Reading and the Common Core

1 Comment

For the past two weeks I have been really diving into the Common Core Standards.  As I have mentioned before my school adopted the Common Core starting this year.  I have to say I am greatful for this because it really gives my colleagues and I a chance to really get organized and put them into place for the future.  Those of you that are teaching the Common Core know that they are challenging.  I don’t know about you, but I love a challenge.

I have really been focused lately on the reading standards.  More specifically the texts suggested that “illustrate the complexity, quality, and Range of Student Reading” for grades 6-8.  Below are just a few examples of suggested literature (stories, dramas, poetry) reading the Common Core gives in case you haven’t seen them.

  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
  • The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
  • Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

Now, all of these deserve some recoginition, but I have some general concerns and questions about the suggested literature list posted by the Common Core. Even though there seems to be a focus on classics here and the the suggested literature for high school, my biggest concern is that not of these texts reflect any work done by current or more recent authors.  The most recent work was done by Mildred Taylor and that was published in 1976.  Currently my 7th graders are reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and I am getting positive feedback from them for the most part.  The othe titles on here I feel are not that attractive to middle level readers.  As most poeple know, I am a huge advocate for boy’s literacy and I assure you Little Women will not go over to well with middle school boys.  I remember grabbing this book off the shelf in my middle school library as a 7th grader.  I read the first 60 pages and took it back.  It was not for me.  Now, I know as teachers we are NOT required to teach these literature pieces, but I feel like I am put into a tough spot as a teacher not to choose them.  Being part of a small district, I know it will be tough as a language arts committee to approach our district improvement team and ask for sets of these novels.  That is an expendature that is not on the docket yet.  So I have 4 questions:

  1.  What literature can I choose if these titles that are suggested are unattractive? 
  2.  How do I look at what literature I am teaching now in class and decide is it perplexing and challenging enough to meet the standards?
  3. Do I have to completely redo my curriculum and units I am doing in class now to implement those types of texts that are more challenging?
  4. How does a district divide up the literature and suggested informational texts between grades 6-8?

I am not saying these are difficult questions to answer, but what I am saying is perhaps there could have been a list of books that could more closely connect with students today. Less classics, more modern selections.  Who picked these suggested texts anyway? I know there has to be complex, modern texts available that can do the same things that the suggested texts can do.  On another note, I feel as if we are on a spinning wheel of curriculum where we have to implement, yet again, a new curriculum and try to figure out how it fits into our classrooms.

I will continue to do research and figure out what are some options that are available and I am ready for any feedback anybody hasn for me and others.

Cheers!

Book Project for Christmas Break

Standard Leave a comment

Friday was the kick off for my students to begin their Christmas vacation book project. This is the first year I have had any of my students do the project while on a break. To begin, my students have to choose a book that is at least 100 pages long and the book can not be related to a movie in anyway. In addition, I ask the students to not read something they have not already read. At the conclusion of their reading they must choose to do 1 of 2 projects. They need to either make a 6 sided three-demential cube or create a glog on glogster.com. The three-demential cube is related to a math unit they covered in their math class dealing with surface area and three-demential shapes. The choice of the glog comes from the technology standard that comes out of the CCSS. Overall, my main goal of the project is for my students to be engaged with reading on their own and for them to explore some new genres. Furthermore, my requirements the students are meeting for the project are covering some of the reading standards for the Common Core. For example, tying theme or the central idea to the characters, setting and plot. Also, I don’t want my students being bored with a traditional book report. If you are attending the Michigan Reading Association(MRA) conference in March, I will presenting some student examples in my session.

So, to get them ready for this project, I have taken the 7th and 8th graders down to the library and the book fair for the past two weeks and I have had some interesting conversations with my students and I have witnessed some miraculous transformation with my students. As always I received a few grumbles and groans about the project. Little did my students know, most of them would be engaged in a book outside of class. I am orally reading The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins with my students and we are just about finished. My students are begging me more and more each day to keep reading. With the book project, I have several students reading the second book in the series and I am seeing students read in the hallway. These are 7th and 8th graders I am talking about. It has been amazing. The math teacher approached me last week and said she was having great conversations with students about books and what they are reading. She has enjoyed it. I think she has even had to get after kids for reading in her class.

