Letters to Express Opinion: A Lesson for Me

Over the summer, I was given the opportunity to rewrite my curriculum maps for my classes. Earlier this year I shared with you my success unit of Writing Personal Narratives with my 8th graders. Unfortunately, my first unit with 7th grade didn't go as well.

Feeling inspired through my readings of Kelly Gallagher's Write Like This, I wanted my 7th graders to have a first writing assignment that was meaningful for them. I thought to myself, "Junior High students always have an opinion! They should know letter format, so we can review. Writing a letter allows them to share their opinions with others." Not such a bad plan, perhaps.

I started the unit introducing the Six Traits of Writing. To help us narrow our topic, I use a mini lesson from The Traits of Writing: the Complete Middle School Guide that demonstrates a specific topic.

After demonstration and practice together, I asked my students to narrow their own topics. I was quickly disheartened. My students had dismal opinions about school and the teachers there. I went home exhausted and near tears because of the negativity. 

I didn't know what to do. I want my students to feel as if their opinions matter, but I could not handle the negativity, especially about colleagues and topics that I truly value as important. 

After talking with other junior high teachers and fellow English teachers, I created an instruction sheet that narrows the letters down to two topics. I also included a rubric and discussed with students how their work is to be graded.

I shared with my students why I was changing the assignment and we discussed the importance of being positive.

You can find this handout here.

My students and I had to brainstorm, again. Practice, practice! 

I then used an online resource as a reference for letter format. As a class, we discussed how this is a form of organization. We discussed what other formats we can put information in and decided what reasons a letter format best fit the information we are trying to communicate.

Using demonstration, I created this  example letter for my students to read.

For revising, I ask my students to complete a basic peer review. I provide these written instructions , and I also role play with another student prior to assigning partners.

We practice paragraph editing each Thursday, so they are familiar with the editing process.

Students who completed their letters on time also submitted them to the appropriate addressee. Those who wrote to our superintendent received responses back in letters! They were excited by this and pleased that their opinion did matter.

Articles to Ponder

This past week, my district so kindly sent our English department (all four of us!) to the NCTE Convention in Minneapolis. It was amazing! I can't wait to share with all of you my experience and what I learned while there. My students were very excited to see the pile of books that I brought back with me!

This got me thinking about professional development and how it looks during the busy school year. I try to read texts about pedagogy, teaching styles, and adapt unit plans. The reality though, is that I only have time to read bits and pieces. I often find myself reading articles online that are shorter and I am quickly able to relate to. Below are some articles that I've read this fall and a short reflection as to why I think they are important to share with other educators.

Minnesota Students' Scores Mixed on Nation's Report Card
I will admit, my principal forwarded this article to me, but I strongly believe that we should be aware of how our students are performing and what's being reported about them. I may not be a fan of testing, but I'm also a realist and understand why administrators and legislation look to statistics to measure student progress. As an English teacher, I can see how each of my student increases their communication through writing, reading, and speaking each year, but I am grateful that I don't have to write individual reports about each of these students. That would be an unrealistic feat to complete each spring.

There are some positive highlights in this article, including 8th grade scores: third-best in math and seventh-best in reading. Our 4th grade scores took some dips, but math is still second-best and reading is higher than the national average.

Declining Student Resiliency
This article from Psychology Today intrigued me because we had a training about resiliency this fall. This article explains how professors and other college faculty have noticed a drop in college student resiliency. Students are professionally visiting with mental health services and are visibly, emotionally upset in their classes.

I find this interesting because my career goals include preparing students for life outside of high school. The article suggests that "helicopter" parents are to blame for this. This may be true, but it is also societal. I also can't help wondering what role middle and high school teachers play in this. Are we meeting the expectations of society and holding the hands of our students too much?

Writing Workshop is Hard
I can't agree more with this article title. The days we have writing workshop in my classroom are the most exhausting. They don't seem to take too much prep as I try to limit to one or two mini lessons, but moving from student to student for individual conferences is a workout for my brain. I try not to limit my students' topics, so my mind is doing gymnastics as I go from essay to essay.

I think this article gives some good tips for sharing this process with parents, which I think is fantastic! It's also relatable to anyone who teaches using a workshop menu.


What have you been reading?

Personal Narrative Unit

This blog post has been a work in progress for a couple of weeks, but I'm glad to finally be ready to share it.

After introducing my procedures and organizing our interactive notebooks the first week of school, I wanted to start my 8th graders with a unit that engaged them in active reading and the writing process. We needed to warm up our skills from 7th grade before working with longer texts and research writing, so I began with our Personal Narrative Unit.

