2nd Quarter Reading Reflection

The 1st Quarter Reading Reflection was our first step in to these reflections. There are 21 questions in this reflection, and it should take at least 20 minutes to complete.

Please take your time.

Please represent yourself well.

Please be thoughtful and honest as you reflect upon your reading through this quarter.

The act of reflection can be immensely insightful in helping us get to know ourselves better, as individuals and readers. Let's learn from our experiences.

2nd Quarter Reading Reflection 

OTC field trip reflection

If you went on the field trip to OTC (Ozarks Technical Community College) on Thursday, December 5, please click on the link below and complete the survey.

OTC Tour Reflections


Thank you!

end of second quarter extra credit opportunity

The Performance Series tests will be the last "big" assessments that will go in to the grade book before the quarter ends. I like to finish the quarter with an opportunity for the students to earn some extra credit, so here it is. 

When taking the Reading Performance Series test: if a student scored on or below grade level on the beginning of the year test, and is able to improve their Lexile score by 100 points, then they will earn extra credit; if a student score above grade level on the beginning of the year test, and is able to improve their Lexile score by 50 points, then they will earn extra credit. 

When taking the Language Arts Performance Series test: compared to the beginning of the year Scaled Score, if a student scores 50 points higher on this middle of the year test, then they will earn extra credit. 

second quarter quickly drawing to a close

This won't be exciting--mostly just reminders.

The second quarter is quickly drawing to a close, and every single day will prove important for student learning and success. I recommend using the Assignments page to stay  up to date on what is going on in class. We're all trying out a team assignments document to share exactly what graded assignments were completed each school day in the four core classes. Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciative.

This week, December 2-6, features work on a collaborative rocket unit centered on the question: what do good problem solvers do? In English, we'll be reflecting upon the history of rockets, the movie October Sky, and the process the students go through to build their own water rockets in order to answer this question. On December 5th we'll be taking a field trip to Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) to view the programs of study available there. It will be a fun and informative day. If students do not turn in their permission forms, they will be staying at school and working on alternative assignments. Other than the previously mentioned focus for learning, we'll be working through a few minilessons (capitalization of seasons, directional terms, family relationships; punctuating different titles; comma and semicolon use) to prepare for the Language Arts Performance Series Test.

The week of December 9-13 features Performance Series Testing. This will be our middle-of-year round of testing, to measure improvement from the beginning-of-year tests, and to pinpoint what areas we still need to continue to improve upon. Students MUST complete this testing before December 19, so if a student is absent, they'll probably be pulled from other classes or have to come in early to complete the testing. We believe it is best for students to complete the testing with their English classes, so absences during this time should be avoided. This week is mostly consumed with assessment, but through the assessment we can still learn quite a bit. We will think about and discuss test taking practices; we will reflect upon previous learning and place it within the context of this situation; we will receive our new scores and look to focus our learning for the end-of-year test that we will take in May.

The final week, December 16-19, features work on a Letter to Author that students will have the opportunity to send off to a writing competition. I hope that students take the opportunity to enter their work in the competition; it's a great opportunity to send student work well beyond our walls in order to see how our writing compares. The learning that takes place this week is a culmination of work that has been completed through the quarter. Students will look back on their reading experiences this quarter in order to reflect upon their reading habits and discover further what type of a reader they are and are becoming. Helping students to learn about themselves is an important aspect of the reading that we do throughout the year, and that won't happen without a reflective process. The letter students will write to an author is another opportunity for reflection, but the focus this time being a text, rather than themselves. Following the format is important, and working through the process of reflecting and writing and revising and sharing and revising and writing provides so many individual opportunities for learning about the little things of being a reader and a writer and a learner. I really enjoy getting to work with students through these weeks, because it's more of a workshop during this time than any other point in the quarter. I wish we could do it more.

With all this in mind, the nitty-gritty element is that there will be five more graded assignments:

• --December 3--MLA citation of book/author choice for Letter to Author (10 points)
• --December 10--Performance Series Testing Reading score (15 points)
• --December 12--Performance Series Testing Language Arts score (15 points)
• --December 17--Second Quarter Reading Record (60 points)
• --December 19--Letter to Author (50 points)

Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

thoughts around Thanksgiving break

On January 6, 1941, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt gave his 1941 State of the Union address, which became known as the "Four Freedoms" speech. In this speech, President Roosevelt proposed four fundamental freedoms that people everywhere should enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

In 1941, following The GreatDepression (yes, it deserves capital letters as a proper noun—name another depression that deserves such reverence) and two years into World War II (although the United States had not yet formally entered the war), to speak of freedom from want was probably rather popular, as the idea would be today as well, I imagine. But not among everyone, now, as it might have been then. Such a freedom assumes that everyone in the entire world would have everything that they ever wanted. Some might believe that to be a pretty ostentatious claim, especially in a time now with huge economic disparities, even in the wealthiest country in the world. I guess it all depends on how we define “want.”

