I remember the excitement I felt as a middle schooler when my first report card arrived in the mail. This was my first real report card--no more of the elementary system, with its narrow range of S+, S and S-! I distinctly recall a feeling of pride washing over me when I read the typed comment at the bottom: "A pleasure to have in class."
It wasn't until junior high, when I saw that not one or two but three teachers left that exact same comment--a pleasure to have in class--that I suspected something was wrong. By high school, I had become fully aware of canned comments. One time, a few friends and I even made a tongue-in-cheek list of canned comments that we suspected were in the system, but rarely used. At any rate, the feeling of pride was gone. Seeing a pleasure to have in class had become meaningless to me at best, and insulting at worst. "If I'm really such a pleasure to have in class, why not tell me in your own words?" I wondered. "Or, even tell me what I can improve on... Just give me something REAL."
When I became a teacher and was confronted with the waking nightmare that is the first year of teaching, I came to sympathize with my own teachers. I was just barely getting my grades in on time--who could sit and write personalized comments for each student?!
This year, I felt up to the challenge. I know that some of my students value the final letter grade above all else and that likely, some of the comments I wrote on essays and presentation rubrics throughout the year have gone unread. A report card is different--the parents see the report card, and the comments are hard to miss.
I could have gotten my grades in two days early, but I was committed to the task--I spent roughly two hours over the past couple of days writing personalized comments to my students. I wanted to affirm specifically and challenge specifically, and most of all, I wanted the students to see that I had taken the time to write something meaningful to them.
Will some of my students have preferred that I just write a pleasure to have in class? Possibly. Do I feel that the two hours I spent writing comments were worth it anyway? Definitely.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
EDUC 509 Reflection One: The Unifying Power of Mission
My Spring Master's course has begun and so I'll share my reflections as the course goes on, in addition to the occasional post about my classroom practices. The prompt for this was to write a one page reflection responding to our reading from A Vision with a Task: Christian Schooling for Responsive Discipleship for this week:
Simon and Garfunkel once sang, “I am a rock! I am an island!” Although I am fairly certain the song was about isolating oneself rather than risking heartbreak, it has been all too easy for teachers to embrace this solitary philosophy, too. We treat our classrooms like islands in an ocean when rather they ought to be allies with shared borders. Herein lies the value of a mission statement created through the collaboration of the school community and intentionally articulated: a common vision reverses continental drift as it weaves the community together through the power of shared purpose, and in turn focuses the development and maintenance of curriculum.
I doubt that any Christian school teacher would disagree with the statement that there are many different interpretations of Scripture. CAJ, which identifies itself as a “big-tent school”, has as diverse selection of church denominations as it does passports. Perhaps this is why nobody questions the necessity of a strong mission statement: our preferences for worship music, our opinions on liturgy, our definition of a good sermon may vary, so we know that as a staff, we must seek out what is truly fundamental and make that our foundation. Any teacher at CAJ could tell you that our mission is to equip students to impact the world for Christ. From next year, this statement will be revised to say equipping students to serve Japan and the world for Christ. Our mission statement serves as our North Star, orienting us regardless of where we are in the school, regardless of whether we are teachers or administrators, business staff or support staff. All major decisions are vetted through our mission: Will this help students to impact the world? and soon, Will this prepare students to serve Japan? The broader world?
What particularly struck me in the readings for this week was the connection that I saw between mission and curriculum. As teachers, we operate within a sequence of all that the students learned before they set foot in our classrooms, and a scope of all that the students learn across the disciplines. If we were indeed lonely atolls, our curriculum would likely be disjointed, repetitive, perhaps even contradictory. We might teach some powerful lessons and utilize stellar pedagogical technique, but detached from mission, even the best teaching practices would lack impact. It is only when our individual curricula fit together like a puzzle, supporting, supplementing, reinforcing, that the students will graduate as the kind of young men and women that we as a school hope they will become. The authors’ discussion of the role that play and problem-posing present was fascinating, but such decisions must be rooted in a common understanding of, and investment in mission. Only then, with the end objectives in mind, can the component bricks be securely laid into place.
