The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida

I recently was given a copy of the new release and bestseller: Reasons I Jump.

It is a quick but enlightening and thought provoking book that I highly recommend.  A young man with autism is the author and he answers questions about how his life has been as an individual with autism.  I realize that these are his opinions but they are a great starting pint for some discussions.

One fact I found fascinating is that the Japanese use three characters to write autism: "self", "shut", and "illness."

Please note, i in no way receive any benefit nor do the authors know I am writing about the book but I think everyone who has a student or child with autism should at least read this book.  It will only take you and afternoon but one afternoon of your time could build a bridge between you and someone you care about.

Making a Living

What do you do for a living?

This is an icebreaker, form of introduction, status determiner, sense of camaraderie, or a way to kill an awkward moment but is it a good question?

Here is one problem I see with this question; it only addresses a very small part of our lives.  Let me break it down in mathematical terms, there are 24 hours in a day and only 1/3, or 8 are spent at work for only 260/352 days for approximately 40 years of a life average of 80 years (I rounded up slightly to make it easier to compute).  Therefore, our working lives are:

1/3 of each day * 260 days * 40 years =

4699.2 days of a 28,480 day life time

or 16.5% of a lifetime

I was shocked by this math!  I thought the answer to that question was one to aspire towards.  IEPs are designed to answer this question at the age of 14 with the work prior and after focused on helping the student secure "a living"  All the hours the IEP teams I have been a part of should count for more of a person's life than 16.5%.  It is time that I ask a better question,

How do we design a life?

Brotherly Love

A child with a disability is a blessing, a challenge, a student, a child, a comedian, a source of stress, and often, a sibling.  This sibling shows us what true brotherly love looks like in his outward gift to his brother.

http://www.today.com/news/10-year-old-gives-gift-running-disabled-brother-8C11296803

10-year-old Gives Gift of Running to Brother

Testing, Assessment, Accountability, Oh My!

Testing, assessment, accountability, oh my!

Testing, assessment, accountability, oh my! (Hey it's a big year for the "Wizard of Oz", I had to go there.)

I don't know how things are in your local schools but in mine, we are now required to assess students in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies at the beginning, middle and end-of-the year, as well as unit tests, performance assessments, and formative assessment.  In short, we are testing students almost every single week of the year on at least one skill set or content area.

This sounds like accountability and data collection at its best.  The only problem, the testing takes up the very valuable and limited instructional time.  Schools have definitive times and calendars.  Unlike a corporate position where they ask for you to do more and the lucky (read this facetiously) employees get to work additional hours, schools have a dismissal bell that rings at the same time daily.  The buses collect students and they are gone.  Even if I, as a teacher, decided to stay and work late, there is no one there to teach.  I missed my chance.

Does this mean we should stop testing or assessments?  Of course not!  What I am suggesting is balance.

Let's put it in a way all can understand.  You get a scale and weigh a 10 pound bag of seed.  It weighs, 10 pounds.  The next day, you weigh the bag again.  What does it weigh?  10 pounds.  If you weigh it each day, it will weigh 10 pounds and then, over time, it may weigh less as the seeds begin to fall apart and become dust from drying out in the process of sitting on a scale daily.




However, if you weigh the 10 pound bag of seed the first day and then, maybe you plant some in dirt, water them, feed them, nurture them, and then after this love, attention, and focused devotion to helping them become their best, you reap their fruit and seeds and weigh them again, how much will it weigh?  10 pounds?  No way!  It will weigh 10 times 10, or maybe even more.

You see, it is through planting seeds of knowledge, nurturing inquiry, and giving love attention and focus to the students that the results change, not by placing them on a scale.

So I say to all legislators and policy-makers, please, consider the process of learning as well as the measurement.

What, I have to teach 5 components?

Yes, there are 5 components to a balanced literacy program and yes, all children should receive instruction in all of them.

At one time I was a doctoral candidate (no, I didn't complete my program but that is a different post all together) and I was required to write a meta-analysis on a topic of teaching for any population I chose. Teaching students with significant disabilities is my passion and drive each day so, I decided to study the research on teaching reading skills to students within this population.  I gave a wide berth to the research allowing 20 years and any school-age, 3-21.   I did a computer search and even went and read the table of contents for years of journals at the library to include as many articles as I possibly could.

You see, I didn't just want to do the assignment but wanted, desperately, to learn how to teach more; More effectively, more efficiently, more students, more content, more success, just more.  I read each article with a critical eye and made notes to any instructional strategies and content so I could compare them to my current practice and be, well, more.

At that time (about 8 years ago), the research was clear, students with significant disabilities are taught reading by being given a series of flash cards which they review and review until they reach the desired level of mastery and then additional cards are provided.  This is a common system for students and for homework.  I have flashcards the students take home as we learn a word through a variety of curriculums. However........

The found research was also clear, this is the only practice that was used in the research except for one article.  You see, flash cards can only get them so far.  In one study that I read, students were given sight words off warning labels.  This sounds like a really good idea.  However, the words ingest, vomit, and induce were taught directly but the word "not" wasn't.  There is a very serious implication to a student reading a label as "Induce vomiting" and skipping the word they don't know to the sentence "Do not induce vomiting."  This is not just poor teaching, this is serious!

I am not saying "no more flash cards," but rather, "what else do we have happening in our rooms?"  I know that I have colleagues for whom their reading instruction is far more rigorous and inclusive of all 5 components of reading.  We need to be louder about what we do so that researchers can find and report on the many good things teachers do every day.

Flash cards teach sight words for fluency and vocabulary but what else so we do to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension development?  I know that I use a range of curriculum, both formal and informal.  Students participate in a combination of Reading Mastery, Edmark, Reading Milestones, Wilson, FrogStreet, leveled reading, teacher created activities, and computer assisted programs to work on their current skill needs in each of the 5 areas of reading daily.

What do you do in your rooms?  What practices have you found to assist your students in becoming readers?  Do you have a particular structure to make sure all components are taught daily?

I want your ideas!  I still want to be more.

If Only...

This summer break I have spent reading and working on my house as so many teachers in America so I haven't posted as much as I would like but do I do have another quote that goes out to all my colleagues.  My own thoughts will be coming soon.  Happy Summer!

http://drpinna.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/CrowdedERWaitingRoom.jpg

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 30 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he (she) might have some conception of the classroom teachers job."

Donald D. Quinn

Goethe Said It Best

My philosophy of life in 2 sentences, thank you Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Treat a man as he is and you make him worse than he is.  Treat a man as he has the potential to become and you make him better than he is.