Entry #13

Good morning!

The day has come - today I post my last entry for the summer! My research work term officially ended on August 3rd, so now it's time to relax and mentally prepare for my last year at StFX. Before I do though, I want to share a few final thoughts on the subject of poverty and education, as a way of synthesizing some of the personal conclusions I've made through my research, and as a way of saying goodbye.

I've developed a list of things that I think we should all keep in mind:
1) As I've said before, students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are less likely to have books, access to the Internet, the means of hiring a tutor, school supplies, and countless other resources that impact academic achievement (Sirin, 2005). I realize teachers can't "out-teach" poverty, and that creating access to these resources will require significant societal change, but I think it's important that teachers are just cognizant of the range and number of factors outside of school that impacts the students in their classroom. Being mindful of the deficit of resources students can access can make the classroom more equitable and self-aware, which I think students can sense.

2) Speaking of being self-aware, it's important to remember that students are aware of the resources they lack. They know too well the opportunities that they miss out on, the extra-curriculars they can't join, and the tools they don't have access to. The barriers to success that disadvantaged youth perceive tend to lower their academic confidence and motivation - they don't believe they can do the work, and because of that belief, they often choose to not try (Legault, 2006, p. 571). Teachers should actively work to build student confidence, give them reasons to care about their work and see themselves as successful, valuable people. Students need these reasons, because, after a lifetime of feeling academically inadequate (which is often the fault of less-than-kind teachers), they deserve to have someone in their corner who celebrates their strengths and interests and gives them a reason to want to be their best.

3) In the words of Rita Pierson, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like." This is true especially for students who experience poverty. In a study conducted by Carrington (2013), teachers who were perceived as angry, mean and ‘uncool’ by students were also disengaging in the classroom, while teachers who were described as fun and ‘nice’ were more engaging (p. 28-29). This is to say that teachers who adopt a more authoritarian teaching style tend to discourage students from the start, creating a classroom environment that isn't conducive to engagement or learning. Again, being relational and aware of the dynamic in the classroom is critical in making students feel safe and valued. If as adults we crave a congenial and positive work environment, why are young adults so often denied that same kind of space in schools?

4) None of this can be achieved if teachers lack experience. The problem is low-income schools tend to see high rates of teacher-turnover (Johnson, 2013), meaning that the teachers who work most with disadvantaged youth tend to lack the preparation, temperament, and personal efficacy that would make them and their students successful (p. 27-31). Really, the thing to remember is that teachers who are new (like us pre-service teachers) are often so busy just trying to get lessons together and not be terrible that the relational and mindful stuff sometimes gets lost in translation. It's no one's fault really, but it's a balance that's learned over time and with experience. Areas that have high rates of poverty will likely struggle to change the teacher-turnover rate (p. 2-4), but they can offer more practical forms of teacher training and professional development geared towards helping struggling students, which I think will at least provide teachers with some new strategies and ways of thinking.

Image retrieved from
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education-cartoons/?C=S;O=A

5) Teachers with high personal efficacy are more likely to be well-versed in instruction, period. The more comfortable a teacher is with curriculum and subject-area content, the more comfortable they'll be adapting their lessons to better suit the needs of students who struggle (Cantrell, 2013). Really, everything I've been telling you all summer can be directly related to this very point, because students who experience poverty and struggle in school need someone who can be clear, who can be understanding, and who can be adaptive. I think a lot of these practices comes from experience, but, they're still skills that can consciously be practiced. That being said, knowing your material is something you should be doing from the get-go - your teachable subject is YOURS to know and to teach, so do it well, and do it with some passion. Students can sense from a mile away when a teacher isn't interested in what they're teaching anymore, so love what you do, and use that love as motivation to change things up once in a while. And, frankly, if the students aren't as excited about the subject as you are, that should be an even stronger motivator. Too often do teachers focus on what the students "won't" or "can't" do rather than the why. If you know what you're doing, and you do it well, you should be practicing new teaching strategies that are directly linked to the question of why it matters, and more importantly, why it should matter to them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: It's easy to decide that your students are just lazy. It's easy to assume that they don't care about their marks, and that they don't care about what you're teaching. But, if you get to know your students, it's also easy to see why students do and say things about themselves, and about school. There's a fine line there, of course - don't assume you know everything there is to know about a student after teaching them for 2 months - but remember that people do things for a reason. No matter what age group you work with or what subject you teach, we are working with young people who will remember the way they were treated, the teachers who genuinely cared, and the lessons that were personally valuable to them when they leave school. It wasn't too long ago that we were in school ourselves, so, when in doubt, question your beliefs about your school experience. What made it successful? What made it unsuccessful? Who were my favourite teachers, and why? Who were my least favourite, and why? Did my teachers assume things about myself, or my classmates? Did they love teaching, and was it noticeable? Did they ask me about my day? Did they adapt their lessons, or listen to what we as students had to say?

