As the students take their Gateway exams this week, I feel relieved to be done with the preparation for them. I honestly lost sleep over worrying about whether I was teaching them enough and giving them enough practice to do well. From what the students told me, their science and social studies teachers thought it sufficed to give the students 1 practice Gateway prompt the week before the test. They didn't even practice together - the students recieved the assignment and had to complete the essay. Which means (as always), the other core area teachers are relying on the language arts teachers to teach the majority of the test-taking skills. That's not OK, but I've accepted it as reality. Therefore, to follow up on the work my SOPH LA students did on their whole group essay (the one we wrote together on the overhead), I had them work individually on an essay to practice and refine those skills.
First, I gave them their new practice Science Gateway topic and a handout of the work we'd previously completed together. Then, each day, I asked them to complete a portion of the Gateway process on their own. Monday, they had to complete an outline of the topic they chose. Tuesday, they had to complete an introduction and 1st body paragraph; Wednesday-their 2nd and 3rd body paragraphs; and Thursday-their conclusion, Gateway Checklist, and final draft. On Friday, we used a rubric to peer review and comment on each other's essays.
This process was great! The students asked so many great questions, helped each other, and improved so much in such a short time. On their peer review rubrics, a couple of students even wrote comments like, "You did a great job, and I actually learned some things from reading your essay!" I am so proud of them all for working so hard, and the cool thing is that they actually seemed to enjoy being pushed to write well on difficult topics! No one complained about our prep work being "too hard," or "too much work." They were determined to do well, and I constantly reminded them that failure was not even an option. :)
I know that teaching my students to write chunk paragraphs and giving them so much practice was key to them learning to write a Gateway essay so quickly. Next year, I think I will introduce the chunk paragraphs at the beginning of the year, and will try to require a document-based essay for each unit. ...Of course I say that now, but it's always so hard to fit in everything we need to do.
The students have taken the Science/LA Gateway and will take the Social Studies/LA test tomorrow. Overall, they have told me that the practice we did in class really helped them on their tests. They said:
1.) They thought about me repeating "Hook, Background, Thesis" when writing their introduction paragraphs.
2.) Even if they didn't completely understand the topic, they remembered how I showed them how to highlight key words in the Scenario, Task, and Bullet points, and to use those key words to help them write their introduction.
3.) Writing the thesis was easy because they thought about using the Bullet points to create the main idea of their essays.
4.) They felt like they new exactly how to organize their essays so it made sense and flowed well.
To me, this is the best part of my job. The students rarely ever say "thank you" for teaching them something, but when they are excited to tell me that they thought of my class or something I said while they were completing their test, I know I did my job well. :)
I only wish I recieved results from these tests, too. I'd like to know how many of my students passed and how many failed. If they failed, I want to know why they failed so I know if I need to alter or abandon my strategies. I want my students to do well, but I also need to be told if they are doing well if I am going to be the best teacher I can be. Who do I talk to about that???
_________________________________________
My JR LA students have been introduced to Of Mice and Men, and (only one chapter in) they are already in love. I read each chapter aloud to them, and I do different voices for the characters: slow and high for Lenny, short and gruff for George, etc. The students laugh out loud at the funny parts and mummble audible "Aww's" when George is mean to Lenny. It's great. :)
Some of my JR LA students are also in my SOPH LA class, so they were Gateway testing yesterday. A couple of students stopped by my room at the end of the day yesterday and asked if we had read Chapter 2 in class while they were testing. When I said no, they were so happy and said they were wondering what will happen once George and Lenny get to the new ranch. I love teaching this novel....
Moment that Made me Smile:
R____, who I taught last year for LDC II (level 2 English Language), was hanging out in my trailer in between classes. He looked at my poster of Subordinating Conjuntions and asked, "Miss, what is a subornitating conjunshion?"
"A subordinating conjunction usually starts the dependent clause of a sentence."
His face became concentrated and his eyes focused while he thought. "And, a dependent clause can come at either the beginning or end of a sentence. Right?"
"Good, R____! Where did you learn that?" I was so excited that a level 3 English student would know such a thing!
"Um.... Lemme see. Ms. W___? No. She don't talk about grammar. Hmm... I think you, Miss. You taught me last year." He smiled.
"Well, then I'm very proud of you for remembering! That's impressive!" I beamed back.
He laughed and humbly but matter-of-factly said, "I know, Miss. I have to do my best because I want to go to college."
