reading levels are a valuable tool for teachers, and should not be used as a label for the children we teach, but rather should be used to make good decisions in instruction.
The goal is for teachers to learn about the characteristics of each level to inform their decisions in teaching—how they introduce a book, how they discuss a book, how they help children problem-solve as they process a book.
A reading level is the result of complex analysis that children don’t (and shouldn’t have to) understand.
The teacher’s knowledge of the child’s reading level allows them to gently guide and support the child’s choices, while also understanding that a child will experience a variety of levels of text throughout the day in different instructional contexts like interactive read-aloud, shared reading, book clubs, independent reading, and guided reading.
Educators might share a book the child read at the beginning of the year, and a book that the child read later in the year, and some discussion of the text characteristics of each book so that parents can see that difficulty is increasing, as is proficiency.
Along with talking about a child’s independent and instructional reading levels, teachers can also talk about a child’s engagement with reading: how many books the child has read, what his tastes are, whether he is putting in a lot of effort or showing initiative.
helping families to see a complete picture of their child’s progress, beyond just a reading level.
cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and ethnic diversity vitally enriches our classrooms and our lives, and that this should be reflected in and resonate throughout what we teach our students, how we teach them, and the books that they read in our classrooms.
We can only do this by creating and maintaining inclusive environments that recognize, honor, and leverage the strengths of all students.
there are a number of practices in our current systems of schooling that “unsettle” us, primarily because they don’t comport with what Seymour Papert calls our “stock of intuitive, empathic, common sense knowledge about learning.”
Yet we continue to focus our efforts primarily on content knowledge, as is evidenced by the focus of our assessments.
the new contexts for modern learning forged by the networked world in which we now live are creating an imperative for new ways of thinking about our work in schools.
notes, “For more than 75 years, studies have consistently found that only a small fraction of what is learned in the classroom is retained even a year after learning.” That’s primarily because the curriculum and classroom work they experience has little or no relevance to students’ real lives.
The reality in K-12 schooling today is that the majority of what we assess, content, knowledge, and basic skills, is the easiest to assess, not the most important.
by the way, let’s stop pretending that we can solve the engagement problem by handing kids iPads or other technologies. Hand them more agency over their own learning instead.
When we look at the things that each of us has learned most deeply in our lives, the same certain conditions almost always apply: Among other things, we had an interest and a passion for the topic, we had a real, authentic purpose in learning it, we had agency and choice, deciding what, when, where, and with whom we learned it, and we had fun learning it even if some of it was “hard fun.”
But in the vast majority of curriculum driven schools, however, students sit and wait to be told what to learn, when to learn it, how to learn it, and how they’ll be assessed on it. Rarely do they get to choose, and just as rarely does the learning they do in class have any impact beyond the classroom walls.
I especially like this last part about "impact beyond the classroom walls."
But what’s also notable about those practices is that we rarely want to discuss them aloud, content instead to let them hover silently in the background of our work.
It’s much more difficult to assess the literacies, skills, and dispositions that are required to succeed and lead a healthy, happy life, especially in a world where answers are everywhere via the technologies we carry in our pockets. In that world, creativity, curiosity, a change mindset, the ability to create, connect, and participate in networks…all of those are now required, yet few of those are currently assessed at all.
This reminds me of the quote by Alvin Toffle: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
We need to stop training students for exams that computers can pass.”
More props from Mitch Resnick again. So many people here that have been square in the radar of Gary Stager, CMK, and MIT.
Also, in order to open this PDF link from the post:
(*Use the password "reviewer" to open the pdf.)
we know that much of what every student in 1894 was supposed to learn isn’t really what every student in 2015 needs to learn. Yet we seem loathe to mess with the recipe. And as Seymour Papert so famously asks, now that we have access to pretty much all there is to know, “what one-billionth of one percent” are we going to choose to teach in school?
there is a strong argument building that we have reached “peak education” as we continue to do try to do the wrong thing right and get “wronger” in the process.
tacit knowledge and the ability to learn from others, in the moment, both face to face and in networks is vastly more important and effective.
Those that will flourish in the modern world will be those who can learn what they need to learn “just in time” from a variety of networks and sources and experiences.
put these unsettling truths front and center in our conversations about education
An article that calls to mind many of the ideas discusses in David Perkins' 'Futurewise". The idea that sticks in my mind the most is after reading this article is: "It's not about just in case, it's about just in time" which is a reference to #9
A list of things that we don't really want to talk about in education.
1. We know that most of our students will forget most of the content that they "learn" in school.
2. We know that most of our students are bored and disengaged in school.
3. We know that deep, lasting learning requires conditions that schools and classrooms simply were not built for.
4. We know that we're not assessing many of the things that really matter for future success.
5. We know that grades, not learning, are the outcomes that students and parents are most interested in.
6. We know that curriculum is just a guess.
7. We know that separating learning into discrete subjects and time blocks is not the best way to prepare kids for the real world.
