50 Books in a Year Book #6: Differentiated Assessment

You know you're a teacher when...you find an education book that has a title that sings to your soul, you buy said book, read and mark up said book (as so much of it gels with your thinking...) and can't wait to get to school to talk about the strategies with your friends...

Gosh, I'm an edu-nerd (that's a word, look it up!)

I don't know if I've ever talked to you about my teaching philosophy. Here are my core beliefs:

1] "Fair isn't always equal".
2] Data (hard and soft) should drive all decisions.
3] Students need to read, write and think every class period.
4] 21st century skills are essential.
5] Relationships are key.

The one thing I have a hang-up with is differentiated assessment,which puts a real kink in #1, 2 and in some ways #3, so when I saw this book at the used bookstore I had to buy it.

This book is an easy and fast read and has loads of useful information.

There are even aspects of the book that can be put into practice immediately.

Such as the following holistic model, which has been modified to assess vocabulary.

Things in the book that gel with my thinking:

1] Feedback: It needs to be prompt and helpful, and it should go both ways. Discuss questions that many missed and why the answer was wrong, and carefully consider the validity of any student complaints about a test.

Put feedback questions on the final page of a test. Example: "I can (circle: well/somewhat/not at all) do [learning objective]" or "I still need more help with ____________"

2] Outcome fairness: Tell students how they will be graded, from the very beginning of the class (or unit). Provide rubrics or checklists so students can self-evaluate as well. Base students' grades only on his/her individual contribution to group work.

3] Teacher assigned projects
Students have a choice of content not product or of product not content.

Things I'm working on:

1] Multiple assessments

2] Student designed formative assessments
Send a Problem

3] The use of logs to show evidence of learning
Content Area Logs
Reading Response logs
Dialog journals
Narrative logs

4] Student choice projects
Compacting: students may select an activity to do while others do more a more traditional unit of study
Students who have a strong interest in a particular subject may wish to work with you [the teacher] or a community mentor to design an independent study of an area of interest.
These projects must engage the students in something that is challenging, must be involved in a real-world task or application, must be learning through doing, must be created in such a way that the student can tell what needs to be completed next and the student must be able to communicate his or her learning.

In the end, she has a 12 step process for incorporating differentiated assessment into your classroom. I like #12 the best. After finding a type of assessment that works for and after using this type of your assessment in your classroom with feedback from students, it says, "Keep trying this form of summative assessment until you feel comfortable with it. Then try another, and another."

I think I'm well on my way.

A Day of MRI (Missouri Reading Initiative)

What is MRI?
The foundation of the Missouri Reading Initiative is based on the principles of effective and research-based literacy strategies, including the most current findings by the National Reading Panel. The process and delivery of the Missouri Reading Initiative training is grounded in the National Staff Development Council's recommendations for professional development programs. The on-site, long-term, comprehensive program allows trainers to be invested as partners with individual school sites in promoting improved literacy achievement for each student.

Here's a day in the life of one of our meetings...

Opening: What Have you been reading?

More can be found in the book Text and Lessons for Teaching Literature

Megan: Farewell to Manzanar
Matt: I Read It But I Don't Get It, TKAM
Me: Just finished August: Osage County WOW, powerful stuff, love it!

T&T: Why is this important?

• so our kids will talk
• reading is a social activity

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading

• are not taught in isolation; put as many together as you can (example: #10 Text Complexity)
• you have to do more than one with everything that you do while incorporating Speaking and Listening

MENTAL NOTE: Update my MRI binder of awesome!

Enhancing on-task conversations

• interesting readings
• explicit instructions
• highly structured kid-kid meeting
• begin with socially incremental design (pairs, small groups etc.); in pairs two people HAVE to work
• start with the whole class (modeling, instruction, mini-lesson)
• ALWAYS finish in a whole-class discussion, shared debrief time

Hold kids accountable for their performance within the group

Text and Lessons for Teaching Literature

Chapter 2/How to Use This Book

One-Minute Write
Listen to "The Limited", a short poem by Sherman Alexie. We will take a minute and jot down our responses and reactions to the poem.

Let's write. Wherever it takes you, whatever it makes you see or think or wonder, what it reminds you of, why you think Alexie wrote it. Keep writing for the entire time.

"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" Flannery O'Connor...not really thinking about the dog so much as I'm thinking about how it's true that you can only save your life and how tragic that fact is. We can only save our own lives. I mean just think about it. We have to know where we're going and how we are going to get there before we can talk to people about it and even then that 'hitchhiker' isn't going to appreciate it.

Listen again--Why did Alexie write this poem? Wha tis the theme or message? What word choices make this powerful? Structure?

Reason
Poets really can change the world.

Theme or message
You aren't truly apathetic if you share your experiences with others

Word Choices
"quick mutt"
"God, I thought..."
"He didn't care."
"Come on tough guy/What are you going to do?"
"Why do poets think/They can change the world?"

Structure
one piece of dialogue
8 short stanzas

One-minute write to focus on author's craft and purpose.

CCSS: R.2; R.5; SL.1; L.3; L.5

Tweet the Text: "The Sweet Perfume of Good-Bye" ME Kerr
T&T: What are some odors, good and bad, that you can almost automatically imagine smelling?

Every time you see a star you are going to stop and Tweet.

Farfire resembles Earth, but nothing has an odor on this planet except for death. People smell intoxicating just before they die. #Odd

Farfire not like Earth. We take advantage of our odors, all have meaning, all have purpose. How do they survive w/o scent? #questionoftheday

On Farfire death smells exquisite. There is something refreshing in being free to love to cherish "for as long as intended". #sweetsmell

Dr. Orr is dead, how do I get home? How can I live here without caring about smell, about home, about living and dying W/o- there is #nohope

Use Tweets to write summaries-brutally concise.

