Collaboration’s Key When Planning Common Core Implementation

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Abner Oakes

My recent piece for ASCD on Common Core implementation at Lexington School District One near Columbia, SC. You can also read it here.

It is not surprising that school districts are finding that effective Common Core State Standards implementation is all about collaboration—with the state agency; with other districts; with outside partners; and with district stakeholders, from teachers to parents to students. Lexington School District One, just outside of Columbia, S.C., has developed a highly collaborative approach to this work, and Mary Gaskins is leading that effort.

“I transitioned from a middle school literacy coach to curriculum specialist and then to my new position as professional learning facilitator,” said Gaskins, who leads the district team that is developing the implementation plan for the Common Core State Standards.

At first, Gaskins and colleagues from Lexington’s central office sat down to develop the districtwide implementation team, being very strategic about each person on that team. “We asked ourselves, ‘Who is the best person to represent K–2 literacy?’ for example.” Gaskins and her teammates also ensured that there was representation from a variety of schools in the district, which serves some 23,000 students in 16 elementary schools, seven middle schools, and five high schools. Four of the district’s elementary schools run schoolwide Title I programs.

Gaskins’s group started by viewing a series of videos on the Common Core State Standards from South Carolina’s state department of education and then developing a vision of what instruction at Lexington school district would look like with full implementation.

But this district team also realized that they needed to go beyond the state’s boundaries and look nationally for best practices when it came to Common Core State Standards information. In that search, they found online modules developed by the Oregon state department of education and by EngageNY, and Gaskins and her team received permission from both groups to use these modules for their own training and for the training that they were developing for the school-level teams.

“Our virtual training modules would be focused around the instructional shifts that need to happen in math and language arts,” said Gaskins. “We wanted our modules to serve as a support system to schools and establish a consistent knowledge base across the district.” As this district team was creating its training modules for the schools, they collaborated with several other districts in South Carolina’s Midlands area to share their discoveries and work together on tools for Common Core State Standards implementation.

Next, the large district team began to collaborate with individual school buildings throughout the district, initiating school-level teams called Implementation Leadership Teams. “In the past,” Gaskins continued, “one obstacle to school-level implementation of district initiatives has been that learning had not always filtered back to the school. These school-level implementation teams would work with the larger district team and stay a semester ahead in the learning, with four to six trainings a year and a charge to bring this learning back to the school.”

School-level enthusiasm for this work was unbridled. “Just due to space limitations, we had to limit representation to two team members per school,” said Gaskins, “with additional representation in special areas, such as ELL, special education, and gifted and talented. The slots were quite competitive, which leads us to believe that our district is anxious to make this transition.”

Using what had been developed by the Hunt Institute, the team created two Common Core State Standards awareness modules that schools were to study by this spring, and the district team is creating six more to share with school-level teams who will then work with their teachers in their school-level professional learning community groups. Although a clear plan is in place for the Common Core State Standards roll out, as developed by the larger district team, Gaskins also imagines that it will be an iterative process, as new learning emerges at the schools and helps to inform the work of the district team. The discussions that are taking place on the district’s online discussion tool are already making that happen.

Gaskins described the process for rolling out this plan and their work to the larger Lexington School District One community, something that will happen this May when members of the large team meet with the district’s parent advisory council. After collaborating with the district’s communications department, the Common Core State Standards team understood that it needed to be strategic about talking with the community, knowing that there is much different information about the Common Core State Standards bouncing around the community, the state, and even nationally. “But our district is very innovative,” Gaskins said, “and our community knows that and knows that we are working in the best interests of kids.”

In the end, Gaskins said that this Common Core State Standards work has been and will continue to be a team effort. “Our district team has collaborated with a variety of coordinators and directors in Lexington’s instructional services department, as well as with people from the finance and communications offices. District administrators are working with school administrators who are then working with their teachers.” In many ways, Lexington’s implementation efforts closely resemble the collaborative efforts that brought about the Common Core State Standards in the first place. It is important school improvement work that, as Lexington reveals, needs to involve all constituents.

Posted in Federal policy, Principal, School district, Teachers | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Watching Jaws

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Abner Oakes

We watched Steven Spielberg’s Jaws three times last weekend – once with a group of rowdy 5th graders but the other two times allowed for better viewing, actually stopping and backing up the DVD, to deconstruct and marvel at some of the special effects, done long before CGI.

