A for effort vs. F for skills

i find myself inspired by a fellow MACer's blog post (yes, again) to write a related post of my own... when reading michael bindon's thoughts on grading student effort versus student ability (http://mbindon.blogspot.com/2009/12/for-effort.html), i tried to offer a new perspective on this discussion, but quickly felt myself heading for a tangent and stopped short of what i wanted to say. the main point of my comment:

"in our mac courses (and essentially every university class i've taken in the past five years), somewhere between 10 and 15% of a student's grade is determined by "participation"- attendance at course meetings, active listening during lecture, and efforts in class discussions. if an elite university is comfortable rewarding students for effort, is it that peculiar to ask middle and high schools to do the same?"

i'm starting to think that striking a balance between rewarding effort and rewarding ability is our best shot at inspiring long-lasting student achievement. this is particularly applicable to the high school level, where students are struggling less with the "what"s of school (what is my teacher telling me? what are the consequences for my actions in school?) and more with the "why"s (why does this matter? why should i attend class or do my homework?)... for those students who may be struggling with class material, or even those just struggling with these "why"s, rewarding effort along with accuracy may offset both their struggles and "why"s. if students are aware that putting effort into an assignment will count for something, won't they be more likely to turn it in if the fear of failure is removed?

this is not to say that those students who hand in completed homework riddled with wrong answers will get their assignments back with an A and no corrections, nor am i suggesting that a student who half-asses her/his way through the same homework with every answer correct will be penalized for not trying hard enough; instead, i want to meet that struggling student halfway and ask more of my skilled student, in hopes of inspiring both to achieve at their highest levels. with each new day in my placement, i watch those struggling students neglect their assignments and quizzes. when they turn in their work, they're often thanked for this effort with the same F they would have gotten if they'd done nothing at all. if we took away the stigma of failure and guarantee, say, a 60% minimum for doing the work, maybe students would complete assignments. and if we create assignments to help students make sense of the material, wouldn't inspiring their completion of these tasks instill more knowledge than doing nothing at all? conversely, when we award A's to those above-average students who do only the bare minimum, are we not discouraging more meaningful achievement? I have a student in my class whose photographic memory helps him ace the weekly vocabulary assignments and quizzes with ease, essentially guaranteeing him a C in the course if he completes nothing more than the vocab each week (a flaw in my mentor teacher's system, i'm well-aware). his skills allow him to neglect more meaningful learning, but my mentor teacher has no leverage to keep his efforts towards the rest of class in check. if our goal as educators is both to help students master material and to hold "high standards" (as we talked about at length in field instruction some months ago) for these young people to inspire their greatness, then meeting struggling students halfway and asking more skilled students to meet us in the middle seems like a plausible means of reaching that objective.

access denied

supplementing and complementing...

after reading and commenting on fellow MACer megan getz's post about video games and the classroom (http://meggetz.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-games-for-english-classroom.html), my wheels have started turning. unfortunately, i was not in class for the point-counterpoint on the issue of video games in teaching, so forgive me if my musings move too far outside the dialogue that occurred on friday... but when i think of video games in relation to my students, i'm reminded of the conversations i've had with several kids about gaming systems and the new "modern warfare 2."  i wonder, how can i integrate outside materials that are relevant to my students into a lesson or unit that has nothing to do with their daily lives? 

not to sound cynical, but much of the content required for tenth grade english falls short when it comes to getting students excited about school... so when i had the chance to choose a novel to teach in the winter term, i went out on a limb and started planning on Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. its action, language, and protagonist (to name a few things) seemed interesting enough to lure some disinterested 15-year-olds to the world of reading. yet what really drew me to the novel was its recent revival in the land of popular culture- with a new comic book series based on the main character, Ender, a feature-length film in the works, and the possibility of a related video game, i felt the possibilities for student engagement endless!