8. We know (I think) that the system of education as currently constructed is not adequately preparing kids for what follows if and when they graduate.
9. And finally, we know that learning that sticks is usually learned informally, that explicit knowledge accounts for very little of our success in most professions.
Handy list of strategies and sentence stems to help teachers model what thinking out loud should look, err... sound like, and to help students do the same.
With no explicit math or literacy taught until first grade, the Swiss have no set goals for kindergartners beyond a few measurements, like using scissors and writing one’s own name. They instead have chosen to focus on the social interaction and emotional well-being found in free play.
With many parents and educators overwhelmed by the amount of academics required for kindergartners — and the testing requirements at that age — it’s no surprise that the forest kindergarten, and the passion for bringing more free play to young children during the school day, is catching on stateside.
“So much of what is going on and the kind of play they do, symbolic play, is really pre-reading,” Molomot said. “It’s a very important foundation for reading.
Scenes of rosy-faced children building forts in the snow are presented in sharp contrast to the academic (and mostly indoor) kindergarten in New Haven, Connecticut, where a normal day is packed full of orderly activities: morning meeting, readers’ workshop, writers’ workshop, a special activity (like art, gym, and music), lunch and recess, storytime, “choice” (a fancy word for play), math centers, then closing meeting.
Donnery notices that the gross motor skills of many of her kindergartners are underdeveloped, noting that usually means that fine motor skills are also lacking. “Developing those gross motor skills is just critical, can impact so much of later learning,” she said.
“In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.”
But this has to be more than just a wiggle stool or yoga ball... HMW get greater movement into Kindergarten? (and it need not just be in the Kindergarten classroom)
occupational therapist Angela Hanscom opined in the Washington Post that there’s good reason our kids are so fidgety: more and more students come to class without having enough core strength and balance to hold their bodies still long enough to learn.
lacking in the attention needed to learn, with more than 10 percent of the school population diagnosed with some kind of attention disorder.
A recent study by psychologists at the University of Colorado shows an even stronger reason for free play: children who experienced more undirected free play showed signs of stronger executive function, a strong predictor of success in school. “The more time that children spent in less-structured activities,” wrote researchers, “the better their self-directed executive functioning.”
Reading and recess are important enough that we need to do both.
While this kind of adult-led movement is a far cry from the nearly unstructured free play of a forest kindergarten, it does serve the school’s purpose of high academic standards for their kindergartners, in hopes this prepares them for future academic success.
Article contrasting two different approaches to Kindergarten - one outdoor-based and one indoor-based. Full of links to the research regarding the claims made in the article. Additionally, more language around executive function, and its importance for students, is used.
Article contrasting two different approaches to Kindergarten - one outdoor-based and one indoor-based. Full of links to the research regarding the claims made in the article. Additionally, more language around executive function, and its importance for students, is used.
"We use student council representatives to relay these messages because we think the student body might listen more closely and buy into messages more readily when they come from their peers,"
A tremendous idea! Students hearing from different people in the school community about important and timely messages.
"He adds many special twists to the school's daily P.A. announcements. In addition to fade-ins and fade-outs, he uses music that the students appreciate, special sound effects that he makes with his mouth or with studio equipment, and background cheers for the sports report"
Another neat idea... bulletins specifically for the students. HMW use this as part of the reading and writing work that students do already?
A small book with blank pages is always available next to the P.A. microphone. "Any staff member who would like an announcement made simply pens it in that book,"
Another good idea. Thank the people that we too often take for granted.
"This term, I've extended the theme by asking students to let me know if they've noticed their peers 'passing on something good.' I share those 'good news' stories the next morning. It is amazing how many stories have been generated Small steps lead to big journeys!"
Imagine students write these kinds of messages as part of their free writing, or as part of an end of the day through some kinds of all school reflection time! Stories from teachers and students would be accepted!
Larry Davis has been kind enough to share a year's worth of questions for use across the elementary grades. You'll find those questions in Education World's Morning Math feature
Not really riddles, but funny (and punny) things to make kids laugh, or groan. Either response is good when you are building a #havefun community!
"We usually do the National Anthem the first nine weeks of school," Roebuck told Education World. "Then we change songs for each of the other 9-week sessions. It's a good way for students to learn the words to a variety of patriotic songs."
Briarcrest also is proud of the school's Brag Board. "Each week, every teacher sends me one piece of student work to display on our big centrally located bulletin board,"
A new (2016) research project coming out of Harvard. With play a component of the motivation cycle for innovators, this growing body of work may be worth following.
A new (2016) research project coming out of Harvard. With play a component of the motivation cycle for innovators, this growing body of work may be worth following.