Class Antics – Inside Elementary Education

Part Two: Effectiveness of National Board Certified Teachers

National Board Certified Teachers have demonstrated highly accomplished teaching.  What are the advantages to students of NBCTs?

The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, developer and assessor of the National Board Certification process, cites several studies showing the effectiveness of NBCTs.

> Students of NBCTs score 7 to 15 percentage points higher on year-end tests than students of non-NBCTs. NBCTs were particularly effective with minority students.  D. Goldhaber, University of Washington

> In 48 comparisons (4 grades, 4 years of data, 3 measures of academic performance), students of NBCTs surpassed students of non-NBCTs in almost three-quarters of the comparisons. The learning gains were equivalent (on average) to spending about  an extra month in school. L. Vandevoort, Arizona State University 

> More math NBCTs helped their students achieve greater testing gains in 9th and 10th grades than their non-certified colleagues—demonstrating particular benefits among special needs students and African-American and Hispanic students. L. Cavalluzzo, The CNA Corporation

> Students of NBCTs exhibit deeper learning outcomes more frequently than students of non-NBCTs. T. Smith, Appalachian State University

Based on my own experience, I think much of the benefit to students of NBCTs comes because the teacher is adept at evaluating his own practice.  Teachers who go through the process of becoming Board Certified have thought about their teaching in a reflective and scientific way.   These teachers are accustomed to evaluating every aspect of their teaching practice within the all-important context of student achievement.

A study by D. Lustick and G. Sykes of Michigan State University found that teachers who pursue National Board Certification show significant improvements in their teaching practices, regardless of whether they achieved certification.

Part One: What is a National Board Certified Teacher?

You may have noticed that your child’s teacher has the initials NBCT after her name.  What does it mean?

A National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) has completed a voluntary and rigorous process of evaluation.  Based on 10 assessment pieces, NBCTs have demonstrated their excellence in the Five Core Propositions for what teachers should know and be able to do.

> Teachers are committed to students and their learning.
> Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
> Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
> Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
> Teachers are members of learning communities.

Application for National Board Certification is a demanding and time-consuming process.  Within a year, a teacher must complete 4 portfolio entries and take a 6-part exam.

The portfolio entries vary by type of certification sought—a music teacher would complete different entries than a biology teacher.  A portfolio entry tends to consist of a videotaped lesson, a 12-15 page analysis of the purpose, planning, pedagogical techniques, and effectiveness of the lesson as measured by student achievement.  Teachers typically tape and analyze many lessons before choosing the ones they will use for the portfolio entries.  After the portfolio entries are submitted in March, the teacher waits until November to learn whether he/she has attained National Board Certification.

To apply for National Board Certification, a teacher must meet certain requirements:

> Hold a bachelor’s degree
> Have completed three full years of teaching/counseling experience
> Possess a valid state teaching/counseling license for that period of time, or, if teaching where a license is not required, have taught in schools recognized and approved to operate by the state

The school lunch line: only a few people really understand it—cafeteria workers, students and teachers.  To everyone else, the lunch line is shrouded in mystery.  Here is a peek at lunch lines today.

Let’s start with the most persistent rumor (as evidenced by occurrences in kids’ books.)  No one gets held up for their lunch money anymore.  If you are a parent, don’t worry about it.  If you are a children’s book writer, don’t make this a plot point.

Nowadays, many students qualify for the free or reduced price lunch program.  For them, lunch money isn’t an issue.  Students who do pay for lunch commonly have parents who electronically deposit money into their lunch accounts via an online system.  Another possibility is that the student brings in a check or cash occasionally, and the money is added to the child’s account.

Kids have lunch cards with barcodes that are scanned by cafeteria workers.  There is some system by which teachers or aides distribute these cards to students.  The procedure varies—different schools have different ways. 

Schools with a large percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch often have very, very long lunch lines.  I have worked at schools that have a lunch line stretching out of the cafeteria and down the hallway.  These schools have to be really organized.  One system is for each class to queue up only after the class scheduled ahead calls to say that they have joined the line.

I feel bad for these kids, because they spend a lot of time waiting in the lunch line.  However, based on the way school cafeterias are built, I really don’t see many ways to increase efficiency without building additional lunch lines.  The kids still have to pass through the actual kitchen area to select their lunch and scan their card.

