Striking a Balance

In my (Terri) time as a student development professional and faculty member in higher education, I became familiar with the education theorist of that development stage. Much like Erikson, Vygotsky and others we learn of in our teacher education programs, there are theorists who have extensively studied college student development. Of these Nevitt Sanford’s theory has always greatly resonated with me. Sanford’s theory is built on the idea that students need both challenges and support in order to develop and become successful. When challenged too greatly without adequate support students become frustrated and give up. When supported without being adequately challenged students fail to learn and develop. While designed for higher education, I feel this is applicable to students at all levels of education.

How many times as a classroom teacher have I seen students quit before they fully begin a task, only to dig in and work harder when they receive acknowledgement for their efforts or additional support and encouragement? Conversely, how many times have I allowed students to skate by with the minimum effort and questioned what they really learned from an assignment.

Like everything in this profession, embracing a challenge and support mindset takes intentional thought and planning while keeping all students in mind. The challenge for one student, may for another, be done with little effort. Additionally, not all students need support in the same way. You have to know your students, know what motivates them. For junior high students sometimes this is even more of a challenge. The stakes are higher for them, and the motivation or excitement for school is sometimes declining, but I believe we who teach the middle year have a unique opportunity. We have the ability to help motivate and engage each and every student in way that inspires and challenges them, to reach those to whom the education system has not been so friendly and give them a sense of hope.

As a teacher, it may seem like just one more thing, but it really is the only thing. At the core of our profession is the goal of helping our students develop. In reality this takes place in a multitude of ways that don’t always follow the “standard curriculum.” As we look forward to the beginning of another school year and count down the last of summer, I challenge you to refocus and let this notion of challenge and support lead you to the end of the year. I challenge you to challenge and find supports for yourself as a professional, and see what a difference it can make in your life and the lives of your students.

Refugee Unit: A Cross Curricular Journey with English and Geography

So far this summer has been filled with things of which summer should consist: great reads, good PD, productive brainstorming sessions, sleeping later than normal, and time spent with friends and family. Amidst all of these things we have gotten a little behind with posting, so we decided to get back to our promise to you about our Refugee unit.

We previously mentioned that this unit came out of the requests of our 7th-grade students to build a unit just for them after they saw what our 8th-graders were doing with our WWII/Book Thief unit. Student engagement is the best encouragement to push harder and not quit, so we really had no choice but to meet their request.

Throughout the unit students worked extensively in groups in both English and Geography class to research, create, and collaborate on the themes presented. The set-up of this novel allowed us to easily connect with current and cultural events facing our own government and the governments of the world, while also discussing the social justice issues of immigration.

Refugee is a YA novel by Alan Gratz that was recently published that tells the story from three different perspectives, countries, and time periods. The experience of a Jewish refugee (Josef) from WWII Germany intermingles with the stories of both a girl (Isabel) escaping from Cuba in the 1990’s, and a modern day boy (Mahmoud) who is leaving Syria.

In geography this meant that I (Terri) had to toss out my rough plans for the remainder of the year in April and start over. I was not planning on focusing on the geographic locations of the novel, but saw this as an opportunity to deepen the learning of our students.  The main projects from the unit for geography were a group Google slides presentation on immigration policy in which students researched an assigned time period and location corresponding with one of the character’s journeys, and an annotated mapping activity in which groups plotted the characters’ journeys, created a timeline, and summarized major plot events. This activity helped bridge the gap between the curriculum of the two classes. Along the way, the students learned relevant historical information on the events that motivated the asylum seeking of the characters.

One of the ways in which the seamlessness of this unit between the two subject areas was apparent came very early when working with the students. For example, in English I (Heather) had originally planned on my kids doing some work with the characters and plot, but I quickly realized that when Terri had the students plot their journeys on annotated maps, the plot details were being covered. We discussed the social justice aspect so much that the characters were talked about in depth in class, so my project went to more of a geography-themed one in the form of a culture project. Students worked in groups to teach their classmates the culture of the country from which their assigned character originated. We had students dress up, learn about new religions, bring samplings of food, and share literary and art from each country.

Finding this novel and realizing that Terri saw the potential of using it as well was perfect for English for several reasons. One is because I really wanted to teach a unit with her for the 7th graders even before they asked for it because I believe that the more connections kids can make, the more the lesson sticks in their brains. Since 7th moved to Geography this past year, we threw out our previous year’s cross-curricular because it no longer fit. Another is because of my long-held belief that YAL is a perfect medium for teaching social justice issues. The fact that the format of this novel gave us something more to talk about from a literary standpoint was almost trivial because the life-lessons and social justice issues were so engaging and important.