Teaching in a secluded corner of the third floor, the temptation to be a rock or an island is ever-present. I’ve been fortunate that I have had the chance to share my classroom with the 10th Grade English teacher, the 11th Grade Bible teacher and the Psychology teacher, have had a chance to get to know these colleagues well and become familiar with their curriculum. Daily, I am reminded of our broader mission, and challenged to think through where I fit in the scope and sequence of CAJ.
Simon and Garfunkel once sang, “I am a rock! I am an island!” Although I am fairly certain the song was about isolating oneself rather than risking heartbreak, it has been all too easy for teachers to embrace this solitary philosophy, too. We treat our classrooms like islands in an ocean when rather they ought to be allies with shared borders. Herein lies the value of a mission statement created through the collaboration of the school community and intentionally articulated: a common vision reverses continental drift as it weaves the community together through the power of shared purpose, and in turn focuses the development and maintenance of curriculum.
I doubt that any Christian school teacher would disagree with the statement that there are many different interpretations of Scripture. CAJ, which identifies itself as a “big-tent school”, has as diverse selection of church denominations as it does passports. Perhaps this is why nobody questions the necessity of a strong mission statement: our preferences for worship music, our opinions on liturgy, our definition of a good sermon may vary, so we know that as a staff, we must seek out what is truly fundamental and make that our foundation. Any teacher at CAJ could tell you that our mission is to equip students to impact the world for Christ. From next year, this statement will be revised to say equipping students to serve Japan and the world for Christ. Our mission statement serves as our North Star, orienting us regardless of where we are in the school, regardless of whether we are teachers or administrators, business staff or support staff. All major decisions are vetted through our mission: Will this help students to impact the world? and soon, Will this prepare students to serve Japan? The broader world?
What particularly struck me in the readings for this week was the connection that I saw between mission and curriculum. As teachers, we operate within a sequence of all that the students learned before they set foot in our classrooms, and a scope of all that the students learn across the disciplines. If we were indeed lonely atolls, our curriculum would likely be disjointed, repetitive, perhaps even contradictory. We might teach some powerful lessons and utilize stellar pedagogical technique, but detached from mission, even the best teaching practices would lack impact. It is only when our individual curricula fit together like a puzzle, supporting, supplementing, reinforcing, that the students will graduate as the kind of young men and women that we as a school hope they will become. The authors’ discussion of the role that play and problem-posing present was fascinating, but such decisions must be rooted in a common understanding of, and investment in mission. Only then, with the end objectives in mind, can the component bricks be securely laid into place.
Teaching in a secluded corner of the third floor, the temptation to be a rock or an island is ever-present. I’ve been fortunate that I have had the chance to share my classroom with the 10th Grade English teacher, the 11th Grade Bible teacher and the Psychology teacher, have had a chance to get to know these colleagues well and become familiar with their curriculum. Daily, I am reminded of our broader mission, and challenged to think through where I fit in the scope and sequence of CAJ.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
So this is what a good class discussion looks like!
This is my 5th year to teach Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I've always been somewhat disappointed with the lack of engagement. This time, something finally clicked into place.
My 1st period English class tends to be somewhat quiet and reserved, perhaps due to the combination of personalities making up the class personality, and perhaps due to the fact that I see them first thing in the morning and more than a few students are not quite firing on all cylinders at 8:30 am.
One pitfall from teaching this same unit in my Humanities class before Christmas vacation was that I was way too involved in the discussion. I interrupted too often, asked too many of my own questions, and as a result, the students I'd selected to be each day's discussion leaders were never fully in control of the discussion. Though my intentions had been good--wanting to make sure students considered points I worried they would miss--I had ultimately stood in the way of the discussion really coming to life. This time, I resolved to step back and only speak up if invited, or if my instincts told me that my commenting would spur and not kill further discussion. I trusted that my students would make it through, but knowing my English class, I suspected that the students would enjoy the experience about as much as a root canal.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
The students took the discussion and made it their own, openly wrestling with the concepts of agency and victimhood. Everyone was engaged, sitting alert, books open, reacting to the speaker. Most students even spoke up at one time or another! Each day's leaders have done a splendid job of initiating and moderating the discussion, offering their own insights to get things going, drawing out quiet students, asking for reactions and questions.
