Mel Levine and UbD

  • Reading: You should have received a copy of Dr. Mel Levine’s A Mind at a Time in your course Prep-Packet. Please read Chapter 2 “The Ways of Learning”, Chapter 5, “Ways with Words: Our Language System” and Chapter 8, “Some Peeks at a Mind’s Peaks: Our Higher Thinking System.”

Well, that’s one required chapter down. Actually, I finding myself very interested in the things Levine writes in A Mind at a Time so far. My son, Dylan, is three years old and doesn’t talk, excepting mumbling “M” sounds. We have had him evaluated by a speech therapist, who agrees he needs to begin regular speech therapy and have been working with him at home with some simple sign language commands, identifying pictures in books, and making environmental noises (animal sounds). But I look at him and worry about how he will do in school with a teacher who doesn’t understand and writes him off as stupid. I also am angrier and angrier about how my oldest daughter, Sarah, has been treated in school. She has ADD, and her teachers have given her detentions for doing things she has done as a direct result of the fact that she has attention problems. It has never worked. I try to be supportive of teachers since I am one myself, but I have grown increasingly frustrated with how schools handle kids like Sarah. Almost every meeting I’ve had with teachers is “She’s a bright girl,” but… That tells me they feel her problems are a function of her intellect instead of one area of her brain — one learning system, to use Levine’s term. She is gifted artistically and she has highly developed language skills. I think she would make a wonderful children’s book writer and illustrator one day. But school is really hard for kids who have attention difficulties. The second chapter of Levine’s book, which I just finished, gives me a great deal of hope for Sarah. She will make it through school OK, probably with some run-ins because of her attention, but I really worry about how Dylan will be treated.

Now that I know what I am going to be teaching next year, I want to begin lesson planning. I had to turn in the copy of Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook to our school library. I simply need to buckle down and purchase some more professional development books for my own library. I spend too long with them to check them out of the library. Meanwhile, I did make some templates for unit planning utilizing the UbD method. If you would like them, I have them available in Word or PDF. If you don’t have a word processor that reads Word documents, download the PDF. Otherwise, I’d recommend downloading the Word document so that you can tweak it and actually use it for planning.

Progress

Today I re-uploaded entries from June 2005 to October 2005, but I didn’t finish with October yet.  I suppose this is one reason to be glad I’m not a prolific blogger!

I received my course schedule for next year today.  It looks like I’ll be teaching:

  • 9th grade Honors Grammar, Composition, and Literature
  • 9th grade CP Grammar, Composition, and Literature
  • 10th grade CP2 American Literature and Composition
  • 10th grade Writing Seminar
  • 12th grade CP Short Story and Composition (1st semester)
  • 12th grade CP Drama and Composition (2nd semester)

Incidentally, CP means college prep.  We have two college prep levels; one is for students who need extra scaffolding and support.

I initially didn’t really want to teach 9th grade, but I must admit that I am very excited about it.  I hope I’ll get a chance to teach British Lit. in 2007-2008.  It didn’t work out for me this year for a variety of reasons.

Now that I know what I’m teaching, I guess I don’t have any excuses for not planning.  Boy, I have a lot of summer reading to do.

A Negative Educational Experience

I am going to work on restoring some posts that were on my blog before my old host went down.  If you subscribe via Bloglines or another RSS reader, you might be wondering what’s going on as those old posts appear; those of you who visit directly probably won’t notice anything unusual.

