New Year, New Lines, New Kids by: Jason Augustowski

Greetings, teacher friends!  At this point I feel safe in assuming that all of our school years have begun.  For some of us the beginning was August and for others, perhaps, right after Labor Day weekend.  Regardless of when we all began, one thing is for sure: at this point, we are off to the races!

I sincerely hope that all of your years are off to as amazing of a start as mine!  At the end of last year, I thought I would be teaching five preps (I requested it) but perhaps I hadn't realized that teaching so many different classes would have resulted in less attention to detail in the planning phases for each course and could have impacted the overall quality of instruction and assessment.  Upon re-entering for the professional development days that take place before students return, I was able to trade my freshmen, senior, and creative writing classes for another sophomore class and two sections of AP language respectively.  Now, with only two preps, I am able to hone my best ideas to establish the frameworks of the classes rather than spread these ideas thinly across five.

The following will be an account of what we have accomplished so far and how the students have reacted:

Environment:

I have 14 trapezoid tables in my room and 30 rolling chairs.  I have positioned these into a square with two breaks in the shape (one in the corner of the room by the door for egress purposes) and one on the opposite side of the square.  All of the chairs are positioned on the outside so the students face towards the center of the classroom.  This allows us to establish a "circle" style of environment where all students are equal and discussions provide for an opportunity where every voice can be heard.

In tenth grade this has been important as we have read our first anchor text: And Then There Were None by: Agatha Christie in an effort to answer our first essential question: How does guilt impact our conscience? (More to come on that under "instruction").  However, this arrangement has allowed all of the students see each other when they "portray" the ten different characters in the story.  As we have been reading, and they have been annotating, the setup has allowed students to look up from the words and witness the facial expressions being employed by those students playing the characters.  Even with limited class discussion so far (we have read a lot so that students understand the content and won't have to read a teacher-selected text for homework).  We have also just analyzed the article Is Guilt Good for Us from ABCNews and had our first "circle discussion."  Of course the arrangement has helped maintain equality and flow during activities such as these.

In AP Lang the setup has allowed for several different applications.  These students (and the tenth graders as well) engaged in fun ice-breaker games on the first day of classes (punctuated by the course syllabus) in the center of the square (a 12x16 area).  The juniors have also already participated in two spider-web discussions (utilizing the skills discussed in my previous post) to argue the cultural and gender implications within Dave Berry's article Timeless as well as rhetorically analyze Jack Handey's piece: This is No Game.  When students practice the multiple choice portions of the exam, they are able to work with their shoulder partner to read and make sense of the questions, but then are already set up to correct and discuss as a class.  When students practice writing essays, we rearrange the room to make the 14 trapezoid tables meet in 7 groups of 2 (to virtually create roundtables).  Groups of four sit at these tables, write their essays, and then are able to experience peer revision and table grading very similar to what occurs at actual AP grading sessions by teachers.

Aside from arrangement, we have a bulletin board where the high schoolers can hang their extra-curricular schedules so their classmates can support them, we have an advice board where my upperclassmen from last year posted a ton of great "how to be successful" tid-bits for the incoming students.  I hang a lot of posters, have a lot of stuffed animals, boast a decently sized classroom library, have a patio set for flexible seating, have a gorgeous assortment of decorative plates featuring grammar rules (donated by an awesome parent), and a hutch with two Keurig machines so students can make their own coffee/tea/hot chocolate.  I list all of that not to brag, actually to do the opposite.  Most of what I just listed is never utilized in my classroom - it can be if desired, but it typically is not.  However, it serves a much greater purpose.  Students enter my room and go "whoa, cool" - and with that buy-in we are able to start building rapport and ultimately dig in to our content together.

Rapport:

I have been teaching in my community for eight years and am pretty active within the school's extracurriculars so most kids already know me before they enter my room.  I run the neighboring middle school's musical program, co-sponsor our student mentoring program (PEER), advise SAPT (student advisory planning team) where kids plan our school's homeroom lessons, and coach travel competition paintball (yes, that's a thing) in the community.  This year was especially different because all three of my AP Language classes were comprised of about 25/28 students per block who I had already taught in either seventh, ninth, or tenth grade.  Memorizing names was very easy.  ;-)  In my sophomore classes I had many new faces since I have only taught about 6/60 students prior.

Regardless of the climate there are a few simple things I like to do to build rapport.  I greet students at the door and as cringey (to use their language) as it sounds, I give each of them a high-five as they leave along with wishing them well.  I make sure students know that I am available for them before and after school as well as during their lunch times.  Students can come and see me during their study halls or during my planning blocks.  I just try to be available.  I also try to gauge their stress levels and when I can tell (especially with juniors) that they are feeling overwhelmed, we may stop content and re-center as people.  We may have a vent circle so people can safely and professionally voice frustrations/concerns, or share highs/lows, allow people to share coping strategies/success stories, anything that puts smiles back on their faces.  This goes hand and hand with inserting humorous personal anecdotes during instruction and a healthy level of self-deprecation on the teacher's part.

