Up the Hill Backwards?

My first two days of teaching this year were glorious. I was sure that I had become an electric being. Not only had my activities gone well, but I had become a tough disciplinarian. Like Harry Wong, I chose to be a smiling teacher, one that was excited to be in the classroom, not this stern warden that didn’t smile for 2 months. I did my best to let my students know I was there for them, and that I wanted to get to know them, but I was also able to switch into an authority figure when they got too loud or began talking too much. My teaching highlight of the week was when I called down some seniors for leaving campus before their lunch passes were ready. I went from being a meek and timid teacher of freshman to a second year teacher drunk with authority. To top it all off, that Friday night, because of a mistake in directions, I ended up at dinner, alone, with the cute new science teacher. Then, as if things couldn’t go my way any further, I was on TV, seen in the background of Friday Football Fever.

Before the year began, I was informed by central office that my students had exceeded expectations on their test scores. Even if this was some ploy to boost my self-esteem, as I suspect it was, it had the desired effect and I was pleased. It’s not that my kids passed the EOC, it was just that, on the whole, they showed great improvement. This made me happy, but it also worried me. This year they would expect results. I didn’t relish the thought of having to duplicate results. I liked laboring under no expectations or beating low expectations. I excel at laziness.

My school is going through upheavals like never imagined. Principals are leaving left and right and we replaced 3/5 of our science department. There are tons of new teachers at the school. Last year there was just me; suffering alone in my room with only seasoned experts to guide me, no one save a student teacher that arrived in January to confide in. This year they were a unit, lots of them to rely on and share their burdens with, and I was determined to be there for them in any way they needed me.

The new teachers showed up after the first day with faces that must have mirrored mine. They looked as if bombs had gone off inches from their faces, blinded them with shrapnel, and deafened them with noise. Meanwhile, I was capable of doing a tango in the sky. I felt like it was my duty to look in on them, guide them, and help them. What I couldn’t offer them in real help; I could at least be a sympathetic ear. I was living proof things got better. In class on Saturday, I told all the new teachers that everything gets better, shinier, and faster in your second year. This was to be my new calling, a shepherd of new teachers. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the two teachers I checked on the most were blond cuties. Yes, yes I am sexist and awful.

My two days of glory extended beyond the classroom walls. My confidence on the battlefield of pedagogy transferred to my civilian life as well. Saturday continued my good fortunes as another beautiful woman was in my teaching class. She also taught in Alamance County and had a shock of beautiful red hair. Instead of staying from 9-4, we got out at 10:30, and I spent the afternoon with another delightful woman.

I can see how this is a bit personal and more than most people want to read about me. I’m also aware that I’m bragging very much, but after my first year of teaching I felt strange. I had crossed the finish line, but that was all I had felt I had done. I spent the summer in denial about having to go back work, and a vague feeling that things would be different or better, but mostly I thought I would fall into a sophomore slump. Also, my personal life and become a roller coaster ending in a bitter break up with a woman that had stood by in my long dark nights of the soul. I had one more class to take to obtain my license and I flip-flopped between giving up, giving it another go, and even pushing for my masters. In the end, I was too lazy and scared to find a new job. If nothing else, I knew that if economic times turned worse and there was no other job I could find, if I had my license I could always teach. Being practical about it, I knew I had a job at my school and great co-workers and support staff.

The last Sunday before I had to report back for teacher workdays I went swimming with my family in my parent’s pool. While swimming, I put on goggles and opened my eyes under water since the first time since I began swimming with contacts in my eyes. All summer swimming had felt like sensory deprivation, as I would curl up fetally, eyes closed and hover between the pool bottom and the real world. Now, I felt a sense of calm as I watched my niece and nephew glide under water like child super beings. I too knew what it was like to have the feeling of swimming as flying, but now I could see in 20/20 vision. I took a deep breath and knew this year would also be a plunge.

Once I was back at school and it felt great to be there. My room looked better than ever, and I came to discover I truly liked my school and my co-workers. Once teaching began, I realized my first year of teaching had sent me through the siege perilous, like some Arthurian knight, and I was remade a sharp katana forged in the heart of the sun. I knew I was zooming close to that same, life giving sun on wax wings, but I hoped and prayed I wouldn’t have that Sunday morning comedown. I didn’t. It happened on Monday.

I was wired on Monday morning with an activity designed, I thought, to bolster my students’ self esteem and let them know I was compassionate and caring for them. My students were tired and seemed to miss my point. I wanted to talk about failure, how first we must fail before we can succeed. I think the only thing they caught was that they would fail. Each block handled the lesson with less enthusiasm as their eyes rolled and heads dropped to their desk as my Tavis Smiley NPR interview played out its 6 minutes of forever. Then, they took their grammar pre-test, which they all failed. At lunch duty I felt awkward and unable to find the commanding voice I had so easily possessed a few days before. The other new teachers, of which I had become self-appointed protector/leader, had similar days. Instead of being their guide and listening to them, I screwed up and blabbed about how my teaching experiences had been and pretended to be a teacher capable of leaping a tall building in a single bound.

Tuesday was a bit better, but each day featured its varying degrees of failure. Not sending a kid out here or poor classroom management there. Reality had set in, looks like I was Peter Parker after all. Still, I was a better teacher. That much was true. I knew I couldn’t maintain the energy of my two glorious days forever, and I was somewhat glad the comedown came quickly. As I said to my mom, “If Monday is the worst day I have all year, this is going to be an amazing year.” It should be noted that my defeat on Monday was not a soul crushing blow, but simply not a spectacular landing. It all seemed bad in the hindsight of such an amazing early start. In fact, last year, that Monday would have obliterated me, left me lying awake at 3am dreading work, and wondering how I would escape my job/ death trap. Now, the bullets bounced off, and I was determined to not let my optimism waver.

