Communicating Evidence of Student Learning
Ross, T. J. (2007). Evidence-Based Practice and School Libraries: From Advocacy to Action. In School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist (pp. 57-78). Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.
“Central to evidence-based education is the acknowledgement that empirical evidence does not stand alone, outside of the context of practice. Rather, it is melded with professional wisdom…acquire(d) through experience and through view derived from professional consensus (p.61).”
Chapter four of Evidence-Based Practice and School Libraries: From Advocacy to Action focuses on how to, as a school librarian, improve student outcomes. The chapter suggests that it is important to focus on data and best practices to improve the quality of instruction in the media center and throughout the school. In addition, the article overlaps the idea that we must work from experience and knowledge of the population that we serve. Finally, the article ties in the idea of the importance of self-reflection with the focus of measurable outcomes.
A point of interest on page 65 was Todd’s finding that, “professional books are regarded as highly important sources of research for informing practice, they are read far less than informal sources such as listserv conversations and professional and trade magazines.” Many librarians felt that time was the key in prohibiting them from spending time reading this information. As a teacher, I face the time crunch as well. Knowing the importance of this research and that my time will still be limited when I become a school librarian; I will need to combine time management with attainable goals for reading.
Todd moves to the idea of communicating key research and how integration of research has been implemented to improve student learning to stakeholders on page 66. He presents the idea that many librarians struggle with this aspect of their job. I believe that a huge part of the struggle is that as librarians we have an innate love of learning. Therefore, we want to read everything and do everything. Yet, it is more important to try to implement the research than to read everything ever written. Thinking about reading one major piece of research per year and then implementing it and measuring it on a three year cycle might take a lot of overwhelming pressure off the librarian while allowing them to improve their program and communicate the information about their program to the stakeholders.
Critics of this idea will say that implementing one major research based strategy will slow down pace at which librarians can effect change. I argue that allowing librarians to trying research backed strategies on a slower schedule will allow them to delve deeper into the strategy and spend time reflecting on their work in order to perfect their work.
In addition, on page 67 Todd calls for librarians to make the evidence of student learning outcomes the focused result of the work of the librarian. By doing this we will be contributing to our school’s AYP. Moreover, we will increase our job security, as we become an essential part of our students’ achievement.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Week 8 Reading #1
Communicating Evidence of Student Learning
Stripling, B. K.(2007). Teach for Understanding. In School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist (pp. 37-55). Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.
“Educators can only teach for understanding by creating learning experiences that require the development of essential knowledge, the use of cognitive and metacognitive skills, and the application and transfer of knowledge” (p.38).
Creating understanding of the deeper meaning of texts in order to understand the author’s purpose or theme is a truly difficult task. As I read the opening antidote on page 37 of this article I felt as if the author was writing about the exact situations I have faced in my classroom. Time after time, I have been fooled into thinking that my students understand a text on a deeper level only to find out that they were unable to derive a deeper meaning of the texts we read and discussed at length. In order to activate the part of the brain that connects with texts on a deeper level, it is essential to allow students time to engage in metacognition.
The article goes on to outline the process of creating understanding. Moving from accessing background knowledge all the way through accessing habits of the mind. Quite frankly, inquiry based learning and building “habits of the mind” is my particular passion. As I read through this article I was totally “geeked” about the fact that I had used the information presented in to help a group of particularly difficult students to access meaning and gain an understanding of how to understanding texts.
In order to help my students gain understanding, I have allowed them to move though all of these phases and in the past in the past my students have found success. One particular year was quite different. The particular group of students has a large number of students performing lower than expected in our school district and, possibly as a result, had serious behavior issues. In order to help empower these students to understand their role as learners, I had to focus on the Habits of the Mind.
When I asked the class what they had to do to understand texts, I was amazed to hear all the right answers. They completely knew how to reread, create connections, create a movie in their heads when reading, etc. They knew all the right answers and seemingly knew how to understand text. Yet, they seemed completely incapable of doing this on their own. This information left me perplexed. How could students who articulate comprehension skills in such depth, be unable to perform? Familiar, with the Habits of the Mind text from my days at Oakland University I started to think about the empathy and metacognition pieces. I quickly came to realize that I needed my students to engage by spending actual time thinking about the text on a meaningful level. I had to change my tactic of falling back on comprehension only when students were lacking understanding.
