"A" day, which meant three Literature/Speech classes, and my prep.

Classes were easy as all I had planned was for the students to finish their expository speeches, finish up the chapter one assignments for our novel My Brother Sam is Dead, and start reading chapters two and three -- assignments for those chapters will be due on Wednesday and will be the last grades for this first quarter. So I spent the first half hour listening to and grading speeches, and the last forty minutes grading their literature assignments and watching them read.

I'm a little disappointed that not all of the kids took the opportunity to give a speech. Most did, but not all. They'll have to give several eventually, and since this was the easiest one to give in terms of subject, length, and my expectations, I wish they all would have taken advantage of this opportunity. I view this first speech as a great learning opportunity, and my standards are a little laxer than they will be next time. After having checked with the students today, I know they now know specifically what not to do, what to do, what the most common mistakes are, and what elements make a truly high-scoring speech. I have quite a few very motivated students, and quite a few who are used to getting "A's" all the time. Many of these kids have learned that an "A" doesn't come easy in my classes -- I am used to smart kids and have high expectations. Almost all of the kids who gave good speeches and met the standards scored 4s (on a scale of 1-6) -- but this only amounts to a "B" in my grade book (80%). They have to do extremely well -- use all of my instructions well -- to get a score of 5 (100%) in one of the four categories I grade: Delivery Skills, Ideas and Content, Language, Organization.

I can only remember two students who scored a five in language -- they both attempted to use expressive language and included a few similes. Almost all students scored well in organization, as they followed my instructions about introductions and conclusions. Quite a few failed in delivery skills as their nervous energy became distracting as they twirled their notes, shuffled their feet, played with their hair, or some such just a little too much. Many learned that they need to provide more substantial supporting detail/examples for their main points. And even if they did all the various things pretty well, I wouldn't give them an "A" unless they truly did a really great job.

So I now have a few students with a mid-level "B" who are used to getting an "A." One of them, D'Laura, who is extremely conscientious and hardworking (and one of the very few who answer every single question in complete sentences), even turned in an essay for The Old Man and the Sea that she rewote in an attempt to meet the reading standard. She had done poorly on the text analysis essay for that novel, and took it upon herself to rewrite and resubmit it to me for rescoring. That night not seem like much, but for an eighth grade student, that reflects a great work ethic. I wish I had more students like her who would not settle for anything less than their best effort.

One of my speech topics got quite a bit of play time: "Discuss the three most irritating qualities of middle school teachers". Even I (shocked was I, simply shocked!) was mentioned in a couple of speeches. One girl, Courtney (one of my best students), had the audacity to gripe about my fashion sense (haha! I am by far one of the best dressed men in the building!). She said that it really irritated her that some teachers would wear sandals with slacks and nice shirts (I'm the only one who fits that description -- just love my birkenstocks). Well, I thought, if that is the worst of her complaints, then she has a pretty good time with her teachers.

Several kids complained about how teachers drone on and on saying the same thing over and over in a monotone. I believe this is true...but don't believe that particular complaint applied to me. ;-)

Another popular complaint was how teachers always eat in the classroom and drink their coffee, but they go ballistic if a student breaks open a bag of cheetos. I actually encourage the kids to have a snack around ten o'clock; I certainly need one then.

A boy named Clinton had a rather pointed barb directed at me in his speech (one that I couldn't help chuckling at). He complained about a teacher (obviously me) who used vocabulary that nobody else has a clue about. While true that I am always endeavoring to enrich their vocabularies, even assigning a list of new vocab words each week and having them write stories using the words, my vocabulary is rather modest in educated circles. Trouble is, in my defense, is that most kids have parents with severely restricted vocabularies, and the rest of their rather restricted cultural milieu is vocabulary-challenged too. I have actually gotten quite a bit of pleasure seeing some of my more conscientious students put many of the words I have taught them to good use in their essays and stories they write for Language Arts class. Two girls in particular have put many of the new words to use so far their writings: Jennifer and Trista (good friends in my afternoon block class).

One thing really gave me a thrill today: William, a very witty and entertaining boy, asked me at the end of school if I would be interested in seeing some of his "work." Of course I said yes, projecting an authentically real interest in whatever his "work" was -- he is a gifted writer and storyteller, and I always enjoy reading his essays and stories quite a bit. A friend of his, Nicholas (who has a decidedly sarcastic and very witty personality) told me that William and he had made some home videos this past weekend, and he told me that in one of them William put black tape over his upper lip and donned a pair of glasses so he could impersonate me. "Hey you slackers, you need to get your work done!" is the one line Nicholas relayed to me that really sounded like something I would say. (I have said it, many a time! haha). I am quite anxious to see their video!

Anyways, having smart students entertain themselves by doing a caricature of me is quite a compliment, imo, and let me know that I am making quite an impression on them. Makes me feel good.

