Reading Levels for Everyone!

So I was discussing with a group of teachers how easy it is these days to take ANYthing you come across and determine it's reading level.  Differentiating for even the most struggling readers has never been this easy.

First of all, let's talk about finding resources:

To find great resources.

Did you know that you can use Google search to search by reading level for a student, Here's how:

GREAT!

Now, what if you already have something and want to evaluate it's reading level.  Not that hard either.

1.  Copy and paste the document or website into microsoft word.
Click Tools, Grammer and Spelling, Options

Then Click "show readability statistics"

Nice!

What about resources for Online.  

Online Resources:

Book title, Author or ISBN number into: http://lexile.com/

Also Lexile has an analyzer that's pretty good but you have to register: http://lexile.com/analyzer/

Copy and paste the web address, paste text, or embed this into your webpage of something you find here: http://www.read-able.com/

Test a book using Scholastic Book wizard: http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

Enter text or copy and paste: http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp

DIY Method

At Home Method from: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworkhelp/a/readinglevel.htm

CAUTION: Math involved!

You can use a formula to calculate Flesch-Kincaid reading level on your own. This is a good tool to determine whether a book is going to challenge you.

1. Select a few paragraphs to use as your base.
2. Calculate the average number of words per sentence. Multiply the result by 0.39
3. Calculate the average number of syllables in words (count and divide). Multiply the result by 11.8
4. Add the two results together
5. Subtract 15.59

The result will be a number that equates to a grade level. For example, a 6.5 is a sixth grade reading level result.

Mad props and thanks to great educators on twitter:

I love having  Professional Learning Network (PLN) to rely on!

The Incomparable Michelle

Cherie

PantherFan

Shervette

and of course

Mike

Have any other resources you love?  Add them in the comments section:

Never Work Harder Than Your Students: Chapter 3

We are doing a book club with our 2nd and 3rd year teachers in our district and reading the book Never Work Harder than your students.

Chapter 3 could be summed up as:

If you don't believe in yourself, who can you believe in?

Some of the main Take-aways I have from chapter 3 are as follows:

• We drag kids through curriculum
• We need to look at the expectations we have for ourselves before we can expect things from kids
• The difference between the expectation and the standard is:
• Standard is the bar
• Expectation is your belief that the students can reach the bar
• Just because you raised the standard doesn't mean that you have also altered your belief that kids can reach those standards.
• If you believe students won't meet the standard, then that belief will play out in your classroom.
• An expectation is the confidence that something will happen

An expectation is what you get when you multiply the probability of an occurrence and the value of that occurrence.

• Beliefs are what we think is true
• Values are what we think something is worth
• Our expectations are the intersection between what we believe about our teaching situation and our own abilities to handle it and what we believe is important.

Pygmalion Effect

• Blind belief in our own talent
• Bet to take anything and turn it into something better

Teachers go to work believing they will end up with a masterpiece, not because the raw material they are working with has some innate potential but because of the power of their own ability to create a masterpiece.

It's about you...

• Students pick up on our expectations fairly quickly.  They then formulate judgements about the kind of teacher we are and decide how hard they will work in our classroom
• If we believe in the student, we will pull out all the stops.
• If we are not confident in our ability, we will lower our expectations
• lowered expectations is a self-protective measure
• You want to raise expectations of your students, you first have to raise your expectations of yourself
• Rather than focus on the problem, focus on how to solve the problem

Stockdale Paradox

• Optimism creates despair
• Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end with the discipline to confront the most difficult of reality.

Have faith in yourself

• If we believe what we are doing is important, we are more likely there is a way to prevail
• Faith based on your ideals, what you believe is important
• Do you value your students following your rules, being quiet and cooperative?
• Do you value engaging activities with the material and learn to be critical thinkers and effective communication.
• What do you value?  When you determine what you value, you will determine your faith...

Confront your reality

• The way we decide what to focus on is what we value.

Our beliefs function as a filter through which we sift our reality.

• Our decisions are based on our beliefs and the magnitude of our teaching task as well as our own abilities.
• Asking the right questions will grant you the opportunity to change your beliefs or let them be challenged.
• Be humble enough to know that you don't have all the answers
• Be willing to "stop" doing something you are doing...
• When you get data or information do you use it as an opportunity to blame someone or to improve?

Whole Equation

• Balance your focus on both sides of the paradox
• What can I do today to move toward my goal despite the reality of my circumstances?
• How do you see your individual reality?

Wrap it up...

If a student is failing, then it means that I haven't found the right way to get through to them.

Qantas model of edcuation

Today I got to attend a Keynote presentation by Joel Davies (more on Joel) from Apple.  He was presenting on "Flipping the classroom: Sticking the landing."

