11th Annual Learning Network Conference 2005 Closing Keynote    EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT SCHOOL REFORM I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN  Marilyn Duncan Thank you, Richard for inviting me to speak at the conference this year. I’m not sure how many of you know this but Jan Duncan and I started the kindergarten book together five years ago. When we were initially writing, I remember Jan telling me this book would be the culmination of her life’s work. That comment weighed heavily on my mind as I began to finish what we had begun. It was very difficult to pick up the pen. I wish that each of you could have known Jan. Her spirit is so evident at this conference. I remember when Jan was supporting my training as a teacher leader. I think it was her second visit to my classroom. On the first visit, I had learned how important it was to have a focused teaching point for each instructional episode. On the second visit she was going to watch a reading group and by darn, she would see a focused teaching point. I would teach the children to predict before they read. We sat down, we predicted from the cover. It was going well. We turned to the first page. The children began to read the text. I said, “Wait. First we have to predict what the page is going to be about.” We turned to the second page and the children began to read. Again, I said, “Wait! We haven’t predicted.” At this point Jan said, “My God, Marilyn, you might as well put a brick on their heads to keep them from learning!!!” She had a subtle way of letting you know what she thought. Not long after I became Mrs. Duncan, I was with Debbie Backus in a school in Colorado. When the day finished, one of the teachers said to Debbie, “That Mrs. Duncan wasn’t as scary as everyone said she was.” Debbie didn’t have the heart to tell her it was a different Mrs. Duncan. It’s Jan’s spirit that stays with us. There is a little bird in New Zealand called a fantail. The Maori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand, call the fantail, piwakawaka – the messenger. Their belief is that if a fantail flies into your house and twitters, he is the bearer of bad news. But there’s something special about a fantail that enters a house and is quiet. The doors and windows were open on the day of Jan’s memorial service. Her service was in her home. At one point during the service a fantail flew into the room. He flew around the room a few times, flew over the casket, pirouetted on the microphone a few times, then flew out the doors and sat on a flax bush until the service was over. Only then did he fly away. The group of people gathered in her memory realized the significance of this event. A Maori colleague, after hearing this story commented that Jan must have been a very special person. In Maori cultures, the quiet fantail takes the spirit of a very special person away. I was baking cookies with our grandchildren a few years later in this same house. It was a beautiful summer day and in flew a fantail. I pointed my finger at the little bird and warned, “Don’t you make a sound.” The children recounted the story of their Granny Jan’s memorial service and I commented that the fantail was probably Granny Jan’s spirit checking to see if we were making cookies the right way. About a year later, a fantail appeared again, in the house on the day our youngest granddaughter was having minor surgery. Peter mentioned that he hoped the fantail’s visit was a positive message about Ivy’s surgery – it was. Just last March, the doors and windows were once again wide open. A fantail flew into the house, around the living room, into our bedroom, around the living room again – never uttering a sound. I shared with Peter later that day that perhaps the message this time had to do with the impending arrival of our newest grandchild. That night William Peter Duncan was born – three weeks early. Now I don’t expect to see a fantail in this room today but I am absolutely certain that Jan’s spirit is with us. She provided us a legacy. I love this conference because of the quality of the participants who attend. Over the last two days and this morning as I look out into the audience, I am filled with fond memories of great professional and personal experiences with many of you. Many of those I admire most are in this room. You are people who are used to thinking about your work as you work, and you are constantly questioning your thinking. I’m honored to be among you. I have been fortunate to work in school reform for the past fourteen years. These are challenging times. The No Child Left Behind legislation has made a huge impact on our work in schools. Some of the results are less than appealing – retention of students in the grades prior to testing is at an all time high. Schools and school districts are adopting programs that require little thinking on the part of the educator. Even in places where programs are not intended to drive practices, teachers feel so pressured to move learners through levels of achievement that they forget who the learners really are. Administrators at both the building levels and central office levels are continually faced with the mandate that all students will be proficient by 2014. On the positive side, No Child Left Behind has forced us to give more than lip service to the diverse learners who walk through our doors. We are now taking action to close the learning gaps in subgroups that previously were exempt from even being tested. In some districts, the subgroups are becoming shining stars. Professional development for teachers is no longer an option and professional development on the job is what is expected. We can become overwhelmed by what we have to do or we can become focused on what we need to do. I have thought a lot about my last fourteen years. I have learned there are