How to Eat Lunch, for High School Teachers

First, make a healthy lunch at home. You can make it the night before, or the whole week's worth on Sunday, or a month at a time, or even randomly grab a container of leftovers from the fridge that morning. But, no matter what, make sure you bring your lunch. You have no hope of eating otherwise.

When the bell rings announcing that your hallway supervision time has ended, you can finally, perhaps, just maybe sit down for a minute with no students calling out your name. Make a break for it. Zip into your classroom and turn off the light. Or go to the department workroom to eat with other teachers. Or maybe even make your way to the teachers' lounge to see teachers from other parts of the building. (Just kidding. Who wants to sit with those whiners?)

If you need to warm your food, I hope you have a microwave in your room. If not, prepare to spend time waiting and chit-chatting. Wonder if maybe you should have risked running off for a fast-food lunch just for the alone time in the car.

Now, whatever you do, do not, I repeat, DO NOT talk to any students. If you talk to a student, it's over. Your lunch will grow cold, your stomach will rumble, and your hope of any tiny respite of lunchtime quiet is forever lost. Until tomorrow, anyway.

Some days, you may have asked a student to come sit in your room during lunch. Perhaps he needs extra help on an assignment. Perhaps she needs a little time to consider her classroom behavior. Perhaps you have made the ultimate error and invited an entire club to use your room for a meeting. Chatting, bubbling, negotiating, making decisions, these students froth with a thousand ideas and a pinch of “go-get-'em.” Have fun with that.

No, really. Have fun with that. Because your students are fun. Really! They're energetic and creative and clever. Maybe, just maybe, a quiet leisurely lunch is overrated. So enjoy your colleagues when you're waiting in line for the microwave. Enjoy those students who just have to tell you something. Right. Now. Enjoy that club meeting that excruciatingly illustrates exactly how your students are learning to govern themselves and become leaders. Enjoy it today, and tomorrow, and every day. And snuffle that lunch down discreetly.

But take some time for yourself for your after-school snack. If you can.

The Perils of Writing Assignments

A lot of my time lately has been taken up by grading student papers. As as part of a lesson I taught, I assigned (at my cooperating teacher's request) a narrative paper. Somehow, I found myself agreeing to grade the other classes' papers as well, in the interest of consistency in grading and to gain the experience. This experience has taught me several things about myself and about assigning and grading writing.

Piles o' papers!
The top piece is my assignment sheet with revisions for the future.

1. Set boundaries.

I have a habit of just saying, “Sure I can do that!” when asked to take on extra work. I like to gain new experiences. I like to be able to help out. And I seem to think I have an unlimited amount of free time in which to do these extra tasks. I do not. Saying no, or at least managing/scaling back the task, is perfectly reasonable sometimes.

2. Work on writing with students constantly.

Making a writing assignment in a vacuum without proper scaffolding is a waste. All we're measuring in grading an assignment like that is the skills the students came to the classroom with already and their ability to follow a rubric. If those are things we want to measure (say, in formative assessment) there are better ways to do it.

3. Make your assignments specific.

If you throw too much stuff or too many options in there (again, without having proper scaffolding) it just muddies the waters. The students get confused about what to to and the teacher gets confused about what to focus upon when grading. Keep it simple, targeted, specific.

4. Give the students some freedom.

This may seem like a contradiction to what I just wrote, but it's not. Giving the students freedom with aspects of what they write is certain to generate more engaged writers and more engaging writing. It's amazing some of the stuff these students write! I get chills when reading some of their stories.

5. Go with your gut.

It's OK, maybe even advisable, to consult with others on what to include or how to format assignments. But, don't take all of their suggestions as law. I included a few things on this assignment that I would not in the future. I knew I didn't want to include them in the first place, but I did it anyway because someone more experienced than I am suggested it and I thought it was worth a try.

6. Sometimes things are worth a try.

Not all of those suggestions I took paid off, but some did. You won't learn anything if you never try anything new.

