Bill Gates funds teacher evaluation study

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/education/04teacher.html?_r=1

PISA scores for 2009 announced.

International Test Score Data Show US Firmly Mid-Pack
Scores for the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment of 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy, were released today. US students ranked average in reading and science literacy and a little below average in math. It’s likely that the Department of Education will use these scores to push for revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, especially regarding low-performing schools. The Washington Post, December 7, 2010

Here's the response from Washigton Post blog, the Answer Sheet: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/standardized-tests/hysteria-over-pisa.html

More pay for more students? More pay for great teachers?

from Teaching Now Blog

Duncan: Stop Paying Teachers Like 'Interchangeable Widgets'

The secretary responded that he supports increasing compensation both for higher quality teachers and for those with more students. From a parent's perspective, he said, he would prefer to put his child in a class that had 26 students and an exceptional teacher rather than a class with 22 students and a mediocre one.

"I think our great teachers, we desperately underpay, undervalue. And so, pick a number: 80 grand, 100 grand, 120 grand. ... If you are a great teacher, whatever your class size is, you should be compensated in a very different way," Duncan said. "And if you take three or four more students, we shouldn't just pay you for being great, we should pay you more for taking those [additional] students."

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2010/11/duncan_cut_school_budgets_without_cutting_teacher_pay.html

Clinicals for Teachers WSJ

WSJ article about bringing the model of "clinicals" to pre-service teaching

http://online.wsj.com/article/APed19d7616d9c4c02b28ea862e4aedd73.html

Teaching Boys: Importance of relationships

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/11/17/12reichert.h30.html?tkn=RVLFhVF0q7YKMnbZliM0INYZzhToPqY5CaNk&cmp=clp-edweek

National Book Awards Announced!

Here you can find a list of both winners and nominees of the National Book Award:

http://www.borders.com/online/store/ListView_nba10?cmpid=SA_20101118_3

Baltimore Teachers agree to groundbreaking contract

No more steps. Student assessment data key.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-teacher-contract-revote-20101117,0,7170739.story

One-Third Agenda Won't Close Gaps

Richard Rothstein notes on a keynote ASCD speech.

"Decades of social science research have demonstrated that differences in the quality of schools can explain about one-third of the variation in student achievement.".... "Efforts to improve schools are undermined by the deteriorating conditions under which kids come to school," he said.

http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2010/11/rothstein-one-third-agenda-wont-close-gaps.html

Recent Campus Slang

For fun, here’s a NYTs article about the latest slang on campus:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/magazine/31FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

Preparing student teachers for evaluation

How are ed schools responding to the new norm of student assessment as part of teacher evaluation.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bs-md-education-schools-reform-20101031,0,2886024.story

Diane Ravitch on Value Added Teacher Evaluation

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/10/25/2010-10-25_valueadded_data_add_no_value.html

Teachers have no first amendment rights in curriculum

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2010/10/court_no_free_speech_rights_fo.html

Denver Standards Dashboard

Article about 'dashboard' for teachers, a boiled down...

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2010/10/08/District_9R_sees_curriculum_change/

Student Technology Fast in Portland

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/10/53_lincoln_high_school_student.html

Reading Zones

Another reading zone (after last post).... Observing a class on "Story of an Hour"... kids can repeat the story line for line, but not say whether she dies of happiness or sadness when seeing him.

Eric Zorn

Thoughts on kids & common core standards

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/10/which-side-of-the-fire-line-are-you-on.html

Where do you figure out what side he's on? Is the last line about health care?

Educators advised to be smart on facebook

2 page article about how “school employees do not have the same free-speech rights as the general public,” even on “private” social networking sites. Several specific cases of lost jobs are given as examples. Excellent last-paragraph quote: “Do we want teachers to be moral exemplars, or is it OK if they’re just academic technicians?”

Chicago Public Schools adding 90 minutes to each day

CPS is using a $5.5 million federal education grant to add 90 minutes to every school day. The program is mandatory at certain schools. The kids will be getting instruction via computers and monitored by community groups. (i.e… they’re doing an end-around teachers with federal education money. Alarming?)

Chronicle Article: How to write less badly...

This is for academic writing. http://chronicle.com/article/10-Tips-on-How-to-Write-Less/124268/

Extra Reading Class Boosts Pupil Skills, but Not Permanently

Extra Reading Class Boosts Pupil Skills, but Not Permanently

See third paragraph, especially

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2010/09/extra_reading_class_boosts_stu.html

Florida Class Sizes Limits Challenged.

