Now what?

     I am working to create an environment where thoughtful discourse on important questions is the norm.  I have begun this work by creating a class blog.  The kids have all created their Blogger accounts and as a first attempt at a post, they have posted their book reviews for their September books.  I had the kids label these posts as "reading" and "book review" and if appropriate, as "favorite book."  At this point it is my hope that kids will use this as a resource to find a "good" book.  In addition, I have taught them how to post a "kicker" comment.  For this first round, students have posted a question asking if other kids have read the same book and, if so, what made the book "good" for them.  If children had read one of the books in a post, and liked it, they made a comment to that post explaining what they liked.
     From here I hope to teach my students the four types of posts - kicker, starter, pushback and answer.  I hope to teach them how and when to use them.  I have found that frequently at this age kids simply reiterate what the person before them has said.  I'd like to give them the tools to move the conversation forward.  I will do this by modeling responses and by looking at our own posts to discuss which comments were adding to the conversation.
     I would also like to role play the various behaviors that any kind of conversation can have.  The text book provides resources, but I fear these scenarios as they are written may be too difficult for ten year olds.  I will outline skits or model the behaviors with the kids and we will brainstorm way to redirect the conversation so that all are appropriately involved.  The roles are Silent Suki.  She doesn't participate at all externally - they are too intimidated to join in.  How do you engage the quiet ones?  Ridiculous Rashad dominates the conversation and not in a good way.  He likes to hear himself think and frequently overruns others in the group.  How do you get him to listen as well as he talks?  Remarkable Rebecca is amazing as appropriately leading conversations.  She asks pertinent and leading questions that seem to focus the topic at hand.  Inaccurate Ira is will say anything, even if it's not true.  How do teach others to validate Ira's intent while questioning the validity of his assertions?
 Disagree without being Disagreeable Diego has to be right at all costs.  He sees conversations as a winning/losing proposition.  How do you challenge another's thinking while keeping the focus on cooperative learning?
     I can see that the class blog could be a vehicle for fantastic conversations.  We could discuss topics in science, social studies, junior great books, as well as writing and reading.  I think the possibilities to share thinking and to cooperatively learn are awesome.  Our class blog can be where engaging discourse takes place and where all students are safe and encouraged to share their best thinking.

September - Ted talks

I spent a bit of time reviewing resources on the articles and links site.  I viewed "Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover." He argues that the "store bought" math curriculums remove any sort of real problem solving and that math reasoning skills are therefore not being nurtured or cultivated.  He believes that children disengage from the problem because they believe there is a simple formula to apply or an example to copy.  He states that math books provide too much scaffolding and take away any chance at "patient problem solving."  He suggests removing all of the layers that the book provides and encourage kids to join in the conversation and to allow them to define the problem. 

I couldn't agree more.  Although I am a fan of the Everyday Math program I do see a real need for problem solving activities.  The problems that are presented to my students through the text are incredibly simplistic.  Dan Meyer redefines the problems his students encounter by putting them in real life context and by removing all of the given information.  One problem I would have with implementing this type of approach is the time factor.  I don't know how to find anymore time in our day. 

YouTube - Learning to Change

Learning to Change - Changing to Learn

"The US Department of Commerce conducted a study of fifty-five sectors on the level of IT intensiveness.  Education came in dead last - below coal mining."  Thus begins this video about how education needs to change the way it does things.  The video makes the point that technology just isn't a choice any more.  It must be used in the way we educate children.  I found myself strongly agreeing with this video even though I struggle, very much, to move past the introduction of keyboarding and word processing in my classroom.  With a curriculum packed with knowledge necessary to appease NCLB it is a struggle to decide what goes in order to accommodate the extra front time needed for kids to learn and use the technology.  I understand that it is an investment, but while the discussion remains about test results and percentage of kids that met the growth goal, it is hard to make the paradigm shift necessary to change the way things are done.

In the video it is pointed out the we need "a narrative that sustains twenty-first century learning."  Unfortunately, we don't have one yet.  We know that literacy is changing and that technological literacy is an important aspect of education, yet we don't quite know how to this well and consistently yet.  The argument is that literacy now means how find information, how to validate it, how to synthesize it, how to leverage it, how to communicate it, how to collaborate with it, and how to problem solve with it.  I can absolutely agree with this 100 %, I just don't yet know how to do it.  While I'm not a memorize and spit it back to me teacher, I feel I do a lot of critical thinking and problem solving in my room, I don't do it using technology.  This is an area I'm excited to try.  I want to be sure, though, that I'm using technology because it is the tool that make sense and not simply because I can. 

One of the experts on the video stated that if NCLB would fade away that it would allow for creativity.  We can only hope it does and that he is right.

Chapter 4

After flipping through the book again, I found my self drawn to chapter 4 - Studying Challenging Topics Together.  What I liked so much in this section was the focus on quality questions and responses and The Socratic Method.  It seems that each year my fifth graders struggle to have a meaningful, purposeful conversation about topics.  Sometimes the answers are incredibly repetitive or simplistic.  I'd like to see what the class could do both in a live group conversation and with posting on a topic that was complex and compelling given some instruction on this topic of quality responses. 

It seems that teaching the kids the different types of posts, how to respond, and what a quality post looks like would all be important in helping kids learn how to move a conversation forward in a meaningful way.  I can think of applications in literature, science, and social studies immediately.  I could probably apply it to math too.  What if kids, in small groups, could wrestle with essential questions of a unit together in a manner in which all kids, by virtue of design, had to add to the conversation and add to it in a meaningful way?  It could be great.

PBS Video

4 Key Ideas From the PBS Video
1.  "If we teach today's students as we did yesterday's, we are robbing them of tomorrow."
     — John Dewey

2.  Two emerging education systems - one for the regular student where the standard curriculum is taught for service jobs and one for the wealthy who learn to apply and problem solve and innovate which will clear the path for success in a global economy

3.  The technology itself is not the be all and end all.  It is a tool to be used when it best suits the situation.
     I have been thinking a lot lately about how to get kids talking about their reading books.  My class reads an assigned genre and a free choice book each month.  While the assigned genre has guidelines for demonstrating understanding, the free choice book does not.  I'd like to find a way for kids to have reading partners - kids who read the same book and have a conversation with each other about the story elements, the story, connections, vocabulary, etc.  I'm thinking it could be done by pairing up kids on the same reading level - maybe using NWEA data or NECAP data as a preliminary starting point.  Then maybe creating a menu of options for kids to demonstrate their relationship with the story/author. Perhaps some of the choices could be technology related.
     One worry I have with this is that my fifth graders, while technologically savy in many ways, don't have a skill set that allows them to be independent with the technology.  Many students have a limited exposure to word processing, file management, or even keyboarding.  In the past, the tech coordinator had created a set of mini-assignments that helped kids learn the skills necessary to navigate a word processing program.  Something like this would be very helpful.  While we want technology to be authentic, kids have to start somewhere.  There needs to be more instruction from someone other than the classroom teacher.  While I agree technology should be seemlessly integrated, in practice we are not there.  With 5 preps a day, I don't know where to put designing new curriculum to teach tech skills.  There will have to be more support than there is now. I'm thinking that maybe the technology coordinator could provide a series of mini-lessons as we begin exploring a new application or maybe work as an extra set of hands in the classroom when beginning new applications.  I realize the kids will become the experts and know many things I don't, but I also know that it takes time to develop that expertise and at the moment, it time I'm struggling to find.



4.  The best uses of technology build on the standards - if done well, assessment is part of the process - the success can't happen if the standards aren't met or the knowledge isn't there.

5.  Schools are set up for the "assembly line" society and economy.