And Then Some

I have a favorite saying that Clive Thirkill, a former Realms of Inquiry teacher, taught me...and I use it all the time:  "Do more, better, before expected."  This morning on FB, J.B. Fanjul shared the following advice he received from a friend that is a great complement to my favorite saying. 

He said, "I can sum it up, in three words." He said, "The three words are AND THEN SOME. I discovered at an early age that most of the differences between average people and top people can be explained in these words. The top people do what is expected of them, AND THEN SOME. They are thoughtful and considerate of others, AND THEN SOME. They meet their obligations and responsibilities fairly and squarely, AND THEN SOME. They are good friends to their friends, AND THEN SOME. They can be counted on in an emergency, AND THEN SOME."

Escribir: Mejor Ortografía

Once A Good Reader, Always A Good Reader

Not only is it important to know this which Suzi Ramos posted on FB,  I would also recommend this insightful book by Stephen Krashen:  http://www.languagebooks.com/books/the_case_for_late_intervention.html


The Case for Late Intervention:
Once A Good Reader Always A Good ReaderStephen D. Krashen
Jeff McQuillan

The current trend in literacy education is early intervention. This is based on the assumption that once a child is behind, he or she will always be behind. There is, however, no evidence that there is a critical period for learning how to read and there is strong evidence that we can learn to read anytime. Once a poor reader, always a poor reader should be replaced with once a good reader, always a good reader.

Published by Language Education Associates © 1996
ISBN 0-9652808-0-2
soft cover booklet 7" x 5" 19 pages
price: $3.00

Distributed by: ALTA Book Center
14 Adrian Ct.,
Burlingame, CA 94010.
Tel: (800) ALTA-ESL.
Click on the ALTA link above to order this title,
or go to the ALTA site and search for the author:
http://www.altaesl.com/

Felt this had some important information to consider.   


Life as a Bilingual

The reality of living with two (or more) languages

by Francois Grosjean, Ph.D.

Why Are They Talking So Fast?

The impression of increased speech rate in a second language

Published on February 24, 2013 by Francois Grosjean, Ph.D. in Life as a Bilingual

Languages are spoken at about the same rate even though there is a lot of variability due to the speakers themselves, the situation, the topic being talked about, and so on. Many years ago, my University of Paris colleague, Alain Deschamps, and I measured the speaking rate of a group of English and French speakers in an interview situation. The average rates we found were quasi-identical: 176 words per minute for English and 174 words per minute for French.

Even when languages are totally different from one another, a spoken language on the one hand, and a sign language on the other, similarities are found if one examines the right level. Salk Institute Professor, Ursula Bellugi, and her colleague, Susan Fischer, found that when someone is signing, as compared to speaking, less signs are produced per minute than words. This makes sense as the hands-arms-body articulators are much larger in sign than the tongue-jaw-lips articulators in speech. However, and this remains a major finding of their research, when you count the number of propositions (basic ideas) per minute, the rate is identical in sign and speech.

Why is it then that when we listen to a language we do not master well, we feel that the rate is faster than in our native language? This leads to a general impression that speakers of language X (fill in your preferred second language) always talk fast. University of Geneva researcher, Sandra Schwab, and I examined this precise question in a study that was published in the journal, Phonetica.

We asked a group of native speakers of French, and a group of native speakers of German who had studied French for several years and used it occasionally, to listen to short stories in French read at a fast, a medium and a slow rate. They were asked to estimate the rate of each story (using magnitude estimation) and to answer five comprehension questions.

The first thing we found was that, overall, second language speakers did indeed give higher estimates than native speakers. But, more interestingly, the difference between the two groups was not the same at all rates. At a slow rate, the groups gave practically the same estimates. They started diverging at a normal rate (the estimates of the second language speakers were higher), and they were quite different at a fast rate (here the second language speakers gave much higher estimates). In sum, the faster the rate, the greater the difference between native and non-native speakers.

To start understanding why it is that we feel that speakers of a language that we do not master well speak faster, we examined the results of the comprehension assessment of the non-native speakers. We wanted to see if there was a relationship between the level of comprehension in a second language and the estimates of speech rate. A correlational analysis showed that there was. We found a significant negative correlation between comprehension scores and rate estimates: the lower the score, the higher the rate estimate. This was true when the stories were presented at a slow rate and at a medium rate. We didn't find the relationship at a fast rate: all non-native speakers found that rate extremely rapid however good their comprehension was.
So it would seem that our increased estimate of speech rate in a second language, at least when it is either normal or slow, could be due, in part, to the fact that we are trying to understand what is being said. The less we understand, the more we feel that the rate is high. Future studies will want to show how this estimate of rate evolves over time as oral comprehension improves. If there is progress, then estimates of speaking rate may start resembling those of native speakers, or at least of fluent bilinguals.

You Raise Me Up

I heard the Men from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing this song "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Gorban today.  The music was so beautiful I wanted to find the lyrics.  The lyrics have such an important message for us at Esperanza--we should do this for our scholars (and each other!).  I found the lyrics in both English and Spanish.  :)



When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You raise me up... To more than I can be.

Cuando estoy deprimido y, oh mi alma, tan cansada;
Cuando los problemas llegan y mi corazón está agobiado;
Entonces, inmovil y espero aquí en el silencio,
Hasta que llegues y visites aqui conmigo.
me elevas, para que pueda pararme sobre las montañas;
me elevas, para caminar en mares turbulentos;
me fortaleces, cuando estoy sobre tus hombros;
me engrandeces: A ser más de lo que puedo ser.
me elevas, para que pueda pararme sobre las montañas;
me elevas, al caminar en mares turbulentos;
me fortaleces, cuando estoy sobre tus hombros;
me engrandeces: A ser más de lo que puedo ser.
me elevas, para que pueda pararme sobre las montañas;
me elevas, al caminar en mares turbulentos;
me fortaleces, cuando estoy sobre tus hombros;
me engrandeces: A ser más de lo que puedo ser.
me elevas, para que pueda pararme sobre las montañas;
me elevas, al caminar en mares turbulentos;
me fortaleces, cuando estoy sobre tus hombros;
me engrandeces: A ser más de lo que puedo ser.

Non-fiction Text

Thanks to Suzi Ramos for sharing this great article from Colorín Colorado.  I highly recommend that all our Esperanza educators and parents sign up for the newsletter at www.colorincolorado.org 

Increasing ELL Student Reading Comprehension with Non-fiction Text

By: Kristina Robertson (2008)

Kids need to be able to learn to read text for meaning … (and ask themselves) "Do I know why I'm reading this? Do I know what information I'm looking for?" … We're always delivering the curriculum in a way that draws on language and reading skills.