On Friday night, as I trudged home at half time from a football game my school would end up losing, I was told by an AP that I had become the model for all the new teachers. My heroic arc of starting off bad to getting better would be there’s to follow as well. The APs could already tell I had grown as a teacher. I still don’t have much figured out, but I do have a lot of confidence on my side. Confidence that took a swift beating as each of the women from the previous week turned out to be married, with boyfriend, deny me, or simply not interested. I was back to square one.

The week stretched on to infinity and by Friday at 3:20, I limped across the finish line blistered, bruised, and tired. I’ve spent the weekend reading and sleeping in an effort to recover and prepare myself for the long haul to Halloween. I’m attempting to recommit myself to becoming a better teacher as I had planned all along before I got sidetracked with easy success, false shepherding, and cute girls. Maybe I was Peter Parker again, but Peter Parker is still Spider-Man. For two days I rode the madness of the superman Nietzsche had spoken of. I can do it again.

Letter to My Students

Dear Students,

I’m going to make a guess here, and call me out if I’m wrong, I bet that many of you don’t like writing, but I bet you don’t understand that most of you write more than I ever did when I was in high school. Maybe you’re not writing an essay everyday or writing a novel, but I bet many of you texted your friends this morning, updated your Facebook status, commented on a photo, and some of you might have written a blog or contributed to a fan-fiction story. The cool thing about literacy is that it’s very large and it’s very diverse. In many Language Arts classes, a lot of your teachers might have taught you to write an essay or maybe a research paper, but they overlooked very common forms of writing that are important to things we do every day.

I keep lists all the time, things I need to do, things I need to buy, or just random thoughts. That’s a form of writing that’s very important and can help you later in life. It’s a small skill, but an essential one. Many of you might have dreams to go to college, some want to just get a job, and a few may join the armed forces, but the skills you will learn in this class will help you in any area of your life.

What will you do with your time when you aren’t working or hanging out with friends? What books, music, movies, or video games might you want to spend your hard earned on money on? Literacy can help you make those decisions so that when you pay for those things you’re not being robbed of your money. What about when you’ve got a huge reading assignment for your science class? The skills you’re taught in this class can help you across the board.

You will engage in literacy everyday, not just in school, and not just at your job. However, the better your literacy skills are the better you’ll do in school , the better the job you’ll get, and the better the job you have, the more money you make! Literacy teaches you to think deeply about topics, examine various angles, and connect world ideas to your community.

It’s not that we’ll just a read a book in here, but you have to understand how to read a book, a short story, a play, a poem, an article, a editorial, watch a movie and think about all the different things happening in your noggin as you are doing those activities. It’s not just reading words and flipping the pages. After you leave this class, literacy doesn’t stop. You’ll use it to navigate your life, drive a car, and help you make the decision between NBA 2K12 and NBA Live 2012.

One thing I want you to understand is that, you’re in control of your destiny, and that’s the same way when reading a book or writing a paper. You make the meaning in the book, with out you, they’re just words on a page. It takes your imagination, the events in your life, and your skills to create those battle scenes, that epic romance, or that tragic loss.

Literacy is far more than simply reading. It’s a way of thinking and applying those thoughts to your world. It shapes the very lives we lead. Literacy is the difference between seeing a world in black and white or in high definition 3-D with 5.1 digital surround sound. How you want to see the world is your choice, but becoming literate means you’ll see and know more about the world than you ever thought possible.

Viva La Escritor!

Teachers have a lot of material they need to cover in the course of a short span of time. I had a sheet given to me by my mentor that had a list of terms and grammar concepts that would most likely be on the EOC, and I would stare at that sheet and freak out over how much I needed to get through. In my second semester I was given a co-teacher to help me with some 10^th grade-English One-repeaters that were pushed into my 9^th grade-Strategic Reading-English One-class. From that day forth it became this battle between my mentor and my co-teacher on how best to view the list. On the one hand everything needed to be covered, but as my co-teacher would say, “what use is covering everything if they don’t learn what you taught?” I ignored my co-teacher, and ironically, I still didn’t manage to cover everything.

The point of that lengthy story up there is to show that students need to be writing in class in order to show their learning. There are all kinds of writing that students can do in any classroom: list making, newspaper articles, and essays. Writing showcases that students are using higher order thinking and not just utilizing test taking strategies to pass a multiple choice test. Yes, I loved giving multiple choice tests because they’re so easy to grade, and it does help prepare them for their giant, multiple choice EOC, but writing is still one of the best ways to showcase that actual learning has taken place.

I enjoy writing, but I realize colleagues and students might not always share this passion. I’m not saying students should have huge writing assignments all the time, but there should be a few times in the year where students need to think and write critically about science, math, history, or whatever the case may be. I love comic books and my understanding of comic books grows deeper when I start to write and organize my thoughts and feeling s about particular subjects and themes. Students will appreciate their subjects and what they have learned if they must put deeper, more structured thought into what they have learned.

There are struggling readers and writers out there, so it will take extra work on the part of instructors to help them, but that is why they pay us the big bucks. Struggling readers may need extra attention, graphic organizers, and specialized grading. All students, strugglers or not, prefer when the task of writing larger projects is broken into pieces. Making this a step-by-step process can show teachers where students are at in the process and can help with content or grammar. Make sure to provide time to let students peer edit, and help each other through the process.

Motivating students can always be problematic, but providing students with an audience can give them the desire to work harder. If they know more than the teacher is going to read their paper, they’re more likely to put more care into their work. This could be something as simple as a mandatory science blog instead of just writing a journal in a single subject notebook. Don’t forget, students love to see their work on display, so it never hurts to hang their work up on the walls.

