Teaching Teachers to Supercharge Their Classrooms

This year my district has adopted a year-long cohort model for professional development. District administration selected teachers to lead cohorts and allowed teachers to select a cohort that matched their particular need or interest. After a month of school, early results indicate success.

I'm hoping my PD cohort looks something like this.
"TeamWork" by Luigi Mengato (CC BY 2.0)

After applying for a cohort leadership position, the district admin selected me to lead a cohort about student engagement and classroom management. They challenged me with helping my cohort members learn how to generate a more positive classroom experience while increasing the amount of interest and the quality of learning for our students.

Easier said than done!

I first thought of the book Teach Like a Pirate. Dave Burgess and his crew specialize in student engagement, and the book and Twitter chats (#TLAP) have given me a wealth of ideas about creating a more exciting and welcoming classroom for my students. So I knew I wanted to help spread the PIRATE culture to my mates.

I also looked to other Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. publications like Learn Like a Pirate, Explore Like a Pirate, Play Like a Pirate, and Ditch That Textbook for ideas to share with my cohort members. These books are must haves for any teacher's professional library, and I found excellent points to discuss at our first meeting.

After one meeting (on a day before the school year began) and on the eve of our second meeting, I can decisively say that I have learned more from planning these meetings than I have learned from all the PD I've attended in the past five years. I hope my cohort members can say the same.

In our next meeting, I plan to enable group discussions about what we want to do and what we need to do to increase student engagement in our classroom. I want teachers to share what is working for them and what they want to improve. I want to let them know that our classrooms should be safe spaces for everyone and that we need to take ourselves and our content less seriously every once in a while and let our kids be kids.

As I finish my planning for our next meeting, the final person I want to introduce my cohorts to is Ron Clark, the founder of the Ron Clark Academy. Having had the pleasure of hearing Ron speak earlier this year, I must say that I really want to be a student in his school. I'm guessing I'm not the only person who has said that. His energy and passion for education and above all his kids makes me want to be a better teacher.

I'm hoping his example rubs off on my cohorts and leads them back to their classrooms with an increased desire to do even more to engage their students in a meaningful educational experience.

Our First Attempt at PBL

We had a pretty good day in our classroom this week, and I owe most of it to project based learning.

"purple passion FSOD" by Anthony Easton (CC BY 2.0)

The remainder belongs to pure dumb luck.

This week I started my first official PBL lesson asking my students to create a blog about something they are passionate about. Using the driving question of "How can I get more people to read my writing?" my students set out to create a blog to share their greatest interest with an authentic, world-wide audience.

To kick off the unit, I showed Neil Pasricha's TED Talk about his creation of the two-time Webby Award winning blog 1000 Awesome Things. His talk explains The 3 As of Awesome: Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity. These three ideas gave us a great jumping off point to talk about the driving question.

As we talked, I got on a roll and launched into a full-fledged motivational speech. One of my grander moments in the classroom, if I do say so myself. More importantly I had as close to full class engagement as I have had in a long time. The last time I had this much engagement was just after I realized that I was wearing one black sock and one blue sock. Kids love my misery.

I spoke about my experience with writing and gathering an audience and working to create a product that might give something of value to my audience. When I was finishing my remarks (really, I was running out of things to say), the magic happened. I worked my way into a rousing conclusion, reinforcing my main points, and just as I finished, the bell rang to dismiss class.

This magic has happened before, but this lesson was different. This lesson expressed an important and personal topic with the opportunity for students to explore their own interests and follow their own passions. Finishing my remarks just as the bell rang created excitement but nowhere near the excitement we all felt about the opportunity that PBL created for us.

My Best Year Ever!?!

"jump" by Michael Kaltenböck  (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Every teacher I know leaps for joy at the end of the year. Unfortunately, not every one of us takes the time to look back at all that we accomplished. Did I help my students learn? Did I make a difference in their lives?

