Teaching Literacy Through Climate Change Science

There was a time when science, social studies, and other non-English Language Arts teachers were exempt from teaching literacy in their classes. Aside from performance based subjects (arts, tech…), rote memorization of content was mattered greatly and the notion of close reading, writing from sources, text-based evidence, and disparate viewpoints and positions was unfathomed. For many, chugging through the core curricula via a favorite textbook or select set of readings got one from September to June. Fast forward to the Common Core State Standards era and today EVERYONE has responsibility to teach literacy within their subject areas. Not surprisingly, teachers are embracing the changes when given adequate time to develop the necessary understandings and skills literacy instruction require.

To help educators make the shift to literacy instruction, last week a friend and colleague of mine at Capital Region BOCES presented a session on Climate Change and the Common Core to a group of 25 science, social studies, and ELA teachers (Six participants were MST students from SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury).  Laura Lehtonen is the BOCES Science Director, and like me, strives to help educators incorporate rigor and relevance into classroom instruction while also meeting state-mandated curricula. For our workshop, we decided to look at the Common Core Literacy Instructional Shifts through the lens of Climate Change. Climate change was our chosen topic given the misinformation, confusion, and at times, ignorance about climate change swirling among this great nation’s populace.

Our day began with a 90 minute Climate Reality presentation which describes the process of global warming and the impacts of climate change on extreme weather and drought events, rising sea levels, melting of glaciers and ice caps, dwindling food production and potable water supplies, and spread of tropical diseases. We followed the melancholic Climate Reality session with the Common Core Instructional Shifts, and then had participants practice a number of fun and engaging literacy-based strategies.

Participants investigated and interpreted the message of climate change cartoons, practiced and responded to text-based questions, jigsawed a Royal Society publication on Climate Change and Causes, and reviewed evidence based claims. My favorite activity was the 4 A’s protocol (see below) from EngageNY which includes close reading, text-dependent questioning, use of evidence, and discussion strategies required by the Common Core.  For that activity, participants evaluated first the Climate Reality presentation given in the morning, and in the afternoon an opinion piece by Charles Krauthammer Op-Ed piece, Observing ‘settled science’.  Though one may not agree with another’s opinions, it matters little without critical inspection of the piece (think close reading, evidence based facts… ala 4A’s Protocol).

Armed with a good understanding of climate change, our participants scrutinized Krauthammer’s op-ed piece and found a number of assumptions made by the author including confusing “unsettled science” correlations of climate change science and mammogram studies, changing climate change predictions as a flaw of climate prediction models, suggesting climate change scientists spend all their time in white lab coats in front of computer screens, and citing one physicist’s interpretations of climate change as a non-urgent matter while disregarding 98% of the world’s scientists including those on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who state climate change is a problem and anthropogenic in origin. There was agreement that climate change science is complicated, and some participants were interested in checking Krauthammer’s data more deeply, including claims that global temperature hasn’t risen in 15 years or that there are fewer intense tornadoes than in previous years.

The beauty of close reading, text-based evidence, and other shifts of the Common Core State Standards is the promotion of critical thinking. Charles Krauthammer is an excellent writer, and it was an interesting and satisfying experience for participants to use what they learned to verify facts from fiction. Whatever the topic one teaches, the beauty of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for non-ELA teachers is the opportunity to engage students in greater rigor and relevant activities. Activities that demand students read text closely and use evidence to support their positions, whatever their positions may be. By implementing CCSS, we are in effect empowering students to use evidence to speak, read, and write with conviction. And that’s a very good thing for the future of our global society.

How I See the Math Common Core: A Guest Post

Betty Barrett is a friend, colleague, and master teacher. With 40+ years work as a math teacher, director, and professional developer, she has a perspective and historical knowledge of math instruction few can claim. Enjoy.

How I See the Math Common Core

By Betty Barrett

Remodeling my kitchen was a cataclysmic upheaval of my life, especially considering that all during the restructuring time I had to continue to prepare meals and clean up afterward. But, once the stressful period was over, the end result was a modern, more efficient kitchen that made my food-preparing experience much easier and more productive.

