National Writing Project (yes we still can :)
I continue evolving due to what has shaped my past and that which continues to change in the world around me. What a thrill to be on the cutting edge of literacy instruction. About three weeks ago, I spent time considering my responsibility in the world of reading and writing at the NWP Annual Meeting (almost parallel to the NCTE conference as usual). Brilliant teacher leaders from all over the country getting together to change the world (or at least for now, the writing curriculum in schools). I’ve been going for the past four years, and both just keep getting better!
First, there was Digital Is, an NWP Technology Initiative event, which I have been part of since this summer. As I think back to the sessions I attended, the one which stood out to me most was called the Global Kids/Teen Second Life/Africa “I Dig Science” discussion. I was inspired by some fresh ideas afterward, especially ideas centered around finding more creative and academic uses for Skype in real world (local and global community), and then replicate others’ experiences in a virtual world. I also enjoyed all the conversations that ensued on “learning ecosystems.” There was this cool, low tech activity in which teachers were challenged to making an invitation. We had to think of stakeholder who were not part of the conversation but we believe should be. My partner and I made an invitation to Powerful People and sent it to AISD Central addressed to the superintendent. What a blast 
The time to reflect in Philly made me realize that this point in my life involves the most symbiotic relationships I’ve ever been in simultaneously. A theme of the learning ecosystem keeps resurfacing. For example, I was recently hired to work as a member of the Technology Liaisons Network Leadership Team. We spent a full day in a National Tech meeting planning the next Urban Sites conference (Portland, OR in April). As a result, I befriended Clifford Lee and not Facebook befriended, but actually got to share lesson ideas, talk policy, urban schooling, hot topics, etc. This teacher also is a UCLA doc student (doing research with Ernest Morrell, yes, seriously). I got spent time with JR Sheetz, Felicia George, Paul Oh (coordinator of the technology liaison program for the NWP). The topics we discussed around the dinner table were hot: Technology in the ELL classroom, cyberspace projects connecting youth voices. It’s as if this moment in time were all designed to revolve around the facilitation and cultivation of learning through reading and writing and helping fellow teachers do that too. Connecting with each other and maintain those connections is my new big question. How can I make my learning ecosystem more sustainable? Both in my classroom and within my little learning community?
Then, there was the actual annual meeting, which provided an amazing array of workshops and panel discussions. Billy Collins, who read many of his poems aloud, including my favorite, Forgetfulness, inspired me to write for fun again. He asked us to write, the prompt was simple: What do you need to write? I reflected on locking the door, turning off the phone, and other simple things. It was refreshing and necessary.
The really awesome news is that Richard Sterling, College Board, Department of Education coming to film interviews of me, my best friend who teaches next door Jenn Woollven, and our students January – integrating Technology into Writing Instruction using social networking will be the focus. I’m not sure of the details yet but am eager to find out. It’ll also be exciting for my students to get interviewed and then see themselves in a short film! When I asked Richard about the prospective audience of this piece he simply, “Well, the Department of Education to start with.” Wow.
Moral of the story? It’s an exciting time to be alive in this ever changing world of teaching and learning. I’m honored to be part of it and thrilled about the changes to come. If it weren’t for this ecosystem of resilient teachers, it would seem difficult and painful. Luckily, I get to be part of something bigger.
Critical literacy in action (another example)
Students writing meaningfully for real purpose and real audience!
Culturally relevant digital poetry (just one example)
This is a short digital story summarizes the questions Jenn and I had as we dove into writing poetry with our students using culturally relevant materials. What do you all think about our approach? If you’re intersted in the curriculum we used, it’s free and available online (here we go with the shameless plug!) http://socialactioncollective.blogspot.com
Contradictions, tensions, & inconsistencies in so-called bilingual instruction
My initial reaction after reading the Palmer and Lynch article was that the bilingual situation on the secondary level is even more complex. It would be interesting to emulate this type of study with 11th grade teachers. I was most struck by their findings on the salient themes: 1. TAKS affects teaching in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. 2. TAKS drives the language of instruction and complicates teachers’ complex process of helping students through the Spanish to English transition. 3. Students get moved into English testing ASAP because teachers regard English at a higher standard than Spanish. So my question is why do we keep allowing this test alone get to determine the way we teach our ELLs?
Issues around campus leadership also deserve attention, especially in regards to the question of how teachers made decisions about which language to instruct their ELLs in. Doesn’t this basically depend on the principal of each school and the instructional coaches? Is has been my experience, both in AISD and in HCISD that the management of LPACs and instruction/testing for ELLs varies depending on the administration and their philosophy on language acquisition. From Metz Elementary, to Martin Middle School, to Wallace Middle School, and now EMHS – so that’s four principals, each with completely different approaches to the bilingual education. Some believed in dual-language instruction, others in gradual transitioning (which led to an “audit”), and two who support the complete English emersion model. Each school I have taught in for the last ten years had a different “method” of handling their ELL dilemma. Could that be a good thing? I suppose not because, ultimately, TAKS was always the first and final factor. It’s no wonder one of the most problematic consequences of TAKSing our ELLs is that teachers end up teaching to the test!