however, how can i implement these comic books, movies, and video games within the constraints of a unit? there will always be the students who read the assigned material, and a subsection of these kids who go above and beyond class requirements and look into suggested resources like the pop culture items listed above... my questions and concerns in this post are more focused on the students who generally do not participate or buy into school: could these resources be a way to help these disinterested students get into english class? and what do i do if (and likely when) these same students pick up on the complementary materials but neglect the assigned text? as a young educator, i'm tempted to encourage whatever participation i can from my too-cool-for-school pupils, even if they just read the comic book in lieu of the novel... perhaps, if lauded for their attention to the comic books, movies, and video games, these same students will give the book a try? 

an experiment in live-blogging: top chef

hey y'all... i'm gonna give this live-blogging thing a shot tonight with a play-by-play of "top chef," season 6, episode 11. and, since robin's still around, things might get ugly!

answer: to blog

though i am not wild about blogging (http://caitcull.blogspot.com/2009/10/to-blog-or-not-to-blog.html), there are some ed tech requirements that i must fulfill, and fulfill them i will! which brings me to my most recent high school classroom musings...

as a graduate student well-trained in the art of getting by in school, class requirements are laws i always choose to follow, even when i don't like or agree with them. this mindset, coupled with a handful of other personal attributes, helped me make it through that place they call "high school" and has carried me through post-secondary schooling. requirements, mandates, and compulsories don't necessarily strike fear in my heart, but they do have a strange power over some of my better senses... no matter how last-minute i may complete an assignment, i always complete it because it says i should on the syllabus. 

this raises two sets of questions, neither of which i can really answer:

1. how does one acquire this fear of getting a zero on an assignment? could i instill this same quality in my tenth graders who overwhelmingly have yet to turn in a single assignment (including classwork)? 

2. do i want students to fear the consequences of not turning in an assignment? would hoping for such an attitude diminish students' capacity to think critically about their surroundings and prevalent power structures?

i understand the importance of classwork and homework in checking student comprehension... yet, if students are not completing this work, how meaningful are these assessments? is keeping track of that long string of zeros in a gradebook benefitting the student in any way, particularly when that same student doesn't take any actions to change her/his grade? and do those zeros help the teacher in her/his job to educate that same pupil?

to blog or not to blog?

i've been putting off blog posting for quite some time now, and it is with great trepidation that i write this first post after the summer... having been in my placement school for almost two months now, there is plenty to talk/write/vent/brag about with my mac colleagues (and really anyone willing to read/listen)! and for the past two months, i've done exactly that in almost every monday-thursday evening class. so why repeat the same sentiments in written form on this blog? 

the answer: i have no idea. 

actually, let me amend my answer a bit... i generally understand the intent of getting secondary mac-ers to write new blog posts, comment on others' blogs, listen to podcasts, and eventually do some live-blogging. requiring us grad students to participate in these forms of media and expression encourages the ongoing use of these forms long after graduation and into our professional lives.  yet, i can't quite figure how to integrate these blogs and 'casts into the classroom, and keeping up with them for the express purpose of sharing my thoughts with those on the interwebs (read: other secondary mac-ers) is not a compelling enough reason for me to post more than the required amount. as i watch my time in grad school slowly trickle by, more and more the program becomes a sort of talking/writing/venting/bragging session, and less and less i find useful content to take away from classes... so, going above and beyond the 9+ hours per week already spent just jabbing away about everyone's placements, everyone's thoughts on educational issues, and everyone's hypotheses about appropriate reactions to problems in the classroom seems a bit gratuitous, no?

queer students in the classroom

in yesterday's education 649 class, one of the leadership groups presented a three hour segment on equity in the classroom... their presentation very helpful and informative, though at one point i had to speak up about my disdain for the lack of information offered to the class about resources for teachers of queer students.  time constraints are always a problem when covering many topics, so i understand why some information was not broached.  that being said, the other sections of the presentation involved strategies for teachers when dealing with issues of diversity, and it felt as if the segment on lgbt students was simply left behind.  this could have been an oversight, or a simple consequence of trying to finish up a leadership group project in time to present it to the class.  regardless of its reason, though, such an omission reflects a larger trend among educators to concern themselves with many issues of diversity while forgetting those student identities that are still socially acceptable to scorn.  

