Serenity NOW!

Breathe in, breathe out. Annoying 4th period.
Breathe in, breathe out. Cannot act like mature adults.
Breathe in, breathe out. Stop treating them like mature adults.
Breathe in, breathe out. This little grouping will need to change.
Breathe in, breathe out. I will go crazy on non-working children.

I think it's time to have some "conversations" with some of these children - especially the ones that are failing.

Completely unacceptable two students have an average below 40. Digging a hole, digging a hole. I can't think in complete sentences. Count to ten. We're going to have issues. I'm just glad this little grouping is right in front of me. I will separate them. If anyone goes it will be that one since he had a good seat (good for him, not for me) last quarter.

I am still fuming. We need two more minutes of writing time and I need ten more minutes to recover.

I love how they are 18 and claim to be adults, claim to be LEGAL and they act like they've never been in public before.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Writing Workshop: Writing Groups

It seems that lately, the only time I find to blog is during writing workshops in my English classes. That means that I can get a post in once a week, which is apparently pretty normal. If this is the case, however, why is it that it is October 26th, and I only have one other post for the month?

Today, my kids are engaging in their very first writing group meeting. I read to them excerpts from "The Helping Circle" and modeled a writing group, and it seems like they're doing a pretty good job. I hear some constructive comments, but they're still very timid about reading their writing aloud. Understandable - I would hazard to guess that there aren't very many teachers that have made them do this before. I hope they find it valuable; I know I do. I adore my writing group - I just hope my kids learn to adore theirs as well.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the college essays are over. I think after this week, I will split up my writing workshops like so:

1. Quick Write
2. Mini-Lesson
3. Writing Group Meeting
4. Work Time

I can't wait to see what they do for their own personal writing - if they do their own personal writing. They must do their own personal writing. I'm forcing them to - but doesn't that go against the whole idea? If I take a "damn the man" stance with writing workshops, doesn't that give them the right not to write anything? Yes, it does, but then they will lose credibility with their groups. Peer pressure is a lovely thing. If most of the group members are into this writing workshop thing, maybe they can goad reluctant group members into participating.

One thing I'm definitely going to make them do is submit to the Troubadour. I'm toying with the idea of making them look through Writer's Market and submit to an outside magazine. How cool would it be if one of my kids got PUBLISHED! I would die.

Conferencing is also, surprisingly, working out fairly well. It's not structured - just whoever wants help. I was very worried about the conferencing aspect of writing workshop, but I think I've made it work with my teaching style. Conferencing will come during the work time; I won't be interrupting writing groups for that.

That is all.

Question Floods, Part Deux

My fourth period is currently engaged in their second writing workshop. They are doing REALLY well with the question floods - much better than my first period. I think it might have something to do with the fact that they're more awake than my first period. I also really like how the groups I created interact with each other. Of course, I have a few that don't seem to be paying attention, but for the most part, people are getting along and aren't being shy about sharing. I was afraid they might be, considering the fact that about half of them indicated on their preference cards that they were NOT comfortable with sharing.

They just finished (or are still working on) their revisions. Some people wrote PAGES of stuff. One student in particular wrote on her preference card that she didn't like writing because she wasn't any good at it, but she is still writing as people are sharing their revisions. She's written at least two pages worth of stuff and is still going!

Writing workshops are my favorite thing in the entire world. It's so amazing that all of the techniques I learned over the summer are not idealistic dreams, but techniques that actually work and get them expressing their ideas. True, some take it more seriously than others, but I'm okay with that because we just started.

I'll hook them all. It will be done.

Writing Workshop #2: Question Floods

Got this idea from Kelly Gallagher's book Teaching Adolescent Writers. Essentially, what students do is read a rough piece of their writing to a group, then the group members ask a "flood" of questions. After they've written the questions and shared, students will take those questions and revise their work, adding details.

I'm not sure how it's all working out; it might be better if I worked on my revision, then I could show them how I changed mine!

And I did that - I really just don't feel well today. It makes it hard to be excited about anything.

The one thing I can say is that they wrote for the entire amount of time and while no one really wanted to share, I could tell that they were into what they were doing. It was really cool to watch.