• In future dystopia, chosen teens battle to death in a government reality show that distracts citizens from their suffering and exploitation.
• Redneck boy and runaway slave float down the Mississippi, encountering humanity's follies on shore, and each others' souls of their raft.

Try it with a text you are reading or will read soon!

CCSS: R.2; R.5; SL.1; L.3; L.5

Rereading Prose
Read Like A Detective: "The Father" by Raymond Carver from Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

• Read like a detective-examine the crime scene.
• Read "The Father" and take notes on setting clues.
• Pair share--share out whole class
• Reread text and take notes on Character Details
• Reread text and take notes on Plot Events
• What is the secret between the father and his mother that is so tension filled that it appears they won't speak of it? Do you think his wife knows? Why or why not?

Rereading Poetry
Read Like A Detective: "Ducks" by Michael Salinger

• Form a group of 3
• Using Poetry Discussion Notes; choose one or two to following (group negotiates responsibilities)
• Discussion Questions
• Important Lines (at least three per poem)
• "It is the outliers that he eyes"
• "Dreaming of pastures not within the constrictions/Of this day's curriculum"
• "How can he help but admire/Those who push at the edges..."
• Words (at least three per poem)
• "sinewy hand"
• "good tender of flock"
• "make him work"
• Circle them in the text
• Poet's Craft
• Connections (at least one or tow per poem)
• Title
• Drawing (at least one per poem)
• Individuals prepare (see mine in italics)
• Group discuss "Duck"
• Share out

Find an Expert

• Find a partner by waving your paper while you are standing on the 'dance floor'
• Leave the 'dance floor' and interview your partner about the topic
• Greet by name and see what we are experts on
• Ask questions about the topic and jot down notes
• Sign your partner's paper legibly and return to the 'dance floor'

CCSS: R.1; R.2; R.3; SL.1

Using a Text Set

DAY ONE:

• Text on Text: Silent conversation about a poem ("Labels" Sara Holbrook)
• Gallery Walk
• Read aloud before each group starts responding

DAY TWO:

• View and analyze an image.
• Record notes on Venn Diagram: Left=Reality; Right=Stereotypes ("Sitting Bull Returns at the Drive-In")

[Source]

• Read "Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question". Mark lines you think make connections with the painting.
• Discuss: What feelings or messages does the art work and the poem share. Jot notes in the middle of the Venn Diagram.

DAY THREE:

• Read the speech of a student in fear of being deported. Speech at the US Capitol, Mandeep Chahal, 2011.
• Read the speech a second time and underline the words and phrases you would emphasize if you were giving the speech as well as the places you would pause to give the audience time for the message to sink in.
• Share your interpretation with a partner.
• Listen to the speech delivered by Mandeep Chahal.
• Compare your notes to Chahal's delivery.

DAY FOUR:

• Read and annotate "On Making Him a Good Man by Calling Him a Good Man" David Eggers
• Guiding question: Can we influence those around us by the way we label them?
• Written conversation: Pulling from all these texts, do you think a community can help its members become better people by viewing each other and speaking about each other more positively?

CCSS: R.5; R.6; R.7; R.9; R.10; SL.1

Resources

• Finding non-fiction, informational texts
• Responding to literature handout
• Class discussions/activities based on Reading
• Argument Writing article from Six Trait Gurus
• Teaching Channel video

American Teacher: A Personal Perspective

So, below you will find sound bites from the documentary American Teacher, below each sound bite is my personal perspective or thought...um, I don't think these sound bites are in order. I think this documentary is more about what teachers do every day in the trenches and how the agenda of others politicians, local governments don't really matter when it comes to the lives of students and those who teach them.

If you haven't seen this documentary I suggest a view, if only for the fact that it's narrated by Matt Damon.

I have watched it 3 times.

I've also read all the comments on IMDB, I'm probably sorry that I read all the comments on IMDB. I don't really think this documentary had an agenda. I think the six words on the cover say its agenda in a nutshell. Teachers are dedicated, brilliant and inspiring. They are also underpaid, misunderstood and scapegoated. I promise you those comments are evidence of the latter.

"Reading is not something that you either do or don't do well. You can actually transform and do it better. Helping [students] transform from considering themselves non-readers to considering themselves readers was like a high better than any drug I've never tried."
I find it interesting that all teachers from little people up until high school graduation are in some way responsible for the literacy of the children who come through their classroom doors. And, it is fun when you find that hook that shows students that it isn't the fact that they don't like to read, it's the fact that they haven't found something interesting to read. It's fun to use that hook to help students to reach their full potential as readers. No book is too low, as long as the book is seen as a gateway to bigger, more complex reads that expand the minds of the readers. Oh, and I've never tried drugs. 

"It really felt like a calling."
"Felt" is the key word...

"Having great teachers is the very key thing."
The 'very key thing' to all things...everyone, at one time, had to be taught what they know now, the person doing the teaching deserves recognition and praise. 

"Without great teachers we do not have a democracy. Our students cannot be successful without having great teachers in front of them."
True. What is a great teacher? If you are a teacher, are you aspiring to be great?

"Teachers in the United States are routinely undervalued that's the problem in the American education system..."
I know that we are undervalued. How do we get others to see the value in teaching? I have a friend who started teaching as a second career, she said she didn't know how hard it was to teach until she started doing it. Sure, there are other jobs that are hard, teaching is hard too.

"We still struggle to provide the status, the salaries the respect and the training that teaching as a full profession requires and deserves."
Why? Is it because our values, as a nation are out of whack? Is it because teaching used to be just a woman's profession?