Within our writing lessons, we do review our material using games and discussion. This unit has two summative assessments: a unit quiz and their personal narratives.

Available for download and revising!

Lesson One: When I began this unit, my first step was to review and front-load vocabulary. You can find my list of words here. In our interactive notebooks, we add this to our Vocabulary Section. I give the students a foldable to cut out and place on the page.

I explain to my students that by placing the term on the front, and writing the definition on the lines of their notebook, we have created flashcards to use  when studying. Some of my 8th graders loved this!

Having them cut and paste on our block lessons also provides them with a brain break. I allow them to grab their own materials and put the scraps into recycling. They get up and moving while still being on task.

I don't go through all seven terms on a single day. We began with the first four (nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, personal narrative) and they thought of the examples that they have either read or wrote themselves. We also compare and contrast how autobiography, memoir, and personal narrative are similar and different.

We then go through a short brainstorming process. We save these in our interactive notebooks in the Writing Section. For three minutes, the students make a list of memories in their lives that they could write about. We share some of our ideas. If we find that our ideas are too broad, we take more time to make them more specific for a writing assignment. 

For example, students often say something like "My trip to Texas." Great! But can you write with specific details about the WHOLE trip to Texas in three pages? No probably not. Let's create a second list based on your broad topic. What did you do in Texas?

Lesson Two: We add our new term "setting" to our foldable. I then introduce our first text, which comes from our class textbook, McDougal Littell's The Language of Literature, Grade 8. Teachers could self select other texts, too.

We then read our first core-text, an excerpt for Doris Kearns Goodwin's Wait Till Next Year. As a class, we read aloud, but each student was held accountable with a small post-it to find a sentence that describes the setting. The only definition they have is that it either describes the time or place.

After reading the story, we share our post-its. Through discussion, we identify what types of details create the setting: sensory details! 

This leads us into our second step for the writing assignment. We return to our brainstorm lists and I ask students to go through their lists to see which topics they have strong sensory details for. Then, we make a decision. The brainstorming continues. We created a list of the five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch), and they listed what details they remembered about each of these. I don't require them to write in complete sentences, but to have enough information to remind them.

Lesson Three: We add the next term "anecdote" to our foldable. As eighth graders, my students understand that characters are an important part of their stories, but how do they present information about them?

We read our second core-text, an excerpt from Reeve Lindbergh's Flying and we try to identify the anecdotes as we read together. For the first anecdote, I demonstrate teacher think-aloud for inferences about characters. The second one we find, I ask them open-ended questions to draw their own inferences, and then the remainder they analyze themselves.

We are then able to brainstorm our characters and the anecdotes they can describe about their characters. We start by creating (another) list of who was with them. I tell them to consider the people directly with them and also bystanders they may have said "hello" to or exchanged a fun fact about a display they looked at. 

The students then choose three characters to develop anecdotes. At this time, I give them a sentence starter. We completed an example about me.

Ms. Hansen is so organized that she spent a week helping us organize interactive notebooks with organized sections, page numbers, and even a table of contents.

The next class wrote this one: 

Ms. Hansen is so crazy that one morning she was skipping down the hallway before the bell rang. In class she taught a lesson about the suffix "-al" and found it exciting. We all had to ask: "Did you drink coffee again?"

My students then wrote short anecdotes for their own characters.

The anecdotes that I expected my students to write were shorter and less complex than Lindbergh's, but our writing assignment is also shorter.

Lesson Four: We add our final term "theme" to our foldable. My eighth graders have studies theme seventh grade, so this is a reminder to them.

As a class, we went back and re-read the endings of our two core texts and identified the themes. We also noted how the theme seemed to reveal itself near the end of the text.

Students then read our last text Jewell Rhode's independently. Some students may be paired together based on learning needs. They then complete an Exit Slip. I post these directions on my board.

EXIT SLIP: Write a paragraph describing the theme of Jewell Parker Rhode's "Block Party." Follow paragraph format and include specific details from the text.





As part of our brainstorming, I then ask students to brainstorm what important themes their experiences have. They have to remember that they may have learned something, but that it also applies to their audience.

Lesson Five: Using all of their brainstorming, my students are then given writing days to complete a rough draft. We continue to keep these in our Writing Section. After all the brainstorming we did, my students were excited to have a writing day to put it all together.

I have to say, I was astounded by the writing that I got from my students. Not only was their length longer than required, but the amount of detail they included brought their writing to life. I also write a rough draft while my students do. I am available to answer questions and many of them like to share bits and pieces as they go, but I still add to my notebook with them.

Lesson Six: Now that students have their rough drafts, I present them with their formal directions and a rubric. Most of my rubrics follow the same format, so my students know what to expect. You can find my rubric (available for adaptation) here.

