Students Doing History Beats Test Prep

Over the next two weeks I'll be doing presentations that take me back to my roots as a history teacher. I'll be giving the keynote at the Texas Social Studies Supervisors Association spring conference in Austin and giving a workshop for elementary school teachers in the Rochester (NY) City School District.

In both talks I'll show how history and social studies can be used to teach literacy, numeracy and critical thinking. No need to cut back on social studies instructional time to send struggling students for "mind numbing" test prep in reading and math. It begins when teachers provide students with the historical material that kids use to "do the history."  Let's look at two examples – click photos to enlarge

Goldenspike_2 First, a famous photo of the "golden spike" – the final ceremonial spike driven to mark the completion of a transcontinental railroad line in 1869. What can a student learn by looking at the image? Not much, because the important information is not in the image. It's in the background knowledge a student must already possess to interpret it. Unfortunately, this type of photograph dominates our textbooks. It's iconic – it refers to something else that we want students to know.

In contrast, here's a photograph of a city street in Rochester NY at the turn of the last century. Stonestreet_3 With very little background information, students can use the photo to do history and interpret the impact of transportation technologies and the pace of change. Then the student could write a "first person account" from the point of view of someone in the photo. They could even go on to design their own comparison of the changes in communication technology in their world today. Perhaps include a graph showing the growth of cell phones vs land lines?

We can design the learning to help our students be the historian. It begins when we allow students to make their own judgments about source material and share what's important to them (instead of just repeating the details the teacher highlights). They'll develop their literacy and numeracy skills for a more authentic audience and purpose as they share their thinking with those around them.

Jordan – Educational Reform for the Knowledge Economy

I’m writing this post from Amman Jordan, where I’ve been visiting family and seeing the sights. In addition, I took some time for professional contacts to learn more about education in this part of the world.

My visit coincided with the 4th Annual Arab Forum on Education held in Amman. Many speakers saw educational reform as important factor in addressing the high (15 – 20%) unemployment rates in Arab countries. Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit noted that “improving the quality of education requires … clear evaluation standards, adopting self-learning and creative programs instead of rote learning methods.” Jordanian Prince Hassan said that “democracy and development could only succeed with a foundation in modern learning and the encouragement of creative thought.” He added that “schools should be more than mere teaching factories – supportive environments catering for the needs of individual students.” Jordanian Times 4.25.07

While traditional instruction in Jordan had been largely confined to teacher-centered lectures, the country has now embraced a new direction with its “ERfKE Initiative” – Educational Reform for the Knowledge Economy.  Jordan’s Ministry of Education is making a major commitment to reform their schools to support student development in critical thinking, problem-solving and the “soft skills” needed for success in the new information economy. It seems Jordan is moving in a different direction than the US, where NCLB dictates that the routine drudgery of test prep is more important than fostering student innovation through project-based learning.

I’d like to thank my two primary contacts who both took time to meet with me – Khitam Ahmad Al-Utaibi, the Youth, Technology and Careers Operation Manager for ESP (the ERfKE Support Project) and Maha AlShaer, Project Management Specialist / Education from the US Agency for International Development.

Einjaloot_2 I feel most fortunate to have been able to visit the Ein Jaloot Secondary School for Girls. (Click photo to enlarge.) I would like to thank headmistress, Thamar Yousef AlSoudi, for being a gracious host. Her school of about 700 high school students is one of the pilot sites for Jordan’s new “major” in Management of Information Stream (MIS). With USAID and corporate support, the Jordanian Ministry of Education has developed an online curriculum and web portal called EduWave. I got to see it in action in a class held in a computer lab. It was rather crowded by US standards – average classes are 40-45 girls in a room that was about 20′ x 30′. The teacher projected the online material via LCD. Flash files were used to illustrate the sectors of the Jordanian economy. As the teacher posed questions, every student seemed to be ready with an answer. I asked Maha if the girls where giving back “canned’ responses. She assured me that they were answering “in their own words” and that many of the comments were “personal opinion.” I was pleased to see the teacher wasn‘t just playing “guess what I’m thinking?”

Next, small groups of students took turns in role-play exercises. One scenario involved the owner of small shop explaining aspects of inventory management to a new employee. A second featured an unemployed engineering grad that started a computer repair business. I queried the teacher about the girl’s preparation for the role play. She assured me that while she provided the scenarios, the students had to research and develop their roles and dialogue.

What happened next was a welcomed surprise. Students broke into pairs and were asked to reflect on what they learned from the lesson and role-play exercises. They worked online in the EduWave portal, recording their comments in their network profiles. I was told that EduWave provides full suite of student, teacher and administrative tools including a portfolio builder, online assessments, and access for student and parents from home. Since it’s in Arabic, I couldn’t evaluate the material or interface.

