Sept+4-+Marzano+Ch+1&2

In Chapter 1 Wiggins seeks to explain what the literal definition of a teacher is. He recalls his teaching experiences and how he never really was hired upon his education or skills, simply on whether or not he knew the content in which was to be taught. What intrigued me was a saying on page 9; " __We tend to define teaching by measuring what the teacher is supposed to do, rather than what the teacher is supposed to accomplish__". I think this is a very powerful argument. We as teachers seek to accomplish many things with our students, but most of the time we just perform the tasks, we do not accomplish them. So we may perform the task poorly, but as long as we do it, that is all that "matters".... And I believe that is very false. I'd rather accomplish something very small and minuscule, than do something very large with little achievement. Wiggins also discusses the need for flexibility in teaching. I believe it is very important for teachers to be able to make their lessons flexible in order to fit the needs of the students. Every student learns differently, and we must keep an open mind and explore all possible options for student learning. Teachers who are "stuck in their ways", may have accomplished great things at one time, but may also be declining in achievement today because of how our society has advanced. On page 18, Wiggins discusses the importance of relating everything we are teaching to something that has happened, or may happen in a child's life. I couldn't agree more. If we do not tell the students how they will use these skills once their time in school is over, they will not feel the need to learn the material. Relating content to reality is a crucial part of student understanding. Chapter 2 by Good goes into the actual progress of teacher effectiveness during the past 40 years. On page 39 Good mentions that we have to be conscious of our actions because they may convey messages we may not actually say. By conveying the message that "we are in this together" to the students, they feel comfort within the micro-community of the school and are more likely to formulate a conducive learning environment. On page 43, during his description of effective teaching methods, I was very intrigued about the paragraph about student habits. We cannot change a child's habit with one class, changing habits takes time and is extremely hard, but we have an impact on the habits that the student will develop throughout their schooling, and we must make those habits productive and effective. Overall, I found the chapters very helpful. I think many of our masters classes have touched on both topics, but these chapters put them into a larger context and within a bigger picture. __I now have a better understanding of what my job as an educator is__. After this reading, I feel like all of our classes thus far have all pooled together into a larger picture of how important our role is as teachers, in forming and guiding these students through their most important years. **Caitlin Unterman**

In chapter 1 Wiggins discusses what the job definition of a teach actually is. During his time teaching he never encountered an actual description on how he was supposed to be in the classroom. He stated on page 8, "What do I mean by a "real job description?" I mean a description written around key learning goals and related responsibilities, not merely a description of the subjects I would be expected to teach." Throughout the chapter he also discusses the excuses teachers have for not teaching other content not related to the standardized test. As well as some components of a teacher. In chapter 2 by Good he discusses research that has been done on teachers and education. Throughout the chapter he talks about effective teaching and student achievement. My opinions on the reading are that they were both interesting. The first chapter talked about some things that I knew teachers did such as, teaching to the test and using the textbook as a guide for teaching. The cross-national research section in the second chapter was also interesting because I did not know how Asian countries taught their students. The idea of Asian teachers __pushing their students and letting them struggle__ is an interesting concept that could be possibly very effective in the classrooms here in the US. Connections within the reading I found that the concept of teachers getting together from different grades/schools and making a rubric or outline of how the classes should go is a reoccurring idea in the education world today. It almost seems similar to the idea of co-teaching. Collaboration among other educators could be a very effective way to make sure those students are getting the most out of their education. The section in chapter 2 on effective teaching seems to also be a reoccurring theme in many of these classes at Randolph College. Not only becoming a good teacher but an effective one as well and what makes an effective teacher. **Ashley Knowles**

