Annual Conference

Student Retention Closes Gaps

How do we retain students from 8th or 9th grade on to graduation, and ensure that they have opportunities for college or other postsecondary education? A panel of ASCD authors and presenters convened Monday April 3 to discuss this question, particularly as it relates to students from low-income or "minority" cultural groups. The panelists were

Douglas Fisher, Professor of Literacy and Language Education, San Diego State University, California. His recent publications includes (as co-author), Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents (ASCD, 2006).

Yvette Jackson, Executive Director, National Urban Alliance, Lake Success, New York. A long-time teacher and administrator for the Yonkers and New York City Public Schools, she is a presenter at the Harvard Principal Center and a member of ASCD’s Differentiated Instruction Faculty.

Marilee Sprenger, consultant and Adjunct Professor, Aurora University, Peoria, Illinois. Her recent books include How to Teach So Students Remember (ASCD, 2005).

Vicki Urquhart, Senior Consultant, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), Denver, Colorado. She is the senior author of Teaching Writing in the Content Areas (ASCD and McREL, 2005).

When asked what particular challenges educators of adolescents face today, Doug mentioned the "frustration levels" that many students face when they try to read difficult subject-area texts—particularly students whose first language is not English. Marilee stated that many secondary schools begin the school day too early—the adolescent brain is not an early riser. Vicki said we need more research on schools that "beat the odds"—and not necessarily just "small schools." Yvette pled for "relevancy in education" for all students—not only for motivation but to prepare them for their future, which will be different from what we face as adults.

Solutions mentioned included having small groups of students monitored and encouraged throughout high school by one adult; using data of all types to inform instruction; providing computers and instruction for both students and teachers; and greatly decreasing labeling and tracking of students, including labeling of student groups as "minorities."

How are you meeting the challenge to teach-to-retain adolescent students? Share here.

Post submitted by Carolyn Pool, ASCD Books Acquisitions Editor.

Overcoming the Fear of Blogs: Teaching Critical Skills, Learning About Your Learners

Educators who attended "Blogs: How Do They Fit Into Teaching?" had numerous questions for presenter Erica Brownstein about the risks of using blogs in the classroom, but she pointed out that "students are blogging anyway," and challenged the attendees: "What if you took that energy and brought it to your classroom?" Brownstein's copresenter, Lindsay Dexter, noted that blogs allow you to "learn something about your learners" that you might not through other tools and techniques.

As reported in the Washington Post after Brownstein's session, blogs are currently a popular topic in education, and her crowded and lively session showed educators' continuing interest. Along with two of her graduate students, Anne Callahan and Lindsay Dexter, Brownstein walked the attendees through all of the steps necessary to create and use blogs in the classroom, showing several blogs that are currently being used for instruction as examples.

Secure, Powerful, and Free Tools
As she did, Brownstein showed how educators can secure blogs to minimize risks and protect students. For example, Blogger, a free, Web-based tool, allows the blog administrator to limit access to authorized users, who are the only people allowed to contribute posts or comments to the blog.

In addition to their questions about security, attendees wanted to know how blogs can be used to support learning and teaching. To answer these questions, the presenters showed attendees blogs that are in use by teachers, explaining how and why they worked. Brownstein noted that all of the example blogs had been started and completed within the last school year, demonstrating how easy it is to create and develop a useful and robust blog.

How each blog supports learning depends on what the function of each is. Brownstein listed the three types of educational blogs:

• learning
• interacting
• reflecting

She encouraged attendees to not try to achieve too much each blog. Brownstein has found that a blog project can only support one of these objectives, although each could support subobjectives. However, all the types of blogs share common, powerful benefits, according to the presenters.

Building Community, Developing Critical Readers
Brownstein observed that "A blog is about the whole community and self-expression. It means embracing the world community." Dexter observed that some teachers are using blogs to connect younger and older students in "a buddy system through the blog," similar to reading buddy systems.

With guidance from their teachers, many students critique their peers' writing "which makes them critical readers," said Brownstein. Dexter also noted that in some schools, teachers in higher grades were reading the blogs of students in lower grades, and commenting on them. This has two benefits:

• affirming the students' connection to the whole school community
• providing teachers with advance information about upcoming students

Brownstein has observed that, in this supportive environment, "students take writing risks that they normally wouldn't take," extending their abilities as writers and critical thinkers. While she finds the writing skills practice that blogs provide important, as a science teacher, Brownstein tries to focus on the content, looking to see how students are interacting and making connections, leading to deeper understanding.

"You Don't Have To Be the Expert in the Room"
As they described the many potential benefits of blogs in the classroom, the presenters provided the Web addresses of many resources for teachers who want to explore this new technology. Brownstein reminded those attendees who were still unsure about how to use or secure blogs that often their best resource for more information is their students.

