Mrs. Szymborski’s Summer Reading

I have always been a voracious reader. Always. My earliest memories involve reading.

My advice to my students who desire to “get smarter” is to read everything they can get their hands on (broad), and when they find a writer they like, read everything that the author has written (deep).

As a teacher, I know that reading is the key to learning anything. Perhaps most importantly, developing a good reading habit will help students become good and great writers.

The skills you develop when you read deeply and broadly include learning how to better determine connotation and denotation of words, grammar usage, punctuation, writing moves, as well as learning about the content in your book, regardless of the genre.

My first love of reading was fueled by fiction. But over the last 20 years, I have learned to appreciate nonfiction on a much larger scale. However, during the school year, I rarely have the stamina to read an entire book. I spend much of my time reading student work, articles from the New York Times and Atlantic, blogs and posts and tweets and other information shared from colleagues and students and esteemed educators and leaders.

But when school winds down, and the summer begins, the books come out.

Here are books, in order, that I have read so far since school ended.

Little Fires Everywhere

Educated

The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science

The Gene: An Intimate History (still reading)

The Institute

The Reckoning

The Contact Paradox (hope to finish today)

But the books themselves are not as important as how I choose what to read.

Gifts: My daughter gave me Little Fires Everywhere as a Christmas gift. She chose it for me because it was something she was reading in her book club. Lest you think book clubs are for bored housewives, this daughter is a busy oncologist and mother of two.

Recommendations from people who are readers: I ask people what they are reading. If they are really excited about it, then I look into it. If it looks like something I might like, I read it. Educated was recommended by above daughter. It is also a book that is discussed in my AP English Facebook group as a good memoir for our course. It was in a pile of books my 81 year old mom (always a reader and a great role model)hopes to read this summer. I borrowed it and read it quickly. It is awesome.

Book Lists: I routinely check things like the New York Times Best Seller lists. I also look for posts when people talk about what they are reading for the summer–a frequent article on various sites and social media. This year I saw a list of what some UPenn people were reading. That made me curious about the books on genes. Krista (above daughter) said that she read The Emperor of All Maladies and loved it. That is a book on the history of cancer, her speciality, and she said, short of the difficult-to-pronounce names, that this book was interesting and engaging.

However, when I went to the library the first day it reopened (I only go to the food store and the library–you can see what I value) I found his other books. The one about Laws of Medicine was short and a quick read. I liked it because my best friend and daughter are both physicians, something that I had always wanted to be, and I like the discussion of medicine as an art or a practice or a science. The book on genes is extremely interesting and extremely long and I am progressing in reading it slowly.

I am a fast reader. Speed reading was part of our English courses in high school, and reading as much as I do, speed becomes second nature. However, some things need to be read s-l-o-w-l-y. That is another skill you learn from reading as much as you can. You learn to vary your reading speed according to the text and your purpose. Reading to enjoy? One can read quickly to keep the momentum going (or slowly to savor the prose). Science? Slow.

Library: When I located the two Mukherjee books, I looked through the stacks. First I went to fiction to find my FAVORITE fiction writer–Stephen King. I have read almost everything he has published. There I found a recently (2019) published book that I hadn’t yet read, and I snatched that up! Went to the Gs in the stacks, and found a Grisham book I hadn’t yet read. Grabbed that.

Then I went to the recent shelves–that special place where the librarians display new books. I found there the recent book on SETI–search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Would it to surprise you that there I was reminded of TWO things I can demonstrate to my new AP class–one is how Carl Sagan was aware of his audience, a senator who previously thought that any search like this was a waste of government, and developed a strategy of finding common ground so that he could change his opinion. And the other, making cross textual(curricular) connections. You would expect to talk about Darwin in a book about genetics, but in a book about outer space? Far out.

All in all, I haven’t spent a dime yet. It is not that I do not love to buy and cherish books. I do. When hubby and I downsized a few years ago, I had hundreds of books and nowhere for them in the new house. I brought them into school, and my students snapped them up! There are some books I will not part with. There are even some I will not loan. But most books are in a list I keep or in my memory.

Today is July 17. There are a number of books to be read yet. Some I can get at the library. Some I will borrow from a family member or friend. And some I will have to buy.

