A Preview of the Year

This year I will be embarking on a new voyage. I am still going to be a middle school English teacher (7th and 8th) and I will still have my section of AP English. But this year, I am going to finally start becoming an instructional coach. This is well before my 5 year plan, so I am pumped. I will not be getting into much detail about it right now, as I have a 2 year crying in his crib and I still have loads of work to do, but I thought I'd give a small preview of what I am going to try to accomplish this year.

1. PLC- I am starting a PLC in my building (I know we are behind the curve) and we are going to focus on the book "Teach Like a Pirate"
2. PD- I am offering PD in reading strategies, writing strategies, how data can inform curriculum and instruction, among many other opportunities
3.  Conference- I will be a break out presenter at the KSRA conference. I am hoping to eventually publish a paper but who knows.

I will keep you posted. So far I am excited!!

Breaking apart words while reading

Here is a short video clip on ways for students to break apart words while continuously reading. This is only a small sample of the numerous ways you can help your students!

Reflections: Zull: From Brain to Mind

Chapter Six: The Basics

            In the sixth chapter of Zull’s text entitled The Basics Zull discusses how our brains understand symbols.  Zull opens the chapter (after his narrative introduction) with the sentence, “Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the human brain is its ability to represent ourselves, our world, our images, our feelings, and our experiences with symbols and combinations of symbols” (Zull 142) According to Zull the two most apparent examples of the brain’s ability to do this are in the form of math and language, believing both to be symbolic systems. Zull feels one of the primary goals or “basic” goals of education are to help students develop their understanding of these two symbolic systems.  I believe this is true too. While reading the two most important sections for me were: How to Fall into the Trap on page 151 and An Alternative: Math through Experience on page 159.     

            Zull opens the chapter with an account of a freshman class whose understanding of DNA is greatly exaggerated.  Metaphorically speaking the class can talk the talk of DNA but they cannot walk the walk. They have no true understanding of the nature of DNA. Zull circles back to this story in the section, How to Fall into the Trap. As a middle school teacher I found this section to be particularly powerful because I can relate to the idea of students “knowing” something without mastering it. Or as Zull points out, they are learning it without images. They are not connecting it to anything and therefore students are not finding meaning. For me, this is most evident with grammar. A lot of advanced grammatical concepts fall in the 7^th and 8^th grade state standards. In this case I am saying advanced in the sense of moving away from basic parts of speech and into clauses, phrases, gerunds etc. I try very hard to teach grammar as “organically” as possible by trying to embed grammar lessons into the students writing, and by working on different grammatical issues with different student groups based on their needs; but, I can still sense the dread in my students when we discuss grammar. By the end of the units, I feel my students have the basic understanding. However, as previously mentioned, I have students two years in a row. So much like Zull’s freshman when we circle back to a topic the next year my students can talk about it, but still make the same mistakes.

            This past year I had an 8^th grader who wrote in a very boring style. All of his sentences were structurally the same, either simple or sometimes compound with a basic conjunction. In 7^th grade I introduce and discuss dependent clauses. When I asked him what they were as an 8^th grader he could give me a pretty close definition. So I tried to have him show me a dependent clause in his writing.  He struggled to find any, and furthermore he struggled to add any into his writing. I grew frustrated because I felt like I had covered the material.  In the end, he was able to add some sentence variation to his writing, but still needed prompting to do so. While reading this chapter of Zull, I could not help but draw parallels from his freshman students to my middle school students. They could not connect to the grammatical concepts because they were not able to create images and meaning to the symbols. 

While writing this and while reading the chapter I find myself wondering how can I create symbols when teaching grammar in a way that is meaningful to my students in order for them to understand grammar.  Do they see grammar rules as something “silly” that is done in English class, but everyone can read and write, so do they really have to know what a gerund is?  A goal I have for myself this year is to figure out ways to make grammar meaningful for my students.

On a more personal note, I found myself reminiscing about my undergrad years when reading the section, “An Alternative: Math Through Experience.”  Through high school, and most of college I had been a liberal arts person. I gravitated towards History and English as opposed to Math and Science. In fact, I viewed them as classes you had to take in order to graduate. I survived them, I memorized the formulas I needed in order to pass the course.  I was not invested in them.  This changed when I got to my junior year in college. I needed one more math credit to fulfill my general education credits. I asked around and I find out that Astronomy in the summer was easy and it counted as both a math and a science credit. I always liked the idea of space, so, I enrolled. An interesting thing happened. I actually enjoyed it.  We had to calculate the weight of stars and planets and guess cosmic bodies flight patterns etc. For whatever reason, I found that I really enjoyed the math. It was crazy (I know not professional) to me how I could figure out the distance between Earth and other planets. I did not think it was possible for me to do this because I always hated math. But yet, here I was figuring out the density of other planets and what that would mean to an astronaut exploring the planet.