As promised, here is the entry I wrote about a negative school experience:

I am hard pressed to think of one experience that was so profoundly negative that it stands out in my mind, that it still makes me feel hurt or angry. I have many experiences in P.E. that make me feel that way. I never felt coordinated. I was always picked last for teams. I dreaded Field Day, which most of my peers absolutely loved. I never won ribbons—I always had to take home purple participation ribbons, which my mom saved and joked about. I joked, too, but inside, those ribbons were painful reminders of inadequacy. My sister brought home blue 1st place ribbons, red 2nd place ribbons, and white 3rd place ribbons in various events every year. Why couldn’t I hit a ball? Why was I scared the ball was going to hit me? Volleyball was horrible. I remember missing the ball every time it came near me when I was in the front row because I was scared it would hit me. I could serve OK, but that didn’t seem as scary. One time I actually made a basket in basketball, but I had run the wrong way and made it into the other team’s basket. To teach me a lesson, I suppose, my P.E. teacher counted the points for the opposing team. My team hated me. One time, we were playing baseball, and it was well-known and universally accepted that I couldn’t hit the ball. My team advised me to try to let the ball hit me so I could get a walk. I was so upset. It hurt my feelings so much. I remember that I tried to hit the ball anyway. I failed. My teammates were mad and yelled at me for not letting the ball hit me.

I really did try to do what I supposed to do in P.E., but I just couldn’t. I did have a P.E. teacher who I loved in 7th grade. She tested us objectively on the rules of games, which I always knew. It was putting the procedures into action that I couldn’t do. I remember telling her so proudly that I made a double-bogey on a hole on the golf course—which is a really bad score of five strokes—and she was so pleased that I knew the term and congratulated me. Other teachers might have pointed out that it wasn’t a good score, but she realized that it was good for me. That same year, I caught a pop-fly in baseball. I was on cloud nine all day. I had never managed to do such a thing before (or since). I still try to downplay this by writing it off as a lucky accident. The ball just plopped into the mitt I was holding over my head. I wasn’t even looking. I was scared it would hit me. It landed in the mitt instead. So I caught it and actually made an out! I remember the kid who hit it sought me out after the inning and congratulated me, in his way—he wanted to know who the lucky kid was who caught that excellent hit.

I’m supposed to be recounting negative school experiences, but I can’t help but try to find some positives. I wish there were more, but that one year was the only somewhat positive experience I ever had with P.E.—I subject I came to loathe and dread. I never went so far as to try to fake illness or figure some other way out of it, but I think that was because it never occurred to me I could possibly get away with it if I did. Instead, I just went every day. It never occurred to me until I wrote this that there was a sort of courage in that. I faced it every day and didn’t try to get out of it, even though it was almost always an embarrassing failure.

A Positive Educational Experience

  • Complete the Journal writing activity [discuss a good and bad school experience].

OK, I can cross one more thing off my to-do list. I also read the first chapter of my book. Here, in its entirety, is the most positive educational experience I had. I’ll post the negative one tomorrow.

When I was in 7th grade, my history teacher, Ms. Snyder, had us do an activity she called “The Great Redwood Controversy.” Upon reflection, I think this must have been a unit plan she purchased, because our materials all had a very professional (i.e. not hand-created) quality. My teacher assigned us all roles; we were not allowed to pick. I remember this clearly, because I didn’t like the role I had been assigned. I was probably the most liberal kid in my class. I was the only kid in my class who voted for Walter Mondale in the mock election we had. I was concerned about the environment. The controversy we were to examine in this unit is what we should do legally and morally regarding usage of resources in the National Forest. I played the part of a lawyer arguing a case before congress. My clients were a company who wanted to use a part of the forest land for logging. Well, naturally, I didn’t agree with that at all. How on earth was I going to argue for it? I dove in and did what I was assigned to do, as I often did in school—I was a good student. I knew I wasn’t going to win, but after I started working on it, I really wanted to. I wanted my peers to vote for my company to use the land. I was frustrated by my peers’ unwillingness to see the logic in my arguments. Surely most of the land must be set aside for preservation, but did that mean all? Couldn’t my clients use some of the land? I knew it wasn’t going to go my way, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed when my classmates (the Senate) voted me down.

