This spring, I had the opportunity to work with teachers from southern Erie and Cattaraugus Counties. Our initial sessions challenged teachers to define writers’ craft, the process, and the values and habits of masterful writers. Then, we considered how the progression of these skills and dispositions builds and evolves as experience is gained. Teachers returned to their classrooms with new ideas to consider and test. As I prepared to see them again last week, I hoped that…
Love is blind, and far too often, our relationships with quantitative data remain unhealthy. Despite evidence to the contrary, too many of us still believe that grades provide insight and that standardized test scores suggest solutions. Going gradeless isn’t easy, though. Numbers are far more efficient to work with. They seem to create quick and false certainty during trying times, too. Using data in healthy ways is difficult work. It keeps us on the move, and it reminds us, over and…
The Backstory: I’ve spent the last week helping Heather Bitka and Rachel O’Sheehan launch a brand new makerspace in Roy B. Kelley School in Lockport. This project began with solid visioning work that challenged all of us to think about and then rethink about what would happen in that space, how, and most importantly: why. This week has been an incredible learning experience for me, as I’ve tested new professional learning approaches and protocols while…
As I’ve begun supporting teachers’ first efforts to document for learning, this question continues winding its way through nearly every conversation: How do we distinguish learning from its products? This seems like a simple distinction, but experience is demonstrating otherwise. As it turns out, making learning visible rather its products is no easy task. It’s also no surprise when our initial efforts to document learning fall short of our expectations. Here’s what I’ve been talking about with western New York…
Teachers analyze different kinds of evidence in order to construct hunches that help them serve learners well. Clear answers are rare, but if we pay attention, we know when we’re getting closer to understanding the challenges learners face and better at designing solutions. The questions we ask often make all of the difference. Traditional research processes often begin with the identification of driving questions. Intended to focus our work, driving questions can help us define powerful pathways through the research…
I founded the WNY Young Writer’s Studio with two great intentions: First, I longed to create a lasting community where children could choose to write about the things that mattered to them in ways that were deeply rewarding. I envisioned a place where young writers would continue to learn from one another month after month and year after year, far beyond the confines of a workshop or institute. I wanted to created a place where…
1. Is your relationship with quantitative data exclusive? 2. Are you unwilling to recognize flaws in your quantitative data or in your relationship? 3. Do you dress your quantitative data up and show it off to impress others, even though you don’t know it very well? 4. Do you blame quantitative data or the assessments that produced them for your own shortcomings or failures? 5. Does your relationship strip you of your confidence or leave…
I’m not sure if this is possible, but I’m starting to think it could be. I’ve been incredibly inspired by quite a few teachers who have been playing around with some very uncommon assessment approaches based upon the professional learning we’re doing together. Take Michele, for example. She’s a teacher in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school district, and she provides reading support to special education students. I’ve written about her before, and I remain compelled…
Michele Cammarata is a teacher fellow in the WNY Young Writer’s Studio. In an effort to learn more about the writers she serves, Michelle has turned her attention to the greatest experts at her disposal: her students. She’s watching them carefully, snapping photos of their work on her cell phone and tucking these photos into the pages of a sketchbook above, where she weaves her reflections around the margins of their drafts. This sketchbook is…
Over the last decade, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate an awful lot of data dialogue inside of many different schools with many different kinds of teachers and leaders. These are some worthwhile reflections that are giving me pause as I continue moving the teams I’ve established forward: Some educators distinguish themselves as data-driven and others distinguish themselves as data-informed. Others don’t distinguish themselves in any particular way. Distinctions are critical. So is language. So…