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Apr 14, 2005
Successful schools for young adolescents are characterized by a culture that includes high expectations for every member of the learning community.
- "This We Believe," National Middle School Association
Pat Conroy, the well-known author of many books including The Prince of Tides, began adult life as an English teacher in South Carolina. His first two books, both non-fiction, focused on teaching, while great teachers are also lovingly described in his next two books, both fiction. In The Great Santini, he wrote:
"But Ben had been coming to a gradual and reluctant conclusion that Ogden Loring was the best teacher he had ever had... His opening words to the class at the beginning of the year had been, 'I am a man of strange parts,' and he had then set out with a demonic single-mindedness to prove it. Each day when his students entered his manic kingdom, they heard music emanating from a stereo behind his desk... Ben paid little attention to the music until the first test of the semester when a quarter of the questions dealt with the identification of the music Mr. Loring had played the first two weeks of school. As Ben agonized over a blank memory, Mr. Loring busied himself by walking around the room removing scraps of paper that were wadded and thrown under each desk in the room. The class was openly hostile after the test was over. It was then that Mr. Loring had cheerfully revealed that the answers to all the test questions were printed on the wads of paper he had gathered under their desks and any of them would have been free to make use of these hidden aids if they had only taken the time to find them. 'Animules,' he had said, 'idgits who live in the valley of the shadow of death. Be attuned to your environment. Know what is going on around you. Make yourself aware.'"
Ogden Loring was modeled on a real teacher, Mr. Norris (Lehmann), one of Pat Conroy's all-time favourites and a clear role model for his own teaching. His students may tell him he's crazy, they may even be right (his methods probably wouldn't work at Stoneleigh-Burnham; certainly calling middle school-aged girls "animules" and "idgits" is not highly recommended) but there's an affection behind their teasing because his students in his school know they're learning. In fact, what unites all teachers in Pat Conroy's books, what makes them so effective, is their unflinching insistence on focusing on their students and making them meet the highest of standards, and the clear understanding by the students that in so doing these teachers show they care about them. Clearly, each teacher accumulated a vast storehouse of knowledge over time, continued to learn throughout their careers, and learned to use their knowledge to best advantage during the seemingly mundane but in reality fascinatingly complex process of pulling together a lesson plan. As Odgen Loring himself might have said, experience can be the greatest teacher, but only if one is open to its lessons. Only then will all members of a learning community be able to meet high expectations.
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Posted at 11:05 am by bill01370
Apr 7, 2005
Successful schools for young adolescents are characterized by a culture that includes an inviting, supportive, safe environment.
- "This We Believe," The National Middle School Association
For years, research has shown that people learn better when they are comfortable and relaxed, feeling secure and willing to take risks. This is intuitively obvious; as anyone who has ever drawn a blank when trying to remember something during or following a stressful situation can attest, nerves affect one's ability to remember and learn. But what is obvious can not be taken for granted; schools need to pay constant attention to their students. Are they treating each other and all members of the community respectfully? Are they secure enough to give voice to the constant stream of questions that characterize this age group (and make them so rewarding to work with)? Do they feel free to articulate difficulties they are having and seek out solutions? The answers to these questions can help determine the health of a given school. When I was interviewing for teaching positions, I found I could tell if a school was the kind of place I wanted to work just be sitting in the lobby. Schools where students and teachers frequently interacted, where friends surrounded someone who was upset to offer comfort, where students moved easily and quickly with a sense of purpose, where the building was well cared for as were those who cared for the building - these were schools where I knew I could be happy. This is no less true, and even more important, from the perspective of the students themselves.
Of course, as implied above, an inviting, supportive and safe environment involves more than just the social atmosphere. The physical environment of a school can also enhance the overall learning experience. Even something as simple as colour choice can affect people's moods. Stoneleigh-Burnham's colours are blue and white, and are found throughout the school. In going to the Color Wheel Pro website, I learned that "blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect... White means safety, purity, and cleanliness." We also know that students learn better in a room well lit with natural light, and the middle school classrooms reflect all these needs. Additionally, when everything is clean and well-maintained, when the grounds are beautiful and well-groomed, that feeling of comfort produced by a positive social climate and well-designed classroom is accentuated. How could we expect students to feel cared for, or care about their schools, if the building itself is neglected and run down? Stoneleigh-Burnham is lucky to have employees like Yvonne Garbiel and the housekeeping staff, Mark Pelis and the maintenance staff, Jacki Dillenback and the kitchen staff,Todd Karn and the barn staff, and our administrative team and their support staff, all of whom work so hard every day so that students and teachers can focus on learning.