She reminded attendees, "You don't have to be the expert in the room." But, she continued, in light of the continued increase in cyberbullying, even for those who don't use blogs in their classrooms, "You must know about blogging. You must find out if your students are blogging." For those who suggested that perhaps it is better to keep blogs out of the classroom, Brownstein reminded them of the power of their positions, "The power is in your modeling for [your students]. . . . If they don't see the model, they don't know how to blog responsibly."

For those who still expressed trepidation, Brownstein encouraged them, "As a teacher, you must be a risk taker. The benefits outweigh the fear."

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Are you thinking about using blogs in your classroom, or are you already a seasoned blogger or blog-facilitator? Share your questions or experience.

Get more information about Learning in the Digital Age.

A Generation to Define a Century

"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given.  Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

Historian, economist, demographer, and author Neil Howe uses that 1936 quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt to sum up the expectations and potential of the kids who currently populate our classrooms. His ASCD Annual Conference General Session presentation offered perspectives on the educational implications of teaching a generation of students he calls “the Millennials.”

The first Millennials were born in 1982, he said, and graduated high school with the Class of 2000. “Remember “Baby On Board” stickers on minivans?” Howe asked. These are those babies, growing up now in a high-pressure world and thriving in ways that seem alien to their Baby Boomer and Generation X parents—and teachers.

“They don’t mind the pressure,” Howe said, “as long as they feel like they’re getting somewhere.” Educators can help Millennials by recognizing that these boys and girls have unique characteristics. Know them and you’ll know Millennials.

“Seven core traits mark this generation as different from Boomers and X-ers,” Howe said. “This generation is special, sheltered, confident, team oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving. All of this has implications for school reform and school curriculum.”

Because Millennials consider themselves special, educators should:

• Encourage parental involvement. “Get the helicopter moms on your side,” Howe joked.
• Ask the public and media to support efforts to improve education. They want to.

Millennials are sheltered – they are used to being watched over, and expect it. That means educators should:

• Emphasize school safety and accountability.
• Take a fresh look at class and school sizes. Smaller will be perceived as better at providing “structured communities that let no one fall through the cracks,” Howe said.

Since Millennials are confident, they are “collectively optimistic about their economic prospects. The new idea is that every child is college ready, not just job-ready,” he noted. Educators should:

• Stress positive outcomes for everyone.
• Use contextual and project-based environments.
• Craft personal progress plans to guide students’ learning and growth.

Millennials’ are team orientation may be their most notable quality. “They like groups, they like applying their energy to community projects,” Howe said. “They use technology to plug into the group, through instant messaging and user groups and e-mail.” To tap that collective goodwill:

• Teach team skills.
• Build community service into the curriculum.
• Provide opportunities for students to help other students.

Millennials have relatively conventional hopes and dreams. “They define their life goals in terms of career, work-life balance, citizenship,” Howe said. “They plan ahead. And they trust big institutions in ways that Boomers haven’t.” For educators, this characteristic invites a back-to-basics approach:

• Create core curricula that every student is expected to master. “Make sure that every task is achievable with directed effort,” he said.
• Celebrate progress.
• Continuously monitor, assess, and redirect learning. “The best schools for Millennials instantly detect—day to day—the progress of every student,” Howe said.

Millennials are pressured. Structured activities fill most hours in their days, but they generally respond well to pressure. To take advantage of that skill while minimizing burn-out, educators can:

• “Stress long-term life planning and guarantees over short-term opportunities and risks,” Howe advised. Forget learning from mistakes; “Millennials don’t want to make any mistakes,” he said.
• Structure learning around goal mastery.
• Reverse engineer curricula, starting with where you want students to be at the end of the year. “A sense of destination is what Millennials want in their curriculum,” Howe said.

Millennials are achieving; they embrace educational challenge and want higher standards. Three-quarters say they want to attend four-year colleges. Acknowledging that penchant for high achievement, educators should:

• Build challenging curricula.
• Emphasize achievement over aptitude and effort.
• Incorporate cutting-edge computer technology into the curriculum.
• “Finally, encourage teachers to set an example themselves of professional achievement and lifelong learning,” Howe said.

“This generation is going to define the 21st Century much like the G.I. Generation defined the 20th Century,” Howe said, recalling the cohort that weathered the Great Depression and won World War II. “They are going to face many burdens as they grow older: geopolitical, environmental, fiscal, economic. When you look at this generation—protected, team-playing, confident, collectively optimistic—you see some of the traits that we saw in their grandparents.”

Schools Respond to Student Protests

Many of the students who skipped school over the last two weeks in protest of new immigration legislation are back in class now, but the debate continues over this subject, and schools' responses to the protests.

