Higher Level Questions - A Letter to Parents

Module 8 Reflection Letter to Parents

Students must take control of their thinking processes. They must engage with material in meaningful ways and not have their learning experience limited to call and response lessons. Regurgitating information is not terribly useful for the real world and does not spark natural curiosity. It also does not create authentic learning experiences.  The level of attention gained by students is limited by dynamics of the input method chosen by the teacher. No classroom will ever be completely full of students that will be completely engage in one specific modality, yet we tend to cater to students that function well in a typical direct instruction classroom. On the surface these students are performing well, and other are simply deficient in skill areas that would make them perform in this situation as well. By encouraging students to respond thoughtfully to a series of high level questions we can increase their level engagement with the materials. By using higher level questioning strategies students are forced to thinking about content in new and hopefully exciting ways.  A favorable outcome of this style of learning is that students’ thinking is not hampered by narrow questions that limit students potential.  Before higher level questioning can occur, however, every student must be working with similar academic language resources. This means that students must have a working definition of evaluate, recall, and application.  

Encouraging learning to deepen their understand of a particular topic cannot be solely motivated by grades. Ideally, grades are simply the reward for genuine interest and hard work.  Students need to know that they are indeed researchers themselves and are part of a larger network of academic thinkers. Students behave in classroom just like world-class researchers who think, collaborate and publish. In this process we hope to facilitate paradigms shifts in student thinking. The responsibility then is on the teacher to provide students with this opportunity and it is aided by using our local resources, integrating the subjects of reading, math, language and others and by offering concrete activities that are related to the real world.

Principal's Meeting Speech - Based on my first year....

Left Brain Part 1 - Improvised and Impassioned

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Setting the Tone – Active Anticipatory Set

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Creating awareness of hemispheric processes .

“Teacher talk” can be “student talk”

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1974 –Teacher’s Pay = Lawyer’s Pay

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ACT/SAT Scores Lowest on record

People are changing…Education is not

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Bleak News

Are being effective, how we make a difference

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Planning for the Future

How many disenfranchised, and disillusioned people in the States could have been saved by a better education?

Left Brain Part 2 - Organized and Prepared

Confronting the on-going challenges of teaching requires a large amount of honesty, so I will start by being frank. I am a new teacher. Last year, I was sitting here becoming oriented with teaching in the Diocese. We talked in abstract terms of classroom management, professionalism, social networking, and, of course,  curriculum. I was confident and enthusiastic. But I had no idea what I was getting into teaching middle school at a new school.  Students had bitterness about having to start a new school.  They had different skills and resources too. The problems that occurred, the stories that I heard and the past experiences of the students were vastly different than my last more affluent school where I felt successful reaching the students in my classes on a day to day basis. To my dismay, there was a barrier put up on the first day and over the course of the year I was mostly unsuccessful in crossing it. We covered the curriculum, but there was something missing. I could not reach the students on a emotional level.  Looking back, I now know that without that I was merely performing the superficial duties of a teacher. Helping them develop as Catholic Christians was, of course, a goal, but their development was lacking. Feeling distraught, I seriously reconsidered my potential for a career in teaching. Drawing upon my own emotional, social and psychological resources,  I used the strength of those around me and prepared myself for a new year with a different set of expectations and an outlook that was colored by my experiences as a first year teacher. Then came OMA... Or the Opening Minds Through the Arts Foundation…

This summer I attended their arts institute in the blazing desert of Tuscon, Arizona. Walking into our first sessions, I took advantage of people watching. I saw aged professionals and young men and women, clustered together into groups mostly from the surrounding areas. They seemed friendly and comfortable. If I had know what was coming I wouldn’t have taken things so lightly. Our speaker’s introduction was less of a speech and more of a dance off. She had us twisting, writhing, bouncing and moving around.  It began a creative adventure that tested my natural inhibitions and reminded me that I hadn’t had any experiences like this since I was a child in drama and performance camps. Over the course of the next few days, I saw these same teachers dancing, singing, playing instruments, reading poetry, and drawing all while learning about inquiry, visual culture, language acquisition, stages of graphic representation, and hemispheric processes of the brain. I also saw the same people be serious, laugh, collaborate, and even cry. At the end, not only was my vision for education transformed into something bright and exciting, I felt renewed and empowered with all that I had gathered from the sessions while ravenously took notes and gleaned inspiration. 

