ericphysjones

Have you heard any of these statements before?

Our students can’t read the textbook.

My students can’t write logical conclusions.

My students can’t spell, can’t write complete sentences, and can’t find a comma to save their lives.

Some of my students are doing just fine.  Why didn’t the rest of them learn?

Why didn’t my students learn this in language arts class?

Why didn’t they learn this in middle school?

Why didn’t they learn this in elementary school?

Why didn’t they learn this FROM THEIR PARENTS!?

THEY aren’t teaching students how to read anymore.

THEY aren’t teaching students how to write anymore.

THEY have lowered their standards.

I shouldn’t have to teach my students how to read.

I shouldn’t have to teach my students how to write.

I shouldn’t have to show my students how to take notes.

I shouldn’t have to teach my students how to make a logical argument.

No one taught ME how to read a text book.

No one taught ME how to write a lab report.

No one taught ME how to make an argument.

It’s __________’s fault (TV, poverty, the family, culture, NCLB, RTTT, etc).

Sounds pretty depressing, huh?  Well, let’s talk fun for a moment.

One of the fun things that I got to do over spring break was reading − lots of it.  Besides reading The Two Towers for the nth time, I also read a fantastic book called Real Reading, Real Writing − Content Area Strategies, by Donna Topping and Roberta McManus.  I’ve skimmed this book in the past, and I’ve used one of the recommended writing strategies, but I so wish that I had read it cover-to-cover before now.  I would be teaching differently today, if I had.

Along with providing a heaping variety of tools for improving the reading and writing skills of students in content areas like science and social studies, the book also starts with a valuable discussion about teaching philosophy in general.  It addresses the important and frustrating statements with which I began this post.  Most of us have heard these statements.  Many of us have made these statements.  Real Reading, Real Writing comes right at this attitude with a big YEAH?  So what?  What are YOU going to do about it?

The authors ask you to face some hard facts:

• Many students don’t learn like you do.
• The methods that worked with you don’t work with them.
• They don’t know how to put the pieces together, even when they have the pieces.
• They aren’t getting what you are doing.

The authors state, “It’s so much more comfortable to brand someone else as the culprit than to look inside and see what we could be doing to make the situation better.”  I love this!  Stop whining, buck up, and start doing something about it.  The authors then provide a realistic strategy and usable tools for moving past the frustration for both teachers and students.

So, what’s a science teacher like me to do when my students can’t read or write at acceptable levels for success in science?  The authors suggest that teachers replace their testing posture with a teaching posture by adopting a coaching strategy.  Well, I’ve heard this before, and it sounds all well and good.  And anyway, isn’t coaching cheating?  The authors raise the same objections, as well as many others.  However, they break down the arguments and provide many practical tools for taking on this strategy.  The authors come across as reasonable and sensible voices in the call to teach reading and writing across the curriculum.  For me, it is finally more than a vision.

IT’S SHOW AND TELL

“We must not just tell but show our students what it is we want them to do, how we − the mature adults − read and write in our specific content areas, and how we strategically control ideas and information within them.”  Again, I’ve heard this before, but who has the time?  I have all this content to cover, right?  The authors − one of whom is a middle school science teacher, so the book has a strong focus on science teaching − acknowledge this problem and address it head on.  They acknowledge that teaching reading and writing WILL take more time.  At first.  Then, you and your students will be able to proceed more rapidly through your content, with greater success in terms of learning, for the remainder of the school year.  In fact, one author can pinpoint the day of the year when she and her students will be able to put learning into overdrive.

DO, LIKE A COACH!

The authors suggest a three-prong approach to teaching the players, I mean, the students:

• Involve students in the process of the game.
• Model how to do what the game requires.
• Present strategies for playing the game successfully under a variety of conditions and variables.

They describe what this looks like in a REAL school, including a generous helping of conversations between REAL teachers and REAL students.  They show how teaching your students to read and write, while teaching all the science you are obligated to teach, is not only possible, but also rewarding.

This book gets beyond answers to the questions of which technique, which initiative, or which trick-of-the-trade will make the difference.  Rather, the authors address real questions like, “Are we guiding our students to write and speak appropriately for the tasks at hand?”  All fads/initiatives/etc must be evaluated in the light of real questions like this.

