Standards for Authentic Achievement and Pedagogy

In their article, Wehlage, Newman, and Secada give what I think is an apt analysis of the potential disparity between the skills students are taught in a traditional school setting and what is actually needed for true intellectual development, or "authentic achievement". True "authentic achievement", as the authors define it, consists of three major factors that can often be neglected in traditional school settings. These factors include the ability to construct new knowledge out of a foundation of knowledge provided by others, the ability to conduct a "disciplined inquiry" (that is the ability to build on a knowledge base in a way that produces a deep and non-superficial understanding of the material), and the ability to build on learning that fosters skills applicable beyond the classroom. What I love about framing authentic achievement under these pre-requisites is that the definition is both simple and, as it seems to me, universally applicable to any specific subject matter. As a history major thinking back on my high school experience, for example, all of these factors have come into mind. In particular the first pre-requisite defined by the authors, the ability to construct new knowledge, struck me as a simple and obvious element that could often be neglected in my secondary education. For the vast majority of my high school experience, I treated history as the practice of memorizing and regurgitating names and dates. While it may have been implied, I was never explicitly told that  history was more about creating new ideas out of the information available than about simply memorizing that information. Simply having that concept of achievement in mind would frame history in a much different light for students, and would both make the subject more  attractive for them and encourage them to approach the material on an intellectual level.

Standards for Authentic Achievement and Pedagogy

In Standards for Authentic Achievement and Pedagogy, Nemann et al.'s goal was to encourage authentic achievement, which depends on construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and value of learning beyond school. I appreciated that they acknowledged that conventional methods have allowed for a lot of meaningless work to be assigned which exposes students to hundreds of "isolated pieces of knowledge" and provides them with superficial understandings of complex topics and doesn't prepare them to use this knowledge in the working world. They advocate for students' construction of knowledge, by encouraging students to produce their own original works rather than simply asking them to regurgitate what others have produced. The disciplined inquiry involves building upon students' funds of knowledge, digging deep into topics, and expressing one's findings through elaborated communication. Lastly, teachers should strive to teach in ways that show the value of their field beyond the classroom. This called to mind the final portfolios that students had to prepare in The Flat World and Education that they presented to real professionals, which gave them the opportunity to see the relevancy of their work. An important qualifier they included was that they don't expect all classroom activities to meet these standards at all times because sometimes repetitive work is necessary; but still, we should keep authentic achievement in mind as the ideal end goal. Some of the examples of authentic learning that I liked were having students write letters to senators about local issues and mailing them and taking students to an amusement park to conduct physics research and brainstorm ideas for creating their own park. These examples showed that teaching that yields authentic achievement can be done. I believe that it's not a question of what students are capable of producing but rather what we ask them to produce.     

Adolescent Literacy in the Era of the Common Core

I found the implementation of reading, writing, and presentation skills into the major content areas of the common core standards great as well as the stance that this article presents on this change. And this is not only because I am an English major.  Like the article addresses, I think that it is somewhat common sense that ELA should be incorporated into all subject areas.  I believe that this provides a more interactive approach to the curriculums as well as prepare the students for their academic and professional careers. Although some teachers may find it difficult to incorporate additional standards on top of the standards that they already have for their subject, it is evident that the two standards overlap and can be completed simultaneously.  This will also allow the students to better grasp the subject matter.
I enjoy the way that this article incorporates the growth mindset and the zone of proximal development into these core standards.  It always worries me when standards are set on a classroom because it gives the teacher little freedom to adapt their lessons in the way that they believe best fits their students.  However, the authors of this article point out how the Common Core Standards are just vague enough to ensure that this does not happen while still giving the teachers and students and end goal to strive for.  Although I have not read all of the Common Core Standards, it worries me when they discuss which specific vocabulary words students need to learn as well as which topics they need to discuss.  I think that this reduces the individualization of the curriculum which is a necessary component in education.  Overall, I enjoyed this article and I think that it gave me good insight about the Common Core and the positive role it is playing in schools.

