Continuing the conversation

I got a great suggestion from a teacher on the English Companion Ning. I asked about something better than reading guides because that is just about all my co-op and I did for "To Kill a Mockingbird." One of the teachers on the Ning recommended using dialogues to promote understanding. The example she used was "after reading the chapters with Mayella's and Tom's testimony, give the kids this:

Albert: "Mayella Ewell is lyin' trash!"

Hilda: "Actually, I feel sorry for her."

The students then continue this conversation, making Albert and Hilda explain their viewpoints with evidence from the text. Share these the next day at the beginning of class."

I never thought of anything like that! Sure it isn't fool-proof, but it's certainly better than questions on a reading guide. I know that reading guides serve a purpose and it is a great way for information to be in the same place, but doesn't it get old after a while? It does for me, that's for sure.

Relevancy during Shadowing

I shadowed my student last Friday and it was really great. We'll call him Robert. He is a student whom my co-op and I kind of have mixed feelings about. I like the kid and, despite him being a pain most of the time, don't mind having him in my class. My co-op doesn't really like him, though. She doesn't think he has a chance to redeem himself. I don't know if it's because I'm more willing to work with him, but he seems to respond better to me than my co-op. The co-teacher also brought up the point that he is of Mexican background and culturally he might appreciate males more than females (my co-op and the co-teacher are both female). Anyone have any thoughts on this? I would have never thought about that until they mentioned it. Anyone else experience this?

I asked Robert at some point throughout the semester if he liked to write. I saw that he was always drawing and I thought I would occasionally see a hint of writing mixed in with his stuff. To this he told me that he likes writing poetry and sometimes short stories. Bam. There it is. There is my connection to this student. Well, after weeks of asking him every time I saw him if he could bring in some writing for me to check out, still nothing. But during my shadowing I was able to bring up some relevancy during his computer class. He was writing a blog post that had some pretty bad grammar and sentence errors which made it slightly difficult to read. After helping him with some of them I brought up the point of needing to write well to be a successful writer. This seemed to make sense to him.

I'm really glad that I could shadow this specific student and get to know more about why he does what he does. I wish we could shadow all of our students and learn this much about them!

Teaching Vocab

As all of you can understand, I became really bored with teaching vocabulary (after the third week). Even from the beginning, I wasn't sold on the idea of teaching it. Every Monday I had to introduce 10-12 new words to students and then quiz them on the words that Friday. And the quizzes were no joke. The students were asked to spell each word as I read it aloud, match the word to its definition, come up with some original sentences using the words correctly, fill in the blank with the appropriate vocabulary word, and even work with affixes as they were asked to learn prefixes and their meaning; a new word using a prefix from the unit would appear on the quiz and the students were asked to make an educated guess about the definition of the new word. And I have to admit, I ran into some words that I had to previously encountered; I found myself googling words the night before a vocab lesson to determine the appropriate pronunciation.

I had the freedom to experiment with the teaching of vocabulary in a variety of ways. I had the students do a lot of group work, create art work and other visuals about the words, act out the words, etc. etc. We pretty much tried something new each week. But I am still confused about the whole idea of teaching vocabulary and I don't know where I stand on the issue. In the world of English teachers, it is a controversial issue. Some don't believe in teaching it-- they think vocabulary is learned through reading and communication. Others believe that teaching students new words is increasing their lexicons; therefor, it is an asset to the teaching of the language. I guess I just don't buy into students being asked to memorize words that are not even in the dictionary, like "pseudo-Aesculapian". It is really important that high school students learn the definitions of words that I had never even heard of?

My cooperating teacher strongly believes in the teaching of vocabulary, and I am not sure if I agree or disagree with her. She knows the statistics and the cites the studies-- once a word is heard however many times, and it used however many times it becomes a part of the lexicon. If this is the case, and students are genuinely increasing their vocabulary-- it's a good thing-- right? During my weeks teaching vocab, I introduced the students to about 100 words. If they are retaining this information, and using the learned words in their college essays-- which they say they did-- it's not a bad thing, is it? I kind of have a feeling that the majority of the words are memorized for the quiz and immediately forgotten, and it makes me sad to think about the wasted class time.

What do you guys think about teaching vocab? Is it a waste or is it useful?

On the Socratic Seminar

My cooperating teacher recently went to Rome for some teacher training, and she returned with some really amazing ideas for our classroom-- one being the use of the socratic seminar. She was excited to try it, and we immediately brainstormed ideas so that we could experiment with it right away. Our eleventh grade Brit lit students had been working on "sonnet packets" where they were required to identify the rhyme schemes and meter of the poems. We started to come up with ways to utilize the already existing sonnet packets for a socratic seminar later that day. Suddenly, in the middle of our brainstorming, she received a phone call that her son needed to be picked up from school immediately. She gave me the green light to experiment with the socratic seminar during the last period of the day. I thought about it over lunch and decided to go for it. I am so glad I did. It was by far the best and most rewarding experience I've had so far in my teaching experience.

I moved four desks to the front of the room forming a pod. I asked the students to free write for five minutes about the first sonnet in the packet which was Spenser's sonnet 75. The students were somewhat familiar with it, so I didn't feel bad asking them to analyze its meaning and themes. I explained that I needed four volunteers to discuss the sonnet in front of the class. Without hesitation, four students walked to the front of the room and began a discussion. I kept quiet for awhile as they spoke about the ideas of true love, monogamy, death, and legacy. I actually got tears in my eyes a few times during this activity. I knew my students were intelligent and articulate, but it was one of those moments that I was truly and profoundly proud of them. I could see that they were genuinely understanding and grasping the timeless themes in a classic piece of literature. And I just sat there and listened, and asked appropriate questions when necessary. At one point, I moved the conversation to the modern day by asking them to name songs that discuss similar themes or ideas. The majority of the class ended up participating in the socratic seminar that day, and I can say with honestly that this was a definite turning point for me as a student teacher. If you ever have the chance to experiment with the socratic seminar-- just do it! You will not be disappointed.

Trouble with Budgets

So, as I'm sure you are all aware, budget cuts are looming on the horizon for a lot of schools if they haven't already begun chopping away. Almost everyday that I am at the school I am exposed to conversations about budget cuts, union issues, and school board decisions. It can be somewhat disheartening at times when you are a young student-teacher ready to finally run full-throttle in a classroom. However, it can also be somewhat rewarding to not be completely idealized about the future of education. I'm trying to be aware of the reality of public education while still staying excited about teaching, after all, it is about what is best for the students. Has anyone else been dealing with these type of issues? I was talking to my co-op today about teacher unions and trying to gain a better understanding of how it all works. I can definitely see how it could be easy to get wrapped up in the politics of education but it is sooooo important that we keep the students at the forefront of these conversations.

A little taste of real teaching

So today we had prep first period so my co-op used the time to deal with a bullying issue that has been going on for a couple days now. What we didn't know getting into it was that it was going to escalate to the point where my co-op spent the majority of the first 3 periods out of the room, making phone calls, and in the guidance office as everything unfolded.

So naturally this left me unattended and unsupervised in the front of the classroom for 2nd and 3rd period. Fortunately I had planned the CA lesson for the day so I had been planning to run the class from the beginning anyway. I jumped in and began and actually looking back didn't even really notice my co-op running in and out of the room. The lesson went smoothly. I was happy with it, and was also able to make some changes for the next class 2 periods later.

Because the bullying thing took much longer than anticipated and I did not know what the plan was for social studies, I just continued my lesson into the next period. (Fortunately I tend to underestimate how long activities will actually take so therefore I over plan without trying).

So, four good things came out of today for me:
1. I got a taste of  what student teaching will be like by going from one class to the next without a break.
2. I got a taste of what being an actual classroom teacher feels like by not having my co-op in the room to back me up and support my decisions and management of behavior.
3. I was able to reflect on my lesson (almost automatically) in such a way that I could modify it for the next class.
4. I realized that I am able to plan and teach for a block period (I was worried) if ever I would actually have to. What I thought was maybe a 50 minute lesson turned into a 90 minute lesson. (Which I know is both good and bad, but today it was a good thing. I was trying to find positives in the day).

Just wanted to share a little victory in this stressful time. =) What are some positives for you?? Hang in there! We're almost done! =)

Problem...

