More often than not I try out something new in my classroom, and I am not as happy with the results as I think I am going to be. I go in with high expectations, but finish with a list of things that I could have and should have done differently. After most major units, especially when they are brand new, I ask my learners to write reflections or take a survey and let me know how they felt about the assignment. Usually, they are grotesquely nice. Yep. I am all like "that sucked," and they are all like "I really liked that we had enough class time." I. Die. I just want them to be honest. I always long for the kid who says "This was pointless" or "Do you even think about ____ before assigning this." These kids actually make me happy. I need someone to call me out. I need someone to force me to do better. To not be complacent. I LOVE when that comes from the kids.
I started out our new semester with a new idea. Something I have thought about a million times, but have not been able to put into practice. Mostly because it was a ton of work to prepare, and I just couldn't get it together. Here is what I did. Like I said, it was a ton of work to put together, but it was SOOO worth it in the end.
Part 1:
We started the new semester with a reflective activity (Part One and Part Two). We require the kids to keep a writing portfolio of all of their essays and a reflection for each one. This activity asked the kids to review all of their old essays and complete both a content and stylistic inventory of their strengths and weaknesses. Learners were also asked to write goals and reflect on their "needs" between now and the AP exam in May.
Part 2:
The teachers created a series of assignments based on the "needs" and "goals" the kiddos created for themselves. We started with rhetorical analysis. We created a 2 day review rhetorical analysis that was completed as a class...everyone reviewed the process of reading, annotating, determining purpose, and close reading of an AP prompt. We did this as a class. Then, we made a chart of choice activities and asked the kids to choose activities that were of interest to them. The kids completed them in class with the teacher available for small group tutoring sessions as needed.
Part 3:
The kids completed the essay prompt from Part 1 as their final step. After working with specific skills they were struggling with, the kids were able to complete the essay on their own time with the expectation that they really spent time improving on those skills.
Part 4:
Learners submitted their work into Blackboard for a day of peer evaluation. The kids gave each other feedback and an AP score based on a teacher provided, skills-based rubric.
Part 5: Learners completed a reflection after seeing feedback from their peers where they reflected on their progress and shared their thoughts on the assignment.
Parts 2 through 5 were completed in about 6 class days. All parts were graded and given feedback by the teacher throughout the process and after the assignment was completed to insure learners all were given valuable feedback on their progress.
The kids LOVED this. So many of them were able to say something very specific in their reflections where they were able to articulate the "I used to think ___, but now I know___" type of statements. So many of my kids described an AH-HA moment!
It was such a success, we used the same framework with the argument essay type a week later. This was by far the most successful thing we have done this year in visibly seeing improvement in the kids writing skills quickly.
It is not often that I end an assignment with just one or two small things that need to change. Usually it is a throw away and start over concept. Not this time. This was AMAZING--the kids loved it, and there was clear evidence of its success!
You can see all of the individual assignments by subscribing to my iTunesU course.
