A New Grading System

Picture: www.school-clipart.com

Originally posted on agreenblatt.blogspot.com

Editors Note: I have not really looked at this post in almost four years a lot may have changed, but I think the idea is still important. 

Originally posted in November 2010 

I have yet to understand what an “A” means or a 99 if you give a number. Does that mean that you don’t need to learn anymore? Or as I tweeted earlier this week “we grade our meat,but we should teach our students.”

Therefore, I would like to propose a different type of grading scale.

Editors Note: I know it may not be realistic given parent perception and the way colleges work, but we need to stop defining our students based on grades.

There are two scales and each student gets a letter and a number

E- Excels and exceeds grade level benchmarks
G- Meets grade level benchmarks
A- Approaches grade level benchmarks
B- Is working below grade level

1- Is an enthusiastic learner and works out of his comfort zone
2- Has shown academic growth
3- Is willing to try and has started to make progress
4- Hasn’t shown any growth and only does what he needs to do

When using this system a student who is naturally smart, but doesn’t do anything more could get a G-4 or an E-4 but a student who is not doing well academically but shows growth will receive a grade that reflects that.

I applaud schools that have a similar system. I would love for you to share what you are doing.

What Skills are Needed Today

Picture: ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu

Originally posted on agreenblatt.blogspot.com

Today, most people will tell you that no longer are just raw knowledge enough. I think it was the head of Google who said that no longer is class ranking and GPA a good measure of someone who will be successful in the workforce today.

The term 21st Century Skills has been used to describe this shift and these new skills 

While I agree with the importance of this shift away from just raw knowledge and facts I don't like the term 21st Century Skills.  We are more than half way through 2014 and we are almost two decades into the 21st century. I would rather call these skills, life skills. 

What are these life skills ?

Here is my list

* Creativity

* Critical Thinking 

* Communication 

* Collaboration 

* Innovation 

* Questioning 

* Risk Taking

* Learning from Mistakes

* Having a Growth Mindset 

I would love to hear your thoughts on the life skills we need to  instill in our students. 

The Importance of a Growth Mindset

Originally posted on agreenblatt.blogspot.com

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of adjusting and assessing what you are doing. In other words, one needs to be willing to change and thereby grow. I know personally I have grown from the blog challenge I lost count of how many days in a row,I have blogged but I think it's close to 50.

You can't talk about growth without talking about a growth mindset. I recently RT the following:

@Akevy613: RT @anobleSPPS: Fixed mindset vs Growth mindset. http://t.co/99YHIYOlLS #edchat #edtech #sunchat

Here is the picture the accompanied that tweet 

I think the picture says it all. I think it is clear that we all need to have a growth mindset and more importantly, we need to instill that in our students. 

I do want to focus on one thing. This isn't the place to discuss grades,which I feel very strongly about. Not in a positive way I don't think a letter or a number mean anything and I would like to get rid of them. I think most teachers will tell you that, of course, students need to have a growth mindset, but how many of them reward effort how many of them instill a culture that effort means something and that it's OK to fail. 

So as we look towards our own personal growth and the growth of our students this year lets remember that effort counts and the path we take means something. 

JUST GOOD TEACHING

 picture:   www.primary-education-oasis.

Originally posted on agreenblatt.blogspot.com

For those of you that have read my blog, attended my online presentations or have visited my Star Educational Consulting website, you know I am a  big believer in differentiation and meeting the needs of our students. Today, as I was going through my twitter feed I came across a tweet with a link to an article Carol Tomlinson, the expert on differentiation, wrote. The post is titled “Inventing Differentiation: A Guest Blog by Carol Ann Tomlinson

One of the things that I have preached is that differentiation is not a fad, but rather at its core is just good teaching. Don’t we want all of our students to succeed in our classrooms, don’t we want to meet the needs of more if not all of our students.  To say that all the students walking into our classrooms are the same is absurd .Would  you want your  doctor to treat all of his patience the same way regardless of their needs.

Ok,well enough of me let’s hear from the expert. Here are some key points from the article:

“I’m puzzled, however, by how many classrooms still proceed as though the differences students bring to the classroom with them are either of little academic significance or an inconvenience.  It's not that we don't see the differences, it's that we often do little to respond to them.

Every significant endeavor seems too hard if we look only at the expert's product. In the beginning, golf pros once regularly hit divots, master chefs initially burned dinner, the wisest parents regularly said foolish things to their children, and renowned surgeons in an earlier time doubted their hands.  The success of all these "seasoned" people stemmed largely from three factors.  They started down a path.  They wanted to do better.  They kept working toward their goal. “

Editor’s Note:  For differentiation or any new endeavor to be successful I think at least two things need to be present. 1. A growth mindset, which tells us we can all change and grow and 2. A culture that supports risk taking and where failures are seen as a necessity to succeed.

“I'm often asked how to get started with differentiation.  I'm inclined to say, "It doesn't matter.  Just start."  That's not helpful, though.  A better answer is, "Study your students.  Work steadily to understand them better as individuals.  Observe what encourages and discourages them.  Listen to the stories they want to tell you.  See how they interact with peers and how the interactions appear to affect them.  Observe their success-to-effort ratio in your class, and how they respond to both errors and successes. Hone in on their strengths.  Get a sense of their fundamental "soundness" with foundational skills that support learning.  As we increasingly understand the distinctness of the humans in front of us, differentiation becomes an informed teaching.”

