AVReading Newsletter May 2024-- The Circle

 

          AVHS was built around the idea of a circle.  It began as a quirky, architectural choice in the building’s original design with these massive circular windows that span the height of both floors and look out from the building’s front facade.  In the last wave of remodeling, the circular theme has become infused throughout the building.  Our marquee at the front incorporates the circle, our expansive commons area uses the design in the carpet, massive circles hang from the ceiling, and the newly painted walls are decorated with them.  Even the exterior walls of our theatre follow the curve of a circle, defying the usual square corners of large rooms and buildings.

            It is a different feel from the traditional spaces of schools, where we have become accustomed to hard angles, straight lines, and clean, tidy box-like classrooms.  The choice was intentional.  A circle has a different power and connotation than a line or a set of rows.  Energy flows differently, and there is a stronger sense of connection and community when we enter into circles.  

            It was not until I entered my PhD program-- where class sizes were much smaller-- that I experienced the power of the circle on a regular basis within the classroom.  Many of my courses were set up so that we sat in a circle, shoulder to shoulder.  We came together, joined in the common pursuit of knowledge, sharing and debating our thoughts and beliefs around an invisible axis.  It is much harder to hide in a circle, to duck down and rest your eyes for a little, to check your phone or participate in side conversations without notice.  In that sense, circles are much more transparent.  Throughout so much of my schooling, students would prefer rows and move to the seats at the back of the room, some place where you might have a little more freedom to do what you please, to tune out and move more independently. Circles bring different energy and a different sense of community.

At the secondary level, this is not always feasible.  Packing 30-35 students in a room does not allow many options for rearranging the furniture, or forming circles.  And while it might not be practical to come together in circles everyday, I do make an effort to circle everyone up at least three or four times a trimester.  

Here are a few classroom, circular ideas.

Snap Around.  The Snap Around is a great, low risk class activity, even when you have large numbers.  I use them sometimes for class openings and sometimes for closings.  As an opener, they simply serve as a team builder or ice breaker.  I will bring them to the circle, give them a prompt and have them “snap around” the circle with their responses as quickly as they can.  It might be as light hearted as, “Name your favorite part of fall” or something a little more topical like, “What is the hardest part of reading?”  I also like to do Snap Arounds as a type of formative assessment at the end of the hour.  “Give the title of your book and state the general setting of the story.” This is data!  I learn a lot.  Is the student willing to come to the circle?  Has the student been reading?  Does the student know what “setting” is?  

Name Olympics.  I got this activity from an online resource.  It is perfect for Day One.  And again, it is a low risk but high value ice breaker.  For this, students just need to know their own name!  Form a circle with you in the middle of it.  Tell them that the goal is to say their names one by one moving , clockwise around the circle, as quickly as they can. Time them.  Challenge them to do better on the second, or if you think they can do better, third time.  Then do it again moving counter clockwise.  Then challenge them to do it as fast as they can skipping every third person.  Then have a contest where you start two lines at once-- one moving counter clockwise, one moving clockwise-- and see which line comes back around to start first.  Again, it is fun.  Folks can not  help but hear the names of their peers multiple times, and hopefully there is some laughter. 

Ball Activity.  For this, you need one of those cheap plastic balls (perhaps even a beach ball would do).  On the ball, you will write about 10 different questions related to the day.  Students stand in a circle and toss the ball to someone.  When they catch the ball, they must answer the nearest question they see on the ball.  If need be, I might have two balls and two circles for this as well. 

 

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AVReading Newsletter April: Creating Community with Families

 

Creating community in class is important.  Reaching out to families on a regular basis is perhaps just as important to that sense of community. 

Considering our class sizes, this is not an easy or simple task.  Still, the advancement of communication systems has allowed us to more easily reach families.  It might mean a quick email to a parent or guardian or a mass message sent through the school’s course management system.  Letters home through snail mail, conferences, and parent / student orientation nights are also excellent ways to make connections with families. 