Just the other day I had several boys ask me if they could read Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. I said sure why not. I am in full support of graphic novels. Nevertheless, they were really surprised by my response to their answer. I clarified to them I am pleased they are taking an interest in reading something. Hell, I remember growing up spending hours in my local library reading Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side.

After the boys and I talked, I approached a young man who was struggling with finding a book. I asked him his interests and after discovering he liked the outdoors and hunting, I pointed him to the author Gary Paulson and a book by a different author called Touching Spirit Bear. Great author and great book. After he made his decision, he was asking me about what the big deal was about reading. He was struggling with why people talk about books and form book clubs. I asked him if he felt left out. He responded by saying he could never understand what they were talking about. I worked this conversation to the fullest and told him it isn’t so much fun feeling like you don’t belong or know what people are talking about. He is definitely one of the popular kids and he never did respond, but I think he got the point of what I was saying.

The final thing I noticed was how much my students opened up and responded to me when I actually did take a vested interest in them and asked them about books they have read and what they they like to read. I have been forming more solid relationships with my students all because of reading. Who says reading isn’t powerful? I beg to differ and I can’t wait to see what kind of work my students produce over Christmas break.

Cheers!

Trying to Make Sense of the Common Core

1 Comment

Before I begin today’s blog, I just wanted to say thank you to my followers and all of those who have voted for me. I don’t anticipate on winning, but it is nice to know people are finding value in what I write.

I am not afraid to say that I am struggling somewhat with the Common Core Standards, especially when it comes to the argumentative writing. I am getting help and improving. My school adopted the language arts and mathematics standards starting this school year. Recently I enrolled into some professional development about project based learning and how to integrate it with Common Core. I have heard many professionals comment on the positives of project based learning and I am excited to start the PD after Christmas break. So, for this professional development I need to read a book titled Understanding the Common Core by John Kendall. I started to read the book last night and I can at least say I am starting to get a small clue where this came from, which helps. I wanted to write about some of my thoughts. First, the book I am reading has a small paragraph at the beginning discussing how textbooks used to be the “The Curriculum”. I know this is not the case today, but what is really disturbing is I have witnessed teachers doing this in the past. It hasn’t been teachers I have directly worked with, but I have seen it done. Textbooks are supposed to be an extension of the curriculum and teachers aren’t supposed to go from cover to cover and assume they have done their job with curriculum.

A little further in the book, the author discusses key aspects of the language and literacy standards. When he talks about reading he describes a three part model used to evaluate a text’s level of complexity. Two of these parts are quantitative tools and qualitative criteria. The third is the relationship among the reader, the task and the text. I have always shuttered whenever I have heard the term quantitative when it comes to language arts. Just last year I got into a heated debate with another teacher about how I think quantitative data doesn’t apply to language arts, especially when it came to writing. Now, I know that writing doesn’t apply to what the author was saying, but like I said, I don’t like quantitative associated with language arts period. How can one properly put a number on a student’s piece of writing. I can’t measure a student’s growth as a writer by putting a number on it. I see growth in my students in a way that isn’t measurable by numbers. As a teacher of writing, I am looking more for qualitative measurements. I am sure my fellow language arts teachers know what I am talking about, or at least I hope they do. Even when it comes to reading, I could probably argue against quantitative tools or methods.

If anything, I can say the Common Core and the book I am reading has me thinking every day and I am on my toes. What I plan on doing over Christmas break is to take the Standards and break them down and make charts that show the standard and what I do for each of them in my classroom. It is a huge undertaking, but I feel it is going to be worth it. I am always looking for literature on implementing the Common Core. It could even benefit me as a presenter too.

Cheers!