As I close the book on another year, I reflect back on the year. The highs and the lows. I have found that my biggest professional gains occur in these moments of quiet reflection. The time I spend considering my successes and failures provides the space to grow from year to year.

So I ask myself: was this my best year ever?

Keeping in mind a growth mindset, I consider what I have done to improve myself as a teacher and the learning environment for my students. In a word, yes, it was my best year ever. However, I know I have much more work to do before I return to my classroom in August.

My growth began with a three day professional learning experience last summer. Several fellow teachers and an awesome middle school librarian spent three of our summer vacation days studying with Penny Kittle, learning all about Book Love, writer's notebooks, and non-fiction reading. At the end of those three days, I knew I wanted to change so many things about my classroom, but I was unsure about how to accomplish everything I wanted.

My first task was to begin. So much can change because we begin. Nothing will change if we never do.

Having seen my wife's successful implementation of Book Love in her English classes the previous semester and bolstered by spending three days with Penny Kittle, I knew my students would be spending at least 10 minutes a day independently reading. However, I didn't know what that would look like or how I was going to build a classroom library to sustain their reading.

Starting in July, I set out to make the south wall of my classroom into a library. At the end of the school year, I now have over 500 books to share with my students. Not all are amazing. Some never get read. But almost all of my students have read at least one of the books from our classroom library.

Then another teacher and I sat down with our curriculum and got to work. We limited the number of teacher selected texts to create space for student selected texts and time for students to read them. This enormous change startled many of my students, but as they came to expect those 10 minutes of reading every day, they embraced the opportunity and dove into the world of books.

During the year we discussed and wrote about the books we were reading. Students told me they hadn't read a book in years. Some told me how much they missed reading. Some told me I was cruel for forcing them to read a book every day. Guess which group I need to focus on even more!

This fall my library will double. A few days ago I received a phone call from Penny Kittle telling me the Book Love Foundation was awarding me a 500 book library for my classroom. What a bookend to my year. Three days with Penny Kittle last summer and a Book Love grant this summer!

Where would my students have been if I had told myself that I couldn't build a library? Where would they be if I said I couldn't change the curriculum? Where would they be if I hadn't made the effort to improve my teaching?

My commitment to independent reading has just begun. I know I need to do a better job conferring with my students and understanding their reading lives. I know I need to broaden my understanding of all genres of literature to be a better advocate for books in my classroom. I know I need to incorporate more reading skill lessons. I know I need to provide even more occasions for writing about the reading we do and the lessons we learn.

I started the year with a plan to incorporate independent reading as a daily activity in my classroom by revamping my curriculum and building a classroom library. I ended the year watching most (not all unfortunately) of my students having reading success.

I'd say that qualifies as my best year ever!

Now I get to do it again next year, and I can't wait.

Reflecting on Book Clubs

This school year I began experimenting with book clubs in my AP Literature and Composition courses, and we are about to begin our final book club of the year. After the first book club, I asked my students to provide some feedback on the experience, and I hope that the modifications I've made to the process will help the second book club run smoother.

"Book Club Logo" from Changing Hands Book Store

During the last book club, students chose from a variety of 20th century American Novels. They could select Slaughterhouse-Five, Catch-22, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, or Invisible Man. I chose these titles because they all meet the criteria of "literary merit" for the AP Exam but also because they offered students a wide variety of styles and topics to choose from.

Our second book club will focus on dystopian novels: 1984, Brave New World, and The Handmaid's Tale. Like the previous book club, I chose these titles because I wanted to provide a range of options for my students.

What have I learned so far?

1. Sell the Books. When I introduce the books, I like to provide some background on the author, the subject of the book, and the style of writing. I've been doing book talks all year, so my students are familiar with me getting excited about books. My excitement for the titles rubs off on the students as they begin reading.

2. Provide Structure. I hoped my students would gather together every few days and discuss at length the characters, plot, setting, literary elements, and the meaning of the work. I soon realized I was wrong. Each group needed a different amount of structure, so I started with more supports in place and allowed groups to veer from my plan for their meetings as they became more comfortable. I try my best not to commit readicide, but I do ask that each group take notes and complete an exit ticket reflecting on their group and their individual progress.

