Chapter 8

This was a longer chapter, and deservedly so considering the title of the chapter is "Assessing Student Learning". There has been a lot of focus in the public and in the media about trying to increase student learning by holding them to higher standards through a standardized test. The focus has also led some to believe teachers and administrators should be judged by how well a student performs on this one-time assessment. I believe this constant attention to what's wrong with the American education system has led people to believe that our system is dysfunctional at best. Speaking with a fellow colleague who attended an exchange program for principals in Japan, this is not the case. The Japanese educational system has some of the same issues we deal with here in America. It should also be noted that we educate and test all of our students including those with mild to severe cognitive disabilities. From what I am told this practice is the exception and not the rule when comparing our educational system to other countries.

Looking back in the chapter I made some notes next to the descriptions of central tendency and standard deviation on page 276. When reading the definitions of mean, median and mode I noted that the median might be the best measure when a teacher uses scores to determine a grade for a student. If you want to take it one step further, you would take the last score for a specific skill or concept assessment as this would reflect the student's most current understanding of what they have learned. These are interesting ideas suggested by assessment experts such as Thomas Guskey and Rick Wormeli. I appreciate Guskey's remarks at one conference when he compared a teacher's traditional grading system of using the mean to giving a karate student who has completed all of the appropriate levels a "gray" belt. That would not happen in this martial art, and Guskey's argument is it shouldn't happen in student assessment either.

I appreciated the analogy on page 299, comparing authentic assessment in the classroom with how coaches and directors assess their performers in sports and in the arts. There are complaints by educators that because the stakes are high with the WKCE, they are forced to teach to the test and ignore some important classroom instruction. As the authors state, coaches and fine arts instructors gladly teach to the test because the test is the students' performances on the field and in the auditorium. It helps that most performances in the encore and extracurricular areas are visible for all of the community to see. If a couple thousand people showed up to watch students take a reading test like they do to watch a concert or a football game, I am pretty sure the language arts department would adjust their current practices and beliefs to better correlate what they teach to what they assess.

Chapter 7

As I read this chapter on classroom management, I find it hard to believe where I was as a student teacher to now as an assistant principal 10 years later. I remember dreading going to my student teaching assignment because I had a hard time being the adult in the classroom. As I matured my classroom management philosophy swung to the other side of the pendulum as I became much more strict. Realizing with the help of my supervisor that I wasn't developing positive relationships with my students in the name of keeping order, I finally found a balance between being assertive and compassionate with my students. In retrospect I am fortunate to have gone through that experience as I am a better administrator for it. I can relate to probationary staff on both sides of the discipline coin. When they require guidance in their classrooms I can draw on the valuable experience I have to help them avoid the same mistakes I made.

In this chapter I noted several good ideas to support effective classroom management such as Positive Behavior Supports, peer mediation and precorrection. It is interesting that these concepts came up in my reading at this time. Currently I belong to a group with the RtI Action Network. We meet once a month online in webinar format to discuss what positive behavior supports we are currently trying in our schools. Precorrection is one of the techniques mentioned by a school that has implement PBS recently. I plan on sharing this information with all staff as we move toward the implementation of these proactive practices. Since August I have been holding voluntary staff meetings for anyone interested in helping the school adopt these ideas for the classroom and make them routine, a part of our school culture.

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Chapter 6

In the past couple of years we had a superintendent that expected all teachers to submit weekly lesson plans to their respective principal. This directive had some dissent at first but teachers eventually accepted the practice and complied with this expectation. As I read page 199 about planning as the first step of teaching, I made a connection with this lesson plan practice. Specifically, I highlighted the statement that there was some evidence that teacher who overplan and stick to that plan no matter what often have students who do not learn as much as students who have teachers who are flexible. Thinking back to my teaching days as an experienced educator, I recall making a skeleton outline of my objectives for each lesson rather than explicit details. I could never plan every step of my Friday's lesson plan in reading on Monday. I didn't know how students would respond to my instruction during the week and whether I would have to reteach or accelerate certain lessons based on the students' understanding.

On the same page I noted my question regarding the collaborative approach to planning used in Japan called kenshu or "mastery through study". I followed the text's directions and did an internet search of "lesson study". I found several websites that all defined this concept of groups of teachers developing, teaching, observing, analyzing and revising lesson plans. In my school time is set aside for teacher teams to get together and work with one another to plan instruction and intervene with students. One thing that may be missing right now is a formal structure for teacher teams to use when meeting. Although my principal and I are a little hesitant right now to exert our wishes onto others so early in our school's inception, some direction from us might be well received. This format for collaborative time may be what teams are looking for.

Chapter 5

I found the five views of motivation very applicable to my current position as an assistant principal. Right now I am dealing with a flurry of bus referrals that started around the end of September until the present time. As I read the section on sociocultural approaches to motivation, I asked myself if this is a big reason for all of the misbehaviors on the buses. Some of these students have never ridden a bus, and half the time the middle schoolers are on the bus there are no older role models as examples of how to behave. According to the text, we learn how to behave in society by watching and learning from more capable members of the culture (pg. 151). Most of these students have not had bus etiquette modeled for them yet. Maybe we as a staff need to go back and teach students how to find a seat quietly, talk with respectful tones and language while riding, and be prompt at the bus stop if we are to expect permanent, positive change in behaviors.

Reading about self-efficacy on pages 166-169 was a good review of the research project I did a few years back for my masters at UW-Superior. I focused on best practices to increase self-efficacy in teachers. A main point I highlighted from the text was the research summary on page 167 that student self-efficacy is increased when students 1) adopt short-term goals to more easily judge progress; 2) are taught specific learning strategies; and 3) receive rewards based on quality of performance and not just engagement or effort. I have tried to utilize this thinking as I work with students with patterns of misbehaviors during unstructured times. We have made reasonable goals together. To reach these goals we have had discussions about appropriate behaviors and we have even practiced them. When one of my students reached their goal he was rewarded with a private lunch with his best friend.