The Blurring Roles of Parent, Teacher, and Teacher Educator

We were just wrapping up our Educator Preparation Provider Unit meeting with program coordinators when the director noted the alert on her phone.  On Valentine's Day, with images of hearts on our agenda and cookies to sweeten the afternoon, we fell into anxious silence as we checked the news coming from Florida.  My roles as parent, teacher, and teacher educator blurred in those moments.

Later, my 16-year old looked on while I read accounts of text exchanges between parents and children, choking as I tried to read one aloud to her.  "The longest twenty minutes of my life," one parent said of the time that elapsed between messages.  I cannot begin to imagine.  My college freshman, my high schooler, and my sixth grader pull me into three different spaces mentally and emotionally when I cannot be there physically at a moments notice on a typical school day. 

Then, as a former middle and high school teacher, reading reports about the fallen educators in Florida took me back to those teaching days again.  "In loco parentis" refers to a teacher or other adult responsible for children in place of a parent.  In some cases, schools provide a safe, welcoming, and food-secure environment that students might not find elsewhere.  In other cases, safety means protection from natural disasters and other outside forces.  We huddled in hallways during storms; we grabbed our record books and marched outside for fires or, yes, bomb threats; we locked our doors and hid in darkness during lockdown drills.  To parents of former students I can say I was prepared to put myself in harm's way for your children.

My job now is to prepare future teachers to take on these responsibilities above and beyond the content they teach, the strategies to teach that content, and the planning, behavior, accountability, and administrative demands.  My methods candidates are fortunate to have class in a high school each week after their time observing mentor teachers, and throughout the semester, candidates try to apply pedagogical theory while presenting to peers and teaching mini-lessons in their mentor teachers' classrooms.  We discuss student engagement, classroom management, and--perhaps most important--relationships with students.

On February 15, one of my secondary graduate candidates texted:

I wasn't going to observe today [because] the kids have a half day and this fog was really scary to drive in, but after what happened yesterday in FL, I wanted to see how at least one teacher handles it.  I'm glad I did.  She led a lengthy class discussion and students were very knowledgeable about details of what happened.  She related the shooting to [their] school and the purpose of rules.  Today all math classes were devoted to mental health and making student aware of resources available through the school.  It was sad but fascinating to watch.

As teachers, we must be prepared to have difficult conversations like these. 

This profession offers such fulfillment and personal growth.  But teachers cannot stay for only these two reasons.  During the educator preparation meeting that ended with news alerts, the director had discussed a professional development alliance she attended with superintendents and other educators.  They brainstormed the causes of teacher shortages and came up with seven "Ps":

• Pay
• Pension
• Pressure
• Parents
• Passion
• Perception
• Politics

Some of these have larger or smaller roles in producing teacher stress.  I had good relationships with parents and my passion for learning helped me grow professionally (though it almost caused me to burn out, too). 

The next day, I sent the director some additional "Ps":

• Pain (in spite of passion)--it's just so heartbreaking and painful at times to be a teacher. 
• Protection (or lack thereof)--teachers do not feel protected in this current climate... Protected from top-down policies. Protected by or from legislation. Protected from shooters. Protected from media.
• Prepared is another--teachers may be prepared in theory and know how to use best practices and build relationships in the classroom, but who is truly prepared for every other aspect of teaching? We are parents of 20-120 students during the school day. How do we prepare candidates for that kind of weight, that kind of responsibility, especially in light of what happened yesterday?

These are areas I don't think we can ignore or speak of lightly.  This tragedy and so many others have brought with them this horrible reality--we will never be able to prepare ourselves or our candidates enough.  I am looking for the words to say in my methods class tomorrow that might convince them to stay.

English Language Learners: Learning beyond Professional Development (Part 3)

In my English Learner/Bilingual Methods independent study course I wanted to experience different types of learning experiences.  An Illinois Writing Project in-service day offered two sessions on EL strategies for writing, one in K-5 and the other in 6-12.  This was my first introduction to practical strategies to use with students in the classroom.  During another Writing Project event seven weeks later, I had the opportunity to revisit EL professional learning with the same presenter.  Although some of the content overlapped, the professional development presenter, Melissa*, adapted the strategies and activities to the grade levels during the in-service day and expanded the discussion of standards and assessment during the later session.

