Marshall Memo 879
A Weekly Round-up of Important Ideas and Research in K-12 Education
March 22, 2021
1. New thinking on improving students’ writing
2. Teaching a history unit in a way that supports struggling readers
3. A workshop model in elementary math classes
4. Applying the Dunning-Kruger curve to equity training
5. Douglas Reeves on unfinished learning
6. Accelerating elementary students’ post-Covid achievement
7. Lesson ideas for supporting students during and after the pandemic
8. Pushing back on workplace harassment
9. How to respond when you’re asked for advice
10. Children’s and young adult books about periods
“The best thing educators can do right now is to gather as much information as possible about what students have experienced over the past year – their learning, their worries, and their ideas – and take that data seriously and build on it as we return to in-person learning.”
Joe Heim in “Teachers Tested” in “How the Pandemic Is Reshaping Education”
in The Washington Post, March 15, 2021
“Instead of segregating these children and trying to give them what they didn’t learn, you say to yourself, ‘What must they know in order to stick with their peers and have access to next week’s lesson?’ The key is you’re always asking yourself, ‘What do they need for next week?’ not ‘What did they miss?’”
David Steiner (Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy), quoted in “The Great
Catch-Up: Schools Set to Attack Lost Learning” by Laura Meckler in ibid.
“Anyone who hasn’t already tried to solve their problem is either wise, lazy, or afraid.”
Dan Rockwell (see item #8)
“After all, what does a letter grade tell anyone about a writer’s capabilities and need for improvement?”
Steve Benjamin and Michael Wagner (see item #1)
“Let’s stop pretending that scattershot, half-hearted, and formulaic efforts to teach writing will succeed. In reality, learning to write well is a complex skill that requires focused instruction and frequent practice.”
Steve Benjamin and Michael Wagner (ibid.)
In this Phi Delta Kappan article, consultant Steve Benjamin and Michael Wagner (Concord Community Schools, IN) describe how, years before, Benjamin panicked when confronted with his first college writing assignment (analyzing key themes in The Great Gatsby) and sought help from his Aunt Elaine, who was three years ahead of him at the same college. “We sat together in the library,” Benjamin remembers, “and she showed me how to identify a workable theme, draft an opening paragraph, and select a few quotes that would support my thinking.” He thought they were done, but Elaine insisted on several more sessions discussing his drafts, rewriting, cutting, adding, and polishing. The final product got an A. “I’ve forgotten most everything about The Great Gatsby,” says Benjamin, “but, thanks to Aunt Elaine, I learned enduring skills and attitudes that made me a better writer.”
The problem with writing instruction in many K-12 schools, say Benjamin and Wagner, is a short-cycle approach: students are given a prompt, in-class time to compose, perhaps some teacher comments in the margins of the first draft, and then the paper is graded. This procedure, they believe, doesn’t give students enough time to develop a piece and limits teachers’ instructional repertoire. The result: a flat trajectory of U.S. students’ writing proficiency in recent national assessments, with few students able to produce the kind of writing that’s expected in college and the workplace.
The good news, say Benjamin and Wagner, is that recent research has identified a number of highly effective practices for developing better writing – and they bear a striking resemblance to Aunt Elaine’s, with one addition:
If we want to get better writing, say Benjamin and Wagner, teachers have to treat students as “apprentices to the craft of advanced literacy” – teachers model how to do a task and students narrate their step-by-step thinking and repeat the process, explaining what they are doing as they write and revise. Here are some key components to this approach:
• Expectations – A barrier to implementing this process in schools is the low bar for the writing students can and should do. In the lower grades, Benjamin and Wagner believe students can produce much more writing than is currently the case. One kindergarten student, with a little coaching from Benjamin, expanded a single sentence about wanting to live in a skyscraper (accompanied by an artful drawing) to five sentences – a full paragraph! Rather than telling students that a picture is worth a thousand words, he says, perhaps we should be thinking that a thousand words are worth a picture. Benjamin and Wagner also believe elementary classrooms should put less emphasis on personal narratives and more on argument using evidence from read-aloud stories and nonfiction reading.
