A Reflection as a Parent and a Teacher

A Problem

My youngest daughter, a senior in high school, recently brought home an “F” on a semester exam. She carries a cum well above 3.8, and her quizzes and tests in this class had all been A’s or B’s. That all changed when she took the semester exam, which was supposed to be a common assessment for the three high schools in our district based on state standards.

My first reaction when talking with her was a very normal, “What happened??!!” After a lengthy conversation, I discovered that half of her class failed this exam, also. That certainly doesn’t justify her bad grade, but it made me wonder how well this teacher really knew his students, including my daughter.

Being a teacher, I continued to ponder this situation for days and weeks – how can a teacher be at the end of a semester and just find out that the students’ learning was not where it needed to be? In my reflections, I realized that this is not an issue that my daughter’s teacher has alone. I can think of several colleagues, as well as myself, through the years, that were surprised at the end of a quarter by how low a student performed on an assessment

There has to be a better way to gauge a student’s growth.



A Solution

When I thought of a possible solution, it came to me in phrases. One word – workshop. Another word – conferring. Two more words – strategy groups. Two more words – ongoing assessment.

In my school district, we have a literacy workshop model. This is the structure through which literacy instruction happens on a daily basis. In broad terms, I think of it in 3 parts: 1) the focus lesson, 2) the “work”shop, and 3) sharing. The second part of the model is where I’d like to focus for the purposes of my problem.

During the workshop time, while the students are engaged in a book or writing piece of their choice, or a book club discussion, or doing partner reading/writing, I am quite busy as well. This is the time I check my students’ progress, and see where they are as readers or writers.

One of the ways I stay current with my students is individually conferring with each of them. Sometimes the conference is just a way of “checking in” to see how they are doing. Other times, my conference has a specific purpose based on what I’ve observed before, This conference is a great one-on-one opportunity to check on students’ learning, and to help guide them to the next level.

A key to all my progress monitoring of students is ongoing assessment. Rather it’s administering and interpreting DRAs (Developmental Reading Assessments), OR observing reading and writing behaviors, OR taking a reading/writing status of the class to see where each child is in his/her book or own writing, OR grading a quick check assessment of a strategy to see who understood the comprehension strategy we worked on and who still needs some more support, OR observing students in our read alouds and whole group lessons, I continually gather information about each individual student. This information is what then guides my instruction.

If, through my ongoing assessment, I discover that multiple students are having the same misunderstandings in reading or writing, I utilize my time as wisely as possible, and form strategy groups for additional focused instruction. A small group of students can usually grasp a concept easier than they did when it was presented whole group. This is a time for them to have my attention, and it allows them to really focus on the learning at hand.



I don’t know if my solution would have changed my daughter’s exam grade or not, but I strongly believe in this workshop model. I believe that it is what is in the best interest of our students. It helps both the student and the teacher gauge growth, and if the growth isn’t happening, we, as teachers, can step in and intervene immediately. Not at the end of the semester.

Picks From THE PIT Read Alouds

It's hard to believe, but we're in the last month of school. Things are beginning to wrap up all over the building, and the library is no exception. One thing that is not wrapping up is the fun we're having in THE PIT! I have sort of unofficially decided that Mo Willems may be my favorite read aloud author this year. Three of his title have been shared, enjoyed, and laughed at in THE PIT by all ages, pre school through fifth grade. I could easily add the Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie to Franki's list of books that I love every time I read them. Here are few from the last several months.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems: The Pigeon is always funny and in this one he shares the spotlight and a hot dog with a very funny baby duck side kick. Mo Willems subtle humor and simple characters make me LAUGH OUT LOUD with my students every time. Check out the Pigeon's website where you can dress a naked mole rat, watch Elephant and Piggie dance, and put your favorite toppings including smelly socks and dirty underwear on a hot dog for Pigeon.


Are You a Horse? by Andy Rash: Roy the cowboy gets a saddle for his birthday. Since he's not really much of a cowboy, he doesn't know what a saddle is for, or even what a horse is. He sets out across the desert searching for a horse, asking everything he sees including a wagon, cactus, pig, crab, sloth and zebra, if they are horse. Each thing gives him another clue to what a horse is until he finally finds a horse for a funny surprise ending.


My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life by Kate Feiffer: Even though she looks like a perfectly nice mom, the little girl in the story believes she is trying to ruin her life by...well..um...caring for and loving her! What a nuisance! So the little girl comes up with a plan in which both Mom and Dad end up in jail. Then she realizes how awful it will be without them around and the book ends right and all with a bit "I love you Mom and Dad!" AWWWWW, no, really it's not too sappy and the elaborate plan to rid herself of her parents reminds me of giving a mouse a cookie or a moose a muffin.

A River Ran Wild

I've owned A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History by Lynne Cherry almost since it was first published in 1992. It is the perfect book to help students understand how the introduction of other species, man, and pollution can affect an entire ecosystem or environment.

