Literary Enthusiasm

As this year has progressed, I'll admit that I've found it, at times, difficult to adequately challenge my advanced English classes.  At the same time, I have struggled with how to get them more engaged in authentic, voracious reading.

Over the Christmas holidays, I searched my mental catalogs for ideas, and my mind wandered to my undergrad work in adolescent literature.  After thumbing through my literature journal, I decided I'd challenge my kiddos to create their own.  Of course, I created a number of guidelines and scaffolded the semester-long project with interim due dates to help ensure their success.

The basic journal entry requirements include the title, author, publication information, a plot summary, personal analysis and reaction, and a discussion of theme(s) in each book, plus a peer review of each entry.  In an effort to encourage my kids to also read more news and explore current events, I decided to require journal entries on current news articles as well as books in various genres.

I presented the project when we returned to school on January 7th.  My kids seemed a little nervous, but many of them also seemed excited at the prospect of having a challenge.  Aaron told me in a very respectful tone, "I think it's a little much," to which I replied, "You're in pre-AP."  He dove right into reading some new books that day without another complaint.  (I also created a less demanding project outline for my academic English classes.)

As the first due date draws near, I've watched something very interesting and exciting happen.  My kids are helping one another with their entries.  They are doing honest peer reviews for each other, and they are talking about what they are reading.  They're doing it without prompting, and their discussions are passionate.  Real.  Engaging.

One of the seeds of literary zeal was planted in the form of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.

I had a student who came in super excited about having read this book over the Christmas break.  We chatted briefly in class that day, and that evening, I realized I had read another of his books, Paper Towns, last summer.  So the next day, I suggested that book to her.

Over the next week, I started researching books for next summer's pre-AP reading assignment, and I ordered Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley.  In the meantime, I learned that many of my students were passing around copies of The Fault in Our Stars.  Once I finished Where Things Come Back, I realized it wouldn't be a good summer read  because it is too mature and has too much objectionable language for me to feel comfortable requiring it.  But it is a fantastic book - smart, well-constructed, and genuine.  

 So the movie trailer for The Fault in Our Stars debuted yesterday, and the student who first introduced me to the book came in to first period super excited this morning.  Like any good teacher, I seized the opportunity to engage my students.  I showed the trailer to the class  (there is one very brief part I censored), talked about how much those who had read it enjoyed the book, and encouraged them to read it before the movie debuts in early June.  This started a really enthusiastic dialogue since several in that class have now read the book, and I took heart in the fact that my suggestion to read the book first was met with the ardent commiseration of my fellow bibliophiles.  :)

Anyway, as we discussed John Green, I decided to introduce my 8th grade students to Whaley, and I had several ask to borrow my copy of Where Things Come Back.  I also talked to them about what I had observed evolving among them over the past few weeks.  They seemed really connected and interested in the idea of authentic reading.  Reading the way REAL PEOPLE read.  Not reading for a test or because something was assigned, but because they find a connection with literature.  And they are so impassioned by that connection that they want their friends to experience it. 
So they share.  Fervently, earnestly, and wholeheartedly. 

On the flip side...

After school I had a 7th grader who is an English language learner and who sometimes struggles ask if he could stay after and get help with his journal entry.  I sat with him and helped him locate the copyright information and other details in his book.  Then I helped him navigate Microsoft Word as he wrote his summary and his analysis.  Finally, we talked through his grammatical edits.  When he finished, he just sat there smiling at his computer screen.  Then he printed his journal entry and asked if our principal was still there because he was so proud of what he had accomplished, he wanted the principal to read it! 


By the end of the day today, I had emails from several parents saying their kids had called or texted asking them for books.  And I borrowed The Fault in Our Stars from one of my students.  I'm 20 pages in, and I'm thinking I might stay up all night reading if I'm not careful.  Pretty sure you couldn't wipe this smile off my face if you tried right now!

And so...
I fervently, earnestly, and wholeheartedly implore my fellow teachers to read The Book Whisperer and Readicide and In The Middle and anything else you can get your hands on that emphasizes the importance of getting kids to connect to literature in authentic ways.  Internalize their messages and then make them your own and put them into action in your classrooms.  I did not come up with these ideas on my own.  I have spent years reading other teachers' accounts of how they got kids engaged in reading and reciprocal discourse and talking to fellow teachers about what works for them (and what doesn't), and I've taken it all and cobbled together something that will work for me - something that will complement the way my crazy mixed-up brain works.  And I have to tell you, it's simply amazing what can happen when we persevere through the frustration of trial and error that's necessary to figure out how to make these ideas work for each of us.

Poetic Triumphs

We dove into poetry headfirst last semester, and it was quite an adventure!  I thought I'd share my technique along with better pictures of some of the anchor charts you might have noticed in my classroom photos.

My introduction technique for poetry came from Genre Connections: Lessons to Launch Literary and Nonfiction Texts by Tanny McGregor, published by Heinemann:

http://www.heinemann.com/products/E03396.aspx

I loved the "jar" idea for introducing poetry.  Here's how it went down:

I started by asking how poetry is like a jar as I held up a jar for the class to see.  I then gave a very bland, factual description of my dad.  Next, I talked about my dad in emotional terms, describing the way he shows his love and the kind of personality he has.  As I gave these descriptions, I wrote them on slips of paper and dropped them into the jar.  I then asked my students how poetry is like a jar.  They started to make observations about the way I described with emotion and more description, then put those words in the jar.  I told them they were on the right track and to keep thinking, then I asked them to discuss with their groups.  It took a little work, but we eventually got around to the class deciding that poetry is like a jar because it is a vessel for holding emotions and feelings.