In the future, I plan to workshop this kind of assignment with my students extensively. I think the work we did in class with my one lesson about it was a good starting point, but we need at least three more sessions of workshopping to really scaffold this particular assignment. Another benefit of more extensive workshopping is that I can grade more along the way and less on the final product. Their grades will reflect their work and the development of that work, not just the words on one piece of paper turned in at the end.

KATE Conference Wrap-up

Last Thursday and Friday I, along with my pre-student teaching classmates at WSU, attended the KATE (Kansas Association of Teachers of English) conference. For most of us, this was our first professional conference as (soon-to-be) teachers. I believe it was a beneficial experience for several reasons, but the top of my list was the opportunity to spend time with other English teachers talking about what we do, how we do it, and how we can do it better. "Better" is a subjective term, of course. I think for most of us, we want ways to engage students, teach more effectively, and maybe even have some fun. I think I can put a check mark next to all of those!

The two keynote speakers were both authors of young adult fiction, and they were both great in different ways. Brent Crawford, author of Carter Finally Gets It and its sequels, spoke from the point of view of a former "bad kid." He was a jock in high school, not a great student, and if the content of his books is any indication, he and his friends pretty much spent their time thinking about girls and goofing off. Yet, he credits his teachers with planting the seed that grew into his career as an author. He writes books that might appeal to kids like him. We as teachers can learn something about reaching out to every student from his stories. We never know what little spark may grow into a flame, now, tomorrow, or long in the future. The other keynote speaker, Rachel Hawkins, is a former English teacher. She said that the characters in her books (Hex High and sequels) are inspired by former students. Her time spent with teenagers informed her writing of teenage characters. She understands our struggles as teachers and spoke at length about her time as a teacher and the challenges she faced. Some of us may even see a little of ourselves in her.

The breakout sessions were very informative. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a session in every time slot. My favorites were the sessions that gave me concrete ideas of things I can use in my classroom. Grammar Strip Tease gave some fun and effective ideas for teaching grammar using fortune cookie sentences. The session on using comic books in the classroom gave me some great resources for where to get more information about comics and some recommendations on what comics to use for different purposes. Fiction to Non-Fiction was part presentation, part brainstorming session. I left with some wonderful suggestions on ways to select informative texts to pair with literature, as well as some great examples of real ways real teachers have done so in the past. I may even be using some of these ideas in the next few weeks at my pre-student teaching placement. Finally, the session on using children's books with high schoolers and community college students gave me not only some fun and genuine ideas, but actual copies of lesson plans to use and/or adapt for my own use. I love how this lesson uses the writing of children's books to assess grammar in a more interesting and genuine way.

On Friday, I was honored to be one of the students chosen to do a reading of my genre reflection. My work Discovery was my most recent post here on my blog. Being given the opportunity to share my work with other teachers and hear their reactions to it was an honor, a joy, and a wonderful way to close out the conference.

Discovery (Genre Reflection #1)

As I reflected on my teaching life in preparation to write something, anything, about it, my immediate reaction was to think of my students and what they are to me. I thought of the poetry I've been reading in preparation to teach it to my students. Intrigued by the idea of autobiographical poems, I set out to write one on the subject of my students and our student-teacher relationship. The resulting poem (included here) began as one thing and progressed into something completely different. I started out thinking about my students and how they quickly become more than just my students. They become my kids. I'm not just concerned about their progress in English class; I'm concerned about their lives, now and in the future. As I wrote, the poem steered itself into something more about them and less about me. It wasn't about what they are to me, but what they are to themselves. I discovered a focus I hadn't realized was there.

As we write, our original intention frequently falls away or goes to wait in the corner for another time or place. As we follow bunny trails of thought, we may discover something new, something that we didn't know was there, lurking under the surface of cognition.

In the process of writing, I surprised myself. My hope is that my students will also find these little Easter egg surprises hiding behind the tufts of grass of other thoughts while they write. Maybe the Easter egg will hold something wonderful and deep, worth further exploration, or maybe it will be little more than a fleeting colorful thought. In any case, it will reveal something that the writer didn't anticipate. What a joy, to discover something new within ourselves!

In these written excursions, I want my students to find themselves and their voices, to discover what they think and what they have to say about it. Then I want them to say it! I want them to have the skills to express it all so the rest of the world can come along and follow their bunny trails. Perhaps their readers will hop along some bunny trails of their own, the process of discovery continuing.

