Book Outline w/ Chapter Synopses

Chapter 1 - The Long Haul

Who knows who your student teacher will be? Perhaps it will be your new best friend. Perhaps it will be a person on the opposite extreme of the political spectrum as you. Accepting a student teacher into your classroom means understanding that you will keep a professional relationship, aimed at benefitting the student teacher's future performance in his/her own classroom, with any student teacher placed underneath you. Of course, this is a two-way street, but it is in your best interest, and the student's best interest, to provide the best education you can to your student teacher.
It is likely that you will be spending more time with your student teacher during the student teaching semester than you spend with your wife/husband/significant other. This can create a strain between any two people, so as you can imagine, it could certainly strain a relationship between two strangers. The following chapters will help guide you into a successful relationship with your student teacher, as this is not only important for the education of your student teacher, but also for the well-being of your classroom.

Chapter 2 - The Essentials

Often times, the logistical needs of a student teacher can be over-looked. Perhaps, a CT would never direcly think, "My student teacher can get by without having all of the classroom amenities that a regular teacher has." Nonetheless, red tape and other shennanigans can stop a student teacher from being able to acquire the basic things they need to do their job successfully. A few of these are: reliable internet connection, a desk/workspace which is consistently available, and the ability to connect to a printer network. If a first attempt to make sure a student teacher has internet goes sour, don't stop at "Sorry, we can't give you internet." In the modern age, visual media teaching is essential - often required. How can we ask this of our student teachers without allowing them some sort of internet while in the classroom? The same goes for connection to a printing network. If a student teacher is required to be printing, they should not be doing it outside of school. It might be difficult to make these amenities available to a student teacher, but they are a must, and a student teacher who lacks these things may be forced to over exert themselves to accomplish basic tasks. Essentially, if you, as a CT, would find the conditions and accomidations for your student teacher to create an unaccecptably unproductive work environment, consider that the student teacher may feel the same. After all, during student teaching, the student teacher has directly inherited a large portion of the job.

Chapter 3 - Feedback

Feedback should be regular. If you give your student teacher advice, and you don't think he/she follows it to the "T," remind him/her what you meant. This means you may have to give the same feedback more than once. In fact, you might expect this. It is common that a person might think they are furfilling a requirement when they are not. It is best to deal with this upfront and directly as opposed to assuming that the student teacher is intentionally defying your expectations.
Take time to listen to the student teacher's reasoning for his/her decisions. There are mental processes that one goes through to in order to reach any outcome. Thoughtful patience concerning a student teacher's explanation of their thought processes may help both the CT and the student teacher to understant why the original goal was not met, and what specific elements need to be changed. Furthermore, make sure that you are physically present in the classroom for the lessons you are providing major feedback for. If you are giving "big picture" advice for lesson fluency, and you were out of the room for a large portion of the class period, your analysis might be omitting important details. This can cause frustration between CT's and student teachers. Make sure that in the scenario where you do not have a full-lesson-viewpoint, you are granting feedback and advice pertianing to what you did see, not what you didn't see.

Chapter 4 - Interactions with Students

Genuinely encourage your student teacher's involvement with students. If you have problems with being territorial with student emotions, then having a student teacher is not for you. Surely, this quality exists to some degree in most teachers, but you need to be able to logically override - your student teacher needs to create bonds with students in order to learn how to implement this effectively in their own future classroom. Also, if a student teacher reprimands a students, you must support your student teacher. If you negate consequences pertaining to a student which has been reprimanded by your student teacher, your student teacher will cease to have any authority in the classroom, making them unfit to lead, which is the opposite of what you want to accomplish.

Chapter 5 - Communication

Professional communication between the CT and student teacher should be direct and clear, and should avoid hinting or subjective tones. State what you mean and what you want to see, and your reasoning. Transparency is the key. Also, make sure feedback is constructive. Blaming, or taking credit, does not help anyone if it is not tied to constructive feedback. For example, if a lesson by your student teacher goes particularly well, telling them "That went well because I established [concept, idea, or skill] previously," does not do anyone any good. This is not feedback, it's establishing credit. You may be totally correct in why the lesson went well, and the student teacher may not be aware of this and thus, takes the classroom environment forgranted. Nonetheless, discrediting or establishing blame is not, in itself, a form of feedback.

It’s all downhill from here.

