Set A: If you were trusted to design an accountability framework for your district, what would it look like? How could you ensure outsiders that your accountability approach is authentic?
Set B: Could your school organize its own “Billy Madison Project”? Would you be willing to work with others in this study to invite representatives of your community to spend a day in the shoes of a student — either by shadowing a student or participating in a special day you organize? How would you go about facilitating this?
I think a Billy Madison project would be eye-opening, but we already know that we need changes. The only reason to do the project would be to convince community stakeholders to take part in our own Royse City Big program. But it would be effective! I would be willing to work with other stakeholders to effect change in RCISD, but it’s a big program/project, and it would take a committee to organize; however, before it’s organized, there would be many important questions we’d need answers to. WHY are we doing this? WHAT do we want to achieve? HOW will this help students? I know our community stakeholders would be interested in a program of this nature.
We could absolutely organize our own Billy Madison Project. Our district does Revolutionizing Learning, and if we can coordinate that, we can coordinate anything. Could I personally organize it? If that was my sole focus, absolutely. If I were teaching classes as I was organizing, probably not in a timely manner.
I could however, think of a way to organize a mini-BMP for my subject area. I know with busy schedules and other diversions, many adults don’t find time to read. I would love to invite parents to spend one class period a week with their child in which we read and discuss a literary work. It could be a classic or a current novel. The parent/student groups could choose their own novel or I could assign a novel. The discussions would basically be conducted as if we were meeting for a book club. My goal would be to see the groups begin to bring their own discussion agendas. I would also like to find out what benefits the parents gained by reading and analyzing literary work. At the end of the book study, I would like to get feedback from the groups about what worked, what didn’t, and how the experience could be more beneficial. (We could do this during the evenings for parents that work during the day.)
I thought of this project a while ago. It’s been in the back of my mind in response to the questions about the worth of reading. I know it’s a worthy experience for learning, developing critical thinking, analysis skills, developing empathy, and creating pathways for thinking more deeply. I don’t always know how to answer the question with real-world scenario examples. I thought that if I could reach out to random professionals – postal workers, firemen, police officers, the mayor, business owners, fast food workers, A/C repair people, retail employees, construction workers, office workers, etc. and ask them how they are called upon to think critically each day, difficult situations they navigate, and how they can connect those skills to skills gained through critically analyzing text or reading and thinking and writing, I might be able to reach some students through the recounting of those personal experiences. I would invite the speakers to come to class or possible video chat with us to relay their experiences.
If we took non-fiction TEKS from the English lit class and placed them in science and social studies/history/government classes and turned English lit into more of an art study course – the art of interpretation of text and creation of text – I could see inviting authors and discussing using words as a way to elicit responses in the reader and to create art as a writer. I’m sure this could be mixed with the idea of inviting those from the local work force into the classroom, but this idea would focus on helping students love literature while the previous project idea focuses on how is reading and analyzing text useful. I think if students love reading and exploring literature and writing, they know the usefulness of reading goes beyond the everyday, utilitarian value that it has.
So often we focus on the “can’t” instead of the “can.” You CAN do a mini version!! I cannot wait to hear how this goes!
I’m answering set A. If I were trusted to design the framework for accountability, I’d remove the A-F grades and would replace it with student portfolio work. In these portfolios. students would focus on their areas of interest but also show their growth in learning over time. I like the system in France where students focus on their focus (languages, math, art) starting in middle school and then are given open ended questions their junior and senior years by a panel of teachers in that subject to show their mastery of the topic. However, to ensure my system of accountability is authentic to outsiders, I would invite members of the community who are experts in that area to review the portfolios and participate in the end of year open ended questioning. I feel students will stretch to meet the actual skills needed by real life applications than just nebulous concepts in a textbook that may or may not be needed in the future.
I do think that portfolios are an authentic way to demonstrate learning. It would put the multibillion-dollar testing industry and the lobbyists out of business, but that is just money that could go back into education, as far as I am concerned. I doubt we will ever fully get there, but only because we operate in a hierarchical system that prizes efficiency over effectiveness (Thanks for that insight, Google dude). But I am a firm believer in the idea that we have to just be the change.