I don't give many plugs, but here's one that's worthwhile. The Main Idea, a New York City-based outfit that summarizes a new education book each month, has just completed a super-thorough two-part precis of the revised and expanded 2008 edition of "The Skillful Teacher" by Jon Saphier et al. Both the book and the summary are classics. See http://www.themainidea.net for details.

Along with this week's topics is a strong lead article from the November issue of Kappan, a magazine that is surging with a new editor, Joan Richardson.

My best,
Kim

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Quotes of the Week

“A generation ago, few people anywhere imagined that they would witness the dissolution of Soviet totalitarianism, or the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of a multiracial South African democracy, or the transformation of China into a fearsome engine of capitalist commerce. Nor did Americans of an age to remember Selma and Montgomery and Memphis imagine that they would live to see an African-American elected President of the United States. It has happened. No doubt there will be disappointments and difficulties ahead; there always are. But a few months from now a blue-and-white Boeing747 emblazoned UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will touch down on a tarmac somewhere in Europe or Asia or Africa, the door will open, and out will step Barack and Michelle Obama. That is something to look forward to.”
Hendrik Hertzberg in the lead editorial of The New Yorker, Nov. 17, 2008 (p. 40)

“We’ve learned a lot about children’s brains in the last 30 years. It’s time for our actions to reflect our knowledge.”
Ross Greene (see item #1)

“Even in America’s most highly regarded secondary schools, we are not teaching or testing the skills that matter most for college, careers, and citizenship in the 21st century.”
Tony Wagner (see item # 2)

“If you try five things and get all five of them right, you may be failing. If you try 10 things and get eight of them right, you’re a hero.”
Mark Chandler, senior vice president at Cisco Systems (ibid.)

“You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators, without teachers having the same characteristics.”
Seymour Sarason (see item #3)
 

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1. Skill Deficits that Underlie Student Behavior Problems