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Gateway Prep and Prufrock Talk
For those of you who are not high school teachers in Gwinnett County, let me explain: the Gateway is a document-based essay exam given to all sophomore students. The test is given in three subject areas, and the tests are categorized as Social Studies/Langauge Arts and Science/Language Arts. The two essay exams are given on two separate days (Tues and Thurs). As you can see, the students are graded on their LA skills twice. Now, with as much writing as we do in LA, most students pass these portions of the tests with no problem. The only time my ESOL students have issues is when their English skills are still lower than expected for Sophomore students. Most students also pass the SS portion without much trouble. It is the Science portion that gives many students headaches. For many of them, it is difficult to write about science.
Thus, in my SOPH LA class, we are in the middle of Gateway prep. I actually enjoy teaching this unit because it's basically a culmination of everything I've been teaching the students about writing all year. So, it's cool to see all of their work come to fruition as they work on practice prompts, group-work essays, and individual-work essays. For the past week, we've been working on a group-work SC/LA practice test that has to do with Biology ("The Ecosystem and Food Webs"). I'm taking them through the entire process of Gateway testing. We began by looking through and reading the entire test (the students are given a scenario, 2 writing task choices with bullet-point topics, and a variety of documents to use as concrete detail), then we brainstormed in outline form how much they collectively new about both writing tasks so they could see how to visually assess which topic choice would be the best for them. Afterward, we reviewed the format of an introduction paragraph and got started with our writing!
I'm trying something new this year: as we group-write this essay, I'm projecting everything they do on the overhead screen from my laptop. That way, as students call out sentence ideas, revisions, or and questions, they see every change and every addition. Every day, they learn something new about what to do and what not to do. Plus, they are seeing the importance of revision...something they previously thought was the same as editing. I'm finding that it's one thing to tell students how to write well, but it's a whole other thing to show them how to write well. Of course, the success of this activity is yet to be seen, but I already feel confident in saying this is something I should continue to do in years to come.
The thing that makes this successful, in my opinion, is that I give students sufficient "wait time" as they are processing the Gateway topic, the information in their test packet, and what I say to them. If I ask them to think of a topic sentence for the first body paragraph, and to look to their thesis statement and writing task information for help, I'm not afraid to give them 1-2 minutes of wait time to get their thoughts in order. In our education classes, you know they always tell us how important wait time is, and it is so true! Many times, if students are silent, teachers think they need to fill the quiet with extra explanation or rephrasing. On the contrary, students often need us to just quiet down to let them think. :) It is the greatest feeling to set my students up with a task, give them a little bit of direction, and watch them come up with the answers or solutions themselves! When I know they can do it on their own, I know I have done my job.
...Not to leave out my JR LA class, today we began our study of T.S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Modernism is my absolute favorite literary period, and my students are always shocked to learn that it's the darkness, dispair, and disconnectedness that draws me to it. "But Miss, you are so nice! Why do you like such depressing things?" LOL I have no idea! To me, though, Eliot is tops. Once my students know that I would name my first-born Eliot (with one L, of course), they know that they better respect the poet's work.
To take them through "Prufrock," I give them two documents: a copy of the text and a handout that walks them through explicating the work stanza by stanza. On the copy of the text (by the way, yes, it is in their textbook; but you can't really study Eliot without marking up his texts!), they highlight and take notes on the imagery, simile, symbolism, and vocabulary he uses. This helps them better understand how the tenets of Modernism are exceptionally represented in this poem. On the handout, we answer questions about the text together.
Students are always overwhelmed by Eliot when they are first introduced to his work. So, it's always a bit of a bumpy start. By the end of explicating the first stanza, though, most of them are hooked and are taken in by the genius of this man's style. Of course, that always makes me very happy. :)
Student-Teacher Conversation:
"If there were any author who I would marry because of his genius, it would be Eliot."
"Miss, didn't you say that already about Langston Hughes?"
"No, D__. I have a crush on Mr. Langston Hughes, but that's different."
"Yeah right, Miss. You just say that every time so we'll treat the literature with respect. That's what you say right? 'I love this author's work, so treat it with respect.'"
"That's definitely what I say, D__. I'm glad you remember it." :)
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Can We Read More Stories Like This?
This is the question I was asked today during 3rd period JR LA. We are in the middle of A Raisin in the Sun, and the students are loving it! I don't have to give instruction to take out their books or force students to read lines...they are all one step ahead of me by taking out their books when the bell rings, calling out the page number to each other for where we stopped reading the previous day, and volunteering (sometimes a little TOO insistently) to read lines for their favorite characters.