I can’t wait.

In other words

May3

One of the hardest–and most important–skills to teach high school students is paraphrasing source material for a research paper.

Even though students are taught how to summarize and paraphrase throughout their education, the students I meet in high school are not particularly fond of the work it requires.

I believe that there are several reasons for their disdain, but the one that I think accounts for more cases of accidental plagiarism deals with reading comprehension.

Paraphrasing requires that students do not repeat the exact words OR the exact syntax of a passage. In order to do that, students need to understand what they read on such a deep level that they can “tell the story” completely in their own words.

I have tried many activities over the years, but I think I finally landed on a lesson that makes paraphrasing completely clear for my students.

As my College Prep juniors were ready to begin their researched argument, and after I promised them I would teach this to them so well that they would be the most popular kids in college because everyone would want their help, I thought I was almost done when I reminded them of the value of using databases and the necessity of vetting online information not from a database.

They chose their topics, they gathered their sources, they created their projects in Noodletools, and they entered the bibliographic information for their sources.

Then I panicked.

The words of my coach kept ringing in my head: “You have to make visible the invisible process that effective readers use.”

My students were dealing with issues like animal testing and immigration; their source material was dense and difficult, and I knew that I had not planned this well enough. I knew that when I checked their paraphrases against the original I would be frustrated and so would they.

One day, it hit me. I gave each group a giant post-it and I told them to tell the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” without using the words little, red, riding, hood, big, bad, wolf, Grandma, teeth, eyes, and nose.

They had fun AND they easily wrote the story without using the exact words OR the exact syntax.

After the gallery walk, I asked the students to tell me what they noticed. And what they noticed actually defined the criteria for paraphrasing–no words from the original, no synonyms stuck into original sentences, but main points covered.

“That is paraphrasing,” I told them

I asked them to talk with the elbow partners and then their group about their thoughts. And there was that feeling in the air when you know that something good had happened. They got it.

The second thing I did to help with paraphrasing has to do with the entire way I structured this project, which focused on creating an argument with their own ideas and supporting it with outside information. A key part to their success had to do with choosing ONE passage from each of their six sources. We talked about looking at the most important information each article offered, and they selected one or two paragraphs per source.

My College Prep kids are finishing up their notecards, and based on the ones I have evaluated, they are doing a great job with the paraphrasing.

Some of them were able to paraphrase without help; they relied on understanding the passages using their previously developed skills or making use of some of the strategies we worked on this year. For those who needed more help, I offered them this worksheet.

If you are interested in more information about the relationship between comprehension and paraphrasing, here is a great article.

I believe one of the most important skills we can help our students develop fully before they go to college is paraphrasing. Think about when YOU teach paraphrasing. It happens in many ways and in many content areas. Math teachers teach paraphrasing when they direct their students to restate the problem in their own words. Science teachers teach paraphrasing when they explain lab reports.

Perhaps we need to find a way to connect all these experiences for our students. Let’s find a way to share our ideas and our best practices.

The standards, the skills, the tests: An eye opening revelation

Mar5

Anyone who knows me knows that I do not believe in “teaching to the test”.

Certainly, I make sure to the best of my ability that I prepare my students for the standardized tests they take–PSATs, SATs, AP, and our diocesan test, Performance Series, and for Philadelphia School partnership, the Terra Nova.

I believe in demystifying these tests through taking and deconstructing practice tests, and I believe in helping kids learn to de-stress about these kinds of tests since they are just part of the life of a student.

There is often too much at stake–for the student and the school–to take a hands off approach to these tests.

What is interesting, however, is that a series of separate situations has led me to discovering something quite amazing. In my school, we are working to increase our students’ literacy, and one of the metrics we are using is the PSAT and SAT scores. Furthermore, since we adopted this online resource years ago, we are trying to find ways to encourage teachers to use Newsela more. Additionally, the archdiocesan schools have been working with Learning Science in discovering how digging through our standards and creating scales can improve rigor and, ultimately, achievement.

Since we use the CCSS ELA standards, finding evidence that Newsela would help us increase achievement in the Reading area is easy, because in addition to offering the ability to assign students the same content at their separate and appropriate reading level, Newsela has quizzes available for most of its articles that are geared toward the eight Anchor standards. And diving further into ELA reading, Newsela supports Reading in both Informational Text and Literature. AND it supports the literacy reading standards for Social Studies and Science and Technical Subjects. So that is pretty amazing.

