Yes, I'm excited for the new movie!
No, I have no inside track into JJ Abrams' mindset.
No, I'm not stalking the interwebs for every leak, spoiler and shred of info. I want to be surprised by the movie itself.
But I am seeing what is in the mainstream media, and that's fueling some internal speculation that I'll share for kicks...Herewith are my observations:
1) Mark Hamill is completely absent from the pre-film publicity. Not doing the morning talkshows, not on late night TV, not on podcasts, and only glimpsed (we assume...how many other characters have the mechanical hand?) in the teaser and trailer by the campfire with R2D2. And he did the voiceover in the first teaser. He was at the Celebration, but after that....pffft! gone like a drop of water on Tatooine.
2) Antony Daniels is completely absent from the pre-film publicity. Not doing the talkshows, not on late night, not on podcasts, and not in the trailers at all. No C3P0!
So, based on that, here's what that could mean for the film:
Option1) The new movies are no longer about the Skywalker males. The focus isn't on Anakin and Luke's story, and 3P0 (Anakin's creation) and R2D2 (the unsung hero of the two trilogies) and Luke are in the background. Instead, the focus shifts to the new characters. Luke gives Leia a lightsaber, a pep talk to the new guys and bugs out, off to contemplate his navel in retirement by the fire.
Option 2) Luke plays a large and dramatic role in the story, and JJ is being super secretive. Mark Hamill is tied up in his basement, because if he were to be out talking about the movie, there would be major spoilers being released. Similarly, 3P0's part is one that has a part of the plot that can't be talked about, though I doubt he plays that integral a part to this new story.
Option 3) 3P0 has finally been sent to the spice mines of Kessel...Anthony Daniels is prickly and old and he's just opted out of the publicity tour. But he's also quiet on twitter...and that still doesn't explain why he's a no-show in the teasers and trailers...
Option 4) The original cast drew straws for the publicity, and Carrie Fisher lost, Harrison Ford came in next to last and Mark Hamill won outright. Thus, he gets to relax at home, while they are out and about. There's no significance to his absence; I and other fans just need to get a life.
Personally, I'm hoping for Option 2. I think it's interesting that the trailers seem to be drawing largely on what seem to be the opening scenes of the movie (clearly introducing the new characters) for the longer portions, and then later parts of the film in the snippets. So I'm of the mind that Luke plays a pivotal role in the story, either as the hero who saves the day, or, gulp, as a casualty/noble sacrifice in some dramatic showdown. JJ is ballsy, but I don't think he's that ballsy...right?
Option 1 is plausible, and, though I can't imagine a Star Wars movie that isn't about Skywalkers, (it seems unlikely that Leia is the focus) this does open up the film for all new characters, which makes future films sustainable. It would make strategic sense to fade the old generation out, so perhaps Han Solo is playing the guide for the newbies, Leia and Luke will impart wisdom and then stand on the sidelines. This would dampen my enthusiasm for future films, but I could grow to accept it. I suppose.
See? Meaningless. But better than trying to puzzle out what the hell the connection is between Star Wars and the Dodge car company. Seriously, Disney's marketing team is out of control...
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
A seminar by, for, and of the students. THAT is student agency!
I have begun to teach a new course this year, called Advanced Seminar in Social Studies. As far as I know, it is a wholly unique class for my school.
However, it isn't a unique idea. When I was a senior in high school, I took a course called Advanced Seminar run by the English Department. The course was taught by Liz Whaley, and it had a very simple premise: as a reward for doing well for three years, students would get to run the class. We chose the books, we led the discussions and we workshopped the papers that we wrote. The English Department was committed to building student agency, even though they didn't use those words; they created a student-centered learning environment, and then they did a great job of getting out of the students' collective way. So for this idea, I owe a debt of gratitude to Liz Dodge, Liz Whaley, Emma Rous and the late Dick Tappan; they've had a tremendous impact on how I teach!
My desire was simple: I wanted to have a discussion-based course that would reward students by empowering them to take control of their own education. I have long felt that we don't do discussions well in my department or in my school. By that I mean we don't create an environment where student interest is why students speak up, where they are intrinsically motivated to participate rather than extrinsically motivated. I wanted to change that.
One of my colleagues also recently remarked that, "The second we assign a book, kids will hate reading it. We can't impact how students feel about reading." I mostly agree with him; making a book a requirement is a sure way to kill it. So, rather than my mandating what they read, I figured students could choose what areas of the social sciences to study and choose what they read about those topics. That way, I am not impacting how they feel about reading, they are doing it themselves.
If they are choosing what they read and are then motivated to talk about it because of their own desires, then it only follows that they should also be in charge of determining the methods by which they are assessed on their performance.
So Advanced Seminar in Social Studies is a semester-long, student-directed seminar. We talk. About books. The students were presented with a list of non-fiction books from all different areas of the social sciences and were told to investigate the books. They were also invited to add in any non-fiction they have read or are interested in reading. Ultimately, they chose to read four books. Each student is in charge of leading the discussion at least once during the course. Participation is assessed through a regularly held conference with me. They have agreed, after discussion, to compose a written check in halfway through the book, and a written assignment at the end of each book, which they will design to reflect the contents of the book. I am a member of the class and my role is to jump start the discussion if needed, and to serve as the referee/arbiter should that be necessary. Otherwise, I read along with them, I add my opinions to the discussion, and I stay out of their way.
There are 12 students in the class, and they have a range of strengths. They are not raising their hands to speak, but rather they are working out how to have conversations without a teacher calling on them. They are grappling with issues of economics, politics, psychology and sociology. As a result, my classroom is noisier than it has ever been before; the "noise" is 12 seniors actually talking to each other about books they enjoy, about topics they are interested in and it is all the direct result of their desires and choices.
We need more of this in our schools.
However, it isn't a unique idea. When I was a senior in high school, I took a course called Advanced Seminar run by the English Department. The course was taught by Liz Whaley, and it had a very simple premise: as a reward for doing well for three years, students would get to run the class. We chose the books, we led the discussions and we workshopped the papers that we wrote. The English Department was committed to building student agency, even though they didn't use those words; they created a student-centered learning environment, and then they did a great job of getting out of the students' collective way. So for this idea, I owe a debt of gratitude to Liz Dodge, Liz Whaley, Emma Rous and the late Dick Tappan; they've had a tremendous impact on how I teach!
My desire was simple: I wanted to have a discussion-based course that would reward students by empowering them to take control of their own education. I have long felt that we don't do discussions well in my department or in my school. By that I mean we don't create an environment where student interest is why students speak up, where they are intrinsically motivated to participate rather than extrinsically motivated. I wanted to change that.
One of my colleagues also recently remarked that, "The second we assign a book, kids will hate reading it. We can't impact how students feel about reading." I mostly agree with him; making a book a requirement is a sure way to kill it. So, rather than my mandating what they read, I figured students could choose what areas of the social sciences to study and choose what they read about those topics. That way, I am not impacting how they feel about reading, they are doing it themselves.
If they are choosing what they read and are then motivated to talk about it because of their own desires, then it only follows that they should also be in charge of determining the methods by which they are assessed on their performance.
So Advanced Seminar in Social Studies is a semester-long, student-directed seminar. We talk. About books. The students were presented with a list of non-fiction books from all different areas of the social sciences and were told to investigate the books. They were also invited to add in any non-fiction they have read or are interested in reading. Ultimately, they chose to read four books. Each student is in charge of leading the discussion at least once during the course. Participation is assessed through a regularly held conference with me. They have agreed, after discussion, to compose a written check in halfway through the book, and a written assignment at the end of each book, which they will design to reflect the contents of the book. I am a member of the class and my role is to jump start the discussion if needed, and to serve as the referee/arbiter should that be necessary. Otherwise, I read along with them, I add my opinions to the discussion, and I stay out of their way.
