Trusting the Process of Shurley English

This week, I evacuated from my home in North Carolina due to Hurricane Florence.  I headed out of town alone, following the others trying to seek safe shelter from the life-threatening storm.  Nine hours later, I arrived at my turnoff, and it was completely dark except for my vehicle’s headlights.  Imagine this…

I’m in the middle of a mountain range that is unfamiliar to me, and the GPS (yes there’s service) tells me to turn right, up this steeeeep hill!  For a split second I questioned Maggie, my GPS, as if I thought I might know better or more than her.  In that second of hesitation, my car stalled on the steep incline and a wave of panic came over me.  I took a deep breath, restarted my SUV, and said to myself, “Just go with it!”  I did, and I pushed the gas pedal to get going. 

With fluttering in my stomach, I made my way up the dark and winding road that had been paved before me.  Once I made it to the top of that steep hill, I still had no clue where I was going exactly.  I could only see the next step in front of me, and I knew I had to keep going. 

When I arrived, the destination home where I will be staying until the storm passes was also completely dark and unfamiliar.  So, with my measly headlamp and suit of “No Fear!” armor, I followed the steps given to me to let myself into the home to get it up and running.  I found the key.  Then, I found a light, and from there I just went with it!

The fear of the unknown can be incredibly scary, testing your patience and faith.  But, trusting the road that has been successfully paved for you can sometimes lead you in just the right direction!

Some teachers might feel the same way I did on the steep hill when they begin to teach Shurley English.  I imagine you’ve heard someone say, “Just trust the process.”  It seems this phrase has become a part of our daily verbiage.  I know that I’ve even said it while leading Shurley English trainings.  So, let’s take a closer look at how Merriam-Webster defines the words: trust & process.

Trust

a : assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something

b : one in which confidence is placed

Process

a (1) : a natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result-the process of growth

So, what does “trusting the process” mean when it comes to Shurley English?

- It means trusting that each feature of Shurley English has a purpose in the big picture of teaching students how to make the Grammar Writing Connection.

- It means trusting that the cute little Jingles actually help to lay the foundation for the Question and Answer Flow by using domain specific language.

- It also means having confidence in the format and sequence of the Q&A Flow, trusting that it will teach sentence analysis and reinforces sentence fluency and proper sentence structure. 

- It means trusting in the value of teaching the reverse approach to the Q&A Flow through Sentence Blueprints, in order to help students learn how to build and revise creative sentences independently.

- It means having faith that your diligence in teaching all the skills introduced in Grammar, Writing, Reading, and Speaking & Listening, while having students apply them daily, will pay off! 

- It means relying on the Writing Evaluation Guide and Traits of Effective Writing to help guide your students through the 6-Step Writing Process so they can become confident and competent writers. 

To completely trust the process in Shurley English:

…you need to let go of the need to know what is unfolding next or why. 

…you need to be able to have the confidence to simply experience how the curriculum spirals language arts concepts, using repetition. 

…you need to have confidence that Shurley English will give your students the skills they need to make the grammar/writing connection! 

Just go with it and be fearless!

An Open Letter to Teachers: Taking off with Shurley English

“Without continual growth and progress, such words such as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”  -Benjamin Franklin

Dear Educators,

Welcome aboard Shurley English flight ABC. Please find your seat, stow your baggage in the overhead bin, and buckle-up as we take off into your new school year!  This year’s destination is progress and growth.  We’ve got a long flight ahead of us so, sit back, stay focused & relaxed, and enjoy the journey! 

For some of you, Shurley English might be a new addition to your curriculum.  Several of you may already be familiar with the effectiveness and uniqueness of our Grammar, Skills, Writing, Reading, and Speaking & Listening features.   Regardless of your passenger status, I encourage each of you to keep your eye on the prize: progress & growth!  Throughout the journey this year, you may experience some turbulence, making you feel a bit outside your comfort zone, but don’t worry!  Simply refer to the previous posts called: “The Perfect Shurley Teacher” and “First Year Freak-Out.”  They are loaded with information to help guide you; you can find them in the archives.  

Passengers sitting in the “New to Shurley English” seats, please remember:

1. Stick to the Script!

2. Repetition & Consistency build Mastery!

3. Trusting the Process leads to Success!

Passengers sitting in the “Seasoned Teacher” seats, please remember to:

1. Aim for Progress over Perfection!

2. Practice what you Teach!

3. Get Outside of your Comfort Zone!

Keep in mind that Shurley English Curriculum is installed with a built-in support system, including modifications, extra-practice, and SEDA lessons, should they be necessary.  In addition, the “Always Keep Learning & Be Brave Enough to Keep Growing” light will stay lit for all passengers for the duration of our flight.  We are here to support you as you teach students to become competent, confident communicators that will be prepared for any and all future destinations!

On behalf of the entire flight crew, “Welcome aboard!”

