PLANNING FOR HIGH SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

During the last few weeks I have been part of several conversations with High Schools engaged in redesigning themselves, some through small learning communities, to better meet the needs of their students.

Much of this effort begins with questions to reflect on current practice and its effectiveness.

I spent one day with a high school staff in department meetings using the following questions:
--Considering the current design, schedule, focus, and practices:
Which students would you say we are serving well?
Which students would you say our success is “hit and miss”?
Which students would you say we are missing the mark?

--How do the current design, schedule, focus, and practices:
Support the teaching and learning of your course content?
Impede the teaching and learning of your course content?

--What skills and attitudes not in the “formal” curriculum do you believe should be practiced and developed by your students?

At the end of the day I shared in a faculty meeting common points that emerged from these conversations:

* There existed a strong consensus that “average” students were being overlooked. Some of these students described themselves as “not college bound”. Others said they were college bound. The non college bound found little value or connection in the content of many of their courses. Too many of the college bound were meeting minimal requirements among and within their course choices. The focus of both groups was on credits needed rather than depth of learning.

* Faculty identified that a lack of school and career counseling for students was part of students making poor choices.

*Staff was evenly divided and quite passionate regarding the seven period day vs. a block schedule as being most supportive of teaching and learning.

All three of these items are covered in a Research Brief from SREB’s High Schools That Work, Putting Lessons Learned to Work: Improving Achievement of Vocational Students.

· It matters that students complete a challenging curriculum with increased graduation requirements and that teachers set high expectations and make assignments that engage students. Students should prepare major research papers, complete short writing assignments, make oral presentations read several books and use technology to prepare assignments. In math and science students should talk about the content and work in groups to solve challenging and real problems.
· It matters that students receive early and continual guidance and advisement from caring adults. High Schools That Work research shows that student achievement increases when schools increase time available for students to talk with counselors and teachers about planning a program of study. Counselors and teachers need to involve parents as well as students in setting goals for after high school, developing and pursuing a program of study aligned to those goals, reviewing progress and making adjustments.
· Advantages of block scheduling...it can enable schools to...
* increase the number of advanced-level courses and enroll students in math and science courses in their senior year
*require unprepared ninth-graders to take “double doses” of reading and math
*increase opportunities to retake failed courses reducing the likelihood of dropping out
*give teachers more time to plan and engage students in learning
*get students to complete courses above the core academics in an academic or career concentration.
*improve relationships between teachers and students as teachers generally are working with fewer students per day.

David Phelps (principal of South Salem High School supported by instructional coach Nancy Stephens) and Steve Barkley

High school leadership and staff need to be in continual conversations examining the impact of current practices on student success. I recently spent two days in the Salem Keizer School District in Oregon working with instructional coaches and principals. One item we explored is the responsibility of coaches and administrators to question each other about the roles they play in challenging status quo and supporting teacher and student changes. Time must be set aside for these conversations…I had such time at South Salem and enjoyed exploring possibilities with their team.

LEARNING STYLE DIFFERENCES

A recent posting of Science Daily, Physical Activity May Strengthen Children’s Ability to Pay Attention, reported the following:
A professor of kinesiology and community health and the director of the Neurocognitive Kinesiology Laboratory at Illinois, Charles Hillman's research suggests that physical activity may increase students’ cognitive control – or ability to pay attention – and also result in better performance on academic achievement tests.
“The goal of the study was to see if a single acute bout of moderate exercise – walking – was beneficial for cognitive function in a period of time afterward,” Hillman said. “This question has been asked before by our lab and others, in young adults and older adults, but it’s never been asked in children. That’s why it’s an important question.”
For each of three testing criteria, researchers noted a positive outcome linking physical activity, attention and academic achievement. Following the acute bout of walking, children had a higher rate of accuracy, especially when the task was more difficult. Along with that behavioral effect, they also found that there were changes in children’s event-related brain potentials (ERPs) – in these neuroelectric signals that are a covert measure of attentional resource allocation.”
“What we found in this particular study is, following acute bouts of walking, children are better able to allocate attentional resources, and this effect is greater in the more difficult conditions, suggesting that when the environment is more noisy – visual noise in this case – kids are better able to gate out that noise and selectively attend to the correct stimulus and act upon it.”
Co-author Darla Castelli believes these early findings could be used to inform useful curricular changes. She recommends that schools make outside playground facilities accessible before and after school. “If this is not feasible because of safety issues, then a school-wide assembly containing a brief bout of physical activity is a possible way to begin each day,” she said. “Some schools are using the Intranet or internal TV channels to broadcast physical activity sessions that can be completed in each classroom.