Today, I bring this up because Norman Rockwell's representative image, Freedom From Want, is a family sitting around a table, presumably at Thanksgiving. (To place it within context, Rockwell created images for all four freedoms.) I hope you all are able to gather with family or friends during this break, and experience some level of freedom from want. For some in our community, it may only be for one day, while for others it may be one in a long line of many. Let’s all be reflective during this time, not just of the historical background of Thanksgiving, but also upon our experiences through the last year. And maybe President Roosevelt and Mr. Rockwell can help us to have some perspective as well, not only regarding our own situation, but the situation of many in our community and world who don’t have a freedom from want.

Have a great Thanksgiving. 

Article of the Week vocab words

It's been a few weeks since we did an "article of the week" (go figure on the name), but we've got one this week, and today we discussed as a class to choose some new vocabulary words and constructed response questions. Unfortunately, in second period, we got into such a wonderful discussion about genres that we didn't get choose vocabulary words and questions. That's alright though; I'll just pull in the most popular words for the vocabulary list and best questions for the constructed response. The quiz will be next Friday, November 8, 2013.

One thing that I think is awesome and wonderful is how students are starting to expand their thinking about the topic, and asking questions that can't be answered in the article. The article of the week quiz is designed to assess student reading of the article and student writing for a structure constructed response. Because of these restrictions, many of the questions that the students pose, which can't be answered in the article, are relegated to the sidelines because they're too big. Well, as their teacher, I this is a great problem to have. So I'm going to start adding an extra credit question on Monday. It will be a question that can only be answered through outside research and learning. I'll ask that the students answer the question as a constructed response, after doing the research of finding the answer. I think that's a great alternative to simply having students not consider those questions at all. And if I could incentivize the answering of these questions through not offering extra credit, I'm all ears. 

Third Period:

Fourth Period:

Fifth Period:

Sixth Period:

Realistic Fiction study using the Freyer Model

Here are some shots from today's study of Realistic Fiction using the Freyer Model.

We actually started by looking back to the hierarchy that we created to help us understand the organization of fiction genres. We talked about different hierarchies that exist, and how hierarchies can be helpful to us in understanding the different levels within an organization. In our case, a hierarchy was used to help us understand the different levels of specificity within the genre of fiction.

Then we learned about the Freyer Model, which is another tool that we can use to differentiate from similar ideas. Because some of the more specific fiction genres can seem to overlap, or be really similar, we need a way to help us tell them apart. When we pull a book off of the shelf in our library, we need to be able to quickly understand what genre of book it is, based on some very important information.

The Freyer Model starts with a central idea or word that is the focus of the study. After having only used the Freyer Model a few times, I've determined my preferred order:

1. Find or determine a definition or description of the word or idea.
2. Identify some examples of the word or idea in use. This example should be the concrete representation of the word or idea.
3. Using the examples, facts and characteristics of the word or idea should be identified, in order to provide a more specific and detailed description of what makes up the word or idea.
4. Identify some non-examples of the word or idea. These non-examples don't have to be exactly as concrete as the examples, but they can an opposing fact or characteristic that clearly helps differentiate the central word or idea from other similar words or ideas.
*When I think of steps 2 through 4, I think of a recursive process. I'm a little partial to that phrase, "recursive process" when I think of the writing process, but I imagine, if the user of a Freyer Model knows a bit about the central word or idea, then they can work through things in a "disorderly" way that is recursive in nature: step 2 >>> step 4 >>> step 2 >>> step 3 >>> step 4 >>> step 3 >>>

Below is an image of the example I showed students to help understand what the finished product should look like. We studied nonfiction text last quarter, and all students needed to read some type of personal writing--biography, autobiography, memoir, journal/diary. I figured this familiarity would be reassuring to the students, but I'm not sure it was for all of them. I wish I would have shown me going through the process of filling in the Freyer Model on a biography, so they could have seen me in action--thinking and writing--instead of just showing them and talking them through the finished product.



Here are a few student examples, in the process.

sharing the book reviews

Finally, the day has come for us to just enjoy these book reviews that we have been working on for so long. They were scored. The scores were entered. The system was satisfied. Now, students were able to share their writing, from their reading, with their classmates.