Several students had their computers out, intently jotting down notes and quotes in their double-entry journals for Incidents.
Here are just a few of the quotes and ideas that have come up (and that I have thought to write down):
"The chapter about the three slaveholders reminded me of Hotel Rwanda... it seems shocking, but every human is capable of this cruelty."
"Linda chose to get pregnant because her situation forced her. She sacrificed her purity to maintain her dignity."
"Linda getting pregnant was not really agency, because she thought it was her only option. Can we really say that the only two options were being raped by Dr. Flint and getting pregnant with somebody else?"
"It's hard to pinpoint what's agency and what's victimhood in desperate situations. How you take control of the situation is what makes a difference."
"All of chapter 10, she knows that her audiences' understanding of what she did (getting pregnant outside of marriage) depends on how well she explains her situation."
"She expands her audience by pointing out that slavery is not only horrible for black people, but also the white people who own the slaves."
"Your atmosphere really can affect who you are and what you will become. Being in the situation of slavery changes who you are and what you are."
"There are so many ironic things in the book, so many paradoxes. Slave kids and master children play together as kids but when they grow up, the masters treat them like animals."
-"What Linda is doing reminds me of Elie Wiesel in Night: He experienced hardships and through that, he was able to stand up for what he believed in so that future generations would not experience that again."
"I think even agents experience moments of victimhood; it's impossible for humans to be perfect agents."
"She said that it was the last time she would share a bed with her grandmother... it's interesting how she puts suspense in her own autobiography!"
"No one wins in slavery."
My 1st period English class tends to be somewhat quiet and reserved, perhaps due to the combination of personalities making up the class personality, and perhaps due to the fact that I see them first thing in the morning and more than a few students are not quite firing on all cylinders at 8:30 am.
One pitfall from teaching this same unit in my Humanities class before Christmas vacation was that I was way too involved in the discussion. I interrupted too often, asked too many of my own questions, and as a result, the students I'd selected to be each day's discussion leaders were never fully in control of the discussion. Though my intentions had been good--wanting to make sure students considered points I worried they would miss--I had ultimately stood in the way of the discussion really coming to life. This time, I resolved to step back and only speak up if invited, or if my instincts told me that my commenting would spur and not kill further discussion. I trusted that my students would make it through, but knowing my English class, I suspected that the students would enjoy the experience about as much as a root canal.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
The students took the discussion and made it their own, openly wrestling with the concepts of agency and victimhood. Everyone was engaged, sitting alert, books open, reacting to the speaker. Most students even spoke up at one time or another! Each day's leaders have done a splendid job of initiating and moderating the discussion, offering their own insights to get things going, drawing out quiet students, asking for reactions and questions.
Several students had their computers out, intently jotting down notes and quotes in their double-entry journals for Incidents.
Here are just a few of the quotes and ideas that have come up (and that I have thought to write down):
"The chapter about the three slaveholders reminded me of Hotel Rwanda... it seems shocking, but every human is capable of this cruelty."
"Linda chose to get pregnant because her situation forced her. She sacrificed her purity to maintain her dignity."
"Linda getting pregnant was not really agency, because she thought it was her only option. Can we really say that the only two options were being raped by Dr. Flint and getting pregnant with somebody else?"
"It's hard to pinpoint what's agency and what's victimhood in desperate situations. How you take control of the situation is what makes a difference."
"All of chapter 10, she knows that her audiences' understanding of what she did (getting pregnant outside of marriage) depends on how well she explains her situation."
"She expands her audience by pointing out that slavery is not only horrible for black people, but also the white people who own the slaves."
"Your atmosphere really can affect who you are and what you will become. Being in the situation of slavery changes who you are and what you are."
"There are so many ironic things in the book, so many paradoxes. Slave kids and master children play together as kids but when they grow up, the masters treat them like animals."
-"What Linda is doing reminds me of Elie Wiesel in Night: He experienced hardships and through that, he was able to stand up for what he believed in so that future generations would not experience that again."
"I think even agents experience moments of victimhood; it's impossible for humans to be perfect agents."
"She said that it was the last time she would share a bed with her grandmother... it's interesting how she puts suspense in her own autobiography!"
