Quarter Two & Project One

We've shifted into second quarter and are picking up more grammar, building writing skills, reflecting on personal learning, and beginning to apply more reading strategies to texts as we apply our knowldege of elements of fiction. Quarter One personal observations and investigations have allowed students have a good knowledge of the self and others within our learning communities--both Room 222 and http://spaulding.edu20.org --now students will use and build on that knowledge independently and collaboratively.
Our first project, due after the Thanksgiving holiday, focuses using and building on research skills, creating informational media (text or image), and presenting knowledge and learning to our class. Students have chosen a god or goddess of a culture of interest to investigate, learn about, teach us about. Students who are working independently will focus on their singular cultural icon while students working collaboratively will be researching one type of icon of two cultures. Students will have all of class time both Monday 11.22 and Tuesday 11.23 to work in the library on research, project planning and drafting. Since students are presenting their learning to others their project will not only be visual but also oral. Students are encouraged to finish formulating their project and presentation over break and have a finished product due to me on Monday 11.29. They will have most of class time on Monday 11.29 to polish their project and presentation. Students will prepare further with a run-thru with me before the end of the day. Presentations will begin on Tuesday 11.30 and Wednesday 12.1. Please let me know if you'd like to attend!

We've Gone On-line!

We've moved into the 21st century!
Students were introduced to our on-line class site http://spaulding.edu20.org/ and most were able to join Freshman English on-line today. Although we continue to run into wireless access issues within our classroom, students can (and should) visit this site often from home or in some cases their phone!!! For students with limited computer or internet access, time to use computers in class will be given on a weekly (if not more) basis to complete their work. Students can also use computers in the library (7:30 to 3:30) or computer lab (7:30-3:00) before and after school.
BE AWARE! Students will need to go on-line frequently to complete out-of-class assignments, participate in class forums, wikis, book groups, and more. Students can access resources, our calendar, and the areas necessary to complete assignments with easem, so encourage your student to practice their 21st Century Learning skills by visiting our class on-line!

Using Protocols: Reflections

As a lover of dialogue, one of my teaching goals is to assist students in "finding their voice" through facilitated discussion. As we all know, some of us have a more difficult time speaking up and out when it comes to discussion. Some of us are simply more shy than others, more unsure in our opinions than others, or more hesitant to share than others. To allow each student opportunity to share their voice within discussion, students use protocols to explore topics, readings, reactions, and ideas. Protocols are structured ways to effectively discuss ideas. Most of the protocols in use come from School Reform Initiative (http://www.schoolreforminitiative.org/); and, as necessary some protocols have been modified to fit our learning community needs. Using protocols to explore ideas, questions, and text, also drives students to work collaboratively and experience more of a "real world" practice since protocols are used throughout the professional world.

Here are student's thoughts on using protocols within our course work:

The Last Two Weeks

For the last two weeks students have been continuing to explore who they are and why they do what they do. We'll continue this investigation on a weekly basis as we finish reading the book Life Strategies for Teens by Jay McGraw. We've also begun to connect this investigation with goal setting and the Habits of Mind. Students have formulated and workshoped writing S.M.A.R.T. goals and will soon decide what reading, writing, and personal goals they want to work toward. These goals will be posted in class, and students will work with strategies to make their aspirations reality, monitor their progress, and formulate new goals with each successful gain. With a little more work, the connections between the Life Laws within Life Strategies for Teens, the Habits of Mind, and personal growth should be apparent. I've been asking students to dig deep and be critical of themselves as well as open minded. I've seen lots of honest reflection and processing as a result. So...Ask your student about what we've reflected on in class, what he or she has discovered about our group, what he or she has discovered about himself or herself, and general reactions to the text.

Poetry is..

Students will be exploring poetry weekly on Mondays and Fridays. To start of our unit work, I asked students what they thought poetry was. Next, I had students listen to a few poets (adults and students) read their work. At the conclusion of the lesson, I asked students to reflect again on what poetry was. Here are their responses:

Poetry is…

Rhyming stories…A different way of saying things…A way to tell stories…Spoken…Mixes rhyming and telling how you feel about something…Is short writing…Something you can write anytime…Is only one page…
Comes in many different forms…Is the grouping of words…Is words broken by space and commas…Stuff that rhymes…A way to express your feelings in different ways…A way to not be bottled up…Can be about anything you want it to be…Is a graceful way to express yourself…Expresses your feeling without speaking…
A way to creatively express yourself…A bunch of phrases that come together to make a story…Words that flow together to make things seem clam or angry…Anything you want it to be…Words that describe feelings…
About anything—nature, lives, people…Is not like a story but is...Describe things in life…A romantic way to explain feelings…A way to make things interesting…A way to let your feelings out…A place to be yourself…Sentences with a lot of power to them…Expressing yourself through words and forms…Something you’ve experienced…Writing that can be a song…A variety of feelings…Creative writing with meaning, feeling and sometimes symbolism…A kind of writing…What you feel and see…Taking a story and bending it into new words to make it new…Is descriptive words…Is art…Is a story in lines or little paragraphs…Doesn’t have to rhyme…Sometimes pointless…A way to express you you are feeling without really saying it…A way to share thoughts and opinions…Thoughtful words put together...Short and deep…Ideas that relate to each other…a song before it is a song…Weird…abut random things…Funny…Really unique…Patterns in writing with words...
Something I like to write...A part of who I am

Life Law One Reflections

Kudos to all students for preparing for and participating in a new process of discussing text--the 3 A's Protocol, where students are asked to read a text (Chapter 1 "You Either Get It Or You Don't" from Life Strategies for Teens by Jay McGraw); identify statements they agree with, argue with, and aspire to; and support their opinions by answering the BIG question WHY. I was super impressed with student input and professionalism during the process. Although a stiff process at first--attributed first run-through jitters and start-and-stop clarifications--students clearly discovered something new about themselves as people and life learners as well as new insight into our class as a learning community. Student feedback about processes and text these past few days has been invaluable in shaping our week-ending discussions and next week's work. I look forward to seeing how students respond and connect to Life Law #2.

Students keep up the GREAT work!

Parents ask your students about this text/these readings and our discussions!

Reasons We Assess

We've spent the last few days assessing and exploring assessment--why teachers assign essays, give quizzes or tests; why people check the weather, conduct research, or ask questions. Before we began our discussion and exploration into what kind of learners we are, I wanted to know what students thought about assessment and why we assess things and/or conduct assessments. Here are their ideas...

Our Ideals

As we explore what kind of learners we are, students were asked about what makes up an ideal learning environment--what the teacher, classroom, and learning activities should be like to do their best. Here's what the students said...

It's been a hot start to the week--officially 82 degrees in the room today! Wow! Thanks to all the students who have helped our room stay cooler by being willing to work without the lights on, by working with the noise of the fan on, and by limiting the openness of the door to the hall. I also want to really thank all students for keeping clothing appropriate under such sticky air. Here's hoping we'll cool off a tad more--but not too much to remind us that winter is on its way.

First Thoughts

Well, we've officially begun! What an exciting time for everyone--lots of energy and worries. Our first few days and week will explore our habits as citizens and learners. On our first day we explored questions that connect us to each other and school in general. Today we explored what excites and worries us about school as well as student impressions on what will be easy and difficult about high school in general. Student responses to our "Four Questions Chalk Talk" varied but many students realized that much of the group shared the same thoughts on each topic. See the webs below for the transcripts of that activity.