Women's History Month Begins

 I selected 3 quotes from three young women as the frame for this week's reflection.

 

“I don’t study to know more, but to ignore less” ...Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Recognized as a poet, teacher and philosopher by age 17)

 

As we begin our second year as educational leaders in a world where COVID-19 is the first lens we must look through when making decisions in our homes and classrooms, this quote from Juana Ines de la Cruz seems particularly impactful.  She wrote her first poem at the age of 8 and was teaching Latin by the time she was 13. She studied science, composed music, and was an early advocate for education rights for women. Her idea that we study so we can ignore less is relevant now.  I think about how intentional we have had to be when choosing the skills and knowledge we want to be sure students securely hold as they leave our classrooms later this spring. I think about the data we are intentionaly reviewing to find learning gaps and celebrate growth or to track COVID-19 because we can’t afford to ignore any of this.

 

“If we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.” … Malala Yousafzi (Nobel Peace Prize Age 17)

 

Honor Women’s History Month by amplifying the stories of women who have empowered themselves with the weapon of knowledge and shielded themselves with unity.  Malala advocates tirelessly for global education rights for women. Within the past month we have watched as women played key leadership roles on the diverse Perseverance Rover NASA team. The Biden administration has nominated women to cabinet level positions, joining Vice President Kamala Harris. Two women led the COVID-19 vaccine research,    

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett with Moderna and Dr. Kathrin Jensen with the Pfizer research team. And those are just the stories in the news. It is important to search out local stories of women who are taking action within our own schools and communities and support their work.  

 

 "It is still not too late to act. It will take a far-reaching vision, it will take courage, it will take fierce, fierce determination to act now, to lay the foundations where we may not know all the details about how to shape the ceiling. In other words, it will take cathedral thinking.” ...Greta Thunberg (Time Person of the Year Age 16)

 

Greta Thunberg has spoken to world leaders and advocates for immediate action to address the Climate Crisis. This concept of cathedral thinking, planning now to lay a foundation for a ceiling that we are just beginning to imagine is so important right now.  We have had our heads down, driving ahead through this year focused on what we can do in the next hour or day or week. It is exhausting, it can be discouraging, especially if we get so hyper-focused on what is immediately in front of us that we lose all sight of what can be in the world around us.  It will take courage over the next year to continue to re-imagine education in a world emerging from a pandemic. It will take courage to continue to advocate for equity and justice. It will take courage to address the climate crisis. It will take fierce determination to make sure all voices are valued and welcomed at the table, regardless of race, age, LGTBQ+, gender or religion.  

 

What To Put In Your Backpack For Your Journey This Week

• YWCA 21 Day Challenge For Equity 

• Women’s History Month Resources

• Reading Rockets Women’s History Month Resources

• Smithsonian Women’s History Initiative 

 

Upcoming Opportunities:

• Check out Eric Curt’s latest interactive games in Google https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2021/02/game-of-ur.html?m=1 

• "From Hidden Figures to Human Flourishing: Humanity, Community, and Justice in Mathematics" sponsored by the Ohio Mathematics and Science Coalition. This virtual webinar will be held via Zoom on Thursday, March 11 at 7:00 pm EST.  The focus of the webinar is to engage all audiences and stakeholders in understanding the importance of mathematics as well as ways to engage and support every child in mathematics in school and at home.  Both educators and parents/grandparents/guardians/caregivers are encouraged to participate.  Registration is required using the link provided on the attached flyer or by going here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_boIWti28RYagRVwI6FxRtQ 

National Museum of Women’s History Events and Resources Calendar for March.

Climate Literacy

This week we celebrated Earth Day.  Now, more than ever, we need to work together as educators to ensure that our students, colleagues and community stakeholders are Climate Literate.  For the past 3 years  I have partnered with Ohio Sea Grant, The Lake Erie Nature and Science Center on a Climate Literacy grant through the Bay Education Foundation, the Ohio EPA and the Gund Foundation.   Research has shown that the most effective messaging around Climate Change focuses on local impact of Climate Change and education that will help people make informed decisions in their own lives about resource use and conservation, purchasing of goods and services, and philanthropy.   I have worked with Darci Sanders and Sharon Graper over the past two summers to offer a Climate Literacy Teacher Academy.   You can find all of our resources, designed to support Ohio Learning Standards, here http://iteachbay.blogspot.com/p/climate-literacy-project.html.   NPR did a feature story on Teaching About Climate Change on its A1A podcast yesterday. It featured Jim Sutter, an AP Environmental Science Teacher from Wellston High School.    Climate Literacy crosses all content areas and grade levels.  As we finish state testing and wrap up the school year, find time to incorporate a Climate Literacy lesson into your classroom.