But what really amazed me is how the SAT aligns with the Common Core.

I have been trying to find a list of skills that are tested in the SAT so that I could help my students drill down on their areas of weaknesses. In recent workshops, I have asked multiple people for crosswalks with CCSS and our standardized tests. I did not get any easy answers. I started going through a SAT prep book trying to identify the skills. I had my students begin to fill in a Google Form with the skills their PSAT report indicated they need to improve.

I googled various combinations of “SAT” and “PSAT” and “CCSS” and have hit interesting documents that talk about the percentage of content from the CCSS that is addressed in the SATs. And I even found a great resource that shows the alignment of CCSS and AP courses.

But I could not find a list of the skills addressed on the SAT–until last week when my principal emailed the faculty some resources, and there were the skills identified as SAT Reading Domain (pp. 17-18) and SAT Writing and Language Domain (pp. 29-30) smack dab in the middle of a PDF file of The Redesigned SAT Teacher Implementation Guide from the College Board. Math is there, too!

I had been gridding the skills from Newsela and CCSS ELA literacy, Social Studies, and Science and Technical Subjects to find commonalities, but when I started to add a column with the SAT reading skills, I was shocked.

Each part of the reading domain aligns with the CCSS. Here is my chart. I am working on the Writing correlation, but it does not fit as neatly.

My conclusion? Teaching the literacy standards from both the ELA Reading, Social Studies, and Science and Technical Subjects is EXACTLY what the students will need to know for the Reading part of SAT. And using Newsela across the content areas will support that.

Why teaching writing is like bumper bowling

Dec4

I view teaching writing much like coaching bumper bowling.

In case you do not remember what bumper bowling is, consider this explanation from Murrey Bowling Equipment Manufacturers:

“Now young bowlers can keep the ball on the lane without those frustrating gutter balls. When young bowlers knock down pins, they are much more likely to become regular bowlers. This means more revenues for your bowling center right now and in the future as today’s youth become the young adults of tomorrow.”

This photo is from one of my children’s bumper bowling parties in the 90s. Notice my brother-in-law and and the camcorder! Memories! And the blue things in the gutters are bumpers.

Following this metaphor, in the beginning of writing instruction, I set my students up to not miss, carefully providing support all through the writing process. But at some point, I have to remove the bumpers. It is at this point where I begin to help students discover and develop their own writing process, style, and voice.

This is a phase of teaching writing that is not without its share of gutter balls. I remember reading something last week (wish I could find it) that adolescents’ brains are not ready to see their writing as needing revision. I also always consider what my coach has always emphasized–about making invisible processes visible.

That is why I model my writing process for my students.

Last week, I was amazed to realize how few of my AP students have been using the sideways outline for organizing their prewriting. As I gradually release them into writing a rhetorical analysis completely on their own, I noticed how few of them were even completing a dialectical journal–really a gathering prewriting activity–and becoming frustrated with connecting the author’s strategies with the his purpose. Here they were, trying to figure out HOW George Bush was convincing us to “Declare War on Terror” in his September 20, 2011 speech, and they were thinking they could figure this all out without go through the hard work that analysis demands.

My sideways outline for this post

That is when I yelled “STOP.”

First, I explained how there is no way to write an analysis without evidence. Then I PURPOSEFULLY explained–which I do not think I ever did as transparently before–that the dialectical journal was a gathering part of prewriting and the sideways outline was a way to organize the prewriting.

I think I left them too much autonomy in choosing their organizational method prior to this. I previously taught them the sideways outline. I told them how easy it is to use and how productive it is. I told them that I use it. But in wanting them to honor their own process, I did not require them to do it. This was a mistake that I needed to correct.

I asked the students who used the sideways outline in previous assignments to stand. I debriefed them. They all explained how easier it made writing the draft. In one of my two classes, I whipped out a piece of paper and folded it in half and created a sideways outline on the spot.

This was a place where I needed to raise the bumpers once again.

I also needed to emphasize the importance of sweat equity. I shared an email I received from a graduate who is receiving great praise on her writing as a senior at Penn State.