I mention this because I wonder what would have been different in my life if I had a math or science teacher in high school, or middle school that encouraged this kind of math exploration. I could have very well ended up working as a math teacher, or even an engineer of some kind. When Zull says, “The most effective education comes from the natural interests and instincts of each learner, developed through his or her own experiences” (159).  By which Zull means the joy of learning. I enjoyed learning about these big math problems because they meant something to me. In high school I did not enjoy learning about a small math problem from a book because I could not connect to it. It was a task that needed completed to graduate, not a ticket to explore the cosmos.

This chapter really focused on Zull’s premise of moving the brain to the mind. How we as educators really need to be specific in our approaches and how we need to remember how our students’ brains work.  I liked how at the end of the chapter Zull reminds the reader (presumably educators) to remember the impact of images and how the use of them can bring joy to learners.  

Learning to Compose a story for Print

Here is a short self-contained video on how to elicit a students response when writing a story.  Things to remember:

1. Don't ask to many questions
2. Don't correct to much
3. Allow for expansion
4. Allow for pregnant pauses.

Also, thanks to my wife for participating in the video.

The video should speak for itself! Enjoy!

Reflections: Zull: From Brain to Mind (Part Five)

Chapter Five: Getting the Picture

            In the fifth chapter of his book, Zull shifts focus to the power of an image. He begins the chapter with a description of how one imagine can conjure up another image. In this case, the image of a boy putting his arm around a girl and a knowledge of clouds.  Zull’s research has lead him to assert that images are extremely critical in the journey of Brain to Mind. This chapter was impacted me personally and professionally.  The two most impactful ideas in this chapter to me were: how we need to start teaching the power of images at a young age, and how instructionally we need to be mindful of the images we choose.

Zull believes images are critca to the journey of brain to mind to be particularly true for newborns and toddlers. He believes that we should make sure we are teaching and exposing children to images that are impactful to their lives and meaningful to the child’s development.

            One of the images that Zull feels we should focus on with infants is a face. As a father of a young 22 month-old. I found this section to be personally very interesting. As our son is beginning to learn language and move from babbling to speaking it is amazing to see what words he picks up and words he struggles with. Until reading this section, I assumed it was almost random. But, now looking around our house it makes sense. One of the first words our son really learned was “ball.”  We have lots of balls in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and a lot of his books have pictures of balls in them.  Any round sphere is now a ball. But he probably associated that image as important.  Furthermore, we have always been good about learning facial expressions and showing him faces of our extended family. It is always a nice party trick when he shows up to a family gathering and can say someone’s name after not seeing them in a long time. Zull would probably say that he saw that we were excited when he could see the image and recall its name and he felt rewarded therefore he wanted to repeat the process numerous times. 

            As for my professional life, I found myself wondering about how I use images in my classroom. More specifically what am I using the images for? What is there purpose. Zull states in the section, “Being Mindful” on page 136 that images should be: complex, cause genuine reflection, and are personal. In my classroom I can think of two major uses of images, one for vocabulary, and one for close reading.

            Every few weeks, I give my students a cumulative vocabulary quiz. It is essentially a review test of previous quizzes. In order to review I play a review game that combines Pictionary and Charades. The class is divided into teams and each team sends up a volunteer and the student then must either act out the word or draw the word. The students really do get into the game, even though they do not win a prize. However, now I understand the benefits of the game. The students are remembering the actions or drawings of the volunteers and associating it with the word. So later when they see a word like, “bequeath” the student associates the word with a student “dying and giving me his wallet as a ghost”.  Much like how Zull associates the names of clouds with young love. The images created by the students are complex, and personal. They remember the image over a rote definition.

            The other common way I incorporate images into my curriculum is when I teach and reteach close reading. I find students learn better when they understand the “why” not just the “what” so to teach why we close read I like to use images and movie clips. I use old “Highlights” magazine hidden images pictures throughout the year as a warm-up activity. I use the image to reinforce the idea in students that they may see the picture but miss the details, and when we close read we need to understand all the details in the picture. On one hand, it is fun, not time consuming, and my students enjoy trying to find the hidden pictures. On the other hand, students are making the connection to “re-reading” the picture and “re-reading” the text. 

An activity I also use that goes hand-in-hand with the “Highlights” pictures is I like to show movie clips from classic movies and have students watch multiple viewings of them and watch as the students’ understanding of the movie grows. One particularly powerful clip comes from “North By Northwest” an Alfred Hitchcock movie. In the film, there is a scene in which the main character shoots a woman in a restaurant at Mt. Rushmore. After the first “read” of the movie I ask basic questions such as, “Who is the good guy?” and “Where are they?”. Without fail most students think the hero is the bad guy, because he shoots a woman, and they are just at a restaurant. Mt. Rushmore is prominently featured in the background taking up almost half the screen and yet my students miss it.  So like Zull suggested, I pause it, and let students digest what they are seeing. Even without the context of the whole movie students begin to see that the setting of Mt. Rushmore must be crucial to the setting of the movie.  I have found this activity to be very successful in showing students why you re-read and how even good readers miss important details the first time.  The images become a way for my students to understand the “why” of close reading and not just the “what”. They remember not seeing the hidden object at first, or the giant president’s head in the background when they read and know that is why they should re-read they may have missed something.