So today was another day that my co-op was out sick.  Despite putting up with a really creepy, crazy sub, everything was normal.  However, a scary thought occurred to me:  I don't know how to write lesson plans.  Okay, that's not true.  But I mean in the context of Reynolds Middle School, I don't know how to write lesson plans.   I'm supposed to be writing one Thursday night to teach on Friday, which is a good start.  However, I'm just afraid that my co-op isn't going to be around for very long when i get back next semester, since she's going on maternity leave.

I really don't know how to read the pacing guide either.  I guess my real concern is just how I'm going to keep the classroom where it needs to be next semester when she's not around and I  have a full time sub who doesn't know anything.

I'm not really sure if i'm looking for advice.  Just needed to rant.  Thanks!

Interactive Post

One of the only things I miss about D2L discussion boards is that I felt it was a bit more inviting of interactive discussions between all of us. Maybe it's just me, and it usually is, but I kind of miss that format. That being said, I am hoping to turn this particular post into one that has a bunch of "replies" to it. So, to get the ball rolling, here are a few questions (some directly aimed at one person, and others aimed at the entire group of us):

1 - Marybeth, how is your laid-back style coming along?
2 - Luke, what's been going on in your 20minute class? In fact, anyone else who has that 20 minute class... what have you been doing with it?
3 - Give me one thing that drove you bat-shit in the beginning.. only for you to have conquered that since.
My example: In the beginning, I was very much annoyed by the lack of participation by the same students everyday. While I still struggle with this, I made it a point to start eating lunch in the cafeteria one on one with those students. It actually helped with some of the students. For those who it hasn't, I am still trying different approaches, but at least I have had an experience where I made the situation better. That actually has given me enough juice to keep pushing with the others. Small victories are a beautiful thing.

4 - Give me your worst experience of the semester so far and how you overcame or solved it.
Mine - It was for our first RPG. I wanted to do it with my homeroom kids in their C.A. class. I felt as though the comfort level was the strongest. So, I hit record. About two seconds later, one of the behavioral problem kids started beating the piss out of her desk because she wanted a drink of water. Now, before you think that we were torturing her, we were about 10 minutes from when school started, so she had plenty of time to get a drink before coming to class. Also, it wasn't like I was saying she could never get a drink. I just needed her to wait 5-10 minutes until I was done giving instructions. Well, she kept pounding the desk, which led to her classmates getting out of hand too. I thought that I should try and hurry through the instructions to get the RPG video shot, and then I would address the behaviors. Well, that proved to be the mother of all dumbass moves. It got worse. My co-op removed the desk-pounder, but by then the class was lost. It took me almost 10 minutes to get everything in order. I was demoralized. To makes matters worse, I couldn't even watch the video to see where it went wrong cuz I used the wrong ipad program to record. I felt completely overwhelmed and just wanted to crawl under a rock. That day was the end of my week and I absolutely dreaded coming back the following Monday. I was so worked up over it that I barely slept that Sunday night. Monday morning came.... I walked it and got ready. The opening school bell rang, and I was already sweating. The kids walked in, including the desk-pounder.... who immediately came up to me and said, "Hi, Mr. Houseman! How was your weekend?" I literally was about two seconds away from soiling my pants. I couldn't believe she didn't even remotely show signs of any type of pent up aggression over that day's events. Ever since then, I have learned to keep a short memory, cuz that's what my kids do. Every day is a new day. If you have a bad one, go home and let it go so that tomorrow, when you walk in, it's you who is the one smiling first.

It's not a fool-proof plan, but it sure as hell beats the other way.

Time Flies...

So, with two weeks left in our placements, I figured I'd share some good news. For the first few weeks of my placement, my co-op was very resistant to my ideas and even the idea of having a student teacher. Yes, she signed up for it, but she admits that she had no idea what she was signing on for. For a while, my lesson ideas were shut down or ignored because they were different than the simple "read the book, answer the questions" lesson. Needless to say, I was greeted with a bit of a cold welcome.

However, lately, I have seen a huge change in the dynamic of the classroom. I think that my co-op is realizing that I can be a helpful tool in her classroom even when I am not teaching. My students are writing a research paper, so my co-op is working on the step-by-step grading. While she does that, I can answer questions and guide the students through the writing process. It's been a really exciting experience because I feel like my co-op trusts me with that responsibility whereas before, I think that she was afraid to lose control.

For the first 2 months of my placement, I kept thinking, "Wow, if this is how student teaching is going to be, I'm not sure that this is going to work out." Now I know that my co-op is becoming more open to my teaching ideas, and she seems to be excited to try my lessons. I feel so much better and just wanted to share my excitement with all of you.

Exciting

I'm excited to see that I am contributing something to my classroom. My co-op told me the other day that he really thinks my presence in the room is working out because it has helped him to be rejuvenated about teaching. There are things that he has wanted to do or used to do and just hasn't gotten around to fulfilling for his class. However, he said that I have helped him to get some of those things started in his class. For instance, we now have a stocked in-class library that the students can use for pleasure reading. They can also (with approval) use the library books for their upcoming research project. I also suggested that we have the students do freewrites a couple times a week to get the students more comfortable with writing creatively. My co-op suggested that we use it as a lead-in to a short story unit later in the Spring semester, that way the students see that it is going somewhere. We also asked the students how we could improve the freewrite experience and they gave us a ton of ideas for prompts or inspiration for their writing. It was exciting to see something that I suggested become a major part of the classroom. I mentioned it to my co-op during 2nd period and we started it the same day because he was that excited about it.

Anyone else have exciting ways that they are contributing?

Reflection on 'American Teacher'

Hey gang, so last Tuesday before the break I went to the screening of American Teacher at the downtown campus. This was an opportunity to pre-view and comment on the film that is the "other-side" of 'Waiting For Superman.' It was made by the same people and had some big names attached to it. I was really pumped about this, because 'Waiting For Suprman' really was not fair to us. Unfortunately, this film was obviously made by the same people, and they obviously still do not get it. The entire movie was about money. Basically they expressed that we work a lot and may not get compensated fairly for all that work, uhhhhh duh. Then they showed 4 actual teachers lives, none of whom i thought were exceptionally amazing teachers, and all of whom represented a very small sect of teachers. For instance the Harvard undgrad/Columbia Masters grad who is an elementry teacher and thinks she should be paid a fortune because she went to an Ivy League school. Or the Texas HS teacher who earns $54,000 a year works at a Home Depot 7 days a week all year round and somehow is still in debt up to his ears. Finally the San Fran teacher who they painted to be the greatest of them all who left teaching because he could make double the salary at his familys real estate business, and later said "even if I could make this kind of money teaching I wouldn't go back because the stress level is too high."

What I have to say about all this, is screw the people who made that movie, screw the teachers in that movie and screw anyone who has to watch that movie just to understand that we work hard. You know I worry about a lot of things. I worry about finding a job, I worry that my resume isn't up to par, I worry kids won't like me and I worry that someday I'm gonna pour everything I have into a kid and it won't be enough; that he/she will still fall through the cracks. What I don't worry about, is my salary. Because in the small amount of time I've been in the classroom, I haven't been paid a dime. And being in that classroom makes my life a hell of alot more stressful and I feel liek this is the busiest semester of my life and that I'm constantly burning the candle at both ends. That being said, this is the BEST semester I've ever had, hands down. I love every second that I'm in that classroom and I have already seen the potential we have to make a difference, and when I think about doing that for the rest of my life I cannot wait to get it started.

I'm not an idiot, yes I would love the opportunity to get paid more, and I think we deserve to be paid more. I'm all for teacher evaluations that determine pay or anything else that will compensate GOOD teachers for the work they do. But I can also tell you that my family survived on far less than what that Texas teacher is making. And I can tell you that waking up everyday to go to a job you hate is miserable. So I thank God that I don't have to do that. We're all going to be great teachers and there is no doubt in my mind that we will be richly rewarded, it just may not be monetarily. And if those teachers in the video want to quit over money, then good riddance, cuz you weren't doing it for the reasons anyway.

