Something Old, Something New

My biggest hope for next year is that teaching will be significantly easier.

To be more specific, I hope for less emotional downs, firmness in enforcing classroom rules and consequences, more patience, engaging lessons, and the energy to be a better teacher.

I am moving down to the eighth grade next year. I am not changing subjects, but it will be a bit like starting over – new students, new teachers, new administrators, new materials and curriculum maps to make. I am going to miss my juniors next year, but I had to make the change. Halfway through the school year, I had to accept the fact that I was struggling. I needed so much instructional support, which I wasn't getting. I was exhausted. I was overwhelmed. I was frustrated. I was incredibly unhappy. I knew I couldn’t keep teaching three classes, year after year with nonexistent instructional support, especially when the quality of my lessons directly correlates to how well of a job I feel I am doing as a teacher. If I stay in the high school, I will burn out within a matter of two or three years. I want to give teaching as a career a fair shot.

I am still not teaching the subject I want to teach, which also impacts how I feel about my job. I love reading and writing but I cannot figure out how to instill that same appreciation in my students, I don’t know how to be the ELA teacher my high school and middle school teachers were for me, and I hate grading essays (my students have only written two essays this year, for goodness sake! How awful is that???). I also don't feel like teaching English is a good personality fit for me. There isn't enough sequential structure in the Common Core standards for me to confidently put together a curriculum map. It is unstructured and based in abstract concepts rather than skill building. I need something more concrete. Unfortunately, being an English major and having a passion for reading and writing does not translate into being an effective ELA teacher.

I am looking forward to teaching younger students, though. I enjoyed teaching seventh graders during summer school, as much as it was possible to enjoy anything during summer school. I prefer younger students. I was intimidated to teach older high school students and my fear of patronizing them definitely hurt my authority in the classroom.

Next year is my chance to start over, to bring back the many useful techniques we learned in summer school: I do/we do/you do, differentiation, positive tracking (you know when you praise a student who is on task and making progress), opening sets, actually writing lesson plans, consistent parent contact, positivity, hope, etc.

Trying to write this blog is overwhelming. (This is mostly because I just looked at one of the second year’s portfolios and I am astounded by the information, the creativity, and thoughtfulness of it. Mine will not be that good.) I am already mentally planning for next year, which constantly distracts me from focusing on the end of the school year. There are so many changes I want to make and new things I want to try, so I made some lists!

5 Things I Am Changing Next Year:

1.     My rules, rewards, and consequences – My goal is to simplify the rules, streamline the consequence ladder, and brainstorm rewards for students that don’t use my disposable income more than necessary.

2.     Parent contact – Calling parents causes me intense anxiety, so I am going to develop a system that relies mostly on notes, emails, and phone calls when appropriate. I want to do something similar to how my first grade teacher handled consequences: she sent home a weekly slip of paper specifying consequences received by day. If we didn’t get in trouble that day, the space had a stamp or sticker. It had to be signed by the parent and returned. I also plan to have a parent contact form attached to the syllabus that asks for a cell phone number, email address, preferred manner and time to be contacted, and for what situations they would like to be contacted. I would also like to do a monthly newsletter; if that’s too difficult to keep up with, quarterly newsletters.

3.     The amount my students will be writing – Seriously, I need to incorporate more writing, formal and informal. It won’t have to be nearly as intense for eighth graders, but I would like them to enter high school knowing how to structure a paragraph, write a five-paragraph essay, and create outlines. I think that is reasonable for eighth graders. That’s what I remember doing writing-wise in eighth grade. Because reading and writing are separated into two classes, I also plan to hit grammar every week for the entire school year. I want to help them become better writers.

4.     Student assessment – I want to put more effort into discussing tests after they have been taken. When students understand why they missed a question, they are less likely to argue with you about the grade.

5.     Passing back graded work – I will have file folders in the back of the room that students can collect graded work from, this way I don’t waste class time passing back daily assignments.

Goodbye old posters! You will be better next year.

5 New Things I Would Like to Add –

1.     Free reading time – My reading classes will potentially be two periods long, so we definitely have time to do free reading every day. My plan is to take my students to the library, help them check out books that interest them and are on their reading level. I may not be able to get them to read while they are at home, but I can ensure they are reading plenty within my classroom. I will make it clear from the beginning of the year that the best way to become a better reader is to practice.

2.     A classroom library – So many of my English teachers’ rooms were filled with books and I want that for my students. I personally own about 400+ books that I have bought or received throughout my lifetime. I want to bring some of those books down for my students to read; however, I am really nitpicky about book care, so I’m not sure how well that plan would work out. I do plan to slowly build up a book collection, though. I might do some more fundraising over the summer to buy shelves, pay for magazine subscriptions, and buy some books to start off the library.

