Cotton -- and Reparations

As I reflect on the increasing "downfalls" I'm observing in other teachers this year, I also recognize the increasing number of students who arrive to school carrying with them tremendous burdens.  Students are experiencing more and more ACEs (Adverse Childhood Effects) and socio-economic difficulties.  Poverty levels are on the rise.

How teachers interact with these students is crucial.

Recognize students as individuals.  Recognize their needs, their calls for help. 

And help them. 

If one cannot, find the proper channels to help the student -- and their family -- when needed.

But be firm.

When students act out and jeopardize the learning of others, respond with consequences.  More and more, students are acting out, yet the consequences in student handbooks are not realized.  This not only jeopardizes the student in need's ability to become healthy, but other learners' chances to learn.

Believe it or not, an administrator was overheard saying "Consequences do not yield results."  Twenty-plus "administrator conferences" do not either.  Students know how to push buttons, play the system.  We, as educators, need to figure out how to navigate through this and HELP them be healthy.  Otherwise, who are we really helping?  What are we really teaching?

It's been a little over a week since I last reflected.  This is my first week back to school since my back surgery (which put me out four weeks).  I am so glad to be back with my students.  Knowing that I teach 8th grade Literacy may make that statement sound like I'm nuts (which is the reaction I get when I tell people what/who I teach).  I am glad to be back. Why?

1.  Students are real people.  They have real problems and they are not shy about telling you all about them.  Or...they have real problems and WON'T tell me....and I learn more about myself through finding ways to help them with their life problems.  They make me a better me.

2.  Students are hilarious!  When I throw out the noise, the one misbehaved kid, the announcements that cut into teaching....I reflect on all the smiling and laughing  I do every day.  Whether it's something they said, a typo (lice instead of police), did, etc.  students are fun people to be around.  They do not have the responsibilities that come from being an adult yet.  And those that do -- I try to help them be kids again.  

3.  Students are challenging, and that is GOOD.  Seventy-five students, 75 different backgrounds, learning styles, ability levels, ACEs, SEL, etc.  Seventy-five reasons I have to figure out how to make learning fun, personalized, relevant, current.  Seventy-five ways (at least) that will help me become a better teacher, listener, coach, person. 

4. Students are teachers.  From them, I learn about funny YouTube videos, music groups, movies on Netflix, restaurants, etc.  They bring in their knowledge and pass it on.

5.  Students need me and I need them.  We make each other better.  Red Pollard, the jockey of Seabiscuit, said this about the horse: "You know, everybody thinks we found this broken-down horse and fixed him. But we didn't. He fixed us; every one of us. And I guess in a way, we kinda fixed each other too." The same could be said for many of my students.  Sometimes they are broken down -- by life, by ability, by things they can't control.  They are like Biscuit.  But if they have a heart -- and they do -- and I can find it -- then we can do something great together.  I've often thought about writing a book comparing what I've learned from working with horses and other animals to working with students. My former principal (now retired) asked me in my interview how training horses helps me with working with students.  That will be another subject for another time.

6. “He (Thomas Smith) believed with complete conviction that no animal was permanently ruined. Every horse could be improved. He lived by a single maxim: 'Learn your horse. Each one is an individual, and once you penetrate his mind and heart, you can often work wonders with an otherwise intractable beast.” The same could be said for students: "No student/person was permanently ruined. Every student/person could be improved.  Learn your students. Each one is an individual, and once you penetrate his mind and heart, you can often work wonders with an otherwise intractable beast.” Yes, sometimes students can be "beasts." But the courage, perseverance, heart, cunning, and other qualities of a beast are necessary in this world.

7.  One last reason......students have energy that I can ride on.  Their excitement about debate now motivates me, drives me, teaches me, inspires me.

I'm glad I'm back in the classroom.

I read "Teaching Tips: How To Make Creative Writing Classes More Interesting" by Kristen Ford, which outlines the basics of teaching Creative Writing.  I would, however, urge teachers of Creative Writing to focus on the genres of writing that are missed in the standard Language Arts classroom.  I tell my 9th grade creative writing students that we will be reading many things that they will never read in their LA classroom, such as flash fiction, experimental fiction and creative nonfiction.  Here is my response to Ford's article:

I really like what you've beautifully described here, especially about using the thesaurus and dictionary.  I have hard copies of these in my room, and love watching my kids discover words in several exercises we kick the class off with.  I've  taught 9th grade creative writing for 18 years. We then move on to poetry, experimental fiction, flash fiction, science fiction, a crime/scary story, etc.  My plans are constantly changing based on how creative writing has changed as well as student input (students told me about black out poetry right as it emerged).  Scholastic has an amazing writing/art competition (deadline is usually around December 1) that has also helped me include more genres in my semester-long class.  I constantly comb the writing journal part of the magazine rack at Barnes and Noble to find other new types of writing, such as Creative Nonfiction.  It's also amazing to watch my students manipulate words and writing styles to create their own format.  

