Book Study Guidelines
I hope you are finding time to read a little of the book, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire by Rafe Esquith. The book allows you to see into Rm. 56 and get a real feel for the culture and student expectations that Rafe creates. It also makes reference to a number of activities/ lessons that could be implemented in our classrooms.
As you are reading the book, I would like for you to highlight statements/activities in which Rafe addresses the following areas:
Learning Standards/obj
Pacing of lesson for all students
Knowledge of content area
Motivating Students
Use of technology
Check for mastery
Use of Technology
Knowledge of Students
Promoting a positive Culture/Environment
Instructional Strategies
Challenging students
Indicate which areas are being addressed. We will use this information in July for our book study.
Example: pg 70 The student is forced to try many different combinations until he discovers the correct tile for each space. With practice, a student learns to analyze the entire card. Areas: Challenging students, knowledge of students, content knowledge.
The mission at WHH is maintaining a structured school community that ensures learning is our 1st priority!
Promoting a positive Culture/Environment- Rafe teaches his students Kohlberg's Six Levels of Moral Development and incorporates them into his class. "They are the glue that holds it together." Page 14
ReplyDeleteHe models the behavior he expects from his students. One of my favorite quotes from Rafe is "We need to be the people we want our children to become." Page 40
Steve Owens
Learning Standards / Content Area – I agree with Rafe that in the teaching of literature we should not be “automatons” stuck strictly to a basal reader, ignoring the vast amounts of good literature (page 31). There is such a variety of literary texts from which to choose, our questions in our PLC should focus more on standards achievement instead of literary texts chosen. That being said, I disagree with Rafe in some of his selections for his teaching level (To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath (though he didn’t say he taught this one), Shawshank Redemption, and A Separate Peace). These are excellent pieces of literature; however, they are standard works for the high school level. He is not helping other teachers by introducing them early (in fact, he makes the high school teacher’s job harder). Furthermore, when 78% of his Latino students are not proficient readers in this elementary school, these higher level books just aren’t appropriate (page 29). With so many Newberry award winners appropriate for his age level, why is he choosing high school / college level texts for the fifth grade? I know he gives extended explanations, and he even goes into the successes of Shakespeare in the fifth grade. Frankly, the “bottom line” of his explanations just isn’t convincing. Part of the PLC process is knowing what other teachers are teaching in the higher / lower grade levels, and, it seems, he may need to join such a group.
ReplyDelete-- Rich Roberts
Knowledge of Content Area – Grammar (Pages 45-50).
ReplyDeleteRafe scolds the abolition of the grammar textbooks from his classroom because, among other reasons, “many of the students come to enjoy grammar” (49). What’s so important about the grammar book? “Students learn to write by writing!” Simply put, I don’t give “two hoots in Hades” if a student knows what a conjunctive adverb is. But, if a student can properly use the word “however” in a sentence, place a semicolon before it, and put a comma after it, I’m happy. That’s the life skill (s)he will use – and it’s the skill that, most likely, will be on the test! Granted, at least at the high school level, the state may put one “grammar” question on the test. Okay. If my students get it, fine. If not, fine. I would rather focus on those skills that are not only mainly tested but, more importantly, impact the students for the rest of their lives (I think that’s called “power standards.”) Rafe noted how to teach the very same skills though student writing (52). Implicit in “learn to write by writing” is grammatical instruction. I will teach subject/verb agreement, parallelism, pronoun / antecedent agreement, etc. by using the students’ writing as the basis instead of a New York textbook. The same concepts are taught with a more relevant basis for student learning: the students’ own writing.
--Rich Roberts
I agree that teaching grammar through writing is the best way to go about it, but for me, that is true of middle and high school. For the author's fifth grade class, they are still needing to be taught the basic skill (how will they will they know to put the period there if no one tells them). By the time I see them, though, I expect they have at the very least been exposed to basic grammar rules, and we can work on using them correctly in their writing. One thing I found interesting in the writing chapter is how he was told not to count spelling mistakes in student writing. I have as big a problem with this as he does. I do have some writing assignments that I do not look at such things. Sometimes I ask my students to write a response to a piece of literature or use their vocabulary in a short creative piece, and I do look at their response, not their grammar. But when we write essays, it is a whole different matter. I expect an essay that they have had several days to work on to be free of errors. That being said, I do not bleed all over their papers. They are assigned a grade based on the state writing rubric (0-6), and I list their strengths and weakness (i.e. strength: strong thesis, clear voice; weaknesses: spelling, details to not support thesis). This way they know that not proofreading was the reason it was a 3 instead of a 4. When I read and grade a student's essay, I am mostly looking for great content and thought, but I believe I am doing them a disservice if I do not point out that bad spelling and grammar detract from their paper, even so much that a boss would never be able to look past them and see the excellent content. If grammar and spelling are not at least being addressed, the students' writing will never be up to par.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Tedrow
Promoting a positive Culture/Environment:
ReplyDeleteThe student on pages 11-12 is struggling to find the homework that she has completed. While she is worrying that she will "get in trouble" (Level I, page 14), Rafe reassures her that he trusts her. This reassurance models the behavior he wants to encourage in his students (trust) and calms the student. He takes the opportunity to further enhance the classroom environment by elevating the student's awareness of the larger problem at hand: she is disorganized. The student is encouraged to choose two students she trusts and spend time after lunch to organize her classroom materials. The result is twofold: In Rafe's words, (1) "The class, watching my every move, saw me as a person who was reasonable. These are the moments when you build trust," and (2) "Lisa never missed a homework assignment for the rest of the year." Rafe reinforced two behaviors important to maintaining his classroom culture of trust.
