Entry # 31:
Searching for authentic
teaching and learning

Over the past couple of weeks I have been mentally planning my next unit, one that explores poetry. I had great success with this unit last year, but I am not satisfied to simply repeat the unit; I see many places where new strategies and activities can be inserted in place of old ideas.

Furthermore, I feel the hot, urgent breath of untouched curriculum breathing down my neck as we rapidly approach the end of this school year. I wonder constantly if we will fit it all in, then I wonder if it even matters as long as they master the material we will have time to cover. The jury is still out on that one.

I was re-reading parts of Barry Lane's "writing as revision" book, After 'The End', to revisit his ideas about teaching students how to write poetry. However, one chapter's title caught my eye before I could move on: "I Probably Shouldn't Hand This to an English Teacher." Lane is known for his humor, especially during speaking engagements, so I could not resist reading through the chapter to see what, exactly, he was writing about. Little did I know how thoroughly it would resound with me at this point in my career.

The chapter delves into risk and writing, focusing on two students Lane encountered over the years. One, Rick, was an inmate while the other, Luc, was a fourth grader. Both of these students had something in common with students we all have encountered -- they were reluctant writers who wrote not at all or in sketchy, inexact terms and who were behavior problems in class. To them, Lane explains, writing was not something real, but something one does for the teacher. After working with both students, they finally made "a discovery through [their] own writing," a way to perceive an authentic, personal purpose for writing.

Much ado is made these days about reluctant readers, but little is heard about reluctant writers. As I pondered Lane's point that students need to view themselves and their work as important and authentic, I began to see that his message applies not only to writing, not only to language arts studies, but to all content areas.

An authentic reason for learning

I remember myself as a student, especially in high school, wailing at the kitchen table about studying the Oregon Trail, geometry, gerunds, or some other at-the-time meaningless trivia. "Why do I have to learn this? This is not important? When will I EVER use this information?" As I think about those experiences now, I see these teachers had failed to put this information in some sort of meaningful context, some broader purpose for learning. Certainly, I had other teachers at the time that I did not object to, even in those same content areas. The main difference is that we participated in more authentic projects that considered an audience beyond the teacher alone.

On the MiddleWeb listserv, we have been talking about the necessity of including related arts classes like music, art, and family and consumer science, not only because of the broader base of information they provide, but because of the way they grab more at-risk students and keep them involved in school.

If we think about the way those sorts of classes are structured and the types of activities students are engaged in, is it any wonder they are more popular with our students? Though many teachers, parents, and administrators consider these courses "fluff" and outside the circle of "real" learning, perhaps these are the courses that best take advantage of what really works with our students. Maybe they have got it more right than the rest of us, and we are just too blind to see it.

I began taking French in seventh grade and took it through my senior year of high school. My teachers in junior high and high school were big on studying grammar and conjugation of verbs as well as studying and experiencing the culture of France. We used the language lab, gave presentations, put on a foreign festival complete with plays, food, and dances, and read the literature from the country. To this day I know I owe my knowledge of grammar -- both French AND English -- to my high school French teacher, Mrs. Boyer. We were immersed in the whole French experience. As for the Oregon Trail, I remember nothing except sitting through my teacher's endless slides.

The real difference? I was learning French for myself. I understood that my teachers would be grading me on my progress. But they helped me see myself as a person who spoke the language, not someone who was taking a class. There was an authentic reason for learning.

How do we create these experiences for our students?

As I thought through these experiences, the most important questions came to me. How do we create these authentic experiences for students in our content-area classrooms? How do we create the optimal environment and activities necessary to help our students look at themselves as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists and historians, instead of as students forced to learn material to get a passing grade? Finally, what have I already done to encourage this attitude and what remains to be accomplished?

I think I am doing a better job than I have in the past. One of my goals for the year was to focus on reading. I found from an action research project this past summer that my students did not enjoy reading, that they did not view themselves as readers, and reading was something to be done at school for a specific assignment. Reading was not an end unto itself.

I must confess I did not have any idea about how to change those negative attitudes, but by implementing a few key strategies, I do see a real change. It is not across the board, and it is not as comprehensive as I would like, but it is a step in the right direction as well as the largest change in attitude I have seen in my short (five-year) teaching career.

After attending a session on balanced literacy at the National Middle School Association's national conference and reading books on reading comprehension instruction, I began using a "Read Aloud" every day in each of my classes. From what I had read and heard, the main purpose of reading aloud to students was to give them an understanding of the fluency of language which many of them miss because of their halted reading. Our reluctant and poor readers rarely "get into" a story because they are so busy decoding or they read too slowly to see how word connects to word, sentence to sentence, and chapter to chapter.

They're talking about books

However, I found another benefit to reading aloud to my students. Suddenly, students are having conversations about what we read in class not only in class, but also in the hallways or in other classes. They ask probing questions and initiate discussions about the read alouds. They bring in their own materials, well-loved books or books they have always wanted to read, begging me to read a chapter or a page.

As we have read Hatchet together, students have raced to the library to get their own copies, eager to read ahead. They argued with each other, making predictions about the ending of the story using evidence from the text. On one particular day, my homeroom begged me to read on in the book when we finished our tasks early instead of using the time as a study hall. Finally, every Gary Paulsen book in the school has been snatched up as students look for the sequel or another story that will satisfy their cravings for more.

They are becoming readers, not because I told them to, but because they wanted to. They have found value in a book, in a story, and not just because it was a part of class. I will say as others in the know have said before, there is no way I would ever skip a read aloud, not knowing what I know now.

Jigsaws and book talks

Another strategy that, I think, has helped my students see a purpose for reading is the jigsaw strategy. Having to read in order to communicate with one's peers has been a powerful motivator. Since the assignment is no longer an isolated communication between me an individual students and has, instead, become a discussion among entire classes, reading has become more important to most of my students. I can honestly say I no longer get the typical groans when I pass out the jigsaw stories, articles, or poems. Jigsaw, too, is something I would not give up under any circumstances.

The final strategy I am using that seems to have made a difference is giving short book talks from time to time. Choosing a book off a shelf or sharing a book I have recently read before adding it to my classroom collection seems to excite them into reading these books. No longer is it one of many titles on the shelf; it becomes a living, dynamic story that they want to know more about.

Looking ahead to next year

I am pleased with the progress my students and I have made this year, but I am already looking ahead to next year and the changes I want to make. First, I want to use a reading and writing workshop approach for our instruction time. I do not know yet just how to do it, but I am learning everything I possibly can.

I am confident that it is a step in the right direction, and though everything will not run as smoothly this first year (or the next), I will work the bugs out, adding and subtracting as I learn more myself. Though I am anxious to "get it right" the first time, I cling to my mantra, "Lasting change takes time." I am giving myself permission to take the time.

I also want to add more books to my collection. I envision thousands of books and a room filled with bookshelves and magazine racks. I already have more books than most, nearly 500, but I want every possible option for my students, a virtual feast of print.

Finally, I want to learn more about working with my very lowest readers. I still feel at an absolute loss when confronted with first-grade or even non-readers. I never received any training in how to teach someone simple decoding as I am sure universities never consider the likelihood that those of us on the secondary level were sure to encounter nonreaders.

I cannot wail and say, "But they should have learned this already!" When I get through moaning, I will still be faced with students who cannot read, so the only option available to me is to learn how to help them.

I feel pretty good about my gains this year, but I am looking forward to continued progress in the years to come. I see now, like I did not always see as a student, the glories of lifelong learning.


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