I'll post some analysis of the students' grades either tomorrow or at the end of the week. I'll be interested to see how many students gearned various grades and met the state standards in the several assignments I have given them this first quarter. I sent an email to all the staff today detailing the specific assignments I have scored using the state standards scoring guides, and asking reast of the staff to help my students put those assignments in their portfolios. I earned some brownie points with the principal for that. He emailed me back thanking me for setting a good example.

Tuesday October 26, 1999

"B" day today, which meant block classes. Four things on the schedule:
1) D.O.L.
2) Vocabulary List #6 -- no stories this week; instead we did skits.
3) Review chapter 3 in History -- Test next class -- and complete a crossword puzzle.
4) Simulation

The vocabulary skits were lots of fun. This week's list is: jovial, careen, minuscule, squalor, morbid, wrath, grimace, pseudonym, tranquil, sallow, intermittent, a cappella.

I put together a list of about twenty different skits pairs of students could act out using at least three of the words. Some of the skits the students chose to do were:

- Three kids decide to start their own band.
- A ten-year old finds a wallet full of hundred dollar bills.
- A waiter at a restaurant brings an irritable customer a wrong plate of food.
- An enthusiastic coach encourages her team.
- A parent lectures his son, who has come home five hours late
- A mother can't stop her baby from crying..
- A school bus breaks down five miles from school.
- Picnickers are plagued by ants.
- A student is afraid to show her parents her report card.
- Two actors try to do a commercial for "Zippy Dippy Drink," which they discover is an awful. tasting combination of spinach and carrot juice.
- At a supermarket, a chatty checker talks on and on and on.
- A teenager talks on the phone to her best friend.
- Two best friends say good-bye because one is moving away.

I required the students to use at least three words, but I also gave them extra credit for using more than three. Most earned extra credit, and everybody had lots of fun. They were very happy not to have to write stories this week, and any time they get to do skits is a good time for them.

A couple skits were especially good -- not only because of the way the kids used the words, but because of their acting ability. I have several natural actors. The skit where two kids tried to sell the Zippy Dippy drink was acted very well by Brock and Dustin; and two delinquent sorts did a skit where a parent lectures their kid about coming home five hours late; I could tell that had really happened to one of them, as his acting had the ring of truth about it. The other one that had a ring of truth about it was the one where the kid was afraid of showing her parents her report card. I could tell the way the kids portrayed the parents that they had really been through those situation themselves, and they sounded just like a real parent would have.

History review started slowly, as many kids seemed to not remember many things. So I put up a graphic organizer wit four circles representing Geography, Politics, Conflicts, and Religious and Intellectual ideas. Once I did that their memories came to life and all of a sudden they started discussing The Great Awakening, The Enlightenment, Bacon's Rebellion, Seaports and the role rivers played in shaping the way people lived in the northern and southern colonies. Next they completed a crossword puzzle I prepared for the chapter, and then we graded it. Almost all of them got perfect scores on the crossword after I gave them 7 down: "Gabriel Thomas explained why women's wages were so _____________ in the early colonies." Exoribitant was the answer, and even though many could explain why (supply and demand), they didn't know the word I used as the answer.

Simulation was lots of fun and very active -- both classes were very active today! Kids up an out of their chairs doing skits and all....One colony had a big attack n another colony planned out, had favorable conditions set up (38 attackers vs. only 10 defenders), but the defenders pulled off a miraculous victory, so there was quite a bit of excitement over that.

An enjoyable day from my perspective, and from the students' perspectives. But we'll have to wait and see how well they do on their vocabulary quizzes and how well they do on their history test on Thursday to discover whether or not the classes were truly effective or not.

Wednesday, October 27, 1999

"A" day, which meant three Literature Speech classes. Last day of the grading quarter, so all I had going on was for them to finish reading through chapter 4 in MBSD, and turn in the chapters 2 & 3 assignments. Tranquil day...mostly. I got to sit and grade assignments while the students worked quietly. I got my grades done, and posted a table, listed by rank, of all the grades in my three Lit/Speech classes. 68 total students in my three classes, and the students were very interested to see how they stack up, so to speak, against all the other students taking the same class, and to know what their final first quarter Literature/Speech grade was.

I was a little disappointed to realize that the top students on the list were mostly students whom I did not have in my block classes too. Even though I see these students every other day, I am sad that the almost all the very "top" students, the ones in the TAG program, are not also in my Language Arts and History classes. If they were they would get the full effect of my intensive integration of the four subjects (literature, speech, writing, history). As it is, many of those really talented kids sitting atop my Literature/Speech grade sheet are only getting the kid's meal instead of the full-meal platter I serve up to the rest of my kids. Sad for them (no disrepect to their other teachers meant here, just my inflated sense of self-worth) and sad for me because I don't get the pleasure of helping them progress.