3.     Vocabulary journals – The students would fill out the vocabulary journals for their free reading books. They would need to define and complete some small word-association activity for 3-5 words per a chapter. These would be checked regularly for a daily grade.

4.     Classroom decorations – My classroom was woefully under-decorated this year. I am going to decorate my walls and doors next year, maybe even have some kind of sport theme. The look of a classroom can create subtle buy-in for the students.

5.     More essay writing – I hate, hate, hate grading essays. I have never particularly enjoyed reading critical English essays, even for my English classes. I personally find editing to be exhausting. If I am going to grade my students on grammar, punctuation, and spelling, I feel I have to mark every error I see. I struggle to grade critical thought and teach them how to think critically about texts. Teaching students how to write, and to do it well, is challenging. I don’t know how to streamline the process, while also giving them helpful feedback. I seriously struggle in this area, but I will get my students to write more essays, somehow.

The start of my classroom library! It's very heavily fantasy fiction right now, but we will have more variety soon enough.

5 Things I Am Keeping Next Year –

1.     Current Events Fridays – It’s honestly a fun, discussion-based, relaxed way to end the week. This will probably be used in my reading class.

2.     Interactive notebooks – With younger students, I will have slower writers and I plan to use guided notes for any day we have extensive note taking. With the table of contents, these will help students stay organized.

3.     Supplies bags – I have loved this idea from summer school. Each of my bags has a large eraser, a highlighter, 4 Crayola markers, scissors, and glue. I save so much class time when I don’t have to pass these items out to every student and worry about recollecting them at the end of the period.

4.     Student of the Month – My students love earning this reward, even when I just hand them a certificate without elaborating further. I understand why though. It feels good to be appreciated.

5.     Pun of the day – Who doesn’t like to start the period with a joke? (Did you hear about the kidnapping at the high school? It’s okay. He woke up.)

Supplies bags, you have been useful companions this year.

5 Things I Am Getting Rid Of –

1.     The marble jar – It is a lot of work to keep up with and my students frequently comment on how the jars haven’t been used in forever. Whoops.

2.     The second warning – I thought I was being proactive adding this in since all the second years’ presentations I watched added it to their revised classroom management plans. My students have used it as an extra arguing opportunity. I need a faster escalation of consequences so the students know I am serious.

3.     Class-wide writing assignments – When students don’t feel like they have done something wrong, which is often the case with a class-wide writing assignment, it ends up being counter-productive. I will need to come up with another way to get the class settled, like SLANT or a countdown. (Honestly, suggestions are welcome.) As unfair as class-wide punishments may seem, sometimes there are just too many misbehaving students to punish each of them individually and in a timely manner. Next year I expect more management issues as the classes will be larger.

4.     Inconsistency/being indecisive – I need to say no and say it consistently for all students. This will take practice. Sometimes, I am great at saying no, especially on a day when students have pushed one too many of my buttons. Sometimes, I am so exhausted by the constant questions to do this or that that I just give in and say yes. Sometimes, I am afraid of seeming rude. What if the student interrupting my class to talk to another student has a legitimate emergency? What if that student is seriously about to pee their pants? What if the student actually isn’t feeling well enough to work? There has to be a balance between firmness and empathy/sensitivity to my students' needs and I need to find it.

5.     High school students – I’m kidding, of course. As I already said, I’m going to miss my students. I couldn’t come up with a fifth thing.

Goodbye classroom. Your relative cleanliness and newness will be missed.

Creating a Coherent Summer Curriculum

I think the general approach to summer school High School English was to address basic ELA skills and keep addressing/building on them throughout the summer. Summer school has to cover many skills on a remedial level and in a short time period. Our unit topics included vocabulary, grammar, basic reading skills, writing skills, theme, characterization, plot structure, and figurative language.

Many students – my current students and summer school students alike – need remediation in basic grammar concepts, which students aren’t enthusiastic to learn and most teachers don’t like teaching as a result. But the students need it. There are so many times I have asked my students what part of speech a word is and they will list nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and verbs until they happen upon the correct answer. They barely look at the sentence or understand how its parts work together. Students are easily irritated about ‘relearning’ the basics, but they often show they have weak understanding of sentence structure and other grammar concepts. Understanding how a sentence works ultimately helps understanding in punctuation, phrases, clauses, sentence types, sentence variety, and the maturity of writing (if you are constantly building and developing these skills). The writing skills unit will allow the students to further build writing skills, especially in regards to extended writing, by completing various writing assignments.

