First Ammendment, Intellectual Freedom, and Students

Ok, this post is for my good friend Jeff Walters and the rest of the Government teachers at my school.

There are five freedoms of the First Amendment: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Petition and Freedom of Speech. The Supreme Court decisions on the First Amendment have supported schools in their attempts to restrict students’ speech.

Question: Do you think a reasonable balance has been struck between individual rights and the limitations schools might wish to impose on student rights?

Here is my spin on this with a few interesting cases.

I think in my division there is a reasonable balance, but I think this question goes further than just our own setting. We have a moment of silence (or prayer if you wish) every day, a limited dress code, a “no hat” policy, and many other marginal policies that I do feel infringe on certain rights of expression. Many schools impose dress codes that stifle individual expression to even greater degrees requiring uniforms. Supporters of a dress code might argue that school uniforms might enhance the school learning environment and limit the distractions that might be brought about by dress (such as gang colors, shirts with racial slurs, or inappropriate slogans). Our interpretation of the freedom speech and expression and also the censorship of such freedoms are dependent on our own interpretation of what is good and what is harmful. We constantly test our own views against the view of society as a whole. The ability to segregate the positive and negative values of this freedom rests in the very freedom to practice the right of freedom itself. While at the same time we are responsible for both desirable and undesirable consequences of that right. For our actions involving freedom of expression and the value of that right, we must also be accepting of others sharing and exercising that freedom. My viewpoint follows a nonconsequentialist position based on equal respect for persons and individual accountability and value for both judgment and choice of moral conduct. I think our own views of moral character and intentions should consider the rights of others, but also should examine the good those intentions have for all. If we look at three ethical frameworks (Non-consequentialist, Consequentialist, and Utilitarian) in view of the First Amendment we can see there is opposing values to consider. I will outline a few of these concepts:

"Truth is achieved or pursued by means of open criticism and public debate"- John Stuart Mills

To censor an idea is to deny people the opportunity to consider it and test their own views against it. Censorship fails to show respect for the dignity and value of others as moral agents.

Freedom is important for personal growth. Moral agents value their own ability to make responsible judgments and value their own growth in decision making. (Non-consequentialist)

Those who lack the capacity to make decisions also lack the opportunity to the capacity to make their own decision-Competency requires practice. In order to know what to do, we must know what the consequence will be for our actions. (Consequentialist)

The rights of adults do not apply to children and those not legally competent/practiced, for this reason consequences of liberty for children are not the same as adults.

Freedom for children occurs when an adult believes it serves the best interests of the child or the greater good. (Utilitarian)

A couple of sources and cases to consider.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-oped-project-/history-repeating-dont-ce_b_4434121.html

Zachary Aufderheide, Ohio Student, Suspended For Growing Hair For Charity

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/student-punished-for-growing-hair-for-charity_n_2010040.html#ooid=hmOXBiNjqQv8EeEYFA4scsZx0xSxF2zT

Both of these links provide examples where school policies employ censorship of student’s freedom of expression, particularly when it comes to dress codes. In the examples provided, schools have placed value on a specific standard or code of expression, but does the decided value fail to show respect for the dignity and value of students as moral agents? If school officials value their own ability to make judgments and create a standard of dress or physical appearance, should they not value their student’s ability to also make these same judgments? The policy makers (in this case a local school board) clearly have the consequentialist viewpoint that students lack the competency and practice to make judgments regarding dress and how others may perceive certain dress as offensive. They could also be thinking in the utilitarian sense, meaning that the rights of adults do not apply to children who are competent or practiced enough to know the impact and consequences of their liberties. In other words, the freedom of expression in these cases occurs only when it serves the good of the child or the student body as a whole. 