I then give them the first step in revising: where to add dialogue. This is just as important to the events and character development. Most of my students worried, "Ms. Hansen, we don't remember what we said." I give them the same advice my college writing teacher did: "You know the things you say, and you usually know what the people closest to you say. It's not fiction, but exaggeration." 

I also demonstrate using my example of my rough draft. Then they have work to do on their own. After they go through their handwritten drafts writing notes where to add dialogue, I allow them to use computers to write their second drafts.

Lesson Seven: We talk about paragraph structure in fiction. We build off that they know about formal paragraph in our essays, but then I usually get a strange look when I tell them that they get to "break those rules!" No more topic sentences, no minimum number of sentences, no transition. Just the series of events.


This year I borrowed an anchor chart from online. Unfortunately, I cannot give credit to the original creator, but thank you! 

Rather than having my students include this in our notes, we discuss and create a saying to remember when to change paragraphs. Then, we practice by going through my draft.

They then organize their writing into multiple paragraphs.

Lesson Eight: Peer review! I usually use a stack of index cards to group my students with a partner for this step. Thankfully, they are familiar with the peer review process with me. 

I give them this handout to guide them with reading and reviewing with their partner. Afterwards, they get work time to revise. They then meet with their partner again to go through editing. Because I do weekly paragraph editing, I don't need to give specific directions on the editing process.

When my students feel that they have completed the writing process, they "share" via Google Docs, and turn in the rubric. I'm very strict about needing them to submit a rubric with their name on it. I explain that this is how I know that they writing assignment is complete, and that I don't want to give them a grade on a rough draft simply because it was shared.


I hope you find my unit and lesson overview helpful. May you create enjoyable, engaging, and effective lessons! Share your success stories with writing assignments and workshop. 

Notice and Note in My Classroom

My department and I made the decision to go to Minnesota Council of Teachers of English fall workshop, and we were introduced to Kylene Beers' and Bob Probst's Notice and Note strategies.

Since this workshop, I have been using the six signposts (Contrast/Contradiction, AHA! Moment, Again & Again, Words of the Wiser, Tough Questions, and Memory Moments) within my classroom to engage students with their reading and classroom discussions. It has been helpful across our department because we've all been incorporating this close reading strategy within our literature lessons. We've all been able to report success. Yay!

So what are a few of my strategies?

I teach my 7th graders the strategies using a visual display similar to those presented in the book. I have them take notes in their interactive notebooks with a similar design. However, I require the students to paraphrase the definition of the signpost into their own words. We also summarize why we pay attention to these. 

You can get a copy of this here.

We then read a short story or a chapter of a novel that demonstrates this particular signpost. I use teacher-think-aloud to demonstrate the use of the signpost anchor question. 

As we learn more of the signposts, we add them to our reading log charts. These are meant to demonstrate that my students are engaging with the text. They may use these as a reminder of previous reading, as well. They can also use the page numbers to find textual evidence for their assignments.

This reading log was developed using a model from one of my amazing reading specialists who works with me.

You can get a copy of the reading log, with three of the signposts here.

In 8th grade, we needed to simply revisit the signposts and I use a single page for notes in their interactive notebooks to review these from last year. 

You can have the review sheet for the signposts here.

My favorite strategy to use for discussion requires students to use slips of paper to record a summary of the signpost with a page number. We then use fishbowl discussion to develop our ideas regarding the signposts and students will begin to make inferences.

Students will pull a slip of paper and read the summary of the signpost to their classmates. Those in the fishbowl then use the anchor question to begin their discussion. I do provide other sentence starters for them to use to continue the discussion. 

I've also had my students create a display with the signposts and they'll track the signposts using post-it notes.

I'd love to hear how others are making the Notice and Note signposts work in their classrooms!

Help Yourself: Build Consistency

The end of the third week is upon us, and I find myself reflecting on the beginning of my first year and this second year. I kept a journal throughout my first year (though I admit my submissions were intermittent), and I read through the first few weeks to compare and contrast to this year.

This year has been less frustrating for me and I think it's for this reason: Consistency. Students don't know it, and they won't admit it, but consistency of expectations is what they like and need. Consistency is also good for me. (Maybe I'm like Sheldon Cooper?) It helps provide organization, a sense of purpose, and saves time.

My first consistent behavior was to quit bringing school work home. This is not easy for me. Looking back on my journal entries, I was at school for ten hours and then working for another two at home. I'm still at school for ten hours, but at home is for me now. (Except on weekends when I finish my lesson plans.) A few things have helped me cut down those few hours that I was working at home.

