Literacy Resource 2: Spooky and Disgusting Fiction

In attempt to build my literacy experience further, I ventured out to the local library to seek the help of a children's librarian and was brought back to the middle school world of Goosebumps and Captain Underpants. When the librarian brought up these books, I remembered being 12 and not being allowed to read such literature being instructed by my mother to stay away from things so disgusting and ugly. But the librarian was very adamant about how popular the books were with her own children, who refused to read before discovering the thrillers.

I'm sure at some point in even my own middle school life, I disdained literature written for 12-year-olds as juvenile and unsophisticated, but am now gaining a new appreciation for the genre and the authors who wok hard at creating wonderful plots in simple language.

So, I am not sure if these books are yet too intimidating for the student I am working with, but I feel more confident about presenting some material that is at his level in hope that he may yet be enticed by it.

What sorts of books have you used successfully with reluctant readers?

Literacy Resource 1: Board Games

All though right now I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the challenge of my tutoring assignment for the summer, I imagine that by the end of the season, I'll have built a bit of a repertoire of resources and I think I will post them here as I discover them.

This morning, in a flash of genius and desperation, I remembered all the times that I've been told that board games are excellent resources to keep in the classroom for down-time or time fillers and realized that perhaps using fun as a purpose for reading, I might get this student motivated after all. After coming to this realization, I then remembered that the only games that I own personally are Scrabble and Balderdash. True, these are both reading games, but are not quite appropriate for this student. And then-- my third memory-- I have little to no Money.

So I ventured out to my favorite local thrift store and was shocked at the selection of games that they carried. I came away with at least a few really great games for about five dollars. And the best part? The time flew by as we did Mad Libs, played scrabble and made our own sentences with wood blocks. As soon as I emerged from my car with arms full of games, I could tell from his eyes that it was going to be a good day.

Never underestimate the power of a good game...

Convincing students that reading is worth the work...

This summer I find myself working for the school district's ELA department as a 1:1 Tutor for a sixth grade boy. When I found out that I actually got the job, I was excited about the opportunity but am now seeing why a majority of the people hired for this position are ELA certified teachers: this is hard work and requires a lot of brilliance AND resources.

It has been interesting to see all that I have read in literacy books about students who are a) reluctant to read b) don't understand the letters they are decoding and c) don't see the value in learning to read, materialize in the form of this exuberant boy.

I find myself having to make the decision between laughing and crying when my student explains all the tactics he has developed just to avoid reading. If he wants to know what a news article is about-- even if it is something of interest to him-- he simply finds the one with the most pictures. If he wants to use the family's video camera, he simply asks his brother to explain it. If an error message comes up on the computer, he would rather take the risk of loosing his work than reading and understanding the message. What to do?

When I attended the two hour training session before I met with this student(which, unsurprisingly, was dominated by instructions on how to administer pre and post exams), they told us that for the duration of the eight to ten hours a week we spend with the student should be dominated by practice in reading, but should not feel like school. So what do you do with a student for three hours a day that will do anything to avoid reading? To say the least, I think we both find the time equally excruciating.

So what to do? How do I help this boy understand that reading is a beautiful and essential skill to hold? When I left his kitchen on Wednesday, he was fairly upset about my weekend homework assignment: finding one piece of reading material that was both school appropriate and something he would be interesting in reading. Somehow he gave me the impression that such a request would be unreasonable.

So... I don't even know if people read this blog, but if you do and you have any ideas about activities that might interest an eleven-year-old boy who wants so badly to be about 17, but unfortunately is quite intimidated by the sight of text, please share your ideas. I know that this scenario is not unique nor unusual, so please do share your own experiences. I'm looking forward to learning a great deal this summer, but am still waiting out the learning curve.

Entering New Worlds

I walked through the doors of Lincoln Jr. High School for what felt like the 100th time on Monday-- except this time it felt a little closer to being real. As I settled into a seat in the lecture hall, I looked around and thought to myself, awed, There are real-live teachers all around me. Strangely, I felt like I was standing on the Red Carpet in Hollywood or something-- all sorts of my own heros were all around me and I was one of them.