We included vocabulary and basic reading skills to better reading comprehension. Students who are reading below grade level struggle with comprehending on-grade level texts because of the higher level vocabulary. Setting aside several days a week for vocabulary lessons ensures that students are exposed to more words that relate to the text, as well as teach them how to use context clues. Basic reading skills, such as making inferences and understanding connotations of various words, increases reading comprehension and builds toward analyzing texts.

With our characterization, plot structure, and theme units we hit the main components of literary analysis. When anyone discusses literature, movies, and so on, they frequently focus on how characters change, the major themes of the piece and the sequencing of story’s plot. Looking at these three in combination, we can discuss other concepts, like author’s purpose, symbols, conflicts, and so on. Many narrative elements are interconnected, so when you talk about one thing, such as plot structure, you inevitably look at setting, characterization, conflict, point of view, reoccurring ideas, and the author’s choices. The same goes for any other narrative or literary element, except you (the reader) are choosing to assess and break down the text through varying lenses.

Figurative language is the cherry on top. By analyzing analogies, metaphors, and allusions, the student extends the amount of critical thought they put into a text. You work beyond the literal structure of the text and focus on little details that are normally brushed aside as insignificant. Figurative language and the ability to interpret it can enhance a student’s understanding of a text. It can also add a layer of complexity to their writing.

English Language Arts is a vast subject with numerous important concepts to cover, which is why we spend years developing language arts skills. Despite the overwhelming nature of the subject, its interconnectedness makes it possible to practice several skills all at once. Did we cover everything possible for ELA? Definitely not. Does the course provide/rebuild a strong foundation for ELA credit recovery students? Hopefully yes.

(Have I been using this double rhetorical question format too much recently? Probably. Will it stop soon? I hope so.)

The Current Events Connection

Again, I am so preoccupied with surviving on a day-by-day basis that I don’t put nearly enough time and energy into connecting area content to my students’ lives. (I am also of the opinion that writing and reading are relevant to their lives no matter what, even if they have no real interest in my subject.) I will do little things, like assign journal prompts to get the kids thinking and writing about themselves. Or ask discussion questions that require them to relate a text to their lives. I also try to diversify the texts I present to my students, meaning that the authors are racially (and socio-economically?) diverse. In the future, I want to include even more diversity in my texts beyond just white and African American writers. (I would love to have my kids read more female writers, as well as other ethnicities, such as Asian, Hispanic, Native American, etc.)

The lessons my students relate to and interact with the best are my current events lessons. (I have dropped the ball on these in recent weeks as I have my English III and English IV students working on extended texts.) I use Newsela to select the article because I can adjust lexile level. Although, I only do this when the students read independently, which is a rarity. I try to pick articles that relate to my students interests, such as the Black Lives Matter movement (and civil rights issues) or the upcoming presidential election. I also pair a video with the lesson to engage students at the beginning of the period and to incorporate different types of news media. My students enjoy having a chance to discuss the article and share their opinions on what is happening in the country or the world. I have had no problems with disrespectful/inappropriate language or behavior (so far) during these discussions, so that’s another bonus.

At this point in time, I select the articles and develop the discussion questions. I want to allow my students to have more choice in both. The solution to the latter is to let students ask their own questions about the article, much like the literary discussions we have had in the past. The easiest way to let students choose their own articles is to direct them to the Newsela website and let them work independently. However, current events is best as a class activity and allowing for choice takes away the discussion element. My next best idea is to allow the students to vote on the general topic of the article, such as sports, law, history, art, and so on. To prevent a repeat of general topics, I would make a rule that the same topic could not be chosen two weeks in a row. I could take that a step further and require that they would have to go through each category once before the options reset so that they are discussing a wider variety of topics.

I think my students latch onto current events day because it feels more relevant to their everyday lives. They aren’t interested in grammar lessons, literary analyses, or taking/preparing for the ACT. Could I be doing more to engage my students in the curriculum? Yes. Could my students be making more of an effort to participate in their education? Also yes. (I think people try to make teaching all about extremes, that if you aren’t bending over backwards to do everything you can for every single student, then you aren’t doing your job well. I think, as with many things and not just education, there’s an in-between where teachers, students, and administrators meet each other halfway. I am not sure what the point of this tangent was, but if there is one take away, extremes are exhausting for everyone and benefit only a few.) Schoolwork is schoolwork and sometimes, the students connect with the material and sometimes, they don’t. Teaching is as much of a learning process for teachers as it is for students, so my lessons' connectedness to students’ lives can only improve. (Or that’s the hope.)

Below, I am including the links and slides for a Donald Trump current events lesson I did with my English IV students yesterday. (I liked how well the video and article went together in this lesson. The discussion would have been better if more students were in-class on Thursday and I didn't have to model reciprocal reading for a visitor in first period.)