Educational Policy and the Minority Student

For those of us that slogged through the years of NCLB and its damaging effects on education, I focus this post on some statistics and thoughts about the American educational demographic (particularly our minority students). Low level facts and mindless tests without the resources needed to compensate for these mandates, loss of jobs, impoverishment, lack of affordable health care, increased incarceration of people between the ages of 18-24, and loss of hope in communities, school systems and the teaching profession; all of these are fall-out from an education policy that just fell short of the needs of students and teachers. Question: Will Race to the Top offer any more hope or will we still have corporate style accountability where competition is sponsored and the approach of the teacher is still criticized and the student teacher relationship is diminished to numbers on a page? There is a lot of criticism that mainstream media have made of teachers that is deeply disrespectful of how hard teaching in schools is now. I have very few doubts that student scores on standardized achievement tests is the best way to judge the immensely complicated job of teaching. Our obsession with national an international test scores have resulted in uncreative curricula and teaching, and has also resulted in the alienation of students and teachers. We have to learn from our failed policies of the past and learn from those nations that consistently out-score us (such as Finland) where educational policy includes more support and professional education for teachers, less emphasis on tracking and standardized testing, more creative curricula, and emphasis on higher-level thinking. If it seems like I am rambling "eduspeak" as my friend and colleague Jeff Walters often times puts it, allow me to provide some statistical data to back my thoughts.

Question: Are U.S. students ready to compete?
President Barrack Obama wants teachers to be dealt the responsibility of creating our nations future security by producing students who will out innovate, out build, and outperform the rest of the world by restoring a badly deteriorated K-12 educational system and a national culture that emphasizes math and engineering through STEM initiatives.
Fact 1: According to U.S. Commerce department studies: If college graduation rates hold as steady as they have for the last two decades, by 2018 we will be 3 million college graduates short of the predicted 101 million jobs that will require a degree.
Fact 2: According to the Bureau of Labor Statisitics, of the 30 occupations that are projected to grow over the next decade, half will require a college degree.
Fact 3: According to the McKinsey Global Institute nearly 2 million jobs will require some post secondary training (many of these Associates degrees or technical training of 18 months or more).

So back to my question, The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is basically the nation's report card when it comes to standardized testing. In 2007, NAEP showed that just 31% of 8th grade students in both the public and private educational arena could read at or above grade level. In math, 32% could perform at or above grade level. Now many of my colleagues would argue that when we compare nations and look at global testing we are not seeing the same demographic. Many teachers will point out that we test every student while many other nations test only their brightest. I looked into this and found these statements are unfounded.
Some examples of data: 22 countries outperform the U.S. Of these, six countries plus Shanghai test all students, including minorities and students with disabilities. They are: Hong Kong 58%, Korea, 56%, Switzerland, Finland 46%, Japan 42%, and Canada 41%. The Netherlands, Austrailia, and Belgium all came in at 38%, but I was unable to determine the testing field. Shanghai led all with 75% oft heir student proficient in math and reading.
Additional data: Socioeconomic status did have some validity with the state of Massachusetts leading all states at 43% of 8th graders performing at or above grade level.Vermont was a close second at 42% and New Jersey 39%. OUR LOWEST??? THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA which scored lower than Turkey, Bulgaria, and Slovakia at 24%

Question: What have successful countries done in comparison to less successful ones? Here is what I have found.
1. They have focused less on tests and more on instructional practice including; team teaching, clusters of innovation and intervention, project-based learning models.
2. They value teacher with good pay and hold them in high regard as public figures and professionals
3. They have developed extensive online learning programs.
4. Parental investment is high.
5, Teacher preparation and development programs focus on the social , psychological, and developmental aspect of teaching and less on current policies
6. There is a high level of recruitment for educators and their talents
7. They offer students choice and autonomy in their course work.
8. The private and business sector is involved with students and schools.
9. They have common standards vs. individual state and district standards.
10. Digital learning and opportunities to learn from home.

How does ethnicity play into the American educational experience?

I believe that achieving a quality education is a civil rights issue for our generation. The research on both public and charter schools indicates that there is a substantial achievement gap within our educational system. Looking at exams such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), both regular public schools and charter schools has become racially segregated in terms of academic achievement. Poor minority Black and Hispanic students lag behind their white middle and upper class peers as much as 20-30 points. If we examine the research done in math proficiency, 42% of white students are proficient in math, while only 11% of African Americans and 15% of Hispanic students are proficient. In reading, 40% of white students are considered proficient, while only 13% of African American and 5% of Hispanic students are proficient. Students who are successful in school have a good chance of competing in a global marketplace, however, even our best and brightest are significantly lower in achievement when compared to students from other countries. Those students who fail are at greater risk of poverty, crime, and a lower life expectancy. If our minorities continue to be pushed aside into special education and mediocre to low achievement, then we are contributing to a cycle of racial inequalities that deny certain people a quality of life equal of others.

