A number of years ago, in an op-ed column in USA Today, Linda Chavez (once a presidential cabinet member) criticized educators who focused on the importance of helping students build self esteem. To prove her point, she cited Mussolini and Hitler as two people with high self esteem and implied, therefore, that “self esteem” is not necessarily a desirable trait.

I had always thought of self esteem as something positive and I viewed people like Mussolini who felt the need to boast as exhibiting low self esteem. What does it mean to have high self esteem? Is it reflected in one who is boastful or is it an indication of one who has an appropriate degree of self confidence?

In a CNN profile, David Copperfield was described as “Working with patients in hospitals to use illusions to help them build muscles, strengthen limbs and improve their self esteem as they see what they are capable of.” Hmm, sounds like it’s being used here as something good to have – self esteem that is.

Here are two excerpts from Mike Wallace’s new memoir “Between You and Me”:

Wallace:____________What is Arrogance?

Frank Lloyd Wright: ____________Arrogance is something a man possesses on the surface to defend the fact that he hasn’t got the things he pretends to have. He’s a bluff, in other words.

Sounds to me like Frank Lloyd Wright’s definition of arrogance is what Linda Chavez characterized as self esteem in describing Hitler and Mussolini. Dr. Laura (Schlessinger) often puts down teachers by claiming they spend too much time focusing on self esteem and not being candid with students. Of course, at other times, she speaks of self esteem as a good thing.

In Mike Wallace’s memoir, he speaks of Barbara Streisand when she was a teenager:

In some ways, she already had the demeanor of a diva who believes it’s only fitting that the rest of the world revolve around her. I couldn’t fault Streisand for having such self esteem.

This isn’t exactly a usage of the term in a positive light, is it? In fact, isn’t Wallace using self esteem to describe what Frank Lloyd Wright might label “arrogance”?

What are we to conclude – is self esteem a positive attribute? Do we want to nurture it in our students?

Some people view self esteem negatively because they think it implies we praise students even when they haven’t done anything praiseworthy. Others feel self esteem is a characteristic to be nurtured and that this means we should go out of our way to validate what someone does that is positive, but not that we praise where praise is not appropriate.

Mr. Webster defines self esteem as:

1) belief in oneself; self respect

2) undue pride in oneself; conceit

And therein may lie the answer to whether self esteem reflects confidence and is to be nurtured or whether it is boastful and undesirable: it depends on which of the correct definitions you are applying.

Unfortunately, too many authors, advice dispensers, and pontificators use the term without necessarily sharing the definition they have in mind. Nowhere in Linda Chavez’ USA Today article does she ever define her terms. Were I grading her as a writer in an English class, I would state in big red letters “Define what you mean by ‘self esteem’.”

The next time someone is blasting (or praising) the cultivation of self esteem in the classroom, see if they clarify their definition or if they assume we all share their interpretation. Perhaps my university students can understand why I insist that they define their terms when they right about inclusion, zero tolerance, mainstreaming, charter schools, and, yes, self esteem. One of the best educators I’ve ever met, Suzanne Miller, says that no two people have exactly the same picture in their mind of a particular word. If we don’t define our terms, how can others begin to come close to seeing what we see when we say a word? And if the word is like self esteem and has two correct, but conflicting, meanings isn’t a definition absolutely essential? The esteemed child psychologist John Rosemond once warned educators against making learning “fun”. But as I tried to understand what he meant by fun, well that’s another newsletter at another time.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

A $300 discount is available for teams registered prior to January 31, 2006.

To qualify for the discount, this deadline is FINAL!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

¨ A brief news note recently indicated that at just the time Latin is being eliminated from some curriculums, there is renewed interest in Germany. Why? Because a hip hop band has recorded a very popular rap song that uses Latin.

¨ Social Studies teachers often access Billy Joel’s “We didn’t Start the Fire” as a vehicle for studying history.

¨ I recall a story about a sixth grade class of special education students who visited an honors’ class and responded correctly to more questions about who was president and when than the honor students.

How was this possible?

They had learned the names of presidents chronologically to music. According to the presenter who shared this story, “You should have seen those students strut their stuff in the hallways as they marched triumphantly back to class.”

¨ Over the years, I’ve heard teachers talk about having students design CD covers to demonstrate their knowledge in different disciplines – the teacher simply required the CD covers to address carefully thought-out criteria. The entire decade of the 60s, including the Vietnam War, was taught using CD cover design as the authentic task. Students also honed their technological skills.

¨ One veteran teacher challenges students to design, build, and play board games; before allowing the students to actually build a game, the teacher requires a blueprint that must address criteria that will assure the teacher that certain learning objectives (standards) will be addressed in the building and playing of the game.