Writing is a field that is constantly evolving, and we, as creative writing teachers, must evolve with it.  If you are reading this and want more info and/or lessons about teaching the various genres of writing, please email me: droth2007@gmail.com.

I'm really liking the Facebook Community of Teacher2Teacher -- not only getting great ideas, but also feedback on my posts.  I highly recommend joining this community.  I have connected with Dr. Bonnie Mozer, who is an Urban Education Literacy Specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She responded to one of my posts, and told me about these two valuable resources: The Summit Model : The Measurable Student Outcomes of Summit Learning in Action and the Urban Promise Academy.  These two schools merge PBLs with personalized learning, etc.  

I am working to integrate some of these schools' strategies with my "Passion Project: Community-Centered Classroom incorporated into a Historical Fiction PBL" that I had to do for this module in my own school.  For this project, I took my existing PBL and integrated the Community-Centered Classroom concepts into it. I look forward to adding to this post through reflections after I begin this PBL after Spring Break. 

How do you find room for choice in your lesson plan?

Amber Chandler Once you get started, it is actually very easy to build choice in. You can use choice boards, menus, and allow students to choose how they are assessed. I wrote a bunch about this in my first book (below). My website (flexibleclass.com) has extra resources too. The Flexible ELA Classroom

Bri Leinon I give choices of topic within themes and then give options for format (obituaries, reviews, etc)

Maureen E. Russell Messier Students choose how to demonstrate their knowledge, when my goal is students learning content. When my goal is students learning skills, they choose the content and I choose product. Easy peasy.

Joy Broadwell I'm a big fan of contracting. Students get a list of different activities/projects/assignments organized into various categories with point values. Students choose from each category.

Kennita B the resource I use is similar to Joy but learner's use their voice and choice in choosing tasks appropriate to their understanding of a skill or concept.  I additionally use multimodal assessments for learners where students choose and select how they want to demonstrate mastery of a skill or concept.

Denise Roth; During our Historical Fiction PBL, students may choose any historical fiction book they want to read. Then, they get to choose between three historical fiction books for their lit circles: Farewell to Manzanar, The Diary of Anne Frank, or Code Talkers. During this unit, the focus is around conflict. I use Actively Learn to push out readings that pertain to the time periods of their independent books as well as their lit circle books (I upload a lot from History.com and add discussion questions). While reading their independent book, they have a choice board that they work from (hhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/14aaKaIu2Jd4JNLohAKuVDfoqPFvvCK8A4Mue0HN6qco/edit?usp=sharing). The final project for each lit circle group (4 students/group) is either a tri-fold display for the library, a video talk introducing the books for the library website, or a writing piece about a specific historical figure that they will upload to a website for 4th graders. I am constantly developing this PBL with my social studies teacher and science teacher.

I also have them print off their writing for peer editing. They have to peer edit at least two of their classmates' writing using a printed form. It helps to have them move around and actually write after spending so much time on their computers. Here's a peer edit form I used for their opening statements for debate peer reviews: https://docs.google.com/.../1EmAeT4r5hAvbXXfVmViO.../edit...

From Teacher2Teacher Pop-Up Feedback Community: Writing Instruction (on Facebook) -- great resource!

How do you manage feedback for writing activities?

What does feedback look like in your classroom? With all of our technology, there are more opportunities than ever to communicate with our Ss about their writing! What patterns of feedback work best in your classroom?

I think this would be an amazing discussion question for any literacy/language arts discussion.  Considering there are so many different types of writing (expository/research vs. narrative/short story vs. persuasive/editorial) the feedback could look very different yet share many similarities.  My initial response was this:

I love Google Docs as well, and find that Pear Deck is instrumental in workshopping writing. I can put up samples of student writing, be it a CER in Literacy or a poem in Creative Writing (and do not reveal the author's name even though they are in that class), and students give their anonymous feedback (I can ultimately find out who typed what). The author's get peer feedback, which is extremely important. Students understand HOW to give and use feedback. I can see who some of my good editors are (they sometimes give better feedback than me, as I tend to get a little repetitive). It's a win-win situation for all of us. It's also interesting to see how students' feedback deepens over time, and how giving feedback strengthens their own writing.

In my presentations at various conventions, I've strengthened my stance on TIMELY (within 24 hours/the next class period) and CONSTRUCTIVE (POSITIVE) feedback is a MUST!  I still shudder when I think of my English teacher in HS who gave me an A on my first character analysis piece of some character in War and Peace.  Mind you, my paper was typed on a MANUAL typewriter.  I had to lightly pencil in the 1" margins and stick to these, and have more real typing on the page than the white out I used for my errors (she held the papers up to the light).  I got the paper back two weeks after I turned it in.  No comments.  Just an A.  The second paper -- again over War and Peace -- was done and turned back the same way.  

I was mad. I wanted comments. So my friends and I devised a plan.  On the next paper -- again over War and Peace -- I wrote in paragraph format, on the third paragraph of the third page, Nestle's recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  I handed it in. I held my breath. For two weeks.