some fundamental characteristics about school reform that can keep us focused and can help lead to success. We need to have high expectations. We need to be able to say simply and clearly what we know and why it works. We need to see the big picture. We must be certain the process is transparent for everybody. Our work should be based on clear ideas and expressed through simple language. School reform will be more successful if it begins with agreements about how the reform process will proceed. We must develop the skills to manage the learning of those we support and we must be able to persevere, even when the going gets tough. You might be wondering what this has to do with kindergarten. When Richard asked me to deliver a keynote speech, he asked that I speak about kindergarten. Hmmm… I said to myself…three hundred participants…how many of those folks will be interested in hearing about the world of five year olds and those who teach them? I asked myself what would pique the interest of people choosing to attend a conference on “achievement from the classroom to the district”. I expected that it would be teacher development and school reform. But the more I pondered this, the more I began to see that actually, everything I learned about school reform, I learned in Kindergarten (thank you, Robert Fulghum)! I judge the effectiveness of the work I do on two levels – the most important is knowing and having evidence of whether or not learning occurs – the other level is whether the work is rigorous, reflective, and fun. We need to be serious about the achievement of kids, teachers, and leadership. But we need to hear the laughter in our work. Let me begin by introducing you to someone I met, just this year - Oscar. He entered kindergarten in late August as a monolingual Spanish speaker. He was placed in a kindergarten classroom rich in language. While his teacher was planning for his development as a reader and a writer, she was also planning for his development as an English language speaker. Content information in this classroom was not dumbed-down because of the number of children who did not speak English. They were not sitting in pull out programs pointing to their nose, ear, eye, and mouth. They were exposed to content-rich information. Their teacher read many books to them about content, she wrote about content, they had access to a rich variety of materials about content. I visited the classroom in October. The children were immersed in learning about bats. Oscar wrote daily in his draft writing book and as I looked over his shoulder at his writing that day, I saw a planning sketch of bats – quite sophisticated – with lines that looked like sound waves above the bats flying in the air… I thought, “Surely not..” I asked Oscar to read me what he had written. His writing looked like random strings of letters and at this point did not link to sounds. He read, “Bats – fly – night.” I said, “So your story says, “Bats fly at night.” He nodded, then looked at me and added – “Echolocation!!” Oscar taught me about high expectations because he knew something that I didn’t expect him to know – but despite his English language development, I should not have been surprised. How does that link to school reform? If high expectations are a vital characteristic for success, it means we have a firm belief that in our organization, everyone has the potential to learn when provided adequate support. Oscar, in the first two months of school, received the kind of support he needed to show the potential he had for learning. As teachers, do we really believe that all students in our classroom can learn – despite poverty or language challenges? Do we believe that the students we teach who are labeled with special needs will exit special education? Do we begin each school year looking for the possibilities of potential learning for each individual in our classroom? As teacher developers, do we really believe that all the teachers we support can learn? Do we look at resistant teachers as teachers who are causing problems or do we see them as teachers who at least question what we are doing? Do we work on listening intently as we work with teachers to find their genuine questions or do we just give them one of ours? As administrators, do we really believe that all of our staff has the potential to learn? Do we collect regular information on how professional development occurring in our school has directly impacted a change in teacher behavior? Do we support teachers in understanding that what they are learning is directly impacting what their students will learn? Central office administrators, do we really believe that all of our building administrators have the potential to learn? Do we get into the school and work alongside them as they approximate their leadership skills? Do we blame them for what they aren’t doing or do we look in the mirror and ask if we know what it takes to be a proficient building administrator? Do we have those skills ourselves? High expectations means everyone has the potential to learn when provided with adequate support. Here’s another example…I was in a kindergarten this spring. There was real consistency in student growth. I was chatting with a five year old named Maria about her writing. I showed her the first entry in her draft book at the beginning of the year… lots of scribbles across a page. Then I re-read with her, the last entry – the piece she had written that day – a page of writing rich with details about playing T-ball and having her grandmother watch. I flipped back between the two entries and asked her why she thought her writing had changed since the beginning of the year. She looked at me, shrugged her shoulders, smiled, and said, “Just magic, I guess!” What did I learn from Maria? Bibbity-bobbity boo isn’t going to cut it in school reform. In order to be