— Dr. Nonie Lesaux

Do you remember buying used textbooks in college? If you were lucky, you got one that was highlighted by a skilled student, giving you clues to key information from the book that you needed for your coursework. If you weren't lucky, you got a textbook that had practically all words highlighted on each page and you were looking at a sea of neon pink, yellow, or blue, which could be very distracting. My guess is that a lot of high school students head to college without ever having learned to interact effectively with non-fiction texts. Since books are a precious resource in K-12 education systems, students aren't allowed to highlight or mark in them, and may rely more heavily on the classroom instruction and peer interaction than their reading material to grasp the main idea of a lesson.
Of course it's not just a question of highlighting important information — it's a question of learning key concepts and vocabulary by becoming familiar with different kinds of text, by learning to use a textbook's tools and structure, and by monitoring one's own comprehension of non-fiction text. Without ever having developed these skills, students will have a tough time when it comes time for them to learn information independently in more advanced coursework and in college.
This is especially true for English language learners, who are challenged by learning a new language and new content in that language at the same time. Teachers can help prepare ELL students to successfully work with non-fiction, (or expository) text, however, in many ways — and the earlier the better. Starting early is important because if elementary school classrooms have a predisposition towards fictional stories and literature, students may struggle when they get to fourth grade and need to engage effectively with non-fiction texts in order to learn new content.
In Colorín Colorado's Reading to Learn: ELLs in Grades 4-6 webcast, featured panelist Dr. Nonie Lesaux addresses this transition:

There probably is a fourth-grade slump, but the question is whether we're just picking something up in fourth grade that's already been there for a lot of years for a number of kids, and/or whether, in fact, there are differences in the comprehension demands of the curriculum, and certainly that's a question …(because by fourth grade) we have reading that cuts across a number of areas of instruction, so reading is not just relegated to reading instruction but rather we need to have good reading comprehension skills for math, for science, for other areas of the curriculum.

While some of those challenges relate to reading instruction in content areas, they also relate to improving the instruction non-fiction texts for ELLs so that students can work successfully with content-area material. In this article I will highlight components of non-fiction texts and effective strategies to help ELLs gain the skills needed to not only understand the content, but understand how the text structure works so they will be able to access content effectively throughout their education.

Introducing text

First, let's look at definitions of types of text:

Fiction	Non-fiction
Narrative: The main purpose of narrative text is to tell a story. Narrative text has beginning, middle and end, characters, plot or conflict, and setting. Usually, narrative texts are written from the author's imagination.	Expository: The main purpose of expository text is to inform or describe. Authors who write expository texts research the topic to gain information. The information is organized in a logical and interesting manner using various expository text structures.

To increase ELLs comprehension of non-fiction expository text, teachers need to provide:

1. explicit instruction on how expository text is structured.
2. models of "what good readers do" to get information from expository text.
3. opportunities for practice so that ELLs can identify and interact with the text
4. opportunities for peer interaction with the content of the text in order to increase comprehension.

Let's look at these steps in more detail:

1. Provide explicit instruction on how expository text is structured.

Teachers need to spend some time introducing students to the format of expository text. This is a lesson intended to teach students how to get information from non-fiction text rather than on the actual content of the text. That instruction can be done once students are familiar with the text format and structure.
Help students recognize the structure of expository text. Introduce the various parts of the text, such as the table of contents and the glossary. Discuss how these different parts are used for informational reading, how the text is organized, where different parts will be found in a textbook, and how they compare with one another.
For example, have students compare the index and the glossary, and discuss what they would use each section for. You might try asking a question such as, "If I want to know the definition of a word, will I look in the index or glossary?"

Elements that are important to introduce include:

Sections of a Textbook	Visual Cues	Graphic Elements
Table of contents Glossary Index	Titles and headings Bold print Bullets	Maps, graphics, and pictures Sidebars Captions

Although it may seem very obvious to teachers, something as simple as finding bold words and identifying their definition in surrounding text may be new concepts to developing readers. As students are instructed to find different components of the text, ask questions such as, "What does this graphic tell us? Why do you think the author wanted to put that there?" Make it a thinking exercise so the students will internalize the knowledge.

Chapter walk

One way to help students become familiar with new kinds of books is through a chapter walk, which can be used with fiction or non-fiction text. Students preview the chapter before starting their first lesson in a new unit, looking for headings, graphics, pictures, important words, and key information. Students can discuss what they've noticed and what they think will be covered in pairs, gropus, or with the entire class. Once students have become comfortable with a new resource, this exercise can be used to preview content for future lessons and activate background knowledge.
This strategy can also be used with fiction books by using illustrations and chapter headings or important words in the text.

Types of text

For older students, teachers can spend some time helping them understand the different types of text they will encounter, such as descriptive, sequence, and cause and effect. This document posted by U-46 School District in Elgin, Illinois provides an overview of five expository text structures, associated signal words, and related graphic organizers.

2. Provide opportunity for ELLs to practice interacting with the text and identifying key components of the text.

Giving the students to practice these skills will build confidence and offer many learning opportunities. Practice activities can be done to demonstrate how to get information from the expository text. For example, ask students to look for the main idea of a text, and then to explain what "clues" they saw that supported their answer. Students might say things such as, "The main idea is usually in the first paragraph." Or, "I saw the summary written on the side of the page." Engaging the class in discussion about these key components will give all students a chance to demonstrate learning.

Other strategies include:

• Making predictions: One method is the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA), which encourages students to be active readers. DR-TA is a process where the students listen to a brief summary of the text, review a few key words or pictures, and then make a prediction about the content of the text. As they begin to read the text, the teacher asks more questions about how their predictions match what they're reading.
• Word splash: Students receive handouts with key words and phrases from the text "splashed" randomly across the page. The students spend some time making clusters of information that goes together. They can do this by circling groups of words, highlighting them in different colors, or drawing lines. The class discusses what they've learned from their clusters and what they predict they will learn from the text. Once again, when they begin to read the text they should make note of which parts of their prediction were correct and how they know that based on "evidence" in the text.
• Practice highlighting: Students can practice highlighting text on worksheets or by using this method: Give each student a clear plastic overhead sheet and a "write-on/wipe-off" marker. Have the student paperclip the plastic sheet to a page in the textbook and work together to circle new vocabulary words and underline key points. The plastic sheets can be wiped off and used again.
• Margin bookmark: One way to allow students to practice making notes is by using margin bookmarks. Prepare scratch paper "bookmark" strips that fit in the crease of the textbook and within the margin of the print, or that can be attached to the outside margin using a paperclip. Students can use these bookmarks to make notes in the margin. Give them specific tasks such as, "Write the definition of one of the bold words in your own words," or "Write one fact, one question, and one thing that is important for you to remember." Provide examples so that students see how they can interact effectively with expository text.
• Define the important information: As evidenced by those textbooks full of highlighting I mentioned at the beginning of the article, if a student doesn't know what's important, then everything is important. I like to have the students do an activity I call "Pack the Suitcase" so that they can start identifying the most important information in the text. In order to do this activity, give the students a short text (no more than two paragraphs) and a small envelope with a picture of a suitcase drawn or glued on it. Pass out pieces of scrap paper and tell students that they need to:
  1. review the text
  2. write "an important point" on each piece of paper
  3. "pack" them in their suitcase.
  Students can use as many or as few pieces of paper as they want. When the students are finished, tell them they are going on a trip but that they packed too much — they must look in their suitcase and take out half of their items. Students will really have to decide which items (points) are most important to bring on the trip. Finally, have students "travel" to the other side of the room and sit with a partner and "unpack" the suitcases. See if they have the same points, and discuss any differences and how they identified what was important in the article.

