The Independent Reading Files - Student Choice

This year, I am teaching seventh grade reading intervention classes. Not every student in my class is a developing reader (a.k.a., struggling). Some are developing test takers. Others are developing stay-awakers. Some knew they would be promoted regardless of the test outcome. Others experienced morning events that affected their performance. Regardless of the situation, we have a year to spend together, and my goal is to help these students find enjoyment in reading via independent reading.

Cullinan (2000) writes that independent reading comes in a variety of categories: voluntary, pleasure, leisure, recreational, spare time, and outside of school, for example. Within the four walls of my classroom, however, I cannot say that independent reading falls into any of these categories. These descriptors indicate a willingness and desire to read. In my classroom, silent reading time is mandated by me, thereby contradicting the very nature of voluntary reading. My hope, however, is that by participating in daily independent reading, my students will begin to want to read as a means of pleasure and leisure.

Independent reading also includes personal choice, writes Cullinan, and I am making that available to my students. Every day when my students come in to class, they are welcomed by hundreds of books.  I am fortunate to have received two grants in the past that allowed me to build a classroom library, and already this school year (we are three weeks in), I received a Scholastic library that another teacher decided she did not want. Her trash is my treasure because that library helps me provide my students with more reading options. 

It is my job to get the books into their hands by providing them with as much choice as possible. According to Skeeters et al. (2016), student choice empowers and values, leads to deep and meaningful conversations, deepens relationships, and leads to independence. I keep trade books that I have checked out from the public library in my classroom, refreshing them as they hit their due dates. I have novels of every genre. And I have informational texts and drawing books and brain teasers and graphic novels and comic books.

To date we completed fourteen days of daily independent reading, and although not all of the kids are completely on board yet, each day gets a little better. They are looking at and reading books. They are asking to keep reading once my timer goes off. They are starting to ask to borrow novels. They are starting to discover what they do and do not like about the books they are reading. This past week, a student called me over and said, "Miss, I don't find a lot of books I like, but I like this one" (in reference to Ghost by Jason Reynolds).

In addition, my English language arts teammates are starting to catch the bug. One seventh grade and one eighth grade teacher have now added a silent reading day to their weekly lessons. It may only be one day, but that provides more time that students may not read otherwise. And since my students are also in those classes, their reading time is expanding even more. The rest is yet to come.

References 

Cullinan, B. (2000). Independent reading and school achievement. School Library Media Research,3, 1-24. Retrieved September 1, 2018, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol3/SLMR_IndependentReading_V3.pdf

Skeeters, K., Campbell, B., Dubitsky, A., Faron, E., Geiselmann, K., George, D., . . . Wagner, E. (2016, February). The top five reasons we love giving students choice in reading. English Leadership Quarterly, 6-7. Retrieved September 1, 2018, from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/ELQ/0383-feb2016/ELQ0383Top.pdf

The Official List of #ThingsMyStudentsSay

After conferring with Benjamin Lewis via Twitter, I have decided to keep a running list of all the gloriously goofy things my eighth graders. As much as I pretend some of it annoys me, I live to catch them saying completely offbeat things. 

• I really wanted to go the Justin Beiber concert last night, but I couldn't. I was about to have a mid-life crisis. (4/11/16)
• The Holocaust was in Star Wars. (4/11/16)
• It wasn't me. It was accidentally my computer. (4/8/16)
• What does it mean when it says purpose? (It actually says porpoise.)
• My leg fell asleep, and now that thing on my butt is missing. 
• Miss, did you know back in the day, like 20 years ago...
• Miss, when you were younger did people throw paper airplanes in class to send notes to one another?
• Best student response to "How will you be successful on the STAAR test next week?": Highlight harder.
• "Are you sure it's mine?" - while looking at his document, on my computer, under his name, in our online classroom
• China IS in Chinese.
• Miss, we found a pack of gum in the recycling bin! And we ate it! YUH!
• Alaska is a continent.
• S: I like your haircut, Miss. You look nicer. Me: (evil glare) S: No, no, no! That's not what I meant!
• London IS in Paris, Miss.
• Why don't they celebrate Thanksgiving in England?
• My boys are discussing their future children: "We gonna put them in box or in the attic. They gonna learn."
• S: Do old people get bruises out of nowhere? Me:...Why are you asking me?
• From a writing assignment: I was like Curious George but less curious.
• When I flip the paper over, which side is the top?
• Miss, who is the school's internet provider? It just shut down on me and then restarted.