In addition, I routinely make sure I tell them honestly of my success and failures, my struggles and hacks. I share my own process. I explain how writing is recursive. I emphasize that revision and prewriting take the MOST time in writing, that drafting is easy and quick–if the prewriting fleshes everything out. I teach them a variety of revision tools and proofreading tools. I share that in today’s world, a final product is always subject to revision and proofreading.

I blog when they have to write so that I, too, am reminded that writing is a practice. I share my writing with them. I share my former students’ success stories.

I model writing in every way I can. So that when they throw a gutter ball, they know that there are ways to improve their average. And so that when they throw a strike, they know that all the pins were aligned just so and they know how to recreate the situation.

Writing is hard. Teaching writing is harder. Pulling the bumpers from a student is the hardest thing of all.

The bumpers help kids become regular writers. And following the explanation from Murrey above, when I remove the bumpers, that is when I am helping my students become the adult writers of tomorrow.

Why I blog

Nov20

Today, I was tempted to stop blogging.

A few weeks ago, a colleague asked me, “Why do you do all that?” He wondered if I had aspirations of becoming an administrator. He even joked that he wondered if I was trying to become the superintendent.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, that question has been bothering me. So I thought I should stop and reflect on why I do blog.

I blog because I want my students to see that I believe what I preach. I want them to know that I am in solidarity with them and their struggle with their writing assignments. The content of my blogs is not for my students; my audience is teachers. But I want my students to know that I experience the joy and exasperation of being expected to produce cogent prose on a regular basis. To know the process of pulling from my own observations, read
ing, and experience in order to make sense of something. To recognize the power of writing to effect change. To make my voice heard. I blog to model for my students what authentic writing looks like.

I blog because I am a learner. It is not in my nature to accept the status quo. If something works, I want to know how to make it work better. There have been times when I felt the temptation to apologize for this characteristic. But as a learner, I need to stay true to my innate inquisitive nature and accept it. It is not good or bad. It is just who I am. I have a drive to seek ways to make things run better. I like to try new things. I am an early adapter. I like to stay ahead of the curve. I like to know trends and tipping points and current research. I blog to process and consider the new things that I find in my profession.

I blog because I like to reflect. In order for me to be able to make things work better, I need to step back and look at the effects in the classroom. When I am able to see immediately the possibility of using something in the classroom–Twitter, Growth Mindset–then I need to stop and think about WHY it is something to use and HOW to best use it. I need to connect the dots. I blog because I need to understand the purpose and effect of bringing something new to my practice.

I blog because I like to talk about teaching. Even with department and faculty meetings, even with Professional Learning Communities and Professional Development, it is very difficult to find the time to talk about what is going on in a classroom. Most of my job is being in a room with teenagers. I love teenagers. I love to teach teenagers. But I do need adult conversation, too. The only people who know what I am experiencing are other teachers, so since our time is limited for those conversations, I try to connect with people in alternate times and places. I blog to seek support from my colleagues, local and global.

I blog not because I am trying to impress someone or get a promotion or get someone to tell me how wonderful my ideas are. I blog because I have a need to connect on a larger and intimate level with people who understand the nuances of what I do each school day. Because I truly believe that as a teacher I have an awful responsibility to help mold the minds of the people who will run the world, because I believe that what I do matters, because I believe that my profession is more of a vocation than a career, because it is not lost on my how I remember the good and bad teaching that I experienced as a student, because I remember the impact of the teachers who were able to make a difference in my life, because I need someplace to deal with the questions, problems, revelations, and joys that I encounter.

Why do I blog? I blog because I can.

The Good Faith Interview–Follow Up to Free Voluntary Reading

Nov13

We know that kids who read more do better in school. But how do you create a culture of reading in a high school junior class where most of the students report that they hate reading?

That was my challenge in September. And I think I have been somewhat successful with my College Prep Level juniors. And it ends with the Good Faith Interview.

Here is how it begins. From the first day I met them, I stressed the role of reading in their development as students who were looking to go to college. I explained how “background knowledge” is one of the things that kids who read have more of than kids who do not. I explained how students who read more learn more vocabulary. We discussed the role of reading in learning to write better.