The principle of equality of opportunity should include access to training and higher education provided the individual proves their competency.

Unfortunately, schools do serve as one of the society’s first sorting mechanisms. Providing an appropriate education for every student is the purpose, however, students are often tracked from an early age into programs. While everyone has a right to an opportunity, there also has to be requirements and competencies that act to sort talents and abilities.

Rethinking Schools

I came across this video through a colleague and thought it was appropriate for this blog and its intended viewers. While it is probably slightly biased given the source, it is a MUST WATCH FOR ALL OF US IN EDUCATION STRUGGLING WITH MANDATED CURRICULUMS.

Success in the New Economy from Brian Y. Marsh on Vimeo.

Here is my reflection of the video I have posted above. Yes, it is lengthy, but I would enjoy some feedback:

Educators have a misguided and myopic view of curriculum and rigor in our high schools. If we ask the question, “How well does the High school curriculum prepare students for their adult life”, we will find that it does little beyond what colleges, policy makers, and panels of educators with their own specific interests want in terms of curriculum standards. We are stuck in tradition and a narrow minded “one shoe fits all” mentality, doing little to enable our students to better themselves both as individuals and in society as a whole. Herbert Spencer’s ideas are relevant today. It is not a matter of what standards to teach as much as it is whose interests are at stake. Our aim should be on preparing our students for healthy life, and how to live in our passions no matter what they might be. Instead, current curriculum frameworks narrowly define our education and current reform does little to change traditional content beyond just reorganizing and replicate the past.

Being older, I feel that my own education has a much broader perspective than the world in which I teach. I started teaching just before the emphasis on standards based curriculums and testing.  My rural education set in the 1970’s and 80’s exposed me to skills that are completely obsolete in high school curriculums today. However, I come to rely on these skills quite often, even more so than my formal classes that prepared me for college and later a career. The courses that have contributed and prepared me the most for my adult life include: Basic Oral Communication, Writing and Journalism, Home Economics, Industrial Arts, and Consumer Science/Economics. My ability to speak to others and communicate effectively account for my success through college, job interviews, interpersonal relationships, and teaching others. Written communication is evident in my responses to these questions and in all capacities of my work and social life, including: social networking, email, blogging, and responding the concerns of others. Home economics has given me the skills to prepare meals for myself and others, sew and mend clothing, use proper etiquette, clean and organize my household, as well as raise my children to be healthy individuals. Industrial arts has allowed me to properly care for my automobile, make household repairs, weld, forge, use equipment safely, and be innovative in projects of interest. Consumer science has given me the skills to balance a checkbook, make investment decisions, fill out and file a tax return, plan for college educations, and live comfortably on a meager salary. Oddly enough, I did not mention science, even though I hold a bachelor’s degree in Biology and teach the subject as a career.

In making changes to the standards and requirements for a high school education, I feel that all students, regardless of career and educational aspirations could benefit from a wider scope of subjects that would suit their talents and passions. Specifically though, the students who may not have a clear picture of their future or who may be just discovering their abilities would benefit by finding a high school education engaging, personalized, meaningful, and useful. With current standards narrowing our definition of education, we are stifling the talents of the majority of our graduates. Those students who aspire to seek higher education will continue to seek those courses of study, but could also benefit from a broader, more universal curriculum. There are many educated people who hold multiple college degrees that can’t change a set of wiper blades on their automobile. In the same regard, there are many more individuals who don’t understand how to manage their money, or provide healthy environments for their children. Advocating for a curriculum with more options, flexible, adaptable to individual interests, is a win for all students in my opinion.