The language of the play is simple enough that I don't need to explain much to my ESOL students. They keep up with the dialogue, and there's actually been quite a bit of laughter during the exchanges between characters. Sometimes, I'm surprised that the students are paying close enough attention to get some of the more subtle comments, but they are!
A couple of days ago, I picked up the made-for-TV version of the play. I watched it a few years ago when it first aired on ABC, and it was a decent production. The women were strong and convincing, but P. Diddy did not pull off Walter's character, in my opinion. Anyhow, I asked the students: "Would you like to read Act I and watch the video of that part, then read Act II and watch it, or would you rather just read through the play and watch the movie afterward?" The decision was unanimous: "No, Miss, the movie will ruin it! Let's read it all first and then watch." I was floored....
I haven't done anything special to teach the book. We're reading it in conjunction with our study of Langston Hughes's poetry (with particular attention, of course, to "Dream Deferred"), but we're simply reading, answering some discussion questions, talking about the characters' motives and feelings, and taking a test in the end. The students will probably write a short essay to expand on the themes of the play, but other than those things, the characters and words are what make this piece so easy to teach. The students truly connect to it, and that is a wonderful event to witness.
As for my SOPH LA classes, we are completing our study of Inferno this week. The students say they have enjoyed reading this text and appreciate that Dante would have such vision and imagination to create such places in his literature. There are only a few Cantos in our textbook, and we only read Cantos I, III, and XXXIV; but I also gave the students a tour of the entire Inferno as I discussed in my previous post. As we read each Canto, I put up on the overhead projector "reading check," "literary analisis," "critical viewing," and "critical analysis" questions which I have taken from the margins of the textbooks. We'll read a section of the Canto, I'll summarize what has happened or what was said, and then we'll answer these overhead questions together. The students have not once complained about copying these questions and answers. In fact, they are asking questions, adding comments, correcting each other, making literary or historical references, and making jokes as we analyze the Canto.
After we finish reading the Canto and the discussion questions, the students answer certain "Review and Assess" questions from their texts. These they have to do on their own because they require deeper thought, and I want them to challenge themselves. We go over them together, though, and peer grade their work.
This Friday, the students will write chunk paragraphs about a topic related to Inferno. This will be part of their test on this unit. On Monday, they will take a 50-question multiple choice test to complete the assessment. After that, we'll get to work on a practice Gateway Exam (with a focus on medieval life). Then, the last few days before Spring Break, I think I'll reward the students with a viewing of What Dreams May Come, a film that uses some of the ideas of the afterlife and punishment from The Divine Comedy.
Quote of the Day:
"Mrs. Greene, it's hotter than the 8th circle of hell in here! Could we turn on the A.C. please?" Yay! Literary jokes! :) This student was one of my lowest performers last semester, but with Julius Caesar and Inferno this semester, he has been on top of his game and has a high B in my class now!
The language of the play is simple enough that I don't need to explain much to my ESOL students. They keep up with the dialogue, and there's actually been quite a bit of laughter during the exchanges between characters. Sometimes, I'm surprised that the students are paying close enough attention to get some of the more subtle comments, but they are!
A couple of days ago, I picked up the made-for-TV version of the play. I watched it a few years ago when it first aired on ABC, and it was a decent production. The women were strong and convincing, but P. Diddy did not pull off Walter's character, in my opinion. Anyhow, I asked the students: "Would you like to read Act I and watch the video of that part, then read Act II and watch it, or would you rather just read through the play and watch the movie afterward?" The decision was unanimous: "No, Miss, the movie will ruin it! Let's read it all first and then watch." I was floored....
I haven't done anything special to teach the book. We're reading it in conjunction with our study of Langston Hughes's poetry (with particular attention, of course, to "Dream Deferred"), but we're simply reading, answering some discussion questions, talking about the characters' motives and feelings, and taking a test in the end. The students will probably write a short essay to expand on the themes of the play, but other than those things, the characters and words are what make this piece so easy to teach. The students truly connect to it, and that is a wonderful event to witness.
As for my SOPH LA classes, we are completing our study of Inferno this week. The students say they have enjoyed reading this text and appreciate that Dante would have such vision and imagination to create such places in his literature. There are only a few Cantos in our textbook, and we only read Cantos I, III, and XXXIV; but I also gave the students a tour of the entire Inferno as I discussed in my previous post. As we read each Canto, I put up on the overhead projector "reading check," "literary analisis," "critical viewing," and "critical analysis" questions which I have taken from the margins of the textbooks. We'll read a section of the Canto, I'll summarize what has happened or what was said, and then we'll answer these overhead questions together. The students have not once complained about copying these questions and answers. In fact, they are asking questions, adding comments, correcting each other, making literary or historical references, and making jokes as we analyze the Canto.
