Moments when I know they've learned

My students are turning picture books into a Readers Theater script.  One student just asked, "Can we personify the lamp and write dialogue for it?"

They do listen!  I love these moments when it is obvious that I taught them something worthwhile.
 (Usually, I can't discern if they learned it from me or if they already knew it or were influenced by another teacher, adult, book, etc.)

More homework, please

Today is Parent Teacher Conference.  I've met with only a handful of students' parents, but I've already received feedback from half of them that they are surprised by and even disappointed in the fact that their child does not have much homework.

I teach 11 year-old children.  They go to school 7 hours a day.  Adults traditionally work 8 hours per day.  Why would I require an 11 year-old to work more hours than their parents?

We work incredibly hard at school.  We are never idle.  Even during transitions, we recite factual jingles, poetry, or math facts.  I'm exhausted by the end of the day.  Many of the students are, too.

I also am a firm believer in teaching time management and organization.  If you work hard at school, prioritize well, and focus, you can get a lot of things done.  Why should I add more to a child's workload if he's already proved proficiency?

I also hate busy work.  Hate it.  If I send something home as homework, it's intentional.  It means that the students need more practice than can be provided at school and needs to dedicate more time to it at home so that we can progress faster in school.

Also, I believe that nothing, absolutely nothing, should be assigned to be completed independently without the guidance of the teacher who provided the instruction unless the student has proven to have mastered the skills necessary to complete the task.  Otherwise, all that results is frustrated parents trying to guess what their child is supposed to do and overwhelmed children who can't figure it out.  The children who have mastered it have no trouble with it and probably didn't need it as homework in the first place.  The children who haven't mastered it need the support of an educated professional who can provide the appropriate scaffolding necessary for success.  The homework, if it is too challenging, is often done by the parent--literally in his/her hand or with the completed assignment being the words or prompts of the adult helping the child.

As a 6th grade teacher, I hope to teach/reinforce organization and time management.  Since these are skills that is still in embryo with some of my students, I think it is important to demonstrate the power of excellent time management.  If a student works hard and works well in class, he should be rewarded with an evening free of homework.  If a student doesn't work well in class, the natural consequence is to require the student to complete the assignment on his own time--as homework.

Homework has to be collected or corrected to hold students accountable.  Collecting the homework takes up some of my valuable time as a professional who is responsible for carefully crafting effective instruction.  I would rather use that time seeking out a new resource or finding a better way to present the material than putting check marks on a stack of paper and entering grades.  If homework is corrected by the students as a class, it takes up valuable instruction time.  (I do like having the students correct their own work, because it provides them with immediate feedback.  However, this year, I stopped having the students correct their spelling tests, because it was taking 13 minutes.  Since no skills could be taught or reinforced during a spelling correction period, I opted to use those 13 minutes for additional instruction.  I guess I could have sent home an assignment as 13 minutes of homework instead.)

I know what 'it' means well enough

Below is an excerpt from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  I'm working on an assignment for my students and found this part especially profound and applicable to this school year.

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               At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of some authority among them, called out, "Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'll soon make you dry enough!" They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle.

               "Ahem!" said the Mouse with an important air. "Are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all 'round, if you please! 'William the Conqueror, whose cause was favored by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria'--"

               "Ugh!" said the Lory, with a shiver.

               "--'And even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable'--"

               "Found what?" said the Duck.

               "Found it," the Mouse replied rather crossly; "of course, you know what 'it' means."

               "I know what 'it' means well enough, when I find a thing," said the Duck; "it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?"

            The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, "'—found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown.'

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Within my class, I have English Language Learners and 1st generation English speakers.  Some of my students speak a language in addition to English while others only speak English but their parents are not proficient in English.  I have an ESL endorsement, but this is my first opportunity working with Language Learners.  It has been interesting to recognize some of the things I was taught as I obtained this endorsement.

This passage made me think of the numerous occasions where I found through reading student writing or during class discussions the misunderstandings my students were facing.  Some of them have tickled me enough that I've laughed aloud with the thought, "This is what you thought we were talking about?  No wonder you were so confused at times."

For example, yesterday, I hurriedly prepared my students' written response review questions for history.  We are studying the French Revolution.  Since I was in a hurry, I copied the suggested questions from the Teacher's Guide as is.  Normally, I am thoughtful in reading how these questions might be interpreted or I'll seek out a clearer way to ask the question.

I had one student, whose parents speak both their Indian dialects as well as English in the home, ask me "Who came up with the class system in France (referencing the First, Second, and Third Estates made of Clergy, Aristocrats, and Everyone Else, respectively)?"  I clarified, asking him if he was wondering who was the first to come up with this social division.  With his acknowledgement, I reminded him that we had read and discussed that this class system was patterned after the ancien regime or "old regime"--the class system used during the Middle Ages.  I told him I didn't know which group or leader, specifically, had instituted such a class system or the details in how this came to be.  He seemed satisfied with this answer.

Moments later, another student asked a similar question.  That's when I looked at their assignment and read the question again with more attention.  It said, "Who made up the Third Estate?  (with a follow up question about how these people felt about French society in the 1700s).  Suddenly, their questions made sense.  I went immediately back to the first student and saw that he had started writing about who had made up, or invented, the Third Estate, answering that some people during the Middle Ages had come up with the class system.

               "Found it," the Mouse replied rather crossly; "of course, you know what 'it' means."

               "I know what 'it' means well enough, when I find a thing," said the Duck; "it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?"

It is incredible how such a simple phrase can be the source of misunderstanding for Language Learners as well as students who do not possess background knowledge or understand the context of the question, in general.  I explained to the whole class that the question was asking which groups of people made up, meaning were part of, the Third Estate.  I had a lot of "Oh!"s in response.  I told them, as I have many times this year, that  I would change the question on my saved student assignment so that it would be better for next year's class.  (Oh, lucky, lucky next year's class.  I have several thoughts on that...for another day.)

Monday Morning Blues

Greeting my students in the hallway this morning, I heard two unexpected statements.
Statement 1: My 6-year old cousin died of a heart attack this weekend.
Statement 2: Did you hear about the kid that got stabbed in the neck?  He is my cousin's friend.  My brother and cousin were in that group walking home.  My cousin saw the whole thing.

I never had an experience like either of these when I was young.

Applying Rote Learning

Today I heard an ad on the radio for a private school.  The ad features two adults interacting.  One adult thanks the other for being willing to edit her newsletter.  At one point, the adult asks "Is is fewer or less words?"  She calls out to her 3rd grade daughter who replies "fewer is used with things you can count and less is used with things you can't".  The second adult lauds the fact that this little girl knows so much at such a young age.  The ad continues by stating that this private school has kids reading at 3 and loving it.

But my question, to this 3rd grade girl, is which is it?  Is it fewer or less words?  I appreciate that this 3rd grader has memorized a line about fewer and less that she repeated when she heard those two key words, but can she really answer the question?  Can she apply this rote information and actually answer the question?