Breaking down the science of reading to identify specific skills & supports for emerging readers.
Many people are talking about the science of reading — a term that is certainly not new, but has been gaining some serious traction recently, and prompting some heated debate. This debate largely stems from how this term is being interpreted and what this means for the students in our classrooms. What is truly meant by the science of reading?
After doing some of my own research, I’ve come to understand the science of reading as a comprehensive body of cross-disciplinary research conducted over the last 20 years that deepens our understanding of how the brain learns to read, including what skills are involved, how these skills are connected, and which parts of the brain are responsible for our reading development. The research seems clear, but because the term has become so loaded, I believe we are losing sight of what our young learners really need to become strong, capable readers.
What makes a skilled reader?
One of the leading researchers of early language development and its connection to later literacy, Dr. Hollis Scarborough, developed in 2001 what she termed the Reading Rope, which helps us articulate the specific skills readers need to have in order to be proficient. The rope consists of lower and upper strands, with the upper strand focusing on language comprehension, and the lower strand emphasizing word recognition. All these micro skills start to work together through practice and repetition, so that these skills can become instinctive. Ideally, over time, language comprehension becomes more strategic and weaves together with word recognition to produce a skilled reader.
I have greatly appreciated Dr. Scarborough’s work, and recognize connections to how I have and continue to talk about the reading development in my coaching work. Despite using a few different terms, we have similar meanings. What she describes as literacy knowledge, I have described as concepts about print. Similarly, we talk about comprehension as consisting of micro skills including vocabulary and background knowledge — the skills needed to make sense and meaning of a text.
However, I have gone a bit further in my explanation of what emerging readers need and have developed the Reading Wheel, which is based on my understanding of research and my experience as a childhood educator, teaching students how to read.
You’ll see that, in addition to phonological awareness, I include alphabetic awareness, which is defined as “knowledge of letters of the alphabet coupled with the understanding that the alphabet represents the sounds of spoken language and the correspondence of spoken sounds to written language.”
I also discuss the importance of good reading habits, which include what Dr. Scarborough describes as verbal reasoning and a few others. Good reading habits are those often taken for granted skills that proficient readers use when reading — predicting, evaluating, questioning, clarifying, and monitoring for meaning, for example. In my work with teachers, I try to have them engage in the reading of a text, and then reflect on some of the moves they made while reading, to help reveal the habits they utilize most, and how these might be incorporated into their teaching. I also include a specific focus on stamina, which I define as the skill of being able to read for longer and longer periods of time, and the willingness to keep reading, even when it feels hard.
What support do readers need?
To me, all these skills are equally important. The problem arises when we place more value or importance on certain skills over others — e.g., word recognition over language comprehension, which has often resulted in phonics instruction, all the time! Phonics instruction has its place when it comes to helping children learn the relationships between the letters of written language, the sounds of spoken language and supports their phonemic awareness and decoding skills; however, phonics instruction alone would not suffice. Emerging readers need opportunities to recognize the word patterns and letter blends in context, as they show up in books. If we look closely at both Dr. Scarborough’s Reading Rope and the Reading Wheel, we’ll see that they underscore the importance of being able to read words AND make meaning, evident by the weaving of the individual threads of the rope and the circular nature of the wheel. Students need explicit instruction when it comes to developing comprehension skills, in order to support them in thinking critically, making connections, and developing their identity as readers. Young readers need differentiated instruction and in the moment feedback as they work to progressively read more complex texts. This often happens during readers' workshops, or small group instruction, such as guided reading. Lastly, children need opportunities to engage in independent reading and participate in read alouds, to gain exposure to a wide range of texts aligned to their needs and interests, to grapple with different topics and content, to help foster a love for reading, promote stamina, and learn meaningful habits from a skilled reader — their teacher. My students loved read alouds, and often begged me to read more, so they could find out if Clover and Annie end up as friends in The Other Side, or find out if and how the teacher will respond to the class making fun of Chrysanthemum, or find out the connection between Kissin’ Kate Barlow and the Warden in Holes.
As Diana Townsend states, “If we really care about teaching kids how to read, we need to focus on creating space and time for teachers to enhance their professional knowledge." They need time to explore the research around reading development for themselves and engage in conversation with colleagues about how it should inform their instructional strategies and approaches, rather than relying on a packaged curriculum or reading programs to do it for them.
Furthermore, there needs to be meaningful and ongoing inquiry, where teachers can try things out, and then reflect on what’s working, when, for which readers, and why, as we know it takes time and patience to get things “right.” At the end of the day, Townsend reminds us that, “no one is going to ‘win’ the reading wars and children will always be the losers.”
Help students build stamina for homework by creating a consistent, meaningful structure for assignments.
While there are a range of positions on the benefits and drawbacks of out-of-class learning (aka homework), many teachers recognize that learning outside of class can benefit students as they develop new skills. Research shows that student engagement and performance increases when students engage in meaningful, relevant, out-of-class opportunities aligned with the in-class curriculum. Additionally — and especially in high school — out-of-class learning is important for students to gain valuable college-ready study skills, move through content at a faster pace, and develop personal responsibility and executive functioning skills.
While many teachers see the value of out-of-class learning, the challenges around homework are so overwhelming that assigning any homework at all can feel like a lost cause. We often assign homework as a way to build healthy academic habits for students to develop independence and personal responsibility. But building habits takes time and consistency. This means that in order to create a learning community where students regularly and reliably complete their homework, it must also be assigned consistently. Whether it’s assigned on specific days of the week, or in a set pattern, establishing homework routines and sustaining them for long periods of time is essential for developing the habit forming behaviors that students need to engage in their learning outside of class. Consistency is critical — but consistency without purpose can lead to its own set of challenges. In an effort to create routines for homework, we sometimes fall into the trap of assigning homework for the sake of assigning homework, rather than for engaging students in meaningful practice. But when students can’t find the purpose or the relevance between their homework and the classwork or their own interests, they will lose a sense of purpose and their participation will begin dropping off. Homework should build a bridge between students’ lives and content topics in the classroom. Disconnected tasks have no impact on students’ understanding of the content, engagement in the course, or in developing the long-term characteristics of independent learners. When out-of-class learning is disconnected from the in-class content, it loses its value both to the student and the teacher.
Creating consistency & meaning
There are four types of meaningful homework assignments: Practice When students apply a concept or skill learned in class. Practice assignments engage students in reading, writing, or problem-solving tasks that they’ve learned in class and can apply through different examples. Practice tasks help students internalize the concepts and skills, and encourage them to think through a variety of applications. Common practice tasks may be reading with a graphic organizer or notetaking protocol, completing a problem set, or strategic vocabulary building. The benefit of practice tasks is that the reinforcement helps students internalize content they’ve learned in class, which should better prepare them for new content in follow up lessons. Extension When students take something they’ve learned in class to a new application or new context. Extension activities take in-class learning to a new level, stretching students to think about the concepts in different contexts. This might look like extending an application task in class to an analysis level or to a synthesis level outside of class. It may be asking students to make relevant connections between class content and their own lives, or drawing real-world conclusions on a given topic. The benefit of extension activities is that they help students see their classwork as relevant or important in the real world. Preparation When students engage in learning that prepares them for in-class content. Preparation activities provide students with the prior knowledge, skills, or context to prepare them for future classwork. This might look like including a pre-reading activity, or review of prerequisite information needed for the in-class task. When developing preparation activities, consider what types of tasks will help students engage in future tasks, avoid creating in-class learning that is 100% dependent on completed homework. Creative When students use personal expression to respond to in-class content or other learning goals. Creative tasks are activities that go beyond recall or critical thinking and invite students to synthesize, reflect, or create a response to the topic being studied. These types of activities might include independent reading with a reading journal, personal reflection, drawing, or modeling a concept through multiple modalities.
Creating a structure
If it’s been difficult to establish a learning environment where students regularly engage in completing tasks outside of class, it can feel pointless. Unclear how to make a culture shift for our students, we can feel really defeated and give up even trying. But if we’re serious about cultivating these skills in our students and we know it will be better for their learning long term, we can make strategic choices to help our students develop important habits over time by leaning on some of the principles that drive athletic trainers to help people develop healthy physical habits. In the sample homework sequence below, we can see how it would be possible to take students who haven’t done any homework all year through a process that would build to 30 minutes of homework within 8 weeks, using six principles that provide structure for a goal-oriented routine, and translate from physical habits to academic habits.
Creating the right conditions for change
Periodization We respond to patterns and cycles that help to structure consistency & variety. In athletics, periodization may look like alternating weight training with cardio to develop a balance of strength training and heart health. In teaching, periodization is about creating a balance of interesting and relevant activities so that students don’t get bored or burnt out after a few days of practice. Creating a schedule, routine, or pattern for homework tasks is a great way to build in periodization. Reversibility Our practice will reverse if we’re inconsistent. When engaging in skills-based activities, consistency is critical for establishing healthy habits and meeting target goals. When we’ve established healthy habits, the tasks are easy to complete and bring satisfaction. When we are inconsistent, our skills atrophy, and it can take a lot more mental energy to get back into the habit. The same is true for homework practice. When we’re inconsistent in assigning homework, students will fall into reversibility, and it can set their progress back to the beginning stages. Consistency is critical for success. Specificity We can maintain interest and balance by rotating through a variety of tasks. If we went to the gym every week and lifted 2.5 pound weights, we might see a jump in our strength in the beginning, but if that’s the only exercise we ever do, we’re likely to see those early gains fade away. Just like the body gets used to the same physical activity, the brain gets used to the same mental activity — and it loses its potency after a period of repeated use. This is tricky because we know we need to engage students in consistent practice, but that consistent practice must include a rotation of different thinking routines in order to maintain interest and balance. Progression We need to evolve our training needs over time to keep a consistent level of challenge. Similar to specificity, progression is about ensuring a consistent challenge. In physical fitness, this means that as we get stronger, faster, or more agile, we move the target to increase the challenge. Similarly, with our students we want to ensure that as their skills improve over time, we continue to increase the intellectual challenge so that students’ interest, curiosity, and skills continue to increase over time as well. Overload We will benefit from instances of “maxing out” or a” big stretch”. For athletes seeking a physical target, they create opportunities for overload, to periodically see how far they can stretch their skills. The concept of “maxing out” is about going as far as one can go to measure the extent of progress. Maxing out is not advised as a daily or even weekly routine, but rather as a periodic test designed to assess progress and set up parameters for a new training routine. The same can also be valuable in pushing students to new levels in their academics. Engaging students in progressively challenging content, texts, or problem-solving activities can stretch what students thought they were capable of and paint a picture of what’s next in their learning. Overload doesn’t just create a stretch for the next training level — it also changes our perspective. When an athlete routinely lifts 25 pounds each workout, and then maxes out to 50 pounds, lifting 30 pounds the next session will feel lighter. Similarly, when students engage in reading a complex text or completing an intense multi-step problem and then return to a text at their level or to a problem with a recognizable solution, their own confidence and perspective also shifts. Individualization We each respond to challenges differently. While we can recognize that there are some workout patterns that can be a helpful guide, everyone is unique and responds to stress and challenges differently. Whether they’re physical or intellectual challenges, we need to consider and plan for meeting students’ individual needs. This comes with talking openly and directly with our students about the tasks, what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how it can help them reach their own goals. Additionally, it comes when students engage meta-cognitively in their own practice. How are we engaging our students to reflect on their challenges, their fears? How are we helping them develop tools that can empower them to strive toward their goals? We strengthen our students when we engage them in action planning, personal goal setting, tracking progress, and celebrating small and large successes.
