We can all be a mentor

In last week’s post I shared with you a bit about the concept that language matters. The words we use in our classroom have such a way of showing our students what we value. But words can matter in so many more ways. Who knows what words you might say in your classroom, in the hallway, in the lunchroom, or at recess that might resonate with a student for the rest of their life.

I’ve shared with you before that I love the NPR Show titled TED Radio Hour. It’s great as a podcast because I can download it to my phone and listen whenever I have a chance. If you have never heard of the TED Radio Hour, each episode has a common theme, and portions of various talks are shared that fit into that theme. The host, Guy Raz, also inserts portions of interviews with the speaker. I was listening to the most recent episode, titled “A Hero’s Journey,” while I was on a run. One of the Talks resonated with me as an educator and a mentor, so I wanted to share the story with you here.

This portion of the show is from a TED Talk by Jarrett Krosoczka, a children’s author. He went through a difficult childhood, being adopted by his grandparents when he was 3, having a mother who would come in and out of his life, and a father that he did not meet until he was 17. He had a couple of mentors who made major impacts in his life, and some were through such simple acts. When you have a chance, listen to this section of the episode.

Follow the first link below to listen to the story. I have also included a link to the full episode (the second link), if you’d like to hear more about the topic of “A Hero’s Journey.” On the TED Radio Hour page, you can also find links to the full TED Talk of each person featured on the show. Enjoy!

How Can Mentors Turn An Uncertain Journey Into A Heroic One?

Here’s the full episode:

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/458496650/the-heros-journey?showDate=2017-01-06

How do you use words to be a mentor to your students? Are there kids that you’ve seen make a major change just by the words that we use to help motivate them? Share your experiences in the comments below!

The impact of words

watchsuccess Chances are that you have seen the quote to the left before – it’s hanging in our building outside the gym. According to the poster by our gym, the quote is attributed to Frank Outlaw. As I was researching the quote, I found it attributed to several people including Lao Tzu and Mathatma Gandhi, among others.

For the past couple of years we have been on a path of shifting assessment practices in an effort to focus more on the learning process, rather than the outcome or finished product.

Combined with that, I know that many of us have given thought into the idea of mindsets. Many of you have talked with your students about having a growth mindset as compared to a fixed mindset.

Recently I was reading an article in Education Week by Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein on Twitter). Sackstein is a high school English teacher and teacher coach in New York. She is also the author of the book Hacking Assessment – part of the Hack Learning Series. I have not read the book myself, but have listened to Sackstein talk about her shift in grading practices, as well as follow her on Twitter where she an active proponent of making a deliberate shift in assessment practices to focus on the learning our students accomplish as opposed to the grades they earn.

In the article I was reading, she shared her beliefs that the language we use matters as much as, if not more than, the practices we employ. She goes on to say “What we say and how we say it has a big impact on how students and other stakeholders respond to our choices.” Take a look at this chart from her book:

grades-vs-assessment

If, as educators, we use the terms on the left side with our students, or their parents, what are we saying we value? I may be going out on a limb here, but to me the terms on the left are focused on the product. They are a fixed mindset concept that doesn’t allow room for growth. In addition, it says to students that they don’t need to learn anything from their mistakes. These terms symbolize an ending to the learning, and each time we use those terms in our classroom, we are telling our students that we are more concerned with the product.

I know from conversations that many of you have already shifted your thinking about assessment, and are truly focused on the process. Using those terms that appear on the right side of this chart will truly show our students and their parents what we value. Assessing students where they are, providing feedback, and encouraging students to try again will help students to understand that you value their learning, not their grade. It will help students see their challenges as a way to grow and move towards proficiency.

Think about the language you use in the classroom with your students. How can you shift the words that you use in the classroom to show that you truly value student growth? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Reflections from Tuesday

I hope that all of you were able to take something positive away from Tuesday’s PD: HSE²¹ Inquiry in Action. I know that whenever I attend a PD such as that, I feel overwhelmed. There are so many great ideas, and sometimes some things that just don’t seem to fit for me right now. Trying to figure out what to do with the information overload can be a bit daunting.