• Narrow feedback – Another manifestation of low expectations is correcting only spelling, grammar, and mechanics – and sometimes jotting Awk and Run-on sentence in the margins. Feedback is much more helpful, say Benjamin and Wagner, when it addresses “the amount of detail students include, their use of transitions, their use of repetitive or varying sentence structures, the way in which they quote and paraphrase evidence, and their use of descriptive language.”
• Time – Benjamin and Wagner believe the same amount of time teachers are currently devoting to writing would have much more impact if they assigned fewer prompts – perhaps one a month – with a more detailed focus on each one. “In the end,” they say, “students and teachers must believe that working on their work, intensively, is more important than churning out dozens of lightly revised (if revised at all) pieces throughout the school year. In effect, writing instruction should shift from mass production to a small-batch approach, with the aim of creating fewer, better crafted pieces.”
• The process approach – A major problem, say Benjamin and Wagner, is the 5-6-step charts they see on classroom walls across the nation: brainstorming/prewriting, outlining, first draft, revising, editing, and publishing. New research suggests letting go of this time-honored sequence, allowing students more choice and flexibility, and spending much more time on revising. “For example,” they say, “one student might express an interest in voting rights and decide to gather information before beginning to write, but another student might choose to begin writing straightaway, drawing on extensive prior knowledge and experience before engaging in additional research. Yet another student might choose to edit and further develop an almost-forgotten poem that she has discovered in her writing journal, one that will require some expert advice from her teacher before she can overcome a stumbling block. In short, the writing process shouldn’t be viewed as rigid and linear; it can work in different ways for different people.”
• Teacher training – Clearly, some teachers need to update their repertoires to make this shift – and supervisors need to let go of the process they’ve been expecting teachers to follow for years. One of the best uses of PD time is groups of teachers reviewing samples of student work and discussing what would be the best feedback to give each writer. “In doing so,” say Benjamin and Wagner, “those teachers who struggle with their own writing tend to learn, in a nonthreatening environment, how they can improve not only their students’ writing, but also their own.”
• Grading – “Fewer writing prompts will also mean fewer completed writing projects and fewer grades,” say Benjamin and Wagner, “which may require school leaders and parents to rethink some expectations, as well, especially the assumption that a grade should be affixed to everything students produce.” That also means less teacher grading time – welcome news for English and other humanities teachers. Giving feedback on initial and interim drafts is an opportunity for teachers to provide formative, ungraded comments and suggestions on students’ progress toward specific goals, aligned to a detailed rubric, “rather than constantly trying to figure out what letter grade they deserve,” they say. “After all, what does a letter grade tell anyone about a writer’s capabilities and need for improvement?”
“Let’s stop pretending that scattershot, half-hearted, and formulaic efforts to teach writing will succeed,” conclude Benjamin and Wagner. “In reality, learning to write well is a complex skill that requires focused instruction and frequent practice.”
In this article in American Educator, Jeanne Wanzek (Vanderbilt University) says students with reading difficulties face “incredible challenges” when they’re asked to make sense of information-heavy social studies material, especially at the secondary level. “These students,” she says, “face significant barriers in preparing for college, for careers with livable wages, and for civic engagement.” How can social studies teachers deal with disparities in reading proficiency that can span 70 percentile points – from students who can work independently with complex texts to those who lack the background knowledge, vocabulary, and word-reading skills to make sense of textbooks and primary-source documents?
While those students should get reading support outside content-area classes, Wanzek believes social studies teachers can do a lot to boost skills and understanding as each unit is taught. Here’s what she suggests, using a unit on the Gilded Age as an example:
• Start with a 7-10-minute “comprehension canopy.” At the beginning of a unit, the teacher: (a) sets a clear purpose, (b) refreshes important background knowledge (perhaps by showing a brief video), and (c) poses a well-framed overarching question (for example, During the Gilded Age, how did the economic, political, and social landscape of the United States change?). Students turn and talk, addressing a question that connects the unit to their family history (for example, Who in your family was the first to come to America? Why did they leave their country of origin?).