We created these charts after a collaborative activity where I distributed a number of poems in various formats.  I gave the kids about 10-15 minutes to work in groups as they explored the poems and made observations about the format, content, meaning, and anything else they noticed.  I drew the basic outlines on chart paper with the "Poetry  Can" text ahead of time.  I put them up on the wall and wrote their responses as we discussed what everyone had noticed during their discovery activity.

When selecting the poems for the discovery activity, I purposely chose some poems that didn't look like traditional poetry, and some that had distinctive traits that I hoped my students would key in on.  For the most part, it worked!  There were a few observations that I sort of steered, but overall, I was really impressed with what my students contributed.

One very interesting thing that I noticed about these is the difference in some of the more insightful observations made by my students.  I have two 7th grade classes, and in one of the classes, over 2/3 of the students are struggling readers or students who perform below grade level in reading and writing.  In addition, a number of them are ELLs.  The other class is much more balanced with a proportional mix of academic abilities.  Guess which class revealed deeper insights?  I'll give you a hint - it was the class whose chart is shown in the second photo.  Yep, my class with mostly lower-performing students! 

I think the most exciting moment for me through this entire lesson occurred after we had completed this activity and debriefed.  I turned to the class and asked, "So, if poetry doesn't really follow any rules, how can we tell when something is a poem?"  Students in my higher level class immediately started blurting out guesses.  None of them were wrong, per se, but nobody really hit the sweet spot with their answer, either.  When I asked the same question of my "lower" class, I got a bunch of blank stares and a few thoughtful looks.  Mindful of the ever-important wait time, I waited.  And waited.  And waited.

After what seemed like an eternity, one of my more gregarious boys widened his eyes, shot his hand up, and very nearly hopped out of his seat.  I called on him, and he looked me straight in the eye, clutched his chest, and said, "You know it's poetry because it hits you right in the heart, Mrs. Bonner!"

Oh. My. GOODNESS!!  I'm fairly certain tears welled up in my eyes.  He got it.  And his classmates chimed in their affirmation.

So very, very cool!

Lemonade

This Christmas break was by far the most relaxing vacation I've had in YEARS.  I brought lots of things home to work on, and then made the conscious decision to not work on them.  I enjoyed relaxing, spending time with family, and just "being" each day.

I knew I'd have a big job when I got back in today because I got new flooring in my classroom over the break.  What a blessing to have a fresh, new floor to start the year off!  My room wasn't exactly as I'd left it.  In fact, it was in such a state of disarray, I might have felt quite a bit of despair. Still, I wasn't quite prepared for what I found.  When I arrived, my neighbor was moving his things out of my room and surveying my textbooks stacked atop his desks in his room.  :)

Random stuff in random piles

Notice the nice, straight rows of desks.  LOL!

 











 I have fabulous coworkers and many offered to help reclaim my classroom, but honestly when tackling a job like this, it's best for me to just jump in and work alone.  I have awful spatial reasoning skills and need to see things in place before they make sense.  As a result, I often don't even know what I want, so asking someone else to help me would just be plain rude.




 I decided it was a perfect time to rearrange a few things that weren't working as well as I'd hoped the first part of the year.  It took all day to get things in order, and I still have papers and files tucked away in filing cabinets, but the room is functional and ready for my kiddos to return tomorrow.

Somehow, 1/3 of my Greek & Latin Roots word wall (on the left of this photo: black background with green, yellow, orange and blue) got ripped off during the reflooring.  I hope to have that repaired by the end of this week.

 

 

I like to move my desks around frequently depending on what we're doing in class.  While I have them in rows right now, they may be in groups of three or four next week.  I'll post some close-ups of some of my anchor charts and word walls later this week.

My room has a fresh, new floor and a layout that should work well for us the remainder of the year!  Lemons = lemonade

Resurrection

(of the blog, that is...)

My last post announced that I had officially gone off the deep end and applied for graduate school.  And it was pretty deep.  I jumped right into grad school at the end of my first full year of teaching, continued through my second year of teaching, and finished during the beginning of my third year.

It seems only fitting that this post should announce that I FINISHED graduate school!  I earned a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on reading.  I enjoyed my courses and feel like I learned a lot, but I keep wondering when I'll start to magically feel like an expert.  LOL!  I guess my perfectionism won't allow that to ever happen.  I have learned that I will almost always second-guess myself, and if I fail to do that, I will certainly be very critical of my abilities.

This blog was originally started as a way to share my jewelry making pursuits.  That was many, many years ago.  And while I still own all of my tools and most of the supplies I had on hand when I stopped making jewelry, that's just not who I am any more.  I finally listened to that inner small voice that has always told me I am a teacher, and I have fully embraced my profession... my true calling.  Because this blog chronicles so much of the journey that got me here, I didn't want to start a new blog and leave all this behind.  It just seemed more genuine to revamp this one. 

So here's my philosophy:  I work to make my classroom a welcoming, inspiring place for both my students and other teachers.  I think we work best together, and I often gain inspiration from other teachers and students.  Guided by this philosophy, I have renamed my blog "The Inspiring Classroom."  I hope that by sharing my trials, successes, and struggles, others will laugh with me, rejoice with me, and learn with me.  Learning is a lifelong pursuit, and we are immensely enriched by a diverse community.  I look forward to sharing and learning with you!