Posted at 10:52 am by bill01370
Mar 31, 2005
"Successful schools for young adolescents are characterized by a culture that includes a shared vision that guides decisions." - This We Believe, the National Middle School AssociationWhen Martha Shepardson-Killam first came to Stoneleigh-Burnham School, she talked to every single employee of the school as well as a wide cross-section of students, parents, and alumnae. From these conversations, she crafted a vision for the school which took the existing mission statement as a foundation and set a course for the future. As part of this vision, she wrote "Moreover, our highly professional faculty, staff, and administrators are creating a learning community based on current research about ways in which young women learn and develop." As we discussed and developed the principles and objectives of the new middle school program, we turned to two main sources for guidance - the National Middle School Association, whose extensive review of existing research had recently led to a third revision of their position paper This We Believe, and the work of noted psychologist JoAnn Deak, who has focused so effectively on learning how girls can best be nurtured, challenged and supported as they grow into young woman. As parents learned in February on Family Visiting Day, we do view these principles as a living document which helps guide our decisions and shape our program. We view these introductions to the weekly newsletter as part of the process of sharing our vision with the greater middle school community here at SBS, of explaining why we believe each of these principles is important and how we are working to implement them in our school. Some of them have also proved to be useful beyond our community - for example, my friend Ernie wrote this week to say he would be using them in upcoming curriculum meetings as his school critically examines their own middle school program. As we learn more and more about how people learn - and our knowledge of the human brain and its development has increased exponentially over the past 10 years - all responsible and responsive schools will need to regularly re-examine their practices in light of this new knowledge. This, too, is part of Stoneleigh-Burnham's vision: "We will ensure that our teachers remain current in both educational theory and practice so that they can prepare our young women for advanced study." Here, the ultimate focus remains on the girls that make up the heart and soul of Stoneleigh-Burnham. Perhaps all good schools base decisions ultimately on the one simple question: "What is best for the students"? It is in the answers to that question, as supported by research, that a vision for the school emerges. The more this vision is seen and understood by the entire community, the more it is used to guide decisions, the more the students benefit. Posted at 05:47 pm by bill01370
Mar 24, 2005
The New England League of Middle Schools held its annual conference on March 20-22, 2005, and although Sunday was the last day of my spring break, I happily made the round trip drive to Providence in order to be able to attend. I had the privilege of attending a session facilitated by John Lounsbury, godfather of the middle school movement, one component of which was a provocative discussion of what skills adults need to succeed in the world and how middle schools can help prepare our students for this world. Fortune 500 companies, he said, list the following top ten skills as being most desirable (in order of importance): 1. Teamwork 2. Problem Solving 3. Interpersonal skills 4. Oral communication 5. Listening 6. Personal/Career Development 7. Creative thinking 8. Leadership 9. Goal-setting/motivation 10. Writing These skills apply to a wide variety of jobs far beyond those typically found in Fortune 500 companies, and indeed can be viewed as fundamentally important life skills quite apart from one's professional life. Yet, when one looks at how people use these skills in real life, it is easy to see that they are not separated out but rather are integrated almost unconsciously to respond to different situations in appropriate ways. You cannot work effectively as a team without interpersonal skills, the ability to communicate and listen effectively, and appropriate leadership. Creative thinking is indispensable to problem solving, as are the abilities to set goals and motivate oneself to personal and career development. That these, and other life skills, are so interrelated is one of the core principles of the middle school model. In This We Believe, the National Middle School Association calls for successful schools for young adolescents to provide "curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory." We are lucky at Stoneleigh-Burnham that our structures facilitate integrating disciplines, for example in Humanities, which features English and Social Studies skills, including elements of media and technology literacy, but also integrates the performing and visual arts as appropriate. This supports the mission and vision of the School. The course also reflects the great deal of crossover that exists between standards delineated by the National Council of Teachers of English and those outlined by the National Council for the Social Studies, from writing skills through media literacy to critical thinking and more. Additionally, our teachers have the chance to talk regularly about students and about curriculum. Research tells us that schools with teams and common planning time are 50% more likely to be high-performing schools than institutions without these features. When teachers visit each other's classes, share and discuss student work and rubrics, and meet to discuss connections within grade years and transitions from grade to grade, it is not surprising that students benefit. There can be much less duplication of effort, or even contradictions from class to class such as might be found in schools where teachers labor alone in isolated disciplines. It is thus much more likely that students will have the necessary skills in place for success at the next level. Like many teachers, I have often had to endure listening to the truism the "schools don't prepare people for the real world." In point of fact, though, schools exist in the real world and are populated with real people living real lives. If we are able to collaborate and coordinate with each other in support of the girls who attend our school, integrating our curricula and helping students develop their skills in appropriate contexts, we will be able to go beyond preparing people for the real world or even mimicking the real world. We will be able to allow our schools - and most importantly, our students - to reach their potential. Posted at 10:38 pm by bill01370
