Sometimes, I wonder why I do this to myself. I would love to spend the break unpacking boxes that are still sitting in the garage from when we moved three months ago. I would love to take naps along with my son or maybe even catch up on some of the shows that I never have a chance to watch during the week. However, as an English teacher, that "free time" just doesn't exist in my world. Sure. I still take naps and watch TV occasionally, but it is always at the price of grading some assignment. I know that most people who are English teachers know exactly what I'm talking about. I also know that while other teachers understand the constant planning and grading, they don't quite understand what it is like for an English teacher. (Once, one of my students told me that one of the P.E. teachers on campus told him that P.E. teachers are the smartest teachers on campus because they get paid the same as all the other teachers, but they don't have to do any of the extra work. I paused when I heard this and, for a moment, seriously considered going to take the CSET for Physical Education.)
However, I know why I do this to myself. I know why we all do this to ourselves. It's the very reason we got into this profession in the first place. It's for those "a-ha!" moments. It's for those times when our students surprise us and, perhaps, even themselves. And, let's be honest... We chose to be English teachers instead of P.E. teachers or math teachers because we recognize that our subject (despite what David Coleman and other proponents of the Common Core are decreeing) allows for deeper conversations, stronger connections, and bigger "a-ha!" moments in which the students realize not only something about the subject matter but about themselves and/or the world around them. We understand that being an "English" teacher isn't really about teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking ... it's about teaching love, compassion, respect, and self-reflection; it's about creating a strong foundation from which students can jump off and go out into the world and read and think for themselves; it's about building confidence. And this last week, I saw that confidence on more than one occasion.
Reading Stories to 3rd-Graders
On Tuesday, I took my 9 ELD 2 students to a local elementary school to read children's stories they had written to a friend's 3rd grade dual-immersion class. ("Dual-immersion" means the students in the class are being taught in both English and Spanish.) Since some of my students worked with a partner, we had 6 stories to share with the 3rd-graders. They were ready for us as soon as we got there - already sitting in 6 different groups. We decided it would make the most sense for the readers to rotate from group to group, so after introducing all of my students, I had them go sit down with their first group. I could feel my students' nerves, but I knew they were ready for this moment. We had spent time in class the day before practicing; each student had read his/her story out loud as many times as they needed until they were able to pronounce each word perfectly. I held my breath as they began. I was standing closest to a boy who wrote a story titled, "A Fight for the Love of a Beautiful Princess". He introduced his story to his group and then waited awkwardly while they all copied down the title on their graphic organizers. I could tell he was unsure of how to proceed, but after the last boy finished writing, my student began reading, and almost immediately, I saw him relax. He knew he could do this.I looked around the room and watched as my other students read their stories to their groups. As each student finished reading his or her story, the 3rd-graders immediately jumped in with questions and comments. "How did you get all the pictures for your story?" "Why did you chose to use those names?" "I really liked how you put a lot of emotion into your story and all of your drawings." (If you didn't already do so, re-read those quotes in the voice of the most adorable 8-year-old you know or can imagine. As you might guess, as soon as the kids started talking to my students, every last bit of nervous energy left the room. Just as the 3rd-graders were enamored with my students' stories, my students were enamored with how freaking cute these kids were.)
At the end of our time together, my friend asked some of her students to share some last thoughts with my students before we left. Some of the students chose to share in English, but most chose to share in Spanish. The last boy to share was embarrassed to speak at first (despite the fact that he had had his hand raised, waving it about to be called on, from the beginning), then, in English, he said, "I really appreciate them coming here because I know how hard it is to learn another language." I smiled to myself because this little boy had nailed the exact reason why I'd chosen to bring my students to this class; I knew they would not judge my students' limited English because they, too, were working on learning a second (or third or fourth) language.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I actually did this same exact activity a few years ago with a class of 9th and 10th grade Long-Term English Learners. Despite the differences in the two groups of students who completed this project, the result was the same... At the end of the field trip, the kids asked me when we would do something like this again. The next day, I had my students write an autobiographical narrative/reflection on their experience the day before. When we debriefed, all of my students told me that the field trip helped them to feel more confident in speaking English. I told them I was extremely proud of them. Even my 2 lowest-skilled students who primarily speak to me in Spanish did a phenomenal job reading their stories in English. They still have a lot of work to do to become "fluent", but this experience helped them to see that it is possible and that they can communicate in English if they try. In order to keep this momentum going, we decided that we will continue to build our relationship with this class through writing, Skype, and perhaps another field trip.
