I've always been a fan of quiz bowl, but my appreciation has been growing for more than a few reasons.
First, while I love the passion and enthusiasm of fans at sporting events, it's a little refreshing to be at a contest where the spectators are required to be silent.
Secondly, the qualities that make for a good quiz bowl competitor are in short supply in our culture. A good quiz bowler has to know stuff. Increasingly our society seems to reject the idea that it is helpful to know facts. More and more we reward ignorance from folks who enjoy putting their ignorance on full display. Also, a good quiz bowler needs to be curious. Curiosity is a trait that is in short supply. In spite of the level of ignorance, we see folks rising in prominence who apparently believe they know it all. A dedicated quiz bowler is constantly seeking to increase their knowledge. More than anything, I appreciate quiz bowl because in quiz bowl knowledge is power. Correct answers and correct answers only score points, and while I do know of an instance of a fourteen year old girl bullying a judge into giving her a point, volume and bravado are typically not rewarded.
I have hopes that our society will self correct and begin to value knowledge and competency over ignorance and noise, but at the rate we are going there may be too few knowledgeable and competent folks left.
A time may soon come when quiz bowlers are society's only hope.
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Harvard professor Robert Putnam was not written for educators, but there is much here for those working in America's schools. In the book Putnam observes that Americans often gravitate to the lone cowboy as a symbol, in the rugged individualist tradition. A symbol just as accurate, and more needed in our current culture, Putnam argues, is the symbol of the wagon train. In the wagon train, cooperation was as valuable as independence and each member had an interest in looking out for the others. By telling the stories of families across the country, and by comparing his hometown in the fifties with its current reality, Putnam argues that our society has been increasingly divided along class lines, and our children our paying the price. Putnam's book is intended to be call to all Americans to reclaim a tradition of collective responsibility for our country's children.
Below are three important concepts for educators to take from the book.
1.) Two Worlds
As much as anytime in our country's history, our students are being raised in distinctly different environments, according to their parent's income and education. In Putnam's hometown, like many communities, it was not uncommon for blue collar and white collar families to live near each other and associate at schools an churches. Then the gap in income between education levels was not as great as it is today. Today, due mostly to residential segregation along class lines, Americans with means often live separated from families in poverty. The geographic gaps often correlate with opportunity gaps. Through numerous scissor charts, Putnam details the differences in outcomes that children of wealth and children of poverty experience. Educators must be aware of the effects of these gaps on their students.
2.) Investments with the Highest Returns
While Putnam goes to great lengths to prove that schools are sites, not causes, of inequity, he does offer some suggestions to educators for minimizing the effects of the economic gaps. Extra curricular activities receive special attention for the positive impact they have on students in poverty. Putnam asserts that these activities provide students the opportunities to build soft skills and make social connections that are so vital for success after graduation. Putnam is a sharp critic of "pay for play" (activity fees) policies that have become common in cash strapped districts. Putnam also advocates for high quality early childhood programs.
3.) Personal Connections
Putnam acknowledges the efforts educators make in their professional lives on behalf of their students. However, throughout the book Putnam argues that the gaps in educational and career outcomes between rich and poor kids have much more to do with their lives outside of school than inside. One of Putnam's key claims is that in earlier decades, when our culture was not as divided along class lines, poor kids were in a better position to be mentored by successful professionals. Informal mentoring relationships, mostly formed outside of schools, are spaces for kids to "understand the institutions that stand astride the paths to opportunity and to make those institutions work for them." Churches have been, and still are, important places for these connections to form. Putnam observes that church participation rates of poorer families are declining faster than those of their peers, which leads to less access to mentors. In the vignettes of actual families that Putnam shares, youth pastors, more often than coaches or teachers, appear as heroes. Educators looking to make the biggest difference in kid's lives will most likely have the greatest impact in informal mentoring relationships that extend beyond the school day, formed in churches or otherwise.