Florida's constitution has class size limits...18 for 1st and 2nd, 22 for middle grades, 25 for high school.

This article talks about a challenge to the constitution.

Doug Reeves An Accountability Lesson From Michelle Obama

article

Here’s an intriguing argument by one of my favorite ED writers Doug Reeves about equating learning with “test results”… Great points!

Union Leader Calls on L.A. Teachers to Boycott Times

A.J. Duffy objects to the paper's analysis of the effectiveness of more than 6,000 elementary school teachers. Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2010. See NCTE President Carol Jago's response.

(from NCTE)

Should HW count? Trib article

See the Chicago Tribune article here.

David Brooks defends humanities

check out NYT article here, including "Big Shaggy" references.

New Unit School

This school (or "Educational Village" is K-12. Article in Galveston Daily News.

Kids plagiarize because of "The Digital Age"?

See NYT article

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&hpw

Reading across curriculum

This also goes to answer the question about "deeper reading". Where does this fit in the curriculum? AP Lang and Comp? Social Studies?

I got this from Feldman 6/15/2010 -- it's filed there. Research the Shanahan connection.

1) Center on Instruction - Adolescent Literacy Series

see: http://centeroninstruction.org/pdevents.cfm#69

The Academic Literacy Community of Practice webinar series provided Regional Comprehensive Center staff an opportunity to engage in an interactive learning process with Center on Instruction staff centered on adolescent literacy best practices used in traditional content-area classrooms in grades 4-12, including differentiated instruction for students with language needs, struggling students, and students with disabilities, and methods for disseminating useful information and resources to SEAs to enhance state-level literacy professional development. A series of five webinars held from February 2010 to June 2010. Implementation of best practices were examined and discussed within an RTI context where applicable. Each webinar is described below, with a link to the archived WebEx file, and PowerPoint presentations are available for download below.

** These presentations are uniformly excellent - depending on your background knowledge and professional interests... I just read Cynthia Shanahan's on Discipline Based Literacy in History/SS - mind blowing it was so good... takes comprehension instruction to a whole deeper level within the specific context of understanding history, (e.g. role of context, corroboration, sourcing, etc. - sample questions students need to learn to ask as they read:

•Who is the author? Can I trust what he/she says? Why or why not?

•Who was the author writing to? Why?

•When did the author write it? Does that make a difference?

•Do others agree? If not, who is more credible?

•What does the author say that makes him/her believable?

*** Might be useful if we ALL learned to ask these when watching TV news, reading newspapers, etc!!

Colleges Work to Stop Cheating

NYT article (To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery) about colleges trying to stop high-tech cheating....

Here's the lead:

ORLANDO, Fla. — The frontier in the battle to defeat student cheating may be here at the testing center of the University of Central Florida.

Cheat Sheet

Truth in Testing

Articles in this series examine cheating in education and efforts to stop it.

Related

• Cheat Sheet: Under Pressure, Teachers Tamper With Tests (June 11, 2010)

Readers' Comments

Readers shared their thoughts on this article.

• Read All Comments (300) »

No gum is allowed during an exam: chewing could disguise a student’s speaking into a hands-free cellphone to an accomplice outside.

The 228 computers that students use are recessed into desk tops so that anyone trying to photograph the screen — using, say, a pen with a hidden camera, in order to help a friend who will take the test later — is easy to spot.

Scratch paper is allowed — but it is stamped with the date and must be turned in later.

When a proctor sees something suspicious, he records the student’s real-time work at the computer and directs an overhead camera to zoom in, and both sets of images are burned onto a CD for evidence.

Taylor Ellis, the associate dean who runs the testing center within the business school at Central Florida, the nation’s third-largest campus by enrollment, said that cheating had dropped significantly, to 14 suspected incidents out of 64,000 exams administered during the spring semester.

“I will never stop it completely, but I’ll find out about it,” Mr. Ellis said.

Free Phonics lessons/books online

Progressive Phonics are in the Bob-book vein. Just began looking at them. I'll try them with Charlotte.

http://www.progressivephonics.com/~suzettew/

NPR story on teacher pay/ evaluation

Here's the lead to a recent story on NPR titled "New Evaluation Laws Split Teachers Even More" about new teacher pay models taking hold across the states.

