Teachers bitter as divided board expected to alter curriculum today
Texas Education Board rejects English teachers' input on new curriculum standards
The board's social conservatives, joined by Republican moderate Geraldine Miller of Dallas and San Antonio Democrat Rick Agosto, prevailed, 9-6, for a plan that features a back-to-the-basics approach for grammar and reading comprehension. A final vote on the plan is scheduled for today.
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"Most of the teachers in this state are going to be furious," said Alana Morris, past president of CREST (Coalition of Reading and English Supervisors of Texas).
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For some board members, though, it came down to process and a different educational approach. The prevailing side wants grammar taught separately instead of incorporating it in the context of writing.
"We believe you need to know those skills first, and then you can incorporate them into your writing," said member Terri Leo, R-Spring. "We feel the other side thinks that you are going to learn things by osmosis, by just writing."
Right you are, Terri Leo, R-Spring. The other side does indeed think that you are going to learn things by osmosis, by just writing:
Top-down [teaching] means that students begin with complex problems to solve and then work out or discover (with the teacher's guidance) the basic skills required.
source:
Educational Psychology, 7th edition
Robert Slavin
p 259
top-down teaching
Hand kids an undifferentiated mass; let them figure it out.
Have I mentioned lately that I spent 7 years of my life trying to determine the relevant parts of autism?
I don't recommend it.
Speaking of undifferentiated masses, today's news from Texas is a case of synchronicity. Just this afternoon I was saying to Barry G that it is past time for our merry band to re-visit the strands.*
bonus observation: social conservatives, a Republican moderate, and a Hispanic Democrat
Holy moly.
If I were a CRESTy, I would be asking myself whether it's a good idea to be inspiring these folks to make common cause. Which would lead me, I'm pretty sure, directly to the conclusion that I should not be posting sentiments like these on the worldwide web.
fearless leader
Texas Alternative Document
Elaine McEwan recommends Texas Alternative Document
top-down teaching
constructivism: the mother lode
*the strands decoded
I know of at least 2 teachers in Texas who are celebrating this decision--experienced teachers who have tried explicit instruction and discovered its effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteWatching my daughter take the IOWA test (a little over one grade level ahead for diagnostic purposes) has made me realize that ALMOST NOTHING is learned by osmosis.
Not rounding, or punctuation, or capitalization, or some basic facts about acorns--and she has played with acorns and watched squirrels gather them in our backyard.
With a good phonetic reading and spelling background and a lot of reading, however, evidently some grammar and alphabetization and a lot of spelling is acquired without explicit instruction. That being said, I'm still all for explicit grammar, alphabetizing and spelling instruction.
I learned by osmosis. It's good enough for general life. The problem though is that when you want to write a letter to the editor, be taken seriously in a blog post, construct an essay, write a story for fun...Well, it isn't good enough anymore. If kids are going to be forced into a system that has them thinking they need to learn it all by 18 then the system should be teaching basics.
ReplyDeleteI'm finding my daughter's Winston Grammar material very informative and helpful now, even if it's just the basic course.
NO, NO, NOT THE STRANDS!
ReplyDeleteHe** yes, the strands!
ReplyDeleteWell...one of the things that frustrates me is that without a half-trillion-dollar education-industrial complex running things, we'd probably have a vast and rich body of empirical knowledge on the subject of exactly what content can be picked up "incidentally" and when and by whom.
ReplyDeleteAnd we'd know so much more about explicit instruction, too.
I think it's correct for me to say that I learned to read by osmosis. I was one of those kids who "taught herself to read." This was in between Kindergarten & first grade. My mom was reading me a book and I started saying the words. She thought I'd memorized them because she'd read the book so many times, but I hadn't. She could pull out other books, point to words, and I could read them.
I don't believe I had any instruction in phonemic awareness or phonics in Kindergarten.
C. was the same way, although he probably did have some instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics. Our district uses balanced literacy, so there's got to be some phonics and phonemic awareness, I presume.
Midway through C's Kindergarten year the teacher told us C. was at-risk for dyslexia because his handwriting was so poor. (She was right; poor handwriting is a risk factor.)
Ed dismissed it, but I despaired. To me, it seemed inevitable that with 2 kids having a diagnosis of autism, C. was going to have to have something awful, too.
A couple of weeks later, C. started reading. On his own. He could pick up a simple book and read it. He could understand it, too. It was as if he'd crossed a threshold. Just stepped through the door.
Later I read in a book....oh heck. A lot of you would know the title Louisa Moats wrote the foreword. (sigh) It was a book on reading instruction written by a mom whose son hadn't been taught to read by his school, which was using whole language or balanced literacy.
Anyway, the book said that about 10% of kids simply start reading on their own in the wake of phonics instruction.
They make the leap.
Why is that?
These questions are riveting, and we'd have more answers if we didn't have the half-trillion dollar monster we call public education blocking the path to real inquiry.
You know, if there was any piece of legislation that I could pass, it would be to blow up colleges of education.
-Reid Lyon
Rigorous Evidence: The Key to Progress in Education? Lessons from Medicine, Welfare and Other Fields a forum with The Honorable Rod Paige U.S. Secretary of Education Forum Proceedings - November 18, 2002
I know of at least 2 teachers in Texas who are celebrating this decision--experienced teachers who have tried explicit instruction and discovered its effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteThere are probably a lot of teachers in favor.
Do you have a link for the standards the board is not approving?
I don't have a link to any version of the standards, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteYou know, if there was any piece of legislation that I could pass, it would be to blow up colleges of education.
ReplyDeleteThere is something to be said for the "Cultural Revolution" approach to the problem.