As I've been wrapping up my Julius Caesar unit and my mythology unit, I've been grading unit assessments and returning them to students. Some of the grades are really low. I don't like to hand low grades back to students. Several students created fantastic statues of Julius Caesar characters, but the written portions of their projects were lacking or nonexistent. In most of these situations, the problem has been the student's failure to follow directions. With almost every assessment I have created, I've given the students a project description, along with some sort of rubric, even if it was minimal. If the students cared to know point values for different aspects of the assignment, those were available.
I do believe that students and teachers have to learn each others' styles. If I worked with these students for longer than eight weeks, I think some of them would learn to take me seriously. They would realize that when I say this project has three parts, they really have to do all three parts. Simply doing a great job on one part won't get you a good grade.
One thing I'm doing to encourage students, even when I have to give them bad grades, is to make encouraging comments on their papers. I've heard one teacher say that he can make a "C" feel like a congressional medal of honor, and he can make an "A-" feel like a slap in the face. He's probably doing that through his comments on student papers. I've been giving a lot of feedback, and I hope I've been able to encourage students, even when I've had to give low grades.
The traditional grading system certainly is not perfect. It doesn't seem fair that one student easily earns A's every week while another has to scratch and claw for C's. However, I have recently been a student in a class in which I knew the professor planned to give every student an A. Knowing she felt this way definitely affected the amount of attention I paid to that class. It became a lower priority for me than the other class I was taking. That experience convinced me that, even though the traditional grading system is not perfect, it does impact student motivation; as a teacher, I'm not ready to abandon it. So I keep assigning grades--high grades and low grades, and I try to find something positive to say even when I have to assign a low grade.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Week Six Journal Entry
On Thursday of this week, my English 10 students submitted their Julius Caesar projects. I had given them three options from which to choose for this project. The first option, an artistic response to the play, involved creating a three-dimensional bust of a character. I required that they identify four textual passages that would form the basis of their interpretation. The second option was to memorize Antony's funeral speech. This project choice required students to prepare an autobiographical study of the character, as well as blocking notes to encourage them to think about their physical performances. The third option was an essay response that required students to further investigate the issues and themes of the play.
I spent a lot of time creating the project descriptions. My main concern was that all the options should seem as equivalent as possible in terms of the work required of the students. After I assigned the project and asked students to commit to a particular option, I was a little concerned that so many of them chose the art project. One day in class I told them I was a little concerned that they must believe the art project was the easy option. I let them know that I had designed these options to be equally demanding. And then I waited to see what they would turn in.
The due date was Thursday, Feb. 12. Students started coming to turn them in as soon as they arrived at school so they wouldn't have to carry this stuff around all day. I was absolutely thrilled with their submissions. At this point, I have seen 23 statues and heard 6 speeches, but I have not yet read the essays. Two young men who had been absent on Thursday performed their speeches on Friday, and they were excellent. Mrs. T. commented that she had not thought any students would choose the speech option, and she had been very pleasantly surprised.
At the risk of tooting my own horn here, I believe the care I took in designing the project options really paid off. I believe students understood my expectations because they had been outlined very clearly. And they came through like champs.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Week Five Journal Entry
I have taught Ms. T's English 10 class for three full weeks. I will continue to teach it for a couple of days this coming week as we review the unit, take the unit test, and present projects. I almost wish I could teach Julius Caesar again next semester because there are some aspects of my unit I know I could improve on.
As I taught the unit this time, I had made pencil notes in the margins of the teacher's textbook to remind me to elaborate on or examine certain parts of the text with the students. Now I believe that I should have made better lecture notes. Lecture notes would have helped me to stay focused on the big idea of the unit. Such notes would also have helped me to give a more consistent lecture to both sections of English 10. At times, I know I said things to one class that I didn't say to the other. For instance, I discussed the map of a Shakespearean plot with one class, but not with the other. These inconsistencies complicate my assessments because I would have wanted to ask Block 2 about how the typical Shakespearean plot related to JC, but it wouldn't have been fair to ask Block 3. I regret this, but I'm not beating myself up too much over it because there is no way to teach every possible angle of this play, and I have to remember that this is the students' first reading. If they continue to read Shakespeare throughout their lives (big if), they will learn more with every reading.
Two major tools I used to help the students understand the play included the DVD recorded performance and comprehensive act-by-act study guides. However, I did not ask the students to take notes during class. Simply reading and understanding the archaic language was enough of a struggle for many of the students. As I compiled the unit test, however, I began to regret not asking them to take some notes on major concepts. This is something I will do differently if I teach the unit again.
One thing I think I have done well is prepare the unit test. I learned a lot in Dr. Enger's class, and I believe I write good assessments.
