Mini-Poetry Analysis

This has worked well in providing some scaffolding for the kiddos when it comes to poetry analysis--an assignment walks students through the analysis of a poem of their choice. Granted, we're using the term "analysis" somewhat loosely. We are not ripping a poem to shreds and trying to piece if back together again. We're very slowly walking through the process of analyzing figurative language and evaluating the effect of poetic devices on a piece of text. Oh, and we throw in a little reader response in there at the end to round things out a bit :)

Please excuse my tacky screen shots. I STILL don't know how to convert a word document to a picture file that I can upload...

I do like how this assignment allows us to take our time walking through some Common Core standards (analyzing the effect of word choice in literature) while learning the process step-by-step. It's a start, at least.

Click HERE if you want to download the full assignment! 

So, it has been a little while. This school year has been particularly overwhelming, though I can't pinpoint exactly why. I have nearly half the number of students, more than twice the planning time, and I'm no longer going through the chaos of formal evaluation (the scary kind, anyway). Year three is supposed to be the year that I can take it easy and cruise just a little. That's not to say that I do the same things year after year in the name of convenience, but it certainly shouldn't be as much of a battle as it has been in years past. At any rate...

While this is ridiculously late in the year for such photos, I'm posting some pics of what my classroom looked like before 65 chaotic teenagers made their home there 5 days a week. Perhaps it will inspire me to clean off my desk at some point this week or regain even a shred of the organization that I had established at the beginning of the school year.

Clean and shiny...way back before kids entered through the doors. There's quite a few more desks crammed in here now, too. 

Ignore the horrible colors here...I was working with limited resources. The goal is for students to check the calendar on the bulletin board to see what happened while they were out. Extra copies of handouts and assignments go in their designated folders so I'm not constantly being asked to print assignment sheets again when kids misplace them. I'm still working on how to maintain consistency with this system, though. They have a hard time understanding that this is the first place they should look, which is ridiculously frustrating, but it's still better than anything else I've come up with yet. 

I can only hope that my desk will one day be this clean again. 

Labeled binder clips to organize papers that need to be graded and recorded. 

Bins to keep handouts for each day organized so I'm not searching all over for that stack of papers that I need to distribute (which is particularly annoying when I have a class of new students and they're staring at me in awkward silence while I tear my room upside down looking for the syllabus I was supposed to give them... 

Interactive Reading Logs and Rubric

**Updated 8/27/13**
Welcome Pinterest Pinners!A new school year has started, and I'm using these babies for the second year in a row to build some of our reading comprehension skills. And guess what?! The independent reading log AND rubric (along with a few other goodies) are now a part of my Independent Reading Essentials bundle that on SALE in my TeachersPayTeachers store. Take a look and enjoy! 

I have not always had consistent success with independent reading in my classroom. Like everything else, a lot of it depends on the group of kids and their attitudes toward books. For some, it was a treat, a much anticipated part of the day that they were always willing to fight for if necessary. For others, it was nothing short of battle to just get them to open a book, let alone read one. I'll admit that I'm usually too quick to give in to bad attitudes and toss things aside, using the excuse that "We won't spend time on what has become a waste of our time." While that thought process is certainly invaluable in any classroom where you have too much to cover in too few days (every classroom, perhaps?), some things are worth fighting for, and independent reading time is absolutely necessary if I want my kids to become critical thinkers.


My first step in this process of creating engaged, motivated readers is to establish consistency, a routine that students can count on when they walk through the door. I've had this mental block that independent reading time is a waste because there's very little assessment attached to it. I've read over and over that in order to combat that lack of accountability, students need to keep reading logs, a written record of what they are reading, how much, and how often. But again, I'm faced with the nagging feeling that it's a waste of time. Surely all of our students are well aware of the fact that they can just make up the information that's usually required in a reading log (title, author, number of pages read, etc.), so what are we really accomplishing?

 If we're going to spend time on it, then I want it to be worth doing, so I worked up a reading log that is a bit more interactive. It has places for the usual information I listed above, but it also includes a place for self-selected vocabulary, summary, and a reader response entry with tips and writing prompts spread throughout.

I intend to use these on a weekly basis.

