Keynote Presentation

Faye BrownlieMarch 3, 2008

My Premise

• Teachers are doing the best they can with what they know.

– Personal Experience– School Norms– Second Hand Experience– Research– Mandated Curriculum and Assessment

My Questions

• Is this what we want?

• Is what we are doing the best of what we know?

Scenarios

• Of what we have been/are doing…

• Through the eyes of a teacher - the past 28 years…

Your Questions

• Does this reflect your practice?

• What does this practice show you believe about learning and learners?

• Is this the practice that you want?

• Late ‘70s and 1980s

Reading Programs

• Ginn 360 or Language Patterns

Young Writers: The Writing Process

• A provincial initiative

• Pre-writing, drafting, editing, proof-reading, publishing and presenting

• Daily writing for an audience and with a purpose

Secondary English

• One class novel

• Comprehension questions

• Grammar worksheets

• Main idea booklets

• Late ‘80s and 1990s

Thinking in the Classroom

Four areas of thoughtful learning:Questioning

Making connectionsRepresenting

Reflecting

Based on integrated learning, teaching and assessment

1991

• Primary Program, 1990, 2000

• Intermediate Program, 1990 (draft)

• Year 2000 - A Framework for Learning, 1990

Principles of Learning

• Learning is an active process.

• Learning is an individual and social process.

• Children learn in different ways and at different rates.

Research - Pearson & Fielding, 1994

1. Large amounts of time for actual text reading

2. Teacher-directed instruction in comprehension strategies

3. Opportunities for peer and collaborative learning

4. Occasions for students to talk to a teacher and one another about their responses to reading

• Inclusion - differentiation

• ESL

• Enhancing and Evaluating Oral Communication in the Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Grades, 1988

The Classroom Context Study, 1993

• Grades 3,7,10, 3 months, 2000 kids

• Purpose:• Assess communication skills within the regular

context of classroom learning• Develop an understanding of S’s experiences

and T’s practices

Findings:

• Classroom activities were focused around independent, self-contained reading and writing activities

• Teachers more confident about teaching writing than reading

• Little instruction in oral language

• Are you a whole language teacher?

• Are we still allowed to do this?

• Do you believe in spelling?

Other derailers…

polar opposites

mandates

politics

jargon

• Late 90s and into the new century…

The Age of Accountability

Grand events:• DART, RAD, SMART…

Day to day teaching:• Building criteria• Descriptive feedback• Learning intentions

The Performance Standards

• Describe the professional judgments of BC educators

• Describe what student behaviour is expected to look like

• Show various levels of achievement

• How good is good enough?

• Performance based assessment -

students applying skills & concepts

• Assessment that guides instruction

• Assessment of/for/as learning

Appropriate Text:

• Guided reading

• Literature circles

Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children - NRC, 1998

Effective instruction [in reading] requires that teachers focus on:

• The relationship between letters and sounds

• The process of obtaining meaning from print

• Practice for fluency

Writing Next

Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High School (gr.4-12)

-Steve Graham and Dolores Perin

Alliance for Excellent Educationwww.all4ed.org/publications/WritingNext •

1. Writing strategies

2. Summarization

3. Collaborative Writing

4. Specific Product Goals

5. Word Processing

6. Sentence Combining

7. Prewriting

8. Inquiry Activities

9. Process Writing Approach

10. Study of Models

11. Writing for Content Learning

Reading Next - Biancarosa & Snow, 2004

• Instructional Improvements

1. Direct, explicit comprehension instruction2. Effective instructional principles embedded in content3. Motivation and self-directed learning4. Text-based collaborative learning5. Strategic tutoring6. Diverse texts7. Intensive writing8. A technology component9. Ongoing formative assessment of students

www.all4ed.org

• Infrastructure Improvements

1. Extended time for literacy2. Professional development3. Ongoing summative assessment of students

and programs4. Teacher teams5. Leadership6. A comprehensive and coordinated literacy

program

15-3=0

Without - • professional development• ongoing formative assessment of

students and• ongoing summative assessment of

students and programs

Reading Next - Biancarosa & Snow, 2004

Challenges

• Staying the course

• Wise pro d

• Watching our language

• Keeping our eyes and ears and hearts on the learner and the learning

Quotable? Quotes

• We are considering a new computer program to teach phonics to all our primary students.

• I love teaching Romeo and Juliet. It takes me at least 8 weeks, 10 if I’m lucky.

Quotable? Quotes

• Since the class is now going to read together, I’ll get the ESL kids to take out their individual work.

• We have finally agreed upon the correct levels of achievement for each term for our Guided Reading groups.

Looking toward tomorrow-for kids

• Real reading, writing and oral language tasks• Choice in text and representation• Apprenticeship teaching - gradual release• Backward design - planning with the end in mind• Assessment for learning• Performance-based assessment• High expectations/standards for all

Looking toward tomorrow - for teachers

• Focus on student learning• A spirit of inquiry• Mental models of teaching/learning• Teacher teams - to plan, to reflect, to revise• Respectful work environments• Professional responsibility for our autonomy• Ongoing, inclusive, focused professional

development - MUST enter the school and the classroom

Unity in Diversity

By Paul Sopow

The diversities of race can be reflected by a simple

comparison.

Guitar vs Bass

Guitar supremacy

A common electric guitar has 6 strings.

Which immediately leads to the assumption of greater mental function and superior sound.

But why do two instruments with relatively the same shape and the same bottom 4 strings have such intense conflicts?

Are basses really the slaves of lead guitars? Is it the other way around? Or is it a unity between them both that makes music.

Racism of the ages.• Racism has many definitions, the most

common and widely accepted is the belief that human beings are divided into more than one race. Members of some races being essentially superior or inferior to members of other races.

• Racism and prejudice has always existed among men, but in different shapes depending on the time in history. The fear of the unknown is a natural reaction. Throughout the history people have made borders and strong defences to keep strangers out. In the effort to keep strangers out people are developing still stronger and more effective weapons. This striving toward “safety” has started several wars and killed millions of people. The bass can be said to be foreign to the guitar even though they are closely related and originate from the same type of instrument. This foreignness instils a sense of fear which leads to racist behaviour.

Differences and Similarites.

• An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses magnetic pickups to convert the vibration of steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. The input that comes from the guitar can be electrically altered prior to being fed into an amplifier to achieve different effects which produces the final sound.

The electric bass guitar or the electric bass is essentially a bass stringed guitar played with the fingers (plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or a pick. The bass is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but it generally has a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and the four strings are usually tuned one octave lower in pitch than the four lower strings of a guitar.

• In direct relation, electric guitars could represent the Pashtun Muslims and the bass guitars could represent the Hazara Muslims. The guitars being the “upper class” with more privileges where as the bass is the supporting role which reflects the Hazara slaves.

As stated before. Racist behaviours can be brought on by fear of the unknown or invasion. In the case of Pashtun and Hazara Muslims they are old enemies and fought each other for lands in the past. Which then leads to a protective nature and intense racial conflicts.