*I'm sorry to get all preachy and serious on you but I had to get that out

home stretch

My co-op and I have been discussing lesson plans for the final three weeks of my time in the classroom before Christmas break.  He has been very supportive of my ideas and is excited to see me present lessons of my own. All of our classes have started reading A Christmas Carol and this unit will take them straight through to Christmas.  For my first lesson, I have decided to have the students participate in a role playing exercise, similar to our Shakespeare activity in Teaching English, in which students manipulate the actions of other students while sections of dialogue are read aloud.  Tomorrow, I aim to do this with the Scrooge/Marley's ghost dialogue as a way of student's showing their interpretation of Scrooge's terror during this section.  Another initial lesson/reading activity I want to try this week involves students isolating sentences,  phrases, and paragraphs they find value or importance in, and then discussing why students chose the text they did.  This will help students stay focused on the text during classroom readings.  The majority of the novel is read together as a class because of the difficulty of the prose for seventh graders, and students often tend to dismiss the text because someone else is reading.  I'm trying to find ways to keep student's focused on the text and follow along while someone else is reading.  My co-op has suggested that I teach my lessons for the first half of the day and then he'll teach my lessons to the second set of classes, allowing me to observe the changes and alterations he makes to my instruction.  I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but I think it will be helpful and encourage me to continually improve my lessons.

Absences & Due Dates

My co-op usually follows the structure of introducing a text/theme, assigning independent reading and a worksheet to go along with the reading for her 4th block, "tech" section of English 11, which means students are handing in written work almost everyday. There are a lot of students in this class, probably around 30, and students are frequently absent or in other areas of the school, the resource room or learning support class, during class time. Because of the number of students missing class on a given day, the due dates for the assignments and worksheets are very flexible.

My co-op has a bin where she puts the worksheets for each day so that students know what they missed, but the students still come up to her and ask her to help them figure out what they missed and when it is due. I feel very overwhelmed by this process; I don't know how she stays on top of who missed what and what they need to make-up. Also, because she has flexible due dates for assignments, it means a huge amount of grading work for her at the end of the semester when students realize they need to turn in their work in order to pass. I completely understand why she has flexible due dates with the amount of absences and other things interfering with class work, but I also know that this system is not organized in a way that I feel I can manage in the Spring.

What do your co-ops do? How do they handle make-up work for absent students? What if the students miss an activity in class that they need to do/see in order to complete an assignment? Does your co-op have strict due dates? How frequently are your students receiving feedback (grades or otherwise) on their work?

"Keep Your Head Up"

One of my co-op's biggest pet peeves is when students fall asleep or put their heads down in class. It seems like a sign of disrespect and laziness and she's not alone in taking offense to this act. I never put much thought into the issue until today. It's such a shame that most of them time we fail to put thought into things unless they have some direct impact on us, but such is life. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is...

I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately. By that I mean, I haven't been able to sleep in days. I wake up every 5 minutes, roll over, groan at the time, close my eyes and pray that this time I'll be able to sleep until morning. I don't think I've gotten more than 2 solid hours of sleep a night, for a number of reasons, and it's draining me. I find myself in conversations, completely listening and trying to digest the information, but unable to recall what happened. I find myself zoning out. Even now as I write this, I can barely focus.

For the first time, I am beginning to understand why these students keep their heads down. They're not being intentionally disrespectful. How can we expect them to learn about themes, imagery, big ideas, and characterization when even keeping their eyes open is a struggle? For whatever reason, these kids aren't getting enough sleep and it's wearing on their academic life. I feel like, at some point, we've all had those days where we know no matter how hard we try nothing is going to get done. We get tired, we get frustrated, and we check out. It's normal. It's natural.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this (probably because in the last week I've gotten the same amount of sleep most people get in a night) but I just wanted to throw it out there that there are so many factors that go into classroom behavior. It's not always disrespect.

Sorry that was so incredibly awful. To be honest, I knew I had to write a post yet this week, and in the half-awake state I'm in, this was the best I could offer.

Time Management in the Classroom

A frequent conversation I have with my co-op is the idea of not having enough time in a period to complete what we want to do. I often get caught up in the mindset that English is the only thing my students need to know, and they should spend all day with me, however, I'm quickly brought back to reality and realize that all of the other subjects are probably thinking the same thing. So, no matter how much I wish, or complain, or get frustrated about it, there's still only 40 minutes in a class period, and I have to do with it what I can. However, sometimes I feel like all of the great stuff we learn in class could never be possible in a classroom when there is only 40 minutes. For example, it would be great to do a free write with my students for 5-10 minutes everyday, but at the end of the week, that's 1/5 of the class time that week that could have been used for something else. Even when planning my unit, I felt like I had to leave out so much stuff, because there is only so much time within the year that I have. I could probably talk about about this for a very long time, but I'm sure you all understand. So I guess my real question for you all is how are you handling time management in your classroom? How much more do you think you could accomplish if you had more time? What kinds of things would you love to do in your classroom, but you don't have the time for?

No, you won't get in trouble for writing something creative.

The other day in class my co-op introduced me to a genius lesson idea. She had this children's book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg (the guy who wrote Jumanji andPolar Express). According to the fictional editor's note, the story is a collection of illustrations by a guy named Harris Burdick, who disappeared before releasing the stories that go along with the pictures. These mystery illustrations are presented in the book. Here's an example:

For the assignment, the students had to carefully examine the illustration as a "setting" and imagine what sort of plot might be inferred from the setting. They would identify if they thought the plot was going to be "happy" or "sad," whether the character seemed evil or good and what in the illustration gave them that impression. I was stoked about the idea, but I couldn't help thinking how awesome this would work as a starting off point, a prompt, for the students to write their own narratives, and the objectives of the lesson could be achieved that way as well. It was my co-op's lesson so I couldn't really make any changes but I did tell one group of students that I was working with (they finished up the assigned work quickly) that they should just starting writing a story with the line in the picture being the first line of their stories. One of the boys in the group looked up at me and asked, "will we get in trouble?" I almost burst out laughing, but at the same time it was terrible that the students have gotten to do so little creative writing in class that they see it as something they could get in trouble for.

I'm looking forward to try and get more creative writing in the classroom I'm a part of. Steve gave me a great idea that I'm going to put into effect this Friday. I'm going to use the 20 minute block of time that my homeroom is waiting for lunch as my own creative writing class. I'm going to start having the students do free writes and sharing their writing with classmates. I'm still working on the details but I'm psyched to get this going. Any suggestions for guiding 7th graders through their (probably) first creative writing experience would be much appreciated, thanks!

-Luke Damiani

Ning Conversation

I have been thinking about pairing a film with the Catcher in the Rye for our unit plan, but haven't really found one I totally love....so I posed a question on the ning, "making curriculum pop," and have been totally overwhelmed with awesome ideas! I posted a question on the ning this summer for my "teaching with film" course, and received a similar outpouring of ideas. I would recommend signing up for the ning and using this as a resource for your unit plans if you are struggling.

As a side note, John Golden responded to my thread (very exciting) and he recommended a film that I had thought about in the beginning, but kind of put on the back burner. Now that he mentioned it, I kind of feel validated and I think I am going to revisit it and really consider incorporating it into the unit.

Link to the ning: http://mcpopmb.ning.com/

Link to my question/convo: http://mcpopmb.ning.com/group/teachwmovies/forum/topics/catcher-in-the-rye-film?xg_source=activity

Grammar Time

My co-op and I have started the grammar unit for our classes. While most English teachers, along with their students, dread this part of the year, I am mildly enthusiastic about it. Fortunately, I am right in the middle of Transformational Grammar, so all of the concepts being taught are fresh in my head. More importantly, I have alternative methods to help the students understand traditional grammar concepts, particulary the functions of parts of speech, thanks to Shields. On Monday of this week, I watched my co-op teach noun functions to the first two periods, and I then taught the remaining classes. As I was watching him, I was frustrated to see that he was mutilating certain grammatical concepts, specifically indirect objects (he kept confusing them with objects of prepositions). Anyway, when I took over, I tried, perhaps unsuccessfully, to give the students a variety of methods to identify the functions, often resorting to what Shields has told us in class. I think the most motivating part of the lesson, for me, was that I was implementing more contemporary strategies within traditional grammar, and I felt as though I was rebeling against our schools' preposterous infatuation with traditionally taught grammar. I always imagined myself being one of the teachers who held contempt towards teaching grammar, but after Monday I feel confident that I might be able to succeed in this content area and helps students gain a practical appreciation for it as well.

Homework? What's that?

Okay here is my vent of the day: Why is getting students to do their homework like pulling teeth???

