Educational Iceberg: A Hidden Disability

When the Titanic crashed into an iceberg  back in 1912, it was probably not the damage to the part of the ship above water that caused it to sink, but rather, the parts damaged below the surface that caused the ship to take on water and led to the death of many and the sinking of this unsinkable ship.  Just as in that tragic case, it is often the unseen things in life that really do the most damage.  The same is true in education.  It is often that which we do not see or remember to think about that can lead to students not reaching their potential and hinder their learning.  Knowing the nature of icebergs, how could the Titanic's history be different if they'd seen the iceberg sooner?  How can we apply the lesson learned from the Titanic to education?  We need to be looking for icebergs above the surface to prevent the educational ship from hitting them, but even more, we need to look at what is below the surface. 

  What and where are the hidden parts of the iceberg in education, the elements that prevent our students from successfully comprehending and truly learning? Peter Smagorinsky's article "What Does Vygotsky Provide for the 21st Century Language Arts Teacher" brings some to light, things that if we are aware of them, we can help us steer our classrooms and educational system in the right direction so we can sink and not swim!!  While all of the materials this week were excellent, this article spoke to me the most and I think it brings up and addresses the underlying issue that prevents a lot of students from reaching their highest potential - specifically what Smagorisky draws from Vygotsky when he talks about the importance of emotions in relationship to cognition and how they cannot be separated.  While I found the entire article to be golden, that is what really stood out to me - Vygotsky's theory that we need to look at how emotion is an important part of learning, and how when we use things like art in learning, when we appeal to the emotional aspect of the student, it 'enable's a person to consider more profoundly the depths of human experience....how we think and how we feel cannot be separated" (p 195).  I think this is an often overlooked and underlying aspect of education, the part of the iceberg under the suface - the emotional learning, and when the learning emotions of a student are injured, it affects their their engagement and comprehension, not just in language arts, but in all aspects.  We are emotional beings.  When we detach from that, things begin to lack meaning.  Meaning often comes from emotional connections and is what provides the connection students need to make  a context for learning that is so important.  Emotions are really what make the difference in treating our students as machines or as individuals. Both of the other readings seem to support this in that they both show how meaning seems to make the difference between students just going through the motions and students comprehending.  The Simon reading regarding guided role-playing and the Kucer reading both show students succeed most when they can connect to a material.  The Kucer article highlights that the most comprehended part of the material in a study was the part of the material that was composed of a story structure where students could make text to self connections.  Both of those articles provide evidence of the importance of students connecting to materials in order to learn.

Even more importantly is addressing the 'secondary disability' - the emotions that develop that prevent students from participating in class and thus affect their thinking - which is what I see as truly being the part of the iceberg below the surface in education.  As I read this article, it really spoke to me, how when a student has a bad experience - for instance as it spoke at the beginning of the article, how students are often corrected in their rough draft of thinking and speaking - it changes how they act, as in they may then not speak, which leads others to characterize students as unintelligent, which then turns into the cycle of emotions affecting thinking - and creates 'dysphoria' or feelings of inferiority based on how one is treated by others (p 195).  This is crippling!

I was such a shy student.  I didn't even like to be seen by others - I was painfully shy.  I wanted to be a wallflower.  I think there was about 23 kids in my 8th grade class, so when I went to high school, and I was put in a World History class with sophmores, I was so scared to speak up and get something wrong.  That became my focus instead of my work.  I love history, I just was so afraid in that class that I remember not even realizing what I was learning.  I know how to read and I can do it well enough.  I never had a problem getting all A's with only a few B's, but when my parents went to my conference that fall, the teacher told them that he thought I had a reading comprehension problem.  The problem actually was that I felt like if I said anything, I would be made fun of.  The sophmores in that class all knew each other and were often loud.  It was debilitating, just as the article says.  That is just one example - that happened a lot to me, just because I felt like I was not as smart.  Just today, one of my former students Mom talked to me about how the teacher made some remark to her son in art class telling him sarcastically that 'some people do this for a living you know.'  I know that student is so very sweet and such a hard worker.  His Mom was upset because she knows this about her son, and said he told her he just didn't know what he was doing.  I thought how that lined perfectly up with the reading - just looking at how now this sweet child probably is going to be scared to try for fear of doing something wrong in the future.  This student is smart, but now he may not be able to demonstrate that because the emotion is connected to his thinking, and will show in his work.  I think about the teacher who didn't even know how to read (link to article is in previous post).  He developed behavior issues to divert from the fact that he had feelings that affected his thinking!

