Designing a Complete Curriculum

The crowd hushed while the orchestra pit came to life this past Thursday at Radio City Music Hall.  In no time at all, actors and dancers hit the stage to perform their vignettes.  It seemed like another typical day in the life of this iconic theatre, but this time the song and dance wasn't the most recent interpretation of an old musical.  Instead it was the launch of Samsung's new answer to the iPhone, the Galaxy 4S.

It's odd that a company would go to such lengths to announce a product to the world, but why shouldn't it?  After all, it has designed something amazing worth celebrating.  Tired of swiping your smartphone with your finger?  Well now you can use your eye.

You're probably wondering how this is relevant to teaching RLA.  Here's the thing. We're so busy teaching and assessing academic, discipline-based standards, we're forgetting one key component that enables the people at Samsung or any other innovative company to work their magic.  Design.  

There are lots of reasons why we should add design standards to our curriculum and teach to them more directly in our classes.  Here are just a few:

"Design" and "Create" are at Level Four on the DOK

• There's a lot more to design than meets the eye.  Steve Jobs, one of the most famous designers of all time, said, "Design is a not just what it looks like and feels like.  Design is how it works." His definition isn't just limited to the IKEA desk or iPhone.  It applies to meaning and understanding as well.  When we teach design and offer our students to use it when expressing their ideas, their learning is much deeper as a result.

• To design is to create.  When we create, we think across disciplines and take all of the learning into consideration before we put paint to canvas.

• By engaging in design, we practice and enhance other essential skills.  According to Frank Nuovo, former Vice President and Chief of Design at Nokia, design is about solving problems and creating solutions.  Not only that, good designers don't work in isolation.  Relying on sound interpersonal skills, designers collaborate with others which leads them to even better ideas.  

Quiz:  Match the Font

• Design is more crucial now than ever before.  As Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, puts it, there has been a "democratization of design." What was once reserved only for the financial elite or the highly skilled, design tools are now readily used by a larger population.  Just take a look at laptops, digital SLRs, smartphones, and the growing list of software and applications that run them.  Still not convinced?  Try out the quiz that Pink put out to his readers.  He claims that twenty-five years ago only the experts would've been right.  Now, most of us are (scroll down for the answers). As a result, the marketplace is increasingly more competitive, and design elements have become a game changer.

• Design elements enable us to communicate in ways that go well beyond words alone.  Sure, as RLA teachers, we focus on words as our medium, but in today's world, we understand the power of images.  But there are additional elements in design tools that enhance communication such as color, fonts, music, and layout.   

Simply put, if we choose not to include design in our teaching, we're missing the boat.  And when we miss the boat, our students are stranded as well.  With that in mind, here are some possibilities for our classrooms:

• Teach a design mini-lesson:  Take a design element and see how it might fit as a teaching point for a mini-lesson.  For example, as a reading response students can use color and shapes instead of words to capture the mood of a chapter.  They may also sketch objects from the text to represent symbols. 

• Evaluate real world design samples:  Have students become design critics when viewing a youtube clip, a trailer, a visual ad, Blog themes,  etc.  Students can explain what works and what doesn't work in terms of design elements.

• Use design-based tools with fixed templates:  Many tools offer preset templates that include effective design elements such as iMovie trailers, Prezis, Blogs, Pic Collage, Glogster, Keynote, even Microsoft Word and Powerpoint.  When students select templates have them explain their choices based on how the design elements enhance the meaning they are trying to convey.

• Teach toward design-based extension projects:  When students complete a Literature Circle book, extend their learning with projects that require purposefully-chosen design elements.  It could be a bumper sticker, a commemorative stamp, a monument, a theme quilt patch, you name (click here for a list of great ones).  Again have students explain their choices in terms of design as well as literary analysis.

Before you get started though, I have to warn you.  Many of our students have lost their innate willingness to design.  Gordon MacKenzie, a former creative director at Hallmark Cards, tells of his countless school visits where he asks students, "How many artists are there in the room?"  The responses are nearly always the same.  The kindergartners all raise their hands while by sixth grade, not a single student raises his hand.  

Here's why.  To design means to risk, and along with risk comes failure.  Many students are more concerned with "getting it right" than "trying it out."  It's not entirely their fault.  That's the way we've taught them. 

So why don't we model it by taking a risk and trying out some of these design ideas in our classrooms?  Who knows, we may be surprised with what we and our students create.  Whatever it'll be, it'll certainly be cause for celebration.  In the meantime, I'll check for availability at Radio City Music Hall.

