Immersed

Today begins two weeks  in a writing workshop at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Created by Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan and Dr. Elsie Olan, the workshop immerses educators in the arts and gives them time and space to create. It's a residency--we will live and write and create on the property during our stay. This evening I'm writing from my room; I am in Lowell Nesbitt's room. He was a master artist in residence here in 1983.

Desk view.

Today we toured the facility and got to know one another and the property.  We are on more than The painting studio space silenced me. Oh to spend a day in that light painting! There are ten painting cubicles with mounted lights, two utility sinks, shelves , a few cupboards and creative splatter here and there.

Even the door knobs tell creation stories.

During lunch time, I wandered back to the library with its spiral stair case to a hidden loft overlooking the woods. I snicked two volumes of poetry (you are allowed to take the books back to your rooms). I am going to consume them for dinner: Here is Where We Disembark by Clea Roberts and The persistence of Memory by Mary Fell. Fell's title got me thinking about the Art of Analysis project I experimented with this spring. The project has some problems I want to work out and the poetry volume got me thinking about them (more on that later).

This is the poetry collection!

The light, the windows, the woods, the clean lines, the crisp corners and smooth, thick glass, cement, wood and steel. The very spaces breathed beauty into me today.

I am going to blog to catalog days' activities and process as best I can as I go through the week.

We did two writing activities after today's tours. The first was a community builder.  We folded a blank piece of paper into quadrants and then drew a writing memory in each quadrant. In the top left quadrant we drew how we learned to write, in the bottom left a memorable writing moment from when we were students, in the top right a memorable moment as a teacher candidate (or I did a teacher learner) and in the bottom right quadrant the most memorable moment you have with writing as a teacher. Here is what I drew:

Once we drew we shared with a partner. We were directed to examine our partner's drawing and to predict what we thought the drawing means. Then we were to discuss it and share the stories. We went back and forth, quadrant by quadrant. I shared stories with Mariel, an English Education graduate student who shared a story about Maclay School in Tallahassee. We went from drawing to writing to speaking and listening fluidly and almost seamlessly: on your own, with a partner, share to group and back again.

For the second thinking and writing activity we were told to think about problems of practice and to think about what we might say to policy makers about such problems. Then we went out into the gallery space and examined art installations: students' desks with altered surfaces, a long net of cut up paper draped down a wall, a black sculpture seemingly imprinted with a giant's finger print, a photograph of a man balancing on three different skateboards. One of the artist's skateboards, sans trucks and wheels balanced against the wall beneath the photograph. Here's a quick sketch of the skater's impossible balancing act:

We gathered ideas and wrote. We went back to the conference table to share and listen to one another's ideas. My writing centered on holes or gaps--gaps in instruction, in curriculum, in skills and how to build bridges between the gaps . A specific gap I've been turning over in my mind since year's end concerns grammar instruction--how to better prepare students to use and analyze syntax--but I don't know that that's what I want to work on while I'm here. Tonight's assignment is to choose a problem of practice on which to focus over the next ten days. I'm toying with two big ones:

1. how to use visual arts to inform close reading and analytical writing (essentially work through the Art of Analysis project--examples here-- and see if I can make connections to art movement and analytical writing clearer).

2. how to improve my integration of the study of grammar, usage, mechanics and spelling (GUMs) into reading and writing workshop. I wonder how I could use art to teach grammatical concepts?

Number one has my heart. I imagine I'll find an answer in one of those poetry volumes I snicked  to read for dinner.

What Students Say at Year's End

"There is nothing “winding down” about the end of the school year. It is more like a complete and total crash. You accelerate until you run into a brick wall and you hope your seatbelt lets you get out of the thing intact so you can limp off to your summer."

-Vicki Davis,  Coolcat Teacher

 Students have one more day. Tensions have been high as the school year comes to an end.  An in
class focus on two processes--reflection and connection-- made this last week with this year's students wonderful.  I worked on making connections by giving students time in a compliment circle (I'll post compliment pages and write about that another time), by tweeting the lessons students learned from books to authors and by inviting students to write letters to me about our curriculum and my methods. Those connecting pieces (as well as a good round of a Tutti Frutti word/thinking game) raised everyone's spirits.

Andrew got quite a kick out of Carl Deuker's response on Twitter.