Feb 12, 2005
Successful schools for young adolescents are characterized by a culture that includes courageous, collaborative leadership.- "This We Believe," National Middle School Association "Courageous, collaborative leadership" is one of the most obvious elements of the middle school model. At the same time, it is an elusive concept, hard to pin down. Jim Paterson says in his featured online article from NMSA's publication "Middle Ground" (which can be read at http://www.nmsa.org/services/middle_ground/mg_feb2005.htm), "There isn't a single shining example that defines it, exemplifies it, or provides the perfect model." Perhaps, just as one's life is ultimately defined by the sum of one's actions, courageous, collaborative leadership can best be defined by a series of examples. On the MiddleWeb listserv recently, listmembers have been sharing "points of joy" - small but significant moments from each of our days. Two dominant themes have been running through these postings: times when they see their students taking control of their own learning and pushing forward out of a sense of internal motivation, and times when former students they never knew they touched return to let them know what a difference they made. Such teachers are almost invariably the ones who have the courage to reflect on their own practices and make changes where needed, and ultimately to live by their convictions, even in the face of criticism. They truly reflect what Jim Paterson calls "the essence of educators." At Stoneleigh-Burnham, the fact that we are a girls school by design infuses every aspect of the school. The importance of connectedness to girls and woman can lead to a different leadership style than the traditional model, one that values a wealth of voices and input. This may happen at an administrative level, as when Martha Shepardson-Killam created an "Enrollment Committee" of over a dozen people to plan for the new middle school program, or at the classroom level, when a teacher asks a class what is the significance of a passage with genuine interest in the students' responses and not as a tool to bring students to a pre-determined answer. Of course, there needs to be some check, for collaboration without direction can lead to chaos, as in the wry observation that "A platypus is a duck designed by a committee." Leadership does require keeping a school and all its members on track, true to the mission of the community. In the case of Stoneleigh-Burnham's middle school program, it means remaining true to all 14 principles of "This We Believe," especially as they lead to the development of confidence, competence, and connectedness.
Posted at 10:45 pm by bill01370
Feb 6, 2005
Beginning this week, in connection with the National Middle School Association grant, we will be including weekly reflections in our parent newsletters on the 14 principles of "This We Believe," which are of course also the purposes and objectives of the middle school at Stoneleigh-Burnham. We will be considering them in the order in which they are presented, beginning with the characteristic aspects of school culture and continuing with what schools need to be providing according to the middle school model. Successful middle schools are characterized by a culture that includes educators who value working with this age group and are prepared to do so. - "This We Believe," National Middle School Association One day, while I was in grad school studying for my M.A.T., I decided to return to my old junior high school in Amherst. One of my all-time favourite teachers still worked there, and I wanted to stop by and say "hi" and let him know I was going into the profession; I still wanted to make him proud and couldn't imagine a better way to do so. While I was waiting for him to get out of class, I was talking to one of the other teachers, and mentioned I was getting my teaching degree. To my horror, rather than smiling and congratulating me, his whole demeanor changed, and he snarled, "You think you want to go into teaching, just wait a few minutes. You'll change your mind." I didn't have to wonder long what he meant, for a moment later the bell rang and the volume level instantly became deafening as many hundreds of 7th, 8th and 9th graders filled the corridor, pushing past each other and running in every direction for their lockers so they could grab their things and go home. It was utter chaos. It also cemented my desire to go into teaching. I wasn't so far removed from being one of those kids who couldn't wait to get on with the next part of my life; my sympathies were all with them. The profession, I thought to myself, needs people who actually like kids. Research shows, and for most teachers experience confirms, that early adolescents, perhaps more than any other age group, need to feel emotional connections in order to be able to learn effectively. They need to feel those connections with their teachers, and with their peers. That tendency, as JoAnn Deak's research shows, is especially strong with girls. But the NMSA goes deeper than just "liking" kids; educators must "value" them. That means not only liking them, but also believing in them, in their intrinsic self-worth, in their myriad possibilities, in their ability to set and achieve high standards. It also means holding them to those standards, caring enough about them not to let them fall short of their potential. Too often, middle schools are staffed by displaced high school