At the present time there is a cataclysmic upheaval occurring in our educational system with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. In the classrooms where I have spent my 40-plus years of teaching mathematics, conducting effective teaching workshops, and coaching teachers, there are necessary, albeit stressful, restructurings taking place.

I have been living with the K-12 Common Core Math Standards 24/7 for the past 30 months. All the educational research on how teachers effectively deliver instruction and how the Brain learns, along with the mathematics necessary for students entering the world of the 21^st century went into creating the new Standards.

In my workshops and in-school training, I hear teachers discussing mathematics as never before. I hear them telling stories of elementary students who can think more clearly, demonstrate more understanding, who have become more fluent in their number sense, and who have more strategies available for them to solve abstract, novel problems involving real-life situations.

I spend numerous hours observing the Common Core Math Standards being taught in classrooms. In the past two years I have seen many positive changes.

I see students spending more time practicing the “Core” operations to become Fluent in basic mathematical skills, freeing their brain’s working memory to concentrate on more complex application processes.

I see students learning more than “how to get the answer”; I see them understanding the “why” of mathematics.

I see students being taught number bonds, tape diagrams, area diagrams – strategies by which to  “picture” a mathematical situation.

I see students being asked to extensively apply their learning to problem-solving. We are taking mathematics out of the classroom laboratory and into real-life. Students are immediately knowing when they are “going to use this.”

During the reconstruction, my kitchen was a stressful mess. Workers did not do all they were asked; materials did not arrive on time. The finishing backsplash was brought in before the wallboard had gone up. The cost was more than projected. My family wondered if eating would ever get back to normal. But, eventually, it did; and it is now so much better.

Yes, right now, during the process of implementing the Common Core Standards, there IS an educational mess. We are all absorbing new curricula, changing instructional styles, adjusting to new assessments with higher expectations; and all this under the stress of being evaluated on the finished product before it is completed.

Education is being changed one student, one teacher, one administrator, one parent at a time. The final result of this restructuring is going to be students who possess a far better understanding of the concepts of mathematics and who have a greater ability to analyze problems and make better decisions. We will see improvements in education that will be well worth the wait.

Affirmation in the Churning Whitewater of Educational Reform

Before finalizing a purchase, stock investors conduct what is known as due diligence. They evaluate a company’s products and services against its competitors, study its balance sheet, and look at various charts and ratios to decide if it is an investment worthy of their hard-earned dollars. Not necessarily so for teachers and principals in public education. Instead, policy makers in concert with experts at all levels, conduct the due diligence to write regulations that educators and administrators are then required to follow. In the recent case of the Common Core State Standards, Data Driven Instruction, and Evidence-Based Observations through Race to the Top, that has been a good thing (not so sure about tying teacher and principal performance to student state assessment results, however). The really good news is all stakeholders are working hard to implement the change, even if they weren’t privy to the due diligence work. One only needs to spend time with P-20 educators to see the hard work happening across the state.

Fortunately for me, I get to see great educators and leaders at work frequently in my job, and last week was particularly favorable for such observations.

Tuesday, AM: High School Presentation on Understanding by Design and Lesson Planning using Backwards Design.

Tuesday, PM: SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury Seminar Series for Student Teachers on Common Core Instructional Shifts in Literacy

Wednesday, Full Day: edTPA in New York Implementation Conference

Thursday, AM: Principals as Instructional Leaders Seminar Series (SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury and WSWHE BOCES Partnership Project)

Thursday, PM: New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Reception and Dinner

Friday, AM: Teachers as Instructional Leaders Seminar Series (SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury and WSWHE BOCES Partnership Project)

Granted, I wear rose-colored glasses, but the events of this past work week clearly show significant progress in our efforts to raise student achievement. On Monday, I visited a small rural high school in upstate New York and was greeted by an audience of teachers in black t-shirts sporting a Wordle design celebrating their roles as teachers. Their solidarity spoke volumes of the dedication to each other and the children they teach, and our review of UBD led to a spirited discussion on  daily lesson planning and student achievement. The teachers greatest concern was writing detailed lesson plans while learning and implementing new curriculum modules and data driven instruction. There is plenty on their proverbial plates. Later that afternoon, I met with 25 student teachers and field supervisors to discuss and model some of the Common Core Instructional Shifts for Literacy. We covered each shift, but practiced text-based answers, academic vocabulary, and building knowledge in the disciplines. Ending the day with young, ambitious future teachers was very nice indeed.