Melissa began our in-service sessions with Six-Word Memoirs.  As we tried to introduce ourselves with so few words, we were called upon to succinctly capture the essence of who we are and what we love.  In the morning I wrote this memoir: Wiser for learning words, children, faith.  In the afternoon, I tried my hand at gerunds to describe me: Reading, loving, learning, sharing, teaching, creating.  Other people wrote about children and outside interests, but I do not seem to be that creative.  NPR has a series on Six-Word Memoirs, but teachers must be careful when sharing random selections with students because of possible adult content.  Writing these memoirs shows that words have power in and of themselves without being connected to one another in sentences or paragraphs.  Melissa continued by saying that this activity could be modified with photos, word cards, and sentence frames, which are all appropriate modifications for language learners.

Importantly, teachers must consider two objectives with every lesson: language and content.  To meet these objectives, Melissa urges her district teachers to plan for reading, writing, speaking, and listening in every class.  In our PD sessions, we considered these questions:

How do writing-to-learn and academic conversations shape learning?
What compels me to read and write?
How can we support EL students?

Finding out English language proficiency levels are of primary importance.  English learner development is measured in six levels:

1. Newcomer
2. Emerging—knows and understands phrases
3. Developing—conversational understanding with lots of fillers
4. Expanding—academic language and knowledge of idioms developing
5. Bridging—students may exit the program but still need supports, especially with writing
6. Reaching—fluency

In the morning in-service session, I was first introduced to the language assessments created by WIDA that provide scores for English learners to indicate proficiency levels.  In Illinois, students may be exited from the EL program if they score a composite of 5.0 in writing and 4.2 in reading and math, which are both still at the expanding and bridging levels.  It is important to know what students’ current levels are in order to understand what supports they might need.  The WIDA website provides detailed information including Can Do Statements, helpful for determining the appropriate expectations teacher should have for students at different levels of proficiency.

Melissa cited John Hattie's meta-analysis intended to illuminate the most effective classroom strategies.  The following strategies were noted to have the largest effect sizes and can be adapted to benefit English language learners:

1. Clarity is intentional and purposeful. Teachers know the objectives for language and content and can articulately communicate those objectives to the students.  Teachers must ask, “Do students know what they need to do?”
2.  Lessons include guided, collaborative, and independent tasks.
3.  Tasks are meaningful and engaging.
4. Students can explain the purpose of the lesson and the tasks they are asked to do.
5. Teachers are authentic models.  In language arts and other classrooms, this means that teachers write.
6. Students apply strategies explicitly taught to them.

Melissa also led us in Jeff Anderson’s Power Writing activity, which is a timed writing based on words or images and sets a baseline for writing fluency and endurance.  Power writing is typically completed three times for a minute or two each time.  What is interesting is that often the second timed writing has the largest word count.  For this activity, Melissa used two unrelated pictures, but this activity could use pairs of words or phrases.  When we completed two timed writings on our picture choice, I noticed that the first image related to a memory, so I was immediately able to write.  This prompted me to consider that pictures could be content or academic related or culture related or family, etc depending on the purpose for the classroom writing activity.  These timed writings could also be included in the writer’s notebook and used for seeds for future writing opportunities (see Buckner, 2005 for more writer's notebook ideas).  Capturing writing in this way would allow students opportunities to return to their ideas and expand them.  One strategy would be to use short, timed writings at the beginning of a unit and then at the end of a unit to compare the quantity and/or quality of the writing or words.

