![Picture](/uploads/5/5/9/4/55948699/1434036.jpg?1436721463)
Plus, having them check jupiter and then email me creates communication without adding noise to the room. The reason I'm so intent on keeping the room quiet is two-fold:
1) Half of the students wrote on their questionnaires that they learn best when the room is quiet.
2) Most of the students said they need help staying focused, and if students are talking to each other about non-class topics, it is very easy to get distracted - especially when there are several of those conversations happening at once. It gets loud, and loud is distracting.
But there are a lot of students who respond to me negatively when I try to get them on task. I was told, by four different students over five minutes "I'm not the only one talking, why aren't you going to everyone else and telling them to stop talking?"
And what is hard for these students to see is that I am telling other people to stay focused, but that student doesn't see me walking around telling others to stop because they were talking and not watching me walk around the room. But from their perspective, it must feel like:
"I'm talking, yes, but so are others. Why is he only coming to me? Why am I always the one that teachers yell at? I'm tired of being told I'm the worst person in the room when clearly I'm not!"
I need students to know that I'm never targeting one person and I don't think they are bad. I'm just watching them get work done more slowly, or not at all, and it's my responsibility to help them get as much done as possible. If I hear a voice, here's what I do:
1) I think, "Are they talking about the work? Or something else?"
2) I listen more closely and watch them - if it is about the work, I let it go.
3) If I hear a non-class topic, I wait to see if it's quick, like "is it going to rain today?" or "is the 4 train running?"
4) If it does NOT stop after like 20 seconds, I walk to the person, smile, and ask them if they are finished or confused about the work. Because I always first assume that students stop working because they are done OR confused. I never assume students just don't want to work - because it's summer school, if you don't want to work, you wouldn't come to school.
5) And when the student tells me they are finished or confused,I help them.
6) If a student tells me they are not confused or are not finished, then I ask them why they were talking about something else. Usually this goes well. But if it's the second, third, fourth, or more time that I'm coming to them, then I lose my patience and just tell them to stay on task. And that's when they get mad.
I wish my students could know that I'm not trying to annoy them. I'm trying to break the pattern that got them into summer school in the first place. I am on their side - that's why I teach summer school. I spend hours each day, outside of class, planning and preparing, and I don't get paid for that. I really want students to succeed and walk into school in September being better than they were, and thinking "summer school really helped".
Anyway, here's my plan for Monday (Day 5), which I'm super excited about:
Do Now: Finishing their "Week 1" blog entry (students made their own blogs! I'm so excited about this!)
Mini-lesson: How to comment in a Google Hangout
They must join all three google hangouts ( about the 4 teen autobiographical stories, "Girl", and "Harrison Bergeron") so I can grade them on staying on topic, responding to other people's comments, and they don't need to speak out loud, which many of them said they don't want to do on their questionnaires.
Here's how you write an original comment - use the comments from the peer editing sheets you filled out. Write a comment about:
- how the author used literary elements - conflict, mood, imagery
- what was hard about the story
- questions you had
- what you wanted to know more about
- what details you thought were unnecessary.
And to respond to other people's comments, you can:
- Ask a clarifying question because you don't understand what they are saying
- Ask the person for evidence from the text to support their comment
- Agreeing and adding a related comment or piece of evidence to someone's comment
- Disagree with a comment, and use evidence from the text to explain why you disagree
Then the students will practice writing comments by using 1 foot by 8 inch whiteboards. Since all students have already read the 4 short stories by teens, I'm using the shortest one "The Bus Stop" as my example text (if they did not read it, it is short enough that a student can read it quickly.) I will present different comments about this story and have all students write a different type of response (question, disagree, asking for evidence) on their whiteboards and hold them up. That way I can make sure they all understand how to have this discussion.
Then I allow the students who have finished all 3 pieces to start their discussions. If they are done, they need to log into their gmail account, and I will invite them to each of the 3 discussions. Then I will be watching what they say as students discuss. If students have NOT finished the 3 short stories, they need to do that immediately, because the Google hangout discussion will only happen today. They can join in whenever they want, but at the end of Monday, the discussion ends.
This is a way of having a "test" that lasts the whole period, where you cam join in or drop out of the discussion whenever you want. If students are done discussing and feel they have earned their perfect 50 points, they can then continue working on the autobiography short story.
When they are done writing, editing, and revising both their short stories, then they are going to post them on their blog along with a reflection for each story. Here is the reflection handout they are going to use to write their blog post:
How to write a reflection about your own writing
Reflection = serious thought and consideration
In order to reflect on yourself or your writing, you need to start by being serious. If you don’t care, the reflection won’t work. But if you are trying to be serious, then here are some easy ways to write a reflection that will let people know you have grown as a writer and a thinker. And remember, you need to be honest and detailed in your answers to these questions:
Reflection about the Writing Process
Writing Process = 1) brainstorming, 2) planning, 3) rough draft, 4) peer edit, 5) typing final draft
1) Explain your feelings about writing before you wrote this piece.
2) Explain if any of those feelings have changed after writing this piece.
3) If there was a change in your feelings, try to explain what during the writing process caused your feelings to change
4) If there was not a change in your feelings, why do you think nothing changed?
5) What did it feel like to have your writing peer edited by someone else?
6) Did your peer editors understand your story the way you wanted them to?
7) How did you feel when you read over people’s comments about your writing?
8) Do you agree with the comments people made about your writing?
9) Did peer editing other people’s work help you in your own writing process? Why or why not?
10) Did reading examples professional authors help you in your writing process? Why or why not?
11) If you could change anything about the writing process, what would it be? Why?
Reflection about the Writing Product (your piece of writing)
1) Re-read your piece of writing – are you happy with it? Why or why not?
2) Do you think your final draft is better than your first draft? Why or why not?
3) What did you change about your writing based on the feedback you received? Explain why you did or did not make any changes.
4) If you could change your final draft, what would you change about it? Explain why you would or would not make changes.
5) Are you comfortable showing your writing product to other people? If so, why? If not, why not?
6) Which literary elements did you use the most in your writing?
- a. Imagery (describing what things look like, sound like, smell like, taste like or feel like)
- b. Conflict (problems in a character’s mind/body or between a character and someone or something else)
- c. Mood (making the reader feel a specific emotion when they are reading)
8) Did you use any other literary elements or devices that were not mentioned in #6? For example:
- a. Tone (a specific way the narrator or character’s voices sound)
- b. Repetition (repeating words or phrases to get a specific effect)
- c. Symbolism (having a person, object, or word represent something else)
- d. Metaphor (comparing something to something else, without using “like” or “as”)
- e. Simile (comparing something to something else by using “like” or “as”)
- f. Allegory (your entire story is a metaphor for something else)
- g. Satire (your story is making fun of a real situation to make appoint or show your opinion)
Students will work on reading the short stories, google hangout, writing, editing, and revising autobiographical short stories, and doing blog reflections for the rest of class. They will finish with a blog post about Day 5 in class.