3. Model "what good readers do" to get information from expository text.

As good readers, teachers sometimes forget how mystifying and overwhelming text can be for students. I can recall many years of math classes where I looked around at my classmates in puzzlement and wondered how they figured all the answers out! Looking at the textbook didn't help me because I didn't understand what I was looking for. I believe ELLs ofent have a similar experience, but if teachers model "what to do" when approaching expository text, ELLs will become more successful readers.

Here are some strategies to try:

• Think aloud*: Read an introductory portion of the text to the class. Pause to model what you are thinking out loud, such as by describing what you know about the text. For example, a teacher may look at a chapter with a picture of a volcano and bold words in the text such as lava, magma, and geothermic. The teacher could say, "Hmmm … I see this picture of a volcano and I notice bold vocabulary words. The words look very scientific and technical. I bet this will be a reading about science. I think I will learn facts about volcanoes and how they work."
• Demonstrate how to figure out vocabulary: As you come to new vocabulary words, pause and think about how you can figure out what that word means. Show how you look for clues such as commas after the word that contain a definition, or show how the word is related to something else you know such as a root word or cognate in another language. Finally the teacher may want to demonstrate how to ask someone next to you for help with the word, or refer to your personal dictionary of new words that you've created for the unit.
• Use a graphic organizer: Determine what you need to know in the text and show how to complete a graphic organizer. Talk about how the graphic organizer will help you remember the important information in the text. For example, if students need to determine the characteristics of an active volcano vs. an inactive volcano, the graphic organizer can follow a comparison outline and students fill in the correct information as related to the topic. Be sure to emphasize that this kind of activity can be used in any classroom and with any content. The student just needs to determine what they want to know and make an "organized picture" of the information so they will remember.
• Model "fix up" strategies*: Proficient readers know when they "missed" something or what they are reading doesn't make sense. Developing readers tend to "just keep going" hoping that eventually it will all make sense. Of course, this makes it much more difficult to comprehend the content and it leads to frustration. Show students how you "double check" information when you don't understand it or it doesn't make sense. Read a section of the text aloud — especially a complicated portion — and stop to reflect. Say out loud, "What did I just read? That didn't make sense. Let me go back and read it again." If it still seems confusing, ask the students for ideas about how you could "check" your understanding of this information.
• Determine if it's "In the Book" or "In my Head": In the Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy students are taught to identify if information is in the book (literal) or in their head (inferential). Teachers can demonstrate this by using questions to model how they figure that out. For example, a literal question might be, "What are three characteristics of an active volcano?" An example of an inferential question is, "Are volcanoes dangerous?" This can be a very important skill to develop because many developing readers spend a lot of time scouring the text looking for an answer that is not defined literally in the text.

*Strategies from, "7 Keys to Comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it!" by Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins. See Hotlinks for further information.

4. Increase peer interaction with the content of the text in order to increase comprehension.

Giving students the chance to interact with their peers about new content will engage them and offer more opportunities to practice talking, writing, and thinking about what they have learned. You can do this with the following strategies:

• Develop study guides to guide ELLs through content area textbook reading. Study guides will focus student attention on the major ideas presented, and can include graphic organizers as described above, key vocabulary, and guiding questions. These study guides can be very helpful in preparing for final exams and students can use them to "quiz" each other. More advanced students can develop their own study guides in partners or in groups.
• Assign reading partners. Pair ELLs with friendly fluent readers. Ask partners to read aloud to each other, alternating sentences or pages. After the first student reads, the other student summarizes what they heard. Then the two partners switch roles.
• Encourage student engagement. One strategy is the "Say Something" activity. Students take turns reading aloud, and following the reading, each student 'says something,' such as asking a question, making a comment, making a connection to something already read, or responding personally to the text. The exercise also engages students as readers and gets them thinking about the text. For ELLs, teachers may want to have a "phrase wall" displayed so they have a sentence structure to begin their comments. Examples such as, "That reminds me of…" Or "Do you know…" or "That's interesting because…"
• Have students re-tell what they have learned. After students read a section of text, have them re-tell it to a partner or write a few summary notes in their notebook and switch notes with a partner. The partner can add notes, questions or comments to the author's notes.

For more tips on supporting reading instruction in the ELL classroom, take a look at our reading tips for teachers, as well as some reading comprehension strategies. You may also find some helpful tips from the AdLit.org Strategy Library.

Spending time working with text structure and guiding ELLs in how to access expository content effectively will have huge benefits for your students now and in the future. Textbooks are like other classroom tools, such as microscopes or computers. Without the proper introduction and practice, the student will only get a fraction of the information the teacher hopes they will gain. As teachers work with students to discover the secrets to using expository text for learning, they will be rewarded by deeper discussions and learning in the classroom. Most importantly, having learned these strategies, your students will be equipped to interact with a multitude of academic texts throughout the rest of their education.

Printed from: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/29035/?theme=print

© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Colorín Colorado receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers. Additional funding is provided by the National Institute for Literacy and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. ¡Colorín Colorado! ® is a registered trademark of WETA.
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Writing Prompts

This came from the site Poetry4Kids.com--a great site.

20 Fun Writing Prompts for Kids

If you’ve ever had “writer’s block,” you know how awful it feels when you just can’t seem to get started on a piece of writing. Sometimes it helps to warm up your writing muscles, similar to the way that an athlete would stretch before a game or a musician would tune an instrument. For a writer, one of the best ways to warm up is to do five minutes of freewriting. Using a writing prompt to get you started, write as quickly as you can without stopping for five minutes. You can always edit what you wrote later, but you’ll capture some great ideas when you’re writing as fast as you can.
Here are 20 ideas for fun writing prompts that you can use if you’re feeling stuck—or if you’re just looking for interesting ideas for a new story or poem. There’s no wrong way to respond to any of these prompts, and you can let your imagination go wild. You’ll know you’re getting “warm” when you’re really having fun!

1. Finish this sentence: My superpower is…
2. Use at least five color words to write a poem titled “A Rainbow of Feelings.”
3. Describe the grossest lunch you’ve ever eaten.
4. Who is your evil twin? Write about the mischievous deeds that he/she has done today.
5. What one thing are you an expert on? Fill one page with information about _________ (your expert topic).
6. Create a poem about weather using first person (“I” or “we”), in which you give the reader clues about what kind of weather you are. The very last line of the poem should reveal your identity; for example, “I am a thunderstorm.”
7. Write a one-page story titled “My Secret Life.”
8. Finish this sentence: If my dog could talk… (You could use another type of animal instead, such as a cat or pet snake.)
9. Make a list of 10 reasons why you can’t possibly write anything today. Try to come up with totally outrageous excuses.
10. Find 3 interesting photos or pictures in a magazine, then write a poem that includes all 3 images.
11. Imagine that the President has asked you to announce a new national holiday—and it can be anything you want. Write the text of your announcement speech.
12. Write a “concrete poem” in which the placement of the words on your paper creates a visual shape. You might try one of these shapes: an hourglass, a balloon, a star, or a heart.
13. Create a poem in first person (“I”) from the point of view of an animal, such as an elephant or a gerbil. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel?
14. Write a run-on sentence by listing everything you need to get done this week. For example, “I have to wash the dishes and clean my room and take my French test and visit my grandma and finish my history project and…” See if you can fill up an entire page with things to do. If you run out of real things, make some up!
15. Write about how your world would change if you were in charge of everything. Start with a title, such as “If I Ran the School” or “If I Were Queen of the World.”
16. Create a rhyming poem about your favorite holiday memory—or your least favorite.
17. Finish this sentence: I am a good person to know because…
18. Write a poem in the form of a letter to someone you miss.
19. Write about an interesting dream you’ve had lately, but without stating that it was a dream. Use present tense to describe what happens in the dream. For example, “I’m the pilot of a 747 passenger jet, and my co-pilot is Barney the dinosaur.”
20. What quality or talent is most likely to make you famous one day?