But no matter how much knowledge and training teachers have, classrooms pose daily challenges and learning opportunities.  In last week's PD event, Melissa shared that she and a 7th grade language arts teacher have been conducting a study to document the supports students need at different proficiency levels.  For the most recent writing assignment, students were to use a folktale model and write their own "fractured" fairytale/folktale story.  However, she and the language arts teacher recognized late in the unit that they had left out some essential scaffolding.  The English learner students did not have a solid understanding of narrative structure, a cornerstone of successfully completing the writing assignment.  For example, one student had worked diligently on his piece for two weeks, but when he shared with the class, his onomatopoeias, simple sentences, and fragments lacked the essential narrative storytelling quality.  The bigger insight she shared with us that evening was that the safe classroom environment allowed this student to share his work without fear of judgment.  This student knew his writing would be received positively, and he would gain constructive feedback from his peers.

Feeling safe.  Some weeks ago, I attended an informational program about the refugee experience.  Later I learned from Melissa that if a school has twenty or more students who speak the same language, districts must provide a devoted EL teacher resource for them.  With the influx of immigrants, particularly refugees, in different areas around Chicago and the suburbs, this mandate has put a strain on several schools working to stay in compliance with the state.  And for some immigrants there may not be a choice of where or when, which is what I learned during a "walk-in-a-refugee's-shoes" activity during the refugee experience program.  As my semester progressed, my coursework was complicating my thinking in unexpected ways about what it meant to teach in diverse classrooms.  My next step would be to visit some.

Suggested resources:
Maria Nichols (2006) Comprehension through Conversation can be a cornerstone for early to mid elementary instruction.
Peter Johnston (2004) encourages teachers to speak to students in the language of literacy.  If we call students writers then they will become writers.
Stephanie Harvey and Ann Gouva’s Reading the World video series can be helpful for exploring culture; however, Amazon only lists the VHS version.
Zwiers and Crawford (2011) Academic Conversations.

*All names are pseudonyms.

Leadership of Reflective Inquiry

As I viewed the responses this morning for my Advanced Reading Methods course, I felt my heart getting fuller with the depth of thinking and connections I found on the discussion board.  The graduate students wrote at length about classroom experiences and contexts that pushed them to dig deeper into studying what might work for their own students.  They highlighted excerpts from the Best Practices text, as would be expected in a reading response, but also shared their struggles with rising to the expectations teachers should have for themselves when using "best practices" in their classrooms. While the posts shared elements of "still trying" and "not there yet," the writings carried with them a sense of reflecting for the purpose of inquiring forward, of unmasking weaknesses in order to find strength in the community and the texts.  Peers have begun sharing resources and posing questions of each other, probing for more context so they can both understand and prompt for internally persuasive dialogue. 

My friend in the National Writing Project said she has witnessed teachers all over the country get together to figure things out.  Teachers in different content areas, grade levels, and departments have the capacity to think through issues and work towards solutions.  We see this in groups of teachers who know individually they do not have the answers, who see the group as being smarter than any one entity.

This brings me to the role a leader has in a class, organization, or small group.  A leader, whether he/she is a teacher leader, an administrator, or PD provider must understand the situation of the inquiry or problem, the interaction among the group members, and the continuity or time line for action.  A leader knows how these three elements intersect to create the dynamics of reflective inquiry.  If a leader is responsible for managing the moving parts, how can the leader also solve the problem?  In knowing the terrain, the leader within a school setting can make clear the path for teachers to do the hard work of reflecting, inquiring, testing, and analyzing.

My role in this course was assigning a text, setting up a discussion board, and designing a calendar of assignments.  Much of my syllabus is a credit to my friend and newly-graduated PhD.  My adjustments made the course more accessible to online learning but did not change the content or focus. But I must pause here to acknowledge a leader's role in a course.  The leader's preparation before the course begins builds the foundation for students to be participatory in the work of each class.  I believe the group is smarter than the individual. I especially believe any group I teach will be smarter in many ways than I will be as its instructor.

As a leader in the sense that I instruct classes, I need to acknowledge that it's okay to be the leader and not in charge of the learning. Sheridan Blau, a keynote speaker for a National Writing Project annual meeting spoke of research surrounding the proficiency of professionals in different fields.  What I need to remember is that research says having questions and feeling inadequate signals proficiency or at least the desire to get there.  If we think we are proficient, we probably aren't.  It makes me chuckle to think about my friend in the Writing Project who says she hopes feeling dumb is actually a sign of how smart she is--I laugh at this because she really is one of the smartest people I know.

