Inviting English into other Subjects

     

                I can generally guess the reaction when I tell someone for the first time that I’m getting my license to teach English and Science at the middle school level.   It starts with a tell-tale head cock to one side and a quizzical repetition, “English and science?”  It seems like a strange combination, but being a student teacher in both subjects for the past school year, I can tell you that there is more overlap than you’d think; especially now with requirements in each subject to incorporate literature and writing standards.

                My latest issue of Science Scope magazine really opened my eyes to the unique position English teachers are in right now being that reading and writing is a focus for every class  - collaboration is going to be key in assuring that students meet the growing need to grow capable writers and readers across curriculum.  As the editor of the magazine, Inez Liftig, states, “collaborating with language arts and other content teachers is a necessity, as you step beyond the traditional boundaries of teaching writing science.” 

The big question is, of course, how do we do this?  As English teachers, what can and should we do?

                One of the biggest opportunities to share ideas about the writing process with teachers of other subjects would ideally be through collaboration.  Times and budgets being what they are collaboration time is hard to come by, but it would be to the students benefit if this happened more often.  “On their own students are unlikely to transfer literacy strategies and instruction across disciplines…It is therefore important for teachers to recognize the shared responsibility of writing instruction” (Pytash, Annetta and Ferdig, 22).  If this is the case for our native English speakers, imagine how much harder it is for English Language Learner students?  I really think as educators, we need to really focus on cross curricular collaboration for the benefit of the student and their ability to not only learn the skills necessary, but to learn how to apply knowledge from one content area to another.

                One suggestion from the article is that teachers collaborate on the writing process using apps.  The science lab notebook is a great tangible tool that you find utilized in many science classrooms, but if you have access to laptops, tablets or iPads there are a variety of journaling style apps that are akin to online science notebooks. Penzu – which is free – is one that even allows students to set reminders to keep adding to their notebook.  As English teachers, you could have them reflect on writing they did in science during English.  Have the students explore how writing differs from subject to subject and talk about why that is.  Science also opens the door for multi-modal projects using apps like Adobe Slate or Haiku Deck where students can work in a variety of mediums including writing.  Students could even take their work on these platforms into the English classroom for editing purposes or for collaboration with peers or even have an English teacher come in for a class period to do a short one day workshop. Come in and show the science teacher how to run a short workshop  and help to bring those essential literacy skills into the science classroom. Once the students start seeing literacy skills used across subjects, they will start applying them across subjects.  You and a science teacher could even set-up a shared space like Google Docs or a wiki or blog so students are using the same interface and tools in both subjects.  Get the students to start looking at writing through a multi-subject lens and they’ll start being more reflective about their writing process and the value of writing in subjects other than just English (and I suspect their performance in your English classroom will show marked improvement too - win win).

                The bottom line, of course, is always about the students and augmenting their ability to learn the skills they need to succeed, but the benefits of having students writing across subject areas is a huge boon for everyone (not to mention part of our current standards).  When you start to really look at the skill based needs in both English and science there is quite a bit of overlap. Think about it - vocabulary is huge for both subjects (more unique vocabulary in science than a foreign language), laying out process and procedure is shared by both subjects, discussing and supporting outcomes using evidence is something students do in both classes – the parallels between English and science are there we just need to find ways to use them to the advantage of our students.

                Knowing that I’ll be teaching science next year, I’m looking forward to being able to bring my English and literacy skills to light in the science classroom, but I fully plan to reach out to the English department in my school as well in the hopes that we can do some collaboration and encourage students to be more well-rounded engaged writers across subjects.   For all you heading to your own English classroom – think about collaborating with your science, math or even history team – it is likely to make things more interesting and engaging for our students and for you!

Reference:

Pytash, K., Annetta, L., & Richard, F. (2016, April/May). Using Apps to Integrate Writing into Science Eduation. Science Scope, 39(8), 21-26. 

