#CyberPD Opening Minds Chapters 7-9

One of the things that I have especially appreciated with Opening Minds is that Johnston tackles the most important issue in education – namely, what is the purpose of education? Granted, this issue has been debated for thousands of years, so I don't expect is to be solved in my lifetime, but in just the last 100 years, the purpose of education has become increasingly narrowed. As he highlights in chapter 9, the political purposes of education is the nation's economic survival and global competitiveness. This view had been forced on school systems, parents and the media through the focus on high-stakes testing and global comparisons. However, as the quote illustrates, making a living doesn't necessarily guarantee making a life. This is the ribbon weaving through chapters 7-9 – support for the moral and ethical purposes of education.

Moral Development and Civic Engagement (Chapter 7)

Too often character education is just another class or add-on to the school day. I remember school assemblies introducing each of the 6 pillars of character education with cheesy posters covering the walls and “Catch 'Em Being Good” slips handed out as a reward for acting like a good citizen through being responsible, caring, respectful, trustworthy, and fair. As a kid, I never made the connection that these behaviors were suppose to guide classroom interaction (and ultimately used in real life), it just seemed like something to worry about during lunch and recess – and hope that the teacher caught me being good. Johnston contends that every classroom interaction is a model for moral development and civic engagement – for better or for worse. Students are engaged daily with making moral decisions in the way they treat each other and interrogate ideas. How does my classroom apprentice students into becoming a member of society? Am I fostering intense engagement with texts and ideas or passive acceptance of facts?

Fairness is a huge issues with students, I know. And Johnston highlights a classroom that normalizes the discussion of fairness. Somewhere I once read a teacher's philosophy statement that said something like, “I don't want to treat students equally, just fairly.” I've used that idea with students before, but without the constant conversation about exploration of fairness, it just came off like a bumper sticker platitude. But, I think one of the best illustrations of this ideal is the cartoon about standardized testing. "Everyone is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." -Albert Einstein

A huge part of moral development and civic engagement is the development of social imagination, as mentioned in chapter 6. Not only in taking perspectives, but in recognizing that there are differences in perspectives across cultures and time. In studying history, it is called historical perspective taking or empathy, which is recognizing the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional differences of the time period and not applying 21^st Century mores to it. Much of multicultural education (and world religion curricula) have tried to bridge the similarities to create connections, but this diminishes the understanding of differences and how these differences may lead to diverse moral choices and actions. My classroom instruction needs to help students learn how to explore differences in a non-judgmental way which will lead to more empathy toward others, open mindedness, and a willingness to engage with difference.

Thinking and Working Together (Chapter 8)

“Thinking well together leads to thinking well alone.” (p. 96)

I have incorporated project based learning and cooperative groups in my teaching for years, but every year I have a parent or student who feel, as Johnston pointed out, that group work is unfair to the high-ability students or is in essence “cheating” because students are not working individually. However, in my experience, being involved in a group (like #CyberPD) forces me to individually clarify my thinking for an audience and revise my thinking as it is challenged by other perspectives. However, since most of schooling is based on individual achievement, many students do not know how to engage in thinking together. It is my goal this to help them develop the language and behaviors needed to work positively together and learn from each other. Listening is a major part of working together, as Johnston states, “Listening is the foundation of a conversation and it requires that we are open to the possibility of changing our thinking” (p. 102) Years ago I bought a book 125 Ways to be a Better Listener: A Program for Listening Success by Nan Stutzman Graser. At that time, I had my 8^th graders develop mini-lessons for each other bases on the lessons in the book. I might need to break that book out again.

Most years I have my middle schoolers design posters illustrating (in comic strip form) the ideal classroom and the worst nightmare to talk about general classroom behaviors. Johnston suggests having students create “Rules for Thinking Engagement” - to focus on what makes a conversation engaging and productive. This makes thinking together an object of study and allows for review and revision of the process.

Choice Worlds (Chapter 9)

Returning to the big questions – what kind of world am I creating in my classroom through my language and actions? Does my language reflect my beliefs and vice versa? How have my students imitated this? And the biggest question – what is the purpose of education?

Although is seems like the main purpose of education should be academic success, the “failure to attend to children's moral and social development will lead neither to happiness nor to economic security” (p. 114). Yes, I will be teaching English and history content, but I will also be teaching and modeling how to be a member of a community and the broader society. Fair and equitable education is so much more than exposing kids to the same content, or expecting everyone to be proficient on a narrow range of skills. “A better concept of a fair education would be to try to have every child develop as fully as possible. Of course we have no way of knowing what is possible for each child. All we can do is arrange for children to be fully engaged in ways that we know lead to expanded development. . . When children are fully engaged in an activity, they press into service all of their resources and stretch themselves as necessary. Children are more engaged when they have choice, a degree of autonomy, and when they see the activity as relevant.” (p.118). I think this is an outstanding philosophy for a school to embrace!

In some ways, I feel a bit paralyzed when recognizing the impact my comments can make on students. The hyper-awareness is a bit daunting – but then I have to remind myself about the lovely word “Yet”.

Johnston's final words, spoken and unspoken, “Well, now you know . . . “ What am I going to do about it? What an exciting challenge to take up as I enter the new school year!

If you would like to join the conversation about Peter Johnston's book Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives, check out #CyberPD on Twitter, or this week's host, Laura at Our Camp Read-A-Lot.

#CyberPD Opening Minds Chapters 1-3

“Errors usually happen at the edge of what we can do, when we are stretching into new territory – when we are learning” (Johnston, 2012, p. 3)

I think this is my new motto – giving myself (and my students) permission and encouragement to make errors, because that is a sign of learning. That being said, this blog and this post is an exploration of what I understand from the first three chapters of Peter Johnston's book Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives.

