31 Reading Activities by Anchor Standard

Full Document Here

This is something I've been working on over the past couple of months; I haven't even got it to the point where I've shared it with my colleagues. I plan to introduce it, collect feedback, tweak it, and hopefully folks will be able to find use with it in class with their students. Feel free to use it or adjust it as you see fit.

Any feedback, suggestions for improvement, additions, etc is always welcomed!

#ccss #satchat #commoncore

Moving From Taught to Learned

I've Been thinking about the concept of something taught vs learned since participating in #fhspantherchat on Twitter with educators from my wife's school, how we can differentiate between the two, and how we can help people get to the learned from the taught.

When it's learned I know why I'm doing it, and why it's to my benefit.

I've taught a lot of people a lot of things, but how many have learned from me?

Are they still able to do it, recall it, discuss it, etc?

What can I do get more of my people beyond taught and into learned?

How can I bridge what is taught in school and what they need to learn?

20 ways off the top of my head:

1. give them an authentic audience
2. give immediate feedback
3. start with more assistance but gradually remove
4. start slow but build speed one step at a time
5. don't demand memorization; aim higher
6. provide visual and auditory instructions and demonstrations
7. give them time to visualize and reflect at the beginning and end
8. arrange for multiple inputs at multiple times
9. get them writing or speaking about it early and often
10. record them doing it and discuss it
11. record and reflect in whatever way works for them so they can focus on the skill or concept
12. be mindful of the rigor
13. make sure it's relevant
14. create relationships conducive for learning
15. let them do as much of it from the start as possible
16. give as little help as necessary for completion
17. model what you'd do, but be open to variations
18. make them talk to you or anybody about it as they're doing it
19. any activity is better than idleness
20. provide multiple opportunities for demonstration / output

How else? What can we as teachers / leaders / coaches help move skills, concepts, thoughts, etc from taught to learned?

Teaching a Class Without Content Knowledge

An untimely combination of personnel changes, department shuffling, and volunteerism left me in the unique position of teaching a high school psychology class with zero psychology background this school year. 15 weeks in I've found 5 great things are happening in class that I'm not sure would be happening if I had even a small amount of pre-existing content knowledge.

1. I'm able to model how I learn new things to the students constantly; I show them how to learn something new rather than tell them about content I already know. I discuss apps & resources I use to help me learn, and celebrate the process of learning alongside the written curriculum.

2. I participate in my own activities, and use the resources I create with the students to learn the material together; I have a unique opportunity to assess my materials as learning tools. I'm able to see what I'm doing and using from a first time learner's perspective.

3. My lack of overall content knowledge focuses the course on the process of learning and the sharpening of skills; what we're doing in psychology promotes lifelong learning far more than my AP U.S. history class' curriculum.

4. As I learn these new concepts and debate & discuss with students, I able to show and model my love of learning in ways I'm rarely able to as the room "expert." New and interesting points raised by students are truly new and interesting to me.

5. When I ask the class what they think about the theories of behavior development I ask the question because I legitimately wonder what they think because I'm not sure if I know what I think yet; the class has developed a great culture of learning from each other.

Obviously it's preferable to have content knowledge in any endeavor, but even the silver lining can provide some important insights and highlight great unintended developments and practice.

Summer Reading List

We as educators ought not to continue to think of summer as a vacation, but rather as "professional time." I have always used my summer professional time to read and reflect as much as I can, and this year is no different. As I begin my first leadership position in the fall, I will target key points of interest and concern to better my chances of being highly effective from day one. I look forward to a professionally lucrative summer of reading, tweeting, and blogging in preparation for a great school year!

1. Why Don't Students Like School? - I watch my one year old everyday get so excited every time he learns something new while he is playing with his flash cards or watching Sid the Science Kid, and I've lately been wondering when and where the excitement for learning and curiosity stops. The title of this book certainly makes it seem like it will be a fine resource for me in this regard. I am also excited to use this book and the corresponding Twitter chat #sschatbookclub to reconnect with other social studies teachers across the country that I've lost touch with this school year.  It will be like killing two birds with one stone.

2. Pathways to the Common Core - There are certainly political issues that are yet to be totally resolved with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) but the reality of the situation is that state, including my home Massachusetts, departments of education are adopting them as the new "frameworks." Knowing that the key to any kind of positive results with CCSS rests in the hands of teachers and classroom implementation, I must be a resource for teachers in my building. Without the support and knowledge of the leadership team, classroom application on a large scale won't happen. I hope to use the knowledge from this book to help teachers in my building be able to visualize how their instruction and assessment will change as a result of the Common Core, and what inevitable effects they will have on the curriculum moving forward.


3. How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom - Culture starts at the top; I want to model and promote the learning environment that will best produce active, reflective, and curious students who celebrate success by working harder for more of it. The title of the book says it all, and I'm excited to save 15% using a social media coupon code!

4. Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads on Leadership - Along with many others I have written before about the need for educators of all varieties to think of themselves as one part teacher and one part leader of people if they want to have the greatest impact. I am very interested in the perspectives of educational and non-educational leaders alike, and love the idea of essentially 10 miniature books in one. This will be fine companion to any beach day this summer!

What are you going to do with your professional time this summer? Don't waste an opportunity to get better at whatever you're trying to get better at!

Sweet Advice For the Graduating Seniors

My wife and I have been the advisors for the Class of 2012 in Hopedale, MA since they were in seventh grade in August, 2006.  I have learned many things both directly and indirectly from my six years working with this class, ranging from how to manage an accounts with thousands of dollars in it (never have to worry about that with my personal checking account) to properly taking thorns and leaves off of hundreds of flowers for Prom. I also learned the value of saying yes to things and stepping outside of my comfort zone; I never saw myself as having the skills and qualities for class advising, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. After all, I ended up with a wife and son! Last night at Class Night, we presented our last words of wisdom and advice to the graduates in a unique and interesting way. Aside from the novelty of seeing candy bars and treats substituted for some words, please pay careful attention to the advice itself. It has been a wonderful journey with the Class of 2012, and a true pleasure to work so closely with my wife in a professional way. We are proud to share our finished product with all the graduates around the country/world. Good luck!

Lessons from Kodak

I was sad and initially shocked to read this week that Kodak is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. In business for 131 years, and the only camera/film company I can remember from my childhood, conventional wisdom would suggest Kodak would be thriving in an age when it seems everybody has a camera and fancies themselves a photographer.  Reflecting further, however, I failed to recall new products or any buzz surrounding Kodak in quite some time.  I see a lot of Nikons and Canons, and a lot of people using smartphones to take pictures, but do not see any Kodaks.  People posts thousands of pictures on Facebook and other picture sharing platforms, but not many print photos on Kodak paper.  It seems the creators of the digital camera in the 1970s were out innovated and out developed in the market they invented, and there’s a lesson here for educators and schools.  If we offer the same curriculum and the same instruction year after year, we run the risk of becoming increasingly irrelevant over time. Resting on tradition and becoming complacent in what we do and offer puts us on the same path that Kodak went down.  Just as businesses run the risk of economic bankruptcy in the absence of growth and innovation, schools risk creative and inspirational bankruptcy that cripples school culture and impedes the opportunity for meaningful and fulfilling work to be done.

Focus on research and development, stay fresh, and encourage risk taking.  Stay ahead of the trends, and provide staff and students with the optimal environment for excellence.  Calvin Coolidge brilliantly said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence....  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent,” and by pursuing innovation and inspiring imagination and creativity throughout the entire school with the necessary persistence we will continue to offer exciting new ideas and opportunities and avoid being kodaked.

Vision & Mission

Part of the profressional standards for school administrators is to articulate vision and mission. I turned this in for an assignment earlier this year, and thought I would up the ante with a wider audience...

1. A clear and commonly accepted vision/mission will drive school culture. I recently heard victory defined as the accomplishment of a specific task. Too often, I find there is an inability to define what we as educators are trying to accomplish. If we as a school community can create a universally accepted vision of the school, we can work together to achieve it. If we go into each day as fifty individuals somewhat working toward an ambiguous goal, achievement becomes blurry. I firmly believe that strong interpersonal leadership at the administrative level can harness the energy and organization needed to bring all stakeholders together to create this common mission.

2. Curriculum and instruction must be perpetually improved and updated. As our clientele evolves, so to must our approach to teaching and working with them. School cannot be the place associated with outdated technology and expectations. A student should not think of school as the the only other place besides Grandma's that still has and uses VCR's. We must work tirelessly to find cost effective and logistically efficient ways to modernize our delivery of education. If we don't, then we will render ourselves irrelevant in our own students' lives. Today's student has influences coming at them 24/7 from a variety of sources. Schools need to plug themselves into this network to compete with all the forces that exist. We're not going to get there by sticking to nostalgic notions of the way "things ought/used to be done."

3. Leadership is about building relationships with all stakeholders. Leaders who don't build those interpersonal relationships probably aren't leading anyone. Like coaches, we need to get to know our players as people if we expect them to grow under our watch. By reaching out to students, parents, residents, and other staff members to build these relationships, we will achieve a level of collegiality and collaboration that will foster the results we are looking for. If we don't have the partnerships, results will stagnate.

4. Education and self-improvement are life-long endeavors. Complacency produces mediocrity. We as educators should always be working on something new. Whether its reading a new book, mastering a new technology for implementation in the classroom, or sprucing up a unit that has never been one of our stronger ones, the pursuit of constant growth will always keep us fresh and current. And by living the life long learner mission, we will model the behaviors and traits we hope to bequeath our students.

If the entire school community remains in constant pursuit of an agreed upon vision by employing cutting edge methods and techniques delivered by a connected staff universally engaged in self improvement, student learning will skyrocket. With the right leadership, this can happen.

