Skip to main content

Home/ Teaching English in Central California/ Group items tagged these

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
anonymous

Education Week: Schooling as a Knowledge Profession - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...26mehta_ep.h30.html

EducationReform

shared by anonymous on 29 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 29 Mar 11
     
    "At the cutting edge is New York City, which, under former Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, sought to disrupt the usual hierarchies and create "inquiry teams" within schools to investigate problems of practice. These inquiry teams, for example, identify struggling students within a school, use data to analyze why these students are struggling, and craft an intervention for them with the hope that this work can be a building block for schoolwide improvement. What's distinctive about this model is its emphasis on seeing schools less as implementers of programs from above, and more as coherent learning and problem-solving organizations that analyze and address problems of practice."
  • anonymous on 29 Mar 11
     
    Important article about education reform.
Michelle Arce

Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith . School-By-School Reform . Scripted Lessons | PBS - 4 views

www.pbs.org/...lessons.html

shared by Michelle Arce on 26 Oct 10 - Cached
  • proven methods
    • Ashley Muniz
      Ashley Muniz on 26 Oct 10
       
      I wish the article was more specific about what the "proven methods" are
  • As an experienced teacher she found the process of adopting her district’s program “humiliating and demeaning.”
    • Michelle Arce
      Michelle Arce on 16 Nov 10
       
      I totally understand why experienced teachers may feel this way. HOWEVER, this is a way for our school system to make sure that teachers are at least addressing the correct material in class.
  • Ashley Muniz on 26 Oct 10
     
    This article is about scripted lessons and teachers reactions to them
  • ...1 more comment...
  • ameia sarkisian on 29 Oct 10
     
    I can see how failing inner city schools, with students in the absolute worst conditions, might benefit from a scripted program. I don't agree that it's right, but I can see how one might justify the implementation of such a method when all else seems to have failed. I cringed at the end of the article when the teacher said that the scripted program "allowed for alittle bit of personality" on the teacher's part to show through... A LITTLE BIT?! Isn't the personality of the teacher that acts as an example for the students? isn't it the personality of the teacher that students "judge" right off the bat, sometimes effecting how much they choose to learn and participate in that particular class? I can't believe people actually believe our whole nation, which is SUPPOSED to be a diverse melting pot of people and experience, should adopt this rigid and inflexible curriculum method.
  • Ashley Muniz on 05 Nov 10
     
    I agree that direct instruction may help some students but I feel like a scripted lesson denies the individuality of the students and the teacher. These types of lessons tell you how to conduct the lesson word for word as well as how to answer students' questions. I feel like this takes all creativity out of teaching and turns the teacher into a robot. These systems are also meant to "teacher-proof" the classroom so that even bad teacher can "teach" as long as they know how to read.
  • ameia sarkisian on 05 Nov 10
     
    Wow and the scripted curriculum even tells the teacher how to answer questions?! If school, especially high school, is supposed to reflect a small scale-real world for students then what kind of message are we sending when we ("we" being teachers) are told how to do everything by a higher power; that we're all more successful if we do everything exactly the same all the time? So much for the development of critical literacy.
Elvira Ledezma

Why are standards important? - Academic Skills | GreatSchools - 1 views

www.greatschools.org/...why-are-standards-important.gs

shared by Elvira Ledezma on 06 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • . These standards become the basis for the way teachers are trained, what they teach and what is on state standardized tests that students take. For example, a first-grade math standard may state that by the end of first grade students are expected to count by 2s, 5s and 10s to 100.
  • . Although poor and minority students have made gains, there is still a big difference — commonly called "the achievement gap" — between what these students have achieved when compared to their more affluent and white peers.
  • Without standards, districts and schools don't have goals to shoot for.
    • Elvira Ledezma
      Elvira Ledezma on 06 Nov 10
       
      As adults we know this is not true, no standards is not equal to no goals!
    • Benjamin Caulder
      Benjamin Caulder on 06 Nov 10
       
      A developmentalist would laugh his/her butt off at that statement because it is impossible to have standards without goals, but not visa-versa.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Critics argue that having rigid standards and tests discourages schools from being innovative and inspiring creativity in their students.
  • Elvira Ledezma on 06 Nov 10
     
    What are national standards
ameia sarkisian

ALA | Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novel... - 3 views

www.ala.org/...index.cfm

shared by ameia sarkisian on 29 Oct 10 - Cached
  • ameia sarkisian on 29 Oct 10
     
    This isn't really an article, but I thought the website might come in handy for people other than myself. Skim some of the reasons why these books are banned form their respective schools...
Evonne Villagomez

Are Students Coddled? Schools Get Rid of 'F's - ABC News - 5 views

abcnews.go.com/...story

shared by Evonne Villagomez on 18 Nov 10 - Cached
    • Jennifer Flores
      Jennifer Flores on 19 Nov 10
       
      Wow! This article blew my mind. I cannot believe that schools would actually go that low. How can they even think about getting rid of F's to help the kids. This is exactly the opposite of what kids really need. I truly believe students receive the grades that they deserve. With hard work comes good grades and with poor work comes poor grades.
  • At one Boston area middle school, a policy known as "Zeros Aren't Permitted" gives students who do not complete their homework on time an opportunity during school hours to finish so that they do not fail the assignment.
    • Evonne Villagomez
      Evonne Villagomez on 19 Nov 10
       
      This is absolutely irritating! Why should these kids, who didn't care to do the assignment in the first place be offered a second chance? I think this is just cause for enabling lazy students. Kids will just assume that 'eh who cares I'll still get the chance to make up the work so I don't have to do it tonight'. It's ridiculous and unfair for those students who are being model students.
  • Kyle Dodson on 18 Nov 10
     
    This article is nothing but angering to me. More and more public schools are ditching the letter grade of "F" for a more friendly rejection grade, relying on an "I" for incomplete or an "H" for held.
  • Michael Horder on 18 Nov 10
     
    This is just stupid. If a child earns and F then that is what they should get. I've heard about this before and I can't believe it. Let's just get rid of A's as well. We can go "credit/no credit" so everyone can feel good about themselves. I see the movie "Idocracy" looming in our future if we make these kind of decisions. That is scary.
  • Jacob Eckrich on 19 Nov 10
     
    The biggest problem with this, is it sets students up for failure later on in life. Part of education is also life application and readiness. If a student who performs badly never "fails" then said student will have a skewes perception of how life works, that will have devestating effects later on lin life.
anonymous

What and How English Teachers Teach - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...27732

Canon EnglishEd

shared by anonymous on 21 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • While the most of the popular titles are classics (Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Gatsby, Huck), the frequency of any one title is low.  The highest scorer appeared in only 22.38 percent of the courses.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 21 Oct 10
       
      Amazing that these texts are taught in very few courses.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 21 Oct 10
       
      Yeah, that is amazing.
  • anonymous on 21 Oct 10
     
    This article discusses texts taught in English classrooms.
Stephanie Flores

Dealing with so-so teachers - Quality Teaching | GreatSchools - 6 views

www.greatschools.org/...mediocre-teacher.gs

shared by Stephanie Flores on 26 Oct 10 - No Cached
    • Stephanie Flores
      Stephanie Flores on 26 Oct 10
       
      I thought this was interesting. This quote goes along with the articles on teacher tenure. I'm curious if the "weakness' that is seen in teachers is supposed to be compensated with parent involvement?
    • Michael Horder
      Michael Horder on 01 Nov 10
       
      So parents should do the teachers job! Should they get some of the pay as well. Don't get me wrong I think parents should be more involved in their children's education but they should not have to compensate for a weak teacher. Just get rid of the weak teacher or retrain them.
    • Anthony Logan
      Anthony Logan on 02 Nov 10
       
      I'm actually curious as to whether they (meaning parents) realize that these things are totally going under the radar and how helpful they could be.  I mean, at some point, the blame has to be shared equally.
    • Stephanie Flores
      Stephanie Flores on 05 Nov 10
       
      M- I'm on the same page as you. I mean I've heard of parents that are too involved with schools and their child (some have even requested to be in the class with their child!), but parents having to teach their kids at home when the teacher should be doing it is obsurd! I'm old school, so I'm all about getting rid of teachers who don't bring their all. A- Same here. I was wondering if parents were aware of what was going on in the school. Also, I don't remember seeing a state, city, district, etc. that said where this "supplementing" was occuring. I agree that if things stay on this path blame will be on both parties and it will be the student that suffers.
    • Shannon George
      Shannon George on 14 Nov 10
       
      It could be because all of my research on Tenure, but the problem here is is THE SO-SO TEACHER! It is very frustrating to know that teachers are so protected that it is now easier to tell parents to pick up the slack then have the teacher fired.
    • Stephanie Flores
      Stephanie Flores on 26 Oct 10
       
      Ha ha!
    • Elvira Ledezma
      Elvira Ledezma on 18 Nov 10
       
      Strategic Support! As a parent I have encountered problems with my daughter's teachers but most of them don't what this kind of support
    • Evonne Villagomez
      Evonne Villagomez on 19 Nov 10
       
      I've witnessed the total opposite of what this is saying also. A lot of teachers become offended and angered when you try to suggest offering that kind of support . I think most teachers feel like it is the child who is not performing well and not them, but in actuality it is the teacher who is doing a poor job.
Linda Garcia