Plausibly Preposterous: Mixing Vocabulary and Grammar (Part II)

In Part I, I discussed my writing lesson using the vocabulary words plausible and preposterous, with the addition of the word there, using a strategy from Gretchen Bernabei. I now pick up with a revising strategy from Bernabei called Paragraph Overhaul. 

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My students have done a great deal of writing this year, but we have not moved on to editing and revising until now. While attending the TexTESOL conference in San Marcos this month, Gretchen Bernabei discussed a technique she calls Paragraph Overhaul, and I brought this back to my classroom to use with my students. 

I had my students the steps in their composition books. We worked on each step as we went through the process. I modeled. They worked with me. I also had conversations with toys, but that's a bit farther along in the reflection. 

Paragraph Overhaul

1. Count how many sentences you wrote (this means a beginning capital letter to an end punctuation mark). Write this number at the top of your paragraph. 

This step made many of my students aware that they are not using end punctuation anywhere in their writing. I have a dyslexic student who can write clear thoughts, but he was surprised to discover that he had written one gigantic run-on sentence. As we continued through the writing workshop, I had to help break his writing into chunks for him to work with. I saw similar issues with some of my ESL students. 

2. On a new page, write your sentences in list form. 

Although I wrote my own paragraph for my students, I had not made enough mistakes to effectively model the paragraph overhaul process. I used a student's writing from different class periods throughout the day. 

Student Example

3. Put your sentences through the WRINGER.

This was another opportunity to introduce a vocabulary word. Although a few students thought this word was "that thing your phone does," most were able to define it when I made physical gestures and describes what I would do to a wet towel. My kids knew this word, but they had not seen it in writing to know that it was spelled differently than "that thing your phone does."

One thing I am not afraid to do in my classroom is embarrass myself. It is not easy to teach grammar. Grammar tends to be boring and dry. Over the past 11 1/2 years, I have embraced my nerdiness and let it shine in my classroom, and it seems to work. Bernabei shared her way of teaching this process, but I had to put my own spin on it. 

3a. Pssst! Test: Does it make a statement?

I don't even know how to explain this and have it make sense, so I am going to share a page from Bernabei's book:

Now, saying Pssst! in a room full of eighth graders sounds like another word that I do not like them using in my classroom. So, of course, I ran with it and made lots of corny jokes to sucker them into this part of the lesson. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do!  

I also added my own spin to this. I really wanted my students to understand that this "What?" voice is meant to annoy them and get them thinking. So I brought a prop:

Who is more annoying than Donkey?

As I modeled the Pssst! Test, I was having conversations with Donkey. Yes, my students told me that I am weird and that I have lost cool points (but earned crazy points), but within a few minutes, they were following my lead. 

Me: Pssst! Donkey!
(wait a moment)
Me (looking at class): Donkey said, "What?"
(read sentence, then listen again)
Me: Donkey says that is not a sentence, and he is not being nice about it.

This part was a struggle for them when they did it on their own. I had them drawing faces on their fingers and Pssst!ing their classmates to help, but because their everyday speech is grammatically flawed, they were not picking up on some of their fragments and run-ons. Most of my students did eventually pick up on their mistakes and make corrections.

3b. Verb Check

Although this step is meant for sentence fragments, I had my students to verb checks on every sentence they wrote. Yes, I teach eighth graders who are clueless about verbs. So I took advantage of the opportunity. I was also able to use this method with a student from another English class who was stuck on a subject and predicate assignment. It's so simple, I wish I had thought of it. 

To prove you have a verb, find the word in the sentence that you think is a verb, and plug it into each of the following blanks:

I __________. You __________. He __________. 

If your word makes sense in any of those, you have found your verb. We did discover that some adverbs also made sense, but if the students had adverbs, they usually had verbs. 

3c. How many? If there is more than one sentence, how are they joined?

