"Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get."
The author of that quote is unknown, but it is such a true statement. I tell the students all the time that they will get out of my class what they put in. Yes, I have very high expectations...but you see, the thing about expectations is...kids will rise to whatever bar you set. I have been in education for 18 (working on 19) years. I have always pushed my students to give the maximum they could give. Of course, kids being kids, they don't always give it to me. Literacy is HARD! Many kids don't like reading for numerous reasons and even more dislike writing...for exponentially more reasons. I get it. It takes effort and stamina to read, think about what you read, analyze things like author's purpose, point of view, character traits, story elements, and theme...I mean...whew...I get tired thinking about it. It is also difficult to learn to compose a piece of writing that conveys a specific message, revise it, read or listen to feedback from the teacher or peers, edit and finalize it. It is a tough subject to tackle.
It isn't easy for me to plan either. I have to know where my kids are coming from. I have to learn 80+ students' backgrounds, interests, and skill level. I have spent countless hours planning units around books and subjects that are of interest to most 10-11 year olds. However, this post is not about me. It is about the kiddos.
We are about to enter into our first project of the year. It is a lap book that asks students to analyze specific portions of the text. Basically, I am asking them to break down the story and tell me how each part relates to the others as a whole. Gone are the days of reading a text, answering a few basic questions and moving on to the next story. Poke and puke worksheets are a thing of the past (if you are not familiar with that term--the teacher pokes the knowledge into the kids' heads and they puke it back out on a paper--yeah, its gross, but it is how it used to be done). This project is going to require the students to [insert drum roll] THINK and WRITE about their THINKING!
Students who give half-hearted effort and who do not listen to my feedback, will not score high on the assignment. I am very detailed when I go over my requirements. I will send the scoring guide and project requirements home for you to look at, however, it MAY NOT be completed at home. This is an assessment of understanding. This project will be completed 100% in class.
We will finish Holes and Walk Two Moons next week. Students ARE required to take the AR test and that is recorded as 100 points. The project itself will be worth 200 points. It will not appear on this first nine weeks grading period. It will be the first grade of 2nd quarter.
I want you to be aware of the upcoming assignment. I will be sending a letter home soon about homework-there has been a change in that as well. I think it will be a much more productive assignment than the first idea.
Please understand that everything I do, I do to help and grow your child's literacy knowledge. I would never ask of your child anything that I would not ask of my own. Please let me know if you have any questions. Until then-
Happy reading-
