Lauren Knuttila

Best YA and MG Books with LGBTQ+ Characters

7/21/2018

My good friend @teachertownsend and I are Co-Advisors for our middle school's GSA Club (Gender and Sexualities Alliance). Together, we work hard with our students to ensure respectful representation of LGBTQ+ students at our school. So, as an English and Reading teacher, I want to give LGBTQ+ students in my classes access to books where they can see themselves in the characters. I also want to provide books for my cis and straight students where they can learn empathy about someone who is different from them.

This is my short, curated list of books I have in my middle school classroom that have characters who represent the LGBTQ+ crowd. It think it’s important to have a wide range of maturity levels and difficulty levels for my students, so these books span from early middle grade to upper high school books.

Favorite LGBTQ+ Books

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson- This nonfiction book was hardly ever on my bookshelf over the last year and a half - usually you had to look into the hands of my reluctant readers to find it. It is a guidebook to puberty and relationships for teenagers who identify as LGBTQ+. The general focus is on teenagers who are gay or lesbian, but it does briefly reference the rest of the LGBTQ+ crowd, too. Fair warning, the book is explicit, but in a respectful, humorous way. The honesty is what makes the kids so desperate to read it. The best part about having this book in my classroom is that most of the students who picked it up do not identify with LGBTQ+, so they were taking an opportunity to understand someone different than them.

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan- A beautiful, unique book about two ex-boyfriends who set out to break the Guinness World Record for longest kiss ever. Their goal? Over 30 hours. Straight. Kissing. That tagline alone should have your students full of questions. How do they go to the bathroom? How do they eat? How do they drink? Do they sleep? Their quest to break the record is in response to a local hate crime, so the book would make great connections to our current climate of protesting (What makes an effective protest? What should protests look like?) The book also weaves in several other stories, about an outed boy who turns suicidal, a long term relationship between boyfriends, a new relationship for a trans male, and narrated by the ghosts of the AIDS epidemic.

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson- My colleague recommended this book to me, and because she’s awesome, I bought it and started reading it with no background knowledge. I finished it in one weekend, laying on my coach utterly absorbed in the beautiful writing. This is on my Top-10 All Time YA Books list, not just under the LBGTQ+ theme. The romance is more raw than a John Green-novel (gasp!), featuring characters with a little more bite. Plus, Jandy Nelson sets up the story so that you are constantly trying to figure out how the pieces come together. The story is about two twins, Noah and Jude. Each tells one half of the story, leaving enough room for the reader to guess at all the ways the actions of one person inadvertently affect the life of another.

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater- A powerful, painful book about a real-life incident on a bus in Oakland. A black teenager with a troubled past lit the skirt of an agender teen on fire, causing severe burns on their body. The story is not a simple story, and both characters face societal obstacles in their lives. Dashka Slater does an excellent job of telling the story from both perspectives, helping the reader understand -- How do we respond to hate?

George by Alex Gino- This book is aimed for a younger audience. It’s about George, a ten year old transgender girl, who would really like to be called Melissa. She hasn’t told anyone this yet, but it doesn’t stop the bullies from tormenting her. Luckily, she has a great friend in Kelly, who stands by her and accepts her for who she is. It’s a great book about staying true to who you are, and kids will appreciate the moral.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz- It’s been a little while since I’ve read this one. I remember a touching friendship, a surprising romance, and realistic, teenage angst-y character voices. Bonus in my classroom is the Latino culture and language incorporated.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan- Imagine for a second: with a swipe of your hand you can pick up all the hurting and confused LBGTQ+ teenagers and drop them in a town that was loving and accepting, where they were celebrated for who they were. This book does that. Master writer David Levithan set out to write a book that was a happy romance, a universe where LGBTQ+ kids could go and leave behind the discrimination. He wanted to imagine a happy place. This book is, simply, a sweet romance between two boys.

Honorable Mentions

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Lumberjanes [Comic Book series] by Noelle Stevenson
Drama by Raina Telgemeier [Graphic Novel]
Tomboy by Liz Prince [Graphic Novel]

My TBR List [To Be Read]

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Gracefully, Grayson by Ami Polonsky
One Half From the East by Nadia Hashimi

Help me out! What books do you recommend for a middle school classroom that represent characters who identify as LGBTQ+?

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Best YA Books Released in 2018 for Reluctant Readers

1/7/2018

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Here's a quick list of the 4 YA books being released in 2018 that I am anticipating the most. I can guarantee that they will be huge hits with students in my middle school reading intervention class.

