New York Teacher
Trouble in the workshop
Feb 17, 2005 1:00 AM
Mandated model hampers learning in secondary schools
Students now face each other, not the teacher, in most city secondary schools. Teachers say the workshop model, rather than promoting teamwork and interactive learning, more often results in a few good students carrying the load for everyone else.
The Department of Education’s edict, “the workshop model or else,” is riling teachers throughout the system. Secondary school teachers, for example, say that it makes no educational sense to construct every lesson around small-group work.
When teachers complain about the new regimentation and the devaluation of their professional skills, one example they repeatedly cite is the requirement in many schools that teachers spend no more than 10 minutes on direct instruction and devote the bulk of class time to activities that students can do in groups of four.
“The kids are not capable of learning from each other what they can learn from their teacher,” said Washington Sanchez, the chapter leader and a social studies teacher at Newtown HS. “They are being cheated out of knowledge.”
The issue came to a head in December in Region 4, where teachers have the least amount of latitude to stray from the workshop model and other department mandates.
The more than a dozen teachers interviewed for this article agreed that the workshop model is useful as one method among others. What they object to is the order to shoehorn every lesson into that format, even if, in their judgment, it is not the best approach for that day’s lesson.
“There are many topics that do not lend themselves to the workshop model,” said Richard Williams, the chapter leader of A. Philip Randolph HS on the City College campus. “The workshop model works only when it is at the discretion of the teacher. To have it mandated is a big mistake.”
The teachers said that the workshop model is particularly ill-suited for advanced placement courses in which students must absorb a great deal of material in a short period of time, and for weak students who don’t have the skills or the motivation to work productively in small groups.
Mukunda Tejada, a grade 7 math teacher at IS 125 in Woodside, complained that she must use “Everyday Math,” a book of word problems that is part of the common curriculum, in the workshop model format for her newcomers’ ESL class.
“When the children are sitting in groups, they can’t communicate with each other because they all speak different languages,” she said.
The kids are often adrift in the groups, Tejada said. They may be capable of solving the math problem, she said, but they have trouble cutting through the thicket of words in the textbook to get to it.
Adding to teachers’ frustration, class novels such as “Of Mice and Men” and “The Giver” have been banished in middle school English classes in favor of classroom libraries, where students choose their own “Just Right” books. That ban prompted teachers of MS 172 in Queens to write a joint letter of protest to Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farińa in November. “We ask that good, old-fashioned literature be brought back,” they wrote. “We wish to expose our children to the classics.”
The workshop model is the brainchild of Farińa, who said she created it as a teacher, and Lucy Calkins, the founder of the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University’s Teachers College, which has received more than $10 million in training contracts from the Department of Education in the past two years. The model is premised on the belief of “progressive” educators that the best way to encourage deep and enduring understanding is through “discovery learning” in a small-group setting, where students puzzle out problems and acquire knowledge on their own.
Accordingly, the teacher must limit direct instruction to the first 7 to 10 minutes of class. For the next 20 minutes, students work in pairs or groups of four to try out the concept or skill that the teacher modeled in the “mini-lesson.” During that period, the teacher circulates from group to group helping as needed, or in elementary and middle schools, conducts five-minute “conferences” to assess students individually. For the final 10 minutes of class, the groups share results.
Because classroom desks must be arranged in “quads,” teachers complain that some students must strain to see the blackboard. But then, teachers have been directed not to write on the blackboard, which has resulted in a proliferation of chart paper in many schools, they say.
For new, untenured teachers, the pressure to meticulously follow the new methodology is intense. “My literacy coach told me every single word that I was supposed to say,” said one new 6th-grade teacher in Queens who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It made me very nervous. I was so concerned about saying every word in the script that I was not focusing on what I wanted to teach the kids.”
Besides how tedious such a cookie-cutter approach becomes for students and teachers alike, the teachers complained that it is virtually impossible to squeeze all direct instruction, including homework review, into 10 minutes.
“The Constitution does not explain itself,” said Williams at A. Philip Randolph HS. “It requires a master teacher to navigate students through the complexities.”
Elementary school teachers also complained about the lack of quality instruction time.
“A 10-minute mini-lesson is not enough time to teach anything in depth,” said Laura Riccio, a 3rd-grade teacher at PS 153 in Maspeth. “You are not given enough time to allow children to pick up the concept and do the interactive learning.”
The teachers who were interviewed made clear that they are not advocates of “chalk-and-talk” with little student input. They said that they had used group work and hands-on learning — just not all the time — in the past. Whole-class discussions moderated by a teacher, several noted, can often be superior to small-group interaction, because the teacher can prod deeper understanding through probing questions, correct the students’ errors and misconceptions, and keep everyone focused.
The workshop model is suited for a moderate-sized class of engaged learners without special needs. In New York City, the teachers point out, secondary school classes routinely have 32 to 34 students, including many who are far below grade level or prone to chattering when the teacher’s back is turned.
“The workshop model presumes that the students have a base of knowledge that enables them to participate adequately,” said David Pecoraro, the chapter leader of Beach Channel HS. “That’s part of the problem.”
“Without the teacher helping the children through the books, the kids are floundering,” said Sharon Farkas, who teaches 7th-grade language arts at MS 172, Queens. “They’ll sit there and make-believe they understand.”
The teachers said that high-needs students fall behind the quickest with the workshop model.
“The slower student needs more guidance, more direction, more classroom discipline,” said Jerry Frohnhoefer, the chapter leader at Aviation HS. “They can’t take the initiative on their own. It’s hard to keep them on task in groups.”
Dan Davidson, a chemistry teacher at A. Philip Randolph, complained that the workshop model did not build intellectual rigor in his students. “How do you develop abstract thinking in students if everything has to be hands-on?” he asked.
Teachers said that small-group work, instead of promoting teamwork and cooperative learning, more often resulted in a few top students carrying the load for everyone else.
“The weaker students just copy off the stronger students,” said Tejada at IS 125. “Since they are always sitting in groups, they become dependent. They say, ‘Let me see what the other person is doing,’ instead of making the extra effort to figure it out themselves.”
While the workshop model allows weak students to hide in the group, the teachers noted, they ultimately must pay the piper at exam time.
“Every day, every class is group work, group work and then the students get tested on the Regents as individuals,” said Barrie Gellis, an English teacher at Aviation HS who won some relief for his department from the mandates through the conciliation process in the union contract.
“We’re not getting the kids ready for the tests they will take or for college. You don’t do group work in college,” echoed Geraldine Caulfield, a social studies teacher at Long Island City HS.
A steady diet of the workshop model does not necessarily serve strong students better, the teachers argued. “The students who work hard want to be recognized individually, but the workshop model asks them to blend into a group 100 percent of the time,” observed one math teacher at Newtown HS.
The teachers complained that doing group work every day slows them down. This is a particular problem in Regents and advanced placement courses, where numerous topics must be covered in depth in a short period of time.
“I have to rush to complete the curriculum in chemistry every year,” said Davidson at A. Philip Randolph. “The workshop model is not an efficient method. It takes lots of time.”
