Category: Writing

A Collaboration with TED-Ed

If you haven’t heard of TED, you probably haven’t spent much time around the internet. This non-profit organization’s online community, recorded lectures (known as “TED Talks”), and events are hands-down one of the most amazing resources available, not only for teachers, but for all intelligent people who want to partake of the “Ideas Worth Spreading” gathered from some of the best minds in all types of fields.

Throughout second semester, I’ve been (secretly!) collaborating with TED-Ed, a branch of TED that focuses on making great lessons from real teachers available online in the form of short, animated videos. The site also allows teachers to easily flip the video as a full lesson, with links to supplementary materials as well as the ability to add objectives, ask questions, and monitor online discussion. For anyone into teaching and learning, it’s seriously awesome.

So you can imagine my excitement when, this winter, I was contacted by TED-Ed to talk about a lesson that I had submitted: tips on how to find the “deeper meaning” of a text when writing about works of literature. After my lesson was chosen for development, I went through a phone interview, revised several written drafts of my script, and eventually got approved to record. Using a special portable soundbooth that was sent to me in the mail, I was able to upload several takes of the narration, and eventually moved to online collaboration with an animator that I was matched with. The final result is the video below, which went live today!  I am so proud to be a contributing member of the TED community–creating this video was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had as an educator. :)

Secrets to Making Work Time Productive in the English Classroom

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If your classroom is like mine, you’re constantly asking students to create—to display their skills in composition by writing essays, designing presentations, synthesizing research, or penning poetry. While there are many exciting ways to present the content for developing these skills during a traditional lesson, eventually the students do need to take complete control of it by making something that demonstrates their proficiency in the targeted skills. And we all know what that means… work time!

Most schools seem to have adopted the mentality that, at least in part, guided work time belongs in the classroom rather than at home. And while I feel that it is important for students to cultivate independence and responsibility outside of school hours, I also know that it makes good sense to provide in-class work time for students to receive initial feedback, to compensate for time that may be stretched by work and extracurriculars, or to provide quality computer access for a student who may not have it at home. So, we sign up for the computer lab, hand out our instructions, and let the kids go, with the expectation that things are going to get done!

That being said, what actually happens during “work time” can sometimes devolve into a confusing muddle of distraction, idleness, and sub-standard results if the classes aren’t structured appropriately. As a teacher, this can be frustrating! Sometimes we ask ourselves why we even bother to dedicate two or more consecutive days of class to work time if our students don’t use it correctly. While much of that can certainly be remedied through strong classroom management and clear directions, I’ve found a combination of several strategies that, when applied, will consistently ensure that work time is truly a productive block of time where real teaching, learning, and (YES!) work will indeed occur.

*STRUCTURING CLASSROOM WORK TIME: A HOW-TO*

The Prewriting Check-Off

I always give my students a pre-writing activity that will help them start developing their ideas for a particular assignment. This may be a detailed annotation of a poem, a graphic organizer, an outline, a thesis-generator sheet, or even a sketch that shows an idea. When my students have their first day in the lab, before they may even turn their computer on, they must get their pre-writing activity physically checked off by me. This helps students get their ideas in order, so that they have at least a starting point. As I check students off, I can address early misunderstandings or questions while also avoiding the “blank screen phenomenon.” If a student has trouble starting, I can point to their annotations or graphic organizer and help them use that as a springboard for their first keystrokes. This way, I know that every student is prepared to work well before they even begin.

Mini Lessons at the Start of Class

Especially if the project is an extended one requiring several days in the lab, I start my students in the actual classroom, where I give a mini-lesson on a particular writing or analysis skill that’s relevant to the task they are approaching in their work. For example, during a branding project for English 12, I showed my students a brief presentation on how to use color, typography, line, and texture to communicate ideas before we started working on that particular day. A short mini lesson before work time gives my students an injection of learning that they can immediately apply in their work, making them more focused and capable. When I offer mini-lessons, I go pretty quickly as to not take up too much time, but I always make the content available on my website, so that students can refer to it throughout the class if they need to revisit it or take a closer look at an example—which I often see them do!

Goal Setting

This is such an easy step that is often overlooked. Give students a specific goal, or even a set of goals, for each day of work time Goals can be skill-based (Ex. Today, I want you to include at least one metaphor and at least one personification in your writing.), quantity-based (Ex. I want you to write two or more pages by the end of class), or process-based (Ex. I want you to at least get through step three of the directions today.) I also ask students to set personal goals as they are logging on. Again, this gives students a specific thing to shoot for, which increases the sense of meaning and urgency for what they are working on, and gives them a sense of accomplishment when they meet the goal.

