Going Rogue, Teaching Punk: How Keeping Data Frees You to Teach

Dear Reader,
This is a bit of a rant, so if you're looking for intelligence and some help on PDSA, TSP, or something related, please look to the links on the right. :)

A friend and colleague of mine, Kim Parker, a talented third grade teacher and community organizer, posted an article on her Facebook page, 'North Carolina Teachers for Change'. This is an excerpt:

Passing bubble tests celebrates and rewards a peculiar form of analytical intelligence. This kind of intelligence is prized by money managers and corporations. They don’t want employees to ask uncomfortable questions or examine existing structures and assumptions. They want them to serve the system. These tests produce men and women who are just literate and numerate enough to perform basic functions and service jobs. The tests elevate those with the financial means to prepare for them. They reward those who obey the rules, memorize the formulas and pay deference to authority. Rebels, artists, independent thinkers, eccentrics and iconoclasts—those who march to the beat of their own drum—are weeded out.

“Imagine,” said a public school teacher in New York City, who asked that I not use his name, “going to work each day knowing a great deal of what you are doing is fraudulent, knowing in no way are you preparing your students for life in an ever more brutal world, knowing that if you don’t continue along your scripted test prep course and indeed get better at it you will be out of a job.

Why would any teacher allow him or herself to be reduced to this? Because, at least in this case, the teacher bought into the idea that the test is all-important.

If you allow The Test (and I've always gotten a good laugh that in Virginia they're called SOL s - oh, so perfectly named) to be the only judge of whether you or your children are worth a %$&*, you get what you deserve.

Don't tell me about fear and expectations. You blew all of that off when you drank before you were 21, broke the speed limit, and went all the way with someone you weren't married to. (And, by the way, you didn't go blind, did you?)

We choose which lines we toe.

When you choose to ignore the line, you'd better do it intelligently.

Knowing your material, setting SMART objectives, relentlessly gathering data using a variety of formative, authentic tools, and putting it together so that all stakeholders, but especially kids, understand and can explain what it means and why it matters makes The Test a whole lot less important. It relegates it to where it belongs - one more piece of evidence. 

If you know where each child stands every day, you don't have to deal in Fear of the Unknown. Your data, which includes portfolios, should be snapshots of the efficacy of your instruction all year long, not just the three-week runup to testing. This is powerful. This frees you to teach.

If you've got organized, broad evidence to prove a child is on grade level even if he did freak out on The Test and, for three hours, forgot everything he ever knew, the Dark Cloud of Retention has no power.  

Children who have real teachers learn to think and do just fine on the tests. Do you know a single teacher with strong management and delivery skills whose kids bomb the test? I don't.

Really. The System has figured out that 13-year old fifth graders is a bad dynamic. While I've seen a handful of teachers sent to grades or subjects that aren't tested as a consequence for pulling consistently poor test scores, I've never seen anyone actually lose a job over it, and I've taught 20 years in non-union states. 

Did you want to read the rest of the article? It's here.

Kill the drama. Take control of your data; take back your classroom.

Whipping Lucy Calkins into Shape

I'm adding reading to my PDSA repertoire this year. It's time. Math's easy and under control (says the girl who has no idea which 24 kids will show up at her door next month. I may have to eat crow on that.) I'm a decent literature teacher, having spent a chunk of my career teaching middle school English, but I feel like I can raise the bar with reading by setting explicit learning goals, teaching exactly what a good response to a bit of literature looks like, and forcing myself to objectively grade the details.

Can't really do that on Classscape. :(

In my county, it's an expectation that we do the Lucy Calkins thing. (Though we are given considerable leeway to supplement material. As long as your scores are OK, you're generally left alone.)

Normally, I plan instruction from the back forward. Set my assessment and create a path to get there. When you're using someone else's stuff, you can't do that. I like the unit; it'll be a precursor to a more nuts-and-bolts lit unit on character change. I want to set goals without damaging the integrity of the lessons. How do you take hollistic, warm-and-fuzzy minilessons and create SMART objectives? 

Here's an overview of the second Calkins 3-5  reading unit, Following Characters into Meaning

 If you look at the minilesson titles, you'll see they're grouped. I'll set my cycle time by that grouping. That's a pain, since my math cycles are cut-and-dry, five days, start on Monday, finish on Friday. I'm just going to have to deal with the fact that these cycles will be a bit messy.

The first four minilessons are about envisioning, making personal connections (though it isn't called that), and changing the image you hold of a character once you get new information about him or her. They group together nicely. There's my cycle.

After reading the lessons, I'm going to summarize it to the bottom line:
SWBAT use the strategies 'envisioning' and 'making a personal connection' to visualize and empathize with a book's characters.
SWBAT change that vision when presented with new information.

then bang that into our school's common language.