teachers who complain that "these kids are just too immature" or by displaced elementary school teachers who complain about occasional natural adolescent self-absorption. Other displaced teachers, however, are able to focus on wh o these kids really are and what they really need. These teachers will be successful. One of the keys to working with middle school kids, as Chris Toy communicated to you all earlier in the year, is to enjoy living in their world. The National Middle School Association also speaks of teachers being "prepared" to value this age group. One function of this statement, no doubt, is to convince national, state and local legislators to treat young adolescents as an important and distinct group. Too many states still offer the choice of K-8 or 7-12 licensure, lumping young adolescents either with the elementary school kids they no longer are, or with the high school kids they are not yet. Another function is to make a similar appeal to colleges and universities to train middle school teachers to work specifically with that age group. However, once teachers are trained and licensed, they have a moral obligation to the profession not to become a living time capsule of educational theories. They need to seek, accept and evaluate feedback on their own teaching. They need to keep up with the field by attending conferences, reading professional journals, and joining educational listservs. In this way, the high quality middle school teacher is prep ared to meet the relatively constant needs of young adolescents with an ever-growing base of knowledge and an understanding of the ever-changing context in which these people are growing up. That is each individual teacher's responsibility, to themselves and to their students. Posted at 11:39 pm by bill01370
Jan 19, 2005
School is supposed to be fun, isn't it?
"School is supposed to be fun, isn't it?" – Ed Garcia, Principal In Juli Kendall's latest entry in her MiddleWeb diary, she describes life under her new principal, Ed Garcia. When he took the position, he got on the phone and made a personal phone call to everyone in the school. The teachers found handmade bookmarks and personal, handwritten notes in their boxes before the opening of school. Staff meetings have been renamed "Staff Development Meetings," and Mr. Garcia models mini-lessons about teaching Writers' Workshop. He also provides bottles of water and chocolate. He reads to students over the PA system, he makes sure to visit classes when the kids are making presentations and he writes comments to them, he's wearing shirts and jackets with the school logo, and school morale has never been higher. It's even more exciting to read in Juli's words: http://www.middleweb.com/mw/workshop/jkjournal/jk13.htmlThis is where – once again! – I feel tremendously lucky. When Martha Shepardson-Killam took the position of Head of Stoneleigh-Burnham School, she scheduled time to sit with absolutely every employee of the school and talk about our perceptions of the school. She also met with students and parents, and continues to do so on a regular basis. Just today, her assistant emailed all the kids in the middle school setting appointments for them to come sit and talk with her over the next few weeks. She, along with many of our administrators, regularly takes the time to send handwritten notes, sometimes even flowers, after special events. She, along with many of our administrators, recognizes the importance of food (especially chocolate) to meetings. She, along with many of our administrators, goes out of her way to see what the kids are doing, in the classroom, on teams, at the barn, in performance... you name it. And, yes, many of our administrators wear clothing with our school logo! In other words, I have the privilege of working with a great many people who have a lot in common with Ed Garcia. And of course, in this atmosphere, it's not just the teachers who benefit. Kids get into the spirit too. Yesterday, we had visitors for an Admissions Open House, and my Humanities class presented short scenes from Act 2 of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that showed enthusiasm, emotion, creativity, spontaneity, and energy. (They also showed that these kids really understand the characters and really understand the mood of the play, not just a random by-product.) Today, when I was trying to present to them their next major class project (creating a movie trailer for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with the kids playing the roles of Casting Director, Scenery and Costume Designer, Historian, Publicist and Director), they were so excited to get started they kept interrupting me during my presentation to ask if they could start NOW! PLEASE! that I finally had to, smilingly but firmly, point out that I would never get through my presentation if they kept interrupting me. Once they got going, they worked - once again! - past the formal end of class without anyone noticing or complaining. No one has to tell them learning can be fun! Juli ends her diary entry by stating: "It's a revolutionary thought, this idea that school is supposed to be fun, but it seems to be working. Teachers are more excited than ever about teaching and students are fully engaged in the learning process. And what's Ed saying to all of this? "I love these kids. They're the best!" Now that's an Instructional Leader!" To which I say: hear hear. Posted at 10:15 pm by bill01370
Jan 11, 2005
The other day on MiddleWeb, Alayne Armstrong submitted the following posting:
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From an interesting article on Slate's website about an aspect of teaching that isn't often discussed: how well do you "read" your students, and then, how do you act on this:
"We often have the notion in our culture that the Great Teacher is a Great Communicator: the enthralling evangelist, the mesmerizing orator. Of course, being able to communicate powerfully is vital to effective teaching. But it is still secondary. What separates good from great, across professions and domains, is the ability to receive before you transmit."