successful we have to know what we know. We should be able to clearly articulate the why behind what works. We need the flight recorder. We need to know what’s inside the black box. It was interesting talking with Maria’s teacher. I commented on the consistency I saw in the growth of her students. I asked her what she attributed that growth to. First, she talked about the Spanish speaking teaching assistant who was assigned to her classroom (so that students knew from the beginning what was expected of them). Then she talked about the role of the parents in supporting their learners. The kids were great – better kids than she had ever had. Finally after much listening and additional prodding, she began to reveal what she now knew that she hadn’t known before. She was no longer looking for the “teachable moment” she was intentional in planning for what the students needed. The teachable moments now occurred as she taught. She was more focused than she had been in previous years. She was continually providing feedback to her students about what they were able to do. She received consistent feedback on new approaches to instruction that she was trying. What she needed to realize was the reason the kids were so great had much more to do with the skills she now had than any other factor that contributed to their success. Teachers, do you think about the impact you have on the success of your students? Are you able to articulate what you have learned that has led to that success? Do you know what you did differently so you can apply it again to a different situation? Teacher developers, do you facilitate the teachers you support in keeping a record of their progress? Do all of your instructional dialogues and conversations with teachers contain student data so you can make the direct link between teacher effectiveness and student learning? Do you make certain that each step a teacher takes is small enough for them to quickly see the impact of their learning on the learning of students? Building administrators, do you meet with your teachers on a regular basis to see the evidence of their work on student achievement? Do you plan time for teachers to reflect on the formative data they have collected and analyze their success? Do you set expectations for teachers to plan their own learning based on what they see their students need to understand? Do you know what teachers now know so that you have confidence in what your students will know? Central office administrators, can your building administrators articulate the leadership skills they have developed that are impacting the learning of their staff? Are they aware of how they have changed as leaders over the year? Do they set expectations about changes in teacher behavior based on the professional development that has occurred in the school? Knowing what we know is being able to articulate the why behind what works. Here’s my next example… A new school opened in the middle of the year. I was in the cafeteria one morning with the teacher leader while the kindergarteners were eating breakfast. The teacher leader and I were talking about the day ahead when Ms. Hess, the principal began making the morning announcements over the loudspeaker. Josie, a five year old, tapped the teacher leader on the shoulder and said, “Is that Ms. Hess?” The teacher leader said yes and we continued to talk. A minute later, Josie tapped the teacher leader on the arm, pointed to the speaker on the ceiling and said, “She must have to lie down up there.” Josie taught me that someone has to see the big picture to understand what’s going on. Seeing the big picture means that we know exactly what we would like the organization to look like in five years, how that would be reflected in three years, and what that means by the end of this year. All of our efforts are focused on what will get us there. Teachers – Do you know what you need to know by the end of next year in order to meet the diverse needs of the learners who will walk in your classroom? Do you know what you’re aiming for? Can you clearly articulate what a proficient student would know and be able to do by the end of the year at your grade level? Teacher developers – Do you have a solid understanding of proficiency at each grade level in your school? Do you ask teachers to bring student work to your professional conversations to compare where the students are to where they need to be along a continuum of learning? Last year in a school I visited, the leadership team was discussing the slow progress of their third grade students. The coordinator asked the principal if his teachers knew what a proficient reader and writer in third grade looked like by the end of the year? The principal assured her that all teachers were very aware of those skills. We decided to go out and look. We had with us the curriculum continuum that set out the proficiency criteria for third grade students. We invited the teachers to be alongside and told them that we were looking for proficiency and our ability to define it and find it. We talked with readers as they read. We looked at what the document said about proficient third grade reading behaviors. We talked with the teachers about what we should be asking those kids. We dug into draft writing books, looked at the continuum and what proficient writing behaviors were. The teachers were the first ones to say they didn’t know enough about proficiency. Administrators – Do you know what your teachers know? Do you have a vision for what your students and staff will be able to do at the end of this year, three years, five years? Are you filtering all of your decisions about professional development through a lens that will allow you to see that vision? Are you able to take what you read, what you hear, or what you learn and apply it to where your school needs to go or do you allow