Discovery

by Lara Engle

My students,

Full of energy,

Want to have fun.

“Work? Not now.

We'll get it done.”

Curious

Quick

Busy

Emotional

Powerful

Inspired

Harness it.

Direct it.

Feel it.

Connect it.

They find a thread.

They pull it loose.

Unravel it,

Follow it,

Sew it into something new.

“Ms. Engle!

Come here!

I want to show you what I did.”

Unexpected

New

Unique

Is it good?

What do you think?

I hate this book! It's boring! It's too hard! Why do we have to read this?

Last time we talked about how to help students generate their own learning. We left off with a question about getting away from the expected in book selection. I deeply believe that a student who is interested in and engaged with the subject matter at hand will be motivated to learn. My primary function as a teacher is to make that learning happen. So, why wouldn't I want the students to take some control over what they read?

This is my copy from high school. Yes, I'm old, but this copy was old even then.

My cooperating teacher offered several (about three) alternate book selections for his students. Five of them chose to read 1984 by George Orwell instead of Animal Farm. By limiting the options, he has insured that the books chosen will fit in with the theme of inquiry the class as a whole is undertaking this semester, but has also respected the students' needs as learners. Student self-selection of reading matter fulfills several student needs.

First, they will be reading something they like. How motivated are you to read something you aren't interested in? Maybe you like biographies of sports figures and a friend tells you to read a romance novel. Are you likely to do so? If you agree against your wishes, how likely are you to really get into it and take something from it, if you finish it at all? High school students are no different than adults in this area. If you let them read something they like, they'll get more out of it.

Second, students of different levels of English reading competency can select something that won't completely overwhelm them. Have you ever tried to read something incredibly technical in a subject area you didn't have a lot of experience with, perhaps a medical text or a computer programming book? How did you cope with the gibberish on the page? Maybe you were incredibly interested in the subject, so you slogged through as best you could, looking up unfamiliar terms and taking it slow. Or maybe you decided to read something a little less technical on the same subject to build up your foundational knowledge. Or perhaps you decided to skip it and read something different for now. Any of these options seems valid to me. In a high school class, unless the student is incredibly determined and has a lot of time, the first choice may not be the best option, simply because the amount of time and effort required is not available in the midst of all his or her other classes. Selecting another text to build knowledge or to wait for the right time for the other book is a good choice, not a failure. We want students to be challenged, not defeated. Likewise, we don't want students sitting there bored because the book the class is reading is too basic. Your class is full of individuals with a variety of interests and competencies. Let their book selections have variety, too.

When my oldest daughter was 8 years old, one of her grandparents gave her a “Learn to Knit” kit for Christmas. When she was ready to try it out, she said, “Mom, help me! I don't know how to do this.” Well, I didn't know how to do it either, but we were certainly going to figure it out! We started with the instructions in the kit. They looked like complete gibberish to me. The diagrams weren't particularly helpful, either, being about the size of a quarter and poorly hand-drawn. I wasn't going to give up so easily, so I went to the craft store and bought a learn to knit book with clear pictures. I took it home and tried to decipher how this mysterious craft was done. Nope. Still no clue. Ever more determined, I bought another learn to knit book with a different style of presentation. By sitting on the floor with both books in front of me and needles and yarn in my hands, I finally figured it out, flipping from book to book and page to page. 

Like so.

By this time months had passed and my daughter no longer cared to learn how to knit, but I was hooked. (She did eventually learn.) A good teacher could have cut out so much of the angst by helping me find an appropriate text and guiding me through the steps. I was highly motivated to learn, so it happened, but it took a while to come around to the method that worked. Years later, after I myself had started teaching knitting classes, I went back and looked at those original instructions. Nope, they were still terrible. I can't believe that anyone ever successfully learned to knit from them.

So it is with our English language arts students. They need good instruction, they need guidance, and they need appropriate texts. We as teachers are there to help them find all of these.

You mean Animal Farm isn't a book for kids?