With a new tactic in mind I went into school with my college homework in hand. I placed articles with annotations on the ELMO and shared with them the somewhat snarky inner dialogue I have with the text while I read. The students were shocked to see that as an adult I still annotated texts. Even though we had practiced annotations in school they began to realize that I wasn’t just making them do pointless extra work. That very Friday day during reading time students started to grab sticky notes, write down what they were thinking and place them in their novels. One student mentioned that doing so was making it a lot easier and faster when it came to the written comprehension piece tied to his reading. As a teacher, I saw that the writing was way more introspective then in the past.
The next tactic was to change the comprehension questions. Instead of a question like: What was Langston Hughes trying to teach Rodger in “Thank You, M'am”? I had to change the questions to metacognitive ones like: If you were Rodger, how would you feel if a stranger dragged you to her house? How do you think Rodger felt when he was treated with dignity? Can you think of an adult who treats you with respect? If so, explain what it feels like to garner that kind of attention from adults. If not, what does it feel like to not have a strong connection to an adult?
These questions helped the students empathize with Rodger but beyond gaining empathy for the character they started to gain an understanding about how to think about characters. On page 43 of the chapter Teaching for Understanding Stripling writes, “…the best way to prepare ourselves to teach for understating is to design instruction and develop teaching methodologies that facilitate inquiry.” By changing the questions to empathy based questions student apathy started to wane. Students who were generally considered underperforming started fiercely defending Rodger. Moreover, they were asking more questions and making inferences based on the text about Rodger’s upbringing as well as the life and upbringing of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.
By the time we got to the step of demonstrating understanding the assessment basically wrote itself. The final test question was choose one of the following: Write a letter to Rodger or Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones explaining how you feel about the actions they took in the story Thank You Ma’am. Be sure to share your feeling about at least three specific actions from the text. Or.
Create a journal entry from the viewpoint of Rodger or Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones that explains what they was going through his or her mind on the day they met. Make sure to write about at least three particular actions he or she took and why he or she decided upon these actions.
The final result was spectacular: heartfelt letters to Rodger and Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones from kids who were just a few days before completely uninterested in putting forth thinking about texts. The other positive result I witnessed was students doing what they knew to do but prior to this activity weren’t doing. They were going back to reread, quoting texts and placing sticky note on the text.
My job moving forward is to bring this type of in depth analytical thinking to all students on a deeper level when I move to the media center. On page 51 Stripling writes, “…the complexities of building understanding cannot be overcome by individual teachers acting alone.” I believe providing teachers the opportunity to delve deeper into inquiry will allow me to become a greater asset to the staff and students of my school. As I use my experiences to help teachers develop inquiry-based lesson, I will truly be able to share my love of learning with all of our school’s students.
Stripling, B. K.(2007). Teach for Understanding. In School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist (pp. 37-55). Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.
“Educators can only teach for understanding by creating learning experiences that require the development of essential knowledge, the use of cognitive and metacognitive skills, and the application and transfer of knowledge” (p.38).
Creating understanding of the deeper meaning of texts in order to understand the author’s purpose or theme is a truly difficult task. As I read the opening antidote on page 37 of this article I felt as if the author was writing about the exact situations I have faced in my classroom. Time after time, I have been fooled into thinking that my students understand a text on a deeper level only to find out that they were unable to derive a deeper meaning of the texts we read and discussed at length. In order to activate the part of the brain that connects with texts on a deeper level, it is essential to allow students time to engage in metacognition.
The article goes on to outline the process of creating understanding. Moving from accessing background knowledge all the way through accessing habits of the mind. Quite frankly, inquiry based learning and building “habits of the mind” is my particular passion. As I read through this article I was totally “geeked” about the fact that I had used the information presented in to help a group of particularly difficult students to access meaning and gain an understanding of how to understanding texts.