Creating a culture change with respect to working outside of the classroom can be overwhelming, but it’s not impossible. With a strategic plan that engages students and focuses on building strong habits over time, we can cultivate a community of learners who develop personal responsibility and independence over time.
Set clear instructional expectations that help elicit students' most quality thinking.
There are many excellent reasons for looking closely at student work. We can look at the work to engage in inquiry around particular students and understand their strengths and struggles across classes and content areas, or we can look at the work of a particular class section in order to create strategic student grouping and inform differentiation for upcoming lessons. Sometimes, looking at student work can be a really meaningful way to reflect on our own instructional and curricular design — especially when we’ve recently created a new learning activity or assessment that we’ve never used before.
Recently, I supported teachers at one of our wonderful partner schools in student work analysis for this purpose. Like many schools across the city, rigor is a focus for professional learning this year. For this particular learning cycle, teachers worked on designing rigorous tasks using the Rigormeter, a resource designed by Dr. Roberta Lenger Kang, which re-envisions Bloom's Taxonomy. For this particular session, teachers were invited to bring two different pieces of student work: one that “met or exceeded expectations” for the task, and one that “is not yet meeting expectations.” Here is a snapshot of what they did with those pieces of student work, and how this reflection will inform next steps.
What does success look like?
For the first round of reflecting and sharing, teachers spent some time with the piece of work that met or exceeded expectations. Teachers were invited to engage in individual reflection using an iteration of our What / So What / Now What resource, which offers a process for making low-inference observations, analyzing findings, and identifying a course of action.
In this round of reflection, teachers had the opportunity to consider and articulate the success criteria for their rigorous task, and identify the skills and knowledge required for students to produce work that meets or exceeds expectations. Ideally, we’d like to have a clear vision of the success criteria before we ask students to engage in a task, but when we are trying something for the first time, this type of reflection might be necessary to gain further clarity. Let’s say a Social Studies and ENL co-teaching team is trying out a new assignment in which students are asked to plan an educational tour of Greece for the class. They are asked to choose at least three stops on the map and explain why a particular place or geographical feature is important for understanding the ancient culture of the civilization. A What / So What / Now What-style reflection on a successful student’s work might look like:
What are revisions and next steps?
For the second round of reflecting and sharing, teachers moved their attention to the piece of student work that was not yet meeting expectations. Once again, they engaged with a What/So What/Now What protocol, this time with slightly different prompts:
A sample reflection for that same scenario might be:
Insights and next steps
During our whole staff debrief, one common high-level insight that emerged across departments was that we cannot make assumptions about students’ knowledge and skills before assigning rigorous tasks. Thus, a next step in the group’s professional learning will be to explore the concept of formative assessments and their connections to engaging students in work that is appropriately challenging. The whirlwind pace of teachers’ work does not always allow a beat to critically reflect on planning; often after trying something new, we must take stock as quickly as possible and then shift our attention to the next lesson, activity, or assessment. However, when we can carve out space for intentional reflection (and school leaders and PD coaches support us in doing so), there are undeniable benefits — perhaps the most obvious being that we have much better insight into students’ immediate needs. But also, if we understand student work to be a mirror of our own practice — reflecting back ways to improve our own instructional design — looking at what students produce in live time informs how we will design our next learning activity, or how we revise our design for next time so that it elicits students’ most quality thinking.
What does it mean to be mathematically literate?
Literacy is quite the term. When I started my teaching career as an English educator, I assumed that literacy was my domain. As I continued teaching and studying education, it became clear that literacy is all encompassing. I learned about the ways students could become literate in science, social studies, and more recently, racially literate. For some reason, none of these literacies seemed out of my reach, and then entered math. Math has always been a tough subject for me, and in this conversation, I was able to again sit down with Bob Janes, Secondary Supervisor of Mathematics for East Hartford Public Schools (revisit our first conversation, on equitable assessment, here), and talk about what literacy in math looks like.
How would you define literacy as a math teacher?
Literacy in math is the ability to understand and communicate mathematics in a variety of forms. I typically use the following definition from the The Connecticut Common Core of Teaching (CCT) Rubric for Effective Teaching 2017:
Thinking about the definition as conveying meaning and understanding meaning in a variety of forms, how does that show up in the math classroom?
It shows up in a variety of ways. I’ll go through a few different modalities. Reading Students should be able to read about a scenario or context and apply mathematical understanding to it, often called mathematizing, decontextualizing, or modeling. Students should also be able to read a mathematical text and understand common notations and representations. This includes algebraic notation, tables, charts, and graphs. We call these processes decontextualizing and contextualizing. Writing Students should also be able to justify their ideas in text using the same notations and representations that they are able to read (e.g. sentences, algebraic notation, tables, charts, and graphs). Speaking and listening Students should be able to listen, interpret, and critique their peer’s ideas. They should also be able to share and support their own ideas. Vocabulary Students should be able to recognize and use both Tier II and Tier III vocabulary with precision while reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Connecting representations This one is more math specific than the others. Students should be able to draw connections between different representations and understand when one representation is more advantageous than another. For example, suppose students were analyzing the freefall motion of a skydiver. A paragraph, an algebraic function, and a graph would all reveal different information about the scenario, and taken together, they provide a more complete understanding.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen the opposite of this in many math classrooms, what some might call “plug and chug”. If teachers are stuck providing worksheets and asking students to fill them out to “demonstrate mastery”, how can they change their classroom practices to ensure students are literate in mathematics?
We often shy away from giving our students tasks that ask them to read, write, speak, and listen in math class because we think that they will struggle. We also think that students who already find math content difficult will be completely exasperated by integrating literacy skills. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to build literacy skills in a vacuum. We must start by exposing our students to high-quality, standards-aligned tasks that promote the use of literacy skills. Then, we use literacy strategies to support students within the context of these tasks. There are a number of great resources out there to choose from when selecting tasks. Curriculums that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematical Practice (MP) typically include opportunities for students to read, write, speak, listen, work with vocabulary, and draw connections between representations. My favorite curriculum to pull from is Illustrative Mathematics, and my two favorite instructional routines are Three Act Tasks and Which One Doesn’t Belong. A distinguishing feature of the tasks and routines linked above is that they all give students something to discuss or think about. This includes tasks that give students different starting information, tasks that have multiple solution methods, and tasks that have multiple answers. Robert Kaplinsky calls these approaches “Open Beginning”, “Open Middle”, and “Open Ended” and even has a website dedicated to these types of tasks.
This all sounds fantastic, but what if a high school student was not exposed to this kind of literacy in previous grades? What are some strategies teachers can use to help students develop math literacy?
I’ll talk through a few of my favorites, although there are a number of strategies and routines that are great for supporting student’s literacy skills. It’s important to understand that none of these strategies will cause immediate success. Students who are not accustomed to literacy in math class may struggle at first, but over time they will begin to use these strategies on their own. Reading I like to use the three reads protocol when reading word problems. Different groups have their own tweaks on the protocol (e.g. LAUSD, SFUSD, Kelemanik & Lucenta), but the structure is generally the same. Students read the first time to understand the context, a second time to identify important quantities, and a third time to interpret the problem. Students can also use annotations or highlights as they are reading to identify important information. When working on an interdisciplinary team, I like to use common annotations for text so that students can see the connections between subject areas; however, we can annotate more than text in math class. Tables, graphs, and even visual patterns are great places to make meaning through annotation. Writing Other disciplines have their own response structures such as RACE or CER. Just as with annotations, I prefer to use a common response structure with other disciplines. Speaking and listening I’ve found that talk moves can help students get started when they don’t know what to say. Talk moves can be prompts from the teacher, visuals for students to see, or both. Other educators use similar techniques such as sentence frames or discourse cards, and have created extensive lists of prompts and stems to get students talking. I think it’s up to the teacher to choose what works best for their students. I would be remiss not to talk about Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl. While not technically literacy strategies, I have observed the 14 practices in this book promote more student to student discourse than I have ever seen in a math classroom. It’s worth a read! Listening Many students find active listening and comprehension in real-time challenging. While this is the ultimate goal, technology such as EdPuzzle can be used to slow down videos and provide frequent comprehension checks. Vocabulary Vocabulary is one that I still personally struggle with. The traditional approach is to front-load vocabulary instruction, where a teacher explicitly teaches new vocabulary terms before they are used in context with the thought that students will not be able to understand the subsequent lessons without the vocabulary. However, I have found that many students do not need front-loaded instruction. Instead, many students learn vocabulary terms best when they are introduced only when needed, and when instruction is embedded within the context of the lesson. For example, students are asked to describe different parts of a graph and begin to use informal language. They might quickly discover that their informal language is imprecise and has limits. At this point, the teacher would step in to support students either with formal vocabulary or with an instructional routine that allows students to build their own vocabulary (e.g. Stronger and Clearer Each Time). In my experience, more students are able to attach meaning to the vocabulary using this approach than using the front-loading approach, but it will be up to the teacher to meet the needs of their students. Connecting representations Teachers should spend substantial instructional time for students to use, discuss, and connect representations. In the book Routines for Reasoning, Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta suggest using an instructional routine to allow students to make connections and share them with their peers. Teachers can also be explicit about connections by using annotations to connect specific parts of each representation with arrows.
Is that it? Tasks and strategies?
All of this falls apart unless the teacher gives students specific and actionable feedback. It’s not enough for students to simply complete the tasks and apply the strategies we’ve talked about. Students need to know when they’re communicating effectively, and what they can do to improve. Error analysis routines and exemplars can be helpful in this regard.
What if teachers want to learn more?