Using artifacts to engage, enrich and encourage ELLs in the classroom

              

           In developing my lesson plans to fit the protocol of the portfolio my state requires for a teaching license I have been compiling data on my students.  In looking at all the data on my students, I have become very interested in how to better engage the vast number of English Language Learners in my classes.  I want our classroom environment and the lessons I’m presenting to give them meaningful opportunities to become more comfortable in their speaking, writing and reading of English.  With my classrooms being over 50% English Language Learners I really want to know how best to engage, and grow their writing, reading and even speaking skills.

                Of all the lesson types I’ve done or have seen done with these students this year, the most impactful and the most engaging have typically involved the production of or interaction with some sort of artifact.  We’ve done window pane style vocabulary where we introduce students to words with an image they draw first, we’ve done book cover investigations where we look at an image and try to infer what the text might be about, we’ve produced AVID one pagers that include illustrations and we’ve created detail rich sentences on script strips with added color.  Give these students choral reading, Cornell notes, quick writes or a writing assignment and they struggle.  Give them the chance to draw and write or color and write or draw and discuss and the interaction level and participation increases exponentially.

                In the November/December 2015 issue of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Réngine Randall and Mia Lynn Mercurio published an article about the power of artifacts in the classroom as a motivator for learning and developing more literate through process and application in students.  Based on their article and the work of advocates for multi-modal learning like Tom Romano, Troy Hicks, Bomer, and many strategies advocated by Marzano – the resounding opinions seems to be that artifacts are a great way to engage and motivate our students. 

                Our students are consumers of multi-modal literacy every day through their use of technology and social media and as Randall and Mercurio state, “our ability to impact student achievement rests on innovative instructional practices that enable teachers to meet students where they are with the materials that they are best able to read and interpret.”  The message seems pretty clear to me – if I want to meet my students where they are and have them be more engaged in the learning process I need to consider the production, analysis and display of artifacts in my teaching.  Again to quote Randall and Mercurio, “objects, artifacts, and materials matter precisely because they are tangible and often more central to students’ lives than a text alone.”  Artifacts, it seems, are a powerful learning tool and I suspect, for my students who are English Language Learners, being able to connect their understanding of text, writing and critical thinking in conjunction with an artifact is a much more meaningful way to allow them to dig deeper into how they feel about a particular event, theme or piece of writing.  I have seen this myself and have even taught it myself.  I brought cover art investigations to my 8^th grade ELA students and it provided us with a thoughtful way to consider a text before even reading a single word.  We were able to go back and revisit the cover after reading and discuss what we have accurately inferred and what new things we saw after our reading.  Even better was that many of my quieter language learner students actively participated. 

 “Also, of no small importance is how the use of materials and artifactual literacies might                 positively change intervention or developmental reading classes intended to support                           underperforming students. Such an approach is not a perfect or straight path to raising                   achievement, but it may be one that improves the development of transferable academic                       skills, promotes engagement and curiosity, informs action, and allows for greater self-­                         efficacy,” (Randall & Mercurio, 327).

        I have always seen the benefit and loved the idea of multi-genre projects, portfolios, and the integration of art and technology in the ELA classroom, but this new information and the depth to which it positively affects English Language Learners gives me a whole new sense of motivation to make artifacts and the opportunity to develop and use them in the ELA classroom all the more pressing. 

Works cited:

Randall, R., & Mercurio, M. L. (2015). Valuing Stuff. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy J Adolesc Adult Liter, 59(3), 319-327. Retrieved February 23, 2016. 

The Long Road

The Long Road

Long late nights.

Desk lamp lit until well past midnight

or up long before the sun

to study, to write and prepare.

Classes three or four times a week filling days

filling nights.

Missing parent/teacher conferences, bingo nights and

occasionally performances and concerts.

Sorry kiddo – I have class/an exam/work.

Working during the in-betweens

scrapping by, biding time, watching each penny and dime.

