Classrooms can be an ugly place for idealists.
Students are not perfect, other teachers are not perfect, my ideas, thoughts, actions, and practices are not perfect.
Before it begins to sound like I'm irreparably jaded, I knew all of this before I began this school year. Over the last month, I have watched my group of Sophomores struggle to pay attention and participate in our daily activities. There has been an enormous effort on my part to connect with my students, to make them feel heard, valued, and independent. But there is only so much I can do as a co-teacher who is merely imposing upon a pre-existing lesson plan. It was like being a sub, but with the main teacher still present.
So for my upcoming unit, my CT has given me free rein over what I incorporate into the plans. There are only two limitations. The first, which I knew before I planned the unit, was that the lesson would cover John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. The second, which came as a disheartening surprise after I planned my unit in full was that my CT warned me against moving away from the novel. I certainly understand consistency in lesson planning, but everything I had planned was directly connected to the novella. Then I discovered the real stipulation: Don't move away from Common Core.
Internally, my mind referenced texts I have read over the past two years. Engage your students. Find an overarching concept. Challenge their critical thinking skills. Relevance, Relevance, Relevance!
So, my ideas don't align with the pacing guides. Reality check: 1, Lindsay: 0. Have I got some news for reality: I'm resilient and full of ideas I'm not afraid to try.
In Teaching English by Design, Smagorinsky (2008) suggests planning units with an overarching theme(p. 112). Parts make-up a whole, and conceptual units of instruction do just that--create lessons where the instructors connect different aspects that are related to make the unit more engaging. Common Core's Sophomore ELA Pacing guide for Unit 2 focuses on character analysis. The overarching concept I have designed for this unit is "Reality", which heavily focuses on realism.
My goals for this unit are:
-to be mindful of the strategies for comprehension, writing, and attention
-causing genuine and relevant inquiry (Wiggins & McTighe)
-to spark meaningful connections (Wiggins & McTighe)
-to incorporate new, innovative practices
-to get students college and career ready (Bomer, 2011)
In order to accomplish these goals, I've had to spend a lot of time getting creative.
A useful text for me has been 50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy (Fisher et al., 2010). It seems that I am constantly flipping through this text to see what routines I can adopt and adapt for my students. These strategies certainly help me keep in mind their attention, comprehension, and need to write. For example, during our introduction activity I have planned for them to simply use think-pair-share when analyzing a stanza from the Robert Burn's poem "To a Mouse" as an introduction to Of Mice and Men. Not the most creative approach, but it allows them to bounce ideas off of one another before being put on the spot as a whole class.
The most fun part of this introductory lesson (for me) was incorporating another strategy from Fisher et al. (2010), I arrived as a "visitor" who was dressed as a 1930s migrant worker! The students did not think I was cool, but they paid attention and it was fun.
Causing genuine and relevant inquiry, and sparking meaningful connections between "real life" and the text is one of the more challenging aspects of this unit. I found that turning to Pinterest was a helpful tool to help me generate ideas. I'm a visual learner, and everything on Pinterest has a picture! I would really recommend using Pinterest to help with your lesson plans. You can create a board and fill it with ideas that can very quickly be referenced. I found several pictures from Time's issue about The Great Depression and I also saw that several other teachers had been comparing it to The Great Recession!
(P.S. you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://www.pinterest.com/lindsaydale/)
Although Pinterest is a fun, new innovative practice, there are several other tools I can incorporate into my lessons. My new favorite is a spin-off of an Oppinionaire (Fisher et al., 2010). From the website Poll Everywhere you can have your students text their responses to a class number (not a real phone number) where their responses appear on the screen. And, yes, before you freak out, their numbers do not coincide with their responses on the screen, but you can track the messages with the numbers on the site. You can ask any question you'd like, and the students can respond with one word answers, yes or no answers, or sentences. For my unit specifically, I will use it to gauge their responses about decisions the characters made and other debatable themes in the book. They like this better than a Value Line or Oppinionaire, and it incorporates technology.
Check it out here: www.polleverywhere.com
College and career readiness are, to the state and school district, the most important piece of the lesson. In my unit, I will ask my students to read articles about The Great Recession and current economic downturn, read articles and do activities about "the working poor", discuss the treatment of mentally handicapped in the 1930s and today and what job opportunities they have, and creating a final project that ties to one of these "real life" topics that connect with the novel (along with an accompanying paper, of course).
I want these students to understand that I'm not here to ignite their passion about English class, but through this unit I want to convey to these students that they don't need to be college bound to care about the world and its impact on their lives.
So, help me spice-up my lessons! What creative activities for Of Mice and Men can I do with a group of unenthusiastic sophomores? I'm willing to try just about anything.
Sources:
Bomer, R (2011). Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fisher, D; Frey, N (2012). Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Smagorinsky, P (2008). Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Wiggins & McTighe. Understanding by Design.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Where the Textbook Ends... (Response #1)
This semester I have a class of sophomores. They are average students, some are under-motivated, most of them struggle to stay engaged in class work. We are a little more than halfway through the unit of 12 Angry Men, all of which we have read in class. My CT has been more than willing to allow me to create assignments and experiment with different teaching strategies to help them understand the importance of the story. I have strived to incorporate the fundamental teaching principles highlighted by Wong and Wong in The First Days of School, such as intentionally inviting the students to inquire and learn (Wong & Wong, p. 67 1998). I make sure that my comments are sincere and timely, and I have noticed that they do react positively. For example, I quietly told a student who has been absent more times than he has been present that he did an excellent job contributing to group work. His smile was the only feedback I needed. See? Classroom management and motivation is so easy if you've only read your textbook. Wrong. So wrong.
