by Tom Daly on July 14, 2011 in News
I just finished reading an article you should know about.
It addresses a fixation we all have by necessity: how to keep creativity in your lesson plans while also preparing students for standardized tests.
You can read the article here:
The piece focuses on an elementary school teacher who used to spend weeks with her students with practice tests . . . until she found that they bored her students.
Instead, she began engaging them with more creative, hands-on lessons — and got much better results in the end.
Here's what this teacher said in the article:
"I used to spend time on test prep because I felt pressured to do it. But I think it's kind of a waste of time. The students get bored and don't take it seriously and it defeats the purpose."
Did this teacher's approach work for her? Well, she was rated "highly effective" in a value-added analysis by the Los Angeles Times based on her students' standardized test scores in English and math. She also ranks among the Los Angeles Unified School District's top 100 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in English in that analysis.
As the article put it: "Who says students need 'drill and kill' exercises to raise their test scores?"
Well, this is something that certainly hits near and dear to my own approach, and I'm betting this is a compelling topic for you, too.
There are several things in the article I found fascinating, but let me just address one of them now.
The movement to raise standardized test scores is certainly important. But I also think it's crucial to ask yourself these questions:
> Has the pendulum swung so far in one direction that it no longer makes sense?
> Is this really good for my kids?
> Who knows about teaching kids better: a politician, an administrator, or me?
> What is the motivation for this new plan? Is it so that administrators look better to their bosses? Is it for parents to get a quick analysis of their child's performance without ever spending a day at the school, talking to teachers, or experiencing the school's climate for themselves? Of course we want — and need — our kids to do better on standardized tests, no question.
But as you can probably tell, I'm not a big supporter of the "drill and kill" approach.
What do you think?
Give me your thoughts by posting your opinion below.
by Tom Daly on April 25, 2011 in News
As you may already know, I've been digging into the issue of helping what I call "drowning students" intensively for a long time.
And of course one important part of the process is identifying these students before they “go under” instead of when they’ve already decided to give up.
One important way to do this is by collecting feedback. Many teachers will ask for a show of hands and ask something like, “Okay, everyone got that so far? If not, please raise your hand.”
However, that does not factor in the reality that many drowning kids won’t raise their hands out of embarrassment.
So we need to find other ways to collect feedback.
Using 'Answer Cards' to Identifying Struggling Students
Answer cards can be a good alternative way to involve an entire class and quickly see who is on the right track.
Here’s how this works:
Each student has at his desk a set of index cards. You will have distributed these at the beginning of class. Written on each card is a single response, such as A, B, C, D or YES or NO. You may want to add TRUE and FALSE or any others that you need.
When giving your lesson and asking questions to the entire class verbally, have students hold up their answers using one card each and making sure each student holds their card close to their chest so that others can’t see. If everyone is seated facing forward, this will work just fine.
So you ask the question, list the possible answers in multiple choice style, repeat if necessary, and then give your students a few seconds to get their cards ready.
Finally, you say, “Okay, now show me your answer,” and students must display their card discreetly at the same time so that you can see them all.
You’ll get instant feedback as to who is up to speed and who isn’t. If a significant number of answers are wrong, you can say, “Put your cards back and let me give you a clue.”
Bottom line, the answer cards are a systematic way to get immediate feedback on what kids know. What could be more important?
To put it another way: We can't afford to wait until Friday and see who fails the text and say, "Oops, Joey is lost."
Here are some other reasons I like this idea:
It's low-tech and super-simple to implement.
Because it feels like a game, it makes class participation more fun.
It's a great way to deal with bigger class sizes.
A couple of other notes about using these cards: You'll want to laminate the cards for durability so that they'll last all year long. After laminating them, get a hole puncher and punch a hole in the upper left corner of the cards so that you can keep each student's set of cards together with one metal ring. This will prevent all sorts of headaches and distractions: cards hitting the floor, cards getting lost, students getting out of their chairs to retrieve lost cards, etc.
And then as students file out of class, they can all simply toss their set of clasped cards into a bucket by the door on their way out. Which means, of course, that they won't get lost, they'll be ready to go for your next class, and that you only need ONE set for all your classes. Easy! (We like easy, don't we?)
Also, be sure to make all the cards the same size and color so that students' answers can't be discerned by others.
So tell me: Do you use the answer card idea in your classes?
I have a feeling that teachers consider this to be a good idea, but don't implement it for whatever reason.
Give me your feedback and tell me what you think: Do you think it's an effective tool?
Also, please share any other tips you have for collecting feedback to look for signs of students who are seriously falling behind.
Just post your comments below and I look forward to benefiting from the conversation!
by Tom Daly on April 20, 2011 in News
Let’s talk about pampering vs. catering to students . . . and a third alternative that beats them both hands down.