Lest we forget the stressors on the higher ed community, on Wednesday I joined 250 other university and college professors and administrators to learn how best to roll out the edTPA. As we know, future teachers will be required to pass more rigorous exams and complete performance assessments that ask for descriptive, analytic, and reflective thinking and writing on their videotaped lessons. The edTPA demonstrates the value of assessing teachers’ capacities to thoughtfully process their pedagogy against standards of effective teaching. The complexities of rolling out edTPA can not be understated. However, at the edTPA in New York Implementation Conference, my colleagues and I got to see first hand the success stories of early edTPA pilots in colleges and universities spanning the state. It’s working! It’s hard, and it’s messy. However, if you are a fan of authentic, clinically rich self-assessments, then you do what’s necessary to make edTPA work. Another great day.

On Thursday, SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury launched the Principals as Instructional Leaders Seminar Series in partnership with WSWHE BOCES. 17 school administrators showed up for the first of a yearlong series of seminars and group research studies that focus on developing instructional leadership skills. Despite their frenetic schedules, these busy school administrators joined together to seek strategies and supports as instructional leaders, and we’re hopeful the content of our seminars and the research each group will conduct around data-driven instruction, common core instructional shifts and standards, and cultivating teacher leadership will meet their needs. Most importantly, we expect the seminars will provide opportunity for sharing ideas, asking questions, problem solving, and networking that otherwise would be unavailable to busy school administrators. Later that evening, I joined other invited members of the Professional Standards and Practices Board for a NYACTE Reception and Dinner, highlighted with Presentation of the New York State Teacher of the Year Award to Ashli Skura Dreher.  The evening ended with an uplifting presentation by Ashli on her deeply held and success-proven convictions that all students will learn. Another great ending.

Friday brought together a small group of seven teachers chosen by their superintendents to participate in the SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury Teachers as Instructional Leaders Seminar Series in partnership with WSWHE BOCES. The teachers began arriving at noon, though we weren’t officially scheduled to start till 12:30. What energy these folks have! As with the principals who participated in Thursdays seminar, these folks signed up for the series in spite of their workloads and lack of time. Most interestingly, when asked what their greatest fear was as instructional leaders, their concern was that the Common Core Standards would change. It wasn’t things like, “I’m worried about credibility from my colleagues,” or “I don’t know if I have the skills and understandings to be an instructional leader.” Instead, they simply hope there are no more changes. They want to get Common Core, DDI, and Evidence Based Observations right! Hopefully, this seminar series will help them realize their goals. And so ended a very busy, exciting, affirming week.

P-20 educators understand all too well the “churning waters” analogy as the weight of omnipresent forces impact teachers, principals, teacher assistants, superintendents, higher ed faculty, deans of education, student teachers, and most importantly, our children. Despite the chaotic nature of reform and the fact that few were invited to do the due diligence and “sign up” for the changes, most are committed to the Common Core State Standards and concomitant instructional shifts, data-driven instruction, and evidence-based observations. However, most are also frantically clawing to keep their heads above water as they grapple to adapt to the new and seemingly ever-changing landscape.  And they don’t want to “Wait five years till something new is in place.” To my P-20 colleagues, I say “Hang on.” “Don’t let go.” It’s extremely challenging, and at times imperfect, work. Still, steady progress is being made which will ultimately best serve our students and this great nation.

