Tag Archives: differentiated instruction

Teaching Vocabulary: A Word to the Wise

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Vocabulary instruction! That tedious, necessary classroom evil that “promises” to increase SAT scores, create Pulitzer prize-winning writers and equip the best of lawyers and debaters! In teacher certification programs at the elementary level, methods students can learn fun, creative, contextual, meaningful, content/curriculum-related, research-based methods to teach vocabulary words for reading and speaking. And, as you well know, there are many different curricula that purport to teach vocabulary, well packaged into a workbook delivery system, with testing materials and answers to the workbook exercise questions to facilitate grading. One of the most popular of these curricula in independent as well as public schools is Wordly Wise. Now, before I continue, please take a moment, in the spirit of Wordly Wise, and fill in the blank (the cloze item) with the first word that comes to your mind.  Be honest and be prompt; do NOT overthink it.  Ready?  OK….

Fill in the blank with the “correct word”:

How many of you are __________________ enough to admit you love Wordly Wise?

I, for one, can think of nothing more entertaining than doing an entire chapter of such exercises before going to bed!  (I promise there’s no sarcasm here!) What did you answer, however? Here’s a possible word bank!

Brave              Stupid             Unabashed            Enthusiastic            Lazy

Resourceful   Practical         Creative                   Busy                       Honest

Go ahead!  Substitute your word or one of these and read the sentence aloud!

Personally, I get wonderfully charged when I teach or observe others teach elementary grade children vocabulary! What better privilege than to orchestrate amazingly meaningful opportunities, activities, lessons etc. for kids to expand their speaking vocabularies AND their reading vocabularies both independently and jointly! In the context of learning to read and write, students can experience joyful encounters with understanding and communicating more and more sophisticated meaning. Throughout my graduate school education, supervising teachers and consulting with schools and teachers, I have seen teachers truly make literature and content/subject matter alike “come alive” in a way that students embrace new words, express them, ask for them, celebrate them! Whether the elementary “lessons” were from teacher-created materials or from packaged materials like Wordly Wise, I have helped many a teacher transform a scripted curriculum into vibrant, meaningful lessons that promote developmentally appropriate literacy in the context of vocabulary acquisition. And, yes, the lessons complemented professional, “best” practices from the field of Elementary Education! (For amazing research and support, I must shout out to Dr. Dixie L. Spiegel and Dr. Jill Fitzgerald,  both at UNC-Chapel Hill, who taught me more about teaching reading than they could EVER know!)

ww3000_4th_covers

But, I have also experienced teachers and entire lower schools who embrace the “workbook curriculum” as merely one more thing to cover in a typical elementary school classroom… Accelerated Reader, cursive, Math facts, and Wordly Wise, for example. Moving through the material is the goal, nothing else, nothing more. Teachers, departments and even schools assume that if students have made it through 2nd grade Wordly Wise, then they will be ready for 3rd grade Wordly Wise, and, whenever the sequence finishes, they will be linguists and scholars and spelling bee winners and writers and orators, and more.  These educators assume that students can use these words in everyday and academic writing and speech without having practiced it in a relevant manner or context.

 

Case in Point:  Another Personal Story!

My son and a friend were in an elementary class where the entire school praised Wordly Wise. As the entire class went through Chapter 1, my son and his friend quickly stood out as already knowing the majority of the words in that chapter, and the next, and the next. In September, I discovered that the two boys were told to stop raising their hands to answer the questions from the exercises that the whole class was doing at the same pace at the same time:  section A on Monday, Section B on Tuesday, Section C on Wednesday, Section D on Thursday and the Chapter multiple choice test on Friday.  I suggested that my son already knew the words and that the two boys could help do supplemental videos and presentations for the class, presentations that put the words into relevant, age-appropriate contexts for all. With the amazing technology the school boasts, the boys would get to write and “speak” the words in an enjoyable way with skits, news broadcasts, interviews, etc.. The teacher did not respond, offended that a parent would tell her how to teach. The Division Head said she liked the idea, but she needed to know that the boys “already knew the words” before they could be allowed to do “NON-workbook exercises.”

I recommended designing an entire Wordly Wise curriculum and instruction “packet,” divided by thematic unit/chapter with lessons in the form of a “template” of how this might be done. I would offer my services for free! The Division Head asked me to put it in writing for her. I did. She received it and did not address me or the issue again until JANUARY!!! 

Here is what I suggested could be done FOUR months prior to this response. My son’s teacher would give the entire class the Wordly Wise PRE-test- really just the chapter test as a diagnostic to see which students knew most of which words. Then, for day 2, she could let the small group of students (those missing 3 or less from the 25 words for the week) work on learning the ones they “missed” on the pre-test. Then, during days 3 and 4, that group could work on a skit or a video or whatever else would communicate the 10 most frequently missed words out of the rest of the class as assessed by the Monday diagnostic. In the meantime, the rest of the class did the doldrums of discreet point workbook exercises C and D. Friday, the small group could present its work to the rest of the students to “prime” them for the “post-test,” ensuring one last time that the weaker students would see and/or hear a meaningful use of the most unknown words. I designed the “packet” for the Division Head, as the teacher was getting a bit annoyed at the fact that I was calling attention to the travesty that my son and his friend were told to read or sit in their seat and NOT volunteer to answer question from September until January every time the whole class did Wordly Wise exercises! (Which was every day!)

