Combating Racism

How are we preparing our students to build capacity and competency around civil

discussions that seek to understand? How do we, as educators, combat the division

that is apparent in our society? How can we combat racism?

Teaching about systemic inequality requires courage from teachers and from

students to reach real dialogue about what is happening in our world. Let’s Talk,

A Teaching for Tolerance guide, suggests student dialogue is the educator’s tool

for fighting racism.

Racism affects our students at a young age. Surprisingly, by 30 months most children

are choosing playmates based on race (Katz & Kofkin,1997). When we are silent

about race, it reinforces the patterns of racism. According to Dunham, Baron, & Banaji,

by five years old, Black and Latinx children in research settings show no preference

toward their own groups compared to Whites; White children at this age are biased

in favor of whiteness (2008). Educators can play a powerful role in helping develop

positive attitudes about race when we are willing to talk about it.

Consequently, by creating a space for understanding we are moving forward. In fact,

reviews from Aboud & Amato suggest that racial prejudice decreases with age if

children develop the ability to empathize with each other (2001). For some of us this

may be intriguing and for others it is frightening. Talking about racism, violence, and

ideologies can be uncomfortable. Sometimes teachers shy away from these

conversations in fear of offending or opening feelings of hurt and confusion.

Teaching for Tolerance asks us to consider this sentence stem:

The hard part of talking about racism is...

There are plenty of ways to complete this sentence as there is discomfort in facing

strong emotions.

Christopher Lehman, the Founding Director of The Educator Collaborative, challenges

educators to take on academic dialogue in the classroom around real topics. He

suggests that students are having these conversations on social media, on the

playground, on the bus, in the hallways - then stopping the conversation when they

enter our classrooms. These are the very places where these discussions can be

pursued with norms of discussion and a caring adult who can help to create

understandings and opportunities to heal and move forward.

This type of discourse requires a lot of groundwork. Norms need to be established

with respectful conversational moves. Other issues need to be discussed first so

students feel safe and the teacher has the opportunity to build a circle of honesty

and trust.

Educators, when ready, need to lean in to their own discomfort to facilitate student

dialogue surrounding social inequality. Racism will continue if we refuse to

acknowledge it.

Some titles to build the groundwork.

Let’s Talk, by Teaching for Tolerance

Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom, Matthew R. Kay

The Role of Conversation in the Classroom… Dr. Paul Johnson, Intercultural Development Research Association

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham (picture book)

I am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis, Kathy Kacer, and Gillian Newland (picture book)

Get Ethical Before You Get Technical

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are underway around teaching and learning and many plan to or are assessing student learning as part of this work.  Best practice would suggest that teams would have or also are creating common assessment to determine the effectiveness of their instruction and impact on student learning.  These teams have spent time engaging each other in what proficiency looks and sounds like, and may have started the work of developing pathways for students to demonstrate their learning in ways that maximize the agency of the students themselves-by providing the students with choices about how they bring the consolidation of their learning to life.  In their article One Step At A Time,  Parry Graham and Bill Ferritier cite the step of building common understanding, disposition and skills around student assessment as one of places where teachers will begin to rumble within their teams.  These places within the PLC process require our teams to "Get Ethical", before they get "Technical" to build productive data-practices that actually improve teacher planning, instructional delivery, as well as the student experience and impact (Franklin Campbell Jones, 2005).   

When lawyers are preparing cases, both in defense and prosecution, they start with discovery.  These teams spend time gathering as much information as possible about the context, people and events of their cases before going to trial.  Discovery is the time when these teams begin the tough equity work.  Before, during and after the process of discovery within our teams we must wrestle with both the data we gather and the predictive nature of the outcomes for students of color, multi-linguals and those with diverse needs.  I'd emphasize the recursive process of crafting both the assessment as well as the discovery of the data it produces.  Let's remind ourselves as readers that test results have been used to rationalize discriminatory practices which can result in more harm than good (ie. tracking, using single data points for course placement, etc.).    So how to we continually develop our dispositions so that our work leads to better and best practice, and increased impact on our most marginalized students.