I am leading the honors class through their novel (which is on top of their regular classwork) and every time I assign homework, they always moan and complain. Here's the kicker: the only day they get homework in every other class is on Fridays!!! I'm giving them reading assignments and worksheets to go with it, so it's not impossible and should only take they 30 minutes tops to finish it, but it's like pulling teeth! I "lost it" (okay not really, but I was really frustrated) today in class because they have had the book over a week now, have only been assigned the first four chapters, and yet I still have over half the class who didn't even start the book. When I told them they had a test on the first five chapters on Friday, it was like the floodgates opened and all of the excuses started pouring out. The only thing I could do what stress to them the test is going to be open book, but they were encouraged to read because they would need to know where to find answers in the book.

I had to giggle during class today because I was going over what their homework assignments were throughout the week and the assistant principle walked in and listened to me haven the class repeat back to me what their homework was. It was when one of the students said, "Miss we get it," yet he couldn't tell me what his homework was. I just looked at him and said nothing. It was the assistant principle who looked at the student and said, "Really???" The thing is, it's like that every day!

Now that I've vented longer than I wanted to, does anybody have any suggestions on how to get the students more involved and doing their homework? My co-op and I really don't know what to do at this point.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Who's really failing?

I've seen Steve and Dallas' posts about students under-performing and I can totally relate. My co-op and I have talked at length about the huge number of failing students in each of her/my classes. I wasn't expecting to see so many students completely writing off assignments and blowing off exams, with no regard for their grades or their education. I guess perhaps I was being presumptuous in expecting a school like Manheim Township to have less of this than perhaps an urban school or a less affluent school, but I'll be honest - I did.

I went to an affluent high school much like Manheim (Although many of the students were extremely wealthy, I (and most of my friends) sat comfortably in middle class). I don't know if I was oblivious or it wasn't going on, but I don't recall any of the students being as blatant in their disregard for their grades. I struggle to understand how these kids can (seemingly thoughtlessly) fail the majority of their classes or repeat entire grades. The most frustrating aspect of this is that a good deal of the kids I see failing are extremely intelligent and could easily ace every class if they bothered to put in even a minuscule amount of effort. Which brings me to....

Are they actually bored? I feel like any time an intelligent kid fails, educators slap a "not challenged enough" or "bored" label on them. I don't know if I agree with this idea. I think it's something else, or at least a combination of boredom and something else. (Sorry this is so inarticulate - I'm having trouble saying what I want to say.) Basically, what I'm trying to suggest is that boredom is not the sole reason these bright kids are failing consistently.

These kids come and sit in our classrooms and we see one small dimension of who they are. I think we need to realize and plan for the fact that who we see them as for 40 minutes of their day, doesn't do them justice. I've talked about this with friends I've had classes with for years, who I only began talking to/getting to know this school year -until you take the time to get to know someone, you forget they exist in a world beyond the one you see them in. It's like that surreal moment when you realize your parents aren't JUST your parents. They're someone's kid, someone's spouse, someone's EX, someone's best friend etc. These kids aren't JUST our English students: some of them are athletes, some have problems at home, some are helping pay the rent, some didn't eat dinner last night, some just broke up with their boyfriend/girlfriend, some are sick, some are frustrated, some are depressed, some are addicted to drugs/alcohol, some are homecoming queens, some are last-picked in gym, some are in bands, some are desperate for attention, some are trying to avoid it, etc. etc. etc.

Sorry this is long and rambling - it's a bit stream-of-consciousness. What I'm trying to say, at the end of all this, is that until we take the time (though it might be a long and difficult process) to know who these kids REALLY are, outside of the classroom, we will never be able to help them IN the classroom.

Whew!

Persona=personality ... right?!

So, I may be looking ahead a bit ... a bit too much perhaps, but still, I just want to get this out there ...

How do we show our "teaching persona?" To be honest, I am not even sure if I know fully what that is/what it means. My students have gotten to know my personality, have gotten to see who I am and some of my interests, but is that  my "persona?"

In my head I am equating persona with personality, but is that wrong? If not, how do you show personality when you teach, your quirks and your interests, your little niches that your students love to point out and joke about?

I guess it would just all be in the planning ... at least that is the only conclusion I am coming up with as I ramble here in front of you all ... I'm guessing that the key is to plan a lesson where your life can relate to your students ... and then pray that it goes that way and that the iPad catches it while on record.

Any thoughts on this? I'm really just spit-balling (I'm starting to really like that term, idk why). I'm just looking ahead at what I deemed to be the trickiest of the RPG's and I figured I would share my thoughts in case any of you were having the same ...

DI...or lack thereof...?

I don't know about everyone else, but most days when I walk out of class, I'm thinking, "I want to try that in my classroom". So naturally, I have been thinking a lot about DI in my placement. When I'm in the classroom, I have been paying a lot more attention to even the smallest things that might be considered DI. But honestly, I have yet to really find a lot of substantial evidence. MTMS is supposed to really be implementing the idea of DI at every possible chance. However, the first time I witnessed it was this week when the students were given a choice in their focus group presentations.

Other than their presentations, class tends to be the same way every day. The students come in, write their homework down, go over the book questions from the night before, listen to the next chapter, then begin their questions. This happens every single day with very little variation.

Here's my big problem - we have many students that have focus issues. They are bored in the classroom, and I do not blame them. I would be (and am sometimes) bored out of my mind. The class is not tracked, so we have all levels of students. Not all of them learn the same way or can stay focused when prompted with the same activities every day. When I try to suggest something different, my co-op is hesitant and always has doubts. When I am able to implement my ideas, it always works out fine.

I'm worried that I won't have much room for DI in my own planning for the spring semester. I can tell that my students are starving for it. I know that she has already lost some students. Any suggestions on how to get them back??

I am stealing Dallas and Marybeth's idea

Each of them has provided us with thought-provoking questions about our classroom demeanors and personas as teachers. Kudos to them!

So, I just felt as though it was my turn to toss out a doozy or two of a question. I have been grading more and more lately and I must say, the scores are VERY UNDERWHELMING. I happen to respect my co-op greatly and I think he does a fine job. In fact, I really can't say anything bad about him. Furthermore, I can't really think of anything that I would change about his approach. It's not that he is perfect.. it's just that I don't know how I would alter one thing without throwing a kink in his entire process. So anyway, we just had a quiz last week about a story that the kids either really liked, or really hated (which I love cuz either way, it's an actual opinion). But they performance on the quizzes were scary. It was a 20pt quiz and I'm not going to lie, at least 50% of each class scored below a 10/20.

I told him how much it depressed me to see it. He said that it's just something you get used to. To be honest, I hate that feeling... the feeling of numbness. After 8yrs in TV news, I saw more dead bodies than I can count. The feeling that it left me with after 8yrs was.... numbness. I also realize that I will go mad if I fully invest myself in the success of each student. Don't get me wrong, I totally get that we must let some students fail to succeed if that is what they are determined to do. But I don't ever want to be numb to student failures on quiz scores. Yet, I am perfectly aware that after awhile, numbness is an inevitability, partially because that is just the way the human psyche works.

Has anyone had similar experiences and/or similar mental battles?

Starting Class

So, I am absolutely loving my placement, but I've noticed one thing that really causes me anxiety when I'm there. I really enjoy teaching and I teach every chance that my co-op gives me, but I feel like I am terrible at starting the class. Once I get the class settled, everything is great and the kids stay focused, but getting them to start working is a task and a half. They like to wander around the room, talk to their friends, sit in other people's seats, and just plain talk. I really don't like the cheesy 1,2,3 eyes on me, or the clap if you can hear me because I'm with 7th and 8th graders, and I want to treat them like their age, but it's difficult to do that when they won't listen. They respond to the clapping and 1,2,3 eyes on me stuff because they've basically been trained to do it, however, I feel awkward using that.

So tomorrow, since our mentors will be at the PDS meeting, my co-op told me that she wanted me to run the classroom the whole day. I taught today, so I'm comfortable teaching the material for tomorrow because they will be working on the creative expressions lesson I have them doing for Ollie's class, but I'm super anxious about getting the classes started. I know the sub will be there if I need help, but I'm really trying to think of some different ways to start classes? I didn't realize I was so anxious about it until I took a nap today and had a dream about it! haha So, if any of you have suggestions for me, I'm all ears! Thanks!

