A Thicket and Bramble Wilderness

Too many of my students have lost their love of reading.  For many, books used to be a source of pleasure, escape, wonder and joy.  Somewhere along the way, books became the enemy,  or at least frivolity.  People speak of reading in terms of life-giving breath, the inhale to writing’s exhale. I see it in my own children.  They get genuinely excited when they start a new book.  They share good reads with each other and talk to anyone who will listen about what they are currently reading.

In my classes, I am in the process of resuscitation — of my own reading life as well as my students’.  I hate to admit it, but for years, I have not been inhaling the power of language and stories.  I have been quite busy exhaling — blogs, poems, essays, reports — but I wasn’t making any time to inhale. And all of a sudden, after years of this, I started to suffocate.  I needed to get back into books – new books, for my own experience, not as a study for teaching.  In fact, I started to question my entire practice as a teacher of literature.  I wanted to do more to excite my students about their reading instead of contributing to their quickly rotting attitudes toward books.

So this semester, my AP Lit students are choosing all of their novels on their own.  I gave them some guidelines — one from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, something dystopian, two collections of poetry.  But that’s it.  Now, they choose.  This might not seem so revolutionary to some, but in the teaching world I come from, it is almost sacrilege.

Already, I feel like my classroom is revitalized.  We are talking books — recommending authors and works, comparing old favorites to new possibilities, tackling authors we haven’t before and finding comfort in genres we love.  What we are doing now feels real.  It feels natural.  It has resuscitated this old teacher and I hope has breathed new life into my young friends.

I love to begin my classes each year with a poem.  Over the years, I find myself returning again and again to Marge Piercy’s “To Be of Use” and “The Seven of Pentacles”.

The first I shared with my 10th graders.  As sophomores, they lack that nervous energy of freshmen and with graduation still three years away, they are in some ways descending into the valley of high school life.  What i so wonderful about beginning with this poem is that I can communicate so much about the classroom, our community, my expectations and their potential while we discover the ideas in the poem together.  When Piercy declares that people cry out for “work that is real,” I reaffirm my commitment to giving students the opportunity for relevant, personally meaningful work.  In turn, I ask them to be sure their work isn’t “botched” so it doesn’t “smear the hands” or crumble to dust.” Here is the opportunity to touch on issues of integrity in their work and I ask for them to commit to presenting themselves honestly — no plagiarism, no cheating, no made-up excuses.  Of course, many of these concepts could be addressed by reading through the course syllabus on the first day, but no syllabus (even one written by me!) could charm them in the same manner this poem does.  We end the reading with me asking them to write for me, to begin engaging in conversation together.  I ask them to write (in prose or poetry) about the people they “love best” just as Piercy does.  This, I tell them, will give me insights into not only their writing skills, but their values and personalities. I want my students to know from their first moments with me that they matter and that I am ready for a productive, powerful year of learning with them.

The seniors begin with “The Seven of Pentacles” and we dive in much the same way I do with the sophomores, immersing ourselves in the poem line by line and thinking deeply about the advice Piercy shares.  Each year, a different line resonates with me.  This year it was, “You never know by looking what is happening.”  Students will often be drawn to “Live a life you can endure” or “then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock” or “Live as if you liked yourself and it may happen.”  Once students have chosen the line from the poem that is impacting them most significantly, we write.  I write along with them and share when we are done.

I envision my classroom as a community garden — abuzz with excitement and beauty and possibility.  My attitude, my approach, my passion — these are the roots.  Everything that grows will be resting upon them , nourished by them.  Piercy’s poems give me that chance and I hope have made my students (a little bit)  eager for our work together this year.

Confession: I have always been a sort of reckless, on-the-fly lesson planner.  I know where we are going, I have a good sense of some stops we will make along the way, but I leave room for detours and side-trips.  I enjoy that about my teaching practice because it allows me to be a learner along with my students and it allows them to have some impact on the curriculum.

However, I also have always longed for some structure in my teaching, some kind of schedule that keeps me focused. I want the students to find comfort in knowing what to expect without boring them by a strict routine.  I think this year I have finally found a way for that to happen.

Each day of the week has an assigned purpose:  Critical Input is for Monday, Class Teams meet on Tuesdays, then we have Writing Wednesdays, Leftover Thursdays and finally, Fill-in-the-Gaps Fridays which we call FIG Friday.

The idea behind FIG Friday is that there are certain skills, concepts or standards that some students need more time to address.  Other students may want to work on an assignment that allows for a creatiove response.  Still others might want something that ties our learning more directly into preparation for the AP exam.  On FIG Friday, all of these needs can be met.  I typically offer anywhere from three to six choices.  I try to always include AP Exam Prep, a creative writing option, an activity connected to our current class readings and often an assessment for students wanting to see where they are in meeting class standards.  Also, if students approach me with something they would like to do on FIG Friday, I usually allow these self-designed assignments, as well.