In this thought-provoking Kappan article, Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor Ross Greene juxtaposes two very different philosophies about children’s behavior:
- Kids do well if they want to.
- Kids do well if they can.
Teachers and parents with the first philosophy assume that misbehaving kids aren’t doing the right thing because they don’t want to. When the child withdraws, sulks, whines, lies, plays hooky, screams, swears, spits, hits, kicks, or destroys property, these adults assume volition and choice. Common adult reactions: He just wants attention. He just wants his own way. He’s manipulating us. He’s not motivated. He’s making bad choices. He has a bad attitude. His brother was the same way. Common solution strategies: motivate the miscreants; give them incentives; reward them if they behave; punish them if they continue to misbehave.
Parents and teachers with the second philosophy assume that misbehaving students lack the skills to do the right thing. With this philosophy, none of the blaming reactions above make sense. The problem isn’t a lack of motivation, not knowing right from wrong, or insufficient punishment. Instead, the adult challenge is to figure out which skills the child needs to be taught to behave more appropriately.
Greene proceeds to identify several clusters of skill deficits that are quite common in troubled students:
• Difficulty reflecting on several thoughts or ideas simultaneously (disorganized); difficulty considering a range of solutions to a problem; difficulty considering the likely outcomes or consequences of one’s actions (impulsive). Most two-year-olds have these deficits – and some don’t outgrow them. School-age children with lagging skills in this area are going to have real problems when they face problems and frustrations. They can’t sort through their thoughts and figure out what’s frustrating them; they can’t think of more than one solution; they impulsively act on the first solution that pops into their head, which is often the worst one; and their frustration and acting-out behavior escalates. “Clearly, we have some skills to teach,” says Greene wryly. “But if the school discipline program emphasizes formal consequences, they’re not going to get taught. Consequences only remind kids of what we don’t want them to do.” They already know that, says Greene. “They need something else from us.”
• Difficulty expressing concerns, needs, or thoughts in words. Students with developmental lags in this area have trouble telling others what’s bothering them and what they need. Life is a lot more difficult, says Greene, when you can’t verbalize I don’t feel like talking, Something’s the matter, I don’t know what to do, I need a break, or I don’t like that. “The reminder to ‘use your words’ won’t help at all if a kid doesn’t have the words,” he says. “It’s the lack of words that often sets the stage for challenging behavior” – verbal aggression like “I hate you!” “Shut up!” “Leave me alone!” or physical acting out like shoving, hitting, throwing things, or bolting from the classroom. “Can kids be taught to articulate their concerns, needs, and thoughts more effectively?” asks Greene. “Absolutely. But not until adults understand that it’s the lack of these skills that is setting the stage for challenging behavior.”
• Difficulty shifting gears from an emotional response to thinking rationally about a situation (separation of affect) – Children who haven’t developed this ability tend to fall apart when they are embarrassed in front of their classmates, get a bad grade, aren’t picked for a team, or feel socially excluded. “These kids may actually feel themselves ‘heating up,’” says Greene, “but often aren’t able to stem the emotional tide until later, when the emotions have subsided and rational thought has returned. Naturally, the heating-up process will be greatly intensified if adults or peers respond in a way that adds fuel to the fire.”
• Difficulty seeing the “grays”; concrete, literal, black-and-white thinking; difficulty deviating from rules, routines, or the original plan; difficulty handling unpredictability, ambiguity, uncertainty, or novelty; difficulty shifting from an original idea or solution; difficulty adapting to changes in plan – Most very young children are this way, but school-age kids who don’t develop a tolerance for ambiguity have the misfortune, says Greene, of being “black and white thinkers stuck in a gray world.” An unexpected substitute teacher, a rescheduled field trip, or another child sitting in “my seat” in the cafeteria can trigger a strong response. “Can black-and-white thinkers be helped to think more flexibly?” asks Greene. “Most definitely – as long as adults recognize that it’s hard to teach kids to be more flexible by being inflexible ourselves.”
The key, he says, is seeing these lagging skills not as excuses but as explanations for children’s misbehavior. When we see them this way, “the door to helping swings wide open.”
“Once you have a decent handle on a kid’s lagging skills and unsolved problems,” he continues, “you’ve taken a major step in the right direction because the kids’ challenging episodes are now highly predictable, which is good news if you’re a teacher and have a class full of 25 other students.” Having figured out the skill deficits of high-risk children, it’s easy to predict the triggers that will send them into a tantrum. A child’s difficulty during circle time, at recess, or working with a particular classmate – all of these are clues that can lead a perceptive teacher to specific skill deficits that can be fixed.
“A lot of adults nominate the word ‘no’ as a trigger,” says Greene. “But it’s not specific enough. It’s what the adult is saying ‘no’ to – going to the bathroom (yet again), sharpening a pencil (yet again), excessive talking or teasing – that helps adults know the specific problem they need to solve (so they don’t have to keep saying ‘no’ so often).”
Greene concludes by reminding us of schools’ standard responses to misbehavior, which he doesn’t think work at all well for students with lagging skills:
- Telling the child that we don’t approve of the behavior and suggesting alternatives.
- Natural consequences such as embarrassment, being scolded, being disliked, etc.
- Logical consequences such as being kept in from recess, put on detention, or suspended.
“My view,” Greene concludes, “is that kids who haven’t responded to natural consequences don’t need more consequences; they need adults who are knowledgeable about how challenging kids come to be challenging, who can identify the lagging skills and unsolved problems that are setting the stage for maladaptive behavior, and who know how to teach those skills and help solve those problems. We’ve learned a lot about children’s brains in the last 30 years. It’s time for our actions to reflect our knowledge.”

“Kids Do Well If They Can” by Ross Greene in Phi Delta Kappan, November 2008 (Vol. 90, #3, p. 160-167), no e-link available; this article is an excerpt from Greene’s new book, Lost at School (Scribner, 2008).

