Has Hope Lost Its Perch?

Details

Created: 02 July 2024

Has Hope Lost Its Perch?

    The direction in which we are headed has become more clear everyday. As a nation, we have to choose between a bloviating liar who is a convicted felon 34 times or an elderly, though productive, man who has difficulty articulating views he has developed during several decades of government service. We are also faced with a Supreme Court that is nothing more than a political lackey of the bloviating liar. And then there are the members of Congress who reiterate talking points without caring whether those points are based on lies or purposely misconstrued facts. 

     Nor can we avoid those hatred-spewing fakes in the "news media" who use purposely use language to fuel anger. And we never know if the angry person sitting next to us in the local coffee shop is carrying a loaded weapon. And we hear about how the minds of the youth of the country are rotting due to their reliance upon social media technology that continually distracts them. 

     So where do we look for hope? Where is the core of good...the capable...the caring...the people who can lead us to respect the nation of immigrants that we are, the "thing with feathers/that perches in the soul/and sings the tune without the words/and never stops at all" as Emily Dickinson described it?

      Don't tell me that it is through religion. There is far too much extremism in the name of religion to make it the core savior we need. Don't tell me that we simply need to shut down technology usage among young people; doing so would ignore the obvious--technology is not going away so we have to use it positively rather than destroy it. Don't tell me that it is by having confidence that our institutions will reform themselves, because the corruption and hatred that has, and will, infuse them makes them unreliable. 

    So where do we look? 

    Well, for me, a proud Boomer, the answer starts with looking inward. At ourselves. At the core beliefs upon which we were raised. By objectively questioning what we have learned and experienced as we have aged. And then to share as much as possible with the younger generations. Not those members who spew hatred--they have been compromised hopelessly. No...we need wherever and whenever possible to talk to the open-minded youth, the members of those generations who show respect for themselves, and for one another, and for the guidelines that have led them to be the people they are. 

     We all have grown up making mistakes, doing things we have regretted, and making commitments we believed could not be broken but have been broken. There are some in high-level political offices and businesses and religions who believe that they do not have to apologize, nor do they have to reconstruct themselves. Sadly, they are not the answer to reconstructing the core values that this country needs because they are the ones who have destroyed those values. 

     So we must look beyond them. 

     We must discover those of younger generations who can think broader than themselves. They are out there. They exist. They are of a different thought process than those of us of older generations. They have witnessed more hatred, more exclusion, more threats at a much earlier age than other generations. Many of us are too old to fully understand the source of those thought processes, but that does not mean that those people do not exist. They do. 

     We must find them. We must work with them. We must help them to see beyond themselves, beyond ethnicity, beyond levels of wealth, beyond technology, beyond vacuous hatred and directly into the everyday actions that are supposed to make this country exceptional. 

     Right now, we are not exceptional. Right now, we are in a dangerously transformative state. Right now, we must do whatever little--or large--things we can do to make the transformation a positive experience for all. To find that “thing with feathers” and to not let it disappear.

Copyright: Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

Opinion? Send to chuckwrites@yahoo.com

The Sounds of Progress in Reading

Details

Created: 29 November 2023

Recognizing the Sounds of Progress in Reading Fluency

(Comment by Chuck Cascio, owner of Blog On!: This piece is extremely important to consider in the ongoing discussion about how to creatively address the ongoing challenges of engaging students in reading and measuring their progress. I am honored to reprint it here. For more information about the unique work being done by Riveting Results, go to https://www.rr.tools)

Jessica Tess is the Assessment and Student Work Coordinator at Riveting Results. Prior to joining Riveting Results, she was a teacher and teacher-leader for 10 years in the Milwaukee area. 

In her role at Riveting Results, she directs a team of former teachers who score Fluency recordings in which high school students read complex text aloud. Within 24 hours, Jessica and her team of scorers return quantitative and qualitative feedback to students.In this post, Jessica discusses what happens to a student’s understanding of a text when they practice emphasizing certain words as they read aloud:

At Riveting Results, we score each recording based on just one feature of reading fluency. One of these features is the ability to emphasize certain words. We have found that students need to be able to show emphasis in order to ultimately read complex text with prosody, or expression. 