So how is it that well intentioned teams fall short in building the engine of their PLC (to use assessment and discovery) to enhance and inform their practice and instructional impact? Research from Brene Brown, author of Dare to Lead, suggests that to get to the conversations around teacher's instructional impact on all students, to arrive at a place where teams can recognize in personal ways that our/my practices are not equally effective with all learners and to transfer this problem of practice from the "learner as the problem" to new inquiry, learning and application, requires vulnerability and courage.  Brown offers that teams will struggle most with the core work at these phases because of individual assumptions around vulnerability, specifically that;

• Vulnerability is weakness
• I can do it alone
• I have to trust first, before I show vulnerability
• Vulnerability is disclosure 

I offer leaders the suggestion to prepare teams for the challenge of vulnerability during the difficult process of creating assessment of student learning and addressing the data on the effectiveness of it-with the suggestion that our teaching skills have something to do with the outcomes. 

1. Prepare your teams to address their beliefs around "being vulnerable".
Our experiences outside of school, our deepest and most formative experiences, have shaped our disposition towards vulnerability.  Provide the opportunity for your staff to define vulnerability in lower risk ways to address the challenge in vulnerability itself.

I grew up believing vulnerability is _______________

2. Prepare your teams to engage in conversations that enhance the concept that the team is the resource.  Support your teams to ask:

What does support from our team look like around this problem?  

3. Engage your teams to recognize and communicate about situations that are going to really engage the chicken and egg paradigm around trust and vulnerability.  When are those situations in which teams will need to be more vulnerable with each other, to build trust, rather than be "more trusting" to become more vulnerable.  Do teams struggle with getting started?  Do they have the language?  How can we build skill and strategy around this when teams need it?

4. Normalize the struggle.  Stages 4, 5 and 6 is where the disruption lies.  Disruption must lead to growth.  It does not always. How can we continually normalize, prepare for and expect disruption?  Are SAIL teams talking about how to nurture teams into disruption?  How do SAIL teams support this critical work?

5. Recognize that data has no meaning.  People apply meaning to data from how they see the world from perception of their influence.  Data can be and we must work towards it becoming a catalyst for questioning our assumptions, especially assumptions about learners, and our responsibility for practice.  We must define the purpose of collecting it and guide teams on ways to examine their beliefs about student learning so that we position the data in a way that ensures response that that helps us examine our deepest beliefs.

In closing, we must view our relationships as an intermingling between trust and vulnerability.  To get ethical, we need to make regular investments in our teams "jar of marbles".  Each marble of kindness, patience, and warm demanding.  Brene Brown shares that we trust people who have earned marbles in our lives.  More marbles, more trust, more vulnerability, more ethical behavior around how we approach our teaching, learning and assessment.

See next weeks blog on Assessing Multilingual Students-getting Ethical Before Getting Technical.

When the Learner Owns the Learning

I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 8. My whole crew was riding already. My parents had put
me through every tiny teaching point that related to this skill: pushing pedals one at a time, pushing
up the kickstand, looking forward instead of down, holding my hands and arms steady on the
handlebars. Eventually, they essentially gave up on facilitating my learning. There was nothing left to
teach me, only the reckoning that I needed to go through as a learner to master a new skill. We lived
across the street from an empty parking lot. Day in, day out, I walked my bike to the parking lot to
continue my practice.

Don’t even get me started on my obstacles: a lazy eye, near-sightedness corrected by coke bottle
glasses, perpetually scabbed over knees from my many walking-related injuries, and difficulty sustaining
attention on one task. Nevermind the social stigma of my peers riding ten-speeds and me pushing
around a tiny fixed-gear. There’s a reason why it took me as long as it did to learn. But one thing I never
doubted: That I was a learner, and at the right time, I would master this critically important skill.

Who owns the learning in your school? Who feels the daily drive to try and try until a skill is learned,
internalized, felt like a heartbeat? If our answer to that question is not, “The learner,” we have work to
do. But aren’t we all engaged in an ongoing process of shifting the learner’s experience from the teacher
to the learner? Aren’t we ourselves learning how to do this?

A cohort of teachers at Blair is engaged in collaborative inquiry around how to build our students’
agency in the learning process. We know that students need to be invested in setting goals for their
learning, demonstrating mastery of their learning, having a say in the process and product. What
does this look like for a 5th grader? A kindergartener? A language learner? We don’t know yet, but
we’re finding out. Check out our goal-setting gallery in kindergarten, pictured below.

Who owns the learning in this classroom, and who goes home to brag to their caregivers about a
new way they can count? On the way home from school, who reclines in the backseat, looks out
the window, and mentally rehearses a number word sequence… over and over again… until it is as
automatic as breathing, as regular as the rain?