There are a few places to visit if you want a deeper dive. The work done by Stanford University’s Center for Understanding Language (UL) is particularly helpful. They have developed a series of design principles and math language routines to support language and content development. Jeff Zwiers is the director of professional development for UL, and his website has even more tools to support authentic communication across the disciplines. More recently, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) created a Student Experience Toolkit for Math Instruction for Multilingual Learners that builds on the work of UL. These resources provide a great next step to learn more about literacy in math education.
Advanced AI has revolutionized writing, yes, but teachers don't need to fear being replicated or replaced.
As technology continues to advance, the field of education is not immune to its effects. One such area that is likely to see significant change as a result of advancements in AI is the high school English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. In particular, the emergence of AI language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT is poised to revolutionize the way students approach writing assignments and the way teachers grade them.
One major impact that ChatGPT is likely to have is in the realm of writing assistance. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can offer suggestions for grammar, spelling, and syntax in real-time, making the writing process much smoother for students. This can be particularly helpful for students who struggle with writing or for those who are learning English as a second language. ChatGPT can also provide students with suggestions for word choice and sentence structure, helping them to express their ideas more effectively. Another potential impact of ChatGPT on high school ELA classrooms is in the area of essay grading. Currently, teachers often spend a significant amount of time grading writing assignments, which can be a time-consuming and subjective process. With the help of ChatGPT, however, this process could become much more efficient and objective. ChatGPT's ability to understand and analyze language can allow it to grade writing assignments based on factors such as grammar, syntax, and coherence, freeing up teachers to focus on providing feedback on content and critical thinking skills. Of course, the integration of ChatGPT into the high school ELA classroom is not without its challenges. One concern is that relying too heavily on AI writing assistance could result in students becoming overly reliant on the technology and losing their ability to write effectively on their own. It will be important for teachers to strike a balance between utilizing ChatGPT's capabilities and ensuring that students are still developing their writing skills through independent practice. Another concern is the potential for ChatGPT to perpetuate biases in language and writing. For example, the model has been trained on a large corpus of text that reflects the dominant cultural and linguistic norms of the internet, which may not accurately reflect the diverse experiences and perspectives of students. Teachers will need to be mindful of this and actively work to promote inclusivity and equity in their writing assignments and grading practices. In conclusion, the integration of ChatGPT into high school ELA classrooms has the potential to significantly impact the writing process for both students and teachers. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can offer valuable assistance with grammar, spelling, and syntax, as well as provide objective grading of writing assignments. However, it will be important for teachers to balance the use of AI with traditional writing practices to ensure that students continue to develop their writing skills and that inclusivity and equity are promoted in the classroom.
Everything that you have read up to this point was produced by ChatGPT in less than 32 seconds.
It was produced to answer the prompt, “Write an article discussing how ChatGPT will influence writing in the secondary English Language Arts classroom.” After reading the article above, produced solely by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) software, I felt terrified. How could AI produce such human-sounding prose? The syntax and vocabulary was clear and easy for me to follow as the reader. The arguments appeared well-researched and reasonably balanced. And, the efficiency of composition time far exceeded my capacities as a human writer. With all of that said, I’d like to use this AI-generated response to illustrate some of the potential shortcomings of ChatGPT. These shortcomings of AI can become leverage points of human writing in our classrooms. As teachers, we do not need to dwell in our initial terror. Rather, we need to thrive in critical optimism, recognizing that our role as writing instructors has become even more important with this most recent development in AI technology.
This is true, and there’s no point in denying it. I am a professional development coach in New York City school districts, and I am constantly hearing teachers and students discussing ways they have already used the technology: lesson planning, IEP goal writing, grading, literary essay assignments, and more can be quickly written by ChatGPT. That reality, in itself, is revolutionary. Looking forward, we now live in a world where every human being will be faced with this question when they sit down to write: should I start writing by myself or should I start writing by using ChatGPT or similar AI softwares?
I attended a session about ChatGPT’s influence on the secondary ELA classroom facilitated by the National Writing Project. In the chat on the webinar call, many teachers wrote comments along the lines of, “I’ll just have my students do all of their assignments with paper and pencil in my classroom.” Although teachers could shift the majority of writing tasks into the classroom and go back to the “paper-and-pencil” approach, I argue that such measures won’t change the reality that writing has been revolutionized — writing will never be the same, and we need to adapt and envision a way forward that acknowledges the existence of AI writing softwares.
In my opinion, no student will use ChatGPT to make word choice or sentence structure suggestions. I cannot imagine a high school or middle school student writing, “Can you help me to restructure this sentence that I have already written on my own to make it sound better?” The temptation to default and defer to ChatGPT’s advanced capabilities with grammar and syntax will be tempting for students, especially for those students who have limited grammatical & syntactic awareness.
With that said, I encourage teachers to minimize writing conversations that focus solely on grammar and syntax. Rather, center writing feedback on students’ ideas & beliefs, attention to detail, and personal voice & style. Every human being has a distinctive, unique writing voice. I began to learn my students’ writing voices over the course of a year, and, in some instances, could match a piece of anonymous writing to one of my students based on tonal & stylistic features. I believe that this should be our priority: teaching students that their writing voice and beliefs cannot be replicated nor replaced by technology. Moreover, we should prioritize learning and supporting students in the discovery of their own writing voice.
Nothing is entirely objective. ChatGPT, just like a human evaluator, has its biases and inclinations. For instance, the article above, written by ChatGPT, chose to focus on positives about its own influence on student writing, rather than negatives. Within that approach, ChatGPT reveals its own bias: it advocates for technology through a lens of positivity, which shapes the readers’ understanding of ChatGPT as predominantly positive. I don’t accept this argument presented by ChatGPT that it can grade more objectively than teachers — everything has a bias, even that which is presented as “neutral.” Notably, ChatGPT brings up this exact point about bias as well when it discusses negative implications of its own existence.
In the conclusion of its article, ChatGPT advocates for teachers to balance the use of AI with “traditional writing practices” to best support the development of students' writing skills. I feel no qualms about admitting that I concur wholeheartedly. Writing has been revolutionized with the advent of this easily accessible, highly advanced AI compositional software. And yet, I don’t think we, as writing teachers, have to fear being replicated or replaced.
We have the capacity to learn and to know our students and their writing in a deeply human way. We can engage students in a writing process oriented towards discovery, not efficiency. We can address inequity and bias embedded in all things through authentic dialogue with our students.
Create a space where each student sees themselves as someone who belongs, someone who matters, someone with value.
This article is part of our Close Up On CRSE series
One of our core principles is rooted in culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogy. We understand that we can’t separate an individual’s identity from their history, their language, their culture, beliefs, or values. As human beings, when we feel seen, heard, and valued, we are more open and engaged. It’s easier for us to feel safe, take intellectual risks, and be open to making mistakes. This is why creating a “Welcoming and Affirming Environment” is the first principle in many CRSE frameworks. But what does that mean, exactly, when it comes to classroom teaching, and what can educators do to create this kind of space?
Building a sense of belonging
In Centering Students: A Deep Dive into CRSE-Aligned Practices — a guidebook we co-designed to analyze CRSE principles and attributes — we investigate what CRSE looks like in practical, pragmatic terms, in the real world. Let’s take a close up look at Welcoming and Affirming Environments: Affirms Diverse Identities.
The notion of an affirming space is important within this attribute. We think about affirm as distinct from tolerate — as in, to acknowledge something exists even though we may not appreciate or approve of it. Affirm is also distinct from accept, which again means we simply acknowledge that the diversity may exist, and may or may not take a stance on whether or not it is of value. To affirm is to be overtly clear that our students are welcomed and valued, and since we cannot separate the individual from their identity, it means their cultural background, spoken languages, values, and beliefs are also welcomed. The NYSED CRSE Framework corroborates this concept by stating that schools are “a space where people can find themselves represented and reflected,” and the CASEL Social-Emotional Framework describes the importance of “integrating personal and social identities” as a critical component of self-awareness. As we describe it, these are spaces that integrate positive linguistic (language), gender, and cultural identities into classroom instruction (how we teach) and curricular materials (what we teach). Affirming diverse identities isn’t only about cultivating the social-emotional connections that help students feel a sense of belonging in the community. It’s also a key component of effective instructional practices, as outlined by the Danielson Framework. Danielson’s domains in content & pedagogy and classroom environment state that “teachers convey that they are interested in and care about their students” and “students feel respected; their dignity is not undermined.” If we’re interested in maximizing learning opportunities for our students, then we want to be conscientious of the benefits of belonging in the learning community. This is true for all of us, but especially for students who identify with cultures that are underrepresented. There is no recipe for affirming student identities, but there are many small entry points that we can locate as we explore small ways we can proactively affirm students’ identities and create a community that celebrates diversity.
Get curious
When making an effort to affirm identities, words matter. It isn’t enough to simply be non-offensive, especially in spaces where we have a historical backdrop of negative bias. What actions can we take to accept and respect who our students are, and build positive connections with them?
Words matter:
Get concrete
How can I acknowledge and affirm the languages represented in my class?
How can I acknowledge and affirm the language my students’ families speak?
How can I affirm youth language in positive ways?
How can I set norms for student-to-student communication?
Get clear
When we observe or overhear students (or adults) using offensive or harmful language or behaviors, it can be a surprising and disorienting experience that sometimes creates an instinctual flight, fight, or freeze reaction. If we can get clear about the ways we will treat our students, and how we expect them to treat one another, we can prepare our responses when harmful ideas are brought into safe spaces.
We want to maintain a grounded presence and offer clear guidance that helps students course correct and that diffuses any potential conflicts. We recommend that teachers work in collaboration with co-teachers or teams to develop a response plan so that when these moments arise, they can be addressed quickly and consistently across classrooms. Whether you’re creating your response plan individually or with a group, here are a few things to consider:
Depending on the situation, addressing harmful language and behaviors can be a simple reminder of the expectations, or may need more in-depth support for conflict resolution or personal reflection to better understand the harm that’s been caused. Work with guidance counselors or social workers to support these more serious situations.
Affirming diverse identities is a challenge to see our students beyond where they sit, the clothes they wear, or their latest hairdo. It’s an opportunity to get to know them beneath the surface, and the privilege to create a space where they see themselves as someone who belongs, as someone who matters, as someone with value.
When they experience this level of community-building, it’s easy to learn.
Students' cultures, like trees, are living entities. Are you providing rich soil to help them grow?
CRSE, or Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education, has become a focal point for many districts across the nation, including the New York Department of Education. In the NYC DOE’s Mission and Vision statement, they explain why CRSE is so important and how educators can ensure their units, lessons, and activities are culturally sustaining.