Designing lessons, building units

watching the lightbulbs come on in the students.

This year – they feel like your students

your kids making you laugh, frustrating and yet you can’t imagine

being anywhere else.

May comes into focus, slowly page by page in your planner

marked in a myriad of colors for teaching, work, school, your family.

Slowly marking off days – the run towards May becoming longer

than the run to May.

Counting days.

Final tests for a license, final classes for a degree, final lessons for the school year

all waiting on the horizon – so close now

Interviews to anticipate, resumes to print, interview answer to prepare

Giddy and excited, worried and stressed – you live a duality

day by day, hour by hour, waiting – so soon now

so soon

a contract to sign, a classroom to decorate, a class of your own.

A teacher. 

Bell Marked Days

Ringing out through the halls

The syncopated flurry of footfalls

                                Every day the same

                                Every hour measured

Bell rings everyone moves

Up from desk and out to hall

Regimented footfalls from one room to the next

Bell marked days

Nine months of the year

                                Year in and year out

                                Thirteen years in all

Students graduate

They leave the halls

To lead a life with no bells at all

                                No day the same

                                No hour measured

Will they succeed or will they fall

When they live a life with no bells at all?                              

                I had this revelation of sorts one day when the bells weren’t working properly at my school.  Students were confused and seemed to become a bit frayed around the edges trying to navigate a day without their expected reminder of when class was out and when they needed to be to the next classroom.  Even on activity schedule days, I notice the students are out of sorts, and teachers and administrators spend a lot of time preparing them for that change in the days leading up to the event.  So I started thinking – how does this effect these students long term; especially the ones with a lack of support at home.  I understand why we need the bells and structured hours, but I wonder if some of these kids aren’t left at odd ends when they graduate and are suddenly living a life without all the built in fail-safes, regimentation and support. Think about how many times you greet students throughout the halls each day – each time you acknowledge them you are offering them support.  Each hour they know exactly where they need to be and often exactly which seat they are to sit in.  We offer - in most cases - clear instructions for each task.  So I wonder...Are we leaving these kids without a safety net?  Are we building in expectations they can’t hope to find after they leave school?   It is something that has been chewing in the back of my head for the past few weeks.

Wrangling Reluctant Writers

               

               My 8^th grade students are in the midst of writing their first five paragraph essay of the school year.  In continuing with the theme with these students this year, writing is like pulling teeth from a chicken or herding cats – in other words – HARD.  I realize that with middle school aged students the push back on writing is not unheard of or even uncommon, but this group of young people is especially reticent and chatty (in other words largely unfocused). 

                This is when I am thankful for my methods class, time to talk with my Mentor Teacher (MT), and the bevy of texts and journals at my disposal to fine tune how I can better approach this negative attitude about writing as an exercise and try to combat it in my own teaching – both next semester and in my future classroom.  I sort of relish this time as a pre-service student teacher to take a bit of a backseat and learn from my MT as we struggle with this class and their attitude toward writing.  It really forces me to consider what I might try to do to have a different outcome in my own classroom as well as watching my MT differentiate and change instruction as needed to try and coax these students to be more engaged in the writing process.

                One thing I think is truly missing for my students is the exercise of writing.  By that I mean seeing writing as a sort of muscle that you need to work out and build-up. Something that requires daily attention to keep it sharp and always available. For these students they are only writing a couple days a week and never really for themselves – other than text messages and Twitter - and I wonder how much different things could be if writing were a daily exercise.

                Randy Bomer is probably one of my favorite authors on the subject of adolescents and writing and he firmly espouses the belief that “it’s not enough just to write in response to other authors’ texts” (Bomer 167).  He is a staunch and continued believer in students having writer’s notebooks where they can get their own thoughts on paper and hone and develop them.  Through this they learn to value their inner voice and explore their own thought processes.  I wonder how differently my current 8^th graders would feel about writing an essay had they been writing each day of the school year in a writing notebook?  Perhaps a better way to start their morning (this is a first hour class) is to give them those 10 minutes of bellwork  as distraction free to write for themselves and get comfortable with the physical and mental act of writing so it doesn’t seem to daunting. 