Have you ever realized that the above idiom has two opposing meanings? If all of your hardships are over, and you’re on your way towards completing a goal you might say, “It’s all downhill from here.” On the contrary, if one was describing something they were doing which fell apart, they might say,  “Once Jason punched Sally, my lesson was done for – it was all downhill from there.” Food for thought.

Anywho,

I've heard current students, graduates, and teachers alike describe student teaching as rite of passage, a struggle to be seen by each teacher-to-be.

Each day begins with two adult professionals, talking theoretically about the techniques and practices, and must-dos and don’ts, of this day or of every day’s lessons. Maybe they don’t talk about these things each morning, but there’s an assumption of professionalism in the air between these two teachers. Then, these people transform, and lower their defenses and attempt to emotionally connect with a classroom full of youngsters. They each do this one at a time, separately from the other. The other professional watches, and consciously or subconsciously critiques the delivery of the other’s real self. Then you unwind it, you come back. You act as if you weren't just pouring yourself out. You’re back to the theoretical.

This seems to breed awkwardness at best, miscommunication at worst. I salute those student teachers who made it through this year unscathed. You're going to do great. 

I suppose this is all part of the balancing act, and I agree that student teaching is a necessary initiation. 

I used to say, “Why don’t we begin student teaching in Core 1? It’s surely the most valuable part of our education. We should get as much of it as we can.” This is true, but I probably would have bailed on teaching as a whole if I would have experienced this early on. It’s like that episode of Community, where Abed watches too many Nick Cage movies in too short of a time period, and gets in too deep too quickly. If you’re not an expert at jumping rope, you should wait for the rope to come around a few times, rhythmically clicking against the pavement. Then you jump in. Sometimes the watching from afar doesn't help enough, but at least you're committed enough once you get there that you cannot turn around.

If one general idea could represent what I've learned from student teaching this semester – it’s that teaching seems to be more of a “how” question than a “what” question. Techniques and practices approved by motivational speakers and highly regarded by our teaching heroes are only as good as our classroom environment and our students’ ability to accept these ideas actively and genuinely. This isn't to say, "ignore them," it's just that everything needs adaptation. I find myself asking, "Is it real? Or does it just look good on paper?" Not everything “real” looks good on paper. Not everything that looks good on paper is “real.” How do we deal with this? I don’t know yet. Drop me a line if you figure it out. Turns out, learning is hard to measure. Nonetheless, thinking about this has been useful. We all have to find ways to reach the standards. I think it's important we're focusing on actually meeting them, instead of focusing on showing that we're meeting them.

Bomer says, "A reader's knowledge about a topic, feeling, or domain of experience includes memories related to it from her own life" (106). The standards repeat the importance of capturing this real-world relevance throughout the reading, writing, and listening portions of our lessons. However, I think it can be easy to print off a worksheet which is designed to exactly cover the basis of the standards in a fakeish, checklist-like manner. I've become cautious cautious of the phrase "There's no need to re-invent the wheel." Sometimes, it's creating something from my own brain which really makes me connect to the students in the lesson. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but it seems to help me. 

Bein' a Student Teacher.

It's a struggle being a student teacher. Most everyone I've talked to seems to agree with this. It's a right of passage, it seems. A struggle to have two mother hens in one classroom. I think, at this point, it's best just to accept that we're all almost there, and we're all certainly past the point of no return. So, essentially, it's temporary.

I took the 5038 English Content exam recently. It wasn't too bad. I wouldn't suggest going in without preparing - but it wasn't too bad. It seemed to me that a couple nights of focused studying went a long ways. I will say, when I first looked at the practice test, I kinda panicked. In the end, I just refreshed myself on every term I came across on the practice test which I couldn't remember. It seemed to do a ton of good. There weren't very many literary identification "know the author" type of questions. There were a good few comprehension questions, but there's hardly any way to study for that.

Anyways.

The PLT is next. I'm worried. It should be okay though.

That KPTP's been rearing its ugly head at me, here and there.

Austin Mann said something about "a light at the end of the tunnel" the other day before class, I wrote a poem about it. It's still in the works, let me know if you have some suggestions. The poem feels like its kinda trying too hard right now.

Something to Orient Ourselves Against

We talk of lights,
And ends of tunnels,
And ask aloud,
If they're there,

Perhaps there are some lights,
Which aren't plugged in near the stairwell -
For an unbelievable length of time,
At your Grandma's house,
Classic White, holding out in a hemisphere,
Against floral wallpaper,

Or when you were young-
Green opaque,
Ninja Turtle shaped,

Lets thank our friends and family,
For the comfort we have received,

But no,
Not all lights,
Are nite lights,
Posted 12 inches from the floor,
There to help you, near the obstacles.
We cannot see.

