The children have been out of school for about two weeks now, but my summer is just getting started. This is the first summer since I began teaching that I haven't taught summer school. I just got so antsy for something new during the spring semester that I decided I would spend the month of June working with grownups instead of children. It's been interesting. Since school let out so late this year due to a very snowy and icy winter, there really wasn't even a glimpse of summertime before we started completing professional development to get ready for next year. Our middle school is going to a more interdisciplinary model next year, and I'm so excited about the literacy connections and cross-curricular teaming we'll be doing next year in seventh grade! I work with some truly awesome, open-minded educators. After a day of interdisciplinary productive struggle, our middle school English department met the next day to explore PARCC.
We decided the best way to begin the day was to take a PARCC practice test on the website. Here's what's funny about my teaching so far. After my first year of teaching, I knew I would have to basically start from scratch in order to implement Common Core. But after last year, I just knew that this summer would be a breeze!! We'd be able to keep most of the curriculum and materials we created in place! All of our hard work would be so worth it when our English department was lounging by the pool all summer this year! Then, we took a PARCC test. I know that the purpose of CCSS and PARCC is to increase rigor and prepare students for college, and after taking the test, I definitely think that's what it does. I also think we're going to see a pretty significant implementation dip in test scores. All I can say it, that test is hard, ya'll. Our students have never written literary analysis essays in seventh grade before because, honestly, who writes literary analysis essays in seventh grade? In many respects, middle school English will essentially become a writing class to prepare students for college and career readiness (and to prepare them not have a panic attack when they take their first PARCC assessment).
After my initial panic subsided regarding how I will shepherd my students toward a mind space where they can all not only identify tone in two poems but also write a coherent essay comparing the tone of the two poems and explaining how figurative language contributes to the tone, I took a deep breath and decided that, ultimately, it's all going to be alright. I really do believe that my students need to know how to write an analytical essay. They need to be critical thinkers and writers. They need to be able to analyze literature and argument and research in order to succeed in a college classroom and in life. Ok, maybe they won't need to analyze literature to succeed in life, but they'll definitely have to be able to do it to pass freshman lit class. I'm always up for a new challenge, and this, apparently, is my new challenge.
The thing that inspired me most during this somewhat stressful two days of planning for PARCC was the fact that no one on my team really freaked out. Sure, we all got a little stressed and questioned how this increased academic rigor would play out in our classrooms. How will analytical writing look in SPED classes? inclusion classes? Pre-AP? How can we scaffold this skill for students who are struggling to write a paragraph? what about students who struggle to write a complete sentence? These are all valid questions and we're still trying to figure out the answers. But what I love so much about the awesome ladies I work with is that no one threw up her hands and said, "This is impossible! My students could never do this! This test is too hard!" Instead, everyone took a "how can we make this work attitude." I think that says a lot about our school culture and the high expectations we hold for the kids we teach.
So I am telling you the story of how we panicked, got over it, and got to work for two reasons. First, because if you are a teacher, I encourage you to take a PARCC test, no matter what content area you teach. It's going to take a unified, whole-school approach for students to succeed. Second, I hope you'll learn from our stress, skip that part, and go straight to the part where you figure out how to make this work for your students. Even though it seems overwhelming, these are necessary skills, and I know that if students receive quality instruction in these skills beginning in middle school, they will be more prepared for college.
Finally, I hope your summer is off to a fantastic start! Hopefully, I'll be basking in the glow of summer break soon, too.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Teaching "The Pedestrian" and the Art of Unplugging
Today marks our last week of school, and I got to spend last week teaching one of my favorite short stories, Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian." If you've never read the story, here's a link to it. It's the story about a guy named Leonard who still goes on walks, even though the rest of the world is addicted to television and can't leave home. I think this story holds great significance for the students that I'm teaching now. When I teach this story, I allow students to read it on their own first and draw their own conclusions about what's going on in Leonard's world. Then, I show them this animated version of the story on Vimeo. The story is a great way to teach foreshadowing and has a lot of suspense, but students who struggle with comprehension find the video really helpful in decoding the story.
Next, I ask students to raise their hands if they can think of a way that this story, written in 1951, can apply to life today. Every hand in the room goes up. Today's students are very aware that the world is addicted to technology. After reading this story, I had my accelerated classes read this CNN Tech article about embeddable technology. It's a great modern-day connection and makes Bradbury's story (and his fears about technology) seem applicable in today's world. Many of them noted that, while Bradbury set "The Pedestrian" in 2053, the technology addiction he was warning against is very much a problem in 2014. Many of them wrote about the negative side effects of technology, including the changing landscape of socialization that we're all experiencing. Seriously, who ever thought that families would have to develop a "cell phone policy" for the dinner table?
