The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I have a love-hate relationship with Cloze Notes, otherwise known as fill-in-the-blank notes.

Do you use Cloze notes?

HOW do you use them?

Like any teaching tool, Cloze Notes can be used to varying degrees of success. I tend to think of them “Clint Eastwood -style” as “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”.

Cloze Notes can be GOOD because they can help kids who are reading way behind grade level to keep up with the rest of the class. They can help make sure all students are on the same page. They make sure all students have complete notes, since it is easy for any student to keep up with his or her peers.

Cloze Notes can be BAD because they don’t require a student to actually comprehend anything they are reading or hearing. I could complete Cloze notes in Swedish or Swahili or Samoan because I don’t have to have any clue what they’re about.  Put the original piece of text in front of me, and I can complete an entire page of Cloze Notes in Arabic (which I don’t speak or read at all) and not know anything about what I just wrote.

Cloze Notes can be UGLY when we give them to entire classes just because a tiny number of students are five or more grade levels behind in their reading level. When we teach to the lowest common denominator, we lessen the comprehension of our at-grade level and our above-grade level students. When we give Cloze Notes to a whole class, we don’t give our students an opportunity to try the reading and the comprehending on their own. We assume that they can’t and we take that learning opportunity away from them.

So, are Cloze Notes really that awful?

Well, I think nine times out of ten, they dumb a task down, lower than most of our kids need. And even if they DO need it, it doesn’t allow the kids a chance to stretch upward -- if we do them past the first quarter of the year.

Cloze notes keep a child reading exactly where they are. It does not help them learn to read any better because the KIDS don’t have to do the actual thinking.

Think about it. How could it? The kids don’t have to figure things out for themselves. They don’t have to read. They only have to identify what the next word looks like and copy it down.

Cloze notes don’t teach meaning. Copying doesn’t equal learning.

So, what can we do with Cloze Notes so they DO help our students?

• First, we can think like the best parts  of Cloze Notes. When we do read-alouds, we can teach our students to choral-read the next word aloud when we give them a pause or a cue.
• We can make lesson differentiation decisions where Cloze notes are only used for students who are five or more grade levels behind.
• We can have students create cloze-notes where THEY make strategic blanks and explain WHY they chose those blanks -- and what term goes in them.
• We can use Cloze Notes for their original purpose -- to gauge fluency in reading. The Original Cloze Notes were where the teacher omitted every 7th or 10th word to see if readers were following along.
• We can teach note-taking strategies that help students create their own meaning -- even struggling readers and writers. Try Cornell Notes or Outlining.

What’s your take on Cloze Notes? When is the appropriate time to use them? Have you experimented to see if there are strategies that better increase comprehension for your struggling readers? As always, I love to hear from you! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

More Matters

I decided recently that I need to get a stronger upper body. So, I bought some small hand weights and I asked my husband to show me some weight lifting exercises. And then, I tried a couple of the exercises but I wasn’t doing them quite right. So we both decided that since he was good at it and I wasn’t, he should just lift the weights for me. All the time.

Hahahaha!!! Nooooooo, not really!

You’re thinking, “Tracy, that’s ridiculous! The only way to get better at weight lifting is to ...actually lift weights.

But I do think that’s what many of us do with reading in Social Studies. We want the kids to improve their reading, so we ask them to read something.

And then, they don’t do it very well because they are all kids and because some of them are not strong readers and others are not very into Social Studies and others are intimidated by the term “Amendment” or “Timbuktu” or “progressivism” and others looked at the single-spaced long (to them) piece of text and gave up before they started.

And then we say, “OMG! These kids can’t read!”

And then we say, “Since they can’t read, I had better do the reading for them”.

And then we put it in a powerpoint or a handout or in bullet points or fill in the blank or another actual language (for ELL students) ...

And then the kids don’t actually have to read.

We do all the reading for the kids.

And then we are frustrated when their reading doesn’t improve.

Huh.

I read recently a PSA campaign about fruits and vegetables that says “More Matters”. The idea behind the PSA is that just eating an apple a day isn’t enough. The more fruits and veggies you eat, the healthier you are.

