TLN Teacher Voices

Ravitch Book Well-Argued, Thought-Provoking, and Short on Solutions

The Death and Life of the Great American School System
by Diane Ravitch

(Basic Books, 2010)

Reviewed by Sarah Schumacher
Secondary Literacy & Social Studies (WA)

TLN New Millennium Initiative

Why would a powerful, successful advocate for what amounted to a revolution in our education system completely change her mind about the initiatives she once supported? And what happens when she does? What do we do next? Those were the questions on my mind as I picked up Diane Ravitch’s newest book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. I had heard of Diane Ravitch and her ideas many times in my career and had heard rumblings about her so-called ‘mea culpa’, and so was excited to find out what her motivations were, what she had seen that so completely changed her mind.

There are no sacred cows in this book; Ravitch pulls no punches. She systematically goes after many of the initiatives and policies that have been held up in the last years as cure-alls for the ills of our education system: testing, tenure, charter schools, Teach for America, vouchers. . .the list goes on. As she says late in the book, “American education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas.” As educators, we see so many initiatives rolling through that are promised to be panaceas that we often know will lead to nothing. So it’s refreshing to hear someone speaking so candidly and with so much depth. On the other hand, as you read the book you’re left wondering what else is there? If these things aren’t “magic feathers,” then what should we be doing instead? We definitely learn the ‘why’ of her transformation, but not so much the ‘what next?’

Her first chapter, “What I Learned About School Reform,” outlines Ravitch’s career as an educational researcher and writer and subsequent ascension to the position of assistant secretary of education in the George H.W. Bush administration. One thing I respected immediately about her arguments is that she doesn’t let herself off the hook for the role she played. She admits that, “I began ‘seeing like a state,’ looking at schools and teachers and students from an altitude of 20,000 feet and seeing them as objects to be moved around by big ideas and great plans.” The chapter then chronicles her change of heart as she realizes the initiatives proliferating education are not getting the results they should. She ends by beginning her argument that in the era of NCLB education was beginning to be viewed as an institution that could, and should, be run as if it were a private, for-profit enterprise. However, she emphasizes that she does not have clear alternatives of her own. More about that later.

The second chapter, “Hijacked! How the Standards Movement Turned Into the Testing Movement,” continues to set the context for NCLB. It is in this chapter that you learn three things about Diane Ravitch. First, she strongly dislikes NCLB and all its progeny: testing, so-called accountability, choice, etc.. Second, she appreciated the 1983 report A Nation at Risk and the prescription it gave the nation’s education system. Third, and most of all, she likes strong standards and curriculum, believing that they lead to more well-rounded, deeper thinking students. Take note, because that’s about the only thing she appears to like in the entirety of the book.

The book then becomes a whirlwind of detail in a House-That-Jack-Built layered style of argumentation. In other words: She really makes her case. The third, fourth and fifth chapters tell the stories of three different school districts and how fundamental changes to their organizations and policies in the mode of NCLB-era ideas led to uncertain outcomes. Those uncertain outcomes are a theme throughout the rest of the book. It seems that for every initiative there are a thousand studies, all of them reaching a different conclusion.

The next three chapters form the crux of her argument: “NCLB: Measure and Punish”, “Choice: The Story of an Idea”, and “The Trouble with Accountability.” In these chapters she outlines, detail by detail (by detail) the case against No Child Left Behind and its policies. In “What Would Mrs. Ratliff Do?”, she talks about the growing movement to link teacher evaluations to test scores and wonders if her own favorite teacher, Mrs. Ratliff, would be considered a great teacher today, she of the red marking pen and nineteenth-century poetry. Sadly, she probably wouldn’t.

Finally, the next to last chapter, “The Billionaire Boys’ Club” is aimed directly at those large foundations and endowments that, Ravitch argues, are driving education reform with their own agendas instead of seeking out innovators already in the field. She talks at length about the Gates Foundation and its small schools agenda and how the Broad Foundation is supporting the movement to turn school administration into a business. This seems to be the core of her argument, that the more the powers that be have treated education as a business, the more detrimental it has been to our nation’s students. She makes this argument thoroughly and leaves no question marks about any of the major factors impacting education today.

Given that, what was unexpected for me was that there are many questions left unanswered at the end of the book. I finally reached the chapter I’d been waiting for, “Lessons Learned,” and found it pretty unsatisfying. Throughout this shortest of chapters, she uses the refrain “Our schools will not improve if…” to share what she thinks should be the priorities of our education system. She brings up national standards and common curriculum and talks about what the goals of testing and teacher evaluation should be, but gives very few specifics.

