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Kitchen > PrivateWebHome > WebPreferences > Archives > CompleteArchives > June2006
HowYouCanHelp 01 Jun 2006 - 00:24 CatherineJohnson



NOTE: IF YOU ARE READING THIS POST AT THE TOP OF AN ARCHIVED MONTH OR CATEGORY THREAD, BE FOREWARNED THAT A NUMBER OF THE POSTS SHOW UP INCORRECTLY. IF THERE ARE MISSING WORDS OR IMAGES, CLICK ON THE POST TITLE & READ IT IN A SEPARATE WINDOW. (SORRY!)


because I know you were wondering ......


How can family members reinforce the work of the No - Putdowns Program?

  • Use the language of the program – Think About Why, Stay Cool, Shield Myself, Choose a Response, and Build Up.

  • Refer to the skills in daily interactions.

  • Observe the use of putdowns at stores, restaurants, on television and radio [and school].

  • Think about establishing an incentive program to reinforce the use of the skills.

  • Tune into your own use of putdowns.

  • Emphasize positive communication:  listening, eye contact, questions, paying attention to the speaker, fighting fair, and encouraging rather than discouraging.  These are all skills that can be practiced and used.

  • Remind your children that as parents and as adults, you have a right and responsibility to correct their behavior and that there is a difference between constructive criticism and reprimands — and putdowns.  However when you need to get a point across, try to do it without a putdown. Instead of, "You're so sloppy or lazy," try "After you pick up your toys, you can go out and play." You can get your point across without a putdown.

    • source:
    Laytonville Elementary School





    how to be multicultural part 4 (no putdowns)
    comebacks and putdowns for the ages
    synchronicity alert
    how families can help



    -- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006



    comments...

    OrganizationallyOverwhelmed 01 Jun 2006 - 03:24 CarolynJohnston

    BerniesOffice.jpg


    The organization is overrated thread is alive again. This was a thread from last March in which I confessed that I've given up trying to get my kid organized, in spite of pleas from his teachers. Instead, I want him to learn some content this year (and he did! especially in science and math -- whether or not his grades show it).

    It's alive again because everyone seems to be struggling with organization, with their kids. It's something that every kid is expected to have, and nobody's does (at least nobody here). Kathy's daughter, for example, has had project planning challenges all year in 4th grade (projects are what you get when they aren't teaching a lot of content yet), and they're actually docking points because of poor eye contact. In my day, kids would have gotten points simply for refraining from wetting our pants. Those teachers really understood encouragement.

    Anyway, at work I've lately had the experience of going through an acquisition (i.e., we were the ones acquired). I've had my goals changed and my computer changed, and my system of self-organization changed, and my job title has changed no fewer than 3 times. The future has been murky for months. And I am a mess. I'm trying to get my arms around it; I've reread Getting Things Done a few times, and for the toughest project planning stuff I've even read Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes (a darn good idea, by the way), but so far nothing is helping very much. It appears that having 3 job titles in a month has done me in.

    Change has come upon me, and it's knocked me off my feet. And it's not like it took very much to do it, either. So how can we expect Total Project Planning Awareness from our 4th graders?

    -- CarolynJohnston - 01 Jun 2006



    comments...

    EmailToTheAssistantPrincipal 01 Jun 2006 - 21:19 CatherineJohnson



    Hi Raina—

    Just a quick note.

    Christopher came home yesterday saying that the high school kids were asking Middle School students to sign a petition asking the U.N. to help the citizens of Darfur.

    When Christopher signed, he saw that many of the middle schoolers had written epithets about President Bush beside their names.

    One student wrote, “George Bush is a douche bag.”

    A girl wrote, “Bush is a Dick.”

    These remarks are inappropriate, to say the least. They have nothing to do with Darfur, but even if they did, they don’t constitute reasoned political speech (!)

    Then today I read in the news that state comptroller Alan Hevesi is apologizing for having made a remark about “putting a bullet between the president’s eyes.” (story: Official Apologizes for Saying Bush Should be Shot Between the Eyes)

    I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’m incredibly tired of vicious partisan attacks. “Bush is a dick” is the kind of language that should stay on the internet. It’s also the kind of language that escalates. I’m sure “put a bullet between his eyes” wasn’t the first ugly thing Alan Hevesi ever had to say about George Bush.

    If we’re going to have character education integrated into every class our children take, it ought to mean something. Yesterday, instead of learning how to study, Christopher’s study skills class watched a video on “respect.”

    Then they signed a petition filled with disrespectful comments about the president of the United States.

    If character concepts such as “respect” and “tolerance” don’t mean respecting people who are different from us—and that would include, in this town, Republican presidents and conservative Christians—then I’d prefer Christopher spend his time learning how to read, write, and do mathematics.

    Of course, I’d prefer that anyway!

    In any case, it sounds to me like petition drives could probably use a little more supervision.

    Thanks, Raina—

    Catherine J.
    (Chris Berenson’s mom)


    -- CatherineJohnson - 01 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SmarterThanYourAverageBear 02 Jun 2006 - 13:58 CatherineJohnson



    We got this email from Andrew's teacher yesterday:

    I have a funny story. We have a digital timer that we use for Andrew's break between work times. He has to earn tokens for working, then he gets a break for a few minutes. We set a timer so he knows when it rings, it is time to get back to work. Well, we thought the timer was broken because it seemed like it took forever to go off. Anyhow, today we caught Andrew adding more minutes to the timer!! He must have been watching Annie and figured out that he had to add minutes (without us knowing) so he could get a longer break. He's so smart!!


    Andrew is very mechanically inclined. If he can't figure out how to operate a DVD player, nobody can.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    Barney goes to school


    AndyBarneyschoolsmall.jpg



    keywords: Barneygoestoschool


    -- CatherineJohnson - 02 Jun 2006



    comments...

    CharacterEducationABriefHistory 02 Jun 2006 - 14:30 CatherineJohnson



    ednext20051_22c.jpg

    If the vast and various character
    education movement is unified
    by anything, it is the conviction
    that schools can, and must,
    develop a healthy peer culture.





    a brief history, by James Traub

    Character education has legs. It is a reform so thoroughly in the American grain, not to mention so various and adaptable, that it cannot be dismissed as just another shiny and insubstantial bubble. Moreover, the wish for schools to somehow address the sense of drift and anomie in the larger culture is not likely to abate. And so the issue is not whether we will have character education, but instead, what kind we will have and what relationship it will bear to the ongoing campaign to improve children’s academic skills. [ed.: it's always worse than you think]

    [snip]

    The expression “character education” would have seemed a redundancy until quite recently in history. Virtually all elite private education, whether at prep schools or colleges, was designed to ensure that young men of the better classes were prepared for the leadership positions in government and the professions to which they were destined....Not until the age of John Dewey and the progressives was this inculcation of civic and personal virtue questioned; Dewey mocked the rigid pieties of McGuffey’s Reader and called for a pedagogy that would liberate the child’s own questioning nature, that would replace inculcation itself with a more “child-centered” form of learning. And by midcentury, as a test-driven meritocracy made deep inroads into the old world of inherited privilege, character began to take a back seat to intellect at the elite institutions.

    [snip]

    The modern character education movement began as a reaction to the aggressively value-neutral school culture that emerged thanks to this combination of progressivism and meritocracy. In The Closing of the American Mind, which appeared in 1987, Alan Bloom wrote that among young people “openness” had ascended to the status of supreme moral principle, just as “relativism” had become axiomatic in philosophy....At the same time, neoconservative thinkers like Gertrude Himmelfarb were extolling the much-denigrated virtues of the Victorian age. The word “virtue” itself began to take on an almost talismanic power, especially in the wake of William Bennett’s Book of Virtues, published in 1992. The very willingness to use the word meant that you accepted the principle that some things were true and some were not, as against the woolly relativism and permissiveness that pervaded the schools.

    This philosophical and ideological assault on liberal, secular-minded culture put character education on the public agenda. But many parents and educators who had no interest in fighting the culture wars lamented the generalized loss of authority of traditional institutions. They felt angry that schools had succumbed to an anything-goes ethos that was harmful to both the schools and the young people passing through them. The killings at Columbine and elsewhere seemed to offer terrifying proof that the schools had somehow lost their way. Schools had left the development of values to parents at the very moment when parents were leaving it to . . . whomever.

    Character education really took wing, before Columbine, in 1992, at a conference sponsored by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, in Aspen, Colorado. There a group of educators and ethicists agreed on a list of values—not virtues—that they felt transcended sectarian, partisan, or class distinctions. These were codified as “The Six Pillars of Character” (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship). The following year, the institute established the Character Counts! program to help schools and communities incorporate the six pillars. At the same time, a group of civic and education organizations formed the Character Education Partnership, which now functions as the movement’s clearinghouse and professional organization (and promotes its own “Eleven Principles” of character). President Clinton seized on the fledgling movement as one of the cost-free, nonpartisan initiatives he was then touting. The White House began sponsoring annual conferences on “Character Building for a Civil and Democratic Society” in 1994. And in 1996 the president gave the movement the ultimate blessing when he said, in his State of the Union address, “I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship.” By that time, according to a survey by the National School Boards Association, 45 percent of school districts said they had instituted character education programs, while another 38 percent said they planned to do so. Thus the character education bandwagon swiftly became a juggernaut.

    Education publishers now offer kits and exercises designed to teach every virtue and every value known to man. The Character Counts! folks, for example, offer a 45-minute lesson plan designed to teach caring to teens. The class begins with a moralized version of musical chairs, in which the kids form groups of three the moment the music stops. Some kids inevitably get excluded in each round. “How did it feel to be left out?” the teacher asks.

    The tens of thousands of schools now obliged to institute character education programs need materials, and a world of providers stands ready to help them. A company called Integrity Matters offers “entertaining, attention-capturing character education videos” on 35 “basic moral values” (including “Virtue”). Tolerance is a mini-industry all its own, with manuals offering “proven strategies” to stamp out hate. A curriculum program called “The Seven Cs of Thinking Clearly” (Criticism, Creativity, Curiosity, Concentration, Communication, Correction, and Control) helps children identify “faulty thinking practices” by way of “The Stink’n Think’n Gang,” a gang of no-goodniks whose members include Iwannit Now, Judge B. Fore, and—well, you get the picture. The most hopeful thing one can say about most of these lessons-in-a-box is that they are so hokey and tone-deaf that it is hard to imagine a child, even one of tender years, taking them seriously. At the same time, they constitute a terrible waste of a precious commodity. Whatever time you spend revamping your faulty thinking practices or stamping out hate is time you are not spending studying history or chemistry.

    [snip]

    Some studies have found that character education programs do, in fact, build character, though none of these studies is rigorous enough to be remotely definitive. The largest of them is a study by researchers at South Dakota State University of 8,419 students in schools that have adopted Character Counts! The study concluded that between 1998 and 2000 the number of students who reported various acts of cheating, stealing, drinking, drug taking, class cutting, and the like decreased significantly.

    source:
    The Moral Imperative
    by James Traub


    I'll believe it when I see it.





    What Works Clearinghouse

    evaluations of 9 character curricula





    preview of coming attractions

    Traub profiles the original Hyde School in Maine. In Hyde Schools, it seems, character education trumps education education.

    ..the Hyde idea emerged entirely from the mind of one extremely determined and deeply dissatisfied individual. This was Joe Gauld, a math teacher and administrator at the New Hampton prep school in New Hampshire in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was the early days of the burgeoning postwar meritocracy, and Gauld felt increasingly repelled by the ethos of “giftedness” and the honors track and the rat race for college placement. The schools, he concluded—not just New Hampton but all schools—were failing children by rewarding innate ability rather than seeking to draw out each child’s “unique potential.” And so this lonely dissenter from the post-Sputnik fixation on academic achievement quit his job as assistant headmaster in order to pursue his flinty New England faith in self-improvement and transcendence. Gauld ultimately scraped together the funds to purchase the 145-acre Hyde family estate in Bath, in southern Maine, and the Hyde School opened its doors in 1966. “Instead of relying on intellect to produce good grades and high test scores,” Gauld writes in Character First: The Hyde School Difference, “students at Hyde learn to follow the dictates of their conscience so they can develop the character necessary to bring out their unique potential.”


    Apparently the Hyde Schools have become a movement:

    Hyde schools are now flourishing in Woodstock, Connecticut, and in the inner-city systems of New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. The school’s founder, Joseph Gauld, Malcolm’s father, says that he hopes to have charter schools operating in New York City and Oakland, California, by 2005. In the great, ongoing laboratory project known as whole-school reform, Hyde may turn out to be the leading entry under the heading “character education.”

    And a very large heading it is, too. (See sidebar.) Thomas Lickona, the head of the Center for the Fourth and Fifth Rs (the fourth and fifth being respect and responsibility) at the State University of New York at Cortland and a leading figure in the field, says that two-thirds of the states’ schools are now required either by legislative mandate or by administrative regulation to implement programs in character education. The U.S. Department of Education has been awarding grants in the field since 1995; the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established the new Partnership in Character Education Program, which gives $25 million annually to schools. In part, perhaps, because the very term “character education” evokes such an all-American image of wholesomeness and high moral purpose, this is one bandwagon that educators are almost sure to be climbing aboard in growing numbers.

    [snip]

    ...character education has come increasingly to be seen as an educational rather than a social reform, with measurable inputs producing measurable consequences, for both student behavior and academic performance. Indeed, if the vast and various character education movement is unified by anything, it is the conviction that schools can, and must, consciously and explicitly develop a healthy peer culture because such a culture is the indispensable foundation for successful learning.


    Well, there you have it.

    Peer culture is the indispensable foundation for successful learning.

    I happen to believe peer culture can make or break a kid. In fact, I happen to believe, pace Laurence Steinberg, that what you're really paying for in a school district like ours is the peers.

    Just this morning, Christopher was telling me he's one of the 3 best students in his social studies class. He and the 2 other boys he thinks are best "race each other to see who finishes first." Finishing first doesn't mean slacking on the answers, but getting the answers quickly because you know the material.

    Peers like that are worth their weight in gold.

    However, the reason peers like that are worth their weight in gold is that the school isn't providing a coherent curriculum and performing routine formative assessment to make sure kids are learning it.

    I want to add that Christopher's social studies teacher, Miss Tucci, has gotten a lot of content inside Christopher's head this year. He's constantly telling me things he's learned in her class. She loves her subject, and she's done a great job.

    However, our district, last year, did not use a Miss Tucci standard in tenure decisions. Affluent school districts have the luxury of relying on parents to teach and reteach content at home, or hire tutors if they haven't the time, expertise, or cooperation from their children to do the teaching themselves. During the school day affluent districts can rely on competitive peers to spark and maintain student motivation.





    update: the Hyde motto


    Courage, Integrity, Concern, Curiosity, and Leadership

    Just to point out the obvious, I don't see Learning on this list.

    Or Achievement.

    Or Excellence.

    Or anything else of that nature.





    Also missing: loyalty.

    Brother's Keeper: Requires students to hold one another accountable for achieving their best by challenging the "I-don't-rat-on-my-buddies" ethic.

    I give up.



    eclectic.jpg



    character education reading list
    lots more books on character education
    character education resources for parents !

    The Girl Show
    The Boy Show
    The Other Boy Show

    What Works Clearinghouse assessment character ed
    Character Ed at the DOE

    a brief history of character education
    a first grade teacher focuses on moral decline
    zero tolerance for zero tolerance
    self esteem vs character ed
    constructivist character ed
    Michael Josephson, father of character education in U.S.

    character ed in "study skills" class
    character ed & shaming
    Irvington character education wall calendar
    Facing History and Ourselves

    worsethanyouthink


    -- CatherineJohnson - 02 Jun 2006



    comments...

    CharacterEdDoneRightMarraAward 02 Jun 2006 - 18:17 CatherineJohnson



    What a great day.

    Jimmy received a Marra Award from the high school today. That's him, shaking hands with Don Marra, for whom the award is named.

    Marraawardsmall.jpg


    Don Marra taught at the high school for 30 years; he was assistant superintendent for part of that time. He was the shop teacher, and was beloved. Scott Mosenthal, the principal, said Don's nickname at the high school was "God."

    Don told me he retired partly because NY state decided to drop industrial arts from the curriculum. (Boo)

    The Marra Award is, esssentially, a character award. But nobody calls it that. Scott said the Marra Award is for great kids who show up and work hard. (paraphrasing): "It's not necessarily for the straight-A kids, but some of those kids are here, too. It's for the kids who make your day when you see them." Every department and program gives Marra Awards to students they choose.

    After he was finished with the Marra Awards, Scott handed out awards for perfect attendance. (Jimmy got one of those, too — no seizures this year!) Scott said, "I go to principals conferences, and nobody gives these things out. Nobody has perfect attendance. I don't know what that means, but I think it means we're doing something right around here."

    The place was packed with parents and kids. After all the awards were distributed, Scott delivered an old-fashioned pep talk.

    He said, "Kids, thank your parents. They're the ones who got you here, who loved you and supported you and picked you up when you were down and pointed you in the right direction."

    "I've visited most of the schools in Westchester, and I'll put our students up against anyone. They're the best.Our parents, too. We're successful because we have the best group of parents in the county."



    Wow.

    I know that the person at the top sets the tone, but you have to see it to really get it. There's no b*s in a high school awards ceremony. The kids are the best, the parents are the best, the school is the best - and that's that. No 11 Principles of Character, no "everyone's gifted in his own way," no bell curves drawn on the blackboard to explain to all the kids that they're average, and they should be happy to get Cs.

    Just straight-out, old-fashioned boosterism and team spirt.

    Looking forward to 9th grade.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    If I were moving, and had to choose a new school district, I'd look for the district with perfect attendance awards.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 02 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AGoodYear 02 Jun 2006 - 18:55 CatherineJohnson



    We’re ending the year on a high.

    Jimmy has his Marra Award; Andrew is defeating digital timers at school. Better yet, Andrew and I have hit the +1 worksheets in KUMON. He's zooming.

    Then there's Christopher. Christopher is fantastic. He’s happy, he's confident, he's in the best shape we've seen, I think. We’re glimpsing the person we hope he’ll be when he’s 16 or 17.

    Two weeks ago he came home with a 92 on a science test I hadn’t even known he was taking. His science teacher is very good, but still. A couple of months ago he wasn’t getting As on science tests without help from Ed or me.

    Christopher studied for this test on his own. “I quizzed myself,” he said.

    He invented a study method, which I think he may have based on rap: “I chanted the answers out loud to myself,” he said. That part, I do remember. I heard him downstairs one night loudly reciting material from a textbook.

    What he said next may have been the best part: “I don’t know if it works.”

    That was a moment, the beginning of skepticism and humility.

    In edu-terms, it was the beginning of metacognition, but I don’t want an edu-term just now.

    He’d invented his own special way of studying, and he’d gotten a 92 on the test, and even though he'd done well he knew he'd have to try his method out a few times more before deciding it worked. He knew that he didn't know!

    Little kids, when they’re happy, think everything they do is great.

    If they’re not happy they think they “stink.” “I stink at science” – a classic Christopherism.

    When I was in grad school, one of my professors, who was a fairly well-known avant garde filmmaker, said that the beginning of maturity came when you stopped thinking you were a genius, but also stopped thinking you were nothing. He was talking about age 30, as I recall, but kids must make a similar discovery somewhere in the middle years, too.

    We’ve spent the whole year battling Christopher over whether he did or did not know whatever it was he was supposed to be able to do on a test. He would insist he knew the material, we would insist he didn’t, he would insist he did, and invariably the dispute would end in tears and yelling. You hurt my feelings!

    6th grade is not easy.

    On Mother’s Day, Christopher suddenly looked at me and said, “Thank you for all the extra work you give me, that helps me succeed.”

    6th grade isn’t easy, but this has been a good year.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 02 Jun 2006



    comments...

    MostEmailed 06 Jun 2006 - 18:49 CatherineJohnson


    The number 1 most emailed article in the TIMES today is The Gilded Age of Home Schooling:

    In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.

    Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles.


    This is good news.

    Once the TIMES starts writing about rich homeschoolers, homeschooling becomes an option.

    An option for everyone, I mean.

    This article is a case of synchronicity for me. Just last week a friend told me that an Irvington family has hired a 5th grade teacher, who retired from the Main Street School last year, to teach their kids at home.

    When Nick Niell, an investment banker, and his wife, Sarah, moved to New York from East Sussex, England, for about a year in 2003, four teachers would come on weekdays to Mr. Niell's townhouse on 69th Street near Madison Avenue to teach his three school-aged children. Mr. Niell said he could not find a British school in the city and wanted his children to study the same things they would have studied in England. A floor of the house was converted into classroom space.

    "It was quite good fun," said Mr. Niell, whose teachers came through Partners with Parents, a Manhattan in-home tutoring service.


    That's it.

    If the British are doing it, everyone's going to do it.


    The cost for such teachers generally runs $70 to $110 an hour. And depending on how many hours a teacher works, and how many teachers are involved, the price can equal or surpass tuition in the upper echelon of private schools in New York City or Los Angeles, where $30,000 a year is not unheard of.

    Other parents say the model works for children who are sick, for children who are in show business or for those with learning disabilities.

    "It's a hidden group of folks, but it's growing enormously," said Luis Huerta, a professor of public policy and education at Teachers College of Columbia University, whose national research includes a focus on home schooling.

    The United States Department of Education last did a survey on home schooling in 2003. That survey did not ask about full-time in-home teachers. But it found that from 1999 to 2003, the number of children who were educated at home had soared, increasing by 29 percent, to 1.1 million students nationwide. It also found that, of those, 21 percent used a tutor.

    Bob Harraka, president of Professional Tutors of America, has about 6,000 teachers from 14 states on his payroll in Orange County, Calif., but cannot meet a third of the requests for in-home education that come in, he said, because they are so specialized or extravagant: a family wants a teacher to instruct in the art of Frisbee throwing, button sewing or Latin grammar. A family wants a teacher to accompany them for a yearlong voyage at sea.

    "Sailing comes up at least once or twice a year," Mr. Harraka said.

    Parents say in-home teaching arrangements offer unparalleled levels of academic attention and flexibility in scheduling, in addition to a sense of family cohesion and autonomy over what children learn. To them, these advantages make up for the lack of a school social life, which they say can be replicated through group lessons in, say, ballet or sculpture.


    Yup. That's sure the way I feel about homeschooling now. All of the above.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    money 'graph

    Companies that supply teachers and curricula are abundant, also making it easier for families to step away from traditional schools, experts say. And though many who follow the new model are wealthy, increasing numbers of middle class families more sociologically and racially diverse have begun to school their children at home, according to education officials and tutor-service companies.

    Laurie Gerber, president of Partners with Parents, said she started to get requests for in-home teachers about three or four years ago.

    "Our tutoring business started to become a huge percentage of home-schooling clients, as opposed to tutoring," Ms. Gerber said. "We started a whole home-schooling wing."

    The teachers who are hired to home school say the job is great.



    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    textual analysis

    What does this teacher mean when she says, "This is pure teaching"?

    Tiffany Wheeler's tutor, Nancy Falong, retired a few years ago after 32 years as a teacher in the New Jersey public schools. Now she works for On Location Education. Sitting next to Tiffany last week, their two world history books turned to the same page on the Marshall Plan, she expressed a sense of delight. "This is pure teaching."

    Someone posted a comment on Math Forum saying that this teacher was talking about the breakdown of discipline in the classroom.

    I don't think so.

    Breakdown of discipline may be part of what she's talking about.

    But I suspect she's talking about the wretchedness of public schools overall. The constant paperwork, the lack of authority given to teachers, the chronic churning of curricula by itinerant administrators....and perhaps the ban on direct instruction as well.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    speaking of direct instruction...

    Bank Street weighs in:

    Jon D. Snyder, dean of the Bank Street College of Education in New York, said his main concerns about this form of education were whether tutors and students were a good fit, and whether students got enough social interaction.

    "From a purely academic standpoint, it goes back to a much earlier era," Dr. Snyder said. "The notion of individual tutorials is a time-honored tradition, particularly among the elite."

    Think Plato, John Stuart Mill and George Washington. Philosopher kings and gentleman farmers. Because of the cost of in-home tutoring, the idea will probably not spread like wildfire, and just as well, Dr. Snyder said.

    "Public education has social goals; that's why we pay tax dollars for it," he said. "When Socrates was tutoring Plato, he wasn't concerned about educating the other people in Greece. They were just concerned about educating Plato."


    I feel a letter to the editor coming on.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    update from Tracy

    When Socrates was tutoring Plato, he wasn't concerned about educating the other people in Greece. They were just concerned about educating Plato."

    To the best of my knowledge, the only way this sentence is true is if we are talking about the moments Socrates was actually talking with Plato. Quite possibly Socrate's whole attention at that point of time was on tutoring Plato.

    But this statement is not true of Socrates' life in general. Socrates didn't charge for his conversation. He was notorious for stopping all sorts of people, including slaves, and having ethical debates with them. He was eventually convicted and ordered to drink poison on the basis of having corrupted youth in general, not just Plato.


    The further I go with all this, the more frustrated I become by my own poor education and general lack of knowledge. (Latest obsession: grammar. And Latin. History & "Bible literacy" are still on hold.)

    It doesn't surprise me at all that the Dean of the Bank Street College would speak knowledgably about Socrates on the basis of precious little knowledge.


    05homeschool.xlarge1.jpg
    Librado Romero/The New York Times

    Krystal Wheeler, 18, right, studying with her tutor, Jennifer Jones, at the Wheelers' home in New York.
    Krystal's sister is also home-schooled.




    -- CatherineJohnson - 06 Jun 2006



    comments...

    LovelessOnCurriculumChurning 06 Jun 2006 - 19:24 CatherineJohnson


    At Harvard, former teacher Tom Loveless teaches a [course called]: "Controversies in Education Reform." The syllabus, which consists entirely of required readings on school failures, resembles an indictment of a Mafia chief. Loveless has a personal feel for the problem that dates back to his nine years of teaching in Sacramento public schools. "This is an industry with tremendous turnover at school sites," says Loveless. "Half the principals change schools every six or seven years and superintendents even more frequently. I went through three or four principals, all of them saying: "I have some new ideas and we're going to change things." In come the big changes, out goes the principal within a few years, in come more big changes. "Nobody would stay in one place long enough to be responsible for outcome," says Loveless. "By the time everyone figures out what they're doing doesn't work the principal is gone and you're off to a new approach."

    Neglected Evidence - educational research
    by Richard Whitmire




    -- CatherineJohnson - 06 Jun 2006



    comments...

    BibleLiteracyReport 07 Jun 2006 - 00:48 CatherineJohnson



    University Professors in New National Report agree:
    An educated person needs to know about the Bible


    bible-in.jpg

    AP Photo


    I have this book.

    As far as I can tell, it's great.

    We've managed to read approximately 3 pages in the year we've owned it.

    If you want to see Major Worming Out Of Stuff, try reading a Bible Literacy textbook out loud to an 11 year old boy.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    Bible Literacy Project
    College Students Should Know More About the Bible, English Professors Say in Survey
    (CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION)
    Public schools looking at Bible literacy class (USA TODAY)



    -- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WhatToWearToYourDayInCourt 07 Jun 2006 - 16:27 CatherineJohnson


    Today was the big day: our appearance before the Surrogate Court to petition to becomeJimmy’s legal guardians.

    I wore:

    • White, button-down, no-iron Oxford cloth shirt from Brooks Brothers.

    • Ancient DKNY-outlet grey cotton jacket (blech).

    • Polka dot socks from Nordstrom’s.

    • Red and black Mephisto tennis shoes from Paris.