As Caitlin and Ashley have pretty much summarized Chapters One and Two, I am hoping I can shed some new light to the reading. After having used a book by Wiggins in a previous class, I began the chapter prepared for his stylings and information that involves various models of differentiation. Chapter One covered a topic completely different from what I expected. I like how Wiggins considers what the actual job of the teacher is and compliments the question with the four domains in which twenty-two components of being a teacher reside. In addition, I really appreciate Wiggins attention to teacher accountability. What i liked most about the chapter was the section entitled, "__Making students feel more competent and confident__". We have all had the teacher who has embarrassed us in class because of not paying attention or possessing the wrong answer to the question being asked. Provided the teacher illicits sarcasm and makes the student feel less confident, the student may be less inclined to try or answer or participate. For those of us reading this, did you ever try to answer the questions again if the teacher chipped at your confidence? Be Honest. On the flip side, the section of the chapter that was least enjoyable was the section entitled, "Real Versus Apparent Learning Goals". Similarly to writing lesson plans in previous classes, the Know Understand Do of the lesson tripped many of us up. I began to feel that same confusion in this section and had to re-read it an extra time and pencil outline over some of my highlighting. However, the section did remind us of involving purpose in the teaching to achieve the goals. This I find may come in very handy when asked, "Why do I have to learn this?". What I took away from Chapter One was one particular passage by Wiggins, "If more teachers taught for understanding, student scores would rise (p23)". Wiggins seems to suggest that teaching has less to do with content and more to do with harnessing the student's ability to understand, while working fluidly across the school staff dynamic. Chapter Two examines Good's forty years of research within the education field. Before continuing, I could not agree with Ashley more on this theory of effective teaching being a recurring theme at Randolph College. By page 37, Good explains after his initial summarizing of his research experiences, he implemented several theories and tests within the mathematics realm of teaching. These implementations were based largely upon what effective teachers did. Good outlines his theories and strategies on pages 41-43 which are based upon the research of Jere Brophy. These strategies appear applicable to all disciplines and seem to aide in planning. Having praised that, I a found some of the research troubling. I am curious as to why studies of American mathematics students are compared with Asian students from Japan and China? I understand the necessity to cross examine, but why only Asians? Many nations outperform American mathematics students. It appears stereotypical to only include the Asian student sample for this article. Good may want to expand on the other nations of the globe that routinely outperform the US. Aside from my human rights soapbox, the chapter covered a topic that I found very helpful, "Changing Normative Practice". I was under the impression that teaching was being a rockstar in your discipline and content and then talking about it with students. I am bending on this theory, yet I have not been broken of it completely. This section addresses how teachers are not always good with change. Good's empathy on this situation comes from his advice that reform can come more easily over time and small steps, in which I completely agree with. Lastly, by the end of the chapter, Good explains how teachers are people too and that attributes to the lack of understanding into why teachers have not changed much over the last forty years. Home lives, policies, and other factors can strongly attribute as to why many assert without evidence. And, by page 54, Good discusses how governmental policies and initiatives rarely take the teacher into consideration and place demands on teachers, and students, that fail to accomplish national goals or return the investment of tax dollars. James Cheatham

In Chapter One, Wiggins discusses the question of a teacher's real purpose and the state of the profession without a purpose, where teachers are appointed to fill a role during their school days without guaranteeing a clear eye will be applied to their goals and progress, if they even have stated goals. He contrasts them with business professionals, who know how they will be measured and where to set their targets through job descriptions and with coaches, who evaluate their students in order to create appropriate goals. In various forms he talks about the need for ownership on the part of the teacher, not just to run through the text book and go over the testing material. By looking at the textbook as an aide to the teacher to be used as needed, instead of the teacher being an aide to the table of contents, and to empower students to think instead of just regurgitating facts, Wiggins argues that students will come to an understanding of the material and improve their testing scores, which are often weakest in the analytical and critical thinking sections. __The contrasting examples of a business professional and a coach seem most useful when taken together—coaches have to tailor their lessons and goals to their individual players, but business professionals have markers provided from higher-ups as to how they can demonstrate their success.__

Teachers have to tailor their own goals as well as meeting preexisting testing standards, but they also need to develop their own methods of evaluating and demonstrating their success. I found it very powerful that Wiggins sets out a kind of call to arms not to instruct but to “cause understanding”in students. In American Sign Language, the sign for “learn” mimes pulling information from a book, but the sign for “teach” discards books and literally mimes taking something from the one mind and putting it in another. It was an image that stayed with me while reading this, and I haven't thought of signing in years, because it seems to convey in visual terms the drive and power Wiggins wants us to take hold of as teachers. I completely agree with James that a negative reaction from the person responsible for causing a student to change their thinking has the potential to be devastating, and highlights again why there is a need for a real job description that motivates Wiggins to write. I do wonder if Wiggins ignores a lot of real obstacles to this approach. He gives an example of one administrator's hands-off approach. I can imagine teachers facing the opposite—administrative pressure to conform to a textbook-based, drilling system, and I don't know that having conscious awareness would make that situation less stressful. He also encourages using the textbook as an aid, I wonder if that is something that's easily achieved in a lower-income, high-need school where other resources may not be so easy to introduce.

