My apologies in advance for this presentation of disjointed thoughts. I have had a full day and a half of PD already this year on DDI (Data Driven Instruction) and the Six Shifts to the ELA Common Core. While the DDI concept seems totally logical, understanding how it can drive differentiated teaching and learning is incredibly motivating. Even more motivating was working with groups of teachers who are in search of "challenging" non-fiction texts to encourage "close reading" for understanding!
I see the Common Core marching in and am glad to be an usher at the event. The downside, of course, is that it would appear our educational colleagues are being directed to the literature without mention that we are here to support or guide them. Nobody is speaking up for us if we don't speak up for ourselves! They will find articles on their own - somewhere, and of unknown quality. Some will be good and some not so good. If we can't step to the front and make ourselves heard, with supportive offers of guidance the process will happen without us and more librarians and the services that we can provide will be lost.
We can find articles in specific lexile ranges. We can find articles on both sides of the issues. We can order magazines or books to support the curriculum. We can find articles specific to the curriculum instead of just, "something that will work." We can and we must!
The College Board announced today a redesign of the AP U.S. History program. Though it will not take effect until fall of 2014, it's three objectives focus on alignment with current university requirements, a narrowed volume of required knowledge, and greater flexibility for "teachers and
students to focus on the close reading and analysis of primary and
secondary source material, and the development of the skills practiced
by historians, such as argumentation and periodization."
"The increased flexibility of the redesigned course will provide teachers
with time to help students use the knowledge they gain to practice the
work of a historian. Rather than simply moving rapidly from topic to
topic, AP U.S. History students will regularly engage in sustained,
close reading of historical source material and the development of
written arguments solidly grounded in such evidence."
For years our best students have been restrained from deep study of U.S. History and development of history research projects because the demands of the curriculum left no time for these follies. Finally, these advanced students may get the opportunity to engage in these essential practices. We have two years to align this program and an endless variety of opportunities.
Today, tomorrow & next week we must focus all over our buildings. We must somehow present ourselves as ushers to higher quality information. In many buildings this means first removing the stereotype that we are trip hazards as we suggest books and databases that take longer than a quick Google search. Our future and the future of every other librarian and aspiring librarian is in our own hands right now!
Showing posts with label Common Core. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Common Core. Show all posts
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
In the sweet spot!
Joyce Valenza hits it on the nail again! "Co-presenting a session at educational technology leader Alan November’s 2012 Building Learning Communities (BLC) conference on July 19 with Shannon McClintock Miller, district librarian and technology integration specialist at Van Meter Schools
in Iowa, Valenza outlined five areas in which K-12 schools should turn to their librarians to empower learners with valuable 21st-century college and career readiness skills." Librarian's ability to support teachers and students with digital curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, connections and the Common Core place us squarely in "the golden age of librarianship."
Read the article in eSchool News for full description of the five C's that place librarians "in the sweet spot of education." My apologies to Valenza, McClintock Miller and
Curation: "Notebooks, bibliographies, and research papers, [are] inadequate for the digital landscape." "School librarians, with their specialized training and background in collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating information, must now teach their patrons—students and educators alike—to" "use emerging technologies to showcase their progress as they acquire, organize, contextualize, and archive both existing content and new learning. Transparency is a critical component in growing what media scholar Pierre Levy calls knowledge citizens. The presenters stressed the value of teaching learners to purposefully contribute to society’s collective intelligence."
Citizenship/Compassion: “'With great power comes great responsibility,' said Valenza. Building society’s collective intelligence requires contributors to respect its infrastructure. This is the essence of digital citizenship. Students must be taught how to publish their work for the real world, with their real identity (not anonymously), to build their digital footprint with purpose." They discussed importance of accountability, compassion, awareness and potential repercussions along with the need for supervision and guidance.
Creation: "The participatory nature of 21st-century culture emboldens students to create and publish content—all kinds of content, but particularly multimedia content. Given the opportunity, students will transform work into play. Audience fuels their creativity, not standards and rubrics." "Valenza and Miller described the importance of granting students permission to experiment and explore, and the time to reflect and process their learning, to make it into something new. Students need to take ownership of their learning before it becomes relevant to them. Librarians, who have always served as matchmakers of sorts—pairing books with readers, resources with research questions, and, more recently, problems with tools to solve them [digital and multimedia options for publication]—should be the “go-to person(s)” to support learners as they construct their knowledge."