These are just a few examples of this secondary disability that lies silently under the surface in the vast ocean of learning.  We cannot separate the two.  I think the article spells it out so clearly when it speaks to the theory that its important for students to use their own experiences in learning, and that what school does is strengthen the lessons we learn by our own experiences.  It is emotion that creates personal experiences  in our lives - it meaning to our experiences, which then in turn gives us something to use to learn from.  Without using what we know - our identities and experiences, academics are hollow (p 199).  Again, the other two articles help demonstrate this!

As I read this week, it just seemed to make so much sense!  To get our students to learn and to really comprehend and be engaged, we must acknowledge that emotions play a part in cognition.  If we don't acknowledge and address that, it will remain a big issue under the surface and many ships will sink!

A question I am thinking of as I read relates to this.  Does the current education system take student emotion into account?  If so how and if not, how can we start addressing this silent destroyer as teachers?  What are some ways to build a culture of honor in our classrooms where students feel safe to learn and to address dysphoria?

The Victory in Failure!

 

 

 

 

How many people have enjoyed a Hershey product?  Chances are, most people have experienced some delicious form of product from this well known company, but few probably know this company came about only after many failures!  Its an inspiring story of perseverance!

 

Milton Hershey
Milton Hershey had a long path to the top of the chocolate industry. Hershey dropped out of school in the 4th grade and took an apprenticeship with a printer, only to be fired. He then became an apprentice to a candy-maker in Lancaster, PA. After studying the business for 4 years, Hershey started three unsuccessful candy companies in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York.

Hershey was not about to give up, so he moved back to Lancaster and began the Lancaster Caramel Company. His unique caramel recipe, which he had come across during his earlier travels, was a huge success. Hershey, who was always looking ahead, believed that chocolate products had a much greater future than caramel. He sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $1 million in 1900 (nearly $25 million in 2008 dollars) and started the Hershey Company, which brought milk chocolate -- previously a Swiss delicacy -- to the masses.

Not only did Hershey overcome failure and accomplish his goals, but he also managed to do it close to home. Hershey created hundreds of jobs for Pennsylvanians. He also used some of his money to build houses, churches, and schools, cementing his status as a legend in the Keystone State.

Persistence is key.

 

http://www.growthink.com/content/7-entrepreneurs-whose-perseverance-will-inspire-you

 

 

In the last few years, I've really started to see the benefit of failure!  I believe we learn best by experience, whether our own or from hearing of others.  When we experience things, we often think about what or how we would do that thing differently, and that's called learning.  If Milton Hershey hadn't experienced failure, learned from it, and persevered, our world would be much less delicious!!  Thankfully, Hershey experienced 'productive failure'