Literacy

First-Rate Education

February 9, 2013

The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools

By DAVID L. KIRP

WHAT would it really take to give students a first-rate education? Some argue that our schools are irremediably broken and that charter schools offer the only solution. The striking achievement of Union City, N.J. — bringing poor, mostly immigrant kids into the educational mainstream — argues for reinventing the public schools we have.

Union City makes an unlikely poster child for education reform. It’s a poor community with an unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the national average. Three-quarters of the students live in homes where only Spanish is spoken. A quarter are thought to be undocumented, living in fear of deportation.

Public schools in such communities have often operated as factories for failure. This used to be true in Union City, where the schools were once so wretched that state officials almost seized control of them. How things have changed. From third grade through high school, students’ achievement scores now approximate the statewide average. What’s more, in 2011, Union City boasted a high school graduation rate of 89.5 percent — roughly 10 percentage points higher than the national average. Last year, 75 percent of Union City graduates enrolled in college, with top students winning scholarships to the Ivies.

As someone who has worked on education policy for four decades, I’ve never seen the likes of this. After spending a year in Union City working on a book, I believe its transformation offers a nationwide strategy.

Ask school officials to explain Union City’s success and they start with prekindergarten, which enrolls almost every 3- and 4-year-old. There’s abundant research showing the lifetime benefits of early education. Here, seeing is believing.

One December morning the lesson is making latkes, the potato pancakes that are a Hanukkah staple. Everything that transpires during these 90 minutes could be called a “teachable moment” — describing the smell of an onion (“Strong or light? Strong — duro. Will it smell differently when we cook it? We’ll have to find out.”); pronouncing the “p” in pepper and pimento; getting the hang of a food processor (“When I put all the ingredients in, what will happen?”).

Cognitive and noncognitive, thinking and feeling; here, this line vanishes. The good teacher is always on the lookout for both kinds of lessons, always aiming to reach both head and heart. “My goal is to do for these kids what I do with my own children,” the teacher, Susana Rojas, tells me. “It’s all about exposure to concepts — wide, narrow, long, short. I bring in breads from different countries. ‘Let’s do a pie chart showing which one you liked the best.’ I don’t ask them to memorize 1, 2, 3 — I could teach a monkey to count.”

From pre-K to high school, the make-or-break factor is what the Harvard education professor Richard Elmore calls the “instructional core” — the skills of the teacher, the engagement of the students and the rigor of the curriculum. To succeed, students must become thinkers, not just test-takers.

When Alina Bossbaly greets her third grade students, ethics are on her mind. “Room 210 is a pie — un pie — and each of us is a slice of that pie.” The pie offers a down-to-earth way of talking about a community where everyone has a place. Building character and getting students to think is her mission. From Day 1, her kids are writing in their journals, sifting out the meaning of stories and solving math problems. Every day, Ms. Bossbaly is figuring out what’s best for each child, rather than batch-processing them.

Though Ms. Bossbaly is a star, her philosophy pervades the district. Wherever I went, these schools felt less like impersonal institutions than the simulacrum of an extended family.

UNTIL recently, Union City High bore the scarlet-letter label, “school in need of improvement.” It has taken strong leadership from its principal, John Bennetti, to turn things around — to instill the belief that education can be a ticket out of poverty.

On Day 1, the principal lays out the house rules. Everything is tied to a single theme — pride and respect in “our house” — that resonates with the community culture of family, unity and respect. “Cursing doesn’t showcase our talents. Breaking the dress code means we’re setting a tone that unity isn’t important, coming in late means missing opportunities to learn.” Bullying is high on his list of nonnegotiables: “We are about caring and supporting.”

These students sometimes behave like college freshmen, as in a seminar where they’re parsing Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” They can be boisterously jokey with their teachers. But there’s none of the note-swapping, gum-chewing, wisecracking, talking-back rudeness you’d anticipate if your opinions about high school had been shaped by movies like “Dangerous Minds.”

And the principal is persuading teachers to raise their expectations. “There should be more courses that prepare students for college, not simply more work but higher-quality work,” he tells me. This approach is paying off big time: Last year, in a study of 22,000 American high schools, U.S. News & World Report and the American Institutes for Research ranked Union City High in the top 22 percent.

What makes Union City remarkable is, paradoxically, the absence of pizazz. It hasn’t followed the herd by closing “underperforming” schools or giving the boot to hordes of teachers. No Teach for America recruits toil in its classrooms, and there are no charter schools.

A quarter-century ago, fear of a state takeover catalyzed a transformation. The district’s best educators were asked to design a curriculum based on evidence, not hunch. Learning by doing replaced learning by rote. Kids who came to school speaking only Spanish became truly bilingual, taught how to read and write in their native tongue before tackling English. Parents were enlisted in the cause. Teachers were urged to work together, the superstars mentoring the stragglers and coaches recruited to add expertise. Principals were expected to become educational leaders, not just disciplinarians and paper-shufflers.

From a loose confederacy, the schools gradually morphed into a coherent system that marries high expectations with a “we can do it” attitude. “The real story of Union City is that it didn’t fall back,” says Fred Carrigg, a key architect of the reform. “It stabilized and has continued to improve.”

To any educator with a pulse, this game plan sounds so old-school obvious that it verges on platitude. That these schools are generously financed clearly makes a difference — not every community will decide to pay for two years of prekindergarten — but too many districts squander their resources.

School officials flock to Union City and other districts that have beaten the odds, eager for a quick fix. But they’re on a fool’s errand. These places — and there are a host of them, largely unsung — didn’t become exemplars by behaving like magpies, taking shiny bits and pieces and gluing them together. Instead, each devised a long-term strategy reaching from preschool to high school. Each keeps learning from experience and tinkering with its model. Nationwide, there’s no reason school districts — big or small; predominantly white, Latino or black — cannot construct a system that, like the schools of Union City, bends the arc of children’s lives.

      

David L. Kirp is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of the forthcoming book “Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools.”

Can Anyone Be a Great Teacher?

Inspiring Others

Can anyone be a great teacher?

