Gladly Would I Teach

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I have spent the past week grading 83 research papers. Some
were outstanding, some good, and some needed more work. The assignment required students to research a problem and one solution for the problem and write a 5-page research paper. Students could choose any topic so long as they could find sufficient research.

Here are the most popular topics that students selected for their research papers. I suppose the list gives a glimpse into the interests of today’s teenagers.

12 Papers about Teen Issues (stress, overworked teens, suicide, laziness, pregnancy, problems with texting, tobacco use)

5 Papers about drugs (Alcoholism, Methamphetamines, underage drinking, legalization of Marijuana)

5 Papers about eating disorders or obesity

4 Papers about poverty

4 Papers about Stereotyping (Including Model Asian profile)

3 Papers about Bullying (including cyber bullying and females)

4 Papers about New or Emerging Energy Sources

3 Papers about Financial Issues (US debt, tax code, Fair Tax)

3 Papers about Shortage of doctors (no topics on the current health care debate)

2 Papers about Gangs

2 Papers about Human Trafficking

2 Papers on Illegal Immigration

2 Papers on Procrastination (one submitted late; the other emailed because the student stayed home and slept)

Other interesting topics for individual papers Cheerleading Injuries, Decline of Newspapers, Disparity among Georgia Schools, Overcoming Creativity blocks, Current GPA Computation Problems, Old People in Florida (?), Problems Created by Rap Music, and the Venus Project.

via voices.washingtonpost.com

Jay Mathews highlights a new book that explains why so many students encounter trouble as they enter college. Too many professors who may know their subjects well do not have the skills to simplify their subjects for freshmen who are often intimidated in class. The books sounds fascinating, and I plan to read it because I suspect I will garner ideas to pass along to my students to help them prepare for college.

Matthews states,

"Cox's topic is college, mostly community college, but it is clear that high schools share the blame for the students' misconceptions. Some practical, sustained experience with research and analysis–missing from most high school classes—would make the transition easier."

Since I am spending the weekend grading research papers and preparing to help students begin writing their second research paper next week, I needed that encouragement. We all know we need to require extensive research and analysis from our students, but it just so difficult when we have so many students and so many papers to grade!

 I promised myself yesterday morning before collecting research papers that I would grade 10 papers before going to bed.

I failed.

I graded five papers in almost three hours and gave up.

Why are research papers so difficult for students? Many of my best students who write beautifully on timed writings fall apart and often write incoherent phrases, sentences, and paragraphs in research papers. I understand that documentation is harder for students, but the major errors I am finding so far have little to do with documentation. 

As I grade, I'm also completing the English teacher shuffle. If you have ever graded essays or research papers, you know what I mean,

First, I put the papers in stacks of 5 so I can keep a tally of how many papers I have.

Then I start debating whether or not I want to grade what I think will be my best papers first so I can move quickly and smile or if I want to grade the weak papers first since they take much more time.

While I'm debating, I re-stack my papers into groups of 10 so it will look as though I have fewer papers to grade.

Then I count how many papers I have graded in the hopes that maybe I miscounted the first time.

I didn't.

So far, I have graded papers randomly and have assigned one F, 2 Cs, and 2 Bs, not a good start. At this rate, I'll need 17 days to grade papers, and I have a new set of timed writings popping up on Monday.

Grading research papers is brutal.

We should receive combat pay.

Maybe today will be better. I'll start by counting the papers I have graded, and then I'll put the ungraded papers in new stacks.

What a simple, fun, and interesting website to help students write poetry.

ShapePoems

At the end of the semester, I like to give my students a special gift that will remind them of the class and the students. I modified this activity from a story I read in one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books several years ago. Here is how I create the gift.

• Five or six weeks before the end of the term, I distribute an alphabetical list of all of the students in the class. I ask each student to write a kind comment for each student in the class. Comments can be only one or two sentences or they can be as long as the student cares to make them. I emphasize that they should write a comment about what they will most remember about the student or what they consider special about the student. I give students a couple of weeks to compose their comments.

• I then have students type their comments in a WORD file and email the file to me.

• I compile all of the comments that students send. I establish one page per student and copy and paste the comments that each student in the class writes for that student. For example, Bob’s sheet will include comments that 25 students wrote about him.

• I also write a comment/message to each student.

• When I have typed all of the comments, I print each student’s list of comments on colorful paper and seal the sheet in an envelope.