Want the printable/editable version? You can purchase it here on my TeachersPayTeachers site! 

The rubric I use is pictured below. I plan to add it to my TpT account soon as well. 

No More Lost Books!

 After approximately 3 days of official summer vacation, I found myself spending hours creating lists of all the things I wanted to improve or change for next school year and researching everything I can about classroom management, organization, and new (to me) units and lesson plans.

After thinking through some of my organizational woes and bemoaning the fact that so many of my cherished and hard-earned young adult books have gone missing over the past two years, I came across this little gem: a FREE web-based classroom library organizer!

I am amazed at everything this program will do. You can import class rosters, track your books' conditions, organize them in about a hundred different ways--slight exaggeration, but you get the point--and from my experience so far, it's pretty user-friendly as well. Just create a free account and begin building your classroom library, either by manually entering ISBN numbers or scanning barcodes with their free app (available for both android and iphone). Woot! Students can even login to check in/out books themselves so it's one less thing you have to manage. I haven't played with it as much as I would like to just yet because a majority of my titles are locked away and inaccessible at the moment, but I am envisioning a delightful few hours of productive library organization when we return. Happy scanning!  

I know that it was time for it to be over. Had I faced another semester or even another quarter with my kids, I would have gone into hysterics. But the end came too abruptly. I wasn't expecting it...I feel like I was on a nice, long distance run and just when I had found my stride and discovered how to make it work, I came up on a dead end. Or better yet, a cliff that dropped off into nothing. There were so many failures throughout the year, so many ways in which I screwed up, made bad judgment calls, or said stupid things that probably hurt people at some point. But the year was full of small but sweet victories as well. 

I could mention grades and test scores right about now or the fact that I passed all of my evaluations on the first try, but the biggest success of all was having the opportunity to spend nine months with a group of kids and watch them grow up--some of them, that is. It was heartbreaking to watch them make bad choices and struggle with the consequences, but it was so amazing to see how they bounced back, how they gained wisdom and maturity in the process. 

Proverbs 14:26 says that "[the Lord] will be a refuge to your children." Throughout the year, that was my prayer...that my kids would find a safe haven in my classroom, that they would be built up in love and encouragement, that those around them would speak Truth into their lives so they wouldn't be dragged down by the lies they believe about themselves. And, of course, God is faithful, and He was so faithfully at work in the lives of those students...my children. Yeah, we learned a lot about English this year--literature, writing, vocabulary, research, etc.--but we learned a whole lot more about what it means to be independent and responsible, how to protect your reputation, guard your heart, and forgive others. And that is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. I am truly honored to have been their teacher and so incredibly blessed to have had those kids as a part of my life. 

"A" for Effort

Research papers have taken up a majority of our lives for the past 4 weeks or so. It has been an endless process of hand-holding, spoon-feeding, and hair-pulling (on my part, anyway) only to receive a collection of papers that either a) don't involve any research at all b) do not in any way fulfill the assignment that was laid out from the beginning or c) completely and intentionally ignore each and every comment that I so painstakingly wrote on the rough draft to ensure that such mistakes would not be repeated on the final paper. The kids are about to revolt if I stretch this unit out any longer, and I'm almost ready to kick this pile of papers under my desk and pretend that they're not worth a major test grade...or better yet, that I never actually assigned them at all. 

So in an effort to give us all a mental break from the seemingly fruitless research unit, I decided that it was time to move on with our lives and start wrapping up what we need to for the impending end of this school year. Technically, I'm supposed to teach Romeo and Juliet to my English I classes, but I don't usually manage to squeeze it in. Too many other essential units/assignments/projects etc. take priority and end up crowding it out eventually. I looked at my calendar and realized that I had roughly a week, maybe a week and a half if I had to stretch it before we desperately needed to move on to reviewing for their EOC. We were going to do just a quick overview of drama terms, a general summary, and maybe look at some of the most famous scenes and lines and then wrap up with one of the film versions so they could actually experience the whole story, but then the drama teacher gave me a copy of an abridged script of the play that when performed is only about 10 minutes or so long. It stays true to the most famous lines of the play (But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?) but tells the rest of the story in modernized language that's easy to change to suit the personalities of your students. Granted, this is in no way a serious take on Romeo and Juliet. It's melodramatic, over the top, and ridiculously silly...perfect for my ninth graders. 

