It is three days before Christmas. Exams are done and scanned. My computer and Smart Board are unplugged and safe from surges. The desks have been rearranged and the floors should be waxed by now. I'm enjoying my break and reading The House of Night series (totally awesome and kinda hot, fyi).
My presents are wrapped (for the most part) and my yearly Christmas gathering last night was a huge hit (as is usual). There's just one thing on my Christmas list and I'm hoping Santa will help me out with--I need a working plan of action.
Test scores for the freshmen babies were not good. They said that they tried. They looked like they were trying. But it was more of a holy-crap-what-is-all-this-text-look that crossed their faces at sight of the benchmark exam. I think I had six or seven pass the test. That is pretty much on par for how our students have done on this benchmark the last several years. This is, of course, not good enough for me. So I need a plan.
I started working on my POA before I checked out for the holidays. We'll be starting Shakespeare when we come back (both in freshmen AND senior English) but this is not where the POA lies. No, it lies in the day to day activities that will lead to stronger reading and writing skills. Here's what I have so far...
We already read daily. And my kids are pretty good, for the most part, about reading, really reading every day. But that is the extent right now. So, for the New Year, we'll add in a reading response log. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, students will work on making connections to what they've read. This will require a brief mini-lesson on making connections and the different type of connections. On Thursdays, students will respond to their reading in the voice of a character. And Fridays will be all about summarization. (Oh by the way, I need about 50 folders with prongs to keep all this good stuff in--expecting them to keep up with something is like expecting South Carolina to have a white Christmas.)
So, I'm adding in a reading response log. This will be followed by a daily poem. Our poet laureate has a wonderful website that features 180 poems aimed at high school students (please infer, easy to understand). We will follow our reading response logs with a brief discussion around the poem of the day. This should expose them to more poetry, and give them a chance to dissect without pressure.
The last leg of my POA, right now, is an article of the week. Kelly Gallagher has his students read and respond to an article each week. He also puts these on his website (kellygallagher.org) and lucky for me, he has freshmen this year. So we'll have exposure to informational text and a chance to practice reflective writing.
Right now, that's my plan of action. In addition to our daily and weekly activities, we'll be reading Romeo and Juliet and maybe doing literature circles. Consider my English classes a science lab...I'm looking for something that will work magic.
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