End of Year Results

I just received the CRT results for my classes, and I am very excited.  Seventy percent of my students scored at the sufficient or substantial progress levels. I did find that telling students their scores were part of their grade made a difference.  Each day, several students would ask me whether their scores had been received.

Reading for the first twenty minutes of class seems to have greatly benefited my students; however, I do plan to make some changes next year.  Some books had warned against having books such as "Ripley's Believe it or Not" as classroom choices.  I found that some students chose those same books everyday and just looked at the pictures, so I am considering not including those books in my collection.

Since I will be teaching the CORE/Reading classes, I plan to go to the library every two weeks and assist students in finding the most engaging books for them.  Vocabulary development is critical, and I want that to be another focus.  Of course there will be strategy instruction, but I wonder where language development such as punctuation, etc. fits in.  I look forward to the challenge. 

Interesting Day

As we started reading Of Mice and Men, I began by having my students write about their best friend.  Two of my students wrote about me.  Now I'm not naive enough to think I am their best friend, but they both wrote about how much they enjoyed reading, something I truly believe.  Both of these students literally ask if we can read longer than 25 minutes.

I also have a student who constantly complains about literally everything we do.  Today when we were reading, I gave him a copy of Durango Street, which I had seen him reading earlier.  He started to complain, but when he saw it was a book he liked, he said, "Oh well, I like this book."  For him, this is incredible progress.

I am monitoring my ESL students to see if they make the transition from Spanish books to English.  To me, this would indicate a significant increase in English fluency.

I am bringing in some Stephen King novels.  I'm interested to see the reaction.

The Challenge Continues

I received my students' test scores this week.  Most are 2-3 grade levels below where they should be, and only one or two at or above grade level. It's so good to have this baseline data.

I have several students beginning to engage in reading, and some have told me they have read a book for the first time in their lives.  I still have students who aren't engaging. It's amazing they can sit there for 25 minutes and just stare into space-though they are pretending to "read" their book.  Even though I have so many books in my classroom, I believe sending them to the library to choose another book might bring more success. I've sent several to the library, and they happily return to read their newly chosen book.

My ELL students are continuing to check out book written in Spanish.  I believe this is important so they continue to develop cognitively.  In class, we continue to read our class novel Holes so they are also reading in English. Their comprehension scores on the SRI were literally zero, so I look forward to seeing improvement.

Time to Adjust During the Skid

The average grade in my class is an F, primarily because students didn't turn in their independent reading logs and failed the vocabulary test.  Time to adjust!  I thought that giving students a list of vocabulary words and meanings and then reviewing each day would be enough, but apparently it isn't.  I've decided to let students retake the test for half credit, but we are going to have a day of concept mapping the vocabulary words and entering them on the students' ipod that have a flashcard application. Lesson learned.

I also plan to have much more accountability for independent reading.  If students don't turn in their logs, I am going to have them phone their parents from my class phone to let the parents know about the outside reading requirement.  As Jonathan would say, "It's a stand and deliver moment!"

Students receiving an F in my class???  Not on my watch!!!

Now the Challenge Really Begins

I have thought a lot about my third period.  Initially, this class was supposed to have been co-taught with a special education teacher.  Because of the number of special education students in need of services, the special education department then decided the special education teacher should have her own class; however, it doesn't seem that they took the special education students out of my class.

This is a wonderful opportunity for me to determine the effectiveness of The Reading Zone among all students, including accelerated and academically challenged students. I have two students in my class, twins - a boy and a girl, who received accommodations for testing, which of course indicates that they qualify for special education services. Both students seem to really struggle during our reading time.  The girl spent twenty minutes just staring at the same page.  How boring for her!!  This helped me realize that I need to meet individually with the students.  It is my belief that every student can enjoy reading: the challenge is in finding engaging material.  I'm excited to meet with these students.  I hope to see dramatic results.

I occasionally feel stressed when I think about the mandatory testing. My intuition tells me that I shouldn't give up on creating a community of learners, and my strategies will lead to increased test scores as students will increase their reading skills because they love reading.  

Two interesting comments from students today.  I had a student ask me if we were going to have time for "aesthetic" reading.  When I replied "Yes," she responded, "I love this class!"

Another student asked if he was going to have to complete a book report on his reading.  When I said he didn't, he responded, "Thank Goodness!" My third period class is a little harder than my other classes, but it was quite rewarding to have them all reading.  I have quite a few books in my classroom library (probably around 200) so there were some good options for the students.  I even have students talking to me about what they are reading.  Two books generate a lot of comments:  Girl Interrupted and The Hunger Games. 

The Beginning of the Journey

Every once in a person's lifetime, a person reads or hears something that elicits an epiphany. My epiphany occurred when my sister recommended the book The Reading Zone by Nancy Atwell. She claimed it would change my life. I have heard this occasionally before, so I wasn't really expecting to have a life altering event; however, I did. To simplify, the main idea I found to be that we, as English teachers and educators, are killing our students' love of reading. How can we, as lovers of literature, be doing this? By focusing extensively on strategy instruction, dissecting every aspect of a piece of literature, and taking our students out of the zone of becoming entranced by a novel.

This rang true to me as I remember disliking many of the novels I read in high school such as The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations. It isn't that I don't enjoy classic literature, but not being able to just read the book affected my enjoyment of the book. Having to be ever mindful of theme, plot, metaphors, analogies, etc. and then stopping to answer questions after each chapter definitely took me out of the reading zone.

As fate would have it, the next book recommended by my sister was The Art of Racing in the Rain. What is the art? Keeping your focus on the goal and being in "the zone" while navigating through life's challenges. Again, there was that phrase, "in the zone."

As I embark on a new year at a new high school, I realize that there is likely a better way to teach English than I have in the past, a way that increases students' skills but also engenders a love for reading and life-long learning. I want to find the art of teaching in the rain; I want to restructure my class so students find their zone.