"No one wins in slavery."
Furthermore, many comments or questions began with such specific cues as...
"In Chapter 16..."
"On page 73..."
"When Linda was sick, she said..."
"On page 73..."
"When Linda was sick, she said..."
These were the notes I thought to take--mostly I have been sitting, watching, listening, all the while grinning from ear to ear.
In each discussion, I'd think of comments and questions that I would ask once the discussion was over. Each day, my list has gone from five or six things to one thing, and today, nothing. The students were that thorough. They have surprised even themselves!
We are now five discussions in, not quite halfway done. I'm excited to listen and learn, and think through exactly what ingredients conspired to make this discussion so good so I can set my students up for success next year, too.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Do-overs
Teaching is marked by the re-set. The school-year ends, the students move on, and the teacher stays put, preparing to start from square one with a new group of students in the fall. I can see where teaching could become repetitive, or perhaps even discouraging with the inevitable "letting go" of students whose learning and growth you've been personally invested in for the past 9 months.
I sometimes feel these things, but I think more than anything else, I view each year as another chance to do better. Each school-year is a new beginning, filled with promise, and the opportunity to apply what I learned through the successes and struggles of the previous year.
Sometimes when I finish a lesson, I have a really great idea or staggering realization for how I could have done something differently. Usually, I have to wait nearly a whole year to put my new plan into action. This time, I only had to wait a month.
In November and December, my Humanities class went through a unit on Agency and Victimhood. For the most part, I was pleased with how the unit went, but even near the end I felt as though the class was struggling to articulate a Biblical view of agency, especially as a standard by which to compare "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" and the works of Kate Chopin. Upon reflection, I realized that it all came down to the fact that I had not provided time for follow-up and reflection on the Scripture passages we'd discussed on the first day of the unit. I'd brought up several Scripture passages, we talked through each of them together and then we moved on.
My English class (who differ from the Humanities class because their U.S. History class is separate, with another teacher, and therefore are on a slightly different schedule) started the unit on Agency and Victimhood at the beginning of this week. This time, I had the students spend one class period writing an in-class reflection after our discussion on Biblical agency, asking them to identify and explain three crucial characteristics of an agent. Already, one day into our "Incidents" discussions, I can tell that these students have a firm grasp on the concept, having had to go through the process of reflection and to firm up the definition of a Biblical agent in their own minds. I am excited for the rest of the unit as having a firm grasp of Biblical agency will enrich the rest of our discussions from here-on out.
There are certainly other small changes I'll make from my last run through the Agency and Victimhood unit, but this seems to have fixed the most pressing concerns I had from last time!
Sometimes, it's nice to have a do-over!
There are certainly other small changes I'll make from my last run through the Agency and Victimhood unit, but this seems to have fixed the most pressing concerns I had from last time!
Sometimes, it's nice to have a do-over!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Farewell, 2014
One year ago, I wrote a blog-post thanking friends and family for helping with wedding prep, set-up and clean-up. Sometimes I forget that I didn't get married in 2014; December 28 may have been late 2013, but it was still 2013. Therefore, I cannot reflect on 2014 as "the year I got married", but it was significant for a number of other reasons!
Married Life
2014 was my first full year as a married man and it was an eventful year. Tomomi and I had about a week after our wedding before she needed to be back at her job, and I needed to be back at school. The following weekend, we flew to Thailand--not for a late honeymoon as some might expect, but for Tomomi's cousin's wedding. This was our first time to travel together and it was wonderful to do a bit of sight-seeing, and to get to know Tomomi's family better as well. There was a surreal moment when I realized that I was the only gaijin (non-Japanese) at the rehearsal dinner, a moment that became even more bizarre when the Thai waiter approached me to ask what the evening's plan was. Ah, the curse of being the only apparent English-speaker in the room! What was worse was the fact that the waiter did not seem to believe me when I told him that I didn't know anything about the plans and that Tomomi's cousin also spoke English, so he should go ask him. Guess we all have our own prejudices!