All of us will use envisioning and making a personal connection as strategies to live within the story and understand how characters feel and behave. We will show we can do this by scoring ( / ) on a reader's response we'll write on (whatever the fifth day will be.)

All of us will show that we understand that new information about a character may change our image of that character. We will show we know by completing a 'before' and 'after' Venn diagram of a character on (whatever the fourth day will be).

Yes, I know that in each minilesson you state a teaching point, but do you really think that on Wednesday, if you were to ask a child what Monday's teaching point was, he's going to remember? Get real. Putting the goals on paper will help everyone remember the work we're doing.

Okay, now that that's done, what will the assessments look like?

There are some assessment opportunities on the first three of days in the form of notebook entries. I've got a rubric for checking those, which the kids will already have pasted into the notebook covers. I probably won't bother, but if I found myself hard up for grades, I could. They'd also serve as good formative assessments.
The fourth day has an entry that needs to be checked, since it relates to the week's second goal.

A reader's response is what I have planned for formal assessment. I'm feeling a Venn diagram as a graphic organizer to help them get their heads together, a sketching requirement, since it's envisioning we're working, and some writing to explain their thinking.

The prompt would be something like this:

Think of a story you've read or are reading. It could be The Tiger Rising or another book. Tell about a time that you have used your own memories to help you walk in a character's shoes.

Before they touch a pencil, they'll be given the grading rubric specific to the task.

The planning sheet will look mostly like this (I'm still messing with it. It needs to be prettied up.) On the right, they'll sketch a scene from the story, on the left, their memory. The Venn is for listing details.

They'll write from the stuff in the middle of the Venn.There will be two places to write, one will be "Because I remembered..."  the next, "I understood..."

Once they're done, they'll use the rubric to score themselves and turn it in. I'll use the same rubric to grade. Then we'll graph it up. Some kids will need to make improvements to meet the goal, and that's OK.

Then, on to the next group of minlessons, two about predictions. It's short, so the assessment will be a quickie.

Really, it's not as bad as I'd been fearing. I thought I'd need a glass of wine (or three) to tackle it, but I got through it with a sweet tea and some spinach dip. :)

Data Folders

Okay, there just isn't a catchy title to go with this. Data folders (or notebooks) are utilitarian.

I've decided to keep things pared down to data folders. I want essential data collected and displayed in a way that the kids can figure out and follow. If it's complicated, then I have to do it, and then it won't get done consistently. Not a nice truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Poplin peeps, if you're interested in more all-inclusive data notebooks, talk to fifth grade. That's what they do.

Each reading and math PDSA cycle will begin with the kids and I, through conversation ( I'll detail that in a later post closer to the start of school.), will set the learning target for the week (or Plan) and outline what we'll Do to get there. I'm going to work with a form that looks like this:

This is what they would look like, all filled out after our meeting on Monday.

For reading:

... and here's what they'd look out after we finish the Study and Act parts of the cycle:

Here's reading again - this example shows a child who missed a goal:

and math: This one made it.

The math is reflective of a week from the beginning of last school year. Even though the pretend child met the goal, he or she could maintain and even improve this skill by teaching another student who hasn't yet met the goal and will retest next week and/or by continuing practice on a math-practice website.

These can then be sent home in the graded papers packet in the Wednesday folders and filed into the data folder when it comes back.

In each pocket, clipped together, are the weekly PDSA half-sheets. I'll also tuck in snapshot graphs of progress on math goals pulled from Classscape. In the center are the 'I Can' sheets for reading and math that have the CCSS goals written in English (as opposed to Bureaucratspeak). If you're interested in those, check this post here. You can also find the reading and math 'I Can' sheets that I put together and are for fourth grade in these Google docs - Reading and math.

I'd also like to put long-term goal setting sheets in the middle, but I haven't invented that yet.

So, my goals for today:

• Keep reading The Leader in Me. It's actually pretty good.
• Think about and, if possible, create long-term planning sheets for kids to use. At what point in the year would we work something like that? If I do it too soon, all I'll get is 'pass EOGs', if I wait too long, they won't have time to get them done.
• Get the kid to Tae Kwon Do, hit Target, Trader Joe's and Harris-Teeter. Yeah, it's one of those kinds of days. :S

What's the Point of Portfolios? (Or, Two Wins and a Fail)

Data's a lot like money. Good to have, but if you don't do anything with it, having it really isn't doing anybody any good. (Okay, maybe not the best analogy to use with a bunch of teachers, but you get the idea...)

Sure, I collect data. Twice a year, every year, the kids do DRAs. They complete cold writing samples. They get assessed on this and that. Then the data is (eventually, as in the day after school gets out) tucked into a big ol' literacy portfolio and refiled for next year per district expectations. Not that next year's teacher's going to look at it. Oh, and they'll all be pitched at the end of fifth grade.

So, it's fairly safe to say that this process isn't effective.