 My colleagues and I have since formed a team at our school. We have become infinitely closer as people and we plan to have it stay that way. The SUCCEED Academy already has a school wide adoption of Arts Integration and we are working towards creating a standard portfolio of strategies and tools, with which, students and teachers alike can become familiar. Peppered with showcases of our student’s talent held periodically throughout the year and opportunities for students to experience the arts together. Our destination is a culture of arts integration, based on a curriculum that one can see, hear and feel when they walk on campus. It is our goal that students carry this with them when they leave our school and become professionals of their own making. One powerful aspect of AI is that is does not require us to be arts professionals. Our expertise lies in providing our students with opportunities for discovery and allowing our students to experience content through meaningful arts practice. I believe it is our hope that the experiences our school imparts on our children will awaken their God-given talents and gifts. The development, of which, will result in any number of virtuous behaviors resulting in students that will be healthy, contributing members of society.

 

One potential criticism of the AI classroom is that might lead to disorder or chaos. Facilitators at the OMA Arts Institute addressed this concern by stressing the need for creating the third space. This is described as the passion that builds bridges between you and your students.  It is a risk-taking area, and a safe environment.  This community must be created before addressing content. It was what I was lacking in classroom last year. According Ruby Payne, author of Understanding Poverty, students acquisition of language occurs only when there is a significant relationship. This significant relationship cannot hurt the development of other skills, as well, and it deepens the investment of teachers and students into their own learning. 

As I mentioned, last year was a not a banner year. But with some development and risk-taking on my own part, this year is going to be different. By exposing children to a variety of AI strategies within the first few weeks, I have seen students become more comfortable with their learning environment.   As a consequence students want to come to class. I also have anecdotal evidence of this from interactions with parents, and from students classroom behavior.  Students who have had attendance issues in the past now have none. Most importantly, I feel more effective and more driven than ever. I have their trust and they value their time in the classroom. This is the year that hopefully will keep me in education for a long time and encourage me to develop, and grow along with my students as members of a larger and, one hopes, a growing Catholic learning community.

Notes:

Creates a school, in which, students thrive and is pleasing to eye.  Art integration changes the look of education, and feeling which it imparts on children.  The emotional level on which so many A.I. activities

operate create memorable and meaningful experiences that tap into deeper cognitive response.

Considering that SAT and ACT scores are continuing to decline.  The time is now to adopted research based instructional methods that reach ELL students and students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. 

Craigslist Post for Ed Services

Tutoring and Mentor Services from Experienced and Motivated Educator (Sacramento/Downtown/Midtown)

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Date: 2011-09-19, 7:41PM PDT
Reply to: your anonymous craigslist address will appear here

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Thanks you for visiting this posting. I am a UC Davis graduate in Religious Studies and International Relations. I am full-time classroom teacher, but am looking to fill some of my weeknights and weekends by offering tutoring and mentoring services.

Name: Julian A. Elorduy IV
Occupation: 6th Grade Teacher
Skill Set: 6-8th grade Math, Algebra, Pre-Algebra, but also writing, reading comprehension and study skills.
Experience: I have been involved in education and teaching since I was 15. I have taught a variety of age groups. My most recent experience is with children aged 11-14.
Services offered: Subject specific tutoring, mentoring, motivation, study skills, organization and promoting a love of learning.
Outcomes: Improved grades, higher confidence levels and happier children.