As I wrote this last paragraph, I realized that it too sounded rather theoretical and pie-in-the-sky.  So, what can I do on Monday to help my students do better in my class and in future coursework?  Actually, I have already started.  This past week, my students and I began the final quarter of our year with some new approaches to learning.  I created some practical reading tools using the models in Real Reading, Real Writing.  I introduced topics in new ways with sensible tactics to engage students before, during, and after content delivery.  I had fun!  My students responded positively, along with some groaning about having to do more real work for themselves.

As I said to my students, you are probably wondering why we didn’t do this at the beginning of the year.  Well, I simply didn’t know how.  I’ve heard the theories (in the everyday usage of the word), and I’ve been part of the school initiatives.  However, until now I’ve rarely heard any practical approaches or sensible voices in the push to improve the literacy of our students.  I wish I had, and I wish I had started this year with these tools in hand.

Nevertheless, I’ve told my students that we’re going to do a lot more reading and writing between now and the end of the year.  I’m going to do what I can to get them ready for next year and beyond, when they MUST read complex texts for learning ON THEIR OWN.  There is the side benefit that they will be better prepared for their state-mandated ACT test in a few weeks, but I made it clear that this is NOT the reason we are doing this.  This is for their future.  This is for their REAL learning.

I needed an exasperating situation to wake me up from my blogging slumber, and the ruination of my nieces’ science education is it.  I was reminded today of this sad state of affairs by Bruce Alberts in his editorial, Trivializing Science Education, from last week’s edition of the journal Science (subscription required for access to full article).  Mr. Alberts explains that “science” has been reduced to the ability to “regurgitate” facts without understanding.  Good science education has been replaced by “rigorous” approaches that emphasize recall over curiosity and comprehension.  To my great annoyance, my nieces are being subjected to this blunt, deadening approach to science education that Mr. Alberts describes.  And, to my chagrin, I live too far away to spend one-on-one time with them in more authentic scientific pursuits.  It’s such a shame.

My nieces’ 5th-grade teacher in Kentucky has taken away the joy of science with rote memorization of facts and processes beyond their understanding.  Among other things, she has had them memorize parts of a cell and facts about the periodic table, just like Mr. Alberts mentions.  In the 5th grade!  Here are some excerpts from my sister’s description of their most recent test:

They just had a science test this Wednesday and I still have the “study guide” sitting around…So the questions on the guide were–compare and contrast a plant and animal cell–expecting them to memorize words like “organelles” , “chloroplast” and “cytoplasm”;  list and define the 4 parts of animal cells, and the same for plant cells—so then they have to know stuff like what “chloroplast” actually does; the parts and jobs of the circulatory system; parts and jobs of the digestive system;  compare and contrast vertebrates and invertebrates; describe the difference between reptiles, mammals, and amphibians; the 3 levels of organization between “cells” and “organism” and describe the function of cells in each level; 4 characteristics that mammals share; 4 characteristics that arthropods share. YES, ALL ON ONE TEST (my emphasis)…A year ago they would have been incapable of memorizing any of that; just would’ve been like memorizing greek to them.  I am very thankful to say they are definitely getting better at it.

My nieces’ teacher has frustrated them continuously this year.  They used to like science class.  Now, it is a chore that could change their attitudes about science forever.

While I seek for ways to circumvent this teacher’s unknowing plan to beat science out of my nieces (SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME), I am also forced to consider the science education of the students in my own district and, closer to home, the students in my own classroom.  For years, I have been cognizant of the fact that science is “boring” or “not my thing” to many of my regular-level physics students.  Each year I have attempted to improve the connection between their lives and the science we do in my classroom.  Mr. Alberts’ article was a reminder of the importance of this effort.

However, Mr. Alberts also hints at how students usually come to love or dislike science at an age long before they reach me in their junior or senior years of high school.  Too often, schools slay students’ love of science during the elementary years, just when curiosity waxes high.  My district is currently redesigning our science curriculum, as part of a 7-year curriculum cycle, and I am on the curriculum committee.  I consider myself fortunate to have this voice on the committee, even though the process is frustrating.  I am encouraged that the committee has talked a great deal about scientific practices, skills, and cross-cutting themes, as championed in the Framework for K-12 Science Education.  I plan to do my part to ensure that this vision doesn’t get lost in the nitty-gritty details of curriculum design and during the process of materials adoption.

