When 350,000 Students Have No Teacher

No matter which side of the fence you’re on, the Chicago teacher strikes are serious business. It is bringing to national attention what many of us take for granted: when parents go to work, what do they do now with their children?

For the moment, many parents are dropping their children off at Sheridan Park and other locations where kickball abounds.

The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding, among other things, higher pay scales and at least 16% raises in response to Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s plan to lengthen the school day. On the union’s side of the argument, more work should equal more pay. On the mayor’s part, he agrees—he just doesn’t agree up to 16%. And while they duke it out behind closed doors, students are enjoy some recreational time.

Chicago teachers are second only to New York City in pay. NBCNews.com reports, “Chicago teachers make an average of between $69,470 and $76,000 per year, second-highest to New York City. The deal Chicago Public Schools put on the table includes a 16 percent average salary increase….”

This brings to mind another blog post where we examined the effect of a higher pay scale on teacher effectiveness (which was followed up by this post). While we can easily say that higher pay will increase competition and therefore help us pick the best and brightest teachers, it is just as easy to say that teachers who are motivated primarily by money are not as invested in their students ‘growth.

There are a few possible benefits to students’ education as these strikes occur, if teachers play it right. Consider the following:

• Negotiations
• Few Chicago students will ever think of the word “negotiations” in the same light after this week. But will students see it as an opportunity to have their voices heard, or will the word come to be synonymous with “incessant arguing”?
• Politics
• There is an excellent history lesson at work here. Unions began as a means to protect workers’ rights. Is that still the case? Where does protection end when the proceedings could be detrimental to student education? Has Chicago’s government become out of touch with the people it serves, or has the union forgotten its truer purpose?
• Learning Styles
• Children will learn. No matter what they are doing, they are going to develop a worldview based on their interactions. Playing kickball in a park while Mom is at work and Teacher is shouting hackneyed chants will have an effect on every child. So what are students learning without formal instruction? How are they learning it? Why is that what they chose to learn?

How do you feel about the strikes? What would you like to see happen?

Best Practices? Ask the Customers!

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Teresa Bunner, Teacher

A while back, Domino’s Pizza ran a series of ads in which they presented clips of focus groups giving honest opinions about how to improve their product. Anyone familiar with the customer service world recognizes this is a standard practice.
So, I am always amazed that when we talk about student achievement best practices, there is very often a key contingent of voices missing from the conversation- students. Our students, each unique individual who enters our room, tell us what our best practices are, if we are willing to listen.

For twenty years I have had the privilege of working with students in elementary, middle and high school. I avidly pursue professional development and belong to many professional organizations. But the most successful changes made in my classroom have been informed and guided by listening to my students. And while ages and locations have changed, their list of best practices echoes some of the same ideas over and over. Their list is extensive, but I have found three that seem to be simple yet often are dismissed because they don’t appear to be “instructional” practices. However, my kids tell me time and time again that it is these basics that make a difference for them. Here are their top three:

1. Greeting Students- As a student teacher, my master teacher encouraged me to greet my 9th graders at the door. Being the master teacher, I followed her advice. The following year in my own classroom, I continued this habit, never fully understanding the effect until the last day of school when sweet Ana handed me a folded note. “You will never know how much it meant to me to see your smiling face greet me at the door each day,” she wrote. She went on to talk about how some days she was stressed or afraid she would be late to class, but she knew it would be all right when she rounded the corner and saw me. From that moment, I knew this would always be a part of my teaching.

Over the years, my students have come to expect this from me. I can remember one day a young man raced into the room to find me on the phone. He loudly exclaimed, “Man! I thought we had a sub ‘cuz you weren’t at the door. Don’t scare me like that, Ms. B!” I love, too, when my students take it upon themselves to help me with or assume this duty and greet their peers at the door. Just that few minutes before class sets the tone for our learning community.

2. Names- “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name…” sings Gary Portnoy. And the voices from my students over the years echo this sentiment. Names hold such power. Recently I had a conversation with a young man who was frustrated with a classroom teacher. His whole life he has been called by his middle name, but, despite repeated requests, this teacher continued to call him by his first name. He felt disrespected and had begun to pretend he did not hear the teacher call him. For him, this became a classroom where he felt unvalued and “invisible”. Over and over I have had students share frustrations with teachers who don’t know their names or mispronounce names. A seemingly simple strategy, yet one that holds such power.

3. Inviting Student Voices- I am reminded time and time again when I talk to students how vital this is. In a strategic reading class I taught to 9th graders, part of the final was a letter to me in which they evaluated how they had grown as a reader. One question asked students to suggest changes to the course. One student responded, ”Why haven’t we been writing letters like this all semester?” And thus, our class Lit Letters were born. Strategies like class meetings and lit circles are other examples of ways to build student voice into classrooms.

Often the very answers we seek to improve our practice are right there before us. How will you invite your students’ voices into your learning community?

Teresa Bunner currently works as the Academic Support Specialist for the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate program in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. She spent the previous twenty years as a classroom teacher and reading specialist at the elementary, middle and high school levels. She loves working with young people on their learning journey.

Stickers, Sandwiches, and Success: Teaching Strategies and Tips

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Iris Yuan

Teachers face a wide number of challenges both in and out of the classroom. Below, two amazing teachers share student achievement best practices and strategies and steps that have proven successful in their teaching careers. Jamie Nestor has worked with students from grades 5-12 for over ten years, teaching Latin and Ancient Greek. Aaron VanderYacht started out as a Teach for America corps member and now teaches reading, writing, and math in grades 4-12.

For Aaron, a successful lesson starts with the mindset of his students. He recognizes that every student does want to achieve more, so he takes the time to assess each student’s attitude, strengths, and areas for improvement. Meanwhile, Jamie uses a “student-centered” approach, so that her students have more control over how the curriculum runs.