In the end, seeing those that struggle the most is worth more than a monthly paycheck. Maybe I can’t buy a can of beans with good feelings and cheer, but I love telling people about the students that experienced success under my tutelage. Including writing, working with those that need it most will make sure that teachers go to bed at night knowing they’ve done their job.

One thing that separates humans from, well most animals, are the tools of the trade. That’s no different for a teacher. Resources can help any teacher and the bigger the toolbox, the better the teacher. In my Literacy in the Content Classroom, we used two texts When Kids Can’t Read by Kylene Beers and Content-Area Writing by Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman, and Nancy Steineke, both of these were great inspirations. They helped me decided not just what to assign, but also how to assign it. Some of these tasks are very complex, and I was no way ready to attempt a lot of these things my first year, and maybe not for my first few years, but there are great ideas in here, especially when I have that dreaded “five minutes before the bell rings, and you’ve gotta pull something out of your as—uh, hat.”

Of course, Harry Wong’s The First Days of School also helped me out in always trying to be professional, maintain high expectations, and to just generally be in a good mood in the class. I did try to keep the attitude that if I acted like I wanted to be there then the students would take me more seriously. It must have worked to an extent as one student derided another teacher in front of me saying “he’s one of those new teachers that just doesn’t care,” meaning he didn’t realize I was greener than the teacher he was talking about. A good attitude and caring about students goes along way.

While I wasn’t always able to follow it to the letter, Discipline with Dignity by Richard L. Curwin, Allen N. Mendler, and Brian D. Mendler, at least gave me something to aim for when it came to dealing with troublesome students. Discipline was by far one of the most difficult tasks for this first year teacher. I didn’t want to shame, embarrass, or turn students off from learning, but I also wanted to be tough and respectful. Sadly, I rarely came across as any of those, but like most things, it’s a work in progress. Luckily, I had supportive administrators, but everyday was still a battle of motivation, management, and mitigation.

A strength I picked up early on was to connect my world to the classroom, and I usually used a handful of websites to help me in the classroom. Youtube.com should be an obvious resource. I had access to a Smartboard, and there’s something on there that links with just about everything. I used it to show videos of space shuttles launching, 1980s rap videos, and an interview with author Sandra Cisneros.

Time.com and NPR.org were great sources for finding articles about our culture and current headlines that I would use either to have students write about their world or open up a class discussion. I imagine great teachers can get even more in-depth than I did and go beyond content and discuss the way those types of news items have a different story structure than an essay, short story or poem.

If something has to be cobbled together in a pinch, Google is a limitless resource of finding teacher made videos and Power Points. First semester I would struggle to put together slide shows for note taking, until a teacher told me to search Google for ones already made. With a little tweaking I could make many of them fit, and every one I used was better than anything I could have created.

I kept my eyes and ears open to the world. When Osama Bin Laden was killed, I used that as a journal entry. When the Tsunami hit Japan, we watched videos, wrote and discussed the scenario. Don’t leave the world out of your classroom, it’s the best resource you have.

Tortoise Wins!

One thing I had to constantly is to remind myself was that I was supposed to be a bad teacher getting better. Besides a couple substitute teaching gigs and some classes, I had no classroom experience, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that situation. A first year teacher that has student taught at least has a little experience, but it’s still not enough to prepare one for actually teaching. It’s important to remember to go easy on yourself. All teachers make mistakes, and many first year teachers make more than their fair share, but it’s part of our job to find our mistakes and do our best to not make them again.

I came from a job where I was on the top of my game, and it was difficult to come to a job where I struggled. What generally happens to teachers is that they go into “survival mode,” but the key is not to get stuck there. Teachers need to remember that people have their back and everyone wants to see them do a great job. Don’t shut out friends, family, coworkers, and even students want to see teachers succeed and become better teachers. Don’t try to change the rules of teaching on the first rodeo, just do the best to stay on the bull.

Teaching content literacy is important for the student, and one thing they should be taught is to notice when they start making mistakes. The same applies to being a teacher. The first time a new concept or activity is introduced it might fail, but don’t give up on it. Tuck it away for now, come back to it and remodel it for the students. Find some key, easy strategies that work and then, as confidence grows, stretch and try new things. The journey of a first year teacher is really no different than the learning process students need to follow. Question tactics, activities and assignments, and make sure students are receiving the most from them. In turn students will also being to question, analyze and reformulate just as teachers do. Teaching can be monkey see monkey, and just as teachers learn, so shall they.

All Seeing Eyes

While there are many reasons to get to know students, one is to find out their ability. On the one hand, I was lucky that I taught an entire class of struggling readers, because I knew what the score was when it came to their abilities. Other content areas may not be so lucky, with one student being the valedictorian and another reading on a third grade level. Even within my class I had students of varying ability, and just because I had two students reading at a sixth grade level, it didn’t mean they each had the same reading strengths and weaknesses.It's especially hard for first year teachers to juggle content, their new job, and helping all the students with their various abilities, but it does get easier as the year progresses. Like my regular eyes, I still don't have 20/20 vision in my all-seeing-teacher-eyes, but things are coming more in to focus.

On the first day of school there should be a lot of “getting to know you stuff,” which should provide some insight into their abilities. First, make sure this student has been tested or has an IEP, otherwise it might be your job to bring it to someone’s attention. There was a bout two months of school left before a student came to me and admitted he might need a vision test because the words were jumping around on the page. That’s another reason to build a relationship with students, if they don’t trust the teacher, they won’t reveal that kind of information. It’s easy to spot a kid that squints at the board, but it’s not easy to spot what’s going on inside their gray matter.