When teachers first utilize the Riveting Results Fluency Tool with their students, they are often confused by a positive score on an emphasis recording: “This doesn’t sound fluent to me—she overemphasizes the words—she sounds unnatural.”

That’s a totally fair comment. Teachers are used to looking for mastery—and, its opposite, any sign of a mistake.

Yet at Riveting Results we have found that practicing emphasizing words—even to the extent of overemphasizing them— helps high school students recognize how to change and manipulate their voices in a way that allows for more nuanced expression later on. 

Take, for instance, what we hear in Nicole’s First Recording, when she reads from page 304 of Langston Hughes’s The Big Sea. In it, you can hear her emphasize three words: “book,” “dormitory,” and “characters.” She emphasizes these words in a way that her teacher initially saw as signs of disfluency. 

But, if we aren’t so worried about Nicole’s mistakes, we can hear her start to show signs of expressive reading. Hear how she adds a syllable to “book” by rippling her voice. Hear her volume surge when she encounters “dormitory.” Finally, notice that her pitch heightens when she gets to “characters.” 

Nicole’s experimentation and practice, like jotting on scratch paper in math class, isn’t pretty yet, but it enables her to understand the impact of modulating her pitch, pacing, and volume. Over a couple of weeks of practice, she gains more and more control over her breathing and more ease in her expressive choices.  

Listen to this later recording in which Nicole emphasizes the words “ill,” “hated,” and “stomach.” Her confidence draws you in. She almost sounds sick herself when she emphasizes the word “ill.” Nicole’s bitter tone shows that she understands how much Langston Hughes hated his father. 

Practicing emphasis has enabled Nicole to build a bridge between reading the sounds of words on a page and the feelings that these words and phrases evoke in her. 

So let’s revisit that question: “What if the emphasis doesn’t sound natural?” My answer is: Practicing emphasis is part of a longer process of experimenting with reading aloud. Making these sometimes awkward recordings help students connect the sounds of the words to their meaning, and ultimately to their impact. Students who keep practicing reading with emphasis soon become better able to read fluently in a way that reveals the meaning and power of the text.

Copyright: Riveting Results, all rights reserved.

Questions? Comments? Write to chuckwrites@yahoo.com

NO FREEDOM, NO FOOTBALL

Details

Created: 14 October 2023

THE IMPACT OF “NO FREEDOM, NO FOOTBALL”

by

Chuck Cascio

chuckcascioauthor.com

chuckwrites@yahoo.com

     My friend Brig Owens, the all-star safety for the Washington football team, handed me a tee-shirt. "We are going on strike," he said. "I hope you will wear this to show your support."

     I unfolded the shirt, and read its slogan spelled out around a clenched fist: "No Freedom, No Football." I shook Brig's hand and said, "Sure, I will wear it and support you in any way that I can."

     Well, there were not many ways that I--a teacher and freelance journalist--could support Brig and the other players in the NFL who went on strike in 1974, but I understood their cause and I did what I could—writing articles, speaking informally about the players’ cause, and making the the tee-shirt a staple of my wardrobe. At that time, players did not have basic workers' rights--health insurance was limited as were pensions, and players had virtually no say about which team would own their rights in a trade or sale. As far as fans were concerned, few recognized that the guys on the field were actually...WORKERS!  

     Recently, in various fields we see workers demanding their rights, whether it is more money, fringe benefits, time off, or other items relating to personal freedom. They often make their case in ways that surprise others. Perhaps that is because we don't often think about the people on the front line...the people who drive the trucks that deliver the goods at 3:00 AM; the workers responsible for the basic details of automobile operations; the writers and performers whose creativity and commitment create the shows that entertain us and millions of others daily.

     Across professions, there is the tendency to forget that the bottom-line people responsible are, in fact, workers! That is why being given the privilege of developing and editing the late Ed Garvey's experiences and words for the book Never Ask "Why": Football Players' Fight for Freedom in the NFL has been so meaningful to me. Ed was the executive director of the National Football League Players Association from 1971-1983, and among many other initiatives that he led on behalf of players' rights was the "No Freedom, No Football" strike of 1974.

     The tee-shirt, the clenched fist, the players' picket lines, and the slogan “No Freedom, No Football” went a long way toward raising awareness among fans that players were workers who were serious about the freedom issues, issues to which many fans themselves could relate. The slogan and actions conveyed defiance. They communicated the essence of fundamental rights. And they ultimately succeeded in establishing an important starting point for players' rights.