AGAIN……   

The Division head responded to my curriculum proposal in two ways.  YOU can determine the appropriateness of her responses. First she told me she was going to “deliver” the curriculum packet to Matthew’s teacher as if she, herself, had thought of the idea. She wanted me to delete all reference to me, my son, etc. and make it “generic” since it would not be well-received coming from a parent. I obliged the next day. Second, after another 6 weeks not responding, she called me and told me that my ideas were not working because everyone was studying the vocabulary on the weekend so they could get a good grade on the pre-test and not have to do anything else with Wordly Wise for the rest of the week! (overt versus covert curriculum?!?!) The teacher had not even tried to implement the application activities of writing and presenting original works with the words. She merely told the students if they scored well, they would get to read or sit quietly like Matthew and his friend! The Division Head told me she had a terrific solution for the teacher and was merely calling me to tell me she had “solved” the issue! When I asked what that solution was, the Division Head proudly stated, “I just told the teacher the kids can’t take their Wordly Wise workbooks home with them on Fridays. That way they can’t study and they won’t know all the words!!!!!”

FOR THE THIRD TIME….   

I was at CVS at that moment, and I cried publicly as I hung up the phone. The next day, I arranged for alternative instruction in Language Arts for my son during the regularly scheduled time. It was April by then, and my son had done literally nothing in Language Arts class but sit quietly, and, “read” for 7 months! If you follow this blog, he is twice exceptional. Does he migrate to “reading” anything on his own? NO! He is dyslexic. Was he given enjoyable things to do with his “reading?” NO! His reading vocabulary almost matches his above average speaking vocabulary if/when the words are pronounced to him once. Could he, along with the classmates who had already “mastered” a chapter’s thematic set of vocabulary, have presented their classmates with enjoyable, meaningful ways to acquire new vocabulary? Absolutely!

The Issues

Yes, this one is personal! After all, this blog is called MY education education. The issues have had 8 years to settle. So, in honor of Wordly Wise and all those teachers I know who use curriculum materials as TOOLS and not the curriculum itself, and to those teachers who may not be at a place to see the issues surrounding the use of such an AMAZING curriculum as Wordly Wise, here are some of the main issues I see in this “story.”

NOTE:  I can discuss many issues related to this story. Therefore, in honor of my trying to learn to be briefer in this blog medium, I will not elaborate much. Hopefully, this will encourage you to ask questions and/or reply to the blog!

  1. Over-Reliance on Curriculum Materials

Curriculum packages always reflect pedagogical, philosophy and psychoeducational assumptions that may or may not be accurate or appropriate. They are, in short, convenient! Using these packages as they are scripted without allowing students the dignity to see their relevance or to help transfer the knowledge and skills to real-life contexts is a crime against the students and their families.

Related issues:

–Parent or supervisor fear or inability to challenge a teacher mid-year

-Over-commitment to an approach and long-term plans (unwillingness

to change)

-School’s unspoken “rule” that parents may not interfere with a teacher

  1. Supervisory Weakness and Insecurity

When parents complain to a teacher’s supervisor after they have gone civilly and pleasantly to the teacher first, and when the complaint is as egregiously in conflict with the entire school’s mission as this one, a supervisor must take the strong stand and go to the teacher with support. If the supervisor does not have anything to offer the teacher to resolve the situation and feels insecure or threatened (which is very often the case), is it the student who must suffer almost 8 months of zero growth? Where is the humility to admit the need for a solution and perhaps ask for help? Or, does the supervisor actually believe her “solution” of keeping students from “learning” a system to get out of busy work is quality instructional advice? IDK. YOU be the judge!

Related issue:

–Teacher’s/Administrator’s/School’s fear, embarrassment or intimidation (or anger?) that a parent (albeit, a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction) might know more than they

-As a corollary, is this not just an example of educator arrogance?

  1. Differentiated, CREATIVE instruction is not that hard for small classes!

Is it that hard to manage a few kids in a class of 18 and who happen to have an already strong background knowledge of the vocabulary (or any curriculum for that matter) in a way that challenges that few to grow and integrates their work into the life of the whole class and in a way that helps ALL students? Isn’t that differentiated instruction? Isn’t that the essence of designing creative lessons for an individual class? The research is there! The training is there! ONLY IF THE HUMILITY, ENTHUSIASM AND PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY ARE THERE, TOO!

  1. False Advertising

This is just a pet peeve of mine! If a school, such as a “grammar school” or a very traditional boarding/prep school, proudly advertises the kind of instruction that is merely to beat discreet point information into the heads of kids and then testing and micromanaging students to “succeed,” then I have absolutely no grounds to complain here! As it goes, however, my son’s school boasted instruction and resources such as state-of-the-art technology that would help teach the “whole child” 21st Century skills in a “hands-on” environment with small classes and personalized attention and a commitment to let the students express their creativity in plastic and performing arts. Blah, blah, blah, blah! This is, indeed, why my wife and I chose the school! I, as a professional educator, believed this to be the best environment for my children. So, are prescribed curricula even to be a part of such an advertised “promise?” I could hire a college freshman to “homeschool” my children with such materials for a much lower cost.

  1. Overt Versus Covert Curriculum

When supervising a student teacher, I love to challenge her to ponder the difference between what SHE THINKS her goals and objectives are (overt curriculum) versus what her STUDENTS THINK her goals and objectives are (covert curriculum). There is a delicate, negotiated blending of overt versus covert curricula. Students are notorious for practicing what I call LAW (Least Amount of Work)! A teacher may BELIEVE she is teaching vocabulary and inspiring erudite dialogues, sophisticated, academic conversation! But students’ LAW practices reduce the teacher’s efforts to the bare minimum. In this case, the students just wanted out of tedious, boring, routine exercises, so they memorized the definitions of the word. In addition, they wanted “free time,” which is “leave-me-alone” time.

