ICYMI: This Week's Sunday Reading

Here's some reading for your Sunday afternoon.

Jazzman-Melhorn Dialogue 

If you have not been following this discussion, here's your chance to catch up before the final round wraps up. Dmitri Melhorn made the offer to take some, um, spirited conversations off of twitter and into a greater-than-140 medium. One result has been this rigorous and data-packed discussion with Jersey Jazzman about charters. It's ballsy (in a good way) of Melhorn to guest-write for a blog that is not his home turf, and the whole exchange is a great example of how folks in the ed debates can argue humanely but without giving up an inch. Read them all:

Part I: Melhorn opens up

Part II: JJ looks at the alleged positive effects of charters. With data! And in English!

Part III: Do charters have positive effect, and who should carry the burden of proof?

Part IV: The burden of proof, and how to read the data.

Part V is up and features some pointed questions. Read up and be ready for the finale.


The Frightening Implications of School Choice

Julie Vassilatos gets to one of the most troubling parts of the charter school movement.

The Brave New World of Teacher Evaluation

An icky new piece of tech just came out of Utah. Right now it's being sold as a training tech for teachers, but how long before it's part of evaluation. 

Charter Schools Shrink Bostonm's Vision for Public Education

Over at the Progressive, Jennifer (Edushyster) Berkshire looks at how the rise of charters leads to a failure of the Pledge of Allegiance test for schools.

Paul Thomas on Writing

One of my favorite bloggers is Paul Thomas, and my favorite subject of his is writing (okay, second favorite, right behind comics). Reading Thomas always makes me feel as if I've gotten just a little smarter just by looking at his words, and his ideas about writing instruction really resonate with me. Here are some of my favorites:

Who Can, Who Should Teach Writing?

Oh, yeah. Hard to talk about this in some buildings, but the answer to both questions is, "Not just anybody."

Technology Fails Plagiarism, Citation Tests

The pitfalls of technological tools in writing

O, Genre, What Art Thou?

Oh, come on. You know you want to read it just for the title alone.

Writing, Unteachable or Mistaught?

I'll leave you with this one, which I think needs to be taken out and passed around every few months or so.