Sticky Notes for Student Needs

After the first couple days of a project, it can be hard to know exactly how hands-on to be with the students as they work. Students at the middle or end stages of a paper or presentation have a way of all looking like they know exactly what they’re doing… even though some of them inevitably don’t. So, what’s the teacher to do? You don’t want to distract or intrude upon students who are “in the groove,” but you also want to know if students need help. My technique for dealing with this conundrum is giving each student a sticky note to stick on top of their monitor. I give them a range of options for what to write, usually “I got this,” “I have a question,” or “I’m lost!” As I stroll around the lab, I visually check the post-its. I quickly address the needs of the lost students, meander around to the ones who have a question or two periodically, and leave the go-getters alone to do amazing work without any help from me!

Classroom Management through Sound

I do allow students to listen to music on their headphones as they work if they wish. I will also periodically play music out loud for the whole class—I usually select a Pandora station with contemporary but slow-paced music. [My current favorite station, which changes weekly, is The Gabe Dixon Band. It’s important to avoid Top 40 or very danceable tracks, which have the opposite of the desired calming effect!] I use music as kind of a subliminal “get focused” signal for students that are a being little too social. I don’t say anything about it; I just turn the music on. It seems to work best to start the volume loud, about as loud as the students are talking. As they register the fact that music is playing, they typically start lowering their own volume. I then ratchet the volume down along with them… it’s kind of like magic! In the event that music is ineffective, I will implement silent work time and seating charts. Students may bellyache about it, but when it’s necessary, silence always sends the message that things need to get done. In this case, I usually say “I want to hear the sound of typing. That should be the main sound you are making.” I’ve also found that a half-and-half technique, splitting the class between productive buzz (first part of class) and silent work (middle of class up until the bell), is effective and helps students retain momentum over the full length of the class period.

Individual Conferences

While all of this is going on, I also make sure to conference individually with each of my students at least once throughout the duration of any project. I try to catch students who I know will need a heavy dose of guidance first, and then call students up at random to talk about their vision, progress, and plan. This gives me a really good idea of each student’s understanding of the task, and allows me to offer explanation, ideas, suggestions, and reactions. It also provides a chance to interact with students one-on-one, which builds positive relationships and helps me be accurate with the types of differentiation and assessment methods I’m using.

So those are my secrets for catalyzing student productivity… How about you? Any other ingenious suggestions for how to structure work time? I’d love to hear them!

 

Project-Based English 12–Semester One

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What is English 12?

That’s the question my colleague Ms. J and I found ourselves asking last summer, as we prepared to roll out a brand new version of senior language arts. Our department had found a need for a new way of looking at things as the new Common Core State Standards were being presented, 21st century skills were becoming the most touted measuring stick for student achievement post-high school, and voices in our community were calling for graduates who were more professionally savvy. Our previous English 12 courses were very traditional literature-based classes, with no real identity to ground them as anything other than a basic senior English course. Our vision was to completely revamp the curriculum: Align curriculum to the standards. Create a project-based course that gives freedom and ownership to the students. Find ways to constantly connect learning to the community and to real life experiences. We hoped to see higher student engagement/buy-in, higher achievement, and an emerging professional demeanor in our students.

Here’s what we came up with:What’s English 12? Infographic

As the year unfolded, the students were occasionally mystified or daunted by the new, challenging things we were asking of them. The largest of these is the senior research proposal, paper, and project. Students are asked to select a defining topic that pertains to their interests, skills, or future plans. Throughout the year, they develop research on that topic which eventually results in a project, of their own design, that the students display for the community at the end of the year showcase. During semester one, we’ve planted the seeds for this epic undertaking in several special ways. I’ve given a snapshot below.

September – October: Introduced “big picture” of course, linking to Tony Wagner’s idea of Passion, Play, and Purpose as the most important cornerstones of learning that creates innovation and creativity. Students were asked to begin considering their topic choices, keeping these ideas in mind.

Early November: Over 30 local professionals from many different fields were our guests at the Professional Symposium, an event designed for students to learn more about the real expectations of the different corners of the work world. Each professional had a table where they brought in things related to their career (like a model of a human spine, a laptop video display, architectural drafts, plants…). The students, who were required to dress professionally, then circulated and asked both prepared and impromptu interview questions to prompt conversations. Students also had important roles in the event, such as being in charge of lighting/sound and giving the closing address. This experience offered important insight, and helped several students select a topic.