    I looked profoundly dull, but responsible. Or, rather, profoundly dull and therefore responsible.

    Jimmy performed on cue, biting his hand and wailing when we came before the judge.

    I managed not to cry on my way out.

    I’m crying now.

    Not for long, though.




    wes_sur.jpg



    -- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2006



    comments...

    LiveBloggingTheMathTeachThread 07 Jun 2006 - 17:30 CatherineJohnson


    Midway through a math-teach thread at Math Forum, and I feel much better now; I’ve just reached the spot where Wayne Bishop quotes Reid Lyon saying we ought to blow up the ed schools

    I love the math wars.




    live-blogging the math-teach thread
    the Jerry Springer of the math wars
    blow up the ed schools, part 2

    reidlyon
    blowuptheedschools



    -- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2006



    comments...

    MathTeachAtMathForum 07 Jun 2006 - 21:29 CatherineJohnson


    Math-teach is the Jerry Springer of the math wars.

    - Barry Garelick


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    I can't believe it took me two years to figure out:

    a) the names of math-teach and math-learn

    and

    b) where to find them


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    live-blogging the math-teach thread
    the Jerry Springer of the math wars



    -- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2006



    comments...

    CommonSenseInEngland 07 Jun 2006 - 21:52 CatherineJohnson


    In the midst of a terrific post at math-teach, Vlorbik (who, I'm discovering belatedly, has created VLORBLOG 2.0) links to this article in the TELEGRAPH:

    Back to basics as maths problems multiply

    Modern methods of teaching maths which have mystified parents and confused many pupils are to be abandoned six years after the Government forced them on primary schools.

    The same unit at the Department for Education which devised the strategy now wants teachers to go back to the "standard written method" it abolished.

    The decision has prompted a backlash from some primary teachers and maths advisers who say children are better able to understand the concept of arithmetic when they break sums down into a series of units.

    They say the "back to basics" approach heralds a return to the "dark ages" of adding up, subtracting, multiplying and dividing in vertical rows without understanding what they are doing.

    But evidence has shown that many pupils are arriving at secondary school unable to do long division and multiplication and reliant on columns of workings out which take longer and are more prone to errors along the way.

    The proposed change, put out to consultation yesterday, has already won support from many teachers on the website of The Times Educational Supplement, who say it is better for pupils to master one, simple, standard method than struggle with many. [ed.: I'm not surprised - I also haven't been able to track this down.]

    [snip]

    The decision to return to the old methods will come as a relief to many parents.

    Christine Turno says she dreads the twice-weekly homework with her nine-year-old daughter.

    "She goes ballistic," she said. "We have massive rows because she says I'm doing it wrong and she has to do it the way the school says. But she can't understand what they want and it's a complete mystery to me."

    A 20-minute homework session turns into an hour.

    Mrs Turno, of west London, said: "The teachers say it is the new way and if the answer is wrong it doesn't matter as long as she is using the right method. It's quite bizarre."



    I've learned from The War Against Grammar that Britain also restored formal instruction in grammar in 1998.

    So we'll see.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    All this stuff is going away:


    nmaths27big.gif


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    British education URLs

    • QCA
      "non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)...
      maintains and develops the national curriculum and associated assessments, tests and examinations"

    • Ofsted
      "inspectorate for children and learners in England"



    -- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TaughtMyDogToWhistle 07 Jun 2006 - 22:17 CatherineJohnson


    Englandtaughtdogwhistlesmall.jpg

    I taught my dog to whistle.     I don't hear him whistling.        I said I taught him. I didn't say he learned.

    source:
    Improving learning in mathematics: challenges and strategies
    (link to pdf file on this page)



    -- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TheHappinessHypothesis 08 Jun 2006 - 12:34 CatherineJohnson


    For most of the time that anatomically modern humans have existed—a highly contested figure, but let’s call it a million years—it has made good adaptive sense to be fearful, cautious, timid. As Jonathan Haidt, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, puts it in “The Happiness Hypothesis” (Basic; $26), “bad is stronger than good” is an important principle of design by evolution. “Responses to threats and unpleasantness are faster, stronger, and harder to inhibit than responses to opportunities and pleasures.” This is a matter of how our brains are wired: most sense data pass through the amygdala, which helps control our fight-or-flight response, before being processed by other parts of our cerebral cortex. The feeling that a fright can make us “jump half out of our skin” is based on this physical reality—we’re reacting long before we know what it is that we’re reacting to.

    This is one of the reasons that human beings make heavy weather of being happy. We have been hardwired to emphasize the negative, and, for most of human history, there has been a lot of the negative to emphasize. Hobbes’s description of life in the state of nature as “nasty, brutish and short” is so familiar we can forget that, for most of the people who have ever lived, it was objectively true.

    source:
    PURSUING HAPPINESS
    Two scholars explore the fragility of contentment.
    by JOHN LANCHESTER
    Issue of 2006-02-27
    The New Yorker



    Reading this review a second time, I realized that one of the points of religious practice is to create and sustain a good frame of mind.

    Being happy really isn't natural.

    Being anxious is natural. Anxious or ticked off.

    Think how much time and effort practicing Buddhists put into achieving non-thought-flooded states.

    Well, truth be told, I have no idea how much time and effort practicing Buddhists put into achieving non-thought-flooded states. From where I sit, it seems like a lot.

    I think I'm going to take up meditation.

    Or something.



    10304659.jpg



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SummerReading 08 Jun 2006 - 12:53 CatherineJohnson


    This book will change your life.

    I'm serious.


    0307337332.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


    Even better, watch the TV show.

    And read Dog Days by Malcolm Gladwell.

    We used to have insane, hyper dogs.

    Now we have calm submissive dogs.

    Calm submissive is better.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    art1a.jpg


    This is the way Cesar takes 40 dogs for a walk.

    After discovering Cesar, this is the way I take two two formerly insane, hyper dogs for a walk, too.

    The secret: the dogs walk behind you.




    summer reading
    summer reading, part 2



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AnotherOneBitesTheDust 08 Jun 2006 - 13:04 CatherineJohnson



    (I logged onto the TIMES, looking for an article on Cesar Millan, and this is what popped up. Thursday, June 8, 2006 Last Update: 8:53 AM ET)




    Zarqawi.jpg


    Good.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SummerReadingPart2 08 Jun 2006 - 13:33 CatherineJohnson



    Q: As the founder of the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles, you claim that Americans are driving their pets to the brink of insanity by smothering them with affection.

    The U.S. is a very assertive society with people, but not when it comes to dogs. People are soft and kissy with dogs. That is why dogs take over. All dogs in America are suffering from the same problem — lack of exercise and lack of leadership.


    On your television show, "Dog Whisperer," and in your new book, "Cesar's Way," you encourage dog owners to treat their pets with the "calm assertiveness" of a natural pack leader. Why is that state apparently so hard to achieve?

    Because Americans are focused on making money. And to make a lot of money, you have to be hyper.


    And you believe that we're projecting our own neuroses onto our dogs, even when we leave the house?

    If what you do is say, "I'm sorry, baby, Mommy has to go, blah, blah, blah," the dog doesn't understand what you are saying. He only understands that you are in a soft state and he is dominating you. So what departing words would you prefer we say to a dog?

    "Bye, man."


    Do you think it is O.K. for a dog to sleep in bed with his owner?

    Yes, because a dog pack sleeps together. But the thing is, you have to invite the dog into your bed.


    Should a dog be allowed on the living-room couch?

    Make sure you invite them. The whole point is that you always remind them who owns the couch. The pack leader reminds them who runs the show.



    [snip]


    Do you find that dogs on the West Coast or in the suburbs get more exercise than New York City dogs, most of whom live in apartments and don't have backyards?

    The backyard is not exercise. It doesn't represent freedom. It doesn't represent fun. It doesn't represent balance. The backyard is just going back and forth between walls. People in New York don't have the backyard and are forced to walk the dog more often, which is the best thing that can happen to dogs.


    Yet in your book you insist that many Americans and especially New Yorkers don't know how to walk a dog properly.

    Every time I go to New York, I see dogs in front of people. Oh, brother. The dog should be behind the person. In the natural dog world, the dog is always behind the pack leader. Pack leaders never, ever tell the dog to go in front.


    source:
    QUESTIONS FOR CESAR MILLAN
    By DEBORAH SOLOMON


    07q4.190.jpg



    summer reading
    summer reading, part 2



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SampleFiveParagraphEssay 08 Jun 2006 - 19:20 CatherineJohnson



    here


    Haven't read it yet, but it looks useful.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    CircumHorizonArc 08 Jun 2006 - 19:56 CatherineJohnson



    rainbowAP080606_600x390.jpg

    source:
    Daily Mail



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    HelpDeskPart4 08 Jun 2006 - 20:55 CatherineJohnson


    I'm hoping someone here knows something about this query at Math Forum from a homeschooled student:

    Hello. I'm home-schooled and am simply curious if the books I have which I am using as my geometry course are enough to cover everything. I am quite interested in all topics in math, so I would like to make sure I'm not missing out on anything.

    I have:

    Geometry, Serge Lang & Gene Murrow Geometry: Euclid and Beyond, Robin Hartshorne (which I will be reading concurrently with vols. I and II of Heath's translation of the Elements)

    I'm mainly using the book by Lang and Murrow as my course and Hartshorne's is 'just for fun'. I also have an almost painful to read standard high-school textbook by Ron Larson, but it's quite worthless.

    I have read about a text by Moise entitled "Elementary Geometry from an Advanced Standpoint" however if I have everything covered already I'm not going to look into it as it is expensive.

    So, my question is: Would Lang & Murrow's text with Hartshorne's and the Elements cover everything necessarry for high-school geometry? If not, is there anything anyone would recommend?


    I'm sure Barry will have an idea, since he's a geometry guy.


    Here's the Amazon review that sparked my curiosity (this reviewer has a list of interesting reviews of math books here:

    I found this text interesting because it does not follow the standard approach to high school geometry. In a standard high school geometry text, the material is developed from Euclid's postulates (axioms) and common notions in the manner that he did in the Elements, albeit in modern language. These books generally cover much the same material, although some include right triangle trigonometry and transformations. The authors of this text choose to introduce their own postulates, which leads to a quite different development of the material and alternative ways of proving standard theorems. Having previously read a standard development of geometry, I found reading it developed in an alternate way fascinating.

    The authors omit some topics in a standard geometry course, including inequalities, theorems about tangents, secants, and chords of circles, and concurrence theorems. The presentation of other topics is truncated. Instead, they include material on dilations, vectors, the dot product, transformations, and isometries. Right triangle trigonometry is not included. Another way in which this text differs from standard texts is that proofs are written in paragraph form, which is standard practice among mathematicians, rather than in the two column statement and reason format favored by geometry teachers for pedagogical reasons. I should caution you that some of the terminology and notation is also nonstandard, which could pose problems for you in your subsequent reading or examinations. Consequently, I recommend that you read a standard text before working through this one.

    The text begins with a discussion of lines and angles. Postulates are introduced. However, some statements initially stated as postulates about distance and parallel lines are later proved as theorems. Then coordinates are introduced, allowing the authors to use algebraic arguments throughout the text. From there, the authors cover area, the Pythagorean Theorem, the distance formula, circles, perpendicular bisectors, triangles, polygons, and triangle congruence. Dilations are used to explain similarity. Volume formulas are derived for some standard figures. The authors present fascinating geometric arguments that enable them to obviate the need to use calculus to find some of the limits involved in the derivations. The book concludes with nonstandard topics, including vectors, the dot product, transformations, and isometries. This material is the greatest strength of the text, which concludes with a proof that any isometry can be expressed as the composition of at most three reflections.

    The writing is generally clear, but there are errors. In one proof, there is a triangle whose three vertices are actually collinear. The authors do not distinguish between the Angle-Side-Angle congruence postulate for triangles and the Angle-Angle-Side Theorem for congruence of triangles, arguing that since the sum of the measures of a triangle is always 180 degrees, the measures of two angles of a triangle determine the third. Where this causes problems is that when they express that triangles are congruent, corresponding vertices do not necessarily match, which can be confusing.

    The problems in the text are both interesting and tractable. The problems in the final section of the text and those listed as Additional Exercises are more challenging. There are no answers to the problems in the text. A solution manual written by Philip Carlson is available separately. Also, a problem involving similar triangles and another that hinges on the Side-Angle-Side congruence postulate for triangles are introduced before the relevant topics.

    I recommend using this text as a supplement to a standard course. That way you will be familiar with standard terminology and notation. You will also know what a standard course covers and the usual way in which the theorems are proved. That will help you appreciate the nonstandard material covered in this text and the alternative proofs that are presented.

    Alternatively, you could work through the text Geometry by Edwin E. Moise and Floyd L. Downs, Jr. That text, which is known for its challenging problems, is comprehensive enough to cover both the material in a standard course and much of the nonstandard material in this text.



    I've decided God wants me to learn geometry.

    I bought the Moise & Downs textbook a year ago, after Barry (& Carolyn & Ed) recommended it. Then a couple of days ago I found an ancient copy of the solution manual on sale at an online bookstore. I'll post the ISBN number when it comes.


    SMSG Geometry



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    DontKnowNothinAboutHistory 08 Jun 2006 - 21:12 CatherineJohnson



    no surprise here —


    The State of State World History Standards 2006



    -- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewYorkSun 09 Jun 2006 - 12:39 CatherineJohnson


    I finally broke down and subscribed to the New York Sun, scandalizing Ed, who thinks 3 newspapers a day are enough.*

    I'm glad I did it. The Sun makes me feel as if I've picked up and moved to another city. In The Sun, New York is a town filled with charming & obscure neighborhood chapels and International Centers of Photography staging exhibits of mysteries like Unknown Weegee, Weegee apparently having been a photographer who followed cops around in the 1940s and took pictures of dead bodies. It seems that Weegee was an unpleasant character:

    Weegee was a pest," Helen Gee wrote in 1997. "Popping off flashguns in customers' faces ... handing out greasy name cards, rubber-stamped with his logo, Weegee the famous."

    Gee, the proprietor of Limelight, the first New York gallery devoted exclusively to photography, admired Weegee's tabloid photojournalism from the 1930s and '40s, but she had little use for him as an individual. (Among other things, he asked to photograph her daughter naked.) By the late 1950s, Weegee's fame was fading, and he had become something of a pathetic character. When Gee finally offered to give him a show at Limelight, he wanted to put up pictures taken with a trick lens, instead of his famous crime shots. "These broads with five tits will be a sensation," he insisted. "Nobody's done anything like it."


    That sounds good to me.

    On another morning I find one Lawrence Otis Graham ($?), a black man who went to Princeton and supported himself handsomely while there by writing books:

    "Some kids worked in the dining halls or the library - my job was writing books," he said.

    The first of his 14 books was about a 10-point plan that Mr. Graham devised for high school students to gain acceptance at a college of their choice. It was an instant success, not the least due to its serialization in Good Housekeeping magazine.

    "I wrote a book a year while in college," he said. "By the time I entered Harvard Law School, I was making a tremendous amount of money."

    Mr. Graham also became an entrepreneur while at Harvard. Teaming up with a friend, he launched a newsletter about marketing to young people, especially in affluent black communities. The newsletter, which sold for a subscription price of $500 annually, made its publishers a tidy fortune.

    It was at Harvard that Mr. Graham met Pamela Thomas. Like him, she hailed from a prosperous African-American family. Like him, she was ambitious - obtaining an M.B.A. from Harvard in addition to a law degree.

    They married not long afterward. The Grahams have three children, Gordon, 7, and twins Lindsey and Harrison, 4.

    Pamela Thomas-Graham is group president of Liz Claiborne Incorporated. Earlier, she was president and chief executive officer at CNBC. Before that, at 32, she was the first black woman to become a partner at the fabled consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

    Ms. Thomas-Graham writes mysteries whose locales are Ivy League schools.

    "There might be a hint of the overachiever in both of us," her husband said. "But we were brought up to succeed - and to make our contribution to contemporary American society."


    I think Lucy Calkins should spend more time reading the Sun, and less time reading the Times.

    Lawrence Graham has a new book coming out: The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty.


    0060184124.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V52132891_.jpg



    The Sun also seems to run sayings on the op-ed page nearly every day. Now that is an excellent idea.

    From today's paper:


    Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
    - Samuel Johnson

    My thoughts exactly.

    And here's Emile Zola on Edouard Manet:


    In beginning a picture, he could never say how it would come out.




    On Tuesday I woke up to find this dress on the front page:


    2006-06-06_thumb_2.jpg
    designer: Oscar de la Renta

    I want this dress. I'm never going to have it, but I want it.

    Since I'm not going to have it, I think getting to look at it on the front page of my newspaper is a good thing.



    Here's Weegee:


    1974.12.155.JPG

    Weegee
    source:
    The Gibbes Museum of Art


    weegee.jpg

    source:
    bezembinder


    weegee-summer.jpg

    Summer
    source:
    coldbacon



    Naked City
    Weegee chronology
    Weegee's profile & photos
    Weegee: Paparazzi or Social Documentarian?
    Fragment.nl "Writing is a trip"
    coldbacon index of Weegee pics


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    * Grammar query: 3 newspapers are? or 3 newspapers is? Now that I've read David Mulroy's The War Against Grammar, I intend to find out.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Jun 2006



    comments...

    MeteoriteInNorway 09 Jun 2006 - 20:13 CatherineJohnson



    _A-Meteoritt_6sek_j_410790h.jpg
    PHOTO: PETER BRUVOLD
    Peter Bruvold witnessed the meteorite streaking
    across the night sky.



    Record meteorite hit Norway



    -- CatherineJohnson - 09 Jun 2006



    comments...

    HowToSucceedInMiddleSchoolWithoutReallyTrying 10 Jun 2006 - 17:55 CatherineJohnson


    I think our household stumbled onto a plan for managing middle school this year.

    Christopher continues to be in almost bizarrely good shape. He brought home another couple of As this week — a 92 and a 98 — both in English. One of the tests had essay questions on which he lost just one point.

    This is the teacher who had been giving him grades of C on his writing.

    It’s not just the sudden appearance of high grades that’s so good to see. It’s the attitude. Christopher today is the kid we’ve been trying to grow. He’s serious, friendly, cheerful, and above all non-cool.

    Ed is funny on the subject of cool. We were talking about Christopher not being cool one night, and Ed said, “You never want a boy to be cool.”

    I suspect you don’t want a girl to be cool, either.

    Of course, he’s young yet, so I shouldn’t count my chickens. Coolness may yet emerge. For the moment, though, Christopher has no sardonic humor (middle-school quippiness, yes; sardonic humor, no), his hair is short, and his pants aren’t hanging off his bottom. I’ll take it.

    I have an idea how this happened – and I think this may be a workable approach for other kids in other schools.





    Toru Kumon was right

    Christopher’s afterschooling is pretty minimalist at this point. At least 5 days a week he does:


    Christopher does this work on his own. He takes his materials down to the basement and works alongside his dad, who has set up a desk for him there.

    I’m going to add grammar (sentence diagramming in particular), writing, and possibly some extra work in Spanish to the mix. But when I do I’ll follow the same formula. One page a day in each subject, assigned from the same book each day, which lives in the same place on his desk upstairs. A book he can manage on his own.

    When I first went to KUMON, part of the pitch was that KUMON's daily worksheets turn children into “self-learners.”

    The American website seems to have dropped that language now, but you can still find it on other sites:

    Self learning and Self motivation

    Kumon students study independently at both Kumon Centers and at home. The role of instructors within the Kumon Method is focused almost entirely on the development of a student's ability to learn on their own. Kumon refers to the ability to set goals and solve unfamiliar and challenging tasks independently as "self-learning" ability. Instructors foster this "self-learning" ability in students by using worksheets that allow students to learn at one's own pace, moving forward when they are ready. The students' enthusiasm for learning is aroused in this process, as the goals they set are their own goals. In addition, this process awakens a desire in the students to take on new challenges.

    Instructors ensure that students can, without any hindrances, experience over and over a sense of accomplishment, thereby boosting confidence in their own abilities. Problem solving abilities are enhanced, and independent methods of solving problems are encouraged.


    When I read this passage last fall, I didn’t get it.

    It made sense that KUMON would increase a student’s self-confidence, but I didn’t see why “succeeding” at worksheets would produce a “self-learner.” When you talk about self-learning you're talking about executive function, and I didn’t see how filling out 5 math worksheets a day had anything to do with frontal lobe development.

    Now I think Toru Kumon was right, though I still don’t quite understand it. “Drill and kill” doesn’t just lead to procedural mastery and confidence. Somehow drill and kill also helps develop independence, motivation, and a responsible nature.

    Is it the same principle that’s at work in military training?

    It’s probably fair to say that military training is literally “drill and kill.” I don't know anything about the military, but as far as I can tell the result of military training is a young man who can follow commands or give them, and keep his wits about him in the midst of battle. All good things.

    I don't know how it works, but I do think "the KUMON principle" has proved itself around here.

    I also think that, in terms of Christopher's grades, the psychology of this year's "hands-off" afterschooling has been more important than the actual content Christopher learned. His afterschool books have little to do with his present school work. He's still in Level D - 4th grade - in KUMON Math, and vocabulary and spelling will pay off in the long run, not the near term.





    who's in charge

    I've mentioned more than once that, before Christopher entered middle school, I had decided I needed to "own" math.

    I figured Phase 4 was going to be brutal, and I needed to "own" math to limit the damage.

    Then it turned out we needed to own more than math; we needed to own the whole academic enterprise. Christopher has had at least 2 — maybe 3 — good teachers this year in his core subjects, but the school is a dark place.

    Yesterday a friend of mine captured the unspoken school motto in 5 words: Do this or you're f*****.

    That's it. That's what our kids are up against.

    Label your graph, or 50% off.

    Show your work the way I want it showed, not the way you thought I wanted it showed, or 20 points off.

    Use complete sentences on the science test or points off. (That's coming up next year.)

    Have your mom sign your test tonight or it's points off-off-off!

    I think Tracy once used the expression gale of negativity.

    That's what it's been.

    Setting up an "afterschooling household" strips power and authority from the school in a good way. The message to a 6th grade child is: your job is to learn stuff.

    Doesn't matter what grade you got.

    Doesn't matter if the other kids think you're dumb. (Christopher says the other kids think he's dumb.)

    Doesn't matter that you spent 4 hours on your scale drawing and Ms. K. deducted 20 points because you showed your work the wrong way and you still don't know what the right way was.

    Go get your books and learn something.

    Remember when Mr. Liu said that the Asian way is to be persistent and patient?

    I didn't set out trying to create our own Personal KUMON. It evolved.

    But I think we ended up teaching persistence and patience. I hope so.



    NEXT: LEMONS & LEMONADE, WINDS OF WAR, AND REACTIVE TEACHING REDUX


    -- CatherineJohnson - 10 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SummerPlans2006 11 Jun 2006 - 06:08 CarolynJohnston

    School ended on Thursday, and I can already see Ben calming down and relaxing. This has been a tough year for him. I've read Catherine's description of Irvington Middle, and I can't complain that Ben's school is anything like that; that's a whole different order of awful. But I think middle school, even at its best, is pretty awful. Give em another couple years in elementary, that's what I think.

    High points of the year:

    • Science class -- he had a great teacher who taught a very content-heavy class (yes, I'm a content freak). As a result of this class, we can talk about why people in airplanes (with which he is fascinated) feel pushed back in their seats when the airplane takes off, even when it's level. We can talk about Bernoulli's principle, and how it makes planes fly. I can talk about what causes mirages with him. It's wonderful. It's what school is about. Ben really dug that class, too. Great science teachers are rare as hen's teeth, too, so we lucked out.

    • Math -- good old Saxon. Ben worked hard and learned alot. He was sad not to be in the regular class, though -- next year, we'll try again (I hear this teacher is more heavy on the Prentice-Hall and less heavy on the Connected Math than the 6th grade teacher).

    A coda on this story -- the other day in the local coffee house, I heard a bunch of moms talking about the math class Ben was originally in, and how they can't help their kids with the math, and how the teacher tells them that's because it's different math that they learned. Snicker.

    • Reading -- Ben's reading skyrocketed this year, independently of everything else that was going on. He read all the Harry Potters up through half of Harry Potter 5 (which got to be rough going because it's dark and depressing). Last year, I couldn't have imagined it. However, he's slowed down since doing all that Harry Potter, since he hasn't liked anything else as much (JK Rowling really has a golden touch). Any recommendation as to where to go from Harry Potter?

    • Personal growth -- Ben's official record doesn't show it, but Ben definitely went through some heavy changes this year. He is much more socially aware than he used to be, and this brings pain with it, of course. But much better to have him become more socially aware than not. Pain comes with the territory for all these kids.

    Low points of the year:

    • Reading and writing class: pretty much a waste of a year, since he did no true research writing assignments, short or long. It was a special ed class with a lot of in-class support for all the kids, and they wanted to keep Ben there, and after pushing the math issue I decided not to fight to have him moved. He's regressed as a result, but we'll work on it over the summer. Maybe we'll reinstate the Kumon reading I tried to start with him last winter.

    • Social studies: not so much good or bad as neutral. They covered the same stuff he covered last year. This kid is an expert on South America now.

    Last but not least, something for the special ed parents. Ben had a set of (what we all thought were) reasonable goals on his IEP in October. Such as: Ben will express in words what is bothering him, 70% of the time without adult prompts (this is a very typically stated IEP goal). Another one: Ben will organize his own folders and keep track of his belongings (HA. Double HA).

    I got the last installment of his quarterly IEP report the other day, and all 8 or so goals have been listed as being "in progress" every single quarter. Not a single goal has been achieved, and I don't know why not because I have no real information about it. As far as I can tell, noone was taking the document seriously. I am tempted to call an IEP meeting for this summer and ask for an explanation and a change in course, but my first impulse is usually wrong. Any ideas from the experts on how to make next year a better year for him?

    Summer plans, 2006, really this time

    So now it's the summer, and he has a little time and mental space for doing some learning and catch-up. Here are my plans:

    • Get him reading for pleasure again (this means finding good books that he likes. Anyone have any ideas? He really loved Harry Potter).
    • Have him do his vocabulary a little every day (this is pretty easy with the Sadlier-Oxfords).
    • Finish Saxon 8/7 (he got up to lesson 90 in school, so there are 30 lessons to go. This is definitely a reasonable goal).
    • Have Laura work with him on his writing (Laura is our brilliant and genial therapist, who's been pulling Ben along reluctantly* for 9 years now).

    I'm not going to pursue getting him touch typing this summer, much as I'd like to. I know darn well that I probably won't achieve all the stuff I've already set out to do, so why make it worse than it has to be?

    Please share your summer plans for your kids with us, if you have any.

    One more thought

    I was at a barbecue tonight, and someone mentioned a recommended practice from a book on adolescent-rearing. The practice is that when you tuck your child in, you play a sort of a game: you each tell each other things that you like about them. Ben and I did it tonight, and it was lovely. It went something like this:

    Me: I like it that you're so nice that you could say you felt sorry for [Adult family friend in bad position], and tell me why. (It really was amazing).

    Ben: I like it that you snuggle me, and take me out for dinner.

    Me: I like the way you love maps and are interested in where things are, and can tell me which way is the right way to go.

    Ben: I like it that you're smart and you can teach me math (!!!!).

    Me: I like it that you're so nice you let those toddlers chase you and play with you at the party today.

    Ben: I like it that you do computers and make maps for your work. (!!!!!)

    And so forth. I think it's an every night thing, and I think it's okay (I think it's necessary!) to repeat themes, but with new examples from their day. It's basically a codified positive interaction, and I thought it worked very well for us, which means it would probably work very well for practically anyone.