One of the things that I have definitely learned throughout my years of PD – if there was something good, I better try it soon. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something good at a conference, but I’ve found an excuse to not implement it right away (I don’t have time, I’m not sure my students are ready, etc.). When I put those awesome ideas off, they end up getting lost in the black hole of professional learning – that’s where all great ideas that we never try go.

So… With that in mind, here’s some simple advice. Think about the questions that the presenters were asked to frame their sessions around:

What can you do to transform your classroom tomorrow?
What can you do to transform your classroom next week?
What can you do to transform your classroom in the long term?

When you get a chance to reflect on your learning from Tuesday, try to find the nuggets that you might want to use to answer those questions. What is the thing that you can try tomorrow (or on Monday if you’re reading this the day it posts)? Commit to it and give it a shot. If you know you can’t do it tomorrow, set your own goal of when you want to try that new thing. Put it on your calendar, share with a colleague, or do something to hold yourself accountable.

Next, set one or two long term goals based on something you learned on Tuesday. Maybe take your idea and collaborate with a colleague, or use the ideas you learned to plan a new unit for your class.

Remember that reflection is one of the most important pieces of the learning process. Tuesday was nonstop without much time for contemplation between sessions. Make sure you take a little time while everything is still fresh in your mind to look back on any notes you took, or ideas that you came up with.

As you reflect, share with us one takeaway from your sessions on Tuesday. What is the one thing you plan to try? Or tell us what you have already tried. We’d love to hear about your learning, and your excitement from the day. Share with us in the comments below.

How do we respond to student behaviors?

In last week’s post we discussed the role of trauma in student behaviors we see. Each one of us can think of one or two students who manage to get under our skin and push our buttons. What we have to remember is that for some of these students, they are acting out due to something that we cannot control – they have been through some type of trauma in their life. It leads to behaviors we don’t understand, and that makes it difficult for us to respond in the appropriate way. The goal of this post is to think carefully about how we respond to those students so that we are intervening in a way that offers support.

Imagine for a moment that you were to look up from your computer right now, and see this:

Imagine this bear walked into the room you’re in right now. What would you do?

What would you do? How would you react?

For our students who have been impacted by trauma, every adult that they meet is a bear like the one you see above. That includes their teachers! For these students, they are constantly watching for the dangerous bear. They may not be able to interpret an innocent or neutral look, action, or touch from their teacher or others at school as being benign. The brains of our traumatized youth lose the ability to understand the difference between safety and danger, and will falsely signal danger and hostility EVERYWHERE. As a result, these students behave in ways that are not considered appropriate in the normal school environment. They lack the language skills to be able to describe how they feel, so they act out in ways that we might describe as reactive, impulsive, aggressive, withdrawn, or defiant. These challenging behaviors have become coping skills that help them survive in abusive or neglectful situations. Remember from last week’s post, children who have dealt with trauma are living with their focus on the survival portion of the brain (fight, flight, or fright). Since all of life is about survival for these students, they generalize the behavior to all other environments – even school where we think they should feel safe.

So when students are acting out, especially students that we believe (or possibly even know) have lived through one of the traumas addressed last week, we need to shift our perspective in how we react. Oftentimes we see this behavior as willfully acting out or disrupting class, or consciously refusing to engage with learning. Instead, we need to see that:

These responses are based on personal experiences
Students are seeking to meet their needs
They have difficulty regulating emotions
They lack some of the important skills to be successful in school
They believe that adults cannot be trusted

We need to put into place supports and other interventions to address these issues. Instead of seeing the behavior and asking (or even thinking) “What’s wrong with you?” we need to shift our mindset to “What happened and how can I help?” In order to be sensitive to trauma, we must recognize the prevalence and impact of trauma in our students’ lives and create a framework that provides support, is sensitive to the unique needs of students, and is mindful of avoiding re-traumatization. I’m sure that some of you are looking now for a list of exactly what to do in each situation. It doesn’t exist. Each child is different, their needs are different. You must take the time to offer your support, your help, and let these children know that you truly care for them. You do this through paraverbals (tone of voice, body language, volume, and cadence of speech). Deliberately slow your speech, soften your voice, choose a kind tone, and be supportive of the student. Students who feel supported are more likely to feel safe.