The good news is that kids usually have fun in these lunch lines.  They are allowed to talk, joke and have fun with friends.  (Within reason– no wrestling allowed!)

Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary
AR Reading level 4.5  1 point
Available at Amazon.com

Cursive may seem outdated compared to typing, texting and tweeting, but it is still an important skill for kids to learn.  If nothing else, they need to be able to read cursive—notes written by parents and teachers, or cursive written by our forefathers in the Declaration of Independence.

Kids are very excited to learn cursive, but sometimes their interest lags after the first few lessons.  You can keep them going by reading to them Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary.

In Muggie Maggie, third-grader Maggie absolutely refuses to learn cursive.  She’s a smart girl, but she gets herself into quite a predicament—with a lot of embarrassment, time spent out of class, and even trips to the principal’s office!

See, Maggie’s teacher has hatched a plan with other teachers and school staff.  She makes Maggie the messenger.  All the messages Maggie deliverers are written in cursive.  Maggie is pretty sure she recognizes her name in the messages.  Maggie has no choice but to learn cursive so she can read the secret messages.

Muggie Maggie is clearly intended for a third-grade audience, but AR (accelerated reader) classifies the reading level is 4.5.  (Many Beverly Cleary books have a reading level above the intended audience’s grade level, as I have described in a different post about this topic.)  Some third-graders will be able to read Muggie Maggie, but I recommend that third-grade teachers read it aloud because it is perfectly suited to their audience.

I’m sorry to tell you a harsh truth: kids don’t read Beverly Cleary books.  Not like they used to, that’s for sure.

The Ramona & Beezus movie was wonderful, but the box office take was disappointing.  (I think it will have a long life as a DVD and Blu-Ray.)  All my students who saw the movie absolutely loved it, but none of them had read the books beforehand.

Kids don’t read Beverly Cleary!  Why?

You and I loved her books as children, but they’re a little old now.  Some elements are dated, particularly the books about Henry Huggins and the early Ramona books.

The main reason kids don’t read Beverly Cleary has to do with AR (Accelerated Reader).  Beverly Cleary’s books are written at a high reading level, according to AR.  (The formula is based on length of sentences, length of words, etc.  I’m not sure about the details because I think it’s top secret.)

For example, Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is clearly written for a third-grade audience.  The book’s reading level is 5.6.   Most kids are not allowed to read above their AR reading level, so they can’t read the Beverly Cleary books when they are at the age the books are aimed for.  By the time kids reach the fifth and sixth grade reading levels, they want to move on to harder and more macho books, like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

I think it’s too bad.  Beverly Cleary books are wonderful.  I can’t imagine life without them, actually.

On the other hand, I have to say that in my experience, when kids read above their reading level, comprehension suffers and students rarely actually finish the book.  They just lug it around to look impressive.

Obviously, as a future writer and teacher, I was an advanced reader as a kid.  However, many of my classmates also read Beverly Cleary books.  I have to wonder if more of today’s students would read the books should AR downgrade the reading level.

As a teacher or parent, I hope you will read Beverly Cleary books aloud and recommend them to students who are ready for them.  If you teach fifth and sixth graders, try to push them into Beverly Cleary books.  You know they’ll like them!  You can also recommend the books Beverly Cleary wrote for teens.  My favorite is The Luckiest Girl, but I also loved Fifteen and Sister of the Bride.

A sampling of Beverly Cleary AR reading levels:  (This isn’t all her books.  There are soooo many!)

Ramona Quimby, Age 8: 5.6
Ramona Forever: 4.8
Beezus and Ramona: 4.8
Ramona and Her Father: 5.2
Ramona and Her Mother: 4.8
Ramona’s World: 4.8
Ellen Tebbits: 4.9
Henry Huggins: 4.7
Henry and the Clubhouse: 5.1
Mitch and Amy: 6.2
Emily’s Runaway Imagination: 6.1
A Girl from Yamhill (Beverly Cleary’s Autobiography): 6.5
Fifteen: 5.4
The Luckiest Girl: 5.9

Ticket to Read is an awesome online program that functions as a super fun reading tutor for all levels.  You can use it for remediation or as a challenge.  It’s appropriate for grades K-6.

