Grades and Education Philosophies

I have begun to apply for several teaching positions, and I have been thinking about how my grading philosophy can make a big difference for me as a first year teacher. As many of us are teaching in LPS, we all know about formative and summative. In middle school, summative makes 100% of a student's grade. Formative is seen as the practice before the big performance. At first I was a bit uneasy about this approach because I can see how students who won't do the formative work because it doesn't affect their grade, which I have several students who follow this. Formative seemed to be an enabling of student's not doing their homework, but I have come to realize how students need to do formative in order to successfully do the summative assignments.

I also see how formative grading causes students to have both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for their work. Many times we see students doing the work to get the grade, not to necessarily learn the material. I am constantly trying to get my students to slow down and thoughtful approach the assignment. However, I know many of my students have "instantaneous" mindsets about how things should be done with doing the work, getting the grade, and moving on. However, with formative assignments not making a grade, students have to make up their minds about how well they are going to do the assignment. This is where I can see the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations coming into play; however, you have to really explain to students how formative informs our summative grades.

As I begin to look at other schools, I have realized that not all schools use this grading process and in LPS high schools, it's an 80/20 split for the grade. So how do you implement your grading philosophy into the established grading process at your school? Obviously, you can't demand the change your first year, but perhaps after some time spent in the school, you can become an agent for change. However, I am a supporter of formative/summative, but I know that with not all schools using this form of grading, I need to be able to apply my philosophy accordingly. My first thought was using the 80/20 split; yet, how do you make sure your grade book isn't inundated with points?

I realize not all things done in class will have grades, but trying to modify a student's understanding of grades and the usefulness of doing assignments that aren't graded seems to be a constant battle. How do you enforce this necessity of doing assignments without a grade? Currently, I have been reading The Island on Bird Street by Uri Olvea with my students. We have reading guides that group two chapters together, plus 4 sticky notes to monitor their reading. My students constantly ask if this is going to be graded or if I am going to pick them up. However, having 150 worksheets passed in/back everyday uses valuable time. I know that these questions are helpfully for not only reading comprehension, but many of the questions are applicable to their final project, which is a character analysis for the book's main character. Still my students find that unless the assignment is graded, it isn't worth their time to do. It's frustrating at times, but I also know that school may times enforces this mentality. What are some ways you have tried to fight this mentality?

The "Talk"

Yesterday I had the "talk" with my students. My students had become completely inappropriate and disrespectful while we were discussing a serious moment from Night, Elie Wiesel's personal account about the Holocaust and time spent in Auschwitz/Birkenau and Buna concentration camps. Usually my students work well with the serious material in the text; however, yesterday it got out of control. They began making light of the moment and sometimes that is needed to help my student cope with the material. Still there is a point where it becomes inappropriate and when students are talking over each other, over me, and being disrespectful, it must be addressed.

I knew I would have to have the "respect talk" eventually with at least one of my classes, yet I didn't anticipate having it with my Diff. students. Our talk took place at a perfect time, right before lunch. So we were all able to walk away from our serious talk and I could walk away from being the mean teacher. This talk made me feel uncomfortable because it wasn't one I ever wanted to have with my students, especially with this class. Yet, I appreciate having this moment with my students. I didn't yell or even raise my voice. I talked calmly and evenly to explain my disappointment and knew that I wouldn't have to discuss this again with them because they were capable of conducting themselves accordingly, as they have done so before. It was a great "teachable" moment because I had students come up to me and thank me for taking charge of the chaos and re-establishing the expectations of the classroom. Today a student even gave me a little thank you card for always being respectful to my students and for treating them as adults, not ever raising my voice, and for pushing them to be better people.

As I reflect back on this moment, I feel I was able to show my students that I am serious about not only the material, but their development as people. To me, I proved that I will be their teacher, mentor, and that I will always try my best to maintain the learning environment for each of them. My CT wasn't in the room when this episode unfolded, but she was happy that I stood my ground, re-established the classroom climate, and when the students came back, I went forward with the "business as usual" mentality after lunch. It feels as if I was officially inducted as a teacher. But we can't always act without letting our emotions get in the way. How do we maintain a healthy balance between our head and our heart? How do we maintain a level-head when our students don't act appropriately or when we are at our rope's end? Can we not let such experiences effect the learning environment by placing an elephant in the room or clouding our thoughts about the class and making it difficult from them to change this opinion we have of them?

Are some stories too small?

Lately, I keep thinking about many of the theories and ideas discussed over the last two years in the program. As I begin to see their application in the classroom and the paradoxes that accompany them, I question whether or not I know how to wade through these issues with a purpose.

I just finished watching a BBC Production of The Diary of Anne Frank. As I sat there watching the mini-series trying to decide what part would be helpful to show the students, I found myself thinking about the stories that need to be told. For instances, Anne Frank was a young girl of 15 years who experienced numerous tragedies in her short life. Yet, as she wrote "Despite all things, I still believe there is good in the world" and shortly after was taken to a concentration camp, Anne knew that beauty and goodness still existed and would return again to her home of Amsterdam. But how many others stories out there still need to be told. What determines which stories are more important than others? And here is where I begin to question our honoring the little stories alongside the big stories.