I guess I’d liken it to hearing a firebrand speaker and getting passionately excited about the cause only to be given a tin sword with which to go start the revolution. We need much more than lofty generalities to fix what is broken about our system. In all, though, I found this book incredibly well-argued, thought-provoking and interesting and would recommend it to anyone who wants to know the other side of the story of education in the last decade.

Sarah Schumacher is a secondary literacy coach and social studies coordinator in the Edmonds, Washington School District. She’s a member of the New Millennium Initiative teacher team exploring teaching policy issues in her state.

The Total Teacher: Useful Planning Tips for Intermediate Classrooms

The Total Teacher Book and Planner

by Lorraine T. Milark

(Jossey Bass, 2009)

Reviewed by Kristen Sluiter

Fourth Grade Teacher (WA)

New Millennium Network

The Total Teacher Book and Planner, subtitled The All-In-One System that Gets You Organized, Empowered and Inspired To Teach Your Best is a thoughtful, well put together organization system for teachers. Touted as a useful tool for educators in grades K-12, the content speaks best to intermediate teachers and would need to be modified for primary, middle and high school students.

It is organized in three main parts; one to explain the Total Teacher Philosophy, one to explain the Total Teacher Plan and one to provide a month-by-month breakdown of tips that can help set the tone for an organized and productive school year.

The Total Teacher Book and Planner’s goal is to help teachers create a system that will benefit students and teachers alike. She offers up useful techniques for focusing on creating a business-like but joyful environment in one’s classroom. Much like a college professor, Milark believes that students at all grade levels should receive a syllabus. She has created various tools that emphasize that time is a precious commodity. She suggests that all classrooms have a calendar with a countdown, use a curve strategy to visualize progress (updated by giving frequent quizzes based on mastering standards) and teach the 24-hour clock.

Teacher and students root the Total Teacher Plan in state standards, broken down into five-week blocks, shared with students and routinely monitored. Her approach is very linear and straightforward — essentially she offers nothing new in the idea that most successful yearlong planning begins by planning backwards. An accompanying CD-ROM offers her template for a planner. Milark stresses that though we are in school 180 days, not all the days end up being teaching days, and to plan accordingly.

Though her approach to planning isn't revolutionary by any means, it does offer insights and tips to focus and hone your organizational skills with step-by-step instructions. These details are what really make this book stand out as a useful tool for new and experienced teachers alike.

Milark doesn’t just tout her philosophy of organization — she makes it accessible to all who may struggle with knowing where to start. Her month-by-month tips are exciting and creative but may not seem realistic in classroom settings where students can be between 1-2 grade levels behind and pacing guides rule the day.

Kristen Sluiter is an elementary district in “a district south of Seattle.” She worked for several years in schools with the Washington Reading Corps/AmeriCorps VISTA program before earning her Masters in Teaching from Evergreen State College in 2007.

Learning to Read: A Lot More Than 'Sounding It Out'

Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4
by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier
(Stenhouse, 2010)

Reviewed by Gayla Dial
Elementary Special Education (IL)
Teacher Leaders Network

When I asked to review this book I was unsure what to expect since both authors are new to me. I opened the book, frankly, expecting to see the same old rhetoric. This, I thought, is going to be one more of the multitude of how-to-teach-reading books that are on the market.

But as I began viewing the layout of this book, I immediately noticed some differences. The authors are not telling you how you should teach reading. They are asking you to reflect on your paradigm of reading. The reader becomes involved in the ‘processes’ of learning to read rather than the teaching of reading.

The majority of teachers use the phrase “sound it out” throughout the school day. The authors suggest that “sounding it out” is difficult at best because of the intricacy of the English language. Because of that difficulty, reading must be addressed as a process and all parts included instead of focusing on one of the processes in order to read a word.

By utilizing a comprehensive literacy approach to reading which matches Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, they propose that teachers can give their students the highest potential for successful learning. This is an approach that addresses where students are and where they should be at the end of the year.

The authors suggest using the following steps to move from demonstration to independence:

• Demonstrate
• Share the Task
• Provide Guided Practice (high support)
• Gradually Withdraw Scaffold (low support)
• Give Specific Praise or Redirection

Once the reading paradigm is appraised and modified if necessary, the authors suggest a multitude of activities to implement in the classroom that will reinforce and extend reading and comprehension. I enjoyed the book because it forced me to reflect on my reading methods and strategies as well as the term “sound it out.” I will definitely make some of the adaptations in my classroom this year.