it to distract your efforts? Central office administrators – Do you have a vision for what your schools will know and be able to do in five years, three years, and next year? Does everyone from the superintendent down to the kindergarten teacher understand the big picture? Does each of your departments share the same vision or are they all entities unto themselves competing for the district’s limited resources? Do you have a system for monitoring the growth of schools? The big picture is knowing exactly what the organization needs to look like and placing all efforts on getting there. Back to kindergarten - Nathaniel was a five year old in my classroom. He was writing a greeting card for his mother. When I walked past, I mentioned that he was spelling the word ‘like’ correctly. He looked up at me (with a bit of disgust) and said, “Well, it’s been on my list of words to practice for a long time now.” I responded that if he spelled 'like' correctly, it would no longer be on that list. He looked up at me with obvious surprise and said, “Is THAT how that works?” I learned about transparency from Nathaniel. Transparency means everything that we do is understood by everyone involved. There are no hidden agendas. The process is transparent. The teacher is not the only one that knows what is going on in the classroom; the principal in the school is not the only one who knows what is going on in the school; the central office administrator in the district is not the only one that knows what is going on in the district. In your classroom, do students understand what they are expected to learn? Do they have a clear picture of what it would look like if they learned it? Are they provided adequate feedback so they are aware of how they are progressing toward that learning? Are they encouraged to self-evaluate their progress? I was in a classroom in January and the administrator was talking about feedback. She mentioned that the staff was working on clearly saying (in student language) what the outcomes would look like when students learned. She said they were finding that when these learning targets or outcomes were written down, the learning had been cemented somehow. In another school, the first grade teachers decided to make a shift in the way they help students monitor their own skills in reading and writing. The students have cards on metal rings with outcomes listed on them. One ring is tasks they are working on learning – “I am learning to leave spaces between words.” “I am learning to ask questions about what I’m going to read.” When these skills are learned, the children transfer the card to a ring articulating what they can do. Feedback and self-evaluation lead to transparency. Everyone understands the process. In your building, do teachers understand how professional development is structured and why it is structured that way? In your district, if the superintendent walked into a classroom, put his or her hand on a student’s shoulder and asked, “What do you know about this student?” Would it be a surprise? Transparency means you would expect this. You would expect to provide the details of what you know about the student as a reader, writer, or mathematician because you would have the data to rely on. You would have a running record no older than three weeks on a primary reader that would show what the student can do and you would be able to say what you would do next for that student. You would have student writing at every age and stage of development that would show a progression of achievement over time. You would have documentation in math that would show the student progress toward the standards. Transparency – what we do is understood by everyone. There are no hidden agendas. My job as a teacher is to know my students. My job as an administrator is to know my teachers. My job as a central office administrator is to know my schools and everybody knows this. I was in a kindergarten where students write daily. The drafts of writing are housed in a draft book and the students had been writing for eight months. One day, in late March, Jamal came up to his teacher excitedly, to show him that he was on the last page of his book. He said, “Tomorrow I need a new giraffe book!” Jamal helped me understand simple, clear language contributes to successful school reform. Peter and I return tomorrow to New Zealand. Since it is winter, I will be putting on a jersey (not a sweater) for the trip home. When we arrive, I’ll go to the market (not the grocery store). I’ll put the food in the boot (not the trunk) and if the car doesn’t start, I’ll have to look under the bonnet (hood). Peter will order a long black when we have coffee and I’ll ask for a flat white. I’ll make certain to get into the car on the right side (where I’ll find the steering wheel) and I’ll be certain to drive on the left side of the road. When our grandson asks me if Granddad has any rubbers, I’ll no longer gasp – but I’ll look for an eraser. Language can be confusing, even when it’s English. Our work in school reform must be so clearly stated with language that is jargon free that it invites everyone to be included in the process. This spring, I was in a school where the conversation around the table was about teachers understanding success criteria, making certain they knew about the what, the why, the how, and the transference of learning. Teachers were being encouraged to construct their own compliments. I watched the confused faces around the table and decided that we must all belong to different clubs. If you belong to the success criteria club – then you have read the latest books by Shirley Clark, if you are in the what, the why, the how, and the transference of learning club, you heard Elaine Fink and Tony Alvarado speak. If you are in the construct your own compliments club – you were somewhere that I’ve never