In my last post, I discussed how I might use the seemingly elementary activity of show-and-tell to introduce students to a foundational concept of college-level composition: the Burkean Parlor metaphor. Frequently expressed as the simpler conversation metaphor, this metaphor illustrates what thinkers, researchers, scholars and, most importantly, writers do: we listen to a conversation; we form our own opinions about this topic of conversation as a result of listening; we eventually add our own voices (opinions) to the conversation; and our voices become part of the conversation that others listen to and use to form their opinions.

As I prepared for one of my classes today, I came across the following passage in a chapter called “Reading Rhetorically: The Writer as Strong Reader”:

The goal of this chapter is to help you become a more powerful reader of academic texts, prepared to take part in the conversations of the disciplines you study. To this end, we explain two kinds of thinking and writing essential to your college reading:

• Your ability to listen carefully to a text, to recognize its parts and their functions, and to summarize its ideas
• Your ability to formulate strong responses to texts by interacting with them, either by agreeing with, interrogating, or actively opposing them

(Ramage, Bean, and Johnson, Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing, 5th ed., pg. 109)

Clearly, the conversation metaphor is a useful and important framework that has the capacity to help college students understand college-level writing in a new and more applicable way. This metaphor has helped me explain why we do research at all and how composition classes are relevant outside of the required course structure at the university.

But after reading this passage, it struck me that this metaphor — built on the notions of listening and speaking — might actually be ableist in effect. It might leave out many students who can still participate in composition meaningfully but who don’t have the ability to listen (or hear) or to speak. I’m not sure why this never occurred to me before. I’ve taught the conversation metaphor to students with hearing difficulties without thinking twice about what I was saying.

Despite the ableist language in the metaphor used to present this concept, I think the concept itself is still valuable. So how can we modify this metaphor to accommodate for all students?

The easy answer is to change the language and comparison involved. We could use the more situation-neutral language of rhetoric: the rhetor (who can be a speaker, a writer, an artist, a thinker — anyone who puts a message in some form out to an audience) takes in the messages about a particular topic of the rhetors around him/her, uses those messages to learn and to develop an opinion, and then adds his/her own response to the collection of messages surrounding this topic for other would-be rhetors to take in. This conception is rather vague, though, and lacks the benefit of a realistic setting to deliver the metaphor and to demonstrate that what we do as composers in college reflects what we do as workers, family members, citizens, and activists beyond the college classroom.

Perhaps a more updated version of this metaphor would use the setting of an online chat room. Instead of entering a parlor — which is an outdated term anyway — to listen and speak to people already engaged in conversation, perhaps you enter a chat room where you read and learn more about conversations that have been ongoing since before other chat users were in the room. While this is a more realistic setting for the concept of participating in a discourse community, there are still touches of ableism (being able to read — though many individuals with visual impairment use devices to allow them to read either print or Braille from their computers) and classism (access to the Web and time to participate in chat rooms).

As the composition field continues to become more relevant as students engage with all kinds of texts and participate in all kinds of discourse communities, we who promote these foundational concepts must remain cognizant that we are considering all of our students. While communication is a human endeavor, we don’t all communicate in the same ways, and it is vital that composition/rhetoric make that basic fact a part of the daily work of teaching students how to critically engage with texts and contribute to their communities.

Back in the day when I was an excited, enthusiastic prospective teacher my education professors mentioned the concept of co-teaching.  Co-teaching consists of two teachers (usually one general education and one special education) sharing the responsibility for the same group of students.  At first, I was reluctant to accept the idea as a valid method of implementing curriculum because I felt that most teacher candidates enter the profession under the notion that they will receive and maintain a large amount of autonomy in their classroom.  However, as a result of my student teaching experience and several years at my current place of employment I realized how reliant middle school teachers are upon one another as well as administration and supporting staff.  Therefore, when the concept of co-teaching came to my current place of employment at first I felt reluctant, but the reluctancy relinquished after several things fell into place.

First, my “co-teaching buddy” (as we came to call one another) was the special education teacher on my team that I had been working with since I started at my school district.  Secondly, we received a common plan time which allowed us to effectively share responsibilities and involve one another equally in planning, preparation, and to discuss student concerns.  Furthermore, we were able to move several students who required additional support into the co-taught class (I teach 3 sections and 1 was co-taught) which allowed us to adhere to the needs of those students.

Overall, the co-teaching experience was positive since I worked with a person who shared in all facets of the classroom including grading, parent contact, planning, and preparation.  Also, the behavior management in that classroom was as efficient as it has ever been in my career since there were always two pairs of eyes monitoring the students.  As a bonus, there was another adult in the room to laugh at my jokes because in teaching eleven-year-olds my wonderful sense of humor often is all for naught.

This year my school district is implementing the facilitative learning model in place of the co-teaching model.  In the facilitative learning model, a special education teaching “co-teaches” with all general education teachers on the team as opposed to remaining in one classroom.  Since the school district hired a certified teacher as a classroom aide on each team, I will have a co-teacher at least once a week for at least several periods throughout the day.