#1: War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

The conclusion to the Red Queen series. If you're like me, *slightly obsessed with YA series,* then you may have been in a rut after The Hunger Games and Divergent fury died down. For a few years there, I didn't have a kick-butt heroine surviving in a dystopian world to cheer for. Well, luckily one of my students introduced me to the Red Queen series and Mare Borrow, a poor Red girl turned powerful Silver with electrokinetic powers like no one has seen. Throw in a love triangle between two brothers striving to sit on their late father's throne as King, and you'll understand why I'm anxiously awaiting this book to drop on May 15, 2018.

#2: All Summer Long by Hope Larson

My students DEVOUR graphic novels. In 2017, that meant they read Raina Telgemeier's Babysitter's Club Graphix books on repeat. It was rare for those books to be "in-stock" on my classroom library bookshelves. This year, I'm excited to bring them All Summer Long, building on the babysitting idea but focusing more on music and friendship. It should be an easy sell to my students. Look for this book to drop on June 26, 2018.

#3: Kristy's Big Day (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix #6)
by Ann M. Martin (author) and Gale Galligan (illustrator)

Speaking of Raina Telgemeier's Babysitter's Club series... Lucky for us, Gale Galligan has taken over the Babysitter's Club Graphix series so there are more to come. Telgemeier illustrustrated the first four, and Galligan has picked up with number 5 and now 6. The graphic novels follow the original storylines from Ann M. Martin, so Kristy's Big Day is about her mom's wedding and the 14 kids they need to babysit during the week leading up to it. Look for this one on August 28, 2018.

#4: Supernova (Amulet series #8) by Kazu Kibuishi

When you teach reading intervention in middle school, it's an uphill battle to get students excited about reading. It usually takes HIGHLY engaging books that can hold their attention span through the difficulties they face when reading. I knew I had hit GOLD when I had a student read the entire Amulet graphic novels, all 7 of them, in a week. I couldn't even bring myself to get mad at him when he was reading during instruction. There's something magical about this series, and my students can't wait for the next book. Look for Supernova on September 25, 2018.

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Favorite YA and Middle Grade Books of 2017

1/1/2018

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Here's a quick recap of the reading I did with my students and personally this year. A mix of new YA, especially graphic novels, plus some classics.

Student Favorites from my Bookshelf

Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi
The Babysitter's Club Graphic Novels by Raina Telgemeier
The Babysitter's Club Graphic Novel by Gale Galligan
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Auggie and Me by R.J. Palacio
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez
Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith
I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway by Jeff Kinney
Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Secret Crush Catastrophe by Rachel Renee Russell
Maus by Art Spiegelman
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Favorite 2017 Read Alouds

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman
Empty by Suzanne Weyn
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Su Park
Soldier Sister, Fly Home by Nancy Bo Flood

The Top YA Books I Read in 2017

Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Refugee by Alan Gratz

Below you can see all the books I read in 2017. Follow me on GoodReads to keep track of what my students and I are reading throughout the year!

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3 Positive Ways to Use Feedback to "Root for Your Students"

7/13/2017

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The following post contains links (book images and links) to Amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliates program.

Feedback is one of the most crucial things we will give to a student in our classroom. The feedback we give should reflect a growth mindset. We can’t expect our students to have a growth mindset unless we model having a growth mindset ourselves.
What does it mean to have a growth mindset as a teacher?

Assume positive intent: All kids want to learn. Teachers with a growth mindset never say, “These kids can’t learn. They won’t even try.” Instead, teachers with a growth mindset always ask themselves “How are my assumptions about these kids getting in the way of their learning? What do I need to change in order to reach them?”
Root for the student: Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) tweeted this statement that I try to hold present in my thoughts when providing feedback. She said, “I’m always rooting for the student and will look for evidence however I can find it.”

The following 3 feedback suggestions are all examples of ways to “root for the student.”

1. I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.

In a study led by Geoffrey Cohen at Stanford University, researchers found that building trust through positive feedback led to better academic outcomes. In the first two studies, students wrote an essay and teachers gave their typical encouraging and critical feedback. The difference was in a note attached to the essay. The condition group received a note stating, “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.” This type of feedback is called “wise feedback.” The control group received a placebo note stating, “I’m giving you these comments so that you’ll have feedback on your paper.” The end result? Students who received the “wise feedback” chose to revise their essays more often and improved their performance significantly, with a much greater effect on African-American students (the only minority group in the study). The key to the feedback is that it conveyed high expectations and assurance that the student could reach them.

This type of feedback helps to combat stereotype threat for students. Stereotype threat is “any situation in which a negative stereotype about an individual’s social identity could potentially be confirmed.” Psychologist Claude M. Steele has researched the effects of stereotype threat on individuals. In his book, Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do, he explains that when individuals are in situations where their stereotypes might be confirmed, they can experience a “self-fulfilling fear” that impedes their performance.