Another horrible consequence is that curriculum then gets morphed into subjects that are tested and then the rest of their content is basically eliminated. Again, I argue that if this is the case in elementary school, then you should see the panic in high schools. For instance, I have students from The Republic of Congo who speak French/Swahili, students from Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador who speak different types of Spanish (many of whom skipped middle school), my students from Libya, who speak Arabic at home. What language am I supposed to teach in? Those students have to pass the exit level ELA test this upcoming April, so I have to teach in English. I try my best to celebrate their culture by honoring their language, but the assessment issue prevails.
Last Monday, AISD had a PD day and the Eastside Memorial Vertical Team gathered at our campus. All the elementary and middle school teachers of students who feed into our school were encouraged to choose from a variety of workshops. I went to the only secondary ELL “strategies” workshop offered. It was all around technology integration (started and ended with helpful websites). I got a lot out of free dictionary links, translators, audio books, but no advice on literacy practice –activities and materials are still left up to the teachers. I left confused. Why not take the opportunity to host discussions around this major issue? It takes me back to my underlying belief that the problems revolving around this socio-political-economic dilemma have many variables: PD does not reflect the attention to our growing ELL population because we can’t decide if want to equalize the playing field or continue to quietly and obediently marginalized cultures that threaten our American autonomy. How are TAKS-oppressed campuses expected to” succeed” without a clear vision? Why is there no coherent direction in our school district on how to educate our immigrants? Everyone knows rich immigrants send their kids to private schools. Why is that? The study mentioned how the” outcomes resulting from teacher’ decisions, both for instruction and testing, are vitally important to the life-chances of ELLs.” How true! Yet the way teachers are “trained” in this process rarely reflects that importance. Why? We know that in wealthier schools, teachers get more freedom to do what they believe is right for students, while teachers of low SES students have to follow instructional mandates more strictly. Why does this conundrum still linger at the heart of all that is unjust and unreasonable in our public education system?
Lessons on reading critically…
My friend Lori and I wrote Ch.17 of this book together! We titled it Critically Reading Advertisements; Examining Visual Images and Persuasive Language.
Without struggle, there is no progress; reflections on my own learning
The process of blogging has been an uphill battle.
It reminds me of what I experienced as I struggled with learning English. Through most of this semester, I felt like 9 year old Alina again, a stranger in a strange land. It’s like I got kicked back to 1988 at the Fifth Avenue School for International Studies, when I wanted so badly to tell the 3rd graders in my class what I had been through in Israel; I wanted to warn them, to them the truth about war, the truth about what American money was used for. I could tell them in Hebrew, or in Hungarian, or in Romanian, but nobody understood; and every school day brought a new communication breakdowns. In the same mistake-making way, I pushed through these blog posts.
Obviously, there were some positive aspects to this blogging. For instance, it renewed my desire for dialogue. Before the blog, I was making connections across ELA policy, practice, & research in a vacuum, but during the blogging process, I began to critically analyzing those tensions in the curriculum through conversations. It was an effective sounding board. Even though the professionalism and pragmatism of my colleagues restored my hope in reform, every time I asked a difficult question, I was met with an even more difficult question. It’s frustrating to not have come away with any answers, but it’s also rewarding in a realistic, sobering sort of way. However, unlike the teachers in Luna’s critical literacy teacher inquiry group (who found their voice in sharing each others’ lived experiences) I proceed still feeling like an imposter and an outsider. I get what other teachers are doing, but I don’t get how calm and collected they are. Regardless, the blogging process has inspired me. Even though my identity as a blogger is under construction, the issues and trends we studied and discussed are very much part of my daily reality.
How I think about C & I in ELA has been evolving steadily, but I have so much to learn. In terms of moving forward with my teaching, I’m on the front lines and in the trenches of high pressure ELA instruction; I live and breath multi-modal reading & writing, negotiate culturally relevant curriculum, plan critical literacy projects, battle high stakes assessments, etc. everyday. It’s not easy teaching high school ELA, especially when it’s almost 200 11th graders and over half of them have not passed the ELA TAKS since 7th grade. On an AU campus, my responsibilities require teaching state to local standards explicitly in preparation for that darn exit level TAKS test. At the same time, as a writing mentor and literacy coach to these kids, I must also revise and edit by their side to practice with them with skills they’ll need in college. And in this populations’ case, I have to catch them up because they’ve been neglected and unchallenged for so many years. Furthermore, as a teacher at a New Tech school, I also need to focus on the 21st Century learning outcomes such as Collaboration, Digital Literacy, Civic Responsibility, Community Service, etc., which is important stuff. The issue is about a third of my students have Limited English Proficiency status, another third of my learners average at about a 5th grade reading level, and the rest are AP students needing to practice writing on a college-ready analytic level; so there’s a lot of different directions I’m pulled. As I revisit my writing on the research and policy we’ve analyzed and conversations we’ve had, I am reminded that what I’m doing is right.