“I start by activating prior knowledge – figuring out what students know when they come to me. Then, I identify misconceptions and work to deprogram them and build upon truths,” says Jamie. She would also take note of what type of learner the student is, such as auditory or kinesthetic.

The next step is to keep the student engaged and establish motivation. To accomplish this, Aaron uses funky colored pens or paper, stickers, jokes, and laughter throughout his lessons. He hints, “As much as a 9th grader might try to pretend that he doesn't care about some silly sticker, you can bet that somewhere in there he's excited. Nowadays, I love to carry around stickers, stamps, and other simple rewards.”

Despite these efforts, it is inevitable that some students will start the lesson feeling lazy or unmotivated. You might hear, “I’m never going to get this, why bother…” or, “I don’t need any help, I’m fine.” To counteract these attitudes, Aaron makes sure to highlight positive progress along the way.

"Even when working with a student who is really struggling, I try to constantly create ‘positive sandwiches’. This means that I will start most of my comments to a student by highlighting something positive (‘I see your organization is really clear in this paragraph.’), follow it with constructive feedback (‘I see you tried to add a detail from the paragraph, but this detail doesn't directly support your topic.’), and then finish with a positive comment (‘Let's look back at the text, because I saw that you did a great job of highlighting a lot of important details.’). When feedback is 'sandwiched' between positive comments, problematic reactions are less likely to ensue later on,” he says.

Another common challenge is figuring out how to tailor these strategies from an individual level to a classroom setting. “It takes careful planning, strategy, insight, and adaptability to anticipate and provide what each child in the room needs for the best learning outcomes,” says Jamie.  “That’s why tutoring is so great. In a 1:1 setting, I can build a relationship with a student more quickly, and with that, perceive what that child needs. I can then provide that learning space more immediately and with undivided attention.”

Regardless of where the lesson is taking place, getting direct feedback from students at the end of the day is vital to moving the lessons forward.

“One of the best things that a student can say to me is, ‘That was easy!’ I always respond by saying, ‘Of course it was, because you practiced and put in hard work so that it would be!’ It's especially meaningful to me when I hear this after a student has taken a major test or quiz. Knowing that he or she is able to sit with their work and feel confident and relaxed is what makes teaching exciting,” says Aaron.

Iris Yuan is an Education Consultant at Tutorspree.com, a website that works nationwide to rebuild the tutoring system in K-12 education. For more information, follow @Tutorspree on Twitter. You can visit Aaron’s profile here (http://www.tutorspree.com/tutor/10408) and Jamie’s profile here (http://www.tutorspree.com/tutor/13554).

Teaching to Learn and Learning to Teach

Students Achievement Best Practices in Small Group Setting

 By Elena Leonido, Special Education Teacher

image courtesy of www.principalspage.com

Teaching to Learn:

“I don’t want to do work!!!” and a loud ohhhh!!!! filled the whole fourth grade room, after one kid dropped his book on the  floor, threw his chair and stood still. The general education teacher was furious and sent that kid to the principal’s office. Shocked and tongue tied, I wanted to cry in disappointment. I believe I was sad both for the teacher and for the child. It was my first year teaching in America but definitely not my first in teaching profession. After a whole day of teaching, a big question was circling in my mind: “How can I help these kids?”

At first , I looked back at my 15 years of teaching, back in the country where poverty is high and but the regard for education is high too .I remembered my students from the Home Study Program who walked and swim to cross the river and walk again to get to a simple school building. These kids still want to do school work after a long hours of walking and drying their clothes and walk again everyday to get to a teacher and learn something.

I convinced myself that kids are the same everywhere. That these kids are in school because they want to learn too. After several days I found myself teaching in small group and “Johhny” was one of them sitting and waiting for whatever I have to say.

Expectations :

“Do you know that you are so lucky to be American students?”I asked and all of them looked at me with a question on their faces. Then I described how are they different from other kids of their age in some other countries. I explained how  lucky they are to have all the resources provided for their education. The school buses, materials, hard bound books, materials and not to mention their teachers. That taking all of these for granted does not make any sense at all.That I expect them to believe that they can help not only themselves but other kids in some other time, if they get a good education. That they need to give their  best shot in whatever we do in that small group to learn.


Consistent and ongoing reinforcement:

Since then, I challenged my group of students including Johnny to look for their awesomeness. To empower themselves by believing they are too blessed to be upset, too smart to be left behind and too good to be ugly. Before I start my lesson I ask this question.” What made your day today?” “What can you do to improve yourself?”I prepare  interesting activities that can move their cognitive, and psychomotor domain and most importantly at the end of each lesson I touch their affective domain by letting them feel that they can do it. We usually sing the lines of the song that says ‘Give me all best shot !!! “ Yes, yes, yes, yes “when they encounter challenging question from me.

Learning To Teach:

“When I grow up, I will be a teacher and I will help kids in your country, Ms. Leonid.o” A voice from a child beside me echoing in my ear, while I was getting all the assignments that my kids completed in that small group .I was certain that was the most sincere remarks that I have ever heard from a kid in my teaching years. Yes, it came from Johnny’s mouth and believe it or not I had goose bump all over me.

I praised Johnny immediately and reassured him that he will make  a good teacher and teach students like him.

Reality check ? Yes, kids are the same everywhere. Reassurance, motivation and support and empowerment still work with them. Adults should give them chance to discover themselves and blossom. Like an ugly caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.

Youth?

Still the hope of the future!!!

Ma. Elena Leonido
Special Education Teacher
Norfolk Public Schools
Virginia ,USA
(After grading, planning and teaching, I continue to learn by taking up professional courses and trainings and continue to teach students no matter what their circumstances are)

Student Achievement Best Practices in Unlikely Places

Tupac in April

 By Lori Lustig, Special Education Teacher

image courtesy of goldbergenglish.wordpress.com

The poetry unit got off to a bad start. The tenth grade English class didn't respond any better to the poetry in the English text book, than they did to Romeo and Juliet. And they didn't like Romeo and Juliet at all.  Tough crowd.