In Chapter Two Good reviews the history of education research and its gain. Most heartening, coming after the Wiggins chapter, he discusses how research did prove that the actions of teachers have an impact on their students. In the Missouri Math project it was demonstrated that effective methods could be learned and that conceptual understanding matters. When he discussed Asian schools, he called back to this, stressing how there is much less review time in schools. This bit resonated with me on a deep level—I passed my combined geo-trig class in high school. The class, however, had focused on just drilling, and I have no intellectual confidence about my trig work as I'd always had with my geometry. With trig, I knew if I did certain things, I'd have the right answer, but it meant nothing to me. I was terrified of moving forward, and never really did again with math. I knew enough to get by, but I also shut down my mathematics education as a result. Good discusses the Kountin framework for proactively keeping students attentive, which seems adaptable, but I think (especially with higher-level advanced classes) it might be mind-numbing for students if used constantly. He also summaries Brophy's General Principles for Effective Teaching, which seem less formulaic and more breathable for students. I was really challenged by the complicated relationship between researchers and teachers. In this program we're all going to be doing research, and Good discusses how tricky education research can be, because there is not guaranteed way to isolate a variable, and the history of reform has generated a mistrust of hasty action (He mentions New Math.) and a protective instinct in teachers who don't want to change everything to find out it's not been worth it or worse, to get the blame for the failure. This section will definitely influence how I talk and think about my research and my expectations for implementing it in my intern teaching.--Noren Bonner

Wiggins addresses the issue of teachers failing to teach to cause results. This ultimately began upon hiring, where administrators are not providing clear definitions of the expected outcome of the profession. Rather, they are just filling slots and only requiring that the new teacher cover a certain subject. Wiggins argues that the role of teachers must be defined by what they must accomplish, not do. He suggests that to accomplish this, teachers must plan lessons according to goals, not topics they must cover. They must be held to standards and missions as a primary job responsibility to cause successful learning. Wiggins insists on causing greater interest citing the issue of boredom in the classroom. Student engagement is necessary in reaching projected outcomes for the year, but teachers are only concerned with covering the material and staying within their comfort zone. Building confidence in students is also essential. Teachers must provide good feedback and encouragement to create an effective learning environment where the students can understand through meaning and transfer instead of regurgitating facts and gaining a few skills. Wiggins is a proponent of __backward design__ stating "curriculum writing is fundamentally flawed." Wiggins also mentions the flawed use of textbooks and assessments. Many teachers teach directly from textbooks, which are written poorly and do not address the necessary goals for understanding that teachers and school districts should set for themselves. He mentions that assessments are often written too easily where students must memorize facts; many do not offer questions requiring a student to practice transferring the meaning of concepts. Wiggins calls for teachers to evaluate what they should be doing outside of class for the students to reach certain learning goals. He believes __collaborating with colleagues__ of all grades regularly and maintain a consistency of goals. Chapter one is addressing a topic that unfortunately all teachers realize, but many do not care enough about to make any significant changes in their teaching styles. Wiggins puts the problems plainly that teachers all of America are essentially flawed in their teaching styles and their is overwhelming evidence to support his claim. He wrote clearly and concisely on the topic with effective examples for me to understand the issue further. I agree with his three main steps to improving teaching techniques to transferring meaning over learning facts and skills. I also agree that textbooks are lacking and over used and assessments are not challenging enough. I was hired without a clear description of goals for my students that I should reach. During teacher week this was addressed more clearly and I am now apart of a professional learning group with all of the teachers in the county who are teaching biology. We are to make a goal for the year as well as an individual goal. I am also provided a curriculum framework to follow that provides wonderful descriptions of understandings I am required to provide my students. It is up to me to teach my students in a way that they understand and transfer the knowledge, but it was stated that this is a requirement for the teachers of Campbell County. I feel Campbell County Schools are finally becoming serious about changing the way their teachers teach. Good's chapter discusses the forty years of research in education that he completed. He first addresses the topic of the effect teachers have of student learning. Students are not only effected by the parents and socioeconomic status, but by their teachers. He provides students achieve more when a greater amount of the learning is focused understanding the meaning of concepts than the time spent practicing. The teachers who focused on this style of learning had the most impact on their students because they actively involved their students. Good teacher and student relationship are built upon good classroom management involving alerting, accountability, clear transitions, and variety according to Good, but self-respsonsiblity must also be taught. God argues that not all time in school should be allocated as instructional time; down time is necessary. Effective teachers re-teach when necessary, promote intellectual risks in a caring environment with clear goals, create a curriculum with a coherent plan to reach goals, teach curriculum in sufficient depth for meaningful learning, scaffold instruction, provide practice and goal-oritented assessments, and encourage the expression of opinions and discussion. Good presses for student engagement citing that Asian students consistently score higher in subjects because their teachers spend a significant more time engaging students in instruction and allowing their students to solve their own problems when they are struggling. I agree with this from my own experience as a student. I always felt I truly understood a concept and was able to apply it when I was actively participating in class instead of listening to a leacture. I also performed better on tests if my teachers made me discover the solution to a problem on my own. Good mentions the need to reform teaching, but admits to complications. Teachers have a group of students with varying educational backgrounds and expected reforms in teaching are often difficult to complete immediately, so the hesitation of teachers is warranted. Teachers are also expected to follow state standards of learning based on politics and not proper measurements of learning, so they feel an ever mounting pressure to perform. Good requires that teachers be provided the information and means to reform efficiently. Goods chapter is informative, but difficult to follow compared to Wiggins. I enjoyed that he approaches a concern in American education through his research and he provides effective ideas for reform with ample amounts of evidence. I agree with his standards of an effective teacher because I have encountered teachers who fit this criteria and are by far the most effective I have seen. The comparison of our country's students to Asian students was very effective in making me understand the severe need for reform, while realizing there are difficulties and I should not just assume that all teachers can easily jump on the band wagon. --Helen Phillips

In Grant Wiggins’ chapter, he highlights aspects of teachers’ responsibilities; to foster successful learning, to cause greater interest, and to make students feel more confident and competent. He also states that most teachers are hired without these goals clarified so teachers lack a basic understanding of expectations; therefore their lesson and assessment planning is not geared towards meeting these goals. While he implies that this is the fault of school administrations, I feel it is also the responsibility of teachers to plan engaging lessons and to help students successfully learn regardless of contract wording. In RC’s teaching program, we are guided in the preparation of engaging lessons, exposed to numerous differentiation and assessment strategies, and focus on teaching transferable ideas. I don’t believe RC is the only teaching program doing this, so why aren’t there more teachers doing this? I believe it has to do with teachers’ personal beliefs about education and their motivation to teach. A motivated teacher wants to motivate her students and a teacher with big ideas will want her students to have big ideas. Of course, I do agree that schools should clarify what they expect of their teachers, but teachers should have already developed their own personal expectations and professional goals. Regarding “teaching to the test” and collaboration, I agree there needs to be less of the former and more of the latter to achieve any educational goals, and here __administrations could also do more by creating a professional environment that encourages teachers to work together in planning, assessment, and goal setting__.

Good’s chapter on forty years worth of research in teaching focuses on the impact teachers have on student achievement and general principles of effective teaching. They seem like common sense so it is a wonder why many teachers are not effective. Clearly, as the wealth of research has shown, student learning is impacted by the teacher. I can remember in my high school geometry class, the teacher spoke monotonously and her instruction was very dry. She never attempted to clarify concepts or have us apply our knowledge to anything new. In classes such as this, the purpose of my learning was never discussed and her expectations were never clarified. I nearly failed the class because I ended up not caring. It was not until college, when I was required to take a math course, that I could see how this type of knowledge was beneficial to my life. My professor included formulas which could be used to determine how much money we would end up spending over the lifetime of a loan, how much interest a savings account would generate, etc. But as Good goes on to say, teachers are reluctant to change their practices for different reasons: many reformers insist on telling teachers what to do based on assertions rather than evidence; reformers try to push through change on a large scale rather than through a process of small changes; reformers lack teacher support. But still, there remains the question of why teachers prefer teacher-centered instruction while teacher educators promote student-centered instruction. Perhaps there must be a balance between the two and perhaps as Good says, reforms will most likely be implemented when it “modifies current practice rather than replacing it.” When I begin teaching, I don’t believe it would be easy to discard my instructional methods and strategies in a short span of time if I recognize them as effective. I plan to continue research in teaching my subject area and feel that my thoughts should be taken into consideration when making decisions concerning my professional practices.

I want to add something about the research comparing American students and Asian students in math performance as I just read something that James wrote. My trouble with the research differes a bit, though. There is a distinct cultural difference concerning educational beliefs in many Asian countries and America. In China for instance, teachers are authorities and students are passive learners. Chinese students are accustomed to absorbing teacher knowledge and not actively participating/speaking in class while much of their time outside the classroom is spent studying. The pressure in China to pass the college entrance exam is enormous and high school curriculums are dedicated to preparing students for this exam, which determines if they get into college, which college, and which major they will study. Families are very focused on high performance and many hire private tutors. Sorry--I had to add my two cents about China :) Joanna Bourque

Wiggins' chapter about defining just what a teacher's job is supposed to be got me thinking and, for better or worse, I found myself automatically disagreeing with a few of the things he spoke about. I quite agree with Wiggins that a teacher should give themselves a goal to actually accomplish something with their students that year and not simply go through the motions of "teaching" what's needed to be taught. However, Wiggins continually references the need for there to be a larger goal, something for the teachers to latch onto and create a solid plan for what to teach throughout the year. He says that "teachers...admit readily that they do not refer to state standards when framing courses" (pg. 11). I am inexperienced in matters of actual classroom teaching, but from what I think and assume from being in public schools, following a state formed rubric is one of the only standard things about public school teaching. If teachers don't follow the state formed outlines, then what are they even teaching throughout the year?