    * reluctantly refers to Ben, not to Laura!

    -- CarolynJohnston - 11 Jun 2006



    comments...

    MeanwhileOnAnotherPlanet 11 Jun 2006 - 17:28 CatherineJohnson


    So today, David Brooks has a column ($) on "The Gender Gap at School":

    Researchers in Britain asked 400 accomplished women and 500 accomplished men to name their favorite novels. The men preferred novels written by men, often revolving around loneliness and alienation. Camus's "The Stranger," Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" topped the male list.

    The women leaned toward books written by women. The women's books described relationships and are a lot better than the books the men chose. The top six women's books were "Jane Eyre," "Wuthering Heights," "The Handmaid's Tale," "Middlemarch," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Beloved."

    [snip]

    Over the past two decades, there has been a steady accumulation of evidence that male and female brains work differently. Women use both sides of their brain more symmetrically than men. Men and women hear and smell differently (women are much more sensitive). Boys and girls process colors differently (young girls enjoy an array of red, green and orange crayons whereas young boys generally stick to black, gray and blue). Men and women experience risk differently (men enjoy it more).

    It could be, in short, that biological factors influence reading tastes, even after accounting for culture. Women who have congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which leads to high male hormone secretions, are more likely to choose violent stories than other women.

    This wouldn't be a problem if we all understood these biological factors and if teachers devised different curriculums to instill an equal love of reading in both boys and girls.

    The problem is that even after the recent flurry of attention about why boys are falling behind, there is still intense social pressure not to talk about biological differences between boys and girls.... There is still resistance, especially in the educational world, to the findings of brain researchers.... [ed.: I'll say]

    Young boys are compelled to sit still in schools that have sacrificed recess for test prep. Many are told in a thousand subtle ways they are not really good students. They are sent home with these new-wave young adult problem novels, which all seem to be about introspectively morose young women whose parents are either suicidal drug addicts or fatally ill manic depressives. [ed.: remind me to tell you about the middle school book slam one of these days...]

    It shouldn't be any surprise that according to a National Endowment for the Arts study, the percentage of young men who read has plummeted over the past 14 years. Reading rates are falling three times as fast among young men as among young women. Nor should it be a surprise that men are drifting away from occupations that involve reading and school. Men now make up a smaller share of teachers than at any time in the past 40 years.

    [snip]

    During the 1970's, it was believed that gender is a social construct and that gender differences could be eliminated via consciousness-raising. But it turns out gender is not a social construct. Consciousness-raising doesn't turn boys into sensitively poetic pacifists. It just turns many of them into high school and college dropouts who hate reading.



    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    meanwhile, some place on a nearby planet

    So I read Brooks' column this morning and then, this afternoon, stumbled across this flap on a Park Slope email forum:

    New York mag has a cute front-of-book item today on an only-in-Park-Slope battle that recently raged on an email list for earnest and progressive parents in that earnestly progressive Brooklyn neighborhood. As Ben Mathis-Lilley explains:

    A few weeks ago, a member of the Park Slope Parents e-mail forum who’d encountered a stray piece of winterwear in the neighborhood posted a notice to the group titled “Found: boy’s hat.” … [S]ubscriber “Lisa” went public with her problems regarding the gender-specifying description of the hat. Wondering how such a categorization would feel to a spiky-hat-wearing girl, Lisa wrote, “It’s innocent little comments like this that I find the most hurtful.”


    Gawker seems to have posted most of the thread. Definitely a thing to be gawked at, and I have.

    First impression: these folks are not concerned about the 60-40 gender gap in college.

    In fact, these folks appear never to have heard of the 60-40 gender gap, which is now — what? Twenty years old?

    A couple of the emails are hilarious —

    First, the offending email:

    Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:25:27 -0500 (EST)
    Subject: Found: boy’s hat

    Hi:

    Friday, at the corner of 11th street and 8th ave, adorable navy blue or maybe black fleece hat with triangles jutting out ofit of all different colors. Sorry did not post right away. For older child.

    -Helene



    Lisa reacts:

    Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 17:34:48 -0500
    Subject: RE: Found: boy’s hat

    Helene,

    I’m sorry, I know that you are just trying to be helpful, but what makes this a “boy’s hat”? Did you see the boy himself loose it? Or does the hat in question possess an unmistakable scent of testosterone?

    It’s innocent little comments like this that I find the most hurtful…

    What does this comment imply about the girl who chooses to wear just such a hat (or something like it)? Is she doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with her?

    Lisa



    Then Trina reacts to Lisa:

    Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:34:55 -0800 (PST) Subject: RE: Found: boy’s hat

    Lisa,

    Its emails like yours that drive me up the wall! Is it that you have so much time on your hands that you can take the time to make such a comment. The original poster was just trying to do something nice and return a lost item to someone. If it was my hat I wouldt care if she posted it as a dogs hat found Id just be happy to get it back. ....

    Trina


    Good point, Trina.


    Abbey chimes in:

    Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:34:14 -0500 Subject: Re: Found: boy’s hat

    It’s emails which try to suppress all matter of interesting dialogue which are my pet peeve.

    I appreciated Lisa’s email very much and I am glad she wrote it. I imagine it has nothing to do with some rigid standard of “PC” which led her to post her response.

    I know that many people like to think they are beyond these issues and that sexism doesn’t apply to them, but truthfully it is alive and well. “Rambuctious” girls are still “punished” for the same actions which for “active” boys are not. Boys are still noted more for their math skills, even when there are girls in the same class who are equally skilled. I’ve witnessed it first hand. The emphasis on how a girl should look and dress and act is much stronger than it was when I was a kid, and frankly it’s very oppressive to a girl who doesn’t fit or want to fit “the mold.”

    etc.



    My favorite response thus far:

    Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 08:43:13 -0500
    Subject: Re: helene’s post about the boy’s hat

    Look — everyone stop ! ! !

    It is my hat, OK? I’m a 42 year-old man and I like wearing little boy’s and girl’s hats, as long as they have little triangles on them. In fact I’m pretty much fixated on all kinds of triangles. Gosh, what a great shape. Three sides!

    It’s my pathetic little obsession, and yes I’m seeing a shrink about it. OK? I’m sorry I dropped my little hat. I miss those triangles so.

    Helene, can I have my hat back please and can everyone stop speculating that I might be a little boy or little girl? I’m sad now.

    Ben

    P.S. I’m good at math.





    oops - it's always worse than you think

    Apparently these folks have heard of the gender gap:

    ...how can we encourage and develop styles of playing and games which enhance girls skills and love of math and science? Why is it that society is suddenly obsessing about how boys are falling behind in reading? Are they really and is it a function of sexism that everyone cares so much about the sucess of boys when girls have been shut out of math and sciences for decades? Doesn’t it rebalance in middle school and high school when boys pick up speed and girls start dumbing down so that they can be cute for the boys? And what about puberty itself, how does that effect academic success?

    That's Abbey talking.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 11 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart11 12 Jun 2006 - 16:25 CatherineJohnson


    Last full week of school — "assessments" happen next week.

    That's assessments, not finals.

    Which may be OK. I think these assessments are to be used as exit outcomes.

    If so, I'd like to see the data before it gets warehoused in our new data warehousing system. I'd like my next issue of the Irvington Middle School newsletter to include a front-page article on the assessments: what they are, how they're scored, what we've learned from them thus far, and what we hope to learn.

    I'd like to know how the assessments given at the end of this school year stack up against the assessments given at the beginning of the year.

    I'd like to know what my child has actually learned this year!

    Without having to set up my own private testing session with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or file a Freedom of Information Act!

    I would like to receive an actual report, as opposed to a report card.

    I don't think that's asking too much.


    Coming up:

    • two-hour school assembly on character today, displacing social studies & technology class [2 hours? is there a character problem going on at school I don't know about? is this an Emergency Character Assembly?]

    • math test on volume and area on Wednesday, giving Christopher one last chance not to get a C+ in math this quarter

    As to that, Ed says Christopher worked 3 hours straight yesterday, logging only one brief outburst sparked by Ed's insistence on explaining why the formula for finding the volume of a solid is what it is.

    Christopher understands nothing about the formulas. It's possible that the reason why, if you're finding the volume of a cylinder, you must first find the circumference of the base, was mentioned in class.

    It's possible Christopher is suffering from math amnesia.

    I'll never know.

    In any event, Ed got a head start on this our final week of teaching to crammery in Phase 4 math, 6th grade.

    Onward and upward.



    bsgyay.jpg 

       yay!


    source:
    faces of the bitter single guy



    Legos for teaching volume & area
    teachtocrammery



    -- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart12 12 Jun 2006 - 20:05 CatherineJohnson


    I have to write another memo to the file.

    Problem is, I'm fresh out of memos to the file.

    Christopher got his big, huge three-week GRAPHING PROJECT back today.

    Grade: 81

    Mathematical errors: 0

    Spelling and capitalization errors: 19 point deduction

    Rationale: "You guys have two periods of ELA a day."



    4:09 pm - One possibility: Dear Ms. K. Best of luck in your new position.


    4:10 pm - A thought: come fall, Ms. K better have a new position.


    4:11 pm - Another thought: somewhere in my desk pile is a School Board document revealing Ms. K's salary. $61,000, if I remember correctly. Plus benefits. 3rd year of teaching.


    4:13 pm - Time to go teach Christopher area & volume.


    4:20 pm - yes. $61,051. I see that Ms. K has her Masters degree. That probably explains her commitment to Spelling and Capitalization across the Curriculum. "She knows her pedagogy!"*


    4:23 pm - I'm setting my Time Timer for 30 minutes. You will not see or hear from me during that time. I'm pretty sure.



    CU497.jpg


    * Principal Scott Fried, December 2005


    -- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WritingAcrossTheCurriculum 12 Jun 2006 - 22:21 CatherineJohnson


    I've been stalking Writing Across the Curriculum images on Google.

    So far this one's my favorite.


    WritingLogo.gif


    Naturally I'm now violently opposed to Writing Across the Curriculum.

    I even have a Writing Across the Curriculum horror story I probably can't tell, because it would violate a young person's privacy.

    Let me put it this way.

    Don't send your child to a college with a "Writing-Based" Curriculum.

    For example, think twice before shelling out $40,000 a year to enroll your child in Hamilton College.




    -- CatherineJohnson - 12 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart13 13 Jun 2006 - 00:13 CatherineJohnson


    Ed is in the basement teaching Chapter 10 Area and Volume Formulas to Christopher. ("In Chapter 10 students learn to find the area and the volume of many figures by using formulas. Students also learn to recognize the relationship among different figures." [ed.: I just bet they do!])

    My job is to guess what item or items Ms. K will put on the test that the kids have never seen before and have no idea how to do.

    I'm guessing she'll have a 3-dimensional teardrop shape, or, maybe, a 3-dimensional mailbox-shaped figure.

    But if she does, will she ask for surface area or volume?





    any guesses from the field?

    I'm starting a pool.





    or...

    She could also put on some killer nets.

    That would be death.


    So...I wonder if I should make him memorize the 11 nets that make a cube?


    11nets_cube.gif







    announcing phase 4 math pool
    phase 4 math entries



    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SmartestTractorPart3 13 Jun 2006 - 13:34 CatherineJohnson


    Smartest Tractor reacting to Doug's assessment of Muhlenberg College's WAC graphic being "possibly the worst graphic design for a logo I've ever seen":

    Remember, we focus on the process, not the product.

    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    riddle:

    What is worse than being a parent in the public school system?

    answer:

    Being a teacher.

    More from Smartest Tractor:

    The dust has yet to settle on the hundreds of Write Traits boxes in the school district. Our next two helpings of PD are Diff. Inst. and writing across the curriculum.

    On the up side, I have been asked to write art curriculum.


    This calls to mind the single funniest teacher comment I've seen on the web, at the end of Ms. Frizzle's account of a training session on the state scoring rubric for the math test:

    That's three hours of my life I won't get back.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    PhaseFourMathPool 13 Jun 2006 - 14:37 CatherineJohnson


    Last math test of the year:




    That is Ms. K's version of what will appear on the test.




    pool: "What item or items the kids have never seen before and have no idea how to do will appear on Ms. K's final test of the year?"

    test covers: Prentice Hall Pre-algebra, Chapter 10: Area and Volume Formulas

    Entries thus far:

    Doug: My money's on a figure with measurements that couldn's exist in 3-space. Oh, and it won't represent anything with a real-world analog, either.

    Rudbeckia: Volume of the Klein Bottle!




    questions

    1. does the Klein bottle have a volume?

    2. if so, can it be calculated?

    3. what's the surface area?

    4. how do you know?

    5. is it possible to teach this material to crammery in one night?


    Test coming up tomorrow!


    THkleinb.jpg




    update 6-14-2006

    Ding-ding-ding

    I win!

    I knew it was going to be word problems.

    I just didn't know what to do about it.


    Ms K really is something.

    100% discovery, zero practice, AND YOU DO ALL YOUR DISCOVERING ON THE TEST.




    Phase 4 math pool
    trick questions
    extreme constructivism
    teachtocrammery



    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SixthGradeInIrvington 13 Jun 2006 - 14:48 CatherineJohnson




    Posted to the 6th grade page for Irvington Middle School on edline:



    sixthgradesuccess.jpg



    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SixthGradeInIrvingtonPartTwo 13 Jun 2006 - 15:06 CatherineJohnson


    sixthgradesuccess.jpg



    The Sixth Grade Guide to Success, which has recently been posted to edline, includes the first formal statement of IMS grading policy I've seen:


    6thgradegrading.jpg


    So there it is. Summative assessment all the live-long day. Summative assessment and, apparently, grading on a curve. This in a town filled with highly educated, high achieving parents; the student body skews wildly to the intelligent and capable. "Truly exceptional work on a consistent basis," defined within this cohort, means that children who are doing work that is merely excellent or good will receive Bs, Cs, and Ds.

    Which they routinely do. A friend of mine told me her 6th grader just got back his Spanish "project." He'd spent a lot of time on it, and was proud of what he'd done. I saw it in an early stage and thought it was great. Spanish is my second language, so I could see that his spelling and vocabulary were correct.

    Grade: 64.

    On the other hand, it's entirely possible Irvington Middle School teachers aren't grading on a curve. It's possible Irvington Middle School teachers are grading our children's work against an absolute standard known only to them. ("I am not at liberty to share examples of excellent student work.")

    It's possible, but how would I know?

    I wouldn't. Parents have no idea what the curriculum is, how student work is graded, why a Spanish "project" with correct spelling and vocabulary is a "64," or why a Spanish student is spending his time cutting and pasting a Spanish "project" in the first place.

    We take it all on faith.

    No re-takes, either. Re-takes may be fine for the college boards. They're out of the question for Irvington Middle School, a US-govt recognized School of Excellence (pdf file, p. 57) back in 1986.

    The exceptional person is exceptional on the first try. If you flunked the test, too bad. The parade moves on.

    We're the tightrope school.





    formative versus summative assessment (Princeton Review)
    formative and summative assessment (Central Michigan University)



    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    YoungAdultLiterature 13 Jun 2006 - 16:28 CatherineJohnson



    from Diane Ravitch's review of Welcome to the Lizard Motel by Barbara Feinberg:

    The books that her son, Alex, and his friends are compelled to read are highly regarded by teachers and professors of education. Many come decorated with Newbery medals and endorsements by the American Library Association. They are books known in the field of children’s literature as Young Adult (YA) literature. All are highly realistic, written in a confessional tone, usually in the first-person voice of an angry or alienated teenager. The protagonist deals with traumatic experiences: murder, suicide, the death of a parent or friend, incest, sexual abuse, rape, drugs, abortion, kidnapping, abandonment. Friendly or protective adults are virtually nonexistent; the main character’s mother, writes Feinberg, is dead, missing, or nonfunctional. Children in these novels almost never play. Often they feel guilty for whatever catastrophe befalls them. The books are uniformly humorless, earnest, and depressing. Their message, to the extent that they have one: the world is a nasty and brutish place, and you can depend only on yourself.

    What is missing from YA books, says Feinberg, is any recognition of the role that imagination and fantasy play in children’s ways of experiencing life. Instead, the books seem dedicated to shocking children, destroying their fantasies, and giving them a mean dose of reality. One of the children that Feinberg knows said of these books, “They give me a headache in my stomach.” It is as though the authors, the publishers, the teachers, and the professors of education share a bizarre consensus that ordinary children need to be shaken out of their complacency, stripped of their innocence, and frightened by the horrors that the world has in store for them at any moment.



    Barbara Feinberg lives two towns over, in Hastings. My friend Lisa's daughter was in her story group; she said it was fantastic.

    Here's part of the op-ed Barbara Feinberg published in the TIMES two years ago:

    HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — I don't remember exactly what books were on the summer reading list handed out on the last day of school back when I was 10 — more than 30 years ago — but I do recall that they were merely "suggested reading." I can remember scraps of stories: children making kooky inventions; a lonely girl making a Japanese doll house out of bright fabric; something about a fat little witch afraid of Halloween.

    But mostly it's the easy feeling I remember when I picture reading that summer. I imagine myself sitting under a broad, shady tree, surrounded by distant hills, turning pages of a crinkly covered library book....

    I can't imagine how I would have fared if I had been asked back then to read the hard-hitting books on current summer reading lists....Less common too is "suggested" reading. "In September," reads an addendum to a summer book list handed out to sixth-graders in a nearby school, "you will be given a computer-generated test on your summer reading. This will count as 20 percent of your grade, or two quiz scores."

    The required books are often the "good books" — that is, the ones that garner the highest literary prizes, like the Newbery Medal. They tend not to be about children having adventures or fighting foes in slightly enchanted realms, as the young characters do in, say, "A Wrinkle in Time," the 1962 classic by Madeleine L'Engle. Instead, they depict children who must "come to terms," "cope with" and "work through" harsh realties. Where characters in my books lollygagged in meadows, as it were, the children in these books are trying to hack their way out of cellars.

    Their suffering is generally caused by adults: a parent has died, or run off, or otherwise acted irresponsibly, drunkenly, selfishly, dissolutely. The children are left trying to put together the pieces. No magic swoops in to aid a resolution; no fantasy cushions the pain. As a group, these books are well written; they have some complex characters and subplots, and are rich in cultural description. But the angst and crash landings of the books is what sticks with you. A 10-year-old attending the creative arts program I run told me, "Those books give me a headache in my stomach."

    I can see why. Here are some novels assigned this summer to American sixth-graders, all winners of the highest literary prizes: "Walk Two Moons," by Sharon Creech, chronicles a daughter's search for her missing mother, who fled, it turns out, because of a deep depression after a miscarriage and subsequent hysterectomy. At the end, the girl discovers that her mother was killed in a bus accident. In "Belle Prater's Boy," by Ruth White, a missing father is found to have died because he shot himself in the face; Belle Prater, the errant mother, is never found, although her son remembers her saying that she's in a straitjacket: "Squeezed to death. I can't move. I can't breathe. I have to get out of here." A far gentler book, "Because of Winn-Dixie," by Kate DiCamillo, is about a girl who finds a friendly dog who in turn helps her rebuild her life. But she must do that because her mother abandoned her; we are told also that the mother "loved to drink."

    These kinds of books, often referred to as "realistic" or "problem novels," emerged as a genre in the 1960's, and have been in full swing ever since. In the last few decades, writes a children's literature historian, Anne Scott Macleod, "the path of American adolescent novels has been from outward to inward; from concern with the young adult's relation to the larger community to a nearly exclusive emphasis on the adolescent's inner feelings." Sheila Egoff, also an expert in the field, writes that such books "take the approach that maturity can be attained only through a severe testing of soul and self, featuring some kind of shocking `rite of passage.' "

    The rationale for exposing 10-year-olds to such potentially upsetting books is that children who read about situations different from their own gain a larger frame of reference for understanding human behavior and cultural diversity. Some educators believe that life is harder than it used to be; books shouldn't shield children from this. The argument is, as the head of the English department in a school here in Westchester County told parents, that anxiety is useful to children.

    [snip]

    The kind of realistic fiction that seems more "useful," according to my observation of my children and their friends, affords its young heroes and heroines a certain measure of emotional protection. These novels manage to relay rich material, but don't need to tell all, and instead are quirkily selective, in a way that feels consistent with how an authentic child might filter experience. "The Devil's Arithmetic," by Jane Yolen, about the Holocaust, and "The Watsons go to Birmingham — 1963" by Christopher Paul, about the racist South, are books my 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter loved when they were 10. While the circumstances of these stories are indeed harrowing, they are not experienced as emotionally shattering: the child characters are protected by adults throughout.

    But what remains most loved, and most useful in helping children "face adversity," is the realm of fantasy, or the realm of the slightly less real world — like Louis Sachar's "Holes," for example. A universe where scary things are blunted — that is, by a blanket of fantasy — is easier to enter; it's helpful too for the main character to have access to a tiny bit of magical power. One need only to remember that Harry Potter, after all, has had to deal with the murder of his parents and an abusive foster family. His magic accompanies him; he is looked out for at every turn. Rather than confronting evil in the form of a violent realistic father, say, it is vastly less stressful for some children to contemplate evil in the form of "he who must not be named."

    [snip]

    Strangely, it seems that in such stories the only people who get to break free are the missing parents: these characters seem to have found their lives too stressful and boxed-in, and have fled — right out of the books.


    84.gif




    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    HelpDeskPart5 13 Jun 2006 - 19:12 CatherineJohnson


    Edline is chock full of info today.

    Also under the heading of Character Education, I learn that our district has adopted the Character Education Program "Facing History and Ourselves."

    The Fordham Foundation report is here; some of you have read it. It would be hard to single out my favorite passage, but this comes close:

    Possibly the most malevolent of the organizations professing to address citizenship education is Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO), which provides materials and services to over 16,000 teachers, ostensibly to help them address racism, anti-Semitism, and violence.4 Facing History and Ourselves is by far the most popular source of K-12 training and materials on the Holocaust. According to its Web site, it reaches over 1.5 million adolescents through its teacher network, and over 4,500 schools through regional offices in six major cities in the U.S. In addition, it now has an office in Europe. Facing History and Ourselves describes itself as an “interdisciplinary approach to citizenship education” and can be taught over a long or a short period of time and at any grade level, although it is usually taught in grade 8 or 9.

    The central problem with this organization’s activities stems not from its efforts to provide students with scrupulously accurate information about the Holocaust but from its goal of teaching contemporary civic lessons for American students. To do so, it makes false analogies to a catastrophic historical event, thus trivializing the catastrophe and setting up a moral equivalence between Nazis and white Americans. The purpose of FHAO’s first major resource book, titled Holocaust and Human Behavior and published in 1982, was to encourage students to practice “moral decision-making” by speaking up about the dangers of a nuclear “holocaust” and to see the Moral Majority as a danger to freedom of speech.5 Once those dangers seemed to have receded from the political radar screen, study of the Holocaust was linked to a domestic issue with more staying power. The purpose of the 1994 resource book, bearing the same title as the 1982 manual but with a new conceptual framework, is to make sure that students see the task of confronting white racism in America as the chief reason for studying the Holocaust.6 It makes explicit and frequent comparisons not only between twentieth-century America and twentieth-century Germany but also between nineteenthcentury America and nineteenth-century Germany. In essence, it uses the Holocaust to portray America’s blacks as Europe’s Jews, thereby reducing genocide to an act of bigotry and equating white Americans to Nazis.

    The purpose of the supplementary resource book FHAO published in 2002, titled Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement (RMAH), is even more poisonous.7 FHAO wants teachers and students to infer a causal connection between the American eugenics movement and the Holocaust; that is, to infer that Americans and American science, however indirectly, were responsible for Nazi Germany’s extermination policies and the Holocaust. RMAH makes it clear that few American scientists subscribed to the eugenics movement by World War II. Nevertheless, the chapters on “The Nazi Connection” so cleverly connect Hitler’s use of the ideas of German scientists on racial “eugenics” to an acknowledgment of the leadership of American scientists, educators, and policy makers in the eugenics movement that Americans appear almost directly responsible for the Final Solution.8 The net effect is the discrediting of American society.

    Despite the many citations and excerpts intended to prop up the book’s implicit thesis, FHAO fails to note even one biologist as a reviewer or to give a biologist’s assessment of the influence of the eugenics movement on American or German science. While the history of the eugenics movement should be better known to the general public, one must ask why an organization devoted to a study of the Holocaust should expend its energy compiling information on the history and influence of the eugenics movement in America as if it, rather than the centuries of negative cultural stereotypes and religious and economic hatred of Jews in Christian Europe, were instrumental in the development and execution of Hitler’s Final Solution. But aside from a few pages in its 1982 and 1994 resource books, FHAO has studiously ignored the history of anti-Semitism since its inception, a criticism made by Lucy Dawidowicz in her 1990 essay. Facing History and Ourselves has just begun to introduce this book at workshops and to develop an on-line course based on the book. Social studies teachers are likely to accept FHAO’s implicit thesis about who was responsible for the Holocaust because its resource books are likely to be their only source of information on the topic. Science teachers are most unlikely to address the eugenics movement in their classes because evolutionary biologists view its influence on the history of American biology as miniscule.9

    It is not difficult to understand why teachers find study of the Holocaust useful for addressing bigotry in this country. It provides them with the most horrendous image possible of a prejudiced person— a Nazi—an image that can be connected through the concept of intolerance to the image of a white racist in America. And what could better symbolize the deadly nature of intolerance unchecked and make a more powerful impression on young minds than images of death camps, gas chambers, and crematoria? Teachers who believe what they have been told repeatedly by their own instructors and the mainstream media—that bigotry and intolerance are the most serious problems we face in this country—are unlikely to have any doubts about the educational value of this curriculum despite the lack of any longitudinal research evidence that it reduces bigotry or produces more tolerant or informed citizens.

    It is difficult for outsiders to find out what takes place in Facing History workshops. Only teachers from the schools that have arranged (and paid) for the workshop can attend, and the website that enables these teachers to exchange ideas about classroom practices and resources is password-protected. However, some evidence literally landed on my desk one day. In her application to a summer institute on civic education that I directed in the mid-1990s at Harvard, a grade 8 teacher who had taken a number of FHAO workshops explained how she had restructured her teaching of To Kill A Mockingbird to “help prepare students for the Facing History unit in social studies.” She was now asking her students to look for “parallels between Nazi Germany and the U.S., looking at U.S. slavery and subsequent racism as our holocaust.” In equating slavery to the Holocaust, FHAO seems to have obliterated the categorical and moral distinction between bigotry and genocide in teachers’ thinking. In implying that the American eugenics movement, however indirectly, was responsible for the Final Solution, FHAO now seeks to reduce the moral status of the United States to that of Nazi Germany and, hence, to delegitimate it.






    help desk

    I'd like to get copies of this material.

    Does anyone know how I can do that?



    What Works Clearinghouse assessment character ed
    Character Ed at the DOE

    a brief history of character education
    a first grade teacher focuses on moral decline
    zero tolerance for zero tolerance
    self esteem vs character ed
    constructivist character ed
    Michael Josephson, father of character education in U.S.

    character ed in "study skills" class
    character ed & shaming
    Irvington character education wall calendar
    Facing History and Ourselves



    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent 13 Jun 2006 - 20:24 CatherineJohnson


    In my travels last night I came across what I took to be a fabulous clip art site, but which turns out to be something more. Be sure to check out the cartoon he [correction: she] calls "Clowns on Their Day Off".

    All his stuff is great, but I especially like the page of "Crazy clips," which bears a warning up front:


    WARNING! The ideas that these images represent may be offensive to those who lack a twisted sense of humor. If you are sensitive, turn back now!