Onto April and poetry. Pablo Neruda told us how poetry changed his life as a teenager.  I had them read poems that should have grabbed the attention of an adolescent: "Nikki Rosa" by Nicholas Giovanni, and "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks.  I  thought they would love these pieces.  They were short, I thought they could relate to the content.

No dice.

Kenya had his head down, Elma told me repeatedly it was the most boring thing we ever did.(Hard to get under the bar that the Romeo and Juliet unit set). The dean was making frequent visits to the room.

It didn't help.

And then I rode the bus home with the math teacher. In his sonorous deep Jamaican voice he suggested I look at a poem by Tupac Shakur, "The Rose that Grew in Concrete."

I am a middle-age woman why would I look at a rapper's words?  Weren't they misogynists? Aren't rappers lyrics filled with obscenities?

But I looked at the poem. No obscenities. I found a YouTube clip of Tupac reading it aloud.  I played it in class the next day and Kenya picked up his head.  Elma asked me to play it again.

Like the rose that grew in concrete, I found the “crack” not in an expensive poetry anthology, but on a city bus seat shared with a colleague.  I read more poetry by Tupac and found myself questioning my preconceived notions about rappers and popular culture.                        

Tupac, he did change everything. I was the cause of much mirth throughout the unit since I never did figure out how to say his name quite the right way.

The dean still needed to make frequent visits.

The room still looked like a war zone when the period was over.

But Elma and Kenya and the other tenth graders read and wrote poetry that April. And talked about it. Sometimes even in the cafeteria.

Maybe April really isn't the cruelest month.

Student Achievement Best Practices: How to Get Creative

And the Moral of the Story Is...

By Portia Scott, 9th and 10th grade inclusion teacher

Here is a poem, or short story if you will, about getting school work done. As far as best practices are concerned, it is something that I have used with students to teach a variety of literary elements. Additionally, teachers with whom I have shared this find it worth a smile. And the moral of the story is, with the hectic schedules of educators that include instructing, grading, meetings, parent contacts, standardized tests, scaffolding, differentiated instruction, and a plethora of other necessary requirements, sometimes we have to remember to take a break and have a little laugh.

"Please Let Summer End"

By Portia Scott copyright 2012

I’m on the inside, yes on the inside the facts are hard to take.
For the last nine months, nine very long months, I’ve craved my summer break.

Where I sit, it’s nice and cool, not one drop of sweat on me.
But outside, where freedom reigns, other children enjoy liberty.

How did I get here, one might ask, I can now calmly speak.
But when I was first given my fate, I felt like a busted boat headed up a stinky creek.

Things begin as they usually do with all the fuss and drama.
We study math, history, science, English and how to use the comma.

My parents scream. My teachers nag. They are all overreacting.
I wish they could just chill-out and give me a break. I know what I am doing.

Assignments come, assignments go; I get most of them done.
Life really is one big bowl of cherries and I just want to have fun.

The bell has rung. The doors spring open. The students now spew out.
On the street there is a mass exodus as we embrace our familiar routes.

There’s smiling and laughing, clapping and shouting, and even the stamping of feet.
“It’s over! We made it!” someone cried. “Leave those teachers in the agony of defeat.”

Left behind is the path of studying; the streets are all ablaze.
“Cheers to us!” We toast in celebration as our juice pouches are raised.

So long, adios, sayonara, arrivederci--parting comes with no sorrow to leave 4th grade.
It is time to relax and get started with fun; our best-laid plans have been made.

Forging ahead I set my sights on the game store and the local swimming pool.
In celebration of the day’s release, friends “tweet” each other terms like, “righteous,” “gnarly” and “way cool.”

Today is a day for transition. I am reborn, revived, renewed.
I am the sultan of summertime and will now get to do what I want to do.

My morning breakfast has given me great strength. I left not one single Cheerio.
Far behind me are the books, paper, and pencils. I am ready to let the good times roll.

I am covered in sunscreen. I have my hat, my toy, and my towel.
In just a few minutes, I will be out the door. Ooooo I could really howl.

On the fresh horizon, what a beautiful sight, I see sweet shimmering bliss.
When you are 9 ½ in Texas, it doesn’t get any better than this.

All of a sudden my plans are halted; I think I might just pass out.
My eyes well up and my knees buckle. This is more than a little bad, without a doubt.

On the kitchen counter with all the mail, I see a letter from the school I attend.
The envelope is open. No one is around. So, I decide to peek in.

One B, three Cs, a D and two Fs, I thought I was too big to cry.
But as my tears splashed on the words “Summer School,” I knew I could kiss my sweet summer fun good-bye.

I’m in distress. My life is over. I’m head toward the pearly gates.
I beg and plead for just one more chance, but alas, it is too late.

Now here I sit for the next six weeks, six very long weeks as a matter of fact.
Today’s events have been horrific and traumatic. I must straighten up my act.

Believe you me, this won’t happen again. I promise I have learned my lesson.
I do not want spend an eternity in 4th grade, again with Mrs. Wesson.

Books are important; school is too. I’ve got to give it my all.
I’ve changed. I’m new. You’ll see a better me. Just you wait until next fall.

Can you find:
-alliteration
-simile
-metaphor
-onomatopoeia
-foreign words
-hyperbole
-idiom
-allusion
-foreshadowing
-flashback
-theme
-plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution-also called The Witch’s Hat)


Portia Scott is a 9th and 10th grade inclusion teacher at Longview High School in Longview, Texas. She has taught high school for 2 years, elementary for 1 year and taught in higher education for 4 years.

Student Achievement through Writing

Writing as an Essential Part of Education

By Melanie Mayer, English Teacher

It occurred to me after twenty years in the high school English classroom, that there was a disconnect between what we were asking our students to read, and what we were asking them to write.  For example, we read primarily fiction: short stories, poetry, novels, drama.  But we ask students to write personal narratives, documented arguments, compare/contrast essays.  I believe for students to really become accomplished writers, and lose their fear and dread of writing, we need to provide them access, motivation, and empowerment through professional and mentor models. 

