the university.' Ideally, he said, students 'would teach in the morning, spend the afternoon learning theory connected to what went on that morning, and then preparing for the next day.' ”

• A 21st Century Drill/Warmup -  An awesome exercise.  A great springboard to help us create other similar practices with our students and utilize all the tools out to their fullest.

I liked several others enough to bookmark them on Delicious.  Check out the one's I saved today .

2009 - the year in review

Last year, 2009, was the single most pivotal year of my teaching career.  This is my eighth year teaching, spread out over twenty years.  The thing that made this particular year so important is the development of my personal learning network, or simply my PLN.

The development of my PLN was part serendipity, part intention.  In March, I attended a weeklong workshop on Web 2.0 tools at the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching (which IMHO is THE most incredible perk available to NC teachers.  Go if you get the chance!).  My purpose for attending was to learn about all these new tools so I could implement them in my classroom FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE STUDENT.  I became a far better teacher, not because I suddenly integrated all this cool technology in my classroom, but because I began using it my personal life.  I already used blogs quite regularly, including one I personally maintained.  The morning we learned about Twitter, everything changed.

I already had a Twitter id that was collecting digital dust due to its lack of use.  I knew it was useless without followers or people to follow.  However, I had no idea how to begin forming those lists.  One of the people I met in my workshop that week was David Hines, aka @olballcoach.  Don't let the fact that he is a J-I-M teacher fool you.  He's a great teacher who integrates technology into yes, his P.E. classes.  His school is lucky to have him.  David's wife, @kellyhines, was already well connected at this point.  With a couple of emails, text messages and DM's to Kelly, a few of us had networks of about fifty followers by the end of the day.

My PLN has been an incredible asset to me this year.  I've formed relationships with educators from all over the world.  I have conversations with people on all levels of administration and the classroom.  I have received tips, hints, advice, suggestions, etc. on so many things education related.  I have experienced professional sharing and encouragement like never before.  I may never teach in the same school with any of my PLN, but I feel like a part of their successes and failures when I hear about them.  I have received far more than I ever imagined and definitely more than I have given.

As I look ahead to 2010, I am excited about the possibilities.  I know my PLN will continue to be a large part of my professional development.  My success will be owed to them in someway I'm sure.

When EVERYTHING goes wrong

At 11:09 AM this morning I sent out the following tweet:

Today is the type of day that makes you say, "i will never use technology in the classroom again" but I will persevere!

It was only 20 minutes into the second class of the day for me. I had been fortunate enough to find an extended period of time when the school laptop carts were not reserved. I reserved them for seven consecutive school days. Today was day 1. I'm glad I have six more days.

The particular project the kids are working on is what we are calling the "Cool Questions Project". Throughout the year, I have kept a running list of cool questions the kids have asked, most of which I have been unable to answer, either because I myself did not know or we just needed to move on. Occassionally I will push pause on whatever we are doing and do a quick search on the internet to try and find the answer. As a sidenote, sometimes it's best to turn off the projector, otherwise the auto fill feature of Google will list questions like "Why is my poop green?".

Using that list, the kids are each selecting a question of their choice and researching the answer. Once they have completed their research, they will each do a digital presentation. They can choose whatever format they would like - powerpoint, Glog, video, Voki, etc. Since many of my students have no computer access at home at all, I reserved the laptops for an extended period of time.

Day 1 went only a little worse than I had expected. The teacher who used one of the carts before me failed to plug up any of the laptops. Few machines in that cart had a charged battery and two of power cables do not work. I spent the entire 63 minutes of my first class finally getting all my kids id's and pw's straightened out. My second class only went a little better.

Technology issues aside, I began to question the scope of the assignment. Did I assign too much to my little sixth graders? Can they really handle the open endedness and potential enormity of this project? Several issues quickly made themselves apparent. 1) They have no real idea how to do research. 2) They have not yet learned how to read a passage for information and make the necessary inferences. (This is a science class BTW). 3) Despite being given a rubric with benchmark goals and dates, most only see a BIG project, not the small manageable pieces.

So, have I erred once again by failing to properly plan? Did I forget to consider my students' actual developmental stage? Can this thing be salvaged? I believe the answer to all three questions is "Yes". However, I don't think that in regards to planning and considering my students' abilities that I was really not that far off. This project is on track to accomplish everything I hoped it would. The students will get a chance to study something THEY want to study. The students will learn some new research skills. When things go wrong, students are forced to develop problem solving skills. They are excited about doing "a technology project." It's one step closer to that self-paced differentiated classroom I so want to teach.

I think when this is all said and done, if more wrong than right happens, it may turn out to be the best project ever.

Doing something Different(iated) for a change - Part 1

This post was spawned by a retweet of @edteck sent out by @shannoninottawa. The quote was

A thought...What % of your class time is spent having every kid do the exact same thing?

This seed was further nurtured by an article called "The School of One". The article describes the exact type of classroom I've always wanted to have. If you read the article, you'll find a broad range of responses, both for and against this approach.

Honestly, despite the potential chaos and confusion in the classroom and tons of extra work, I would love to have a classroom where all 30 kids were doing something entirely different every single day. Twenty years ago when I taught high school math, I taught two sections of what was then called Competency Math. These students had not passed the NC Competency test for math. I had 12 to 15 students in each class. Each student worked at his or her own pace until a particular skill was mastered. So why don't I do that now? What's my excuse?

Let me list my excuses first so I can shoot 'em down when I'm done.

1. I don't have the time. I'd have to come up with all my lesson plans, activities, etc. all at once so my quicker students would have something to do as they speed through.
2. I can't effectively teach every child that way. Somebody's going to fall through the cracks. The slower kids will probably get all the attention while the smarter kids teach themselves because they are able to anyway while the middle of the road kids get minimal instruction. Or I'll focus on the average kid because there are more of them and the advanced/slower kids will get neglected. Or . . .
3. I don't have the necessary resources. Sure, I did it 20 years ago, but honestly, it was really a worksheet driven class. Everything is tech driven today. I only have 1 computer in my room. Lab time is hard to come by. Besides, if everyone is doing something different, I cannot necessarily take them all to the lab at one time.

There are probably some other excuses but I'm sure they are some derivative of the above three.

1. Not everything has to be done at once. It would be nice to have everything all tidied up in a box, ready to pull as we progress through the year. I don't have to teach the entire course like this. I know what the standard course of study is for the year. Look ahead, pick a couple of units far enough in advance. Plan them around this philosophy and see how it goes. Expand the offering each year until you are satisfied.
2. Move to a student centered/learning driven classroom. Face it. Everything we do as teachers tends to be teacher centered and teacher driven. The emphasis is on how we present things, how we lead activities, how we deliver content. It's not about me - it's about the student. If I focus on the essential standards of my course instead of the myriads of factoids found in the content, all sorts of activities and lessons can be implemented. Give students every opportunity to create their own content so they can demonstrate mastery via evaluation, analysis, and other higher order skills. This will keep ALL students moving and learning.
3. 21st Century does not equal technology. 21st Century skills are skills like collaboration and evaluation, the same sort of skills we taught in the 20th century. True, they are pushed via technology today, but they don't have to be. You use it whenever you can get your hands on it, but come up with the old-fashioned ways all the other times. Check out this article by @kellyhines for more about that.

Okay, so I've eliminated all my excuses for myself. The next step is to actually do it. Part 2 will address that. While we all wait to see what that looks like, what other excuses am I missing? What are valid objections to such an approach? What are possible solutions?