    The Crazy Clips page has funny alien humor, funny smiley face humor, and even some funny Jesus humor.

    I realize there hasn't been a huge call for funny Jesus humor here at Kitchen Table Math, but today I'm feeling the need.



    clipartjesus06.gif



    I like this one, too. UPDATE 9-27-2006: Causey has taken her Jesus cartoons down, it seems. This one was a classic drawing of Jesus with the legend, "What would I do?"


    update from Google Master

    He's a she (Linda Causey), and yes, her stuff is great and just plain weird sometimes. Her one-panel cartoons appear in our local weekly freebie paper. (It's a "chain" paper, so other cities have them too. I know Denver has one; I read one when I was there last fall.)

    I feel dumb.

    Not dumb, really. Just not truly exceptional on a consistent basis.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 13 Jun 2006



    comments...

    FromSlowLearnerToBrainSurgeon 14 Jun 2006 - 13:07 CatherineJohnson




    here


    Carson3KS.jpg



    I learned of Dr. Carson from Martin West at Education Gadfly.

    Despite all the advantages afforded by highly educated parents, by living in a home that values the written word, by siblings who read and cherish books, at age six my youngest son leaves kindergarten this year unable to read. What does this say about his future?

    Many parents across the nation, like me and my wife, are facing that question as summer approaches. And many will hear the same line that my son’s kindergarten teacher gave us. “He’s always going to struggle in school.” [ed.: I'm sure she's right.]

    Can teachers know that at this tender age? To some, a recent report published in Psychology Science suggests the answer is yes. Lead researcher Marc Bornstein tested 564 four-month old babies, then retested them at 18, 24, and 49 months. The results? “We find that to a small but significant degree,” he writes in the abstract, “infancy… represents a setting point in the life of the individual.”

    The findings are sure to re-kindle the age-old debate about nature versus nurture, and could convince educators to adopt a laissez-faire approach. After all, if children’s achievement is unlikely to change over time relative to their peers, does it make sense to push them beyond their “abilities”?

    The possibility that schools will answer “no” worries Bornstein.

    [snip]

    The “soft bigotry of low expectations” is alive and well. That’s what I learned from spending two weeks in sixth grade classrooms recently. Said one teacher about students from broken homes: they “can’t learn.” Said another about students who don’t master multiplication tables by age 10: “They’re cognitively incapable of learning the material.”

    Success is the cure for that form of bigotry. The type of success that Aspire Schools is achieving in California, and that KIPP Gaston puts on display most every day in North Carolina. The type that Dr. Ben Carson demonstrates in the operating room at Johns Hopkins, where the kid once known as “Dummy” performs neurosurgical miracles that only a handful of his peers would even consider attempting.

    And the type of success that my own son will demonstrate when he learns to read, and at a high level, thanks to the help of dedicated tutors and two parents who refuse to believe that his life’s prospects are set at age six.



    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    I'm thinking that if schools want to "Face History and Ourselves" they should teach units on the role public schools have played in graduating black and Hispanic children who are 4 years behind their white peers.

    There's plenty of material available, although I'll wager that none of it is being hawked by education vendors.

    You could start here:


    0913543810.01._PE40_.Black-Students-Middle-Class-Teachers._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    monkey wrench

    This new report ($) in Psychology Science has thrown a monkey wrench into the executive function posts I have yet to write.

    sigh

    Oh, well. Contradictory research findings are the spice of life.

    So onward.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    GirlsAndBoysLiteracyIn1870 14 Jun 2006 - 15:09 CatherineJohnson

    This is interesting:

    To the Editor:

    David Brooks blames an alleged feminist takeover of the high school curriculum in the 1970's for boys' difficulty in school. But boys have performed poorly relative to girls for as long as educational data have been collected.

    The 1870 United States Census shows that boys had greater access to schooling than girls but lower literacy rates; by 1924, boys were 11 percent less likely to enroll in high school nd 24 percent less likely to graduate.

    In 1957, presumably before "new wave" novels about "introspectively morose young women" replaced Huck Finn on reading lists, the typical girl was at the 60th percentile of her high school class, whereas the typical boy was at the 40th percentile.

    Such statistics received less attention in the past, when academically disinclined young men could still count on a healthy supply of well-paying manufacturing jobs. In today's economy, however, boys' difficulty in acquiring basic skills is a major social problem; blaming feminism only distracts us from identifying and addressing its root causes.

    Ilyana Kuziemko
    Cambridge, Mass., June 13, 2006
    The writer is a graduate student in the department of economics, Harvard University



    I wonder if that's true?

    Ed always says, "Boys don't like to read as much as girls do."

    I was a "bookworm" as a child; Ed was always out playing sports.




    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TheReverendBayesStrikesAgain 14 Jun 2006 - 17:12 CatherineJohnson



    I've been a mother for 19 years.

    Throughout all of that time I've been reading articles, news items, and studies telling me daycare is not only harmless but actively good for children; daycare is the superior choice, better than being cooped up alone with your crazy mother. Quality time, not quantity time. The culture spent years banging on about that one.

    I heard it all.

    Children raised in daycare had better immune systems, better social skills, were better prepared for Kindergarten - you name it, some researcher somewhere had found it and I had read it.

    It was endless.

    My favorite moment was the day, probaby 16 or 17 years ago, I read an article in the New York Times characterizing boys raised in daycare as less sensitive and less responsive to adult direction than boys raised at home. My ears pricked up at that one. Whoa, I thought. A study showing daycare is bad for children! Heads must be spinning out there at the Times.

    But no.

    That wasn't what the study showed at all.

    The study showed daycare was good for children.

    Stay-at-home moms were the bad thing. Our boys were sensitive little wimps. If you wanted a manly boy, you had to go with daycare.



    Pretty early on, I decided all of this stuff was likely to be bunk.

    I used my Bayes brain to figure it out.



    So what do I find in today's issue of the New York Times?

    Gosh, it's an article on the very bad effects of daycare!

    What a surprise!

    Who would have thought!


    Starting in 1997, the Quebec Family Policy subsidized day care for 4-year-olds at government-approved centers around the province. By 2000, the program had expanded to cover any child not old enough for kindergarten, all the way down to infants....

    Centers from downtown Montreal to Hudson Bay were flooded with applications....

    Almost a decade after the family policy started, however, there was still a big mystery about it. Nobody had done the work to find out how it had affected children. The province was spending $1.4 billion a year on a grand social experiment, yet no one had bothered to look at the results.

    So three economists took up the challenge a few years ago, realizing that the program offered an excellent way to examine a much-debated topic....

    When they finished last year, the answer seemed clear. "Across almost everything we looked at," said Mr. Gruber, an M.I.T., professor, "the policy led to much worse outcomes for kids."

    Young children in Quebec are more anxious and aggressive than they were a decade ago, even though children elsewhere in Canada did not show big changes. Quebec children also learn to use a toilet, climb stairs and count to three at later ages, on average, than they once did. The effects weren't so great for parents, either. More of them reported being depressed, and they were less satisfied with their marriages — which also didn't happen in other provinces.

    Before you dismiss the researchers as just three more men starting a new assault in the mommy wars, listen to Jane Waldfogel, a leading child-policy researcher and the author of the book, "What Children Need" (Harvard University Press). "This is a very high-quality paper by high-quality guys," she said. "They're very careful. This is a paper that's going to stand."



    Quelle surprise.

    When you read these findings in the stark language of the paper's abstract (pdf file) it's even worse:

    The growing labor force participation of women with small children in both the U.S. and Canada has led to calls for increased public financing for childcare. The optimality of public financing depends on a host of factors, such as the “crowd-out” of existing childcare arrangements, the impact on female labor supply, and the effects on child well-being. The introduction of universal, highly-subsidized childcare in Quebec in the late 1990s provides an opportunity to address these issues. We carefully analyze the impacts of Quebec’s “$5 per day childcare” program on childcare utilization, labor supply, and child (and parent) outcomes in two parent families. We find strong evidence of a shift into new childcare use, although approximately one third of the newly reported use appears to come from women who previously worked and had informal arrangements. The labor supply impact is highly significant, and our measured elasticity of 0.236 is slightly smaller than previous credible estimates. Finally, we uncover striking evidence that children are worse off in a variety of behavioral and health dimensions, ranging from aggression to motor-social skills to illness. Our analysis also suggests that the new childcare program led to more hostile, less consistent parenting, worse parental health, and lower-quality parental relationships.


    I'm waiting for an apology.




    tee hee

    The day they find out helicopter moms are good for children is gonna be fun.




    last but not least

    I hope I'm not upsetting our working moms. I don't mean to. In truth, I'm a working mom myself, though I've managed to work at home, which my Bayes brain thinks is a good idea.

    I don't know what I would have done if I'd had a job or career that I couldn't do at home. I probably would have worked. My point: I didn't throw up this post to criticize working moms, but to complain about stupid research while showing off my Extreme Bayesian Brain in the process.

    Last but not least, my friends who worked from the time their kids were infants have terrific grown kids. We (re-)met them all at Christmas, so we know.

    I'm just hoping Christopher & Andrew turn out as well.




    update

    Good grief.

    I hadn't read the whole article when I wrote this post.

    They're still doing it:

    The picture is murkier for toddlers and preschoolers. The stimulation they get at day care tends to make them better prepared for school than children who are home with a parent full time. Yet those who spend too many hours in day care or attend poor-quality programs also seem to be at greater risk of obesity and behavior problems.

    Naturally this was the passage Ed chose to read aloud to me over lunch. "The picture is murkier for toddlers and preschoolers," he said.

    I guess that apology's not going to be coming any time soon.

    Bayes speaks: "The stimulation they get at day care tends to make them better prepared for school than children who are home with a parent full time" is bunk.

    Mark my words.

    I can even say why it's bunk.

    For years there's been a heaping load of research showing that firstborns and singletons are slightly smarter than later-borns, a phenomenon attributed to the fact that firstborns and singletons spend more time in the company of adults and less time in the company of other children, namely their siblings.

    Daycare means more time with other kids, less time with adults.




    update update

    Thinking it over, I realized that the daycare parents used in the Canada study was government sponsored and government staffed.

    There was a time I would have thought that was good.

    After lo these many years in the public schools, that time is gone.



    WALWHC.jpg



    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    LetterToTheEditorFromASchoolBoardMember 14 Jun 2006 - 18:32 CatherineJohnson


    I want this person on my school board (scroll down):


    To the Editor:

    To solve the widening reading gap between boys and girls, David Brooks says educators should offer them different reading materials. He's right in one sense.

    The easiest thing in the world is for elementary school and even middle school teachers to offer kids choices about what to read. But please, let's not make that old mistake of assuming that what's appealing to one sex is not appealing to the other.

    Many of the social-problem stories and novels kids read in school today should be thrown right out of the curriculum: the vocabulary is weak; the ideas, simplistic. And after all, most boys and girls can enjoy Mark Twain, one of the writers Mr. Brooks mentions.

    Beyond this, we need to think about other ways to inspire young readers.

    Why aren't kindergarten and first-grade students reciting poetry and folk tales on a regular basis? Why aren't they performing short plays? What happened to mythology, all those great tales of adventure?

    Plenty of materials exist that will teach kids a love of language and energize their imaginations.

    Diane Matza
    Clinton, N.Y.,
    June 13, 2006

    The writer, an English professor at Utica College, is a member of the local school board.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    HarvardBusinessSchool 14 Jun 2006 - 19:27 CatherineJohnson


    Interesting article in the TIMES on whether a degree from Harvard's business school is or is not worth the money ($70,000 for two years of education):

    Mr. Richman decided to track a core group of his Harvard classmates, to converse with them about their personal and professional aspirations, and then to revisit them every five years until 2026. He also decided to film them along the way, à la "7 Up"...

    [snip]

    In 2003, Professor Mintzberg tracked the performance of 19 students who graduated from the Harvard Business School in 1990 and were at the top of their class academically. Ten of the 19 were "utter failures," he said. "Another four were very questionable, at least," he added. "So five out of 19 did well."

    [snip]

    On the other hand, Professor Gottesman and a colleague found in a separate study, published earlier this year in the Journal of Empirical Finance, that mutual fund managers with M.B.A.'s from Business Week's 30 top-ranked business schools — including Harvard — generally outperformed other mutual fund managers...."One possibility is that at higher-quality schools they simply teach better technical skills," he speculated. "Or students at top-tier schools have a higher I.Q."



    Two people said that a Harvard MBA let them drop out of the business world feeling confident they could drop back in whenever they liked:

    The degree also gave Ms. Madden the confidence to leave the business world several years ago to pursue interests in photography and mountain climbing before resuming work as a consultant. "Today, there's much less of a stigma to taking time off and changing careers," she said. "With the M.B.A., I felt I could do it and return to work without much problem."

    [snip]

    Like Ms. Madden, Ms. Malone said her degree allowed her to take time off while knowing that it would be easy to get another job. "It's this big safety net; it's a credential that makes it easier to get a job later," she said. "Maybe life shouldn't be that way, but it is what it is."



    I wonder if a Harvard MBA really can function as a safety net?

    If so, that's cool.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TwoTrickPoniesInPhase4 14 Jun 2006 - 20:20 CatherineJohnson


    Ms. K has outdone herself.

    Two trick questions!

    Out of six questions altogether!

    So we're not looking at the "solid B" Ed was hoping for after the 5 hours he spent teaching Chapter 10.

    Christopher remembers one of the questions, which is actually fun, or would be if you'd done any homework problems or in-class practice:

    Ms K is doing an experiment. [an experiment! just like Professor Peabody! ]

    She takes two pieces of paper (“9 x 11”) and folds them to make a cylinder. [Christopher has no idea what this could possibly mean. I asked 'Were they scotch taped' and he said, 'Maybe.']

    One is tall and skinny, and the other is short and fat. [ditto]

    Find the diameter of these two cylinders using c=pi X d and then tell me the numerical values of the volumes over each other. [She "taught" the kids volume ratios yesterday, to demonstrate to the class that if you double the radius of a cynlinder, you quadruple the volume. No homework assigned, but I had him re-do the one problem she did in class.]



    All 6 questions were word problems. Ms. K has not assigned, nor has she demonstrated in class, a single word problem on volume & area. I could probably still count on the fingers of both hands the total number of word problems she has assigned for the entire school year.

    Ed had Christopher do some word problems from the textbook, but, sadly, he seems to have selected the wrong word problems. That is always the way. The mind of Ms. K is not to be divined by the likes of us. The kids were asked to compute cost of rugs or whatever after computing surface area. Something like that. Ed didn't have Christopher do any price problems. So Christopher didn't know what to do.

    update: Ed didn't assign any pricing word problems from the textbook because there weren't any pricing word problems in the textbook. If there had been, he would have taught Christopher how to do them.

    update 6-21-06: The problem involved tiling a swimming pool. The kids were to find the surface area of a pool, then calculate how much tile would be needed to tile it, then calculate the price of the tile. They'd never even seen a problem like this.

    I will be teaching all of the Saxon Math 8/7 lessons on volume & area starting Monday.

    I will be teaching all of the Saxon Math 8/7 lessons on volume and area, because Christopher needs conceptual knowledge of volume and area.

    In sum:

    • the kids spent 4 or 5 days learning volume and area formulas for solids for the first time in their lives

    • they learned the formulas by rote

    • total number calculation problems assigned for homework: maybe 10

    • total number word problems assigned for homework: 0

    • total number word problems demonstrated in class: 0

    • test: 6 multi-step word problems


    This woman better not be back next year. That's all I've got to say.


    UPDATE 10-24-2006: no such luck




    Phase 4 math pool
    trick questions
    extreme constructivism

    correct answer



    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    ExtremeConstructivism 14 Jun 2006 - 20:43 CatherineJohnson



    Ms K really is something.

    100% discovery, zero practice, AND YOU DO ALL YOUR DISCOVERING ON THE TESTS.




    Phase 4 math pool
    trick questions
    extreme constructivism



    -- CatherineJohnson - 14 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart14 16 Jun 2006 - 19:45 CatherineJohnson


    Remember Don't study for the state test?

    Remember back when every single teacher in the school told Christopher and his chums not to study for the state test because they didn't know what would be on it? (pdf file, p 67-61)

    Well, guess what.

    The results of the state test are used for placement in 8th grade accelerated science.

    Who knew?

    No one! We weren't told! We're never told! Information bearing on our children's education is data, and data is used by folks in the administration to make decisions about our children's futures!

    So they're the ones who need it!

    Because they're the deciders.





    email to the guidance counselor

    Wednesday June 14 2:26 pm

    Hi Griffin----

    We’d like to get the results of Christopher’s assessments in the fall and again this spring---thanks!

    Also, we’d like to know what Christopher needs to do to qualify to be placed in Honors Science in 8th grade.

    Could you let us know?

    Thanks very much.

    Catherine Johnson
    (Chris Berenson’s mom)






    Thursday June 15 1:26 pm

    Mrs. Johnson,
    I asked Mr. Fried about the assessments and he says the results will be mailed home.
    In regards to accelerated (it is not honors) science, there are a number of areas that the committee looks at when selecting students for the class. Students are evaluated by:
    1)ELA and Math state tests
    2)CTBS (California test of basic skills) test that will be administered in Science classes next year
    3)His 7th grade science teacher will rate him in the areas of tests and labs
    4)7th grade science grades
    5)7th grade teachers will rate him in the areas of notebook, hmk and other (this includes- participation in class, maturity, proactive with seeking extra help)
    [ed.: the character "piece"]
    We enter all the information onto a chart and the committee then selects the students who have the highest scores/rankings.
    I hope this answers your questions, if you need anything else please let me know.
    Griffin Murray






    Thursday June 15 2:33 pm

    That’s very helpful.

    Three more questions:

    Is this an IEF-funded class? (For some reason, I have the perception that it is....)

    How selective is the class---how many kids are invited to take part, and how many are turned away?

    Finally, what is the appeals process if a child isn’t invited?

    Thanks!

    Catherine J.






    Thursday June 15 2:34 pm

    Another question: I’d like to get the results of these assessments and the assessments that were administered last fall in some (or all) of the classes.

    In other words, I’d like to know what he learned this year as opposed to other years.

    Thanks!

    Catherine J.






    Thursday June 15 3:00 pm

    To answer your questions:
    1) No, it is not an IEF funded class.
    2) We have two sections of the Earth Science classes. Students are not "turned away" because nobody applies to be in the class. All 7th graders are considered and based on the data we have we select the two sections of students.
    3) The appeals process would consist of contacting myself or an administrator and requesting that the committee review your sons data again.
    Griffin Murray






    Thursday June 15 7:31 pm

    One more quick question--

    What is the difference between “honors” and “accelerated”?






    Thursday June 15 3:00 pm

    When you say last fall are you referring to assessments he had in 5th grade?






    Thursday June 15 9:34

    The kids all said they had pre-tests of some kind in their classes at the beginning of the school year. Ralph had mentioned to me that he wanted to start doing exit outcomes (great idea); I assumed that he was perhaps going to do value-added assessment as well.

    What were the pre-tests they took at the beginning of the year?






    Thursday June 15 9:35 pm

    But actually, yes, I’d like to know how he did on the 5th grade assessment, what items were on the assessment, and where his ranking was amongst his peers.

    Thanks!

    C.






    Friday June 15 9:30 pm


    On 6/15/06 3:00 PM, "Griffin Murray" wrote:

    > 2) We have two sections of the Earth Science classes. Students are not
    > "turned away" because nobody applies to be in the class. All 7th graders are
    > considered and based on the data we have we select the two sections of
    > students.

    Students may not “be” turned away.

    Nevertheless, they “feel” turned away.

    The same principle is at work in Student of the Month.

    Students don’t “apply” to be Student of the Month.

    However, each and every month one student is “selected” to be Student of the Month, while the other students are “not selected.” Students who are “not selected” feel “rejected.” That’s why the school has a Student of the Month, presumably. Because students care.

    Back to accelerated science.

    Let me re-phrase.

    How many students are in the two sections?

    And how many students are in the grade altogether?

    How many students are “selected” and how many students are “not selected”?

    Another issue.

    I believe I also asked what appeals process exists for students who are “not selected.” What is the next step for students you deem “not selectable”? What recourse do they have?

    One last question.

    What is the ratio of girls to boys in the two sections?

    I ask because criteria number 5, “7th grade teachers will rate him in the areas of notebook, hmk and other (this includes- participation in class, maturity, proactive with seeking extra help)” skews towards girls, whose frontal lobe development is one to two years further advanced at this age.

    At our team meeting, Scott Fried told us that “Everyone knows boys do worse than girls in middle school.” That is a direct quote. We feel quite strongly that the school should be doing everything in its power to eradicate achievement gaps.

    Thanks, Griffin.

    Catherine






    Friday June 16 2:32 pm

    I believe what you are referring to are baseline assessments that
    several teachers administered to students at the beginning of the year.
    You can contact teachers indivually to get those results. I do not have
    copies of them.
    Griffin Murray






    Friday June 16 2:41 pm

    We do not have any honors classes in the middle school. The difference between the two is accelerated classes indicate that students are covering material that is usually a year advanced. For example, earth science for most students is a HS level course. However, we have two sections of students that take it in 8 th grade. Honors indicates classes (Ex. 9th grade English/Social Studies) that cover topics in greater depth/detail and expect a higher level of writing/reading skills. However, they are not covering material that is a year advanced. Hope this bring some clarity.
    Griffin Murray






    Friday June 16 6:13 pm

    On 6/16/06 2:41 PM, "Griffin Murray" wrote:

    > Honors indicates classes (Ex. 9th grade English/Social Studies) that cover
    > topics in greater depth/detail and expect a higher level of writing/reading
    > skills. However, they are not covering material that is a year advanced.
    > Hope this bring some clarity.

    Thanks very much; that is very helpful.

    We would like Christopher placed in the accelerated science class in 8th grade. A couple of weeks ago we had an extended conversation with Deb Hardy, who indicated to us that the TONYSS are the best predictor of success in high school. Christopher received scores of 4 on both math and ELA on his 5th grade TONYSS; he was one of a very small group in his class to do so. There should be no reason for suspense concerning his capabilities. He’s a bright, hard-working boy, and we should be able to assume that Irvington intends to provide him with a first-class education.

    It goes without saying we’ll give Christopher whatever support he may need in the form of help with homework, extra time on task, or tutoring. Christopher is willing to work hard, and we are willing to work hard. Effort and commitment should be rewarded.

    I have a few remaining questions:

    • How many children altogether were enrolled in the two sections of accelerated science this school year?

    • How many children are in the 8th grade class in total?

    • How many children appealed the school’s decision not to offer them seats in the class?

    • How many of these children were subsequently invited to join the class?

    • And: what was the gender ratio in this year’s two accelerated science classes? How many boys, how many girls? (Again, I ask this because of Scott’s statement that “Everyone knows boys do worse than girls in middle school.”)

    All of this leads me to a question concerning high school curriculum:

    • In what course will an 8th grade student enrolled in accelerated science be placed come 9th grade?

    • In what course will an 8th grade student not enrolled in accelerated science be placed?

    Finally, has IMS contemplated establishing a formal policy of providing extra help to students who could succeed in an accelerated class with support? Tarrytown has such a policy in place for accelerated math in 7th grade; I believe Dobbs Ferry has such a policy for its middle school International Baccalaureate program.

    These are important questions for our community. As you are probably aware, the “accelerated” track for math and science in the U.S. is merely average in the rest of the industrial world. Ed and I have raised this issue on more than one occasion with Scott and Raina. Their response has been that American schools cannot be expected to provide as serious an education as European schools, because American schools and European schools are “apples and oranges.”

    We disagree. Our district has higher per-pupil spending than virtually any school in Europe or Asia, and our student population skews extremely high in terms of SES and, almost certainly, IQ. We see no reason why Irvington schools must be inferior to European schools.

    We feel strongly that Christopher—that all Irvington children—should be on par with their peers in the industrialized world. We live in a global economy now; Christopher and his peers will compete in that world when they grow up.

    Thanks very much.

    Catherine J.





    don't study for the test
    news from nowhere (placement in accelerated science)
    don't study for the test part 2
    news from nowhere part 14
    news from nowhere part 16
    news from nowhere part 17
    news from nowhere part 20

    earthsciences



    -- CatherineJohnson - 16 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TwoMoreReasonsWhyAsiansAreWinning 16 Jun 2006 - 22:43 CatherineJohnson


    I spent the afternoon being interviewed by KBS about Animals in Translation.

    When the producer contacted me, I assumed KBS was a small local Korean-language station & they would interview me by telephone, the way stations here do.

    Then yesterday, late afternoon, after a grueling day at the Bronx Zoo,* I learned that they were driving here, TO MY HOUSE, to film me at work. Which meant I was going to have to get my office into some kind of filmable order.

    YIKES



    BerniesOffice.jpg




    The producer and her cameraman shlepped all the way out here and spent 3 hours interviewing me and filming. They got everything. Me, the clean portion of my desk, family photos, walking shots of me, Ed, Jimmy, Andrew & both dogs walking up the driveway and into the house; they even had me figure out how to create a dog-and-autism slide show on my Mac so they could film that. So now I know how to make a slideshow.

    The person who assigned the interview had read the book. That was bizarre. In America, when you do an interview about a book, the interviewer hasn't read it.

    Also, no one ever interviews the writer. Ever. Everyone interviews the Famous Person. The Famous Person, in America, is so important that my own agent actually said to me, during our celebration lunch when the book hit the TIMES bestseller list, "What was your contribution to the book?"

    Ed talked to the producer as she was packing up to leave, & found out that KBS isn't a local Korean-language channel. It's a big, important network in Korea. Like CBS here.

    These folks went wildly over and beyond what was necessary to do to produce a good segment on the book. Wildly.

    This is why they're winning, I conclude.




    * It was so grueling, with so many kids, that when I got back on the bus I reflexively thought "That was a zoo" before remembering that Oh, right, it is a zoo.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 16 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart15 17 Jun 2006 - 00:39 CatherineJohnson



    Yesterday Ms. K went over the trick question in class. Christopher says he got the answer right, but the calculations wrong.

    The correct answer was "yes."



    2 trick ponies



    -- CatherineJohnson - 17 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SusanOnKidsInAlgebra 17 Jun 2006 - 01:01 CatherineJohnson


    Christopher's year in algebra has such a familiar ring to it. I've talked to a couple of parents who have decided to hold their high math kids back from going on to Algebra 2.

    One parent has tutored her daughter practically every night. She said she had enough when she realized that her daughter had no idea what volume was and it was the end of the year. She felt they were just cramming formulas in right and left and her daughter had lost many gains from earlier years. This girl has always been a top notch student and is now pretty devastated.

    Another friend just had to make the same decision for her boy.



    Oh yes, we have had the cramming of the formulas left and right! yowza

    I can see why the U.S. concept of accelerated math is that it's only for the gifted. To teach fast, you have to be good. Really good. Carol Gambill good.

    Christopher is showing zero wear and tear, apart from the fact that the instant he had his last regular test (they spend the next week doing "assessments" for the warehouse) he ripped every single paper in his notebook to shreds and tossed the lot. That could be a sign of something.

    The mantra around here is "I survived 6th grade." He's said "I survived 6th grade" about a thousand times, and has extracted two LEGO sets from me as his reward.

    A couple of days ago I went up to our bedroom, where we all watch TV & Christopher has his PlayStation, and found Christopher slumped in a chair watching two enormously tall, fat men dressed in black unitards wrestling. I said, "Christopher, I'm so proud of you. You worked hard, you learned a lot, you brought up all your grades, and you survived Phase 4 math."

