What Are the Implications of Recent Policy Initiatives for the Classroom: Innovations for Instructio

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What Are the Implications of Recent Policy
Initiatives for the Classroom Innovations for
Instruction in Urban Settings

• Cathy Collins Block, Ph.D. Professor of
  Education Texas Christian University
  c.block_at_tcu.edu

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Please mail me copies of your report cards at

• Dr. Cathy Collins Block
  c.block_at_tcu.edu or 4413
  Willow Way Ft. Worth,
  TX 76133

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Reference Sources for Policy Initiatives
Difficulties We Face

• National Center for Educational Statistics.
  (2003). Status and Trends in the Education of
  Hispanics.Washington, D. C. NCES.
  http//nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid20
  03008MDR
• MDRC for the Council of the Great City Schools.
  (2002). Foundations for Success Case Studies of
  How Urban School Systems Improve Student
  Achievement. Washington, DC. Council of the
  Great City Schools or www.cgcs.org. September
  2002.
• Large city schools that made a difference
  focused on achievement, set specific goals,
  scheduled defined consequences, aligned curricula
  with state standards, focused on
  lowest-performing schools, translated these
  standards into district-wide instructional
  practices and curricula accompanied by
  professional development program worked hard
• Council of Great City Schools. (2002). Critical
  Trends in Urban Education Fifth Biennial Survey
  of Americas Great City Schools. Washington, DC
  Council of Great City Schools. October 2002.
  www.cgcs.org/reports/critical_trends_02.html.
  Superintendents more optimistic that progress has
  been made than in 1995-1996Professional
  development, public confidence and principal
  leadership were top needs.

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Reference Sources for Policy Initiatives What
Difficulties Face Us

• Family Illiteracy Aliteracy Education
  Department, National Urban League Form
  Partnership to Educate Families about Reading and
  Literacy Development (500,000). Call National
  Urban League, Max Smith, 212-558-5371.
• Teacher Turnover lack of stable staff Is
  being addressed by states with incentives
• More than 1,000 students from foreign countries
  enter our schools for the first time every day.
  Brown, D. F. (2002). Becoming A Successful Urban
  Teacher. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

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Reference Sources for Policy Initiatives
Difficulties We Face

• Dropout rate among urban youth in large cititeis
  is nearly one in every four students. Brown, D.
  F. (2002). Becoming A Successful Urban Teacher.
  Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Family Illiteracy Aliteracy Education
  Department, National Urban League Form
  Partnership to Educate Families about Reading and
  Literacy Development (500,000). Call National
  Urban League, Max Smith, 212-558-5371.
• Teacher Turnover lack of stable staff Is
  being addressed by states with incentives

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Reference Sources for Policy Initiatives
Difficulties We Face

• Urban school teachers are less likely to have an
  adequate supply of textbooks than their peers in
  rural or suburban schools . American Pulbishers
  and NEA
• Political officials and educational leaders
  should be held accountable to advocate for and
  ensure necessary resources and to overcome
  present and past discrimination. Lipman, P.
  (2002). Making the Global City, Making
  Inequality The Political Economy and Cultural
  Politics of Chicago School Policy. American
  Educational Research Journal, 39(2), 379-419.

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Reference Sources for Policy Initiatives
Difficulties We Face

• No subtle discriminatory perceptions relative to
  achievement differences can exist urban students
  are not to blame nor deficient
• Minority Student Achievement Network Survey of
  Student Attitudes Toward School (Full report at
  www.msanetwork.org OR Ogbu, J. U. (2002). Black
  American Students in an Affluent Suburb A Study
  of Academic Disengagement.
• Curriculums subtle assumptions of knowing that
  go unchecked

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Reference Sources for Policy Initiatives
Difficulties We Face

• Culture is located in hearts and minds of people
  who are both actors and creators of culture.
  Must act within and create our classroom culture.
  IRA Multiliteracy Research Conference, Edinberg,
  Scotland, July 2002. True dialogue has to be
  conversations between eual friends and refrain
  from using the word diversity as it priviledges
  the center. Guiterrez, K. (2002, December). The
  Multiple Literacies of Diverse Populations of
  Young Children. Paper presented at the Annual
  Conference of the National Reading Congference.
  Miami, FL.

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Urban Students Speak Up This Is What We Need

• My teachers respect for me counts more than her
  visible rewards(see full issue of Educational
  Leadership, 60, 8 May 2003)
• I feel like Im being tested or punished when my
  parents ask or force me to read. I dont want to
  read in Spanish, dont know what topics I want to
  read about, or how to select books that I can
  enjoy. Monzo, L. D. Ruedo, R. (2002,
  December). Defining Literacy for Urban Latino
  Youth through Mandated Commercial Reading
  Programs A Case Study. Paper presented at the
  Annual Conference of the National Reading
  Conference. Miami, FL.