With this said, it is still a struggle.  In theory, communicating with families makes a lot of sense.  In practice, it is not easy to do.  Our school days are so hectic and compressed that in some cases we simply forget to make the call home to touch base.  Or perhaps we are so busy putting out immediate fires that we just never really have a chance to get into contact with families as much as we should.  I also get nervous about contacting families.  Although it is rare, I will sometimes run into a rather frustrated parent or guardian who might be well aware of problems in class as described by their own student.  Language and technology can also get in the way.  The end result is that I am sometimes overwhelmed by even the thought of reaching out to families because I know that it simply takes time and a lot of mental and emotional energy to do so.  

When I began teaching the intervention courses for reading, I decided that since the classes were small enough, I would go ahead and make an attempt to contact families every three weeks with an update.  The conversations would always go like this: “Hi, I’m just calling with a quick update on your student’s progress in English.  Do you have two minutes?  Currently, your student has this grade. This is what your student is doing well.  And here is one thing I think your student can work on.  Do you have any questions or concerns?  We have conferences coming up later this month, but if you have any other concerns before then, please feel free to call or email me.  Have a good day.”  

The call has changed my classroom in a number of positive ways. For starters, I inevitably get to learn things about the family and the student that are helpful for me.  I often will ask, “Is there anything you can tell me that will help me become a better teacher for your student?”  Since it does happen every three weeks (for about a total of 12-16 times a year), it is easier to form relationships with these families-- as opposed to those infrequent visits that may or may not happen at conferences.  I have also noticed a change in students and their work.  More than having a “zero” in the column for missing work, they fear the conversation with families where I tell them that their student is missing an assignment. Knowing that the phone call will happen is a game changer for that reason.  I have also noticed a change in behavior.  A student is much more likely to make good choices on a regular basis when they know that I will be consistently calling home.  I will even make deals with students.  I will tell them, “Hey, I’m calling home tomorrow.  I want to give them some good news about how you are doing.  If you do this  or that, I will let them know that I have seen you become more engaged in class.”  

Here are some thoughts on connecting with families.

Calling Home.  Although it is unlikely that you will be able to call all of your students in the way that I am able to do so, you can call some of them.  I have made attempts in the past to call four families a week, trying to reach everyone by the end of a year.  In general, I like to make the calls light, positive and short.  It works best when I set aside a specific time each week to do this.  I also make use of the  phone service that provides translation for families that do not speak English.  This takes a little more set up, but I also find that these are some of my most valuable conversations. 

The Good News Card. In my years of teaching large sections of honors students, I made it a goal to send home a “Good News” postcard to each student at least once a year.  Not only do these help strengthen connections with families, but they are great for the school’s public relations.  Just be sure that the “Good News” messages are sincere and specific.  You can also make these “Good News” calls.  I find that these are especially meaningful for students and families who do not regularly hear good things from school.  I will even ask a class if anyone needs a “Good News” call home.  It is good for me to do.  I am surprised by some of the students who want me to make the call because my impression may have been that they really did not seem to care that much.  

Emails.  Reaching parents and guardians by email is easier than snail mail or phone,  but it is good to remember that not everyone uses or has access to email on a regular basis. Mass emails are a little less effective than personalized ones since people tend to ignore them more often.  It is also good to remember that for those who do not speak English as their primary language, emails pose more of a struggle.  It might also be good to remember that sometimes a family will read the email but not respond.  It may feel like you are sending these messages out into a great void because there are no responses, but I am sometimes surprised to learn that the messages do get read and discussed by families, but that the family does not always feel comfortable in writing a response to me. 

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Senior Speaker Materials

 

Guidelines for Writing a Commencement Address

The draft you write for consideration does not need to be a final version, but should give the panelists a clear idea of what you plan to say in your speech. The traditional commencement address has had content which reflects back on the class's experiences and also gives advice or guidance for the future. The tone should be one which inspires and motivates the listeners.

Although the Commencement Address is directed at the graduating class, the message needs to be meaningful and appropriate for the adult audience present as well. Content, language, or style which parents or grandparents might find offensive is not suitable for a Commencement Address.

Humor can be an effective minor element of a Commencement Address. The predominant message, and consequently the predominant writing style, should be serious, thoughtful and inspirational.

 

Format: This a general map of graduation speeches.  It is not required. Feel free to be creative. But as a starting point, you might want to observe the following steps.

