Sunday Salon: What I Read Online October 13-October 26

Social Studies has been an especially hot topic in the past couple of weeks, and since our family also recently visited historic Perryville Battlefield, I'll share history/social studies readings first.

Social Studies
Last Sunday I wrote a blog post about the draft social studies standards in Kentucky--standards aligned to the national C3 Framework. The post quickly became one of my most popular yet-I'm guessing because of the controversy. Anyway, if you missed it, check it out here.

A Kentucky teacher writes about how she appreicates the proposed Kentucky standards for social studies because they promote civic responsibility.

Thinking about Hybrids of Teaching for Historical Thinking by Daisy Martin on the Public History Weekly site is well worth your time and thought.


Common Core State Standards

Not surprising, since Kentucky was first to adopt and implement the Common Core State Standards, there's another great article/interview with the state education commissioner and former associate commissioner. 
Common Core interview with Dr. Terry Holiday & Dr. Felicia Cumings Smith

What the Common Core Did for My Classroom by middle school math teacher Brooke Powers is a post full with honesty and excitement sharing how her classroom is now alive with numbers.

Teacher Time & Leadership
This report compiled by Kentucky teachers for a national organization highlights the differences between the way teachers spend time here in America compared to teachers in other countries.

It's not planning time if teachers are told how to use it by Llana Garon provides more details from a teacher perspective about this issue of teacher time.

In an Education Report article, Barnett Berry writes more about teacher leadership. It's an article worth reading.


Student blogging, writing, and learning
These 11 year old bloggers amazed me & I think blogging for kids is a great way to provide an authentic audience for writing.

Teens at Eminence High are using authentic Project Based Learning to learn and change the world, for real. Read an update of their work in this blog by their principal, Shannon Treece.

This Washington Post article recommends having students internalize texts to become better writers, and I couldn't agree more.

Social Studies Includes History and Thinking

My two sons & two of their friends at Perryville Battlefield State Park

In Kentucky right now there's a little controversy stirred up about the new [draft] social studies standards for our state based on the multi-state-led c3 Framework (College, Career and Civic Ready Standards). Since I've written numerous times previously about how our family likes history, I decided to share some of my own thoughts following an historically enriching afternoon our family spent at Perryville Battlefield State Park not far from where we live.

History is important.

Based on what I've read in the draft standards, I don't think there's any doubt that history is important. Sure the standards don't dictate which events we must study, but they do require us to study history in order to think historically. Let's take a look at grade 6.

As a professional, I am given the freedom to determine which events from history we will use to make connections and classify them as example of change and continuity. Likewise, for each of the historical thinking stanards above, these standards honor my professional judgment for working with my individual students to determine which events from history we will explore.

As a parent, I like this approach because my child who loves history can explore the aspects of history which most interest him while still learning how to think critically. Additionally, as a parent I can determine which aspects of history we will continue to study as a family.  Sure, the standard doesn't say "explore the Battle of Perryville as an important part of Kentucky's participation in the Civil War." However, the standard doesn't have to state specifically which battle we will study in order for us to study a battle. Standards are the minimum students will learn, not the maximum, another important consideration.

 I appreciate this important consideration and the fact that the new standards don't articulate exactly which pieces of history should be taught. Instead, the standards encourage thinking and they leave the job of considering the specifics of what to teach up to the local districts, schools, and teachers. As a former English teacher I can't tell you how much I appreciate the freedom provided in this approach. Think about it--how would we feel if the standards demanded that we teach particular novels or selections of non-fiction with little regard for our contexts, our students' interests, or our own professional judgment?

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the C3 Framework. Notice the emphasis on honoring students.

"Readiness for college, career, and civil life is as much about the experiences students have as it is about learning any particular set of concepts or tools. Thus, the learning environments that teachers create are critical to student success. Students will flourish to the extent that their independent and collaborative efforts are guided, supported, and honored."

Learning About the Battle of Perryville

 "I would like to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." 
                                                              ~Abraham Lincoln


As a lover of nonfiction texts from my early childhood days until now, I recall many a biography I read about women.  Around third grade, I read a biography of Clara Barton and that experience established my interest in the American Civil War.  Barton's involvement as a civil rights activist and her work with the women's suffrage movement were significant issues for me as a young girl.  Drawn to ideas of Barton's humanitarian efforts, I learned about the Union and Confederate sides, and I was impacted by the hatefulness of slavery in ways I couldn't fully grasp, other than to know it could not be okay to treat human beings as property.  Over the years, my understanding of the issues expanded, but honestly I don't think I fully grasped the significance of border states until helping my ten-year-old son with a recent research project for History Day.