Kids React to Donald Trump:

Video Link

Video Discussion Questions:

Students respond to the video discussion questions by raising their hand. They are meant to be a quick way to review and react to what is seen in the video. The video and the short discussion that follows act as the opening set of my current events lessons.

Newsela Article:

Article Link

Article Discussion Questions:

Students respond to the article discussion questions using Think, Pair, Share. I give them more time to think about and develop their responses for these questions so that we can have a deeper discussion about the text.

Vocabulary Doesn't Have to Be Boring

My most successful lessons are my vocabulary lessons, which are based off of Liz Towle’s methods. She did all the research and developing of these lessons and I’ve just piggybacked off what she gave us. Essentially, she did all the heavy lifting and I love teaching lessons I don’t have to plan myself; therefore, I deserve no credit for how well they have worked out. I’m not sure it counts as one teaching strategy, but it does utilize call-and-answer (very briefly); Think, Pair, Share; and contextual analysis.

I start by reading the text to be covered by my class. I make a list of words that my students may find potentially challenging or unfamiliar. I’ll narrow it down to five words, per Liz Towle’s suggestion. I will write up a short paragraph using each of the vocabulary words, hopefully referencing my students in some way. (They usually love to be mentioned or laugh with each other if I poke fun at one of their fellow classmates.) Each of the lesson presentations will follow this general order: 

1) A word puzzle that warms up critical thinking skills;

Can you guess the phrase? It works really well as directions for the next part!

2) call-and-answer with vocabulary pronunciation;

This is my students first look at the vocabulary words. I have them repeat each word aloud twice.

3) read the paragraph aloud twice (students listen the first time and raise their hands for context clues the second time); 

Paragraph length varies depending on how well the words work together. Sometimes they don't work together at all and my 'paragraph' ends up three slides long. If the paragraph gets super long, I provide my students with a print-out. Otherwise, they write it.

4) independently mark the paragraph for context clues and label what type of context clue it is (definition, synonym, antonym, inference), and define each word using context clues; 

I became super frustrated with some of my students when we first started doing vocabulary days because they wouldn't even try to guess the definition, so I added a special reminder to my instructions. I always ask them now what two answers are unacceptable and they can easily tell you "I don't know" and "no response."

5) discuss what they marked as context clues, how they labeled those clues, and their tentative definitions for the vocabulary words; 

6) use the dictionary definitions to correct the context-clue definitions; 

I remind them they only need to fix incorrect definitions. If what they have in their notebooks is similar to the dictionary definition, I tell them to leave it as is. They worked to create the definition using context clues, so why undo it?

7) and finally, use Think, Pair, Share to respond to questions involving the vocabulary words.

I usually have three student volunteers review each of the (last) three steps for Think, Pair, Share.

I wish I had thought of this question for precipitous when I taught this lesson in my class. It's honestly one of my favorites, with languor's slide being a close second.

Depending on the words, creating questions for Think, Pair, Share can range from easy to difficult. I know I have good question when my students are excited to discuss their responses or it gets a laugh.

8) Usually, that is enough to take up an entire class period. I typically include an extra slide with a bonus vocabulary activity. (The next day's bell ringer also uses the vocabulary words in some way.)

I try to add an extra challenge to vocabulary practice by having my students write sentences where they create their own context clues. This means they practice using the word in a sentence and think about the definition/what it means as they are writing.

Most of my students can get on board with this lesson. They are given several opportunities to participate. They can share what they think the context clues are, what the definitions might be, and their answers to the Think, Pair, Share questions (they are usually most enthusiastic about this part). At first, my students were afraid to guess wrong on the definitions, but now I think they recognize it as a doable, not-impossible lesson. They know now I won't make fun of them or invalidate their thought process for wrong guesses. (In fact, one of my Rewarding Teacher Moments™ was a student excitedly telling me that their Star Reading scores had improved and that the context clue lessons are what helped them the most on the test.) I think the numerous chances to speak also help engage them in the lesson.

On a more basic teaching-strategy level, Think, Pair, Share has worked excellently in my classroom. Do my students always understand why they need to write their responses first? Not necessarily. (I can’t find a satisfactory way to explain why this step is important beyond it’s the basis for building your spoken response). Do they enjoy the opportunity to talk with their fellow classmates during the lesson? Totally! I don’t think they realize that it helps build their responses and their confidence in their responses when we use Think, Pair, Share. It’s simple, interactive, and involves very little written work from the student. However, I know they are thinking about the question (whatever that question may be), even if it is just the five minutes we spend on it during Think, Pair, Share.