When summer ends, many teachers will face a new reality: A number of states have passed new laws and policies that tie teachers' job security to how well their students do in class. Some teacher groups dropped their longstanding opposition to this idea, and now say it will be good for the profession. Still, many teachers fear the new evaluation systems are part of an attack on their profession.

//

David Brooks waxes poetic about value of books

July 8, 2010 NYT. Jan Bujan hipped me to this article. David Brooks, in "The Medium is the Medium" shares data about how getting kids started on home libraries helps stop the "summer slide." The article goes on to weigh in on the debate about whether book reading is better than internet reading. Here's the core of that argument:

But there was one interesting observation made by a philanthropist who gives books
to disadvantaged kids. It’s not the physical presence of the books that produces
the biggest impact, she suggested. It’s the change in the way the students see
themselves as they build a home library. They see themselves as readers, as
members of a different group.

The Internet-versus-books debate is conducted on the supposition that the medium is
the message. But sometimes the medium is just the medium. What matters is the
way people think about themselves while engaged in the two activities. A person
who becomes a citizen of the literary world enters a hierarchical universe.
There are classic works of literature at the top and beach reading at the
bottom.

A person enters this world as a novice, and slowly studies the works of great
writers and scholars. Readers immerse themselves in deep, alternative worlds and
hope to gain some lasting wisdom. Respect is paid to the writers who transmit
that wisdom.

A citizen of the Internet has a very different experience. The Internet smashes
hierarchy and is not marked by deference. Maybe it would be different if it had
been invented in Victorian England, but Internet culture is set in contemporary
America. Internet culture is egalitarian. The young are more accomplished than
the old. The new media is supposedly savvier than the old media. The dominant
activity is free-wheeling, disrespectful, antiauthority disputation.

These different cultures foster different types of learning. The great essayist Joseph
Epstein once distinguished between being well informed, being hip and being
cultivated. The Internet helps you become well informed — knowledgeable about
current events, the latest controversies and important trends. The Internet also
helps you become hip — to learn about what’s going on, as Epstein writes, “in
those lively waters outside the boring mainstream.”

But the literary world is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering
significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have
to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse
yourself in a great writer’s world. You have to respect the authority of the
teacher.

Right now, the literary world is better at encouraging this kind of identity. The
Internet culture may produce better conversationalists, but the literary culture
still produces better students.

Common Core Standards

Ed Week: "As of July 9, 23 states had decided to replace their mathematics and English/langauge arts standards with the common set." Illinois did on June 24. 41 states are expected to take on the CCS by year's end.

Chicago's new layoff rules

July 14 Education Week reports that Chicago board of educaiton approved a policy last month that would dismiss tenured teachers rated "ineffective" before "dipping into the ranks of higher-rater novices." CTU head calls the new policy "illegal."

Teacher Performance Pay in Pittgsburgh

July 14 Ed Week reports that AFT teachers of Pittsburgh school district agreed to forego automatic raises for receiving masters's degrees in favor of a new schedule that "emphasizes teacher performance." [T]"eachers will earn big pay boosts by satisfying a periodic review based on a combination of their teacher-evaluation scores and demonstrating that they have advanced students' academic growth." On the plus side, teachers could pass the $100,000 mark in eight years.

Lightning Bug online resource for fiction writing for kids

Lightning Bug online writing website offers kids help with fiction writing. Links to "find a story idea," "develop a story idea," and "finish a story"

Be A Smart Citizen: Be Aware of Internet Fraud

See the government's new website, onguardonline.gov for tips, videos, and games about Social Networking safety, Phishing, Spyware, etc.

New Learning and New Literacies Masters Program

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana has a new MA program for educators with the title above. This gives credence to the idea of teaching more visual literacy, more "new literacy". (or it's just a flash-in-the-pan that won't last). Read the description below copied from the website for rhetoric about how we need to train kids for the new world.

'New learning' is an approach to education that engages students as active designers and co-designers of their own knowledge. 'New literacies' aims to expand learners' meaning-making modes and capacities, and uses digital media to enhance student learning.

Designed for Teachers

This exciting, new online masters program anticipates a near future where education is even more central to society, the economy and personal opportunity than it is today. Education will be ubiquitous, available at any time and in any place, taking place not just at school, but at home, at work and in community settings. The emerging new digital media will occupy a central position in New Learning.