This is the message educators should work to teach to their friends and families who work outside of education. Our country will be stronger when more adults find ways to invest in the lives of kids across class lines.
This spring I had the good fortune to accompany a fantastic group of students on their senior class trip. If my high school ever sponsored senior trips, they did away with the practice long before I collected my diploma. As a relative newcomer to the district the concept of the class trip intrigued me, and when I was asked to consider sponsoring the class an adventurous spirit led me to agree. What an adventure it was!
The fundraising alone was an adventure, but I saw so many lessons being learned, watching the students plan, prioritize, problem solve, and cooperate their way through a year's worth of athletic concessions and sales drives. Real leadership was developed and real world skills were polished. What do you do when your concession stand runs out of quarters during half time? How do you go about telling your sponsor that he burned off most of one eyebrow in a grease fire, grilling hamburgers?
Finally the trip arrived. We spent five nights in Florida and the kids had so many experiences. They navigated airports and public transportation. They heard families communicate with each other in foreign languages and watched a NASA rocket launch. They visited theme parks and the beach. They rented a surf board. Some of the students had more experience traveling than others, but there were many firsts on the trip. It was a great trip, and the kids represented their school, community, and families in outstanding fashion.
With so many demands competing for time and resources, it's understandable that many schools have done away with class trips. But there are many reasons why it's worth it for schools to provide students the opportunity to travel outside their communities. Schools have the ability to provide travel opportunities that are safe, educational, and equitable.
I don't know when, or if, I'll get another chance to lead a student trip, but I'm glad I took advantage of this one. It was a treat to watch the students explore, make memories, and learn in the midst of a new experience: all marks of authentic education.
I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical about the influence of computer based testing for science. I was worried that computer scored questions would result in more "recall" questions. However, after taking the practice test, I was pleased to see that the majority of the questions evaluated the ability of the taker to think scientifically. Many questions require students to set up data tables, or graph data using the information presented within the four corners of the screen.
Science teachers will give their students a better chance to excel if they give their students some screen time with the practice tests. Students need to know that "tab" won't move the cursor between fields and they need a chance to work the "drag and drop" feature. Some time in Excel or Google Sheets won't hurt either. That said, putting kids behind a computer screen won't be the best way to prepare them for the test. The best way to prepare students for the test will be to get them in a lab.
If you want students to be able to fill out data tables and chart the data in graphs, give them opportunities that will allow them to design experiments and communicate the results of the experiments.
Not only will it prepare them for the new tests, it will also give them a chance to enjoy science.
Angela Duckworth's Ted Talk on grit celebrates perseverance in academic achievement. Duckworth correctly asserts that IQ and talent do not always lead to success. Her formula, achievement = talent x effort is another phrasing of the coaching maxim that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
I almost used the TedTalk in a professional development session because her basic message is so appealing: in addition to teaching content, we also need to teach work ethic.
It begs the question.......what's the best way to go about doing this?
Do we teach work ethic by pilling on more worksheets? Do we teach work ethic by assigning tasks with complexity beyond our students' skill levels and withholding any supports that would help them be successful? Do we make "responsibility" and "work ethic" a prerequisite for the opportunity to learn anything? For example, shaming a student for failure to complete an assignment in a way that guarantees disengagement.
I try to avoid coaching analogies, but before I stumbled into administration I spent twelve years coaching wrestling, a sport requiring perseverance.
I coached athletes who struggled with certain drills. They would say "I can't do that," and I would respond "You can't do that, yet." I never let them off the hook completely for attempting the drill, but I never made their inability to do one task restrict them from a chance to learn another. I also coached talented and driven athletes who had to be required to rest due to injuries or family situations. There were times over the course of a season when training peaked and times when it tapered off. Even in the very "gritty" sport of wrestling my coaching instincts told me sometimes "slack" was more appropriate.
And so it is in classrooms.
Our students need grit and perseverance, and our best teachers constantly calibrate how to do this best. How much? How fast? Which student needs a challenged? Which student needs more support? Determining the slack/grit ratio is not a science waiting to be perfected; it is an art.
More often than not, our teachers excel at this art.
Teaching is a tough job, a gritty job, taken on by tough, and caring, people. It is far more complicated, and beautiful, than a talk, a blog, or a word.
Jackson and Jensen both make two claims educators should accept.
1.) Poverty often negatively impacts brain development of children for a variety of reasons: chronic stress at home, limited access to medical care, improper nutrition, etc.
2.) The plasticity of the human brain allows educators to mitigate, and even reverse, those effects on the brain.
Jackson and Jensen each offer practical advice to educators for leveraging the brain's plasticity to increase academic achievement. Here are three values they both embrace.
1.) Relationships are key.
Jensen encourages teachers to "build supportive relationships, provide positive guidance, foster hope and optimism, and take time for affirmation, and celebration." Administrators are warned that their schools "will hit a test score ceiling until you include students' emotional and social lives in your school 'makeover.'" Jackson states, "Possessing a deep understanding of child and adolescent development enables us to be better able to construct relationships and classroom environments that are motivational and lead to cognitive and social growth."
Prioritizing relationships, in my mind, is a main function of building administrators. Most teachers, I believe, want to be given permission to teach kids, not content.
2.) Enrichment should be provided for all students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Jensen describes enrichment not as "'more' or 'faster' schooling.' It means rich, balanced, sustained, positive, and contrasting learning environments.'" Jackson draws on her experiences with gifted education and encourages teachers to allow their pupils to experience "gifted land."
Again, here I say, administrators should communicate clearly the expectation to provide rich learning experiences: projects, labs, field trips etc. These activities are important even if, and perhaps because, they force the pace of the class to slow or reduce the number of learning targets that can be assessed in a unit. The clearest way for administrators to do this in my opinion is to challenge teachers to reduce the number of power standards they intend to teach. Teachers have to be given permission to teach fewer standards if we expect deeper learning, the kind that occurs in enriched environments, to occur.
3.) Teachers should devote time and effort on teaching students how to learn.
Jensen offers guidance for teachers on how to "build capacity" in their students by upgrading their "academic operating system." Jackson outlines techniques to help teachers "nurture high intellectual performances."
Often we assess the short term working memory of students without collectively working to build their short term working memories. Often we want students to evaluate without teaching how to evaluate. Administrators must support teachers' efforts to teach "learning how to learn," by providing professional development on teaching strategies that support engagement and critical thinking across all content areas.
Much of the Yvette Jackson and Eric Jensen's work compliments the other but there are unique offerings from each I find compelling.
Jensen offers a great deal to school leaders. He reminds them that the best way they can support disadvantaged students is to support their teachers. He reminds administrators that teachers need support, flexibility, and time to collaborate. He reminds administrators that one of the biggest mistakes that can be made is "putting kids first and staff last." These are important reminders.
Jackson also offers an important reminder. Much of her work is grounded in the work of Reuven Fuerenstein, who educated and documented the intellectual gains of Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. I love this because it places the work of educators in a historically significant context. We are part of Fuerenstein's legacy, which is a legacy of hope. We need to remember this.
As educators pour over data points, three areas of student achievement deserve consideration.
Creativity: Imagine measuring the number of smiles produced when adults admire a painting, poem, musical performance, robot, or video game created by a student. We are all better when we give students the opportunity to imagine something that is not yet, but is better that what is. Though the creative process can be sloppy, the results are worth it.
Compassion: Imagine measuring the number of new students welcomed into a school by the existing student body. Our society is more mobile than ever. Every day schools have new students transfer into their family. More often than not these students have this difficult transition eased by compassionate students.
Persistence: Imagine measuring the number of assignments turned in after, or during, substantial setbacks in the life of a student. All teachers have students on their rosters who are experiencing trials. When these students fight through and continue to turn in work and study for tests, they demonstrate a persistence that serves them well.
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