Book Review

Meier, Deborah. (1995). The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press: 1-195

Summary

In the book The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem Deborah Meier defends public education by sighting the successes of her small public school in East Harlem. Facing the challenges of both being located in one of the most economically depressed areas in the state, as well as reaching a student population with racial divides (1/2 African American and 1/3 Latino), Central Park East successfully produced college ready students. Her book starts with an explanation of the school she helped create, Central Park East Elementary School. This small school was originally set up in the wing of P.S 171 in East Harlem. The schools mission was to provide at the public school expense for the most disadvantaged students with what the most advantaged brought their private school children. After outlining the school’s beginning years and its’ successes Deborah uses the rest of the book to outline her philosophy as to why the school was successful, in an attempt guide other public schools in America.

While Deborah gives her blueprint to building successful public schools her most simplistic advice is that successful schools promote good teaching. Finding staff that are capable of reaching children is a necessity. Deborah goes onto to explain in her chapter on effective teaching, that teaching is about quick, instinctive behaviors. There are so many unintended actions we make daily as teachers, from “correcting a child’s writing, calling on students who don’t have the hand raised, complimenting a child on his or her clothing… all carry messages of importance, and all involve decisions that must be made instantaneously”(Meier, 139). So much of the culture in one’s classroom depends on these unintended responses, which as an administrator can be hard to gage potential candidates responses to these situations. Instead, Meier outlines qualities that effective teachers should demonstrate. Because she says it is nearly impossible to find candidates who display all of these qualities, it is up to the school to draw these qualities out of their teachers. These qualities include being reflective about how your students learn, and more importantly how they don’t learn. This is important because it allows the teacher to reflect on what isn’t working in the classroom, so their students get the most beneficial instruction for them. Sympathy towards others is another crucial trait. And most importantly, perseverance, energy and devotion are the character traits that successful teachers demonstrate.

Meier also raises a wonderful point about the importance of lessons. She says often teachers get too worried about covering standards. The point of education isn’t to learn content, but rather to learn how to think. She proposes that if a student is learning a lesson on the five causes of WWI, the importance of the lesson isn’t memorizing facts, but rather the process of investigating historical events. With this in mind, teacher driven lessons are considered weak and should be shy away from. Lessons that are teacher driven can be winged or spontaneously made up by good teachers. This happens because the workload and thinking is being done by the professional rather than the students. Optimally, a teacher’s efforts should be put on the planning rather than the delivery, so that the thinking is being done by the students.

Another reason for her success was because of the small school size. In public education Deborah believes that small school sizes are pivotal for many reasons. First of all, small schools are essential in creating thoughtful school cultures. The smaller the school is the easier it is to foster an environment of collective learning. In Harlem this was extremely important because they were trying to change the mentality of an entire community. Secondly, they allow experimentation to happen without treating students like guinea pigs. If something doesn’t work, in can be reversed the following day because logistics aren’t as complicated. And finally, personal relationships are the key. Deborah Meier preaches the importance of building these personal relationships, and believes that building those relationships made the success of her school possible. Teachers in small schools are able to learn specifically how their student learns and what suits them best. This kind of personal detail is another key to help creating successful public schools.

Response

Reading this book really made me question not only the way I teach but the way my school is run. I currently teach at a relatively small school serving low-income students. Immediately I began to think of how this could be an advantage for my students. Most teachers already have great personal relationships with their students, which can help increase the effectiveness of their instruction. However, what I don’t see is a school that makes quick changes in response to successes and failures of the school. Too often I feel as though administrators and teachers alike allow the failures of the school to continue because they are simply part of the norm. Deborah talks about the great advantages our schools have being small, as logistics can change quickly. What I believe the real problem is in our school is that although everyone talks about changing the culture and environment, they do it half heartily and aren’t truly behind it. It is easier to allow the failing routines to continue that to take initiative and risk by changing things. Our schools is blessed with small size so that logistics could change year to year or even day to day, however as faculty we are scared of change.