                Another idea that really sticks out in my mind as a way to motivate students through the hardest part of writing is one that Kelly Gallagher discusses  frequently- the idea that “when it comes to writing, the best way to know how is by seeing the writing process consistently modeled by the best writer in the classroom – the teacher” (Gallagher 48).  

                Watching the teacher write – this makes so much sense to me. If students can watch someone else writing and see for themselves that writing, even for the supposed “expert” in the room,  is not an easy task.  We have fits and starts, we constantly revise and edit, tweak a word here or there and move around sentences.  Writing – for us mortals – is a messy process whether you are the students or the teacher. I do think Gallagher perhaps overstates our position as the “best” writer in the classroom and I prefer to think of myself as having more experience at writing than my students.  I truly believe there are great results to be had if we can share our writing process live with our students.  Yes, mess and all.

               I actually did this on a small scale with my students for a unit I taught when we were discussing fear.  As soon as I got up the whiteboard to start brainstorming and creating my sentence to define fear I had students offering encouragement, more adjectives, and eventually spurring me to finish so they could see my final sentence.  Seeing me up there working through the process, adding words, relating ideas and not dashing off a sentence immediately seemed to encourage their own creative process.  Yes, it was only one sentence per student, but it was authentic work that bore the hallmark of the individuals in that class (for the most part – there were of course a few who did not want to go through the process).  I want more of that effort and that ability to reinforce each other’s writing in my own classroom.

                A third idea that I find compelling and in know that my daughter's 8th grade teacher urged her students to do it as well as knowing a fellow teacher who did it with great success with her 7th graders  last year - is participating in Nanowrimo for Young Writers (http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/how-does-nanowrimo-work-for-young-writers). Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month and it takes place each November. They offer a free (my favorite price) workbook for elementary, middle and high school students that includes all the materials they need to work toward a specific word goal for the month and to develop and work on a novel. The program offers tools that encourage students to consider character and plot development and walks them through the process to help them grow the tool set they need to write daily for the month of November. 

           Used in tandem with writer's notebooks and even with me modeling my own work for my students I think this would make for a powerful community building exercise. We could workshop together as a class on ideas or helping peers get un-stuck if they have writer's block.  We could share passages of our own work that we particularly enjoyed writing or write for a few quiet companionable minutes together - teacher and students - as a community of writers.  What a gift to be able to give them!

                As always, I’m looking at where I am and what my students are doing and trying to find ways that I could broaden or enrich their experience when I am the lead teacher.  I enjoy seeing how my MT tackles these tough issues and also enjoy finding experts like Bomer and Gallagher who oftentimes align with what I would like to see my students doing.  Of course, there are the details of how to implement writers’s notebooks and modeling my own writing, but I have high hopes that through next semester and before I have my own classroom I will continue to explore, plan and solidify my ideas for my first year of teaching and take that experience and continue exploring, planning and solidifying each subsequent year for the benefit of my students.

Works Cited

Bomer, Randy. Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995. Print.

Bomer, Randy. Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2011. Print.

Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Portland, Me: Stenhouse, 2006. Print. 

Reflecting on KATE 2015 - Exponential benefits!

                The KATE conference was unlike anything I could have anticipated. There was the inherent awkwardness of feeling like the new kid on the block as a pre-service student teacher among those who are far more experienced in the classroom.  Then there was the sheer audacity of leading a break-out session at this point in my career that seemed almost laughable to me  and terrifying as the minutes ticked ever closer to the conference. 

