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A New Approach for Sick Days

1/25/2016

It is flu season. And with flu season, for a teacher, comes the endless parade of students into the classroom asking for make-up work for instructional days they’ve missed.

As a parent, a sick day is just as frustrating. Miss a day or two from school and your child’s grades can plummet. Whether this is from gaps in instruction, missing assignments or untaken tests, the frustration is real. It is palpable.
This past weekend, ironically while sick in bed myself, I had plenty of time to think about sick days. I came away with a few ah-ha’s.

Technology is great. With Google and email and Twitter reminders, teachers can connect with students and families at any time on any day. In fact, technology is so advanced, and some teachers so technically savvy, classroom lessons can even be videotaped and uploaded to YouTube. So when students get sick and miss a day or two of class, we all have a tendency to want to look to technology to fill in the gaps for them: watch the video lesson, download the handouts, read the posted notes, review the PowerPoint or chat with a classmate. This way they can finish the missed work before they even return. Sounds ideal.

But is it?

I haven’t been bed-ridden with a cold in years, so I admit I haven’t really thought about sick days for a while. Turns out that when you’re home sick, it’s because you feel horrible! I can’t imagine, this past weekend, having watched anything academic or completed any worksheets or talked coherently with any friend. I just wanted to sleep. And even when I returned to work on Monday -- without having missed an actual day of school -- I was ineffectual. I mustered my way through the day, but it was rough.

This left me thinking about our expectations of students.

A student determines that he is too sick to attend school. Whatever his symptoms, he decides to stay home and recuperate. One day. Two days. Whatever it takes to finally feel better and join the land of the living again. He returns to school, let’s say after having missed two days, and he is expected to be performing up-to-speed immediately. I do this all the time in the classroom. I know a student has been absent, but I continue on with the day’s lesson or give the day’s quiz or ask for a written response to something we reviewed the day before, as if no one has missed a beat. Hence the plummeting grades, frustrated students, and often-reoccurring sicknesses.

As I rolled around in bed this weekend, I promised myself to be more proactive. More understanding. More student-centered. I also realized that I need to be more mindful of the work that actually needs to be “made up” when a student misses class -- whether for sickness, family emergency, field trip or extracurricular activity.

Here is what this means for me. My instruction is driven by a target. This means I know exactly what I want students to know at the end of a unit. Popham, in” Transformative Assessment in Action,” calls this the “target curricular aim.” What I like about this approach to teaching is the freedom in being able to decide what building blocks are necessary for students to obtain mastery of that target. For example, in the course of a unit, I may assign twenty activities to get my students to the final target. But not all twenty of those are necessarily key to mastery; maybe only five of them are critical and the others are simply additional support or reinforcement.

I’ve always run my classroom this way, but haven’t always handled absences with this in mind. After this weekend, I am changing things up.

When a student misses class, I need to ask myself, “Is this a significant building block?” If it is, then I need to take the time to help that student get caught up. That may even mean the lesson on his first day back can be dismissed. But if the missed assignment from the sick day isn’t a significant building block, then maybe that’s the one I need to excuse. I never again want a student to return after an excused absence and have not only make-up work, but daily work, too. This just seems excessively harsh when trying to also get healthy at the same time.

Students who parade into my classroom this week after having missed a day or two of school will find a more compassionate, less rigid teacher who will work diligently to alleviate their re-entry stress.

I hope my own kids’ teachers will revisit their approach to sick days, as well, because we are all in the same business -- the “well”-being of our children.

Here’s to a healthy 2016.

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The Forgotten "R"

1/18/2016

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Writing -- my passion, my life’s work, my hobby, the core of my educational philosophy, and right now, the largest source of my frustration with education. With No Child Left Behind, writing instruction and opportunities were lost, forgotten, pushed aside. But this forgotten "R" must be brought back into the forefront immediately.

I’m going to spend this week elaborating on the five key benefits of a writing centered classroom as identified by The National Commission on Writing:

Writing is able to [1] generate deeper thinking, because it’s hard to know what we actually think until it’s committed to paper. Until then, the thoughts are fleeting and unsubstantiated and twirling around in our heads amid thousands of other random thoughts. Ideas flit from point A to point Z in the blink of an eye. Stopping to write those thoughts allows us all to go deeper with each one. I remind my students in the classroom every day, “Writing is discovery, so write to discover all that you have to say.” Writing to generate deeper thinking can serve as a foundational skill for producing what we know, but it also generates new thinking. The key is to give students opportunities to write for both big and small tasks, for both high-stakes and low-stakes assignments, in both timed and un-timed situations, for close readings and summaries, for formal essays and freewrites. It's the combination of them all that gets kids thinking.

