PORTIONS OF THIS PAGE ARE AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES
Parents
The links to Dennis Littky's materials can help you make your child's school better.
If the school doesn't change, your child will have more information and will be able to adapt to the situation.
Students
Ask your teachers to listen to you. Tell them what you want to study. Talk with your teachers about your passions and interests.
Teachers
Find out what Bill Gates found in Rhode Island. The tips on Dennis Littky's website and in Littky's book could improve your teaching and transform you into a facilitator.
Administrators
Your job as a gatekeeper could become a lot easier.
The Littky Method
1. Ask each student to interview his/her parents, relatives, friends of the family and compile a 75-page biography of the student.
2. Ask teachers to get to know the students and parents. In Littky's school, the teacher moves with the student, so the 9th grade teacher becomes the student's 10th grade teacher, etc. The teacher has to be flexible and teach from a variety of textbooks. The teacher even visits the student and gets to know the parents in their home. (Littky considers this part of "treating parents and students with respect.")
3. No grades. Write letters to the students every 9 weeks. Narratives will guide the student toward improvement.
4. After students identify their passions, connect students to mentors who work in those areas. Let the students see what is needed to perform in their area of interest.
5. Learn through REAL-WORLD, real-work projects. Many schools offer "project-based learning." Littky insists that the projects are connected to the real world. Example: A realtor came to a middle school class and asked them to assemble a binder about their town that she could show to new clients -- the kids produced a 90-page looseleaf binder in two weeks. They worked hard because "that lady is expecting us to give her something real." Littky uses this example to explain why students need contact with the real world and why his school is everywhere where there are mentors.
6. A plan for each student. The teacher meets with the individual and creates an individual education plan for every student.
7. Stand up and perform your understanding. Tests are "stand ups" or presentations. Students sit for written tests, too, but the focus of learning and evaluation is the "exhibition."
8. Alumni (ex-students) are encouraged to visit the school, use the school's resources, and become mentors.
Objections
1 -- this is a lot of work
2 -- there are concerns about liability and safety for the children
3 -- this couldn't work in my school.
4 -- this is too radical for my school.
Some answers to these objections:
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. If you say so, then it might be true. Perhaps the answers will change if other people get involved.
4. Adopt some of the practices and modify the procedures to fit your school's culture.
Let's repeat:
a) Students have the same teacher for 4 years for all subjects. (A teacher who is a whiz at English but lousy at math might be a good role model for some kids who struggle at math.)
b) All students write a 75-page autobiography, which includes interviews with grandparents and relatives to build a picture about "where I came from."
c) Students spend time OFF CAMPUS in an internship. The school work is linked to the student's INTERESTS and the Curriculum is centered on the PROJECT and the INDIVIDUAL.
d) Examinations are done STANDING UP. The presentation is spoken with visuals. It's like a board meeting or a presentation about a new marketing concept. You can see examples of Littky's students on the Internet. Go to www.Metcenter.org
Evaluation by NARRATIVE.
Exhibitions, instead of tests... for skiing medals, we had that sort of test... Mentors >>> staff of Aiglon have been mentors to students, especially at meals and on long expeditions ("This is how to behave as an adult").
GET A BIG PICTURE BROCHURE
VIDEO ABOUT DENNIS LITTKY
There is more and you can find more tips in Littky's book The Big Picture.
MANY WAYS OF LEARNING
There are many ways of learning and many ways of presenting information. I am available to speak to your group about what I have seen and read about Littky's methods. Tell me the audience and time constraints and I will compose a speech for your group. If I cannot attend your meeting, I can post the speech on youtube.com. You are invited to look at my current offerings on Youtube and select items that might fit your group's needs.
Or you could read the materials and create
your own workshop.
Or you could contact BigPicture.org and get the information directly from Littky's organization.
Find a Small School In Praise of Small Schools (a booklet compiled by S. McCrea) ===================== NOTE: Many efforts at school reform avoid the difficult task of transformation Schools can be made smaller – a good first step Many schools involve parents as partners in the learning process Some schools institute individual learning plans Project-based curriculum, integrated curricula (with teachers of different subjects collaborating Many schools introduce learning through internships
But then these changes are different ways of operating a school that is based on delivering information to a group of students over 13 years (K-12) 1. Teachers continue to teach as the primary deliverer of information. (“as I was taught – and I came out all right”) 2. Students still progress through grades as an age group 3. The school calendar is based on the agrarian calendar 4. control of the school’s decisionmaking remains subject to uncertainty: a democratic board can shift focus year-to-year.