Late November: Students were required to select their topics by this time. (True to the student-ownership goal, these ranged from the history of comics to Spina Bifida awareness to Bigfoot to sports medicine.) We took the students on a research field trip to the Golda Meir Library at UW-Milwaukee. The staff worked amazingly well with our massive group of students. During this experience, our rural students got to see what a respected university library is like, and they had access to a nearly-endless collection of both digital and print resources to inform their topic. They spent the day taking resource-specific notes and refining their topic choices.

December: In class, we offered instruction on specialized research skills, like how to conduct an email interview, using electronic databases, how to take notes, and choosing what to read in a lengthy  source. During this unit, students wrote a detailed annotated bibliography of 20+ credible sources related to their topics. Students were expected to give periodic reports to the full class about their reading and discoveries.

January: For the semester exam, students were asked to write a formal proposal for their research–English 12 Research Proposal. I was so impressed with my students’ overall excitement and true scholarship associated with their topics. I found myself reading things like…

  • “Philosophy does not get the respect and credit it well deserves. Few people in the world today realize how much philosophy has impacted society and the human race. My stance on this is that philosophy is an invaluable and irreplaceable building block to modern knowledge.” Alex L.

  • “I would say that modern comics are stepping away from old ideas and greeting new ones more openly as well as [showing a] more true step into maturity, unlike the hollow, pandering “maturity” of the 90’s. This is evident in things like superhero comics becoming somewhat less popular, indie and comics that deal with much different subject matters than the mainstream seeing much more popularity, the early 2000’s seeing the abandoning of the comics code almost altogether, and the far more respectful portrayal of modern war and tragic events like 9/11.” Stephen P.

  • “The juvenile system has flourished over time and helps create life saving opportunities for adolescents. Continuing over each generation adolescents will do bad things, but it is the system’s job to help save their lives, and create a better tomorrow. I arrived at my stance through trial and error. First I wanted to research the history of juvenile justice, but then I decided I want to find out what the juvenile system can offer adolescents. What can the system do for kids whose families have given up on them? Samantha S.

Our students have already grown so much in intellectual and professional maturity throughout this process, and I can tell that they are feeling proud to call this class their own. I’m looking forward to second semester, to see what happens as more and more responsibility is released over to them, and they are enabled and empowered to do interesting, contributive things. Students light up when you ask them about the right things–we’re channeling the power of those right things in order to activate remarkable learning.

Things I’ve already observed during semester one of English 12:

-Project-based learning is just as powerful as all the research claims it us! It targets a comprehensive skill set dealing with academics, technology, and professional demeanor.

-Project-based learning is absolutely achieveable in a public school environment, with all levels of students, though those who need to grow in their ability to self-direct have the most work to do to succeed. This type of format requires educators who are able to and interested in keeping close tabs on the progress/development of each individual.

-Project-based learning helps students, even those prone to “senioritis” remember how much they actually do love to learn.

Things I’m still wondering:

-How does project-based learning look in other senior classes around the state and country? Do you teach one or know of one? Please share! Examples have not been the easiest to find.

-What are the best assessment techniques for such a wide variety of outcomes? While many aspects of student acheivement are observable in this format, measuring it objectively and accurately may become a challenge. Are there any educators out there with ideas about this?

 

The Rhetoric of Humor

Sometimes when I reflect on my journey as an educator, I think back to my first evaluations as a student teacher. It’s so interesting to consider the things that used to take so much thought and energy which have now become second nature. But what I find even more interesting is that certain aspects of my teaching style from those very first days have remained exactly the same–the things that are intrinsic to my teaching persona and instincts. One of those things is laughter. I distinctly remember sitting down with my evaluating teacher-mentor after an observation in South Milwaukee, and the first thing she did was look at me, smile, and say, “I can tell you really just love teaching your students. You smile a lot. And you laugh a lot!”

It’s still so true. I talk a lot about the joy of teaching, but I really feel that we can’t talk about that enough. It’s just joyful to be in the company of young people, and to smile, laugh, and find ways to make learning enjoyable and… if at all possible… hilarious. Adolescents are, by nature, boisterous and tend to relish sarcasm and wit. This is a power that can (and does) get them in trouble, but it can also be a powerful tool for building rapport and igniting a desire to investigate language, if used correctly.