They’re probably right. I should increase my fruit and veggie consumption if I’m not going to lift any weights myself  

But I would like to suggest that you apply the “more matters” philosophy to your students and pieces of text.

More TEXT matters.

Kids should have the opportunity to have their eyes on text every day in your class -- and  different texts. They should have maps and charts and graphs and textbook-style readings and primary source documents and secondary source documents and articles and political cartoons and artworks ...

All. The. Time.

And if your kids stink at reading?

Then they need to read MORE!! (It’s called productive struggle and it’s a powerful thing)

Of course, you will have to bust out all your strategies:

• Chunk the text
• Have kids mark the text
• Have them talk about the text.
• Have them write about it
• Have them think about it
• Have them read it again
• Have them respond in writing
• And about 1000 more reading strategies...

And when they aren’t good at it?

Try it again.  They need to read again!! That’s how they improve. Productive struggle is how we grow. Don’t take away that chance for kids to struggle for themselves.

I’m going to go work with my weights. And see if I can improve.  

How about you? How about your kids? Can you have them try “productive struggle” with text every day? Different text, different strategies, but stil working with text.

More Matters.

Email me! newmantr@pcsb.org

Thirty Seconds

Sometimes I feel like my day is so full, I can’t possibly fit in another thing. I am literally writing this Tuesday night at 9:30 at night because I haven’t had a spare minute in I-don’t-know-how-long. I text at stoplights. I listen to books in the car so I actually have time to read. I read the newspaper on my phone while I walk from one room to another. I clean things while waiting for the microwave to ding.  

Thirty Seconds. That’s all you need.

Here are ten things you can do in Thirty Seconds:

1. Stretch
2. Thank someone for doing something nice or well-done.
3. Take your attendance in Portal/Focus
4. Give your students a turn and Talk break
5. Text your mom (between classes, I hope!)
6. Compliment one more student (“good job today!”)
7. Eat half a granola bar.
8. Drink some water.
9. Take a deep breath (before you say something you probably shouldn’t)
10. Ask a kid for EVIDENCE for whatever answer he or she just gave.

I want to add one more thing to your 30-second list:

Examine art.

(Tracy, isn’t that a little ridiculous? Shouldn't we give real art TIME to study it well?)

Stay with me. We’ll get there. I promise.

There is a wonderful strategy for looking at art that helps students develop observational and critical thinking skills.  It’s called “Thirty-Second Look”. It is obviously brief. But it’s solid!

Full disclosure: Despite the name, there is some work to do on the FRONT END of those 30 seconds and on the BACK END and therefore the strategy actually takes a couple minutes. (Hey, don’t blame me. I didn’t name the strategy! :))

Here’s how it works.

1. Find a work of art. It may be in your textbook. It may be from somewhere online. It may be in a museum. Don’t give your kids background knowledge (or not more than the name of the piece and the artist and date, if necessary. I prefer going at it cold.)
2. Ask kids how much time most people spend looking at a work of art (hint: the answer is 30 seconds or less). Ask them if they think that is enough time.
3. Direct students to look at that work of art for thirty seconds. Use a timer. At the end of the thirty seconds, turn it off.
4. Once the image is gone, ask students to use their memories to answer several questions you direct. Make ones that will work for you. Some ideas may include:
1. How many objects/people are in the piece?
2. How would you describe them?
3. How are they dressed?
4. What kind of setting is depicted?
5. What time of day is it depicting?
6. What is the subject?

   5. Chart the words they come up with to make a word bank -- or put their words in categories.

   6. Now that your students are curious, put the artwork back up and allow the kids to answer all the questions that they couldn’t answer from memory. See if their answers are different the second time around. Ask if there is anything on the list that isn’t actually in the work of art.

  7. Encourage students to really thoughtfully hypothesize about  the artist’s message (or point).  Ask them to explain how their second (more careful) observation allowed them to better grasp the author’s message.