Adolescent Literacy in the Era of the Common Core

As someone who wants to teach a science class, I found this reading really interesting. I definitely think there is value in more cross-class collaboration (I did come to a Liberal Arts school after all). I found myself thinking of ways I could implement the six shifts in a biology class. Oftentimes, especially in high school, biology tests and quizzes are multiple choice, which makes sense when there's either a right or wrong answer and there is no work to show. However, there are a lot of opportunities for short-answer or essay questions. Many of the things and process taught in high school level biology can be complex and in depth. I can imagine ways to incorporate more writing and specifically the six shifts this chapter talks about in my future class- and I can't wait!

Adolescent Literacy in the Era of the Common Core

Like Ileana, I did not know much about the Common Core before reading this article. I find it interesting that part of the standard is to integrate literacy and writing into all classes, not just ELA classes. This is something I noticed a teacher doing at the Winston School last semester while I was observing. She taught math classes and before every test, the students were to turn in a biography about a famous mathematician. Some of the students did not enjoy the assignment, but it is a great way to integrate writing into a subject that is typically comprised completely of numbers, variables, and graphs. Even today in my observation, my mentor teacher was integrating writing into the curriculum. As part of the Pre-AP Algebra II students exam this week, they will be asked to write a one-page essay about what they've been learning in the class. The assignment is technically for extra credit, but I think it's a great way to get students to want to write about math.

As far as vocabulary goes, I think that is something that is fairly easy to integrate into all subject areas. It is so important to know the vocabulary when learning a new subject so that you can effectively discuss it in class. This brings me to the next thing-- discussion. I love learning through discussion. If there is ever any material that I'm unsure about, I make sure to try and have a discussion with someone about it. That may be a specific type of learning, but I think it's helpful to all students if they can discuss the subjects they are learning in class.

One of my favorite points of this article was the point about Digital Literacy. When I was in high school, we had one computer class. and we learned the basics about Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but it would have been nice to have more integration of technology in our classes. I still don't really know how to work and SmartBoard and those are in almost every classroom now. Students are so tech-savvy these days that it doesn't make sense to not assign readings online or to have them watch video clips on the Internet. It seems as if they'd be more likely to pay attention to these things than to pay attention to text.

Overall, I'm very excited to continue learning about the Common Core and all of the changes it is making to all subject areas. I like the integration of several subjects, especially. This reminds me of the last chapter we read where students had long blocks of a class, but the classes integrated several subject areas.

Adolescents Literacy in the Era of the Common Core

This reading is a good insight into the changes being made in the curriculum. Me being a product of the factory styled classroom it is exciting to hear changes being made to the curriculum. I liked hearing about discussions being an important part of the classroom. This is something important in the Trinity curriculum, and I really enjoy having class discussions. I wish discussions were a bigger part in my high school because they enrich the material and help develop students social skills. The reading gave a more general look of how things are changing in the classroom. As someone that wants to be a math teacher, I'd like to learn more about the specific changes that are occurring in math classes.  

Adolescent Literacy in the Era of the Common Core

I really enjoyed reading this article--I thought it really illuminated some of the effects that the implementation of the common core is having in schools around the nation, and in suffice to say, I am a fan.

I read this through two specific lenses, one as a college student who has heard for years about the value of a solid foundation in written expression, the second as a language learner myself.

Throughout my four years at Trinity, I've heard a multitude of times how important it is to be able to express yourself through writing. There's a kind of joke that floats around campus that I'm sure others have heard; professors who teach common curric classes can always tell a science from a humanities major based off of their paper writing abilities. Likewise, my father always insists that I include writing as a skill on resumés, because "that's what the rest of your generation lacks!", etc. He's dramatic about it, but I definitely feel that writing well and putting together coherent thought is something that is lacking in public curriculum--something that I think the common core is trying to combat. By implementing a curriculum that stresses the building of extensive, content-specific vocabularies alongside ensuring a solid foundation in academic expression, I think students will enter both college and "real-world" environments with a better chance of success.