If the student has an IEP, it needs to be followed, not just because it will help the student; it’s also the law. A lot of times the information in the IEP will be what the student needs to be successful, such as: modified tests, assignments or read-alouds. Many students are embarrassed about their mods, especially ones that separate them from the heard, but they’re in place for a reason, and many of those students really needed those read alouds or those seating assignments. Just because that student can’t read very well, doesn’t mean they’re not capable of functioning like a scientist or have interesting experiences to bring to the class.

The more that student is utilized in class and the more comfortable they are means they won’t act up as much and are more likely to do the work. It might mean you have to grade them differently or assign them less, but all students deserve success. When making group for that student, place them with a student that has higher abilities, remember they’re going to learn more from their peers than they are from you jawing.

Sharing is caring

Of course, there are times when they don’t want to run their mouths, at least not about theater arts. Who are these students? Why are they unengaged? You mean to tell me they don’t like factoring binomials? You’re crazy!

Sad, but true, not every student likes your content area (I’m looking at you math), but sometimes it goes deeper than that. Students may not be on grade level for their reading ability, have a disability, or they could be suffering from some emotional distress. I had a lot of problems with this my first year, and being honest, I didn’t do such a hot job all the time in dealing with these situations. There’s a lot at stake here for those kids and you, and the best advice I can give is to be understanding. They will try your patience to be sure, and you might even blow up at them, but one of the easiest things to do is check up on them in their other classes. There were a lot of times where I didn’t know how to help a student, so I asked my more experienced peers and sometimes they offered a more seasoned perspective.

Another way to promote check in on students and utilize content literacy is through writing assignments, journals, or projects that they have a voice and a story that deserves to be heard. Granted, my class was Language Arts, so we journaled everyday, but that doesn't mean that journal couldn't be kept in Math class. Journals could be the springboard to great discussions, write about problems they have in class, or just gauge their opinion on a topic in the news. If I had used small groups the discussions may have even been better. As I said earlier, sometimes I had a lot of students write some shocking things and I was down in guidance every other day with journals in hand, and I probably got a reputation for it. It was a reputation I was happy to have, students knew they could come talk to me and that I was there for them, but that's why we're there, right? Okay, that and the summers.

Sadly, I had a student write about she she used to cut herself. To make sure all was well, I sent her journal to guidance, and they checked up on her. She was not pleased about this and confronted me with in ear-shot of another student I had sent to guidance who had written about being abused. One girl told the other: “Mr. C isn’t getting you in trouble, he just cares about us,” and she was right.

It's not easy being green.

Being a first year or lateral entry teacher is hard work. Everyday of those 180 days is your first day of doing something, and while it can be exciting, it can also be nerve wracking, depressing, frustrating, and tiring. That’s okay though, because it pays off when your students drop by just to say “hey,” they grasp a hard to understand concept, or you can actually see how far they have progressed since the first day.

The key to helping students succeed, and to making you feel like pedagogy royalty, is to focus on content literacy. As teachers, we all think we’re super smart, well organized, and man, our voice sounds good so good we could even be on an internet podcast, but what we as teachers really need to do is shut up. You’re going to do your job better, if you let your students do the talking. Face it, there are days where 90 minutes aren’t enough and other days where 90 minutes equals infinity, but turning precious class time over to small group discussion saves you time in instruction and planning. As it turns out students learn better from each other than they do from a 22 year old fart.

Yes, they’re going to talk and get a little off task, but so would you if you were in a group. It’s our job to move about the room, facilitate, keep them on track, compliment them, and ask them to probe further. One of the things I did a lot of was whole class discussions, and some days we had some really good talks, but they were really good talks with 5 students, not 22. The small group allows those other 17 kids to have their voices heard, when otherwise their brilliance may have remained bottled up in unvibrating vocal chords.

The small group discussion allows the students to begin thinking like a scientist, mathematician or literary critic, as opposed to the receiver of a bunch of notes they will lose or not look at later. The way I learned my job as a teacher or at Best Buy was to do the actual job and ask questions in the process. It was always easier for me to ask questions of a peer than it was to ask a boss, and student’s function in the same way. Let them loose! Let them practice! Let them ask questions!

Teacherbots! Transform!

"When you talk about evolution, you know that you can count me in." Sorry to John Lennon to switch up his lyric, or if someone has already written that lyric, apologies that I didn’t quote you. Essentially, this blog was started as part of an education class, and it’s about to undergo a shift. For a month I had to post certain things on here like what it found below, such as texts or strategies I want to use in my classroom. Now it’s going to become home to my masters degree project, which is about the importance of content literacy in the first year of teaching.

I had a rough time my first year teaching. The song “Working for the Weekend” took on new meanings for me, and even though I had a lot of support, it still was a rough time. At this juncture the blog is going to be about why reading and writing should be important to all classes, not just Language Arts. After this project is over, I hope to keep the blog around just to write about my teaching experiences.

There was one day last year where I had a student cry in every one of my class, and I think I knew then I had to write a book about all the stuff I had seen. The problem with me writing a book is that I have the patience of a humming bird, but when Dr. Amy Vetter, my professor, suggested I do this blog, and keep it running after the project, I had an inkling it would suit me more. Here I can dash something off quickly and be back in my chair with the latest issue Underpants Man, but still feel like I’ve done something.

A lot happens to that teacher in their first year. Especially, if you’re taking a class alongside the teaching, and there were days where I had to get a lot of stuff off my chest. This isn’t about talking about my employer or how dumb my students where, but general concerns about my job, the state of education, and some of the things I knew my students where going through. There were a lot of days where I wanted to quit, but none more so after the day where I had three girls write in their journal about being abused. I did not take well to that information. Luckily, I had a guidance counselor that listened, as well as a slew of fellow teachers that were concerned about me. Not every one may be so fortunate, and it would be great if this blog can reach those people.