I devoted a chapter to this in my book (July 2010), Two Roads Diverged and I Took Both: Meaningful Writing Instruction in an Age of Testing, and have since made it one of the subjects of my workshops and presentations I give regularly to teacher groups.  I ask my students to write a personal narrative, a story of a chapter from their own lives.  Then, before they turn it in, we read narratives, such as excerpts from Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (they love “Champion of the World”), and discuss what makes these narratives so good.  Students will acknowledge the use of dialogue, of description that “shows instead of tells” the story, the pace, diction, point of view.  We’ll read a couple of really good student-written narratives as well.  Invariably, students will ask if they can have more time to rewrite theirs.  Yes!  Since I have started teaching narratives this way, the work my students have produced has been so much higher quality.

For teaching argument, we might read Ward Churchill’s “Crimes Against Humanity” and talk about his invective tone, his examples, allusions, proof (or lack of).  Then we’ll read the humorous “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters,” by Ann Marie Paulin, to show that argument writing can take many forms and tones.  I’ll show them Public Service Announcements, professional and student created, and we’ll talk about writing arguments for media.  We’ll read student essays.  Asking a group of students to write a documented argument paper, even with instruction, if they are not used to reading this type of writing, complete with in-text citations and works cited lists, isn’t fair.  It causes anxiety, fear, and dread.  It can be overwhelming.  But empowering them first through access, and motivating them by discussions of causes that are close to their hearts, allows them to confidently – and eagerly - approach the assignment. 

We read a lot of non-fiction now: causal analysis, comparison/contrast, memoirs, blogs, editorials.  Kids should learn to read and write in school the things they will be reading and writing outside of school, for their life’s purposes.  Education is to enhance quality of life.  Connecting reading and writing instruction, and providing access and motivation, empowers students to write confidently, passionately, and thus, have a voice in their world.

Melanie Mayer has been teaching high school English in Port Aransas, Texas for 23 years, and has been an adjunct instructor at Del Mar College for 10 years.  She is the winner of the Texas Exes Outstanding Teacher Award, Humanities Texas Outstanding Teaching Award, and is a state finalist for HEB Excellence in Education Lifetime Achievement Award.  She has published several articles and a book on the subject of teaching English. 

Formative Assessment: The Key to Maximizing Student Potential

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Elizabeth Williams, Math Teacher

Save your seat today for Conscious Teaching's FREE Webinar on April 25!  

When I started teaching fresh out of college four years ago, I thought that I would be able to teach my students math using the same methods my teachers used. We were taught the material, did homework every night for practice, and then took a test at the end of every chapter.  My first year of teaching I covered nearly the whole Algebra curriculum using this method. The students did not do well on tests and never did their homework. This method was not working. I thought my goal was to TEACH everything, now I realize that my goal is for the students to LEARN as much as they can. The key to this change in mentality is to use formative assessments, not summative assessments. Formative assessments should give students feedback to reflect on and make goals to improve their knowledge and understanding.

Feedback is a critical component of assessment. I use responders in my lessons so that students get immediate individual feedback whether they are right or wrong. We also have discussions about how someone could have reached an incorrect answer. Personal interaction between the teacher and student is also important for students to understand where they need to improve. Another type of feedback is the teacher’s comments on a test. Questions should not just be right or wrong, students should know where they make a mistake.

Once feedback is given, students need to be taught how to use that feedback to improve. Students should look at each question that was incorrect and assess whether it was a careless error or they didn’t understand. If they didn’t understand they need to ask the teacher or another student to help. Then they should redo the problem. The teacher should give them credit for redoing the problem correctly. Once they have reflected on the reasons for their errors, students need to make specific goals to improve.

Finally, the teacher needs to ask the question:  “Are students ready to move on?” Sometimes the students should be retested after the topics have been taught using different methods. The teacher should make specific goals regarding what to do differently and where the students need to be before the class goes to the next topic.

I don’t cover nearly as much material as I used to, but I feel like my students actually LEARN more.  Both teachers and students need to make reflect on their work and make specific goals to reach their full potential.

Elizabeth Williams, Math Teacher, Midland Trail High School, WV

About the Author: I am in my fourth year teaching math in WV.  I graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics from Davidson College and a M.A. in Teaching from Marshall University.  I love trying new teaching strategies and using technology in the classroom.

Think Big, Focus Small, Demand More

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Kristin Crowley


Save your seat today for Conscious Teaching's FREE Webinar on April 25! 

Thinking Big – Assessing Student Achievement

Assessment - the cornerstone of any good teaching.  Right?  It tells us what our students learned?  What they still need to learn?  And provides us the insight as to whether we as teachers have an impact on our students learning.

However, assessments themselves can be altered, adjusted or manipulated to allow for measurable gains or losses altering outcomes and skewing data.  Lets face it, from the school level to the state level to the national level we decide exactly what we want to assess ahead of time, teach it until we can’t possible teach it anymore, give the students a test on it, then pat ourselves on the back for doing a great job.  Did the kids learn something – sure.  But did their said “learning” become something intrinsic; something that can be transferred from unit to unit, year to year?  That in itself is really the essence of student achievement, not just some number on some test.

How then do we as teachers truly measure student achievement?  Do we focus on the skills? Content? Both?  Reality is we need to assess everything but if we present our students with broad formative and summative assessments we lose valuable data and overwhelm the students to the point where they will lose interest and become lost in the process.

So how can that realistically be done so that it not only allows for a true measure of student achievement but also allows for engagement and interest on both the students and the teachers? By thinking big but focusing on the small.

Focusing Small – Measuring Achievement One Skill or Concept at a Time

However, before you can even develop a process like this you have to think about exactly what you want to assess.  One of the reasons why assessments seem to fail is because we as teachers try to test t0o many things.  Of course we want our students to be able to do everything but if we are really considering ways increase student achievement then we have to think big but focus on the small.