My dissertation research into reflective inquiry has me questioning how group members work together with and as leaders to plan professional development.  I want to know what fosters or hinders reflective inquiry in our professional development planning.  At first, I thought the backtalk of authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse would be the static I would need to tune into.  Then I realized the backtalk of these discourses pushes thinking but does not necessarily hinder or foster inquiry.  I paused then to consider the leadership roles within our group and discovered the growth of reflective inquiry when clear leadership is present.  A leader who defines the context, poses questions, and trusts the members with the thinking process encourages and fosters reflective inquiry.  What happens sometimes, though, is people may enter the discussion without having hold of all the necessary intersecting elements in reflective inquiry.

To engage in reflective inquiry, one must look backward to dissect favorable and unfavorable events and experiences so that some may be repeated and others may (hopefully) never be seen again.  At the same time, a reflective inquirer must see enough value in the present work to want to see its positive effects in a different, future context.  If a future value cannot be determined or cannot be seen, whether personally, professionally, in part, or in whole, the inquiry can die before taking root.  A reflective inquirer recognizes adaptability in the problem, solution, and him/herself. Reflective inquiry is about seeking answers to future questions while solving present problems.

I do not know all the answers.  I ask questions, think deeply, ponder inadequacies, and learn constantly.  Am I a reflective inquirer?  I hope so.  My future in teaching will be bleak if I cannot re-envision past lessons and learn from all my previous experiences.  But once I know all the answers, I think I can retire from teaching and leading.

Story as a Fossil and the NCTE Proposal Title

As I struggle with the right conference proposal title, I think about the aha moment I had just an hour ago while reading Stephen King's On Writing.  I bought this book some years ago and enjoyed reading it then as I am enjoying a reread of it now.  But the section about fossils and symbolism made me pause:  "If you can go along with the concept of the story as a pre-existing thing, a fossil in the ground, then symbolism must also be pre-existing, right? Just another bone (or set of them) in your new discovery" (p. 198).  Stories, he said, are fully formed and need the proper excavation tools.  And maybe symbols and deeper meanings are much the same.

What this comes to is my narrative stance in research.  I want to study, to write about, inquire into the idea of transformation experiences in teacher development.  Why do certain professional development experiences transform some teachers and not others?  How might narrative inquiry help us know the entire story that answers that question?  It seems that there is a fossil that must be discovered, unearthed, and polished for us to understand why some teachers respond with renewed vigor for the profession and others decide that one more hoop just won't do it for them.  I suspect transformation has to do with the validation teachers finally feel as professionals when they attend learning opportunities that honor their capacity as leaders.

Recently, I learned about another kind of transformation.  By listening to interviews, reading transcripts, and focusing on the story being told, I found a thread running through many conversations between one teacher and myself.  I created a narrative research/literature review that uncovered an interesting element that could lead to the teacher's exploration of new classroom strategies.  Seeing the story of our work, the teacher realized our conversations, more than class reflections, were intelligent talk that moved learning and discovery forward. That story is still developing.  But it may be key to figuring out the transformation piece.  Perhaps the transformed teachers discovered a fossil--their mission, teaching story, or leadership ability, perhaps--and were able to polish it with renewed strength and insight with the right excavation [PD] tools.  That, too, remains to be seen.

There may be no easy formula to determine the best professional learning opportunity.  It most likely is dependent on the disposition of the attendee and his or her context.  If that is true, even the well-designed PD may fall short of delivering (or deliverance).  This inquiry goes deeper than examining professional development feedback databases or administering surveys.  The story begins at the fossil, in the classroom before the professional development experience.  Either polishing happens or it doesn't, but we have to know the fossil from the beginning.

So I am still stuck with no title for my NCTE proposal and am only a  little clearer on my narrative stance in research.