All of the above are examples of performance tasks that motivate students to engage with information and allow them to demonstrate what they know and can do. They are also better suited to a range of learning styles and for addressing equally the needs of special students, either gifted or those with learning disabilities. What’s the difference between these projects and the kind we all experienced occasionally as students and probably used as teachers?

When I taught middle school English, before many of our readers were born, a project was something a teacher could do if there was some extra time so you weren’t taking away from the required curriculum or if you were doing it with at-risk kids because as long as it kept them busy no one (unfortunately) cared what I did with them.

This perception of a project (performance task) being something that is only tangential to the curriculum still exists in most teachers’, parents’, and administrators’ minds. Projects should be used to teach the required curriculum, not to supplement it. A performance task is a better way to teach what students must learn, not an addition to the curriculum when time allows.

However, a project is only a better way to teach what students must learn, if teachers:

¨ identify their learning objectives (skills, knowledge, concepts, and/or competencies);

¨ design a performance task that requires students to satisfactorily demonstrate their ability to address these learning objectives;

¨ are able to assess student learning.

Most good teachers have not been trained to do this and haven’t had the opportunity to develop their proficiency with projects that address learning objectives (culled from standards). Most university education departments are just beginning to include this kind of training in their curriculums.

Athletes put up with a lot of tedious work and rote memorization (think of the football player learning the playbook) because they are motivated by the authenticity of their task (game day). Performers, set designers, prop people and others connected with a musical or dramatic production similarly tolerate a lot of menial work and other undesirable duties, including a great deal of memorization and frequent rehearsals because they are motivated by the authentic task of displaying their talents before a real audience.

In Germany, whether by design or not, rap groups are connecting with students’ prior knowledge and interests and motivating them to enroll in Latin courses in a way that no parental prodding or teacher lecturing could accomplish. Isn’t there a message in this for us, as educators? Project based learning, with the right project and a focus on learning objectives and assessment of student performance is where we’re headed as a society. It’s about time.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

A $300 discount is available for teams registered prior to January 31, 2006.

To qualify for the discount, this deadline is FINAL!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Johnny Carson was known to be a very private and shy person when off stage. In his recent memoir, Mike Wallace recalls interviewing Carson and saying, “There’s a stereotype of (you). You know there is.” The following dialogue ensued:

Carson: Well, what is it? What is it?

Wallace: Ice water in the veins.

Carson: I had that taken out years ago. I went to Denmark and had that done. It’s all over now.

Wallace: Shy, defensive.

Carson: That’s probably true. I remember in high school – if I pulled out my old high school annual book and read some of the things people might say, “Oh, he’s conceited. He’s aloof.” Actually, I was more shy. When I’m in front of an audience, I can feel comfortable.”

Wallace: Why?

Carson: I’m in control.

Teachers experienced with traditional strategies often fear a constructivist classroom because they don’t feel in control. This is often true of new teachers as well as veterans because, often, new teachers come to the table with the knowledge of how they were taught and what constitutes being in control in a traditional classroom.

But what does it mean to feel in control? How can Johnny Carson feel more in control on stage in front of millions of people (hundreds live in front of him), with material being tested for the first time, than in a social gathering with only a handful of acquaintances? Marge Flynn helped me understand the answer:

“He has indicators of success and he has done monologues so often in front of an audience that he knows what kind of reactions to expect and how to adjust if he doesn’t get those reactions right away. In a social gathering, he is less certain of how to behave or what to expect so he feels less in control.”

In a traditional classroom, most of us know the indicators of success – quiet (passive) students, neat rows of desks, assignments handed in on time, homework done with a reasonable amount of diligence, and other appropriate protocols. If a teacher has not done cooperative activities frequently, or authentic performance tasks, or reflective activities, than s/he doesn’t know the indicators of success and is likely to feel an absence of control.

The feeling of being in control does come to a constructivist teacher, but only if you allow yourself to experience strategies based on constructivist theory of how students learn sufficiently enough to recognize the indicators of success with such activities.

A couple of years ago I had the privilege of working with teachers from around the country who had been selected for a proposal they had made to engage in a project based learning task. Similar to most other teachers with whom I’ve worked, their major concern was, “How do I use projects to motivate and assess students while still having time to cover the curriculum?

The answer is simple to articulate, difficult to implement: you need to be patient and allow your experiences with project based learning to accumulate. Initially, it takes any good teacher more time to teach effectively through use of performance tasks because we are not used to doing this, do not feel in control, and have not learned how to build in learning objectives drawn from standardized assessments.