I think we can all agree that when students feel safe, they are more likely to act in ways that are safe, so how can we support that? First, we need to ask ourselves if the student is fearful, anxious, frustrated, or tense. Next, our responses to inappropriate behaviors need to be predictable, and our students who struggle need to have an agreed upon safe haven (maybe the resource room, maybe the counselor’s office, maybe with another teacher) where they can go to work through their complex emotions. Finally, when that student is ready to return to class, we must find an opportunity to rebuild rapport with that student (this step is quite possibly the MOST important in helping students to feel supported). Continue to let them know you care, and that you are here to help. Ask them to let you know how you can help. They may not have an answer today or tomorrow, but eventually they may have an idea that will support them. We also have to remember – for students to behave appropriately, we must model and teach the behavior we want to see (this is not the same as telling students what we expect).

In order to help students feel connected in schools, we should work hard to build relationships – especially with the students who struggle the most. Greet each student at the door of your classroom every day. Be aware of your student’s likes and interests (these can be used as a distraction in times of crisis). As I’ve said before, know your kids and love them for who they are.

While we can’t protect our students from all the evils of the world, we can be allies, mentors, and role models. The relationships we build with our students will help them as they grow, recover, and begin to heal from their trauma.

What experiences have you had with students who have been through trauma? Have you found strategies that seem to be successful? Let us know what has worked for you in the comments below.

Incremental improvement

If you were to draw a path to success, what do you think it might look like? I recently saw this visual, and it made a lot of sense to me:

I think we all would agree that the path to success is not a straight line. We’ve all had bumps in the road on our own path to where we are. In the version of success that appears on the right, there are some ups, some downs, and some times in the totally opposite direction of where you want to go. When you understand that this is what the path to success looks like, you also understand the concept of incremental growth. These are the small steps we take to get closer to our goals. When we focus on incremental growth, we don’t care as much about the external factors, and instead focus on the things that we can control. Hopefully you will see the benefit of the rest of this post if you hear questions like this in your classroom:

How many points is this worth?
Can I earn extra credit?
Did you grade the tests yet?

Questions like these are a sign that students care only for an extrinsic motivator – the grade. The problem with our students having this mindset is that when students are motivated solely by a grade, they will find ways to get the work done and earn the credit, but they will completely miss the educational value of the lesson, and will not retain anything. The best way to get them past these extrinsic motivators is to shift the mindset of your students. Work to get them to focus less on the external motivation, and more on the internal motivators.

The first step – make sure that students understand that grades are just another data point, nothing more or less, that tells teachers and parents a little about where students are right now. When you attach rewards or consequences to a grade, you train the students who do well to expect an external motivator, and you completely miss that kid who might be doing everything in their power just to keep their head above water, and never getting anything for it. When you talk about report card grades, make sure students know that you are much more concerned with their day to day efforts than you are with their overall grade.

So what are some of the ways that you can give this message to your students? Check out the points below:

Improving through effective feedback

If you want your students to value growth, you have to give them feedback that shows you recognize their growth. Normally this can’t be shown just in the grade on a paper, but rather through the words you speak to a student. During work time, be walking around, observing what students are doing, ask questions of them, and sharing your thoughts. Since we all know that our students have a jagged learning profile (see the last post on “Average” students), we should also be aware that every child is at a different place, with different goals and different needs. Our feedback should focus on what’s most important to THIS child at THIS time.

One of the other keys to effective feedback – focus on the future, not the past. Instead of saying “You shouldn’t have done it this way; you should do it this way…” you might want to try saying “Next time, I’d like you to do it this way because…” Our words totally change the feedback and focus on incremental growth moving forward.

Improving Results

One of the best ways for students to be able to see their improvement is to have a way to reflect on their learning process easily. A great way to do this is through portfolios. In this day and age, the portfolio can be totally digital, and easily viewed, shared, and managed. Apps like SeeSaw, or a blog, can allow students to share their work and create a reflection in writing, audio, or video of what they have learned in their work.

Depending on the task, what you might ask students to include in their portfolio may vary, but some of the things that would probably be valuable to include would be:

A title that describes the Big Idea or concept
A picture or video of the process or final product from the activity
Answers to reflection and synthesis questions that guide each child to successfully demonstrate their understanding of the concept.

