The Treasure Hunter

 

When we met with friends a few days ago, one of them asked me why my blog was called “The Treasure Hunter” when it had so little good news about education to report. I quickly replied, “ I don’t call it the ‘Treasure Finder,” do I?  I just keep hunting.” Well, today I have two pieces of good news. The first is from Michael Muise,  a teacher and a poet living in Alaska. The second is a summary of a newspaper  report on free tuition for some students at Portland State University.

---

In this short reminiscence Michael Muise gives us a glimpse into his ways of engaging with students who might otherwise be unconnected to school, reading, and teachers:

Morning bus duty is a time that I love. It gives me a chance to greet nearly all 480 students each day. Shake hands, high five, laugh all in hope of starting the day off right. Mention how much I love a kid’s pair of light up shoes, how I have the same polka dot dress (usually makes them laugh) etc. Today, while greeting the masses, Gr 8 Boy number one, who I gave the Theodore Boone book to wheels up on his long board with an ear but in his right ear and a grin stretching from both ears. He says to me, “I’m on chapter 13. I love it.” And then, proceeds to tell me what is happening in the book. Thinking it couldn’t get any better, a couple of minutes later Gr 8 Boy number two, who I gave a copy of “The Last Apprentice” to, wheels up on his long board with white ear bud in his right ear and a grin from ear to ear. “The book”, he says, “is not so scary the way you said it would be but I really like it.” What a great start to my morning.

Yesterday’s Oregonian reported that Portland State University (PSU) has designed a new program called “Four Years Free” that will allow Oregon residents who graduate from high school with high grades to enroll in a four year college program free of charge, starting in 2017. This program follows the Oregon Promise program, instituted this year, which gives free tuition to students enrolling in the state’s two-year colleges.

Most of the money paid as student tuition to PSU will come from federal Pell grants and Oregon’s Promise grants. In addition, the college says, “If a student does not receive the full amount of the Pell and OOG, PSU will cover the difference.” As a result of the contributions from those sources students would save up to $8,4oo annually on tuition and school fees. They would be responsible only for the cost of books, housing and personal expenses.

PSU sees its program as a strong tool to motivate high school students to work hard and earn good grades from ninth grade on up, and I agree. Far too many Oregon families never even consider sending their children to college because the tuition costs are far beyond their means, and far two many high school students under-perform for the same reason. Our children do not lack ability, only hope.

Although I have written about teaching grammar on this site before, I am going to re-post a piece I wrote for the blog, “Literacy and NCTE”, managed by Lu ann Mc Nabb. Although only a few people wrote comments, almost all them were adamately negative. I answered them as best I could but doubt that I convinced anyone. The teaching of grammar is too firmly entrenched in the minds of many English teachers. What I should have told readers beforehand is that my Ph.D. was in Applied Linguistics and my research was in the teaching of English in foreign countries. To write my thesis I observed in classrooms in 30 schools in Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands. The most successful teachers I saw were not teaching English grammar, but having students practice using the patterns of English sentences they had read in literature or heard in speech. Out of personal pride I must add that I have written a successful book entitled, “Teaching Writing in Mixed Language Classrooms” that emphasises having students use pieces of English prose and poetry as the structural foundation of their own writing.

---

Many years ago, while visiting a grade 4/5 classroom in the school where I was principal, I listened to a group of children reading aloud the first drafts of essays they had written about various holidays celebrated in America. The children were helping each other to correct errors and make meaning clearer. In reading her essay one girl said, “In the United states we celebrate Christmas by giving and receiving gifts and sing Christmas carols.” Immediately, another girl in the group interrupted her, saying, “That word should be singing.” The interesting thing for me was not that the second girl was absolutely right, but that she was right without knowing why. Neither she nor any other child in the classroom could have stated, “Sentence elements of equal grammatical rank should be expressed in parallel constructions.” Yet, all of them subconsciously knew that principle of English grammar and were able—most of the time—to demonstrate it in their speech and writing.