Having several perpetual hand-raisers in my classes, constant storytellers among them, I catch myself wondering if these little stories are just too little to have significance. Is this slightly dishonorable to my students when I do value their stories, but also find their stories not important to be shared during class time? Building a space for these seems, at times, too distracting from the lesson's point. Palmer expresses this same issue in his writing of classroom paradoxes, but I haven't been able to pinpoint how I fit into this as their instructor. Does this then mean we don't provide a classroom centered enough on the student? Struggling at times to find the balance between students' stories and the natural flow of the classroom, it seems necessary to outline what I feel resembles too small a story. For instances, a student wanting to share their weekend with the entire class during the day's lesson seems rather insignificant to the Big story being told. How do we wade through these stories to produce the complete story with all the big and little stories involved with it?

Safely In and Safely Out

My students just finished up reading The Diary of Anne Frank (stage adaption) and we are getting ready to read our novels for the Holocaust unit we are studying. It has been so much fun with the students reading, using their acting chops to provide voices, inflection and emotion to the words of Anne Frank. However, I have began to wonder how to develop lessons that will provide a safe in and a safe out for my students.

The Holocaust is a difficult topic to teach because my students are further removed from it then previous generations. Even I am closer to its horrific events and I am barely a decade older than my students. Being such a horrible time in the world's history, I constantly question what can and can't be shown/told to my students. They are in 8th grade and have the capability of seeing and understanding the Holocaust, but at the same time their abstract thought process is still developing and concretely they see the wrong and the necessity of respecting humankind, yet the difficult material can create a difficult atmosphere and I struggle with how I can provide the appropriate material and still make them feel okay when we leave the classroom for the day.

My students are very inquisitive about the Holocaust and want to know as much as they can. But I hesitate in giving them all the information because I do feel protective of them. I don't want my students to necessarily take the weight of the world on their shoulders, but I do want them to realize they do have a role in it. The biggest thing they can do is stand up for each other when adversity is being acted out on each other. Yet, how do I do this without truly representing the Holocaust and its horrors in detail, but still provide a safety net for my students?

How do we determine passion?

Today I had the opportunity to observe another teacher on my 8th grade team. It was a great experience because I was able to see how my students interacted with others outside my classes, but also to see how other teachers approach their curriculum materials and objectives. As I sat there watching this teacher do their thing, I began to think about how passion is portrayed differently. I know that my passion for English is shown through my desire to always learn, to continue to hone my craft, and to show my students the wonder English can have, even if they don't like to read or write. But does passion need to be shown in the same way in order to be recognized?

Co-Teaching and Relationships

This week I will be co-teaching with my C.T. We are beginning our Holocaust Literature unit with our 8th graders, who are excited and very inquisitive about WWII and the Holocaust. As my C.T. and I prepare the lessons, it seamlessly falls into place. We easily plan, bouncing ideas off of each other, to form the lesson. However, maneuvering together and co-teaching the lesson hasn't quite congealed in the same manner. Comparing my student teaching to my practicum experience, co-teaching seems much more difficult and I believe it's because I don't have the same relationship built with my C.T. as I had with Heather. So I am wondering how much of a relationship do you need to have with the other instructor in order for the instruction to seamlessly flow together? Is a relationship even a necessity?

Several texts we have read throughout the past few years has emphasized the creation of relationships (or connections) with students. For a teacher to be effective, there must be an established connection with the students. Now I know this doesn't necessarily mean a teacher will be liked by his/her students, but I do feel that with many of my students, I don't feel I am being an effective instructor when there isn't some sort of connection with my student. So does this same idea apply itself with co-teaching? To be an effective partner in co-teaching, do you need an established connection with the other instructor(s)?  This question just continues to circle around in my head.

Behaviors and Hard Work

As I sit here, I find myself thinking about the classroom management and student behaviors. Currently, two students at my school are actively looking to get themselves suspended. They are best friends and they like to feed off each other, even though they are purposely not placed in the same classes together. These two boys are charmers and I have found myself wondering how easily teachers can get "blinded" by students, especially those who constantly misbehave. Several teachers at Scott have told me that these two students have gotten away with misbehaving because of their charm, which the teachers realize isn't beneficial to anyone.

This week we had our B.I.S.T. evaluation during team meeting. As we discussed the successes and areas of improvement for Scott, we began to discuss how behavior and academic work are separate from each other. Honestly, this is a difficult concept for me to accept. In my opinion, behavior and academic work have always seemed to be contingent with each other. Students who misbehave don't want to do the work, which is why they misbehave because it seems more worthwhile then the alternative. Yet, as I sat and listened to our district B.I.S.T. coordinator, I began to wonder if the misbehaving is more a call for help from the students, particularly the two I have who are actively seeking suspension at the moment.

Students are perpetually misbehaving are placed on protective plans with the B.I.S.T. program. Most students on protective plans have daily check sheets with designated goals focused on improving their behavior by making them accountable for it. However, it seems teachers seem to be putting more work into solving the students' behavioral issues. So what is the breaking point for teachers when they know they are work harder then the students? (Either behavioral or curriculum based) Granted teachers need to work hard to provide a learning environment for students, but when does this become too much work? When do teachers need to insist students work hard, or even harder, than their teacher?