Why have Conley's four intellectual standards - p. 38 - been so rarely a part of curriculum and instruction in most schools? How could we ensure that they are frequently and consistently implemented?
Unfortunately, our pacing guides do not look much like Conley's four intellectual standards. We tend to be so focused on isolated skill lessons that there are few hard and fast expectations to attempt such high-level thinking. I am glad there is so much research to support Conley's point of view. Perhaps we should consider taking a PLC or two and dedicate that time to discuss what sort of complex problems we should be expecting our students to tackle, and to talk about how we might use primary and secondary sources in our classroom investigations. We should probably come up with quarterly research projects (by grade level?) to make sure we are hitting these standards -- which are, as Schmoker says, of paramount importance. We may need to kill two birds and shift our emphasis away from isolated writing prompts and more toward responses related to the content areas of social studies and science.
Maybe they aren't addressed because of time. These standards take a lot of instructional time to do well. Also, I think that standards one and two are probably more address (even though it is minimal) than standards three and four. In order to more consistenly implement them, maybe take a science or social studies topic each quarter and develop a project/writing prompts around that.
Often tasks such as the four that Conley found to be the most powerful are seen as “something else to do” instead of replacing materials and lessons that currently exist. There seems to be great hesitation to take something off a “required” list from teachers but no hesitation to add countless tasks, lessons, standards, programs etc. onto teachers expected list. This reflects why so few teachers are willing to take on the challenge of finding how to teach in the way that we see Schmoker advocating for, while still trying to check off the boxes on an expected list. Finding ways to adjust what we already do or areas that could be eliminated would usher in time and space to explore these four habits in teaching.
Unfortunately, our pacing guides do not look much like Conley's four intellectual standards. We tend to be so focused on isolated skill lessons that there are few hard and fast expectations to attempt such high-level thinking. I am glad there is so much research to support Conley's point of view. Perhaps we should consider taking a PLC or two and dedicate that time to discuss what sort of complex problems we should be expecting our students to tackle, and to talk about how we might use primary and secondary sources in our classroom investigations. We should probably come up with quarterly research projects (by grade level?) to make sure we are hitting these standards -- which are, as Schmoker says, of paramount importance. We may need to kill two birds and shift our emphasis away from isolated writing prompts and more toward responses related to the content areas of social studies and science.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they aren't addressed because of time. These standards take a lot of instructional time to do well. Also, I think that standards one and two are probably more address (even though it is minimal) than standards three and four. In order to more consistenly implement them, maybe take a science or social studies topic each quarter and develop a project/writing prompts around that.
ReplyDeleteOften tasks such as the four that Conley found to be the most powerful are seen as “something else to do” instead of replacing materials and lessons that currently exist. There seems to be great hesitation to take something off a “required” list from teachers but no hesitation to add countless tasks, lessons, standards, programs etc. onto teachers expected list. This reflects why so few teachers are willing to take on the challenge of finding how to teach in the way that we see Schmoker advocating for, while still trying to check off the boxes on an expected list. Finding ways to adjust what we already do or areas that could be eliminated would usher in time and space to explore these four habits in teaching.
ReplyDeleteKarin, I agree with you. What do the rest of you think?
ReplyDelete