Follow up from Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and Dr. Enfield 10/14 visit to RHS

[jmpewitt]

David Grosskopf confirmed the following notes with Dr. Goodloe-Johnson
and Dr. Enfield:
• Our process of district Language Arts alignment is focused on the
experiences of grades 9-11 and not 12, at least in this incarnation.

• We have not yet determined if, in Language Arts, required
texts are semester- or year-specific.

• Dr. Goodloe-Johnson said we’re not saying the LA Options (or
Franklin’s Humanities courses) are gone. We’re saying, look and see if
the skills are met. Maybe some skills need to be added to a course.
But that doesn’t mean starting over: overall we take the best from
what we do and build on that—we don’t throw out the things that are
working.

• You stated clearly that supplemental texts would be up to
teachers, and that we have moved away from all grade-specific teachers
in the district teaching the exact same text—choosing from a list
instead.

____________________________________________________________________

Several RHS members are encouraged after the visit, but I am not quite
there yet. While 12th grade seems to be off the table (until the 24
credit graduation requirement is in place) and there is indication
that the booklists have widened, Dr. Enfield made reference to greater
choice in the classes above and beyond the grade level LA courses:
this goes against the RHS structure of heterogenous classes.
Similarly, without very wide and grade-flexible booklists the Options
program does not seem sustainable to me. I post my email to Dr.
Goodloe-Johnson and Dr. Enfield, though I have said much of this
before in this forum and others. I wish I could say that I got
responses of resounding support for our successful program, but I did
not.

Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and Dr. Enfield:
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit Roosevelt this
afternoon. We very much appreciate the opportunity to clarify our
understanding of and to make suggestions on the alignment process. RHS
LA department members left our June meeting with Dr. Goodloe-Johnson,
Mr. Tolley, Ms. Thompson and Ms. Vasquez feeling as though our voices
were a welcome part in shaping the alignment process. I thank you for
making today’s meeting equally positive.

Particularly given that Dr. Enfield is a relative newcomer to the
discussion, but also because you invited follow up conversations, I
would like to explain a little more about the suggestion I offered
today.

To begin: I was heartened to hear you talk about plans to align
“skills and standards” across the district, as this approach has been
the one that the RHS LA department maintains will allow buildings/
department–those who are best acquainted with the needs of their
specific populations –to develop consistent and rigorous curricula
while teaching to their passions and meeting the needs of their
individual student populations.

The suggestion I made at the meeting was to move the conversation away
from text alignment and towards skills/standards alignment.

At RHS we believe that the nature of Language Arts is such that the
skills are the content (literary analysis, identifying themes,
persuasive writing, vocabulary development, etc.) and the texts, then,
are the examples by which we teach content. A teacher can challenge
her students to both writing and reading standards that are
independent of the specific text. As a matter of fact, when a teacher
can choose a text that best fits the individuals in the room, she’s
likely to see not only more students learning, but more students
learning deeply. In both the White Paper draft Mr. Vance sent in
preparation for today’s meeting and in response to today’s question
about Social Studies alignment, you say that you don’t intend to
mandate the “how,” as that becomes standardization, not alignment. I
offer that the skills/content are the “what,” and the texts are a
fundamental part of the “how.”

If the LA alignment conversations were about which skills and
standards to address at specific grade levels you would have the
engagement and support of the RHS LA department. In our follow up to
the June meeting, RHS LA offered that we are “in total support of
aligning according to such standards of reading and writing skills,
and believe that every school in the district can benefit and improve
under the clarity, support, and specific targets such skills
provide.” Prior to that meeting we had expressed our deep concerns
about SPS LA alignment, in part because of what we feel to have been a
hastily undertaken and obscure process, but also because the focus of
the conversations have been about text alignment – with very little
conversation about skills and standards alignment. Again, I was happy
to hear you bring it up today, but it’s been a very small part of the
work done over the past year.

My lingering concern about the LA alignment is centered around the LA
text adoption work. The RHS LA department sees the conversations about
text alignment as a threat to our very successful Options program. I
excerpt the RHS LA Philosophy statement below. In short, our students
share a common experience – and so build a common foundation – in
LA9+World History blocks and then LA10+AP Human Geography. In 11th and
12th grade students choose from our twenty Options- each a mixed-
grade, heterogeneous, semester-long in-depth study of genre, mode of
writing, viewpoint, setting, critical approach, or author.

As Dr. Goodloe-Johnson has done in past meetings, we were reassured us
that you don’t intend to dismantle successful programs, and so I write
in the hopes that you will see that the very notion of text alignment
does jeopardize our highly successful 9th grade blocks and our Options
program. (Students may also opt into a 10th grade block, and these
would also be jeopardized.) Your response to my suggestion was that
text/skills isn’t necessarily an either/or proposition, but I hope
you’ll see that requiring adopted texts at each grade level would not
only make mixed-grade classes a practical impossibility, it would also
not leave space for the in-depth focus of our Options offerings. And
so, if you do intend to allow successful programs to remain, it very
much seems like an either/or.

And then, of course, I write to renew my suggestion that we move the
conversation from that of booklists to that of skills and standards
alignment.

Sincerely, Janith Pewitt
RHS LA and Transitional Bilingual Departments

Philosophy and Program for Language Arts at Roosevelt High School
The Language Arts sequence at Roosevelt High School is the product of
years of planning and collaboration. Ninth and tenth grade provide a
breadth of skills in year-long classes aligned with Social Studies
counterparts, a four semester global citizenship event. Eleventh and
twelfth grade classes launch from this breadth of skills to a depth of
study, suiting and stirring individual interests and passions.

Ninth and Tenth grades
Ninth grade Language Arts teams with Social Studies to integrate
subjects in units or projects, encouraging depth in student thinking
and alignment of experiences. Literature is aligned regionally and
thematically to coincide with studies in Social Studies as students
are introduced to world religions, foundational mythology, and broad
swaths of history in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Tenth grade Language Arts collaborates with AP Human Geography
teachers to include two LA/AP HG blocks, in units or projects,
encouraging depth in student thinking and alignment of experiences.
Literature connects to the AP Human Geography curriculum thematically
and conceptually as the students explore identity and institutions
through such lenses as development and maintenance of individual
identity, the effects of institutions on individuals, migration,
language, folk and popular culture, religion, ethnicity, industry,
negotiation of differences, patterns of continuity and change, family
dynamics.

Eleventh and Twelfth grades, Options Program
Options courses are designed to provide personal choice and depth of
study in semester-long classes. Courses focus on a particular genre
(poetry, short story, science fiction, speech, sports), mode of
writing (expository, creative, journalistic), viewpoint (African
American, Asian American, Native American, women), setting (early
American, modern American, world), critical approach (Hands for a
Bridge, Philosophy and Lit, Living in Place), and author (Shakespeare).