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2. Seven Skills That Students Need to Succeed in College and Beyond

“Even in America’s most highly regarded secondary schools,” writes Harvard researcher Tony Wagner in this Education Week article, “we are not teaching or testing the skills that matter most for college, careers, and citizenship in the 21st century.” Based on his interviews with college teachers, college students, business executives, and officers in the armed forces, Wagner has identified seven “survival skills” that all students need to make it in college, excel in good jobs, and be leaders in their communities:
• Critical thinking and problem-solving – Every college student needs to be able to think critically and apply knowledge to new situations, says Wagner, and businesses are looking for workers who are able to think about continuously improving products, processes, and services.
• Collaborating and leading across networks – “Most work in this country is done in teams,” says Wagner, but K-12 classrooms mostly have students doing solo work. It’s only in athletics and other extracurricular activities that students learn about teamwork.
• Agility and adaptability – Most current jobs will change or cease to exist, business executives told Wagner, so workers need to be nimble and able to use a variety of tools to solve new problems.
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism – “If you try five things and get all five of them right, you may be failing,” says Mark Chandler, senior vice president at Cisco Systems. “If you try 10 things and get eight of them right, you’re a hero.” His point is that the best workers set stretch goals and constantly push the envelope.
• Effective oral and written communication – College teachers and business leaders say that poor writing and speaking skills are a major problem for many of today’s young people.
• Accessing and analyzing information – High-school students may be adept at surfing the Net, says Wagner, but very few know how to do an effective Internet search and zero in on the most important information.
• Curiosity and imagination – “I want people who can think – they’re not just bright, they’re also inquisitive,” says former CEO Clay Parker. “Are they engaged, are they interested in the world?”
Mastery of these seven skills is the key to the United States remaining competitive in the global economy, Wagner concludes. He believes that college admissions officers should push high schools to teach and test these critical competencies, emphasizing them more than test scores or memorized knowledge.

“Teaching and Testing the Skills That Matter Most” by Tony Wagner in Education Week, Nov. 12, 2008 (Vol. 28, #12, p. 30)
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/11/12/12wagner.h28.html
Wagner speaks highly of the College and Work Readiness Assessment, which can be accessed at http://www.cae.org/content/pro_collegework.htm.
 

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3. Lesson Study in American Schools

In this Principal’s Research Review article, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory researchers Jennifer Stepanek, Melinda Leong, and Rhonda Barton explain Japanese lesson study and explore its application to math teaching in the United States. In its pure, original form, lesson study involves the following:
- A teacher team looks at assessment results or patterns of student misunderstanding and decides on a particular area that needs improvement.
- The team designs a curriculum unit and then zeroes in on one lesson that will teach a vital skill or body of knowledge within the unit.
- The team collaborates to design this lesson in great detail, trying to anticipate students’ misconceptions and potential learning problems.
- One member of the team teaches the lesson to his or her students while the rest of the team observes and takes notes on what students are doing and saying as the lesson unfolds. Observations are guided by specific evaluation questions the team has formulated.
- The team meets afterward to discuss how the lesson went and plan modifications to improve its impact on students. This may take several meetings.
- A second member of the team teaches the lesson to a different group of students, once again observed by the rest of the team.
- Teachers meet again, discuss their observations, and make further improvements to the lesson.
- The team publishes a report about what was learned – and makes the unit available to other teachers.

“By using lesson study,” say Stepanek, Leong, and Barton, “teachers take on the role of researchers to verify what works in the classroom. They quote Seymour Sarason in support of this work: “You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators, without teachers having the same characteristics” (Fullan, 1993). In a sidebar in the article, the authors list other ways in which lesson study exemplifies state-of-the-art professional development:
- Teachers escape from isolation and increase their levels of trust, collegiality, and common purpose.
- Teacher teams develop a common language and shared vision as they plan together and discuss evidence of student learning.
- Teachers delve deeply into the subject matter and increase their content knowledge. They identify gaps in their understanding and set about filling them.
- Lesson study makes the study of good teaching more concrete by focusing everyone on actual teaching.
- “A focus on student learning permeates all stages of lesson study,” write the authors. The question is always whether the lesson works – did students learn what they were supposed to learn?

