In Podcast #15 (PD on the Cheap), we continue our discussion of NMSA07 Conference sessions. Shawn takes a look at Project LEAD which is centered around Pre-service and service teachers. However, the ideas can be used in a variety of settings. We also discuss some of strategies to improve literacy skills. As usual, there are some good links included.

(Note: due to some personal time constraints, this podcast is available only as an mp3).

Project LEAD: Developing Middle Level Teacher Candidates.

Goals: Make a difference in the classroom

Teacher retention

Support network

Method: In-Service and Pre-Service Teacher Book Club

Book selected and chapters assigned to participants.

In-Service teachers receive a stipend and pre-service were grant supported.

Books Selected:

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell

Turning Points by Jackson & Davis

This We Believe in Action by NMSA

55 Teaching Dilemmas: Ten Powerful Solutions to Almost Any Classroom Challenge by Patterson (2005)

Other ideas:

Differentiated Instruction: http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/OnTarget/DifferentiatedInstruction/tabid/298/Default.aspx

Articles from NMSA collected together for your Instructional Enjoyment …

Learning by Doing, DuFour

NMSA ’07 Session Experiences (not suitable for all situations)

Writing for Real, Burkhardt

Empowering Students Through Technology, Alan November

Book Club as Professional Development

Discussion seen as scholarly, yet personal and connecting.

Increases personal and practical knowledge.

PD isn’t something done to someone it becomes an active process.

— See Scott Endres’ PD Bingo Game: http://www.paperwadideas.com/files/pd_bingo.pdf

Results for Teacher Leaders

Advocates for teacher leadership in a building

Meets a need for continuing growth

Focuses on “Real World” teaching and needs in the classroom

Builds relationships between In-service and Pre-service teachers.

Facilitates a Mentor relationship

Tips for Creating a Book Club as PD:

Create a sense of ownership through shared goals and shared responsibilities

Allow a choice of books: Show 3 or 4 titles in a book talk and then choose as a group.

Allow a choice of focus topics/chapters as participants lead the discussions.

Establish a relaxed, positive environment. (This means FOOD!)

Small groups increase engagement.

Draw in the less talkative members to the conversation

Value personal experiences

Promote asking questions even for those which no one or the facilitator doesn’t know the answers.

Use a writing journal for a before/after reflection of ideas.

Involve administrators who are interested in participating.

References cited:

Clark, C.M. Talking shop: Authentic conversation and teacher learning.

Flores, B., Miller, M., & Selfe, C., “Teachers as readers: Forming book groups as professionals.” http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/read/109613.htm.

Books used:

Erb, T.O. This We Believe in Action: Implementing successful middle level schools, NMSA

Gladwell, M., The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference.

Jackson, A. & Davis, G. A., Turning Points 2000: Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century.

Patterson, K. 55 Teaching Dilemmas: Ten Powerful Solutions to Almost Any Classroom Challenge. Pembroke Publishers

NMSA ’08! It’s Coming!

Location: Colorado Convention Center

When: October 30 to November 1, 2008

Keynote: Jim Collins, author of Good to Great
Leadership and Effective Learning in Reading/Writing, Math and Science
Presented by Dr. Sharon Faber

• More than 8 million students in grades 4-12 are struggling readers
• 70% of students entering 9th grade read below grade level
• The bulk of older struggling readers and writers can read but cannot understand what they read
• Many excellent third grade readers will falter or fail in later grade academic tasks if the teaching of reading is neglected.

Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. (www.nifl.gov)
The Big Five:

1. Phonemic Awarness- the ability to hear, identify individual sounds
2. Phonics- Understanding predictable patterns to recognize words or decode unfamiliar words.
3. Comprehension- understanding, remembering, and communicating what is read.
4. Vocabulary Development- Stored information about meaning and pronunciation of words.
5. Fluency – Ability to read text accurately and quickly.

