That's why DI is such an appealing solution, most teachers think its too easy since the practice is almost effortless due to the way the program is structured.

This is a Brand New Obsession — one I'd already come to, without knowing Engelmann was saying the same thing

I'm going to have to figure out how to start getting this idea across

-- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jan 2006

That passage brings up one of the obstacles in pushing for a 'rigorous' curriculum, which is that rigor is defined as Profound Overwork. Profound & pointless.

With a book like Prentice-Hall, you see why people are so hostile to 'rigor,' 'memorization,' and 'acceleration.'

Nothing is done for the student.

That's why DI is such an appealing solution, most teachers think its too easy since the practice is almost effortless due to the way the program is structured.

-- KDeRosa - 12 Jan 2006

I wonder how much 'cramming' Asian students in Asia are actually doing.

Stevenson & Stigler says the elementary school kids in Japan aren't remotely stressed. They watch as much TV as our kids do, have as much free time, etc.

Things get hairy....in high school, I think — or perhaps leading up to exams to get into high school. I've forgotten.

When the material is properly organized, edited, and taught, a child in grade school shouldn't be overwhelmed.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

That passage brings up one of the obstacles in pushing for a 'rigorous' curriculum, which is that rigor is defined as Profound Overwork. Profound & pointless.

With a book like Prentice-Hall, you see why people are so hostile to 'rigor,' 'memorization,' and 'acceleration.'

Nothing is done for the student.

The textbooks are essentially reference books (that's what Engelmann calls them) and it's up to the student to commit them to memory.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

I'm going to have to go back to it —

I started it awhile back, and didn't stay with it....

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

they WANT to see those Cold Dead Facts NAILED TO THE WALL

I completely agree. Just be prepared to remain perfectly cheerful when faces fall, and educators respond with developmental assertions.

On a lighter note, we are not wandering in the wilderness alone. On the contrary there have been many luminary figures wandering here ahead of us:

Bagley recognized the powerful emotional appeal of progressive pedagogy:

"If you wish to be applauded at an educational convention, vociferate sentimental platitudes about the sacred rights of the child, specifying particularly his right to happiness gained through freedom. You are likely to get an extra 'hand' if you shed a few verbal tears over the cruelty of examinations and homework, while if with eloquent condemnation you deftly bring into every other sentence one of the favorite stereotypes of abuse, such as Latin, mathematics, grammar, the traditional curriculum, compartmentalization, 'chunks of subject matter' to be memorized, discipline, formal discipline, and the like, you may be fairly certain of an ovation." -- 1935

You've got to read Ravitch's book if you haven't already.

-- BeckyC - 12 Jan 2006

The guy up above is called 'Nail gun firing stance'

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

oh — that one's called 'Build a nail gun from an old fire extinguisher'

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

whoa

this one's cool





from the same site as the nail gun cartoon

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

ok, this isn't a cold dead fact nailed to a wall, but it does have a nail motif

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

Let's hope.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

teaching to mastery" sounds like you are nailing a cold, sad, dead little fact to the wall

hmm

I'm going to have to think that one over.

My first feeling is that parents are so panicked about their kids — will they be OK? will they survive high school? will they do well in college? etc. — that they WANT to see those Cold Dead Facts NAILED TO THE WALL

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

Apparently this is a nail gun cartoon.

A whole new genre for me.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jan 2006

Catherine, it's less of a smoking gun, and more of a whimper (no bang)!

Why "teach to mastery" when you can instead be facilitating a child's mathematical growth by helping them achieve computational fluency with their own sensible strategies? Unfortunately, the terms of the debate have been controlled to the extent that "teaching to mastery" sounds like you are nailing a cold, sad, dead little fact to the wall.

-- BeckyC - 12 Jan 2006

stuck in a unit

from Becky C, a smoking gun:




Getting stuck in a unit because you are teaching to mastery is a bad thing.

TERC teachers aren't supposed to do it.

Because they'll be revisiting the concept later.

Note: visit.

Not teach.

Not learn.

Not study.

Not practice.

And not master.


This language doesn't happen by accident.



KIPP on the spiral

You know, talk about curriculum, if I put in front of you a fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade textbook in math and opened up to page 200 and I jumbled them up, and said, “order them from fifth through eighth grade in order,” you'd have a very tough time because they all look the same. That's because, unfortunately, we have this national strategy of “we're not really going to teach to master, we're going to teach to exposure and over lots and lots of years of kids seeing page 200 in the math book, eventually somehow they're going to learn it. We're going to teach them how to reduce fractions in fifth grade, in sixth grade, in seventh grade, in eighth grade, in ninth grade and continue until finally somehow magically they're going to get it.”....[W]e have a different math strategy and a different math philosophy.