While the U.S. once led the World in education, our education attainment and proficiency trail the industrial world. But do we define proficiency in terms of objective and criterion levels or do we define it as what students should know to live healthy and productive lives. Obviously there are competing philosophies as we look at both the work of Paul Peterson and Grant Wiggins. Regardless, offering choice and autonomy to our students will keep them engaged in school and perhaps open students to find strengths that might have previously been masked by boredom. No doubt, personalized learning models paired with instructional strategies that target the skills and individual student needs will help to remedy an educational system that is deteriorating and failing to produce globally competitive citizens. As it stands, our focus and emphasis on a diverse core of standards has not produced overwhelming results except in isolated pockets of success in some of the most affluent school districts. Our abandonment of minorities and below grade level learners has displaced and alienated a generation of learners in the process to raise standards and compete. We need to focus on standards that all students will need to be successful in the future rather than a broad range of standards decided by committee and party interest. Once these standards are defined, then we need to focus on quality instruction to ensure that all students meet these standards. In return, restructuring high school curriculums with more choice but with limited specific standards will provide graduates with ‘skills to build on” as they seek higher education, trade skills, and job specific training.

I will close this lengthy post with this thought. Broad success in life should not depend on the number of courses taken and the levels of courses taken. An education should prepare students to contribute to society, and hold certain capacities to be a successful, self-sufficient adult, regardless of occupation, level of educational attainment, or demographic. In many ways RTI should be a way to recognize student deficits and provide targeted instruction to meet diverse individual learning needs. In this aspect, RTI should also include developing those skills and including curriculum opportunities to develop the student’s maximum potential while respecting diverse learning needs. While not every child will master Algebra or levels of science instruction such as Chemistry, it is important to match basic levels of both of these subjects to the experiences of everyday life. Finding a narrower vision of standards that all students should master, and then building instruction and providing a flexible curriculum that will enable students to learn these standards and perhaps extend beyond them is part of the RTI tiers. Rather than think about standards in terms of individual subjects, we should think about standards in terms of basic skills such as reading, writing, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating. Rather than making students jump through hoops of NCLB with endless curriculum standards and mindless test, we should be developing our own hoops for our students and providing them with springboards to attain their own potentials. Widening our curriculum and narrowing our standards to “essential life skills” seems plausible and inclusive for all students. 

Assessment through Artifacts

This semester I am trying to get my students to create products of learning in addition to evaluating them with the typical standardized test. "Authentic assessment" is becoming a more common in education in response to the last 10-15 year focus on standardized curriculums. With the digital age and the advent of Web 2.0 tools, students have a variety of ways to express themselves creatively. My students are creating their own digital portfolios using blogs. My ambition is that they have a digital running record of artifacts throughout the year that they can reflect on and review in preparation for the EOC exam. The posts on here will highlight student examples.

Samples:
Sample of the Properties of Water:

Student sample

Blogging your way to the top!

Introduction:

For the past couple of months I have been implementing blogging in my science classroom. Part of this was out of my own interest in blogging and social media, and as a topic of research for implementing differentiated instruction in my current classroom setting. The goal of this post is to share my inquiry based research project. The dissemination of my research follows a month long implementation of blogging in the science classroom where students participating in creating authentic artifacts of learning and were assessed on these artifacts as an alternative to traditional summative assessments.

What is a Blog?

Defined, blogs are online journals where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Because of this, educators and students are embracing blogs as a means of publishing content, keeping a running record of content in a digital portfolio. When coupled with educational content, “Edublogs” serve as a venue for collaborating with others in a way that encourages reflection on the content, questioning, self-assessment, and higher order thinking. Students can share their blogs with both the teacher and other students to compare their knowledge and comprehension level of the material.

Why Should it be Included in Instructional Practice? 

Blogging is an excellent tool for the constructivist classroom as it follows a learner centered approach and provides reflection for the learner that can direct future progress. As an assessment tool, blogs can serve as a platform where students can test their understanding and mastery of a skill or content. Assessment can come from the traditional teacher to student form, or it can come in peer to peer evaluation. By offering each other alternative viewpoints, assistance in understanding, or conformation of ideas, students can gain a deeper, more meaningful connection with each other and the content. Both teacher and peer feedback can serve as formative assessment. Blogs can also serve the teacher with a means of self-assessing instructional methods and tailoring future instruction. Blogging can extend learning beyond the physical constraints of the classroom and the school day, allowing students the time to process the information, revisit, and revise their artifacts of learning.

