SINCERELY, CWIK
  • Home
  • A Year of AP Lang
    • A Year of AP Lang (Updated)
    • Supplement Packs
  • Resources
  • Journal
  • YouTube
  • Contact
  • Home
  • A Year of AP Lang
    • A Year of AP Lang (Updated)
    • Supplement Packs
  • Resources
  • Journal
  • YouTube
  • Contact
Search

To Self-Pace, or Not To Self-Pace

2/4/2023

0 Comments

 
Recently, I have started documenting some of my journey with personalized learning. It might amount to nothing, but my dream is that one day I can fill a void in the current professional literature on personalized learning - that is, a lack of books on how to personalize an English classroom. 

Again, it might amount to nothing but a collection of Google docs with my ramblings about why and how, but its important to me that I am always on a mission. That I have a focus which I care about. In the process of filling these pages, I keep coming back to the idea of pacing, or in this case, self-pacing a classroom. 

It’s also taking up a lot of brain space because next year, my school is transitioning to a block schedule - which means my current approach definitely needs re-design. (The thought of students pacing themselves for 75 minutes haunts my dreams). But - even with the need to reconsider - I have already felt a shift in my own beliefs about flexible pacing over the years.

First of all and much to my surprise… my kids like deadlines. One semester I kept them entirely self-paced, with the kids allowed to move through all units at their own preferred pace. When I surveyed them after, they overwhelmingly said that more deadlines would have been helpful for them. In response, I took a step back from entirely allowing them to pace their own learning. Now, I allow them to pace themselves within a unit, but I have suggested deadlines AND a hard “blackout” deadline for each unit. It allows them to practice some self-pacing, but also keeps them from getting so behind that they end up in a terrible situation at the end of a semester.

Students also tend to rush through material. I have an open re-attempt and revision policy, which means that kids take assessments with less anxiety about their grade. (Very important in an advanced class…). One downside to this is that they tend to rush through preparing for these assessments. They choose between videos, reading and small groups to learn the content, but in so many cases, they are barely engaging with these options. They are just checking a box for me. This results in them frequently having to re-attempt and revise assessments. While I have no problem with that (and actually see a ton of value in having to revise and try again), I’d rather they learned the material before the assessment instead of through trial and error on assessments. (And if I’m being selfish… it would save me time on feedback and grading). 

Perhaps most unsettling for me is that self-pacing isolates kids. While my kids are regularly working together on class activities or working through material in-step with a small group, overall, a self-paced format isolates them from one another. On any given day, a small pocket of kids are a week or more ahead and another pocket is a week behind. The distance between these two groups of students is immense. While I would love for the kids who are ahead to help those who are behind, I have never found a routine or procedure that doesn’t make this entirely embarrassing for both. 

Beyond that, multiple days I feel like an online class monitor - just sitting in the back and checking their progress on Schoology. In fact, last week another teacher came to my room to grab a student and she apologized. The kids were so quiet that she thought they were taking a test. In fact, they were all working on their material, but they had no reason to interact with one another. Too often, the only way they are engaging with each other is for unproductive chatter. In a post-COVID era, it’s my responsibility to bring students back to the table, so to speak. While they are well trained in independent work, we all know their ability to engage with others will take them further in life than any amount of time management skills.

So with the change of schedule next year, I am carefully reconsidering the value in self-pacing. That said, I feel I must acknowledge that there are advantages… 
  1. My kids can take extra time when they need it, and they can work ahead when they are confident. 
  2. When they have to revise and re-attempt assessments, it forces good metacognition about their mastery of skills.
  3. Students who face external challenges (family drama, pressure from parents, etc) have a little wiggle room when life gets overwhelming outside of school. 
  4. When they are self-paced, I am available to conference and grade.

What it really comes down to, therefore, is what is more important - that kids engage with one another or that they practice managing their own time. The challenge for me is to adjust to a version of personalized learning that can allow for both, because in all honesty, both are non-negotiable. 

