Guest Blogger: Jodene Morrell

Jodene Morrell is the Director of the Literacy Teachers Initiative (LTI) Project at Teachers College, Columbia University which is housed in the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME), directed by Dr. Ernest Morrell. She is celebrating her 20th year in education and has worn many hats including: elementary teacher in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, California; middle school literacy specialist in Lansing, Michigan; Associate Professor in Education at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She always enjoys a great book, road trips with her husband and sons, and working closely with amazing Teacher Fellows in the LTI Project.

“The Beat is Designed So I Can Enter Your Mind”: Youth Pop Cultural Texts in My Life as Student and Teacher

By Buster Nelson

A quote from a song by a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hip-hop group gives this piece its title.  I must have first heard it in 1988 when I was in sixth grade.    The quote represents how the youth pop cultural songs, movies, and clothing fashions of my youth have affected my life-long learning.  Today, regardless of whether you, or I, or anyone else disapproves or approves of the artists, songs, films, and movies mentioned above and below, the fact remains that they are influential.  Whether that influence is positive or negative or somewhere in between, youth pop cultural texts are influential nonetheless.  My question is . . . do we as educators want to be aware of such influences on our students and then engage the students in dialogue about those influential texts, or not?  What are the costs of ignoring or dismissing such youth pop cultural text influences?   If youth pop cultural texts are introducing controversial viewpoints into the awareness of students, are we doing the right thing in ignoring the controversy, or should we help students untangle and understand the complexities of the issues at hand?  In the coming paragraphs of reflection on my own education, I will trace the influence of pop-cultural texts in my own life with the hope of spurring myself to examine the ways that today’s students might be affected by today’s pop-cultural texts. 

                  To make a long story short, my introduction through radio and video airplay to the aforementioned hip-hop group’s music and its allusions to political figures made me at least superficially aware of political controversy beyond what I was learning in school. Another track by the group, which is critical of paramedic response times in black communities, reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, and number 1 on the Hot Rap Singles chart in 1990.  Again, people’s disapproval or approval of the song is not the point here.  The point is that the song had a clear message and that the message was circulating in youth pop cultural consciousness when I was a middle-schooler. 

Also reaching number one on the Biillboard Hot Rap Singles and number 20 on the Hot R&B Singles was another track by the same Hall of Fame group in 1989.  The song channeled extra attention to a realistic fiction film by Spike Lee that details racial tension ending in violent tragedy.  At the end of the film, two contrasting quotes appear from Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X about their different philosophies of non-violence versus self-defense in struggles against oppression.  This movie led me to become interested in the other films of Spike Lee, and Lee’s film, “Malcolm X”, starring Denzel Washington, was released in 1992.  Along with the release of the movie, clothing such as t-shirts and ball caps branded with the letter “X” became popular youth fashion around where I was living in Connecticut.  I began wondering “What does the ‘X’ represent?” 

This curiosity driven by my experiences with youth popular culture between sixth and ninth grades, led to my choice to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X during one summer break. Yet, this book was not read as a required part of my school’s curriculum.  My youth pop-cultural “curriculum” led me to read it.  It was the start of my self-directed reading of works by other authors of African American descent, study which has given me much food for thought when considering educational issues.  However, back in ’89 through ’92--a seminal point of my adolescent intellectual curiosity--none of my teachers were aware of what I was studying outside of class.  My teachers were not able to help me navigate the complex, controversial issues raised by my exposure to the aforementioned youth pop cultural texts and subsequent readings.  How much more motivated, informed, and prepared might I have been by my schooling had a connection been made between my pop-cultural “syllabus” and my English class’s?

I am aware that many students today may not have experiences similar to those of my youth, in which aspects of youth popular culture intertwined with history and politics.  However, how are the youth pop cultural texts of today influencing the interests and potentially long-term intellectual trajectories of our students?  Due to my own ignorance of today’s youth pop cultural texts (e.g. movies, videos, comics, songs, and video games), how much of an opportunity to engage and to learn with the leaders of tomorrow am I missing?  How much do we recognize the power of our youth‘s pop cultural (con)texts? Are we doing the right thing?

Guest Teacher: Buster Nelson

Buster Nelson teaches sixth grade English Language Arts at Keigwin Middle School in Middletown, Connecticut.  He has taught in New York City, San Francisco, Hartford, and Middletown.  Buster received his B.A. from Amherst College, M.S. from the University of New Haven, and is completing an M.A. in Liberal Studies at Wesleyan University (CT).  He co-chairs his local library’s Strategic Educational Partnership Committee and is a founding member of his school’s Educational Equity Study/Action Group.  Buster is interested in how critical pedagogy and the study of youth pop culture texts affect learning.  Buster has been an LTI Fellow since Spring 2014.

