October 22, 2007
Writing our own myths
I’ve had so few successes with my freshmen so far, but I think I can say that I had one for our end-of-nine-weeks project. After researching Greek mythology, learning the epic heroic cycle reading excerpts from The Odyssey, and watching O Brother, Where Art Thou, comparing and contrasting the two, we wrote our own myths. First, I modeled this by filling in the epic heroic cycle chart with my own story, and then I showed my myth on PowerPoint.
I enjoyed writing my myth so much, it made me think I’d like to turn this Pristina story into a children’s book. But as always, I have a great idea, and then all the little details come crashing over me, give me a scared feeling in my stomach, and I abandon all efforts in favor of everyday duties and pleasures.
My students’ myths were SO good: the boys’ were invariably filled with gory battles, while the girls’ mostly ended with the main character getting married. Some were an amalgam of Disney movies and fairy tales, but others were completely original and genuinely entertaining to read. I hope it was a good writing experience for them. I tried to teach them to self-edit this time, which we’ll continue to work on throughout the year.
September 16, 2007
A tired explanation
I’m not sure how reflective I’m going to be able to be this year…how the reflective teacher did it, I don’t know. By the time I get home, relax with my daughter for a couple hours, cook dinner and clean up, it’s past time to plan my lessons for the next day. I’m up until 11 or 11:30 doing that, and then I have to get bottles and pump equipment ready for the next day. Four preps is tough. Writing lesson plans is much like writing papers for my college classes: I dread getting started, but then I get tons of good ideas once I start, and end up thinking it was a satisfying expeirence. Unlike with writing college papers, though, sometimes my lesson plans succeed and sometimes they flop. So when I finish writing, I’m not done. I have to deliver it, and often after that’s done, I don’t want to look back. I feel like I only have time to look forward. I know this is the raison d’etre for this blog, but I just don’t know how I’ll find time to do this.
Looking forward to next week: I think I’m going to have to tighten the reins: Several of my classes became fairly chaotic last week, with too many kids going back to their lockers for supplies, needing to go to the bathroom during class, etc. I’m going to have to implement a system for this. I’m thinking they’ll get three bathroom trips per 9wks, and after that, it’s a Tardy. All trips to lockers after the bell rings will get a Tardy. I hate that I’m having to do this a month into the year, but better late than never. I’ll just have to be sure and do this consistently, and they’ll have to get used to it. I hate this; I’d rather trust them to be responsible, like in college, but they just won’t do it.
August 13, 2007
Long day of in-service
Except for the fact that I got to know some of my fellow teachers, today seemed like an incredible waste of time. We were supposed to be learning how to use test scores to individualize our teaching, but really, isn’t that pretty self-explanatory? You look at your students’ and class’s scores, pinpoint areas of weakness, and remediate! But for some reason, a couple women who talked to us like we were elementary kids had to explain this to us for about five hours. I felt a better use of our time would be to create benchmark exams that align to our state standards, since our principal wants us to administer these every 9 weeks.
Other bits of information I learned today: This year is a textbook adoption year for language arts! Hooray!
Our library has tests over most of its books, and the middle school teachers require their students to read and take tests over four books per 9 weeks. Hmmm…this seems like a good way to ensure that kids’ read–I suppose the scores on these tests could be worth a major project grade, to show the importance of reading. But here’s my dilemma: What about my classroom library? I’m starting to feel like I’m making things too difficult. I should just do what the other teachers do, and not worry about “creating a reader’s environment.” I mean, I’m proud of my little library, but how can I keep kids accountable for reading those books? I haven’t read all of them, so I can’t write tests on them. I still want to do weekly reading journal entries to encourage reflection on reading, but I need to make sure they’re completing the books, not just reading during SSR in class. Suggestions?
I’m also the Student Council sponsor and one of three Junior Class sponsors. I’m keeping a positive attitude about this right now, though I know many of you will think these jobs are a burden: I’m looking forward to getting to know my students outside the English classroom. We’l see how much time these things actually take.
Tomorrow: CPR Training and classroom work day. I’m going to apply myself to my classroom expectations bulletin board, my 6+1 Writing Traits poster arrangement, and my book reviews bulletin board.