Participants in this program will be teachers of literacy and teachers in other discipline areas who wish to investigate language across the curriculum. Participants selected to join the program will have training and professional experience ranging from the early years of schooling to adult learning. The program supplements traditional, alphabetical notions of literacy (including the literacies required for learning across a wide range of discipline areas), with a broader conception of literacy in the context of new media, global communications and cultural and linguistic diversity.

Kristoff: The Boys Have Fallen Behind

Nicholas Kristoff opines in NYT article "The Boys Have Fallen Behind" that girls "have roughly achieved parity with boys in math. Meanwhile, girls are well ahead of boys in verbal skills, and they just seem to try harder." He references Richard Whitmire's book "Why Boys Fail." Key reading quote from Whitmire: "Poor reading skills snowball through the grades. By fifth grade, a child at the bottom of the class reads only about 60,000 words a year in and out of school, compared to a child in the middle of the class who reads about 800,000 words a year." Kristoff suggests that educators encourage boys to read "lowbrow, adventure of even gross-out books" and references guysread.com.

Writing Contest

Link to the JFK Essay Contest.

College Essay Videos

If you need another reason why visual literacy (both reading and writing non-print texts), here's one: colleges are moving towards video college essays. Here's a story on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124628580&ft=1&f=1003

Here's a website that offers advice about "writing" (probably no scare quotes needed) college video essays.

I've also put a copy of a similar story from the Education Week story in my "Department Sharing" folder.

RRQ Fluency article

Reading Research Quarterly April/May/June 2010. "Aligning Theory and Assessment of Reading Fluency" offers a clarified definition of fluency, which includes both automaticity AND prosody.

EJ - summer reading in chat rooms

See English Journal May 2010 for "Computers, Coffee Shops, and Classrooms: Promoting Partnerships and Fostering Authentic Discussion". It's about assessing summer reading in discussions online. Good rubric

EJ Critical Literacy of Ads

See the Jan 2010 English Journal for ""The Story of Stuff: Reading Advertisements through Critical Eyes".

iPad and Education

From ASCD yesterday:

Could the iPad become a valuable tool to improve student learning?
Envision Schools founder Bob Lenz, fresh from a conference on innovation and technology in education, considers in this blog post the role the iPad and other new technology will play in the future of student learning. Lenz sees the iPad -- in perhaps its next generation -- as a low-cost way to expand student access to books, research and other media and envisions a time when teachers may create apps instead of paper handouts or assignments posted on the Web. Edutopia.org/Bob Lenz's blog (6/9)

Project based learning

Edutopia has a website devoted to project based learning:

http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-free-resources-and-tools

And this is a cool feature... what you can do in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 years:

http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-replication-tips

Literacy Coaching Model that Works

I was impressed at the IRA conference earlier this spring with a presentation from reading teachers at Downer's Grove High School. Their model of literacy coaching involved "literacy coaching" and action research. In May 12's Education Week, there's an article about links between the "Literacy Collaborative" (developed at the Ohio State University) and reading gains. See website here. The "literacy coaching" model seems to be gaining traction. Ironically, on the same page of Education Week is an article titled "Study of Reading Programs Find Little Proof of Gains in Student Comprehension." Short story: professional development of teachers, not canned programs, works.

See the results of the recent study done here. (This is what the Ed Week article references)

See more info here from the Lesley University.

Senior classes

In the May 12th (2010) Education Week, an article reported that the Educator of the Year spoke at the White House recently. Interesting to me is that she created 15 new courses. "Once students fulfill their requirements, they can select from such classes as "on the Road," which explores metaphorical and physical journeys, "Sport, Competition, and Culture," which looks at the cultural significance of sports; and "Genders' Game," Which takes on the role of gender in history. Her name is Sarah Brown Wessling. She teaches at Johnston High School in Iowa. The National Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by ING and Target and is a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Action Research as Professional Development

After 4 successful years of action research, this article comes as no surprise. I've recently been thinking of how to encourage everyone in the department to take on AR as their professional growth plan.

I'm also interested in it b/c at the IRA conference I saw how successful the Downer's Grove North reading lab was in spreading PD through embedding literacy liaisons in each department, and asking each to engage in action research.

Article reference:

Action Research as a Constructivist Approach to Professional Development

Maeva López-Kassem

Common Core Standards - comments by Doug Reeves

In Education Week, Doug Reeves comments on Common Core Standards using English Language Arts as a pointed example. He praises them and says that they should come along with more direction to teachers about how to achieve the high expectations.