Blogging can also create sustainable learning communities and can redesign the traditional approach to how coursework is delivered. Blogging can foster a learning environment with infinite collaboration and sustain learning beyond the school day and even after the course has ended. Using a common blog makes it possible for learners from different classes and even a different school to share resources, video, learning tools, articles, discussion, and lectures. According to Custin and Barakas (2010), using a Socratic approach in an online forum is less intimidating than when used in a face to face setting. Students are more comfortable and willing to answer in an online forum (blog) where thoughts can be meticulously developed without the constriction of time. The development of a complete answer or thought can be posted after a student has had sufficient time to reflect on the question, whereas the Socratic approach in a face to face setting often leads to reluctant, self-conscious, expression of thought. A kinder, gentler approach often employs the students as co-moderators in the Socratic Method.

Blogging supports the constructivist learning model. For example, blogging can be active, manipulative, intentional, and reflective. Blogging can stimulate prior knowledge, provide learning experiences with embedded links to resources, and include surveys and self- assessments. Blogging also can focus on authentic, relevant topics that are task-based or involve problem solving and will facilitate learning into new situations and allow students to elaborate on what they have learned. This real-world understanding may even lead students to create hypothetical questions and scenarios for other to reflect ad comment on.  When this occurs the learning becomes conversational, collaborative, and cooperative and ultimately a place where students want to communicate.

Blogging extends instructional time by providing students with a means for accessing information outside the school day.Teachers can benefit from the blogs by extending learning beyond the school day by providing links to instructional text and videos, embedding vodcast and podcast directly into a classroom blog, and introducing concepts through a Socratic approach. Additionally, teachers can use blogs to share professional knowledge and expertise, provide technical and professional support, and training to other teachers.

For more information, see the following articles:

http://goo.gl/ivRNc

http://goo.gl/c7Iz2A

http://goo.gl/oTmdB4

How is Blogging Differentiated Instruction? 

 Perhaps a good way to answer this question is to look at the characteristics of Differentiated Instruction. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, who is a renowned author of many books on the topic, there are several key building blocks that serve as a foundation for differentiated instruction. These are outlined and summarized here:

Knowing the Learner: Teachers need to know as much as possible about their students to teach them well, including learning styles and pace, multiple intelligences, personal qualities such as personality, temperament and motivation, personal interests, potential disabilities, health, family circumstances, and language preference. For my inquiry project and research Blogging provided a simple avenue for accomplishing this task. Students created an initial blog post earlier in the semester describing "WHO AM I". I provided students with a prompt for this assignment as well as an invitation to view my own teacher created post. See it here:

http://goo.gl/kYTxVZ

My own example: http://whoisshockey.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-introduction-to-me.html

Quality Teacher: The teacher believes all students can learn, has the desire and capacity to differentiate curriculum and instruction, understands diversity and thinks about students developmentally, is a risk taker, is open to change and well-versed in best practices, is comfortable challenging the status quo, knows what doesn’t work, is able to withstand staff dissension that may arise.

Quality Curriculum: Curriculum needs to be interesting to students and relevant to their lives, appropriately challenging and complex, thought provoking, focused on concepts and principles and not just facts; focused on quality, not quantity; stress depth of learning, not just coverage. Blogging provides the opportunity to enrich curriculum and make it more relevant. In my research and implementation, I spent a great deal of time thinking about and creating artifacts that my students would enjoy doing and be motivated to complete. The activities in the classroom also needed to be carefully designed to give students the appropriate background knowledge and scaffolding to complete blogging artifacts. Motivation drives the success of both classroom learning and blogging. Students who are motivated to write tend to spend more time and effort on the writing process. Spending more time on the writing process helps ensure that reflection and analytical thinking skills are at work. To achieve this through blogging, I attempted to generate inspiring writing prompts and assignments that are authentic and meaningful. You can see examples of these here:

http://goo.gl/wIRaqw

http://goo.gl/EcHUWP

http://goo.gl/FsGLHi

Classroom Learning Environment: The ideal learning environment includes a balanced student population, appropriate grade and program placement, priority seating based on student needs, has a reasonable class size, practices positive discipline, arranges furniture to promote group work, use flexible grouping, and has adequate teaching supplies. While my own classroom provides several unique challenges to this building block of differentiation, blogging is something that can be done anytime and anywhere. Students can blog from home, the library, and at local fast food restaurants. Emerging technologies such as cell phones, ipads, and Kindles have enabled students’ experiences at school and at home to converge. I am fortunate to have technology for each student in my class, however, even in the most technologically challenged environments, allowing students to use their own devices can make an inadequate learning environment an ideal environment.

