Grant Boulanger has written the folowing passage about the change we are in. It is free of venom and refreshingly clear. If even half of us printed and shared some variation of this text at at our next department meetings, submitting it to our administrators as well, we would reach a lot of people who are on the fence with all this CI stuff. Bolded text in the second paragraph is mine:
Grant Boulanger is a teacher of Spanish in St. Paul, MN:
It may be time for you to push for change in your local ecosystems. Personally I believe that administrators will hear us when we speak of a lack of equity in language education. When they understand that method is important (it isn’t important in all subject areas) and shifting method (which we can do if we have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset) can increase results, they’ll begin to understand our goal is not a personal vendetta against colleagues who do things differently. No, it’s about college readiness for more students by getting more and more people of all shapes and sizes through 2nd year and into the upper levels.
Darcy Pippin has some amazing stats as her dept has transitioned to TCI over the last 6 years – going from approximately 15 kids in 4th year and 15 in AP to 30 in each. Besides that, she went from 30% passing the AP test (that’s about 5 kids of 15) to 75% passing (that’s about 23 kids of 30). Those are impressive stats.
If we contrast this with our own district’s existing stats, it’s all the more powerful. What’s your district’s retention rate over 4 years? Retention rate in a traditional public high school, which will be mirrored across the country, will be <10% retention over 4 years. mostly white, mostly female, nearly all high-achieving students in the upper classes. Does that reflect your district’s demographic? If not, why not? Does it reflect your district’s dedication to closing the achievement gap? Should it? If so, what changes do we need to make?
But these are just stats. And people are naturally skeptical of stats, as they should be. It’s only 1 part. The stories you tell will be what people remember and what will create in them the feeling that they can be a part of this change.
Everyone wants to feel successful and feel like they’re good at what they do. Everyone wants their kids to buy in and feel successful too. So, there’s the special ed student who shines in your class and in fact outshines many higher achieving kids. There’s the social outcast who raises her head, laughs and smiles. There’s the high-achieving kid who is writing better by March than many level 3 kids from grammar-centric classes.
Then there’s teacher X who, just 3 years ago was a staunch page-turner, honing his explanations and packets for years and who had written off TPRS because of an underlying fear of change. It probably sounded more like, “I tried that already and it doesn’t work”. The “issue” is never the issue. But he now says things like, “wow, my kids are so much more engaged. They’re not resisting me anymore. We have so much more fun and I’m so much happier” These are the stories that need to be bottled, resold and trumpeted until the tipping point is reached inside your small district or department.
In my district, we’re reaching the tipping point. Working from within the existing structures, we have crafted and presented a TCI-friendly goal statement that will be adopted for the district secondary language classes. It’s only a starting point, but this statement is clearly drawn from our district’s own language around equity and the ACTFL 90% statement published in 2011.
It’s very hard to argue. The harder part will be putting the goal statement into action. But our district is supportive. They’re implementing Balanced Literacy in language arts and it’s a big shift for a lot of teachers. So, the district people are saying that they will support our department in the same way, with ongoing training and a transitional period so people don’t feel as if they need to change tomorrow. They’re recognizing that it is scary for people to change, but that having a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, is necessary.