Authentic Assessments: How Shurley English integrates real assessments

So, what’s happening “testing-wise” in your school and in your classroom? Let’s continue the conversation about real or authentic assessments.  (If you missed part one, click here.) In my opinion, it is vital to add these authentic assessments to your “testing bag-o-tricks.” Just look at some of the benefits:

Authentic assessments…

*provide direct measures;

*capture the true nature of learning;

*focus on the process-integrating teaching, learning, and assessing; and,

*provide a myriad of ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge.

Did you know that Shurley English integrates authentic assessments throughout the curriculum?  Let's take a deeper look...

Shurley English provides the opportunity for students to learn grammar and the connection to writing at such great depth that, when the process is taught correctly, the evidence of this knowledge is seen in a child’s writing. We teach students how to really think about using the knowledge they’ve acquired…we teach them to know the content, think about the content, and process the content correctly. 

By demonstrating a Jingle, the teacher is showing the student how to learn a language arts definition and think about it, not just memorize it. 

The questions asked during the Question & Answer Flow are the set of criteria by which we measure a student’s understanding of specific grammar concepts.  So, that’s your rubric, and when your students correctly identify the parts of speech of each word in a sentence or classify a sentence type, using the Q & A Flow, you have an authentic assessment opportunity!

Even though the Classroom Practices/Chapter Check-ups are essentially paper assessments, they’re still authentic.  Students take the information learned and apply it to questions they’ve never seen.  This is teaching them how to think about using the knowledge they’ve learned.

Have you ever witnessed your students revising their Sentence Blueprints/Practice & Improved Sentences and discussing word choice with another student, or simply thinking through the process of finding a synonym/antonym to improve their word choice?  These actions will eventually become second nature to them.  This is a form of an authentic assessment…because it is observable.

Writing is the obvious authentic assessment in Shurley English!  Whether it’s an entry in a journal, a short constructed response answer, a presentation, or the final paper of a formal piece of writing, the teacher can observe a student’s depth of knowledge.  The teacher can see and hear where grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling have been used correctly or incorrectly.  In Shurley English, the Writing Evaluation Guide (WEG) and Teacher Rubric are key components to the process. The WEG teaches students how to start thinking about what they write and how to apply the skills they’ve learned to their writing.  The Teacher Rubric is used to measure the student’s work against specific criteria. 

I’m suggesting this…

If you imagine the process that the student experienced in learning specific information, understanding the information, and then actually applying the information in a meaningful and realistic scenario, it’s clear that IS an effective form of assessment.

So, don’t just leave your academic assessment up to the paper test, AND AVOID TEACHING to TEST! Be creative and assess your students’ knowledge with authenticity and purpose.

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts." -Albert Einstein

Authentic Assessments: Breaking the Paper Test Cycle

When you think of testing, do any of these statements come to mind?

“I want to see what my students have learned at the end of each chapter.”

“I want to make sure I’m teaching effective lessons.”

“My administrator says I have to have a certain number of scores in my grade book.”

“I’d like to see the strengths and weaknesses of each student so I can know how to differentiate my instruction.”

We’re all familiar with national standardized testing, the numerous true/false or multiple choice tests a teacher gives throughout a school year, along with the benefits these assessments can provide.  One school of thought says that assessments are a key component of learning because it helps students see how well they understand subject specific material.  Others say assessments can help motivate students.  Still, testing often feels like a necessary evil that all teachers must do to show evidence that students have learned the content teachers worked so hard to teach.

I’d like you to consider looking at the way you assess your students through a different lens.  What if your student assessments consisted of noting missed cues while a child reads from a real book; recognizing correct or incorrect grammar usage and punctuation in a student’s essay or hypothesis in Science; or the actual act of using measurement to build a raised garden bed as opposed to solely using typical paper, true/false, or multiple choice assessments?  Assessments do come in all forms!

If you’re differentiating your instruction for students in the classroom, then differentiating the way your students are assessed is a strategy for best practice.  To me, it makes sense why, in school, I thrived with hands-on and oral work, but struggled taking paper tests; I’m still a horrible paper test-taker, but ask me to “show” you how something applies to a real life scenario, and I’ll nail it all day long. That’s what a REAL Assessment or Authentic Assessment is all about!  You might have heard the terms, Performance Assessment, Alternative Assessment, or Direct Assessment-all common names for the Authentic Assessment.  These kinds of assessments ask students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they’ve learned when applying them to real-world tasks— then measuring their performance against a set of pre-determined criteria in the form of a rubric.  REAL Assessments value the thought behind the work and the process, as much as the finished product.

So, before you start planning all of your paper tests, consider learning more about and creating a real, authentic assessment. Your students will welcome the opportunity to show their knowledge in a new way! 

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts." -Albert Einstein

-You have just read part one of a series on Authentic Assessments. Are you ready for part two? Click here.

