Research Overhaul

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!

"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! 

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!