In essence, your child earns tickets for reading passages and answering the questions.  These tickets can be redeemed to play games and to decorate your own personal virtual tree house.

Ticket to Read provides comprehensive reading tutoring.  It really covers everything.  Your child reads the story out loud (fluency) and answers questions that address comprehension and vocabulary.  If your child makes mistakes, the program offers personalized tutoring.  If your child has trouble sounding out words, the program will read to her, and then let her click on words she doesn’t know so she can hear them pronounced.  After all the tutoring, your child tries the passage again.  Many of the passages are nonfiction, which is the most difficult genre for children on standardized tests.  For younger students, Ticket to Read has a phonics component.

The tickets are good reinforcement because your child earns them quickly and constantly.  Every correct question earns tickets.  Reading a story out loud and recording it earns tickets.

It is super fun to decorate the tree house.  Your child can spend tickets on virtual toys such as a drum set or keyboard, buy a virtual teddy bear, and even purchase access to secret passages or a virtual pool.

Individuals can subscribe to Ticket to Read for $29.95.  Classes can subscribe for $249.95.  Schools can subscribe, too—see Ticket to Read for details.  You can get a FREE 14 day trial.

This is a great deal!  You will be so glad you subscribed!  Your child’s reading level will soar!

Veterans Day is November 11.  It is a day set aside to honor those who have served in the military.

November 11 was previously honored as Armistice Day, to commemorate the armistice signed between the allies of World War I and Germany, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western front: on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918.  The date was declared a national holiday in many allied nations, to commemorate those members of the armed forces who were killed during war.

You can teach your class about Veterans Day by visiting VA Kids, the official government Veterans Affairs website for kids.  Your students can learn about veterans and Veterans Day, read cool facts about the US flag, and play Flash games and activities.

In honor of Veterans Day, I like to teach my kids the songs for each branch of the US military.  The kids love to learn these songs.

Don’t play the songs from YouTube.  Many videos are followed by comments that will get you and your students in trouble.  Play the songs from official military websites: Army, Air Force  (Click on Recordings), Marines, and Navy.

Here are some tips to remember whenever you’re sending treats to the classroom—for your child’s birthday or for a party.

1.  Tell the teacher ahead of time.  I don’t mind being surprised, but it is nice to know in advance when the treat is coming.  It helps the teacher leave some leeway in the day’s lesson plans—or plan for a treat that has special serving requirements.  (See tip # 2)

2.  Plan how the treat will be served.  The treat should be easy to serve.  Imagine yourself in the teacher’s place, with 30 excited kids waiting eagerly for the treat.  In the classroom, something so simple as distributing individually wrapped treats can lead to chaos, especially when the packaging is challenging to open.  Cutting cakes, plating food, adding whipped cream or toppings, providing utensils and napkins are all examples of how serving treats can  get difficult very quickly.

3.  Send in everything needed to serve the treat.  Plates, napkins, eating and serving utensils… think about it!

4.  The kids don’t expect drinks.  They love them, but are not expecting it.  The teacher will appreciate individual drinks, such as juice boxes or Capri Sun.  Serving drinks in cups can be difficult and messy.

5.  You can bring the treat in yourself and help serve, but check with the teacher ahead of time.  If you just come in, you might find that the class is busy with something that can’t be interrupted, such as a test.  You might find the classroom is empty because the children have gone to lunch, or a special class such as PE or Art that is held elsewhere on campus.

6.  Your treat should probably be store-bought.  Many school districts have a policy requiring this.  It limits liability for everyone and makes it easy to check ingredients.

7.  Check the ingredients.  It’s smart to avoid nuts and especially peanuts, because many classes these days have someone with a nut allergy.  Be sure to check if the product was made in a facility that processes nuts.

8.  Check the number of servings per container.  Be careful with this!  I once bought a first day of school treat for my class—Little Debbie cakes, 10 per box.  Turns out it was packed in five twin-wrapped packages, and we had to split them.  The kids were nice about it, but it wasn’t what I intended and I felt bad.