To join sentences legally, use one of the following:

. (period); (semicolon), conjunction 

This WRINGER sample is from an ELL. She struggles with
using correct verb tenses. We focused heavily on this,
and she made significant progress.

I modeled every step of this. I had kids making their own corrections as we modeled. I had some who took three days to figure it out ("I don't get it. What's wrong with 'take me a bath'?"). Regardless of how much (or little) they ended up understanding, there were huge improvements in their writing. 

The whole lesson was more fun than I expected, and I enjoyed every bit of frustration my students endured. I told them that frustration means they are thinking, and we need to push through that frustration instead of giving up. For a first attempt on my part, I think this went quite well.

The good stuff

The past couple of months have been rough, and I have not had much to say about lessons because it feels like all we are doing is testing, testing, and testing - state testing, district testing, state retesting, high school testing, district testing, final exam testing. It has been nonstop and will continue to be for the next two weeks of school. Fortunately, I have had some awesome reminders of why I do this.

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Every year, the top 2% of graduating seniors get invited to a district luncheon to celebrate their achievements. As part of this honor, they invite an important teacher from their educational careers. In 2009, I received this recognition from one of my first year students, and I was blown away that a kid from my seventh grade class would think enough of me for this. One of my favorite memories of this student was chasing her down the hallway the day I caught her with a note. She was so well-behaved that I was quite shocked. I never did get that note, but I have watched this silly girl turn into a married woman and college graduate. 

Well, I have been chosen again by a wonderful young lady. I have had the pleasure of watching her grow up over the past few years because her younger brother was at the junior high after her. I visited the high school a couple of weeks ago and ran into her on my way out. I will see her tomorrow for our photo and then again June 2. I am anxious to ask her why she chose me over all the other teachers she has had (sometimes I find it crazy that they still think highly of me after they have gone through high school). 

______________________________

Today I had not one, but two visits, from former students. As I was taking my class to lunch this afternoon, I saw a young woman walking toward me. At first I thought she might be a sub or someone's sister. Then the light bulb went off, and I could not believe I was looking at D. 

D. was in my class year's ago. She was a pain in the butt, scrawny tomboy with big glasses. If I recall correctly, we had a few parent conferences in the few months she was with me before Mom packed D. and her brother off and headed back to their home state of Michigan. 

That first student who picked me for the recognition award is also the one who introduced me to Facebook, and to this day, I have a student page because of her. D. found me a few years ago, and I have watched my former tomboy blossom in to an amazingly gorgeous young woman. So imagine my surprise when I found her standing in front of me when I thought she was hundreds of miles away. 

D. told me that she had come back and was getting ready to enroll at the community college before heading to the University of Texas at Arlington to major in social work. I am an alumni of both the school and the program, so this completely blew me away. She told me how much I meant to her and how she wanted to give back, then she broke into tears, bringing me pretty close (I am getting far too emotional in my old age). 

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During my seventh period Pre-AP class, the one that drives me absolutely bonkers, a colleague showed up at my door - with her younger sister. D. (not the same name, but another D.) was one of my second year students, and boy, did she make an impact. Despite keeping in touch with her, we have been crossing paths for a long time, until today. 

D. was from my favorite Pre-AP class ever. I cannot tell you how much fun those kids were. There were some big issues at school that year, and we often had to shut down and just vent. When D. would get going, she would make me roll. 

D. had scoliosis. Our science teacher, a woman struggling with cancer, worked her butt off to get D. treatment at Scottish Rite. We watched D. go from playing basketball in a brace (and she was good) to being able to completely function without it - and show up to my classroom in five inch heels today. That girl has always had an awesome sense of fashion. My colleague died shortly after, but even this agnostic believes she is somewhere looking down at D. with exceptional pride. 

D. also attended my Alma Mater (she graduated two weeks ago). She was such an exceptional student on campus that she is featured in a campus tour preview video. When we took a field trip to the campus last year, I got all giddy when I saw her on screen. Now she is preparing to head to Ohio for graduate school. 

______________________________

When I started teaching, I never considered that students would want to come back and see me or keep in touch with me. It just never crossed my mind as something that happened. After eleven years, I am still shocked when they remember me. They have taught me more than I have ever taught them through the lasting relationships they have maintained with me. 

They are my reason. 