Shortly after the unit was over, I was sitting in Ms. Snyder’s class and was asked over the intercom to report to the assistant principal’s office. I had never had to go to the principal’s or asst. principal’s office for any reason, and I was scared. I had no idea what I had done. The asst. principal had a little bit of fun with that, too. He asked me if I knew why I was there. I fearfully confessed that I did not. He smiled, which put me at ease a bit, and he said for me to relax; it was for a good thing. He then read me the contents of a special award Ms. Snyder was giving me for my work on the Redwood Controversy unit. She said I argued my position well without becoming overwhelmed. She was acknowledging me for my work, even though I didn’t win. I saved the award for years. I think it is still around the house somewhere, but when I went to look for it just now, I couldn’t find it. I know I’d never throw it away. Of all the awards I received in school, I’m proudest of this one, and I didn’t realize that until I wrote it just now. I am proudest of it, because a teacher recognized me for working hard and doing well on an assignment when I didn’t think I had—I didn’t win, after all. However, in Ms. Snyder’s view, winning and losing the debate in the eyes of my classmates wasn’t what mattered. What mattered is what I learned and how much effort I put into fulfilling my role in the activity. When I went back to class after getting the award, I remember Ms. Snyder caught my eye and smiled, and I smiled back. I don’t think I could have articulated then how much the award meant. In a way, I wish I could let her know somehow, because she probably never knew the impact that acknowledgement had on me. In fact, for some time after the activity, I considered being a lawyer. I had decided at the age of six to become a teacher and only wavered for a short time after this unit.

Schools Attuned Checklist

In about a week, I will be leaving for a Schools Attuned workshop in Charlotte, North Carolina. I received an e-mail today from the site director reminding me of all the things I need to do/prepare for the trip:

  • Access the Schools Attuned website, www.schoolsattuned.org, create a user name and password and review, print out and sign the Participant Agreement and bring your printed acceptance with you to the Core Course.
  • Complete the Journal writing activity [discuss a good and bad school experience].
  • Complete the On-Line Preparation Activity.
  • Reading: You should have received a copy of Dr. Mel Levine’s A Mind at a Time in your course Prep-Packet. Please read Chapter 2 “The Ways of Learning”, Chapter 5, “Ways with Words: Our Language System” and Chapter 8, “Some Peeks at a Mind’s Peaks: Our Higher Thinking System.”
  • If you are a subject-specific teacher [I am], collect and bring the following with [you]:
    • A copy of the school, district, and/or state curriculum that you use when planning lessons in your subject, course, or level (e.g., Chemistry, Algebra II, Creative Writing)
    • Two lesson plans that you have used this year from the same subject, course, or level
    • Three examples of assignments (e.g., projects, activities, reports) and/or assessments (e.g., quizzes, tests). Select one piece of your work that you would like to look at with the group and bring two extra copies of that document.
    • Several examples of student work from the same subject

That sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? I’ve crossed off the things I’ve already done. As you can see, that’s not a lot. I’m having some trouble thinking of a really bad school experience to share — at least something specific. I have had poor teachers and can share a general sense of dissatisfaction with some aspects of my education, but I can’t think of a single incident that really inspires strong feelings of anger or ill-treatment. I’ll have to think about that. I will post both journal entries here once I have them written.

I am going to sit down and start reading the book tonight. I am glad we only have to read three chapters, but I think I’ll start from the beginning and plow through anyway. If I am finding it difficult to read, then I’ll skip as they suggested.

In terms of collecting my curriculum, ours is a little too nebulous. We have one, and I follow it, but it isn’t composed of objectives like the state curriculu; I think I’ll just print a copy of the Georgia standards.

Lesson plans should be easy to figure out. Examples of assignments, too, as I have them saved on my computer here at home and on my flash drive. I am lucky I have some student work samples to bring in. I didn’t get a chance to hand back reading journals for Postmodernism to my 10th graders.

School Days

Boy, you can tell school’s out when I post three times in one day. I’ve not had so much “free” time in I don’t know when.