“Tickets” to Meaningful Teacher-Principal Discussions on Instruction

Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellancamp, Dave Matthews,….. Wow! Farm Aid is coming to Saratoga Springs! We got the tickets months ago, and today we’ll be going with a group of 12 family members and friends. The tickets will get us in the venue along with 24,998 other folks, all of whom will attend for the same reasons: to enjoy the music, celebrate local farmers, and chill for an afternoon. There is no hierarchy among the mass of people. Age, gender, occupation, musical preference, food choices, etc… matter not. Everyone who purchased their ticket to access the event will come to hear good music and support a good cause.

Having a ticket levels the playing field, allowing the ticket holder to cross boundaries. In the case of the concert, the boundary is the entrance gate. But what about schools? How do principals cross boundaries with teachers to gain access to deep, meaningful discussions on instructional issues? How does the building leader cast aside their supervisory role as lead evaluator to get at the level of instruction? Just what are the tickets that allow principals to cross the boundary separating them from their staff to have relevant discussions regarding classroom instruction and student learning?

“Tickets” are boundary objects which Wenger (1998) defines as “Artifacts, documents, terms, concepts, and other forms of reification around which communities of practice can organize their interconnections” (p. 105). Boundary object are tangible items individuals use to cross boundaries between groups. For building principals, boundary objects are relevant items which promote professional conversations with teachers about curriculum, instruction and student learning. Star and Griesemer (1989) define boundary objects as “objects of interest.” Objects of interest for teachers include student writing folders, student work samples, assessment results, best practices, and curriculum maps, and savvy principals know their value in engaging meaningful discussions with teachers.

Years ago I used to hold weekly meetings with grade level teams at Glens Falls Middle School, and I remember the most significant and worthwhile sessions were those involving student work samples, curriculum maps, assessment results, best practices, and book discussions. During those meetings everyone got fully engrossed in the material. Rather than bemoaning the required time with their curriculum coordinator, the team and I talked about student learning. Those were the meetings that ended too quickly, the “where did the time go?” meetings which built value and credibility for the team time and my role as curriculum coordinator.

As we progress deeper into the 2013-14 school year, now is the time to bring greater conversation into principal-teacher meetings. It is time to firm up the calendar so meetings are scheduled well in advance, and it is time to identify the boundary objects to be used in such meetings. Whether the “ticket” is a common core instructional shift best practice, inventory assessment results and action planning template, student work, curriculum map with tier 1, 2, and 3 vocabulary identified, or an example of a teaching best practice, it’s imperative that everyone has a ticket to the venue.

Peace.

Star, S. L., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional ecology, “translations” and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s museum of vertebrate zoology, 1907-39. Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387-387-420. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/61062484?accountid=13645

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Climate Change and Why We Need Common Core State Standards

Why do we need the Common Core Standards for Literacy? Simple. Because our global community requires citizens who will be able to make decisions based on research and data, not on sound bites and opinions from various special interest groups and political circles. Pulling from the Common Core Instructional Shifts, we desperately need to develop students’ capacity to write from various sources and use text-based evidence to support opinions. In particular, our students must be able to use evidence to take and defend important positions. Whether that position is political, societal, economic, or environmental, we must demand thinkers who adopt a mindset based on data, not here say–not an easy thing to do given the abundance of information and opinions circulating on the Internet.

As an example, today I came across two separate climate change articles. One was printed in the Huffington Post, the other in Yahoo News. In the Post’s article, Global Warming ‘More of a Religion Than A Science,’  the author writes, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) dismissed the concern over global warming, labeling it a “religion” and claiming efforts to address climate change are useless.“It is not proven, it’s not science,” King said Tuesday, according to The Messenger of Fort Dodge, Iowa. “It’s more of a religion than a science.” The congressman spoke at a Fort Dodge event sponsored by the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity. King said he thought environmentalists should focus on the positive aspects of the earth heating up due to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, instead of harping on the negatives. “Everything that might result from a warmer planet is always bad in [environmentalists’] analysis,” King said. “There will be more photosynthesis going on if the earth gets warmer. And if sea levels go up four or six inches, I don’t know if we’d know that.”