Then I asked them to choose a book. Any book. And I started Free Voluntary Reading during my class. I have a hard time giving up time for teaching, but the reality is, most of these students would not read unless they were given time in school.

And I want to be clear, I have very little time to give up. My school began an SAT prep program, so every Wednesday, half if not more of the period is devoted to working through the SAT book. And these students need a great deal of practice with writing, so I need to provide lots of low stakes writing to build their fluency. And their knowledge of grammar does not connect with their writing, so they need lots of practice in recognizing sentence errors and agreement errors and more. And that is not even taking into account the days lost for standardized testing.

So every Friday, they bring their book to class. They do not forget their books, because I think they BELIEVE how important reading is.

For twenty minutes, we read. After that, students share what they read with their partners. We have already set in place the protocol for working in pairs, so they know that I am watching them take turns talking and listening.

They are so cute.

I hear them telling each other the details of their books. And I see the partners listening intently.

However, as the quarter progressed, I began to feel the need to assess their reading, if only to just validate its importance. So I devised a two part project. The first part requires posting a review on Goodreads in our private group. I give the students time to sign up in class, and I let them peer edit their reviews in class. And a nice bonus is that this private group can serve as a resource of books for future classes.

Nevertheless, the best part of the assessment comes from combining two ideas suggested by my friend and colleague Bernadette Janis, Penn Literacy Network Coaching Coordinator. In a PLN class several Ryan teachers took two years ago, Bernadette introduced us to an activity she calls The Interview. It is based on the work of Cooperative Learning pioneer Spencer Kagan. And because she understands that I am concerned with issues about grading Free Voluntary Reading, she suggested that I consider Jim Vopat’s idea of Good Faith Effort, a term he coined in his book Writing Circles. Appropriately, I have named my students’ collaborative work Good Faith Interviews.

The premise is that students earn all of the points or none of the points, based on their preparation and participation.

Students work with their books in hand. As pairs, each partner interviews the other using questions I provide. Then the pairs square with another pair, and each student shares their partner’s answer.

As I walk among the students, dipping in and out of their groups, I know that the majority of them are well prepared. They read the book, they talk about their book, and they enjoy the interaction.

Some teachers find it hard to get students to stay on task when collaborating in class. I think Jim Vopat’s idea of Good Faith Effort as well as the structure of The Interview have implications for every classr oom, not just ELA. Students are held accountable for an activity that is tightly focused.

Ending the first quarter, my students achieved the goal of reading a book on their own, and they are realizing that I value reading so much, I made it part of our class. They know that I am committed to the idea that reading is vital for their success. And holding them accountable for their reading using Good Faith Interviews is one way that I have been able to get my kids to show how committed they are to that same idea.

The essential parts of Essential Learnings

Nov3

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of twitter chatter over assigning projects just for the sake of saying we are project-based.

Because of testing, because of trying to regain our foothold as a nation focused on student learning, because it is the right thing to do, it is important now more than ever that we are absolutely sure we make the most of each minute of classroom time. We cannot afford to assign work that is not tied to a specific standard or objective. We need to be intentional in the content and the selection of content that we teach.

If we are to create classrooms where students can all succeed, where they can master the material they absolutely need to know, where there is the opportunity to be “A” students, we need to be able to plan wisely.

One method to make sure that we are creating this environment is the Essential Learnings model. My colleague, Nancy Kurtz, Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs at Archbishop Ryan has championed the idea of Essential Learnings, offering workshops to our faculty and groups of interested teachers.

Here are some of her ideas, explained through some questions I asked. Feel free to comment with any questions you might have; I will be certain to get the answers from her.

What is the meaning of Essential Learnings and why is it important?

An Essential Learning is any concept or skill that every student must learn to meet the established learning outcomes for a particular course. It is important because it provides the focus which leads to true student competency.

What would you say to a teacher who says, “I have all this content to cover! It’s ALL essential?”

I would say, “I get it.” The beauty of this model is that it acknowledges a place for all of the content and skills that are a part of any course of learning. All it calls for is a teacher, in consultation with colleagues and with an eye toward the standards, to identify the concepts and skills they will spend the most time on and which will be assessed with the greatest intensity to ensure mastery.

How does a teacher decided what is essential?