So, when my dear friend and teaching compatriot, Mr. M., asked what I thought about the idea of a sophomore-level humor unit, I was all in from day one. What followed sparked one of our most successful tenth grade units, and one that we’re lucky enough to be able to showcase at the WCTE conference this Friday. For those who attend the session (or for those who cannot make it in person), we’ve made the materials available here for you. You’ll find our rationale, a bibliography, a list of texts we utilized in class, student examples and more in the links below. We hope that you’ll enjoy building your own humor unit, and share ideas about how to add or modify what we’ve begun here. Thanks for visiting!

The Rhetoric of Humor:

Reading and Creating Comedic Texts to Enhance Student Writing, Literacy, and Community

Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention

Friday, October 12, 2012  ~   Madison, WI

Link to Google Presentation that overviews the essentials of our approach: click here!

Digital copy of handout from the conference: The Rhetoric of Humor handout

Additional formative and summative assignments from the unit: Additional Unit Materials

Writing Center Work Translates to Teaching: an interview

 

Interview at UW-Milwaukee

Earlier this year, I was happy to revisit the beautiful UW-Milwaukee Writing Center, where I worked as an undergrad, for an interview. The UWM Writing Center, which you can visit by going to The Writing Center Homepage, was one of my first steps as an educator, and has often translated into my teaching. [You can read even more about that in this post from last year.]

In the interview, which is the latest in an ongoing series of short interviews with current and alumni tutors, I was asked to describe how my work in the UWM Writing Center influenced my teaching career. Trust me when I say that these few minutes are just a fraction of what I was able to talk about! The idea of a writing center is a beautifully simple one–to provide a place where student writers can communicate with other, highly qualified student writers to receive feedback without the pressure or power dynamic of a student-instructor relationship. It’s a great idea for high schools, too. I hope that one day I’ll be able to work with my colleagues to start one at my own place of employment. If and when that happens, I’ll continue to draw from the rich supply of experience that I gained in the WC. :)

 

Teaching AP Literature: Maiden Voyage

It’s difficult to wrap my mind around the reality that I’m just months away from finishing out my first year teaching AP English Literature and Composition. This new part of my teaching load was daunting at first, considering I knew nothing about the AP program and that I had never before had the opportunity to put together an honors, let alone an AP course. I knew I was up to the challenge, having always been a person who demanded academic rigor of myself. Still, I knew that this would entail a lot of work… especially considering that, for the first time, I’d be working with students who are all academically very pretentious. Deep down, I had to question whether I would be able to convince them of my knowledgeability and credibility. I knew I couldn’t really “fake” my way through this, not even a little, because students who expect a lot of themselves expect even more of their teachers. My fears were not quickly assuaged; for the first two months of the course, my students regarded me in mostly silence–a silence I had absolutely no way of comprehending. “They hate me,” I thought to myself on a routine basis. Then: “Maybe they’re scared of me? Or scared to fail?” Or sometimes: “God, I hope they don’t think I’m an idiot who’s just faking my way through this.”

Luckily for us all, I have been investing a good percentage of my life since last June studying, preparing, reading, experimenting, and evolving in order to be worthy of my position as an “expert” teacher of literature, and my students now do speak to me, smile at me warmly, and laugh at my (usually stupid) jokes. [Example, for discussion of Richard Wright's Native Son: This man's criminality stems from BIGGER influences than just his own independent choices... Um... no pun intended.] And, they are learning. They are making progress in their writing that I can visibly see. They tell me that they feel “enlightened” by what they’ve learned this year, and recently played a role in electing me as the commencement speaker for their graduating class. To my shock, awe, and happiness, I must be doing something right!

Don’t get me wrong–I am still very much the novice when it comes to teaching AP. Just look at a list of commonly cited texts of the essay portion of the exam, and it’s very difficult not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of canonical literature one hasn’t read and hasn’t taught. It seems I’ve already got a list a mile long when it comes to things that I’ll be doing a little differently next year. But for the most part, it’s been a great success. Granted, the students’ scores on the exam in May will be a more accurate measure of that success in a quantitative sense, but I am proud of what these students have been able to accomplish no matter what number they pull on the actual test. I am looking forward to building upon this first success, and eventually becoming a master AP Lit teacher… someday!

Since I learned a lot by doing, I’d like to share the outline of my course for those who are interested either to adopt aspects of it into their own AP plans, or those who’d like to offer new ideas that I (or anyone) could incorporate into this initial frame.  I found syllabi that were posted online to be another great help in the initial formation of my course, so I’ll make my own available as well.

