Floods and Travel Narratives

Last Friday, my Soph LA classes read a selection from the Bible (included in their textbooks) to compare to the "Story of the Flood" from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Many of them had already made the connection between Utnapishtim's story and Noah's story. So, as they read, they took notes on their graphic organizer table about the details of differences between these two ancient tales. Then, on Monday, I handed out a graphic organizer to help them organize their ideas for a compare and contrast essay. They used the table from the previous week to consider similarities and differences and also rewrote 3-4 particular details for each story that they thought they'd like to focus on in their body paragraphs.

On Tuesday, I told them exactly how to organize their essay and what to include in each paragraph: Intro - Hook, Background (Similarities), Thesis (3-part w/ differences); 3 Body Paragraphs - Topic Sentence (one difference each), Concrete Details from text, Commentary/Analysis, Transition sentence; Conclusion - Thesis Restatement, Summary of Main Points, and Final Thoughts. Then, I showed them an example of what a good compare-contrast essay looks like. Afterward, they had about 35 minutes to get started on their own essays. Many of them wrote at least an introduction, and some had one or two body paragraphs written. Most of them struggled to get started. I think this is normal for many students, so I don't mind if they take a while to think things through. Sometimes, if they can't get started right away, they get distracted from their task and start talking to their neighbors (thereby distracting THEM from their assignment), so I am always careful to circulate around the desks to keep a constant check of each student's progress. At the end of class, I told them to have their rough drafts done by the time they get to class the next day.

One cool moment: one of my lowest performing students stared at the assignment for a few minutes, and then said, "Miss, you should give us that paper that you gave us before to organize our essay."
"Which one, C_____?"
"You know, the one with the boxes and lines for each paragraph?"
"Oh yes! Would you like one of those?"
"Yeah. It helps me."
:)

Today, most students had their rough drafts on their desks when class began. Before I spend my time reading their work, though, I wanted to give them plenty of opportunity to self-correct. So, I put another example up on the overhead projector so they could see an "A" paper and compare their own to the example. I told them point blank: "If your paper does not look this good, you probably need to work on it a lot more." In addition to this, I also passed out a handout on a revision technique called ARMS: Add (what information should you add to benefit your reader?), Remove (what should you remove to improve the flow of your essay?), Move (can you improve the organization of your essay by moving words, sentences, or paragraphs?), Substitute (are there words, phrases, or sentences that could be improved by substituting better versions?). Each student had to read through his or her own essay and consider the ARMS, then pass it to a neighbor so they could consider the ARMS. Whatever they found that needed improvement, they had to work on it in class or as homework. They must turn in their rough drafts tomorrow for me to edit. I'll give these back to the students on Friday so they can work on their final drafts and bring them to me on Monday.

With my Jr LA classes, I've been teaching early colonization and travel narratives. We're a little behind the other classes (big surprise!), so I put together a slide show to present the 3 main types of travel narratives in the unit. First, there is the slave narrative: an excerpt from Equiano's narrative. Then, there is the journal: an excerpt from Columbus's notes on what he saw during his first voyage to America. Finally, there are narrative accounts: one excerpt from John Smith's stories of what happened at Jamestown, and the other by William Bradford about what happened at Plymouth in their first years. To get the students more interested in these people, I used photos and interesting facts about their lives to which the students could relate. It was great! They were asking questions, making comments, and telling what they already learned about the people or places in their World History class. It was a lot of fun, and it only took me a couple of hours to put together!

We started reading William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantations afterwards, and I gave them a handout of comprehension questions to answer as we read. We've only read about half of it, and I'm already questioning whether this is the best selection for them to read. The language is pretty complicated, so they get frustrated quickly. I might do Columbus's and John Smith's excerpts next year instead....

After we finish with the travel narratives, we'll being Puritan poetry and The Crucible, which is always very exciting for me. :)

Quote of the Day:

"Miss, what are those living-skin thingies that Utnapishtim and Noah took in their boats?"
"Living-skin thingies?"
"Yeah, they took their families and..."
"Animals?"
"Yeah! Animals! ...I'm sorry, Miss. I don't know what I was thinking. Living-skin thingies! What does that mean???"
"I don't know, but it sounds pretty scary to me."