Pampering Students: Do You Do This?
Pampering implies that a teacher is a pushover who succumbs to student demands. Eventually, this pampering will lead to the teacher feeling taken advantage of, and that will usually cause the teacher to give up on their struggling student.
The teacher will rightly think, “I tried everything with Joey! I brought him lunch once a week; I gave him some baseball trading cards. I even brought him a poster of his favorite team, Real Madrid. And after all that, he still skipped his tutoring sessions and does not try in class! He is just beyond help.”
The teacher is naive who believes that in order to reach his student she must appease his every whim.
A wise king once said, "If you pamper a servant from youth on, in his later life he will become a thankless person."
When teachers “kowtow” to the student’s wishes, they are just being played. In nearly 20 years of teaching, I have seen this over and over again. Why set ourselves up as easy targets?
Never pamper your students. It will backfire and give others the wrong impression.
“Catering” to Students
Let’s consider the phrase “to cater to.” What is wrong with that? Well, if my car breaks down at 11 p.m., I naturally expect a tow truck driver to cater to me, answering my cell phone call and towing my car to the repair shop.
The tow truck driver is a professional catering to my specific needs. He does not look to “blame first and act second.” Time is of the essence and, after he comes to the rescue, there will be plenty of time to reflect later on what happened.
In a similar fashion, then, it could be said that we need to "cater" to those students who need our help the most.
Unfortunately, even though the term catering can be defined as “providing for”, it also has a negative connotation to it. While not as negative as “pampering,” catering still has shades of “indulging” and “kowtowing to.”
So let’s look for a better term to see if we can’t help our drowning student in the most direct and appropriate way possible.
A Better Term to Use: Pinpointing
When we evaluate a student, we are pinpointing. We identify his specific needs and formulate a plan to increase his on-task behavior.
The clear example of pinpointing is this: a car mechanic. You come in to the station and he says, “What seems to be the problem?” You briefly explain the problem. He asks a few questions. Then, he does a brief physical inspection. If you are lucky, he is able to say, “I see your problem, this hose is leaking.” If he has not yet pinpointed the problem, he may have to hook the car up to machine, or take off a your tires to check your brakes.
His job is to listen to your concern, listen to your car, look at your car and, if needed, use a computer to pinpoint your problem.
Can you imagine what he would say if someone accused him of “pampering” or “catering” to you and your car? It's obviously an absurd notion.
When we go above and beyond to reach struggling students, naysayers might accuse us of catering to or pampering a student. When that happens, I do not shrink away. I proudly say, “Well, I evaluated his problem, pinpointed what we needed to do, and I am making a clear, consistent effort to turn him around. That’s my job, right?”
That puts the issue in its proper — and helpful — perspective.
Tell me what you think by posting a comment below. What approach have you found successful with drowning students? Share your thoughts about pampering vs. catering vs. pinpointing.
by Tom Daly on March 27, 2011 in News
Have you ever had a “nightmare” student who became such a problem that you didn’t know what to do?
I’m talking about a student who is extremely disruptive, defiant, uses bad language — AND also has a parent who backs up this child 100% of the time without regard to the truth.
Almost nothing can sour us on teaching faster than a disruptive student who pushes you to the edge — and then takes their own false version of the story home to their parent, who then marches into the principal’s office demanding retribution.
This actually happened to me this year when a defiant student and her mother tried to pull me into trouble — and I want to share it with you now so that you can prevent this type of situation from ruining your day, if not your career.
Before you think this could never happen to you, let me say this: It might not . . . today.
But at some point, you WILL have trouble with a student who unfairly targets you and tries to take his or her complaints to the next level.
That’s a recipe for disaster, or at the very least a major headache you don’t need.
The good news is that you will be completely prepared for this type of confrontation if you have a system in place that documents misbehavior in your classroom.
When you do this properly (and it’s really very easy), you will have bullet-proofed yourself from any serious trouble a parent or administrator can give you.
Now let me tell you the exact story of what happened to me, and how I avoided big trouble with surprising ease and calmness. I’ll even show you the exact form I used that turned the tables in my favor.
So let’s call this story . . .
The Importance of Documenting Student
Behavior and How It Can Save You
Earlier this year, I received a phone call from the front office and was given just 10 minutes notice to attend a meeting with Sheila, her mother, the school’s principal, along with three vice principals.
Normally this would be “nervous time” for most teachers, but since I had a system of quickly documenting everything, I knew this would go easily in my favor.
So here’s what happened. I arrived at the meeting and Sheila’s mother started with an angry tirade. She went on and on to the principal about how her child was mistreated.