Editor’s note: See above the note about risk taking and failures. Also this emphasizes the notion that we need to know our students and that we are teaching people and not just subjects.

“We began with the conviction that we could not serve our obviously heterogeneous students if we taught them without regard to their differences.  From that launching pad, we came to five guiding principles.

1) We needed to teach what mattered most in the content for which we had responsibility and in a way that helped students see why it mattered.  We asked ourselves often, "Why are we asking the kids to learn this??"  Textbooks, grades and tests were not acceptable answers.

2) We needed to plan for student engagement.  There was an ad slogan at the time that said, "Medicine doesn't have to taste bad to be good."  We clung to the belief that we could be creative enough to teach whatever needed teaching in ways that appealed to young adolescents.

3) We had to build a sense of community--a team of learners--so that both teachers and students had partners for success.

4) We needed to emphasize the primacy of growth--for every student, every day……..

From those "givens," we made proposals.  "What if we try it this way?"  We shared successes--and lesson plans, and materials.  We became comfortable with saying, "That was a mess.  There's got to be a better way.  Let's look at why this approach worked, or didn't, and go from there."

………were unafraid to fail, and learned to think flexibly.  Everything else was an outgrowth of that sound footing.  The very diverse students who will join us at schools across the country and in much of the world this year need teachers who are determined inventors of mechanisms for helping every learner connect with the power of learning.  In the end, that's what differentiation is.  In the end, that's what successful teaching is.”

If you get nothing else know this Differentiation = Successful Teaching 

MEETING THE NEEDS OF DIVERSE LEARNERS

Last week I had the opportunity to Present at the Leadership Summit. My topic was meeting the Needs of the Diverse Learners that we all find in our classroom. Below you will a copy of my slide presentation.

I just wanted to highlight a few bullet points from my presentation:

• ALL STUDENTS BENEFIT FROM AN INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM
• DIVERSITY REQUIRES A DIFFERENTIATED APPROACH 
• DIFFERENTIATION ISN'T A NEW IDEA OF BUZZ WORD 
• WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE TEACH STUDETNS AND NOT SUBJECTS 
• ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL
• WE MUST HAVE A GROWYH MINDET AND UNDERSTAND THAT ALL STUDENTS CAN GROW AND BE SUCCESSFUL 
• CREATIVITY IS ESSENTIAL 
• ALL STUDETNS HAVE POTENTIAL WE NEED TO FIND IT

The Importance of Culture

Picture: misfitpolitics.co 

Originally posted on Views of a Life Long Learner 

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the iJed conference in New York with over 300 other Jewish educators from around the world.  The experience was amazing and perhaps on a personal level for me the high point was seeing and hearing Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks in person. Rabbi Sacks is a personal hero and someone who I have quoted many times in the past and to see and hear in person was a true thrill.

On a professional level the one big takeaway for me was the importance of creating a proper school culture. School culture is more than “As mentioned previously, the notion of school culture is a bit more complex than pom-poms and color war chants.” (Source SCHOOL CULTURE: A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH & LITERATURE) School culture is pervasive and covers all areas of leadership for student learning and achievement and even our approach to how we educate and treat all students (including those with diverse needs)

The report mentioned above states the following: “Contemporary research continues to point to the impact of school culture on a variety of important outcomes. In a major meta-analysis of research on leadership and student achievement, Waters and associates (2004) discovered a strong correlation between aspects of school culture and how well students performed. Student achievement was related to a shared set of core beliefs, a focused and clear sense of purpose, recognition of staff and student accomplishments, intellectual engagement, and celebrations of success. Although structures fostered connection, discussion of purpose, and school improvement, it was clear that these were deeply embedded in the culture of values, stories, ceremonies, and celebrations (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004).

This idea to me was the true takeaway from the conference. We can’t talk about our view on diverse learners, how we are going to incorporate technology and other important tools and the issue of affordability and sustainability without talking School culture. What our beliefs are going to shape the type of school, we have and what outcomes we want for our students.

What I am saying is not new nor is it my own. The report on School Culture and Literature in July 2013 stated:  

THE PERVASIVE IMPACT OF CULTURE

Culture affects all aspects of a school.

It influences informal conversations in the faculty lunch room, the type of instruction valued, how professional development is viewed, and the shared commitment to assuring all students learn.

1) Culture fosters school effectiveness and productivity

Teachers succeed in a culture focused on productivity (rather than on maintenance or ease of work), performance (hard work, dedication, and perseverance), and improvement (continuous fine-tuning and refinement of teaching). Such a culture helps teachers overcome the uncertainty of their work (Lortie, 1975) by providing focus and collegiality. It provides motivation to persevere in the demanding work of teaching thirty students in a small, usually isolated, space. It encourages, sanctions, and rewards professionals in the constant task of improving their craft. (Purkey & Smith, 1983; Levine & Lezotte, 1990; Newmann & Associates, 1996; Leithwood & Louis, 1998).

