But I know what I see, and what I see is English teachers reading to the class, silent reading, vocabulary tests, showing the movie in class, and short quick writing pieces which allow the students to be passive and do not enhance college skills? this is why kids do not retain skills. Kids know it too, and the smarter kids always comment how they were not prepared by their regular English teacher for college like the kids in AP. Check out the numbers of kids who graduate from high school but then must take the remedial English classes. The numbers are astronomical. And this Is at a school higher up on the rating scale than OUSD high schools. I am glad to hear that Imateacher does not do these things but I bet she knows teachers who do.

I don’t think that the three of us are disagreeing all that much. For the record, the frustrations I have heard re: English teachers seem to be aimed more at more “old school” teachers; younger English teachers, at OHigh anyhow, seem to have kids do more analytical writing.

Yet, there is still a failure to coordinate, both between English and Social Studies teachers at the high school level, and between teachers at middle school and high school. I have many times advised a student to X, only to have him or her say, “My English teacher says to do Y.” Getting contradictory instruction is almost worse than getting no instruction at all.

Now, last year at OHigh, we began a process of coordinating between English and Social Studies, but I do not know how far that process has continued this year, because I am on leave of absence. But it really should be done at the District level. Moreover, teachers of all subjects should be involved, not just English and Social Studies.

I think a lot (most) English teachers in the district would be surprised to hear your interpretation of what is taught in English classes. I can assure you that teaching writing is a significant component of our instruction; in fact, it has to be. Of course, we teach reading, as well. Not necessarily in the way you have described it; which assumes a lot about a lot of teachers. In fact, we (most of us) do have a systematic approach.

Now, as to why students haven’t learned something that has been explicitly taught, this is obviously the $64,000 question. Maybe you have some incredibly effective method I haven’t heard of; in which case, you should offer your services to the district so all of us can be better writing teachers. But I have taught every genre of writing, from compare/contrast, problem/solution, persuasive/argumentative, informative/report all the way to the research paper, as well as reflection, short story, poetry, yes, and grammar, too, in context, as noted elsewhere. I have used many strategies, have gone over writing in individual conferences, small groups, and whole class. I’ve shown examples of good, mediocre and bad writing, and analyzed it with students. We’ve used all kinds of pre-writing, peer-editing, and multiple drafts. I’ve used every type of methodology that is out there (at least those that I am aware of).

Kids may not learn for many reasons. Maybe the teacher really isn’t teaching something, but in my experience, I absolutely am teaching it. Many kids do learn it, but, many don’t. Where does the problem start? Is it the “fault” of the middle school teachers? The elementary school teachers? Lack of pre-school? Learning disabilities? Unstable home life? Lack of society value on academic skills? Not making it fun enough? Unwillingness to try anythng that isn’t sugar-coated? All of the above?

Teaching is a difficult job. We don’t always see the fruits of our labors. We have heteregenously grouped classes with 32 kids, who may or may not be native speakers of English, and even if they are, they may still lack sufficient linguistic skill to be effective writers. I try to help students improve their skills; but it is a still a tough job, and success is not always that evident. OUSD is a particularly challenging place to teach.

But we’re all hanging in there, trying to do a good job. You should visit the classroom of an English teacher while s/he is teaching expository writing so you know first-hand what really happens. It might not be what you think.

I take exception to your statement, “Kids’ failure to do something doesn’t mean it wasn’t taught.”. Teaching something means nothing unless the kids improved in a measurable way. I hear all the time that English teachers “taught” students how to write a thesis paragraph, topic sentences, MLA style, and how to support their arguments, but I see little evidence of it in my class. Thus, I must engage in the laborious task of making sure they know it. That is quite different. I think high school English teachers are tasked with reading and interpreting novels, end up assigning silent reading because students will not do the work at home, or have to spend class time reading the books in class to make it accessible, and thus have much less time to teach writing than they had before. As a result of the failure of students to read the material, the type of writing assigned in most English classes does not adequately prepare students for college, but instead consists of short reflective pieces, posters, and group work, with reading and vocabulary quizzes, showing the “movie” in class, coupled with teacher led discussions- all of which allow students to be passive. This is why you teach something but it isn’t “learned.”.

Please don’t take this as an insult. Unless you have a systemic approach across multiple grade levels in which writing is taught step by step, with department members and middle schools all on the same page, it takes an exemplary teacher to overcome years of repetitive failure and student passivity.

I also believe classifications such as FBB based on CST scores simply reflect lack of interest. Review the type of questions a student has to miss to be classified as FBB, BB, and Basic. Unless the high school student cannot read at 4th grade level, is ELD, or developmentally disabled, they are not FBB. Compare to the DMV test. If a student can learn how to pass a driving test, then he’s not FBB, nor is he unteachable. It is a question of motivation.

Maybe we can agree that teaching anything, including writing, is an art, not a science. And unlike some content areas, there is, as you note, not even necessarily agreement on what effective writing might be. Having participated in many scoring sessions, in both English and history, I have seen countless times that there is often disagreement on what score an essay should get. I think it would be excellent for the district to convene more English/ Social Studies PD (to say nothing of more English/ Math, English/ Science and maybe English/ electives of various kinds.)

At any rate, I do not know which implementation policy JR is referring to; I doubt he knows himself. The district has been slow to move on this, to be honest. My principal mentioned the CCS back at our first meeting around August 23 or thereabouts and we haven’t heard about it since. Unless it’s the lack of implementation that he refers to. But I will say I have taken a fairly close look at the Common Core Standards, and I haven’t seen anything to object to in terms of the objectives set forth.

(Lisa: OUSD teachers are NOT the lowest paid in the Bay Area; you might want to do some additional research for ALL SEVENTEEN of the districts just in Alameda County; and then check out Contra Costa, San Francisco and some of the others. Nope, not the lowest paid. Which is not to say that we’re not in the bottom percentiles. However, as far as the OEA…well, I have friends who have been on the bargaining team, and quite honestly, the district is ruthless. And we are currently working under an imposed contract. Now, as to why this has been allowed to continue for nearly two years… that’s another question beyond the scope of this particular blog posting, which started out and should return to the Common Core Standards…)

Some of my AP kids have pretty low English skills, since they tend to be non-native speakers of English. But I don’t know how many actually test at FBB

I’ve been to PD many times over the years that focused on the teaching of writing, but it has been for English teachers, so you are right in that teachers in other content areas may not have been exposed to the same training.

I think, though, as pretty much any teacher can attest, kids’ failure to be able to do something does not always mean it wasn’t taught, or it wasn’t taught well. I think I’m a great writing teacher, and I have seen kids’ writing improve, but when kids are starting at “far below basic,” an improvement might only take them part of the way to “proficient.”

Although since you teach AP classes, one would hope that kids in those classes would not be entering your class at the FBB level to begin with. But that’s what I’m faced with; and it doesn’t mean I’m not teaching good writing skills or many types of writing. It doesn’t even mean I’m only teaching grammar. It just means that I have to start where the students are, and when they’re years behind grade level when they enter high school, getting them to even a modest level of proficiency is really an achievement.

I just know that many of the history teachers whom I respect have expressed frustration regarding the skills that English teachers tend to emphasize.

But your overall point is valid — when has the District ever used professional development time to work on the teaching of writing? How many sites do so? When have we even had a discussion or tried to reach agreement on what constitutes good writing.

Heck, we dont even have an agreement on what a thesis is, let alone how to help kids write a decent one.

http://www.pacificresearch.org/publications/failing-grade-crisis-and-reform-in-the-oakland-unified-school-district