Parody of A Certain Breed of Teacher

Before PDS, I had only seen teachers in the act of teaching, fully robed in the persona they had stitched for themselves. I had only briefly encountered teachers outside of the structured school setting, and never interacted with them on any level beyond that of teacher to student. This semester, I've been granted access to the formerly forbidden faculty lounge, along with other rooms (copy, storage, etc.) in which teachers shed these burdensome personas for five minutes here and there throughout the day. It is in these private dens that I have, for the first time, observed the the hideous faces of the people who wear teacher masks. Segregated from the impressionable eyes of the students they teach, these creatures are free to flail their slimy tendrils of immorality, appendages which I previously assumed had been amputated, or completely absent, from all teachers. I have heard deplorable slurs spill from their slit mouths. Like crudely sharpened spears, their disfigured words target students and faculty alike. They find particular pleasure in divulging their perverse reproductive habits and openly exchange their designs on attractive younger teachers who have yet to undergo the transformation. Several of these creatures are in open confederacy with each other and pridefully oppose and criticize rival groups. I emerge from the faculty lounge in a terrified stupor and watch as they, with their personas zipped and fastened, reenter their classrooms and feign interest in their students and content.

Some Scattered Thoughts

Despite the frustration that I sometimes feel towards how this semester is going, I also feel fortunate to be able to be with the students for a full year rather than being thrown into the classroom half way through the year. It's easy to get pulled down by the expectations that our MU classes and our placements place on us but I have been loving my time in the classroom. Sure, some days I'm bored (after the third, fourth, and fifth viewing of the Of Mice and Men movie) and sometimes I'm tired (okay, most of the time), but overall I love seeing the kids get excited during a discussion, and I love when they surprise me with the thoughtfulness of their questions. They have just as much to teach us as we have to teach them. I truly believe the classroom should be a collaboration of learning, and I love when I get to see this mentality come to fruition.

As mentioned in class, too often we are expected to "trick" the students into learning, and, while that may be necessary in some cases and in some grades, most students appreciate honesty. In my high school I never gained a firm understanding of why we were doing the assignments that we were doing. Why not be up front with students and tell them the value of each assignment?

How has everyone been doing with developing a teaching persona? How is your persona in the classroom different from who you are outside of the classroom? I have only taught a few times and I never felt like I was being that different from who I am outside the classroom. Any advice about how to develop a teaching persona? I know it is different for everyone but i'm curious how others act in the classroom.

The conversation about emotional objectivity and reframing in scott's class hit home for me. The other week I taught a mini-lesson on run-on sentences and the 7th period class left me feeling discouraged. A few of the students were disrespectful and were often disruptive and it left me feeling drained. But, I need to not take it personally (I have since moved past it). However, it is difficult to keep a positive attitude when the actions are taking place. I know it takes practice to keep a positive mentality and I hope to maintain an encouraging demeanor despite the actions of students.

I want to create a classroom library for my students. I hope that if I have books in front of them as much as possible they may become more proactive in their individualized reading. Does anyone have a library in their classroom? My mentor and I were thinking of compiling the books that we own and bringing them in for the students to check out at their leisure. I was also thinking about giving them the option to write a short summary of the books they choose to read to help other students know what the books are about. If I had a better knowledge of young adult books and authors I would also like to implement book talks into my classroom. How are students supposed to know what books are out there if no one takes the time to show them? Of course that puts extra work on me since I am not well- informed in what YA books are worth my time. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I also was having a discussion with a friend of mine who just graduated with a degree in video game design. We were discussing the potential for the implementation of video games into the English classroom and how exciting it would be to see how that could be arranged. Obviously, it would take A TON of work and would require hours and hours of planning and strategy but I think it's worth the thought in our current technological age. Imagine an RPG (don't worry, in video gaming jargon that stands for Role Playing Game) that allows students to navigate a literary character through levels that reveal themes, plot, setting, etc. What if their completion of a video game revealed their competency in a subject? I know it may sound ludicrous but I firmly believe it could be accomplished with the right amount of time, thought, and design. I have played games that have taught me about historical contexts and have forced me to think creatively in order to accomplish certain tasks. I have also played games that required me to explore and decipher visual and textual clues in order to act appropriately within a certain context. With tweaking, these skills could be applied to Englishy subjects. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then it is probably hard to imagine video games having any place in the classroom, but I've played enough games to know that it can be done. Anyone agree? Disagree?

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

DI

After the presentation and discussion on differentiated instruction on Tuesday, I began to evaluate the utilization of this technique in my coops classroom and realized it was nonexistent. Not only does every student in a class perform the same tasks, but every class does the same lesson each day, including the ESL section. I'm unsure if my coop is uninformed of the effectiveness and possibilities of DI or if he simply refuses to incorporate it into his lessons. I am tempted to encourage him to at least offer his students choice, which I believe is one of the rudiments of DI thought. In his class, all students must complete the same writing assignment based on identical prompts. As I gradually acquire more classroom authority, I will definitely vary the writing prompts, and even the readings, as to allow students a choice, and empower them in their learning. I would love to initiate a writer's notebook activity, in which students can develop a sense of individuality with their writing, and work at their own pace. Beyond giving students choice in their writing, I would like to extend this to assessment, allowing students to create multimedia projects in place of an essay. Another possible DI implementation could be designating each student specific tasks in group work, instead of the current structure in which there are no roles. I would assign struggling students different responsibilities than those given to their faster moving group members. With even the slightest integration of DI, the classroom dynamic would be dramatically altered, and provide students with a needed sense of ownership in their learning.

Bananas

Much like the average person, I say the word "bananas" when I am referring to something crazy.... or obviously the fruit. Anyway, I am saying it for two reasons right now:

1 - My wife is watching a PBS special on "dark matter". At no point in time am I intelligent enough to figure this stuff out. I wish I were though, cuz this stuff is blowing my mind.

2 - Just got done reading the "Drive" chapter. Wow. The "Do It Yourself" report card is such a phenomenal idea. I would give anything to be able to get my kids to partake in such an endeavor. I remember taking the writing course with Tim last semester. It blew my mind that he valued my opinion on my own education. Then, I realized that it helped me to not only be accountable, but to also take the time to actually set some goals for myself. GOALS THAT I CHOSE!! This whole idea of choice has popped up over and over again in our classes with Tim and Kim, and I gotta say.... it totally works with the kids!! Well, as long as you stay patient. When you first try and implement it, they look at you like you have three heads. But my co-op said that they are just waiting for you to give up on the good stuff because they don't expect learning to be fun. I've stuck with it for 9wks and it's finally starting to pay off.

I am not even sure if I spoke enough about "Drive." In a nutshell, the best compliment that I can give this chapter is that while I was reading, I found myself thinking of my kids and how they would react to these things. Sometimes when I read these types of things, I wonder to myself if the person ever took the time to think of urban students. Not this time. Good stuff!

DI Reflection

I spent a lot of time last night thinking about the discussion we had yesterday and how I can use the format of DI in small group learning that Janet presented to us. At my placement we have a very large "tech" section of 11th graders as our last section of the day. I think there are around 30 students and at least half of them scored "below basic" on reading assessments, but there are also a hand full of students who are extremely good readers who lack motivation to do much school work. My co-op and I struggle with lesson planning in that class and we frequently feel like it is really hard to get them engaged in good discussions, lessons or projects because there are so many of them on such different levels.

I think I am going to discuss the idea of DI groups with my co-op on Friday to see if she thinks it might be a good approach for our class. There are three adults in the room at least two days a week (me, co-op, and learning support person), so it might be feasible to break the class up into DI groups and each work with a group on an activity geared towards their readiness. I know this probably won't be possible everyday, but if we could do this two days a week, we may see some improvements.

Starting Over

So after taking a week to step away from posting here and on Edmodo, I feel (slightly) refreshed and refocused, I thank Mary Beth for her post because I had a sigh of relief knowing I wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed and lacking sleep. In fact at this point, I should probably own half of Starbucks. Anyone else find the smell/taste of a specialty coffee somehow has a calming effect?

The result of my "break" was this:

I taught a lesson with our honors class on Monday and it was the first time I was successful at getting them actively engaged in a discussion! I was even able to hold their attention until the very end of class, which is almost impossible to do because they get distracted very easily (I love 6th graders!). The lesson was introducing the students to the fantasy genre because they are starting the novel A Wizard in Earthsea. I showed a video clip that included all the elements of the genre and then asked them to come up with more characteristics. We were sharing as a class and built a list together so they could use it as a reference. This went so well, we went beyond discussion and started "debating" whether or not certain books or movies could be considered fantasy! Now it wasn't a critical discussion by any means, but my co-op and I were so excited the students were participating and not acting out that we just kept going. The best part of the day was two periods later, when four of the students came up to me and said they already started the book and it was exactly how I described it! My co-op emailed me today and said that every single student had at least finished the first chapter, and to be prepared because she was turning the class over to me on the days I am there!