One word changes meaning and can change lives and create worlds. I have supervised practicum students and student teachers for the past four years and often press my students into considering the power of the words they use with students. Throughout their elementary training, they are encouraged to praise and compliment students, but the form of compliment can create a sense of fixed-performance attributes (You are so smart to figure this out.) or dynamic-learning attribute (You worked hard to figure it out.) These are some powerful narratives that students adopt through their interactions with the teacher and their peers – which all hinge on the power of words to create the world the students inhabit.

In a world of fixed-performance, a student is born with a talent or inherently smart. This would indicate that no amount of effort, studying or feedback is going to change the threshold of the student's ability. In this world, the student may fear challenge, refuse practice, feel helpless and have a lot of negative self-talk.

In a world of dynamic-learning, a student can change, grow and has agency. This may be exhibited in greater risk-taking when learning, confidence in ability to learn, and motivation to practice and make mistakes.

One of the most most powerful words in a dynamic-learning world, according to Johnston, is the word “yet” because it creates a sense of optimism and agency, “I know know how to do this yet.”

What type of world would I like my students to inhabit? The answer is a resounding dynamic-learning world. Johnston provides several suggestions on how to create this type of world.

1. Focus on change (over time) – Look how far we've come!
2. Focus on process – How did you figure that out?
3. Normalize making errors – and how to fix them
4. Respect students by authentically listening to them, giving real choices and appropriate responsibilities
5. Pay attention to how language molds the world
   
   

   You can join the conversation about Opening Minds anytime.  Check out the instructions at Cathy's Refine and Reflect

Book Review: Choice Words

In July, Cathy et al at Refine andReflect are hosting a #cyberPD summer reading discussion based on Peter Johnston's Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. In preparation (and while waiting for Amazon to deliver Opening Minds), I decided to re-read Johnston's Choice Words. It is a good reminder about the power of teachers' words in designing the classroom environment and creating students' identities.

Johnston begins with quoting Vygotsky (1978), which I think is a very powerful thing to remember, "children grow into the intellectual life around them" (p. 88). What kind of intellectual life am I creating in my classroom? What am I modeling through my words and actions about how to access and create knowledge? These are some big questions to answers - and it goes beyond naming the content and materials of the course. The foundation of teaching is the relationship between teacher and student, and since speech is action (Austin, 1962) teachers have the daunting responsibility of "naming" students - who is a good reader or struggling student? I need to be aware of how my language positions students in my classroom and be intentional in creating positive identities and attuned to how my students are rejecting, accepting and modifying the identities available. Johnston then elaborates in each chapter the power of particular ways of using language in the classroom.

When people are apprentices to an activity, any activity, they have to learn the names of things/actions and the importance of these things/actions. Students in my classroom need to learn the language of classroom activities, ways of thinking and doing, I can't assume they know it. Once something is noticed (and named) it influences the continued perception of everything (ie. I can't "un-notice" something). In the classroom, I need to help my students develop the language and habit of noticing and naming their thinking and actions using phrases such as "Did you notice ... What kind of .... What process did you use to ..."

Teachers have great power (and with it comes great responsibility) in creating identities for children. Naming one child a great writing and another a struggling reader can have long-range consequences. "Building an identity means coming to see in ourselves the characteristics of particular categories (and roles) of people and developing a sense of what is feels like to be that sort of person and being in certain social spaces" (p. 23) Yes, children have agency to reject, modify or accept the identities available, but some do not know how to use their agency. "Teachers' conversation with children help the children build bridges between action and consequences that develop their sense of agency" (p. 30). Agency is easy to feel when there is direct cause/effect, but so much in learning is delayed. Writing a story often doesn't have an effect until it is read by another person, and even then the effect is subtle. I need to help my students create and tell stories (narratives) about themselves that include them having choices, control and positive outcomes. Phrases may include things like "How did you figure this out? What problems did you encounter? What are you going with this?"

In my research and literature review of discussion in the classroom, I have seen that it is still prevalent to have the traditional IRE pattern of discussion in the classroom, which Johnston confirms. The teacher Initiates with a known-answer question, the student Responds with an answer, and the teacher Evaluates the answer and moves on. Whoever poses the questions determines the topic of conversation, and most often, the questions are surface level or shallow. "Learning to act as a recipient of information and to display receipt of information ... [ is not the same as] building on ideas in a shared endeavor [ in which] participants' roles can vary widely, such as leading a shared inquiry, playing around with an idea together or closely following other people's lines of thought" (quoting Rogoff & Toma, 1997, p. 475). Knowledge building requires authentic questions, space for trying out ideas, and ways of connecting ideas together.

Often students are asked to work in groups, not as groups. As I begin designing lessons, one of my goals is to help students learn the skills of creating a community that supports each other and depends on each other, while bringing out the best qualities of each individual. “Democracy is neither a possession nor a guaranteed achievement. It is forever in the making; it might be thought of as a possibility—moral and imaginative possibility. For surely it has to do with the way person attend to one another, care for one another, and interact with one another. It has to do with choices and alternatives with the capacity to look at things as though they could be otherwise” (Maxine Greene, 1985, p. 3).

A teacher's conscious and unconscious expectations of the student in front of them is evident in the way the teacher speaks and treats the student, and students will internalize and act accordingly, either accepting or rebelling against the perceived identities. One question I need to ask myself, and help my students ask is "What image of humanity is inherent in it [this situation]" (Young, 1992).

“I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.” Dr. Haim Ginott