Struggling students sometimes find it difficult to find a place for themselves in the world of education. They decide, sometimes at an early age, that school is not for them. In this situation students detach themselves and fall into a trap of motivation deficiency, loss of intellectual confidence and disappearing opportunities. If your student can be inspired by a young and motivated educator who can take some of the pain out of their school life, I would like to be that person. I work within a 10 mile radius of the midtown/downtown Sacramento area. Rates are on a sliding scale of $20-$50. My is website: http://welltemperedteaching.blogspot.com


http://welltemperedteaching.blogspot.com 

Arts Integration Specialist Coming to Mustardseed

After visit OMA's Art Integration institute, several of their facilitators will be joining our diocesan teachers at our annual Mustardseed conference. This is very exciting! How luck I am to be teaching at this school at this time...

About Me

I am working on my credential in the CalSTATE TEACH program through CSU Fresno. It was bumpy start last year teaching 7th grade and doing the program. But this year I have a great class and am enthusiastic and driven. As well as more organized and matured from my first year. I am now the 6th grade teacher at Saint Patrick's SUCCEED Academy in Sacramento, CA.

I will post my progress and any writing that excites me. My focus is on mathematics, teaching students of poverty, arts integration, inquiry based education and creating an inviting learning environment.
I am 26 years old and always busy (except last summer:-).  I graduted from UC Davis in 2008 with a B.A. in Religious Studies and also in International Relations. After my credential I plan to look at graduate school.

I welcome opportunities to write for education related publications. Please do not hesitate to contact me regarding any teacher related matter, I am open and welcome to collaboration.

Inquir Based Teaching - CalstateTEACH MOD 8.3

The use of inquiry in the classroom is something I have become more acquainted with in reference to the arts. It encourages students to validate their own inquiry and reach learning potential by inviting questions rather than prompting answers. Mr. McKnight in the videos used this process to his benefit and with necessary humility. I have noticed that sometimes teachers are too concerned with using the classroom as a stage to showcase their knowledge on a particular subject. Yes, you have mastered the content, but that does not default to great teaching. Mr. McKnight acknowledges that he is a learner himself and not an expert. Certainly, as teachers we cannot be experts on every subject that we want to introduce to students. Teaching students how learn and to want to learn is much more valuable process than pure dissemination. Which leads next to asking ourselves how do we use the information that is available, textbooks, encyclopedia and the internet.

Based on the videos, teacher can foster good inquiry by using resources effectively to facilitate good questioning. Learning cannot happen in a vacuum. Students start scratching their heads when someone (either a teacher or another student) introduces them to articles or research that invite their attention and peak their interest. This confrontation between students and the knowledge of how something works, prompts them to respond with questions and begins a process of understanding that is tailor to their own style of thinking and observing.  An idea I have for motivating students who feel removed from the classroom discourse is to ask these students to bring articles that discuss topics related to class and ask them to read them with family members and create questions they can present to the class. In this situation these students can feel like they are guardians of special information. Creating an environment, in which, all learners feel included in a primary goal of my work this year.

A community of inclusion and knowledge ownership is essential to the inquiry based classroom. Everyone appreciates the validation of their opinions. Therefore, children need to understand that they are scientists, and beyond that have a responsibility to discover and respect the knowledge gained from scientists throughout human history. As scientists, no one’s input is rejected.  In this community of learners students also gain insight from live comparison and collaboration. In the classroom, the video and commentary discuss the event of paradigm shifts in understanding. More often than it may occur in education, students happen upon a paradigm shift when they become more conscious of their ignorance on a particular subject.  This consciousness must be the precursor to questioning and the renewal of any learner’s craving for answers. In order to get this process going, it is the teacher’s responsibility to prompt the natural questioning that arises from observing the world around them.

As curious observers conscious of their role as scientists, students are engaging in a natural process of the knowledge creating and at the same are expanding the intellectual resources. Especially as children, we ask questions and seek answers. This is very compatible with how people form knowledge and how we have used our intelligence to survive. Teachers are not being wedged out of the dynamic, however, it is that their role is shifting. We are always told to be the “guide on the side,” rather than the, “sage on the stage.” Student inquiry facilitates paradigm shifts in their own thinking and that process is organized and accelerated by skillful teaching.