LanguageLover's Weblog

I’ve been experiencing a fundamental change in the way that I teach.  It took a little bit of time, but a new program at my school has made me reevaluate how I taught and what I taught and why I taught what I taught.  It was good for me.  In addition, this made me make some changes in the way that I did things.  I no longer thought “sink or swim” or “it’s up to the student.”  Now, I don’t give them the option.  I stay on them.  I make them stay after school and make it easier to pass than it is to fail, just so they don’t have to deal with me.  It’s worked pretty well.  My percentage of failing students has dropped significantly.  So, that’s pretty great.

One thing I worry about, though, is the tendency to stay in a box, as they say.  In order to make this new method work, I had to reevaluate how I did everything.  I had to not only look outside the box, but build a new one.  All new rules and focused on new things.  There’s a tendency, though, to go right into a rut.  Just because my new methods are working, that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t step back and look at it objectively again year after year.  If I can do that, if I can really look at what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how successful it is, each year, I can be a great teacher.

It’s hard, though.  I just want to stay in the box.  It’s safe there.

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

Every year, I tell myself that I’m going to make it easier on myself and create a semester exam that I can use every year.  Unfortunately, I’ve only ever used a test two years in a row before I scrap it and start again.  This means that I have to not only create a test, but double check all of the questions and answers for ambiguity and for clarity of purpose.  Does the test really assess what I want it to?

Good things have come from this.  I’ve done away with rote memorization.  My final is “open notes” so that students can use any notes they wish, so long as they are handwritten.  This not only gets the students to actually prepare by writing down all of the information that might be on the test, but it eliminates much of the problems with definition.  For example, if I ask a student to identify whether or not the fact that Bob is  hungry is an example of internal conflict or external conflict, I know that the students are applying knowledge of the term, not just trying to remember the definition.

Now, many of my coworkers think that this method is poor.  They must know these terms by heart, they say.  How can they succeed in the world if they don’t know the meanings of words?  I say, in today’s world, it’s actually unnecessary to know definitions.  Helpful, sure, but not necessary.  At any time, I can pull out my iTouch and look up the definition of a word that I am unfamiliar with.  It takes no time at all.  Cell phones that can surf the web are in the pockets of most people, so if they don’t know the meaning of onomatopoeia, they can look it up with ease.

Instead of asking questions about definitions, I make them apply that knowledge.  Despite using notes, very few of my students think that my tests are easy.  Because, and I quote, “It makes me have to think.”

Back to my point, however, I don’t know if I can use the same test every year.  Each class is different.  Each year, I approach the same information from a different vantage point.  Whatever it takes to grab the attention of my students and pull them down the path to enlightenment…or at least a little bit of learning.  So, I don’t feel that I’ve been able to make a test that takes into account those difference.

Is that important?  Do standardized tests care about what sort of skill set my freshmen students bring to the classroom?  No, and they are much more “high stakes” than a semester test in English 9.  It is my belief, though, that my tests should be part of a growing process that the students undergo as they make their way through high school.  Much like a personalized workout program is better for a person than just going to the gym and working out, I think my rewriting of tests each year is important for my students.

Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe I just haven’t written the right test yet.  I really feel like this year could be the one.  But I don’t know what next year will bring, do I?

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

Sometimes I think I should devote this blog entirely to my musings on assessment.  Here’s another:

Are multiple choice assessments good or bad?  Assuming that you can create good multiple choice questions, are they better or worse than other assessments?  I’ll start with my questions.  The ones that led me to these questions.

If most high stakes testing involves multiple choice questions, shouldn’t we be preparing students for those tests, but assessing in the same manner?  Or should we simply be trying to test to determine how well the students are understanding the material and whatever method works is fine?  How easy is it to make multiple choice tests that are either not simple “What color was the house that Jack built?” but also manage to not be so ambiguous that more than one answer is correct?

Other questions:  If educators are not asking questions like these, how effective are their assessments?  How do you know if the assessments you have developed are actually effective?  I worry about “closed system” instructors.  If you create the instruction, create the assessment, grade the assessment, and then send the student on their way, how can you possibly know how effective you are?  On the other hand, if you worry about standardized tests when you create your own assessments, aren’t you still working within a closed system and not worrying about the real world that students will be going to.

So, I don’t know if I have made the right test or not, or how much multiple choice should be part of the assessment or not, but I’m going to continue to work on it.