"The People Whisperers. What a Hollywood acting coach taught me about teaching."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2111924/
What do you think?
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First, a little personal background. My father has done extensive work in "Basic Attending Skills" (that's the title of his second book), so I have long been interested in the idea of how best to listen and more generally how best to receive messages of all sorts. Furthermore, since taking two Semiotics courses on a Junior Year Abroad at the Universite de Paris X - Nanterre, I have been fascinated by the idea that when a message exists in some undefinable form in some being's brain, that being may choose various means by which to communicate the idea, following which these attempts at communication are received and interpreted by a second being and translated back into a message which now exists in some undefinable form in a second brain. To my 19-year-old mind, it seemed a miracle that anyone communicated at all under these circumstances. The importance of my Dad's idea of periodically checking one's comprehension now took on added significance.
With these ideas floating around in my brain, and (I confess, it's true) hooked by the title of the article, I went to the website to read it through start to finish. To my surprise, the parts of the article which most intrigued me didn't have to do with communication per se, but more with motivations behind communication. Here is the quote which stuck out in my mind:
"Teachers like Ivana Chubbuck are not just picking up a student's vibes and following them blindly; they have a distinct point of view to impart, a method to pass on and a goal to achieve. They manipulate. And that's not inherently a bad thing. When you think about it, every act of teaching is a kind of manipulation. We hope—we trust —that the manipulation is well-meant, guiding us to discovery and to a clearer sense of our own voice. But ultimately, we can be sure of that only by trying, by entering into the apprenticeship."
This idea of teaching as manipulation has always fascinated me. My school is built on the ideal that girls should be absolutely true to themselves and find/develop their own unique voice, so we tend to attract girls who come from families that value that ideal and/or who value that ideal themselves. Along with that, our school advocates firmly for tolerance and respect - one may believe what one wishes, but one may not act on those beliefs in a way that diminishes the humanity of anybody else. That perspective could be considered well-meant manipulation. (It could also be considered a necessity and a bedrock principle of civilized society.) Even the act of reading through a draft of a student's work and offering suggestions could be seen as well-meant manipulation. Once the suggestions are offered, the student will no longer look at this specific work as she did before, and perhaps will even have permanently changed her views on some aspect of the writing process. Is that bad? Of course not? As teachers, we have to begin by recognizing there's no way around this idea of teaching as manipulation, and always be on our guard that we are acting in our students' best interests.
Not surprisingly, I think my students understand this idea of teaching as manipulation at some intuitive level - two of the kids, during the presidential campaign, were convinced I was voting Republican (I think this is because I kept intervening whenever the six strong-voiced Democrats in the class were starting to overwhelm the two vocal Republicans) and asked me if I would be offended if they went and found some other adult "who agrees with us" to offer suggestions for revision. I asked them to trust me to be fair-minded in my suggestions, and they were willing to take that leap of faith. Hopefully, they felt their trust was well-placed. Certainly they seemed to feel that my suggestions were honestly useful, and confined to logic and organization rather than pure content. They did make the changes, and it did make their point stronger.
I'll be interested to see where this discussion goes on MiddleWeb - if the thread just sort of trails out, or if it sparks a longer, deeper, more philosophical discussion. In the meantime, it has given me the chance to renew my commitment to always act in the knowledge that teaching other people's children is a sacred trust. I never really did get around to writing a "New Year's Resolution" posting. This will serve for the time being!