Ms. H’s AP Literature Voyage Log

Summer syllabus: AP English Literature and Composition Summer Syllabus (PDF)

School year syllabus: AP English Literature and Composition Syllabus 11-12

My basic approach/primary goals for students

*Thorough exposure to great literature: Over two semesters, students read twelve novels/plays and dozens of poems and supplementary readings from a wide range of time periods and authors.

* I took a chronological and philosophical approach, organizing units by time period but also by the mindset of the time. When needed, I filled in gaps in students’ history knowledge (like more intimate details of the French Revolution or a deeper analysis of colonialism/racism in America than textbooks provide). I made sure that students could understand the unique historical terms, literary period, and worldview under which each story was formed. This really helped their analyses become more sophisticated, rather than repeating tired aphorisms gleaned from simplified impressions of history.

*Nearly every day, students define and apply a new literary term. From “foil” to “colloquialism” to “ballad meter” to “deus ex machina,” they need to be able to wield these terms in writing and identify them on the multiple choice section. I also focus on teaching the many words that can be used to describe tone, like “elegiac” or “pedantic.”

*Close reading, close reading, close reading… we come back to this often–learning and practicing how to truly interpret language, identify the effects of language choices, and using that information to support a well-crafted thesis. [Click on this link for a Powerpoint fashioned to introduce the concept: Writing-about-literature]

*We take, dissect, and question practice multiple choice exams, in an effort to learn what to expect and how the questioning process seems to operate.

*Constant writing. Ask my students, and you will find that they write quite a bit. There are eleven formal essays in all, each of which I spend copious time commenting on. I identify and explain moments of success, problematic sections, and give a final remark along with the grade at the end. It’s worth the entire day that it takes to grade a full class’ worth, because the students respond and enhance their writing as a result. Revision is expected and encouraged.

*Much academic discussion is required, as a full class, with smaller groups, and with me. Students annotate their texts in preparation, and are pushed daily to make comments (spoken and in writing) which, in the words of the AP course description, are “insightful” and “acknowledge complexity.” My students have come an extremely long way in this category, and it’s the one that I’m most proud of. They truly have gone from making banal, insipid generalizations to impressing me on a daily basis with the kinds of things that they observe and characterize. [Click this link for my presentation on insight/complexity: developing-insight2]

 

Fellow AP instructors, I have a new respect for what you do. Congrats on all the work you’ve done, and that which you’ll continue to do. Academic rigor is something sorely needed in American schools, and it’s truly a gift to have a group of students who embrace that opportunity with open arms. Best of luck on the exam. *Fingers crossed for a class full of threes, fours, and fives*

 

Sharing the Process: a (literally) hands-on approach to the literary essay

I’ve been working a lot with my AP Literature and Composition students on their writing skills. Writing about literature has many aspects that can be troublesome for student writers. One of the most difficult parts for my students has been learning to formulate an argument about a fictional work, and–in particular–using quotes in order to further the argument that they create, instead of inserting irrelevant narrative quotes to illustrate a glorified summary. Part of this, I think, has been due to their tendency to write an essay without quotes first, before going back and trying to “plug in” a quotation here and there. When done right, quotations should be the framework of the piece, upholding and elaborating the claims of the student writer.

So how does one achieve the incorporation of quotes that are an integral part of an essay’s structure? Sometimes you’ve got to start with the quotes themselves. There are various ways to begin composing a literary essay, but I have a tried and true method that has worked for me in my own writing since the idea came to me in high school on an impulse. It’s the Ms. H Method for Planning the Ultimate Literature Essay!  I created a small comic to guide my students through this process, so that they can try it out to see if it works for them (click on the image to make it bigger):

I love this technique because it’s very visual and very hands-on. Rather than overloading the mental circuitry by trying to envision an entire paper at a single go, using the quotation slips allow the writer to manually rearrange, organize, and experiment with ideas before a word even hits the page. For me, this kind of thing really makes me feel like I know where I’m headed from the moment I write the first sentence. Also, it ensures that my use of quotations is crafted and purposeful.

Every writer’s process is different, but whenever possible I like to share mine with my students. For some, it may provide a new, helpful technique. For others, it might inspire a different approach. For everybody, it shows that I am a writer, too–an important thing for teachers of English (and all teachers, really) to share with their students. All writers struggle, and all writers create. I think when students view us as fellow strugglers/creators, they respect our feedback more, find it easier to approach us for help, and more willingly see us as collaborators in the experience of learning to write, rather than omnipotent, wrathful red pens. Sharing aspects of myself as a writer reminds me that I was once much like my students, and consequently helps me better adapt to what they need as growing analysts and philosophers.