In order to help my students gain understanding, I have allowed them to move though all of these phases and in the past in the past my students have found success. One particular year was quite different. The particular group of students has a large number of students performing lower than expected in our school district and, possibly as a result, had serious behavior issues. In order to help empower these students to understand their role as learners, I had to focus on the Habits of the Mind.
When I asked the class what they had to do to understand texts, I was amazed to hear all the right answers. They completely knew how to reread, create connections, create a movie in their heads when reading, etc. They knew all the right answers and seemingly knew how to understand text. Yet, they seemed completely incapable of doing this on their own. This information left me perplexed. How could students who articulate comprehension skills in such depth, be unable to perform? Familiar, with the Habits of the Mind text from my days at Oakland University I started to think about the empathy and metacognition pieces. I quickly came to realize that I needed my students to engage by spending actual time thinking about the text on a meaningful level. I had to change my tactic of falling back on comprehension only when students were lacking understanding.
With a new tactic in mind I went into school with my college homework in hand. I placed articles with annotations on the ELMO and shared with them the somewhat snarky inner dialogue I have with the text while I read. The students were shocked to see that as an adult I still annotated texts. Even though we had practiced annotations in school they began to realize that I wasn’t just making them do pointless extra work. That very Friday day during reading time students started to grab sticky notes, write down what they were thinking and place them in their novels. One student mentioned that doing so was making it a lot easier and faster when it came to the written comprehension piece tied to his reading. As a teacher, I saw that the writing was way more introspective then in the past.
The next tactic was to change the comprehension questions. Instead of a question like: What was Langston Hughes trying to teach Rodger in “Thank You, M'am”? I had to change the questions to metacognitive ones like: If you were Rodger, how would you feel if a stranger dragged you to her house? How do you think Rodger felt when he was treated with dignity? Can you think of an adult who treats you with respect? If so, explain what it feels like to garner that kind of attention from adults. If not, what does it feel like to not have a strong connection to an adult?
These questions helped the students empathize with Rodger but beyond gaining empathy for the character they started to gain an understanding about how to think about characters. On page 43 of the chapter Teaching for Understanding Stripling writes, “…the best way to prepare ourselves to teach for understating is to design instruction and develop teaching methodologies that facilitate inquiry.” By changing the questions to empathy based questions student apathy started to wane. Students who were generally considered underperforming started fiercely defending Rodger. Moreover, they were asking more questions and making inferences based on the text about Rodger’s upbringing as well as the life and upbringing of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.
By the time we got to the step of demonstrating understanding the assessment basically wrote itself. The final test question was choose one of the following: Write a letter to Rodger or Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones explaining how you feel about the actions they took in the story Thank You Ma’am. Be sure to share your feeling about at least three specific actions from the text. Or.
Create a journal entry from the viewpoint of Rodger or Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones that explains what they was going through his or her mind on the day they met. Make sure to write about at least three particular actions he or she took and why he or she decided upon these actions.
The final result was spectacular: heartfelt letters to Rodger and Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones from kids who were just a few days before completely uninterested in putting forth thinking about texts. The other positive result I witnessed was students doing what they knew to do but prior to this activity weren’t doing. They were going back to reread, quoting texts and placing sticky note on the text.
My job moving forward is to bring this type of in depth analytical thinking to all students on a deeper level when I move to the media center. On page 51 Stripling writes, “…the complexities of building understanding cannot be overcome by individual teachers acting alone.” I believe providing teachers the opportunity to delve deeper into inquiry will allow me to become a greater asset to the staff and students of my school. As I use my experiences to help teachers develop inquiry-based lesson, I will truly be able to share my love of learning with all of our school’s students.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Week 7--Bonus
Assessment Principles and Practice in the School Library
Hosp, J. L., and S. P. Ardoin. "Assessment for Instructional Planning." Assessment for Effective Intervention 33.2 (2008): 69-77. Sage Journals Online. Hammill Institute on Disabilities, Mar. 2008. Web. 22 Feb. 2011..
“The skills that are assessed are teachable. A skill is teachable when it is possible to design instruction that will increase a student’s performance of that skill. For example, it is possible to teach a student to read more quickly or with expression. It is not possible to teach a student to be taller” (p.71).
