Beginning the Year

So, it’s the beginning of the year and I’m sure there are many teachers (especially, first year ones, like me) who are scrambling to find productive and engaging activities to start the year off with.  Of all the activities that I have found for beginning the school year, the best one that I have come across is called “The Wright Family Vacation.”  It is a listening activity with a fairly basic procedure.  Students must stand around in a circle, each with a penny in his or her hand, and listen as the teacher reads a passage.  Everytime the students hear the words “left” or “right” in the passage, they are to pass the penny either to the left or the right, accordingly.

The full procedure for this activity may be found, here, in RTF format.  A link to Redkudu’s more recent blog entries can be found to the right, in my blogroll.  The author of this blog has also requested that I add a small caveat explaining that this activity is not her intellectual property, nor is she aware of whom to cite as its creator.

My very first classroom, classroom management, and Scarlet Letter Lit Circles

So, I have officially completed my county’s new teacher orientation.  Some of it was thoroughly mindnumbing, but there were positive aspects to it, as well.  I made friends with the other new English teacher in my high school, a first year (and, therefore, terrified) TAPP teacher who will be teaching tenth grade at another high school in the county, and an elementary school teacher who will be teaching fourth grade.  I, also, had the opportunity to become friends with a young man (as young as me!), who just graduated from college (and, is a TAPP teacher, as well).  It turns out that we are also hall neighbors, with him right across from me.

All in all, it wasn’t as bad as I had expected.  I took advantage of the free stuff, I appreciated the free lunch and, most of all, I took away some really good ideas for classroom management.  Thinking about the year to come, I had been struggling a little bit with deciding what types of incentives and consequences I would give my high school students.  High school students are often not as mature as they would have you believe, but you certainly don’t want to run the risk of making them feel as though you are infantilizing them.  Woe to the teacher whose students laugh at him or her over their misled notion that stickers are still effective motivators.

While the speaker at the last session of our orientation offered a lot of great ideas about how to manage one’s classroom, I felt that a lot of the strategies offered by our speaker, and based on the discipline strategies of Dr. Terry Alderman, were aimed mostly at younger students, particularly at the elementary level.

For high school, I did take away a couple things that I wanted to implement, however.  One of the things that I really feel silly about doing in front of the classroom is holding up my arm in some gesture as I wait for them to quiet down and give me their attention.  I don’t know why this makes me feel particularly stupid, but it always does, regardless of whether or not it works (but, believe me I have felt much stupider the times that it hasn’t worked).  One strategy that I took from our speaker, Ms. Savage, was to have a certain number of colored bracelets around one wrist, and switching them to the other wrist if I am holding out my hand and they continue to ignore that gesture for getting quiet and giving me their attention.

I really thought that it would be a good idea.  You could even pull this off with hair ties or rubber bands, although I would imagined that those plastic colored bracelets that have been all the rage and/or colored hair ties would be much more visible.  The important thing in all of the strategies that the speaker shared, regardless of grade level, was that students have a visual cue to motivate them and let them know where they stand on the behavior spectrum of “good” to “not doing so hot.”  I want to use them to determine how much time students will be given at the end of the class as free time to sit in their desks and read, talk, or work on their homework.  If I have five or more bracelets on the “good” wrist by the end of the day, they get their entire five minutes.  If I have less than five, they get the number of minutes left on the “good” wrist.  Bracelets will move from the “good” to “bad” wrist in my class when I have to wait more than ten seconds for the class to quiet down or when a student blurts something out while another student, or I am talking.  One student can only lose one bracelet for their class in a day.  If that same student breaks any of the guidelines again that day, they will be given a warning, and then teacher detention.

My teacher detention usually builds by increments of 15 minutes.  I start with 15 minutes and if a student commits another offense, another 15 minutes will be added on to their time.  Students have a week, or five days, to come and serve my detention before I will write an office referral.  Of course, all major offenses will be dealt with by an immediate office referral. 

Students for whom it is difficult to refrain from talking or any other minor, but persistent, behavior, will be dealt with in teacher-student conferences.  Once a student receives three teacher detentions, they will sit down with the teacher and fill out a behavior contract that outlines their understanding of the problems that they seem to be having with the classroom guidelines, the strategies that the teacher and student will use to try to fix the interruptions, as well as, motivators and consequences for sticking to or breaking the contract.

I think that this is a wonderful idea because it allows me to talk one-on-one with students about what is troubling them, lets them know that I am on their side, and that tells them that I am willing to problem solve with them about how to solve these problems.

As another incentive, I am going to employ what Ms. Savage called Mystery Motivator.  Whenever I catch a student being prepared or staying on task at certain random times, I will give them a slip from my paper cube.  They will write their name on this piece of paper and slip it into the jar marked for their period.  I will let the jar accumulate for two weeks, and then I will pick a random name.  The student whose name I pick will be given a secret prize kept inside the mystery box or mystery envelope.