I was also really about to identify with this article as a language learner. I know through my own experiences that it is nearly impossible to have a conversation about anything unless you have specifically studied how to discuss that particular topic. If you don't have the vocabulary, you can't do it. When I studied abroad, I found myself floundering to do the simplest of tasks out in the real world,  like trying to put minutes on a cellphone, or asking directions, but then found myself having fluent conversation about gender inequality or voting policies in class-because that was what I had studied. I was labeled advanced, but couldn't survive at a 10-year-olds level in the world. Knowing the advanced words doesn't mean that you're more capable, it just means that you can throw together an essay. If teachers want to prepare their students for success, they need to ensure that they are providing a well-rounded experience for them. Teachers can no longer assume the knowledge of standard words and phrases. Students talk a lot about the relevancy of what they're learning (the eternal, "but am I ever going to useeee this trig as an adult?!?") so I think it's great that the common core is finally seeking to address the problem of interdisciplinary literacy in school. As the article says, the achievement of adolescents is not the task of  a single teacher, but the task of teams, departments, and schools.

Finally, one other thing that I think is really important from this reading is the discussion of spoken expression. Last semester I had an interesting conversation with a teacher who had taught ELA at the high school level for many years, and she shared with me the importance of developing an environment in which students were allowed to practice their speaking and debating ability, as such an environment allows them to develop their own views and identities. This article touched on that towards the end, mentioning how important it is to structure opportunities for the students to have directed conversation that forces them to use their minds, and uncover unclear answers. It is through those conversations that students stop being passive learners, and take an active role in their own education.

"Adolescent Literacy in the Era of the Common Core" Response

Before this class, I knew very little about Common Core, and before reading this article I knew even less. I was surprised that the literacy standards applied to all subject areas. Of course, literacy is a part of all aspects of life, much less all subject areas. I'm sure as an English major and a prospective English teacher I believe that more than most. But after reviewing the TEKS I was surprised at the cohesion across subject area. These standards will allow students to practice their reading, writing, and presentation skills in a variety of contexts, which is quite similar to the demands of the life after high school. In order for our students to succeed in whatever field they choose they must become literate in a variety of ways, including digital literacy. The most effective ways to accomplish this is to provide, as the article mentions, explicit and student-centered reading/writing/presentation practice. The process should be challenging yet individualized, and enrich the content of the course.

Although I think these literacy standards are a great foundation for each course in secondary education to build from, the article makes a good observation that for some courses these standards are more challenging than others. This is where the advice of the previous articles we've read could come in handy. For those teachers less prepared to teach literacy they can collaborate with ELA teachers for ideas and practice.

Ch. 7 Doing What Matters Most: Developing Competent Teaching

I really enjoyed "Doing What Matters Most: Developing Competent Teaching" because it seemed to break down what teachers can do to be effective and to go beyond simply having good intent. The authors captured this idea in the phrase "...so that good teaching is no longer a magical occurrence." We all can name some of our favorite teachers and maybe identify activities that they led or positive qualities they had, but this chapter seeks to explore specifically what goes into producing successful teachers. A theme that I saw repeated was that teachers, like students, work best when learn from one another through collaboration, have models/scaffolding, constantly reflect on their work, and seek to always improve. In almost every technique, I thought, "that sounds like a good practice for students as well," which makes sense since teachers are life-long learners themselves. Another idea that caught my attention was that goals have to be aligned in an entire system for there to be far-reaching results. A whole school or district must desire for students to focus on learning rather than just high test scores for that goal to be achieved. One teacher with good pedagogical strategies cannot fight a system that doesn't support her. A lot of this information sounded like tidbits I've heard about the MAT (continuing to learn teaching strategies while getting to practice and refine them in classes with mentor teachers), so that makes me excited to think about what lies ahead! Lastly, I was tickled to see the Trinity shout out in the professional development school section. Hollaa :)

Flat World Chapter 7: Doing What Matters Most: Developing Competent Teaching

This chapter of Flat World was one of the most sensible things I've read concerning education in awhile. The chapter tries to answer how we can try to fix the issues in our education system. It supplies what seems like an obvious answer: provide teachers with better training, supports, and more time to take advantage of these supports. Our education system needs to provide more rigorous training and preparation for teachers.  I think Trinity's MAT program is a prime example of the kind of teacher training and education that all future teachers should have access to. I was proud to see Trinity mentioned in this chapter alongside other great programs, especially ones that foster "teacher schools." Studies mentioned in the article suggest that teachers coming out of such programs "feel better prepared to teach and are more highly rated by employers, supervisors, and researchers than other new teachers" (Darling-Hammond 216). Even though I'm only in the undergrad program, I agree with these studies. I already feel better prepared than many beginning teachers, especially those that gained their certificate through a crash course program. But as the article asserts, further training is difficult and expensive for those going into a profession that pays little, especially for those teachers entering into low-income schools. I think in this aspect of education, and in others, we have a lot to learn from educational systems abroad. In many other countries, teachers receive more standardized and comprehensive education at very little or no cost.