After we finish reading the Canto and the discussion questions, the students answer certain "Review and Assess" questions from their texts. These they have to do on their own because they require deeper thought, and I want them to challenge themselves. We go over them together, though, and peer grade their work.
This Friday, the students will write chunk paragraphs about a topic related to Inferno. This will be part of their test on this unit. On Monday, they will take a 50-question multiple choice test to complete the assessment. After that, we'll get to work on a practice Gateway Exam (with a focus on medieval life). Then, the last few days before Spring Break, I think I'll reward the students with a viewing of What Dreams May Come, a film that uses some of the ideas of the afterlife and punishment from The Divine Comedy.
Quote of the Day:
"Mrs. Greene, it's hotter than the 8th circle of hell in here! Could we turn on the A.C. please?" Yay! Literary jokes! :) This student was one of my lowest performers last semester, but with Julius Caesar and Inferno this semester, he has been on top of his game and has a high B in my class now!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Hell and Harlem
This past week was a lot of fun for me! I think it was fun for my students as well. For my SOPH LIT class, I introduced them to Dante and his Inferno. First, I asked them to look at the "Prepare to Read" page in their textbooks that gives information about the author and work, and they used a cluster graphic organizer to take notes on these two topics. After that, the students had to answer 7 anticipation questions so that I could gauge their background knowledge of some of the themes and motifs.
Through these anticipations questions, I found that most of my students had no knowledge of the "7 Deadly Sins." So, the next day, we spent class time talking about these deadly sins: what they mean, what they are also known as, and how these seemingly natural human responses and actions (anger, hunger, lust) could become so intense that they would be considered sinful. The students were very interested in this discussion and asked great questions! After this, we only had about 10 minutes of class time left, so I showed them the first few slides of my "Journey through the Inferno" PowerPoint slide show (on which I'd worked for 6 hours last weekend!). Through these slides, the students were introduced to the main characters, Limbo, River Ascheron, and boat-keeper Charon.
On Wed and Thurs, I took my students through the rest of the slide show. As they learned, they had to take notes on a handout I entitled "Highway through Hell." I listed each Circle, Ditch, and Ring in the Inferno, and the students had to take notes about what type of sin landed a soul in that particular level, what their punishment is, and who some of that level's residents are. They didn't complain ONCE about the notes! In fact, while they were taking notes, they were asking questions and making comments. It was a lot of fun (and well worth the 6 hours of prep)!
On Friday, we read the version of Canto I that appears in our Reader's Companion workbook. This has a combination of original translated text and paraphrased sections, so it's a little easier to read. This allowed the students to focus on learning and practicing the important concepts of interpreting allegory and identifying magery. They said that they would prefer to read the entire original translated text out of the textbook than reading these adapted versions. ...Of course, they'll get that chance next week as we continue our study.
In my JR LA class, we finally began our study of the Harlem Renaissance. On Monday, I started us off with a PowerPoint show of the history, people, and culture of this period. I printed a handout with blanks where key words or phrases are in the original slide show, and the students took notes as we went through the slides. They enjoyed and had many questions and comments about the visual arts that I included in the show. Toward the end of the presentation, I mentioned that jazz and blues were key music styles during this time, and found that some of my students were familiar with jazz, but none of them knew the blues! I had to remedy this....
On Tuesday, I brought in some songs performed by Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. All of them were recorded live performances, and I told the students to imagine being inside of the Cotton Club (they'd seen pics of this club during the slide show on Monday) while we listened to them. After these songs, I played some contemporary examples of jazz and blues songs (of course I had to introduce them to my beloved blues!) so they could hear how music evolved in 40-60 years. After we listened to the music, we read "The Tropics of New York" by Claude McKay and discussed the tone and theme of the poem.
Wednesday through Friday, we studied the poetry of Langston Hughes (some of my favorites!). We discussed how Hughes uses words to capture the rythm and spirit of Harlem in "Juke Box Love Song;" and how the themes of hope, pride, and disappointment are apparent in poems like "Harlem," "Dream Deferred," "I, Too," and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." With each poem, I stressed that Hughes's poems were short, but he packed SO MUCH meaning and heart into every line. With that in mind, we explicated each poem, getting closer to the heart of meaning for each one. The students enjoyed this and appreciated the Hughes's depth. For homework, each student had to choose one of these poems and write a contemporary version of it that was applicable to his or her life experiences. I expected resistance to this assignment, but they were all eager to get started. I even showed them my own version of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers":
"The Woman Speaks of Trees"
by Ms. Bobbie Greene
I have known trees:
I’ve known trees as ancient as the sound of the waves and older than the gray, granite rock of the mountains.