In Cohen’s review of the research on feedback, he explained that practices “such as overpraising mediocre work or withholding criticism” negatively impact students because it “reinforce[s] minority students’ perceptions that they are being viewed stereotypically.” Combat stereotype threat in your classroom by building a culture of growth mindset through positive feedback.

In all the feedback that you provide, make sure that it is honest, communicates high expectations, and implies a belief that students can improve and meet the expectations. Try these simple phrases the next time you give feedback:

I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.
Because I believe in your ability to improve and grow, I’d like to see you try these revisions/different strategies.

2. Now that you can _____, you are ready for _____.

Patty McGee, author of Feedback that Moves Writers Forward, said on Twitter (@pmgmcgee), “Leave the word ‘but’ out of feedback and use ‘because…. You are ready for….’ EX: BC you came up with an idea you are ready to plan.”

In this feedback style, you give specific praise (growth mindset win!) and demonstrate that you have high expectations for students by giving them a specific skill to advance on. This style affirms students while challenging them to improve.

3. A way to “level up” your work would be to _____.

This feedback style is similar to #2. The twist is that you “gamify” your language and challenge the students to improve like they are challenged in video games. This type of language can help students avoid personalization of the feedback and think of it as the natural next step. You also then reinforce the idea that learning doesn’t stop at the feedback.

One last thing…
These feedback styles all suggest an opportunity to revise or redo the work. A growth mindset culture thrives on the idea that learning is an ongoing process with no set-in-stone learning dates. These feedback styles on their own cannot combat a rigid classroom culture that deemphasizes growth.

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Classroom Management: Power or Purpose?

6/30/2017

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This post is the first in a series on discipline in schools.

It’s summer. Outside my window, the incessant whine of a weedwacker competes with the cacophony of snoring from the pack of dogs nestled at my feet. With the afternoon sun streaming in through the window, I invest in thinking. I do my best thinking over the summer, when I can dig in and get lost in deep thoughts, following the “thought train” to the next random, surprising station. Usually during this time I choose an article to read that I found on Twitter (@msknuttila) or a podcast sent my way by a friend. Intermixed with this reading and listening, I end up back in the previous school year, visualizing the posters on the walls, the chatter of the classroom, and a specific student. The specific student will often change, depending on the topic I’m thinking about, but the constant is this: the student represents a mistake I made this last year, something I need to learn how to do better.

The student entering my thoughts today is John. [His name has been changed for privacy.] John was in my intervention reading class. When I think of John, I usually picture him hunched over in his desk, one leg crossed over the other, reading Bud, Not Buddy. It’s the best book he’s ever read, and the fact that he told me that makes me so proud. But today, I’m picturing John a little differently. This time, he’s hunched over at his desk playing on his phone. From across the room, I ask John to put his phone away, and I continue my conversation with a different student. A few minutes later, as I make my way to John’s side of the room, I see that he is on his phone again. My typical response to a student’s second offense to having their phone out is to take it from them, set it by my computer, and return it at the end of class. Most students appreciate the fact that I don’t turn it into the office for the whole day, which makes them more likely to cough it up without a fight. But not John. When I quietly reached out my hand, palm out, he responded, “I’ll put it away.”

Now, the rest of the story pains me to tell. Because, by all means, John responded appropriately. I was upset that he was distracted by his phone and not completing his work. He was willing to put the phone away and rid himself of the distraction. I should have stopped here, said thank you, and moved on. But I didn’t.

The reason I’m thinking about this today is because I listened to an episode of This American Life called "Is This Working" from October 17, 2014. The episode explores the question, “What should schools do with students who misbehave?”

In Act I, Chana Joffe-Walt discusses the school-to-prison pipeline and the idea that the discipline that schools use (such as suspension) actually teaches students to believe that they are bad. And it starts as early as preschool.

When we assign consequences to students that don’t acknowledge the root cause of the behaviors and don’t provide students an avenue to grow, we are labeling them as bad. By defining students simply through their (bad) behavior, we defeat their self-esteem and potentially set them up for interactions with the criminal justice system.

A major study in Texas found that students who were suspended from school were almost three times more likely to have an interaction with the criminal justice system in the following year.

Additionally, as you may have heard in the media over the last few years, our school-discipline system is racially biased. According to the Texas study, black and Hispanic students are more likely to have discipline violations than white students. A study from Yale also found that preschool teachers displayed implicit bias when expecting bad behavior from black students. According to US Department of Education, black students are 3.8 times more likely to be suspended than white students in K-12, and 3.6 times more likely to be suspended from preschool.

This research has led a lot of schools to institute “restorative justice,” including mine. Restorative justice is “a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behaviour” that focuses on including all affected parties, examining the problem from all sides, repairing the harm, and returning to the environment (Centre for Justice and Reconciliation).

