My Essential Question

History is boring...Not everyone feels this way...

How can I see things from other people's perspectives/ point of views?

I was having a conversation with myself…

How do I take my students' experiences/ likes/ dislikes/ feelings into account?

I am already open-minded and accepting, consider myself comfortable in regards to cultural diversity and sensitive to others' differences...

What more can I do? I asked.

Then my essential question occurred to me…

How do I teach my content through the eyes of my students?

I came across an article by Geneva Gay entitled Teaching To and Through Cultural Diversity, which talks about culturally responsive teaching; and its message really spoke to me. In the article Gay speaks passionately about culturally responsive teaching; referring often to her 2010 book Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. It helped me begin to think about how to answer my question. The following is by no means in my own words but is also not directly quoted from the article. I collected the parts that spoke to me and pieced them together in the following paragraphs…

Culturally responsive teaching is defined as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them. It is a means for improving achievement by teaching diverse students through their own cultural filters. This form of teaching is contingent on seeing cultural differences as assets; creating caring learning communities where culturally different individuals and heritages are valued; using cultural knowledge of ethnically diverse cultures, families, and communities to guide curriculum development, classroom climates, instructional strategies, and relationships with students; challenging racial and cultural stereotypes, prejudices, racism, and other forms of intolerance, injustice, and oppression; being change agents for social justice and academic equity; mediating power imbalances in classrooms based on race, culture, ethnicity, and class; and accepting cultural responsiveness as endemic to educational effectiveness in all areas of learning for students from all ethnic groups. Culturally responsive teaching: validates, facilitates, liberates, and empowers ethnically diverse students by cultivating their cultural integrity, individual abilities, and academic success.

In the United States teachers are predominately middle class, female, monolingual, and of European ancestry, while students are increasingly poor and linguistically, ethnically, racially, and culturally diverse. These differences make linking culturally responsive teaching explicitly to regular classroom functions even more important. A key mandate of culturally responsive teaching is accessing this internal strength of ethnically diverse students and communities and using it to improve their personal agency and educational achievement. Culturally responsive teaching is at once a routine and a radical proposal. It is routine because it does for Native American, Latino, Asian American, African American, and low-income students what traditional instructional ideologies and actions do for middle-class European Americans by filtering curriculum content and teaching strategies through their cultural frames of reference making it more personally meaningful and easier to master. It is radical because it makes explicit the previously implicit role of culture in teaching and learning and it insists that educational institutions accept the legitimacy and viability of ethnic group cultures in improving learning outcomes. The close interactions among ethnic identity, cultural background, and cognition are becoming increasingly apparent. It is these interactions that give source and focus, power and direction to culturally responsive teaching.

Culturally responsive teaching, in idea and action, emphasizes localism and contextual specificity. That is, it exemplifies the notion that instructional practices should be shaped by the sociocultural characteristics of the settings in which they occur, and the populations for whom they are designed. One of the core tenets of culturally responsive teaching: to respect and respond to the particular diversities in each classroom. It is futile for educators to claim they can attend to the needs of students, academically or otherwise, without engaging their cultural socialization or to expect students to divorce themselves from their cultural heritages easily and at will. Culturally responsive teaching helps teachers to genuinely see and accept culture, race, and difference as potentially empowering factors for educating students, grounding teaching in the notions that success generates success, that competence builds confidence, and that regardless of how marginalized or disadvantaged an individual student or ethnic group may be according to external criteria, there is some kind of capability within.

Teaching To and Through Cultural Diversity by Geneva Gay University of Washington

Mindfulness for Teachers and Students Alike

As our guest Dr. H Associate Professor, Director of School Psychology Counseling, Educational Leadership and School Psychology, began speaking about Mindfulness, I became immediately engaged in her discussion. Mindfulness is often defined as awareness of present experience with acceptance. Mindfulness is "paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment and non judgmentally." Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is credited with the secularization of mindfulness, which is now used in a number of professional fields including medicine and education.

Ways to pay attention to the present:

• Put external distractions away
• Learn to quiet the internal distractions through self discipline
• Get into a "flow state"
• Don't live in the past or future

The concept of practicing mindfulness as a professional educator is extremely exciting to me. I never thought that meditation could be incorporated into a classroom setting! Practicing mindfulness makes sense however, since working in the educational field can be stressful. Its practice has been shown to reduce teacher stress levels and even prevent teacher burn out. Developing a personal practice can offer significant benefits to you and your students by decreasing your stress and enhancing your well being, in turn improving the learning environment in your classroom and making you a more effective teacher. Practicing mindfulness decreases stress, depression, anxiety, and hostility, while enhancing executive function, compassion, and empathy. In her article Mindfulness: A Guide for Teachers, Dr. Amy Saltzman "strongly recommends that you discover your own inner stillness and quietness and practice creating P.E.A.C.E. in your own life before you attempt to share these practices with students."

