topham's attic: 10/6 technophobes and other characters

Thursday, October 6, 2011

10/6 technophobes and other characters

So...the results on turnitin.com are still coming in... If you have comments to make, let me know.

Calling all technophobes!

If you are unnerved by the online stuff, don't be afraid to let me know. [Half the time it unnerves me too. :-) ] I've spoken to a couple of you about it, and I've tried to be clear in class:

What we have done in the last two weeks is experimental. If the class does not like the site, we will not use it. If the class likes it enough to use it but someone has real issues with doing work online, there will be alternative methods of doing assignments. No one will be left behind. Do not fear. In any case, the internet is just another tool in our toolbox. Our best tools are still each other, face to face.

E2CP: We finished Our Town today and discussed potential themes. Your assignment tonight is to select a theme for a possible essay and find five strong quotations from various locations in the play that you would use to support it if you wrote this paper. This will be turned in tomorrow.

CW: Don't forget the new "After Art" prompt; see yesterday.

E3H: We discussed allegory at length today, spending a lot of time on "Fire and Ice." For tomorrow: Choose a poem from the "Poems for Further Reading" chapter that contains significant figurative language. Compose an essay of about one page that explores the poem's meaning and how the poet uses figurative language to get that meaning across to the reader. We will be in a lab tomorrow so you'll have time to work on this in class. When you finish, upload it to turnitin.com as the assignment "figurative language."

About Google Groups: the Mrs. T's E3H group will be discontinued. It was a failed experiment. As such, after much consideration, I have decided to convert all grades into extra credit points. C will get one point, B will get 2, A will get 3. A+ will get a bonus point. I'll try to take care of this over the weekend. (At this stage, a single point represents about 0.3% of your grade.)

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

Thursday, October 6, 2011

10/6 technophobes and other characters

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