In the Yahoo News article, New Reports Reveal the Dire Picture Humanity is Painting for Earth’s Climate there is a passage from the American Geophysical Union which states, Human activities are changing Earth’s climate. At the global level, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases have increased sharply since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel burning dominates this increase. Human-caused increases in greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed global average surface warming of roughly 0.8°C (1.5°F) over the past 140 years. Because natural processes cannot quickly remove some of these gases (notably carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere, our past, present, and future emissions will influence the climate system for millennia.

Wow, who do you believe, Rep King or the American Geophysical Union, and how do you take a position? According to the Common Core Instructional Shifts, you look for the evidence to support whichever position you prefer to take. In the two articles quoted above, one could argue there isn’t enough information to make a position, and that’s a lukewarm, possibly fair statement. However, when applying the Common Core Instructional Shifts to the climate change scenario, students would be required to go beyond the news to the data. They’d need to access unbiased, valid, and reliable studies that present the facts and not the opinions so often expressed through the media. As many people know, in the case of climate change, there is unequivocal evidence that the earth’s climate is warming up, and primarily due to anthropogenic forces. In fact, just yesterday NOAA released their State of the Climate in 2012 report which details how rapidly our climate is changing. Regardless of one’s own opinion, we must have individuals who regularly use facts to support their points.

There’s so much to hope for in developing students’ metacognitive skills and thoughtful consideration of important issues through the Common Core Instructional Shifts. The Common Core State Standards are solid, and the value placed on informed use of evidence to communicate and argue various positions is a welcome focus to education. The standards and instructional shifts ask educators to develop students’ capacity to think deeply and thoughtfully, and to do so with evidence in mind. Perhaps with these changes we’ll see a more thoughtful public that consumes information more critically. A public that is not swayed by special interest or political groups but by the data behind the issue. A public that does what’s best for today’s generation and those that follow. In terms of climate change, too much is at risk to do otherwise.

2012/2013 Was A School Year Like No Other. Now What?

What a year! New job. New colleagues. New divisions. New classes to teach. New protocols for hiring, creating budgets, evaluations,……  New terminology, acronyms, and policies. New internal and external politics. New networks. New knowledge, skills, and expectations. All in all, it was a whirlwind of change packed into 12 months, and only now am I catching my breath. In fact, yesterday was the first time in 12 months I made the time to delve into the growing pile of files and folders scattered in different areas of my office. What a glorious feeling to churn through the materials, sorting some into new and glossy folders complete with typed labels, while discarding others in the recycling bin, thinking through the process, “I survived.” I know the job better now. I understand the expectations and the resources I have at my disposal. I’ve worked hard, earned respect, made mistakes, and tried to make a difference to the institution. Always looking through the lens of P-12 education, I appreciate the similarities of my first year experience with those of every P-12 educator and administrator who grappled with a state-wide reform agenda.

Public education was at times crazed this past year with new expectations, new curricula, new assessments, new ways of evaluating teachers and principals, new observation protocols, new performance management systems, new resources, and the list goes on. Teacher and principals had to write Student Learning Objectives, understand the HEDI Scale, implement Common Core Standards and concomitant Instructional Shifts, ready students for higher stakes state tests, use new inventory and progress monitoring assessments, conduct classroom evaluations, implement DASA, and do many other “new” things associated with Race to the Top. The challenges were at times overwhelming for building principals and teachers, but through the process, the status quo was turned on its head–and that’s not a bad thing.

With the year under our proverbial belts, it’s time to step back and reflect on all we’ve accomplished and plan what’s next in the cycle. For me, it will be to expand on the skills I just learned this previous year, and to make better those that require fixing. My classes will certainly be more structured and coherent as I repackage the syllabi and improve the embedded authentic tasks. Understanding more about how the system works, including development of budgets, evaluation tools, and the intricacies of SUNY-SED communications, I’m looking forward to expanding the visibility of our programs and Branch Campus culture (Which is pretty darn good already). We’ll also grow new partnerships, extend our services to the region, and fulfill our vision and mission statement. To do my best work, I’ll use the SUNY Plattsburgh Campus Plan 2018 for guidance and direction.