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Urban Students Speak Up This Is What We Need

• Welcome to my world. When urban first graders
  were asked to complete the following proverbs,
  this is what they said Children should be seen
  and not . . . . . . . . . .spanked or grounded.
  You get out of something only what you . . .see
  in the picture on the box. When the blind
  leadeth the blind. . . .get out of the way.
  Internet
• I feel like Im being tested or punished when my
  parents ask or force me to read. I dont want to
  read in Spanish, dont read outside of school,
  dont know what topics I want to read about, or
  how to select books that I can enjoy. Monzo, L.
  D. Ruedo, R. (2002, December). Defining
  Literacy for Urban Latino Youth through Mandated
  Commercial Reading Programs A Case Study.
  Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the
  National Reading Conference. Miami, FL.

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Urban Students Speak Up This Is What We Need

• We dont get much support from teachers. They
  just hand out the work and expect us to do it and
  learn without doing much teaching. We are not
  numbers that anyone should add up. Thats why
  young people get discouraged over racism and
  world issues and so they have that mind-set that
  they cant achieve and they believe it. Well,
  I am not going to let it go on! (11th graders
  cited in Taylor, K. (2002/2003). Through the
  Eyes of Students African American students
  offer personal insights into reasons for the
  minority achievement gap. Educational
  Leadership, 60(4), 72-75.

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What Is IRA Doing Your Dues At Work

• Urban Leadership Academies (For additional
  information or to register irawash_at_reading.org
  www.reading.org1-800-336-READ)
• Urban Partnership for Literacy (Book of research
  reports to appear in Fall 2003)
• Urban Deans Network (Next meeting is June 5-6,
  2003
• Urban Diversity Commission
• Partnerships with National Urban Alliances and
  Council of Great City Schools

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What Can We Do In Our Classrooms

• Keep Abreast of Current Literature (Handout)
• Corbett, D. Wilson, B. (2002). What Urban
  Students Say About Good Teaching. Educational
  Leadership, 60, 1, 18-21 Listening to Urban
  Students School Reform and the Teachers They
  Want. Albany, NY University of New York Press.
  (Pushed students to complete their assignments,
  maintained classroom order, willing to help
  explained clearly, varied classroom activities,
  and tried to understand all students. We dont
  have to leave anyone behind. Learned how to be
  kinder and fairer

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What Can We Do In Our Classrooms

• www.urbanteacher.com
• Community Service Projects and Group Writing for
  Publication, e.g. Pennies for Peace Program for
  Schoolchildren, Central Asia Institute, P. O. Box
  7209, Bozeman, MO 59771 cai_at_ikat.org or toll free
  call at 1-866-585-1766
• www.ed.gov/pubs/urbanhope/index.html
• An Idea Book on Planning Implementing
  Schoolwide Programs (www.ed.gov/pubs/Idea_Planning
  /
• Hope for Urban Education A Study of Nine
  High-Performing, High-Provery Urban Elementary
  Schools

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New Instructional Initiatives

• Provide Urban Youth With the Individualized
  Comprehension Instruction that They Need
  
  Discovery Discussions
  Mid-year Surveys
• Teach Students How to Read Non-Fiction
• Two texts together
• Buddy Beside Me As I Read
• Scamper and Scan until I Choose to Stop
  Savor

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New Instructional Initiatives (Cont.)

• 3. Teach Urban Youth to Initiate Comprehension
  Processes Independently
• Comprehension Process Motions
• Teacher Reader Groups
• Post-it Note Prompts
• 4. Teach Comprehension As It Will Exist in
  Students Lives
• Elevate the Essence and Set Their Own
  Purposes
• Teach Authorial Writing Styles
• Comprehension Wall with Comprehension
• Questions and Process Challenge Cards

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Goal 1 Individualize Comprehension Instruction
for Urban Youth Ask Students What They Want Us
to Do WHY? A. Only students know the
level of drive they have and want to commit B.
Students must learn to become active
comprehenders How? Discovery discussions
Mid-Year Surveys
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Discovery Discussions

• Step l Ask What do you need me to do to help
  you comprehend better?
• Step 2 Ask What have you learned about
  comprehension since we last met?
• Step 3 Ask What do you want to learn next to
  comprehend better?
• Step 4 Establish a plan-of-action to be
  revisited at the end of the month