It was one of those days when it hit me that I made the right decision and I was meant to be in the classroom. It definitely makes up for all of the stress staring me in the face as of late, and it gives me a little extra boost as this semester winds down.

On another note, the results of the 2011 Reading and Math Assessments of Grades 4 and 8 were released today and while I won't go into the stats (you can check the reading out here: http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2011/), I will say it's definitely worth taking the sample reading test question! It's interesting to turn things around and see what kind of questions the students are faced with. Here is the reading question: http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2011/sample_quest.asp.

Drive Chapter

Well, I began writing my response to the chapter yesterday and lost power before posting. I'm glad that this response comes after some reflective cooling-off, as I was going to blather on about how much I wish I saw "big picture" and "unschooling" methods in the classroom. This morning, perhaps from a clever facebook quote about "making the standards your bitch," I am fortified by the knowledge that the Drive chapter will inform my teaching, along with the likes of Penny Kittle, Natalie Goldberg, Donald Murray, Tom Romano, et al....just not this year as much as I'd prefer. I tuck all of these wonderful teachers away in my filing bins and they wait for me, as I know my future holds them and their methods.

The big question I have is how do I keep my heart in check? Some days the injustice for the students is more than I can bear. It doesn't have to be so numbingly scripted and fill-in-the-blank. Ah, I said I wouldn't go there, so...see you all in class.

Literacy Training

Hi Everyone!

I feel very grateful this morning because we have power at our house again! After over 60 chilly, dark hours with nothing, everything has been restored, including me :). Anyhow, yesterday my co-op and I attended the "Literacy Design Collaborative" at the IU13. It was the first of four workshop days (they are spread out across the school year and I get to attend all of them!) that brings together teachers from all over Lancaster county to talk about the Common Core Standards and how the literacy design tools can be used to implement the standards. I can't even tell you how exciting it was to sit in a room full of teachers and to see them engaging with the process; everyone was so curious about the new tools and really interested in improving their students' literacy skills.

I can't fully explain the LDC tools to everyone yet, but our next session is on Monday and I am hoping that by next week I will be able to share what I am learning with everyone. The IU13 gave everyone a huge binder with resources and templates for lesson planning; a lot of the strategies look very similar to UbD, but there is actually a method to easily build differentiation into every writing prompt- pretty cool! As part of the workshop requirements, my co-op and I are working on a collaborative writing "task" (its called a task instead of an assessment) to use for our unit on Catcher in the Rye, and after we are finished it is going to be part of a statewide effort to add more LDC lessons to the SAS portal.

Although I missed being in the classroom yesterday, it was also really nice to get to spend time with other professionals and to learn about the newest trend in lesson planning and literacy improvement efforts.

A glimmer of DI

Reading Steve's post from a few days ago was encouraging because I can relate to the frustrations he has and which the other pds interns working in urban middle schools probably have as well. It seems like these schools are stuck in a system where the students are not given any responsibility for or ownership of their own learning. In my classroom, the lessons are very straightforward and barely ever feature variety. The kids are bored and it's very easy to see, even for someone like me who has spent very little time in a school. Reading through the book on Diferentiated Instruction (DI) last week was very enlightening. The book didn't answer all of my questions about DI, but it did give me a good introduction to the topic and I started to think about it as I observed my co-op's lessons. While I was reading DI in the English Classroom, I thought, "wow, this is so not part of my experience in the classroom right now. The only variation in lessons that I've seen so far have been helper note-sheets that aid students in taking notes on the days lesson. Kids with that specific IEP need are given those helper sheets, but other than that, the lesson and the assignments are pretty much the same for all students, and there's little student choice in assignments.

The other day, though, in an intensive english section, I saw one student who had finished the assigned book early and had been given the next one in the series to start. The students are learning about elements of plot and this student was allowed to use the new book for the classwork on plot. I thought that that was pretty cool. Since she was reading ahead and really seemed to be into the book, she wasn't held back by the students that just wanted to goof off.

I see DI as being both a blessing and a curse (like most things). DI is necessary because in any classroom there are students at a variety of different academic levels. Some students are more motivated than others, or are at a higher or lower reading level. Some students love to write and others need a little bit of encouragement. The principles and strategies of DI help the teacher to serve the needs of all these different students. The tough thing for me, I suppose, is that it is really difficult to figure out how to design a DI lesson plan. It seems very complicated and even after reading the book on DI I feel pretty lost. I suppose I just need to wade through it for now and hope that I can get a grasp on it by the time I'm done with these lesson plans.

Question: Classroom Management.

Okay so I know we've sort of talked about this before, but I'm bringing it up again because I'm still at a loss.

What classroom management techniques are working for you? We've tried a bunch of things and there are just some kids that will not stop acting out, talking, bouncing, etc. So I wanted to see what has been working for you all. Any good suggestions I can try out in my room??

We are a cohort, and I figured I would try to gain what I can from your experiences as well as mine. Thanks.

We got this.

I know this blog is more about our teaching and experiences in the schools, but I feel compelled to say something (hold your breath :) to I guess... I dunno... encourage us. Maybe.

All of us (or everyone I've spoken to in the PDS program) are frustrated by something involved with this experience. Whether it's the RPG's or the blue sheets, our co-ops or the seemingly endless amount of class work we have to do, we all feel like we're fighting an uphill battle.

It's been a rough semester for me too, for a ton of reasons it wouldn't make sense or be appropriate to go into on a classroom blog, and there have been mornings I've laid in bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering what the point was in even going in to my school that day. I feel like I don't have a ton to offer, like I'm spinning my wheels sometimes. For the first time in my academic life, I have missed due dates, done assignments at 2am, Sparknoted books instead of read them, skipped sleep for days at a time, and questioned the worth of it all. I have been, in a lot of ways, a terrible student. But I know it's turning me into a better teacher. Maybe that doesn't make a ton of sense. I know we need to learn to be both- to balance, and to work hard as anything (and we all are) now for a future pay-off. When I'm in the classroom, or really involved in making a lesson, I'm going to choose to do that instead of my reading. I just am. I try to get everything done the best that I can while maintaining my sanity, but if I need to miss a chapter of a book so that I can make an amazing, engaging lesson, then I'm going to choose that. Every time.

I guess my point is, it's important that we're striving, always, to do the best we can in all areas. At the end of the day, however, it comes down to how we live out what we read and what inspires us in our classrooms. We can sit all day talking about these concepts or we can put them into practice. We're working together, struggling through these issues, laughing over coffee, commiserating and celebrating, and all in the name of something greater that's going to come from this period of uncertainty. I'm not saying we're going to have it all figured out by the end of the year - we won't. But we are working through our frustrations to achieve some greater end - maybe we don't know exactly the form that's going to come in, but it will come. We've seen glimmers of it already - I know this because I read all of your blogs - and it moves us (even for just a second) forward.

I guess this post came from hearing/reading people's frustrations and anxieties and feeling the weight of my own. Maybe it wasn't helpful. There's a fair chance I just rambled on to no good end, but basically, what I'm trying to say is... if you can avoid it, try not to grow weary of the good work you're doing. It feels slow and cumbersome, overwhelming and aggravating, but the end will justify the means.

Stay golden, PDS. We got this.

DI Conversation

When you get the chance, read the debate over Differentiated Instruction that is occurring on the New York Times. You'll see how educators view it in a range of ways.http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/10/02/are-top-students-getting-short-shrift

Type I Kids

Drive's article on Type I Kids was intriguing. I think it's obviously a great idea to rather have kids engaged than compliant.

I definitely think that the three main questions for creating engaging homework is the easiest way to engage in Type I learning for students.  We always learn about not teaching to the standardized test, or not teaching "because it's going to be on the exam on friday."  This article complies (no pun intended) with that learning theory.  I think it is important for teachers to make their assignments fit the real world and actively explain to students the importance of what they're learning and creating.

As a compliant student myself, it was interesting for me to come to the realization that grades can easily become a reward for compliance and I feel as though that is a problem almost every teacher and school faces.  If we do not explain to students the importance of their learning, they become focused on getting good grades and pleasing teachers and parents.  The DIY rubric is a great idea, especially since we've been on the receiving end of that idea in Tim's class - specifically teaching writing.