2014 saw Tomomi and I build a life together and learn how to live as a married couple: we established routines for cooking, shopping, laundry, how to spend our Saturdays, etc. I personally learned a lot about cooking, as Tomomi typically would not return home from work until 7:30, sometimes as late as 8:30 or 9:00. I learned how to make homemade pizza and chili, spare ribs, mikan chicken, sloppy joe's, green bean casserole, homemade Oreos, custard, and even a Thanksgiving turkey (just to name a few). I did have a few disasters, too: once while trying to deep-fry homemade potato chips (I was really into making homemade versions of typically store-bought food), the oil overflowed and clogged up the burner, a mess which took quite some time to clean up.
Kitchen oil-spills aside, it was a wonderful and peaceful year. Tomomi and I had been advised by so many friends from church that the first year of marriage would be difficult and even more-so for an international couple. Maybe it was because we went in prepared for differences and miscommunications that neither actually bothered us when they occurred. Rather, we enjoyed figuring out how our new family life would look, and spending each day together (even if the work-hours could be long). It was a year of foundation building, a foundation which will serve us well as our routine changes in 2015 with Tomomi now done with her job and seeking God's guidance on what will come next. Having just celebrated our first anniversary, we are truly excited for the years to come.
Family Life
In addition to the beginning of our married life, 2014 saw big changes within both Tomomi's and my family. In July, we traveled to America for a visit, kicked off by my brother's wedding in Denver. Ben and his wife Hilary have settled in New Haven, Connecticut for at least a couple years while Ben pursues a Master's in theology at Yale. The wedding was beautiful and it was a great opportunity to reunite with extended family and old friends. There was a bittersweet moment at breakfast the morning before the wedding when we realized that it was just the five of us--Dad, Mom, Ben, Lea and myself--sitting around the table, and we said a quiet goodbye to the family life we'd known for so long. Lea herself was only on a short break from her job as a camp counselor in Wisconsin, and so went her separate way after the wedding rather than coming back to Washington.
It was the beginning of a new normal for my parents' Gibson family as two new Gibson families formed. Who knows when all three Gibson families will meet at the same time again?
Then in September, Tomomi's sister Manami got married. Again, I was the only gaijin at the wedding, and when Tomomi and I escorted Manami from the reception hall at dinner time so she could change out of her wedding dress, a drunken chorus of "USA! USA! USA!" reminded me of my nationality, in case I had forgotten. Manami and her new husband moved to Nagoya, a city several hours to the southwest of Tokyo, a dramatic change for Tomomi's parents, with whom Manami had been living.
Work
After a break from my Master's classes in the Spring, I resumed my coursework over the summer, studies which challenged, encouraged and inspired me in my planning for the coming school year. On top of all of the hours I devoted to my Master's coursework, I clocked well over 100 hours of curriculum planning in my classroom at school, a fantastic opportunity to apply what I had been learning in my courses.
That investment has paid off to a tremendous extent as the fall semester felt like my most organized, thoughtful and creative teaching to date. Though a glitch in the scheduling saw me with another semester off from my coursework this fall, I am eager to resume my studies this Spring with a Teacher Leadership Field Experience course.
Church
After several months of attending both Grace City Church and Grace Harbor Church, in September, Tomomi and I ultimately decided to settle in at Grace Harbor. While this has made it challenging to consistently keep up with our Grace City friends, many of whom live on the opposite side of Tokyo from us, we have also developed many new friendships, including several other young international couples. We deeply appreciate the fellowship and vision of our church home and feel blessed to be a part of the Harbor community. We also look back fondly on our time at Grace City, and are grateful that God led us both to the church where we met each other for the first time. We continue to pray for the growth and success of these wonderful church communities in a city so desperately in need of the Gospel.
As I finish this blog-post, our final night in Washington for Christmas vacation draws to a close. The time with my parents and sister has been refreshing and it was a season of many firsts for Tomomi as she was able to experience an American family Christmas with all of its traditions. It will be difficult to leave early tomorrow, but we trust that God will lead us and provide in the year to come, just as He did in the year we now depart.