Reading Next: A vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy (www.all4ed.org)

Reading Next is a cutting-edge report that combines the best research currently available with well-crafted strategies for turning that research into practice. Informed by five of the nation’s leading researchers, Reading Next charts an immediate route to improving adolescent literacy. The authors outline 15 key elements of an effective literacy intervention, and call on public and private stakeholders to invest in the literacy of middle and high school students today, while simultaneously building the knowledge base.

The Fifteen Elements of Effective Adolescent Literacy Programs
This report delineates fifteen elements aimed at improving middle and high school literacy
achievement right now.
1. Direct, explicit comprehension instruction, which is instruction in the strategies and
processes that proficient readers use to understand what they read,including summarizing,
keeping track of one’s own understanding, and a host of other practices.
2. Effective instructional principles embedded in content, including language arts teachers
using content-area texts and content-area teachers providing instruction and practice in
reading and writing skills specific to their subject area.
3. Motivation and self-directed learning, which includes building motivation to read and learn
and providing students with the instruction and supports needed for independent learning
tasks they will face after graduation.
4. Text-based collaborative learning, which involves students interacting with one another
around a variety of texts.
5. Strategic tutoring, which provides students with intense individualized reading, writing, and
content instruction as needed.
6. Diverse texts, which are texts at a variety of difficulty levels and on a variety of topics
7. Intensive writing, including instruction connected to the kinds of writing tasks students
will have to perform well in high school and beyond.
8. A technology component, which includes technology as a tool for and a topic of literacy
instruction and practice that takes place in language arts and regular classes.
9. Ongoing formative assessment of students, which is informal, often daily assessment of
how students are progressing under current instructional practices.
10. Extended time for literacy, which includes approximately two to four hours of literacy
instruction and practice that takes place in language arts and content-area classes.
11. Professional development that is both long term and ongoing.
12. Ongoing summative assessment of students and programs, which is more formal and
provides data that are reported for accountability and research purposes.
13. Teacher teams, which are interdisciplinary teams that meet regularly to discuss students and
align instruction.
14. Leadership, which can come from principals and teachers who have a solid understanding of
how to teach reading and writing to the full array of students present in schools.
15. A comprehensive and coordinated literacy program, which is interdisciplinary and
interdepartmental and may even coordinate with out-of-school organizations and the
local community.

Also available from the Alliance Excellence for Education:
Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement

Today, more than six million of the nation’s secondary school students fall well short of grade-level expectations in reading and writing. Recognizing the urgency of this literacy crisis among middle and high school students, policymakers in all parts of the country have begun to implement a wide range of new programs and services designed to help struggling adolescent readers catch up in essential literacy skills, particularly reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. However—and as this report argues—if students are to be truly prepared for the sophisticated intellectual demands of college, work, and citizenship, then these reforms will not be enough. Even as their schools help them to catch up in the basics, students also must be taught the advanced literacy skills that will enable them to succeed in the academic content areas—particularly the core content areas of math, science, English, and history.

The Real World uses Technology…Do You?
The issue of digital natives vs digital immigrants.
Dedra Stafford (wizardworkshops@cox.net)

Digital Natives:
Those who are growing up knowing and using technology. They haven’t known anything else.

Digital  Immigrants:
Those who are learning the technology but have learned a different process.

Do kids really learn differently? How do we adults view technology vs kids?

What are we preparing kids for? What jobs will exist? What skills will be needed?

If You’re Going to TEACH them, you have to REACH them!
Podcasting
Blogging
Web 2.0

Some places to help teachers:
Youtube comparable:
Teacher Tube – Kind of like Youtube but focused on education. Has a variety of teacher generated videos. Has a lot of videos done by educators. These can be imbedded on a blog or a web site.

Youth Created Media – Video created by youths. Good for examples of what kids can do.
Video Lessons from around the web. Not directly educational. Rather this site promotes learning.
United Streaming: This is a for pay site. Includes a lot of videos that are short and tied to standards. Many school districts have an account with them.