Gayla Dial is a Special Education-Life Skills teacher at Meridian Elementary/Middle School located in rural Olive Branch, IL. She’s taught in elementary public education for 30 years serves on the Illinois Education Association’s Special Education Committee.

Mandatory Reading for Teachers Coming into Spaces They Don't Understand

 Holler If You Hear Me (Second Edition)
by Gregory Michie
(Teachers College Press, 2009)

Reviewed by José Vilson
Middle School Math Teacher & Coach (NYC)
Teacher Leaders Network

It's been 11 years since Gregory Michie's book Holler If You Hear Me was first published, but the lessons we glean from this book are just as relevant. Take that how you will. With all this talk about education reform, a book like this would do well in everyone's teacher prep curriculum, particularly for those who are coming into an environment disparate from their own. Allow me to explain.

Gregory Michie goes from idealistic newbie to inspiring veteran in a few critical years. He does an excellent job of letting the actions and events of his career speak for themselves rather than bludgeoning points onto our heads about how to approach children. He tries his hardest to meet the students where they are, and give them the tools to analyze themselves and the people around them, only implicitly moving them in a good direction. We see the toil of his transformative curricula, arguing deftly for thematic classes and media literacy. We see the mistakes that trickle into disasters.

Throughout, I found myself putting the book down often, wincing at every sad tale of a misunderstood kid getting in trouble with the law and nodding delightfully when he reached those small moments of euphoria. Unlike other teacher-story media, you're pulling for Michie because he gets it. This "get-it"-ness comes through even in the introductions by Sandra Cisneros and Luis J. Rodriguez, who give insightful perspectives on this seminal work. With the droves of teachers now coming from all parts of the country into spaces where they don't understand the people they're working with, this is the type of insightful material they need to have on their list of mandatory reading.

In the last few pages, Michie likens some of the reviews of his first edition to a bad made-for-TV movie, where many of the experiences the reviewers describe are more fiction and exaggeration than actual text from the book. And it's probably best left that way. Books are much better than movies at conveying stories like these. Michie keeps it real.

José Luis Vilson is an educator, writer, and president of the Latin Alumni Network of Syracuse University (LANSU). He's co-author of the upcoming book Teaching 2030 and blogs his life.

Writing: Turn Those "Ho-hums" to "Oohs and Ahhs"

Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft that Sparks Writing
by Ralph Fletcher
(Stenhouse, 2010)

Reviewed by Jan Tusing, NBCT
Teacher Leader in Residence, Virginia Commonwealth U.
Teacher Leaders Network

As our Richmond summer sizzles to a soggy close, I impatiently remove the thin wire necklace and chunky gold watch that cloy to my damp skin. My fingers tap restlessly over the keys of my computer and I wonder why in the world it seemed like such a great idea to write this review of Ralph Fletcher’s latest book on the craft of writing: Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft that Sparks Writing. Pyrotechnics — so where’s my spark?!

I frown as I re-read Katie Wood Ray’s foreword where she references reading Fletcher’s What a Writer Needs almost two decades ago. Two decades ago? I think back to another hot summer when I worked as a co-facilitator in our local writing project and how I found his first text to be just what I needed as I began the work of transforming my writing classroom.      

I sit up straighter, suddenly aware of just how important my ongoing professional conversation with Ralph Fletcher has been. For you see, I am a before-and-after teacher. I was deep in the exciting business of teaching writing to students long before standardized tests came around, and I continued to teach writing long after. I have often wondered what teachers did — how they taught? — if they didn’t teach writing to their students. As an elementary and middle school teacher, I taught all subjects, but writing was one of my specialty areas.

I simply couldn’t imagine how a teacher would really know his or her students if they didn’t walk through the magical door of writing together. As an “after teacher,” I could not deny that the increased accountability and pressure that came hand-in-hand with standardized testing deeply affected our work as teachers. Apprehensive parents often voiced concerns that the testing would interfere with the kind of teaching they wanted their children to receive—that the standards and accountability would stifle and smother the creativity and joy that could and should come with learning.

I reassured them not to worry. With Ralph at my elbow, listening in on important conversations with my students—laughing aloud, admiring a just right word choice, or shedding a quiet tear—we would never lose our passion for writing.