You start with the standards. These, when developed well, give a clear picture of the skills and concepts a student must show mastery of in a given year or set of years. In addition, discussion with colleagues who teach the same subject in the same year and across multiple years is necessary. This helps to create a consistent experience for the student.

What are the benefits of identifying Essential Learnings for students?

The greatest benefit for students is in their learning. Within this model is the understanding that the Essential Learnings, that bullseye target of focused information, must be taught in a variety of ways and assessed through frequent formative and summative means. The sheer amount of exposure and increased feedback on progress builds efficacy in students and paves a road to mastery.

For teachers?

Sitting down and creating the physical model helps teachers build a more comprehensive picture of how all concepts and skills in a unit or curriculum are connected. It also aids in planning, giving more freedom and flexibility as pressure to cover “everything” with the same intensity is greatly reduced.

How does it affect planning?

When you begin to understand the differences among skills and concepts that are essential to mastery, skills and concepts that enhance or support the building of mastery and those not necessary for mastery but that build a knowledge base in a well rounded person it impacts not only pacing and assessment, it changes the type of activities you utilize. This model changes your view of the intended outcomes which directly impacts planning and assessment.

How does it affect differentiation?

By clearly identifying those concepts and skills necessary for mastery, a teacher will re-examine the activities used. There will be both the desire and the time to

use multiple approaches to learning to ensure that students really “get it”. In addition, the Would Be Nice Learnings are not throw aways. These concepts may not be essential but student exposure creates a more well rounded, educated person. These learnings are the perfect place to create projects that are filled with choice aimed at meeting every student where they are.

How would Essential Learnings affect standardized test scores?

Since bringing students to mastery of the standards and accepted skills for a particular course of study is the backbone of this model, overall test scores will be impacted.

How does it affect classroom grading?

The focus of grading shifts from testing on every single bit of content and every part of each skill to continuous formative assessment to show progress to true mastery. Authentic summative assessments are focused and require demonstration of understanding and skill.

Is there any relationship between Essential Learnings and fostering a growth mindset?

There is a relationship. True mastery requires time and effort. There will be setbacks, but helping students understand the benefits of doing the work to achieve the real learning could impact not only how they behave in your class. If students are engaged in every class and working toward real mastery their belief in their own ability to learn will naturally increase.

What is the best piece of advice you could give to a teacher who wants to identify Essential Learnings?

Try to remember that the most of the students sitting in front of you will not go on to become an expert in the field you are teaching. However, there are concepts and skills that are an integral part of that subject which will benefit your students both now and in their futures. That is the stuff that really matters. Focus on that and build their efficacy there and who knows, you may create a passion that will lead to a future career. But if not, you will have created an educated individual.

What makes an “A” student

Oct30

On my journey with Growth Mindset, I was introduced to Benjamin Zander, a conductor and music teacher who has found ways to motivate his students to achieve more than they thought possible. The message in his video, “How to Give an A” is so powerful and has so many implications for education, that I have given it a place in my classroom.

You see, the problem is my students worry about their grades.

No matter the age or ability level, all of my students seem to be overly concerned with their grades. Some worry they will disappoint their parents. Or they won’t get into college. Or they won’t ever get a good job. Some think that if they do not get a certain grade their world will end.

This attitude makes it almost impossible for my students to learn. Some are so afraid to make a mistake that they will not answer questions.

How can students learn when they are so concerned with getting a certain average? How can learning take place in a room full of people so worried that if they do something wrong it will haunt them for years to come?

Zander gives us a place to start. We can make all of our students A students.

It is not as easy as just filling in the letter A. It requires a complete culture shift in the classroom. Instead of me telling kids what defines an A student, they tell me. My students describe an “A” student as reflecting the following characteristics:

A students give 100% effort in all work.
They complete all work and hand it in on time.
A students do not procrastinate.
They have great organizational skills.
A students are dedicated.
They have stamina.
They are gritty.
They work well with others.
A students love learning.

Nowhere in the list of what A students do are requirements like get all 100s or always answer questions correctly. In fact, the only kinds of things that my students think that determine who is an A student have to do with work ethic and organization. Some of the qualities they named deal with compliance, and certainly there is a level of compliance needed in a classroom. But the roots of the behaviors that lead to success are the kinds of qualities that we ascribe to a growth mindset.