Educators across the U.S. were surprised by the size and duration of the protests and have struggled to respond without creating additional disruptions to learning. Some schools granted students community service credits for attending the April 10 march and rally in Washington, D.C., but most responded by reminding parents and students of their attendance policies, and the consequences of continued truancy.

In their conversations with students and their communities, many educators have tried to include lessons about civic responsibility, legal concerns, and related issues.

These are important lessons, because it is not enough that students are just academically proficient--they must also be civically engaged, ready for the world beyond school, and well versed in the significance of issues such as free speech. Through ASCD's work to promote the needs of the whole child and participation in the First Amendment Schools program, we seek to support educators who work toward these goals.

What do you think? This ASCD poll offers you a chance to make your voice heard schools' responses to these protests.

We also invite you to tell us and your peers what you think the role of educators and schools is in promoting student civic engagement.

Learn More

The ASCD Annual Conference offered sessions related to these topics. Here are a few that caught our eye that will be available soon, in case you missed them at conference:

A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youths, Joseph DiMartino and Peggy Mueller

Facing the Future: Welcoming Immigrant Students, Lynn McBrien

Their Voices Matter: Keys to High School Student Engagement, Steven Gross

The School as a Model of Democracy and Learning, Deborah Meier

What Leaders Need to Know About School Law, Bill Bosher

Learn More

The ASCD Annual Conference offered sessions related to these topics. Here are a few that caught our eye that will be available soon, in case you missed them at conference:

A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youths, Joseph DiMartino and Peggy Mueller

Facing the Future: Welcoming Immigrant Students, Lynn McBrien

Their Voices Matter: Keys to High School Student Engagement, Steven Gross

The School as a Model of Democracy and Learning, Deborah Meier

What Leaders Need to Know About School Law, Bill Bosher

The Big Benefits of Books

Book study has helped Brookhaven Middle School transform its culture, principal Larry Collier and assistant principal Danna Jones told their ASCD Annual Conference audience. The Alabama school, whose 720 students are mostly from families in poverty, has seen student achievement climb as teachers have read and discussed books such as these:

• No Excuses, by Samuel Casey Carter

• What Really Matters for Struggling Readers, by Richard L. Allington

• A Framework for Understanding Poverty, by Ruby K. Payne

• Whatever It Takes, by Richard DuFour and others

• Bringing Words to Life, by Isabel Beck and others

• Dream Keepers, by Gloria Ladson-Billings

• When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do, by Kylene Beers.

Educators at the school have implemented ideas they discovered through these books, such as “Data Meetings” where they pinpoint students’ strengths and weaknesses. They have also bolstered math and reading instruction by integrating science and math, and social studies and reading. This curriculum integration has fostered peer coaching, the presenters noted.

Some teachers initially resisted some of the changes, Jones said. But once they began to see the improvement in their students’ achievement, they embraced the new approaches.

Reporting by Scott Willis, ASCD's director of book acquisitions and development.

Musical Interludes

One of the special treats of the ASCD Annual Conference is the opportunity to hear talented students perform as the warm-up acts for General Sessions. Sunday and Monday of the recently concluded meeting saw two outstanding groups of kids take to the stage. If they were nervous, it sure didn't show. In one case, a pre-show pep talk made sure the performance looked as good as it sounded.

Sunday's pre-Session music was provided by the Third Grade Choir of Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago. Director Charki Dunn led a ridiculously poised and harmonious group through a repertoire that included sacred and secular music and ended with a suite of up-tempo rock and spoken word called "Everybody Has Music Inside." It was fabulous!

On Monday, the entertainment came courtesy of the Schurz Symphony Orchestra Strings, under the baton of Director Richard Wegren. The ensemble, from Carl Schurz High School in Chicago, played a half-hour set that included symphonic takes on movie themes, Vivaldi's "Spring," a sophisticated medley of classical standards, and the rollicking finale "Swing Fiddles."

In rehearsals just before curtain, Wegren took a moment to offer students some advice on the visual aspects of live performance. "Look, I've noticed that when some of you go flat or sharp, you are making faces," he told the cellos. Pointing up at the huge projection screens that flanked the stage, he said, "You know as soon as you do that, the video camera will probably pick that moment to zoom in on your face. You're going to make mistakes. It's okay. Get over it." They did, sounding and looking like seasoned pros.

Curriculum Mapping on the Edge

When author and consultant Heidi Hayes Jacobs, an expert on curriculum mapping, asked her audience whether they used mapping software, more than one-third of them raised their hands.

Jacobs expressed no surprise at this widespread use of computer software to support curriculum mapping. “This isn’t going away -- any more than e-mail and the Internet are going away,” she said.

