Quantity versus Quality

The National Center for Time and Learning released a exploratory study this week on the possible link to increased achievement. While the study found 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th graders in expanded-time schools outscored other students by 3 to 8 percentage points, the same pattern did not hold true among students in grades 3, 4, and 5.

The study’s data is neither complete or representative enough to support a conclusion that more school time yields better student achievement. Studies like these focus on the quantity of teaching and increased achievement, but not the quality of the actual teaching.

No one questions that excellent instruction is the key to student learning. The question we ask at the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) is: What skills will enable school leaders to improve the quality of teaching and learning for all students? It is for this reason that CEL’s research-based 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning (5D) is comprised of the core elements of what constitutes good teaching.

To learn about CEL’s 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning (5D) framework, click HERE.

FREE ONLINE BOOK: Bonding While Learning

A few years ago, my colleague and I created a “how to” literacy book for parents of emergent readers. Bonding While Learning helps parents think beyond “workbooks” and discover how nurturing lifelong readers and writers can be done in the everyday moments of life.

Our book has gotten rave reviews from parents, grandparents and educators alike. Now, we’ve made the entire book available for free online reading!

Click HERE to read the book for free!

Please pass this link along to anyone who has a young child in their life. And if you like what you read, please write a review for us!

Coaching in a Culture of Change

Date: February 3-4, 2010

Location: University of Washington, Botanic Gardens, 3501 NE 41st St., Seattle, WA 98105

Learn from nationally-acclaimed author and literacy coach Katherine Casey about the evolving role of coaching in improving classroom practice. This includes how to help teachers make data-driven decisions based on evidence of student learning. This two-day interactive session is designed to deepen educators’ understanding of how the complex challenges around instructional improvement can be addressed through site-embedded professional development.

PROGRAM OUTCOMES

Participants will:

• Discuss what research reveals about how people learn
• Learn about models of coaching practice and deepen coaching conversations
• Analyze assessment data to inform teaching decisions
• Describe the role of school and district leaders in supporting the work of coaching
• Create professional development implications for coaching practice at your site

This session is open to practitioners from all grade levels and content areas. We strongly encourage participants to attend with colleagues who can help them transfer the work to their particular contexts. Many participants value the opportunity to collaborate with a site- or district-based team (e.g. a principal and a coach from the same school, or a group of district literacy coaches and their supervisor). All individuals are welcome, regardless of experience.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER, click HERE.

NEW Online Course: Creating an Action Plan for Professional Learning

I’m proud to announce that the University of Washington’s College of Education is offering an online course designed for literacy coaches and other instructional leaders to equip them in determining the professional learning focus for schools and districts. For only $80, this online course can be taken anytime, anywhere!

WATCH A BRIEF VIDEO INTRODUCTION.

Learn how to improve the quality of instruction in your school and district! Join nationally-acclaimed author and instructional leader, Katherine Casey, and study essential coaching strategies to empower your leadership. Broaden your knowledge and expertise to craft an action plan for more effective professional learning.

For more information about this exciting “do at your own pace” course, CLICK HERE.

Chatting with Irene

I just returned from a visit to Boston where I was able to catch up with colleagues and friends. During my visit, I got to chat with Irene Fountas (of “Fountas of Pinnell”) and we talked about Interactive Writing and its profound impact on K-2 students’ literacy development.

In case you didn’t know, interactive writing was developed by educators at The Ohio State University (where Gay Su Pinnell is on faculty). Unlike shared writing in which students compose messages and the teacher acts as a scribe, interactive writing involves a “sharing of the pen” (as illustrated in the image above) between teacher and students. The interactive writing process focuses students’ attention on:

• concepts and conventions of print
• the sounds in words
• how those sounds connect with letters

Unlike the traditional “morning message,” students are involved in the planning and construction of text, and, to the greatest degree possible, students control the pen for the writing of the text. Moreover, interactive writing builds students’ confidence and experience with writing because they are equipped with a variety of encoding strategies. When I shared with Irene my plans to introduce interactive writing as a component of a public school district’s kindergarten literacy intervention program, she exclaimed, “I COMPLETELY AGREE!”

I asked Irene if she knew of any recent studies on the impact of interactive writing, but all we could locate was Sharon Craig’s 2003 study published by The Reading Teacher. It’s an impressive small-scale study, but we both wish more robust research was done around it since so many students have thrived from this daily practice. If you know of any recent studies, please let me know!

80/40: Celebrating the Birthdays of Eric Carle and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Children’s book author and illustrator, Eric Carle, turns 80 this year! And his book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, turns 40! Not only does this classic text stir nostalgia of my own childhood, it stirs my excitement around author studies–the up-close study with children about writer’s and illustrator’s craft.

If you live in the New England area, I highly recommend you visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. Currently, they have three AMAZING exhibits:

• 80/40: Celebrating the Birthdays of Eric Carle and The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• The World of Pooh: Illustrations by E. H. Shepard
• Drawings from the Heart: Tomie dePaola Turns 75

If you can’t visit in person, here’s a short video of Eric Carle talking about his classic book!

Staying Organized Around Your Coaching

It’s been a while since my last post–I’ve been busy closing up the school year as well as planning events and producing online courses for the University of Washington (more on that in a future post). Having just hosted a Summer Coaching Institute in Seattle, my online coaching friends (pictured on the right) have urged me to get back on the blog-wagon (thanks Laura, Amy, and Rachel)!