The irony is that, as Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck has discovered, once students embrace the idea of a growth mindset, and once they are able to see failure as part of learning, scores rise. I believe once kids stop worrying about making mistakes and stop worrying about losing points, then the real learning starts.

So much of what our students are capable of achieving is related to the interaction of student and teacher. The connection of trust and respect is crucial for setting up a classroom where everyone gets an A.

I tell my students that nothing would make me happier than if they all got in the 90s. And for me to get them to that level, I need to make sure that I am targeting exactly what needs to be learned. Sometimes, I might need to reduce the content to be able to concentrate on particular skills. Many times, less is more.

A colleague of mine talks about “essential learnings,” and her ideas are fantastic. This idea of identifying the absolutely fundamental parts of a unit make it not only easier for a teacher to focus and prioritize instruction but also to communicate with students EXACTLY what they need to know.

On the other side, students need to demonstrate that they are willing to do what is required to learn what is necessary to earn that A. Coined by Jim Vopat in his book Writing Circles, the term Good Faith Effort represents what I consider to be a very growth mindset idea. Students need to be willing to do more than just show up for class.

Students need to take responsibility for being prepared with everything they need for class, and they need to be ready to participate fully in activities.

Certainly there are many more things to consider when creating an environment where there is the possibility, even the expectation, that everyone gets an A.But with a growth mindset–for students AND teachers–nothing is impossible.

Double the learning with working in pairs

Oct23

Group work has been part of my teaching repertoire since 1981, with varying success. As I become more aware of the need to teach not only my content but also the literacy skills that are necessary for success, I love when a strategy also helps students uncover ways for learning that they can use not only in my class, but in learning in other situations as well.

I believe that helping students learn how to be productive while working with a partner is something that will serve them well in education and in the real world. Certainly, collaboration is one of the skills that employees list as a factor in hiring.

Two of my favorite activities for pairs hit the mark for all four skills–speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In the past week, I have had the opportunity to use these strategies in my classes, and I believe the students not only learn better, but they work better together because they have a clear focus and direction.

Summary Pairs

Often times, even the best readers struggle with reading dense text. I know that I have experienced the frustration with not being able to settle in and comprehend a piece that is complicated, so I appreciate the struggle my students might encounter.

Summary Pairs is a strategy that has great implications as a tool for our students’ toolkit.

Students work in pairs, alternating reading a paragraph out loud. At the end of the first round of oral reading, the two co-create a summary statement, working to retain the original ideas but in their own words. The other student reads the next paragraph, and together they write a summary statement for that section. They continue until the whole piece has been read and summarized.

This is a great activity to use before introducing Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week or even John Collins’ Ten Percent Summary. Summary Pairs gives them a structure to divide the reading and summarize sections without it being overwhelming.

Furthermore, this activity provides a springboard for summarizing larger chunks of material. As we move into research, my students are often overwhelmed with how to summarize and/or paraphrase information. After they master Summary Pairs, they can easily and confidently move into summarizing on their own.

Reciprocal Teaching

When a piece of writing is extremely difficult, either because of the way it is written or because of the content, Reciprocal Teaching is a strategy that offers students a framework for demonstrating their thinking.

Similar to Summary Pairs, students work through a paragraph at a time, with one partner reading aloud while the other listens. The difference, however, is that the partner reading aloud stops during the reading and talks about what is going on in the text. Students might discuss the meanings of words, the shades of meaning of words, or the moves that the author is making. Students notice things that are interesting, things that make them wonder, and things that are confusing.

This interaction with the text is what I want my students to be able to do routinely. It is close reading at the sentence, phrase, and word level.

To get my students to the point where they can read at this level independently, they need lots of practice working with others so that they can become more confident of their own ideas. Not only does this strategy provide the support they need, but it also allows me the opportunity to purposefully pair students so that they can learn from and with one another.

Key features

There are many reasons why I find these strategies beneficial. First, they include all four skills–listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The strategies provide a framework for students to use as they work through dense reading. Sometimes students do not have the fortitude or stamina to handle a dense piece on their own, so this actually “teaches” them how to approach reading by having them demonstrate for each other the things that good readers do–without the students even realizing they are modeling.