Had some very happy students who were able to raise their grade this last day from a "C" to a "B" or from a "B" to an "A." A coupe turned in an extra credit essay about the novel we are reading to accomplish this feat.

The un-tranquil part of my day happened during Advisory class. I had one student be very defiant and disrespectful, so I had to remove him from the room. I placed him in the hallway outside my room, but before too long he did something else out there which forced me to walk him down to the counselor's office. I called his mom after school to report my difficulties, and she told me that her son had told her he was getting really "sick" of me and wanted to be transferred out of my class. Understandable, as this boy has me for Block, Lit/Speech, and Advisory -- so he's with me for a good part of every day. His mother and I had already discussed during parent conferences the possibility of transferring him out of my Lit class to someone else's if he didn't earn a passing grade the first quarter -- and he didn't earn a passing grade. So I believe this boy was acting out on purpose today in order to initiate the transfer procedure. Not sure what will happen; I told mom to call the counselor and ask for a transfer if that is what she wanted to do -- it is not something I can initiate or make happen myself.

Ironically, this student has a twin brother in all the same classes too -- except for my Advisory class. The brother did some very high quality work today and managed to raise his grade one level. He was extremely pleased with himself, and stood in front of my desk very proudly and proclaimed that he would even do better next quarter! Brought to mind the old adage, "Success breeds success." He had obviously proved something important to himself today. (My quote of the week, which is posted on the board, is appropriate to mention here as it is especially applicable to him: "Don't prove something to someone else. Prove it to yourself.") Anywise, I got a little sweet and sour from two brothers today. Happy and sad ... as is so much of life, right?

Another especially gratifying moment came when Andrew - the student who scored very high on his use of language in his speech the other day -- came to me and asked about some vocabulary assignments he saw on my desk. He's one of those who are not in my block class (and thus don't get the vaunted Keuter vocabulary treatment), and he managed to express some real interest between some sarcastic comments meant to hide his real interest. After chatting with him about the importance of a rich vocabulary for a while (I pulled out a favorite quote from the German philosopher Heiddeger: "Language is the house of being." The concept that an expanded vocabulary meant a larger perspective within which to live struck home with him, and he ended up taking ten of my vocabulary lists home with him tonight with the understanding that he could write an essay or story using the words from a list and I would grade it for him with a state scoring guide so he could amass some portfolio entries). The prospect of a student initiating some extra-class work for himself in order to enrich his life (I couldn't give him a grade in the grade book for this work since he's not in my writing class) was another especially bright moment in my day. Amazing what unexpected pleasures each day brings forth.

Success breeds success is my motto for the day... I even received chapter 2 & 3 assignments today from three veritable slackers who almost never turn in daily work. Two of these guys are step brothers, and I had them both in summer school. They both have been disappointing so far, as I expected them (after a few short weeks of the "Keuter Treatment" haha) to both be fairly good students this year -- especially in my classes. But no, they are both disorganized slackers with grades way below the Mendoza line. I even mentor one of these kids, touching base with him often and using all my charm and wiles to motivate him -- but to very little effect so far. Maybe today is the start of a renewed effort by these boys -- they need it as they have squandered the first quarter away, only learning by auditory osmosis what I have offered in my classes. Maybe success breeds success is not an appropriate motto for today ...a few saddening realizations about some boys -- the one who wants to transfer out of my class and the stepbrothers who have squandered so much opportunity away -- lead me to desire some catchy phrase about dealing with sadness instead. Oh well.... To be or not to be, that is the question...is it not? Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to stand against a sea of troubles and thereby end them. I will stand and choose to BE. Before this year is done, I know I will have many more days of unbridled successes, and the vicissitudes of sadness will not daunt me.

Thursday, October 28, 1999

"B" day, which meant two block classes - and a Halloween assembly fashion show (of which I got to be one of the judges). Our counselor, Miss Shaw did an absolutley superb job of putting this together!

Easy day today, and quite gratifying. My block classes did four things on this last day of the first quarter: Test on vocabulary list #6; test on Chapter 3 in History class; one round in our simulation game, and start an new expository essay.

All in all, very gratifying because the vast majority scored an "A" on the vocabulary test -- and because many, many students proclaimed that writing the stories using the words (which is the usual practice, but one which we skipped this week) helped them learn the words better. This was a short week and I had them do skits instead of write stories this week, and I was quite pleased that so many learned the words well enough to ace the test, and because they expressed an interest in, and a recognition of the value of writing the stories. So writing the vocabulary stories has become an enjoyable and demonstrably worthwhile assignment from the students' perspective. This realization is very gratifying from my point of view. Makes me realize what I have been doing these past 6 weeks was effective in several respects: the kids learned to enjoy writing, and they learned to recognize the learning value inherent in writing stories. As a teacher, I couldn't ask for anything more!