One idea that I am dreaming up right now is to incorporate collaboration into their choice learning. For instance, the students who prefer to watch videos could watch their videos, but then they could be asked to collaborate on a practice task like a structured summarizing activity. This would create something similar to tracks or pathways for students, based on how they like to learn. The drawback is that everyone needs to be on the same step of their learning… so the self-pacing is pretty much gone. How can I find a way to make this happen where students can either take more time after these practices to review or for me to re-teach, or they can move on to the assessment. Figuring out what this looks like is my next big step.

What are your thoughts on self-pacing? Is it worth the challenges?
0 Comments

Happy new Year!

1/2/2023

0 Comments

 
As my last post may have implied, I have been buried under a dark cloud that has kept me from tackling new projects and meeting new goals. Just doing the “must dos” of teaching and coaching kept me from doing anything beyond those necessary tasks, but I am feeling the rejuvenation of a good break. I am ready to set some new goals for 2023, and as always… I’m aiming high.

  1. Finish Bell Ringers: This summer, I started creating bell ringers sets for each of the AP Language standards outlined by the College Board. I go through the first 11, but then school started, and as we all know… nothing extra gets done when school starts. (Also, see my previous post). That said, I am excited to finish the last 11 standards. Then, I’ll be able to make the combined pack with enough bell ringers for a full school year.
  2. Start Book: I have always dreamed if writing a book. When I was younger, it was more about writing a great fiction novel (the Twilight style YAL junk). Now, I know that my best writing comes from experience. I considered a memoir after going through some heavy things a few years ago, but I think I can help people more by sharing my insight on teaching and how I used personalized learning to make my life (...and this might be a surprise…) so much easier.
  3. AP Language Glossary: This is a document I started for myself, but I’d like to finish it so that I can pass it on to others. I went through the Essential Understandings in the Course and Exam Description and compiled the key terms for each unit. I’ve created a common definition for my own students that I will be able to combine in this glossary.
  4. Unit Assessments: This is probably a stretch goal, but once I finish my bell ringers, I want to create new assessments for each of the AP Language standards. I would like to offer more choice in how students are assessed next year, and that means I need to get to work creating some new options. As I put these together, I’m excited to share them. 

I am genuinely so happy to feel like myself again, and though I know tomorrow brings me back into the thick of stress and exhaustion, I am optimistic. These goals are part of my own personal health and wellness goals. In tandem, I truly think I can see a better semester ahead. 

For my readers, I hope you are feeling a similar breath of fresh air. 2023 is the year we can reclaim our passion and remind ourselves why we do this incredibly important work. As I’ll be telling myself every day, we do something that truly matters every single day.

0 Comments

...

12/13/2022

2 Comments

 
I haven't posted since June.

I have not accomplished any impressive curriculum projects. I have not even updated my Teachers Pay Teachers store in months.

The reality - which I'm sure all other teachers feel - is that I don't have a single ounce of energy to expend on anything extra. I have nothing more to give outside of my coaching responsibilities and teaching my three classes. 

I want to create amazing materials for my readers, but there has not been a single weekend when I felt I had the energy for it. I work out 4-5 times a week, and still, I have no energy to do anything beyond the bare minimum. 

For me, its a rare form of self-punishment to keep myself from being creative or from building new things. 

But that's where we are at. We are surviving.
2 Comments

Currently In Progress

7/19/2022

0 Comments

 
Checking in for just a second today to share something I am working on. 

Last month, I started putting together bell ringer packs to fit each of the 22 learning targets in the AP Language and Composition CED. 

Each pack includes 9 different bell ringers to suit the learning target, and ultimately, there will be enough bell ringers to fill an entire 190 day course. 

My plan is to include these in my free resources, but for now, the first 8 packs are available on my Teachers Pay Teacher store.
0 Comments

Some Thoughts on the AP Reading...

6/18/2022

0 Comments

 
Despite my phone dying, almost missing my flight home, and multiple panic attacks, the AP Reading was… fine.


In all honesty, I came into this one bitter, as I felt a little duped into attending the in-person reading instead of reading from home. (Probably more my own fault than anything).
It didn’t help that the in-person reading was essentially the same as reading from home. This year we read from computers again - which we’ve obviously done for two years now - but it made the entire exercise of flying thousands of people to Tampa see pretty foolish if we were just going to sit at computers the entire time.

