My Research on Ability Grouping in Reading Classrooms

I'm putting the final touches on some ethnographic research I've been conducting this semester in conjunction with a doctoral class. The study was about the effects of ability grouping in reading on students self-perception and teacher curricular choice. The study has been very interesting and eye opening.

Of course I went into the study with pre-conceived notions about homogeneous groupings for reading. I currently teach a "high" reading group, while there is also a "medium" and "low" group. I am not a fan of the format, but because that's the way it is at my school, I of course go with the flow and make the best of it.

My study has taught me quite about about how fully aware of levels the students how, how they view themselves, and how they are either more or less motivated depending on where they are and if they think they can do something to move up a level (for those in the lower levels).

Also, as part of this study, I took a look at teacher curricular choices depending upon group level taught. Again I've learned quite a bit. It's obvious that the "high" groups in many cases feel more freedom in terms of what books they choose (for example in my own experience, I've read books this year such as The Lightning Thief, The House of the Scorpion, and The Little Prince, among others), how they approach the work load and how students are motivated from a teacher perspective.

I will be submitting my final paper next week, not for publishing but for grading (welcome to grad school). I will hopefully be posting it here on the blog shortly thereafter to great fanfare!

Caring Teachers and Zero Tolerance in Schools

Teachers care, let's just start with that statement. People enter the teaching profession for many diverse reasons, some have a passion for a certain content area, others want to make a difference in the lives of children, while still others like the vacations. Once people enter the field, they either become a statistic and leave within a few years, or they stick around. For those who stick around, something invariably happens, they begin to care very deeply about the students they work with.

Caring for others and having a positive impact on their lives is the very essence of humanity.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” ~Elie Wiesel

For teachers, all it involves is looking at students as more than just numbers and scores, or labels of proficient and not proficient. Once you pull back the veil and begin to appreciate students for who they are as individuals, the job of being a teacher becomes a part of who you are, a part of your identity.

That's why when I hear stories of "zero tolerance," or idiots cracking down on students for no reason other than the fact that their job of teaching or being an administrator is nothing more than that, a job, it not only makes the rest of us look bad, but more importantly, it has the potential to destroy the education for many children.

This morning I came across a story on CNN.com titled Girl's Arrest For Doodling Raises Concerns About Zero Tolerance. Reading about the extreme level of reaction to a girl doodling, in marker, on her desk, is a cause for concern. The article discusses the fact that police are being asked to step into schools at younger and younger ages and more and more often. What is the reason for this? Have schools become this bad?

If you listen to a lot of what you read about in the media, yes, schools have become that bad. If you're actually in the schools, you know this isn't the case, especially in middle schools, which is where the above story happened. It's one thing to teach children about the difference between right and wrong, and to discipline a child for writing on a desk when it is forbidden, because part of being human is knowing the difference between right or wrong, but when we enact these zero tolerance policies, whose good does it serve?

When children are handcuffed, or expelled, the chances of them getting arrested or dropping out of school increase dramatically. In a society that seems so driven on punishment without rehabilitation, we can't afford to go down this path. Children make mistakes, children do stupid things, it's part of being a child. Responsible, caring adults take the initiative and educate them, that's the very essence of education. It's not all about literacy and mathematics. This is just a thought to ponder at this point.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

I show this video to a content area literacy course that I teach at the university each semester. I think it's important to hear what Sir Ken Robinson (a leading researcher from England on Drama and Theater in Education) has to say about creativity in education and how the hierarchy of the educational system globally crushes creativity. 

Battle of the Books

I originally put this link up for my own Battle of the Books students to be able to practice author names and book titles, which is a part of the "battles" that are coming up.

Anyone else who is doing New Mexico Battle of the Books for Elementary students can follow this link and use the Quizlet I made up to practice. My students have enjoyed using the flash cards and games to learn authors and will continue to use it in the following weeks leading up to the first practice battle that's on February 27th.

New Mexico Elementary School Battle of the Books author and book practice. 
(the above link will take you to a Quizlet that I made up for this. Quizlet is a free to use site that you can set up for vocabulary practice, and is something that I use frequently with my reading class)

Expert Teachers, the #1 Reason Kids Succeed

Recently I've been reading some research that pertains to the effects on student achievement of pre-packaged programs and curriculum designs that are being sold to schools across the world. Program A claims to raise student achievement higher and faster than ever before, while Program B makes the same claims. Sometimes these programs do make positive gains on achievement (usually measured by standardized and/or norm referenced tests).

