Required Blog #2

Of all the lessons I've taught so far (like how I used the word "all" to make it seem impressive?), the lessons on essay writing - particularly organizing thoughts during the prewriting stage were most successful. I think this can be attributed to a number of reasons: 1) It's easy. There's not much writing involved. It's simply writing whatever comes into your mind, organizing it into good or bad, and then choosing the three most quantifiable subjects. 2) It was the first stage of writing, so the students hadn't had time to become bored yet. 3) I did examples with people they liked: Michael Jordan, Tupac, etc. I feel like I also did a good job of explaining what happens in my head when I'm organizing thoughts.
My worst lesson was probably the one on using context clues. I think most of this boils down to preparation. It was something I hadn't taught before and had to sort of throw together at the last minute because things we had originally planned for that period didn't work out (pre-test, procedures didn't take as long as anticipated, etc.). Also, the lesson was fairly lecture-oriented, and I still haven't figured out a solution to keep students' attention for 50 minutes when you're just talking to them. (I'm not sure one exists.)
My instructional procedures tend to mimic those that I used most commonly during the end of the regular school year: heavy on the set and heavy on the examples. For me, so many terms and concepts in Literature and English are defined very vaguely, that the only way to explain a concept is to give example after example. Also, I've found if you lose a kid at the beginning of the lesson, it's twice as hard to get him back. For these reasons, I usually run out of time when I'm allowing for independent practice and I consistently squeeze my closure into about 30 seconds.
I differentiated instruction by doing a lot of activities. Typically, I'll over dozens of verbal examples and samples throughout a lesson. Also, I've made it a goal to provide a visual handout for almost every lesson so that students can organize their thoughts. I've done a lot of group activities, allowing students to move around the room and build things with their hands. I think mostly though, I've given students lots of freedom in their assignments to choose what interests them. I realize that's not technically a "learning modality," but I still feel like differentiated is all about freedom of choice, which I'm definately trying to provide.
I think students' performance would be enhanced with more consistency among teachers. Because of the need to have four teachers teach so many lessons, it's extremely difficult to have the same teacher teach the same concept thoroughly. For example, I started a lesson using characterization in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" only to have it completed by two other teachers. Although I think there are definately benefits to this tactic, the students become confused by three different teachers' methods, priorities on what's important in the story, and different interpretations. To make it even worse, those teachers weren't in the room the entire time when the other was teaching because we were planning or conferencing. I think more time would definately also be an advantage, but I guess that's not the intention of summer school.

Required June Blog 1

When I sat down and began to think about the curriculum that we would teach this summer for English I, I had several doubts about my ability to make such a huge decision considering I taught English III and IV this past year. The more I looked at the frameworks though and discussed content with other MTC English teachers, I decided that the most beneficial lessons for these students would be those that they could bring back and apply to their English II (state tested) classes next year wherever they are. I wanted these students to be able to re-use and re-apply strategies learned this summer in whatever English classroom they end up for the school year, regardless of the learning environment or teacher's competency. Thus, the main ideas that we focused on stressing for the first few lessons were a good grammar basis, good organizational processes and strategies (especially for essays), and general reading comprehension/test taking skills. I also thought that since the students would be in the same class, same seat, same teachers for 4 hours each day, it would be best to try and vary the lessons as much as possible to keep their attention span; therefore, our lessons generally teach four completely different concepts/ideas every day. We tried to cover at least one of the four themes: essay writing (students will compose their own informative essay by end of the week), grammar (students will apply rules of Subject-Verb agreement and commas vs. semi-colons in multiple sentences), reading comprehension (use of context clues and active reading), and literary (starting off with characters/characterization in one of my favorite short stories, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"). I imagined that, and for the most part found it to be true, that students had at the very least heard of some of the terms/strategies/concepts we discussed (bubble map, four square model, FANBOYS, etc.), but did not know exactly what they were or how to apply them. We made sure we were very explicit on when and how to use and apply these skills. The students will need to demonstrate competency in these areas in order to pass the state test and graduate in English II next year. I believe one of the students' favorite lessons (and one of my favorite to teach) was the inductive strategy (Unguided inquiry) where I had students explain to me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The first student told me to open the bag; I did so, but did it by ripping the bag open from the bottom, allowing most of the bread to fall on the floor, instead of untwisting the ties and opening it from the top. This continued, with students not being specific enough and my assuming things from their vague directions until we had thoroughly messed up the peanut butter and jelly making process. After this, I believe the students understood the importance of organizing your thoughts, being specific, and following the correct steps, which easily led into the lesson on prewriting.

What I Wish I Knew Coming Into Teacher Corps

1) How to be an Asshole. I'd heard it probably more than Ben's hackneyed "This is the hardest thing you'll ever do in your professional life" speech, but I still didn't really believe it: "Don't smile until Christmas." What does that mean? Why? The kids are like wolves and can smell happiness like a wounded animal? I didn't know. So I paid it no heed. Big mistake. And I don't necessarily think it's true, but I think way too many of my classroom management problems (and let's face it, those are the biggest problems for virtually everyone) stem from the fact that I was cracking jokes and singing Coolio in class from the get go. I'll admit it: I wanted to be the cool teacher. But somehow there's a mixed message in telling a kid to sit down now while also making fun of the sag in his pants. I should have been a hard-ass. And when it finally hit me (about December) that my style wasn't working, it was almost too late to turn it around... especially with my worst class. I wish I could have taken pictures of their faces the first time I told them "I don't care... sit down now" when they started in on their lits of excuses why they had to get up out of their seats for the fourth time. I thought that by being understanding and appealing to their sense of reason while also showing them that I'm young and hip enough (I know, I think my intention was lost by just using the word "hip") to sympathize with their situations that they would respect me. They don't respect compassion or humor, they respect fear. At least at first. It's quite an over-exaggeration not to smile for 6 months. But I'd say for the first 5-6 weeks, be an asshole. That doesn't mean you make a kid cry (although there'll be plenty of days when you want to). It just means be curt, blunt, crude, and straightforward in telling students what you want them to do and doling out the consequences when they inevitably don't do it. Don't explain yourself more than you have to. Don't be understanding in front of the class. (Tell the kid that's about to tear your head off for giving him a writing assignment he can see you after class if it's that big a problem.) Don't give second chances. Let them see you as an authoritarian dictator and let them adjust. Then, as the weeks wear on, crack a "yo mama" joke. Laugh at yourself for tripping over the wires around your desk. Do an impression of another teacher. Let them see your human. But please wait until the point where they're scared and wonder if they should laugh at all.
2) How to Teach to the Level of My Students. Going in, partially because I was teaching juniors and seniors (two of which were Honors classes), I tried to make my classroom as much as a college setting as possible. Bad idea. Your students are not college students. The majority of them will not go to college, at least not a 4 year college. A large percentage of those who do eventually enroll in a 4 year college will not graduate college. So by doing what I did, you're preparing the minority. My biggest tips to getting kids to actually learn the material: Review as often as possible. Stop every 20-25 minutes and review what you've just gone over. Review at the end of class. Review every day at the beginning of your lesson. Review before tests. I know it may seem tedious and weary, especially to you, the teacher, someone who's been trained to memorize minute facts in very little time, but these students' brains do not work like ours -- they haven't had the conditioning. They need things repeated and reiterated over and over again. It's something I'm still working on, especially since the level of comprehension in my classes is so wide, but it's something I feel a lot better about now than I did when I started.