This sharing was rather devoid of technology, but that brings us closer together, allows for face to face conversations about nonfiction books. In this way, it's not just about students sharing their writing, it's about the audience gaining new insight about a nonfiction book that they probably haven't read. And that opens doors for more nonfiction reading, beginning a cycle: nonfiction reading for book reviews begets nonfiction reading of book reviews begets nonfiction reading for pleasure. I told several of the classes that this was one of my favorite days of the year so far. They have done the learning. Now they get to do the teaching. And still they learn in the process. The post-it notes were for comments, questions, connections that would later drive the discussion at the tables. (I did say it was devoid of technology.) Sometimes it's just better using pencil and paper.

peer review the book reviews

It happened today. And for some, it went really well. Others needed some more time to write. Hopefully they'll get to share in the experience, but the deadlines are rolling in fast and hard. Here are some pictures to show our great students hard at work--helping each other and learning from each other.

book reviews take shape

Since September 10th the Book Reviews have been on my mind. We've had to consider quite a bit about writing, reading nonfiction, reviews, criticism, and evaluations. I'm not quite sure we've gotten through it all--in fact I'm quite sure we haven't--but we've had some very good conversations full of interesting and insightful questions, heated statements, and personal opinions. Hopefully the students are opening up to nonfiction texts more and more, and hopefully they appreciate the work that a nonfiction writer must put in to be successful.

This week we've been working on the actual construction of the Book Review. In my pacing, I'm trying to take it at a steady, even pace--with two paragraphs a day the max that we write. That may seem like very little, but it offers the students a challenge at which they can be successful. There are so many things to incorporate into a Book Review, well beyond a summary plot analysis of a fictional text, that the students are encountering some new situations that seem to confuse them, even when we addressed the situations in the smaller scale Articles of the Week.

Today the students were working through the 3rd and 4th paragraphs, within which they included there quotes and personal responses. Some students are choosing to type their reviews, while others are choosing to handwrite. Both offer opportunities for writing development, and it's great to see the progress made. It's amazing to see the notes and forms we've used to consider the format and structure, and the examples of other reviews, and the checklist and scoring guide for the finished product, and the book, and everything else we use to be successful (including our brains!) all spread out across the students desks. I love to see everything coming together into something wonderful. I really wish we had more time and opportunity to do student choice writing; we'll get to do this more once the second quarter begins, but for now we'll have to settle for this.

a short Saturday morning rant after some reading

On Saturday mornings I enjoy reading on the web, and I came across an interesting article that made me think and write. 

The article: "The Parental Involvement Puzzle"

The author: Deborah Blagg

It wasn't so much the article that got me thinking and writing, but the sidebar: "What U Should Know"

The sidebar summarizes the article, below what I imagine is a picture of either the author of the article or the book referenced in the article. That doesn't matter. What matters is the use of "U" instead of "You." This is the type of contextual usage that probably derives from the fact that the article appears on a university website and the substructure of articles appears in what is named Usable Knowledge. 

Grammatically, it's incorrect usage. Contextually, there certainly had to have been intent behind it. (The article is dated October 30, 2009). And the article isn't even written for middle school or high school students, but for educators reading "current education research." Considering the audience, some might look down their nose at this incorrect usage. But this is the type of contextual usage, with intent and for effect, that we should be showing to, talking about, and teaching how-to with our students. 

But as long as our assessments of students is rooted in a completely black-and-white, right-and-wrong system requiring the correct selection from multiple choice lists, our students will always come across something like this and think that it is "wrong." Our students will never have an understanding of writing within a context or with intent or for effect (purpose, audience, occasion--all that good stuff). This lack of experience will place our students at a disadvantage, especially those who go into a field utilizing writing for design.

This idea of black-and-white or right-and-wrong also makes me think of the idea of a "canon" regarding reading lists. The canon presupposes a list of "the right books," and everything else is on the wrong list. If we don't expand the students' experiences beyond dead white writers, or historical fiction and informational pieces (per the CCSS), then they'll never know how to respond when they are given the opportunity to read what they want. Truthfully, my biggest worry is that students who are stuck to the canon won't know how to chose their own books; they won't have the experiences to know what type of texts they actually enjoy reading and experiencing. That, in the long run, in my humble opinion, is more terrifying than the fact that our students may not have read Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. But I digress. 

I guess, if I were to make a "What U Should Know" sidebar for my own thoughts this morning, then it would include expanding opportunities for students, in both writing and reading. The more students see that they can write within a certain context (well beyond the formal school essay), with intent and for effect (to achieve a specific purpose in the reader/audience), the more they will realize that, although grammatical usage rules do exist, and for very good reasons, there are certainly opportunities and occasions that allow for the breaking of those grammatical usage rules. This "seeing" must be a complete experience--to see, to analyze, to discuss, all in order to understand and then to attempt. The more students read choice, diverse texts, the more they will be able to gather their own data on themselves regarding the type of reader they are. As students gain an understanding of themselves as readers, and they progress in skill as readers, the more opportunities they will have to work their way toward some of the classics that make up the lists of "canons." 