Isaac loves history especially the American Civil War.  Since he was seven or eight years old, he's been interested in the people and the strategies behind the battles.  For his third grade biography project a couple of years ago, he researched Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln has continued to be one of his favorite people from history.  For his fifth grade history day project, he decided to research the Battle of Perryville since it was the largest Civil War battle fought in Kentucky and it was a turning point in the War.

Since I have never previously studied Kentucky history and wasn't initially excited about moving here nearly eleven years ago, Isaac and I learned together about an era in Kentucky's history.  We learned why Kentucky was such an important state during the American Civil War and why Abraham Lincoln said he must have Kentucky on his side.  Since it was a border state politically and geographically both the North and the South wanted Kentucky on their side, and Kentucky citizens were apparently divided with some of the residents sympathizing with the South on economic labor issues (they wanted free labor from slaves) and others sympathizing with more progressive thinkers from the North who opposed slavery.

Highlights from what we learned

• We learned that the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves from all confederate states, but not the border states, including Kentucky.  
•  We learned states rights were important to the South because they wanted to preserve their way of living and if slavery was abolished, their way of living would change.
• We learned about a drought in the region that drew both the Union and Confederate armies to Perryville, Kentucky where they had access to many creeks and rivers for troops and their horses.
• We learned about the aftermath of the battle and about a teacher from the School for the Deaf in Danville who was alarmed by the large number of soldiers who were killed and lying dead on the battlefield without a proper burial.  This man went back to the school and brought his students back with him to dig graves and bury the dead soldiers.

Clearly the bulleted points above do not encompass everything we learned, but these were the facts that stayed with both of us, and they are the details making me want to learn more about Kentucky's history.

Incidentally, Isaac and I had the opportunity to learn more about history in Kentucky when he represented his elementary school at the Lexington History Museum's History Fair in downtown at the historic Lyric Theatre in downtown Lexington.

----Sources Consulted----

1.      Wertz, Jay. The Civil War: 1861-1865.  London:

Sevenoaks, 2011.

2.      Sanders, Stuart W. Perryville Under Fire: The

Aftermath of Kentucky’s Largest Civil War Battle. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012.

3.      Noe, Kenneth W. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of

Battle. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

4.      www.civilwar.org

5.      www.battleofperryville.com

6.      Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/item99447187

Performance Based Assessment in Action

Schools across the country are administering final exams this week, and I am wondering how many of those final assessments are copy cats of the state standardized tests students will take in the spring and how many are more performance based, allowing students to demonstrate what they learned without filling in bubbles on a sheet.

Critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity are generally some of the first items tossed out the window when we think about assessment, but I believe it’s possible to create assessments that include these important attributes.  I’m not talking about traditional bubble assessments here, obviously.  Rather, I’m advocating for more performance based assessments where students can demonstrate learning and mastery of both content and skills and do it all in a more collaborative and supportive environment.

Early last week, I served as a reviewer of student performance assessments in a rural school about an hour away from where I live. I always jump on opportunities to be in schools and to see students in action.  This particular opportunity was even more delightful because it addressed another issue about which I care deeply—assessment (and doing assessment right). Part of my job involves serving on a state work group for performance based assessment, and we are looking at schools piloting Performance Based Assessments (PBA) and also thinking about how to encourage more PBA statewide.  

Some of my favorite PBA examples are interdisciplinary, allowing students to demonstrate their learning for more than one subject at a time.  What I observed last week was an assessment where students demonstrated their understanding of social studies/geography standards and concepts as well as their understanding of English language arts standards.  Eleven year-olds were articulate, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and creative.  Since the beginning of the school year, the young students had been learning what they needed to know to be prepared for their performance event.  This learning, obviously, happened in ways that moved beyond skill and drill/worksheet completion and lower level thinking.  To be prepared for their performance assessments, these eleven year-olds had to speak well, listen to others, collaborate with teammates, research, read, write, and create.

Meeting the students

While I don’t know the tiny little details that happened before I met the students, I do know what they shared with me.  Students were asked to research a different country (the group I worked with had researched Afghanistan), sixth grade students worked in teams of 3-4 to create their own country complete with its own name, geographical coordinates, country, culture, etc.  The bulk of sixth grade social studies standards in Kentucky currently focus on geography—hence this particular assignment.  Their social studies and English teachers worked together to plan lessons that addressed the various components of the project, with the research and writing skills being a focus in ELA class, and the content/geography work happening in social studies class.  They also had to write a paper that created an argument for which country was better and why—the country they researched or their made-up county.  They collaboratively wrote and edited the paper before bringing it to the presentation.  The students were very honest with us about how difficult it was to work in a group; they said at first they argued a lot about their made-up country, and their teacher worked with them on team building skills and helped them understand the importance of collaborating and creating the project together.  