Gilgamesh and Native Americans

My language arts classes have moved on from their research projects to literature study. We have begun The Epic of Gilgamesh in Soph LA (world lit), and are studying Native American origin myths in Jr LA (American lit).

Teaching Gilgamesh--or any lengthy work--to ESOL students is a challenge. Their brains can only handle so many new words at once, and their attention span dwindles after about 2 pages of reading (on a good day). I knew going into this year that I wanted to shorten our study of Gilgamesh. The textbook gives us adapted versions of "The Battle with Humbaba," "The Death of Enkidu," "The Story of the Flood," and "The Return." Since we basically teach Gilgamesh to compare and contrast it to the story of Noah and the flood from the Bible and study archetype and archetypal setting, I've limited our reading to "The Story of the Flood" and "The Return." To give the students necessary background on Gilgamesh as a king and the parts of the story we didn't read, I put together a beautiful slide show in which I condensed the information and included pictures scanned from the illustrated trilogy of Gilgamesh for young readers (see links below). Also, remembering that my students have problems keeping the plot and character names straight, I included an overview of what happens in the two parts of the story that we would read together. I showed the slide show in class yesterday, and the students loved listening to it. If felt like story time in the library! :) Some of the students asked questions about the characters or plot, and they all seemed to have a general understanding of what to expect. After the slide show, we read "The Story of the Flood" together. Many of the students immediately made the connection of similarities between this flood and Noah's flood.

Today, in Soph LA, we read "The Return" together, and then students completed a table asks them to recall details about "The Story of the Flood." These details are similar to those stated in the story of Noah and the flood, so they will complete the table tomorrow after we read the excerpt from the Bible. When the table is complete, they should clearly see how the details of the stories are similar, but not exactly the same. I did notice that there were some changes to the handout that I should have made last year when I realized there was a way to make my expectations clearer. I neglected to make the changes, though. Note to self: make changes on worksheets or handouts as soon as you notice the need for correction. You won't remember to make those changes next year!

In my Jr LA class, the origin myths we're reading are "The Earth on Turtle's Back," and "When Grizzlies Walked Upright." These stories are easy to understand, and the students think it's so strange how people used to explain the natural phenomena of this world. Some of them thought the stories were cute, some thought they were funny. Since I knew they understood the stories themselves, I wanted the students to practice their organization and linear detail. They were allowed to work in small groups (3), with a partner, or as an individual; and they had to storyboard on of the origin myths we read the day before. They were limited to 8 squares, and could only use pictures. Most students have difficulty choosing which scenes to include on their storyboard. Students, overall, have very poor organization skills. This is just another area where that becomes evident. They have difficulty compartmentalizing information, too. When I first assigned the activity, the students thought it was a fun "kindergarten" activity. They soon discovered otherwise. :)

Quote of the Day:

During popcorn reading in class, a student skipped a line during her read aloud.

J_____, a short-tempered, pushy Mexican student yelled at the reader: "C____, you skipped a line, man!"

"First of all, I'm a girl not a man," she retorted in her assertive Domincan accent. "Secondly, I'm human, OK? You don't have to jump all over me for my mistakes. Now be quiet so I can read!"

Presentation Day

Some were better than others, but I was proud of most of my students and their presentations today. Most of them dressed up for the occasion (despite the pouring rain!), and many of them had clearly practiced.

Of course, there were some let downs. Students who had not been keeping up with their work did not pull magic rabbits out of their hats and miraculously have something ready to present. There were some stand-outs, though: students who did surprisingly well for their first public presentation.

The day was marred, though, by an incident in 3rd period. One of my sweetest, most polite male students, T_____, received a letter from the front office last week saying that they didn't have his address on record. T_____ told me that his family had moved and that he was supposed to be at a different school, but since he only had 8 more months to go, he wanted to stay at CHHS and graduate with his friends. He's been worried about it ever since. Today, he was not in class when it was time for him to present with his group. His 2 group mates began without him, and just as A_____ said, "My friend, T_____ could not be here today, so we are just going to explain his slides to you," T______ walked through the door. We were all happy to see him and everyone called out his name.

