[00:01] SPEAKER_01:
Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.
[00:06] Announcer:
Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center and Champion of High Performance Instructional Leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.
[00:15] SPEAKER_00:
I'm your host, Justin Bader. And my guest today is Jessica Bennett. Jessica is the author of Common Core in the Content Areas, Balancing Content and Literacy. She serves as an eighth grade language arts teacher in Ohio and is a past president of the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts. As an award-winning teacher, she has previously served as president, vice president, and membership chair of Octela and is a recipient of the Leadership Development Award from the National Council of Teachers of English.
[00:46] Announcer:
And now, our feature presentation.
[00:48] SPEAKER_00:
Jessica, thank you so much for joining us for Principal Center Radio. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to this point in your career where you had a book that you had to share with the world?
[01:00] SPEAKER_02:
My concern is that teachers are becoming fearful of education. And in our profession, I really believe that I'm not just an advocate for students, but for education and the idea of learning in general. So in Common Core, came out and was first being talked about, my colleagues and myself included, we were scared. And I think educators have a lot thrown at them and change can be scary. So I kind of wanted to really dig deeper into the Common Core myself and look at what I can do and decide for myself, is this something I should be scared of? And the more I dug into it, the more I thought I can make this work.
[01:45]
And I think that's a big fear of teachers is I'm starting over. What am I going to have to do? I'm going to have to throw away 10 years of materials. I can't use any of the same things. And I wanted to explain to teachers that I'm while learning something new can be frightening, that it's doable. And I think that the Common Core does raise high expectations for students, but I think teachers have high expectations already.
[02:08]
So I just wanted to present the Common Core, specifically the reading and writing standards, to some content area teachers in a way where they would have the confidence to be able to look at the standards and say, hey, these are some things I'm already doing and this is where I can go from here. To know that really what they're doing and where they need to go is in their grasp.
[02:31] SPEAKER_00:
Well, Jessica, I appreciate your comments about the fear and anxiety that any big change really, but especially a change as deep and as broad as Common Core can bring to teachers. And I think when non-language arts and non-math teachers look at Common Core, It's easy to assume that that's someone else's problem, that there is a department that has, there are two departments that have to deal with Common Core, and if I'm a science teacher or if I'm a social studies teacher, then I'm not one of them. But your book takes the perspective that Common Core is relevant and accessible for teachers in every content area, is that right?
[03:11] SPEAKER_02:
It is. And I think that really teachers have to look at Common Core and education in general as, OK, we're teaching them as a group because that isolation causes language arts and math teachers to feel like, oh, I have to do everything. While it's easy for the content area teachers to say, you know, what what about us? Is our content not as important? And my answer is, you know, their content is absolutely just as important. And, you know, they feel like, oh, I'm not an English teacher, not a reading teacher, but but they really are and likely always have been.
[03:45]
But I think now the Common Core allows science and social studies and health and art teachers to look at what they're doing and how they're teaching reading and really kind of teach it with a little bit more purpose. So, for example, in a social studies classroom, obviously students are spending, you know, lots of their time reading. But the Common Core just ask that teachers continue to spend time with reading, but do it with a little bit more purpose. So, you know, when they're reading in social studies to look at perhaps the layout of the text, how the text is organized and the way Common Core set this up could really benefit how students learn the content. in any of their academic classes because the way they read is now going to have a little bit more purpose and just overall benefit for students in general.
[04:39] SPEAKER_00:
So Jessica, as we're thinking about the teamwork aspect of being, say, a middle school teacher or a high school teacher where we're collectively responsible for what students learn and this idea that we take that responsibility and turn it into specific skills that we teach in content areas that cut across the different disciplines. Let's say I'm a middle school science teacher and I want to take some of the ideas in your book to heart. What would be a couple of key ideas or key strategies from your book that would be relevant to me as a science teacher?
[05:15] SPEAKER_02:
I think a big part of content my book has to offer is, first of all, lesson plan layouts for content area teachers, and basically how they can take what they're already doing and apply it to their classroom. I also have several, I'm a big fan of graphic organizers, so I have Several graphics breaking down each of the science and social studies standards and how you could apply reading and writing standards to each individual common core area. So, for example, in a science classroom, when students complete labs, some students might ask, you know, why do I have to do this? And just analyzing the difference between, you know. Being a part of and actually, you know, becoming the primary primary resource for how students learn and doing things firsthand and how they learn differently when they read about someone else completing a project or an experiment.
[06:09]
And I think it's just kind of taking what you're already doing in a science classroom and taking it to another analytical level. So basic tools as you know, highlighting. And looking at different types of sources and how the sources impact student learning is all a part of the common core. And just basically learning as a process. I talk about the four A's, which are to absorb, analyze, argue and apply. And arguing is a big part of science, as we know, through, you know, when students.