Tech or No Tech

Standard 2 Comments

Yesterday we had a staff meeting and to be very honest, I felt it was our most productive staff meeting we have had thus far. I am blessed with some pretty remarkable colleagues. For the past two months there has been some major issues with the technology in our building. A majority of the complaining was justified, especially when teachers couldn’t access their grade books to input grades or show students reports. My principal, who is an amazing administrator, advocates repeatedly for us, and has our backs. Today our school counselor sat us down and discussed with us how we need to stop being so dependent upon technology. She referred to a bit that was on Nightly News with Brian Williams broadcasted Wednesday, November 30th. It discussed a school that thrives on Not using technology in the classroom and throughout the whole school. Now, this was a hard pill for me to swallow because I love using technology. Another colleague and myself were just given the green light to look at smart boards and I am excited. On the other hand, as I watched this video clip and listened to what my counselor had to say, I decided I needed to make some immediate changes in my classroom and how I was instructing my students and what I was truly using technology for in my classroom. Our counselor gave us a message, and that was to remember we are the experts in our classroom, not the computers we are so desperately wanting to work. She talked about how technology should be an extension of our teaching, not let the technology do our job. Yes, this makes sense to me, I am not going to argue the point she is trying to make. I am guilty of whining and trying to spend 20 minutes getting my computer to work (now I have one that is pretty close to brand new). In addition to her discussing how technology needs to be extension of our learning, she also talked about how if we focus too much on trying to rely on technology, we lose touch with our students and the valuable relationships that need to be built with our students. Again, it makes sense, I hear the message loud and clear.

Now, the message may be loud and clear, but I love using the online tools that are available and I am not an educator that “relies” on technology to make my lesson plans, but I want my students to get with the 21st century. It is hard to believe, but I do have students who don’t have a computer or the internet at home. Is it not going to be essential for my students to be able to work with computers? Ummm, of course it is, a lot of jobs are revolving more and more around computers. I also know my students have a great deal of difficulty with problem solving skills. Could their lack of problem solving skills be due to the fact they have a lot of information right at their fingertips? Nevertheless, I won’t completely change my philosophy on using technology in the classroom, but I know I want to do a better job of reaching out to students who are hungry for an adult to have a relationship. I need to spend more time having in depth conversations and giving my students the necessary skills they need that a computer or any other piece of technology can’t give them. So, I encourage all of my fellow teacher friends to use technology to enhance your learning and not replace it. Furthermore, try and reach out to your students and build a valuable relationship with them and let them know they have someone they can trust.

Cheers!

Grammar, My How You Perplex Me

Standard Leave a comment

So it has been a few days since any real thoughts came across my brain concerning my teaching or my classroom. Besides being really bummed about not attending NCTE this year, I have been critically thinking about grammar and how to teach it with meaning in the classroom. Grammar and how it should be taught has been an ongoing discussion in our monthly department meetings. Last Spring we took action and ordered Jeff Anderson’s Mechanically Inclined. Over the summer we met and had our own book club with our department. Anderson’s book is written really well and if you haven’t heard him speak, you need to make it your first choice the next conference you attend where he is speaking. I love his sentence strip activity, the idea of bringing mentor text into the classroom to show students how writers use appropriate grammar in their writing, and how he has students set up their writers notebook. My favorite idea is AAAWWUBBIS. The idea behind this bizarre but adequate saying is to help students remember subordinating conjunctions and for students to have a way to remember different ways a complex sentence can be formed. There are many other ways Anderson explains how grammar can be taught efficiently in the classroom. I really liked the fact he said that students will show you what they need to work on. I agree with this and I also think that students need a certain amount of practice too. With the Common Core being implemented this year into my district it is pretty well spelled out what needs to be taught at each grade level when it comes to grammar. It isn’t set in stone, but it is much more definitive than what our State curriculum presented to us in the past.

However an English teacher looks at it, there probably isn’t a magic method to teach grammar. I use some methods introduced in Anderson’s book and I try other strategies that I have picked up in the past. Regardless of what I do, or what anyone does, I think it truly does depend on the group of students you have from year to year. I love my students this year; both my 7th and 8th graders. They have made it easy to try new teaching methods in my classroom. One of my 8th graders today said, “Mr.Hyler, this is the first time this year you have given us a worksheet!” I smiled and replied, “Yes, and I am sorry.” Believe it or not, it was a grammar exercise. Though I don’t pride myself on delivering worksheets to my students and I never will, it was necessary for them to have some practice today to make sure they were brushed up in their skills.

I believe grammar will continue to perplex even the most brilliant language arts teacher and I also believe we will continue to not only develop new ways to teach grammars in our classrooms, but we also revisit some old methods as well. After all, I taught my students to diagram sentences last year and I know one our high school teachers did the same earlier this year.

Cheers!