Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

The New York Times has an article today titled When the Heart Pays the Price of Anger. It’s about the negative consequences — on ourselves — that can happen when we let anger control us. The headline of this post is the last line of that column.

I think it’s worth reading and keeping in mind as we teach in our classroom (and as we operate in other aspects of our world).

Related advice comes from Marvin Marshall, who is my favorite (by far) writer/thinker on positive classroom management. He’s written question that we as teachers might want to consider asking ourselves regularly. He wrote:

Will what I am about to do or say bring me closer or will it push me away farther from the person with whom I am communicating?

Of course, we’re just human and all of this is far “easier said than done.”  But it’s not a bad level to aspire towards…

I’ve often used the scientific method in my English and Social Studies classes — both with English Language Learners and with mainstream students.

The MCREL blog just posted a nice related piece titled Generating and Testing Hypotheses is Not Just for Science that’s a good short read.

In my Teacher Magazine article titled The Last Day Of Class, I share that one of the things I do is tell my students about the negative effects a complete summer absence from reading can have on their academic life.  I explain that I’ve arranged for them to get extra credit from their tenth-grade English teacher for reading, and let them check-out books from my extensive classroom library.

Today, The Washington Post just ran a good article discussing some of the research that I also share with students that highlights the effect of the “summer slump.”  It’s titled Low-income students suffer greater summer-learning losses.

You might also be interested in What Do You Do On The Last Day Of Class? (Part Two).

Kevin D. Washburn has written an excellent post at The Edurati Review titled Learning from Mistakes Takes the Right Feedback.

Here’s a short excerpt from it, but it’s really worth a visit and a “full read”:

“Dr. Robert Brooks (2007) suggests couching feedback in “we” statements. For example, rather than telling a student that a response is incorrect and to “try harder,” Brooks suggests, in one-on-one conversation, saying, “This strategy you’re using doesn’t seem to be working. Let’s figure out why and how we can change the strategy so that you are successful.” Such a response invites a careful investigation of the mistake and makes the interaction a problem-solving experience. A classroom environment that welcomes error as a gateway to learning contributes to better feedback responses.”

As I’ve posted in What Do You Do On The Last Day Of Class (Part Two)?, I have my students complete an annual evaluation of the class and my teaching (anonymously).

I had students in my ninth-grade mainstream English class complete it a couple of days early this year, and thought I’d share the results here.  It might provide some additional ideas on questions you might want to include in your own survey — if you choose to do one.  I also included other examples in the “last day” post.

One of our administrators, Jim Peterson, was commenting on the importance of year-end student evaluations yesterday.  He framed it like this:

“After the first couple of years of teaching, many teachers don’t get observed much in the classroom by administrators or other mentors.  However, teachers get observed by students for hundreds of hours each year.  Why not take advantage of their experience and ask them for their feedback?”

Jim offers these simple questions as suggestions:

1. What did you find about the class or the teacher’s method of instruction (way of teaching) that helped you?
2. List 2-3 suggestions to improve the class or to help students more
3. Other comments

Here are the results of the evaluation done by my students:

1. In this class, I feel I learned…..1/3 said “some”; 2/3 said “a lot” no one said “a little”

2. I tried my best in this class…. 1/2 said “a lot of the time” 1/2 said “all the time” no one said “some of the time”

3. My favorite unit was…. Jamaica was the clear winner

4. My least favorite unit…Nelson Mandela was the clear “winner”

5. As a teacher, I think Mr. Ferlazzo is… 1/3 said “okay”; 1/3 said “good”; 1/3 said “excellent”; (no one said “bad”)

6. Did you feel that Mr. Ferlazzo was concerned about what was happening in your life? .. 2/3 said “yes; 1/3rd said “no”

7. Mr. Ferlazzo is patient..1/4 said “some of the time”; 1/2 said “a lot of the time”; 1/4 said “all of the time”

8. Did you like this class? all said “yes” except for one “no”

9. What was your favorite activity in this class? “Working in groups” was the clear winner with “Practice Reading” in second place (Practice Reading is the fifteen minutes at the beginning of each class when students can read a book of their own choosing).

The last two questions were where students could write in what they wanted:

10. What could you (the student) have done to make this class a better learning experience? “read & write more”; “be a better listener”; “participate more” were some responses

11. What could Mr. Ferlazzo have done to make this class a better learning experience? “It’s perfect” “Be cooler” “You did good” “lower voice when doing read aloud” were a few responses

If you didn’t get enough ideas about how to maximize the last days of school from my post What Do You Do On The Last Day Of Class? (Part Two), then go over and check Angela Maiers’ Ending The Year With A Bang!