Lockdown

Prior to any drill in our building, we receive a group email letting us know what type and when so that we may prepare our students and ourselves. We have had a few real situations in the past, and in those times, we usually know what is going on. Our Friday lockdown, however, was quite unexpected.

"Teachers and students," came the announcement from one of our Vice-Principals, "please move into lockdown position. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."

I have worked with this VP for years, and I have never heard such urgency in his voice. I started pulling desks aside and rushed my students into the safe zone of the classroom. I was feeling quite a bit of anxiety and felt like the kids were moving in slow motion. 

As they finished getting situated, I locked the door and sat on my feet by the door, ready to pounce at any moment. I was concerned about freaking out in front of my students from not knowing what was going on. I wanted to keep them calm, but I was truly nervous. 

Within minutes, we heard two sets of heavy feet sprinting down the hallway, yelling with voices that were unfamiliar to me. Then my door handle was shaken aggressively, and I honestly thought I was going to pee my pants for a second. My head was filled with all sorts of ideas about what was going on (the joy of being an English teacher who reads too much, I suppose), and I did not like any of the simulations running through my mind. 

I have, half-jokingly, always told my students that in a real-life situation, I would leave them on their own and take care of myself. Fire? See ya. I will be that cloud of at the other end of the hall. Tornado? I am burying myself underneath all of them. Intruder? I'm grabbing the first kid I see. 

The moment that door handle jiggled was a bit eye-opening. I realized right then that I would do anything to protect my students. I was fully prepared to take a bullet for them if necessary. And that scares me. But so many of my kids have no one else who would do that for them. I feel this innate drive to take care of all of them, even though it is an impossible feat. 

Fortunately, the situation was actually occurring in the neighborhood next to the school, and we were in lockdown as a safety precaution. At no point in time were we actually in danger. I am hoping that any future situations are also outside of the building because I care about these kids too darn much. 

Flowers for Algernon: Part 2 - Characterizing with acrostics

We started "Flowers for Algernon" last Friday. We went through the first two progress reports slowly, discussing direct and indirect characterization. It wasn't a tough lesson, and the kids grasped the ideas quickly. I did note that we still need more work with supporting our ideas with text evidence, but that will be addressed shortly through dialectical journaling. 

I am a very hands-on reading teacher, and I am nowhere near being ready to turn my students loose with this story. BUT, I have the awesome pleasure of getting to hear Jeff Anderson speak tomorrow afternoon, and an honor like that takes precedent over the lesson. So I have put together the kind of lesson of which I am not a fan, reminding myself that one day of lower-than-standard lessons is not going to hurt anyone in the long run. 

My students are going to read the next three entries on their own. I struggle with independent reading in the classroom. Student reading levels range from third grade to collegiate, and we usually do guided reading to manage pacing. They all need to know how to read on their own, however, and they need to build their reading stamina. Maybe this is not such a bad idea after all. 

Once they finish reading, I am going to have them write a characterization acrostic using Charlie's name. Their assignment is to come up with phrases that describe what we have learned about Charlie through either direct or indirect characterization prior to the surgery. And here again, they may end up surprising me. I am going to keep my fingers crossed. 

Next up...irony. Now would be the perfect time for some other guest speakers. 

Writing Assignment: Describe a day in class from the teacher's point of view.

Sometimes, even I have to admit that things are meant to work out a certain way. The first week back from winter break is always rough, but last week was ridiculous. The kids were uncooperative. They were not following their entry routine. They were not listening. They were off-task. And I had to write two referrals, something I do not enjoy as much as I used to. I will admit that I threw a temper tantrum or five. 

After last week's writing assignment, I have been contemplating how to approach this week's. flipped through my writing books, but I was not finding what I wanted. I started clicking through links on Pinterest (suddenly my new best friend), and there it was. The greatest writing assignment ever! I believe I may have some great samples to share next week. 

Link

Reflections on the first writing assignment of the year

I hate when I get excited about an assignment, thinking I have done something positive for my students, when the reaction is quite the opposite. When we returned to school Tuesday, I discussed our weekly writing homework. With my lower classes, I went over the expectations in detail. With my higher classes, I was briefer, putting more responsibility on them. The writing is not due until tomorrow, but I am already declaring a disaster. 

