Archive for the ‘Book Summaries’ Category

Counting What Counts: Reframing Education Outcomes by Yong Zhao and friends takes on the current system with its focus on standardized tests and their sole focus on cognitive skills. Chapters are devoted to defining a variety of non-cognitive skills that are connected with success in life and the current status of how to assess them. They make a case for a new paradigm that would move the system towards more personalized learning and assessment with more focus on non-cognitive skills. Be sure to add this fine book to your professional development library.

Introduction – The Danger of Misguiding Outcomes: Lessons From Easter Island – Yong Zhao

• Yong uses the story of how the natives of Easter Island overexploited the resources in a race to build ever bigger statues. He compares this to the current race to produce students with excellent tests scores. Here he makes the case that the obsession with test scores has and will continue to damage our education ecosystem. It has resulted in cheating, teaching to the test, focusing on students on the pass/fail border, and limiting the focus on subjects not tested. We are destroying teacher autonomy as we ignore real challenges like poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, and unequal access.
• We are striving to produce a homogeneous population rather than supporting diverse talents. Routine knowledge and skills are stressed and they can easily be outsourced or automated. There are many negative side effects that are not considered unlike drug companies that must evaluate and publish side effects of their products. Creativity and non-cognitive skills are ignored. Students good at taking tests might not be good at anything else.

1. Numbers Can Lie: The Meaning and Limitations of Test Scores – Yong Zhao

• Humans are too complex to be reduced to a single number, and such numbers should not be used to make life-changing decisions. Research indicates that IQ tests have limited predictive power. Personality variables like high and stable self-esteem appear to be decisive for life success. SAT and ACT tests are much less predictive of college success than a student’s high school GPA. After many years, the Common Core Standards don’t appear to make students college ready, while motivation, time management skills, and awareness of postsecondary norms and culture do.
• A look at international tests shows that U.S. students have been bad at test taking for a long time. Such scores would suggest that by now the U.S. would be an economic backwater, but the facts suggest otherwise. It’s possible that countries that obsess about tests more than we do have discouraged the cultivation of creative and entrepreneurial spirits.

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Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empowering Students to be the Experts by Starr Sackstein tells the story of how she introduced peer feedback and all of its benefits into her classroom and how it can be applied in other subjects. If you try this, not only will your students develop knowledge and skills better, they will also learn vital collaboration and social skills. Buy one for your school now.

Part 1: The Power of Feedback – 1. The Rational for Teaching Students to Provide Peer Feedback

• Every student has the potential to be an expert in something. Step one is to get to know the students so you can identify and expand their strengths. This can allow the students to share their strengths, perspective, ideas, and preferences. This shows students that there is no one right way to learn or teach. Today it is common for students to know more about some topics than teachers do. This should be exciting as students can share expertise. Technology is an area where this often happens.
• The big idea here is to build trust and enthusiasm, which may not be easy and will take time. A key is to teach students self-advocacy. This will make it easier to address specific needs as students will bring them to you. This should start in kindergarten. This will also serve students throughout their lives. In short, students need to know when they need help and how to get it. Asking peers to help can be a great way to grow. Like all chapters, this one ends with reflection questions for teachers.

2. Developing a Supportive Classroom Culture

• Your initial focus is to develop a welcoming respectful learning environment that supports risk-taking and honest sharing. Students need to be comfortable sharing their work and gain confidence in providing feedback. You have to know your students if you are going to develop rapport so start by finding out what you can about their lives and outside interests as you share some of yourself. Respect can’t be assumed; it must be taught explicitly and modeled continuously. Starr suggests you use surveys to learn about students and provides some samples.
• Rituals and routines are essential to developing rapport. You don’t want to be too flexible and you must establish clear expectations. It might help to have students produce things that are intentionally inferior. They should feel safe correcting these items and see that it’s ok to be wrong. The teacher needs to model feedback intentionally so students can see what is expected. This will include praise and questions that should prompt students to think about how to improve their work. Be sure to share errors you have made. Once your rituals are in place you can give students more control as you facilitate from the side. Starr gives examples from her student newspaper class and another teacher’s fifth-grade class.

3. What Meaningful Feedback Looks Like

• Step one is to set clear goals and criteria for success. For each assignment, you need to ask is this worthy of feedback? Use questioning activities and discussions and connect work to prior and future learning. Align learning objectives with standards and the big picture of the lesson. Make sure students see exemplars so they know what mastery looks like, but not ones that are identical to the current assignment.
• Feedback needs to be specific, timely, and delivered in a way that works for the receiver. Focus on one or two points at a time. Rather than saying good job, let them know how they have improved their ability to do something specific. When you are critical, provide suggestions for how to improve something. Limit your feedback to the material covered. Avoid giving feedback too soon as you will end up owning the work yourself. Feedback from teachers should be private. Look for nonverbal cues as you give feedback and adjust your tone accordingly. If a student is shutting down say something encouraging and revisit the issue later.

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Moonshots In Education: Launching Blended Learning in the Classroom by Esther Wojcicki (Woj), Lance Izumi, et. al. explains how technology can be blended with more traditional teaching methods to allow students to have some control of their learning content, style, place, time, and pace. It shines a light on innovative schools and countries, and generally ineffective teacher training. This belongs in every school and every parent’s hands.

Forward by James Franco

• The power of online learning is due to immediate feedback, the student owning some of the learning, and the teacher playing a less central role. Blended learning is online learning used in conjunction with classroom learning. There is some element of student control over time, place, path and pace. According to Woj, the opportunity for blended learning is now. This is a moonshot moment!
• The key ingredient for this kind of change is courage on the part of teachers and administrators. They need to trust students as they traditionally haven’t. Too many teachers today are scripted and teach to the tests. Parents are also overly protective of children and seldom even let them play outside unsupervised. Even when computers are used they often provide electronic worksheets, and many districts block rich learning resources like YouTube. Classroom whiteboards serve to reinforce the central position of the teacher as the “sage on the stage.” We need to teach students to search intelligently and understand the results of their searches. They must determine the credibility of the information they find and separate fact from opinion.

Part 1 – 1. The Online Learning Revolution

• Three things make it powerful. They are: 1) there is immediate feedback 2) the students own the learning 3) the teacher does not play the central role. Blended learning involves online learning in conjunction with classroom learning. The online part allows for some element of student control over time, place, path or pace. Woj feels that the opportunity for blended learning is now and it is a moonshot moment.
• School cultures need to change and it will take courage for teachers and administrators to make the necessary changes. It requires more trust in students and not scripting teacher behavior on a daily basis. Keep in mind that culture change is the hardest thing to do.

2. What is a Moonshot?

• Moonshots involve goals that are difficult to achieve, perhaps seemingly impossible. The main goal of this book is to help teachers “shoot for the moon.” To quote JFK, “We choose to do this not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard”.

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