By Annette Breaux on February 15th, 2013 |                     

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We’ve all known them — that elite group of teachers we deem the great ones. Why are they an elite group? And why don’t all, or at least most, teachers fall into this esteemed category? To attempt to answer those questions, let’s first answer a few others.
Can anyone be a great teacher? Quite simply, no. There are certain attributes a person must embody in order to be a great teacher. Next question — Are great teachers born and not made? Though some people definitely possess an innate “gift” for teaching, most great teachers were not born. They were made!
But it’s a little misleading to say they were made, because this implies that someone else did the work or that there’s some type of magic that’s been bestowed upon them. In actuality, great teachers work very hard to earn their coveted status. There’s no magic involved, but they do seem to work magic every day in their classrooms!
So what are some of the qualities that all great teachers possess?

• At the risk of overstating the obvious, great teachers truly love children! If you don’t love children, you can’t be a great teacher. Period. At the risk of really overstating the obvious, if you don’t love children, you shouldn’t be in education!
• Great teachers are masters at classroom management. They understand the importance of structure. Their management plans consist of clearly stated rules that are enforced fairly, calmly and consistently and of procedures that are practiced until they become routines. Students know what to expect. No surprises!
• Great teachers are intelligent people who possess a thorough understanding of their subject matter. They are not, however, arrogant in their knowledge. Rather, they use their knowledge to simplify what’s complex and to accommodate their students’ individual abilities and levels of understanding.
• Great teachers understand that they are actors on a stage. Yes, actors. They are performers capable of entertaining, capturing and enrapturing their audiences every day. Their enthusiasm is contagious, and they act as though everything they teach is their favorite thing to teach.
• Great teachers are positive, kind, compassionate, patient people. Though they are as human as anyone else, they do not allow students to push their buttons. They handle even the most challenging situations with composure, thoughtfulness and professionalism. They never compromise a student’s dignity.
• Great teachers do not allow their personal problems to bleed into their teaching. In simplest terms, they don’t impose their moods on their students.
• Great teachers are problem solvers. They don’t play the blame game. Nor do they play ostrich, sticking their heads in the sand. They identify problems and immediately get busy finding solutions.
• Great teachers don’t endure change; rather, they ensure it — not simply for the sake of change, but for the betterment of teaching and learning.
• Great teachers have a sense of humor, and they share it daily with their students.
• Great teachers continually strive to make learning fun, relevant, interesting, challenging and engaging. In the classrooms of great teachers, students are encouraged to question, discuss, debate, experiment, invent and make lots of mistakes.
• Great teachers recognize the importance of establishing positive relationships with their students. They subscribe to the belief that in order to teach a student, you must first reach a student. Thus, they get to know their students on a personal level.
• Great teachers have high expectations of all students and truly believe that every student can succeed.
• Great teachers are not perfect teachers. When they make mistakes, they act as good role models do, admitting their mistakes, learning from these mistakes and offering apologies if necessary.

The bottom line is that great teachers are some of the most dedicated and committed people you will ever meet. For them, going the extra mile is just a warm up for the marathon. Not surprisingly, great teachers are also some of the most humble people you will ever meet. They are the real difference-makers in education. Many of them do not even realize just how exceptional they really are. Or if they do, they’re just too darn humble to admit it. But we see you, we know who you are, and we thank you!
Annette Breaux is an internationally-renowned author and speaker. She is the author of the national best-seller “101 Answers for New Teachers and Their Mentors.” She has also co-authored books with Harry Wong and Todd Whitaker. She may be contacted at AnnetteLBreaux@yahoo.com or on Twitter @AnnetteBreaux.

A Little Fun for President's Day

Something a little fun for President's Day.  Visit this website http://www.dailypress.com/news/breaking/dp-nws-president-day-quiz-0218,0,41742,post.triviaquiz  to take the quiz and find the answers. 

 

A trivia quiz for Presidents' Day

As we celebrate Washington and Lincoln on Presidents' Day, here's a little trivia quiz. 

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• 1. George Washington gave the shortest inaugural address in history. How long was it?
  • A. 90 seconds
  • B. two minutes
  • C. 2 1/2 minutes
  • D. 5 minutes
• 2. As a teen, Washington memorized a list of 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior. Which of the following was NOT among the rules on that list?
  • A. Shift not yourself in the sight of others, nor gnaw your nails.
  • B. Do not laugh too loud at any public spectacle.
  • C. Do not spit forth the stones of any fruit pie upon a dish, nor cast anything under the table.
  • D. Don't you monkey with the monkey.
• 3. Abraham Lincoln is the only president who ever obtained a patent. What invention did he have patented?
  • A. A gadget to trim nose hair
  • B. A device to help ships navigate sandbars
  • C. A container that kept stacks of paper from wrinkling
  • D. An mp3 player with built-in speakers
• 4. Lincoln and his wife occasionally held seances in an attempt to communicate with their dead son. At one of the seances he held at the White House, what did he say happened?
  • A. A grand piano levitated.
  • B. A glass vase shattered.
  • C. A message from his son appeared on the walls.
  • D. His wife Mary danced to the "Banana Boat" song like in "Beetlejuice."
• 5. Presidents' Day honors Washington and Lincoln, but they were not the only presidents born in February. William Henry Harrison was born Feb. 9. What is he most famous for?
  • A. Strong foreign policy
  • B. Visionary philosophy on expansion
  • C. Shaping the role of the Supreme Court
  • D. Catching a cold and dying a month after he took office
• 6. The fourth president born in February was Ronald Reagan (Feb. 6). What type of candy was developed specifically in his honor?
  • A. Red licorice
  • B. White chocolate Hershey's Kisses
  • C. Blue jelly beans
  • D. Pink cotton candy
• 7. John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln during a performance of the play "Our American Cousin." He fire his gun after the play's funniest line, so the audience's laughter would cover the gunshot. What was that line?
  • A. "You sockdologizing old man trap!"
  • B. "You persnickity old prairie dog!"
  • C. "You hornswoggling old flibbertijibbit!"
  • D. "If I went around saying I was emperor because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!"
• 8. George Washington is the only president who was sworn into office in two different cities. What cities were they?
  • A. New York and Washington, D.C.
  • B. Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
  • C. New York and Philadelphia
  • D. Williamsburg and New York
• 9. Both Washington and Lincoln were tall men, but which was taller?
  • A. Lincoln was one inch taller
  • B. Washington was one inch taller
  • C. They were the same height
  • D. We don't know, because there is no accurate estimate of Washington's height.
• 10. Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. How man men held the office before him?
  • A. 45
  • B. 41
  • C. 42
  • D. Duh ... 43

Retention

Thanks to Suzi Ramos for sharing this article on FB.  Research indicates that retention serves no useful purpose and has many negative repercussions.  Therefore, Esperanza's policy is not retention, but finding other more productive ways to support the learner. 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Flunked, retained, held back.
Whatever you call it, increasing numbers of states are not promoting students who are struggling to read at the end of the third grade.
Thirty-two states have passed legislation designed to improve third-grade literacy, according to the Education Commission of the States. Retention is part of the policies in 14 states, with some offering more leeway than others.
‘‘Passing children up the grade ladder when we know they can’t read is irresponsible — and cruel,’’ said Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas in announcing in his recent State of the State address that third-graders should demonstrate an ability to read before being promoted. He also proposed a $12 million program for improving third-graders’ reading skills.