Since this was their first online homework assignment, I gave them five days to complete the work, telling them they could come in to advisory, go to the library before school, go to any teacher during tutoring time, use their phones, or complete the work at home. The first night, I had three students complete the work, none of whom followed the instructions. I know that I am supposed to be teaching explicitly, but by mid-eighth grade, I do not feel like I should have to read every single instruction to the kids. Gradual release of responsibility. By January, I would say we are well past gradual. 

Wednesday, a student told me that she tried to get to the Pinterest links while on campus, but the page was blocked. Over the break, I spent time setting up resource pages on Pinterest for the kids to use as needed. Well, it turns out that Pinterest has an age restriction, and since many middle-schoolers are not yet 13, the page is blocked until the get to high school. 

Thursday in class, many students had some extra time. I offered to let them get the Chromebooks out and do the homework. Nope. "I'll do it at home," was the only response I heard. 

Yesterday, my phone was blowing up with student questions (I have a messenger for them to contact me for help). Am I supposed to be writing about a gerbil? I don't get what we are supposed to do. Am I supposed to put my answer in the comment box? What words do I use? Almost every response I sent back was read the directions. 

I logged onto Edmodo this morning to see how many assignments have been turned in. There are only a handful out of the 108 students I have. (I love when I give them time, and they wait until the last minute.) Some of the students did not follow the instructions. Some of the students turned in adequate work. And then I found a couple that made it worthwhile to be grading this early on a Sunday morning:

On to this week's writing assignment - with some adjustments. 

"Stolen Ideas" - Definitions and Photography

I have mentioned before that my school is part of a state grant, the Texas Literacy Initiative, and the focus this year is on vocabulary. I stumbled upon this in my Twitter feed today, and my brain has been twitching with ideas ever since. I said I would wait until Saturday before I started doing anything school related, but my brain does not agree with that decision after 6 /2 days of little educational stimulation. 

Today's Daily Create (@ds106dc) assignment: Using Dictionary.com's word of the day, take and share a photographic representation of the meaning. 

How easy and wonderful is that. Not only can I use this with a word of the day to expose my students to more vocabulary, I can also assign words from our readings for them to do this with. We are a Bring Your Own Technology school, and most of my students have some sort of camera. For those who do not, they can always draw something. They can also use photo editing apps to add some creativity. 

Of course, what is a great idea without some practice? 

Today's Dictionary.com word:  

As a former daytime soap opera addict (I am only a nighttime soap opera addict now), I know this meaning. The second definition, however, caught me off guard. I decided to go with that one because it is new to me and because I cooked a turkey Christmas Eve. 

So without further ado, here is my photographic representation of schmaltz:

Yum!

Now I need someone to teach me how to use Flickr because I have not logged into the site in years. 

Out of the mouths of not-quite-babes

I serve many roles on my campus, one of which is to head up our Sunshine Committee. The purpose of the group is to help make lives a little brighter. 

At the moment, I have been taking up a secret collection to buy our new-this-year principal a birthday/end-of-semester/we-are-glad-to-have-you present. My students have seen my colleagues randomly handing me cash in the cafeteria, hallways, and my classroom. 

A minute ago, another teacher stopped by to bring me a few last minute dollars for the collection. My students began asking why other teachers are always giving me money. I told them I would leave it to their active imaginations rather than to explain. 

On that note, I bring you the top two explanations as to why I am the recipient of dollar bills:

• Number 2 - Ms. Foti is a crack dealer, and the other teachers are making their purchases from me. Obviously, Ms. Foti does not smoke it herself, but some of the others might.
• Number 1: Ms. Foti forces her co-workers to give her their lunch money in order to avoid being beaten up. 

Seriously, Winter Break, can you get here already?

Winter Break Haikus

Now that I am actually learning how to use Twitter effectively, I have seen a lot of postings about haikus. My students need to write an original poem at some point this year, and since the haiku is pretty simple, I have decided to use it as my first lesson back from winter break (yeah, I'm already planning ahead; classic overachiever syndrome). 