But how do we define culture, and do we know our own cultures well enough to help our students discuss theirs? Most educators are familiar with Hall’s “cultural iceberg” model, which uses the physical makeup of an iceberg as a metaphor for culture; 10% of an iceberg is seen above water, while the other 90% is below the surface. This encourages educators to recognize that what they see is only a small fraction of culture, and to be truly culturally responsive and sustaining, educators have to be aware that 90% of culture is invisible. Part of this learning process is to make the unseen seen, which is where Zaretta Hammond’s cultural tree comes in. (We also dive deeper into Zaretta Hammond’s work in our Touchstone Texts for Equity course, which uses her Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain as a seminal text for creating more equitable classrooms.)
Source: Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain
Hammond’s “cultural tree” identifies three levels of culture:
A fellow English educator, Dante Brito Jr., uses the image of a tree to help his students visualize their own levels of culture, prompting them to consider their leaves, what constitutes their trunk, and how their roots keep them grounded.
Examining my own tree
In my student experience, teachers would always ask me about my culture, but then never share about theirs. Just as it’s important to get to know our students, they need to get to know us. But do we know ourselves? What would our trees look like? On the surface level, my leaves are quite unassuming. I am currently wearing jeans with comfortable sneakers, and my shirt says “Don’t Erase History” with books, one I bought this past summer at the Human Rights Campaign store. As far as the eye can see, I am a white woman, probably an educator, and most likely work for equity and social justice. There are many things my “leaves” communicate to people, some of which are correct and some not so. My deep culture is complicated. First, I may be white assumed, but I identify as multiracial; my roots are a combination coming from different trees, making a web of sometimes contradictory beliefs and norms. I grew up in America in a racially segregated town, and so much of what I learned growing up was based on Eurocentric values and the myth of meritocracy. On the other hand, my grandmother was a Japanese American woman who moved here shortly after World War II to wed my grandfather, a Baptist from rural North Carolina. Traveling to new places is in my blood, and although my grandmother thought assimilating in public was the best route for herself and her three boys, she never lost sight of who she was behind closed doors. What does this mean for me? Sometimes I feel as if I am a twin tree, two trunks reaching for the sun but connected to the same roots. When I shared this experience with my students, I’ve never had a year where at least one didn’t say, Me too.
Providing rich soil for students
I found it fascinating to create my cultural tree, but what does this mean for our classrooms? Our students have their own trees, and we can provide soil to help them grow. I realized this when I questioned how my tree has changed over time. As someone dedicated to learning, my culture shifts as I critique the foundations of my home culture while adopting new practices and epistemologies. I guess you could say I’ve been changing the soil, potting myself in different environments with new people, new cultures, and new roots. What kind of soil do you provide for your students? How do you make that soil rich with nutrients to support their trees? Unfortunately, the soil in this country tends to offer stereotypes of cultures, essentializing people until all that’s left is Taco Tuesday and Bollywood. How does your classroom challenge these stereotypes, and how can you provide environments where students are able to dig up their beliefs, hold them to the light, and decide whether or not those norms and beliefs benefit them and their communities? The cultural tree visual is just one way to get to know your students and yourself. Below, there are a few other activities that educators have shared with me:
— Mikhail Epstein, “Postcommunist Postmodernism: An Interview”
This work is not easy. It requires educators and their students to examine their thinking, behavior, and make the unconscious conscious. Culture is usually seen as something static, and I think it’s important to consider ways in which culture might change. Our students can create healthy trees if we provide the right soil.
Cultural trees are also a part of larger forests. Leaves change as students interact with their classmates, their teachers, and other community members. The relationships you build with them in addition to the relationships they build with themselves will constantly inform their culture, as trees, like culture, are living entities.
Break away from the "I did all the work, and they did nothing" refrain.
As a student, I dreaded hearing the words, “This is going to be a group project.” In my mind, this translated to, “You are going to have to do all of the work for this project and let 2-3 other people take credit for it under the guise of collaboration.” I liked to talk to my classmates and work together on low-stakes assignments, but I cringed at the prospect of long-term group projects that would be graded as an assessment.
As a new teacher, I quickly lost sight of my own experiences as a student. In the spirit of collaboration and teamwork, I often assigned group projects in my classroom, until, one day, a student said, “Oh great, that means I will have to do all the work again.” This comment catalyzed a turning point in my teaching: I realized that I couldn’t keep assigning group work in the same way that I had been assigned group work in school. I needed new norms and strategies for group work — ones that created accountability and equity.
Assigning & assessing group work
Clearly define the group's task and objectives. Make sure that each group member understands their role and the expectations for their work. This stage of the group work process should have an adult involved to make sure that each group member has an equivalently rigorous task to complete. Assign specific roles to each group member. This can help ensure that everyone is contributing to the group's work, and can also serve as a way to evaluate individual performance. Perhaps one student will take the lead on communicating with the group and setting up meeting times, whereas another student will take the lead on identifying next steps to complete the project. Here are some student roles to consider:
Created by by Alanna Tuller, ELA teacher in New York City, informed by source
Set clear criteria for evaluating the group's work and each individual's contribution. This can include factors such as attendance and participation, quality of work, adherence to deadlines. These criteria can be tied to students’ roles listed above.
Provide regular teacher feedback to the group and to each individual member. This can help ensure that everyone is aware of their strengths and areas for improvement, and can also serve as a way to track progress over time. Use a combination of formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments can help identify areas where the group needs to improve, while summative assessments can be used to evaluate the final product or performance. Use various forms of assessment to evaluate student performance, like self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and teacher evaluation. This will provide a comprehensive view of the student's performance. I like to give students in a group an anonymous survey to communicate with me about strengths and areas of growth for their group. By giving this survey at a few points over the course of the project, I was able to intervene when groups needed a teacher mediator involved to get back on track.
Group work has its challenges, and many students come to our classrooms with negative past experiences of collaborative learning. As educators, we can transform what group work looks like in our classroom spaces by establishing clear expectations and holding students accountable to one another and to the learning process. If we implement these norms, perhaps students will respond to the prospect of group work with, “Great! I’m excited that we get to work together as a team.”
Exploring the purposeful planning behind creating unbiased opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning.
Equity. A cornerstone of many mission statements, vision statements, and future educational goals. Creating equitable classrooms is essential, but without purposeful and thoughtful planning, it can become overwhelming. So where does our planning begin? At the end: with assessment. In the following conversation with Bob Janes, Secondary Mathematics Supervisor for East Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut, equity in assessment is discussed, and Bob gives educators actionable steps to begin thinking about equity in their own assessments.
Why is it important to ensure that our formative assessments are equitable?
B. Janes: I think it's important to step back and ask ourselves why we assess in the first place. Formative assessments allow teachers to know where a student stands in relation to a learning target and give actionable feedback. Formative assessments also allow students to reflect on their progress and plan next steps.
An inequitable assessment can give the teacher and student a distorted view of that student's learning, which can have lasting negative impacts on a student's learning trajectory. Even worse, an inequitable assessment can cause an otherwise talented student to see themselves as incapable. In a subject such as mathematics, self-efficacy is crucial.
How about summative assessments?
B. Janes: Summative assessments allow multiple stakeholders to reflect on a longer learning progression. In aggregate, summative assessment data can be used to inform large scale decisions including curriculum, instruction, assessment, funding, and staffing. If these assessments are inequitable, they can inform the wrong decisions and breed inequities in other aspects of education.
What makes an assessment equitable?
B. Janes: An assessment is equitable when it allows all students an unbiased opportunity to demonstrate their learning. Below are examples of differences between the features of inequitable and equitable assessments.
I heard you mention that equitable assessments do not take effort and participation into account. Why not?
B. Janes: It goes back to the importance of determining the purpose of an assessment before creating it and checking for alignment again once complete. This ensures the assessment measures what it intended to, and that the conclusions drawn from it are valid.
An assessment designed to test for content standards (e.g. reading for information, graphing a quadratic) should not include effort or participation as a factor in grading because that is not what is being assessed. Some assessments do test for content-based practices, habits, or dispositions (e.g. collaboration, perseverance, problem solving). While this sounds a lot like “effort”, it’s not. A carefully designed assessment that uses a specific rubric can assess these habits or dispositions without grading students for generalized effort or participation.
Equity in our classrooms goes above and beyond this conversation, but thinking about equity in assessment is a great place to start. Equitable assessments can help students reflect on their progress, plan appropriate next steps, and build their self-efficacy, along with allowing educators, administrators, and district leaders to make the best choices for schools.
Strengthen the connection between the why and how of student learning, cultivating essential 21st century skills along the way.
In a recent conversation with leadership at a school district in Westchester, NY, I posed the question: What do we recognize as the purpose of education, and what is it we want and hope for our students when they graduate? My intention in asking this was to encourage leadership to explore whether the goals and values they have for their students are reflected in their current efforts, including their curriculum, instruction, and initiatives. Put frankly, I was asking leadership for their thoughts around what they were doing, and if they thought it was best preparing students for the 21st century.
After some lengthy discussion and a deep dive into their curricular maps, it was revealed they had work to do. Despite their good intentions, they were still operating from old-fashioned and insufficient pedagogies. Unfortunately, through our research and experiences, we’ve found this is the case with most schools today. A look back through history can help underscore this point.
Education for what?
In the 19th century, the purpose of education and schooling was to prepare students for work. There was one schoolhouse, and one teacher for many students, all of whom sat in rows. Instruction was focused on repeating, reciting, and reproducing — all skills necessary for work, which was predominantly in factories. In the 20th century, things evolved, thanks to the introduction of basic technology like the typewriter. Schooling focused on teaching students to apply information provided by a teacher or by a resource, like textbooks. Like the 19th century, there was a strong connection between school and work, though the necessary skills shifted to accommodate work in an office, and revolved around application and analysis. Now, about a quarter into the 21st century, we are faced with a problem we’ve yet to experience. It’s the first time in history we are presented with a disconnect between what and how we are teaching, and the realities of a 21st century world, where technology continues to change and shape our experiences. Organizations today are seeking innovative and imaginative individuals, yet students are still looking to the teacher to provide the answers, and there is little to no opportunity for students to engage in critical and creative thinking, or individual and collaborative problem-solving. Our needs and goals as a society are evolving but sadly, most of our schooling is not. As my colleague Dr. Roberta Lenger Kang says: We can’t use a 20th century pedagogy in a 21st century world. How can we adapt to 21st century work and support students in acquiring skills that we know will serve them in the 21st century and beyond?