Simplexity

In our SAIL processes, I see schools focusing in on the right things in order to increase student achievement. The vital few factors are essential to sustainable progress and growth. How do you react though, if the Principal says we should do more? What do you say to a team of teachers who want to add more to this work? Remember, less is more! The idea of simplexity is taking a multitude of challenging factors and working tirelessly at only those vital few until they are mastered. The key here though is this...they have to be mastered school-wide or they are not mastered. You can have 5 or 6 teachers mastering those vital high leverage practices, but it won't matter.  We will only move the dial on student achievement if all educators take responsibility for this level of performance.

Below is one of Fullan's components around securing accountability, Educators take responsibility for continuously improving results. Where is your entire school on this progression? What are you directly responsible for in contributing to the positive growth of your entire school?

Coherence making is ongoing work. Keep simplexity at the forefront and stay the course with only a few things. Trust the process and both you and your students will reap the benefits!

November 2018 TDP Registration

Hello Everyone,

Please see November 2018 TDP courses offered and the link below for registration:

November 2018 TDP Registration

All courses are held on November 6, 13, 20 and 27 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. unless noted otherwise.

• Making Thinking Visible Through Digital Portfolios and Learner Profiles **Note Date Change - Will be held November 14th, not 13th**
• Building Collaborative Environments to Enhance Inquiry Process
• Guided Reading
• Discourse in the Math Classroom
• Beyond CGI Problem Types and into Student Thinking
• Grammar: Patters of Power
• Success with ALLs: Family and Student Engagement
• Writing and Implementing IEPs
• Instructional Strategies to address EBD
• Teaching for Bi-Literacy **Note Date change - will be held November 8, 15, 29 and December 6**

Registration will close at 12pm on Friday, November 2nd.

*************

There are also Self-paced TDP courses available on BB9. You can register for those classes at any time through this link:  http://goo.gl/VkW76t

• BB101
• BB102
• BB103
• Google 101
• Google 102
• Google 103
• SAMR 101
• Literacy Foundations
• Math Foundations
• Standards Based Grading
• Understanding Educator Effectiveness

Thank you!

Rounding -- Every School, Every Month

Hello to fall weather and all that this changing season brings us. As I start year three in my role, my personal goal this year is to get to every school, every month. I commit to being where the game is being played and not at the Lindholm building. With that said, our executive team is going to use Studer's practice of rounding to help keep employee engagement high as well as our levels coherence and connectedness.

Studer’s practice of rounding involves asking our employees three questions:

* What is working well?

* Have there been any individuals who have been helpful to you?

* What ideas for improvement do you have?

Thank you ahead of time for giving us the gift of feedback so that we can take action on affirming our successes along with the people that have helped with this. We are also listening and taking action to help improve and are always open to your innovative ideas in this area as well.

As I start year seventeen in the 'Sha, I am amazed at the level of talented, caring individuals we have working here, who get up every day with a passion to work together to advance Student Achievement In Learning! See you soon!

#KnowThyImpact

The Psychology of . . . . Criticism

The Psychology of . . . . Criticism        

I had ‘feedback’ on my mind lately.  I recently received positive feedback that was very supportive.  AND - the feedback included guidance on areas of improvement in such a way that I am eager to address them.  How about that!

So . . . I did a little research on feedback and how it affects people.  In education, administrators give feedback to the educators they supervise.  Effective feedback has some characteristics that are proven to work - so the article below really resonated with me.  

Most importantly - the need for relationship before feedback . . . . see the first 3 criteria in the graphic below.

The use of feedback in our collegial relationships can be so powerful in positive ways.  We have several schools with a peer observation component in their PLC structures.  While teachers may be nervous about observing each other, it could be so encouraging and so meaningful if the feedback criteria above are kept in mind.  

This led me to consider the nature of the feedback we give to children.  Educators are giving students feedback many times every day.  MANY TIMES EVERY DAY.  Every student is different, and every educator is different in their feedback methods.  What is our feedback doing to the minds of young people?  Are we building them up?  How do we choose our words:

    When behavior is interfering in learning?

    When self-esteem is fragile?  

    When an oppositional force is facing us?

    When we deliver consequences?

    When we celebrate and praise?

    When we build a pro-active plan for student growth in behavior/learning?

Again, consider the huge impact that relationships have - honesty, trust, good intentions are the first 3 criteria to effective feedback.    While employees and employers benefit from these factors in their relationships, students deserve that level of connection with their teachers as well.