My bad attitude plus the previously mentioned surprises made for a rough week.

But I made it.

Because of the extension of the Reading when we weren't able to finish, we had a unique experience this year. In the last two days of in person scoring, we trained on all three of the questions - something that has not been done in my five years of reading.

For me, it was a blessing. I was so sick of reading about ethos, pathos, and logos (more on that later) that switching to Question 3 and then to Question 1 was a welcome change of pace. However, a number of my peers were aptly concerned about the accuracy of scoring when we were being jumped around.
Personally, I think it’s a toss up. Like I said, I needed the change so I found myself reinvigorated every time that we switched. I feel my scoring would probably have been just as hindered by the fatigue had I continued with Question 2.

But that’s enough rambling commentary (... my kind word for whining). This post is not about my complaints, but about the suggestions and tips moving into another year of AP Lang instruction.

The following are the observations I took note of for myself. Some of them are mistakes I saw multiple times that I want to correct next year. Others are harder mindset shifts that I'll be mulling over for the next couple months. Additionally, I want to be very clear that I am in no way an expert, and you should look to the Chief Reader's report (Coming Soon!) for that. These are just a few notes and thoughts I kept for myself as I plan a new year.
​

Notes  from  the  AP Language 2022  Reading

#1

​First and foremost, Question 2 was more successful than I have ever seen, having scored it two other times. Students seemed comfortable with the speech and it appeared they found it very accessible. It made me very optimistic about my scores (until I saw Question 3).

#2

Please, please, please… let up on the rhetorical appeals. In particular, I would strongly encourage teachers to stop teaching students to find all three in a single rhetorical analysis passage. I have seen a common method for teaching rhetorical analysis in which teachers instruct students to organize their essay by the three appeals, with each it’s own body paragraph. (Intro > Ethos > Pathos > Logos > Conclusion)
However, this was not successful in most of my encounters. It is very rare that any text will have a strong example of all three appeals, and students struggled to make this model fit. This year,  Justice Sotomayor’s speech had excellent examples of ethos and pathos, but logos was a bit of a stretch. (Could it be done? Of course). Students using this method came to that third body paragraph and tried to make an argument for a logical appeal when the evidence was thin, at best. The issue here is that a student might have had two adequately developed paragraphs on ethos and pathos, but then their third attempt - logos - brought them down to a 3 for Evidence and Commentary because of the inconsistency. I completely understand the functionality of this method, but I would not encourage students to seek out all three appeals. I would instead suggest coaching them to seek out two, or better yet, multiple examples of one. 

#3

Another pattern that came up as I read Question 2 was one I see in my own students every year. Repetition, as a device, is like a comfort blanket for students. They will find ANY type of repetition in a text and cling on for dear life - especially when they are under the duress of a timed exam. However, this usually ends in meaningless analysis of unintentional repetition.
The example I often share with students is the Cesar Chavez prompt from 2015, in which he is writing about nonviolence. Every time I give that prompt, I have students talk about how he repeats the word nonviolence. Which make sense... because it is about nonviolence. It always gives me a "Duh" moment. b
​For this Reading, students clung to Justice Sotomayer repeating the word "Latina." Again, she was writing about being a Latina judge, so naturally, the word is going to come up. Often. While there were some students who were able to derive meaning from this, most who tried were not successful.

#4

Students need a deeper understanding of audience. One thing I noticed as I read was that many students wrote as though Sotomayor was writing for a hostile audience, as though she needed to prove herself to this audience. This came from multiple points of confusion:
1) that she was giving this speech to get into the Supreme Court and
2) that her speech was politically motivated.
Had students read the prompt carefully, they would know that this was a speech for law students at Berkeley, long before her nomination. Therefore, it was unlikely a hostile audience. If anything, it was an admiring audience or at worst, an apathetic audience. There was no need to defend herself so analysis that tried to make this argument fell flat.
Arguments also fell flat when they were too general. She wasn’t writing for the American people (and honestly, didn’t know the Supreme Court was even in this cards yet). For my students, this means I need to increase focus on audience analysis. I am thinking of creating an assignment in which students complete a role play activity in which they visualize the experience of the writer as I walk them through the details of their rhetorical situation. A better analysis of audience will result in better commentary. It can also lead to a sophistication point. (Maybe? More on that in a bit).

