How Do You Fight Boredom? (Prompt)

[Expository / Narrative] We all have those days when it's difficult to get interested in anything. How do you fight boredom? Write either an expository essay describing three things teenagers do to overcome boredom or a story about an unusual method for fighting boredom.

Out of Work (Writing Prompt)

[Expository / Persuasive] When new technologies in manufacturing reduce the number of workers required to make a product, what responsibilities should manufacturers have toward workers who lose their jobs?

This prompt is a question from my study guide on Charles Sheldon's In His Steps, which I am writing in preparation for the first week of school.

Do You Have a Classroom Companion Website?

Are you using the internet to your advantage? My classroom companion website (The Précis) has become an excellent tool for communicating with students and parents. It sprang from my weekly printed newsletter and the content of both is the same. Students routinely visit my website to keep up with assignment due dates, look up the Journal topics, get the secret word for next week's vocabulary test, and get help in studying for specific topics or texts. Even today, a student, or a parent, visited my website to get information about the summer reading list -- I can see the search results which directed traffic to my site and "pccs summer reading list" brought someone to the site. Plus, I am not limited to the four printed pages of the weekly newsletter; a website allows me to post additional resources for students who want them. There are puzzle worksheets, book reviews, and a daily devotional. It would be very difficult to make these readily available to students in the classroom without an online repository or tons of paper which would be quickly discarded. Instead, students and their parents have unlimited access to the resources I want them to have!

There is a price, of course, but really the time and effort are minimal in comparison with the results. And, automation really simplifies things. I always try to work smarter, not harder, and I look for ways to automate the publishing process. For example, I use Google calendar and FeedBurner to manage the calendar. Anything I post to the calendar is immediately viewable from my website. I am not required to rewrite a calendar page; I simply make appointments in my classroom calendar at Google and the programming handles the rest. (Even better, I use a very inexpensive program to allow me to update my Google calendar straight from Outlook; appointments with specific categories are transferred from my laptop to Google. So a calendar on my website takes no effort at all). Moreover, I have learned how to write my printed newsletter, required by the school, from the website itself. "Cut and paste" means I always have materials ready to print in the newsletter, and the articles in the newsletter are just posts on the website!

No website is effective, however, without visitors and feedback. To get students and their parents to the website, I write the address on the board a couple of times a week. I print it in the weekly newsletter. I email it to parents (it's part of my email signature as well) and I offer rewards to students who visit the site. For example, the secret word is extra credit on the vocabulary tests. I offer extra credit once a semester to students who leave positive comments (vanity, all is vanity). I ask students for their feedback and I study the search results report to discern what visitors are seeking (and I quickly make it available to them if it fits with the overall purpose of the site).

It's not making me rich (teaching never will, I suppose), but my classroom companion website makes me just a little more effective. It can't be everything to everybody, but it can function with a specific purpose in mind. That's the most important part; keep the website on focus. Remember the target audience and the website purpose. Even though I post photos and thoughts about my family, I always write for my students. The photos fit a secondary purpose of the site: making myself more transparent and available to the students. They certainly help bring the students to the site -- my students adore my children. [Because I teach in a private Christian school affiliated with a church, I see many of my students more than most public school teachers do. After the first quarter, all of my students know my kids! And my children know most of my students by name!]

Do you have a classroom website? Do you make materials (worksheets, syllabi) and a calendar available to parents and students? The Summer vacation, or "off-season," is a great time to work on your website. Always improve it. Add more materials and more links to the websites you want your students visiting next quarter as they research course topics. Be shameless in your promotion of it; I realized how valuable my newsletter and website are when a parent, who had not known about them, said, "Now we're empowered." That's the point!

I would gladly link to your classroom website if you leave a comment with your name and the URL. Between you and me, working together, we can make more materials available to our students.

Reading Record

I have added a new resource for English students: a form called the Reading Record for reporting the materials read for sustained silent reading (SSR), which will be an integral part of all my English classes this school year. It is available on the English Resources page at The Précis as either a Microsoft Word document (.doc format) or an Acrobat Reader document (.pdf format).