Additional recommendations:
-scheduling outdoor recess as a part of each school day;
-offering formal physical education 150 minutes per week at the elementary level, 225 minutes at the secondary level;
-encouraging classroom teachers to integrate physical activity into learning.

In Homework and Kids, the following is listed as difficulties for the Kinesthetic Learner:
-Sitting still for long periods of times especially if asked to learn

-Recalling what is seen or heard

-Expressing self without movement or gestures

-Staying with an activity for long periods of time without breaks
These learners would sure be supported by teachers who increase movement in the classrooms, like those spotlighted in the April 5th Chicago Tribune, Keeping Students on the Move.
The March 28, 2009 Science Daily featured a study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania (Visual Learners Convert Words to Pictures in the Brain and Vice Versa).
Functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to scan the brain revealed that people who consider themselves visual learners, as opposed to verbal learners, have a tendency to convert linguistically presented information into a visual mental representation.
The more strongly an individual identified with the visual cognitive style, the more that individual activated the visual cortex when reading words.
The opposite also appears to be true from the study’s results.
Those participants who considered themselves verbal learners were found under fMRI to have brain activity in a region associated with phonological cognition when faced with a picture, suggesting they have a tendency to convert pictorial information into linguistic representations.
As a high auditory (verbal) learner I’ve always been amazed when visual learners share the “movie” they saw while reading a book. I tend to hear the characters interact or hear the storyteller or lecturer while reading.
I am continually convinced that by high school all students should have an indication regarding their own learning preferences so that they are empowered to put studying time to best use by tapping into their preferred styles...increasing the payoff they get from effort invested. See PLS’s Kaleidoscope Profile as one way to inform students and their teachers about these preferences. If you’d like to try the online profile for free with up to ten students or for yourself, contact Penny Jadwin at pjadwin@plsweb.com. Penny will also be happy to review results with you. Discipline and Learning Styles provides a great comparison of how teachers and students can be frustrated by conflicting style preferences.

ENGAGEMENT AND EFFORT

This past week I had the opportunity to work with educators around the concept of student effort as the key to student achievement at the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools conference in Cairo, Egypt as well as with instructional coaches across the state of Arkansas where we extended the conversation to examine teacher effort.

Here are a few of the pieces shared:

In Cairo, I had the pleasure to meet Doug Johnson who keynoted on the Net Generation of learners in our classrooms. He commented that what we as teachers often identify as students’ desire to be entertained is really a desire to be engaged. You’ll find many resources on his site. One study that I explored, Listening to Student Voices on Technology….Today’s Tech Savvy Students Are Stuck in Text-dominated Schools contained this statement:

Even those students who attend highly-wired schools describe a school environment that often discourages their use of the Internet. They are frustrated by their inability to go online at school.

Online can increase engagement…engagement increases effort.

In a recent book, How to Meet Standards, Motivate Students, and Still Enjoy Teaching 1, Barbara Benson provides the following strategy which could be a great end or beginning of year way to encourage effort:

A teacher had incoming fourth grade students examine, “What it would take to get to fifth grade"? They determined what they needed to know, where they might find out, and how to begin. They interviewed fourth and fifth grade teachers and fifth grade students. They examined state learning standards and the textbooks. They discovered they would have to pass a state test in reading, writing, and math and so they requested a meeting with the “test guy”. (They interviewed the district test coordinator.) By the end of this activity these students had a pretty good picture of what was expected of them, had developed a plan to get started and were ready for the challenge. (Page 14)

Kassandra Tatum, who teaches at the BT Washington School in Hillsborough, FL, provided me the following strategy after a workshop on Tapping Student Effort:

I teach second grade and created an effort page (exit ticket) for my students to fill out. As a class, we talked about effort and came up with a 1-5 rubric.

1-didn't want to be here today
2-tried sometimes
3- good effort some of the day
4- good effort most of the day
5- great effort all day

Everyday they have to fill out what they learned about in the subjects we covered, give themselves an effort grade and write a reflection about their day. At the bottom of the page, there's a place for parent signature. I sent home a letter to my students’ parents explaining what their children would be bringing home everyday and encouraging them to sign it.

At the back of my classroom, I've brought in some of my trophies from elementary and high school. Three of the trophies are academic, one is from sports and the other is from music. I reference those when appropriate and we discuss what kind of effort it takes to receive trophies.

Because the effort page is filled out at the end of the day, I have my students do mini self assessments throughout the day. With their hand on their chest they show me how much effort they think that they're putting into whatever we're doing at the time. Often times, it gets them back on track if they weren't before.