#5

On to the other two questions!
​
Question 3 sucked and the Readers quickly realized it. The good news is, because of this, they allowed for a lot of flexibility with the prompt to allow students to succeed. That said, upon reading it, I knew my students  probably had a hard time with it. Particularly, they would struggle to anticipate the argument in opposition. Even I would have struggled to see how you can argue against “timely” decisions. It made it very difficult to create much nuance in that argument.

#6

(I preface this next piece of advice with the caveat that I only scored Question three for one afternoon. I am in no way an expert on the issues and patterns that came up in student work).
​It appeared to me that the expectation for evidence was higher than in the past. Passing essays used specific, detailed examples from history and reading. Personal experience often failed. I have always taught my students to avoid personal experience, but after training and calibration on this year's question, I know I need to do more to diversify their knowledge. Just telling them to pay attention in US history isn’t enough. As I read samples and student essays, I couldn’t help feeling as though I had done my students a disservice by not pushing them to read more rigorous text about science, history, etc. It is definitely a top priority of mine as I reimagine for next year.

#7

Question 1 responses were looooong. And in my time on that question, I definitely saw more 2s than 3s on the commentary. As is usual - at least for my kids - they lost sight of the central question and struggled to link back to their thesis consistently.
​The question evolved to be more about STEM vs humanities, and students failed to see how a focus on both might present challenges. A large number of them simply said: We need more STEM and also more humanities. They weren’t able to see the possible challenges in that since there was not a source available that nudged them in that direction. 

#8

(Another caveat. This one might just be me…)

​After scoring all three questions, I am only further confused on the sophistication point. Every time I wanted to give one, the essay didn’t earn it. Every time I decided against the sophistication point, it was given. I can accept that this might be a shortcoming on my part, but I really did take detailed notes and read samples carefully.
Here is an example: One of the Question 1 essays made the argument that STEM initiatives further the achievement gap between schools, based on socioeconomic status. To me, that felt like a pretty insightful discussion of the broader context that the student developed well. This essay, however, did not get the sophistication point. In this particular example, I am guessing the issue was that this discussion was formulaic, but it deepened my confusion about what “broader context” actually means.
​In another case, I read an essay that I felt was formulaic and that essay was awarded the sophistication point based on a “persuasive, vivid style” alone. Again, I concede that these may be of my own misunderstanding, but I walked away from the reading feeling that the sophistication point was pretty arbitrary.
0 Comments

At the Finish Line...

5/15/2022

0 Comments

 
I have 9 total days left of this school year. And I. Am. Ready.

Somehow, I always forget how tired I am at this point in the school year. I slept the majority of this weekend (a luxury, I know!), and I am still completely drained going into the new week. 

Usually, this time of year, I am pouring my energy into planning for the fall and redesigning my class (again). However, this year, I don't have the juice. (My lack of posts in the last few months can further prove it). 

It's been a rough year... Stupid TikTok trends, reteaching students how to "school," cruelty-rampant social media, and universal apathy have made it harder than anyone expected, myself included.

But I am an optimist. One of my favorite things about teaching is that we get to start over every year: new kids, new course, new content. I love it. 

In the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about that optimism. Where does it come from? Next Thursday will end my tenth year of teaching, and I am still excited to try new things and grow as a teacher. But I know that isn't the case for everyone. Teacher "Quit"-Tok is making it very clear that many, many educators are throwing in the towel.

How can we take the remaining enthusiasm and replicate that across buildings? How do we undo months of fatigue and apathy to remind educators why we do what we do?
How can we take the setbacks of COVID and embrace how we learned to adapt and grow?