[06:41]
create hypothesis. But, you know, what can they argue? There's a lot in science that is unknown. So a science classroom is a really great opportunity to let students draw conclusions and, you know, make inferences and build on colleges. Content knowledge in writing and in reading, discussing debate is a great thing for science. And I present a lot of ways to use those different types of ideas in content area classes.
[07:12]
You know, we might think argument writing is for English, but it can be used in any content area class. And I give several examples of how science and history teachers can do that.
[07:21] SPEAKER_00:
And I appreciate what you said about having graphic organizers and tools and kind of planning templates, because I think the temptation for content area teachers is to focus their attention toward rigor only on their own content area. And I can recall doing that as a science teacher where I would think, okay, what do I really want students to deeply understand from this lesson or this unit? And what are the barriers to that going to be? And often some of the barriers were around, say, the complexity of the text or the difficulty of a procedure. And when I would try to scaffold to make things more accessible to my students, you know, especially at the middle school level, students have very wide ranges of skills often, and I think there's a temptation to kind of scaffold out the rigor when it comes to any other type of skill.
[08:12]
So if I'm not actually teaching reading, I don't want reading to be kind of the limiting factor in whether students succeed in my class. But I really like the approach of having those tools and having those organizers so that there are opportunities for students to get both the support and the challenge they need to develop those skills across the curriculum.
[08:32] SPEAKER_02:
And I think really students need that. And that's another thing, Justin, is that Common Core, while it does hold students to high expectations, it does somewhat opened the door for differentiation. And when you do have those kids that are at different levels, my book kind of presents different ways that you can get them into higher level thinking, whether it's through reading or project-based learning or debate or writing, while still being able to focus on the content. Because I know content is so important. And one of my main goals, I guess, is to get content area teachers to understand that through reading, the content comprehension will be inevitably improved. And I think that's, you know, why teachers need to team up and realize that this is really a common goal.
[09:21]
And I think through teachers and principals working together and working in teams and collaboration, it really just benefits the students.
[09:29] SPEAKER_00:
So Jessica, what's one thing that you would like every school leader to do, every principal or assistant principal to do in order to help navigate these changes that we're seeing with Common Core?
[09:41] SPEAKER_02:
Well, Justin, in a perfect world, I would love to see principals back in the classroom. And when I say back in the classroom, I don't mean dropping in, doing walkthroughs. I think those are great, great things for principals to be doing. But I would love to see principals teach one period a day to really get in there and, you know, plan a lesson. look at these standards and look at what really needs to be done for mastery. And I think if they did do that and teach one period a day, I think they would understand the struggle in lesson planning and really be able to monitor, are students getting this?
[10:19]
How can I differentiate? Just to remember what it's like to be in the classroom. And I think that would benefit them with working with students and with working with their teachers.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00:
Absolutely. And I know everybody's eyes got a little bit bigger when they heard you say that and thought, well, I teach a whole class every day. But I think you're absolutely right to actually be in that struggle and see what the actual changes feel like and remember what it's like to work with students. I think if we are instructional leaders, there's nothing more powerful than than being the lead learner. And, you know, I think principals used to be called head teachers for a reason, and we've certainly gotten away from that as the world of education has become more complex and there is far more administrative work to do than perhaps ever before. But, you know, I've certainly felt like that pile on my desk that's been kind of staring at me for a while of administrative work that I need to do, you know, maybe I could swap with a teacher for an hour and she could do that pile of paperwork and I could get back into the classroom and, you
[11:21]
and really engage with some teaching and learning. Well, Jessica, it has really been a pleasure speaking with you today. The book is Common Core in the Content Areas, Balancing Content and Literacy by Jessica Bennett. And Jessica, if people want to find you online, where can they go?
[11:39] SPEAKER_02:
They can find me at educatingjessica.com.
[11:43] SPEAKER_00:
Well, Jessica, thank you so much and have a great day.
[11:46] SPEAKER_02:
Thank you, Justin.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00:
And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership. So high-performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from Jessica's comments? One thing that really struck me was the importance of being in classrooms. And you may or may not be able to arrange your schedule so that you actually teach a full period every day. But I think we can all agree that actually engaging in the work on a day-to-day basis that we're trying to support teachers in doing so well is incredibly powerful for us as instructional leaders. And it is possible.
[12:19]
There are principals who continue to teach one period a day or have regular instruction as a part of their schedule. I also wanted to mention that some of our nation's leading researchers and consultants on literacy, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, do just that. They are both professors at San Diego State University and high school teachers for at least one period a day. So I think having a foot in the classroom gives us a tremendous perspective as instructional leaders. And if it's not possible for you to arrange your schedule to actually teach a full class, one thing you can do is simply develop the habit of getting into classrooms regularly. If you've taken the 21-Day Instructional Leadership Challenge, you've heard my model for getting into 10% of your classrooms every day to see what's going on, to gather the information you need to make good decisions, and to provide powerful feedback to your teachers.
[13:14]
If you haven't taken the challenge yet, go ahead and sign up at instructionalleadershipchallenge.com.
[13:20] Announcer:
Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.