• Consistent bellwork: Each day of the week has the same bellwork, so students know what to expect and it takes less prep time for me. I refer to this as our Word Study, and I have created a packet that has bellwork for the entire quarter. I collect it every couple of weeks to grade for daily work.

• Daily reading: I end each class period with 10-15 minutes of reading. Sometimes it's frustrating because I would like to complete what we're working on. But...remember that magic number of 20 minute activities? By breaking up the schedule, we actually accomplish more during our work time. This reading time also allows me to decompress before the next class by reading with my students or organize papers (both to grade or to hand out next hour). This means I don't have to do that during my prep.

• Lesson planning: Every Friday, before leaving school, I map out my lessons on my white board agenda for students. This forces me to have a plan for the next week to keep me from scrambling Monday morning. It also helps me plan a lesson with a realistic time. When writing my lessons on my laptop, I can fit so much on the chart with my typing! My weekly agenda that I share with students allows for realistic planning, and helps me to be more focused and concise with my formal lesson plans.

It took me a year, but I realize that by relaxing at home and taking care of my home life, I am actually a better teacher. It means when I walk in the classroom, I don't have to worry about my home life and I have a genuine positive attitude.

What didn't help my first year frustration was my uncertainty of how to teach junior high students to be organized. Why don't they teach this in college? I learned hundreds of before, during, and after reading strategies; hundreds of writing prompts and workshops; and learned of hundreds of resources. But how do you explain to 7th and 8th graders to be organized?

Junior high students lose a lot of their materials. I found myself creating handouts and printing off tens of extra copies. I would go through them all and make more. These would continue to disappear. How did I solve it? Honestly, I quit giving extra copies. I started requiring them to hand write a copy in their notebooks by looking at their neighbors. 

This year, I did some more research and decided to try interactive notebooks. My use of glue sticks and scissors is limited, but by having students keep a table of contents and write their notes on the same page, many of them are actually hanging on to their materials! 

If you're a new teacher, talk to your colleagues about the strategies that work for them. Sharing strategies helps provide consistency for students in other classes. It's also great collaboration and saves time. Perhaps they use two pocket folders with "graded" and "homework." 

As a few more weeks pass by, I hope to share with you how I created my Word Study packets and interactive notebooks. We'll see if they past the test of first quarter.

English 2.0: Improvements for a New Year

As my colleagues and I prepare for a new school year, I find myself reflecting on what routines and procedures worked and did not work in my 7th and 8th grade classroom. In this post, you will find classic first year blunders; now that I've learned from these, I will share with you my new strategies for this year.

My first mistake occurred at the beginning of several class periods. My school requires bellwork, as suggested in Harry Wong and Rosemary Wong's book The First Days of School. I began the year by writing journal prompts for each of my classes. (Luckily I was able to type them!) This became a significant amount of time for me. Not only did I prepare these every morning, but students began to expect me to grade ALL of them. If they felt like they weren't graded, many would simply not complete them. When I was grading them, I collected them weekly, and this was a huge headache!

Did absent students need to make up journal prompts? Crap...where did I save it? What days was Elaine* gone? And Jared*? What about the students who have lost their journal prompts? Yikes! It was a nightmare.

At the beginning of second quarter, I introduced weekly vocabulary words. They defined these once a week as their bellwork on our alternative block days. This worked great! They came in on either Tuesdays or Wednesdays knowing exactly what to do while I took attendance. This has inspired my new bellwork strategy for the upcoming year.

Each day of the week will have different bellwork, but will remain consistent from week to week. With the exception of their planners, the materials will be given to students in a packet for either half of the quarter or a full quarter to keep in their binders until complete.

Monday: Fill out planners with this week's lessons and assignments. Please complete in pencil to accommodate changes. After attendance, I will present spelling words. (There will be an activity sheet related to spelling as early-finisher work.)

Tuesday/Wednesday (block days): Complete this week's vocabulary word with the corresponding prefix/suffix.

Thursday: Edit the following paragraph using the editing marks used in class.

Friday: Free write about the lessons and activities this week. What have you learned? What topics are still confusing? (This will then be a short discussion for me.) Then we can take our spelling test.

My other "big" mistake was not having a behavior plan on the first day of school. Maybe I thought the school had one or I needed to see how my students acted. Either way, plan on being over prepared with a plan. 

I began looking through my materials for an idea of a behavior plan. Lo and behold! I had created resources back at the beginning of August and completely forgot to include them in my syllabus and class introduction. Well, guess I didn't need to make new materials.

My behavior plan is also taken from The First Days of School. I use a ticket system. 