The first few years of my doctoral studies have been focused on looking deeper at the negative aspects of business models in schools, of pre-packaged programs (Success For All and DNG to name a few), and of what actually has the most profound impact on student learning in the long term. It's a hard thing to study, because as a teacher-researcher I've decried standardized testing as inherently unequal and inaccurate. Of course the current studies, some of the best I've ever read, agree with this, but go a few steps further.

To put it quite simply, these articles, that I won't name here yet, because that's not the point of my discussion here, claim that the single biggest factor on student learning is quality teaching. Of course, quality teaching is almost impossible to define because it means different things to different students.

This is something I've tried to keep in mind every day when I enter the classroom. There's 28 young kids in my classroom, and what works for him may not work for her and so on. In the current era of test reform, rigorous political factors, and money being put at a higher level of importance than kids, it's hard for teachers to ever reach the level of teaching students, they're so focused on teaching content and teaching tests that they are afraid that actually *gasp* teaching to their students needs will be seen as subversive. I can confirm this, in my short five-year career, I've focused on teaching students and have been considered quite the rebel because of this.

I hope to continue looking at and pegging down indicators of great teaching, and hopefully researching it more in depth some day. If we can define it, if we can prove that it serves the best interests of children and scores them proficient on those ridiculous standardized tests, there might be a compromise out there that actually hands the reins of education to teachers while keeping the politicians at bay.

The Lightning Thief in the Elementary Classroom: Some Ideas and Resources

Last year I read The Lightning Thief with my 5th grade classroom, and they enjoyed the entire experience so much that I am currently about half way done reading it aloud to my 4th graders. Literacy instruction in my building is taught using a guided reading format, with time for read aloud, guided reading, and silent time. My guided reading centers have been based around activities based either on the events of The Lightning Thief or on Greek Mythology.

My class has been enjoying this book immensely, and I have literally seen dozens of students move on to the other books in the series after reading this first one, which is full of monsters, epic quests, and modern twists on Greek myths.

I have thrown in a few items of interest for those of you out there thinking about reading this book. I am having great success reading this to a fairly advanced group of 4th graders, and found it to be a comfortable read aloud for 5th graders. I don't honestly think I would suggest it for 3rd grade, but I'm sure many teachers have read it, I just think some of the more challenging aspects of the book will be lost on that age group. I would recommend it for second semester 4th grade up through maybe 7th or 8th grade, but for read aloud up through 6th.

The links I am specifically including here are a great teacher's guide (this will open as a Word document) that I have pulled from and a link to Rick Riordan's (the author of the series) personal website that includes great teacher resources.

Also, check out this Wordle of The Lightning Thief. This was created using the entire text of the book, which I found on wattpad and pasted into the Wordle site.

The Evolution of Storytelling: Spoken, Written, Movies, Video Games?

Sometimes the pages of this blog serve as a repository for ideas that I come across. In all honesty, I know that this next idea is in no way a new one, in fact I've encountered many studies on this very topic, and not even just in academic journals, but in major mass media publications.

I just completed the game Assassin's Creed 2 on Xbox 360 a few minutes ago, and felt compelled to sit down and discuss the finer aspects of a story that drew me in and took up so much of my free time these past few weeks.

This game, from its graphics, accurate architectural and character based history, compelling and original fiction, DaVinci Code style puzzles and intrigue, and a musical score to match that of any big budget movie, was more than a game to me, it was a literary, movie like experience. I just had to play more, and to uncover more of the puzzles and hidden story lines. It wasn't for the sake of gaming, it was for the sake of story telling.

With that in mind, I have to take a compelling look at the evolution of video games to where they are today. I know that calling Assassin's Creed 2 a crowning achievement in video gaming would be hotly debated among those with greater knowledge of such things than myself, but to a casual gamer who occasionally delves into deeper game, I have no other way to describe this game than as a beautiful work of art. When I am online seeking out more of the story, downloading the musical score, and antsy to play the next installment, you know something has been done right.

So for you scholars out there, here's an idea. Let's take a closer look at where video games are today. They're no longer the story of a plumber jumping in pipes looking for princesses. These are stories that are nearly equal to some of the best fiction out there today, their cinematic merits are rivaling those of the best movies, and their music is stunning.

It's just food for thought. Video games, the next frontier of the great story?

Glogster: More Technology Fun

A friend recommended Glogster.com to me, and I have found it to be a neat resource to use in the classroom. The great thing about this is students can create "posters" without having to sign up for an account, or as a teacher you can sign up for a classroom account and add your students to it. Best of all, this is all completely free. Here is a small example of what can be done with Glogster.

Click on the image to be taken to the full poster.