What you read in this article could be extrapolated to the relationships that teachers have in guiding their students, too.  Please take a look.  

Courtney Seider, Buffer.com 

How to Give and Receive Feedback at Work: The Psychology of Criticism  

Conversation with Latinos about Race

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/opinion/a-conversation-with-latinos-on-race.html

Measuring Discussion

Discussion and student conversation have become the heart of our classrooms in both literacy and math (Language Workshop, Numeracy Routines, Math Congress).  When students are given the opportunity to co-construct meaning together, they are strengthening their conversational skills, practicing language, and reaching deeper levels of understanding

Jeff Zwiers describes this in his book called Conversational Discourse in Context.  “So, what effect does conversation discourse have on students?  Students’ language, literacy, and thinking develop as a result of academically rich conversations... Content understandings and skills also develop.  On a wider scale, the world becomes a better place because all of our students are becoming better prepared to engage in rich conversations with each other and future people with whom they interact in their colleges and careers.”  (page 13)

How do we know that we have turned the conversation over to students?  How do we know if ALL students are participating at high levels? How do we ensure that we have reached a level of equity, empowerment and achievement among ALL our students?

The answer begins with measuring it and collecting data on student discussion.  Below is a progression of collecting data on student discussion.

• Teacher talk vs. student talk: Analyzing how many times or for how long the teacher talks and the students talk.
• Are ALL students talking?: Tallying which students are doing the talking.
• What are students saying?:  Analyze if they are agreeing, disagreeing, adding on.  Then analyze who is co-constructing meaning and taking the conversation to a deeper level.
• Student initiated discussion:  ALL learners independently seek academic conversations for learning and making meaning.  Teacher observes, monitors or assesses for future preparation. Students and the class participate in goal setting around future growth.

Here are some different ways that Bethesda teachers are measuring Oracy:

What are you ready to analyze in discussion?  As they say, “Whoever is doing the talking, is doing the learning.”

CIM in SDW: What is the Comprehensive Intervention Model? (from Wendy Hamilton)

In the past couple of years, you may have heard the term “sim” pop up in conversations around literacy intervention. This is not referring to a fancy, new game simulation you have to learn about. It’s much more exciting! This “sim” you may have heard about is actually referring to CIM, SDW’s Comprehensive Intervention Model. The CIM includes research-based individual and small-group interventions that align with classroom curriculum. The development of the CIM dates back to 1991 and was designed using the same theories and practices as Reading Recovery, which is also part of SDW’s literacy intervention portfolio. The CIM is a comprehensive and systemic design for matching interventions to the strengths and needs of struggling readers. It includes strategy-based interventions which are “designed to foster the development of self-regulated processes, that is, the student’s capacity to use knowledge, skills and strategies for solving problems, generalizing information, and constructing new learning (p. 2).”1

The CIM has a portfolio of interventions that address student literacy needs at the elementary and secondary levels. Each intervention includes authentic reading and writing opportunities. The primary CIM interventions are: Interactive Writing (K-1), Guided Reading Plus (1-3), Writing Aloud (2-5+) and Comprehension Focus Group (3-8+). Interventionists choose the intervention the best matches the students’ needs to accelerate their literacy growth.

Part of the power of the CIM is that it aligns with classroom instruction. SDW adopted the Comprehensive Literacy Model (CLM) as our framework for universal literacy instruction several years ago. This framework has afforded our learners the opportunity to take advantage of powerful literacy instruction in the form of whole class minilessons, small group instruction and one-on-one conferring. Interventionists implementing CIM interventions work to align their instruction, language and curriculum with our universal instruction. This congruence and collaboration with universal/classroom teachers enhance and accelerate the learning for our readers and writers.

One of the key elements for using the CIM is to use highly trained teachers. SDW has created a training protocol that any teacher wishing to implement a CIM intervention must go through. At this time, SDW is working to train teachers in the various CIM interventions. Title 1 buildings all have CIM Specialists who can implement several of the interventions. There are also some literacy coaches and middle school interventionists who have gone through training for certain CIM interventions. In the near future, we will be training some non-Title elementary teachers in GRP who will then be able to implement that intervention.

Implementing and growing the CIM in SDW is truly exciting! Our interventionists are thoughtfully assessing and matching the best intervention for each learner, collaborating around these learners with classroom teachers, working from an asset model, and growing self-regulated, strategic readers and writers. Knowing this work and student progress is on the rise makes us feel extremely optimistic on where we are headed. If you are interested in learning more about the CIM, you can check out Chapter 1 of Interventions That Work, connect with your building Title 1 Teacher, Literacy Coach or SDW CIM/Literacy Intervention Coach.