Had they not so honestly told us how they struggled at first to get along, we never would have known.  The day of their presentation, they were united with a plan and presented as a team, supporting one another when another team member faltered.  The day of the presentations, students entered the library carrying a hand created map, their argumentative paper, and their confidence.  We asked students questions about each step of their research process, about their countries (both the one they researched and the one they created).  We also asked them on the spot, to apply knowledge about geographical content to present day situations. For example, we asked students to read a world map, read charts, graphs, and tables and then answer our questions which included lots of inferencing so students had to tell us why they interpreted the map in a particular manner.  

Overall, I was very impressed with the process and the end result, and knowing the school, they will continue to refine the process based on this experience. What's remarkable to note is that this wasn't just the teachers deciding to implement performance based assessments in their own classrooms.  This was school-wide performance based assessments for all courses.  Imagine the impact on learning and teaching when the focus of school-wide assessment is performance based!  I look forward to returning in the spring when they assess students over mathematics and science content in a similar performance based fashion.

For the Love of Social Studies!

“As long as I don’t have to miss social studies” was the reply from my ten-year-old son when I told him the school interventionist was going to start pulling him for extra help with reading two times per week.  Really, I couldn’t agree more with him.  You see, my ten-year-old loves history, and has loved history for most of his elementary school aged years, but this year (5^th grade) is the first year he has had regular social studies instruction.

Fortunately for my son, he also has a 5^th grade teacher who happens to love history too.  She is a National Board Certified Teacher who is dynamic, reflective, thoughtful, and purposeful with instruction.  She also understands the importance of kids moving, exploring, and learning in non test-prep ways (in most of Kentucky, public schools only teach social studies in 5^th grade because that’s the year it’s tested for the state testing system).  This is wrong, and even slightly illegal, given that the state has required social studies standards for every year of a child’s elementary grade.  Unfortunately, schools feel pressured by the high-stakes testing and accountability system, so most schools in Kentucky only teach a subject if it’s tested that year  (they only teach science during 4^th grade—the year it’s tested, much to the dismay of my older son who loved science and only had it one year grades K-5).

I have written about this frustrating system and approach in previous posts and have shared ways my husband and I have worked to supplement our sons’ public school experiences.  Rather than make this post another soapbox post about how much I want the system to change, I’ve decided to focus on Isaac’s love of history and the great year he’s having because he’s receiving excellent social studies instruction—something that really interests him. 

Isaac says his teacher makes history interesting because she has students role-play, debate, ask lots of questions, read and write (all called for by the Common Core) and explore artifacts she’s collected and keeps in her room.  She also enriches standards based classroom instruction with games and field trips.

On a recent field trip to Fort Boonesborough, the students dipped candles, learned about blacksmithing, heard about Daniel Boone, and very impressively--discussed with one another primary and secondary sources and historical artifacts. They knew what they were talking about, and they were curious, bright-eyed, and attentive as they walked from cabin to cabin.

Not only does Isaac's teacher provide explicit and purposeful social studies instruction, she also supplements the history standards that are part of her fifth grade curriculum with social studies issues related to present day, and she recommends books to children based on their interests.  For Isaac, her recommendation included Kate Messner’s Capture the Flag, set in Washington D.C. (specifically Regan National Airport). This was perfect because Isaac had the requisite background knowledge since our family flew into this airport for our Washington D.C. trip during spring break last year.

 She’s also currently working children’s rights into her instruction and having children learn about Malala and watch clips from the film Girl Rising.  These issues are pertinent to children having a global perspective about the world in which we live.  Even though the standardized test children will take in the spring is focused on early American history, this teacher understands the importance of children learning about the bigger world in which we live.  She purposefully works into instruction issues and topics relevant to current political events as well as historical events being remembered. 

I decided to check out what the National Council for the Social Studies has to say about learning social studies in elementary school.  Turns out, they have plenty to say about “powerful and purposeful teaching of social studies in elementary schools.” They share links to research and documentation about how the subject has been marginalized in the years since No Child Left Behind was passed.  One of the many important quotes from their site--

“teachers should ensure that the social studies experiences woven throughout the curriculum follow logical sequences, allow for depth and focus, and help young learners move forward in their acquisition of knowledge and skills. The curriculum should not become, in the pursuit of integration, a grab bag of random social studies experiences that are related marginally to a theme or project. Rather, concepts should be developed to assure coherence and meaning.”

Thankfully, my son’s teacher practices purposeful instruction and keeps Isaac’s love of history alive each day ensuring he experiences coherence and meaning with what he learns.  We are grateful beyond belief for this excellent teacher and the fabulous year Isaac is experiencing.