Despite a personal connection with the students, minding my manners, asking them to mind theirs, and ensuring they complete their work, they are far less engaged than they should be. This play is fun to read, fun to act out, suspenseful, and thought provoking. Not to mention appropriate considering the racial tension exposed through current events in Ferguson. I admit that I don't expect any or all students to share my enthusiasm for literature, but they should at least be excited they get to swear when reading the play. My dilemma is that they aren't engaged, they don't seem to be grasping the concepts, they don't care, and they don't seem to have been previously pushed in their school work. My goals for this class are to continue to connect assignments to their own experiences, continue to synthesize classwork with real-world application, and continue to force the students to be responsible for their own learning. It's only the first month of school, after all. Now that I have set my goals, it should be easy to measure their progress.
My attempts to meet these goals have been through trial and error. I first tried being transparent in our activities and assignments. I try to clearly and throughly give instructions and expectations while explaining its importance. Fisher and Frey's Improving Adolescent Literacy (2012) suggests that we maintain transparency in all we do to help students understand our expectations (p 15). Being transparent has certainly been beneficial, but my instructions are not always clear. My CT reminded me that sophomores are on the brink of self-discovered learning. Freshmen need a lot of guidance, juniors usually just need a leader, but sophomores are a balance between the two. They want independence, but don't yet know how to get there. In Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classroom, Bomer (2011) reminds us that the teacher's role is to be an expert and coach (p. 14). Coaches give athletes clear instructions, goals, and feedback; they don't endlessly ramble or lecture, they get to the heart of the challenge. This is how I have begun to approach these sophomores (today is Day 1).
I also ask students lots of questions without the fear of dead silence; someone always finds it awkward enough that they give me their best answer. I constantly ask them to recall the legal terms we discussed before beginning the unit, and they get faster each time I do. Bomer (2011)states that activities should connect to one another-- not simply break class time into segments (p. 49). By using their vocabulary words in their writing, seeing it in their text, and using them in class discussion, they begin to see the relevance. But is what I am doing enough to keep their focus, engagement, and help them get the most out of what they learn? I want to make these students responsible for their own work and get out of the habit of giving up before they make any real effort, but I don't want to discourage them either.
I don't know how much these students have been pushed in the past. I don't personally know any of these students outside the classroom. I don't know any of their reputations. What I do know is that I want to try to take a class whose motivation about English is less than ideal and build them up to see what they can do. I am already finding what does and doesn't work. When it doesn't work, class time seems a little wasted. But I have seen glimpses of what does work, so I'm going to hang onto them and run.
Sources:
Bomer, R (2011). Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fisher, D; Frey, N (2012). Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Wong, H; Wong, R (1998). The First Days of School. Mountain View, CA: Harry Wong Publications, Inc.
Despite a personal connection with the students, minding my manners, asking them to mind theirs, and ensuring they complete their work, they are far less engaged than they should be. This play is fun to read, fun to act out, suspenseful, and thought provoking. Not to mention appropriate considering the racial tension exposed through current events in Ferguson. I admit that I don't expect any or all students to share my enthusiasm for literature, but they should at least be excited they get to swear when reading the play. My dilemma is that they aren't engaged, they don't seem to be grasping the concepts, they don't care, and they don't seem to have been previously pushed in their school work. My goals for this class are to continue to connect assignments to their own experiences, continue to synthesize classwork with real-world application, and continue to force the students to be responsible for their own learning. It's only the first month of school, after all. Now that I have set my goals, it should be easy to measure their progress.
My attempts to meet these goals have been through trial and error. I first tried being transparent in our activities and assignments. I try to clearly and throughly give instructions and expectations while explaining its importance. Fisher and Frey's Improving Adolescent Literacy (2012) suggests that we maintain transparency in all we do to help students understand our expectations (p 15). Being transparent has certainly been beneficial, but my instructions are not always clear. My CT reminded me that sophomores are on the brink of self-discovered learning. Freshmen need a lot of guidance, juniors usually just need a leader, but sophomores are a balance between the two. They want independence, but don't yet know how to get there. In Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classroom, Bomer (2011) reminds us that the teacher's role is to be an expert and coach (p. 14). Coaches give athletes clear instructions, goals, and feedback; they don't endlessly ramble or lecture, they get to the heart of the challenge. This is how I have begun to approach these sophomores (today is Day 1).
I also ask students lots of questions without the fear of dead silence; someone always finds it awkward enough that they give me their best answer. I constantly ask them to recall the legal terms we discussed before beginning the unit, and they get faster each time I do. Bomer (2011)states that activities should connect to one another-- not simply break class time into segments (p. 49). By using their vocabulary words in their writing, seeing it in their text, and using them in class discussion, they begin to see the relevance. But is what I am doing enough to keep their focus, engagement, and help them get the most out of what they learn? I want to make these students responsible for their own work and get out of the habit of giving up before they make any real effort, but I don't want to discourage them either.
I don't know how much these students have been pushed in the past. I don't personally know any of these students outside the classroom. I don't know any of their reputations. What I do know is that I want to try to take a class whose motivation about English is less than ideal and build them up to see what they can do. I am already finding what does and doesn't work. When it doesn't work, class time seems a little wasted. But I have seen glimpses of what does work, so I'm going to hang onto them and run.
Sources:
Bomer, R (2011). Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fisher, D; Frey, N (2012). Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Wong, H; Wong, R (1998). The First Days of School. Mountain View, CA: Harry Wong Publications, Inc.
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