I am using a haiku idea from Writingfix.com. My students will be creating haiku comics to reflect upon their winter break. Although the haiku can be a bit challenging, it is a simple enough lesson to get their brains (and mine) warmed up after 17 1/2 days off from school. I will also save these to hang up for our parent open house sometime in the spring. 

Now...how many days left until summer vacation?

Nightmares from Middle School

Eighth grade. Mrs. Ames' history class. J.S., one of the cutest boys in my orbit, sat in the back of the classroom. I was in the front. 

One day, J.S. was not feeling so well. Fortunately, his seat was next to Mrs. Ames' desk and a garbage can. I am sure you can see where this is going without my having to spell it out for you. 

For eleven years, I have shared this story with my students. I do not know how the topic always comes up (pun intended), but it does. I have had lengthy discussions about what to do should one feel the need to blow chunks: RUN OUT OF THE CLASSROOM IMMEDIATELY. 

After ten and a half years, the inevitable happened. A student came to me, asking if she could go to the nurse. I never ask questions about needing the nurse. I pointed the student in the direction of the clinic passes and asked her to fill it out. On her way to grab a pencil, she mistook my classroom carpet for the porcelain god. 

As the rest of the class groaned and giggled (and watched), I grabbed the phone, unsure of who to call. I resorted to screaming at my assistant principal that I had an emergency situation. I evacuated my class to the hallway to study for their final exam while we waited for the custodial staff to address the messy situation. 

The student, much to my dismay, returned to class, telling us all that she felt fine. The issue was two bags of Hot Cheetos - a no-longer favorite delight o' mine. 

Unfortunately, the Eau de Yak is still lingering in my room today. I have sprayed enough Febreeze to drown myself in, and I am waiting for my honeysuckle candle to melt and envelop my senses. 

Fun times. What more can I say. 

A Special Moment

I had a special moment with some students from my sixth period class today. I do not mean Church Lady "special" but a truly special moment. We talked about books. 

One student asked me what my favorite book is. The first one to pop in my mind was Emma Donoghue's Room, one that I share with every adult who asks me about books. It is a remarkable, haunting story, and I was explaining to a group of kids that I list it among my favorites because I have never forgotten the story. 

This opened up the flood gates. They were telling me about books they liked, books they didn't like, books they planned on reading, books that are better than the movies. Two even mentioned wanting to read The Lord of the Rings series. They were all talking over one another, and sure, my head was spinning, but I was silently basking in the glory surrounding me. 

They taught me something today. When I mention reading, they groan. When I start talking about specific books and what they are about, the kids light up. I told them about The Maze Runner, The Burn Journals, The Bite of the Mango, and The Fault in Our Stars this afternoon, and they were ready to run out and find them all. 

My passion, my addiction, my need for reading surpasses that of most people. When I can ignite even a flicker of a spark in my students about books, I am on cloud nine. 

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On a side but related note, I keep hearing my Pre-AP students talking to my academic students about reading Milkweed. I have academic students pleading with me to let them read it.

 I also have a Pre-AP student who finished the book last night. She said she couldn't put it down. 

Milkweed, Chapters 1 - 4

My Pre-AP class is reading (or going to be) Milkweed to wrap up the first semester. I handed out the books Thursday and asked them to read chapters 1-4 by Monday. During an informal survey Friday, I learned that about a third of my students had already started reading the book, and many were well past chapter 4. All responded that they were finding the book very interesting. Since I have never taught this book (nor have I finished reading it), I am excited by their initial feedback. 

The biggest problem I have with novels is wanting to teach too much and not being able to finish. I think I have already  made too much work for the first few chapters, but better earlier than later. I would rather enjoy the end of the novel rather than cram too much in at the end. 

Our big assignment for the entire novel is going to be to create a blog for the main character Stopthief. Through this, I can reinforce a number of skills, including point of view and characterization. I have never done this before, but since I have started blogging, I figure I can handle it. I'm excited to see what happens with this. 

For their work, we are going to be using Kidblog. I have heard wonderful things about it and have been playing with it. The site is easy to use and understand, and all work is private. Once I see how things go with Pre-AP, I will decide whether or not to add my other classes to the site. 

For their first blog assignment, I modified a lesson I found on Read Write Think:

To make sure they have done the reading this weekend, I have a quick "higher level" assignment for them to complete on Edmodo. I believe this assignment will be a bit more challenging than a quick T/F or multiple choice did-you-read pop quiz. It should also show if they actually read. 