Finally, I think the tips for giving praise are important for all teachers to remember so that praise does not result in compliance.

Oops

So, apparently I was dropping the ball with my participation in this blog. While I could go into a long diatribe(I've always wanted to use this word. I wonder if I just used it correctly) about how all of these blogs are driving me bat-shit, I won't. Although, an argument could be made that I just did since I hinted at the idea that I want to. It's kind of like one of my favorite sayings, which is:
"I'm not saying.. but I'm just saying."
My wife hates this line. But I think it holds water.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say right now other than when everyone talks about what they are doing with their students, I am always left wondering why my kids are left in the dark. To be honest, it really pisses me off. My kids have broken computers. They have to be walked to and from lunch. They are told to write vocab words 20 times each. They are given bathrooms that reek of something unimaginable. Some of their textbooks are over 20 years old. And they are tested out the ass about things that aren't even covered. Worst of all, the temporary principal that is there sees all of this and is starting the wheels of change (he is a good man) but can't even guarantee that he will be there at the end of the school year.

Ugh.

Anyway, be happy about where you are and the tools that you have. My happiness comes from merely seeing my students show up in a system set up to crush them.

DI

I have been working on developing differentiated instruction for a unit on The Great Gatsby. Also, my co-op and I are discussing how we might add DI into our upcoming unit on The Catcher in the Rye. Our plan is to provide students with options for their assessment while having them focus on answering one prompt related to the text. In other words, students can pick from a list of project ideas and work to answer an overarching question through their selected project. At the moment our assignment possibilites are divided into categories: Visual (advertisement, collage, video), Auditory (speech, debate, lecture, round table discussion, news broadcast, music), Written (essay, story, poetry, letter, blog), and Kinesthetic (role play, dramatization, experiment). They are broken up this way in hopes of appealing to the multiple intelligences. It's exciting to see the foundation of DI focused unit develop. In addition to this final assessment, we will be assessing their knowledge of vocab throughout the unit and will be using either reading check quizzes, study guide checks, or reader response journals for formative assessments.
Any ideas for how to creatively assess the students throughout the unit? I personally think the implementation of reading journals (if done creatively) could be beneficial to the students but i'm hesitant about how to get the kids excited about it. They are used to reading check quizzes and study guides (most of which either don't prepare for or don't bother filling out). I want to try to get the students more involved with the text as they go through the unit, any ideas?

Unit Plan

While working on the unit plan Dallas and I are creating for "The Great Gatsby" on identity, I can't help but think about my own identity in front of the classroom. One of our "big ideas" is the idea of perception vs. reality or, how people see you versus how you see yourself. Then there's the added factor of how you try to come off vs. how you actually appear. I think my biggest challenge with teaching is going to be relating to the students on a professional level. I mean, I'm not completely helpless (I obviously know to keep the glaringly obvious boundaries between us...) but I struggle with that delicate line where friendly meets professional. By nature, I have a pretty laid back personality. I like the freedom to be laid back with people, and I like when people are laid back with me. I'm a bit concerned about how this transfers to my position in front of the classroom. I have noticed with myself (my co-op agrees) that I tend to be too laid back, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I mean it's nothing awful. I don't curse in front of them or talk about my personal life or anything ridiculus like that. It's more subtle. The way I talk or carry myself. I guess I don't see myself as some big, important person who knows so much more about life than they do. Honestly, I don't want to come off that way, either. I think coming off as thinking I'm superior to them is the wrong approach and closes doors that need to be open for great discussion and collaboration. That being said, I know there is a need there for at least some barrier in conversation and interaction that puts me at a different "level." Any suggestions as to how to create this without coming off as elitist or cutting off open communication?

Epiphany-ish

For the past two weeks, I have been leading book discussions in class on text the students should have read (were assigned) for that day. They were going well, but it was basically the same four or five people in each class participating and leading the discussions and honestly, the quiz grades (my co-op does reading quizzes) were weak at best. So then I decided to show a video clip from one of my favorite shows that discusses tragic flaws. It was the first time one of my students, Frank, took his head of off his desk the entire year. After the video, we discussed tragic heroes in pop culture and Frank (who had never talked before - save for inappropriate comments) basically lead the whole discussion. The quiz the next day (designed by my co-op, but using the material I taught them) went amazingly. Almost everyone got an A. It felt like a break-through, and it proved to me that engaging the students - ALL the students - in content that they see in the world around them really does change everything. Just a thought.

Book Trailers

I've been thinking a lot about alternatives to the "stand in front of the class and present" projects, and was wondering if anybody had any experience with creating story/book trailers. I think the kids would have fun with this and it could replace the traditional book report. I've also been thinking about using it at the end of the month so students a couple of students can share a book they read on their own.

Any thoughts and/or websites that I could look at for examples? Also, any other ways I could use this? Thanks!

"Well that sounds good in theory..."

I am continually amazed by the belief that philosophies of education can be sound in theory but no in practice. I suppose there are some instances where this comes into play, but for the most part I see this school of thought as the biggest cop out among teachers. It's as if they've stumbled upon this great loop hole that allows them to keep doing things the wrong way. Be it out of habit, laziness, fear or stubbornness, I see this happening all the time. Take my co-op for instance; he's a great guy and his heart really is in the right place in a lot of ways, but his famous line since day one has been "that sounds good, but I don't think eighth graders can handle that." Whether he believes that or not, he uses that line regarding writing/reading workshops, writers notebooks, discussions and so many other tactics that I would not dream of keeping out of my classroom. My big thing has been quizzes. Everything they do is quizzed. They read a short story, they get a study guide, they go over the answers for a couple days, then they take a quiz that pretty much mirrors that study guide. There is just no critical thinking and no real life connections. It's all plot summary and author facts. So for my RPG i asked if i could run a class discussion about The Hunger Games, a book that the students are literally eating up. Almost 3/4 of the kids finished before the lesson plans called for it and of those kids I'd say over 1/2 are already reading the second. It's sooooooo awesome to watch these kids absolutely lose themselves in a book. Yet despite all this passion the only thing they do with it is quizes and worksheets. So what i did was Friday I set the desks up in a circle. Each person received an article as they entered the class on the topic of reality TV and culture (there were three different articles ranging in viewpoint dispersed through the class). Finally I shared the lyrics of the song "The Cave" by Mumford and Sons because the themes in the song, as well as the title, are major themes in the book. And 40 minutes we talked. Naturally because they were new to this I had to lead them more than I was used too, but they were into it. They loved uncovering the fact that just as the government in the book shows people only what they want them to see, the reality shows they watch weekly do the same. We also talked a lot about identity and how, much like characters in the book and on survivor act differently on the show and create false identities based upon perceptions, we too act differently depending on our surroundings. They got it, and they loved it. Every discussion was different, and unique to that class, yet all were on point and all of them were interrupted by the bell, leaving hands in the air and kids saying "awww I had something to say."

Here's why this was awesome. Just like characters in The Hunger Games and Reality TV shows become victims of their surroundings, I can sometimes feel myself being pulled one way or another because of the climate I see in the schools. A lot of teachers have this notion that kids can only handle a certain level of thinking, so "why bother pushing them?" And when your around that so much you kind of forget how important all these "idealistic" philosophies are that we talk about at Millersville. Friday I saw a lot of light bulbs going on above students head. They all love the book, but now they get it on a whole new level. They understand why were teaching it and how it effects their life, and thats powerful stuff. I needed to see that. To be reminded that the theories we discuss in class are so much better in practice. I don't think the atmosphere in schools is ever truly going to change, which means the pressure is always going to be on to take the easy way out; however, if 75 8th graders can have an organized discussion over social connections to The Hunger Games, then we have more than theory, we have pedagogy.

Attempt at differentiating foiled by students

On Friday I taught a lesson in the humanities class using segments from the book, The Overachievers. I copied sections from Frank, Julie and CJ and gave a different part to each student. The students read them individually and then met in small groups depending upon which character they had. I made discussion questions for the class based on the current humanities' theme, "conflict." After small group discussion, everyone participated in a whole class discussion. The discussion went so well that my co-op asked me to teach the same lesson to our 11th grade tech section.