I got the paper back.  On the top of the first page was an A.  That was all.

I walked up to the teacher (after sharing this with my friends) and demanded to know how she could give me an A when I had blatantly plagiarized.  And held up the page so she could see.

She wanted the paper back.

I said no. I explained that I just wanted her to READ my paper and give me comments.  What had I done right on the paper? What could I improve? I was going to college, and I wanted to know.  

She never did get me to turn the paper in again. The A remained. 

On the fourth paper, I got an A.  And lots of comments.  Ones that told me what areas I was strong in, others that showed me how to improve things.  I walked up to her desk and thanked her.

Every paper after that I received an A.  The grade was important to me.  But her comments were MUCH MUCH more important!!

That was 33 years ago. Today, feedback is SO much easier through things like Google Docs.  Plus, I'm not carrying so much paper home.  

I teach 8th grade literacy, which involved research papers, argumentative/persuasive papers, narratives.  I also teach 9th grade Creative Writing, which involved poems, experimental fiction, flash fiction, narratives, science fiction, memoir, interviewing, editorial pieces.  No matter what I read, this is how I do it:

• First, I put on the hat of the READER. I ignore punctuation, spelling, etc. errors.  How does the piece engage me?  What does it teach me? How does it thrill me?  What about it makes me keep on reading? When I'm done reading, did I learn anything?  These questions can be altered for any type of writing.  But they are important.  
• Secondly, I put in the hat of a COACH.  Much like an athletic coach, I let them know what they did well (especially compared to earlier writing), how they can improve something new they've tried (like using a hook in their intro), and also make them aware that I am impressed with their effort (especially when reading revisions).
• Lastly...and I mean dead last, I put on the had of an EDITOR. How to fix punctuation, spelling, word choices, sentence variation and such.  

Notice I did not say TEACHER.  That part was the direct instruction at the beginning of the paper, or in the stages of writing. 

Pear Deck is also a nice tool to use for whole class workshopping.  Rules to this: never identify the author; do not put up anything that could identify the author; stick to positive feedback; put up writing that demonstrates common weaknesses of many writers; address the author anonymously in that they get 20+ people helping them improve their writing.  I know who the author is.  Pear Deck lets me know who wrote what.  Silent students are able to have think time to type up their comments -- and hopefully I will have 100 percent participation. And the kids LOVE Pear Deck (especially my Creative Writing kids, as it allows them to see how impactful their writing is) 

I have been giving writing feedback to students for 18 years.  Before I was a technical writer and gave feedback to my writers daily.  Before that, I was a newspaper editor and magazine editor.  Feedback, the hats I wear, have become like muscle memory to me as if writing was a sport. 

I know feedback takes time.  But don't our students deserve that?  My senior English teacher realized that I WANTED comments.  

If I sound passionate about writing, I am.  My students's writing is what I get up at 2 am in the morning for.

What do comments yield? WHY DO IT?

Of course, comments lead to better writing (hopefully). Of course they will cause frustration as not every student will address them and revise. Of course comments cause lack of sleep, headaches, and wondering to myself, "Why am I doing this?"

Answer: Because MY comments make ME a better person.

How so?

• Comments create conversation between my students and myself.
• Comments create editors, and improve MY own editing. 
• Comments help create a safe writing community, and help students feel confident to take risks in their writing.
• Comments build stronger, more confident writers.
• Comments help me help students due to what their writing reveals (problems at home, problems in choosing classes/career paths, problems at school, etc.).

Those are just some of the benefits. benefits that cannot be measured by a grading rubric.  But benefits that are instrumental to a student's success in life.

If you are reading this, and you are a literacy/language arts teacher, please give give feedback.  If you teach in another area, please give feedback. Sometimes your feedback is the only positivity your students will get that day. 

When setting up this page, I had a lot of images to choose from, especially after I added LIFE photos to my search.  I typed in SKY, not knowing what I'd get.  Yes, this picture is of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.  Why would I put such a picture here? you might ask.

In 1986 I was a senior in high school.  The only television was in the AV (audio visual) room on first floor, at the bottom of the stairs.  I think the seniors are the only group that got a "bye" for tardiness that day.  My graduating class was 68; it was a small school.  As seniors, we were in shock, especially knowing that our chemistry/physics teacher wanted to be on that shuttle.  And somewhere in America were Christa MacAuliffe's students, knowing it was THEIR teacher aboard the shuttle.  We felt their sorrow...and I don't think anyone every fell asleep or missed handing an assignment into Mr. Freeman's physics class from that moment until we graduated.  

That was the first time a world event actually affected me - and caused me to reflect .  I will never forget that moment.  And I will never forget the lessons that Mr. Freeman taught me -- not just about chemistry and physics, but about LIFE. (Oh, the irony of where I got the photo).) 

While I might not remember every single reflection I've had (I'd be a liar to say I did), it is how my reflections have guided me in life.  Reflection leads to learning, understanding, learning some more...it is a circular process that leads to enrichment and passion and why I just plain wake up in the morning.