Web offerings:

• Teacher Resources:  – Teacher Resources and Professional Development (This is a great site with lots of useful videos. Also check out their free newsletter.)
  • Interactives: www.learner.org/interactives/
  • Art: http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html?discipline=1
• 4 teachers:  – Wide variety of sites for teachers:
  • QuizStar (pay) – allows you to make quizes
  • RubiStar (free) – allows you to make and save rubrics. Has some guides to start you out.
• Quizlets: – Vocubulary learning help.
• Kerpoof: This site looks like it has a lot of potential. Kids can network and create stuff here.
• Virtual Field Trips: Just what it says. Some science field trips as well.
• Discovery Educators Network of teachers ()
• Math  Videos  Online:  A bunch of videos that can help explain of re-enforce math concepts.
• Geography  that’s Juicy.
• Grammar
• Science

We didn’t get a chance to talk about all of them. However, there are some sites here. I would really recommend starting with the Teacher Resources link above.

Why Try? I’m Going to Fail anyway! The Effects of Teacher Expectations on Student Achievement.

By Debbie Silver

This was a fascinating presentation. Debbie Silver is a very dynamic presenter who grabs the audience. She is one of those rare speakers from whom you get a natural “high”.
She focused on the little things that teachers can do that make a big difference for kids. She was one of the presenters that pointed out how much of an influence that teachers have on children. Many of the things that she pointed out are subconscious things – little things that we just don’t teach as educators. However, lots of these things have subtle effects which can lead to a “tipping point” to change student achievement.

Here’s just a little bit about her presentation:

Why kids don’t try:

• Entitlement
• Easier: It’s hard work, no control or choice over their lives.
• Fear: Easier not to take a risk, a cover for the fear of failure.
• 99% of students would rather be seen as a discipline problem rather than having a learning problem.
  • Many things we look for are not skills, but compliance.

We must change the mindset of the kids.
Our mindset:

• Too often we are looking for not for knowledge but for convergence.
• Every student deserves a reasonable level of success.

She discussed Albert Bandura, who popularized the term of Self-efficacy. This is the ability of
people to perceive what one is capable of doing. Teachers may “fire up” students temporarily, but that enthusiasm will be short lived if the test is completely beyond their ability. Rather, teachers can help by consistently stretching students a little bit at a time. People with high perceived self-efficacy will try more things, accomplish more and persist at a task longer.

Which ties in with Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is defined as the student’s range of ability with or without assistance from the teacher (or more capable peer). One end of the range would be the student doing without any assistance at all. The other range is with very supportive assistance.

Thus, the teacher should:

• know were student’s abilities are.
• act as a scaffold, providing the minimum support necessary.
• challenge the student to reach just beyond current ability level.
• Understand that if instruction falls outside of the zone, either above or below, no growth will occur.
• Be aware of the different roles students and teachers assume throughout the collaborative process.
  • teacher modeling behavior for the student
  • student imitating the teacher’s behavior
  • teacher fading out instruction
  • student practicing reciprocal teaching (scaffolding others) until the skill is master by all students in the classroom.

http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/step/ep301/Spr2000/Jenna-B/zpd.html

Think-Time vs Wait-Time

Recommended Book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck, C.S. (2006)

Attribution Theory:

• Task difficulty
• Luck
• Innate Ability or Talent
• Effort

External

• Task Difficulty
• Luck
• Innate Ability or Talent

Internal

• Effort

Join us as we get specific about the NMSA 2007 Conference. It’s amazing how much excellent material we picked up there. In this episode, we discuss a couple of the presentations that we attended. Rick DuFour’s presentation was fantastic. I really do hope that NMSA will be able to broadcast it at some point.

I then discuss Walt Grebring’s Presentation “Effective Leadership Equals Successful Schools”

His presentation is based off of Todd Whittaker’s work – What Great Principals Do Differently.

I started with a poem that Mr. Grebring distributed on Leadership.

Principals Role in a Role in Positive School Climate by Walt Grebring:

1. Have a vision for a school
2. Role model for teaching a class and walk throughs
3. Be a great listener – do NOT try to solve everyone’s problem
4. Be a facilitator and empower your staff
5. Enjoy watching others grow
6. Remove the fear of failure
7. “Better to ask forgiveness than ask permission”
8. Willing to consistent examine the climate and take steps to improve.