Pronunciation Matters: A look at commonly mispronounced words

I’ve had the pleasure of living around the United States- on the East coast, the South, the Midwest, and the West; some people say they can even hear a British English accent when I speak. Hmm?  I grew up with one grandma speaking with a thick Southern accent, the other had a Midwestern accent and called the sofa a “davenport.” I call soft drinks “pop” and gym shoes are “tennis shoes.”  I find it interesting to hear the various words we use around our country and the pronunciations for words we use on a daily basis that are actually incorrect.   So today, let’s have a little fun and step back into the classroom to take a look at some commonly mispronounced words.

almond:  The “L” is always silent! Who knew?  Say, “ah-mund” not “all-mund.” 

bury:  It is pronounced just like berry, not “burr-ri.”

dessert:  If you say, “dizz-urt” you’re correct.  It’s not pronounced “des-ert” like the dry barren land.

 coupon:  The correct pronunciation is “Koo-pon” (pon as in pawn). It is often mispronounced as “koo-pun” (pronunciation of u as in sun).

 cocoa:  It should be pronounced as “koh-koh,” not “koh-koh-wa.”

electoral:  We’ve been saying: e-lek-TOR-al; say: e-LEK-tor-al.

mischievous:  We’ve been saying: miss-CHEE-vee-us; pronounce it: MISS-che-vus.

realtor:  We’ve been saying: REE-la-tur; it’s actually pronounced: REEL-tur.

sherbet:  Do you say: SHER-bert; oops! I do! The true pronunciation is: SHER-bet.

often:  The “T” is silent, although you may still see heated debates surrounding the "T." Often rhymes with coffin. 

ideal: While ideal is not necessarily a commonly mispronounced word, it is a word that has a regional variance in usage. Ideal is NOT conventionally a synonym for idea, though sometimes it is used that way. Here’s how Webster’s Dictionary defines these two words:

            Ideal-an honorable or worthy principle or aim

            Idea-existing as a mental image or in fancy or imagination only

It’s easy to get sucked in to the region we live in and pick-up verbal habits of the people by whom we’re surrounded. So, pay attention to the words you use and their pronunciation as you leave your mark on today’s youth.

Vitality in Veteran Shurley English Teachers

Visualize this scenario:  It’s early August, and as you scroll through your inbox you see the first of many emails from your school administrator.  “Already!?!” you say to yourself as you hesitate to open it.   You guessed it!   It’s your new school year Welcome Letter and Professional Development Schedule. On the agenda, you notice a full-day training scheduled for Shurley English! Your next few thoughts go something like this: “I’ve taught Shurley English for 5 years now!  I don’t need training!  Maybe I can get out of it this year!”  

Warning:  Thoughts like these are exactly why veteran teaches still need our support!  Take these thoughts as a sign! I know because I’ve been there!

Certified Shurley English consultants typically train new and seasoned teachers from all grade levels at the same time…WHY?  Well, I would say from my experience, we do this because it is an excellent way to ensure consistency across all grade levels.  It also gives us the opportunity to re-motivate and re-inspire teachers who have been instructing Shurley English for many years.  Veteran teachers, me included, tend to develop habits of comfort that can lead to getting stuck-in-a-rut, or so to speak.  We want to make sure all Shurley English teachers understand the BIG PICTURE of what the curriculum was designed to do in order to successfully teach it with confidence and enthusiasm.  A Shurley English-Full Day Training can energize and inspire a veteran Shurley English teacher with what I like to call the “Vital V’s!”

The Four “VITAL -V’s” of a Veteran Shurley English Teacher:

1. Know that YOU ARE VALUABLE!  YOU are the best RESOURCE for new Shurley English teachers. (Never forget what it was like your first year.)  You have a wealth of experience and knowledge to offer the newbies…SHARE IT!  Take the LEAD & step up to the next level, especially if Shurley is your “thing!”

2. Add VARIETY to your lessons! Keep challenging yourself to stay in alignment with the curriculum (teach with fidelity), but add your flare of creativeness to Shurley English; this gets easier the longer you teach Shurley.  Get more engaged in the Enrichment Activities, Discovery Time Activities, or try creating Learning Centers.

3. BE VIEWABLE & VISIBLE! YOU ARE A LEADER & A MODEL TO NEW TEACHERS! Make sure you’re a part of the professional development opportunities no matter how long you’ve been teaching-never stop learning!  With grace, show them how it’s done…because they ARE watching you-observing how you make it work.  INVITE them into your classroom for a Shurley English demonstration.  Mentor them.  Collaborate with them.  Lead them.  Help mold them into a successful Shurley teacher like you are!

4. VOCALIZE with AUTHENTICITY & SINCERITY!  Your thoughts, questions, and concerns need to be heard and can be validating to teachers not willing to speak-up.  When you do speak-up, be genuine, honest, and tactful.  If you see teachers not staying in alignment with the curriculum, I encourage you to say something.  A broken cog in the wheel makes it difficult for the wheel to roll, and the Shurley wheel needs all cogs in place.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.” -Martha Graham