At my school, this means we ask five questions when a student displays unacceptable behavior.

What happened? What is going on? How did we get here?
How do you feel about it?
Who was affected/harmed, both facts/feelings?
What part of this situation can you take responsibility for?
How can this be fixed? What can you do to make this right with those affected?

So what do we do with students who misbehave?

Back to John, in my classroom, refusing to hand over his phone when I asked. Later, after I poorly implemented classroom discipline (where I definitely did not consider restorative justice practices), I found out that John’s phone had previously been stolen after being confiscated by the PE teacher. It was never found. Makes sense now that he wouldn’t want to hand over a several-hundred dollar possession to a teacher again.

After John refused to hand me his phone, I sent him to the office. This moment is so CRINGE-WORTHY to me now. I kicked a kid out, who by all real-world definitions, had been respectful. He was willing to change his behavior, but he wasn’t willing to completely give up his personal power.

On that day - I responded to a "misbehaving student" with power and discipline. My response to John came from the inherent power dynamics that are present in the classroom. In the moment, I felt like the situation was getting out of control. (And I really like for all the things to be in control. All the things. I’m working on it.) I also subconsciously felt the need to assert my power over John. I think deep down I was concerned with the image I would portray if I “let” him “disobey” an “order.” In the podcast, Joffe-Walt discusses with teachers the idea that teachers are scared: first, of losing control of class, but also scared for the student’s future.

I wish that I could go back to that moment and whisper to myself: power or purpose? I want to remind myself to take a gut-check moment and make sure that I’m not responding to students from a place of power, but instead responding with purpose. My purpose with John was to remove the distraction and refocus his learning, which could have easily been achieved if he had put his phone into his pocket.

What do teachers do when students behave? I think we start by defining the PURPOSE of the behavior we are looking for. We might surprise ourselves with the answer.

Power or purpose?

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5 Tips for Teacher Reflection

8/9/2016

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It’s August and I am flying home from my last trip of the summer. This week, while trying to enjoy my last few days of vacation – it happened. The dreaded dream. Maybe, like me, you [still to this day!] have nightmares about teaching. Yes, my typical back to school nightmares have started. This one involved me slobbing out directions with a hideous mouth guard in, stumbling over my words and lisping pathetic reprimands at distracted students. Of course, the students laughed at me and I lost complete control of the class. This is a pattern, my recurring nightmare: something happens that causes me to lose complete control of my class or students become blatantly disrespectful and rebellious. You could say I have control issues. [I’m working on it.]

Unfortunately, I will continue to have nightmares off and on until about one month in – when the daily activities have once again become routine and I have hit my stride. I look forward to this time, usually around October. I have a good handle on my students – which ones need more encouragement, which ones need a little tough love, and which classes I need to take a Xanax before. I haven’t completely abandoned my carefully planned outline for the year, and students are still responding with enthusiasm when I ask them to discuss something that we’ve read. And it feels great.

I can’t wait until October. But we all have the dreaded times of year. [The stretch before spring break is pretty terrible, amirite?] This year, I want to approach those moments when the going is tough with a new attitude. One that might change the way I teach. Thanks to @teachertownsend for giving me this idea – I am going to approach the entire year with this guiding question:

Would my school rehire me if I had to interview for my job right now?

How am I innovating? Reflecting? Growing? Differentiating? What do I bring to the table?

Image from: image: www.freeimages.co.uk

Reflection

Asking myself those questions is a conscious effort to continually reflect on my teaching. Typically, there is ample reflection at the end of the year: student surveys, evaluations, etc. For example, I spent a fair amount of time reflecting this last year on my end of the year student surveys. The reflection was valuable! I realized a few hard truths – that I didn’t get enough student buy-in to my new grading system, that I have a harder time teaching students with a fixed mindset, and I need to give more feedback and faster. But how could my year have been different if I had realized those things in January? How would my student outcomes have been different? I might have answers to those questions if I had been purposefully reflecting on an ongoing basis.

So this year, my goals include more direct and repeated explanations of my grading philosophy, working closely with students who expect a more traditional teaching style, utilizing faster feedback systems, and MORE REFLECTION. I shouldn’t wait until the end of the year to figure out where I went wrong. I want to build in reflection to my year so that through trial and error and determined effort I can make every month more October-like.