My soul has grown deep like the roots of the trees.
I climbed the sycamore when the stars were young.
I built a fort in an old walnut and it protected me from the storms.
I looked upon the massive roots of the banyan that seemed to hold up the clouds above.
I heard a coconut fall from a palm as the black earth baked in the early summer sunshine and the salty breeze cooled the herons in their canopy-top nests.
I’ve known trees:
Ancient, mossy trees.
My soul has grown deep like the roots of the trees.
Through these anticipations questions, I found that most of my students had no knowledge of the "7 Deadly Sins." So, the next day, we spent class time talking about these deadly sins: what they mean, what they are also known as, and how these seemingly natural human responses and actions (anger, hunger, lust) could become so intense that they would be considered sinful. The students were very interested in this discussion and asked great questions! After this, we only had about 10 minutes of class time left, so I showed them the first few slides of my "Journey through the Inferno" PowerPoint slide show (on which I'd worked for 6 hours last weekend!). Through these slides, the students were introduced to the main characters, Limbo, River Ascheron, and boat-keeper Charon.
On Wed and Thurs, I took my students through the rest of the slide show. As they learned, they had to take notes on a handout I entitled "Highway through Hell." I listed each Circle, Ditch, and Ring in the Inferno, and the students had to take notes about what type of sin landed a soul in that particular level, what their punishment is, and who some of that level's residents are. They didn't complain ONCE about the notes! In fact, while they were taking notes, they were asking questions and making comments. It was a lot of fun (and well worth the 6 hours of prep)!
On Friday, we read the version of Canto I that appears in our Reader's Companion workbook. This has a combination of original translated text and paraphrased sections, so it's a little easier to read. This allowed the students to focus on learning and practicing the important concepts of interpreting allegory and identifying magery. They said that they would prefer to read the entire original translated text out of the textbook than reading these adapted versions. ...Of course, they'll get that chance next week as we continue our study.
In my JR LA class, we finally began our study of the Harlem Renaissance. On Monday, I started us off with a PowerPoint show of the history, people, and culture of this period. I printed a handout with blanks where key words or phrases are in the original slide show, and the students took notes as we went through the slides. They enjoyed and had many questions and comments about the visual arts that I included in the show. Toward the end of the presentation, I mentioned that jazz and blues were key music styles during this time, and found that some of my students were familiar with jazz, but none of them knew the blues! I had to remedy this....
On Tuesday, I brought in some songs performed by Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. All of them were recorded live performances, and I told the students to imagine being inside of the Cotton Club (they'd seen pics of this club during the slide show on Monday) while we listened to them. After these songs, I played some contemporary examples of jazz and blues songs (of course I had to introduce them to my beloved blues!) so they could hear how music evolved in 40-60 years. After we listened to the music, we read "The Tropics of New York" by Claude McKay and discussed the tone and theme of the poem.
Wednesday through Friday, we studied the poetry of Langston Hughes (some of my favorites!). We discussed how Hughes uses words to capture the rythm and spirit of Harlem in "Juke Box Love Song;" and how the themes of hope, pride, and disappointment are apparent in poems like "Harlem," "Dream Deferred," "I, Too," and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." With each poem, I stressed that Hughes's poems were short, but he packed SO MUCH meaning and heart into every line. With that in mind, we explicated each poem, getting closer to the heart of meaning for each one. The students enjoyed this and appreciated the Hughes's depth. For homework, each student had to choose one of these poems and write a contemporary version of it that was applicable to his or her life experiences. I expected resistance to this assignment, but they were all eager to get started. I even showed them my own version of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers":
"The Woman Speaks of Trees"
by Ms. Bobbie Greene
I have known trees:
I’ve known trees as ancient as the sound of the waves and older than the gray, granite rock of the mountains.
My soul has grown deep like the roots of the trees.
I climbed the sycamore when the stars were young.
I built a fort in an old walnut and it protected me from the storms.
I looked upon the massive roots of the banyan that seemed to hold up the clouds above.
I heard a coconut fall from a palm as the black earth baked in the early summer sunshine and the salty breeze cooled the herons in their canopy-top nests.
I’ve known trees:
Ancient, mossy trees.