This sentence captured the essence of why I want to become a media specialist. There are so many skills that media specialists can teach students that will give them skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. These skills are very measurable and unlock information to any interest they have.
Imparting library skills on students is easy to create activities for, easy to scaffold and can be remediated as needed. When looking at the three reasons students perform poorly on page 72, my brain continuously fired away thinking of ways to motivate students and instill perquisite skills necessary to do the work. For example, a library scavenger hunt may be very exciting for an elementary school student but would probably get a big eye roll from an 8th grader. By midway through 7th grade students are motivated by learning tricks that help them streamline research projects. As students move to high school they may need more involved library skills, which is a great way to show them the benefits of tools such as interlibrary loan and worldcat.org. At each level instilling these skills will build the necessary scaffolding for the student to master the next level of skill.
The other exciting aspect of teaching library skills is that students are allowed to show their mastery through doing rather than taking a test or writing an essay (although there are times when writing an essay about using the library might be a great assessment). Library skills also lend themselves to the development of interventions because a library is a place where each search is new. The librarian can always assist the student in modifying his or her search or to expose the student to ways to connect information.
As I continually assess where I am going as a teacher, I become excited when think of the ways I can help students increase their knowledge. Although it is still a goal far in the future, I am always picturing ways to make the library usable for students. As an adult the constant assessment of how I am doing will allow me to better assess what my students are learning.
Hosp, J. L., and S. P. Ardoin. "Assessment for Instructional Planning." Assessment for Effective Intervention 33.2 (2008): 69-77. Sage Journals Online. Hammill Institute on Disabilities, Mar. 2008. Web. 22 Feb. 2011.
“The skills that are assessed are teachable. A skill is teachable when it is possible to design instruction that will increase a student’s performance of that skill. For example, it is possible to teach a student to read more quickly or with expression. It is not possible to teach a student to be taller” (p.71).
This sentence captured the essence of why I want to become a media specialist. There are so many skills that media specialists can teach students that will give them skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. These skills are very measurable and unlock information to any interest they have.
Imparting library skills on students is easy to create activities for, easy to scaffold and can be remediated as needed. When looking at the three reasons students perform poorly on page 72, my brain continuously fired away thinking of ways to motivate students and instill perquisite skills necessary to do the work. For example, a library scavenger hunt may be very exciting for an elementary school student but would probably get a big eye roll from an 8th grader. By midway through 7th grade students are motivated by learning tricks that help them streamline research projects. As students move to high school they may need more involved library skills, which is a great way to show them the benefits of tools such as interlibrary loan and worldcat.org. At each level instilling these skills will build the necessary scaffolding for the student to master the next level of skill.
The other exciting aspect of teaching library skills is that students are allowed to show their mastery through doing rather than taking a test or writing an essay (although there are times when writing an essay about using the library might be a great assessment). Library skills also lend themselves to the development of interventions because a library is a place where each search is new. The librarian can always assist the student in modifying his or her search or to expose the student to ways to connect information.
As I continually assess where I am going as a teacher, I become excited when think of the ways I can help students increase their knowledge. Although it is still a goal far in the future, I am always picturing ways to make the library usable for students. As an adult the constant assessment of how I am doing will allow me to better assess what my students are learning.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Week 6
Guided Inquiry & Inquiry Learning Models BONUS!
Reading #2
Curriculum Mapping: Infusing 21st Century Standards and Academic Standards
Everett, J. A. (2003). Curriculum mapping and collection mapping: Otherwise known as “the camel with two humps”. In B. K. Stripling & S. Hughes-Hassell (Eds.), Curriculum connections through the library (pp. 119-137). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.
“Curriculum mapping and collection development go hand in hand” (p.119).
In her article, “Curriculum Mapping and Collection Mapping: Otherwise Known as “The Camel with Two Humps”, Everett breaks mapping down into two distinct categories. First, the mapping itself and second collection mapping for collection development. As Everett takes curriculum mapping to the final level of collection development, it becomes clear that the media specialist is an essential player in what happens to all learners in every classroom of the school.