Answers to the quiz:  1. b, 2. c, 3. a

Preparing for the Storm

New Yorkers scurry through the streets, rushing to the nearest grocery store to stock up on bare essentials.  Weathermen point to technicolor maps portraying doom and gloom.  Officials flood the airwaves with emergency contingency plans.  The entire city is on edge as they prepare for the arrival of a most unwelcome guest, Hurricane Sandy.

As I made my way to Teacher College's Coaching Institute last week, there's no way I could've predicted that this is where I would find myself by Sunday evening.  Today, I'm hunkering down in my hotel room to see if the brick wall outside my window will budge under the blustery conditions.  As I do, I can't help but think that I've felt the same sense of urgency in my sessions with keynote speakers and staff developers about the current storm looming in education.


The Storm is Looming

In her keynote, Lucy Calkins noted that education is at a major crossroads.  With the advent of the Common Core Standards, one of the "most significant documents in the history of American education," educators are poised to make dramatic change.  The problem is, she added citing her work with Hargreaves and Fullan, the authors of Professional Capital, the pathway to implement change is not so clear.  Some leaders advocate a business approach with an emphasis on short term reforms and cost-saving measures while others push for a professional approach that acknowledges the complexity of teaching and relies on the collective capacity of experienced teachers.  At this point, it is unclear which way education will go.  Meanwhile, the storm is looming.

As if this isn't enough, Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap and Creating Innovators, stated in his keynote that reformers have it all wrong.  The system of education is not failing, it's completely obsolete.  With the disappearance of routine, semi-skilled jobs and the democratization and commoditization of knowledge, it's time to reinvent how we educate our students.  We need to promote a culture of learning and innovation.  Here's why:

Wagner went on to say how the current culture of school is radically at odds with the culture of learning:

The Culture of Today’s Schooling	The Culture of Learning and Innovation
Schools celebrate individual achievements	Schools celebrate collaboration and collective achievement
Schools honor specialization and becoming specialists (teachers work in departments, students declare majors)	Schools promote approaching problems from multiple perspectives and disciplines
Schools impose a culture of passive consumption where students are meant to take in and regurgitate	Schools seeks ways in which students can create real products for real audiences
Schools penalize failure	Schools honor risk taking and learning from failure
Schools rely on external motivation	Schools rely on intrinsic motivation

Clearly, the storm is looming, and it can leave us in a frenzied state wondering how we can prepare ourselves to make a difference.  Just like the people who loaded their baskets with food, water, and flashlights ahead of Hurricane Sandy, we need to take action.  


Preparing for the Storm

So what's in our basket?  The good news is, we already have many practices, routines and frameworks in place as we move forward.  In addition, I offer up these reminders and considerations as we continue to fine-tune our work in and out of the classrooms.

Student Checklist for Opinion Writing

1.  We need to continue to teach with intensity and purpose in our Reading and Writing Workshops.  As I observed staff developers in classrooms on Friday, I noticed how they implement mini-lessons that encourage more student reflection and action.  By continually referring to checklists, writing more "flash drafts," and monitoring their progress throughout a unit, students work actively as they transfer skills across units, increase their volume and develop independent writing habits. 

2.  We need to continue to work collaboratively with our colleagues.  As Literacy Coaches Gina La Porta Roller and David Lowe noted through their work with teachers in Seattle schools, we can pinpoint effective practice, promote areas of inquiry, and calibrate student learning and teacher practice within and across grade levels thereby leveraging our collective capacity.  This is perfect work that some of us are already tackling in our PLCs.

3.  Throughout our work, we should think about how we can integrate and assess the "Core Competency" skills that Wagner states are essential in creating innovative students.   These include:

• Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
• Collaborating
• Adapting
• Initiating
• Effective Oral and Written Communicating
• Accessing and Analyzing Information
• Developing Curiosity and Imagination

4.  We need to use our time wisely.  Let's face it, time is our most precious commodity, and how we use it both in and out of the classroom matters.  We need to ensure that our students are spending the bulk of the time in our classrooms by reading and writing.  Staff Developer Chris Lehman noted that it takes two hours of reading a day for a struggling student to make up more than a year and a half of growth over time.  To get better at anything, we need time to practice and rehearse.

In addition, Wagner suggests we should make time for play.  He cited the 20% Google Rule as a model that we can emulate not only for our students, but for us as well.  By allowing for time while holding ourselves accountable for exploration through personal passion, we would model risk taking and continued learning for our students.  Who knows, we may be surprised with what we come up with as well.