My soul has grown deep like the roots of the trees.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
I've Been Displaced
At the beginning of this week, all teachers received notice that there would be personnel cuts in many of our county's schools. On Wednesday, I found out that I would be one of the teachers to be involuntarily displaced. They do not have enough students to justify keeping me and 20 other teachers on staff, so we are being sent to other schools to fill open positions. I am not angry about this development...I am mostly stressed out that my job status is relatively uncertain at present, and I am sad to be leaving the people here.
This school has been a wonderful place for me to grow and improve as a teacher. I received my SIOP Model training here, I've had the opportunity to teach new material, I've had more support than I could have hoped for, and I've had resources (adapted versions of texts, a wonderful Media Center, awesome suggestions from other teachers) that have made all the difference in my teaching.
With this weighing on my mind, though, I still have a job to do. Today in SOPH LA, we played Julius Caesar Jeopardy. It's always fun to see how competitive the students get when it comes to winning extra credit points for their test. It always happens that the losing team sees how far they are behind the winning team, so they kind of give up on trying to answer the questions. So, one of my students suggested that we have the "Double Jeopardy" question next time on which the teams can wager as many of their points as they want...so the losing team still has hope that they may come out ahead. Great idea! Why didn't I think of that before? See...even as teachers, we are always learning. :) Tomorrow, the students will take their Julius Caesar test, and next week they have to present their projects for this unit. After that, we get to start our unit on Medieval Lit and Dante's Inferno! I already have some great ideas for helping the students understand the content and language of this piece, and a friend shared a project idea to really immurse the students in Dante's hell. Exciting stuff!
In my JR LA class, we read "The Story of an Hour" yesterday. We had some great discussions as we read the story bit by bit. The students asked so many questions and had great ideas when it came to analysing the images and irony in the story. Today, they answered some comprehension and critical thinking questions about the story; tomorrow they will write an essay to defend this story as a work of Realism based on 3 tenants: a) realities of everyday life, b) illusion vs. reality, and c) how society and environment affect individuals. They aren't going to like the fact that they have to write an essay, but that's just too bad. :) Next week, we'll finish Realism and start on the Harlem Renaissance! Yay!
The stress of being displaced is definitely weighing on my mind, but I know that these students still need me right now. I have to do what's best for them. As long as I keep that in mind, it will all turn out alright in the end.
This school has been a wonderful place for me to grow and improve as a teacher. I received my SIOP Model training here, I've had the opportunity to teach new material, I've had more support than I could have hoped for, and I've had resources (adapted versions of texts, a wonderful Media Center, awesome suggestions from other teachers) that have made all the difference in my teaching.
With this weighing on my mind, though, I still have a job to do. Today in SOPH LA, we played Julius Caesar Jeopardy. It's always fun to see how competitive the students get when it comes to winning extra credit points for their test. It always happens that the losing team sees how far they are behind the winning team, so they kind of give up on trying to answer the questions. So, one of my students suggested that we have the "Double Jeopardy" question next time on which the teams can wager as many of their points as they want...so the losing team still has hope that they may come out ahead. Great idea! Why didn't I think of that before? See...even as teachers, we are always learning. :) Tomorrow, the students will take their Julius Caesar test, and next week they have to present their projects for this unit. After that, we get to start our unit on Medieval Lit and Dante's Inferno! I already have some great ideas for helping the students understand the content and language of this piece, and a friend shared a project idea to really immurse the students in Dante's hell. Exciting stuff!
In my JR LA class, we read "The Story of an Hour" yesterday. We had some great discussions as we read the story bit by bit. The students asked so many questions and had great ideas when it came to analysing the images and irony in the story. Today, they answered some comprehension and critical thinking questions about the story; tomorrow they will write an essay to defend this story as a work of Realism based on 3 tenants: a) realities of everyday life, b) illusion vs. reality, and c) how society and environment affect individuals. They aren't going to like the fact that they have to write an essay, but that's just too bad. :) Next week, we'll finish Realism and start on the Harlem Renaissance! Yay!
The stress of being displaced is definitely weighing on my mind, but I know that these students still need me right now. I have to do what's best for them. As long as I keep that in mind, it will all turn out alright in the end.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Oh, I teach JR LA, too!