At this point, our district is redesigning only the curriculum for grades 7 through 12.  Undertaking a redesign of grades K through 6 will occur later, and will probably require a Herculean effort, as there is currently NO science curriculum for these grades.  Due to NCLB, time for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics has been maximized, and science has been pushed aside with other less important subjects, like history, art, and music.  Science is simply left out of many elementary schools in our K-12 district.  And yet, as Mr. Alberts notes, “When we teach children about aspects of science that the vast majority of them cannot yet grasp, then we have wasted valuable educational resources and produced nothing of lasting value.”  In other words, a poorly designed curriculum is a waste of time anyway, so maybe no science is better than bad science.  I suppose that I would prefer to deal with students that have no opinion of science, rather than ones that have had “all the enjoyment [taken] out of science.”

I can only hope that the effort we make in the 7 – 12 curriculum committee will carry over to future efforts at the K – 6 level.  We must move away from the notion that “rigor” means memorizing lots of facts.  We must instead nurture students’ natural curiosity and help them build the skills and practices necessary for successful investigation, problem solving, and communication in science.  Our success at the 7 – 12 level, and my students’ experience of science as juniors and seniors, depend on it.

I haven’t actually heard anyone say recently, “Those who can’t, teach,” but the sentiment appears to be alive and well in our society.  To this sentiment, I think that I can also add the admonition, “Those who can, don’t teach!” as in, if you are successful, don’t bother thinking about entering the profession of teaching because it isn’t worth your time and frustration.  “You are worth more than teaching.”

Let me state outright that I don’t hold with this new, apparent attitude.  I have, instead, been on the receiving end of that last bit of advice, as I navigated the career change from electrical engineering to high school teaching.  I was reminded of this disheartening advice from a friend by comments posted on a recent article in the Washington Post, Why an army colonel is retiring early — to become a high school teacher.  One comment in particular, by a former middle school and high school teacher, nonetheless, really irked me.  Jop57 writes, “Might I suggest coaching at the local high school and taking an adjunct teaching job at a nearby community college. This way, youbcan [sic] still connect to the youth in a [sic] environment in which they will listen and at the college level your wealth of experience and leadership will be appreciated. You seem like a wise man…a word to the wise is sufficient.”

I agree that teaching high school students is difficult, and they are often unmotivated, but isn’t it the teacher’s job to motivate them?  I am not always successful at this, and I am often dissatisfied with the results, but I believe that it is my job to help my students become motivated, and when necessary, to act for systemic change that provides my students with a more meaningful (and useful) experience.  It is appropriate to warn someone thinking about the teaching profession that it is hard, frustrating work, and that students today may not be like what one remembers of students in the past.  However, how can a teacher warn someone that they don’t even know to avoid teaching at the K-12 level because they have the skills to do something better.

Have we as a society abdicated our role of teaching our youth?  Have we concluded that Those who can’t, teach is not only the real truth, but even our preference?  Have we given up on today’s youth altogether and decided to ride out the collapse of our nation until we ourselves die and don’t have to worry about them anymore?

If Jop57 truly believes that the best way to connect to youth is through teaching at the college level and coaching, then I am glad that he or she is no longer teaching middle school or high school, because it appears that this profession is not the right place for them.  However, we as a society must stop advising the best and brightest among us to avoid teaching because we think they are worth more than that.  These are the people that our youth need.  They are the ones with the intelligence and skills to turn around our schools, or perhaps more correctly, to right the course of our society, of which schools are a part and in which they are floundering.  Kudos to Colonel Yingling for his courageous decision to leave his safe position and large salary in order to enter the uncertain and less lucrative — financially, but not emotionally — world of K-12 education.