I think we also should learn from these schools abroad, which demand less time performing instruction. This allows teachers to use this time to further develop their skills and collaborate with each other. In most high-performing nations teachers are allowed 40%-60% of their time to work with their peers, prepare, and further their learning. Here, we don't even get half that. During the day, in most public schools, teachers have no time to work and collaborate with fellow teachers and only receive 3-5 hours weekly to plan alone. Continued education, evaluation, and preparation are as important later in a teacher's career as early on. So although programs like Trinity's MAT is a great start, we still have work to do to better our educational infrastructure.

Flat World Ch 8. "Prisons and Shopping Malls"

I felt that this chapter of "The Flat World and Education" really struck a chord with me when the author mentioned that many schools are built like prisons focused on control rather than instruction and that, rather than having a single, cohesive common core with a few elective modules, many schools have a "shopping mall" approach with an unwieldy number of classes on a catalog to choose from.

From my own work at a local high school, I spent the entire last week sitting down with students trying to help them (and myself to be honest) understand the catalog they received from counseling office with over 200 courses available to take with fluctuating parameters and a byzantine prerequisite system. I was especially shocked and horrified when the author stated that high schools with more than 1,200 students tend to suffer greatly from the pupil load, especially since the school I work at has a bit over 3,000 students enrolled and, despite the high school's origin as a middle school, there are rumors amongst the students every year that the center of the school used to be an old prison because of the panopticon style construction of schools in the 1970's.

Needless to explain further, I whole-heartedly agree that schools ought to be smaller and courses more streamlined to reduce stress on students and allow teachers to better know their students and dive into more intricate matters within their disciplines.

LDH Ch. 8: Testing, Advisory and Authentic learning

I'm going to follow in Arden's footsteps with a little disjointedness. I'm also trying to avoid a broad discussion of some of the qualities of the schools described in the chapter, as I feel other people have already covered that enough.

At the beginning of the chapter they talk about the differences between the desired outcome of teaching and the "1900s" model, that focuses on fact-based education, and lacks the skills transmission that some schools are now learning to focus on. One quote that really stuck out for me was this: "...most initiatives have focused on trying to make the educational system inherited from the 1900s perform more efficiently, rather than fundamentally rethink how schools are designed..." My immediate thought was TESTING! Tests have historically been used to check student's learning of facts, rather than any other skills they may learn in school. With all of the hoopla that surrounds testing today, I think we can see direct correlation: with the focus on a students standardized test results, many school systems fail to teach them other skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, or intrinsic motivation. Trying to teach them exactly what will be on the test may be the more "efficient" way to teach, but it is efficient and effective only insofar as conforming to outdated school system constructs.

On pages 246 and 247 the authors talk about the advisory periods implemented in successful schools. I won't go into detail about them, because the chapter did plenty of that, but I did want to say that I think its an interesting idea, particularly because of how they typically keep teachers with the same students for 2-4 years. During my placement on Monday I found out that ISA actually has a similar advisory structure! At ISA, an advisor meets with a group of students spanning all four grades, once a week for 30  minutes. They keep the same students each year, with the exception of graduating seniors and a new batch of freshman. My mentor teacher has suggested that I attend a few times, and I encourage other trini-students to see if their mentor teacher participates in an advisory as well!

Later in the chapter they discuss the idea of performance based assessment in conjunction with authentic achievement. One of the core components of that concept is that the students are responsible for presenting their material in front of an informed audience. I am a big, big fan of this concept, because I think it does wonders for actually getting kids to learn. I bet we all can relate: having a project that you can BS your way through, versus one that you are held accountable for? It makes a world of difference. I think we can all recognize this--we've all been in a class where we have to give a presentation, but we know that nobody will ask questions, or we turn in a written assignment where the research required is not much more than reading the abstracts. On the other hand, we've also been put in a situation where we KNOW the other students and professors will ask questions, so we have to do enough work where we become experts on the subject. I've found that it is assignments like these that leave me feeling the most rewarded, along with instilling long-term knowledge that I could talk about to this day. For example, in a marketing class I took two years ago, the final assignment was a group project to be presented before a panel of San Antonio marketing professionals. You can bet I worked 2349845x harder on that project than any other that semester, and my knowledge on the topic definitely paid off. I think having kids do this in high school prepares them for college as well as the "real world".