Moving forward, we can't tell where we are,
Like Oedipus, We may suffer our deeds,
More than we act them.
'till the day breaks,
And the room is illuminated and new again,

And you might not be,
In the place you thought you were,
While stumbling with your hands out,
In the darkness,

there are still some lights,
Motion sensored,
Which flicker on,
Once you've hit them,

Useful,
By the time you've passed them.

Something to Orient Ourselves Against, extra poem, inspired by Austin Mann

Something to Orient Ourselves Against

We talk of lights,
And ends of tunnels,
And ask aloud,
If they're there,
"Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?"

Perhaps there are some lights,
Which aren't plugged in near the stairwell -
For an unbelievable length of time, decades, years,
At your Grandma's house,
Classic White, holding out in a hemisphere,
Against floral wallpaper,

Or when you were young-
They were green opaque,
Ninja Turtle shaped,

Lets thank our friends and family,
For the comfort we have received,

But no,
Not all lights,
Are night lights,
Posted 12 inches from the floor,
There to help you, near the obstacles.
We cannot see.

Moving forward, we can't tell where we are,
Like Oedipus, We may suffer our deeds,
More than we act them.
'till the day breaks,
And the room is illuminated and new again,
And you might not be,
In the place you thought you were,
While stumbling with your hands out,
In the darkness,

It seems, something has to separate everyone,
It catches us.

But perhaps there are still some,
Motion sensored,
Which flicker on,
Once you've hit them,

Useful,
By the time you've passed them.

"Relax" Copycat Poem

Every lesson you teach,
Will split at the seams,
As though the stitching,
Was never there to begin with,
Each question hanging in silence,
And confusion,
Like water soaked up in a ceiling tile,
There will be a leak up there you didn't, couldn't, see,
And your talents will break beneath their own weight,
And collide with the floor,
It will look as if you didn't try,
As hard as you did.
And there will be those who wanted,
To see you taken down a notch or two,
And they will see it,
And you will see a sigh of relief,
From the faces watching,
As the last drops of water,
Go down the drain,
But there's an old story -
About the burning of Troy,
And Aeneas - The loser who left,
Knowing something was ahead,
For the sake of what was behind,
And thus Troy moved on, and became Rome,
And the Romans we do remember,
They are still measurable, you've seen their buildings,
In person, or in pictures on glossy magazine pages,
They existed outside the will of the gods,
And outside the tales told,
Before humans wrote,
And you too will remember,
For the sake of what is ahead.

Genre Reflection #2

My CT assigned her class to write "found poetry" this week. This activity consists of opening a book randomly and connecting words to make a poem based on a pre-determined theme. I decided to do one for my genre reflection. I cheated, and added two words. If you can't read it, that's understandable, I typed out a copy below. Shout outs to Walt Whitman.

The fluid movement of the population,

Unconquerable and simple,

And the hands to protect it,

He incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes,

For the expression of the American,

Is to be transcendent and new.

The Teacher.

He is their referee,

He spans between them,

and reflects what is between them.

On him rise solid growths,

That offset the growths of - 

hemlock, and locusts.

Tangles as tangled as any forest.

He is the arbiter of the diverse and he is the key,

He is the equalizer.

If the time becomes slothful and heavy he knows how to arouse it,

He can make every word he speaks draw blood.

Always calm.

He grows men and women.

He is no arguer, he is judgement.

As he sees the farthest,

He has the most faith.

He sees eternity in men and women.

He does not see men and women,

as dreams,

 or dots.

Call me B. Robeson, Lost in the Tundra

I believe Plato is first credited with coining a variation of the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” But what happens why you invent something you don’t need, isn’t applicable, and you use it anyways? What happens when you get a little overly ambitious, and make things more complicated in the name of pursuing a more dramatic effect? What if the blueprints look better than the duct-taped-together reality? This is the story of my week, and the unit plan I taught to a sixth-grade class. (Note: Duct tape can be spelled ‘duck’ or ‘duct’, both variations are correct. During different time periods the adhesive material went by different names, for its ability to repel water and also its ability to fix air ducts.)