(Fisher, 11).  This concept is what struck me most out of this weeks materials regarding text complexity.  The article, Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading, brings up what I think is often an overlooked, but critical concept, that in order to really learn, students often times need to experience hardship.  Regarding the topic of text complexity, the authors make a good point that "perhaps one of the mistakes in the past efforts to improve reading achievement has been the removal of struggle.  As a profession, we may have made reading tasks too easy" (Fisher, 11).  Often times, its easier to not challenge kids, both on them and the teacher.  But if a student only reads books at a second grade level, how will they ever move past it?  The article continues by saying "we do not suggest that we should plan students' failure but rather that students should be provided with opportunities to struggle and to learn about themselves as readers when they struggle, persevere, and eventually succeed" (Fisher, 11).  Earlier in the article, the authors say that students learn more when they have challenging texts (6).  Last year, I taught a 6/7/8 grade combo class.  We had one sixth grader, who'd been in a 4/5 combo the year before.  She'd never done 6th grade math, but due to the fact she was the only sixth grader, the principal put her in the Pre-Algebra class with some seventh and eighth graders.  She struggled at first, in fact, she was terrified, but after awhile, she was at the top of the class!!  With the proper help, with the proper tools and guidance, she worked through her failures and found victory!!  I think in the educational world, students are often unchallenged, and that is one reason we see reading skills so low by the end of high school.  How do we do it?  In that same article, the authors speak of the importance of instructing students so that they can succeed in reading more complex texts.  It is our job as teachers to provide the texts and give them the instruction so that they can build their skills.  We give students the strategies to read more complex texts, and give them the opportunities to build skills from them (11).  Its not learning if they already know how to do something, I think one of the best things we can do for our students is - with that proper instruction - allow them to struggle!  Understanding text complexities as teachers is the first place to start, and we will probably all go through the same process of struggling and failing before we achieve victory in helping our students grow in their skills to comprehend more complex texts, but it will be worth it!  The Fisher article was what I was draw to this week, but I felt the other two articles supported the points made by providing example of how to find the right level of texts (Hiebert) - particularly the need to use multiple sources to establish a texts complexity, and with the great idea to adapt primary sources for students to benefit and understand (Wineberg).  One think I thought about in regards to adapting primary sources is how maybe it would be helpful to have students at a higher level translate the primary source documents to more modern terms and ways of writing.  The examples they provided and steps they gave are helpful ways to apply what we are learning about text complexity, in a real way!  If we know how to determine the complexity of a book, we can know what books will challenge our students.

 

One question that comes to mind this week is how do you know when a student needs to struggle more or if its time to intervene?  How do you balance challenging students to persevere without them becoming disinterested or giving up?

 

 

 

Its Complicated!

Trimming my Mom's short and straight hair when I was younger should have been a fairly uncomplicated and to the point job.  She would ask me every once in awhile to do it so she didn't have to take the time to go get it cut.  I'd grab the scissors and eyeball it....it was usually shorter than shoulder length, and not too thick.  Easy?  Not for me!  I would always cut one side a little shorter, then I'd try to even it up, so all of it would be a little shorter, then a little shorter, then still a little shorter.  Good thing hair grows back!  All I knew was to grab the scissors and cut.  The scissors were actually pretty dull, so not only did I not have the right tools in my hands, I also lacked the knowledge of how to cut hair. Good think we also don't really see the back of our hair often, well, my Mom at least!!!!  It seemed  like it should have been a simple thing to do, but to me, it was complicated!

The same idea can be applied to texts and literacy!  We so often give our children texts to read, thinking it is simple and they will get it.  But in the hands of someone who hasn't had the right training or developed the right skills, the text can become about as useless as that dull pair of scissors!!  A hair stylist goes to school and must have a license to cut hair, because there are skills that are helpful to giving a good haircut.  That's not to say that some people can't figure out how to cut hair on their own, but generally speaking, I wouldn't trust my hair to a young kid who wants to play with scissors!!  Just as cutting my Mom's hair was too complex of task for me as a kid, in a way, its the same with asking children to read texts they are not ready for.  I was told to spray the hair and cut in a straight line with dull scissors.  Often times, students are given a text book that contains text that is too complex with them, and told to read it without the proper tools! We must take text complexity into consideration to improve disciplinary literacy for our students. 

Exploring the materials this week, two topics really stood out to me as priorities in disciplinary literacy in regards to text complexity, and they are expectations and purpose.

Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.
~ Ralph Marston ~

 

We must set higher expectations in our schools, for both student and teacher alike, and give the support needed to achieve them! Rand and the Common Core material both speak to the fact that by college, or in the work force, there is a demand for high literacy skills (Rand, 26).  However, literacy skills in students before college have been declining.  Particularly in regards to their ability to read and comprehend complex texts.  My Mom is an instructional assistant in a resource room.  Several years ago, she worked with an autistic child.  His parents had been told that he would never even write a paragraph.  But she set a goal for him, and told him he could do it, even though it seemed impossible, and then she worked every day with him.  Within a matter of months, he was writing paragraphs!!  If we limit out expectations, we limit ourselves.We must set higher expectations for our students in regards to reading complex texts, which seems to be happening with the Common Core.  But what good are high expectations going to do if we don't teach our children the skills to achieve them?  The Common Core is calling teachers and students to reach further than they have been, and I think that is the first step, now it is getting there that we must do!  Rand points out that 'research has shown that well-designed teacher preparation programs have a positive effect on reading outcomes' (Rand, 16).  In order to raises expectations for students, and to help them prepare students to understand complex texts and be at the level they need to be to find success in college, we must first give teachers the skills they need to help students in disciplinary literacy.  When we set high expectations for ourselves, and work to achieve them, I believe it will transfer to our students. 

 

Another area I think deserves a lot of attention is a common area, purpose.  According to Rand, reading comprehension is 'the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language' (Rand, 11).  One of the elements he speaks to is purpose.  As I was looking at what is common throughout the materials, I felt like each of the three readings this week was a piece of a puzzle that made a complete picture to help understand text complexity and how to help our students grow in their understanding of complex texts.  I felt like the Rand material was able to specify and look at purpose, that the Common Core provides goals or purposes to aim for, and the Buehl material spoke to ways to reach the expectations through reading strategies, even specific to each content area! 

 

While expectations and purpose are certainly not the only aspects to helping our students understand and grow in their abilities to be literate in regards to complex texts, they are two very important pieces of the puzzle!!  It would be great to get to the point when our students are faced with a text, they don't feel that same terror I felt when my Mom got those scissors out!

 

This week, the readings spoke to text as primarily written, and as I was reading, I remembered years ago, hearing of a teacher who actually couldn't read.  The link below takes you to an article about him!  It is very interesting to see how he was able to be a teacher without being literate in written texts!!!  There are a lot of connections to what we have been discussing and it makes me wonder how many of our students are getting by the same way!!

 

http://www.10news.com/news/retired-teacher-reveals-he-was-illiterate-until-age-48

 

The question that comes to my mind is, especially in light of the article about the teacher who didn't know how to read, how can we better catch those students who are slipping through the cracks?  Also, what are some practical things that we can do to motivate students to set higher expectations for themselves, to be internally motivated, especially to reach for the Common Core standards?

 

 

Purpose is one of the three elements that Rand lists, the Common Core provide a purpose 

Crossing the Bridge!

It was about a year ago that I really got oldies stations, and I liked it! I was 29 and I heard a song on the radio from when I was in high school.  I was around students and I enthusiastically said 'oh my gosh, I love this song, this came out when I was in high school!!' They all looked at me as if I was was being super goofy, and then shrugged it off as I enjoyed listening to the rest of the song! 

To me, this song brought back the memories and feelings of when I was in high school!  It brought back the spirit of the whole experience and it was great!!  It was like I felt young again!!  All of a sudden, it hit me - this is why my parents like the oldies station so much!!  It is based on my experiences in life, and where I was when it came out, that that song had a totally different impact and effect on me, a totally different meaning than on my students who are so much younger.  Can I get them to understand and catch the same spirit and get into the song?  How can they enjoy it as much as me?  Their experience with the song is much different than mine, which creates a gap between their enjoyment of the song and mine. The same is true in education.  We are all coming into every experience with our own identities, and as teachers, it is our duty to take this into consideration and do the best we can to make our students literate in every content, so that they can enjoy and get as much as possible out of their experience!  Disciplinary literacy is one key to bridge the gaps that steal from students succeeding!  How do we build that bridge and help our students cross it?

