topham's attic: tuneless tuesday

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

tuneless tuesday

Musicless Monday bleeds into Tuneless Tuesday. Thank goodness for the karaoke machine in my closet! I honestly don't know how people existed before the invention of music; did they beat on rocks with mammoth bones?

OK: Some excellent things going on today. I was thoroughly impressed, for example, by the P2P conferences in CW this morning: very focused, very together, very directed. Several of you didn't even want to stop when the period was over! And the comments that you wrote on the board as most helpful varied from grammatical to stylistic to content-building to miscellaneous; obviously there was quite a lot of variety in the commentary and conversation. Great work!

Tonight, CW-ers, revise the piece you conferenced today. Use color-coding; don't forget both the color key and the draft declaration telling where your focuses were in the revision. (Both should be at the top of the page.) Also don't forget about updating your WS, which you should do each time you work on anything.

E3H-ers, we had another good all-class conference (though this one was, I think, mostly me) in 2nd P, and two more in 5th. I hope that each of you took something positive away from them; we'll be doing a session of in-class P2P conferences tomorrow before returning on Thursday to our regular literature programming. ;-)

Tonight, you should examine your Frozen moment piece to see if there is anything you wish to revise at this moment and make whatever revisions you see fit for tomorrow. (Note that revisions should be color-coded; see CW notes above.) In addition to that, there are two more things:

procure a three-ring binder for use in writing workshop, and
go to the Workshop Summary link on the class page; read what this is and set one up for yourself; email me a copy using the subject header WS (date)

E2H-ers, I hope that the "class conference" we held today made some sense, even if it was not on one of your pieces. (We'll rectify that situation tomorrow.) ;-)

Tonight, try creating your own "frozen moment" piece: freeze a single sparkling moment of your summer and show it in all of its sensory glory. Maybe it sparkles because it was incredibly wonderful; maybe it sparkles in your mind because it is dripping with metaphorical gore. Who knows?

You know what else I don't know? I don't recall what video I said I would try to look up today in E2H. Darn. Sorry about that. Here's something chosen at random:

J: frustrated music: Dancing Clouds Over Oak Creek--Alexander

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, September 1, 2009

tuneless tuesday

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