Bring It On! I can make a difference in the school: one independent reader at a time.

Patience is Good!

Richard Allington states:  "Failure to maintain an on-schedule pace of reading acquisition is the most frequent basis to a referral to an instructional support program."  Translation:  if kids do not read they will be referred for reading support or fail to reach proficiency.

Patience will be the key in making a difference in our overall achievement!

Your role in this fight is critical!  You are the difference maker in motivating kids to read independently.  This means more than asking for volume.  It is the focused conversation around what they are reading and the impact it is having on their ability to achieve in school.    You are the person who will develop our culture into a literate culture.  . Students who reach middle or high school and are still struggling to read for meaning should serve as a red flag to educators. We must move away from this is the way we have always taught our subject and instead commit to what can I do to help my students read and comprehend the required reading.
ALA study:

The common sense notion that students who do a substantial amount of voluntary reading demonstrate a positive attitude toward reading is upheld in both qualitative and quantitative research (Long and Henderson 1973; Greaney 1980; Hepler and Hickman 1982; Greaney and Hegarty 1987; Reutzel and Hollingsworth 1991; Shapiro and White 1991; Mathewson 1994; Barbieri 1995; Short 1995). Students’ reading achievement has been shown to correlate with success in school and the amount of independent reading they do (Greaney 1980; Anderson, Fielding and Wilson 1988). This affirms the predictability of a success cycle: we become more proficient at what we practice (Cullinan 1992).  

The amount of free reading done outside of school has consistently been found to relate to growth in vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal fluency, and general information (Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding 1988; Greaney 1980; Guthrie and Greaney 1991; Taylor, Frye, and Maruyama 1990). Students who read independently become better readers, score higher on achievement tests in all subject areas, and have greater content knowledge than those who do not (Krashen 1993; Cunningham and Stanovich 1991; Stanovich and Cunningham 1993). Although the correlations are steady, determining the appropriate causal interpretation of the relationships is problematic. 

Make a difference; be patient.  You will be able to support students through independent reading.  Just wait and see!

Can you FEEL IT?

Momentum! Wilson Middle School Can you Feel it?

Getting students to behave daily is hard work.  We set expectations, listen to our peers, gain insight, seek interest, design engaging lessons and monitor it all.  At times you may feel like you are performing in the center ring of a circus.  However, it is with this hard work and investment in your classroom that you begin to see results.  Time spent up front will pay off ten-fold in the future.  Kids will rise to the level you set.

How change does happen (excerpt from Jim Collins Good to Great)

Now picture a huge, heavy flywheel. It’s a massive, metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle. It's about 100 feet in diameter, 10 feet thick, and it weighs about 25 tons. That flywheel is our school. Your job is to get that flywheel to move as fast as possible, because momentum—mass times velocity—is what will generate superior achievement results over time.

Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a tremendous effort. You push with all your might, and finally you get the flywheel to inch forward. After two or three days of sustained effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. It makes three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then—at some point, you can’'t say exactly when—you break through. The momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren't pushing any harder, but the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing.  This is the Flywheel Effect. 

Our daily work can seem daunting.  You are at the beginning stages of the flywheel.  We need to celebrate small victories and large as well.  Take for instance the story of an eighth grade boy who at this time last year had ten referrals to the office.  They varied from minor to severe disruption.  He had a suspension the first week of September.  If we look at this person now, he's being nurtured by his team.  His success being protected.   This year he's earned as many W.O.W. awards as referrals from last year.  He's not perfect; he nearly got into a fight at the football game; but his team and specifically literacy teacher is protecting him, praising him, encouraging him and forgiving his missteps.  They are living the notion that "Kids do well if they Can."   I can see and feel the flywheel moving for this boy.  More importantly he can feel it too!

What will it look, sound and feel like when the flywheel gains it's own energy at Wilson?  How will we know that we are reaching new levels of success?  What will be the naturally occurring payoff?  I look forward to that day!

The A Team: Love when a Plan Comes Together

What Does It Look Like when a  Backward Plan Comes Together?

     This video clip if from a television show from the 80's, the A-Team.  Yes, it was a bit violent and cheesy but was one of only three shows on network TV when I was a kid.  Often the team had to overcome great challenges and solve a crime or dilemma.  Every week there was a plan developed.  George Peppard was the brains and always saw the solution first and then created the plan.  At the end of each episode where all was resolved he'd say, "I love it when a plan comes together."  As I reflected on the recent walkthrough with Dr. Mausbach I thought about this quote and realized that we are working our plan.  I believe positive result is on the horizon.

     Successful middle school engage student in all aspects of their learning.  The answer to this is to balance bother summative and formative classroom assessment practices and information gathering about students.  The key is to think of summative assessment as a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student learning relative to content standards.  Summative assessments happen too far down the learning path to provide information at the classroom level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the learning process. It takes formative assessment to accomplish this.  Formative Assessment is part of the instructional process. When incorporated into classroom practice, it provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. Our school improvement plan has focused on using formative assessment to guide Tier I intervention.  While we may not have seen it come to full fruition with our Iowa Assessment Result we have seen huge changes in the assessment culture within our classrooms.  

     Specifically, evidence of strong alignment to curriculum was seen in 7th and 8th grade social studies classrooms.  The seventh grade examples had written response using evidence from text to support their answers.  The teacher asked kids to persuade their audience.  This use of close reading gave students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a relevant way.  The second seventh grade example also asked students to respond constructively to a specific prompt.  Again, students were asked to cite evidence to support their answer.  Most importantly, it was clear that these teachers used their common planning with a mindset of backward design to develop their lessons.  These student work displays were excellent examples that should be reviewed by staff.

     I also want to highlight an 8th grade example also.  Again, curricular alignment was evident.  The teacher had highlighted anchors and student models with cited evidence.  The work was clearly tied to the rubric that was used for assessment.  The student work was rigorous and specifically tied to a relevant task.

Backward Design Graphic

Ask yourself how did your student work display align with this view?  When you compare it and what you ask students to do daily; does it align with our lookfors?  Backward planning is the key to reaching A-Team status with highly engaged students and higher achievement.

  Let's get this plan to come together!