Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Difficulties and Challenges
What is one of the most difficult and challenging parts of your teaching? If you could assure that your students left your classroom with ONE thing what would that be? What is it that makes this such a challenge? I am not looking for answers here as much as thoughts about one thing you would like to be different. It could be anything...such as "I wish my students would talk more in class discussions" or "I would like to have better classroom control." What is the one thing that keeps you up at night and makes you crazy?
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Just today after school I was viewing a you-tube video on Kelly Gallagher. He was doing a 30-minute talk show and was discussing challenges that he has with his students. One of those challenges he mentions is that students come to him with “much narrower prior knowledge and backgrounds" than ever. He has been teaching high school English for 26-years and has published several books. Kelly spoke of the "911" disaster as one example. He noted the students had a lack of knowledge about what happened that day in September, 2001.
ReplyDeleteWell, I remember! I remember even where I was at the exact moment! I was in the guidance counselor's office with a student and his parent discussing his academic future, when the counselor received a phone call from her daughter telling her that Brian, her son was all right. She had not heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City and many people were killed and injured. Brian was in another office building nearby and was evacuated safely and on his way home. A few minutes later, we knew that the building collapsed killing many more people.
In our daily newspaper we were getting updates as a resident of our town was on that plane that crashed. He was married and had 2 young daughters. Business signs all around the town reached out to the family with words of sympathy and prayers. My own daughter's dance center honored the family by dedicating the recital to the family, as one of the young girls took dance lessons there.
Granted our students today were very young, but every year on September 11th there is a memorial televised at the site of the tragedy. The newspapers describe the terrorist attack over and over again and keep us updated on any arrests of the people involved in this and even our teachers discuss this in social studies classes....
...I agree with Mr. Gallagher, this is also a challenge in my own Reading/Writing Support Class. Last month, poetry month, I was reviewing some teen poetry online (also mentor text) and came across a poem written by a young woman, named Lisa Tellier, called "15 Crosses." It describes how she felt about the Columbine High School Massacre. The thirteenth anniversary of the massacre was coming up next week, April 20th. So the next day in class I began our writing session by handing out the poem. A student volunteered to read the poem and afterwards I asked the class who they thought this young lady might be talking about. Some took a few guesses, but not correct. I asked them if they had heard of Columbine. They all looked back at me with blank stares. I questioned, “You never heard of the worst high school killing ever? “ They all shook their heads no.
ReplyDeleteAfter a few seconds, a young lady looked at me and asked if it happened in Colorado? I said YES, she said I am reading this book called "Rachel's Tears" and she was the first girl killed in that massacre and the book included notes from her diary. Her last entry was from that day and Rachel had a feeling as she wrote in her book that today was going to be her last day on Earth. How weird was that? I went on to read to the class what happened that day and how 12 students, one teacher were shot and killed. The two students who did the shooting, took their own lives that day, hence the fifteen crosses. We had an awesome discussion and the students asked a lot of questions. We even realized that later on in the evening, Rachel's father, was to be speaking at our Middle School.
The students had their prior knowledge and background to write about how they felt regarding that poem that day. The following week, that same young lady said to me at the start of class, “Mrs. Hayes today is the anniversary day, the thirteenth anniversary.” Wow! I don't think she will ever forget.
This was a nice Ahha moment, but most of my teaching days are not like this. Students are just not aware of what is going on in the real world. They have not had a lot of experiences and background knowledge to share. I enjoy opening up our class with a sharing moment. I liked Mr. Gallagher’s idea of “Article of the Week,” which he explains assists his students in becoming more literate. It is just not enough to teach theme recognition; they need to broaden their experiences about “real-world text.” I usually mention something funny or silly I did or talk about what is going on with my grandsons or son or daughter. Students do like to share and I think it is important, you never know when a teachable moment will arrive.
Sorry I got carried away, but wow, I just could not stop
Dennise, I think that series of connections that your students made with the Columbine shooting/Rachel's Tears--and then the visit by her father to the middle school, is pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteAs for what I struggle with, I love a lot of Penny's ideas, but it seems that she has a lot more flexibility by having a writing course rather than a reading course, and while her students do a lot of reading, it consists of shorter texts rather than books (for mentor text purposes). The longer books are done during the 10 minute reading blocks--it's not what has to be gotten to at some point during the class. I have fit in the 10 minute free choice to almost every day in some of my classes, but adding the ten minutes of writing, a small grammar lesson, and then getting to the main lesson seem to be difficult. Time gets away pretty quickly. I find that we do quite a bit of writing anyway, but I know it's not the playful, experimental type of writing she is advocating. I have tried some of the sentence combining activities, which I think were effective--as well as the mentor text reflections and imitations--in my Journalism class, but I haven't been able to put all of her practice into one solid class. I also used her model for portfolio assessment for Journalism, and I really liked the reflection piece she asked them to do at the end of each unit. Were I teaching Journalism next year, I think I would try this with them. And as I try some of this new stuff, some of my frustration is getting to it so late in the year, and knowing that next year I will be able to make better choices/changes in what/how I teach when I can incorporate it right from the start.