For public school educators, this is the year to fully assimilate Data-Driven Instruction into the regular school routine. It will be a year to refine common core curricula, implement the EngageNY curriculum modules, stay sharp doing evidence-based observations through inter-rater reliability training, create quality SLOs, and so on. This can also be a year to cultivate career ladders that promote teacher and principal leadership. Meanwhile, to stay focused on what matters and to find the best resources, educators would be wise to access the New York State Metrics & Expectations for 2013-2014 resource. The document defines what district superintendents, principals, network teams, and local superintendents should be doing in the areas of Curriculum, Instruction & Feedback, Data-Driven Instruction, APPR Implementation, and Culture of Safety & Development. People do better when they know better, and kudos to NYSED for clearly articulating what needs to be done and where to find the tools to do good work. Now it’s simply a matter of using the document to continue successfully along the path of school reform.

Peace.

Why We Need the Common Core Literacy Standards

Scenario: You stopped at the supermarket on your way home from school to pick up a few items for dinner. Unfortunately, you forgot to bring your reusable cloth shopping bags.  When you get to the checkout line, the clerk asks you, “Paper or plastic?”.  Task: Write a 300-word essay defending the type of bag you would choose. Be sure to use at least two credible references in your defense of paper or plastic bags. A simple problem with two to three positions and a myriad of possible explanations. As a science teacher in the late 80s and 90s, I had my students write such position papers at least once each quarter. Topics were relevant to the units we covered, and required students to use text-based evidence from various sources in their writings. In the process, they read more, wrote more, and learned and used more complex vocabulary.  Sounds a lot like today’s Common Core Instructional Shifts.

The Common Core Learning Standards call for significant shifts in teaching, particularly for teachers in subjects other than English Language Arts. And that’s a wonderful thing.

Frankly,  it’s been a long time coming for the few but vocal, “I am not an English teacher. It’s not my job to teach them how to read and write.” types. We all have a responsibility for developing student communication skills, whether they be in the form of reading, writing, listening or speaking. Ironically, it is through literacy that our students excel in their understanding and application of subject matter content. With such rich diversity for writing and speaking tasks in the non-ELA content areas,  the opportunities for students to persuade and inform are endless. As a science teacher, my student position paper topics ranged from Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the poultry industry to Reintroduction of the Gray Wolf into the Adirondacks and biodiversity. We also explored and debated climate change topics, including comparison of Bill McKibben’s, The End of Nature with Dixie Lee Ray’s, Trashing the Planet.

My students loved the tasks. Well, maybe loved is too strong a word, but they certainly liked/valued the challenge of taking a position and supporting it with researched details. We would even hold mock town board events and debates on some of our more controversial themes. It was fun, and the learning was deep and meaningful. Sometimes the projects took on a life of their own, with extended searches on particularly controversial topics. With the quantity of content required to get through prior to the state test, these extended activities took place outside the classroom, earning students extra points for their efforts. The key message in all tasks was, “Your opinion carries weight when you can back it up with data and text from credible sources.”

We need the Common Core Literacy Standards to ensure we graduate students who can read, write, speak and listen well, and who use evidence from varied, credible sources when making important decisions. They need to be comfortable with the syntax and language of primary documents, and be able to confidently voice and defend their opinions with others. In a time of information (and misinformation) overload, we need to ensure our students are critical thinkers who have the literacy skills necessary to make logical decisions. Students who are well read, well-informed, and who can speak or write with conviction on substantive topics. In the words of Aristotle, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” 

Public School Educators and Administrators: You Did It!

There’s a poster of fire-throwing pitcher, Nolan Ryan in an old 1991 Nike ad with Ryan’s impressive stats at the bottom and a motivational bucket list on the left side running top to bottom.