  8. To have them wrap it up, have them do a brief check for understanding or quickwrite or ticket-out-the-door where they explain what THEY believe the artist’s point is (claim) and give evidence from the artwork.

As an added bonus, I used to feel that my kids were burned out during testing weeks and didn’t want to dig into any text. But PICTURES, they would tell me, weren’t REAL work. You don’t have to READ them or THINK or anything HARD like that...

Ha. Silly kids. I tricked ‘em again with this art-IS-real-thinking stuff!

Try it with an image in your textbook or one from online. A slightly complicated one is good. An overly complicated image may make this too confusing.  (The School of Athens, at right, is a bit much). But the photo of Lincoln with Gen McClellen (above) or the statue of Augustus of Prima Porta (below) are PERFECT!

Try it today. Nothing like a test-week to try something different! Try the Thirty Second Look and let me know how it goes. How can you use the terms generated by the observation to teach vocab? How can this teach content AND claim/evidence?

It’s an awesome strategy, one that takes little time and less prep time.

Let me know how it goes! Drop me an email at newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

Like a Surgeon

So it looks like I have to have a root canal. It’s not the end of the world that it used to be. Root canals used to be a byword for pain. Now, modern technologies and anesthesia help root canals to be no more miserable than plain old fillings.

That being said, I want a good, precise dentist or oral surgeon to perform my root canal. I do not want anyone just cutting my gums willy-nilly. I don’t want my dentist to look like the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show, the one who chops and slices haphazardly while looking in the other direction and mumbling incoherently.

I want my oral surgeon to do surgery on me with surgical precision. There’s a reason we use that phrase. We don’t want that surgeon to cut even a millimeter away from where he or she should be. We want that cut in the precise location where it should be. We want that person to be exact in his or her work.

Well, with the renewed emphasis on our course benchmarks and the end of course exams coming (both state EOCs, like HS US History and 7th Grade Civics as well as district-developed EOCs for every other course we offer), it’s time to really dig in to our benchmarks (whips off sunglasses)...

...Like a Surgeon.

(Go ahead. Sing like Weird Al from the 80s. I’ll sing along with you...”Like a Surgeon! Cuttin’ for the very first time!”)

Yes, we all teach our “curriculum” when you define “curriculum” as a list of topics or chapters to cover. No one is teaching way-out-of-the-scope topics like a dinosaur unit in US History anymore.

But not as many of us teach our “curriculum” when that “curriculum” is defined by specific benchmarks. And even fewer of us teach those benchmarks with surgical precision

But with the amount of benchmarks we have to teach and the same 180 days, we cannot possibly teach it all (not all the topics, not the entirety of the chapters) -- and teach it all well -- unless we teach our benchmarks with surgical precision.

We need to teach the benchmark, the whole benchmark, and nothing but the benchmark. It’s the only way to do it all and do it well.

What do I mean by this? Let’s look at some benchmarks from middle school and high school. Get yours from CPALMS.org, under “courses”. Let’s look at the benchmarks with Surgical Precision.

From 6th grade World History: SS.6.W.4.4 Explain the teachings of Buddha, the importance of Asoka, and how Buddhism spread in India, Ceylon, and other parts of Asia. Remarks and Examples: Examples are The Four Noble Truths, Three Qualities, Eightfold Path.

Look at the key words -- “explain”, “teachings”, “importance”, “spread”

• I would skip . . . I wouldn’t spend time on how Buddhists live. I wouldn’t teach the entirety of Ch 16, 17, and 18. I wouldn’t spend time on Chandragupta or the modern Indian flag or more than an quick overview of Siddhartha for this benchmark. Surgical Precision. Don’t spend extra time on Mohenjo Daro or mandalas or anything else.
• I would teach . . I would make sure my students could literally explain, in writing, the main teachings of Buddha. I would make sure they could explain (probably in a map or timeline) how Buddhism spread in India, Ceylon, and other parts of Asia as a result of Asoka.  All this benchmarks asks is: 1) teachings of Buddha, 2) the importance of Asoka (edicts, spread of Buddhism, unification).That’s it!