The promise of project-based learning
One of the most powerful ways to advance the skills and capacities necessary for students to thrive in today’s society is through project-based learning (PBL). PBL supports the development of fundamental skills such as reading and writing, as well as 21st century skills like research, collaboration and communication, problem-solving, time management, and the use of technology. In short, PBL sparks curiosity and curiosity leads to innovation. What is PBL? As the Buck Institute states, project-based learning is “A teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working together for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem or challenge.” They also offer a distinction between “dessert” projects and “main course” projects that is particularly helpful — a dessert project is “a short, intellectually-light project served up after the teacher covers the content of a unit in the usual way” whereby a “main course project is when the project is the unit.” When it comes to CPET’s approach to project-based learning, we very much lean on the expertise of the Buck Institute. We believe projects:
Imagining project possibilities
How might teachers and students begin this work? Start with a real-world problem far away Projects that are focused on a global issue help students demonstrate understanding of a problem that occurs in the world, even if it isn’t directly about them. Students can explore the features of this problem, how it impacts the people, as well as the far-reaching implications and solutions!
Start with a real-world problem close to home This type of project can help students demonstrate understanding of a problem that occurs in their specific context. Identifying a problem locally engages people intimately and can inspire calls to action that are more likely to be carried out. The goals would be to understand a situation, issue, or a series of events that happen in multiple contexts around the world and ideally consider the global connections across diverse communities.
Meditate on a word, concept or theme Words are powerful, and making use of “academic” vocabulary or transferring knowledge from one domain to another are two areas where schools struggle to build students’ capacity. A project on a general word, concept, or theme is engaging and develops these important skills across content areas.
Our students have the potential to do amazing things. They just need the right conditions to survive and thrive. Project-based learning promotes the acquisition of real and relevant skills of the 21st century by asking questions, exploring issues that matter, and imagining possibilities for positive change. PBL is now the focus of my work with the district in Westchester, and I’m really excited by the progress they’ve made. I invite you to use any of these practices to support the creation of your own project, and if you need more help, we are here!
Five considerations for creating a student-centered grading process that helps boost confidence and reduce confusion.
When I ask teachers what drew them to the profession, I often hear stories about a teacher who believed in them when they were a student, a subject area they became passionate about, or a love of children that has brought them to the classroom. I have never heard a teacher list “grading papers” or “filling out marking period grades” as a driving factor in choosing teaching as a profession! However, the process of grading is often mentioned among the biggest stressors in the job.
The subjective nature of grading puts teachers in a somewhat impossible position. Every school has a different grading policy and different levels of internal and external accountability, and most teachers determine grading in isolation, sometimes late at night with eyes drooping from exhaustion. Teachers are responsible for selecting tasks, the value of those tasks, the right answer(s), the grading scale, and the overall worth of each assignment — all while knowing that once their (rarely reviewed or audited) grades are submitted, they create a powerful narrative about students’ identities as learners. Even though grades are such a high-stakes component of a teacher’s professional responsibility, the topic rarely shows up in teacher training courses, licensure programs, or even in school professional development sessions. This leads to a wide range of grading philosophies and practices among teachers, even those within the same school or discipline. This is because there isn’t a single, simple formula to translate dynamic learning into a static number. It’s a lot harder than it looks, and to do it well takes critical reflection and deep content knowledge.
Grading pitfalls
By the time grades hit a student’s final transcript, they’ve been totaled and averaged and weighted and averaged over and over again. But no matter how long the process takes from student work to official transcript, how we evaluate students should be based on a fair evaluation of how students demonstrate their learning — and in order to grade fairly, there are common pitfalls that should be avoided.
Grading can be a trying, tiring, and tedious task, but we can identify some F.A.C.T.S. about grading that can help keep us grounded, and our students engaged and motivated to learn.
Fair
Fair grading systems mean there is a rationale behind the value of an assignment, how many points/how much weight it has in the gradebook, and that there are clear criteria for its evaluation. This might mean teachers have developed a rubric, checklist, or explicit expectations that have been shared with students in advance. When students demonstrate a misunderstanding with incorrect or incomplete responses, teachers should be able to identify where they lost points, and why. If students or families ask questions about the way an assignment has been graded and the teacher who designed the task isn’t able to answer them, it’s a sign that this assignment needs more attention to determine the clear expectations and criteria for success.
Accurate
Accurate grading systems use a consistent measure over time, and have a method for translating that measurement into the school’s selected grading metrics. Whether the school is using the letter scale (A, B, C, D) a numeric scale (1, 2, 3, 4), or a traditional percentage (90%, 80%, etc.), the teacher has to think through how their assignment will ultimately contribute to this evaluative measure. If I grade daily assignments with ✓s and +s, I have to devise a way to translate those symbols into numbers on the final grade. If I don’t, or if I don’t do so consistently, then my grades are not accurately representing what students know and are able to do. Accuracy also counts when it comes to task design. If I set out with a policy that all classwork is equal to 10 points, but on Monday the classwork is worth 10 points with 5 questions and on Wednesday the classwork is worth 10 points with 20 questions, we may have an issue of accuracy in the grading process. The best way to design an accurate grading system is to plan in advance the types of tasks that best represent student learning, and identify their value and weight as they relate to how students demonstrate that learning. Then, implement a system that makes it easy to translate learning into the metrics and measures that your school has selected.
Consistent
Students (and their families) look to their grades to measure their progress in real time. Especially with the nature of gradebook software that allows students, parents, and teachers to log in day or night to track their progress, keeping consistent grading practices is critical for keeping students engaged and on track. When the gradebook significantly lags behind real time, students can get a false perception of their performance, which may impact their day-to-day choices. Some grades may appear high when in fact they’re slipping below the passing line, while other grades can take a nosedive overnight and sound the alarm bells unnecessarily. When students’ grades change faster than soap opera characters can die and come back to life, it can create a similar level of conflict and tension. The hardest scenes to watch are when students become so frustrated that they can’t see the impact of their hard work on their day-to-day grades, and they lose trust in the system; this is when a cycle of failure can set in. Students who don’t get consistent feedback on their progress can begin to feel that the work isn’t worth their time, reduce their effort, and subsequently see their grades slip. As they get more and more discouraged, they may miss their chance to turn things around before it’s too late. While we can advise and support students to understand the grading system and keep track of all of their assignments, it’s our responsibility as the teachers who design, assign, and assess the tasks to be clear and consistent in our practices.
Transparent
Fair, accurate, and consistent grading methodologies should also be transparent to students, colleagues, parents, and school leaders. If we want students to succeed, we should not stay silent about what it takes to reach academic goals! Creating transparency is about being clear, explicit, and forthcoming about what needs to be done in order to succeed. Transparent grading practices include providing explicit grading criteria and guidelines in advance. This might be a rubric that students review alongside a teacher at the beginning of a project, or a checklist of expectations and their point value, or even including the number of points possible/earned on each assignment. Students who don’t understand how their grades are calculated are less likely to see the connection between their hard work in school and their grades, which means they’ll also struggle to see the connection between their grades and future opportunities in life. We can be proactive by being clear with our students about our grading practices and policies, but we can also empower our students to be their own advocates. By engaging students in keeping their own gradebook, self-assessing their progress, assessing peers in group work, and hosting grading conferences, we can take the mystery out of the marking period and give our students all of the information and tools they need to maximize their grades.
for Students
When the class is over at the end of the semester or the school year, the grade is the only thing that’s guaranteed to remain. For students in high school, grades represent their identity as a learner as they share their transcript with potential colleges, write their GPA on cover letters and resumes, or seek scholarships and grants. Grades are high-stakes, and as teachers we have a lot of power over how students move through school and how they’re perceived along the way. Often, grading is perceived as something for the teachers’ benefit, or for parents — but all grading is for students. When we position students as the ultimate stakeholder for grades, we are able to leverage grading systems to increase a student’s personal investment, empowerment, and agency over their learning. When grading becomes a way for us to encourage our students with actionable feedback and notes about how they can adjust their performance to reach their goals, the grading process ceases to be tedious recordkeeping. Instead, it becomes a critical conversation about content knowledge, critical thinking skills, progress, and performance over time.
Give yourself the space to think beyond the day-to-day grind of teaching and establish larger instructional goals.
The act of journaling elicits a wide variety of reactions. Some see it as a self-absorbed, touchy-feely practice only meant for women, whereas others see it as a practice central to their mental health.
Whatever your perception, more and more research underscores the importance of personal writing as a means to increase resilience, decrease stress, as well as improve sleep and performance. We recognize that teachers today are under a tremendous amount of stress. They are grappling with how to best address the learning gaps and complex social-emotional needs of their students as a result of Covid, and in turn, they often neglect themselves. This has implications not only for their well-being, but also their teaching. When we are not feeling our best, we often can’t do our best.
Capture powerful and positive moments
In my first few years of teaching, my goal was to survive. I had little idea of what I was doing, and I often found myself feeling overwhelmed and like a failure. In discussing this with one of my fellow teachers, she offered a practice that had proven particularly helpful for her. She kept a journal of her experiences. She shared that she would make time — as much as she could over the week — to write out her thoughts, standout moments or challenges, or even reflections about a particular student. Although I didn’t see how I could possibly make time for journaling on top of everything else, I made it a point to write in my journal at the end of every week, even if only for 10 minutes.
Over time, I found myself writing about the positives, to remind myself of the things I was doing right and to celebrate them. I would write about a lesson from the week that went particularly well, and why. I would write about breakthrough moments with students — like Elvis, an emerging ENL student who was finally confident enough in his English to read out loud, or the moment Anthony figured out how to use a number grid to recognize number patterns. I would write about moments of progress and growth, both for me and my students. I didn’t put any expectations or requirements on when I wrote or what I wrote, and it was truly cathartic for me. It helped rekindle my confidence and my sense of optimism.
Set goals
As my journaling practice evolved, I found myself using it for different purposes. One such way was to set goals, which ranged from personal, to instructional, to academic/professional, and beyond. I would write about ways in which I wanted to strengthen my abilities to differentiate my instruction or find ways to incorporate more math games into our lessons. I would write about wanting to create more boundaries for myself, or a book I wanted to read to help inform and inspire how I was creating community in my classrooms. I wouldn’t just write down the goal — I would break it down into manageable steps, attempting to create micro ideas and possibilities to support the larger purpose. For example, specifics related to my goal around differentiation might look like:
I found this practice to be particularly helpful to me, as it allowed me a space to think about more than just the day-to-day grind of teaching, and identify and explore things that would help keep me grounded in and connected to my larger goals and values as an educator.