While all the materials we read this week were all helpful in finding answers to this question,  I felt I connected most with Buehl's insights.  Context is a big part of the bridge that we must keep in mind as we teach.  Without it, it is a challenge for students to find meaning.  Just as the song meant so much more to me because I had a context to enjoy it, when students can connect to a content, when it is given in a context, they can not only enjoy it much more, but take more from it!  It is not uncommon in education to hear of the need to give students a context in which to learn.  However, as I read the materials, I find the meaning of 'context' seems to have more clarity and become more defined.  Buehl speaks about the need to connect what we teach with students' everyday realities.  How do we do it?  We think about it often, but how do we do it?!  "Disciplinary literacy needs to be predicated on sharing, connecting, and expanding knowledge rather than on exposing ignorance" (Buehl, 91).  I believe the concept of not looking at students deficits, but rather, at what they do know and have, is the key to building the bridge we must build to help them grow.  If we look at what they don't know, we can't find a context to bring them into the material.  If we start looking at what students do know, we have found an important step to that bridge, but how do we get to that point?  Buehl points out that even to do this, we must first know our students.  Relationship, therefore, takes a center stage in education.  If we don't know our students, how can we help them find a context in which to learn?  One thing common in all the materials is the need to consider student identities, so we can give them a context in which to learn.  Our schools so often seem like big machines, where the individual is overlooked. If we put more emphasis on relationship, and less on standards, I believe we would start to see better results and the gap for teachers in balancing what they need to do to teach their content, and considering disciplinary literacy, would lessen. 

As someone who started out as mainly a social studies teacher and ended up teaching all the content areas, I identify very much with another point that Buehl brings up in bridging the gap for students - relevance.  The 'So what' question comes up so often as we try to teach and put things into context for students, but as Buehl points out, it can be especially problematic in history.  I was thinking about why I wanted to be a history teacher.  I'd always had a love of it, and thinking about it now, I look at how my Grandparents are very patriotic and my Grandpa has always had a lot of history books around.  I see how that passed on to his children, and then to me and my sister.  I love history because I grew up with it, so my love of it tends to make it interesting.  Where as, one of my students has grown up with a Dad who is crazy about sports.  He has the same passion for sports as I do for history.  But how do I make history relevant to him?  I can try to connect it through bringing in sports history.  But how do you bring relevance to all students?  Buehl points to one means to do so, at least in a history context, and that is 'to identify essential questions that target transcendent themes and ideas of human experience and interactions' (Buehl, 96).  That is one strategy I have tried to use, and with some success.  I think it brings history into a current context by asking a question that is also relevant to the students current identities.  Looking more specifically this week at the specific contents has helped me, as a student and a teacher apply the idea of disciplinary context to my own life, because the example of teaching this topic in social studies gives me a context and connection, it makes this topic even more relevant to me!  In a way, I'm noticing disciplinary literacy in action in our own class!  I am drawn to Buehl's text based on my own experience and a shared love of history, so when he shares his stories about teaching history and his perspective, I very much relate to it in this shared identity. 

As I was reading the materials, I also starting making a connection to another class I am in right now.  In looking at disciplinary literacy, we are taking into account identities, mine being primarily as a teacher and history lover.  This week, as I was connecting to the historical sections of the text, I started thinking about a video I watched in my other class about the historical context of education.  Wilson refers to technology, and its affect on education.  The video I watched took a look at our educational system, and how its identity is related to history.  The current way we educate is rooted in the Industrial Revolution identity, where production is what mattered.  The system is about producing results and we educate our students in batches - by age, not so much by interest.  When we do this, we fail to take into account the context of modern society - technology and all.  We are stuck in an out-dated system, which doesn't allow us to address the individual students and their identities.

The video is about so much more, but it seemed especially relevant :) to me looking at the historical context!!

Changing Education Paradigms:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U


As we start looking even more into what disciplinary literacy is, I start seeing the importance of educating students as individuals.  In fact, all of the classes I have taken in my Masters' program seem to point towards respecting and taking into account students individual identities.  However, it seems like our educational system is moving towards a machine mentality with such a focus on standards and teaching to the test.  We are learning all these great things, but how are we going to apply them in the current system?  How do we change the system, not just in talk, but in action?