After reading Zull, I firmly believe that I should double down on these practices next year. I use to know they were impactful but not why they were impactful. After reading this section I now understand why students enjoy these activities and why they are learning from them.  I am going to challenge myself to try to incorporate more images (both mine and student created) into my lessons next year. The power of images is something I am not tapping into that I feel could positively impact my students’ growth in the classroom. 

Reflections on: Zull: From Brain to Mind (Part Four)

Chapter Four: Deeper Learning Through Integration

            In the fourth chapter, Zull aims to discuss how and why “we want learners to go beyond borrowed knowledge and skills and develop their own thoughts and ideas.” (84)  In this chapter Zull continues his overall themes of: choice in education and how an intrinsically motivated student is more apt to learn.  As a secondary teacher the two most striking sections in this chapter were “Integrating the Subjects” and “Dependency.”  His arguments are succinct and I find myself agreeing with him, yet I wonder how practical they could truly be. It would take a dramatic overhaul of the current education model. But then again, maybe we need to occasionally turn things on their head. We live in a different time period, and we have more knowledge. Why not use the new knowledge by putting it to better use in the classroom? As I read chapter four I found myself getting energized for next school year. I can easily imagine implementing Zull’s ideas in this chapter into my current classroom.

            One of the most obvious ways I can see implanting his ideas came in the section “Integrating the Subjects” on page 100.  I predominately teach 7^th and 8^th grade students, however, I fortunately get to also teach AP Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition (the courses alternate each year).  This section got me thinking about my AP sections. In both sections students are required to read and dissect classic texts (in the form of: novels, essays, speeches etc.) in order to show an academic understanding of the author’s indent in writing or delivering the text.  An unavoidable truth about the course is that students possessing a strong grasp of history, particularly social history, do better than students who lack this background knowledge.  Every year I encourage students to take their history course seriously because it will help in their understanding of why these works are so highly valued by our society.  Zull would argue that the students are categorizing history as a standalone class and English as separate class. This may be the first time the students are seeing the importance of how one class can affect another. As I was reading this I kept thinking about how easily it would be to try and coordinate with the history teacher in order to try align our curriculums in a way that would be help our students.  Could we even co-teach at times in order to help fill in the gaps?

I attempted this idea with our AP Biology teacher this past year and it worked out really well. He had the students read a non-fiction book about a scientific principal they would cover in class and write an academic paper on the text.  I helped the students learn how to “read” a non-fiction work in order to write the paper and he helped them understand the ideas presented in the book.  We both felt that is was a rewarding experience for the students and as we had many of the same students it was mutually beneficial in that I was able to reinforce a reading and writing practice and he could use the assignment to differentiate his instruction based on the student’s interest.  I would love to take this model and apply to the history department. I think my students’ analysis would greatly improve if their historical background improved. Furthermore, as Zull suggests, if students begin to see how one course can impact another they may begin to see education as a whole, and not just “I like math, and hate English” so I try in one class and not the other.

            As much as the section energized me about next year the section “Dependency,” on page 104, filled me with courage to try something again.  In this section, Zull argues for more open-ended assignments that are student driven. I tried it this year - to mixed results. 

            Each week, I have the students read an article of the week. They can pick from four to six articles and they need to write a short response to the article. The articles range in difficulty and in topics.  For the most part, most students liked the articles.  Towards the middle of the year, I had the students select their favorite article, and then I gave them a couple of Fridays to further research the topic of their article.  I read that Apple and Google give their workers a “genius hour” and let them work on anything they want; I was trying to use this model in my classroom. To do this, I gave my students several Fridays to research and then they had to “present” me with something showing me what they learned. I encouraged brochures or posters.  Optimistically, it went okay. Realistically it went great for my “top” section and lower sections but not so great for my “middle” section. The top section ran with it, and loved it, furthermore the lower section really got into researching the topic. Their overall products were not as good, but the time and effort they put in was fascinating to watch. They genuinely were interested in learning. However, my “middle” group just wanted to complete the task. Their research was uninspired, and it showed in their work.