A number of schools and districts in the U.S. have implemented lesson study or variations of it, but the authors say much more research needs to be done. One of the best studies examined the use of lesson study in math classrooms at Highlands Elementary School in California. Researchers found that the math achievement gains of Highlands students who remained at the school were more than triple those of students elsewhere in the district (91 scale-score points versus 26 points).
Lesson study in math departments in 20 Massachusetts secondary schools produced significant improvements in teachers’ understanding of the curriculum and the challenge level of the lessons they taught, according to an EDC study. Jane Gorman, one of the researchers, said that “teachers were testing new forms of instruction and the lessons tended to become more problem-solving or inquiry-based.” One of the lesson study groups designed a pre-calculus lesson on properties and logarithms by having students rate the “heat values” of different chili peppers. Students collaborated to create an exponent ruler that measured the relative heat of different plants: habanero peppers scored 200,000 units, jalapenos scored 5,000 units, and sweet banana peppers scored 50 units.
The Spokane (WA) school district has made a multi-year commitment to lesson study, the authors report. Each middle and high school has science and math instructional coaches who coordinate several lesson study teams. Each team of 4-9 teachers meets for one hour a week (during the school day) and conducts one lesson study in the fall and one in the spring. The coaches get three hours of training every other week, sharing information on teams. Sharon Robinson, Spokane’s director of professional learning, believes the initiative has had a very positive impact. “Lesson study has helped us use data in a focused way,” she says, “focus on one piece of district curriculum actually practiced in the classroom, and provide a vehicle for classroom observation that’s brought about some real change in practice… We see more kids in groups struggling with a concept and teachers asking good questions instead of saying, ‘You can find the answer here.’” For schools or districts considering lesson study, Robinson recommends bringing in an outside expert and implementing the concept 100 percent, not watering it down.
Stepanek, Leong, and Barton say that leadership and support from principals are very important to the success of lesson study, both in Japan and in America. “Without at least one administrator who understands and values lesson study, it will be difficult (if not impossible) to sustain it,” according to a 2007 study. Specifically, school leaders need to:
- Encourage teachers to participate in lesson study (without requiring it);
- Provide time for teacher teams to collaborate, which includes providing coverage for teachers to observe lessons;
- Foster a collaborative school climate that supports teacher research and learning;
- Bring in an outside facilitator, if needed, to make sure teachers are doing more than a superficial job.
During lesson study, it’s important that principals step out of their evaluative role and “promote an atmosphere where teachers feel safe in constructively commenting on their practice,” say the authors. They also list some of the questions principals might ask themselves to see if their schools are ready for lesson study:
- Do staff members share a sense of collective responsibility for student learning and believe that their work can improve outcomes?
- Does the school climate allow for intellectual risk-taking and respectful feedback on ideas and practices?
- Are teachers willing to talk about their beliefs and practices, learn from one another, and try new ideas?
- Do teachers already have a high-quality curriculum to work with?
- Do teachers have time set aside to plan, observe, and discuss their lessons?

“Improving Mathematics Through Lesson Study” by Jennifer Stepanek, Melinda Leong, and Rhonda Barton in Principal’s Research Review, November 2008 (Vol. 3, #6, p. 1-7), no e-link available. The authors can be reached at stepanej@nwrel.org, leongm@nwrel.org, and bartonr@nwrel.org.
 

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4. Programs for English Language Learners – and How They Stack Up