Spotlight Resources:

• Start Here… The Essential Principles of Climate Literacy  from NOAA
• Overview Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffjIyms1BX4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2euBvdP28c
• Making data visible - read the article HERE

Using Book Baskets To Talk Feedback

Tomorrow night’s #OHedchat is a Book Basket approach to discussing feedback.  Book Baskets are a way to think differently about how we choose to organize classroom, school or our even professional libraries. Instead of focusing on literary or informational text, reading level or lexile, pull together text sets based on content or concepts.  Group books in the “basket” by introductory or foundational content and more specific content. For example, my Feedback book basket has books that address the broad concept of feedback along with books that have a smaller grain size, like feedback for at risk readers or the role of coaches in providing feedback.  Research shows that this approach to creating text sets helps to build content knowledge and grows academic, tier 2, and tier 3 content vocabulary. This in turn scaffolds students of any age into more complex text and increased fluency and comprehension.

Read more about Book Baskets here https://achievethecore.org/page/3081/book-basket-project

Spotlight Resources:  Assessments

• Find DOK 3 math assessment items on this site http://www.openmiddle.com/
• Find Primary Source Texts to pair with Literary Texts  or to create Information Text sets on the Library of Congress Website - Searchable by Standards or by type.  http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/
• Check out the Found Poetry collection http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/poetry/
• Test Specifications - VERY HELPFUL in creating your own common assessments for ELA, Science, Math and Social Studies as well as understanding the Ohio State Tests and EOC exams. https://oh.portal.airast.org/resources/general-resources/
• Achievethecore.org mini assessments -
• ELA https://achievethecore.org/category/415/ela-literacy-assessments
• Math https://achievethecore.org/category/1020/mathematics-assessments

Upcoming Opportunities:

• Can't wait for #OHedchat 3.6.19 at 9:00 EST We will be reflecting on quotes from our Feedback Book Basket.  Lindsay Dexter - the President of Ohio Learning Forward, will be co-facilitating the chat.
• Tomorrow Night… The long awaited HS Coherence Map for math is going to be unveiled by achievethecore.org . Join the webinar on March 6 at 7:00 PM to learn all about it. SO EXCITING!!

March Core Advocate Webinar: High School Mathematics: The Reveal of the Extended Coherence Map

• Next week @sharemylesson kicks off 3 days of free, online #EduPD courses for teachers, #paraprofessionals & school support staff incl keynote by @AFTunion prez @rweingarten: shar.es/am6muJ #PublicSchoolProud
• Let me know if you have created an Open Space account or are thinking of ways to start using it with your team! If you haven’t already done so - go to https://openspace.infohio.org/ and click LOGIN at the top right to create an account for yourself.  This is the NEW Ohio Collaborative, Open Education Resource authoring platform from INFOhio.org.  Then click on GROUPS at the top of the page and choose the OPEN group. This is where the tutorials live.

How to Close The Gap For Students By Changing How You Perceive Yourself

I have always been a dog person. Until this summer, when a cat showed up at our backdoor one night. For three weeks our family took care of this cat, while she lived in first a box, and then a homemade Rubbermaid tote house, complete with a golf umbrella awning.  I started worrying about this cat at night and through storms, and looking forward to seeing her at the end of the day. I started to ask my “cat friends” for advice on how to best take care of this cat. Long story short, the cat is now sitting next to me on the couch as I put together Talk-Oh-Tuesday. The dog is sitting on the other side.  So often as teachers we catch ourselves saying “I am a math person, or I work best with __________ kinds of kids”. As you start to dig into your District Report cards, look closely at what role you can play in Gap Closing. How can you go outside your comfort zone to support students who challenge you as a teacher or administrator? Who might be a resource that you can reach out to?

One good starting point for gap closing is to look at the connections between standards aligned resources, assessments that have enough stretch to allow all students  to show where they are in their mastery, and Performance Level Descriptors. Performance Level Descriptors are a great starting point to plan how you will stretch or support students. They are also great if you are not a “math person” or “ELA person” or a "Gifted person" or a "Special Ed person" and need to figure out what student work needs to look like or sound like as they build their own competency.  Are your lessons or assessments giving students the opportunity to show you that evidence? If not, what can you do to tweak them? Who might you reach out to?

Find all of the Ohio Performance Level Descriptors here.

https://oh.portal.airast.org/resources/reporting-resources/

Opportunities:

If you have never joined in on #OHedchat Weds. nights at 9:00 EST on Twitter, this is the week to join in.  David Liben, one of my literacy superheroes and a Senior Fellow in Literacy at Student Achievement Partners (achievethecore.org) will be the special guest moderator this week.

Draft Ohio Model Curriculum - Science, The Nature of Science, Content Elaboration for ODE Science - take time to read through this and make comments by Sept 28….get some great resource ideas and progression of learning connections in the process!