ASCD Infobrief:Examining Charter Schools:Examining Charter Schools - 1 views

www.ascd.org/...Examining-Charter-Schools.aspx

shared by Linda Garcia on 28 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • By definition, the common link among these 5,000-plus schools is their acceptance of increased accountability in exchange for increased autonomy, but the schools themselves may have little in common
  • More than three-quarters of charter schools nationwide are freestanding, started by educators, parents, activists, and others
  • Although Americans' approval of charter schools has increased 15 percent in the last five years and reached a two-thirds favorable rating, half of the respondents to a recent Phi Delta Kappan poll mistakenly believe that charters are not public schools and are allowed to teach religion.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • saying that charter schools are vital to promoting innovation in American schools (Obama, 2009)
  • With so much variation among charter schools, however, significant questions exist regarding how well they are educating students, how they manage their financial responsibilities, and whether creating more charter schools will be better for the nation's schoolchildren.
  • In 2009, Secretary Duncan made lifting charter caps a key component of qualifying for education funding under the $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) program. Originally, to qualify for RTTT money, Duncan said states must eliminate any caps on charter schools. In November 2009, Duncan changed the requirement so that states with caps could still receive money if they had other kinds of innovative public schools and as long as the caps were generous enough (The Wall Street Journal, 2009).
  • Parents' demand for charter schools is outpacing their availability in many locations, with an estimated 365,000 students on waitlists—enough to fill more than 1,100 average-sized charter schools
  • In Montana, where there are no charter schools and where more than half of the state's school districts have enrollments of fewer than 100 students, Superintendent of Schools Denise Juneau objected to the RTTT focus on charter schools in a July 28 letter to Secretary Duncan. "Montana's rural context and economic status has made it challenging for many communities and the state to support the public schools we currently have," Juneau wrote in the letter, "much less encourage the duplication of infrastructure a charter school would mean in most communities" (McNeil, 2009).
  • "The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and third-rate schools to exist," he said, in reference to a recent study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University that found that more than 80 percent of charter schools were performing the same as or worse than their local public schools (2009).
  • The comparison found that only 17 percent of charter schools were producing gains that were significantly better than their traditional public school counterparts, while 46 percent were similar to their local public schools and 37 percent performed significantly worse (Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 2009).
  • In contrast, another recent study by Stanford economics professor Caroline Hoxby found that students who entered lotteries and gained admission to New York City charter schools performed better on state assessments than students who entered the same lotteries and were not admitted to the charter schools.
  • The findings of both studies have been disputed. Critics of the Hoxby study point out that it relies on extrapolations of data, comparing statistical projections of student achievement as opposed to actual student achievement (Ravitch, 2009). Critics of the CREDO study raise doubts about its seemingly contradictory findings that charter schools provided gains for English language learners and poor students while having negative effects on Hispanic and black students (Anderson, 2009).
  • For middle and high school charters that did have baseline scores, that study found charter schools in five of the seven locations it examined were on average no better or worse than local traditional public schools (Zimmer et al., 2009).
  • Of the more than 5,250 charter schools that have ever opened, 657 have closed since 1992. Of those, 41 percent closed because of financial deficiencies caused by either low enrollment or inequitable funding; 27 percent for mismanagement; and only 14 percent for poor academic performance (Allen et al., 2009).
  • A 2005 analysis by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) found that 90 percent of authorizers were local school districts, and two-thirds lacked a dedicated office or staff to oversee the authorizing process (Vanourek, 2005). NAPCS, which has described quality authorizing as an intensive, data-driven process that requires dedicating substantial resources to the task, has called for stricter accountability for local school boards and other entities that authorize charter schools
  • anonymous on 28 Oct 10
     
    An examination of charter schools
Michelle Arce

Making Instructional Adaptations for English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom: Is I... - 3 views

findarticles.com/...ai_n17186319

ELL in mainstream classrooms

shared by Michelle Arce on 28 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Michelle Arce on 28 Oct 10
     
    Article revolving around EL learners... Is enough being done to help these students?
Jennifer Flores

Teachers fight scripted curriculum - SFGate - 1 views

articles.sfgate.com/...chool-districts-middle-schools

While many compromise by using an anthology these teachers fight for novels.

shared by Jennifer Flores on 19 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Jennifer Flores on 19 Nov 10
     
    This article is about teachers who are fighting for literature in the classroom.
  • Ryan Williams on 19 Nov 10
     
    wow this article really makes me reconsider becoming a teacher. In fact this was a nightmare of mine, teaching no complete books and novels. How can students question texts critically if they cannot even finish the book. I find this new age teaching style insanely counterproductive because like the article stated some text provide a spark for the students to begin to question critically. If we continue to only use sections of full texts then the students are missing out on more possible discussion. The future seems darker for not only the students but for the teachers that once had to read a whole book and think.
Evonne Villagomez

Jay Mathews - Five Ways to Boost Charter Schools - washingtonpost.com - 2 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2007091800577.html

shared by Evonne Villagomez on 18 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • These independent public schools give smart educators with fresh ideas a chance to show what they can do without the deadening hand of the local school system bureaucracy around their necks
  • Evonne Villagomez on 18 Nov 10
     
    This article argues that charter schools as a whole are not performing any better than traditional public schools. The auhtor gives a list of five recommendations as to how to improve charter schools.
  • Jennifer Flores on 19 Nov 10
     
    Evonne, I think it is so cool that you are doing your research paper on charter schools. I am taking another class with Kathee and we had a teacher come and talk to us about teaching at University High. What I gained from her presentation that there a lot of pros versus cons. I was totally considering teaching at a charter school after the presentation. Things seem so much easier than public schools, but that can be a myth. Let me know what you come up with. : )
1 - 11 of 11
Showing 20▼ items per page