As usually happens in this type of meeting, the principal first let the parent have her say while I quietly waited my turn. As you can imagine, this could have been a highly charged situation. I had to sit there and listen to a long string of complaints and unfounded accusations.
Now, most teachers in this situation would be privately seething, using every ounce of restraint to hold themselves back from exploding to defend themselves.
Let me tell you, that rarely goes well for the teacher. You never should try to engage in “he-said-she-said” arguments.
Instead, I simply waited and listened. After Sheila’s mother finished her tirade, it was my turn.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know
that I am a huge fan of documenting classroom behavior. When you
have a quick, easy system for documenting issues in your
classroom, the benefits are tremendous.
I have a collection of “quick data forms” that I created to make
this sort of note-taking very easy. You can see a sample of one
of those forms here:
I also created a simple wall chart to to track student behavior and
performance. I have written about this before; if you missed my
previous article about what this wall chart is all about and how
you can use it, click here.
So Here’s How All This Data Collection Saved Me
(And Why You
Should Start Documenting Behavior, Too)
I didn’t scream back. I didn’t defend myself with emotion. I simply referred to my notes and recited some basic facts. Here are some of the things I said:
“Okay, I understand what you’re saying here. But let me just show you Sheila’s classroom record as I’ve been recording it this semester . . .”
At this point, I pulled out my quick data that detailed Sheila’s point totals for things like:
- On-task time
- Respect shown to others
- How we act outside the classroom (in the hallway)
- Ignoring other students who act up
- Disruptive behavior points
- Following staff directions
Now here’s the important thing — Sheila actually had some positive point totals in some of these categories. So I made sure to point out her strengths along with her shortcomings.
This is crucial in any meeting like this. Why? Because you’ll never get anywhere if you make your case by using only negative data. When you give a more well-rounded and fair evaluation, you’re immediately seen as reasonable and even-handed.
No student is 100% “bad,” and if I did nothing more than list all the things Sheila did wrong, it would have made me look unfair and unreasonable. Never try to stack the deck too steeply against a student.
However, that being said, I also had a clear record of misbehavior performed by Sheila. So here is how I referred to my notes in this reasonable manner:
“Okay, so when we look at Sheila’s record here in my class, we can see that in the last 28 days of school, she was absent two times. That’s not too bad. And take at her daily point totals here. Out of 100 possible points she could have earned each day for things like on-task time and respect to others and no disruptive behavior, she actually scored 100 12 times. That’s pretty good! So Sheila is doing some good things.
“But her average overall is only 68 points over that 28-day span, and that’s far below what we expect and know Sheila is capable of.
“And let’s also take a look at her pattern of having unacceptable outbursts in class. Here are the points taken directly from my own student behavior chart that documents anything unusual that goes on in class. I keep this as a matter of record for everyone in the class, by the way, not just Sheila."
At this point I let everyone see the sheet that I’m about to read from.
“. . . So if you look here you can see that on February 27th, Sheila disrupted the lesson three times by talking loudly to her friend. And on March 1st she was using her cell phone without permission and I told her to give me her phone because everyone in the room could hear her talking on it. And as you can see, Sheila also used the F word directed at another student that same day in front of other staff members, all of whom heard it clearly.”
I continued in this vein for a few minutes, detailing a long list of unacceptable transgressions that Sheila unleashed onto other students, staff members and myself. These included many profane outbursts, physical threats of violence directed at other students, an unpleasant litany that I calmly described from my simple data notes.
Sheila’s mother had no choice but to listen to this sober detailing of Sheila’s undeniable record of misbehavior. Since everything was written down with dates and word-for-word dialogue, she couldn’t very well claim that we were making this up out of whole cloth.
Now do you see why I’m such a fan documenting student behavior?
And if you didn’t notice, here is another benefit of having written notes in a meeting like this: You get to choose your words because you’re literally reading them. No chance of me saying something out of line or unreasonable when I’m simply reading my notes. It took all the emotion out and made me look like a competent, caring teacher.
So let me tell you how this meeting ended. Remember that this could have been a highly charged meeting with emotional accusations flying back and forth.
Here is what happened after I stuck to my guns by reading my notes:
> Sheila’s mother admitted that her daughter had some issues and that it was likely Sheila lied about being picked on.
> I avoided the need for a formal IEP meeting being held for Sheila, since the parent was now on board with my viewpoint and she agreed to help rectify this situation.
> My principal saw me as someone who handles difficult situations with competence and reasonableness.
Sheila now understood that I had nothing against her: I was simply keeping track of the good and bad and that she was accountable for her actions and responsible for her own success or failure.
In other words, situation resolved and everyone walked out of the meeting feeling like they were treated fairly.
That’s what I call turning a potentially bad situation into a good one.
Tell me what you think by posting a comment below!
