Topic Change...Teaching

School is back in session. Since I'm at a year round school, I am, thankfully, mid-first-week of semester two already! WHOOOPIE. This means, VERY early mornings (school starts at 7:25am), a raspy voice from lots of talking and shusshing, stressful evenings trying to figure out what to plan, how to teach it, what is the best method to use, what order should things be introduced in, how to make it "fun", how to deal with the butthead in the back of the class who just won't shut up....you know, typical school stuff. :)

I did a poor job of teaching writing last semester so I'm determined to do LOTS of writing this semester. Lots of writing without killing myself on the grading. I will blog about that as it comes up in the semester.

I started ALL my classes, tenth and eleventh graders, with pretty much the same project, changed the title so the eleventh graders don't wonder why I'm teaching them tenth grade stuff. :) I'll be honest, I do not have this whole paper mapped out yet, but the big picture is clear in my head and I'm confident all will be fine.

For our first week back, my students are writing about themselves. I actually got them started day one. HOT DAMN!! This activity is intended to introduce them to the general writing process: brainstorming, exploring, freewriting, narrowing down a topic, identifying the specific details to focus on. After they have all this down, I'll work on each step: Introduction (grabber, background info, thesis), Body paragraphs, transitions, conclusion, etc.

I modeled for the kids how to brainstorm for five significant and specific memories in their lives. I suggested they think of their 5 senses to identify the strong memories. FOr example, a "sound" memory might be a song that triggers a memory of being in a specific place at a specific time. They have to find 5 memories, write 3-5 sentences about each. Hopefully this will make clear to them which memories are more vivid and writeable. Tomorrow they will share with a partner, then decide which memory they will use for a short paper. Next they will develop ideas or themes to focus on for that memory. Next week I guess I'll do mini lessons for each part of the essay. "How to do a grabber", then they re-work on the grabber for their paper, and so on. I'll blog more if the process is going well.

I have to say, teaching writing is challenging, tiring, and scary. It's not something we really learn how to do in college. It's a trial by fire process I suppose.