Sophomores and the Amazing Technicolor Literary Analysis

Writing in a fluent, thoughful way is such a crucial thing to teach students. Teaching writing is my favorite thing to do as a teacher–I just love watching students work through their own ideas, seeing them put an assertion down on paper that is theirs and theirs alone. Literary analysis is one form of writing that I focus on with my sophomores in particular, as they realize the potential of fiction and poetry to state underlying truths through symbolism and figurative language. It is an awesome thing, but that does not mean it’s an easy thing. Weeks need to be spent building scaffolding that helps students learn to interpret, extract themes, and form opinions about texts on their own. All along the way, I have them continually write short analyses. Of course, my expectations for the very first one are extra simple (the student went beyond mere summary and used some type of textual evidence–great!), and continue to become more extensive as time goes on (for their final assignment, they are expected to do a double analysis and comparison piece on a classical poem and lyrics from a contemporary song, and are expected to have developed insights as well as the ability to explicate examples of figurative language and the rhetorical effects upon the reader… Whew!). On the earlier assignments, I give students a lot of descriptive feedback to help them learn which steps of this new thinking task they need to develop.

There’s just a couple problems with feedback, though–   A. Sometimes, students merely gloss over it and/or don’t understand it.    B. It. Takes. FOREVER! I have four classes of sophomores. That’s a lot of essays. If I take just five minutes (which I’ve learned is fairly impossible) on each student’s assignment, it still amounts to a total  of seven and a half HOURS to give feedback on a single paper. While I’m willing to devote that time at the outset, when students are still floundering around in a sea of new expectations, I just can’t sacrifice that type of time once my students start gaining independence in their knowledge of how to analyze. At that point, it becomes their job as well to keep track of how they are progressing toward mastery. So how do I make sure I’m giving adequate formative assessment, my students know what they need to do to reach their learning objectives, and I don’t need to be committed to an insane asylum after days and days of reading beginner literary analyses? The answer is colors!

I got this fantastic idea from a very wise co-worker of mine, Ms. J. Last year during this unit, she created a step-by-step chart that asked students to outline various required features of an essay using specific colors to indicate specific things. I modified it slightly to fit a new assignment, and turned it into a PowerPoint that I had my students follow step by step. (You can see/download that very PowerPoint by clicking this: [analysisfeaturingcolors].) This activity–essentially a self-evalutation workshop–is wonderful for many reasons, which I’ll here expound:

-This kind of thing is deceptively fun. Once colored pencils/markers are involved, happy kindergarten memories come back and students feel at ease rather than intimidated by the complicated thinking they’re being asked to do. Also, they actually take deliberate time to search for each element so that they can color as much as possible.

-Colors make things as clear as day. Ask a student “Did you identify any literary devices?” and they may say, “Uhhhhhhhh….” However, after they’ve been given time to look for and color code the spots where they’ve identified literary devices, it’s easy to ask and definitively answer, ”Do you have any green on that paper? Where? How much?”

-At a glance, students can see how different elements of writing, such as context, a thesis statement, and textual evidence go together. It’s no longer a big glom of words on the page–it’s a transparent, intentional thought process on paper. Also, when it comes time for grading, the teacher can also see instantaneously if the patterns are looking good or not so good. Grading of each paper has been reduced to half a minute rather than five-ten minutes.

-Students are assessing themselves. They are looking at each individual requirement/expectation/goal that pertains to the task and are asking themselves “Did I reach this goal? If so, where? If not, what do I need to do to get there?” I required a short written reflection along with this activity–it sets up self-reflection perfectly.

-Colors are not for analysis writing alone. Just match up each category of your rubric with its own color and shazam! You’ve got an activity that is engaging, useful for formative assessment/self-assessment, makes kids think, saves you time, and makes the world a little more colorful. What’s not to love?

It’s continually astonishing to me how the power of visual elements in teaching can spur excellent thinking, reading, and writing. Try out this method in your own classroom, and post how it goes over. Also, if you can think of any additional modifications, please share them as well! (P.s. Write yourself a Post-It right now to add colored pencils to next year’s required supply list.)

Secret Poets

A weird thing started happening earlier this semester with a handful of my senior students. They started bringing me poetry. It was completely random, and the students were in no way aware of one another. It was just a set of isolated poetic energy surges, I suppose… an academic anomaly. Whatever the reason behind their poetry, each student had the same attributes while approaching me: head down, sideways glance, hand extended with a poem or two, and the mumbled phrase “Uh, would you… maybe… like, take a look at these or something?” This would only happen undercover, after most students had filtered out of the room. They wanted me to know they were poets, but they didn’t want their classmates to know. Of course, I did read the poems, and duly delivered them back on the sly, packed with comments and encouragement. Psyched that I had taken their work seriously, my secret poets shuffled off into the hallway crowd.

