Competency 6

             The teacher uses planning processes to design outcome-oriented learning experiences that foster understanding and encourage self-directed thinking and learning in both individual and collaborative settings.

       Collect and Learn. Though not an educator in the traditional sense, S. Covey in is book “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People includes: Begin with the end in mind. This habit according to Covey has two vital elements: roles and goals. There must be a leader, someone who determines what the end result should be, such a person could even make some general suggestions as to how one might go about accomplishing the end result. However the doer or student or group of students should have direct stewardship over the task itself. The instructor brings the vision while the student makes it happen. In fact after the goal is in place the instructor relinquishes the role of leader and becomes a helper. The group or student is even in charge of his / her / their own assessment. The instructor goes along for the ride so to speak at various stages of the project but is there as an observer listening to the learners’ evaluation of their work / progress.

      Apply. Planning notes for the after school writer’s program.

• Stay with the things that kids like to read -scary books and funny books.

• Sell the vision -show examples of what we will produce / create.

• Don't try to do everything in one day, one week, one month.

• Keep the class size small.

• Use practice writings / warm-ups as idea sources. 

• Don't be chained to the computer. 

• Model the goals and result without dictating the method.

• Keep expectations high -research the kind of book to be created by reading similar books.

• Storyboard it.

• Students should feel like everything is a process and nothing is overwhelming. 

      Reflect. Writing has proven to be much more difficult for me to teach than I ever expected it to be. So much process, so little of the wild mind Natalie Goldberg speaks of in her book by the same name. So in the writer’s program I started I wanted to put Covey’s theory to work and to the test. Would this outcome-oriented learning experience really foster self-directed learning or might it simply create general inaction? Did I know enough about it (the approach and language arts instruction in general) to help them be successful? When treading in unknown waters I try to over-plan, as it seems to be the best security against ineffective instruction.

Competency 7

             The teacher uses effective verbal, non-verbal, and media communication techniques to shape the classroom into a community of learners engaged in active inquiry, collaborative exploration, and supportive interactions.

         Collect and Learn. In the book “Building Communities of Learners” by Sudia Paloma McCaleb, all three of the aforementioned forms of communication are used in a writing technique that has enjoyed great success in schools across California. The technique asks students to ask themselves some seemingly simple questions and respond in the form of a written dialogue, which is shared with classmates and illustrated. The question is then passed on to the student’s family members whose dialogue is recorded and illustrated by the interviewer. Student and family responses are encouraged regardless of the language and are shared in class. Example questions that have been used are: what do you really know about? What is a problem that you faced and how did you solve it? Think about a time in you life when you taught someone something; how did you do it and how did you feel as a result? These questions and countless others serve to validate the idea that students can be experts, that even at the age of 8 one is sometimes a teacher, that problem solving is something everybody does, and that parents and adults in general don’t always have the answers.

       “Building Communities of Learners” seeks to encourage writing through the exploration of personal, familial and cultural traditions and beliefs. It increases the sense of academic value between children whose parents are a of a different culture and language than that of their school life.

       Apply. Example of the technique in action.

      Reflect. Finding Paloma McCaleb’s book was the perfect addition to my readings on writing. Where to start, what to right about, how to begin –were all questions that “Building Communities of Learners” helped to answer. Before we write the scary stories in our minds we as a group will confront that which we know about ourselves through the use of this technique. We will compile a book of knowledge. Each student will get a page to tell about something he or she knows. We will compile a book of problems, which through pictures and our dialogue will tell the story of how we solved them. In each book there will also be room for the stories of our parents, aunts and grandfathers. We will write about our community as a community for ourselves and for everyone.

Competency 8

        The teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies and roles to facilitate learning and to help students become independent thinkers and problem solvers who use higher-order thinking in the classroom and the real world.

       Collect and Learn. In the compilation “Enhancing Thinking Through Cooperative Learning”, Frank Lyman lays out four different yet interrelated strategies for encouraging independence of thought through the categorization of questions and the structuring of solutions. His strategies are: Think-Pair-Share, Thinktrix, Thinklinks and Weird Facts.

       One of the core attributes of an independent thinker is his or her ability to ponder the advice of others and then make one’s own decision. Think-Pair-Share greatly increases the focus on taking the time to consider a classmate’s point of view before pressing ahead with one’s own notion. It gives time to refine and exchange ideas on a one to one level.

      Thinktrix according to the author is “a cognitive tool that allows students and teachers to know haw they know, to dredge up and connect knowledge, to be knowledge makers. “ Thinktrix uses seven fundamental thinking processes: recall, cause and effect, similarity, difference, idea to example, example to idea, and evaluation. Students are encouraged to categorize the questions they confront throughout the school year before answering them. A better understanding of the type of question that is asked, it is hypothesized will only lead to a more complete answer or at least a more accurate understanding of how it might be answered.

      The understanding and use of Thinktrix leads into the incorporation of Thinklinks, which is the use and creation of graphic organizers appropriate for the formulation of a response to a certain question. The instructor models Thinklinks however students are encouraged to build their own personal repertoire of organizers, which make sense to them.

      Finally, Weird Facts is a strategy in which student pairs merge to form student squares in order to baffle and amaze their squaremates. While to the students this seems to be nothing more than an invitation to spin and disprove yarns, learners engaged in this activity are in a constant state of evaluation and analysis. They may ask for clarification or more information in the form of one of the Thinktrix modules.

    Apply. Picture of Think-Pair-Share in action.

     Reflect. The more I teach and the more material I read on the subject of education the more clearly I see that success in the field has many paths. That there are as many ways to get there as there are children and teachers and classrooms making the journey. As classroom CEO it is my job to test the waters in search of options that allow me to help my students work up to their abilities. I get leery of people who talk of a strategy or pedagogy as being wrong. There is a time and a student for the application of nearly every educational idea. It seems to be more a matter of equipping one’s self for any and every possible situation.