Posted at 10:20 am by bill01370
Jan 10, 2005
It is around midterm, and I've been working on developing a curriculum map for the rest of the year, to be sure I touch on all the necessary standards by June. In the process, I was moved to think about the research and philosophies behind my teaching, and found myself writing a fairly detailed description as if I were trying to explain them to someone who may be unfamiliar with these kinds of teaching practices. I have decided to share it here.
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The fundamental philosophy of my course is based on the work of Dr. Stephen Krashen. His writings point very strongly to one simple yet counterintuitive conclusion: in order to build reading skills, vocabulary, spelling, grammar and even writing skills, there is no better method than what he calls "FVR" for Free Voluntary Reading. This point of view is based on an extensive review and analysis of all available research, and as his body of work goes back more than twenty years we are looking at the net result of a great many studies. This is why my students have free reading not only as a part of the overall middle school program, but also as a specific part of Humanities. Following the Readers Workshop model, the Readers Response Journals are in important part of this program, and serve as a check on how much the kids are reading on their own and what they are reading, how they are thinking about what they are reading, and also a way to get them to get each other excited about specific books. I have written responses back to the kids on each of their RRJ entries, and am succeeding in getting most all of them to think at a deeper level than just plot summaries. One of the 8th graders, for example, has begun looking at specific writing techniques, and wrote in her most recent RRJ entry "I like how Lemony Snicket writes using lots of analogies and using exotic words to explain things. I love how his books make kids want to read and how in each of his new books something new happens each time. I’ll keep you updated on the chapters to come and the whereabouts of The Sugar Bowl."
The kids told me directly in the early weeks of the year that they also wanted to spend more time discussing books "out loud," and this desire of theirs is also in fact supported by research. Beyond advocating for the reading of a wide diversity of texts in print, visual and electronic media, the National Council of Teachers of English also recommends that students have a chance for conversations and discussions. Moreover, the work of Dr. JoAnn Deak suggests that girls learn best when interacting with other people. Therefore, I stepped up the pace of discussions when the students began their second book. However, in order to achieve peak student interest and motivation and approximate Dr. Krashen's "FVR" concept even when holding whole-class discussions, I wanted the girls to have a say in what they read. This is why I took a series of surveys looking for common interests and choices, and when I passed out the sheet of paper announcing book groups through the end of the year, there was not a single complaint. There were, however, pumped fists, leaping for joy, shouts of "Yes! I get to read ****!" and the like. That is the kind of motivation I expect from all the girls, not just those who entered my classroom excited about reading, and I was delighted to feel I had achieved it.
A few more thoughts about reading. Through much of the fall term, students would bring in poetry to share with the class, and I would always offer them the opportunity to react to each poem (if it was one the girl herself had written, I would make sure she was comfortable before asking for reactions). Again, motivation was high - most of the girls brought in extra poems over the minimum required, and indeed would often beg to read additional poems on days which had not been assigned to them. However, my secret agenda in these discussions was to evaluate what reading strategies the girls were already able to use. One of the landmark texts in the profession, cited by the NCTE on their website as fundamental to the development of adolescent literacy, is Mosaic of Thought, a book whose authors carried out a comprehensive review of research to determine the common strategies used by all good readers. There are eight such strategies, and I was delighted to see that each strategy emerged spontaneously in the girls' discussions. As I discussed with Jennifer Chylack, who is the English Department Chair at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, my next step is to ensure that all the girls know how to use all these strategies. We are addressing five of them in our discussions on "A Midsummer Night's Dream," both in class and through the online bulletin Board we are sharing with two other classes: text-self connections, text-text connections, text-world connections, questioning and predicting. All of this will be reinforced and expanded as we go through the winter and spring terms in the hopes of achieving the goal of having all 10 girls be fully aware of how they think and how they use these strategies.
I'd now like to turn my attention to writing skills. Here, I am taking as my touchstone text In the Middle by Nancie Atwell, often cited as the number one reference text for teachers of writing. Ms. Atwell advocates a "Writer's Workshop" approach wherein students are encouraged to write in a variety of genres. Students work on the process of writing (drafting, revising, editing and publishing) through self-initiated pieces of writing, sharing their work with each other, having conferences with the teacher, and ultimately determining that a piece has reached final draft status. Thus far, the girls have written in the genres of poetry, letters to the editor, a choice of persuasive speech or persuasive essay, poetry criticism, and informational brochures. Over the rest of the year, I will also be assigning writing topics in the genres of essay, research article/memoir, and script. Beyond these assignments, each girl may use "free writing time" to accomplish additional work in any of these genres, or alternatively to broaden the range of genres in which she has written.