The Voices That Matter

By Andrew Wintner

I recently had the privilege of presenting my research at the NCTE conference in Washington DC. First, let me make the generic claim that participating in events such as these; whether as a presenter or as an audience member is revitalizing. In my last post I touched upon the idea of the "teaching profession", while at NCTE teaching felt like a profession that people wanted to study and master. During our day to day as teachers it is easy to get bogged down and forget about the mission that drew us into the profession; educating children to the best of our ability. Being at these events reminds the individual teacher that they are apart of something meaningful and powerful, an ideal that is easy to lose.

While at the conference we saw a variety of presentations lead by a variety of presenters. All of the work was incredibly impressive and informative. Moreover, all of the presentations that I attended over the course of the weekend had clear universal implications. What was fascinating was the way in which different presenters, from different walks of the educational world, formulated their studies. Most graduate students / PHD candidates focused the collection of their data through quantitative measures, using clear metrics to compare student growth in a targeted area through the use of pre / post assessments; while many teachers triangulated qualitative data.

The contrast was stark, and the epiphany fleeting, but during these presentations it was clear that regardless of how data was collected and analyzed, the implications for the classrooms were the same. Rather it seemed that the most impressive implications stemmed from qualitative data; motivational words from student interviews, beautiful quips collected through written reflection and amazing growth in student affect towards varied skills left an impact much more lasting than t-tests that showed 99% significance.

The realization was pertinent; the last two years of teaching has allowed me to begin to view myself as a teacher researcher. However, I was so worried with designing the perfect design to track all data points that I lost sight of what was most important, the student. I was so worried about making sure that all data points had a pre and post assessment that it seemed like half the amount of time I spent with my focus group was dedicated to gathering data. Basically, I was not acting as a teacher researcher, I was acting as a researcher and while that has its benefits it is not the end all and be all. This is an important notion to internalize; important research in the classroom does not need to be entrenched in numbers and statistics.

There have been so many instances in which I wanted to study student motivation, or the impact of heterogenous grouping alternating with homogenous grouping every other day or the correlation between stamina and student affect towards a task, but I never studied any of the things that were of great interest in me because I could not wrap my head around how the design would look.

I am not making the claim that you should not triangulate your data or that your work does not need to based on prior research (mainly because a certain professor would kill me), however I am very clearly stating that you need to study what you think is important and will move student learning forward. If the design is not perfect, or the data collected is qualitative instead of quantitative, who cares, don't lose sight of why we want to engage in this work in the first place; to increase student learning. There are plenty of other times when we can let bureaucracy guide or pedagogy, but don't let that transcend into the research you conduct in your classroom because that research is so uniquely your own and so imperative to the profession of teaching and in turn student learning.

A Profession Under Fire? Or a Much Needed Call for Improvement?

By, Andrew Wintner

The Direction of the Teaching Profession?

As many of you know the recent cover of Time magazine calls the ‘profession’ of teaching into question; directly blaming teachers and the structure of tenure / unionization for the “downfall” of public education. This cover has created nothing short of a nation wide debate within educational circles; one side protecting the unionization of the profession and the rights of individual teachers; the other calling for accountability, high standards and transparency that are synonymous with new teacher evaluation systems, namely The Danielson Framework.

As the common core states, one important standard for a writer to understand and master is a knowledge  of the format and intended audience of a written piece (yeah I just made a CCSS reference). With that in mind I am very aware that this is a blog and I will not at all try and hide my opinions. In most aspects of life I am very liberal and open minded; I believe deeply in the need for protection of workers and in a freedom for teachers to address the diverse needs of individual students, which in many instances requires them to deviate from the robotic norm that some consider to be successful teaching. However, I am afraid that often the protection of teachers that are not pushing the profession forward minimizes the innovation and problem solving needed to maximize the potential of teaching and transform it from a job into a profession. Lackluster teachers spread a sense of complacency; in order to fight this sentiment, education must stop viewing itself as a job and rather invest in its capital as a profession by creating intellectual space for professionals to grow their craft and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Programs like Literacy Teachers Initiative (LTI) create this space, however one does not need to be a part of an organization to engage in this type of work.

Why is this Relevant?

Why would this generic argument find its place within a blog dedicated to teacher researchers; the answer is simple; teachers need to band together to push the profession forward. We should invite accountability and transparency, not in a negative light, but in a light that draws attention to the intellectual and innovative work that transpires within the walls of schools countrywide. We need to call attention to teachers who not only fight complacency, but research and reflect upon their own practice to create new norms and push peers forward. Illuminating; this aspect of teaching will draw intelligent and dedicated teachers; and then keep them within the realm. Previous entries in this blog have chronicled how to create a research question and follow through with its implementation, I want to take a step back and illuminate the importance of this type of work on education; the “Why should I implement these practices in my own practice?” question.