If this blog ends up being transmissions into the abyss, that’s okay too, because I at least think someone is out there. One of the tenants to getting students to write is to provide them with an audience besides just the teacher, and this blog services that purpose for me. Usually when I write, no one sees it, and therefore, I don’t write much, but this blog gives the impression that someone is reading. Comments actually solidify that act: wink, wink/hint, hint.

Feedback is important, as my students will tell anyone. I wanted to give a voice to the voiceless, so we journaled everyday, and for a while I read their journals everyday and commented on every one. Before any one names me saint, they didn’t write much, they struggled with reading and writing, but I remember the day I didn’t have time to comment and there were shouts of “where are my comments!” That was a good day. I wish I had the time to comment on everything they wrote. Aside from the time it ate up, reading their journals was my favorite thing to do. It’s only fair keep a Captain’s Log myself, all the great star ship captains do, but I want to know that the abyss stares back. “Where are my comments?” Once again, first we do some project stuff, and then we’ll boldly go wherever my brain and teaching take me. On paper, it doesn’t sound like very far, but I hope we’ll all be surprised.

Literacy Strategy 10

Logographic cues

Logographics are like designing road signs for terms or concepts. It’s sort of similar to the graphic organizer, where information is presented as an image for the visual learners. The recipe is simple take a vocabulary word or hard to understand concept and add in one picture, then mix with color, and hopefully the student will have baked something that will help them remember the new information.

Maybe it’s just me, but I always had a good time anytime I let students draw pictures. If nothing else, students like having their work presented on the walls, and it would be great to hang some of these logographics on the wall, as opposed to just those “hang in there!” posters. When students make them for themselves they will be more likely to remember it than when it’s something that only has meaning and significance for the teacher. For instance, I can always remember that “coerce” means to force because I think about Star Wars, and I would draw a lightsaber to help remember that, but my students hated Star Wars, so that wouldn’t help them at all. The goal is to get them to learn in ways that make them comfortable, not ways that worked for the teacher 15 years ago. I did this a few times with literary terms having them make personal symbols and illustrating personification, but I didn’t utilize it enough in vocabulary, and that’s a change I want to make.

Literacy Strategy 9

I-Search Paper

Instead of writing the generic five-paragraph essay, Daniels suggests a modified essay called an I-Search paper. I-Search papers allow students to choose their own topic, use their research skills, and help them discover what is valid or non-valid information. By allowing students to choose their own topic, they’re more likely to work and harder and be interested in the research topic. Like all writing assignments, students need to be informed of their audience and it helps to make it about more than just the teacher. Adding in a presentation component allows students to take more pride in their work, and think about their writing in a more complex way. The I-Search paper can be time consuming with its layers of pre-writing, time for research, in class writings, and the presentation, but it beats student’s dashing out a paper because they have to and not because they’re interested in what they’re writing about.

Confession time: I was supposed to assign an I-Search paper last year, but the other teachers told me not to worry about, so I didn’t. I wanted to give my students a longer writing assignment, and I really like this idea. I wrote about comics every chance I had in high school, so I think my students would have liked to research sports, games, gangs, animals, and all their various interests. I’ve mentioned my classroom management difficulties in not wanting to take them to the library much, but I’ll have a stronger start this year and a better idea of what I’m doing. Motivating the students will be a problem, as will scheduling time to get them in the computer lab, but I want these kids writing, and I hope they will want to write and work on this. I think it will be good to sell the presentation as them just being the expert on something they’re telling their friends about. Also, I want to scaffold this for myself as well as them. Maybe it will take us longer to do it this year than the next, but I’ve got to break things into small pieces to help me along the way as well as them.

Top Ten Text 10

Haskins, James. One More River to Cross: the Stories of Twelve Black Americans. New York: Scholastic, 1992. Print.

One More River to Cross features 12 short autobiographies of prominent, history making African Americans. There are features on Malcom X, Charles Drew, and Madam C.J. Walker. The sections are generally no more than 20 pages and usually much shorter. It show cases the hardships these people had to face as African Americans in their time, as well as their victories in their discoveries, products, or fight for equal rights. While the entire novel could be taught as a whole, each chapter focuses on an individual and allows the teacher to cherry pick the one he or she wants to cover.

I used this early in the year, so I have a lot more room to grow in this text than in some of the ones I used later in the year. It’s easy to read, so my struggling readers can grasp it, but it also helps with identification. Since I mostly taught Hispanics and African Americans, it would often be a trade off in novels with one focusing on each group. I also liked that it covered some unconventional people and not just the usual ones students are usually taught. I never knew Madam C.J. Walker was the first woman millionaire in America, that Charles Drew developed the process for storing blood plasma, or that he died in Burlington. This offers a lot of chances to have students discuss their futures and write their own autobiographies. Plus, it helps build prior-knowledge as we had to talk about the past a great deal so students could actually understand the struggle these people had to face. It’s also a great chance to work on those critical literacies to discuss racism and other real world topics.

Top Ten Text 9

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Baz Lurhmann. Writ. William Shakespeare (play). writ Craig Pearce (screenplay). DVD. 20^th Century Fox. 2006.

This is the film version of Romeo and Juliet made by Baz Lurhmann in the 1990s. It stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes as the star crossed lovers. The most exciting aspect of this movie, is that it keeps the original Shakespearean dialogue, but updates the warring house holds as corporations/gangs. The film is colorful, hyperkinetic and youthful. One of the strengths of the film is the multicultural cast, no longer is everyone lily white, there are now roles for people of all colors and sizes. It shows that even 500-year-old ideas can be given a new coat of paint and adapted for modern times.