He made me laugh out loud on this thought:

Education today is the Qantas Model:

• Sit down
• Face forward
• Strap in
• Turn of all portable electronic devices
• If you're lucky your trip will be relevant
• You may resume your life in a few hours

Work hard today and tomorrow to break that mold...

DING!

You are now free to revolutionize education...

We Sit'n here talk'n bout practice...Not a game, not a game, Practice!

Our district is currently doing a book study on the Art and Science of Teaching.

See other posts here:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 6
Chapter 8

This chapter is on giving students opportunities to deepen their understanding.

Or as Allen Iverson would say, We're going to use the Blog post to talk about PRACTICE!

MISCONCEPTION ALERT!
Deepening your understanding does not mean doing the same thing to the same depth that was done before.  That is just practicing, which is fine for somethings.  Deepening means going to the next depth of knowledge.

My take-aways are:

• Students need opportunities to practice new skills and deepen their understanding of new information.
• Students need time to extend their thinking
• Part of this process is students recognizing their own misconceptions
• "Students need a sound foundation to build new awareness."
• Determine what kind of learning they need it is skill based (procedural) or knowledge based (declarative)
• Assign tasks as determined by kind of learning they are doing...

Building new awareness:

• Schema Development
• linking old learning and new
• challenge existing perceptions
• Procedural knowledge
• the "do" of a learning goal
• develops from declarative knowledge
• involves adding, editing, and delting steps
• fully developed seems automatic
• also termed as "fluency"
• Need for practice to make this automatic
• guided practice involves "gradual shaping of a procedure facilitated by teacher guidance"
• OVER TIME PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE IS SHAPED BY THE LEARNER.
• Developing Declarative Knowledge
• reviewing and revision are key
• Students need at least 4 exposures to integrate something into their existing knowledge base. (Rovee-Collier, Nuthall)
• No more than 2 days between exposures (Think about this as it relates to Professional development)
• Ways to improve declarative knowledge
• revision - as in writing
• error analysis - revising ones own thinking
• Similarities and differences - think Venn Diagram, classification also work
• homework - extends learning opportunities that are limited byt he school day

Facts about homework (Don't shoot the messenger, I don't like homework either)

• Relationship between amount of homework students do and their achievement level were found positive and statistically significant.
• No clear benefits of homework at the lower levels (below grade 6)
• Homework should:
• Foster good study habits
• foster positive attitude toward school
• There is no correlation between time spent on homework and student achievement
• For secondary students there are benefits to homework up to one to two hours a night, after that it diminishes greatly.
• It's not the time spent on homework but the proportion completed that impacts achievement
• Parent involvement with homework is positive when:
• There are clear roles
• Parents are not experts
• Parents can ask clarifying questions to help students summarize
• Give students practice, but make it focused, and meaningful

Action steps for your classroom:

1.  Let students find similarities and differences often (compare, classify, create metaphors, analogies)

2.  Help students identify errors in thinking (faulty logic, attacks, weak reference, misinformation)

3.  Practice, Practice, Practice.... Structure practice, gradual release, develop fluency)

4.  Use Cooperative groups with a focused intent

5.  Assign PURPOSEFUL homework

6.  Allow students time to make corrections in their notebooks/journals/blogposts/googledoc files.

Textbooks: They Just Don't Add Up

I'm going to be blunt: I hate textbooks.

I've been in my new position now for a couple months and I have heard so much discussion about textbooks that really frustrates me.  I'm working on how to have this conversation and here are my selling points:


First off, I read a Genius post by Tom Whitby @tomwhitby:
http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/we-dont-need-no-stinkn-textbooks-beyondthetextbook/

Second, I borrowed the technique of the math from Tony DiLaura @anthonydilaura

Now, here's some math I'm going to use to have conversations with my colleagues:

Buying 40 books per 4 teacher team:

$67/book x 160 books = $10,720


So let's work with that budget:


What if teacher’s made the “book”?

4 teachers = $100/day (for subs) = $400/day


At $400/day we could take 4 teachers out of the classroom for 26.8 days and create a textbook of our own.

Can we make a better book in 26.8 days?

That's not ideal AT ALL, but at least it seems doable.

Now imagine if we "paid" teachers to do it outside of the work day.....

If we assumed $15-$20 per hour in the summer/after school time x 4 teachers/grade level for a total of $60-$80 per hour....

the $10,720 budget to pay teachers would mean we could have anywhere from 134 to 178 hours of work to pay (dare I say invest in) teachers to make their own book.

Can we do it better? Can we do a better job of keeping it updated? Allow it to be ours?