And that is precisely why Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing is so important. It does, as Katie Wood Ray says, “add a new dimension to the professional conversation about teaching the craft of writing.”

Fletcher reassures us that a child’s language play is a critical building block of writing—that we write with the ear as much as with the eye or the mind. He continues to remind us of the essential link between reading and writing. Ralph and I together have come to know the power of picture books that sing, and we use them in much the same way an apprentice and his teacher study the old masters — working to capture a technique that will make our own work soar.

Then he scoots over, and we are invited to sit on the couch next to him as he dandles his first-born son. Pappa-proud, he uses his children’s language development as an accessible vehicle for building our own understanding of the language building process and its essential link to writing. But I must confess, Ralph, that I am torn. How wonderful when students come to school brimming with words and word play! But what about children who live in poverty — those who are lacking not just physical necessities, but those who are starving for words? I move forward knowing that our conversation is not yet finished and that this is work for another day.

As a writing teacher, I often devoured professional books in the summer, catching and firing my imagination with new possibilities for next year’s class. One of the strongest components of Fletcher’s work is his ability to make new ideas and techniques doable in the reality of today’s classrooms. He models language and techniques and references a host of touchstone texts that will move our work from ideal to reality. He reminds us how we must know the rules in order to break them, and then, how to be ever vigilant for those teachable moments when students are ready to notice, to experiment, to wordplay, and finally, to celebrate the results. His “Q” and “A” section is a reassuring finale, answering and clarifying any lingering questions.

As we move from soggy summer to the crisp possibilities of fall and we “fire up” for a new academic year, consider letting Fletcher’s Pyrotechnics on the Page spark our writing classes. Turn those “ho-hums” to “oohs and ahhs” as you and your students discover the power of language play on the page.

Jan Tusing is on loan from her home district of Chesterfield County Public Schools in Chesterfield, Virginia to serve as Teacher Leader-in-Residence in the Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has taught a variety of subjects in grades 3-7 over a 25-year career and worked in her district as a full time mentor in both elementary and middle schools before joining the Center.

A Practical and Profound Look at Testing and Assessment

Instruction That Measures Up: Successful Teaching in the Age of Accountability
by W. James Popham
(ASCD, 2009)

Reviewed by Kenneth J. Bernstein, NBCT
High School Government & Social Studies (MD)



Teacher Leaders Network

This is a book by one of America’s acknowledged experts on assessment: now emeritus from UCLA, Popham has been a leading figure in research (having served as President of the American Educational Research Association), in publication (of his many books and articles, and as editor of a major journal on evaluation), and as a person whose opinions on matters educational are always worth considering. For those interested, you may read a professional bio here.

Popham has in recent years been critical of how our educational policies have approached the matter of tests, assessment and evaluation. This book therefore may catch some off-base, because Popham now moves beyond criticism to try to help those in the classroom deal with the reality of test-based accountability, something to which the current national administration has made clear its commitment.

The purpose of Instruction That Measures Up can be clearly understood from one paragraph in the preface, which appears on p. 2:

I believe the best way for teachers to deal with test-based accountability pressures — the way that benefits students — is to accept those pressures as a given, then plan and carry out instruction knowing that it will take place on an accountability-spotlighted stage. What teachers must do is focus on providing instruction that measures up: to the expectations of administrators, parents, and taxpayers; to their own professional standards; and, most essentially, to the needs of their students.

The book is divided into 7 chapters:

1. Teaching Through an Assessment Lens
2. A Quick Dip in the Assessment Pool
3. Curriculum Determination
4. Instructional Design
5. Monitoring Instruction and Learning
6. Evaluating Instruction
7. Playing the New Game

There is also a two page list of resources, an index, and some background on the author, with a total of 174 pages.

For those who are not all that knowledgeable about matters of assessment — which not only includes many of those in the classroom, but far too great a percentage of those involved with making educational policy — the second chapter by itself justifies the book. Popham divides the “Assessment Pool” into four broad categories: Testing as Score-Based Inference Making; The Core Concepts of Assessment; The Categories of Educational Tests; and The Summative and Formative Functions of Educational Assessments.

He provides clear explanations of the meaning of terms. Where necessary, he offers a great deal of detail with easy-to-comprehend explanations. A reader who pays attention will begin to grasp the importance of how psychometricians understand key terms.