A study done by the Herman Miller Company (2011) on adaptable spaces and their impact on learning identified four key constructs that affect student learning; Basic Human Need, Teaching, Learning, and Engagement.

Herman Miller Link: http://goo.gl/BC2fKJ

Flexible Teaching and Learning Time Resources: Includes team teaching, block scheduling, tutoring and remediation within school, before and after-school programs. Teachers who currently use differentiated approaches to build units and lessons around essential understandings often lack sufficient time to properly scaffold and tier instructional content and assignments. Some students may require additional time to master concepts, while others may need additional support that parents are unable to provide at home due to a lack of content knowledge or insufficient mastery of the language. A certain percentage of students may need to be challenged with extension activities to enrich their science experience. Blogging can provide a means for supporting all levels of learners and extend academic instruction and provide teachers with the necessary time they need to provide reinforcement strategies introduce new or additional topics, review important class concepts, review for tests, and enrichment. Blogs provide a means of extending the instructional impact of teachers in a way that is popular with the young audience already immersed in social networking.

Instructional Delivery and Best Practices: Includes flexible grouping, cooperative learning, learning stations and centers, web quests, tiered assignments, individual choice, and collaboration.  Students may be better visual, auditory, kinesthetic, social, logical, verbal, or solitary learners. Classroom blogging can be differentiated to meet the needs of all students. With a blog, the assignment possibilities are endless.Students can reflect through a journal (solitary), write about evidence of science in their life (logical), create a podcast and upload it to the blog (verbal and auditory), or post graphs or pictures of science in the real world (visual). Blogging can be be “cooperative, collaborative, and conversational, providing students with opportunities to interact with each other to clarify and share ideas, and reflect on understanding and learning by posting comments to each other's blog.

Assessment, Evaluation and Grading: Includes portfolios, observations, skills checklists, oral and written reports, demonstrations, performances, work samples, models, graphic organizers and posters, quizzes and tests, and standardized tests. Blogging can be used in learner self-assessment, teacher formative and summative assessment, and as a comprehensive assessment in the form of a digital portfolio. According to Lee and Allen, Blogs as an Online Assessment Tool, Blogs enable learning from self-reflection, from others, and provokes complex thinking skills and strategies. Students have the opportunity to put into writing their own thoughts and beliefs, review other postings and responses to a subject matter, and are then able to compare their level or knowledge or approach to their peers.

A rubric for assessing student blogs can be found here:

http://goo.gl/QSLGaq

Conclusion:

For my inquiry based research project I propose the question “How can I build a learning community and assess student achievement through the use of student created blogs?” Through the use of student created blogs, I created authentic learning activities that exposed and celebrated the talents of my students, built confidence in the student voice, encouraged mastery of content knowledge, and helped my students create and evaluate media content. My research supports the notion that creative authorship of student blogs can allow students to produce high quality exhibits of learning that go beyond just answers to questions on a standardized test. Self-published content by students provided autonomy in their own learning and provided options and choice for those students who struggle with traditional assessment. In addition, blogging allowed students to develop electronic portfolios for storing visual and written content and have their own voice in the content itself. Blogging helped build a sense of community among the learners in my class through peer to peer interaction, and shared task assignment. Students also practiced self-assessment, and had the opportunity to review each other’s post and responses to posts, compare their knowledge and comprehension of the subject matter, and share in the use of technology tools they employed to execute the assigned task.

As a teacher, blogging provides a means of extending the instruction beyond the school day. The number of student blogs that showed high achievement and commitment to the task of creating artifacts of learning demonstrates the potential of blogs to extend learning and is worth considering their regular use in future units of study.

The following links provide access to examples of student blogs with permission. Feel free to explore the archives of student blogs, including the "Who am I" post from September.

http://spoofed42d.blogspot.com/2014/11/down-syndrome-artifact.html