     Never Ask "Why" is now being widely distributed by Temple University Press to football fans, academics, and anyone interested in the issues of equity that are at the basis of this important piece of sports history. Ed Garvey was a fan, a rebel, and a game changer. His experiences are not only a piece of sports and labor history; they are at the core of rights for all workers. 

     That iconic slogan and symbol captured the reality of the battle that was being fought...a battle that continues in sports and other fields today, as the role of ground-level workers is acknowledged, debated, and ultimately, we hope, rewarded.

Never Ask “Why”: Football Players’ Fight for Freedom in the NFL—

Available in hardback or ebook via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many others including directly from Temple University Press at https://tupress.temple.edu/books/never-ask-why

Copyright: Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

Comments? Send to chuckwrites@yahoo.com

A UNIQUE WAY TO TEACH READING

Details

Created: 13 August 2023

RIVETING RESULTS, LLC...

Getting High School Students To Read  and Enjoy Complex Texts!

From Chuck Cascio: In my ongoing search for unique, ground-floor solutions to the rapidly changing teaching and learning environment, I was fortunate recently to learn about Riveting Results, LLC, and its CEO Arthur Unobskey, a longtime teacher, administrator, superintendent, and education reform leader. Riveting Results (https://www.rr.tools) is a program that deserves significant attention from educators, business leaders, and anyone committed to meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present details about Arthur and Riveting Results’ unique approach to learning.

About Arthur Unobskey: After thirty years as a teacher, principal and superintendent, Arthur Unobskey partnered in Riveting Results. After building systems and structures to support his students’ daily progress, he wanted to provide middle and high school teachers with the specific tools that they needed to teach all of their students to read-and enjoy-grade level text.

Throughout his ten years as a middle and high school teacher, Arthur strove to engage every one of his students in deep and rigorous study. As an administrator in both urban and suburban schools, he built and supported teacher and administrative teams that analyzed formative data to determine which teaching approaches unlocked students’ potential, particularly for reluctant students. As a superintendent in Wayland, Massachusetts, he guided the district to embrace the needs of underperforming students, integrating best practices from Social Emotional Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching to improve student engagement and performance.

About Riveting Results, LLC: From 1994 to the present, Arthur co-founded, co-directed and served as the Board Chair for The Writers’ Express (now SummerInk), a non-profit summer writing camp for middle and high school students. During this time, The Writers’ Express developed an instructional model that helped campers from a wide variety of backgrounds find their voices as writers.

Arthur notes that at a time when 69% of entering 9th grade students read below grade level, Riveting Results' 9th and 10th grade comprehensive English/Language Arts solution transforms students' classroom experience. It enables teachers to accelerate their skill development so the entire class can read and enjoy the same rigorous, engaging books. Requiring minimal professional development, its software-based curriculum enables a teacher to seamlessly implement four high-leverage literacy activities that provide students with the precise practice and feedback they need for rapid and sustained skill development.

Arthur’s responses to questions delving into details about Riveting Results, LLC:

>>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

The hold that divisive local politics has on our public schools limits collaboration between researchers and educators, stymieing innovation. District leaders cannot risk the immediate fallout of giving different services to different children, a necessary feature of the randomized controlled studies that have led, in the medical field, to the rapid spread of effective practices. 

With no widely accepted “gold standard” for efficacy, impressive results from another district are met with skepticism. Curriculum committees often privilege programs and approaches that they already know even if they are not impactful. Those districts that seek to be innovative often turn to their teachers to do the impossible: create an in-house solution that is adaptable for all teachers and students while each of the teacher-curriculum developers simultaneously tend to the needs of 25 to 150 of their own students. In such a scenario, no one has the brainspace to effectively determine the impact of their work on student achievement.

>>>What specific "ground floor" education/learning issues does Riveting Results help address?

Recently, a groundswell of mainstream media attention has spotlighted how districts across the country are changing their instruction to incorporate a more structured approach, summarized as techniques that align with the rigorously researched “Science of Reading”. This change in reading instruction will result in more students learning how to read elementary texts. It is a very exciting shift. The media, however, has paid far less attention to adolescents and what literacy instruction they need. The structured literacy approaches used in elementary schools, no matter how systematically implemented, will not enable most high school students to read grade-level texts, shutting them out of the classes they want to take and that prepare them for college.

