Assessments

Every teacher has their own take on assessment.  We give tests in our classes and must prepare our students for the dreaded standardized tests.  Rarely do we think about the types of assessments we are imposing on our students.  What do we want to measure? How do we best measure that? What question type is going to best get to the heart of the matter? This chart gives a nice graphic representation on the different types of assessments.  And... there will be a quiz when you're done.6 Types of Assessments

Position Statement of the TCRWP

This came out soon after the adoption of the CCSS by NYS, but in my opinion, continues to be extremely relevant to our discussions as teachers today.  The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project offers their viewpoint on the CCSS and implications for schools:

http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/common-core-standards/position-statement-common-core-and-pathways.html

Please share your thoughts!

Science Fridays

Martin Wolf was School of the Art’s very own Bill Nye , the Science Guy. He even resembled Bill Nye—tall, lanky, dark-haired, occasionally wearing a bow-tie to complement his neatly ironed button down shirt. In every way Martin was the epitome of a budding scientist, and he chose to practice his passion by honoring his friends and my home room students to “Science Fridays,” an occasional series of experiments and presentations designed to impress us all with the awesome power of science.

Recently I emailed Martin regarding these experiments because I wanted to write about them, but felt that I was not “scientifically inclined” enough to describe them in detail or do them justice. Martin quickly replied back to my email request with the following:

“I remember about 4 of the experiments! We can start with the one with clear the water filled balls. Those were polymers! (Which are mostly Carbon and Hydrogen atoms linked together in long chains. There are many different kinds, but the ones we saw absorbed water over night, which made them have an "index of refraction" almost equal to the water they were in, and also really squishy (because they are, at that point, mostly water)! So that means that when light passes through them, they bend the light in almost the same way that the water did, and that makes them invisible! I still have some, so when I come home at the end of May, I'll be happy to give you a jar if you'd like!

Another one I remember was something called "Jacob's Ladder." We passed electricity through a transformer that gave it a higher voltage, and then it arced across two copper wires. Also, you can go up to my dad's room and ask him to show you it again, if you'd like! He says he'd be happy to do it."

He went on to describe an experiment he called “floating bubbles ” and his “spontaneous combustion” fiasco:

"And finally, the spontaneous combustion! (How can we ever forget?) This one was really simple, but it was still my favorite (Partly because of the chemistry, but partly because of people's reactions...including my own!)

We had a ceramic "evaporating dish" filled with finely powdered potassium permanganate (KMnO4), which looks like a grey sand. Next, we added about a teaspoon of glycerine (it kind of sounds like a cooking show, doesn't it?) and waited about a minute for the reaction to start. 

It was..

KMnO4 + C3H5(OH)3 ==> K2CO3 + Mn2O3 + CO2(g) + H2O(g) + HEAT!!!

Or, in words, potassium permanganate + glycerin (yields) potassium carbonate + manganese(III) oxide + carbon dioxide gas + water vapor + HEAT!!!!

And of course, the heat is what we saw as the flames! Here's something to remind you (in case somehow you managed to forget...if you have, tell me how, because that was one of the top ten scariest moments of my life! All I could think of while the smoke filled the room was how I would try and explain to my mom how I burnt down Creative Writing's brand new Mac computer cluster!).

I hope that is a good start! If you need me to be more or less scientific than I was before, just ask! I'll be happy to explain anything and everything however you'd like.”

In typical Martin fashion, he left nothing out in his long email reply, even referrring me to youtube video links of the aforementioned experiments and making sure that I could turn to his Dad, a colleague who taught science, for further explanation. When I thanked him for all of this helpful information, because (as I had written) I was not “scientifically-inclined,” he reassuringly emailed me back again:

"You don't need those videos to be ‘scientifically inclined.’ I think we're all scientifically inclined. Science is the manifestation of curiosity, in my opinion. We all cannot know the right names of chemicals...we can't all be able to explain why ice floats, or why cats have stripes. But we all can be curious! It's our just our way. And it's purely curiosity that will drive science onward through the years...not fancy terminology!

