Changes for Next Year

It's that time of the year when I look ahead to changes for next year.  Here are a couple of ideas I'm going to institute in my classes next year.

First, as part of my ITP (individual Technology Plan) I am going to insert "bell work" (I loathe that term - for at least for me -  it denotes pointless busy work for students to complete while the teacher takes attendance and gets the class ready).  I am going to build into every day some short assignment for students to begin as soon as they walk into class.  This assignment will make use of their MacBook Airs.

Why?  Too often I walk into class and the students are on their computers . . . but instead of getting to work (usually on missing work) right away, they are gaming or Facebooking or doing something less meaningful.  So to counter this, I'm going to make them use their computers right away in class . . . for the powers of good.

So for my Lit & Lang 9R class, I will have an assignment sent to their Gmail account that they will begin working on right away.  This may be something as simple as a Farside cartoon with the caption missing.  I'll ask them to come up with three original captions for the cartoon.  Or I may ask them to write a succinct paragraph explaining what is humorous (or what isn't) about the cartoon.  The assignment could be more elaborate too.  If we are working on research, I may pose students with a question like, "Social media is making your generation more narcissistic. Do you agree or disagree?  Find three credible sources that support your opinion.  Be ready to email the links to me and summarize each article out loud in class in 15 minutes."

I'm really looking forward to this one.  The trick won't be putting this practice into play.  The hard part will be sticking to it for an entire semester.

Second, I'm going to have at least one day per week where we go "stone age."  That means putting all of our technology away.  I don't know if this will be a designated day each week (say, Fridays), or if it will be just one day per week, but I'm going to do this.

The more I deal with the millennials (and the more I become one myself), the more I see the importance of being able to unplug.  Actually, it's not even unplugging that counts.  It's the ability to focus on something - without interruption - for 45-60 minutes.  Just now - as a matter of fact - my juniors and seniors in College Comp I are feverishly trying to read their novels for their big essay exam on Friday.  Some are able to read and annotate their books, but more than a few read for three minutes, stop, and then check their phones or laptops.  That isn't going to get them far either in college or the workforce.

So my plan here is to have a bucket or a large box where students will come into class on that designated "stone age" day and place their phones and laptops.  Then we will either do some focused reading or have a debate or engage in a discussion . . . old school style.

This will be interesting.  For one, I need to unplug and focus again in my own teaching and life.  Second, it will be interesting to see the students' reactions.  I actually believe (and I might totally be wrong here) that some students will really enjoy this break from all the distractions.  Maybe I'm on to something here!  Anyway, I'm giving it a try next year.

And yes, I realize this is in opposition to my ITP stated in my first thing I want to try next year.  So what I will do for that is develop an actual journal topic where students will - gasp - actually have to write a response or maybe I'll have some Play-Do or Legos on the tables for them.  We'll see.

Third, this summer I'm going to spend a lot of time tweaking my College Comp I themes.  I want to totally reorganize them.  I might not add any new themes, but I want to get more out of them.  So what I'm going to do is streamline them some.

Here is how each theme works now -

I introduce it with a slideshow or video or professional example (sometimes even student examples).  Then I give them three separate topics to develop drafts for.  Then we share their drafts.  After that they will determine one of those drafts to develop into a final draft.  We work in small groups to revise that draft and then they submit it.

So for our first theme, the descriptive essay, I will assign them essay 1.1 (describe your favorite time of year), followed by 1.2 (describe a prized possession), and end with 1.3 (describe your favorite place).  From those, students will choose one to develop into a final draft, but only after we've shared them in class and I've read them and offered them feedback on each one.

Next year, I'm going to tweak that.  For each theme, I'm going to keep how I introduce them, but I want to have one professional example for each essay.  I also want to have one stellar student example as well as one below average peer example.

So for the descriptive essay, I will introduce it the same way, and then I will assign them 1.1 (describe your favorite time of year).   After brainstorming some ideas and discussing different topics, I will assign them a professional piece to read.  For 1.1 it might be Capote's "A Christmas Memory" or E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake").  We will read this and discuss our reactions.  More importantly, we will examine what we can steal and implement in our own writing.  After that we will read one below average student example from the past (don't worry, student names will be removed).  Then - hopefully - we will have a conversation on how to improve the essay.  After that we will read a stellar student example.  Here we will note what this student got right that the bad example missed.  Again, we will look at what we can steal to use in our own writing.

After all that, I also want to - as a class - write a draft together of our favorite time of year.  So I will create a document on Drive and share it with the entire class.  Then I'll bring it up on the SMARTboard.  Now, the document will be blank (since w'ere writing it together), but I will ask someone to give me a good lead.  Then the student will either say or type the lead.  I will ask them critical questions that they might neglect to think about (such as, asking them why they thought "I'm going to write about Christmas" is a good, engaging lead.).  Then I'll ask another student to flesh out our introduction.  Then I'll ask a student to put in some dialogue or thoughts. I'll ask another to add some imagery or proper nouns.  And so on until we have a finely crafted rough draft.

Then I will turn them lose to write their own versions of 1.1.  I hope to implement this for 1.2 and 1.3 as well.

Those three things should keep more quite busy this summer as I tweak and change my curriculum.  I can't wait to get cracking.  Remember there are only 111 or so days until next year!