Jobs are competitive today. Any one job can generate hundreds of applicants. The trend in industry today is to require applicants to produce a writing sample. Basically, to get the career you want, you have to know how to write. This includes job applications for mechanics, firemen, OC sheriff’s, computer programming, engineering, etc. The list goes on and on. So in terms of [2] career readiness, our students need to be writing more. Writing isn’t becoming a “thing of the past.” In fact, writing is becoming more important. And the writing that’s expected needs to be done quickly, efficiently and effectively. Memos need to be written now. Emails need to be answered yesterday. I argue writing is becoming even more critical; our world lives in technology today, and in order to share via technology, information needs to be written.

Writing [3] prepares you for college. Students are asked to write personal statements, complete writing placement exams, and communicate effectively in order to show proficiency and pass their classes. In The Nation’s Report Card: Writing 2011, NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) published the results of eighth and twelfth grade students’ assessments. Only one-quarter of students in the study, including both grade levels, performed at the proficient level in writing, leaving 75% of students performing basic or below basic. This is abysmal. This shouldn’t be acceptable; students, parents, schools, districts, communities and society at large should be furious with the underachievement in this fundamental skill. We need to better prepare our students for college or career success.

The [4] Common Core values writing. Writing doesn’t just belong in the English classroom anymore. Writing is literacy, and our students are being asked to produce independent thinking and coherent, relevant analysis in math, science, history. Writing, as outlined in the Common Core, also asks students to begin to blend genres. The narrative is not just “Tell Me What You Did Over Summer” anymore. Narratives are expected to be used to tell stories about history, make arguments in science, capture the attention of the audience in exposition. Blending genres requires craft, fluency, sophistication -- and practice.

Writing is hard; it is, without a doubt, cognitively challenging. But writing is worth the brain exercise. It helps us sort things out, adds depth to our thoughts, allows us to express our ideas, enables us to persuade, and, ultimately, makes us smarter. A struggle with writing is a metaphor for life. Let’s allow our students to struggle, to persevere, and, ultimately, to overcome. Let's help our kids find their self worth through accomplishment -- teach them that life isn't always easy. I want our kids to grapple with writing a grant that inspires the world to do better. I want them to write Yelp reviews that help me avoid the worst restaurants in town. I want them to write police reports that can stand up in court. I want them to write speeches that drive citizens to action. Writing isn’t just a book report or a fill-in-the-blank worksheet; [5] writing is life.

I guess this leaves me wondering where our district stands on writing. I have personal anecdotes and experiences from my own kids’ times in the elementary and middle schools in Los Al. I also bring knowledge from my work with students of all ages through Write Away U. These experiences make me want to scream from the rooftops: we need more writing in all classrooms across all curricular areas.

Writing is too important to let it depend on the teacher you get in school by luck of the draw -- it needs to be intentional, and it needs to be our next big push in education.

This "R" is not an option -- it’s a necessity.

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What are the "Habits of Mind"?

1/11/2016

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When we were students in the classroom, the world was a much different place. We were expected to read from a textbook and answer questions. We were expected to learn a math concept during class and do all the odd-numbered problems for homework. We were expected to memorize historical dates and names. We were expected to gather content knowledge and regurgitate that information on some test or quiz for the sake of a grade. Once done, the class moved on, and we were expected to do the same things all over again with new chapters and more content.

Then the world changed on us -- it become more immediate, more global, more intricate, more instantaneous.
With this change in the world should come a change in the expectations of our kids in the classroom. We can’t teach the same way anymore. Our kids need -- more.

One concept you’ll be hearing more about in the coming years is one called “Habits of Mind.” This phrase is being discussed in all our local districts, and I want to take a few minutes to be sure you have a working knowledge of its meaning.

The “Habits of Mind” are directly tied to literacy: reading, writing, speaking and listening. But literacy is not as simple as just this any more, because the demands of being literate in the 21st century are different from what it meant to be literate when we were in school.

Nowadays, students must learn how to engage in their literacy.

Let me put it another way. In the 21st century, literate students will not only be able to read, write, speak and listen, but they will be able to do so as scientists, historians, engineers, artists, writers, philosophers, mathematicians, engineers. Literacy today, in our changed world, means that our kids are literate from the perspective of all content areas.

In a reading class, being literate today means that our kids not only read and comprehend, but that they are also discerning and open-minded, questioning and assessing the claims and reasonings of assumptions and premises.
In a writing class, being literate means that our kids are able to write more than just a five paragraph essay. Literate writers both write -- and read -- with purpose. They look beneath the writing for the writer’s intent, bias and craft. And writers read as writers, not just as readers, developing a style all their own because of it.