5 Tips for Better Teacher Reflection

Invite trusted colleagues into the classroom. [My goal is to invite someone at least once a month.] First of all, the audience will make you think about your lesson plan from a new perspective. Additionally, an open and honest conversation with them after the lesson can provide you with great insights. Be willing to hear their thoughts and suggestions.
Take organized notes about units for next year. [My goal is to take notes at the end of every unit.] I’ve tried different ways of taking notes on things that went well or didn’t go well during my units. At the beginning of my career, I used post-it notes in my curriculum binder of reminders of things to change or not use. Now, with everything stored in my Google Drive, I need a new system that I will use. Two easy options come to mind: 1 – For an ongoing note-taking system, create a Google Doc. (Clearly labeled so you remember to look at it next year!) For every unit, type notes in directly whenever you think of something, or 2 – For a one-and-done note-taking system, create a Google Form with generic questions that you fill out at the end of every unit. Answers will be collected in a Google Sheet that you can look at, with the bonus that you can easily see trends between units. See my sample form here.
Write about it. [My goal is to blog at least once a month.] Whether you choose to blog or journal, I think writing about general struggles and successes is an effective way to process what is happening in your classroom. Blogging has the added bonus of an authentic audience – but do what you are comfortable with.
Ask students for feedback. [My goal is to give students a brief survey at the end of every unit.] We know we need to give students feedback faster and more often. The same goes for us. I am going to create a generic Google Form that I will give students at the end of every unit. Am I meeting their needs? Do they perceive that they are making progress? How is our relationship? Hopefully I will find concrete ways to help students before it’s too late. See sample form here.
Meditate. [My goal is to meditate 3x/week.] Meditation is a great way to recognize thought patterns and tension that you may not realize you have. Once you identify them, it becomes easier to let it go or act instead of react. Meditation has personally helped me respond better to students (with more patience, empathy, and calm); identify triggers that cause stress and anxiety; and accept and develop flexibility for the inevitable changes that occur in the classroom. I like the Headspace App. (I’m even going to use their new guided meditation sessions with my students! *This is not an affiliate link – just sharing what I use.)

Sample Unit Reflection Form.

Sample Student Feedback Form

School starts for me in less than two weeks. The restless nights have arrived and the race is on. Good luck, teacher friends. I hope to hear some of your reflections in the coming months.

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Using Kahoot! As Formative Assessment

5/7/2016

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I know a lot of great teachers using technology to engage students.

But technology’s real potential lays untapped in many classrooms. Teachers should be using technology to inform and CHANGE instruction, not just as a fun new delivery tool.

Take the popular quiz site Kahoot! This week in my English classroom, I used Kahoot! as a vocabulary review game. Instant engagement for ALL students, enthralled by the colors, music, and competition. However, Kahoot! questions alone are just review questions delivered in a more engaging way. How can we take it one step further and use it to inform our instruction?

To turn Kahoot from simple review activity to powerful formative assessment is simple.

Create your quiz (super simple - takes 15 minutes). Give your quiz a name. Then, type in the first question. Determine if its a points question or no points question and assign a time limit for how long students take to answer (I liked 20 seconds, plus this feature helps me ensure I stay on pace for my lesson.) At the bottom, enter the correct answer and the distractors. Make sure to click which one is correct. Repeat by pressing add question. Finish the quiz by selecting the settings (public or private, etc.)

Then, students go to kahoot.it on a device (we used chromebooks or phones) and enter in the game pin, while you project the game you created on the projector. It’s important when students sign up for the game, they put in their real names. Once everyone is signed in, start the game!

Once the game is complete - the magic starts. Use the results from the quiz as a formative assessment. Decide what to reteach and which students need extra support!

To access the results, click on the "Feedback and Results" button on the bottom of the Top Scorer page. It will bring you to the Final Scoreboard. From here, click Save results. You can either download an Excel file to your desktop or Save in Google Drive.

Once I had downloaded the results, I started by looking at the overall score for my students. For my quiz, 69% of the questions were answered correctly. I'm generally happy with that number, considering it was two days before the test. Next I looked at the questions overall. What I liked about the file was that it was color coded. It was super simple for me to see which questions students struggled with (vertically), AND which students struggled the most (horizontally), just by looking at the red boxes. Right away I knew I needed to reteach the words "rueful" and "anguished". But I wanted to go deeper.

At the bottom of the file there is a different page for each question. Here I was able to see which words students specifically were picking incorrectly. My students thought that rueful meant discouraged or insincere instead of ashamed. Now I had a specific focus for my reteaching of the word and I knew the errors in thinking that my students had.

But I didn't just use the data to inform my instruction. I also used it to inform students. We played the game on Wednesday, and the vocabulary quiz was on Friday. They had two days to study the words that they hadn't yet mastered. To help them with this, I identified students who scored below 70%. Then, I printed copies of the word list and simply highlighted which words each student had gotten incorrect and needed to study. I cut them apart and handed them out before they walked out the door.