As far as my own teaching practices goes, one message from Deborah’s chapter on effective teaching truly struck a chord with me. She wrote about how often times teachers whom are skilled are able to wing lessons of the top of their heads, because they have superior critical thinking abilities. Deborah suggests that these “good teachers” are smarter than their peers, and therefore are able to deliver strong teacher driven lessons off the top of their heads. To be completely honest I do this often. I am able to show up to work with a post it with my objective and a couple of sample assessment questions written on it, and can create an entire lesson on the fly. Deborah explains how teachers who do this rob their students of chances to grow, because in these lessons it is the teacher who is doing all of the critical thinking in their heads. The reason they are able to make up lessons on the fly is because cognately they are able to think quickly, and have their brains racing a mile a minute throughout their lessons. Rather than having the class teacher driven, their efforts should be on planning lessons that have students drive the class. I believe this is truly the point of education, as students should be driving their own learning, not me standing up at the front of the room solving examples at the board. In the future I am going to try and continually remember that education isn’t the content we bestow on our children, but rather the skills we give them to critically think.

3 sources on specific assessment and ways to engage students on formative assessments

Effective Classroom Assessment: Linking Assessment with Instruction

Catherine Garrison & Michael Ehringhaus

Tools for Formative Assessment: Techniques to Check for Understanding http://www.bayces.org/fmd/files/03%20%20Formative%20Assessment%20Strategies.pdf

Assessment, Student Confidence and School Success

Journal article by Richard J. Stiggins; Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 81, 1999

Driving a car can be a daunting task. Nobody just sits behind the wheel of a car and is become an expert driver; they need constant practice at the skill. The article “Effective Classroom Assessments: Linking Assessment with Instruction” uses this analogy to illustrate the role of formative and summative assessments. It would be unfair if each time you got behind the wheel to practice driving you received a grade, and your final grade was an average of all of said grades. This would result in a low final grade despite your ability to finally master the skill.

This is how one should view formative vs summative assessments. Formative assessments are the practice rounds; they help show the learner if they are prepared to take the summative assessments. Therefore, increasing student engagement at these practice steps can be helpful in getting them ready for their final summative assessments.

Strategies to increase student investment on their formative assessments can include student record keeping and self/student assessments. Student record keeping helps the student visualize their progress in the class, and indicates how much studying needs to be done outside the classroom to prepare them for their summative assessments. This can help engage students in formative assessments and class work because it will shape their workload outside of class. Furthermore, whenever a student graphs their progress they are more likely to be invested in the overall process.

Self and peer assessments is helpful because it allows students to reflect on their practice within the classroom. When we get students thinking about how their class work is going, it will help them internally motivate themselves towards their classroom goals. Thus, one strategy for formative assessment can be having the students complete an exercise or mini activity in the classroom independently, and then having them grade themselves before you turning the assignment into the teacher. Having them grade their own work is a good way of having them become invested in the role of formative assessments, as it allows them to reflect on how well they know the topic being covered.

The article “Assessment, Student Confidence and School Success

” adds the importance of classroom observations as a role of formative assessments. Simply be circulating the room and watching students work can help give a temperature check as to the production of several of the students in the room. This allows the student to help those who need clarification or aid in getting back on track.

Finally, a finally assessment strategy found on the “Tools for Formative Assessment: Techniques to check for understanding talks about checks for understanding as a formative assessment strategy. Simply by asking everyone in the class a question, and having them touch a different body part to represent different answer choices to the question, can be a useful formative assessment strategy. This would allow the teacher to get a quick, all encompassing view as to the different levels of comprehension for the students in the classroom.

Online Resource

brainpop.com is an excellent online resource. It is filled of interactive videos and review quizzes for a vast variety of science topic. The website requires a membership to activate, however any email address receives one week free. Thus, I have about 20 different brainpop usernames and create a new yahoo email account anytime my free trial expires.

Explaining Stereotype Threats

Osborne, Jason W. (2001.) Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race and Sex Difference in Achievement? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 291-310.

A study was done to test whether anxiety explains differences in achievement related to race and sex. The hypothesis was that anxiety would explain the racial difference in academic scores. The study found that anxiety accounted for a significant portion of test differences between whites and blacks, and whites and latinos. However, the research did not find a relationship between anxiety and the test scores of native americans. This could be due to smalls sample sizes. The study confirms that stereoptype threat is a viable theory. The part of the article I found the most interesting was the researchers' recommendations for improving outcomes of students in minority groups. They discuss the importance of students viewing intelligence as malleable and emphasizing the learning curve and how far they have come. Also, implementing a multicultural curriculum can undermine stereotypes.

Culturally Responsive Instruction

Jones, Shelly J. "Culturally Responsive Instruction." Leadership (2007): 14-18. Print.