Seven Cardinal Skills:

1. Demonstrate compassionate understanding of the characteristics and needs of developing adolescents.
2. Ability to develop and communicate a vital school philosophy based upon the needs of the students.
3. Use shared decision making, involving stakeholders to direct the school toward the vision
4. Develop interdisciplinary team organization
5. Continuous school improvement
6. Leader is an instructional leader.
7. Hire/Assemble an effective staff

This was just a quick overview. However, it is a great thought provoker.

Shawn also discusses one of the sessions that he went to on RTI (Response to Intervention).

Response to Intervention Through Middle School Electives  www.eps.n-cook.k12.il.us

1.  Learning Navigation Map

2.  Guided Notes

3.  Podcasting student lessons (ProfCast).

4.  Diagramming spelling words etymologically.

5.  Work Log

Shawn and I sat down for a few minutes to discuss our impressions of the NMSA  conference. We’ll go into more detail about the individual sessions in up coming shows.

Excitement is building. We’re looking forward to meeting lots of fascinating people. It’s almost time for lift off.

What is it that we are looking forward to?

1. Anything that address the issue of student’s doing homework.
2. Methodologies for address the wide ability of student’s on a school wide basis.
3. Successful strategies for helping kids develop reading skills.

What are you focusing on?

Our excitement over the upcoming NMSA Conference can’t be contained. In this episode, we discuss conference attendence strategies and our picks for breakout sessions. Be forewarned, this is our longest podcast yet. We also announce our first ever give away – you could win an iPod. Listen to discover how.

We also discuss where to get Rick DuFour’s notes prior to going to the show (here) and some dining tips:

Houston discounts:

http://www.restaurant.com/ Has dining certificates that can reduce the price of eating out in Houston.

(Specific regions in Houston: http://www.restaurant.com/search-map-region.asp?PageSize=10&Page=1&VicinitySearchLevel=REGION&StateID=19&SearchID=&DistrictID=0&RegionID=32&rgid=32&nv=1&rn=TX) Use special code: SWEET

This show takes a look at the next two building blocks of a good PLC – Values & Goals.

Third Building Block:
Values:
One method, create a representative task force and challenge its members to:

1. Carefully review the school’s vision statement
2. Identify attitudes, behaviors and committments that must be demonstrated by the group in order to move the school closer to the vision.
3. Develop a draft of a statement of these attitudes, behaviors and committments (limited to no more than 10 statements)
4. Arrange small-group meetings with collegues to present task force findings, solicit feedback and answer questions.
5. Revise initial draft
6. Small group meetings until there is strong consensus for the statements.
7. Present findings to the entire staff to obtain endorsement of the final product.

One of the big keys is to remember to involve Parents, Support Staff and Community members.

Mature vs. Immature PLCs-development of values/vision and implementation.
Some keys:

• Keep them few in number
• Link the statements directly to the vision statement
• Be direct
• Focus on behavior, not beliefs
• Focus on self, not others

Fourth Building Block:
Goals:
Which steps will we take first, and when?
Need to create some small victories. Thus, some short-term wins are necessary. In order to accomplish that, design some goals that are:

1. Visible – large numbers of people can see for themselves whether the result is real or just hype.
2. Unambiguous – There can be little argument over the results.
3. Clearly related to the change effort.

Things to avoid:

• Taking on too many initiatives at once. (Some schools have started 10 different task force intitiatives)
• Identifying goals that are too general. Goals must be specific and measurable if they are to be effective. Effective goals will specify:
  • Exactly what is to be accomplished.
  • Specific steps that will be taken
  • Individual or group responsible for intiating/sustaining each step toward achieving the goal
  • timeline for each phase
  • Criteria in evaluating progress.

The big NMSA national convention is coming up soon. Held in Houston, TX on November 7-9, this is one terrific conference. We are getting “geeked” up. Literally. We’re hoping to record some podcast segments while at the conference. Learning and soaking up information will come first, but we do plan on getting some “work” in as well.
Are you going to the conference?
If you are, drop us a note.
If not, what would you like to hear about?