She’s got a nice collection of even more suggestions…

“The Harm Caused By Witnessing Rudeness” is the title of a post at The Research Digest blog.

It describes the results of three studies that found harmful affects on people who saw acts of rudeness, but weren’t the actual victims. The blog post explains:

“Witnessing an act of rudeness, whether committed by a researcher or student, led the participants to solve fewer anagrams, come up with fewer uses for a brick (and to come up with more aggressive uses!), made them less likely to offer to participate in another study, and lowered their mood.”

Next year, when I lead a class discussion on the first day about creating a “community of learners, I’ll certainly add this information to the mix — everybody gets hurt just by one person being rude!

I’ve quoted Marvin Marshall quite a few times in this blog.  I really like a lot of what he has to say about having a positive approach to classroom management.

He recently wrote a post describing the basis of his philosophy.

Here are a couple of the points he made that made particular sense to me:

* Obedience does not create desire.

* Cognition and emotions cannot be separated. One affects the other. Anything imposed—especially if it is related to punishment—puts the receiver in a victimhood mode and prompts ill feelings toward the enforcer. Good relationships are essential to prompt positive change. People do good when they feel good. One does not ordinarily do good when feeling bad. This is a prime reason that traditional, coercive approaches are not successful and the recidivism rate is so high.

Check-out his blog for more great info.

The Best Teacher I Ever Had is a good article on critical thinking (from “Readers Digest,” of all places) shared by Dean Shareski on Twitter.

It reminds me why I’m choosing to teach an International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class next year, and why I’m interested in adapting some of those lessons for use in my Intermediate English class.

The Seven Secrets Behind Great Teaching is a thought-provoking article summarizing interviews with “15 award-winning teachers.”

It’s a pretty short article, and one worth reading.

Thanks to Donna Baumbach for the tip via Twitter (by the way, her wiki — Web Tools 4 U To Use — is on The Best Collections Of Web 2.0 Tools For Education list.

Students were working on an assignment a couple of weeks ago. “Jack” (who faces a lot of challenges at home, and has been having some difficulties at school), however, was not. I went over to him and asked how it was going, and if he had some questions about what he needed to do.

“I’ll work if you give me some candy,” he replied.

I told him that wasn’t going to happen, that he was better than that, and that he needed to get to work. I knew that he didn’t like me “bugging him,” and we had made an arrangement a couple of months ago that when he was in this kind of mood I would leave him alone for a few minutes. Often, after that period of time, he would get focused without needing any additional intervention.

A few minutes later, though, and Jack still wasn’t doing the assignment.

I went over to him to check-in. “I’ll work if you give me some candy,” he repeated.

I asked him to go outside where we could talk privately. I asked him if he felt that eating helped him to concentrate. He said yes, it did.

I said, “Jack, I want you to be successful.   We all have things that help us concentrate — with me, it’s important to be in a quiet place.   You know there’s a class rule against eating in class, and I certainly don’t feel comfortable with your eating candy. But how about if I give you the option of bringing something besides candy to school and, if you’re having a hard time concentrating, as long as it doesn’t happen too often, you can have the option to eat while you’re working? How does that sound?”

He eagerly agreed, we shook hands on the deal, and he went back to class and focused on his work.

He’s been working hard since that time, and has not eaten anything in class since we made our agreement.

But his knowing that he has the option to do so, I believe, has been a key part of the solution.

This is similar to the option I’ve given some students to leave the room when they feel like they’re going to “blow”  — as long as they remain directly outside the door (see When A “Good” Class Goes “Bad” (And Back To “Good” Again!). All of us, particularly students who have family lives which are often out-of-control, function better when we feel we do have a certain level of control over…something.

I have individual “deals” with many students in my class, and everybody knows it (we talk pretty explicitly about everybody being different, having different talents and different needs).  Only very, very ocassionally will students actually exercise the power they have in these deals.   Some might think these kinds of arrangements would prompt charges of unfairness from other students.  Surprisingly enough, in my five years of teaching, that has never occurred.  The students who don’t need these deals to focus understand why some do,  and everybody else understands because they have their own special arrangments with me.

What kinds of individual “deals” have you made with students in your classes?

I’m always engaged by Malcolm Gladwell’s essays in The New Yorker, and his most recent one — “How David Beat Goliath: When Underdogs Break The Rules” — is no exception.

I think it contains useful insights for us to communicate to our students, and for those of us who are attempting institutional change within schools.