• At the end of the semester, I distribute the envelopes and allow students to open and read them in class. Most students are truly touched by the thoughtfulness of their classmates and thank them profusely.

• While this activity does indeed take hours to compile, I continue the activity year after year because it means so much to students. It’s possible to reduce the teacher’s time by allowing students to compile the comments themselves or by simply passing around sheets of paper and allowing students to write their comments. You could also have students type and then cut out their comments to students and then distribute them to their classmates in class.

When I talk with former students, they invariably bring up this special gift that means so much to them and often tell me that they still have their comments. If you would like to try this activity, I have just posted the assignment on my class website. Feel free to use it or modify it to use with your students.

Student Comments and Messages to Each Other

Gallery of Writing

Here's a new site sponsored by NCTE that gives schools and organizations the chance to set up writing galleries to showcase writing from students and teachers. Once you set up a gallery, it takes 5 days for the request to be granted. It looks like a nice opportunity for publishing student work online. Once a work is published in your gallery, each piece has a unique URL where students can then share the work with other people.

Never before have students been so immersed in nonfiction works. From online newspapers and magazines, to Wikipedia, to even social networking sites, students have greater exposure to nonfiction than fiction. While most schools do a good job of teaching students how to read and analyze fiction, poetry, and drama, most students need much more direction in reading and analyzing nonfiction.

Most English teachers, however, think nonfiction reading is a skill that Social Studies and Science teachers should teach, and most teachers outside of English Departments fail to realize that reading nonfiction is quite different from the reading that most students complete in English courses. Reading and analyzing nonfiction is such an important skill that it should be taught and reinforced in all courses.

One of the best methods for including more analysis of nonfiction is to give students an article  and have them write a one-paragraph annotation for the article. While the difficulty level and length of the article will differ based on the grade level and course, writing an annotation is an assignment that almost all middle school and high school students can and should complete.

Steps for Writing an Annotation

• Give students a copy of an article or essay to read. For their first attempt at an annotation, make sure you provide an article that is short, easy to understand, and of sufficiently high interest. The article may appear in your textbook or it may be a duplicated article from a newspaper or magazine. For English classes, the article most often will be a persuasive essay or an essay that presents an argument. For other areas, the article may be primarily informative.

• Ask students to read the article carefully and to highlight or underline (if not in a textbook) the major points the author makes.

• Teach students to write the proper citation for the article based on the format you require for your class (MLA, APA, University of Chicago, etc.). This should be written at the top of the page. If you do not normally require students to write formal citations in your class or if you have younger students, you can require students to write only the title, copyright, and the author of the article.

• Next, have students write a one-paragraph summary of the main points the author makes in the article. Limit students to approximately one-half of a page, depending on penmanship.This is a difficult step for many students, even our best students, because they want to list each piece of information they find instead of summarizing the main points succinctly.

• At the end of the summary, tell students to write 2-3 sentences that state the usefulness of the article and note possible bias that the student might have located. For example, students might write that the article gives a good explanation of a new procedure, or it presents the author's beliefs about a complicated issue, or the article is not sufficiently informative because the author tells only one side of an issue, or the article is not a good source because it includes out-of-date information. The final sentences where students evaluate an article will be the most difficult sentences for most students to write initially.

• After writing annotations, allow several students to share their work by reading their paragraphs to the class. Many students who struggle with this assignment initially may learn best by seeing or hearing sample annotations.

• Finally, students will benefit from discussing the article in class.

Reading and annotating articles improves reading and writing skills while also improving students' ability to work with complex subject matter. With repeated practice in reading and writing annotations, students will become much faster and more proficient in reading nonfiction texts of all types.

If you want an article to try an annotation with your students, try one of these:

Growing Up Scripted

If Anne Frank Only Knew

Pat Conroy's Letter Against Censorship

To All the Girls I've Rejected 

via www.wittycomics.com

Here's a great resource for creative assignments or for work on writing dialogue.

Creating a classroom atmosphere where students feel accepted is important in most subject areas, but  it is absolutely essential in English classrooms. If students are afraid that the teacher’s red ink pen will zap every error they make, they will  continue to write the same boring essays repeatedly, refusing to ever take any risks in their writing. If they are afraid that their peers will belittle them or laugh at them, teenagers,  whose lives so often are ruled by the views of their peers, will refuse to share their writing with their classmates or participate in classroom discussions of challenging literature. Teachers who want to create and maintain a cheerful classroom where students work productively, laugh frequently, and support each other automatically must establish that environment from the opening day of the school year or semester.