- Debbie Smith
Knowledge of Students/Instructional Strategies:
ReplyDeleteRafe demonstrates an understanding of his students when he states, "Sharing the joy of great literature can be a cornerstone of a relationship between an adult and a child. It is through literature that young people first begin to look at the world differently, to open their minds to new ideas, to journey down an avenue of excellence." I also appreciate that Rafe understands the value and limitations of using books on CD. He demonstrates an effective instructional strategy through his use of the 1st person narrative on CD of classic memoirs like "Anne Frank". The book on CD captivates the students' attention because it is a first person narrative read aloud by a professional actress. "With certain books," Rafe writes, "this approach is more effective than having students trade off reading sections." Further, Rafe pauses the CD at intervals to check student comprehension and to ask questions that encourage higher-order thinking.
I neglected to reference the page number for my comment. My previous comment references page 35 of the book.
ReplyDelete- Debbie Smith
Okay, I get to respond to Samantha. I agree that fifth graders need to learn "basics." Middle school teachers scream (right word??) about so many who don't even know some of fundamentals. Since you have been teaching middle school, I'm sure you can instruct me on this very point! With this in mind, you argue, if I understand your post, that the "learn to write by writing" approach is best at middle school / high school. Why? Can't this work at the fifth grade level and be used to teach the fundamental / basic concepts? Can't a fifth grade teacher show the students to insert periods when periods are missing, or to insert commas when commas are missing? Indeed, since Rafe is teaching the rest of this class like it is high school (i.e. To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men), why not apply the same to writing and grammar (sarcasm for Rafe intended)?
ReplyDelete--Rich Roberts
Responding to Rich, yes there are plenty of Caldecott and Newberry age appropriate books that Rafe could use. When I had a fifth grade class, one of my favorite books was “Julie of the Wolves”. It was age appropriate and I used it to teach about the tundra, cultural conflict, abuse, environmental awareness, wolves, geography, etc. Some of my favorite memories of teaching are of reading to and with my students and seeing their reaction to the literature. Sharing a good book is one way of building a good relationship. “Tuck Everlasting” (the movie was terrible), and “Walks Two Moon” are two other wonderful age appropriate book that can be used to teach life lessons as well as plot, setting, conflict, etc. There is plenty of time for a 10 or 11 year old to read “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I never liked the basal reader either.
ReplyDeleteD. Head
I guess what I was trying to say was that the problem is that so many students do not understand the fundamentals. At some point, they could not write a sentence, so someone had to explain about subjects and predicates. They could not learn by writing at that point. They should be able to by high school at least though. But perhaps "learning grammar by writing" should be renamed as "practicing grammar by writing". Middle and high schools teachers are not given the time to teach grammar in isolation, so if students have a proper foundation, it can be reinforced by continually writing and using it correctly. If that foundation is not there, a teacher is forced to address it outside of the writing itself. I do think that for older students of grammar, writing should be sufficient to keep them proficient, but so many do not come to class proficient that "teaching grammar by writing" is more of an ideal than the perfect answer to the problem.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Tedrow
I so enjoyed Rafe's enthusiasm and great stamina in order to incorporate all that he does with his students. I totally agree with an earlier blog about the importance of a classroom environment/culture beginning with trust. As a science teacher, I agreed with his comments on even a failure in a lab experiment shows real life moments in lab testing. These can be true teaching experiences and often happen with the best equipment and specimens. This is probably the best book I have read on teaching students to learn and grow as individuals.
ReplyDeleteLinda Burks
I thought Rafe's approach to making his students good students and good people is great. I just love his 6 levels. As I read about them, I thought about how I could incorporate them into my 8th grade classroom. My favorite part was when he realized that Brenda was a level 6 when she didn't want anyone to know that she had helped the young boy who was bullied.
ReplyDeleteAs I read through the previous comments from everyone, I had some of the same thoughts. I can't believe he read/watched some of the things, like The Shawshank Redemption and To Kill a Mockingbird, in 5th grade, but maybe he's on to something by expecting his young students to be mature enough to handle it. I don't know that I agree with his choices of literature/movies, but he knows better than I, I'm sure. Another thing to think about is the LA area and what kind of life those children have. Perhaps his 5th graders are ready for that due to their life experiences.
Ashley Ragon
In response to Samantha and Rich's comments about learning to write through writing and grammar...
ReplyDeleteI agree with Samantha that at some point students must be taught the fundamentals. I have never taught 5th grade, so I dare not assume, but I would think that fundamentals are still being taught in that grade, but they are also building on those fundamentals with writing. As Samantha said, when grading a response to literature, I grade the response itself, but when grading an essay or major piece of writing, you bet I'm looking for grammar as well as content.
Ashley Ragon
In addition to my original post: I did not identify the areas.
ReplyDelete6 levels: motivating students, promoting a positive environment, and challenging students.
Brenda: knowledge of students and promoting a positive environment
Pacing of Lesson: When Rafe discusses Reading for Life (Chapter Three), he discusses his approach with students who cannot read. The love of literature is for everyone! His two-pronged strategy, which serves as a confirmation of what I do in the classroom, creates success for those struggling students. By utilizing this model, my students are able to gain confidence as life-long readers (39).
ReplyDeleteOOPS: The last comment is by Cynthia Roberts.
ReplyDelete