The four core concepts Popham addresses are the key ideas of Reliability, Validity, Assessment Bias, and Instructional Sensitivity. Any assessment that fails to take into account these core concepts, whether it is designed by a classroom teacher for instructional purposes or by outside organizations and imposed from above for purposes of accountability, will by definition be at risk of being unable to provide sufficiently accurate information to allow one to draw appropriate inferences from the data.

Popham offers a number of blunt statements about problems with our current schemes of assessment, and a number of key warnings, of which one on p. 29 caught my attention: “It serves no one to ascribe unwarranted precision to educational tests.” Unfortunately, our national obsession with numbers and our desire to rank and compare means that it is precisely ascribing too much precision to the data we obtain from tests that has been distorting much of our educational policy for the past several decades.

Interview: Rick Wormeli Talks about Teaching with Metaphors and the Need for Teachers to Embrace Professional Growth

Teaching and learning really come down to connections and re-connections, and metaphors are wonderfully apt in creating those bridges in kindergarten, special education, gifted education, ELL classes, elementary/middle/high school, and at the university level. It’s such a commonly occurring yet powerful force in learning, we really shouldn’t leave it to chance or occasional attention.

NBCT and Disney Teaching Award winner Rick Wormeli began his writing and professional development career more than a decade ago, drawing on his many years of practice as a middle grades teacher in Northern Virginia to produce two “classics” for novice middle school educators, Meet Me in the Middle and Day One and Beyond. Wormeli, a long time member of the Teacher Leaders Network, has gone on to write other books about key aspects of effective teaching, including Differentiation, Fair Isn’t Always Equal (assessment), Summarization in Any Subject, and most recently, Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject.

In a recent interview with fellow TLN member Elizabeth Stein, herself an NBCT (literacy) and special education teacher in New York, Rick explains his own fascination with the power of metaphor and analogy to increase student learning — and extends the discussion with insightful opinions about the need for teachers to take full ownership of their own professional growth and to resist the anti-intellectualism that Wormeli sees as a significant barrier to advancing the teaching profession.

We have to convince teachers that intellectual and professional explorations are positive things, directly benefiting them. Teachers who question policies, offer new research to consider, share compelling professional reading with others — who post regularly on professional listervs and networks and think critically about teaching and assessment practices — should be affirmed and supported, not made to feel like the goody-goody at the front of the room keeping everyone from recess because they are excited about amphibians and have one more question to ask about tree frogs in the Amazon.

At the end of the interview, Rick Wormeli invites anyone with an interest in pursuing these ideas to get in touch. We tell you how.

___________________

Elizabeth Stein: Rick, your idea for a book about teaching with metaphors was extraordinary, and I wonder why no one had written such a book before. Did you get any strange looks from your fans, colleagues or publisher when you proposed it? And how has it been received?

Almost everyone wondered how I could make this into a full-length book. Just like a lot of ideas in education, however, once you start going down the path, you see these other branches in the path. Then, suddenly, one path connects to a parallel path, but the two of them lead to an even greater route, and you have an “A-ha!” moment.

My publisher was supportive, but definitely wanted a fleshed out chapter outline just to make sure there was plenty of “meat,” and to make sure the content wasn’t just a re-statement of old ideas in new skin. I agreed with this — I hate to waste educators’ time with things they already know. There are some things in the book that many teachers understand, but I believe there is plenty of new thinking or alternative perspectives that can ignite novel applications.

Today, when most people hear of the book, they nod politely and think they know basically what it is – another tool for teaching metaphors in English or Language Arts class. While there’s plenty in the book that will help English and Language Arts teachers do that teaching, the majority of the book is for teachers of all subjects and grade levels. In fact, one of the nicest and most accurate commentaries I’ve seen about the book came from a technology blogger who applied the ideas to technology education. And Marsha Ratzel, a well-respected math and science teacher, wrote about how she was excited about all the science applications. Yes!

When I explain the book’s premise to teachers and administrators, they get very interested, noticing the same opportunities and connections that I saw when writing. They are curious about the practical applications, especially when so much of the book’s material helps teachers differentiate instruction and integrate many of the 21st century skills so often cited as necessary for students’ success.

When you researched other writing about teaching with metaphors, what did you find?

Before I began, I wondered whether anyone had written a book about this topic, too. When I dove into the research, I found a paragraph, a page, or a chapter in many different books where authors alluded to the possibilities, but nowhere did anyone flesh out metaphor applications across the disciplines to make them doable in daily planning, or to extend the possibilities into differentiated instruction.