"Anyone can teach a kid who gets it right away."
True teaching comes in teaching those kids, who because of their situation, need to be taught. They are the most difficult to reach.

"A lot of people think that teachers go into the job because of the vacations or the short hours or because they like kids and I don't think they understand that it's the intellectual rigor that's involved in presenting information in such a way that a child can understand it."
While those may be reasons initially, good teachers stay because they love the challenge of reaching kids on a daily basis. 

"Teachers are constant active decision makers. They make thousands of decision a day and they don't do it about an abstract idea they do it about the life of a child in that moment."
I read somewhere that the only people who make more split second decisions are air traffic controllers. I don't know if this is true, but there are some day when it definitely feels true.

"By the end of this year, I don't care who you are, this is what you need to do, this is what you need to learn..."
What it all comes down to is this! Who cares if it's written down or typed out or put in it's proper form if it's not conveyed to the students who are doing the learning.

"Nobody would question a lawyer getting paid, or a doctor getting paid, or a consultant getting paid and I think that skill set required to be a teacher is at least as complex, if not more complex. I think teachers are quick to get defensive about that because we are professionals."
I know I am. I know that I am intelligent enough to have done something else, but there is freedom in being a teacher, even with all this baggage.

"When you have high teacher turnover it creates a chaotic situation where kids don't have continuity, where the knowledge base of the school is continually flowing out like a leaky bucket, where the school is continually pedaling just to stay in place because it can't build the system of education that it needs to have to really ensure that kids are learning from year to year."
Yes, but how do we retain good teachers? Especially when we can't pay them what they deserve and it takes about five years before teaching becomes less of a challenge.

"It was like a $20,000 raise for me to go into administration after being in the classroom for 25 years."
I don't care how much of a raise I could ever get. I never want to go into administration. I never want to be in charge of anything. I don't see myself staying in this profession after 25 years anyway, if I make it to 25.

"They're not asking to make $300,000 they're asking to buy a house, to own a decent car, to live in a nice neighborhood, to have some comforts to maybe take a vacation every once in awhile and when you have teachers who have to have second jobs, when you have teachers that are living at the poverty level, then I think there's something wrong with that. And, as a society we really need to change that culture we need to flip it around to say that being a teacher is the most important job in our society."
Someone I teach with said to me that she only made ends meet after she got married and had two incomes in her household.

"The best anti-poverty program is a world class education."
Yes, yes, it is.

Some numbers and fast facts from the documentary:

1. 20% of teachers in urban districts quit every year.
2. 46% of teachers quit before their 5th year...this cost 7.34 billion dollars a year.
3. Teachers spend their own money on supplies for their classrooms.
4. Many who don't understand teaching want to tax and vilify it.
5. Newest teachers get the most difficult and largest classes.
6. Teaches don't have a lunch hour.
7. Teachers work straight through.
8. Teachers stay late and come to school early.
9. None of these are enough.
10. Women who now become doctors et cetera could only become teachers or nurses.
11. Very few top graduates want to be teachers.
12. A good teacher has a $400,000 economical impact per class.
13. There are very few teachers of color.
14. 50 hours at school +15 hours a week grading (that's if you only spend 5 minutes per kid per assignment)=65 hours a week; for some teacher's recess is the only prep period.
15. For many years people assumed that the teacher in the family was female and she, yes, she, was the 2nd income and was not really needed.
16. Many teachers have to work a second job (31%; counting extra teacher duties for pay that's 64%).
17. Many teachers are single, in unhappy marriages or divorced.
18. 70% of college freshman would go into teaching if money were no object.
19. The problem with teaching compensation is that the starting salary is the ending salary.
20. A man can't support his family on a teacher's salary and now only 16% of the workforce is male versus 22% in 2002 and 34% in 1970.

Finland, Singapore and South Korea are tops in education, why?

• They make it tough to get into the teacher program, the governement actually recruits top college students.
• They pay for teachers to get trained.
• Purchasing power of 2.5 times the USA.
• Teachers buy nothing out of their pocket.
• Teachers have prestige.
• Teachers assume it will be their career.
• They rarely leave the profession.
• Teachers think of school as their family.

One answer, according to the documentary
Increasing teacher compensation lowers teacher attrition and raises graduation rate.

One model
TEP School
$125,000 a year using public funds that have been purposefully reallocated

Educational Ins and Outs

[Source]

So, my friend sent this article to a few of us and I jokingly (not really joking at all) said that we should cut out the traits and have any new hires put them in order of importance, 9 out of 12 equals a new hire, anything less gets the door. I thought I'd take this opportunity to give my 2 cents on the educational "Ins and Outs".

1] Learners vs. Content as the Center of Instruction
This the trickest one I think, as I think some people interpret this as 1] only use what the kids want and 2] only do what the kids want, when that really isn't the case at all. If we treat our learners as people, if build a relationship with them, they are more likely to do what needs to be done. We know this to be true right!? I know I work better for someone who allows me to be human than for someone who is always nick-picking and not allowing me to grow as a learner.  In my aspect of education I hear often, "Well, the kids won't do that." or "The kids won't read that."...um, of course, they won't they're teenagers who still don't understand the importance of keeping their clothes on before posting selfies, they don't want to read classic literature or do something that makes their brains work...um, it's our job to make them to figure out how to get them to get it, to (as my friend Amanda says) 'drink the kool-aid'. I think it's a Jim Jones reference, but it works! I want my students to buy into the fact that I am educating them and that independent thinking and reading [fill in the blank classic piece of lit] makes them better, well-rounded people. I think it's important to know when content takes the back burner to the learner and when content has to be front and center. We no longer teach The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (I don't really know why, it wasn't in my grade-level), I hate that people graduating from my high school will not have read that book going in to college.