been. Over the years we have had the guided reading club, the text to text, text to self, and text to world club, the phonics and phonemic awareness club, the SYOP club, the results driven club, the conflict resolution club, the critical friends club. If you have been supported by The Learning Network, you have been a member of the understandings club and some days you don’t even understand your new understanding!! Simply stated, education is one profession filled with words that tend to exclude us from processes rather than include us in the process – a friend of mine has referred to this challenge as surviving the gang language of education. Teachers, do you ask your students to talk about the strategies good readers or writers use before they read or write? Do you find it difficult to observe any of them using those strategies while they read or write? Teacher developers, building administrators, and central office administrators – does the language we use to describe what we do allow people to be included in the process or does it make them feel as if they don’t know enough to belong? Simple, clear language that everyone understands invites everyone to be included in the process of school reform. Back to kindergarten, where I was in a classroom with Mr. Duran, the building administrator. Seth, a five year old, came up to his teacher and said, “I know how to write Mr. Juran’s name. It starts with a “J”. His teacher said, “Actually, his name is Mr. Duran – Duran. Seth quietly said – “D”…. Does HE know that?” Seth taught me about agreements…figuring out the rules together before we play the game. Prior to any process of school reform, we must take the time to come to agreements with all of the interested parties involved. This is what we will do. These are the commitments we expect from each individual. This is how our success will be measured. Agreements are part of a trade-off. On the one hand, we remove the barriers and fears by being transparent about the challenges that have to be faced and the supports that will be provided. Put another way, we try to eliminate the reasons for excuses. And in doing so, we ask for a commitment to what we’re trying to do. We agree about the purpose of professional development. Student learning will increase because of what we learn. We understand that it will be regular – it will occur once a week or every other week. We know it will be systematic and focused. It will begin with a professional question from the teacher. It will be followed by support which will in turn be followed by a professional dialogue about the teacher’s question. Student work and teacher planning will be part of the discussion. Classroom practice will be expected to change in order to meet the learning needs of students. Teacher developers and building administrators, do teachers understand that job-embedded professional development is a commitment to support them through difficult periods of change? Do they recognize that support? Do they become committed to change? One simple question - Is the job of central office to wait until the teacher associations complain about the difficulties of reform or should the teacher associations be approached at the beginning to seek their agreement about the way the reform will proceed? School reform has a much better chance for success, if agreements are reached openly and commitments are made openly as well with all the interested parties. This may not be as difficult as it seems. It is simply not the way we are used to working. For those of you who don’t hang out with young children very often, one common practice in kindergarten over the years has been the letter of the week. In this practice, teachers choose one letter and the entire focus of the week is on learning the name, the sound, and the formation of the letter (except in the case of q and u who are presented together. They were actually united in marriage in some classrooms. These days they are more properly in civil unions). I was supporting one kindergarten teacher who continued the letter of the week while we worked on other things. I watched her write in front of her students. “I took my dog to the park. You won’t believe what happened! He stuck his nose into a deep hole and began to dig and dig. The dirt was flying everywhere!! He grabbed a huge bone. I wondered, ‘Did it belong to a dinosaur?’” Jessica raised her hand. The teacher called on her. She said, “Look at all those ‘d’s’ up there and it isn’t even ‘d’ week!!” Jessica reminded me of the importance of managing learning. We need to know what our learners know already. We need to know this to determine their next steps. We need the information about which students already know ‘d’ to use that information to manage our time and the learner’s time to ensure learning occurs. In the classroom, I know what good planning looks like so that I am using my time to see that every student is learning. Do I organize an environment where students can show me how they are applying what I have taught – a place where they can use what they know? As a teacher developer, do I ask the teacher to bring both the student work and the daily plan to the instructional dialogue? As a building administrator, how do I manage my time to meet the needs of my staff as learners? Do I think about what I need to be monitoring and why I am monitoring in order to schedule my time for monitoring? As a central office administrator, do I gather information about each school then determine how best to use my time to support the development of leadership? Do I bring administrators together who have similar needs and provide time for them to practice leadership skills on the job? Managing learning is about using our time effectively and efficiently to ensure learning occurs – student learning, teacher learning, administrator learning. This story is a