Consider a literacy unit in which you want your students to write an argumentative essay, which is the very essence of Writing Standard 1 in the Common Core (CCLS W1) and an part of the future PARCC assessment.  Within the unit there are several overarching goals on the fundamentals of writing an argumentative essay but of course there is more to the skill of essay writing that needs to be taught for this unit to be successful.  One must also teach background information on the topics for the focus of the essay and research skills.  You can also incorporate reading strategies like comparing and contrasting, fact and opinion, and inferencing.  All of content knowledge and skills are very important to the success of the unit but not necessarily what the ultimate assessment of the unit will be because the units goal is Argumentative Writing therefore the assessments only focus on that and just that.  The question ultimately being – “Can my students write an argumentative essay?” It doesn’t matter much what the content is, or the grammar and conventions, or even their ability to research, revise or edit.  What matters is what the unit intended to teach the students – the skills needed to write an argumentative unit.  Therefore, to determine if your students have achievement mastery of said skill an assessment plan needs to be created and should include various forms of assessment.

A Plan that Values Student Achievement

In my small school in Bronx, NY, we have developed an assessment process (beyond the standardized testing) that blends not only projects and traditional testing but also our own formative and summative assessments to measure student’s growth and achievement overtime.

While on the surface the process seems complicated, the truth is we have instituted a series of smart assessments rather just develop tests for the sake of testing.  Students become more engaged in the learning and testing process and see assessment as a way to showcase what they have learned rather then take a test because their teacher told them to.  Therefore we have developed the following assessment cycle which allows us a picture of what our students know before, during and after a unit.  It also incorporates a variety of assessment strategies and structures to allow or students to showcase their learning in different ways.

Our Assessment Cycle

click to enlarge

While some may argue that this type of unit planning is assessment heavy, the reality is that we as teachers are constantly assessing.  Further doesn’t good instruction mean teachers should assess student comprehension and then create plans to adjust as needed to meet student needs?

By having an assessment plan that everyone can follow, unit development becomes more streamlined and in turn student learning and achievement becomes richer.  Teachers can actually see data that shows true growth and not just scores from multiple-choice tests.  We are able to see not only what our students have learned but what is also being transferred from unit to unit and then adjust future units as needed.  Our student achievement has grown and we have a deeper intrinsic value of learning with our students – which is every teachers goal.

As the Common Core continues to infiltrate school districts around the country and more and more states are faced with a redevelopment of teacher evaluations, assessment is becoming more and important but at the same time seems to be losing its purpose – to truly gauge what the students achievement.  Therefore having a true assessment plan really is the cornerstone to student achievement.

How to Use Effective Manipulatives for Student Achievement

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Tanya Villacis, 3rd Grade Teacher

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It’s so easy to get caught up in grades and standardized testing when you’re a teacher. They are detrimental to development in the classroom for they serve as baselines and checkpoints; however, that’s not what makes a classroom a truly enjoyable place to be. Those data stipulations and necessities are my responsibility to burden and bear; not my students’. I maintain focus on student achievement by ensuring that my lessons and daily activities are engaging and relatable to my 3rd graders. I aim to keep learning fun, hands on, and intriguing. My personal goal is to never teach a lesson the same exact way as I did the years prior. My student development correlates to how connected my students are to the lesson being taught.

The core of my teaching is centered on technology. 80% of the activities we do in class require the use of my interactive whiteboard. With my Mimio I can involve my students in the development of the lesson. Rather than being strictly observers of the lesson, they are applying and enhancing the information being presented with personal input and student application.

Hands on lessons are my favorite approach to teaching, especially in math. Recently, my students and I were working on perimeter. Perimeter is a fairly simple concept for students to understand, but when you give them a polygon on grid paper and ask them to count the units, things often get perplexing. As an educator I’m always looking for ways to better student understanding and ensure mastery. I turned to the trusty contributors of Pinterest and found a great idea! Someone pinned a picture which showed students using Cheeze-Its for counting perimeter. What a novel idea! I was only disappointed in the notion that I didn’t think of this before.

The following day, I put the idea to the test and my students are tough critics. My students and I used the edible manipulatives to practice the skill. They were so enthralled and committed to the lesson from start to finish! At the end, one of my little darlings came to me and said, “Oh, Ms. V. I won’t be afraid to take the perimeter test or if I see a question on the FCAT (A standardized test we take in Florida), I will know exactly what to do!” She was so sincere in her statement, which gave me goose bumps. To know that I relieved some of her fears and apprehensions on a specific skill reminded me why I selected this profession. There is no better reminder to focus on student development than watching the “AH HA, light bulb” moments of your little kiddos.

I have been teaching 3rd grade for 2 ½ years. When I’m not planning, cutting out center activities, and grading papers, I enjoy going to the theater, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

Pre-K Student Achievement Best Practices

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Jane Papenberg, Pre-K Teacher

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image courtesy of wpslincoln.org

I am a pre-k teacher in a Title I school.  The school is Westport Academy Elementary, Baltimore, MD I have learned that even at this tender age many children feel beaten down and not smart. To overcome this I work hard to build a climate for these children to feel safe, risk-taking is welcome and "I can do anything," attitude.  We practice, and practice until we get it. We cannot say the words, "I can't" in our classroom.

To accomplish the "I can"  feeling, during the first month of school,  I bake cookies and my para and I write the word can't, on the cookie in icing, for each child.  We read a motivating book about accomplishment, we discuss and practice, I can activities and then we eat the cookie that says "I can't." If the child chooses to eat the cookie the child cannot say the words: I can't,  ever again.  It is reinforced every time someone says the words.

