Presentation created by:
Adam Dreher
Teresa Lewis
Dawn Kebert
Jackie Seirer
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section I: First Things First: What We Teach, How We Teach--and Literacy
Ch 1: The Importance of Simplicity, Clarity, and Priority
Ch 2: What We Teach
Ch 3: How We Teach
Section II: Curriculum, Instruction, and Literacy in the Content Areas
Ch 4: English Language Arts Made Simple
A Brief Note on Textbooks
Ch 5: Social Studies with Reading and Writing at the Core
Ch 6: Redefining Inquiry in Science
Ch 7: Making Math Meaningful
Conclusion: This Time, Let's Do It
Chapter 1- The Importance of
Simplicity, Clarity and Priority
Essential for School
Success
1) Coherent curriculum (what
we teach)
2) Sound lessons (how we
teach)
3) Authentic literacy in every
discipline (integral to both
what and how we teach)
Chapter 2 - What We Teach
Use as a guideline:
Four intellectual standards by D. Conley:
- Read to infer/interpret/draw conclusions
- Support arguments with evidence
- Resolve conflicting views encountered in source
documents
- Solve complex problems with no obvious answer
"Curriculum may be the single largest factor that
determines how many students in a school will learn."
-Robert Marzano
Chapter 3 - How We Teach.
Three pieces of a good lesson: (ever lesson needs them)
1. clear learning objectives
2. guided practice
3. checks for understanding / formative assessments
Learn to presents a well built, well executed, whole class
lesson, instead of wasting energy on "time-gobbling
remediation mechanisms."
Effective lecture style lessons = checks for understanding
and the "five minute limit".
English Language Arts Made
Simple
"It all starts with reading."
Literature: a chance to connect our
own lives to characters and
stories that draw us in emotionally
Nonfiction: the springboard for
learning new concepts,
vocabulary, and facts
Newspapers/Magazines: bringing
reading to life in a current, timely
manner
Schmoker suggests 15-20 books
read, discussed, and written
about per school year
In order to learn to
read, students must
READ!!
Schmoker suggests:
fewer standards
core texts, including
books, poems, plays,
short stories, passages,
and articles
frequent discussions for
students to share
opinions/interpretations
ongoing assessment
through written
responses to reading
and formal writing
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Chapter 5: Social Studies with Reading
and Writing at the Core
"Literacy is the key word here, because the
teaching of history should have reading and
writing at its core.... We are aware that we
have crafted a decidedly old-fashioned
message for a technologically savvy world."
Sam Wineburg and Daisy Martin
Ch 5 Quotes
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"Wisdom, enthusiasm for learning, and college preparation can
only come from intensive, frequent reading; talking (lots of talking);
writing; and arguing about the people, issues, and events of the
past and present." (Schmoker, 2011, p.133)
..."fundamental to historical knowledge and thought: writing well,
constructing arguments, reading critically, assessing evidence"
(Banner, 2009, p. 24)
An overabundance of Poorly Written Standards
o "Offered a list of standards, we should scrutinize each one but
also ask who came up with them and for what purpose. Is there
room for discussion and disagreement?"
Alfie Kohn
Ch 5 Practical Applications
* Organizing around task, text, and talk
* Essential topics and standards to be taught, divided by unit
and grading period
*Select textbook pages aligned with the units and topics
*At least 35 supplementary or primary source documents,
including current magazine and news articles
*End of the unit papers or essay question assignments
*Three week units per quarter, ex: Renaissance and
Reformation, Encounters and Exchanges, Age of
Revolution
SUGGESTED SOURCES
Historical & Primary Source Documents
-General Sherman’s letter to the mayor and council of Atlanta sometimes titled “War Is Hell”
-Early explorers – selections from Columbus’s personal diary, 4th & 5th grades could read it
-Dimitri Vassilaros’s (2008) article, “Columbus Was a Hero”
-Rise of the Industrial America – Harriet Hanson Robinson’s account of life as a mill worker in
Lowell, Mass.