The Reflective Teacher wrote about his exploits during his school days. If I have one observation to make about my school days, I’d have to say it was that I was too good. I had one detention the entire time I was in school from grades K-12, and I got it for not turning in a form on time. My teacher gave those of us who were in her detention (I think there were three of us) mocha almond fudge ice cream; it was the first time I had tried it, and it’s still a favorite.

I knew very well where “the line” was, and I never went anywhere near it. I got fussed at for talking to Leon when I was supposed to be working quietly in first grade. I wanted to disappear into a hole; I was so mortified. On rainy days in 5th grade, we went to our classroom after lunch and were allowed to draw or play games. I asked Mrs. Esquibel if I could go play with the puppets behind the puppet show. She said no. But Talisa Carmichael, that damned siren, she talked me into doing it anyway; she swore we wouldn’t get caught. Well, we did, and boy, was Mrs. Esquibel mad. She told my parents at a parent/teacher conference. I can’t think that I ever got into more serious trouble than that.

I did some dumb things, like try alcohol (on school premises, to boot), but I never tried drugs either; not even when the hulking guy who sat behind me in economics offered me a joint.

I guess I was a bit like Hermione Granger, only instead of jumping to answer every question, I shrank into my chair. If the Reflective Teacher has more sympathy and understanding for kids like him, I suppose I have learned to watch out for those shrinking violets.

Another Year Under My Belt

Is teaching weird, or what? I mean, I spent the last few weeks of school running around like the proverbial decapitated chicken, then… it’s done. I have nothing work-related to do. I could be a good egg and begin making lesson plans virtually the moment school lets out. I don’t know for sure what I’m teaching, so that’s out.

It’s weird. Today felt like Saturday, as yesterday was my last day. One of the things I want to do this summer is restore some of my older blog entries that were nearly lost when my old host had some problems.

I also want to work on my presentation on using blogs and wikis in the classroom, as I’m not sure how much time I’ll have when school starts.

In about two weeks, two of my colleagues and I are going to a workshop in North Carolina. That should be a fun roadtrip, as they are two of my favorite colleagues. I have a book to read before I go. Better get started on that, I guess.

I suppose I have more to do than I thought, but it is weird. Sort of like slamming on your brakes. Your body still wants to go forward, though the vehicle has made a sudden stop.

Academic Dishonesty

ChemJerk recently posted about term papers for sale on eBAY.  Join us in submitting a complaint to eBAY.  If they won’t allow teachers’ editions of textbooks for sale, then I can’t see how this should be allowed, although I didn’t find it listed explicitly in the list of prohibited items.

I broached the subject of our school using the services of Turnitin.com with the IT at our school.  It’s looking more and more like a good idea…

Would You Send Your Kid to Hogwarts?

Some of you might know I’m a big Harry Potter fan. I have a Professor Snape action figure in my classroom. He’s one of my favorite characters. I was thinking over the last week or so that it might be fun to evaluate the effectiveness of some of the Hogwarts professors in light of the fact that I’m an educator myself.

Severus Snape, Potions/Defense Against the Dark Arts

Obviously the favoritism and sarcasm are not the hallmarks of a good teacher, but I don’t think we should count him out entirely. He does manage, albeit through fear tactics and bullying, to teach his students quite a great deal about Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. It is also through Snape that Harry learns the Expelliarmus spell that helps him in his first duel with Voldemort in the graveyard in Goblet of Fire. J.K. Rowling has said that Snape was loosely based on a teacher she had. Yikes!

Minerva McGonagall, Transfiguration

As much as we like to consider her tough but fair, she occasionally has her lapses, too. Disgusted by Neville Longbottom’s poor performance in class, she once remarked, “Longbottom, kindly do not reveal that you can’t even perform a simple Switching Spell in front of anyone from Durmstrang!” (Goblet of Fire, Ch. 15). All in all, however, she tends to have high expectations (but not unreasonable ones). She inspires respect in her charges, and in several instances, readers are shown she cares for her students. For example, when Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall arrive at Prof. Moody’s (really Barty Crouch, Jr.) office to rescue Harry from the man whom they now realize is an imposter, McGonagall’s first concern is Harry:

“Come along, Potter,” she whispered. The thin line of her mouth was twitching as though she was about to cry. “Come along… hospital wing…” (Goblet of Fire, Ch. 35)

After Dumbledore insists that Harry stay a moment longer, McGonagall even begins to argue with the headmaster. McGonagall is another teacher who manages to educate her students well.

