topham's attic: the state of the classroom

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

the state of the classroom

Welcome, one and all.

Honored guests. Distinguished students. Students who have not yet become quite so distinguished.

Today we gather to discuss the state of our great classroom. It is a tradition begun so many milliseconds ago that no one can even recall exactly the moment it began, but let's call it, for the sake of a name, "in this minute." In this grand tradition, we examine what is going well and what is not going so very well in the Small World of Room 305.

According to Recent Reports, most of you do not enjoy using the Boards. My response is that we have not given them our best shot yet. We shall do so. After that, if you do not see their value, we may well diminish or eliminate them.

These same reports indicate that Projects receive very positive comments. These shall therefore be continued into the Second Semester of our acquaintance.

Also receiving high marks is Writing Workshop, though it was noted by a few people that it would be nice to be able to go to labs on occasion. We shall see if we can work that out.

In a very odd dichotomy, our discussions received comments--in the same class!--ranging from notes that I talk too much and no one gets to speak to everyone gets the chance to say whatever they want and there are no preconceptions. It is rather difficult to know what to glean from such a range of comments, but I will be watching further conversations closely.

From my end: I wish to engage in more Grammar Gremlins and more Vocabulary this semester. Some of this will come in the form of mini-lessons during Writing Workshop periods. For some of it, I'd like to try using the boards in their best wiki-possibilities. We did this a few years ago and students had a great time playing with wiki-grammar and wiki-vocab.

Special note to Drama Students:

Your needs have not been addressed here because your class has just begun, but rest assured that you are on my mind. Speak up when or if there are things you need to say. :-)

And now, the homework...

E2CP: Work on the poem "Acquainted With the Night" (255) and try to discover or think of logical reasons with clues from the poem about why he is walking late at night. What does he gain from this? How does he feel about it? What does it mean to be "one acquainted with the night"?

E3H: Continue reading and annotating Ch 5 (annotations due next week, though reading is due by Friday). Online, discuss issues in Ch 5 on the boards. Oh, and you can find the CAPSTONE PROJECT INFORMATION HERE if you cannot remember where to locate it.

Drama: 3.2, 3.3. Also: Behavior Scenes, which are scripted improv scenes in which you show us typical and atypical behaviors of yours. Due Thursday.

And if you are thinking about doing something stupid this winter...like going out on thin ice or driving in terrible conditions...think again:

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, January 25, 2011

the state of the classroom

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