"T____!" I said, "You have perfect timing! Your group was just about to read your slides to us."
"Oh," he looked at the class, then back at me. Something was wrong. T_____'s mother poked her head through the door, and I knew what was going on. There's only one reason an ESOL parent comes to school in the middle of the day: withdrawl. I looked at T_____, and he turned to his group mates. "Guys, I can't present. I have to go to a new school."
The class gasped in unison. We all love T_____. He's one of the most jovial people I've ever met. "What? Why?" They all wanted an explanation.
"Class," I tried to explain, "T_____has moved to another district, so he has to go to the school there." I started tearing up (which I couldn't believe).
I crossed the room and gave T______'s mother a hug. "We had to move," she said in a thick Vietnamese accent. "I know." I told her.
T_____ was becoming emotional, which is absolutely not allowed for a young man in front of a crowd (grin), so he walked toward me and the door. I gave him a hug and said goodbye.

Many times, when I say goodbye to a student, it's forever. They don't keep email addresses, they don't write for letters of recommendation, they don't come back to visit. My students live such transient existences that it's difficult for them to stay in touch with anyone. ... I don't think I'll see or hear from T____ again, which makes me sad. That's one of the worst parts of my job.

One of the coolest parts of my job, though, is that I am the only teacher at CHHS who teaches SOPH LA and JR LA for ESOL students. I have these students for 2 years. We are a small unit. We are very like a family. Everyone knows everyone, and we all try to get along. There is comfort in that, and the students rely on that routine and consistency at school. It is hard, though, when there is a big change, and one of our family members is no longer there. You can feel that the classroom has a different dynamic...even when one person is absent.

Anyhow...now that presentations are done, I need to find some way to transition my students over to literature studies. I think I'll do a textbook exploration activity tomorrow to introduce them to the different parts of the text. They need to know how to use a Table of Contents, a Glossary, and an Index. Then, I'll have to introduce Native American Lit for my JR LA class and Gilgamesh (and the epic cycle) to my SOPH LA class.

...I think we're having pizza tonight. That is way too much to get done to cook dinner, too. LOL

I need to use time this weekend to plan ahead for the next 2 weeks. I'm getting bad again about doing my planning the night before, and that just stresses me out.

The main speaker below is one of my Korean students. She was a good sport about us pointing out her pronunciation error, and said that her bf had even pointed it out to her. She said she was just too nervous to concentrate on fixing it for us. :)

Quote of the Day:

Presenter S____: "Good morning. Today we're going to talk about bling. Do you know what bling is?"

Audience Member with a Spanish accent: "Little sparkly things?"

Presenter S____: "No. Bling is when you make someone feel bad about themselves because of how they dress, look, act, or because of who they hang out with. There are many factors that would cause someone to bully someone else. We are going to talk about those factors, how to stop it, and where to go for help is someone is bling you."

The Day Before...

Tomorrow is the big day...Presentation Day! My students are both excited and nervous. They've been working so hard to prepare, but have not practiced enough, and they know it! :)

Today, I gave them one more day in class to practice with each other. They had to time each other as they practiced their speaking and using their PPT slides effectively.

To begin class, I showed a clip from one of Apple's keynote presentations. This way, the students could see what a top-notch presentation should look like and how minimal information on PPT slides is used to help keep the audience up with what the speaker is saying. Many of them still have too much information on their slides, but hopefully they'll improve next time. (I am definitely going to make them do more presentations this year!) As they watched the clip, I pointed out the use of slides, body language, clearly spoken words, speaking rather than reading information, and other successful presentation skills. The students enjoyed watching the clip and were inspired to practice their own presentations!

They all split up into their groups, or went their own way if they are presenting solo. They made notes on what they would each say during their presentations, created note cards, timed each other, ran through their lines, critiqued each other, and asked me and each other questions. If the student was working independently, they practiced their lines and had me or someone else time them as they gave their presentation a test run.

Here are some photos of the day's happenings:
(BTW, in these photos alone, 10 countries are represented: France, Rwanda, Korea, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Nepal, Cuba, India, Mexico, and the USA!)







