Anonymous wrote:
"New Post: Speaking to' marketing ' city schools.
This week the Pittsburgh Playwrightd Theatre Co. opens with " King Hedley II "- celebrating August Wilson.
August Wilson plays are terrific vehicles for teaching PA core standards. The students will love it.
The marketing: Teaching Standards using August Wilson Plays!
This is useful information. Where is the 'spotlight ' PPS? "
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9 comments:
Westinghouse students in the late 90's early 2000's studied many of the plays of August Wilson. One of those plays,"King Hedley II" premiered at the then new O"Reilly Theater downtown. The Westinghouse students attended the premier opening following the study of "Seven Guitars" where the character of Hedley was introduced. The PA Core Standards were taught (and learned) as an integral part of daily lessons. Knowing the background of the play and of the author put these students among the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic members of that audience.
These seniors also read "Brothers and Keepers" by John Edgar Wideman who grew up in Homewood and visited here at that time to speak at the Carnegie Library. Westinghouse students were there to meet him.
Cultural relevance captures student interest and models future prospects in scholarly fields.
It
Nice 7:59. More comments that inform methods of teaching and learning are needed to be shared if there is any chance of meaningfull education for our students.
7:59
What were the proficiency scores of those students in that period of time (late 90's early 2000's ) given that the PA Core Standards were taught ( and learned ) as an integral part of daily lessons ?
At that time the PA Standards were in the development process and PDE was adjusting the levels of "proficiency". The teacher was a part of the team at the state level that was writing the PA Standards and as such was aware not only of the skills needed but the "proficiency" scores that were a part of the process. It was not until 2003 that schools were given the scores determining "proficiency", "advanced", "basic" and "below basic" in PA's accountability system. Teachers who were following the process aligned lessons with PA Standards and students achieved at high levels while engaged in the READING of culturally relevant content/literature such as the plays of August Wilson and other works of Black authors.
In 2005, Mark Roosevelt, a Boston politician was given "waivers" to become Superintendent in Pittsburgh. PPS, at that time, began its alliance with the Bill Gates & Eli Broad Foundations and disengaged from the resources provided by the PA Dept. of Education. Scores in PPS began to fall dramatically. The "proficiency" scores were published by PDE on their website and with some time and effort achievement scores could be tracked. PDE kept its Team members working on Standards and those teachers had an advantage for the following ten years of aligning teaching and learning with the State's Standards.
Is the current administration "engaged" with the resources provided by the PA Dept of Education ? If so - how so? If not - why not?
Does PDE have Team members ( currently ) working on Standards; aligning teaching and learning with the State's Standards?
Yes to 7:12. PPS does have a few people who are "engaged' with PDE Team members who are currently working on the PA Core Standards. Districts across the state who unlike PPS have been engaged in this work for the last 10 years have the majority of students "proficient" on the PSSAs and Keystones.
Many suggestions have been made to PPS as to how they might align and embed the PA Core in Curricula, Teaching & Learning. PPS Leadership however have been from states other than PA where Common Core Standards are used____NOT PA Core Standards. For optimal results with students it would make sense to be aligning and embedding PA Core across PPS curricula and grades.
A few people making suggestions isn't going to get the alignment or embedding done.
And making excuses for current leadership who have transfered from states not using PA Core Standards is pathetic. They too can be taught and they too can learn.
No child should be left behind.
1:59 yes-- They CAN READ the standards and find ways to apply local culture to the standards-- Pittsburgh has a rich history that our students should learn
1:59 and 2:51 are both correct that no child should be left behind. Given that, EVERY teacher has the readily available opportunity to align and embed PA Core Standards into EVERY lesson that they teach. The first teacher posting here did that without anyone forcing or providing either PA Core Standards or August Wilson's "culturally relevant" literary works. Pittsburgh children from Homewood and the Hill will soar when taught by teachers who teach in ways that students will learn-----with no "excuses" needed!
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