In our English I class, we're reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. This is one of those books that has come to be seen as a classic. It's the kind of book people expect high school students to read in English class. In fact, the copy I'm reading was used by my younger brother in one of his high school English classes. It comes complete with his notes, seen here. 

He has an equivalent amount on the next page and then not another mark in the whole remainder of the book. Now, I don't know if he took notes elsewhere or if this is the extent of his notes on Animal Farm, but I can tell you that what he has here aren't his own thoughts. These are the ideas his English teacher fed him before they even began to read. The next page lists the four main themes. Does this seem like the best way for students to learn? I will concede that the students do need some background and context in order to understand what they're reading. If they want to be able to infer what the author was trying to say, it helps to know where he was coming from. But if they want to really engage with the text and figure out what it means to them in their own lives, I think we as teachers need to allow the students a little more room for their own ideas.

The teacher I'm working with provides his students with study guides for the books they read. The study guide for Animal Farm poses 5-14 questions per chapter, mostly about character and plot. It also includes a list of literary terms like “foreshadowing” and “foil” and a plot diagram. I agree with the concept of giving students something to guide their reading, and for freshmen in high school, it may be appropriate to start with these basics. However, I'm wondering if we couldn't make sure they get these basics covered while doing something a little more exciting, a little more challenging, and a little more engaging. After all, don't we all learn better when we have to do the thinking? It's even better when we get to have some fun in the process.

One great idea I've found is to make the reading of the book almost like a scavenger hunt. If we're focusing on the idea of propaganda, the students can note every instance of propaganda they find. Their final project with the book can be to write their own propaganda or an advertising campaign using the concepts of propaganda. If we want to focus on character analysis, the students can keep lists of the characters and favorite quotes from or about each one, using their notes to write an essay after the finish reading. These ideas and more can be found at http://www.lessonplanet.com/article/language-arts/animal-farm-lesson-plans .

The teaching of classics doesn't have to be boring. We can inject the unexpected into our studies, even if the book list is exactly what we expected. Another issue for another time: how do we get away from teaching only the standard book list and break out into something new while still teaching the skills we want all students to learn? Oh, we're going to have a lot of fun!

Let's get the introductions out of the way.

Who would you expect your typical high school English language arts teacher to be? There's a good chance you would picture me. I'm a 35 year old woman with four children of my own, two of whom are in middle school and two in high school. I think high school kids are amazing and creative and energetic. I think their lives can be hard and that those lives may get even harder. They can be whiny and dramatic or stressed and withdrawn or thoughtful and kind, sometimes all at once. I think every single one of them is a huge ball of potential. Every one of those kids is our future. I believe my job is to help them learn how to think critically and shape their own lives into something wonderful, meaningful, and fulfilling.

At 35, I'm a little older than the typical college student. I earned my first degree, in English language and literature, when I was 22. The intervening years have been crammed full of life, including a variety of jobs, lots of kids, volunteer work, and fun. I hope to bring all of that experience into my new career.

I once had a personal blog in which I shared little vignettes from my life. I mostly wrote about my family and my hobbies. This professional blog will have a different focus, but one thing remains the same. I still believe every blog post can be improved by a picture.

This semester I am pre-student teaching in a local high school, working with an English I class. These pictures are the view from one of the second-floor stairway vestibules. Pretty, right?

The view from the classroom window looks like a Van Gogh painting: fields, a little bit of a roll to the land, patches of trees, and hay bales in the distance. I feel like the environment speaks to me. I hope the students find something that inspires them. I hope we can build a classroom community that allows them to share what inspires them with me.

We're starting out with Animal Farm by George Orwell. My cooperating teacher has chosen the books for the semester, but he has entrusted me with the teaching of an entire book later this semester. We've worked together before and I feel like our working relationship functions well, enabling me to teach and learn with a lot of good quality feedback.

This year will be an adventure! Here's hoping it's just the beginning of something amazing.

Would you like to peek into a day in the life of a pre-student teacher in a modern-day high school? If so, you're in luck! This is the place to be. If not, stick around anyway. Maybe you could ride along on our quest for English excellence. I'll be back soon! Hope to see you here.