I've cut-and-pasted it here:

COMMENTARY

Common Standards: From What to How

How Common-Core Standards Should Influence Teaching

By Douglas B. Reeves

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

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Will the recently released draft of K-12 standards from the Common Core State Standards Initiative provide a degree of coherence in academic expectations for students, teachers, and education systems that has not previously been available in American education? Or will this effort be one more failed reform, distinguished more by enthusiastic presentation than by successful implementation? The answer depends not merely on the standards documents, but also on the degree to which policymakers and leaders are willing to link the clear intent of the standards to the reality of the classroom.

We should first acknowledge that, in a nation committed to “local control” of education, any attempt to draft common standards represents courageous and difficult work. The standards-writers deserve our thanks, if not always our agreement. But while I applaud the rigor and specificity present in much of the standards document, I must challenge what seems to be its central premise: that standards are merely the “what” of education, while the “how” must be left to the discretion of individual schools and teachers.

In the introduction to the English/language arts standards document, for example, the writers declare: “Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the standards” [Page 2]. And they then say, “The standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do but not how teachers should teach” [Page 3]. Such statements undermine what is otherwise a document with a great deal of promise.

Consider the best features of the proposed common-core standards, which include a refreshing emphasis on nonfiction reading and writing at the elementary school level. The document suggests that 65 percent of elementary school writing should be explanatory or persuasive in nature, while most current elementary writing is dominated by fiction, fantasy, poetry, and personal narrative.

The standards also make clear that teachers in social studies and science are responsible for teaching and assessing reading, writing, speaking, and listening as well, a directive that is particularly important at the secondary level. Recent research suggests that while teachers are widely aware of the importance of evidence-based instructional practices in writing, they are not likely to apply them in secondary social studies and science classes.

The standards for grades 6-8 are particularly strong, and will for many schools represent a significant improvement in the preparation of students for high school. If taken seriously, they will lead to dramatic increases in the attention given to the teaching and assessment of reading and writing in these grades. The case for improved quantity and quality of nonfiction writing and reading at this level is supported with an impressive collection of research.

The standards-writers not only make clear the importance of greater rigor in our expectations of what student literacy should be, but also demonstrate convincingly that most students now fail to read and write at the levels suggested by these standards. Indeed, students are rarely asked to read and write with this degree of complexity.

The standards-writers deserve special commendation for their emphasis on kindergarten reading and writing. While I continue to hear the evidence-free argument that it is not “developmentally appropriate” for kindergartners to read and write, the standards document demonstrates with authentic examples that students can rise to the challenge. Writing, or failing to write, by the ages of 5 or 6 is not a reflection of brain development, but a consequence of adult expectations.

---

The false “what-how” dichotomy, however, threatens to reduce the standards-writers’ accomplishments to rubble. In their introduction, for example, they also say that “the standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or specify the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to use to monitor and direct their thinking and learning” [Page 2]. They might as well have written, “While the evidence suggests that obesity is a national tragedy with enormous personal and financial costs, we completely support your decision to dive into a smorgasbord of sugared water and junk food.” After all, recommending diet and exercise would be too close to mandating a “process,” something these standards eschew.

Any careful reading of the standards makes clear that process and content are essential components of effective education. The document very clearly does not regard every expression of professional judgment as equally valid. The writers, properly in my view, would require that 4th grade students “produce coherent and clear writing in which the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience” [Page 18].

The document also provides very explicit requirements for persuasive, informative, and narrative writing at each grade level. The expectations for revisions, research, correction, and adherence to conventions all have clear implications for teaching methods and instructional leadership.

With a majority of states having agreed to embrace the common-core standards, this moment is too important to let slip away. Now is not the time to weaken before those who think that “local control” implies a constitutional right of indifference to evidence. Standards take us halfway up the mountain. If we are to reach the summit, then teaching and leadership, not equivocation and indecision, will take us there. n

Douglas B. Reeves is the president of the Leadership and Learning Center, headquartered in Englewood, Colo.