The thing I learned by this activity is that the children take it literally and seriously.  If a new child joins the class, if  another student hears the words, "I can't," the new student is quickly reprimanded by his or her peers.  The student will be told, "You have to try to get help and you have to practice to get it right." I have done this activity 2 years in a row and will continue to, every year.  Never too old to eat a cookie and remember practice is how we get better at whatever is worth accomplishing.

The children leave my classroom confident in their own ability no matter what happens outside of the classroom. The child has a life long skill and knowledge about how to achieve their own dreams and goals.

The Necessity of an Environment Conducive to Learning in the Classroom

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Rebecca Lee Curry, English Teacher

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Student achievement has always been considered the ultimate objective in the classroom, and rightly so.  It would make sense then to seek guidance from teachers who have had great success with their students.  I am a firm believer that no matter how much you “learn” about teaching, there is wisdom that cannot be gained but through experience.  Seeking guidance from the right source is always beneficial and has certainly been the case for me.  When I first began teaching full-time, I was blessed to learn from my dad, who is an amazing teacher.  He has been teaching for 39 years and has helped me more than he will ever know.  He has answered countless (literally, countless!) questions and has given me advice when I desperately needed words of wisdom. 

Casting together the advice I have received that has proven true again and again with my own experience, I believe that as a teacher, you must be able to manage your classroom.  Students are unable to learn in a haphazard environment, thus students will not be able to achieve their full potential.  Knowing this and making classroom management a priority has saved me and my students (though they are unaware of it) several times while going about day-to-day activities in the classroom.  Students simply cannot learn to the best of their ability in a chaotic environment.  I set high expectations for my students from the first day, both behaviorally and academically because classroom management is crucial to giving students a firm-founded learning environment.  If students know what is expected of them, they are then capable of helping create a positive classroom environment. 

Further, promoting motivation through good teacher/student relationships is important to be able to create a positive learning environment.  My expectations never change over the course of the year, but as each day passes, I learn a little more about my students and gain insight into what motivates them.  Motivation is key to student achievement, and we as teachers can easily facilitate motivation in our classrooms.  Classroom management is an integral part of student achievement even being possible, but forming good teacher/student relationships is also essential to motivating your students to be successful in their educational endeavors.

Though I’m sure it sounds cliché, I do always try to be exceptionally encouraging to my students because motivation stems from encouragement.  Before I left one of my student teaching placements, my mentor teachers asked the students I had taught for the past six weeks to write me a letter.  The overwhelming majority of my students thanked me for being patient with them.  I thought they would be appreciative of all the complex lesson plans I had created and stressed over.  I assume it is needless to say that patience was certainly not what I had expected to stand out to them.  Having taught for a few years now, I can see that it is easy to become frustrated in general, as is the case with any job (if we’re all honest).  Even if frustration isn’t directed at students, they are perceptive enough to pick up on this emotion.  I’ll be the first to admit that there are plenty of days when I struggle with keeping a consistently positive attitude and a pleasant sense of patience.  However, I have learned that my encouraging words and attitude put great vibes in my students.  Consequently, great vibes motivate students to seek success.  As Mr. Fred A. Manske wrote in his book Core Strategy for Success, “I’m convinced that there is considerable power in such positive ‘vibes.’  The more you do it, the more sensitive you’ll become to the needs of others.”  The more positive we are with our students, the more we will realize how much of an impact it has on them. 

Learning from other teachers and being willing to seek advice leads to continual self-improvement, and our students, in turn, are the ones who benefit.  Student success is hard to achieve if the students’ environment is not conducive to learning, but if a teacher has great classroom management skills and an encouraging and motivating spirit, student success is much easier to achieve.  Achievement is what every teacher strives for his or her students to experience, and having a heart to teach makes student success possible.

Rebecca Lee Curry teaches ninth-grade English at Columbia Central High School in Columbia, Tennessee.  She currently teaches both honors and standard classes and is certified to teach Advanced Placement Literature and Composition.  Rebecca is a member of the National, Tennessee, and Maury County Education Association(s).

Advance Warning: How to Increase Classroom Participation

Student Achievement Best Practices Webinar

By Rick Smith, Conscious Teaching

Save your seat today for Conscious Teaching's free Webinar on Wednesday, April 25th!

We’re going to be sharing dozens of strategies in our free Webinar on Wednesday, April 25th,. Including seven strategies for increasing participation.  One of these strategies appears below.


Advance Warning:

Imagine you have a reluctant participant named “Sally.”  If you call on Sally in class, she may likely feel humiliated.  If you don’t call on her, she will most likely fall through the cracks.  What to do?  One strategy is “Advance Warning.”

How it Works: Give Sally some advance warning that you are going to call on her to share a response. There are many variations of this strategy. Here are three.

•    Several minutes warning- Catch Sally entering class (at the beginning of the period or after recess) and tell her you will be calling on her to share answer number #5 from last night’s homework. Even if she didn’t complete last night’s homework she has several minutes to work it out before you get there in the review.

•    One day’s warning- As class ends, let Sally know that you’ll be calling on her the next day to answer question number five.  She now has 23 hours to prepare!  Some teachers get concerned that if they do this, Sally won’t show up to class the next day.  In that case, when you give her the advanced notice, let her know that the next day, when class begins, if she doesn’t want to answer the question, she can let you know, either by telling you privately or by a private hand signal from her desk (five fingers spread wide and flat, for example). 

•    Variation:  let Sally know that tomorrow you will be calling on three students, including her, to share what they thought was most important, interesting, or memorable about the content in today’s class. To reduce any potential anxiety she might feel, let her know that she doesn’t have to write it down, it won’t be graded, there is no wrong answer, and she can share her response privately with you if she isn’t feeling comfortable sharing out to the class the next day.

Why it Works: This strategy gives Sally some time to emotionally and physically prepare to share out, which in turn lowers her anxiety and puts you on the same side.

Tip from the Trenches:  Don’t use this strategy with just Sally and other reluctant students. The rest of the class will notice and Sally will feel singled out. But make sure you include Sally regularly in strategies like this so she remains safely “on the hook” for paying attention and participating.