What if we "OPEN SOURCED" our learning?

Can you believe that video is from 2006!!!!!!!!!!!! And we are still having this conversation.

I mean let's be crazy:
What if we published it and sold it online? To schools and homeschool organizations?


I know I drank the "apple Kool-Aid," but
Let's be honest, they do it better...

There are many pieces of technology available to help us.  What if we purchased 4 Macbook Airs ($4000) and downloaded the iBooks Author Software (FREE) (Tony's How to) as well as the pages app ($40) that leaves us with over $6000 to pay teachers or subs to make our own book....

I just don't get it, let's just face it, purchasing textbooks just doesn't add up...

Overcoming Apathy

One of my favorite shirt on Mental floss is

As I have been learning and growing in my new position I have noticed an interesting trend.

One trend of interest to me is complaining.  Now I have been lucky that being the new guy nobody complains to me, yet....

Here's my thinking about complaining:

We all experience problems through out our day.  Being able to have the initiative to overcome that problem and make the decision to find/provide a solution in not natural to everyone.  A lot of this relates back to chemistry and activation energy required to begin a chemical reaction.

I realize that some teachers just need to vent and complain, getting from problem to solution is not easy:

Some teachers complain because they just need help getting from point A to point B:

Many teachers see a problem and immediate begin working toward solutions, they are always the "do-ers" and immediately work toward solutions.

People are much like reactants in a chemical reaction.  When I work with teachers I am striving, in my new position, to get from problem to solution and to be that catalyst:

I very much see my job as being the person to lower the activation energy.  Helping teachers to solve problems and achieve their goals.

How can we all see ourself as catalysts and work together to overcome the activation energy?

At the beginning of the year I show my students this video:

I use it for the remainder of the year when a kid sees a problem, I ask them if they are stuck on an escalator and if they are working to solve their problems.  Sometimes they just need me to lower that activation energy and help in any way I can to assist them in achieving their goals.

Cornerstone Tasks

I've been working hard at Understanding the CCSS and it's implications for Curriculum development in my role as facilitator (coordinator).  People ask me questions everyday about how it will impact our curriculum.  

I've been saying in a nutshell it will cause us to rewrite and rethink.

Read my post on CCSS here then check this out:

Cornerstone tasks are opportunities for student to USE knowledge and skill they have learned throughout a unit or duration of study in order to INDEPENDENTLY demonstrate their learning.

These tasks are REALISTIC in nature.  Have an authentic audience (See Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence)

Cornerstone Tasks involve MANY:

• CCSS
• Content standards
• 21st century skills (creativity, technology use, teamwork, etc.)

These cornerstone tasks "honor the intent of the standard within and across subject areas."

This SCREAMS Project, Problem, Passion and Game-based learning. 

See my post here on Curriculum Models throughout time....

Cornerstone tasks are designed to reoccur from grade-level to grade-level progressing from simpler to more sophisticated.  From more scaffolded to more autonomous in nature.

As we continue down the road of learning about the CCSS and begin looking at other standards, outcomes and expectations from areas such as NCSS, NCHE, NGSS, and others we MUST be so moved to revision items that impact our alignment:

1.  Our grading practices from points to standards based
2.  Our summative assessments from paper/pencil to something more authentic
3.  Out schedule from math only happens from 8:47 - 9:33 to when it's needed for the project
4.  Our role as educators from holder of knowledge to advocator of learning
5.  Our training of new teachers
6.  Our model of checklists and scope and sequences to Cornerstone Tasks

We will not be able to meet the myriad of tasks and performance outcomes simply by making a list and checking it off.  We MUST throw the goals and outcomes off the table, start fresh with these cornerstone tasks (project, problems, games, and passions) and pull in standards when and where they fit.


The CCSS will eventually cause us to change our thinking from:

Scope and sequence/step by step/1st hour, 2nd hour, 3rd hour

to this:

Theme/Project/Student-Centered/Passion-Driven/Cornerstone Task centered

Support and resources:

• See how Cornerstone Tasks are viewed through the Arts: http://schooltheatre.org/publications/teaching-theatre/2012/summer/cornerstone-tasks
• Interesting Presentation on Assessment and Cornerstone tasks: http://educationaljargonschs.wikispaces.com/file/view/Authentic+and+Cornerstone+assessment.pdf
• More on Assessment: http://educationaljargonschs.wikispaces.com/Assessment
• Wiggins on Assessment: http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artId=114

Images from:

Cornerstone - http://www.stonehouseconsulting.com/Benchmarking/Cornerstone_files/cornerstone-altered.jpg

Dominos - http://datejesus.com/falling_dominoes.jpg