I have a confession to make. Despite considering myself a reasonably sharp member of the human race it took me a day and a half of observing lessons to catch on to the fact that when teachers say they teach a grade, they mean their day involves delivering the same lesson to all the classes in one year group. I did wonder why people seemed confused when they asked me what grade I teach! To give a typical example of my school day in Dunfermline High School:
8.45 - 8.55: Paired literacy registration. (Register, bulletin and senior pupils buddying with juniors to practise reading aloud.)
8.55 - 9.45: Period 1 (3rd Year - 32 pupils) 10 minutes of personal reading to begin. 'In your own words' task from chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird.
9.45 - 10.35: Period 2 (6th Year - Advanced Higher class - 8 pupils) Discussion of psychopathy vs. sociopathy then finding evidence of characteristics in The Butcher Boy's protagonist.
10.35 - 10.55: Morning interval. Coffee (and usually biscuits!) in the English department base with colleagues.
10.55 - 11.45: Period 3 (4th year - National 4 certifcate class - 20 pupils) Pupils working on a project of analysing song lyrics, with view to writing an evidence-based, comparative report.
11.45 - 12.35: Period 4 (Non-contact) Emails, resource gathering, resource development, printing, tidying classroom etc.
12.35 - 13.15: Lunch in the English department base with colleagues.
13.15 - 14.05: Period 5 (1st year - 33 pupils) 10 minutes of personal reading to begin. Pupils using research notes to create A3 information board on an independently-chosen aspect of Shakespeare (e.g. a specific play, his life, Shakespearean language etc.)
14.05 - 14.55: Period 6 (1st year - 20 pupils) 10 minutes of personal reading to begin. Look at exemplar monologue written in Scots language then plan ideas for own monologue.
In Oswego Middle School, the most recent stop on my trip, the day consists of nine periods, some of which are planning periods, but most involve the repetition of the same lesson to each different class from the same year group... I definitely have some thoughts on this!
Pros: Resources can be organised before the start of the school day for the entire day ahead. Copies of class books and handouts stayed on each individual desk all day. The day was also less manic as a result. There was much less planning needed for each day. Each lesson could be said to be a dress rehearsal for the next lesson: there is scope for continuous reflection and immediate amendments (rephrasing, additions, simplifying) to your teaching practice.
Cons: Frankly, boredom. Yes, my average day in Scotland involves constant clearing away then setting out of different resources, the necessity of switching my mindset (and teaching style) from sombre (e.g. the final chapter of Of Mice and Men) to effervescent (e.g. physical enactments of onomatopoeia!) but I thrive on this. I'm kept on my toes, spinning plates - other unoriginal imagery is available - every 50 minutes. It was difficult to find the same energy when reading the same passage from The Outsiders for the fifth time in a day.
Moreover, the school day begins at 7.25 am! Apparently this an old tradition harking back to the town's farming history, where children had to attend school but also have time in the day to tend to their farming chores. I have to say that waking up to a 5.30 am alarm was the first moment in my life where I began to question my all-time dream of teaching in America. Nevertheless, I dragged my greying corpse into OMS where I was to spend two days in Dan Rose's 8th grade classroom.
I came to be in touch with Dan after finding his article on the importance of students sharing their writing: https://teachersandwritersmagazine.org/writing-isnt-over-till-we-share-4440.htm. Dan was happy to welcome me into his classroom and I am incredibly grateful for his candour as we exchanged our views about our respective education systems over our two days together.
Initially, I was struck by the large classroom and the hundreds of books around the room's perimeter, putting my own classroom library to shame! It was heartening that Dan and I share the same views about the necessity of promoting a love of reading for pleasure in our kids. As part of our participation in the First Minister's Reading Challenge at DHS, the English department introduced ten minutes of personal reading for all of our junior classes at the start of each lesson. This also happens in Dan's classroom! I was impressed with some of the strategies employed to further develop this reading culture. For example, all students keep a reading journal, where they reflect upon the books they choose and their reading progress. They have the accountability of knowing that Mr Rose gathers these in once a week and adds comments and suggestions. Dan also frequently holds 'Book Talks' at the start of lessons, where he shares a book recommendation, reads an extract and provides a mini review of it. These activities clearly have quite an effect on the relationship between teacher and students and there were many natural, informal conversations about the books being read. I have resolved to increase my reading of YA fiction to ensure I can engage in exciting discussions with my own pupils. (The YA 'book of the moment' at OMS was Scythe by Neal Schusterman. I am currently four chapters in and am totally hooked!)
I was interested to hear that the state has recently intervened due to chronic absence and low testing scores and now requires all teachers at OMS to implement the principals of EDI (Explict Direct Instruction), with a focus on APK (Activating Prior Knowledge). Let it never be said that we don't love an acronym in education! Part of this involves displaying explicit learning objectives at the beginning of a lesson and referring to these throughout. This is very similar to the expectations of how a lesson is delivered in Scotland, but this didn't (yet!) stretch to the inclusion of success criteria, plenaries etc. Although displaying and reading aloud learning objectives can sometimes feel somewhat tokenistic, I did appreciate that the core, focus question of the day - in this instance, "Why would a character act this way?" - was directly related to the LOs ("I can identify contrast and contradiction in a character") and that this question was referred to repeatedly. Whether it relates to a reading or writing based classroom activity, embedding critical language in a pupil's mind is key in empowering them to participate in meaningful classroom discussion. Pupils can internalise easier if they have one clue to keep in mind (the LO relating to contrast and contradiction) and one question to ask themselves when they find that clue - why would a character act this way?
