topham's attic: vacation, all i ever wanted

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

vacation, all i ever wanted

Hi, all!

I hope that you are enjoying yourselves so far as we count down the days until Christmas. (That would be 2 at this moment).

Recapping vacation assignment stuff:

CW: Your assignment is to find a way to explore your journey through four years of LFHS writing education:

Examine pieces from each of your high school years. Find work from each of the Writing Workshop experiences you have had and trace your growth as a writer through this fall.

What have you learned?
What have been the greatest catalysts of that growth?
With what do you continue to struggle?
Where will your future focuses be?

Quote from your own work. Liberally sprinkle this with bits and pieces of you. Finally, put it together in a micro-portfolio (no need for anything fancy this time) that illustrates your personal writing journey over the last four years.

You may do a mini-portfolio, but I’d actually prefer that you do this in a completely different format. Try something you’ve never tried before. Make a DVD* or CD-ROM. Make a web-site** or blog***. You are creative people: be creative! The rules are that you must explore your career in writing as noted above, but the format is wide open.

* Lots of programs make this easy. I’m a Mac girl myself, so I use iMovie. Easy as pie.

** Mac has one for this too: iWeb. I imagine Vista has one, but I don’t know that universe.

*** Here’s a super-simple option and it’s universal: use Google! If you create a free account on Google, they will guide you through the creation of a blog, provide templates, and publish it for you!

So…have fun!

This is due when we get back, so we can share them in class on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (I won’t be here on Friday due to Theatre Fest.)

Want an example or two?

Try: Johanna's web page, or Heather's blog, or Lilly's blog, or Betsy's blog, or Sarah's blog. I can't show you Angela's or Ed's Publisher-based newsletters, or Casey, Julie, Katherine or Cat's movies made with iMovie or a similar Windows program, but these are also things I have seen in the past couple of years. The examples I've given here are not necessarily the best; they are just the ones I have online access to. Still, they should provide ideas.

Questions? Email me!

E3H: Your assignment for break is pretty simple and direct: Read Chapter Four and annotate it.

E2H: As for you all: if you have read an posted on Chapter 20, you're done for the vacay. Enjoy the rest of it! (If you have NOT...do it now!).

Click here for: Funniest Christmas decorations ever!

And for equal time:

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

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

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

vacation, all i ever wanted

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