As much as I wish these questions were just a transition to a post about all the great solutions, I have - it's not. They are just the questions that spin and spin and spin through my mind. Now that I am an instructional coach, I feel even more of a responsibility to keep great teachers in the classroom. 

For me? I just need the ability to try new things and learn as an educator. But how do you reward great teachers? (And for the matter, how do you measure a great teacher?)

Again. Just more questions that I have no answers for.

I am ready to spend the summer pouring all of my energy into answering these questions, but I am at a complete loss of where to start. (And, in all honesty, it isn't really under the umbrella of my job title). I've just always had the mentality that if something isn't being done, I'll do it myself. 

How? How? How?

I think finding the answers is more urgent than we all realize.
0 Comments

Personalization  Doesn't  Mean  Boring!

2/26/2022

0 Comments

 

Personalization Tip #9

Create opportunities for collaboration and connection between students. 

We had a great week in AP Lang. Really. Despite multiple virtual days, state hockey tournaments, and a flurry of student vacations, we were able to work together on a fun group activity.

Because the class is generally personalized by method and pace, most of the time students are working independently. Yes. They chat and enjoy one another's company and work alongside each other, but most of the time, they are working on different items. 
For that reason, it is really important to create spaces and opportunities where we come together to do something collaboratively. 

For my current curriculum design, I create these moments at the beginning of each new unit. Not only are students working together, but they are being introduced to the concepts of the upcoming unit.
I try to design these activities with an authentic purpose. For instance, as I've posted multiple times, I love creating true crime related activities to engage them in investigation and critical thinking. I have also created activities to connect course material to their daily lives in the form of high school gossip and social media. 

But mostly, I just want them to do something together and take a break from any feelings of isolation that can come with personalized learning.

This year, I have been working to improve those activities that have worked in the past and creating some new opportunities to get the class collaborating on engaging projects.

This last week, we tried one of these new ones: a simulation of what the United Nations does. Essentially, I gave students a global issue, assigned them a country to represent, and asked them to work together to draft a shared resolution. 

Here's an Overview:
This multi-day activity is designed to mirror the process of MUN (or Model United Nations) competition on a smaller scale. Students will be assigned countries from around the world and present resolutions for a provided topic of discussion. In this case, the students will act as members of the UNICEF committee to mitigate the problem of child labor around the world.  
Students will research their country and it’s current practices in regards to child labor, prepare a draft resolution, vote on the top three resolutions, and then enter into a debate with the goal of creating a shared resolution that can win the votes of the member states (USA, United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France). 

While it ended up being stretched over a few more days than I wanted, I loved the conversations we had as a class. Students did a great job of qualifying their own arguments to suit others and negotiated in creative ways. 

If you are interested, I have a teaching narrative written out below! Be well, all.

UNICEF Simulation
0 Comments

I Did It Again!

2/2/2022

0 Comments

 
After over five days pent up in my house with COVID, I am happy to announce that I FINISHED THE SUPPLEMENT PACKS!
Picture
In fact, it will probably seem a little controversial, but I'm actually pretty happy that COVID finally found me. This is not to minimize how horrible this pandemic has been for our country, but in all honesty... I needed a forced break. 

This year has been trying in new, unprecedented ways already, but the addition of my new position has left me in tears, bitter, and exhausted more than I ever imagined possible. I was forcing myself to go at full speed every second that I was at school, and I was burning out. Badly. 

While I would not enjoy going back to my first (and worst) days of COVID, I have enjoyed the last few days of quarantine immensely. I made a book list for the rest of the school year. I started organizing my crazy ramblings into a possible table of contents. And I finished the supplement packs I started at the beginning of the year. 

The heavy, heavy fatigue of COVID has emerged as a metaphor for the burden I'd been carrying around before being forced to stop and take care of myself for a minute. I have never been as physically tired as I was in the first days of my COVID spell, but I would also say I had never been as emotionally and mentally tired as I was leading up to my positive test. 

As much as it should be a lesson about self-care and perspective, I know I'll go back to school tomorrow with the same over eagerness that will end up in the same burnout. All I can really do is try to remind myself about balance moving forward and do the work that brings me joy (and spend less time on the rest). 
0 Comments

Personalization: ???