 

Introduction--

* Attention getting anecdote

* Establish a theme -- Past speakers have used themes like the qualities of Eagles or the symbolic importance of bridges

* Set purpose or message

 

Body--

* Reflect on events of past 4 years

* Reflect on present status

* Reflect on where things are headed

 

Conclusion--

* Re-emphasize message

* Closing thoughts and anecdotes

 

A few helpful suggestions:

Though you may want to fill your speech with inspirational quotations, and heartfelt thoughts of hope, be careful of overusing clichés. Because they have been used so often, clichés do not always hold much power within a text and tend to be easily forgotten by an audience.

On the other hand, the most memorable speeches are those that tell some type of story. Typically, speakers will use either brief anecdotes or longer narratives to convey their message. As opposed to citing bland clichés that are easy to forget, stories tend to stay with people and carry a stronger emotional and intellectual impact.

 

Here are some samples of past commencement addresses.

2018

2017

2013

2012

AVReading Newsletter March: Changing the Tone

 

As teachers, one of our favorite “go-to” activities for a fun day in class is playing games.  These can be a lot of fun.  I am always a little taken aback how a usually reserved or quiet class can be whipped up into a frenzy when the element of competition is introduced.  It is fun to see these people engaged and even passionate about winning the prize, even when that prize might be something insignificant, like a Jolly Rancher.  

These games are great for review days, where actual test items can be converted into “trivia questions” that students try to answer for individual or team points.  It is an attractive choice for teachers, in part, because there are so many online resources and tools that make “gaming a lesson” quite easy—Kahoot and Gimkit to name a few.  These games are fun and dynamic and a good choice every once in a while.

However, they can also create a tension within a community, especially if those games are carried over long periods of time.  Now for content areas like physical education where students actually sign on for broom hockey or badminton, this is a voluntary choice made by students, or just simply an expectation they have of the class from the start.  However, when we center or design other content areas around the gaming model, it changes the feel of the class. 

So much of our educational system is already founded on a level of competition.  Whether it is the informal competition of students comparing grades and test scores with one another, teachers who curve their grades off the top performers, or the normative scales of most standardized tests.  Whether we knowingly do this or not, we design our classes a little like our free market economy, where we see points or high grades as a highly valued commodity.  This creates a type of competition for those points or high grades. 

This is not to say that we should not have grades or that we should not “curve” tests.  It is simply acknowledging the sometimes hyper competitive atmosphere that schools can foster.  In this atmosphere, there will always be winners and losers. That is the nature of any game.  Unfortunately, this is not always the best environment for students to learn.  

The message here is to simply be aware of the competitive elements we have added to our classrooms. Here are some thoughts about how to adapt our competitive atmospheres to ones that are a little more collaborative in nature.

Goals versus Victories.  Some games can be modified by changing the emphasis from defeating another team or individual to attaining an independent criteria.  For example, if it is a standard trivia question format, the goal can be set at answering seven of the ten questions correctly.  

Extra Credit.  I know that there are some deep philosophical struggles that educators have with extra credit, but I do not have those.  I see it as another tool in the toolbox, especially for some of my students who are regularly disengaged by other attempts.  For some inexplicable reason, some students get more excited by the two points of extra credit than the 100 points they might get if they actually completed their projects.  I like to use the extra credit to get them invested in activities they might not normally want to do.  For example, in a recent letter assignment I offered them a couple of extra credit points for using Shakespearean language.  Or the day before a speech assignment, I gave extra credit points for students who could stand and deliver a 20 second speech without moving their feet, leaning or swaying, and keeping their arms at their sides.  These activities are designed so that they are not out to beat anyone, but to attain a specific standard or target.  

Class Goals.  On occasion, I will set a class goal and then offer a treat or reward if they can meet that goal.  I might tell them that if at least 80% of the class completes a given activity or assignment by a certain date, I’ll bring in donuts!  These simple steps can shift the subtle emphasis away from trying to defeat others to forming collaboratives students can work towards a common goal. 

 

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AVReading Newsletter February: Taking Risks

 

A good deal of teaching is about balancing.  We try to create a balance between a classroom that has too many rules and expectations and a classroom without enough of them.  We try to balance a classroom between having too much fun and not enough learning and too much content without much fun.  We try to balance between presenting ourselves as strong and confident figures who have everything perfectly planned and presenting ourselves as open and vulnerable beings willing to take risks.  It’s a lot easier to stick with the former.  If you are like me, you love control.  You cherish a lesson where you know exactly what is going to happen, where things move along exactly as you had orchestrated them, and where everybody does exactly what they had been instructed to do.  

