For as long as I can remember, (as it applies to school anyway) I've been hearing about the achievement gap. In high school it was only on the news, and I was baffled by these other kids that seemed to be just like me but couldn't seem to test as well as me. When I went to college it was about my students who, I was told, would consistently score lower than the students of my suburban counterparts. In my thinking I eventually came to a conclusion, one that seems to be already known but consistently ignored nonetheless.
The most important thing that we as a country and more specifically we as teachers can and need to do for our struggling students, is give them a place to learn. More than what we teach, in a way even more than how we teach, the environment that we create in which our students learn has all the meaning in the world.
This week I read three different books for my classes, Smagorinskis' "Teaching English by design", Beach's "Teaching to exeed the english language arts common core standards" and Tomlinson/ Mctighe's "Integrating differentiation instruction and understanding by design". Reading these titles they may seem like overly technical books about education, but all you really need to know about them is that they are three books that teach Teachers how to teach. From these books I learned that "Differentiated instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach and how we teach. It's PRIMARY goal is ensuring that teachers focus on processes and procedures that ensure effective learning for varied individuals." (Tomlinson) and that "If your students percieve you as knowledgeable and excited about learning then they may be more likely to be excited." (Beach) and last but not least that "Achievement is a function of what you measure. By this I mean that students are judged to be good or bad...according to some means and focus of measurement...but these measurements are restricted to students' memory of official knowledge." (Smagorinski) Seemingly unrelated they become a woven net with which we can launch our students over that old achievement gap as long as we understand one thing. Each one of those statements deals with the environment that we as teachers create in our classrooms, and whether that environment encourages our students to risk, make mistakes, explore, even to create.
In Tomlinson there is the goal that a teacher can by making certain teaching choices for each of their students create an environment in which each feels safe to explore, whether they be gifted, dislexic or just ELL. By changing the way we impart knowledge to our students, by changing the way that they themselves learn in the classroom, by changing even the way we asses the knowledge that they have gained we can change the way our students feel when they walk into our classroom. We can help them feel safe in taking risks.
In Beach we see the power the teacher has in making the classroom a place where learning is interesting, is worth their time if only to give them a bit of happiness during the day. When I originally started my path to teaching I got into it because I loved reading and wanted to share that love with the world! And while now I want to teach for other reasons, that love and want is still there and I have been told by both observers and my students that it is infectious.
And finally in Smagorinski we see the dystopian future of education if we continue to create and prioritize the classrooms that exist today. When our students come into our classrooms they are not robotic parrots. They have minds and personalities that make learning and teaching fun and interesting, (if a bit exhausting at times). But if we teach to tests, where rote memory is privileged over any sort of creativity, then our students will fly their nuts and bolts home to become cogs in an overly specialized society.
It may be overly idealistic to think all this is possible, but in today's day and age, with teaching what it has become, if we can't do this then why teach at all? So for better or worse I choose to believe change is good.
The most important thing that we as a country and more specifically we as teachers can and need to do for our struggling students, is give them a place to learn. More than what we teach, in a way even more than how we teach, the environment that we create in which our students learn has all the meaning in the world.
This week I read three different books for my classes, Smagorinskis' "Teaching English by design", Beach's "Teaching to exeed the english language arts common core standards" and Tomlinson/ Mctighe's "Integrating differentiation instruction and understanding by design". Reading these titles they may seem like overly technical books about education, but all you really need to know about them is that they are three books that teach Teachers how to teach. From these books I learned that "Differentiated instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach and how we teach. It's PRIMARY goal is ensuring that teachers focus on processes and procedures that ensure effective learning for varied individuals." (Tomlinson) and that "If your students percieve you as knowledgeable and excited about learning then they may be more likely to be excited." (Beach) and last but not least that "Achievement is a function of what you measure. By this I mean that students are judged to be good or bad...according to some means and focus of measurement...but these measurements are restricted to students' memory of official knowledge." (Smagorinski) Seemingly unrelated they become a woven net with which we can launch our students over that old achievement gap as long as we understand one thing. Each one of those statements deals with the environment that we as teachers create in our classrooms, and whether that environment encourages our students to risk, make mistakes, explore, even to create.
In Tomlinson there is the goal that a teacher can by making certain teaching choices for each of their students create an environment in which each feels safe to explore, whether they be gifted, dislexic or just ELL. By changing the way we impart knowledge to our students, by changing the way that they themselves learn in the classroom, by changing even the way we asses the knowledge that they have gained we can change the way our students feel when they walk into our classroom. We can help them feel safe in taking risks.
In Beach we see the power the teacher has in making the classroom a place where learning is interesting, is worth their time if only to give them a bit of happiness during the day. When I originally started my path to teaching I got into it because I loved reading and wanted to share that love with the world! And while now I want to teach for other reasons, that love and want is still there and I have been told by both observers and my students that it is infectious.
And finally in Smagorinski we see the dystopian future of education if we continue to create and prioritize the classrooms that exist today. When our students come into our classrooms they are not robotic parrots. They have minds and personalities that make learning and teaching fun and interesting, (if a bit exhausting at times). But if we teach to tests, where rote memory is privileged over any sort of creativity, then our students will fly their nuts and bolts home to become cogs in an overly specialized society.
It may be overly idealistic to think all this is possible, but in today's day and age, with teaching what it has become, if we can't do this then why teach at all? So for better or worse I choose to believe change is good.
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