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!

"Ms. F...I'm going to come see you at lunch today, and I'm gonna need you to level with me. You're gonna have to be my guy friend. You got my back?" 

Oh, I just love giving teenagers dating advice during my lunch break. :) 

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.