            With that said, I must admit that some of my most transformative educational moments have come when I have been forced to drop the original plan and improvise. They are moments when I have acknowledged that things were not working out and that we would have to make adjustments.  It can be uncomfortable. It means that you have to publicly admit that you were wrong or that you had been “less-than-prepared” for the event and would need to make a change.  

Here are some thoughts on opening yourself up to being vulnerable. 

Building Trust.  Day One is not the right time to take the risk or to be vulnerable.  There is an ingredient that must be established first, and that ingredient is trust.  It is something that has to be established for both the teacher and the students.  They need to know that they can speak and participate and engage without being ridiculed or shamed, and you need to know that you can be playful and have fun without having the class go completely off the rails.  They need to know that you are competent, organized, thoughtful, and caring, which means that the early days of class are pretty important to setting that tone.  They also need to know that when things go poorly, that you care, that you are going to follow-up with them and that they are always welcome and safe in your classroom. 

Weekly Letters.  I will preface this suggestion by stating that it is not possible for every teacher to do this.  In intervention settings where class sizes are smaller, it makes total sense, but when there are upwards of thirty or forty students per section, it simply wouldn’t be possible, at least not on a weekly basis.  However, one way I am able to establish relationships with students is through our weekly letters.  Each week, they write me a letter / reflection around what we have been studying, but I also encourage them to include a little about their current joys and struggles if they feel comfortable doing so.  In most cases, students actually write more about what is on their hearts than on what we have been studying.  I figure that as long as we are exercising the writing muscle, building relationships, and discussing ways to improve academic performance, we have progress.  These letters have been amazing opportunities to communicate with students, to see past some of the bad choices, and to help them in a very personal way.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask For Forgiveness.  I make so many mistakes.  It is a huge downside to taking calculated risks.  You are bound to fail.  And it isn’t just pedagogical mistakes, it is the interpersonal mistakes as well.  I do not recall having a lot of teachers who were willing to admit when they were wrong, but I do recall the few times it happened and how much I appreciated their willingness to own their mistake and promise to do better.  It would not be wise to make a regular habit of it (since it would indicate that despite making mistakes, you are not really taking the steps to fixing them), but I think it does a lot to establish a sense of connection and community that can sometimes be so allusive in a class. 

 

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AVReading Newsletter January: Privileging Difference

 

The factory model of schooling has driven so many of our choices in education.  Unfortunately, this model does little to recognize the rich diversity of approaches that students may have in learning and in demonstrating their knowledge.  While schools could be much more efficient if we could simply apply a uniform system of education to everyone, we have learned that when we try that so many students are left behind. 

            As we strive to create a sense of community within our classrooms, it will be important that we do our best to pull in everyone.  And to do this, we will need to privilege some of the unique differences that exist within our classrooms.  The idea here is that most of our work and assessments within a classroom revolve around limited outcomes of academic tasks: essays, quizzes, tests, speeches.  These are important, and we must work hard to help our students become better at these academic literacies along with the content that we hope they are to learn.  

            However, there are also ways that we can privilege differences in our classrooms, so that on any given day, the student that is designated as the “expert” will be different.  There are many ways that we can privilege these differences. I would avoid doing any one of these more than once or twice a trimester, but I would certainly add them to a toolbox of choices so that I can draw upon the unique skill sets and interests of students to both demonstrate their learnings and to engage them more deeply in the critical thinking skills I am trying to foster.

            Inquiry Units. For my intervention classes, I have created the curriculum around student chosen inquiry units.  In other words, once a trimester the class will brainstorm, discuss, and vote on a topic / question that we then study.  Once the topic  / question is chosen, we spend about three weeks reading articles, viewing videos, writing responses, and discussing related topics, and then finish the unit with some type of product / project.  As a teacher, it’s a totally intimidating process because it means that I am usually one day ahead of the students in my planning and organizing.  It’s also intimidating because they typically choose topics / questions for which I have little knowledge.  However, in doing this, I am privileging their interests.  And since these topics / questions are decided collectively, there is a shared sense of community and ownership in that topic / question.  As I write this, my students have chosen a unit on hip hop.  In the first week we are studying the history, in the second week we are  studying important figures, and in the third week we are studying the social issues around rap.  The final project is a literary analysis of rap lyrics. 