Married Life
2014 was my first full year as a married man and it was an eventful year. Tomomi and I had about a week after our wedding before she needed to be back at her job, and I needed to be back at school. The following weekend, we flew to Thailand--not for a late honeymoon as some might expect, but for Tomomi's cousin's wedding. This was our first time to travel together and it was wonderful to do a bit of sight-seeing, and to get to know Tomomi's family better as well. There was a surreal moment when I realized that I was the only gaijin (non-Japanese) at the rehearsal dinner, a moment that became even more bizarre when the Thai waiter approached me to ask what the evening's plan was. Ah, the curse of being the only apparent English-speaker in the room! What was worse was the fact that the waiter did not seem to believe me when I told him that I didn't know anything about the plans and that Tomomi's cousin also spoke English, so he should go ask him. Guess we all have our own prejudices!
2014 saw Tomomi and I build a life together and learn how to live as a married couple: we established routines for cooking, shopping, laundry, how to spend our Saturdays, etc. I personally learned a lot about cooking, as Tomomi typically would not return home from work until 7:30, sometimes as late as 8:30 or 9:00. I learned how to make homemade pizza and chili, spare ribs, mikan chicken, sloppy joe's, green bean casserole, homemade Oreos, custard, and even a Thanksgiving turkey (just to name a few). I did have a few disasters, too: once while trying to deep-fry homemade potato chips (I was really into making homemade versions of typically store-bought food), the oil overflowed and clogged up the burner, a mess which took quite some time to clean up.
Kitchen oil-spills aside, it was a wonderful and peaceful year. Tomomi and I had been advised by so many friends from church that the first year of marriage would be difficult and even more-so for an international couple. Maybe it was because we went in prepared for differences and miscommunications that neither actually bothered us when they occurred. Rather, we enjoyed figuring out how our new family life would look, and spending each day together (even if the work-hours could be long). It was a year of foundation building, a foundation which will serve us well as our routine changes in 2015 with Tomomi now done with her job and seeking God's guidance on what will come next. Having just celebrated our first anniversary, we are truly excited for the years to come.
Family Life
In addition to the beginning of our married life, 2014 saw big changes within both Tomomi's and my family. In July, we traveled to America for a visit, kicked off by my brother's wedding in Denver. Ben and his wife Hilary have settled in New Haven, Connecticut for at least a couple years while Ben pursues a Master's in theology at Yale. The wedding was beautiful and it was a great opportunity to reunite with extended family and old friends. There was a bittersweet moment at breakfast the morning before the wedding when we realized that it was just the five of us--Dad, Mom, Ben, Lea and myself--sitting around the table, and we said a quiet goodbye to the family life we'd known for so long. Lea herself was only on a short break from her job as a camp counselor in Wisconsin, and so went her separate way after the wedding rather than coming back to Washington.
It was the beginning of a new normal for my parents' Gibson family as two new Gibson families formed. Who knows when all three Gibson families will meet at the same time again?
Then in September, Tomomi's sister Manami got married. Again, I was the only gaijin at the wedding, and when Tomomi and I escorted Manami from the reception hall at dinner time so she could change out of her wedding dress, a drunken chorus of "USA! USA! USA!" reminded me of my nationality, in case I had forgotten. Manami and her new husband moved to Nagoya, a city several hours to the southwest of Tokyo, a dramatic change for Tomomi's parents, with whom Manami had been living.
Work
After a break from my Master's classes in the Spring, I resumed my coursework over the summer, studies which challenged, encouraged and inspired me in my planning for the coming school year. On top of all of the hours I devoted to my Master's coursework, I clocked well over 100 hours of curriculum planning in my classroom at school, a fantastic opportunity to apply what I had been learning in my courses.
That investment has paid off to a tremendous extent as the fall semester felt like my most organized, thoughtful and creative teaching to date. Though a glitch in the scheduling saw me with another semester off from my coursework this fall, I am eager to resume my studies this Spring with a Teacher Leadership Field Experience course.
Church
After several months of attending both Grace City Church and Grace Harbor Church, in September, Tomomi and I ultimately decided to settle in at Grace Harbor. While this has made it challenging to consistently keep up with our Grace City friends, many of whom live on the opposite side of Tokyo from us, we have also developed many new friendships, including several other young international couples. We deeply appreciate the fellowship and vision of our church home and feel blessed to be a part of the Harbor community. We also look back fondly on our time at Grace City, and are grateful that God led us both to the church where we met each other for the first time. We continue to pray for the growth and success of these wonderful church communities in a city so desperately in need of the Gospel.
