Crushing the Gap- Strategies to close the Achievement Gap

1. Crushing the Gap- Strategies to close the Achievement Gap MLK Day 2015- Russ Facione Principal Bingham Farms Elementary School RFacione@birmingham.k12.mi.us

2. Respond to this Quote “Mediocre teachers tell; Good teachers explain; Superior teachers demonstrate; Great teachers inspire;” William Arthur Ward • What makes someone GREAT?? • Turn to a person nearby and share what you think makes a teacher GREAT??

3. So what will we do over the next hour? • Understand what the gap truly is. • Explore ourselves so we can begin to fully understand what we need to do. • Understand what we can do within our classrooms – via pedagogy and culture.

4. Realities about the gap….. • There are different gaps out there, the one that is most pressing is the race/gender gap of African American Boys. • That group will be our focus for our session. • But whenever you do gap work you need to work at the internal (yourself) and the external (pedagogy) pieces.

5. From Kunjufu- “Understanding Black Male Learning Styles” • The Problem- • 12% of AA Boys are Proficient in reading • >70% of Remedial Reading Students are male • 80% of AA students in Special Ed are male • 53% of AA males drop out of high school. • My building (BPS) – • A 30% Proficiency Gap in MEAP. • Strengths over looked by teachers: • Unique, Clever, Witty, Creative, Sensitive, Strong Auditory Skills, Oral Skills, Visual-Picture Skills, Tactile Kinesthetic Skills • Thought to be disruptive and aggressive;

6. Internal- A Look at Ourselves as Teachers. • Your personality- It’s the thumbprint of you and in essence of how you teach. • What color is your dominant color? • GREEN (Logical Frame) • BLUE (Emotional Frame) • GOLD (Organization Frame) • ORANGE (Spontaneity Frame) • Does your color match your classroom? • 70% Teachers are GOLD, 75% of Boys are ORANGE. • These are opposite!! • If you know your color, or what you think it is, share with a neighbor whether you feel you match your kids or how you work on it if you don’t True Colors, that’s another presentation!!

7. Bonnie Davis -“How to Teach Students Who Don’t Look Like You” • 4 Parts to her Model, First Part is “Looking Inside Ourselves”; • Use the 12 prompts to address the WHO of your teaching there is--- which impact greatly the What How and Why. • Questions include: • Do my students leave my class liking the subject more than when they started? • What does my body language say to my students? • Do my interactions with colleagues model the kind of interactions I expect among my students? • Do my interactions with students mirror how I want them to act toward me? • Do I know the culture of my students? And others!

8. WHAT If you had to do something New in your job?? For anything that is NEW… (SBG, 5D, New Curr., etc;) • You would have to get intentional training in order to begin to pull that off in an effective enthusiastic engaging way.

9. WHAT IF… pt. ii • Now figure you have students you are not familiar with (once a year or a few times per year) • In some of our buildings, we have a sizable number of African American boys in our classes: • Are you ready to connect with them? • Do you know how to motivate them? • Can you maintain that motivation for long periods? • Do you know what their classroom needs are? • Do you know how to address those needs?

10. From Kafele -“Motivating Black Males to achieve in school and life” • Need for Inspiration- • Concentrate on building strong relationships; • At same time make learning fun; • How to build a quality relationship with AA males? • Treat them respectfully; • Demonstrate a genuine interest in them; • Beyond academics; • Listen to them and offer suggestions when needed; • Interactions outside of academic; • Build TRUST • You are a teacher of STUDENTS first, subjects second.

11. From Kafele -“Motivating Black Males to achieve in school and life” • His Essential Questions- Do I see Myself as the #1 determinant of my black male students’ success? Am I passionate about my role as a teacher of black males? Do I set (and monitor) goals with my Black Male students? Do I plan each day through their lens?

12. From Kafele -“Motivating Black Males to achieve in school and life” His Essential Questions- Do I have high standards and expectations and do I believe they can reach them? Do I see myself as a role model and always conduct myself professionally? Do I conduct daily self reflections of my teachings and interactions? Share with a neighbor-- What is one EQ you could see making an impact in your class (or school?)

13. Relationships • One of the key to closing the Gap is for those students to feel a connection between themselves and the learning community. • What rituals in your classroom do you have to build relationships with your students? • What rituals in your school do you have that enhance the relationships amongst students?

14. Let’s work on relationships-Bonnie Davis “Classrooms that Welcome Students” • Students need classrooms where: • Strong sense of community • Students KNOW there’s a Teacher who cares; • Teacher refuses to allow them to fail, and encourages safe risk taking; • Talk with a neighbor about how you welcome students into your classroom or school? • Further Help- Review the handout of Chapter 10 from Davis that walks you through developing those relationships of a culturally diverse classroom.

15. Learning Styles In addition to relationships, you need to ensure there is a STUDENT-CENTERED classroom; • Differentiation, perhaps center-based or workshop based; • Variety of Learning Styles to ensure Kinesthetic learners • Let’s review some • Teacher Perceptions & Student Differences

16. Teacher Perceptions CHANGE YOUR THINKING Is your student…. Or… • Hyperactive Energetic? • Impulsive Sponatneous? • Distractible Creative? • Daydreamer Imaginative? • Inattentive Global Thinker? • Unpredictable Flexible? • Argumentative Independent? • Stubborn Committed? • Irritable Sensitive? • Aggressive Assertive? • ADD Unique?

