Blog #2

School Part 4…

Part 4 really engaged me because I’ve watched education change from the beginning of my career until now.  During my student teaching (1995), everyone taught whatever they wanted and “whole language” was the buzz word.  I don’t believe everyone using the buzz word fully understood the philosophy behind it, and neither did I.  After several years of subbing and a yearlong paid internship, I was hired for my first teaching position in kindergarten.  I bought Month by Month phonics because there wasn’t a curriculum to follow and not really any materials. 

After my first year, I was asked to participate during the summer in curriculum rewrites where we aligned our district curriculum with the state standards.  The curriculum director bribed me with a king size package of peanut M&Ms. The new curriculum was distributed to teachers, but they still chose to follow it or not.  The following few summers we continued the curriculum alignment and added required district wide assessments.  Teachers were told they would follow the curriculum and use the new assessments.  This began the micro-management era in our district. 

As you might expect, there was a lot of push back from teachers, but as administrators got on board, they held everyone accountable to using the curriculum guide and adopted materials. 

What I didn’t entirely realize was that this movement was in response to No Child Left Behind (no teacher left alive as we called it).  Even though, I think NCLB is ridiculous, I think the tightening of the curriculum and creating a scope and sequence was a good move for our district.

Next came the standardized testing which led to more micro-management.  This led to our mandated district wide reading “switch” which is where students are ability grouped and the lowest groups are drilled following a triage method where they receive 10-15 minutes of phonics and word work instruction, 10-15 minutes of fluency drills, and 10-15 minutes of actual reading or comprehension.  This time replaced literature circles, guided reading groups and other individualized instruction.  We were also required to teach the district’s adopted reading series with fidelity for the remainder of our reading instructional time.  I suppose in the district’s eyes this is differentiated instruction, but having taught that low group for years, I could see that they needed more time reading and more authentic reading but the whole group drilling approach didn’t allow for it.  In addition to that, even though they are all “low,” they still have diverse needs that aren’t being met with whole group drilling.

I’ve noticed more and more over the years that kids are losing their enjoyment for school, for reading and their ability to think or work independently.  They are so used to being spoon fed information.  After reading The Book Whisperer, I was inspired to do my research on self-selected reading with follow up activities to see what impact it might have on students’ attitudes and self-perceptions.  Another reason for focusing on that is that SSR is viewed as a waste of time and as teachers being lazy by many. 

Flat World…

The biggest idea that resonated with me this week was in Ch. 6 on p.173 where it said, “Empowerment of the teaching profession produces good results.”  Most decisions about education are made by people who have no experience or training in the field of education.  That’s sad.