There are 12 students in the class, and they have a range of strengths. They are not raising their hands to speak, but rather they are working out how to have conversations without a teacher calling on them. They are grappling with issues of economics, politics, psychology and sociology. As a result, my classroom is noisier than it has ever been before; the "noise" is 12 seniors actually talking to each other about books they enjoy, about topics they are interested in and it is all the direct result of their desires and choices.
We need more of this in our schools.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Local Civics projects for Snow Day make up work
Below are the final projects that the BHS Social Studies Department did for the snow day make up assignments aka "Blizzard Bags." Let me say again how much I dislike that term...
Overall, they were a successful pilot of the program. Reflecting on the overall concept, I think that there is a fine line that we need to walk between creating the teacher-directed portion and the project portion. For instance, the 9th graders were able to pretty much parrot back the information that we provided them in the composition of their project. From my perspective, it wasn't a big deal for them to do that, as voting information is voting information; we weren't interested in them doing synthesis-level thinking for these projects! In the end, what we really wanted to accomplish was to familiarize our students with some of the basic and important avenues of civic interaction with their state and local governments, and by and large, I think we did that successfully! I don't know the exact completion rate, and I don't have copies of students' final work to share, but anecdotally, teachers shared with me that students had little difficulty in completing the assignments, not one parent complained about the assignments, and my own students said that they actually learned something from doing the project, so I'll take that as positive!
Grade 9 project description, Grade 9 supporting presentation
Grade 10 project description, Grade 10 supporting presentation
Grade 11 project description, Grade 11 supporting presentation
These are public copies of the documents, but they are set to view only in Google Drive. Please feel free to make use of them, but do credit the BHS Social Studies Department should you reproduce them! High School teachers in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, I don't know the outcome of DESE's decision making on the future use of these types of assignments, but know that you can use these with minimal changes should your district require that you come up with assignments that your students can complete in the event of another winter full of 100 year storms!
Overall, they were a successful pilot of the program. Reflecting on the overall concept, I think that there is a fine line that we need to walk between creating the teacher-directed portion and the project portion. For instance, the 9th graders were able to pretty much parrot back the information that we provided them in the composition of their project. From my perspective, it wasn't a big deal for them to do that, as voting information is voting information; we weren't interested in them doing synthesis-level thinking for these projects! In the end, what we really wanted to accomplish was to familiarize our students with some of the basic and important avenues of civic interaction with their state and local governments, and by and large, I think we did that successfully! I don't know the exact completion rate, and I don't have copies of students' final work to share, but anecdotally, teachers shared with me that students had little difficulty in completing the assignments, not one parent complained about the assignments, and my own students said that they actually learned something from doing the project, so I'll take that as positive!
Grade 9 project description, Grade 9 supporting presentation
Grade 10 project description, Grade 10 supporting presentation
Grade 11 project description, Grade 11 supporting presentation
These are public copies of the documents, but they are set to view only in Google Drive. Please feel free to make use of them, but do credit the BHS Social Studies Department should you reproduce them! High School teachers in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, I don't know the outcome of DESE's decision making on the future use of these types of assignments, but know that you can use these with minimal changes should your district require that you come up with assignments that your students can complete in the event of another winter full of 100 year storms!
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Paper v iPad update #1
We've been at the paper game for the last two and a half weeks. Some observations so far:
1) Video of the classroom shows that the students are fairly mentally present during the lessons. They are generally attentive and on task. At least, as attentive and on task as a group of freshmen ever are. There are side conversations, staring into space and poking at cuticles. This is no more or less than it ever has been in the class. Students return to task easily when called to do so.
2) There has not been one moment of resistance to our saying "put your devices away" at the start of class. Many students are not even getting their iPads out, though their phones are a pretty constant presence. Students are not showing signs of withdrawal from their devices for the duration of the class. This may be due to our amazing ability to fully engage every student for every minute of each class, or it may (more likely) be due to the notion of addiction being overstated. Or perhaps some combination of both...
3) Students did not perform noticeably better on the first quiz. It was 5 terms/names to identify and give the significance of, and we allowed them to use their notes. The first day of notes in the notebook was instructions for writing a good identification. The average score on the quiz was an 11 out of 20, which is the same score we saw on a similar activity with devices. Of the 21 students in the class, 8 left their notebooks at school rather than take them home. Those students scored a quarter of a point lower than those who took the notebook home.
4) I am getting frustrated at the amount of paper being used that I have to collect and keep track of. My table is flooded with past, current and future handouts and assignments. So far, my shortest time at the photocopier is 15 minutes, and the longest time (due to a massive paper jam followed by toner shortfall) is 35 minutes out of my 45 minute prep time. I am committed to doing my photocopying during the school day during my prep period, and I'm hating every minute I have to spend sucking in toner fumes. It doesn't feel efficient at all.
We are giving the first test (which will not be open note, and will encompass three lessons that were device focused and the remainder of the unit in the notebook.) and will be checking through their notebooks to see their level of organization. I alternate between feeling optimistic that they will do well, and pessimistic that this is a waste of time...
1) Video of the classroom shows that the students are fairly mentally present during the lessons. They are generally attentive and on task. At least, as attentive and on task as a group of freshmen ever are. There are side conversations, staring into space and poking at cuticles. This is no more or less than it ever has been in the class. Students return to task easily when called to do so.
2) There has not been one moment of resistance to our saying "put your devices away" at the start of class. Many students are not even getting their iPads out, though their phones are a pretty constant presence. Students are not showing signs of withdrawal from their devices for the duration of the class. This may be due to our amazing ability to fully engage every student for every minute of each class, or it may (more likely) be due to the notion of addiction being overstated. Or perhaps some combination of both...
3) Students did not perform noticeably better on the first quiz. It was 5 terms/names to identify and give the significance of, and we allowed them to use their notes. The first day of notes in the notebook was instructions for writing a good identification. The average score on the quiz was an 11 out of 20, which is the same score we saw on a similar activity with devices. Of the 21 students in the class, 8 left their notebooks at school rather than take them home. Those students scored a quarter of a point lower than those who took the notebook home.
4) I am getting frustrated at the amount of paper being used that I have to collect and keep track of. My table is flooded with past, current and future handouts and assignments. So far, my shortest time at the photocopier is 15 minutes, and the longest time (due to a massive paper jam followed by toner shortfall) is 35 minutes out of my 45 minute prep time. I am committed to doing my photocopying during the school day during my prep period, and I'm hating every minute I have to spend sucking in toner fumes. It doesn't feel efficient at all.
We are giving the first test (which will not be open note, and will encompass three lessons that were device focused and the remainder of the unit in the notebook.) and will be checking through their notebooks to see their level of organization. I alternate between feeling optimistic that they will do well, and pessimistic that this is a waste of time...
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Device-less unit begins
The first day went well!
Each student was given a one inch three-ring binder, a stack of lined paper (hole punched) and four plain pieces of paper (hole punched) to serve as dividers.
Students were given an instruction sheet for assembling the notebook into four sections (In this order: class notes, class handouts, homework assignments, returned work, ) that also contains tips on note-taking. The instruction sheet was the first addition to the handouts section.