There are several terrific books on cognitive linguistics, the larger domain in which metaphorical thinking and writing resides, but these were mostly research and analysis about the nature of the human mind. Not much was practical or inspiring for the educator. When I went back through my old lesson plans and saw all these metaphors in the lessons that were successful, I realized there was a missing bridge between the esoteric thinking about metaphors and real classroom application, and I became excited about the potential for the book.

When Kelly Gallagher, someone I respect very much, came out with his wonderful book, Deeper Reading, he had a great chapter in there about the power of metaphors in teaching. Though he wrote mostly about literature and character analysis, my mind was making connections to science, law, physical education, technology, religion, foreign language, politics, math, drama, art, music, and much more. I almost couldn’t finish reading his book; I was so excited about the possibilities for metaphors. That week, I wrote the first outline for the book.

You clearly express that it's time to "bust metaphors out of solitary confinement in English classes. Shackles off, metaphors are ready to serve any teacher of any subject in any grade level." In your experiences are there any limitations? Is there a type of teacher, subject, or grade level where the application of metaphors is more successful than another?

Great question. When someone like me speaks in seeming hyperbole, it’s reasonable to start looking for a limitation or catch. But I have yet to find a general exception. From the earliest learning experiences to the most advanced, whenever someone struggles to convey an idea or skill to someone else, they think of something familiar for the intended learner and try to map similarities between the new idea and the familiar frame of reference.

It’s amazing how quickly teachers and non-teachers alike pick up on this technique. I’ve seen sports coaches, CEO’s, dental hygienists, pharmacists, auto mechanics, heater repair personnel, landscapers, lifeguards, and many more professions use analogies and metaphors readily to explain something or to make an emphatic point, and I’ve seen it even more so since doing the intense research for the book

This quick resort to metaphors on our part is probably in our nature to some degree, as humans are consummate learners: The brain is wired for ceaseless learning. We quickly develop tools for making sense of the world, and one of the primary techniques is comparing new concepts to something we know and noting the differences and similarities. We constantly seek meaningful patterns: think of how many people look at the physical geography and shadows on one spot on Mars and see a human face, but it’s really just that geography and shadows, nothing more.
   
Teaching and learning really come down to connections and re-connections, and metaphors are wonderfully apt in creating those bridges in kindergarten, special education, gifted education, ELL classes, elementary/middle/high school, and at the university level. It’s such a commonly occurring yet powerful force in learning, we really shouldn’t leave it to chance or occasional attention. Hence, the book.  

Designing Our Teaching for the Digital Learner

Brain-based Teaching in the Digital Age

by Marilee Sprenger
(ASCD, 2010)

Reviewed by Ernie Rambo
Middle School Electives Teacher (NV)
Teacher Leaders Network

For the past several years of teaching, my students have seemed more resistant to the activities I suggest in our drama, media production, and Future City classes. As an electives teacher, I try to offer lots of personal and group choice in deciding what projects students will work on, what goals they will set, and how they will meet their objectives. While it is easy to come to agreement on what the groups will produce, the students and I frequently disagree on how to accomplish their goals and what we should consider a completed project.

One of the main topics where students and I disagree is on the requirement to memorize lines for a play performance. I keep recalling how my peers and I memorized lines when we were in middle school, yet today’s students insist that it isn’t necessary and, in fact, they can’t possibly memorize everything a character is supposed to say in a play. Since one of our goals is to generate high quality performances, I keep searching for strategies that will help students get beyond this resistance — but with each passing year, I seem to be less successful.

Enter stage left (with her left brain fully engaged): Marilee Sprenger, author of Brain-based Teaching in the Digital Age. As I read this book over the summer, I wondered whether Sprenger had somehow managed to eavesdrop on the countless conversations between my students and myself as we struggled over memorization — because most of what this former teacher turned neurology expert discusses can be directly applied to my practice.

Sprenger describes how the speed and the use of technology have changed the way that people take in information. Additionally, she describes the rationale for students’ arguments against the tried and true “do this because this is the way I learned” methods that many educators use. As the applications of technology increase, so does society’s expectations. Teachers who are willing to redefine their roles as they use technology in the classroom are likely to discover that more students are ready and even eager to learn.