    He said, "I credit wrestling. Wrestling relaxes me when I have stress. I like watching people get the cr** beaten out of them."

    He's a happy guy.




    how to succeed in middle school without really trying
    I credit wrestling
    violent, hokey & fake

    teachtocrammery
    negativelearning
    degradingknowledge



    -- CatherineJohnson - 17 Jun 2006



    comments...

    MeetTheParents 17 Jun 2006 - 14:58 CatherineJohnson



    From today's Wall Street Journal — why is the tutoring industry exploding in the U.S.?

    It's the parents!

    Back in the 1980s, when Japanese financiers gobbled up U.S. companies like so many Pacmen, Americans became unnerved. Japanese society seemed scarily focused: The discipline in schools was so brutal that a tardy child might be crushed to death by the doors slamming shut precisely on time. We heard about juku, cram schools where Japanese children went each afternoon after regular classes for three hours more of academic drilling; Saturdays, too.

    Americans joked about how we'd all be carrying yen in our wallets someday, but we could comfort ourselves -- and people did -- by saying that at least our children were individuals. American childhood was to be enjoyed, not grimly marched through with joyless eyes fixed on getting into the Ivy League.

    Ah, but will you look at us now? We're building a juku system of our own. Millions of American children no longer have the time to kick a ball around after school because they're already late for an appointment with the math tutor or a "study skills" lesson or cognitive skills training or Spanish immersion or "reading comprehension support" or academic enrichment of one sort of another.

    [snip]

    ...tutors have long been a fixture of both ends of the bell curve. Struggling children got help to keep afloat at grade level; super-bright children might see tutors to challenge them further. What's happening now is different. Tutoring has become near ubiquitous among the panicky classes: middle- and upper-middle-income families where there are ample brains and money.

    Today it's not uncommon for six-year-olds to receive private lessons in how to overcome "executive function issues," for if they can't handle the paperwork in first grade, heaven help them in the cutthroat bureaucracy of third. Middle-schoolers see tutors to boost their math and reading skills, and thus help them get into the right high school; high-schoolers sign up for private SAT prep.

    source:
    Educational Supplements
    by Meghan Cox Gurdon



    question

    If someone were to tell you his child was enrolled in a school where six-year olds can't handle the paperwork in first grade, would your first thought be, "Wow. Tutoring has become near ubiquitous among the panicky classes"?

    Or would it be something more along the lines of, "Wow. John Gatto Taylor was right"?


    there's more

    "In 1989 I would mumble, 'I'm a tutor,' and hang my head a little, because it seemed a marginal job," says David Kahn, who runs a tutoring company in Manhattan. "People used to think it meant I was poor, and now they think it means I'm rich."

    There is no real mystery about why tutoring has become such a growth industry. It can be traced in part to the proliferation of standardized tests. At Kaplan, the biggest corporate tutor, the number of students in its test prep and after-school programs has more than doubled since 1998. According to the research firm Eduventures, schools spent $879 million on corporate tutoring and test prep in the 2004/2005 academic year -- 25.2% more than the year before. Uncle Sam is giving tutoring a boost too. Under No Child Left Behind, the federal government pays for the tutoring of any kid in a failing school. (This market in tutoring for low-income students barely existed six years ago.) In all, Americans spend more than $4 billion a year on tutoring.

    The propelling force behind this revenue stream is, of course, [ed.: "of course"?] modern parents: a whole generation of anxious, competitive, aspirational parents who agonize about whether their children are doing well enough, or missing out on anything, or, God forbid, falling behind in some crucial way.



    So David Kahn has either got to be married to someone at the WSJ, or he's tutoring all their kids. He doesn't have a tutoring company, as far as I can tell, and the journal has run a full-length op-ed that he wrote and is now quoting him in a follow-up.


    it gets worse

    It is a truth universally acknowledged among teachers and tutors that modern parents want their children to do exceptionally well. They demand A's, not B's. They expect stratospheric SAT scores. Anecdote suggests, however, that they seldom want to spend any time in pursuit of these goals themselves.

    Anecdote suggests, does it?

    Well that settles it!

    [A] whole generation of anxious, competitive, aspirational [and lazy] parents who agonize about whether their children are doing well enough, or missing out on anything, or, God forbid, falling behind in some crucial way is the problem!


    it's all bad

    Mr. Rossiter's experience hints at a darker trend of which mass tutoring is only a symptom: the spread of a high-grade, get-ahead academic ethos that is decoupled from an actual, mind-broadening education. On NPR recently, a reporter asked 87-year-old Hazel Haley, who just retired after 67 years of teaching English in a Florida high school, how today's teenagers differed from the ones she taught generations ago. She gave this dispiriting response: "Today's young people [think], 'I'll learn it for the test, I'll do well on the test, and then I will flush it.'"

    Mr. Kahn, the Manhattan tutor, notices the same thing. He sees a distressing number of children who are "completely burnt out and won't accomplish anything in college because they were driven through high school the way an associate is driven through a law firm."

    "For many kids," Mr. Kahn says, "getting into college is such an ordeal that once they're there, they just kick back." Shades of juku again: In Japan, cram schools focus on getting into university, not necessarily getting much out of it. It's a shame that we're importing that frame of mind.


    Ah.

    Further Googling reveals that Mr. Kahn is "a former teacher in New York City who has been tutoring middle and high school students in math and English for 15 years."

    That explains a lot.

    Parents love and idealize teachers; at least we start out loving and idealizing teachers. Teachers, as a group, do not return the sentiment.

    Exhibit A: Mr. Kahn. This is a man who makes a tidy living tutoring other people's children; his employers are parents. Yet here he is piping up with the parent-bashers.

    Personally, I would like to hire a tutor for Christopher. I would like to hire Mitchell Dobbs, the legendary writing teacher now retired from our middle school. So far, no luck. His mother is ill; when we spoke he was going back to Kentucky to care for her.

    I would like to hire Mitchell Dobbs because Christopher's school is not going to teach him how to write, and that's making me feel anxious, competitive, and aspirational. The very thought that Christopher, going into 7th grade, has not been taught to write and will not be taught to write next year, either, is causing me to agonize about whether my child is doing well enough, or missing out on anything, or, God forbid, falling behind in some crucial way.

    So, yes, I would like to hire Mitchell Dobbs.

    I will not be requiring the services of Mr. Kahn, however. Nor will I be ordering any of his books (assuming that Princeton Review David Kahn and WSJ David Kahn are the same person, of course):

    High School Math III Review
    Cracking the Regents
    Cracking the AP Calculus AB and BC Exams, 2006-2007



    I take it back

    "It's hard to teach your own child," says David Kahn, M.S., a former teacher in New York City who has been tutoring middle and high school students in math and English for 15 years. "A kid will listen to a tutor when he won't listen to a parent, or maybe even a teacher. A tutor can be an impartial referee — someone to motivate and guide, without judgment and without any emotional baggage."

    Now that is a sensible, friendly, non-parent-bashing observation.

    Which puts me back in the market for one or two or three of his books. Check out this Amazon review:

    This book saved my skin. I found out two days before classes started that I had to take a math placement test in order to get into calculus. I had taken trig 7 years ago and forgotten it all, but this book explained everything so well, it re-taught me all my trig in two days and I aced the test! The explanations are so simple and clear, you only have to memorize three things--you'll understand everything else well enough that you can just draw a triangle and figure it out! This book summarizes everything you need to know clearly and concisely, and it gives lots of examples and problems to work. If I saw the authors right now, I'd give them a big old smooch!


    New theory: David Kahn is probably a superb tutor who's being endlessly quoted in the WSJ because the gazillion anxious, competitive, aspirational [and lazy] parents who've hired him to get their kids through math (and English) think he's a genius.

    I hope Mitchell Dobbs comes back soon.

    When he does, I hope he'll be willing to take a new client.




    I wonder what Meghan Cox Gurdon thinks about helicopter parents?





    meet the parents (big-time tutoring)
    debunking the debunkers (Rothstein; What Money Can't Buy)

    gradedeflation



    -- CatherineJohnson - 17 Jun 2006



    comments...

    GreatWritingInIrvington 17 Jun 2006 - 18:47 CatherineJohnson


    And now for a good word about Irvington schools — a newsletter from Main Street School (grades 4-5) came home in Andrew's backpack, and the writing is fantastic. I am so impressed.

    Here are the opening paragraphs of the lead story:

    After four years of working in the Irvington School District, Don Kuhn is retiring. He leaves after three years at the Main Street School.

    "Irvington is especially nice," Mr. Kuhn said in a recent interview, adding that he has liked all the schools that he has worked at during his 47 years in education.

    Before he came here, he worked at schools in Syracuse for 20 years, Long Island for about five years and New Rochelle for 18 years.



    That's a 5th grader writing!

    She's had great teaching.


    storyend_dingbat.gif


    We loved Don. He moved Christopher up from Phase 3 to Phase 4 math without a fuss, then rooted for him to succeed. When I told him I wanted Christopher to be on par with his peers in other industrialized countries he had exacty zero problem knowing what I meant, and agreeing with the goal. Don was the guy who, reacting to my having seen some survey ranking our kids somewhere down around Kuwait, said, "But they've got oil."

    We'll miss him.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 17 Jun 2006



    comments...

    CollegeWorries 18 Jun 2006 - 03:56 CarolynJohnston

    Today Ben came upstairs to me and said, "Mom, how much does it cost to go to college?"

    I said, "In some cases it can cost around 40 thousand dollars a year."

    He said, "Well, I'd better start saving, then."

    I told him that was good thinking, and he went back downstairs. But a few minutes later he came back, looking anxious.

    "Mom, I'm worried about how I'm going to pay for college," he said.

    "Daddy and I will worry about the money," I told him. "That's our job. Your job is to get the good grades so they'll let you into a college."

    He smiled then. But then he looked worried again. "Mom, how much do you have to pay them so they'll let you into a college?"

    "Nothing," I said (although this is not strictly speaking true, since application fees are pretty substantial now). "You just have to get good grades."

    But is that true? Will an average-good run in high school get you into the flagship state university any more? What if you never learned how to write?

    Now I'm worried.

    -- CarolynJohnston - 18 Jun 2006



    comments...

    UnderstandingMath 18 Jun 2006 - 14:38 CatherineJohnson


    from Peter Alford's website (scroll down)—

    You understand a piece of mathematics if you can do all of the following:

    • Explain mathematical concepts and facts in terms of simpler concepts and facts.

    • Easily make logical connections between different facts and concepts.

    • Recognize the connection when you encounter something new (inside or outside of mathematics) that's close to the mathematics you understand.

    • Identify the principles in the given piece of mathematics that make everything work. (i.e., you can see past the clutter.)


    Wonderful.

    In terms of math and the math wars, I especially admire the first principle: you understand mathematics when you can explain mathematical concepts and facts in terms of simpler concepts and facts.

    The NSF-funded curricula seem to have been trying for this idea. But they bungled it.

    A person who understands something can explain it in different terms. But those terms don't have to be words - and, in the case of math, probably shouldn't be words, or at least not solely words. Alford's formulation is more sophisticated. Being able to explain something means being able to explain it in simpler concepts and facts.

    I'm think I'm going to post these principles over Christopher's desk. They're universal. I've been using them for years, without having tried to sort them out or write them down. Alford has made them explicit for me. When I'm writing a book or an article, I know I'm succeeding when I can do these four things.

    Seeing past the clutter — that's the big Kahuna.

    Temple calls it "finding the basic principle."


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    Saxon Math

    Saxon Math probably does a superb job of using these principles to teach math.

    This year I learned from Saxon Math, for the first time in my life, that when we find areas we are always multiplying "two perpendicular dimensions." (Saxon 8/7 Lesson 82 Area of a Circle)

    Of course, I sort-of knew that.....but I'd never made the connection between finding the area of a square and finding the area of a circle. (Have I mentioned my education in mathematics left a lot to be desired?)

    That one observation, in Saxon 8/7, permanently changed my perception of area & volume, permanently increased my comprehension of area and volume, and permanently improved my ability either to remember area and volume formulas or to derive them when I don't remember them.

    Saxon used seven sentences, illustrated by geometric figures, to make that observation. This passage embodies all four of Alford's principles:

    We can find the areas of some polygons by multiplying two perpendicular dimensions.

    • We find the area of a rectangle by multiplying the length by the width.

      A = lw  [illustration of square]

    • We find the area of a parallelogram by multiplying the base by the height.

      A = bh  [illustration of parallogram]

    • We find the area of a triangle by multiplying the base by the height (which gives us the area of a parallelogram) and then dividing by 2.

      A = bh/2 or A = 1/2bh  [illustration of triangle]

    To find the area of a circle, we again beegin by multiplying two perpendicular dimensions. We multiply the radius by the radius. This gives us the area of a square built on the radius.  [illustration of circle]




    -- CatherineJohnson - 18 Jun 2006



    comments...

    DontStudyForTheTestPart2 18 Jun 2006 - 23:47 CatherineJohnson


    In light of my discovery that the state assessments will be used as "data" for placing kids into accelerated science in 8th grade, I figured Christopher probably ought to do some studying for this week's end-of-year assessment in math.

    Prentice-Hall Pre-Algebra includes one-page multiple choice Cumulative Reviews of all earlier material in the book at the end of each chapter. They're pretty useful, I think. Christopher was dead set against doing all 11 of them, so Ed and I compromised and said he could do just six.

    He started out gangbusters, but collapsed by the time he got to the third review. It was apparent that he sort-of knew the items, but as he hadn't done any of them in months, he was lost.

    It would have been so simple for Ms. K to assign the kids distributed review throughout the school year. Heck, she could have just had them do the Cumulative Reviews in the textbook.

    But no.

    So I'm pulling worksheets yet again, and Christopher is reviewing to crammery for Tuesday's assessment. He's been a pretty good sport about it, especially now that we spent part of Father's Day at the "big mall" (the one in Rockland County) buying him even more Legos.

    A few minutes ago we were sitting together on the sofa, zooming through problems, when we got to Chapter 6. He'd circled his answers in the book, so I had to erase everything because he'd gotten half the answers wrong, and I wanted him to do the problems again.

    "You shouldn't write your answers in the book," I said. "You have to turn it in."

    "No I don't," Christopher said. "That's your book."

    "It's not my book," I said.

    Then, because I'm always wrong about this stuff, "How do you know it's my book?"

    "Because I already turned my book in."



    Math assessment on Tuesday, and the kids don't have their books.

    The only mystery here is: why does this surprise me?

    This happens to me all the time, and not just in middle school, either. I'm frequently amazed by my capacity to still be amazed.



    don't study for the test
    news from nowhere (placement in accelerated science)
    don't study for the test part 2

    teachtocrammery



    -- CatherineJohnson - 18 Jun 2006



    comments...

    JuneEighteenTwoThousandSix 19 Jun 2006 - 00:50 CatherineJohnson




    Happy Father's Day




    That photo brings tears to my eyes.

    That's Daddy, alright.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Jun 2006



    comments...

    ViolentHokeyAndFake 19 Jun 2006 - 12:27 CatherineJohnson



    Here's Ben Calvin's reaction to Christopher's line that he "credits wrestling" for his success in 6th grade:

    Roller Derby was my favorite at 13, because it was violent, hokey and fake.


    I remember Roller Derby.

    I had no idea it was fake.







    the-big-show-interview-20041209025142094.jpg

    Big Show
    The Big Show Interview



    We've watched a lot of wrestling this year.

    "Big Show," for those of you non-initiates, is the name of the wrestler. Not the show.

    At 500-pounds and over seven-feet tall, there is no more intimidating man in all of sports than The Big Show. Forget Ray Lewis, he'd bounce off of the wrestler formerly known as The Giant's leg.


    I'll say.



    how to succeed in middle school without really trying
    I credit wrestling
    violent, hokey & fake



    -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Jun 2006



    comments...

    LegosForVolumeAndArea 19 Jun 2006 - 15:56 CatherineJohnson



    49460160_677b390377_m.jpg


    After Ed did his final teaching-to-crammery unit on volume formulas, "teach conceptual understanding of volume formula" popped onto my to-do list.

    I don't know whether I acquired much comprehension of volume formulas when I was in school. I don't think I did. Since I've been reteaching myself math I've spent quite a bit of time staring at array models trying to grok the fact that 3 x 4 really is 3 "of" 4 and vice versa.

    I love array models.



    array2.gif


    source:
    joannegoodwin 2nd grade class



    Saxon 8/7 has a number of fantastically effective lessons in which students have to figure out how many 1-inch square sugar cubes will fit into a square or rectangular box. I haven't checked Prentice - Hall (I may never be able to look at that book again) but I'm guessing Christopher didn't spend a lot of time thinking about how many small cubes can fit into a larger cube or prism.

    So I was gearing up to search through Saxon 8/7, find all the lessons with sugar cubes, figure out a schedule, harrass Christopher to sit down with me and go over them, etc. when it struck me that a cottage-cheese size six-dollar plastic container of tiny Legos would do the job.

    I bought two little white bases plates, each measuring 8 x 2cm and a bunch of white & see-thru red squares. Christopher likes to build Legos &mdsah; at least he's back to liking them at the moment — so he can spend some time building Lego rectangular prisms & cubes and I won't have to spend hours tracking Lessons in Saxon 8-7 and then tracking Christopher to get him to come do them.

    I also found the coolest little Lego thingie for fooling around with area & circumference of circles! It's a Lego square with a Lego circle on top, that turns. don't know what it's supposed to be. I'll see if I can find a picture.

    [pause]

    I have no idea what I bought. It's minute — diameter is 3 cm — and we won't spend much time with it.

    But it's all I need for some hands-on distributed practice.


    I'll also have him take a look at this webpage for Houghton Mifflin Math:


    The volume of a rectangular prism can be found by counting the number of cubic units or by using a formula. The formula for finding the volume of a rectangular prism is V = l w h.

    ts_4_10_wi-13.gif


    The volume of this rectangular prism is 30 cubic meters.

    Another way to measure a solid figure is to find the surface area. Surface area is the sum of the areas of all the faces of the solid figure. Since opposite faces of rectangles or cubes have the same area, you can also multiply each area by 2 and then find the sum of the areas of the faces.


    ts_4_10_wi-14.gif


    The surface area of this rectangular prism is 52 yd2.

    Perimeter, area, volume, and surface area are measurements of geometric figures. Perimeter and area are measurements of plane figures and surface area and volume are measurements of solid figures.


    This one's nice, too:

    To find the area of a complex figure, separate it into simpler figures, find the areas, and then add the areas together.


    ts_4_10_wi-9b.gif


    And these two:


    Figures with the same perimeters can have different areas.

    ts_4_10_wi-10.gif



    Figures with the same area can have different perimeters.

    ts_4_10_wi-11.gif



    teachtocrammery



    -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Jun 2006



    comments...

    LostInTranslation 19 Jun 2006 - 20:23 CatherineJohnson



    I'm still mulling the fact that Christopher has ended the school year in such terrific shape.

    I mentioned a few days ago that Ed and I both think my "afterschooling," which turned into a kind of individualized KUMON, was part of it:

    The role of instructors within the Kumon Method is focused almost entirely on the development of a student's ability to learn on their own. Kumon refers to the ability to set goals and solve unfamiliar and challenging tasks independently as "self-learning" ability. Instructors foster this "self-learning" ability in students by using worksheets that allow students to learn at one's own pace, moving forward when they are ready.

    It struck me today that I probably suffered a lost in translation problem with passages like these. The phrase "self-learning" doesn't mean much to me. Sounds like a slogan, nothing more.

    Now I'm thnking that if the KUMON literature had used the phrase "independent study" I might have grasped the point. I don't think I ever took an Independent Study course in college myself, but the phrase resonates.

    I've also discovered that the notion that homework creates independence and boosts motivation is commonplace:

    Advocates of homework also claim that regularly assigned and monitored homework improves student attitudes. These advocates argue that homework builds independent study skills, fosters initiative, cultivates self-discipline, develops responsibility, and demonstrates the benefits of long-term gain over immediate gratification.

    source:
    Best Teaching Practices: Homework


    I'm not sure whether there's a body of research to support these claims, and I'm not going to track it down just now.

    I'm going to take Toru Kumon's word for it.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    how to give homework

    Apparently we do have research on what homework should be:

    Research on homework suggests that homework is most effective when:

    • Its purpose is clear to students and they perceive it as integral to the on-going program of study.
    • It is regularly assigned, clearly explained, and initially begun in a teacher-assisted classroom setting.
    • It is adapted to student ability levels and their levels of skill in independent study.
    • It is collected, graded and/or commented upon, and returned promptly with feedback.

    source:
    Best Teaching Practices: Homework


    That's exactly the kind of homework Christopher does for us.

    First of all, because he uses the same 3 books/worksheets every day, we all have a sense that he is pursuing an "ongoing program of study." We can see progress. Yesterday Christopher finished Book 3 of the Megawords series. That felt like an accomplishment, and it was. Both Christopher and I could see that he's spelling much better these days. (His English teacher, Ms. K., has taught spelling all year, too.)

    Second, our afterschoolwork is regularly assigned & clear.

    Third, it's never over his level - and it's not under his level, either.

    Fourth, [homework] is collected, graded and/or commented upon, and returned promptly with feedback. This never happens at school. My friend Kris, who is brilliant at "finding the basic principle," is completely focused on item 4. Collect the homework. That is her mantra. I'll go spinning off on one of my many issues with the middle school, and Kris will say, "That's fine, the kids can be responsible for their own learning. Just collect the homework."

    She's right.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    speaking of homework

    Christopher told us something very interesting this weekend.

    Some of you will remember that the middle school cut a very large number of kids from Phase 4 math coming into middle school. That was our introduction to Scott Fried, btw. In 5th grade we knew him from afar as the Principal whose goal was to decrease the number of students taking algebra in the 8th grade, which was the Phase 4 track. (Now the storyline is that "state standards" require everyone to take algebra in 8th grade so cutting kids from Phase 4 is irrelevant. However, the one direct question I've been able to ask about what "everyone" taking algebra in 8th grade actually means was answered thusly: They will take algebra in 8th grade, but they will not take geometry in 9th. They will take algebra. Again.)

    The Irvington Middle School message is invariably negative.

    Too many kids in Phase 4.

    American schools and European schools are "apples and oranges."

    "I don't like the foyer." That was just about the first thing Scott Fried said to us the day we met with him about the Mrs. Roth situation. He doesn't like the foyer of the district's new 35,000,000-dollar middle school building, which is its one interesting feature as far as I can see, because it's a "waste of space." He's probably right about that (I don't know), but "I don't like the foyer" aren't the first words that should be coming out of a brand-new principal's mouth about the brand-new building he is privileged to occupy.

    A school leader should be upbeat, positive, cheerful, and above all uncomplaining. A leader can't be a complainer. I think that's axiomatic.

    This weekend Christopher mentioned in passing that most of the kids cut were not in Mrs. Woeckener's 5th grade Phase 4 class.

    They were in the other class.

    They were in the class with the teacher who never graded homework.

    Christopher could be wrong about that....but if I had to bet, I'd bet he's right.



    collect the homework


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    Chinese parents & homework

    I read this American Educator SPEAKOUT — Does K-5 homework mean higher test scores? — at least a year ago.

    Now I'm wondering whether it registered in a deeper way than I knew at the time.


    Our four-year longitudinal study of 80 families (40 Chinese-American, 40 European-American) indicates clearly that homework given in the preschool and primary grades reaps long-term benefits.

    Children whose parents had given them homework in the early years and who had taught them in more formal ways performed significantly better in mathematics and English vocabulary in third and fourth grades than those children who were not given homework and whose parents relied on informal methods to teach them.



    I have no conscious memory — none — of this brief article mentioning homework assigned by parents.

    And, interestingly, the researcher does not ask whether homework assigned by parents may be different from homework assigned by schools, although her comments could be construed to support such a claim:

    Another interesting outcome of our study was a fuller understanding of Chinese-American parents' perspective on homework. They tend not to create a dichotomy between work and play. They believe that memorization and practice are essential to learning. They believe that teaching their children is an important part of the parental role. Many of the Chinese-American parents in our study believe that schools in the United States do not give enough homework to children in the primary grades. They are puzzled when American parents complain about homework to school officials at parent meetings. Rather than speak out, they quietly construct homework. [ed.: I'm not quiet (cue horselaughs) but it's never crossed my mind to ask the school to provide more homework. Like these Chinese parents, I've constructed my own.]

    Coming from a culture that emphasizes the importance of hard work in achievement, Chinese-American parents believe that the homework habit needs to be established early. They give their children homework beginning in preschool. Chinese-American families view homework time as "family time." [ed.: true here, too, even now since Christopher works in the basement side-by-side with his dad] Often the whole family sits around the dining table and does homework together. The youngest children in the family often request homework from their parents so they can participate with their older siblings. Many parents assign their children regular summer homework. That homework not only builds their children's foundation skills and competencies but also builds the discipline, concentration and self-motivation required for academic endeavors.

    Carol S. Huntsinger, is a professor of education and psychology at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Ill



    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    Harris Cooper says homework doesn't help until high school

    Research involving thousands of students shows little correlation between homework and test scores in elementary school. The relationship grows positive and strong in secondary school.

    Harris Cooper is apparently our leading authority on homework research, so for most folks his word goes.

    But I think Huntsinger gets the better of the argument.

    I think that if Cooper looked at good homework assignments in the early years it would be a different story — especially when you're talking about good homework assignments whole families do together.

    I must have picked up the idea that the mom should do the homework herself from this little AFT SPEAKOUT, and then forgotten the source.

    If I were a grade school teacher I'd experiment with giving parents their own set of homework papers if they were interested.



    how to succeed in middle school without really trying
    I credit wrestling
    violent, hokey & fake
    advice from a top high school student

    No More Teachers, Lots of Books
    by SARA BENNETT and NANCY KALISH



    -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SummerBrainDrain 19 Jun 2006 - 23:44 CatherineJohnson



    Yes, folks, it's that time of year again......time for parents to take responsibility and prevent summer regression.

    Stop the Summer Brain Drain!


    Kids Lose One to Three Months of Learning

    Did your child's brain shrink last summer? Probably not, but it may have shifted into reverse, according to a study by [ famed homework expert ] Dr. Harris Cooper, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The study found that when students return to school after a long summer vacation, they've lost one to three months worth of learning.


    Kids Lose Most in Math

    The decline is more detrimental for math than it is for reading. "All students lose math skills," says Cooper. It may be because community and home environments give kids more opportunities to practice reading than math. The study also found that income has an impact on how much a student loses or gains in reading. Middle-class children actually gained in reading over the summer, while lower-income students experienced losses. Cooper attributes this to the enrichment activities that many middle-class kids participate in over the summer, such as camp and trips.



    Too bad Dr. Cooper can't be bothered to notice that summer regression isn't normal.

    Summer regression is characteristic of students enrolled in schools with spiralling curricula (pdf file, p 16).

    When you teach stuff to mastery kids don't forget it 5 seconds after school lets out for the summer.


    Question. How do "camps" and "trips" boost reading skills?





    The rest of the article may be too stupid to quote.

    Or, on second thought, maybe not.

    What You Can Do

    Your kids don't have to spend the summer stuck in reverse. "Parents can help their kids retain educational skills," says Cooper. He suggests the following five tips to kick off a learning-filled summer.

    1. Keep lots of books around and make regular trips to the library. Most libraries schedule special summer events for kids. Sign up your family! [ed.: yes, that will help with math!]

    2. Think about what your kids may be learning next year when you plan the family vacation. Talk with teachers to find out what they'll be covering in class. If it's a unit on the civil war for example, you may want to schedule a visit to Gettysburg. If it's geology, visit a national park. [ed.: yes, that will help with math!]