  1. Misrepresentation of Learning Differences

Matthew knew the words, but needed ways to “read” and “speak” them that would solidify his giftedness in the right way. Many dyslexics are labelled as “lazy” because they do not choose academic work for pleasure and, at times, find it hard to follow the directions and sequences of traditional methods, seemingly distracted and wandering lazily. Matthew’s teacher’s solution to “let him read” left him to his own devices with no accountability. His only directive was NOT to bother the others in the class. So… he learned laziness… a laziness that says “If I do not bother you, I deserve to do nothing. I don’t need to develop any more academically since I already get it.” Nothing could be farther from the truth! But even today, we battle with our son’s initiative to “make his thinking visible.” (See Ron Richhart, Mark Church and Karen Morrison). Teaching to learning differences should synergize into instruction that encourages all students to achieve, not encourage poor or even stereotyped habits in those who may struggle or who may be academically gifted!

Positives

-I was able to teach my son academic reading comprehension strategies using a college remedial reading textbook! (Yes, I’m bragging!)

-I was available to step in where he was slipping and where he was being neglected! Not all dads have that luxury or that ability.

-I kept my cool from September to April! For those of you who choose to intervene with your child’s education/educators when it is necessary, you know it is difficult to exercise patience. For me, I credit my amazing wife to helping me be calm and collected.

-I wrote a really great curriculum guide to use the already awesome Wordly Wise curriculum! So much work and attention had gone into the final draft of that specific personal curriculum guide, and, in the hands of a competent teacher (or a dorky, overzealous word snob and curriculum specialist such as myself), the curriculum plan includes an abundance of creativity that can draw on all the students’ strengths while energizing them to work on understanding vocabulary in context. The strategies suggested for each of the thematic units I designed are based on sound pedagogical principles and adaptable to any schools’ overall curriculum. If you’d like to hire me to consult on how, give me a message.

Negatives

-You can’t get those 7.5 months back at a crucial time in habit and intellect development.

-WHY DO SCHOOLS BUILD SUCH CLOSED COMMUNITIES?

-Why do parents have to take extreme measures in order to help their child in a school?

-What would have happened to my son if his entire 4th grade Language Arts was a vacuum? A student can go 7.5 months doing nothing in class, his parents can approach the teacher, the Division Head and the Principal about it and it raises no red flags nor changes? And, think about it! If Matthew had been in a public school, he would have been delinquent from school while I taught him myself; there would have been no option to pull him out for better instruction. He would have been condemned to the same professional negligence for rest of the academic year.

-Why don’t (can’t?) teachers ask for help?  

-Why don’t (can’t?) administrators listen to parents (especially those in the business)?

-Why don’t (can’t?) administrators help teachers who are experiencing a glitch in what they’ve laid out for the academic year? We all know things don’t always go swimmingly as planned from the beginning to the end of the school year?

-Why are teachers and administrators so committed to “academic freedom” that they protect, promote and even perpetuate practices (and even support teachers) that are not educationally sound?

-MOST IMPORTANTLY, we may only fight this battle in the elementary grades. After that, the practice of, not the research on, mindful vocabulary teaching in the middle and high school level is almost inexistent. Teachers in the middle grades and above rely solely on the vocabulary list at the end of each chapter of their textbook to “teach their students what they need to know.” The enhancement of literacy skills in a respective discipline never appears in the lesson plan. Content Area Reading Comprehension Instruction is absent completely.

CONCLUSION

I so enjoy helping teachers design creative, meaningful and “literacy-oriented” vocabulary instruction, in English as a first language or in any second language! With the proper context, students naturally fall in love with words, including understanding and expressing clear, sophisticated ideas and meaning. A small percentage of the population (Suzy and Sam Suckups, see prior blog post) will easily apply the most boring of instruction in vocabulary to their own verbal inclination. But, almost all students will benefit from vocabulary instruction that is based on a broad and deep application of pedagogy! And from Kindergarten through College! Someone, whether teacher, supervisor or other administrator ought to have the courage to challenge the blanket and uninspiring/uninspired delivery of a scripted vocabulary curriculum, or any curriculum for that matter! Be brave! Reach out! To me or any other capable professional who can put you on the right path. Let me hear from you!

 

Who needs a 504 plan anyway? Part II

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THE SECOND STORY

Which would you prefer to do: memorize a long list of prepositions to then write them out for a teacher or use a list of prepositions to describe your room or your favorite place by writing in a way that the reader can draw that space, including everything in it? Your answer to that question may reveal your preferred mode of learning or teaching, but the latter, when taught with appropriate professional techniques, assumes you understand the former. Never, including in the 8th grade, did my daughter need a 504 Plan. prepostions-complete-1But she did need an awakening of her spirit, that verbal, happy, creative little girl that had acquiesced to a compliant vomiting mouth of information in the 7th grade. You see, in the 7th grade, I encountered my daughter memorizing a list of prepositions. I simply asked her, “What IS a preposition and why do you need to know more of them?” She could not answer, dismissed me brusquely, and stated that the test was to write the first half of the list tomorrow and the next half the next day. I walked away sad and silent.