 

Backers say retention policies pressure teachers and parents to make sure children succeed.
But opponents say students fare better if they are promoted and offered extra help. They say holding students back does nothing to address the underlying problems that caused them to struggle.
Also, students who have been retained have a two-fold increased risk of eventually dropping out compared to students with similar academic struggles who weren’t retained, said Arthur Reynolds, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Human Capital Research Collaborative, citing studies in Chicago and Baltimore.
Retention policies were tried in large city districts but in recent years have been scaled back or dropped in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Los Angeles district spokeswoman Monica Carazo said her school system studied retention and determined that ‘‘research did not show it as an effective practice.’’
Ending so-called social promotion was one of Jeb Bush’s education reforms when he was governor of Florida, and his nonprofit Foundation for Excellence in Education began touting the reform package after it started in 2008.
‘‘I think reform-minded education chiefs and state legislatures and governors are looking for something to do to help kids be successful and to do that they need policies that aren’t the same old, same old,’’ said Mary Laura Bragg, the foundation’s director of state policy implementation.
Although the number isn’t tracked nationally, some national representative studies show that about one-fifth of eighth graders have been retained at least once, said Reynolds, who has studied retention. He said there is wide variation among school districts, with some in urban areas reporting retention rates as high as 40 percent.
Because students shift away from learning to read in the early grades to reading to learn in the upper elementary grades, most state-mandated retention policies make third grade the make-or-break year.
In Florida, where the policy is a decade old, reading is generally measured by performance on a state-administered standardized test. Exemptions also are allowed for some students, like those who do well on an alternative test or whose teachers put together a portfolio showing they can read at grade level.
Because struggling Florida students can be held back up to two times, Megan Allen has students as old as 13 in her fifth-grade class in Tampa. Some of the younger ones still talk about whether or not Santa is real and Disney movies.
Among their twice-retained classmates, Allen, the Florida Teacher of the Year in 2010, has confiscated sex notes.
‘‘I think it is defeating for them,’’ she said of the retained students. ‘‘These are students who are already frustrated and instead of having laws that maybe offer them supports and solutions, we have laws that are more focused on the stick than the carrot.’’
One of the states where the Bush-backed Foundation for Excellence in Education has been involved is Colorado, where Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper signed a law in May that mandates extra help for struggling young students and bars those considered far behind on reading from advancing to fourth grade without their superintendent’s permission.

Top 10 skills children learn from the arts

By Valerie Strauss , Updated: January 22, 2013

(by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

You don’t find school reformers talking much about how we need to train more teachers in the arts, given the current obsession with science, math, technology and engineering (STEM), but here’s a list of skills that young people learn from studying the arts. They serve as a reminder that the arts — while important to study for their intrinsic value — also promote skills seen as important in academic and life success. (That’s why some people talk about changing the current national emphasis on STEM to STEAM.) This was written by Lisa Phillips is an author, blog journalist, arts and leadership educator, speaker and business owner. To learn about Lisa’s book, “The Artistic Edge: 7 Skills Children Need to Succeed in an Increasingly Right Brain World,” click here. This appeared on the ARTSblog, a program of Americans for the Arts.

By Lisa Phillips
1. Creativity – Being able to think on your feet, approach tasks from different perspectives and think ‘outside of the box’ will distinguish your child from others. In an arts program, your child will be asked to recite a monologue in 6 different ways, create a painting that represents a memory, or compose a new rhythm to enhance a piece of music. If children have practice thinking creatively, it will come naturally to them now and in their future career.
2. Confidence – The skills developed through theater, not only train you how to convincingly deliver a message, but also build the confidence you need to take command of the stage. Theater training gives children practice stepping out of their comfort zone and allows them to make mistakes and learn from them in rehearsal. This process gives children the confidence to perform in front of large audiences.
3. Problem Solving – Artistic creations are born through the solving of problems. How do I turn this clay into a sculpture? How do I portray a particular emotion through dance? How will my character react in this situation? Without even realizing it kids that participate in the arts are consistently being challenged to solve problems. All this practice problem solving develops children’s skills in reasoning and understanding. This will help develop important problem-solving skills necessary for success in any career.
4. Perseverance – When a child picks up a violin for the first time, she/he knows that playing Bach right away is not an option; however, when that child practices, learns the skills and techniques and doesn’t give up, that Bach concerto is that much closer. In an increasingly competitive world, where people are being asked to continually develop new skills, perseverance is essential to achieving success.
5. Focus – The ability to focus is a key skill developed through ensemble work. Keeping a balance between listening and contributing involves a great deal of concentration and focus. It requires each participant to not only think about their role, but how their role contributes to the big picture of what is being created. Recent research has shown that participation in the arts improves children’s abilities to concentrate and focus in other aspects of their lives.
6. Non-Verbal Communication – Through experiences in theater and dance education, children learn to breakdown the mechanics of body language. They experience different ways of moving and how those movements communicate different emotions. They are then coached in performance skills to ensure they are portraying their character effectively to the audience.
7. Receiving Constructive Feedback – Receiving constructive feedback about a performance or visual art piece is a regular part of any arts instruction. Children learn that feedback is part of learning and it is not something to be offended by or to be taken personally. It is something helpful. The goal is the improvement of skills and evaluation is incorporated at every step of the process. Each arts discipline has built in parameters to ensure that critique is a valuable experience and greatly contributes to the success of the final piece.
8. Collaboration – Most arts disciplines are collaborative in nature. Through the arts, children practice working together, sharing responsibility, and compromising with others to accomplish a common goal. When a child has a part to play in a music ensemble, or a theater or dance production, they begin to understand that their contribution is necessary for the success of the group. Through these experiences children gain confidence and start to learn that their contributions have value even if they don’t have the biggest role.
9. Dedication – When kids get to practice following through with artistic endeavors that result in a finished product or performance, they learn to associate dedication with a feeling of accomplishment. They practice developing healthy work habits of being on time for rehearsals and performances, respecting the contributions of others, and putting effort into the success of the final piece. In the performing arts, the reward for dedication is the warm feeling of an audience’s applause that comes rushing over you, making all your efforts worthwhile.
10. Accountability – When children practice creating something collaboratively they get used to the idea that their actions affect other people. They learn that when they are not prepared or on-time, that other people suffer. Through the arts, children also learn that it is important to admit that you made a mistake and take responsibility for it. Because mistakes are a regular part of the process of learning in the arts, children begin to see that mistakes happen. We acknowledge them, learn from them and move on.

© The Washington Post Company

Kotter Theory

At my principal training seminar on Feb. 13th, the Assistant Principal from Reagan Academy--Justin Riggs--gave a great presentation about his school.  His presentation was based on this Kotter Theory.  Fascinating!