This is basically the classroom management plan that I have put together for my class this year.  I feel that it’s both fair and respectful to students.  I just hope that it ends up being a successful plan, because I know how difficult classroom management is for so many first year teachers.

In other news: I received my one hundred dollars from the governor.  “Sonny Money” as some teacher apparently refer to it.  I don’t know what I am going to spend it on, yet, but there is certainly a lot that I could spend money on.  I am still going to ask my department head if it would be possible to purchase a certain set of books for me to teach literature circles with the Scarlet Letter unit in order to get students more engaged in this difficult text.  I believe that while the text can be exceedingly difficult in its language and syntax, that students will be able to better understand and access the themes, if they have to read thematically-related books about which they can more easily relate.

The Young Adult novels that I have chosen as perfect literature circle selections to read in conjunction with The Scarlet Letter are as follows:

Monster – Walter Dean Myers

About a boy who is on trial for his participation in a robbery turned murder. This book begs a lot of questions regarding the degrees of innocence, the responsibility ability of one person to judge and decide the fate of another person, as well as, the degree to which an experience like this changes the way people look at you and you look at yourself.

Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson

Amazon.com Review:
Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it’s been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud.  What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors’ big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it’s because her parents’ only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she’s been struck mute…

Contains some sexual themes, as the reader finds out that Melinda was the victim of a rape.

Baby Be-Bop – Francesca Lia Block

From School Library Journal:
Grade 10 Up? A prequel to the popular books about Weetzie Bat and her circle of quirky friends and relatives. This novel is about her best pal, Dirk, in his pre-Weetzie days. He’s in high school (in L.A., of course), living with Grandma Fifi and struggling with how to come out to his best friend and soulmate. When a gang of gay bashers beats him up, he drags himself home and passes out. While he’s unconscious, long-dead relatives he’s never known come to him in what seem to be dreams.  His visions assure him that “There was love waiting; love would come.” Block writes distinctively and convincingly, interweaving the hallucination scenes smoothly. She makes the power of stories felt?and here, more purposefully than ever before, she weaves a safety net of words for readers longing to feel at home with themselves.

(Brief drug references, some sexual content, sensitive subjects dealing with sexual orientation.)

The First Part Last – Angela Johnson

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-Brief, poetic, and absolutely riveting, this gem of a novel tells the story of a young father struggling to raise an infant. Bobby, 16, is a sensitive and intelligent narrator. His parents are supportive but refuse to take over the child-care duties, so he struggles to balance parenting, school, and friends who don’t comprehend his new role. Alternate chapters go back to the story of Bobby’s relationship with his girlfriend Nia and how parents and friends reacted to the news of her pregnancy. 

(some potentially sensitive subject matter about teen parenthood)

Native Son - Richard Wright

From Library Journal
After 58 years in print, Wright’s Native Son has acquired classic status. It has not, however, lost its power to shock or provoke controversy. Bigger Thomas is a young black man in 1940s Chicago who accidentally kills the daughter of his wealthy white employer. Though his fate is certain, he finds that his crimes have given meaning and energy to his previously aimless life, and he goes to his execution unrepentant. Out of this tale the author develops a profoundly disturbing image of racism and its results that puts Bigger’s experience in horrifying perspective.

(Parents should be aware of violent language and situations contained in this book.)

YA Lit and Detention

Lately, I’ve been immersed in the world of YA Lit as part of my preservice teacher education program. My fellow TCs and I have been given a list of YA literature that I’m sure will prove to be a handy resource in the future. The list:

Adult Contemporary Literature

Kalisha Buckhanon – Upstate
Tracy Chevalier – Girl with the Pearl Earring
Amanda Davis – Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
Alicia Erian – Towelhead
Gregory Galloway – As Simple As Snow
Hark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go
J.R. Moehringer – The Tender Bar
Ann Packer – The Dive From Clausen’s Pier
Nancy Rawles – My Jim
Kit Reed – Thinner Than Thou
Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
Curtis Sittenfeld – Prep
Martha Southgate – The Fall of Rome
Art Spiegelman – Maus
Tobias Wolfe – Old School
Craig Thompson – Blankets
Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Traveler’s Wife