A fundamental reason why curriculum maps are so important is because they help take curriculum to the level of the “21st century” by allowing for easy integration and collaboration. Moreover they change the role of the media specialist as Everett states, “curriculum mapping played an enormous role in changing my job description from that of a storyteller and book circulator to that of an educator who must be extremely knowledgeable in what is being taught on every level.” Although she does not blatantly say that curriculum mapping is potentially our best way to save our jobs it is an implicit theme with in the article.
As she shares the second category, collection development, it is clear that Everett understands the collection development is both difficult, time consuming and tedious. However a collection of outstanding materials is a powerful tool to generate teacher buy-in and to enhancing the curriculum for the students. From her own experience, it is possible to create a path for our school’s collection development based on the school’s curriculum maps.
Once a solid collection is built she moves on to create unit boxes. This is an awesome and highly useful tool that saves teachers time and helps them understand the breadth of the collection in their own media center. By providing boxes of unit enhancement tools the media specialist gets to have another opportunity to interact with the teachers, allowing the media specialist to continue her collection development and better understand the teachers’ needs.
Everett’s story is important for two reasons. First, she is able to show us how to build the map and that the hours of work is worth the trouble. Second, she shows us how the map is a fundamental way to build an outstanding collection. By explaining these two benefits, it is clear that curriculum maps can potentially be the saving grace to our profession.
Week 6
Curriculum Mapping: Infusing 21st Century Standards and Academic Standards
Vlasis, C. C. (2003). Librarian morphs into curriculum developer. In B. K. Stripling & S. Hughes-Hassell (Eds.), Curriculum connections through the library (pp. 107-117). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.
“The map does not show those specific daily activities or lesson plans. Most importantly, the map does not show the personality of the teacher delivering the lessons or the strategies he or she uses to inspire learning” (p.111).
When I reached the above quote I felt a lot more “buy in” to the idea of curriculum mapping. Until I read this particular chapter, I was rather skeptical about the idea of curriculum mapping. In my first year of teaching, I taught at a charter school. A huge push by the company running the school was to have all teachers on the same page, (down to the exact question/teaching point) at the same time. This literally resulted in the principal observing classes with an air-horn in her hand and pressing the button when the teacher fell behind in her lessons! Aside from being very disruptive the idea of all students being on the same page at the same time is bad for students since they are discouraged from asking questions and the teacher is discouraged from supplementing learning when students need clarification. The idea of keeping pace was more important to the principal (who had a MBA rather than a teaching background) than students’ mastery of a skill. When I first started reading about curriculum maps I feared the maps were pacing guides, now I see they are extremely different.
As a 6th and 7th grade teacher, I teach both levels persuasive writing. The 6th graders are responsible for writing a shorter piece than the 7th graders. The foundation work for teaching the writing piece takes me longer than in 7th grade because 7th graders are more cognitively developed than 6th graders and because the 7th graders received foundation work in the prior year . What is important to my district is that I cover this topic sometime within the third quarter. This flexibility allows me to adjust my lesson plans allowing me to lead each group at the pace they need in order to reach the greatest level of success. Without this flexibility curriculum maps would not have the same impact on the learning and teaching. Currently, we do not use curriculum maps in my district. If I had the ability to view a curriculum map I would be able to easily tie the persuasive piece to what my students are doing in another class. Currently, they are writing persuading their parents or our administration to make a change to a policy that effects them. If I was able to view a curriculum map where I discovered, for example, that in social studies students were learning the policies which involve human rights in China, I would be more likely to make a curricular tie to social studies with this assignment. The result would be enhanced learning in both curricular areas.
The second point in this chapter where I felt much greater buy-in to the concept of curriculum mapping was when Vlasis states, “A curriculum map is a tool for communicating, planning and improving the curriculum.” The idea of having a communicative tool that allows teachers to know what is going on in all classrooms across the buildings in a true middle school model. As a middle school teacher, I often feel that this information is not easily accessible to me. Not knowing what is going on in other classes is a huge detriment to the students. As a language arts teacher I have the most flexibility in my curriculum and have the ability to house books that allow the students to explore the subjects they are learning in all classes in different ways. Allowing media specialists to access this information is even more powerful because of her potential to obtain the needed materials and help teachers understand the cross curricular ties. Her ability to pay acute attention to the information the students are learning school-wide will allow her to impact all students in the school.
