For+Friday+the+6th

Assignments Due. Read Handout from //The Power of Their Ideas//. Connect same to DI and other class discussions.

Discussion.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this reading seems to talk about all of the things we have been learning in this course. It seems to me that the teachers at schools like CPE and CPESS teach in a differentiated manner. This article speaks of introducing, " two-hour interdisciplinary class periods that [and] demanded exhibitions - projects - rather than short-answer written tests." They go on to talk about providing time for presentations seminars, group works, and independent study. This (as it occurs to me) would give their students more opportunities to connect with material and learn. In addition, the community seems to be established with diversity in mind.
 * Reaction to //The Power of Their Ideas//, and in turn, its connections to DI.**

The school(s) seem to be developed with Zull's learning theory in mind as well. There seemed to be concrete experience (students aren't leaving school successful), reflective observation (schools that weren't meeting the needs of the students), abstract hypothesis (idea of new schools), active testing (creation of new situation).

I finished reading this handout, and two statements are sticking with me.
 * 1) "Not only are good schools hard to replicate, but they aren't even easily compared to one another!"
 * 2) "Good schools. like good societies and good families, celebrate and cherish diversity."

The more I read those two statements, the more I want to connect them with what we are learning. It seems that the first statement speaks true to differentiated lessons/instruction. There are TONS of ways to teach content to students in an effective manner. However, it is very difficult to compare each type of lesson with one another. Then, one needs to ask themself...why do I have this inherent need to draw this comparison? The bottom line should be whether the student outcome is positive and successful. Did they connect with the content?

The second statement really stuck with me too. I almost want to change it to: Good schools, like good learning communities (made up of good families), and good instructional practices, celebrate and cherish diversity. Okay, so it needs some revision, but hopefully everyone reading this sees the connection that is there to DI. :) See you all tomorrow morning! **-LG**

What I found very striking and very positive, which I think is related to the ideas of differentiation and perhaps complex instruction as well is the transparency of the educational institution and process that Meier describes. This is also something Paul brought up, which i really liked. I think a lot of teachers, myself included, react to our fear and don't always invite outside eyes (or even inside eyes) into what we are doing in the classroom. I believe the fear is that I will be exposed as a fraud. Both DI and Zull's ideas about brain-based instruction seem to point to a greater transparency in the following respects: 1) students, in being made partners in their own learning process, will necessarily need to know more about the logic and objectives behind learning activities and teacher decisions. This is especially true because students will often be the best source of information about where they individually fall in the various spectra of readiness, interest, and learning style. The more we can let them know about the design of our lessons, the better empowered they will be to place themselves in a productive position within those spectra. Even when we are dictating to them where we would like them, they will be better able to accept that our judgments have their learning at heart. 2)Parents, particularly of high school students have a lot of anxiety about their offspring being well-positioned for what's next. As Tomlinson points out, differentiated instruction can seem a little loopy to some parents, if they don't understand the ideas behind it. Perhaps more importantly, and this is probably where Web-based postings by teacher and students can be a real boon, the less we can leave parents in the dark about the impressive things their kids are doing //right now// the more we are likely to assuage their cold sweats about Princeton in three years. One of my goals for the coming year is to be proactive about inviting a range of observers into my classroom and my brain, rather than reacting in a panic when someone exhibits curiosity about what I'm doing. TA

AGREED LAURIE!!! The second of your selected statements (" good schools, like good socieites and good families, celebrate and cherish diversity") was, in my opinion, of the most profound that were included in this reading. I think that this reading, in a way, centered around this statment in it's entirety. This reading displayed students of all kinds coming to the table with many different backgrounds, and many different needs. Each student came with a unique situation, both academically and socially. I can't imagine teaching in such a diverse situation with social backgrounds such as these (although it would be an irreplaceable learning experience). I can imagine that, at times, it is difficult to embrace diversity without judgment or preaching. One of the examples that was given that I know I would have a difficult time with came in the very beginning of the reading with the young woman who had just had a baby and brought it into class. The narrator dictates the emotional struggle that comes with embracing this tender situation in a way that doesn't necessarily encourage, but doesn't "look down onto" either. I think that embracing all types of cultures and elements of diversity is in itself a way of incorporating DI. Sometimes we try and find the different types of learners (visual vs. verbal vs. physical etc.) and accommodate to their learning styles. However, at Zull points out with teaching through emotions, sometimes the best way of Differentiating Instruction is to try and hit home plate (sensitively!!) with individuals and their diverse backgrounds. JB