Draft Ohio Model Curriculum - Social Studies  and Draft Ohio Model Curriculum - Financial Literacy  - take time to read through these and make comments by Sept. 28...great way to see that vertical alignment and help kids connect to prior learning.  

Building Bridges To Connect Prior Knowledge

Hi All, 

I had a chance to be a “new learner” this summer! I am learning how to play Ukulele.  I play violin, so when I learned how to play mandolin it was easy - the same strings and the same fingering.  Ukulele has different strings and fingering and it took awhile to get my fingers to make new shapes. What made the most difference for me was finding a note chart that I could use to play scales. That one piece of information helped bridge what I already knew with what I was learning.  At the beginning of the year, it is important to find those bridges for all the learners in your room. Here are some resources that might make bridge building easier!

• ELL Supports For Writing and Discussions From Achievethecore.org
• Making Math Visible - Interactive Modeling Tools K-12 From Illuminations (NCTM)
• The Painted Essay - Making Writing Visible  From the Vermont Writing Collaborative
• Draft Ohio Model Curriculum - Science, The Nature of Science, Content Elaboration for ODE Science - take time to read through this and make comments by Sept 28….get some great resource ideas and progression of learning connections in the process!
• Draft Ohio Model Curriculum - Social Studies  and Draft Ohio Model Curriculum - Financial Literacy  - take time to read through these and make comments by Sept. 28...great way to see that vertical alignment and help kids connect to prior learning.
• INFOhio.org Spotlight Resources:
• Explora - search engine by topic, includes lexile levels on all the resources included in the search including books,articles and primary source documents. Great for creating text sets to build vocab or content knowledge. Available in PreK-5, 6-8, and 9-12 INFOhio.org resources.
• Kids Infobits - searches across major K-5 magazines including Scholastic, CNN Newswire, Boys Life, Nat Geo, Discover for Kids, Dig, Ladybug and more.  Because this is a Gale product, once the articles are opened, there is a read aloud function, a highlight function, you can save to Google Drive or assign in Google Classroom.  Has visual and audio search support built in.
• NEA Arts Across the Curriculum - K-5 Resources (I found the dancing across the number line activity to be pretty cool!)
• Top 10 Ukulele Tips for Beginners (In case you want to learn how to play Ukulele too!)

Don’t forget to join in the CenterPoint Teaching & Learning Advisors –  #CurriculumMatters Twitter Chat about the Importance of High Quality, Content Rich Curriculum Thursday Sept. 6  4-5:00 PM EST

Read the blog posts at https://centerpointeducation.org/blog and follow #CurriculumMatters on Twitter to follow the conversation.  Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues, too. Looking forward to a lively discussion on this timely topic.

Working With ELL Students

Over the past week, a number of excellent ELL resources came through my inbox.  Being mindful of strategies to support ELL students can elevate the supports and instruction for all the students in your room or school! This is the time of year when schedules are finalized for the coming year.  Will you be working with ELLs? Here are some good starting points.

If you don’t regularly use ALL of the amazing resource on Colorin Colorado, now is the time to visit the site and bookmark your favorites! http://www.colorincolorado.org/teaching-english-language-learners

Reading Rockets groups resources by themes and keywords.  Follow this link to see all of their resources specific to ELLs. http://www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/english-language-learners

Stanford has assembled a set of high quality, research based tools for ELLs. http://ell.stanford.edu/teaching_resources   My favorite Venn diagram is based on the Mathematical Practices, ELA practices and Science practices  and can be found here http://ell.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/VennDiagram_practices_v11%208-30-13%20color.pdf

CCSSO created a framework for ELLs to support the Common Core Standards and NGSS. There is a LOT of helpful information for tiering/scaffolding work in ELA, math and science within this framework document.  The FLARE, formative language section, that begins on p 72 is a start point for identifying vocab, tiering instruction and designing scaffolds. https://www.ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/ELPD%20Framework%20Booklet-Final%20for%20web.pdf

Great research article on effective math instruction for ELLs http://laschoolreport.com/new-ways-of-teaching-math-to-californias-english-learners-are-getting-results-report-says/

Resources and ideas for ELLs shared out by Student Achievement Partners (achievethecore.org)

• Written work and classroom discussions are a critical part of college- and career-ready instruction and your English Language Learners CAN participate in these rich learning opportunities with the right support. Try some of these scaffolding techniques to support ELLs in accessing grade-level writing and discussion activities.
• Written language is different than everyday spoken English, and can pose comprehension challenges for all students, but especially English Language Learners. Structure classroom discussions focused on helping students take apart a sentence to discover how vocabulary, syntax, and grammatical choices convey meaning. This new protocol helps teachers identify "juicy sentences," provides a 10-step protocol for conducting a classroom discussion, and includes video examples. Special thanks for Core Advocate Aaron Grossman who helped design the protocol!