Oh, but what an epic fail it turned out to be. It had some good qualities--the kids enjoyed reading through the script, and they got to see some of our drama terms in action (stage directions, aside, monologue, soliloquy, etc.). My plan was to do a read-through a couple of times, choose who would play what part officially, and then move on to the auditorium to begin piecing it together as an actual play. Our drama teacher was even awesome enough to equip us with an entire rack of Elizabethan costumes to play with when the time came. But sadly, I don't think it will. We had fun for a while, but when it got down to the business of making it work, the kids rebelled...didn't matter whether we were in the classroom or the auditorium, small groups or whole class, trying to be serious and get it done or trying to be goofy and just play...it was complete and utter disaster no matter which way I turned. Being outside of our normal classroom environment was too much for them. Despite the ground rules I had established (NO ONE GOES BACKSTAGE!!!!), I found them diving and tripping behind curtains, getting tangled up in the ropes and pulls, running laps around the auditorium...and if they were actually working within their groups to accomplish something, they were arguing, insulting each other, and letting loose a stream of complaints. Again, despite best efforts to regroup and reconfigure, it was to no avail. Maybe I should blame it on the "super moon". 

So our "fun" mini-unit ended with lectures on appropriate behavior for 9th grade students and a promise of returning on Monday to nothing but hard core EOC prep, which of course means that I'll be spending my Sunday afternoon figuring out exactly what that will look like. Come on, summer break!! 

See the mess that is my living room? Piles and piles of mostly uninspired, hastily-made poster boards that are  my students' halfhearted attempt at proving to me that they actually read a novel of their choice in its entirety and can apply concepts/terms we have learned throughout the year. Let me tell you...I'm making it a goal to NEVER assign posters as projects ever again. Why?

1. Because they turn out to be a big pile of mess that sits ungraded in my living room for sometimes weeks on end before I can stomach the thought of sifting through said piles to find something that will receive a decent grade.

2. I'm convinced that assigning posters as a form of assessment fools kids into thinking that they really aren't going to have to put that much work into what they're doing, so they wait until the class period before (or maybe even the last few minutes) before it's due to glue, tape, label, etc. leaving the finished product with much to be desired.

3. This part is my fault, but the things I have made them include on book posters save them from having to do the hard work of thinking critically about a text and communicating their findings in an understandable, cohesive manner. Who thinks about carefully crafting well-written sentences on a poster board?? Slap a couple of headings along with a few bullet points, maybe a picture or two, and you're good to go.

4. It's a logistical nightmare. I'm learning that I'm just not the type of teacher who can get everything graded during a planning period at school (honestly, who can?); in fact, I save all of my grading for evenings and weekends because it's just hard for me to concentrate on that type of task when I'm in my classroom. Too many other things to do, I guess. That being said, I haul everything home with me, and toting around boxes full of posters (not to mention the huge tri-fold boards that some of my kids spring for) is just not fun, nor is it convenient. 

Bottom line, the "poster projects" have been a cop-out for me...a way to feel like I'm reviewing important concepts while allowing some student choice in the matter, but if I'm honest, I've been lazy about what I've been asking my kids to do as far as reading and responding to literature is concerned. I'm not sure what my brilliant solution to this will be just yet, but I'm excited to come up with something much more challenging, engaging, and dynamic. Suggestions welcome! 

Lesson Learned

You know how new mothers are always given advice to set aside "me time" for themselves throughout the day so they won't become burnt out on parenthood too quickly ("You'll be a better mommy if you take care of yourself, too!")? Obviously, the same is true in the professional world as well. For all intents and purposes, I'm a full-time mother of 101 rambunctious, wild, uniquely talented, sometimes pessimistic and downtrodden, often loud, energetic, enthusiastic, and nearly always unpredictable teenagers...and let me tell you, this mama has been TIRED.