What would make a portfolio worth keeping? I think I'd need to answer that with another question. What's the point of a portfolio?

To be real participants in PDSA cycles and to be an active member of a teacher-student partnership, kids need to have their data where they can get at it. They need to know their strengths and weaknesses, they need to set goals. Useful portfolios would allow that and document their progress in a way that makes sense to them. They would make that documentation available to the people who care about a child's growth.

So, when I went looking at sites to put together ePortfolios for my kids, I had to hash out a couple of things in my head. As a teacher, when I think data, I think quiz grades, pre-EOG scores, early in the year assessments, and writing samples. An ePortfolio would also let me pop in pictures of projects that turned out well. And, hey, if I really got good, we could take pictures of kids solving math problems on their whiteboards or scan in papers that turned out great. Teacher-y stuff.

What about this, though? Do these belong in an ePortfolio?

I'll argue that they do.

Meet AJ, my eighth grader. Here, you see him engaging in his two great loves, Tae Kwon Do and choral singing. He's successful at each, having earned his black belt as a sixth grader (His belt's red and black in this pic because one can't wear all black until age 13.) and making our city's children's choir as a rising seventh grader. These pictures represent AJ's two wins and a fail.

On top, AJ won the weapons division at a big tournament in Raleigh in 2011. It's not the win itself that's important here. What really matters is that in several previous tournaments he placed second. He just couldn't get over that hump and win. Why? He wouldn't (choose your own expletive)  practice! He figured that he did OK just relying on a flashy style, so why bother? Finally, though, he got frustrated by almost-winning and changed his approach. He worked to put together a traditional-style, cohesive routine and practiced it. You see the result, even if the picture is poor.

The next two were taken at a choral festival this past March. The middle picture is of  AJ working on stage with the conductor of the Boston Children's Choir. It was the first time he'd ever worked with a male choirmaster. During his time at the festival, he refined some techniques and gained some new ideas. Working with a diverse group of teachers is a good thing, he found out.

The bottom picture shows the performance at the end of the choir festival mentioned above. AJ's on the far left, on the top row, among a bunch of girls. He's not a soprano; he doesn't belong there. He lined up wrong. This picture is evidence that he still has some work to do with his onstage self. Paying attention - a wonderful thing!

Why put them in a school portfolio?

Here's why - if we are teaching, through PDSA and Teacher-Student Partnerships that kids can - and should - have some control over setting goals and creating proactive plans to meet those goals, wouldn't we want them to apply that away from the classroom, too?

Being proactive is a mindset. I want my kids to learn that and apply it everywhere.

So, I'm going to set up ePortfolios on Evernote because you can upload items to it easily from all kinds of devices. That will make it easier to use at school, but it will also allow kids to add items that show the 'aha' moments in their lives away from school. They also have unlimited space for free.

Yes, that means putting together some guidelines for them and their parents about what belongs in it. Expecting some reflection on items added will cut down on random stuff being posted. I'll call it an experiment and just roll with it.

My goals for today:

• Decide how to set up data folders, which are different from portfolios.
• Create whatever forms I want to use in those folders.
• Begin reading The Leader in Me, by the guy that wrote The 7 Habits books. 

I'm thinking that what he's saying will go nicely with the direction we're heading. :)

Why Classscape Is Your Friend

Okay, I said it yesterday and I'm saying it again today. When starting with PDSA, choose one subject. If you can, make that one subject math.


Here's why. We have a fabulous tool for creating assessments that are aligned with NCSCOS and CCSS and grade themselves. It's Classscape.

I love this tool for math. For reading, not so much, but that's another post. :)

Classscape has a huge bank of test items, sorted by goal, for both regular and Extend 2 assessments. It's quick and easy to use. (Look on the side. I've put up a tutorial to guide you through making a quiz.)
It also keeps track of whether or not I've already used an item on another quiz.

I make my weekly math assessments this way. Most quizzes are 10-12 items, specific to what I'm teaching any given week. I create my quiz before I plan my instruction. Why? Now I know exactly what they'll be assessed on. Sometimes I'll create a quiz and realize that I'm trying to test too much. That tells me to scale back what I thought I might teach that week.

Best of all, Classscape quizzes grade themselves. You can set it so that the kids can instantly see how they did. The results are also immediately available to you.

On a typical Friday, we leave the cafeteria, drop off lunchboxes, pick up boards and markers, and head to the media center. The kids quiz there for around 25 minutes. Kids that are done work on First in Math. If there are a couple of stragglers or terminal slowpokes, I ditch them and go back to the room for a chess minilesson. Once they're playing, I've got time to get their results graphed for the 'S' part of PDSA.

Another reason I love the system is that it keeps track of both your class' and your individual students' progress. It's graphed all nice and neat. I can run them off right from the computer for data notebooks. I sent individual graphs home (with a key to what the objectives mean) when it was time to get EOG review rolling. It could have been used as evidence for promotion/retention had I had any kids go to review over a math EOG.