                Thankfully, the conference was nothing like I imagined. There was no judgement - there was acceptance, support and a tremendous sharing of ideas and comradery.  There was conversation, nodding of heads and this great give and take as we all participated as educators with a shared passion for our job and our students.  During my own session, I heard several wonderful ideas from other teachers who had incorporated art into their curriculum with great success (filed those away for future use of course). 

                My favorite session taught by two first year teachers who I had the good fortune to meet during their final year at WSU who talked to us about using music in the ELA classroom – such great energy during that session and so many wonderful ideas from the presenters and the other teachers present that the hour flew by and I honestly wished we had had more time to collaborate as a group.

                One thing that would be so fantastic, would be if KATE would set-up a wiki where all the presenters could post their notes and/or PowerPoints after the conference so that all of us could benefit from all the great information presented especially if we had a hard time choosing between sessions.  I feel like there was so much I gained, but also this sense of missing out on a lot too – it says a lot when you sit down with a conference guide and have such a hard time deciding what to go see because they all sound so good!

                Getting the chance to hear Jacqueline Woodson was definitely a highlight. She is so down to earth and her reading voice is almost heart breaking it is so lovely.  I appreciated the chance to have a couple seconds of conversation with her during the book signing and I know I will find a way to incorporate her writing into my curriculum at some point.

                There are few words for getting the chance to work with Laura Packer on storytelling.  I will admit that I almost lamented my decision to tell a story on Friday until my final session with Laura.  She is truly gifted in her art and I will be forever grateful that I took the leap and told a story.  Honestly, it was harder than my session presentation, but it was incredibly empowering to spend those 5 minutes addressing the group on Friday.  I plan to find a way to bring storytelling into my classroom, if nothing else to encourage a sense of safe community for my students – where they can share with one another and feel confident enough to do so. 

                Beyond the amazing ideas and the chance to meet and talk to dynamic teachers who inspire with their love for their craft and their willingness to embrace and encourage those of us at the start of our journey, I also had this tremendous sense of comradery among my WSU peers.  Here we are in our final year together – running toward the light at the end of our time at WSU and our goal to be teachers – and we have so much to offer one another as burgeoning professionals, classmates, peers and friends.  Being able to spend time outside of the classroom, away from our placements and sharing in the experience at KATE was a great opportunity to explore similar interests, share ideas and move beyond our teacher/student lives to really take time to talk and listen to each other.   

                I am incredibly thankful for my experience at KATE and the opportunities I took to push beyond my comfort zone in so many ways both professional and personal.  I cannot wait to see what next year’s KATE might bring!

The Will-Nots (Genre reflection #1)

         For our first genre reflection I could not get the struggle I'm having in working with students who will not do the work.  They can do the work, they simply refuse to do it.  I have dubbed them the "will-nots" and they are definitely the most trying part of some of my days as a student teacher.  Especially since I see some of them in two classes with the same behavior.  8th grade is too young to be so checked out and disinterested in school in my opinion.  

        As part of allowing myself a release, I wrote a short poem about these "will-nots" as a way to give my struggle a voice.  I keep trying and hoping to have some small success with these students - thank goodness there are still many months of the school year left.  Perhaps I will be able to write a counter to this poem later this year about a small success with one of my "will-not" students. 




  The Will-Nots

In class they sit at tables or at desks
some apt and ready 
some wanting to rest.

There’s the eager to learn,
Who refuse to fail
they work and they strive
good grades will prevail.

Then come the ones who try - 
always doing their best
working through their frustration
refusing to rest.

There is one group left  - the most baffling of all - 
the puzzling will-nots
who seem eager to fall.

They are the ones who can-do 
but simply won’t 
not even to avoid a phone call to home.

They care not, they will not
an F is just fine
this soon to be teacher worries about their decline.

What can I do say or ask
helping the will-nots is no easy task.

I wish that these will-nots could fast forward time 
To see the ripples of their 8th grade decline
Next year is high school - the hardest one yet
where F is a failure with no safety net.

I only hope that one day this year yet, 
My message is one the will-nots will get.