November 13, 2016

I meant to post something to keep you updated on a weekly basis, but I began the first month of school with an illness I couldn't shake, which left me drained. I finally recovered and some events at school left us unsettled. However, one of the largest obstacles as we finish the first quarter is the great number of students who are either not turning in assignments or are turning in very poor efforts just to call the assignment complete. I require those to be completed until they are satisfactory. In English, the students have workshop time almost every day, often for most of the 90-minute block, so I'm having a difficult time understanding why getting assignments in is nearly impossible for some students. I conference individually with students, and I'm still not getting clear answers about why work isn't completed satisfactorily and on time.

I'm trying to teach independence, which includes organizing workloads, but that has also been too much for many students, so this past week I began posting a daily workshop schedule and telling the student which assignment should be worked upon until completed. The chalkboard at the front of the room was depressingly full of late work, so I went digital. If there is an (R) after the name, the assignment is to be revised and resubmitted until satisfactory. If there's just a name, the assignment has never been submitted. If there's a strike-through, the student says it's complete, and I need to check it. The link for you to access this digital chakboard is here. (Scroll to the second page to view.)

Last month, students wrote a letter to the next president on the topic of coal power. They were to acknowledge the sources for their information, but didn't need to formally cite them. The next assignment is due on Tuesday, November 15, on fracking. This time, they are to write an essay with properly cited sources and a Works Cited page. They've had the last month to work on this assignment.

We've read "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe and watched the videos of the stories in the last week. The videos re-read the story, so students get to hear it twice. On Friday, we used the poppy and Veterans Day to look at symbolism of flowers. They listened to and discussed "Rose Tattoo" by the Dropkick Murphys, then researched and chose their own flower "tattoo" that represents them and drew and colored it. The last few weeks have been a bit stressful, so I wanted to give them a Friday with something a little lighter and noisier to give them a break from workshop.

Upcoming due date: November 15: Fracking annotated article + argument essay with a Works Cited page.

September 26-30, 2016

As September drew to a close, we were tying up the last of the data collection among anyone who was absent and still learning procedures, like how to locate progress sheets in the Google Drive and write meaningful reflections to feedback on the sheet in order to make progress. We continue to hit vocabulary hard, and we had a review over two days of all the words we've covered in September. I explained to students that a NATIONAL weakness in reading is vocabulary comprehension and in writing it's using higher vocabulary and using it correctly. I'm seeing students make a real effort to incorporate the new vocabulary into their writing. As always, the best way to acquire vocabulary is through extensive reading. Please encourage your student to read as much as possible outside of school.

Reading The Outsiders continues. First core can now turn in the first reflection of four. All reflections are due tomorrow in core 3 and on Friday in core 2. By the way, when I distributed the novel and assignment, each class chose its due date. I wasn't the one who set it. I try to always include students in due dates if possible so we can set reasonable ones. We discussed the murder scene in the novel through the lens of social justice last week. Please ask your student to tell you more. It was one of the richest discussions of the novel I can ever remember.

Last Monday, I introduced "What's Going On In This Picture?" from the NY Times. I'd run across it and asked several teachers at a conference if they'd used it, and they gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up. The purpose is to have students notice clues and details and make connections. Students can post their observations online and read those of students in other schools. A live moderator reads their posts before they go live. I tell students to only use their first names. They seemed to enjoy their first time doing it last week.

On October 14 their coal power annotated articles and Letters to the Next President are due. I've been providing class workshop time to complete the assignment. In first core, we will be spending time this week working on annotating and starting the letter because it's their first time completing this assignment, which is cross-curricular with science. That means they have discussed the topic in Mrs. Brinkley's and my class, and we both will assign a grade for their work. Their understanding of the topic and discussions have been very impressive.

Due Dates

October 4: Core 3: The Outsiders reflections due
October 7: Core 1: The Outsiders reflections due
October 14: All classes: annotated coal power article and Letter to the Next President due

September 19-23, 2016

This past summer, I attended a week-long writing marathon in New Orleans. The purpose of a writing marathon is to write in the company of other writers and share writing. It's a time away from standardized tests, red ink, and grades for the sheer enjoyment of writing. For our first marathon at NFMS, I took the students to three different locations on campus. First core had some issues with their Chromebooks, so I allowed them to use phones this time. They all said they enjoyed the experience and hoped we'd do it again soon.

Pictures from the First Writing Marathon: Click Here Go to the top right and click "Present" to go full screen.