1/24/2022

0 Comments

 
I am dismally behind in updates about our personalized classroom. Between inclement weather days, end of the semester, and my coaching responsibilities, I haven't had much time to sit down and summarize what we have going on. Apologies. 

However, amidst all those things, I encountered an issue that I wanted to share. One that I know most teachers struggle with. Particularly, in the digital, device-driven age. 

Cheating.
​

Personalization Tip #8

I don't want to say cheating is inevitable, but... cheating is inevitable. Being proactive is the best you can do.

Because I use a self-paced format, student assess at different times. This creates the obvious issue that some kids will complete assessments before others and even get feedback. There isn't much keeping them from sharing their responses with others. And I'm certainly not going to create a unique version of the assessment for each student. 

As the semester ended, I had a student who was very near failing. In all honesty, she needed to be proficient in the final unit to even pass. I'm sure many of you know that when put under such pressure, students get desperate. All the re-attempts and supports can't do much when a student has placed themselves in a position such as this one. 

So I guess I wasn't surprised when I saw that her answers were identical to another students. (Like... copy and pasted). My initial reaction was to laugh - seeing as neither response was accurate. Then, I had to consider how to approach it. Giving her a zero would mean failing the entire semester, and there was only one day left.

If you've ever been in a similar situation, I am sure you understand the frustration. There were many ways this student could have avoided this situation - possibly failing - throughout the semester. She did not. There was many opportunities in class to get help on this unit. She did not. The strict authoritarian in me is always ready with a "Sucks to suck" response. The human in me just can't.

So I revised the assessment to use a new sample essay. Gave the two offenders a specific time to come and re-attempt the assessment. And ultimately, both passed. 

For the next few days, I obsessed about preventing such behavior in the future. Do I need to lock their iPads down when they complete assessments. Do they need to do all of them in front of me? Do I need to explicitly write when they can and cannot get help from others?

While I will be making some changes for the new semester, I came to a clear conclusion. No matter how intentional I am about preventing cheating, there is always going to be someone more determined to cheat. In talking to students in other contexts, they can give me a host of creative ways students cheat - things that I would never anticipate. The thought of combatting all of these possible methods is exhausting to even think about. 

Instead, my approach has been to be proactive as I can, and vigilant when assessing work. Here are some of the ways I mitigate cheating in a personalized classroom:


Preventing Cheating in a Personalized Class:

  1. Assessment Design
    1. The easiest way to deter cheating is to create assessments that are open ended - authentic assessments that go beyond multiple choice and matching. While those are naturally easier to grade, they very rarely even assess the targeted standard in a high level course. Short response and project based learning minimizes the ease of cheating to a certain degree.
  2. Allow Revisions
    1. Students cheat when they feel pressure to perform on something. The biggest way that I mitigate this is to remind students that they can always revise and re-attempt assignments. Knowing that they always have a second chance eliminates some of the pressure to copy a peer. 
  3. Flexible Assessments
    1. Being an AP course, there are hundreds of prompts and sample essays at my disposal. Therefore, when I make assessments for class, I often make multiple versions just swapping out prompts or samples. For instance, a unit earlier this year focused on writing task and orienting a read to a rhetorical situation. I wanted students to write an introduction paragraph to demonstrate this, but I had three different prompts that I handed out at random. Similarly, in our new unit, I wanted them to analyze commentary in a sample essay, so I pulled paragraphs from multiple different samples. Creating assessments that can interchange resources or passages makes creating multiple versions much easier. 
  4. Emphasize the WHY
    1. This is something I think all teachers can be better at: explaining WHY students have to complete a certain assessment or activity. As an AP teacher, I can often fall back on how different tasks relate to the exam, but I also try to be clear about how each formative check is building toward a bigger assessment. While it might not curb cheating all that much, for a few kids, knowing that the assessment is a step on the road to a bigger task can help invest them in the process. Think: "I wanna see what you know, so I can help. How will I know if you don't show me what you can do on your own?"