Pause

Exhale

Acknowledge the situation as it is

     Accept the situation and your reaction to it

     Allow your experience

Choose how you will respond; may take a few moments, days, weeks, or even months

     At its best, responding involves additional Cs:

                  Clarity: about what you want, what your limits are, and what you are responsible for

                  Courage: to speak your truth and to hear the truth of others

                  Compassion: for yourself and for others

                  Comedy: or sense of humor and a willingness to not take ourselves too seriously

Engage with people, with the situation and with life

Check out Mindful Living Programs and learn more about Mindfulness at this website.

"The newly emerging discipline of Mindfulness in K-12 education is actively investigating whether offering mindfulness to children and adolescents enhances attention, executive function, and learning, and promotes pro-social behavior and general well-being." (Saltzman 2) Mindfulness teaches students "how" to pay attention. And this way of paying attention enhances both academic and social-emotional learning. Student stress frequently inhibits their ability to learn. However, as previously mentioned, practicing mindfulness enhances executive functions, such as goal-directed behavior, planning, organized search, and impulse control all of which are essential in becoming a successful learner. Executive functions also correlate with working memory, emotional regulation, and resilience. In addition, Mindfulness enhances compassion and self-compassion has academic benefits, especially when dealing with the perceived failures that often afflict adolescents. 

Discipline: Restorative Practices

"The big thing is the mindset... You have to be resilient."

-Vice Principal T

Our class met District C's Vice Principal for the first time on our October 24th visit. I was not overly surprised to discover that he was down to earth, friendly, and extremely willing to talk with us about his experiences working within the educational system. By now I almost expect this from the faculty and staff at District C; it's beginning to feel like home. The main topic of our discussion was student/ class discipline. Vice Principal T (VP T from here on in) was a wealth of knowledge and advice. He warned us that discipline would be one of the most difficult skills to build as a new teacher. You must first know yourself as an educator as well as your expectations for your class, before you can teach your students what your expectations are. "Ask yourself as a teacher... what does it mean to behave in my classroom? What makes a student a good student?"

"Many students have never been taught what 'respectfulness' means," explained VP T. Respect is something that must be taught and modeled. When discipling students, try to keep your emotions out of it. Use "I" statements such as, "I'm really disappointed" or "I am hurt by your words." VP T exclaimed to us that one of the most important things you can do when disciplining students is to explain to them that...

"Every day is a new day."

If you make this your motto and always say this to students after disciplining them or having a disagreement, it tends to diffuse any hard feelings. It also gives students the chance to start anew and make better choices the next time. He advised us to not be too serious, "Humor is important."

VP T also spoke with us about District C's Restoration Program (also being utilized at the middle schools in this district.) All restorative practices "are facilitated by a trained mediator and bring together affected parties to develop an appropriate response to conflict." The restorative practices being used in this program assist teachers, students and parents in the building, maintaining and restoring relationships and enabling students to self regulate behavior and contribute to the improvement of learning outcomes.

"It is so important for your students to experience success... Deep down every student wants to be successful." 

-Kim

For faculty and staff, restorative practices provide "a proactive approach for building a school community based on cooperation, mutual understanding, and respect [and] provide processes for holding students accountable for their actions and behavior while at the same time building a nurturing school environment." (District C website)

District C's Restoration Program utilizes Circles, meetings to discuss issues and resolve conflicts existing within the school community. Skills gained from this restorative program are valuable for students as they enter college and seek employment. Circles is done within the context of a safe and confidential environment and teaches:

• Good communication
• Peaceful conflict resolution
• How to clear up misunderstandings
• How to prevent further conflict
• Critical thinking
• Taking turns, which emphasizes the democratic process
• Taking only your portion of the “attention pie”
• How to listen convincingly and patiently
• How to describe your emotions and share them with others
• Improvements in self-awareness and self-management
• How to express your emotions without being hurtful or aggressive, regardless of whether the emotions are positive or negative
• Taking responsibility of yourself and your actions
• Awareness of how your actions affect others
• How to be part of a cooperative team that has group norms and agreements
• How to create protocols for restitution and repairing harm

Restorative Practices Program

Gradual Release

As I mentioned in my first Blog Post, Introducing Me, I have been a pharmacy technician since 1999. During this time I obtained a position as a Pharmacy Technician Specialist. One of the responsibilities I had in this position was training new hires how to make intravenous solutions. This training process takes four weeks. Over the years I had a multitude of different experiences with an eclectic mix of new trainees. I developed a system of training that seemed to work best for me and for most of the new hires I worked with. Unbeknownst to myself, I was using the teaching method of Gradual Release:

I Do, You Watch:

For the first week I had the trainee watch my technique, explained what they could or could not touch (for aseptic purposes), and introduced them to the “foreign” vocabulary used in the Pharmacy’s Clean Room. I would allow each individual to choose when he or she was ready and comfortable enough with the process to begin performing aseptic technique hands-on. Many new technicians wanted to start helping by the end of the first week, some would wait until the beginning of week two.