We decided to make some changes prior to teaching the lesson: I shortened the reading, made a handout with more specific discussion questions, and we went through the class list and assigned parts based on reading ability. Some of the students in the class read at a very high level, while others are consistently scoring below basic and really struggling to complete assignments in the class. When the students entered the classroom, my co-op handed them a packet to read based on our assessments of their reading ability. After everyone read silently for thirty minutes, they broke into their small groups. As my co-op and I walked around the classroom, we noticed that the groups were not what we had arranged. The students had switched packets so that they could be with their friends!

Unfortunately, many of the students became frustrated because the reading was too difficult or too long for their skill level. I was pretty frustrated too because we had made an effort to differentiate the assignment so that everyone would only be stretched a little, not completely out of their comfort zone. The discussion groups didn't work out well because the students that were frustrated and didn't understand the reading started to distract the other students, and pretty soon everyone was off task.

At the end of the day, my co-op and I processed the differences between the humanities section and the 11th grade tech section; we both ended up feeling disappointed with the way the activity turned out in the 11th grade class. I'm not sure how to structure this activity differently so that it is more appealing to the 11th grade section...I'm going to keep thinking about it because I know those kids like reading nonfiction texts about teens, so this should be something that interest them.

Getting There One Step at a Time!

It continues to amaze me that I can use so much of what we learned last spring in ENGL 486 and 487 in my current classroom. This week I dusted off my copy of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian to combine with The Light in the Forest. I used the split personality diagram in Diary to lead a discussion of the White/Native American characteristics as presented in the text of Light in the Forest. In order to see the importance of perspective, I drew an x/y axis with four quadrants: 1) White culture from white perspective; 2) White culture from Native American perspective; 3) Native American culture from Native American perspective; 4) Native American culture from white perspective. In a discussion format, students and I filled in the areas with topics ranging from religion to housing and clothing. Their prior complaints that they didn't understand the book faded away by the end of the period. To wrap it up, I handed out a blank split diagram with the outline of a frontier boy on one half and the outline of a Native American boy on the other half. The assignment was to fill in corresponding characteristics for homework. By the way, I did give a brief talk about True Diary at the beginning and had several students ask to borrow it at the end of class. One boy took it home and we will pass it along to the others. That was my coolest moment: having lights of understanding go on and having 7th graders ask to borrow my books!

To connect this scenario to our ENGL 488 work, my experience above relates to what Jeff Wilhelm and Bruce Novak are discussing in Book Club on English Companion Ning. One teacher wrote in asking how she could teach from the philosophical vantage that their book promotes "with her hands cuffed behind her back." She was referring to standardization and dictated "coverage." One of the authors answered her quoting Matthew Arnold, using a reference to throwing off the chains of repression. For those of us who cannot achieve that kind of complete liberation at the moment, we can create lessons that get us and our students closer to the free exploration of ideas and expression. I realize that I must take baby steps in my movement away from the "schoolish" toward the "toolish," to quote Jeff Wilhelm, but each time I do, the students' reaction makes me realize it was a rather big leap!

Motivation Idea

Hey All!!

Today, my honors section were visualizing and creating drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.  They had to think about what they thought he looked like, based on what we've read in our novel and other background info we've studied about them.

I took it upon myself to tell the kids that if they really liked their drawing, I would take a picture of it on my iPad and post it on our class blog!  It worked pretty well.  I got six students who were willing to share, and they were super excited about their drawings going public.

Try it out sometime with something in your classroom!!

Run-on Sentences

So I am preparing a mini-lesson on run-on sentences and was wondering if anyone did one last semester. I have a few ideas that I'm bouncing around but haven't gotten any solid focus yet for how to engage the students effectively. I'm primarily teaching it to the College Prep students and each period has a number of rowdy kids that lose focus easily and need to be consistently redirected. Any ideas?

Gender Issues

I never realized how big of an issue gender can be when it comes to classroom teachers. When I was in middle and high school, it was just a minor detail whether my teacher was a man or a woman, but I am starting to realize that isn't always the case. I've heard my co-op say on several occasions that she thought that some of the issues we've been having are due to the fact that she is a woman, but I wasn't sure. There were always other variables.

But today I really saw how big of a difference gender can make.

My homeroom had a UA class first period. After they came back one of the students kept repeating something about the teacher from that class. My co-op took him into the hallway and he apparently broke down crying because of something that happened in that class. Strangely enough, my co-op has done similar things in our class, but the student has not reacted this way at all, actually he has acted quite the opposite.

When I spoke with my co-op about it later she pulled the gender card again. It was then that it hit me how big of a difference it can play. From what I've seen so far, students behave and respond better to a male teacher, but they become more attached and feel safer in the female teacher's class. This particular student has asked on several occasions to stay behind with us instead of going to other class periods.

I will be interested to see if my theory on this matter remains the same throughout the rest of the year. Any thoughts/experiences?

The Hunger Games Unit Plan

Hey guys!
As Spencer and I create our unit plan for The Hunger Games, I was just wondering how many of you have actually read The Hunger Games? I think it would be super cool to include sort of a real life Hunger Games in the classroom. Of course, I'm not going to have my students kill each other off, like they do in The Hunger Games haha, but I do want to have some sort of on going game throughout the unit. There are 12 districts in the book, and 2 people from each district get selected for the Hunger Games. I have 24 students in each of my classes, so I thought it would be really cool for 2 students to represent a district. For those of you that have read the book: any ideas on how to create this? I really want to have a focus on the government's role in the book and social justice...thoughts?
Liz

English Companion Ning

Soooo, if you haven't started a conversation on the English Companion Ning, i highly suggest you do.

The teachers on there are ridiculously helpful and more than willing to give suggestions for help with our Unit plans...i even had two different teachers upload their worksheets/documents/ideas that they use for me to steal and integrate. 

It's the easiest way i've found to find other teachers' good ideas and steal them for your own use...which we all know is the only way of legal stealing :)

ECNing book club: Wilhelm's new book

So I guess Jeff Wilhelm came out with a new book called "Teaching Literacy for Love and Wisdom: Being the Book and Being the Change" and it will be the focus of the English Companion Ning's book club this week/month. Looks like it's some great discussion if anyone hasn't seen it yet! At the bottom of this link is where you can find the discussions: http://englishcompanion.ning.com/group/book-club-teaching-literacy

Slam Poetry

I hope you're planning to participate in MU's second bi-annual Poetry Aloud! We will be teaming up with F&M's Writers House to bring an amazing evening. They will dedicate their Poetry Walk and introduce NYC Slam Poet Tyrek Greene.

Check out his performance on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWAek60HdLE

Louisa May Alcott

Hey Gang!
Here are some events sponsored by Etown College on Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women and Little Men).

The Elizabethtown Public Library, with support from Elizabethtown College, has received an American Library Association/National Endowment for the Humanities grant and has organized fall 2011 programming on the theme “Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women.” Bethleen Bradford of EPL is the project director, and I am the lead scholar. The grant programming is structured around the award-winning documentary by Harriet Reisen and Nancy Porter, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (which has been shown on the PBS series American Masters). Ms. Reisen published a well-received biography of the same name. She will be speaking on the Etown campus in November.

You, your colleagues, and your students are cordially invited to these Alcott events. Please feel free to forward the e-mail and attachment.

· W/19 OCT.--Film screening: Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. Brinser Lecture Room in Steinman Hall (Alpha Drive), Elizabethtown College, 7:00 p.m. Parking available on College Ave. and Alpha Dr. and in the Leffler lot.

· SAT/29 OCT.--Jéan-Paul Benowitz, “Louisa May Alcott and the Civil War.” Elizabethtown Public Library Auditorium (lower level), 10:00 a.m. Free and open to the public.

· T/1 NOV. --Kimberly VanEsveld Adams and Meghan FitzGerald, “Gothic: Louisa May Alcott's Thrillers,” Brinser Lecture Room, Steinman Hall (Etown College), 3:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

· TH/10 NOV.--Harriet Reisen, “Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women.” Leffler Chapel and Performing Arts Center, Etown College, 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Funded by an ALA/NEH grant with generous support from the Provost’s Office. Etown Public Library screenings of the documentary by Harriet Reisen and Nancy Porter, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, to be announced.

· T/15 NOV.--Kimberly VanEsveld Adams, “Corsets, (Un)employment, Education: Louisa May Alcott and All Kinds of Reforms,” 7:45 p.m., Bucher Meeting House, Etown College. Free and open to the public.

Yours,

Kimberly VanEsveld Adams

Associate Professor of English

Women and Gender Studies Faculty

Elizabethtown College

Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298

adamsk@etown.edu