In class, my students know what these tickets mean. If a student is off-task, I can slide a ticket on his/her desk without disrupting the class. The student then takes control of their behavior by recognizing what the behavior is and making a decision to either change it or continue the behavior. If the behavior does continue, I hand him/her both a second ticket and a Behavior and Action Plan. The students then go to a quiet area of the room to complete the reflection sheet before returning to the class. This helps me to know what may be causing the behavior, such as a seating chart or hunger. If a student still continues the behavior that disrupts the rest of the class, I direct them to visit with either the principal or the dean of students.

When implementing a behavior plan, make sure that you're following school expectations. It is easier for students if the policies are consistent in all classrooms. If there isn't a school-wide procedure, make sure you share your behavior plan with your administrators. If you'd like the behavior tickets and the My Behavior and Action Plan, use the links to make a copy for you.

The next big change I'm making in my classroom is the use of reading logs and reading days. The high school teachers in my district implement reading days where the students spend the hour reading and completing reading journals. I thought I would implement the same expectation in my classroom. Nope. Turns out the attention span of 7th and 8th graders requires them to build the ability to sustain their attention for that long. After fifteen minutes, few of my students remained reading. Hopefully they would complete their reading logs with the title, author, pages read, time, and a summary. Nope. 

These reading logs were lost, shredded between science textbooks, left at home. I've heard almost every excuse. By the fourth quarter, I completely gave up on reading logs and given grades on reaching their one hundred minute goal each week.

This year, I think I am much more prepared! Rather than reading days, we will spend the last ten to fifteen minutes reading in class. These should be student choice books for a majority of their free-reading time. As students are able to sustain their reading, we can change to longer periods of reading on a fewer days of the week.

Reading logs, well, they've changed quite a bit. Rather than having students hang on to sheets or bookmarks that never return, I've designed a bulletin board. The envelopes are similar to those placed in library books (for those old enough to know) for the check out cards.

Inside these, the students will have their own index card with their name and reading goal. Each Friday, students will be expected to write down the name of their book, the author, and the page they are on. At the end of the quarter, students will reflect on whether they were able to obtain their goals. 

Hopefully these changes will help the school year run more smoothly. What changes have you made in your classrooms that make a big difference?


*Student names have been changed.*

Teachers and Students Need "Focus"

After my FIRST formal observation review with my principal (which was not as terrifying as I expected), he gifted me with a copy of Mike Schmoker's text Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning. Thankfully, he told me that I didn't need to read it immediately, but to save it for my summer reading. Woo...it's like he saw the terror on my face of "How will I have time to read this?"

I found a lot of points that I agree with throughout this text. Granted, I also use a lot of these strategies. Below you will find summaries of Schmoker's main points that hung with me and how they have (and haven't) worked for me in my classroom.

Lesson Planning:

Schmoker argues that there are four important aspects of a quality lesson: clear learning objectives, teaching/modeling/demonstrating, guided practice, and checks for understanding/formative assessment (53-4).

During new teacher orientation, my principal sent out an example lesson plan format. I didn't know it until I began reading this book, but it's the format suggested by Schmoker. Theoretically, I love this format! I think it makes logical sense and provides consistency through lesson plans. 

If you like it, make a copy!

Link to Lesson Template  


This is the form that I try to use for all of my lessons, but sometimes it doesn't tie up in a nice bow for me. For example, some lessons take multiple days so I don't spend a significant amount of time demonstrating EVERY class period. However, I have found that it helps me better organize time in my classroom.


Formative Assessments:

Please allow me to summarize Schmoker's points on good habits of teachers using formative assessments:

1. circulate around the room2. randomly call on students3. have students indicate level of understanding through hand motions4. have students use dry erase boards to respond to questions (54).

When reading this, a swell of pride appeared in my chest. I do all of these! Sometimes I wonder why I even have a comfy chair, but then a Friday rolls around where my feet are sore and I like to scoot my chair around the room. 

One of my tips for number two, randomly calling on students, is to use index cards. During the first week of class, I ask students to make an index card with their name written on it with a drawing that represents their personality (later this is a reference for symbol). On the back, I ask the students to write three facts about themselves that they would like me to know about them. I keep this in a pouch and use them to randomly draw student names to answer questions. They also work wonderfully for quickly creating work groups in class based on who is present.

My students are also very familiar with the thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideway prompt during lessons, especially when demonstrating or lecturing. This is simple and doesn't require me to replace slips of red, yellow, and green paper on desks when they've "mysteriously" disappeared. 

Schmoker also advocates for "interactive" lectures (68). To me, this basically means that during lectures, or note-taking--if you prefer, you take a few minutes after presenting a block of information to have students revisit the information through writing, pair sharing, or question and response. This sounds great! It'll keep the students from falling asleep for too

Personal annotations

long periods of time.