All of this was accomplished BEFORE the assessment. This is the untapped potential of technology in education. Technology can give us important data in real-time to help us make informed decisions about what our students need.

Don't just use technology to use technology.

Use it to
CHANGE instruction.

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Literate Students from the Common Core Standards

5/25/2015

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The Common Core. Are you shuddering at the mention? Anxious about the yelling match you might find yourself in the middle of? Sick of hearing about it, especially from politicians? Yes, the Common Core is a hot-button issue for education that is making waves in parenting groups, teachers unions, and political parties. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more controversial topic in education right now.

But if we want to understand the Common Core (as I urge everyone with an opinion to try to do!), we need to strip it down to it’s… core. (Sorry, I had to.)

Let’s set parents complaints about difficult homework aside. Let’s set politics aside. Let’s even set testing aside (as the Common Core doesn’t technically have anything to do with the high-stakes assessment discussion). Once we have stripped away all the contentious add-ons that have been implemented with the Common Core but aren’t actually a part of it, we can examine the Common Core for what it is: standards for what students should be able to do by the time they graduate from high school.

Disclaimer: I’m a Literacy Specialist, with a Masters in Literacy. While I enjoy math, I don’t claim any knowledge over the CCSS for Math. So this article is about the CCSS: English Language Arts.

When I graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2010 and got a job teaching 11th grade British Literature and 8th grade Literature, the CCSS draft had just been released in Minnesota. The standards weren’t required to be implemented until the 2013-2014 school year, but as a brand new teacher I adopted them in my classroom right away because it made sense to plan my curriculum using them so I wouldn’t have to switch later. To prepare, I spent some time reading them (again, as I urge everyone with an opinion to do!) and found that the aim of the standards resonated with me, especially their description of what a College and Career-Ready students looks like.

Descriptions of a Literate Individual from the CCSS

They demonstrate independence.

They build strong content knowledge.

They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

They comprehend as well as critique.

They value evidence.

They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.

Of course as a brand new teacher, most of my time was spent writing lesson plans the night before and adjusting to an adult schedule after four years of college. Luckily, the school I was at provided the English teachers with professional development time to sort through the standards to align curriculum K-12. The standards were slowly nudging their way from my peripheral vision into the forefront of my thoughts.

The next year, I moved on to an 8th grade English position at a new school, and I brought my beginning understands of the CCSS with me. As I thoughtfully set up my room, hanging motivational posters and anchor charts for students, I also spent time thinking about the things I would spend my time looking at. Next to my desk was my bulletin board of important information: number of students in each class, the school’s address, the school calendar, phone numbers, and a poster of what the CCSS say a literate individual should do. I didn’t have a textbook to read a script from or a curriculum map to follow. I was (thankfully but terrifyingly) allowed to create my own path for students. I started the year by showing students this Prezi, explaining to students how the skills taught in English (the skills in the CCSS!) would help them to become powerful.

Then I spent the next three years trying to create students who were literate - developing their critical thinking skills, their ability to cite evidence to support opinions, their questioning skills, how to use technology, and the list goes on. Every once in a while I would watch the Prezi or read the poster to remind myself that my purpose was not to make just readers or just writers. I was here to make students that were LITERATE individuals, who would bring these skills to our society as they became adults:

They demonstrate independence.
They build strong content knowledge.
They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline
They comprehend as well as critique.
They value evidence.
They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
They come to understand other perspectives and culture.

Do you want your boss to have these qualities? How about your colleagues or employees? Family members? Your children? How about the people who will run this country in 30 years?

Are the CCSS: ELA challenging? Absolutely. Are they time-consuming to plan for and implement? Of course. Are they scary because they ask us approach education differently? Yes. Are they divisive? Obviously. Are they misunderstood? I think so.

If you forget about the politics and the testing and the parent complaints, and remember that the standards are aiming to create individuals who are literate, the CCSS don’t seem so bad. I like the CCSS for the focus on evidence, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, multiple perspectives and freedom to use my own judgement about HOW I meet the standards and with WHAT.

One of the truths I’ve learned in education is that teaching is a job that you can never perfect. There will always be something more you could of done: a lesson you could have taught better, a discipline situation you could have handled better, a student you could have supported more. It can be incredibly frustrating and disheartening, but also wonderful. We are constantly able to improve what we do. Yes, the CCSS are divisive and challenging, and you won’t be perfect at them right away. But just think what our world might be like if we reach the goal of the standards and our students become literate individuals who are independent and knowledgeable and can comprehend, critique, use evidence, and think about other perspectives.

That is a world that I want to live in.