A final stroke of confidence for curriculum mapping is that there is an easy to follow format for the process of creating maps. Although the process is tedious, it is not difficult and there is no reinvention involved. In other words, maps grow organically to match the school district, state and national standards. Each step is described on pages 113-114 and beginning steps are laid out on pages 115-116. Even more encouraging is the fact that there is software available to create maps. This is important because it allows all teachers to access the maps both to build on the information that has already been entered into the map and to access the maps via their computers.
Between the personal research I have done on curriculum maps and what I read in this chapter, I see their inherent strengths. When I am ready to move into a media specialist position, I hope that the district I work in uses curriculum mapping so that I will be able to coordinate efforts between the school’s teachers for the success of the students.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Week 5
Guided Inquiry & Inquiry Learning Models BONUS!
Todd, R. J., Kuhlthau, C. C., & Heinstrou, J. E. (2005). School library impact measure (SLIM): a toolkit and handbook for tracking and assessing student learning outcomes of guided inquiry through the school library [draft]. [New Jersey]: CISSL.
“This guidance and support helps student learn to think though topic content rather than simply trying to find the right answer or repackage specific facts.” (Todd et. al. p.9)
This handbook caught my attention because my classmate and I are currently working on a guided-inquiry unit. The School Library Impact Measure (SLIM) explains the important effect that inquiry based learning has on students and explains step-by-step each piece of the guided-inquiry process. In addition, there is a checklist for how to implement guided inquiry in the library (p. 14) and detailed suggestions of how to implement such learning.
The quotation, “This guidance and support helps student learn to think though topic content rather than simply trying to find the right answer or repackage specific facts,” (Todd et. al. p.9) got me thinking about the boarder meaning of inquiry learning. Although it seems obvious that guided inquiry is engaging and mind expanding, I believe it has a larger implication on learning. In my experience guided inquiry is a necessary exploration in school because it lays the foundation for a student to become a life-long learner. When students are discovering information on what they want to know, finding new pathways to discover information and engaging in meaningful meta-cognition about the experience the have power over their learning. The process inspires learners to take control, change directions and expand their knowledge on topics they want to know about and topics they discover along the way. Allowing for an inquiry experience to occur is therefore the ultimate cure for apathy.
Yet it is difficult; consequently many teachers chose a more focused research approach. As I read through the SLIM, the steps made sense. The work up front by the teacher seemed intense, yet as the possible guided-inquiry projects start to move the students take charge allowing the teacher to be a guide rather than the ultimate giver of information. So what do teachers have to do before they can even attempt guided-inquiry? They must let go of the any notion that they must be in control of the learning. That is not to say that classroom management and guidance goes out the window but it is to say that the student’s interest has to be the guiding factor.
Earlier this year, my students were reading a variety of novels for their literature circles, they were charged with researching any cultural aspect of the novel they were reading. May students were reading Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah. Even though foot binding was rarely mentioned in this book many students wanted to research the topic. As the teacher, I was hoping they would research China’s one child policy. Yet, I allowed them to delve where they wanted with the topic. Eventually, the students had come to an a deep understanding of the torture some girls face(d) because of cultural norms. By letting go of my beliefs about what the students should research and allowing them to chose their own path they were able to become experts in foot binding and gain empathy for the girls who went through the process. Because I didn’t dictate what they had to look up, I had kids begging to go the media center, reading and researching after the bell rang. Moreover they were excited to share what they learned by creating multi-media presentations for their classmates.
Between my personal experiences and what I read in this article I am more steadfast than ever to my belief of the importance of inquiry-based learning. As a middle school teacher the biggest battle I face is fighting apathy. If students become inspired through inquiry based-learning, and they do, then it is worth all of the effort on the teacher’s part.
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