REACTIONS TO THE READINGS Trust. Truth. No Put-downs. Active Listening. Personal Best. Seen at New City School in St. Louis, Mo. Howard Gardner Alternative Methods of Assessment Key quotes from Gardner Multiple Intelligences is most usefully invoked in the service of two educational goals. The first is to help students achieve certain valued adult roles or end-states. If one wants everyone to be able to engage in artistic activities, it makes sense to develop linguistic intelligence for the poet, spatial intelligence for the graphic artist and sculptor, movement intelligence for the dancer and musical intelligence for the composer. If we want everyone to be civil, then it is important to develop the personal intelligences. The second goal is to help students master certain curricular materials. Students might be encouraged to take a course in biology so as to better understand the development of the living world. If individuals indeed have different kinds of minds, with varied strengths, interests and strategies, then it is worth considering whether pivotal curricular materials like biology could be taught AND ASSESSED in a variety of ways. Intelligence Reframed, p. 167 Performances of Understanding When it comes to probing a student’s understanding of evolution, the shrewd pedagogue looks beyond the mastery of dictionary definitions or the recitation of textbook examples. A student demonstrates or “performs” his understanding when he can examine a range of species found in different ecological niches and speculate about the reasons for their particular ensemble of traits. A student performs her understanding of the Holocaust when she can compare events in a Nazi concentration camp to such contemporary genocidal events as those in Bosnia, Kosovo or Rwanda in the 1990s. “Measures of understanding” may seem demanding, particularly in contract to current, often superficial, efforts to measure what students know and are able to do. And, indeed, recourse to performing one’s understanding is likely to stress students, teachers, and parents, who have grown accustomed to traditional ways of doing (or NOT doing) things. Nonetheless, a performance approach to understanding is justified. Instead of mastering content, one thinks about the reason why a particular content is being taught and how best to display one’s comprehension of this content in a publicly accessible way. When students realize they will have to apply knowledge and demonstrate insights in a public form, they assume a more active stance to the material, seeking to exercise their “performance muscles” whenever possible. ============== INSTRUCTIONS TO WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS: Print this long web page and encourage participants to make a summary of each quotation. Ask them to put the quote in their own words. Then ask them to read phrases that inspire them. Read the Key Quotes
Instructions: After reading the quotes on the "Readings" pages of VisualandActive.com, take several moments and think how these quotes might alter the way you present information to students. 1. How might you change the way you organize your classroom?
2. What new procedures could you add?
3. What roles could the student take on, transforming you into a facilitator?
4. What is your opinion of alternative methods of assessment (exhibitions, portfolios)?
5. What is your opinion of narratives in addition to letter grades?
Find at least two quotes from these people. Circle the names if you want to discuss the quotes. Howard Gardner (Reframing Intelligence) “Measures of understanding” may seem demanding.... And performing one’s understanding is likely to stress students, teachers, and parents, who have grown accustomed to traditional ways of doing things. ... When students realize they will have to apply knowledge and demonstrate insights in a public form, they assume a more active stance to the material.
Neil Postman (Teaching as a Subversive/Conservative Activity) Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. From Wikipedia: Inquiry education (sometimes known as the inquiry method) is a student-centered method of education focused on asking questions. Students are encouraged to ask questions which are meaningful to them, and which do not necessarily have easy answers; teachers are encouraged to avoid giving answers when this is possible, and in any case to avoid giving direct answers in favor of asking more questions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_as_a_Subversive_Activity
Dennis Littky (The Big Picture) When the child finds his passion, we teach to that passion. We can find internships for high school students: Kids say, “I love this internship!”
Bill Gates (National High School Summit speech) 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 Rs are almost always easier to promote in smaller schools. ... Students in smaller schools are more motivated, have higher attendance rates, feel safer, and graduate and attend college in higher numbers.”
Alison Gopnik (The Teacher as Coach) Schools don't teach the same way children learn. ... Children seem to learn best when they can explore the world and interact with expert adults..... They learn by watching adults, trying themselves and receiving detailed corrective feedback about their efforts. ...A good example of such teaching in our culture is the stern but beloved baseball coach. How many school teachers are as good at essay writing, science or mathematics as the average coach is at baseball? And even when teachers are expert, how many children ever get to watch them work through writing an essay or designing a scientific experiment or solving an unfamiliar math problem?
Robert Reich (former Sec. of Labor) “Given the widening array of possibilities, there’s no reason that every child must master the sciences, algebra, geometry, biology, or any of the rest of the standard high school curriculum that has barely changed in half a century.”