2) Culture improves collegiality, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving practices

Schools that value collegiality and collaboration offer a better opportunity for the social and professional exchange of ideas, the enhancement and spread of effective practices, and widespread professional problem solving. (Little, 1982; Peterson & Brietzke, 1994; Kruse & Louis, 1997; DuFour, 2007).

3) Culture promotes innovation and school improvement

Toxic cultures that harbor mediocrity, inertia, and apathy are unlikely to be innovative. In contrast, schools that encourage change and risk taking foster people who seek innovative practices and experiment with new approaches. In positive cultures, staff plan and implement new practices. (Little, 1982; Louis & Miles, 1990; Deal & Peterson, 1990; Kruse & Louis, 1997; Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004).

4) Culture builds commitment and kindles motivation

People are motivated and feel committed to an enterprise that has meaning, values, and an ennobling purpose. Motivation is strengthened through rituals that nurture identification, traditions that intensify connection to the school, ceremonies that build community, and stories that convey the heart and soul of the enterprise.   (Schein, 1985, 2004).

5) Culture amplifies the energy and vitality of school staff, students, and community.

It has long been known that social climate and culture influence the emotional and psychological orientation of a school. Many say that the context is infectious. This is especially the case in schools that are optimistic, caring, supportive, and energetic. Staff, students, and community are likely to take on those same characteristics. But the opposite is also true. Some school cultures are toxic. The social milieu is so negative that even the positive individual can become discouraged or disheartened.

6) Culture focuses attention on what is important and valued

Rules, job descriptions, and policies can influence what a person does. Yet unwritten rules, informal expectations, and rites and rituals may be even more meaningful precursors of positive action and sustained progress. Unstated, often hidden, assumptions and expectations are embedded in cultural patterns and become more intensified over time. With meaningful values, daily work is centered on important issues of quality instruction, continuous refinement of teaching, and accelerated learning. (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Schein, 1985, 2004).

http://thepositiveprojectonline.com/2013/07/04/school-culture-a-review-of-the-research-literature/

If however I had to rank the different culture or for argument's sake tell you which one I find the most important it would a culture of learning.

A culture of learning affects the following areas:
·         It creates a transparent culture amongst teachers in that teachers are willing to learn and grow.
·         It creates a feeling of learning-reflect-share
·         Creates lifelong learners amongst the faculty which in turn creates this culture for our students
·         Only when the adults and teachers are learners can we expect our students to be learners
·         One must be open to change and willing to grow, which is created when people are constantly learning and willing to explore new ideas
·         Fosters a growth mindset
·         With all the above creates an environment where all children can grow and succeed

At times culture is something that we talk about or that is something for the school leadership to address and doesn’t affect me. Hopefully I have made the case that school culture is not something that can be ignored and at least in terms of a Culture of learning it is something that all of us need to be working on.

I want to thank the organizers of iJed for putting together a wonderful learning experience. 

The Road to Inclusion: First Step Respect

Pic courtesy of edcompassblog.smarttech.com

I just finished reading Diversity- Inclusion Handbook by Sondra Thiederman  Admittedly, this book was written from a more business perspective the ideas presented, in my opinion can be easily transferred and applied to education.

The book opens with the following two quotes:

"Working together is more than a good idea it is essential for success”

"Inclusion is not a problem, but a solution"

Since it is clear that inclusion is so necessary how is it achieved?

Thiederman offers the following advice. “The foundation of any successful inclusion and diversity effort lies in the ability of each leader and each team member to communicate respect for people different from him or herself”

In one work RESPECT. To achieve inclusion, we must respect diversity.

However, I believe it goes one step further which Thiederman points out as one of the myths. Too often people are ok with Inclusion and may even be respectful, but only believe that it will work if one group is held to a lower standard of performance.

This unfortunately is true in many schools. We are ok with diversity or even inclusion as long as there is still a difference between the students with special needs and the mainstream students. Nothing is further than the truth. The only way for inclusion to work is to have one class that id differentiated so that each student can meet his or her goals within the classroom.

James Gardner said it best rather than lowering standards we need to “respect people as they are (and then) you can be more effective in helping them become the best they can be.”

Respect can have many meanings, but when talking about inclusion I like the way Thiederman defines respect. She says; “In this context  “respect” means an attitude and the behaviors that accompany that attitude that everyone has a right to be acknowledged as a valuable individual capable of making positive contributions to the team (I would add classroom as well)”.

This is a much higher level than a mere lip service type of respect and takes real actions and effort. That takes leadership.

Thiederman gives us some Essentials for leaders who are truly committed to an inclusive culture.

·         Treat people as individuals

·         Listen to everyone with respect

·         Hold everyone to a high standard of performance.

·         Provide Feedback that allows for growth

·         Educate people about the differences that exists among people

·         Recognize that Inclusion is an ongoing process

Today’s students are all diverse and for our students to succeed in our diverse world we need to embrace a culture of Inclusion and diversity. I have only touched on some of the starting points and hope to explore these ideas more fully and more in depth in future blog posts.