I over estimated everything. This isn’t to say I didn’t plan, I just planed wrong. This caused me to go home and rethink my entire unit every night, only to show up the next day realizing that I didn’t salvage as much as I thought I could. It’s safe to say that this week took me down a notch or two. But that’s okay. This is where we learn. This is how we get better.

I’m now thinking back to about a week and a half ago, when I first started planning this lesson. What was I thinking? I had this grand idea, for a rap students would write about the novel Hatchet, and I would come in and apply beats and melodies to their lyrics. This way, the whole process would imitate the process of musical composition and also display how the student’s are receiving Hatchet’s Brian Robeson. It seemed like less of a heart attack when I first thought about it. It seemed like it could work. But I completely underestimated the prior knowledge of the students. Completely.

Things I took for granted:

-I thought students would be able to write lyrics in sets which resembled poetry lines. (i.e. there is a rhyme at the end of the line). Almost all students wrote their rhymes in paragraph form, which I completely did not expect, and I had a very hard time getting through to students that the rhyme was supposed to go at the end of a line. This was a major indicator of how far away I was from my goal, yet I was too far in to jump out. How do I get to final presentations? We haven’t even thought about rhythm yet!

- I also wrote my writing prompts for the week in a paragraph, unnumbered or separated, assuming that this was comprehendible. The sixth graders did not take well to this. They didn’t know how to voice questions, so instead, they just didn’t do anything. Smagorinski says that on average, a student will ask one question a month (87-88). This means I need to come to them before they come to me, and I failed to do this.

Clusters of questions aside, I had a really hard time asking any critical thinking questions which asked the students to apply their own knowledge. I should have phrased things better. I can’t help but think that a young adult novel such as Hachet has no point if it’s not applied to one’s own life. Otherwise, it’s just the story of a kid you don’t know who probably really would have died

I think that I need to do a better job visualizing conceptual questions from a 6^th grade perspective, and then attempt to create them more in line with this point of view. Practice makes perfect. 

I need to not make any excuses. If you take the bait, this profession will lend itself to constant excuses and the largest of blame games, more than any other profession I can think of. Teacher’s could blame a new influence every day, never run out of targets responsible, and never be the target themselves.

Though somehow, my final lesson came through. It wasn’t perfect from a management perspective, there was a ton of excitement with the rap, but it wasn’t too shabby. However, I swear I saw the ghost of Biggie Smalls possess a short, soft spoken sixth-grade girl.  I walked into class not expecting, but knowing, I was going to fail - yet I was in too deep to turn around. I knew they didn't get it, and would continue to not get it, it seemed like they couldn’t. Then it clicked, and they saw how a real song gets written, and they spit rhymes about their boy B. Robeson from Hatchet. I don’t think I’m supposed to share student examples on here. But I really, really, want to. I’m restraining myself.

So if I were to sum up my week, I'd say: It wasn't the tightly woven plan, but it came through in the end. There is a ton of cleanup I could have done, which I did not foresee. However, I didn't fail, and I did do something out of the ordinary. There is much to be learned, and I hope I will make the mistakes I made less frequently in the future.

Smagorinsky, P. (2008). Teaching English by design: How to create and carry out instructional units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Hey all, I’m going to take a moment to share my feelings about my experience at the KATE conference this past Thursday and Friday. Overall, it was a positive experience and it was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic professionals speaking about their passion. It was a very different environment from what I experience day-to-day in the classroom. I was able to take a look at the minds behind lesson plans as opposed to what I’m able to see in the presentation of a lesson.

 It was great to see a high level of dedication from individuals who already work in the career that I am pursuing. I found myself thinking about what I what kind of teacher I want to be ten years in to my career. I feel like there were many positive role models in attendance at the 2014 KATE conference, and I’m happy to have attended. The following were the highlights of the event for me:

1. I came up with a ton of new ideas for my future classroom. People provided me with an enormous amount of resources for my future student planning. In almost every lecture I attended, I acquired something physical that I may use to help my planning, and in many I collected in-tangible concepts and understandings that will help me think about my future profession in a different light.

2. Talor Mali is a total lady’s man and I’m fairly jealous. What can you do? He’s a babe. John Donne ain’t got nothing on Talor Mali.

3. The enthusiasm and positive vibes of dedication that I picked up from many teachers in attendance was contagious. It was different from the routine, and it was nice to see people speak of teaching as though it was worth the stress and effort that the profession demands. These people have been doing this for a while, and they’re still learning. I think this is a good philosophy to maintain in my future endeavors into the field of education.