 

The 8 Step Kotter Theory to Master Organizational Change

The philosophy behind the Kotter theory in managing change is: "The fundamental purpose of management is to keep the current system functioning. The fundamental purpose of leadership is to produce useful change." He wrote a fantastic book, Leading Change which covers the sequential change process for organizational change.
With any organizational change process the focus should be mostly on people. There are over a handful of change models out there, and in my opinion this process does a better job than most. If the leaders at least grasp that people are not "machines", employees would be more accepting to change.
John Kotter identified key barriers to change within the organization and came up with an 8 step change process in sequential order.
Here's the summary of Kotter's 8 Step Process to Change:
First Step in Kotter Theory: Establish a Sense of Urgency
The only way to get people to change is to get them to want to change in the first place. Motivate them to take action. According to Kotter, 75 percent of the leadership needs to be convinced that business to change for this 8-step process to work. So, don't move to the next step if most of the people aren't inspired to change.
If enough people start talking about change, then use that momentum to push forward. (the organization is going to need it - lasting change is difficult).
Action Ideas:

• Identify the cost and consequences for not taking action now.
• Come up with opportunities the organization can use to their advantage
• Begin an open, honest communication process and give persuasive reasons to get people talking and thinking.
• Get support from people outside the company to build your case (customers, investors, credible authorities, etc)

Second Step in Kotter Theory: Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition
Doing anything alone is difficult, very difficult so this step you build a team that supports your change vision.
People generally do not follow titles, they follow the leaders. At this stage, find the other visible leaders within the organization that people follow. These are people that have respect in any areas such as status, job title, political connections, skill level, etc.
Once your change team is in place, always remember that momentum to change is your friend, keep communicating the urgency to change.
Action Ideas:

• Find the other leaders within the organization
• Request their trust and commitment
• Maintain a constructive, trusting environment with a unique set of people
• Look for areas of synergy and blind spots

Third Step in Kotter Theory: Create a Change Vision
Have the change team establish a change strategy and vision. There will likely be lots of ideas floating around, so 'tie-in' the best ideas that will produce good results.
Action Ideas:

• Get clear on the organizational values
• Create a one or two sentence summary that clarifies the future of the organization after the change
• Develop the change vision and strategy
• Be sure your team can communicate a change vision under 5 minutes
• Polish the change "vision speech"

Fourth Step in Kotter Theory: Communicate the Vision
After the vision has been created, now communicate that vision clearly to the rest of the organization. Involve as many people as possible and communicate the core elements. Don't over complicate, a confused mind always says "no".
Communicate the vision at every opportunity as often as possible, not just at the formal meetings. This allows the change vision to be focused on.
In addition, the vision will establish far more credibility if the leaders "walk the talk". Why should anyone within the organization change if the leaders are not? Apply the words from Gandhi, "be the change you wish to see".
Action Ideas in Kotter Theory:

• Frequently communicate the change vision
• Use every possible communication medium to communicate vision and strategies
• Be open and honest when addressing others concerns
• Tie the vision to all operations within the organization

Fifth Step in Kotter Theory: Empower Others to Act on the Vision
This is where the execution of the change vision begins. The previous four steps dealt with managing people and creating a road map. If the job is well done, then people will be motivated to benefit from the change vision.
This is where you take a long term view to identify processes or systems in place that are getting in the way of the change vision.
Be sure to get feedback from as many people within the organization and reward peoplf for making real progress.
Action Ideas:

• Acquire change leaders (inside/outside the organization) to deliver results based on vision
• Encourage educated risk-taking ideas that fits within the vision
• Listen and identify people who are still resisting change
• Take decisive action to clear obstacles to change

Sixth Step in Kotter Theory: Plan for and Create Short-Term wins
Success breeds success. Create the momentum early on by making smaller changes that are visible to the entire organization. This allows people to get a feel for success.
So, strategically identify the steps that are achievable and enable the organization one (or two) steps closer to the change vision.
Action Ideas:

• Identify tasks that will avoid the biggest critics of the change
• Choose easy and cheap targets that are relatively easy to obtain
• Evaluate pros and cons for each of the targets. Early success is critical according to Kotter
• As mentioned in the previous step, recognize and reward people for contributing to improvements

Seventh Step in Kotter Theory: Consolidate Improvements and Produce More Change
True lasting change doesn't happen overnight, and requires persistence and patience. According to Kotter, lots of organizations declare victory too soon.
Action Ideas:

• Establish reporting on the important change targets
• After achieving every target, analyze what needs work and what went well
• Continue to build momentum by setting solid targets
• Apply kaizen principles

Eigth Step in Kotter Theory: Make Change Stick
The final stage is to maintain continuous effort that the changes are indeed working and continue on that path. This can be done by integrating new values within the organizational culture, promoting those who support the change, and recruiting new people.
It's easy to fall back to old ways, so continue to look for ways to make sure the changes will stick. Create policies, processes that will reinforce the values of the changes that works well.
Action Ideas:

• Keep talking about how well the organization is doing with change. People love to hear stories. Create the connection between action and success
• When hiring staff members, embed the "new" values of the organization in training and/or interviewing.
• Always reinforce the behavior you want by rewarding those who are consistently working on the change vision

To summarize, Kotter also identified the 8 associating pitfalls that can prevent a change process.

1. Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency
2. Not Creating a Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
3. Lacking a Vision
4. Under communicating the Vision by a Factor of Ten
5. Not Removing Obstacles to the New Vision
6. Not Systematically Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins
7. Declaring Victory too soon
8. Not Anchoring Changes in the Corporation’s Culture

Wanted: Latino book characters

Wanted: Latino book characters

by Samantha Ptashkin, KVOA, Tucson, Arizona

4:00 am on 02/13/2013

TUCSON- Christina Cuevas and Emma Peterson are two eighth-grade students who love to read.
“I like imagining the stuff that happens in the books, it’s fun to go to a new world,” Cuevas says.
But it’s a world they’ve noticed is sometimes hard to relate to. “There aren’t any specific Latino characters in any of the books I read,” Peterson says.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Latino students now make up nearly a quarter of public school students across the country.
Yet, Kathy Short of the UA’s “Worlds of Words,” says less than three-percent of books published in 2011 featured a Latino as its main character. “The kids are right,” Short says.
The mission of “Worlds of Words” is to bring diversity to books read by children and young adults. “It’s not that kids only want to read books about themselves,” Short says. “They want to read books about many other topics, cultures and points of view. But if you never see yourself in a book, it really does start to send strong messages.”
Short says it’s a trend that is also seen among African Americans, Native Americans and Asians. “From across those four cultural groups, they represent only 10 percent of what’s being published,” Short says.
However, she says the stories are on shelves, you just have to search for them. Short has taken part in efforts to compile a list of culturally-diverse books. “But I also think if parents, school libraries and teachers really seek out those books and use them with children, purchase them and make them a part of kids lives, the market will produce more of those books,” Short says.
Until that happens, Cuevas and Peterson are sticking to Shakespeare. “Currently we’re reading Romeo and Juliet,” Peterson says.
It’s a story they enjoy; they just hope the publishing world will turn a page soon.