For the better part of a decade I have watched my peer group in other disciplines climb up pay scales, move to corner offices and receive accolades for their efforts. For the first half of my teaching career I was incredibly envious; not of their accomplishments, but rather of the recognition. I was jealous they were in professions that documented and pushed innovation. It was not until I became part of LTI that I realized the same community is available within teaching, one just needs to search the appropriate outlets to find it.

Ever since delving into the world of research within my classroom I have felt rejuvenated in my practice as an educator. Namely, I feel like a professional in a career; a huge change in my discourse as before I viewed myself as a proponent of social justice that found himself in the classroom (noble intentions, but not the right mindset to really affect change), teaching was just a job to me. Being a teacher researcher pushes my thinking, forces me to be uncomfortable and live in that ambiguity in order to create something uniquely mine that will promote the learning of students. This type of work fights stagnant practice by creating an environment that celebrates intelligence and nurtures the growth of it. By no means do I consider myself intelligent (and if you are still reading this blog you can testify to my idiocracy through the incoherent nature of this article) however by engrossing myself in the world of research I was able to create a niche that engaged my intellectual curiosity.

Teaching is perpetually in the proverbial spotlight, but in my estimation this is a critical time for the ‘profession’ and if you are reading this blog that means that you are invested at some fundamental level in its success. Therefore, I am urging you to apply for a grant, to write a research article, to submit a piece to chalktalk, write a proposal to speak at a conference or call a friend and discuss the implications of the findings of an article that dissects the importance of heterogeneous grouping in ESL classrooms . These actions will renew your faith in your job if you are feeling lost or burnt out as I once was, it will help you transform your practice into a profession. Even if that seems too cliche don’t embark on this process for yourself, embark on this process because you believe in education and you understand the incredible need for the profession to be viewed as one that promotes and grows intellectual curiosity. You understand that the smartest people in our society do not need to make loads of money, rather they need to feel challenged and successful within their craft. These outlets allow for that, therefore we need to ensure that our community; moreover our profession as a whole begins to take this work seriously. It just may be the thing that transforms teaching from a job into a profession.

Student Self Reflection-Action Research Question 2014

By Marie Clevering

In the past two months, I have begun my first year teaching third grade. Earlier in my career, I taught primarily middle school students, with a focus on fifth and sixth grades. 

First Impressions

I learned rather quickly that no matter the age, all students face similar struggles. At the beginning of the year, I may have even thought “Oh third grade. It’ll be so easy after teaching middle school.” Not so. Third grade has its unique challenges, and is forcing my approach to dealing with students to evolve.

Sarcasm is no longer a go-to strategy for working with a student with a good sense of humor. Third graders also are aware of some current events, but do not have the ability to talk about them in any depth or detail. And third graders take a long time to write down their homework. A long time. A very long time. I also realized quickly that students have a LOT of questions. These questions aren’t necessarily important, or a question that needs to be answered right away, but the students think they are. 

I don’t want to come off like I don’t enjoy my seven and eight year olds. I do. They are excited to learn. They are proud of their accomplishments. They love listening to vocabulary songs, love doing art projects, and love to read. It is an amazing age where children are just starting to become more aware of their community, and to develop their character. It is a great time to work with children to help make them life long learners.

Behavior Motivation Formats

At the beginning of the year, I struggled with what I wanted for the focus of my research. I felt like I needed an entire year to become acclimated with the elementary model. But, over the past month, it’s become clear that there is a place in my classroom (and other upper elementary grades) for motivation around self-reflection that can be tied to incentives for improved behavior.

In the past, third graders at my school were in one classroom all day. If they were off-task, their names were moved along a very public ladder that started out at “Doing Great” and ended with “Take A Break.” Sometimes, extra recess was given to the entire class for being particularly compliant during transitions, or when listening to directions.

I found the past approach problematic for multiple reasons:

1)  Students in the 3^rd grade at my school are now departmentalized. This means that they travel between a science/math room and a humanities room. This is in addition to going to gym, art and elective. It’s a packed day where students engage with different teachers, different classrooms and different rules.  Having a system in only one room just doesn’t work.

2)  Giving incentives and rewards to the entire class for doing well is a great idea. I have used this approach many times before, and I will continue to do so. However, if it’s the only way of making sure students are motivated to learn and follow directions, it falls short during independent work time and discussions in small groups. This model is awkward because the students who are always doing the right thing become increasingly frustrated with students who have a harder time following directions.

SHOW Grades

I wanted something new and better. I wanted students to be held individually accountable for their daily work and behavior, and be rewarded for their good decisions in the classroom.

The result: Scholarly Habit Of Work (or SHOW) Grades.  It is a system based off of the following concepts:

·     Grit

·     Zest (Enthusiasm)

·     Participation in classroom discussions

·     Being Prepared

·     Being Steady (try not to wiggle!)