We all know the routine of the first day of class where we go around the room and ask students to introduce themselves so we can learn names. This activity has been part of my opening day activities for decades. Some shy students squirm a little, but most students enjoy the activity as they start to learn the names of their new classmates.

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a new activity that was so successful it has become a staple of my introduction to my class. I only wish I had discovered it years ago. The activity is quite simple.

1. I begin by emphasizing the importance of getting to know each person in the class.
2. I then give students one week to write a letter to their classmates where they tell a little about themselves and things they want people to know. I distribute a handout that outlines ideas of what they can include in the paper. I insist that the letter can be only one typed page, and it must include a photo. I also give students a copy of the letter about myself that I write to students.

Letter to Classmates for blog

I am often amazed at how seriously students take this assignment and how much time they spend writing good letters. Some letters are particularly poignant as they tell about a significant event in their lives while others are funny and illustrate students’ enthusiasm. Students who are shy often tell their classmates that they aren’t unfriendly; they just don’t like to speak in front of groups. Students who have recently experienced the deaths of family members will usually include that information because they think it is important for their classmates to know. Students who have health problems that may require them to miss school often convey that information.

Student letters allow me to get to know students better, but, just as importantly, the letters allow students to get to know each other and start bonding as a class.

Sample Letters

Friday night I was rather disheartened as I looked at the
statistics of how many people accessed this blog during the day. Rather than
looking at the statistics objectively and accepting that I’m off to a decent
start for a blog that is only a little over a week old, I started wondering
whether anyone was truly reading it and whether or not I was wasting my time
writing posts that no one will ever read.

Later that night a Florida teacher who consults my course
website and now follows this blog sent me an email to thank me. She included
the statement: “I was desperately searching for information to help me become a
better teacher.  What I found was you (and your infinite wisdom).” A simple
email from someone I have never met rejuvenated me. It may be tiny, but I have
an audience, and that gives me a purpose for writing. (Thanks, Sarah!)

If a
gray-haired teacher a step away from retirement needs an audience, how much
more important must an audience be for teenage writers?

We
all know that if we want our students to improve in writing, we have to afford
them opportunities to share their work with someone other than teachers. Yes,
most of them want to make good grades, but those true strokes of inspiration
and those moments when students really want to write appear after they receive
the attention and acclaim from their peers.

How do we
provide an audience for our students?

For
younger students it may be sufficient to post exemplary work on bulletin
boards. For older students who write longer papers, however, this may be insufficient.
A simple method I use is to invite students to read their papers aloud to the
class. My students usually sit in a circle, and this makes the perfect setting
for reading aloud. (Believe it or not, I can get as many as 32 desks in a
circle and can put volunteers in the floor if I have more students.) Depending
on the assignment, I may have only three or four students to as many as twenty
or more students who want to share their papers.  When each student finishes, we applaud, and
some students make positive comments or ask questions about the paper.

Over
the years I have been amazed at how much such a simple act means to students.
Even years after students leave my classroom, some of them will send me emails
and tell me that they never really liked writing or thought they were good at
it until they read a paper aloud and had other students congratulate them. For
students who like to write humorous papers, nothing is better than reading a
paper aloud and hearing the laughter that their papers generate.

Sometimes
the students who benefit the most from reading their papers to other students
are struggling writers. A couple of years ago a student read aloud a beautiful
paper about his mother. The paper expressed his love for his mother as he had
to care for her during a long illness and his thankfulness when she recovered.
When he finished the paper, students applauded and, clearly touched by the
student’s poignant essay, several students conveyed their admiration for how he
had handled such a challenging situation. The young man was visibly pleased by
the kind remarks of his classmates. When I later graded the paper and realized
that it was riddled with mechanical errors that I would need to teach him to
correct, I knew he would be willing to revise because he knew that my
suggestions would make his paper even better.

Posting
exemplary student papers on class websites (with permission from parents and
students) is also an effective way to publish a student’s work and provide a
larger audience.  After I post papers,
students always remark on how their grandparents or aunts and uncles in other
states downloaded their papers to read.

Class
magazines or handouts of student writing, school literary magazines, special
student readings for Parents’ Night, submission of work to online blogs, and
even audio and video productions of student essays are excellent ways to
provide students with a wider audience for their writing. We just need to think
of creative ways to spotlight student writing. If you have other ideas for ways
to publish student work or to create a larger audience for their work, please
share your ideas in the comments section.