Its Not WHAT They Write, Its THAT They Write

Teens don’t care much about anything else except themselves, which is why most of the journal prompts I give are centered on themselves and what they think. The point is not about what they write, but that they right. The article, “It’s the THAT Teacher” by Ted Hipple, talks about why teachers should be more preoccupied with the fact that students are reading and not what they are reading. Hipple states that because we force students to read the books that we need them to read, they will try their hardest to avoid literature because “the longer the kid stays in school, for many youngsters, the worse it gets, with greater and greater pressures to read and understand. The joy of reading is gone (pg 3).” The pressure we put on kiddos to read our books and understand a book our way is sucking the life out of fun reading, and many students will read no longer. So, if we tell students what to read and what to write about, our students will dread English Language Arts for the rest of their lives.

            We must allow students to pick what they want to read and what to write about. When we decide that students are going to write about communism, and its effects on human behavior, we have just lost them forever. First they cannot connect to communism because they haven’t ever experienced it, and second they will just repeat all of the examples you give them to write about because they have no real thoughts about communism other than what information you have provided them with. This isn’t the case for all writing about communism, though. I could assign a paper on communism and its effects in Cambodia, and the kids will be more drawn to that, because of the book we are reading now. I would read about five of these papers and be bored out of my mind. I could instead have them write Arn Charn-Pond a story they most remember about their childhood or when they were Arn’s age. These would be full of life and emotion. They would be full of descriptive words and metaphors. They would touch the reader more than a research paper about communism. I understand however that research papers are needed, and thus cannot be avoided, but man, how awesome would it be if students came to class eager to write and share their writing with the class each and every day? I know I would have loved it.

genunine responses

            “Writing in isolation without lively response is like other solitary activities…They do not get much better” –Dan Kirby

             I never thought about why people respond to actions or products that others make, but it is built in us to provide some sort of response. The thing about grading writing in the classroom is that most teachers respond with corrections rather than responses, which doesn’t help the writer get any better. This just keeps them right where they are because they know their grade, but do not know how to make it better.

            I say most teachers and I do not include myself because I have a tendency to ignore grammar and spelling. If the paper is a good paper, the writer gets a good grade. I think it’s because I was scared as a student in grade school when all of my papers came back bleeding because of all my grammar errors and my grade only made it worse. I often wondered what my teachers thought of it and if they liked it even if it was an awful paper. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I had an awesome teacher who told us from the get go, “when you get your papers back, you will see plenty of red, but find your grade to be higher than you expect.” He made sure we noticed all of our errors so we could fix them, but he actually read what we had written. He and I would also talk about my papers and he would talk about other kids’ papers in class. He actually read our work! That changed my outlook on grading papers forever. And curiously enough, most of my teachers after that have given me great feedback on the things I write.

            I make it an effort to respond with genuine responses to my students writing, but what if there is no time to respond genuinely to everyone’s writing? What are some things you do to respond genuinely to student writing and still have enough time to sleep and other necessities?  

What to Write About

So, next week my students start their journals, but we cannot start the novel until this Friday, so in the mean time I’m wondering what we could write about. I have this small book that has prompts, but I’m not sure the students will enjoy them…

I was curious to know what some of your favorite prompts were when you were younger. I want to engage them with interesting, perhaps even controversial prompts so they can get into writing. I know that there are many students who have so much to say about a lot of things, but are afraid to speak out and by providing them with a safe space in which to write they can feel comfortable with their opinion and they can voice it through their writing.

            I’m curious to know what my students view is on some topics and I’m curious to know how engaging our discussions would be if they wrote things down first. I know that when I get a few minutes to write things down before I have a discussion whit someone about something I feel so much more confident in my point of view, and I’m sure my students aren’t any different.

            I have a few concerns about the time I have to read this novel, because like I mentioned before I will begin reading this novel with my students on Monday of next week because my CT needed to get their second semester writing assessment done before I began my unit. I will only have about seven weeks with them until I leave, so I’m wondering if I should stay until they finish the novel… I wouldn’t mind actually. I know that they can finish a book in about 6 weeks, but that’s if we read super fast and discuss very little, so I may just have to stick around.

            Anyway, my biggest concern right now is coming up with interesting, engaging, somewhat controversial prompts for my students to write about before we get into the novel. Any suggestions?

Procedures Procedures

I hope you all had a spectacular spring break, and I hope I hear some crazy stories when I see you all in class this week. I have to be honest…I was more than ready for this break. I needed it much more than I realized. I have to be a bit concerned, however, because I know most of my kiddos are not as excited about getting back to school as I am and therefore are expected to act up a bit during the first couple of days of school.