bit more personal. It involves a five year old but he happens to be our grandson and he lives on the other side of the world where it’s cold and wintry right now. Andy and Granddad were planning on outing. It was pretty muddy where they were going, so they thought it would be a good idea for Andy to wear his “gumboots”. As they went out the door, Granddad said, “Andy, you need your gumboots.” Andy stuck his toe in the rubber boot and said – “Granddad - There’s a frog in my gumboot.” Granddad said, “There’s not a frog in your gumboot, Andy, put it on.” Andy again stuck his toe in his boot and said, “Granddad, there’s a FROG in my gumboot.” Granddad, sighed and said, “Come on, Andy – we need to get going – there’s NO frog in your gumboot. Andy dutifully put his toe in his gumboot again and again said (a little louder). “Granddad – there IS FROG in my gumboot.” At this point, Granddad grabbed Andy’s gumboot. He turned it over and --- a very large, very black toad jumped out. What we learn from Andy is persistence!!! Persistence -- In school reform, we must keep the focus on where we’re going. We absolutely cannot get distracted or lose our nerve, even in the most difficult times. Teachers – Do you look carefully at the individuals or groups of learners in your classroom who seem stuck; who don’t seem to make the progress you expect? Do you analyze what it is they need to know then determine if you have the skills to instruct them? Do you plan for your own professional development around those students? Do you take the time to plan precisely for their instruction by determining if your objective is focused? Do you look into the resource or learning experience for the supports to the learner and for the challenges that will prompt learning? Do you know what it will look like when the learning occurs? Are you willing to listen carefully while you’re teaching in order to adjust the support for learning? Do you avoid blaming the child and look more closely at what you might do? Are you relentless and determined that all children in your classroom will learn? Teacher developers – do you look at the teachers you support as individuals just like you look at the students in your classroom? Do you determine where the learning is breaking down for that teacher? Do you adjust the kind of support you are providing? Do you work alongside that person or provide demonstrations so that the approximations the teacher makes will lead them closer to success? Do you avoid blaming the teacher and look more closely at what you might do? Are you relentless and determined that all teachers you support will learn? Building administrators - do you lose your nerve when achievement results look flat after only one year of a reform initiative or are you willing to hold on and say we’re doing the right thing – we just need to keep focused? Can you clearly say in simple language what you are trying to do when parents ask about changes that are occurring? Do you continue to hold teachers accountable for student achievement despite the rumblings of resistance? Central office administrators – do you anticipate the press release before the awkward questions are asked? Do you continue with the same message about the focus on student achievement? Do you present to administrators a clear message about student achievement and ways of achieving it that aren’t going to go away? Do you continue to analyze data to uncover patterns of growth when proficiency doesn’t always show it? Persistence means keeping the focus on where we’re going. We absolutely cannot get distracted or afford to lose our nerve. The more effective kindergarten teachers that I have worked with or observed all have high expectations. They are able to clearly express why they are doing what they are doing. They have in their head the big picture, a plan of where their students are going and how they are going to get there. Their students also understand why they are doing what they are doing. If these kindergarten teachers have to explain to the parents of their students about how learning occurs in their classroom they are able to do this with simple, clear language. There are kinds of agreements in these classrooms. Students know that learning the expectations help them to become better learners. They develop the skills to manage their own learning just as the teacher supports their learning through understanding what they have to learn and how they are going to learn it. Effective kindergarten teachers and kindergarten students don’t give up. They persevere through the most challenging times. To my mind, these eight components that I have learned from my experience in kindergarten are crucial to our successes in school reform. First having high expectations; second, being able to articulate what we know and why it is successful. It’s important to have in our mind the big picture and keeping the process transparent by having clear ideas and using simple language, and having agreements. These agreements are important to all interested parties so we trade-off support provided with commitment to become involved. Support means we must develop the skills to manage the learning of those we support. Finally we must be able to keep our eye on the prize by perseverance. If we believe in what we’re doing, we continue to keep going even when the going gets tough. In addition to all of this, it is important for teachers, teacher developers, and administrators to have an emergency plan - which reminds me of one more story. Tony missed me when I had been out of school for a family emergency. He had lots to tell me and I had lots to do to get ready for the day. I suggested he write me a letter. As he began, he asked me how to spell my name. I reminded him that he could find it by the door. I read his letter at home that night. It began --- Dear Fire Exit…. Thank you.