In terms of reflection, at year's end I ask students to evaluate themselves and reflect on work they have done. I wrote about this process a couple of years ago here. Changes to state law regarding classroom assessment practices necessitated a change in how I structure and count the reflection, but it didn't really change the process.

My final assessment is a self evaluation, a piece of reflective writing. It gives me valuable information about my curriculum and methods from students' perspectives. One hope I hold out for students is that they will realize (one day) how much I value and take into account their thoughts and opinions. They are smart, young people who will shape our futures. I want them to know, by my actions and trust in them, that I have faith in their abilities.

This year, I cut the number of reflections questions and narrowed the breadth of topics I asked students to consider. I  focused students on essential language arts strands we've practiced every week, all year: reading, writing, speaking and listening*.

I passed out the self evaluation papers last week and told students they would have our "exam" time to write it or finish it (if they worked ahead). I gave students a week to think about their progress, to reconnect with some of their favorite books and to walk with the reflection questions in mind.  Some came to class with their reflections finished and some used all of our one-hundred minutes to work through their final thoughts.

What did I learn so far?

Students read but may have difficulty transferring math skills to track progress.
While students each had reading goals (pages per week) for independent reading, they may or may not have met them. There are only fifteen students in this class period and all but two of them read double digit books this year: 19, 15, 125, 11, 12, 23, 21, 9, 13, 8, 11, 17,11, 10 and 12.  Can you believe that these fifteen students read 317 books this school year--even without Mariah's record breaking 125 books (she read through series after series after series), fourteen students, fourteen high-achievers enrolled in multiple AP and IB classes, read 192 books.  Amazing.

Sometimes though, I questioned the math. One student said, "I did not read that amount [175 pages] each week at first due to may lack of desire to read ... The reason I didn't consistsently read my weekly goal was due to the simple fact that I didn't manage my time  enough to effectively read." Yet, he reports reading 17 books for the year. Perhaps his book reading, often like my own, does not follow a regimented week by week amount of books or pages.

The numbers didn't add up in several cased. I can see where a student who reads several books during vacation weeks could read more, but really based on earlier (nonscientific) inquiry into average pages per book, if a student is reading even 150 pages per week, most will finish two books a month or close to 20 books in a school year. Many students said during heavy testing times they had to study instead of read for pleasure, yet even without reading every day or every week, they managed to rea a lot. The math just didn't add up.

Students read more independently than I could ever teach were I to teach one book to the entire class at a time.

Students appreciate routine events even if they struggle at first. 
Every reflection I've read so far mentions the importance of weekly Socratic discussions, daily reading time and weekly journal writing. Students may differ in their opinions of the texts we used or genres of writing we practices, but they overwhelmingly appreciated and learned from the weekly routine events.

Students surprise us by learning lessons we may have never intended to teach.
I love hearing the life lessons students take away from the books they read. My favorite surprises are always the ones students find in books. Here is a distillation of life lessons from the students in my fourth period class:

I learned...

• not to be elitist and decided be accepting and humble 

(from Mosquitoland by David Arnold)

• that not everything is fake or insincere 

(from Papertowns by John Green)

• it doesn't matter how you began but you go through 

(from Gifted Hands by Ben Carson)

• that revenge is never the answer 

(from the The Winners' Curse by Marie Rutkoski)

• things can get better even in dark times 

(from David Lubar's Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie and Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington)

• family is the biggest thing in someone's life and should not be given up by any of us

(from Killing Time in Crystal City by Chris Lynch)

• to be strong and to stand up for myself and always trust my heart, even if my brain is contradicting it

(from the Embrace series by Jessica Shirvington)

• to open your heart to others and sympathize with people who are hurting

(from The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt)

• you are the only person that can affect your future, no matter where you come from or no matter what conditions you may have, you can make anything out of yourself

(from Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern)

• live through hardship

(from It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini)

• move on even if things seem unfair or unjust

(from The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)

• you shouldn't let opportunities pass you by

(from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak)

• you can't control every situation

(from Godless by Pete Hautman)

• if we let go every once in a while, we'll find that fate knows what its doing

(from I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson)

• enjoy life and what adventures come

(from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green)

So, let go, enjoy, seize opportunities, and know that even this school year will come to a good end.
Enjoy!

