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

Two years ago, I began combining and rearranging the English Language Arts content standards that I would utilize in my courses. Since then, I’ve made developments in my assessment practices, and as I prepare to begin on a hybrid schedule this fall and utilizing grade conferences (where students will present evidence of their work and pitch the grade they deserve), I wanted to further refine my work. My plan to is post much more frequently in the coming days and weeks as I articulate my own journey in preparation for the school year (our students begin on September 8 th , 2020). Since my first post on this in August 2018 , I reduced my eight standards to six to make it more manageable. Last school year, I utilized to the following six standards (reduced from the Pennsylvania Core Standards): 1.      Standard 1 : Applying Literary Elements & Devices I can define and apply various elements of fiction (characterization, setting, point of view, conflict, plot, ...

I have been working with the concept of our daily work log for a while now, but I was not implementing it in a way that was truly beneficial. My first iteration asked students to list what they planned to accomplish in a given class period (based on my mini-lesson and assignments). Too often, there wasn’t enough to warrant a list, or teaching how to break down a task into smaller parts was more time-consuming than I had planned (such as breaking down the parts of planning and drafting an analysis paragraph). Also, I was more concerned with working one-on-one during workshop rather than critiquing the work log. Now, I have fine-tuned that process a bit more. I create a Google Doc that I share with all students, and on it, I include the chart above (with as many dates as I estimate a unit of study will take. Then, I create a column for daily reading reflection, another for our daily learning targets, another for a quick check on if students are “on-target,” and a final ...

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...

This obligatory year-in-review blog serves a couple purposes. It serves as a table of contents from the past year, but it also provides some updates on where I currently am with my practice. My blog is meant to record my journey of transforming my teaching practices, so compiling and crafting this current post was helpful to me as I was able to contextualize my journey: it was a lot in one year! A note of clarification as you read on: I teach on an 80-minute, intensified block schedule, so I see my high school students 80 minutes every day for half a school year (and then we switch semesters). Enjoy, and please reach out ( @NAEmmanuele )! 1-7-18 : Writing a Workshop Curriculum . 1-14-18 : (Re)Writing Assessments for Secondary Writing Workshop . I have maintained the workshop and mini-lesson structure elaborated upon here. I no longer utilize GrammarFlip (budgetary constraints) and we have shifted from Wordly Wise (for Vocabulary) to Membean.com. I am still ...

As I work to assess my students more appropriate in my workshop environment, I have continually shifted how my rubrics are formatted . After hearing Dr. Connie Moss from Duquesne University ( @DUSchoolofEd ) speak on Learning Targets again at a recent in-service, I began to see how her concept of “student Look-Fors” could better articulate our learning goals in class. “Look-Fors” are the aspects in a learning experience that students can look for in their own work to see if they are on-target to demonstrate their learning. In earlier iterations, I had written Learning Targets with accompanying Performances of Understanding (POU) for each lesson. For example, here is one of my Learning Target and Performance of Understanding from two years ago: I know I can discuss text structure when I categorize examples from the myth of Theseus into the aspects of the Hero’s Journey . The first portion (“ I know I can discuss text structure ”) is the learning target, while the proof (“...

This week is our Spring Break, so it’s the perfect time for me to reflect on the workshop practices in my high school English Language Arts classes. For those who have been following my journey into workshoping, much of this will be familiar; however, this blog will also highlight many of the revisions I’ve made since its inception. This is a bit lengthy, but I hope it can be of some assistance. CLASS STRUCTURE I divide my class into three sections, as follows: ·          15 minutes of independent reading time. Students enter the room, rearrange the desks as their class decided upon , and settle into reading their self-selected novel. ·          20 minutes of direct instruction. This may be modeling a reading strategy, modeling writing, lecturing on a new topic, or reviewing the expectations of an assignment. My co-teachers and I may ask questions and engage the class at this time, but often...