I’ve already written about many of the activities I do with students during the final days of school (see How Students Evaluated Me This Year — Part One, My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson) and What Do You Do On The Last Day Of Class? (Part Two)) , and included a number of downloadable materials.

I thought readers might find it useful for me share a couple of other activities, along with excerpts from some of the work produced by students this past week.

STUDENT PORTFOLIOS:

I have students do an analysis of their best work over the year, along with answering a number of other questions.  You can download them, if you’d like:

Final Project For Ninth-Grade English

Final Project For Intermediate English

They’re very similar — the Intermediate English one is just more scaffolded.

I’m not going to share a lot of what students wrote. However, I’d like to share my favorite part of the portfolio (I talk more about this in my book on teaching English Language Learners). In it, students need to complete these sentences:

________________________________ was my best moment in class

because ________________________________. I helped make it my best

moment by _______________________________________.

_______________________________was my worst moment in class

because ______________________________. I could have made it better

by _____________________________________.

Students then draw a representation of the “best moment” sentences.

Here are a couple of examples from this year:

When I showed my work on the overhead it was my best moment in class because everybody liked it. I helped it my best moment by doing my best on it.

Helping people was my best moment in class because I could make them know how to do things. I helped make it my best moment by doing good for them.

Several students gave the same response to the question about what were the three most important things they learned during the year and why were they important. They focused on the “ABC” method of responding to prompts that we practiced a lot. The ABC model stands for :

Answer the Question

Back up your answer with evidence or facts.

Comment from a more personal opinion or perspective.

Here’s what one student wrote:

The most important thing I learned this year was the ABC. It helped a lot with essays and prompts in this class and in other classes.

STUDENT SIMILES OF THEMSELVES

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts and in my book, I have students write and draw similes representing themselves which I give to their next year’s English teacher.  We’ve studied them already, and I just write and draw a model on the whiteboard.  This year my model was:

I’m like a bald eagle because I don’t have any hair and I try to soar as high as I can when I do things.

Here are some my students came-up with:

I am like a boomerang because I keep coming back.

I’m like a ninja because I’m super quiet.

I am like a coloring box because I have different shades of personality.

I am like a cheetah because I run fast and I like to beat anyone in the race.

I am like a butterfly who’s flying to the flower to make it beautiful and happy.  The reason is because I like to make my family happy and not hate each other.

I am like a book because I am full of new ideas.

I am like a buffalo because the buffalo can help people work in the farm and carry something heavy.  Also, the buffalo are very strong, too.

I am like an elephant because an elephant can carry you anywhere you want to go.

This year, I was a little concerned with some of the student similes.  I wish I had read them before students walked out the door on the last day so I could have talked with some about them.  Here are the more troubling ones:

I’m like the ant because he’s small and I’m small and we can’t win big things.

I am like a wall because I always have my guard up.

I am like a white blank paper because I have nothing in my mind unless somebody draw on me and show me the way.

LETTERS TO NEXT YEAR’S STUDENTS:

I have my mainstream ninth-graders write letters to my next year’s students.   This year, my colleague Katie Hull wrote up these short directions:

Please write a letter to the incoming 9th graders who will be taking this class next year.  Please describe what they will be learning in this class and give them some tips for being successful.  you may also want to give them some information about Burbank, the Information Technology Small Learning Community, the teachers they will have, and any advice on how to have a good 9th grade year.

Students wrote some very thoughtful letters.  Here are a few excerpts:

Some tips to be successful in this class is participate, cooperate with others, never quit and set goals for yourself.  I’ve done thdse things and now I am more successful than anybody in my family.

Mr. Ferlazzo is a very patient teacher, he doesn’t use an angry tone to keep you from being loud. Unless you finally go a bit overboard and he’ll tick off a bit but not for long — probably 20 seconds.

If you get Mr. Ferlazzo’s class you’re probably not going to like it because he never leaves you alone and it can get irritating.  But it’s worth it because he just wants you to do good.  The one thing I like about him is that he tries to keep you motivated to do good and that you can do it.

Do you do anything in particular that works well during the last week? Please share your experiences in the comments.

Yesterday, I shared how my mainstream ninth-grade English class evaluated me in their anonymous assessments. Today, it’s time to share what my Intermediate English students had to say.

Here’s a downloadable version of the form I have students complete. There’s also a version of it in my book on teaching English Language Learners.

Here’s what they said:

FAVORITE CLASS ACTIVITIES: Working in the computer lab, going on field trips, and playing learning games were all basically tied at the top, which is very similar to last year’s ratings.

LEAST FAVORITE CLASS ACTIVITIES: The three least-liked activities were reading at home, doing homework, and watching videos (we do it by using an activity called Back to the Screen that practices listening, speaking, and writing skills). Again, this is similar to last year — with one important exception. Writing essays was ranked low last year, but this year — while it wasn’t at the very top — it was near there. I think that speaks to a lot of the work my colleague, Katie Hull, and I put into crafting some very stimulating and engaging writing activities. She and I are also beginning to write a book together on teaching writing to English Language Learners.

ACTIVITIES WHERE STUDENTS FELT THEY LEARNED THE MOST: Students ranked practically all of the activities equally highly. As they did last year, it was interesting to note that the activities they ranked as liking least — reading at home, doing homework, and watching videos — were ranked at or near the top of ones where they felt they had learned the most. Writing essays was tied at the top, too.

