Recommended Children's Series and Text Sets

             In this feature in Language Arts, Aeriale Johnson recommends text sets and series that “nurture joyful readers” as well as building identity, skills, intellect, and critical thinking: 

• The Juana and Lucas Series by Juana Medina: Juana and Lucas, Juana and Lucas: Big Problemas, Juana and Lucas: Muchos Changes, age 5-8 
• The Front Desk Series by Kelly Yang: Front Desk, Three Keys, Room to Dream, ages 8-12 
• The Narwhal and Jelly series by Ben Clanton: Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea! Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt, Narwhal Peanut Butter and Jelly, Narwhal’s Otter Friend, Happy Narwhalidays, Narwhal’s School of Awesomeness, age 5-8 
• The New Kid series by Jerry Craft: New Kid, Class Act, age 8-12 
• The 10 Reasons to Love… series by Hanako Clulow: 10 Reasons to Love a Whale, 10 Reasons to Love a Bear, 10 Reasons to Love a Penguin, 10 Reasons to Love a Lion, 10 Reasons to Love a Turtle, 10 Reasons to Love an Elephant, age 5-8 
• The Superpower Field Guide series by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Nicholas John Frith: Beavers, Moles, Ostriches, Eels, age 8-12 
• Minh Lê text set: Drawn Together, Green Lantern: Legacy, Let Me Finish, Lift, The Perfect Seat 
• Stacy McAnulty text set: Mars, Earth, Ocean, Sun, Moon 
• Books in Verse text set (various authors): Becoming Ali, Words with Wings, Land of the Cranes

“‘Endless Fun’: How an Instructional Framework, Series, and Text Sets Nurture Joyful Readers” by Aeriale Johnson in Language Arts, January 2022 (Vol. 99, #3, pp. 213-217)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #923 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Increasing Access to Advanced High-School Courses

 (Originally titled “Opening the Door to Advanced Classes”) 

             In this Educational Leadership article, Nancy Watkins (California State University/ Fullerton) says that with the honors, AP, IB, and other advanced courses students often take to move on to higher education, not all doors are open. “Some are locked,” she says. “some are stuck. Some are reserved for certain people. Some doors are hidden, and some are guarded.” A disproportionate number of low-income students and students of color don’t take these courses, and schools need to examine incentives and barriers that limit opportunities. 

            Watkins describes the persistent efforts of a former colleague who persuaded her high school to offer new courses and open college-track offerings to English learners who had previously been assigned to lower tracks. Over several years, more and more students enrolled in these building block courses, and in 2018, 94 percent passed the AP Spanish Language exam; the following year 96 percent passed. In 2019-20, native Spanish speakers were able to directly enroll in heterogeneous advanced Spanish classes. 

            Drawing on this experience, Watkins has the following recommendations for opening doors for marginalized students: 

• Reduce barriers for innovation and transformation by evaluating the policies and attitudes that inhibit change. “Often decisions are made by site or district administrators about who gets what, when, and how,” says Watkins, “and these choices exclude the voices of people on the margins.” Schools might create forums to listen to stakeholders who have ideas on addressing inequities in course enrollment. 
• Provide resources and teacher training for advanced curriculum offerings. Often this involves creating new courses that bridge knowledge and skill gaps. 
• Support students with tutors and fee waivers in preparation for college exams. Information and encouragement are vital in both areas. 
• Evaluate student language proficiency classifications related to language fluency and tracked courses to avoid arbitrary course enrollment. The segregation of English learners in low-level courses may be the result of early assessments that don’t reflect students’ current language proficiency. 
• Intentionally develop the master schedule to reflect opportunities for all students. Schedules reflect priorities and values, says Watkins: “Beyond putting the puzzle pieces together, incorporate analysis and reflection on the equity gaps evident in the master schedule.” 
• Remove prerequisites for enrolling in honors and advanced courses. Barring students from enrolling based on previous coursework or grades prevents them from considering courses, in consultation with their counselors, teachers, and families, that will interest and challenge them.
• Help families understand the importance of advanced courses to college and career readiness. Information sessions need to be offered in multiple languages. 

 “Opening the Door to Advanced Courses” by Nancy Watkins in Educational Leadership, February 2022 (Vol. 79, #5, pp. 60-65); Watkins can be reached at nwatkins@fullerton.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #923 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Thoughtful Classroom Observation

        In this keynote address at the National SAM Conference last month, consultant/author Mike Rutherford proposed the following logic model: (a) skillful teaching is the most important variable in students’ school learning; (b) teaching becomes more skillful with feedback and practice; and (c) observation can be a key factor in feedback. Rutherford suggests eleven principles for getting the most out of classroom visits: 

• Practice intellectual humility. There’s a lot that observers don’t know and see when they walk into a classroom: what happened just beforehand, the mood of certain students, where in a curriculum unit they are, what’s in the back of the teacher’s mind, and much more. It’s a myth, says Rutherford, that supervisors can achieve “inter-rater reliability” by watching and scoring classroom videos. 
• Have a language about instruction. The more observers know about good teaching, the more conceptual hooks they have to help them notice, appreciate, and understand what’s going on. Rutherford tells the story of a high-school principal he worked with as an AP who was brilliant at spotting where trouble was about to break out in a basketball crowd. That came from years of “pattern recognition” in countless home games. 
• Develop positive expectancy. Rutherford advises giving yourself a pep talk before entering a classroom so you focus on what the teacher might do that’s effective. This is to counter any less-than-positive expectations you might have based on previous visits – or perhaps your mood at that moment. 
• Stay on your feet. When observers are seated, their field of vision is limited and there’s a tendency to write feverishly rather than watching and listening. Moving around a classroom, the observer can look over students’ shoulders, look at their work, ask them questions, read what’s on the walls, and get different perspectives on the teachers’ actions. 
• Don’t worry about interrupting. “You’ve already done that,” says Rutherford; no matter how unobtrusive, an adult walking into a classroom will be noticed by the teacher and students, affecting them in ways large and small. (The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle describes the effect of an instrument of measurement on what’s being measured.) The only question is whether the feedback given to the teacher will be valuable enough to “pay them back” for the interruption.
• Enter as a visitor, not an owner. A classroom is a teacher’s “home,” their sacred ground; it’s where they spend more waking hours than almost anywhere else. Above all, Rutherford advises, avoid hanging out near the teacher’s desk – that’s their personal zone. And for heaven’s sake, don’t sit in their chair! 
• Maintain focus and intensity. Every 20 seconds, says Rutherford, teachers check out what the visitor is doing. They want to see someone who is engrossed, attentive, upbeat. • Delay zeroing in on details. The first priority walking in is to get the big picture, take in the climate, the overall tone of the room. 
• Alternate between zooming in and zooming out. Spend five minutes observing the big picture, then focus intently on a particular student, a piece of student work, an anchor chart, what’s on the board, or some other detail for five minutes, then spend the rest of the time observing more generally. That should be the shape of a 15-minute visit. 
• Look ahead of and behind the action. For example, what are students doing just before the teacher arrives at their group? What do they do after the teacher has talked to them and moved on
• Practice shorter, more-frequent observations. These mini-observations don’t need to be evaluative; they’re geared to getting a sense of everyday practice and following up with focused coaching conversations. They are likely to have much more impact on teaching and learning than traditional evaluations, which, says Rutherford, have “a very low effect size.”  

“Developing Sharper Vision for Classroom Observations” by Mike Rutherford, a keynote address at the National SAM Innovation Project Conference, January 28, 2022; Rutherford can be reached at mike@rutherfordlg.com.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #922 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.