topham's attic: countdown to the weekend

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

countdown to the weekend

Heck, my weekend starts day after tomorrow, but it will be a darned expensive one. College trips cost tons, even if you don't have to shell out for hotels!

So, let's take stock, shall we? Where are we at this juncture in our school year? Three days before Columbus Day weekend, my cast finally off so I can at least pretend to start catching up on things, all of my classes reaching the end of opening units. Where are we going from here?

A preview:

CW:

Starting tomorrow, with tonight's people-watch and compose five paragraphs describing five people you find interesting assignment, we are moving into several weeks of focused exercises and discussions of technique, aspects of writing, style, and structure. oh, yes, and of course: we'll be writing and conferencing.

E2H:

Tomorrow, you'll be in Writing Workshop. We are going to move from there into the Sound and Sense book, where you will meet some interesting poets, beginning with another Transcendentalist, Emily Dickinson. From there, we'll be looking at a 20th Century Transcendentalist play that my English teacher uncle once argued was the most significant work of American literature...and I agree: Our Town.

E3H:

Back in the poetry tomorrow, you're going to be looking at the underlying devices in these pieces. Go online tonight and discuss examples of the literary devices these chapters are covering, as you find them in the poems. Your job is to discover what they are all about. Help each other. We'll talk about them tomorrow. After that, you'll undoubtedly be writing something... You will also be heading into project territory next week!

Hey everyone:

Let's get that Wikigram board going! And E2/3H, let's get the Wikicab going! And CW: let's get some YI submissions going!

About taking risks:

As I have said in class, your challenge this year is to take chances in discussions. Don't play it safe! Climb out on those limbs, even if they might break off behind you and send you crashing to the ground. If at some point in this year you are not at least in serious danger of crashing and burning, you didn't play the game very well.

About e-mailing me:

Please put your class abbreviation (cw, e2h, e3h) in the subject header, and use that also as the start of the *@sunspark.com address.

J: the misadventures of unobservant uma
music: observation--eddie from ohio

--kt

Notes to Parents

8/24/14

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another (or your first) year at LFHS.

What you have heard is true. The English teacher has lost her ever-loving mind and is not going to be giving any grades at all in her classes this year. Not. One.

There will be no percentages, no numbers, no scores, no letters, no anything that will count toward anything that will end up being averaged for a final grade. But before you call in the men with the white coats, let me explain:

As I hope you have read in the doc your son or daughter (I have always hated the phrase "your student" when addressed to a parent) should have showed you, there is a wealth of research that indicates that grades--or the need to achieve them--are the single greatest thing that stand in the way of a great education. Studies show that the most influential thing a teacher can do to help a student grow academically is to allow him or her to self-grade. Most teachers would rather climb Mt. Everest dressed only in a swimsuit.

But the thing is: our academic system is severely broken. We say that our goal is to get our students to master Common Core Standards, and that is all well and good. But if that is truly the goal, then why do we care how long it takes them to master them? I'm serious. Think about it this way:

Try to remember back to when you were learning how to ride a bike. Oh, it was scary. You needed all kinds of support at first, lots of help from Daddy or Mommy. Then they let go and you were very, very wobbly. Probably you fell off, maybe several times. It took quite a while before you completely mastered the skill. But when you had...you had it down perfectly for the rest of your life.

Now imagine if you were being graded on that learning experience the way schools grade you. We would not score those first scaffolding attempts with Mommy and Daddy, but then...oh, you failed those quizzes when you fell off. And those wobbly rides? C's at best. Then a bunch of B's probably before you finally settled into 100% forever. But if we graded you right at that point, you'd probably average, oh, 83% or so. Why? You've mastered the skill perfectly. So why do you not get 100% if that is what we say we care about? Why on earth do we care about all those earlier times when you didn't have it down yet?

That will be what we go for here. Students will know what the goals are. They will understand what an "A" student looks like. And they will know when they have mastered an objective. Those who do so earlier than others will become tutors to those who have not yet done it: everyone gains from this and the newly learned skills, instead of being quickly forgotten as things studied for a test usually are, will continue being applied as masters tutor their classmates.

That is an awful lot to imagine will happen because I don't give grades this year, but what the heck: if you don't dream big, you never win big, right? The research is behind this, as is the school administration. I'm happy--well, actually I am excited--to pilot this concept at LFHS. As always, I'm glad to discuss this or anything else with you.

Karen

Feel free to email me any time at ktopham@lfschools.net.

topham's attic

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

countdown to the weekend

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