How do I know you're wonderful? Because I've just spent two weeks with your children, and they didn't become wonderful without having wonderful parents. I can't wait to get up every morning and go to work and spend the day with them.
I'm sure you know that we are in the flurry of gathering assessment data right now--necessary, but yuck!--and in English we have to gather data on reading AND writing, so it doesn't seem to end. I've been fitting in instruction around all the pre-teaching assessments, so I've been asking students to bear with me. I teach using a great deal of technology, but all of this testing means the computers are tied up so that I can't use them, so I start something and can't finish it. Oh, well! We'll get there!
You should have received a link to your student's progress sheet. This is what I use in place of the gradebook. I will put a grade into Powerschool for progress reports and the quarter, but those grades will be based on their progress sheets and conferencing with the student. Grades by themselves are meaningless. We are focusing on progress. A student can make A's all year, but did the student make any progress? This is my first year breaking away from traditional grades, and I'm very excited because I've despised them and seen their shortcomings since I began teaching. Check the progress sheets as you would Powerschool, and please ask if anything isn't clear. At the top I have all the data I've collected in my spreadsheet. Below, I put feedback on assignments, and, if the students have to redo or fix anything, they are told in this spot. The student is then required to respond to ALL feedback I write. In the past, I would pour feedback onto an assignment, the student would look at the grade, toss it, and nothing was done with all I wrote. Also, assignments were "finished" when they were handed back with a grade. Now, it's all about the learning and the progress.
Students are also adjusting to being in cooperative learning groups and having freedom. One example is that they don't ask to go to the bathroom or water fountain. If one of the two passes is available, the student signs out and takes it. I said if they abuse it, they lose it, but they've done wonderfully with it, and they say they love the freedom. I love not having to sign a planner or answer, "Can I go to the bathroom?" while I'm teaching or working with a student. A harder adjustment is that they are in the groups to support and help one another, not to have an opportunity to social talk. Why should I "give" someone else what I know--that's not fair because it's my "grade," I continue to hear, and I keep asking, What grade are you talking about?
The students began reading The Outsiders on the first day of school. Last Friday, they had their first discussion in groups, and it was amazing to listen to. Some students hadn't completed the reading, and they had to sit in the hall and read until they were done. They missed all of the fun. Students should be finished with the whole book by this Friday, September 25. I've also told students I don't assign homework. They have to assign it to themselves. I give reading time in class every day. I give work in class every day. If they aren't finished, they do it at home. If you never see your student doing work at home for English, especially reading, something is wrong. No one can complete all of their work on time if they don't do something at home.
Students also had to collect five words they didn't know from their reading. That was due Friday, and quite a few didn't have their word collection sheets finished. Also due on Friday was an article about alcohol and the adolescent brain. We annotated and highlighted in groups, and they then had to write a one-page response to the article. I gave time in class to work on it. Many didn't have it on Friday. They aren't using their class time efficiently, and/or they aren't working at home. I am in the early stages of teaching them they must use time efficiently, plan their assignments, take responsibility for deadlines, and advocate for themselves if they don't understand something. As you can imagine, this is a process of major upheaval. Once we make it through, they will have accomplished something very useful as a life skill.
If a student chronically doesn't complete work and/or continues to waste class time, I will first meet with the student. Next, I will meet with the student with Mr. Rice or Mr. Lynn. Next, I will meet with you, the student, and one of the administrators. Some of the worst "offenders" are advanced students because they've been able to make it through school on their high grades and never had to develop any success skills. I can already see them hitting a wall when they get out of high school and into a job or college--which is what happened to me when I got to college. I was completely unable to function at the start of college because I'd never learned any coping or planning skills. Let's just say I fortunately picked them up!
Students have been doing a lot of writing, and we spent a whole class period looking at writing samples so they could create a rubric for quality writing. It's very important that they internalize the qualities of good writing from the start so they know what the target is. It also gives us the language for discussing writing.
I ran across this interesting post this morning on a blog I regularly read, and I thought it was a nice one for the start of the school year. I want to stress #10: please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. I will be contacting you more once the storm of data gathering is over.
If you see me on the caller ID, please don't think it's something bad. I want to communicate with you regularly about what I see in class. Have a great week!
SCHOOLING THE TERRIBLE TEACHER: 10 THINGS PARENTS SHOULD NEVER DO