So from one scientist to another, I hope you find what you are looking for in your writing. Cheers, Martin!"

During the year, students in the AP English Language and Composition class worked on poetry projects, choosing an American poet to read and then present to the class. Martin chose Marianne Moore and on his day to present he surprised all of us by coming to class in costume with a black tricorn hat and cape—his attempt to represent Ms. Moore to the best of his ability.

Later in that school year, I offered the class a challenge: any student who would read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and write a brief paper about the book could receive an A+ for the last marking period. Martin and his best friend took up the challenge, reporting back to me about their progress. Halfway through the book, Martin sent me a Facebook message: "Ms. Gamzon, you make me like the elegance of English almost as much as Science!" That was a huge compliment for English studies coming from a science lover! Then a week before the end of the year, he reported back: "Only 98 pages left of Moby Dick, Ms. Gamzon!" Of course, he finished the book, wrote the paper, and received an A+ for the marking period.

Yet it was another aspect of Martin that made him so much more than just our own Bill Nye, the Science Guy. On a class blog where we were discussing various literary critical theories, I found this post from Martin:

“Everything happens for a reason, Martin,” my grandmother told me when I burnt my favorite childhood hat next to the wood burning stove. It was a lovely hat, made of wool so colorful it brightened my day every time I wore it. From a structuralistic point of view, the burning of the hat would be only a sign of the painful times to come. That winter would be the coldest winter in my past. You see, structuralism states that all of humankind’s characteristics: our actions, our deeds, our literature and our lives are a system of signs which are not to be overlooked. Structuralists such as Roman Jacobson, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Roland Barthes attempted to develop a semiology; a form of science which analyzes these signs in our history and literature. Naturally, the Science of English would greatly appeal to me. So, why Structuralism? Why study the events of the past, hoping to decode what may take place in the future? Because it cannot easily be done, and a good mind always accepts the challenge. I would have never guessed that the burning hat, the symbol of the “cold winter” could have meant anything more than my ears would be frostbitten. I would never have known that that particular winter would play host to the death of my grandmother there with me when my hat burned. Nor would I ever have guessed that the rosebush she planted many years before would not grow that spring. A sign so seemingly, painfully obvious was cast aside as I scorned at my silly mistake of putting my hat too close to the fire. And yet, who knows how many symbols are left enduring undiscovered by me at this very moment. Structuralism would dictate that everything, all these little actions, feelings, and decisions, will return to influence the system of life in my future."

Martin is now my sign—the core of my own semiological pursuits in literature, my own structuralist belief in a sort of zeitgeist of awareness that sweeps over all us, making us look for signs and synchronicities in our life. Every time I am faced now with a challenge of disinterest, rudeness, misbehavior on a minor or large scale in some of my classes, I can read that passage over, think about Martin, our Bill Nye the Science guy and how he became valedictorian, and gave such a wonderful speech at graduation, and is now at Princeton where “Cheers” as an email sign off might be very popular among his Ivy league friends and certainly charming to his old high school teacher.

I love Martin and he continues to inspire me. I’ve even managed to almost forgive him for nearly blowing up the new computer writing lab on a very memorable Science Friday.

Speak

The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) has created a place for educators to weigh in on the test that, in many places, determines our "effectiveness" as teachers.  It is a website designed to capture the nation's thoughts on the impact of these tests on children, educators, parents, and educational policy.  

