Final Reflection

In preparation for my final reflection, I reviewed all of my blog posts from the semester.  I'm amazed by how many things I learned simply through independent course reading.  I investigated topics that I was really curious about.

If I'm being honest, I have to acknowledge that this semester was one of the scariest for me in terms of being a future teacher.  I realized just how much I DON'T know.  Next year, I will be teaching in a classroom.  I will be calling the shots.  This realization was scary because I felt (and feel) that there is so much to know.  I was most concerned with making everything I've learned and observed in the past become real and applicable.  I spent so much time in reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses at my present moment.  I identified some of both.  I used those to fuel and direct my course reading.

I'm passionate about writing and reading literature, mainly.  I love English subject matter.  That being said: I can easily identify things I hated about English classes in my own past experience.  I hated vocabulary and grammar practice.  It was boring.  Grammar, in particular, always seemed like a lot of jargon that did not apply to me.  As a result of this realization, I was determined to read an abundant of material about making vocabulary and grammar interesting and applicable.  I read Word Nerds and Engaging Grammar.  Word Nerds became one of my favorite books about teaching English.  It opened my eyes to the fact that we, as teachers, often skirt around matters like vocabulary and grammar because we are scared of it.  We are unsure about how to teach it in any way that is not traditional memorization.  I'm finding more and more that the most comes from simply reading and writing, and noticing patterns.  We pick up vocabulary words because we work with the words.  We have to see the same word in different contexts and angles.  One of my favorite activities reminded me of activities we did in Inventive Thinking.  We have to assort the vocabulary words in ways that help us understand the connection between them.  We are building schemas right along with building understanding about vocabulary words.  Having students play games and build things can be a great way to learn vocabulary.

Grammar is most effective when we are seeing examples and patterns in the daily reading we do.  Pointing out syntactical strategies and parts of speech in a text rather than separate from a text is the most useful way for learning grammar.  Students, then, can model those patterns in their own writing.

This semester has probably been the most life-changing one thus far.  As its drawing to a close, I realize that I still have fears about being a teacher.  At the same time, I feel far more confident than ever before.  This semester has been one in which I had to force myself to sit down and grapple with all of these concepts until I started taking ownership on them.  I had so many misconceptions about personalized learning.  I never truly believed that I could implement personalized learning effectively.  Now that I've seen it at work, and studied it, I realize that is attainable and beneficial for all--not just the students.

My nature as an elementary and secondary student was terrified to fail or struggle with things I did not understand.  I was most comfortable when someone told me what to think, say, or spit out on a page.  Learning, however, is not always comfortable.  In fact, in the majority of instances, learning comes with grappling with new material.  Failing is just a part of learning, and it's not even a bad thing.  I'm only now beginning to learn that fact.  I felt like I was constantly failing in writing my unit plan and implementing lessons in the classroom.  In reality, I was only learning ways to be a more effective and concise teacher.

Throughout the semester, I also read about workshopping in the English classroom.  The students in my practicum often use workshops and peer reviews as part of their learning process.  Seeing it firsthand, when coupled with my course reading, helped me to see how important it is to workshop.  Writing and critiquing is a practice.  When we read something, we should be constructively critiquing it the entire time.  When we write something and allow others to read it, we must be open to change and grow.  Workshopping is one way to show the active, growing, writing process.  We learn to accept areas where we need improvement.  I'm currently obsessed with the book, Using the Workshop Approach in the High School English Classroom.  I love the idea of a teacher being a coach and a partner in the learning process as students regularly write and revise writing, as well as critique each other's work.  Making this growth process a regular activity in the classroom allows for students to see the importance of life-long learning.  They will forever be creating and receiving critique.  They can constructively use that critique and revise and pursue new ideas.

The following link is my favorite scene from one of my favorite movies.  Of course, the movie deserves critique in some areas.  However, this scene represents to me what personalized learning is.  We have to see the students for who they are and where they are individually, and refuse to let them give up altogether.  We will always have students who have excuses for why they can't succeed.  Some of them truly believe they cannot.  However, through personalized learning, we are to be working with them to find ways that they they can succeed-- in a way that fits who they are as a learner and a person.