Just some thoughts. Let me know what you think. 

building blocks of writing

For the past two weeks we have spent some time taking notes, finding examples, analyzing, and discussing the building blocks of language (or what I call the building blocks of language). These building blocks help us all the share a common vocabulary, mostly academic within the world of formal writing, that can allow us to have deeper, richer, more consistent conversations about all of our writing for the rest of the year. Yes, it has taken us some time to get to this point, but the work is totally worth it because it lays the foundation (another building metaphor) for all the rest of our writing work.

The building blocks we've studies are: parts of speech, types of sentences by purpose and end punctuation, internal punctuation elements, phrases and clauses, and types of sentences by structure. Each building block helps us to move away from the idea of right-or-wrong writing and toward a more sophisticated approach. Rather than simply making sure that we are constructing "correct" sentences when we write, we are working to intentionally consider how we use language--the types of words, punctuation, and sentences--to create an effect upon readers.

Below are a few posters/reminders to help students implement these new steps in writing. The pictures didn't come out too great, but hopefully the idea is clear. If you've got any other ideas on how to create reminders, then shoot me a message.

Coordinating Conjunctions - FANBOYS

Types of Sentences by Purpose and End Punctuation

Phrases and Clauses

Types of Sentences by Structure

Parts of a Book reflection

This post is a result of the Parts of a Book assignment, which students completed on Wednesday, and I scored over the weekend.

This is a situation problem. I want to make sure I clarify the problems, which in my mind is two-fold.

The first problem I see is that students are not using their notes as a valuable resource to answer questions, but I’m not sure why. To clarify: the notes are not provided for the purpose of memorization—for students to memorize and then regurgitate the information. The notes are provided for the purpose of application—for students to use as a resource as they discover new things about the books that they are reading or using on a regular basis.

The second problem I see is that students are not using their notes as a valuable resource to answer questions, because they don’t know WHEN to use the notes. To this, I advise my students: if you have a question, seek an answer. It’s the only way you’ll find answers. They won’t just come to you. If you can’t recognize that you have a question, you will never find an answer, because you will never go on the journey. And the journey is really, really important.

When adults complete tax forms every year, we USE OUR NOTES. We don’t memorize the rules. We can’t memorize the answers. We don’t just fill in blanks because we think the IRS will be happy with answers that look kinda/sorta right. We USE OUR NOTES—tax forms like W2s, 1098s, and 1099s, among a bunch of others.

The skill of identifying the various parts of a book is unimportant, in the grand scheme of things. And I think of the grand scheme of things a lot when I consider the tasks I have the students complete, in order to gain skills that will lead to a better life. Being able to identify the parts of a book will help students correctly cite sources following MLA, APA, and/or Turabian style guides. That’s the important, long-range, “school” need for this skill. And if you’re not convinced that the skill is important, ask anyone in college, or anyone working on publishing anything, how often they use the various parts of a book or publication to follow style guides in order to accurately reference sources.

But honestly, and I know these kids are 13 and 14 years old, this is about a bigger picture. The trigger that indicates to a student that they should access resources in order to solve their current problems needs to be sensitive. If a kid doesn’t have lunch money, they shouldn’t sit at a table and mope. There are ways we, as teachers and administrators, can help. A trigger must go off, and resources must be accessed, for problems to be solved. If a kid has a problem with another student, they shouldn’t just lower their head and hope the whole thing blows over. A trigger must go off, and resources must be accessed, for resolution to be achieved. And if a kid has a problem in Math that they don’t know how to solve, they shouldn’t be OK with a wrong answer or “their best” when “their best” only includes themselves. A trigger must go off, and resources must be accessed, for the problem to be solved.

All of these goofy examples also help individuals learn something—how to ask for help, that we can’t always solve our problems on our own, that people really are helpful, and some specific Math skill. In the grand scheme of things, aren’t those lessons really important?

Problems are, more often than we like, bigger than us. We can’t solve everything on our own. We need help. We need resources. If kids don’t realize that is normal, if kids don’t realize that’s necessary for success, then they’re often going to experience varying levels of disappointment and failure. And that’s not what I want.

So, we’re going to talk about triggers—like alarms—that help us recognize when we need help solving a problem. And we’re going to talk about resources—like notes, and textbooks, and books, and the internet, and, most importantly, other people—that help us solve problems that are too big for us. And we’re going to talk about levels of success—like how successful we can be on our own, compared to how successful we can be when we use the resources at our disposal. In the grand scheme of things, I think this stuff is pretty important.