From 8th Grade US History SS.8.A.3.4 Examine the contributions of influential groups to both the American and British war efforts during the American Revolutionary War and their effects on the outcome of the war. Examples may include, but are not limited to, foreign alliances, freedmen, Native Americans, slaves, women, soldiers, Hessians.

Look at the key terms “examine”, “contributions”, “effects on the outcome”

• 
  I would skip . . . This is not where I would teach battles or individuals (that’s another standard). This is not where I teach George Washington or Abigail Adams or Burgoyne. This is not where I teach pre-revolutionary groups, either, like the Committees of Correspondence or the Sons of Liberty. This is not where I teach the history of each group or the entirety of Ch 7.
• I would teach . . . This is where I teach about each group listed in the examples. I AM going to teach how each group influenced the war efforts, and whether or not each group influenced the outcome. I am would teach each group as part of an organizer or foldable or something and I would ask my students about the two things listed in the benchmark -- the contributions and effects on the outcome. That’s it.

From  High School Government: SS.912.C.3.5 Identify the impact of independent regulatory agencies in the federal bureaucracy. Examples are Federal Reserve, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Communications Commission.

Look at the key terms: “Identify”, “impact”, “independent”

• I would skip . . . a full listing of all 19 independent regulatory agencies. I would also skip the former independent regulatory agencies that are now defunct or merged elsewhere. No need for the Committee for Public Information or the ICC. I would skip the history of most of those agencies. No matter how interesting it is, kids don’t need to know how the various colonial postal systems eventually merged into the USPS as an independent regulatory agency.
• I would teach . . . The three specifically named agencies in the examples. I would teach their impacts -- how does each agency impact the people, businesses, and laws of our country. For each agency we discuss, my students would have to identify that impact. I would also teach the difference between an independent regulatory agency and another executive agency, to make sure they don’t get confused.

From  High School World History: SS.912.W.4.11 Summarize the causes that led to the Age of Exploration, and identify major voyages and sponsors.

Look at the key terms: “summarize”, “causes”, “identify”, “major”

• I would skip . . . a majority of the exploration voyages. I would really focus on a couple of major ones and skip a lot of the petty, nation-on-nation squabbles during the exploration era. I would not get bogged down into multiple maps, routes, and small causes.
• I would teach . . . The main causes -- God, Gold, and Glory. I would teach maybe five or six explorers, each as an example of a cause of exploration or as an example of a major voyage/sponsor. For example, I would teach English Francis Drake as an example of the “glory” cause.

You get the idea. Teach the benchmark with surgical precision. (“like a surgeon -- ooh!”)

How do I teach with surgical precision? It’s not as painful as it looks. And it’s definitely not as painful as Steve Martin over there --> makes it look. Here’s how:

1. Look at the benchmark, not the textbook chapter.
2. Find the key words, including the verbs (summarize, explain, compare, etc.) in that standard.
3. Plan to teach just that benchmark, without the extra pieces. Use those verbs and key terms you found. If the benchmark says “explain”, your kids should be able to explain with minimal prompting. If it says “compare”, then your kids should be able to compare the two topics.
4. Find the resources that JUST teach that benchmark -- JUST the paragraphs, JUST the mini-lectures, JUST the focused activities. Don’t overdo anything. It’s like cooking -- don’t dump in huge quantities of ingredients, but measure carefully. Teach the lesson so your kids can specifically answer the benchmark, not just talk about the more general topic.
5. Don’t assume kids always need to know Piece A to understand Piece B. They often do fine with just Piece B or with a one-sentence summary of Piece A. My dentist doesn’t need to cut tooth #2 just because it’s next to tooth #3.

I know that folks who teach state EOC courses (7th Civics and HS US Hist) really teach by the benchmark -- how about the rest of us? Are you teaching like a surgeon? Or have you sometimes had a Swedish Chef moment (“Teach ALL the things -- in chapter 9!”) I know I have!

As always, I love to hear! Are you teaching like a surgeon? Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org