This story is but one illustration of what happens most of the time in language usage; we construct grammatically correct sentences or correct our mistakes by intuitively applying the rules that govern English syntax. If, instead, we had to apply those rules consciously, they would only get in our way, making it impossible for us to speak or write at all. To construct a simple two-word sentence, such as “He dreams,” requires the application of at least seven grammar rules. Imagine trying to apply them consciously following the rules of English grammar:

To say what I mean, I need a noun phrase and a verb phrase. The noun phrase can be     made up of a singular noun plus a determiner, a plural noun, a proper noun, or a nominative case pronoun. If I choose a pronoun, it can be singular or plural, but it must be inflected for first, second, or third person. The verb I choose can be transitive, intransitive, or copulative. But if it is transitive, it needs an object, or if it is copulative, it needs a complement. In any case the verb must also be inflected for first, second, or third person to agree with the pronoun.

With grammar rules so complicated and hard to use, you may wonder why we have them at all. The fact is that such rules were created by linguists in order to explain language phenomena that had already existed for thousands of years. Most of the grammatical explanations were reasonable at the time they were created, but some have been discredited by subsequent discoveries about language. Others were cancelled out by actual changes in spoken language over time. In all cases, though, the rules were merely rough models for incompletely understood mental processes. No grammarian ever asserted that a grammar list exists in the brain from which human beings select and apply rules as they need them.

Although grammar rules are explanations for what exists in language, not prescriptions for what “ought to be,” they have been misused for a long time. Teaching those rules in schools started with instruction in ancient Latin and Greek, where it made sense because those were “dead” languages. But then those rules gradually slipped into other parts of the school curriculum, such as modern foreign language courses and English classes, where they had no business.

Over the years, the teaching of grammar has continued to be prominent in English and foreign language instruction, leaving less class time or student energy for students to speak, read, or write in those languages. Yet, many perceptive teachers, sensing that grammar lessons might not be all that beneficial for their students, have pressed for research to determine its real impact on learning. As early as 1906, studies were undertaken that attempted to show the relationship between knowledge of school-taught grammar and language skills. Since then, hundreds of such studies have produced some clear and unequivocal conclusions: The teaching of formal grammar does not help a student’s ability to speak, to write, to think, or to learn foreign languages.

It is important for educators to know that, among recent research studies, not one justifies teaching grammar to help students write better. * Although we accept the fact that social, economic, and political forces influence education in many areas, we ought not to allow such forces to outweigh knowledge and reason in determining the school curriculum.

*See Elley, W. B., Barham, I. H., Lamb, H., & Wyllie, M. (1976). The role of grammar in a secondary English curriculum. Research in the Teaching of English, 10, 5-21.

With “Education Week” coming out each week during the school year I get a little behind in reading everything I should.  Only this past week did I read two articles in the August 24^th issue, both of them on corporal punishment in America’s public schools. Today I will summarize those articles and offer my own opinion on the matter.

---

Until I read two articles on corporal punishment (C.P.from here on) in Education Week , I wasn’t aware that it was still practiced in American public schools anywhere, let alone in 21 states. Since C.P. did not exist in the schools where I was a student or, later, a teacher or a principal. I thought it had been abandoned many years ago. According to the first article I read 21 states still allow C.P., and in 2013-14 more than 109, 000 students were disciplined in that manner. Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma were the states to have the highest number of students so disciplined.

As might be expected, high poverty and black students are the ones most likely to undergo C.P. and they have no legal protection against it. In 1977 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against students in Florida who argued that C.P. violated their rights under the 8^th and 14^th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Since then, families that have sued school districts for abusing or injuring their children by C.P have not won a single case.

Even in states where C.P. has been explicitly banned, some schools that reported using this form of punishment have not been penalized. Either the data was ignored or state officials claimed that the reports were in error. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Education has taken no stance for or against it.  On the other hand, several national education and welfare groups, and teachers’ unions have strongly come out against such practices for quite a while.

The second article I read focused on the situation of a particular student in Mississippi, who had repeatedly received C.P. at his school. The young man, Trey Clayton, now 19 years old, admits that he often misbehaved when he was a student and that he did not protest against the C.P. he received: “I’m not going to lie, I was in a lot of trouble during school. Every time they gave me the option to get a paddling or get sent home, and I took the paddling.” In many places school suspensions can last for weeks, even months.