In this blog I intend to write about the intersection of high school science education, politics, and my crazy life (aren’t they all crazy?).  However, the following story isn’t what I imagined that I would write as my first post if I ever started a blog.  Nevertheless, I guess that it manages to target my goals perfectly.  It’s a little long, but here goes:

A surreal evening.  I’m in Washington, D.C., for a workshop on assessment in science education.  With the workshop done — a wonderful experience, by the way — I decided to wander around the Mall area because, well, I thought I should.  My first stop after leaving the Metro was the White House.  Ho hum.  A lot of people taking photos.  I took a picture of Lafayette’s statue.  Afterward, I wandered down toward the Washington Memorial.  I had a general goal of making it to the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Korean War Veterans Memorial.  Old, important-looking buildings along the way.  Hmm.  Lots of police.  Lots of construction underway.  Enhh.  The Washington Memorial seemed taller than I remembered as a kid.  Ok.  Next, a pretty fountain with state names around it (sorry, don’t know what this is called).  Humm.  Mostly, I was thinking, The Capitol squirrels sure are looking well-fed; guess their economy is pretty good.  I eventually made my way to the Lincoln Memorial and took a few photos.  I was pleased by the happy, excited voices of the visitors.  Nice.  Yeah, I guess I’ll go up and see Lincoln.  Beautiful statue, kind of like I remembered.  Nice.  At this point, I was thinking, Why am I doing this?

Then, I saw Lincoln’s words on the side wall to the left of Lincoln.  I hadn’t remembered this.  This looks important.  I should take the time to read this.  It was from the Gettysburg Address.  Wow.  “It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  Yes!  That’s people.  Not corporations.  PEOPLE.  I thought about how there are again two sides in this country, fighting a war of rhetoric, money, and evolving protests.  I then wandered to the other side of Lincoln.  Double wow.  It was his second inaugural address.  His words spoke to my faith, my deepest beliefs.

I stepped into the memorial book shop, a few feet away.  A book of Lincoln’s words immediately caught my eye, and I bought it, along with a postcard of President Obama (Hey!  It’s Lincoln that paved the way for his presidency, right?).

Right now, I sit in the Post Pub, L Street NW, and this book of Lincoln’s words is the very book in which I scribble down my thoughts, using a pen borrowed from my waiter.  I hope that Lincoln wouldn’t mind.

After I left the book shop, I found a quiet spot on the memorial steps to sit and think.  What should I take away from this?  How should I deal with my anger toward Republicans?  What am I supposed to do with my feelings of hopelessness in defeating the overwhelming interests of money in this country’s government?  Am I, perhaps, on the wrong side?  Am I just naïve?

And, the one thought that came clearly to my mind, unbidden, was “Seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).”   Yes… That is what I am supposed to do.  That fits who I am.  I can still be angry, I can still seek justice, but there’s a humble way to do this, just like Lincoln said.

I left the steps, and I sought the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  The Korean War Veterans Memorial was eerily vivid in the dark.  You could imagine the soldiers popping in and out of the darkness.  The MLK Memorial was under preparation for the ceremony this weekend.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was moving for its beauty alone, but its seemingly countless names grabbed my heart.  As I wandered from powerful vision to powerful vision, I pondered the meaning of Micah’s words for my life.

I was leaving the last names behind me in the dark, when my cell phone rang.  It was my wife.  She and my 18-year old son had had to get out of the house and leave my 16-year old son behind.  Oh no… What has he done now?  As I found my way in the dark toward the Washington Memorial, the BIG bread crumb of my path home, I alternately talked with my wife, my younger son, and my older son.  Apparently, my younger son (Trouble) had started a fight with my older son.  It would be inappropriate for me to go into the reasons for the fight, but the police had been out to our house (again).

Our sons are adopted — they moved in when they were 8 and 10 — and on difficult days our goals for them have been rather modest.  For the 18-year old, our hope has been that he would one day be able to live on his own.  For the younger one, we simply hoped that he would stay out of jail.  It was another one of those days, which thankfully don’t occur as often as they did a year or two ago.  I soon found myself sitting directly below the Washington Memorial, with a clear view of the White House in the distance, on the phone with my older son, helping him work through his conflicted, angry emotions.  Yes, surreal.

It was then 8 o’clock, and I hadn’t eaten since lunch.  I left the memorials and walked to the area north of the White House, hoping to find a Middle Eastern restaurant.  No luck.  The kabob places were closed, and I finally settled on a pub.  A pub atmosphere seemed comforting and comfortable.

Well, done with dinner.  Almost done with my Guinness (not my first).  Time to find the nearest Metro station.  In our country’s capitol.  The White House mere blocks away.  Surreal.