I was very disappointed in the outcome because I was hoping that if I gave students a choice, and let them discover information they would challenge themselves and be rewarded for their efforts by learning something on their own. Instead I felt like they just saw it as another assignment they needed to complete. At the end of the year I was leaning on not doing this part of the assignment again.  But after reading this book I feel re-energized about the assignment. I feel that Zull would encourage work like this, and it is possible that the students have never been allowed to do something like this before and didn’t know how to do it. So instead of being dejected and quitting I think I should double-down and do more assignments like this.  I obviously need to revisit the assignment and look at how I can change it to help my students best, and I need to patient. It may take some students several attempts at working in this structure to have success. I may struggle, but I feel that it is a valid struggle.

As previously, stated this chapter was very energizing for me. I liked how succinct his writing is and how he challenges the status quo.  I imagine he is an advocate for challenging students with difficult tasks, that have real outcomes. I think if I would have had him as a science teacher in high school, or college my career path may have been different.     

Reflections on: Zull: From Brain to Mind (Part Three)

Chapter Three: Finding Freedom, Finding the Joy

            In the third chapter of his book, From Brain to Mind Zull focuses on how learning takes place through action but learning is driven by emotion. Zull opens with a narrative about a time when he had to teach himself a theory and the struggles that came with teaching himself. Zull stumbled upon the realization that the struggle is worth it because in the end he felt true happiness in overcoming a difficult task and learning something on his own accord. I feel Zull would approve of the idea of students working on their own, and teachers differentiating their instruction to meet the needs of their students.  For me, my two most impactful sections were, “Mistakes and Joyful Education,” and “Do Front Cortex Things,” because as a secondary teacher I can immediately imagine an impact on our students if our school implemented this philosophy.

            In the section “Mistakes and Joyful Education” Zull espouses the idea that students should struggle, and be allowed to struggle. In fact, he even states teachers should be concerned if a student is not making any mistakes.  I love the idea of trial and error in education. I feel as long as a student is not demoralized with repeated failures it is so beneficial for them to learn how to overcome failure and learn the joys of success and hard work. 

This past school year I was working with a student on a story in which they had to write about the day in the life of a middle school student who was the opposite gender of them. So boys had to write about a girl’s day and vice versa. The goal in my mind was to teach them how author’s use different perspectives in their writing and how when you write you need to use details and other clues to help the reader picture the story.  This young male student wrote a very generic story about a girl, and normally he is a very strong writer but this was not his best writing. During a conference I asked him what was going on, and he said that he didn’t know “girl stuff” and wanted me to help him. So I told him no. This was shocking to him. But I told him if he kept trying I would help. Eventually after another draft or two, he was able to flesh out his character.  At the end of the year I usually give the kids a survey to fill out and he said that this story was his favorite because he worked so hard on it. I think Zull would say that it was his favorite because he found the joy in his work. He expected me to tell him what to write and instead he found it himself and gained confidence as a writer.

The second takeaway for me in chapter three was the section “Do Front Cortex Things.”  This past year I have been lucky enough to be put in an unofficial coaching role in my school. I still have classes but I lead professional developments and work with teachers on a variety of subjects. One piece of advice I keep telling teachers is, “choice, choice, choice.” I have seen the benefits in my own room, and this year I was able to see the benefits in other disciplines as well. I try hard to allow my students a choice in an existing framework as Zull mentioned and I have really seen my students flourish.  This past year I made my AP students do an independent literature project in which they were required to read additional novels outside of the class novel and write about it, and discuss it with peers in the class. I was hesitant that I would receive a lot of pushback from my students because of the additional workload of yet another book and paper, but was pleasantly surprised to find out most of the enjoyed the assignment. As the year went on they regularly commented on how they liked reading at their own pace, and having the ability to pick a text from a list, instead of being told what to read. When reading this chapter, it was hard not to think of my AP class, and how well they responded to the choice and how it will (hopefully) positively impact their AP scores. 

I know creating an environment where students can struggle, sometimes fail, and have choice can be challenging and sometimes even daunting but the benefits far out way the work.  I always feel as though my fall and early winter are chaotic because I am establishing my routines and creating a safe environment for kids to fail. But I have noticed each year as I get better at teaching my late winter and spring slow down and my colleagues speeds up. Students get bored in other classes and behavior issues arise. This is not to say I have no behavior problems or that I am a master teacher but I truly feel that a lot of my successes have come from giving students choices in what they work on, and allowing them to work through failures. I understand now that Zull would back this assertion because the brain is actually rewarding my students and intrinsically motivating them to do better and learn more.

 Throughout this chapter I kept thinking of my struggling learners. Specifically, how we (meaning educators) eliminate options for them, and try to spoon feed them answers because school is too hard, or they are behaviorally difficult. I wonder how we can take the ideas Zull presents and apply it to students who struggle at an early age and try to “catch” them before they fall through the cracks?  I don’t have an answer but I do feel a new sense of purpose for the upcoming year in trying to figure out a way to reach my struggling learners.