Then I got to thinking. Secret poets. My next senior unit practically fell into my lap. I could create a poetry writing workshop, I thought, my heart already fluttering with joy. While students are often asked to analyze poetry in literature classes, they are rarely given the chance to write poetry at all—much less experiment with, revise, and polish this creative form of writing. It could be great, I thought. But there was just one problem. Even my secret poets, when in a group with their peers, were afraid to claim their work. They dismissed the genre as “a waste of time,” “too emotional,” and simply not for them. I knew my kids were natural poets; if I could only get them to set aside their assumptions, I hoped they would realize it, too.

I decided to use my students’ uneasiness about poetry to my advantage by creating a unit where anonymity was part of the deal. Each student was required to create a pseudonym to sign their poetry with. If I shared a successful poem in front of the class, I could attribute it to the pseudonym. Recognition without embarrassment. Perfect, I thought.

I used this PowerPoint presentation [Becoming a Poet] to introduce the unit, address preconceptions, and start to sell the idea of poetry to my students. While they liked creating pen names, they still groaned at the thought of poetry. One student bellowed, “No! Ms. H… this unit is gonna be the limp in my graduation walk.” I chuckled at him. I was determined to turn my whole class into secret poets.

I checked out every poetry book in the school library. I brought in some Mos Def to teach metaphor and selections from Elizabeth Bishop to teach imagery. We met so many poets, and tried to do what they do. T.S. Eliot, Gary Soto, Emily Dickinson, Billy Collins, Pablo Neruda. We tried everything from sonnets to dada to odes to free verse. We wrote every day. I brought in my own poems in all different stages of completion, and talked through my own thought process as a writer. I celebrated my own poet identity and slowly, slowly, I felt the tides turning and the students’ poems flowing, too. Fast, tight rhymes, tactile images, and resonating sounds seeped up through raggedy looseleaf. Poems were coming from every direction: about basketball games in the park, grandfathers’ funerals, the hard brown clay of the racing track, the mystique of the universe, and the damp, cool sand of Lake Michigan’s shore.

Another important feature of this unit was peer critique. My goal here was to create a true community of writers who were able to provide feedback and help one another to continuously re-envision their work. I wrote this guide [A Brief Guide to Critiquing Poetry] to help them with the peer review process, which is influenced by Atwell’s workshop model, writing center praxis, and my own experiences in successful writing communities. This forced students to at least peek out of their shells as they shared and discussed poetry with each other. It was exciting to hear these students, who have known each other most of their lives, talk about something they never had (poetry!) in a way they never had (as poets!). Listening in on critique, when it was going well, was one of the most fulfilling parts of the unit for me as a teacher.

At the end of the unit, my students put together a poetry portfolio of their revised work, along with a letter to the reader that explained the personal journey they took throughout their study of poetry and described their own personal style and inspiration as a poet. As I had expected all along, the students’ poems were beautiful, moving, quirky, and just plain fantastic in their final state. Even to their own surprise, my classes were sad to see poetry go. Every single senior turned in a poetry portfolio, signed with their own true name on the front. The secret is out!

Writing Conferences: When Teacher Becomes Tutor

During my undergraduate years of teacher preparation, I had my first professional experience relating to students. It was not, however, in a classroom, and I was not playing the role of “teacher.” I was a tutor on staff at the UW-Milwaukee Writing Center, helping college students of all levels work out their ideas and words for all kinds of writing. Writing center tutors are trained to be intentionally un-teacherlike: withholding assessment, not claiming authority over the students’ work or ideas, but instead providing a gentle nudge from a position of expertise and relatability. In a writing center conference, the student holds the cards. This seems like a situation that cannot be reconciled with the role of authority that a teacher must adopt to run his or her classroom. But I think that with the right application, teachers can be tutors as well. In fact, some of my strongest teaching comes out when I’m channeling the methods and attitudes I learned back in my tutoring years at UWM.

