Making Connections

PortlandStateUniversity – resources for supporting new educators

Scholarships available for graduate-level students in the
IAL program:

Brakke-Daggett-Petti Family Educational Leadership Endowed Scholarship

Thrasher Scholarship – for students training to teach in areas of teacher shortages

Sandy Kaplan Scholarship – for students with multicultural experience who plan to work with non-native English speakers

Capps Family Scholarship for students planning to teach in inner-city schools

Article Review and Reflection:

Peterson, Deborah S., Urban Principal Finds Hope, Educational Leadership, Vol. 70 No 7, Apr 2013 reprinted with permission in Portland State University Magazine Fall 2013, p.10.

All educators want to make a difference in the lives of young people.  That’s usually why they become educators.  Most are happy if they know of one or two for whom they have made a difference.

This is the story of an unexpected transformation at Roosevelt High School that has made a difference for countless young people and will keep on transforming generations to come.  Deborah Peterson took a post that she didn’t want – being the principal at a failing high school that couldn’t find an adequate leader to bring it around.  She agreed to take it on temporarily until an permanent principal could be signed on.  She tells of the chaos she met at every turn in trying to organize her office and all the paperwork for managing a school.  Missing, besides furnishings, were an instructional philosophy, a master schedule, a bell schedule, teaching plans, curriculum maps, community engagement plan, budget, activities plan, school calendar and hiring plans.  She writes, “The depression in the office chair matched the depression in my heart as I realized the magnitude of the work ahead.”  She realized that she needed more than a list of things to do;  she needed hope as did her students, their families and their community.  She set out to establish that by attending a summer baseball game in the Cascade Mountains.  First she was introducing herself to the opposing teams families.  Then, once pointed in the right direction, she was beginning to meet the real families of her school when Gatorade was dumped on her head in celebration of the win.  She went to other locations around the area to meet more families, including a bar where a group of Optimists met.  Building relationships continued.

In the meantime, the first day of class arrived and she learned that the secretary in charge of schedules was “ill.”  Then she learned that the class schedules promised hadn’t been printed.  She took the opportunity to get to know individual students as schedules were obtained.  She created a video featuring students and staff to establish a behavioral responsibility plan.  It was a success.  It was followed with a pep assembly a week later that turned into chaos as a protest against the new administrators.  The positive behavior plan PBS was enacted to respond to those students.

She also talks about employees who had been mismanaging limited funds and behaving unprofessionally.  For example, one always took Fridays off.  Additionally, there were school partners who took students out of class to tutor or mentor them.  It was insisted that they would have to meet students before or after school and not disrupt their class time.

After five months, when things were starting to flow, Deborah asked that the search for the permanent principal be stepped up.  In a meeting with parents, community leaders and other stakeholders, one person questioned, “Why can’t we just have Deborah?  She is exactly what we want.”   Deborah anguished over the call to her to be the permanent principal.  She had her own teenagers at home who needed her.

She talked about the “tragic gap,” or tension between what is and what we know to be possible, if we are willing to work hard.  She ended up accepting the permanent principalship and stayed for four years.  The community stakeholders all came together during that time, achievement scores doubled, 17 sections of advanced placement classes were created as well as dual college enrollment programs and 50% of the seniors were accepted at colleges.

This story inspires me to keep doing what I am doing but continually strive to do it better even though I have 15 schools to support, each one having a different focus and requesting different resources.  The other day I was visiting one of my schools and I greeted a teacher in the hall saying I remembered her face but not her name.  She exclaimed, “You and Geri visited my class last year and modeled a Stone Soup lesson.  My class and I enjoyed it so much that we continued reading different versions of Stone Soup the rest of the year, using the strategies you shared with us.”  (Cammy at Miller)    I was delighted that we had made a difference in at least one classroom.

“The Best Resources For Talking To Parents About The Common Core Standards”.

My correspondent in France, who teaches English as a World Language to his French-speaking middle schoolers, sent me a link to Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day (see http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/ ) saying it was one of the best resources for his English lessons.  I chose the seventh link on his list to find an article about the Common Core Standards from Northwest Education. The article is from an excellent series that provides the answers to the basic questions we all asked when the concept of creating nationwide learning standards was raised, once again, five years ago.  It was a question that had been proposed repeatedly in the past, but which was repeatedly beaten down in earlier eras due to the rights of the individual states to direct their own public education as established by the Constitution.  In the Civil Rights Era of the sixties, the need for standards became more and more apparent.  If all Americans had the right to a free education, that education needed to be equitable to all across the states.  For centuries it had not been equitable for all.

We have finally arrived and agreed, at least 48 of us states, to adopt these Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  The states which have not adopted them, have had to produce their own standards, albeit they were required to show the same rigor and approximate progression of standards as those in the CCSS.  While realigning curriculums, units of study, lesson plans and all the accompaniments for educating our students has been a long road – on which we still tread – it is a good road, in my opinion.  With the CCSS, we educators can be confident that we are guiding our students to make inroads into the content and thinking skills that will prepare them to be contributing citizens and leaders in a global society.  Following is the essence of the article linked above.  If you have time, read the whole article. http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/1547

What are the Common Core Standards? The CommonCoreState Standards (CCSS) are a coherent progression of learning expectations in English lan­guage arts and mathematics designed to prepare K–12 students for college and career success. 