How to Use A Logic Model For Evidence Based Action Planning

This blog is cross-posted from OhioTeachersForQualityEducation.org

Planning for action around learning goals or building goals can take many forms in the classroom and in your building.  Most traditional action plans include space for defining the goal, documenting what steps you are going to take to achieve it, and who will take the steps.  I have spent the past year working with a Logic Model as an evidence based approach to action planning.  What I like best is the focus not just on planning action, but collecting evidence that the action is complete along with evidence of the impact of that action.  Logic Models encourage you to have conversations around assumptions you are making about the work.  Often, these assumptions, when not discussed or addressed, lead to frustration and communication gaps.  For the past year, I have used Logic Models in planning for whole district initiatives, like our high school chromebook roll-out.  I have also used Logic Models for smaller goals, including keeping a focus on text complexity and writing good text dependent questions.  Logic Models could also be modified to be used as templates for Unit Planning or differentiating instruction for English Learners or Gifted Students.

The first step in starting a Logic Model is to identify your goal.  This might be a set of standards based learning goals that will be the center of an instructional unit.  The goal might also have a broader project or initiative focus.  Ideally, you should be collaborating with your grade level team, building leadership team or district team to frame your goal.  Next, connect that goal to the broader vision.  How does this work fit into the broader work of your classroom, building or district?  Once you have identified your goal, the next step is not to start planning action.  Instead, take time to talk through the assumptions you are making about the students or staff that are going to be impacted by the work.  What prior learning or experience are you assuming they will bring to this work? How are you going to connect this goal to their existing practices or beliefs?  The reflection on assumptions will also help you to identify possible barriers.  Identifying a true barrier that will need to be worked around, or an attitude or mindset that may need to be shifted in order for the goal to succeed, will help in thinking through possible action steps and evidence of outcomes.  Planning the action steps can be done next.  As you think through action steps, identify resources you have or will need.  Resources can be time, materials, human capital, or financial. If you don’t have access to the resources you need, include in your action steps a plan for acquiring that resource.  The real benefit of the Logic Model is in the last two steps.  Take time to identify what evidence will be gathered to show that the action has been completed.  This might be an agenda, minutes, emails, anecdotal records or student work.   More importantly, have a collaborative discussion on what evidence of impact or outcome of the work you will want to see or hear.  What will teachers or students or staff sound like, or act like if the action step in having a impact on moving them toward a goal?  

There are 4 levels of outcomes to think about when deciding on the mindful collection of evidence of impact.

Level 1: Reaction

At this level, evidence of impact might be pushback or a lot of questions on why we are doing this or learning this.  Often this evidence of impact is overlooked, or is seen in a negative light.  Really, it is evidence that the learners are having to re-examine their own thinking or beliefs and seeing how this new information or idea might fit or not fit into this.  Pay attention to the pushback comments or questions.  You may need to adjust or add an action step to help move this group forward.

Level 2: Learning

Evidence of learning might include a shift in questions from “Why are we doing/learning this” to “How do I…?” or “Maybe I could try…”  Much of this evidence will be anecdotal comments heard in a class or in a team meeting.  You might consider using a Google Form or a Reflection document to capture these comments and shifts in thinking.

Level 3: Behavior/Attitude Shifts

By the time students or staff start to show evidence of Level 3 outcomes, they are trying out the new skills, applying the new strategies in a small setting or as a pilot, or starting to grow their own learning around the goal. You might hear students expressing a more sophisticated approach to a task, or hear teachers talking about applying strategies or ideas to an upcoming unit.  

Level 4: Results

This is full buy-in.  There has been a change in attitudes or in skills that is evident across an entire class, grade level, building or district.  Students or teachers regularly demonstrate their new learning or skills in their daily work.  A common vocabulary has been developed and everyone now has incorporated the new skill, strategy or idea into their own belief system.   Evidence at this level might include shifts in district or grade level data, requests for additional “next step training”, increase in student success or the success of a subgroup.  

I have learned a lot about using Logic Models from the team at Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success Teacher Champions Fellowship.  Using Logic Models has really changed the way I think about planning and following up on my own work, both as a Curriculum Director and as an educator leader.  I have now started to create 2 folders in my Google Drive to help me gather evidence of the work I have done, and evidence of the impact of my work.  Focusing on evidence of impact at all four outcome levels has really nurtured my own positive mindset about my work and the work of the teams I am a part of!

This LINK will take you to a blank logic model in Google Docs.  Feel free to make a copy for yourself by clicking on FILE ---MAKE A COPY.  

This LINK will take you to a Logic Model that has reflection questions for each component.