Any opening day activities you teachers have found successful? We’ll just have Thursday and Friday with the kiddos this week, so I’m just planning on doing getting-to-know each other, the classroom, my procedures activities. Here are my plans so far:
- Fill out student information sheets (activities, academic goals, short answers on attitudes/aptitudes for reading and writing)
- Write letter to me using your student information sheet, telling me what I need to know about you as a student (this will probably be weekend homework)
- Introduction to expectations, policies, English binder, outside reading
- Activities that introduce my teaching style and help me get to know them.
- Mini-lesson on choosing books you’ll like.
- Choose first books.
- Learn procedure for weekly vocab.
This is the week!
Three days of in-service starts tomorrow with a day of curriculum alignment. I’m pretty sure my brain short-circuited today in the middle of about a million decisions about my classroom procedures, methods, and first days of school.
After slaving all afternoon on my “Outside Reading” handout, informing kids they’ll have to read at least four outside reading books per semester, my brother, who just graduated from high school gave me a harsh reality check: He said his English teacher of the last four years (small school) had the same requirement, and very few students ever read any books. During in-class reading, they’d pretend to read or just sleep, and then patch together a book report from the film version, the back cover plot summary, and/or online plot descriptions. I’m hoping that my scaffolding of this requirement will make things different: help selecting books: mini-lessons on genres, authors, and books, occasional read-alouds to pique interest. However, I’m realizing I need some sort of grade consequences to enforce this four book thing. I’ve got points for in-class reading, bringing the book to class, and weekly reading journals, but no grade mentioned as of yet for number of books read. I suppose a test grade of 100 for each book completed, and a 0 for books not completed? It seems like that would encourage faking completion, though. My brother’s English teacher assigned a highest-possible letter grade based on amount of books read: if you read only 3 books, the highest you can get is a B, 2 = C, etc.
July 31, 2007
More on SSR
Athena left a great suggestion in her comment: to have the students use Library Thing to track the books they’ve read in SSR. I love it! What a great, nonthreatening way to have some closure after you finish a book! And the kids would have such ownership of that kind of thing. I think I’m going to start out requiring students to complete at least four books per semester–Is that not enough?
Another idea I had yesterday: students could be required to post weekly responses to their reading on blogs. I would also require them to read and comment on the blog entries of say, two classmates per week. I have two classroom computers–to avoid having to take the entire class to the computer lab once a week, perhaps I could allow students to rotate everyday, four of them missing part of SSR to post to their blogs and read the blogs of classmates. Does this sound too complicated? I think I’ll try it with one class my first semester and see how it goes.
6+1 Writing Traits, Beowulf






July 27, 2007
Classroom prep
With only two full weeks until school starts, I’m starting to get a little anxious about getting everything done. I’ve got a magazine deadline August 6, so next week will be divided between that article (on Oklahoma blogs–whoop!), Claire, and hanging out with visiting relatives. That leaves one week to ready my classroom. Here’s my to-do list for that week:
1. Walls: minimal in the beginning, as I plan to create posters to remind them of things we learn.
- Class rules: Respect yourself, Respect your classmates, and Respect your teacher
- Promises to my students (jacked from the perfectly seasoned Graycie): I promise that I will not ask you to do anything you cannot do, I promise that if I ask you to do something new, I will show you how, and I promise that if you do the things I ask you to do, you should pass this course.)
- Book recommendations: I post brief reviews of books I’ve read recently, replacing them with student reviews as they finish books.
- 6 +1 Writing Traits
2. Class Syllabi
3. Lesson Plans, of course! I’d like to have the first couple weeks planned when we start school.
4. Class Library: I’m up to about 70 books now, and I’m going to arrange them by genre, and then within each genre, I’m going to try to order them from less difficult to more difficult.
Question about SSR: I’m now planning on devoting the first 10 minutes of every English class to SSR, with weekly journal entries or creative projects due, book talks every other week, and frequent mini-lessons on choosing books, active reading, authors, and genres. I think I’m going to require that every student read at least 5 books per semester, with books with more than 250 pages worth two books. Any other ideas on how to make this SSR beneficial and effective for students?