Let me know what you think.

article of the week #2

Our second article of the week is titled "Debunking the Genius Myth" by Holly Korbey. It's originally posted on the MindShift blog from KQED. There's a lot going on in this article, because it attempts to address many of the issues covered in the book The Straight-A Conspiracy, by Hunter Maats and Katie O'Brien.

Below are the vocabulary and discussion questions shared by the classes, to be used on the quiz on Thursday, September 19. (No school Friday--so the quiz comes one day earlier).

2nd Period

3rd Period

4th Period

5th Period

6th Period

Let me know if you have questions or concerns.

testing and progress

We have just completed two consecutive four day weeks, mostly filled with district testing. Earlier this week we did review the parts of a book and have a very short practice activity to go along with the review. Next week we'll practice some more and eventually have a short assessment that the students will complete, with partners on the computer while using their notes.

This week I also shared with the students the emphasis on quality work--practice, process, and product--so that the time we are able to spend, either together or independently, is worthwhile. I hate deadlines, but unfortunately they are a part of life. As a teacher, I must institute deadlines for when assignments are due for the students, but I can be flexible. I would rather a student continue to work on an assignment, than turn in an incomplete assignment. I would rather a student ask for assistance when working through an assignment, than turn in a poorly completed one based on lack of understanding. All of this stems from my preference that students would be more motivated by the learning opportunities and growth that can take place over the course of a year, rather than the grades a student will earn in class.

I know that's an idealist's romantic dreams, but I try to live out those dreams in the classroom.

Similarly connected to that idea, at least in my mind, is the opportunity for revisions, especially with writing. When students complete a writing assignment, especially one during which we worked through a process, I am always open to students revising their work after I have scored the writing. Conferencing is an important part of the writing process, and even though that should occur several times before a piece of writing is turned in for a score, still some students end up surprised and disappointed by scores received. In those situations, I can allow for revisions to be made to the piece of writing, and I encourage those revisions. I must admit though that I suffer from looming deadlines as well, including dates when mid-quarter and quarter grades are due. So if a student wants their grades to reflect the revision, then they must meet the deadlines set for me as well.

I'm looking forward to the coming weeks of exploring different topics with the articles of the week, along with reviewing word, sentence, and paragraph level elements of writing. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

writing assessment

Throughout the week students have been working away on their beginning of year writing assessment. Today is really the day when the essay takes shape. There's quite a bit of thinking and planning that goes in to the formation of the essay, and that process is an important piece to the writing assessment.

No essay simply appears on a page (or on a screen) out of the blue; behind the scenes there is so much thinking and decision-making necessary, and that is not easy. It's important to me, to recognize the good work that students do to get to the point of writing an excellent essay. I do my best to encourage them through this process, and I hope they understand the emphasis I place on the process, rather than purely the product. Without the good work through the process, the product can not and will not be as effective.



Everyone have a great four-day weekend. Be safe, and read a good book.
See you back on Tuesday--in September!

constructed response practice

Constructed Responses (what I would just call a paragraph, or an extended answer) have once again become a fashionable discussion point in literacy education, mostly because these types of responses ground student writing in a text.

With a new literacy emphasis taking place throughout SPS, constructed responses are a good way to assess students' reading ability--much better, I would say, than a multiple choice test like the one every student is submitted to three times a year during the Performance Series Test. In a constructed response, students must use evidence from a text to support their answer, which is a skill that is necessary and will become more and more important as 8th graders continue in their education.

So, for the last two days we have gone over a three step process that the students should use as they write constructed responses. We've also looked at and even used a new scoring guide for constructed responses; the students read and scored three constructed responses written by students from previous years. It's good practice before writing their own constructed responses.

Yesterday students in pairs and using the computers practiced writing their first constructed responses of the school year. Things went well, from my observations. The time was rich with conversation as students explained their thinking to one another, dug in to the text (it was all about Wilson's Creek National Battlefield), and worked together to form their best answer. The answers that I have read so far have been great, considering a new three step process and a new scoring guide. There is always room for improvement, and we'll be identifying those areas and working toward improvement throughout the year.

Today students will take their first Article of the Week quiz, and individually students will have to answer an extended answer question--my version of a constructed response. Hopefully the students have been studying their vocabulary words, and hopefully they have their article with them, because they get to use the article on the quiz. It will be interesting to see how things go.

The next two weeks will mostly be dedicated to district mandated testing--first we'll do the beginning-of-year writing assessment and then we'll take the Performance Series Reading and Language Arts tests. Students won't have any other homework other than reading for 30 minutes during this time.

