"...and Not to Yield": Explorations in English Education

Since implanting a readers-writers workshop, I realized I needed to better help students reflect on their work habits. I enjoyed following discussions online regarding work habits, especially in gradeless or standards-based classrooms where work habits were separate of content mastery reporting. Here is my process and plan to implement the teaching of work habits this year to my sophomore students. GENERATING A LIST I turned to Twitter to seek ideas: What work habits do you try to foster in your Ss? Share ideas with T @NAEmmanuele ! #ProfDev #TeacherEd #SELchat pic.twitter.com/q2MFwKHhpd — Teacher2Teacher (@teacher2teacher) June 10, 2019 With plenty of helpful leads and some ideas percolating, I then came across Mount Desert Island Regional School System’s Middle School Habits of Work Google site. This helped me focus on three habits: respect, responsibility, and perseverance. I edited the last to “work ethic,” and thought I was ready. However, in talking...

During the Spring 2019 semester, I began implementing “community circles” to build classroom culture. Inspired by the work of Monte Syrie (@MonteSyrie ) and his Smiles and Frowns and some readings I had some in sociocultural learning theory, I went for it. This blog will review—first—how my students responded, and then explain my process before concluding with adjustments for this coming year. STUDENT RESPONSE At the end of last semester, I provided a course survey to gauge student responses to our work. My co-teacher and I talk with our students often (as they enter the room, between classes, as we confer during workshop , their bi-weekly-or-so e-mail reflections , etc.), but this was a way for us to get some typed responses to look at. Below is our prompt and some responses The community circle gatherings were new to us this year. What were your thoughts? Should we continue them in the future? What could they be used for? i feel they are good to get to know each ot...