As we were finishing our reading of the play on Thursday, characters were dying right and left. Brutus and Cassius both "ran on their swords," and in the end, Brutus' body is laid out on a table. Antony stood over him, proclaiming him "the noblest Roman of them all." I decided that we should have a funeral for Brutus on Friday, complete with reception food and a guest book to sign. After all, these students worked very hard to read 100 pages of Shakespeare, and this seemed like a legitimate way to have a little celebration. The students agreed to dress in black and bring food. As it turned out, I had to leave school during the day on Friday to take my younger son to the doctor; he caught the flu my older son had last week. I was extremely disappointed to miss the funeral proceedings, but I left all my plans for Ms. T. to execute. I look forward to going to school on Monday to hear all about it.
As I taught the unit this time, I had made pencil notes in the margins of the teacher's textbook to remind me to elaborate on or examine certain parts of the text with the students. Now I believe that I should have made better lecture notes. Lecture notes would have helped me to stay focused on the big idea of the unit. Such notes would also have helped me to give a more consistent lecture to both sections of English 10. At times, I know I said things to one class that I didn't say to the other. For instance, I discussed the map of a Shakespearean plot with one class, but not with the other. These inconsistencies complicate my assessments because I would have wanted to ask Block 2 about how the typical Shakespearean plot related to JC, but it wouldn't have been fair to ask Block 3. I regret this, but I'm not beating myself up too much over it because there is no way to teach every possible angle of this play, and I have to remember that this is the students' first reading. If they continue to read Shakespeare throughout their lives (big if), they will learn more with every reading.
Two major tools I used to help the students understand the play included the DVD recorded performance and comprehensive act-by-act study guides. However, I did not ask the students to take notes during class. Simply reading and understanding the archaic language was enough of a struggle for many of the students. As I compiled the unit test, however, I began to regret not asking them to take some notes on major concepts. This is something I will do differently if I teach the unit again.
One thing I think I have done well is prepare the unit test. I learned a lot in Dr. Enger's class, and I believe I write good assessments.
As we were finishing our reading of the play on Thursday, characters were dying right and left. Brutus and Cassius both "ran on their swords," and in the end, Brutus' body is laid out on a table. Antony stood over him, proclaiming him "the noblest Roman of them all." I decided that we should have a funeral for Brutus on Friday, complete with reception food and a guest book to sign. After all, these students worked very hard to read 100 pages of Shakespeare, and this seemed like a legitimate way to have a little celebration. The students agreed to dress in black and bring food. As it turned out, I had to leave school during the day on Friday to take my younger son to the doctor; he caught the flu my older son had last week. I was extremely disappointed to miss the funeral proceedings, but I left all my plans for Ms. T. to execute. I look forward to going to school on Monday to hear all about it.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Week Four Journal Entry
I am sitting down to write this entry on Sunday night. I have worked a lot this weekend. On Saturday afternoon I did some planning, then I watched Jason and the Argonauts in preparation for the mythology class I'm picking up on Monday. I skipped church (and the sunday school class I was supposed to teach with my husband) and worked all day today. I got a lot done, and I'm in good shape going into the school week, but I really didn't have a weekend. I have a feeling that not only will student teaching continue to be this way, but also my first year of work will be this way. Every class I teach for the first time will be a blank slate, with all the planning to do and all the assessments to create.
I'll report a success before I sign off for the week. As I've written previously, I'm teaching Julius Caesar to my English 10 classes. I have asked both classes to vote on whether Mark Antony is a good guy or a bad guy. In Block 3, J. exclaimed in frustration, "I don't know! I don't know if he's a good guy or a bad guy!" I was thrilled, and I told J. that Shakespeare would be thrilled. I believe this is the beauty of Shakespeare's work...he revels in the "grayness" (as opposed to the black-and-whiteness) of the world. There are two sides to every story. At the time, I knew that J. was frustrated, and to a certain extent, I sympathized with him. But at the same time, it was a thrilling moment for me as a teacher. I had not simply told my students that the play was ambiguous; instead, I had led them into that moment. OK, I had a little help from the Bard.
I'll report a success before I sign off for the week. As I've written previously, I'm teaching Julius Caesar to my English 10 classes. I have asked both classes to vote on whether Mark Antony is a good guy or a bad guy. In Block 3, J. exclaimed in frustration, "I don't know! I don't know if he's a good guy or a bad guy!" I was thrilled, and I told J. that Shakespeare would be thrilled. I believe this is the beauty of Shakespeare's work...he revels in the "grayness" (as opposed to the black-and-whiteness) of the world. There are two sides to every story. At the time, I knew that J. was frustrated, and to a certain extent, I sympathized with him. But at the same time, it was a thrilling moment for me as a teacher. I had not simply told my students that the play was ambiguous; instead, I had led them into that moment. OK, I had a little help from the Bard.
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