Connections: Twentyfirst century literacy is incumbent upon connections and the development of personal learning networks. Ideally these connections include a blend of experts, collaborators and audience. While not all connections are reciprocal, collaborations can occur in real time or asynchronously as needed and available. Collaborations can be built within classrooms, between classes within a school or around the world, or, as students become more motivated and involved with their own learning, with experts and collaborators they seek out on their own.
Common Core: "According to Lauren Davis, senior editor at Eye on Education, there are five things every educator should do to meet the Common Core State Standards. Her list includes focusing on process, publishing for real audiences, and engaging in discourse. Valenza and Miller explained that curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, and connection embed experiences into instruction that make the CCSS gel for learners. They make learning authentic and relevant. They are the Common Core."
Curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, and connection also fit exactly into the definition of information literacy with it's focus on students' ability to locate, evaluate, ethically use, create, share, and synthesize information.
It has long been recognized that many of us learn by writing and teaching. The process allows us to synthesize topics that may at first be confusing. These focus areas are only the progression from writing in a vacuum or a box for an audience of one or two to writing on a stage with an audience of many. Today's students who can communicate with the entire student body and friends and strangers around the globe instantly, see little value in writing or even learning without an audience.
Note: "The following curation tools were referenced during the presentation: Diigo, LiveBinders, Paper.Li, Pinterest, PearlTrees, Posterous, Scoop.It, Sqworl, Storify, Symbaloo."
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| Goldenview Middle School mashup with the library at Melk Abbey |
Curation: "Notebooks, bibliographies, and research papers, [are] inadequate for the digital landscape." "School librarians, with their specialized training and background in collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating information, must now teach their patrons—students and educators alike—to" "use emerging technologies to showcase their progress as they acquire, organize, contextualize, and archive both existing content and new learning. Transparency is a critical component in growing what media scholar Pierre Levy calls knowledge citizens. The presenters stressed the value of teaching learners to purposefully contribute to society’s collective intelligence."
Citizenship/Compassion: “'With great power comes great responsibility,' said Valenza. Building society’s collective intelligence requires contributors to respect its infrastructure. This is the essence of digital citizenship. Students must be taught how to publish their work for the real world, with their real identity (not anonymously), to build their digital footprint with purpose." They discussed importance of accountability, compassion, awareness and potential repercussions along with the need for supervision and guidance.
Creation: "The participatory nature of 21st-century culture emboldens students to create and publish content—all kinds of content, but particularly multimedia content. Given the opportunity, students will transform work into play. Audience fuels their creativity, not standards and rubrics." "Valenza and Miller described the importance of granting students permission to experiment and explore, and the time to reflect and process their learning, to make it into something new. Students need to take ownership of their learning before it becomes relevant to them. Librarians, who have always served as matchmakers of sorts—pairing books with readers, resources with research questions, and, more recently, problems with tools to solve them [digital and multimedia options for publication]—should be the “go-to person(s)” to support learners as they construct their knowledge."
Connections: Twentyfirst century literacy is incumbent upon connections and the development of personal learning networks. Ideally these connections include a blend of experts, collaborators and audience. While not all connections are reciprocal, collaborations can occur in real time or asynchronously as needed and available. Collaborations can be built within classrooms, between classes within a school or around the world, or, as students become more motivated and involved with their own learning, with experts and collaborators they seek out on their own.
Common Core: "According to Lauren Davis, senior editor at Eye on Education, there are five things every educator should do to meet the Common Core State Standards. Her list includes focusing on process, publishing for real audiences, and engaging in discourse. Valenza and Miller explained that curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, and connection embed experiences into instruction that make the CCSS gel for learners. They make learning authentic and relevant. They are the Common Core."
Curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, and connection also fit exactly into the definition of information literacy with it's focus on students' ability to locate, evaluate, ethically use, create, share, and synthesize information.
It has long been recognized that many of us learn by writing and teaching. The process allows us to synthesize topics that may at first be confusing. These focus areas are only the progression from writing in a vacuum or a box for an audience of one or two to writing on a stage with an audience of many. Today's students who can communicate with the entire student body and friends and strangers around the globe instantly, see little value in writing or even learning without an audience.
Note: "The following curation tools were referenced during the presentation: Diigo, LiveBinders, Paper.Li, Pinterest, PearlTrees, Posterous, Scoop.It, Sqworl, Storify, Symbaloo."
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