LANGUAGE ARTS-NEW MEXICO

Common Core Standards Open for Comment

We've reported before on New Mexico's affiliation with the Common Core Standards movement.  A draft of the English Language Arts Standards was released yesterday and is open for public comment.  Download the standards here and comment here.  Adding your perspective on these standards is a way to participate in making sure teachers' voices are heard as the next generation of policy is developed.

Reading Fiction Makes You Smarter

We all knew this but it's nice to have some scientific proof: reading fiction makes you smarter.  From a research group in Toronto:  "Through a series of studies, we have discovered that fiction at its best isn't just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves."  And from research done by psychologists at the University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia, reading Kafka "enhances cognitive mechanisms." 

At the LOC

The Library of Congress has a new teacher resource page.  It looks pretty great. 

New Report Calls for a Re-engineering of the Nation’s Approach to Adolescent Literacy

A new report on adolescent literacy is out today from the Carnegie Corporation.  It's always hard to tell if policy reports like this will make a difference (or if they'll be misused and make the wrong sort of difference).  But we probably shouldn't be too skeptical, because it's not an easy question.  What would you have schools do to transform adolescent literacy if you were in charge? 

You can read the summary from Education Week or the entire 108-page report. 

What difference does leadership make?

Lately it seems like every teacher I know is working with a new initiative aimed at raising student test scores.  Sound familiar? Sometimes there are so many competing programs in one school, it's difficult to tell what is supposed to be driving instruction.   Where is the instructional leadership in all this? The PBS series POV takes that question to two elementary school principals (one school is k-8) and chronicles their experience over the course of a year.  The show, which airs Sept. 15,  promises to be interesting viewing as it pushes us to recognize we are all caught in this web.

David Berliner Tells Australians to Think Twice About TFA

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The view from America: what on earth are you thinking? August 17, 2009

The Teach for America program which sends top graduates who are not trained in teaching into poorer schools is about to start in Australia. Some educators in the US, such as David Berliner, are asking why.

The news that Australia is following the United States in introducing a program which puts untrained teachers in the classroom came as a real shock to us here.

Simply put, you are being conned. Teach for America (TFA), the model for your national program, is not effective in helping students in poverty learn more, though it is very effective at raising large amounts of money.

The facts are much tougher to dismiss than the feel-good announcements made by the corporate supporters and those who derive their income from the program.

More here.

Too Much Time Teaching, Not Enough Time For Everything Else?

This is interesting.  The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), has published its latest round of international comparisons of education systems.  Among the findings:  American teachers spend more time teaching than teachers in any of the other countries surveyed.  The average American teacher spends 1080 hours per year teaching ("Net Teaching Time in Hours").  Teachers in most other countries spend 500-700 hours per year in front of the class.  In Finland, which often has the highest test scores in international comparisons, teachers in middle school and high school spend 550-600 hours per year actually teaching.  Wouldn't it be nice if some of the education reformers who are so focused on making the school day and year longer took notice?  The full OECD report is available here.

Little Red and Her Ancestors

From the Telegraph:  Fairy tales have ancient origin
Popular fairy tales and folk stories are more ancient than was previously thought, according to research by biologists.

 

Texas Bible Literacy Law

From the Houston Chronicle:

DALLAS — Some northern Texas school districts are scrambling to interpret a state law that requires public schools to incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum.

The Legislature provided little guidance, no funding for materials or teacher training when it passed the law in 2007 requiring Bible literacy to be taught starting in the 2009-2010 school year.

More here.

Classroom Books

Two articles from today's Guardian:

Should classroom books reflect the tough realities of life, or is there still a place for escapism?  and The man who wrote Lord of the Flies disliked it as much as many tenth graders.