Contemporary Adolescent Literature

Laurie Halse Anderson – Speak
M.T. Anderson – Feed
Judy Blume – Places I Never Meant to Be
Joshua Braff – The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Martha Brooks – The True Confessions of a Heartless Girl
Stephen Chbosky – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Robert Cormier – The Chocolate War
Sharon Creech – Walk Two Moons
Jennifer Donnelly – A Northern Light
Alex Flinn – Breathing Underwater
Mel Glenn – Who Killed Mr. Chippendale
Karen Hesse – Phoenix Rising
A.M. Jenkins – Damage
David Levithan – The Realm of Possibility
Melina Marchetta – Saving Francesca
Tom & Laura McNeal – Crooked
Stephenie Meyer - Twilight
Christopher Moore – Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
Michael Morpurgo – Private Peaceful
Richard Mosher – Zazoo
Kenneth Oppel – Airborn
Phyllis Alesia Perry - Stigmata
Cynthia Rylant – A Fine White Dust
Louis Sachar – Holes
Jerry Spinelli - Stargirl
Sarah Weeks – So B. It.
Scott Westerfeld – Peeps
Chris Wooding – Poison

Multicultural Adolescent Literature

Julia Alvarez – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Francesca Lia Block – Witch Baby
Joseph Bruchac – The Heart of a Chief
Sandra Cisneros - House on Mango Street
Linda Crew – Children of the River
Sharon M. Draper – Romiette and Julio
Louise Erdrich – The Birchbark House
Will Hobbs – Bearstone
Merle Hodge – For the Life of Laetitia
Angela Johnson - Bird
Victor Martinez – Parrot in the Oven
Carolyn Meyer – White Lilacs
Kyoko Mori – Shizuko’s Daughter
Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye
Pam Munoz Ryan – Esperanza Rising
Walter Dean Myers – Monster
Lensey Namioka – Ties that Bind, Ties that Break
Gary Paulson – The Crossing
April Sinclair – Coffee Will Make You Black
Gary Soto – Buried Onions
Martha Southgate – Another Way to Dance
Rita Williams-Garcia – Every Time a Rainbow Dies

‘Classic’ Adolescent Literature

Douglas Adams – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Anonymous – Go Ask Alice
Judy Blume – Forever
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game
Robert Cormier – The Chocolate War
Chris Crutcher – Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Anne Frank – Diary of Anne Frank
William Golding – Lord of the Flies
Bette Greene – Summer of My German Soldier
Jeanne & James Houston – Farewell to Manzanar
Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
Robert Lipsyte – The Contender
Lois Lowry – The Giver
Katherine Paterson – Bridge to Terabithia
Gary Paulson – Hatchet
John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men
Mildred D. Taylor – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Theodore Taylor – The Cay
Cynthia Voigt – Homecoming
Paul Zindel – The Pigman

Nonfiction

Steve Almond – Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
Melba Patillo-Beals – Warriors Don’t Cry
H.G. Bissinger – Friday Night Lights
Lynn Cox – Swimming to Antarctica
Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed
Henry Louis Gates – Colored People
Jon Katz – Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho
Alex Kotlowitz – There Are No Children Here
John Krakauer – Into Thin Air
Lealan Jones – Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago
Walter Dean Myers – Bad Boy: A Memoir
Michael Pollan – The Botany of Desire
Mary Roach – Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Brent Runyon – The Burn Journals
Julia Scheeres – Jesus Land: A Memoir
Eric Schosser – Fast Food Nation
Tobias Wolfe – This Boy’s Life
Koren Zailckas – Smashed: The Story of a Drunken Girlhood

Sexual Identity Themes

Nancy Garden – Annie on My Mind
Marion Dane Bauer – Am I Blue
Ellen Wittlinger – Hard Love
Garret Freymann-Weyr – My Heartbeat
Judd Winick – Pedro and Me
David Levithan – Boy Meets Boy
Bette Greene – The Drowning of Stephan Jones
Jacqualine Woodson – From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

Fantasy/Science Fiction

Philip K. Dick – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner)
C.S. Louis – Chronicles of Narnia Series
Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter Series

Obviously not comprehensive in the least, but it provides a good starting point for those who are foreigners to the realm of YA Lit. Some of the ones I’ve read lately and highly recommend are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

As for the second part of this post, as promised, I need to talk about detention.  One of the things I have the most trouble with is disciplining students when I feel like my MT’s classroom is not my own.  They definitely don’t take me as seriously as her, and possibly never will.  The point is, though, that I need to learn how to discipline.  Giving detention is integral to this.  I don’t have to worry about administering their detention since I am never there after school, but I am wondering how I am going to administer detention next year.

I know that a lot of teachers make their students serve detention by forcing them to write and write and write.  The problem is, what kind of message does that send my ENGLISH students if I make them write as a punishment.  I really wish teachers would stop making their students write the one sentence over again.  Or, even writing the chapter, even if it is a chapter they are going to be studying anyway.  What I want is to force my students to clean my fishtanks, my desks, my floor, and, perhaps, help the cleaning personnel with after-school clean-up.  I wonder how other teachers do detention for their students ….