Fun fact: I sometimes tear up at this scene.

Freedom Writers: You are not failing

I'm currently loving being in the classroom I am in.  I have learned so much from simply talking and listening to the students.  My coordinating teacher has been a source of wisdom and confidence.  Her feedback is helpful while still being affirmative.  I need the affirmation as a learner this semester.  I imagine that all students need that affirmation at some point, right along with the regular feedback they need.

Through my practicum, I got to be a part of a teacher team and community.  I have already sought out a few teachers for advice and answers.  This community has been so helpful.  I've seen PLPs in full swing, 1-to-1 devices being integrated into the classroom, and I got to participate in monitoring student progress and directing them toward a common goal.  I'm finding more and more how important it is to equip students with the skills and the resources to go out and find answers for themselves, rather than spewing out the answers in a traditional lecture.

I know teaching is for me.  I've never been more sure in my entire life.

Video Reflections

WARNING: The quality of these videos is terrible and the angle is awkward.  Also, most of my lessons involve individual work with me monitoring progress rather than lectures.

So, once again: AWKWARD.

Lesson One

This first part of the video was with the BIO-POEM lesson to the eighth grade ELA students.  The purpose of this portion was to get the students thinking about the importance of choosing powerful words to describe themselves.

Altogether, this portion of the lesson went smoothly.  However, I just realized in watching the video that the two boys in the mustard sweatshirts were not really on-task throughout this activity.  I probably should have checked on them first to jumpstart this activity with them.  These two generally disengage from class activities frequently, and even distract each other at times.  It might have been beneficial to mix up the groups from what they are used to, assigning each one of these boys (in particular) with other students in the class.  This would help to break them away from their distractions.

In watching this, I also can't help but really wish that I had transitioned the partner activity/ mini-lecture with the bio-poem.  In my mind, I knew there was a connection but I don't really see myself really clearly defining the connection for the students.



Lesson One: Part One

In general, this group of eighth graders are pretty good about getting activities done.  However, there is alot of time used in transitional periods that is not effective.  This lesson, in particular, was one in which I struggled with time management.  This was the first lesson I taught, and I did not follow the clock as well as I could have.

In watching this video, I also realized that this was ample opportunity to go over instructions clearly and provide powerful examples to the whole class before sending them all on their way to do individual work.  This would have allowed for more time to actually brainstorm and then construct the bio-poem, and go on to the other activities of the classroom.

Also, in watching this portion of the video, I realize that there was a student in the back row who was clearly not excited about the material I was sharing.  He's such a brilliant student, so I could have easily brought him into the conversation, rather than centralize the lecture/ dialogue with the five or six most vocal students.

I wish I had the part of the video where one student semi-jokingly hit his friend in the face with an ipad.  I wanted to see that part because I KNOW that I could have handled it better.  I kind of froze and didn't know what to do.  It was a perfect time to address the class as a whole and go over the directions again.  Also, I probably could have helped the poor kid more than I di. I was so nervous!

Lesson Two

This segment of video came from my lesson to seventh graders on The Outsiders Chapter One.  This part mainly focused on when the students were working on comprehension questions and the character grid. Ms. Baldwin helped with answering questions as well.  She occasionally walked around and checked on students, too, though, it was mainly just me.

The class community is pretty chill.  Most students work independently and they seem to enjoy it.  Ms. Baldwin normally allows small chatter as long as it is on-task.  That being said: I see many opportunities in this video where I could have checked in with the few students I see on the screen to keep them focused.  One of the boys, in particular, often gets off-track.  He is a creative thinker, but often follows his train of thought on and on until he is no longer even engaged with the task at hand anymore.  This student would have benefited from me checking in.

This was the class where I felt the students had the most anxiety about the number of tasks they had to complete.  I should have made it clearer that my expectations were that they get as much done on their character grid as they could.  It was a work period.  One student (off-screen) was stressed because she didn't feel she had enough time to complete the activities.  While I had announced once that they were expected to get as much as they could done on the task, I should definitely have announced it again.


Lesson Two

This video really resembles the last one.  Thanks to our struggling videographing skills, part of the video overlapped.