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

I did not make any New Year’s resolutions this year.  I am just going to try to do better than last year.  In what?  How?  I don’t know.  I’m just going to try and do better.  It’s a good goal, I think.

How about you?

Just a brief post about an annoyance on Christmas.

Too many people are just looking for a fight about the use of Xmas instead of Christmas.  Seriously, folks, before you get all upset and start spouting off about how people are trying to take the “christ” out of Christmas, do a little research.  The use of Xmas as an abbreviation for Christmas has been around at least 400 years. According to Wikipedia:

In Greek, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ, and it, or the similar Roman letter X, has been used as an abbreviation for Christ since the mid-16th century.^[13] Hence, Xmas is sometimes used as an abbreviation for Christmas.

It’s also documented a number of other places. Here and my favorite site, snopes, plus a news website.

It’s just an abbreviation.  Christmas is a long word.  It’s hard to put it on a billboard.  Xmas is easier.  It means the same thing.  There is nothing malicious about its use.  Saying that it is an attack on Christmas is just a lie.  Get upset about things that are important.  Or better yet…don’t.  Enjoy life.

So, with that:  I hope you all have a very merry XMAS.  Spend it with friends and family.

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

It’s that time of the year again.  The semester is drawing to a close and some students just don’t have a chance to pass.  It might not be their fault.  Maybe they were sick a lot.  It doesn’t matter.  There reaches a point where there are just not enough days left to make up the work.

When I find that I have students who are beyond help, I recommend to the school counselors that these students drop my class and move into one of our alternate programs that hour to work on the classes that can be passed.  I’m trying to be realistic.  I discuss it with the student.  I show them the number of missing assignments and we talk about the number of days that are left.  We discuss math, numbers, and percentages.

Unfortunately, I usually find that there are two people against me on this:  the counselor and the parent.  Both believe that if we just give little Jimmy a chance, he’ll magically turn around what he hasn’t been able to do for fifteen weeks and turn in all of his missing work and raise his abysmal grade to a passing score.  Then, we will all link hands and sing Kumbaya.  Sigh.

Why is it so hard to face reality?  The counselors know me.  I go the extra mile for students.  I make every opportunity for them.  But, I know when hope is gone.  I don’t think it’s particularly helpful that we are giving our students hope that they can pass something that they cannot actually pass.  I understand that they are worried about self-esteem, but who do you think they are going to respect more; the people who lied to them and told them it would all be all right, or the person who was honest and upfront with them about their chances for success?

Imagine if poor Jimmy buys their story.  He works his tail off for the last two weeks of the semester.  Puts in hours and hours of work.  Then, his evil teacher puts in the numbers and…he still fails.  There simply wasn’t enough time to get it all done.  The grade couldn’t be raised.  How is he going to feel now?  Now that he wasted all of that time, worked his tail off, just so he could fail in the end…is that really better for him then just looking at the facts and facing it?

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

I just finished a major research paper project with my students.  As usual, at least one student plagiarized part of their paper.  I don’t think it was purposeful, but despite all of the teaching that I did, it still happened.  It’s a sign of laziness and lack of proper notetaking…not to mention proofreading.

The standard punishment for plagiarism is to fail the student.  Depending upon the context, this can mean failing the assignment, failing the class, or failing the school–if the student is expelled for the behavior.

What do they learn from this?  Generally, they learn that getting caught plagiarizing is bad.  They try to be careful to change enough words so that they aren’t caught again.  Do they really learn to take notes in a better way?  Do they really learn to proofread?  I don’t think so.

So, what do we do?  For my students, I’m having them redo their research papers.  Not choosing a new topic, or anything like that, but researching the material again and figuring out better ways to phrase the information.  Now, I’m also being extremely picky.  The Research Paper Round Two has to be perfect.  Every error has to be fixed.  They have to actually proofread and fix their errors.  So far, I’ve witnessed these students putting in an additional two hours or more of work on the paper.  I feel good about the learning process here.

However, it’s going to come back to grades.  What grade does a student get after this?  Is it still worth an A?  Do they only get half credit?  Considering this is their second attempt, shouldn’t that affect the grade or is it all about the end product?  Argh…these moral quandaries about grades have really been weighing down my mind lately.  It was easy in the old days when I just knocked a student’s grade down and didn’t worry about whether or not I was grading their learning or their responsibility.  Ugh.