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Poverty in Education: School-Wide Changes to Support Students in Poverty

5/15/2015

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Welcome back to the last post in my series on poverty in education! If you haven’t done so already, please check out the first three posts in the series:

Poverty In Education: Prevalence
Poverty In Education: The Brain
Poverty in Education: 6 Strategies to Help Students from Poverty Succeed

In the previous post, I shared with you things that you can do as a teacher RIGHT NOW in your classroom to help your students from poverty succeed. Teachers are miracle workers, who create life-changing moments on a daily basis without enough time, materials, or energy. Teachers just seem to find a way when the odds are stacked against them. But sometimes, we play the blame game. This student can’t read at grade-level, this student can’t pay attention, that student has no patience - “I can’t change that!”. I challenge you, in that moment, to repeat this mantra: “If they don’t have it, it is my JOB to teach it.” (You might even say it is your moral imperative to teach it.) This includes socio-emotional skills. We must model patience, cooperation, positivity, and respect if we want our students to demonstrate those skills.

But we also need the support of everyone around us - it is difficult to create a culture of hope in just one classroom. Leadership and administration need to encourage system wide changes within a school to make the biggest impact. According to Eric Jensen in Teaching with Poverty in Mind [1], there are five factors to consider as you form school-wide policies, action plans, and beliefs.

Support of the Whole Child
Hard Data
Accountability
Relationship Building
Enrichment Mind-Set

Support of the Whole Child
As we learned in my previous post on the effects poverty can have on the brain, low-SES students are constantly dealing with stress. They don’t always have the energy or patience to focus on school when their lives outside of it are difficult. Ease that burden by providing students with as much support as possible, even outside of academics.

Survey student needs and find a way to provide these support services
Include parents and try to provide on-site programs in areas of need
Develop community partnerships - tutoring, health services, etc.

Hard Data
Most teachers have accepted the importance of using data in the classroom. But data should also be used to measure the effectiveness of your outreach programs and school climate initiatives.

Determine your area of need and decide how to collect data
Once data is collected, analyze for areas of strength and weakness
Implement a plan to address weaknesses
Reevaluate and collect new data to assess plan

Accountability
Students, teachers, the community, everyone with a stake in the education game in your community needs to be accountable for their role in students’ success.

Increase teachers’ control and authority
Value teachers
Redesign staffing roles to include more collaboration

Relationship Building
Students need secure attachments and connections with caring, positive adults.

Model good relationships by having strong feelings of respect amongst staff.
Build relationships between students.
Build student-staff relationships by being consistent, respectful, and positive. Do not demean students when you discipline them.

Enrichment Mind-Set
Students from Low-SES backgrounds are often lacking in enrichment activities outside of school. Try to offer them as many opportunities to build knowledge about the world around them through non-academic experiences.

Have nature as a presence within the school grounds - a garden, plants in the classrooms, etc.
Teachers should make sure students are engaged as much as possible with the content
Provide extended school days or years

Remember, despite the negative effects poverty can have on the brain, there are concrete strategies you can implement in your school or classroom to turn the tide in the right direction. “Because the brain is designed to adapt from experience, it can also change for the better. In other words, poor children can experience emotional, social, and academic success [1].

No longer should our schools be mere perpetrators of social standing. Education should be the greatest opportunity for all students.

1. Jensen, Eric. Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do about It. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2009. Print.

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Poverty in Education: 6 Strategies to Help Students from Poverty Succeed

4/19/2015

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Welcome back to my series on poverty in education! If you haven’t done so already, please check out the first two posts in the series:

Poverty In Education: Prevalence
Poverty In Education: The Brain

In the first two posts, I touched on the amount of children living in poverty in the United States and the effect that living in poverty can have on the brain. So, the question today is, how do we go about empowering our students to overcome the challenges that poverty puts in their paths?

Step 1: Understand how poverty affects the brain.
Step 2: Make classroom-level changes, both in thought-processes and actions
(Check back for later posts on schoolwide level strategies to implement at your school.)

Changing the Brain
Research shows that quality teachers can make the biggest impact on the academic success of students. It is up to you, as the teacher, to accept the responsibility of teaching all of your students, including students who come from low-income households. But with all of their obstacles and stressors - how do we reach them? How do we start to change their brain for the better? Here are 6 strategies you should add to your repertoire (based off the work of Eric Jensen in Teaching With Poverty in Mind, with my own thoughts added in).

6 Strategies to Help Students from Poverty Succeed

Use standards and data-driven instruction.
Teach units based on a theme to build connections for students.
Teach “operating system” skills, not just content.
Enrich their day using the arts, movement, and sensory input.
Make every minute count with engaged learning.
Teach (and model) hopefulness.