Terrifying Expectation:

Despite the many great things that I found in this book, there was this major concept that I could not help but balk at. Please read the quote below:

In general, for every English course, I would recommend that teams establish standards that approximate the following, for all students:

• About 15-20 books and plays, depending on length and lexical density
• Multiple poems and short stories (perhaps 5-10 each) 
• 20-40 newspaper/magazine/online articles

These should be divided sensibly among the following categories:

•  Fiction (imaginative literature and poetry--about 40-60 percent).
• Nonfiction/literary nonfiction (biographies, memoirs, true stories--about 40-50 percent, of which 25-40 percent can be self-selected).  (Schmoker 116)

My jaw dropped to the floor, and I'm almost certain I read this three times. At first I wrote a note to myself in the margins: "As a grade level team they read this much throughout all courses, right?" Now that I've reread this, yet again, I realize, alas, no.

This summer I've been developing my own curriculum maps. (Once I feel that they are successful by a 2nd year status, I may share my process for this.) Designing year long curriculum is intimidating! I look at my computer screen and wonder, "How will I get through this much?" 

I don't know about you, but the shortest time I spent on a single novel was three weeks. The rest took longer. If I could get through a book length every three weeks, we would still only read twelve books. How on earth do we have TIME to read this much and still incorporate a minimum of two discussions and two to three writings per week? Don't forget the one to two presentations per semester. Yikes!

Schmoker explains that most of this reading should be done in class (123). That would be awesome! However, when class periods are forty-eight minutes, my students can typically only read fifteen pages each class period. This is equivalent to twenty-five minutes of reading time. That leaves twenty minutes for bellwork, instruction, and writing/discussion. Again...Yikes!

Questions I still have:

1. How long should a lesson be?
In math, it's easy to break equations and problems down to multiple steps or level of difficulty so that a lesson (hopefully) lasts a single class period. Why is it that I have difficulty getting English lessons to do so? I consider it a GREAT day when seventh graders have a single paragraph written in twenty minutes (hopefully with a topic sentence and quality supporting details; a great transition is bonus!). Is it still considered good practice to have lessons last multiple days? I try to refresh students with mini-lessons or a review to get them started.

2. Regarding calling on random students, what should teachers do about students who refuse to answer or show signs of anxiety?
Personally, I stole a trick from one of my college professors, good ole British Lit. Professor Hamrick, and give my students one pass. They have to use it wisely. However, I still have some students who don't want to share so they'll quietly answer or refuse to answer at all. The perfect answer is to have a classroom climate where the students all feel as if they can share their thoughts without fear of criticism from me and their classmates.

To read more about Mike Schmoker's work, visit his website here. 

Note: This text also discusses authentic literacy, writing, and discussion.

How a Music Minor Helps Me Teach

As I continue to read Mike Schmoker's curriculum book Focus, I reflect on my own practices in the classroom and what makes a good teacher. According to Schmoker, a good teacher repeatedly uses an organized lesson plan format that allows for large group instruction that uses student progress before moving on to guided practice and finally, independent practice. 

I agree that strong instruction does make a good teacher, but there are also many other attributes that an effective teacher possesses. Part of this includes being able to connect with students and create relationships. Relationships require the teacher to often be patient and understanding from where their coming from and where they want to go. Teachers have to be patient when they are asking for formative assessments and realize that their students aren't ready to move on.

I admit, school came easily to me, so when students have difficulty understanding, I could easily get frustrated. This especially came through when I helped my high school classmates with their math homework. How did I learn to become patient? 

My mother invested in music lessons for my siblings and I at a young age. I was obsessed with learning how to play guitar. The unfortunate reality is that music does not come easily to me. I watched student after student progress faster and farther than I could. All those times that I become frustrated with my friends for not understanding math and now I can relate.

Being able to relate to my students has allowed me to be more patient. When my students can't help but vocalize, "I don't get! This is too confusing," I've learned not to take it personally and not to rush through the confusing. So what does a teacher do in this situation?

1. Calm the the students down. I tell them that it's okay to be confused, explain how confusion can lead to greater understanding, and that I understand their confusion.

2. Slow down. Don't rush through the confusion. Instead, take your time. Use the confusion as an opportunity to complete teacher-think-aloud. Walk students through the confusion, and don't be afraid of being confused yourself.  Show students how to struggle through difficult assignments or topics. 

3. Be patient. Think back on a time when you were frustrated and confused. That's how our students may be feeling.

4. Last, but not least: Congratulate your students for persevering through a difficult assignment. Acknowledge that they've worked hard.