I don’t have time right now to share additional reflections since I’m taking 100 students on our annual insane one-day field trip to Yosemite National Park, but I’d certainly be interested in hearing yours in the comment section.

Check out another great classroom (and life!) management post from Marvin Marshall:

How Can You Say “No” Without Saying “No”!

Marvin always has great classroom management suggestions that emphasize the positive and emphasize personal responsibility.

I’ve written quite a bit about some of the challenges my students and I face at our inner-city high school, and some of the strategies and specific tactics I use to respond to them (see What Do You Do When You’re Having A Bad Day At School?)

One of the newer things I’ve been trying is writing a personal letter to a student, placing it in a sealed envelope with his/her name on it, and just giving it to him/her in a matter-of-fact way.   It’s been amazing to me to see the effect these letters have had.  I can’t believe I haven’t tried it before!

Here’s a sample of one (obviously, the name has been changed):

Dear Miguel,

I’m writing this letter to you because I really want you to hear how strongly I believe you have the ability to go far in life, and that I believe staying in school and doing well will help you get there.

I’m concerned since I understand that you told you mother that you “wanted to be like” your older brother and leave school.

You and I both know that, when you put your mind to it, school work is pretty easy for you.  However, for some reason, you often decide you just don’t want to do it.

Graduating from high school is going to open a lot of doors for you in life - for work and for further schooling or training.  I hope you make a decision to finish this school year strong and approach next year with a positive attitude.

You are very smart — as your essays and “make-and-breaks” have shown.  It would be sad - both for you and for others in your life (including me!) - if you chose not to use all the “smarts” that you do have.

Sincerely,

Mr. Ferlazzo

After I published yesterday’s post titled Testing Time, I received several requests for the test-taking strategies I share with my students.

First, of course, I ask them to share what they think works for them. These are the ones I make sure we cover — even if they don’t suggest them (please share additional suggestions in the comments section):

Test-taking Tips

Ø Read each question carefully and more than once

Ø Read the questions before you read the longer text

Ø Underline important words in the text as you read

Ø Do easy questions first

Ø Skip the hard questions and come back to them later (put a mark in your test booklet next to the ones you skip)

Ø Eliminate wrong answers and make your best guess

Ø Trust yourself, your first guess is usually the best

Ø If you do want to change an answer, be sure to erase the first one completely

Ø Use your reading strategies-you’ve been practicing them all year!

It’s that time of the year when it’s not unusual for both students and teachers to have difficulty focusing — there’s a month or two left in the school year, everybody’s a bit tired, and summer is in the air.

It’s a perfect time for the second in my “What Do You Do…” series — posts that focus on questions or challenges that I face in my teaching and ones that I think others might share, too.

My original plan was to wait until mid-May to publish this so there would be more time to received reader contributions.  However, since I received so much feedback from teachers that they’d like to get some advice now,  I decided to publish early and still encourage reader suggestions in the comments section.  I’ll happily incorporate additional suggestions into this post or even do a separate “Part Two” version.

The first post in this monthly series was What Do You Do When You’re Having A Bad Day At School?

As I said in that post, I don’t pretend that I’m sharing any particularly original or earth-shattering ideas, but hope this post will generate some from readers…

Here is what works for me (and for others who have contributed suggestions):

IDEAS ON HOW TO KEEP STUDENTS FOCUSED:

A Big Field Trip: I typically schedule a major field trip sometime in May that requires a fair amount of lessons prior to the trip and educational projects afterward.  Usually, for me, it’s an insane one day field trip to Yosemite National Park with 100 students.  Langwitches has a great post on What Is In A Field Trip? sharing ideas on how to maximize the learning experience for students.

Start All Students With An “A” When The Final Quarter Begins: We’re in a two semester schedule, with each semester divided into two quarters.  During a semester, many teachers continue the first quarter’s grade into the second quarter.  Some of us, though, start all over — everybody begins with an “A” at the beginning of the third quarter.  The final semester grade, then, is typically a very generous average of the two quarter grades.   This has worked for some students who would have ordinarily “checked-out” long before the school year ends.

Students Spend The Last Two-Or-Three Works Developing & Teaching Their Own Thematic Unit: By this time of the year, students are quite familiar with the instructional strategies and materials that I use in class.  I’ll often have students self-select their own small groups and their own topics that they want to use to create a thematic unit.  It’s quite structured in terms of what has to be in the unit (clozes, data sets, read alouds, sequencing activities, think alouds), but the fact that students can choose their topic (subject to my approval) and their own groups tends to get students pretty energized.  Past topics have included video games, fashion, soccer, basketball, and Hmong food.  Each group is given thirty minutes to teach one part of their thematic unit.

