Stewardship, Education, and the Common Core

“Look at the beauty!” my Sicilian grandmother used to exclaim whenever we were vacationing or doing a day trip away from her home in Jamaica, New York City. Whether it be Long Island’s Jones Beach or Masten Lake in Upstate New York, Lucia loved to be in nature, and she passed that love down to her children and grandchildren. Yesterday’s hike with my wife along Mossey Cascade Brook and up Hopkins Mountain in the Keene Valley region of the Adirondacks was the perfect reminder of just how important our stewardship of Mother Earth is to our mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. The challenge I dwelled on at the summit while munching on a handful of wild blueberries was how to cultivate a sense of environmental stewardship with our students.

Years ago a colleague and I had a grand idea: We’d create a school curriculum entirely built around stewardship. Students would first learn about their responsibilities to care for self in the areas of mind, body and spirit. We’d then extend the concept to care of one’s family, immediate and extended. Stewardship would then broaden to that of the region, state, and nation. And last but not least, our curriculum would lead to stewardship of our planet. Students would learn how history, technology, population growth, religion, etc all impact directly or indirectly, the theme of stewardship. Okay, we definitely were thinking way out of the box. But seriously, how do we help our students appreciate the beauty, magnificence, and fragility of our environment? How do we instill the values and beliefs that will help preserve this beautiful planet and its awe-inspiring diversity of life for generations to come?

If it’s true what gets measured gets taught, then one likely route is through the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS). Let’s take literacy as an example. From the introduction (p. 2):  To be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological society, students need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems, and to analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and nonprint texts in media forms old and new. The need to conduct research and to produce and consume media is embedded into every aspect of today’’s curriculum. In like fashion, research and media skills and understandings are embedded throughout the Standards rather than treated in a separate section. What a lever to teach such a rich and meaningful concept of environmental stewardship through required standards for English Language Arts and Literacy!

Truly, where there’s a will, there’s a way. By looking carefully at the Common Core Learning Standards, one can find many avenues to teach rigorous and highly relevant concepts such as environmental stewardship while meeting ALL the CCLS standards. Ultimately, it comes down to values. How much value do we put on environmental issues? On biodiversity? On climate change? On clean water? On alternative energies?……. Through the Common Core Learning Standards, we have an opportunity to graduate students with the capacity to think deeply and well about important issues, and to do so in spite of the constant noise from our media.  If we think about the environment our children’s children will inherit, there’s no question we must work hard and diligently to preserve this lovely planet we inherited from our ancestors.

BTW, this week I begin my Climate Reality Leadership Corp training. I’ll keep you posted.

The Two Best Things About Teaching: July and August?

Once upon a time, our national public schools closed shop for the summer, sending children and teachers home for a nice, long vacation. After ten challenging months of teaching and learning, a much-deserved break afforded teachers and students alike time to recharge through rest and recreation. Ah, what bliss! No lessons to plan. No papers to grade. No quizzes and tests to develop. No student debates, field trips, calls home…. No, “I forgot my homework,” “I forgot my pencil,” “I forgot my books,”….  Just a long, extended period of bliss.

When I first considered leaving my job at the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office to become a high school science teacher, I got mostly “What, are you crazy?” responses from my colleagues. “You’ll make less money.”, “Those kids will eat you alive.”, and “Do you know how hard it is to teach???”.  I laughed all the comments off. I had been touched by the teaching bug while doing a guest lecture at Bay St. Louis Middle School along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, and it left me with a burning passion to work with children as soon as possible. “Besides,” I reminded myself, “I’ll get July, and August off!!!” Immensely satisfying work AND a summer vacation??? Whoa!