The final piece of the unit was a joint reflective research paper by the individual students. This required the students to use their knowledge from the unit on current immigration policy and to integrate their knowledge of the church’s teaching on immigration to formulate their own opinion on immigration policies as well as support those opinions with research. Since we are teachers in a Catholic school we felt that this component was crucial to pull together everything we try to teach: geography, social studies, English, church teaching, and critical thinking.

We attempted to present the paper as a PBL, giving them the scenario that they were each members of a group in Washington forming new laws on immigration, and they were responsible for explaining their views, while taking the Catholic Church’s teachings about immigration into account. Ultimately, we are not sure that this part went as smoothly as we might have hoped from a PBL standpoint, but the students did come up with some well thought out ideas on immigration. With such a quick turn around from concept to presentation to the students (about two weeks), there is certainly room for us to grow and improve the unit for the upcoming year. A greater focus on the PBL component for instance, but given the timing overall we feel this was a successful unit to help keep engagement and authentic learning high at a point in the year when many students begin to lose focus. Jumping right in and making this unit happen allowed us as educators not only to push ourselves, but to show the kids that we were working up to the end of the year right along with them. They watched us adjust assignments and re-evaluate things we originally wanted them to do, thus proving to them that failure is a part of our journey. It is our hope that they took much more away from this unit than we originally intended.

When You See Student Development

I (Heather) was lucky enough to get a glimpse of my students’ empathy with our first activity related to our Refugee unit.

I was introduced to one of the founders of The Syrian Emergency Task Force by a parent, and found out that this organization has an office right here in Little Rock! While speaking with Natalie Larrison of the SETF to see if she would come and speak to our students about the crisis in Syria and what they are doing to help, she made me aware of a program that they have started, called “Letters of Hope.”  To participate in this program, all one must do is write a letter of inspiration, write a poem, or send an uplifting picture to a Syrian refugee. The SETF travels to Turkey every three months or so, and distributes them. We asked our junior high students to write letters for the upcoming trip that was going to take place the following week, and also asked those who were willing to meet at the SETF office to help package the letters for travel. In an effort to ensure that all the letters were respectful and appropriate before turning them over to Natalie, I read all 118 letters our kids wrote. I was overwhelmed with two things. The first was the difference in the writing between the kids I had taught for two years and the kids I have only had for one. I was impressed with the writing skills that most of the 8th graders showed in their letters, but not only that; they had depth. They had empathy.  They contained all of the things that I hoped that they would and more. In fact, I was so touched by the things they wrote that I felt compelled to send the following parent e-mail when I finished reading them (and finished wiping my eyes from tearing up - okay crying):

Good Morning All,

I have been proof-reading the letters the kids wrote yesterday before I take them to drop them off this afternoon, and I want to share with you how proud I am of these kids.  I can tell from what they wrote that they not only paid attention to what we taught them about the issues in Syria, but that they were truly empathizing with these people that they do not know, and will never meet.  I was amazed at the depth of some of their letters, and most of them were so heartfelt I knew I had to share this with you. As not only a teacher but as a parent of one of the members of this "talkie, rowdy class," reading the letters reminded me that despite the many issues this class went through this year,  and the many difficult teenage moments we as parents share with them in our homes, these are great kids. I am honored that I was able to get a rare glimpse into their hearts through this project. I will miss them all next year when they move on to high school.

Thank you for sharing your sons and daughters with me.  It has been a privilege.

I received several responses back from the parents thanking me for sending this e-mail because I took the time to share something good about their kids. Sometimes, a simple e-mail that goes out to parents when an individual or an entire group does something well means so much to a parent, especially if you write it in that moment when you are overwhelmed by something a student has done. Take the time to share these thoughts with your parents. Please share these stories or you will be the only one that knows them.

i2 Innovation - Springdale

It’s been a whirlwind spring. We were busy blogging and planning in April and then May hit us hard. With all the end of year events, final exam preparation, grades due, etc. we got a little behind. We ended the year looking forward to our presentation at i2 Innovation Conference in Springdale, Arkansas.

We’ve just wrapped up our presentation. Thanks to all who attended!  We hope it was a highlight of your conference. If you were unable to attend, here’s a link to all our presentation materials and a complete lesson plan http://bit.ly/studentshoes We hope you’ll take a look.

We’ll be back next week to share details of our cross-curricular unit on Refugee.

When the Interest is Real It Spreads

Every year our WWII unit catches the attention of the 7th graders. They ask questions, most of which we tell them they’ll have to wait to have answered, but their interest is piqued and they remember this as they enter our classes the following year.