3. Be Available to Help. My students expressed an almost universal positive attitude toward book clubs, but many expressed a suspicion that they could have gotten more from their book. Several students wrote during the reflection over the book club that their discussions lacked the depth of teacher-led discussions. As I read the essays they wrote after their reading, I could notice certain areas of the books they did not consider fully or they may have misinterpreted. During the next book club, I'm going to be even more present to assist students deepen their understanding.

4.  Give Up Control. I'm not too proud to admit that I love the attention I command as a teacher. But if I'm doing all the talking, I can't tell if my students are doing any learning until the end of a unit. And at that point I can't help those students who are struggling or faking their way through. As I give control of discussions to the book clubs, I can begin to observe which students are truly understanding what they've read and those who aren't.

5. Snacks Make Everything Better. I didn't think about this before, but my students loved making snacks for their book club days. Some groups even created a rotating schedule. Those students did not want to leave book club snacks to chance. The relaxed and intimate atmosphere of the book club helped students open up more and share their thoughts.

What will I change next time?

"Change" by Susan Ackeridge (CC BY-ND 2.0)

1. Offer Even More Choices. I limited my students to books I felt comfortable with, and I shouldn't have. Most of my students have enjoyed participating in book club this year, but I want them to have even more options in the future. As the spring progresses and summer returns, I will continue to find books that I can add to the rotation for book clubs next year and into the future.

2. Ask Students to Pick Their Top Three. This year I gave everyone their top choice of book. I was lucky we wound up with relatively similar size groups and with a good mixture of students in each group. Next year I plan to have each student list their top three choices and then create the groups to ensure even group sizes and composition. I can only do this if I offer more choices, so this depends on the previous addition to my administration of book clubs.

3. Allow Students to Choose The Final Assessment. In my AP Lit classes, I have my students write essays about the books they read as practice for the AP Literature exam in May. In my other classes and as an additional assignment in AP, I want to give students the freedom to demonstrate their understanding of the book they read. If I am giving up control, I should be giving up control over the final assessment as well.

What have you learned about book clubs? What do plan to do next time? Have you been in a really good book club (in school or out of school)? Have you been in a really bad book club? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Eliminating Clutter

Every year I seek to teach my students to eliminate clutter in their writing, and every year I encounter a renewal of one variety of clutter or another.

"Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds--the writer is
always slightly behind." --Wm. Zinnser
"Dandelion" by Leo-seta is licensed under CC BY 2.0

This year my students appear to believe verbs must be written in the progressive tense. They introduce quotations with "The writer is saying that..." or analyze text with "This quote is meaning that..."

This year's epidemic takes its place next to the annual creators of clutter: excessive wordiness, unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, long words, and ponderous phrases and euphemisms.

We can do so much better without the clutter, namely the "-ing" progressive verbs and the heap of extra words they require. Below is a student example from a recent writing assignment about a poem we read in class:

"This quote is showing that the narrator usually is going with others because he's living his life one step at a time to try and not hurt anyone."

That's THREE progressive verbs among the various clutter. He employs 28 words, but few of them convey his ideas.

And what did the student include that he doesn't need?

"This quote..."  (Awkward transition) Students want to connect back to the previous quote or evidence. If their sentence makes a clear point about the previous sentence, they do not need this awkward transition. Cut it.

 "...is showing that..."  (Progressive verb #1) Rather than consider the appropriate verb to demonstrate what the writer "is showing," students resort to a stock phrase that adds nothing to the sentence. Clutter. Cut it.

"usually"  (Adverb) No need to qualify the statement. This is clutter. Cut it.

 "...is going..."  (Progressive verb #2) Changing this to "goes" saves one word, but even a single word not doing work is clutter. Cut it.

"...because he's living his life..."  (Progressive verb #3) Do we need to remind people that the speaker of the poem is alive? Cut it.