Curriculum mapping is the practice of charting -- in detail -- what topics are taught by each teacher during the course of a given school year.  When the maps are combined, it's possible to identify gaps and duplications in what students are being taught.  It's also possible to ensure that the curriculum "builds" appropriately from year to year.  Besides curriculum topics, some maps include assessments, samples of student work, or teachers' professional development plans.

Curriculum mapping makes teachers’ work transparent, Jacobs noted. Each teacher should enter his or her work into a curriculum map, she said, and each teacher should also have access to the map of every other teacher. “Mapping is overt work, not covert activity,” Jacobs said.

Because it reveals so much, mapping is intimate, and it can seem threatening, Jacobs acknowledged. But it also leads to more collegiality among teachers. “Not only do we share each other’s work, we appreciate each other’s work.”

Curriculum mapping also becomes a key tool for sustaining professional learning communities. “Mapping becomes an electronic town square,” Jacobs said.

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ASCD offers several resources to help teacher learn about curriculum mapping. Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping, by Heidi Hayes Jacobs guides the practical implementation of a mapping process. You can read the book’s first chapter here.

Jacobs' Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment K-12 provides a good introduction to the topic.

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Reporting by Scott Willis, ASCD's director of book acquisitions and development.

Blogs in the Classroom, About the Classroom

Today's Washington Post features four articles on educators and students using blogs, either to support instruction, or as a sounding board for professional achievements and frustrations.

In "Blackboard Blogging: Web Journals Become the New Fly on the Wall of Teachers Lounges," the author contends that teachers' personal blogs are raw portraits of the teaching profession in transition, and in trouble.

Blogging maverick Will Richardson (known for his Webblog-ed site) is the force behind "N.J. Teacher Makes Blogs a Staple at High School." Richardson became sold on blogging as a means for classroom discussion when he discovered the power of blogs' "transparency and reach."

Still, not everyone is sold on the promise of blogs in the classroom. Jessica Miller, of SUNY Buffalo, believes "Web Journals Both a Help and Hindrance." Anonymity, for example can be a curse and a blessing--allowing bloggers to post false information without consequences, and encouraging shy students to offer up their perspectives.

Capitalizing on the advantages of blogging, Alexander Halavais of SUNY Buffalo appreciates that "Blogs Sidestep Classroom Constraints." Discussions on blogs are more public, and less likely to go off on tangental topics, in Halavais' opinion. He adds that blogs also have the ability to live beyond class time constrictions, and invite participation from experts outside of the class rolls.

Are you thinking about using blogs in your classroom, or are you already a seasoned blogger or blog-facilitator? Share your experience.

 

Are you interested in learning how to use blogs in your classroom? Read our report on the session, "Blogs: How Do They Fit Into Teaching?"

Using Jazz to Lead Students into New Frontiers of Understanding

Speaking in Chicago, home to jazz clubs that are nearly 100 years old, Robert Horowitz observed that, in the United States, "desegregation started in jazz bands before it moved into the military and professional sports" and social institutions. Horowitz, along with Sara Cunningham, debuted a new Web site that uses jazz to teach about a wide range of subjects during a session entitled "Jazz: An American Story."

The site, developed by the National Endowment for the Arts, features lesson plans that include

• short films created for the site
• essays with embedded audio samples
• profiles of major artists
• photo galleries
• supplemental audio samples
• assessments

These interactive tools illustrate subjects in ways that engage all students and educate the whole child by showing how the progression of jazz styles reflects social movements. One lesson explains, for example, that while Harlem was the "indisputable capital of bebop," most of the musicians who developed that style there were African Americans who had moved to New York City from the South and Southwest, drawn by the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance.

To allow teachers to align the lessons with their curriculum, the teacher version of each lesson lists objectives and relevant standards, as well as an assessment to ensure that students meet their learning goals.

In addition, every lesson includes student activities ranging from discussion questions to independent research. For example, by comparing, trumpet solos across the history of jazz, students can hear how music reflects the tenor of the times in which it was created. They can also read literature written at the time, allowing them to use their literacy and critical reasoning skills. These activities engage the whole child in constructing relationships and creating deeper understanding.

Horowitz explained that understanding the evolution of jazz and seeing how it affects and is related to society can help students better understand social and political movements and events, such John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier" address:

But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

By making it possible for students to comprehend the themes of Kennedy's address, as well as learn about and develop deeper understandings across the curriculum, jazz continues to open doors to new frontiers for students.

What Attendees Had to Say, Part 3

As the conference-goers moved from session to session to exhibits and back, we asked them to respond to a few questions about the conference and education in general. Here's another installment of their responses. Read more here and here.

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What Conference topic or resource have you found most useful?