Please let me know if you have questions or concerns regarding the schedule or assignments or anything. I feel like it's been a very good start to the year, and if we continue with this focus and work ethic, lots of progress will be made for each student.

classroom expectations

On Monday students discussed, decided, and shared their classroom expectations--for attitude and behavior. It was nice to see some of them incorporate some of what they read in the article of the week. In each class we chose the top four or five expectations, along with the order in some classes. So, here are our class-by-class expectations for 2013-2014.

2nd period

3rd period

4th period

5th period

6th period

Let us know what you think!

article of the week - week 1

Vocabulary words/phrases and questions for each class' article of the week quiz on Friday, August 23.

2nd period

3rd period

4th period

5th period

6th period

The red circled words and the red circled questions will be used for the quiz. Five of the words and one of the questions will be on the quiz.

Here's a bit of a student discussion that led to the vocab word choices and questions the students chose.

what is success?

Day one is in the books!

Lots of papers and organization for the students. But luckily we were also able to do some actual English work as well. Here are a few pictures of students doing some sharing after they wrote about what they think of success. Students also practiced sharing, as well as listening and responding.

Don't forget to get all the papers signed, or choose to complete the online syllabus sign-off form.  

a brand new year!

Another school year is beginning today.

It's an exciting time for so many reasons: new ideas and thoughts and learning to be had, new friends to make, new activities to try. I hope that we are able to take advantage of every day that we have this school year, including today, to make the year a great one.

This blog will serve as the 8th grade English class web presence, and my primary method of communication with parents and the community--those who don't get to share the physical space in room 146. My contact information is available on the next page. Please email or call (email is best though) if you have questions or concerns.

The first day of school can be a hectic, stressful time for parents and students. We in the 8th grade team hope to help alleviate any of those unnecessary stressors. We will help students get oriented to the building, if not already, and help ensure they have everything they need for their classes--as well as identifying some needs that may yet be met.

We know that it is difficult for any learning to take place when students are stressed or uncomfortable or uncertain. These first few days will be used to instill a calm routine into the 8th grade, to help students get started down a comfortable path from which they can learn and grow and explore (to use a metaphor).

Let's hope for a great year. And let's work to make it one.

Multimedia Compositions in a Current Events Class

Multimedia Compositions in a Current Events Classroom

That's the name of my presentation at the Reach for the Stars 2013 conference at Evangel University but sponsored by the Springfield Public Schools' English Language Arts Department.

Check out the link. Maybe it's something you'll find interesting.

Current Events Reflection

At the end of the 3rd Quarter I had students in my Current Events Exploratory class complete a reflection. I've mined it for wisdom and insight from the students, selected some of the most coherent for viewing, and written my own response. It's a four page document, so instead of presenting the whole thing here on the blog, I'm including the link to the document.

Enjoy!

Pixar story structure

I’ve been reading To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink. It’s the second book by Daniel Pink that I’ve read, the first being Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Both books are generally categorized in either the Business section or the Psychology section of the major bookstores in the area, but I’ve found quite a bit that can be applied to my thoughts and attempts toward becoming a better teacher.

One thing that jumped out to me immediately in To Sell is Human is Pink’s chapter on “Pitch.” He describes six different pitches, but for me, the last was the most important. I liked this pitch so much, that I actually used it for an activity on Thursday—the student’s last day before Spring Break.

Pink calls it “The Pixar Pitch,” and seems to borrow the structure or format, documented in a blog post by David Price, from a list of story rules originally tweeted out by Emma Coats, a former story artist at Pixar. How’s that for confusing.

I just took Pink’s Pixar Pitch and called it, for the sake of the students, “The Pixar Story Structure.” Now, is it really a story structure? Probably not. But if the story can fit well into these six sentences, then it can provide a structure from which to grow the story. My thinking is, if I can help my students write a clean and tight Pixar Story Structure, then I can also help them expand that structure into a more complete, compelling, and (hopefully) equally clean and tight story.

The six sentences for “The Pixar Pitch” or the Pixar Story Structure are:

Once upon a time _______________. Every day _______________. One day _______________. Because of that _______________. Because of that _______________. Until finally _______________.

Daniel Pink offers the plot for Finding Nemo as an example (pages 171-172), which I also used with the students.

Once upon a time there was a widowed fish named Marlin who was extremely protective of his only son, Nemo. Every day Marlin warned Nemo of the ocean’s dangers and implored him not to swim far away. One day in an act of defiance, Nemo ignores his father’s warnings and swims into the open water. Because of that, he is captured by a diver and ends up as a pet in the fish tank of a dentist in Sydney. Because of that, Marlin sets off on a journey to recover Nemo, enlisting the help of other sea creatures along the way. Until finally Marlin and Nemo find each other, reunite, and learn that love depends on trust.