In the 8th grade, however, my daughter was again studying prepositions, and I asked her the same question. She smiled and said, “Dad, if you’re trying to describe something in relation to something else, you’re always going to need a preposition. Look at my description of my room. I can’t describe one thing in my room in relation to another without using a preposition. My bed is next to my closet. My pillows are supposed to be on my bed, but they are either under it or out of sight!” Yes, you guessed it! I walked out of that encounter beaming with tears of joy! She was back! The humor, the voice, the redundancy and verbosity she so naturally gets from me, LOL! It was there, and all because of one teacher: Mrs. McNeer! Only a week later, I thought my daughter had gone to bed early or was sick or perhaps sad and locked up in her room. I knocked on the door to inquire if everything was OK.

She simply said, “I’m writing.”

Not wanting to pry too much, I said, “For English? For Mrs. McNeer?”

She said, “Sort of! She wrote me all these comments on my papers and said I can revise my writing any time I want. I’m not sure I want to turn it in for a grade, but she said she will always give me feedback about what I write. All I have to do is turn it in to her!”

[Silent, guarded weeping, LOL.] “Well,” I said, “She seems like a great teacher!”

Inside, however, I was screaming, “Did I just hear my daughter- the daughter who was so cynical about English that all she did was what it took to get an “A”??? Did I just hear her say the grade doesn’t matter?!?!?!? [More silent weeping]

ponderingLike Mary treasured in her heart all the angel had spoken to her regarding the Baby Jesus, I basked in the joy that a teacher is reaching my daughter and melting her hardened heart!! I would love to bore you with scenario after scenario regarding Mrs. McNeer, but I don’t want to lose readers (numbers, LOL) and I want you to know the effect she had on my son, as well! And, by the way, I probably wouldn’t bore you if I, personally, learned 8th grade English with Mrs. McNeer, but for now, you’ll have to settle for this ordinary writing style. So sorry!

Now, fast forward three years with my son’s 504 Plan! By the 8th grade, my son’s twice exceptionality and his compensation strategies for them had evolved into a mixed bag of attitude and charm with relatively high “academic achievement” in the form of grades. While he had brilliant ideas, he could not write them down without the help of speech-to-text dictation, which he gladly used when he could. When Mrs. McNeer joined “Team Matthew” to discuss the accommodations, I was confident all the teachers were going to rally as much as they were capable to make sure my son could accomplish as much as possible in relation to his potential.

sloppyI remember seeing my son’s first draft of his first writing assignment for Mrs. McNeer. I thought it was a 2nd grader’s hand-written word list. A week later, he was working on the same thing. When I asked him what he was doing, he matter-of-factly said, “Oh, Mrs. McNeer is going to try to have a conversation with me every time we need to revise so I can talk out my ideas before getting them on paper.” Wow! This one teacher is doing in her class, not as a mandated 504 strategy, the very thing I have been doing with EVERY one of his assignments, facilitating Matthew’s getting his ideas in a communicable format according to each of his different teachers’ expectations. For example, I would be his typist or he would dictate into his phone. She literally, in one gesture, streamlined his thinking and our evening home life! In the next weeks, I found my son on the couch writing on paper AND on his computer. I asked him about it and he said he was writing something else he really wanted to include in his portfolio for Mrs. McNeer’s class, that it wasn’t a requirement, but he had a great idea and he wanted Mrs. McNeer to edit it before he puts it into the portfolio!!!! [Yes, weeping and screeches of joy on the inside, a simple smile of gratitude and satisfaction on the outside.] childwritingWould that EVERY student have just ONE “McNeer” encounter along the journey of becoming a lifelong learner, writer and celebrant! My children carry Mrs. McNeer with them like a tattoo they can never hide nor will they ever choose to!

From the last post, I reiterate: Great teachers do not need a 504 Plan to reach every student! Matthew is currently learning rhetoric. When he talks about it, I know he is channeling the ideas, content, spirit and philosophy of Mrs. McNeer. Writing really is thinking on paper. For a twice exceptional student (dyslexic and dysgraphic with high academic potential), the physical act of writing on paper may not reflect the actual depth and quality of the “thinking.” A great teacher does not need a 504 Plan to help students reconcile these issues. Based on how Mrs. McNeer treated my daughter and my son, the 504 Plan was a mere inconvenient meeting to interrupt an amazing teacher’s gift to her students, the gift of inspiration, using English as a simple yet effective conduit! Forever, my wife and I are grateful!

THE ISSUES

-Clearly Stated Objectives: Not surprisingly, this story reintroduces the issue that students perform better and move off task less when they are clear about what they are being asked (taught) to do and why. Memorizing prepositions for the purpose of memorizing prepositions, with no opportunity to practice even the UNspoken objective of writing more clearly with them leaves students anxious with the wrong impressions. Yes, it is possible to memorize anything to regurgitate back onto a test. But, how does accomplishing the memorization task relate to the bigger picture? The students need clear, direct and authentic objectives that focus them toward realizing that bigger picture.