We gave the students time to assemble and personalize the notebooks. They were not at all upset to put their devices away, and several (3-4 students) said they were glad to be doing this.
We then walked them through how they should format their notes (using an outline method), start a new page for each new day, with the date on the top right corner of each page.
Lastly, we handed back their most recent test (which was not good), and walked them through how to structure their answers to identification questions. This was their first written note for the notebook.
We are having them keep their notebooks in the classroom at first, and after a few days of use, we will allow them to take them home so that they may review notes, make corrections, identify questions, and prepare for assessments.
Each student was given a one inch three-ring binder, a stack of lined paper (hole punched) and four plain pieces of paper (hole punched) to serve as dividers.
Students were given an instruction sheet for assembling the notebook into four sections (In this order: class notes, class handouts, homework assignments, returned work, ) that also contains tips on note-taking. The instruction sheet was the first addition to the handouts section.
We gave the students time to assemble and personalize the notebooks. They were not at all upset to put their devices away, and several (3-4 students) said they were glad to be doing this.
We then walked them through how they should format their notes (using an outline method), start a new page for each new day, with the date on the top right corner of each page.
Lastly, we handed back their most recent test (which was not good), and walked them through how to structure their answers to identification questions. This was their first written note for the notebook.
We are having them keep their notebooks in the classroom at first, and after a few days of use, we will allow them to take them home so that they may review notes, make corrections, identify questions, and prepare for assessments.
Snow Day Make up--the rough cut
Two things off the top:
First, our charge was to come up with something that could be done in the equivalent of two-three class periods if we were in school, but that could also be scaled up or down in the future depending upon the number of days that were missed.
Second, I made the executive decision that each teacher was not going to do his or her own thing. It seemed to me to be easier for us to all collaborate on one project for each grade level (so all 9th graders will do the same thing in all classes) rather than each teacher try to come up with an acceptable activity on his or her own. I also wanted to avoid the inevitable comparisons that parents would do between what one teacher assigned and what another assigned. Invariably, someone would complain that so and so's assignment was easier/harder than another teacher's. If they all do the same thing, this concern is a non-factor.
What follows is the first draft of the project description:
First, our charge was to come up with something that could be done in the equivalent of two-three class periods if we were in school, but that could also be scaled up or down in the future depending upon the number of days that were missed.
Second, I made the executive decision that each teacher was not going to do his or her own thing. It seemed to me to be easier for us to all collaborate on one project for each grade level (so all 9th graders will do the same thing in all classes) rather than each teacher try to come up with an acceptable activity on his or her own. I also wanted to avoid the inevitable comparisons that parents would do between what one teacher assigned and what another assigned. Invariably, someone would complain that so and so's assignment was easier/harder than another teacher's. If they all do the same thing, this concern is a non-factor.
What follows is the first draft of the project description:
9th grade: Are to research how a person registers to vote, where voting happens, and how voting is done in the town of Burlington and the state of MA. They can interview, research and read about this. They must then make an infogram and a physical poster explaining this information that would help to guide a person with the process of voting, from registration to casting the ballot. We provide them with copies of the MA Constitution with commentary/annotations/presentations to guide their reading in this process, and perhaps also give a guided reading about voting rights in the US. Posters are placed in the hallways of the school and town buildings. Infograms are shared via Padlet.com. Honors student possible extension: look at how voting rights have evolved in MA from colonial times until now.
10th grade: Are to learn about how town government works--what happens at all levels of local decision making--Selectmen, Town Meeting, School Committee, Ways and Means, etc.--They can interview, research, read about this. They are then to create a digital presentation that shows the way that all aspects of town government are interrelated...like a flow chart in Explain Everything/Showme, or a series of slides, or a diagram of who does what, how it happens and how a person gets involved/elected. Presentations are posted to a YouTube channel and/or given to BCAT as infomercials to run and shared with the town government. We provide students with copies of the MA Constitution with commentary/annotations/presentations to guide their reading, and perhaps a guided reading about the history behind NE town government as a structure different from the rest of the nation's structures.
11th grade: Are to learn about how state government works. Who are their state representatives, how long have they served, what do they do. What are the parts of state government and how do they connect?How does the state government function? They can interview, research, read about this. Students are to produce a video that explains state government (think, I’m Just A Bill-esque, or a Welcome to Your State Government, or a TED talk). Videos are posted to a YouTube channel and/or given to BCAT for broadcast and shared with Burlington’s State Reps and Senator. We provide students with copies of the MA Constitution with commentary/annotations/presentations to guide their reading, and perhaps a guided reading about the differences between state and federal government.
All we have to do ahead of time is annotate the MA Constitution for the relevant information for each grade level, and find a reading and make some questions, all of which can be done in Google Docs for rapid and easy distribution on a snow day. I can create the common submission points for their digital work, which would make it easier to pass along to others, and to check off compliance/completion. Because they are publishing their work publicly it can be largely done pass/fail, I think, or we can create scoring guides if we want to, and scale the expectations for AP/Honors, CP I and CPII, with a layer of expectations depending on future number of days they have to spend doing the work. In the event of lots of days off, we could also extend it by asking them to submit a written reflection, or a critique, or suggestions for improvement to the political process they are researching.
return to writing
I'm returning to the blog to post on two topics as they unfold in the coming weeks.
Topic #1: The state has asked that my high school be one of two to pilot a program to allow the school to "make up" snow days through the development of teacher-directed student work that students may complete at home on their own time. This is being referred to as "Blizzard Bags," after the program that many other states have who are routinely stricken by snowy conditions that prevents students from attending classes. (Apparently my state, which is also routinely dealing with weather-related closings, is just now discovering this fact?) In those states, elementary students are presented with a literal bag that has numbered assignments in it. On a day when there is no school, students reach into the bag and withdraw an assignment, and they hand it in when they return. I'll be sharing what I and my department develops in the hopes that what we do might be useful for others as the program rolls out.
Topic #2: I and my co-teacher are conducting an experiment with our 9th grade inclusion-level US History class. We are removing all devices from the classroom for a unit, and doing everything as though we were in the 20th Century--handouts, written notes, three-ring binders (sorry, no TrapperKeepers!) and assessments done on paper (quizzes, tests, essays, etc.). We expect this unit (on the Civil War) to last between 3 and 4 weeks. We will be showing videos, and using Google Presentation/ExplainEverything as our platform for lecturing, but we will not be sharing those items with the students. We will then re-introduce devices for the next unit (Reconstruction and Westward Expansion). We will set up their digital notebooks explicitly and teach students the use of Notability, and how to structure their Google Drive Folders and use Google Classroom to distribute handouts. Assessments will be run through Socrative, and all materials we create will be shared with the class. We will use exactly the same assessments in both units to determine student learning, and to generate a comparison between the two styles of classroom. I'll be sharing our findings as we go along, and trying to provide an account of the various joys and frustrations of each unit as they unfold.
So if that doesn't get your pulse pounding, well...
Topic #1: The state has asked that my high school be one of two to pilot a program to allow the school to "make up" snow days through the development of teacher-directed student work that students may complete at home on their own time. This is being referred to as "Blizzard Bags," after the program that many other states have who are routinely stricken by snowy conditions that prevents students from attending classes. (Apparently my state, which is also routinely dealing with weather-related closings, is just now discovering this fact?) In those states, elementary students are presented with a literal bag that has numbered assignments in it. On a day when there is no school, students reach into the bag and withdraw an assignment, and they hand it in when they return. I'll be sharing what I and my department develops in the hopes that what we do might be useful for others as the program rolls out.
