I have moved! Please stop by and visit and spend some time with me at my new site…still Treasure Chest of Thoughts.
See you there!
I have moved! Please stop by and visit and spend some time with me at my new site…still Treasure Chest of Thoughts.
See you there!
I enjoyed reading Sharon Kane’s “Dating Ben Franklin: Investigating the Early Years of Historical Figures and Classical Authors” in this month’s English Journal, published by NCTE. Her premise is that we, as teachers, should take our students back in time, further back than when these icons were successful; take them back to when they were of the same age as the students themselves, suggesting that, even though the years may pass, they still have much in common.
This being February, a thought sprung to mind: send each on a date, just as the title suggests. Fun! This being February 20…means this project goes in the plan book for next year, giving me time to further research and become more acquainted with these three books she suggests…
A lesson-making feign, I look forward to putting this one together. This might be a journey the students could also take as part of our gender role unit…hummm, I’ll need to ponder on that. This year, I placed that unit during this third nine weeks, but, due to so many interruptions during the second nine weeks, I had thought I might move this unit to then, moving Macbeth to now, providing a more intense and daily study of this drama. I suppose seniors like to go on dates, whether in the fall or around Valentine’s Day, right?
NOTE: I just ordered all of the above books from half.com for $10.02 (and that includes shipping!)…books 2 and 3, I ordered an earlier edition.
What activity do you plan around authors? Holidays?
This past year, I agreed to chair the Publications Committee for the Arkansas Reading Association. While a learn
ing process, creating this document was interesting, as I met new people, both face-to-face and via email, both in-state and out-of-state.
As I began the process, feeling like I was begging (!), I emailed three scheduled spe
akers for this year’s fall conference and was so pleased when all three agreed to either write something for The Reader or to grant permission for something already published.
May I introduce these authors to you?
For the most part, probably 95% of the publication’s process was completed online…emailing authors and committee and publication company. Don’t you just love technology?
Last week, a student asked, “What’s the hardest book you ever read?”
Moby Dick. Definitely. High school for an independent read for my English class…or maybe I read attempting to impress the teacher?!
Before that above discussion ended? We had agreed to read War and Peace prior to his graduating in May. 1400+ pages before May 15. AND others are joining us! Maybe I am a nerd, but this is just so cool…even if it is War and Peace!
Then, I had a moment of anxiety. Consider this list of books I am concurrently reading:
Yes, a moment of anxiety! In a good way!
I have struggled some with how to get more students more involved in our BHS Reads Book Club. Last semester, we read two classics, but we just had 4-6 students involved. Although a book club is not about the numbers, I do want as many students involved that would consider doing so. Thus, enter Olaf…as is the snowman from Frozen. I created a bulletin board using him…then, the title for it came to me: “Snow Many Series.” While some have read some of the above series, I am encouraging them to still attend and add to the conversations…and to consider a re-read, for there is power in that decision, also. Based on conversations alone, this plan may work. Our kick-off meeting for this next week…so more on that in a few days.
While attending our state Beta Club Convention, we decided one series for next year will be Harry Potter. Won’t that be fun!? Right now series seems to get their attentions and create some excitement. I’ll take it!
Why book clubs? As we often say during our meetings, “This book I would never have read…had we not chosen it here.” Without exception, I have read books that would not have been of my own choosing. I, also, like how Jessica Cuthbertson with Center for Teacher Quality describes book clubs:
When I read a title for book club it is often not a text I would self-select. When I read a book for book club I read differently. I read with the purpose of holding onto my thinking. I read with intentionality. I am more metacognitive about my reading process, especially in sections of the book I plan to share or discuss. Some of my thinking might surface in the actual discussion, but depending on the menu, the venue, and the duration of time that has passed between my reading and our book club meeting, much of my thinking about my reading stays in my head, heart, or in highlighted sections of the text itself.
In addition, these books often go with me to my classroom, further broadening their backgrounds, sometimes suggesting these as book recommendations.
Currently, each of my seniors has chosen an independent read (chose one to read…found a new series for boys…The Extraordinary Adventures of Aldred Kropp…sooooo good!), so we are chatting about books every day. Many have quickly completed this assignment, others are progressing, and some…well, I am encouraging them!
AND…my daughter has already read two books this year. Yay!
Now, to keep up with these reads…
What’s on your reading list? What do you do to encourage others to read?
Happy reading!
Our English Department is reading, discussing, implementing 20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core. Last week, we met to discuss Strategy 3: Prove It. In the midst of this, though, a term jumped off the page, grabbed me, and requested that my brain hit pause.
What Is Assumptive Teaching?
Teaching that assumes that because students have been taught content that they know it. That’s right…that content was covered last year. Of course, they know it!
