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We treat children differently than we treat adults. For example, if we would like children to do something, we use directives with them, rather than asking them. When we do ask them to do something, we expect them to do it, even if they are busy or uninterested. In fact, we would be surprised, annoyed, or angry if they refused. Although something said to a child might be phrased as a question, it is rarely a choice. Perhaps this is not a problem as long as adults have the best interests of children in mind. But what if they do not? Are we treating children fairly? Do they have any advocates without conflicting interests? In Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children (CreateSpace, 2013), John Holt compares the plight of children to other oppressed groups and outlines ways for adults to show greater respect to children in their lives as well as his rationale for extending basic rights afforded to adults to any child who would like to invoke them.
Listen to the interview on New Books in Education.
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We may disagree about whether phonics or whole language is the better approach to reading instruction or whether bilingual education or English immersion is the better way to support English language learners. Whatever our opinions are, they are founded on the perceived immediate impact on students in school. But how might the way we use language with children years before they enter school affect their academic potential? Does it have the ability to improve more than their vocabulary? Can it foster creativity, empathy, and perseverance? In Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain (Dutton, 2015), Dr. Dana Suskind outlines research on the critical language period and connects it to an early-childhood curriculum and a series of public policy solutions.
Listen to the interview on New Books in Education. Many of us went through school not fully knowing what we were supposed to be learning or how our teachers were measuring our progress. These priorities and processes were largely hidden to us as students because they were assumed to be irrelevant or uninteresting. How much learning can happen under these conditions? What if teachers translated standards into student-friendly language and worked with students to develop personalized goals? What if teachers asked students to examine their work and articulate their growth to their parents and classmates? How might increasing ownership and changing accountability allow for greater learning? In Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools Through Student-Engaged Assessment (Jossey-Bass, 2014), Ron Berger and co-authors, Leah Rugen and Libby Woodfin, outline a series of practices designed to make students more active participants in their school experience, including student-led conferences, celebrations of learning, and passage presentations.
Listen to the interview on New Books in Education. Over the past month, I have continued to think a lot about ways I can receive feedback from my students. I have since updated the Google Form I ask them to complete each week to encourage them to give me both warm and cool feedback on all aspects of my teaching. I have also been asking them to complete a separate Google Form to encourage them to check-in with me about their lives inside and outside of school.
This is a practice that I first saw during my teacher credential program at Stanford. Our director asked us to rate our feelings about our coursework, our school placements, and our lives outside of the program on 1-10 scales, and we were given the opportunity to ellaborate as much or as little as we wanted. He used this information to schedule in-person meetings and decide what to prioritize during follow-up conversations. He also shared the individual data with each of us at the end of each quarter and encouraged us to look for correlations between our feelings and both assignment deadlines and professional milestones. Although I have not yet decided when or how I will share my own students' data with them again this year, I am already using what I learn from the weekly check-in surveys to make decisions about who may need a word of encouragement or help resolving a conflict. I am finding that I am getting both different kinds of information from students and more detailed information from them that I hope will improve my practice over time. I will share some samples of the things students have shared with me in hopes you might try your own check-in survey. Academic Experiences Inside of School
Social Experiences Inside of School
Experiences Outside of School
Overall Experience This Week
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About MeBlogging my work as a teacher, educational consultant, speaker, and host of New Books in Education. BlogrollArchives
June 2018
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