I think it might be a bit difficult to get them to work on their personal writing. We need to do a topic brainstorm of some sorts - that's what I'll be looking for next. A way to get them to generate a list of what they want to work on. If there's anyone out there in cyberspace reading this that has a great idea of how to break seniors of the habit of being "assigned" topics to write, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you have!

Wikis and Collaborative Writing

One of the things that I have to do with my IB students this year is teach them how to write a commentary. It's basically an extremely detailed literary analysis, but it really is a pain in the ass to write.

I started them small with basic analysis, then we moved on to organization and claims, and now they're doing their first written commentary in small groups. I gave them about an hour to start in class, but told them to do the rest at home.

But however does one write a group paper when the group is not together? Here's where I introduced the concept of wikis, new to Blackboard and perfect for collaborative writing.

I showed them how to work the wikis, and one kid commented: "Wouldn't it be easier to do it through email?" I love it when I have an automatic answer that is indisputable.

"Why no. This is easier. See? You can work on it together without saving and sending the wrong attachment or the wrong version. Everything is right here and gets saved. And look, you can even look at the history to see all of the revisions!"

"Yeah. I you're right. I guess that is easier. Cool."

I kid you not. This is not me creating dialogue. He actually said this.

I'm curious to see how this works out. I'll be sure to let you know.

Back To School Night

The morning after Back to School Night is the worst morning of the entire year. For some reason, they always schedule it on a Tuesday so that the rest of the week feels like it is interminable. I am always tired and grumpy and completely not interested in doing anything regarding school. Which is highly unfortunate considering the fact that I am so behind in grading that it is making me twitch.

On a good note, one of my fellow teachers came to hang out in my room for a bit yesterday afternoon and gave my room (and me, I suppose) a great compliment. She said:

"It looks like English happens here."

First Writing Workshop - Success!!

What an AWESOME day! I had my first writing workshop with my students (all seniors). I decided after the Summer Institute to dedicate every Friday of the year to writing workshops. That's all my "literature teacher" conscience would allow!

I started the class with a Quick Write, which is what I have come to name the prompts that I give at the beginning of every class. Today, we started with "If I only had the time..." I was inspired to give the kids this prompt because time if one of the things that I worry about with this whole writing workshop idea. Here's what I wrote:

"If I only had the time to do everything that I want to do with these kids this year, I would be a happy camper. I'm already starting to feel a little anxiety about writing workshops! I'm going to have to take out content in order to do them every Friday, and I thought I was okay with that - and for all intents and purposes, I am - but I keep thinking about things to cut from my curriculum.

I've already decided to cut the ballads assignment - I may forgo ballads altogether (not even sure if that's a word) and replace it with writing workshop, which I consider to be a much more purposeful activity!

I'm a little nervous about workshops with the SL kids. They have so much to learn before they're ready for the IOC's that I worry that taking a Friday off twice a month would kill time that needs to be spent another way! Then again, if we look at the IB rubric - it pretty much tells me that writers appreciate OTHER writers and their craft better, so that's one rationale for including workshops in the curriculum."

At that point, time was up, but I'm just going to hit the highlights of what I wrote for the rest of the period.

"Alright - we've picked up our writing folders. Only one missing... I'm kind of looking forward to doing "Writing Process on the Wall". It should be very interesting - maybe - only that I forgot to make one for myself. I'm really surprised that they're so into this writing thing - they're ACTUALLY WRITING! Hurray!"

This is an excerpt from the second workshop of the day:

"If only I had the time, I would do writing workshops EVERY DAY! It went SO WELL with my kids today, I can barely stand it! They seem so receptive to the whole thing, it's ridiculous!

I wish every day were a Friday - it even makes blue days more tolerable. Two writing workshops in ONE DAY! So much time for me to write and take notes on what's happening in class! When the actual writing really starts, I will be able to do some stuff with my writing too!

Here's a (short) list for what I want to work on:

• Writing Group Wikis: Post your writing and get feedback from your group
• Reserve the Elmo and show my writing process from a first draft to a finished piece that was sent off for publication."

As if Fridays weren't good enough already...