Wow. This narrative exemplified what potential a community can have when educators, parents and students align together towards a common goal of positive education. I loved how this story told the tale of a beginning school, trying to make a difference and beating the odds, just like the students in their halls were trying to do each day. What made this school so special was the desire to make it work, step by step, from the teachers, school board, parents and teachers. When this happens, the opportunities are endless. I have to admit that while I was fortunate in my education and conformed to the traditionalist education given to me, I longed for more creativity and variety in my classes. By my senior year I was longing for something like CES, where education would “challenge their (my) curiosity, to build on their (my) natural drive toward competence.”[21]

The major themes discussed in this class appear to be representative in CES and CPESS. Differentiation and collaboration was key to inquiry. Deborah Meier stated, “The curriculum we sought was both conceptual and tangible.”[21]. They focus much of their attention on an interweaving of ideas from both the classroom and the home. “As we have grown in our understanding and in practical skills, we have also been obliged to reexamine the relationships between school and family.” I loved this idea and strive to do this more and more in my own classroom. I love to call parents for the good reasons and I also do not mind “the other” type of calls. I see them both as an opportunity to connect with someone who knows my student as a person. I had a parent call me this year and we spoke for thirty minutes. When I told one of my colleagues about my phone call she made a face and said, “jeez I am SORRY!” I shrugged my shoulders and said it wasn’t so bad, I learned a lot.” Learning a lot about home can only help the person sitting in front of you Monday through Friday from September until June.

I did have a few knitty gritty questions related to CES and their functionality within New York State. First of all, it seemed as though CES was more of a charter school developed from public funds, but serving only a select number of students (based on a lottery). Was I correct with this title or was it something else?

//Tara, I feel a little like the narrator of the old radio program I used to listen to, The Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto..."Return with us now to those glorious days of yesteryear, when out of the West come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse [|Silver.].." . In 1967, things were running [|amock in the NYC schools]. Meier talks about this a bit on the third page. The system had laid off hundreds of teachers, open education had been declared officially "dead," many people holding teachers responsible for breeding the attitudes they saw through their television's images of city riots, parents were demanding community councils to run their schools. The system was imploding. Meier had been a kg teacher and an early childhood educator schooled in the traditions of the [|British Infant Schools]. Curriculum came from observing children at play, teaching was more provisioning than directing, groups of children were mixed and called family groups. In short, good teaching meant you watched what captured children's fascinations, and and extended their learning into new territory, always with an eye to what could be personal and (as she says) tangible. Big ideas were central and seemingly learning never ended. You just went on pursuing other questions. The skills of reading and writing and computing were blended into these interest driven curricula. Teachers studied the work of children to decide where to take their activity next. Meier was differentiating long before we had to codify the practice and put a name to it. I have a sneaky suspicion Carole Ann Tomlinson was as well. So, no, these weren't Charter Schools designed to break up public education to form a kind of private education on public funds. They were community based schools, fully public, and schools of choice. Remember, this is NYC and there are lots of schools to choose from. They had lots of problems getting going, but they had remarkable successes even in their failure to convince the doubtful policy-making public that giving parents choice and giving children a greater degree of intellectual freedom, all encompassed by incredibly direct teacher input, was a good thing to do.

This all happened about the time a young graduate student at Harvard by the name of Howard Gardner had completed his study of the effects of severe head trauma on human cognition. He chose to work with a mentor by the name of [|Jerome Bruner], an internationally known cognitive psychologist, an interpreter of Piaget, and the author of The Process of Education//. //That choice helped shape his study of intelligences and his subsequent research into schooling that was designed to take advantage of children's multiple strengths and abilities.// //(Bruner, by the way studied with Ralph Tyler and Tyler was one of Dewey's graduate assistants.)//

I believe some of these questions stem from jealousy and I hope to explain my feeling in the next few sentences. The author noted that rather take the New York State Mandated Regents Examinations (aka the vain of my existence from age 14 until 18) students at CPESS worked with a “performance or portfolio based graduation.” Why is this an acceptable form of assessment for CPESS, but not for other schools in New York State? I remember the feeling of animosity I had towards the Regents Examinations, state mandated standardized tests in every subject in high school, and eagerly searched for an alternative. I can honestly say that the Regents Examinations are the reason I did not search for a teaching job in New York State. If CES is having such amazing results using a performance-based assessment (which I would agree with), why is it that their model cannot be expanded throughout the state and country? //Groups of teachers have to gather in small places and agree to work together with a common vision of what schooling has to be. There are few ways to start over in American's schools, and not enough time or will power to re-orient what we are doing. As you know, many teachers are happy being dissatisfied with the status quo and blaming their lack of success on the kids and their families. cr// What will happen to CPESS and CES with relation to NCLB? I am sure the energy and vigor that made the institution so successful will not be brushed aside, but will it be change? Where was CPESS for so many of my fellow High School friends that needed an alternative and instead chose to drop out? I appreciated this reading and saw it has a relief that maybe just maybe, things are changing for the better in New York State. This certainly was a useful resource to end our time together. //If you haven't checked out the [|Coalition] of Essential Schools, do. cr// **Tara**