-Historical documents – Fordham University’s Internet Modern History Sourcebook,
www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
-Lincoln’s second inaugural address
-The Analects of Confucius – these eloquent teachings can be found online
http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/analects.htm
-President Jackson’s message to Congrees “On Indian Removal” (1830) which led to the Trail
of Tears
-Selection from Pres. Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech
-Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
-Supreme Court decisions are wonderful primary source documents Plessey v. Ferguson great
for 7th grade
Short Online Biographies
Reading about, writing about, and discussing such figures would be highly engaging for students
-Fascinating people - Clara Barton, John Brown, Genghis Khan, Akbar the Great of India, Helen
Keller, & Aristotle
Current Events & Late Breaking News
Provide great opportunity for analysis and discussion
-TIME for Kids
-“The State of America’s Kids” ahs graphs and statistics about health (like child obesity trends)
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED SOURCES
Alternative Histories
Alternative views of history = great discussions
-Thomas E. Woods Jr.’s writings about the Great Depression great for high school
-“Great Recession’ online
www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=275
-James W. Loewen’s book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me”
-Fascinating study of Helen Keller
www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/archives/18/loewen.html
-Michael Medved’s books and online articles offer views on cultural issues from a right-leaning
perspective
-Howard Zinn’s famous A People’s History of America (2003) presents of left view, Rebecca
Stefoff, 2007/2009 has version for elementary & middle school
Resources for Ongoing issues, controversies, and Culture
-Allan Bloom on rock music – The Closing of the American Mind (1988)
-Stanley Kurtz’s (2007) “Closing, Still Open”
-The New York Times’s Nicolas Kristoff (2009) “Sparking a Savings Revolution” on microloans
-“Best. Decade> Ever.” By Charles Kenny (2010) is a fascinating article Foreign Policy
-“The Pros and Cons of Globalization,” BusinessWeek (2000)
-“Mass Transit Hysteria” (2005) by P. J. O’Rourke has compelling stats arguing against the
expansion of mass transit
-ProCon.org is a cornucopia of information on both sides of numerous enduring issues
-FactCheck.org is an excellent source for resolving conflicting views
-Indexmundi.com has a variety of demographic and quality of life stats for nations, states, &
cities
-The Concord Review has published the best examples of high school historical writing,
subscription is available from www.tcr.org
Chapter 6 - Redefining Inquiry in
Science
Focus of good science instruction:
close reading and discussion
interactive lecture
regular reading and discussion of current
science articles
writing
a reasonable number of science labs and
experiments tied directly to the content
being learned.
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Chapter 7 - Making Math
Meaningful
"Does traditional math coursework truly prepare students for life, or for the kinds of work they
encounter in their careers—even scientific and high-tech careers? Or would different math
standards—and course requirements—be more meaningful?"
"I wonder how many people paid serious attention to a startling set of figures about math in the
workplace in a recent Education Week report. For starters, about 80 percent of the overall
workforce, including those in the highest-paying, most prestigious careers, will never use anything
beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Eighty percent! Even among those in the
most lucrative, fastest-growing, "upper white collar" careers, only 30 percent will ever use any
Algebra I. And only 14 percent of that highly educated subgroup will use any Algebra II. Overall,
less than 5 percent of the workforce will make extensive use of Algebra II or other advanced
courses"
Immediate implementation:
1. cut standards you teach by 50% (as discussed before, do we really have the power to do this?)
2. become obsessive about effective teaching strategies (modeling, guided practice)
3. recruit professionals
4. implement reading and writing
This Time, Let's Do It!
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We know that we must have a clear, coherent
curriculum (maybe fewer standards)
We know that we must use effective teaching
strategies and structurally sound lessons
We know that kids need to read and write every
day and in meaningful ways
We know that we have to monitor our teaching
and work in professional teams
Let's Just Do It!