"I'm an instructional specialist in math, so I liked the session dealing with middle school math. I liked that (the presenter) was well versed in teaching math from a concrete point of view. She did a good job going from concrete to abstract when teaching fractions." —Oswaldo Alvarenga, Dallas, TX

"I enjoyed Mel Levine's address because it was nice to believe that all children can learn. When you hear people say 'I don't know what to do about this student,' you can now take that motivation and use it to find their strengths so they can improve and be successful. —Lisa Semrow, Brodhead, WI

"I enjoyed the people who spoke about intrinsic motivation—people's successes and what works. It is always a big challenge to motivate kids. I got to hear different perspectives and ideas to use in my classroom." —Ryan Finkbeiner, Milwaukee, WI

Candidates for President-Elect Share Their Views

The two candidates to become ASCD's President-Elect shared their views on the Association and education at a Sunday forum. Valerie Truesdale and Bob Watson are vying for the leadership position.

Truesdale currently serves on ASCD's Board of Directors. Watson is President of Missouri ASCD. Answering questions posed by Past President Martha Bruckner and an audience of ASCD members, the two candidates offered their vision of what the Association can become.

"As I look around this Conference, I see that ASCD is like a classroom full of learners," said Truesdale." There are different levels of preparedness among our members, just as there are in our classrooms. We need to nurture, stretch, and develop all educators who look to ASCD for support."

"I want to be known as a great collaborator," Watson said. "Any decisions we make must be based on our future, which is our children. As leaders of ASCD, we need to keep our ears and eyes open, collaborating with everyone who can help improve the lives of our kids."

ASCD’s Whole Child Commitment: Reframing Education

ASCD is starting to shift the dialogue from schooling to learning—and in doing so, reframing the definition of education, observed ASCD Executive Director Gene Carter during Sunday’s ASCD Annual Meeting. Carter and ASCD President Mary Ellen Freeley reported on the state of the Association during the annual convening of leaders and members.

Freeley opened the meeting by highlighting the work of the ASCD Board of Directors during 2005-2006, activities that included strengthening the Leadership Council and its influence, participating in ASCD’s first Leadership for Effective Advocacy and Practice Institute, and refining the nominations process.

“It has been a wonderful year, a productive year, and a year of growth and positive exploration,” said Freeley.

Carter outlined how ASCD is accelerating its work to promote the needs of the whole child—which recasts the definition of a successful learner from one whose achievement is measured solely by academic tests to one who is knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically engaged, prepared for economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling.

As part of the multi-year, whole child initiative, ASCD convened the first meeting of the Commission on the Whole Child in January 2006. “This Commission of leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners, from a wide variety of sectors, is looking at the competencies and habits of mind that young people need for healthy, productive lives,” said Carter. “We have challenged the Commission to make actionable recommendations that will take the report into the media, boardrooms, and legislatures for continued inquiry and, ultimately, transformative change.” He noted that the Commission will reconvene in July to set benchmarks for moving its work forward.

“The impact of our work will only be felt on a massive scale—and make a significant difference in the lives of learners—if, and only if, we make our voices heard,” said Carter. Accordingly, ASCD has been successfully mobilizing for advocacy and expanding opportunities for member influence. ASCD’s advocacy staff, Legislative Committee, and state/local teams have been working on pushing the issues with important implications for public education. Carter observed that affiliates have undertaken increasingly complex influence and advocacy roles both at the state/provincial and national/federal levels.

“The positions adopted by ASCD’s Leadership Council continue to guide our influence and advocacy work in four areas—the achievement gap, high-stakes testing, whole child, and health and learning,” said Carter.

The ASCD executive director called the past year a “record-breaker” for ASCD—with 175,000 members in 135 countries worldwide, 60 affiliates, and three new connected communities. He also reported that ASCD experienced the best financial year in Association history—continuing a trend seen four out of the past five fiscal years.

“The time is right for the ASCD Community to find the passion to go beyond where anyone before us has traveled,” Carter concluded. “Can we reach significance both in today’s world and in the legacy we leave for tomorrow’s children? I think we can.”

What Attendees Had to Say, Part 2

As the conference-goers moved from session to session to exhibits and back, we asked them to respond to a few questions about the conference and education in general. Here's another round of their responses. Read more here.

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What is the biggest challenge educators face in addressing the achievement gap?