I found this article really interesting. It seems to me that even attending CES or CPESS is kind of DI. Even though there is a lottery the student has more choice in their education. I have heard that as teachers one of our big jobs is to teacher students how to deal with life after high school (college, jobs, etc). I think that the CES and CPESS schools do a better job with this than most public schools do. The article mentions have extended blocks of time (2 hours) to work on interdisciplinary lessons and having to do portfolios to demonstrate what the students have learned. This seems to be more true to the real world; the article brings up the point that we don't have six or eight supervisors in one day. I think this set up also plays into what we have been discussing about Zull. Zull said that we have to have concrete experiences and a chance to test our hypothesis. I think that having the longer classes allows students time to create and test their hypothesis during one class, which will lead to student understanding and learning. //And she writes about all the ways they do this: presentations, seminars, group discussions, projects, portfolios, exhibitions...all fueled by those five habits of mind. cr// I find that with shorter classes (50 min) students don't have enough time to ask their questions or further explore a topic. This reminded me of when Zull was talking about stepping in for another teacher and how the students didn't really learn much from his previous lesson. I think this is what happens to students in those shorter classes, they get info but don't learn it. With the extended time students would have a chance to explore the topic and form concrete experiences (DI). HB

I liked this article because a group of teachers and parents stood their ground and basically said we want more for our children and we know it won't be easy but we need to make someserious changes. Change is never easily accepted as it may suggest you have to really work hard at something and not see immediate results.

CPE and CPESS based the foundation of their schools on the idea of "progressive education". It should be child-centered and community centered as well. I like the thought of gearing our public education towards individuals performance or portfolio based graduation which forces students to demonstrate their knowledge/ competence instead of written tests where it's easier for kids to "regurgitate" the information.

Perhaps the part that stuck with me the most from this article and shows DI is when Meier talks about how they prepare students for the real world at CPESS by implementing two hour class periods which allowed time for presentations, group work and independent study. They demanded ehibitions and projects rather than written tests. This whole idea allows for DI to take place in the classroom so that students have more time for exploring topics and also having class discussions at the end of these activities to have questions answered or just provide some feedback. This part is often left out of classrooms because of time restraints. This was proven effective by alumni and improvement in numbers for the CPE and CPESS.

The idea of students and faculty taking responsibility for their schools and education is a hard one to follow. The focus is the students and how they learn, making their education "personalized", which initself is DI. -HH

--The entire makeup and design of CPE and CPEE suggests many levels of differentiation that spawned from circumstances were the traditional methods simply were not working. From the overall practices and policies of the CPE as described by the author: "In short, we give less advice, are less prescriptive. We try not to suggest obvious ‘solutions,’ like having a quite homework area or buying an alarm clock. We listen with a more critical ear to what we say to parents, wondering how we would hear it as parents ourselves and about how children may interpret the relationship as well. We invite students, four-year-olds and eighteen-year-olds, to join teacher/parent conferences, viewing such conferences as joint school/family problem solving sessions in which all parties share information. Since relationships take time to build, we keep kids and teachers together for two years when we can." ; right down to their graduation project which was no ordinary measure: "…Performance or portfolio-based graduation requires our students to prepare tangible demonstrations of their knowledge and competence rather than accumulating "seat-time" credits or grades on multiple choice tests." What occurred at these facilities was great and by no means small in stature. They took risks and alternative methods and ran with them, but is this example circumstantial. -- Dan



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Schedule for the Friday the 6th
 * Gathering / CyberCafe before 8am (Repeat from Thursday.)
 * Report In and Discussion of Readings - 8am in 426.
 * Charlie Time
 * Focusing on Multiple Abilities in a DI environment
 * Inclusion through the back door: Assigning Competence
 * Reports
 * Tara 945
 * Hannah 1000
 * Heidi 1015
 * Jenni 1030
 * Dan 1045
 * Dan 1045