Topic #2: I and my co-teacher are conducting an experiment with our 9th grade inclusion-level US History class. We are removing all devices from the classroom for a unit, and doing everything as though we were in the 20th Century--handouts, written notes, three-ring binders (sorry, no TrapperKeepers!) and assessments done on paper (quizzes, tests, essays, etc.). We expect this unit (on the Civil War) to last between 3 and 4 weeks. We will be showing videos, and using Google Presentation/ExplainEverything as our platform for lecturing, but we will not be sharing those items with the students. We will then re-introduce devices for the next unit (Reconstruction and Westward Expansion). We will set up their digital notebooks explicitly and teach students the use of Notability, and how to structure their Google Drive Folders and use Google Classroom to distribute handouts. Assessments will be run through Socrative, and all materials we create will be shared with the class. We will use exactly the same assessments in both units to determine student learning, and to generate a comparison between the two styles of classroom. I'll be sharing our findings as we go along, and trying to provide an account of the various joys and frustrations of each unit as they unfold.
So if that doesn't get your pulse pounding, well...
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Availability in the digital teaching world
Let's start with a true confession: I'm addicted to digital media. Email, Twitter, texting, Facebook, Instagram--I compulsively check them all.
But during the summer, it's just for me and it's just for fun. But during the school year, it's a different story. Email used to be the only digital portal for student communication. But now Twitter is too. And last year, my students figured out that if they want a fast response, Twitter was the way to go. And I would be tweeting back at 11 pm. Which is a problem.
I'd like to train my freshmen to be pro-active with the help they need, and, more, I'd like to draw a boundary between my work and my life. But how to go about this on my end of things? Defeat my digital addiction (which may or may not be a good thing for my overall well being), or try to limit my responses to work-related items? In this 24 hour digital world, what is the line between work and home lives? As a teacher, it feels like this is getting blurrier and blurrier, and I'm not sure how to best address it...
But I'm open to suggestions...maybe you could tweet them to me...?
Monday, April 28, 2014
Putin's figured out the "new" game
What we are witnessing in Ukraine is the first in what will be a series of moves made by aggressive, avaricious nation-states in the coming decades, and indeed, could become the new norm for conflict escalation around the world, unless the Obama administration develops some new tools for response in a hurry.
Since the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War in 1648, European states bought into the notion of sovereignty, or being free from outside interference in their domestic affairs, or the affairs of their nation of peoples. Thus the nation-state was born. Europeans then carried this notion out into the world with them over subsequent centuries; wars were fought between and among nation-states, not individuals, not groups and not nations. On the basis of this fundamental understanding, conflict happened, treaties were negotiated, goods and services were exchanged, and we eventually saw that the majority of international relations were conducted at the nation-state level.
Throughout the 20th Century, what we saw, and what Putin has neatly circumvented in Ukraine, was the idea that aggression comes from one nation-state to another. This occurred, it has been argued by many, in a largely anarchic society of nation-states who were concerned ultimately with self-interest. As a result, nation-states, like the US, became guarantors of sovereignty for themselves first (and those nation-states who were their allies second) on the basis of military strength. This strength was measured by the ability to deter or defeat another nation-state's military. As a result, nation-states acted in response to other nation-states. But in the 21st Century, when the aggressor isn't a nation-state, the options for military response is effectively muted.
This is Putin's tactically brilliant maneuver. Ukraine's sovereignty is certainly being assailed by members of the Russian nation, but Ukraine is not being directly assaulted by the Russian nation-state. This makes a definitive, protective, military response by those nation-states who would support Ukrainian sovereignty (or the idea of sovereignty in general) impossible, for against whom can they direct their military efforts? Putin's plausible deniability is clearly a sham, but it is thick enough that no nation-state can act militarily against his nation-state, while members of the Russian nation begin to systematically dismantle Ukrainian sovereignty, first in Crimea, and now in the eastern part of Ukraine. Ultimately the Russian nation-state will benefit from the influx of natural gas, warm water ports and other resources and will pay little to no military cost for these gains. Russia may pay an economic cost through sanctions, but Putin is clearly calculating that economic sanctions with either not last long, or will not be all that costly or both.
In the aftermath of 9-11, the US learned about how a nation-state can respond to the super-empowered individual, and it found the experience to be messy, largely unsatisfying, and costly. Now the US (and all nation-states) will have to figure out how to respond to the diffuse aggression of nations of people within foreign states. This isn't a new problem: witness how China has occupied Tibet. The world of nation-states will be challenged to come up with new solutions to this problem in the coming decades, lest they wake up one morning to discover that their sovereignty is merely a thought from the past.
Since the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War in 1648, European states bought into the notion of sovereignty, or being free from outside interference in their domestic affairs, or the affairs of their nation of peoples. Thus the nation-state was born. Europeans then carried this notion out into the world with them over subsequent centuries; wars were fought between and among nation-states, not individuals, not groups and not nations. On the basis of this fundamental understanding, conflict happened, treaties were negotiated, goods and services were exchanged, and we eventually saw that the majority of international relations were conducted at the nation-state level.
Throughout the 20th Century, what we saw, and what Putin has neatly circumvented in Ukraine, was the idea that aggression comes from one nation-state to another. This occurred, it has been argued by many, in a largely anarchic society of nation-states who were concerned ultimately with self-interest. As a result, nation-states, like the US, became guarantors of sovereignty for themselves first (and those nation-states who were their allies second) on the basis of military strength. This strength was measured by the ability to deter or defeat another nation-state's military. As a result, nation-states acted in response to other nation-states. But in the 21st Century, when the aggressor isn't a nation-state, the options for military response is effectively muted.
This is Putin's tactically brilliant maneuver. Ukraine's sovereignty is certainly being assailed by members of the Russian nation, but Ukraine is not being directly assaulted by the Russian nation-state. This makes a definitive, protective, military response by those nation-states who would support Ukrainian sovereignty (or the idea of sovereignty in general) impossible, for against whom can they direct their military efforts? Putin's plausible deniability is clearly a sham, but it is thick enough that no nation-state can act militarily against his nation-state, while members of the Russian nation begin to systematically dismantle Ukrainian sovereignty, first in Crimea, and now in the eastern part of Ukraine. Ultimately the Russian nation-state will benefit from the influx of natural gas, warm water ports and other resources and will pay little to no military cost for these gains. Russia may pay an economic cost through sanctions, but Putin is clearly calculating that economic sanctions with either not last long, or will not be all that costly or both.
In the aftermath of 9-11, the US learned about how a nation-state can respond to the super-empowered individual, and it found the experience to be messy, largely unsatisfying, and costly. Now the US (and all nation-states) will have to figure out how to respond to the diffuse aggression of nations of people within foreign states. This isn't a new problem: witness how China has occupied Tibet. The world of nation-states will be challenged to come up with new solutions to this problem in the coming decades, lest they wake up one morning to discover that their sovereignty is merely a thought from the past.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
PISA results and motivation
A confluence occurred:
A) NBC News ran a story about the PISA results on December 3rd, in which a Chinese student (who appears to be high school-aged but wasn't identified as such), when asked, "Why do you want to study so much?" responded, "Because I want to have a better future."
B) A colleague was telling me that very few of her students even knew about the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, which offers free in-state college tuition to students who score highly on all aspects of the MCAS exam. Many students appeared to be downright shocked to know that this was even available, and several commented that they would have tried harder had they known about this their sophomore years.
