At the Dublin Literacy Conference, I met Ann Marie Corgill, who wrote Of Primary Importance about literacy in the young grades. Corgill seems like a very nice and very thoughtful person — and her book that shows how to guide young writers forward into literacy in meaningful ways seems like it should have an important place in most schools. I was reading through some online reflections of folks who attended the conference and came across this video called Give Us Hope for Education that I believe Anne Marie made with her students (ie, the Corgill kids) as a message to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in January 2009 as the new president began to take office.
The song is great, and the message is right on about formative assessment and moving beyond test scores to show knowledge of children. My only reservation is that we too often use kids to spread our message — to wrap up adult ideas about education in the cuteness of our kids. I love the posters that the kids have made here but the educational jargon that come out in the sound of young voices just sounds odd to me.
Still, again, I love the message.
Peace (in the hope of change),
Kevin