• Teach 4-5 essential words and concepts. This is especially helpful for students with reading difficulties; Wanzek suggests several steps to introduce each word, using urbanization as an example:
In this article in Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12, Connecticut elementary teachers Kathryn O’Connor and Emma Dearborne teamed up with Tutita Casa (University of Connecticut) to describe how they used a workshop approach in math classes to teach three important standards:
“The Illusion of Equity PD” by Nicole Tucker-Smith in Educational Leadership, March 2021 (Vol. 78, #6, pp. 72-75); Tucker-Smith can be reached at [email protected].
In this article in School Administrator, author/consultant Douglas Reeves offers advice to teachers and school leaders who face the challenge of catching students up on unfinished learning from the pandemic:
• Face reality on state standards. The learning objectives for each grade level, which were often too numerous before 2020-21 school closings, are beyond the pale now. This puts teachers in the position of making idiosyncratic choices unless leaders help them to…
• Focus on the essentials. Some standards are more important than others, and by identifying and addressing those “power standards,” we can give students the knowledge and skills they need to be successful at the next level of learning.
• Practice zero-sum pruning. For every worthy new item that is added to the curriculum, something that would use the same amount of classroom time needs to be subtracted.
• Attend to social-emotional learning. “Many students have been traumatized by illnesses and deaths of loved ones and the isolation from friends associated with the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Reeves. “It’s hard to focus on prepositional phrases, the map of South America, and the quadratic equation when you are not physically and emotionally safe.”
“Too Many Standards? My Four Answers” by Douglas Reeves in School Administrator, March 2021 (Vol. 78, #3, p. 14); Reeves can be reached at [email protected].
“The Acceleration Imperative: A Plan to Address Elementary Students’ Unfinished Learning in the Wake of Covid-19”Version 1.0, edited by Kathleen Carroll, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, March 23, 2021
In this article in American Educator, the Share My Lesson Team suggests the following resources for addressing the emotional needs of students who have experienced trauma over the past year:
In this letter to The New York Times, Susan Clark Behnke (of Alexandria, Virginia) says that when people get unwanted personal questions in the workplace, it’s helpful to have responses at the ready. Some strategies: Act as if you don’t hear it; act confused; take the high road; establish a clear boundary; be explicit; leave. Suggested wording:
In this Leadership Freak article, Dan Rockwell says that when someone wants to know what we think they should do, it’s flattering and we’re inclined to share our wisdom. Instead, Rockwell advises, we should tap the brakes and follow these steps:
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About the Marshall Memo
Mission and focus:
This weekly memo is designed to keep principals, teachers, superintendents, and other educators very well-informed on current research and effective practices in K-12 education. Kim Marshall, drawing on 50 years’ experience as a teacher, principal, central office administrator, writer, and consultant lightens the load of busy educators by serving as their “designated reader.”
To produce the Marshall Memo, Kim subscribes to 60 carefully-chosen publications (see list to the right), sifts through more than a hundred articles each week, and selects 5-10 that have the greatest potential to improve teaching, leadership, and learning. He then writes a brief summary of each article, pulls out several striking quotes, provides e-links to full articles when available, and e-mails the Memo to subscribers every Monday evening (with occasional breaks; there are 50 issues a year). Every week there’s a podcast and HTML version as well.
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Core list of publications covered
Those read this week are underlined.
All Things PLC
American Educational Research Journal
American Educator
American Journal of Education
AMLE Magazine
ASCA School Counselor
Cult of Pedagogy
District Management Journal
Ed. Magazine
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
Educational Horizons
Educational Leadership
Elementary School Journal
English Journal
Exceptional Children
Harvard Business Review
Harvard Educational Review
Independent School
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk (JESPAR)
Kappa Delta Pi Record
Knowledge Quest
Language Arts
Literacy Today (formerly Reading Today)
Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12
Middle School Journal
Peabody Journal of Education
Phi Delta Kappan
Principal
Principal Leadership
Psychology Today
Reading Research Quarterly
Rethinking Schools
Review of Educational Research
School Administrator
School Library Journal
Social Education
Social Studies and the Young Learner
Teaching Exceptional Children
Teaching Tolerance
The Atlantic
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Journal of the Learning Sciences
The Language Educator
The Learning Professional (formerly Journal of Staff Development)
The Reading Teacher
Theory Into Practice
Time
Urban Education