Building a good rapport has helped me to hold students to high expectations for their own behavior, treatment of each other, dedication to work and deadlines, engagement in activities, etc.  It's an age-old maxim: "It's hard to learn from someone you don't like."  I really like my students and try to give them an environment and experience where they can like me.  I have just found that this creates the most enjoyable and productive working atmosphere so that everyone can learn/work in a safe space where they know their input is expected, appreciated, and entirely valued.

Instruction, Assessment, and Grading:

In tenth grade we are engaging in inquiry learning.  In order for the students to understand each of the components, I told them that I would model (by making all of their decisions) in the beginning of the year, and will slowly dial back to scaffold them into their own fully free inquiry.  As mentioned above, our initial EQ is "How does guilt impact our conscience?" Chosen by me.  Our anchor text is And Then There Were None.  Chosen by me.  Our article was Is Guilt Good For You?  Chosen by me.
Our song is If I Could Turn Back Time by: Cher.  Chosen by me.  Our poem is Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden.  Chosen by me.  Our movie is Big Fish.  Chosen by me.  Their product: an essay and brief presentation synthesizing these sources to answer the EQ.  All chosen by me.  Muhahahaha!

BUT: in October, I will choose the EQ, Anchor Texts, Supplementary Texts, and THEY will choose the product.  In Nov/Dec I will choose the EQ and Anchor Texts, and THEY will choose the supplementary texts and product.  In January I will choose the EQ and they will choose the rest.  Once second semester begins, they are on their own to read, listen, watch, explore the topics of their own choosing with a deep knowledge of how to read, select sources, synthesize, and create.

ASSESSMENTS:  Student hard products (papers, projects, etc) and presentations (keynotes, panels, roundtables, pecha kuchas, etc)  GRADED: first with rubrics created by myself and then with rubrics created by the students and approved by the teacher.

In AP Lang we are engaging in the four key components on a weekly rotating basis.  My thought process is, this will keep all of their learning fresh (and hopefully they will retain the material better).  So, after our icebreaker/syllabus day, we have discussed good argument writing, read and argued an article in the spider-web style, written and graded an argument using the AP scale, discussed rhetorical analysis, collaborated on the devices used in an article using the spider-web style, written a rhetorical analysis, and engaged in two multiple choice practices.  The next cycle will be discussing synthesis, then synthesizing six articles within a spider-web discussion, and finally writing a synthesis.  Once these lessons are complete, the ENTIRE cycle begins again with argument.  This will be the flow for the entire year (giving students the chance to engage in eight discussions for each of the three styles, eight papers for each of the three styles, and sixteen multiple choice practice tests).

The thought process behind ordering their lessons in this way is as follows: argument then rhetorical analysis then synthesis because those styles are in order of easiest to most difficult.  We punctuate each rotation with a multiple choice practice to divide the different styles of writing and to avoid multiple choice.  The order of the lessons within each style is relatively self explanatory: we begin with direct instruction and guided practice in the style, move to the students taking control of their own learning (reading and annotating an article and then discussing with zero teacher involvement aside from during the debrief), and then into the independent practice of composing a piece of writing (in that style) and immediately grading/offering feedback for future improvement.  My hope is that constantly changing directions will ensure that no style becomes stale in their eyes nor will they forget any style from having been away from it for months.  When we return to a style, we are able to look at past data, create lessons together that will differentiate for different student mistakes and can continue to develop individual craft.

ASSESSMENTS:  Style activities, spider-web discussions, in-class essays, multiple choice practice.
GRADED:  AP rubric (0-9 scale) for essays and multiple choice.  Activities and discussions based on team-created rubric (teacher and student).

The students reaction has been pretty positive thus far.  The sophomores really enjoyed starting with a murder mystery (and an accessible entrance point to British literature).  We had a great discussion about biases, reliable sources, and fact vs opinion after reading our article, and they have begun constructing their papers (ready to soon incorporate out song, poem, and film as well).  In AP Lang we have a solid mix of teacher/student participation.  Usually the first day of a cycle will involve a lot from me and a little from them, the next day will be the flip, and the third and fourth days will allow them to engage in the discipline and receive immediate feedback.  I know that this is my favorite year yet and I look forward to continued positive and productive classes.  Next month will feature two more textbook takeaways!  Until then, hope hearing our story has helped you think through yours.  Above everything else, I sincerely hope you are enjoying your students and are off to a great year!