Words of Wisdom

[Expository] Although we receive much advice from family and friends, much of it is unheeded and forgotten. Some advice, however, sticks with us and makes a lasting impression on us. What words of wisdom from friends and family have made the greatest impact on you? Write an essay explaining the impact of a relative's advice on your own life.

Success Stories From Forensics Students

In It Doesn't Take a Genius: Five Truths to Inspire Success in Every Student, authors Randall McCutcheon and Tommie Lindsey challenge teachers to reach every student in the classroom. They offer five "truths" which are characteristic of teachers who make a difference with students and they support their claims with testimonials from their former students. Although this is a collaborative work, the only real cohesion in the book is the constant use of testimonials, which often seem too eulogistic and biased. Indeed, the book seems at times to be a defense of forensics as a means of elevating students from poor performance. Few of the testimonials refer to class activities not associated with debate, and both authors participated in forensics as sponsors. The authors alternated chapters and the result is not a conversation but a redundant splicing of two separate books about the use of forensics as a motivational tool with unsuccessful students.

Still, while the presentation of the material is flawed and awkward -- and focused through a philosophical lens which is inconsistent with private Christian education -- all effective teachers will agree that McCutcheon and Lindsey have highlighted some critical principles for reaching all students. The first truth they offer is "Be the first believer." Teachers often are the only individuals who see the promise in some students. Success is possible if teachers exhibit confidence in the students. Students need support, not unbridled ego-stroking. They need genuine encouragement, tempered with realistic advice, to help them achieve their goals.

McCutcheon and Lindsey remind us, secondly, that "class is never dismissed." Effective teachers use every teaching moment. They teach life lessons and help students make connections to previous learning, even when they are outside of the classroom. The job is not regulated by a time clock! Teachers in a sense never get a break -- they teach all the time.

"Words seldom fail you" is the third truth in the book, and the authors expostulate on the value of vocabulary. No self-respecting English teacher would disagree! Effective teachers are careful with their words. It's not enough to know grammar and vocabulary; good teachers are good communicators and inspire good communicators.

McCutcheon and Lindsey address issues of writing under the heading "Writers block but rarely tackle." I'm not sure how this truth really applies to success as a teacher, but this is the fourth truth to inspire success in every student. Perhaps what they are suggesting is that effective teachers help students move through the obstacles in the coursework. Teachers must be more than talking heads; they are coaches as well, who help students develop and perform.

The fifth truth is "paying your do's," which is a catch-all for the things the authors should have addressed earlier: loving, asisting, mentoring, risking, etc. These are some of the chapter titles in this section. Effective teachers love their students -- simple.

Perhaps the book's title sets it up for failure. This book is not really "five truths to inspire success in every student," but a collection of "success stories from forensics students." There are some truths in the book, to be sure, and these truths embody some of the characteristics of effective teachers, but the authors come short of the book's title.

SSR and Accountability

I just read Steve Gardiner, Building Student Literacy Through Sustained Silent Reading and I agree that a book report is not the best means to hold a student accountable for SSR (sustained, silent reading). Students are too apt to just grab the text off the back of the book or to copy a blurb from Amazon -- the latter method is perhaps the most efficient for the student who is unwilling to read the book, just cut and paste! Oral reports take too much time, if they are made a regular part of the class routine, and have as much effect. Gardiner suggests book talks (discussions) three times a semester in addition to a reading record submitted at the end of each grading period. The reading records are scored on the basis to two things: one half of the score is a subjective evaluation of whether the student read an appropriate number of pages in the period for a student at his level. The other is a measure of the student's behavior during SSR. Students are penalized a set number of points each time they are disciplined during the grading period. These two scores, one for pages read and one for behavior during SSR, are weighted as test scores, and if students simply apply themselves during SSR they will score well.

Given Gardiner's extensive use of SSR, this seems to be a solid means of holding students accountable for their reading, especially since he strongly recommends that students be allowed to choose their reading (within limits, of course, developed and set by each individual teacher). Tests and book reports, in my experience, have never really motivated students to read when they didn't want to read. By setting an example and giving the students more control, Gardiner has succeeded in motivating students to read and to become lifelong readers.

Technorati Tags: Reading, SSR, Teaching reading

Visit my classroom companion site: The Précis.

-- Update -- I have a Reading Record form for reporting the materials read for sustained silent reading (SSR).