Fresh Starts

I LOVE New Year’s Eve! It’s my favorite holiday.  Weird, I know, but it’s been true for decades now.  I love the idea of starting over with a clean slate.  I love the possibilities a new year brings – this year I can get it right!  I love the idea that all those mistakes are SO last year – no way I’ll do those over again, right?  The celebration aspect appeals to me, too.  Everyone excited and happy together, ready to welcome a new year with new opportunities. 

I’m not a fan of resolutions – we all know they don’t work – but reflections are another matter.  Looking back, what went well?  What can I improve?  Work with the National Writing Project and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards over the years has impressed upon me the value of this kind of reflection.  It’s made my teaching better for sure, more thoughtful, more responsive to the needs of the kids sitting in my classroom, more in tune with best practices and research based instruction.

So, here are my top three reflections going into 2013:

1.  Less grading, more feedback – I spend way too much time grading my student’s writing and way too little time sitting beside them, talking about their work.  I know that is my favorite kind of teaching – all the kids busily writing away while I sit in the back talking one on one to a student. I love how close it makes us, how sharing writing and thoughts about that writing really connects us in a powerful way that nothing else can do.  It’s also the single best way that I have found to get my students to really revise – to see their work in a new way and then go about finding a way to communicate that on paper.  They love that I love what they wrote – my kids e-mail me their writing all the time and there is ALWAYS something wonderful about it.  But they also know there is ALWAYS something to improve – word choice, figurative language, structure, voice, etc. and when we sit together and they tell me what they meant to say then I can help them find a way to do that more effectively.

2. Less teacher talk- more student talk:  I pride myself on knowing a lot about cooperative learning.  I’ve been trained by Kagan and know how important it is to have kids actively engaged.  But I find myself more and more doing the talking.  For me, it’s a slippery slope because there is so much material I have to cover and I’m afraid it won’t get done if I don’t tell them what it is.  This is ridiculous – I’m cringing as I write that last sentence.  I know that’s not true and yet I do it anyway!  Even something as simple as ‘Turn and Talk’ where I pose a question and they talk to their neighbor about it for a minute – how simple is that?  That means I have 100% of the kids actively engaged instead of the 10-20% who would actively be listening to me drone on. 

3.  Less literature circle, more real book talk – I got talked into doing literature circles by the English team.  I’ve never really liked them – mostly because I have never found a way of doing them that convinced me that it made readers out of kids.  Even when they choose their lit circle books themselves, they are never as engaged with the book as when they have chosen it independently.  I’m not sure where the  process breaks down, but it always breaks down.  This time I even let the kids design their own ‘Ideal Literature Circles’.  They spent a lot of time figuring out what would work best for them.  Yet here we are again, some kids reading ahead, some kids not reading enough, and discussions that put me to sleep. 

I think when we finish this cycle (please let it be soon) I am going to try letting them read their own books, and then having them come together by genre and discuss what they are reading.  I haven’t got it all worked out yet, but my goal is to make them readers, and the only way I know to do that is to have them choose their own books.

So, there you have it – my reflections for the New Year.  My wish for you – may all your reflections be merry and bright!


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