C) While researching information for my Modern America class, I saw that, according to an article in EdWeek citing stats from the US Department of Education, in 1969, 77% of the population of the US had a high school diploma. More recently, this number has settled to just under 70%. That's a lot of high school diplomas...
These three things converged in my head to cause me to think that part of why the US is being "passed" by other countries on measurements of assessment like PISA, is not only because we are teaching outmoded content in outmoded ways, but is also because our students are hell and gone from the attitude displayed by the student in China. There is little to no connection in the minds of our students that a high school education is the door to a better future. High school is what they do because they have to. They are required to be there, but they don't see how their learning could lead to a better job, a higher wage, and thus greater economic security. Where that got lost, I don't know, but it got lost. "I have to be here," is what many of my students say when I ask why they come to school.
I think that if more American students saw both an intrinsic and extrinsic value to what they did in high school, they would be more invested at performing at a high level, and thus would apply themselves more--they would "try harder" to get that scholarship. I'm left wondering who and when and where and how can we as a society can communicate this value to our teenagers. "So you can go to college," is lovely, but if more, future school is the reward for school, the value and motivation wanes for focusing on what is immediately in front of the person. Especially when the person is 15. And especially when the person is being presented with irrelevant material...
Oh, and apparently 6100 15 year old US students took the PISA. According to the US Department of Education, that's out of a total high school age population of about 20 million (public and private) students aged 14-18. You can decide if that is or is not a representative sample of students, and thus whether or not we should be gnashing our teeth about being surpassed by Vietnam...
And if you like, the PISA results are tabulated here. Makes for some interesting reading...
A) NBC News ran a story about the PISA results on December 3rd, in which a Chinese student (who appears to be high school-aged but wasn't identified as such), when asked, "Why do you want to study so much?" responded, "Because I want to have a better future."
B) A colleague was telling me that very few of her students even knew about the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, which offers free in-state college tuition to students who score highly on all aspects of the MCAS exam. Many students appeared to be downright shocked to know that this was even available, and several commented that they would have tried harder had they known about this their sophomore years.
C) While researching information for my Modern America class, I saw that, according to an article in EdWeek citing stats from the US Department of Education, in 1969, 77% of the population of the US had a high school diploma. More recently, this number has settled to just under 70%. That's a lot of high school diplomas...
These three things converged in my head to cause me to think that part of why the US is being "passed" by other countries on measurements of assessment like PISA, is not only because we are teaching outmoded content in outmoded ways, but is also because our students are hell and gone from the attitude displayed by the student in China. There is little to no connection in the minds of our students that a high school education is the door to a better future. High school is what they do because they have to. They are required to be there, but they don't see how their learning could lead to a better job, a higher wage, and thus greater economic security. Where that got lost, I don't know, but it got lost. "I have to be here," is what many of my students say when I ask why they come to school.
I think that if more American students saw both an intrinsic and extrinsic value to what they did in high school, they would be more invested at performing at a high level, and thus would apply themselves more--they would "try harder" to get that scholarship. I'm left wondering who and when and where and how can we as a society can communicate this value to our teenagers. "So you can go to college," is lovely, but if more, future school is the reward for school, the value and motivation wanes for focusing on what is immediately in front of the person. Especially when the person is 15. And especially when the person is being presented with irrelevant material...
Oh, and apparently 6100 15 year old US students took the PISA. According to the US Department of Education, that's out of a total high school age population of about 20 million (public and private) students aged 14-18. You can decide if that is or is not a representative sample of students, and thus whether or not we should be gnashing our teeth about being surpassed by Vietnam...
And if you like, the PISA results are tabulated here. Makes for some interesting reading...
Friday, November 22, 2013
Goal vs. Plan
Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it best: "A goal without a plan is just a wish."
Needed in some schools: Stop wishing; start planning!
My goal for my department is to successfully implement Common Core Reading and Writing standards in our curriculum by the 2014-2015 school year.
My plan began two years ago.
Year 1 (12-13)
Step 1: "Be an expert." I need to become an expert in Common Core Reading and Writing standards. My timeline to become an expert: 1 school year. I will attend conferences, gather information, and spend time reviewing the different standards.
Step 2: "Play." Design my own activities that utilize the language of the Common Core and try them out in my class.
Step 3: "Collaborate." Work with someone else in my discipline to expand my practical understanding of the standards.
Step 4: "Shake Hands." Once I know my stuff, I will have the members of my department meet the standards; We will discuss them as a group (both small and large) and have the opportunity to develop an understanding of what the standards are asking.
Year 2 (13-14)
Step 5: "Integrate." Have members of my department create assignments that align with Common Core Reading Standards. This is done collaboratively, with large group sharing of outcomes.
Step 6: "Evaluate, Re-Create/Curate." Have members of the department utilize the standards in the creation of common assessments, collect data on student performance, then tweak for future use. Share and curate assessments that are created. This is where we are now.
Step 7: "Be comfortable." Department members are familiar with the Reading Standards, have several resources at hand, and have designed lessons, activities and assessments that reflect the standards. No one is a stranger to the standards, and colleagues are supportive.
Step 8: "Repeat with a twist." The department will go back to Year 1, step 4 with the Writing Standards, and cycle through steps 5-7 with them during the latter half of this year and first part of the 14-15 year.
Year 3 (January, 2015)
Step 9: "Relax." The department should feel comfortable (and perhaps slightly smug) about their mastery of the Common Core Standards.
Is it perfect? No, of course not. It won't be all smooth either.
But it is a plan, and it does help my goal become realized.
Which gives me an excuse to say:
"I love it when a plan comes together." --John "Hannibal" Smith.
Needed in some schools: Stop wishing; start planning!
My goal for my department is to successfully implement Common Core Reading and Writing standards in our curriculum by the 2014-2015 school year.
My plan began two years ago.
Year 1 (12-13)
Step 1: "Be an expert." I need to become an expert in Common Core Reading and Writing standards. My timeline to become an expert: 1 school year. I will attend conferences, gather information, and spend time reviewing the different standards.
Step 2: "Play." Design my own activities that utilize the language of the Common Core and try them out in my class.
Step 3: "Collaborate." Work with someone else in my discipline to expand my practical understanding of the standards.
Step 4: "Shake Hands." Once I know my stuff, I will have the members of my department meet the standards; We will discuss them as a group (both small and large) and have the opportunity to develop an understanding of what the standards are asking.
Year 2 (13-14)
Step 5: "Integrate." Have members of my department create assignments that align with Common Core Reading Standards. This is done collaboratively, with large group sharing of outcomes.
Step 6: "Evaluate, Re-Create/Curate." Have members of the department utilize the standards in the creation of common assessments, collect data on student performance, then tweak for future use. Share and curate assessments that are created. This is where we are now.
Step 7: "Be comfortable." Department members are familiar with the Reading Standards, have several resources at hand, and have designed lessons, activities and assessments that reflect the standards. No one is a stranger to the standards, and colleagues are supportive.
Step 8: "Repeat with a twist." The department will go back to Year 1, step 4 with the Writing Standards, and cycle through steps 5-7 with them during the latter half of this year and first part of the 14-15 year.
Year 3 (January, 2015)
Step 9: "Relax." The department should feel comfortable (and perhaps slightly smug) about their mastery of the Common Core Standards.
Is it perfect? No, of course not. It won't be all smooth either.
But it is a plan, and it does help my goal become realized.