Readers of my blog – see this post – know that Jaws is iconic for me. Its story and images have lived with me since its 1975 opening weekend. Watching the film three times reminded me of its compactness, of its swift, always forward-moving pace, much like the shark. We spend the first hour of the film on Amity Island, building the story, meeting the characters, preparing for the inevitable meeting with the shark, and then the second hour at sea, aboard Quint’s Orca, battling the beast that, previously, we’d just caught glimpses of. When Amity Island Chief of Police Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider, comes face-to-face with the huge shark as he’s chumming and confides to Quint, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” it’s as if he’s saying, You’re gonna need a bigger movie to tell this story. But, no, not this time: The Orca and this movie are what we got.

Its compactness does not take away from the story-telling, with a screenplay written by Peter Benchley, based on his book Jaws, and Carl Gottlieb, who played Meadows, the editor of the Amity Island newspaper. We quickly get a sense of the island’s insularity, as we learn that Brody is not a native  – he’s from New York, my God! – his off-island status used against him by the Mayor, in his attempt to keep the beaches open on this big summer weekend.

Another outsider, Robert Shaw’s Quint, screeches into the film when he runs his fingernails down a chalkboard, and we get character touches like the crackers that he always nibbling – hardtack? – and a glimpse of his workplace, with the boiled clean jaws of sharks draped about. When out at sea, down in the galley, Quint gives his monologue about the USS Indianapolis – “I’ll never put on a life jacket again.” – and we understand him and his quest against sharks, what is his own white whale, and can draw a direct line from his bobbing in the water as the Indianapolis goes down to his death at the jaws of the great shark. From the movie’s start we know he’s going to be the one that gets it. One of my son’s friends, when watching the movie for the first time, made that prediction early on – but it doesn’t make Quint’s demise any easier to watch, a hat tip to his development as a character, to that fact that we’re made to care for him, no matter his rants, his radio smashing, and his bossing around of Hooper and Brody.

That’s why I can’t get this movie out of my head: It’s a brilliant, fast-paced, unwavering study of three men, of three outsiders, all drawn out onto the water for the same reason (the shark) and for different reasons, all trying to find a place in Spielberg’s world. Any student of character development can appreciate what Benchley and Gottlieb do with their script, and I think about what a group of high school juniors and seniors might get from a study of this film, perhaps put together with other sea-faring tales.

So forget the severed leg we see after one attack, the eyeless head that pops out from a sunken boat, the blood that spurts from Quint’s mouth when he’s chomped in half by the shark. I’m in it for the people, their arcs through the film. The Monday after our Jaws-filled weekend, I was humming Show Me the Way to Go Home, the song the three men sing the evening before their final battle. But to find that place in their world, to reach their home – for them and for us – we must go through the trial of the shark. And that sure gets a little messy.

I got the photo of Quint here.

Posted in Classroom, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Family Life & Human Development. What we once called Sex Ed.

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Abner Oakes

The past few days, our 5th grader and his classmates have embarked on the district’s Family Life and Human Development unit – what we once called Sex Ed – and it’s provided for rich conversation on the car ride home from school as well as ’round the dinner table. I have been impressed with how this unit has proceeded, particularly as I remember what happened during my 6th grade year at Alice Peck Elementary School, when they divided the boys from the girls and had each group watch film strips in a darkened auditorium. I do not remember our teacher leading any sort of conversation about what we watched that day. We simply burst out onto the playground for recess right after our time in the auditorium, no doubt for our own lurid and incredibly misinformed conversations.

I think this unit has been successful for several different reasons – at least from what I can discern from afar. First, it comes near the year’s end, and there has developed in both 5th grade classrooms a tangible camaraderie among the kids and teachers, a deep trust in each other. It is safe to talk and ask questions in both classes, from what kids and parents tell me.

Wait, let me add a word to what I wrote above: There has been developed a tangible camaraderie, a deep trust, thanks to very thoughtful, very open, very trusting teachers. In some ways their work all this year has led to this unit, as the kids are simply responding to this new subject matter as they’ve been taught to respond to other subject matter – with respect, with curiosity, with honesty. I like how a good friend and 5th grade parent put it: “From my point of view, the best part [of this unit] is that my kid is unaware that these sessions are somehow separate from the rest of the curriculum. It’s just more of the same: classroom learning of information that she can integrate into the rest of her knowledge about animals and natural forces that are occurring around us all the time.”