I prove this tips knowing full well that I have also admitted to students cheating in my own class. While I'd love a fix-all type solution to cheating, I know that it is a constant work in progress. Each year, I add new methods to minimize cheating in my class, and I will continue to as I learn what works for us.

What I would hate to see is hesitance over personalizing your classroom based on the possibility of cheating. If you feel dead set on students completing assessments synchronously, then personalize elsewhere. As I've said before, pace is not the only way to personalize lessons. If you are interested in playing with pace, steps like those I've laid out above can be helpful in setting a successful environment. 
0 Comments

Personalization: 16-17

12/20/2021

0 Comments

 

 Personalization TIp #7

Accept that you cannot always be in control. Student-driven learning sometimes means letting them fail.

I've probably mentioned it before, but giving up control of my classroom was probably that hardest part of adopting a more personalized approach. Once upon a time - and even a little still - I was the teacher that would plan a semester at a time. mapping out months of curriculum at a time.

As I grew in my teaching, I learned quickly how futile it is to plan so far in advance. Good instruction is responsive and flexible - two words that I would never use to describe my young practice. I would attribute my change in mindset to attaining my National Board Certification. The reflective process required for this made me really focus on how I am reacting to students and creating intentional next steps throughout the year.

In each manifestation of my personalized approach... (I think we're on Version #294594 at this point)... I loosened my grip a little more. Version 1, I let them decide artifacts to show their learning. Version 2, I let them set their own pace. Version 3... and so forth. Each new approach gave up one more small piece of the control I obsessed over as a young teacher. 

I would say I have grown into the responsive and flexible teacher I set out to become, but there is one challenge in giving up control that still holds me back:

How can I sit back and watch a student fail?

As teachers, we are told to do everything in our power to make sure that students are successful, often at our own expense. We stay late to let them come in and get things done. We extend the deadline, knowing it'll mean a fast turn around for grading. We pester and nag until we're just as annoyed as the kid. 

This mindset has been problematic all along, but it's become the norm and unfortunately, the expectation of teachers. That we sacrifice ourselves in the name of student success. 

There are so many things that have created this dangerous mindset: high stakes testing, incentives, toxic teaching martyrs, and more. It is so deeply embedded in our culture as teachers that we feel that we aren't "allowed" to let a student fail.

That said, they still do.

Often times, I need to remind myself that a student failing is not my fault. I'll recount all the different things I did to avoid the inevitable, but because of the deeply ingrained shame, I'll pick out a handful of additional steps I could have taken. I obsess over that one thing I didn't do.

I talk through this frustration not to complain or whine. Instead, I mention it so that what I say next doesn't come off as hugely callous or unfair...

Sometimes. Students need to fail. 

As I said, stating this goes against everything I have been taught, everything I see in media, and the teacher I pictured myself to be 10 years ago. It isn't a jaded response to years of apathetic students, but a realization of how learning really happens. We learn from our mistakes. 

Right now, I have about 5 students across my three sections of AP Language that are failing. They are missing assessments from previous units and they are behind on the current unit. While the majority of them will get back on track and pull it off in the end, I know I need to stomach that some of them will not. The best I can do is give them reminders, reach out to parents, and offer time outside of class. Beyond that, I have to draw the line. 

They may blame the flexible pacing. They may blame the self-designed assessments. They may blame a lack of direct instruction. But the bottom line is that all of these could have been altered by a simple conversation with me. By reminding them of their options frequently, I am also instilling the core premise of personalized learning: that they are in the driver's seat. 

If the intention of building student agency is for students to take more control of their learning, that control has to come from somewhere else. In other words, I have to give up control so that they can have more. And giving them control will mean mistakes and failures.

Accepting this fact is, in all honesty, the real first step in adopting a more personalized format. As long as you take steps to help students along the way, you cannot blame yourself when they fall short. Instead, you can talk through the choices they made to end up there and help them evaluate what needs to change. 
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • A Year of AP Lang
    • A Year of AP Lang (Updated)
    • Supplement Packs
  • Resources
  • Journal
  • YouTube
  • Contact