When I look at social media feeds, I find many posts sharing, “There is no tired like the first week of school teacher tired!” I for one don’t feel that way, I am inspired, and challenged and albeit a little overwhelmed with the prospect of meeting the needs of my students this year. My goal this year is to create learning spaces that provide relevance and connection to the learning. I have always been a proponent of student voice and choice but how that rolls out into our daily grind is not as clearcut as I once thought. I am responsible for making sure that my students leave with the academic and life skills to succeed in their next endeavors, wherever that may lead. There are non-negotiable content standards that every student needs in order to be successful. One of my many roles is to provide the instruction, the scaffolding support and opportunities for students to demonstrate competency of those standards. The basic roadmap of these instructional paths must be created by me, but the ways in which we demonstrate mastery and the content and tools we use to measure that can and should be influenced by student interests and strengths.
Working with students in an independent study situation is new to me, having a variety of grade levels and academic needs mean I have to be on top of my game in creating a blended environment that supports the individual but also provides a personal face to face community where students want to come. Individual study programs can create a sense of isolation, where students feel connected perhaps to the instructor, but not necessarily to each other. I hope to build that community where students come to the center not only to meet with me but to support and learn from each other.I spent the summer reading a lot about this, and asking myself two key questions:
- What content would bring students together in a literacy environment?
- How can we build a community that welcomes collaboration and provides opportunities for students to connect when they can’t always be physically present?
Using the book 180 DAYS Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle and the work of Catlin Tucker in blended learning, we are embarking on a journey to create engaging learning spaces in both the real world and the digital world.
My hope is that students will be motivated to come to the center to participate in our group discussions and teaching, and then participate actively in the online component. I needed to identify a common essential idea and weave both curriculum and opportunities for students to connect with each other through the theme. We took on our site theme of identity, and our first writing genre is narrative. I selected narrative because students are most comfortable in this particular writing genre and it will give us a chance to learn about each other.
I also decided to try book clubs again. I selected six titles and let students explore them this first week together and vote on their favorite. They questioned why we all had to read the same title, and I shared that one way to build common ground was to read a common text. I provided video book talks of each of the titles on our digital page, and gave students time in class to explore the titles. At first, they weren’t jumping at the chance to read them. They asked if it was optional. I reminded them it was not. Some students shared they had never read a whole book before, and I assured them we would be there to help them through it. Slowly over a few days, I noticed students going to the basket and reading the backs of the books, talking with each other, gauging the text. By Thursday, it turned out we selected two different titles, The Sun Does Shine How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton and Solo by Kwane Alexander with Mary Rand Hess. These are two very different types of reads, one a compelling narrative and the other a story told in prose.
We have decided to break into two groups, recognizing that in my book selection there were two distinct styles of writing. narrative and prose and those styles require a different lens as a reader. In doing so, if I forced one group to read the other, I would pretty much kill this book community I am trying to build from the start. And if I truly am walking the walk of student voice and choice, I need to honor their selections. So the book clubs will cover common themes and eventually come together in group discussions on how their title relates to the theme of identity and the human story.
I feel like this first week has been a success. Next week we add more complexity as we dive into the digital spaces and structure our days. It’s an exciting time.