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• Goal 2 Teach How to Read Non-Fiction
• WHY?
• Provides Greater Affective and Cognitive
  Responses to Fiction through Contrasts
• Enables Students to Gain A Sense of Stability
  and Security in Their World
• Increases Permanent Ease and Appreciation of
  Our Breath and Depth of Literary Heritage

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Authorial Writing Patterns

• Tree Frogs
• First Sentence Main Ideas
• Second Sentence How detail about Main Idea and
  new vocabulary word highlighted
• Third Sentence How detail about Main Idea and
  new vocabulary word is highlighted
• Fourth Sentence How detail

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Authorial Writing Patterns

• Volcanos
• First Sentence Main Idea, Vocabulary Word
  introduced and defined
• Second Sentence What detail about Main Idea
• Third Sentence What detail about Main Idea,
  Vocabulary Word introduced and defined
• Fourth Sentence What detail

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Teach Urban Students to Transfer Comprehension
Processes Independently

• Help students move from regurgitating to
  initiating processes
• Enable students to recognize points in a text
  when specific thought process should be used to
  obtain a deeper meaning
• Teach comprehension as a process that students
  negotiate---a thinking process that ebbs and
  flows with varying degrees of intensified
  thinking, reading speeds, and depths of
  emotional responses within a text

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Comprehension Process Motions

• Teach one comprehension process signal for
  several days, using it each time you say it
• Keep a checklist of students who have effectively
  initiated a correct match with text of the
  process that elicited the richest comprehension
• Stop when students signal a need for
  clarification and soon students will clarify for
  each other automatically. Less able students
  begin to ask questions before more able peers

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Description (Continued)

• Teacher models for the first two pages
• Students practice initiating one comprehension
  process for three weeks, Comprehension Process
  Cards become a continuously expanding
  Comprehension Process Wall
• Teacher says Im making a prediction and uses
  symbol Im drawing a conclusion
• Students initiate a comprehension process and
  signal when they want to contribute

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Benefits

• Instead of merely raising a hand, which only
  signals that a student wants the floor,
  comprehension process signals enable students to
  describe the type of thinking they are doing
  before they speak.
• Carla (Grade 3) expressed the value signals
  have Sometimes we cant hear each other in the
  classroom real good, but now we know what were
  about to hear before someone starts. I remember
  more cause we kinda have a head start.

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Benefits

• Teachers know which students are initiating
  comprehension processes without being prompted to
  do so.
• Can individualize comprehension instruction, and
  know the exact point in a text in which a student
  is initiating a certain process to make meaning
• A student learn to initiate several processes at
  once, and by individual choice.

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Benefits (Continued)

• Motions push hand raising into the next
  generation teachers can judge whom to call upon
  based on the type of thinking they want to
  discuss or assess for individuals or the class
• Teachers learn to use the comprehension motion
  signals each time they are doing a think aloud
  and even create new ones to solve problems
• Makes internal mental processes more visual for
  visual, affective, kinesthetic, and tactile
  learners

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Description of Teacher Reader Group Lessons
(Cont.)

• Model the process three days
• Prepare key statements that you want all students
  to automatize each time they readThis is the
  goal that we are working on_________. We want to
  learn how to use with every book we read
  by_______________
• Select four books that use the comprehension
  process taught (see eight examples)

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Benefits

• Teacher Readers of high, medium, and low ability
  levels experienced success and increased
  comprehension
• Teacher Reader Groups increased teachers
  expectations
• Student attentiveness increased Teacher Readers
  took the job of generating new examples
  seriously, students felt as if their voices were
  heard more frequently, and the number of
  student-generated questions rose significantly

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Benefits, Continued

• Ms. Contie (Grade 5) Children truly think
  they dont just go through the motions. In
  Teacher Reader groups, they cant just throw
  their minds into neutral, and they are more
  engaging than any other type of group that I
  hold. They are not merely trying to please me.
  For the first time, shy students talked about how
  they comprehended.
• Students voiced the processes they used to
  comprehend. Their vocalizations increased their
  comprehension automaticity and scores on
  comprehension tests.

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Post-it Notes as Prompts Description,
Demonstrations Benefits

• Teach why a comprehension process usually occurs
  at this point in texts
• Model how you do the process three times, using
  two thinking processes at points in a text when
  they should be initiated
• Ask students to describe the processes as they
  perform them later ask them to make their own
  graphics of processes on post-it notes

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If I can assist in your future professional
development program, please feel free to contact
me at

• Dr. Cathy Collins Block, Professor of Education
• Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• School of Education
• Texas Christian University
• TCU Box 297900
• Fort Worth, TX 76129
• c.block_at_tcu.edu