I was reluctant upon hearing the new concept of facilitative learning; however, it appears to be similar to co-teaching and co-teaching was an excellent experience, therefore, the facilitative learning model should be an excellent experience this year.  Hopefully, the new co-teacher in my classroom will laugh at my jokes.

There is something happening in education, especially at my school, that has changed the way I teach and approach teaching. I will not speak to the broad movement right now, but I will speak to my personal experience in working in a Professional Learning Team (PLT). In essence, a PLT is a group of teachers working closely to plan lessons, analyze student results, and adapt practice to ensure students reach mastery.

Working with five of my colleagues at school has not just revolutionized the way I teach, but it has changed the way I think about what I need to be doing in the classroom. My next posts will be a series about this team, looking at how we formed, how we work, and specific policies.

My team’s genesis was three years ago. We had changed the Junior level English curriculum (it has since been changed again…go figure). We decided to get together over the summer to discuss the new curriculum and how to best approach it. We met up a few times and created a rough outline for the semester, what short stories we would teach, when we would start the novels, what major essays we would assign and whatnot. We were still very independent for our particular lessons, but we would occasionally make copies for each other and create some common assessments. We were still very much traditional teachers – read a story, talk about it, maybe do a little quiz, and move on to something else.

During that year, the English department worked on rewriting the all levels of the English curriculum in a district effort to focus more on skills and less on content. One of our goals was to also create more teacher choice. The new new English curriculum resulted in a choice of six novels per semester (the teacher may choose two). Additionally, any supplementary materials (short stories, poems, essays) were to be chosen by the teachers. The content didn’t matter; it was the skills (we chose to align our skills with the College Readiness Standards).

With this new skills based curriculum, our team became more focused, but still a little haphazard. Last year we met almost once a week to create common lesson plans and common tests. We didn’t necessarily stay together, I might get a few days ahead, and then have to dally before we took the common assessments we created. I might fall behind and rush to finish before the test. It was still nice to be working with other professionals and sharing ideas. We would look at results of quizzes together, but we didn’t really do much with it.

This year, we are working like a well oiled machine. We meet daily after school to briefly touch on what we did and polish our ideas for tomorrow. We meet once a week to plan out the week, talk about skills, look at data, and ensure our students are learning what we think they are learning. We are constantly making copies for each other, helping each other out, and essentially lightening the load for each other. If I have a play coming up, I know my colleagues will have copies of our team-created lesson on my desk in the morning. I my colleague is sick, he knows the sub can talk to any one of the other team members to know exactly what the lesson will be. We are also looking more at student data and adjusted our teaching based on what we see.

Our school is “gently nudging” its teachers to begin forming teams. I am gently nudging you to at least begin talking to your colleagues and sharing ideas. That’s how we started and it’s grown into something much greater. Next time I’ll give more detail into how we create common lessons and assessments, and still keep our individuality as teachers.

When I was teaching, I sent two letters to my students’ homes in early August.  One letter went to the student.  It was a short handwritten note in which I told them I was looking forward to seeing them in a few weeks to learn exciting things.  I also included their first homework assignment, to be turned in at “Meet the Teacher Day.”  It was nothing fancy or complicated, simply an index card on which I’d written the following:

Name:

Likes:

Dislikes:

How I Learn Best:

I instructed them to fill out the index card and, on the back, write anything they’d like to tell me.  I also sent a letter home to the parents.  This one was typed, and a little longer, explaining my background, our class website, and the best ways to reach me during the school year.  I also stated my philosophy that, as their child’s teacher, I was just one part of the educational team, and that I was excited to work with them to make the best possible year for their child.  I gave them the same homework assignment card to fill out about their child.

 This assignment did a few things.  First and foremost, it let students and parents know that we were a team, working together toward educational success.  Second, I gained valuable feedback about my students that helped me better prepare to meet their needs during the school year.  I was often impressed by the amount of self-awareness my fifth graders possessed.  They’d note things such as, “I don’t learn well when I sit next to my friends because I talk a lot,” or “I like to learn by doing” or “Math is easier when you show me how to do the problems.”  When I was just getting to know the class, these little bits of information were invaluable.

 Finally, the assignment opened the door for honest dialogue with my students about their learning.  When a student needed something explained differently, wanted to move to the front of the classroom, or needed help learning study techniques throughout the year, most seemed comfortable approaching me about these things. 

 Of course, I still paid attention to the way my students learned and made my own observations.  I looked for patterns, pointed out struggles and successes as I noticed them, and asked students and parents when I had questions.  But not surprisingly, my best source of information about my students’ needs was the students themselves.