Lesson Planning: Go with Your Gut

This summer I set goals of what I'd like to accomplish, both personally and professionally. One of these includes developing Essential Learning Outcomes (ELO's) and curriculum maps for my junior high classes.

You might be asking, why didn't the department have these development for a first year? I teach in a small school. Our department is made up of three teachers; when one retired, the school board and administration decided to create a junior high wing to the school. Three different teachers taught the three courses that I now teach. Yikes. 

All these teachers are great at what they do with very different styles. They also had four or more courses to prep for themselves, so they weren't able to leave the paper trails of their year long courses that they may have liked.

I felt...ecstatic. I loved this challenge! As a first year it was overwhelming, but the department gave me the freedom to develop my own curriculum for ALL of my courses. I wasn't completely thrown to the wolves. We held weekly PLC meetings where I could share what my plans were and align them with their courses.

After this first year, I have a greater understanding of my students, their background, and the curriculum expectations of the district, and now I am prepared to formally write out ELO's and curriculum maps for my second year. (And they'll probably need to be rewritten next summer.)

I have only one year under my belt, but I would still like to share my advice on lesson planning and how to survive if you have multiple preps.

1. Go with Your Gut:
In a few weeks, you will come to know your students and their background knowledge of your content area better than anyone else. If you have a feeling that they aren't sure when to use commas, add a mini lesson! I have overspent (not wasted, because it was still useful) many minutes, if not hours, pouring over papers and counting how many missed commas students have to decide if it needed to be taught. A mini lesson doesn't take long and never hurts!

If you realize they're interested in video games with strong antagonists, use these as examples and references in class. Once you realize this, don't spend too much time analyzing whether or not if the topic is academic enough. Going with your gut, you will hopefully find topics that engage them, and engagement leads to critical thinking.


2. Beg, Borrow, and Steal:
This advice was given to me by my own high school English teacher when talking about going into the field. Planning lessons for multiple preps in the day takes a lot of time, and even more when you create original materials for all of your lessons. It's more than okay to ask your coworkers and teachers from other districts for lesson materials. I learned this year that there are teachers EVERYWHERE who are willing to share and help you. Don't be afraid to ask. 


3. Be Over Prepared:
Some lessons will take less time than you expect and others will take longer than you expect. Be prepared for this. When lessons are short, have academic games ready to be pulled out. I have played Character Twenty Questions to review characters from our novel. For this year, I am preparing large Daily Oral Language sheets with packets of noodles to act as punctuation.

If lessons go longer than expected, remind yourself that you are teaching depth, not breadth. Then reflect on the lesson as to why it took too long. Was the material too complex or too many steps? Were students distracted by an extensive project that didn't demonstrate true understanding?


4. Repetition is Good:
Some may think students get bored with repetition, but many students need repetition to keep them organized and to reinforce knowledge, skills, and habits. If possible, keep your lessons organized in a similar manner, such as: Whole Group Instruction, Guided Practice, and Independent Practice. The time spent on each of these may vary from lesson to lesson, but it helps organize both you and your students. You should also present the same material in several ways. Perhaps you had students watch a video, then take notes, and have a discussion on the same topic. It's good for them to visit this topic three times! Don't worry about them being bored. Another example of repetition: Every Wednesday was vocabulary day. Students knew they needed to find a word with a specific prefix and define it at the beginning of the hour. 


5. Ask Your Students:
I don't recommend asking them what you should teach them (many would say, "Nothing."), but ask them about their interests. Can you use those topics for engagement? Does it relate to the content in anyway?

Also ask them if the material is confusing or clear. Ask them to give you a thumbs up or down based on understanding throughout the lesson. DO NOT MOVE ON IF THERE ARE SEVERAL DOWN. If there's some down thumbs, either continue with guided instruction or work with students one-on-one.

Use Exit Slips as formative assessments to student understanding. Their responses will guide you in whether repetition is needed or not. 

Lastly, ask your students what type of instruction or activities helped them understand the material the best. This helps you to know what strategies to continue using and increases student reflection of personal learning and learning styles.


I have learned that ELO's and curriculum continuously develope based on our students and their needs. These will never be finished. These will continue to adapt and grow. I am currently reading Mike Schmoker's Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning to help me develop my work this summer. Perhaps a review of "Simplicity," "What We Teach," and "How We Teach" will be in my future.

I hope this advice is helpful to many new teachers out there. Don't be overwhelmed. Keep your excitement and passion on your sleeve.

First Year Sacrifices

Once upon a time, a first year teacher had grand ideas that she would be able to keep a daily journal of all things teaching, and then she would reflect and share her learnings through a personal blog. Oh, how she was wrong! 