Ch 8 Organizing for Success: From Inequality to Quality

This entry may seem a little disjointed at times, but I just tried to take down my thoughts and feelings as I read through each section so that I wouldn't forget anything!

The anecdote about Eduardo Rodriguez stuck with me because in one of my classes this semester, I will be tutoring a second grade girl in reading. She will probably have similar problems in reading to Eduardo and it is comforting to see that the strategy of saying "You can do it and you're going to do it" rather than "We'll see if you can do it" has worked so well. That is something I was already planning to do, but it is nice to see my classes connect like this!

I think it is really interesting that so many of the classes at these schools were interdisciplinary. When I was in high school, I would have hated 70-75 minutes classes, but had they been as interesting as these sounded, I think it would have made a big difference! It's always useful to see how several of your subjects can connect to one another.

I went to a small school of about 200 women. It was a private Catholic school, but many of the students were there on substantial scholarships or had parents willing to work a substantially harder to ensure that their daughters got a great education in a small school where she would certainly be known. My school has a 100% graduation rate and a 100% college attendance rate. From what I have seen and experienced, small schools help a lot as far as graduation and college goes.

Reduced pupil loads are the best. When I was in Australia, we were only allowed to take four courses at a time and it helped so much. I was able to put a lot more time and energy into each specific class rather than taking six or seven, like we do here, and only being able to put a little bit of time into each class. They even follow this approach in high school where as seniors, students are allowed to pick and choose what courses they want to continue in that would be most relevant to them as go out into the real world and college.

I worked at KIPP U-Prep for a semester. They have Saturday school there about once a month. One day, I made a comment to one of the students about how I would not have enjoyed going to school on a Saturday, but he responded with how helpful it was and how it really wasn't so bad. As the chapter says, it seems this kid viewed the school as a privilege, not a punishment and so he was able to enjoy it and make full use of it.

I love all of the real world applications that this chapter discusses. There are so many times when students ask about how whatever they're learning actually applies to them, and to know that someone put in all this time to figure out these things! It's really cool and I would have loved it in high school.

I appreciate that in this chapter they talk not only about improving student success, but also helping the teachers out. The teachers are given many opportunities to improve the quality of their instruction, including time to collaborate with each other and to design curriculum. It is important to keep the teachers happy and learning in order to keep the students interested and excited to learn. I also feel like one of the best ways to learn is through collaboration and discussion, which is exactly what these schools are doing for these teachers. I think it's great!

I love the idea of intentionality. It's one that we always use at camp and it's something that I think should spread to more and more schools. Having deep and interconnected reasons for doing certain things or teaching in a certain way and making sure your students know that there is a reason behind everything keeps them much more interested. Every night, our girls share their "deltas," or what could have gone better in their day, as well as how they could have changed it, and their "pluses," or what the highlight of their day was. The girls love this because they know they're going to be able to help offer up solutions for other girls' "deltas" while also receiving support from their cabin mates for their own. There are a lot of things from camp that I'd like to bring to my classroom and this is definitely one of them.

LDH Flat World and Education Ch. 8: Organizing for Success: From Inequality to Quality

This article proved to be interesting as well as explain a great approach to a wide spread issue. Education needs to be of good quality for every student. Chapter 8 spends the first couple of pages describing the problem and what successful schools have done in order to make a change. Reading about how smaller and personalized teaching creates success interested me upon reflecting how I learn best. Also, allowing students to encounter real world issues proves to show that this learned behavior goes beyond the classroom and is a great skill for them to have. All in all, smaller schools with smaller classrooms will effectively help students. In order to achieve this, there are difficulties educators are facing daily. It is hard to acquire inspiring teachers and try to fund these schools. If these problems were able to be turned around, education would vastly change. We need more teachers who are passionate, unprecedented, and ready to move forward into a new environment for students. I believe this can happen because the studies tell the truth in relation to how successful it has been so far. Students will face a challenge if they are encouraged by their teachers to do so and I can only hope to bring this mindset to my classroom one day.