I Do, You Help:

Depending on the trainee, at the beginning of week two I would perform a majority of the more complicated formulations. I did so in order to allow the trainee ample time to get hands on experience with the more simple procedures, like adding a drug to a bag of fluid. The more practice they had handling syringes and paying attention to needle safety, the more comfortable they became with the whole process.

You Do, I Help:

By week three, unless it was an unusually busy day with an extremely heavy workload, I would allow the trainee to perform most of the aseptic procedures, encouraging them to ask as many questions as they needed to and jumping in to assist them whenever they asked for help, I saw them struggling with something or if they were making a mistake that would put a patient at risk.

You Do, I Watch:

By the beginning of week four most trainees would be responsible for all the Clean Room’s daily responsibilities and assignments. During this last week of training, my prime goal was to ensure that the trainee was capable of performing the jobs required to be Clean Room certified. By the end of week four I had to be completely confident that the trainee would be successful at completing the job independently. I mainly observed, looking for mistakes or improvements that could be made and anything else that would be detrimental if left uncorrected. Some things I would point out immediately (due to patient safety), while other issues I would bring up during down time so we could further discuss the issue and clear up any misunderstandings.

This teaching method was extremely successful in my years as an aseptic technique trainer and I am very excited and enthusiastic to use it in my teaching practices. Although the method will not be executed in the exact same manner when utilized in the classroom, I am thankful for the years of experience I had successfully using the practice. 

For more information watch: Gradual Release Video

Questioning My Calling

Dale and I found our way to Room 302, the last class on our observation list. However, after we located the room we found it locked and vacant. We left and on our way to find Principal J we bumped into Dr. H, who instructed us to find Kim for further direction. We found Kim and after several failed attempts to find the “missing class” she decided to bring us to Room 230, a self-contained Social Studies class. Before entering Kim warned us that the classroom teacher was at a meeting and that the student teacher that had been left in charge, was having a hard time controlling the students. As soon as we entered, a few of the students began “showing off.” Even without the distraction of our presence, it was obvious that there were behavioral issues with several of the students.

RI Department of Education: District C Support System & Plan (March 2013)

The student teacher, with the assistance of a teacher assistant, tried her best to ignore or calm the disruptive students and continue her lesson:

“Do you have a responsibility to 

help/ assist others in an emergency?”

The student teacher tried again and again to finish reading an article out loud to the class, however she was having extreme difficulty with all the fuss being made by two particular students. They were talking and arguing back and forth with one another, swearing frequently, and blaming the TA for their bad behavior. The TA was trying unsuccessfully to calm the students down, but after many failed attempts she called District C’s behavioral specialist to the room.

What I found most interesting about this experience is how I reacted and felt about being placed within this environment...

I was not uncomfortable. 

I was not nervous. 

In fact, I truly wished I had more authority 

to help the student teacher with the students who were acting out. 

I wanted to pull each of them aside and talk with them. Let them know that this was not the way to get the most out of their education. And discuss with them that their behavior was not only disrupting their classmates’ education, but their own. The only reason I did feel uncomfortable was the fact that Dale and I were most likely the reason these particular students were “showing off” and I had empathy for the student teacher, who was obviously struggling. 

This experience really made me question my career path... 

Do I want to work in a Special Education environment? In a self-contained class? I didn’t feel out of place, if anything I felt an extreme drive to help. Short-term I wanted to be able to calm the students, get them refocused on the lesson. And the experience got me thinking about the long-term. If this were my class, what types of rewards/ discipline could I use with the students in my class to help improve these undesirable behaviors? Why were these particular students acting out? Was it a need for attention? Were they having problems at home? Were they having a bad day? How would I have handled this situation if I were in charge? Would I/ could I be a good special education teacher? I know I am now interested in learning more and I plan on looking into what it would take for me to become certified. 

Observation of Room 211

In our pre-observation meeting, our class met with Principal J and Kim and had a short discussion about lesson planning at District C. Our September 17^th visit would be the first time we went out individually into the classrooms. Principal J surprised us with laminated photo ID badges that were clipped to lanyards.