Lois Hetland, Steve Seidel, J. Walters (Portfolio Practices, Project Zero) "Many universities allow home-schooled students to submit portfolios of their work to show their progress. Couldn't every student submit a portfolio with their college application? Paul Wagner, former presient of Rollins College "Movies, soap operas, TV shows and radio shows are competing for the minds of our young people. If we are going to have a chance at educating them, we need to use the same methods -- audio and visual." Thomas Hoerr (Building a Multiple Intelligences School) Educators should: personalize education and work to individualize instruction; view students' parents as partners and educate them, too; and demonstrate that students are prepared for the future. Dan Pink (Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind, The MFA is the New MBA) What would happen if a teacher introduced Dan Pink's "six elements" into the classroom? (From A Whole New Mind: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning) What if students were expected to include China, India and countries in South America in class discussions (in the way that we include England, France and Italy in many classes)? Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat) We have done a very poor job of conveying to kids the value of science and technology as a career choice that will make the world a better place. Engineering and science is what led to so many improvement in our lives. But you talk to K through 12 kids about changing the world and they don't look at computer science as a career that is going to be a great thing." (quoting Richard A. Rashid, director of reserach for Microsoft) ... We should be embarking on an all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred, no-budget-too-large crash program for science and engineering education immediately. (page 275) Dennis Yuzenas (WhatDoYaKnow.com) The "back to basics" movement and the focus on standardized tests ("drill-and-kill") have brutalized schools. The students aren't having fun, the teachers aren't having fun. There is another way. Richard Feynmann (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out) One day we read about dinosaurs and the book said that the dinosaur was twenty-five feet high with a head six feet across. "Let's see what that means. That would mean that if he stood in our front yard, he wold be high enough to put his head through the third-story window but not quite because his head would be a little bit too wide."
Send your comments to visualandactive@gmail.com and prepare for the workshop by looking more closely at some of these quotes. Total time to invest before the workshop: at least 15 minutes. Instructions to Workshop Organizers: This is your show. you can decide how to push the participants to take responsibility for their growth. Ask them the five questions that appear above. Keep asking until someone says, "I've decided to change one of my procedures in my classroom." Then visit that teacher's classroom in 7 days and watch how the new procedure works. WORKSHOPS | Read this page in French Spanish How do teachers who have read Dan Pink's books work their magic in a school system that hasn't heard of the Three As (Asia, Abundance and Automation)? We need CONVERSATION ASSISTANTS at our school Take the FREE ONLINE course to become a Dennis Littky on NPR About Finding a Child's Passion:
Until we find the
child’s passion, it’s just school.
When the child finds his passion, we teach to that passion. We can find internships for high school
students: Kids say, “I love this internship!” and teachers can teach to that interest. – Dennis Littky
...we understand that in order for a school to help a kid learn and succeed, the kid must be known. And you cannot know a kid whose voice you don't listen to, whose interests are a mystery, and whose feelings are views as irrelevant to the educational process. When even one teacher builds a strong relationship with a kid and his or her family, the school can become the place the kid runs to when things fall apart. -- Dennis Littky BigPicture.org MetCenter.org Link to Interview with Littky by Gary Stager --- "If there was anything in a person, of real worth, it would come out whether they went to college or not." Alfred Pope ------------------------- Compiled by a teacher at a small charter school who visited The Littky school in Providence, RI (Metcenter.org). This booklet is available for FREE download on scribd.com and you are encouraged to share the link with parents, teachers, students and principals. Here is the link: ------------------------- "See that bird? What kind of a bird is that?" And I said, "I haven't the slightest idea." He said, "It's a brown throated thrush. In Italian it is a -------; in Portuguese it is called a ------; in Japanese, they say -------. Now, you know in many languages the name of that bird and yet you know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. You only know about humans in different places and what they call the bird. Now, let's look at the bird." My father taught me to notice things. I was a small boy and my father used to read to me from an encyclopedia. One day we read about dinosaurs and the book said that the dinosaur was twenty-five feet high with a head six feet across. "Let's see what that means. That would mean that if he stood in our front yard, he wold be high enough to put his head through the third-story window but not quite because his head would be a little bit too wide." The Pleasure of Finding Things Out By Richard Feynman (Discuss the title of this book) --------------------------------- Excellence versus Perfection A high school principal at a conference spoke about tips on reducing stress at work. "I recognize the difference between excellence and perfection. I believe it is important that my students bus their tables and put their trays away after they have eaten. You may think this is being nitpicky or that it's a minor issue. i believe that teaching kids responsibility is maybe the most important lesson we offer. My students generally come from upper income families and the cafeteria staff is largely lower-income. What's the message when they walk away and leave their trays? I can get 96 percent of my students to put their trays away. That's good, but it's not perfection. I want 100 percent of the trays put away. But I've come to realize that by striving for 100 percent, I would turn the place into a prison. In doing that, I would crate an incredible amount of stress for my self and everyone around me. So I've learned to be satisfied with excellence." Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School Thomas Hoerr -------------------- We should develop students who know how to: identify problems, use their intelligences to solve problems and create products, demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways, and work with others. Educators should: personalize education and work to individualize instruction; enable students to develop and use their areas of strength; view students' parents as partners and educate them, too; offer an environment that supports faculty growth; and demonstrate that students are prepared for the future. Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School Thomas Hoerr Read these words in: Bulgarian French German Italian Korean Japanese Portuguese Russian Spanish ----------- READ ABOUT...The movement "All Kinds of Minds" co-founded by Mel Levine out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. http://www.allkindsofminds.org/ It takes many ways of teaching to reach many ways of learning. How could Aiglon improve in reaching out to other "less-academic" approaches? Perhaps Project-Centered Curriculum (as advocated by Dennis Littky) is a start? Examples of Innovative Schools (schools that use the principles of focusing on the individual's passions, using mentors, community service...) Big Picture schools (a network under the guidance of Dennis Littky) Bigpicture.org The New Three Rs: Rigor, Relevance, Relationships. Look at the Five Goals: "How do I prove it? How do I take in and express ideas? How do I measure, compare or represent it? What are other people's perspectives on this? What do I bring to this process?" Hey, you could build a school around these questions. Australia: the school that Prince Charles attended in 9th grade (before returning to Gordonstoun) -- the students work together to cut wood and survive in the woods. (recommended by Jack O. Rich) College Academy in Broward County (11th and 12th grades, the students are allowed to take courses at Broward College, there's no spolrts program but the stuents number less than 300) -- the small-school-size benefit The Latin School in Boston -- it uses the portfolio method to assess students' progress. -- From the school's philosophy page: We consider certain skills to be essential for all graduates: to read well, to write clearly and coherently, to study effectively, to reason soundly, and to question thoughtfully. That list parallels the bigpicture.org's list (above). Here's a description from one of the mothers who sends a child to this innovative school: I'm the Community Service representative for my son's 4th grade class. We are working with an organization calledOne Voice, through which our class has buddied with a college scholarship student who is the first person from her low income family to attend college. We sent her care packages and artwork and letters all year. She has visited the class twice when home on break from her school in Pennsylvania and the kids have developed a strong bond with her. It's been a great experience. That was just one of our community service projects. Get the Littky Book, The Big Picture and read these pages: page 34- Quote by Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor pages 66-70 School size pages 86-92 Discipline pages 113-114 Real work Page 116 the formula that Bill Gates used in his Feb. 2005 speech to Governors at the Naitonal High School Summit. pages 152-162 Grades? no, narratives pages 162-168 Tests? no, exhibitions If you know someone who can translate this website, please show them www.visualandactive.com and our course called "That's Edu-tainment." If you know a principal or director of a school who wants to transform the school's teachers, tell us... we can create an excellent workshop... -------------------------------------------------- The 1000th Man Rudyard Kipling One man in a thousand, Solomon says, Will stick more close than a brother. And it's worth while seeking him half your days If you find him before the other. Nine nundred and ninety-nine depend On what the world sees in you, But the Thousandth man will stand your friend With the whole round world agin you. 'Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show Will settle the finding for 'ee. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em go By your looks, or your acts, or your glory. But if he finds you and you find him. The rest of the world don't matter; For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim With you in any water. You can use his purse with no more talk Than he uses yours for his spendings, And laugh and meet in your daily walk As though there had been no lendings. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em call For silver and gold in their dealings; But the Thousandth Man h's worth 'em all, Because you can show him your feelings. His wrong's your wrong, and his right's your right, In season or out of season. Stand up and back it in all men's sight -- With that for your only reason! Nine hundred and ninety-nine can't bide The shame or mocking or laughter, But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side To the gallows-foot -- and after! -------------------------------------------------- Return to "Our Mentors" RETURN TO "About Us" We need CONVERSATION ASSISTANTS at our school Take the FREE ONLINE course to become a |