1. Use standards and data-driven instruction.
Although standards sometimes feel like they can limit our teaching innovation and stifle student creativity, they are beneficial because they hold teachers and students accountable. The other important piece to the equation is using data to inform our decisions. It is important to know where are students start, what they understand and what they DON’T, and if they have reached our goals.

Use the following strategies to use data-driven instruction.

Collect data at the beginning of the year to understand the knowledge students have or don’t have
Use formative assessments on a daily or weekly basis to evaluate student learning and the effectiveness of your lessons
Regroup students often based on changing skill levels, based on data from assessments
Adjust lessons based on student understanding
Progress monitor students who are below grade level at least once a month to monitor growth
Analyze summative assessments to inform teaching in the future

2. Teach units based on a theme to build connections for students.
To help make the standards come to life and to make connections, organize your units by theme. Try to avoid random lessons on skills that don’t connect to a bigger picture. Our low-income students need us to paint the bigger picture for them.

Use the following strategies to utilize thematic teaching.

Follow Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design guide for planning lessons
Organize (sort) standards into units based on themes
Choose essential questions and core concepts for each unit, and communicate these to students
Chunk similar objectives together within units
Point out to students the patterns within the content and skills being taught

3. Teach “operating system” skills, not just content.
Low-SES students come in with deficits not only in content, but also in their “learning skills.” They may have deficits in memory, sequencing, processing, attention-skills, and academic language. We need to provide opportunities for them to develop these skills, or it won’t matter how we present our content - they won’t be able to access it.

Use the following strategies to teach “operating skills.”

Help students set goals and action plans to reach them
Model positivity and optimism
Utilize high-interest content to engage students and promote attention
Have students work through a detailed process, using steps to encourage follow-through and attention
Teach content in small chunks and use graphic organizers to aid in memory and recall
Model your thinking during activities/lessons to develop processing skills
Use project-based-learning to teach kids to sequence

4. Enrich their day using the arts, movement, and sensory input.
As Jensen says in his book, “poor children are half as likely to be taken to museums, theaters, or the library and are less likely to go on other culturally enriching outings … They have fewer or smaller designated play areas in the home and spend more time watching television and less time exercising than well-off children do” [1] Our low-SES students are already doing without; if we stick them in a room for drill-and-kill skill work, we are further debilitating them. Instead, we need to infuse culturally rich experiences into our everyday lessons.

Use the following strategies to enrich your lessons with arts, movement, and sensory input.

Incorporate opportunities for students to be creative in every unit
Enrich your core curriculum with examples of “art” (music, paintings, books, cultural artifacts, maps, etc.) that connect to the theme or topic
Use movement in your lesson, either brain breaks or incorporated, such as “vote with your feet”
Have a sensory lab or quiet area kids can access during a break

5. Make every minute count with engaged learning.
To close the gap, low-SES students need to take advantage of every minute of learning, especially because they are more likely to miss out on enrichment outside of school. So we need to make sure that we structure our classrooms so that all students are doing the “doing” of learning. If it is worth it for one student to do, it is worth it for all. Don’t let your students from low-income backgrounds resort to learned helplessness. Make sure they are involved in every activity.

Use the following strategies to engage your students in the lesson.

ALL students need a job at ALL times - Vocalize what they should be doing (listening, writing, saying, etc.)
Eliminate hand-raising. Use popsicle sticks to randomly call on students.
Use choral response - both verbal and nonverbal (touch the word, all say ____)
Use partners and small groups - with designated roles (speaker, paraphraser) and sentence frames utilizing academic language

6. Teach (and model) hopefulness.
Low-SES students often deal with learned helplessness after years of facing constant stressors. They may feel inadequate and as if they have no control over their situation. It is our job to inspire them and encourage a growth-mindset. Be mindful of your attitude and language and make sure that you are inspiring hope and positivity in your students.

Use the following ideas to make your classroom a hopeful and optimistic place:

Use positive affirmations (think: “You is smart, you is kind, you is important.” The Help)
Celebrate even small learning milestones for all students
Tell successful stories of others who have overcome obstacles and challenges
Use positive and optimistic language at ALL times
Give constructive criticism - do not demean students when you correct or discipline
Avoid sarcasm at all costs
Avoid complaining about children’s deficits - if they don’t have it - YOU TEACH IT
Believe that all students can learn

1. Jensen, Eric. Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do about It. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2009. Print.

TUNE IN
Check back next week for my post on school-wide changes we can make to improve academic outcomes for students from low-income households.

Please comment below: What specific strategies do you use to engage students or to create a hopeful environment?

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Poverty in Education: School-Wide Changes to Support Students in Poverty

Poverty in Education: 6 Strategies to Help Students from Poverty Succeed

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The following 3 feedback suggestions are all examples of ways to “root for the student.”

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5 Tips for Better Teacher Reflection