That being said: I clearly see two boys getting a little off-task at the beginning of this video.  The one boy had already finished his task.  Instead of moving on to the next things on the list on the board unprompted, he distracted his neighbor.  I should have addressed the class to keep moving at the own pace down the list.  If they complete one activity, they simply need to move on to the next task without being prompted by me.  I also could have addressed him, personally.

When I introduced the comprehension questions, I asked the students if they knew what first/second/third person was.  They assuredly told me they did.  In fact, I had thought at the time that they thought I was silly for asking it based on the resolve some of them had. In watching this video, I realize that there were many misconceptions about 1st/2nd/3rd person that I TOTALLY could have addressed, but didn't!  So many different people had the same questions that I could have helped.

Ms. Baldwin, in this video, addresses one student who was having behavioral problems because I didn't see him.  I do wish I had!

Free Writing

I think I only started appreciating free writing as a college student for my workshop classes, while I did have to do them for high school classrooms.  I think I just didn't understand the purpose of them before, nor did I do them effectively.

Free writing is free from self-editing throughout the process.  It's supposed to be just a free-flowing idea bin through which flows new ideas, and emerging understanding.  It's a splatter of ideas and maybe even word dribble.  It's something that helps students put ideas on a page.  From there, they can reflect and draw on certain matters of importance.

This chapter also mentioned that there is value in free writing that we don't immediately think of.  It's important in this flowing, free process, that "false starts" happen.  Students start writing a particular thing, and realize it isn't right/ going anywhere and change directions.  I love this because it shows a valuable lesson.  False starts happen.  Sometimes, you go down a path of thinking and it doesn't work out/ shifts in some way.  AND THAT'S OKAY AND EVEN VALUABLE!

You need to let go of ideas that don't work fall to the wayside.  Wasting time pursuing things that aren't valuable is not necessarily a good writing skill.  Creative writers, on a professional level, know when an idea is leading them somewhere (note that the idea is what is doing the leading, and not the conscious writer) and when an idea is a dead-end that isn't pushing them farther.

In the writing workshop realm, free writes are particularly valuable at stirring thinking to actually turn into the writing process, or reject altogether.  I use this all the time as a creative writer.  In fact, it's helped to fuel more creativity than I ever employed to this capacity before.

Workshopping as Coaching

The author of this book, Cynthia D. Urbanski, called on her experience as a track and field coach.  She said that she worked right along her students, sweating in the heat, conquering the steep hills, tiring her legs out.  She claimed that her presence through their running experience helped her to connect and relate to the students' struggles and victories better.  She wrote: "When I was coaching, I felt a connection with what I was doing.  In my classroom, there was an invisible wall" (25).  At the time, she felt that she was keeping her students doing busy work, and was not connecting to them in the same way she was through coaching.

Then she realized that the role of teacher and coach could be the same thing.

She stresses throughout this book the importance of the teacher modeling behaviors, and being a member in the classroom.  Not just a dictator over the classroom, but a member who is contributing and expecting students to contribute in the same way. Modeling the writing process and reading process can, in turn, build a community within the classroom. 

This is useful in so many ways.  Not only do students get to see examples of active, lifelong learning, but they begin to gain a trust as they watch their "teachers engage in the real act of writing or reading" (26).  They see the skills as an ongoing process, and they get to see goals being accomplished while ALSO learning reading/ writing skills. 

She said that her goal was always to show students the difference between good and bad writing.  "The difference between good and bad writing--and for that matter, good and bad reading--is the level at which the person opens up herself, her thoughts, and her feelings for others to see." (27).  When we are asking students to write, we are asking them to show us part of who they are.  They have their own style and ideas to reflect.  We should be coaching those individual strengths and ideas, and supporting them to show them the skills of good writing in terms of their individual writing.

This writer is soooo good.  I feel like I've already written down so many quotes from my experience.

Who Writes the Rule Book Anyway?

The name of the chapter I read in the book, "The Workshop Approach", was called, "Who Writes the Rule Book Anyway?" WHAT A GREAT CHAPTER.