I have to agree with Michelle. I, too, struggle with "fitting it all in". I had to cut back on the 10 minutes of reading/10 minutes of writing each class because of how much time it was taking away from teaching the content. I need to figure out how best to balance this next year since I understand the value of both. However, we are also expected to teach skills, to teach specific pieces of literature, to review specific concepts, etc. It concerns me that there are still conversations happening amongst the staff about shortening the teaching blocks yet again; I do not know what I would do if more classtime was taken away. This is one of the biggest issues that I face.
ReplyDeleteDennise - I also think that those connections are absolutely fascinating! I'm glad your class had such a great moment.
ReplyDeleteMichelle - I definitely hear where you are coming from on the time issue and have spent this last quarter really trying to figure out how I can use time in the best way possible - at least for my teaching.
On that, I think our biggest challenges are in the area of expectations: what we need to teach according to the standards, according to our established norms for our department, and according to our styles and interests.
I know we are great teachers, but pulled in so many directions. If we could all be on the same page with where we are going, perhaps that could help. We definitely support each other greatly, but often operate in isolation. I am really looking forward to our scaffolding discussion; I believe a lot of these issues will be solidly addressed in that time. Knowing we are preparing for and supporting a planned vertical structure will make planning easier, and hopefully allow for more reading and writing according to Kittle's model.
Thank you Dennise for sharing the great connections our students made that day, and for some, the weeks following. It really was one of those "great" teaching days and moments (and sometimes it doesn't feel like we have many of them)!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that some of you are mentioning challenges with time and fitting in our curriculum requirements in addition to the daily reading and writing we would like to complete. I've been thinking about this myself... not because I don't feel there isn't enough time during my blocks, but because I'm not sure I'm managing the transitions, instruction, goals for the day, etc. in a manner that is keeping students "actively" interested, vested, and motivated in their learning. I would LOVE to learn to create a time-flow, a plan, a model, anything that pertains to the instructional topic that would keep the students engaged. I am especially interested in the students who are most difficult to reach.... the ones who will again be freshmen or sophomores for a second or third year in a row - not because of lack of ability, but because of lack of interest and motivation. I WANT to reach those students!
I believe it is all about HOW we manage the time we have and can't wait to speak with others and learn alternative methods for reaching the most challenging of students that we encounter on a daily basis!
I completely agree with everyone who posted thus far. I stay up late floating in the midst of a juxtaposition. Did I teach the right material, and did I do all I can to help them understand it. Sometimes when I help them access material. Many times when i take so much time to make material relevant, I worry something else will fall have to go to make room. I am learning the balance, but it is a constant struggle.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about surfing as a metaphor for teaching of late. The students come in to class with a wave of energy and we as teachers have a choice to either fight it and potentially drown, or ride and use it to help teach them. Penny excels at the later.
yes, Jen I hear you. Thanks ladies, I'm glad you agree. If you think about what you are saying, it seems the time is getting in the way as well as the specific curriculum constraints. If we are starting to be recognized, as our principal stated today at faculty meeting, then maybe it is time to go ahead and do what we feel is necessary to get our students interested in reading/writing and choice. Come on get texting, blogging, and interested in reading/writing in any way you choose! It's a start, then slowly bring in the required curriculum or maybe we should try to get the state DOE to change their ways?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the time constraints in the classroom due to the necessity of covering so much diverse material. We have our classes write for 10 minutes a day, but they are reluctant and I think fearful. We need a clear writing rubric for the school.
ReplyDeleteI guess that if there is one thing I would want my students to come away with in this day and age, it is this: Real knowledge matters. We are blessed to live in a time where technology has made information more readily available, and our machines can assist us in the composing of everything from simple notes to full novels. It is my current fear though, that this ease is robbing our students of a sense of urgency to know anything from simple facts to the rules of spelling and/or grammar. The sense that “I can just Google it/Spell-Check it/Auto-Correct it,” is actually reducing the amount of aggregate knowledge our students possess. In the end, it matters little that a student turns in an error-free paper if that student fails to grasp what makes the paper error-free. That same student will be helpless when faced with a situation where he or she has no access to technology, but still must produce any kind of written work. Maybe it’s just the Jeopardy nerd in me, but I like being right, and I like knowing why I’m right. In the meantime, I have no brilliant ideas on how to battle this particular monster, but I’d be glad to receive any help any of you might have.
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