-Too Many Assumptions and Inappropriate Assessment: An issue related to the above is the following. Memorization of a list of prepositions does not help writer communicate more effectively using prepositions. Yet, teachers of every level and every content area make that kind of assumption regularly. Filling in the blank with the proper preposition in a set of cloze sentences (sentences with a word omitted and replaced with a blank) does not make a better writer. What makes a better writer by using prepositions is writing with prepositions. I DO mean to be crass and facetious here. It is the most common and most egregious error teachers make in education today. Easily fixed by proper teacher/lesson planning (one of my favorite and most anticipated blog topics), the blunder is hardly ever addressed at the teacher or administrative level because there simply is no time or expertise or context to offer the teachers the opportunity to change. Much of education is reduced to what Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins (awesome educational researchers, authors and consultants) have coined “Teach-test-hope-for-the-best.” Dump material, give a test (many times not even in the same mode as students were taught) and move to the next “unit” with little or no regard for how the students mastered the material nor how they can transfer knowledge and skills to new and more complex contexts. Certainly and sadly, exceptional students, students with learning differences, cannot make the jump from “list of prepositions” to “write a descriptive essay that describes all objects in your room.” Mrs. McNeer professionally helped the students see the need for precise word choice in the form of prepositions when describing something personal. In addition, she let students explore the use of prepositions with an authentic form of feedback (the drawing of the room) and using authentic content assessment standards. Writers can explore and experiment in a safe, literate context. This issue is explained below.

-Risk-taking, opportunity to practice and fail: There is a reason the legendary 6-point lesson plan had a “Guided Practice” section! [The 6-point lesson plan will be a topic for a complete subsequent blog entry! I can’t wait!] Not only is it fair to the students to be able to practice the material to be mastered with little or no risk, but it makes sense pedagogically, metacognitively, bikeboyriskneurologically, and more. Learners need to rehearse what is expected of them to do with feedback regarding their success and with little interfering performance anxiety. In this story, memorizing close to a hundred prepositions with no idea how they will be “tested” is both stressful and counterproductive.

-Proper feedback: Penalty-free risk-taking and proper boyconfidencefeedback from the teacher interact in a miraculous way to build confidence in the learner. If Sally can’t draw Johnny’s room accurately by reading Johnny’s description with prepositions, then Sally and Johnny can talk it out, using the very prepositions they are studying. The teacher can suggest more descriptive prepositions or even objects of prepositions. The whole time, Sally and Johnny are sharpening their description skills in a meaningful, literate (communicative) context.

-Motivating students without grades: The above issue, I know, is much easier said than done. It takes a great deal of professional training and practice to encourage students by planning respectful lessons that do not depend on grades. There are many approaches to handling students who are accustomed to grades and who refuse to do any practice if it is not graded. motivation_smThe bottom line in this story? Mrs. McNeer assigned meaningful work and practiced the patience of Job. She let the students know she valued their thoughts, that those thoughts would compile a personal portfolio that not only displayed their writing skills, but also their personalities, that is, the part of their personalities they wished to reveal in their writing- their VOICE! Then, with the big picture always in the back of their mind, students took risks, sometimes with abysmal results, but never in a way that discouraged them to try again. For my daughter to get her groove back and for my son to write on his own, proud of his work before, during and after publishing it to his portfolio? Miracles!

Mrs. McNeer? The angel mastermind!

-Learning to write or writing to learn: I want to suggest this issue in this context because minimal lip service is given in Education today to “Content Area Reading/Writing Instruction.” Every discipline has its own writing style, but in every discipline, students learn more of a subject content if they can write about it. The body of research that helps teachers incorporate their discipline’s literacy instruction into the lesson plans is vastly available. Every content area teacher is a writing instructor, but, with pressures such as standardized testing, “English” is now responsible for teaching writing while the rest of the subjects dump information in the form of facts into students’ heads, assuming students will be writing-to-learn-pd-for-staff-1-728able to write coherently about the full breadth and depth of each subject area. Just because I can do a matching test on the dates of a History test doesn’t mean I can write an analysis of the chronological events leading up to the American Civil War. Content and literacy need to interact during every level  of a child’s education, K-16 and beyond. Growth in literacy skills waxes and wanes in life according to how people’s interests grow and change.

THE POSITIVES

  • Yes, you guessed it! Mrs. McNeer rocks! I have told her multiple times, and I have nominated her 3 times for national teacher excellence awards! Every time I’ve had to write an essay to nominate her, and it has never “won!” I’m beginning to get a complex that maybe it’s my writing, LOL. nobelHow does an average writer nominate a great English teacher! I hope this at least legitimizes my expression of gratitude for her service to and compassion for my children!
  • I have not only seen teachers, departments and schools that do what is suggested in this story, but I have worked with traditional fact-dumping teachers who changed their focus. These teachers are set on fire when they realize they can “cover the material” in a way that helps students become “literate,” or at least a bit more literate, in their subject area. I’ve had History and Civics teachers whose students wrote politicians to ask them what their ideas are about Federalism. deltaI’ve had boring Spanish teachers inspiring students to listen to  news broadcasts in Spanish and tweeting what they heard in Spanish. Teachers and administrators can change, but change and this framework of teaching itself are both messy processes. If teachers  are not allowed to take risks, think what it is like for departments, schools and districts!
  • I would be remiss if I did not admit to a documented small percentage of students whose facility with language makes it seem effortless to memorize 100 prepositions and then to use those prepositions when she (and it’s usually a she) writes. I call these students Suzy and Sam Suck-up! The “go-to” students teachers know will answer any question posed in the classroom! All we educators know who these students are. “If only we could have 31 Suzies and Sams in our class, everything would be so much easier,” we silently verbalize to ourselves. To stay true to the “positives,” I’ll just say that my daughter is a Suzy. Mrs. McNeer not only brought my daughter out of the pits of discouragement and apathy from her 7th grade experience, but she taught my daughter the RIGHT stuff in spite of her verbal proclivity. My daughter can memorize vocabulary words like it’s following a waffle recipe. But, when I use big words in conversation with her, words I know she’s memorized for some grade-school teacher or the SAT, she does a double-take, trying to reconcile the difference between the memorization of such words and their use in everyday and academic communication. Mrs. McNeer did not let my daughter get away with a superficial memorization of anything. Whatever Hope learned from Mrs. McNeer was internalized to the point of use in everyday life! Hope still writes a diary, still can self-edit using the 6+1 Traits (a writing curriculum), and still searches for self-expression and deeper learning with everything she writes, including her blog: wordsofhope.com!