2] Educator as Coach and Lead Learner vs. as Expert and deliverer of content
In a perfect world a student understands that he/she must learn what is being taught, will do what needs to be done at home and in the classroom to make it happen and will then show evidence of learning on a regular basis without testing and quizzing. In the real world testing will always be the most direct way to show evidence of mastery, how we approach that testing shows whether we are a coach or dictator in our classroom. In Rick Wormeli's book Fair Isn't Always Equal he addresses how differentiated instruction is a way to help students master standardized tests, it doesn't talk about getting rid of them entirely, but using the test as a tool, and Marzano understands it when he says in Classroom Assessments and Grading that Works, “The score a student receives on a test is more dependent on who scores the test and how they score it than it is on what the student knows and understands.” Many students and parents get frustrated with this concept, however, it is up to us, the teacher, to guide them to understand the difference between a teacher who doesn't teach and a teacher who is facilitating the learning...when the teacher is the guide, the student will struggle, but he/she will not be alone. When a student facilitates the learning, he or she better understands the assessments given. They are masters of their learning.

3] Pluralistic education via the internet vs. single textbook
I've bought this one from day one...when the internet was a new and shiny concept! I love the access that internet affords us. I use my textbook, the internet, old textbooks, and my colleagues as resources for my students. The internet has leveled the playing field of education, students no longer have to go to London, Paris or Cairo to see priceless works of art and artifacts they can assess these finds via the internet. It is our responsible as public educators to make sure that our students have this access and it is our responsibility to help students understand the internet as an educational tool.

4] Failure as part of the process vs. perfection for students and teachers
Um...if you fail in my classroom it is because you refused (yes, not can't...can't is something else entirely and it is my job to figure out how or why they can't and then figure out how to get them to be able to succeed) to do any work to show that you have mastered the concept. If you make a D, it shows even more that you have not done work to master the concept. In my classroom an F or a D can be seen as failure. While I don't want to put a percentage on mastery, I'll tell you right now a student who receives a 60-69 in my classroom is in part lazy, has a large amount of truancy and down right refuses to do what it takes to learn. They are not college or career ready.

5] Differentiated and Personal Curriculum vs. One Size Fits All Curriculum
Curriculum should be used to guide instruction. Instruction should be in the hands of the teacher and the teacher alone as he/she knows what's best in his/her classroom for his/her students. I know what I need to do to get there, I've been given the pacing guides, I've been given the formatives, the summative, now give suggestions and leave me alone to teach. By the way differentiation is quite hard and timely...don't let anyone tell you different. Differentiation is not a quick fix. It is, however, the best and true answer.

6] Ongoing, formative assessments vs. summative assessments for accountability of teachers and school
I don't mind summative assessments, as college and life in some way or another is all about culminating events of learning. I abhor the fact that these tests (especially the end of the year standardized tests) seem to matter more to administration as indicators of success than whether students have 21st century skills. It is this myopic view that got us into the educational mess we are in as a nation in the first place. Let's not throw these out entirely, as I can use the data to help me become better, but let's not base funding and the overall success of a school and my happiness on this one shot test!

7] Multi-sensory learning vs. learning with only the brain in mind may not be relevant
I would love to meet the 'teacher' (in quotes on purpose) who does not teach in myriad ways to address the whole learner. Skill and drill, train and drain teachers have no place in education, ever. Wow, um, I didn't realize that I felt that passionately about it.

8] Producing and consuming content vs. just consuming
The hardest part of teaching is getting students to understand that they are the 'masters of their fates'...they are capable of doing all the things that I ask them to do. In fact, they are capable of doing more. They are so used to just regurgitating information without computing that it's quite a task to get to this next stage.

9] Learners do most of the talking and working vs. the teacher doing more
Of course, this goes back to the teacher is teaching, but some may think that the teacher is not. I'd like to know how to get over this hump with some parents and students. If you have any suggestions that would be awesome.

10] Technology integrated seamlessly vs. as an afterthought
Show me the money and I'll show you a teacher who integrates technology seamlessly. 

11] Misbehavior as an opportunity for growth vs. just discipline
I've also believed this since day one. A student should not be punished so much that he/she cannot come back from that punishment to succeed. I've never understood OSS as a form of discipline and in my classroom I would much prefer a student to be in my classroom than be in ISS or ASC (alternative school suspension center) as a form of punishment. Don't do something right? You get to do it again. I say to students and I mean it, "As long as you are in my classroom you will not fail." Like I've said before students have to go out of their way to do so. Just in case you were wondering students do and can fail, or make a grade they aren't used to making.

12] Social emotional learning as an integral part of education vs. being viewed as minimal or not integral 
We have to build relationships with our students before we can teach them. This is the most important aspect of teaching. Being shown how to communicate with oneself and others in an atmosphere of learning and education is ideal. This cannot be mandated to teachers as is differs by class and by teacher.

Books and articles that may help you think about how you feel about these processes:

A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades-Ken O’Connor

Fair Isn’t Always Equal-Rick Wormeli

Formative Assessments and Standards-Based Grading-Robert Marzano

I Read It, But I Don’t Get It-Cris Tovani

Layered Curriculum-Kathy Nunley

Living Your Colors-Tom Maddron

P21 Skills (can be found at: p21.org)

Professional Learning Communities at Work-DuFour and Eaker

Readicide-Kelly Gallagher

Teach Like A Champion: Field Guide-Doug Lemov

“What is a PLC?”-DuFour

With Rigor For All-Carol Jago

What Teachers Make-Taylor Mali

And, if you are ready or want to dig in because you like forms and lists...feel free to make a copy of this Google Doc I created to record and solidify your own grading philosophy and core beliefs.

Never Let Them See You Cry...ish

So, "The Today Show" had a poll today about crying in the workplace. I am admittedly against crying of any kind (yes, I know I have issues we can talk about them later), but I am especially against crying at school in front of people, especially when those people happen to be the students I'm teaching. 

Now, I LOVE interacting with my students and can get off-track with the best of them, laughing at their jokes, learning the lingo, 'friending' them on FB or doing the good 'ole follow back on Twitter, but there is something private and vulnerable about letting them see me cry. I'm not sure I want my students to know me in this way. Then it hit me and is still hitting me as I type this...I have cried in front of students. During the course of my 14 (almost 15) years of teaching I have cried several times in front of students. There are several different reasons I cried and there are several appropriate reasons to cry at the workplace. I'm not sure that all of my reasons are the most appropriate, but they did let me get to know the students on a more personal and compassionate level.

Let's break it down...

Reasons to NEVER cry in front of students

1. When a kid makes you so upset and hurts your feelings so much you just lose it. To teach you have to have a tough shell and the students have to know that while you love them they are teenagers and you are an adult. When you let one of them hurt your feelings so much that you cry you have lost the audience. Sadder still that audience tells the world that so and so made you cry and you lose credibility for years. I've seen this happen to nice, sweet new teachers. My suggestion: cry during lunch break or go to the bathroom. Or, you can do what I did my first year of teaching and tell a kid, "I promise you, you will cry way before I do." Yipes! I was one tough broad.

2. Over a boy. Or, girl for that matter. Keep your private life private. Now, this one I regretfully know from experience. Your kids know you better than you know them after all they get to study you for long periods of time every day. They know who you like, they know what you dislike and they know who you date...they've seen you out and about (this is especially true in a small town). So, when you and your man friend stop seeing one another, um, they know and when you start crying because you got to school late, burned your neck on your straight iron and just got off the phone with him before entering the building they know you are not crying because you can't figure out how to make your OHP work, it's because of said boy. Probably not a good idea that the kids know so much about you, am I right!? *looks away nervously* Cry in front of your friends instead...um... PS. I think it's OK to cry with your students if they are crying about a boy or a girl...I hate when girls make boys cry and usually also cry if a boy is crying in front of me.

Reasons where it is OK and should be encouraged to cry

1. When a student you know personally, or your students know personally, dies. In the past 14 (almost 15 years) 2 students died of cancer, there are been 4 suicides, a fatal accidental shooting, a murder and several car accidents where students I knew passed away. My heart breaks all over just thinking about these people who I loved so much-this is so tough. On days when things like this happen the show must go on, but you don't have to be a hard ass about it, trust me. I can remember so many times when kids have just stopped by my room while I was teaching to talk or to just find a quiet place after a tragedy happens. I didn't mind crying in the hallway or hugging or crying in front of a whole class at these moments. I also don't mind talking about how precious and wonderful each of them are to me, I don't mind talking to them about being safe because I love them...I don't mind crying a lot. "Why are you crying?" a student asked me one time, "You only met her once." I replied, "I am crying because I know you and you are hurting and that hurts me. I am sorry that I can't do more about it, but talk to you and cry with you." I meant that and still mean it.

2. When someone in your family is hurting or has passed away...I think this includes pets. I cried when my favorite cat died in the middle of the night and I had to go to school the next day. I cried several days before my aunt passed away and several days after I came back. When students asked why I was so upset I didn't mind telling them. Parents sent me flowers, students sent me flowers...even for the cat. I have never forgotten how kind these particular students were to me and I still see that kindness in them to this day (I think they're like 30 years old now!).

3. When something that you are teaching moves you. Every year I get a little misty-eyed when we read Our Town. I cannot help it. I love that play so much just talking about how important it is to live your boring life to its fullest, to talk about cherishing the stupid moments with family and friends so moves me that I can't help it. One year I especially lost it when a student talked about how much she enjoyed the bus ride to school because every morning she got to see the sunrise come up over the hills. What 15 year-old talks that way!? And, would I have gotten to experience such openness had I not already shared how much I love life via the reading of Our Town?

4. When the kids do something so AWESOME that you can't help it. Last year I had a particularly wonderful group of students I hated to see go. I got a little misty-eyed talking to them about how much I'd miss them. I've had students who never ace tests knock one out of the park...I couldn't help, but get misty-eyed talking about how cool that was. When kids are in shows that move me I'm so proud that I can't help but cry...sometimes I also squeal like a little girl especially when a student remembers what I like and buys said thing for me unexpectedly. Gosh I love my students so much!

OK, so I may have to take back what I said about crying in the workplace. I'd also like to apologize to the students that I cried in front of because of a 'boy' or two...and, if I could, I'd take back that venn diagram...you know which one I'm talking about...I was young, I'd like to say it won't happen again, but I'm still a bit impulsive at times.

55 Books in a Year: Book #45 Hands on Grammar

This is one of those books that you read more than one time and then you modify the lessons and you share the lessons. There are so many lessons that I will be using in my classroom. I can't wait to try these out and share them. Teaching grammar through mini-lessons in relation to a unit all year long seems like a better idea than the old-fashioned way of teaching grammar in isolation and this book is the ideal book to do that.

40 interactive lessons.

40.

And, I got them all for free. 

Over the summer I attended a differentiated instruction conference in Chicago. My first session was about common-core and DI. We talked about all sorts of things, but spent a long time talking about how the common-core standards will change the way we look at grammar. Something that people have being saying in my AP (advanced placement) conferences for years. The reason is simple: we teach grammar mostly in isolation without critical thinking and critical thinking is a heavy component in the common core. Common Core will ask students to 'show' what they have learned not memorize and spit back.

It will be tough.

It will be hard...mostly for those of us who have a traditional approach to teaching. This book and it's author are definitely there to help.

She also sent me a couple of other lovely books and a t-shirt I'm wearing as I type this. If she's presenting at a conference near you, I highly suggest attending.

Dr. Katherine McKnight can be found at:

K-12 In-Service PD for Teachers
katherinemcknight.com
Katherine McKnight Literacy on Facebook
@LiteracyWorld

and here's an article: "What Teachers Need to Know About the Common Core State Standards"

Thanks! Dr. McKnight!!!

And, no, I didn't check this post for grammar errors...it's a blog!!! *hahaha*

Infinite Summer #11: If I Were Going to Teach this Novel

Think of these Sunday posts as jumping off places...discuss what I've posted, post something yourself, answer questions, ask questions, add links...do whatever it takes to make this experience enjoyable and understandable for you!

These post will be CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS for the reading for that week (Just in case you didn't already know that!). I think knowing this will stop those of us that aren't at a certain place from reading on and will enable those of us who are writing to do so without worrying if someone knows that fact or not. If you are reading ahead and want to post about the pages ahead please wait and if you want to talk about other books, not Infinite Jest and are giving spoilers please indicate that in some fashion...even a *spoiler* before the comment would be nice.

And, finally, if there is anything I can do to make this run more smoothly please don't hesitate to message me on here, on twitter or on Goodreads and I'll see what I can do.

Let's begin the discussion...

10 Thing I Would Do If I Was Going to Teach Infinite Jest
There are several articles that talk about teaching this novel. I'd like to note that in my world teaching this novel is soooo not in the cards. I'm not even sure I'd want to teach it even if I could, as it would take a long time and I'm sure that the students (even if they were in college) would lose interest somewhere in the middle. How would I keep them motivated? I promise you I think there are very few up to the challenge.

1. I'd want to talk about David Foster Wallace as a person
2. I'd want to steer clear of his suicide. I understand that I could not. I also understand that I'm not sure I should
3. I'd consult Kathleen Fitzpatrick and the blog her students created
4. I'd take a whole semester
5. I'd make the book the backbone of the class, but we'd read other works either by him or about him before/during/after the reading
6. I'd try not to have this crush on Hal...yes, I may love Hal...
7. I'd read the book again, taking a better look at it's chronology
8. I'd also take better notes...most of my notes now are focused how I feel, not why I feel or what DFW did to make me feel this way
9. I'd have to be much braver than I am now
10. Heck, I'd probably have to be a little stronger too

What would you do if you were teaching it?

Young Adult Fiction: A Definition...maybe...

[Source]

So, after thinking about the NPR poll yesterday and thinking more and more about a] our societies' current obsession with YA fiction and b] how NPR's reply to their poll just muddied the water considerably I thought I'd put in writing what makes YA fiction what it is. And, yes, for the sake of teacher's everywhere, it really does need to be a little more scientific than what NPR has given us.

First, how NPR classifies YA Lit

1. We don't care if it's adult literature, if a teen reads it than we can call it YA fiction, unless we didn't want to...see #5.
2. Young Adult means ages 12 to 18.
3. A book where the publisher says it's for ages '8 and up' or '10 and up' is automatically Children's lit, except, um, see #4.
4. If a book has won a Newbery Award it's too young...um, unless, our judges said it wasn't too young.
5. Books we deem 'rites of passage' should be consider YA even if we deem them too young (The Last Unicorn) or not intended for young adults to begin with (The Lord of the Rings, Dune, The Catcher in the Rye. Did Salinger really mean for his book to be for adults? I'll have to Google that later.)
6. If a book was meant for a teen audience and it has too many adult themes we didn't add it too the list (their examples: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Ender's Game...I guess they forgot all about how Tom Robinson was accused of rape, oh, not to mention the abuse aspect, in To Kill A Mockingbird and that The Hunger Games is set in a future society where 24 kids are forced to kill each other, in pretty gruesome fashion, until there is only one and the reason isn't survival, but domination in a post-apocalyptic/dystopic society)

Some NPR commenter highlights

(at the time of writing this blog post there are 54 comments)

• There should be a list of Middle Grade books.
• Where is Michael Cadnum, manga, Steampunk, Mark Twain, Scott O'Dell, Norma Klein, Cleavers, Jean Little, gender and ethnic diversity, All the Pretty Horses, Out of the Dust, Pride and Prejudice, Science Fiction like Heinlein, ERB, Moorcock, Baroness Orczy, Neil Gaiman, Alexander, McKillip?
• Do kids really like Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, The Chocolate War, A Separate Peace, and other 'classics' anymore? Read my answer to what I feel teacher's should be doing about this here.
• Why are some of the books so new?
• NPR you're being a little contradictory: Yes to LotR as being a rite of passage, but no to Pride and Prejudice? Yes to Catcher in the Rye, but no to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Go Ask Alice isn't too mature? Yes to Twilight and The Hunger Games, but no to Ender's Game? If A Wrinkle in Time is too young so is Tuck Everlasting. 
• Thanks for the variety of genre and age ranges within the YA spectrum and for accounting for all taste...(I think somebody even used the words 'precious gems'). Thanks for your efforts.
• Remember this is a poll of readers.
• The fundamental question was flawed: Was I supposed to be selecting books I read and loved as a young adult? Was I supposed to only be selecting YA books? What is YA? Was I supposed to select books that make you 'well-educated' or are deemed 'classics'? Did I have to actually have read them all or just the ones I voted for? How was I suppose to choose only 10? (I can tell you I picked 10 books that I definitely read that I know moved teenagers in some fashion)
• How did Betsy-Tacy get in?
• Judges shouldn't use personal feelings to determine readership.

A recap of a brief discussion in Young Adult Book-Content Advisory

• Children's and YA should be separate
• Why do bookstores, publishers and librarians get to say what is Children's, YA or Adult?
• YA needs a rating system
• YA should mean 17-25
• An interview with Isaac Marion

My categories...based on Wikipedia, this article, my own brain and a post. These are followed by my 'two-cents', for what it's worth
(this can be found in the above discussion, as well)

There are actually three classifications

Children's
Age: 0-8

Description:
Picture books, early reader books, very simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations

Examples:
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales,
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales,Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,Skippy Jon Jones Collection,Chicken Little

Middle Grade 
Age: 9-12

Description:
1. Middle grade novels tend to be shorter. (Though not always—the huge and intimidating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is middle grade, while Angela Johnson’s brief-as-a-vivid-dream The First Part Last is quite clearly teen.)
2. Middle grade novels tend to have main characters who are the age of—or slightly older than—the target reader. (Though this, too, isn’t hard and fast: The girls in The Witch Family are younger than the reader who can fully appreciate the story, and even characters such as Mr. Putter or Frog and Toad are for all intents middle-aged.)
3. Middle grade novels tend to be more outwardly focused: Their plot of events, of things happening to the character, is more important over the course of the book than what happens within the character. (Though that matters very much to the climax of the book, when the outward events trigger an inner change.)
4. Middle grade novels tend to have a simpler vocabulary and a simpler sentence structure.
Middle grade novels tend to have a single inciting element—the thing that sets the comfortable, given world a-kilter.

Examples:
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset,Charlotte's Web,
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the whole series)


Young Adult/Teen
Age: 13-up

Description:
1. Teen novels tend to have a wider vocabulary and a more complex sentence structure.
2. Teen novels tend to give as much weight to the interior mechanics of character dilemma and change as to the outward mechanics of plot and event. That is, how a character feels about what is happening is as important as what is happening.
3. Teen novels tend to be less a simple-upsetting-of-a-status-quo (the world as it the reader knows it) and more the realization that the world is more complex than we suspected as children. (Its mysteries are legion.)
4. Teen novels tend to be longer and more demanding of the reader.

Examples:
Twenty Boy Summer,Divergent (whole series),Twilight (whole series)

I find it interesting that these descriptions don't really, directly encompass the amount of sex, cussing, violence et cetera in each book. However, I really didn't think much about it until I read The Hunger Games series. As an adult reader I could tell that I wasn't the target audience, I could also tell that most high schoolers (while they like the books) would find it any easy read, below their reading levels and easy to figure out. I truly had a problem with the amount of violence in those books. I'm not arguing with the tag of middle grade...mostly I'm arguing with myself about whether I would let my kid read those books or not. I've come to the conclusion that I would let her read anything that she was prepared (maturity etc.) to read. 

This is why classifying books in any other way, but the broad strokes above would be so tricky, as subjective attitudes, personal mores and our own morality come into play when wanting to classify books. I am positive that using our personal ideals is fine on a personal level at home, but on a broader level if we, as parents/adults/teachers, use these classifications to determine readership we are doing a subtle form of censorship, as what one person believes on a personal level is totally different than what another person believes.

It is no longer the day where a parent can just grab a book on a shelf, like the cover and let their kid read it. If we want to help our kids make appropriate (according to us) discussion we have to read the book too and not leave the determination in the hands of bookstores, libraries or teachers (as I promise I've been burned a time or two by 'letting' my students read a book that seemed just fine for a 15/16 year old to read). 

And, finally, it would seem to me that book stores and libraries and teachers that do not use these three distinctions are behind in the times and doing everyone a disservice, especially themselves.

A plea to adults everywhere
Read YA Fiction all you want, but leave its plots, themes and expectations in the hands of its appropriate readers; the youth it was intended to propel into reading in the first place. Do I think the Twilight Saga blows chunks? My adult brain says, "Yes" while simultaneously harboring an inappropriate crush on a certain undead vampire. Really, it's perfect YA lit and if we're lucky Twilight readers will find Sookie Stackhouse and then Anne Rice and, finally, the ultimate in vampire literature Dracula (yes, I feel vamp lit has a hierarchy. Heck! I believe all genres have hierarchies). We have to give those reader's time to grow and mature. Let's not impose our adult brains on what teens read either. There are some adult books that truly speak to the growth and maturity of youth, and it's OK that teens read them, but let's not call those books YA just because they do. And, in that same respect, we can read teen lit all we want, but let's not commandeer it as our own, OK?!

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 19

Last year I found this book challenge (since then I have seen many variations of it, but I like this one best!), and have been intrigued about how I would answer the questions posed. Feel free to comment with your own answer or post the challenge to your own blog.

Favorite Book Cover (Bonus points for posting an Image!)

Here are some choice covers from a book I love to collect just for the covers!
Some are just concepts, but don't they all just scream "I'm The Scarlet Letter!"

I love The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I love teaching it. I love to read it every year. I love to look at its new covers...as publishers try to entice young adults to purchase and read it. I own many of the copies above, just because I liked the covers. The big picture with the 'Gossiping Gerties', the flowy hair and the gorgeous rosebush is by far my new fav! But, look at some of the others:

1] First row, second from left is Scaffold #2...sigh...
2] First row, fourth one is the only one I've ever seen that has a male on the cover...I can only assume it's Dimmesdale without Hester or is that the hotty picture of Nathaniel himself?...I wonder who the publisher thinks the book is really about?
3] First row, fifth one is the cover of the book I teach...I think Hester is so pretty in that picture!
4] First row, final one is the cover of my first personal copy. I bought it used and added notes to the notes that were already there.
5] Second row, final one is concept cover, I believe, but I love it! It looks a little bit mid-century and the dress says the word 'adultery' over and over...
6] Third row, second one, must have come out after Twilight, hmmm...???