Google Docs in the Classroom

As I began utilizing online collaboration tools for my teaching and learning last year, one of the first sites I immediately grew fond of was Google Docs. As soon as I began using it in the middle of the year in my AP US History class, I saw its value in assessment of writing, studying for exams, and preparing outlines in an interactive and reflective way. It immediately led to increased writing about the material we were covering, which directly led to improved performance on formal essays. It was also extremely effective as an organizing tool for a staff committee I chaired.  We were able to discuss differences and outline thoughts leading up to each meeting, which led to seamless and productive face to face gatherings. It eliminated many of the physical restraints such as time and other commitments that can plague staff committees.

The one frustration that came with using Google Docs was confusion and messiness that multiple editors can bring to an existing document. At times, clauses were accidentally deleted, or answers were misplaced or spaced in awkward ways. My AP class this year can attest to that from their summer assignment.  However, the new comment feature on the site seems to alleviate the only negative I saw.  It maintains all the collaborative benefits multiple sets of eyes on the same document can bring, but allows for the document itself to remain intact.  I was excited to use it in the classroom to analyze war quotes to begin a unit on morality and WWII earlier this week with my America & the World classes with juniors and seniors.

Allowing the students to comment on the document rather than edit opened up many new possibilities for classroom application of Google Docs.  The document remained clean, which allowed the students read the quotes without distraction and focus on what they want to say about each one.  The way they were able to discuss and dissect what they were reading while informally improving their ability to articulate their thoughts after reading with their writing was exactly what I was hoping for.  Being in the computer lab together allowed for the students to follow up written thoughts with conversation.  It was a rare occurrence where we were working on our reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills all at the same time.

I envision us using this tool in the future as a way to model the great reading strategies championed in Mike Schmoker's, Focus, as it allows me to show the students exactly what I would highlight through a difficult reading.  Comments provide readers the opportunity to essentially write in the margins, like one would do on paper.  Students that may be unsure of what to highlight and comment on in text would immediately benefit from seeing in real time what others are choosing to note.  Peer editing becomes cleaner, and I now have the ability to discuss writing samples with students in a more direct and efficient manner. I continue to be impressed with Google Docs, and the way it allows me to promote good reading habits and analytical writing in innovative and modern ways.

Edmodo Reflections Day 1

Achieving a 100% active class participation rate in a given session is a great feat.  Even on my best of performances as a teacher, universal participation in a given outing eludes me more often than not.  I've always had luck with engaging students and enticing them to want to participate in discussions, but there always seems to be someone who abstains from the conversation.  As rare as 100% active participation in a class period is, seeing it in two different gatherings on the same day rivals Haley's Comet in frequency.

Day 1 of introducing and utilizing Edmodo in two classes produced universal participation both times, and I cannot wait to do this with my three remaining classes tomorrow.  Students appreciated the simplicity of signing up and entering the Group.  They were very fond of and comfortable with the interface,  commenting repeatedly on the similarities with Facebook.  Students easily unpacked the features, such as the library, and already seemed more comfortable with it than me in certain regards.  Finally, and most importantly, the discussion we had regarding Just War Theory and concept of a Good & Bad war produced articulation, depth, and resource sharing at levels I have certainly never seen before during the first week of school.  I am excited to continue to explore the possibilities of Edmodo with all of my classes this year, and very much look forward to further great collaborative discussions with my students using various modules. 

Bad Advice for Teachers

I received two terrible pieces of advice during my student teaching and first years in the classroom that I've found are very common.  They may be the two most prominent pieces of advice given in Teacher Education Programs.  Once I was distanced from both of these schools of thought, my ability to teach and conduct a class improved considerably. Avoid both of the following:
1a. Be Yourself- Terrible advice. Be the most noble, inspirational, principled, organized, strong minded, confident, and creative version of yourself you can concoct. Eventually, your real self will catch up to your teacher self, but do not simply be yourself. A young new teacher being them self will probably come off as unsure, a little overwhelmed, and doubting their career move, and an older new teacher will probably come off as unsure, a little overwhelmed, and doubting their career move, but in a completely different way. Identify your audience, determine what it will take to hook them, and get yourself there. Stand tall, act like you own the place, and nobody will doubt you. Being yourself is not advisable.
1b. Find What Works and Stick With It- More terrible advice. Complacency leads to mediocrity, and you don't want to get boring. Find what works, make it better, and then find other things that work too. You want an arsenal of effective strategies an methods at your disposal. Always have a new project going. Whether its tech integration, or picking out your weakest area of the content and making it your strongest, a great teacher is always working on making something better. It's the only way to stay fresh and current.

Jump Onboard

School is in a constant battle with countless other mediums over the attention of our students. In order for us to win we need to be in all of those competing outlets. We need to be in their smartphone! We need to be in their Twitter feed, Facebook wall, RSS, tumble roll, etc or else school will see its relevance in the lives of the students shrink each year. Learning can be a year round thing with modern communication and its time schools jump on board. Let’s embrace some of the outlets we’ve been pushing away.