"The biggest challenge is the unequal distribution of resources between wealthy districts and poor ones. In New York, there's a Supreme Court case over school funding. I'm attending a workshop here about reaching poverty stricken students." —Larry Woodbridge, Brooklyn, NY

"The biggest challenge is the child's home life. With both parents working, a lot of times kids come home to an empty house and are responsible for their siblings. They don't have any time to reflect on their school day." —Lyn Ballam, North Pole, AK

"The biggest challenge is getting to know students as individuals. When you have a lot of different personalities and socioeconomic differences, the challenge is getting to know them and then learning how you can best meet their needs." —Steven Brotherton, St. Louis, MO

"The biggest challenge is aligning resources and getting students in the classroom so that we can address this gap with good teaching, instruction, and curriculum. Furthermore, we’ve got to get past test scores." —Peter R. Litchka, North Salem, NY

"We keep lowering the standards so everyone can meet them easier, which doesn't do anybody any good. That seems to be an easy trap to fall into. We need to keep standards high and bring everybody up to those standards." —Pam Turner, Aurora, CO

"The biggest challenges are the financial resources that are available to schools and districts. The general rise in the population and the diversity across the nation are all factors that are starting to be addressed. We’re slowly getting to where we need to be." —Ron Canos, Guam

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What do you think is the biggest challenge facing educators when it comes to addressing the achievement gap? Chime in using the "Comments" link below.

Session Canceled

The following Annual Conference session has been canceled:

3226 -- 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Cultural Competence: Reducing the Effects of Racism and Poverty on Achievement.

What Attendees Had to Say, Part 1

As the conference-goers moved from session to session to exhibits and back, we asked them to respond to a few questions about the conference and education in general. Below are responses to the first question.

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What is the main reason you are attending the ASCD Conference in Chicago?

"I want to be familiar with the current thoughts on education and the current trends. We need to share best practices to improve our situation. It's a matter of learning from others and being able to give suggestions from different perspectives." —June Howard, Barbados

"I am trying to pick up information related to curriculum development, solid effective instructional strategies, and professional development." —Cheryll Malcom, Dakota City, NE

"I've just switched from being a part-time teacher and curriculum coordinator to a full-time curriculum coordinator. I know how to teach kids; I don’t know how to teach teachers. I am working on the supervisory and administrative role." —Deborah Howard, Pownal, ME

"I am here for professional growth. I work with teachers, administrators, and curriculum instructors, and I need innovative ways to communicate. I also need to know the principles of a good education." —Robert Lungrin, Kearney, NE

"This (ASCD) Conference has a reputation around the world for being one of the best conferences for teachers. There are conferences like this in Australia but not this size and not with the world-renowned speakers." —Thomas Fisher, Melbourne, Australia

"This is my first ASCD Conference, and I am here for professional development. I’m looking forward to hearing authors share their expertise, networking, and improving my teaching skills." —Eric McDonald, Silver Spring, MD

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Did you attend the conference? If so, we'd love to know why you went and what you liked about it.

If you were unable to attend, tell us why and whether you found the blog a useful tool to keep up with the goings on.

"Help Kids See Themselves as Whole"

Bonnie St. John, Paralympic skier and Sunday’s General Session keynoter, offered perspective for educators who wonder why school sometimes fail to serve the students who could benefit most.

Don’t worry about anything that’s missing, unless it’s your own commitment to finding ways to help kids reach their full potential.

“It’s not about lack of resources. It’s about lack of vision,” she said. “If you’re a student, someone can help you believe. If you’re a teacher or principal, someone can help you get the vision. And that’s when things start to happen.”

St. John said she has relied on a strong sense of the possible — what could be — since she was a girl. When she was five years old, a medical condition led to the amputation of her right leg. Since then, she has won silver and bronze medals in international Paralympic ski competition and become a successful executive coach and sought-after speaker.

She credits her mother — a single mom who was a teacher and principal — with helping her learn not to dwell on limitations, but on the power of a singular idea to transform lives.

“As educators,” she said, “you can help kids see themselves as whole, that they have everything they need” to be successful. Sometimes that means learning that what looks like failure can be achievement in disguise.

When St. John won her medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, her original goal had been modest: just make the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. Once the competition began, she found herself in an unexpected place after her first run down the mountain: First place.

“But there are two runs,” she recounted. “Before the second run, we had gotten word that there was an icy spot, and women had been crashing out.” Conventional wisdom said a solid, conservative trip could realistically net a gold medal. Avoid the dangerous ice and victory could be at hand.

“So I’m on my run and the adrenaline is flowing and my friends and sponsors and teammates are cheering,” St. John said. “Now I think I’m past the ice, and I’m gonna win. Now what happens when you think the worst is past and you relax?

“I crashed,” she remembered.

“There I am laying in the snow on my derrière. Now you all are high profile leaders, so you know what it’s like to screw up right in front of everyone. So you know what I’m talking about. I just wanted to disappear. But I got up, got my equipment together, and finished the race.”

Lo and behold, it was good enough for third place. “That’s this bronze medal I’m wearing right now,” she said, flashing the hardware. It turned out that every other top skier had fallen too. Proud as she was, St. John said she learned something that day that was even more valuable than her medal. “The women who got gold and silver got up too. But they earned their medals because they got up just a little faster than I did.”