We continued to finish our data collection with pretests, the STAR, Aimsweb screening--it's so nice when all of it is behind us. Students are reading The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and continuing to learn a few vocabulary words each day to incorporate into their writing. They are also working on an Article of the Month assignment for both English and science, which is due October 14. They have to annotate an article and write a letter to the next president, which is actually a persuasive piece of writing with a claim supported by evidence. They've been given graphic organizers, videos, and an audiofile of my reading of the article as tools to help them complete the work. I give some workshop time every day in class to complete assignments.

The letter to our sister schools in Alabama and Oregon were due Friday. We've worked on them for three weeks, and some students still aren't finished. Please remind them to get it done if they haven't. Also, students are required to come to class with only three items: earbuds, their charged Chromebook, and a book to read. Many aren't bringing what they need and asking if they can return to their lockers to get it. As of this past Friday, after being reminded every day since school began, I told them no locker after class starts. As well, some students aren't charging their Chromebooks and then come to class with a dead Chromebook and ask to sit near an outlet. I've let them know that's the same as not having the Chromebook. Please remind your student of the requirements when they come to class each day.

Upcoming due dates: Annotated coal article and Letter to the Next President: due October 14.
Core 1: Outsiders reflection journals #1: due now.
Core 2: Outsiders reflection journals: due Oct. 7
Core 3: Outsiders reflection journals: due Oct. 4

Mrs. Shrum with her writing Krewe in New Orleans, July 2016

Welcome to a New School Year

Hello and welcome to a new school year!

We're off to an exciting start. In spite of all the pretests and data gathering that have to be done, we've managed to cram in some learning. We've begun reading The Outsiders, which will be completed in mid-October. While reading it, I keep assignments to a minimum, so on Classroom they'll complete four one-page responses to the book. We've also been learning vocabulary daily since the first day with the focus this year of working it into our writing, and I am seeing that happen.

This year, Mrs. Brinkley and I will be having a cross-curricular assignment each month, the Article of the Month. Although they only annotate one and write one response, I am folding it into the approach I learned this summer through the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project of how to teach argument/persuasive writing. The instructor provides the materials rather than sending the student searching for them and teaches students to properly annotate the sources. Students are also taught how to formulate a claim and counterclaim. Our first assignment is on coal power and the position the presidential candidates have taken. The response for this assignment is to write a letter to the next president, which will be sent for possible posting on the Letters to the Next President website. We will also mail hard copies of the letter to each candidate. Mrs. Brinkley said she's already noticing that discussions in science class are richer and more based on knowledge than opinion than in the past.

Of course, for the students and me, the most exciting project this year is our year-long collaboration with students in Monroeville, Alabama, and Oregon City, Oregon. On Friday, the students saw a photograph of one of the classes with whom we'll be working. My students are polishing up drafts of letters to students which will be shared after revising and editing are finished. I'm sharing by using a Google folder shared with the other teachers. I drop in the documents with only the students' first names, so they aren't linked to student accounts. Students have already asked about connecting outside our classroom with Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc., and I said they are on their honor not to do that before December, or they won't be able to participate any longer in the project. I've never done a project like this before, and student safety is my paramount concern. I told them that in December the other teachers and I will evaluate whether we think they should connect outside of school, or not. I reminded them that at the end of this school year they definitely can keep their connections with their new friends, but our classroom project will be over, so it's no longer a school-directed issue. Parents and guardians, please contact me with any questions, concerns or suggestions.

They haven't yet completed any major writing assignments, but this year I'm using a site called kaizena.com to record comments into student writing. It's like having their own private conference on the writing. To make sure we all knew how it worked and that they liked it, I gave a response on a freewrite on failure which we discussed in class. It also allowed me to identify an aspect of their writing they can strengthen and teach them to write a reflection in their progress sheet. This is a good time to remind you that I only put interims and report card grades into PowerSchool. The rest of the time you can find detailed information about student progress in the progress sheet. If you are receiving this blog link, you shared an e-mail with me, and you should have received a link to your students' progress sheet. The sheet starts at the bottom for the first quarter because it fills up from the bottom so students won't have to scroll through past assignments as it fills. The detailed top squares are for interim and report card reports.

This week students will be screened in Aimsweb for reading, and on Tuesday they will write an essay as a pretest. All that will be left in English will be to take the STAR reading test, which takes 10-20 minutes to take. We will all be happy to leave the start of year testing behind.