Often, in my own teaching, I encounter those three little words: "I don't know...". It seems that pupils genuinely feel that they don't know what to write, don't know what to think or don't know how to articulate a thought. To combat this, Dan has visual prompts displayed whenever pupils are engaged in a reading task. These include: "The first thing I think of is...", "On the other hand...", "When I think deeper about this..." etc. It was evident that this was very successful. Students were well-versed in responding to texts in their notebooks. Even if a student didn't have a particularly perceptive thought or idea, they were all able to write something. They all had a starting point. They had all engaged. By its very nature, this kind of task enables an appropriate verbal response from young people. If a student is asked to share an idea, they can. They have something. Being 'forced' to think and respond as you read or listen to a text enables oracy. This is something that I will definitely implement in creative writing workshops, where students are asked to respond to their peers' work. I think I would have previously found it quite artificial to furnish pupils with scripted prompts but, actually, this is vital if talk is to become something that is undertaken more organically. Until the natural, quality conversation flows, students build confidence by having these comment-starters as a kind of support. I am convinced, more than ever, that reading and writing go hand in hand; hearing a piece of writing is reading it with ears, with brains, with heart, because the intrinsic critical responses borne out of close reading also apply to responding to a piece of writing that is heard.
Maybe it's a Scottish thing - or maybe it's just a me thing - but, when it comes to professional development, it can be very easy to be cynical in the face of visiting speakers and writers of educational textbooks. However, for the second time in two school visits, I have heard the name Kylene Beers. (https://www.heinemann.com/authors/1804.aspx) Beers is a former teacher who, according to my like-minded US colleagues, "gets it". Whilst in Oswego, I borrowed and read her book Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading. I would concur - she gets it. Nothing I read made me roll my eyes! I have ordered her book When Kids Can't Read - What Teachers Can Do as one of my biggest concerns is how to support our junior pupils who come to us from primary school with very poor literacy skills.
The most exciting thing about my visit to Oswego was that I somehow ended up hijacking all of Dan's classes on the second day of my visit! He was kind enough to allow me to borrow his classes for the day and deliver lessons on The Outsiders. Talk about an authentic New York teaching experience. I couldn't resist adding a Scottish flavour to each lesson though - I had brought copies of the Scottish Book Trust's recent short story collection, Blether, and I presented my very own book talk to Dan's 8th graders! I shared Chris McQueer's short story, Blether, and loved explaining Scots words such as "glaikit", "fitbaw" and "burd" as we discussed the universal nature of literature, whether it be Ponyboy getting battered by the Socs, or Glaswegian men slagging each other off in a pub! (https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland/read-blether)
Final thought: There are many differences between American and Scottish schools: Homework is more frequently issued, work is 'graded' (numerically) with greater frequency, parents and students have direct access to you through email and are regularly in touch (I couldn't possibly comment on how I feel about that...) In Oswego Middle School, there is a no phone policy and OH SWEET AMERICAN UTOPIA what a difference it made. In class, no one was distracted by the desire to check a message or post a Snapchat story. In the corridors between periods, students looked where they were going and interacted with reality! Planners were required to be out on desks throughout a period and no water bottles were allowed. I can almost hear the gasps of "Draconian!" from a select few back home but, somehow, the overall atmosphere in classrooms is more relaxed than in Scotland. I would suggest that the balance of basic student expectations with increased agency is a winning combination.
I would hazard, however, that there are far more similarities than differences in our two systems. Teachers have the same moans! There is a sense that many of the things teachers are instructed to do by 'the powers that be' are box-ticking exercises that do not have any real impact. Email bombardment is also a common struggle! Discipline procedures and lack of real restorative practice is wearying. Support staff are indispensable. (Hi, Peg!) Ultimately, schools are schools, teachers are teachers and kids are kids - hilarious, impressive, outrageous, kind, rogue-ish, spirited and so much more. Dan and I whole-heartedly agree that teaching is the greatest job in the world.
Final final thought: There is nothing like the teenage lack of filter to remind you that, as a teacher, you will never be anything but deeply, deeply uncool. Case in point: I rocked up in my shiny new Dr Marten brogues, feeling fly, only to overhear a concerned young man surreptitiously ask Dan: "Mr Rose, does everyone in Scotland wear bowling shoes?"
Below: Pictures of Oswego city centre and nearby Fort Ontario. The star-shaped fort became a shelter for Jewish refugees during WW2. It was the only place in the US to offer this refuge. If only the humanity had reached further, both geographically and to modern times.
(Coming soon: Lake Placid, NY and Montpelier, VT aka SNOW.)