Hi Malkin,

It`s proof,how will they worm their way out of using it and backing away from the army of “Balanced Literacy” coaches they`ve created.

Since Reading First was thrust in the garbage,developed from theories extracted from the NICHD research study as well as the National Reading Panel research findings,this might go the same way.

They always have an excuse for not improving instruction and teaching explicitly.
It would be GREAT if we saw a change but I am skeptical.

Let`s keep our fingers crossed.

Hi all,

  My school is in the far north of B.C and it serves k-12 students.  The student body is almost unanimously ‘at risk’.  Attendance in the H.School averages over the course of the year at 50% (no joke) and when the students are there, they are sullen, sleepy, or always attempting to wander out into the halls.  As I posted before, many cannot read, and there is evidence of W.Lang. damage in what reading they do have (can’t spell words, not aware of phonemes, guess at words based on onset letter or the shape of the word etc.).
There is constant talk of ‘literacy strategies’ at staff meetings and the Director of Instruction is a bona fide progressivist preaching the wonder of word walls, 21st Century Learning, and differentiation. He has even has planned out our next year Professional (indoctrination) Development already around a ‘reading guru” (his words) named Faye Brownlie (another whole-language phony).

  Well here’s the rub, my wife and I both taught english and math last year, and we have pushed very hard through the year to change the structure next year. 

    Since the entire high school is only around 28 students gr.9-12, and since not a single student is really being given a grade appropriate course load ( I ended up teaching at about a grade 5 level in math and english to the entire 9-11 grade span because their skills are abominable… see my last post regarding ‘fake-passing’ students), the idea came upon us to split the ENTIRE high school into two groups, and teach them using an elementary model class where they stay in ONE class room. This idea was to help with their focus, help the teacher better serve them (flexible time schedule: as much reading as they need) and combat time wasting between classes when the kids traditionally have been socializing and wandering around.
  The groups would be split based on ability, and a teacher (my wife) would teach the really low learners fundamentals (disregarding the idea that they were supposedly high-school students, and at least give them a chance to learn to read and do arithmetic before they time out at age 19) and the other group would remain following more of the route that is an attempt to graduate (but truthfully they can only graduate by ‘fake-passing’ unless a miracle happens)
    Well, we worked on this plan since last April, and it was given the go ahead by our principal, our school board and apparently the upper admin.  My wife and I bought 1000 dollars worth of supplies from DISTAR (we thought we would go with Engelmann’s program because he has fought the fight for so long, and it is hard to argue with Project Follow Through) and then we came south for a much-needed holiday….
  3 days into the holiday, we get an email that says there have been some meetings since we left the North, and the admin has worked out our schedules… behold… students grouped back into their grades and split,  collaboration with teachers down the hall, time wasting classes like computers in their schedule.. all and all, they made it the same as last year, and banished the changes we have planned for. 
  The reason?  Because the illusion of ‘graduating’ students is more important than actually teaching students.  I don’t know if they actually believe the gobbledigook that they claim constitutes achievement ( drawing pictures, having a scribe, making limp connections, fiddling with manipulatives, colouring etc) but we have been robbed of a chance to actually move forward with our kids. 

  I want to quit teaching actually.  I guess I am writing this because I wanted to air all this to somebody.

  Incidentally, this post about E.D. Hirsch’s program is true and obvious.  This is how I was taught when I was a boy, and how reality works.

REALITY:
Fill in the tabula rasa with information then, years later, you have a free thinking, intelligent citizen that is aware of what is great knowledge/art/skill, and one that can also personally DO things. 

MODERN PRACTICE:
  Imagine that youngsters and all people have a myriad of great ideas and already-formed, rich knowledge in their minds, and that their opinions and ideas are all equally valuable, then, years later you have a self aggrandizing, surface-level individual that is unable to recognize their position in the world and can only use gadgets to LOOK UP how to do things.