4. Okay, so this wouldn’t be a real blogpost if it wasn’t a rant, and it wouldn’t be a real rant if I wasn’t hot-and-bothered for at least one paragraph. There were a couple breakout sessions that were pretty lazily put together. Two, in particular. One’s focus was implementing a certain classic writer into the modern classroom. Upon starting the lesson, the speaker announced he was going to have to leave in 15 minutes in order to pick up his step-daughter.

I get it, dude. You’ve got a step-daughter, that’s a huge obligation. But, perhaps, don’t attempt to give a lecture when you already have obligations? Just cancel the day before or something? He ran through the lecture quickly, and here were his points:

1. “The current method of teaching this topic doesn’t work very well.” (that’s why we’re here, bro)  2. “There is an app that works really well for helping. It’s a good app.” He did not show us this app, but he told us about it. We never saw it.

Then, after pretty intensely plugging his ibooks which were for sale, he peace’d out. On the flip side, this encouraged me to try presenting sometime, as he made it seem totally unintimidating.

Pardon the negativity. Overall, the experience was wonderful. Though after a while, it did take a toll on me. It was a lot of talking about teaching in a very short time period. Maybe I’m just not yet well-seasoned for this thing. It was hard to take it all in within such a short time period. However, it ranked among the most realistic and motivating experiences I’ve had in my time in the Wichita State University School of Education.

What did you folks think?

I say “Write,”

But he cannot write.

He can think,

He can work,

I say “It’s about you,” “It is you,”

“You cannot be wrong.”

 But he doesn’t know if he’s right.

 For he,

 Cannot write.

And he knows that’s wrong.

 He cannot spell,

 And he doesn’t want to try.

 I say, “Spell,”

 “And later we’ll fix it,”

“It’ll be fine.”

I say, “Write about your skills,”

“Your dreams.”

He tells me he has none.

He really does believe,

That he has none.

I stop at this,

Confused,

 Not convinced.

I reward my ignorance.

Must there really be something he can do,

Which nobody else can do?

Of course, he too, wishes for this world –

That I refuse not to assume exists.

He must want dreams,

And a yellow-brick road.

But there is land,

Hundreds of miles south of that golden path.

And he is not sure,

That two steps in the right direction are worth the effort.

He thinks it may be better to get used to the forest,

And The Darkness,

Ruling over him.

It somehow seems efficient.

But two months later I receive an email from him that says “hey hows it goin”.

And if he ever asks me how far lost in the forest you can be,

I’ll remember the answer is: “half-way.”

The Unit Plan You'll Tell Your Grandkids About.

Unit title:

“Honesty and Self-Efficacy”

Unit Texts: (subject to slight change)

As I Lay Dying William Faulkner or A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway

Sidhartha by Herman Hesse

“Antigone”, “Oedipus the King”, and “Oedipus at Colonus” by Sophocles

“The Man who Lived Underground” – Richard Wright

“The Passing of Grandison” – Charles W. Chesnutt

Excerpts from W.E.B. DuBois’s “The Souls of Black Folk”

NCTE/IRA Standards Assessed:

1.         Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

2.         Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

3.         Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

5.         Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.

7.

Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

9.         Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.

11.       Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

12.       Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Kansas College and Career Ready Standards Assessed:

W.5.     Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience

W.1c.   Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons,

between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

W.2c.   Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.

W.3c.   Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., a sense

 of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution).

SL.1     * Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts,

and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

a.         Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other

research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.

b.         Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.

c.          Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue;

clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

d.         Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

Students Will Know/Be Able to:

Students will be able to demonstrate a unique opinion regarding a particular piece of literature in a classroom environment and/or in writing.

Students will be able to read for themselves first, and bring their own interpretation to the classroom.

Students will know how to write an essay that cites its sources according to format.

Students will be able to to command their own unique sense of sentence fluency within writing assignments.

Students will be able to analyze the content of a work of literature, find a deeper meaning, and describe verbally or through writing how this meaning relates to that which “lies on the surface.”

Students will know how to give an explanation for why they do or do not agree with a particular interpretation of literature.

Student’s will know and understand that there is no pre-designated form for comprehending a work of fiction. Students will demonstrate that they are their own authority on the matter through their essay writing, journal writing, and in-class dialogue.

Assessment Evidence:

Students will be assessed through two primary means.