My voice often carried a resentful tone regarding ELA policy, especially in regards to assessments and NCLB. I still feel the federal government has no right to make the rules, but there’s a scary sense of seriousness and gravity that disturbs me in my writing. In retrospect, it’s interesting to see how politically charged and outraged my reactions usually were. Can I work on channeling that?
Ultimately, it was a privilege to hear other teachers’ perspectives as they face the tensions of teaching kids they care about how to love reading and writing. I want to find a more natural blogging voice. I want my posts to inspire and compel teachers to have fun. I need to make more time to reflect on my teaching each day. And, of course, before I stop to write, I need to remember to preach less and ask more.
Welcome to Ms. Adonyi’s class!
I teach 17-19 year olds (Juniors) at Eastside Memorial Green Tech HS (http://www.austinschools.org/campus/eastsidememorial/main/). Our high school is now part of the New Tech Network (http://www.newtechfoundation.org/), a Project Based Learning environment. The most amazing thing you’ll see when you come to our campus is all the students walking around with laptops (Dell 2100 Netbooks). Once you make your way into any classroom, you’ll be amazed by the multimodal multi-tasking going on. If you were an English III student, here are some of the non-negotiable daily expectations my classroom:
- say hello to me, shake my hand, tell me how you’re doing (special handshakes are encouraged)
- take a seat and login to PeBL ( The New Tech Network “Collaborative Learning Community” https://portal.nthls.com/) and click on English III
- click on the day’s hyperlinked calendar, get into the Daily Agenda, and get busy with the quiz or warm up I uploaded, usually, these are questions following a video (typed responses are stored in a class account so I can usually relpy within the hour with academic feedback)
- turn off the iPod, quit texting, and make eye contact with me while I present a mini lesson (i.e. today was Ethos, Pathos, Logos: tomorrow will be ”How to start a Weebly website”) and then get in Project groups and get back to researching and writing (this week’s project titles include Our American Timeline, Human Condition Essays, Shaping Our National Identity, and Jim Crow Raps)
- during the last 5 minutes of class (only 47 minutes with them a day!) we login to the class social network called Our Identity (http://ouridenity.ning.com) and read Ms. Adonyi’s blog post (i.e. “How does struggle lead to progress in Ch. 15 of Black Boy?” – there’s a image, a movie) – reply to my post and comment on five other students’ replies for homework.
The kids I teach are digital natives, so they are incredibly comfortable and skillful with most of this stuff. Many different versions of the multiple literacties and multimodal meaning making Jewitt explains in her lit review happen in my room every day. As I was reading the article, I kept saying to myself over and over, “Yes, we do that!” “And that too!” (which might come off sounding snooty but that’s just the way it is at our school). The big question I kept asking myself was “How can I get more effective with managing it all?” Many of the challenges with this type of meaning making on the teaching end is tons of time spent on project planning (and you have to be fast with the responses)! It’s like each kid is on their own project, following their own path, asking their own set of fascinating questions. I know that sounds insane, but that’s just the way it is. And now that my roster has evened out at 163 students, that’s a lot of email responding, movies to watch, songs to listen to, games to figure out the rules to, etc. What I’m starting to realize though, as I compare this type of teaching to the more traditional schools I’ve been in before, is that at the end of the day they are less resistant to reading and writing. And that’s a good thing!
Changing the world with their words
Christsna Sot is a 14 year old from Cambodia. Listen to his words!
RTI: More Fodder for Documentation Nation?
For me, the RTI article brought up questions regarding the challenges of teachers unable to implement a variety of reading interventions with fidelity (time is a huge factor in my opinion). Lack of class time/instructional opportuntities is an important variable in the whole process. And with a public education system that rewards schools for passing kids through grade levels, by middle/high school there’s just not enough time before the damn TAKS to get “on grade level” or “caught up.” There are simply not enough hours in the day, nor enough teachers to make that work the way it’s designed to. Documentation should have it’s limits.
illegitimate, irrational, and unconstitutional
Afflerback’s Road to Folly & Redemption article reminded me to ask, yet again, why a federal law would be put in place if it makes victims of it’s own citizens. Since 2000, I’ve been pondering this possibility of NCLB being unconstitutional and through the years I’ve found some fascinating articles and musings. I read a short blogpost by Michelle Malkin (2005) The Revolt Against NCLB which got me wondering if anyone else has read Kevin G. Welner’s Can Irrational Become Unconstitutional? 100% Presuppositions which examines NCLB in the context of our 14th Amendment Due Process Clause? If these conclusions are accurate, then why is our government getting away with such abuses of power?