Quote of the Day:
"Oh, Miss, you need that fixed? Lemme try. I have Asian technology skills."
"Asian technology skills?"
"Yeah, can fix anything. Watch." ... (he skillfully replaces the fabric back piece on my director's chair)
"See, Asian technology."
"What does that have to do with technology?"
"I'm Asian. I fix it. Technology."
"I think you are confused...."

Practice, Practice, Practice!

On Friday, September 11th, I was already in a touchy mood, so I didn't want to do anything that required too much effort on my part. That may sound bad, buy you know that we all have those days. I still wanted to pack my students' brains full of information, though! I was thinking about what I wrote in my previous post...about helping the students understand how to prepare for their presentation, and the difference between a good and bad presentation.

I decided that I should first assess how much they already knew. Some of them have already taken Business Essentials as an elective, and have had to learn about presentation skills. So, I had them do a Think-Pair-Share to brainstorm ideas of what it takes to give a successful presentation. Here's the list that my 6th period came up with:


















After the brainstorming session, I passed out copies of these two articles:


http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2009/sb20090825_379576.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2161539_give-presentation-class.html

The first article takes a humorous approach to teaching presentation skills. The author gives instructions on how to give a lousy presentation. So, the students figured that everything the author says to do, they should do the opposite. The students took turns reading the points out loud, and we discussed what would be the correct action to take. This brought up quite a few questions! Sometimes, the students were able to answer their peers' questions. Other times, I answered.

The second article highlights some was to prepare for giving a presentation. This article stresses the importance of practicing. I told the students what my Public Speaking professor told his classes in college: "Practice, practice, practice until you think you've got it. Then, practice once more to be sure." This helped drive the point home that I have high expectations of their performance on Wednesday. Dressing the part (they have to dress business-casual) does not make you automatically successful. You must practice and work to be your best.

Today, Monday, they were all supposed to turn in their PowerPoint presentations. Many of them were ready, but a few students/groups needed more time. I told them they had to get the slide show to be by the end of the day (3PM) or it would be late with points counted off. For those who were ready, I printed a handout of their show, and asked them to make brief notations beside each slide to tell me who would be speaking during that slide and what they would say.

Before all of that, the students had to take their MLA Citations Quiz today. There was a wide range of scores, but only a handful of students failed. This shows me that they just need time to soak in the information, and they need to see it repeatedly. In the past, I've tried to teach MLA at the end of the year within a very limited time frame, and the students just don't get it. This year, as this quiz has shown me, they have understood much better.

I was reminded today that our first Benchmark Exam is on October 7th. By this date (according to the county pacing guide), my JR LA students should have studied Native American Lit, Exploration Narratives (ex: John Smith), Equiano, The Crucible, and Puritan Poetry. My SOPH LA students should have studied Gilgamesh, the Bible, and at least 2 other epics. ...That is not going to happen. I gave as much time as my students needed to feel confident in the research process and essay writing. I know that they can do this. I feel confident in sending them to take the GHSGWT at the end of Sept. (with a little more practice in persuasive writing, of course). Now that I know they can organize their ideas, and write strong paragraphs, we can move on to the literature. What is the point of teaching, if the students don't have time to learn?

I guess I better get planning. We have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks! :)

Creating Presentations

Friday, the students began or continuted working on their PowerPoint presentations or finding and printing pictures for their posters. It was a good day, and everyone was engaged in their assignment. Some of the students chose to work individually on their presentation, and most of them chose to work in pairs or small groups. They understand that their presentation must be 4-5 minutes in length, and that they all have to participate in the production and presentation of the information.

On Monday, there was no school because of Labor Day. So, on Tuesday, we met in the trailer, and I brought brownies to share with everyone. In each class, somone asked, "Miss, why are we getting brownies today?" I told them, "You're getting brownies because I am so proud of each of you for working hard on your research projects." This made them very happy, and it did make them feel good about the work they've done. Before I gave them the brownies (while I still had their attention!), we did a quick review about citations. I wrote 3 citations on the board, leaving 6-8 mistakes in each of them. The students had to copy the citations onto their paper, and correct the mistakes. We worked together to correct them on the board. This was good because I saw that many of the students were still confused about when to used quotations or underline for titles.