Things changed for the worse for Trey when one paddling he received in 2011 led to a serious injury. After receiving three blows from the school principal Trey fainted and fell, breaking his jaw and gashing his chin. According to his mother, “When I went to pick him up, my son was spitting teeth into the trash can.”

As a result of his injuries Trey missed two weeks of school and the tests at the end of the semester, which he was not allowed to make up afterward. Consequently, he failed 8^th grade. From then on he became less engaged with schoolwork than before and decided  to transfer to another school.  Ultimately, he dropped out of school altogether. Trey still lives with his mother and has two children of his own, who are one and two years old. He says that he hopes to earn a GED and go on to college. The article does not say whether or not he is employed.

After the disastrous C.P. Trey received, he and his mother launched a lawsuit against the school district, claiming excessive force against him and that the school disproportionately targeted boys for such punishment. Around the same time another student from Trey’s school also sued the district for excessive C.P.  Unfortunately, both plaintiffs lost their cases.

It must be noted that few parents in this area have voiced any objections to their children being disciplined as Trey and the other boy were. Apparently, they believe that schools have the legal right to do so and that corporal punishment is preferable to suspensions, which could last for weeks or months.

*****************************

I’m pretty sure that Ed Week intended to outrage its readers with these two articles and that it succeeded. I suspect that even many residents of the states where C.P. is still practiced were among them. Beating children with a paddle at school or at home is not part of the American image today. Nevertheless, I forgive Ed Week for playing on our heartstrings. We all needed to know what was happening in so many U.S. states and is likely to continue for who knows how long.

But aside from those facts, most educators, researchers, parents and educated people are against any form of school punishment that may injure a student physically, psychologically or socially. Clearly C.P. fits into all three categories. It is a powerful negative experience likely not only to produce more misbehavior from the receivers, but also to persuade them that they are bad people and their classmates that they should be shunned.

Although I don’t want to get into the full range of positive alternatives to school punishment that I am familiar with, I must insist that they are well known by educators and documented by research.  Such alternatives should be taught to all teachers and principals and adopted universally by schools. If we truly care about producing well-educated, productive, and responsible citizens, we must ensure that all students are treated humanely in our schools.

Yesterday I read an article about a California elementary school that has changed its basic structure to project learning. Below I will explain what has happened so far and give some details about the school. In addition I will explain my own view of project-based learning.

---

Five years ago, under the leadership of a new principal, Katherine Smith Elementary School in San José, CA dedicated itself to becoming a hub for 21^st century learning. The school, in a high poverty area and with a large percentage of English language learners, was determined to change its traditional structure and teaching methods to project-based learning.  Since then the school has worked hard at involving both teachers and students in collaborative projects and focusing on the skills needed for students to have successful careers, be active citizens, and meet the demands of life in the future.

The new principal, Aaron Brengard, and the many experienced teachers who transferred to the school knew their job would not be easy. But they dedicated themselves to working together and teaching students to do the same.

By traditional measures the school has not improved much. Standardized test scores are still very low, and behavior problems emerge from time to time. On the other hand student and parent surveys show high satisfaction with the projects and teaching methods being used. Also, in frequent presentations of project results observers agree that students exhibit much improved speaking and critical thinking skills.

In a recent economics project for third graders, students designed new products and studied marketing skills. When they had finished their work the results were presented to local residents acting as “sharks” in a “Shark Tank. Afterward there was a fair for parents to examine the products closely and talk to students about manufacturing costs and the design processes.

*********************************

As I read this article I admired the efforts the school was making, but I also wondered if the principal and teachers had a strong enough grasp of what project learning means. To my mind it is the constant classroom emphasis on student interpretation and expansion of what teachers and learning materials have presented. Below I will list a number of  projects that I have seen in elementary classrooms where students were involved in project learning on a regular basis.

