Learning, Laughter, and Love in Middle School English

I have been giving feedback on student writing for nearly 30 years!  Thousands of hours have been spent writing comments, asking questions, circling errors, and trying to grade each assignment objectively.  Of course, I always found it frustrating when students did not read the comments that I so painstakingly wrote.  Many just looked at the grade and continued on with their day.  Another challenge I faced was trying to give students feedback on how to improve without crushing their spirits!  How often have we said something in an email that didn't come off the way we intended?  I certainly don't want to hurt my students' feelings or make them feel they're horrible writers!  After reading posts by Catlin Tucker and Marissa Thompson, two of my Twitter mentors, I knew that writing conferences were something I had to try.  I would meet with every student, discuss their writing (in this case, a narrative) and with them, decide on a score for ea...

Students working on a Nearpod Lesson It's official.  I have made it through the first month of school with standards-based grading!  I must admit that I was nervous because I had only put formative assessments in the grade book as of Thursday. None of those count towards the student's grade, so I was expecting some concern from parents.  Obviously, they want to know how their child is doing!  Well, lucky for me, they did not complain (at least not to me). I am grateful for their support and made sure to explain my system through a letter, as well as at Back to School Night. As I pondered this new system over the summer, I grappled with wanting students to be able to practice and learn the standards while not being penalized for mistakes.  I decided to make all of the formative work worth 0% of the student's grade and make summative assessments worth 100%.  Of course, my biggest concern was how to get students to do this work if they weren't ...

I have written about grades before (January 2017).  Yet, I think it is a topic worth revisiting.  This summer I have been reading numerous books and articles about grading practices, and it has led me to want to revamp my practices even more than I already have.  Grades, in my opinion, should reflect a student's mastery of standards and skills.  They should not reflect compliance. They may or may not reflect effort.  However, with effort, all students should be able to be successful. So, what do I believe needs to happen? MY SUMMER READING 1) Allow students opportunities to redo, revise, and retake.  Yes, that includes tests.   Oh, and don't average the first test with the retake.  Give the student the highest score.  Some may argue that this isn't fair; the student should have studied harder the first time.  Well, some students don't learn in the same way or at the same pace as other students.  They are already havin...

My students just finished rough drafts of an argumentative essay about whether students should have the responsibility of cleaning their school. I provided them with two sources, an article and a video . Because I wanted to take them through the process step by step, I required them to all take the same side of the argument. Each day, I modeled what I wanted them to do and gave mini-lessons on citing sources, writing hooks, writing clinchers, etc. Students spent several class periods writing in class, and after each period, I read each student's draft and gave as much feedback as I could. As they worked, I walked around to answer questions and help them revise. Since they had so much feedback from me, and I was pretty tired of reading their essays, I decided to have them give peer feedback before submitting their final drafts. While driving to school this morning, I got a great idea-MUSICAL peer review because what ISN'T better with music? Here's how it worked: 1) S...

Everyone in education is talking about differentiation and UDL (Universal Designed Learning). For once, this is a bandwagon I want to hop on!  I have always believed in differentiation, choice, and helping students be successful using different paths.  Not all students work at the same pace, and not all students learn the same way.  Free Form Stations allow me to better meet the needs of all of my students.  I have used the regular Station Rotation model touted by the eminent Catlin Tucker, but I hadn't yet tried her Free Flowing Station model. We are getting ready to begin Animal Farm (which I have never taught before) and there is a vast amount of prior knowledge students need to truly appreciate this classic.  I thought this was the perfect time to give Free Flowing Stations  a try! First, I made sure everything was ready to go in Google Classroom and that I had all the hard copies of handouts I needed.  I explained to students...

This is How Students Put the Dogs Away! Everyone knows that dogs make everything better.  My twenty-year-old son still comes in every night to give our golden retriever a kiss goodnight.  As much as I would love to bring my dog to school each day, I can't. However, I did the next best thing--Beanie Babies!  Lucky for me, I connected with a woman looking to give away her collection of dog beanies. She finally realized that they were not going to be worth a million dollars like so many people back in the 90s had hoped! She wanted to give them to someone who would appreciate them, and that person was ME! Anyhow, I brought them into class, and just as I expected, the kids went nuts.  They now try to arrive early to class to get a dog to keep at their desk and keep them company!  One boy even asked if he could get one for his friend who was running late.  They put them on their computers, on their arms, on their heads, and even in their pockets.  T...