As I finish this blog-post, our final night in Washington for Christmas vacation draws to a close. The time with my parents and sister has been refreshing and it was a season of many firsts for Tomomi as she was able to experience an American family Christmas with all of its traditions. It will be difficult to leave early tomorrow, but we trust that God will lead us and provide in the year to come, just as He did in the year we now depart.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
The Power of Student Samples
This is my 5th year of teaching Humanities and English 11. Because I'm somewhat of a digital pack-rat, I've accumulated quite a number of student essays over the years. I hadn't done this with the intention of building a collection of potential samples--that is simply how it turned out.
My students just finished the first draft of their Unit 3 essays, and they will spend our Culminating Event time next Wednesday revising so they can submit a final draft for me to grade en route to the States for Christmas Break. For the Unit 1 essay, I personally edited and commented on each rough draft. This time, I am having the students develop their abilities as peer-editors. I should note that I did give each essay a once-over (maybe 2 minutes tops) yesterday evening after receiving them, and jotted down major areas of need that had been obvious even after a cursory examination (e.g. missing thesis; lack of citations; organizational issues). Beyond those comments, the lion's share of the feedback which the students receive will come from their classmates.
In past years, I have had difficulty with peer-editing activities. One student's image of a classmate plays a big role: if a student happens to be editing an essay written by a classmate who they view as an academic leader, they may have difficulty detecting areas in need of improvement. Social dynamics also play a role: it may be uncomfortable offering an honest critique of a friend's work for fear of how the friend will respond to criticism, no matter how constructive. More than this, it can be difficult to articulate why a line on the rubric was scored low or high, what specifically needs to change.
As early as a month ago, I was starting to brainstorm ideas on how to actually teach some peer-editing skills. Then, a PLC meeting provided me with the answer. In November, our English/Social Studies PLC (Professional Learning Community) spent a meeting calibrating our rubrics. Our department chair gave us a sample essay and we each filled out a rubric to evaluate the sample. We then talked through our completed rubrics line by line and learned where we'd agreed on the scores, where we'd disagreed, how we'd interpreted the criteria, and why we had graded as we had.
I decided that it would be worthwhile for the students to go through this same process as it would force them to grade objectively and to firm up in their own minds just what the criteria on the rubric meant--perhaps with that in mind, editing each other's essays would become a more fruitful undertaking.
So, I printed and distributed two student essays from 2010, names removed--all I told the students was that one was slightly above the standard, and one was well above the standard. In groups of three or four--the same groups in which the students would eventually peer-edit--the students read through and rubricked the two sample essays. They graded individually at first, but then had to talk through and agree on an official rubric score with their fellow group-members. Then, they had to list 3-5 specific positive aspects and 3-5 specific areas of need in each essay. I averaged each group's scores: the first sample essay received a 2.7, the second a 4.4 (compared to the 3.4 and 4.5 that the essays had actually received). The students were amazed to discover that they had actually graded more strictly than I had, as I have definitely developed a reputation for being a strict essay grader with this class.
What followed was an immensely productive discussion of why the students had scored the essays as they had. In our normally quiet and reticent Humanities class, nearly everyone had something they wanted to say about the problems in the first sample essay: "It had no sense of organization!" "The vocabulary was so repetitive." "The in-text citations were formatted incorrectly!" "The thesis had no preview of points." Then, I asked what the writer had done well. This took a bit more thought, but every student was clearly thinking, several even leafing through the essay again on the off-chance that something would leap off the page. "Well... they do address the prompt."
"Okay," I replied, "and how many of you gave them a low "prompt" score?" Most hands went up.
This provided an opportunity to talk through what it meant to address the prompt, and the fact that this student had in fact done a reasonable job, but this had been unfortunately masked by a lack of organization.
"Now do you see why I put such a strong emphasis on thesis and direction?"
Nods.