• 99-year-old marathoners.
• 94-year-old swimmers
• The back of SI is full of them. People who forgot to retire. And never got old.
• People who realized:
• It’s easier to keep going
• If you never stop.
• JUST DO IT.
• Get up. Get out.
• Build up the muscle.
• Get rid of the flab.
• Go back to school.
• Sell the TV.
• JUST DO IT.
• Master the curveball.
• Pound the bag.
• Rebuild an engine.
• Jump-start a career.
• JUST DO IT.
• Bench press four big plates.
• Dig for fossils.
• Bicycle across Canada.
• Save an endangered species – yourself.
• JUST DO IT.
• The only one who can tell you you can’t, is you.
• And you don’t have to listen.

(photo of Nolan Ryan) Nolan Ryan, 7 no-hitter, 5,453 career strikeouts, 44 years of age.

I love the ad. Its simplicity and brevity speak loudly of personal conviction, responsibility, and ownership for what one accomplishes or fails to accomplish in life. The message implores the reader to just get up and do it.

In the Nike ad, the target is the recreational athlete in all of us. But what might such a list look like for educators, particularly those in Race to the Top states? Here’s what I came up with.

• 41-year old school reformers.
• 67-year old Common Core Curriculum Writers.
• 23-year old early adopters.
• Public school halls are full of them.
• Professionals who realized:
• It’s easier to implement than resist,
• If you stay sharp and persist.
• JUST DO IT!
• Go to EngageNY.org, and get out to workshops.
• Enhance your cerebral networks,
• And those of your students.
• Get rid of the textbooks.
• Go back to school.
• Sell the TV.
• JUST DO IT!
• Master the Common Core Instructional Shifts.
• Pound the fluency drills.
• Rebuild your curriculum.
• Re-energize your career.
• JUST DO IT!
• Create interdisciplinary units of instruction.
• Probe student understanding.
• Write tight Student Learning Objectives
• Conduct data-driven instruction.
• JUST DO IT.
• The only one who can tell you you can’t, is you.
• And you don’t have to listen.

And so it goes. With testing and the school year rapidly coming to a close, it’s fair to say, “We did it!” Congratulations to the many teachers and school/district leaders who persevered through a challenging and at times frustrating year of school reform. You did it! Yes, we don’t know our student scores yet. And yes, teacher and principals’ results based on the HEDI scale (highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective) depend on those student scores, among other things. Regardless, through adversity comes strength. Congratulate yourself on managing the challenges to do the very best you could for your students and colleagues. After all, isn’t that why we entered this profession in the first place: to do what’s best for our students and communities? You did it!

Data-Driven Instruction and The Stories Data Tell

There is a wonderful video by Hans Rosling that tells a richly informative and entertaining story about global health growth over the past 200 years. The video is so good that I use it as a hook whenever I do a session on data-driven instruction. In his video, Rosling used 100,000 data points to show how lifespans in various countries have changed over time in response to improving economies, industrialization, world wars, pandemics, and other global events. It’s a fascinating four-minute presentation that vividly shows how data can be used to tell a story. That’s right, the data told a story. In Rosling’s case, the story was about global health. But what about the data stories within school systems? Are we using our district, school, or classroom data to tell stories people need to hear?

Data-Driven Instruction is one of Race to the Top’s “Big Three” deliverables in New York State, combining with Teacher and Principal Effectiveness and Common Core State Standards to shape students’ College and Career Readiness. Data-Driven Instruction (DDI) could easily be reworded, Data-Driven Action, for that is what DDI calls us to do: take action based on the data. It seems so simple. Gather data from the district, school or classroom level. Study the data. Talk with others about the data. Ask “Why” and “How” questions from the analyses. Look deeper at the data. Make action plans to address what the data tells us. Have smart and skilled people monitor the action plans. Go back and look at more data after a set amount of time. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Of the three deliverables, DDI has yet to gain traction in New York schools. As one Race to the Top Network Team member told me recently regarding DDI, “Most schools are assessing. Some schools are analyzing. Few schools are acting.” Given the breakneck speed of the Regents Reform Agenda and its concomitant pressures on school districts, educators and administrators have had to prioritize their efforts. Teacher and principal observation protocols, Common Core Standards, creation of Annual Professional Performance Review Plans, and development of Student Learning Objectives have all but consumed people’s time and energy, leaving DDI as the little white elephant in the room waiting for its turn.