Which gives me an excuse to say:
"I love it when a plan comes together." --John "Hannibal" Smith.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
A response to Trevor Packer about AP World History Scores
Today, Trevor Packer, the College Board's Head of AP, according to his twitter bio, tweeted the following:
AP World History scores, 2013. 5: 5.7%. 4: 13.5%. 3: 29.4%. 2: 30.4%. 1: 21%. These may shift slightly as late exams are scored.
This year’s AP World History essays earned the lowest scores ever. It appears many students are being rushed into the course.
Out of 9 points possible on each of the 3 AP World History essays, the mean scores were: 2, 1, 1, the lowest essay scores ever on this exam.
113,000 AP World Hist students (60% of all) earned 0/9 pts on Q2 (politics – continuity/change in medieval cultures)
Ideally, AP World History is a 12th grade course, after a standard world history course in an earlier grade. But some 10th graders excel.
The AP World History exam is designed and scored by many college faculty, who ensure it reflects the standards of a college course.
You can see the actual tweets if you go to the feed of @AP_Trevor.
So the test results indicated that students did universally poorly on the Free Response Questions with mean scores of 2, 1, and 1. Why is that, I wonder? And overall, the vast majority of students who wrote the exam, over 70%, did not earn a score that would garner them college credit!
In my experience, any teacher worth his or her salt can look at student performance on an exam and gauge a number of things. The majority of good teachers, when confronted with a universal fail (because that's what mean scores on the FRQs of 1 and 2 out of 9 are: failure) are faced with one of two causes for that failure. It is either a failure to prepare well, or it is a failure to write a good test. Mr. Packer would indicate by his tweets that it is the former, and not the latter, and that this is due largely to students being "rushed" into taking a course that is ideally taught to 12th grade. On what does he base this assumption? Presumably, since all AP courses must submit a syllabus to the audit process and receive approval to be named "AP," the College Board is aware of the grade levels, content, structure and pedagogy of the class being taught. Is Mr. Packer indicating that the College Board has been rubber stamping courses that are poorly structured? Surely not. Is Mr. Packer indicating that they should not approve this course to be taught to any grade lower than 12th? Why, then, are classes like mine, taught to 11th graders, approved? If the course is for 12th grade, then it would behoove the College Board to limit the courses designated as AP to lower grades by applying an even stricter standard of pedagogy to those syllabi for non-senior classes. But they don't. Perhaps there is not enough free response practice built into the syllabi of the nation's classrooms teaching AP World. But if that were the case, why are classes lacking in sufficient practice time approved? My students write an essay every two weeks, and we spend a lengthy amount of time reviewing the score guides. Is that not enough because they are juniors and not seniors? I don't think that Mr. Packer has a leg to stand on with his justification for the score results based on preparation. This simply is not an acceptable reason for the low rate of success on the Free Response Questions, and the low overall scores unless Mr. Packer is meaning to discredit the audit process. And maybe he is, but since his checks come from the College Board, I rather doubt it.
No, the conclusion we can point to is that the Free Response Questions were poorly constructed. Now, Mr. Packer's defense is that the exam is scored and designed by "many college faculty." This would certainly help to explain why recent questions are written around such esoterica as Cricket and Indian Politics, the mechanization of the textile industries in Japan and India in the late 1800's, and the "continuity and change of politics in medival cultures." Could you write a broader question? When 60% of your students can't even write an acceptable thesis statement for a question and gain one point, Mr. Packer, you have a poorly. written. question. Or you have 113,000 poorly prepared students nation wide. So which is it? Were the 40% who scored higher than a 0 on that question all the 12th graders? I doubt it.
Mr. Packer, the initial test data are telling you that you need to hire a different group of people to write your questions, because the esoteric minutia that interests your "many college faculty" don't result in good questions. I have not seen the FRQ's from this year's exam, and I shall not rely upon my student's reportage to comment on them specifically. But I can feel very safe in assuming that the questions did two things: poorly represent the scope of actual world history in any larger sense (i.e.: they were likely pulled from 600CE-2000, (a mere 1400 years, not even close to the full 8,000 years the course is supposed to address) and that they relied upon students using information about Europe to generate answers. Those are the overwhelming trends of the FRQ's in recent years. Perhaps the "many college faculty" who design and score the course are all specialists in European history? are all a group of modernists? cast offs from the AP European cohort? Of course, when you design a course that is not supposed to deal with Europe and North America, and then you only design the test questions around Europe and North America, those are the results you get. Face it, Mr. Packer, just as happened in 2002 with the first time around, your "many college faculty" wrote a bad test.
AP World History scores, 2013. 5: 5.7%. 4: 13.5%. 3: 29.4%. 2: 30.4%. 1: 21%. These may shift slightly as late exams are scored.
This year’s AP World History essays earned the lowest scores ever. It appears many students are being rushed into the course.
Out of 9 points possible on each of the 3 AP World History essays, the mean scores were: 2, 1, 1, the lowest essay scores ever on this exam.
113,000 AP World Hist students (60% of all) earned 0/9 pts on Q2 (politics – continuity/change in medieval cultures)
Ideally, AP World History is a 12th grade course, after a standard world history course in an earlier grade. But some 10th graders excel.
The AP World History exam is designed and scored by many college faculty, who ensure it reflects the standards of a college course.
You can see the actual tweets if you go to the feed of @AP_Trevor.
So the test results indicated that students did universally poorly on the Free Response Questions with mean scores of 2, 1, and 1. Why is that, I wonder? And overall, the vast majority of students who wrote the exam, over 70%, did not earn a score that would garner them college credit!
In my experience, any teacher worth his or her salt can look at student performance on an exam and gauge a number of things. The majority of good teachers, when confronted with a universal fail (because that's what mean scores on the FRQs of 1 and 2 out of 9 are: failure) are faced with one of two causes for that failure. It is either a failure to prepare well, or it is a failure to write a good test. Mr. Packer would indicate by his tweets that it is the former, and not the latter, and that this is due largely to students being "rushed" into taking a course that is ideally taught to 12th grade. On what does he base this assumption? Presumably, since all AP courses must submit a syllabus to the audit process and receive approval to be named "AP," the College Board is aware of the grade levels, content, structure and pedagogy of the class being taught. Is Mr. Packer indicating that the College Board has been rubber stamping courses that are poorly structured? Surely not. Is Mr. Packer indicating that they should not approve this course to be taught to any grade lower than 12th? Why, then, are classes like mine, taught to 11th graders, approved? If the course is for 12th grade, then it would behoove the College Board to limit the courses designated as AP to lower grades by applying an even stricter standard of pedagogy to those syllabi for non-senior classes. But they don't. Perhaps there is not enough free response practice built into the syllabi of the nation's classrooms teaching AP World. But if that were the case, why are classes lacking in sufficient practice time approved? My students write an essay every two weeks, and we spend a lengthy amount of time reviewing the score guides. Is that not enough because they are juniors and not seniors? I don't think that Mr. Packer has a leg to stand on with his justification for the score results based on preparation. This simply is not an acceptable reason for the low rate of success on the Free Response Questions, and the low overall scores unless Mr. Packer is meaning to discredit the audit process. And maybe he is, but since his checks come from the College Board, I rather doubt it.
No, the conclusion we can point to is that the Free Response Questions were poorly constructed. Now, Mr. Packer's defense is that the exam is scored and designed by "many college faculty." This would certainly help to explain why recent questions are written around such esoterica as Cricket and Indian Politics, the mechanization of the textile industries in Japan and India in the late 1800's, and the "continuity and change of politics in medival cultures." Could you write a broader question? When 60% of your students can't even write an acceptable thesis statement for a question and gain one point, Mr. Packer, you have a poorly. written. question. Or you have 113,000 poorly prepared students nation wide. So which is it? Were the 40% who scored higher than a 0 on that question all the 12th graders? I doubt it.
Mr. Packer, the initial test data are telling you that you need to hire a different group of people to write your questions, because the esoteric minutia that interests your "many college faculty" don't result in good questions. I have not seen the FRQ's from this year's exam, and I shall not rely upon my student's reportage to comment on them specifically. But I can feel very safe in assuming that the questions did two things: poorly represent the scope of actual world history in any larger sense (i.e.: they were likely pulled from 600CE-2000, (a mere 1400 years, not even close to the full 8,000 years the course is supposed to address) and that they relied upon students using information about Europe to generate answers. Those are the overwhelming trends of the FRQ's in recent years. Perhaps the "many college faculty" who design and score the course are all specialists in European history? are all a group of modernists? cast offs from the AP European cohort? Of course, when you design a course that is not supposed to deal with Europe and North America, and then you only design the test questions around Europe and North America, those are the results you get. Face it, Mr. Packer, just as happened in 2002 with the first time around, your "many college faculty" wrote a bad test.
Friday, March 15, 2013
The Myth of Digital Natives
Year two of the 1:1 iPad initiative in my school is progressing, and as time has passed, I've been realizing that a fundamental assumption I was making was completely wrong.
In 2001, Marc Prensky wrote that, "our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet." (You can read his work at: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf) I read this at the time and thought he was correct in his description of the "digital native," and I accepted that I was a "digital immigrant." However time and experience has helped me to realize the error of his and my assumptions.
I agree with Prensky that there is a difference between the students today and the teachers who teach them in terms of levels of comfort with the technology. My students are fearless with their handling of devices. (Often too fearless, as evidenced by the rising number of cracked, chipped and spider webbed screens in my classroom...) However, there is a difference in being fearless with handling and being fearless with using! They are not native speakers of the technology they hold. Here's why I think so:
1) A digital native would instinctively utilize digital tools. When I ask my students to articulate their understanding of a topic and give them a free choice of how to do it, they automatically gravitate toward something that they draw, hand write or compose on paper. They do not gravitate toward anything on the iPad. They have to be anywhere from encouraged to required to leave the comfort of paper and writing implements to make use of the digital tool they hold in their hand. Their default is analog, not digital.
2) A digital native who spoke the language of computers and the internet would be able to do more than a rudimentary search for a topic in a search engine. They would be able to ask sophisticated questions in a way that would actually use the search engine to find answers to their questions without me having to teach them how to use the tool. Yes, they all go to Google to do research, and they prefer that to researching in books. But, all the ways to refine a digital search continue to elude my students at the deep, native level, and instead this trait exists on a superficial level.
3) A digital native would be able to creatively take advantage of digital tools available to them. They would be able to generate ideas in a digital format and see them through to completion without the instructor having to model the use of the format, the composition and the creation. This I have to do every time we do a project in my class. Any app we use must be explained and demonstrated by me before my students will make use of it in an independent fashion. And even then, they will only use the tool in the way in which I showed it to them; they neither take risks with it nor do they innovate with the tool to combine it with other tools.
I have stopped giving my students a wide open range to express themselves while using the iPad. The results are disappointing. The students say it is overwhelming, they don't know how to use the iPad and its many apps to articulate their understanding, and they need me to show them how, tell them what to do, and translate their paper desires into a digital format.
Perhaps, now that my district has pushed iPads down to middle school and will expand into the elementary schools in the coming year, when a student who is currently in kindergarten arrives in my classroom having had this device as a part of his or her educational life, I will not have to lead them in the use of technology, and they will begin to resemble the digital native Prensky described.
This is all not to say that the iPad isn't working well, for in many ways it is, it is just to say that we teachers can't assume that our students are going to be any more knowledgeable, creative and comfortable with digital learning tools than we are. At this point, I may be older than my students, but I remain a level above them when it comes to knowing how effectively to use technology to learn. And that means that sadly, Mr. Prensky was wrong.
In 2001, Marc Prensky wrote that, "our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet." (You can read his work at: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf) I read this at the time and thought he was correct in his description of the "digital native," and I accepted that I was a "digital immigrant." However time and experience has helped me to realize the error of his and my assumptions.
I agree with Prensky that there is a difference between the students today and the teachers who teach them in terms of levels of comfort with the technology. My students are fearless with their handling of devices. (Often too fearless, as evidenced by the rising number of cracked, chipped and spider webbed screens in my classroom...) However, there is a difference in being fearless with handling and being fearless with using! They are not native speakers of the technology they hold. Here's why I think so:
1) A digital native would instinctively utilize digital tools. When I ask my students to articulate their understanding of a topic and give them a free choice of how to do it, they automatically gravitate toward something that they draw, hand write or compose on paper. They do not gravitate toward anything on the iPad. They have to be anywhere from encouraged to required to leave the comfort of paper and writing implements to make use of the digital tool they hold in their hand. Their default is analog, not digital.
2) A digital native who spoke the language of computers and the internet would be able to do more than a rudimentary search for a topic in a search engine. They would be able to ask sophisticated questions in a way that would actually use the search engine to find answers to their questions without me having to teach them how to use the tool. Yes, they all go to Google to do research, and they prefer that to researching in books. But, all the ways to refine a digital search continue to elude my students at the deep, native level, and instead this trait exists on a superficial level.
3) A digital native would be able to creatively take advantage of digital tools available to them. They would be able to generate ideas in a digital format and see them through to completion without the instructor having to model the use of the format, the composition and the creation. This I have to do every time we do a project in my class. Any app we use must be explained and demonstrated by me before my students will make use of it in an independent fashion. And even then, they will only use the tool in the way in which I showed it to them; they neither take risks with it nor do they innovate with the tool to combine it with other tools.
I have stopped giving my students a wide open range to express themselves while using the iPad. The results are disappointing. The students say it is overwhelming, they don't know how to use the iPad and its many apps to articulate their understanding, and they need me to show them how, tell them what to do, and translate their paper desires into a digital format.
Perhaps, now that my district has pushed iPads down to middle school and will expand into the elementary schools in the coming year, when a student who is currently in kindergarten arrives in my classroom having had this device as a part of his or her educational life, I will not have to lead them in the use of technology, and they will begin to resemble the digital native Prensky described.
This is all not to say that the iPad isn't working well, for in many ways it is, it is just to say that we teachers can't assume that our students are going to be any more knowledgeable, creative and comfortable with digital learning tools than we are. At this point, I may be older than my students, but I remain a level above them when it comes to knowing how effectively to use technology to learn. And that means that sadly, Mr. Prensky was wrong.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
The failure of high school Social Studies teachers
As I watch this election season unfold, I have one, over-riding thought:
We. Failed.
And by "We," I mean Social Studies teachers.
And by "Failed," I mean we have not taught our citizens how to talk about politics. As a result, our citizens can't talk to each other about the important issues of the day in anything other than a fact-avoidant, hyperbolic, simultaneous, shouting match where volume overrules logic, stupid is celebrated, and hyperbole is evidence. This election season shows the failure of the public high school system to prepare generations of responsible, thoughtful citizens.
Concurrent with our society losing the ability to have reasoned discourse in our civic life, we, the teachers, have lost our willingness to tackle these issues in our classrooms. It seems to me that we, the teachers, are scared to even try to do so for fear of parent, administrative and media backlash.
We have failed.
No more. I'm bringing politics back to my high school. I will leave my personal ideological biases at the door of the school. I will teach my students have to have a reasoned discourse about the issues that plague our society.
I will be the difference in my students' civic lives that will help to mold them into a generation that doesn't blindly drink the intellectually thin soup the media currently feeds us. I will lead my students away from the painted harlot that is demagoguery. I will bring them back to the idea that there is a larger cause than just individual satisfaction, and that being an informed citizen is the best kind of community service.
I will have my students address the controversial issues of our country. We will talk about abortion, gun control, and the death penalty. We will talk about states' rights and federal rights. We will talk about the deficit, the budget, and spending priorities. We will talk about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, "the general welfare" and the obligations inherent in a social contract between the government and the governed. We will address the concerns of the day in a way that will cause my students not to argue with anger but rather to argue with intellect and facts. We will invite parents and the community to have this discussion with us, and I will teach my students how to lead those discussions.
There is no one else who can arrest the decline in civil, civic discourse in this country but Social Studies teachers. No other group of people has the ability to reach each and every future citizen; no other group has the chance to make this change before it is too late. Not the media, not the parties, not the elected officials, not the parents. It's just we, the teachers, who can do this.
So I throw down this gauntlet all of you, my colleagues in high schools across the nation. Leave your ideological biases at the schoolhouse door along with your fears that reason can't trump emotion and help to get this country back on track with reasoned discourse on issues of continental importance.
Pick it up.
We. Failed.
And by "We," I mean Social Studies teachers.
And by "Failed," I mean we have not taught our citizens how to talk about politics. As a result, our citizens can't talk to each other about the important issues of the day in anything other than a fact-avoidant, hyperbolic, simultaneous, shouting match where volume overrules logic, stupid is celebrated, and hyperbole is evidence. This election season shows the failure of the public high school system to prepare generations of responsible, thoughtful citizens.
Concurrent with our society losing the ability to have reasoned discourse in our civic life, we, the teachers, have lost our willingness to tackle these issues in our classrooms. It seems to me that we, the teachers, are scared to even try to do so for fear of parent, administrative and media backlash.
We have failed.
No more. I'm bringing politics back to my high school. I will leave my personal ideological biases at the door of the school. I will teach my students have to have a reasoned discourse about the issues that plague our society.
I will be the difference in my students' civic lives that will help to mold them into a generation that doesn't blindly drink the intellectually thin soup the media currently feeds us. I will lead my students away from the painted harlot that is demagoguery. I will bring them back to the idea that there is a larger cause than just individual satisfaction, and that being an informed citizen is the best kind of community service.
I will have my students address the controversial issues of our country. We will talk about abortion, gun control, and the death penalty. We will talk about states' rights and federal rights. We will talk about the deficit, the budget, and spending priorities. We will talk about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, "the general welfare" and the obligations inherent in a social contract between the government and the governed. We will address the concerns of the day in a way that will cause my students not to argue with anger but rather to argue with intellect and facts. We will invite parents and the community to have this discussion with us, and I will teach my students how to lead those discussions.
There is no one else who can arrest the decline in civil, civic discourse in this country but Social Studies teachers. No other group of people has the ability to reach each and every future citizen; no other group has the chance to make this change before it is too late. Not the media, not the parties, not the elected officials, not the parents. It's just we, the teachers, who can do this.
So I throw down this gauntlet all of you, my colleagues in high schools across the nation. Leave your ideological biases at the schoolhouse door along with your fears that reason can't trump emotion and help to get this country back on track with reasoned discourse on issues of continental importance.
Pick it up.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Common Core Rubric for History/Social Studies 9-10
For the past few weeks, my colleage Mike Milton (michaelkmilton.com) and I have been sharing some work we have done with the Common Core State Standards for History/Social Studies. During that work, we created some rubrics to help guide us based on the 9-10 standards and the 11-12 standards.
Below is what we created for the Reading Standards for History Social Studies for the 9th and 10th grades. (Mike posted the 11-12 standards on his blog earlier this weekend.)
Take a look and let us know what you think!
Key Ideas and Details (Green Circle)
RH.9-10.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| - Student does not cite any evidence from the text. | -student cites some specific evidence, but omits the important ones. -attempts to connect details to the text as a whole | - Cites specific evidence to support analysis of text |
Student brings in outside information from prior knowledge/other sources
|
RH.9-10.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
-does not identify the central idea.
-summary is a regurgitation of sections of the text
|
-accurate summary is lacking; key points omitted
|
provides central ideas but adds superfluous details from the text
| Clearly and succinctly identifies the central ideas of the text AND makes a connection to historical/modern events. |
RH.9-10.3. Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| -Students are unable to see connections between events. -Students are unable to articulate the difference between an event that simply happens and an event that causes another to occur. | -Student can identify that there is a connection between events, but cannot explain the connection -Students struggle to differentiate between “preceeding” and “causing” events | -Student provides an analysis of the series of events, showing causality. |
-Student offers a valid hypothesis to explain why an action or event occurred based on the text.
-Student points to areas of uncertainty based on what the text omits or leaves vague.
|
Craft and Structure (Blue Square)
RH.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| -Student is unable to determine the meaning of words and phrases or the meaning of words and phrases comes directly is a regurgitation of a website definition. | -Student can vaguely define the words and phrases in the context of the source text. -Student can use political, social, economic vocabulary appropriately and in the context of the time period being studied. | -Student can accurately define the words and phrases as they are used in the text. -Student attempts to integrate the vocabulary into work outside of the confines of the source text. | -Student can regularly make use of the words and phrases in non-textual situations. -Student can offer alternative terms to replace vocabulary used in the text. |
RH.9-10.5. Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
-Student cannot explain how different sections add to the text as a whole.
| Student can vaguely identify how the text uses structure to emphasize key points. |
-Student can explain the importance of the structure that the author used to the meaning of the document
|
-Student can identify the’ importance of structure AND connect them to the historical context of the time.
|
RH.9-10.6. Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| -Students are not able to identify a point of view in any of the documents. | -Students are able to identify a point of view, but not multiple. -points of view are identified but details are mis-aligned or ignored. | -Students are able to identify the difference between multiple points of view and can hypothesize why different authors might have different perspectives. | -Students can articulate the points of view of more than one author and can imagine the points of view of other people not present and hypothesize how they would treat the subject. |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (Black Diamond)
RH.9-10.7. Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| -Students are not able to integrate quantitative or technical analysis with qualitative analysis. | -Student can identify methodologies of data presentation (i.e.: charts vs. graphs) but can not integrate them with qualitative analysis | -Student can identify methodologies of data presentation (i.e.: charts vs. graphs) and can integrate them with qualitative analysis. | -Student can create his or her own quantitative analysis based on qualitative analysis. |
RH.9-10.8. Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| -Student is unable to identify reasoning or evidence the author is using. | -Student can identify the evidence that the author uses but cannot evaluate it. | -Student can assess the validity of an author’s claims based upon evidence gathered. | -Students are able to identify gaps in evidence, or offer additional evidence to support the author’s claims. |
RH.9-10.9. Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
Needs Specific Improvement
|
Approaching
|
Meets
|
Exceeds
|
| -Students can neither compare nor contrast how the same topic is treated in different sources. | -Students can either compare or contrast (but not both) the same topic in several primary and secondary sources. | -Students can compare and contrast different treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources. |
-Student can evaluate diverse texts to create an explanation of an idea or source, noting discrepancies among the sources.
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)