THE NEGATIVES

  • In order for a school or department to do what is being suggested here, there needs to be a complete paradigm shift: in grading, in commitment to literacy, is restructuring content instruction, in parent/teacher communication, and much, much mbuttingheadsore. It is possible, but only in an environment that is not constrained by local, State and Federal mandates that transform great teaching into the very antithesis.
  • Teachers like Mrs. McNeer are rare and frequently misunderstood. Parents are looking for a grade or “grammar” mistakes or something traditional. While from my professional point of view, the students benefit well and long-term from such instruction, parents and students may not be ready for such focused attention on such personal student work. This places undue burdens on the teacher tonotmyjob communicate frequently and carefully to the parents and students all along the way, an arduous process. Administrators may laud the efforts of a teacher like Mrs. McNeer, holding her up as an example of excellence in education, but the trickle down effect merely communicates that English teachers like Mrs. McNeer are now responsible for teaching the entire grade to improve in writing. A great English teacher does not absolve the teachers in other departments from teaching content area literacy!

THE CONCLUSION

My hope is that in this blog, important issues have surfaced whether the “Story” has been an auspicious one or a story not so propitious in nature. While I have not even begun to develop the numerous planned topics, I can already see how every story cast in a “positive” light will begin to reveal the profile of educational “greatness” or “excellence.” Likewise, the overlap of issues in every story, good or bad, indicates that even though there are pockets of “good” or “great,” improvement and change are slow. This is yet another reason to ensure each post has a focusing topic. In these last two blogs, we have learned how 504 Plans done well merely look like “great teaching.” I have consulted with families where schools and teachers have failed the student in implementing the 504 Plan. There is much to learn for everyone. The players involved in a student’s 504 Plan can be her saving grace or her fall from grace. Please let me know what you think.

 

 

Who Needs a *504 Plan Anyway? Part I

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*504 Plan described in next section.

In my experience, GREAT teachers do not need a 504 Plan to target appropriate instruction to the different students who land in their classes. In order to honor my daughter’s request for a “positive” story, I’d like to tell two! But, in my education education, I have learned it best to frame multiple stories with a theme or a “hook” that helps the reader or listener internalize or reconstruct important and meaningful ideas. So, the next two blog posts will tell a story of two teachers for whom I am deeply indebted. My stories will never give these teachers the amount of praise they deserve for how they model and inspire everything great in education! And I realize their greatness depends a bit on their relationship with MY children, and not every teacher reaches every student in the same inspiring way. There is, however, a great deal to learn about these teachers in the realm of individualized instruction and 504 accommodations.

And now…  my son has graduated from High School and is currently in his second year at a wonderful university. I can now, with great delight, reveal the subject of this post by NAME, in all caps for the rest of the post:  MR. PHIL BENENATI! In addition, I will mention his high school guidance counselor, who, like MR. BENENATI, has contributed to the academic success of my son in more ways than they will never know. Her name?  NICOLE BEALE!

PART I:  THE FIRST STORY, THE FIRST TEACHER… MR. BENENATI

My son is what the Education field labels “twice exceptional” or “2e.” He struggles with processing speed and attention (due to dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADD) but also is quite academically gifted, easily bored and quick to learn. The first child psychologist to diagnose him, Dr. Dianne Mitchel, will forever have a special place in my heart! The teams of educators from both schools he has attended have been understanding and supportive. His academic advisor for High School, especially, is the strongest advocate for someone who is not even her own child! We are blessed, and my son is a flourishing student… for now! There are no guarantees ever when it comes to learning differences! The nature of his issues allows him to have a 504 Plan. That’s Education ease for a list of accommodations that will help my son have the best chance in the least restrictive environment to learn up to his potential and express that learning in the most effective manner. This plan requires a meeting with all of his teachers to inform them of his issues and to review the accommodations they might need to implement in their instruction while he is their student.