Create connections
One final way that I used journaling in my teaching journey was to create a culture and community that honored reflective writing, prioritizing connections with my students. I wanted to learn about them in ways that typical day-to-day instruction and interactions didn’t always allow.
At least once a week, we’d have journaling time where students could write about anything and everything that was on their mind. If they needed help, I would pose some prompts, but I really attempted to protect this time to give them the opportunity to write unstructured, ungraded, and free of any judgment. And when they wrote, I wrote, in efforts of doing the same. Our journaling then became a way to make and strengthen connections with one another. Once or twice a month, I would make time to have a conversation with my students, where we’d share what we had been writing about (whatever we were comfortable with), identify any connections between us, and make note of anything new we learned about each other. It was truly a fun and meaningful way to deepen my understanding of my students and our relationships.
Whether you are new to reflective writing and looking to get started, or are looking for ways to freshen up your experiences, I offer you these practices, which I’ve found to be truly helpful. I encourage you to experiment with them and identify some of your own processes and practices around writing that serve to support and preserve your well-being.
The act of journaling can be a powerful means of self-care. Reflecting regularly can give us a sense of agency and control while we work through difficult challenges in the classroom. It can take on many different shapes and sizes depending on what it is you’re trying to achieve and what feels manageable to you.
Build a classroom culture that encourages active listening and a willingness to consider others' perspectives.
When I was a middle school English Language Arts teacher, I often asked my students to engage in debates inspired by our readings. For example, I once asked my students to read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” — a short story in which a group of villagers participate in a long-standing tradition of stoning to death the “winner” of a mandatory lottery — and to debate whether or not the villagers could be considered “murderers.”
The prompt for students to “debate” with one another had its benefits: my students often became passionate to defend their beliefs and their analyses of the text, and students read the text closely to identify evidence and to justify their thinking out loud. However, notable shortcomings also arose when students engaged in the task of debate: they often became combative and indignant when others did not agree with them, and they seemed resistant to change their initial side of the argument. At any age, it can be challenging for students to admit that they have changed their minds, especially in front of their peers. Even moreso, it can be challenging for students to actively listen and to respond to others’ points of view and analyses. It requires the ability to welcome or to accept a new idea or perspective. An excellent way to foster this kind of openness in the classroom — this culture of intellectual and social empathy — is to ask students to participate in what Peter Elbow called “The Believing Game.”
Balancing believing & doubting
The task of debate often asks students to participate in what Elbow called “The Doubting Game.” The doubting game requires students to be skeptical and as analytic as possible. It encourages students to try hard to doubt ideas, to discover contradictions or weaknesses, and to scrutinize and test others’ logical reasoning. This kind of critical thinking can be incredibly valuable, but it can also foster a classroom culture that only celebrates doubting, whether that be doubting ideas presented in a text or ideas presented by others in the classroom space. Contrastingly, “The Believing Game” asks students to try to be as welcoming or accepting as possible to every idea they encounter: not only to listen to different views, but also to hold back from arguing with those different views. Further, the believing game asks students to restate others’ beliefs or arguments without bias and to participate in the act of actually trying to believe them. Elbow points out that “often we cannot see what’s good in someone else’s idea (or in our own!) till we work at believing it…when an idea goes against current assumptions and beliefs — or if it seems alien, dangerous, or poorly formulated — we often cannot see any merit in it.”. Including the believing game in your classroom does not need to coincide with the removal of the doubting game. The act of doubting — of critically thinking to develop thoughtful skepticism — is an undoubtedly important skill for students to develop in order to discern truth. But, a sole focus on doubting, as I shared from my own teaching experience, can lead to a classroom culture in which students are always inclined to doubt. This inclination can lead to rigid thinking, and an unwillingness to listen, respond, and grow. At its worst, this inclination can lead to a classroom culture in which students become hostile towards other students’ beliefs or ideas that seem oppositional to their own.
The benefits of believing
Peter Elbow, the creator of the believing and doubting games, is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has written extensively about the benefits of methodological believing for students and teachers. He identified three main benefits for the believing game in classrooms:
Engage students in the game of believing
The opportunities for students to participate in the game of believing are endless. I offer here a few suggestions for simple ways to engage students in the game of the believing.
How the timing of checks for understanding can impact what you learn about student comprehension.
Great teachers want to be sure their students understand content information on a daily basis. They don’t want their students to wrestle with misconceptions, misunderstandings, or mistakes in their thinking that might set them up to struggle as the content unfolds throughout a lesson or unit. As a result, many teachers use small, formative assessments at the beginning, midpoint, or end of a period so students have an opportunity to practice their content and skills, and teachers can assess their understanding at different stages of the learning process. In an effort to ensure that all students have the right answers and a clear understanding of the lesson, many teachers review the correct answers to the assessment before moving on to the next stage of the lesson.
In both examples, we see the teachers making choices that elevate student collaboration, ensuring students have the opportunity to correct misconceptions, connect with one another, and leverage grouping and discussion strategies to process content information. In both examples, the teacher is using a formative assessment — or a check for understanding — with the goal of assessing student comprehension. And in both examples, the check for understanding may be giving teachers more misinformation, than information.
Check for understanding
Well-developed instructional design includes multiple checkpoints to assess student comprehension in real time. Highly effective assessment structures may include between 1-3 checks for understanding in a class period, with each check being an opportunity for students to independently demonstrate their understanding and skills related to the lesson objective or learning target. When we jump from the check for understanding task to the review of direct responses, some unintended consequences may emerge. One likely scenario is that students who had a misunderstanding or a misconception when working on their own will likely copy down the “right answer” during the discussion. But copying down the answer doesn’t necessarily correct their misconceptions. The unintended consequence is that it appears that all the students have the correct answer, even though some may have simply copied down the answer during the discussion. For teachers using formative assessment data to inform their instructional choices, there’s no evidence that helps them know which students had the correct answer at the time of the assessment, which students had an a-ha moment during the discussion, and which are copying down the correct information but are actually still confused. Another unintended consequence is that students discover that the right answers get shared immediately, before their work is completed. It’s a lot easier to copy down the right answers later than it is to work through the hard problem in the moment. Some students may begin to opt out of the learning activity altogether and simply wait for the correct answers. This phenomenon may not be noticeable right away — a gradual disengagement happens slowly over time, and can start with students who appear slow to start, or students who are easily distracted. For teachers feeling the pressure of time, it can be tempting to skip to the right answers even if some students aren’t finished. The challenge is that over time, fewer and fewer students finish the task because everyone is waiting for the right answers to be shared.
Creating space for small changes
The good news is that there are a few small changes that can make a big difference. Add a reflection. In addition to the discussion of the correct answers, ask students to write a reflection comparing their first response to the correct answer, and share if they made any changes to their thinking or had any a-ha moments in the process. Consider creating a chart on their task that includes space for their individual work, notes from the discussion, and reflection after the discussion. Not only will this provide more insight for you as the teacher, but the students’ metacognition will increase their self-awareness, which supports recall in the future. Have students share & give feedback. The standard share out often includes time for students to work independently, followed by the teacher reviewing the correct answers. This practice can be modified to having students post their answers in small groups at the same time, and then visiting other groups' responses and leaving feedback or asking questions. By turning this process over to students, teachers can increase the responsibility and accountability for students to work with their groups and think critically if different groups have different responses. Leverage differentiation strategies. Building in differentiation as a result of a check for understanding is an effective way of structuring the lesson. Teachers can plan to use hinge point questions, where students receive a specific task as a result of their answer on a check for understanding question, or Four Corners, where students move around the room in real time to show their thinking and discuss with their peers. Both of these strategies leverage real-time responses and interaction to notice misconceptions and work to address them in the moment.
Checks for understanding are a very valuable touchpoint. Getting in the moment information about what is and isn’t clear for students provides insight into differentiation, student grouping, and tweaks to the next day’s lesson. When we reveal the “right” answer before we can gather information on what students know and can do, we might go for weeks before we realize that students have not been learning what they need to be successful on high-stakes assessments like unit tests, projects, or major exams.
It’s true: it is important to correct misconceptions, and we don’t want students to sit in frustration if we’re withholding information that can help them learn. And also, when we jump to reviewing the right answers before we’ve had a moment to collect the data or reflect on how students are processing the information in the lesson, we miss valuable insights that help us plan and prepare the learning pathway for students’ success.
Reimagine your role in the classroom in service of creating more opportunities for authentic learning.
Although it’s a different building, it still feels like home, the place where I spent the first six years of my teaching career. As I am buzzed into the main entrance, I see students filling the hallway, getting ready to leave for the day. I sign in and take the stairs up to Room 209, Ms. Cunningham’s room. I’m excited to see my former colleague, who has been teaching here for eight years.
Her classroom is decorated with flags, posters of student work, and the desks are grouped in quads. The large windows are a breath of fresh air after teaching in a building with no windows, and I joke with her about the increase in Vitamin D. After a brief catch up, we started talking about how Ms. Cunningham’s teaching practice has changed throughout the years, defining what authentic learning means, and how her role as educator has shifted to teacher as facilitator.
The conversation
Ms. Cunningham: I think authentic learning really relies on the students and what they bring into class, showing them that their experiences are what make this class. It’s not that I have any preconceived notion of what they need to learn or what they need for education, it’s that they’re bringing their passions with them. I’m just here to kind of bring that out. And in doing so, I bring that out of every student. Did you always have this mindset? Ms. Cunningham: I think for the first half of my career, I was very much of a control freak about my classroom and what I was doing. At the time, I felt like if I was leading things and I knew what I was teaching was what was aligned to the curriculum, I could have “control.” After attending the Stanford Hollyhock Fellowship, I began to question my role in the classroom. My classroom is not about me. Before, I was the source, and now, I'm a facilitator. I think that has inspired me to do a lot more group work with students, more individual conferencing, and more conversations in general rather than looking for a product. Even today, we sat in groups; in my first three years, I could never imagine seating my students in groups, but by adjusting my role as facilitator, I showed them that I trust them more and that they have power in their learning. What do you think has been the most noticeable change in your classroom practice? Ms. Cunningham: Fostering curiosity. It should be the students bringing forth curiosity and interest; the teacher is there to aid in that, not necessarily just fill them with what they think students need to know. Am I coming into the classroom with a notion of giving the students what I think they should know, or am I coming into this classroom genuinely getting to know these students as people and then navigating how they want to interact with their learning? Ultimately, I decided that what really means more to me is giving students the space and opportunity to be curious. Learning does not come from me. Learning comes from the students, and they should guide their learning; I'm just here to help out. My role as a teacher is to help them make the map or point them in the right direction. Students tell me where they want to go, and I hope that I can get them there.
