I remember a college professor making the same statement about education as Routman, "We are not taken seriously and our voices are silenced if we cannot back up our beliefs and recommendations with solid research." In today's educational world teachers do not always have the time or resources to read and conduct research. I believe this is why so many things are pushed upon teachers by those who are not in the classroom. As educators we need to take the time to analyze the research. We also need to conduct our own action research. However, for that to happen; we need to be given the time to do so. Could this be a grade level PLC project? If so, we would need to be given the time during our meetings to do so.
I remember ten or twelve years ago, when every library in our district housed professional magazines such as "The Reading Teacher." I think it is time we started demanding that this type of professional reading return to the shelves of every library in our district.
Furthermore, I liked Routman's list of Characteristics of High-Performing Schools on page 273. The very first one is ongoing professional conversations and study groups. Could we conduct a study group and a blog such as this one among our PLC teams. This could led into some professional research by the team. How would Rick defour see this as a tight but lose situation. Maybe the leaders of the district could suggest several books for us to study; then the team would get to choose the book. (The tight) The team would be left to read, analyze, and conduct their research. (The lose) Of course, they would need to be accountable for their efforts. (The tight) Does a blog show that accountability? I am learning through my Intel class that it would be considered a type of assessment. Just a thought.
In addition, I liked the statement about teaching kids to be courageous writer on pg 278. It is my belief that persuasive writing is very authentic. Also, kids need to learn that their words are powerful and it only takes one person to make a change. As a 5th grade teacher, I think I need to spend the last 9 weeks focusing on persuasive writing. This will better prepare them for the 6th grade local assessment and adulthood.
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4 comments:
I too have noticed we never have professional magazines for us to read. I also starred the conversation on persuasive writing on page 278 that "students learn that you can't persuade someone until you have both the facts and the conviction of your beliefs."
Tammy,
I think persuasive writing can be so interesting. I hope to have my students write some type of persuasive piece before the end of the year. :)
I thought Friday was a beginning for us as a staff at Obee. I feel this chapter was speaking to us and we took the first step to start. I will be interested to see what we come up with and view our "best practices" for Obee students.
I like your suggestion on using PLC time to conduct research. We have a perfect opportunity to do Action Research with our own students and then discuss it with our colleagues at PLC.
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