The environment in this book is the Nashua River in Massachusetts. The initial two-page illustration shows a beautiful, clean river winding its way through lush forests. The text tells us that many, many, many years ago this area was home to bears, moose, deer, hawks, owls, geese, beavers, turtles, and many schools of fish.

On the next pages, we watch as a Native American group of people looks down on the river from atop Mt. Wachusett. The native people went down to settle by the river, and they used the resources of the area, being careful only to take what they absolutely needed.

Then traders came, and they started trading posts. The traders were followed by settlers who started to claim the river as their own, ignoring the rights of the native people.

Then came the great Industrial Revolution when many factories and mills were built along the river, and dumped their debris into the river. This "progress" continued for years as more and more people and more and more industries came to the Nashua River valley. Finally, there came a point where no animals could survive in, or nearby, the Nashua River.

Eventually, an activist named Marion (an ancestor of the chief of the Native American group), started to bring attention to the horrible conditions of the Nashua River. Because of her efforts and grass roots movement, eventually laws were passed and people had to stop polluting.

When people stopped polluting, the river started to get healthy again.

Okay, that is the short synopsis, but the power of the story isn't in just the words and events, but also in the way Lynne Cherry organized and illustrated this book. Each two-page layout represents another period in the "life" of the Nashua River. On the right side, is a beautiful illustration that represents what was said in the text. On the left side, she makes a border of pictures around the text. Each of these pictures reflects another event in how the Nashua River was changed. You could spend a long time just sharing the borders and their importance with students. The life cycle of this river is just amazing!

Another wonderful section of this book is the front inside cover pages. There is a map of what Massachusetts looked like in the 1500's and another map of how it looked in the 1900's. In addition, there is a timeline of the events that happened in the book, starting 7,000 years ago when Indian peoples came through the Nashua River Valley to 1979, when "bass, pickerel, perch, trout, bald eagles, osprey, and great blue heron return to the Nashua."

A River Ran Wild will be a powerful book, both in text and visually, to help my students understand the effect of humans on the environment (both in a positive and negative way).

Great Ecosystem Reading

The second in a short series about good books for my life science unit...

Butternut Hollow Pond by Brian J. Heinz is a book that has been out since 2000 (the Barnes and Noble website lists it as out in 2006), but a teammate introduced me to it several years ago. It is the perfect book for looking at a pond ecosystem, food chains, food webs, and the interdependence of living things within one particular ecosystem. It is a wonderful book to read aloud with students, watching their expressions as they get caught up with the predator / prey incidents.

This picture book divides the day at Butternut Hollow Pond into 5 distinctive times throughout the day: daybreak, mid-morning, noon, end of day, and night. The reader learns a lot about what animals are active at different times of the day.

The story line of this nonfiction narrative is sequential and easy to follow, as the predator on one page becomes the prey on the next. For instance, in one section a pickled frog catches a moth. On the next page, the frog is almost eaten by a water snake, but manages to stay still enough for the snake to pass. But right after that, the frog is eaten by a bass. That is followed by the bass being caught by a fisherman. Quite the food chain, indeed!

I think this book has many different entry points. Younger readers will be fascinated by the beautiful nature, and will be rooting for the five ducklings to NOT get eaten by the snapping turtle. Older elementary students will be able to enjoy the story (and I can testify that they will still be rooting for those ducklings!), but will also be able to analyze the life science aspect of this book. They will be able to find simple food chains within this ecosystem, and they will be able to stretch their thinking to discover possible food webs, as well. The conversation about the interdependence of the living things in this pond ecosystem is powerful.

Learning points aside, Butternut Hollow Pond is quite a lovely book! Starting with the title and front cover, all the way through the close-up illustrations of the animals inside, this is a book to be savored time and time again.

The Broolyn Nine is a Fascinating Read

While recently look at James Preller's blog, I found a post where he listed his favorite baseball books. He mentioned that he wasn't as familiar with kids' titles and readers began throwing out titles. I saw this book mentioned, and while at my local library in Hilliard found it on the new book table. I picked up and once I got around to opening it, I couldn't put it down. The concept hooked me from the first chapter...uh...inning.

The idea is that the story is told in nine innings instead of chapters. The book opens with the story of German immigrant Felix Schneider playing an early form of baseball in New York in 1845. He stowed away on a ship to come to America to make his fortune and bring his family over from Germany. Felix lives with his uncle, a tailor and runs materials to and from the buyers. He is fascinated with baseball and finds himself watching the New York Knickerbockers team of fireman playing ball wishing he could be part of their game. When fire breaks out he gets involved fighting it and is injured so badly he can't run and play ball any longer. As he recovers, Felix cuts apart what is left of his burned shoes and sews together a crude baseball.