1.              Participation points will be given daily to students who are an active part of classroom discussion. The classroom will center on analyzing and unpacking literary works as a social unit, and also in small groups. Because some students are hesitant to voice their opinions in front of a group, there will also be an opportunity to write in a journal to receive the same participation credit. Nonetheless, I intend to attempt to encourage all students to participate in class discussion. Students who contribute daily will not be required to write journal entries.  

2.              The second means for assessment will be based through writing assignments. This class will be required to write four papers over the course of the semester. Two of these papers will be analytical interpretations of a particular literary work. In these two papers, students will choose their own topic. Students encouraged to pick the narrowest topic as possible and will be shown examples of the benefits of essays that analyze narrow topics. One of the essays will deal with the unit theme and require the student to draw comparisons between characters from multiple works of literature within the unit. The fourth essay will require research of literary criticism, and students will be given thorough instruction in class on ways in which they may gain access to literary criticism.

Learning Activities:

            The primary focus of this class will be the building of personal reading skills outside of the classroom. I intend to explain on the first day of class that students who, through active participation, demonstrate that they have completed all of the reading assignments and have attempted the essay assignments in the same fashion, will likely receive an “A”. The primary objectives of this class pertain to encouraging students to come to class with an idea, and then expand it with the help of their peers. This process will help build the self-confidence of students and help create life-long readers who perceive the value of their own viewpoint.

            There will be four deadlines throughout the school year, each at exactly a quarter of the way through the academic calendar. For each essay, the student will be allowed to write on any piece of literature that has been covered in class. Students will be graded partially on their development as a writer, and their ability to overcome previous mistakes and writing hardships.

            Learning will be evaluated daily in class discussion. I also intend to have some class sessions (perhaps Fridays), where students are read aloud to by the instructor and by peer volunteers. During these class periods, the class will discuss as they read. Essentially, most learning will be assessed via class discussion, because this allows the material to be modified to the situational aspects of the classroom. I believe that this creates a more genuine learning environment. 

*Note - Students will also be required to choose one outside-reading novel of their preference. This novel must be presented in one of their papers.

Pertaining to the unit theme - "Honesty and Self-Efficacy" - this class will analyze how the characters within the chosen texts believe in themselves and whether or not this has an effect on the honesty of that character. The moral obligations of each character will be discussed, as each chosen work of literature presents a character who deals with an uncontrollable form of reality in a totally different fashion. The struggles of each character exist in unrelated parts of history and life, yet each protagonist's sense of self-efficacy is relateable to other protagonists in the unit. Each protagonist differs in their approach to honesty however, yet perhaps none are more justifiable than the other. Perhaps, in some cases, honesty is harder to justify than dishonesty.

The Second Reflection: The CT Strikes Back

The sixth grade class that I have become a part of is an Enrichment Language Arts course, meaning that these are students who perform above average. I have the same CT as last year, though the class is literally double the size this year. Both my CT and her colleagues have expressed the challenges that have come with this year’s larger sixth grade class. One colleague of my CT stated that this is the toughest sixth grade class she’s had in ten years.

As I am in the same classroom as last year, I too have noticed a major difference in class behavior. There are a couple students who present major behavioral problems. I worry about how this may affect my own lessons. There is one student who is very sweet in conversation, yet often wants to draw attention to himself during instruction. Today, he began walking around the room, and stopped to look at the notes in my CT’s hands while she was teaching. For several minutes, he walked around bothering other students in the classroom while others paid attention to instruction. My CT did not react to this in class, she ignored him entirely, as the student was obviously attempting to attract attention. This method seemed to work fairly well, but I couldn't help but think about other students in the room who observed this behavior and were distracted by this behavior. Other students would be punished for these same actions.

This sort of behavior is constant from this student. On one hand, he regularly showers the teachers with compliments such as “I love you Mrs. X.”, or “You’re my favorite.” yet he blatantly disobeys the rules as if to prove to the classroom he is above them. It drives me crazy. I've spoken with my CT about this, and she has explained to me that this student is a student which forces a teacher to "choose their battles wisely." She says that in other classrooms he exhibits much worse behavior, and he is in dire need of constant affection from those around him or else he will defy authority completely. He has been known for violent outbursts in class. She very honestly explained to me that she isn't totally certain what to do about his defiant behavior, but she seems certain that confronting it head-on is not the proper way to handle it.