9.  Find out if your child’s school has a no-sweets policy that is strictly enforced.  If so, there are many alternatives.  Kids enjoy fresh vegetables and dips.  You can buy apple slices in individual bags.  Fruit snacks are good.  Kids love those packaged cheese and crackers that let them spread the cheese on a cracker with little plastic sticks.  Kids are also really into Go-gurt and crushable yogurt. 

10.  Send in extra treats.  You never know if your child’s class will have a new student, or students visiting from another class.  (It happens for a variety of reasons—the class might have a small group from another classroom because the school couldn’t find a sub, or a student helper might happen to be there when the treat is served.)  If there are extra treats, your child can bring them home or visit other classrooms and give the extras to teachers.  Kids love to do this!

The Accelerated Reader program is so much more than comprehension tests about each book.  Many books have vocabulary tests, too.  The vocabulary test has the same quiz number as the regular test.

At our school, AR is set up to offer students the vocabulary test as soon as they complete the reading practice test.  Encourage your students to do the vocabulary tests.  They improve vocabulary and reading comprehension.  If students do enough, you will see an increase in reading level.

Since Accelerated Reader levels are determined by Star Reading, which is a test of vocabulary, the AR vocabulary tests are most directly applicable to raising a student’s Star Reading test score.

You can print labels that list the AR vocabulary words for each book.  Put these in the book cover so students can be sure to notice those words in the text.

Some kids just have terrible handwriting.  The letters are too big, the spacing is a mess, and their finished paper is illegible.  I have found that using the first and second grade style lined paper doesn’t really help older kids.  There is something, though, that does help them: graph paper.

It needs to be graph paper with big squares.  You can print your own from math-drills.com, which is a good site for—you guessed it—math drills at all levels.

I like to use the ½ inch graph paper.  In my experience, it improves handwriting immediately, but the child should keep using it for a few weeks until better handwriting becomes a habit.  The graph paper really helps kids understand spacing, and lets them develop their fine motor skills within the realms of the little boxes.

I have found that it is good to turn the paper sideways, because otherwise the child will write a lot of hyphenated words that continue on to the next line.

The graph paper is also good for lining up math problems.  It’s a lot easier to keep your addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division straight if you have the little boxes helping you line everything up.

Hurray for graph paper!

Notebook paper, whether wide ruled or college ruled, is great.  It’s cheap, and can be used for many assignments.

Kids and other teachers have taught me that notebook paper is also really useful when it’s turned sideways.  Then you can use the lines to help you line up math problems.  This really helps kids keep everything straight, and makes little mathematicians much more successful.

It’s a quick tip, but a good one.

Nowadays, it is very common for kids to bring a container of water or bottled water to school.  I think this is a great improvement from my school days, when you got three seconds at the drinking fountain after recess.  Kids need water to keep their bodies and brains healthy.

Here are a few tips for parents and teachers about bottled water at school

1.  It’s fine to buy bottles of water, but bringing your own container can be cheaper and more eco-friendly.  Many lunchboxes come with containers for drinks, and kids are starting to use the steel bottles, too.  Don’t reuse store-bought plastic bottles over and over.

2.  Send in fluoridated water if you can.  If your tap water at home is fluoridated, that’s what you should be giving your kids for school.  Then you’re helping them have healthy teeth in addition to healthy bodies and brains.  Just chill the water in the fridge overnight or use a bottle-sized cold pack.

3.  Many parents send kids to school with a frozen bottle of water.  DON’T!  The ice block is heavy, and has the capacity to be dangerous if it lands on someone’s foot.  Plus, the water never melts in time, and the bottles sweat all over everything.

4.  Send plain water.  Nothing with food coloring is allowed.  It’s not great when something like that spills at home, and it’s worse when it spills in the classroom.  It’s a huge mess for the custodians, and the carpet might even need shampooing.  Plus, the spill creates an extremely fun distracting disturbance that detracts from learning.

5.  Send in a clean sock to wrap around the water bottle.  This keeps it from sweating all over the desk.  Bonus points if you can find a really cute stock instead of just Dad’s old athletic sock  (but that will do).