Students Prepare Another Kind Of Presentation: Diane LaGrone, a Master Teacher at College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas, suggests using Aaron Shepard’s Home Page as a source of resources for Readers Theater.  I agree with that suggestion, and have used it myself.  Sometimes I’ve used scripts from his page as a model, and then have students write their own stories and scripts, and then they perform at a local elementary school.  I’ve also had students finish the year creating and performing puppet shows, as well.  The creativity itself tends to be energizing, and the fact they will be performing for an authentic audience helps, too.

I’ve also found that one of the best ways to keep students focused is to make sure that I stay focused.  Students seem to have an eeringly accurate sense of my mood and energy, and that obviously has an immediate effect on what happens in the classroom.

That observation leads me to the second part of this post….

IDEAS ON HOW TO KEEP TEACHERS FOCUSED:

Many of my experiences from a nineteen-year career as a community organizing have been very helpful to my teaching, including the strategies I used (and taught to other organizers) to “stay fresh.”  Here are some of them:

Work Fewer Hours: By this time of the year, “throwing time” at school doesn’t pay dividends.  Cutting back on my typical number of outrageous hours per week usually results in my feeling more energized in the classroom.

Read A Stimulating Book: Finding an intellectually-stimulating book (or article) on teaching and learning can get me excited to try-out some new things even though it’s at the end of the year.

Write Something Useful For Other Teachers: Whether it’s a blog post or a lesson plan (or something else), forcing myself to craft something public keeps my mind sharp.

Make A Point To Eat Lunch — Individually — With Teachers I Don’t Know Well, But Am Impressed With: We have well over 120 teachers at our school.  Since we’re divided into seven “Small Learning Communities” (each one has 15-20 teachers, and the same 300 students stay together for all four years, it’s easy to not be connected with faculty in other SLC’s.  I always get energized after meeting with another teacher to learn why they chose this profession, what they’ve learned about teaching and learning, what gives them energy, and just their “story.”

That’s all I got… and hope to hear more suggestions from readers.

The subject of my next post in this series will be:

What Do You Do When You’ve Finished You’re Lesson, But Have Five or Ten Minutes Of Classtime Left?

Feel free to contribute your suggestions in the comments section of this post.  The deadline will be June 7th.

I didn’t have a particularly good day at school yesterday.

A number of students are still having a hard time re-acclimating to school after the Spring Break, I didn’t show as much patience as I would have like to show, and my lessons weren’t particularly engaging.

Happily, this doesn’t happen often.  But it did prompt me to reflect a little more on why it happens when it does, what I try to do in advance to make sure that “all days are good days,” and what I do (and can do better) “in the moment” when things appear to be “going south.”

I don’t think there’s anything particularly insightful in this post, but I hope it might also prompt other people to share their thoughts, reflections and experiences in dealing with the same issues.

WHAT I DO IN ADVANCE TO TRY AND MAKE SURE THAT IT’S GOING TO BE A GOOD DAY

I obviously have an enormous amount of control about whether it’s going to be a good day in my class or not.

Yes, students are going to have bad days, and many students in our inner-city high school are facing multiple challenges in their lives that affect their attitude and behavior in the classroom.  But, in my experience, I believe I can minimize most of the potential substantive negative effects of those challenges in my class by doing the following:

Put a lot of effort into developing relationships: Yes, I know this is a “no-brainer.”  I need to share it, though,  because I believe it’s the most critical piece.  Many students have few or any relationships with adults who they believe care what happens to them.  By demonstrating interest, respect, and caring, students are more likely going to make an effort to try their best or, at minimum, will be less likely to be disruptive.

Have a positive classroom management plan in place: You can read more about the kind of classroom management strategies I use in these previous posts:

When A “Good” Class Goes “Bad” (And Back To “Good” Again!)
Maintaining A “Good” Class
More About Maintaining A “Good” Class
“Why Do You Let Others Control You?”
Have You Ever Taught A Class That “Got Out Of Control”?
What Do Pit Bulls & Cockroaches Have To Do With Learning & Teaching?

Prepare an engaging lesson: If I’ve prepared a good lesson, which includes containing interesting material, requires a fair amount of cooperative work, and doesn’t have me speaking a lot in front, then it makes it less likely I, and my students, are going to have a bad day.

