Sort-Of Victories

Sort-of victories:

-One of my students who is classified as Emotionally Disturbed wrote his essay about how he doesn't believe in violence and nonviolence should be the way of the world. He talked about how there are people at our school that he would like to hurt, but doesn't because he thinks first and doesn't "attack" them. Yeah. Tough spot to be in. Of course we all have this urge at times, but when it comes from a student that is classified as E.D. I can't just brush it off. The wonderfully courageous thing here is that this student--who is severely withdrawn in two others of his four core classes--feels safe enough in my classroom to write his feelings. That's a beautiful and strong thing and a huge step for him. But it of course also places me in a tough position as I had to bring this to Guidance's attention. I want him to keep writing his feelings, and I don't want to stifle that creative outlet. I don't know how this all is going to pan out yet. They want me to talk to him, and while I believe this could leave his trust in me and my class intact, I'm not sure I'm the person who is qualified to do this. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts on this one.

-And on the violence tip, one of my more volatile students had a second episode of somewhat-justifiable outrage. Well, the outrage is totally justifiable, but the actions not so much. This is a student--one of the minuscule few in the Land O'Plenty--whose family moved out of a working-class neighborhood and who has actually seen (not lived in, but seen) poverty and the effects of it first-hand. His demeanor is one I know too well--the boys I grew up with from the blue-collar families around my were are as pride-filled and full of strong ideas about what it means to "be a man." I know the attitude--and I know the shortcomings and short-changing that comes with it. But it is what it is, I suppose. Earlier in the year, he pushed another student who had placed his hands on a girl--an act this student found absolutely unacceptable, an act the violated one of the maxims by which he lives, and who can disagree? He was awarded by Guidance for his acts that day, and I'm not sure I can find it in me to take issue with that reward. He came to the violent rescue again this week when an incident occurred in which a white male student said to a black female student (one of mine, and one of four black students in the eighth grade class), "What, do you think you're cool because you're black?" Again, my student--who is white--was angered by this injustice. It's tough, because I'm angered by the injustice, too. In fact, I'm infuriated by that comment. It's a sad example of how far we have yet to go as a country and, honestly, how much work we have to do as a school community that likes to claim it is full of tolerance and diversity. And how do you punish someone for trying to help someone else? For being offended by a terribly offensive comment? By the same token, he can't go around saving the world with his fists. Interestingly, this is the same student who was entertaining the possibility of writing the following belief for his essay: "toughness comes from the heart, not the fist." A sort-of victory for sure.

-One of my students has Asperger's and faces difficulty with socially connecting with other students. He's so smart and so funny. He's come a ridiculously far way since September and can be seen laughing and joking with students in my class. He raises his hand often and does not seem encumbered by the same crippling shyness and awkwardness he feels in other parts of the school. His mom and I have been in touch since September and this is one parent who has said some of the kindest, warmest things to me--remembering them makes me truly feel like a real teacher helps me weather some of my darkest moments of doubt. Lately, though, this student has been having a tough time during lunch and--according to mom--has been coming home watery-eyed even though he tried to be brave and say his day was o.k. I'm trying to devise some plans to have him and another boy who is kind and might be a friend to him come to my room a couple times a week during my extra-help lunches just to have them help out and hang out. It just breaks my heart that he's having a hard time lately and I hope we can find a way to ease the anxiety he feels. Think about how brave this boy is to just wake up and come to school each day. This about what a feat it is for him to step into a building that makes him feel such strong unease. And think about him the next time you start feeling sorry for yourself. I do.

"Art Wins! Art Wins!"

This is a post about teaching. . .


but the post title borrowed from Kanye West's blog. . . he kind of sums up exactly how I feel about him and his work in his own words: "you gotta love it, though, somebody still speak from his soul." Not long ago, in fact, I used some lyrics from Kanye for my students to practice this new, crazy NJASK task where they have to read & interpret a quote. I figure, let's keep it familiar at least some of the time for them. They'll have plenty of Confucius to work with later.

We've had an interesting couple weeks in the Land O' Plenty. The kids are getting pretty dramatic and pretty antsy and pretty. . . ugh, hormonal. They are SUCH 8th graders right now. Which is at times amusing and at times an instructional feat. We're all ready for a break--5 days and counting!

Small victories in which art is definitely winning:

-My students are pumped about submitting their "This I Believe" essays to National Public Radio's website for this segment, thisibelieve.org. NPR chooses essays to publish online and sometimes records writers reading them for the radio segment. I am just glowing with pride for them--while I have a dozen or so "I believe that if I put my mind to something, I can do it" carbon-copy essays, there are some essays that are filled with such emotional honesty that I'm blown away. And some of my most struggling writers produced the most articulate work, some of them finding their writer's voices for the first time in a while. I had two students write about what they believe as a result of losing a parent--the language was stark and powerful. One student wrote about coping with a learning disability and how overcoming it informed her beliefs, while another framed his belief by discussing how hard his mother fought to help him overcome severe handicaps as a young child--the doctors did not believe he would ever walk or talk and now he's perfectly typical.