Actually, there are three different students in this classroom that are not held to the rules as firmly as others. I have had confirmation from other teachers that these three students are extremely hard to work within each of their classes. Their interruptions are constant, and their behaviors often determine punishments for the entire class, but they are rarely reprimanded individually. I consulted research on the topic. Reinke, Lewis-Palmer, and Merrell state that “Targeting the classroom system to increase effective classroom management practices delivered to all students is more efficient than targeting individual students because it is likely to reduce current student behavioral and academic difficulties as well as prevent future student problems on a broader scale.” This explains the CT’s reasoning for holding the class responsible for a few of the students’ behavior. I’ve also noticed that the CT is very observant of her students’ behavior outside of the classroom. This helps her to regulate which students need different behavioral treatment within her classroom.

Essentially, my CT uses the subtlest means for approaching the most blatant breaches in her classroom management. This may sound easy and swell on paper, but I wonder if I will be able to do this while at the helm of the classroom. I can’t help but feel the urge to demand that the student respects the classroom learning environment. I can’t help but feel for all of the students who follow the rules of the classroom. However, my CT does make sure these three students are aware of their daily performance. She verbally tells them whether or not they are having a “good day” or a “bad day”, but this is most she usually reprimands these three problem students.

One thing is certain concerning these three students. Each of them is very dependent on my CT’s affection. Much of their misbehavior is rooted in gaining blatant affection from the teacher in front of the class. I am very curious as to whether it is smart for me to imitate my teacher’s classroom management or attempt to create my own. Allowing blatant exemptions for rules in front of other students is obviously not a preferred choice, but perhaps it is the best option? I don’t really know. What is your opinion?

EDIT: Directly after this class, my CT implemented a whole new strategy for dealing with these students. She placed the primary problem students on reward/consequence systems that they report on individually outside of the presence of their peers. She also rearranged the seating chart after this class period that I spoke of. It would seem to me, that she is refraining from responding to an outburst with another outburst. Instead, she gives herself time to think, and finds a solution that exists separate from the attention that these students desire.

Reinke, W. M., Lewis-Palmer, T., & Merrell, K. (2008). The classroom check-up: A classwide teacher consultation model for increasing praise and decreasing disruptive behavior. School Psychology Review, 37(3), 315.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2603055/

Peer Editing and the Quest to Encourage Independent Thinking

When I think about the writing skills of the students in my classroom, there is one thing that is particularly apparent to me.  Many of the students in the classroom lack an ability to write independent from exact instruction. Many students can write well, but almost everyone seems to need to know exactly what the instructor wants. This is not a bad quality, per say, since we all know that the ability to follow instructions is certainly a useful life skill. However, there is a certain independence that is lacking from the classroom. Students are afraid to create, so instead, they mimic. The problem is, great writing – even if it only takes place in the form of an email or Facebook post – never sounds mimicked. I think teachers can be partially responsible for these tendencies to mimic (sometimes).

For example, in most high school writing classes, students are taught to avoid clichés. They are told a cliché is something that has been done before, it’s old and tired, so don’t do it anymore. Essentially, they are told to mimic an idea which tells them not to mimic. Off the top of my head, I can think of many songwriters and great authors who loved clichés (Ernest Hemmingway, Modest Mouse). The difference is they attached these clichés to intentional, independent thought. Perhaps a better process for teaching would be to say “Hey, look how dumb this cliché looks in this situation. Don’t use a cliché like this.” This process teaches people to use their own judgment in assessing whether or not their response is appropriate for a particular situation. I think we should teach students to be aware of clichés, and be aware of similar habits, in order to make sure that they are used intentionally if they are used at all.

While I don’t think clichés are even close to one of the most important aspects of writing, they are an example of something that is often taught matter-of-factly, when in reality, there is no standard for them whatsoever. We should teach students to identify and think about these things. Repetition is another example of a misguided approach to rid bad writing from our classrooms. The thing is, repetition can either add emphasis or sound redundant, depending on how it is used. We need to teach students to recognize these things and think about them, not to scan their paper and count to see if they used the word “I” too much. There is no mathematical equation which can tell a person the appropriate amount of times to use the first person in a paper. Essentially, the question I’m asking is – “How can us teachers get students to approach writing as an independent and creative process?”