Creating your own math problems based on school or home activities

Writing about a historical event as if you were there and participating

Turning a fairy tale you’ve read into a puppet play

Raising plants in a classroom under different of conditions

Designing your ideal bedroom to scale

Creating birthday cards for the school Principal

Producing a set of original products for the school store, pricing them realistically, and advertising them effectively

Making a video of classmates demonstrating safe playground behaviors

Working with a group of classmates to design a new and better set of classroom rules

Interviewing older family members about the conditions of their youth, then writing about  them

Reading a story aloud to a group of younger children in another classroom

Creating a table game for traveling west on the Oregon Trail

Performing the classroom job of putting books back on the shelves in alphabetical order for one week, and then training another student to do that job

Taking notes on a classroom animal’s daily food consumption

Drawing a map of an imaginary island that shows its mountains, rivers and other physical features; then naming it appropriately

 

I hope you can see that a school devoted to project learning involves students all the time with imagining, creating, using and even teaching the skills and knowledge their teachers have taught them or invited them to investigate. Actually getting involved with what has been taught is the best way to make it your own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday I posted several pieces of writing by children in grades K-3 to demonstrate the competence of youngsters who have learned some important things about written language without being taught the rules of English grammar.  However, the pieces I chose relied strongly on examples of adult writing the children had studied in order to produce their own work. For that reason some readers might have assumed that the children were just copying and had not really learned much about writing.

Today I hope to erase that assumption by offering pieces of writing by students in grades 4-5.  Although their writing still echos the genres they had been studying, it is clear that they were also using much of their own ideas and language.

---

---

Two Haiku

Sniffing the spring air

A pika scans for danger

Before venturing on

 

A solitary ram

Awaits the coming darkness

Standing strong and tall

 

A Monologue: Hand Me Downs

It’s really not my style

I don’t like the color.

And it doesn’t go with my shoes

But, Mom, I don’t like it.

Do I have to wear it?

Why always hand me downs?

Can’t I ever get anything new?

I don’t want to wear Lisa’s old dress

 

A Diary Entering: Heading West

Tomorrow is the day we leave for Oregon, the day we gather all our courage, hope, and luck and start on a long journey toward our destiny. After many days of arranging, packing and buying we still aren’t quite ready for this trip into the depths of danger and darkness, fear, and death. All of a sudden I feel like a coward, and I want to back out and go home to Tennessee. But I know it’s too late now. I’ve already traveled for more than two weeks to get here and tomorrow we are leaving. But I trust in God and believe that he will watch over us.

 

 A poem: Losing a Friend

My kite just dove and crashed in the treetops

It looks like it’s broken—a goner I think

I loved that kite; I called her Ophelia.

Her body was purple; her tail was hot pink

 

I have possessed her for over a year

I bought her in Shopko the first day of fall

She’s flown very well, riding high when ‘twas windy

Now I cant fly Ophelia at all

 

It looks like she’s breaking away from the treetops

She’s pulling away with a wish for the sky

Pop! Her string broke; at last she has freedom

Now I must wish a dear friend goodbye

 

Introduction to a Writer

Rita Young is sharing a home with her parents, three sisters and a cat in Madison, Wisconsin, where she will soon graduate from Crestwood School

Miss Young has been writing for five years and has published many poems in “Pencil Power” and “Soaring and Exploring”, which are the school’s collections. She is now publishing “The Latest from Rita’s Writings.

Besides poetry, Miss Young is also interested in gymnastics and the violin. She hopes to train under Bella Karolyi and win the Gold Medal in Women’s Gymnastics in 1992.

 

Book Habits

I wonder…

Do books read

Themselves, maybe

When the lights are out

And so am I

 

A Business Letter

Dear President Reagan:

I think the biggest problem facing the world is nuclear war or World war III. These days the build-up of weapons is enormous and is getting very dangerous to continue. One nuclear missile can destroy all civilization and the technology that we worked so hard for. Man would have to start all over again from scratch. The delicate balance of life and death, the food chains, the relationships between plants and animals would be ruined forever.

The U.S.A. should negotiate heavily with Russia, using a highly demanding person. What you should do is make strict laws, bann bombs and missiles of any kind from staying in any country in the world, and disarm all the bombs and missiles remaining from the arms race.

Sincerely,

Chester Chang

 

Prayer of the Eagle

Oh, God,

I appreciate the keen sight you gave me,

And the wings that let me soar above the clouds

Will you please keep my nest safe from man

and his machines?

And make salmon spawn in great numbers.

Also, if you would, God, please wipe out

DDT from the face of the earth.

Amen.