One of the first lessons in teaching is to know your priorities. As a first year with four different classes to prep for, I quickly learned that I didn't have time for daily reflection, through writing anyway.

As a newbie, my first priority was my students. Now, I know there are veteran teachers out there who may be throwing their hands up and screaming, "No!" quickly followed by things such as family or personal health. I'd heard that before. My principal actually said to put family first at new teacher training. My cooperating teacher during my final semester told me that I can't teach if I'm not healthy: physically, emotionally, and mentally. At the time, I nodded my head in agreement with these amazing people who were only trying to help me, but I wasn't truly listening.

Make time for important people! My goddaughters loved this play area!

You see, I've always been a stubborn person. Being obstinate often means that I require to learn several of life's lessons the hard way. The order of my priorities and sacrifices during the first year of teaching was something many, many great people (who I respected) tried to warn me about, but it didn't sink in. I was determined that everything that affected my students was my #1 priority. It's not as simple as it sounds.

Looking back on my blog, I made two posts during the school year. One in September and one in October. Not bad, if I'd been able to consistently post once a month. But I didn't. You might ask, "Why? Surely writing a blog once a month doesn't take too much time." You're right, the blog post doesn't take a lot of time, but I sacrificed a lot of my life that first year. Sometimes it was an okay activity to give up, some I gave up and realized that I needed, and some I fully regret.

I did keep a reflection journal on teaching, and eventually it also grew to be a source of how teaching affects my personal life, both the good and the bad. Unfortunately, it was not a daily journal. Or even weekly. I wrote when I felt like I had the time. Occasionally I wrote late at night, I wrote on the basketball and track buses, I wrote from my couch on the weekend. Not once did I write while in my classroom. 




For me, my classroom quickly became the place for organizing and preparation. I rarely sit. I had difficulty even focusing on writing my lesson plans on the computer when I had several activities to prepare or clean up. This is where my first and most significant sacrifice came in to play. I sacrificed my personal time. Hundreds of hours of personal time.

Since I couldn't focus sitting at my computer in my busy classroom, I took my lesson planning books home with me and wrote them from my couch on Sunday evenings. What about all that grading? Well, I couldn't sit still long enough in my classroom to accomplish a significant amount of grading either. That's what I did Saturday mornings. 

After giving up most of my weekends, I learned that I couldn't keep going like this. Spending a daily ten hours at school and then adding another ten hours on the weekend was damaging other parts of my life. I needed to take back my personal time.

Pizza counts as healthy meal planning, right?

Thankfully, I was already keeping up with working out for 45 minutes when I came home, but this isn't enough. I needed to start cooking healthy meals again. My diet was another sacrifice. In college I prided myself on my homecooked meals and eating healthy. My worst year of food decisions was this year, my first year teaching. I was too exhausted to cook and ate so fast that I didn't care what it tasted like. I didn't take this part of my life back until nearly the end of the year, and I've continued it into the summer by attempting to create a meal planning system that works for me that continues into the school year.

One of my sacrifices that I haven't given back yet is playing guitar. My mother started hauling me to lessons in first grade until I eventually became a guitar teacher myself prior to high school graduation. (It's one of the ways I knew I wanted to become a teacher.) This meant I spent a lot of time playing. During this first school year, I played my guitar three times. That's once every three months. This is a sacrifice that I have yet to claim back, and I hate that I haven't yet. 

In my October post, I briefly touched on some of the sacrifices I made regarding relationships. After a week in school, I'm too exhausted to go out. I wanted to curl up on the couch and watch Netflix. I was too tired to even read a book. (This is terrible coming from an English Teacher!) This meant my personal relationships suffered. I have two beautiful goddaughters who I only saw three times during the school year. I spent even less time with their mother, one of my dearest friends.

My relationship with my boyfriend became strained. He became frustrated that I was always tired. He wanted my attention just as much as my students, but instead I would briefly nod my head as I wrote lesson plans from the other room. Thankfully, he and my friends have been patient with me. I've learned that balancing all relationships, not just those in school, are necessary for my health. I need to spend time with them, and be there physically, emotionally, and mentally to benefit all of us.

An encouraging note from a grateful student.

If you're a new teacher or coming upon your student teaching, please don't be as obstinate as I was. Really listen to those who care about you. Ask yourself if the sacrifices you make to be a teacher are healthy. If they're not, talk to those around you and find a way that supports you. Some of my teacher friends went through this too; we all do. Some no longer bring any work home. I set timers for how long I'm allowed to work on grading and lessons away from my desk. Find a way for you that's balanced.

This career is challenging, but our students make it worth the tears, laughter, frustration, and epiphanies. Be healthy and happy for it!