In all of my excitement about how enjoyable, productive, and necessary it has been to teach Julius Caesar to my SOPH LA classes, I've been neglecting my reflection of my JR LA classes. (By the way, I have a serious pile of papers on my desk that needs to be graded, but I can't grade when my mind is racing, so it's just going to have to wait. I'm hoping that blogging will help me focus.) Anyhow, in JR LA, we are in the middle of our unit on Realism. During this unit, we study African-American slave spirituals, Frederick Douglass, The Red Badge of Courage (an adapted text), Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Jack London, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
I love, love, love teaching the African-American spirituals. My students do a mini-research webquest to learn about key abolitionists, different routes of the Underground Railroad (which they draw and color-code on a map), secret messages in the spirituals themselves, and quilt codes that slaves used as another means of communicating secret messages. They fill in their webquest packets as they learn all of this. I even have MP3's of various spirituals in my folder on the school's network so they can all hear the different spirituals we study. (Some of them sing the spirituals for days afterward, which is always cute!). At the end of the project, each student must make his/her own quilt square out of construction paper of one of the slave codes they studied. When they bring them in, I display them all on the wall for our own "quilt," as a reminder of what we learned.
I use Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" to teach elements of Realism like regional culture/dialect, racism vs. social progress, the affect of society and environment on an individual, and illusion vs. reality; but I don't especially enjoy teaching them. Those are the works we are studying right now. I'm taking a break from the literature, though, to show my students the film Glory (one of my all-time favorites), during which they must take notes on examples from the movie of the 7 different characteristics of Realism that we've been studying. As we read The Red Badge of Courage, it became clear that my students (all immigrants) have almost no background knowledge of the American Civil War (save what they learned and actually remember from their U.S. History class). I'm hoping that this film will help to bridge the gap. Next year, I may show it before we read the story.
What I am REALLY looking foward to is teaching Dunbar's poetry. I do a lot with his poem "We Wear the Mask," and I always have my students write their own "I Wear a Mask" poems. From there, we will jump forward a bit and begin our study of the Harlem Renaissance! Just as I was so excited to NOT have Benchmark Exams for my SOPH LA class, the same is true of my JR LA class. This year, I will actually have the time to teach A Rasin in the Sun during our Harlem Renaissance unit. I've never taught it, so it's going to add some pressure on me, but I think it will be well worth it. :)
A note about my SOPH LA class: we're finishing reading Julius Caesar this week. Then, we'll have 2 weeks of a test, a project, an essay, and (maybe) a film. After that, it will be time for Dante's Inferno, which I've also never taught before. I want to do an intro webquest project so the students can learn about the set-up of hell before we actually start reading the Cantos. More work, I know, but very exciting!
I love, love, love teaching the African-American spirituals. My students do a mini-research webquest to learn about key abolitionists, different routes of the Underground Railroad (which they draw and color-code on a map), secret messages in the spirituals themselves, and quilt codes that slaves used as another means of communicating secret messages. They fill in their webquest packets as they learn all of this. I even have MP3's of various spirituals in my folder on the school's network so they can all hear the different spirituals we study. (Some of them sing the spirituals for days afterward, which is always cute!). At the end of the project, each student must make his/her own quilt square out of construction paper of one of the slave codes they studied. When they bring them in, I display them all on the wall for our own "quilt," as a reminder of what we learned.
I use Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" to teach elements of Realism like regional culture/dialect, racism vs. social progress, the affect of society and environment on an individual, and illusion vs. reality; but I don't especially enjoy teaching them. Those are the works we are studying right now. I'm taking a break from the literature, though, to show my students the film Glory (one of my all-time favorites), during which they must take notes on examples from the movie of the 7 different characteristics of Realism that we've been studying. As we read The Red Badge of Courage, it became clear that my students (all immigrants) have almost no background knowledge of the American Civil War (save what they learned and actually remember from their U.S. History class). I'm hoping that this film will help to bridge the gap. Next year, I may show it before we read the story.
What I am REALLY looking foward to is teaching Dunbar's poetry. I do a lot with his poem "We Wear the Mask," and I always have my students write their own "I Wear a Mask" poems. From there, we will jump forward a bit and begin our study of the Harlem Renaissance! Just as I was so excited to NOT have Benchmark Exams for my SOPH LA class, the same is true of my JR LA class. This year, I will actually have the time to teach A Rasin in the Sun during our Harlem Renaissance unit. I've never taught it, so it's going to add some pressure on me, but I think it will be well worth it. :)
A note about my SOPH LA class: we're finishing reading Julius Caesar this week. Then, we'll have 2 weeks of a test, a project, an essay, and (maybe) a film. After that, it will be time for Dante's Inferno, which I've also never taught before. I want to do an intro webquest project so the students can learn about the set-up of hell before we actually start reading the Cantos. More work, I know, but very exciting!