Photo credit: Mark Regan

The Power of Literacy Habits

The key to improving student literacy, is finding strategies that work for your students and applying them consistently throughout your school, according to Doug Fisher. When it comes to teaching literacy, however, Fisher finds that, at his school, "English teachers are the farthest off the standard."

Fisher, who along with Gay Ivey presented "Literacy in the Secondary School: Teaching All Students to Read, Write, and Think," observed that

Whereas math teachers teach slope when it's time to teach slope, English teachers, rather than teaching items in the standard, teach something like Romeo and Juliet and try to hijack the standards into the story.

The problem with this approach, according to Fisher and Ivey, authors of Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents, is that the reading is often too difficult for students. As a result, students spend most of their time trying to figure out the vocabulary and meaning of the story and never understand the items in the standard. In addition, the differentiated needs and skills of students create difficulties. "I have yet to meet the whole-class novel that will engage all 36 of my 9th graders, that they can all read, and that they all want to read," observed Fisher.

Assigning increasingly more difficult reading will not, in and of itself, improve students' literacy, Ivey noted, because "hard reading does not make better readers; manageable reading makes better readers."

While some teachers believe that starting with simple reading assignments "dumbs down the vocabulary," Ivey noted that vocabulary is just labels for concepts, and that students need to understand concepts first, if they are to become successful readers.

Fisher recalled how a math teacher who was worried about her students test scores, during standardized assessment testing season, suspended read-alouds in her class. The students were so upset at this change in their learning habit that they successfully petitioned to the principal to reinstate the practice. Part of this conflict stemmed from the differing views of read alouds that students and teachers hold. According to Fisher, students consistently rate read-alouds as one of their two favorite literacy tools, but teachers always rate them as their least favorite.

Another popular tool, which often gets criticized outside of school, is sustained silent reading (SSR). Ivey noted that while many have criticized research of SSR as correlational, not causal, she has "never had a reader who got better by not reading." And, in spite of documented successes with SSR, it is often the first program that is cut, particularly at assessment time.

However, students put a high priority on SSR, reporting that "when you leave me alone and let me read, I learn things," which is the goal of all literacy efforts, in all subject areas.

The way to improve literacy throughout a school, as Fisher and Ivey showed, is to discover or create those strategies, like SSR and read-alouds, that will advance your students' literacy, then apply them consistently throughout the school.

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• Reading Strategies for the Content Areas, Volumes One and Two, are ASCD Action Tools that contain research-based reading tools to help students build their learning skills and learn the particular content they are studying.

• Read a sample chapter from Building Student Literacy Through Sustained Silent Reading.

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Tell us about your experiences building literacy with your students using the "Comments" link below.

Reversing Urban Students' Underachievement: Seeing the Potential, Not the Lack

As soon as all of the attendees had arrived and were seated in the "Reversing Urban Underachievement: Nurturing High Intellectual Performance" session, presenter Evangeline Wise, a director at the National Urban Alliance (NUA), had them all stand up and introduce themselves to as many other attendees as possible in two minutes. When everyone was reseated, she asked how many people remembered the names of even two of the people they met. Only one person raised his hand.

Wise observed that it's important to cultivate meaningful relationships; it's not important how many people you meet or know, but how well you know them. "You need to develop a good relationship with your students because if they know that you care, learning will come more easily," Wise noted.

As you get to know your students, it's important to start by asking them about their strengths and interests, said Yvette Jackson, Wise's copresenter and the executive director of the NUA. Starting with a focus on your students' strengths helps you address misperceptions that you may have and cultivate relationships with them, two of the first steps in Jackson's "Agenda of Transformations." The next step is to focus on learning.

"If you start your teaching with learning in mind, you'll lift all students," said Jackson. To emphasize the importance of this, the NUA uses Teaching with the Brain in Mind as a primer in their professional development sessions, to get educators to start with a focus on learning.

"If you're really interested in changing underachievement, we need to change what our focus is," according to Jackson. The difficulty is that most educators associate the term "urban" with underachieving students of color. To change the focus, Jackson's agenda calls for a "pedagogy of confidence," which means that you "don't start with 'Where are they weak?' but with 'How are they strong?'"

Key to this is eliminating terms that marginalize students such as

• minority vs. students of color
• disadvantaged vs. school dependent/students put at a disadvantage
• low achievers vs. underachievers
• disabilities vs. variable learners

Making this change will help educators correct their misperceptions of their students, allowing them to create relationships based on respect, recognition, success, and sharing. Those relationships will help bridge one of the key education gaps--the divide between student culture and teacher culture.

With these relationships in place, educators can then turn their attention to the key gap in education, according to Jackson: the divide between students' potential and their achievement. The first step toward this for educators is to use their genuine relationships with their students to break down their misperceptions and see the potential, not the lack in each student.