Rubeus Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures

Hagrid is just an awful teacher. He’s a great friend to Harry, but his lessons are dangerous or boring most of the time. The only time he manages to plan good lessons are when he implements units started by his replacement, Professor Grubbly-Plank (for example, the lessons on unicorns). Even Harry is forced to acknowledge that Grubbly-Plank is a better Care of Magical Creatures teacher in Order of the Phoenix:

“And don’t say that Grubbly-Plank woman’s a better teacher!” [Harry] added threateningly.

“I wasn’t going to,” said Hermione calmly.

“Because she’ll never be as good as Hagrid,” said Harry firmly, fully aware that he had just experienced an exemplary Care of Magical Creatures lesson and was thoroughly annoyed about it. (Ch. 13)

Filius Flitwick, Charms

Flitwick seems to be a competent teacher, but it would also seem he allows students a little bit too much free rein in his class. Students frequently use his class as an opportunity to talk off-task (as Harry, Ron, and Hermione do during one lesson on banishing spells in Goblet of Fire). Hermione was also able to earn a 112% on her exam in first year, which would seem to be an impossible feat, as 100% is a perfect score. It sort of makes you wonder about his assessments.

Sybill Trelawney, Divination

Professor Trelawney’s penchant for predicting the deaths of her students as a greeting seems odd in the extreme. She does not generally fraternize with the other staff, which also marks her as odd. Professor Trelawney also has a drinking problem, as Harry and/or his friends twice come across her in a state of inebriation after consuming cooking sherry. Probably not a good idea if one is attempting to learn something, but she is good for entertainment value.

Dolores Umbridge, Defense Against the Dark Arts

Harry Potter’s DADA teacher in Order of the Phoenix teaches her students nothing practical and has them read the textbook and do busywork. I had an English teacher like that in tenth grade. I can never recall her standing in front of the room. I don’t remember reading anything. I remember doing exercises out of Warriner’s grammar book every day. My shop teacher in 6th grade (at my middle school, students had to sample all the Connections classes for 6 weeks each) made us copy out of the woodworking book when he got mad at us. Which was a lot. He also drank a beer in class once. At any rate, we were talking about Professor Umbridge. Well, clearly, she’s not really there to teach, but to be the Ministry’s toadie. I wrote a post about this once, so I won’t repeat it all here. Some of you might enjoy a look at it, though.

Professor Binns, History of Magic

Binns lectures in a boring monotone, which prevents most of his students from learning anything about his subject matter, which should rightfully be a fascinating one. Not exactly sound pedagogical theory, but we’ve all had a teacher like this, too. “Bueller… Bueller…”

Gilderoy Lockhart, Defense Against the Dark Arts

Poorly prepared in his subject and focusing instruction on his own exploits, Gilderoy Lockhart might be the worst teacher Harry has at Hogwarts. A glance at the first quiz he gives should tell the reader all he/she needs to know about Lockhart’s instruction.

Pomona Sprout, Herbology

Herbology students work hard, as would seem logical in the Head of Hufflepuff House’s class. They get plenty of hands-on practical experience. Professor Sprout also seems to be a fair teacher. She also praised Neville to Professor Moody (Crouch); when Moody repeated the praise to Neville, it clearly gave him a self-esteem boost. After Goblet of Fire, the reader sees Neville excel in Herbology, which is nice to see.

