Personal Professional Learning

Spend 7 hours learning something outside of the school year, write about it, and get a free day in January 2021.

I've had my eye on a book for several months and this gives me the perfect opportunity to read it, reflect on it, and have conversations with others about it.

The book is The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler.

As I read the book, I took notes of what I wanted to remember or what struck me as important. And after a chapter or two, I sent a message to several people in my district that would be open minded about the information, with the preface: be ready for feathers to ruffle, hackles to raise, and sleepless nights.

With all of that--I loved the book!

It starts with a history of our education system in the USA. And moves into how Common Core standards were developed and what they hoped to produce (and why it has not).

Here's the most important part of what I read: Content, content, Content. Even in the earliest grades. Not exactly like I've learned about PBL, but hints of it for sure! 

Also: reading is decoding (think about skills here); comprehension is understanding and is best taught through (wait for it---) CONTENT like history, science and literature, not skills. We must not wait until sixth grade to start the history, but give pieces of it and build on it starting with the little kids (they can and will get it, and will be excited to learn about it). 

But this takes a sequential curriculum of CONTENT. Teachers do not like being told what to teach. And are at the same time screaming for what to teach. That leaves everyone in a tricky place.

If we teach content that gives kids background and in depth study of history, science, economics, then they will be practicing those comprehension skills in a very authentic way. That is what the CCSS are asking the teachers to do. How did we get lost?

I'm not going to spend time on the problem (we got lost), but work to find a solution.

My district has used EngageNY math for many years. But I thought it was just math. Nope. There is an ELA component as well. I spent some time poking around, and found that it is a wealth of (FREE) content-filled lessons that link to the CCSC and build on each other as years in school progress. 

Wait, What??

This is the thing we have been searching for??

Perhaps.

What I see is lessons that teach content, are tied straight to the CCSC and are age appropriate. This is the Listening and Learning Strand (the comprehension part--taught through CONTENT). There is also a Skills Strand for each unit (the how to read part). Here is a link to go to the Kindergarten part, but you could easily navigate to the grade of your choice.

If you know me personally, you know that I am passionate about phonics, phonemic awareness, sequential and explicit instruction, and all things decoding. I've left off the content, though, if I can just get the kids to read, they will be ok.

I've been wrong. 

Yes, teach kids to read. But we must do better about giving them access to CONTENT before the sixth grade, and I mean GIVING it to them, not holding them responsible for reading it themselves. They can comprehend at a level so much higher than what they can read, let's help them acquire knowledge (and in the process comprehension skills) and a love for learning.

Are you interesting in reading this book, or poking around ENY? Would you like to help me learn the content, or how to teach the content to five-year olds? Or would you like to learn more about the 3 shifts that the CCSS set out for us (link to the shifts). 

Reach out. Let's talk. Let's share. Let's collaborate. It's easier than ever now (now that we are all experts at online conferencing--my specialty is Google Meet, but really would like to get better at Zoom).