Growing Great Classrooms with Best Practices

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Deia Sanders

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Deia Sanders teaching pre-algebra

I think a side effect of moving to Mississippi is that you feel the need to grow a garden.  Well, at least I did! With the only horticulture experience in my life being a cactus and venus fly trap I had as a child, (both short-lived) it was probably foolish to have the high hopes I did for my garden.  Much like you would probably expect I didn’t bode much success. While they grew big and leafy, not a single plant produced even one vegetable. When I asked around to find out where I went wrong, I discovered they weren’t getting enough sunlight.

Another addition to my life after moving to Mississippi was feeling called to become a teacher.  I am an alternate route teacher, which means I came from the business world and crossed over in to education.  I was fortunate enough to have great bosses during my marketing career and learned many lessons that have helped me as a teacher. One lesson I learned was that if I got a big account, to ask them why they went with me.  My boss’ reasoning was that if I didn’t know how I got the money, I could have just as easily lost it. Also, if I didn’t land an account, I had to make the tough call to find out where my shortcomings were so that I was ever-improving.  Although it seemed superfluous at the time, it built good practice for my future. Thanks to this training, it was only natural when I became a teacher  that if a student correctly got an answer, I needed to find out how they knew it, and if they didn’t it was my job not to let that happen again, which could only come from understanding my shortcomings.

At the beginning of the year when I started going in teacher’s classrooms I was shocked to see teacher’s ask a question and when the student responded they would say “yes, that was great!” or “no” and call on another student.  We never knew why they got the correct answer, or where the confusion was on the students with the wrong answers.  I was floored! Had this many people never thought this mattered?  It reminded me of my professional training, but also of my gardening experience, although things may be growing, they weren’t producing the high hopes we had intended.

Follow-up questioning and higher order thinking became my focus for our teachers very quickly this year.  We began working on building habits of never accepting one answer.  Simple questions such as “Can you tell me how you got that?” or “why wouldn’t it be…” have begun to become routine. Teachers have started seeing that this practice has spun off high level thinking discussions because other students want to express how they got their answers.  We are having educated debates over optional answers. This leads to opportunities to make connections between student’s comments and build a since of community in the classroom.  We are also hearing deep discussions and students using key skills such as justification and reasoning… and they don’t even know it!  The growth of new and veteran teachers who have incorporated this practice has been superb!  It’s comparable to planting 3 rows of vegetables and harvesting four.   In the same respect that my garden needed more sunlight for the energy to grow vegetables, effe
ctive questioning has added a new energy to our classes that has begun to produce students who are sprouting deeper learning.

In the spirit of learning from my mistakes, this past weekend I planted vegetables in a field with plenty of sunlight.  I’ve sacrificed the unsuccessful benefit of having the garden in my yard, to driving across town to a field with plenty of sunlight.  And with good professional practice, when I ask why higher order questioning worked in most classes and in a couple it never took off, I can see the changes I need to make to see this growth through in every class next year.   In the classes that it worked, they had established good classroom management and were able to facilitate the discussion that came with follow-up questions.  Inversely, the classes where this was less effective were classes with poor classroom management where the discussions were easily swayed off topic.   I understand now that while this is a best practice, we will have to invest, fertilize, and focus on more growth in the teacher before we can expect great growth in their practice.  Once we have this established in every classroom, I fully expect a large crop of great growth next year!

Student Achievement Best Practices: A Perspective From Home Schooling

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Jennifer McMahon, National Board Certified Literacy Specialist, Founding Director of Literacy for Humanity


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image courtesy of literacyforhumanity.org

As a literacy specialist, I always tried to have very clear goals for my students. As a matter of student achievement best practices, I used running records and comprehension checks to keep track of progress, but even with small groups of students, I found myself moving them through their leveled books without always being sure every student had mastered every skill.  My students always made progress, so developing a new approach didn't seem that important. My perspective on teaching changed this year, though, when I started homeschooling one of my own children.

We made the decision to home school our youngest son after he had a very rough beginning to his school year.  Since it was intended only as a temporary arrangement (the remainder of the year) we used the school district's curriculum and Common Core as our guide.  I wanted to make sure my "school time" with my son was productive, so I pre-assessed him before introducing any new topic.  Sometimes this was a discussion, other times it was a written pre-test or a writing assignment.  I kept track of what he already knew and compared it with what he still needed to know.  Then, I explicitly taught him anything he didn't know.  I reassessed him after teaching and either moved on to the next goal (if he grasped the concept) or retaught the material in a new way, assessing all along until he was proficient.  Since I only had one child's achievement to focus on, I could easily make sure my lessons were tailored to fit his needs.  Using this approach, my son showed mastery of an entire year's curriculum in three months.
This made me truly reevaluate what we do in a public school all year long.

How could I thoroughly cover every subject area in a quarter of the time?  Simple. I focused instruction on the areas of most importance.  The curriculum told me what my son needed to know, understand, and be able to do.  My pre-assessments told me which of those goals I needed to focus on, and I was unwilling to move forward until I made sure he was proficient.  If he didn't understand something, I used every teaching technique in my repertoire to make sure he learned the concept.

After thinking about my homeschooling experience, I decided to see if a similar process might work with my reading students. I began by changing my mindset.  My goal as a teacher is to make sure every student of mine is able to achieve every learning standard.  Even though they are grouped together, I need to think of them as individuals.  With this in mind, I created a checklist/observation sheet for each of my students.   For every grade-level, I listed the learning goals/curriculum.  Next to each goal, I have a space for pre-assessments, a space for teaching points, and a space for post-assessments.  I have these in a loose-leaf binder (although I hope to leverage technology for this in the future).  Creating the recording sheets is an initial investment of time, but the benefits are worth the preparation time.  With my recording sheets handy, I pre-assess my students before I teach anything.  I do this "homeschooling style." Many times it is a quick check around the table or a conversation to determine what my students already know.  Individual dry erase boards are great for this. I can ask them to write the vowel sounds they hear, for example, and can quickly determine if a student needs more assistance with short vowels or if they are ready to move on to vowel combinations.  I record all of this information on my student sheets and then can design my lessons to meet each student's needs.  I can also share this information with classroom teachers, so we can work together to meet students' goals.