Students Need Opportunities to Learn More than What's on the Test



Note--Arts & Humanties = 5 day rotation--1 day music, 1 day visual art
1 day P.E., 1 day library, 1 day writing

What do you notice about this fourth grade schedule?  Does it look like a schedule similar to that of your children and/or students?  Hopefully not, but I suspect it might.   We live in a school district that promotes the teaching only of subjects which are tested in a particular grade level.  This means my nine year old son who loves history has received little to no social studies formal instruction in his public school.  This is not the fault of the teachers—it’s the fault of a system which prioritizes subjects included in high-stakes testing.   At the elementary level social studies is tested only in fifth grade, so schools adjust what they teach and ignore social studies until that one year.  It doesn’t get much better when it comes to science; students around here only have official science instruction during fourth grade (again, the year it is tested).   My sixth grade son loves science, but he was offered science instruction only one year of his six years in elementary school.  I won’t even start on how limited the opportunities for technology and the arts are as well.  You see, these are the unintended consequences of state and federal mandates for high standardized test scores. 

If I were a pessimist, I might end my post here and tell you I’ve decided to remove my son from public school in search of a better alternative for a more well-rounded education.  However, I am an idealist and a dreamer who has a vision—a vision that we can collaborate to make a difference in the schools in our communities.  In fact, this vision or a similar vision is being enacted in a school district only about forty five minutes away from where we live.  In Danville, Kentucky, leaders of the schools and teachers are implementing project based learning as one way to meet the needs of students beyond what’s on the state standardized tests.  Kudos to this district!  I’m ready to move forward with creating more opportunities like this in my own district as well.  All students deserve the opportunity to learn more than what’s on the state test. 

Tower of books at Ford's Theatre
museum in Washington D.C.

In the mean time my husband and I supplement what our children learn at school with learning at home.  We encourage our children to be responsible and tech savvy citizens; we read content rich non-fiction as well as fiction and poetry.  We also take local and out of state trips (when possible) to promote active learning through experiences.  I feel fortuante that we can work to provide these experiences to our children, so when wearing my mom hat I feel fine about this supplemental approach to education.  However, when wearing my educator hat, I realize not all children have this same luxury of parents who are able or willing to supplement what they learn at school with more well-rounded experiences at home. 

 

 A few changes to our current system could provide more well-rounded learning experiences for all students, and that is my mission and my vision--to support educators striving to provide experiences for all students.  Please share your ideas and suggestions with me. 

Introducing Principals to the Literacy Design Collaborative

This week I had my first opportunity to meet all the middle and high school principals in our district.  As the primary point of contact for a major literacy grant, it was important for these administrators to know who I am, and more importantly, to know about the ongoing professional learning experiences we are facilitating for their teachers.  Since we believe in modeling best practice, my colleagues and I decided to stage an argument about the content the principals would learn (In this situation, the content happened to be writing instruction and impact of writing programs in schools).  The argument was designed to set the context and engage the learners/readers in two articles with opposing view-points.  

I’m really happy to be back in the district working closely with teachers and schools, and for the most part it’s going well.  However, I do have one little issue.  My colleague and I don’t agree on the appropriate approach for writing instruction, so we need your help.  We are going to give you two different articles and ask you to help us decide an answer to this question—is it necessary to omit personal connection to produce good writing?  I don’t think it’s necessary to do so, but my colleague does.  Will you help us settle this argument by gleaning evidence from two texts?

My science colleague distributed The Writing Revolution, and I distributed In Defense of Freedom Writers but only after I talked about the power Manuel Scott’s presentation had on me a couple of weeks ago.   Then we gave each administrator a few text dependent questions to accompany both articles, set a timer for 20 minutes and then paced, re-read and watched as a room full of principals and associate principals read the two articles with their pens in hand.  Following the reading of the two articles, our social studies colleague continued the staged argument by telling the principals she didn’t agree with either of us—she was in the middle.  She then facilitated a fish bowl discussion to engage the principals in conversation around the two points of view conveyed in the two articles.  She charted ideas and the principals on the outside of the fishbowl recorded additional thoughts on sticky notes when it wasn’t their turn to talk.  A few struggled to keep quiet when they were on the outside of the fish bowl because they felt so strongly about what they had read.

These are the same conditions teachers are creating as they introduce a Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) task to students in science, social studies and English Language Arts.   Before we went into the rest of our presentation on LDC, we told the principals the argument had been staged, and they got it.  They understood we had set the context for learning more about the content.  Teachers in our district, across many districts in Kentucky, and in several other states in the United States are utilizing the LDC tools to implement the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical subjects.

We are using LDC because we see the importance of engaging students in meaningful and authentic reading and writing opportunities in every discipline.  Think about the response above--A few struggled to keep quiet when they were on the outside of the fish bowl because they felt so strongly about what they had read.   Exactly.  Imagine this happening in classrooms full of excited and engaged adolescents!

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know this is exactly why I left the state department to be closer to schools, closer to the teaching and learning that will make a difference in the lives of students.