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

Free audiobooks!

You guys NEED to check out the app called Audiobooks. I think there's a version that costs something, but there's a free version that has TONS of free audiobooks read by actual people. It has a bunch of Shakespeare's stuff, too. Well worth the download!

Do I care too much?

Ok, so I'm having issues. Who isn't, right? Ha.

I have numerous students that have behavioral issues. But I'm slowly uncovering unfortunate facts about their lives that are having extreme effects on these kids. One of my students approached the principal and expressed suicidal thoughts over feeling like everyone hates him. Now, if you saw this kid in the classroom, you would probably label him as a bully. He is always calling out and picking on other students. He wants everyone to hear his comments, and gets really frustrated when he is reprimanded. From this behavior, I would have never thought that he would be feeling so distressed inside. He writes inappropriate stories and tells the "goth" kids to kill themselves.

Aother student has completely stopped coming to school because he is "very sick". Well, we found out that he has actually stopped showing up because he is being picked on by other students. He came to the school district after being home schooled, so he is still learning how to act in a school setting. In a way, his actions make him a target (He created a Hitler mustache out of a post-it and wore it on his face for an entire day). I'm not saying that this is any reason to pickon him, but middle school kids are at an age when they feel the need to point out anything that seems strange.

I'm genuinely worried about these students. I know that, especially as a student teacher, it is not my place to do or say anythng. But the school is not doing anything about these problems. I understand that we have a lot of students that are dealing with issues like these, or much worse. But it's hard knowing these stories and feeling so powerlessnin the situation. I realize that there is nothing for me to do in this situation, and I think that is what is eating me so much.

It's one of those situations when I have to sit back and say nothing. I feel like I am just allowing the problem to persist.

Anybody else dealing with this?

The "Talking" Angry Bird

The more I'm in the classroom the more I realize that my co-op and I spend most of the day asking students to stop talking and/or telling them to stay on task. In a room full of 25 6th graders, it's easier said than done!

My co-op and I have the talking problem when it comes to class discussions because the students just want to talk and not listen. I proposed an idea with my co-op and we are going to try it for the first time on Friday -- the "talking" Angry Bird. The students LOVE Angry Birds (who am I kidding -- I'm addicted too!) so I bought a $5 small stuffed yellow Angry Bird. The idea is when there is a class discussion, students cannot talk unless they are holding the "talking" Angry Bird. Of course they will want to throw it at one another, so we'll obviously have to implement rules to go along with it, but I hope this will at least help with our problem! I will definitely let you all know how it goes because I'm very excited about this.

Another thing I think we're going to put into place to help with behavior/class work is a points system. I don't remember who brought this up in Tim's class, but I thought it was a great idea! I found a post in the Scholastic Community that explains a point system that has worked, so hopefully it's not too late to implement something like that in the classroom.

If anybody has any other "fun" classroom management ideas, I would love to hear them!

Something that's been on my mind...

Hey all!

So, I have a few things on my mind that I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks. I guess by "things" I actually mean a few students who I'm constantly thinking about, worried about, planning for, etc. I'm sorry if this is just a jumbled mess, but I guess that kind of relates to what my mind looks like right now. I think I'll just list some of the students on my mind, and maybe you all can give me some advice about what you would do?

Student 1: This student is a 7th grade boy. He is constantly brought up during team meetings and is known as being disruptive, unmotivated, and distracting. He sits in class making noises, kicking other students underneath the table, doing absolutely no work, and talking back to the teacher. My co-op offered him a stress ball one day because she thought maybe that would help him to concentrate. He told the teacher "I'm not a freaking retard, I don't need one of those." My co-op and I were both super offended, and asked him to rephrase his sentence. At first it seemed like this student just wanted attention. However, when this student receives attention from any teacher, he begins to well up and looks like he is about to cry. My co-op e-mailed home, and his mother responded by saying that they were having similar problems at home at that "the teenage years have definitely hit." I tried changing this students seat; at first he didn't distract any other students anymore, but he still did not do his work. As time went on with the new seats, he became comfortable with his other classmates, and his old habits returned. One day, our class had to go to the auditorium for health screenings. The students were instructed to sit quietly and read their independent books during the screenings so that the doctors and nurses could hear the patients; this student decided to sit next to his friends and talk the whole time. My co-op asked the student to move seats. He talked back and once again decided to ignore instruction. I have found that this student responds very well to positive reinforcement. Anytime he is doing something on task, I make it a point to congratulate him, or thank him for his work. This helps him to stay focused, but the problem is finding something to thank him for. One activity that he did really well in was performing a play that the students had to create based off a short story the students read in class. Otherwise, I'm pretty stumped at how to help this student succeed? help??