This was another big hit in my class, partly because we didn’t watch a lot of videos, and partly because they really liked the action/gangs/ and multiculturalism. They still had a lot of problems grasping the dialogue, but the imagery is powerful. While I did a good job of asking questions throughout the movie, it was used more of a reward for the last 10/15 minutes of class after working hard, I didn’t do enough during viewing activities to keep their brains working. I also tried to show it in conjunction with the 1960s R&J to show differences, especially in setting and costuming. R&J is meant to be seen and heard, and I think it helped the students picture the action as we read the play aloud.

Top Ten Text 8

Chua, Amy. “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.” www.wsj.com. January, 8 2011. July 25, 2011. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” is an article by Amy Chua on how she raises her daughters in the style of Chinese parents and why she believes it is the best way to raise children. Her parenting style is very much a tough love scenario and very controlling. A few of her rules: her daughters cannot sleep over at a friend’s house or be in drama classes, they must be top of their class, play the piano or violin, and succeed in everything they do. Much of Chua’s educational requirements are based on memorization, which she claims American parents and schools are moving away from. In one instance she tears up a mother’s day card drawn by her daughter and calls it “garbage,” believing her daughter is capable of much more. In the end, her daughters are grateful for their mother’s tough love, but it is a struggle to get them to succeed.

This was a fun article I used for my non-fiction unit. My students did not come from homes like this where the parents were as strict as Ms. Chua and they blew their tops reading about the things she made her daughters do. Some could find good points in it (she cares about her daughters and her daughters had good grades), but many hated the strictness. It also allowed us to talk about the state of American education, the economy, parenting, and China’s growing presence in the world. I think this will be an even more exciting article to teach couple with an anticipation guide and some good small group discussion by the students.

Top Ten Text 7

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.

This is a novel set during the early 1960s about a girl named Lily who just happens to accidently kill her mother, have an abusive father, and go to live with three independent black woman that own their own honey making business. This is a novel rife with symbolism, wonderful imagery, and set during a tumultuous time during America’s past. Many of the themes are still prevalent today such as independence, feminism, guilt, race relations, and the role of religion in people’s lives. Throughout the novel Lily must wrestle with her past, America’s expectations of race, and (shudder) puberty. It was a bestseller and had a major motion picture adaptation.

When I attempted to teach this novel, I wanted to give this a feminist slant to it. Which isn’t hard to do, but I just couldn’t quite teach it the way I had planned. Many of my female students seemed powerless in their lives, and I wanted this book to show them a way to become empowered at least start thinking about their own empowerment. Many of the students liked the novel, but I felt like they could have gotten more from it, but that could be just an age/time thing. My ideas flowed from an incident where a male student inappropriately touched a female student’s breasts. I sent the male student out, but this upset the female student; she felt she had gotten him in trouble. This angered me because the girl had obviously not done anything wrong. This novel coincided with that incident, I felt that Lily blamed herself for things beyond her control and would have to forgive herself so that she could one day grow strong and thrive. I’m going to give it another whirl next year, and hopefully the novel will make an impact.

Top Ten Text 6

Block, Melissa. “Tavis Smiley: If At First You Don’t Succeed, ‘Fail Up’”. May, 4^th 2011. www.npr.org. July, 18^th 2011. http://www.npr.org/2011/05/04/135985392/tavis-smiley-if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-fail-up

This is an audio interview with Tavis Smiley where he is promoting his book Fail Up, but he also talks about the adversity he encountered in all his years of broadcasting. Smiley is an author, commentator, and talk show host that discusses politics and African American issues. In this interview, he places an importance on his failures, and how he could not have experienced success without all those failures. Not only does he talk about himself, he talks about Barack Obama and others who failed at first, but went on to experience great success. In the end, people do not need to be scared of failure, as it will lead to learning that will help them in the future.

Working with struggling readers is, wait for it…a struggle. One of things that must be done is to build up their confidence in themselves and their ability. I like this little audio excerpt because it tells kids that it’s okay to make mistakes, and they have to make those mistakes before they can get things “right.” Originally, I was going to use this inspire my students before they took their English 1 EOC, but that was a time where I hoped they wouldn’t fail. This year I might play it near the beginning of the year, to let them know that their will be times where they will face hardship in the class, but if they keep working at it, they will have success. I might pair it with a partner discussion and have them make a list of things they struggle with and potential ideas as to how they can conquer their problems.

Literacy Strategy 8

Four Corners

Four Corners is an activity that allows the kinesthetic learners a chance to shine. Teachers give students four choices to answer some kind of question, and they ask students to move to one of the four corners of the room in their response to the question. While in the area, it gives the students a chance to discuss why they chose the answer. It’s best if the questions don’t have a “right” answer, but one that allows students to make decisions based on their opinions and prior knowledge. The small group portion of Four Corners allows students that might be uncomfortable in a class discussion to share their thoughts in a smaller venue.

Except for a few feeble attempts, I didn’t use four corners much last year, but as I get a better grasp on class management, I want to bring it back. A lot of students would ask to do it through the year, but I did such a bad job of maintaining order, that I didn’t like using it very much. I feel like if I have a stronger start in terms of discipline and order that it will allow the students to be able to do more activities like four corners instead of sitting on their rumps for 90 minutes. It’s a great way to get the students to wake up if their nodding off or to stretch their legs. It’s a great variation of having students just be put in groups to discuss a topic, and this way they must explain why they feel a certain way about a question.

Literacy Strategy 7

Brochure

Making a brochure is a summative exercise where students, through the use of advertising, write about a concept or work they have studied, but instead of taking a test, they show what they’ve learned by being creative. Like the brochures seen in a hotel or restaurant, students are given the task to use text and graphics to explain what they have recently learned. It gives creative students a chance to spread their wings instead of the task always being a formula or just a writing assignment. It is a great way for students to do more than regurgitate what they learn as they must create something new and make sure they are writing from the correct perspective.