I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning!

“Ooh! My own badge!”

The badge really made me feel like I was a part of the District C community. This simple gesture meant so much.

Principal J gave each of us classrooms, based on our content area that we would be visiting. He explained to Dale and I (we are the only two history majors in our class) that District C does not have many history classes. We were assigned rooms 209, 211 & 302. Dale and I walked together to 209 and 211 and then split up. I walked into room 209 and quietly introduced myself to the teacher then made my way to the back of the room. However, a minute later the bell rang and students began getting up and exiting the room. I took the opportunity to talk to the teacher, who quickly informed me that this was his free period, no class. I thanked him and joined Dale in room 211. I have observed this class, History of Technology, on another occasion. The teacher has a good rapport with his students. He jokes back and forth with them as they freely answer his questions.

During the beginning of this class:

Teacher: “What are the three parts of a steam engine?”

Students all begin raising and waving their hands.
Some students saying: “Ooh, ooh!”

Others addressing the teacher: “Teach!”

Teacher calls on three students to come to the front of the room.

Each student answers, one at a time...

Student 1: “Water/ steam”

Student 2: “Heat/ fire”

Student 3: “Locomotion”

Teacher: “Ok! Now play your parts!” 

As the teacher explains how the three parts make the engine work he has the students waving their arms and making noises.

The whole class began giggling and everyone was obviously having a good time while learning how these parts work together to make a steam engine work. The teacher then asked the volunteers to return to their seats and asked the question, “How is everyone doing with their Samuel Slater biographies?” As the students randomly inform the teacher where they are in their progress and I looked over and noticed something written on the white board:

Topic: Industrial Revolution 

Assignment: Bio Sheet & Samuel Slater Biography

The teacher was using both visual/written reminders as well as verbal ones... I like when I get to see effective teaching practices first hand. In practice it seems far less redundant than it seemed in text.

Slater Mill: Pawtucket, RI

The teacher then transitioned into the day’s lesson:

Label parts of the steam engine through a collaborative classroom Internet search. 

Each student was given a school-supplied laptop, which they used to work independently at their desk, sharing info out loud with the class as they found it. Some students raised their hands, others just shouted out their info. The teacher seemed to be fine with either. He rounded the classroom making sure the students were on task. He stopped at one student’s desk and exclaimed, “Miley Cyrus has nothing to do with steam engines!” Again the class broke out in laughter. The guilty student smiled and said, “Ok Teach! Steam Engines, got it…” I enjoyed the laid back atmosphere in the class and I feel this particular teacher does a great job balancing student involvement with a more relaxed learning environment.

Right before Dale and I left to observe Room 302 (which ended up having no one in it!), the teacher took out a governor (part of a steam engine) that he had brought to class. He warned the students that the metal, baseball-sized engine part was heavy and then handed it to a student sitting in the front row so it could be passed around the room. “This particular governor dates back to the mid-eighteenth century,” the teacher explained. I wanted to hold the governor! I had to pull myself from the room, I knew we had a time limit and I knew we had to observe another class before returning for our post-observation discussion...I am truly a history geek!

Depth of Knowledge

The first time the phrase Depth of Knowledge (DOK) really caught my attention happened to be during our initial observation of the "purple room." Teacher D created multiple charts that she then  hung from her classroom's bright purple walls. I looked the charts over briefly and then we were moving on to the next class before I could give them a more in-depth read. Since then I have heard the phrase mentioned on a few more occasions, so I did a little research and read more about it...

Depth of Knowledge Levels describe the kind of thinking involved in a task, NOT wether it will be completed correctly. A greater DOK level requires greater conceptual understanding and cognitive processing by the student. On average, students who reach greater DOK levels more regularly, will have increased student achievement. 

Level 1

Activities demonstrate a rote response and follow a set of procedures (or perform a simple calculation):

• Involve recall 
• Student response is automatic
• Students either know the answer or not

Level 2

Activities are more complex and require students to engage in mental processing and reasoning beyond a habitual response. Students must:

• Decide how to approach the problem
• Involve interpreting in their problem solving
• Develop relationships amongst concepts

Level 3

Activities at this level should have more than one correct response or approach to the problem and should necessitate higher cognitive demands (than Levels 1 or 2). Students should:

• Be provided evidentiary support and reasoning for the conclusions they draw
• Explain and justify their thinking

Level 4

Activities usually occur over an extended period of time and cannot be assessed on the Criterion-referenced tests. Includes tasks which students must demonstrate:

• Reasoning 
• Planning 
• Developing connections within and beyond a content area

For an example of content-specific DOK Levels visit this website: 

Descriptors of DOK Levels for Social Studies

I also found this chart (very similar to those displayed in the purple room):

September 26th Visit to District C

"Never engage in a power struggle with a student 

because you will never win!"

