What are you expecting from your students?

“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.” --Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

  What do you expect today?

Summarizing and the Common Core State Standards

In response to a recent blog post about rigor and the Common Core State Standards, Tracy commented:

The CC Bundles mandated to us use "summarizing" extensively. I was a little surprised to see this low level (DOK) task used so often in the bundle. I assigned the summarizing as HW to determine a)who had read the selection and b)to determine their comprehension of it.

There are a couple of key points here.  First, summarizing may or may not be a low level task.  For students who have never summarized, the task of pulling out key information to describe in a few words what they have read or learned may be challenging.  However, many students simply write down the topic sentence, or something you said, or write down everything they know hoping you will choose the correct part.  None of those are summarizing.   As a result, you may need to teach the skill of summarizing.  However, then we need to move to the next level of analyzing and synthesizing information.  But remember, unless a student can summarize, he or she can't move to the next step!

Meeting the Common Core State Standards

This was a tweet a couple of weeks ago related to the Common Core State Standards:

Challenge for my fellow #ascd12 attendees: Tell every vendor it's students, not products or curriculum, that meet Common Core standards.@eduleadership

I worked for three publishing companies for a total of ten years.  The most important lesson I learned?  That it's never the materials; it's what a teacher does with those materials.  Do the right materials help?  Yes, but the materials don't help students grow--YOU DO!!

 

Expectations and Labeling

My dad recently gave me a copy of a poem written and given to him by a fifth grader.  What does this tell you about expectations for students?

Man, man, put him in a can.

Place a label on him,  pretend to understand.

Yet excuse him, defend him.

If he doesn't fit in,

Tear off the label and try it again.

5^th grade student

Quite telling, isn't it?  How many of the students in your school feel this way?  What can you do to change it for those student who challenge you the most?

Seeing Is Not Learning

One of my mistakes as a teacher was assuming if my students read or saw something, they learned it.  Even if they didn't, we could just do the same thing again.  But repetition does not lead to learning.  Why do I say this?

What are the colors of the word google on their pages?  Don't know? Neither did I.  Thanks to my 14 year-old for another reminder of the importance of teaching. 

The Common Core State Standards and Text Complexity

Looking for help providing support for students with the Common Core State Standards and text complexity? 

One of the areas of emphasis in the new Common Core State Standards is to move students to higher levels of text materials. Supporting students to read and learn at higher levels of text can be challenging, especially if you teach students who are reading below grade level. However, the Common Core State Standards require that we move students to higher levels of text. Providing extra help and scaffolding becomes a critical aspect of helping students succeed. There are three simple ways you can scaffold learning for your students.

Modeling

The first effective strategy is to model for students. In addition to thinking out loud, or talking students through your own learning process, you can model by providing a list of steps to follow as they read. For younger students, at-risk students, English Language Learners, or students with special needs, adding a picture to those steps is helpful.


Read the full article at Suite101 here.

Impossible Dreams

Have you ever thought, this is impossible.  I can't keep going because...my students have so many needs.....I have so much to do....I'm so tired....testing is overwhelming....etc.

This quote is for you!

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”