I asked the class if they thought the first student had been a bad writer and most replied that no, this student was actually a decent writer. This gave me the chance to reveal that this particular student had started the school-year with very low scores, but had ended the year near the top of the class--what they were seeing was a piece of evidence from roughly halfway through the journey. I certainly hope that this was a source of encouragement to any students who had been disappointed with the scores that they had received on our last essay.
The second essay provided an opportunity to look together at a good thesis and strong sense of direction. When I asked the students what the biggest problem was (what I'd actually graded down was the fact that the third point had no specific support), I got a variety of answers that intrigued me. One student had really disliked the bubbly and emotional writing style: "The voice is terrible!"
I explained to her that for this particular student, the bubbly writing style had fit, and that this student's personality came through in her writing. "However," I added, "This bubbly style would not fit for everyone. If you turned in a really bubbly essay, I'd probably be worried."
All in all, it was a lively discussion--the best we've had in Humanities this year. We were able to reach a common understanding (or at least a more objective understanding) of the writing rubric and to talk through a variety of criteria including 'voice', which is next-to-impossible to teach on its own.
When the students settled down to work on editing each others' essays, I noticed a level of focus and determination that I simply hadn't seen while peer-editing in previous years. I am truly excited to read the students' final drafts next week!
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Yet the reaction of my classes in past years was not unlike the reaction of her original Northern audience: an incomplete appreciation at best, dismissal and apathy at worst.
Harriet Jacobs was born in 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina. Though her early childhood had been shielded due to the status enjoyed by her parents and grandmother (comparatively high status for slaves, anyway), both of her parents died within a relatively short span of time when she was only six, and she ultimately wound up being given to a young girl. Her mistress' father, Dr. James Norcom, began to sexually harass Jacobs from the time she entered puberty. Beauty, said Jacobs, was a terrible curse for a slave girl. To avoid Norcom's advances, Jacobs opted instead to get pregnant by another white man in the community.
 |
| Artists' rendering of Jacobs' hideout |
The latter portion of the book is filled with Jacobs' impressions of the North, most notably her distaste for the racism suffered by even free blacks, and the overall miserable condition of the working poor. In the end, a friend purchases Jacobs' freedom.
This book was published in 1861, but dismissed as too sophisticated to be authentic. It was widely believed that a white abolitionist women had written the book, that no black woman could have possibly written a narrative so eloquent and compelling. It was not a suspicion lacking precedent--"Uncle Tom's Cabin" had been written by a white abolitionist woman. But then, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" hadn't claimed to be an autobiographical slave narrative, either.
So, "Incidents" gathered dust for over a century until a historian in the 1970s took it upon herself to prove Jacobs' authorship and the authenticity of the story. Census records, newspapers, letters and other documents confirmed that the content was true and that Jacobs was highly literate and fully capable of writing a book.
 |
| Harriet Jacobs |
 |
| Dr. James Norcom |
Overall, the discussions were good. This Humanities class tends to be rather quiet, but many students who do not ordinarily contribute seemed to find their voices during these book discussions. There are certainly things I will change for when I do this unit with my standalone English class in January (tailoring discussion questions more specifically to each chapter; reviewing good group discussion norms; resisting the temptation to get involved in the discussion more often). And, of course I am a realist: I know not every student had read the assigned chapters for each day. Very likely, some students got by reading chapter summaries online. This said, there were enough students with their books open referring to specific quotes and page numbers that I feel confident that there was a higher level of engagement than in previous years. What's more, the students were interacting with Harriet Jacobs in a way I'd never seen before, admiring her, sympathizing with her, questioning her thought process, and wondering what they themselves would do in her situation. Harriet Jacobs was a real person whose words and actions are worth responding to as fact, not a fictional character whose words and actions were the creative offspring of an imaginative author. I hope the students will remember Jacobs as they continue to consider what true Biblical agency looks like... particularly as we hold her very real selflessness up and against the extreme selfishness of Kate Chopin's fictional heroines in our readings next week.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is in the public domain. If you want, you can read the book here:
http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/1510/1546451/pdfs/incidents.pdf
Or, listen to a free audio recording here:
https://librivox.org/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is in the public domain. If you want, you can read the book here:
http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/1510/1546451/pdfs/incidents.pdf
Or, listen to a free audio recording here:
https://librivox.org/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)