The weeks leading up to Spring break were a tangled mess of chaos, exhaustion, and bad tempers. Much like the entire month of November leading up to Thanksgiving break, I found myself unable to cope with the day-to-day distractions, not to mention the subsequent breakdowns (on my part as well as the kids'). One wrong word or dirty look, one unnecessary or irrelevant question, one little interruption usually made me lose it. In short, I was an absolute miserable person to be around.

I'm learning--albeit slowly--how to handle myself when I'm in that stressed out, inconsolable state. True, kids sometimes make choices that don't exactly help their academic future, but most of my blow-ups aren't so much their fault but are definitely an overreaction on my part. So here's what I've learned: 1. Be honest. I often find myself saying things like, "I'm making a huge effort to not get carried away right now, but I'm getting extremely frustrated because..." Sounds tacky, yes, but I've it let's me call them out on inappropriate behavior while keeping my own attitude in check. Plus, I've noticed that most of my kids are appreciative, if not a little amused, when I'm upfront about the fact that I'm about to lose it and need their cooperation.
 2. Apologize as often as necessary. Yeah, I'm the teacher, I'm the adult, I'm the authority in the classroom, blah blah blah. But when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Most of my apologies are because I shot back at a kid with some snarky or sarcastic comment that just wasn't necessary. Or I took out my frustration from one kid/class on another and was acting a little crazy. Whatever it may be, it's a humbling experience to stand in front of 27 judgmental teenagers and ask forgiveness, but it goes a long way in maintaining whatever trust has been built  between you and them throughout the year. And finally, 3. PRAY. Pray for grace for yourself and your kids. Pray for good attitudes and vulnerability in the learning process. Pray that your classroom would be a place of refuge and joy for those students who need an escape.  Pray for your own heart to be open to what they can teach you.

That awkward moment when...

...a kid sits you down to give you advice on how "get a man"...yeah, it happens all too often in my classroom. My students apparently think that I must be a pathetically depressed and downtrodden soul since I have no ring on my finger. I feel like they ask me at least every other day why I'm not married or don't have any children ("You don't gotta be married to get a baby Ms. Foxworthy...all you need is a baby daddy!") Sigh. And despite my best efforts and keeping some aspects of my personal life--well--personal, they seem to have this acute radar that can sense whether I am involved in a facebook-official relationship or not, which of course leads to a series of questions regarding exactly what I do in my free time and whether or not I am seriously "putting myself out there". One of my girls went as far as to draw a connection between the book she was reading and my lack of love life in her reader response journal. These little comments and questions are becoming more and more frequent as summer draws near. I think they might be concerned for the health of my social life after I no longer have them to torment and nag all the day long. Bless them, I suppose I should feel flattered...?

Where are All the High School Teachers?

The title says it all. For as long as I have been involved in secondary education (ok, so not that long), it has been apparent that most everything “teacher-related” is centered around those oh-so-adorable elementary school students. Sitting in undergrad classes, there were often audible sighs or groans of protest among my peers whenever a well-meaning professor would share ideas intended to “motivate reluctant readers” or “help design and execute authentic assessments.” Inevitably, their ideas, while good, were always best suited for kindergarten classrooms rather than those of our good-hearted but often misguided and sullen teenagers. And it didn’t stop there on my college campus…have you been in any teacher supply stores lately?! Don't even get me started on the "educational resources" sections of bookstores. I almost snuck some covert pics on my phone while browsing at Barnes & Noble this afternoon. The bookshelves had labels such as, "For parents and teachers of elementary students" and "For parents and teachers of middle school" but not a single thing geared solely for high schoolers. The English and Language Arts section only went up as high as 8th grade. 

So here's what I'm thinking. For the sake of my 101 teenage children (as of the current 2011-2012 school year), I want this humble little blog of mine to be a place to share what's working and what's not in my classroom. True, a lot of it may be specific to my content--ENGL I and II--but there is such a wealth of information, resources, tools, and let's not forget stories to be shared. And while we can often glean some useful gems from the overabundance of elementary school material that's floating around out there, there's something empowering about asserting ourselves as a separate entity. What we do in the high school classroom and how we do it is a completely different brand of crazy. So let's run with it and do our own thing rather than trying to fix, fit, and tweak everything else to suit our own very specific needs. Ready.....go!