-Words of advice from Kim 

September 26th visit to District C

Kim, one of Dr. JH's contacts at District C, is one of the newer teachers. She is soft spoken and articulate and it is easy to see why her students greet her with enthusiasm and a smile in the halls between classes. As we spoke in a group, along with Principal J and our guest Dr. B, Kim gently advised us to,

"Always take the high road, [and if possible] offer the student a choice to change their bad behavior, let them make the decision to make the right choice."

As educators, we are not only responsible for transmitting knowledge to our students, we must also teach them how to become productive members of a society that unfortunately is not always fair. Showing them that conflicts can be successfully resolved without anger and that they can choose to make positive decisions, also teaches them the lesson of respect. When asked to make the right decision, most will.

During our pre-WalkThrough discussion, I heard Principal J mention the term Lexile, but I didn't quite understand what was being discussed so I jotted it down so I could research it later. When I got home from school I googled it and the website for The Lexile Framework for Reading was the first search result. The website was very informative and I found the Lexile process extemely interesting.

"The Lexile Framework for Reading is a tool to help readers find books and articles at an appropriate level of difficulty and determine how well the reader will likely comprehend a text."

Books, articles, and other texts are analyzed by MetaMetrics, an educational measurement and research organization, and are given a Lexile measure score. Students receive their Lexile measure score from reading tests or programs. MetaMetrics does not offer a propietary test that reports Lexile measures. There is no "Lexile test" on [the] website. Instead, [MetaMetrics] partners with state departments of education and test publishers to create assessments or links to existing assessmnets that can report students' reading scores as Lexile measures.

The Lexile Framework for Reading not only provides educators with an appropriate starting point in the book-selection process for their students but can also assist them in monitoring the progress of advancements in their students' reading ability. I'm curious to know if District C uses this process because it appears to be a great resource for educators and I'd love to know more about how it works in practice.

Typical Reader Measures by Grade
Grade	IQR*
1	Up to 300L**
2	140L to 500L
3	330L to 700L
4	445L to 810L
5	565L to 910L
6	665L to 1000L
7	735L to 1065L
8	805L to 1100L
9	855L to 1165L
10	905L to 1195L
11 & 12	940L to 1210L
*IQR=Interquartile Range: the middle 50% of reader and text measures for each grade. Data for the reader measures came from a national sample of students. **The Lexile Measure is shown as a number with an "L" after it: 880L is 880 Lexile.

There is no direct correspondence between a specific Lexile measure and a specific grade level, which typically has a range of readers and reading materials. The Lexile Framework for Reading is intended to match readers with texts at whatever level the reader is reading. MetaMetrics has studied the ranges of Lexile reader measures and Lexile text measures at specific grades in an effort to describe the typical Lexile measures of texts and students of a given grade level.

This information is for descriptive purposes only. It should not be interpreted as a prescribed guide about what an appropriate reader measure or text measure should be for a given grade.

Typical Text Measures by Grade
Grade	IQR*		2012 CCSS Text Measures**
1		230L to 420L	190L to 530L
2		450L to 570L	420L to 650L
3		600L to 730L	520L to 820L
4		640L to 780L	740L to 940L
5		730L to 850L	830L to 1010L
6		860L to 920L	925L to 1070L
7		880L to 960L	970L to 1120L
8		900L to 1010L	1010L to 1185L
9		960L to1110L	1050L to 1260L
10		920L to 1120L	1080L to 1335L
11 & 12		1070L to 1220L	1185L to 1385L
*IQR Text Demand Study 2009: 25th to 75th percentile **COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS, APPENDIX A, 2012

                                                                                                       

New research released on August 15, 2012 refers to the three-part model defined in Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards, which combines the quantitative and qualitative measures of text complexity with reader and task considerations. The study provides information regarding the variety of ways text complexity can be measured quantitatively and ways to examine text complexity tools that are valid, transparent, user friendly, and reliable. The updated Lexile map includes CCSS text exemplars and ranges. The Lexile text measure is based on two well-established predictors of how difficult a text is to comprehend: word frequency and sentence length and does not address the content or quality of the book. The real power of The Lexile Framework for Reading is in matching readers to text, no matter where the reader is in the development of his or her reading skills, and in examining reader growth. When teachers know Lexile reader and text measures they can match their students with texts that will maximize learning and growth.

Info Cited From: http://www.lexile.com/