As Arkansas instructional coaches examined and applied the following from a quote shared in an earlier posting ...In fact, as John Dewey anticipated, it appears that when conditions to support student interest are in place, effort will follow...we realized that as leaders we often want teacher effort for a program or initiative when we haven’t taken the time to support the teachers’ interest. When professional learning communities (PLCs) study student work, progress, results or observations….and teachers’ questions emerge that drive further study, observation and learning…teacher effort will follow. When we arrange PLC’s because a group of teachers’ have the same planning period and assign an agenda for their meeting or select a book for them to read, we may find we are facing an effort challenge similar to what the teachers are facing with their students.

A high school math teacher in Arkansas modeled a coaching conference with me around a school improvement initiative to increase student engagement and effort. My questions and listening had the teacher soon talking about 6 freshman students who she felt unable to reach. She was pretty certain that the other teachers who had these students were finding the same. She eagerly agreed to form a PLC with that group of teachers, observe each others’ classes, and examine research and writings on gaining student effort and then experiment in her classroom with new strategies. She was sure that learning she gained focused on these six students would apply to many others. She was ready to put EFFORT into the challenge…and LEARN.

1) Footnote : How to Meet Standards, Motivate Students, and Still Enjoy Teaching Second Edition) Barbara Benson.[ 2009] Corwin Press, Thousands Oakes, CA

COACHING THE COMPLEXITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

In recent weeks I have had several opportunities to spend time coaching coaches. In these settings I often observe a pre-conference that the coach has with a teacher, observe the teacher’s instruction and the coach’s post conference with the teacher. Then I get to coach the coach usually with some input from the teacher who took part in the coaching experience.

Spending several days in these activities, I was able to observe in many classrooms. In one unique experience I observed a coach model a reading lesson for a new teacher and sit in on the coach’s debriefing of the lesson with the teacher. The coach’s lesson was awesome…20 kindergarten students totally immersed in listening to a story, discussing and predicting story components with the teacher, and then reading the story along with the teacher. During the debriefing with the teacher, I stopped the coach to encourage a conversation about what parts of the lesson were preplanned and what decisions were made on the spot as she processed student responses and reactions. Great planning set the lesson up; on the spot decisions were key to the magic. My coaching of the coach covered the issue that understanding the thinking that took place in planning and during instruction of the lesson was critical to the teacher’s learning and growth. It’s really a ‘think aloud’ that the coach needs to share with the teacher.

Later the coach and I observed another teacher teach the same lesson. The teacher, relatively new, did a good job. The gap between her work and the coach’s was substantial. When I debriefed with the coach, she could not identify the difference in the two lessons. I stressed how the coach needed an opportunity to see her own work on video so she could examine teaching in depth and complexity. I was able to share an environmental observation: The coach sat on a chair, closing the distance between herself and students seated on the carpet. Hers eyes, face, and hands continually drew the students attention to the “big book” they were reading. The new teacher stood at the side of the easel, frequently resting hand on hip. A reading coordinator who was observing our entire process later sent me a note that really captured the difference.

"The coach was completely engaged with the children and was in essence a part of the lesson. In contrast, the other teacher stood "outside of the lesson" and merely delivered the lesson.”

A study published in the The Elementary School Journal provided a look at the mix of desired environment and instruction in first grade classrooms. After a study of 820 classrooms, they identified approximately...

· 23% of the classrooms as overall high quality. In these classrooms the teachers were constantly aware of and responsive to students’ needs- warm, friendly positive relationships. Teachers nor students displayed negative affect. Teachers managed well so learning could take place uninterrupted. Effective literacy instruction was provided with the teacher frequently engaging students in conversation about their ideas, their work and process of learning.

· 31% of classrooms as “high positive emotional climate, low academic demand.” These classrooms had sensitive/positive classroom climate, classroom management, and literacy instruction. These classrooms did not tend to promote children's engagement in learning by giving them feedback that focused on mastery, developing understanding, or trying new strategies.

· 28% of classrooms as mediocre. Teachers in mediocre classrooms were generally rated as “sometimes” demonstrating the positive indicators of emotional quality, management, and literacy instruction. They rarely demonstrate any indicators of evaluative feedback and never demonstrate any indicators of an overtly negative emotional climate.

· 17% of classrooms as “low overall quality” possessed a tone of annoyance or sarcasm toward children, and children were not allowed to regulate their activities in a way that would allow them to learn through exploration. Notably, these were the most negative, low-quality classrooms in terms of both socioemotional climate and instructional support.

As I read through this article it was clear that the coach’s lesson that I observed would fit into the overall high quality group. The second teacher through practice and reflection can develop the additional management, feedback, and tone elements to increase quality. Coaching, video taping, and professional development within a professional learning community can speed this teacher growth process.