Funny Moment Today:
After a brief discussion about examples of figurative language (simile, hyperbole, metaphor, etc.), we moved on to the concept of diction. I explained that diction simply meant "word choice." A young man, Alan, raised his hand and said he still didn't understand.
"Well," I said. "Remember, to be persuasive, you must choose strong, direct words. You must also choose words to most effectively communicate your message. For instance, rather than saying, 'Alan is a good student,' I should say something like, 'Alan is an intelligent and focused student."
"Oh, Miss! I know!" A shout came from the other side of the room. "That's hyperbole!" :)
...It's a good day when students make literary device jokes.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
This is How Teaching is Supposed to Feel
Last semester, the Benchmark Exams that we must give per county orders were such bad tests and such horrible measures of student knowledge and skills that the county gave us a pass on the test this semester. Since my previous school was a "guinea pig" for the Benchmarks, this is actually my 5th year giving these tests. My current school only started giving them last year, so it's all still very new to most of the teachers. I thought I'd been well trained by my county (since I've never taught anywhere else, and don't know any better) to follow the pacing guides, reading schedules, reading lists, and testing schedule that they determined would be "best." Each year, I find myself feeling rushed, anxious, and frazzled in the attempt to kee up with the county's schedules. However, without the threat...er, deadline...of Benchmark Exams looming over my head, I'm finding that I actually enjoy coming to school, and am as excited as a first year teacher to teach lessons each day!
In past years, as I may have already written, I taught A Midsummer Night's Dream to my SOPH LA classes. This is the Shakespeare text that was chosen by the county as being best suited to sophomore students. According to the pacing calendar, I had to teach this play--and all AKS (our county's standards) associated with the unit--in about 3 weeks. Now, this might be possible if I taught Honors students who had the maturity, ability, and motivation to do some reading at home by themselves; but I teach ESOL and collab. CP, and these students are not going to (and often times CANNOT) read alone at home. So, everything we read, we must read together in class. It is impossible to teach a Shakespeare play this way in 3 weeks. So, I never had time to fully explain, practice extention activities, or assign end-of-the-unit projects. It was all too much.
This semester, though, we are on our 4th week of studying Julius Caesar (I've posted previously why I decided to do this play instead), and we are reading Act III, Scene 2 together today. The students are totally into it. They want to know how Antony will exact his revenge on the conspirators for the death of his beloved Caesar! I am under no pressure to hurry myself through the unit, and it is great. Even more wonderful, though, is that I'm making time to teach EVERYTHING I'm supposed to teach while we are reading this play: grammar with bell ringer Daily Oral Language activities; writing with weekly and bi-weekly chunk paragraphs based on topics that pertain to the scene we are currently reading in the play; literary terms like monologue, soliloquy, aside, stage directions, etc.; sonnets (an activity inspired by this lesson plan from Folger); persuasive techniques (activities inspired by 2 other Folger lesson plans); and a love for literature that these students have never known before. I think that's pretty amazing stuff.
In past years, as I may have already written, I taught A Midsummer Night's Dream to my SOPH LA classes. This is the Shakespeare text that was chosen by the county as being best suited to sophomore students. According to the pacing calendar, I had to teach this play--and all AKS (our county's standards) associated with the unit--in about 3 weeks. Now, this might be possible if I taught Honors students who had the maturity, ability, and motivation to do some reading at home by themselves; but I teach ESOL and collab. CP, and these students are not going to (and often times CANNOT) read alone at home. So, everything we read, we must read together in class. It is impossible to teach a Shakespeare play this way in 3 weeks. So, I never had time to fully explain, practice extention activities, or assign end-of-the-unit projects. It was all too much.
This semester, though, we are on our 4th week of studying Julius Caesar (I've posted previously why I decided to do this play instead), and we are reading Act III, Scene 2 together today. The students are totally into it. They want to know how Antony will exact his revenge on the conspirators for the death of his beloved Caesar! I am under no pressure to hurry myself through the unit, and it is great. Even more wonderful, though, is that I'm making time to teach EVERYTHING I'm supposed to teach while we are reading this play: grammar with bell ringer Daily Oral Language activities; writing with weekly and bi-weekly chunk paragraphs based on topics that pertain to the scene we are currently reading in the play; literary terms like monologue, soliloquy, aside, stage directions, etc.; sonnets (an activity inspired by this lesson plan from Folger); persuasive techniques (activities inspired by 2 other Folger lesson plans); and a love for literature that these students have never known before. I think that's pretty amazing stuff.
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