THE TRANSFORMATION- WHEN TO LET YOUR INNER TUTOR OUT

In order for a classroom to operate efficiently, a teacher needs to show leadership. The teacher steers the course of the classroom. He or she gives assessment on each student’s performance in the class. And, famously, teachers do occasionally need to tell students what to do, to correct a distracting behavior or to address a misconception in learning. Being a tutor looks very different from this, though–the ultimate tutor is on the same level of authority as the tutee. This frees the writer from feelings of intimidation or the detached view of “just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Having a tutor that they can talk freely and openly with is key to a student’s success in writing conferences. But how/when can teachers do this, without compromising our authority?

For me, I simply create a physical boundary in the room where this transformation happens. I never tell my students that this is what I’m doing, but it’s true… My desk is positioned diagonally in a corner, facing out toward the classroom. If students are in front of my desk (as they nearly always are), I am the authority figure. If, though, a student crosses behind my desk (where I set up my conference area), all air of authority wisps away, and my interactions with the student take on an assumption of equal power over the direction of writing and ideas. Once students cross that boundary, they have entered my space and I consider them my equal, fellow writers.

A small catch to this transformation is the fact that during a one-on-one writing conference, there is a whole class full of other students who need to be occupying themselves with another task. Depending on the class size and composition, it may be hard to play teacher to them while simultaneously tutoring the student having a writing conference. I compensate for this by having something engaging, thourough, and urgent for the other students to complete which relates to our learning in class. This year, with relatively small classes and invested learners, that has worked splendidly. In the past, with larger classes, I’ve requested that an aide or literacy coach come in for the class period just to oversee the class/be the voice of authority while I focus on student writers one at a time.

As far as which point in the writing process works best with writing conferences, I prefer the beginning stages of writing. Students at this point have an outline and an introductory paragraph at most, or at the least a rough idea of where they want to go with the piece.  This stage lends itself well to the idea of teacher as tutor. It’s not yet time to be picky about grammar or formatting. It’s not too late to make major changes. And it’s the time when most student writers feel lost, conflicted, or overwhelmed. It’s amazing how productive the conversations can be–many students come into a conference with “no idea,” but leave with a plan.

HOW TO CONDUCT THE IDEAL WRITING CONFERENCE

My writing conference style draws directly from writing center praxis. The following are some basic tenets of this philosophy:

-The writer leads the conference. The student is the one who defines in what direction the conference will go. The teacher reacts to the path set out by the student, who should start the conference by outlining their current feelings about the assignment, the progress they’ve made so far, and the type of feedback they are seeking in regards to their writing. The teacher should spend most of the time listening, responding, and prompting, rather than instructing the writer.

-In order to help students assume the role of conference leader, the teacher should have a solid repertoire of open-ended, prompting questions to jumpstart the conversation. Some of my favorites, which tend to elicit the most interesting responses, are…

********How’s it going so far?

********Tell me about how you came up with the idea for this paper.

********What are you looking to achieve or change with this piece of writing?

********What kind of feedback would you like from me? What would you like me to focus on as we go?

********Can you take me through a rough idea of how you want to organize your writing from start to finish?

********How do you feel about your introduction?

********How do you want your readers to respond to this? What are you trying to achieve?

********Where do you feel you’re succeeding? Struggling?

********What are your writing goals for the next time you work on this piece?

-The student reads his/her writing aloud. The teacher should listen without interuppting, and take brief notes based on the type of feedback requested by the student before any discussion takes place.

-Writing is viewed as a fluid process which may change direction at any time. There are multiple ways of communicating a point and the full breadth of these methods must be considered. The conference should be a place where potential solutions can be played with, and no one “correct answer” is asserted.

-Higher order concerns (how the students organize ideas, the content and approach selected, implementation of the thesis statement) take priority over lower order concerns, such as grammar, spelling, and formatting. A writing conference is not an editing session. It is a discussion about ideas and how to convey them.

BENEFITS OF BECOMING A TUTORING TEACHER

My inspiration for this post has been my most recent set of writing conferences with some of my tenth grade classes as they work to complete a research paper on the link between traditional folklore and culture. I’ve gotten to see students in a completely different light as they sit and tell me about their ideas. While they haven’t been informed about the magical tutor boundary behind my desk, they seem to pick up on it, and our interactions become collaborative, congenial, and focused. When their peers aren’t watching them, their communication skills often become far more distinguished! In this space, students feel comfortable to ask questions and reveal struggles which I would never have known about otherwise. In that space, I can really focus on one student at a time, giving them the encouragement, feedback, and potential solutions that they seek. It’s awesome to see the weight leave their shoulders as they cross the boundary back into the classroom, more self-assured and certain about what they want their writing to be. And, maybe best of all, the quality of student writing is noticably greater when there have been conferences along the way.