Chickening Out...

Fridays are unpredictable. Some Fridays, students walk in, a mile high on sugar. Seriously. On those Fridays, teaching is like riding a roller coaster - I'm just trying to keep all body parts inside the classroom at all times. Other Fridays, it's like my classroom becomes Chill-ville. Students listen, work, and chat quietly without a problem. 

Previous to today's epiphany, I was pretty panicked about my policy to not give students homework other than reading. I just couldn't fathom how I would be able to get all the work done that these students needed to do in a single class period.

After today, I'm not so panicked. 

Students will work. And they will work HARD . . . if you create a sense of urgency and help them see the purpose of the work. 

I told students to write their narratives in a day. I know. I thought I was mental too. How could they possibly write an entire narrative in one day?

Well, most of them did. And they were good. 

I told students that they had 20 minutes for their peer revisions today. I helped them by calling out cues - "You should be done filling out the plot line by now," or "You should be moving on to the feedback for the STEAL strategies." This worked SOOO well. It was like they finally got into the right gear and sailed off into the land of Holy-Cow-These-Students-Are-So-Smart-And-Capable. 

But I was supposed to be doing more than just watching them be awesome. I was supposed to be conferencing with students about their DRP scores. It really wasn't that big of a deal - I just wanted students to know how they did and set some goals to improve their reading comprehension.

But I chickened out. Though their scores didn't make me cry, nearly half of all my students in each period are reading below grade level. Almost a quarter of those are severely below grade level. I just didn't know how to say, "Wow, (Student), you are officially reading at a 2nd grade level. That's a problem." 

So, I didn't even attempt a single student conference. Not a one. 

This was me. 

In reality, I think I just wasn't prepared. I hadn't thought it through. So here's my weekend goal: I'm going to create bookmarks for my students with different reading strategies they can use to improve their comprehension. It was actually an assignment I did once for my Teaching Reading class in college, and it may just end up as one of the many crumpled papers at the bottom of their backpack, but I think it will give me a starting point for those conversations. 

Hello, weekend. I hope you're ready for work. ;)