So, again – what’s made this unit succeed? A good time of the year for it. Thoughtful teachers and kids that’ve become equally thoughtful, thanks to the teachers. I also think – again, just from what I hear from my kid, since I’ve not sat in on classes – that instruction has been thoughtful too, with lots of discussion, a video (shades of my film strip!), and questions on exit tickets that get answered right at the end of class. Another friend and parent wrote that “the strategy of asking students to write down their feelings and questions anonymously on an index card is a good one,” and I learned that several students (including our son) have put their names on their questions, again unafraid to share their misunderstanding or curiosity with the whole class. As another friend and parent said, “I asked my daughter if she felt OK about asking questions (what with the potential for nervous giggling and teasing), and she said, ‘Sure, why wouldn’t I?'”

Lastly, there’s been great communication from our son’s teacher, and I will assume from the other teacher to her parents, with weekly updates. For example, here’s the start to this week’s email to parents: “Hope you’re all well. We’ve completed three of our four days of Family Life instruction as of today. We covered the emotional changes that come with puberty and adolescence during the first two days, and started talking about the physical changes today. Today we learned the physical changes that boys go through, and tomorrow, we will learn the physical changes that girls go through.”

I’ll end with an obvious and perhaps unintended impact that this unit might have on families. One parent wrote that this “unit has opened dialogue between me and my son about the changes he can expect, which I think will serve us well when he enters puberty, because he knows he can be open and share his feelings and experiences.” I doubt, when the district developed the unit and trained teachers to deliver it, that they imagined it would serve as a jumping off point for kids and their folks, to give them the chance for more discussion about an important and not-often-discussed-enough topic. But then that’s how school should be, right? As a jumping off point for kids and their parents to discuss obtuse and acute angles, Romeo and Juliet, a tracking shot in a film, cool words like pugnacious and miasma, the Syrian conflict, and the human reproductive system, puberty, and all the other topics covered in Family Life and Human Development, which is outlined here. That makes me happy: School. Home. It’s all one and the same.

Posted in Classroom, Parents, School, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

From David Ginsburg: Learning and Leading by Listening

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Abner Oakes

Fellow educational consultant and all-around good guy David Ginsburg has a great blog for teachers at the Education Week Teacher site, and I liked what he had to say about listening in a recent post. And so here is that post. Thanks, David!

A lot of teachers give students participation points for speaking up during class discussions. The more students contribute, the more points they get.

I’ve heard teachers say this motivates students, and it does seem to motivate some of them – those who need or want to improve their grades. But participation points can be de-motivating for students who aren’t concerned about their grades. As a result, some students dominate class discussions, while others daydream during them.

Another problem is that saying a lot doesn’t always equate to learning a lot. A higher order skill like synthesizing information, for example, is all about processing information rather than providing it – in other words, listening rather than speaking.

Unfortunately, the more some students speak, the less they listen. Sometimes they’re so preoccupied with crafting or rehearsing in their minds what they’re going to say that they end up repeating what a classmate already said. And students aren’t the only ones whose listening skills suffer when teachers dole out participation points. Keeping a running tally – on a laptop, tablet, or clipboard – of students’ contributions can be so distracting for teachers that they don’t hear everything students say.

And listening isn’t only important when it comes to learning, but also to leading, as Bernard Ferrari asserts in his recent McKinsey Quarterly article, The Executive’s Guide to Better Listening:

Throughout my career, I’ve observed that good listeners tend to make better decisions, based on better-informed judgments, than ordinary or poor listeners do – and hence tend to be better leaders. By showing respect to our conversation partners, remaining quiet so they can speak, and actively opening ourselves up to facts that undermine our beliefs, we can all better cultivate this valuable skill.

I agree, and there’s no more important place to cultivate this skill than school, especially since students do a lot of things outside of school that can detract from listening. And it’s not just students, as my wife and kids point out whenever I’m tweeting while they’re talking.

How, then, can you cultivate students’ listening skills? First of all, model those skills yourself. Give students your undivided attention – again, hard to do when you’re entering participation points on a laptop or tablet. And show students you’re listening by validating their comments – not by agreeing with them, but by repeating in your own words what they say. (It’s also great to then ask students to do this.)

Also be sure to use teaching techniques that provide students equal opportunities to express themselves, and encourage them to listen to each other and you. Think-pair-share and cold calling are two such techniques.

But whatever you do, forget about giving students participation points for contributing to class discussions. Sure, it’s important for kids to speak up, but they’ll never learn or lead to their potential if they’re talking when they should be listening or not listening when others are talking.

Let me know what you think. I’ll be all ears.

I got the listening poster from here.

Posted in Classroom, School, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

More on transitioning from elementary to middle school

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Abner Oakes

At this post, I re-purposed research that colleagues had done at The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, on the issue of transitioning from elementary to middle school, and I want to return to it. My wife and I are in the midst of this transition, as our son gets ready for 6th grade next fall, and I’m impressed with what our middle and elementary schools have been doing to make that transition as easy and thoughtful as possible.