However, there are a growing number of teachers who began the journey toward project based learning (focused on standards) years ago. They often tell their colleagues: “It’s easier to teach more of the curriculum through a good project than with traditional teaching strategies – particularly if you’re measuring how much the students learn as opposed to how much you teach.

For a good teacher, you can’t expect to go overnight from traditional teaching strategies to project based learning. It will take you longer at first (much longer) which is why you should make the shift in strategies very gradually, over a few years. However, it is wrong to assume that because your first effort is time consuming that the process of project based teaching and assessing will always be too time consuming to justify much use of it. Recognize that it is because it is new to all of us that we don’t cover as much curriculum, initially, as we would like. It’s not because the potential for teaching more curriculum in less time doesn’t exist. It does. Ask any good teacher who has been at it for awhile.

There is a difference between rejecting something because your first experience with it is unsatisfactory and recognizing that the concept is valid and that your first experience may not be indicative of what you can expect in the long run.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

A $300 discount is available for teams registered prior to January 31, 2006.

To qualify for the discount, this deadline is FINAL!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

On December 13 and again on February 6 we addressed the issue of teaching time management skills to students. The December 13 article brought this response from a second grade teacher:

Hey Don, what a great e-mail about teaching time management. This is something I have been struggling with in my class. Even when just completing an in-class assignment, for example a writing assignment, some kids just can't seem to get to the task. They dither and hem and haw and then the time is gone and they aren't finished.

This excellent teacher continued her question, as follows:

I can see that in my second graders. They come in to class, have a stack of corrections to do on their desk, plus their AM bell ringer, and they're just defeated. I have been putting a note on their desk that says "See Me", and then going over the order in which things should be done with them. I like that support, the question is how do you slowly remove it so that they can accomplish the same things without my constant support (read: nagging)?

We forwarded these questions to teacher/staff developer Pam Horton whose response to the December 13 article was the focus of our February 6 piece. Here is what Pam suggested:

The first thing I would think about is how many kids aren't finishing--if it's a large number I would consider the length of the task.

Otherwise we do timed writings even in first grade so that kids get used to writing on demand, but only as one piece to managing time. Young kids like the challenge of finishing within the time limit---our challenge is to make sure that quality is the primary goal. I do timed writing with the kids as a group first. I set the timer before we start doing an interactive writing on chart paper and talk out loud about things that get in the way of writing (not knowing how to spell a word, don't know what to say, need to ask a question,....) Teaching kids to solve these dilemmas themselves really helps with time management.

...Try the word and then circle it to check later, leave a space if you're stuck and don't know what to say and fill it in later, ask someone at your table to help you and then put the red cup on your desk so I know you need my help, but keep working,.... Timing is just training , but we need to make sure that what we are asking students to do within a time limit is well within their capabilities and that they have solutions to the problems that usually arise. They do invent the most unusual problems, but my expectation in the classroom is that they are always problem solving so they can keep going!

Scheduling snack time or a morning break when that writing task should be finished helps to motivate those kids who tend to be poky. They don't really want to be working while everyone else is on a break. It doesn't usually take too many times before they are busy. Those are the kids I would give a responsibility to do something on a regular basis "when they finish with their work". That's one of the best reminders/motivators for the littler ones.

I have also used the little sand timers to put on kid's desks as a visual reminder to get busy when they need to be on task. It takes away the need to say a word---I also encourage the kids to go and get a timer to put on their own desk when they feel unfocused---these things work for a little while and then you have to come up with something new, but keep thinking of ways to put the responsibility back on the student with the caution that sometimes kids lack the skills they need to complete a particular task independently so this requires differentiation. As a general rule kids really like to be independent-- peel back the layers to find the level where they can be independent successfully.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

A $300 discount is available for teams registered prior to January 31, 2006.

To qualify for the discount, this deadline is FINAL!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

JPACTe (The Journal for Practical Application of Constructivist Theory in Education) has arrived!!!

This is a journal with articles held to the criteria of scholarly work, and also articles that can come from any source (even me), including students. It is the culmination of two years of hard work since Jim Waterson first proposed it. Jim Shuman at St. Lawrence University and Mike Smith at Niagara University have been the drivers (officially recognized as “editors”) to get everyone on board so the first of three annual issues can be published.

To access JPACTe simply go to:

http://learnercentereded.org/JPact/Home_page/index.html

Following is the table of contents for the inaugural issue:

Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 2006

  Editors' Foreword

       
   TABLE of CONTENTS - SEE BELOW

The Institute would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Cara Dodge, Jerry Bartlett, Amanda Sargeant, and Donna Kennedy without whose commitment and long hours JPACTe would not have been possible.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

A $300 discount is available for teams registered prior to January 31, 2006.

To qualify for the discount, this deadline is FINAL!

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.