Aristotle often is attributed with speaking on matters of writing.  He is revered as this great thinker from whom we pull our ideas, and, indirectly, our systems.  He spoke of writing with purpose, and according to audience.  Over the years, however, we strayed farther and farther away from that simplicity.  We devised modes of writing, focused on rhetoric and grammar, and submitted ideas for different kinds of writing like explanatory, expository, narrative, etc.

As a general population of English teachers, we've been clinging on to this idea that we need to stress these particular, segregated components.  As my other content reading as expanded into areas of vocabulary and grammar, I am just now seeing the importance of blending the skills together.  As long as we keep audience, purpose, and meaning in mind while constructing, we are free to write.  Skills pertaining to grammar, rhetoric, and vocabulary come with practice and implementation.

I like the following sentence: "Too many teachers, like their ancient predecessors, view genres as rigid structures that must be learned precisely and then never violated if writing is to be coherent, organized, and effective.  Too many believe that...teaching writing means insisting on formal correctness..." (13).

"Never violated" sounds like it would breech creativity and could stump individual students.  As this author suggests, we cannot hold to that idea that formality is rule.  It's a process, and, moreso, a SKILL.  Skills are strengthened with practice and reflection.

This chapter also commented on how teachers are teaching concepts like the five-paragraph essay because of tests and specific curriculum.  The chapter argues that students need to be taught the skills, and the results will follow.

Workshopping in the Classroom

Because of my focus on vocabulary and grammar so far this semester, I haven't started my other book, "Using the Workshop Approach in the High School English Classroom" until recently.  The central idea is that writers only get to be better writers through frequent practice and peer evaluation.  This sounds like common sense, but I really come away with the idea that writing is a skill that gets strengthened with the writing process.  Students should not be shying away from critique and revision, nor should they go long periods of time without opportunities to practice giving constructive feedback to others around them.

Runners cannot go out and run the Boston Marathon without practice.  Writers cannot be expected to write long, professional pieces without gaining the skills and confidence that comes from the workshop experience.

This chapter focused on "coaching" the workshop process.  At the beginning, the teacher might have to step in and model the process.  Maybe I will have to write a piece for them to workshop.  Maybe I will model giving constructive feedback.  As the process continues, though, I need to expect my students to take the leadership role.  As they gain the skills necessary, they can elaborately provide feedback and work on skills of being critical readers of others' work, along with learning skills to write their own work.

This process allows students to take a leadership role.  I know this comment may appear to be a sideline comment, but it's really important to me to create an atmosphere that fosters leaders.  Individuals who know how to articulate their own ideas, constructively and positively display those ideas in a respectful way, and stand by their own work, while also being able to adapt and revise.  Those sorts of skills are priceless in the real world, and they can absolutely be fostered in the classroom.

P.s. I really like this book so far.  The writing style and information is relaxed but instructive.

Animal Farm

The eighth grade is in the middle of the coolest unit.  They were introduced to dystopian literature.  They are looking at it through the lens of George Orwell's Animal Farm.  Ms. Baldwin is interweaving the story with the Russian Revolution.  Obviously, Orwell wrote the book to illustrate the revolution and the motivations for major historical events.  The kids are really interested in the unit.  So far, we've looked at cartoon graphics, depicting the story of the Russian revolution, as well as pictures of real life characters.  The class had a discussion about what it would be like to live in Russia during this time, and how their perspective would change based on whether they were members of the Romanov dynasty, or if they were the average citizen with no food.

This unit peeks my interest, primarily because I love history and English together so much.  The students have been excited about it so far, as well.  We've been reading Animal Farm as a class in class.  Students don't do the reading outside of the class.  This also provides ample opportunities to discuss outdated vocabulary and misconceptions, as well as more clearly draw the connection between the story and real life.  I do wish we could try some new vocabulary techniques throughout this unit, but I do appreciate that the students are using and reflecting on the terms before reading through the chapter in which the words appear.

I mainly helped students with vocabulary and comprehension questions.  Ms. Baldwin read the story aloud and has done most of the lectures. 

I'm going to miss the students so much over Christmas break that I already promised them I'll come in several times to see them :)