Model student activities: Explaining what I want students to do is not enough — I have to model it.  It doesn’t have to take long, but whether it’s showing how I want students to work in a small group, or demonstrating how and where on a text I want them to write about a reading strategy they will be using, there’s no question that modeling minimizes confusion and increases learning (and the odds that we’re all going to have a good day).

Get enough sleep, feel rested, and be healthy: Generally, bad days happen when I’m feeling tired, run-down, or sick.  I’ve found that they’re less likely to occur if I’m regularly getting my exercise (which is playing basketball)

WHAT I DO WHEN A DAY BEGINS TO “GO SOUTH”

I am only human, after all, and some days I’m not going to fulfill all of the criteria I’ve mentioned in the previous section.  Plus, even though I have an enormous amount of control over what takes place in the classroom, I cannot control what goes on in students’ lives outside of school.  Holiday times, which is when some of the challenges facing students become particularly difficult for them,  can increase tension levels for many at the same time.  Any time of disruption in routine — whether it’s coming back from a Spring Break or if the class schedule temporarily changes to accommodate state testing — can do the same.

Here are some actions I take “in the moment”:

Look at my “Show Patience” Sign: I have a big sign in the back of the room (for my benefit) and in the front (for my students) that says “Show Patience.”  When I might begin to lose “it,”  the sign is big enough for me to catch in the corner of my eye and — sometimes — cause me to act on its message.

Slow down and be conscious of my breathing: If I begin to lose my patience, I try to become more aware of my breathing and slow it down, which generally has a calming effect.

Throw-out the lesson and play a learning game for review: If the “bad day bug” is affecting multiple students, getting them in small groups to play a game can work wonders. You can see a list of simple games I use and their instructions here.

Have a student go outside for a “time-out”: Then, after a few minutes (enough time for me, and, with luck, he/she to calm down) I’ll go out and have a conversation beginning with the question, “What can I do to help you ____________ (get focused, be less upset, etc)?”  I’ll always have a few ideas in my “backpocket” to share, as well (let him/her put their head down for a few minutes, go to the bathroom, etc.).  I’ll talk to the student the next day to get ideas of what they can do next time.  I might do this “serially” with multiple students if things are not looking so good.

Send a student to another classroom for the period or, as a last resort, the discipline office:  If a student has clearly “lost it,” his/her behavior is negatively affecting the entire class, and none of the options I’ve listed (here and in my other class management posts) have either worked or are not feasible, I’ll send a student out (with work to do) to a teacher with whom I have a reciprocal arrangement (and where the student I’m sending out doesn’t know any of the students who will be in that class).  If the student appears out-of-control, however, I’ll call for a hall monitor to them him/her away for the period.

Apologize for my part in it all: I apologize to individual students if I have showed impatience with them.  I might also apologize to the whole class for the part I have played in the class having a bad day.  Saying “I’m sorry” is a good way to “de-polarize” a situation.  This might happen near the end of a class period if nothing I’ve tried has worked.  After I briefly share my apology and the things I think I could have done differently, I usually ask students to take a few minutes to write down what they think they could have done differently, share it with a partner, and then we’ll have a short class discussion.  My starting thing off with an apology and accepting responsibility will often encourage students to reflect on their own roles.

Well, that’s all I got….  I’m looking forward to hearing from others about what has worked for them.  You can never have enough tools in your toolkit to respond to having a bad day!

I definitely teach phonics to Beginning English Language Learners when I have that class (which I will during summer school), but not in the mind-numbing and devoid of meaning way I hear (and read) that it’s taught in some places.

Thanks to Susan Ohanian, I learned about this article over the weekend titled The sound and the fury about making sense of written words by an Australian professor.

Here’s the prologue:

He has been criticised over his refusal to bow to the idea that phonics is the only necessary first step in learning to read. Associate professor Brian Cambourne argues his case.

It’s a good article.

Langwitches has just shared another great resource. This time, it’s a slideshow from Darren Kuropatwa and others who created a presentation titled Teaching Well.

It’s an inspirational and informative slideshow on what it takes to…teach well.

I’ve written several posts sharing pieces by Marvin Marshall, who has written some great stuff about positive classroom management strategies. I’d encourage readers to subscribe to his blog.

Today he shared two simple reflective questions he’d suggest that teachers ask themselves to evaluate their work:

If I were a student, would I want me as a teacher?

If yes, list the reasons.

If no, list the reasons.

Short, sweet, and effective…assuming that the teacher has at least a limited sense of self-awareness.  One would hope that most teachers would pass that threshold…