Earlier this week, I recounted my first day of performance based assessment design with a new group of teachers and administrators. If you happened to read, you might remember that someone in the room that day shared a beautiful question, and the exchange that followed altered our design approach in significant ways. In essence, the question challenged us to consider how we might craft a performance based assessment that could help teachers develop closer relationships…
Over the last several years, I’ve spent a good deal of time facilitating performance based assessment design with quite a few teachers in quite a few different places. This is challenging but very rewarding work, particularly when we’re able to replace tests with assessments that inspire kids to do things that matter for audiences that value their efforts and the products that emerge from them. I typically begin these sessions by asking teachers to reflect…
I’ve been working with the English Department at Starpoint Middle School for ten years, and those who know me well appreciate the high regard that I maintain for this particular group of teachers (and their colleagues at the K-5 level). Very few educators have the opportunity, talent, or tenacity to accomplish what this department has over the last decade, slowly and with very careful intention. I’ve watched them design (and redesign and map) their own curricula, sharpen their…
Some may have noticed my absence from this space for well over a year. This was an intentional break inspired by my growing disappointment in how most people were choosing to engage online about the Common Core and its related instructional shifts, the New York State teacher evaluation system, and standardized testing. These are contentious issues. They are also important ones. I needed to be able to do my own learning and work away from…
I’ve spent part of this week with a group of elementary teachers who are neck-deep in curriculum design. Prior to our first session, I asked them to talk with their students about the types of learning experiences they value most. These data were captured via survey, which enabled us to organize and share the findings, so that they could influence our next steps. As it turned out, they were very important data to consider. Learners…
I’m hearing great things from teachers and kids who are piloting the English Language Arts modules that were released earlier this year in Albany. In fact, several of the elementary writers in the WNY Young Writers’ Studio asked if we would consider implementing different modules during our summer fellowship sessions this year. Seriously. All of this has given me great pause. As a teacher, I’ve worked hard to give my students a real voice…
Last month, a number of teachers and consultant friends of mine began kicking around the idea of creating an archive of paired passages and texts that educators could pull on for a variety of purposes. I liked this idea very much, but not for the reasons people might suspect. To be honest, I’m not sure how many people will find resources like this valuable in the long run. It’s not about the resource for me, though. It’s about…
Yesterday, I opened a conversation about the roles that assessment and intervention play in attending to the needs of struggling and reluctant readers. Would you like to know the most important thing I’ve learned over the years? That it’s important for me to put what I believe and what I’m passionate about aside in service to others. When it comes to assessing the needs of readers, the data we’re looking at don’t provide answers either.…
Last week, Kim Yaris and Jan Burkins invited me to begin this conversation about text complexity and cognitive dissonance on their blog. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share more about this here and return to this space to link up the posts below as I go. Much of what I’ve been learning has emerged from my work with reluctant and struggling readers in classrooms. Curious to know what others are discovering as well.…
Wellsville Middle and High School English teachers began inquiry work within collegial learning circles three years ago. What they accomplished for writers that year and what they’ve continued to accomplish as a result of their collegiality is nothing short of inspiring. These inquiry groups grew out of the staff’s desire to learn with and from one another. Like any staff, some have been more invested in this work than others, and like any investment, those…