            Finding Expertise.  Along with building community by privileging their different interests, it is good to privilege their expertise as well.  I am constantly looking for that one talent that allows the student to become the teacher.  I have discovered students who have a passion for weather, and then found ways to incorporate  an article related to that expertise.  I discovered an entire group of students who were serious gamers, and created an entire class that allows them to more deeply study (and question) some of the important elements of their passion.  I have discovered that some students enjoy acting and will create an option where they can take a piece of text and bring it to life, or better yet, give them a chance to direct a small group.  The idea is that more people can feel a part of the community when we allow for more voice. 

            Drawing: More than just content, I like to privilege different modes of understanding.  At least once a trimester, I include an assessment that requires students to draw.  They are usually pretty simple.  I might ask them to identify an important moment from a scene or chapter, to create a visual depiction of that moment, and to include textual evidence.  In my “Life of Shakespeare” unit, I have about twenty “facts” of daily life from Shakespeare’s day.   Students are given one of them, and then asked to do a drawing of it.  Again, we create more inviting, open environments when we privilege the different talents and skills of students.

 

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AVReading Newsletter December: Faster Alone; Farther Together

 

I am sometimes profoundly moved by the wisdom of my students.  I recall one student who once told me she was taught growing up that, “We can run faster alone, but we can run farther together.”  With that simple exchange, my thinking around community and collaboration totally changed.  

            Under the idea of constructivism, this all makes sense.  Students can try to learn the concepts and skills we give them on their own.  A teacher can assign readings and papers and projects, and expect students to process these lessons and learn in their own little silos of thinking, and they can move pretty quickly. They do not have to wait up for slower moving, less motivated or distracted peers.  They just get the work and move on to the next lesson. 

            Yet, there are so many limitations to this way of learning.  For starters, collaborative learning spaces have built in support groups.  If an individual gets stuck, there are others available to help problem solve.  Additionally, things that might normally take an individual a long time can be done much more quickly as a group.  It’s the “many hands make light work” theory.  Finally, the product of a group has the possibility of being richer than the product of the individual.  Groups that work well are those where the members can freely offer constructive feedback to one another, an advantage that is even greater when there is diversity within the thinking of the members. 

            Here are a few class community activities that I have found especially meaningful.

            Jigsaws.  Jigsaws are a great way to cover a lot of territory in a short time.  I like to use this activity when I assign longer articles.  I break students into about five groups.  Each group is assigned a different segment of the article and must read and document specific parts of the text:  a general summary, important details, and significance of each section.  Each student in the group must record each of those pieces. Then, I re-arrange the groups so that there is a representative from each of the original groups in each of the new groups.  Once in the new groups, each individual must share out the summary, important details and significance of their section. 

            Open Space Technology.  I’ve written about this activity in the past, but it is such a fantastically, engaging way to crowd source information.  The gist of the assignment is that the class will research a given topic.  Then, within a shared document, they will complete a data dump after a given amount of time.  Finally, the students review the data and share out one piece of evidence they find particularly interesting or useful.  I like to do Open Space activities at the onset of a unit.  And I am often able to pull articles and videos from their data dump later in the unit. 

Google Slides.  I really like using this tool for crowd sourcing a lesson.  For example, in my Narratives and Video Gaming class, I used to set up a Google Slide Show and created a slide for each group in the class.  For that slide, they would have to review an independently produced video game.  In the Google Slide show, each group needs to populate various regions: title of the independent video game, image, summary of the game’s story, bulleted list of the “game play” and a bulleted general review of the game.  Eventually, we project the slide show and each group shares out their findings.  This same activity can be repeated with large pieces of paper or big white boards, which I will do from time to time just to mix it up.  However, at least once a term, I like to make use of the Google Slides.  I find that the quality of their work is a little bit better than with the other mediums. Regardless, students  are constructing knowledge collectively. 

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