In this helpful article in The School Administrator, Johns Hopkins researcher Liliana Minaya-Rowe confronts a difficult question: why are as many as 90 percent of English language learners who were born in the U.S. and have been in school since kindergarten still unable to succeed in all-English middle- and high-school mainstream classrooms? She believes there are two reasons:
- Most teachers are not trained to teach academic vocabulary and content to ELLs;
- All too many ESL programs give students a watered-down curriculum.
“Consequently,” says Minaya-Rowe, “English language learners adopt only simplistic phrases and superficial concepts through mostly oral language as opposed to what they need to learn – academic English to make complex meanings explicit in the content area.” When these ELLs are mainstreamed, she says, they can’t understand textbook vocabulary and struggle with reading and writing – and are often sent back to learn basic English. “The vicious cycle is repeated, compounded by such factors as absenteeism, mobility, and discipline problems.”
So how can ELLs become truly proficient in English and acquire the content knowledge they need to be successful in the mainstream? Minaya-Rowe lists the program options and provides some commentary on their problems and possibilities:
• Two-way bilingual – Also referred to as two-way immersion, bilingual immersion, dual language, and developmental bilingual, these programs give equal status to English and ELL students’ home languages and aim to give all students strong academic skills and proficiency in both. Two-way programs enroll roughly equal numbers of ELLs and native English speakers and split instruction 50/50 between the native language and English, or ratchet up to 50/50 after starting at 90/10, 80/20, or 70/30 in the early grades. Instruction in the two languages is sometimes split morning/afternoon, alternating days, or alternating weeks. “Lessons are never repeated or translated in the other language,” explains Minaya-Rowe, “but concepts taught in one language are reinforced across the two languages in a spiraling curriculum, with concepts and knowledge building on each other.” Ideally, students should be in two-way bilingual programs from K to 12, which means this is not the ideal approach for transient populations. Preliminary results from a five-year study presented by Margarita Calderon and Robert Slavin at the 2008 AERA annual meeting indicate that students in two-way bilingual programs develop high levels of proficiency in both languages and achieve academically at grade level.
• Transitional bilingual – These programs provide oral English instruction while teaching academic content in ELLs’ first language in the early grades – gradually transitioning to all-English content instruction by grade 3 (or, for students who begin the program in later grades, after three years). Transitional teachers are certified in bilingual education, so they work to develop students’ native language. Ideally, mainstream teachers are trained in content-based English instruction, so students get quality instruction and support when they are mainstreamed. However, says Minaya-Rowe, “Transitional programs sometimes are perceived by educators and the general public as remedial programs, a lower track for slow students, and another form of segregated, compensatory education that research shows generally has had limited success in raising students’ achievement scores.” But she believes that if the transitional model is implemented with fidelity, it can overcome these problems.
• Monolingual – In these programs, which are more common in districts with several language-minority groups, ELLs are taught in English only by teachers who are not necessarily proficient in ELLs’ native language. Options include:
- Sheltered English or content-based ESL – ELLs are grouped by language for one or more periods a day for content-area instruction in English, “sheltered” from competing with native English speakers. The content is similar to regular classes, but teachers use methods appropriate to ELLs’ needs. “Teachers use hands-on activities, gestures, and visual aids to help students acquire language while they are learning the content,” says Minaya-Rowe, “and there is no home-language support unless the teacher is bilingual.” The danger in sheltered programs, she says, is watering down the content and not allowing students to interact with new concepts and take ownership for their learning. But if they are properly implemented, she believes, “sheltered classes make rigorous content comprehensible to English language learners in an environment that teaches vocabulary for concept development in the core subjects.”
- ESL pullout and push-in – The goal of these programs is English-language fluency, not content mastery. ELLs are assigned to regular classrooms and are either pulled out for small-group ESL instruction or instructed within their classes by push-in ESL teachers. In both settings, teachers work to develop English grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills. Minaya-Rowe says pullout/push-in programs have two problems: (a) ELLs are missing content and vocabulary instruction in their academic classrooms (since they’re pulled out or working with an ESL teacher within their classroom); and (b) If the ELL population at any given grade level has a range of linguistic, academic, and life skills, it’s virtually impossible for ESL teachers to meet all their needs.
- Newcomer – Geared mostly to middle- and high-school students who have recently arrived in the U.S. and may have experienced interruptions in their schooling in their native lands, newcomer programs address specific, short-term learning needs – beginning English language skills, core academic skills, and support acclimating to U.S. culture and school routines and expectations, along with psychological support for traumas they may have experienced. What’s critical with newcomer programs, says Minaya-Rowe, is transitioning these students into other bilingual programs as they become more proficient in English.

“Options for English Language Learners” by Liliana Minaya-Rowe in The School Administrator, November 2008
http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=10795&snItemNumber=950&tnItemNumber;
the author can be reached at wirakocha@aol.com.
 

