Learning, Laughter, and Love in Middle School English

When I read through my past blogs, I realize that they are overwhelmingly positive. I make it sounds like everything always goes as planned and students follow directions. Let me assure you that things do not always go as planned and students rarely follow directions.  Yet, at this point in my career, I both embrace and accept this! Kids fall out of their chairs in the middle of deep discussions, kids get up to sharpen pencils (mine is electric) when I am in mid sentence, kids ask to use the bathroom in the middle of instruction... Heck! We've even had a bird fly in our classroom. You get the idea!  It's called teaching middle school.   Sometimes my lessons don't go as planned either.  Last week is a perfect example!  We had just read "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury.  Written in 1951, Bradbury envisions a futuristic society where television has taken over the world.   Walter Meade, the protagonist,  refuses to embrace this kind of world and en...

When students are asked to write, they often want to "get it done" and turn it in as quickly as possible.  I often ask them to look over their writing and look for places they can improve. Sometimes I even have them read each other's work and provide feedback.  Yet, even after I do these things I receive papers riddled with errors and flat out bad writing.  For years I have provided students with feedback (I try to offer as much positive feedback as I can).  I tell them, "Good verb choice. Great imagery. Fantastic argument. Wonderful hook."  However, I am frequently frustrated that  I am also continuously making comments like  "Sentence fragment.  Run-on.  Verbs aren't consistent."  You get the idea!  What's even more frustrating is that even though I make these comments telling students what they did incorrectly, the make the same errors on future assignments! So, two weekends ago, I dedicated some time to researching add-ons ava...

In my last blog, I promised an update on the lesson I was going to teach, and I finally had a few minutes, so here it is! It was a hit! I loved it, and they loved it even more. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that I am SO glad that I had two examples that I already written ahead of time. I won't even share those because my students' examples are even better! After the assignment, I gave them a few days to work on revising, focusing on figurative language, specific nouns, and powerful verbs. Then they published the work to our blog and read and commented on each others. Finally, I created a Google Form to provide feedback on the assignment. One suggestion was that I ask them to find a longer passage from their book. Other than that, they loved the opportunity to be creative. Here are a few of the questions and answers: Did Mrs. Karney explain the assignment clearly? Give suggestions or compliments.  * Yes, the sentence seeds assi...

It's rare that I post about something before I've tried it, but I couldn't resist. It's also rare that I can claim an idea as  100% mine, but this is all mine (maybe I should wait until I try it before I claim it as my idea)!   Currently, my students are participating in book clubs.  This provides an excellent opportunity to weave in some fun activities like mentor sentences, punctuation, and narrative writing.  My son, who also happens to be in my class, is currently reading GREAT book for even the most RELUCTANT reader Unstoppable by Tim Green.  He's not a big reader, but he loves this book.  The other night while sitting on the couch reading his book, he starting laughing.  "Mom, listen to this!"  He then  began to read a long, descriptive passage from the book that describes an angry coach.  Green  uses sensory language, vivid verbs, and figurative language to create a vivid portrait of this man. My son stated   that t...

Wow!  Can't believe the semester is over!  We finished The Outsiders , wrote an essay about whether or not it should be considered a classic, and I  needed something light and fun to wind up the semester.  My honors classes conduced mock trials instead of the essay. Anyhow,  I decided to revisit the six-word memoir.  My students wrote one about themselves at the beginning of the year.  It's a great way to teach students the importance of word choice.  It's also not as easy as it sounds.  As Mark Twain once said, “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” We had a nice discussion about this quote!  Students had to select a character from the novel and write a six-word memoir as that character.  After publishing them to our classroom blog, I grabbed a bucked of colored chalk and took them outside to the quad where they were asked to write their memoirs.  Of course, I made sure to spell out t...

     Some days in Read 180 can be pretty monotonous, especially the software. When Read 180 first came out over ten years ago, kids were thrilled to use it! For most of them, it was the only computer they used all day. However, as computers and cell phones have become ubiquitous on our campus, the novelty of the program has definitely waned! Therefore, I have had to look for ways to not only help my students improve their reading but to also keep them engaged! I have written about a variety of these activities in my previous posts. Yet, it is all worth it when students take the SRI test at the end of the semester. HALF of my students met the requirements to exit the class. TWO of them are now reading at ADVANCED and are even talking about taking English Honors next year. I had my students write a reflection about the semester (I provided them specific questions and an example). Here are a few: I started Read 180 at the beginning of the schoo...

When I first started teaching, I didn't even have a computer.  Grades were recorded in a mysterious, teacher-owned blue book.  I used a point system, so every six weeks when progress reports were due, I'd grab my trusty calculator and begin the tedious task of tallying each student's points.  As a kid, I remember bringing my report card home to my mom in a sealed envelope and eagerly waiting for her to open it and share my grades with me.  It was a big deal and there was always a little mystery as to what my grades would be. Fast forward to the digital age, where students and parents are privy to grades twenty-four hours a day.  At first I thought this was a good thing!  For one, I wouldn't have to spend countless hours adding up points on my calculator.  Now I am not so sure.  Students have become obsessed with points.  Some check their grades several times a day.  In fact, there is now an app that many of my students use which allows...