Fast-forward 25 years later, and I can only chuckle at the naivety and silliness of such thinking. I found my summers and those of many colleagues had some nice stretches of rest and relaxation, but inevitably, there were five weeks of personal learning and school preparation that consumed our time each and every summer, and it was all good. Good because we knew it made us better educators. We chose summer institutes that built our professional networks and stretched us to learn new strategies and skills. We enrolled in workshops on curriculum and assessment, pedagogy, and classroom management that were lauded as best practices. Understanding by Design, Literacy in the Content Areas, Woodrow Wilson Fellowships, etc.. Over time, many of us gave back to the profession by being the presenters. Those were great days! Collegial support, time without students to process and learn deeply, good food, and facilities with soft furniture. Best of all, we still had time sacrosanct for family and self. Five weeks seemed like a really good deal.

Today, fewer and fewer school districts send teachers and students home for ten straight weeks. Instead, many schools have teachers remain for an additional week of mandatory professional development while students are given a brief respite before their summer programs ramp up (Assuming monies are set aside for such programs). There’s just too much to do and too much at stake to do otherwise. Teachers are also expected to return up to one week before school starts for additional professional development programs. The logic of such changes in policy are sound. Trying to provide meaningful, sustained professional development to entire faculty during the school year is challenging and costly. Time out of the classroom is minimized when summer time is used, and many rigorous professional development programs require more than a few hours here, or one or two days there.

This past week I had the privilege of working with elementary teachers, aides, and instructional leaders at Eagle Point Elementary in Albany, New York. We studied how the brain learns and applied those understandings to Wiggins and McTighes’ Understanding by Design. What a great group of educators and staff! Their enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail reminded me of why I got in the business of teaching 25 years ago! When I told them on our last day that I was all that separated them from summer vacation, they rewarded me by working hard right through the end of our day. So, yes, July and August are two of the best things about teaching.  Best because these are well-earned times for rest and recreation, and best because they are opportune times for meaningful and sustained professional growth. Enjoy the summer and all it brings.

Teaching Elementary Science Well

“We must teach our science students to do something in science class, not to memorize facts.” So said Dr. Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of Science and former two-term President of the National Academy of Sciences, in a press release announcing publication of the next generation science standards. No question about it, learning science is much more than science lectures and readings. It’s about satisfying one’s innate curiosity to understand their environment through analysis, inquiry and design. Learning science comes from doing science, and as an added benefit, allows effective teachers to adeptly and seamlessly work in literacy, math and the arts.

If you look at the New York State Education Science Core Curriculum, you will find seven standards in the core, of which standards 1, 2, 6, and 7 relate directly to a “student-centered, problem-solving approach“ to science (On page four you will find a list of inquiry process skills students should be developing). However, it is standard 4, the content standard, that garners the majority of teachers’ attention when planning and teaching science lessons. Sadly for both student and teacher, in classrooms wholly reliant on a science textbook, lessons rarely stray outside of standard 4. However, it doesn’t have to be that way, particularly now with the release of the Next Generation Science Standards which emphasize depth over breadth.

Earlier this week, I taught a class on how to teach elementary science for my MST students. We, dare I use the word, “covered” a number of science pedagogy-related topics in class including the obligatory hook on the worrisome state of student results on international and national measures (PISA and NAEP) followed by a hip video (My robot is better than your robot) featuring modern-day entertainers. We also reviewed the New York State Education Elementary Science Core Curriculum, Next Generation Science Standards, Inquiry-Based Science Methods, Resources for Elementary Science Lessons, Science Pre-Assessment Probes, and Science Kits. However, we delved deeply through discussion what it means to analyze, inquire, and design, particularly at the student level. Our students like to play on swing sets, but why do the swings stop moving if the person stops pumping? Does the length of the swing matter? What about size of the person? And what about the early spring shoots of green grass and other plants along buildings? Is there a particular side of the building (north, south, east, or west) that sees growth sooner, or does direction not matter?

If we allow the time, our students could fill a book of interesting questions through their analyses. Hence the “Analysis” portion of analysis, inquiry and design. From Elementary Science Core Curriculum Standard 1, Key Idea 1 (Scientific Inquiry), The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process.  Key Idea 1 includes language about asking “why” questions, looking for similarities and differences, and more. Once our students are asking “Why” questions, they will willingly come up with ways to find answers, which is the essence of Key Idea 2.  Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity. The process of scientific inquiry described in the core curriculum ends with the analysis of results, revision of conceptual understandings, and dissemination of findings. The observations made while testing proposed explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into phenomena.