    3. Keep math in mind. Since kids lose more math skills than anything else over the summer, try to do some special planning to find math-related activities. For example, if you can't decide whether to sign your child up for "Shakespeare's Theater" or "Math Magic" at the local community center, go with the math. [ed.: my advice: forget Math Magic. run, do not walk, to your local KUMON franchise.]

    4. Consider summer school or tutoring. Struggling kids can get a lot of different kinds of help from these programs. Summer school can also enrich and accelerate learning in areas where kids show a special interest. [ed.: summer school or tutoring? wouldn't that tip a parent over into the scary helicopter-person category?]

    5. Call the curriculum coordinator in your child's school district, visit the school board office, or contact the schools of education at local colleges and universities to find out what educational programs will be offered in your area over the summer. [ed.: the curriculum coordinator? this would be the person in charge of selecting spiralling curricula and anti-historical character education programs? is that the one?]

    Remember to keep it fun! You don't want to sour your kids on learning during the summer break.



    Oh heavens, no. I wouldn't want to sour my child on learning. Not after the super-fun-fun-fun year of learning he's had in this, his first year of middle school.

    Summer school and tutoring, you say.

    That does sound like fun!



    oh, swell

    So here's Harrison Cooper plumping for year-round "modified calendars" as the answer to summer regression.

    Temple (Grandin) has an expression for this: the bad gets normal. (Moynihan called it defining deviancy down. I like "the bad gets normal" better.)

    People have lived with lousy spiralling curricula & the resulting summer regression for so long it doesn't occur to them that summer regression is not normal.


    Apparently Dr. Cooper's area of expertise is meta-analysis & research synthesis. Until this moment, I've been an unthinking fan of meta-analysis. Cooper's conclusions on homework and year-round calendars are a stark illustration of why that was a mistake.



    Workshop on Understanding and Promoting Knowledge Accumulation in Education: Tools and Strategies for Education Research
    Remarks by Harris Cooper
    Harris Cooper, bio



    -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Jun 2006



    comments...

    BookFairy 20 Jun 2006 - 20:36 CatherineJohnson



    Book Fairy is back!

    Wow!

    Thank you!

    One of my new (I mean old) books from Book Fairy is Writing for Your Readers: Notes on the Writer's Craft from The Boston Globe by Donald Murray.

    It's fantastic!

    And I hadn't managed to come across it during my week-long Amazon quest for writing books.

    Listen to this:

    Information

    Information, not language, is the raw material from which effective writing is built. The writer must collect specific, accurate pieces of information to be able to write effective prose. Too many stories and columns are written instead of reported; they are created by tricks of rhetoric when they should be constructed from a pattern of concrete detail. The revealing details that mark an exceptional story rarely come from competitor's stories, the telephone, or staring thoughtfully across the city room. Information that reveals is collected with the legs.


    Perfect.


    Here's a list of books that refer to Murray's book. At the moment, I'm looking at a book called, Writing Wizardry: 60 Mini-Lessons to Teach Elaboration and Craft by Maity Schrecengost, which may find its way into my cart:

    I often demonstrate this lesson ["Say What You Mean"] by holding up a pencil and saying, "This is a thing I write with." I then hold up a pen and repeat, "This is a thing I write with." Finally I hold up a piece of chalk and say, "I write with this thing." I point out to the children that in each case they knew what the "thing" was because they could see it. But if they read a sentence that merely said, "I write with a thing," they wouldn't have a clue what the "thing" was. Demonstrating this difference between oral and written language helps children grasp the need for specificity in writing.

    I like that. I like it a lot, as a matter of fact. And I wouldn't know about it, if it weren't for Book Fairy.

    Thank you, Book Fairy!



    -- CatherineJohnson - 20 Jun 2006



    comments...

    ParentInvolvementTheRightWay 20 Jun 2006 - 21:55 CatherineJohnson



    Richard J. Murnane seems to be the go-to guy for research on "21st century skills" and how our schools are failing to teach them. My copy of his book, Teaching the New Basic Skills, arrived this week. I'll post excerpts as I read.

    In the meantime, here's Murnane on "parent involvement" in the schools:

    FamilyEducation Network: In your book, you describe the Zavala Elementary School in East Austin, Texas, and the changes that were implemented in this school to improve children's basic skills. How did this school change?

    Richard Murnane: The changes in the Texas school involved using for all children a curriculum that had previously been used only in gifted and talented programs. There was also intensive teacher training. Lower class size was implemented. And finally, there was deep and intensive parent involvement. This included allowing parents on governing boards, parents being involved in hiring decisions -- a level of parent involvement that goes way beyond what most people think parent involvement means.


    That is exactly what I want.

    Public schools function as a form of government. They set policies and regulations, which they have the power to enforce, governing parent and student behavior and rights.

    We parents are legally and morally responsible for our children, but we are forced to relinquish decisionmaking power to administrators and teachers.

    I've come to think of it this way. A pediatrician can't give orders. A principal can.

    A pediatrician gives expert counsel, and the parent makes the decision.

    Teachers and administrators are the last professionals in the country giving enforceable orders to the people they serve.

    That needs to change.


    B000CC49P8.01._SCTZZZZZZZ_.jpg

    0691124027.01._SCTZZZZZZZ_.jpg



    -- CatherineJohnson - 20 Jun 2006



    comments...

    EducationalPsychologyTextbook 21 Jun 2006 - 15:02 CatherineJohnson



    I've just ordered a copy of Educational Psychology, Sixth Edition by Paul D. Eggen & Donald Kauchak from Amazon Marketplace. The text normally sells for $108; used copies are going for $30, and the Marketplace has new ones for $66.

    I've been wanting a basic reference work on educational psychology, and this is the one Daniel Willingham cites in his article on narrative (which is terrific, btw).

    So we'll see.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart16 21 Jun 2006 - 16:14 CatherineJohnson



    news from nowhere part 14



    Wednesday 6/21/06 12:09 PM

    Hi Griffin----I haven’t heard back from you, unless you’ve tried to respond & emails are bouncing around again.

    Any luck finding answers to my questions?

    I’ve had a chance to share these questions with other parents. Everyone’s interested.

    Thanks!

    Catherine

    • How many children altogether were enrolled in the two sections of accelerated science this school year?

    • How many children are in the 8th grade class in total?

    • How many children appealed the school’s decision not to offer them seats in the class?

    • How many of these children were subsequently invited to join the class?

    • And: what was the gender ratio in this year’s two accelerated science classes? How many boys, how many girls?

    All of this leads me to a question concerning high school curriculum:

    • In what course will an 8th grade student enrolled in accelerated science be placed come 9th grade?

    • In what course will an 8th grade student not enrolled in accelerated science be placed?



    On 6/21/06 2:38 PM, "Griffin Murray" wrote:

    > I am sorry I did not respond sooner. We have a night meeting for 7th grade
    > parents during the year to disuss 8th grade. At that meeting we will discuss
    > Earth Science and how our process works. I think that meeting will answer all
    > of your questions.
    > Have a great summer.


    PERFECT!

    THANK YOU!


    news from nowhere part 14
    news from nowhere part 16
    news from nowhere part 17
    news from nowhere part 20

    earthsciences



    -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TwoTrickPoniesInPhase4Url 21 Jun 2006 - 17:03 CatherineJohnson



    Old Grouch noticed that for some reason the Two Trick Ponies post has disappeared from the front page.

    Or, more likely as I think about it, was never there in the first place.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Jun 2006



    comments...

    BlowUpTheEdSchools 21 Jun 2006 - 18:32 CatherineJohnson


    Eduwonk links to Mike Piscal again today. You should read and memorize all 3 of his posts, but at the moment I'm interested in this one:

    Why can’t a future teacher get a bachelor’s degree in a field he/she loves, take an additional 7 or 8 classes on teaching while still an undergraduate, and graduate with a credential? The most elite private schools – Exeter and Andover and Choate, for example – hire teachers with that kind of preparation. So do the country’s network of successful charter schools. Why can’t public schools do the same?

    In the words of Deep Throat: follow the money. A recent article in Education Week (March 16, 2005) sums it up: “Critics have long accused universities of using education schools as cash cows, generating more in tuition from a steady stream of students than the institutions actually spend to educate them. With the expansion of off-campus programs in educational administration taught mostly by part-time professors, the report warns, the problem is getting worse.”

    A college graduate who wants to teach in public school must attend school fulltime for one or two additional years (in some cases for as much as $20,000 a year), or she can go directly to work at a public school and take classes at night and on weekends for the next 3 to 5 years, also at her own expense. The time sacrifice is enormous. In the words of one Education Professor: "the opportunity costs of forcing half of the California Teaching workforce into "continuing their educations" in the name of credential seeking or renewal (AKA life-long learning) while attempting to teach a full day in the classroom, means that typically three days a week many of our teachers are not grading papers or preparing tomorrow's lessons. It means they are stuck in freeway traffic on their way to the next required credential college course, or they are at home writing the paper due tomorrow for that course. We don't train airline pilots WHILE they are flying commercial flights! Teachers are a different matter because, I guess, kids don't crash and burn."

    [snip]

    At my school, a teacher needs only a scholar’s zeal for the subject s/he studied in college, and a burning desire to lead the next generation. We’ll take it from there – from lesson planning to classroom management, from discipline to communicating with parents, she will learn from master teachers who are eager to lead and encourage the younger faculty. That’s how it works at Exeter – where tuition is thirty-eight thousand dollars a year – and that’s how it works in my school – where tuition is free.


    Here in NY state, we're down to the wire (it seems) on the question of whether the cap on charter schools will or will not be raised.

    The politics are astounding.

    Nick Spano, our state senator & a Republican, presented Irvington with money for white boards or smart boards or something along those lines a couple of months ago. Then he delivered a blistering attack on vouchers, charter schools, and George Pataki.

    Ed, who has voted for precisely one Republican in his life, came home scandalized.

    "Isn't that guy a Republican?" he said. "He's attacking charter schools! He's attacking George Pataki!"

    Ed's capacity to continue to be amazed is exceeded only by my own.



    On the plus side, it's nice to know public school teachers are far better trained than the faculty at Exeter and Andover.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    update: Joe Williams on NY charter school law

    You can email Governor Pataki here after you read Wiliams' post, if you like.



    blow up the ed schools part 1

    View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter Schools
    Inner City Education Foundation



    -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Jun 2006



    comments...

    GuitarMan 21 Jun 2006 - 21:50 CatherineJohnson



    Chrisguitarsmall.jpg



    Christian brought his guitar today!

    He's loaning it to Christopher, who says he'll agree to take music lessons if we let him take guitar.




    I don't know why I can't take pictures in focus.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart17 22 Jun 2006 - 01:40 CatherineJohnson



    We have a night meeting for 7th grade
    > parents during the year to disuss 8th grade. At that meeting we will discuss

    > Earth Science and how our process works. I think that meeting will answer all

    > of your questions.



    Hi Griffin----

    I’ve just re-read your email, and realize I’ve misunderstood. I took it to mean that you would be having a meeting with faculty and would then answer our questions.

    My mistake.

    Ed and I would prefer to have our questions answered now, if you don’t mind.

    We would also prefer to have our questions answered in a private, direct, and professional exchange, as is the custom at Dows Lane, the Main Street School, and the Irvington High School. Large public meetings are not the forum in which to engage in intimate airings of worries and hopes concerning one’s child. As I'm sure you can understand, we prefer not to sit in a large parent meeting waving our hands in the air, hoping to be called upon.

    Another issue: if we aren’t called upon — a distinct possibility — what then?

    We see no reason to spend the next 9 months in suspense, waiting to see when the meeting will take place, whether we’ll be called upon, or whether, if we are called upon, our questions will actually be answered.

    Our questions concern Christopher’s education; you are Christopher’s guidance counselor. Unless we misunderstand the function of a guidance counselor, you are the logical person to answer them. If there’s someone else who can better answer these questions, please let us know.

    Thanks —

    Catherine

    • How many children altogether were enrolled in the two sections of accelerated science this school year?

    • How many children are in the 8th grade class in total?

    • How many children appealed the school’s decision not to offer them seats in the class?

    • How many of these children were subsequently invited to join the class?

    • And: what was the gender ratio in this year’s two accelerated science classes? How many boys, how many girls?

    All of this leads me to a question concerning high school curriculum:

    • In what course will an 8th grade student enrolled in accelerated science be placed come 9th grade?

    • In what course will an 8th grade student not enrolled in accelerated science be placed?




    news from nowhere part 14
    news from nowhere part 16
    news from nowhere part 17
    news from nowhere part 20

    earthsciences



    -- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2006



    comments...

    ProgramsForDeptOfEdSchools 22 Jun 2006 - 10:10 CatherineJohnson



    Dramatic Solutions


    Looks pretty good.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TheGirlShow 23 Jun 2006 - 00:54 CatherineJohnson



    Sitting on my desk is a bright lime-green program for the Irvington Middle School Graduation ceremony, held last night in the Campus Theater.

    Fifty-four awards were bestowed upon high-achieving students, by my count.

    42 awards to girls.

    11 awards to boys.

    2 of the awards to boys were for Outstanding Achievement in Physical Education; one was for Outstanding Academic Effort and Improvement (this would be an award given to a student classified as having a learning or developmental disability).




    It's always worse than you think.



    the boy show (character ed)
    the other boy show

    USA Today report on 135:100 boys:girls ratio in college
    sexism in Everyday Math
    invisible boys
    boy trouble (New Republic on boys)
    slacker boys, middle school, & forbidden positive images of boys in textbooks
    throw rocks at them
    please remain seated at all times
    Ann Althouse thread sums up classroom change
     cooperative vs. competitive learning
    the girl show (8th grade graduation awards)
    Where the Boys Aren't

    letter from Robert Lerner, former commissioner NCES
    Tom Mortenson's research
    The Boys Project board
    for every 100 girls —


    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TheBoyShow 23 Jun 2006 - 01:02 CatherineJohnson



    Thank heavens for character education. If we didn't have Character Education integrated into all courses at the middle school, the boys probably wouldn't have gotten any awards.


    problem.gif

    Step 1: What is my problem?

    think.gif

    Step 2: Think, think, think of some solutions.

    question.gif

    Step 3: What would happen?

    try.gif

    Step 4: Give it a try!




    source:
    Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning
    This material was developed by the Center on the Social
    and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning with federal funds
    from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
    Administration for Children and Families

    The Girl Show
    The Boy Show
    The Other Boy Show

    USA Today report on 135:100 boys:girls ratio in college
    sexism in Everyday Math
    invisible boys
    boy trouble (New Republic on boys)
    slacker boys, middle school, & forbidden positive images of boys in textbooks
    throw rocks at them
    please remain seated at all times
    Ann Althouse thread sums up classroom change
     cooperative vs. competitive learning
    Where the Boys Aren't

    letter from Robert Lerner, former commissioner NCES
    Tom Mortenson's research
    The Boys Project board
    for every 100 girls —


    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TheOtherBoyShow 23 Jun 2006 - 01:14 CatherineJohnson



    2-sp.gif Hoja 2.8: Estrategias social-emocionales de enseñanza


    Spanish boys need character education, too.


    problem-sp.gif


    think-sp.gif


    question-sp.gif


    try-sp.gif





    source:
    Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning
    This material was developed by the Center on the Social
    and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning with federal funds
    from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
    Administration for Children and Families

    The Girl Show
    The Boy Show
    The Other Boy Show

    a brief history of character education

    USA Today report on 135:100 boys:girls ratio in college
    sexism in Everyday Math
    invisible boys
    boy trouble (New Republic on boys)
    slacker boys, middle school, & forbidden positive images of boys in textbooks
    throw rocks at them
    please remain seated at all times
    Ann Althouse thread sums up classroom change
     cooperative vs. competitive learning
    Where the Boys Aren't

    letter from Robert Lerner, former commissioner NCES
    Tom Mortenson's research
    The Boys Project board
    for every 100 girls —


    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WarStories 23 Jun 2006 - 01:42 CatherineJohnson



    ....hanging out in the living room with Christopher and his friends today, trying to top each other's Phase 4 stories.

    I was practically honking laughter by the time J. told me Ms. K took off 10 points because he didn't center the title of his graph.



    I shouldn't laugh.

    If Ms. K comes back next year the boys will have her again in 7th grade.

    Then they'll have her the next year after that, in 8th.

    Of course, as my neighbor says, Everything bad is good.

    If Ms. K comes back we'll have parents marching in the streets.




    Actually, that makes me wonder.

    Have suburban parents ever rioted?





    riot-police_uniform.gif






    war stories
    war stories part 2
    war stories part 3
    no more pencils no more books
    war stories part 4



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WarStoriesPart2 23 Jun 2006 - 12:47 CatherineJohnson



    I was wrong about my horselaugh moment yesterday.

    It wasn't when J. told me Ms. K took off 10 points for not centering the title of his graph. Although that was pretty hilarious I must say.

    No.

    It was when J. told me Ms. K taught them volume and area of solids, even though it "wasn't on the curriculum" [question: we have a curriculum? second question: are parents allowed to see it?]

    The reason she was teaching them volume and area of solids even though it wasn't on the curriculum was "to get a head start on next year."

    I HONKED WHEN I HEARD THAT.

    I couldn't help myself.

    If I'd been drinking coffee I would have snorted it out my nose.


    war stories
    war stories part 2
    war stories part 3
    no more pencils no more books
    war stories part 4



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WarStoriesPart3 23 Jun 2006 - 13:17 CatherineJohnson



    Another good one: Ms. K docked points for differently-sized Xs on those stem-and-leaf X-graphs they have the kids make.

    You know, the kind where you have a number line on the bottom of your paper, and then you put Xs above each number to indicate how many of each number you have - like "3 people received grades of 75," "6 people received grades of 80" and so on, represented by 3 Xs above the 75 and 6 Xs above the 80.

    That's not very clear.

    Somebody better start taking off points around here quick, or this whole site is going to descend into blithering incoherence.

    Not that there's anything wrong with that.



    war stories
    war stories part 2
    war stories part 3
    no more pencils no more books
    war stories part 4



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart18 23 Jun 2006 - 13:50 CatherineJohnson



    No more pencils
    No more books
    No more teachers' dirty looks





    Last day of school, spring 2006.


    war stories
    war stories part 2
    war stories part 3
    war stories part 4
    no more pencils no more books



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WarStoriesPart4 23 Jun 2006 - 14:08 CatherineJohnson



    Last day of school, and it's a short one — 8:30 - 10:30.

    The kids attend each class of their regular school day for 10 minutes.

    So I'm thinking.....what topic that's not on the curriculum can Ms. K teach the kids today to get a head start on the years to come?

    Exponential and logarithmic functions perhaps?



    war stories
    war stories part 2
    war stories part 3
    no more pencils no more books
    war stories part 4



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart19 23 Jun 2006 - 14:44 CatherineJohnson



    I may be avoiding email today.

    email from the school board:

    On June 6, the district granted tenure to 22 teachers, in a ceremony marked by both laughter and tears. Our newly tenured teachers' families joined in a celebration of their achievement, as well as their commitment to our district. Remarkably, some of our new teachers had been students of Mr. Lamassa and Ms. Urban, who served as their inspiration for careers in education. It is abundantly clear that our district has not only a commitment to excellence, but also a tradition of excellence. We look forward to what our new teachers, schooled in this tradition, will accomplish.




    Twenty-two teachers.

    That doesn't sound good.

    I've been assuming Ms. K will be teaching elsewhere next year.

    Which, in retrospect, is looking like pure defense mechanism. I mean, what evidence do I have?

    There was the day the principal told Ed Ms. K is a "fine young teacher."

    Then there was the time the chair of the math department told me, "Ms. K is an excellent teacher."

    And that's pretty much it, the sum total of signs & indicators from the district.



    So how did I get from "fine young teacher" to "not getting tenure" you ask?

    I have the answer to that.

    • number one, the superintendent is ruthless when it comes to cutting loose personnel.

    • number two, the superintendent does not appear to want more trouble from parents than she already has. Ms. K is a trouble magnet.

    • number three, thus far my impression of the superintendent's hiring has been good. That impression will change if Ms. K has been awarded lifetime employment, health insurance, and a pension from IUSFD, of course.

    • number four, Ms. K has, at the end of this school year, regressed to her worst behaviors of school year 2004-2005, the behaviors that led to last year's Parent Uprising.

    • number five, Ms. K has been frequently absent this spring. Ed and I have assumed - ok, hoped - she's been taking personal days to interview for jobs.

    • number six, Mr. Fried, Ms. K's champion ("She's a fine young teacher") is leaving.

    • number seven, the silence of the lambs. In the past, the district has staunchly dismissed all parent complaints, but then dealt with the situation behind closed doors. I've been thinking that if Ms. K were getting tenure, her supervisors would have helped her improve her teaching, which is what happened during the first semester.

    • number eight, last but not least, my defense mechanisms are in fine working order. I think.


    Basically, where Ms. K is concerned, there's been a dramatic change in tone and behavior that dates to sometime this spring. I could probably pinpoint it if I went back and read posts about her tests. Last school year parents complained bitterly about Ms. K's discovery tests, and the then-math chair stepped in.

    Throughout the fall and much of the winter, Ms. K's teaching, while not good, was quite different from her performance last year. It was clear that her supervisors had stepped in.

    Then, in the spring, she reverted to form, and the word from her supervisors was uniformly glowing. Christopher was "the only child" who was having problems following directions, etc. As a preditable result, parents are furious; if we had another month of school ahead of us, we'd have another parent uprising identical to the one last year.


    The real horror is that it's entirely possible this isn't Ms. K's response to being denied tenure.

    This could be Ms. K's response to being granted tenure.



    I'm going to corral the dogs and go meet Christopher on the aqueduct. He'll be on his way home by now.

    When I get back I'll decide whether to open my email and find out if Ms. K was amongst the 22.

    That's something that has to be done today.



    doomed
    double doomed



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart20 23 Jun 2006 - 15:39 CatherineJohnson



    Thursday, June 22 10:27 am

    Mrs. Johnson,
    There are 153 students in the current (just graduated last night) 8th grade. There were two sections with a total of 48 students taking Biology this year. Of that , 27 were female and 21 were male. Starting will next years 8th grade, most students will take biology as a 9th grader. 8th graders , whether in accelerated science or not can sit for an honors test for Biology for 9th grade (assuming they have a B average or better).
    Griffin Murray

    > >> cijohn Verizon 6/21/2006 9:59:29 PM >>>

    We have a night meeting for 7th grade
    > parents during the year to disuss 8th grade. At that meeting we will discuss

    > Earth Science and how our process works. I think that meeting will answer all

    > of your questions.

    Hi Griffin----

    I’ve just re-read your email, and realize I’ve misunderstood. I took it to
    mean that you would be having a meeting with faculty and would then answer
    our questions.

    My mistake.

    Ed and I would prefer to have our questions answered now, if you don’t mind.



    Now we're getting somewhere.


    • How many children altogether were enrolled in the two sections of accelerated science this school year?

    • How many children are in the 8th grade class in total?

    • How many children appealed the school’s decision not to offer them seats in the class?

    • How many of these children were subsequently invited to join the class?

    • And: what was the gender ratio in this year’s two accelerated science classes? How many boys, how many girls?

    All of this leads me to a question concerning high school curriculum:

    • In what course will an 8th grade student enrolled in accelerated science be placed come 9th grade?

    • In what course will an 8th grade student not enrolled in accelerated science be placed?



    news from nowhere part 14
    news from nowhere part 16
    news from nowhere part 17
    news from nowhere part 20

    earthsciences



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    FantasticNews 23 Jun 2006 - 16:31 CatherineJohnson



    Unbelievable.

    Unbelievable.

    Ed just sent a friendly email to our departing principal - who, it turns out, is leaving in 4 days (I ran into him on the street yesterday & we talked).

    He made a request concerning scheduling and teachers in the fall. I hadn't gotten around to posting about that one; we're looking at a looming Bad Teacher situation next year, too. (Nothing to do with Ms. K.)

    Scott emailed back saying he'd take care of it.

    Thank you.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you.


    OK, that's it for today.

    I'm not opening email (so won't be responding today.....).

    I'm going to spend one day savoring good news.



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    BillAndMelindaGates 23 Jun 2006 - 18:14 CatherineJohnson



    youngbill.jpg


    I love this photo.



    0626_64covsto_a.gif




    interview with Bill & Melinda Gates



    -- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2006



    comments...

    MasteryLearningAndIq 24 Jun 2006 - 00:14 CatherineJohnson



    Through sheer serendipity, I've stumbled across the book with the answers:

    Standards and Mastery Learning: Aligning Teaching and Assessment So All Children Can Learn

    by J. Ronald Gentile, James P. Lalley.


    Learning, in other words, occurs in phases or episodes, and this original learning phase includes (a) the readiness component (described above), (b) learning to initial mastery, and (c) forgetting....it is clear that forgetting is the inevitable result of initial learning, even when a high mastery standard of, say, 80% to 100% correct is required. When the degree of original learning is less than mastery, say, 60% to 80%, then forgetting is likely to occur more rapidly or be more complete. If it is less than 60%, it is questionable to speak of forgetting at all, because learning was inadequate in the first place.




    why do we have to learn all this stuff?

    Finally, an answer:

    Students show that they understand this principle implicitly when they ask, “Why do we have to learn this stuff anyway? We’ll only forget it.” Our typical answers, “Because it will be on the test” or “Because I said so,” are not satisfactory. In fact, we have been able to find only one satisfactory answer to the question, and it was supplied in one of the first empirical studies of learning/forgetting (Ebbinghaus, 1885/1964). The answer is that relearning is faster—that is, there is a considerable savings of time in relearning compared with original learning. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between amount of time saved in relearning and the degree of original learning, with essentially no savings when original learning is below some acceptable threshold (which we earlier argued was 60% or less).




    fast learners, slower learners, memory, IQ

    Suppose, however, that we ask how IQ relates to all of this. We already know, for example, that IQ is moderately but significantly correlated with memory. But suppose we randomly assign half the students to have to achieve a preset standard, while the other half (within the same IQ range) are exposed to the same material but do not have to achieve the preset standard. What happens to the correlation between IQ and surprise delayedretention test scores?

    A dissertation study on this very premise was completed recently, under the senior author’s direction, by Marianne Baker (1999).... for original learning, a short story was read aloud to fourth and fifth graders individually, immediately followed by a free-recall test on specific items of information as well as comprehension of ideas in the story. For the mastery group, this process was repeated until each student scored between 75% and 90% correct. The nonmastery group heard the story once and did the free-recall test. A week later, both groups were surprised with a written test of memory for the same items. Then students relearned under their respective conditions and finally were tested for retention again after 14 days and 28 days.

    Table 1.2 shows the remarkable results regarding intellectual traits and memory.5 Under nonmastery conditions—that is, a single exposure for original learning, recall after 7 days, a single relearning opportunity, and then recall after 14 and 28 days—the correlations between intellectual traits and recall are all positive and significant. That is, higher-ability students tend to remember more, as society has come to expect.

    In stark contrast, imposing a mastery standard of 75% to 90% correct on original learning and then again at relearning renders those standardized intellectual measures nonpredictors of how much is recalled: The correlations hover around zero and are all nonsignificant.

    What mastery to a high standard can do, in summary, is virtually bypass the effects of IQ for specified educational objectives. What is recalled about educational lessons is more dependent on how well the material is mastered than on such traits as rate of learning or general intellectual abilities.


    I believe it.

    I'll have more later. The preface and first chapter (pdf file)) are available online.