At very first in the year, the kids get weirded out by it. On the very first 'Study' session, when we looked at the results from their first quiz, 'We're not used to using Classscape'. was one of their deltas. Within a few weeks, though, they were very comfortable with it. Late in the second semester, I had to give them a pencil-and-paper quiz on something for which CS didn't have items (It might have been plotting points, which I thought would be wicked hard on a computer screen.) and the fact that it was on paper was one of their deltas at the end of that cycle...

My goals for today:

• Check out Live Binder and Evernote. I'd like to be able to compile and share data so that it can follow kids to fifth grade and is accessible to parents. 
• Think about how a web-based portfolio could be managed without me losing my mind and giving up.
• Figure out how I might use these sites to store stuff presented in class. Kind of like a summary of each day's work, including what's been on the document cam, flipcharts, etc. It would be way useful to kids who are absent. It could also be used for kids who need to see it again and for parents who don't understand what the heck we're asking the kids to do. (Can you say, 'lattice multiplication?")
• How can I pawn that work off on the kids - make it a job? - without me losing my mind and giving up.

Learning Targets and the Common Core, or Dear DOE...

Dear Dept. of Education,
I'm reasonably sure that our new Common Core Standards are a really good thing. Too bad you've written them in gibberish...

Today's getting-ready-for-school task involves taking the Standards and translating them into Standard American English. This has been a more difficult process than I envisioned, because despite my education, experience, and  fluency in Teacherspeak, they are tough to read! Which makes doing this all the more important, because if I don't get it, how can I teach it?

I noticed on Facebook last night that a few of my colleagues have found these on Pinterest, and some pinners even have them written as 'I can' statements.  This link will take you to their 'pin'; it's for second grade:
Second grade CCS I can list



Using this for a general model, I'm working on my own for fourth grade. Yes, I could keep looking and hope to find them pre-done somewhere, but I won't. My husband would probably say that it's part of my control-freak nature, and I'll admit that my inability to trust others' work for stuff like planning is one of my major character flaws. The more real truth is that I know I'll internalize them as I translate and type. I'll know it better.

How will this checksheet work with PDSA? I envision this being used at the ends of units as part of the Study. The kids will date in the box when they have added evidence to their portfolios that shows they've met each of the goals. Then they'll set personal goals and an action plan for those they should have met, but didn't. The first time I do it, it will be a major pain in the tookus, because the kids need to do the work and will need to be trained. I am not doing it for them. Period.

I'm not going to write 'Common Core' all over the sheets. I'm not one for being trendy in these things, and nobody except a teacher would care. Just sayin'.

I'm only creating "I can" lists for the subjects in which my kids and I are doing whole-hog PDSA. In my case, that's math and reading (my tested subjects). If I get to any more, that's cake.

One last thought: If you're brand new to this PDSA thing, start with one subject. If you can, make that one subject math.  Trust me here. You'll lose your mind before Halloween if you try to do too much. Math is cut-and-dry and easy to grade.

So, to recap, my goals today:

• Read and translate Common Core Standards so that I understand them and know exactly what I have to teach and can set my learning targets accordingly.
• Create "I can" lists from those Standards for kids to record progress, but only in the subjects in which we'll be doing full-blows PDSA

If you need them, the reading and math standards are here.

Back to work... :/

Prepare to Launch

My rules have always been simple. There are four, with an addendum. I've found they work just fine, whether I'm teaching fourth grade in the Union County 'burbs or eighth grade in CMS' 'Achievement Zone'. They are:
1. Sit down.
2. Sit down and be quiet. 
3. Sit down, be quiet, and do your work.
4. Sit down, be quiet, do your work, and don't bother anyone.

Addendum: Save the drama for your mama.

Pretty cut and dry, right?

It's time to reevaluate them.


A high-performing classroom is all about using high-yield strategies. Those strategies tend toward collaboration. PDSA cycles depend upon kids' input, and a belief that they can positively impact the productivity of their classroom. As I begin a new school year, with a special focus on the use of PDSA and those strategies - I'd really like to get serious about Project-Based Learning this year - it's time to bring my classroom expectations more in line with my practice.

Within the first couple of days of school, the kids will have set a mission for the year. With that in mind, I toyed with the idea of dropping a list of expectations and relying on that mission. I finally put this together because kids expect it. Some of my newbies will come having had a small amount of time in a classroom that does PDSA, but I don't know how many. I don't want to seem too far out in left field. Some kids (adults, too!) like the security of a set of expectations.

I'm still keeping the addendum. ;)

Anyway, I'm hoping this will do a better job of setting the stage for the coming year, even if it's not so easily memorized. I am a no-nonsense kind of teacher, which you probably guessed from reading the beginning of my post, but I think this set of expectations better reflect the climate I want in my classroom.