The reflection questions should vary depending on the activity and be based on your learning goals, but the idea is to get students to reflect on their learning. If nothing else, ask them “What did you learn?” If they can reflect and articulate that, their retention will be that much stronger.

If you feel that students are lacking in their answers to the reflection questions, there is a simple solution. Follow up their answer with “Tell me more.” This simple statement gets students to think a bit deeper, and if you model this enough, your students will eventually begin answering your questions in a more complete way without you having to ask.

Critical Peer Feedback

If you are the only person in the classroom who is able to provide feedback, some things might get missed. We all know there’s only so much time in the day! The key is to get students to understand that when they are looking at each others work, they are not being judgmental, rather they are looking for specific things that could be improved. In order to help students understand how to do this, here are some steps you could introduce to them:

Tell your peer that you have an idea of where they might improve. This way they know that you are just trying to help them make their work better.
Start or end with a specific compliment! Let them know what you like and why you like it – when they know you appreciate something they have done, it’s easier to take some critical feedback.
Give your suggestion as a question rather than a statement. Instead of telling your peer what to say, you could ask “have you thought about doing this…” or “I wonder if others might understand it better if you…”

Hopefully you see a couple of ideas here that you could implement in your classroom to help your students move towards an attitude of incremental improvement. Maybe you noticed that a big key to incremental growth for students is feedback. Meaningful feedback is the key to incremental growth for all of us!

If you decide to try out any of these strategies in your class, I’d love to hear how it goes! If you’ve tried anything like this, tell us about it in the comments below. What worked well? What were your sticking points?

What is the “average” student? (Part II)

Last week I shared with you a little bit about the idea of averages. From astronomers in the 16^th century, to the work of Quételet in the 1800s, to Lincoln’s efforts to standardize the military during the Civil War, averages have a long history of being used to understand humans both physically and mentally. During World War II, the research of Gilbert Daniels showed that averages were not a great idea for design of the cockpits of airplanes because no pilot fit the mold of the average man. As a result, the Air Force banned the use of average for design, and began demanding design to the jagged edges. This led to adjustable foot pedals, helmet straps, flight suits, and seats (things that seem like a no-brainer today).

Through the choice to move to flexible design, our Air Force was able to move forward in ways that they were not able to do when design was based on the average. Now I know that some of you probably read last week’s post and may not have seen an immediate connection to education. If you recall, in last week’s post I mentioned Todd Rose, a Harvard professor and a high school dropout, who is doing some interesting research in the science of individuality.

During a TEDx Talk titled The Myth of Average (if you have a chance, this is a really good TED Talk with some real implications for the education of all students), Rose talked about the educational repercussions of using average to design learning. Sometimes our classrooms are like the airplane cockpits at the beginning of World War II. There aren’t a lot of options for adjustments, and because of that, there are students who struggle. Here’s the dirty little secret though – it’s not just the kids at the bottom who struggle in school. When you look at dropout rates, a significant portion of high school and college dropouts aren’t leaving because it’s too hard, they’re leaving because it’s too easy and they aren’t challenged or engaged.

Over the summer I had a video post to the blog titled “An Open Letter to Educators.” More recently I have been reading the book The Boy Who Played with Fusion, the story of Taylor Wilson, a 22-year-old who built a fusion reactor at the age of 14. Both talked about a need to embrace new formats of education in an effort to be more individualized and prepare our students for the real world. The implication I saw was that this individualization isn’t just for the kids that we identify on the low end of the spectrum, or those on the high end of the spectrum, but also for the kids we identify as the “typical” student.

No matter how we might identify our students (typical, below average, above average), our students come to us with jagged learning profiles. Some are strong in math, but struggle in ELA. Others have a talent for memorizing facts in social studies or science, but when you try to get them to think deeper, and solve the problems of our scientific world, they just can’t do it. What if our education system was designed to adapt to the jaggedness of our students instead of expecting our students to adapt to the school setting?

The HSE²¹ Best Practice Model is a great method to get there. Through student-centered approaches, transfer of learning, cognitive curriculum, and fundamental classroom conditions, we can develop an environment that accepts students where they are, and helps to move them further.