A few highlights: Course selection sheets came out in January, for 5th graders to complete, and that activity corresponded with a visit to the elementary school by the middle school guidance counselor who’s assigned to and will work with the incoming 6th graders. She came with two elementary school alums, who told my son and his peers their middle school stories.

For parents there’ve been two evening meetings with middle school staff – one at a local elementary school, another at the middle school – and in the future our son and his classmates will tour the school in May, will have a half day there during the summer, to meet more folks and sort out scary issues such as the much feared opening of the locker, and will spend another day there the Friday before school opens, as part of a more formal orientation.

I’m impressed. I’m impressed since all this activity hews closely to the research, such as providing multiple opportunities for incoming students to become familiar with the school. I appreciate that the schools and school system have developed a very intentional set of activities to ensure that we and our son feel comfortable with and knowledgeable about the middle school, its programs, and its people. Sure, there’ve been a few glitches – not all middle school staff members, for example, are ideal when it comes to presenting to parents – but overall we’re very satisfied. What will be interesting is to see how this transition evolves once our boy is there. Transition activities should not stop once the opening bell sounds on the first day of school. Is there, for example, a buddy or mentor system for incoming 6th graders? How does the middle school use smaller faculty teams – which work with smaller groups of students – to increase “a sense of belonging,” as the research states? How will the school orient new students to all of the extracurricular activities that happen at the school?

My guess is that the school has already thought through these kinds of issues, given its very systematic work so far, and I look forward to watching these best practices fall into place, as has happened so far this winter and spring.

Posted in Parents, Principal, School, School district | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Student engagement and Phil Schlechty

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Abner Oakes

A school district superintendent asked me to dig into the issue of student engagement, and while I found several pieces that discuss this issue, it was this review by Elizabeth Bowen that provided some quick answers and a summary of Phil Schlechty’s design qualities, ten qualities that he feels foster student engagement in the classroom, that get at the answer to this question: “What do teachers, schools, and school districts need to do in order to ensure that more students are engaged in learning activities more of the time?”

Schlechty runs the Schlechty Center in Louisville and is most well know for his “working on the work” approach – that is, as it says at the center’s website, the “link between the caliber of schoolwork students are provided and the willingness of students to engage in schoolwork. When students engage in and persist with their work, they are much more likely to learn that which schools, parents, and the community deem important.”

I like this approach. It tells me that, when implemented at a school or district, kids are not to blame for engagement issues but, rather, the work they’re asked to undertake – the curriculum and its accompanying instruction. My radar pings madly when I hear a teacher or principal say, “These kids are really not very motivated.” Schlechty has these folks examine more carefully their own curricular and instructional practices, for it’s not the kids but those practices.

OK, back to a few of Schlechty’s design qualities that foster student engagement. They, I think, will give you some idea of what he’s getting at.

Product Focus, or work assigned to students that connects to a meaningful end result – one that is meaningful to the students. Schlechty states that “tasks students are assigned and the activities students are encouraged to undertake are clearly linked in the minds of the teacher and the students to problems, issues, products, performances, and exhibitions about which the students care and upon which students place value.”

Affirmation of Performance, or people important to the learner verify the importance of the learner’s work. Again from Schlechty: “Persons who are significant in the lives of students, including parents, siblings, peers, public audiences, and younger students, are positioned to observe, participate in, and benefit from student performances and to affirm the significance and importance of the activity being undertaken.” Students want an audience beyond the teacher. (My son the drummer and his band competed in a “battle of the bands” two weekends ago. Boy, oh, boy, did they have an audience beyond the usual suspects. A scary and powerful experience for them.)

Authenticity: Students undertake work that is genuine, that is more than just a random textbook assignment. Once more from Schlechty: “The tasks students are assigned and the work students are encouraged to undertake have meaning and significance in the present lives of students and are related to consequences to which students attach importance.”

A few years ago, I worked with a school that felt strongly about the authenticity of the work that its students would do, and I helped it develop a curricular plan to ensure that student work was authentic, not just random assignments. The school paired this work with affirmation of purpose, since the school believed that an outside audience was an important way to measure that authentic work. Students would “exhibit” their work to panels of experts – in fact, see this past post about “exhibitions” – and they experienced firsthand how their work fit in the real world, not just in the classroom or school building. A powerful learning experience.

I got the image of kids working here.

Posted in Classroom, Principal, School, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment