"I am my brothers' keeper."

Barack Obama said it last night, and he said it publicly. He said it forcefully, and he said it in front of an overpacked football stadium a mile high in the sky. He said it to all the main networks and not-so-main networks, and he said it to untold numbers across the world through satellites. The message was CHANGE. I got it, and I think that most anyone with a beating heart got the message. He definitely connected with me, and my guess is that for anyone who works in a service field, he certainly connected with them, too. I need to feel hopeful again for our country and our government. This nomination has made me feel hopeful in several ways. First and foremost, I never thought I would see the day that an African-American man would be nominated. I remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech back in the 60's. I am awed by the change that has taken place in a little over four decades. It makes me hopeful, and I believe that Americans are getting past discrimination and hate. It makes me hopeful that this man wants to lead with compassion and caring for our elderly and young. He said something to the effect that he believes government should be helping to alleviate problems and pain - not causing them. His entire speech was sincere, well-planned, and articulately delivered (in my opinion.)


Being a professional developer working in a lot of struggling schools (and many not so struggling) I get to meet and see people who believe and practice this principle of being their brothers' keeper. Almost all of these educators are spending their careers in schools in order to make a difference in the lives of our young people. However, what I have seen in the last 8 years is a beating down of educators. They have been made to feel like failures when what they are being asked to do is a Herculean task. We need to engage everyone if we are going to truly change the face of the American public educational system. Besides educators, we need to parents, community, and government to partner with us - not against us. When I see teachers who feel "on the edge" - teachers who are working well into the night because they have no technology in their classrooms - teachers who believe their school could be closed at any given moment even though they are doing everything in their power to help students achieve, I get angry. This happens more frequently than not. Good schools are being closed because the school didn't make AYP. Done deal! They must be punished! The mentality is "Let's close the school instead of assisting their efforts of improvement." What an overly simplistic view! It seems that the educational system has made the mistake that Heifitz and Linsky talk about in their book, Leadership On the Line. In fact, it is a great example of applying a technical solution (close or "reconstitute" a school) to an adaptive problem (an urban school where AYP has not been made.) Notice that I didn't say "failing school." Many schools that don't make AYP are not failing; in fact, many of them are doing great work.

This brings me back to where I started. There is a huge need for CHANGE in the public schools of America. I believe that "I am my brothers' keeper." I want my grandchildren to have the American dream if they work for it. I am supporting Barack Obama openly and publicly. Please carefully think about this upcoming election. There is so much at stake!

Chicken or the Egg?

Which comes first...organization or understanding?
I've had the opportunity to present content enhancement information to several new groups during the last few weeks. The last two days I was really fortunate in that the group was really small, so we were able to have a constant dialogue which allows us all to learn so much more. I've been thinking about a couple of opposing ideas. Think for a minute about organization... about making order out of something. When I go into my "junk" drawer where I deposit odds and ends for months (or even years), I would consider it completely disorganized. (As would most people, I would assume.) When I look for the key to the shed, or a charm that was lost from a bracelet, I might go to my junk drawer and start pawing through it, hoping to find it! I can apply the idea of organization in a different way as well. I have a ton of books. I LOVE BOOKS! I've read many of them, but there are just as many I have not read. I've given lots away and loaned many. For a long time, I had all my books in one place. At least, when I went to look for one, I knew that it "should" be with all the other books. In the last two years, I've taken the time to organize them somewhat. I have my fiction books in one place, and they are organized alphabetically by author's last name. I have my professional books in a bookcase in my office also organized by author's last name. I have my picture books in another bookcase organized by title, adolescent fiction in another place, etc. This has made finding an individual title when I want it SO much easier. Another dimension that has been affected is time; I can find my books in far less time now. I'm happier, too. Being able to locate a particular book, especially when I'm in a hurry, has reduced stress. Another benefit that I didn't expect was the ability to remember information related to the books. If I don't find the book I want, it triggers a memory that I loaned it or that I took it with me and may have left it somewhere. Do these effects of being organized (reduced time, ease in finding, less stress, memory triggers) translate to increased comprehension? I definitely think so.

However, if we look at it in reverse - comprehension preceding organization, I think there is some truth to this as well. I have to have some conceptual knowledge about my books before I can even organize them. I have to know if they are fiction or non-fiction. I have to know the broad category of where they "fit in". Think about a really common context - the grocery store... I wouldn't find potato chips in the produce aisle. So for initial understanding, I would say that very rudimentary organization must occur. We have to be able to conceptualize and categorize. However, once we get a few pieces of information, we must then organize it to be able to make broader generalizations. I'm thinking about data collection. We can have hundreds of separate bits of data - student demographics, pretest scores, post-test scores, raw scores, t-scores, and so on. It isn't until all of the data is organized in some way that we are able to make sense of it. Once we have several pieces or "bits of knowledge" we can begin to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and make decisions about needs for further understanding. Organized information allows us to ask the right questions and focus our attentions in deeper and broader understanding.

So - let's apply this to subject matter in classrooms - especially secondary classrooms. The implication I take away is that students must have some broad conceptual knowledge base first. From there, it is through organization of information and interpretation of information that new understandings take place. Isn't that what content enhancement does? Think about any of the routines. We separate out all of the critical information first, we help students organize it by sorting through it and teaching them how to arrange it in ways that will lead to higher level comprehension and understanding of ideas.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I on the right track? I've included a couple of pictures in this entry of an office that blew my mind. I was in a school, and this was the secretary's office. She said that she could find anything in a heartbeat. I wonder, though...how does this fit with my theory?

Reflecting on My Learning

I never really understood the power of reflection before. In some ways, I think of it as similar to meditation, but a little more specific. (Does that make sense?) How does one go about reflecting? When meditating, it is important to clear the mind. When reflecting, however, I need to begin with a question. I like to ponder ideas, let them ferment, and see what comes to the surface. I attended FUSION Professional Development today with about 40 teachers and administrators. Mike Hock, Ph.D., and Irma Brasseur, Ph.D., led the professional development. Several of those in attendance are teachers that I will be directly coaching this year in their classrooms when rolling out the FUSION reading class with students this year. I found a couple of ideas particularly interesting today...

• Changing view of reading...the old view of reading, termed the simple view of reading, is defined as mastery of word recognition (fluency, decoding, & sight words), comprehension of the author's message (background information, text structure, vocabulary, & syntax), and demonstration of cognitive and metacognitive processes. Ten years ago (maybe even five years ago) students at this level would do well academically. Students who were able to do this most likely achieving at average or above average levels. THIS IS NO LONGER SO! The new view of reading is much more complex. To be successful today, students must be able to do much more than what was previously needed. Students today must be able to first comprehend the information (by doing what was stated earlier), but also merge this information with prior knowledge to create new understandings. In Levy and Murnane's book, The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market (2004), this is exactly what they are talking about. The new job market is going to require that applicants have expert thinking and/or complex communication skills. (By the way, this is an excellent read for ALL education professionals.)

• I love how Mike Hock talked about the reciprocal relationship between the length of the opening activity (Do Now, Sponge Activity, or whatever you want to call it) and the intensity of instruction. Think about this...and you will know it is true. The longer a teacher gives students to complete an Opening Activity, the less intense the instruction generally is. Contrast this situation with a teacher who carefully times and moves forward with the instruction after the scheduled 5 minutes for the opening. The second teacher generally understands the nature of urgency and the power of time on task. I had never heard it articulated in that way - and it really stuck with me. One is definitely a function of the other. There is a relationship between these two ideas which I find very interesting to think about. I will bet that this relationship could be extrapolated out to other settings. I need to think about this some more, but I think it has to do with discipline.

Any thoughts on reflection? Have you been finding time to reflect more? I think in this world where we are constantly trying to solve problems, that we must discipline ourselves to do this. At least I know I need to. Is this really simplistic or does it make sense to you? I'd love to hear your comments!

Twitter - Have you heard of it?

My colleague, mentor, and friend, Jim Knight, has turned me on to a new, innovative communication tool (at least it is new to me.) I'm not quite sure what to call it - I guess the best words I can think of to describe it is an "interactive communication website." It has the capability of networking people so that we can exchange ideas and communicate with lots of people relatively quickly. Since so many people communicate with smart phones and small handheld devices, it is very convenient. Think of a bunch of birds twittering - short little communication bits that can serve to alert us to each other. I've signed up, but now I'm going to try it. I urge you to take a look at Jim Knight's blog to get a little more information. You can find his very informative posts at http://www.instructionalcoach.org/. Then sign up at the Twitter website; go to http://www.twitter.com/. Search for me using my twitter username - suewoodruff. Hope to to hear you twitter soon!

Counting Down to School Opening

It is August 12 already; the time has come when most teachers (and sometimes students) begin to get anxious to return to school. Days either become the "dog days of summer" or when we are really lucky, the days become crisp and cool - almost fall-like. That is what it has been the last few days here in Michigan. There is no need for air conditioning as we have our windows open to let in the cool, clean breeze. I'm sitting in my office, periodically looking outside at the scenery, trying to NOT procrastinate. We have a beautiful view of the lake that is relaxing just to look at. We often see deer, fox, and other small animals. We also have two Great Blue Herons that live on the perimeter of the lake as well as several pair of swans. There are always Canadian geese around, too. Did you know that geese honk all night long? I guess you could say I'm procrastinating now... It all depends on how you look at it. I have been wanting to start a blog, but never had the time. So today, as I was preparing for the next few weeks of intensive professional development, I decided to give it a whirl!


I've decided to document this year's journey with a blog. I will invite other SIM professional developers to tag along. I am involved in adolescent literacy projects around the country, and I am going to share my experiences. (At least some of them.) I would like to pose questions and get advice, and I would love to hear from other SIM professional developers and instructional coaches. It is sort of an experiment. We talk about about making our teaching public; let's make our professional development public, too! I also do a lot of instructional coaching, and I love the work of Jim Knight. You may want to check out his blog as well. You can find his blog linked to the Instructionalcoach.org website. Well, I better get back to work now. I have a full week beginning next week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week, I am attending FUSION Professional Development to support many teachers in my three schools involved in the Midwest CLC Research Project. If you are not familiar with FUSION, it is a newer adolescent strategic reading program developed by Mike Hock, Ph.D., and Irma Brasseur, Ph.D. at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. Each of the schools in this project will have at least one teacher providing an intensive intervention for students reading 2 - 5 years below grade level. On Thursday and Friday I am having an initial professional development session with a small, rural district in Michigan. In my next post, I will share a little about FUSION and my thoughts about how we will roll this out with teachers. What are you doing to get ready for the upcoming school year? Please check back in on me periodically. OK?