In a history class, being literate means our kids aren’t just memorizing who authored a treaty or the capital of a U.S. state, but they are reading primary-source documents, evaluating evidence and asking questions about cause/effect, the past influencing the present, turning points, change and continuity.

In a math class, being literate means our kids can do more than the odd-numbered problems. We want our up-and-coming mathematicians to be pattern sniffers, experimenters, tinkerers, inventors, and visualizers who persevere and reason with precision, driving our next technology innovations.

In a science class, being literate means our kids have opportunities to do more than read about science from a textbook. Our next generation of scientists needs to be hands-on, curious, open to new ideas, intellectually honest, imaginative, creative and skeptical -- all at the same time.

These examples don’t come even close to the full range of “Habits” we want to see from our next generation of literate students, but it is the type of instruction we should be demanding of our schools.

I want my own kids to be able to manipulate their knowledge, respond to varying demands of each discipline, critique, be strategic, value evidence, understand others’ perspectives, demonstrate independence and be empowered to do and be -- more.

Because these “habits” are habits worth having.

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A Fixed Versus Growth Mindset

1/4/2016

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The holidays have passed, all the gifts have been opened, and we are heading into what promises to be one wet year. In preparing for the downpours this past week and shelving these new gifts, I ran across a book I’ve been meaning to finish.

The book is an educational resource book I was handed this past summer from a leader in my district who works in the district office. She had a couple dozen copies of this one specific title and was sharing them with select teachers throughout the district. I happened into the right meeting at the right time and ended up with “Loaner Copy #7.”

In the past few months since receiving the book, I’ve picked it up a couple of times and read bits and pieces when I run across references to its concepts in the news, educational circles, the Washington Post and throughout social media. And those references are appearing more and more frequently. Guess the universe is trying to tell me something. So with the start of the new year and happening upon the book yet again, I decided it’s time to finish it cover-to-cover. The book is titled “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

Based on my limited knowledge, let me share just a few initial thoughts about the fixed versus growth mindset as I understand it today, because, as not only an educator, but a parent of school-aged children, I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to encourage, support and cultivate success in our kids.

The fixed mindset as defined by Dweck’s research suggests that people with a fixed mindset believe “that your qualities are carved in stone.” Those with a fixed mindset believe they have “only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character.” In the classroom, these students might say things like “I’m not good at this,” “I give up,” “This is too hard,” and “I just can’t do math.” Teachers who embrace this mindset in children judge children’s abilities based solely on IQ, treating kids differently based on the expectation of that particular IQ score.

The growth mindset as defined by Dweck’s research suggests that people with a growth mindset believe “that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way -- in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments -- everyone can change and grow through application and experience.” In the classroom, these children might say things like “What am I missing,” “I’ll use some of the strategies I’ve learned to figure this out,” “I can always improve, so I’ll keep trying,” “I’m going to train my brain how to do math,” and “Mistakes help me learn.” Teachers who embrace this mindset in children believe the true potential of a child is unknown. These teachers encourage children to find passion, toil in their work, seek out training and strive for knowledge.

As parents, what can we do to help our children embrace the growth mindset -- the mindset we are all born with, the mindset based in the love of learning? The book I’m going to finish reading spends 246 pages outlining just this. For the sake of space in this week’s column, however, I’ll share just one tip for how we can help our children as we head into the new year.

Dweick writes that mindsets are certainly piece of our personalities, but we can change them simply by recognizing both and reacting and thinking in new ways when we catch ourselves mired in fixed tendencies. Granted, this new way of thinking is scary. For adults, it shows vulnerability and the truth that we aren’t all perfect in our knowledge. For kids, this feeling of inadequacy can be overwhelming and debilitating.

Our job as parents and educators lies, to start, in rephrasing kids’ statements. They say, “This is too hard.” We respond with, “This may take some time and effort,” or “Let’s try another approach.”

Our kids need to know that skills are learned. No one is born with the ability to do Algebra, for example; we all work at it until we get it. Let’s remind our kids that learning is continuous; no one is a ready-made genius. It is perseverance that promotes learning and future success. Just because you don’t understand something today doesn’t mean you won’t understand it tomorrow. That’s growth. When our kids are buried in frustration, it’s our gentle nudge and simply re-phrasing that will remind them to keep at it and not give up.

Amidst all the holiday gifts and the newest book on my nightstand, let’s all remember that helping our kids realize that they wield the power to transform themselves is the greatest gift we can give.

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A New Approach for Sick Days

The Forgotten "R"

What are the "Habits of Mind"?

A Fixed Versus Growth Mindset

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