The article proposes that celebrating diverse cultures while simaultaneusly staying true to a standards-based curriculum is the best way to go about closing the achievement gap. In lower-income schools that have students from various cultural backgrounds it is important to create an environment where these differences are celebrating, however the school can not lose focus on the fact that its overall direction as a school should towards the mastering of standards.

The article then goes on to outline the five different guidelines to creating a culturally aware standards based instruction. The components are caring, communication, curriculum, instruction and standsards-based instruction. If teachers are able to encorporate these criteria into their daily lessons they will be able to create a hybrid of standards based instruction and a culturally responsive classroom.

When reading this article I found it to be less helpful than some of the other articles assigned to the ’09 cohort. I found that the article spoke in generals and clitches about teachings that were no more than common sense. For example, the article preached about importance teaching caring to creative a cullturallyl responsive classroom. This seemed common sense to me, for it obvious to see the difference having a caring teacher in a school environment can create. One thing I agreed with the author on is that having a multicultural environment is not enough to close the achievment gap. If all students in America are expected to follow standard based curriculum than it is imperative that minority students be held to the same standard. Having a structured curriculum is important in catching up these often times behind schools.

Project Based Learning w/ Standards

Mitchell, Sascha, Teresa Foulger, Keith Wetzel, and Chris Rathkey. "The Negotiated Project Approach: Project-Based Learning without Leaving the Standards Behind." Early Childhood Education (2009): 339-46. EbscoHost. Web. 5 Nov. 2008.

This article examines how a first grade teacher implemented project based learning strategy, while simultaneously staying aligned to state benchmarks and standards. The article outlines the strategies the teacher used in both getting students invested in the projects and her own planning to align said projects to state standards. Project Based Learning in her classroom changed the environment from a teacher directed and centered room to an atmosphere where the teacher and students worked together to create a worthwhile output. The teacher was able to integrate project based learning and standards because although the projects were student centered the teacher created options and pathways that aligned to desired learning outcomes.

This article was interesting because it showed me that projected based learning and teaching to standards don’t have to be mutually exclusive practices. Often times as an educator I am torn between creating meaningful, student lead activities and trying to reach desired benchamarks. Often times when student run actiivites and lead their own learnigns they create wonderful products, but they aren’t necessarily aligned to standards. This article indicates that with the proper planning phases and guidelines students can lead their own education through the creation or projects, while simaultaneously covering benchamarks. This article has inspired me to try more projected based learning strategeis within my classroom because they can add to my progress through state benchmarks rather than delay my journey.

Motivation? I have none, can i borrow some of yours?

Liu, Woon C., C.K. J. Wang, Oon S. Tan, Caroline Koh, and Jessie EE. "A self-determination approach to understanding students' motivation in project work." Elsevier (2008): 139-45. EbscoHost. Web. 5 Nov. 2008.

This article explores the role of autonomy plays in student achievement. The article explored project based learning, which has been introduced fairly recently to schools in Singapore. The author reports that these schools have noticed a tremendous increase in student investment as a direct correlation to choice. Under project based learning curriculum students get a choice in their creative outlet, and consequently are more invested in the work they are producing. This is one of the strengths of projected based learning because autonomy allows students to feel greater related to the work they are creating.

The article then goes on to explore the 4 different types of behavioral regulations. The article defines external regulation as behavior controlled by external means. Examples of behavioral regulation include rewards and punishments from others. So a teachers incentive policy and management system would be examples of external regulation inside of the classroom. Introjected Regulation is the second form of behavioral regulation, and it is defined as internally controlled behavior, such as acting out of a sense of obligation or guilt. The article suggests that this mode of behavior changes from student to student, but possibly having a large connection to one’s home life. Identified regulation is the third from of behavioral regulation which occurs when a student follows classroom norms out of choice or because of their own sense of values. Finally, intrinsic motivation is actions undertaken for to entertain or to invoke self-enjoyment.

After reading this article I realized the value choice can have on increasing student investment. I have noticed in the past whenever I give studetns a choice their investment and quality of work is much greater then when the assignment is choosen for them. Currently in my class we are teaching classification of organisms, and I plan on using the principles of autonomy to increase student investment right away. When I give students problems and ask them to classify organisms I will give them a choice of which groups of organisms they want to break up. Having students feel as though they are driving their learning project a great tool to use within the classroom and one I plan on incorporating more and more within my own teaching practices.