Remus Lupin, Defense Against the Dark Arts

I think Professor Lupin might be the best teacher Harry has. He relates well with the students. Snape attempts to insult Neville Longbottom in front of the entire DADA class as they are about to tackle the boggart in the faculty lounge:

“Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear.”

Lupin replies in Neville’s defense:

“I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation,” he said, “and I am sure he will perform it admirably.” (Ch. 7)

Perhaps we can forgive him then, for allowing another teacher — Snape — to be mocked openly in his class (when the boggart-Snape appears dressed in clothes similar to those worn by Neville’s grandmother). In addition to caring for his students, he is also able to inspire their respect. When he rescues Harry from Snape after Snape attempts to confiscate the Marauder’s Map, he reprimands Harry for not turning it in: “Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them — gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks” (Ch. 14). As Harry walks away, he feels “worse by far than he had at any point in Snape’s office.” Lupin’s final exam is also an excellent assessment — it is application, higher order thinking skills, a true test of what they have learned.

Alastor Moody (Barty Crouch, Jr.), Defense Agains the Dark Arts

The imposter Moody tells the DADA class that they have covered dark creatures very well under Lupin, but are behind on hexes. Even though he turns out to be a Death Eater and murderer, he might have a point. Harry and his classmates did learn quite a bit from the imposter Moody, even if he did resort to illegal curses to teach them. Harry learns how to fight the Imperius Curse. He learns about the Cruciatus Curse and the Avada Kedavra, which he previously had no knowledge of, despite the fact that the Avada Kedavra killed his parents and the fact that he is the only survivor of the AK.

Horace Slughorn, Potions

I am not sure what to make of Slughorn. His penchant for favoritism doesn’t speak well of him, but he’s not exactly evil per se. Unlike most Slytherins Harry has met so far, he is not prejudiced against Muggle-born or Half-Blood wizards. Lily Evans, Harry’s Muggle-born mother, was one of Slughorn’s favorite students. However, he told Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, which was clearly a mistake, but he seems to feel obvious shame and regret over the incident. Harry does seem to learn a great deal in his class, but he attributes most of what he learns to the notes written by the Half-Blood Prince in his textbook. As that person turns out to be Snape, one could argue he really learns a lot more about Potions from Snape.

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster

While Dumbledore’s function in the series is mainly administrative, we do learn that he taught Transfiguration when Tom Riddle and Rubeus Hagrid went to Hogwarts. We are never given an assessment of Dumbledore’s teaching skills, but based on his relationship with the students, he was probably fairly good. I do wonder at his skill in selecting some of his staff, but he seems, in all, to be a fairly good administrator. He is not always as supportive of his faculty as he could be, but often that’s because the faculty member in question is being unreasonable (Snape, most of the time). He is careful to make sure Harry always demonstrates respect for Snape, often correcting him when he doesn’t refer to him as Professor. He is open-minded and intelligent. When the government attempts to interfere at Hogwarts, he does what he can, within bounds, to protect his faculty and students.

On a slightly unrelated note, do you ever wonder if students develop other more mundane skills necessary for survival both in the Muggle and wizarding worlds? For instance, no one seems to worry about how well students write (though they seem to be assigned quite a lot of essays) or read. They don’t take math, unless you count Arithmancy. I suppose one could consider Potions to be a chemistry class of sorts, and perhaps some biology would be covered in Transfiguration; students take Astronomy, too. However, in general, science looks nothing like it does in Muggle schools. Harry takes a history class, but it is narrow in focus, which I am not sure is wise. Harry and his friends could do with learning a bit more about history in general, and their knowledge of geography does seem weak. I suppose Muggle Studies might cover this material somewhat, but we never really learn much about that class. In terms of foreign language, I don’t see much of it, unless one counts Ancient Runes. Neil Ward at the Harry Potter Lexicon discussed the “roundness” of the Hogwarts education in this essay. Lexicon founder Steve Vander Ark asks whether we would, indeed, want a Hogwarts education for our own children.