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

Recently, I attended the National Writing Project (NWP) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in Philadelphia.  We had a number of problems with delayed flights and people missing flights and some other things, but I want to highlight the good parts of the trip here.

First, the conference:  The National Writing Project is cool.  It really is.  It inspires and really gets you focused on how to use writing in the classroom.  However, after one day of sessions there, I found that it began to get repetitive and they focused greatly on politics.  Not my cup of tea.  Unfortunately, I had put all my eggs in the NWP basket and had not registered for the NCTE conference.  I wasn’t sure the two days I might have free were worth the high price of admission.  So, I snuck in.  I flashed the badge from the other conference and crashed a few of the events. They were very good.  So, in the future, I will certainly pay for the NCTE conference.

Second, the city:  Very cool place.  I enjoyed walking all over.  Our hotel was near the Liberty Bell so we walked that area and saw many of the historic landmarks there.  It was also cool because it was paved in cobblestones and had buildings which looked to be several hundred years old.  True or not, it added to the ambiance.  Beyond that, there were several museums that several of my companions enjoyed attending–I wanted to, but just couldn’t find the time during working hours.  I did run over to the “Rocky steps” and climb up.  I recommend doing this because the view from the top is very nice.  That, and so many people go there to run the steps that it is a fun experience.  Public transportation was fine and we mostly had good experiences with taxis.  One group had a driver who appeared to be high on something and drove in a scary fashion, but I never had that experience.  Lastly, I recommend that everyone eat at Geno’s Steaks.  It’s an experience and it’s great food.  Otherwise, all in all, I enjoyed sightseeing in the city.

Third, the people:  I have good and bad about my experiences with the people of Philadelphia.  Some of it is probably my MidWestern hangups with my own concepts of courtesy.  I was struck by how rude I found people.  No one said “excuse me” if they bumped into me.  People did not hold an elevator if I hurried to the door.  There was no one holding a door to a building open in a gentlemanly fashion.  This struck me as rude and self-centered.  However, whenever we stopped and asked strangers for directions or information about something, we were always helped.  That was both surprising and refreshing.

Fourth, the neighbor:  So, I went across the bridge to New Jersey.  Camden, to be specific.  I went to the Aquarium.  Very cool.  I walked past the Walt Whitman house.  Then, we moved quickly.  It was a terrible area.  We stood out as a minority (the only white people) and it was a intimidating area in town.  Broken glass, shouting people on the streets, and cops yelling at crowds with megaphones.  Ack! Luckily, we found a cab and got out of there quickly.  I do not recommend going here.

All in all, I enjoyed going to Philadelphia and would go again.  However, the one thing I noticed when I returned home was how sweet the air was at home.  Apparently, the smog has tainted the air there.  I didn’t notice it until I returned home, though.

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

I will be attending the NWP and NCTE conferences this week in Philadelphia.  This year, I’m focusing on the NWP portion of it rather than the NCTE portion as I did last time I attended.  I’m not really sure what to expect, but I hope to be busy and learn many things.  I also hope for free stuff.  Whoo!  Mostly, I like meeting authors and getting copies of their books after talking with them about writing.  It’s fun to bring those stories back to my classroom.  Gets kids excited to read them.  Since I’m focusing on writing project stuff, I hope to get some new writing ideas.  Something.

This is also my first trip to Philadelphia.  I”m hoping to catch the sights.  I don’t have a real plan for anything.  I’m just thinking I’ll wander around and look at stuff.  Hopefully, I’ll remember my camera.

I hope to write about it when I return on Sunday.  Until then…

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.

As you may have noticed, those of you who might be faithfully reading, I’ve been thinking about grades and grading a lot lately.  Basically, I’m trying to come at the idea of grading from outside the box and trying to come up with meanings for what and how we grade, as teachers.

My newest question is the 5 point grading scale:  A, B, C, D, and F.  Wouldn’t a 3 point scale make more sense?  Basically, I’m not sure that all of us teachers are really good enough at assessing students that we can make the fine distinctions between and A and a B.

I think it makes more sense that we have Good, Adequate, and Failing grading scale.  In terms of employment, that’s how my reviews have gone in the past.  It’s easier to determine skill in this way, so it’s probably more accurate.  Personally, as a teacher, I would like to think it would be easier to grade honestly this way.

However, it probably would lead to the same grade inflation that we see today because no parent would want their student labeled as “adequate” instead of good. Sigh.  Tough to win on this grading business.

I am the language lover and these are my thoughts.