First of all - fellow MSU for life fan here. And Izzo for president. I knew I liked you when you began publishing! 💚 Second, the bracket exercise and mental model is so crystal clear and I can’t wait to apply this to my work with the leaders and teachers I support! And third, this is one of the clearest and most succinct juxtapositions between text centered and skills focus instruction I’ve seen yet. Thank you! Glad you joined this space!
Thank you so much! A fellow Izzo fan club president and literacy/leadership geek?! What great luck to connect with you on here! I can't wait to catch up on some of your posts and insight too since we obviously share a brain on many things :)
This really makes me think on professional learning around standards and objectives. There has always been the push for teachers to explicitly state the target/objective like the second classroom. I think about the push for “kid friendly” objectives which was putting an “I can” before a standard. This is a change in mindset with planning- having teachers read the text to determine what students will be learning then connecting that back to a standard. As always, leaving me with a lot to think about! Go Orange!
Yes! Thanks so much for reading--it's definitely a shift, but it's one more aligned with cognitive science and what we now know more about in terms of how to make learning stick. And yes, Go Orange and Go Green, as always!
This is a great piece but from the parent side of things, I’m flabbergasted at the second teacher example. I understand an emphasis on standards being drilled into the teacher, but what I fail to understand is why on earth would a teacher bring that into the classroom when it has no bearing whatsoever on the material. And you see this all the time?!
Sadly, I do see this all the time. I just got home last night from a visit to another district and saw this in several classrooms...it spikes most during "test prep" season. I agree that the impact on the students is heartbreaking, I certainly don't want it for my children. I just see it often enough that it's a trend, which tells me this isn't just a teacher issue, it's a systems issue, and we ought to examine why this is so prevalent. Maybe a future piece! Thank you for reading!
Actionable advice for coaches and school leaders to build systems that support genuine meaning-making in the classroom.
The Study: Analyzed 111 comprehension lessons across districts with mature HQIM implementation and surveyed 500+ teachers.
The Central Finding: While HQIM was consistently used, 64% of lessons focused only on surface-level objectives (completing tasks) rather than robust comprehension (building a mental model)."
So cool you are highlighting this important study on the podcast--very familiar since I am working with the districts studied as part of a larger project! I can't wait to listen and hear the discussion!
Kristen, I was trying to find a way to quote this post, but then I took a different entry point to my post on standards. This is an important conversation to have. What’s interesting to me that I never noticed before is that this seminal piece: Text at the Center https://achievethecore.org/page/3185/placing-text-at-the-center-of-the-standards-aligned-ela-classroom, specifically identifies “in a standards-aligned classroom.” Makes me wonder if having both text and standards is splitting our focus. Are standards for reading comprehension actually acting as a learning ceiling? For sure focusing on them, as you suggest is a limiting factor, but is even acknowledging their presence and need for alignment while centering text limiting comprehension?
Thank you Whitney! I love your work on here too and that IS so interesting about the original Text at the Center piece (seminal work!) I think the questions you raise are so important to explore...and while I tend to think there's more than one way to go about addressing standards, what I see most prevalently in the classrooms I visit is causing more limitations than opportunities!
It’s a nuanced and complex problem for sure. We always have to be careful and caution against thinking that a single solution will solve every problem that exists! I’m adopting a new norm and putting “problematic use of…” in front of things that I take issue with. I want to fix problematic use of standards ;)
First of all - fellow MSU for life fan here. And Izzo for president. I knew I liked you when you began publishing! 💚 Second, the bracket exercise and mental model is so crystal clear and I can’t wait to apply this to my work with the leaders and teachers I support! And third, this is one of the clearest and most succinct juxtapositions between text centered and skills focus instruction I’ve seen yet. Thank you! Glad you joined this space!
Thank you so much! A fellow Izzo fan club president and literacy/leadership geek?! What great luck to connect with you on here! I can't wait to catch up on some of your posts and insight too since we obviously share a brain on many things :)
Uh-oh, as someone from Indiana, I don't think I can be friends with someone who is a fan of teams from Michigan.
J/K--nice job making a link between sports and valuable literacy principles :)
This really makes me think on professional learning around standards and objectives. There has always been the push for teachers to explicitly state the target/objective like the second classroom. I think about the push for “kid friendly” objectives which was putting an “I can” before a standard. This is a change in mindset with planning- having teachers read the text to determine what students will be learning then connecting that back to a standard. As always, leaving me with a lot to think about! Go Orange!
Yes! Thanks so much for reading--it's definitely a shift, but it's one more aligned with cognitive science and what we now know more about in terms of how to make learning stick. And yes, Go Orange and Go Green, as always!
This is a great piece but from the parent side of things, I’m flabbergasted at the second teacher example. I understand an emphasis on standards being drilled into the teacher, but what I fail to understand is why on earth would a teacher bring that into the classroom when it has no bearing whatsoever on the material. And you see this all the time?!
Sadly, I do see this all the time. I just got home last night from a visit to another district and saw this in several classrooms...it spikes most during "test prep" season. I agree that the impact on the students is heartbreaking, I certainly don't want it for my children. I just see it often enough that it's a trend, which tells me this isn't just a teacher issue, it's a systems issue, and we ought to examine why this is so prevalent. Maybe a future piece! Thank you for reading!
Thank you for these excellent examples! You will love yesterday's Teaching Literacy Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e74-robust-comprehension-using-hqim-featuring-dr-dan/id1482475731?i=1000754933695):
"This episode explores the gap between using high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and achieving deep, robust reading comprehension.
Read the Brief Here: https://www.sri.com/publication/education-learning-pubs/beyond-the-surface-leveraging-high-quality-instructional-materials-for-robust-reading-comprehension/
Quick Summary:
Actionable advice for coaches and school leaders to build systems that support genuine meaning-making in the classroom.
The Study: Analyzed 111 comprehension lessons across districts with mature HQIM implementation and surveyed 500+ teachers.
The Central Finding: While HQIM was consistently used, 64% of lessons focused only on surface-level objectives (completing tasks) rather than robust comprehension (building a mental model)."
So cool you are highlighting this important study on the podcast--very familiar since I am working with the districts studied as part of a larger project! I can't wait to listen and hear the discussion!
Kristen, I was trying to find a way to quote this post, but then I took a different entry point to my post on standards. This is an important conversation to have. What’s interesting to me that I never noticed before is that this seminal piece: Text at the Center https://achievethecore.org/page/3185/placing-text-at-the-center-of-the-standards-aligned-ela-classroom, specifically identifies “in a standards-aligned classroom.” Makes me wonder if having both text and standards is splitting our focus. Are standards for reading comprehension actually acting as a learning ceiling? For sure focusing on them, as you suggest is a limiting factor, but is even acknowledging their presence and need for alignment while centering text limiting comprehension?
Thank you Whitney! I love your work on here too and that IS so interesting about the original Text at the Center piece (seminal work!) I think the questions you raise are so important to explore...and while I tend to think there's more than one way to go about addressing standards, what I see most prevalently in the classrooms I visit is causing more limitations than opportunities!
It’s a nuanced and complex problem for sure. We always have to be careful and caution against thinking that a single solution will solve every problem that exists! I’m adopting a new norm and putting “problematic use of…” in front of things that I take issue with. I want to fix problematic use of standards ;)