This year, we actually had students ask us to create something like this unit for them! They asked us to give them more work, work that will be challenging, require research and analysis. They asked us! For me, this may be the greatest compliment as a teacher, when students are so excited for something that is being done they cannot wait to be included. Heather and I also realized we would be remiss if we did not seize the opportunity.

Once again, we jumped in with two feet. We decided to base a cross-curricular unit for our 7th grade around Refugee by Alan Gratz.

The 7th-grade social studies course is world geography. This opened doors in terms of content, but then the decision becomes where to stop the content. I didn’t want to delve too far into the history since some of it will overlap in 8th grade, but in order to understand the story the history is necessary.

From a social studies standpoint, the unit addressed basic geography - location, culture, history, and politics. I used this unit to build student’s research and writing skills, and discuss the theme of continuity and change over time.

The English component of the unit enabled students to not only read a book and examine the elements we always address: plot, characters, literary devices, themes, and setting, but the very content of this novel opened the door wide for us to delve into issues of social justice. My (Heather) hope for these students (and I know Terri is in agreement here) was that they begin to not only understand the issues of political unrest that have throughout history (and even present day) caused people to flee their countries in fear, but to begin to empathize with people in this unfortunate situation.

Building Better Lessons

I’ve read that every innovated teacher faces challenges of innovation. These challenges may range from resistance from students or parents, struggling to find time to teach and plan with innovation. We’ve seen it, faced it, and experienced it. There are certainly highs and lows in this profession. At this time of the year (it’s April), I (Terri) am certainly feeling the exhaustion start to set in. So now is the time to dig deep and shake up what I do. I need it as much as the students at this point in the year where everyone is looking towards summer break with anticipation. Let me be clear, I love my job! I teach at an amazing school, have the support of the best colleagues around, and work daily with respectful children who want to learn! But by April, we all feel the hours.

So how do I stay true to the profession late in the year? I refuse to let myself settle. I force myself to do what I ask of my students. I strive to model for them what I ask of them - to work until the last minute of the year.

This year this looks like building a new HyperDoc to be the center of my Civil Rights Unit for eighth grade. This will help carry us to the end of the year integrating technology, primary source documents, research, and student investigation. In seventh grade, it means building a new unit from scratch and jumping in with a rough idea of where it will land. This is perhaps the most unnerving thing I do as a teacher. I always want to know the end before we begin, but now I am right in there with the students - researching, making connections, etc. They like that I am not so many steps ahead of them. It’s new content for me to teach, so planning takes longer, and it is timely and relevant which also means it’s a potential hot-button topic for parents. I am learning right along with the students up to the very end of the year - trying my best to model what lifetime learning looks like.

I challenge you now, on the cusp of May and summer vacation right on our heels, to try something new with your kids. See where it takes you!

Cross-Curricular Unit Final Projects

We wrap up the novel using the same groups in which the students work in social
studies to create the final projects. The first is simply called “The Color Project,”
and the idea started with a project bundle I (Heather) purchased from Gretchen
Blynt at Teachers Pay Teachers (the same one the entrance ticket idea came from).
I used Blynt’s idea of having students choose a scene from the novel to create
using one color that seems important to that particular scene, and created a
bigger project around it. To begin, groups are all assigned a color in the novel,
and are tasked with finding as many mentions of their color as they can. They
must collect the quotes and page numbers on a collaborative document. They
are then asked to write a group analysis about their color based on any patterns
or recurrences they see in the quotes they researched. Along with this, students
are asked to choose a scene in which their color is prominent which they will
illustrate using only their color, as well as write an analysis on why they believe
their color is represented in their chosen scene.

Their next group project is the culmination of the unit, and students will present
this final piece at the same time they present their social studies display.  Each
group is assigned a character, and they create a body biography on six foot
bulletin board paper including quotes, characteristics, symbols, and important
events in the character’s life.  They must assign a color to their character, and
explain why that color represents their character's personality.

By the end of the unit for US History, the students have worked collaboratively
to create huge display pieces on their assigned research topic. These
pieces are large black sheets of bulletin board paper 6ft. longg. Each piece
highlights the research by displaying a timeline, relevant historical quotes,
summary of the topic and original artwork. The display piece also allows
for a connection to the color project from English. Each group must assign
a color to the historical topic they have researched, and explain why they
feel this color best suits the topic. This allows for a little extra imagination
and creativity in an otherwise research heavy assignment. Each group must
also create a collaborative Google slides presentation. In order to balance the
individual and group components, each group member keeps an accountability
log of all their work throughout the entire process. This is their chance to
describe their role and contribution to the group.

Here are some of the English and social studies projects hanging side by side: