I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now!!!

The other day a young...ish and naive Mrs. T had a heart to heart talk with a much older (yet still attractive) and wiser Mrs. T. The following is a written account of the actual conversation. It was recorded by a middle-aged and chubby Mrs.T.

Hi, Mrs. T. Can I ask you a question?

Of course you may!  Just don't take too long. I have persuasive essays 

to grade, and at my age, a little persuasion is just what the

doctor ordered.

How am I going to decide what vocabulary words to teach, and 

how am I going to effectively teach them to my students?

Well, one thing that I have learned is it is best to let the students

create their own lists of vocabulary words.

When given the chance to choose words, they seem

to be more invested in the learning process.

To teach the vocab, I like to give the students time to

discuss the words and what they think the meanings might be

based on prefixes, suffixes, roots, and context. Another thing is to give them opportunities

to use the words in classroom discussions, written responses, and

other activities based on the text. I also love a huge Word Wall in my 

classroom where students can post vocabulary so it is always there

to act as a resource. Just monitor the Wall. High schoolers like to 

put the F-word up there...a lot!

Duly noted! I also wonder what the best practice is for

giving students opportunities to use oral language?

Any suggestions?

In my experience, there are very few students who don't like to talk.

The challenge is giving them something constructive to talk

about!  I always like to engage them in class discussions to get

their jaws warmed up a little, then they can continue their

discussions in small groups. Another thing that I have found is some

students actually prefer giving an oral presentation of a text better than submitting it in formal

writing. When able, I like to offer this option on summative assessments. And,

by requesting a written draft of the presentation, I am able to kill two birds

with one stone. Written and oral language skills done!

You've become devious in your old age!

I've also become a little hard of hearing, so could you speak

up a little?

Sure thing. When students are asked to create written texts,

how do you support them in their writing?

Actually, I like to act as a facilitator who enables the students

to help support one another in their writing. Of course, I supply the

students with instruction on the technical elements of writing, but the students

learn to conduct writing workshops to edit and polish their writing until it

turns into something they are proud to share.

Isn't that hard to teach?

It takes some time to lay the ground work for the writing workshops,

but the benefits outweigh the initial time it takes to instruct the kids.  Besides,

I'm telling you right now, if you want easy, DON'T become a teacher!

Get a job at Target or Home Depot. Teaching is not for the faint of heart!

Wow! You don't hold anything back.

Hell, my subtlety left me long ago, along with my muscle tone and

normal bladder capacity. One more thing that I do to help make my students better

writers is I make sure they are surrounded by good texts to read. I have

a pretty decent classroom library that includes YA novels, literary classics,

informational and nonfiction texts, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, digital texts,

newspapers. If you can read it, and it's school appropriate--mostly--you can probably

find it in my classroom. I know that the more a student reads, the better

that student writes!

It sounds like you have gotten pretty smart with age!

Any advice you want to give a younger you?

Laugh more, worry less, and for Pity's sake, invest in money in

MacIntosh stock! That little apple is going to make you a rich woman, then you

can teach for fun instead of for the big money that

school districts offer to sweeten the deal. Of course, I'm kidding.

Sarcasm is not one of the things that I have lost with age!

Can You Hear Me?

Last semester I had the "pleasure" of doing my practicum hours with a teacher we will call Ms. X.  Ms. X has been teaching English in junior high school for 15 years.  While I am sure that she is more than competent in her discipline and passed her education courses with flying colors, there is one shortcoming in her teaching strategies that I noticed during my time in her classroom...there is NO opportunity for students to practice oral literacy!

Her classroom may be the only one in the entire building that is silent.  When students enter her classroom, they are required to read silently for 15 minutes.  They quickly transition to a lecture given by Ms. X which is then followed by a short individual activity time where students work alone until the end of class.  I know that you must think that I am exaggerating, but I am telling the absolute truth!  In 35 hours of classroom observation I never witnessed one ThinkPairShare, Fishbowl, Small Group Discussion, or any of the other oral literacy activities shared in this week's module.  What I did witness was groups of students who lacked motivation and excitement for Language Arts, and it was not a pretty sight.

So what could Ms. X do to help her students make their voices heard?  A lot!  In one of the lessons that she taught about personification, she began the instruction by showing commercials in which inanimate objects showed human qualities. (Remember the one with the broom begging to come back after being ousted for the cleaner, sleeker Swiffer?  Poor broom! Whisked aside for a newer model.) After showing the videos, she asked the students to write down three examples of personification that they had seen on television or in movies. Some students were so overcome with excitement that they actually called out their responses!  She promptly squelched their little voices and instructed them to keep their answers to themselves.

AAAGGGHHH!  Why not ask the students to turn to their neighbor and share their answers with their neighbors and include how the items shared are examples of personification?  There are only benefits to be had.  First, students are learning to communicate with their peers (a lost art); second, students are practicing the skill of giving textual examples and supporting those examples; third, students have the opportunity to help classmates who may not understand the concept of personification by giving examples and discussing them; fourth, students are able to release their wiggles and have fun in class!

Also, during my time in her class, students wrote several types of essays: persuasive, narrative, expository, etc.  Not once did they ever have the chance to edit those essays using peer groups.  They wrote the essays, handed them in to the teacher, and received them back with a grade written on the top in purple ink.  No feedback offered.  About this time I was ready to pack up the little 7th graders and smuggle them into the "fun" English class so they could know the feeling of sunshine on their faces and the taste of  lemonade on their parched tongues!  Conducting small groups activities, such as peer groups to edit papers, is a fantastic way for students to interact in a way that encourages them to use academic language (e.g. "I like the hook you chose to use." or "I couldn't find the topic sentence for your third body paragraph."), to gain experience in editing written texts, and helping fellow students to succeed. Is there a downside to this?  I think not!

While I did not necessarily enjoy my experience in Ms. X's classroom, I am grateful that I had the chance to observe her teaching practices because I know that I want my classroom climate to be very different from hers.  I want students to express themselves through writing and speaking.  I want students to learn to collaborate with their peers to find the best solutions to problems.  I want students to understand that the spoken word is powerful!  Spending 6 hours in school is hard enough on teenagers (and teachers:). Why make it harder by stifling them?