The mindset shift
There are a few things that really stood out to me during my conversation with Ms. Cunningham. The first was that this new teaching philosophy was encouraged through a mindset shift. She questioned if she was the source of knowledge, leading her to question the idea of knowledge as a singular term. This is not an easy task — demonstrated by the word “knowledges” being underlined in blue as I type this article — but being the courageous educator that she is, Ms. Cunningham challenged what she had previously learned about the role of a teacher. One person should not be the “keeper of the knowledge”, and students all bring their own knowledges to the classroom, knowledges that should be welcomed and validated.
The curriculum shift
As we continued our conversation, I asked Ms. Cunningham for examples of how she enacts this mindset shift in her classroom. She talked about starting new units with notice and wonder protocols, allowing students to ask their own questions about the information provided. These questions guide their exploration throughout the unit, prompting reading choices and potential final reflection questions. Through these student-led explorations, she provides resources, suggestions, and teaches the students skills they need to master in order to answer their questions and communicate their findings. Rarely will you find her at the front of the classroom.
The classroom space
This leads to the physical classroom space; Ms. Cunningham has arranged the desks in quads on this particular day, encouraging students to discuss their ideas and explore together. There is a couch in the reading corner, complete with several bookcases. Students are welcomed to use the space as they need, moving desks or sitting in the reading corner when they want to get some independent reading done. This classroom setup invites students to use each other as resources and can mutate to fit their needs. Without flexibility of space, mindset and curricular shifts wouldn’t be enough to make this teacher-as-facilitator role possible.
As the sun starts to set, I thank Ms. Cunningham for inviting me into her classroom and sharing her work with me. Her shift from teacher-as-knower to teacher-as-facilitator is inspiring and by no means easy. It requires educators to do what we want our students to do; question what we know, build new knowledge, and enact positive change.
How can you implement instruction that's grounded in curiosity and collaboration? Take part in 21 Skills for the 21st Century to expand your understanding of critical capacities that will prepare today's students for tomorrow's changing world.
Engage meaningfully and gain insight that will support both your instruction and students' growth.
Throughout my work as a teacher and a coach, I’ve come across many different interpretations and definitions of what it means to conference with students. At a minimum, conferences are 1-1 interactions between a teacher and a student. At best, they are highly meaningful and informative conversations. They are opportunities to get to know a student, to assess where they are and where they are going, and to provide highly customized instruction aimed at advancing their learning. As Don Murray explains in his book A Writer Teaches Writing:
“Conferences are not mini-lectures, but the working talk of fellow writers sharing their experience with the writing process. At times, of course, they will be teacher and student, master and apprentice, if you want, but most of the time, they will be remarkably close to peers, because each writer, no matter how experienced, begins with each draft.” How can we maximize our conferences with our students?
Defining roles
When it comes to conferencing, I have always leaned on Carl Anderson’s book, How's It Going? He explains that conferencing has a two-part structure: it’s first a conversation about the work the student is doing, and then a conversation about how the student can get better. As part of these conversations, the teacher and the student have distinct roles that help ensure they are meaningful and productive. Anderson explains:
When the teacher and student enact these roles, the conference becomes a true conversation, whereby the teacher and the student become equal contributors, dedicated to the larger goal of improving the learning.
Facilitating the conversation
In addition to establishing roles, Anderson offers what I think is a helpful structure to facilitate a conference. The structure, which consists of six parts, can also benefit from the use of meaningful facilitation questions that will help guide your conversation.
Launch the conversation
The goal of the launch is to ask: how’s it going? What are you working on today? What do you need help with? This allows the student to take the lead.
Look at/assess student work
It is so important to look at the work of our students in efforts of being able to analyze what they have shared, what is showing up in the work, and how the two compare. This kind of analysis is necessary if we are going to be able to accurately assess where students are and where they need to go.
Decide what to teach
This part of the conference is definitely the most challenging intellectual work. We need to decide what and how to teach during this particular conference. What helps me is to identify what I think is the most high-leverage area, the most urgent need, and not rely on a fix-it-all approach. To help with the decision we can consider things like:
In terms of how to teach a specific strategy or skill, Anderson offers some helpful tips:
Nudge students to have a go
After our teaching, Anderson recommends that we nudge our students to try it out! I appreciate this terminology because it supports the idea that we encourage them to put forth an initial attempt to talk through what they are going to do during the conference, while they have our support. This helps us assess their understanding of the conference, and what they will go do on their own.
Link the conference and stamp the learning
To promote the transfer of skills and strategies, we want to link the conference to students’ ongoing work and encourage them to do the work we’ve discussed right away. As Anderson states, we can ask things like: “What are you going to do now?” or “Tell me your plans for your work…” I like to think of this as stamping the learning.
Post-conference work
The last part of the conference, while it can often feel tedious, is crucial. As educators of high numbers of students, we can’t possibly remember every conversation we’ve had with each individual. Each student is unique and has different strengths and struggles depending on the content, the topic, the genre, etc. I highly encourage the teachers I coach to identify a method of keeping conference notes that works for them, and something they can maintain throughout the semester (and ideally the larger school year). In my own work, I used folders and index cards and titled them by the unit of study. Other teachers I know use voice notes/memos, while others have used Google Drive where they created one Drive for the overall unit, and created a folder for each student. Keeping notes and records helps us cater our instruction, monitor progress, and celebrate growth.
Whereas any 1-1 interactions with students are valuable, finding ways to maximize our conferencing techniques such as those mentioned above can be transformative for us as educators. It can be challenging to find the time to conference amidst all that we do, but these highly essential and enlightening conversations can help us get to know our students on a deeper level. When we really know our students, we can most effectively cater our instruction and meet them where they are, which gives us the best chance at truly advancing their learning.
Advice from the field on how to navigate the shift from teaching to coaching.
Teachers have always done much more than teach. They play a variety of roles, both in and outside of the classroom, and address needs or existing gaps in their school community. These roles may include mentoring other teachers, leading departments and grade levels, spearheading projects and initiatives, turnkeying professional learning, and serving as a dean or an assessment or technology coordinator.
It may seem like a natural move for strong teachers who are leaders in their own classrooms to step into a role as a leader in the larger context of their own schools; however, as with any transition, this shift comes with challenges. As teachers take on additional roles, the added work can create complications for both school administrators and teachers, especially in places where roles, responsibilities, and expectations are unclear.
Advice from teacher leaders
In my work with teachers, schools, and districts, I find it helpful to begin by asking questions that address common concerns surrounding this process: What are some challenges that arise as you step into a leadership role? What skills or tools do teachers need to possess in order to smoothly transition to the role of teacher leader? How can administrators best support their teachers as they shift their roles and responsibilities? To find answers to these questions, I turned to two wonderful educators with whom I work at a high school in the South Bronx — Leah Clark, an English teacher who has taken on the role of department lead and literacy coordinator, and is planning to move into school leadership; and Chris Mastrocola, who has moved from English teacher to teacher leader to Assistant Principal. They offered words of wisdom for teachers planning or hoping to move into a leadership role, and advice to administrators who are looking for ways to support teacher leaders in their community.
Becoming a role model
When I asked Leah about her recent experience of moving into her role as a high school department lead and literacy coordinator, she cautioned teachers to be mindful about which of their practices are successful in their classroom, but may not be recommended as a standard practice for the community. She notes, “When you take on a leadership role, you become more of a role model, and as a role model, certain practices that worked for you as a teacher may not be appropriate to share as a model to other teachers. What works for you may not work as well for everyone.” As an honest example, Leah notes that while her strategy of occasionally calling home during class — in front of other students — when a student didn’t show up for class or was late, may have had results, it could be seen as a questionable practice, and one that could even breach school or district rules. In hindsight, she wouldn’t recommend this to other teachers. In summary, Leah reflects: “The switch from being a classroom teacher to being a role model means that you have to think about what you recommend to other teachers and maybe even adjust your practices. As a teacher leader, other teachers look to you as a representation of the school’s policies and administration in a new way.” Chris Mastrocola, who moved from high school teacher to department leader, also echoes Leah’s reflection that teacher leaders need to recognize that everything they do or say is a model for others.
Communication counts
Leah admits that as she has moved into her new leadership role, she has had to become more conscious of how she talks about other people. She advises aspiring teacher leaders to “choose your words a little bit more carefully and be aware that your words and actions represent what you would like the staff environment to be. Sometimes you can’t say the things that you actually might want to say!” Chris also emphasizes that “everything you do or say as a teacher leader or school administrator can serve to help draw teachers and staff in to support the community, or alienate them — push them away from feeling like a productive member of the school community.” The importance of clear and thoughtful communication also extends to what teacher leaders need to receive from administrators, in order to feel supported and successful in their role. At their school, Leah and Chris both attest to the importance of the support of their administrators, noting that their principal, Santiago Taveras, consistently offers constructive feedback and opportunities for them to talk through challenges, finding both regular and impromptu times to meet to check in about how their work is going.
Shifting from teaching to coaching
In his assistant principalship role, Chris has taken on the role of instructional lead. While this is a natural evolution for anyone like Chris, who is an outstanding classroom teacher and curriculum planner, he quickly realized that working with adults — teachers — is different from working with students, and this shift demands new skills and perspectives. According to Chris, “As a teacher, with your students, you often feel it is your job to intervene in everything, but as a leader, you need to be thoughtful about not undermining teachers’ autonomy. Teacher leaders, like school administrators, need to strive to be patient and take the long view of change and development. You can fix and change systems, but not teachers. Development and growth takes time.” To me, Chris’s advice is crucial. We would love for all our teachers to be expert practitioners, able to step into the classroom and seamlessly juggle all the complications of teaching. However, like our students, and like any professionals, teachers are each learning and developing their practice at their own pace. It takes time. Chris highlights the importance of having a growth mindset and cultivating teachers’ strengths, as opposed to working from an evaluative, deficit perspective. He notes that when working with teachers, leaders can “help them identify their strengths and how to leverage them inside and outside the classroom — find out where you can support them to shine. Work alongside teachers to help them articulate their areas for growth — helping teachers to articulate in one sentence about just one specific area for growth is helpful to leverage change.”
