Entry # 27:
"If Mrs. Berg can make
mistakes, then we can, too"
I had one of those weeks that defined why I love teaching. Students were
engaged, inquisitive, cooperative, and excited about learning. I enjoyed
almost every minute of it.
Why just almost? Well, this week could have turned out much differently
than it did. Fortunately for my students and me, I did not make the mistakes
I might have in my rookie years.
On Monday my students completed a reader response activity about Hatchet,
the novel we are reading together. Over the course of the novel they have
been responding to three or four prompts each day in their journals. I am
not collecting those until the end of the novel, but I wanted to see if
my students understood what I wanted from them before they turned the final
journal in.
I decided to have them do a short activity so that I could evaluate them
as a sort of formative assessment, seeing what I needed to reteach while
giving them the opportunity to revise their entries to meet the scoring
guide.
I was a little concerned by some of the responses my students had been giving
in their journals. They were short, too general, trite, and not at all what
I had explained I wanted when I introduced the project and the scoring guide
to them. Still, I did not expect my students to fail the activity as miserably
as they did.
"I felt pretty horrible"
Response after response fed me information I did not want to get. After
all, I had explained everything to them, asked them if they had any questions,
and they had all nodded dutifully. Yet, here on these papers was the evidence
that they had not even a basic understanding of what I meant. They did not
even have a clue.
I felt pretty horrible. My first instinct was to blame it on them, on not
asking questions, ignoring the scoring guide, or not paying attention. However,
I knew it had nothing to do with my students and had everything to do with
me. I had failed miserably. It was my responsibility to teach them how to
answer these questions, and I had not succeeded. It was time to reteach.
Tuesday morning I copied two students' papers as examples of what I was
looking for. After my first class came in and settled down, I stood before
them and made my confession.
"Mrs. Berg received a big, ugly F this week. I obviously did not do
a very good job of teaching you, so I am starting over. I will work harder
this time, and we will succeed together."
My students had been upset at first by the failing grades, but they became
quite calm after I made the announcement that we would be revising the papers.
I told them their grades were feedback for me and for them that they did
not understand the material, and since I believed it was important for them
to be able to explain their reasoning, we were going to have to keep working
until we were successful.
We looked at the student papers, picked out examples of details, explaining
why, and responding to the prompt. Students asked questions, and debated
the merits of answers. Together we wrote an answer to a prompt. And then
the true test began.
What made such a difference?
My students turned to their papers with no complaints. No "Why do I
have to do this over?" like they sometimes do while revising their
writing. They brought their revised answers to me, questioning whether they
included enough details, and pointing out the weaknesses of their previous
answers. Other students traded papers and gave input on each other's answers
without any prompting from me. I watched as a real community of learners
unfolded before me, and I was humbled.
I repeated the lesson with my other two classes with similar results. What
made such a difference? Why was this lesson so successful?
I know my students appreciated my honesty. If Mrs. Berg can make mistakes,
certainly it is possible and okay for them to make mistakes as well. I think
I modeled, more effectively, the true purpose of revision, that it's not
just repeating what you have already done, but it is strengthening and correcting
and learning from your mistakes. I demonstrated that, in my classroom, it
is okay to fail, but it is not okay to stay there.
I also think it helped them to see actual examples from their peers. Student
work is so much more authentic than my own. They write with the perspective
and language of youth, and I think my students find their work more accessible.
The revised copies of the questions are a vast improvement over the first
ones. There are still a few people who need some additional help, but even
their answers are better thought-out. Following are some examples of 'before'
and 'after' answers:
Before: If I could change places with any character it
would be Brian's mom because I don't think she realizes what she's doing
to her son.
After: If I could change places with any character it would be Brian's
mom because if I were her, I wouldn't have ever got a divorce from Brian's
dad. If they wouldn't have gotten a divorce, Brian would not have to travel
across the country to see his dad, and he wouldn't have been in a plane
crash.
Before: I would have told the pilot if he has stress in his life
not to fly a plane.
After: If I could give advice to a character in the story it would
be the pilot. I would tell him if he knew he had stress in his life he should
not have flown the plane. He probably would have still had a heart attack,
but he could have saved his own life and Brian wouldn't have been stranded.
I think my students got a better idea of why it is important for them to
be able to answer questions like those in their reader response journal.
I told them that after finishing school they probably would never have to
answer "reader response" questions, that they would find no little
packet on their desks at work waiting to be completed. However, I did confide
to them that being able to express your opinion or knowledge on a given
topic, while providing examples and reasons for your answer, is a skill
they will use daily in their adult lives. I think they understand that.
We had a lovely week, and it had everything to do with how I responded to
their failure. I think they almost see me as more a part of them than I
was before, no longer the all-knowing teacher, but the human being I really
am. It is a good place to be.
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