I love my writing group!

Saturday, September 18

Eric's house... cozy on the porch, music from Eric's PC, lamp from the light all cozy like. We just had a great dinner and companionship, how lucky am I to be included in the incredible circle of people? I love my writing group. BSWP rocks! I am so grateful that I was included in that amazing circle.

Big on my mind is first period: Spanish for Heritage Speakers. I need to put in some time and really plan an inquiry unit, to get them fired up about the class. Right now they are fired up about the fact that the teacher is cool, that they get to be in a class with their friends, that they can speak Spanish and be themselves. I am sure it is incredibly liberating... but they aren't taking it seriously yet. They seem to understand that it is important for them to improve their reading and writing in Spanish, but they haven't quite caught on to the whole work ethic part.

And of course I am fully aware that that is my fault! As a teacher I should know better than to think that students will walk into my classroom being fully motivated to learn. Why should they be? After so many industrial classroom settings, where they have been discouraged, bored, beaten down, told they were stupid, confused, lost, etc... Of course they have had good experiences, too, that stood out. But those teachers had to set themselves apart, make their class a safe, nurturing place to learn. I have done that, sort of, but the problem is that my students are TOO comfortable!

We were having a heated (and not very polite) discussion the other day about racism. It started from the reading, Cajas de Carton, but then we took off into real world. After an exciting discussion about Vanessa's Panda Express altercation with racist white folks, one of my students said “Who cares?!?” She then when on to wonder whether it mattered to talk about racism.

Good question. Sounds like a job for Inquiry Woman!... but I am not sure how to go about this.

I know we need to:

--have a Socratic seminar to learn the mechanics of a good discussion
share writing
--understand more why we write in a daily journal, the how and why of exploring language
--figure out where we are going with this unit
--start to work towards an understanding of why it is important to tell our stories

So what is a good inquiry question to delve into this topic of racism and how it effects my students personally in their lives? Why is it important? The context is the book Cajas de Carton, the story of a migrant farm worker child and his family in California in the 70s who has gone on to be a renowned writer and university professor. Our culminating project is to write a memoir or autobiography that talks about the importance of Spanish in our lives.

This is what I brainstormed with my group:
--Socratic seminar to create the inquiry questions!
--Let the kids come up with the questions.
--The discussion can stem from the reading: Hillock's hierarchy used to create levels of questions.

Sunday, September 19

Next morning: after an incredible breakfast at Eric's, we are all working hard at our computers and bouncing ideas off of each other.

First thing: thanks to out conversation last night, I realize that beginning of class journals need to be thought provoking and fun. Think opening moment. They don't need to relate to the content; they need to engage kids' minds. Think of how great the bell ringer activity is going in Spanish; instead of doing boring grammar driven prompts, we are having fun with inquiry and idioms. Those few minutes spent guessing do so much to engage the students, and I am still doing (more) work on teaching them a language then I am in doing these grammar or content heavy exercies! So now for English, instead of boring, content driven grammar prompts, I got the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and we will do inspiring writing and sharing each day. Hopefully this will wake my 4th period up a bit!...

In Spanish for Spanish speakers this week, this is what I have come up with:

First thing: make the writing prompt more fun! Share writing. Before we get started, finish reading the second chapter from Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. Talk about why we journal.

Next, read one of the stories about migrant kids out loud. Compare/contrast their experiences to Francisco's from Cajas de Carton. Ven Diagram: similarities/differences. Make a triple circle: Francisco, the kid in the story, my kids. What are some things that all three share?

From here: Hillock's hierarchy, asking questions. Try to ask questions that relate to all three circles!

Next we will get ready for a Socratic seminar. Personalize the observation grid for them, and stress what they need to work on: listening, not interruptng, not heckling, not yelling. Students will generate a list of questions using Hillock's hierarchy, and then we will vote on our top three.

Hooray, thanks writing group!!!