A Better (or worse) Example:
I planned a 15-minute bell-work giving students time to develop their outlines for our upcoming essay assignment. That’s right…yes, we created outlines last semester in my class under my tutelage. Outlines with parallel structure. Of course.
Thirty minutes into the lesson, I became a live example of non-assumptive teaching as I re-taught what they had not mastered last semester. Modifying and adjusting. That is what we used to call this guiding principle.
The Irony
When a new year begins, I tend to re-teach, accepting that many have lost much over the three-month summer break, gauging their responses verbally and via formative assessments how much each have actually retained. The irony, though, is that the above bell-work lesson hit just a bit close too home when my students did not retain what I had assumed they would have from the previous semester. Or should I look at this glass as half full and thank them for giving me this example to discuss during book club?!
I assume, though, that many students have mastered content when I see the “we got this” face and positively nodding heads…and so we move on. Not stopping. Just moving on and leaving students further behind.
My Concern
Could assumptive teaching ever be used interchangeably with high expectations? Expecting students to learn, to retain, to master content, these are obtainable goals. After all, that is our job: to teach students to learn. Because I have high expectations, I “expect” them to learn; thus, I should not have to re-teach, assuming they know all I have ever taught them.
Please re-read the above paragraph and find the fallacy.
Yes, that line of thinking is flawed. So is assumptive thinking.
Here’s to assumptive-free teaching!
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Additional Resources on Assumptive Teaching:
During a time when so much negativity abounds within our world (ISSIS, debt, shootings…), focusing on the positive might take a leap of faith. Would you join me for some “leaps“…
I hope 2015 produces many “leaps” for you! Please share one…or two!
Back to school! Day one already completed. The brain has had to shift into gear after a two-week break as I continue pondering on which journeys we will take this nine weeks. We have so many places to go!
In addition, on this journey we will welcome another Tour Guide as I will have a student intern this spring.
We began this new grading period with several entries in our Writer’s Notebook (I say we…for I write with them…by jigsawing four topics. Up and moving, they were…gave them a chance to chat on this our first day back) and a Word-of-the-Week. For our first word, I chose harbinger, for this first day back is a sign that the end for my five classes of seniors that May 15 (graduation day) is quickly approaching. Word-of-the-Week is a different approach than I have taken before, an approach I am trying to assist in my obtaining my personal professional goal of teaching vocabulary using more methods.
Again, this time, I also started off with my asking each to take the My One Word Challenge. When asked to share, several shared in one class, touching my heart with how much thought and emphasis on self-growth they wanted to reach this year. A very good thing! This was also an opportunity for me to share my life with them as I related my choice of words over the last five years. It was a good lesson…a good time spent with my kids today.
During lunch, our faculty reading group met, discussed our last two books (yes, we had gotten behind!), and chose our next read: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. A new release in 2014, this one is just $3.99 on Kindle (quite the savings). Call me old fashioned, but I still resist reading online. I just love the feel of a book, but for the sake of my wallet and my over-flowing books shelves (literally), I purchased the Kindle edition. A good deal!
Happy teaching, listening, and reading in 2014!
This year my One Word is completer. With this word in mind, I have chosen 15 things I would like to complete…in no certain order…
Reads like 2015 will be full of great intentions! Happy New Year!
Just want to take a moment…or two…and reflect on 2014. Listed below were my 14 Intentions (make these instead of resolutions; have more success that way!):
All in all, a hefty list. All in all, I am okay with what I “intended” to accomplish and what I actually did, for when my father-in-law passed in May, our lives took a shift as we began spending most of our evenings with my mother-in-law, watching movies and TV, quilting, chatting. Some of these Intentions took a backseat as others priorities took over.
I do like creating this list of Intentions, rather than Resolutions, for they seem more obtainable, more achievable.
Now, to create my list of 15 Intentions…Happy New Year!
We are still having fun in English 12. This week was Red Ribbon Week, so I offered the prize money to a class if they would help decorate my door for the annual Door Decorating Contest. Good news! We won second. No prize money, though…but I did share my bag of candy goodies with them. “Owl” always remember them fondly!
For three Friday’s now, one class has written similes for that night’s football game, and so far, they have all come to pass. You know how it is….once you do something, then you can’t stop, for it might cause them to lose!
Secretly, hidden within this challenge? The mastery of participial phrases and the creation of similes. Sneaky, right? AND maybe, just maybe? Those similes are just very powerful!
Now, the true fun begins….hooking them onto the plotline of Macbeth and retaining that interest throughout our reading this drama. Began that process, as we watched the first two witches’ scenes in honor of the Halloween weekend. Perfect timing.
Now to grade their latest essays and to, hopefully, share back with them some “fun” grades!