unknownIn his 10th grade year, we signed Matthew up for Photography simply because of his interest. After the first month of classes, my son’s advisor NICOLE BEALE was ready to call a meeting with all the teachers to discuss his 504 Plan. Since my son had been diagnosed at such a young age (7 years old), we have been able to help him internalize compensation strategies and advocacy skills regarding his learning differences. This regular, semester or annual meeting for his 504 Plan helps my son communicate with his teachers about what he needs to demonstrate he is learning their material. The meeting took place after school…. Enter MR. BENENATI, the photography teacher! Everything was going swimmingly. My son’s advisor articulated each and every struggle my son experiences and the possible accommodations that teachers might do to help him learn more effectively. Then, MR. BENENATI spoke up!! The essence of what he said was this:  “I just don’t understand this plan like I think I should. Matthew does fine in my class. I can tell you that he understands everything I tell him to do, and he ends up hardly doing anything I tell him. (Out beams a sheepish grin!) But, his work shows me he completely gets everything I’m trying to teach. Matthew does great work, and it reflects a real mastery of the material in my class. I like his work, too.” In my unknown-3“fatherly” heart of hearts, I was weeping with gratitude! (I held it together, though… I get weepy a lot lately. This happens when  you have a heart attack!) Someone “gets” my son and does not punish him for learning things on his own terms. With my “education professional” lens focused, I realized that what MR. BENENATI said is the essence of a GREAT teacher! Specifically, great teachers know what they want to teach and what skills and objectives they must teach. They have multiple ways to communicate with the students regarding how to achieve such objectives. But, they also know how to let students “claim” the skills and content as their own (experiment and fail), often times ignoring their single, planned form of assessment that might discount or ignore a student’s genuine, authentic understanding of the content, allowing for multiple modes and opportunities to prove students have learned. They have “learned” their students so well that they know if, when, and how well each of their students has mastered the material, providing feedback when necessary and letting go of the reins when necessary or when possible. MR. BENENATI “got” my son! The 504 Plan helped him understand why my son needed to take a picture of the notes on the board. It helped him understand why he couldn’t find the flash drive with the entire set of pictures he was just editing 5 minutes before. But, he didn’t need the 504 to treat a student with common dignity and grace. My son is unique in many ways! Some good, some not so good! For example, MR. BENENATI did not need an official document to ask my son to justify orally his choice of subject or light or whatever. Mr. BENENATI did the job of teaching photography while communicating SO much more to his students and their parents!

THE ISSUES

My daughter is correct. It is therapeutic and hopeful-inspiring to dwell on a positive story. MR. BENENATI‘s reaction to my son’s 504 Plan is the stuff about which heroes are lauded! So, what are some of the issues on which we can elaborate in order to learn from this story… and the one to follow?

 

-504 Plans are a necessary evil:  While the “great” teachers out there may not need reminding of simple things like, “Don’t bark 3 directives in a row while the kids are packing up to move to the next class in the next 5 minutes,” many uninformed teachers do. Some teachers neither understand nor are willing to accommodate a student with differences. It is unfortunate, but it is the law:  a 504 Plan guarantees a student’s teachers will attempt to abide by the plan if/when necessary. I must say my son’s twice exceptionality makes him more unique than a simple gifted student or a student with a clearly low aptitude…

-“Average is average”:  On a related note, twice exceptional students who have learned to unknown-1compensate for their academic struggles can perform at the “average” level, or “C” level with absolutely no accommodations (and probably no effort). The fact that these students are labeled “twice exceptional” means their potential for achievement is quite high. Uninformed, busy and/or lazy teachers typically crank twice-exceptional students through their classes, oblivious to the fact that a “C” for a gifted student is probably due to any number of variables NOT related to ability and academic achievement. Teachers usually blame “average performance” on laziness, “irresponsibility,” athletics, etc. It has taken two amazing teams to help my son reach amazing heights in his academic achievement.  Yes, his handwriting still looks like a 6-year-old’s. But, yes, he can write (speak/dictate) amazing analyses of the content he is studying. Average is NOT average for 2e children. A 504 Plan can encourage higher achievement in students with learning differences.

-A knowledgeable and professional advisor:  The key to helping my son make his transition from his 9th grade school to his new 10th grade school was his advisor…. HANDS DOWN! During the 504 meeting, my son’s advisor, NICOLE BEALE, truly educated the teachers present (not all of his teachers were!) about the kinds of struggles my son experiences because of his twice exceptionality. I was so grateful (not just with MR. BENENATII’s comment) to see the light bulbs go off in his teachers’ heads. In the meeting, a different teacher even suggested another accommodation we had not listed, one that has proven to be helpful in all of his classes since!

-Individualized instruction:  Whether it is extra time on tests, minimal copying or whatever, these simple accommodations are only the beginning of how teachers can individualize instruction and maximize learning for any and all students.

-Teaching with clear objectives:  When teachers have clear, professional objectives as the center of their lessons and the students are aware of those objectives, teaching any material with any accommodation is much easier.

-Experimentation, practice and failure:  For so many reasons that are sure to be addressed in this blog in later entries, many teachers and perhaps even many discipline areas do not allow students to experiment and fail without serious consequences- to their grade, to their personal motivation, to their attitudes, etc. MR. BENENATI, I believe, allows students to take multiple shots or attempt to take shots of many different subjects one time for the mere practice and experimentation of the skills he is teaching. In teaching his students to edit, he is also giving them feedback about if and how well they have actually learned the photography skill. Brilliant! A safe and encouraging way to help students learn without penalizing them for trying and taking risk! As a professional teacher educator, I see that very rarely in today’s classrooms.

-Authenticity:  The student work in MR. BENENATI’s class is displayed authentically in galleries in the school and sold to the public to benefit the school. Please go to MR. BENENATI‘s website, https://rjr.smugmug.com/ to see it for yourself! What greater reward (or learning experience) for budding photographers to have peers reviewing the work done in photography! MR. BENENATI also hounded my son to submit a photograph in the Scholastic competition, having to remind him over and over to turn it in in the right form and in the unknown-2appropriate time. I am so grateful that, because of that hounding, my son won a Silver Key for that photograph, something that has continued to make him smile with confidence that he really did learn something! Enough said!