Sprenger points out that today’s students perceive knowledge differently due to a lifetime of instant access to information: the importance of memorization is simply not valued as it once was. As obvious as this may seem after you read it, it’s not something all that many teachers have completely processed.

Sprenger’s discussion of the research about today’s learners helped me understand, for example, why students keep suggesting that we use teleprompters in our drama class. Students of the Net Generation utilize visuals and icons as they process information rather than the written words on which I depend. Learners who are familiar with using computers actually access different neural networks when reading information from a computer than when reading information from a book. As a result, many students are more likely to learn their lines (aka, memorize) using a digital tool like a teleprompter.

The differences in how students take in and use digital information is not necessarily better than how Baby Boomers tend to learn, but understanding the differences can help an educator plan strategies that play to the strengths of digital learners while also addressing deficiencies that can occur as a result of living digitally.

Digital learners are familiar with tools, such as texting and social networking applications, that facilitate their collaboration both inside and outside of school. The downfall to such wired communication is that a high amount of online connectivity can deprive students of the many face-to-face interactions common in the pre-digital age. And that can make group work in the classroom quite a challenge.

I was reminded of how students in my electives classes (all collaborative and project-based environments) seem to prefer working independently rather than with their group members. Sprenger suggests that teachers include activities that guide students to become more empathetic “in person” and that help them understand tone of voice and the non-verbal body language cues that are used in face-to-face communication. [Many older adults have the reverse problem in digital environments, where they can’t hear or see colleagues.]

Other “low-tech” skills that continue to impact all learners, regardless of what generation they were born into, are highlighted as important to learning. Sprenger cites research to show how physical exercise, music, acting, dancing, and art still have an impact on learning. Not all digital learners are alike, prompting the suggestion that teachers continue accessing all intelligences when planning class activities.

In summary, Sprenger reviews brain research, provides real-life examples of her suggestions, and presents meaningful information in an engaging style that makes this book exciting to read. She also includes three appendices that provide a review of how brains work, a survey of technology familiarity, and a glossary of technological terms. She offers an excellent reference for teachers while gently encouraging us to cross the divide and become more familiar with the learning tools that many students use outside of the classroom.

Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age caused me to say, “Aha!” many times — and to turn down page corners and highlight passages as I kept track of useful insights and examples. This year I’ll be walking into my classroom with a lot more ideas about engaging my digitally proficient students. I’ll be asking them for suggestions of how their cell phones and social networks can help them memorize their lines for upcoming performances. While I’m not quite ready to find room in my budget for a teleprompter, I think we’ll be creating some bridges over the River Technology!

Susan “Ernie” Rambo is a 23-year classroom veteran who currently teaches at Walter Johnson Junior High in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas NV. A National Board certified teacher, Rambo is a member of CTQ’s TeacherSolutions team studying the relationship between teacher working conditions and student achievement.

A Short, Powerful Resource for Teaching Content Literacy

More Tools for Teaching Content Literacy
by Janet Allen
(Stenhouse, 2008)

Reviewed by Gail V. Ritchie, NBCT
School-based instructional leader (VA)
Teacher Leaders Network

It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to write this brief review of a very short book (46 pages). That’s because I’ve been so busy using More Tools for Teaching Content Literacy and sharing it with my colleagues that it’s been difficult to make the time to sit down, reflect upon why I love it, and put pencil to paper (or in the modern age, fingers to keyboard).

Janet Allen’s short but powerful resource provides a quick and simple way to access “instructional tools for assisting students as they discover, think about, and apply content information” (from the Introduction). This sequel to Tools for Teaching Content Literacy (2004) offers 25 new items for the toolbox of literacy and content-area teachers in grades 4-12.

The book is spiral-bound with tabs, so the user can simply flip to the tool s/he wants to use. Among these are: Content Pass, Reaction Guide, Knowledge Chart, Point-of-View Guide, PQ4R, Writing Frames, and Expert Groups. (You can see the complete table of contents here.)

Each tool’s one-page description follows the same format: What it is, why use it, and how to use it. Each page concludes with a section listing applicable research, references, and/or suggestions for further reading.

An appendix provides black-line masters of the graphic organizers described in the earlier sections of the book, including the Three-Level Study Guide, Using the 5Ws and H to Find Information, Explore, and Wordstorming.

When I showed this book to my assistant principal, she borrowed it and kept it for several months. Each week, she featured one of the tools in our teacher newsletter, and my colleagues immediately began to use these tools with their students. Through intentional application of Allen’s tools, we are helping our students “discover real reasons to read, inquire, write, and think” (from the Introduction) in meaningful and memorable ways.