"...one step at a time..."  (Cliche) Clutter. Cut it.

"...to try and..."  (Redundant) More clutter. Cut it.

 So what is left of this sentence? Not much. Behind the clutter, this writer has produced little substantive thinking about the literature. Without the clutter, we get this:

"The narrator goes with others to not hurt anyone."

Nine words! Success. While the new sentence lacks a complete analysis, it provides a clean starting point for the student to engage in deeper thinking about the poem. Readers can also see the author's claim and understanding of the text he quotes.

The next step for this writer includes a stronger understanding of the speaker (beyond the basic "narrator") as well as a stronger verb than "goes with." He might also sharpen the discussion of what it means "to not hurt anyone."

Once writers eliminate the weeds (clutter), they can focus on saying something valuable.

Our Blogs are Alive

My students have begun the process of creating passion blogs--online explorations of one subject they choose. And I feel a bit like Dr. Frankenstein when I survey the student writing this assignment helped create. They have chosen to blog about music and cars, sheep and cows, favorite clubs and subjects and sports.

I see all kinds of subjects and styles. But this assignment has brought them all together and breathed life into their writing by providing them choice.

As a traditional classroom teacher, I normally assign a writing prompt and wait for 20 to 25 copies of a very familiar product to arrive from each hour I teach. Upon receiving these cookie-cutter essays, I then question my sanity in assigning them in the first place.

Attempting the experiment of passion blogging scared me, but upon reading my students's blog posts, my fears vanished. Instead I feel excitement. My students have the opportunity to choose a topic dear to them and write about their choices.

Their stories blew me away.

A 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400
(Image Source)

Megan's story about bonding with her father over a shared appreciation of muscle cars got me think about my own father and the relationship I am forming with my sons. My father used to drive a muscle car of his own, a Pontiac Firebird 400. It's one of the few memories I have of him. As my oldest son approaches his teen years, I want to share with him the mechanical knowledge I have so we might develop a bond around a shared interest.

Kylie's intimate discussion of the power of theatre made me reflect on the value of belonging. I wanted to act, but our high school only performed musicals. If you couldn't sing (and I couldn't), you need not apply. Instead I was in the pit orchestra. My experience in band gave me the same excitement and sense of belonging that Kylie writes about in her blog post.

I might have gotten my students to this point with a traditional assignment. Possibly. Maybe. Probably not. Now that I have seen what an authentic audience and a student-selected topic can do, I don't think I can ever go back.

So hand me a lab coat and call me Dr. Frankenstein. I am going to keep asking my students to bring together as many random subjects as we can. I hope they paid the electric bill.

Writing Blogs to Boost Engagement

To get my students writing more and thinking deeper about their writing, I am embarking on an experiment this quarter with my senior level Composition course. Over the last nine weeks of the year, my students and I will each choose a topic of personal interest and create blogs to explore those topics.

I learned about this passion blogging concept at last month's Write to Learn Conference in Osage Beach, MO in a presentation by Elisabeth Alkier (@elisabethalkier), a 7th grade teacher from St. Joseph, Missouri. Ms. Alkier and her students blog about the subjects they find most fascinating; her personal blog displays her love of Science-Fiction while her students chose an amazing range of topics for their blogs.

Elisabeth's students are demonstrating real-world writing skills and look like they are having a blast doing it. I want the same learning to happen in my classroom. With all the new initiatives I've implemented this year, I feel stretched to a breaking point. However, my seniors expressed interest in this new adventure when I shared it with them, so with their commitment, we are setting forth into the world of blogging.

Our Task

These "Passion Blogs" should demonstrate our understanding of our chosen subject. My passion in the Language Arts Classroom revolves around independent reading and authentic writing. In this blog I plan to explore everything I know about these subjects and seek out exciting opportunities to get my students reading, writing, and thinking in new and fascinating ways.

My next steps include creating a blogging community and getting my students to read and write about their passions. Check back often to see how my students take to this new opportunity.