Tuesday was a different story... it was a bad day. Many of the students were unfocused, were in a bad mood, or were just plain lazy. Today was their last day in the computer lab to work on their presentations. I was thinking about booking another day for them to be in the lab, but then I had second thoughts. No. If they still aren't finished after I've given them plenty of time to work, they'll need to finish on their own time. Yes! It was so liberating to set my mind on putting the responsibility on the student (where it should be!). I'm not going to give as many chances or be as sympathetic to students who don't get their work done. That just takes up too much of my time and energy, and makes them think it's OK to slack off.

Today was a much better day. For my LA classes, I gave my students an MLA Citations Review of 25 questions. There were different sections where students had to identify the correct citation, answer True/False questions about MLA format, fix incorrect citations, and label the parts of a citation. It was interesting to see how much they've learned from our research project. They had to complete the review quietly and independently first, and then we went over it as a class. I heard one student say to himself, "This is a good review." That made me happy. What I really liked, though, was when most students got a question incorrect, they wanted to know what the right answer was and WHY it was the right answer. I love that! To make sure I called on them randomly, I put all of their names on popsicle sticks, and picked the sticks out of a cup. It's so funny how quiet the room gets right before I pick a stick. Everyone waits to hear their name. :) It was a lot more fun than I planned.

Tomorrow, I want to start giving the students tips on how to give a professional presentations. I want to show them example cue cards, and show them how to used a PowerPoint slide show effectively as PART of the presentation. The focus, they need to understand, should be on the speaker and not the slide show. I'm not sure how best to convey this to them....

In my LDC IV classes, the students worked on a review of 9 sets of questions over Chapters 1-8 of Tuck Everlasting. I could tell which students had been paying attention, and which ones were clueless. One of my students, K____, actually fell asleep with his earphones in his ears during reading time on Monday! When I handed him the review, he just sat there and stared at it for about 15 minutes. When I noticed him, I told him it would be better to go back and read what he missed on Monday. Most of the students did pretty well in refering back to the book to find answers to the questions. I included the page numbers where they could find the answers, but they had to do the rest themselves.

Finishing up the Final Draft

Today was the last day that my LA students had to work on the final drafts of their papers. As they finished, I went around and had a "mini writing conference" with each of them like I used to in the Writing Center at GSU: one of us read the paper out loud, while we stopped to make changes to punctuation or word choice. We also discussed why we made those changes. This was a focus on the lower-order concerns of a paper. The higher-order concerns (organization, thesis statements, transitions and topic sentences, citations...) were already addressed in the students' outlines and rough drafts. So, once I came around and read a student's paper one last time on the computer screen, he or she had to print a final copy to turn in as part of the research packet due tomorrow.

In the research packet, the students must include:

1. KWL (complete the "L" first)
2. All of the articles/websites used in essay
3. Notecards
4. Outline
5. Both rough drafts
6. Final draft
7. Works cited page

From what I've seen, most of them will be ready to turn in everything tomorrow! There will be a few behind, but I am so proud that most of them were able to keep up. I should do something special for them on Tuesday when we get back from Labor Day. I want them to know that they should be proud of themselves for completing such a big assignment, and that they shouldn't just do assignments to make their teachers happy.

Next week, my LA students will be working on their presentations of their research projects. We'll have some extra time, so I really would like to teach them how to present professionally. In other workds, teach them how to prepare note cards, practice their presentation so they don't have to read their note cards, and then present the information to the audience while keeping eye contact. For most students, a presentation is just reading the information from the PPT slides. I want to try to teach them to be better than that.

For my LDC students, today was Speaking Day, and they did some exercises so I could hear each student's pronunciation of different words and letters. I have some lists of minimal pairs (eat-it, neat-knit, beat-bit, etc.) that each pair of students practiced reading out loud to each other. They were able to ask me or each other how a word or words are pronounced. Then, each student stood in front of class and read their list of minimal pairs aloud. As they read, I made notes next to the words that were mispronounced.