Text changes significantly between fifth and sixth grades. Students begin to see complex sentences, and by ninth grade, almost all of the text they see is made up of these types of sentences. They are longer, making use of clauses to link multiple ideas. When students see these new types of sentences, they trip over them. The ability to read fluently (smoothly and with expression), which they developed in elementary school with simple sentences, deserts them. Reading becomes laborious and students don’t have the leftover mental energy necessary to process the meaning of these sentences.

The literacy research of the past twenty-five years is overwhelmingly clear that middle and high school English teachers need to make fluency practice a consistent part of a larger literacy program. Fluency practice provides a bridge to complex text that enables students to read more automatically, become engaged and then dive deeper with subsequent research-based reading activities. But getting adolescents to read out loud is hard. And, how does a teacher with 30 students in a class give feedback so that each student can improve their fluency? How can teachers integrate fluency practice into a highly engaging reading and writing curriculum so that it does not feel remedial?

Programs that claim to provide fluency practice for adolescents use methods developed for elementary students that adolescents roundly reject. Commonly recommended choral or echo reading doesn’t work in a high school class because adolescents are much less compliant than elementary school students and will often fake participation. Current fluency software solutions that do track individual performance measure words read correctly per minute, marking students down for each mistake. Speed is not a good measure of fluency with complex text because it requires changes in pace and the careful emphasis of certain words. And, adolescents disengage from instruction that focuses attention on their mistakes.

Riveting Results makes practicing reading out loud joyful. Activities guide students to become comfortable with complex sentences and to notice the impact that their reading has on others. Teachers use the software to assign each of their students individualized fluency practice on the same section of highly engaging, complex text. Not only do students receive feedback on their recordings from remote scorers, but they share their readings with their classmates. The classroom community that emerges from this shared fluency practice enables each student to establish what Gholdy Muhammad calls “literary presence,” (Muhammad, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, p.28), the sense of agency that supports adolescents from historically marginalized communities as they dig into understanding complex text.

After approximately fifteen minutes of fluency practice, students develop an initial understanding of a particular section of complex text. Riveting Results’ software then guides students through three subsequent high-leverage literacy activities in which they work with a partner and their entire class to deepen their understanding of the text. Because they no longer have to provision activities or spend class time explaining directions to students, teachers can focus on eliciting their students’ best work, giving students’ immediate and actionable feedback, and harvesting student ideas for dynamic classroom discussions.

We are implementing our 9th and 10th grade comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum in schools in New York City, Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas and California and are getting extraordinary results.

>>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what personal experiences did you draw upon while creating Riveting Results?

I believe that a classroom can be magical! The tension during a debate; the laughter at a peer’s wit; the grunts when a task is difficult; and, ultimately, the momentum when everyone is leaning in: a nurturing classroom is both raw and gentle. As an educator, I gravitated toward adolescents because they not only crave such a setting, but also respond to it by discovering that they have the agency to impact everyone around them.

At the same time, building such a classroom community, particularly a high school classroom whose students have widely divergent reading levels, cannot be done by a teacher acting alone. Teachers need tools to enable all of their students to succeed. Riveting Results seeks to provide teachers with those tools: beautiful, engaging literature and a set of practices, tested and refined for 30 years, embedded in software so that teachers can reach every student.

For more information about Riveting Results, LLC, go to https://www.rr.tools.

To contact Arthur Unobskey directly, email at arthur@rr.tools.

To contact Chuck Cascio directly, email at chuckwrites@yahoo.com

Copyright: Arthur Unobskey and Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

Football's Unusual Hit Man

Details

Created: 15 June 2023

It is certainly understandable to believe that football's most powerful hitters are massive giants built along the lines of mythical heroes. To a significant degree, that belief is true! I mean, I definitely do not want to be hit by any one of them, and I am sure most fans would agree! However, fans from a certain era will remember a player who countered that physical stereotype but who regularly produced some of the most punishing hits ever. Just 5' 9" and 170 pounds, Pat Fischer drew praise from coaches, teammates, and even opponents for his intelligent, highly physical style of play.