Establishing trust and agency
Leah appreciates that at her school, teachers are recognized for the qualities and skills that they add to the school community, and are trusted with the opportunity for leadership. “Being a leader in your own classroom is the best place to start. Even if you don’t have a title, by leading well in your own classroom, you can spread positive classroom practices and classroom culture to your community.” Based on his experience, Chris suggests that as teachers move from classroom leaders to school community leaders, they can continue to contribute to a positive environment by adjusting their expectations — not only for themselves, but for their colleagues. He shares that when making the shift into leadership, it’s important not to come down too hard on yourself nor expect too much, and instead meet teachers where they are. Leah notes that trust is also a part of the equation, at all levels: “Be trusting of your colleagues and your community. You don’t need to micromanage departments or each teacher at your school to get the kind of impact and transformation of your school that you want. Trust goes a long way toward building agency and confidence for teachers and teacher leaders.” Chris’s final words about stepping into any kind of school leadership role feel important to hold onto: “You need to be kind to yourself in order to be patient and kind to the teachers in your community.”
Are you taking on the role of teacher leader, and wondering how you can bridge the gap between coaching and teaching? Check out Coaching for Change, which will support you in cultivating the strengths of teachers in your community, increasing your effectiveness as a team leader, and establishing confident, compassionate coaching practices.
Assess and address students' misunderstandings and misconceptions.
Imagine that you are grading your students’ summative assessments at the end of a unit or grading period. You are feeling extremely confident because your students have seemed engaged the past few weeks. But, as you start grading the seventh or eighth assessment, you realize that there are several questions that assess the same skill or content knowledge that no student has answered correctly. You may start thinking, what’s going on?
In my teaching, I experienced this exact situation. I felt frustrated and disappointed with myself and with my instruction. I thought that my students mastered the material based on their classroom engagement, but their summative assessments revealed otherwise. It led me to ask, how can I better identify and support my students’ needs before the summative assessment? Formative assessments are an excellent, low-stakes way to assess and address students’ misunderstandings or unanswered questions. They can take many forms: short writing prompts, exit tickets, brief video responses, whiteboard questions and answers, conversations, checklists, etc. In any form, they serve as an opportunity to give both teachers and students feedback about progress towards mastery. With that feedback, instruction can be adjusted to better support students’ learning.
Receiving instantaneous feedback
Virtual tools are a great way to ask students focused comprehension questions and to receive almost instantaneous feedback — and many of them are free to use. Socrative is an online classroom app that provides immediate feedback to teachers and students. You can use it to create and assign short, selected-response quizzes or open-response exit-ticket questions. Teachers can see students’ responses as soon as they are entered, and can quickly generate whole-class data. Gimkit is a gamified-way to gauge students’ comprehension. Students answer selected-response questions at their own pace, earn imaginary coins, and shop for powerups and game features. Games can be set to last for a set amount of time, which makes it an easy addition to any lesson plan. Plus, students love the gaming interface! Google Forms, which is integrated within Google Suites, allows you to adjust the settings of a Google Form and turn on the “make this a quiz” function. This will allow you to make an answer key for selected-response questions and to add points and automatic feedback to students. You can see automatic summaries for all quiz responses, including frequently missed questions, graphs marked with correct answers, and average, median, and range of scores.
Gathering invaluable student data
If you're looking for an alternative to digital tools, exit slips are a great way to gather information about students’ current understandings and/or questions. On a piece of paper or a document, ask students to respond to 1-3 questions that ask them to recall or apply information at the end of a lesson. Student-led conferences, including conferences between student/parent, student/teacher, or among student/parent/teacher allow students to highlight significant areas of growth and to set goals for future learning. Ask a student to bring a sample of their recent work — it could be a summative assessment, a written piece, or a collection of classwork. Then, ask students to reflect on how these learning artifacts reflect their progress in certain skill areas. These conferences can be student, teacher, or parent initiated. Color-coded student reflection can be a great way for students to reflect on the progress of their own learning towards a goal. When a student goes to turn in their practice work, ask them to highlight their name on the paper using a color-coded system: red to signify “I completely understand and could teach someone else this skill,” blue to signify “I think I understand, but need some more practice,” and green to signify “I don’t think I understand yet and may need some more support.” Keep the highlighters next to your turn-in bin for student work. For younger students, this can also be a great practice to remind them to write their names on their papers.
Thoughtful assessment practices
Listen and respond: whenever you give students a formative assessment, make sure to respond to students’ strengths and opportunities for growth. If a formative assessment only gets graded and handed back without an adjustment in instruction, that is a lost opportunity to provide student-specific and class-wide support. Keep it brief: formative assessments don’t need to be long or multi-tasked. They are often most effective when they target one specific skill or piece of content, especially when there is room for misunderstandings. Experienced teachers often know when and where students may get tripped up and can plan formative assessments accordingly. Encourage students’ self-reflection: use formative assessments as a metacognitive practice to get students thinking about their own thinking and learning. It can be great for a teacher to identify and offer support for a student’s misunderstandings, but it can be even better for a student to take that initiative for themselves.
Formative assessments are powerful tools for both teachers and students to reflect on the process of learning. Remember, they can take many forms and can still provide valuable insight into students’ progress towards mastery. Ultimately, formative assessments can help to shine a light on misunderstandings and misconceptions so that, as educators, we can offer necessary help and support to our students.
How to implement discussion opportunities that help students solidify their learning and connect with peers.
We’ve all had moments where getting students to talk has not been a problem, but when it comes to academic conversations in the classroom, it can be hard to keep the conversation going. Students might be unsure of where to go next, how to change the topic, or even questioning what discussion is good for. Educators might be asking themselves the same questions! What are the advantages of discussion in the classroom, and how can we encourage students to facilitate their own meaningful conversations?
Why discussion?
First, let’s talk about the importance of discussion. In their book, Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk That Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings, Zwiers and Crawford note that conversations foster all three language learning processes: listening, talking, and negotiating meaning. Not only can these skills be found in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), but they are also skills we use every day in our own conversations, whether they are academic in nature or more casual. Conversation opportunities give students an authentic space to practice new vocabulary, solidify content learning, strengthen argumentation skills, and connect with their peers. Discussions also need to be connected to some rigorous questions. What makes a rigorous question? Check out the work of my colleagues Jacqui Stolzer and Dr. Laura Rigolosi to explore how one high school is constructing their own definition of rigor, in service of developing high expectations and meaningful work for their students.
What can I do to encourage discussion?
As educators, we can purposefully build these conversation opportunities into our lessons, and even beyond that, we can highlight and model talk moves for our students. Parsing out ways to make a conversation meaningful and creating a guide for students can be a powerful way to ensure they are not only learning content through discussions, but becoming effective communicators as well.
Where do I start?
Below is an example of how you can start to plan, practice, and implement more student-led discussions in your classroom.
After you’ve had time to practice a few different discussion skills, put them together. Consider pairing students with roles; is someone practicing the role of “Devil’s Advocate”? How about moving the conversation forward when there seems to be a lull? The more students practice these roles, the more natural they will become.
Don’t have the time? Teaching is more than a full-time job, so if this seems like something you really want to try but you just don’t have the time to go through all the skills yourself, check out the work done by Uncommon Schools in their Habits of Academic Discussion Guide. You can also check out Keep the Kids Talking, which offers self-paced opportunities to examine questioning & discussion practices and receive feedback from our coaching team. Happy discussing!
How one high school is constructing their own definition of rigor, in service of developing high expectations and meaningful work for students.
After several years of prolonged uncertainty and hardship, a feeling of normalcy seems to finally be settling in, and schools want to refocus their vision for high expectations and meaningful work for students. As coaches, we’ve noticed that “rigor” has become a topic of particular interest for school leaders this year.
However, not everyone has the most positive associations with the word, and we can’t really blame them (just look at the dictionary definition — yikes!). What we mean by rigor in the educational context is often unclear, and it’s for this reason that we believe in the importance of co-constructing definitions and characteristics of the concept as a school community. We’ve undertaken this endeavor with the Business Technology Early College High School (BTECH) — one of our wonderful partner schools in Queens, New York — and have been investigating the concept of rigor through a variety of entry points. Our inquiry around rigor began with a tool developed by our colleague, Dr. Roberta Lenger Kang, who envisions rigor as an odometer, a visual retake on Bloom’s Taxonomy. After working with the “Rigormeter”, the staff at BTECH engaged in inquiry around how to assess and establish criteria for rigorous questions. Here is a snapshot of how we explored this question and a look into the insights that were gleaned.
Assessing for rigor
What makes a rigorous question? The central way that teachers pursued this line of inquiry in our workshop was through a hands-on, minds-on activity. In small heterogeneous groups (mixed in terms of both content areas and experience), teachers were given an envelope of paper strips, each printed with a question inspired by real high school curriculum (How does the greenhouse effect work? What is exponential growth and where do we see it in our everyday lives?). Working collaboratively, teachers were tasked with sorting the questions into categories according to their perceived level of rigor. As we circulated the room, we heard teachers engaged in rich and lively discussion as they made decisions about how to rank questions according to their rigor level, and why.
Establishing criteria for rigor
After teachers spent some time engaging in the question sorting activity, we asked the small groups to reflect and discuss together: What criteria did you use to distinguish more rigorous from less rigorous questions? Then, when we came back together as a whole staff, we asked teachers: so, what does make a rigorous question? Here are some of the defining characteristic they articulated:
A rigorous question...
Additional definitions
After teachers generated their own ideas, we as facilitators offered a few additional criteria that worked to amplify and elaborate on the group’s working definition. The criteria we offered were inspired by some of the dispositions of competent readers delineated by Dr. Sheridan Blau in his article Performative Literacy: The Habits of Mind of Highly Literate Readers (2003) — with the thinking that if these dispositions allow for readers to make meaning of texts and “enable knowledge” (p. 19), then questions that inspire the cultivation of such dispositions will in turn cultivate meaning-making in general.
We proposed that a rigorous question also:
The importance of complexity and flexibility are also explored in Robyn Jackson’s How to Plan Rigorous Instruction (2010).
Next steps
After generating their own collective definition of a rigorous question and considering the Blau-inspired characteristics as well, teachers were given the opportunity to apply these new insights to an upcoming lesson. Teachers left the session with a new Do Now activity or slightly tweaked questions that asked for justification, for example. Most significantly, they left with clarity on what counts as a rigorous question. As we continue working with this school, we are designing next steps in the professional learning process. Our upcoming sessions can focus on when and how to use rigorous questions, specifically, at what point of the lesson, and how to assess student response. We can also explore activities or teaching moves that pair well with investigating rigorous questions. We might also reconsider our essential questions and check how they measure against our “rigorous questions” criteria. There are many possibilities for moving forward with our inquiry cycle. While there are plenty of resources and frameworks out there for teachers on creating compelling and meaningful questions, both facilitators and teachers found great value in doing some first-hand discovery, and in trying to articulate the nuance in what distinguishes rigorous questions from the rest. |
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