My visit is far too brief to pass judgment on the education reform in Jordan. But I was pleased to see the direction in which it is moving. The teacher I met told me about how pleased she was to be able to be part of this new program. Instead of teaching a rather dull keyboarding class she was now utilizing new technologies alongside her students in a more dynamic learning environment.  Ironically too many of her teaching peers in the US no longer find their careers as rewarding. Once a beacon of innovative instruction, we are stifling American teachers as we chase an illusive “adequate yearly progress.”

Jordan is a country surrounded by turmoil and conflict. Nonetheless the educational leadership appears to be sincere in their efforts to modernize and prepare there students to be productive members of the new global economy. But one observation brought home the challenges of reform in a tradition-steeped culture. As Maha translated the girls’ dialogue during the role-playing, she repeated used the word “he.” Finally, I asked her if girls were role playing as men. She smiled and admitted all the parts the girls had taken were male. As she put it, girls would find it “awkward” to participate in a role play “as themselves.”

Are students well prepared to meet the challenges of the future?

Try a sample PISA question on my update post: 
“Stop Worrying About Shanghai, What PISA Test Really Tells Us About American Students”

Are they able to analyze, reason and communicate their ideas effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? Or have schools been forced to sacrifice learning for “adequate yearly progress” on state tests?

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides some answers to those questions and offers an insight into the type of problem solving that rarely turns up on state testing. PISA is an assessment (begun in 2000) that focuses on 15-year-olds’ capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. PISA studied students in 41 countries and assessed how well prepared students are for life beyond the classroom by focusing on the application of knowledge and skills to problems with a real-life context. PISA website

NCLB has narrowed our curriculum and forced many schools into the test prep mode. PISA offers a better picture of the independent thinking and problem solving our student will need to be successful. PISA defines problem solving as “an individual’s capacity to use cognitive processes to confront and resolve real, cross-disciplinary situations where the solution is not immediately obvious… and where the literacy domains or curricular areas that might be applicable are not within a single domain of mathematics, science, or reading.”

A competitive workforce is made up of people who can think independently in complex and ambiguous situations where the solutions are not immediately obvious.  Educators need resources and training to craft a rigorous learning environment where students can function as 21st century professionals – critical thinkers who can effectively collaborate to gather, evaluate, analyze and share information.  You can download PISA sample questions, answers and comparative data:
Executive report 3.4MB pdf
Mathematics items 534KB pdf
Mathematics scoring guide and international benchmarks 624KB pdf
Science items 503KB pdf
Science scoring guide and international benchmarks 461KB pdf
Reading items 835KB pdf
Reading scoring guide and international benchmarks 923KB pdf

Read > Think > Write > Publish – The Power of Student Publishing

I’ve launched a new website Read > Think > Write > Publish to promote publishing, an activity that enables students to think like writers, to apply their learning strategies and to organize and express their learning. The site provides sample student books and writing prompts.

Students at-risk for literacy need immersion in literacy tasks, reading and writing, that replicate the real world because they are the learners who lack the schema that defines literacy in the real world. Without publishing the student does not complete the writing process so they never rise above the level of “school work” to “real work.” They never function as a writer. Literacy must be grounded in the real world to have value.

Publishing student writing encourages the reluctant writer by strengthening self-confidence, rewarding interest and promoting a positive attitude toward writing.
When students publish, they think like writers. They have to problem-solve and make decisions as writers to assume the responsibility of a published writer. This supports them as readers. If they haven’t written themselves, they have trouble analyze another writer’s work. If they have experience they know what to look for and how to evaluate what they see. Publishing is an excellent method to accomplish three central tasks:
• Understand topics thoroughly
• Actively use the information they assemble
• Move knowledge into one’s schema

In Search Of the Rigorous Classroom

desks full

It seems that politicians have suddenly discovered that we’re suffering from a high school rigor deficiency. Driven by the economic competitiveness of the “flat world,” numerous states are considering mandates for more rigorous core curricula and increased graduation requirements. New federal legislation puts the US Secretary of Education in the business of setting standards for recognizing “rigorous secondary school program of study.”

Let’s be sure that high school reform isn’t just “more of the same” formulaic and predictable seat time that can already make high school the least engaging part of a student’s day. Graduating with more credits won’t do much for a student’s employment prospects unless high school reform redefines who’s doing the thinking in the classroom.

A competitive workforce is made up of people who can think independently in complex and ambiguous situations where the solutions are not immediately obvious.  Meaningful high school reform must include freeing teachers from mindless test prep. Educators need resources and training to craft a rigorous learning environment where students can function as 21st century professionals – critical thinkers who can effectively collaborate to gather, evaluate, analyze and share information.

image credit: flickr/dcJohn