I love student art work. I had a couple students that were on the path to being great artists, and a whole bunch that really enjoyed scribbling on my desks. I may not make the brochure an assignment, but I have a project test where students gain so many points for each task they do. The brochure might be a great addition to this to go along with the comic strip portion. It would be great to pair up a student that likes to draw with one that might be a better writer, and have them create this final product. Since I’m generally pretty scared of taking students to the computer lab, I would more than likely do the analog, hand drawn versions, but as I grow more confident I may include some technology.

Literacy Strategy 6

Reflective Write

The reflective write is a writing assignment done at the end of a unit, book, or project where the students think about various aspects of what happened during that time. It can be an informal writing or formal, depending on how the teacher wants to use the reflective write. It helps students with their metacognitive abilities in showing them how they learned what they learned, what they appreciated about the task, or what they disliked. It can be used to discuss original predictions, struggles, what the student learned, and any lingering questions.

In my class we did a lot of reflective writing in our journals. I didn’t ask the students to write enough, which I think was a mistake. Some would write a sentence, while others would write a couple paragraphs. Maybe it was just me, but I liked the reflective writings because I got to know the students and I tried to make connections between their life reflections and the books we were reading. I like how Daniels suggests concluding a project with a reflective writing, and it’s my goal to introduce different types of writing this year, and I would like this to go along with some new papers and projects I would like to try out.

Literacy Strategy 5

SWBS

“Somebody, Wanted, But, So” is a summarizing strategy where students breakdown stories into those four components. Students fill out each column listing the characters, motivations, plot points, and resolutions.

Somebody: Brooks.

Wanted: To read a comic book.

But: He had to do his homework.

So. He read the comic book, failed the class, and lived in a dumpster.

More can be added to the format such as “then,” or the wording can be altered to fit a particular subject.

This was talked about at the very last Strategic Reading workshop I attended, and a lot of the veteran teachers had not heard of this, but it made a huge impression on every one. I’m glad to see it used in Beers, so I have a handy, easy to use, and easy to reference guide when I make some attempts to utilize this next year. It breaks everything down nicely and I like how Beers used “The Necklace” as an example since it was a story we read last year. Then she had the students make one for each of the main characters and how it inspired the students to debate. I’m already formulating plans to use this if the students do their reading for homework or after reading in class or the next day…

Literacy Strategy 4

Likert scales

Likert scales are those kind of annoying “strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree” questions that I always see on job applications. In this instance, instead of asking a question about theft; themes, topics and discussion questions become strongly agree, etc. questions that make the students think about their answers. When out in groups, students can debate their choices with each other and provide evidence as to why they chose that particular “answer.” Students will begin to become better write as they will see evidence put forth to prove an argument.

Last year, I spent a good chunk of my time assigning comprehension questions, and it was such a waste of time. These Likert scales drive me up the wall, but they drive me up the wall because I actually have to think about a response. I can see students (or myself) ignoring the “strongly agree” and just use “agree” as answer choice, but the evidence must still be put forth as to why the student agrees or disagrees. I like that you can strongly agree or disagree, because I think it adds to the debate, but it tends to get overlooks. I used a Likert scale as an anticipation guide with great success, so I’m looking forward to dumping the “What color is The man in the Yellow Hat’s hat?” style questions.

Top Ten Text 5

Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Beginner, 1960. Print.

The eternal story of whether or not Sam-I-Am can convince his good buddy the skeptic to try this odd colored, yet possibly delicious meal. Follow! The Skeptic as he does not eat them on a boat, in a moat, with fox, or on the docks. See! Sam try, and try, and try, and try some more to get The Skeptic to take a bite, just a mite, if he, could he, would he try it in spite? Finally! The Skeptic takes a bite, realizes that junk is good, and then has them in space, at my place, and during a race.

This is a great book to use to talk about theme. For me, it’s easy to show that the plot is Sam-I-Am and The Skeptic on their merry chase, but the theme is to try new things, because you might actually like what you try. It’s a great book to inspire discussion, it was a book my jaded 9^th graders liked having read to them, and one that many of them could at least link with theme if they couldn’t always get theme in other works. There are other literary terms utilized in the book, I just happened to use it for theme, but I could see myself breaking it for rhyme scheme or imagery. Oh! The places you’ll go with this book…

Top Ten Text 4

“P.O.V.” Batman: The Animated Series. Dir. Kevin Altieri, Writ. Mitch Brian, Sean Catherine Derek, Laren Bright, Prod. Bruce Timm. DVD. Warner Brothers. 2004

In this episode of Batman: The Animated Series we are introduced to three Gotham City Police officers: Detective Bullock and Officers Renee Montoya and Wilkes. The story is told from each of their unique perspectives, and their interrogator, Hackle, doesn’t believe them and suspends each of the officers. On her way home, Montoya unravels the case. She rescues Batman at the scene of a crime, and clears her name and the other two officers.

I really like the “Roshamon” style story this episode offers and I think it’s a neat way to introduce perspective to the students. Many of my students had super hero themed folders or backpacks, so I think they would enjoy seeing something they are familiar with as part of the curriculum. Plus, many of my students from last year thought it was funny that I was so into superheroes and we made a lot of jokes about it. This seems like a cool way to add some fun, personality, and cover a topic all at the same time, and it would work well in tandem with the “True Story of the Three Little Pigs.”

Top Ten Text 3

Shakespeare, William, Emily Hutchinson and Karen Loccisano. Romeo & Juliet. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Globe Fearon, 1996. Print.