·     On Task

·     Working as a team

It’s a lot of components. It’s a lot to ask of eight year olds. But I’m hopeful that it will have a positive effect on their learning. I also hope that self-reflection on these concepts will inspire better character in my kids both inside and outside the classroom.

How SHOW Works

SHOW Grades are student-driven. Students reflect each week on the seven components, and grade themselves on a scale of 4,3,2,1. This is a holistic score that includes all the classes for the whole week. (This is clearly a stumbling block I’m working on: it’s pretty hard to remember as a 31 year old adult what yesterday was like, much less an eight year old trying to assess their entire week!) Student’s self-grades are then reviewed by a teacher, and modified as appropriate.

If students are on the higher end of the rubric scale (either a 3 or a 4), they receive an extended recess period of about 15 minute. If students receive a 2, they receive half the extended recess. If students receive a 1, they do not get any extended recess, and have a one-on-one conversation with the teacher about ways to improve.

Research Goals

This research project has many goals. I want more accountability from my students. I also want to foster a more reflective classroom where students learn how to think about how they have acted. Also, I want to tie this research to literacy.  Besides the writing that students do when they reflect on their behavior for the week, I also want to bring in current event stories of students who show grit and teamwork to get a solution done. 

I’m also in the process of collecting data each week on students’ reflections and self-assessments. I have found a dramatic increase in the scores reported in the self-assessments (with teacher approval). From the first week, which was just three weeks ago, to last week, the class average for receiving a 3 or 4 went from 70% to 90%. Also, after an anonymous survey, over half the class agreed that SHOW helps them become better students. These are very hopeful, encouraging signs that some of the SHOW components can be successful. We shall see…

“Aha” Moments, Surprises and Questions From Three Years in LTI

By Marie Clevering

I joined Literacy Teachers Initiative three years ago. Honestly, with a switch to a different school, a new curriculum and a new grade to teach, and with starting a family, I didn’t know how long I’d last. But whatever preconceptions I had going in, I got hooked quick, and am still involved today!

         LTI is a chance for the teachers to tell our stories, and to share our unique insights. We see students thrive and we see them struggle. We know there are ways to make every student successful; we just have to find the right methods. Action research within the LTI community is a powerful tool to revitalize and refine our teaching strategies. This is why even experienced teachers with a lot on our plates are excited to participate.

From being in the program for there years, I have gained knowledge that I never would have gained elsewhere. Below are some “aha” moments, surprises, and questions from my time with LTI thus far.

“Aha” Moments!

My first action research project with LTI was all about conferencing.  Specifically, “How can conferencing help my students’ comprehension and metacognitive strategies in my book clubs and independent reading?”

I loved conferencing with my students to begin with, and felt confident that I was good at it. I thought my research would validate my impressions.

         My first “aha” moment was that I needed to listen more in conferences, especially with lower-performing students.

         During my research, I applied an increased level of critical reflection and focused closely on who was saying what during each conference. I began to realize that I was taking a leadership role in the conferences more than I had thought. I want my conferences to be student-led, and learned I needed to be more patient, giving students (especially lower-performing students) time to think through difficult topics before I offered assistance.

         Upon further reflection, I came to my second “aha” moment. I learned that even a format that was working well for me could be dramatically improved, to great effect for my students!

We must never plateau as teachers. Action research is a great way for me to keep pushing myself forward.

Surprises

”How do you have time to do all that extra work?”

This is what people often ask when I talk about my action research through LTI. This sort of question was forefront in my mind when I began my involvement in the program as well.

My first surprise was that working with LTI was not another “thing to do”, but an uplifting experience that helped every aspect of my teaching.

As part of LTI, I get to bounce ideas off of smart, inquisitive, solution-orientated teachers. LTI helps solve problems I did not even know I had, and breaks roadblocks that would otherwise likely cause extended frustration. And while participation often brings out more questions, it also brings out more energy to address these questions by making me feel more conscious and empowered as a teacher.

My second surprise was that I can and should ask the “bigger questions” in education that are sometime seen as off-limits to teachers (only permitted to be asked by specialists).

Administrators and policy makers are not the only ones who should be thinking about the “hows” and “whys” of teaching beyond the day-to-day. One of the most empowering things I realized from LTI (and the action research component in particular) is that I can and should think broader and deeper about what is going on in the classroom. By critically reflecting on my teaching, and by challenging myself to come up with solutions (that may or may not work), I am engaging in a process that enriches me as a teacher, and my students benefit as a result.

Questions

         I know that great teachers are always improving, and so I always seek to improve my teaching. My first question, as always, is how?

This year, I’m looking at quantitative and qualitative data over a work habits rubric. Specifically, “Can a work habits rubric with an emphasis on reflection and literary character study improve students self motivation?”

         That’s the question I set out with, but I know that as I conduct by research, more and more questions will arise. I also know that the LTI community will be right there with me as I work towards better and better solutions for whatever I find!