THE POSITIVES

I’m in such a good mood! A positive story and a mention of the positives about MR. BENENATI! Remember, as a focus, I want to communicate some of the positives as they relate to 504 Plans. But, this is MY blog about MY Education Education, so I can do what I want, LOL.

  • MR. BENENATI rocks! I’ve told him that, I will continue to tell him that, and I will continue to get weepy when I talk to him or about him or experience my son being so critical of my own photography, LOL. My point? WHEN YOUR CHILD’S TEACHER IS GOOD, TELL HIM! WHEN HE IS GREAT, TELL HIM! TELL HIM SPECIFICALLY WHY! TELL HIS SUPERVISORS! In my experience, professional and personal, it rarely has a productive or expedient outcome to tell a teacher or administrator she is falling short with your child, no matter how palatable you might make it. It sometimes takes more orchestrating for something to change positively. Teachers are human; they need encouragement, too. Know that your encouragement makes a difference. I have told both MR. BENENATI, NICOLE BEALE and the teacher in my next blog post how amazingly great they are! They both consistently downplay their greatness. I am weeping writing these words, knowing that they (and including my son’s advisor) entered my children’s lives and lifted them to greater heights, yet they still don’t want the credit! HEROES!  THAT’S ALL I CAN SAY!
  • I hope this post helps some of you readers to see the benefits of early diagnosis and formulation of a 504 Plan. My son’s psychologist, Dr. Dianne Mitchell (yes, this a plug, but she sadly is retired!), was the first “villager” we invited into our lives to help support him. With her care and compassion, when our son was 7 years old, we were able to help him with tried and true compensation strategies that continue to benefit him now. As with anyone with exceptionalities, his performance is inconsistent, but the teams that have formed around his 504 Plan have been his cheerleader, guidance counselor, thinking partner, and more. The key? Start early and be consistent!
  • Administrators especially, please take note of the positive outcomes that occur when students are allowed to experiment, practice and take risks without the fear of “failure” in the form of a low grade, punishment, more work, busy work, etc. This, in my view, is a positive example, applicable to any and all subjects and disciplines, not just in the context of accommodations for a 504 Plan in Photography class. The research bears this to be true, but other forces (to be addressed much in other blog posts) make the positive practice almost invisible or impossible to achieve.

THE NEGATIVES

At the end of a positive educational story or experience, the negatives are difficult to see. Every negative I can contrive is easily diluted by the positive and professional treatment of my 2e son. Here are few nit-picky items:

  • I am grateful that the homework and assessments in MR. BENENATI’s class were not only “fun” and authentic, but were also a natural extension of what my son already does with a camera in every day life. His issues make our evening life quite painful, as it takes him more than twice as long to do any “short” assignment his teachers may assign. Our only two strategies to keep our son on task in Photography was to ask, “Do you have an assignment in Photography?” every day AND to remind him to bring his regular camera and not just his phone with him during his regular, daily activities. Homework, an issue to be the center of an entire subsequent blog entry, has destroyed our evening and weekend family life significantly.
  • One negative, and a reason I am writing this blog, is that parents, professionals and advisors are not always as sharp and primed as I to jump to the rescue of children with learning differences, especially twice exceptional. I cannot imagine what our life would be like if my son’s first psychologist did not indulge my concerns for my son at such a young age. Nor could I imagine the academic abyss my son would be climbing out of if he had not been given a supportive team at his first school and an even more supportive academic advisor in grades 10-12. Yes, I am weeping again! This happens when you have a heart attack and realize that human compassion is not as prevalent as one might think and that being surprised by such grace OUGHT to be moving, at least to a point of gratitude! My advice? LEARN, yourself, what it takes for your child to succeed! Know what that is and advocate for it on every level possible! Imagine if I had merely said to the psychologist, “OK, let’s wait until he’s 9 or 10 years old.” He would NOT have gotten early intervention in the form of Orton-Gillingham instruction! (A huge shoutout to MS BETH BALDWIN, who remained semi-retired a bit longer so she could take my son through the entire Orton-Gillingham sequence!!) He would not have his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade teachers on board with helping him compensate for his learning differences. He would not have been encouraged to be creative or a leader at a young age, because he would have been safely “average.” All children deserve to reach the highest potential they can in the safest and most dignifying environment. I made sure this was so, but it has taken a great deal of time and effort in our family to do so!

CONCLUSION

This story inspires innately, and I in no way want to stretch it into something pedantic and contrived! But, as can be intuited from volumes of educational research, great teachers organically differentiate instruction, accommodate for student exceptionalities and connect students’ strengths and interests to the overall objectives for the class. A teacher can learn to be great! It is the essence and joy of the work I do, to inspire a teacher that is full of humility, passion and enthusiasm. There are so many research-based teaching strategies that individually or collectively help all students learn better while helping the teacher streamline instruction! The conflict always surfaces when a student begins to “slip” or “fail” or “not reach her potential.” Educators and parents alike must work together to reconcile observations of a struggling child, her/his potential for achievement and what can be done to help that child progress happily, healthily and heartily.

It took a bit longer to feel confident in mentioning these amazing people by name. I could mention other educators such as the one in the next blog who have molded Matthew in positive ways all along his K-12 educational journey. MR. BENENATI‘s professionalism and respect for Matthew, along with the encouraging and timely nudge from NICOLE BEALE to let Matthew study something of personal interest like Photography kept Matthew from losing steam running the race to nowhere (see “Frogs on a Treadmill” in this blog.).