Testing Limits

The Slice of Life Story Challenge is hosted by the talented team at Two Writing Teachers.
Link up your slice on Tuesdays all year. Thanks, Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna and Beth.

It is difficult to write about testing. I have a lot of skin in this game. Daily skin. Skin I care about sits at desks, logs into computers, stands and watches: teenage skin and middle school skin and teacher skin and administrator skin. Still, Tuesdays, I confer with readers and writers over pieces students write in their journals. This last month of school choice reigns. Students are practicing writing--argument, analysis, response, narrative--they choose. Today, one student wrote about testing. This student's writing  reflects the pressures we all feel during testing season.

One of two pages of journal writing for this week; the student did eventually come to the conclusion
that though stressful, students need to stop worrying and consider that everything will be fine. 

My student called this "exam month" and he's not exaggerating.  While many students feel the pinch of End of Course Exams (EOCs) or Advanced Placement tests, our school has been testing students since October (state assessment retakes and district required progress monitoring among other tests this fall and winter).  Still, May wins the most test month even though, for my English classes,  our state-mandated reading and writing assessments finished in April.

Now students are taking state-constructed EOCs for core content classes (math, science, social studies), Advanced Placement exams--even college readiness exams like the PERT. A streamlined testing schedule went out in our emailed community bulletin recently.

The course of exams students must take looks simple. Many tests collar specific grade levels and do not affect all ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades on the same day. However, each day during any given week proctors are actually administering several tests as students who missed an exam one day must be scheduled for make up sessions within the testing window.  Today, students logged on to the computerized testing site to take exams for Biology and AP US Government and Geometry and Algebra I and Algebra II .-- the latter math exams were all make up sessions. These EOCs affect students' final grades and course credits, so opting out is not an option for students who want to earn a standard high school diploma. 

On any given day during a testing window, students, any where from 1 or 2 to 12 or 25 are testing.  Staying the curricular course and maintaining instructional momentum is challenging, especially if several of your students missed a testing session (or two) and now must make up tests. Under such conditions there are bound to be knowledge gaps if some students miss content and do not make it up.

The Florida legislature recently amended Senate Bill 7069 which will affect future testing. In February, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart  recommended cuts to testing; politicians have echoed the sentiment since. One line in the  statute calls for a limit on the number of hours students will be testing. According to SB 7069, the district may not schedule more than "5 percent of a student's total school hours ... to administer statewide,standardized assessments and district-required local assessments." Long over due, limits on testing time sound good. What does "5 percent of student's total school hours" really mean? Does it include time spent administering make up tests? Or time spent troubleshooting technology troubles?

Students have 7 classes that are 47 minutes each every day except Wednesday. Wednesday's classes are 37 minutes each. Each week students are in all of their classes for a total of 1, 575 minutes (or 26.25 hours). Students are in my English classroom 225 minutes a week (or 3.75 hours). The school year runs 36 weeks, so students' seat time in English class is 135 hours. Five percent of the total number of hours students are in my class works out to 6.75 hours: more than one week in English class of our 36 weeks together can, by law, be given over to test administration. Does that mean that each subject gets one week to test?

Are we sacrificing 7 weeks to tests? Have I really, by law, lost nearly an entire quarter of the school year? 

When I think about instructional hours and hours spent testing, I can't ignore instructional hours lost because of testing disruptions. Tests in my state are, by law, computer-based . In order to give computer-based tests students have to be moved into and out of classrooms that are equipped with technology.

To improve access to the required technology, our district built four new computer labs and provided the school with upwards of ten laptop carts. We have close to 3,500 students at school; you can imagine the access we need when all tenth The laptop carts, fortunately or unfortunately, are securely stored in teachers's closets and classrooms and can be used for authentic instructional purposes when not required for testing. In order to test, teachers must vacate their classrooms so that the securely stored laptops can be used for testing.

I know one teacher who will be in her room just two days for the entire month of May. How many hours is that? Such collateral damage may be too complex to simply count. Sure, if we teachers plan ahead and pack appropriate resources and supplies, minutes need not be wasted. The truth is, minutes, class periods, days are endangered as the testing schedule takes over.

Too much is too much.  As John Oliver said, "here comes the monkey." It's no wonder students are hitting their testing limits. Learning is too.