This is the familiar story of ill-fated star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, but instead of it being written in the Elizabethan, it has been modernized and translated for students with reading difficulties. It does lose the iambic pentameter, but the main story is still there and there is a good bit of retained rhyme scheme. Some of the names have been slightly modernized, such as “Abraham” from “Abram,” but Romeo is still Romeo, Juliet is still Juliet, and they both still kill themselves in the end.

The student had a blast reading this last year, and I hope to either add more plays or at least utilize readers theater more. One really great activity was the mask project that my mentor told me about. For the costume ball we had students either go buy a mask (they were not obligated to do this) or take a paper mask from us and decorate it. Some student, mostly girls; but not always, really cut lose and came up with some great masks. I also provided cookies that day!

Occasional Paper

Last week I was watching an old episode of The Simpsons. The one where Krusty the Klown becomes very depressed because he has no relationship with his father, and there was a part where Krusty struggles to read a letter written to him, I think by Bart, and it struck me that people can be successful and not know how to read. Struggling readers are everywhere, and you can’t just look at a struggling reader and point them out. We talk a lot about the importance of literacy in our culture, jobs, and our world, but just because someone can’t read doesn’t mean they can’t live a full life or have an interesting perspective on things.

A lot of times I would be confused by my students. If we talked about a book they would understand it and answer questions, but when it was time to take the test, most of the time they would fail. Some of them even read books in their spare time, ran for student government, and had a lot of after school activities. These students were engaged in school culture, not the poster children for illiteracy, yet many of those same active students had 5^th or 6^th grade reading levels. Some of them would read so fast it was a blur, and other wrestled every word of the page, but just to look at them or talk to them was no indicator of their ability. Many times I would shake my head like Dr. Beers and say, “These kids can’t read.”

I used to think illiteracy looked like Krusty the Klown. Okay, not exactly like Krusty the Klown, but someone that struggles with word recognition. It never occurred to me that someone can read words but still not actually understand the text. Before I began this odyssey to become a teacher, I worked at Best Buy for five years. There was an employ there that was a great salesman, very charismatic, popular employee, and could talk to girls like nobody’s business. Basically, I thought he was obnoxious, but nice enough. The guy was a video game freak, but he really liked a type of game called a role playing game.

Role-playing games, or RPGs, are usually fantasy based games that have elaborate storylines and focus on a party of characters that each have their own back stories, histories and side quests in addition to the main plot. These games feature a lot of reading, and while they have a lot of action, it’s more about the plot, stories, and characters than Super Mario Bros. That’s why I was really surprised when PJ came up to me one day, and asked me if I could “see things in my mind” when I read. I thought for sure anyone that played those games would have a good reading ability. Again, here was a guy who was gainfully employed, had an active life, and you would never guess by looking at him, but he had some kind of reading problem.

Not being able to read is a social stigma, while I certainly don’t advocate illiteracy, it’s interesting to me to see people navigate in society to become quite successful or independent with out this cherished ability. It’s always bothered me when I hear someone struggle to read. To me, not being able to read would be like losing a limb. I want people to enjoy reading like I do. It’s my goal as a teacher of struggling readers to help them want to read and learn as much as they possibly can, to take the blinders off their imagination’s eye, and have them join me in the queue at the midnight opening for the next Harry Potter book.

Questions:

1. How can we better identify struggling reader? 2. What techniques do struggling readers use to hide themselves in school? 3. What can teachers do to help promote literacy to those struggling with it? 4. Why in God's name does anyone want to be a teacher? 5. Do you think their should be another Harry Potter book an why or why not?

Top Ten Text 2

Jiménez, Francisco. Breaking Through. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

The autobiography of Francisco Jimenez showcases his struggles as a poor, illegal immigrant English language learner. The book is about how Francisco must overcome adversity through hard work until he eventually succeeds and attends college. Many of Francisco’s problems run the gamut from money, working multiple before and after school jobs, paying for college, girls, his reading ability, living along with his brother, and difficulties with his strict father.

My students loved this book, especially my Hispanic students. This was a book that the Hispanic students would read even if they didn’t read anything else. Students can relate to Francisco’s search for a job, his struggles with reading, and some may relate to his fears of immigration officers. The fact that the book is real and not fiction means even more to the student’s when Francisco succeeds in the end. The book is a great motivator in having the students write their own autobiography and it helps me reinforce the importance of a good education and all the doors it can open up. Plus, it might inspire some lazy students to work harder!

Top Ten Text 1

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage, 1991. Print.

The House on Mango Street is the story of Nenny and her quest to find what she thinks is her dream house, but she is really looking for a home. Through the book we discover that Nenny is poor, has moved several times, and is trapped in the world between being a girl and being a woman. We meet her friends and family, as they play, suffer tragedy and grow up. There is a strong sense of feminism and what it means to be independent that runs throughout the book.

This is a great book to teach to struggling readers. I like this book because the chapters are short and easy to do popcorn reading as well as partner reading. I like that the main characters are low income and Hispanic. This book could reflect some of the things that my students may be encountering in their lives. The writing can be difficult, but it is very poetic and beautiful and the themes can be very adult. There are ample opportunities to teach symbolism, characterization, and setting.

Literacy Strategy 3

For critical reading/ and literacy I am choosing the Discussion Web activity. Two students will choose an argument, research their argument, and then use the discussion web graphic organizer to build support for their arguments for or against. Then they will meet up with two more students to build the arguments more, and report their findings to the class. It is used best as a post-reading activity, it helps students begin to think about to organize their thoughts, and find research based evidence to support their arguments.

I was lucky to observe the chair of our English department one day and she was having her students do a mock trial for Romeo and Juliet. The argument was whether the Friar should be held accountable for the deaths of R&J and the student s had to go to the library and computer labs to find evidence to support their arguments. The discussion web seems like a good introduction to allow students to work on how to debate, find evidence to support their conclusions, and refute those of the opposing argument.