And so it goes with inquiry-based elementary science instruction. To model the process and drive the point home for my students, we did a fun “Bubble Gum” lab in which they were asked to predict if and how the mass of sugar-sweetened gum chewed for a set period of time might change. Each student deliberated and came up with a hypothesis. I then asked them to design the procedures to test their hypotheses, after which they carried out their experiments. We had a simple elementary gram cube balance to measure the original mass. After chewing the gum for ten minutes, my students remassed the gum and summarized their findings and conclusions. Since science is a wonderful tool for embedding literacy, I asked them to describe how they could use the fiction or non-fiction reading material about matter they were assigned to bring to class in this bubble gum lab. From there we spoke about ways to differentiate the lesson by varying the level of support (scaffolding) to students and by challenging others with more complex math connections and extensions. Some students might require a template to enter their hypothesis, procedures, data and conclusions. Others might need extension problems such as predicting what might happen if we used sugarless gum instead of sugar gum. The possibilities with inquiry-based science are endless. Our lesson concluded with some excellent Science Assessment Probes from the National Science Teachers Association.

When I reflect back to my days as a science teacher and K-12 Science Director, I chuckle remembering that I believed nothing mattered more than science. Science was THE SUBJECT area and all else paled in comparison. Well, obviously, students don’t learn science if they can’t read. And if they struggle with math fluency and concepts, or fail to see the connections of science in other subject areas, then science loses its luster quickly. 25 years into my career, I see things more clearly. Science is not the center of our public education universe, but it can be the hub that drives all subject areas forward. Science is a fascinating area for students, particularly boys who don’t always enjoy reading or writing. Science is all around us, and the discrepant event opportunities allow for inquisitiveness and joy of learning. In this era of high stakes everything, make time for you and your students to go beyond memorization of facts and get knee-deep into inquiry based learning. You will not be disappointed with the outcomes.

Student Asks, “Where’s the Research on The Retention-Time Curve?”

Last month I presented to my School Culture class a Retention-Time curve chart from David Sousa’s How the Brain Learns. The chart indicates student retention in a classic learning episode peaks at the start and after maintaining peak retention for 10-20 minutes, falls to a low-level before rising to a second, though lesser peak to close out the time period. I explained to the students how they could use such information to structure their lessons, particularly for presenting new material via direct instruction while retention levels are high. When retention levels drop, they could shift to an activity, break, or some other event that would “recharge” students’ working memories. The lesson could end with additional direct instruction followed by closure. One student thoughtfully asked, “How do we know that’s really true? Is there research on the topic?” What a great question! I love it when students question the material, asking for evidence (sounds like Evidence Based Answers via Common Core Literacy Standards Instructional Shifts).

I promised to find specific research to support the retention-time curve for next class, and through Feinberg Library‘s search engines came across a good number of articles supporting Sousa’s Retention-Time curve. My favorite was a study by Young, Robinson and Alberts on the vigilance decrement in which the authors explored whether the same decrease in attentiveness over time exhibited in the field of ergonomics occurred in traditional college classroom lectures. In other words, would passive learning episodes find students losing focus (vigilance) in their task for learning over time? From their conclusion:

“The results of this study suggest that student concentration decays in the same way during a passive lecture as does that of a human operator monitoring automated equipment, with serious implications for learning and performance. The recommendations in terms of maintaining attention and concentration are also analogous – instead of interspersing periods of manual control (Parasuraman et al., 1996), short breaks or novel activities may temporarily restore attention to normal levels.”  (p. 52)

We discussed the work of Young, Robinson, and Alberts the following class, and I reiterated the value of questioning strategies, statements, etc. We live in a fast-paced, information overloaded world, and it’s too easy in our schools to comply with decisions and simply adopt what others are doing without much thought. I remember one school’s math program that was so heavily scripted the teachers said you could teach the series with your eyes closed. Well, that in my mind is a serious issue. How can you ensure instructional shifts are being implemented, or that content best reflects the needs of students when following a script created by someone who doesn’t know you, your students, your school, or your community? When we stop questioning what we’re doing and simply follow procedure, we’ve taken away our creativity, intelligence, and ability to teach for rigor, relevance, and relationships.