I want to touch on another concept which is also woven into my Humanities course. In several of the professional journals which I receive, notably from the National Middle School Association and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, I have learned that these organizations (among others) are acutely aware that the world in which these young people are living is very different from our own, and that the concept of literacy needs to be extended beyond just traditional reading and writing literacy. Students now need to be a home with a wide variety of forms of communication, and that is why the list of standards I compiled during the four months I spent researching the topic includes not just the printed word, but also speeches and debates, webpages, power points, the visual arts, and theater. I deeply believe it is in the best interest of our students to develop these multiple literacies, based on my own instincts as well as what I am reading in the field.
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It continues to fascinate me to what degree reflective writing can help my teaching - keep my focused, give me a reality check, help me move forward. The next entry here is going to touch on a recent conversation on MiddleWeb about teaching as manipulation, and my reflections on that topic.
Posted at 11:13 pm by bill01370
Dec 13, 2004
A Time and a Place for a Jackson Pollock Approach
It was a tough day, one of those days where you ask your Spanish class “Como estas?” and they all respond at best “Asi asi” (so-so) and more commonly “Mal” or “Muy mal.” The student who was supposed to bring in the game that the afternoon’s community service group would play with the 3rd to 5th graders at Federal Street Elementary School forgot, and we had to scramble to get together a backup plan. That afternoon, driving to the school, everyone was a little fed up. One of the girls asked if she could get out of community service altogether for the remainder of the term (through March), and all the others said they wanted to drop this activity and do something else. Frazzled and tired, I was maybe a little snippier than usual in replying that no, under no circumstances would we waive the community service requirement, but on the other hand I was inclined to agree that it was getting to be time to find another site at which we could work. When we arrived at the school, the girls went and hid in front of the bus, and I wondered for a fleeting moment how hard I would have to work to get them physically in the building.
As we walked down the hall toward the classroom where the older children had their after-school program, we saw them streaming in from some outside activity. Often, kids coming in from recess tend to drag their heels somewhat, but these kids were moving unusually rapidly. As they saw us walking down the hall, their eyes lit up, and they whipped off their coats and sat down promptly at the hexagonal tables in the classroom to see what we had planned for them today.
We introduced the unfamiliar girls (who had been upstairs working with the younger children up until today), and explained that we were going to help them fabric paint their own t-shirt. Their teacher suggested we move to the art room, where they were soon running back and forth from t-shirt to t-shirt, checking each other’s progress, getting new ideas, sharing squeeze bottles of paint, while my students and I circulated to offer encouragement and help find the ever-elusive yellow neon glow-in-the-dark paint bottle. One of the parents, arriving to pick up her son, stayed to watch for a bit, and softly thanked us for coming, saying “This is so great,” and Kirsten, the teacher, was positively beaming. One of the younger girls had taken a Jackson Pollock approach to her t-shirt, and impulsively folded it over on itself and pressed it together, producing an amazing and unexpected work of art, and all the kids were pleased and happy with their results. Once all the t-shirts were finished, we headed to the gym for the now-ritual game of capture the flag, and rather than moving excruciating slowly as they sometimes do, the hands of the clock flew around to 5:15 before we knew it.
As we raced each other back to the bus, the girls looked back and, touched, told me that all the kids were staring out the window watching us leave. After a quick game of “hide from the teacher” in the parking lot that probably wasn’t, in retrospect, the best role-modeling we could have done, we got on the bus and headed back to SBS. The girls rocked with laughter as I, yet again, cut the corner too tightly and the right rear tire bounced on the curb. “Did you want me to hit that pedestrian?” I asked. “There was no pedestrian” they teased. A few moments later, the bus became silent, and I observed “You know, if ever we were looking for a sign that we really are making a difference in these kids’ lives and that it matters very deeply that we come every week, today was that sign.” No one argued the point.
I’m sure there will be other discouraging days, just as there will be other fun days. But next time, we will have the lesson of today to draw on to help get ourselves through the discouragement and focus on what service is supposed to be all about.
Posted at 11:27 pm by bill01370
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