Here are some ways that the "transformed" school addresses these issues
9. Focus of the leadership is centered in a person with vision. (Consider the progress made in NYC public schools under the "school czar" Joe LKlein, appointed by Mayor Bloomberg.) “Democracy” as demonstrated by typical decisionmaking patterns as seen on many school boards is avoided by delegating total responsibility for reform to a central committee or leader. Evaluation is after six years, since innovation takes at least that long to become part of the school’s culture. Reference: Christensen, C., Disrupting Class.
Parents: you can use these items as a checklist to see if the school that your child is attending is a "transformed" school. Questions to consider: What structural changes are needed embrace this transformation? How much time is needed? How much community “buy-in” and how much participation of the community is needed? What initial investments in technology is needed?
These issues are discussed at TheStudentistheClass.com
RETURN TO VISUALandACTIVE.com
| Links
Find a Small School In Praise of Small Schools
(a booklet compiled by S. McCrea)
Youtube
(the 10-minute video visit to Met Center)
Organing a school, part 1
Organizing a school, part 2
Organizing a school http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmQ1qVxbDPY
Find a Small School (booklet)
The Importance of Mentors
Dennis Littky on NPR Listen to the interview on National Public Radio from April 2005
Bill Gates talked about schools and students
This is the key to the Littky system. Why not spread this link through the world...? http://www.scribd.com/doc/16340634/plitqi-Chapter-5Howard Gardner's ideas about
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At our foundation, we believe that success ultimately means that at least 80 percent of low-income and minority students graduate from high school college ready. According to our data, the number of low income and minority students graduating college ready today is 22 percent, and that figure is increasing far too slowly. It’s unacceptable. We need to do better. So let me describe what we make of the evidence, and what we plan to do next. The disappointing results showed how hard it can be to convert large, low-performing high schools into smaller, more autonomous schools. To be successful, a redesign requires changing the roles and responsibilities of adults, and changes to the school’s culture. In some districts, we got tacit agreement to move forward, but then the schools weren’t willing to do the hard things—like removing ineffective staff or significantly increasing the rigor of the curriculum. In New York City, many schools reorganized the school day to get students more time with math and reading, and they reduced the size of the school to improve relationships between students and teachers. Results showed that smaller, more personal learning environments and strong, caring bonds between students and adults can increase graduation rates dramatically. We see these structural changes as necessary, but not sufficient. -- Bill Gates, 2008 http://www.gatesfoundation.org/speeches-commentary/Pages/bill-gates-2008-education-forum-speech.aspx =========================== Fortunately, there is mounting evidence that the new design works. The Kansas City, Kansas public school district, where 79 percent of students are minorities and 74 percent live below the poverty line, was struggling with high dropout rates and low test scores when it adopted the school-reform model called First Things First in 1996. This included setting high academic standards for all students, reducing teacher-student ratios, and giving teachers and administrators the responsibility to improve student performance and the resources they needed to do it. The district’s graduation rate has climbed more than 30 percentage points. These are the kind of results you can get when you design high schools to prepare every student for college. At the Met School in Providence, Rhode Island, 70 percent of the students are black or Hispanic. More than 60 percent live below the poverty line. Nearly 40 percent come from families where English is a second language. As part of its special mission, the Met enrolls only students who have dropped out in the past or were in danger of dropping out. Yet, even with this student body, the Met now has the lowest dropout rate and the highest college placement rate of any high school in the state. Two years ago, I visited High Tech High in San Diego. It was conceived in 1998 by a group of San Diego business leaders who became alarmed by the city's shortage of talented high-tech workers. Thirty-five percent of High Tech High students are black or Hispanic. All of them study courses like computer animation and biotechnology in the school's state-of-the-art labs. High Tech High’s scores on statewide academic tests are 15 percent higher than the rest of the district; their SAT scores are an average of 139 points higher. These are the kind of results you can get when you design a high school to prepare every student for college. These are not isolated examples. These are schools built on principles that can be applied anywhere – the new three R’s, the basic building blocks of better high schools: The first R is Rigor – making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work; The second R is Relevance – making sure kids have courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals; The third R is Relationships – making sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve. The three R’s are almost always easier to promote in smaller high schools. The smaller size gives teachers and staff the chance to create an environment where students achieve at a higher level and rarely fall through the cracks. Students in smaller schools are more motivated, have higher attendance rates, feel safer, and graduate and attend college in higher numbers. http://www.itdl.org/Journal/May_05/article01.htm The new 3 R's appear in Littky's book, The Big Picture =========================== I'm not a graphic designer. INVITATION: This information could be displayed more creatively and it could be more appealing to a wider audience. Why not grab this info and create a website with more appealing graphics?
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