We will then return to chapter 1 to discuss the Memory Moment signpost from Notice and Note. This will be the third signpost added to our class discussions. I debated about whether or not to include this piece since the students are reading ahead, but I still think that it is important to cover. If the kids already know too much, they can discuss why the moment turns out to be important rather than predicting. 

I have then created an interactive lesson for chapters 1-4 using Nearpod. I made the basic presentation then added slides for my students to ask questions about the text. As we go through the questions they write, I am going to have them write down three that they want to discuss with their groups. They will take notes over this in their Google documents. This group discussion will be used to write their learning logs next week. 

After all this, I need to figure out how many days I actually have left to finish this novel before finals! 

Questions? Feedback? All is welcomed. 

Darn you, learning logs!

Next week, we go school wide with the weekly learning logs. Since I made the assignment, I decided to do a trial run today. Of course, I expected it to be an easy day. I was trying not to talk much due to a sore throat, but the best made plans...

I discussed the learning log with the students. I explained how this is going to be used throughout the school, that they will see it in all classes, that I will make them the experts, blah, blah, blah. I discussed how they do not have to address the four questions directly but are to use them as a guide for their response, as the response will depend on what they have learned in a class for the week. I waxed eloquent on the need to write in specific detail and not just make a list, using complete sentences, capitalization, and punctuation. 

I feel like all I did all day was waste my time and breath repeating myself. Days like this make me wonder if I am really doing any proficient teaching at all. 

Is this a complete sentence? Did this happen in the story?
I do not remember blood.

No, dear. This is not specfic. Nor did you know all of this.
You told me so in class. And you do not read outside of class.

Oh, thank goodness. We are at least headed in the correct direction.

Thank you. Someone listened in class and read the directions.

All right, all right. Maybe I do not have to quit after all.

So what have I learned from this?

• My students need explicit teaching on how to write about what they have been taught during the week. 
• My students need a review of what they have learned during the week before writing about what they have learned during the week. 
• The non-English teachers are about to feel some English teacher pain when it comes to reading student writing. Wahahahahahahahahaha!

My middle school funny of the day

In the middle of an independent work lesson, one of my male students says, "Ms. Foti, do you have a period?"

A female student sitting nearby burst out laughing. 

At the same time, my phone rang. My class and I were laughing so hard that my colleague on the other end starting laughing. 

Once I got off the phone, I asked the male student how old he thinks I am. I mean, forty might be "old," but it ain't OLD. 

So I asked why he was asking. With tomato-red face, he responded, "That's not what I meant! Do you have a class next period?"

Oh, the joys of middle school. TGIF.

Playing with Nearpod

I am a lifelong learner. I will never know everything I would like to know, but every opportunity I have to learn something, I jump at it. 

Last night, I had the opportunity to work with our district Texas Literacy Initiative technology representatives. They came to campus and conducted a workshop on educational apps to use in the classroom. My favorite of the night was Nearpod, especially since I make PowerPoint presentations for everything. 

With Nearpod, I can upload my presentations, then edit them to include polls, short answer responses, draw responses, quizzes, and videos. My presentations now go from discussion to complete interaction. Not only can you have the students respond, you can show their responses anonymously to discuss (or laugh at, as we did with the drawings today). The program will also save a report of all the responses to whatever you have within the presentation. 

Today was a district testing day for us, so I only had two afternoon classes. I decided to throw together a quick test run. I did tell the kids we were playing today, so you'll see some of the non-seriousness. 

This was a hit from the very beginning. There was so much smiling going on in my classroom, and that doesn't usually happen after three hours of testing. They were 100% engaged. The only complaint I heard was, "I don't wanna put this on my phone. It takes up memory!" Teenagers. 


I have pasted each slide with some of the student responses:

SLIDE 1

SLIDE 2

SLIDE 2 RESPONSES

SLIDE 3

SLIDE 3 RESPONSES

SLIDE 4

SLIDE 4 RESPONSES

SLIDE 5

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 1

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 2

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 3

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 4
(NOT SURE WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THIS SINCE I AM BLOND)