The greatest difficulty with FIG is accountability.  Trying to keep track of 142 students with all of these options can be difficult.  But, because students are able to choose their work for the day, most work well through the period.  I jot down names of those who don’t use their FIG Friday time appropriately and students know this will impact their work ethic score at grading periods.  Compared with the benefits of FIG Friday, the accountability issue is definitely a minor one.

Over the course of the year, students have begun to count on FIG Friday.  I believe the individualized approach makes them feel a sense of ownership in terms of their education.  This affects their sense of power, freedom, and maybe even fun, three of the five basic human needs as outlined by Dr. William Glasser. They get to ask themselves, “What do I need?”  “How should I further my learning?”  “What would be the best way for me to grow?”  “What would I most enjoy?”  This sense of efficacy contributes to our classroom community and definitely helps my students see me as a guide and a facilitator in their learning rather than the authority or taskmaster.  We become partners in their education and that is really exciting to experience.

Finally, FIG Friday has given me the ability to include some aspects of teaching that are not as stimulating, but necessary (such as test prep), without sacrificing the more creative, inspirational work that isn’t as easy to tie directly to course standards.  It provides a balance for me and for my students so that we don’t ever go too far in either direction.  My goal is for my students to be both challenged and engage.  FIG Friday has moved us a step closer to that goal.

I have had my students working in various forms of digital media for a few years now and one activity I have found really valuable is student blogging.  This year’s group is blogging in a collaborative format.  Students are on teams and manage a team blog (You can see a sample here).  Each student is required to post twice each semester.  In addition, students need to read and comment upon two other blog posts each week.  They may respond to other class blogs or to one from a list I have compiled for them.

Their blogging is a means for me to see what they are thinking as we move through our texts, discussions and assignments.  The blogs provide a space for them to speak without the limitations or pressures of the classroom.  On the blogs, everyone speaks and everyone writes.  There is no hiding or waiting for someone else to fill the silence.  However, sometimes with this personal space comes a casualness and an irreverence I wouldn’t likely see in the classroom.  I tell my students that I am too old to take anything they say personally, but still, I feel I need to coach them on proper tone.  I need to encourage them to use their best writing skills rather than ignore the long-ago-learned punctuation and capitalization rules.  Of course, if their blog posts and comments were “graded” responses, I am sure they would be presented in a more appropriate way.  But they would also be less honest, less reflective of the student’s thought process and growth.

Some of the posts are quite insightful and make me feel that this aspect of the course is valuable for my students.  But a good number are not  — they are shallow, too brief, merely summary or in now way associated with the work of the class — and I am still working on how to address that.  While blogging a part of our class, it isn’t the primary focus.  How high should my expectations be?  How detailed should my instruction be?  Though they are seniors and many have internet access readily available, most have never interacted on this way online.  How do I help them see that this is different than sending a text message or AIM chatting without allowing technology instruction to supersede our study of literature?

I am reading, researching, and following hundreds of tweets on the topic — looking at the work being done by Troy Hicks and Bud Hunt — and I am also giving myself permission not to have this all figured out.  Having that patience with myself is a struggle for me, but I know it is a necessity if I want to keep growing.

Now that my district is launching School Loop, much of the information I typically share here will now be available on my School Loop site.  This shift has rendered this site (in its current form) superfluous.

Perhaps it is pride (I don’t want to give up a blog with my name in the url!), perhaps it is loyalty (my husband set the blog up for me and I don’t want to abandon it) or perhaps it is simply the little bit of joy I get each day when I log in and see that pink Gerbera daisy — whatever it is, it has inspired me to rethink my use of digital space here.  If the daily details — assignments, grades, announcements, handouts — are to be shared somewhere else, what use  could there still be for MrsElliott.net?

Those reading my more personal blog at More Than I Should Bear know that identity is an issue I think about often and my multiple identities as mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, woman have all made their way into that blog at one time or another.  But lately I have been feeling like my teaching self needs more space to speak.  Between the tweets, status updates, blog posts and hallway conversations I have each day, I sometimes get overwhelmed with all that is happening in education.  And what I really want to spend my time thinking about and sharing is what is happening inside of  my classroom, regardless of what is happening outside of it.

And so, MrsElliott.net is reborn as ” A Thicket and Bramble Wilderness” (see the A Bit About the Blog Title page for the title’s inspiration).  This blog will share, celebrate, and critique the work being done in my classroom, by me and by my students.  Over the next few weeks I will be cleaning house, then redesigning the features of the blog.  Although I will miss the site that once was, I am quite eager for the revamped, refocused work I will be doing here.  I recently signed on with 101 English Blogs and I hope as that project grows, I will be able to make a valuable contribution.  It’ll be a bit dusty and messy around here for the next couple of weeks, but even that is making my heart beat faster!

Something sweet (change, according to Aristotle) and a racing heart — a perfect Valentine’s Day!