Image retrieved from http://jaycwolfe.com/2015/09/30/celebrate-world-teachers-day-an-infographic-by-grammarly/

All in all, I think researching this subject has made me think about those questions more often than I did before. I've found myself reflecting a lot, thinking about the lessons I still remember today that were taught by genuine, interesting, and thoughtful teachers. When we talk about students who experience poverty, we talk about students who have lived challenging lives. Students who, for the most part, have limited access to the resources and opportunities that some of us have never really had to worry about. As teachers, we need to think about what we can do to even the playing field, it really is that simple. Nothing that I've reported in this list is new (I hope), none of it is ground-breaking or unrealistic. All it takes is some time and effort. We can make a world of a difference for disadvantaged youth who need that extra time, and frankly, there are no good reasons for why we can't offer it. We were all students once, we know how we were and wanted to be treated, so why can't we apply that to all of the students who walk into our classroom? Why can't we be our best, so that they can be their best?

Thank you all for reading my ramblings this summer - it's been a lot of fun, and I looked forward to potentially sharing more when I start working with Dr. Mitton-Kükner again in the fall. I hope you all have a fantastic August, and I look forward to seeing some of you at X in September!

Goodbye for now!

Savannah MacDonald

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Cantrell, S. C., Almasi, J. F., Carter, J. C., & Rintamaa, M. (2013). Reading intervention in middle and high schools: Implementation fidelity, teacher efficacy, and student achievement. Reading Psychology, 34(1), 26-58.

Carrington, S., Bland, D., Spooner-Lane, R., & White, E. (2013). Identifying engaging features of schooling: Assessing the psychometric soundness of student-generated research. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(7), 714-731.

Johnson, S. M., Kraft, M. A., & Papay, J. P. (2012). How context matters in high-need schools: The effects of teachers’ working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their students’ achievement. Teachers College Record, 114(10), 1-39.

Legault, L., Green-Demers, I., & Pelletier, L. (2006). Why do high school students lack motivation in the classroom? Toward an understanding of academic amotivation and the role of social support. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(3), 567.

Sirin, S. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review research. Review of educational research, 75(3), 417-453.

Entry #12

Hello again!

I have so much to tell you all! Okay, so I last week I had the privilege of attending the Nova Scotia Examinations English 10 Scoring Session with the Student Assessment and Evaluation division of the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Basically, I got paid to spend 4 days in Halifax (for free) to mark the Grade 10 exam, and because I've had lots of questions about it from friends and family, I thought it would useful to share my experience with you all (especially you teacher types out there - this is a great opportunity for you!).
First, let me just say that when I applied to join the marking session, I didn't think I'd get accepted. I mean, I hoped I would of course - I knew that I would learn a lot if I got to go and that I'd meet lots of interesting people - but I also knew that, being a pre-service teacher who doesn't have a ton of assessment experience probably wouldn't make me a prime candidate. So, when I did get the email telling me that I was good to go, I was thrilled, nervous because I still wasn't sure I was qualified, but still very excited.
The session started on July 23rd at 9am. The room was filled with circle tables and chairs - half of the room marked the Persuasive Essay section of the exam, and my side of the room marked the Reading Response section. My table included me and 6 other teachers, all of which were very friendly and welcoming - they were surprised that there weren't more student-teachers there, because of what a great opportunity it was to learn about assessment and student work. My nervousness faded quickly - it was hard to be nervous when the people I met at every turn were full of smiles.  We spent that entire morning training, which meant we discussed and practiced using the Scoring Rubric and Scoring Guide. 