I’m sure I’m nowhere near the first teacher to admit that my students love their iPods (or other MP3 players) and smart phones just as much as I do. They love texting, playing games, and looking things like definitions up when I challenge them to a race. They read text messages, internet sites, even entire articles on these gadgets, and yet when I ask them to do the same with a book, they act like I’m sending them to a medieval torture chamber. It’s sad to me that I have to “sell” reading in general, mostly because I grew up with such a love for it thanks to my parents, but I’m game to see what an e-reader might do in my classroom. Of course, I should be realistic. Schools won’t be seeing e-readers anytime in the near future because of price, but the idea is worth pondering nonetheless.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, The ABCs of E-Reading: New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak, is what triggered me to think about this concept. The article highlights preliminary data showing that e-reader users “spend more time than ever with their nose in a book.” (This is the reason my husband is convinced he wants one as well!) In the article, they note that:

A study of 1,200 e-reader owners by Marketing and Research Resources Inc. found that 40% said they now read more than they did with print books. Of those surveyed, 58% said they read about the same as before while 2% said they read less than before. And 55% of the respondents in the May study, paid for by e-reader maker Sony Corp., thought they’d use the device to read even more books in the future. The study looked at owners of three devices: Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle, Apple Inc.’s iPad and the Sony Reader.

Although I’ve met several “purist” English teachers and self-proclaimed book-lovers as this trend has swept the nation, I would call those findings, preliminary as they may be, something to “write home about.” 40% read more? Fantastic! It doesn’t say what they are reading, but frankly, I don’t care. As a country that has turned away from books and using imagination to a country glued to our television sets, increased readership is good news in my book. Additionally, right after these statistics, authors Fowler and Baca present the statistics that sound more like what I deal with in my classroom every day:

A 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts caused a furor when it reported Americans are spending less time reading books. About half of all Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure, it found.

Although that study was geared for college-age students, my high school students would fit right in with that statistic. Whenever I ask them at the beginning of year what their favorite book is, many can’t remember the last book they read and enjoyed, read for fun, or, many can’t even think of a story or book they actually liked. I can’t honestly say whether e-readers would be a novelty that would wear off over time, but if it would increase my students’ “long” reading (i.e. more than news snippets, sports stats online, etc.), I’d be all for it. Perhaps instead of telling my students to turn to page 38, I will soon be saying, flip to 25% of this book so we can discuss what’s going on.

Sure, I’m realistic. I realize some of them are still going to hate reading no matter what form it is in because of various reasons (struggling readers, slow readers, because I am asking them to actually do something like read or think, etc.), but perhaps it might reel in a few students who are turned off by “traditional” books. It still breaks my heart that I have to sell reading to many of my students, but who knows…maybe I can fool them at least for a little while?

Equality 101 is looking for some new contributing writers!  We’d really love to add two post-secondary writers and two middle/elementary school writers to our staff.  If you’re interested, check out our guidelines, then submit the following to staff@equality101.net:

• Your name
• Which position you are interested in (post-secondary or middle/elementary school)
• A short (3-sentence) bio including your writing experience and teaching experience
• A short (2-sentence) explanation as to why you are interested in writing for Equality 101
• A sample of your writing, either as an attachment or as a link

The deadline for applications is Friday, September 24, so get your applications in soon!

We look forward to hearing from you!

My goal can be summed up in one word this year: balance.  To achieve and maintain balance in my life, I plan to:

• Carve out personal time for both relaxation and fitness – and stick to it!
• Keep learning.  Read books, newspaper articles, and blogs that challenge my thinking.
• Go to bed on time.
• Put everything away before bed each night.  (Clutter in my house creates stress!)
• Develop and maintain new readership for Outside the Girl Box.
• Create a home organization system and put it in place.

I have many goals for this academic year, and I’m excited for all of them.  One of my major goals is to get all of my hard copy teaching materials digitized, both to make it easier to distribute and to make it easier to edit.  I plan on doing this by scanning in all of my materials for each unit I teach this year, and then organizing them on my computer.  This summer, I plan on tackling each of the classes I have taught in the past but am not teaching this year.  My other major goal this year is to incorporate more technology into my classroom – blogging, emailing, video making, etc.  I want my students to leave here technologically literate and a bit more media-savvy in order to compete in a technology-based world.

This will be my 2^nd year teaching, and my goal for this year is pretty humble: have it not be like last year.  Last year I would be at school until 6pm many nights.  I skipped too many workouts and gained some weight (which I am still trying to get rid of).  I was constantly thinking about work and my students.  I would work furiously over the weekend – spending too much time on some things and not enough on others.  My hectic travel schedule at Thanksgiving (a wedding and two family dinners to attend!) seemed, well, like a break!  I know that things will be easier for me, as in, I will know what I’m doing the next week before I leave on Friday.  I am a super-organized person, but I vow to let go of some things I obsessed about last year.  I vow to not turn down the late night movie or beer because I have work to do.  I have set “work hours” for myself, and I will stick to them.  I vow to enjoy the relationships I continue to build with my students, have fun, and watch the year fly by! J

I have several goals for this school year.  I would like to service all my students as best as possible.  My district is incorporating the Facilitative Model in our building for the first time this year.  I would like to get to know my students’ needs as soon as possible so that I have a better idea of when an aide would be crucial to have in the classroom.  Besides just focusing on the special education inclusion students, I would also like to target my honor students and challenge them as much as I can this year.