I shared the idea with my wife, also a middle school English teacher, and she thought it was pretty cool. So I gave it a try, in an attempt to tell our story. You can be the judge.

Once upon a time there was a boy named Thomas and girl named Kristin who didn’t know each other but seemed to both want the same things out of life. Every day they went about their business, not knowing that the other existed. One day, in an unremarkable moment, they both went bowling at the same bowling alley on the same Friday night. Because of that, they met, and a seed was planted. Because of that, they both held on to the hope of a bright future, maybe together or maybe with someone else. Until finally, Thomas asked Kristin to go on a date, and the seed that had been planted years earlier matured into a flower—a relationship that proved to be as interesting and unique as they had always dreamed.

It’s ok, but certainly not good. I had the literary elements from poetry fresh in my head, so the metaphor of a seed planted and then growing into a flower came to mind. It’s not great, but it works. Also, my second “because of that” sentence isn’t quite as cause-effect relationally dependent upon my first “because of that” sentence, which creates serious weakness.

Based on this “Pixar Pitch,” I presented the students with two challenges:

1.     See if you can summarize a favorite story or movie using the Pixar story structure. That will give you some practice with thinking through the six sentences in an organized and concise manner.

2.     Try to write your very own creative story using the Pixar story structure. Maybe it is a story from your life, like my example provided. Maybe it is a totally fictional story that you’ve made up.

I thought it was a fun Thursday activity before Spring Break. Hopefully we’ll have some students who gave it a try over Spring Break and can share some of their writing on the Monday when we come back. And maybe we’ll be able to do something more with this story structure. We’ll just have to see. 

3rd Quarter Reading Reflection

Using their own records for what books they read this quarter, students reflected upon their reading and learning. Here are some of the responses.

Regarding the students themselves:

·         Total student number completing the reflection: 102

·         3^rd period: 26 students

·         4^th period: 23 students

·         5^th period: 26 students

·         6^th period: 26 students

·         Seven students incorrectly indicated what class they are in. Were this a high-stakes test, I guess I would be required to remediate this skill of identifying and marking the correct class period. Were this a high-stakes test, this is just the type of question that someone somewhere might believe is something that actually should be taught. I just chalk it up to user-error/laziness; I do teach 8^th graders, after all. 

·         The average Beginning of Year Lexile Level (self-reported) was 1092. This number, according to the new “stretch” Lexile Level range, is above the 9^th grade level. I’m quite proud of the good work of these students, and their teachers and parents, who have worked so hard to ensure they are good readers. Hopefully, that number will be at least 50 points higher for the average End of Year Lexile Level. That growth is dependent upon us working together, which I’m confident is quite possible.

Regarding the books the students read:

·         Total books read: 768. This breaks down to an average of 7.52 books per student.

·         3^rd period: 209. This breaks down to an average of 8.02 books per student. 

·         4^th period: 171. This breaks down to an average of 7.43 books per student.

·         5^th period: 195. This breaks down to an average of 7.5 books per student.

·         6^th period: 193. This breaks down to an average of 7. 42 books per student.

·         75 of the students expected to read MORE books than they actually did. I guess we’re all getting a little bit busier, and we’ve got less time on our hands to do the important work of teaching ourselves something new and interesting, or enlightening our minds with new poetry, or just getting lost in a good book.

·         When indicating their favorite genre:

o   Fiction—64; with lots of subgenre specifications

o   Poetry—24; with one “probably poetry”

o   Nonfiction—13; with various subgenre specifications

Students also responded with some shorter answers to open ended questions. The collection of these responses is much longer than I should present in a single post, so below you'll see that I've linked to the separate documents, for your viewing.

What was it, specifically, about your favorite genre, that you liked so much?

What was it, specifically, about your favorite book, that you liked so much?

What did you learn about yourself as a reader, this quarter?

I told the students before they completed this reflection that their responses are one of my favorite things to read all quarter. All of us keep Reading Records, and these simple documents should help us to reflect on our own reading and learning throughout the quarter. Part of being a good reader is learning about what type of a reader we are: what subjects I like to read about, what authors I enjoy reading, how long I can sustain my attention with one book. The Reading Record helps us to track this information, and the Reading Reflection helps us to intentionally look back and process this information. I don't want the students to arbitrarily plow on as readers, picking up random books and reading because they "need" to read or because I require them to read. I want to help the students discover what type of reader they are, what type of books they enjoy reading. If I can help my students discover what type of reader they are, I can help them discover their interests, I can help foster those interests, I can help focus those interests, and hopefully that will be something that sticks with them for years and years to come, since it is a part of who they are. That part of planting a seed that can sprout and grow later on down the road gives me great hope, and keeps me working to help my students to become readers--better readers but moreso engaged, interested readers.