When I left school on the 15^th my CT simply told me to be prepared for the students to be rowdy, and to go over procedures as much as possible. I honestly don’t know what procedures to go over except the CHAMPS posters and restroom passes. I also don’t remember my teachers ever going over procedures with my classes after each and every break when I was growing up. I can see the benefits, but I feel that all the teachers are going to be going over CHAMPS and procedures for hall behavior etc. etc. tomorrow, and by the time I get my 8^th grade honors language arts kiddos they will have been so bored with all these procedures and rules that they’re going to act up even more.

Is it foolish to begin classes with a few group building exercises and games? I could get class started with those, and then move on to procedures. I’m just nervous because the kids will be super rowdy. I might do procedures and rules first and then do some fun little games to reconnect and build relationships.

Update on my nonsense with the novel and spiral notebooks:

My principal told me he would provide the notebooks for the kids who did not bring them!! This was so nice to hear and a huge relief because now my CT won’t have to spend any money of her own for the notebooks and the kids will all have full size notebooks to write in instead of half mini notebooks. Also, we found the perfect spot for the para that refused to be in our room while we read the novel. I had her pick her own novel that dealt with propaganda and communism, and she loved the idea of running her own little class with our two girls who will not be reading the novel with us. It’s kinda funny how it all worked out J  

Negative Vibes

           So, remember how I said I was going to read Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick to my classes this last semester? Well, I still am, but I had to go through some crazy trouble to get here. I noticed that my para was spending so much time in the library talking to the librarian a few weeks ago, but I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t have a reason to. Last week my CT comes up to me and tells me that she had received several calls from the librarian concerning the book I chose to read. “The book is too graphic for this age of kiddos,” the librarian told my CT. So I’m getting all stressed because I possibly have to come up with a whole new book to read along with all new activities, and because my mom bought a house and she wants to move in April, and I still have so many things to do before the end of April (KPTP, 1million papers, books to read, planning, etc. etc.)  that I felt a bit overwhelmed so I went home and cried for a bit. L

            Next day my CT says, “You know, I was reading the book and I think its graphic, but it’s not any different form the Holocaust, so I think we should still continue with our plan. I think our kids will benefit from this story because it is so relevant and it fits in so nicely with the recent activities that we have been doing.” I almost gave her a hug, but I contained myself. We ended up taking it to the principal, who approved it right away and we sent home a parent letter.

            The para, however, was appalled that we were actually going to read this with our kids so she begins to talk to the other English teachers at the school and requests to be taken out of our class and/or switched with another para. All of a sudden we’ve got two three teachers coming up to us talking about this books and questioning my professionalism and morals, so I challenged them to read it before they trashed it. The para refused, but everyone else is currently reading it, and they like it so far. There are some cuss words in it and it is graphic, but if we have the okay from the parents and the okay from the principal, then I will read it with my class and we will become better people because of it. If you haven’t read it, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is a powerful book, and it is worth every bit of bad vibe we got for it. 

             The following is a review of the book:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12924297-never-fall-down

Asking.Writing.Hoping.Growing

I’m starting to become much more excited about teaching in my English placement after spring break. I decided to read Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick, which is amazing. I have the whole calendar done and ready to go, but I also have noticed that my kids do not write very well, so I’ll use this books and the many controversial topics it brings up to have my kids write journal response entries every day. I have requested that my principal give me notebooks for the kids because I want them to have a notebook in the classroom which is their very own and no one will read besides me and them.

            We’ll see if my principal gives me notebooks after spring break, and I hope he doesn’t think that I’ve lost my mind, because I asked him and did not let my CT do it for me. I think it shows courage and I think is shows that I will request things form the school if it means that my students will benefit from it.

            I also plan on writing a letter asking parents to buy some spiral notebooks for their kids during spring break, which I will share the letter with both my CT and my principal for their approval. I know, however, that many parents won’t buy notebooks for reasons they only know, which is why I’m counting on my principal for support. What should I do if he does think I’m out of line? After all I am only a student teacher…

            I told him that I have a plan B which basically means that I’ll take any and all the notebooks I get from my kids and cut them horizontally to make mini notebooks which will work fine for their journal entries, but not much else. I think the whole point of keeping writing notebooks is so my students have all their writing in one place, and so they can look back through it sometime in their life and enjoy remembering their 8^th grade thoughts.

            Hopefully all goes as planned, and my kids enjoy their last semester of middle school. I also hope that they learn a lot about themselves through this novel, and that they learn plenty about their wiring style. I know that’s how I learned. I just wrote and wrote, and I fell in love with expressing my feeling on paper. I just hope my kids do too.