    I'm ordering the book.



    in a nutshell

    • learning occurs in phases or episodes

    • all initial learning results in forgetting

    • learning to high mastery means immediate recall of 80% to 100%

    • learning to "low" mastery means immediate recall of 60 to 80%

    • below 60% you haven't learned; when you encounter the material again you'll be starting over again [ed.: hoo boy. we're looking at a big, honking Phase 4 math reteach-fest this summer.] [UPDATE 12-6-06: Actually, we're not. C. is now much faster at learning math; he's managing to absorb and, I think, hang onto some of the content in Phase 4 Grade 7.]

    • IQ is moderately correlated with memory

    • high-IQ allows one to recall more after one exposure: "higher-ability students tend to remember more, as society has come to expect"

    • high mastery to a standard of 75% to 90% on original learning plus one relearning erases the correlation between IQ and memory


    "What mastery to a high standard can do, in summary, is virtually bypass the effects of IQ for specified educational objectives."





    saml.jpg


    MORE COMING ANON



    -- CatherineJohnson - 24 Jun 2006



    comments...

    ParentsAtKipp 24 Jun 2006 - 15:30 CatherineJohnson



    KIPP, I think, makes parents better by giving them something to do, and yet does not put so heavy a burden on them that they might collapse under the strain. In the KIPP system, students who do not complete their homework in time for class the next day are in as big trouble as I would be if I did not send my stories to my editors before The Post was distributed the next morning. The parents don't have to correct or explain the homework. If students have questions, they are told to call their teachers, whose cell phone numbers they have. All the parents have to do is make sure their child had completed the homework, and sign the paper to demonstrate that they have looked at it. If they don't do that, their child is disciplined -- usually made to sit in a corner of the classroom -- and the parents are asked to come to school to discuss it. Their only other important duty is to get their child to school each day, which in most big cities can be done by making sure they catch the right bus.

    source:
    Assessing the KIPP Schools -- a New Perspective
    by Jay Mathews




    -- CatherineJohnson - 24 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TrailblazersAndMathWars 25 Jun 2006 - 13:53 CatherineJohnson


    Lots of Trailblazers stuff here. Also sample activities from each grade here.


    The FAQ page has this to say about Trailblazers and the math wars:

    Q. I heard that the "math wars" are about the two philosophies of teaching math: Traditional/Classical that emphasizes learning math facts, computation skills and applying those with word problems, and the other is Constructivist math which emphasizes discovery in group activities but is supposedly very weak in basic math facts and computation.

    A. Not true. First of all there are not only two philosophies of teaching mathematics. Some people may be able to divide the world into black and white, but reality is more complex. Math Trailblazers was developed by the TIMS (Teaching Integrated Mathematics and Science) Project at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was founded and is directed by Philip Wagreich, a mathematician, and Howard Goldberg, a particle physicist. Goldberg and Wagreich were motivated by the appalling quality of mathematics and science teaching, and textbook, in their children's schooling. In addition, they were confronted daily with college students who could not do the most basic mathematical and scientific reasoning.

    In 1984, they decided to take time away from their demanding research activities to find ways to improve education for all children. Before the NCTM Standards, before Math Wars, before they had even known there was a "philosophy of constructivism", they set to developing the foundations of "the TIMS Philosophy." The hallmarks of the TIMS Philosophy are to make mathematics meaningful to children, to challenge them with a rigorous and mathematically sound curriculum, and to help children learn the reasoning skills that are so important in the workplace of today (and will be absolutely essential in the world they will meet when they graduate -- say, in 2012).


    I admire the fact they've taken the bull by the horns here, going so far as to print the words "math wars." In politics the rule is, I think, that you don't speak your opponent's name. The fact that they've and named the opposition takes the Math Trailblazers folks out of the realm of politics, to my mind, at any rate.

    Unfortunately, they're still in the realm of marketing, PR, and spin:

    Q. What is the opinion of the scientific community regarding the Standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics?

    A. Math Trailblazers meets the Standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. These standards have undergone extensive review. The opinion of the scientific community is accurately represented by the The Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP)-the leadership organization for more than 1 million scientists and science educators. It commended NCTM for producing its most recent standards document, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000). On its certificate of commendation, the CSSP noted that Principles and Standards is "a significant and high-quality contribution toward the improvement of mathematics education for all students." The Council also encouraged "prompt, thoughtful, and careful consideration of and thorough review of the recommendations and ideas for implementation by all who share a stake in the effective teaching of mathematics."

    The CSSP is a nonprofit organization comprised of the presidents, presidents-elect, and immediate past presidents of more than 60 scientific societies and federations, whose combined membership numbers more than 1 million. CSSP serves as a strong voice in support of science and science education, as the premier national science leadership institute, and as a forum for open, substantive exchanges on current scientific issues.

    Its praise continues recognition from the scientific community for NCTM's work. A National Research Council report, released in May 2004, gave NCTM high marks for process of creating Principles and Standards. The report says, "The committee finds the process established by NCTM to solicit comments from the field to be commendable and the process established by them to analyze those comments to be exemplary." The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the preeminent scientific organization in the United States.



    This one is worse:

    Q. Has Math Trailblazers been around long enough to demonstrate its effectiveness?

    A. Math Trailblazers was the end product of 12 years of research and development, partially supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. It has been pilot tested, revised, field tested and revised once more. The TIMS Project is constantly researching ways to improve student learning as well as ways to help teachers be more effective. This is our passion. Contrast this with the dozens of commercial publishers who put together their textbooks using consultants and development houses that have little deep knowledge of the subject matter and few thoughtful ideas on how to make our children better learners. They just go with the fad of the year.

    The TIMS Project and Kendall/Hunt have collected data on student achievement that show that schools adopting Math Trailblazers have made significant improvements on standardized test (See Student Achievement) Moreover, a rigorous scientific study of student achievement on standardized tests comparing students using NSF funded reform curricula to students using traditional curricula showed that the students using reform curricula performed at a statistically significantly increased level (See ARC Center study). In short, Math Trailblazers is not new and it has been proven effective.


    This is the publisher's website, and I suppose there's some kind of provision in the Constitution holding that a textbook publisher doesn't have to testify against itself.

    But these passages go well beyond misleading by omission. There aren't too many mathematicians out there touting the virtues of Math Trailblazers. And the National Research Council has explicitly characterized Math Trailblazers as an "experiment." The NRC says the results aren't in, and the wording in this passage makes me think the folks at the NRC aren't optimistic:

    These 19 curricular projects essentially have been experiments. We owe them a careful reading on their effectiveness. Demands for evaluation may be cast as a sign of failure, but we would rather stress that this examination is a sign of the success of these programs to engage a country in a scholarly debate on the question of curricular effectiveness and the essential underlying question, What is most important for our youth to learn in their studies in mathematics? To summarily blame national decline on a set of curricula whose use has a limited market share lacks credibility. At the same time, to find out if a major investment in an approach is successful and worthwhile is a prime example of responsible policy. In experimentation, success and worthiness are two different measures of experimental value. An experiment can fail and yet be worthy.

    An experiment can fail and yet be worthy, you say.

    Call me crazy, but I wouldn't write such a line unless I thought there was a distinct possibility failure was the direction things were headed.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 25 Jun 2006



    comments...

    DeannaKahlHasAJobForLife 25 Jun 2006 - 14:20 CatherineJohnson



    Health insurance and a pension, too!

    So....my Bayes scale has to be seriously recalibrated.

    Here I was thinking that when she reverted to all her most horrific, punitive behaviors in the classroom - and started calling in sick with some regularity - it was a sign that she was interviewing for positions elsewhere.

    It wasn't.

    It was a sign that, as Mrs. R told her class this year, "I have tenure. They can't do anything to me."

    It's always worse than you think.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 25 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SummerSchool2006 25 Jun 2006 - 19:11 CatherineJohnson



    Still getting my act together on the summer program around here.

    Andrew's set. He's doing KUMON Math and, as of today, KUMON Reading.

    Amazing KUMON moment this week: I took a set of worksheets to school to show Andrew's teacher & aide how well he does with them.

    Good thing I did, because they had no idea whether Andrew can or cannot do beginning addition. The answer is that he can, and they're the ones who taught him. They were blown away when they saw him whiz through a sheet of add-ones problems. The problems were sufficiently mixed that it was clear he understood the principle; x + 1 means the next number up from x.

    The sheets I'd brought in had problems in the 30s, I think (30 + 1, 32 + 1, etc.). After he did a few of those I skipped ahead to the last sheet in the stack. The final problem was:


    1000 + 1 =


    Andrew frowned at this and hesitated.

    Then he typed "1000" on the AlphaSmart.

    I was mortified. I figured this was the moment where his teacher and aide would decide he was just learning by rote.

    But I was wrong. They were both watching him intently. I said, "No, 1000 plus 1."

    Andrew hadn't stopped frowning at the problem, which I think is part of what had his teachers so interested.

    He reached out his hand, and deleted the final zero, then typed in '1.'

    1001

    They couldn't believe it. The mistake was what convinced them he knew what he was doing. I don't know whether they've seen him self-correct before; they probably have.

    But watching him self-correct while doing a brand-new problem no one's ever shown him was the magic.

    As impressed as they were, they stilll wanted to know whether Andrew could add ones if you wrote them in a different way, on a different kind of paper. This is the "hyper-specificity" problem that's so frustrating with autistic kids, and that is the center of Animals in Translation. The reason they were so frustrated with his progress in class, apparently, is that his performance is inconsistent – and the inconsistency seems to be related to changing fonts or paper, etc.

    I’d never checked to make sure Andrew could do the same problems in different fonts and on different size paper (which I should have).

    They gave me a sheet of paper, and I hand-wrote a ones problem.

    Andrew answered it instantly.

    They were convinced.

    They were so convinced that they said they wanted to use KUMON as Andrew’s math curriculum this summer.

    We talked about what the problem might be for awhile, and none of us knows. I'm guessing the problem is that the school doesn’t have a math curriculum for Andrew, mainly because there isn’t one, although KUMON may serve.

    Clarice ordered Engelmann’s DISTAR program back when she was hired, and she gave it to me to take home. I got to spend two days holding the Presentation Book in my hands (I wish Ken had been there!) It looked like everything it’s cracked up to be, but it didn’t look like something a teacher could do with Andrew. I suppose you could type the script and have Andrew read it....which might be a good idea. I had to return the program the next day, and didn’t have enough time to think it through.

    What's happening in class is that Andrew will seem to have mastered an addition fact, but then later on will seem to have lost it.

    For the time being, I'm assuming that because they don't have a curriculum any one or all of 3 things has happened:

    • they aren't teaching the math facts coherently

    • they haven't given him enough distributed practice

    • they haven't given him enough massed practice


    As to the first, KUMON's worksheets are the ultimate coherent curriculum. The child does many, many worksheets on adding one to a number before moving on to add 2s to a number.

    KUMON doesn't stop with the within-ten addition facts, either. Instead it takes the child all the way from 1 + 1 to 1000 + 1 before moving on to + 2. Clarice hasn't done that, I don't think. I think she had him learn all the various addition facts up to 10.

    She said Andrew will seem to have mastered 6 + 4 = 10, but then when they ask him 6 + 4 a week later, he doesn't know.

    I'm hoping the reason he forgets 6 + 4 is that 6 + 4 doesn't have the meaning it's going to have in KUMON.

    I'm also wondering whether "massed practice" — aka drill and kill — may be especially important or even critical for developmentally disabled kids. Everyone in the U.S., constructivists & cognitive scientists alike, seems to have decided that distributed practice is the key to the kingdom. (TRAILBLAZERS & EVERYDAY MATH both claim to give children distributed practice.)

    But I've always found I need to do a certain amount of massed practice in the beginning just to remember a concept well enough to be able to do distributed practice. Andrew is tough to deal with; I bet they haven't made him sit in a chair and do the same addition problems over and over again the way KUMON does. I wouldn't have.

    In any case, we're moving on to +2 in a couple of days, so at that point I'll start occasionally asking him to do a +1 problem to see if he remembers.

    We'll see.

    As to KUMON reading, this morning Andrew was aghast at the discovery that in addition to the 5 KUMON math pages he has to do every day he now has 5 KUMON reading pages, too.

    heh





    summer school for Christopher

    First off, I've had my second abject failure in afterschooling books: Sentence Composing for Middle School: A Worktext on Sentence Variety and Maturity by Don Killgallon.

    I love this book — I even bought the college level one for me — and it's worthless for Christopher. The first exercises ask you to divide a sentence up at its natural breaks. For instance:

    The only way to / keep your health is to eat what / you don't want drink / what you don't like and do what you'd / rather not.
    - Mark Twain

    The student is supposed to rewrite the sentence putting the slashes where they belong.

    Christopher can't do it. He's so far away from being able to do it that he doesn't even really get what he's supposed to be doing. The whole thing makes no sense to him at all.

    I thought he'd start to get the hang of it after awhile, but he didn't. He doesn't have an "ear."

    Some kids do. My friend Kris's little guy, Charlie, has an ear. I went over one day & he came running up to show me something he'd written. He was missing a comma, and when I pointed it out he stopped in his tracks and talked the sentence to himself under his breath, and he heard where the comma was supposed to go. "Oh yeah!" he said, looking happy.

    My other afterschooling flop was Daily Paragraph Editing, which I was using in 5th grade. I pushed Christopher through pages & pages of that book without his performance improving a jot. Finally I talked to his teacher, the brilliant Ms. Duque, and she said forget it. The book wasn't teaching him anything.

    I interpret these failures to be more grist for the direct instruction mill. Christopher needs to be directly taught punctuation and grammar. Period. Then he'll have an ear.

    I think he will, too. We've finished Megawords Book 3, and his ELA teacher, the other Ms. K, has been giving spelling tests all winter and spring. Ms. Duque taught spelling, too. So he's had a lot of spelling.

    Suddenly, Christopher is using spelling rules to spell words he doesn't know, and he's getting them right, too. Boy is that great.

    His spelling is so much better, it's amazing. Back in 3rd grade his spelling was A SCANDAL. It was almost psychotically bad, like those jokes about Eastern European languages with no vowels. These days he's starting to have normal not great spelling. In one paragraph of prose he might have two misspelled words, and those words will be misspelled logically.

    This is why I'm sure he'll develop an "ear." He's developed whatever the analogous form of implicit knowledge is for spelling; he'll do it for writing, too.





    vocabulary, writing, math...

    So we're putting Killgallon on the shelf for the time being. Christopher will do Vocabulary Workshop, a book I like more and more as we go along. He does one page a day, which takes 5 minutes max. VW teaches words in 5 exercises:

    • definitions — dictionary definition with sample sentences; student writes the word in the blank

    • complete the sentence

    • synonyms

    • antonyms

    • choosing the right word (student chooses which of two words on the vocabulary list "satisfactorily completes" a sentence)

    • vocabulary in context — prose passage

    There are 15 units in the book, and you review every three units. 20 words per list; 185 pages in the book. Efficient & effective.


    We're big on vocabulary these days. At dinner I make Christian and Christopher learn Greek and Latin roots from English from the Roots Up. So far we've learned photos, graph, tele, metron, tropos, philia, phobos (predictable hilarity with metron, which instantly suggests the neologism metronsexual, philia & phobos), syn, and thesis, although Christian is having a horrible time remembering tropos. For quite a while there he was saying "line" whenever he heard it (too long to explain), so "line" has now become a running gag.

    I told Christian to come up with a mnemonic device for tropos, but unfortunately the one he came up with caused him to start thinking tropos means revolving, which come to think of it maybe it does. (Does it?)

    If anyone has a suggestion for a mnemonic device that connects tropos to turning, let me know.


    I've also got an ancient copy of Word Power Made Easy (a Google Master recommendation, IIRC) next to the dining room table, so we may get to it, too, one of these days.

    Then last week Martine went out and bought a dictionary of New York slang, and we all learned the meaning of ace boon coon, a phrase Christian knew and had used. I'm having as much trouble remembering ace boon coon as he is remembering tropos (I can't remember the "ace" part), so we'll see who gets to the finish line first.



    Christopher is supposed to take his ALEKS placement test today, so I've got to go figure that out. More later.



    86709419.jpg



    88594100158350M.gif




    roots2.jpg



    my boon companion



    -- CatherineJohnson - 25 Jun 2006



    comments...

    YoungerNextYearPart2 26 Jun 2006 - 14:02 CatherineJohnson



    10 am and I'm just back from walking Christopher & both dogs to camp, uphill and down all the way. We set out at 8:45.

    If this keeps up I'll be Younger Next Month.



    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    factoids

    • 70 percent of “normal” aging (weakness, sore joints, apathy) is optional *

    • 50 percent of all illness associated with aging (heart attacks, diabetes, broken bones) can be eliminated


    I believe it.

    I think this is true of life in general. The bad gets normal.


    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    how to write a press release
    youngernextyear.com

    Younger Next Year



    * sadly, the part where your face crumples up and slides off your cheekbones is in the 30% that's mandatory


    -- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2006



    comments...

    JohnDeweyAtEdspresso 26 Jun 2006 - 15:44 CatherineJohnson



    Kicking the Ed School Blues


    The fan mail is rolling in and paparazzi are following me to work every day despite the great lengths to which I’ve gone to protect my identity.

    [snip]

    Of all the comments, two in particular stand out. One from a friend who asked if I thought I was making a difference with this little venture into blog space. The other asked whether I thought I’d be making a difference teaching in a system that prevents effective math teaching in a world infiltrated by NSF, NCTM/ed school dogma and math police.

    I don’t know the answer to the first question. But I’m in ed school, where there are no wrong answers.



    Good one.

    Moving right along —

    ...what is the chance for change with only a few enlightened teachers battling the math police?

    My answer to the second question is based on the fact that I’ve never had an original idea in my life. Being part of the baby boomer generation means that whatever so-called original idea is in my head is also in the heads of thousands of other people. Which means that many people getting ready to retire and who have science or math backgrounds may also be looking into teaching.


    Whoa.

    That's my experience exactly.

    I'm a walking cliche. Always have been, always will be.

    I keep telling Ed, who is not a walking cliche, "Look, if I'm obsessing over X that means five zillion other people are obsessing over X, too. Either that, or they're about to start."

    It's true.



    Unfortunately, when it comes to television I'm an outlier.


    it's always worse than you think

    In the class I just took, the professor one night espoused the ubiquitous ed school philosophy that one of the biggest hurdles to conquer in teaching math is students’ math anxiety.

    [snip]

    The ed school of thought holds that if you just relax and get over the anxiety, the greater truth will prevail. Not a word about how inadequate preparation may play a role. “At-risk” students are particularly vulnerable to math anxiety according to ed school wisdom. One instructor the professor knew was quite good with such students. He told how she gave each student a name having to do with a concept in algebra. One student was called “perfect square trinomial”, another was “binomial”, and so forth. (They may have had name tags). Their task was to learn how each of them “related” to one another, thus forcing them to learn what these terms meant.


    Time to blow up the ed schools.


    edspresso search: Dewey letters

    John Dewey at edspresso, part 1
    John Dewey at edspresso, part 2
    John Dewey at edspresso, part 3
    John Dewey has the stomach flu
    John Dewey at edspresso Letter #5

    John Dewey at ktm
    John Dewey at ktm part 2
    John Dewey experiences stomach flu
    John Dewey writes again

    johndewey


    -- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2006



    comments...

    EdSectorSaysThereIsntaBoyProblem 26 Jun 2006 - 18:32 CatherineJohnson



    The Truth About Boys and Girls



    I'm thinking any piece of education wonkery titled "The Truth About Boys and Girls" should be automatically assumed not to be the truth about boys and girls.

    Of course that's just my opinion.





    same old, same old

    I've been reading these reports all my life.

    Which I guess is reason enough to carry on reading them.

    I'd have to put some time into thinking this one through to know exactly why I'm going to choose to assume this one is bogus, too.

    I'd rather not. I'd rather learn some more algebra today, seeing as how with Ms. Kahl's ascent to lifetime employment, health care, and pension I will be on the hook for teaching Christopher everything he learns about math over the next two years.

    So, some impressions.


    1. magic white people

    Carolyn and I were talking about this last night.

    Everyone, universally, when they're [sic] talking about the horrors of urban schools, assumes that suburban schools - or at least suburban kids - are fine and dandy. Even E.D. Hirsch, for pete's sake. I've just discovered a treasure trove of Hirschian wisdom (be warned: I am entering the hypomanic Hirschian phase that should have hit me years ago).

    The advantaged child has gained knowledge and a correspondingly large vocabulary chiefly by gradual, implicit means. The child has been read to, has heard complex syntax, has been told about the natural and cultural worlds in the ordinary course of growing up. This indirect and implicit mode of learning is excellent if one has lots of exposure and lots of time, as an advantaged child typically does. But the disadvantaged child has to make up for lost time, and cognitive psychologists tell us that this requires a very systematic, analytical, and explicit approach to early learning. If you want to learn fast--be explicit. Break down each domain to be learned into manageable elements that can be mastered. Then systematically build on that knowledge with new knowledge.

    This is the most efficient mode of learning for everybody, but it is the essential mode if the aim is to make up for lost time in knowledge and vocabulary.

    source:
    Overcoming the Language Gap


    Classic.

    "Advantaged" children have everything they need!

    Smart parents!

    Great vocabularies!

    A stimulating knowledge-implanting environment that works just like a Matrix download except nobody has to type in the commands!

    There's enough truth in this for little kids that I don't (necessarily) begrudge the constant repetition of the Advantaged Kids meme. It becomes ludicrous, however, when you extend it to anything beyond 4th grade, or to math at any level.

    After 4th grade, the "magic" of the "middle class environment" is the magic of parents making cash payments to "tutors" from their kids' school.


    Let me repeat that.


    After 4th grade, the magic of the middle class environment is the magic of parents making cash payments to "tutors" from their kids' school.


    Eduwonk/Ed Sector has repeatedly urged that we not think about white boys.

    We are to think about black and Hispanic boys.

    This new report is part of that agenda.

    IMO

    Also in the IMO category, I think this attitude is a mistake. It's entirely possible white boys and white girls are being equally trounced by our public schools.

    If I had to bet, I might even say it's likely, though I wouldn't bet more than ten bucks.

    However, that is irrelevant to the question of what is to be done about urban schools and disadvantaged kids.

    As far as I can see, and I would bet more than ten bucks on this, the problem with urban schools is the same problem with suburban schools. The problem is ed schools, jobs-for-life, no accountability, no curriculum, etc.

    What is the magical advantage white children bring to a punitive, dysfunctional middle school like the one my own white child is attending?

    The advantage is parents who will do the teaching that the school can't or won't:

    Unionized teachers stand in the way of the educational changes that might ameliorate our twin education crises (inner city disaster and suburban mediocrity)

    source:
    kausfiles


    He's right. It's a twin crisis. It's not that we have good schools in the suburbs for white kids and bad schools in the city for black & Hispanic kids.

    I've been listening to Christian's stories about his Yonkers high school for two years now.

    That was one lousy school.

    Christian feels the same about Christopher's school.

    I'm inclined to think it's never a good idea to mischaracterize a situation you're working to change. I may be wrong about that.





    2. a gap is a gap

    Have to run & get Christopher from camp, so I'll get back to this later.

    In the meantime, how does this chart from Jay Mathews' column tell me everything is A-OK with boys?

    I'm thick in the midst of the high-scoring SAT kids literature now.....when it comes to predicting success in SAT scores & college admissions, reading is everything according to people who've looked into it. Not math. Reading.


    GR2006062600052.gif



    And how exactly is this good news:

    But the truth is far different from what these accounts suggest. The real story is not bad news about boys doing worse; it's good news about girls doing better.

    This is a perfect description of my experience raising two developmentally disabled children.

    A developmentally disabled child starts out pretty close to a typical child. At age one an autistic child and a typical child aren't miles apart.

    But then the typical child just keeps learning more stuff and learning it faster to boot.

    Pretty soon there's a gap.

    Then after awhile there's a bigger gap.

    I used to say, "Every time I get Jimmy doing something he's supposed to do they raise the bar."

    Reading Ed Sector I realize I was looking at this all wrong.

    Jimmy wasn't falling behind.

    It's just that the typical kids were moving faster.


    [pause]


    Back from camp, and now I'm puzzling over how exactly these charts prove we don't have a boy problem:

    ESOBoysAndGirlsFigure04.jpg


    ESOBoysAndGirlsFigure05.jpg


    Call me crazy, but that looks like a gap to me.

    I thought we were supposed to be against gaps.





    3. boys are special

    Moving into the on the other hand section of the report we find this concession to reality:

    We Should Be Worried About Some Subgroups of Boys

    In addition to disadvantaged and minority boys, there are also reasons to be concerned about the substantial percentage of boys who have been diagnosed with disabilities. Boys make up two-thirds of students in special education—including 80 percent of those diagnosed with emotional disturbances or autism—and boys are two and a half times as likely as girls to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).11 The number of boys diagnosed with disabilities or ADHD has exploded in the past 30 years, presenting a challenge for schools and causing concern for parents. But the reasons for this growth are complicated, a mix of educational, social, and biological factors. Evidence suggests that school and family factors—such as poor reading instruction, increased awareness of and testing for disabilities, or over-diagnosis—may play a role in the increased rates of boys diagnosed with learning disabilities or emotional disturbance.


    Right.

    An explosion in the number of boys diagnosed with disabilities. That's exactly what the Boy Problem people are talking about.

    Has there been an explosion in bad genes for boys in the past 30 years?

    If not, might there have been some other kind of explosion?

    Like, say, an explosion in female-dominated public schools?

    Or an explosion in zero-tolerance character education policies that result in boys getting suspended a whole lot?





    4. a gap is a gap, part 2

    more from Ed Sector:

    The picture is less clear for older boys. The 2003 and 2005 NAEP assessments included only fourth- and eighth-graders, so the most recent main NAEP data for 12th-graders dates back to 2002. On that assessment, 12th-grade boys did worse than they had in both the previous assessment, administered in 1998, and the first comparable assessment, administered in 1992. At the 12th-grade level, boys' achievement in reading does appear to have fallen during the 1990s and early 2000s.6

    [snip]

    Like the main NAEP, the results for older boys on the long-term NAEP are more mixed. Thirteen-year-old boys have improved their per form ance slightly compared with 1971, but for the most part their per­form ance over the past 30 years has been flat. Seventeen-year-old boys are doing about the same as they did in the early 1970s, but their performance has been declining since the late 1980s.7


    It's all good.


    ESOBoysAndGirlsFigure01.jpg




    Study Casts Doubt on the 'Boy Crisis'

    the girl show



    -- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2006



    comments...

    RichManPoorMan 26 Jun 2006 - 21:36 CatherineJohnson



    My first time in a fifth grade in one of New Jersey’s most affluent districts (white, of course), I asked where one-third was on the number line. After a moment of quiet, the teacher called out, “Near three, isn’t it?” The children, however, soon figured out the correct answer; they came from homes where such things were discussed.* Flitting back and forth from the richest to the poorest districts in the state convinced me that the mathematical knowledge of the teachers was pathetic in both. It appears that the higher scores in the affluent districts are not due to superior teaching in school but to the supplementary informal “home schooling” of children.

    source:
    Racial Equity Requires Teaching Elementary School Teachers More Mathematics (pdf file) by Patricia Clark Kenschaft




    * Wrong. They came from homes where "such things" were directly taught by parents, friends from school, other people's dads & moms, or tutors. I don't care how Advantaged you are, nobody wants to hear about number lines at the dinner table. Take it from me.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2006



    comments...

    WhatKindOfPersonIsaBully 26 Jun 2006 - 22:25 CatherineJohnson



    I Googled bully to find out.