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Ease of use: This was, actually, extremely easy to set up. I started by contacting my friend to see if she would be interested in participating. Then, I filled out a field-trip request to get Board approval. I made it clear on the request that it would cost the school very little; since 3 out of the 4 adult chaperons would drive the students, we would only need to be reimbursed for about 2 miles worth of gas each. (And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not going to bother filling out the paperwork to get that reimbursement.)
Would I use this again: Yes.
Downsides: Depending on your scheduling, your students may have to miss another class. Since I have these students for a block period, I was able to make sure we left and came back during that time, so they didn't have to miss any other periods.
Applications: Even if you don't teach English, you can do something like this with your students. Take your high school students to an elementary school to teach them science experiments or history lessons. The main idea is that you are getting your students involved in a way that they aren't usually involved - you are making them into role models. Some kids aren't used to this, and it is extremely powerful for them to realize that someone else actually looks up to them. If you can't take an actual field trip, set up some kind of big-buddy system in which you write back and forth to a younger class. Any of these things will help to build your students' self-esteem.
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Getting Students to Talk and Care
My other experiences from this week were much less concrete. I can't pin them on any specific lesson or activity I did. I can't even really say that I played any role in bringing about these changes. Nonetheless, they were positive experiences that stuck with me for the rest of the week.
The first might seem extremely minor. At the end of class on Monday, a student came up to me to tell me that she was unable to plug her Chromebook in because she couldn't find the correct plug. I thanked her for letting me know and told her I would take care of it. Then she left. End scene.
Why would something so small stand out so much in my mind? Because I have had these students since the beginning of August, and this was the first time that this particular student actually spoke to me! On her own! Without any prompting from me or anyone else to do so! For whatever reason, she is finally starting to feel more confident and comfortable in my classroom.
The next day, another student in the same class stayed after class to speak to me about his grade. He has a 48%, but he asked me if there was any way he could pass. Old me would have looked at him and told him no. It was too late. New me, however, looked at him and said, "Maybe. It's not likely, but if you do X, Y, and Z, it's possible." The difference? I didn't extinguish his hope. Who am I to kill the small amount of hope and drive he was finally showing? I couldn't do it. He came into Tutorial that day (the second time he attended Tutorial this year) and immediately began working on one of the things I'd told him he needed to do. Will it be enough for him to pass? No. However, the key is that he came in, and he was working. If I had told him there was no hope, he probably would not have even bothered to show up for Tutorial.
Why do students randomly show us that they care? Why do they one day, all of a sudden, start to open up to us? I can't say, exactly; however, I believe it is because, day in and day out, we are constantly showing them that we care. I recently watched a TED talk called, "Growing Roses in Concrete". In the talk, the speaker mentioned Maslow's hierarchy of needs. He reminded the audience that students need their basic needs met - to have enough food to eat, to feel safe, to feel loved - before they can reach self-actualization and achieve at their full potential. It doesn't matter what subject we teach; that is what we do for our students on a daily basis; we show them that we love them.
A friend of mine who shared some particularly bad students with me once asked, "Why aren't they as bad for you as they are for me? How do you get them to work?" I told her, "It's because I'm like their mom." Plain and simple. I go out of my way to show them that I care for them, to show them that I love them, to show them that I respect them, and, most importantly, to show them that I believe in them, even when they don't believe in themselves. Do all of my students succeed? No. Absolutely not. However, they all know that I will help them in any way, shape, or form if they ask me to.