Research Studies We Can't Forget

Research Studies We Can't Forget: Discrimination, Expectations, and the Marshmallow Test
(Thanks to Joan Wink for the reminder in her newsletter of these studies )

First, The Pygmalion Effect, or the Rosenthal and Jacobson Study.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect
http://courses.umass.edu/psyc360/rosenthal.pdf

Second, remember The Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes study?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqp6GnYqIjQ

Jane Elliott, 3rd grade teacher in Iowa after MLK was killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott

A Class Divided
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/

Jane Elliott's own webpages
http://www.janeelliott.com/

Third, The Marshmallow Study, or the Daniel Goleman Study
One of the tests on YouTube (you can see more on YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY

TED Talks and the marshmallow

Slate: Marshmallow Test Revisited

Recognizing Teachers

Interview with Award Winning Teacher Bill Cecil... by Dr Hans A Andrews

"It still means the world to me that two students and their parents took the time to nominate me. I had never even heard of Michigan Teacher of the Year before my nomination. It truly has changed my life!!
-- Bill Cecil, a former Michigan, US, Teacher of the Year

Bill Cecil is a intermediate school teacher in the Waverly Community School District, Lansing, Michigan, USA

Oustanding teacher Bill Cecil together with his son Joe while being interviewed by a
local tv station

It is important for teachers to gain recognition when they are doing outstanding work on behalf of their students. Yet, statistics from a survey of 20,000 K-12 teachers show that fifty percent of the K-12 schools in the USA do not yet have a system or program of recognition in their school districts.

In both Australia and the USA there is a push to reward the top teachers through a merit pay program. Merit pay creates a negative stir among teachers and teacher organisations and has not proven to produce the results that the designers of these merit pay systems orginally have had in mind.

In almost every documented study in the USA merit pay systems have been dismantled after one to three years of experimentation. In some, no statistical difference in outcomes appeared between those receiving merit pay and those not receiving it.

The school districts that have provided other means of ‘recognition’ have found a high degree of acceptance from both individual winners and faculty groups. The following interview with Bill Cecil, the Teacher of the Year winner in 2003 in the state of Michigan, US, speaks to the importance of such a program in his career and life.

Q: Prior to your nomination for Teacher of the Year for Michigan, had you ever received any special recognition from your school or any previous ones you may have worked?

Cecil: No.

Q: Did you view the nomination as recognition for the good work you were doing in the classroom?

Cecil: Very much so. I thought it must have something to do with the work I was doing in my classroom but felt many other teachers I know (including my wife and many of my colleagues) should have been nominated for what they were doing in their classrooms as well.

Q: How was the response from other teacher colleagues in your school?

Cecil: I kept it a secret as long as I could because I thought it was quite a long shot that I would be named Michigan Teacher of the Year (MTOY). However, once it was announced in the media that I was a finalist, I received tremendous support from everyone I worked with. They were great. When I actually was named MTOY I was blown away by the number of cards, letters, and emails I received--enough to fill a large shoebox! I was the first person in my school district to ever be named MTOY, and I think many in my district took pride in having someone on our team to represent our school district. I loved that because I felt I got to share this recognition with them.

Q: How important do you feel recognition is for teachers?

Cecil: I believe it is worth more than gold in some ways! The year I served as MTOY, I received more pats on the back and ‘appreciation’ comments for my teaching than most teachers receive in their entire career. It was the most incredible feeling. I believe every teacher deserves to feel the same way for all the hard work and dedication they put into their teaching as well.

I wish we could name thousands of Michigan Teachers of the Year each year instead of naming only one person. So many are deserving of recognition, and it really doesn't cost anything to give this type of recognition. I can only imagine how giving more teachers this type of recognition each year would uplift so many in our profession and pay huge dividends in our schools. I know from my own experience it has motivated me to work even harder every day to live up to that recognition I have received.

Q: How do you compare the special recognition you received to that of a merit pay option?

Cecil: I believe both have the potential to be great incentives for teachers. However, my fear with merit pay is that it has to be set-up in a way that is truly fair for all teachers.

My concern is that if merit pay is mainly based on student performance, it could discourage many teachers to want to work with students that have the most needs or attend struggling schools. I think teachers should be rewarded for wanting to take on these challenges and not put in a position where they could be punished financially for it. I don’t see that happening with recognition programs as much. I think they are designed to look at many different variables.

Q: What response to your recognition did you administrators, school board and students have to your winning?

Cecil: I think they took tremendous pride in it. It felt great to see the recognition I received uplift so many others around me. Like I mentioned earlier, in many ways it felt like a team award for the Waverly Community Schools!

Q: You mentioned that the Teacher of the Year recognition changed your life, how it has changed you:

Cecil: Being named Michigan Teacher of the Year has had a tremendous impact on my teaching and my life. It has motivated me continue to grow as a teacher each year to live up to that honour I received almost a decade ago. This recognition expanded the boundaries in my world in education way beyond my classroom and district. I have had the opportunity to meet so many incredible teachers, policy makers, and community leaders in my own state and around the country.

I had the great honour of meeting and having my picture taken with President and Mrs. Bush in the Oval Office of the White House. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of me reaching out to help others in my profession, like the 30-50 percent of new teachers that are leaving within 3-5 years.

It has motivated me to find creative ways to reach out and support others while staying in my classroom to continue to do what I love most--to teach! One creative solution I came up with to help support others while staying in my classroom was to create a free video series for teachers that focus on team building, classroom management, and leadership strategies. You can access this free resource www.bestyearever.net/videos/.

Q: Fifty percent of American K-12 schools, in a survey of 20,000 teachers, were found not to have a recognition program: Should this change?

Cecil: Absolutely! I know of too many fantastic teachers that have not been given the recognition that they so deserving. To me, that is a shame. I know what it has meant to me, and only wish many others had a chance to experience the same thing. Again, I don't think it has to cost a lot of time or money to create an ongoing recognition program for teachers and school employees. Whatever the cost, I guarantee the return on that investment in high morale and pride would be amazing!

Q: Will teachers support ‘recognition’ awards if given for their excellence in teaching?

Cecil: I believe most teachers would love to be recognised for their hard work and success in the classroom. I still feel incredibly fortunate to have been named Michigan Teacher of the Year almost ten years ago. That pride and satisfaction will stay with me the rest of my life! If the recognition programs are sincere and free of any politics, I believe they would be welcomed with open arms by most teachers.

Q: What would be your response if your state passed a merit pay program for good teachers?

Cecil: I would want it to be fair. There are so many different variables to take into consideration. Every school and every classroom is different. I would want it to be fair for all teachers involved and be what is truly best for all our students.

Q: What else would you like to add to teachers in Australia and the USA relative to the importance of special recognition for excellence in teaching?

Cecil: I believe there is so much potential power in making an effort to recognise as many teachers and school employees as we can on a regular basis. Those receiving recognition for their hard work, dedication, and passion, knowing from my own experience, will drive them to work even harder to live up to that recognition and will help to increase team pride in many of our schools and school districts. This would truly create a fantastic win-win for teachers and students alike!

SummaryBill Cecil summarises very clearly and succinctly how important being selected for a special recognition for outstanding teaching becomes to a recipient. There are many educators and administrators and parents who can make this happen for the hundreds of thousands of other excellent teachers who will be surprised and appreciative. Such recognition, as Bill Cecil has explained are motivated to continue working as an outstanding teacher for their students.

About the Author:

Hans A. Andrews is a former secondary school teacher and counselor and held instructional administrative roles in community colleges. He retired as college president at Olney Central College in Illinois and is now the Distinguished Fellow for Community College Leadership for Olney Central College. He is President of Matilda Press and can be contacted at andrewsha@sbcglobal.net . His most recent books are Awards and Recognition for Exceptional Teachers and Accountable Teacher Evaluation and are available at: