Jeanna Scheve's Blog: Have a Little Help from Our Friends

Jeanna Scheve's Blog: Have a Little Help from Our Friends: The "uncommon" start to Common Core enhances the need for a K-20 conversation and teamwork!

Have a Little Help from Our Friends

            I just finished reading that assessments for the Common Core initiative are currently being developed on a tentative basis, and will be quite different from the types of assessment that have reigned over the past decade.  Can I get a "Heck, yeah!" and a high five for that! :)  The assessments will be more performance-based but will still include computerized assessment items, such as formative assessments.  English assessments will include a research simulation where students will read a variety of texts and then write an essay and answer questions based on those readings.  Math assessments will include justifications for their mathematical reasoning and real-world application.  
            The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium is soliciting for testing items and performance tasks in math and English.  The items will be pilot-tested in the 2012-2013 school year and those participating in the field will help to determine which items should be scored by hand or by computer.   

            Now, I must note that this Common Core transition has had an “uncommon” start, in that all districts in all states are not beginning in the same ways or getting the same material as we transition.  A silver lining though, everyone, we must put our nose to the grindstone and have the K-20 conversations.  We must work together and actively seek out information on the changes and developments that occur along the way.   

            If a teacher gets to attend a Common Core session, enlist that teacher to help spread that information to everyone else.  Team efforts and district-wide curriculum conversations will be more important than ever!  Districts are scrambling to find trainers for the Common Core, but without a large force of trained presenters, especially those with specific content knowledge in reading and math, it is almost a certainty that we will all be getting various versions of what we need to make the transition happen. 
            For example, I just finished an initial training for the Common Core transition, and learned that our trainer (who did a very nice job getting us through the material) had created all the PowerPoint slides, activities, and handouts herself.  That led me to question - why?  She explained that there have been limited opportunities for educational service centers to get trained on their end, they are literally learning just a half of a step in front of us.  That is a scary position to be in when people want answers, are looking to you to lead them through the changes, and you only know as much as they do.
            In this nationwide initiative (outside of the few states that have chosen not to jump on board), there should be a fleet of people trained at the national and state levels to make start and transition for the Common Core truly “common”.  A set training guide with the same activities, presentations, forms, plans, etc. should have been made, critiqued, and then rolled out to all states involved to get everyone on the same page.  That being said, I have already seen a few books claiming their alignment to the Common Core, and honestly, I am wary of them.  As we help to lead teachers through the transition, I supposed we will get better at weeding out the texts simply using the language of Common Core to sell books and those that truly offer substantial help to align curriculum with the Common Core.
            Lastly, veteran teachers, as always are a wonderful resource to all faculties.  Remember, that they have seen these ‘performance assessments’ before in the days of QPA, so utilizing their experiences will help everyone to develop an understanding of them, while those with about ten years or less experience may only be familiar with the multiple-choice based assessments of past decade.  "And the beat goes on"…or "and the pendulum swings". :)  Have a little help from your friends, and hang in there, gang! 

Using Student Feedback to Improve Your Instruction

I know it has been quite some time since my last post, but I am currently in graduate school to attain a degree in Teacher Leadership, in hopes of getting my dream job:  I want to teach part-time high school science and then be a part-time instructional coach or work as an instructor in the Dept. of Education at Emporia State University to prepare young teachers for this incredible career.  I feel like if I just keep saying it out loud, it is bound to happen!

I recently read an article, “The View from the Seats” by Tracy Crow in Journal of Staff Development, December 2011 (Vol. 32, #6, p. 24-30), http://www.learningforward.org, and I'll briefly summarize it here.  In the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching Project, Ronald Ferguson and Rob Ramsdell reviewed student perceptions of their teachers based on the “Seven C’s”:  care, control, clarify, challenge, captivate, confer, and consolidate.  They found that when a teacher was doing these seven things well, students were generally doing better academically and were a happier, more engaged classroom.  The article went on to debate if the student ratings should be shared with their teachers or be apart of teachers’ evaluations.  Ferguson found that it was actually one of the most valuable kinds of reflection and professional development a teacher can have.  He did clarify though that what students say about their teachers should be a driving force of input for professional development instead of being apart of a teacher’s evaluation.  The project also focused on teacher teams looking together at student work, analyzing it with questions related to the feasibility of the task and the focus of the students.  

An instructional coach might use the “Seven C’s” information when working with an individual teacher or a group of teachers who are open to using student input as a point of reflection upon their own practice.  Teachers must be open to the foundational belief that they too are life-long learners.  None of us are teaching at our full potential – it is a work in progress and an instructional coach is a partner in helping them to reach that potential.  If they are afraid to ask what their students think, they are afraid of learning and improving their practice, and are missing out on another very valuable partnership in developing their craft.             

Several years ago, I began to use this in my own classroom with a reflection and customer evaluation at the end of each of my units.  Students are able to reflect upon their own work, as well as their peers, and then finally are able to let me know how things are going in my classroom: what worked for them during the last unit?, what didn’t work?, how I can help them further?, etc.  I am able to adjust and use their input to improve our time together every 2-3 weeks.  I tell them to be honest and that “I am a big girl, I can take it,” and they are honest....sometimes brutally. ;)  I asked for it though.  Sometimes the hardest things to hear are the truths about yourself, but I am certain that it is in facing those realities that I have had my greatest moments of growth as an educator.