I'm in my third year of teaching, and everyone keeps telling me that after a couple of years, I'll have all of my systems and policies figured out, my instructional units planned, and my materials together, so I will eventually not have to work so ridiculously hard to make it through the week. And yet, that has not happened for several different reasons, one of which is that I just can't stand to do the same thing semester after semester. As much as I sometimes kick myself and [sometimes tearfully] bemoan my never-satisfied-and-always-looking-for-more-and-better spirit in my classroom, I usually come our on the other side, thankful for my constant need to shake things up.
This year, it's my research project. I hate, hate, HATE doing research with my kids. It is a seemingly pointless battle in which everyone loses. Our topics (usually student-selected in hopes of capturing just a little bit of interest) are usually too vague, too obscure, or completely non-existent. There's always that one kid who forgets to turn in his/her research topic, and then two days before the whole thing is due is complaining about how they don't know what to write their paper on. It's moments like that that reaffirm my hate of the whole process.
So this year I'm switching up not only my topics but also my process. As far as topics are concerned, I'm going to over the top, melodramatic blood and guts. After spending several weeks reading Holocaust literature and studying the historical context surround that time period, we're researching some of the world's "most evil people" and making an argument about who's worse: Villain X (chosen by students) or Hitler. In doing some of the research to compile this list, I've come to the realization that this may be a bit gruesome and morbid. But hey, I know my kids, and I know they have a much better chance of survival with a topic like this one, ironic as that may seem.
My research process is taking a bit of a turn as well. This year, we're working in collaborative groups to write the "full blown research paper" as all of my professional development leaders call it. My guess is that most of my co-workers wouldn't consider doing such a thing. Groups are tolerated for classwork and practice activities, maybe the occasional poster board or presentation, but collaborative writing is a bit trickier. How do you handle students merging their writing styles together to form something coherent? What do you do with the kids who refuse to hold up their end of the deal and leave their classmates in the lurch?
Those questions made me wonder if I was just a little bit insane for attempting this little experiment but my wonderfully wise sister pointed out that real-world writing is often done collaboratively. Just look at any professional journal article, and it will most likely have multiple authors and contributors. I maintain that this learning experience, however chaotic it may turn out to be, will be a relevant one. As for the other stuff, I'm convinced that kids will be far more likely to actually do their work if they have group members counting on them. Lord knows they tune me out, so my fussing doesn't really make a different. But when one of their peers starts confronting them about their laziness, it's a different story. I'll also include group contracts, role-sheets that describe each person's jobs, responsibilities, etc. and group member evaluations to make everything as fair and structured as possible, but honestly, I'm not that worried about it.
I'm excited and hope that this switch up yields lots of good research templates and organizers that will help scaffold this whole process and make the whole thing less of a headache!
Monday, March 11, 2013
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