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• Yvette Jackson further discusses the "pedagogy of confidence" as one of the contributors to Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking.
  
• ASCD's Infobrief, a quarterly policy brief, is running a series on the achievement gap. Read the Overview.
• Read a sample chapter from Closing the Achievement Gap: A Vision for Changing Beliefs and Practices by Belinda Williams.

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What kinds of challenges do you face in getting to know your students and establishing deeper relationships? Talk to us using the "Comments" link below.

Canadian Principal Named Outstanding Young Educator

Charles Coleman, principal of Khowhemun Elementary School in Duncan, British Columbia, has been named the winner of ASCD’s 2005 Outstanding Young Educator Award (OYEA). Coleman was honored at Saturday’s Opening General Session.

Coleman is the first non-U.S. educator to win the prestigious award. “I am gratified, humbled, and surprised that ASCD selected me as Outstanding Young Educator. I didn’t think you would pick a Canadian,” he joked.

He was selected for the leadership and team building he displayed in increasing student achievement in reading and mathematics at a school with a large “First Nations” student population of native people. Coleman said he and his team of faculty and staff at Khowhemun regularly apply the principles of differentiated instruction, individualized learning, multiple intelligences, and action research to serve the needs of their students.

“Working as a collaborative team in a learning community, I believe we can make a difference,” he said. “It is with the kids of Khowhemun mind that I gratefully accept this award.”

"The key strategies that Mr. Coleman initiated were  focused goals, parent involvement, targeted intervention, and First Nations support," said Tom Hierck, president of the British Columbia Principals' & Vice-Principals' Association, who nominated Coleman for the award. "His colleagues look to him for leadership, his peers have recognized his contributions, his staff feel empowered and supported, his parent community feels valued, and his students feel cared about."

Read more about Charles Coleman in the April issue of Educational Leadership magazine.

Spring nominations for the 2006 OYEA close on April 15. To nominate a deserving colleague, please click here. Two nominees for the 2006 award will be selected from the spring cadre of nominees. Two others will be selected in a fall round of nominations.

Photo Credit: Mark Regan

School Leadership Teams “the Engine of Change”

Jan Keating believes that well-managed leadership teams are key to ensuring that schools remain flexible enough to serve student needs. In her Conference session, “Transforming Your School through Shared Leadership,” she maintained that essential change cannot happen without a collaborative team of educators guiding the process.

A purposeful approach to building the team and guiding its work makes it effective.

“The leadership team is the engine of change in your school. Schools have to change all the time. A leadership team gives a school the capacity to adapt,” said the former biology teacher and principal who has worked in both Illinois and California. “Schools are like living organisms. If an organism cannot adapt to the changing environment, it will cease to exist. If allowed to change and adapt to fit its environment, the organism will evolve and flourish.”

Keating said the composition of leadership teams may vary from school to school. Generally the team members are teachers, although that’s not essential. She urged educators to avoid the easy route of simply appointing department heads. “The leadership team cannot be a political place,” she said.

Team members must share a commitment to ensuring that the best curricula are in place and that the best instruction is taking place in every classroom.

Keating said strong leadership teams can effectively tackle several critical tasks.

• Driving instructional improvement. Teams are a forum for sharing best instructional practices and determining how to make them available to the entire faculty. Teams are also well suited for addressing grading issues and interpreting data that can be used to improve instruction.
• Hiring and developing good teachers. Developing teacher recruitment strategies, establishing interview processes, setting up induction and mentoring programs, and directing professional development are all appropriate team tasks.
• Setting and communicating policy. Keating views leadership teams as the prime mechanism for researching, debating, and deciding school policy matters. Team members are charged with gathering relevant information and viewpoints from their colleagues, and building buy-in among other teachers.

Keating urged educators to use rigorous processes for conducting team business and considers team participation a formal part of members’ job descriptions.

The results can be dramatic. At Pacific Collegiate School, a Santa Cruz, Calif., public charter secondary school where Keating served as principal until recently, a strong focus on team leadership led to significantly better AP exam participation and passage rates, higher SAT scores, lower student attrition, and greater enrollment. Collaboration works, she said.

“By setting up a shared leadership team, you are setting up a professional learning community,” Keating said. “Everyone is working toward the important goal of improving curriculum and instruction in the classroom.”

What's your experience with collaborative or team leadership? Does it work--or is it a lot of work with few results? Tell us about the team leadership barriers and benefits you have encountered -- just click on "Comments" below.

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ASCD offers several important resources addressing teacher leadership, which is essential to effective shared leadership teams. Of particular note is Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice, a new book by Charlotte Danielson that delivers practical strategies for helping teachers become effective leaders in their schools.

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