I think that peer editing is a great way to begin the adventure of independent writing and thinking. When scanning the work of a peer, one has to think about what they are doing wrong. It’s too intimidating to approach mistakes in the writings of professionals or teachers when you’re still a blossoming writer. I think that students can analyze writing from their peers much easier than they can analyze their own writing or the writing of professionals. Pertaining to this system of communication, Bomer says:

“To talk is to negotiate socially, and the teacher’s presence makes much of that negotiation optional. If the adult will save the social situation and rescue the conversation, then the students are not positioned to take responsibility for their interactions. They may be learning to be students but they are not learning to create conversations” (2011, p. 140)

I think this well represents my own views toward student interaction in the classroom, and I think that class proofreading is a great way to make students interact with one another in a relevant scenario. Smagorinsky says that “. . .students benefit from feedback as they work, rather than just at the end” (2008, p.96). Peer review helps accomplish this without overly exhausting a teacher who might have ninety papers to grade.

I recently taught a lesson on proofreading to my class, and here are a few things I noted as important to my lesson. Take a gander if you feel like hearin’ me out.

1. Introduce the idea that errors marked by peers (or anyone), at the end of the day, are suggestions. When you turn in a resumé or cover letter to someone who you are applying a job from, there are two outcomes. Either you get the job or you don’t. Nobody comes back to you and says, “Hey put a couple commas here and there, get rid of that cliché and you’re hired”. Proper grammar represents you and your abilities.

Nonetheless, let the students know writing is something that nobody has a pin point on, you just do the best you can and think about what you’re doing and saying. Teachers must grade these things, so we have to decide what good writing is. In reality, it’s all a notion. A notion that represents you. (sentence fragment)

      2. Encourage the marking of papers. Make students work with a pen in hand. Encourage discussion along side/after proofreading. Grant students time for this in between papers. We want people making marks, but it might be more important to hear peer to peer explanations of each mark. This helps learning on both ends.

      3. NO HARD FEELINGS. Explain to students that everyone is trying to help everyone get a better grade. No one is to grade in malice. Criticism is hard to take, but those who can take it well exemplify maturity. Let them know this. I think most students will not get their feelings hurt if they consciously think about the fact that everyone is marking up everyone’s paper.

Bomer, R. (2011). Building adolescent literacy in today's English classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smagorinsky, P. (2008). Teaching English by design: how to create and carry out instructional units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

Hey Folks. This is my first blog since Xanga, so I'm excited to be telling the internet how I feel again. I'm having a hard time predicting what this semester is going to be like. There are times where I seem to think it's going to be completely overwhelming, yet there are also times when I feel like I've over-hyped it. Perhaps it's just the calm before the storm? I hope not.

Anyways, I I've already gotten to know the students of the classroom quite well and they are absolute sweethearts, each and every one of them. I teach my first lesson tomorrow, and I'm really excited for it. This is the first time I've ever taught a totally pre-planned lesson, and I'm finding it to be a difficult process. Nonetheless, I'm finding that it prepares me to approach the lesson in a manner that I might normally leave untouched and it is certainly forcing me out of my comfort zone.

The lesson is on proofreading, and I hope that I can affect the students in a positive way. The may goal of my lesson is to prove that the "rules" of writing are actually quite awesome, as they are there to guide us. They are not oppressive rulers that dictate what we are allowed to say, they are merely wise words passed down by those who have said things well before us. We use commas because we need them, not because we have to. English used to be rather unregulated for these things, and it was a ton harder to read and evolved much more frequently because of it. Nowadays, the rules that make up modern spelling and grammar have allowed English to become a much more stable language than it was five hundred years ago. I hope the kids get into this.

Based on my introduction to the classroom, my goals for the coming year are as follows.

1. There are a few students struggling in the classroom, either due to disabilities or low self-confidence. I'd like to see these students continue to hang on and make it through the semester with a passing grade.

2. I'd like graduate and become a certified teacher. In order to pull this off I need to continue what I've been up to for the past few semesters. It's been a tight, busy, and stressful ride, but it the curtains are coming.

3. I'd like to build a strong relationship with my cooperating teacher. I would like to create the beginnings of a lifelong friendship this semester, one that exists outside of protocol and classroom formalities. I feel like this sort of relationship creates the best kind of learning for myself and for the students of the classroom. This sort of genuine teamwork is an ideal dynamic to me.

4. I'd like to definitively know where I stand as a literary discussion leader. I'd like to have the ability to look at a story I know and say "Yeah, my students will like this and I know they will be interested in this content." I want to be able to be more sure of the directions that will be appealing to my students ahead of time.

Best of luck to everyone else's semester!

-Brian Records