I do agree with Wiggins in the fact that he wants teachers to be invested in students themselves - teachers should be invested in student's futures, preparing them and engaging them in subject matter that they can relate to their own lives. Just like we discussed in class, when students feel like what they're learning is important to them and they have some reason to try, they will do much better in the classroom. I believe Wiggins' point in this chapter is that these are the things that will help students learn better in the classroom, but most teachers are uncertain of how to achieve this, even if they want to. He speaks more about how unclear teacher's real goals are and how it is difficult for teacher's to know precisely what they need to accomplish in the classroom. I quite agree that having a clear goal of what needs to be accomplished would help to prepare even the best teachers and maybe if teachers themselves were a part of the planning, it would help to standardize and enhance teaching practices. I would like to start out talking about Good's chapter by wondering if his theories would transfer well to all aspects of teaching, instead of just teaching Math, which he seems to be hyper-focused on the entire chapter. Anyway, I thought his views about research were good, but kind of vague for a book about actually teaching. He seemed to go on quite a bit about research and how we could make things better, how we know teaching is important, but not really any theories on actually //how// to do it. He even says that "our ability to explain why and how teachers impact student achievement differentially has not improved" (pg. 35). He goes on about lots of different classroom research, explaining how different teaching strategies work well for different classrooms, even explaining how the same strategies provide vastly different results with different teachers. __The thing that gets me, though, is when Good explains that he has no idea what the "correct" method of teaching is or even if there is a "correct" method, which I am inclined to agree with, but is a little disheartening to think about when I'm trying to become the best teacher I can__ be. One thing Good is inclined to believe is good across the board is the need for students to understand the reasons behind //why// a particular piece of information is true and not merely the continual practice of it (this is where my "only math?" problem comes to mind). I quite agree that learning the reasoning behind why something is fact will stick with children longer than just blind acceptance, but I would think that this would have to be taken differently in each differing subject field: learning the history behind a certain art technique doesn't make one child's work "right" and one's "wrong", but learning the reasoning behind why baking soda and vinegar react might help a student understand chemical reactions better. Some subjects allow for more fluid reasoning then others, creating some problems in teaching students the //why//.~Erin Caracappa

__9/4 Reading (Marzano chapters 1-2)__:

In chapter one Marzano makes an interesting observation about the contracts most teachers enter when accepting a job—they don’t have real job descriptions; only merely fill a needed slot. Ironically, this is how most students feel about their education—it’s a boring necessity. Just as students need clear and defined goals to work toward, so do teachers; just as students need an encouraging and intelligent community to learn in, so do teachers; just as students need to be held accountable for their own growth, so do teachers. I like what Marzano has to say about accountability, competency, and community. The expectations of a professional teacher ought to be as clear as the expectations of the students in his/her classroom. Without direction, who can move forward? However, is it wise to judge a teacher by the accomplishments of his or her students? If so, why and what will the rubric look like? I think accountability is important because it provides purpose for expectations, but if a teacher is only as valued as his/her students are successful, what does this mean for the teaching profession? I guess teachers can now say “We will swim or sink together.” “If you fail, I fail.” This is an attitude all of my most respected and effective teachers possessed.

The nine “General Principles of Effective Teaching” in chapter 2 grabbed my attention. It seemed to me to be a common sense check list backed by years of research (which is great). If they don’t get it, show it to them again in a new way; make it safe to explore intellectually; chose your curriculum and its delivery wisely; make goals clear; all the pieces should add up to the big picture; real discussion is essential; deep understanding is achieved together and in small steps; use what you learn frequently; assessments should be constructive feedback; and know your students and give them purpose. This is not a small check list or an easy one, but it is simple common sense. How teachers enhance student achievement is certainly tied up in those nine steps. The extent to which teachers enhance student achievement, in my opinion, has a lot to do with both the teacher and the student. There has to be willingness on both sides, the teacher must possess expertise and creativity, and the student must possess some level of gumption. I was relieved to see that Marzano wrote, “Reformers must realize that the quality of teaching is more important than its format” (51). The question is can our leaders keep from confusing the two? Unfortunately, I have seen schools (namely, the ones my mother works for) choose format over quality in the name of higher quality because new formatting is far more objective and clean than identifying scientifically, //quality//. There will always be room for growth, the important thing is to make sure that, as a learning community, everyone keeps growing. --Holly L. Tucker