While my accelerated classes focused on debating the ever-present threat of being taken over by technology, I chose to focus on creating narrative with the rest of my students. We debated and discussed the same themes and issues in "The Pedestrian," and I asked my students to write the story of the "21st Century Pedestrian." Here's what one student wrote on his class blog:
The year is 2115; the government doesn’t matter anymore. There are no crimes or wars for them to deal with. Nothing is the same. No street lights are on. The city below is dark, broken, and dirty. After the cars started hovering, no one was on the ground. They are all up there; I see them, forgetting about the worries of life, especially after the phones got smart enough to control everything. Humans have no control, no say in what they will do today; the machines do everything for us. They have tried to make me a slave to the technology, but I know better.
We have lived in a world where we rely on a phone to remind us to say hi to our grandma and not to forget milk when we're shopping. No one ever thought that we wouldn’t have control over a piece of plastic with wires, but this is life. If only we had taken the time to set our phones down, go for a walk, and talk to a stranger, maybe it would be different.
There are few like me. The ones that refused the technology, or maybe they just couldn’t afford it. After they took over, they basically built a whole new world, burying the old one in dust and scrap parts. Very little lives on the ground. Most are up there, with there heads in the clouds. They're like zombies, glued to the screens of light, no one exercising. They're all fat and unhealthy, like the being lifted out of bed by a mini crane fat…yeah.
Tokyo and China were the first to go, then the U.S. Africa is fine; no technology there to rule. We have no control over our world. We saw this coming, and we ignored it. Now there is no going back. This is the end...or is it...
If you think about it, this student is probably not that far off track. How many times in the past week have you had a face-to-face conversation with someone while staring at your phone at the same time? I know I'm guilty. This week, as we wind down the last few days of school, I'm going to take some time for a little face-to-face, "old school" interaction. I'll be sad to see this group of students leave our middle school, and I need to soak up these last few days for the wonderful time that they can be. Happy almost-Summer, everyone!
Next, I ask students to raise their hands if they can think of a way that this story, written in 1951, can apply to life today. Every hand in the room goes up. Today's students are very aware that the world is addicted to technology. After reading this story, I had my accelerated classes read this CNN Tech article about embeddable technology. It's a great modern-day connection and makes Bradbury's story (and his fears about technology) seem applicable in today's world. Many of them noted that, while Bradbury set "The Pedestrian" in 2053, the technology addiction he was warning against is very much a problem in 2014. Many of them wrote about the negative side effects of technology, including the changing landscape of socialization that we're all experiencing. Seriously, who ever thought that families would have to develop a "cell phone policy" for the dinner table?
While my accelerated classes focused on debating the ever-present threat of being taken over by technology, I chose to focus on creating narrative with the rest of my students. We debated and discussed the same themes and issues in "The Pedestrian," and I asked my students to write the story of the "21st Century Pedestrian." Here's what one student wrote on his class blog:
The year is 2115; the government doesn’t matter anymore. There are no crimes or wars for them to deal with. Nothing is the same. No street lights are on. The city below is dark, broken, and dirty. After the cars started hovering, no one was on the ground. They are all up there; I see them, forgetting about the worries of life, especially after the phones got smart enough to control everything. Humans have no control, no say in what they will do today; the machines do everything for us. They have tried to make me a slave to the technology, but I know better.
We have lived in a world where we rely on a phone to remind us to say hi to our grandma and not to forget milk when we're shopping. No one ever thought that we wouldn’t have control over a piece of plastic with wires, but this is life. If only we had taken the time to set our phones down, go for a walk, and talk to a stranger, maybe it would be different.
There are few like me. The ones that refused the technology, or maybe they just couldn’t afford it. After they took over, they basically built a whole new world, burying the old one in dust and scrap parts. Very little lives on the ground. Most are up there, with there heads in the clouds. They're like zombies, glued to the screens of light, no one exercising. They're all fat and unhealthy, like the being lifted out of bed by a mini crane fat…yeah.
Tokyo and China were the first to go, then the U.S. Africa is fine; no technology there to rule. We have no control over our world. We saw this coming, and we ignored it. Now there is no going back. This is the end...or is it...
If you think about it, this student is probably not that far off track. How many times in the past week have you had a face-to-face conversation with someone while staring at your phone at the same time? I know I'm guilty. This week, as we wind down the last few days of school, I'm going to take some time for a little face-to-face, "old school" interaction. I'll be sad to see this group of students leave our middle school, and I need to soak up these last few days for the wonderful time that they can be. Happy almost-Summer, everyone!
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