Here's a preview:

"Before I developed this site, people cautioned me that it would be filled with mindless ranting against the CCSS and against all testing, but you are proving those predictions to be absolutely wrong. Your detailed, thoughtful responses to the test, your descriptions of your kids' experiences with the tests, your insights about what the tests might mean for literacy education in the future, are all incredibly helpful. And your dedication to high standards, and attentiveness to your students is beautiful."  - Lucy Calkins, TCRWP

"...thinking about all we know from decades of research on school reform, I find myself worrying that the CCSS is going to implode. If it does, the problem will not be with the ideals of the Common Core, but with the fact that people driving policy do not seem to understand about how people and organizations grow." - Lucy Calkins, TCRWP

Link to the TCRWP spotlight article, "In the Wake of the ELA Exam", regarding the exam itself, the feedback website they created, and common threads among the posts:
http://www.readingandwritingproject.com/news/2013/06/11/In-the-Wake-of-the-ELA-exam-Lessons-from-NYS.html

Link to the actual ELA Feedback website:
http://elafeedback.com/

Never to Teach Alone Again

Those words continue to stay with me years after reading them.  Anyone who knows me can attest to the respect and admiration I hold for Katie Wood Ray and I reluctantly admit that, yes, I AM a bit of a groupie.  Her point, in this instance, was that if we have a well-crafted book (or a handful of them), we have all we need to teach writing well.  We don’t have to have everything there is to know about writing in our own heads at this very moment; we can put our faith in the authors we hold close and trust that they have rich things to teach our students (and ourselves) about writing.  We carry these authors with us – whether literally or figuratively – and we teach alongside them.   I found comfort and excitement in these words and have never looked at teaching writing the same way since.

But these words ring true for me in a different context as well.  As I find myself in new and oftentimes uncomfortable professional situations, these words come back to me.   I do not teach alone.  All that I am as a teacher is wrapped up in the experiences and the people who’ve come before. 

I carry them with me.  And that gives me strength.

I carry those who first showed me what it means to teach.  That all you learn in college is just the beginning.  That if you pay attention, your students will teach you.  That there is strength together and that we CANNOT do this job alone.  And that you won’t make it if you don’t take time to laugh.   

I carry those whom I’ve taught alongside, who’ve shared…everything.  The teachers who astound me on a regular basis and continue to teach me what responsive teaching truly is.  The ones who gave me authority until I earned it for myself. 

I carry the students who said, “Make me”, the students who taught me new cuss words and schooled me on the proper slang terms.  Those who constantly made me question, “What the hell am I going to do?” EVERY DAY on my ride home from work.  The ones who pushed me just because they could.  It was a push I needed.

I carry the administrators.  Yeah, I said it.  It’s easy to become entrenched in our own perspective, to become bogged down in our everyday reality and lose sight of where others are coming from.   Stepping outside of my classroom teacher shoes into the role of instructional coach helped me to see a bigger picture.  I will take that with me as I walk back into the classroom. 

I carry those who have graciously welcomed me into their classroom, who created space for me to learn alongside them and their students.  Those who said, “Come watch and tell me what you see,” and “How can we…?”.  Who taught me more than I could ever return to them.  The perpetual learners.  They’ve taught me that it’s okay to not know and it’s okay to open your door anyway.  Because we don’t have to have all the answers; we just have to have faith that we can learn and grow together.

I carry the Nykerias, the Ronalds, the Dyquans.  The students who forced me to step outside my world, my comfort zone.  The students who shocked me with the stories of their lives…at 6, 8, 11 years old.  They are the ones who haunt me - the ones I pray make it out of that neighborhood and not onto the evening news.   They taught me the true meaning of resiliency.

I am stronger because of all of you.  You give me comfort that I can do this and that it does matter.  You continue to help me outgrow myself. 

I will never teach alone again.  