additionally, offering "tools" like sensitivity and open-mindedness to potential educators dealing with issues of sexual orientation in the classroom is irresponsible; not only does a lack of more specific teaching methods leave us mac-ers high and dry when it comes to working with queer students, but it inherently diminishes lgbt students and their needs.  finally, this lack of specificity raises a very troubling question: if teachers are uncertain about what exactly they're being sensitive to, how can we expect them to help and accommodate these students?  

in response to the lack of these resources in the presentation, i took a few moments to search out some myself... here are a few really helpful resources for teachers dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom:

http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=1011
http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=1032
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html

cell phones, twitter, and trust... oh my!

after reading fellow mac-er mike jahnke's post on the use and abuse of technology in the classroom (http://mijahnke.blogspot.com/2009/07/tweet.html#comment-form), and replying to his post with a short comment about my muddled thoughts on the issue, i felt i should expand on my thoughts... and what better forum to do so in than a blog?

my comment: "i've thought about this quite a bit in the past few weeks, and i'm glad you addressed it in your blog... when planning our leadership presentation for eugenie's class, my group discussed using the cell phone polls and perhaps twitter (to some extent) to increase student participation and engagement in the material. however, because many secondary mac-ers are new to the world of tweeting and texting, worry about whether they will use these technologies for school material instead of personal wasn't really present... this is a really valid question, and one we'll have to grapple with in our own classrooms and educational careers!"

this post and comment bring me to my most recent musing on the matter: so what if students are using these technologies for personal use as well as educational? i'd be lying if i said i didn't send a few personal texts during class in high school (perhaps more than a few), and i wonder, if i had been given the privilege to use my cell phone sparingly in class, would i have continued to abuse it the way i had? i'm a strong proponent of trusting relationships between students and educators, and perhaps this idealism will get me in some trouble in my early years of teaching... that being said, when we discussed punishments and the student handbook in eugenie's class, i was shocked to see how serious the administration found some mild offenses- suspension and a failing grade for "cheating" (seemingly without needing proof of the offense) and suspension for cell phone use during the school day, just to name a few. why is it we immediately assume the worst from those young people we want the best for? and how is sending a child away from school for several days a useful tool for helping that same student learn and mature? perhaps if we award students the trust we expect them to give us, they will surprise us with their actions...

Imagining a Classroom

Because the first assignment for Education 504 was to draw my ideal classroom and the technology in it, I set my sights on "technology" and tried my hardest to think of something other than a laptop to include in the room.  However, the more I racked my brain, the more apparent it became that the computers, televisions, and projectors were the least important parts of my classroom vision.  Therefore, a bit of erasing (okay, a lot of erasing) and an hour or so later, I had a classroom with windows, moveable desks and chairs, a small garden, bookshelves, whiteboards (chalk-on-board is slightly painful for me, but I could handle a blackboard, I guess), a teacher's desk, and - as an afterthought - a small cart with a laptop and projector on it. 

It took at least ten revisions of my drawing to get it just right, and it still needs a bit of work.  I hope, though, that the moveable parts in my dream classroom will allow for revision on a daily basis... the clusters of tables and chairs can move to accommodate almost any activity and the shelves and sinks near the "garden" (read: plants growing in the window, accompanied by supplies such as soil, watering cans, seeds, etc) can be repurposed if the students decide there is alternative activity or setup they'd like in its place.  Because the classroom dynamic is subject to change, the classroom must be dynamic in order to support change.

Of course, I often wonder how feasible such a classroom is.  Generally speaking, most schools can provide desks and chairs, white/blackboards, and other necessary supplies, and my technological requests are not very substantial, but the bookshelves and the windows and space for growing plants are less likely... I can provide the books and buy the seeds and watering cans, but in a windowless classroom, will they be able to grow?

(... that was supposed to be a pretty heavy allegory)

My First Post...

The more I learn, the more I'll blog

The more I teach, the more I'll blog

The more I blog, the more I'll learn about teaching?