1 - Interventions That Work: A Comprehensive Intervention Model for Preventing Reading Failure (2012), Dorn & Soffos

Written by: Wendy Hamilton, SDW CIM/Literacy Intervention Coach & Trainer

The past cannot be changed, the future is yet in your power

With state performance data being released to school districts this week, administration and teaching staff alike will experience emotions that span the high/low continuum.  In the end, each school district and school will need to respond to the data in a way that grows student performance moving forward.  I recently listened to a discussion on Waukesha's 2017-2018 Wisconsin Forward Assessment results.  As I listened and reflected, I began to think of the SAIL work and goals that each building has dedicated that last 2+ years to.  I reminded myself that true, long-lasting change takes time, especially when you are instituting new and/or changing old practices.  While we all want to see an immediate result from our efforts, we are frequently reminded about that tortoise analogy and, I guess it applies here as well.  Since patience is not something I am particularly good at, my attention immediately shifted to actionable steps that we can take now to impact the end result.  One of the areas of focus for the District Director team is that of intentional planning for student learning.  Are students learning?  How do we know?  How can we respond to students who are not learning?  Many if not all schools are currently taking steps to strengthen the building PLC, SST, and PST process so that the questions posed above have a platform to be discussed and problem solved.  Scheduling and engaging in these problem-solving practices with fidelity will prove great benefit for the collective success of the students in each building in the end.

Honoring Hispanic Heritage is Everyday Work

Honoring Hispanic Heritage is Everyday Work

This youtube video was courageously made by SDW Parents to help us to get to know and understand them as vital partners in education.  

Leaders, at every level of our organization, take the next step to set up a viewing of this short film to build the collective capacity of our staff to include ALL of our community.  

Join the conversation on FLIP GRID



*Ms. Sarahi Monterrey, Wisconsin Teacher of the Year and North ESL Teacher, curated and created this film in service to our community and commitment to the voiceless.

NOV 6th Language Learners and Special Needs

Description:

All Administrators 8am-12pm, and School Psychologists, Speech and Language and Dual Language Special Educators 8am-4pm, are asked to attend a workshop on:

November 6, 2018

Language Learning and Disability At West High School

This session will be facilitated by Professor Courtney Siedel, UW Madison Associate Clinic Professor Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders

Professor Siedel offers this learning as part of a grant to support new teachers to the field of Special Education, and as an added bonus, she is able to create an experience for this targeted group.

AM Objectives for learning:

Identify red flags for language disorders in the ELL population

Complete a guided reflection on an ELL student from your school/district

Receive a "toolkit" to support documenting concerns prior to referral

Break for Lunch 

PM Objectives for Learning:

Increase collaboration between special education staff and ELL staff during the evaluation process

Consider if standardized assessment is appropriate for the bilingual population

Understand the important components of a bilingual language evaluation report

All In.

Educators enter into this field for a variety of reasons. I have previously spoke about these passionate individuals and the various reasons for selecting this as a career when others question that choice. We give so much of ourselves to this profession and it can extend beyond a typical day or duty.

Becoming a member of a school team is part of the "signing on" process. You find clothes and shoes in your school colors. You put stickers on your computer so that when you are working at the coffee shop, people understand that you work at a school. You rock spirit wear on Fridays (and wish for more days to rep your school if it includes jeans). You attend social events with your co-workers and school events to help foster the relationships with students. You may even be lucky enough to chaperone a dance!  Some staff members bleed their school colors and are all in--dressing up for spirit days, while others may not be all in. Being all in for a brand new staff member may take some time.

Recently, I was at Waukesha North visiting with a new technology education teacher to the district and profession. We spent some time talking through the first two weeks to see how it went, what support and resources were needed, and just the general feeling so far. Toward the end of our chat, a student came in to see this teacher so I went on my way.

Fast forward twenty minutes. I am leaving the parking lot and see that same student who stopped in my the teacher. She was on her cell phone and her spare tire was out. As I drove past, I noticed the brand new tech ed teacher, in his dress clothes, on his prep or lunch, changing this student's tire. This is all in. This is helping students be a part of our big Waukesha family and feel safe. This is building relationships. This is going above and beyond. Kudos to our new family member for being all in...in September.