Working like this gets kids up to their elbows in text, demonstrating ways to make meaning and providing lots of support for each other to be successful. And, ultimately, it helps them learn ways to approach difficult text on their own.

Teaching the messiness of writing

Oct16

Teaching writing to high school students is one of my favorite things. In fact, I prefer to describe what I do as coaching writing, because it more accurately describes how I try to refine my students’ approaches to crafting their ideas into words. I expose my students to lots of writing with many low risk opportunities. However, there comes a time when we need to work on a piece of writing to polish and refine. It is fascinating how much students struggle with the recursive nature of writing.

I am amazed when my students tell me that they believe to prepare a polished essay all they have to do is sit at a blank screen and write when the words come to them. They describe writing situations where they begin their writing assignment the night before, correcting as they go, and, unsurprisingly, not producing a piece of high quality writing. It is so important that we help each student uncover what works to produce a quality essay.

I believe most writing should take place in the classroom. Guiding students carefully through (at least) the first assigned essay gives us the opportunity to introduce them to strategies that they can add to their own personal toolkit.

Perhaps the hardest part of coaching writing is convincing students that good writers spend a large portion of their writing in prewriting and even more of their time revising. Differentiating between revision and editing is another formidable task. Slow, purposeful guidance is essential for students to look at their own process and begin to find a way to craft their words.

Many students have a hard time distinguishing between the gathering and organizing parts of prewriting. Furthermore, students have an even harder time understanding that prewriting is not a one-and-done activity. There are times when drafting or even when revising that a writer needs to come up with more ideas or a better way to organize them. Providing students with explicit examples of different types of graphic organizers helps. Reviewing a brainstorming strategy like an idea map followed by an organizing strategy like a sideways outline prods them into accessing the learning from years of writing instruction and might help them to come up with other ways to gather and organize ideas.

Revision is a whole other story. Moving kids to read their own writing “like a reader” is key. My students need a great deal of guidance in revision; they automatically proofread when I ask them to revise. Why? I think it is because it is so hard to get rid of writing. For my students, it is akin to throwing away something very valuable, even if it serves no purpose. This I think is the biggest hurdle I face with my students. It is much easier for them to fix the way the writing looks by attending to spelling and punctuation rather than change the nuts and bolts and improve the way it reads.

I try to explain revision like this. In college I took a painting course to fulfill my Fine Arts requirement. I am no artist, but I liked mixing colors and learning how to create shadows and trying to develop a painting from the blank white canvas up. Nevertheless, that resonated with me was not something found on my easel. My teacher told us a story about how her teacher painted a huge black X on her canvas. Painting over black is excruciating because one has to be careful of the new colors mixing with the black. It requires painstaking attention to detail to get out of the black and let the colors rise. To me, THAT is revision.

Sometimes what we write just does not work. Whether it is some supporting detail or the organization or the entire focus of the paper, sometimes we have to paint a black X over the entire thing and let the writing become beautiful.

I try to guide my students to see the essay as a whole and as the sum of its parts, so they examine the paragraphs, the sentences, the words. Kelly Gallagher’s RADaR strategy (replace, add, delete, reorder) works on sentences and paragraphs, but there is no ignoring a much more intense revision like questions based on the 6+1 traits.

Presently, I am in the process of guiding my students to create their own digital or paper toolkit. I have asked them to find their favorite strategies for prewriting and for revising and put them in a folder–virtual or real–to access every time they are given a prompt in another class. Furthermore, I have asked them to make a checklist of their usage and grammar errors (run-ons, pronoun-antecedent) so that they know what to check on that last stage before submitting. It is not enough for me to make these errors FCAs; as juniors in high school they need to accept their mistakes and own the ways to correct them.

But what I am really trying to teach them is that writing is messy. Sometimes they need to dip back into prewriting while in revision to consider more ideas or ways to support them. Students need to understand that writing is not a series of steps, not a linear progression but a messy, crazy process that is unpredictable and unique. What works for one person may not work for another. And what works for one writing situation may not work for another. My hope is that through constantly introducing new prewriting and revision strategies, each of my students will develop a personalized kit that will help them in my class and in others.

Write on!