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 – A book or series you hate
Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving

Day 11– A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 – Favorite character in a book
Day 15 – Your “comfort” book
Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 – Favorite kiss
Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 – Most annoying character ever
Day 24 – Best quote from a novel
Day 25 – Any five books from your “to be read” stack
Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 – If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 – First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 – Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 – What book are you reading right now?

The Makings of an Honors Teacher

A few weeks ago my department head was talking with me about our honors program. Next year we are going to incorporate another teacher at each of the grade-levels. This means that two of the programs will go from one teacher with the honors darlings to two. For one grade this will not be a change (seniors have both AP Lit and Comp and a dual credit class called Expository Writing) and for another grade it will be a blessing (two non-tenured teachers collaborating with two veteran teachers--thanks, Aimee--to build a strong freshmen foundation). For the other two grade-levels it will be a drastic change, as the sophomore and junior level have each had a teacher who's been at the level alone, relatively, for 8+ years.

I am one of those teachers.

Here's an excerpt of an email I sent to my prospective collaborator:

"Would you be interested? Know that I want someone to collaborate with, but I've been teaching that class for 12 years...um...er...so...I need someone who won't let me just railroad them..."

And, I meant all of what I said. I am opinionated, know my stuff and like my stuff, but really want someone who will challenge me and my way of thinking! Really, really...one, can, after all, get really stale...and, I'm so close to stale...

Which brings me to the conversation I was having with my department head. We were talking about how our department is young (in terms of length in this building I have 2nd place and I've been here 13 years) and with that comes some inexperience, but also many Millennial generation characteristics that annoyed us when they were students and that definitely annoy us now that they are our colleagues and peers. She said that she wanted the four of us (those of us who are old school...having been here long enough to be tenured) to come up with a list of traits that we emulate and hope to exhibit as honors teachers. Being Generation X, I researched, took notes, wrote in my journal, talked with my friends and came up with the following traits that I hope I possess and I hope that other honors teachers possess. Here is the umbrella from which I garnered these ideas, straight from my department head's brainstorm. She wanted us to focus on "Knowledge & Expertise / Craftmanship / Presence / Efficacy :) / Engagement / Relationships / Relevance / Rigor - what does rigor mean to us?"

Every Honors Teacher (or, as the articles will point out, any teacher for that matter)

1. "Love[s] their subject matter, and they need to love their students, and they need to love bringing them together."...these words aren't even mine, but they're soooo deliciously true. It's a given that teachers should love their subject, but many don't. A true honors teacher loves their subject, goes to conferences in the summer, seeks professional development and is always questioning--there's no such thing as a 'done' lesson plan/unit/activity.  If you love your students your students know. Even when you stop relating to them you go out of your way to find something that endears you to them...you get a Twitter account or talk to them about their music, movies et cetera, you read blogs. A student that loves you will do anything for you. You are honest with them, even if that doesn't always cast you in the most positive light.
2. Has high academic standards. You know what your subject is, you know what you want from students, never give up never surrender. If you don't know what these things are...take the summer before you start teaching to figuring it out. Yes, I said the summer, it will take the whole summer. What do you want to learn from your class (I found a love of certain types of non-fiction by teaching NF to my students)? What do you want your students to learn? Know this at all times! Be able to defend your high academic standards by citing your curriculum, common core, your own core...
3. Has created a world in their classroom that may seem at first intimidating, but is actually inviting and challenging. You are not your students friend, although they might think it and later in life you just might be. You know what rules are firm in your classroom and you know what rules can and should be bent. You understand that when kids say you don't teach is because you are teaching them all about #8. You live and breath the balance between intimidating and inviting and challenging. 
4. Plans and is always thinking about said plans. No plan/unit/test is EVER perfect and you get this. Nothing is ever finished. Part of the fun is the stress of it!
5. Can differentiate in the long term, in class at the spur of the moment and is willing to do so without 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater'. Read #4 again, now read it again and then read it one last time...drink it in. There are different levels of honors students...some will just want a grade, some will want to learn and some are just there because they're parents are making them. You have to teach and help and learn from all of these students. Be open to the learning and the challenge and the confusion.
6. Understands that the reward is not immediate or even noticeable. You understand that some students will never figure this out, you understand that some students will figure this out and credit another teacher, you understand that some students will figure it out late in life and write you the most exquisite email/letter/card. You live for these moments.
7. Knows when to let students do the thinking and they stand firm in this fact even if parents, administration and other faculty tell them otherwise. The goal is to make a thinker/maker/doer, not to please your community or to make sure that all of your students have perfect grades. You might see AP or common core as a guide.
8. Realizes that teaching honors is to teach students to: be self-reflective, reason, reflect, have a passion for learning, be independent and dependent...and this occurs all the time everyday. 
9. Is willing to risk. I've changed aspects of my class every year...I try new things, better ways to teach honors, teach a certain concept...I know that not all of these is always going to pan out, but I do them anyway.
10. Is willing to fail. I say willing to fail because if something doesn't work and you give up than no one wins. However, if you recognize where your failure lies and research and learn to do better than you and your students grow. It has taken me about 6 years to figure out how to teach grammar without losing my soul, I'm still tweaking the finer points and probably will be until I retire.

Articles from which I found ideas:
Teaching Honors
Teaching and Learning in Honors