Back to my research, I was pleased to find good support for the time-retention curve I have been touting in my classes and work since I first came across the concept in David Sousa’s book ten years ago. For my students, I hope they found value in questioning others, particularly when it comes to the important work of student learning. After all, if we are going to grow the instructional leadership within our schools, we must be willing to ask hard questions and assess, analyze, and act. We can’t afford to do anything less for our students.
Young, M.S., Robinson, S., and Alberts, P. (2009). Students pay attention!:    Combating the vigilance decrement to improve learning during lectures. Active Learning in Higher Education, Volume 10 (1), pp. 41-55.

 

Those Critical First Days of School

Fall semester starts tomorrow and with it my official foray into college teaching. I loved my work as an education administrator and professional developer, but I haven’t been this excited for the start of the school year since I last taught secondary school science classes. As with most educators, I love to teach. And, I love to create lessons. I am no fan of scripted curricula, and my own course syllabi were reworked yearly to keep them current and fresh. The lens I used to create and evaluate my lessons are the three Rs: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships, and so it will be for my three classes this semester. Of all the lessons that I taught, the first lesson of the year mattered most.

Good teaching takes time, as effective teachers know too well. However, the time for lesson preparation, teaching, and feedback moves quickly because the work done is so darn meaningful to the teacher and to the students (usually). Such is the nature of the teaching profession. As Chris Rock says in his hilarious Time at Work clip (profanity alert), “If you’ve got a career, there ain’t enough time in a day…..When you got a job, there’s too much time.” Isn’t that the truth! It took a great deal of time organizing my course syllabi (Thank you Dr. Grant for easing the burden) and prioritizing concepts and content. However, the past few days I’ve worked hard on that critically important first day of school using Harry and Rosemary Wong’s First Days of School-a classic must-read book for all educators, new and seasoned veterans alike.

I saw Harry Wong at a National Science Teachers Association annual conference years ago, and he was simply amazing. His presentation was one of the finest I ever saw, and I ended up buying his book and getting his autograph after his speech. There are many, many important pointers and suggestions that define good teaching, but my favorite chapter is Section A: Basic Understandings which describes the critically important first few days of school. The Wongs correctly emphasize that the routines and first impressions a teacher sets at the start of the year will define the tone for the entire year. It’s sort of that old cliché, “First impressions are lasting impressions.”

Two important rules I immediately made part of my routine were to 1) greet students at the door when they enter the classroom EVERY DAY throughout the year, and 2) have a task for students to complete EVERY DAY when they get to their seats (whether the bell has rung or not). Those two simple changes in my routine paid immediate and long-term dividends, particularly rule 2. Rule 1 was something I followed periodically because I genuinely liked welcoming my students each day. However, there were days I was scrambling to set up a lab or organize papers and didn’t have time to welcome them at the door. I wonder what the students thought consciously or sub-consciously when I was too busy to greet them personally. Rule 2 was the game changer for me. By having a daily task on the board for students when they arrived, there was no loss of time. In fact, I gained extra time since they began working the minute they sat down at their desk. Wow! No more, “Settle down. Settle down” when the bell rang. Instead, “You have two more minutes to enter your response in your journal.”

So tomorrow I will teach my first Practitioner Research in Education 1: Planning Research. Tuesday is School Culture, Settings, and Systems in the 21st Century, and Wednesday is Adolescent Development for Education Professionals. In all three classes, I will be mindful of making the first session a memorable one. There will be a task at each student’s desk, and I will be greeting every student at the door. My goal as a professional developer has always been to walk the talk, and so it will be in my college classes. I hope to impress upon these future teachers some best practice strategies they can use in their classrooms someday. Tomorrow’s strategy: First Days of School. I can’t wait!