By using an individualized approach, my daily lessons look a bit different.  I am still using leveled texts and mini-lessons, but I am differentiating my lessons in order to reach each student.  Sometimes this means pulling a student aside during a reading conference to teach and reteach a particular point.  I have found I am spending more time on what my students really need to know and less time on the skills and strategies they have already grasped.  With individual student achievement at the forefront of my mind, I have found all of my students are moving forward and making progress.

During our homeschooling adventure, I came to appreciate a few ideas that helped transform my teaching:

1. Have high standards for every student.  I was not willing to let my son move on until I was certain he understood and was fully proficient.  As an educator, it is important to have this same drive and set of high standards for every student.
2. Use every moment as a teachable moment.  Every conversation "counts" in the world of homeschooling.  It was a great reminder that every discussion or interaction in the classroom should also be thought of in that way.  Truly getting to know kids by making personal connections is one of the best ways to assess what students know and what they need to know.
3. Learning should be joyful.  My son reminded me of this idea.  It can sometimes get lost in the world of standardized tests and continual assessment, but it is important.  I worked very hard to think of creative and engaging ways to present concepts and skills.  I worked just as hard to make sure my assessments were authentic and meaningful.  There are many ways besides a paper and pencil exam for students to show what they know.
4. Rich life experiences help build students' background knowledge and allow them to make connections.  The importance of these experiences cannot be underestimated.  Students who have had the opportunity to study the sky or make a barometer or visit an aquarium are going to more accurately visualize when they read about stars, weather, or aquatic animals.  They are also going to be able to make personal connections between their experiences and their reading.  These connections will lead to deeper comprehension.  While it isn't practical to take a field trip every week with a class of students, it is possible to focus on offering hands on activities, building background through discussions, pictures, and realia, and taking the time to help students make connections.

While homeschooling is not for everyone, there are definitely aspects of the homeschooling philosophy that can be borrowed by classroom teachers for student achievement best practices. Viewing each student as an individual and creating individualized learning plans based on the needs of students can have a significant impact on student achievement.

Jennifer McMahon is a National Board Certified Literacy Specialist at Brooks Hill School in Fairport, NY.  A mother of four, Jennifer is a passionate educator and student advocate.  She is also the founding director of the new non-profit organization Literacy for Humanity. Watch it take shape at www.literacyforhumanity.org.

Helping Students Reach Their Potential

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

 By Monica Jones, ELA Consultant, Detroit Public Schools

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image courtesy of education-portal.com

“Why are you still here?”I asked him.

Bradford looks up at me with sad eyes, but his smile is magnetic. “I gotta pass this class.  Can I do some extra credit?”

His statement made the hair on my neck stick straight out. “Well I really don’t have any extra credit assignments that you could do. Perhaps if you came to my class every day you could catch up on all of your missed work.”

Bradford smiled again.  “I be tryin’, but I have to babysit.”

His statement gave a whole new ring to an age old problem; trying to meet the student where they are.  We don’t live in a perfect world, so as educators how can we expect perfect students? Student achievement relies on meeting the needs of each student which often times is difficult because the student isn’t there.  And after missing so many classes or days, it becomes impossible for the student to catch up.  This leads to everyone becoming dismayed and puts the student at risk for dropping out of school.  Excessive absenteeism can be the cause of why students are not reaching their full potential.

Now I’m not proposing that educators hold their heads and cast their eyes to the ground.  It can be done; but with patience and diligence. The 21st century student has evolved so that lecturing in front of a class for sixty to ninety minutes does not guarantee that loads of learning is taking place.  Educators must be cognizant of the various backgrounds  that are sitting in front of them and make strong efforts to ensure that lessons are being delivered that addresses  the needs of the students.   Lecturing, hands-on projects, student centered lessons are all pedagogies that can be used that have the potential of reaching each and every student across the academic spectrum.  But, of course, they have to be there in order to learn.

Getting back to Bradford, his problem was not that he needed academic or remedial help; he just needed a remedial attendance program.  I contacted his guardian, who happened to be his aunt, and explained the situation of why he was failing not only my class but two others.  Of course, she feinted shock and claimed to not realize that he was failing, but she was also not aware of our district’s attendance policy.  We met and she and Bradford verbally agreed that they would both make an effort to ensure that Bradford was in school and not at home babysitting.  Simple, right?  In this case it was.  Bradford and his aunt both kept their promises and by the end of the year Bradford went into his junior year with a 3.2 GPA.

The teaching profession, unfortunately, doesn’t always teeter on the norm.  Some days are better than others.   I once had an eighth grader who brought her three year old cousin to school because there was no one to babysit.  Am I a daycare now?  Because the last time I looked at my check I was not receiving daycare pay for each student.   I took a deep breath and gently nudged her and her toddler cousin towards the counseling suite.  “No sweety.  Your little cousin can’t stay with you while you’re in class today.”   Unfortunately, my student had to be sent home that day because why…she had to babysit.

From the ritzy suburban school of choice to the decaying urban school on the corner, there are going to be students who are at risk of failing because they just don’t come to school.  And often times, they want to, but they have other distractions that prevent them from being in a chair everyday that the school door opens.  As conscientious educators, we must carve out some time during our much needed prep and at least attempt to get to the root of why all the chairs are not filled in our classrooms.  It has often been said, that one of the perks of teaching is once the bell rings, you can close your door and do your thing.  But when the bell rings and your door is closed and you are looking at far too many empty seats, that is a sign of a serious gap. Those empty seats represent a person who is entitled to an education and unfortunately, they are not there to receive it.