Competency 9

            The teacher uses a variety of instructional materials and resources (including human and technological resources) to support individual and group learning.

       Collect and Learn. Innovate educators have long held to the notion that technology might improve their ability to teach and a student’s ability to learn. With the innumerable advances in multiple areas of technology, it can be said that there is no limit to the opportunity today’s educators have when it comes to integrating technology into the curriculum. Even mild educational reactionaries agree that students need instruction that would allow them to use technology in the workplace. What is often a matter of contention and confusion is therefore not IF technological materials and resources should be used to support individual and group learning but HOW.

        In the text “Internet for Active Learners: Curriculum-Based Strategies for K-12”, Pam Berger speaks about some ideas which address the question of HOW one can use networks and the Internet to support learning.

        The use of technology to teach information literacy skills which she lays out as the primary skill a student must have if technology is to support learning is indeed vital if at-risk students are to close the digital divide and begin the journey towards critical literacy. Simply put information literacy skills involve the ability to locate, organize, evaluate and utilize information (Berger 1998). The Internet and its many search engines provide an ideal resource to support student inquiry while at the same time developing informational literacy skills.

     Apply. Link to my Internet Resources for Bilingual Educators.

     Reflect. I have offered my annotated list of Internet resources for Bilingual Educators because it represents my struggles to locate viable, reliable resources in one place. It took over 100 hours to build, some may see that as a waste of time in that there are already too many lists of educational resources on the internet. However in compiling my list I began to formulate personal beliefs about what the Internet can and cannot do. There are enough quality activities and opportunities for communication that every day could be spent on-line, at the same time for every activity or lesson plan or educational quest in which I can see merit there are 10 that seem to me a complete waste of time and bandwidth. That is the beauty and the danger of the Internet, quality mired amongst mounds of worthless information. Giving learners the chance to find their own information demands that they also sift through the unusable and unintelligible. This supposed weakness of the Internet has the potential to make our students better evaluators.

Competency 10

     The teacher uses processes of informal and formal assessment to understand individual learners, monitor instructional effectiveness, and shape instruction.

     Collect and Learn. On the matter of assessment and the role it plays in literacy development, a good beginning is the text by Patterson and Mallow entitled “Framing Literacy”, in which the authors outline their ideas as well as those of others concerning literacy development and cycle of planning, experimentation and assessment which goes into every hour of instruction. Some of their more formal ideas for assessment include Modified Miscue Analysis, and standardized tests. Such forms of assessment seek to analyze the parts in order to get a better picture of the whole. These instruments are useful in the localization of target areas for future instruction. Formal assessment alone however is not sufficient; there is also a need to combine this with student interviews, teacher observation, and interest inventories (informal assessment) in order to get a truer sense of the totality of the learners’ level of development.

     Whether gathered through formal or informal assessment, data should not be used simply as a number in a grade book but as a instructional compass which serves to point both instructor and student to future lessons / opportunities for guided growth.

     It should be noted that according to Krashen in “The Power of Reading”, literacy development might best take place in an environment devoid of all but the subtlest forms of assessment.

   Apply. Link to my Literacy Assessment Website.

   Reflect. As there are no perfect educational websites, there are no perfect assessment instruments. One must therefore build a repertoire of instruments and the understanding of how and when to successfully administer them. I have included a link to some of the assessment instruments I use and have integrated with technology, I have found them to be quite useful in the pursuit of a better understanding of the developmental levels of my students. The data these instruments yield improve the quality of instruction I am able to offer in that it guides future planning and increases my understanding of each individual student.

 Competency 11

             The teacher structures and manages the learning environment to maintain a classroom climate that promotes the lifelong pursuit of learning and encourages cooperation, leadership and mutual respect.

  Collect and Learn. There is no shortage of books on the subject of managing learning environments; no lack of journal articles either. Teacher education, especially pre-service education is vital in the construction of better-managed learning environments, which maintain and promote the intrinsic value of learning. In the limited study and research this educator has done, there are two aspects, which seem to outshine the rest.

·        Free Voluntary Reading

·        Consistency in classroom management

The idea of instilling an intrinsic desire to learn in each student should be the goal of every educator every year. Success on this level is not only hard to measure but also can prove difficult to elicit. Free Voluntary Reading is one of the best activities through which this might be achieved. Properly implemented FVR gives students the tools to find their own path, to make their own choices and set their own goals. FVR gives children what many adults do not believe they have time for, namely access to information, and time to manipulate / learn from it.

Not even FVR can hope to benefit students trapped in an ill-managed classroom, or in an atmosphere where little is respected and nothing is sacred. Again in this educator’s opinion, communal stability and respect begin with an instructor’s willingness and ability to consistently model desired behaviors and recognize and promote them in others. Some values / behaviors this educator believes in: never shouting, keep all promises, be truthful, if punishment is called for make it immediate –punish the deed not the child, explain class roles, goals and boundaries, don’t play favorites, expect the best work / effort from everyone, if you let them down talk about it, if they let you down do the same, don’t teach a lesson you don’t believe in and finally don’t follow some else’s rules they won’t work the same way for you as they did for him or her.

Apply. In revisiting the section in Krashen’s book on FVR I have decided to begin a before school reading club. I need to increase the size of my library and target second graders. Third through fifth graders have access to the computer lab in the afternoons but second graders would benefit from added time as well, therefore I will offer FVR time / internet literacy exploration time from 7:15-7:45.

Reflect. I am excited to see what happens with the second graders. Will they want to come? Will anyone read the books in the library or will they all just run straight for a computer? Will they keep coming back in the mornings? Will they begin to see the computer as a digital library? How will their extra time in the lab impact their academic success?