The Scoring Rubric used during the marking session. I was scoring the "Reading Response" section of the exam, while others scored the "Persuasive Essay" section, which used a different rubric.

As you can see in the picture above, my copy of the rubric has a lot of notes on it. My nerves were calmed already, having met so many friendly people so soon in the week, but the training session made me feel more confident in my ability to mark, which was a different feeling entirely. The training we had was incredibly thorough and clear, and though my weird note-taking techniques might make it look complicated, getting to sit down with a table of experienced teachers and really dissect the rubric made marking much easier.
It's like this: as you can see in the rubric, to get a 4 in "Quality of Text Comprehension," the student had to demonstrate a "thorough" understand of the text in their response. But, what does "thorough" mean? To one teacher, thorough might be used as a synonym for clear, but, according to the rubric, a "clear" response should be getting a 3. See, that's why the discussion and Scoring Guide were so informative and valuable - if I was marking something and felt like I wasn't 100% sure how I could apply the rubric to a student's work, I was sitting with 6 other people who knew assessment very well who I could double-check with. The Scoring Guide, a booklet of examples of student work and they way they were scored, was also a great point of reference for figuring out how other papers have been marked, and why they were marked that way.
Once we all got in the groove of marking, I thought that the training was basically over, but we actually maintained a level of training throughout the week. We would, around twice a day, complete what they called a "Calibration Paper," which was a paper that everyone marked, and then discussed with the table. This was done to make sure that, even though everyone was getting a bit tired and cross-eyed after so much marking, we were still following the rubric and marking according to the resources we were given. Similarly, we would also mark was called a "Reliability Paper," which was also a paper that everyone marked, but we didn't discuss the marks. Instead, we passed them in so that the leaders of the session could tally and process them to make sure that the entire room was close in terms of scoring. 

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As a student-teacher, this experience was so valuable. I was really happy to have Erin MacDonald, a fellow StFX Education student and friend there too - it was a comfort to have someone I knew to chat with at lunch about trends in student writing and experiences with the session itself. When I started writing this blog entry, I asked her if she could make a statement about how she experienced the marking session, to which she said:

"I guess if there was anything I could say about the marking session it would be that I talked to many teachers throughout the week that were confident that there was no better PD in terms of assessment, which I guess is what keeps them coming back every summer. Regardless of whatever side of the debate you're on in terms of standardized testing, this type of assessment informs our practice as teachers because we are able to see areas where students are struggling, such as inferring from reading responses. And when you're in the business of creating the outcomes for a subject matter, this information is crucial. I think its also important to stress that we're made well aware of the diverse abilities of all learners and we have a lot of training and support throughout the week to be able to mark those exams fairly. In terms of being a student teacher, there's no better way to gain solid skills in assessment, throughout the week you'll mark around 500 exams and be able to take this rubric into your classroom and use it for every student."

Honestly, I don't think I could have said it any better. I left at the end of the week feeling way more aware of my marking habits (I definitely caught myself wanting to mark too hard, which is something I'll have to work on), and feeling like I would be better prepared for the upcoming school year at X. I feel like as a future English teacher I have a more clear idea of how I should be marking, and how I should be teaching. I hope that writing this blog post will make some of my friends at StFX consider attending next summer's marking sessions (which are for English and Math examinations), and consider it an opportunity to learn more about assessment. I had a great time, and I look forward to going back next summer!
Thank you to Vera Grayson, the Literacy Evaluation Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, for permitting me to write my experience during the marking session on this public blog, and thank you to the amazing teachers who put up with all my questions and awkward, not-funny jokes throughout the week - you're all 4s to me!

Until next time!

Savannah MacDonald

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For access to Teacher Resources and the Professional Opportunities page provided by the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, please visit this website:
https://plans.ednet.ns.ca/