Hello from DC

To my friends at the Advanced Institute:
Greetings from Washington DC! The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellowship is not only a long name, but an absolutely amazing experience.  I hope that I can do it justice in a few lines...
The first piece that thrilled me is that the Fellowship and program are based on the same philosophy of NWP in that it is really a "teachers teaching teachers" model.  We are participating in activities that we can take with us and emulate in the classroom and demonstrate to other teachers. One example of this is a timeline activity that we are working on in small groups. The Museum emphasizes the importance of Content, Context and Complexity. Each group has been  assigned a different topic to research while keeping in mind the "3 Cs" as well as the pedagogical guidelines (some examples: Do not teach or imply the Holocaust was inevitable, Avoid simple answers to complex questions, Strive for balance in establishing whose perspective informs your study of the Holocaust, Do not romanticize history, Contextualize the history...) The timeline covers the years 1933 - 1945 and already has information about individuals under some of the dates.  Our mission, in our groups, was to add 10 images with captioning information in various layers to show the complexity of the Holocaust.  The five group topics that form the layers:
1. Events from history
2. Events that represent the world's response
3. Anti-Jewish laws and decrees
4. Primary source documents that represent the themes of collaboration and complicity
5. Literature of the Holocaust - in context (from a single work or a combination of works)
On the surface it seems like a simple enough task to identify 10 images in our particular group for our topic... Not so much though, when we considered that it was not just the surface content, but the context had to be recognized and the nuances of complexity had to be apparent as well. The conversations, thinking and writing has been amazing.
Secondly, the program challenges us to grapple with the same questions that our students struggle with in the classroom - albeit at a different level of understanding and complexity. We have been looking at a wide variety of topics, such as the history of anti-Semitism, the sliding scale of collaboration and complicity, contemporary genocide, dangerous speech and the incitement to genocide, teachers and education in the Third Reich and deciding what individual outreach projects we will be working on over the next year. Phew! As with NWP, the opportunity to be a student again and look at things through a fresh lens is so rewarding and is both draining and energizing.
The days are long - starting at 9 and ending around 8, but the opportunity is incredible.  While I am missing you at Warner and can't help but think how much you all would "get" this, I do feel at home here as well, Several of my new colleagues are NWP consultants as well and this has provided another layer of common ground.
I hope the week is going well for you and I look forward to seeing you on Friday!
- Jeff

A response from the editors of Rethinking Schools on the Common Core

Rethinking Schools summer issue has a great editorial on the Common Core, "The Trouble with the Common Core" and a forum on the new Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). The link http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml

A few great quotes from the editorial on the Common Core that relates to our ongoing conversations about high stakes testing, teacher evaluation, and ongoing discussion on the "narrative of public school failure." There is also a comparison of the Common Core to NCLB.

"By any measure, NCLB was a dismal failure in both raising academic performance and narrowing gaps in opportunity and outcomes. But by very publicly measuring the test results against benchmarks no real schools have ever met, NCLB did succeed in creating a narrative of failure that shaped a decade of attempts to 'fix' schools while blaming those who work in them...The disaggregated scores put the spotlight on longstanding gaps in outcomes and opportunity among student subgroups. But NCLB used these gaps to label schools as failures without providing the resources or support needed to eliminate them" (p. 5).

"Yet the conclusion drawn by sponsors of the Common Core was that the solution was 'more challenging' ones...Instead of targeting inequalities of race, class, and educational opportunity reflected in the scores, the Common Core project threatens to reproduce the narrative of public school failure that has led to a decade of bad policy in the name of reform...The same heavy-handed, top-down policies that forced adoption of the standards require use of the Common Core tests to evaluate educators. This inaccurate and unreliable practice will distort the assessments before they're even in place and make Common Core implementation part of the assault on the teaching profession instead of a renewal of it...If, as proposed, the Common Core's 'college and career ready' performance level becomes the standard for high school graduation, it will push more kids out of high school than it will prepare for college. This is not just cynical speculation. It is reasonable projection based on the history of the NCLB decade, the dismantling of public education in the nation's urban centers, and the appalling growth of inequality and concentrated poverty that remains the central problem in public education" (p. 5).

"Rethinking schools has always been skeptical of standards imposed from above. Too many standards projects have been efforts to move decisions about teaching and learning away from classrooms, educators, and school communities, only to put them in the hands of distant bureaucracies. Standards have been codified sanitized versions of history, politics, and culture that reinforce official myths while leaving out the voices, concerns, and realities of our students and communities...Unfortunately, there's been too little honest conversation and too little democracy in the development of the Common Core. We see consultants and corporate entrepreneurs where there should be parents and teachers, and more high-stakes testing where there should be none" (p. 6)