As you continue to design your classroom conditions for your students, be thinking about their jagged profile of learning. How are you making the learning environment more flexible? What are you doing for that science genius who struggles with the reading? They may be awesome with the hands-on portion of science, but when it comes time to read and learn about theories, they just don’t get there because the textbook is too challenging for them. Our goal has to be one of constant incremental growth, both for the kids who are struggling in a lot of areas, as well as those who seem to have it all together. Remember, we’re all jagged!

Technology can help us to get there. With an iPad, each of your students has the ability to translate text, look up vocabulary, or even have text read aloud to them. With programs like NEWSELA or Achieve 3000, we are able to have our students read materials that are at the appropriate level for them, be able to understand what they have read, and in turn have an opportunity to grow.

Flexible design in learning is the school equivalent to adjustable seats! These adaptations will nurture the potential of each individual in your classroom. And remember, adaptations aren’t just for those on either end of the spectrum. That kid that you think of as average probably has a jagged profile of learning too, with strengths that we can tap into, and weaknesses that we can target for growth. The adaptations that we’d make for anyone with a label can work for those without any specific label too – and as the teacher, you are allowed to make the choices of what is best for your students!

What might flexible design in education look like in practice? Here are a few ideas:

Get rid of specific numbers on assignments (3 pages, 5 paragraphs, 4 signposts, etc.) and shift to requiring quality work instead.
Allow modifications on assignments.
Create a loose structure for projects to allow more student autonomy in what they are creating and how they are making it.
De-emphasize standardized test scores or other systems where averages are used to judge students.
Let students select the strategies that work best for their own learning (that student who struggles with reading might be able to listen to a podcast or watch a video on YouTube and think just as deeply as that star reader who can learn from the text).
Change the pace so that certain students can finish earlier and have enrichment opportunities and others who are behind can have more time to work and not feel like all they are doing is to catch up.

Now, I know some of these ideas sound crazy, or scary, or hard to put into practice. We can’t change everything at once, but we can move incrementally to try to develop an environment that our students will be able to have more success. Just like setting goals for students to grow, we have to set goals for our own growth, and then take steps to get there.

But isn’t it worth it? Who knows, that kid who is struggling in your class right now might be on the path to dropping out, but they may have the potential to be a professor at Harvard – or any one of millions of other successful paths. They just need to have the opportunity to embrace their individuality!

So what are your thoughts? What successes have you had when adapting to be better suited to the individuality of your students? What challenges do you see in this way of thinking? Let us know in the comments below!

Teaching Conflict Management

Last year when we surveyed teachers on the topics they would like to look into as part of the Professional Development for the 2016-2017 school year, some of you chose to “write-in” a topic that you would like to learn more about. One of the write-ins was:

“Problem solving social situations, especially with friends, recess, lunchtime, specials, etc.”

While there are ways that we could probably take that idea and turn it into a PD Topic, I thought that I would give some tools that you might be able to use in the classroom the first time that you see a situation of conflict develop – my goal here is to provide you with a right now strategy. I can’t claim this idea – the majority of this post is based on ideas from the book Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Salarz (@PaulSalarz). Mr. Solarz is a fifth grade teacher in the Chicago area and runs a student-led classroom. There are so many tips in the book to help guide students to collaborate, be empowered, and take leadership in their own learning. I highly recommend it!!! The following ideas come from the Teaching Strategies for Dealing with Conflict section on page 56.

In a classroom where you are integrating student voice and student choice and allowing opportunities for students to collaborate there will invariably be some type of disagreement. We’ve all seen it happen – Tommy and Jeff partner up. Everyone (including them) knows this is a bad idea. One strategy would be to break them up before they even have a chance to start working. However, in a collaborative community, everyone needs to learn how to work with everyone. Not only will it help your classroom run more smoothly, it’s an important lifelong skill!