LDH Flat World and Education Ch. 8: Organizing for Success: From Inequality to Quality

This reading was a good insight on what it takes to educate disadvantaged students to be successful. The reading emphasized the importance of a curriculum based around applied real world challenges for the students to try and solve. Also trying to incorporate different subjects into projects. In order for students to gain knowledge and skills they need to be challenged to solve complex issues. Data says this will make students more engaged in their learning because they will feel more satisfaction after solving these challenges. In order for this curriculum to be put into place there needs enough time for teachers to coach their students and get to know them as well as enough time for teachers to collaborate with each other. The reading strongly suggested having smaller schools, so teachers spend more quality with their students. Studies show smaller schools help students be more successfull academically and socially. In an ideal world schools like these would become the norm, but there has been pushback to schools because of a lacking quality teachers and funding. For these schools to become more frequent, there needs to be more quality teachers and more funding for school facilities, technology, and resources needed to make schools successful. There also needs to be more open-mindedness for innovative ideas among people in charge of organizing the schools. As a future teacher, I learned from this reading to get to know my students so I can best relate, challenge, and educate them. I also learned to take teacher's own advice of challenging yourself by not giving up on the harder to reach students.

LDH Flat World and Education Ch. 7: Doing What Matters Most: Developing Competent Teaching

This will be a place for us to discuss the reading for the week of Feb. 8 - please be sure you have jumped in by Feb. 15.

LDH Flat World and Education Ch. 8: Organizing for Success: From Inequality to Quality

This will be a place for us to discuss the next reading.  Please be sure you have jumped into the conversation by next Monday (Feb. 8).

Be The Change - I am both inspired and angry

Dr. Breidenstein was right, I do want to read this whole book! It really was extremely inspiring, and so well written. I honestly wish I could see these teachers specific lesson plans, because I have absolutely no idea how they fit it all in. The author describes that some students came to the school barely knowing how to read. So the teachers had to design curriculum that simultaneously taught basic skills, as well as topics students need to prepare for an elite college. They somehow managed to do this while spending half their time preparing students for the idiocy that is standardized testing and state benchmarks.

I say idiocy because, as stated in the book, the tests and standards do not have anything to do with what the students are actually learning. EPAA was praised for sending students to amazing colleges and reaching the most neglected students, yet they were in danger of being shut down for not meeting these requirements.

I understand the need to be sure schools are actually helping students with the money they receive, accountability is important. But there has to be a better way to measure progress than a test that is biased towards students with a white middle class background. Even then the test don't make much sense. I recently took the 2014 STAAR reading exam for 8th grade. By all accounts I come from an extremely privileged anglo background, I am a History major here at Trinity so I read often, and I got a perfect score on the reading portion of the SAT. And I still struggled to understand an exam meant for EIGHTH GRADERS. There is something very wrong with this picture. You should not need to learn tricks to pass a test.

Be the Change

I really enjoyed the "Be the Change" article. I thought it beautifully portrayed an inspiring example of change for the better. One common theme that I saw throughout the article was that as dreamy or idealistic as it sounded, it was not without struggle. In Trinity classes, we often engage in discussions about how we could alter the education system to better serve students or brainstorm strategies to engage students who seem disinterested. We use phrases like "strive to succeed," "community of support," fighting for equality," etc. which sound awesome but are sometimes too ambiguous to imagine implementing. This article gave specific examples of what these ideals look like and shared the holistic process it took to get there. They discussed the difficult lives of the students (involved in drug trade or gang activity, whose parents who may not have graduated from high school, who were fluent in Spanish but not English, etc.), the bumps along the way ("plumbing disasters and wiring inadequacies"), and the continuous effort it took (re-designing curriculum, collaborating and training staff.) I appreciated hearing about all of the obstacles along the way because it showed the depth of their determination and the force with which they charged toward their goals. It brought to mind the essay question I just wrote about for the MAT application about the importance of grit--I thought the depiction of their journey was a perfect embodiment of grit.