This summer, I am working for the school district as an One on One ELA tutor. I am scared out of my wits and stoked out of my mind. I was "hired" without interview and with little information about what the position would entail, but in a nutshell, I'm broke and will take any experience I can get. Typically, the people they hire for this job are ELA-Certified teachers. I'm a "Teacher Candidate" with a content area in Art. But I got it anyway and here I am.

I don't know what this summer will hold and all that I will learn, but I think it will be definately a great learning experience, if not an exciting one. I let you know how it goes!

Conversations about Passion

Yesterday I interviewed for an was offered a job working in the school next fall. No more wondering how I am going to land a job in a place I don't want to work and still be happy about it. This interview was the second or third education-related interview I've had in both the last three months as well as my entire life. As I've sat in these interviews, I couldn't help but excitedly think to myself that the questions I am asked are actually questions I get to answer with my whole heart. As I was driving to my appointment yesterday, I realized that whether or not I even get the job, I enjoy going to these interviews with people because I get to have conversations about the things that really get my heart burning. It felt good to know how to answer questions about classroom management and differentiation and the freedom of creativity, now that I know what that means and I've actually had experience in the classroom dealing with these things.

Although I really struggled throughout the semester to see it, as I observe who I am this summer in relation to who I was last January, I see growth in my own stature, my face, the way I stand. The never-ending job search doesn't seem as difficult and I am less intimidated. I feel like I have more of a right to ask for a job than I have before-- I am more confident in my abilities and qualifications. My resume has changed over the last five months, but so has something in me.

I've been thinking about risk-taking, you know, the steps that you have to take to delve into something you've never done before. Like putting eye drops in your eyes-- you know it is going to change how you see everything (haha) but the idea of putting a foreign object in your eye seems to scary to actually do. I like to say that I'm an advocate for trying new things, new experiences, but I'm finding these days that I'm not so eager to put myself out there as much-- I'm too tired, my arms too weak. Perhaps the steps that I'm taking these days are much smaller and it makes me feel as though I am defying my own advice simply because the risks are small enough that they seem invisible. Yet I am trying to remember that in the long run, the smallest steps add up into some wonderful growth.

selflessness

I am daily being reminded that teaching must be a selfless profession. The things that I study, the time I spend, the energy I conjure-- it is not for me. I find that daily I am faced with decisions that affect more people than me-- kids who are depending on me, looking for me. My choice of what to risk, new doors to open are more for the benefit of those I will impart my experience to rather than simply my own life. There is something about that that keeps driving me, forcing me to keep going, even when I am so tired. When my eyes do not even stay open on their own.

I'm finding that I am more tired this semester than I think I've ever been. The light at the end of the tunnel just blends with everything else that it still speeding up. I was thinking today-- this semester started up immediately, no lull before the storm, I hit the ground running. And I'm still running.

I've found myself being able to identify in new ways with people who give out in the end. I've always held myself to high standards, always been driven to be the very best, but this semester, it seems it takes everything I have simply to keep up. I'm behind on a lot of things and am too tired to care. For the first time in my life, I don't care waht grade I get at the end of the semester as long as I pass. I've never really been in this position before and it is strange. In some ways it is frightening, in other ways, it is freeing.

But lately I've found myself pondering fears like-- what if I am this tired as a teacher. How will I ever make a difference?

I'm tired. Sometimes I wonder if I've ever been this tired in my life. The end of myself is very near and I feel my eyes doing their best to scan the horizon for what could possibly next, how things will be provided when I feel so small-- I feel as though I've given everything and yet still so much more lies ahead.

"In the end the experiment failed... but the experience of thinking a project through and trying it out was an educational success. What the teacher needs to focus on is how students need to think in order to get the results they did and what they learned as a result. In assessment and evaluation we need to penetrate the surface features of activity to get at what lies beneath it. As long as the visual arts are regarded as occasions for students to make things for the refrigerator door, they will be marginal in our schools, and if they are taught as if they were simple occasions for making things for the refrigerator door, they should be marginal."

--Elliot W. Eisner, "The Arts and the Creation of Mind"

I don't think I could have said it better-- but somehow I feel as though I've said almost exactly the same time somewhere before....