Vol. 29, Issue 31, Pages 32-33

Jing comments on papers

Joe L. forwarded me this article about a teacher who Jings comments on student papers:

8 December 2006

Russell Stannard

Westminster lecturer Russell Stannard is videoing himself marking essays so that students get the most out of feedback. He

reports on small-screen success

Imagine you videoed yourself every time you marked a student's work. Imagine you could open up a student's essay on your

computer screen, press a button and from that moment on everything you said and any corrections you made on the work

were all recorded on video. If you highlighted something, underlined a spelling mistake or talked about the organisation of the

essay, it would all be recorded. Then you simply clicked a button and e-mailed the video to the student. They could then play

it back, and listen and watch as you commented on their essay. You could get them to watch the video and then redraft their

essay. Moreover, it wouldn't require any fancy software, just standard screen recorder software that works at a click of the

mouse.

This is already happening at Westminster University. Students receive live video recordings of me correcting their essays.

Early results are encouraging. Students are taking much more interest in the feedback they receive. The amount of

information that can be provided by the teacher is much greater, and students feel it is the nearest thing to a one-to-one

feedback session. With recent discussions on improving feedback in higher education, this may be just the thing universities

are looking for. It is powerful yet incredibly simple to use and provides documented proof of feedback.

So how does the technology work? The student e-mails an essay in text format to the tutor. The tutor opens the file and

activates the software.

Everything that the tutor then does on screen is recorded as a video: every mouse move, underlining and correction. If the

tutor has a microphone plugged in, any comments they make are also recorded. Once the feedback has been completed, the

video is compressed into a format that students can view on their computer and is sent back to them.

It doesn't matter what text programme the student uses because the software simply records the screen.

Research is at an early stage, but is causing widespread interest. Most lecturers add notes in the margins of students'

essays, normally fewer than ten words. However, because tutors can talk as they correct the work, much more detailed and

complete feedback can be given.

In Westminster's research, based around an "English for academic purposes"

course, the students are told where the problem is and how it might have come about, but are left to correct the mistake

themselves. This forces them to watch the videos and then redraft their essays. Whereas the total number of comments on a

"normal" feedback system might amount to a quarter of a page, if the comments from the videos were written down they

would take up more than a whole page of writing. For example, traditional correction of grammar in an essay might include a

few notes about the type of mistake that has been made, whereas with the video the teacher can explain where the mistake

might have come from.

The power of the software lies in its simplicity. There is a small amount of extra time involved because the videos have to be

compressed before being sent to the student, but apart from this it really is a "live"

recording of your feedback session. And because the software simply records the screen, any tools you use when correcting

on screen will come out on video. So, for example, if you use a "highlighter" facility to point out a mistake or underline a

particular word, it all shows up in the video. This makes feedback both oral and visual, and therefore suitable for different

learning styles.

Tests so far have shown there is a strong fit between the technology and language teaching as the video feedback can

Times Higher Education - The spelling mistake: Scene one, take one http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&story...

2 of 2 13-Mar-2008 8:05 AM

include information about syntax, grammar, spelling and choice of vocabulary. However, other ideas for using the technology

have also emerged. On an information and communications technology course, I marked essays on the topic of using

"interactive whiteboards" in the normal way. Then I opened up a text file, turned on the screen recorder and began to

produce a "general feedback video" where I talked through common mistakes, organisation of essays, good points that were

made by some of the students and so on. Afterwards, I produced an essay plan explaining how I would have organised the

answer.

The video was compressed and sent to all the students.

These general class feedback videos are particularly useful as they are quick to make and can cover a lot of material. And

on an English course I realised there were several students making a particular grammatical mistake. I produced a feedback

video that was more like a grammar lesson, providing information about the point, writing up examples and then sending the

recording to all the students. Of course these ideas are not limited to higher education. They could be used in any course at

any level.

Many teachers and lecturers are also citing the possibilities for distance learning. Michael Thomas, an associate professor of

English as a foreign language in Japan, who has been exploring the feedback videos with his own university students,

believes the idea could be invaluable for distance-learning courses.

"Many distance-learning courses would really benefit from this idea as they often lack personal contact with the tutors," he

says. "It could add a whole new dimension to student-teacher feedback, as the technology can be used with a minimum of

knowledge by students and teachers alike."

The first step in setting up the videos involved identifying the technology that could be used. There are a number of screenrecorder

software packages. Screen recorder by Matchware is very easy to use (a click of a button to start recording your

screen) and can be effective. Camtasia and Captivate allow greater editing facilities and compression options.

I chose Camtasia because the latest version allows you to include a small video of yourself in the corner of the screen so that

the students not only see your computer screen and hear your voice, but can see you as you mark their work.

