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Category: Curriculum Planning

Aug212019

Marva Collins

 

The 2019/2020 school year is here! I feel the energy shift from the slower-paced summer days to the more structured rigor of the academic year. This is especially the case for me because I teach and reside in the same community. Considering this, I’ve taken some time to reflect on what makes my teaching community rather special. What truly makes my teaching community special is the dedication, purpose, intellect and minding-the-light-within individuality embodied in all who I live and work with.

The Collins Connection

Learning about the great Marva Collins inspired me to reflect on why I appreciate my colleagues and my role as educator. Marva Collins was dissatisfied with the school system in Chicago due to the less than acceptable education children in the system received, including her own. She was compelled to make a difference and invested $5,000 out of her pension to start Westside Preparatory School, located on the second floor of her own home. Collins accepted children who were considered learning disabled and problematic according to the school system at that time. After working closely with Collins, the same children excelled above and beyond the labels once placed on them.

Collins enabled her students through the Socratic method. Through use of this method, centered on questioning, reasoning and logic, Collins inspired them to:

  • Gather Information
  • Set a purpose for reading
  • Reflect
  • Predict
  • Reason

Collins applied the aforementioned points in developing the meta-cognitive skills of her charges. When naysayers questioned her students’ intellectual abilities and future potential, Collins proved them wrong with open invitations to her classroom and methods. What an awe-inspiring individual! She was so riveting and educationally transformative, President Ronald Reagan nominated Collins to the position of Secretary of Education.

Dedication:

In true Jazzandblackboards fashion, I dedicate Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes’ “Wake Up” to Marva Collins:

I am most proud to be part of a tribe of individuals, like Marva Collins, who are dedicated to empowering minds. Share your reflections in respect to educators like Marva Collins.  In what ways have you been influenced and/or inspired by their service?

 

Jan32019

Happy New Year and Independent Reading!

Image by iam Se7en

Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to the experience of ‘2019. I am especially looking forward to my personal journey and development as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, auntie, friend and teacher.  On the teaching front, I am especially grateful to have an opportunity to implement time for independent reading with my students. With such a hectic teaching schedule, I have found myself veering away from teaching and learning opportunities that are not necessarily a part of the “official” curriculum. To include aspects like independent reading and a field trip, for example, requires time and preparation that is difficult to find in my already time-consuming schedule.  In this New Year, I have made a point to not let time deter me from doing what I am most passionate about as an English teacher/ reading specialist, allowing my students time to select their own reading texts.

In The Power and Promise of Read-Alouds and Independent Reading (2018), the International Literacy Association (ILA) confirms that independent reading is imperative for secondary students as it provides students with choice and ownership in the English classroom. Additionally, classroom libraries (or in my case, the school library) must contain digital and multimodal texts and be diverse in text category (nonfiction and fiction), genre (e.g., fantasy, historical fiction, realistic fiction, myths, autobiographies and biographies, memoir, narrative nonfiction, expository nonfiction), and text level. Students who are exposed to a plethora of these genres begin to understand what features and characteristics are comprised in each. The ILA has found that 91% of children ages 6-17 report that their favorite texts in school are the ones that they selected themselves. Without the opportunity to select their own texts, reading proficiency lags (Allington, R.L., & Gabriel, R.E., 2012).

With this research in mind, I have partnered with my school librarians to create a literary circle or book chat with my students. All of my students will have an extended class devoted to selecting a text of any genre. For the remainder of Term 2, time will be devoted to discuss components of each students’ chosen text. In order to create an environment that encourages empowerment and opportunity for students explore their self-selected texts, I’ve created the following schedule-with room for modification-to be completed within a three-week time period:

Introduction and Novel Selection (Including librarians):

-Students will officially meet the librarians.  The librarians and instructor will share the overall plan for the book chat.  Students will have at least thirty minutes to select a book of their choice for this project. 

Book Chat (Including librarians):

-Students are encouraged to keep a reading schedule and remain within the pages of the schedule (i.e. if the idea is to read about 5 pages a day or a chapter a week, students will remain on task in order to reflect, predict and share their reading journey and experience with their peers). While in the book chat circle, students will share plot details, interesting aspects of text, disappointments, predictions etc…

Book Club Presentation and Social Media (Including librarians):

-Students will have the opportunity to practice writing a book review and summary by sharing their feedback on social media forum (in house). Models for what a “respectful” review should consist of will be shared before students are provided with the opportunity to write their own.  The feedback will be graded based on grammar, vocabulary and thoroughness.

As with all things new, I am nervous about what kinks I might find as we delve into this project. However, as with all things new, I feel enthused and eager about the possibilities of implementing this book chat. If you are interested in learning more details regarding the schedule and the book chat, I am happy to share.  I am also happy to share reflections at the end of our book chat journey.  Until then, I wish you a ‘2019 filled with “new things” and book chats. Enjoy one of my favorite reading tunes from a show that helped nurture my love of reading (way back in the day), Reading Rainbow.


Reading Rainbow theme song
Sep142018

Why is the Essential Question Essential?

Why is the Essential Question Essential?

What is an essential question? I remember when I was in my capstone course at Temple University when my professor posed this question to my cohort and me. He said the essential question is essential for framing a unit. You can “hook” students into whatever stories you read in the unit by connecting all of these stories to a question that they will continue to investigate.

I didn’t quite understand how one question could possibly address all of the texts read in one unit at the time. I initially considered this one question to be quite limiting. I thought, why should we create the same question for reflection across texts? Why not investigate different questions and ideas?…

While reflecting on the challenges I had with constructing an essential question, the jazz tune “I Can’t Get Started (With You)” by Ira Gershwin, sung by Ella Fitzgerald, came to mind; I simply could not understand how one question could apply to all readings. I had difficulties getting started myself.

Today, I understand more than ever before why the essential question is dynamic. The essential question allows for:

  1. Purposeful reading: Students read with intention and use the question as a guide for deeper understanding
  2. A starting point for further investigation: While students are learning how to formulate their own questions, the essential question is a starting point
  3. Higher order thinking: The essential question should be an open-ended question. This creates a space for students to begin investigating other aspects of a given text
  4. Transfer of Learning: The essential question transfers from one reading to the next. Considering this, students have the opportunity to critically think about how this question applies in different contexts
  5. Interdisciplinary connections: Students understand how to apply the question across disciplines for a more dynamic learning experience

Michael Smith (my professor in the capstone course) and Jeffrey Wilhelm both agree in Going with the Flow (2006) that for an essential question to work, it must be debatable and most of all, it must be meaningful. To provide you with an idea of what makes an essential question, the following are five questions created according to the aforementioned criteria:

  1. How can literature serve as a vehicle for social change?
  2. How does conflict lead to change?
  3. What is truth and who defines it?
  4. What is reality and how is it constructed?
  5. What does it mean to be invisible?

Overall, these questions are created while backward planning and reflecting on what is essential for students to know and understand in a unit. Most importantly, these questions help when guiding students into more critical areas of inquiry. What essential questions do you and have you used in your classroom? In what ways have these questions changed the way you approach a unit? I’m looking forward to your comments….