ACTIVITIES WHERE STUDENTS FELT THEY LEARNED THE LEAST: For all practical purposes, students didn’t rank any activity low.

RATING MR. FERLAZZO AS A TEACHER:

I was ranked the highest for being friendly, getting to know students, being organized and prepared and working hard.

As they said last year, a small number said I should maintain better class discipline and that I talk too much.

All but three would be very happy if they had me as a teacher again.

PACE OF THE CLASS: Three-fourths of the students said the pace was “just right.” However, one-fourth said it was “too slow.” This was generally a higher-level Intermediate English class than I’ve had before, and this feedback suggests that I could have worked more on differentiating instruction for some of the more advanced students.

OTHER: Most of the class also added they had wished we had worked more on speaking English. Last year’s class said the same thing, and I had vowed to make that a higher priority. I had thought I had but, obviously, I need to rethink it again.

MY REFLECTIONS:

I feel pretty good about how this class went but, as I’ve mentioned already, I think I need to think more carefully about differentiating instruction for some of the more advanced learners (who might not be ready to move quite yet to our advanced ELL class) and about bringing in more speaking opportunities. I suspect my focus on refining how to teach writing distracted me from my vow to do more speaking. Now that Katie and I have a better handle on the craft of teaching writing, I think we’ll be able to be more intentional about incorporating speaking into our curriculum. Katie and I will be co-teaching the class next year.

Any feedback is welcome.

My third post in this series will be sharing how students in my International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class evaluated me. I used a little bit of a different process with them…

For more information on how I incorporate student evaluations in my teaching, you might be interested in reading “My Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers)”

Each year I have students anonymously evaluate their class and me, and they always help me become a better teacher. I also share the results in this blog. You can find past posts on this topic at My Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers).

Our school year ended yesterday, and it’s time for me to begin share this year’s results. I’m also including links to downloadable versions of the surveys I had students complete.

I’ll be writing a more extensive post and Teacher Magazine article about what these results and my own reflections will be causing me to do differently next year. Feel free to share your own planned changes at What Will You Do Differently Next School Year?

I taught three classes this year — two of them were “double periods.” I’ll be writing three separate posts — one about each class.

Today, I’ll begin with my mainstream ninth-grade English class.

This double-period class, comprised of students who need extra support, is always my most challenging one. In fact, I think that all the posts I’ve written about classroom management are based on my experiences each year in this class. It’s one that I would never willingly give-up, though. We use a curriculum and instructional strategies developed by Kelly Young and his extraordinary Pebble Creek Labs.

In addition to completing this evaluation form, I have students write a letter to next year’s ninth-graders. This example is indicative of what was included in the letters my students wrote this year — it shows how carefully students can observe their teachers:

Mr. Ferlazzo is a very patient teacher, he doesn’t use an angry tone to keep you from being loud. Unless you finally go a bit overboard and he’ll tick off a bit but not for long — probably 20 seconds.

Here are some of the key results from the evaluation:

1. In this class, I learned…

The results from this first question were very interesting. Earlier this week, I posted about an experiment I did this year by giving this same evaluation two weeks ago and then right when school was ending. The results were the same, except for the answers to this question. The first time, the answers were divided evenly between “some” and “a lot.” The second time, after students completed a self-assessment reflecting on their work (I share the details in this post), the answers were one-third saying “some” and “two-thirds” saying a lot.

2. I tried my best in this class…

One third said “a lot of the time,” one-third said “all of the time” and one third say “some of the time.”

3. My favorite unit was...

Natural Disasters was the clear winner, with Jamaica coming in second. This was a surprise because usually Jamaica is far and away the favorite.

4. My least favorite unit was…

Mount Everest was the big “winner” here.

5. As a teacher, I think Mr. Ferlazzo is…

One-fifth said “okay,” one-fifth said :good,” two-fifths said “excellent,” and one-fifth said “bad.” This is the largest percentage of “bad” ratings I’ve ever received. I felt like I was more academically demanding — by far — this year than I’ve ever been. I wonder if that might have contributed to some of those negative ratings? I’m going to think about how I can enforce the same level of accountability, but perhaps with a little less of an “edge.” Obviously, there may be other reasons, too, and I need to reflect on what they might be.

6. Did you feel that Mr. Ferlazzo was concerned about what was happening in your life?

Two-thirds said “yes” and one-third said “no.”

7. Mr. Ferlazzo is patient:

Two-thirds said “some of the time” and one-third said “a lot of the time.”

8. Did you like this class?

Two-thirds said “yes” and one-third said “no.” Again, this is the highest number of negative responses to this question that I’ve ever received.

9. What was your favorite activity in this class?

As usual, “Working In Groups” was number one and “Practice Reading” was number two. Practice Reading is the fifteen minutes at the beginning of each class where students can read a book of their choice. “Clozes” were the surprising number three choice. These are “fill-in-the-gap” activities where students have to write-in the correct word in blanks strategically located within a short passage. In the past, clozes have not been very popular. This year, I think I was able to help students view them as more of a puzzle to complete — instead of a typical assignment — and I think that made the difference.

Lots of food for thought.

Please share in the comments your reactions, and if you do anything similar with your own classes.

Next week, I’ll be writing about the other “grades” I’ve received.