We held a publishing celebration for our essays and the students did a fair job of crafting genuine praise and positive feedback for the work of their peers.

The website for This I Believe was helpful and I employed a couple of their curricular ideas for this unit, adding in some resources from a cooperating teacher I worked with a couple years ago. I'm looking forward to making this unit even stronger next year.

Hooray for authentic audiences. Whether my students get published by NPR or not, we're all feeling like winners already.



-One of my girls told me last week how she never thought she was a good reader or writer, or "good at English" but now she does and she's taking Honors English next year. This is a girl who I had to pull aside a couple months ago and talk with--she was getting a little obsessed with climbing the social ladder and in the process was really changing into a person she was not. I was impressed with her reaction to my thoughts, which were that she was way too smart and cool to be changing who she really is for others. I saw her gradually return to the kind, caring girl she was to start with and--perhaps to her surprise--her social status didn't suffer a bit.

-My differentiated independent study project on tolerance--including a whole host of issues from race in America to the Holocaust--is working marvelously. The students are gaining a unique understanding of various issues that they have chosen to explore. Resources included in the options range from Obama's speech on race to the MLK obituary all the way to issues of immigration and schooling. It's based on a tiered-point system that matches up with Bloom's Taxonomy. Thanks, Mom, for the wonderful template!


pics npr.org; kanyeuniversitycity.com/blog

Character Development, or, Atwell is My Homegirl

As we were so consumed with The Outsiders. . . and with finishing it before break, writing workshop time decreased. We're kicking into full swing when we come back.

For our Short Story unit, I'm sticking with the pro--Nancie Atwell (you wouldn't have guessed)--and leaning heavily on her craft lessons from Lessons That Change Writers. As a new teacher, I've found Lessons. . . to be one of the best investments if not the single best investment in a teaching resource. I can't think of another source I would rather lean on. Anyhow, We've already done Character Questionnaires and some rudimentary exercises in getting to know our characters--basic physical description via an imitation of a passage from The Outsiders; dialogue-response from character perspective using prompts; explorations of how we would want our characters to act in certain scenarios. In these next couple weeks, we're going to continue to focus heavily on character considerations, closely examine short story structure, play with our leads, add thoughts and feelings, and draft, draft, draft!

We'll be looking at mentor short story texts in order to think about how to accomplish some of craft lessons on which mini-lessons will focus. For my mini-lesson on ways to develop a character, I was thinking carefully about how I could demonstrate the concepts of the lesson without having my students read another whole short story. Of course, the next logical solution came to mind--a children's book. Before I get into which text I chose, below is a condensed and shortened list of Ways to Develop a Character, straight from Lesson #33 in Atwell's Lessons. . . The following categories connect to and parallel the 5 methods of characterization I introduced my students to in order to examine craft in The Outsiders. Basic, perhaps, but helpful and direct nonetheless, the 5 methods are: What a Character Says, Looks Like, Does (Actions), Thinks and What Others Say and Think about the Character.

Here is the Atwell list of Ways to Develop a Character:

-Reflection: Show what your character is thinking and feeling

-Dialogue: Get your character talking as a way to reveal himself or herself

-Actions: Get your character up and moving around, doing things both little and big that show what he or she is like

-Flashback: Recall events from the past that show why your character is behaving as he or she does today

-Reaction: Show how your character responds to actions, words, ideas, of others

-Other Characters: Compare and contrast your character's actions, reactions, beliefs, values with those of others. . .

-Quirks: Imagine the habits, interests, skills, hobbies, goals, fears, tastes and preferences, daydreams, and nightmares that will flesh out your character. . .

-Intimate Setting: Create your character's bedroom and fill it with the stuff of his or her life that reveals parts of the past and present

-Beloved Object or Pet: Give your character something to love that reveals his or her private self. . .



Maybe I should say I thought long and hard about some of my favorite children's book characters. But that would be deceptive, because when I thought about well-developed and dynamic characters, there was one children's book character that sprung to mind immediately. I think you'll agree that she serves as a fine example of a developed character. Behold:




Olivia. Pretentious, curious, brave--brazen maybe--easily annoyed at times, hilariously lovable and loving. Intelligent. Olivia! She's perfect.

We'll be reading the original Olivia and Olivia. . . And the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer in order to facilitate our discussion of how to develop characters in short texts. Of course Olivia doesn't fit each and every category listed on our notes, but the books come pretty damn close and I think Falconer's books will serve as excellent mentor texts for thinking about how to do exactly what Atwell so eloquently recommends: "Don't imagine that you can come back later and scatter some thoughts and feelings, or give your character a sense of humor, a past, a daydream, an attitude, a yearning, a personality, after the fact. Invest right from the start in details of characters: collect a person."

What fun! And don't even think about rolling your eyes. Eighth graders turn into instant second graders when a read-aloud rolls around.

On the back boiler: E.Q.'s for our next class novel, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Just finished it. Whew. Lots to think about. Lots.