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5. Pluses and Minuses of Book Leveling Systems

In this thoughtful Teacher Magazine piece, sixth-grade teacher Donalyn Miller tells how one of her students was discouraged from reading Gordon Korman’s On the Run books the year before because the books were supposedly above his reading level (they had red stickers, and the boy was supposed to read only books with yellow stickers). “Please can I read them?” he pleaded, explaining that the books passed the five-finger test. “Do you think I am a red sticker now?” Miller gave him all six books in the series and was irked by the narrow view of reading levels last year’s teacher had instilled in this boy. “How sad that he defined himself by a reading level sticker instead of seeing himself as a reader with interests and the freedom and skill to choose his own books,” she writes.
Not that Miller is against using reading levels, which she considers a valuable tool. By knowing the levels of the books in her classroom library and the levels at which each of her students are reading, Miller believes she can:
- Know a starting point for guided reading instruction;
- Make recommendations for independent reading;
- Group books for thematic studies with a range of difficulty for students at different levels;
- Compare books by the same author and on the same topic or genre.
But Miller warns against “slavish devotion” to leveling, and lists some limitations – instances where students should be encouraged to read books that are not exactly at their level and might be steered away from books that are exactly at their level:
- The content of a book may not be age-appropriate, even if the level is correct;
- The text structure, unusual vocabulary, punctuation, or an unfamiliar topic can make a book harder to read than its readability rating implies;
- Reading below-level books can be helpful if it increases a student’s background knowledge, reading rate, and fluency;
- Student motivation is always a factor; if students are interested in a topic, they may be able to read “above-level” books; if a book’s subject matter bores them, they may not be able to read it even if it’s at exactly the right level.
- The same book can be pegged at different levels depending on the leveling system used and the passage within the book that’s sampled;
- New books may not have been leveled yet.
“While book leveling systems are a good idea in theory,” she says, “the single-minded use of such systems at the expense of other assessments (or just common sense about books and kids) has the potential to prevent students from reading the books they want to read.”
The ultimate goal, she concludes, is students who have the skills to choose books for themselves in classrooms, libraries, and bookstores – and abandon a book that isn’t right for them.

“Readers Seek Their Own Level” by Donalyn Miller in Teacher Magazine (online), Nov. 4, 2008 (online at http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer).
 

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6. Alfie Kohn Frets About the Dark Side of Self-Control

In this Kappan article, writer/speaker Alfie Kohn disagrees with the common assumption that self-control and self-discipline in children are unalloyed virtues. “Just about everyone wants students to override their unconstructive impulses, resist temptation, and do what needs to be done,” Kohn says, but he goes on to describe three problems:
• Psychological – What if excessive self-control prevents children (and adults) from being spontaneous, creative, flexible, and warm? Super-dutiful students can suffer from what psychoanalyst Karen Horney once called “the tyranny of the should.” Kohn says, “Secure, healthy people can be playful, flexible, open to new experiences and self-discovery, deriving satisfaction from the process rather than always focused on the product.” He links self-control to some psychological ailments and describes an alarming scenario in which highly self-disciplined kids suddenly veer to the opposite extreme, for example, going from absolute abstinence to reckless, unprotected sex. Of course not all self-controlled students act in this way, he concedes. It’s all about moderation – and flexibility.
• Philosophical – Kohn says that focusing on self-control reflects a gloomy approach to life – as if our desires are unworthy and shameful and must be regulated and overcome. “Taken to its logical conclusion,” he says, “human life is a constant struggle to stifle and transcend ourselves. Morality consists of the triumph of mind over body, reason over desire, will over want.”
• Political – Kohn believes that the drive to instill self-control in students bolsters the status quo and undermines much-needed political action in schools and in the larger society. “There is no reason to work for social change if we assume that people just need to buckle down and try harder,” he says. Looking politically at what goes on in classroom, Kohn says that the question shouldn’t be, “How can we get them to raise their hands and wait to be called on rather than blurting out the answer?” but rather, “Why does the teacher ask most of the questions in here – and ultimately decide who gets to speak, and when?” Similarly, the question shouldn’t be, “What’s the best way to teach kids self-discipline so they’ll do their work?” but rather, “Are these assignments really worth doing?”
Summing up, Kohn writes, “Some children who look like every adult’s dream of a dedicated student may in reality be anxious, driven and motivated by a perpetual need to feel better about themselves, rather than by anything resembling curiosity. In a word, they are workaholics in training.”

“Why Self-Discipline Is Overrated: The (Troubling) Theory and Practice of Control from Within” by Alfie Kohn in Phi Delta Kappan, November 2008 (Vol. 90, #3, p. 168-176), no e-link available
 

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