The second step was to look at the kind of feedback provided. Is it better to provide direct correction of the mistakes within

the videos or simply to highlight mistakes, but get students to correct the work themselves? The research findings were

contradictory but it was decided that the most effective way of getting students to use the videos was not to correct the

mistakes but rather to point out where they were, suggest what might be the cause of them, and leave it up to students to do

the corrections in the redraft. This forces students to work with the videos and extract the information provided in them.

The software does not only have to be used for feedback. Screen recorder software can be used to teach in all sorts of

areas. For example, you can open up a software package such as Adobe Flash, turn on the screen recorder software and

demonstrate ways of using Flash, talking and commenting as you do so. Such video presentations have proved to be very

popular with students. Will Whitlock from Westminster's Educational Initiative Centre, which funds the project, says the

centre is looking at more projects in this area and that the feedback videos have created "a lot of interest".

The next step is to do some comparative studies. Are the videos effective learning tools? Do they result in improved drafts

against traditional methods and what do students feel about them?

Does it make the whole process of feedback more interesting? We should have some answers early next year.

Russell Stannard is a principal lecturer at Westminster University's department of computer science. An example of

feedback on grammar he has produced can be viewed online, although not at full screen size, at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ1y4t6ggQs

What makes learning stick? Experiment

Edutopia yesterday: find it here

Join Our National Lab Day Experiment

What makes learning stick? Participate in our little experiment!

Mixed Results for Charters

NYT article of May 1, "Despite Push, Success at Charter Schools Is Mixed," by Trip Gabriel,
talks about mixed results for Charters. Thanks Mike P. for sending this my way.

Key idea: charters vary WIDELY in effect.

Key paragraph setting up that idea:

But for all their support and cultural cachet, the majority of the 5,000 or so charter schools nationwide appear to be no better, and in many cases worse, than local public schools when measured by achievement on standardized tests, according to experts citing years of research. Last year one of the most comprehensive studies, by researchers from Stanford University, found that fewer than one-fifth of charter schools nationally offered a better education than comparable local schools, almost half offered an equivalent education and more than a third, 37 percent, were “significantly worse.”

Teachers Evaluated by Student Test Scores in NYC

Yesterday's NYT story, "Agreement will alter evaluations of teachers," by Jennifer Medina details a NY teahers' union agreement to overhaul teacher evaluations "and tie them to student test scores" something "the unions had bitterly opposed for years. Check this out: "Teachers would be measured on a 100-point scale, with 20 percent points based on how much students improve on the standardized state exams. Another 20 percent would be based on local tests, which would have to be developed by each school system. After two years, 25 percent would be based on state exams and 15 percent would come from the local tests."

Is this coming to a state near you soon? Too soon to say, but this detail from the article is interesting: NY Teachers will be will be placed in one of the following categories: highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective. Illinois has agreed to move to that same system next year.

There are not that many common denominators left

Today's NYT's article "As Newsweek goes on Block, an era fades," author Stephanie Clifford details the implications for a world where magazines from the middle with great stature.

For English teachers, this is really essential -- our job is to help kids figure out who's talking and what's their authoirty -- everything is rhetoric.

The end of the 3-hour phone conversation. So what?

After the hyperbole about the effects of increased technology on kids, this article talks about "the really nuanced things about the way technology is affecting the closeness properties of friendship." Half of American kids send 50 or more texts per day. Studies show that kids are less interested in face to face meeting. Kids don't have hour-long phone conversations with bosom buddies anymore. Should we care? This article introduces the topic. Article "Antisocial Networking?" by Hilary Stout, published today in the New York Times Style section here.

"Contesting Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?" Short Interview of James Shapiro

Julia Keller supplies a quick e-mail interview of James Shapiro, author of new book "Contesting Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?" Key idea: "My interest is not about proving what people think.. so much as why they think it. Keller: "His book tells the story of the people who refuse to believe the obvious -- that Shakespeare was Shakespeare -- and what this deathless skepticism revesals about our changing notions of authorship, creativity and the extent to which written works are imbued with autobiography." Article here. I'll use it in my freshman English class now that we're reading Romeo and Juliet as a modern connection.

Teacher Training like Medical Residency?

Programs Train Teachers Using Medical School Model
What if we prepared teachers the same way we prepare doctors? Teacher "residency programs" based on the medical residency model are becoming popular; Boston was one of the first to create one in 2003. Morning Edition, NPR, April 22, 2010

This from NCTE's "InBox" listserv.