We all know what happens next… If you allow them to work, before long there’s a disagreement. Our reaction can make or break this situation. Instead of saying that this is what you knew would happen, and separate them, what if you gave them the tools to find a solution on their own? What an awesome opportunity to turn this situation into a teachable moment – not just for Tommy and Jeff, but for the whole class. Here’s what you could do:

Get the entire class’s attention – “Give me five!”, hands up, or whatever strategy you use in your classroom.
With a sincere smile on your face, look at Tommy and Jeff and thank them for having a little bit of trouble because it gives you the opportunity to teach everyone how simple it can be to get through conflicts.
Ask the boys to describe what happened, then teach the whole class the following strategies (you might even consider making an anchor chart for this skill to post in the room – or even better, have the students make the anchor chart!):

Rock-Paper-Scissors: Do you know how many arguments my friends and I have avoided with a simple game of rock-paper-scissors? When your students can’t decide who gets what job, or what color the background should be on a poster, a single round of rock-paper-scissors can be just the perfect way to find a solution!

Compromise: Take a portion of each person’s idea and combine them together. (“I want to watch the video clip first.” “But I think we need to plan our poster design.” “Why don’t we plan our poster design right after we watch the video!?”). Hopefully they can find a solution that makes them both happy!

Choose Kind: Sometimes the best solution to conflict is just to do what the other person wants because it’s also a good idea! As the quote from Dr. Wayne Dwyer goes: “When given a choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.” Winning an argument while also hurting a classmate does not help the class win. This summer I began using the phrase Choose Kind with my children (7 and 4 years old). It’s amazing to see how often they have been choosing kind to solve their disagreements.

The earlier you can teach these strategies to your class, the sooner they can begin to implement them. Once students understand the process, these steps can be used even when you aren’t there – the lunch room, hallways, recess, etc. If you don’t run into a conflict after a few days, then you might want to role play a scenario. The sooner these strategies are introduced, the better!

As with any other strategy, we have to be ready to reinforce the use. You can’t just introduce it once and then assume they all know it and will be successful. Every time you notice a conflict, make sure students know you are aware (proximity, a concerned smile, etc.), but don’t just jump in and solve the problem. Give them a little time to see if they will come to a resolution on their own. For this strategy to truly be effective, the students have to come to use it on their own.

After you witness students come to a resolution, let them know how proud you are of how they handled it, and see if they would be willing to share their experience with the class. If they are, have them act it out so the whole class can learn from the situation. If students don’t want to share, that’s ok too! They may be shy or embarrassed by what happened.

If students can’t get past the conflict on their own, then you might have to gently remind them of the conflict-management strategies to help them move on (this is where that anchor chart could be really handy!). It’s also ok if another student steps in to help with finding a solution. What a sign of good collaboration!

Continue the conversation in the comments below. Could these strategies work in your room? What else have you done that’s been successful? Conflict can be such a distraction and sticking point that we can all use some good new ideas!

I don’t have time for that!

It’s a refrain that seems to come up quite often in education. You might have just left a professional development talking with a colleague and you feel excited to try something that you learned only to hear “I don’t have time for that” in response. Or maybe you shared an article with a friend that you have used to help in your classroom, and the only response you get is “I don’t have time for that.”

Or even worse, maybe you’re the one saying “I don’t have time for that” to your colleague, administrator, or friend. My immediate response, knowing that we work primarily in a learning environment, is “You don’t have time to learn?” Would you allow your students to say that? Would that be an acceptable response in your classroom?

I would challenge you to shift your mindset. Reading a recent post from the blog Principal of Change, George Couros makes a suggestion of what we can say instead of saying “I don’t have time for that.”

How will my students benefit from this practice?

I am not seeing the relevance of this for teaching and learning…could you give me specifics of how this would impact my practice?

How would you suggest incorporating what you are suggesting into my position?

What has been the biggest benefit for your own practice?

If I was to do this, what would it replace that I am doing now?

How many times have we all tried things, thinking that they wouldn’t be valuable, or we wouldn’t like them, only to realize a few days (or weeks, or months) into the new thing that we couldn’t imagine not doing things this way?

So what can we learn from those moments? My hope is that we would come to the realization that it is important to be open to learning and trying new things. Just because you feel as though you “don’t have the time” you can’t just dismiss something out of hand. Take the moment to ask the questions above. If the answers are satisfactory, then that should show that you need to make the time to learn a little more, to try it out, and hopefully create a better learning environment for our students.