17. Right Brained Learners in a Left Brain System • “Whole New Mind”- by Daniel Pink, great resource for Right Brained Learning • Kunjufu talks about right brained learners.(Understanding Male Black Learning Styles (2012)) • 67% of ALL kids are RBL. • 75-80% of African American students are RBL, yet what’s the percentage of lessons that are Left Brain Lessons.(Logical Sequential) • Conflict between Pedagogy and dominant learning styles is the crux of why we are all here!! • Learning styles are 80% biological.

18. Right Brained Learners in a Left Brain System • Right Brained vs. Left Brained. • http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/left-brainright-brain# • RB Teacher or LB Teacher???  Take the Quiz! • RB Student vs. LB Student  Check the Article! The Right-Brain Teacher Teachers with right-brain strengths generally prefer to use hands-on activities over a lecture format. In concert with the right-brain preference of seeing the whole picture, these teachers incorporate more art, manipulatives, visuals, and music into their lessons. They tend to embrace Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. They like to assign more group projects and activities, and prefer a busy, active, noisy classroom environment. The classroom of a strong right-brain teacher will typically have materials and books scattered all over. The Left-Brain Teacher Teachers with left-brain strengths generally prefer to teach using lecture and discussion. To incorporate sequence, they put outlines on the board or overhead, and they like to adhere to prepared time schedules. They give problems to the students to solve independently. Teachers with left-brain preferences assign more research and writing than their right-brain peers. A reasonably quiet, structured classroom is preferred. The classroom tends to be clean, with items in their place.

19. So How do we Crush the Gap? • Actively go at this gap in learning styles and lessons that are culturally divers, rigorous, right brained in origin. • Actively look at pedagogy curricula, lesson plans. What can I do??

20. Gender Differences Male Characteristic Possible Adjustments: • Short Attention Span Shorten or Gear to Male Interests • Greater Energy Levels Allow Movement, Exercise, Recess • Slow Maturation Allow for differences • Less developed fine motor Alter penmanship expectation, allow for keyboarding • Less hearing ability Audio system, speakers, seating; • Aggressive Understand the “showdowns”, allow “dozens” performances, go outside; • Not as neat Help with organization • Uncooperative Provide Black Male Mentors/ Role Models • Influenced by Peers Never humiliate publicly- cooperative groups, praise circles, morning meeting, peer tutoring

21. Within your Classroom • Build those relationships with your AA males. • Respect their culture. LEARN the cultural history of those in your classroom. • Respect students when you work with them • Maintain high expectations • Take action against the action not the person • Discipline privately, praise publicly. • Take them where they are, and build them up. • Consistency with ALL kids! • Give students learning style profiles to assess how they learn and to build their meta-cognition.

22. Within your Classroom • Décor in your room- • is it multicultural enough? • Are their “current” people on there? • Is there a place for Rappers or NBA stars? • Does it represent your students? • Survey your kids: • to ensure learning is meaningful to them; • Encourage them to ask “WHY are we doing this?” • Culturally responsive lessons: • Inclusive, represent your student’s population, • Cooperative, Shared, Moving, Give Menus of Choices • RIGHT BRAINED LESSONS!

23. Within your school • Charge your Diversity Committee for Achievement Gap work • Analyze your academic data • Have a specific plan for instruction, before intervention (i.e just because kids aren’t getting it doesn’t mean something is wrong with THEM) • Classes/Activity specifics • Separate Gender Specific Morning Meetings • Separate Cultural Morning Meetings • READ the latest research about it! • You have a resource list! • Get staff to join you, make it an urgent issue!

24. Within your school • Referrals • Challenge your Spec Ed Referral Team and Process to look vigorously at African American Male referrals. • Have Intervention teams prior to Spec Ed evaluation teams for AA males. • Role Models • Guest Speaker- NAACP, Urban League, Proud Dads Groups, Community House, BYA, Successful High School students, College Students, etc; • Staff- Do you have AA males on staff? Look at your hiring practices? Do you interview enough to find a divers pool to draw from (since there are 50,000 resumes on the Consortium)

25. TaKEaways • You just got a lot of information and strategies, what were one or two that hit home for you. • Share with a neighbor!

26. Down time “HoMEwork” • Reading- 5 Must-Read Books • Jawanza Kunjufu, Understanding Black Male Learning Styles, 2011 • Bonnie Davis, How to Teach Students Who Don’t Look Like You, 2012 • Baruti Kaefele, Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & Life, 2009 • H. Richard Milner IV, Start Where You Are But Don’t Stay There, 2010 • Jawanza Kunjufu, Black Students. Middle Class Teachers, 2002

27. Down time HoMEwork • Reflection & Refocus • On a personal level, look at the reflective pieces about your feelings, biases, and how they impact what you do. • Get a solid idea of what types of personality you are, so that you know how to accommodate your learners. • Make this your priority, and share this sense of urgency with others. • Retool lessons and units to accommodate the Right Brain Learners.

28. Thanks for attending! Russ Facione Principal- Bingham Farms Elementary School rfacione@birmingham.k12.mi.us 248 203 3388