    Here's Cristina Hoff Sommers:

    This past spring, my son spent a month in Israel with his senior class. Only one activity disappointed him. While camping in the Negev Desert, special counselors from a progressive-socialist kibbutz paid a visit and led the students through a sensitivity exercise. The students were told to walk out into the desert until they were completely alone. The counselors (mostly American-born) supplied them with a pencil, paper, matches, and a candle and instructed them to absorb the quiet calm of the desert, to record their feelings, and to “find themselves.”

    The girls happily complied. Most of the boys did not. They scattered into the desert, quickly became bored, and sought out each other’s company. Then they threw the pencils and paper into a pile, and used the candles and matches to start a little bonfire. The boys loved it; the sensitivity trainers were horrified. They viewed the boys’ behavior as an expression of primitive violence--a lethal masculinity straight from The Lord of the Flies. Later in the evening, the students sat in a circle while the girls read their impassioned reactions to the “haunting loneliness” of the desert; the boys could barely suppress laughter--confirming once again the worst fears of the sensitivity trainers.

    Gender equity experts in America’s schools, universities, government agencies, and major women’s groups would share the distress of the kibbutz counselors, having spent more than a decade trying to resocialize boys away from “toxic masculinity.” In a great number of American schools, gender reformers have succeeded in expunging many activities that young boys enjoy: dodge ball, cops and robbers, reading or listening to stories about battles and war heroes. A daycare center in North Carolina was censured by the State Division of Child Development for letting boys play with two-inch green Army men. The division director described the toys as “potentially dangerous if children use them to act out violent themes.”

    [snip]

    Try as they may, parents, teachers, and gender facilitators have not been successful in rooting out male behavior they regard as harmful.An “equity facilitator” tried to persuade a group of nine-year-old boys in a Baltimore public school to accept the idea of playing with baby dolls. According to one observer, “Their reaction was so hostile, the teacher had trouble keeping order.” And then there was Jimmy. At age 11, this San Francisco sixth grader was made to contribute a square to a class quilt “celebrating women we admire.” He chose to honor tennis player Monica Seles who, in 1993, was stabbed on the court by a deranged fan of Steffi Graf. Jimmy handed in a muslin square festooned with a tennis racket and a bloody dagger. His square may be unique in the history of quilting, but his teacher did not appreciate its originality and rejected it.




    Just for fun, try Googling "boys will be boys."




    Bully%20Proof%20vest.jpg



    -- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2006



    comments...

    SummerReadingQuestion 26 Jun 2006 - 23:59 CatherineJohnson



    Just got an email from the One Minute Reader folks:

    Summer Reading Loss Can Undo School Year Gains

    Students and teachers work hard during the school year to make significant and important gains in students’ reading ability and fluency rate. A typical increase is 30 to 40 words per minute.

    Statistics indicate that students who do not read frequently over the summer often lose around 40% of the fluency gains made the previous year. This slide accumulates into a lag of two or more years in reading achievement, even when effective instruction during the school year is available. Considering that reading is the doorway to all other learning, the summer slide is a serious threat that needs to be avoided.

    You can take action to accelerate reading achievement and avoid the summer slide. According to the National Reading Panel’s 2000 report, hundreds of studies suggest that “the more children read, the better their fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.”

    The number of books students read during the summer is consistently related to academic gains. Students also need more than books—they need a system like One Minute Reader that hooks them so they get the practice they need to accelerate their reading growth.


    This is marketing material, but I've often found the statistics cited in publisher's White Papers and newsletters to be accurate.

    I'm not sure what the connection is between Read Naturally and One Minute Reader (I think they're the same outfit), but Read Naturally has terrific material on fluency.

    Oral Reading Fluency Norms (Hasbrouck/Tindal Table)
    printable version (pdf file)
    Read Naturally, Scientific Research, Reading First (pdf file)





    tennis & math

    Today was Christopher's first day of tennis camp. Five hours of tennis instruction & playing, five days a week. He went last summer, too; then he took tennis lessons all school year.

    We're trying to give him a sport he can play the rest of his life. Christopher loves sports — all sports — and loves to play. But he's not especially athletic. So we're going the practice-practice-practice route with just one sport.

    The cool thing is that today Jim, the instructor, told me Christopher hadn't "regressed" at all over the winter,* and in fact had improved considerably. He sounded like John Saxon. He said the key to becoming good at tennis is practicing over the winter. Otherwise you regress, and have to start over.

    Then he said, "Learning tennis is just like learning anything else. You have to keep practicing."





    any suggestions for a summer reading schedule?

    If anyone has advice, I'd like to hear it.

    I've been reading the various advice books on SATs, college admissions, etc., and the consensus is: reading is it. The book I bought on kids who got perfect 1800s doesn't even mention math. Apparently these kids got perfect 800s on math by reading 14 hours a week (as compared to 7 hours a week for the kids with lower scores).

    Has anyone set up a reading schedule for his or her kid(s) over the summer?

    I'm thinking we need one, but my mind's a blank at the moment.

    Still recovering from the school year.

    Now that I've discovered E.D. Hirsch, I'm thinking about buying Realms of Gold and assigning a reading or two a week. Here's the Table of Contents. (pdf file) This year, in 6th grade, Christopher was assigned 4 items in the book: 2 Greek myths & 2 poems.

    I've also hatched a scheme to buy a copy of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and start making everyone memorize it at the dinner. At 672 pages, that ought to keep us busy for awhile.

    Speaking of which, Christian mastered tropos tonight!

    And I mastered ace boon coon.

    Andrew, on the other hand, had trouble adding 800 + 1. He kept typing 900 and 899.

    I think I'm going to pull out one of my Barnes & Noble KUMON books and see if maybe Jimmy can get somewhere. He has a terrible time seeing the lines on the page, so I don't know. I keep planning to create "moving words" using PowerPoint, but ..... I've never done it.




    ROG1_med.jpg



    * Apparently I have to worry about winter regression, too.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AleksAssessmentComingRightUp 27 Jun 2006 - 13:27 CatherineJohnson



    9:24 and I'm back from walking to camp; plus I've done 2 sets of KUMON worksheets.

    Life is good!

    Next up: my ALEKS assessment. Assuming I get the site to work OK (that's not a given; my browser's been crashing a lot), Christopher will take his after camp.

    So we'll see.



    ALEKS
    ALEKS: a better state of knowledge

    a parent's experience with ALEKS
    ALEKS Graphic
    formative assessment on wheels
    ParentPundit uses ALEKS to fix Everyday Math
    ALEKS question
    ALEKS assessment coming right up



    -- CatherineJohnson - 27 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AleksAssessmentQuestion 27 Jun 2006 - 17:00 CatherineJohnson



    hoo boy

    2 hours later, and I've reached question #15 on my ALEKS assessment.

    Since I'm not sure whether the program gives the answers at the end, can someone work this problem for me?

    I'm not sure about the correct answer business, because I think I'm doing a "free trial assessment" and the site said something about not giving answers on free trial assessments, though maybe they meant not giving the answers midstream.

    On the other hand, I'm also pretty sure I've signed up and paid for a monthly subscription.

    Which wasn't the plan.



    Here's the problem:

    ALEKSassessmentproblem.jpg


    They want you to give a quotient and a remainder.

    Which is depressing, because while I think I have the correct answer (we'll see), I have no idea how to translate it into a quotient and a remainder.

    sigh

    Thanks.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 27 Jun 2006



    comments...

    DebunkingTheDebunkers 28 Jun 2006 - 15:16 CatherineJohnson



    The claim that slipping scores result from a changed demographic (and hence could even be good news) has surfaced repeatedly in the writings of education commentators such as Gerald Bracey, but it is demonstrably false. Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson summarized the matter in a 1994 column by noting: "The change in the student population preceded the drop in test scores. Between 1951 and 1963, the number of test takers went from 81,000 to nearly 1 million; test scores rose slightly.” Moreover, the percentage of test takers remained relatively constant between 1972 and 1984 (see Figure 1). There were still a million test takers in 1985, the first year in which test scores showed a small uptick after 19 years of decline. Scores have been flat or slightly improved since then, with math scores returning to their levels of 30 years ago, but failing to reach their mid-1960s apex.

    Changes in the composition of the test-taking pool don’t explain the decline in test scores either. Studies by the Educational Testing Service and others have showed, in the words of Robert Samuelson, that “the main declines occurred among whites and could not be explained by changes in student’s gender, economic class, or parental education.” This analysis was seconded by Harvard sociologist Christopher Jencks, who pointed out that the SAT scores of advantaged white males have also exhibited a steep decline.

    source:
    Waiting for Utopia
    by David W. Murray



    ednext20022_73b.gif



    This line bears repeating:

    [T]he SAT scores of advantaged white males have also exhibited a steep decline.

    I don't know whether this is true of advantaged females as well. I assume so.

    I'm no strategist, but speaking as parent I think the meme of nightmare-schools-in-the-city/good-schools-in-the-suburbs is doing more harm than good.

    What makes suburban schools "good"?

    Sadly, (now that I know that I don't know grammar I'm pretty sure 'sadly' doesn't modify what I think it does) .... starting over: I am sorry to say that I seem to have lost track of the study of suburban school financing I came across the other day.

    IIRC, it compared districts with different levels of school spending but the same level student body SES.

    Upshot: no difference in scores. (I'll do some Googling pretty soon here.)

    If Ed Sector types wish to carry on focusing exclusively on achievement gaps, then at a minimum they ought to include the TIMSS & PISA data in white papers & pronouncements.

    Black & Hispanic kids are way behind white kids.

    But white kids are way behind everyone else. Black & Hispanic kids are behind the kids who are already behind.




    rogue's gallery

    In the rogue's gallery of edu-apologists, Richard Rothstein is a standout:

    Yet Rothstein, exactly one year later, parroted his earlier claims. His reaction to the release of the 2001 scores, which showed no improvement over the previous year and hence were termed “stable” by the College Board, was to write, “Stable in this case does not mean unimproved. Hidden in the data is more hopeful news than most people would expect. These tests are voluntary. If only high achievers take them, average scores mean one thing. But if a broader range of students takes them, the results must be interpreted differently. The number taking the tests has in fact grown a lot. . . . It is remarkable that averages gained at all while the test-taking base was expanding.”

    Passing off lousy SAT scores as a sign of progress takes nerve.

    So does this:

    A Japanese scholar is also invoked [by Rothstein] to assure us that his countrymen do “not attach great importance to students’ rankings because the exams measure skills valued by the old education system, not the new.” In fact, Rothstein concludes, the dour Japanese want to emulate our schools because of our “zest for living.”

    In a July 2001 column, Rothstein tells his readers not to fret over data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showing that two-thirds of American 4th graders can’t read above a basic level, because “on an international survey of reading ability, American 4th graders scored higher than pupils everywhere except Finland.” In other words, international comparisons are apparently valid when they corroborate Rothstein’s fundamental beliefs, but easily dismissed when they reflect poorly on the American education system.


    We are a zesty lot, we math illiterates!




    What Money Can't Buy

    I've never heard of this book! —

    ...the University of Chicago’s Susan Mayer undertook a far more comprehensive analysis of the relationship of income to school achievement in a 1997 book, What Money Can’t Buy. She examined nearly 17,000 records in two massive data sets in her search for the true effects of income. The study is important for its methodological sophistication and its conclusions, which take us beyond the traditional left-right political axis regarding welfare programs and the causes of poverty.

    Mayer showed that income per se is not a consequential factor in children’s performance. Beyond providing the ability to satisfy basic needs like food and shelter, income is not a necessary, much less a sufficient, explanation of children’s academic achievement. Mayer found that a supportive family structure (a stable, two-parent home), a culture of learning within the family and neighborhood, and natural abilities were much more important than income. Given these factors, income can certainly help people achieve their ends. In their absence, however, income is largely inconsequential.


    Tom Fischgrund, who interviewed 160 of the 541 "perfect 1600" kids from the year 2000, found that 90% of them had intact families, compared to 66% of high school students overall.




    meet the parents, part 2

    In a May 2001 column, Rothstein lamented the fact that teachers are assigning more homework, which is said to be “up 50 percent in the last two decades.” This is a problem, Rothstein believes, because it “may increase the gap between students from middle-class and low-income homes. With growing inequality now a greater danger than middle-class pupils’ inadequate achievement, policies that widen learning differences should be avoided.”

    Rothstein cites an academic authority to reinforce the claim, quoting University of North Carolina professor Eugene Brooks, who says, “Because of homework, schools either consciously or unconsciously reproduce social inequality. It can be avoided only if teachers take over homework supervision from parents.” That’s a somewhat breathtaking mission for the school—reducing the impact of social class on learning by expunging parents from the equation, since they are unequal in their degree of helpfulness. It is apparently better for all youngsters to languish in dreary study halls—presumably reducing the amount of time left for instruction—than to take the risk that one mother might help her child learn faster than another.


    wow

    And here I thought I was being all wild-eyed and radical saying the reason suburban schools are good is the parents do the (re)teaching.

    But no.

    What folks like Rothstein really ought to do, if they want to prevent white kids learning more than black kids, is make it illegal for parents to hire moonlighting teachers from their kids' school.

    Somehow I don't see Rothstein & his chums signing on for that one.




    distributed practice

    I'm going to practice this one to mastery:

    “Because of homework, schools either consciously or unconsciously reproduce social inequality. It can be avoided only if teachers take over homework supervision from parents.”


    meet the parents (big-time tutoring)
    debunking the debunkers (Rothstein; What Money Can't Buy)
    how much reading each day?

    Irvington tutors
    Irvington tutors, part 2

    SATdecline
    Irvingtontutors



    -- CatherineJohnson - 28 Jun 2006



    comments...

    FundTheChild 28 Jun 2006 - 19:03 CatherineJohnson



    Fund the Child


    Haven't read yet.






    Not that it's of interest to anyone else, but I seem to be experiencing near-daily Synchronicity events.

    I learned what weighted scores are & how they're calculated for the first time ever two days ago.

    Today I'm reading about a bipartisan weighted funding scheme for school funding.

    This kind of thing is happening constantly.

    It's sort of fun, but I probably shouldn't count on it lasting forever.




    -- CatherineJohnson - 28 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AndrewDiscoversChannel24 28 Jun 2006 - 19:14 CatherineJohnson



    Martine just came downstairs & said Andrew is watching Channel 24. She thinks he's watching the ticker tapes. There are 3 of them, two scrolling across the bottom of the screen, and a static, semi-blinking tape on top. She said she picked up the remote and he went nuts because he thought she was going to change the channel.

    The host of the show is interviewing some guy on the floor of the stock exchange on the subject of BULL VS BEAR.

    I'm sure this is a good development.





    It is pretty fun.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 28 Jun 2006



    comments...

    JayGreeneOnBoyProblem 28 Jun 2006 - 20:18 CatherineJohnson



    For me, the boy problem comes down to a case of choose your expert.

    That and "Who are you going to believe, Ed Sector or your own lying eyes?"

    If Jaye Greene says there's a boy problem in the schools, I'm going with him.

    Among our key findings:

    • The overall national public high school graduation rate for the class of 2003 was 70 percent.

    • There is a wide disparity in the public high school graduation rates of white and minority students.

    • Nationally, the graduation rate for white students was 78 percent, compared with 72 percent for Asian students, 55 percent for African-American students, and 53 percent for Hispanic students.

    • Female students graduate high school at a higher rate than male students. Nationally, 72 percent of female students graduated, compared with 65 percent of male students. The gender gap in graduation rates is particularly large for minority students.

    • Nationally, about 5 percentage points fewer white male students and 3 percentage points fewer Asian male students graduate than their respective female students. While 59 percent of African-American females graduated, only 48 percent of African-American males earned a diploma (a difference of 11 percentage points). Further, the graduation rate was 58 percent for Hispanic females, compared with 49 percent for Hispanic males (a difference of 9 percentage points).

    • The state with the highest overall graduation rate was New Jersey (88 percent), followed by Iowa, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, each with 85 percent. The state with the lowest overall graduation rate was South Carolina (54 percent), followed by Georgia (56 percent) and New York (58 percent).

    • Each of the nation's ten largest public high school districts, which enroll more than 8 percent of the nation's public school student population, failed to graduate more than 60 percent of its students.

    • Among the nation's 100 largest public school districts (by total enrollment size), the highest graduation rate was in Davis, Utah (89 percent), followed by the Ysleta Independent School District in Texas (84 percent). Among the 100 largest districts, the lowest graduation rate was in San Bernardino City Unified district (42 percent), followed by Detroit (42 percent) and New York City (43 percent).

    [snip]

    ... in this report we are able for the first time to break out graduation rates by gender. Observers have long suspected that the graduation rate for boys is significantly lower than that for girls. CCD now contains enough information to allow us to estimate graduation rates using our method for boys and girls separately.

    source:
    Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates



    dingbatWSJ2.jpg


    in Yonkers

    Christian picked up his transcript from Lincoln High School yesterday.

    Class of '96:

    • entering class size: 1500

    • % of class graduating in 2000: 45%

    • % of class entering college after graduation: 20%


    I'll scan & post if he says OK.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 28 Jun 2006



    comments...

    AleksAssessmentResults 28 Jun 2006 - 22:00 CatherineJohnson



    arithmetic

    The good news is, I'm officially done with arithmetic.

    The fact that ALEKS calls arithmetic "arithmetic" is a point in its favor.


    ALEKSreadiness3sm.jpg





    algebra

    I found the algebra assessment incredibly hard, leading me to wonder whether I was taught any algebra at all in the two years I "studied" the subject back in high school. I'm 65 lessons into Saxon Algebra 1, a combined algebra-geometry text with 120 lessons in all, and a lot of the material in the book is new to me.

    I think the ALEKS assessment is a vindication of Saxon. For one thing, I was able to figure out how to do all kinds of polynomial factoring I've never seen or done before, including in Saxon. That is, 65 lessons of Saxon Algebra 1 gave me a strong base from which to figure out new problems. I did some guessing and checking, but it was informed guessing and checking.

    Sometimes I could just "see" what the factors had to be, thanks to Saxon.

    Here's the ALEKS assessment:



    ALEKSreadiness4sm.jpg



    I think the reference to "grade 6" comes from me, not from ALEKS. I asked the program to assess me for Grade 6; then I asked it to assess me for algebra. Today when I asked it to assess Christopher for grade 6 & for pre-algebra, ALEKS called pre-algebra "grade 6."

    So I don't think "Algebra 1" is what ALEKS thinks kids should (necessarily) be taking in 6th grade.




    50% Saxon Algebra 1 = 80% ALEKS Algebra 1?

    Have I got that right?

    All of the Saxon books open with a great deal of review, and end with difficult material (the book advises teachers to schedule the school year accordingly). If you assume that at least the first 20 lessons of Saxon (more like 30) are review, that means it's more accurate to say that I've completed 45 lessons out of 100.

    So....with 45% of Saxon Algebra 1 under my belt, I correctly answered 100 out of 125 ALEKS assessment items.

    Seems pretty good to me.

    update: I've also worked my way through most of Mary Dolciani's chapter on graphing functions in a coordinate plane.


    So let's see how Christopher fared with Prentice Hall Pre-algebra taught by Ms. K, shall we?



    Singapore placement test results
    ALEKS



    -- CatherineJohnson - 28 Jun 2006



    comments...

    HelpDeskGrammarBookRecommendations 29 Jun 2006 - 16:12 CatherineJohnson



    Verghis would like grammar book recommendations for an 8th grader.

    Any thoughts?

    I'm finishing up an email with the books I'm contemplating for Christopher (and for me); will post when finished.

    In the meantime, let me say, again, that David Mulroy's The War Against Grammar, which Verghis recommended, has changed my life.


    8257290.gif


    Diane Ravitch's review





    email to Verghis

    • Susan S very much likes Steps to Good Grammar by Genevieve Walberg Schaefer. (See Susan's follow-up in Comments.) I have the book, and haven’t used it too much, only because I couldn’t fit it in during the school year & because for the summer I’m thinking of using a more involved curriculum. It looks terrific, and the reader reviews at Amazon are raves.

      Steps has 169 lessons, exercises, and tests. Apparently it covers all grammar “normally” taught K-8.

      I’m contemplating using it myself (for me if not for Christopher).

      Around $30.



    • The curriculum I think I’m going to use for Christopher is Curtis, Hake, & O’Rourke’s Grammar and Writing. Hake was a coauthor of the Saxon Math books, and the Hake grammar & writing is built along the same lines. At this point I’m a huge fan of the Saxon books, so I’m going to try to do Grammar & Writing with Christopher. (It’s a big commitment, so we’ll see...)

      At the moment they have books for 6th, 7th & 8th grade.

      I assume students can find the “incremental” approach trying.....I think Christopher does. But let me tell you: it works. It’s astounding how powerful the principle of repetition & distributed practice is.









    • I know there are grammar series homeschoolers like: Shurley Grammar, I believe, and Rod & Staff. I have links to both on the Favorite Books pages. They’re probably great, but I assume they’re more extensive than what you want.



    • I’ve been disappointed in Grammar & Diagramming Sentences by Nan DeVincent-Hayes. I bought the book to use myself, and it’s too hard. DeVincent-Hayes assumes you know all the various parts & functions of grammar, including the various phrases, and plunges in midstream.





    • I’ve been contemplating Rex Barks by Phyllis Davenport for about a year now. (I gather that objectivists particularly like this book. No idea what that says about it one way or the other.) Amazon link. UPDATE 9-22-2006: I've got the book; looks great. The introduction has the crispest & most succinct defense of senence diagramming I've read. (hint: sentence diagramming helps you read texts with highly complex, non-obvious uses of grammar, such as poetry) Will report back once I know more.







    • update: from Kathy Iggy "I used "Warriner's English Grammar and Composition" from Grades 7 through 12 and kept one as a reference in college. I think digramming was taught in those texts. Comments on Amazon are positive about this series....Warriner's has a "first course" (7th grade) all the way up to 6th course for 12th grade. I recall lots of diagramming and parts of speech as well--the nun who taught 7th and 8th grade English would have timed diagramming contests."

      and from Google Master:We used Warriner's in 7th through 10th grades; in 11th and 12th grades, we studied literature and wrote papers. I believe there is a Warriner's volume for each of 7th (or earlier) through 12th grades.

      I haven't looked at one in ages, but I recall that they were very big on parts of speech -- identifying them, using them correctly -- and moved on to tense, mood. I remember them as being almost math-like in their exactness."


    Almost math-like in their exactness: that is exactly what I'm looking for.

    Naturally these books, too, seem to be going extinct, along with Moise & Downs' SMSG Geometry. This weekend I was able to track down two of the texbooks along with their answer keys at Setonbooks. Seton has the 3rd (9th grade) and 4th courses (10th).





    NYC Educator's recommendation

    Also, don't forget that NYC Educator recommends Betty Azar's Understanding and Using English Grammar, a text written for ESL students.

    I'm inclined to think that grammar books written for students who must learn grammar as a prerequisite to learning something else (English language in the case of ESL students, Latin in the case of Latin students) are a good bet. That's what prompted me to order a secondhand copy of English Grammar for Students of Latin for my own use.


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    Language Arts Posts



    -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TweensAndTeens 29 Jun 2006 - 20:34 CatherineJohnson



    Karen A just pointed me to a blog written by a mom who is afterschooling her kids in math.

    Not long ago, the principal of my kids' elementary school called me into his office, and said, "How are you?" I said "Terrific." He said, "Really? I've read your blogs."

    I explained to him that if it hadn't been for the school's inferior math program, I never would have started homeschooling my kids in math.


    Funny thing. No one in my district ever says, "I've been reading your blog."

    No one except dissident parents, that is.

    Tweens and Teens looks fantastic.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006



    comments...

    NewsFromNowherePart21 30 Jun 2006 - 01:17 CatherineJohnson



    Phase4finassesstop.jpg


    Phase4finassessbottom.jpg


    Phase2.jpg



    Oh I think this summer will be relaxing, exciting, and enjoyable!

    I think this summer will be filled with relaxing, exciting, and enjoyable brushing up on our math skills!

    All 22 of them!

    And so farewell, Ms. Kahl.

    We who are about to die salute you.


    mid-winter break
    Ms. K's job for life





    an assessment I can work with


    Here are the results of Christopher's ALEKS assessment:

    ALEKS6282006Chris1small.jpg


    ALEKSChris62820064small.jpg





    compare and contrast

    So what have we got here?

    Ms. K's rubric tells me.....

    I don't know what it tells me.

    My child understands everything, but can do nothing.

    He is to "brush up" on his "math skills" over the summer.

    That sounds like a plan, but here's a snag: the school has collected the textbooks as well as the Top Secret Glencoe Diagnose - Prescribe - Practice workbooks. Thus Christopher, age 11, has no means of brushing up on his math skills unless he is expected to write his own problems. Even if he were able to write his own problems and solve those, he would have no way of checking his answers unless he were to write the answer key, too. If he could do that, he wouldn't need to brush up on his math skills.

    So we confront a typical Kahlian circularity.

    Also a typical Kahlian intrusion into family vacation time.

    I think I'll send Ms. Kahl an email asking her advice. She is a tenured teacher in a School of Excellence. (pdf file, p 57) She'll know what to do.


    So onward to ALEKS.

    I can't tell whether ALEKS shows me that one year in Phase 4 math with Ms. K was a complete and total FWOT.

    It probably was.

    I can say that after one full school year in Ms. K's Phase 4 Accelerated Math class Christopher has mastered arithmetic. He is exactly where your basic American kid who didn't just take Accelerated Math in 6th grade should be. Whole numbers, fractions, decimals. He's got them.

    UPDATE 10-24-2006: He doesn't have them. He can do fraction, decimal, and percent calculations. He cannot do a basic percent word problem such as, "The price of a pair of jeans with 10% tax is $42. What was the original price?" Neither can the other kids in the class whose parents have asked them to do this problem and others of its type.



    That's the funny part, the perfect score on fractions.

    From the moment I met Carolyn I was hearing that fractions were death. Nobody in the entire Continental United States can do fractions!

    My kid can do fractions.

    It's a start.


    UPDATE 10-24-2006: Maybe he can do fractions (fraction word problems, that is); maybe he can't. I'm going to give him this arithmetic placement study guide (pdf file) from Eastern Michigan University and see what's what.



    ALEKS: A Better State of Knowledge
    ALEKS assessment Catherine



    -- CatherineJohnson - 30 Jun 2006



    comments...

    TellingTimeInSingaporeMath 30 Jun 2006 - 19:15 CatherineJohnson



    Rudbeckia asked whether schools ought to be expected to teach children to tell time.

    I was under the impression that that has always been the school's job, but once she asked the question I wasn't sure so I checked Singapore & Saxon.

    Singapore Math teaches the topic of telling time in the 2nd half of 2nd grade:


    sp_pmust2b2.gif


    The series begins time calculations in 3B:

    sp_pmust3b4.gif



    Saxon Math begins teaching time (and date of month) in Kindergarton, then continues in 1st grade and 2nd.

    Christopher learned to tell time at school.



    At the Phase 4 Parent Uprising Meeting a year and a half ago one of the parents brought up the fact that kids all over New York state were doing poorly on the "Measurement" scale on the state tests. (Christopher's low score on the Measurement scale almost cost him his 4.)

    Lisa Urban, the legendary middle school math teacher, grinned and said with obvious relish, "Your children can't tell time!"

    Then she elaborated.

    "By that I don't mean they can't tell me what time it is on the clock. I mean they can't calculate time. They can't solve problems concerning time. I want your children to go out in the world and solve problems.

    etc.

    It's probably just as well she's retiring.

    I'll kick myself for saying this next fall.


    -- CatherineJohnson - 30 Jun 2006



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