"...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 finally begun a video lecture series that my students can reference as they write, work, and study. I attended Andrew Easton’s ( @EastonA1 ) 2017 NCTE session on “Genre Exploration through Immersive Game Units.” At the time, I was gamifying my classroom and his presentation was inspiring. However, the piece I most connected with was short video-recorded lessons to help in personalized learning. I knew I at least needed to have video lessons for students to refer back to. Also in the past two years, I read Catlin Tucker’s (@Catlin_Tucker ) blog posts on station rotation models. This post explores the “in-class flip.” It was only earlier this school year that I began recording mini video lectures. Andrew suggested keeping videos to five minutes or less. To capitalize on the rhyme, I decided on “Mr. E in 3” (minutes) as my video series name. I did not do any editing or any real tech work. I pulled up the notes and organizers I utilize in class and delivered my mini-l...

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...

As I have shifted to a readers-writers workshop approach and focused more on standards-based learning, I have had to change not just how I teach but what I teach. If students are working more in class (rather than on homework or writing outside of class), I cannot fill an 80-minute block with lecture or group reading. Comprehension questions are no longer necessary as students are working on a lot of independent reading or as they are writing paragraph-length analyses. This has caused me to “lose” some stories and lessons I have enjoyed in the past. But that’s the catch. I enjoyed them. We all know we each appreciate different stories and different concepts. When I opened my class up to choice reading and having students analyze their own texts, I had to provide more class time for this. As others have said more eloquently than me, we must make time for what we value. I want my students to love what they are reading (and, by extension, I want them to love reading), and I want my ...

From Workshop to Standards-Based Scoring After establishing a workshop model last year in my 9 th and 10 th grade English classes, I want to move closer to standards-based grading this year. For me, establishing an instructional model that more closely works with standards-based learning was an important first step. Please refer to this post for a summary. Now, I can continue my exploration. In this blog post, I will walk through the steps I took to establish the eight standards I will assess my students on in Academic English 9: Standard 1 : Analyzing Literary Elements & Devices Standard 2 : Analyzing Nonfiction Elements & Concepts Standard 3 : Evaluating Text Genre, Form, and Structure Standard 4 : Utilizing Evidence & Research Standard 5 : Crafting Focus, Organization, and Style Standard 6 : Composing Narratives Standard 7 : Expanding Vocabulary Standard 8 : Developing Speaking Skills Step 1: Prioritizing Standards Last year, I revi...

Although I only briefly touched on students e-mailing home in my previous post (after my initial post on it back in January), I wanted to expand on how I currently employ student-authored e-mails home. As I noted initially, I was inspired by Catlin Tucker’s (@catlin_tucker) post, “ Students E-mail Their Parents About Missing Work .” Situated in a workshop approach with a move toward standards-based grading, my process has changed a bit since its inception. PURPOSE While I liked the purpose to let students know that parents would be made aware of their work, I quickly realized the exercise was mostly for my students: we would be embarking on some self-reflection. This would be new for some of my students, summarizing and reflecting on their work and learning. Contacting parents became a side-effect of actual class time to pause and reflect. The goal is to reconsider their daily work logs, completed readings and writings, and their plan of action moving forward. I...

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...