6.  Make sure kids  know just how disgusting it is to drink from a water bottle that you brought in yesterday or the day before.  When I find half-empty store-bought water bottles in the classroom at the end of the day, I dump the water and recycle the bottles.  Otherwise, the kids will just keep drinking from them, and that will make them sick.  If your child forgets to bring home her reusable water bottle, give her another one for the next day.  It’s much safer that way.

I have found a magical teaching tool: Spectrum Publishing’s Little Critter Reading.  It’s a workbook with the perfect format: an engaging story based on the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer, followed by a worksheet covering comprehension, phonics, and study skills.  Students beg to use it and groan when we put it away.

In my experience, Little Critter Reading improves a reader’s skills by a whole grade level.

You can buy Little Critter Reading at two levels: grade 1 and grade 2.  Grade 2 is appropriate for students in second and third grade.  Grade 1 helps students make the remarkable transformation from reading three sentences on a page to reading several paragraphs—in the space of one workbook.  Grade 1 is great for English Language Learners.

I recommend Little Critter Reading books for the classroom and for the home.  At home, a parent or older sibling can tutor a struggling reader with Little Critter Reading books.

How to use Little Critter Reading:

1.  Read the story to your students.  Very important—think how much better they can read if they already know what it sounds like!
2.  Let the student(s) read aloud with you.  This way, you’re pulling the student along and helping her experience fluency.  For the whole class, choral read the passage.
3.  If time and patience allow, the student can read the story aloud without your help.
4.  Do the worksheet that goes with the story.  You might have to teach a mini lesson on topics such as root words, ABC order, verb tense, etc.  Kids quickly catch on and complete the lesson easily.
5.  Review the lesson.

One caveat: you are not supposed to photocopy Little Critter Reading workbooks.  I applied for a grant and bought a class set of the workbook.  I use it with my third graders at the beginning of the year.  We put a page protector over the worksheet page and write on the page protector with an Expo marker.  We erase with old socks.

Students who behave well get to draw on the page protector for two minutes!

Seriously, I can’t recommend Little Critter Reading highly enough.

Chores are not drudgery.  Chores build confidence.

I’m not kidding.  Real confidence comes from deep inside, from a sense that one has achieved before and can achieve again.  Real self-esteem comes from knowing that other people depend on you, that you matter.

Of course, to reap these benefits in your family chore routine, you really have to know what you’re doing.  First of all, frame chores as something everyone in the family does to contribute to the success of the family.  The family is a unit, and the unit cannot succeed unless everyone succeeds.  To make this happen, everyone needs to pull his or her own weight.  (Can you tell I’m a military brat?)

Your child should have a very basic chore of keeping his or her own room neat.  Beyond that, your child should be doing something to contribute to the family.  This can happen at a very young age.  My school’s reading specialist gave her toddler one chore: he opens the blinds every day.  Without him, the family would be in darkness.  He is important!

Chores build community.  This why I assign chores on the first day of school.  I talk to my class about the importance of chores, and how they make things nicer for everybody.  Then, we look at the list of chores that needed to happen and students volunteer for jobs.  Everyone has to have one job, and most kids clamor for more.  The really exciting part is when kids notice a need and invent a job.

I think that having chores from the get-go makes a difference in my classes.  We love chore time, and we all appreciate the little things each of us does to make our classroom great.

I hope that your family finds the same benefits.

This is part five of an occasional series of tips for making reading a part of your child’s daily routine.  The more your child reads, the more he knows—and the more interesting his world becomes.

Okay, so I strayed from the around-the-house theme—many families spend a great deal of time in the car.  This can be a good time for children to read.

If your family has many kids, you probably spend time waiting in the parent pickup line at school, cooling your jets until baseball practice ends, and just generally hanging around in the car.  This is the ideal time for your kids to read.

Some kids get carsick if they read.  One solution is to place something over the window near the child, so she isn’t seeing movement in her peripheral vision.  On car trips, I used to put a pillow over the window, and those suction cup rollup shades can work, too.

Car reading material might be short: comic books, two-minute mysteries, magazines, books about animals that kids can browse.  If you have interesting reading material in the car, kids will read it.

*Does your child’s teacher assign a nightly requirement for reading?  Use these tips to incorporate reading seamlessly into your daily routine.  It can really help if your child is not the drop-everything-and-read type.