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.