I’m extremely hopeful for next year as we draw the 2012/2013 school year to a close. We’ve had many bumps along the road. Tears have been shed, and fear mongering and politicking have at times exacerbated the legitimate struggles of school reform. However, next year will be different. We now know how to (and how not to) write Student Learning Objectives. We’ve learned how to conduct more objective, evidence-based observations. We understand better what the common core instructional shifts look like, and we’re rewriting assessments to better measure student progress in our brave new world. Next year will be better. Best of all, we will have the time and skills to look deeply at our data and tell the stories we all need to hear for the longterm success of our children and communities. People do better when they know better, and so it goes with Data-Driven Instruction.

“I Teach Science Through Reading and Writing.” Yes, But…

With a greater focus on rigor and depth over breadth, the Common Core State Standards have transformed what gets taught in this great nation’s schools. In Race to the Top states, nowadays you can not attend a professional development workshop, conference, or webinar without coming across the terms, “literacy,” “fluency,” “next generation assessments,” or “Annual Professional Performance Review.” Unfortunately, such an important yet at times myopic focus has its casualties. Have we “Thrown the baby out with the bath water,” particularly when it comes to inquiry-based elementary science?

In a former life I served as a District Science Coordinator, working closely with all teachers of science, particularly elementary teachers who sometimes saw science as threatening and bothersome. Threatening due to a lack of content knowledge by the teacher, and bothersome for the required preparation of materials and subsequent cleanup following science laboratory activities. For some of our teachers, other than the traditional butterfly metamorphosis unit or beans in the ziplock bag taped to the glass windows, science was something you had students read or write about with books. These problems are only being exacerbated in some Race to the Top states today.

With a laser-like focus on literacy and the high stakes nature of assessments and teacher Annual Professional Performance Reviews, I am fearful scientific inquiry is going the way of the dodo bird. At the expense of having children analyze, inquire, and design, we are instead having students closely read text, write from multiple sources, develop mathematical fluency, and ready themselves for next generation assessments. I’m a big-time fan of the common core instructional shifts, and teachers can and must practice them regularly, but not completely at the expense of inquiry-based science. Fortunately, there are some outstanding resources available to maintain fidelity to the common core shifts while honoring children’s naturally inquiring minds about the scientific world.

Back to my former work as a Science Director, to address the threatening and bothersome aspects of elementary science instruction, our district adopted the National Resources Council’s Science and Technology for Children (STC) Program. The constructive, literacy-embedded nature of STC kits ensured students the opportunity to analyze, inquire and design experiments while also developing their reading, writing, and speaking skills. Teachers had a nicely contained set of plastic boxes containing all necessary materials and equipment (For our students, kit arrival day was like Santa Claus coming down the chimney. They were so excited!). Most importantly, each teacher got a fully articulated teacher’s guide along with a full day of professional development on how to use the kit. Remarkably, within three years, our K-6 teachers were doing three kits a year (Each kit had 16 lessons) and a service through BOCES that replenished all materials!

There are other kit programs out there for educators to use. A colleague recently told me about the Engineering is Elementary Program that embeds engineering and technology into engaging elementary science activities. I’ve also heard good things about the Full Option Science System (FOSS) curriculum and Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) kits. There are others as well. The point is our children deserve the chance to learn and study the natural and physical world through activity, and though a balanced approach to literature and informational text has added science content to the elementary classroom, children still need to act and play the role of scientist. Children learn in so many ways when left to their own devices to study scientific phenomena, whether it be forces (wind, elastic, gravitational) that propel a Lego sports car or factors that promote growth of Wisconsin Fast Plants. So, though I’m thankful you teach science through reading and writing, please be sure students have weekly opportunities for scientific inquiry. You won’t be disappointed with the results.