Student 2- This "student" is actually a group of students. All 4-5 of these students are in the same class at all times during the day. It seemed as if the other teachers on the team were having more of a problem in the classroom with these students than my co-op and I were. I decided to follow the students around throughout the day. It seemed as though the students chose when and when they did not want to cooperate with the teachers. Before they entered the classroom they had already decided whether they did or did not want to learn that day. I heard them talking about specific teachers in the hallway before they even entered the classroom. If they said anything to me about a teacher, I informed them of how great they were at teaching and they should give them a chance! I guess my question for this is, how as a teacher do you address another teacher about a situation like this? As a student teacher, I don't really think it is my place right now to say anything, however, if a situation like this occurs in the future, what do you do?

I guess I'll stop for now, but thanks in advance for the advice!
Liz

sharing a success after a few weeks of thinking about it

My coop and I have very open dialogue in between and after classes. We dissect the way they reacted to lessons and materials and texts, authors themes, its almost too much sometimes. But two weeks ago now, i suggested to Mr. Karli that we do something to help students have empathy and objective understanding for people with values, beliefs, and political convictions other than their own, as I felt some of their discussions were too polarized in dichotomies and not enough common ground was being recognized. He loved the idea, and we continued to look through some of the texts on the syllabus through which we could enhance this idea and found a nonfiction text by Jack London called "What life means to me." This was perfect, and since my coop had not really done this sort of thing before he asked me right away if I would design a lesson.

It took a painstaking 4 hours to plan for one block's lesson but it was worth it:

I started out with a brief discussion on worldview, having post it notes of differing colors for the students to write down the best definition they could for "what is a worldview?"

Then, we proceeded to free write the following prompts based off of London's essay, "What life means to me?" and "What is the meaning of life?"

We opened up discussion as a class after the free writes and constructed the different factors that affect a person's worldview, i.e. race, citizenship, religious beliefs, upbringing, experiences, failures, culture, etc also using the student definitions to draw more of these sub-groups.

Next we discussed London's worldview, exposing the aspects from the text with our constructed sub-categories, finding he was a socialist, very poor, etc. leading to discussions that he may be justified in his views based on his life experiences, etc.

Finally, we broke into groups and had discussion questions to help support the essential questions, which were first seen in the free writes. The students each reported to one of the discussion questions and then students had the chance to elaborate or refute the group's response to the question. I planned for this to take approx. 20 minutes, and it ended up lasting an hour, as the students were extremely interested in fleshing out the discussion questions.

Finally, the next day, we debriefed by talking about our free-writes. Some students shared, others jet listened, but student engagement was there. I assigned them homework: a one page revision/reflection on one or both of their earlier free writes.

Now, having graded and responded to their revisions/reflections I feel I was successful in a small way, in helping them realize how they come to know and believe what they do and how others do the same thing in their lives, but in a different context. And that the strength of human bonds is found in the similarities to that experience, the compromise, the common ground.

PS- Mr. Karli used the same lesson plan I developed for his 12th graders, and assigned a larger paper, centered around finding 10 quotes that either directly support or refute the students personal worldview. They just handed it in today, so I am anxious to get to read some of their expanded essays!

Intense and humbling experience, and it wouldn't have been possible if Mr. Karli wasn't flexible and willing to hand me the reigns. It was invigorating and truly challenging to have to plan and execute an entire lesson already. It felt like a sink or swim moment, and I feel as though I was at least able to tread water!

Self-Assessment

As teachers in training, we often talk of inquiry, meaningful assessment and having the student own the learning. I now realize that my co-op teacher has been doing just that in her role as my mentor. I will use a class from this past Friday as an example: I had designed a "Reading Interest Survey" for a section of students who are beginning a reading enrichment program with me, which will last the rest of the school year. Prior to beginning the book Milkweed, I wanted to use a class period for building community, so I had them pair up at their tables to interview each other with the survey questions. The students were actively engaged, stayed on task and seemed to have fun with the activity. I said something in the introduction of the assignment about pretending they were television reporters conducting the interview and that they would get to present the person as a reporter. I did this having already discovered that seventh graders love to "ham it up!" They conducted the interviews with a level of enthusiasm that would suggest they really thought television cameras were going to roll into the classroom any minute. It all worked to my advantage, because my lesson was a success and all students were on task. Then something not so spectacular developed...as the students began to present their partners to the class, those in the "audience" were restless and chatty and the disruptions grew to a point of needing to be reigned in more than once. The talk about how privileged they were to be doing a very grown-up activity fell on deaf ears, so I resorted to the 5-4-3-2...in the big voice. It was a challenge to keep order after that and the final few minutes of class exhausted me.

My co-op did a brilliant thing afterwards; she asked, "What could you have done differently with the lesson, considering that in first block I lost control of the class by following an active participation enterprise with silent reading?" Not only did she challenge me to assess myself, she used an example of how she, herself, had created a similar situation earlier in the day. I began to understand that taking students from very active participation and asking them to do silent, individual work was not a good idea with this particular group of students. My co-op and I both decided that, in the future, each of us would have any quiet, individual work precede active group work. The reigning-in of the students just becomes too much of a power struggle, we agreed, and the quality of the active work gets lost. These nuances of good teaching might not be so obvious to me if my mentor did not ask me to look at and evaluate my successes and areas for improvement. For this, I am very grateful.