How were they developed?

 The CCSS effort was launched in June 2009, through a partnership of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association working together with parents, teachers, school adminis­trators, and experts from across the country. National and international research, evidence, and standards—including standards from countries that are often recognized for high-quality education—informed devel­opment of the CCSS.

What are the benefits:

No matter where a student lives, the same standards will be required at that student’s current grade level..  They emphasize literacy skills across the curriculum.  Basic shifts or changes from previous standards incude:

–Reading: Text complexity and growth of comprehension

-Writing: Text types, responding to many types of reading, and research

-Speaking and listening: Flexible communication and collaboration for a variety of   situations, not just for formal presentations

-Language: Conventions (grammar) and vocabulary and effective use of language, i.e., using the right language at the right time

The article gives clear examples of a history standard and a math standard and what would be expected to meet each.

How will students be assessed?

Smarter Balanced Assessments Consortium (SBAC) or Partnership for the Assess­ment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), both aligned to the CCSS, to be implemented beginning 2014-15  (See my BlogRoll – first item Oregon Scoring Guide – we will be using SBAC)

What can parents do to prepare to help their children?

    • Create a study group with other parents, community members, or school staff to examine the new standards. Ask questions.

• Be involved in site council, parent-teacher association, or other committees, and ask your school administrators and teachers how they will prepare to teach to the standards and how they will measure student progress toward meeting the standards. Ask how parents and community members can provide regular feedback and support.

• Attend school board meetings and ask whether policies will be developed to support schools in this work.

• Talk with business and community leaders about the need for high goals and clear expectations for our children’s education.

    • Talk to your children about the importance of graduating from high school ready for college and career success. Discuss how the stan­dards will be used to guide teaching and learning K-12.

In summary, according to the article:

 The CommonCoreState Standards:

• Are aligned with college and work expectations;

• Are clear, understandable, and consistent;

• Include rigorous content and application of knowl­edge through high-order skills;

• Build on strengths and lessons of current state standards;

• Are informed by other top-performing countries so that all students are prepared to succeed in a global economy and soci­ety; and

• Are evidence-based.

Source: http://www.corestan­dards.org/about-the-standards/

New Choice Literacy Podcast: Chris Lehman on Student Research.

Here is the Podcast from Christopher Lehman’s Blog.

Just ASK Publications and Professional Development – Just for the ASKing!.

If 12 year olds ruled the world, what would school be like?.

Choice and Reading.

I recently read a selection of articles about ELLs in the classroom,  put out in a packet format by Education Week .  They featured the latest research about all aspects of the topic.  The first article was especially significant for me since I am experimenting with ways to engage our ELLs in talk pertinent to the daily learning target in a certain ESL classroom.  This research confirmed the importance of teaching oral English across the curriculum. 

 Key points included:

• ELLs need many chances to speak English in the classroom so they can find an identity or personal voice.
• Speaking in the classroom strengthens verbal skills for all population groups.
• Not enough time is spent  teaching oral English in the classroom.
• More time needs to be spent supporting students in small groups and less on whole class instruction.
• It is scary for teachers to turn lessons over to the kids.
• Teachers don’t want to lose momentum or time trying to get kids to engage.
• It is important to use sentence starters and have students work in pairs or small groups.
• Monitoring and having an exit slip is important to keep students on task.
• Vocabulary study is crucial.
• Be sure to integrate all language skills:  reading, writing, speaking and listening.
• What does real discussion look like?  It is NOT teacher-generated with the same three or four hands of students going up and the others sitting silently by.

I also found a treasure trove in the article ELL 2.0 How to make the Most of the Web.  The author had categorized 9,000 links for students but was kind enough to pull 13 favorites which I will share with you. You must register for most of them but they are free.

For Students:

http://usalearns.org  Students can save their work and note their progress as they practice their English through varied activities.  Teachers can create a virtual classroom.

http://www.digischool.nl/oefenen/hennyjellema/engels/tpr/voorbladtpr.htm

Fabulous activities which use Total Physical Response – see it to believe it.

http://www.starfall.com

This is from a school which is without rival in providing ESL literacy activities and tools.

http://www.mingoville.com/en.htm

This is a site from Denmakr with interactive exercises and games to include listening and speaking with a voice recording feature.

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/everydaylife/  These interactive exercises for Intm and Adv ELLs touch on food, money, work, shopping and maps.

http://reading.ecb.org/student/index.html

This site will help students learn reading strategies, including visualization, prediction and summarization.

http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html

This site helps students make animated films easily and quickly.

http://voicethread.com

This site let you and your students upload pictures from the Web, and create an audio narrative to go along with them.  Audio comments can also be left by visitors.

For teachers:

http://eric.ed.gov

PDF downloads developed by the Peace Corps with excellent professional development resources for teaching ELLs.

http://www.englishraven.com

Great printouts can be obtained here.  They are engaging and come with instructions on how to use them.  You can obtain even more by making a donation but it is not required.

http://teachingrecipes.com

This is a new resource with an extremely accessible design.  Teachers can share their lessons, including video and images.

http://eflclassroom.ning.com

This is a social networking site.  When one teaches, two learn.  You will learn from others posting their ideas and your idea will support others as well.

Happy Surfing.

Sandra Rands, English Language Acquisition Specialist

Salem Keizer School District