So in the face of an oncoming storm, things don't always have to be so dreary.  As I watch Mayor Bloomberg and his team conduct press conferences where they explain the choices have made and the plans they have set in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy, I'm inspired by their forethought and insight in seeing this storm through safely.  I believe that we can do the same for current state where we are in education.  So what do you say, are you with me?



Images from:  

• www.abcnews.go.com
• irisconnect.co.uk
• newyork.cbslocal.com/   

Running Through Patterns

A few years back, I picked up long distance running.  Maybe it was the milestone birthday I hit, or the inspiration my friend gave me after surviving a terrible accident, or the self-inflating tire that mysteriously appeared around my belly.  Whatever the case, I hit the pavement like never before.

At first, I thought, no problem.  I'll lace up my shoes and run for hours.   How hard can it be?  It wasn't long until I limped home realizing I was in way over my head.  I knew nothing about pacing myself, keeping hydrated, or wearing the right equipment, and I had to if I wanted to keep my body going.

So I did what people do when they learn new things.  I consulted the experts. One of the books I read was the Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer.  In it, the authors organized their ideas into 17 chapters, each one covering one week of the training schedule.  What I couldn't believe as I literally worked through the book was how spot on they were.  It was as if they were right there running every step of the way alongside me.  They knew exactly what I was struggling with both physically and emotionally, and they provided tips to overcome my obstacles.  They even encouraged me to adopt other habits related to eating and stretching that would enhance my running life.  And it worked.

What I didn't realize then is that experts see things in patterns.  They know their subject so well, they can predict the pleasures and pitfalls that aspiring amateurs in their field will experience as they grow in competence.  For running, there were patterns in building endurance, maintaining energy levels, and keeping fit that I knew nothing about.  Thank goodness they shared them with me, and thank goodness I listened.

Well, it's the same with writing, and this weekend I spent some time working with Carl Anderson, an expert on writing and conferring, at a conference at UWC.  

Like the authors in the running book, Anderson sees patterns in writing or developmentally typical things writers do as they try to get better.  He laid out a number of them, and he encouraged us to focus our teaching points based on the patterns we see.

Carl Anderson

According to Anderson, patterns emerge in the three broad domains of what we want our writers to know and do.  We want them to...

• initiate writing.
• write well.
• develop a process for writing that works.

Within the "write well" domain, Anderson notes five areas that make for good writing (which can easily be linked to the Six Traits framework):

• Meaning
• Structure
• Details
• Voice
• Conventions

To understand what he's saying, let's look at an example.  For meaning, you might have a student who includes every detail they can about a story even those that don't really matter.  As a result, the reader is wondering what the piece is all about.  The meaning is just unclear.  Anderson calls this an "all about" pattern, named after those "All About" books in the younger grades.  To address this pattern in a teaching point, we might ask that student, "So what's important?" and then teach that writers delete parts that aren't connected and expand parts that are.  Many of us do this in our "heart" or "the seed vs. the watermelon" mini-lesson.  (For more examples of other patterns and related teaching points, click here.)  

Noticing this as a pattern though is significant because Anderson says that patterns transcend genres.  In other words, that "all about" pattern can show up in non-narrative writing as well.  Think of the student who has to include every single detail he researched on a given topic in his piece of writing.  

Since patterns transcend genres, so too can the feedback I give my students.  I had always thought that my feedback for narrative writing (i.e., use purposeful dialogue) wouldn't transfer to non-narrative writing.  After all, how often do writers use dialogue in this genre?  The thing is using dialogue is a technique for adding detail.  So the student who doesn't have a range of detail techniques in his repertoire for narrative writing may struggle with the same thing in his non-narrative writing.  In that way, I am beginning to think in patterns for my writers and address them across the genres and throughout the year more effectively.  

In many ways, I'm still that runner learning new ideas and techniques. This time though it's in the classroom.  With Anderson's patterns in hand, I feel as though I know what to look for and teach into it more precisely.  Will I get it right right away?  To be honest, I'm not counting on it.  I'll struggle a bit as I raise the level of my teaching and try it out.  I certainly struggled on those longer runs at first.  When my students learn a new writing technique, they don't use it with finesse on their first go.  One thing's for sure though, I can I make my way through my conferences with a greater understanding of what writing is and how I can move my students forward as writers.  And while I know I've still got miles to go in this race, I feel as though my students and I will make it in better shape as a result.

Images from:  goodreads.com, conferringguy.com