Adolescent Literacy: What Hot, What's Not

The March 2010 JAAL shares What's Hot and Not in Reading. This year: adolescent literacy, comprehension, literacy coaches, RtI, among others.

The article references CCAAL's Time to Act: which concludes "that adolescents need a higher level of literacy than ever before, both for college-readiness and employment in the new gloabal knowledge economy".

Also, Reading Next (2004) which says "very few of these older struggling readers need help to read the words on a page; their most common problem is that they are not able to comprehend what they read." The report idenitifes 15 elements of effective instruction: direct, explicit ecomprehension instruction, strategies instruction, comprehension monitoring, metacognitive instruction, teacher modeling, scaffolded instruction, apprenticeship models.

Motivation was a topic that should be hot, according to those who were surveyed. Taboada (2009) identifed 5 dimensions of reading: perceived control, interest, self-efficacy, involvement, and social collaboration.

Ending quote from Brozo: "To me it is at the heart of why programmatic initiatives are failing. They are decontextualized; meaningful learning is not taking place. Students today have so many options for gaining information other than print. We need to focus on ways to engage students with their texts."

Does Fluency Matter?

Jan Hasbrouck says this at vocablog: http://vocablog-plc.blogspot.com/2010/01/reading-fluency-and-vocabulary.html#more

Vocabahead

Short videos for ACT-type words.

http://www.vocabahead.com/VocabularyVideos/Videos/TabId/59/VideoId/674/Default.aspx

"Assessment Systems that Support High-Quality Learning"

Assessment Systems that Support High-Quality Learning

Article by Linda Darling-Hammond.
Find it here: http://www.ccsso.org/publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=381

The Council of Chief State School Officers asked Darling-Hammond to describe what a student assessment system could look like... it seems like the new common core standards are just assumed to be part of it.

Highlights:
Think of assessments as a system with a variety of purposes -- infroming learning and instruction, determining progress, measuring achievement, providing accountability information.

In this idea system, teachers "are skilled at developing and using a rnage of assessments based on standards, learners' needs, and their professional judgment. Scoring student work based on shared learning targets is common classroom practice for teachers. Teachers are well educated and supported in these new expectations.

goal for students: "how knowledge is to be used to solve problems and develop cognitive skills: the abilities to find and organize information to solve problems, frame and conduct investigations, analyze and synthesize data, self-monitor and improve one's own performance, communicate well in multiple forms, work in teams, and learn independently."

things that can't be readily assessed through paper-and-pencil testing: making oral presentations, develop a portfolio of work, undertaking fieldwork, carrying out an investigation, doing practical laboratory work or completing a design project,...

check out "leading-edge assessment systems" in CT, KY, ME, MY, VT

A VISION BUILD ON EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES

1) process is guided by common standards.... curriculum guidance is lean but clear and focused on what students should know and be able to do as a result of their learning experiences.

2) include a balance of assessments ... emphasize deep knowleedge of core concepts within and across the disciplines, problem solving, collaboration, analysis, synthesis, and critical thinking... give student opportunities to develop and demonstrate higher order thinking skills such as the abilities to find and organize information to solve problems, frame and conduct investigations, analyze and synthesize data, and apply learning to new situations.

3) teachers are involved w/ curriculum development

4) Assessment measures are structure to continuously improve teaching and learning... close examination of student work, learning progressions, curriculumembedde assessments give models to teachers,students should be engaged in own progress of learning

5) designed to improve quality of learning and schooling... report publicly the data

6) assessment and accountability systems use multiple measures to evaluate students and schools... (other indicators often include student participation in challenging curricula, progress through school, graduation rates, college attendance, citizenship, a safe and caring climate, and school success and improvement

7) new technology enable greater assessment quality and information systems that support accountability

HOW A HIGH-QUALITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM MIGHT OPERATE
develop curriculum frameworks, create a digital curriculum and assessment library, develop state and local assessment measures (see New England Common Assessment Program, New Standards Project (1990s implemented in Maine, KY, VT). "curriculum-embedded performance components" "tests and tasks" for use in classrooms (see England's "tests and tasks") (these should be standardized and scored in moderated fashion). evaluate student growth over time... see the "Developmental Reading Assessment", learn about electronic portfolios, develop moderation and auditing systems ofr teacher-scored work, provide time and training for teachers and school leaders.