After that, we went over the worksheet they completed yesterday on present perfect tense. I have all of their names written on popsicle sticks, and I chose a student at random. That student had to read aloud the next question and answer on the worksheet. If he or she got the answer wrong, I asked for volunteers to help. The students made corrections to their worksheets as we went through each question. Today in LDC IV, the students spoke and heard ONLY English for about 70% of the period. That is a good day. About 1/2 the class is Korean, and the other 1/2 is Hispanic, so as soon as they get the chance, they revert back to their native language (L1) to speak to each other. It's extremely hard to prevent this. I've not yet become as hard as some teachers who write their students up every time they say a word in their L1. Sometimes, teachers will deduct points from students daily grades for speaking in their L1. ...I'm just not that kind of teacher. I think there must be a better way. I think, if I give them activities and assignments that make them use English while they enjoy doing the work, that would be much more effective than punishing them for using their L1.

Putting It All Together

I told my language arts students on Monday how proud I am of them for working so hard on these research projects. I was flying high all weekend because most of them are up to date with all of the checkpoints in the process. I know that there are a combination of factors that are attributing to their success, but I really do think that doing this project at the beginning of the school year rather than the end has had a huge effect. Their minds aren't yet fatigued, I'm still energetic enough to bounce around and help each student, and we all still have patience enough to work through lapses in comprehension rather than just give up.

After I told them how pround I am of them, I also told them that THIS is the most difficult part: putting together the research with their own ideas to create an essay. If they give it a few days of hard work and focus, though, it will be over soon enough. This seemed to take off some of the pressure that overwhelmed them.

I read through their rough drafts Monday night, and many of them are still having problems with citing their sources. Either they cited nothing at all, or they did it incorrectly. I was careful to edit as much as I could to help them correct these mistakes (and others). I also showed them some examples on the board, and gave them a handout from our Media Center's website that shows correct MLA in-text citations. More of them seemed to understand after receiving the information in three more ways.

During class on Tuesday, I handed back the students' rough drafts (bleeding red from all of the comments I'd made), and instructed them to write a second rough draft, using my comments and corrections as a guide. I told them to go slowly--sentence by sentence--to make sure they corrected everything and made all necessary changes. This gave them the opportunity to improve and revise their work and ask me questions if needed. I used to hand back the rough draft, and say "OK, now use your rough draft and my comments to type your final draft." I found, however, that students often got hung up on making their corrections on their final draft. It was too much pressure or they knew they were almost done and didn't care as much...I don't know exactly. I do know that having them hand write their second rough draft made it a much more meaningful exercise to them. They were focused on improving, and that's what I wanted for them.

Today, Wednesday, we were in the computer lab so the students could type their final drafts. I'd already given them my example essay on teen dropouts in correct MLA format, so I told them to look at that to set up the format of their own papers. Most of them needed help with the header and double spacing, but then their fingers were flying around on the keyboards, typing their final drafts.

I am also practicing writing with my LDC IV students. I've introduced them to chunck paragraph writing, and it is going well! The first time was rough. Most of them didn't quite get it. Yesterday was much better, though! They turned in very nice paragraphs in response to two topics I gave them which were related to the chapters we'd read on Monday from Tuck Everlasting. Today is grammar day for them, and tomorrow is speaking day. I really would like to find some speaking activities that helps improve their pronunciation. I have a couple of Korean boys, and a couple of Hispanic girls who still don't pronounce their English words very well. I want to find some verbal exercises they could do here and at home to strengthen their pronunciation...sort of a Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle experiment. :)

Quote of the Day (Tuesday):
"S____, these paragraphs are awesome!"
"Thanks, Miss! Remember when I first wrote a paragraph for you and you said that it was horrible?"
"I didn't say 'horrible.'"
"You did! See?" (She shows me her paper with my red letters: "This is horrible!")
"...Oh."
"It's OK, Miss. I'd rather my teacher tells me my writing is horrible than to keep being dumb. Now I'm getting better!"

Quote of the Day (Wednesday):
A____ asked me: "Ms. Greene, if I type 'this situation damaged their reputation,' how do I spell reputation?"
I began, "R-"
"Oh wait," he said excitedly, "I just remembered how inside of my own brain. Thanks anyway."