So my sincere apologies for dragging my reviewer’s heels — and thank you very much, Janet Allen!

Gail Ritchie is an instructional leader and coach in a Fairfax, Virginia elementary school.

Learning to Talk *With* Our Students — and Not Just *To* Them

Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talking Effectively with Your Students

by Jenny Edwards

(ASCD, 2010)

Reviewed by Cindi Rigsbee, NBCT

Middle Grades Literacy (NC)

Teacher Leaders Network

I was drawn into this book by Jenny Edwards because the title suggests something I’d never really thought consciously about: talking with my students. Sure, I talk to them, and not as part of a dictatorship in a classroom but as part of a relationship, a culture of family. But do I talk with them? I know I have to read this book to find out.

When I think about a second master’s degree in my future, I often think of studying linguistics. I love words and therefore became more and more interested in Inviting Students to Learn as I read along. I was pulled in as early as the Acknowledgments, where the author thanks someone who taught her “precision in language.” Then she mentions something called “neuro-linguistic programming.” I’m getting excited...

I calm down at the Foreword, though, which I find to be a little too heavy on sharing language instruction and less about giving the big picture of the book’s merits. Over the course of several pages, only two paragraphs are devoted to actually framing and promoting the book’s usefulness. But on I go, thinking back to the acknowledgments and still sensing that this book is full of possibilities for this language lover.

I don’t have long to wait. The introduction makes me feel as if the author knows me: she’s included a poem, “A Language That Expresses Care,” at the beginning of the book! Early on, she’s hit me where it really matters. Then Plato and Mahatma Gandhi are quoted, and research is referenced. Dr. Edwards knows her stuff on the relationship between students and language and knows how to share it in a way that isn’t clinical and tasting like medicine.

The first chapter defines skills needed to “communicate invitationally” with students — but really, the tips on posture, gestures, tone of voice, etc. should be considered when communicating with anyone. Then, in Chapter Two, Edwards gives suggestions on ways to communicate, everything from the seamless and easy (compliments, positive notes, emails) to those that require 21st century technology and understanding: for example, MUVES (Multiuser Virtual Environments, MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Player Games), podcasts, wikis, Twitter, and more. Meanwhile, the explanations in this chapter are reader-friendly and non-threatening, a surefire way to keep an audience engaged and turning pages.

No education book is complete without a discussion of how to make the advice work for any student in any class. Chapter Three takes us through language tips for special needs students, diverse populations, students of different ages, and even a relatively new group of students — the online learners — a refreshing addition that is commonly included, if at all, as an afterthought. In Edwards’ schema, digitally oriented students are given as much consideration as any other set of learners with special characteristics..

Chapter Four connects Edwards’ ideas to various purposes: building relationships, teaching, planning for the future, encouraging students, etc., and I’m becoming more and more impatient: where are they? What are these tips she keeps mentioning? Then I turn the page – “100 Tips for Talking Effectively with Your Students.”

I can barely turn the pages quickly enough: there are lists of adverbs to use when communicating, for example, and that’s just the beginning. The “tips” range in length from a third- to a full page, and at the end of each tip you’ll find a list of possible connections with Edwards’ discussion in earlier chapters.
There are literally hundreds of examples of words and phrases that will intentionally enable students to learn. I tried to select a favorite one or two for the purposes of this review (“Words that Change Minds,” “Magic Words” etc.) but there are just too many. If you’d like to see a sample selection of tips, download this PDF from the ASCD website.

Jenny Edwards has taken research on language, combined it with common sense and what she’s seen work with students, and shared it with her readers. She adds book recommendations and references other authors and researchers for additional study. Now I’m hooked and would like to read more on the topic of using language to “invite” our students to learn. I’ll start by re-reading this book. It’s so rich with information, I need to approach it in stages — try a couple of the tricks and then dive back into it again.

This book will be useful to anyone who communicates with anyone about anything. I’m going to begin by using some of the tips while talking with my husband. I bet he won’t even pick up the remote.

Cindi Rigsbee is a middle grades literacy teacher and coach in Orange County, North Carolina. She was a finalist for National Teacher of the Year in 2009, writes poetry and is the author of Finding Mrs. Warnacke. (Jossey Bass, 2010). She’s currently a teacher on loan to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. She blogs at The Dream Teacher.