Gratifying also because many students aced the history test today. Worthwhile in and of itself, but also because it helped secure good grades for many students -- a failure today would have a large impact on their final grade because it was worth 100 points (a lot, given that the usual daily assignment is worth @ 20 points). But it was personally gratifying in that I had had the feeling that some of the lessons I delivered were very effective -- especially the one on the Great Awakening a few days ago-- and today's test results verified my instinctual feeling about what worked well with my students.

Nothing like success to make me smile. And I am smiling big-time today because I finished my final grades (worked like a demon today (as usual) grading all the tests during class time, during lunch, and after school) and they report that quite a lot of success happened this first quarter in all of my classes. I'll post some bar graphs I made which reflect the level of success my students and I achieved this past nine weeks. Feeling very proud of myself today. Even showed off a bit by giving my principal and other administrators a copy of the following graphs so they could see what a wise choicethe principal made in hiring me (told you I was feeling good about myself!).
We also started a new expository essay today in Language Arts class. I gave them two topics to choose from that integrate well with what I am doing in U.S. History class:

1) Slavery in Colonial America
2) The colonies were a "land of opportunity"

We quickly reviewed the purpose of an expository essay, the writing steps (brainstorm, outline, rough draft, revise and edit, final draft), and then I took them through steps one and two on the topic they did not choose to model the dynamic I expected them to follow. Both classes chose to write on the slavery topic, so I brainstormed on the overhead projector the "opportunities in the colonies" topic, and then organized a quick outline into a five paragraph essay.

Kind of formulaic, but that is entirely appropriate for this grade level right now. First paragraph is the introduction (more lessons on how to write an effective one next week), the second through fourth paragraphs will deal with the three main points, and the final paragraph is the conclusion. The proverbial light bulb went on above quite a few students' heads as they recognized this is exactly like what I had them do for their expository speech in Literature/Speech class a week or so ago. {No doubt about the value of integrating instruction!...and I am once again experiencing a fleeting moment of sadness for those kids whom I have in Literature/Speech class but do not have in my block class; they could be getting the full meal deal!).

Anywise, I modeled a brief outline with three main ideas: A) opportunity for religious freedom; B) opportunity to make money; C) opportunity to start a new and better life. The details on my brainstorm list fit nicely into these three categories, e.g., everything we learned about the Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, the southern colonists who grew cash crops, indentured servants, etc. I probably had 30 or 40 facts written down in my brainstorm list, and the students, following my example, quickly devised their own three main idea categories for their essay on slavery in colonial America. I believe what many of them will end up writing about are how the slaves were treated, how they were brought over (Triangular Trade), and why they were used (to replace indentured servants).

They worked hard for 15 minutes after the vocabulary test on this, and I graded their tests at the same time. I was able to finish and post their grades before class ended, so the kids were very happy to be able to go home knowing what their final grades were. And as you can see from the graphs I posted below, many of them were beaming with success.

I am beaming with success and gratification that my students are now learning what writing an essay is all about, and about the tools and process to follow to do it fairly well.

Bar graph of my Language Arts Classes' grades

Bar graph of Literature/Speech grades

Bar graph of my U.S. History grades

As you can see from the above bar graphs, the vast majority of my students earned passing grades. And this is quite a big deal in our school, as we have traditionally had a large number of low performing kids. One of our main school goals this year is to reduce the number of students who fail multiple classes (a large task in this area which rated very low on the socioeconomic scale), and so far I am doing my part.

And what is especially meaningful, but not apparent in the graphs themselves, is the type of work my students have to do to earn good grades. No puff-cake assignments in my classes. Everything I do is fairly challenging for my 8th graders and intellectually enriching. My kids are writing essays, reading novels, studying the history text. And they do a lot of work in my classes! Every day is full of assignments, as my diary has shown quite clearly (at least I hope it has!).

I hear so much talk in the lunchroom and around the building about the number of apathetic students who don't do their work. I'm either very lucky this year in having an unusually hardworking group of kids, or I am operating in such a way that motivates and encourages the kids to perform and to learn. I like to think it is the latter as I have traditionally had very good performance from a vast majority of my kids. But then again I have had quite a few high performing students the last few years...truth is, anybody could probably do very well with the sorts of kids I have had the pleasure of having in my classes recently.

Final thought about the bar graphs above: I just noticed that they more or less mirror the traditional bell-curve shape -- except for my Language Arts classes. I must be grading them too easy on thier essays and vocabulary stories...either that or my weekly vocabulary tests are too easy becuase I have an unusally large percentage of "A"s in those classes.

Week 5 will continue...