The next inning has his son, Louis, fighting in the Civil War carrying the home made baseball as a good luck charm. The ball is traded for a bat owned by a soldier from Louisville, Kentucky...hmmm...I've heard of that somewhere. Inning three is the story of Arnold Schneider who meets one of baseball's early superstars King Kelly The family saga continues until 2002 when Snider Flint is given a box of baseball memorabilia that includes a crudely sewn baseball and a bat that may have belonged to one of baseball's great early sluggers. Since Snider is recovering from a broken leg experienced while escaping a house fire he has plenty of time to investigate the history of each item for his uncle, an antiques and collectibles dealer.

Alan Gratz does a masterful job of weaving the Schneider family tree into a baseball time line. He follows them through the years of discrimination against Jews in New York when the name changes from Schneider to Snider, through a grand daughter playing in the women's leagues during World War II and a little league baseball game in Prospect Park with a young man struggling to pitch a perfect game. The detail is incredible, and the reader is drawn into this human drama from the first pitch to the last. When I finished the book, I thought of the extra innings that I wish Alan Gratz would have included because I enjoyed his writing style so much.

When the story is over, there are historical footnotes about what is historical in each inning fascinating information, that is woven seamlessly throughout the story.

I'm not sure if I'll put this in the library, there are some themes that may be a bit mature for an elementary school, but I'll definitely recommend it to the better fifth grade readers for their summer reading lists. I completely enjoyed The Brooklyn Nine a Novel in Nine Innings.

Down, Down, Down

I'm in the middle of teaching a life science unit right now. The teaching points are biomes, ecosystems, food chains, food webs, interdependence of living things, and carrying capacity . We don't currently have a science textbook in our school district (which I don't mind), so it makes us focus on finding good quality trade books to share with our students.

In my next few posts, I'd like to share some of the wonderful books my colleagues and I have found that deal very well with this topic of life science.

I recently found Steve Jenkins' newest book, Down Down Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea. I was initially drawn to this book because of the front cover visuals -- I was familiar with this author/illustrator (he's amazing!), and also because the front cover is so vibrant with color.

Then, I looked inside at the contents and knew I had found another fabulous non-fiction mentor text. Jenkins has taken one topic (ocean), and with each turn of the page, he has us descend further and further down through the water. Each page also contains fabulous illustrations (done in several different mediums), all labeled to help the reader. Along the right side of the 2-page layout, is a bar, which serves as a yardstick for where we are in our descent -- surface, sunlit zone, twilight zone, dark zone, the abyssal plain, and the hydrothermal vents. This is a technique that students could modify to use with almost any topic of their choice.

Then there is the text on each page -- it has amazing facts. I learned so much as I read. And the text is in very kid-friendly language. It would make a great read aloud, but children from grades 3 and up will easily be able to sit down and read this independently. I can envision my 5th graders doing a partner reading, and yelling out repeatedly, "Look at this! This is amazing! Can you believe this?" The information is truly just that good.

At each turn of the page, Jenkins pulls the reader in visually. As we descend through the ocean, we find it darker and darker, yet each living thing just pops off the page.

But, the final reason I just had to buy this book -- Jenkins does a wonderful job explaining the different ecosystems that exist within the ocean. My students will make many connections with what they've already learned and what he shares in this book.

I can't wait to share Down Down Down with my students!!! And if it teaches them a little something in the process, all the better.

An Unnameable Grand Discussion

A while ago I posted this picture of my friend Joyce and I publicizing our third Grand Discussion of the year. Little did we know at the time that slapping a couple of Chipotle bags on our heads would turn into 30 bags of chips and a bunch of salsa, FREE, for our little get together! WOO-HOO, free is my favorite price! Thanks Chipotle!

I chose The Unnameables by Ellen Booraem as our discussion book. The book is one I picked from the Newbery List that Karen and I used for our Looking for Newbery series. I would never have picked this book from the shelf if it hadn't been on the list, and honestly, it took me some time to get into the book. This was a common feeling among students and parents in the months leading up to the discussion. I kept encouraging them to stick with it and about 30 did and showed up for our Grand Discussion. Lots of opinions were expressed as people gathered in the library, most of them were negative. As we began our discussion, I asked that we avoid discussing our opinions until the end after we had discussed the book. The group took a while to warm up, but finally the conversation picked up and it was GOOD! Topics of religion, power, politics, art, values, were all covered and covered equally by students and parents. The adults were very good at listening and responding to the kids with respect for their insight.

As the hour came to a close, I asked if anyone wanted to express their opinion of the book, but no one did. For the first time in Grand Discussion history, Joyce and I had to stop the conversation so we could get out on time. In the end, most everyone agreed that the book was difficult, (a good thing in my opinion), that it was written at many levels, that it was nothing like the kids literature that we grew up with, and that now that we had discussed it at length, it was a good book. All of these things gave Joyce and I a sense of accomplishment and success.