With that said, last week was a powerful time of learning with and from coaches from across the country. My colleague, Katherine Casey, shared her wisdom and expertise around literacy coaching, including practical advice for day-to-day work. Here’s one of many tidbits she shared on being an effective literacy coach: staying organized!

Expert coaching stems from ongoing evaluation and strategic decision-making centered on teacher and student learning. This work is far more manageable when we know where to find the information we’re looking for. Whether you keep a coaching binder or an electronic folder on your computer, here are some things you can organize your work around:

School/classroom/student data
Teacher Roster “at a glance” sheets
Teacher schedules
Communication (emails, letters)
Observation sheets
Observation notes
Lesson plans
Student work
Photos of classroom environments, charts, work samples
Handouts from professional development sessions

After I demonstrate or side-by-side teach a lesson, I collect and save samples of student writing for the following reasons:

1) To archive, assess, and plan around student learning;

2) To gather student “mentor texts” for future teaching;

3) To collect student data for future planning around teacher professional learning.

In order to stay organized and share best practices with teachers, I keep a digital camera with me at all times so I can capture images of anchor charts and student writing samples in the event that I don’t have time to make copies.

How about you? Any tips for staying organized around your coaching?

Lessons Learned

On Friday, I presented a professional development session for some incredible Seattle public school teachers. During the course of my session, I modeled the “look, say, name, cover, writer, check” strategy that was originally introduced by Diane Snowball and Faye Bolton in their book, Spelling K-8: Planning and Teaching (Stenhouse, 1999).

In a nutshell, this strategy invites students to create a mental image of an unfamiliar word (or parts of it if it’s a long word) in their minds. This strategy uses the following steps, as reflected on page 214 of Spelling K-8:

1. “Look at the word, perhaps noticing words within the word, looking at the parts of the word, or underlining known parts.
2. Say the word.
3. Name the letters of the word.
4. Cover the word and picture it in your mind.
5. Write the word from the picture in your mind.
6. Check to see that you have all of the letters in the word, and in the correct order.”

Whenever I introduce a new strategy to teachers, I try to provide an authentic learning experience for them as adult writers. So when I modeled the “look, say, name, cover, write, check” strategy, I chose an adult-level word to learn (as opposed to words like “can” or “because”). I selected the word “pneumonia.”

While the teachers enjoyed learning this new strategy, I made a rather noticeable error: I failed to clearly articulate the purpose of the strategy. This became obvious when a teacher responded, “I don’t think children should be learning words like ‘pneumonia.’” While this strategy could be used to learn any unfamiliar word, I clarified that “look, say, name, cover, write, check” was an ideal way to teach high-frequency words, words that are frequently used in reading and writing.

As a literacy coach, I need to remember that teachers and students learn in similar ways. If they don’t understand the purpose of a strategy, they may miss the learning entirely.

Coming to Seattle: Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond

On April 9, my colleagues and I at the Center for Educational Leadership have the privilege of welcoming Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond to Seattle for a presentation in our District Leaders Seminar Series. As many of you know, Dr. Darling-Hammond is one of the leading voices in our country on school restructuring, teacher education and educational equity.

She recently served as the chief education advisor to President Obama’s election campaign, and she continues to have significant influence on national education policy. Given the deep interest in Dr. Darling-Hammond’s work, we are opening single-session registration for this presentation, which will be held in Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. The cost for attending this event is $175, and includes dinner. To register, call 206-221-6881. Spaces are limited. Please join us for a great time of learning and networking!

Special Guest Blogger: Penny Plavala

Through my work with the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL), I’ve had the pleasure to meet extraordinary literacy coaches from across the country. One of those individuals is Penny Plavala, who serves as a School Improvement Specialist for the Multnomah Education Service District in Portland, Oregon. With eleven years of classroom teaching experience in English, speech and drama, Penny provides statewide professional development training in literacy instruction and assessment. She has agreed to be a guest blogger and share her experience from our recent Coaching Institute:

In January, I had the pleasure of attending CEL’s Promise of Coaching Institute, spending two rich days with literacy coach and author, Katherine Casey.  In company with literacy coaches from across the country, I followed Katherine on a journey to discover the art of purposeful coaching.

I came away with numerous valuable “take away” concepts from the institute that I have immediately applied to my coaching work. Here are just a few:

• To build leadership capacity, have two or three other teachers in the classroom whenever you are coaching or modeling a lesson. Teachers can join you during their prep period and will greatly benefit from sharing information and expertise.

• To scaffold teacher learning, demonstrate lessons in one teacher’s classroom three days in a row, rather than one day a week over three weeks.  This model strategically builds teachers’ knowledge.

• Whenever you demonstrate a lesson, find ways to actively engage teachers who are observing. They should stay close beside you in order to script your teaching, and when appropriate, navigate the room and check in with students.

Another benefit of this conference was the time given to process key concepts: individually, with a partner, and with my table group.  The time to reflect allowed for deeper thinking and future planning. I came away with fresh ideas and strategies I can use right away, as well as clearly established coaching goals. CEL is offering an expanded, 4-day Coaching Institute this summer in Seattle, and I highly recommend that you attend!