Remember that we are the ultimate models of learning for our students. If we never try something new, if we never exit our comfort zone, if we never do things differently than the way we’ve done something in the past, then we are saying to our students that it’s ok for them to be the same way.

What are some things you tried, not knowing quite how they would work out, only to be pleasantly surprised by how great it really was? Let us know in the comments below!

Moonshot Thinking

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. ~John F. Kennedy

5 Paragraph Essays & Newspaper Articles vs. Blog Posts & Copywriting

If I were to ask you to write a mission statement as a teacher, what would you write? If it could only be one sentence, what are the things that would be most important for you to share in your beliefs about our students? For most of us, I think somewhere in there we’d say something about preparing our students for the future. That means we have to think about what the future may hold. I know I’ve shared the quote below, but remember what Thomas Friedman says about today’s workers:

While we may not know exactly what the future may hold, we know that there are some things that our students probably will not be doing much of in the future. Stop and think for a minute – when was the last time you wrote a five paragraph essay? ELA teacher please don’t hate me for saying this, but really, when was the last time you needed that skill? I say all of this knowing that when I last taught ELA, we always had at least one research paper that was submitted in the five paragraph format. Now, I agree that there are aspects of a five paragraph essay that are essential – being concise in our argument, having a clear structure for our writing, etc., but are there other formats of writing that could allow us to teach these same skills and at the same time be innovative?

What about another one of those writing activities that appears in many classrooms (including mine in the past) – the newspaper article. Now, I will say that I have a subscription to the Indy Star, and while I can’t say that I ever read it cover to cover, and that there are some days that I don’t get to it at all, I do love having the option to sit down and read the paper. However, the statistics on print media are noticeable. I did a quick google search and found the charts below. There’s less money coming into print media in the form of ad revenue, and the number of workers employed in newspaper publishing has been in pretty steady decline.

Now, I may be ruffling a few feathers here – and by no means am I saying that I think our students should never write a five paragraph essay or a newspaper article, but given the probable lack of a need for those skills in their future, what might be more valuable ways for our students to spend their time? Two things that come to mind – blog posts and copy writing.

More and more, newspapers are trying to reach readers in formats other than print media. I see IndyStar writers pop up in my Twitter feed sharing copy trying to get people to click the links and go the their site. I see news articles online that are formatted more like a blog than a newspaper. Two ways to help our students be able to reach the greater world would involve writing blog posts (like what you’re looking at right now), and learning a little about copywriting (the art and science of writing words used on web pages, ads, promotional materials, etc., that sells your product of service and convinces prospective customers to take action). Now, I know that our students aren’t trying to sell things, but the skills of writing good copy will help our students be better overall writers.

Throughout the year you have heard us talk about the HSE²¹ best practice model. You’ve also seen examples of the “Less of this, more of this” charts. Again, I’m not saying we should throw out the five-paragraph essay or the newspaper article. But we also need to think with an eye towards the future. What types of writing will be the most valuable for our students when they leave school and move on to a career?

Think about it, a student in your class could write a blog post on something they have been learning about. Other students (or teachers, parents, family members, or maybe even experts in a given field of study) would be able to read and respond in the comments to their thinking. Students would be able to share their blog site with their friends and family members. Parents wouldn’t have to ask the dreaded “What did you do at school today?” because they could have looked at the most recent blog post and say “I saw in the most recent post to the blog that you are learning about …, tell me more about that.”

It’s also been proven through study after study that ELA scores are impacted most by reading and writing across the curriculum (teaching reading and writing skills should not only be the job of the ELA teacher). What a valuable expression of learning it would be for our students to write a blog post about their experiences in math, art, science, or gym (or any other subject!!!). And another great thing about blog posts – they don’t have to be just words. WordPress (and most other blog sites out there) will allow pictures, video, and audio, and if I really wanted to, I could create an entire post from my WordPress app on my cell phone or my iPad.

What are your thoughts on student created blogs? Can you see a way that you could enrich the learning of the students in your class through writing about it? What about copywriting? Curious how it could fit into the writing activities you are already doing? Wanna talk more about this? Share your thought below. We can find a structure to make it work in your classroom!

The View from 518

Category: Growth Mindset