If you take the time to read those longer documents that display the students' shorter responses, you may describe the grammar as atrocious, and think that we need to spend more time focusing on the fundamentals of writing. I will agree that there are glaring areas in need of significant improvement, and we will be focusing much of our 4th quarter on some of these skills, but mostly on just getting the little things right while still enhancing the things that we do well. I look forward to the 4th quarter, and what learning we will do together.

processing/reflection from today's training

Today I attended a presentation by Sue Szachowicz on “Leadership Lessons Learned the Hard Way.” I was lucky enough to be invited by Mrs. Aldrich to attend, along with Mrs. Green (6^th grade Math) and Mrs. Elliott (7^th grade Science). I will admit that I was under the impression that the discussion would focus upon the Common Core State Standards, but it was only mentioned once. Nonetheless, the day was productive and the presentation was insightful.

Since the presentation didn’t start until 9:00, and I usually get to work by 6:30, I had a lot of time in the morning at home to be productive. So, I set up a diigo account and updated my Evernote app. I played around with the diigo account on my MacBook, and made sure it synced well with my iPad. I did the same with the Evernote app. This meant that I was very happy as I walked in to the White River Conference Center; even if I wasn’t sure about the presentation, at least the day would prove to be a good opportunity for me to test out the new/renewed technology tools from my morning.

As I said, the presentation by Mrs. Szachowicz proved to be insightful. She provided electronic downloads of her presentation slides, which I downloaded to my Evernote app. This allowed me to easily keep up with her fast pace. I also used the Evernote app to take a few notes, disorganized and jumbled as they are, I think I could piece a coherent summary together, if necessary. I used the diigo add-on within Safari to bookmark a two Amazon pages on books, and one PBS article/video on Brockton High, where Mrs. Szachowicz worked. Overall, I would say that I used my technology tools effectively and efficiently through the day.

By the afternoon the battery was running low, and so I only used the iPad when necessary. Throughout the day I was able to visit and talk with several old teaching buddies who I had not seen for some time. Overall, I feel like it was a successful day on two fronts, the second front being the encouragement I received in hearing Mrs. Szachowicz’s story and the brief discussion at my table.

What I most valued from the day was not my experiment with my new/renewed tech tools, but the clear and specific message Mrs. Szachowicz shared about her own experiences in “turning around a failing school.” Led by teachers in the building, the school implemented a literacy program with laser-like focus and monitored their progress like crazy. This story speaks of courage by teachers, trust among teachers, hard work by teachers, and wisdom by teachers. Certainly Mrs. Szachowicz tells of vivid disagreements throughout the implementation, roadblocks that came in the form of fellow faculty members, students, money for resources, and time. And still they plugged away, because they surely also held a strong belief in the work they were doing. The work paid off too. The students came to realize that the teachers were a unified front, focused on their success. And as the teachers were found successful in their efforts to work with each other to improve their own practices, the students likewise were found successful in their efforts to learn and use what the teachers were teaching.

I would love to get together with fellow teachers at Pleasant View, both middle school and elementary teachers, in order to develop a cross-categorical method for teaching students to write effective Constructed Response answers and longer informational/expository/argumentative essays. I would love to also develop a standard scoring guide used across all classrooms when scoring Constructed Response answers and those longer informational/expository/argumentative essays. I would love to also develop a standard strategy/procedure for students when they read questions: to effectively identify the task, to clarify what they need to know and do to complete the task, and to identify and leverage any expository information provided that might help them complete the task. As an English teacher, I would love to see something like this spread across the entire district.

The truth is, though, that we’re in a big, bureaucratic district. We’ve got many, many schools, with lots of different teachers and administrators who all have their own personal ideas and agendas. And we’ve got lots of really important administrative people who really make the big, hard decisions, and they have their own ideas and agendas as well. Pleasant View is little, and far away, and doesn’t have the opportunity to make these types of decisions. Brockton High, where Mrs. Szachowicz worked, was able to accomplish great and positive change because teachers were leaders in purposeful professional development that was adaptive to the desires of a site-based committee. That doesn’t happen in Springfield. Or, if it does, I have never seen it happen. Could it happen? Yeah, I do think it could. Would it be easy? Certainly not; Mrs. Szachowicz shared many-a-story about the roadblocks and obstacles. Would it be beneficial to students? I think it would.

Where I go from here, I’m not quite sure. I’m motivated to participate in something, should that indescribable opportunity arise. I’m fearful though, that it may never happen, or if it does, I won't see it in order to take full advantage.